CCPC Minutes 10/17/2024October 17, 2024
Page 1 of 48
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida
October 17, 2024
LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Collier County Planning Commission, in and for the County of
Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in REGULAR SESSION in
Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
Joe Schmitt, Chairman
Chuck Schumacher, Vice Chairman
Paul Shea, Secretary
Randy Sparrazza
Chuck Schumacher
Michael Petscher
Amy Lockhart, Collier County School Board Representative
ALSO PRESENT:
Mike Bosi, Planning and Zoning Director
Heidi Ashton-Cicko, Managing Assistant County Attorney
Derek Perry, County Attorney's Office
October 17, 2024
Page 2 of 48
P R O C E E D I N G S
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: We have a live mic, I see.
MR. BOSI: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Good morning and welcome, everyone.
Could we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: First to start -- again, good morning. I'm going to be sitting as chair.
And, Mike, are we electing officers for the first thing? That's not on -- I don't know if it's on the
agenda. But we have to elect officers.
But I first want to recognize one of our new members.
And, Mike, can I ask you to just give your name and kind of a brief background of who you are.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Take a minute so our other colleagues know.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Yeah -- no. My name is Mike Petscher. I am from
District 5. I was born and raised in Collier County. I love it here, and I am very excited to be part of
this board and part of this commission.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Welcome. And as our other colleagues will tell you, the first six
months is going to be acronym city, and the next six months are going to be trying to figure out what
those acronyms really mean.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Today's going to be the worst because we're dealing with
everything.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Oh, my God, yeah.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Before we get started, Mike, is that on the agenda first, we have to
elect new officers? And I -- but I first would like to say I was sorry to see that Ned decided not to keep
his name, and then I just want to personally thank Ned for the years as chair. He did a great job. He
will be missed. And, Ned, if you're listening, thank you very much for all that you did in support of the
community and your service to Collier County. I think it was just an absolutely awesome job, and he
was truly dedicated to serving as the Chair of the Planning Commission.
And I don't know if any other colleagues have any comments.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: I think we can all safely echo your sentiments in that.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: He's going to be missed.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I had e-mailed him and said, "Big, big shoes to fill."
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I greatly appreciated his leadership in the short amount
of time.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I scolded him as well for -- but, no, he did a great job, and he really
did dedicate himself to the mission. And those who don't know, during the summer months, though he
was out of the community, he would fly down for those weeks for the meeting. So truly dedicated.
And again, thanks. Thanks to his great service.
Mike, go ahead.
MR. BOSI: And, Joe, I would -- staff would echo the same comments in terms of the
appreciation for Mr. Fryer.
On our agenda, we did not indicate it as first, but I think staff would make a suggestion to amend
the agenda for -- the first thing to do would be the election of officers, a chair, vice chair, and a
secretary.
October 17, 2024
Page 3 of 48
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: On that note, shouldn't we wait till we have all of the new
members in?
MR. BOSI: And I was going to ask the County Attorney's Office how that -- I mean,
November 7th we will have a full CCPC. Is there an ability to have interim until we have a full body sit
to be able to elect the officers?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: If you'd like to defer the selection of the officers, Commissioner
Schmitt is the Vice Chair, so he could serve as the Chair at today's meeting. So you could either do it
today, or you can wait, if you'd like.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I would prefer we do it today.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: That's fine.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Me, too.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I mean, I understand the need, but Michelle, who I understand is
going to be recommended --
MR. BOSI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- I would assume that she's going to depend on all --
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Of us.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- actually, the three of you guys, quite honestly, on how to proceed,
and I don't think we need to defer it. We need -- we probably should select officers first. So we have
to select the chair, the vice chair, and the secretary.
But with that, can we first have our secretary, for the record, do the roll call.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Vice Chair Schmitt?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Here.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Secretary Shea is here.
Commissioner Sparrazza?
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Here.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Commissioner Schumacher?
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Here.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Commissioner Petscher?
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Present, yeah, correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. With that, Mike, then, let's go to the first order of business.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Ms. Lockhart is here.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And Ms. Lockhart is here representing the school board. Thank
you.
With that, Mike, can we proceed -- we'll proceed with, are there any nominations for chair?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I make a motion that we approve Commissioner Schmitt as the
chair.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Second.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Third.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Any comments?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: No.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All in favor?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Aye.
October 17, 2024
Page 4 of 48
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Any opposed, like sign?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I make a motion that we -- that we appoint Commissioner
Schumacher as the vice chair.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Second.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Can I vote against myself?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: You can, but you might be outnumbered.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All in favor, note by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Those opposed?
Chuck?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Welcome aboard, Chuck.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And as secretary, can we proceed -- I think -- I would make
a -- propose that we -- Paul remain as our board secretary.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Second.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Any opposed, like sign?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thank you.
So that concludes the administrative procedures.
Thank you, all. And I'll try and fill Ned's shoes, but as they say, tough shoes to fill. And prior
to him was, of course, another well-known, Mark Strain, who was even more -- truly more dedicated,
quite honestly. But tough shoes to fill.
Our -- next on the agenda, we're going to be -- any projected absences coming up. I will not be
here for the January -- or correction -- for the November -- first November meeting. So, Chuck, you're
going to have to take that meeting. There you go. You're -- that's --
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Is there a pay increase involved?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: There is definitely a pay increase.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Yes, there is. We're doubling.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Double a zero is still zero.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: All right. Just checking.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Even triple a zero.
Any -- who -- who's -- are we going to have a quorum on the 17th?
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Seventh? You mean November 7th?
October 17, 2024
Page 5 of 48
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Seventh.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Seventh. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: So far I plan to be here.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I'll be here.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I'll be here.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. And I assume that we'll have a quorum then.
MR. BOSI: And I assume the two new members will also be here as well, so I think we shall
have a quorum.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. Good.
Okay. With that, the next one is -- when is the next one?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Twenty-first.
MR. BOSI: I believe BCC report.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Well, no. Just -- I'm looking at my calendar for the next meeting,
which is the 21st.
MR. BOSI: Twenty-first.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. It looks like I will be here. So any absences?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. Thanks.
MR. BOSI: And for the BCC report, the BCC did not hold their meeting on the 8th; therefore,
all the items that were scheduled for the 8th are being continued to next Tuesday. It's the 22nd.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Any of the scheduled items for the 22nd being moved or --
MR. BOSI: No. The only item -- the land-use items that were on the 8th was the GMP and the
PUD for Mattson, which you guys had heard back last year back in December. Made a
recommendation. It got continued in January. It was being -- it was rescheduled for the October 8th,
but because the meeting was canceled, it's being moved to the 22nd. And on the 22nd, there's also the
update to the -- I believe the water supply plant as proposed.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. All right.
***Next item, then, is approval of minutes.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Make a motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Second.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All in favor -- how many sets of minutes do we have? Just the one?
I haven't looked.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Usually they write the number on there.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: They don't have the number on here. How many sets of minutes are
on there in the packet? Let me look.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I thought it was just one.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Just one. Because I know I signed four of them.
MR. BOSI: Prior.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Prior.
MR. BOSI: I believe it was just one.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Just one, okay. The one set of minutes.
We have a motion on the floor and a second. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Aye.
October 17, 2024
Page 6 of 48
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Any like sign -- like sign, no?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All right. Thank you.
Old business, I don't have any old business.
***New business, we have a -- our public hearing is a presentation to the Collier County
Planning Commission of the 2024 combined Annual Update and Inventory Report and the public
facilities schedule of Capital Improvement Elements.
And I -- before I turn it over to staff, this is -- this is a -- it's not a quasi-judicial hearing, so they
don't have to be -- no disclosures are required. It's just a matter of the review. As the Planning
Commission, both the Annual Inventory -- AUIR is, as we call it, and the CIE, those are both the capital
investment and the essential public services Category A and Category B.
And I talked to Mike right before the staff [sic]. We have some external staff here, and I'm
going to try and at least -- looking at EMS as one of them. Mike, if it's -- if it would -- interest of my
colleagues on the Board, can we proceed so we don't have to have EMS sit here for the entire morning?
We could proceed with some of the items under Category B. EMS would be one of them.
MR. BOSI: Chair, that's the Planning Commission's discretion.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. So if EMS would like to go, is that -- does that meet your
requirement? Then we'll --
MR. BOSI: I would suggest -- I do have an overview --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, let's do that --
MR. BOSI: -- of the AUIR.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- first then.
MR. BOSI: After the overview, we can skip and have EMS first and then we can go back to the
Category A facilities, if that will work.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. That works. Go ahead, Mike. Thank you.
MR. BOSI: Again, Mike Bosi, Planning and Zoning director.
I have a -- just a brief presentation, just an overview of the AUIR. As you can see by the
amount of public in the staff [sic], the public really doesn't take a tremendous interest within the AUIR
and the CIE, but it is a very important document that the county does on an annual basis. It's the
five- and 10-year projection of capital projects that we have identified needed to be able to maintain the
existing infrastructure to handle the additional demand that growth is going to be providing to the
county.
It's a one-year snapshot in time of the projected needs and the required capital improvements
over the next five years, and there's another -- a six through 10 component as well -- based upon the
projected population increases against the BCC's adopted levels of service. For each infrastructure
provided, we have an adopted levels of service that they have to maintain.
Just as we always note, this snapshot changes as the demand equation changes, so it's why we do
it annually. So there's a consistency, and we see where the changes or fluctuations in our population
increases and the levels of service and how we're doing to attain those levels of service.
What's included, Joe had -- Commissioner Schmitt had indicated, we have our Category A,
which are concurrency facilities -- and I'll have an explanation for what concurrency means -- but that's
roads, drainage, potable water, wastewater, solid waste, parks and recreation, and schools, and those are
all tied to the Capital Improvement Element.
Within our Growth Management Plan, we have a Capital Improvement Element, and within that
October 17, 2024
Page 7 of 48
element, we're required to have a five- and a 10-year plan. And within those -- within that, that sets up
our Concurrency Management System.
We have our Category B, which are non-concurrency facilities: Jails, law enforcement,
libraries, EMS, and government buildings. And then C is another non- -- or non-concurrency facility.
It's our beaches and inlets. And from some of the pictures that Commissioner Schumacher showed me
of North Naples, our beaches, obviously, took a -- the brunt of our recent two storms that we've had.
Concurrency, as I mentioned, it's facilities and services necessary to maintain the adopted levels
of service that are available when impacts to development occur, which are contained within the CIE
policies in the Land Development Code. So what that's saying is when you have a proposed project and
the demand that that project's going to put upon any one infrastructure provided within the Category A
facilities, we have to ensure that the capacity to satisfy that demand is available within the system or is
available within the system within the first one or two years of the projected start or finish of those
projects.
So we always maintain a consistent look-forward to ensure that we have the available capacity.
And when we get into the various departments, they'll touch upon what their levels of service is and how
they go about to attain them.
There's also -- the other part of the equation is the demand equation, and that's the CIE
population requirements. We're obligated by the statutes to utilized the University of Florida's
Economic and Business Research, it's BEBR, which we refer to, and that's the medium. We've been
using the medium population projections since 2011/2012, right after the Great Recession. And
the -- or the decennial census came out -- the decision from this county government and from the
University of Florida was our growth rate has slown a bit.
We -- prior, in the aughts, the 2000s, we were at high level, but they dropped us down. So for
the past 14 -- or past 13 years, we've been utilizing BEBR medium, but we also recognize that between
January, February, and March and a little bit of April, we have an influx of our seasonal population.
And we've made a determination through our traffic counts, between our water usage, between our
wastewater usage, between a number of our different metrics, at 20 percent is what we utilize to account
for that seasonal population, and how we go about and making sure that we have the capacity for that
additional demand during those heavy traffic years -- or those months is how we make sure that we can
accommodate that additional demand.
So the equation is how much do you build? I always like to go to libraries because it's probably
one the most straightforward of the AUIR components. It's new population times level of service
equals your capital improvement. That's your equation. What we have for our five-year period, we
expect 30,131 people over this five-year period. We have a level-of-service standard of .33 square feet.
So to determine how much new square footage we need, we would say the 30,131 people times .33
square feet, we need 9,943 additional square feet to be able to satisfy the additional demand.
That concept, that simple concept is what all of the individual AUIR components basically tries
to accomplish. How are we going to accommodate that additional demand over the time.
This chart here, very interesting. It is a -- our permanent population from BEBR. For the teen
years, we were at 1.9 to 1.95 for that entire decade, annual population increase. What we've seen
is -- since the decennial census of 2020, what we've seen a ratcheted down of our population growth.
Now, the law of large numbers suggests as you grow larger, you know, your percentage -- your
overall percentage increase is going to drop down just because you're going against a larger number.
But what I wanted to point out to you is that third row from the right, the five-year growth total, you can
see in '19, it was 36,000; 36,000 in 2020; ratcheted down a little bit to 34,000; and then 2022 is when the
input of our decennial census was factored into it, and we really saw a dramatic decrease, 29,000. Last
October 17, 2024
Page 8 of 48
year was 28,000. This year's 30,000.
So we're starting to see a gradual growth, but I think that has a lot to do with not only -- not only
the -- where we're at in terms of our overall population numbers, but I think where our growth is starting
to transpire. Our urbanized area is starting to become close to buildout. I'm not saying it's built out,
but there are fewer and fewer green fields that are available.
When we were doing affordable housing amendments, we tried to identify as part of a -- the
transit development where the -- where parcels 20 acres or greater were in this county in the urbanized
area, and we came -- we came away with less than 10 to show you that those large chunks of
undeveloped property, there's not -- they're not in great abundance.
Where they are in great abundance is towards the eastern portion of the county, so that's where
we expect our growth to be within the RLSA, the Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District, and the buildout of
the Estates.
When you hear Lorraine present for the Transportation Department, I think that you're going to
see that connection. Where the projects and where the improvements are being focused moving into the
future is where that population growth is expected. But because of it, it's more towards the eastern
portion.
Those SRAs and those further projects have a slower absorption rate. I think Ave Maria
provides a great example. Ave Maria was approved in 2014. Of course, it had that Great Recession of
2009/2010 that kind of stalled some of that population increase, but they're still just a little over half of
their population in terms of what was permitted, and they are probably about 15 percent of the total
commercial square footage that they're allowed to build as well. So they still have another 15 years of
growth and development before they even get towards buildout. So that's a 30-, 35-year buildout. It
really shows you the length of time that that population increased. So I think that really does influence
the rate of our overall population increase and explains some of the decreases that we've experienced
from BEBR.
But it's not only population. It's the key metric within the level-of-service standard for the
AUIR for most facilities, but there's a couple exceptions. Roads and Bridge, they use traffic counts
which are collected multiple times a year, and that's also -- and that's included with a trip bank, so
reserved capacity, all of the approved development. Some of it hasn't come online, but we keep track of
those -- the potential that's there, and that's blended into the equation as to -- as to how they make the
determination for -- what new facilities that will be needed.
Water and Wastewater, historic demand usage plus population projections plus some additional
reserve capacity. I wasn't here at the time. I started working for this government in 2002, but prior to
2002, I think within a year or two years prior -- Joe, you may be able to remember that -- there was an
issue with one of our wastewater stations of not having the capacity. Because of that, that informed our
Board of County Commissioners to direct our Public Utilities to have more reserved capacity just out of
an abundance of caution to make sure. Because if you're waiting for a swing at a swing set, it's okay,
but if you need to wait or you can't flush -- you can't flush the toilet because there -- that's a problem.
So we've put a focus upon that.
Stormwater, we have our basin studies of the water management plans that set the baseline.
Solid Waste, which is -- obviously, it's the landfill disposal capacity, and Kari will be able to
address that as part of the presentation as well, and then Coastal Zones, it's your adopted master plan and
sustainability standards.
Here is a snapshot of the Category A facilities that will be transmitted as part -- or the CIE
update. One of the things that we have identified is that there's $624 million worth of unidentified
funding associated with Transportation and Stormwater. Those are on the outer years. Those are on
October 17, 2024
Page 9 of 48
the outer years of the projects. So the way that the fiscal aspect of the CIE works, it's you have to have
identified the revenue sources for your first -- your first two years. Your outer years, there's still a little
give and take because of -- because of the time before those hit.
So within the Capital Improvement program, it informs our Board of County Commissioners,
because after they hear the AUIR in December, they start the process of beginning the budgetary process
for the next fiscal year. So understanding where the shortfalls are from a capital improvement
programming helps inform and instructs the Board of County Commissioners where they have to
arrange money or provide for allocations in ways that recognizes those unfunded needs.
And finally, what we're going to ask from the Planning Commission at the end of all the
individual presentations will be to accept and recommend approval of the attached document as the 2024
Annual Update and Inventory Report on public facilities and to accept and recommend approval of the
Category A, B, and C facilities relative to projects and revenue sources within the Category A facility
and include them within the schedule of capital improvements of the annual CIE update and amendment.
Sidenote, we are the only county in the state of Florida that does an AUIR, and the -- I mean, all
other counties and jurisdictions do have to have a CIE, a Capital Improvement Element, but I'm not
familiar with the -- how much publicity or how much attention is paid to it. We really do put a strong
focus in earnest in making sure that the things that have attracted our population, our existing
population, there was a reason why they chose to live here. We wanted to make sure that the levels of
service for all of our infrastructure providers maintained that same type of level that they had that
attracted them there, that -- to be able to maintain those same types of levels of service, because that's
what brought them here, and we want to make sure that they receive that same type of infrastructure
provision.
And with that, that's -- any questions that you may have on the overview?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. Mike, you did answer a question that I was going to bring up,
because I know the -- knew the answer. But 20-something years ago, the AUIR was required and had
to be forwarded to the State, and it was a statutory requirement. Probably, what, for the last maybe 15
years it has not -- it sort of -- it used to go to the Regional Planning Council, and then it just kind of
disappeared. But interestingly enough, Collier County kept it and used it as a planning tool. So I'm
glad you brought up that. I don't know if my colleagues have any questions on that, but -- go ahead.
MR. BOSI: I was going to say, in 2021, when Governor Scott -- Governor Scott and the
legislature passed the Community Planning Act, and that really changed the way and the requirements of
what jurisdictions had to report. And one of the things that was no longer -- the concurrency aspect that
I talked about was no longer required. Now, this Board of County Commissioners has chosen to keep
concurrency, Joe, as you've said.
But the AUIR is something that we send -- and the CIE, we send to the State. They don't
require it. We just send it out of courtesy. But this board and this county has remained committed to
maintaining that Concurrency Management System just because we know the importance that it is of
making sure that we have the infrastructure to handle what- -- the demands that we expect.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. Can you go back one slide.
MR. BOSI: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Because the other thing I want to point out -- and before we start,
those that have been on the Board a while know that we've kind of gone back and forth on how much we
drill down into both the AUIR and the CIE. So I leave it up to you-all to decide from the
standpoint -- don't be afraid to ask questions, but at the same time I want to make sure what we do here
is an overview to give staff -- use us as sort of a practice before they go before the Board. That's one of
the good things about this. But second is I have an extensive background in the AUIR, so I know and
October 17, 2024
Page 10 of 48
understand it.
But I leave it up to you if you -- how much you want to drill down in each of these. My
instructions to Mike was for each of the staff members to give an overview and to highlight.
I think the key here, and this is -- I wanted to bring up this document, because some of these
funds are through ratepayers, specifically potable water and wastewater. And I know Joe's sitting back
there, Joe Bellone, I see. He's always got that under wraps.
Parks and Rec, a little bit different. Now Stormwater -- and I think the staff may bring that up.
Some of this was based on not passage of the stormwater -- what was that, the stormwater fee that we
were going to --
MR. BOSI: Stormwater utility fee, I believe.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Stormwater utility fee. And then Transportation, of course, there's
all sorts of different revenue with that, either gas tax, impact fees, or, of course, the General Fund.
Go ahead, Mike.
MR. BOSI: And thank you, Chair. And so one thing -- the last link that the AUIR has is
specifically to impact fees. Everyone -- if you live in this county, you know that we have impact fees.
Impact fees are designed because this county has had a mantra, since I've been here, "Growth is going to
pay for growth." We're not going to put expansion on the backs of our existing taxpayer. It goes to the
new -- to the new user.
One of the things that has complicated our -- our funding for some of our facilities is we have
an -- the updating of the impact fees. The last one was 2017. Now, we just updated our utility impact
fee. It's the first of all of our impact fees.
So over the course of the next 18 months, we're going to bring updates to all of our impact fees.
And you can imagine that that's going to have a positive net effect in terms of the revenue available for
these projects moving forward. Everyone has -- I think, has experienced the inflationary pressures that
have been between 2000 [sic], 2001 [sic], 2002 [sic], 2023. And because of that, our impact fees are
not capturing their full -- the value or the full cost to provide services. With those -- with those updates
to the impact fees, the full cost of providing a lane mile of the road system or square footage cost for an
EMS station will be updated, and because of that, I think you'll see a different revenue equation going
into next year's AUIR, and that will be part of the discussion the Board of County Commissioners will
have when they're making their evaluations in terms of the budgetary priorities moving forward, but --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I have two commissioners who want to ask questions, but one last
thing before I turn it over to them. Level of service, could you describe who establishes the level of
service and is -- I know a staff -- just go into detail so that those who are listening understand the
element of the level of service. We do have an input on it, but Mike, can I leave it up to -- just to
highlight the establishment of level of service or what impact we may have on making the change or
recommendation.
MR. BOSI: And I as hit upon -- and I always try to use libraries, since it's straight, because it
says our level of service is .33 square feet per person. So for the -- for the new people that we expect,
we just multiply that versus our level of service, and that gives you the equation and the answer toward
how much of that new facility is needed.
As I mentioned, there's more sophisticated components. Utilities, Transportation are -- have a
little bit more components than just population. There's other factors. Usage goes into it a little bit
more. But the level of services are established by the Board of County Commissioners. They're
also -- recommendations upon modifications can come from the Planning Commission if you feel it
appropriate, and it has happened in the past. But the Board of County Commissioners, at the end of the
day, will adopt the levels of service. And sometimes the levels of service are also influenced by our
October 17, 2024
Page 11 of 48
impact fees in terms of how we -- and what we can include in terms of our impact fee calculations.
But that's really where the levels of service comes into play for this. And like I said, they're
adopted by the Board of County Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Where does the .33 come from?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: That's the point. What if I said, "We think it should be .5"? I
mean, we can make that recommendation --
MR. BOSI: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- if we think there's -- and where does it come from?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: That's my question.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The question is -- it comes from a rule of thumb, basically.
MR. BOSI: There is -- it's a little more than that. It's a little more than that. You mentioned a
former chair of the Planning Commission, Mark Strain. I remember it was the 2008 -- 2008/2009
AUIR, and we not only had our AUIR, but we scheduled a level-of-service analysis.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right.
MR. BOSI: And we spent an entire day in March reviewing the levels of service for each one of
our infrastructure providers compared to every county in the state of Florida that we could identify.
So how did it arrive upon .33 square feet? That was established before I got here, but I can
make a determination that they evaluated -- they probably first looked to Sarasota County, because
whenever we try to evaluate what's good for Collier, we look to Sarasota. Similar type of demographic,
similar type of population numbers.
So we look to like counties, what's their adopted levels of service, and then we make those
evaluations and make a determination in terms of what's appropriate for Collier County.
So it's not done in a vacuum. It's done by a comparisons as to what other counties of similar
size utilize and whether we think it should be higher or lower, and then ultimately, it's the decision of the
Board of County Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Library is a good example, because if usage goes down, then level of
service may be arbitrarily reduced. But that's a Board of Commissioners decision based on a staff
recommendation.
MR. BOSI: Right.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And it can come from us. That's the point.
We have all three. Paul, you're on here first. Go ahead. Commissioner Shea.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Can you go back to the summary slide that shows the five-year
capital. And this always -- I struggle with this all the time. I mean, I look at Transportation, and half
of your five-year projection, you don't know where the money's coming from, and more than almost
two-thirds or more of the stormwater needs, you don't know where it's coming from.
I hear what you're saying about most of them are at the end. I don't totally agree with it, because
when I look at Transportation, you're heavy in construction in three years, but more importantly, you're
spending money next year on the design of those projects.
So you're committing to those projects not knowing that you can even fund them. In some
states that's illegal, that you have to have the money -- the funding source available for the construction,
but you don't on the major projects that you're entering into design on this coming year. And I'm not
trying to pick on Transportation. I'm trying to pick on the philosophy behind what you can and can't do
with this unfunded portion of it.
MR. BOSI: Well, the 2011 Community Planning Act removed the requirement for fiscal
financial feasibility, meaning that the requirement for being fiscally solid, to have all of the identified
funds for your five years was removed from the statute. So each jurisdiction is not required to have a
October 17, 2024
Page 12 of 48
fiscally solvent five-year Capital Improvement --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So you can enter into a $100 million engineering contract for a $100
million construction job that you don't know if you can fund it.
MR. BOSI: That --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: You'd get the drawings and put them on the shelf? Okay. I just
wanted to understand.
MR. BOSI: That's essentially -- that is how we have proceeded in the past eight, nine years
since we've -- since that fiscal financial solvability has been removed.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I just -- it just scares me seeing, you know, 50 percent and over
65 percent unfunded, and many of that going to the big expenditures in three years, but that's just a
concern.
MR. BOSI: And those were -- those will be issues that -- you know, that are raised to the Board
of County Commissioners for their consideration -- and it's -- I can tell you, that would not be an easy
job to have to try to find 624 additional million dollars, but that's the task that they will have to
accomplish.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Okay. Done. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Randy.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Thank you, new Mr. Chairman.
Mike, first of all, I would like to thank you, and I'm sure there's probably 100 people that touched
this document that is before us, will be going before the BCC and also the public, if they wish.
Obviously, hundreds of hours are put into this.
I'm going to piggyback a little bit on Paul's statement that I'm pretty sure last year we had a
number similar to this -- don't know exactly. I didn't do that much research on it -- and we were
concerned. And I thought, as the CCPC, we asked for the BCC to come up with a plan to give to the
public, give to us, give to staff on really what they were going after for closing this unidentified funding.
And Mike and staff, this is absolutely nothing against you fine folks.
But I am concerned, just as Paul noticed, and I did here on a couple of the graphs, that within 24
or 36 months, we're supposed to have a whole handful of money in our hands to pay for these projects.
And last year, we saw the same thing taking place, the same magnitude of this unidentified funding.
And I just don't know what they've done about it or what can be told to us and/or the community
to "Rest assured. We've got it covered. We know where it's coming from."
And my final statement on that -- and this is just personally -- I recognize we have problems with
funding for Transportation, Stormwater, and a few other things. But I noticed on Page 131 and 159, we
had law enforcement and EMS at approximately $23 million deficit, and if anything that the folks of
Collier County are concerned about is their health and safety. And you can't get more close to health
and safety than our fine men and women in law enforcement and our great folks in EMS. And I think
that needs to be -- I think that needs to never have a deficit. That automatically needs to be taken care
of.
I know I'm ahead, and we'll probably get to that. I apologize, but it's very near and dear to all of
our hearts.
MR. BOSI: And I would say -- Commissioner Sparrazza, I would say, though, one response is
the Board of County Commissioners -- and that recommendation from the Planning Commission was
conveyed to the Board of County Commissioners.
The Board of County Commissioners in this past year has -- has entered into a process with the
firm ResourceX, and the ResourceX team tried -- went through a methodical analysis of each component
of the general purpose county government trying to identify areas that they would be able to provide for
October 17, 2024
Page 13 of 48
cost savings. Those recommendations, I believe, are still to be presented to the Board of County
Commissioners as part of their area to find additional revenues to close some of these individual gaps.
So that's one of the efforts the Board of County Commissioners has engaged in to try to find additional
revenue without having to raise individual taxation rates.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Is normally bonds enter into the discussion of everything,
which obviously needs to be paid back, which comes back to us?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, yeah.
MR. BOSI: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: And I know I'm way ahead, and I apologize, and maybe I
should just stop. But I think as we go through the entire process with Category B and C, we're going to
be at 7- or $800,000 -- 7 or 8 hundred -- million.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Randy, as part of the budget hearing, the Board goes into great depth
on this and -- as far as revenue, where revenue's coming from, and then they make a conscious decision
whether some of these projects are going to be deferred. A great example was stormwater. Much of
the stormwater issue has to do with areas in the county that really didn't have stormwater retention
systems as part of the permitting process, which most of the new communities now do have through the
federal permitting process or through the state permitting process, Environmental Resource Permit.
So many of these stormwater areas, Naples Park, for example, or Naples Manor, or some other
areas that -- that really need to be serviced, but they make conscious decisions that they're either going
to defer or look other where -- otherwise for whether they're going to go -- proceed with these projects.
These are projects that are identified by staff, but then the Board of County Commissioners makes the
decision as to whether they're going to be funded, and that's -- and that's all part of the budgetary
process.
Similar to Transportation. They'll accept a degradation of service in a certain road or connector
or elsewhere. I have to assume a lot of this in Transportation has to do with bridges in the Estates and
other areas that require -- that are identified for construction, but they defer that. Those are political
decisions. We can make recommendations, but those are politics decisions.
I've got Chuck next.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thank you, Chair.
THE COURT REPORTER: Can you use your mic?
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I am so sorry. I'm going to get -- I'll get better at my
job, I promise.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: It's his new beard. It gets in the way.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: All over the place.
You referenced the level-of-service study or analysis that was done in 2008, correct? Do you
think there's a new one that needs to be done on that, or do you think that .33 is working as it should for
our current environment?
MR. BOSI: There have been adjustments to law enforcement's level of service. There's been a
couple adjustments to our utility's level of service over the past five to eight years. I'm not sure if the
necessity for an entire review that we -- like we did in 2008. I think the cost-benefit analysis, what did
we get out of that? I mean, we got a very educated Planning Commission on level of service, but there
wasn't a lot of changes that resulted from it.
I think the levels of service are influenced by individual Board policies and Board decisions, but
staff also -- and I think what you'll hear from our library staff, they recognize that the way that they
provide service is changing. So there's going to be some recommendations from staff in terms of
modifications, and there is a constant evaluation in terms of our levels of service from staff, and those
October 17, 2024
Page 14 of 48
recommendations are put forth to the Planning Commission, to the Board when deemed appropriate.
So I'm not sure if -- a full level of service, but it's something that we always ask our staff to look
at their level of service, make sure it's adequately serving their population, and then have a potential
change. I was just speaking with one of the components -- or the EMS, and there may be some
modifications we're going to propose, not this year, but moving forward based upon levels of service
and how that's measured.
So that's a good example of staff saying the way that we have our current level of service, we
think we need an adjustment, but we need to do -- we need to do the data and analysis to be able to
justify what we're going to be able to suggest.
So I think staff does a good job of making sure that our levels of service are up to date as they
need to be to provide the services to the population.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: And then the other question I had is on the impact fee
matching in -- is there a way to set forth a policy where -- the Board of County Commissioners to put in
a policy where that impact fee matches the inflation? Because as you had referenced, we had an
inflation increase from 2020 through now that is not matching the impact fee that has been charged for
the last four years.
MR. BOSI: And I'm -- I would have to defer to our impact fee office. But what I would tell
you is once that impact fee is set, there's no -- and there may be a CPI that could be associated with
those -- with that impact fee as it's adopted, but I would have to -- I would have to work with the -- our
Capital Improvement group to see if that's possible. But if that's a -- that could be a recommendation
that -- not only what I had suggested as a recommendation, but another recommendation that the
Planning Commission may want to put forward to the Board of County Commissioners of considering
that CPI if it's not already included within the impact fee studies that we're currently working on.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. With that, Mike --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I had a --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, Paul, I'm sorry. I took you off. Paul.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Mike, kind of a follow-up on Randy's question. If I took last year's
AUIR five-year projection by project and I took this year's and I overlaid it, what's moved? What
has -- that we projected last year to be in design or in construction, whatever, this year is not in and has
slipped? I think kind of that's what Randy's getting at is -- and it's hard for us to do because there's so
much information.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: I just --
MR. BOSI: I would say that would be the --
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: What I'm hoping we're all not going to hear is that old
saying, "They just keep kicking the can down the road," because sooner or later, these projects do need
to be done, do need to be funded. And I would hate for all of a sudden one year we get a 6, 8,
10 percent tax increase and still not be able to handle the deficit. And why isn't there a half a percent of
tax increase or whatever -- I'm not proposing that -- gradually anticipating what we need in two to five
to nine, 12 years from now. That's all. And I know you can't answer that.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: But what I'm after is we have this big unfunded list of projects.
Are we funding them? In other words, if they're at the same point they were at last year, that means that
we're finding ways to fund the shorter-term ones, and we're -- the system's working. If everything is
slipping every year -- and I'm not saying it is. I don't know. It's too complicated for me to look at,
but --
MR. BOSI: And I would suggest that for each one of our infrastructure providers, as they come
October 17, 2024
Page 15 of 48
up, ask that question. They're the ones who know -- I haven't -- I couldn't tell you off the top of my
head all the projects that have been -- that were -- you know, the exact movement of where they're at in
2023 to 2024. That's not -- I wouldn't get into that level of detail. They --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: That would be a nice thing to see in the future is an overlay of the
previous years.
MR. BOSI: And we most certainly can do that moving forward as a reminder of what was the
program schedule from 2023 to 2024, and that could be another recommendation that the Planning
Commission requests for next year that -- when we present the AUIR, to also have the project schedule
that was associated with the prior year so you can make that evaluation.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Yeah. And we realize a lot of -- a lot of times it slips not
necessarily because of the money, just because population didn't develop the way you thought it would
or something. But it would be interesting to look back.
MR. BOSI: Well, I would also say that a lot of it -- of the slippage was associated with not
having the money, because remember, we had a surtax that the voters approved. And we had a list of
projects, and when we started seeing the cost increases associated with the inflation, that we started to
have to whittle those projects down substantially. And it just -- it was just a timing issue of when the
money became available towards when those projects could actually be moved forward. We had 50 to
75 percent cost differences between what was estimated in 2021 and what the reality of 2023 was, and
because of that, that had -- that had -- that required some adjustments to timetables and to when
construction projects could start.
But with that, I could end the overview and turn it over. We'll start with EMS, and we'll go
back to our Category A facilities.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. What I'd like to do -- because I'd like to get the EMS folks
back to their daily chores and duties as required. So I would ask that we turn our direction to Page 158
in your packet, of 214. It's listed as 148 page, but it's actually, of your packet, 158. So that's the
emergency medical services.
So with that, Mike, I would ask if the staff from EMS give an overview and a presentation of
the -- their -- both the level of service, their standards, where they are at and the CIE. Thank you.
I don't see the Sheriff here yet, though. Is the Sheriff here? Oh, there he is. I'm going to do
the Sheriff next, too.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Unless you want to sit here and listen to roads and bridges and --
MR. WILLIAMS: Whatever suits you, sir. I'll go next.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: We'll make the rest of the staff sit here.
Thank you. Go ahead, please.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Good morning, everybody. My name's Bruce Gastineau. I'm the chief
of EMS. And I have Dave Stedman with us, our database administrator.
Currently, right now, what we're under construction is our Station 74 out there on DeSoto and
Golden Gate Boulevard, and that was in the works. And we broke ground. Hopefully we'll be done in
mid to late 2025. And right now, that's going to help the response times of the residents out in that rural
area because the closest station is on Golden Gate Boulevard and 13th Avenue, and that's Station 71, or
Station 10 out there by the fairgrounds. So by putting that station out there, we're going to help
increase response times to the residents.
And then our next plan, what we're doing is I'm working with Greater Naples to work out a lease
agreement at their Station 73 on 951 so we can -- that's a big hole deficit for us out there between 951
and on Immokalee Road.
October 17, 2024
Page 16 of 48
We did have a planned station to be built across the street on Immokalee Road and 951, but that
land was sold because of the building costs for Station 74, because they've increased greatly.
What we've done in partnership with all the fire districts and EMS -- because of the cost of
building and the cost of land, what we've agreed to is if I build a -- if EMS builds a station, then we
allow Greater Naples or North Collier to come in and move into our station with us.
If they own a piece of property and they're building, then they're going to allow space for us to
come in there so we can lease the -- we can lease space from them. So we're trying to save money
across the board on everybody and help our budgets out.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Questions?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Yeah. You show a deficit also, and I think that's what Randy was
referring to. That's -- it's always scary when certain departments show a deficit. And, again, does that
fall into the same unfunded and we're apt to get funded in the near term?
MR. BOSI: Yes. Mike Bosi, again, Planning and Zoning director.
EMS always, always, and always has had a deficit. When I first started in 2006 with the AUIR,
it was explained, and the reason why was there was a lot of leased stations, and there was a lot of
collocations that were going on. And what happens is the full cost of an EMS station is not realized by
our impact fees and what you're allowed to count in terms of square footage.
So we have always, always been at a deficit. Our impact fees have never been able to fully
capture the full cost of the provision for EMS stations, and that hasn't changed over the last 16 years.
We've always been at a deficit, and moving forward, I can tell you we always will be at a deficit within
EMS, meaning it's going to have to rely upon the general purpose taxation to fill in the holes for EMS.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So we are meeting the needs, just from a different resource,
financial resource. We're not ignoring the needs. We're just funding them differently?
MR. BOSI: We're funding them differently. And what has happened and what -- and a credit
to the EMS staff is they'll identify where a station's needed. That station's not constructed because of
maybe just a schedule. They'll man their EMS in the closest commercial parking lot or somewhere
where they can just sit and wait and be available so that they can provide the service.
So they've had to have -- they've had to take some unconventional approaches to be able to
maintain their level of service based upon the availability of funds to construct stations where they know
that they have some difficulties in terms of meeting the level-of-service standards associated with it.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Randy.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Randy.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: A quick question. And I apologize for not remembering
this, even though the primaries were a couple weeks ago, a month ago, whatever. Wasn't there an
amendment that we were voting on -- and hopefully it passed and went through -- for funding, adding
something to the millage for our good folks at EMS?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: No. That was for the fire district.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: That was for Greater Naples Fire District.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Two different entities.
Bruce, you do have a board you report to as well, an oversight board.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Yes, the Emergency Medical Authority. We meet every month.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right. They meet every month. And those are citizens that are
appointed by the Board of County Commissioners?
CHIEF GASTINEAU: That is correct. And we go over our fractiles of the response times and
our zone areas.
October 17, 2024
Page 17 of 48
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: We show where we're at 90 percent or better, or we're identifying under
that to where we need to relocate sources.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The chart that is on shows your level of service. Let me see what
page that is. 152 of --
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: 162.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I've got 152 of 214. That's the -- it shows on your projected -- your
projection. It's based on the population and your various response centers. The other is to TBD. Are
properties identified for some of those? I know, like for Fiddler's Creek, the property's been there for
years as part of the zoning, but nothing's been built yet. Those are all future entities.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Correct. The first TBD is to get the lease with Greater Naples and to
move our ambulance into Station 73. That's -- we used to have a piece of property on the north side of
Immokalee Road off of 951 back by North Collier, northeast extension. That property was sold. So
we've been trying to work out a lease right now with Greater Naples so we can move an ambulance in
that area and pick up the call volume, because our nearest station is Station 42 on Immokalee Road,
which is closer to I-75. And then you have a station on Vanderbilt Beach Road, and then you have a
station out by the fairgrounds. So we have a huge hole that we need to put -- allocate a resource there.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I mean, the greatest growth taking place right now is, of course, the
951 corridor.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Which a lot of those homes will be online probably within the next
18 to 24 months, and then, of course, going out the East Trail. So it's -- other than what's happening, of
course, in eastern Collier which you guys have been planning for years.
But I have no other questions. I think the issue here of the response time, you're meeting, all the
other issues. The funding, of course, again, is a decision of the Board of County Commissioners in
regards to either raising the millage rate or looking for other sources of revenue, whether it's the impact
fees or otherwise. Any other -- any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Bruce, thank you.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Thank you.
MR. STEDMAN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And I know we have the Sheriff's Department. I'm not going to
have them sit through the morning as well. So our representative from the Sheriff, let me see if we
can --
(Cell phone ringing.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: That's me. I'm going to turn it off.
MR. MILLER: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: You can come over to this one.
MR. MILLER: Oh, okay.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I've got to find out what page that is, Mike.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: I've got 130, but I think our numbers are slightly off.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. I'm -- maybe I have the copy I downloaded.
MR. BOSI: Chair, just a note, the Sheriff's Department is really here to answer questions. I
had a presentation for the -- for their proposal for law enforcement and jails. I've got a PowerPoint that
basically encapsulates their proposal. Would you like me to just run through that real quick?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, if you could. Sure.
October 17, 2024
Page 18 of 48
MR. BOSI: So the 2024 summary for law enforcement facilities, the level of service is .9089
square feet per capita. That was recently amended about four years ago in terms of to better reflect the
overall square footage needs of the SO department in terms of providing their services.
Currently, within our five-year program, we have 118,500 square feet planned. That -- the first
of that is expected to come online 2026/2027. That's their forensic science building. And then after
that is a replacement for District 1 substation. And then getting into year -- the second five years, we've
identified District 5 substation as well to provide for the additional square footage. We don't quite get
to our level-of-service standard, but we do close the gap significantly with the forensic science building.
As you can see the -- as we currently have the 10-year program, it's just over 123,000 square feet
to provide for the additional capacities.
But here's the 10-year projects that we have, and I think this gets to your point of there's some
additional revenue that we're going to need to find to be able to be -- to be able to meet the needs of the
SO department, not only with your forensic science facility, but you've got your District 1 substation,
your District 5 substation. Your mental health and medical facility, you're going to see that also have a
crossover and an impact related to our jails.
And then, finally, some of -- the newer requests from the SO office has been the training facility,
and then the Estates substation -- the Estates substations. Half of those right now aren't within our
10-year plan. We're working with facilities to try to identify when the location and the funding could
be available, but that's another area where we -- our revenue is not quite meeting the overall needs that
are being expressed.
Here's a map that just shows you where -- the facilities that currently exist, and where we're -- we
do have some leased stations. And why we show you the leased stations gets back, again, to the impact
fees. Anything that's leased, we can't include that square footage as part of what it costs to be able to
provide for -- within our impact fees. So these discount our overall -- what -- the fees that we can
collect related to trying to complete the hole in terms of revenue funding.
Any questions on the law enforcement side of it? But if you wanted to hear specifically -- in
one of the pages that I thought I included -- but that was more for the -- for the jail population was how
they go about -- they don't utilize the AUIR for how they go about their services, but they do tell us
where the needs are.
So there is an interconnection between what the SO office is experiencing in the field and then
what they express to Facilities, to this general-purpose government to provide for the square footage of
new facilities to meet the changing needs of their -- of the office and providing the protection that they
do. So any questions for me or --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I have a question.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: State your name, please.
MR. WILLIAMS: For the record, Sean Williams, Collier County Sheriff's Office.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Sean, I'm just looking at the average daily population of the jail,
which has gone down --
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- significantly. Well --
MR. WILLIAMS: Significantly, yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Has there -- is that due to --
MR. WILLIAMS: Excellent law enforcement work, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- less crime or judges that are more lenient, or what is --
MR. WILLIAMS: I think excellent work with the court system, 287(g) program years ago that
October 17, 2024
Page 19 of 48
started. The Sheriff has been very focused on reducing crime year after year. I think in his reports he
puts out Part 1 crimes have gone down year after year. So he's very proactive in the community. So
he likes to see that number go down every year, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: My compliments to the Sheriff.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I know Kevin well. And to the team I have to say, this county, what
I don't see, and I'm very appreciative of, which is not part of the AUIR, but I don't see the vagrants. I
don't see the kind of chaos that's occurring in other cities --
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- in the country. And I think the Sheriff's Department, you all do a
great job. I mean, it's -- and I know part of that, of course, is the mental health facility, which I didn't
realize that that's identified as a need and, naturally, I think at some time is probably going to have to
meet that requirement as part of the jail.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. Mike didn't touch on the jail piece yet, but inside the jail we have
to house those folks that can't go to an alternate facility, and we have to house them in the jail. So a
different type of holding facility inside the jail is needed at some point. So you'll see our population is
down, but they're a different type of inmate.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: If they're sentenced to more than six months, then they move
elsewhere?
MR. WILLIAMS: I believe it's a little bit longer than that. It could depend on the court case as
well.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, okay. All right.
Any other questions? Randy.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Real quickly. How are you for staff?
MR. WILLIAMS: I think that's always a battle for Human Resources, but they're always hiring.
They haven't been told to stop hiring, but they're always trying to recruit, sir.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: And is that integrated into this budget with the deficit of
almost 2.2 million, do you know -- or, Mike?
MR. WILLIAMS: This doesn't relate to facilities, I believe, for us for staff. That's a different
budget.
MR. BOSI: The Sheriff's Office is a constitutional officer.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right.
MR. BOSI: The general-purpose county government is required to provide the square footage
and fund the square footage for that constitutional offices. His budget is separate from that, so they are
completely separate.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, completely separate, and separate constitutional, yeah.
Well, the good news is I'm sure there's many other law enforcement officials in other parts of the
country that were not supported by the community as much as they are here, and that probably opens a
great opportunity for them to come down here and work for the Sheriff.
MR. WILLIAMS: The Sheriff is very appreciative of everything from this board and the
County Commission as well and the County Manager's Office. He does not overlook that.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. Any other questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Yeah.
Mr. Williams, I just want to say, so I'm District 3, which is 951 and Vanderbilt Beach.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.
October 17, 2024
Page 20 of 48
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Those sheriffs out there -- deputies do a phenomenal job.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I always like to highlight them because every time I talk
to them, they're just a class act.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: So make sure that gets back to them what a wonderful
job they do out there.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. Will do.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: You're still doing the ride-arounds and other types of things?
Because I know if any of the commissioners ever have interest in that --
MR. WILLIAMS: There is the ability. Just reach out to the local district lieutenant, and they
can arrange that for you, absolutely.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, thank you.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay, Mike. We'll -- I know the staff is sitting here, so let's -- thank
you for -- both from the Sheriff and from EMS, because I didn't need them to sit here.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Solid Waste we could go through, too.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: We want to do Solid Waste?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Well, I was just saying it's going to go pretty quick. Kari's here.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Kari's here.
MR. BOSI: We have all of our -- we have all of our Category A. And the rest -- I believe the
rest are within general purpose county government and not separate.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. Well, I think we'll just go through the schedule, then,
as -- and we'll go back to the -- who's first?
MR. BOSI: Transportation -- we had Transportation Planning and then Stormwater.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. Let's do Transportation, because we can really ask 650
questions on Transportation, maybe 651.
MS. LANTZ: Lorraine Lantz, Transportation Planning. I do have a presentation for you. I
know you're going to have some questions, but I do have a presentation to go over some general
concepts about the AUIR.
The AUIR is our -- it's a planning tool, right? It's one of our many planning tools in our
toolbox, but this we use every year. Specifically, we look at the road and bridge sections. That's
Transportation Planning. But we look at it to weigh the limited resources that we have versus how our
level of service or how our facilities are operating, and then we develop a program for the future.
The level of service, as Mike alluded to, is different for every category. For our category, we
look at level of service by the traffic on the road, and our level of service -- adopted level of service is
either D or E depending on the facility. What that means is if the facility can be widened or modified,
it's a Level of Service D. If it can -- if it is at six lanes where it wouldn't be modified, because by policy
we don't go to eight lanes, it's a Level of Service E.
So that -- as many of my predecessors standing here have said, we don't build -- churches aren't
built for Easter Sunday. Roads aren't built for the most capacity peak hour, peak direction. And that is
what we look at for level of service, peak hour, peak direction, which is typically the evening hours,
evening commute hours, northbound or eastbound.
The methodology for the AUIR is to look at the capacity of the road, which is what the
facility -- what it can handle, how much traffic it can handle. That's based off of the manual that -- the
MUTCD and highway capacity manuals.
October 17, 2024
Page 21 of 48
Then we look at the existing direction and the existing volume. So we do counts. There's daily
counts. There's seasonal counts. There's annual counts. And we look at those counts. Typically, we
look at them four times a year for the AUIR, and then they're factored by the time of day, the season.
So it is a number that's used.
And then, basically, it's a math. It's how much capacity the road can take minus the volume
that's existing today based on our counts and what's banked in the trip bank. And what we consider the
trip bank is anything that you've approved as the Board of County Commissioners, but as your Planning
Commission, and then what comes in as a Site Development Plan or a plat that's approved.
So it's not necessarily the -- when you come -- when you see the document -- or see the concept.
It's what they actually provide us that they're going to build. And they do a traffic impact study to say
what their impacts are going to be at the time that they're coming to you, and then they do another one
when they do -- when they come in for their site plan for that approval. And then we look at the growth
factor of a 2 percent.
And I did take a little bit to look -- you have several attachments and several spreadsheets, but I
did want to put this into perspective of what those columns really mean. So the service volume, that's
your peak hour, peak direction of what's on the road. Then there's the background traffic of -- excuse
me. The peak hour, peak direction is what the capacity is for the road facility. Then there's the peak
hour of when we've taken those traffic counts and factored them in, plus the trip bank, which is, as I
said, based off of the site plan that's been approved for the segments, and then the service volume is
basically what -- the capacity of the facility minus the background traffic and the trip bank.
And then we -- our process is we look at all of those, what -- the list of what those projects
are -- or what the current facilities are, we look at what's needed, what's becoming deficient, what we
can afford, and we identify some deficiencies, and then we put together our analysis.
This is a sample of our projects for -- that are in our work program over the next five years.
You can see, as Mike stated, many of them are for projects towards the east, because that is where we're
seeing our growth.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Can you stop at that one again. Go back. Of course I see 951. Is
that a segment, just widening?
MS. LANTZ: Yes. And I will go through all of the --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, okay.
MS. LANTZ: -- all of the segments --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thank you.
MS. LANTZ: -- but this is just an overview. But that is for widening Collier Boulevard from
Green Boulevard down to the -- basically the main canal. It's the one segment that's not six lanes
currently.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thank you.
MS. LANTZ: And so I wanted to go through some of the projects that Mike highlighted in the
staff report. But I did do some documentation about what has been delayed or advanced. This is one
of the projects. Oh, no, sorry. This is not one. This is Pine Ridge from Livingston to I-75. This is a
project that will help with congestion getting on I-75 as well as all the way to Livingston. It is going to
be a jug handle at Livingston, main -- a conventional intersection at Whippoorwill, and then a diverging
diamond interchange at I-75. And we're receiving FDOT help with the I-75 portion of the DDI. This
would be anticipated to start construction in approximately August of '26.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: A jug handle?
MS. LANTZ: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: That's a new one.
October 17, 2024
Page 22 of 48
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: In Jersey.
MS. LANTZ: That is -- yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: That's a New Jersey --
MS. LANTZ: I believe they are frequent in New Jersey area.
Another project that we're moving forward with is Airport Road from Vanderbilt Beach Road to
Immokalee. This is slated to start construction in 2026. This would be to widen the road from its
existing facility, which is a four-lane, to a six-lane. I believe most of Airport is at six-lane at this point.
Veterans Memorial Boulevard. This is one of the projects that, Commissioner Shea, has been
delayed. It's not been delayed necessarily because of funding. It's being delayed because of other
issues. "Other issues" meaning acquiring the right-of-way, potential permitting. So there's other
reasons, and sometimes projects slip naturally. Because the permitting is taking longer, they have to
move into another fiscal year. And that movement does happen in the last -- in the last three years of
the budget.
So the first -- or the one closest in is pretty -- excuse me -- secure. We know what's going to
happen, and we don't -- there's not a lot of changes. It's the outer years that change. For example, this
project. We've been working on this project for several years, but we have to move it as it gets delayed.
The advance -- the first part of the project was to get to the high school, and so we advanced that
project to move so that when Aubrey Rogers High School was operational and open, the road was open
for that facility, but the rest of the project had to be delayed.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: That section includes also the vacation of an easement, the railroad
crossing. Wasn't that from the school, then, all the way to 41 would be the one segment?
MS. LANTZ: So the project, the Phase 2 --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MS. LANTZ: -- which is what we're talking -- is to get from the high school all the way to U.S.
41. It would have to cross over the railroad. The railroad is in development to be acquired and to be a
pathway.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Pathway, yeah.
MS. LANTZ: But we to -- the existing condition right now is a railroad, so we have to look at
the elevations --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: A vacation.
MS. LANTZ: -- of that railroad.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. I know the history of that. That goes back many years.
MS. LANTZ: Another project that has kind of -- has moved in is because of the needs and
because of things out in the Estates. So Oil Well Road from Everglades to Oil Well Grade, because of
some of the developments that have come online, some of the impacts we're seeing, we're able to
forward that.
The construction date on that is anticipated for '27 to '29 time frame. So -- and the projects that
we have take a long time. I mean, we can't just do design in one year, right-of-way the next year, and
construction. Sometimes things take longer to do, and so that is some of the anticipated time frames,
changes in place.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Have you ever thought about doing a design-build type delivery
instead of a six-year turnaround on delivery on a project, or -- I'm sure you probably have codes that
don't allow you to do it, but...
MS. LANTZ: We do have the opportunity to do design-build. They're not always the fastest,
and they're not always the cheapest. So -- but when the opportunity arises, we do try to take that.
Another project that was in your staff report is the Collier Boulevard widening. Like I said, this
October 17, 2024
Page 23 of 48
is from Green Boulevard to the Golden Gate Main Canal. This is in design currently. It's expected to
go into construction, I believe -- I'm sorry. I don't have the exact time frame -- for construction, but
once it does move in, it's a 30-month time frame for that.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: How about the next phase of that, going further south all the way to
the interchange, past --
MS. LANTZ: The interchange is an FDOT project, so they're working on that right now at
Davis.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right. But this is past -- past the golf course with -- of course, the
county just -- we just approved the development for the golf course.
MS. LANTZ: Right. This would include that.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, it does include that.
MS. LANTZ: It goes all the way from Green to basically the limits of FDOT's project.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right to DOT's project, okay.
MS. LANTZ: To the main canal.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thanks.
What are the dates of that? Soon?
Trinity's coming up.
MS. LANTZ: Trinity's coming up.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I see it.
MS. SCOTT: For the record, Trinity Scott, department head, Transportation Management
Services.
It's in Fiscal Year '25, so it's our current fiscal year.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, yeah. Great. So it will be -- I mean, that interchange is still --
MS. SCOTT: There's about another 18 to 24 months -- or about another 18 months left in the
interchange construction.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: So it's almost integrated with -- about the same time?
MS. SCOTT: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Awesome. Thanks.
MS. LANTZ: Okay. Everglades Boulevard from VBR to Oil Well Road, this would be for the
widening from two lanes to four lanes for that facility, and construction is planned in October -- well, in
the time frame -- the tentative plan would be '27 time frame to start.
Goodlette-Frank Road, VBR to Immokalee, this would also be for the widening. This is another
project that I believe has had some delays also, but this is anticipated to start in '28.
And Vanderbilt Beach Road, this would be Phase 2. This would be from 16th to Everglades
Boulevard. This would be -- this is a new facility, and it's anticipated to start in the fall or winter of '25.
And that's all I have. I just wanted to highlight that some of these projects, you know, they slip
our time frames because of, you know, natural delays. But also once other facilities come online, like
VBR extension, we're expecting to see, Phase 1 of that, when that opens approximately this time next
year. I believe it's anticipated for the winter of '25. That will aleve [sic] some of the traffic and some
of the congestion that you're seeing on the entire network. The parallel facilities of Immokalee and
Golden Gate Boulevard will see some relief from that extension.
You'll also see some relief on, you know, other facilities like Collier, Logan. And it does -- it's
not just the one. It's the entire network. And so we are seeing, you know, changes based on needs,
based on growth, but also based on projects that are coming online.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Can you go back to the chart where you showed the -- I just want to
make sure my colleagues understand --
October 17, 2024
Page 24 of 48
MS. LANTZ: This one?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- the banked trips. That one.
Trip bank trips, that includes all projected development that has a vested right, is that correct,
whether it's a plat or a plan or approved zoning where the zoning is deemed to be a vested right for the
transportation impact. They pay impact fees --
MS. LANTZ: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- or other --
MS. LANTZ: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- mechanisms that they banked and approved. Even though those
vehicles don't exist, they exist in the calculation. I'll call them phantom --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Future.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- future commitments, and that's how -- your level of service. So if
you have a level of service and it's showing F, it may not be F, but it's F because of the projected future
impacts.
MS. LANTZ: Right.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
MS. LANTZ: We look at the projects when they come in and what they anticipate when -- but
they might not get built all at once in one phase. There might be several phases. But if they came in
with a site plan that was approved, we bank those trips, and those trips are put into the AUIR.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And they're banked based on payment of impact fees or vested rights
or some other -- could you explain that, please?
MS. LANTZ: So they are --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I guess Trinity's going to -- because this is always a big issue with
the Planning Commission, and I just want to make sure that my colleagues understand. I understand it
because I lived it, but I want them to understand what this means, because it's -- I know even when -- I
remember when Chris used to really get wrapped up over this because of the level of service.
Go ahead. Trinity, go ahead.
MS. SCOTT: Yes. If I may, once again, Trinity Scott, department head for Transportation
Management Services.
The trip bank includes not only what's been approved for a Site Development Plan and plat and
plans, but we have several developments, and I'm going to use Fiddler's Creek as an example --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yes.
MS. SCOTT: -- and Lely Resort where they were vested probably when Mr. Schmitt was the
administrator in Community Development next door from my building.
And we still hold those trips on the books. And Fiddler's Creek now is starting to build out
some of those units. And so we're seeing our trip bank actually come down in those areas. But we
have had to account for those trips for some 20 years on our system.
So in our -- in our spreadsheet that you see, you see a traffic count year expected deficient. That
is based on if the traffic counts today, as they are, were grown at 2 percent per year or what the historical
growth rate is, whichever is larger, but then we also have a trip bank year expected deficient.
So we are also looking at that, and we look at what's in that trip bank, and we know based on
what's coming in in certain areas, you know, if I need to rush to go get a road going or not. So we can
kind of look at those things a little differently, so --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thanks.
MS. SCOTT: -- lots of data that goes behind this.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Trip bank only includes something that's come in with a site plan.
October 17, 2024
Page 25 of 48
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: No.
MS. SCOTT: Not necessarily. The trip bank is Site Development Plan and plats and plans;
however, you may have developments that may have entered into some sort of agreement with the
county or that -- at one point we went through a vested rights determination when we instituted
concurrency management back in the early 2000s -- late '90s, early 2000s. And so those developments
had vested rights that we put those trips within the system.
So I'll also give another example. Sometimes we enter into a developer agreement where
someone is going to, say, donate right-of-way. We can calculate how many trips that equals and give
them their vesting, if you will, within this as well. So those are times where they may have vested
rights on the books, but they haven't come in for the Site Development Plan or plat and plan, and we
keep that all within a whole database that's behind all of this.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: And we also have a lot of developments that we approve that aren't
in the site development that aren't in the future count because they haven't moved.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Correct.
MS. SCOTT: You are correct.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I just wanted to make sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: A vested right would be if there was a right-of-way or a road
improvement or wherever; there was a developer cooperation agreement, then were certain rights that
they obtained by that. So, yeah, it's a combination. But I just wanted you-all to -- make sure you
understand that, because it always becomes a question.
Randy.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Thank you. The question for you, your team is also
responsible for road improvements for repaving, correct?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Maintenance, yeah.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Maintenance, right.
MS. SCOTT: (Nods head.)
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: What is the requirement for repaving a road? For example,
951 was done, I don't know, six months ago or something like that, kind of the southern end of it, we'll
call it, from Rattlesnake to 41. And just curious -- because to me, as a simple person, it looked like it
was in great shape, but maybe there's things I don't know, the age or whatever. And just curious, what
are those requirements?
MS. SCOTT: So we go through a condition rating, and we look at what the actual condition of
the roadway is. There could have been rutting. So from an actual looking at the roadway, you might
not notice it. But when it's raining, you see the rutting, and sometimes that can have safety
implications.
So sometimes it's not just about, like, from the naked eye of looking at it, but looking at that,
looking at the ride, the rut, the crack of it.
We just, this year, went through a process to evaluate all of our roadways utilizing some different
technology that we haven't done in the past, and so we're actually, right now, going to be building a 5-,
10, and a 20-year repaving schedule and then redo the condition ratings in three years to set new
degradation rates.
Some of the things that the county has benefited in the past is one of my predecessors, Mr. Feder,
widened everything in the county, so we didn't have to resurface a lot because they were taking the
roadways, going from two to six lanes, so we weren't resurfacing. So now we're actually having to
resurface our roadways on a pretty regular interval.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Great. Thank you.
October 17, 2024
Page 26 of 48
MS. SCOTT: Welcome.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: I appreciate the technical part of it of some laser
interferometer going over it and -- thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: One more question, and we're going to take a break. Paul.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Okay. Just a general comment. I don't know what the answer is,
and maybe I'm reading the data wrong. But you presented a list of segments, like 140 segments, and
you put the level of service. And if you go down to the 2025 level of service, 41 percent of those
segments are D, E, or F, and 15 percent are E and F. It just seems when they're already at that point and
you have a six-year turnaround on projects, I don't know how you -- how you can improve those
numbers on a -- I guess I'm looking for a little bit more comfort that the numbers -- they feel bad to me.
It makes me nervous that you can't address that large number of segments with the turnaround time you
have for projects.
MS. SCOTT: Well, Mr. Shea, when I get nervous, then you can get nervous. How about that?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I agree with that. I'll support that.
MS. SCOTT: What I will tell you is it goes into your land-use planning as well. Think about
the developments that you have approved in Eastern Collier County. As those developments start
coming online and you start getting more employers and other goods and services in that area, now that
long commute that people are experiencing today can be reversed.
We've experienced that with Ave Maria even in looking at Arthrex. A large portion of their
employment contingency comes from Ave Maria, but then the rest of that employment contingency is
coming from western parts of the county and coming in. And so that's the reverse commute. They're
using those lanes on the other side of the road that aren't typically used in the morning. So those are
things that we look at.
I would also say that looking at different options for -- mobility options. One of the things that
we are looking at in those eastern parts of the county, are there options for mobility such as transit, et
cetera. So those are going to be things that we're going to be weighing in on over the years. But for
right now, there are going to be times when we're going to have roadways that experience significant
congestion because as you're building a new roadway, that traffic goes someplace else, and so we're
constantly seeing those ebbs and flows of traffic as we do construction throughout the county, so...
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So you're not nervous?
MS. SCOTT: Not yet.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All right. It's 10:28. We'll take a break. We'll make it easy.
We'll go to 10:45, so a 15-minute break.
(A brief recess was had from 10:28 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.)
MR. BOSI: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yes. We're missing two of our members.
I know Paul had a question. But Trinity, you were going to -- Paul asked you -- so Paul's not
here, but, Trinity, you're going to talk about -- just to highlight the projects that are involved with the
state and feds. Thanks.
MS. SCOTT: Yes, sir. Once again, Trinity Scott, department head, Transportation
Management Services.
You talked a little bit earlier about the interchange at Collier Boulevard and I-75 currently under
construction. About 18 more months of construction on that project. In addition to that, I -- the
Florida Department of Transportation has included in their work program widening I-75 from north of
Golden Gate Parkway to Corkscrew Road. That will be adding -- it's essentially going to add a seventh
October 17, 2024
Page 27 of 48
and eighth lane, so one lane in each direction to the interstate. So north of Golden Gate Parkway to
south of Corkscrew Road. That is scheduled for Fiscal Year '27. In addition --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Construction, right?
MS. SCOTT: Construction, yes. Currently, it's in --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Start of construction or end?
MS. SCOTT: Start.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Start.
MS. SCOTT: Okay. Currently, they're going through their PD&E process, and then they'll do
a quick design process on that. They've done a lot of that predesign work.
Earlier this year we had a conversation with the Board of County Commissioners where
Transportation received direction to work with the Florida Department of Transportation to advance the
interchange at I-75 and Immokalee Road. So that is actually a new project that you see in our program
which would be for the advancement of those funds.
We have the advancement of those funds, I believe, in FY '26 at the request of FDOT. They
have added the PD&E, the Project Development & Environmental study, for that interchange into their
program, and they're doing it concurrently with the interstate widening, and that's ultimately what we're
asking them to do is to do a diverging diamond interchange at I-75/Immokalee Road concurrent with the
widening of I-75.
In addition to that, we did show an advancement of the I-75/Livingston overpass to FY '27 as
well to kind of marry up all of those construction projects.
So not only are you going to see some relief for Vanderbilt Beach Road, for Immokalee Road,
but also belt and suspenders kind of thing of knowing that we need to do some other improvements,
because that is a very large movement of folks coming on and off the interstate there.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I might have missed you saying -- what's going on with the
diverging diamond on Pine Ridge? That's in the works?
MS. SCOTT: Correct. That's in the current program funded in FY '20 -- I'm sorry. FDOT
actually took that project over. They're anticipating starting construction in the latter part of this fiscal
year for them, so closer to July or early next year for a diverging diamond at Pine Ridge Road as well.
If I may, one other thing that I mentioned to Commissioner Shea was, you know, for us for this
document, it's not a budget document for us. It is a planning document for us. It's for planning
purposes. We can make adjustments based on looking at those outer years, looking at projections,
looking at how things are coming in. But one other useful tool for us, particularly from the
transportation side is, when projects are in our Capital Improvement Element, it gives us better points, if
you will, when we're going after grant funding, whether that's state or federal grant dollars. And we're
very successful in pulling in grant dollars in Transportation Services.
So we do use this at times also. And so sometimes you'll see some of these projects fluctuate,
because grant dollars come in. And I'll use the 47th Avenue Northeast bridge. Previously we had
programmed that project in Fiscal Year '26 but we were able to get $8 million for a grant. But the years
didn't line up, so we deferred that project to be able to get that federal money of $8 million, which frees
up $8 million of our funding to be able to go to other projects.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
MS. SCOTT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Next. Stormwater. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I had a question.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, go ahead. Sorry, Chuck. I didn't see you.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: That's all right. It happens at home all the time.
October 17, 2024
Page 28 of 48
Trinity, real quick, so the 2023 AUIR, Airport to Livingston had a trip cap of 226 and now
that -- available. The remaining cap was 226. Now it's grown to 240. How do you increase your
available trip cap?
MS. SCOTT: So the available -- the remaining capacity on the roadway, as Lorraine -- the
capacity is a set number. The traffic counts can fluctuate from year to year.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Got it.
MS. SCOTT: So the actual data we collect on an annual basis can fluctuate. People find
different routes. They get frustrated on a route. They go to a different route, and so you might see an
adjacent route go up or go down.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Got it.
MS. SCOTT: So little, minor tweaks like that, those happen with change in travel patterns.
Maybe something new came online someplace else, and people changed their travel patterns.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay. Thank you for the clarity.
The second thing I had is on Attachment G where you have these -- last year it was yellow.
Now it's a red. Like, starting out with the first one, which is Golden Gate Boulevard, Collier to Wilson,
you're at, like, a negative 24, and the notes state that -- anticipate future VBR extension to redistribute
traffic volumes onto area network. When those accelerate from an orange or a yellow to a red, would it
be easier to initiate a study at that point in time versus initiating a study when it's red?
MS. SCOTT: We do.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay.
MS. SCOTT: So I would say that if you look at Pine Ridge Road -- but in this particular
instance, if I'm looking at Golden Gate Boulevard specifically, Golden Gate Boulevard is a policy
constrained road. The Board made a decision many years ago that that roadway was going to stay at
four years. It would not go to six lanes.
So when Golden Gate Boulevard started getting into that degradation, that was when we
started -- and Immokalee Road, we started looking at Vanderbilt Beach Road. We looked at a whole
new corridor. So that roadway is now turned on and being constructed.
And, Mr. Schmitt -- actually, probably most folks sitting up here know that that road was
intended to be built 10 years ago to where we wouldn't have had this, but unfortunately, with the
downturn in the economy, it was delayed. So yes, absolutely, those are things that we're doing. And in
fact, if you look at the five-year program, you'll see a study on Vanderbilt Beach Road from Livingston
over to Logan.
We know that folks are going to find their way to Vanderbilt Beach Road, and as growth
continues out in the eastern part of the county, we want to then go back and do that corridor congestion
study so that we can start getting projects identified and programmed on Logan such as those innovative
intersections like what we're doing to Immokalee Road and Pine Ridge Road.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Got it. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thank you. Stormwater.
MS. JOHNSSEN: All right. Good morning. For the record, I'm Beth Johnssen, and I'm here
to provide a high-level overview of the Stormwater AUIR.
So essentially, the mission of the Stormwater program is to provide drainage and flood
protection while also improving water quality and contributing to aquifer recharge. So it's not always
just about trying to push stormwater or flow out as fast as you can. There's strategies involved in
maintaining certain levels and recharging the aquifer.
I'm arrowing. Wrong arrow. Sorry about that.
The county's stormwater system is large and diverse. Currently, the county maintains about
October 17, 2024
Page 29 of 48
150 miles of canals, 87 varied control structures, and hundreds of miles of stormwater pipes and
roadside swales.
The adopted level of service varies by basin. In 19 -- in 1990, in conjunction with the South
Florida Water Management District, discharge rates were implemented by the county and have been
further modified by master plans and modeling with the last update occurring in 2017.
So the stormwater discharge rates are limited in a way that prevents stormwater runoff from
adversely affecting sites downstream.
The stormwater capital work program is prioritized to address rehabilitation and restoration of
aging infrastructure throughout the system and on partnership projects where we can make needed
stormwater improvement projects -- or stormwater improvements while other entities such as the Sea of
Naples or Public Utilities are also renewing infrastructure. As previously noted, our five-year work
plan depicts an ongoing budget deficit for critical infrastructure needs.
In Fiscal Year '25, we are committed to beginning construction on several large neighborhood
renewal projects, and that renewal work continues on in Fiscal Year '26. Some of those projects include
Palm River, Lely, and Naples Park.
While the Office of Management and Budget is financed and the Finance Committee is
strategizing on short-term funding needs, it's been recognized that a long-term dedicated funding source
is required to address future infrastructure renewal needs.
Further discussion and analysis will take place in Fiscal Year '25 to discuss approaches that are
both equitable and transparent to the stakeholders. These proposed strategies will, of course, be fully
vetted to this commission and to the Board of County Commissioners.
This concludes my presentation, and I'd be happy to attempt to answer any questions that you
may have.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Paul.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So, like Trinity said, when she gets nervous, I can get nervous. Are
you nervous? I'm very nervous about that amount of money unfunded, and some of it being very
shorter term, like next year and the year after. Are you nervous about the funding of the projects, about
that big of a deficit?
MS. JOHNSSEN: I am not nervous. I don't believe Trinity's nervous.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: No, she isn't. I'm following this -- I'm trying to get a feel for you.
MS. JOHNSSEN: The County Manager, having previously worked in the stormwater arena,
she understands the need to fund the stormwater projects and the importance of stormwater and the
aging infrastructure. Those conversations have taken place with the Commission. I believe everyone
is on board as far as finding a short-term funding solution, whether that be a short-term loan or whatever
that -- that mechanism will be, in addition to moving forward with the long-term strategy so that we can
continue to renew the aging infrastructure.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Why I get nervous is with water, wastewater, solid waste, if it
doesn't happen, there's a lot of up-work because people notice it. Sometimes with stormwater, people
don't realize all those things that need to be done, and it's sometimes easy not to do some of them. And
it's easier to kick the can down the road sometimes with those projects than on the more visible services.
MS. JOHNSSEN: That is correct. I believe years past perhaps that can has been kicked, but I
don't believe that the can is going to be kicked any longer.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Beth, I have a question. It kind of has to do with the philosophical
October 17, 2024
Page 30 of 48
approach to funding stormwater. A lot of the projects -- the newer projects in Collier County, let's say
the last 20 years, are -- contain internal stormwater programs that are inherent with the ERP process,
Environmental Resource Permit process, or through Section 404 of the Clean Water Act with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers' permit. So what I'm saying is they pretty much -- for mostly a design event
of 25-year storm event.
But we have a lot of other communities. You cited Naples Park, Naples Manor, Poinciana
Village, some other areas that the stormwater systems are 40 and 50 years old. They are nowhere near
the design capacity requirements that -- if they were to go in for a permit today.
So my question is, are you looking at trying to get those communities to coalesce and fund some
of their required improvements, or is it just being passed off to the county as a whole, meaning all the
taxpayers? Because I -- it's sort of -- it's sort of -- it was my principal argument back when the
stormwater fee was considered that many of the homeowners -- many of the communities that went
through a pretty extensive permitting process already paid for those improvements in their community.
Now they're asked to -- being paid for -- to renew or to improve the older communities.
And, of course, that's a policy decision, but at the same time, I think it's the same approach to try
and go to these communities and say, you need to take it upon yourself as well to form an MSTBU or
some other type of entity to fund the improvements. But that seems to -- has gone nowhere. What's
the approach now?
MS. JOHNSSEN: So, again, we'll be looking at that approach as we move forward with a
dedicated funding source. It has not been an approach in the past, but we know that there are other
counties and municipalities that have -- for instance, they may charge a flat-base fee. And then if there
is a stormwater improvement that's benefiting just solely that community --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MS. JOHNSSEN: -- then there's an assessment that's attached to it as well.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, because you remember the infamous, I'll say the word,
Dover-Kohl study. I think that brings back posttraumatic stress. That was worse than a year in
Afghanistan. But when we went to the community to have them help fund the improvements, they
overwhelmingly objected it and said, "No, County, you make the improvements." And then, of course,
nothing was ever done.
MS. JOHNSSEN: Well, again --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And that's sort of where we're at with some of these communities.
There's a desperate need, but yet they don't -- there's not a -- I guess maybe forcing them to absorb some
of the costs.
MS. JOHNSSEN: Unfortunately, there will be assessments that people don't want to pay.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right, right.
MS. JOHNSSEN: And that is a policy decision that --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Right.
MS. JOHNSSEN: When we discussed the various funding strategies --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MS. JOHNSSEN: -- those sorts of decisions will have to be made, and criteria, as far as, you
know, what qualifies, and how it's distributed.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. Thanks, Beth.
MS. JOHNSSEN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Anybody else?
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Sure. To piggyback, will those decisions be brought up for
the upcoming fiscal year, as Joe said, a portion of the funding for stormwater management in a particular
October 17, 2024
Page 31 of 48
community receive an assessment? Do you think that's on the table to be discussed and implemented
this coming 2025?
MS. JOHNSSEN: I think that would be premature.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MS. JOHNSSEN: We have quite a bit of analysis to do, quite a bit of discussion and outreach,
education.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The good news is we're not dealing with some of the problems the
city is dealing with with the stormwater runoff directly into the -- into the gulf. They have serious
problems where they're in violation of --
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: EPA.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- total daily loads and other impacts.
I don't know if we have anything familiar -- anything of that level in the county, do we, where
we have serious runoff right into the other -- I don't have. Does Henderson Creek and some of
those -- are we experiencing the same thing?
MS. JOHNSSEN: We do not have those issues currently, no.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, yeah. Because it's been a political grenade for several years
with the city.
Okay. Thanks, Beth.
MS. JOHNSSEN: Thank you.
MR. BOSI: And, Chair, can we go to Coastal so we can get -- so Trinity and her group could
be --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: We can go with Coastal. Where is Coastal at?
MR. BOSI: There you go.
MR. MILLER: Thanks, Mike.
Good morning. And my name is Andy Miller, your Coastal Zone manager.
And I don't really have a presentation. You know, Coastal Zone has a pseudo level of service,
but it's all based on, you know, the geometry of our beaches and the geometry of our passes, and so it's
basically a maintenance -- a maintenance effort for Coastal Zone. But what I don't have is just an
overview of what we do and some of the design parameters that we like to accomplish.
So -- thanks, Mike.
So our chief efforts are related to beach renourishment, as you well know, and as you can see the
beaches we manage, for the most part, are in color there. Vanderbilt in red, Pelican Bay in green,
Parkshore in orange, and Naples there in blue. Mike -- or our South Marco there is also shown at the
bottom.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Who manages the beaches in between those?
MR. MILLER: They're basically managed by -- well, Rookery Bay takes care of the property
around Keewaydin. Or you're referring to Barefoot Beach --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I'm just looking at the gaps in the colors on your --
MR. MILLER: Well, these are -- these are renourished beach, meaning we have a permit from
the State to actually put sand on the beach. The beaches in between we don't renourish, typically.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Who does?
MR. MILLER: Well, you can see the gap in between Vanderbilt and Pelican Bay. If those
communities -- and that's Bay Colony and Pelican Bay. Those are private beaches. So if they do want
sand as part of our project, we have the opportunity to renourish those as well with a cost of
reimbursement from the private sector.
October 17, 2024
Page 32 of 48
And the same thing applies for some of South -- or some of Marco Island and other places. But
beaches like Keewaydin and others are just -- we leave those up to Mother Nature for the most part.
As far as level of services are concerned, the beaches for the most part are maintained to a design
standard and, again, these are permitted standard widths according to FDEP and Army Corps geometry.
And for the most part, we like to keep 100 feet of dry beach from mean high water up to what we refer
to as the construction baseline, which is close to the vegetation line or seawalls or otherwise. It was
established in 2003, if you're curious about that.
And then for Parkshore, we whittled it down to 85 feet because of offshore hard-bottom
concerns. And so typically everything north of the pier has some hard-bottom concerns, so we want to
be careful with the sand we place there.
We monitor the beaches with basically a survey effort that happens in January of every year,
January or February of every year. We determine what kind of volumes and widths have
changed -- and the consultant and the county get together to determine what the projects need to be that
year, and we propose those to the County Manager and the Board. And we typically manage the
beaches on a cyclical basis. Four years is typical from one renourishment to the next, and so -- any
questions about beaches and beach renourishment? Sure.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: In your project you have beach resiliency. Is that just bringing new
sand in that has been lost?
MR. MILLER: I'm lost on --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Well, in the paperwork we have, there's a -- it says "beach
resiliency," and there's $25 million over the first five years. I was just wondering what beach resiliency
is. Is it just sand replacement?
MR. MILLER: Understood. Beach resiliency refers to a coordinated effort with our
community planning and resiliency folks, and it's more related to the Army Corps project. The $25
million in that item was a remnant of the prior three-year effort that you're all familiar with with the
Army Corps. We had anticipated after that three years to move forward with property acquisitions,
design engineering, and our cost share of the 65/35 effort. We know that project -- or we know that
planning effort is still ongoing, so we're leaving that money in that for potential future costs.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Just to follow up, Andy.
MR. MILLER: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Of course, I'm on the committee for that as well. And, I guess,
Jamie just told me the study's delayed again. But the study, whenever it comes out, the feasibility
report -- and then it goes for the chief's report to go on into the Water Resource Development Act. If, in
fact, the county agrees to become the nonfederal sponsor and proceed to final engineering design, then,
of course, you'll have to start budgeting for annual maintenance and all the other types of things
associated with it. But the study will clearly -- it should point all that out in the study.
MR. MILLER: It should, yeah.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The requirements for annual maintenance and rehabilitation, all the
other kind of things. So those are just future budgeting thoughts.
MR. MILLER: Exactly.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: But that -- again, it should be very clear, and if it's not, I will make it
a point with my colleagues from the Corps, because it should be part of the study.
MR. MILLER: I know you will, sir. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: It just happens to be I know a little about it.
MR. MILLER: Understood.
The second thing we do is we take care of the inlets, Wiggins Pass, Doctors Pass, and to some
October 17, 2024
Page 33 of 48
extent Caxambas Pass. We also coordinate with Pelican Bay to take care of Doctors Pass. We also
have a project, which is not a typical permitted maintenance project, at Collier Creek. We know there
are issues down there related to navigation and the flows down there that we want -- we want to make
some improvements to that area as well.
As far as the level of service goes, we want to meet our FDEP permitted dredge depths, and
similar to what we do with the beaches, we do a what we call a maintenance dredge every four years and
then an interim dredge every two. That's our planned schedule. Mother Nature may have other ideas,
so we adjust accordingly.
In general, the depths are for navigational purposes. Typically, minus 12 NAVD exterior, and
then from 7 to 10 interior to the channels.
Any questions about the dredging?
(No response.)
MR. MILLER: For your -- just for your information, we do have a scheduled maintenance
dredge for Wiggins Pass upcoming. We're getting a little bit concerned about some of the depths as we
speak. And we've got that project budgeted. We may or may not have to advance the schedule based
on what Mother Nature does for the rest of this hurricane season.
Any other questions about dredging?
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I do.
MR. MILLER: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Sorry.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thank you, Mr. Miller.
Dredging, I noticed on the beach renourishment that Clam Pass Beach didn't have any indication
it was going to get renourished; is that correct?
MR. MILLER: Clam Pass Beach has kind of morphed into what we used to call North
Parkshore, and Clam Pass Beach, at least from our monument, I believe it's 143 plus 600, which is
right -- I wish I had a better picture of Clam Pass. Let me see if I can find it. I don't think I do in this
stack. But basically part of the Clam Pass Park Beach will be renourished this year as part of the
Parkshore project.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: As part of the Parkshore?
MR. MILLER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay. Because I had noticed on the 2025 to '29 project
descriptions, it was -- it was indicated there. I just wanted to make sure it was included with that.
On the dredging side, though, of Clam Pass, I noticed in here that that's in partnership with
Pelican Bay.
MR. MILLER: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Is there any communication with the Seagate
Homeowners Association since they really use that pass to get out?
MR. MILLER: There is and there has been at the various CAC meetings. Especially recently
we've had some input and some concern from the Seagate folks.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay.
MR. MILLER: And Clam Pass is managed by Pelican Bay Services Division as a charter from
the Board of County Commissioners. So we coordinate with the folks to do that project. They do it
themselves and pay for it, typically, themselves, but it's part of our budget.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay. Thank you. That's all I had, Chair.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. Thank you.
Andy, thank you. Anything else?
October 17, 2024
Page 34 of 48
MR. MILLER: The only thing else -- I'll just go quickly through them.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, okay.
MR. MILLER: But we do bird monitoring as part of our permit requirements -- not bird
monitoring -- biological monitoring for turtles and anything that is of interest to the State and to the
general public as far as protected species.
We do channel marker maintenance; probably well over a thousand of these that we try to take
care of. Obviously, we have storms that come through and take tolls on some of these, but we maintain
those on a regular basis.
Derelict vessels, that's primarily being pushed off to FWC. So we're not glad that we're rid of
them because we enjoyed doing good work for the community, but FWC has taken over that effort.
And then I hope you know that we maintain our beaches at Vanderbilt and South Marco, all of
Marco, by basically raking the material that washes up on the beach and keep -- basically, we keep the
beaches nice, white and pristine as we can. And that's Coastal Zoning.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Andy, is that all of Marco, all the beaches on Marco Island?
MR. MILLER: There is a gap in between Residents Beach.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, Residents -- that's what I was thinking, Residents Beach.
MR. MILLER: In between Residents Beach, and there's a condo called Eagles Nest. So there's
a gap in between there that the private property owners take care of their own beach.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
MR. MILLER: But everything north and everything south, yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. All right.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Mr. Miller, if I could ask you a question. Channel
markers, who has the responsibility for the channel markers, or is that under FWC as well?
MR. MILLER: FWC primarily, but there's -- jurisdictions vary. We have Coast Guard
jurisdiction, city jurisdiction. Some of the markers, like manatee markers, are State FWC. But the
county maintains primarily most of the red, green, and regulatory markers north to south.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: So when those go down -- when those go down, the
county goes out and replaces them?
MR. MILLER: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay. Did you need -- do you need anybody to do that,
go and look and see if they're down?
MR. MILLER: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I couple probably spend a day on the boat doing that.
MR. MILLER: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Well, you get a pay raise for that, too, you know.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: That would be great.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Get you out of the house.
MR. MILLER: Thank you, all.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thank you.
MR. BOSI: And, Chair, next up would be Public Utilities.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Public Utilities.
MR. STOLTS: Good morning. Anthony Stolts, supervisor/project manager of Collier County
Public Utilities.
We had another successful year delivering approximately 11 billion gallons of potable water,
treating approximately 8.9 billion gallons of wastewater, and distributing approximately 5.4 billion
gallons of reclaimed irrigation quality water.
October 17, 2024
Page 35 of 48
Unique to Water and Sewer, the level of service is a measure of use. Our current adopted level
of service is 130 gallons per capital day for water and 90 gallons per capita day for wastewater. Water
conservation in this initiative such as low-flow fixtures and use of reclaimed water from our water
treatment plants for irrigation allows us to maintain this level of service.
In addition to daily operations and maintenance, the Collier County Water/Sewer District has
two major types of capital projects to ensure we maintain our level of service, new expansion projects
paid for with impact fees, and rehabilitation projects paid for with user fees. No General Fund taxes
pay for the utility.
Notable system rehabilitation projects for the fiscal year of 2024 and beyond include, for water,
we have the Public Utilities renewal projects including Palm River, Naples Park, and Lely. These
projects include complete rehabilitation of the water, wastewater, stormwater, and roadway
infrastructure.
The Vanderbilt Beach Road and Airport transmission main project, which is entering design this
year, which will eliminate approximately 17,000 linear feet of obsolete cast iron water main, and the
asbestos cement pipe replacement program, which we have about 70 miles left of that to replace, which
is about 6 percent of our infrastructure. We are replacing approximately one to two miles of pipe per
year under this program.
For Wastewater, again, we have the Public Utilities renewal projects, the north county water
reclamation facility pretreatment renewal, which is now in the construction phase and has about
one-plus years left till completion.
We also have multiple pump station improvement projects which includes the emergency power
generators, and the air release valve replacement program.
System expansion projects for Fiscal Year 2024 and beyond include, for water, we have the
expansion of the Golden Gate transmission mains project currently under construction. This
multi-phased project serves as the foundation for the future Golden Gate sewer -- septic-to-sewer
conversion project. Target completion date for that is 2025.
We also have the 10 MGD north regional water treatment plant project. Based on current
projections for the expansion, the northeast service area of the plant is scheduled to be online in Fiscal
Year 2033.
We are currently moving forward with the plant design and installation of wells that will provide
raw water to the plant. We will continue to monitor the population projections each year and adjust the
construction date as necessary to support the forecasted growth.
And for wastewater, we have the 1.5 MGD interim wastewater treatment plant at the northeast
utility facilities, which is currently in the startup and testing phase. The 5 MGD central county water
reclamation facility in Golden Gate City is anticipated to be online by Fiscal Year 2027 and is currently
in the design and permitting phase. This includes a new 4 MGD plant and retains 1 MGD from the
existing plant to make the 5 MGD.
And the 4 MGD northeast water reclamation facility is also in the design and permitting phase
and is anticipated to be online in year 2030. And, again, we will continue to monitor the population
projections each year and adjust construction date as necessary to support the forecasted growth.
The 2024 potable and wastewater AUIR demonstrates that the Collier County Water/Sewer
District is in compliance with the concurrency requirements found in Florida Statutes Section 163, the
Collier County Comprehensive Plan, and the Land Development code.
Thank you, and I'm here if you have any questions.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Can you -- on the chart, you have a dashed line that's a 75 percent
level.
October 17, 2024
Page 36 of 48
MR. STOLTS: Yes. When you hit that line, we're required to report to the DEP that we're at
that line.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, okay. So that's the -- that's the DEP requirement?
MR. STOLTS: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: So as long as you stay below it, you're not -- what if you go above it?
Are you then --
MR. STOLTS: We start reporting and telling them what we're going to do about it.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: So it's deemed critical --
MR. STOLTS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- and you have to have a plan of action to reduce that?
MR. STOLTS: Yeah. A plan, yep.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And then a funding source as well.
MR. STOLTS: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Because there's a period of time you were a little above it when I'm
looking at -- no, I'm looking between level of service and population. Okay.
MR. STOLTS: Good?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Require treatment capacity.
Anybody else? Randy.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Yeah. Quick question. Maybe I heard this wrong. Back
up two slides, I believe, please. No, not there. There. Asbestos and cement pipe replacement.
MR. STOLTS: Yep.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Did you say you had 70 miles left?
MR. STOLTS: Yeah, 70 miles left, and that represents -- we have 1,175 miles of pipe in the
ground for that.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Right. You said --
MR. STOLTS: So there's about 6 percent left to go.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Seventy miles left. But did you -- I'm sure I heard this
wrong. You said you do two miles a year?
MR. STOLTS: One to two miles a year is in the current program.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: So it's going to take us 35, 45 years to replace the asbestos
cement pipe?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: At that rate.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: At that rate.
MR. STOLTS: At that rate, yes.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Does that alarm anybody?
MR. STOLTS: We'll get my director.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Okay. I'm not an engineer, obviously, in this field, but
whenever you hear the word "asbestos" --
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Yeah, but it's not friable.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Oh, it's not potable?
MR. McLEAN: Matt McLean, the division director for Engineering and Project Management.
The asbestos pipe that we have in the ground is still very adequate. It does work well, but we
are under constant means and methods to reduce that amount globally internally. There's not a
regulatory requirement for us to remove it any sooner than that. We recognize that it's there, and as we
work into our Public Utilities renewal programs, we target areas to remove that and then dispose of it
properly so that then we won't have any potential liability moving forward.
October 17, 2024
Page 37 of 48
But it is still a very usable type of pipe that's used, and there's a lot of utilities throughout the
entire country that have many, many more miles and percentages of that type of pipe in their systems.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: It's not friable. That means it doesn't --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Disintegrate.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: -- disintegrate and come into the water system. It just -- if you
break it, then you could have problems with it, but it's not a big liability. It's a potential liability.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: It's not like copper in water lines.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: All right. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: One question on that. What do you replace it with? Is
that like a -- is that like the --
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: More asbestos.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Polypropylene pipe.
MR. STOLTS: HDP or PVC, depending on the case.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay.
MR. STOLTS: Cast iron in some cases.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Or Per cast?
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: No, I don't think they do cast.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: No. All right.
Also, one other question. 2024 expansion of Golden Gate septic-to-sewer project. Which area
is that in?
MR. STOLTS: Golden Gate City.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Golden Gate City. Thank you.
MR. STOLTS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All right. Let's see. What's next?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Kari.
MR. BOSI: We're going to finish up with Solid Waste to finish the Utilities.
MS. HODGSON: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, my name's Kari Hodgson.
I'm your director for Solid Waste.
Concurrent with the Land Development Code level-of-service requirements for Solid Waste, and
that is two years of constructed line capacity and 10 years of permittable landfill capacity, the county has
a capacity of 35 years or to the year 2059. So it is our staff's recommendation to accept the Solid Waste
portion of the AUIR concurrent with the Growth Management Plan level of services.
I'm available for any questions that you might have or any detailed information.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I'm going to check in 2059, because I want to make sure. No.
MS. HODGSON: I'll still be here, sir.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I have questions.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Go ahead.
MS. HODGSON: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Paul.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: I have two questions, I guess. First, what -- with all the hurricanes
we've had, we see all the pictures of everything piled out front. First question is, does Naples solid
waste come to your landfill?
MS. HODGSON: So all of the garbage in Naples comes to the Collier County Landfill.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Yep.
MS. HODGSON: Anything that is picked up at the curb by our claw trucks, our debris hauler,
October 17, 2024
Page 38 of 48
that goes out of county to Okeechobee Landfill through agreements. However, when you see outages,
like power outages, all that fridge trash that's straight garbage, that does come to our Collier County
Landfill.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So it has an impact on your life, but not a big impact on the landfill
life?
MS. HODGSON: That is correct. For example, in Hurricane Ian, we exhausted approximately
three years -- I'm sorry -- three months of capacity with the waste that was brought in by private
contractors as well as the kitchen trash, if you will, from Hurricane Ian.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Second question. We see a lot of development going on in the
RLSA in that area out there. When those -- all those homes come online, will they go -- I know your
projections are based on population and everything, but will that -- will that go to the county landfill
when they're developed, the --
MS. HODGSON: You're referring to the villages and such?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: The villages, and Ave Maria's already out there, and placed like
that.
MS. HODGSON: Sure. So Ave Maria and Immokalee area is part of our Integrated Solid
Waste Management plan -- and let me go to a slide that kind of gives you some numbers. Oh, do I have
some numbers here? No, I don't have our numbers with us.
So approximately -- oh, yes, here we go. So we landfill approximately 300,000 tons per year.
Everything in Ave Maria and Immokalee is part of an Integrated Solid Waste Management system, is
transferred through a contract to Okeechobee Landfill. That's about 30,000 tons of waste per year.
When it comes to the villages, they are, per our collection districts, scheduled to come to the
Collier County Landfill. For comparison, to put some numbers to that, our Immokalee and Ave Maria
areas have about 9,000 units in it that we collect. That equates to 30,000 tons of garbage.
The villages are -- and Mike Bosi can correct me if I'm wrong -- scheduled to have about 8,000
units, so that's about 30,000 tons of waste in final buildout. It doesn't quite move the needle when it
comes down to the landfill life, make a huge impact, if you will, especially for the cost to transfer it out
versus the cost to landfill.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Kari, can you highlight the -- does that answer your question?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Yes, it does.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Can you highlight recycling? And are you -- the sites that are now
available --
MS. HODGSON: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- are they being utilized, or do they need expansion in any way,
other sites? I know -- how many -- how many do we have now?
MS. HODGSON: We have five major recycling centers in Collier County. I'm very proud to
report that Collier County sets the leading example with its Integrated Solid Waste Management
program. We recycle over 36,000 tons of residential waste. We ranked top five in the state for the
past four years. We've met the State mandated goal for three years. Out of 67 counties in Florida, only
three to five counties a year make that goal, and we're one of them and have been for the past, again,
three years, and top five in the past four years.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: What is that goal?
MS. HODGSON: Seventy-five percent recycling. We have, again, our five major drop-off
facilities, and we're looking to build one in Immokalee. Our -- similar to the Water/Sewer District, our
only sources of revenue are tip fees and the residential assessment. So our capital infrastructure and
replacement costs are built into those two sources of revenue to ensure that we can maintain our
October 17, 2024
Page 39 of 48
resources and assets for our customers.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And all rate fee increases, both for Water/Sewer and for Solid Waste,
that's the Board of County Commissioners as far as approval of any rate increase.
MS. HODGSON: Yes, sir. And we perform a rate study to ensure that the level of service can
be maintained and that there is --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yes.
MS. HODGSON: -- enough funds to cover these services.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: But you're an enterprise like the water/wastewater where you have
to find your own funding for you -- in your billing rates, right?
MS. HODGSON: Yes. So the tip fee at the landfill is one source of revenue, and then the
residential assessment, which is an annual non-ad valorem assessment that's collected on the tax bill, is
our other source of revenue.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And any deficiency has to be made up within the fund, so...
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Regarding the recycling program, I thought I had heard
years ago that -- we're all familiar with our green bin and our yellow top bin -- that if there's X
percentage of raw garbage in the yellow bin that's on the recycle truck, that whole truck is not classified
as "recycle" and has to go to garbage. Is that still the procedure?
MS. HODGSON: I'd be happy to debunk myths. That's -- half of my job is debunking myths.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Okay.
MS. HODGSON: The stinky garbage myths, that comes with it. It is a very commodity-driven
market, the recycling industry. And, again, Collier County sets the leading example when it comes to
recycling.
That is not the case. Collier County's contamination rate in recycling is 20 percent. The
national average is 40 percent. So we have a prescreening that goes on with our recycling prior to it
going to an actual facility to be even further sorted. That way it doesn't allow a full truck to be wasted.
What achieves us that success is educating our customers, our businesses and our residents, so that we
minimize those circumstances.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: I applaud you for that, then. I'm a --
MS. HODGSON: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: -- big believer in recycling. So that's a great myth to
debunk.
MS. HODGSON: Thank you for your participation in our programs.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: It's good to be known as the stinky garbage lady.
MS. HODGSON: It's a glorious and glamorous job. My parents are very proud.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: It's a great program in the county.
MS. HODGSON: Sure. Any further questions?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Thank you, Kari. Thank you.
MS. HODGSON: Thank you.
MR. BOSI: Chair, next up would be Parks and Rec.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Parks and Rec. I didn't get to ask Joe any funding questions.
MR. BELLONE: You're funded, Joe.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: We're taken care of. I know. It's in my tax bill.
MS. COOK: Good morning. Jaime Cook, interim director for Parks and Rec for the record.
Level of service for Parks and Recreation is based on an acreage calculation for the peak season
population. Both community parks and regional parks are looked at. The established level of service
October 17, 2024
Page 40 of 48
for community parks is 1.2 acres per thousand people, and for regional parks is 2.7 acres per thousand
people.
In looking at the five-year analysis, Parks is expected to have a deficit in Fiscal Year '26 for
community parks. To combat that, Parks is looking at obtaining some acreage with the Williams
property, the 2,200-acre property out in Immokalee near Lake Trafford, which would be established as a
regional park, and then bring Parks back up above that minimum level -- minimum acreage needed for
community parks.
Additionally, reviews of level-of-service guidelines are established for specific facilities
including water access, such as beaches and marinas, for athletic fields, for hard courts, for trails and
pathways, and the level of service exceeds the established guidelines for all of those types of facilities
through the five-year plan.
And with that, I will take any questions that you have.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So when you decide you need to add parks, like you're saying, do
you localize it, or do you do the population for the county versus whatever the unit is? Because you
could end up finding a place that you can quickly put a park that nobody's going to go to because there's
no people around it.
MS. COOK: No.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: So I'm wondering how you -- how you site a park.
MS. COOK: No. We do look at where the levels of need are. And right now, the level of
need is out in Immokalee, so that's why Williams was targeted.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: It's being matched up, good.
MS. COOK: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: No other questions.
So you've been in Parks and Rec for, what, two weeks?
MS. COOK: About two weeks and two hurricanes. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thank you for your work, Jaime.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I know it's a thankless job, so thank you for --
MS. COOK: I need to thank the Parks team. They have worked exceptionally hard the last few
weeks.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Just a question. And I know I probably asked this before, but many
of the communities, of course, have internal facilities.
MS. COOK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: But when you look at the community as a whole and you're looking
at needs requirements, do you also look at the inventory of existing ball courts or basketball courts,
pickleball courts, those kind of things that are internal and part of a planned community?
MS. COOK: So Parks does look at what's planned, but it's not included in the inventory.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: It is not?
MS. COOK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: But is it considered as required, like, for future park expansion?
MS. COOK: No, but it's looked at for, like, the planning of the park.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All right. I mean, my only point is I'm still disappointed that all the
money we spent on Splish Splash, or whatever it's called today, and it's still closed, I guess. So...
MS. COOK: That -- if I can stop the hurricanes from coming, that will be the next focus.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The inventory does include the facility -- the new facility out at, I
guess --
October 17, 2024
Page 41 of 48
MS. COOK: Big Corkscrew? Paradise?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: No, near the landfill. What am I thinking of?
MS. COOK: Paradise.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Paradise.
MS. COOK: It does, yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MS. COOK: Any other questions?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Nope.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
MR. BOSI: And, Chair, just to finish up the Category A concurrency facilities, on the visualizer
I put the CIP for the school district, and I believe the school district has already adopted their current
CIP, but we do include it. They're part of our Concurrency Management System. And this is their
five-year program. And if you have any questions, I think you can turn to Ms. Lockhart, and she can
probably give you -- answer any specific questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I know, Amy, the school board is diligent in preparing for --
MS. LOCKHART: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- student load requirement. Go ahead.
MS. LOCKHART: Yes. Right. We have a five-year plan, just as you-all do. We
incorporate it into the Collier County AUIR every year so that we can, you know, make sure that we're
tracking development and being responsive to our growth.
This year, our five-year plan -- well, let me back up. We also have a level of service. Our high
schools are at 100 percent, and our elementary and middle schools are at 95 percent of their capacity,
their individual school capacity.
We meet, in our five-year plan, that -- those goals with the exception of Palmetto Ridge. The
Palmetto Ridge High School will be exceeding that by 1 percent, 101. But we plan on, in our 10-year
time frame, to put in a new high school. We just have to determine where to site it. We have a number
of properties that we own, future school sites so that we will be able to locate, in particular, that high
school where it is most needed as we anticipate continued growth out in the rural areas and Estates.
With the exception of two sites that we own, all of our other sites are east of 951 in anticipation
of -- and readiness for that growth.
In our five-year plan, we have two elementary schools. One is in -- generally between -- it's on
Immokalee Road in between, let's just say, 951 and where -- where Corkscrew -- Orangetree is. It's
called Moulder Drive, and it will open next year with 919 student stations and also a space for pre-K in
addition to the 919.
Then our next year, '26/'27 school year, we'll be opening up -- we haven't named it yet, but it will
be in Ave Maria, and it will also be of that similar size.
We've already named the one that will be opening next year. I wanted to make sure I said that.
It had been L. That's how we designate our elementary schools is by a letter, and our future schools,
and it is Bear Creek Elementary, so that will open next year.
So if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer any.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: No.
MS. LOCKHART: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Mike.
MR. BOSI: Chair, next up would be our library staff.
MS. COWSWER: Thank you. Catherine Cowser, director -- subdivision director of public
libraries here in Collier County.
October 17, 2024
Page 42 of 48
Catherine Cowser, for the record.
Let's see. So our --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Can you turn the microphone?
MS. COWSWER: Is it -- can you hear?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: There you go.
MS. COWSWER: Is that better? Okay.
Just a short presentation. We're a Category B for the library division, and basically, our level of
service is set by .33. And Mike had discussed that when he first came up to the podium. Where did
you get that number? Tanya and I had looked back to 1988, and it's been the same number since then.
But what we do is we can do a comparison to other libraries. The fact that we're in -- we submit
state aid every year to libraries, we can see a comparison. So we do compare, like Mike said, you
know, very rarely to Sarasota or similar type counties, and we're right in that margin with the square
footage that it still looks okay. We can compare ourselves to how much staffing we have, compare
ourselves to the expenditures, operating budgets, that type of thing. So the state does allow us to
compare ourselves to other libraries.
You'll see we do not have a five-year deficit -- or the five-year -- we have a five-year deficit
starting in 2028, 137 square feet.
Let's see. This is our building inventory now. And it shows the different locations, and this
map shows same thing, the deficit not until 2028. But this shows a list of our library locations. And
you can see that most of our libraries are situated on the western part of the county. And as the
population grows towards the east, we do see our door counts coming back up, especially at the libraries
that are on the eastern corridor, our south regional library on 951 and Collier Boulevard where the
population's expanding, our Golden Gate and our Estates locations.
We also have a library out in Immokalee that's increasing, and they're getting a lot of -- more
foot traffic in programming in there from the people out on the eastern corridor out in Ave Maria.
Our foot traffic has increased. It's gone up another 10 percent from 2022 to 2023, so people are
coming back in the library. And you have to remember, I know we have e-books and -- but people
come in. We're one of the last public buildings where people can come in for early literacy.
Our story times and our early literacy programming is exploding, actually. We've had increased
story times at most of our library locations, and that's what we're trying to do next is really focus on
youth again for the people who are coming back in the library, the full-time residents here, especially at
the northeast corridor of the county.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: So you're at 10 percent increase in usage. Because, like you said,
most people thought --
MS. COWSWER: Ten percent increase in foot traffic.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Foot traffic.
MS. COWSWER: Our programming is a 40 percent increase. I've had over almost 2,000 early
literacy programs with over 128,000 -- and those include some adult programming but mostly children's
programming.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I go back over the years when we probably were going to do away
with the libraries; people aren't using them. Well, I've got to tell you, my wife uses it all the time, and
I'll say to her --
MS. COWSWER: Good.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- why don't you -- "I'm really interested in reading this book." I
can't believe how fast you can get best sellers in. You're getting them in with a couple weeks.
MS. COWSWER: We do. So -- yeah, we partner with a vendor, and we have them sitting
October 17, 2024
Page 43 of 48
there waiting, so the first day -- because on a release day, you have to just put them out on that day, but
we process them a week or two before. They sit there.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MS. COWSWER: And as soon as the publishing company let's us go, yeah, we have them on
the shelves.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Oh, yeah, she's your dedicated patron.
MS. COWSWER: Any questions?
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: No. Thanks.
Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Good. Thank you.
MS. COWSWER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Keep up the good work.
MS. COWSWER: Thank you.
MR. BOSI: And, Chair, to close out the Category B facilities and all of the rest of the facilities,
this is the last one. Last, but not least, is government buildings.
MR. McCORMICK: Good morning. John McCormick, director of Facilities.
I don't have a presentation per se. I do have one slide I'd like to show you on the visualizer.
Basically, we are ahead of the curve based on our metric of 1.7 square foot per capita. As you can see,
we have basically four projects in play right now: The chiller plant here on main campus, as well as the
Marco Island and the --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And, John, you provide buildings for all the other constitutionals as
well, correct?
MR. McCORMICK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Tax Collector, Sheriff?
MR. McCORMICK: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay.
MR. McCORMICK: Yes, absolutely. And Marco Island, Tax Collector and behavioral health,
so we've got them keyed up right now. They're all in different stages right now. The chiller plant
behind us will probably be done here in May.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Is that what's being built over there, the big tower?
MR. McCORMICK: Yeah. That's a thermal energy storage tank. We're going to store chilled
water.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Wow.
MR. McCORMICK: It's a -- we make it in off peak hours to save money on electric, and we
store it. It's a big -- $26 million surtax project.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And that's the -- for the -- for this complex?
MR. McCORMICK: This complex, all 13 buildings, yeah, 500 -- 5,000 tons.
So anyway. So as you can see, our available square footage is outpacing right now what we
anticipate being our required, so we feel we're in good shape as far as new buildings.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Does this include leased facilities as well?
MR. McCORMICK: Yes. Well, no. Leased facilities are in excess of that. This million
dollars -- or million square foot is just what we own.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I'm going to ask more questions because -- are you trying to
consolidate to move out of some of the leased facilities?
MR. McCORMICK: Well, there's, like, 37,000 square foot of leased right now, so we're always
October 17, 2024
Page 44 of 48
looking for opportunities to bring them into the fold.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: To reduce the --
MR. McCORMICK: Yeah, reduce the leased space.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Leased space.
MR. McCORMICK: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And bring them back -- bring them into government-controlled
facilities?
MR. McCORMICK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Is that a significant cost reduction, or is it -- is it more beneficial for
lease, that's -- I'm just wondering if you do a comparison as well.
MR. McCORMICK: It's -- it probably depends on the building --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MR. McCORMICK: -- and the use. Generally, I like to see -- and I think we're more efficient
if we own the building because I get a long-term component to it. Of course, with that comes the
maintenance cost of it.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yes.
MR. McCORMICK: And that's -- that's one consideration to have.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I'm going to ask all these questions now because -- what about
deferred maintenance? That's not part of the CIE, but you have -- what's your -- what's your
load -- you've got annual maintenance. Any deferred maintenance -- significant deferred maintenance
that isn't funded, I would guess you have.
MR. McCORMICK: Significantly, yes.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah.
MR. McCORMICK: We -- you know, we've passed the threshold of over half our buildings are
25 years or older. And, you know, typically, the degradation of a building on the first 25 years is fairly
linear. The minute you go past 25 years, it's exponential, and that's kind of where I'm at right now.
So I'm concerned about that. I've got buildings that needs replaced. Actually, the building
we're in right now needs replaced, and a significant amount of money. And we are trying to tee up this
year a master plan to really take a good look at that. There was a master plan done in 2017, and we're
going to try and dust off and use some of that. It was never acted on. You know, we have some good
ideas in there.
But we need to refresh that and probably dig down a little deeper and -- to really give us a good
path forward. So we hope to have that started this year. That's going to be fairly -- fairly intense.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Well, good. Anybody else have any questions? I don't see
anybody --
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Chair, I do.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: You had to have some questions.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: I do, Chair.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: He answered them.
MR. McCORMICK: I'm a surtax member here.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Go ahead, Chuck.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: You said this building here may be cheaper to tear down
and rebuild than retrofit and --
MR. McCORMICK: We looked at that. You know, we did an analysis -- structural analysis a
year and a half ago, and we did an MEP analysis of the building. And, yeah, it's considerable. We've
got structural issues that need to be done. And part of the problem is, doing it, you have to move
October 17, 2024
Page 45 of 48
people out, you know, and where do you put them while you're doing all this work.
So ideally, in my perfect world, I'd like to build on another site, replace this building, and then
tear this down and re-purpose this land here. A lot of the outlying buildings, quite frankly, are money
pits for me --
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Okay.
MR. McCORMICK: -- the smaller little buildings. And it would be nice to consolidate some
of that.
One of the considerations we've worked with now is, you know, the floodplain. You know, do
we really -- should we really build here, you know, and that's a -- we were hoping a consultant could
help us with that, you know.
And anecdotally, you know, we know what our opinions are. But there's other things to
consider, obviously. So that's why we need this master plan to really help guide us.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And, Chuck, part of the problem as well is -- and John probably
knows -- this building, many of the stairways, the elevators, none of that meets some of the current ADA
requirements.
MR. McCORMICK: ADA, code.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Code.
MR. McCORMICK: We've got fire code issues. I've got stairwells that aren't pressurized.
There's all kinds of things. And this building was built in three tiers. And, you know, as a matter of
fact, we have a contract now, $300,000 just to re-caulk the windows because they leak. If this building
moves enough, and shards of glass fall, things like that. So I've got to do something about this, so...
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: You'd probably have to commission some kind of a cost-benefit
analysis and --
MR. McCORMICK: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: -- an engineering evaluation study.
MR. McCORMICK: Yeah. We thought a master plan could really go a long way, because I
need to kick this up to the County Manager's Office for consideration, because it's a huge project,
obviously.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Engineering econ days. Do you remember those? Did you ever do
that? I loved doing that. I used to love doing those.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Chair, where will our meeting be held on November 7th?
Still in this building? Just --
MR. McCORMICK: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: If we can get here. Are you nervous?
MR. McCORMICK: The building is safe, but we do -- as the occupants know, we have -- we
have HVAC leaks every other week, old piping, things, you know, just need to be gutted and replaced.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: It sounds like you manage a high-rise just like I do.
MR. McCORMICK: Pretty much.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: That's pretty much what it is.
MR. McCORMICK: Pretty much; an old one.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Most of them are.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. John, thank you.
Anything else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Mike?
MR. BOSI: That is it for the official presentation. I did have a note passed to me from Gino
October 17, 2024
Page 46 of 48
Santabarbara, our Impact -- Capital Improvement Impact Fee manager, that CIP [sic], cost of living
increases, cannot be included within your impact fee studies. So if you feel -- the periods of time of
high inflation you need to commission a new impact fee study to capture any inflationary increases that
had -- that occurred after that impact fee has been adopted and, you know, the time being where the
discussion is. So we cannot include a CPI inflator within our impact fee studies.
Prior to the long pause that we had -- and some of that long pause was related to the statutes
really being changed and the legislature saying what can and can't be included within impact fees -- we
used to have I believe it was a three-year schedule --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah, it was three years.
MR. BOSI: -- we were updating our impact fees. And I think our aim is probably to get closer
to that three-year schedule so we won't have such long lapses where we can have such disparaging cost
over that period of time.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: But in the past, my recollection, we typically identify the need in
impact fees and usually fund it less than what the study shows.
MR. BOSI: And that's always the Board of County Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The Board of County Commissioners make a --
MR. BOSI: The impact fee will have a recommendation -- or will have a range that here's
your -- 100 percent of your impact fee, and the Board could choose that or choose anywhere within that.
For the last impact fee that we just adopted for Utilities, they chose not to -- a phase-in program, and I
think it was a phase in over three years towards where it was 33 percent, 33 percent, and 33 percent to
get you the full impact fee but to soften that blow so it doesn't hit all in one year.
So the Board does have options in terms of what's being adopted. But like I said, anytime that
you have those inflationary pressures, you will need to have a new impact fee if you want to try to
capture those.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Thank you for the clarity. I didn't understand. That's
why I was asking.
MR. BOSI: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Yeah. There's a pretty extensive study on impact fees, and then
there's a dual rational nexus and all those other types of things that are part of the impact fee analysis.
Mike, are you going to fire up the recommendations on there, or do you want me to go through
them?
MR. BOSI: That's where I was going.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Because I could read them for the record, because we're just going to
have to -- I didn't take any -- any significant notes of any recommendations -- to go for the Board other
than what's in the staff report here. So would you put those on there, and then we can review each one
of them.
MR. BOSI: Well, I had summarized them to the two main recommendations, and it's on the
screen here. It's basically to accept the recommended approval of the attached document to the 2024
Annual Update and Inventory Report of Public Facilities, and accept -- accept and recommend approval
for the Category A, B, and C facilities relative to project and revenue sources and, within Category A
facilities, set forth inclusion in the schedule of capital improvements of the annual CIE update and
amendment. Those two will capture everything that needs to be done.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: And also, there was nothing stated as far as recommending to the
Board any change in level of service.
MR. BOSI: I mean, that's always a prerogative if -- I didn't hear any.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: I don't see any, and -- the recommendation to adopt the CIE.
October 17, 2024
Page 47 of 48
So do I hear any motion from the Board?
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Motion.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Motion as stated and --
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: As stated.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Stated on the slide.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Second.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: All in favor?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER PETSCHER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Opposed, by like sign?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: None.
Excellent. And somehow I got something else that appeared on my screen. Is there any old
business?
MR. BOSI: None.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: New business?
Do we have any public speakers? I don't think we had any, did we?
MS. PADRON: (Shakes head.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Anybody? All right.
Yes, Mike.
MR. BOSI: Joe, I've been the CIE/AUIR project coordinator since -- since 2006 as assistant, '7
as the primary. I've never had a person -- a public appear in front of the Planning Commission or the
Board of County Commissioners --
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Board of County Commissioners.
MR. BOSI: -- for the AUIR or CIE, but it is one of the more important documents that we do
because it maintains the systems that we need.
So it does show you -- it does show you that you get more participation if you propose an ALF or
maybe a storage facility next to a neighborhood than you would if you're proposing a new road.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: There's a lot of detail in those documents, so you've really got to
search if you -- and have an axe to grind, so to speak --
MR. BOSI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SHEA: -- and you have to search in there to find it.
COMMISSIONER SPARRAZZA: Mike, I'd like to just state again, as I did earlier, I don't
know how many people are involved in putting this packet together, but it was done wonderfully,
brilliantly, detailed. Thank you and everyone that's involved in this. It was a great, great job. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: The good part of this is -- it's -- it really forces the staff to do the
proper planning, and we saw that -- we heard that in Transportation and another one in Public Utilities.
So it does -- and it does capture the requirements.
So with that, any other comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Okay. Do I hear a motion to adjourn?
COMMISSIONER SHEA: Move to adjourn.
October 17, 2024
Page 48 of 48
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: Second?
COMMISSIONER SCHUMACHER: Second.
CHAIRMAN SCHMITT: We are adjourned.
*******
There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the
Chair at 11:56 a.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
JOE SCHMITT, CHAIRMAN
These minutes approved by the Board on ____________, as presented _______ or as corrected _______.
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L.
LEWIS, RPR, FPR-C, COURT REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC.