DSAC Minutes 05/07/2025 (Draft)
1
MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Naples, Florida
May 7, 2025
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Development Services Advisory Committee
Meeting and Collier County, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 3:00 PM in
REGULAR SESSION at the Collier County Growth Management Community Department
Building, Conference Room #609/610, 2800 N. Horseshoe Dr., Naples, Florida, 34102 with the
following members present:
Chairman: William J. Varian
Vice Chairman: Blair Foley
Clay Booker
James Boughton (excused)
Jeffrey Curl
Laura Spurgeon DeJohn
John English
Marco Espinar
Norm Gentry (excused)
Nicholas Kouloheras
Mark McLean (excused)
Chris Mitchell
Robert Mulhere
Hannah Roberts–AHAC–Non-Voting (absent)
Jeremy Sterk
Mario Valle
The following County staff were in attendance
Mike Bosi – Director, Zoning Division
Christopher Mason – Director, Community Planning & Resiliency Division, GMCD
Jaime Cook – Director, Development Review Division, GMCD and Linda Blackledge
Michael Stark – Director, Operations & Regulatory Management Division, GMCD
John McCormick – Director, Building Review & Permitting Division, GMCD
Thomas Iandimarino – Director, Code Enforcement, GMCD
Heather Yilmaz – Management Analyst, Staff Liaison – GMCD
Claudia Vargas – Project Manager I, Engineering & Project Management, PUD
Cormac Giblin – Housing Policy & Economic Development Division
Yay Ahmad – Transportation Engineering Division
James French – Department Head, GMCD
Heather Cartwright-Yilmaz – Management Analyst I/Staff Liaison, GMCD
Any person who decides to appeal a decision of This Board you will need a record of the
proceedings pertaining thereto, and therefore may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the
2
proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal
is to be based, neither Collier County nor This Board shall be responsible for providing this
record.
1. CALL TO ORDER– Chairman
Chairman Varian
Development Service Advisory Committee, Wednesday, 7th May 2025
2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Jeff Curl motioned to approve
Marco Espinar seconded
Agenda approved unanimously
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Motion was made to approve Meeting Minutes with amendments by Jeff Curl
Page 5 ripping instead of whipping
Regarding the number of permits; 200,000 instead of $200,00.
Robert Mulhere seconded
Minutes approved unanimously
4. PUBLIC SPEAKERS
None
5. STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS
a. Zoning Division – [Mike Bosi, Director]
• We still have 2 vacant Planner III positions, mid-level professional level that's really
tough to score in this market with a median salary about 88,000.
• On the Land Use Entitlement side, we've had a steady stream of pre-app requests and a
lot of petitions
• 5 petitions that are hitting the Board of County Commissioners in both meetings in May
• 5 individual items between the 13th and the 27th
• We have over 12 individual petitions
• Planning Commission has 1 GMP amendment, 3 LDC amendments for May 15th
• On the 5th we have nothing
• June 19th is canceled because the Board has a meeting
• We may have the Costco PDI for Hacienda on July 3rd, and 3 items on the 17th
b. Community Planning & Resiliency Division – [Christopher Mason, Director]
Mario Valle
• The Chamber put on a flood summit earlier this morning and saw that the City of Naples
has provided some guidance for single family and multi-family flood proofing
attachments. Wondering if we had a similar document or if there was a completely
different approach.
3
Christopher Mason
• Myself, the Community Planning and Resiliency Division and the Building Department
have been talking extensively about this and we do have some guidance at this point, but
it's not ready for public release.
• I really caution against dry proofing of residential structures
• It is not offered as an option in the Code of Federal Regulations. It says it's only available
for non-residential structures
• What I see all the time with letters of map change for people, they find out they have an
enclosure below flood and now they're on FEMA's radar and they cite the CFR right there
• Dry flood proofing does not meet the minimum standards of the NFIP. and the
community rating system is associated with that
• Not meeting minimum requirements of the NFIP could put the County in jeopardy for
receiving flood insurance
• Structures that were not built to any certain code pre-1979 would probably be available
for dry flood review because they weren't built to any particular standard and they existed
before the flood insurance rate mapping.
c. Housing Policy & Economic Development – [Cormac Giblin, Director]
• In the last month the Board approved 80 additional affordable housing units
• Casa San Juan Diego ????? bonus in Immokalee
• Fiscal year to date total is 620 new affordable housing units approved
• The last meeting of the Economic Development Board voted to get out of the Immokalee
Culinary Accelerator business
• We signed a lease with a new tenant to take over that facility and sell them the equipment
that will close on May 15th
d. Development Review Division – [Jaime Cook and Lisa Blackledge]
No report
e. Operations Support & Regulatory Management – [Michael Stark, Div. Director]
• We had our quarterly testing of the version upgrade to City View
• This will streamline some of the review process and improve functionality of the system
• Our fee study kicked off today which will evaluate the actual cost based on hours of
operation, taking a look at the impact overall
• We meet with the County Manager's office tomorrow to review the preliminary
department budget request
• Domestic Animal Services, Parks and Rec, and Paradise Coast Sports Complex were
added
• County Parks is comprised of 28 regional parks, 18 community parks, and 18
neighborhood, with an anticipated 2.6 million visitors this year
• So our employee count rose from 341 employees now to 623.5
• So we've got career Q and A info session coming up Wednesday, May 28, from 6 to 7.
• This is for positions including, but not limited to Chief Building Inspector, Building
Inspectors, and Plan Reviewers
4
• Department received 5,068 permit applications, welcomed 1,077 customers at the
business center and 205 at the satellite offices
• We had 6,852 phone calls, so we definitely see an increase in the number of phone calls
• 68 of the permits were related to Hurricane Ian and 25 are from Hurricane Milton
• Average turnaround time for the intake staff is still one day.
Chairman Varian
Why does a temporary power pole on a residential property need to go through
engineering during the review process? Why are we still doing this piece of paper?
Michael Stark
• At CBIA we discussed taking a look at process improvements
• We're taking notes from the industry and will definitely take that back to the team and
bring the answer
f. Building Review & Permitting Division – [John McCormick, Director]
• The number of permits has been fluctuating and an increase is anticipated over summer
• Renovations and alterations, about three weeks, on the structural plan review, which is
usually our pinch point
• We're still 5 positions down in Structural and have 5 Structural and 2 Provisional
• I'm still lacking a Plumbing Chief and getting that job done with the HVAC Chief
• Doug Esposito, our Deputy Building Official has been working nonstop on the dry flood
proofing
• My job is to protect the Building Official because the Code doesn't prohibit it
• I'm going to rely on Chris and their expertise and Resiliency
• Doug found some videos that give a good picture that our residents should look at before
they decide
• I’m glad we are doing the fee study and although I love the customer service angle of our
open door policy and kiosk layout, but it is inefficiency because it takes time that is not
billable.
• We have 10 open positions
Jeff Curl
Will the fee study look at salary increases and as compensation, maybe they could let
employees use County vehicles.
John McCormick
I will look at the vehicle equity possibility.
Jaime French
• There is a payroll study that is done by a Central. I'm subservient to them as my service
provider.
• They determine how much an employee makes.
• Our pay may be less than the industry and it may be less than another community. We
share that with that Division and hopefully they pick up on it.
5
• But the fee study only takes into account what our current costs are to run the business
and to deliver those services because the business is still 100% enterprise funded
g. Collier County Fire Review – [Michael Cruz, Captain]
No Report
h. North Collier Fire Review – [Chief Sean Lintz]
No Report
i. Code Enforcement Division – [Thomas Iandimarino, Director]
• Last month the Contractor Licensing Staff issued 30 citations for unlicensed and out of
scope
• 18 paid and 12 got leaned
Chairman Varian
I have an elevator modification going on and I received a violation notice that there was
not a building permit. I’ve had a permit open for 6 months.
Thomas Iandimarino
If there's a permit in place and we get a complaint, we usually don't even open up the
case. I will look into it and we’ll talk afterwards so I can get more information.
j. Public Utilities – [Claudia Vargas]
No Report
k. Transportation Management Services, Transportation Engineering – [Jay Ahmad]
• We negotiated with Goodlett, Frank Road Consultants, PCC to design Goodlett from
Vanderbilt to Immokalee two lanes in each direction and taking that to the Board on June
24th
• Everglades Boulevard from Oil Well Road to Golden Gate Boulevard going from 2 to 4
lanes. Consultants have been selected, and negotiating a contract to take to the Board
• Wilson Boulevard from Golden Gate to Immokalee widening to 4 lanes with bridges
• The intersections will be improved at Golden Gate and Immokalee
• We're about 90% design stage with Airport Rd. Vanderbilt to Immokalee going to 3 lanes
each direction
• Oil Well to Everglades to 2 lanes each direction in a 3 lane footprint
• Current construction, Vanderbilt Beach Road extension we're about 72% design and
construction stage. Build over $105 million out of $153 million contract
• If you've driven Vanderbilt Beach Road from Collier, the 3 eastbound lanes are almost
done
• Vanderbilt Beach Road from 16th all the way to Currie Canal and 15th Street, 3 lanes
each direction is finished
• Vanderbilt Beach Road from Pelican Marsh to US 41, 3 lanes each direction
• 16th Street Bridge similar to the one on 8th and adding shoulders and a sidewalk on the
west side
6
• We'll have a connection between Golden Gate Boulevard and Randall and eventually
Immokalee
• We've opened Randall Bridge one lane and got rid of that signal. By the way another car
was being chased by sheriff hit that bridge again
6. NEW BUSINESS
Gino Santa Barbara, Impact Fee Manager, Collier County
• I’m requesting this Committee establish a Subcommittee to review each of these draft
studies
• Eight impact fee studies that include the emergency medical services, EMS, government
buildings, libraries, community and regional parks, law enforcement, correctional
facilities, roads and schools with a recommendation for submission to the Board of
County Commissioners
• These studies haven't been updated for many years and we aim to have these updated
more on a consistent basis
• We want to make sure that we're remaining in line with the current costs
Laura Spurgeon DeJohn
I nominate Nick
Blair Foley motioned to adopt a sub-committee including Nick, Mario, Clay and
Chairman Varian
Robert Mulhere seconded
Motion passed unanimously
7. OLD BUSINESS
None
8. COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS
None
.
9. ADJOURN
There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned
at 3:58 p.m.
7
COLLIER COUNTY
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
_________________________________________
William Varian, Chairman
These minutes were approved by the Committee/Chairman on ___________________,
(check one) as submitted _______ or as amended _______.