CCPC Minutes 01/17/2008 R
January 17,2008
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida January 17,2008
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 8:30 a.m. in REGULAR SESSION
in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida,
with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN: Mark Strain
Lindy Adelstein
Donna Reed-Caron
Tor Kolflat
Paul Midney
Bob Murray
Brad Schiffer
Robert Vigliotti
ALSO PRESENT:
Jeffrey Klatzkow, Chief Asst. County Attorney
Marjorie Student-Stirling, Assistant County Attorney
Joseph Schmitt, CDES Administrator
Ray Bellows, Zoning & Land Development Review
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Ph,
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AGENDA
Revised III
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION WILL MEET AT 8:30 A,M., THURSDAY, JANUARY 17,2008, IN THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING ROOM, ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, COUNTY
GOVERNMENT CENTER, 3301 TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST, NAPLES, FLORIDA:
NOTE: INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO 5 MINUTES ON ANY
ITEM, INDIVIDUALS SELECTED TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF AN
ORGANIZATION OR GROUP ARE ENCOURAGED AND MAY BE ALLOTTED 10
MINUTES TO SPEAK ON AN ITEM IF SO RECOGNIZED BY THE CHAIRMAN,
PERSONS WISHING TO HAVE WRITTEN OR GRAPHIC MATERIALS INCLUDED
IN THE CCPC AGENDA PACKETS MUST SUBMIT SAID MATERIAL A MINIMUM
OF 10 DAYS PRIOR TO THE RESPECTIVE PUBLIC HEARING, IN ANY CASE,
WRITTEN MATERIALS INTENDED TO BE CONSIDERED BY THE CCPC SHALL
BE SUBMITTED TO THE APPROPRIATE COUNTY STAFF A MINIMUM OF
SEVEN DAYS PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING, ALL MATERIAL USED IN
PRESENTATIONS BEFORE THE CCPC WILL BECOME A PERMANENT PART OF
THE RECORD AND WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR PRESENTATION TO THE BOARD
OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS IF APPLICABLE,
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THE CCPC WILL
NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND
THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE
PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND
EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED,
I, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. ROLL CALL BY SECRETARY
3. ADDENDA TO THE AGENDA
4. PLANNING COMMISSION ABSENCES
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - NOVEMBER 28, 2007, LDC MEETING; DECEMBER 6, 2007 REGULAR MEETING
6. BCC REPORT- RECAPS - DECEMBER 4, 2007, SCHOOL CONCURRENCY AMENDMENT TRANSMITTAL
HEARING
7. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
8. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS (NOTE: Item 9-A , CONSENT AGENDA ITEM to be heard prior to 8-A)
A, Petition: PUDA-2006-AR-lOI76, Craig T. Bouchard, manager of Tennis Realty LLC, represented by
Michael Fernandez of Planning Development Inc., is requesting an amendment to the Naples Bath and
Tennis Club PUD to revise the site development plan approval process for the transient lodging facilities
accessory use and adding development standards for transient lodging facilities, by amending the
development plan cover page; by amending Section II, Project Development, Subsection 2.3.B.; by amending
Section IV, Tract B: Recreational Club Development, Subsection 4.3.B,3); by amending Section IX.
Development Standards, adding Section 9.12, Transportation Improvements and any other stipulations or
regulations that may result from the amendment process pertaining to transient lodging facility units within
the 20x acre Tract B of the 153.7 acre project. The subject property is located on the west side of Airport-
Pulling Road, between Pine Ridge Road and Golden Gate Parkway in Section 14, Township 49S, Range
25E, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Kay Deselem)
1
B. Petition: CU-2007-AR-12384, Enterprise Leasing Company dlbla Enterprise Rent-a-Car, applicant and
owner, is requesting a Conditional Use pursuant to LDC Section 2.04.03 for a rental car agency within the C-
4 zoning district. The subject property is located 13560 Tamiami Trail North, Suite 8, Section 15,
Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Willie Brown)
C. Petition: RZ-2007-AR-12044, Barry Goldmeier, represented by Shaun Mularkey, AICP, of Coastal
Engineering Consultants, Inc., is requesting a rezone trom the Estates - (E) Zoning District to the Residential
Multi-Family-16 (RMF -16) Zoning District for a multi-family residential development with a maximum
density of 15 units per acre or 140 dwelling units on a 9.33 acre site to be known as Immokalee, LLC. The
property is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of County Road 846 and School Road in
Section 9, Township 47 South, Range 29 East, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Willie Brown)
D. Petition: PUDZ-2006-AR-10171, Eastbourne Bonita, LLC, represented by Laura Spurgeon, of Johnson
Engineering, Inc., and Patrick G. White, Arty. of Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, LLP., requesting a rezone
trom the Agricultural (A) and Special Treatment (ST) Overlay Zoning District to the Residential Planned
Unit Development (RPUD) Zoning District for project known as Brandon RPUD, for the development of
204 single-family and multi-family residential units. The subject property, consisting of 51.1 acres, is located
on the southeast corner of the intersection of Livingston Road and Veterans Memorial Boulevard,
Section 13, Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Melissa Zone)
CONTINUED TO 2/7/08
E. Petition: LDCA-2007-AR-12695, R. Bruce Anderson of Roetzel and Andress, requests a Land
Development Code Amendment for Section 1.04.04 Reduction of Required Site Design Requirements.
This request for the 2008 Special Cycle Ia. (Coordinator: Catherine Fabacher)
9. CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
A. Petition: PUDZ-2005-AR-9127, Myrtle Woods, L.L.C, represented by Dwight Nadeau, of RWA, Inc.,
requesting a rezone trom C-4, and PUD to CPUD for a project known as the Myrtle Woods CPUD. The
existing PUD sunselted in 2003 and provided for a maximum of 45 residential units and commercial
development on a 5.66+1- acres of land. This rezone request will revitalize the Myrtle Woods PUD on the
5.66+1- acre project and add a 1.38 +1- acre parcel currently zoned C-4 to create a unified commercial
development on the now 7.0+1- acre site. The subject property is located at the southeast corner of the
intersection of Tamiami Trail East and Myrtle Lane in Section 29, Township 50 South, Range 26 East,
Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Melissa Zone) To be heard first
10. OLD BUSINESS
II. NEW BUSINESS
11. PUBLIC COMMENT ITEM
12. DISCUSSION OF ADDENDA
13. ADJOURN
]/17/07 cepe Agenda/RB/sp
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January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning, everyone. I'd have to ask
that you take your seats and we're going to bring the meeting to order.
This is the January 17th meeting of the Collier County Planning
Commission. If you'd all please rise for pledge of allegiance.
(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That was the loudest and most vocal
pledge of allegiance we've ever had. Thank you.
Please remember, too, we all get the opportunity to vote between
now and the 29th, so that might be a very beneficial thing to do.
Roll call by our secretary, please.
Item #2
ROLL CALL BY THE SECRETARY
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Strain?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Adelstein?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, I'm here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Here.
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January 17,2008
Item #3
ADDENDA TO THE AGENDA
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, the next item on the agenda is the
addenda to the agenda. And there is a substantial issue I want to talk
about. But before we get into that, I want to make sure there aren't any
other items that may want to be added to the agenda.
Mr. Kolflat, you had indicated you wanted to mention
something. Did you want something added to new business?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Yes, I do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I'll put your name down under
new business and when we get there, you can fill us in.
Okay, yesterday afternoon around 3:00 everyone on this
commission, as well as the applicant's representatives, got an e-mail
from the County Attorney's Office. An e-mail with a little different
direction than we previously had received in regards to today's
meeting.
Previously we were told in our executive summary that we
received in November, and it repeated itself in the one we received
last week, said the County Attorney Office's opinion is that the
proposed PUD amendment should not be recommended for approval
by the CCpc.
In response to that on Tuesday night I asked the County
Attorney's Office Wednesday morning how to proceed with this
meeting, if we weren't allowed to have a recommendation of approval.
And this is supposed to be a board that doesn't predetermine its
outcome before the meeting. We're supposed to come to these
meetings with what information we can gather, listen to all the
testimony at the meeting, then make a decision on all that testimony
collectively and not come here with a pre-set or pre-determined mind.
In asking the County Attorney that question, the County
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January 17,2008
Attorney's Office went into consultation on the matter and in the
afternoon yesterday they called me and basically told me what their
outcome of that was. And I'll read you the e-mail that went out: Dear
Commissioners, with respect to tomorrow's agenda Item 8-A relating
to the Naples Bath and Tennis Club PUD, it will be my strong
recommendation that the Planning Commission does not hear this
item. I believe that Judge Brousseau's order dated January 29th, 1997,
which was affirmed on appeal and a copy of which is in your packet,
bars the building of a hotel at this location.
It is my further belief that the proposed amendment to the PUD
could be viewed as an attempt to circumvent this order. And I cannot
in good conscience put this commission in peril by hearing this matter.
It will be my recommendation that this matter be continued
indefinitely.
Should the Planning Commission elect not to hear this matter,
the applicant could request a declaratory judgment from the circuit
court that notwithstanding Judge Brousseau's order, the proposed hotel
could be developed by admitting the PUD as requested by the
applicant.
Should the applicant be successful in obtaining such an order,
the matter could then proceed in accordance with the guidance
provided by such order. Signed by Jeffrey A. Klatzkow; Chief
Assistant County Attorney.
Now, based on that memorandum or that e-mail that we
received, this commission has to make a decision on addenda to the
agenda. We have basically two decisions to make: We can accept the
County Attorney's recommendation and continue this indefinitely, or
we can continue it to a date certain if we disagree with the County
Attorney.
Out of fairness to both sides, I'll ask Mr. Klatzkow first ifhe has
anything to add, and then Mr. White has asked for a moment to
address us as a matter of record. And other than the two attorney's
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January 17,2008
statements, and I'm going to ask that the statements not be issues
involving the tax on any individuals, but simply trying to make a
matter for the record. Other than that there will be no other discussion
on the matter, once the Planning Commission makes its decision.
So Mr. Klatzkow, do you have anything you want to add?
MR. KLATZKOW: No, I don't.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. White?
MR. WHITE: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners.
Patrick White with the Naples office of the law firm of Porter, Write,
Morris and Arthur, on behalf of the petitioners.
Briefly and for the record, if the Planning Commission elects to
not hear this matter or to continue the matter indefinitely, based on the
interpretation being offered by the county, my client will be
irreparably harmed and have few choices on how to have this request
ultimately heard.
I'd ask that the e-mail opinion you were provided late yesterday
be provided as a copy into the public record.
Specifically as to the Judge's order, that's the subject we're
talking about. But more correctly, the writ of certiorari we were
granted -- that was granted by the Judge's order, legally speaking, it
did not do anything more than simply quash or nullify the prior
Planning Commission's action from 1996 approving the site plan for
48 hotel units.
Once the action of the Planning Commission was quashed, the
court could only legally act to remand the case for further
proceedings. The writ has no continuing legal effect thereafter, thus it
cannot bar the subsequent application and request from being heard.
That's consistent with a long line of Florida cases.
An opinion that does not appear to be consistent with those is not
one you must follow. Regardless, it's the late appearance of the
opinion offered on the eve of our previously continued hearing that's a
cause for most serious concern.
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January 17,2008
If that direction is followed, it will severely prejudice the
applicant's procedural due process rights and deny the landowner the
most basic and fundamental property rights.
So does the recommendation that our application should now be
continued indefinitely without any closure unless we force our
government to allow us to be heard by further judicial order.
Without question, the landowner's constitutional right to petition
its government under that government's own rules of procedure is also
being ignored and denied all in the name of protecting the county's
interest.
Thus any action approving an indefinite continuance would
appear to put the protection of the government ahead of the rights of
the very citizens it derives its power from, we, the people.
It is also most disturbing that on the eve of our duly noticed and
advertised public hearing where residents and members have flown in
from out of town for the second time in some instances just for this
meeting to support the request, for the some hundred or so that you see
here today to be told that the Planning Commission, and I surmise that
the Board of County Commissioners as well, do not have jurisdiction
or the power to hear our petition is most troubling.
That the county reaches this conclusion about the most basic
aspect of being able to conduct its own business in a proper and lawful
manner occurring at the very point in time where it would cause
applicant residents the most harm is difficult to understand.
We have relied on the county to do its job and process the
application we paid to have reviewed. To be denied the opportunity to
have this heard this far along in the process is not only highly
inequitable, it is the height of prejudice.
In the most practical way, there's nothing in the Judge's order
that places any commissioner in peril of any kind. Because even if Mr.
Klatzkow's opinion is correct about the order, merely approving a
rezoning request would not authorize or approve those hotel units to
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January 17,2008
be constructed.
So logically and legally the PUD amendment, even if approved
as requested, cannot and would not now act to offend the Judge's prior
order.
In fact, it is only through our attempt to have this request now
heard that we could and we now are seeking our action that is
consistent with that prior remand to you. The fact that it is 10 years
later does not change anything about that order.
Even under Mr. Klatzkow's assessment the rezoning isn't
something that's a problem. No construction would occur unless and
until the site plan request would be filed and approved, which will not
occur until some time in the future. Actual construction of the units
would not occur, if ever at all, until building permits were approved.
Clearly that would seem to get give the county plenty of time to get its
own answer to what appears to be a problem the county alone sees.
We should not have to prove we are entitled to be heard by you
as to the PUD amendment. It is our right to be heard, and it is what the
Judge's order says.
That's especially problematic whereas here if the PUD is
approved, that will not approve the site plan or building permits
needed to begin the construction that the county sees are barred by the
Judge's order.
Stated more pointedly, why does the property owner now have
to seek a declaratory action when it is the county that is in doubt? If
the county feels you need to be protected against a judge reaching out
in some manner and causing you peril because the county would do
something unlawful, then why hasn't the county staff been directed to
at least seek the board's approval to file a declaratory action and then
be assured you are protected one way or the other. Even now that can
still be done in a timely manner to assure all concern that there is no
harm to you or the county and without causing this landowner and the
community residents harm now.
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January 17,2008
The applicant agrees to not have the site plan considered and
approved until that declaratory judgment is final. Then there is no
harm to the county for doing what it is that we've already received --
that the county's already received the fee to do and the landowner will
not be harmed either.
We have no such doubts about what we seek. My client filed on
paper a proper petition, and if we cannot have that heard here and
before the board, then there will be economic damage to the applicant
and community in the tens of millions of dollars.
Not being able to have a request heard is a failure to allow the
most basic state and federal constitution protections to be granted.
Accordingly, it is perfectly proper for the Planning Commission
to hear this matter consistent with your mandate under the LDC to
evaluate such petitions under the -- solely under the criteria set forth
and that the staff had provided you. That is also what is consistent
with the Judge's order remanding this case to the Planning
Commission.
Please allow us to be continued to a date and time certain in the
future that will allow us time to be prepared to present this case to you
III a proper manner.
I thank you in advance for your consideration of this matter and
allowing me to make these brief remarks. I'd be happy to answer any
questions any of the commissioners have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Mr. White.
Now, I want to mention to the planning commissioners, this is a
discussion under the addenda to the agenda. It is not opening the case
up for discussion.
Are there any questions or concerns that the Planning
Commission may have? We have a decision to make whether to take
the advice of our counselor take the advice of the applicant's counsel.
One would require us to set a time certain and continue to that date.
The County Attorney's advice to us is to continue it indefinitely. I'm
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January 17,2008
looking for a motion from the Planning Commission.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I need to know what motion you
Item #8A
PETITION: PUDA-2006-AR-I0176
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Of course I will tell you. That it
be on -- let me do it more formally. PUDA-2006-AR-10176, Craig T.
Bouchard of Naples Bath and Tennis Club, be continued indefinitely.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, motion's been made by
Commissioner Murray, seconded by Commissioner Adelstein. Is there
any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One thing I'd like to say to the people in
here who have come today for this meeting, I sincerely apologize for
this inconvenience. I know that won't make it better for you, but we
have no choice but to follow the advice of our attorney, as you would
follow the advice of your attorney.
With that, I'll call for the motion.
All those in favor of the indefinite continuance, signify by
saYIllg aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 7-1. With that we'll take
a 10-minute break so the room can be cleared and we'll go on with the
rest of our agenda at 8:53.
(Recess.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, if you'd all take your seats, we'll
move on with the meeting and hopefully the rest of the meeting will
be a little more typical of what we get into.
One other addenda to the agenda I'd like to finish up with. The
consent agenda item was listed as the last thing on the agenda, as
you'll recall. We had wanted that to be always first on the agenda. It
has been -- it was made first by notation. In future agendas it will be
listed first, if any are carried over.
So with that note I'll let you know when we hear the -- we'll
discuss the consent agenda items right from the get-go.
MR. SCHMITT: Mr. Strain?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
MR. SCHMITT: If I could just point out, as we do with the
Board of County Commissioners, if you wish to have it first, but
normally consent is listed at the end. But once the agenda is accepted,
then the consent items are summarily or legally accepted as well.
Is that correct, County Attorney? Normally the--
MR. KLATZKOW: That's board procedure. They can do--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'd rather keep the procedure we just set.
MR. SCHMITT: All right, just put all the consent items first
then.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. That way the applicants coming
in know that it's just a formality if it's okay, and they can come and
leave quickly instead of having to sit through the day.
MR. SCHMITT: So we just list it as review and approval of
consent agenda or --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's correct.
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January 17,2008
MR. SCHMITT: -- words to that effect. Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And it would probably be eight from
now on, and we'll move the advertised public hearings to nine.
Okay, are there any other addenda to the agenda?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We'll move on to Planning Commission
absences. That's a good -- I think our next meeting is our regular
meeting for a change. We have no interruptions in between.
And the date of that one is the first Thursday of February, which
would be what date, Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: February 7th.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: February 7th. Is everybody planning to
be here, or does anybody know they're not going to be here?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, looks like we'll have a quorum
then.
Item #5
APPROVAL OF MINUTES - NOVEMBER 28,2007, LDC
MEETING AND THE DECEMBER 6,2007, REGULAR MEETING
Approval of minutes, November 28th and December 6th. Let's
start with November 28th. Any comments, questions or clarifications?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would move for approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray made a recommendation for
approval. Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti seconded it.
All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8-0.
The minutes of December 6th regular meeting. Is there a motion
to approve?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray approved again.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti seconded again.
All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8-0.
Item #6
BCC REPORT- RECAPS - DECEMBER 4,2007, SCHOOL
CONCURRENCY AMENDMENT TRANSMITTAL HEARING
Page 12
January 17,2008
BCC reports. Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes, on January 15th the Board of County
Commissioners heard the Gene Salavi (phonetic) variance. That was
on the summary agenda, so it was approved subject to the Planning
Commission recommendation.
The Kalvin variance was approved on the regular Board of
County Commissioners -- board of zoning appeals agenda, and that
was approved 5-0, subject to the Planning Commission's
recommendations, except that they did not approve the Planning
Commission recommendation to reimburse the applicant's funds for
the variance application.
There was also a summary agenda item for scrivener's error for
De V oe that was approved on the summary. And the rezone for Lane
Park was approved 4-1. Motion approved subject to the Planning
Commission recommendations stipulations one through three, but
revised stipulation four to require compliance with the Land
Development Code amendment addressing outdoor seating or
whatever it may be titled if such amendment is adopted.
Additionally, the Board of County Commissioners denied the
proposal to permit drinking places.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, I had -- I watched that show, and
I was concerned over the way the characterization of the Planning
Commission -- or lack of characterization of the Planning
Commission's position on the Lane Park one was presented.
I notice that when staff supports the Planning Commission's
position, they're always going to the level of detail needed to tell the
commission the reasoning behind our position. But yet when staff
does not support our position, or individual staff members don't
support our position who are making the presentation, they tend not to
explain why we may have done something when questioned by the
BCC.
Now, I watched that meeting. Commissioner Coyle got it exactly
January 17,2008
right. He said that the Planning Commission was probably trying to
tell us, I can't quote him verbatim, that this motion, that this language
can be added into this PUD subject to any clarification to the LDC.
Which is all we were trying to do.
And when he made that, instead of emphasizing to him that was
the intent, which I believe was the intent of this board, there was dead
silence. And even some commissioners couldn't figure out that's what
we were trying to do. I thought we made it very clear, we wanted to
show them there was an opportunity, should the LDC amendment for
example not pass, that this particular project and any others like it
could have paragraphs added to protect the public. And if something
doesn't pass, you've now covered one PUD that may not have been
covered at all for any reason.
That never came out in the discussion between staff and the
board. And I think it would have done justice to this board if staff had
relayed that reasoning, because it wouldn't have made us look like we
were foolish for saying -- for coming out of context for something the
board was hearing the following day and evening on an LDC
Amendment Cycle.
So I didn't think that was the right way to present things. I
wouldn't have shown that disrespect to staff in their presentation, and I
don't expect it in the future in the Planning Commission's presentation.
So somehow if that could be made across I would appreciate it, Ray.
MR. SCHMITT: Commissioner, if I could comment. I believe
that the board was well aware of the intent of the Planning
Commission, even though it may have not been discussed on the
record. They were well aware of the intent of the Planning
Commission and your desires. I spoke to three commissioners
individually, certainly conveyed that. They were understanding.
They were -- the issue was of course that that was very
premature, meaning the language was -- and the language in the LDC
amendment had now morphed or gone through several iterations from
Page 14
January 17,2008
the date that that language was included in the PUD. And they were
well aware of both the -- your intentions. I believe at least the majority
of the commissioners were aware of exactly what you said.
And there was -- the issue really became the -- and the PUD,
when the PUD was signed and once it's signed, that becomes the
language in the PUD and that's the language that we would have had
to enforce. And I think was that the issue, both from the County
Attorney and from the staff. And I think that was the matter we were
trying to present or the position we were trying to present to the board.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, not at one time during the
discussion did I hear anybody say on behalf of the Planning
Commission that one of our purposes for entering that language in was
that if something didn't pass there would be nothing in this PUD or
nothing that this PUD would then fall under for that particular kind of
issue. And I saw that as a priority in any PUD, to make sure we're
covered, whether future language passes or not.
MR. SCHMITT: I believe both Commissioner Fiala and
Commissioner Coletta made that point clear. So again --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, I just ask that if your --
MR. SCHMITT: We will do that, certainly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Try to do a little bit better in the way
our things are explained, even if you disagree with them.
Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Ray, that -- the sheet you have
there, could you send us a copy as you did previously in our next
packages, the recap?
MR. BELLOWS: That would be great. I'd love to do it. I printed
it out nicely for you guys--
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Yeah, we got one once, and I
just want to make sure they continue.
MR. BELLOWS: No problem.
Just for the record, I'd also like to point out that we are looking
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January 17,2008
at improving some of the sections of how we organize the staff
reports. We're going to have a meeting with the zoning director and
we're going to look at these issues of when staff has a disagreement
with other staff, reviewing staff, or when the public expresses
disagreement with a staff condition or when staff and the planning
commission disagree, to make sure that it's all adequately explained.
And either we create a section in the staff report that talks about
disagreements of any sort, instead of having it maybe haphazardly
explained throughout the report, I think maybe creating a section
where we deal with these discrepancies may be a way to go. But we're
looking into that.
I just wanted to let you know that we noticed this coming up on
several other petitions in the past where there are disagreements, and
we need to explain those disagreements to the board.
Item #7
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We'd appreciate that, thank you.
Okay, we're on to the next item on the agenda which is
Chairman's report. And I do have one issue. And would the members
pass this over to Ray so he could put it on the viewer?
Like probably many members on this Planning Commission, I
use Municode constantly day in and day out. And it's a great resource.
The issue that you're going to see on the screen in a minute is
something I've seen growing on Municode, but I don't know why.
If you look at the areas where the question mark and the
blocking is, on Municode in the beginning of the section under the
LDC now they list all of the recent ordinances that I don't know why
they list them. If you were to click on any, like Ordinance No.
20078138017 A, you bring up, it's a GMP amendment for a church in
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Golden Gate Estates. Why is that on Municode under our LDC
section? And why is the Baldridge Planned Unit Development PDF
under Municode under the LDC section?
And if you go through there, I have the same questions about
every one of those, practically. Rarely you'll find one that may be a
true LDC amendment that didn't get incorporated into the text. Then I
would see why you need that up there.
But why or how is this done? How are we getting all these GMP
ordinances or individual rezones located on the Municode? And if
those are, why aren't all of them? How is that selectively handled?
Does anybody in the county know?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, could somebody in the county
find out? And if this is inappropriate, could it be removed? I don't
know why a GMP amendment has anything to do with a Municode
LDC Site. And they're basically -- the TIF files are pictures of the
amendment.
So I'm not sure what good it does, I'm not sure if it adds more
confusion to everything, but if it's something that's being done in error,
we ought to get it corrected.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Question on that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I always assumed when I saw
that that this was stuff that's not yet incorporated into the LDC. Are
you saying some of this stuff is already incorporated?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, you wouldn't incorporate it. You
wouldn't put a GMP amendment --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. And you wouldn't put the
Baldridge Planned Unit Development in the LDC.
So I'm wondering why they're even there. And I agree with you,
any amendment that's not yet recorded -- or incorporated should be in
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January 17,2008
there, but those are the only ones.
So if you guys could check it out and try and get it corrected, it
would be helpful. I'm sure maybe other people like myself that use
this a lot are finding problems with it as well.
Item #9
CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
Okay, with that we'll move into the advertised -- well, no, we'll
move into our consent agenda. This is a new issue for us, so we're
going to have to kind of go along with it and see how it evolves.
We have a petition we heard last time called Myrtle Woods,
LLC, PUDZ-2005-AR-9127. The purpose of the consent agenda was
to assure us that the language we had recommended for changes was
incorporated into the PUD language, and the consent agenda was
supposed to be able to simply say yes, it was by consent and no
discussion needed, or if we feel there was an error on the part of the
consent agenda we need to bring it out and point out what that error is.
There's been a revision to the language in the consent agenda
item. And Mr. Nadeau, I think you have that revision with you, or
have you already passed it out?
MR. NADEAU: Commissioner Caron has the stack of paper.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. This is not the way it's supposed
to happen.
And just out of curiosity, why didn't staff distribute this to us
earlier? Can I have an answer from staff on that?
MS. ZONE: Good morning, Commissioners. Melissa Zone,
Principal Planner with the Department of Zoning and Land
Development.
When the PUD revisions were sent to staff, I was advised by our
County Attorney's Office to -- they needed to go over all of the
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January 17,2008
changes and that it would be presented to the Planning Commission
today.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You said when the changes were
presented to staff?
MS. ZONE: The applicant.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The direction from--
MS. ZONE: The --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Wait just a --let me -- I started.
MS. ZONE: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The direction from this board was for
staff to make the changes. Can you explain to me why staff did not
make the changes?
MS. ZONE: I was instructed by the applicant to make the
changes, give it to staff, staff review them. If we find any changes that
needed work with the County Attorney's office, go back, have them to
make those changes, bring it back to us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Who instructed you to have the
applicant make the changes? When we instructed you and the staff at
developmental services department, is the staff of the Collier County
Planning Commission. So now can you tell me why that directive was
not applied and changed to where an applicant does exactly what
occurred in the Stevie Tomatoes affair?
If anybody is changing things on behalf of this Planning
Commission and the citizens of this county, it ought to be the people
working for the citizens of the county.
MS. ZONE: I completely agree.
MR. BELLOWS: For the record, Ray Bellows.
We have been working with the applicants in some cases to
revise the documents in conjunction with the sign-off at the attorney's
office.
It depends on how we get control of the document when the
application is submitted. If they submit it in a Word document then we
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January 17,2008
can modify it. If it's not submitted in a Word document, we have to
work back and forth with them.
We had a discussion with the County Attorney's Office the other
day, and I think we're going to set the policy to make sure that
everything submitted with the application is in a format that we can
modify. Then we gain control of the document.
MR. SCHMITT: Regardless, it's still our document.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How can it be your document if you
don't have control of it?
MR. BELLOWS: We have control of it --
MR. SCHMITT: Let me explain. It's still our document. Once it
-- whoever makes the edit, it's still our document that we forward.
Regardless of who made the changes, it's still our document. I don't
know what the issue is here as to who did the edit.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, I don't want another situation like
Stevie Tomatoes. I don't want the applicants making the edits of what
this board recommends. That should be what staff is doing.
If staff doesn't want to do it; these amount of changes are not
that much of an effort. They should have had a working document that
they could modify, made the changes right then and there and be done
with it.
I'm just shocked. I thought that staff was doing these things. I'm
not trying to -- I'm trying to get to a way we can make this --
MR. SCHMITT: Could I ask --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- that way in the future.
MR. SCHMITT: The issue is it's a cooperative arrangement -- or
it's a cooperative effort between the applicant and staff. Regardless,
once it's published in the record it's a government document and it's a
county document.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I know, that's what I'm afraid of.
That's exactly what happened with Stevie Tomatoes.
MR. SCHMITT: It's on the record. Once we publish it on the
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January 17,2008
agenda, it's our document. So if it's wrong, then it's staffs
responsibility for being wrong.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: When can staff implement the policy
from now on they will receive all changeable documents, documents
they can make the changes to from now on here on out? Can that be
implemented immediately? Is that something you're against or for, or
got a problem with?
MR. SCHMITT: No, it's our document. They forward to us the
PUD. It becomes the government's document. It is our document.
We're the ones responsible for making the changes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. And what I'm trying to say is,
Joe, if you get a PDF, you can't make changes. So what I'm trying to
suggest is can you by policy demand documents that you can change,
like a Word document or whatever --
MR. SCHMITT: That's been our policy.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Why do we have a PDF on this and not
a Word document?
MR. BELLOWS: I believe we've been trying to work with --
work with applicants. And some of them we get and some of them we
don't. But --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ray.
MR. BELLOWS: -- just say no one goes further from now on
and --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's real simple to work with them. They
either give you what they're required to give you, they give you what
your policy establishes, or they don't get before this board. I mean, it's
just cut-and-dried.
MR. SCHMITT: And I don't argue with that. That's exactly
correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SCHMITT: It comes to us as a Word document. It's our
document. It's no longer the petitioner's document. If they don't send
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January 17,2008
us the document that can be modified, then it should not appear on
your agenda.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good.
MR. SCHMITT: If that happened, then we were wrong.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, good, from now on that won't
happen.
MR. SCHMITT: I was not aware of that happening, I thought
this was our document that we reviewed and forwarded.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, if we can keep that straight
in the future, that will fix the problem.
And as far as this particular document goes, I would like a
commitment on the record right now from the applicant when the
county staff will receive a Word document.
MR. NADEAU: Mr. Chairman, for the record, Dwight Nadeau,
Planning Manager for RW A, representing the petitioner. And before
noon today I'll be forwarding the Word document for Melissa for
public record.
If I just might make a very brief statement. The reason why it's
easier to have the applicant who originates the document make
changes is because there's formatting issues with the county's Word
programs such that if they took my formatted version, typically with
up to 10 or 12 megabytes of picture information in the documents, if
they were to make changes in it, there's the possibility that page
numbering may be off, pagination, just the quality of the document
itself.
I submit Word documents with our transmittals. The original
changes were made on the 10th of January. I provided those changes
in both word and PDF form to staff.
On the 15th I had a conversation with the County Attorney --
Assistant County Attorney Marjorie Student and Planner Zone, and
we made these additional changes that were requested. And they were
provided for expediency sake as PDF's for this public hearing to be
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January 17,2008
distributed to the Planning Commission.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if you have any problems with
your software and formatting between yours and the county's, I would
suggest the burden is on you to make sure it comes out; you use the
right software and you get it to the county in a format that they can
modify.
MR. NADEAU: And potentially I would take the county's
document with their changes, ensure the quality of the instrument and
then provide it back to the county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, before we get in the
substance on this thing, is there some way we could start dating these
documents? All of these documents come to us undated. Look at these
-- this Exhibit A. There's no date.
And I mean date and I guess the time also. Because, for
example, you're not crossing through some things that were on the
other document, and I think having non-dated documents, it happens
in the LDC amendments, it happens in everything. That's got to stop.
That's really dangerous.
MR. NADEAU: I completely agree with you, Commissioner. I
had been putting footers in PUD documents so you could track them.
But again, the County Attorney's Office found that the footers
indicated that they were proprietary to the applicant and not to the
county and the footers were requested to be moved.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, put the time and date. I
mean, all the other --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That can't be real.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let's don't -- talk one at a time.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So the point is I really think,
Ray, and we've discussed it in new business, I think when Catherine
gets up here I want to discuss it in LDC. Everything, everything,
everything, has to be dated, time and date. So even if you fix it in the
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January 17,2008
afternoon, we know that.
Because we waste a lot of time with documents and we waste a
lot of time with two documents side by side, which we're going to do
right now again, trying to figure out what's different and what's not.
The other thing in format, Mark, is that Melissa sent a bunch of
stuff in the beginning. I don't think that's necessary in the consent stuff
here, unless there's a reason for it that I don't know about.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't know ifthere is or not. I mean,
basically our goal was to make sure the language in the PUD
document met the intent of what this board intended last time.
Mr. Schmitt?
MR. SCHMITT: I'm thoroughly confused. Are we talking about
your e-mail that came to you, or are you talking about the document
that's --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, look at the--
MR. SCHMITT: -- in your book? Because the document in your
book is the one that's in the record. The one that was e-mailed to you
is not a document of record.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But Joe, today we're looking
right now -- good example, we have two Exhibit A's. No date. How do
I know which one's ahead of the other one?
For example, look at the one on Exhibit A that came from
Melissa in the packet. It's striking through an L that's not been struck
through on the A. So which one's first, which one's ahead?
And the other problem we have is with the e-mail and stuff now.
And we get things e-mailed courier mail. The same document could
be sent out three times and I wouldn't know which one's the most
recent unless you put a date and time on it. Why would you not want
to put a date and time on these documents?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think the point's been made
about the date and time. Staffs conceded the point, it will be done
from here on out. So I don't know if they need to answer that question
Page 24
January 17,2008
because it's going to be resolved.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But we've had this conversation
before.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But from now on it will be done. That's
what -- the indication I'm getting.
However, we do have a concern in that the Exhibit A that was
received bye-mail has been modified. The Exhibit A we've got in
front of us is different. It's really going to be up to this board whether
or not they feel comfortable enough with the changes to go forward
with it.
The consent agenda item was supposed to be something that we
review and recommend and approve -- not recommend, but approve
on a consent item. And if we are pulling it for a specific discussion,
we're going to need a motion to that effect and then get into the
discussion of that particular language.
Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Before that, do we need to
make a motion to bring this into evidence and Cherie' needs a copy?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Not yet. Let's just see where we go with
it first. I'm not sure which version is the right version to use. So let's
figure out what we're using. That is confusing, unfortunately, because
MR. SCHMITT: Mr. Chairman --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- we've had two versions.
MR. SCHMITT: -- I'm going to -- if I could suggest, because
you got a new document, my recommendation is just to -- we will put
it on the consent for the next meeting. I did not know another
document was handed out today.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, we got one today that's red-lined
and it's got numerous changes in it that go -- I'm not saying they're
substantive changes, they're probably minor ones.
MR. SCHMITT: Then I recommend we--
Page 25
January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I would rather not see us have to
continue this again. I think the problem squarely lies in --
MR. SCHMITT: I have no idea why a document was not -- and
it's my fault. You got a document that I was not aware of that was
handed out. There were changes that were made. It's on the consent
agenda. Was it a consent agenda item? And it was published as part of
the agenda and now you're getting something different?
So my recommendation is just -- we will get it straight and bring
it back to the next meeting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And Joe, the new document's
not a strike-through/underlined version either, which is what we intend
to happen. So you'd have to go back and again--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's struck through.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: No, it's not. I mean, look on
page -- first of all, it's missing some stuff. But on Page 1, 11 was
struck through, 11 has now been moved up.
MS. ZONE: Commissioner Schiffer, now that it is a set policy
and staff now has that authority to take the Word document and
modify it, not only will it be dated, timed, but every
strike-through/underlined will be put in for you to review.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: It appears that what happened is
that staff produced a strike-through and underlined version as we had
requested. It then went to -- from what I am hearing, to the County
Attorney's Office and to the chairman who made additional changes.
It appears that the red-lined copy that we have now was the
clean version with those additional changes made to it.
And the point of the consent agenda actually should have been
just to make those changes on the original strike-through and
underlined version.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, before we go too far, let me tell
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January 17,2008
you something: The original version, Exhibit A, where it says
commercial bank with drive-through facilities was obviously an error.
We did not intend to limit commercial banks to only drive-through
facilities.
So when I saw that, just at the same time that all you got yours, I
simply called the county up or e-mailed the county and said hey, we
didn't mean just drive-through banks, we meant all banks and
drive-throughs shouldn't be excluded.
Now that was my involvement.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And that was totally --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It was intentionally trying to help solve
today's problem. So that had to be done in order to be consistent with
today. And I can't imagine the record would show that anything was
different than what I instructed staff they may want to look at to make
sure the correction was made.
Now, as far as the rest of it goes, the other red lines, the
comments, the changes in the numbers, the capitalization, I hadn't seen
those until today. I didn't know that they were even in the hopper until
Mr. Nadeau approached me at the beginning of this meeting. So I
guess it's at this board's discretion what they want to do with it.
Mr. Y ovanovich?
MR. YOV ANOVICH: I would hope that we can have a little bit
of indulgence, since this is the first time we're going through this
process. I agree. What we did is we submitted a strike-through and
underlined, because we were asked to, that implemented the motion. It
was then reviewed by staff and there were some changes to that.
It probably wasn't done the easiest and smoothest way, but I
think there were two substantive changes. One, instead of referring to
banks with drive-throughs the way you described it, it says including
banks with drive-throughs. Which I think you would have pulled it
from the consent agenda, we would have had a one-second
conversation about that to clarify it.
Page 27
January 17,2008
And there was a change to the reference to one of the SIC codes
in the reference to miscellaneous general stores. Again, that might
have been pulled, it may not have been pulled, but it would have been
a couple of second conversation.
The remainder of the changes are non-substantive and they're
capitalization changes.
I would hope that we wouldn't have to go back and continue this
to address those non-substantive changes and we can move forward
and establish a process which we now believe has been made
abundantly clear. We'll give staff a document in a format that they can
play with and make the changes and they'll be totally responsible for
that to make sure that it gets to you all on the consent agenda. And if
there are corrections that need to be made, we can pull it off and have
the quick correction and move on.
But I would hate to lose another two weeks because this is going
through the process for the first time and there were some glitches that
are not in my opinion significant glitches that couldn't have been
addressed quickly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think we may have the solution to it,
but I'll -- Mr. Murray wanted to comment.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If you have a solution to it, then
I'll defer.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Richard, we're going to take a
break at around 10:00. I would like the Planning Commission during
the break to review the changes. That means you're going to have to
hang around here a little bit, if you want to. But next time maybe we'll
get your act -- not you, but the act will get together before this meeting
and we won't have this problem.
So the best I can offer to this commission is let us look at these
non-substantial changes during the break. I can assure you, from what
I've seen there may not be any kind of consequence to them, and out
of fairness to the applicant, and this is the first consent agenda item,
Page 28
January 17,2008
let's defer the consent agenda item until after 10:00.
Mr. Anderson, you're raising your hand for something. You're
not even involved in this, but go ahead.
MR. ANDERSON: Well, I'm involved in the process question.
There are times when the applicant and the staff are in
disagreement about a provision in a PUD document. I'm reluctant to
give them the property owner's PUD document and then only deliver
to you what they're recommending. And I'm wondering how we can
deal with that when there is a disagreement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Simple. You don't give it to them, you
don't get before us.
Mr. Klatzkow?
MR. KLA TZKOW: Yeah, I'm getting tired of developers
continuing to refer to these PUDs as their documents. These are going
to be county ordinances; they are not your documents, okay? At the
end of the day, your application is yours, the staff report's is staffs and
the ordinance is that of the Board of County Commissioners.
Now, what goes to the Board of County Commissioners, what
goes to the Planning Commission, that document needs to be in their
control. If you want to go back and forth with staff on changes before
it gets there, I don't care. But once it hits the record, whatever
development order is in that record has to be in staffs control so that
they now control the changes, all right?
Now, they should consult with you on the changes to make sure
everybody is on the same page so we don't have discussions like this
before the Planning Commission or the board, but it is not your PUD
document, all right? These documents are ordinances of the Board of
County Commissioners.
And part of the problems we've been having is that developers
have been making these changes, staff doesn't catch all of the changes
because it's impossible, and we get situations like we have up in
Pebblebrook right now. And that's not going to happen again.
Page 29
January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Anderson, you work your dilemma
out with staff before it gets to us. But if staff doesn't have a workable
changeable document from you, then they've been instructed by this
board not to bring it forward, and it's not going to happen.
MR. ANDERSON: How do you want to see it ifthere is a
disagreement about some language with staff? How should we present
it to you?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You've got an opportunity to make your
presentation, as every applicant has in front of this board. Staffs
document is the one we'll be reviewing off of.
MR. ANDERSON: But should staff include our written
language with what they give you, instead of us passing it out on the
day of the hearing?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I would hope that you're not going
to pass things out on the day of the hearing, because we'll probably not
be very happy.
MR. ANDERSON: Right, I want to avoid that.
MR. BELLOWS: For the record--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Bellows.
MR. BELLOWS: As I mentioned earlier about the staff reports
and how staff is going to approach disagreements with reviews, we
will be putting that -- creating a section of some kind that deals with
where staff disagrees with other staff or staff disagrees with the
applicant or there's a disagreement with the Planning Commission. All
of that will be in a central area where the disagreements can be noted.
That way when the reviewing agency, whether it's the Planning
Commission or the Board of County Commissioners, has it in advance
when they review the staff report or executive summary what the
disagreements are, so there won't be any last minute handing out
changes. I agree, that is not the intent of what we were trying to do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schmitt?
MR. SCHMITT: My point is as far as anything on the consent
Page 30
January 17,2008
agenda, there absolutely should be no handouts. If it's on the agenda,
it's on the consent agenda, it's published. If there are changes made the
night before, then it gets continued. End of story.
MR. KLATZKOW: I absolutely agree.
MR. SCHMITT: My position, I did not know this took place.
And I apologize to you all for that. If I had known about it even 10
minutes ago, this item would not have been on the agenda.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Mr. Schmitt.
MR. SCHMITT: Because I didn't know what you were talking
about. Now I have the two documents.
And that is not consent then. Now we've got it on the regular
agen -- it has to be moved to the regular agenda and now it's under
discussion. So it's no longer consent.
So I don't understand. Frankly, from my perspective it won't
happen again. And if there's going to be a hand-out, it's continued.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
And Mr. Bellows, I appreciate what you just said. As far as I'm
concerned, that's an acceptable way to start.
We will just move forward under that premise. This board needs
to see what staffs recommending. And if the applicant is so against
staffs recommendations, let them take their chances with us and we'll
go from there.
With that being said, is this panel content on reviewing this
during their break and after break, or if we're in the middle of a case,
after that case then have that next on the item? Is that preferable --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: May only suggestion is can we
take a break now, just do it now and get it over with, rather than get
into something else? I mean, let's -- we've disrupted the meeting
enough with this issue. Why don't we --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does that -- it doesn't matter to me. Is
that okay?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, let's do that.
Page 31
January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, look, instead of 15, let's take 10
minutes. We'll be back here at 9:35, then review this document. Thank
you.
(Recess.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, if everybody will resume their
seats, we'll try to finish this consent item up.
Now, the purpose of the consent agenda was for us to review the
changes, and if we don't have any significant concerns over the
changes and that they seem to meet the intent of what we originally
implied, then we simply vote to recommend approval of the consent
agenda, which we're at that stage now. It's like we're on a new slate.
Let's take a look. This is a consent agenda. The document we just read
is a brand new document, we just got it, we like it or we don't like it.
I'd rather not see it pulled unless there's a substantial reason to pull it.
So with that in mind, does any member of this commission have
any concerns over the item on the consent agenda that requires
pulling? If not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as
submitted to us this morning in the red-lined version in front of us?
Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So moved.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner
Vigliotti, seconded by Commissioner Murray.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor of the motion, signify
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8-0.
Thank you. And hopefully we've learned a lesson from this.
Everybody involved, let's not do it again this way.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, can I just say one thing is
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The format of the second
exhibit didn't have full underlined and strike-throughs. I don't want
this to give the impression that we don't want underlined and
strike-throughs. So the format of the first is the right format.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think what we're saying is you
take the first document you gave us with the strike-throughs and
underlines that existed there, modify that document with anything new
that we stipulated or added, and you give it back to us with the
original strike-through and underlined, as well as the changes we
made so we can see the progression of those changes. That's what
we're asking for the future. Thank you.
Mr. Klatzkow, did that get put to bed well enough to move on to
the BCC?
MR. KLATZKOW: God, I hope so.
Item #8B
PETITION: CU-2007-AR-12384
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anymore, I've got to ask.
Okay, now we'll move into our first regular hearing today. It's
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January 17,2008
Petition CU-2007-AR-12384, the Enterprise Leasing Company, d/b/a
Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 13560 Tamiami Trail North, Suite A.
All those wishing to testify on behalf of this application, please
rise to be sworn in by the court reporter.
(Speakers were duly sworn.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any disclosures on the part of
the Planning Commission?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, the applicant can make
their presentation.
MR. ELLSWORTH: Good morning. For the record, I'm Jon
Ellsworth from Enterprise Leasing Company, doing business as
Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Mr. Chairman and commissioners, I appreciate the opportunity
this morning to have our application heard.
Enterprise Leasing Company is requesting conditional use for an
automobile rental agency at 13560 Tamiami Trail North, Suite A, in
Naples. Currently Enterprise has been operating for over the past 10
years at the property immediately south of here. And through course
of growth and different things, we have made the decision to relocate
our facility. We have found and been able to work up a lease
agreement with a property owner to the north and we are requesting
conditional use in order to be able to put our automobile rental agency
at that property at 13560 Tamiami Trail.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that's short and to the point. You
should give lessons to some of the attorneys we get in front of us here.
Okay, are there any questions of the applicant at this time?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Is that the old Rec Room
building?
MR. ELLSWORTH: Yes, sir.
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: You're taking the entire
building?
MR. ELLSWORTH: No, sir. Rec Room Furniture is still going
to be there. There's been a consignment shop that's been operating out
of the 2,200 square feet at the north end of the building that is
relocating and they're moving out. So we would be occupying that
north end of the building.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So it would be on the other
side, Okay, that's good.
MR. ELLSWORTH: Yes, it would be at the very north end of
the building.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, well, Ms. Caron, Mr. Kolflat,
then Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I just had a quick question.
Is the landscape buffering up to code as we speak?
MR. ELLSWORTH: According to the conversations that I've
had with the staff of Collier County, yes, that has been resolved
between the property owner and the county to get -- they replanted,
they pulled out a bunch of the wrong stuff and put in the right kinds of
trees.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay, I'll double check--
MR. ELLSWORTH: I believe that that is -- the landscape
planner, reviewer actually did say that we were okay, so --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Yes, this would apply also for
commercial use. Why did you select the conditional use?
MR. ELLSWORTH: Per the terms of the LDC, automobile
rental can only go into a C-4 zoning district with conditional use.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Thank you.
Page 35
January 17,2008
This south exit that you speak about in here, that's going to leave
the property on the south?
MR. ELLSWORTH: There's one entrance and exit off of the
property currently that comes out onto 41, and that would be the
entrance and exit that would be used.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: But aren't you also proposing
another entrance/exit just through due south?
MR. ELLSWORTH: No, sir. I believe that in the staff report that
they did mention that that could be done, that the way the properties
are situated that that could happen, but that's not something we are
propOSIllg.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: You're not proposing that, so
you don't feel that's necessary.
MR. ELLSWORTH: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray, then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Sir, that was part of my
question, that very item. And I would ask one further point: Are you in
a position legally to modify the property to facilitate such an
interconnection?
MR. ELLSWORTH: I mean, we would obviously have to do
that. It would have to be up to the property owner as to whether or not
he would allow that, and then obviously it would be up to the adjacent
property owner as --
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: So in other words, you would
have to secure permission from the property owner. You're not in a
position yourself --
MR. ELLSWORTH: Right.
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: -- to do that.
MR. ELLSWORTH: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's what I wanted to know.wThank you.
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January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, are you going to continue
to store vehicles on the southern property?
MR. ELLSWORTH: No, sir. We -- actually what you currently
see in there, probably if you're looking at storage, it's closer to the
road, is some of that property has been leased to Germain that actually
has stored cars there as an overflow. I don't know whether or not
they're still doing that or not, but they had done that in the past.
But no, our intention at Enterprise basically, this store
specifically, is that the fleet at its peak time of the year would be
somewhere between 125 and 150 cars at a 91 percent occupancy. So
we would be looking at no more than 10 to 15 cars on the lot at any
one time.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So you have no use of the
southern lot once you move?
MR. ELLSWORTH: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right, thank you.
MR. ELLSWORTH: That's a different property.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of the applicant at
this time?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: One final question.
Somewhere in this report it talks about parking cars on the side
of the building. That is not going to happen--
MR. ELLSWORTH: No, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- correct?
MR. ELLSWORTH: There is no parking available. There's 92
spaces that are shown on the site plan and they would be parked in
parking spaces.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of --
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I did have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- the applicant? Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That made me think of
something else.
The issue of some detailing in the back.
MR. ELLSWORTH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I notice that the statement from
the staff report said rear wash rack.
MR. ELLSWORTH: We have a covered portable canopy that
we pull the cars underneath to vacuum them out and just clean them
up prior to renting. We have it currently behind the property where we
are where we're sharing the property with Circle K. We're just
planning to move that over there and utilize that in order to continue to
do what we've been doing.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Explain to me if you would,
please, then it's also indicated that you will be fueling and cleaning
off-site. Are they two different things?
MR. ELLSWORTH: Basically we're talking about if we're going
for a full-blown car wash type thing, then fueling -- I mean, obviously
we wouldn't have fuel on-site, but we'd go to an on-site facility to do
that.
But cleaning up, doing the vacuuming and so forth, getting the
bugs off the car, things like that is what we're talking about doing
on-site.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Where you're going to be
situated now where that rear activity would take place, how far is that
from the nearest residence?
MR. ELLSWORTH: There's about 10 feet of property and then
a wall that's actually behind that, that buffers us and the property to
the east.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: What kind of vacuum cleaner
are you using, a household type or are you using a commercial type?
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January 17,2008
MR. ELLSWORTH: Just a ShopVac is what we normally use.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of the applicant at
this time?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Bellows, would you mind putting
on the aerial of the site. I have one question. It's one that was in our
packet and its called -- it's yellowed out. It's actually from the county
appraiser's office. It's this one here, Ray. I can pass this one down to
you, if you want.
There were two aerials on the site. The one I'm passing to Ray is
the larger of the two, but the second one provides the same
information I'm going to talk about.
You notice on the second aerial, you'll see that the property next
door where they moved from was adjacent to a Stop-And-Go. Behind
them is their wash rack. And it's not shown on the one on the screen,
but the one in our packet.
If you look at the one on the screen, that same wash rack, when
it goes in the back of this one, instead of being up against a street, it's
up against residential.
Now, wash racks are going to have probably laborers out there
vacuuming and Shop V ac'ing. And I've been to plenty of places and
sites where the laborers love to put on their boom boxes and listen to
loud music or turn on the stereos in the car while they're doing their
thing. And in your bays -- and the bays do face the residential in the
back, they likewise might be expected to have music in those bays
blaring while they're working on the vehicle or do whatever they do.
We need to stop that.
MR. ELLSWORTH: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And again, we're getting into a situation
where the current ordinance that's going through the process may be
applicable here. However, it's written more for a residential. I'm not
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January 17,2008
sure it applies to mobile home sites.
So I guess we're in that same problem that we had with the Lane
Park one where we introduced language to be included into the PUD
that would give the county staff ability to regulate any additional noise
coming out of this place. And because that application got kind of
lopsided when it went to the BCC, I'm looking now for a
recommendation from county attorney's office or staff or somebody
on how we could put language in this PUD to assure that the
neighborhood's not going to have to listen to any noise generated by
the workers in the back of this facility that is above the noise they
would need for their equipment that they use to clean the vehicles
with.
Mr. Klatzkow?
MR. KLATZKOW: I guess we're looking for a no amplified
sound condition to this conditional use. No music, no amplified sound
of any nature of any kind.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: There shall be no amplified
sound.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. I would think -- do you have -- I
mean, is that -- is it said as simply as that, or do you have language
boilerplate that we could throw in here? Do you have any idea?
I don't want to do something and have it such a confusing issue
when it gets to the BCC it ends up going down the tubes, when this to
be is such an important issue for those residents behind.
It's the same operation, so -- but there's a difference in the
distance and the separation of the structures that the people live in.
That's where I think this is going to have a little bit different impact.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, the only question I have for the
applicant is are you going to have a P A system at all?
MR. ELLSWORTH: No, sir.
MR. KLATZKOW: All right. Then no amplified sound of any
kind or nature permitted.
Page 40
January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Would you have any objection to
that stipulation being added to this conditional use?
MR. ELLSWORTH: That would be fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So the stipulation -- and I'll get
the language exact, Mr. Klatzkow, because then maybe we don't need
to have to come back with us -- no amplified --
MR. KLATZKOW: Sound of any kind or nature permitted,
including but not limited to radios.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you.
Yes, sir, Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: On that point, Mark, you have it
normally on the other side up against the building. Would you have a
problem bringing it up against the building on this site? Because that
would give about the same distance.
MR. ELLSWORTH: Currently what we've actually been
working out with the adjacent property owner, Mr. Freeman, who's
actually here, is a representative for the owners of the mobile home
park, is because of visibility the preference was that we would put it to
the east just south of the dumpster enclosure that is currently there. So
that when you drive on Sunrise Boulevard, which is the entrance into
the mobile home park, it would be the least visible to the people
driving in and out of there.
For the record, I would like to say that where we are currently
has just a wooden fence. There is a street there, but it's just an old
wooden fence that separates us.
Here we're looking at about 10 feet of property and a concrete
block wall that separates us from the property owner. Not that the
distance is any greater or further than where we were before, but there
is a lot more between us and the neighboring --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Could you show us on the plan that's on
the overhead right next to you there where you intend to put that wash
rack canopy that you just mentioned?
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January 17,2008
MR. ELLSWORTH: It would go right here. There's a dumpster
enclosure that's built and it would go right there, and the entrance
would be to the south.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll see if there's any comments
on that from the public, and if none, we may incorporate that location
into the language of the stipulation and that might be sure that we get
it where it's supposed to be. In the general area, at least.
Any other questions of the applicant at this time?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, we'll hear from the staff then.
Thank you, sir.
MR. BROWN: Good morning. Willie Brown, Principal Planner,
Department of Zoning and Land Development Review.
Petitioner's description of the project is consistent with the
application on file. The 1.87-acre site complies with the original
approved SDP. SDP 99-06, in terms oflandscaping, parking and the
building footprint, remains unchanged and not proposed to expand.
The proposed Rent-A-Car is permitted as a conditional use by
the LDC and is supported by the mixed use activity center sub-district
of the Growth Management Plan.
There is adequate parking for the existing and proposed use,
leaving in excess of 60 spaces. Sixty spaces for leased vehicle and
four for employee are proposed.
A neighborhood information meeting was held on December
4th, 2007. None of the abutting residents showed. No letters of
opposition have been received as well.
Finally, staff recommends approval of the CU request, subject to
the agreed upon conditions of approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any questions? Mr. Murray,
then Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Good morning, Mr. Brown.
MR. BROWN: Good morning.
Page 42
January 17, 2008
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Relative to that same issue that
was raised earlier by both Commissioner Klatzkow and myself having
to do with interconnection, I see that was a recitation based on what
we have in the code and so forth, but did you have an expectation that
this conditional use applicant was in a position to make that happen?
MR. BROWN: The interconnection exists. It's staked off with
wooden stakes, and I believe their trees have been planted.
Transportation will be recommending approval of opening that
southern access at development -- the first development order.
It's up to the property owner, LHD Properties, who's not here to
make that happen. But a C.O. would not be issued until that access has
been opened. I believe again transportation will be requiring it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would have -- maybe I'm
wrong, but I would have thought that we would be addressing
ourselves then to that party who has the power and the authority to
perform. This party has no authority to perform. Am I not right? This
is a lessee of a store, has a store in a development.
MR. BROWN: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: How can we inhibit his action to
go forward by something that his landlord has sole authority to grant
or fail to grant?
MR. BROWN: A certificate of occupancy wouldn't be issued
until that rear access has been opened.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I guess it's a legal issue that I
don't understand, but I thought that was interesting that that was put in
there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the only way that you could hold
up a certificate of occupancy for that entrance not being open is if the
entrance was required by the Land Development Code or some
subsequent action.
Are you saying that that has already been established as a
required action for this site and it's not been done?
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January 17,2008
MR. BROWN: The language is in the GMP. Perhaps I should let
transportation elaborate on what they will be requiring or not
requiring. Per my discussions with the project manager, John
Posarinski (phonetic), I'm told he will be requiring opening that access
at the first development order.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. There's transportation right
behind you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Good morning, Commissioners.
Whatever is in the Land Development Code will be applied at
SDP. There's not going to be a C.O. withheld if it's not required by the
LDC.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, thank you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: So -- to make the clarification.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So then the removal of those wooden
stakes and the plantings that are in the way of this connection won't
occur unless we add it to it as a stipulation to this conditional use; is
that correct?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I wouldn't add it as a stipulation if it
can't be controlled by an abutting landowner. So the Land
Development Code says when an SDP comes in, if they have to
modify that site, interconnection is applied where feasible. If they
don't control that property to the south and they can't do that, then
we're okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Understand, thank you. Thanks for the
clarification.
Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Willie, I don't believe this
location is open seven days a week. Why are you allowing them to do
on-site cleaning seven days? Your recommendation calls for on-site
cleaning from the hours of 8:00 to 6:00, seven days a week. Does the
applicant need seven days a week?
MR. BROWN: No, sir. It was a standard stipulation we've used
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January 17,2008
for other conditional uses for similar uses. It doesn't have to stay in
exactly the way it's written.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Okay. Maybe this is a question
to the applicant.
What hours do you really need to be able to clean and detail
your cars?
MR. ELLSWORTH: The store is going to be open Monday
through Friday. We're open from 7:30 to 6:00 Monday through Friday
and then 9:00 to noon on Saturdays.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Can we put those hours
specifically as detailing, or do you want to --
MR. ELLSWORTH: The only thing I would ask is that when
we're talking about Saturdays, that if at some point if during season or
so forth if there's more people here and we choose to stay open a few
more hours on Saturday afternoon.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Then let's just reduce it to six
days. So now you have all day Saturday.
MR. ELLSWORTH: That would be fine.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So one other stipulation would be the
operation will be a six-day week.
Any other questions of the staff?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I'm a --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- little confused.
Willie, where is this access we're talking about? We have one off
of Tamiami Trail, we have one off of Sunrise. What's the southern rear
access you're talking about? He called it rear, that's what is confused
me.
MR. BROWN: I can't see here.
It's here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right through that guy's trailer?
Page 45
January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, I see. No, he wants to go out
that way.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: No, no, that's not right.
MR. ELLSWORTH: I believe that the access that was talked
about was the one that's actually to the north of Sunrise. That access
does not actually exist. The access shows that it was originally I guess
put in when the property was originally built. But Sunrise to the north
is private property, and that was I guess put in strictly for emergency
reasons.
So there's not an actual access that is there. The only access
currently to the property is the access on the west side on 41.
MR. BROWN: One correction. That access does exist. It's been
landscaped over and there are trees and stakes there, but it is there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It was built properly, it just
evolved wrong from that point. So the two accesses are going to be the
two that are shown on this plan, nothing to the south?
MR. BROWN: Unless we require them to reopen that southern
access, or actually it's to the east at the rear of the building, they won't
be required to open it -- I believe your transportation planning director
said unless it's in the LDC, they won't be requiring it to open. I'm
having different discussions with other members of transportation
planning that tells me otherwise. But we'll go with what the director
says.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And for now we'll call it the
Sunrise Boulevard access, right --
MR. BROWN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- so we won't get it confused
with commercial to the south. Okay, thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron, then Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, then I think I am confused. I
thought that the intent was to interconnect with the retail to the south.
MR. BROWN: You're correct.
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER CARON: And you would do that from the
rear of this building? The interconnection with --
MR. BROWN: It's in the GMP consistency review that the rear
access be made available.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Wait a minute. GMP says a rear access?
You got me -- are you sure, it says only a rear access?
MR. BROWN: Let's see if! can find it.
MR. SCHMITT: It's a statement that encourages
interconnectivity.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. It doesn't say it has to be front,
rear, north, south or west. So you're referring to a GMP statement that
says we encourage interactivity. The location isn't part of that GMP
statement.
MR. SCHMITT: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So that's where you're trying to go, I
think.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I sure am.
MR. BROWN: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti, then Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Ifwe're talking about future
connectivity, we're talking to the south to the gas station next door.
Bringing people out the back of this location onto Sunrise towards the
residential, I don't see how that serves anybody. I'd rather just keep
bringing everybody in off 41 rather than through the residential access
road into your property. I can't see how making access to the north
helps anyone.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think we've confirmed that's kind of
off the table, because it goes into a private development.
Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Could you recap the actual
accesses that will be in this project on the overhead? Identify where
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January 17,2008
they are in the accesses.
MR. BROWN: There's an access from 41 -- this isn't the clearest
map. This is the access from 41. This is the existing access from 41
here, if you're following my pointer. There is also an emergency
access here. Access from Sunrise Boulevard that's been landscaped
and staked, so it's currently not open.
In the GMP we do encourage interconnection between
properties. And the --
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Both of those accesses--
MR. BROWN: Both of those --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat, let him finish first.
MR. BROWN: Your Comprehensive Planning Department is
encouraging this interconnection here between Sunrise -- the Sunrise
property and this property owner here.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Those two are the only accesses
that would be open on this property?
MR. BROWN: Well, right now there's only the one from 41,
unless you require the interconnection here to Sunrise Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: So that would require a
stipulation by us?
MR. BROWN: I'm sorry, repeat your question?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: That will require a stipulation
by us that that access be open?
MR. BROWN: Based on the conversations that have taken
place, I would agree with that statement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No. No, sir, you're missing the point.
That's an emergency access. Transportation just testified that you
cannot have that interconnection unless both parties on both sides of
that interconnection agree. We have one applicant here under
conditional use application. We don't have an agreement from the
party to the north to open that interconnection up.
So I think that's what Mr. Kolflat said, is it going to be an
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January 17,2008
exercise working exit or could we stipulate it to be such, and I don't
think we can.
MR. BROWN: In may, let me elaborate on what's in the staff
report under the neighborhood information meeting where the research
has been done by transportation. And it says transportation has
researched the emergency vehicle access closure and found that the
existing interconnection between the mobile-home park and Sunrise
was not required by the Transportation Department. However,
interconnections are encouraged by the county's Growth Management
Plan and Land Development Code.
The transportation department also supports the existence of the
interconnection and would require it to be operational above an
emergency use status at the development order application stage.
Because there are no trips proposed at the rear emergency access
drive, no impacts are noted in the transportation's review.
So again, I'm taking this from a statement that was made by
transportation where they say they will require it. And your GMP is
encouraging it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Nick, will you please -- sir, I don't know
who you are, but when we call for public speakers, you'll be more than
welcome to speak.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Just to clear up anything, we always
would like to have projects interconnected. It's an existing site. It's
been there. When we can, when it comes in for an SDP, we'll look at
that opportunity. But we're not going to withhold a C.O. if they can't
interconnect. Is that --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's clear. And it goes back to the
point that we are not in a position where we can stipulate something
that you cannot enact because the code and the property owners and
different property ownerships don't allow you to. Is that a fair
statement?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's a fair statement. When we're
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January 17,2008
doing an SDP we could have them provide a stub-out on their side and
then the opportunity arose another time --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Which is already there.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Kolflat, I think that gets to
the answer to your question.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: So there's one access point off
of 41?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Sunrise Boulevard is a private
road; is that correct?
MR. BROWN: You're correct.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of county
staff at this time?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I have one.
This is a facility that is looking for a conditional use in the C-4
and it moved from the project next door to it. Project next door was
also C-4. Did they have a conditional use for that property?
MR. BROWN: That's a very good question. I don't remember
researching that issue.
Do you know, Ray?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ray, they're in the same C-4 district on
the tax zone and the zoning maps of Collier County. They're moving
from one building to another within the same C-4 district. My
question is why are they even here for a conditional use if they already
existed? Under what premise?
MR. BROWN: I can tell you they've been there since 1977. And
there's continuous LDC amendments that may have required it down
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January 17,2008
the road.
MR. BELLOWS: For the record, Ray Bellows.
If there was a conditional use on another parcel, it may be site
specific to that parcel and not transferable to this one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, but we don't know how they got
to the first location at all at this point. Okay, it just seemed logical that
we would want to know that. But okay.
Any other questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: No, that was my original
question, why not stay with C-4 now, rather than go for a conditional
use?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I mean, nobody researched that. So it's a
standalone application based on the location that they're now asking
for.
Okay, are there any public speakers, Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: None have registered, but there appears to be a
gentleman who wants to --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sir, do you want to speak? You can
speak. Please identify yourself for the record and --
MR. FREEMAN: My name is Ronald Freeman.
THE COURT REPORTER: Were you sworn in previously?
MR. FREEMAN : Yes, I was sworn in.
Freeman, F-R-E-E-M-A-N.
I'm the general manager for Caribbean Park. Enterprise has been
our neighbor for 10 years, as long as they've been there.
Just for the record, they've been an excellent neighbor. The wash
rack is currently in a position where it is now not very much farther
than where it's proposed to be. And I personally have no recollection
of any issues we've had with them.
But what I will say for your interest is that if there are any
issues, we've had absolutely no problems with Enterprise as far as
calling them up and saying we have an issue. We meet on-site, we
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January 17,2008
work it out. They've been exceptional neighbors.
And we did in fact meet to discuss where this wash rack might
be and how it would present to our people coming into the mobile
home community, and we've had very good success with them as far
as what kind of neighbor they were going to be closer to our main
entrance.
So for the record, Caribbean Park has no issues with them. We
have met and discussed how things are going to change with them
being a little bit closer to our clubhouse and all that good stuff, and
everything seems to be fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Great. We certainly appreciate your
comments, they do help us get to our conclusions. Thank you very
much.
COMMISSIONER CARON: We wish we heard that kind of
report more often.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, are there any other questions of
either the applicant, staff or anybody?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, we'll close the public
meeting and entertain a motion.
Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would make a motion that
Petition CU-2007-AR-12384, Enterprise Rent-A-Car be forwarded to
the Board of County Commissioners with a recommendation of
approval, with the stipulation that no amplified sound of any kind or
nature, including but not limited to radios be made a part of this.
We had a note here about location issue, but I'm not sure that
that's necessary.
And also, that operations shall be limited to six days a week,
Monday through Saturday, from the hours of 7:30 in the morning to
6:00 p.m. in the evening.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, is there a second to the motion?
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion seconded by Commissioner
Adelstein.
Discussion. Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I just wanted to talk about
that location of that minor detailing facility. Bob, did you include that
as part of a stipulation?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I had it as a note here, but I
thought it went away as an issue when it was focused that it was over
here where it -- not far from where it had been and there's a wall.
I can include it if there's a need, if it's felt there's a need.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We might want to suggest that the
location of the wash canopy will be generally south of the dumpster
location, with the opening of that canopy facing south.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I find that to be acceptable, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Brown?
MR. BROWN: That's an arrangement that has been worked out
between the applicant and their abutting property owner. I think they
wanted it to remain between them, according to earlier conversations
we had.
In the event for some reason they needed to relocate the wash
rack, I'd hate to stipulate they'd have to remove it or move it to
someplace else and then they have to come back to the board to
remove the stipulation we've added. So you may want to talk about
that yourself.
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: Better late than never.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sir, you can -- state your name again,
I'm sorry.
MR. FREEMAN: Ronald Freeman, Caribbean Park, next door
neighbor.
We have had that discussion that if it was not stipulated to an
exact location that would give us the flexibility as neighbors to adjust
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it as necessary, you know, after seeing how it's going to work out for a
while. And we've very good success with that, so I would hope that,
you know, that would be taken into consideration. We go to Enterprise
and we have an issue and we resolve it.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Good.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: You okay with that now?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No, I'm must asking Ms. Caron.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know, I'll ask you, for the record.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm sorry. Yes, sir, I'm here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray, I'm trying to keep
decorum, that's all.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, Mark, and I do have
concern with testimony over this, because essentially we're wiping out
parking spaces, you know, the way the site plan coming from the
south would eliminate a bit of parking.
So I think we should -- I mean, I don't think we should first of all
fix it in that location, I think we should be concerned about testimony
that would alter the site plan that's given to us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think the way it's been left is
that's not going to be added to the stipulations and we remain with the
two stipulations Mr. Murray reiterated.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, good.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There's been a motion made with two
stipulations: The stipulations about the amplified sound and the
operations are limited to six days a week.
Is staff clear on the motion?
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January 17,2008
MR. BROWN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, and hearing that, I'll call for the
vote. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8-0. Thank you very
much. And we have slips that you need to sign and pass into the
secretary.
Item #8C
PETITION: RZ-2007-AR-12044
Okay. Next item up is Petition RZ-2007-AR-12044, Barry
Goldmeier. And it's the -- represented by Shaun Mularkey of Coastal
Engineering. It's for the Immokalee, LLC.
All those wishing to testify on behalf of this amendment -- this
petition, please rise to be sworn in by the court reporter.
(Speakers were duly sworn.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any disclosures on the part of
Planning Commission?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, we'll proceed with the
presentation by the applicant.
MR. MULARKEY: Good morning again, I'm Shaun Mularkey
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January 17,2008
with Coastal Engineering. With me today is Robert Andrea with
Coastal Engineering, Rob Price from T.R. Transportation, and Barry
Goldmeier, the applicant, representing Immokalee, LLC.
My client wishes to rezone 9.33 acres from the Estates zoning
district to RMF-16 residential, with a maximum density of 15 units per
acre or a total of 140 residential units.
Just as a side note, Mr. Goldmeier has previously developed the
Main Street Village in Immokalee at Main Street and 11 th Street with
ECA, who now owns and operates that facility.
The property location is at the southwest corner of the
intersection of Immokalee Road, or First Street and School Road,
shown on the aerial in white.
The property is approximately 30 percent wetland, which is
primarily along the southern, western and northern edges of the
property. The eastern edge of the property and the majority of the
center of the property is not wetland, which lends itself to be
developed without wetland disturbance.
The surrounding zoning and land uses to the north, across
School Road, that property is zoned VR, village residential. There's
currently a Farmworker Village there.
To the east is the Seminole Reservation. You can see the casino
further to the northeast of the property.
To the south, that land is zoned estates and is currently vacant.
And to the west, that land is zoned estates as well.
This is the current Future Land Use Map for the Immokalee
area. We're 10 -- the property is shown with a small white box to the
northwest of the map. Our current future land use designation is
neighborhood center, which allows a mix of uses, one of them being
residential at a limit of 12 units per acre.
Also permitted within this area is up to three additional units per
acre, if you're designated as an infill site, which we are in this case.
It does stipulate, however, in the neighborhood center district
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January 17,2008
that overall residential development cannot exceed 80 percent of that
neighborhood center. There's currently 110 acres of developable
property left there, so there's no fear of going over that threshold.
The property rezones are also consistent with the proposed
Immokalee area master plan update, which shows our property as
commerce center/mixed use, which is basically a major activity center
allowing residential units also up to 20 units per acre.
The proposed rezone is also consistent with policies 5.1 and 5.2
of the transportation element of the GMP, and the surrounding road
network will operate acceptably after the addition of the proposed
development traffic.
There's been some discussion about where access for the
property might be. Originally we wanted to put access onto
Immokalee Road to be able to avoid the wetlands.
After further discussion with transportation staff, they would like
to see the access on School Road. It's impossible to get the access on
School Road without avoiding any wetlands, due to proximity to
South First Street. So what we're proposing, and I'll show another
aerial here, the blue lines here are a little faint, but what those
represent are the wetlands on the site.
What we're proposing is the access as far back -- as far west on
School Road as possible to negatively impact the wetlands as little as
possible. So the proposed access location is going to be about here.
There was also an environmental -- I'm sorry, no environmental
impact statement was required as part of this rezone, but a protected
species survey was done by Earth Balance. No protected species or
evidence thereof was found on the site.
There were a few, a couple of protected plant species, but those
will be relocated to the preserve areas prior to any construction of the
site.
In addition to what I previously mentioned, we think this
property is uniquely suited for a rezone from a low density to a higher
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residential density district for a few reasons. One of them is that it's in
an area planned for mixed use. It's very close proximity to the casino
and Ave Maria. This will be a great location for residential with such
close proximity to job centers. It's located on Immokalee, which is an
arterial that's proposed for expansion at some time in the future. And
we believe this would provide additional quality housing stock in
Immokalee and bolster the values of the surrounding community.
That's it, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
Are there questions of the applicant? Mr. Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Why don't we have any drawings
that show what you intend to actually do here? In all the time that I've
been on this board, I can't ever remember where we didn't get any sort
of conceptualization of where you want to have your entrances and
exits, where you want to put your buildings, where you want to put
your preserves, where you want to put your open space. Why don't we
have any of that?
MR. MULARKEY: Well, we don't have a defined development
plan yet, and we're requesting a standard zone from Estates to
RMF-16. The LDC doesn't require a site plan for standard rezone.
Again, we're not asking for PUD. We're not trying to get
extremely creative here as to what we're proposing. All the rules and
regulations of the RMF-16 and the LDC are fine for what we're
proposing. And that's primarily the reason.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: How tall do you expect the
buildings to be?
MR. MULARKEY: Well, the RMF-16 allows 75 feet. I don't
know exactly what we're going to be dealing with here. We're likely to
put the building on some sort of a -- you know, this site is a little bit
lower. We're not sure, the ground floor will likely be elevated. We
haven't decided. It all depends on how much -- where we can put the
parking and where we can put the buildings. But again, for the record,
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RMF-16 is 75 feet.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: The reason that I'm asking that is
we don't know how tall the buildings are, how many buildings there
will be, how they'll be spatially oriented. This is at the entrance to the
Immokalee urban area. This is the first thing that you'll see.
Right now our highest residential building is only three stories.
And for us to sort of give a green light to this, not knowing what you
plan to do, I feel very uncomfortable with it. Right now the three-story
buildings that we do have are the Immokalee projects, and they're
pretty ugly. They're also a high crime area. I don't really know what
this is going to look like.
I'm not against the idea of housing in this location, but I need to
see what it's going to look like, have a better idea than what you've
given us so far.
MR. MULARKEY: I understand that. I guess the point I was
trying to make is that it's going to meet your current code for RMF -16
and all the other development regulations in the code.
I know when a PUD comes forward, there's usually some
creativity involved and some mixing of uses, and there's a good reason
to see a site plan and how things kind of fit together, where the access
points are. I did show you where the access point is.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that it's going to satisfy all
of the current code requirements that are present today.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Well, that may not be enough. I
mean, of course it has to satisfy the code, but as the planning body of
the county, we want a better idea about how it's going to fit into the
neighborhood. Especially at 15 units an acre and with only two-thirds
of the site developable, you're actually going to get an actual density
of about 22 units an acre, and that is a very intense development right
near the main entrance to Immokalee, and in close proximity to this
wetland also, which I'll be getting into a little bit later.
But I think that, you know, we really need to have a better idea
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about what you're going to do.
I had another question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure. When you're finished, just let me
know, and then we'll move on.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: It's going to be a while.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, Paul, you speak so rarely, it's kind
of a break for us. So go ahead.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Okay. The next question I have
is, is there going to be any affordable housing in this development?
MR. MULARKEY: Is it okay if the applicant gets up?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Of course.
MR. GOLDMEIER: Barry Goldmeier, with my offices in Coral
Gables, Florida.
Depends on the market. Right now if I were to make a decision
based on this market, there's no decision to make, because nothing
would work in this market.
The densities of a project depends on market forces, and what
we're trying to do is to take a two-step approach. One, the second step
would be to come in with the specifics in the form of a site plan
approval when we know what we're going to build. We don't know
what we're going to build yet. We're just taking this next step in order
to get closer to be able to begin our planning. Without the ability to
zone it, we can't begin our planning. And without knowing what the
market will be, I can't tell you the product.
If the market would permit us to do a more expensive product,
we would of course then do a higher, more dense product. If the
market is for a much less expensive product or an affordable project,
then -- which is not our first choice, but is an option we want to be
able to exercise if it's possible, then it would be for a less dense
project.
And just basically at our stage of planning, and we've -- you
know, we've developed other projects in Immokalee and other projects
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January 17,2008
elsewhere in the state. To give you an honest answer, I don't know,
because I don't know what the market is.
I know that across the street the casino is -- there's a second
casino planned to be built. I know that Ave Maria is growing and will
produce additional employment, and that would be positive aspects
related to more expensive future development.
But in were to develop it today, it would be for a less expensive
development, given the state of current housing, housing availability
in Immokalee.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Why do you feel that you need 15
units an acre?
MR. GOLD MEIER: Because the economics of developing a site
of that type require that we have a certain amount of units in order to
make it economically feasible. It's going to be a relatively expensive
project to develop. We do have soil conditions that would require
more than spread footers. And it's -- and it's appropriate, being across
the street from I think the largest employer in the area, which is the
casino. And that's what the Immokalee comprehensive plan permits.
And that's one of the reasons we bought that project in that area
-- that property in that area, in order to do a project of greater density
than you could do elsewhere in Immokalee.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Okay, I'd like to put this on the
visualizer.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We can pass it down this way, if you
want to.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Is it in our packet?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: No.
And I'd like to direct our attention to the EAR, which we
approved about two years ago, Policy 6.2.5, which talks about within
the rural fringe mixed use district and that portion of the Lake
Trafford/Camp Keais Strand system, which is contained within the
Immokalee urban designated area.
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There are a bunch of criterion standards that are supposed to be
followed. One of them is that -- well, let me just sort of go in order.
The original thing is that this piece of land is within this slough, the
Lake Trafford/Camp Keais Strand system. And this is by aerial.
This has not actually been delineated by an ordinance where
they've actually drawn out the exact lines where this is. But when this
EAR amendment came up, and I asked Mr. Weeks what exactly was
included within this system, he said whatever areas are included
hydrologically.
And I know that this subject property, the wetlands on that site,
are hydrologically connected to this system. So that I think the
standards in this EAR amendment pertain to this proposed
development.
One of the things that the county is supposed to have been doing
is on -- let's see, 5(6), B-3. Within one year of the effective date of
these amendments, Collier County shall adopt specific criteria in the
LDC to implement this incentive program and to identify other
mitigation priorities.
But going back up to Roman numeral V(5), they specify a
minimum of 25-foot vegetated upland buffer adjacent to any wetlands
that would be developed.
And another relevant aspect of this is that on (6)B-1 it says,
Collier County shall encourage certain types of mitigation by
providing a variety of incentives in the form of density bonuses and
credits to open space and vegetative retention requirements.
Density bonuses shall be limited to no more than 10 percent of
the allowable density. And since the base density here is 12, 10
percent would be just 1.2 additional. So instead of 15, you'd have
13.2.
I think that this petition that's before us today has not taken into
account the conservation requirements of the Immokalee area master
plan, and I think that it needs to be looked at more closely.
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January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Mr. Midney, thank you.
The next two speakers will be Mr. Murray, and then Mr.
Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm going to make mine very
brief. I share Commissioner Midney's views and concerns. And I
would say that with a building height of -- zoned building height of
75, more likely 95 feet in actuality, when it's finally done, if it were to
build that high, that whole area would be radically changed.
And he's brought out some points that are absolutely right on
target. I also -- maybe this is inappropriate, but I was curious. I noted
that Mr. Goldmeier and Ali (phonetic) Goldmeier each own 50
percent. I don't know what the implications of that are. I don't know,
usually you think about somebody owning a slight percentage more to
be able to make a decision. I saw nothing in the documents indicating
that it was an agreed upon decision to rezone this land. So those are
my thoughts.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, Shaun, in your testimony
you mentioned that this is an infill project? How did you come to that
conclusion?
MR. MULARKEY: Well, the way infill is defined, it's defined a
certain way in the Immokalee area master plan. If I can find the page
quickly, I can show you what that means.
Basically it's less than 10 acres in size, it will be served by
essential public stormwater, compatible with surrounding land uses,
no common property.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Stop right there. That's really
the problem. This isn't surrounded by estates and residential uses of
low density. Why--
MR. MULARKEY: Yeah, but's it's in an activity center. It's -- I
guess in both the current master plan and the future master plan this is
seen as an area where it's going to be a mix of uses in an activity
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center, sort of a hub of intensity in Immokalee. That's where we're
coming from with compatibility.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But what you're requesting is
essentially the highest density residential, not mixed use.
MR. MULARKEY: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And, you know, I kind of think
the intent of the master plan has great potential on this site as a mixed
use.
And also, I --
MR. MULARKEY: Well, one of those uses is residential. One
of those mix of uses.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm not worried about the one
you got, I'm worried about the ones you're missing that you don't
have.
And then I really agree with Paul that this is something, because
of the fact that it's surrounded by the lowest density, that we should be
looking at a PUD to determine something of this -- the highest density.
Thank you, Mark.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're welcome.
By the way, your statement about this being an activity center on
the current growth management plan, I have that with me. It is not.
MR. MULARKEY: What I meant, in the Immokalee area master
plan it defines neighborhood center as an activity center. Not the same
way it's used in other parts of the GMP as the red circle or the red
square, but it uses the words activity center in the plan, describing a
mix of uses and so on.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, but the current master plan for
that area, which I have in front of me, shows it as estates. So I'm not
sure why you think it shows an activity center there. Maybe the new
one might. I've got a copy of the new one right here, and unfortunately
it's too hard to read.
MR. MULARKEY: The current master plan shows it as a
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neighborhood center.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, I pulled one off of the site
last night. For some reason, it certainly doesn't look like yours.
MR. MULARKEY: Well, maybe we can get some verification
from staff on what the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's not necessary. It's a side bar
discussion anyway.
Is there any other discussion, questions of the --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just to --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just to add to that, and you're
using neighborhood center to generate it as acceptable as an activity
center. Neighborhood center by definition is low -- I mean, rather
limited use, so I just wanted to add that little piece to it. But yes, it's a
side bar.
MR. MULARKEY: Well, the future -- the current plan says up
to 15 units an acre for infill. And the future plan that has not been yet
adopted for this area says up to 20 units an acre in this area.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It hasn't been adopted.
MR. MULARKEY: It hasn't been adopted, but we're well within
the range of what's proposed and envisioned for this site.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I had a quick question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Yeah, quick question.
Would you consider coming back with this whole thing?
MR. MULARKEY: That's up to the applicant.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: That's who I was waiting to
come to the microphone.
MR. GOLD MEIER: Of course. Of course.
But can I just clarify some things? First of all, we did not intend
to do the type of detail engineering and planning to do a site plan and
bring you product. I can't predict the product because I can't -- because
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the market's not ready for the product. And this is an expensive site to
develop because a lot of things that have been mentioned.
But can I just show you something? I've never seen this exact
aerial before, but I saw something similar to that which was a
proposed district being proposed by FEMA but not adopted. And it
had similar -- and it had a similar configuration, but it was again not
adopted, only proposed. But is this the same thing?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sir, that came from a prior presentation
in front of this planning commission on probably an environmental
impact statement, I would assume, by Passarella and Associates. So
I'm not sure that -- we wouldn't have any knowledge where they got
their information from, but I can tell you where we got that picture
from.
MR. GOLDMEIER: Okay. I believe this has not been adopted.
But let me just show you about the densities in the area and what I
know that is going on around there may be helpful.
I'll try to do this. Our site is here. Behind our site are two
commercial uses. We have a school and then we have an office
building occupied by Collier County government. Those are the
commercial uses.
The mixed use element -- the mixed use element of the
Immokalee master plan has already been partially accomplished by
the commercial uses behind our property.
And I believe the property on the other side of Schoolhouse (sic)
Road from us is supposed to be a mixed use property with residential
and retail.
And according to the master plan, our property is supposed to be
exclusively residential. Because we are part of a larger -- you know, a
larger area in which commercial surrounds us. And we're supposed to
be the high density residential.
As far as comparable buildings, look, I don't want to build a
seven or nine-story building today in Immokalee. It's not going to be
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economically viable to do it. That's something that may be viable
down the road with future developments.
However, the Seminoles, as part of their reservation right back
here where I believe I have my pen right now, are building a similar
sized building as a casino/hotel, which will not be a Hard Rock but
will be modeled after the Hard Rock in Fort Lauderdale which will be
-- I don't know exactly how many stories it is, but yesterday I met with
Fred Thomas and he showed me the site and explained to me what the
Seminoles were doing there. And it's going to be a high-rise building
with a casino below it. And so this will hopefully not be the only
building of that density in the area.
And also Mr. Thomas made me aware that the area immediately
to the south of us, which is indeed wetlands, which is indeed part of a
slough. Our land is not -- you know, we have wetlands along the
buffer, but we don't have a parcel, which -- we have, you know, what
is it, 70 or 80 percent uplands?
MR. MULARKEY: Seventy percent.
MR. GOLD MEIER: Seventy percent uplands.
But Barron Collier Company owns the land immediately to the
south of us and -- well, immediately to this side of us and behind us as
well, and wraps around us. And that part of their wetlands area will be
part of a sending area to send density further down the road, further
down 846 to allow much more intense development further down 846,
as well along with the big box retailers and other commercial that will
serve Ave Maria, which is in that same general area.
We -- you know, I hope we're not crazy to want to build a large,
nice, you know, new apartment project in Immokalee, because -- but
we feel that we're in a better end of Immokalee toward where the
commercial and future growth is. We know that we only have a
certain amount of wetlands on our site and that we're across the street
from the largest employer. And the economic incentive to develop
residential there would be because we are across the street from the
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January 17,2008
largest employer.
And I don't believe that the Seminoles are providing
service-worker housing or any of the sort on their property. And that is
the incentive.
And as far as the density goes and the height goes, if soil
conditions dictate, we'll have to go up. But it's much less expensive
not to go up. And that would be our preference. But the economics of
the site are dictating that we have a minimum base number of units
and that we do what economics dictate when it comes to developing
the site.
I hope I've clarified some things.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
Mr. Midney, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Yeah, I'd just like to clarify, I
think you've done a really good job on Main Street Village. And I'm
not at all against, you know, the basic overall idea of providing more
quality housing in Immokalee. I think it's wonderful. But I think the
idea needs to be polished a little bit, especially with regard to the
wetlands and the slough.
And I think we all have to bear in mind that a wetland system,
it's not just only the places that are wet all the time but there's uplands
and there's buffer areas, and it's sort of an interconnected ecosystem.
You can't just say well, this isn't wet all the time so this isn't a
wetland. They're all related.
And when the EAR was adopted, the county agreed that it would
start doing a more -- a comprehensive assessment of which were the
wetlands and which were the places that should be developed.
And whatever we decide to do with this issue today, I would like
the planning commission to go on record to ask staff to speed up a
little bit this process so that we can have a better idea about how
everything fits together with what we want developed and, you know,
what should be preserved.
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Immokalee will be a much better place in 30 years if the places
that should be preserved are preserved and set aside and development
take place in the places that are most appropriate for that.
And a system, a slough which is -- as you can see on the map,
it's a whole integrated thing. Keeping that as a system will be
preferable, and not just sort of nibbling away at the corners of a
piecemeal.
But that's something that's not the applicant's fault. I think it's
just something that the county needs to clarify.
But at this time it seems a little bit premature to me, the scale
and the intensity that this applicant is requesting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Question: Are these
condominiums or are these apartments?
MR. GOLD MEIER: We don't know yet.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Because I heard you refer to
both.
MR. GOLDMEIER: We don't know what the market will
require. I mean, today there is a different market. If we were to do
something today, it would be different than what we foresee, you
know, down the road.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Can I make a suggestion?
MR. GOLD MEIER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: You repetitively use the word
whatever is economically feasible, economically feasible. That's
something that we usually don't take too much weight into. We need
to do what's right for the community, not what's economically
feasible.
MR. GOLDMEIER: I'm just trying to give you a
straightforward, honest answer.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Just giving you my opinion.
Any other questions of the applicant at this time?e
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January 17,2008
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Ray, do we have a he -- is there a
staff report, I would assume?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
MR. BROWN: Good morning again. Willie Brown, principal
planner with the department of zoning and land development review.
Perhaps I should have attempted to answer your questions when
the questions were raised. I'll go through my formal presentation. If
you have questions for me afterwards, I'll do my best to answer those.
The petitioner's description of the project is consistent with the
application on file. The project complies with the appropriate
regulations of the Land Development Code.
I will say at this point that a site development plan is not
required by the LDC for a standard rezone.
The proposed use is supported by the Immokalee area master
plan. The site is within a designated neighborhood subdistrict where
multi-family dwellings, along with a variety of other housing types,
are encouraged, including this parcel of land.
The project complies with Policies 5.1 and 5.2 of the
transportation element of the GMP.
The future Immokalee Road expansion from two to four lanes
intersection improvements and interconnections between lots will be
worked out during the SDP process.
And I'll make a side note here: Your wetland permits will not be
required until the SDP process is as well. So that is something that will
be considered, but not unless and until the rezone is approved by this
body and your considering the highest and best use of this property.
The wetlands permits would be considered at a later time.
There is sufficient space to meet landscaping requirements.
Environmentally the site would be developed in a way to preserve
existing wetlands and interconnect habitat areas.
A neighborhood information meeting was held on October 9th.
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There was no opposition to the project at the meeting and no letters of
opposition have been received.
Finally, staff recommends approval of the proposed rezone,
subject to the agreed upon conditions of approval.
What was considered was not the future proposed Immokalee
area master plan but the present one. And that would limit density to
15 dwelling units per acre and not the 20, as suggested by the
applicant.
The property is within a currently designated neighborhood
center subdistrict, which encourages again a variety of housing types,
including multi-family. The -- whether the applicant knows what he's
proposing at this point are not apartments or condominiums, it's what
the RFM-16 zoning district allows at the time of the development
order.
Site plan is not required, again, until the development order, and
the -- I've had a conversation with our environmental services
department, and you can bring them to the podium to answer the
question. But the aerial here that you have I'm told will not be
considered again until the SDP process. And that's of course if the
rezone is approved.
I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any questions of the staff at this time?
Mr. Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Just a comment. You knew about
this EAR rule, didn't you, about the Lake Trafford system, that it's
getting the same treatment as the rural fringe mixed use district?
MR. BROWN: I don't myself do those reviews. The
environmental services department does those. And Susan, she can
address that for you, if you'd like.
Would you please come and address that issue for me?
MS. MASON: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record,
Susan Mason, environmental services review section.
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We are aware of that portion of the Growth Management Plan
that refers to the Camp Keais slough and that portion in particular on
the Immokalee land use plan as having the rules that are required
basically in the rural lands.
For projects like this, without a site development or any kind of
conceptual plan, we don't really have a whole lot of review comments
at this time. Until we have details, we can't state whether or not a
proposed preserve location is acceptable.
The -- most of the information that was given by the reviewer
was reiterating what the requirements are going to be, that they're
going to have to be consistent with the Growth Management Plan and
the LDC when they come in. But until we see a plan, we can't make
any specific comment on whether or not it's consistent.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: What about the increased density
that they asked for of three instead of 10 percent?
MS. MASON: We don't evaluate on density. That's really a
planning issue. If the density is allowed under other planning rules, we
would evaluate for impacts only. Our -- one this size parcel our
requirement for preservation is really 15 percent minimum. In certain
circumstances we may tell them they need to preserve more, but a lot
of times they do fall back to that very minimum. They would be
required to get Corps and district permits on a site like this, since it is
connected to off-site wetlands, and those agencies would have input
on their impacts as well.
But our requirements sometimes could be more if there's a
buffering requirement to a wetland that's not required by a Corps or
district permit.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: According to 6.2.5 it wouldn't be
15 percent, it would be 25 percent.
MS. MASON: I'm sorry.
MR. BROWN: Pertaining to your question about density, if you
turn to Page 5 of the staff report, second paragraph down, it talks
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January 17,2008
second sentence, neighborhood center shall be permitted a maximum
density of 12 units per gross acre. And if you come two paragraphs
down from that one it says, to encourage residential infill, three
residential dwelling units per acre may be added, based upon the
following criteria.
So staffs recommendation is written into the recommendation
section of the report, that only 15 dwelling units per acre be allowed.
Of course that would be based at the time of SDP review that it meets
all of the other criteria that staff has to consider.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: But this says that it can only be
10 percent. So three dwelling units per acre is more than 10 percent.
MR. BROWN: And that would be taken into consideration at the
time of the SDP review.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: No.
MR. BROWN: Ray, would you like to chime in?
MR. BELLOWS: The density bonus would be subject to the 10
percent limitation, so they would not be able to get that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
MR. BROWN: Thank you. My error.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, is there anything else?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me ask.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat, then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Ms. Mason, would you intend to
retain outside consultants to interpret the Land Development Code on
any ofthose issues you mentioned?
MS. MASON: Oh, no. Staff applies the Land Development
Code. If there's ever a need for an interpretation, that's directed to the
zoning director, if we have questions on how to apply a code. But no,
we don't -- we don't contract with outside employees, it's all county
staff that make the -- do the reviews.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Thank you.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Willie, I'm having trouble
getting my arms around this infill concept. Again, it's essentially
mostly surrounded by our lowest density of residential, and yet they're
requesting essentially the highest density of residential. No buffering.
I mean --
MR. BROWN: Well, landscape buffering is proposed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I don't mean -- I'm sorry, I mean
in terms of planning, like density buffering, you know, where you
would slowly creep up to this kind of density.
MR. BROWN: Yeah, the density bonuses, residential infill
requirement is in the Immokalee area master plan. It's a part of your
consistency review written by comprehensive planning. Compatibility
is left to the zoning land development review department. And my
recommendation is essentially that Immokalee Road is in the 2030
transportation plan to be expanded from two to four lanes.
In my view, low density residential uses are not the highest and
best use for this property at this intersection. And the high density is
preferable. But that's my viewpoint and the viewpoint of our
department.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Really.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: A concern I have is any
residence on a road like that. I mean, it's not a desirable place to live,
tome.
But what about the mixed use things that are really -- you know,
the overlay zonings and stuff are really encouraging mixed use in this
area. I know in your report what you've done is gone around and find
office buildings and saying, you know, that's part of the mixed use
area.
But isn't the intent to develop projects that are mixed use, or is
the intent to within an area mix up a bunch of uses?
MR. BROWN: I'm not absolutely certain how the neighborhood
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center sub-districts are derived. There is an analysis in the staff report
on Page 5. The first paragraph elaborates on what's expected within a
neighborhood sub-district. And it's felt by your Comprehensive
Planning Department that this parcel and this area in general applies.
I would say that this project in my viewpoint fits within the
scope of the neighborhood center sub-district concept.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of staff?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad, did you get your question
answered about infill? Because I'm not sure you did. And let me read
something out of the code. Infill should refer to property
implementing any of the infill sub-districts identified in the Future
Land Use Element or Golden Gate Area Master Plan element of the
GMP, or property sharing at least two common boundaries with
parcels that are developed.
Does this property meet those infill criteria?
MR. BROWN: On Page 6 -- again, I'm referring to the
consistency review written by comprehensive planning. It says, under
conclusion, staff deems the subj ect RMF -16 rezone request consistent
with the IMP based on the following findings: Site qualifies as a
residential refill project which is eligible for the three dwelling units
per acre, and the IMP allows 12 units per acre.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you know if anybody from
comprehensive staff is here? And they can answer. You don't know
why they came to that conclusion. So really, Mr. Schiffer's question
can't be answered here today.
MR. BROWN: I could only answer--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I wish they could.
MR. BROWN: -- what they wrote in the staff report -- where
they contributed to the staff report. And I apologize for not knowing
more.
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January 17, 2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No problem. I don't think you can
anticipate every question.
But I share Mr. Schiffer's concern. Now, is there any other
questions of staff? Because I need -- I have a few.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Mr. Brown, if you could turn to
Page 1 of 6 of your rezone findings.
MR. BROWN: One of six.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On Page 1 of6, we start with a series of
questions. The second question, the existing land use pattern, you
provide a pro, a con, and a findings. The findings concern me. I need
to understand your reasoning. It says, by approving this use in
accordance with the Immokalee Area Master Plan, this proposal will
further the goals and objectives of that plan and honor the intentions of
the residents of the area.
How did you come to that conclusion that this will honor the
intentions of the residents of the area?
MR. BROWN: I think that sentence was taken out of the
applicant's application. In the last sentence is really my comment
where I agree with the comment made by the applicant which says,
staff agrees that the proposed use is complimentary and compatible
with the surrounding uses. And I kind of spoke about that earlier.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Klatzkow, from a legal perspective,
are we supposed to be utilizing the comments provided by the
applicant to justify the application, or is staff supposed to come to
their own conclusions and analysis and provide that to us?
MR. KLATZKOW: This is supposed to be the applicant presents
his position and staff presents their position and then you weigh both
positions, not a mixture.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And the rezone findings then,
Mr. Brown, then we should be striking the first sentence. Your
position is that you agree the proposal in complimentary and
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compatible to the surrounding uses. Is that fair to say?
MR. BROWN: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
Again, Ray, you and I talked about this. I think that overall staff
needs to understand that ambiguous statements in these rezone
findings can be very problematic.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, I think this is a good time to mention
that based on -- after the last Planning Commission meeting, I initiated
an LDC amendment. I'm working with Catherine Fabacher to revise
these rezone and PUD findings to combine into one basic list for staff
to utilize and eliminate those questions that don't seem to be germane
to the process of compatibility and analysis.
And we are also working with staff to help them write some
guidelines to answer the questions more directly instead of these
general type of answers that are --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, is it your expectation that staff
will be answering the questions or the applicants will be answering the
questions?
MR. BELLOWS: No, staff is answering the questions. As the
County Attorney mentioned, we are -- we take into consideration the
facts that the applicant presents and their reasons and justification, and
staff looks at the code and looks at the comprehensive plan and makes
their own analysis. And we present it to the Planning Commission,
where you may agree or disagree.
MR. BROWN: And I'll just add that the same questions posed in
the rezone findings are the same questions that are in the application.
And the applicant answers those questions. And I'm merely agreeing
with him here, that I feel the use is compatible and consistent with the
Immokalee Area Master Plan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm sure that the applicant would write
that was in the manner that best favors him (sic), and I'm sure he'd
write them in the manner that if he ever has to take them to court and
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January 17,2008
they're proffered by staff, it would be to his benefit as well.
I would think that staff would want to make a clean and
independent response to these questions, independent of the
applicant's in staffs language without ambiguous statements. And
that's what I'm -- the point I'm trying to make.
MR. BROWN: Yes, sir. I could have been a lot more elaborative
there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On number six -- and I'm cleaning these
up basically for the record -- whether the proposed change will
adversely influence living conditions in the neighborhood.
First of all, I didn't find the responses responsive to the question.
But the second sentence says, proposed use would add
affordable newer housing in the area and possibly provide affordable
workforce housing, particularly for Ave Maria employees.
We have no evidence of that. We have no testimony here today
that says it's going to be affordable. We have no idea whether Ave
Maria's ever going to want to put people in there or if any ever will.
Those speculative statements again are not necessary and even I don't
think it answers the questions to begin with. Nor does the findings on
the following page.
MR. BROWN: I think the term affordable here is used more so
than in a general way. I don't think it was meant in terms of it being
affordable housing in the way we typically term it when we speak of
affordable housing. I could have chosen a better word instead of the
one I chose here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The problem I have, Willie, is that we
have an affordable housing program. And if it's not part of that
program, then as far as this board's concerned, it really is not
affordable. We can't guarantee the affordability of it in a long-term
basis. So that word may want to be carefully used in the future.
MR. BROWN: I think I meant market rate apartment units
instead of affordable.
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January 17,2008
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On Page 5, number 14, whether the
change suggested is out of scale with the needs of the neighborhood or
the county. And the findings says, second sentence, the proposed
project would provide an array of housing choices in this area of the
county where choices are limited in an area close to local goods and
servIces.
We don't know what they're going to provide. Testimony today
very clearly says they don't even know what they're going to provide,
which is part of the problem we're having here today.
So I think that statement is pretty difficult to have in this finding.
So --
MR. BROWN: Yeah, and I guess I've been handling this
application for the past three or four months and, quite frankly, what
was presented at the NIM and what's been presented today are two
different things.
It's been an evolving project. It's not entirely different. Again,
what would be allowed is what is permitted in the RMF -16 zone
district.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Number 16, the physical characteristics
of the property and the degree of site alteration which would be
required to make the property usable in any of the range of potential
uses on the proposed zoning classification.
The finding says the degree of site work would be minimal.
We've been heard (sic) testimony that two-thirds of the site, six out of
nine acres is going to be virtually developed. Which means at the
intensity they're talking about -- and Mr. Midney's probably right, in
22 units at a maximum or whatever they could come up with -- that
isn't going to be minimal to put that kind of density on the remaining
six acres. That's going to be substantial. And I think that number 16
needs some clarification for future reference as well.
MR. BROWN: And there I think all I meant was that the habitat
areas would be preserved as well as the existing wetlands on-site. And
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January 17,2008
those would be minimally impacted. And again I could have made that
a lot more clear.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And that brings us to the end of my
questions. And I had asked everybody else if they had expressed
theirs, and I think everybody had.
Ray, do we have any public speakers?
MR. BELLOWS: No one has registered.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. There's two things that need to be
understood. And I think by the tone of the Planning Commission, the
applicant might get the hint that this may not succeed with a positive
vote. The applicant has the ability to continue it at a request -- I mean
withdraw it or continue it and come back with something more
refined, or we can vote and it can go on to the BCC.
Now, regardless of how it comes out on the vote, if it goes to the
BCC, as chairman of the Planning Commission I have the ability to
remand this to the EAC for review. It doesn't say it has to be done
before us or after us. But I certainly am going to exercise that
authority if this continues on.
If this comes back, I'll exercise the same authority, thus giving
you a heads up that you may want to do that before you waste time
getting here to be sent back again.
So with that, do you have any statement before we close the
public hearing?
MR. MULARKEY: On that note I want to address, if we come
back again, if we continue this and come back with a refined site plan
or some kind of a site plan, is it possible for us to do a concept plan
that somehow is tied as a condition to the approval of the RMF -16
zoning district, or does it necessarily need to be in a PUD format?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm not sure.
Staff, we had this come up before with the gentleman from
Marco who tried to do those homes along Barefoot Williams. You
remember that? Yeah, there was some issue there where he said he
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January 17,2008
was going to do certain things, but because he was asking for standard
zoning, there seemed to be no way to assure us that that could be
done. And I believe we rejected his project because he didn't come in
with a PUD that we could control. But I'm not absolutely positive of
the facts, but I'm just --
MR. BELLOWS: For the record, Ray Bellows.
There is no requirement to submit a PUD, even for the infill
criteria. However, when there are issues that -- with density and
mitigation requirements, it's probably a wise idea to do the planned
unit development where you can address compatibility and density
Issues.
It becomes a little more problematic trying to create a lot of
stipulations and conditions on a standard rezone where there is no real
document for staff to review. We'd be forced to deal with a standard
zoning district calculation and pulling the resolution from that, and it's
not typical of a PUD document where we can provide more criteria for
mitigation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So from the applicant's perspective, if
you go forward with this today and we vote for a recommendation of
denial, you still got to go to the BCC and on to the EAC. You're going
to need a super majority vote from the BCC. That might be difficult to
survive with a recommendation of denial from this board.
You might be better off withdrawing this petition and coming
back in as a PUD, providing the information we're used to seeing and
going through the process that we normally are expected to go through
to see how improvements are going to be made. That's your call.
MR. GOLD MEIER: Well, would it be possible to bring you a
site plan? And by the way, in knew the mood of the board, we would
have had a site plan. But we don't -- we haven't even given the thought
to the product yet ourselves.
But would it be possible to give you a site plan and not go
through the whole PUD process? Because we're doing it on other
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properties and find it extremely lengthy and cumbersome and
expensive. I don't mind giving you what you want to see, but there are
other aspects to a PUD that --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Based on what I'm hearing from staff
and from past history, I don't know how we can control it, especially
with the statements that you've told us today. So much is dependent on
the market outcome.
Out of deference to that, I certainly don't know why you would
want to get tied down to something unless you did it in a planned unit
development where you had some flexibility uses and you presented
some of those uses to us in a more organized manner.
MR. GOLD MEIER: PUD's expire. And -- PUD's expire and the
site plan may not.
And my reference to the market, I mean, you're all familiar with
Immokalee. And by the say way, I just want to thank Mr. Midney for
recognizing the job we did on Main Street Village.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: It's wonderful.
MR. GOLDMEIER: Thank you. And, you know, that we try to
do a good job. And all I'm saying is if all of you think about
Immokalee today and think about Immokalee with all the
developments in the future and the fact that our site is sort of well
positioned, there are two different entirely different types of use and
two different types of qualities.
Ifwe were to do something today, it probably would be
affordable, but if we were to wait a number of years, it probably
would not be. And that's all I was trying to say.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sir, I think we're at a point we're going
to take a vote, unless you withdraw it. It's strictly up to your side at
this point.
MR. GOLD MEIER: Well, if we withdraw it, how long would it
take to come back?
MR. MULARKEY: Well, we'd have to develop a PUD, staff
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would have to review it again.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If you're going to speak, you're going to
need to be close to the microphone, because you have to be on record.
MR. MULARKEY: What I was saying was that -- well, if it's
continued, it's not on the same thing. We can't continue it and then
hear a PUD. We have had to have an original traditional rezone. So it's
got to be withdrawn if we want to entertain the PUD option.
I have one more question about the EAC Meeting. You're saying
that if we go the PUD route, if we withdraw this and come back,
you're going to want us to see -- to go forward and through the EAC as
part of the process.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As chairman of the Planning
Commission, at my discretion, I can direct you to go to the EAC if
you haven't already been there.
MR. MULARKEY: And that's what you're --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I am giving that direction for this piece
of property for as long as I'm chairman.
MR. MULARKEY: I just needed --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So if you come back and I'm here, that's
going to have to happen.
MR. GOLDMEIER: And we do not wish to proceed with a
negative recommendation or with any opposition from the planning
board, and thank you very much for recommending the process that
we should proceed, and we will withdraw and resubmit as you
suggested.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there any motion on the part of
Planning Commission for the withdrawal?
MR. KLATZKOW: If they're voluntarily withdrawing, we're
done.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you very much, sir, we
appreciate your time.
MR. BROWN: May I just add to the discussion that there was an
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exchange at the pre-application meeting about a PUD. And the only
reason the applicants didn't submit a PUD as opposed to a standard
rezone is because the acreage of the site is less than 10 acres. And
that's how we arrived at a standard rezone.
And also, I think there's been testimony by the environmental
services director that a lot of the issues pertaining to the wetlands
would be addressed at SDP.
But again, the project would not have to go to the EAC, because
it's less than 10 acres and an EIS is not required. I just wanted to add
that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, I understand it wouldn't have to.
As far as from the PUD application it being less than 10 acres, if
it's considered infill it's available for a PUD, is it not?
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct. The LDC does allow for infill
projects to be PUD's less than 10 acres.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. And we just had this project
withdrawn, so this -- sir?
MR. GOLDMEIER: Ijust wanted to clarify, because we were
told we couldn't do a PUD without less than 10 acres. Are you
informing us that now we can do a PUD with less than 10 acres?
MR. BELLOWS: For the record again, Ray Bellows.
The land development code has a minimum size for PUD of 10
acres. However, there is a provision that if you're deemed an infill
property, it can be reduced to less than 10.
MR. GOLDMEIER: And can we respectfully request the
planning board's recommendation that we be able to be considered as
a PUD with less than 10 acres?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Klatzkow?
MR. KLATZKOW: Maybe the best way to do this is rather than
withdraw it, continue it. And then you can get with staff, we can get
clarifications that are well reasoned rather than simply trying to off the
cuff figure this one out.
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MR. GOLD MEIER: And --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's fine.
MR. GOLDMEIER: -- can we withdraw our withdrawal and
request a continuance?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, you can, sir. Is there a -- hearing
that request from the applicant for continuance, Ray or Joe, do you
guys --
MR. SCHMITT: I just want to point out for the applicant, there
will be additional fees based on converting this to a PUD document.
And as far as continuance, we are not continuing this straight rezone,
it will be -- it's actually going to come back in a PUD form, so it --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I think you're continuing the case
right now to see for sure that the PUD opportunity is open. Mr.
Bellows has provided information that I believe is accurate, but
apparently something different was supplied at a staff meeting a while
back and they've got to make sure that one or the other is correct.
Pending that, then the staff may accept a withdrawal for the
application independent of this board. And then this will go into
another process, if it's so determined.
Mr. Klatzkow?
MR. KLATZKOW: And just to note, there was some concern by
the Planning Commission whether or not this met the infill
requirement.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Exactly.
MR. KLATZKOW: And that's going to have to be, you know,
figured out before we can even figure out if the PUD is going to go
forward.
MR. MULARKEY: I'd like to make one last comment, if we
could, before we wrap up.
The way infill is defined generally in the LDC is one particular
way. But in the neighborhood center district, the way infill is defined
is completely different than how it's defined in the rest of the LDC.
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There's certain criteria that have to be met just for the neighborhood
center district as to what's deemed infill.
The way infill applies to the PUD is completely different. We're
not an infill parcel, so we don't meet the requirements of infill under
that scenario. We do under the neighborhood center master plan
district.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think either way we're not going to
sort this out here today. I think the best you can get out of this today is
a continuance, and I think I would urge you to do that route. And then
when staff works it out, you can either withdraw it when --
MR. MULARKEY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- firmly say to you yes, you can apply
for a PUD, or you can then come back at your discretion with more
detail for this board to consider, if that's what you so desire.
MR. GOLDMEIER: We just don't want to be caught in
purgatory .
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think we realize that now. And I think
that's going to be cleared up before we make a final-- you make a
final determination on what you want to do.
Okay, there's been a request for a continuance, and we've had
discussion. Is there a motion for that?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: So moved.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Adelstein made the motion, Mr.
Schiffer (sic) seconded it. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8-0.
Thank you for your time and cooperation today. Hopefully we'll
get a little further next time.
Let's take a 15-minute break to 11 :22.
(Recess.)
Item #8E
PETITION: LDCA-2007-AR-12695
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, everyone please take your seats
and we'll resume the meeting.
The Petition PUDZ-2006-AR-10171, Eastboume Bonita, LLC
was noted on our agenda to be continued to 2/7/08, in case that wasn't
available to everyone in the beginning.
Right now the petition we're going to hear is LDC Amendment,
LDCA-2007-AR-12695, Bruce Anderson of Roetzel and Andress,
reduction of required site design requirements. This is a special 2008
Cycle I-A.
County Attorney, is it required for disclosures and swearing in
under this one?
MR. KLATZKOW: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Anderson or whoever is
going to make the presentation to start with, it's all yours.
MR. LEWIS: Good morning. My name is Doug Lewis. I'm an
attorney with the law firm of Roetzel and Andress. And I'm here with
my partner, Bruce Anderson.
This amendment is something that Bruce and I have worked on
with county staff. And I'm also here with Nick Casalanguida,
representing county transportation, and their division, who are also
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supporting this petition.
Although the amendment was filed by my client, Florida Rock,
the Board of County Commissioners approved at a special Land
Development Code amendment cycle at the request of staff in an act
to -- basically to proceed with this amendment.
Because Florida Rock is working on a road project, the Wilson
Boulevard extension project, with county transportation, our client
was asked by transportation to file for the amendment as
transportation staff was short-staffed to handle this amendment.
By way of background, for many years the Land Development
Code has had language in Section 104.04 that if someone conveyed
land to the county, whether it's voluntary or involuntary, the remaining
land owned by that person is recognized as legal nonconforming.
Otherwise, such a lot would become illegal and nonconforming
because of things like lot size, lot width.
In addition, Section 104.04 provides that other nonconformities
caused by right-of-way acquisition such as stormwater, landscaping,
parking buffers, preserves areas, are deemed to be legally conforming.
These provisions limit severance damages and reduced right-of-way
acquisition costs, and are very helpful, especially in today's market, in
reducing cost of acquisition of right-of-way.
This amendment does two things: First, it extends the existing
nonconformity language to address TDR rights. For example, the
county allows one base TDR credit for each eligible five-acre parcel
or lot. If the county or someone acting on behalf the county, in this
instance our client, acquires one acre of a five-acre parcel without this
amendment, the remaining four acres would be deemed a legal
nonconforming lot, ineligible to participate in the TDR program.
If the county had not acquired the one acre out of the original
five-acre parcel, the property owner would be able to sever one base
TDR credit and any potential TDR bonuses that they would be eligible
for.
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This amendment seeks to put the property owner in the same
TDR legal position as the owner was before county acquisition. In this
way the county can avoid paying severance damages for destroying
TDR rights.
The second thing this amendment does is to extend Land
Development Code language on legal nonconformities to apply to a
situation where a private party, as in our client, is acquiring property
for the county under an agreement with the county. For example,
under an agreement with the county for acquisition of right-of-way for
the Wilson Boulevard extension, Florida Rock is responsible for
requiring the right-of-way.
As the county could end up paying for the remaining 60 to 80
feet for right-of-way for rural cross-section road, in its agreement with
our client, this amendment can result in substantial savings to the
county for the Wilson Boulevard project.
And it also goes beyond that project, as it significantly reduces
acquisition costs for road projects in the rural fringe.
In today's market it's reducing market acquisition costs for
right-of-way is a good thing and it's a wise thing to do with taxpayer
funds.
The amendment that's before you today was unanimously
approved by the EAC and DSAC. EAC provided recommendations to
strike an earlier reference to public purpose and add a county
ownership reference. The amendment before you today addresses
EAC comments and is supported by staff.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Let's start with questions from--
Mr. Schmitt?
MR. SCHMITT: I just want to note for the record that this is a
special cycle, that it was a special cycle approved by the Board of
County Commissioners, and the dates were also approved by the
Board of County Commissioners. So just for the record.
MS. F ABACHER: And it has been duly advertised.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, other questions of Doug at this
point? Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Doug, explain one little concept
here. There's a concept of a private party for parties under agreement.
What exactly is that, that a private person would buy a right-of-way,
and then -- but he'd only be part of this group ifhe had a contract or
something that he would ultimately sell that or -- I'll tell you what, say
that back to me.
MR. LEWIS: Sure. This amendment applies to a private party
under an agreement with Collier County, in this instance our client has
an agreement with Collier County, and that agreement contains
provisions for acquisition of right-of-way and the future transfer of
property to Collier County.
Now, in our agreement with the county we are obligated to
approach the property owners to try to put these properties and acquire
these properties under contract. If we're unsuccessful, then the county
would come in and condenm the balance of the right-of-way needed
for the extension in the corridor.
So this agreement would allow us as a private party to proceed
and allow the owners in which we're acquiring these parcels from to
be in the same position as they were before we acquired the properties
they were after. And that's the intent of what we're trying to
accomplish.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And when you transfer these to
Collier County, the cost of that, you'll be reimbursed for all expense?
MR. LEWIS: Our agreement; are you referring to with county,
the way that works?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I mean, essentially what
this is establishing, the ability of a private party to get between the
county and the landowner to acquire right-of-way.
MR. LEWIS: Well, that's happening now. That's happening now.
That's a method in which the county uses to acquire right-of-way.
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We're actually doing the acquisition; we're fronting the acquisition
voluntarily, interest free, to get the road built. So it's a win/win for
both the county and our client.
There is a provision that -- to the extent that the county elects to
acquire our property, we have an option to buy I think 140 feet of
width. Then they would have to pay us the difference between the 180
and the 100 feet that we're paying for. So there's 80 feet of
right-of-way that the county would have to pay for. And what we're
looking to do is reduce the total cost of right-of-way acquisition.
There are severance standards that occur. And what we're trying
to do, as we've done with landscape buffers, as we've done with
parking, we're trying to reduce the severance damages that occur. We
just want to pay for the cost of the road. If we're buying an acre, the
county must pay for the acre of road they're buying. Or if it's the
private party on behalf of the county.
So we're trying to reduce those severance damages on the
remaining land that they would retain ownership of.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Klatzkow may have something to
contribute.
MR. KLA TZKOW: Yeah, and Nick may want to chime in.
Just Brad, so you get a full understanding, one of the things
we're doing is trying to shift the burden from the road construction to
the developers. And what's happening to the developers will be
purchasing the right-of-way and doing the construction, and then
when the roads finished they'll be deeding that to the county.
Now, sometimes they'll be reimbursed for the work, sometimes
impact fees, sometimes cash sometimes. Not at all. It will depend
upon a particular deal.
What we're trying to do here is to decrease the cost to the
developer to get what really would have normally been something that
the county would have been doing at the county's cost.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But it's not set up where
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somebody's profiting by running the head of the roads and buying up
right-of-way.
MR. KLATZKOW: No, no, no.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The other question is since most
of this stuff is out in the rural area, don't we essentially measure the lot
area to be a gross lot area, which would go to the center line of the
road? We don't? We -- pure property line?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Some of them are platted. Some of your
main corridors are already on the books out there, especially in the
Estates and along the rural areas.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. All right. So it's only --
in other words, because if that was the case, then you wouldn't be
affecting the area by taking the right-of-way.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: For the record, Nick Casalanguida.
That's not the case. One item to consider, too, is if you're
considering just running your lot line evenly on both sides of one lot
line, if we didn't have an ability to do this, which is to leave the line in
the same position it was prior to the take, you may consider only
going one property line and avoiding that middle lot line and equal
take because of severance damages and things like that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, just a quick question here.
Who are, quote, another government entity or entities, unquote?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure. That would be Florida Power &
Light, that would be FDOT. Any government entity in reference to
what the EAC said. They just wanted to make sure this was for public
use. So anything that was being acquired for right-of-way didn't --
wasn't similar to that Connecticut case where the government came in
and acquired people's property and then turned it over to a
development. The final landowner would be public, the person
acquiring the right-of-way would be public, or in a contract with a
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January 17,2008
private entity for public use.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Along that same reasoning, do you
consider a stewardship area -- I mean, a community development
district or similar district like the Reedy Creek improvement district to
be a governmental entity? Because then what you're saying is Ave
Maria could exercise this authority, and that's a developer.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's a good question. I think a
determination like that would be considered public use. But in the end
is it publicly owned land? Because in a CDD you'd have a private
landowner who owns that individual lot. So if they're buying it for that
purpose, I wouldn't see that that would apply. Because the underlying
landowner for this acquisition in the end has to be the public. So that
private lot in that stewardship receiving area, that CDD, would not
apply to this.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But say you've got --let's say one
that's not already in here yet. Say Big Cypress. Say Big Cypress is
coming in and we know they're going to need a lot of new roads. Not
all of the roads may be needed for the county's purposes. Some may
be needed for theirs.
MR. LEWIS: In may just comment. For the record, in may--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
MR. LEWIS: -- I just wanted to clarify what Nick mentioned.
I don't -- we maybe may want some clarification from your
County Attorney's office on that question.
I would -- in my experience with CDD's, I would think that's not
the intent here, and out client is -- that's not what we're trying to do
here. But if that's a concern, we can look at that.
But I would think that a CDD is a governmental entity. And I
would take that position if a client came to my office. So I think that's
something -- you know, depending on where the policy is on that. But
I think it would arguably critical.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, and that's -- it's like the Reedy
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Creek improvement district, Disney. I mean, under that improvement
district they became a government entity and they were allowed to do
things that government authority can exercise.
While like the Big Cypress, I'm not saying what they're doing is
bad or good, but if they want more roads than what you feel they need
and they want to exercise this agreement for the purpose of getting
there, I'm not sure that works to the benefit of the taxpayers.
MR. LEWIS: My only comment I would make on that that you
should be aware of is that we currently have a 104.04, which I think
there may be some things coming down the pipeline to look at maybe
clarifying what's there.
Again, this amendment seeks to do a couple of things: One is it
seeks to extend the provisions to the TDR program.
The second thing is does is it does for our client's purpose, we
want to make it very clear that we are talking about a private party
under an agreement with the county and we are per that agreement
declaring these parcels. And so we want to make sure this applies to
our client.
The current language does state that if it's acquired for purposes
of setbacks and other things, this does not extend to the TDR program,
but for purposes of native preserve, open space, landscaping, parking,
it says if it's acquired for a public purpose.
And so there may still be an argument based on the current
language on the CDD that you may want to look at and consider going
forward.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if you know the entities that
you're talking about -- and so far I've Collier County, Florida Power
and Light, South Florida, why don't we just list the entities and not get
into something that could trap us later on. And then if it needs to be
amended later on because a new entity arises, we can add the entity
through another special cycle.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: And then for purposes of the
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agreement with the county, we can specify in agreement what powers
they had as well, too. So if you want us to identify those entities, that
would be a recommendation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Would the board feel comfortable with
that? Anybody not?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So I think that's where we need to
go in that direction.
Second question: You talked about the five-acre tract. And your
assumption was you take an acre and leave four. What if you had a
five-acre tract and you're coming in to it perpendicularly in the center
and you took an acre out and you have two two-acre tracts on each
side, do you have a new TDR created for each one or do you have
fractional TDR's, which I don't believe, or you we have a provision
that allows fractional TDR's? How do we do that?
MR. LEWIS: That's a great question and we talked about this
during the vetting with staff.
If you look at the way this was worded, it starts with a parcel of
five acres that is conforming that was -- existed as of June 22nd of
1999. So you have that parcel. So it's a five-acre piece in this example
that you mentioned, Commissioner Strain.
And then we acquire a strip right through that five acres. So that
reads if it's later reduced in size and it talks about reducing size for
purposes of acquisition, condenmation, purchase, then it says that the
resulting lots or parcels not so acquired shall be deemed legal
nonconforming lot or parcels of less than five acres entitled to
severance of base -- and bonus credited to the rate of one TDR credit.
So your question is ifthere's two parcels that are created? I think
we're starting with an original parcel that existed, if we need to clarify
the language. But I think the idea is if you have a parcel that works,
that's eligible and then we do something to take a part of that parcel
away, what we're saying is you're treating that parcel that was eligible.
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Because the two -- let's say it was a five-acre and you have two on one
side and you have maybe an acre in the middle and then two on the
other side, those two two-acre parcels are created well after 1999.
Those are new parcels that are newly subdivided.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
MR. LEWIS: So what we're saying here is if you had a five-acre
that existed as of that date and it was eligible, then you can get one
TDR for that five-acre parcel.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I understand that. But if you now split
that five-acre parcel because of a road going through the middle and
you create a two two-acre parcels, nonconforming parcels, are you
looking for a new TDR for each one, or if someone comes along and
buys just one of the two two-acres, do they get the TDR, or what do
they get?
MR. LEWIS: The intent is no. It would be one TDR base for the
five-acre parcel that was eligible before the acquisition.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're not getting where I'm trying to
go.
Say you split the five acres, you take an acre out, I come along
and I want to buy that two-acre parcel. How much TDR do I get with
it?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That same one TDR that you started
with. We went through this with compo planning. And the idea was
when they do a split, and there's a history now that staff reviews on a
parcel. So they would come up and say you get one TDR.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, before you go too far. So I
bought that first two-acre site on the east side of the road and I got my
TDR. Oh, Nick Casalanguida comes along with all his knowledge of
where the road corridors are going to go and he buys the extra
two-acre piece on the west side of the road down the middle. Does he
get a TDR credit?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: No. When they go to sell or try to sell
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that TDR, that parcel would get one TDR. So only one person would
be able to take advantage of that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So the first person to buy gets the TDR
and the second guy's out in the wind.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: If that was in the contract, then they
would have to let the people know. Because staff would only give
them one credit for that parent five-acre parcel.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's where I was trying to get to. So
the first buyer is going to be the most fortunate.
MR. LEWIS: And that's clearly the intent. If there's any
recommendations or enhancements, we'll clarify that. But that's
clearly the intent, one TDR for that eligible parcel.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions on
this issue?
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Is there a way -- I mean, is there
a way -- essentially if you did exactly what Mark was describing, it
would be nice ifboth sides of that road were left in natural state. So,
you know, somebody wouldn't really be able to develop that anyway.
Isn't there a way to make sure that the parent side stays together
and is dealt with in the TDR program together?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: You wouldn't have to. I mean,
depending on how much right-of-way take you would have. When we
do a right-of-way take on a -- aside from TDR's. You have to have
enough land to meet the development code requirements to build on
that lot.
So if you take three acres of that and you leave a sliver on one
side and a larger piece on one side and that side was developable,
you're still -- with the intent of this code is the day we acquire the
right-of-way, whatever state you're in, you have those rights, as long
as you can conform.
Now, what right-of-way does is we take so much that you say to
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us it's no longer a building lot, we pay the severance damages for a
building lot. But they may still be able to keep that TDR right as a
parent parcel, the whole piece.
So we've gone through this, because we've been doing
right-of-way takes for a while. When we wrote this original
amendment, we just left out TDR's. It just wasn't a concept thought
that was in there when we talked about right-of-way acquisitions.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I think my point is can we
take advantage of this -- those nonconforming lots to push them into
the not just the one but the two and three, the early bonus I think is
going to be gone soon. You know, we push them into the three TDR's
right away and then give the county something --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We wouldn't have that ability. That's
up to the -- we're trying to keep the property rights consistent with the
property rights before and after.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The other questions is that
yesterday we were sent a new version of this. I asked Catherine to
color it just to save us from going through and figuring out what was
different.
But the one prior to that was revised January 10th. This one is
December 20th. So what is the version that's going to be the final?
MR. LEWIS: In may, and I will defer to Catherine on that. But
what we were attempting to do was to, in an expedited way to get
before you the revisions that incorporate EAC's recommendations.
And in that effort we prepared a -- we worked on together a draft
that was being -- it was really a draft document. And that was
circulated on Friday. That was an internal document that we had
worked on with staff. And yet we were just trying to finalize language
that we all agree on, staff and our client, to address the EAC's
comment.
That was something that should not have been transmitted to the
Planning Commission. Apparently it was on Friday.
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Tuesday, the document you were provided on Tuesday was the
document that staff, our client, we all agreed on and it's really the final
format. And that's what you have today. And that was delivered on
Tuesday.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But my concern is that if you
look at the version date down right above the line, the older one has a
newer date than the one we got this week, so --
MR. LEWIS: That's really Catherine -- I'm not sure. I just know
Tuesday is the final.
MS. F ABACHER: I had added the revision date in on the one
that I had sent you. But this one has now been transmitted by Mr.
Lewis, and the revision date was not placed on this.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So the one we got most
recently, the one that has purple color in it, is the most recent one,
even though --
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, are there any other questions on
this particular issue?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I think the only change that we're
recommending is that the language referring to other governmental
entity or entities be stricken and that after Collier County they actually
list the entities that they're referring in this particular case.
Is that fair with everybody? Ms. Fabacher.
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry. We raised an issue about clarifying
the one TDR for the parent parcel, but you don't want to do that in this
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I don't know if any language was
suggested for clarification. I think it ended up being clarified by the
way they talked about it. Because the lot split would occur after the
date, and that the TDR would go with the person who bought the first
parcel. It --
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MS. FABACHER: Okay, that's fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- wouldn't be two TDR'.
MS. F ABACHER: That's fine. You had just mentioned that and
I just didn't know if that was the direction.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other comments or
questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a motion to recommend
approval on LDC Section 1.04.04,2008 special cycle I-A?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray made the motion. Is there a
second?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Adelstein made the second.
Any further discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Mr. Murray, Mr. Adelstein, it is
subject to the stipulation of the strike-through and adding the
governmental entity?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: As discussed.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, all those in favor ofthe motion,
signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Nick, every time you come up here, I'm a little suspicious if it's
another corridor thing, but I'm glad this one ended up simply.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Commissioner, before the meeting
ends, if! could take a minute to introduce a new staff member, if that's
possible. I don't know if you want to do it in new business, old
business.
Item #10
OLD BUSINESS
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're actually going to old business
now, so why don't we do that.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay, thank you.
Joe left. I think he didn't want to hear it.
Lisa Koehler started with us a couple weeks ago. She will be
representing transportation on -- I'll tell them the bad first and the
good later -- impact fee assessments, GMP changes, LDC changes,
corridor management ordinance that will be coming before you. She'll
be handling all the transportation's LDC Cycle Amendments coming
forward in the next calendar year, so I wanted to introduce her. You've
seen her before working for Joe and she's going to be a welcome
addition to our team.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Lisa, thank you. You jumped out of the
pot into the fire, I think. But that's your choice.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Nick.
Is there any other old business before we go to Mr. Kolf1at and
his new business?
Paul, did you have something?
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January 17,2008
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: No, new.
Item #11
NEW BUSINESS
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Under new business, Mr. Kolflat was
first, and then Paul after him.
MR. BELLOWS: Mr. Strain, I also have some new business.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, we'll after Paul. So we got three
of you now.
Mr. Kolflat, it's all yours.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yesterday's Daily News
reported a zoning dispute in Olde Cypress. My daughter owns a house
there and is involved in the dispute. The editor quotes a report by Mr.
Lawrence Forizzi (phonetic) that the community development staff,
and I quote, staff spent a whole lot more time than they had to, closed
quote, because I was a member of the Planning Commission. He goes
on to say, and I quote, I could be wrong, closed quote.
Well, he is. He implies that as a member of the Planning
Commission my daughter and I receive more community development
staff time than others. This false allegation reflects on all of us, and I
would like to share some facts with you to better understand the
situation.
For the past seven months my daughter's neighbor has had a
house under construction. During those seven months I have had on
her behalf only four occasions to meet with staff. Allegations that four
meetings with staff over a seven-month period for a single-family
home is more than normal is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous.
Regarding my rights to participate in this matter State Law
112.3143 clearly lays out what I may do and what I may not do under
these circumstances. State law prohibits me from voting on this
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January 17,2008
matter, should it be presented to the Planning Commission. However,
the law expressly permits me to participate in the matter as long as I
first disclose my interest. I intend to continue to follow the law in this
matter and not the opinions ofMr. Forizzi.
For your information I have prepared and submitted to the
county commissioners a letter report of my involvement in this matter
on January 9th, 2008, which is available for further questions and is
part of the public record. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat, thank you. I appreciate
your clarification. I think we all do. So thank you very much.
Mr. Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Yeah, and this is new business.
Kind of getting back to the thing we were discussing in Immokalee.
I'd just like to mention that I'm a little bit disappointed that staff,
when they prepared this, did not seem to reference Policy 6.2.5, the
Lake Trafford/Camp Keis wetland, which this property was involved
with. And I'm sure that in the future they will reference that and take
that into their consideration.
And with regard to that, I would like to ask this planning board
to make a recommendation to the BCC, 6.2.5 said that within a year
the county would -- let's see, where is it -- within one year the county
shall develop specific criteria to be used to determine when wetlands
having a wrap score of greater than 0.6.5 or -- well, they're talking
about numbers.
But basically that the county staff, I'm assuming environmental
staff, will start to survey this area in Immokalee and start bringing
forth some sort of guidance so that when similar projects like the one
we saw this morning start come before the board will have some basis
for deciding how they fit into the scheme of things.
And would it be possible, Mark, for me to ask this board to
request the BCC to direct staff to expedite implementing developing
these preservation criteria in Immokalee for this wetland system?
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January 17,2008
We're going to be having a workshop, the Planning Commission
will, about the Immokalee Master Plan. But I think that this isn't
something that should wait until that to come forward on. I don't know
what the feeling of the other members of the commission are.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Paul, I certainly think you could ask the
Planning Commission to do that. I think that from the planning
commission perspective, or at least mine in particular, before we
would want to make a recommendation to the BCC, I would like to
get staff to come back to us next meeting, after they've had time to
understand your question and find out what they actually have done to
date and the status of what they've done to date, versus the budget and
other things that that would entail.
Because we may find out that something's been going on that not
everybody knows about and we just need to be -- we just need to ask
the question, get the answer before we make a recommendation.
So I would certainly personally like to see staff respond to you
first, and then depending on staffs response make a recommendation
after that.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Wonderful.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that consistent with the rest of the
panel?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have a different idea
they'd like to see?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Ray, I know you've been reading
the screen, but I don't know if you heard what we said.
Mr. Midney has brought out an issue involving 6.2.5. We've
asked that staff come back with a report in response to Mr. Midney's
concerns, giving us a status of where the staff is on it, so that if we feel
the necessity then to recommend to the BCC to either accelerate or
change the progress or the outcome of that we can do so, after we have
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January 17,2008
the information from staff.
And maybe you might want to get together with Paul and get
firsthand information. I know you were tied up in something else at
the moment.
So is that consistent with everybody's wishes?
COMMISSIONER CARON: And that will happen at our next
meeting?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, and that will be an agenda item
that needs to be added to our next meeting.
Okay, that gets us through new business.
MR. BELLOWS: Mr. Strain, I had one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, I'm sorry, Ray. Yes, sir, I had your
name down here and I talked to you and I forgot. Go ahead, Ray.
MR. BELLOWS: Mr. Schmitt wanted me to relate to you that
the Board of County Commissioners has selected a replacement for
Commissioner Tuff. It's Paul Wolfley, a--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: David Wolfley.
MR. BELLOWS: Or David Wolfley, a former CCPC member.
And he's been selected.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good. David sat on this panel when
some of us started a while back. Good, excellent, thank you. That will
help give us a quorum. And I assume he'll start in February?
MR. BELLOWS: That's my understanding. And we're setting up
an orientation as soon as possible with him to get him reacquainted
with everything to make sure he has all the documents and codes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Fortunately for you he's been here
before, so that might make it a little more expeditious.
MR. BELLOWS: Definitely will.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Excellent, thank you.
Anybody else have anything?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If not, I can see there's no public
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January 17,2008
comment, so motion to adjourn.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion by Mr. Vigliotti, seconded by
Mr. Adelstein?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at II :52 a.m.
COLLIER COUNTY
PLANNING COMMISSION
Mark Strain, Chairman
These minutes approved by the Board on
or as corrected.
, as presented
Transcript prepared on behalf of Gregory Reporting Service, Inc., by
Cherie' R. Nottingham.
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