Loading...
DSAC Minutes 04/01/2026 (Draft) 1 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Naples, Florida April 1st, 2026 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Development Services Advisory Committee and Collier County, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 3:00 PM in REGULAR SESSION at the Collier County Growth Management Community Department Building, Conference Room #609/610, 2800 N. Horseshoe Dr., Naples, Florida, 34102 with the following members present: Chairman: William J. Varian Vice Chairman: Blair Foley James Boughton Clay Brooker - EXCUSED Jeffrey Curl Laura Spurgeon DeJohn John English Marco Espinar - EXCUSED Norm Gentry Nicholas Kouloheras Mark McLean Chris Mitchell Robert Mulhere Gary Hains – AHAC (Non-voting) - EXCUSED Jeremy Stark Mario Valle The following County staff were in attendance James French, Department Head, GMCD Mike Bosi, Director – Zoning, GMCD Christopher Mason – Community Planning & Resiliency, GMCD Cormac Giblin-Director, Housing Policy & Economic Development, EXCUSED Jaime Cook, Director, Development Review, GMCD Evelyn Trimino, Director – Operations & Regulatory Management, GMCD John McCormick, Director – Building Review & Permitting Division, GMCD Captain Bryan Horbel, North Collier Fire Review Captain Michael Cruz, Collier County Fire Review – EXCUSED Thomas Iandimarino, Director, Code Enforcement, GMCD Lorriane Lantz., Manager, Transportation Planning, Transportation Engineering Division Claudia Carmenate, Project Manager I – Public Utilities Engineering & Project Management, PUD Matt Thomas P.E., Manager – Transportation Planning, Transportation Engineering Division Heather Cartwright-Yilmaz, Management Analyst / Staff Liaison, GMCD 2 Any person who decides to appeal a decision of This Board you will need a record of the proceedings pertaining thereto, and therefore may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based, neither Collier County nor This Board shall be responsible for providing this record. 1. CALL TO ORDER– Chairman William Varian Development Service Advisory Committee, Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, was called to order at 3:00 PM. 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Motion to approve- Jeff Curl Motion Seconded- Mark McLean Motion passed unanimously 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. DSAC- 02.04.2026 Motion to approve- Mario Valle Motion Seconded- Mark McLean Motion passed unanimously B. DSAC- 03.04.2026 Motion to approve- Jeff Curl Motion seconded- Blair Foley Motion passed unanimously 4. PUBLIC SPEAKERS None 5. STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS a. Zoning Division – [Mike Bosi, Director] • 17 Petitions going before the board over the next 4 meetings. b. Community Planning & Resiliency Division – [Christopher Mason, Director] • Flood plain management Plan review started. • Meetings will be public c. Housing Policy & Economic Development – [Cormac Giblin, Director] • Several changes to Live Local approved by State Legislature on March 16th, 2026 • Any property owned by the County or School District is eligible for the live local zoning exemption. 3 • Outlawed setbacks that are a function of height. • Approved through House Bill 1389 d. Development Review Division – [Jaime Cook, Director, Development Review, GMCD] • Development Review/Building review staff have been meeting with GNF 1-2 times per month. They feel there are issues with site plans. We have reviewed 35 files that they flagged and found a couple minor issues that we could fix. • Greater Naples Fire has been looking into taking back over plan review. Mario Valle- It was set at the last meeting for them to bring the reviews back in-house. Fire commission has asked for 120 day set aside to prepare. What have they asked for in the meantime. Jaime Cook- They have asked for financial information, salary of the reviewers, cost of city view licenses, square footage of rent that each division pays back. Permitting financial figures of how much money GMD takes in for the fire plan review. We have provided everything. Chris Mitchell- As a member of this board I don’t understand why we want to change it when we are talking about a sample size of issues in 12,000 applications. Bill Varian- Could we ask Greater Naples Fire to do a presentation here for us Jaime French- I have asked Deputy County Manager Ed Finn to be with us today. I had a lunch meeting with Chief Shawn Hansen on February 28th, 2025, outside of the office at First Watch. At the end of the meeting, I had no understanding that there was a problem with an individual or with the Fire Plan review. Communication gaps were something we talked about, and I agreed to address. I presented at their meeting on March 12,2025 and came back and presented again on June 25th, 2025. When Chief Hansen was asked if she had any communication with me directly, Chief Hansen said outside of hallway communication there has been none. We provide a service for them. At anytime, they can cancel that service. We absorb all of the administrative cost, but we keep the fire plan review fee, they get the inspection fee. There have been comments at the board meeting that we are withholding money from them. We have engaged with Raftelis to look at the business models to see what their cost to operate would be and what the benefit to our bottom line is. A statement was also made that we are withholding information from them. They have access to City View and can pull any reports they want. They can also pull a public records request for Salary information if needed. As a board you can vote to keep this as is with no changes. Be informed and be involved because this may and likely will affect your business. Bill Varian- Is there something as a board that we should be asking for Jaime French- I am bringing it to your attention because the cost of the study is coming out of the fees you paid. It will cost 75-80K to fight this. We have the right to have a 3rd party independent review done to protect ourselves and our employee. Bill Varian- What is the time frame on this Mario Valle- They took a vote to postpone action for 120 days. Jaime French- At the last meeting this employee was provided a vote of no confidence. We have asked for it in writing, and we have not received it. It is an adverse action to a licensed 4 individual and it is a reckless. The Chief has asked for a meeting, and it will be held here in this office, and all meetings have minutes taken that are public records. Blair Foley- As a board do we want to take action on this. We can make a statement on our position. Mario Valle- It is very difficult to get CO on a building and to have that pulled in the end is difficult to stomach. A non-profit group to have to go through this and why wasn’t anything said at the rough. Norm Gentry- We have been down this road before with East Naples Fire District and Golden Gate. It caused a lot of issues. Are we as a board going to vote to make a statement on our opinion. Blair Foley- Do we want to make a motion or do we need to submit a letter with our position on this. Robert Mulhere- We could write a letter saying that we are collectively as a board in favor of facilitating, fully compliant review as efficiently as possible. Mario Valle- That the status quo of what we are doing is working but there might be a need for some interpretative understanding between the agencies but the status quo of how we are managing the process of the fire reviews to the boards liking. So who would that go to William Varian- It would be a motion of this board to Jaime Cook directly. Mario Valle- Made a Motion- “We move that we maintain the current working contract with the fire district to keep the reviews inhouse and if there needs to be an understanding of the interpretation to have that be a conversation point, but there is not a need to restructure the process.” Jeff Curl- I agree with Bob, a letter would help as well. Blair Foley- I will second your motion Mario. I will also suggest using the same language in a letter from this committee. Norm Genty- Suggested an amendment to the motion to state, “We are happy with the current way the system is operating. It provides consistency. If there any improvement needed in our view, it should be consistency between plan review and inspections” Mario Valle- Accepts amendment to the motion Blair Foley- seconds Motion passed unanimously e. Operations Support & Regulatory Management Division – [Evelyn Trevino, Director] • Pay study will be ready to present to DSAC within 60-90 days. • 153 permits in routing. Working on 3/31 • Intake- 278 permits in routing. Working on 3/30 • 952 Customers into main building. 74 Immokalee, 61 Heritage Bay, 80 Everglades City. • Cityview updates- Right of way bond changes available as of today. Impact fees will be ready in Cityview by May 1st. f. Building Review and Permitting Division- [John McCormick, Director] • March- almost 5000 permits • We are working on 534 residential, 450 Structural • We try to average 20 days for plan review and 10 days for final type. 5 Doug- • Bill 399 was signed last week- Requires additional threshold inspections. • Bill 803 pending signature by the Governor. Private provider rules are changing. If they use a private provider for inspections, we have to reduce our fee by 50%. If they use a private provider for inspections and plan review, we have to reduce our fee by 75% • Anticipated changes to our fee schedules • We are not allowed to visit sites for inspections that have private providers. They have zero oversight. • Private providers have 5 days for review and automatically go to the front of the line for review. Bill Varian- Shared frustration over communication breakdown when interpretations change. Asked for communication to avoid confusion and delays in the field. Jaime French- Raftelis will be reviewing the fee schedule to make adjustments to the approved fees to make up for the changes to private provider inspection rules. Mark McLean- Do we have a counterbalance that says a local builder using the local municipality gets front of the line privileges. Is there an ordinance that supersedes building codes. Jaime French- State preempts local. This is a preemption of home rule authority. g. Collier County Fire Review – [Michael Cruz, Captain] • Excused- No updates h. North Collier Fire Review – [Bryan Horbel- Captain] • March- 703 permits with a 3-4-day turnaround. • 60 Planning permits with 2-day turnaround. • 1240 New Construction inspections. • Occupant license/Business license. It has changed to Change of Use to document if there has been a change of use. We do an occupant license inspection to make sure they are ready for business. • Next day on inspections i. Code Enforcement Division – [Thomas Iandimarino, Director] • Animal cruelty fines increased per offense to 1st- $2500, 2nd $5000, 3rd $7500.00 Jeff Curl- Are those fines subject to the board for appeal Thomas Iandimarino- We are going to do a manual ordinance to add an M for a mandatory court appearance based on the level of the offense. 6 j. Public Utilities Department – [Claudia Carmenate, Project Manager I] • No updates k. Transportation Management Services- [Matt Thomas, P.E. Manager] • Vanderbilt extension phase II- Design complete. Construction start date anticipated late 2026 for 18 months. • VBR phase I, 92% completed. Anticipated completion early Summer 2026 • VBR/Logan Intersection. 11% completed. Anticipated completion February 2027 • Stan Gober Bridge rehab. 3% completed. Notice to proceed issued 3/9/2026. Anticipated 395 days to complete by Spring 2027. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. PL20260002471- LDCA (3 -19-2026) Eric Johnson, LDC Planning Manager • Land Development Code Amendment- Section 05.0405 Temporary events. • Current system doesn’t make sure event area is safe. • $200.00 application fee with $150.00 Fire review fee. • Will require events held on Collier County property that are opened to the public to have a temporary use permit. Motion to approve- Jeff Curl Motion seconded- Mark McLean Motion passed unanimously 7. OLD BUSINESS None 8. COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS Mark McLean- We would like to invite any board members who want to participate to attend the April 21st Subcommittee meeting. We need an additional voting member. 9. ADJOURN Future Meeting dates May 6th,2026 3:00 PM June 3rd,2026 3:00 PM July 1st,2026 3:00 PM (TBD) There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned at 5:00PM. 7 COLLIER COUNTY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE _________________________________________ William Varian, Chairman These minutes were approved by the Committee/Chairman on ___________________, (check one) as submitted _______ or as amended _______.