CCPC Minutes 12/03/2009 R
December 3, 2009
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida
December 3, 2009
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
Donna Reed-Caron
Karen Homiak
Tor Ko I flat
Paul Midney
Bob Murray
Brad Schiffer
Robert Vigliotti
David J. Wolfley
ALSO PRESENT:
Heidi Ashton-Cicko, Assistant County Attorney
Ray Bellows, Zoning Manager
Thomas Eastman, Real Property Director, CC School District
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AGENDA
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNlNG COMMISSION WILL MEET AT 8:30 A.M., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3,
2009, IN THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING ROOM, ADMINISTRATION BUll.-DING,
COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTER, 3301 TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST, NAPLES, FLORIDA:
NOTE: INDNIDUAL SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO 5 MINUTES ON ANY ITEM.
INDNlDUALS 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 WISIDNG TO HAVE
WRITTEN OR GRAPlllC 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 HEARlNG. 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, WInCH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON
WInCH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. ROLL CALL BY SECRETARY
3. ADDENDA TO THE AGENDA
4. PLANNING COMMISSION ABSENCES
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
6. BCC REPORT-RECAPS
7. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
8. CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS - 200712008 Combined Cycle; including one 2009 Petition Transmittal of GMP
Amendments
A. Petition: CP-2008-1. Petition requesting an amendment to the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and Golden
Gate Area Master Plan Future Land Use Map and Map Series. to create the Estates Shopping Center
Subdistrict to allow a maximum of 225,000 square feet of commercial uses of the C-4 zoning district, with
exceptions, and some uses of the C-5 zoning district, with requirement to construct a grocery store, for
property located on the north side of Golden Gate Boulevard extending from Wilson Blvd. west to 3rd
Street Northwest, in Section 4, Township 49 South, Range 27 East, consisting of :MO.62 acres.
(Coordinator: Michele Mosca, AICP, Principal Planner)
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B. Petition: CP-2008-2, Petition requesting an amendment to the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and Golden
Gate Area Master Plan Future Land Use Map and Map Series. to expand and modify the Randall
Boulevard Commercial Subdistrict to allow an additional 390,950 square feet of commercial uses of the C-
4 zoning district, with exceptions, for property located on the south side of Randall Boulevard, extending
from 8th Street Northeast west to the canal on the west side of the Big Corkscrew Island Fire Station, in
Sections 26 and 27, Township 48 South, Range 27 East, consisting of:t:56.5 acres. (Coordinator: Michele
Mosca, AICP, Principal Planner)
C. Petition: CP-2007-1. Petition requesting an amendment to the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and Golden
Gate Area Master Plan Future Land Use Map and Map Series. to create the Wilson Boulevard Commercial
Subdistrict, to allow a maximum of 40,000 square feet of commercial uses of the C-l through C-3 zoning
districts, for property located on the southeast comer of Immokalee Road (CR 846) and Wilson
Boulevard, in Section 27, Township 48 South, Range 27 East, consisting of :t:5.I7 acres. (Coordinator:
Corby Schmidt, AICP, Principal Planner)
D. Petition: CP-2007-2. Petition requesting an amendment to the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and Golden
Gate Area Master Plan Future Land Use Map and Map Series. to create the 1mm0kaIee Road/Oil Well
Road Commercial Subdistrict to allow a maximum of 70,000 square feet of commercial uses of the C-I
through C-3 zoning districts, for property located at the southwest comer oflmmokalee Road (CR 846)
and 33rd Avenue Northeast, in Section 15, Township 48 South, Range 27 East, consisting of :t:10.28
acres. (Coordinator: Carolina Valera, Principal Planner)
[PETITION WITHDRAWN BY AGENT: D. WAYNE ARNOLD 11/12/2009]
E. Petition: CP-2007-3. Petition requesting an amendment to the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and Golden
Gate Area Master Plan Future Land Use Map and Mat> Series. to create the Mission Subdistrict to allow
church and related uses, including schools, adult care and child care and 2,500 square feet of health
services, with a maximum of 90,000 square feet of total development, for property located on the south
side of Oil Well Road (CR 858), 1/4 mile west of Everglades Boulevard, in Section 19, Township 48
South, Range 28 East, consisting of :t:21. 72 acres. (Coordinator: Beth Yang, AICP, Principal Planner)
F. Petition: CP-2008-4. Petition requesting an amendment to the Future Land Use Element and Future Land
Use Map and Map Series. to re-designate from Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District (RFMUD) Sending Lands
to Neutral Lands property located on the east and south sides of Washburn Avenue, east of the Naples
landfill, in Section 31, Township 49 South, Range 27 East, consisting of :t:28.76 acres. (Coordinator:
Corby Schmidt, AICP, Principal Planner)
G. Petition: CPSP-2008-7. StatIPetition requesting an amendment to the Future Land Use Element to add a
new Policy 4.11 pertaining to aligning planning time frames in the GMP. (Coordinator: David Weeks,
AICP, Planning Manager)
H. CP-2009-1. Petition requesting an amendment to the Future Land Use Element and Future Land Use Map
and Map Series (FLUEIFLUM). to create the Dade-Collier Cypress Recreation Area District within the
Conservation Designation, for property located along the Miami-Dade/Collier County border, in
Sections 13, 14, 15 & 16, Township 53 South, Range 34 East, consisting of I,608:t: acres. (Coordinator:
Thomas Greenwood, AICP, Principal Planner)
I. CP-2007-S. Petition requesting an amendment to the Future Land Use Element and Future Land Use Map
and Map Series. to create the LoganlImmokalee Mixed Use Subdistrict to allow a maximum of 260,000
square feet of commercial uses of the C-I through C-4 zoning districts, maximum of 60 dwelling units, and
agricultural uses, including nursery operations for property located at the southeast comer of Immokalee
Road (CR 846) and Logan Boulevard, in Section 28, Township 48 South, Range 26 East, consisting of:t:
41 acres. (Coordinator: Corby Schmidt, AICP, Principal Planner)
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J. Petition: V A-PL2009-1162. Elke Remmlinger-Behnke, as Trustee of the Bernd Schoenherr 1998
Irrevocable Trust, represented by Karen Bishop ofPMS, Inc. of Naples, is requesting two after-the-fact
variances for an existing screened pool enclosure that is an accessory structure to a single family dwelling.
The ftrst request is for a variance of 2.5 feet from the required rear yard setback of 15 feet as provided for
in Section 8.16 of the Kings Lake Planned Unit Development (Ordinance Number: 82-52) to allow the
existing accessory structure to remain at 12.5 feet from the rear property line. The second request is for a
variance of 2.41 feet from the required side yard setback of 7.5 feet as provided for in Section 8.16 of the
Kings Lake Planned Unit Development (Ordinance Number: 82-52) to allow the existing accessory
structure to remain at 5.09 feet from the side property line. The subject .26:t: acre property is located at
2454 King's Lake Boulevard, in the King's Lake Unit 3, in Plat Book 13, Pages 33 and 34 of the Public
Records of Collier County, in Section 7, Township 50 South, Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida.
(Coordinator: Nancy Gundlach, AICP)
K. Petition: CU-PL2009-170. First Haitian Baptist Mission, Inc., represented by Frederick E. Hood, AICP,
of Davidson Engineering, Inc., is requesting a Conditional Use expansion in the Agricultural (A) zoning
district pursuant to Land Development Code (LDC) Subsection 2.03.01.A.l.c.7. The proposed Conditional
Use will permit expansion of a church by adding 1,550 square feet to an existing church building and by
adding a new 19,281 square foot general purpose building. The 4.59 acre site is located at 14600
Tamiami Trail East in Section 12, Township 51 South, Range 26 East, Collier Coooty, Florida.
(Coordinator: Nancy Gundlach, AICP)
9. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. Petition: SV-PL2009-1165, Henderson Properties, Inc., represented by Bruce Anderson, Esquire of
Roetzel & Andress, LPA, is requesting a variance from Subsection 5.06.04.F.4. of the LDC which allows
one wall, mansard, canopy or awning sign for each unit in a multi-occupancy parcel to allow two (2) wall,
mansard, canopy or awning signs per unit in a multi-occupancy parcel with one sign facing the abutting
road and one sign facing the internal parking area. The subject property is located at 13555 Tamiami
Trail North and 895 Wiggins Pass Road at the northwest corner of Tamiami Trail North (US 41
North) and Wiggins Pass Road, in Section 16, Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier Coooty,
Florida. (Coordinator: Nancy Gundlach, AICP)
B. Petition: RZ-2008-AR-13951, Olde Florida Golf Club, Inc., represented by John Passidomo of Cheffy
Passidomo, and Margaret C. Perry, AICP, of WilsonMiller Inc., is requesting a standard rezone from the
Golf Course (GC) zoning district to the Agriculture (A) zoning district. The subject property, consisting of
553.67:t: acres, is located on the Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension, appromnately 2 miles east of the
Vanderbilt Beach Road (CR 862) and Collier Boulevard (CR 951) intersection, in Section 31,
Township 48 South, Range 27 East, Collier Oounty, Florida. (Coordinator: Kay Deselem, AICP)
C. Petition: PUDZ-2007-AR-11398. Shoesop Properties, LLC, represented by Timothy Hancock, AICP, of
Davidson Engineering, Inc. is requesting a rezone from the Estates (E) Zoning District to the Commercial
Planned Unit Development (CPUD) Zoning District for a 25,000 square-foot commercial retail and office
development to be known as Fakahatchee Plaza CPUD. The 5.46-acre subject property is located at the
northwest corner of the Golden Gate Boulevard (CR 876) and Everglades Boulevard intersection in
Section 6, Township 49 South, Range 28 East, Collier Coooty, Florida. (Coordinator: John-David Moss,
AICP)
10. OLD BUSINESS
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11. NEW BUSINESS
A. Revisions to the GMP amendment hearing schedule for the Adoption of the 2007-2008 combined cycle
petitions, and the Transmittal of the Immokalee Area Master Plan petition.
12. PUBLIC COMMENT ITEM
13. DISCUSSION OF ADDENDA
14. ADJOURN
11/19/09 cCPC AgendalRay Bellowslld
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to
the Thursday, December 3rd 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 customary pause before we start
the Pledge of Allegiance is so we're not pledging the back of Brad
Schiffer's head. Gives him time to get off to the side, he's in the line
of fire.
Item #2
ROLL CALL BY SECRETARY
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Roll call by the secretary, please.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Mr. Eastman?
MR. EASTMAN: Present.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Commissioner Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Here.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Commissioner Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Present.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Commissioner Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Here.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Commissioner Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Here.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Chairman Strain?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Commissioner Vigliotti is
present.
Commissioner Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Here.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Commissioner Wolfley?
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December 3, 2009
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Here.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: And Commissioner Homiak?
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, thank you.
Item #3
ADDENDA TO THE AGENDA
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Addenda to the agenda. We have our
consent item agendas, which are extensive, and I want to ask the
County Attorney if we can go through and discuss them all at once
and make one motion to approve them all or if they all have to be read
individually and approved individually.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: It's whatever your preference is. I'm
okay with either --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We'll do them all at once then, as long
as no one objects once we get into discussion.
Then we have three regularly advertised hearings. And I don't
believe there are any exceptions to those. And we have a new business
item, which is a GMP amendment scheduling.
Item #4
PLANNING COMMISSION ABSENCES
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And with that, we'll talk about Planning
Commission absences.
We have a couple nice things going on. We are going to be
going to Immokalee for a workshop on the Immokalee Area Master
Plan on December 16th. Now, that's the night before our December
17th meeting, so we're going to be kind of jammed up with meetings.
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December 3,2009
But the -- it seemed to be the only time it could be fit in with the
locations in Immokalee.
This is a workshop. It will not be broadcast. There will not be a
court reporter there. Minutes will be taken. And we're there I would
assume to hear the eRA's position and the Immokalee residents'
position on their master plan.
I don't expect that that meeting, for the benefit of the Planning
Commission, to go through line-by-line, word-for-word,
page-by-page, anything at all. I think it's more of a general
informational meeting and informal back and forth so we can get a gut
feel on what everybody is expecting out of their master plan and help
us review it when we go back in I think it's January or February.
But that is on the 16th. And I believe it's at 4:00 in the afternoon.
Is that right, David?
MR. WEEKS: Yes. David Weeks, Comprehensive Planning
Department. It is at 4: 00.
And if you don't mind me jumping on in, we've made the
assumption that, as happened with a petition a year or two ago, that
the Planning Commission might be interested in vanpooling over. So
we have a reservation on the van for those that would be interested in
traveling over as one group.
We could meet at our offices at 2:30 on the 16th.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: By "your offices", that's a big building.
Which one?
MR. WEEKS: The west end of the building. Right where --
right across from the credit union.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: And where is it going to be?
MR. WEEKS: We'll have the van parked right there at that end
of the building.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: No, the meeting.
MR. WEEKS: Oh, the career and services center. Same place as
the hearing a couple years ago that you held on Silver Strand.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, Paul won't have to drive out
there. Save you some gas for the first time in many -- a couple years.
MR. WEEKS: Mr. Chairman, I'm just now bringing it up. I
won't ask for a poll of hands now, but I would ask that each Planning
Commissioner that has an interest in attending, please send an e-mail
or a phone call to myself.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I've got to know how many--
we're not going to vote on the meeting, we can't take action at the
meeting because it's a workshop. But just for the benefit, how many
people believe they cannot attend that meeting?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I may be out of the state, so
we'll see.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So looks like there'll be seven or eight
of us, at least. Well, that's good.
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: No, I mean, David, do you need to
know how many of us are going to go in the van? I'm not sure
anybody wants to drive, so --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah.
MR. WEEKS: I do, if you're comfortable deciding right at this
moment. I didn't know if people would need to think about it, but --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, I've got -- I'm not sure how I'm
going to get out there yet but I'll let you know.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Dave, did you say 2:30?
MR. WEEKS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I might be out that way anyway, so
there's no sense driving all the way back in to here just to get a ride in
a van.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: With us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: By the way, guys, you all know the
tendency of certain groups to criticize when they see more of us sitting
together than just one, so when you're in the van, we can't talk about
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December 3, 2009
anything to do with the Planning Commission at all. So I guess we'll
talk about Tiger Woods or something.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Sing Christmas carols.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: With that in mind, we'll move on to the
-- next meeting is the 17th. Does anybody know if they're not going
to be here on the 17th? That's our regular meeting in this room at
8:30.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Once again, I may --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: -- still be --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And then one other item I'd like
to mention concerning agenda Planning Commission meetings, the
transmittal meeting for the Immokalee Area Master Plan is -- David, is
that I believe in January or first part of February? Do you recall?
MR. WEEKS: I do, because that's on your agenda today to
discuss.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, then let's get it on the table and
discuss it so we -- is that the item that you added for new business?
MR. WEEKS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, why don't we finish that right now
then and try to let you go.
MR. WEEKS: Sure. Well, turns out I will be here for another
matter.
The memo was -- should have been provided to you in advance.
There's two items to discuss. And we're already on Immokalee Master
Plan. We're asking for your transmittal hearing to be on February the
16th. That would be in this room at 8:30.
And carryover dates to be regular Planning Commission meeting
dates on February 18th and March 4th, if those are needed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. WEEKS: The adoption hearing has not changed your
schedule.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One thing I wanted to note to you,
unless there's a majority objection from this board, I would like to
hold the transmittal hearing in Immokalee. Because this board has the
option of holding meetings here or there. Now, that is more of a
costly meeting because it has to have the media and has to be
broadcast. I think regardless we should do it.
I have spoke with Penny Phillippi with the CRA. She's very
concerned that we not -- if we didn't have it there, and I agree with
her. So under any circumstance -- and she said that the CRA, ifneed
be, would find a way to help pay for the -- offset the costs.
So regardless, we need to schedule that meeting in Immokalee.
So whatever staff has to do. And I have a feeling, based on my
reading of the Immokalee Area Master Plan, we could be there a long
time. So it may be wise, and I don't know what -- if you could
coordinate with Penny on the time frame to start that meeting. I
would prefer we try to start during the day. Because I don't know if
we'll get through it if we start late in the afternoon or evening without
being there to unreasonable hours and everybody falling asleep, so --
COMMISSIONER CARON: It's scheduled for 8:30.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here. Yeah, so we would have to have
it -- but if we go out there, is 8:30 doing anything? I mean, if we go
out there and schedule the meeting for 8:30 in Immokalee so the
people can participate, since that is more of a working community in
some ways than our coastal area, will enough people be able to attend
to have it effective? And I think we need to kind of -- if you could
coordinate with the CRA to talk about the time, that would be a good
thing.
Now, this is pending any objection by the Board of County
Commissioners. If they feel this is a restrictive budget issue, then
obviously we can't do it. But I don't see that being that much of a
problem, especially with the eRA's cooperation in the cost.
MR. WEEKS: Mr. Chairman, would the Planning Commission
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December 3,2009
want to give any type of direction as to preference for time to begin?
Or at least a range: After lunch, in the morning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Paul, since you're a key element in this
whole process, this is a Tuesday and it's the Immokalee Area Master
Plan. And I know you have a conflict on different parts of the week
with your job. Is there some way that this can be arranged to
coordinate better for you?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Well, it has to be a Tuesday; it
has to be this day, right?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I don't -- no, it could be different
days. Especially if it's in Immokalee. We have a lot more freedom to
move the days because we have open rooms out there.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Well, my best day schedule-wise
would be Thursdays. All my Thursdays are available.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So we would need a Thursday in
between our regular meetings.
Could we try to look at that, David, see if we can find a better
time? Because Paul's involvement's going to be critical.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: I'm going to come regardless.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I know, but I hate to see you -- it's
good if everybody can keep ajob right now. The more you can keep at
your job I think the better, so --
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: The diabetics will appreciate that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That would be the 11th or the 25th.
MR. WEEKS: Please don't move it forward. Don't bring it
closer. We're under such a tight time frame as it is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, the 25th is another
Thursday that would be open. And if a Thursday is -- does that work
for most of the people on this board and the general -- Brad?
COMMISSIONER CARON: We have a meeting on the 26th.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, could we do it on a
Saturday, open it really up for the community?
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December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But that takes a lot of changes in staff
time and overtime. That would completely --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let them take a Wednesday off
and -- I don't know, just if you really wanted the community, that's
probably --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the intent is to have the
community involved. The workshop's going to hopefully accomplish
a lot of community input.
David?
MR. WEEKS: I should mention to the Commission that there's
one and possibly two other comprehensive plan amendments that may
be added to your Immokalee Master Plan schedule.
You recall at your last meeting we discussed the Petition
CP-2008-3 Patrick White was here to discuss. That's the one located at
the southwest corner of Golden Gate Parkway and Santa Barbara
Boulevard. He will appear on the December 15th County
Commission agenda under public petition to ask that they approve its
addition to the Immokalee Master Plan schedule.
If the board approves that, of course that means in addition to the
Immokalee Master Plan, you will have that petition as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But what that means, David, is that we
have to hear that petition within the time frame that the lAMP is being
processed, not necessarily the same day; is that correct?
MR. WEEKS: That's correct. And in fact we anticipate, I cannot
say for certain, but anticipate that the petitioner would not be ready for
your advertised date at the time we -- assuming it was going to be the
16th, but within your five-week continuance window. So that it might
be either advertised separately two or three or four weeks later than
the 16th or whatever date we agree upon or advertise on that date but
continue within the five-week window.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I would suggest that when you schedule
the Immokalee Area Master Plan in Immokalee we don't bring
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December 3,2009
anything in there with it. Because then it would be unfair to the
coastal area to have to drive to Immokalee to attend something that
they rarely would know about. So we'll just re -- we can always slip
that one element in a regular meeting, either in the afternoon or
morning of a regular meeting scheduled Thursday. Because our
meetings aren't that booked anymore. The economy has cut that down
quite a bit as well.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I've been thinking about the
issues here, that we -- and I fully agree, we should go for a workshop
out there because of the -- and we're going in the evening because we
anticipate that as many people who would like to go would be able to
go.
But to go out there and go for the day, are we really going to
benefit those people? Will they come?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Oh, yeah.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And -- I mean, I'll go. I'm not
reluctant to go if I think that there's some true advantage to them. But
having done the workshop and having them in attendance, would they
not feel secure and then have their leaders come?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My comment to David was to check
with the eRA, who is sponsoring this workshop, to see if they feel that
a daytime meeting on the actual transmittal would be effective. And I
think based on David's response back to us on that we could probably
respond better, Bob, on whether that would be workable or not.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, I'm fully in support of the
idea of as many people can benefit from it, so that's not my issue. It
would be a shame, especially if we have a carryover day, given the
expense associated with going out there for the county, that if it didn't
fulfill its purpose, that would be a sad thing. That's all. That's what
was going through my mind.
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December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron, then -- Donna, you had
something you wanted to -- and Paul and Bob.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, I was just going to say, if we
are talking about moving the meeting on the 16th to a later time frame,
late afternoon, into the evening, then that shouldn't be a problem for
Paul, who can arrange his schedule for the daytime. So I don't think
we need to move the 16th, I think we just need to determine a start
time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And that's fine, too. My point was that
if we start late in the evening, the amount of work we have to do in the
Immokalee Area Master Plan may take us numbers of evenings. And
that begins to be a real problem on a transmittal and a cost to reset up
every single time out there.
So I was trying to figure out how we could do a transmittal
hearing and be done in one day. So we need to start early enough to
get that point done. That's what my goal was.
Paul?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: For me, my preference would be
the first meeting the 11 th and the second on the 25th. I don't know if
that's possible.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that's what David will have to
check. The 25th, David, is a little bit of a problem because the 26th
we have an all day meeting, our first one, on the LDC amendments.
And I already know they're going to be very contentious in some
regards. So I have a feeling that we're going to be studying quite a bit
for the 26th. So the 25th may be the most problematic.
And for you guys the 11th is problematic.
MR. WEEKS: It is. It is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Maybe we look at a Friday or Saturday
or something like that. Anything later -- later in the week I guess is
better for you, Paul?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Well, Fridays I have another
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December 3,2009
support group meeting. But don't worry about me, I'll be there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, let's let David figure it out
with eRA. But I think we need to have that in Immokalee, so do the
best we can to make sure it's effective, if we do.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir. And Mr. Vigliotti had--
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Enough confusion.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: David, is it reasonable to even
have an expecta -- not an expectation, a possibility of doing it Friday?
You folks are off. You're on a four-day week, are you?
MR. WEEKS: Our department was not affected by that, but the
entire building's back on a five-day workweek, so that would not be an
.
Issue.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Maybe Friday makes more sense
in some respects. Because we could -- because if you work into the
night and the following day you've got to deal with the regular
meeting, you have that issue for older people who might be a little
tired. But the next day, Friday --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You saying I'm old?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I don't think he was talking
about himself.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No, I wouldn't talk about me.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, David, why don't you just work
with the CRA, come back with whatever options you can, and at our
next meeting we'll try to -- and maybe we can discuss it on the 16th.
That way the public that is there can--
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: That would be good too.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah.
-- can understand what we're trying to do.
Item #5
Page 12
December 3, 2009
APPROV AL OF MINUTES
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, now that we've beat that to death,
let's move on to the approval of the minutes. There are none, but there
is an announcement. I guess this is as good a time as any. The legal
ads for today's hearings have been given to the court reporter from the
County Attorney's Office. And I guess that will be the process we'll
have at every meeting. And I'll try to remember to acknowledge it at
each meeting.
Item #6
BCC REPORT - RECAPS
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bee report and recaps. Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes, on December 1st, the Board of County
Commissioners heard the PUD rezone for the Naples Continuing Care
Retirement Community, CFPUD. Board of County Commissioners
approved that 5-0, subject to the Planning Commission
recommendations.
And the companion items, the amendments to the Orange
Blossom Gardens PUD and the Oak Grove PUD, was also approved
5-0.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But I understand the project was
substantially modified from what we saw.
MR. BELLOWS: My understanding, it wasn't substantially
modified. There was a clarification dealing with sidewalks. And Mr.
Moss is here to --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There's something to do with heights
and a few other things I heard in the --
MR. MOSS: It was. It wasn't substantially modified at the
hearing. Prior to the hearing the applicants met with some of the
Page 13
December 3, 2009
commissioners and heard their concerns. They lowered the building
heights adjacent to Orange Blossom significantly, and so that's no
longer -- no longer became an issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And had they done that at this meeting,
they may have had a different result of their outcome, so -- thank you.
Item #8A through #81 (Consent Agenda Items)
PETITIONS: CP-2008-1, CP-2008-2, CP-2007-1, CP-2007-2, CP-
2007-3, CP-2008-4, CPSP-2008-7, CP-2009-1 AND CP-2007-5
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chairman's report. I don't have
anything that we haven't already talked about.
And the consent agenda. There are items A through K. And I
would like to just ask the Planning Commission -- I'll run down the
letters one at a time, and any comments from -- and I will just get into
them.
I do know that when we get to Item E, staff is looking for some
direction there. So does anybody have any comments on petition
CP-2008-1? That's Item A.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Item B is 2008-2.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Item Cis CP-2007-1.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Item D has been withdrawn by the
applicant, CP-2007 -2. For reference, that's the Immokalee Road and
33rd Avenue Northeast. That's the one opposite Oil Well Road.
Item E is Petition CP-2007-3. That's the one staffhas a question
about in regards to the Mission subdistrict that was off of Oil Well
Road. If you recall, there was a church coming in with a series of
uses, many of which would fit under a conditional use application.
Page 14
December 3,2009
We had a lot of discussion on that. It was approved 8-0.
Staffs question is concerning whether or not soup kitchens and
homeless shelters are prohibited in this subdistrict.
I went through my notes that I took very carefully of each item.
And on that item, 2007-3 I made a note, okay, 8-0. There were four
issues: One was no soup kitchens or homeless shelters. So I believe
that's probably the way the motion went.
And whenever the tape is available and minutes, if you wanted to
verify it. But I have no reason -- it's not crossed out as others are that
were changed during discussion, so I would think that stays.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would agree with that. My
recollection is the same. That question was actually asked, I think by
Brad. But in any event, I know it was asked. And they said no, they
didn't want soup kitchens.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. I think the applicant had
indicated it was one of the things that they didn't want, which did help
them then not -- maybe they needed a GMP amendment in lieu of a
conditional use or whatever option the staff was going to discuss with
them.
Anybody have any other comments on that one?
(N 0 response.)
MR. WEEKS: Mr. Chairman, there's a second --
COMMISSIONER CARON: There's a second question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Whether the property adjacent to
this sub --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- subdistrict is allowed transitional
conditional uses.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And again, it said that -- my item -- the
Page 15
December 3, 2009
second part of our motion, according to my notes, was add language to
retain no additional conditional uses alongside. Meaning there could
be no -- that would not happen. They could not have conditional uses
alongside it.
So that's what the notes say. I don't know of any reason why we
would want to change them.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's my recollection as well.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Question. These are adjoining
properties not owned by the applicant? Cannot have conditional use --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the way Golden Gate is set up is if
you have a use that's considered nonresidential basically or a
commercial use, next to it you have a right to what's called a
transitional conditional use. And we're making an exception here
because it's not in an activity center, so there's no need to put in a
transitional conditional use. And that's what we -- I believe we voted
on. Is that --
MR. WEEKS: Right. The staff perspective is that as we
discussed, you might recall a lot of discussion about is this really a
commercial subdistrict or is it something that falls under the umbrella
of church.
Ultimately staff decided that we should keep it as a separate
subdistrict. But because there is some I'll say quasi commercial or
arguably commercial component to this, to play it safe we would
agree that it's appropriate to have this condition. To make it clear to
everybody, every reader of the plan that no, the site is not viewed as
commercial, at least from the perspective of is an adjacent property
eligible for a CU.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. If there's no other comments, I'll
move on.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We have Item F, Petition CP-2008-4.
Any comments on that?
Page 16
December 3, 2009
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There's Item G, Petition CPSP-2008-7.
Any items on that?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Item H, CP-2009-1, any items on that?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Item I, CP-2007-5, any items on that?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Item J, it's -- well, that's the end of the
Growth Management Plan amendments on the consent agenda. We
have two other items on the consent agenda, but let's handle those
GMP amendments first.
Is there a motion -- with the discussion that we had involving
Petition CP-2007-3, for clarification, is there a motion to approve the
consent agenda for the GMP amendments as clarified?
COMMISSIONER CARON: So moved.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So moved.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron -- Mr. Schiffer made the
second, Ms. Caron made the motion.
All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: I abstain. I wasn't voting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, motion carries.
Page 1 7
December 3, 2009
Tor, were you -- I'm assuming you were in favor. Okay, so that
would be 8-0, with Mr. Midney abstaining.
Item #8J (Consent Agenda Item)
PETITION: V A-PL2009-1162~ ELKE REMMLINGER-BEHNKE
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Next petition is the -- for consent is
V A-PL2009-1162. This is the variance at 2454 King's Lake
Boulevard. Anybody have any comments or concerns about the
variance language?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, is there a motion to
recommend approval on the consent agenda?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Made by Mr. Vigliotti. Seconded by?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: (Indicating.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Wolfley.
Discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
Page 18
December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 9-0.
Item #8K (Consent Agenda Item)
PETITION: CU-PL2009-170, FIRST HAITIAN BAPTIST MISSION,
INC.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Next item is Petition CU-PL2009-170,
the First Haitian Baptist Mission, Inc. on Tamiami Trail East. It's on
the consent agenda.
Is there any comment, questions.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, is there a motion to
recommend approval of the consent agenda?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti. Seconded by--
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- Mr. Wolfley.
Discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Okay, anybody opposed?
(No response.)
Page 19
December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 9-0.
MR. BELLOWS: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That takes care of all our consent items.
Yes, sir.
MR. BELLOWS: I believe we have one more item to discuss.
Mr. Weeks wanted to --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On consent?
MR. WEEKS: No, back to the schedule.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I'm sorry, I thought we finished
it all up. Go right ahead.
MR. WEEKS: We discussed Immokalee, but there's also a
change to the '07-'08 cycle of amendments for adoption.
We're asking for Tuesday, June 1st to be your scheduled date.
And alternative dates -- or if you accept June 1st as the date, then
these others could be carryover dates. That would be Tuesday, June
15 and Monday, June 21. Again, if and as needed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You know, David, seven months in
advance with this economy and this world, I think that you are very
optimistic. But that's fine. I don't schedule that far anymore. I used
to before things went to -- but anyway, that's -- anybody have any
problems with those dates?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And David Wolfley's global warming
issues, who knows where it will be by June. We might be under
water.
Okay, I think we're fine, David, thank you.
Item #9A
PETITION: SV-PL2009-1165. HENDERSON PROPERTIES. INC.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That brings us to our regular agenda
Page 20
December 3, 2009
items, the advertised public hearings. The first one is Petition
SV-PL2009-1165. It's Benderson Properties, Inc., for a variance for
signage at Wiggins Pass Road and U. S. 41.
All those wishing to participate in this item, please rise to be
sworn in by the court reporter.
(Speakers were duly sworn.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there disclosures on the part of
Planning Commission?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes, I had a meeting with Mr.
Anderson.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I too had a -- not a meeting but just a
brief discussion with Mr. Anderson. And we'll probably be talking
about the same points here today.
Okay, Bruce, it's all yours.
MR. ANDERSON: Good morning, Mr. Chairman,
Commissioners. My name is Bruce Anderson from the Roetzel and
Andress Law Firm.
And with me today is Derek Watts from Benderson
Development, one of their design directors.
And this is for a sign variance, very simple and straightforward.
My clients have two buildings at the intersection of Wiggins Pass
Road and U. S. 41. Where the store fronts are oriented toward the
interior of the project rather than the typical orientation facing the
abutting streets.
Benderson's intent in doing this was to try to implement the
concepts of new urbanism by placing buildings closer to the road and
avoiding a sea of asphalt parking spaces adjacent to the roadways.
The variance request is for buildings four and five. There's a
decorative fountain in the middle of the two buildings. That fountain
Page 21
December 3,2009
is not yet operable because of contractor problems.
Building five has -- which fronts on U.S. 41, has two tenants, one
at each end. Panera Bread is on the north side of the building, and
AT &T are on the south side.
Because they are located at the corner of that building, each is
clearly entitled under the code to have two wall signs.
In building -- there are no other tenants in building five. And in
building four, which fronts on Wiggins Pass Road, there are no tenants
at all.
In the past few months my client has been contacted by several
prospective tenants who do see the light at the end of the economic
tunnel, and they want to open a new business at this location. That's a
good thing. It means employment, it means sales tax revenue, it
means increased property values and therefore increased property tax
revenues.
These tenants rightfully believe that their businesses need
identification that is visible from the abutting roadways and which
clearly identifies their names and depicts their specific location in the
complex.
These tenants have not yet signed a lease unless they are able to
have the sign that is visible from the abutting roadway as well as from
the interior parking lot.
I might add that Benderson thought they had the right, under the
sign code as it's written today, to have those two signs. But rather
than get an interpretation and get into an adversarial appeal, they
chose to go the route of a variance and try to cooperate with the
county like they always do.
In conclusion, I would say that my client and its perspective
tenants ought not be penalized for designing a project that is arguably
more attractive than a traditional strip mall. And I think the
comprehensive plan also encourages projects to use these new
urbanism concepts.
Page 22
December 3, 2009
I'll be happy to try to answer any question, Mr. Watts or I, and I
thank you for your consideration.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, are there questions of the
applicant?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Bruce, I mean, the new
urbanism is nice to say, but the problem here is you put the rear of the
building on the main intersection, and now you want a sign on the
back of the building which is facing the intersection, right?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You might want to pull your mic a little
closer. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Did you hear the question?
MR. ANDERSON: Yes, I did.
The backs of the buildings have been, for lack of a better word,
dressed up to more closely resemble store fronts.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But there's no entrance from the
back of the building into the stores.
MR. ANDERSON: No.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The dumpsters are on the corner
of 41 and U.S. 1.
So essentially the design you've done is you put the back of the
building up at the prime corner. I mean, I've been watching this thing
being built, and it was kind of interesting to watch.
So now you're coming back saying you need an additional sign.
I mean, what's the reason you would put a sign on the back of a
building? I guess if it faces a major intersection.
MR. ANDERSON: I mean, that's why. I mean, people driving
by don't know what's there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Based upon the design of the
building.
MR. ANDERSON: Correct.
Page 23
December 3, 2009
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And the hardship that
you're claiming and the staffs actually supporting, but I'll wait for
them, is that the design of the building is causing the hardship.
MR. ANDERSON: But again it's not a self-imposed hardship,
really, because they thought, and I believe they're correct, have the
right under the existing code to do that (sic). So when they built these
buildings and oriented them the way they were, they thought they
could do that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But -- and tell me how through
the code you think that's true then. Because I do know that section of
the code and --
MR. ANDERSON: I've highlighted the portion that I believe
would allow them to do this under the existing code.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You need to back out of that a little bit,
Ray. Thank you. I can't read everything. Okay.
MR. ANDERSON: We are dealing with a multiple occupancy
parce I.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Correct.
MR. ANDERSON: And it says I think clearly there shall be
allowed two signs. So clearly the code contemplates that. They just
don't want them to be on the same side of the building.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. I mean, I would kind of
agree with that if you had a tenant and a store front there.
But the sad thing about this, and again, watching it be built, is
this really was the back of the building. You have doors that are
normally put on the back side of a building, you have the utilities, you
have the fire department controls, you have everything on the back --
on this building which is facing this major intersection. So for you to
assume that it's the front of the building is confusing. And could this
not cause confusing (sic) to people who are going there to shop, they'll
park their car and they can't get in? Well, there's no windows or doors
anyway into this space, so that probably won't confuse them.
Page 24
December 3, 2009
But anyway, I just think this design, it always startled me what
you're doing. I think putting the dumpsters out there on the corner just
never made any sense. But thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of the applicant at
this time?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Question as to the dumpsters. It
was my understanding, based on a meeting with Mr. Benderson that I
attended, that those dumpsters would not be on any corner and that
they are not there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Would you put that site plan back up?
I'm equally surprised. I know this isn't what you're asking about. But
you've got six dumpsters along 41. That's an interesting phenomena.
MR. WATTS: If I could, my name's Derek Watts, I'm with
Benderson Development and I'm the director of design.
The plan that's being shown was the original plan. But we did
relocate the dumpsters. Those are not there. We -- you know,
hindsight's 20/20. We -- once we decided that we were going to do a
great job with the fountain at the corner, it really didn't make sense, if
you trying to make that a focal point, to have a dumpster right next to
it. So those were moved. Those were relocated interior to the
property .
COMMISSIONER CARON: And I can tell you that that's
happened.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, but here we have exhibits
that -- I mean, what happens down the road when they pull these
exhibits out that don't -- I mean, why would you not present us a
drawing that shows where you are locating the dumpsters? I mean, if
you're locating them, you must have a drawing by now.
MR. WATTS: We do. And, you know, that's our bad, I guess, if
that's where you're heading.
To your question earlier about the orientation of the buildings, it
Page 25
December 3, 2009
goes back to the point made earlier that we were trying to do the right
thing in terms of the new urbanism principle, which basically means
you're trying to push the buildings -- if I could finish -- trying to push
the buildings out to the end, you know, closer to the edge of the
property .
What that does is it minimizes the amount of parking that you
have between the building and the road.
As a retailer, what they are concerned about is having enough
parking close to their entrance to their building. So that's where we
came up with the idea of putting the actual entrances on that other side
where there's more parking.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The new urb -- I mean, it kind
of makes me a little bit angry you're using that as your reason. There's
nothing in new urbanism that will put the rear of the building closer to
the road. I mean, yes, that's a principle, but it's the front of the building
that the people should be seeing, not the rear.
MR. WATTS: Correct. The--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The blank walls.
MR. WATTS: No, you're absolutely right.
The other thing that we were trying to do, though, is have the
buildings relate to the main center. And we thought the best way that
those faces of those buildings would relate to the rest of the center is if
they're facing each other.
We're trying to promote cross-shopping. If you're in Bed, Bath
and Beyond you get out of your car and you look, oh, there's Panera
Bread, you can see there's store front. That was part of the rationale as
well.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I agree with that and I
think that's fine. And the signs on the side of the building into the
parking lot where the entrance of the buildings are will do that.
This sign is just an additional sign for advertising. It's not a wall
sign to show people the entrance of --
Page 26
December 3, 2009
MR. WATTS: Yeah. And if I could, I know we all know this.
But right now is not the best time to be trying to lease space. We don't
want to be at a disadvantage to be able to attract good quality tenants
to fill these buildings. That's our job, we're trying to fill the building.
If you are a perspective tenant and you're looking at this building,
right now if you are between the end caps, if you're not an end cap
space, you can only have one sign. Basically that means you have to
make a decision. Do you want to put a sign where people can see it
and know that you're there on a heavily trafficked road, or do you
want to put it where it naturally normally would be on your store
front? And that's a difficult decision and not one that tenants want to
have to make.
You will not see both signs at the same time, obviously. So we
don't think it has a negative impact from an aesthetics standpoint. The
second sign would be per your code.
But I think it's very important to try to fill these buildings. If we
have this going against us, I think it's going to be an even tougher road
to hoe.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But you designed it this way.
In other words, the back of these buildings, and the disappointment
I've always had looking at them, is they could have store fronts in the
back. The reason they don't is I'm sure you have a storeroom in the
back. But I mean, these buildings could have been designed with a
storeroom in the center. This could have been a beautiful glass facade
looking into stores, people could have parked there walked in and you
would have had the advertising and everything you need in those
show windows. But instead you put a blank wall with one steel frame
door probably coming out the back to take the trash out to the
dumpsters.
MR. WATTS: Well, basically there's a few points I'd like to
make. Again, the buildings were pushed out as close to the road,
which means we have -- you see there one row of parking against the
Page 27
December 3, 2009
building. Retailers need to have the parking in close proximity to the
entrance of the space. The entrances are in towards the plaza. So
therefore it wouldn't make sense to have the store fronts facing out,
okay?
As far as the layout of the spaces, in an ideal world these tenants
could be through and through. In other words, you could have two
entrances. The reality from a retailer standpoint is most of them don't
operate that way. It's a security issue -- there's a number of reasons
and rationale why they don't have two entrances. But it's very rare to
have a front and a back. It just doesn't work. It's not the real world in
terms of retail.
So in my opinion I think we did a great job of making it
four-sided architecture. We went beyond just having a metal door, as
you referred to it. There's actually glass there, there's awnings. You
know, we did a number of upgrades. We tried to make these buildings
look like four-sided architecture. So I think we tried to do the right
thing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron, I think you had started this,
so we'll let you continue.
COMMISSIONER CARON: The centers of those buildings
where essentially it's the meter rooms and the fire and whatever are
the largest mass along the sides of both of those buildings. There are
no awnings there. There are awnings to the units off to either side.
MR. WATTS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Why is it not possible to put
awnings in the center, thus softening the entire effect?
MR. WATTS: No, it certainly is possible. We actually did it as
a conscious decision to break up the facade. We like to have awnings
in some areas and then break it up a little bit with a different
architectural look.
But to your point, we could certainly add awnings. That's not out
of the question, certainly.
Page 28
December 3,2009
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, I certainly think it would go
a long way to softening the look. Because at the present time where
you do -- you did not design a front facade as you were required to do
by code on those buildings. We then had to go back and include
something. So you put up this fake glass and all of that is fine, except
now in the center of those buildings we have this mass of whatever --
it obviously is just fake glass with meter room and fire room and
whatever written on the doors.
MR. WATTS: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARON: So it's not a good view from 41 or
Wiggins Pass.
MR. WATTS: We could--
COMMISSIONER CARON: So I would think that awnings
would at least help in that respect.
As to the signs themselves, I guess my question will be to staff
why the corner units are allowed two signs and the center units are
not. I'm not quite sure I understand the premise.
I will tell you that living up in this neighborhood, if you put signs
on the outside on the facades facing Wiggins Pass or U.S. 41, you will
see them only from Wiggins Pass or 41. If you put the sign internal,
you see them internally. You never see the two signs at once, no
matter where you go.
So I think it's less of a visual -- it has less visual impact than
some other areas where obviously we're trying to stop sign
proliferation in this county. But in this case I'm not sure that that
actually happens.
But I am concerned about the overall look that these buildings
still have.
MR. WATTS: We could certainly commit to adding awnings to
those center sections. Like I said, it was a chosen design, in our
opinion. But obviously we could add those awnings, it's not a
problem.
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December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other comments of the applicant?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I just --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Ray, could you do me a favor
and put on an aerial or something that shows? This plan I don't think
shows what's built. It doesn't show the cornering the way it is on the
building.
MR. ANDERSON: We're going to bring you up a photograph.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Donna, one thing in your
discussion, it sounds like they've been adding architectural elements to
this facade.
In other words, what's drawn there, is that what the original
permit showed? I mean, and the reason I'm asking is from the
architectural standards, that building always -- I mean, you know, it
was kind of annoying, because it totally missed it. And then pieces
keep adding on.
So you're trying to obtain the architectural standards on that
facade that would be for a, you know, public right-of-way?
MR. WATTS: Yes, we did have extensive conversations with
staff and with other members of the commission, as a matter of fact,
about upgrading or enhancing the rear treatment of the facades of the
building.
And we did do that. We did meet, spent a lot of time on it,
determined which certain types of embellishments meet the criteria,
meet the letter of the intent in terms of adding additional glazing. We
added, you know, the additional awnings. There was some other
decorative items, embellishments that were made to bring this
standard up even higher.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, by additional, do you
mean in addition to the -- because this is a primary facade. For a
while there it didn't look like one. But now it's growing towards it.
Have (sic) you actually think you've surpassed the architectural
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December 3,2009
standards for primary facade?
MR. WATTS: No, we definitely do believe. And like I said, we
had numerous conversations, and the result of those conversations,
you know, are what you see out there today . We do believe we meet
the intent. We believe we exceed the intent.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right. Okay, thanks. That's
-- staff and I will discuss it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions before we go to
staff?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just to be absolutely certain I
understand clearly, kindly show me the various entrances to the
buildings where persons can park and then go into the buildings,
whether they be in the front or the back. Can you point to them on
that photograph?
MR. ANDERSON: In here.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So they are only in the back,
there's no access from the front.
MR. ANDERSON: Well--
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: This is the front.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You've got to use the microphone,
Bruce, you know.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The front is the back, isn't it?
MR. ANDERSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And that of course is the hinge
on all of this.
So the back, which is the front, is accessible to all the persons
who want to go in there, and you would not have any signage unless
you had this variance.
Whereas the front, which is the back, that which is on 41 and
Wiggins Pass, has no means that a person can get into the property.
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December 3,2009
That's not available. So they can just see a sign as they're passing by.
No stores there. Or would that be for one store, these buildings, or for
multiple stores?
MR. ANDERSON: Multiple.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So what kind of a sign are we
really looking for, Joe's multiple stores? What are we actually looking
for?
MR. ANDERSON: It would be like the AT&T sign. I mean, it's
going to be what you have on the front you would also have on the
back, or vice versa.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I understand now, as clearly as I
want. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions?
MR. ANDERSON: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions -- don't sit down.
Any other questions of the applicant?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I've got a few. The -- there's two
barren out-parcels on this property that I can see by this aerial. Are
you expecting to do the same thing with those in -- regarding signage
that you're trying to do in which this variance is now limited to just
those two buildings?
MR. WATTS: Plans unfortunately for the out-parcels are pretty
much stagnant right now. We did have originally some discussions
with a few banks, but unfortunately due to the times that we're in right
now, we're not in active negotiations on those pads.
But I think ultimately they would be of a bank nature, and we'll
do our best to orientate the building, similar to what we did with the
existing bank on-site where the drive-throughs are to the rear and
shouldn't have those same types of issues with signs.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So -- but if you decide because you
have multiple uses on this commercial property not to put a bank, and
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December 3, 2009
you've already got one bank on-site, I can't -- I don't expect you to
have two more banks. I think that would be -- I think they may not all
want to lease in the same shopping center.
So now let's assume that one of those two out-parcels won't be a
bank, that it will be another building similar to the ones that are here.
Are you going to design that building so that it doesn't need two signs,
or are you going to design it like you have these so that you want two
signs?
MR. WATTS: That's a tough question to answer. Because like I
said, we've only contemplated out-parcels, we haven't really thought
about a multi tenant building.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ifit was a single tenant?
MR. WATTS: It wouldn't -- I don't believe it would be an issue,
because it wouldn't be an in-line space.
I think the problem we're having here is these spaces between the
end caps. That's where we're getting into the problem.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As you move -- can you move to the
north on this sign, or this aerial?
MR. WATTS: I've got a -- there's actually a larger overall, if
you'd like to see it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, that's fine, just slide it down so we
can see more to the north, that might be all we need. I need, at least.
To the -- there you go.
Well, the entrance way up on the top is what I was trying to get
to. I had asked Bruce if there was permission or use of, say, whatever
business is in these two buildings you're asking for a variance on. Do
they have a marquee sign at the entrance in which they also have
additional space for more signage?
MR. WATTS: Basically our intent with these pylon signs that
you're referring to, is that they're primarily there for the benefit of the
main retail center.
Our thinking going into this was that the out-parcels should have
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December 3, 2009
pretty good visibility by the nature of their placement next to 41. But
that all hinges on what we decide here today.
But certainly we -- space is limited. Retailers are craving for
exposure on 41. We're trying to basically hold the pylons for the main
retail center because of the disadvantage that they have in terms of
visibility from 41.
Not to say that there might be an occasional deal made. If it's a
great national retailer that the only way they'll go here is if we can
give them a half of a panel, we may do that at some point for those
out-parcels. But that's not the intent. The intent is to use that for the
main plaza.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
Anybody else have any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ifnot, we'll hear the staffreport. Thank
you.
MS. GUNDLACH: Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Nancy
Gundlach, Principal Planner with the Department of Zoning and Land
Development Review.
And staff is recommending approval of this sign variance petition
before you today, with a condition of approval. And the condition of
approval is that these additional wall signs are limited to buildings
four and five and to the unit facades that face towards Wiggins Pass
Road and Tamiami Trail North.
And with that, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer
them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray, then Mr. Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Nancy, you're saying limited to
four and five. By that you're suggesting, to me, at least, that's what
I'm hearing, that they should never come back in for any other
variances; am I correct in that?
MS. GUNDLACH: They have a right to come back for other
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December 3, 2009
variances, but this variance we are only considering.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: For building four and five.
MS. GUNDLACH: Yeah, I kind of -- okay, Ray's pointing.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Now I have it better in
my mind. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Well, I was going along the
same line. Why -- I mean, those are two separate -- or two additional
parcels. I don't know why we just don't allow -- I mean, something's
got to show who's there, unless it's a bank, you can tell it's a bank. I
don't know why we just don't allow instead of having them come back
in, other than collecting fees, to just say it's acceptable for those two as
well, because they're in the same situation.
MS. GUNDLACH: I don't know what they are, because I don't
have the design of the out-parcel buildings. It could be a building just
for one business, as opposed to a multi tenant building that we're
looking at for buildings four and five.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Sure.
MS. GUNDLACH: And the request before us and presented to
us by the applicant was for only buildings four and five. So that's
what we have considered in this staff report.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Okay. Well, I just think we
ought to add those other two in, it wouldn't take but a couple of words.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Nancy, one thing that still
perplexes me is we're using the design of the building as the hardship.
So as a designer I can design myself into this corner and seek relief. I
mean, how come that doesn't make sense to me?
MS. GUNDLACH: Okay, perhaps, I should maybe try to change
our paradigm a little bit. But these signs are in keeping with the intent
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December 3, 2009
of the sign code. And the intent of the sign code is that these signs are
compatible with their surroundings. They are designed and
constructed -- well, will be constructed and installed in such a way
that they're not going to be a distraction to motorists and consumers
who are passing by these I want to call them store fronts.
And just keep in mind that our urban design standards do require
that those facades facing towards the right-of-way are treated as front
facades. So they have the look of a front facade.
They are appropriate to the design -- to the activity that will be
within the tenant units. And they are going to be, you know, large
enough signs to convey what's happening in the units, but small
enough that they satisfy our standards for regulation.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, but let's take a shopping
center someplace else. Does that mean people can go into the back
alley and put signs in the back of their building? Are they allowed to
do that?
MS. GUNDLACH: Our code prohibits that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. And isn't that the same
condition here?
MS. GUNDLACH: Well, I'm not sure that that's an alley.
MR. BELLOWS: For the record, Ray Bellows.
I reviewed this application too. And I think the difference is
we're dealing with a major arterial on U.S. 41 and also a major
east-west road in Wiggins Pass.
And the visual impact of buildings, what would be perceived as
the rear of a building facing those roads, I don't think anyone wants to
have -- our architectural review for those buildings require them to
look like fronts on those buildings, even though they're technically the
rear.
But to help make them look like a front, the signage comes into
play. And as long as they meet the intent of the square footage
limitations, then I think that adds to the design of the -- to make those
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December 3, 2009
rears look like fronts of buildings. So that was one of the criteria that
we looked at in the variance criteria of the buildings. It really is, I
would think, more in lines of making the building facades look like
front facades.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So what you're saying is that if
you're designing the rear of the building on the main right-of-way,
which to me is the, you know, primal sin, but -- and then what you're
saying is let's keep it going. Let's start to dress it up to make it look
like a front facade. Because over time they did. And then you're
saying to really fake it out, let's put signs on it to make it really look
like a front facade.
But, you know, our sign code doesn't encourage multiple signs.
People are then going to park, walk up to a door they can't go in. I
mean, you're going to give the illusion of a front facade so good if you
keep it up that people are actually going to be tricked to thinking it is a
front facade.
I mean -- anyway, that's -- the question was is that yes, I guess
you can design yourself into this corner and seek relief through the
variance process, because we are here, correct?
MS. GUNDLACH: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I don't think that's a good
precedent, but -- okay, I'm done.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, I mean, I essentially agree
with Mr. Schiffer, I don't think you should be allowed to design
yourself into a variance. That's not what it's about.
We have what we have here on this corner. I t has been a source
of major contention in the neighborhood for a long time. We've done
the best we can to try to make the front facades facing Wiggins Pass
and U.S. 41 look like the front facades they're supposed to.
Do they? Not hardly. But after the fact, once again, when staff
approves something, after the fact trying to correct it is a very difficult
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December 3, 2009
process.
When you drive into this plaza, either from Wiggins Pass or from
U.S. 41, you will hardly aim toward the 41 or Wiggins Pass Road to
park unless there's no place else to park, because the majority of the
parking for these units is to the internal side.
So I don't think people are going to mistake it and come in and
try to weave their way around to the front to enter the buildings.
Nancy, why does our code allow two signs for those on the
corners and only one for those in the center?
MS. GUNDLACH: I can attempt an educated guess. Probably
because there are two different walls facing two different directions.
COMMISSIONER CARON: In this case do we have two
different walls?
MS. GUNDLACH: We have two different walls facing two
different directions.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right. Which you do on your
corners, two --
MS. GUNDLACH: Yes, it's--
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- different walls facing two
different directions.
MS. GUNDLACH: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me just --
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'm done.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, then Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, you can let Mr. Murray
go first.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Bob?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mine's real quick anyway.
With regard to the sign code and it speaks about distraction, I
think I could make a case that there would be a greater distraction with
the absence of a sign on the back of the buildings which front the main
roads as opposed to the opposite.
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December 3, 2009
And this is all very interesting. I had done a little thing too, and
I'm certainly not in Mr. Brad Schiffer's category of knowledge
architectural, but it would have been nice, and we cannot redesign the
building, but it would have been perhaps simpler had that building
been right on lot line instead of having that road around there.
But I know that people looking for something in the absence of a
sign, they're going to be far more distracted. So I think that's probably
fait accompli here. It's there and to deal with it. I suppose that's why
you agreed to it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. I mean, I'll pass.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Anybody else have any
questions of the staff?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Nancy, and I guess Ray.
Ray, you said something that puzzled me, and I would like you to
put the language that Bruce had highlighted up on the screen, please,
so we can talk from that.
Ray, you seem to justify the request by saying that in order to
make the front facade on the rear appear as a true front facade, then
the signs would be logical basically to be added to that.
And then I remember Bruce putting this up there, and this is a
multi occupancy parcel, and it says, shall be allowed two signs, but
such signs shall not be placed on one wall.
Now I'm wondering why do we have -- if you believe what you
said, Ray, why do we have an interpretation of that yellowed
highlighted area, which I'm assuming is the focus of what got us here
today, contrary to what you seem now to believe?
MR. BELLOWS: If I understand the question correctly, you're
asking why are they in for a variance?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you indicated this
would -- putting this -- I mean, yeah, I'm asking that question based on
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December 3, 2009
what you said in addition to the question that was raised about the
interpretation of this yellowed area. I'd like to know who on staff
interpreted it, how strong or what the basis was for their interpretation.
Because that is really an understanding of why we're here today and
I'm trying to find that out.
MR. BELLOWS: Well, the petitioner has three options. They
can apply for -- if there's a disagreement with staffs interpretation of a
code, they can apply for a zoning verification letter, asking if signs
could be placed as they're proposed. Or if the language is vague
enough, the zoning director can make an official interpretation of that
language. There's processes for that.
Now, the buildings, there are two buildings, separate buildings.
Each have a corner. Each of those buildings have corner signs
pursuant to the code, in staffs opinion.
Doesn't mean the building in the middle of those end units
qualify as corner parcel. And that was the interpretation of my
understanding, but I don't know all the background. And maybe
Nancy can fill in some of the other parts.
But they could have applied for an interpretation. Instead of
applying for a variance, they could have applied for a zoning
verification. My understanding is they applied for the variance
because they agreed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And I know some of my other
commissioners would like questions. Let me finish what I started,
though, here for a minute.
MR. BELLOWS: One other question -- or response to the
question was if we looked at the -- the reason I was supporting it is
there are going to be additional buildings along the roads that face the
front that will have signs there. This would keep signage consistent
with that down the line of those other out-parcels.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, but I want to go back to your
statement that because they're required to have a front facade on thel
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December 3, 2009
rear because of the road that they're facing, that the signage of the
nature they're asking for helps produce that front facade look that staff
apparently believes is a requirement.
MR. BELLOWS: It's not a requirement, it's a justification to
help support the variance.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What is, the front facade look or the--
MR. BELLOWS: The front facade look.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So they didn't have to put a front facade
on the back of this building.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. That's what I--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, it is a requirement then. Youjust
said it wasn't a requirement.
MR. BELLOWS: Well, the facade architecturally, not from a
signage standpoint.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Wow, maybe I'm missing the
entire boat here. But I'm getting more confused.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, can I say something --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, go ahead, Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- about that?
Ray, put that clause back up. Because I think the problem with
that clause is it says parcels with double frontage on public
right-of-ways. This has a single frontage on the public right-of-way.
In other words, that is written for something that where streets
were on the front and back side of a building, that would be available.
That's not the condition here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You've got a private parking lot in a
single public right-of-way.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, I believe you're correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. ANDERSON: May I speak to that? This is more of a legal
.
Issue.
If you'll look the way the sentence is structured, the double
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December 3,2009
frontage requirement is only applicable to a single occupancy parcel.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So let's --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So take out the words after or to the
word right-of-way and then read the sentence without that. And then
we're saying, end units within shopping centers and multi occupancy
parcels shall be allowed two signs, but such signs shall not be placed
on one wall.
And that would read -- now, is that -- starting the sentence with
the word end unit. So would that then apply to only the end units of
these buildings? And I think--
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- that's where staffs interpretation--
MR. BELLOWS: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- was versus Bruce's that it's not just
the end units of those shopping centers, because it's a multi occupancy
parcel, it's all the units. But then that would negate the purpose of
saying end units in the beginning of the sentence.
Okay, I see where --
MR. ANDERSON: I never claimed that the code made sense.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, but you're interpretation does,
right? We know better.
MR. BELLOWS: And that's where my point was, if they
disagreed with staffs interpretation, they could have filed for a zoning
verification letter or an official interpretation of the language.
However, they chose to submit the variance.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But you know, Ray, I was
understanding all that until you had said that as part of the front
facade, the fake front -- the pseudo front facade in the back, the signs
would make that more of a real front looking facade. And if staff
really thought that, I wonder why we're even here today. That's kind
of where I was trying to go in my original --
MR. BELLOWS: That's because of the code interpretation was
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December 3, 2009
that those middle units interior to the building would not qualify for
signs facing the road.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But then you could have used the
interpretation you just said, that because they are supposed to have a
front facade --
MR. BELLOWS: But like I said --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- they need the signs.
MR. BELLOWS: -- they didn't choose to file for an
interpretation of the language. My hands are constrained. They were
not qualified for signage under the interpretation -- or staffs
interpretation of the code. They could have gone to the zoning
director, filed an official interpretation and had her clarify the
language. I think it would have come out the same way, but --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But you couldn't walk into Susan's
office and say Susan, what do you think? I mean, why couldn't you
have done that? And we could have saved everybody the trip here
today.
MR. ANDERSON: We did that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And what did Susan say?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: That's why we're here.
MR. ANDERSON: You can't--
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: That's why we're here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, then an 0.1. wouldn't have
worked is what you're telling me.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, I wasn't aware that they--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're going to get to the bottom
of this one way or another.
Does anybody else want to follow up?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Wolfley, then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Yes, I've been pretty familiar
with this number four for a while. I -- there used to be a Billy Bob's
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December 3, 2009
small engine repair in Golden Gate, and it was behind everything, you
couldn't see it. I don't know if some of you may have been here when
they were still here. They're gone now.
But they were not allowed a double sign, they were allowed a
sign on the front, which the front was a driveway between just a bunch
of, I don't want to call it a ghetto, but it just didn't look good. So he
wanted a sign that faced 951, similar to a 41, which was the back of
his building, so people would actually know he was there.
And he was not allowed. It was a single building, single
occupancy building, and he was not allowed. I want to know who's
interpreting these things. Because this says right here he can have it.
Now why --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But Dave, wasn't Billy Bob's -- if I
remember, it was that tire place and it was behind Bobby Mass -- near
Bobby Mass strip mall there. And wasn't he on an alleyway that he
was looking for the sign?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: By the restaurant. What do you
call it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know, Nana Vetta's I think it is now.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: No, not -- no, it was down
further. It's Saw Grass.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But anyway, wasn't the sign facing a
private alleyway or something like that, or access way?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: That's right, it's not public.
So the point is I don't understand why this is any different. I
mean, I don't understand why he was denied -- I want to know who's
interpreting these things, that's all. And I just don't -- I don't agree
with the interpretation of this here today and I didn't agree with the
Billy Bob thing either, but -- according to what this says. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: My question, Ray, and again it's
the concept of let's put a sign out to make it look more like a street
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December 3, 2009
facade. I mean, we're not building a H.O. train set here.
So the thing is, what this is saying, that we can -- they're allowed
to have a sign stretching over 80 percent of the width of those units.
So, I mean, isn't the potential here that they could essentially put 80
percent of the back of that facade, other than the corners ones which
have two already. I mean, they're going to just be able to put strip
signs all the way across the back of that thing.
So why does that make it -- you know, increase the aesthetic
appeal of that corner?
MR. BELLOWS: The -- let me put the illustration back up.
There are going to be other out-buildings facing the road with signage
facing the road. They would be restricted in size pursuant to the Land
Development Code. What the applicant is asking is for the same
ability to have signage facing the road, just like these buildings.
That is where I was trying to make my point. There's -- the
criteria contained in the staff report also is what staff used to support
our recommendation of approval of the proposed variance.
My contention was if the buildings are designed to look like
fronts, the back of these buildings are designed to look like fronts,
signage is part of that look.
Unfortunately my hands are tied. I cannot just grant them that
signage without having them go through the variance. And it appears
they've already gone to the zoning director and she concurs with staff s
findings.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You know who's kind of
missing in this conversation is Diane, Diane Campanello. Because
she's the sign --
MR. BELLOWS: She's been involved -- every request for a sign
goes through her. And if there's issues, they go through zoning to get
it resolved. And if it's determined through the zoning director or
whoever that a variance is required, then the applicant can choose to
go that route.
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December 3,2009
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And Ray, isn't the signage on an
out-parcel different than this, or is this the same governing code?
Don't out-parcels have their own little --
MR. BELLOWS: Out-parcel is different. They have a --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: They have their own little
category .
So these additional pads would definitely be considered
out-parcels.
MR. BELLOWS: These are not out-parcels.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But the additional, the empty
ones would be out-parcels, would they not?
MR. BELLOWS: Depends if they're platted. I don't know the
history of it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Don't they have to be sold?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, platted and sold. That's what I
think -- that's why -- yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. The other thing, Ray, is
since the documents in here don't reflect what's built, is that a
problem? Could somebody ever take advantage of that?
In other words, I know they want to do signs, but they're showing
a straight flat facade in the drawings, and they're showing a rather
large area. I'm not sure what it means. It looks like it would be better
off landscaping, but they're calling that sign area.
Is that a problem, the documents, or--
MR. BELLOWS: I don't believe so. Because they're not getting
a variance from the size requirements. For units, individual units
they're -- it would be treated like any other multi-tenant building.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And then again, I guess,
how come we're looking at building elevations? If you look at the way
the document they're giving us, which is obviously outdated because it
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December 3, 2009
still has dumpsters in the front, but they're claiming they're not -- I
don't know where the dumpsters are now.
But if you look at the document provided, our Exhibit A, it
essentially shows the landscape area and calls that as signage for
shaded areas shown.
Wouldn't it be better if we're looking at elevations to see what it
is they're actually, you know, dotting in saying I'd like to put a sign
here, here and here rather than on the ground in a landscape area? I
mean --
MR. BELLOWS: Attachment Band C of the staff report shows
some elevations of some photographs of the site. But yeah, I think
bigger and clearer ones would have been helpful.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. And I think attachment
A is not showing anything that is applied to this application, other -- I
mean, it should show where the wall's going to be that the signs are
beyond, not the ground area. And--
MR. BELLOWS: You make a good point and we'll make sure
that when similar variances come in, we provide the elevations.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of staff? Because
that's where we left off.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Should we be correcting that now?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think -- yeah, any corrections we
need to get on the record before we finish with this today, that's for
sure.
MR. ANDERSON: Excuse me, Mr. Schiffer? This is in the
agenda packet.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. But it's a small little
thing. I mean, it's got trees in the area where the signs should be.
I'm concerned about the other document. This one kind of shows
some area.
So essentially if we totally go by this, you're only requesting two
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December 3, 2009
signs on each building, so --
MR. ANDERSON: No.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, it says proposed wall
signs points to two locations on one building, two locations on the
other building. So is that the document you want in there?
MR. ANDERSON: We're identifying the buildings where the
sign's variance are applicable to.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But look at the thing you just
showed me. It shows me four signs you want.
MR. ANDERSON: That's if we have four tenants.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, you'll have more than two
on the left side, you'll have more than two on the right.
MR. ANDERSON: We're limited to--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In other words, that document is
not clear where the sign should go.
I think you should have an elevation of what you've built out
there, not the old thing. It's showing us what areas you want approval
for signs.
But enough said.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think the concept is you want--
if you have a tenant, interior tenant and he has a sign on the parking
lot side, you want a sign on the back side.
MR. ANDERSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So, I mean, I'm not sure you can show
that until you know how many tenants you've got in between your
corner units.
Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: I'd just also like to point out the applicant,
when they applied for their signs on what they deemed to be the front
side, they could have come in and put the signs on this side in the first
place, so it's --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Six one, half dozen the other.
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December 3, 2009
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, exactly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of staff or
the applicant?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bruce, is that your rebuttal?
Ray, do we have any public speakers? First.
MR. BELLOWS: No public speakers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Now, that is your rebuttal?
MR. ANDERSON: Well, my -- I hate to characterize it as a
rebuttal. That sounds adversarial.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that your grand finale?
MR. ANDERSON: But response is -- oh, I want to comment on
some of Mr. Schiffer's questions.
One of the things you talked about, sir, was the possibility of
having two entrances: One on the front and one on the back. But I
would point out that even if we had that, we'd still have to be here
under staffs interpretation of the code.
Secondly, with regard to designing ourself into the need for a
variance, again, they thought, and I frankly still agree with them, that
under the code they could have two signs anyway. So they weren't
trying to design themselves into the need for a variance, they thought
they could do that anyway.
And lastly, the hardship is only one of the factors. And you're
entitled to weigh them all, put what weight you want on anyone, but
that in and of itself is not determinative. And I think this is just a very
reasonable request that's of commercial necessity, really.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron, then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, when Mr. Schiffer's done --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Brad?
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- I'm ready to make a motion.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I was going to say, if you do go
through the total list, the A through H, you don't come out very well. I
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December 3,2009
mean, this isn't -- you are granted a special privilege, you -- this isn't --
you know, if you go to a strict interpretation of the code, this isn't
denying you reasonable access use of your property.
So in other words, if we really do run the score on all of the
analyses, not just the hardship one, it's not coming out that good
either.
MR. ANDERSON : Well, you're entitled to place weight of
whatever you choose on any or all of those factors.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there anybody else that had any other
questions of the applicant or anybody before we close the public
hearing?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, we can close the public hearing
and we either can entertain a motion or have discussion.
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'll make a motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER CARON: For Petition SV-PL2009-1165,
Lametka (phonetic) Plaza Variance, I would forward to the BCC
approval with a recommendation that -- staffs recommendation, with
the additional recommendation that awnings be placed on the center
section. And you can see it clearly here, where the largest part of that
facade is just -- you know, if you actually drove by, it's fake glass. So
awning that will soften that area and make it look more like the front
of the facade it was supposed to be to begin with.
I am voting for this variance because I do think that it actually
serves the public benefit. When you drive down 41, you will know
what is there for you in those buildings. When you drive down
Wiggins Pass, the same thing. As you drive in from either end and
come toward those buildings, you again will know where and what
you're going to shop for.
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December 3, 2009
The -- you can never see, driving either way, more than one sign
at a time. I've done the drive-through. So if you put a sign out here,
you can only see it from 41. If you put a sign on the Wiggins Pass
side, you see it from Wiggins Pass. If you're coming west to east on
Wiggins Pass, you will see the signs on Wiggins Pass and the internal
signs to this second building. If you come down 41, you'll see the
signs on 41 and potentially, because there's no building here, the signs
on the other building internal to it. So I think from a directional
situation it helps the shopping public.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I'll second that.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Not--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Wait a minute. That was a really long
motion.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Yeah, I know.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So let's boil it down.
The motion part of it was to --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Was to approve.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- recommend approval with staff
stipulations and the conditions that the awnings be added to the center
high sections of the building facade on the back side, both buildings.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Was that generally the motion?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, then Mr. Wolfley seconded the
motion.
Now let's have discussion. Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just want to be sure I
understand. And this facade here, which is the rear, on all of that glass
you want multiple awnings or one awning, or --
COMMISSIONER CARON: No, multi -- they've done a series
of multiple awnings over each door.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I see the little awnings, I think.
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December 3,2009
But you're talking about the area where the glass is?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I don't get that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No, I don't know how they
would do that, but --
COMMISSIONER CARON: There are separate doors there,
Bob --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- and they can do it easily.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, it's difficult to see that.
Oh, those blue things are doors?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay, then I can understand it
and appreciate it. And I agree.
I would just make one comment. This board recently approved
signage variance for a hotel that was -- or is located not far from 1-75
and needed additional signage so it would draw patrons, make it clear
for the patrons where they were heading. So I don't see this as
dissimilar.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody -- Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I just wanted to say, I -- now I
forgot what I was going to say. But I'm not too -- the awnings didn't
make much of a difference to me, but I certainly think that we ought to
let this thing go, on my second.
And again, I totally forgot, paying attention to Bob here, what I
was going to say.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti, did you have something
you wanted to add.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: No, I'm going to be voting for
the petition. I have a hard time even understanding why this got so
far. It should have been just approved from the get-go by -- and given
a permit. But let's not go there and I will vote for the petition.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Something you said enlightened Mr.
Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Yes, it was. When this sign
ordinance comes around again to us again, could we please clean this
language up so we don't have -- we keep coming back to this sign
thing. And if we could just clean this up, please, on the next round, I'd
appreciate it. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other comments? Mr. Midney,
then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Yeah, they put the buildings up
backwards, which I think is interesting. And it's different. I like it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If there's anything different, you like.
Okay.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I really want to vote
against this but, you know, this is Donna's corner, she lives down the
street, she goes by it every day. If she feels that it's an asset, the -- the
concerns I have over being able to design yourself into a variance I'll
bow to Donna's wishes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My -- first of all, I disagree with the
applicant's position that this is a hardship. It was self created. It is not
a hardship from my perspective when you self create it.
I also disagree, that this does not prohibit the reasonable use of
the property, as one of the recommendations. You can have plenty of
reasonable use of the property without the signs on that back side.
However, outweighing that is the interest of public safety. And
as one of the commissioners pointed out easily from the intersection
and from that roadway, it's much better to have signage that's clear to
the public.
And the improvements that the developer has offered in regards
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December 3,2009
to the awnings will actually make this better, not worse. So with that,
I'll support the motion as well.
And with that in mind, we'll call for the vote. All those in favor,
signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 9-0.
Thank you all very much. And we will take a break until 10 after
10:00 and we'll come back and resume.
(Recess. )
Item #9B
PETITION: RZ-2008-AR-13951, OLDE FLORIDA GOLF CLUB,
INC.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, if everybody wouldn't mind
taking their seats, we'll move forward with the second item on today's
agenda. That item is Petition RZ-2008-AR-13951. It's the Olde
Florida Golf Club, Inc., on Vanderbilt Beach Road extension. It's
basically a clarification of a previous meeting that we had.
With that in mind, will all those wishing to testify on behalf of
this item please rise to be sworn in by the court reporter.
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December 3, 2009
(Speakers were duly sworn.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any disclosures on the part of the
Planning Commission?
Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Yes, I spoke with John
Passidomo.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else? Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, I had a conversation with
John Passidomo.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr.--
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I also.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- Mr. Vigliotti?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: We got an e-mail from Mr.
Passidomo. I was away so I didn't get a chance to speak to him.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I had meetings and discussions and
e-mails with Mr. Passidomo, as well as Ms. Perry at a time or two, and
we'll probably be discussing all that here today.
So with that in mind, whoever wants to make the presentation on
the part of the applicant -- oh, Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I also had discussion with Mr.
Passidomo.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, thank you, sir.
Okay, John.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Good morning, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: My name is John Passidomo. My address
is 821 Fifth Avenue South, in the City of Naples. Our firm represents
o Ide Florida Golf Club, Inc. in agenda Item 9.B before you for
consideration this morning.
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December 3,2009
Our consultants are Wilson-Miller. Margaret Perry from the firm
will make a brief presentation at the close of my introductory remarks.
Our petition requests rehearing of a matter considered by the
Planning Commission on April 2nd, 2009, seeking a rezone of the
subject property from golf course to rural fringe mixed use overlay
neutral lands.
We request that the record of the April 2nd, 2009 proceedings be
incorporated by reference and included in the record of these
proceedings.
Our original petition was approved by the Planning Commission
by a vote of 8-0, subject to four stipulations.
As I indicated in a letter we circulated to the Planning
Commission earlier this week, we realized upon receipt of the
proposed ordinance that the language for two of those four proposed
stipulations just didn't work under the LDC to achieve what we
assumed to be the intended objective of the Planning Commission in
adopting them. We expressed those concerns to planning staff, the
department director and the division administrator. They agreed
without conclusion, and ultimately Mr. Schmitt recommended that I
speak with Chairman Strain to see if we could find a better way to do
what we thought the Planning Commission wanted to do in adopting
the stipulations.
A map of future development envelope was thereafter prepared
to located uses on the land and describe the development standards in
the rural fringe mixed use overlay district for neutral lands, which
would ultimately regulate development on the property.
The map is included within the materials. And Mrs. Perry will
take you through them at the conclusion of my remarks.
The map is not a site plan, and we acknowledge on the notes, on
the face of the map and reiterate here that the design location and
configuration of land improvements shall be defined at site plan or
subdivision plat approval in strict compliance with the LDC
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December 3,2009
requirements, as with any other property in the rural fringe mixed use
overlay district for neutral lands.
The petition before you today simply requests that the map be
substituted for stipulations two and three contained in the resolution
adopted by the Planning Commission on April 2nd. We agree with
staff recommendations and agree to abide by the two remaining
stipulations contained in the staff report.
Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I'd like to ask Mrs. Perry to
take the Planning Commission through the proposed map of future
development envelope and then she and I will be happy to respond to
any questions the commissioners may have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Thank you.
MS. PERRY: Good morning, Commissioners. Margaret Perry
from Wilson-Miller.
As John indicated after the April Planning Commission meeting,
and in coordinating with county staff, Mr. Strain and others, we
prepared what we refer to as the conceptual rezone master plan for the
553-acre site.
This plan depicts the existing Olde Florida Golf Club, including
maintenance facility and the driving range. This is generally located
on the eastern portion of the property and as is noted is indicated to
.
remaIn.
The future development envelope is generally located on the
western side of the site. This future development envelope area is
conceptual in nature, and the exact boundaries of the development will
have to take into account native vegetation, potential conservation
easements, et cetera.
The development standards outlined on Page 3 of 3 of the plan,
which is included in your agenda packet, come directly from the LDC
relative to the rural fringe mixed use district neutral areas. No
deviation from these requirements is being requested.
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December 3,2009
You'll notice that as recommended by the Planning Commission
the western boundary of the site calls for 100- foot setback to allow for
potential county acquirement of easements for a potential roadway.
But again, this roadway is not in any long-range plan.
The plan also depicts approximately 200-foot golf course buffer
between the existing golf course and the potential development area.
It also culls out the required buffers and the existing county well sites.
This plan was not created to be used as a PUD-like master plan,
but to hopefully address the concerns raised by the Planning
Commission so that the Planning Commission could visualize the
existing conditions and the potential development area.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I think I'd like to start by making
a comment. When I was approached by the applicant and by county
staff on this issue, it was as a result of our last meeting on this in
which we stipulated a couple of very stringent items, based on the fact
we weren't told much. We weren't told where the future development
area could possibly be. We weren't told what the limitations were.
We -- they just simply said they wanted to revert to rural fringe.
And with that lack of information, it was hard to understand what
impacts they may have on the surrounding area. And my suggestion
to them was that if they wanted to have those removed, the best
approach would be to show us what they intended to do. And that's
how we got here today.
And I had reviewed this earlier before the meeting was
scheduled. This does show their intended future development areas,
subject to any environmental conditions, EIS review and all that. And
it's my understanding that that future development area can never get
larger or greater in area to where the surrounding property lines are,
but it could actually get less, based on any environmental review that
comes along and subsequent SDP's or plats.
So this is what I would consider then the worst case scenario,
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December 3, 2009
which tells us the extent that they intend to development.
And they actually attach the LDC section, so all the standards are
very clear. With some notes on one of the pages. Some of those need
to be cleaned up a little bit. And I know there's recommendations
from the County Attorney's Office in regards to those.
But that's the introduction I wanted to make to the Planning
Commission is how and why we got here today with this. Obviously
at the last meeting when they left, they didn't leave with very much.
And it didn't surprise me that they realized that afterwards and decided
that the best thing to do, maybe to try to show us what they're really
planning to do out there instead of the lack of information we received
at the time.
So with that in mind, are there -- let's entertain questions of the
applicant from the Planning Commission.
Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just want to pose a question.
One of the things that was said the last time was that the golf
course, they had no plans to take the golf course away. If we remove
the recommendation stipulations that we had previously, which are
perceived to be not enforceable or illogical or whatever, just returning
to the rural fringe in neutral, if they ever were to take the golf course
away, they could in fact extend that envelope, am I correct, the
envelope for development?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that a question of staff or --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That would be a question of the
petitioner.
Shall I repeat the question?
MR. PASSIDOMO: No, I understand the question, thank you,
Commissioner.
The fact is, all the property would be rezoned to rural fringe
mixed use overlay for neutral lands. That land would have those
permitted uses on it. It would be inconsistent with this development
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December 3,2009
envelope that you're seeing here and would raise a question as to
whether or not our proposal for residential development in that area
was consistent with this map. And I think that would be a legitimate
question to be raised at that --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just want to be absolutely clear
that what we're agreeing to by approving, or recommending approval,
was that the golf course could at one point in time go away because of
it's not -- it's going to also have the same zoning as the envelope area,
the future development envelope area, correct?
MR. P ASSIDOMO: That's true. But the golf course next door
could go away too. At Golf Course of the Everglades, it's zoned
exactly the way this zone (sic) is proposed to be zoned. There's a golf
course on it. It could go away. But in order to develop the property,
you have to go through the site planning or subdivision plat process.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Not in -- my purpose was not to
do anything more than put on the record the fact that what we are
knowingly going to agree to would be that potentially all of the
property could be developed. It isn't likely, it isn't probable, I
understand, but that's something I think needs to be understood.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, John, before you say anything, I
strongly disagree. Because if your intention is to change the future
development envelope, then what you show on this plan and
potentially develop all of the existing golf course, we've got a
problem. Because that's not what I've been led to believe in all the
discussions we've had.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, I don't know how you could
possibly glean that as my intention. I was just simply responding to
the Commissioner's question. It clearly is not our intention. It was a
hypothetical question. It was really -- my response was in the context
is there an absolute commitment to keep that golf course where it is, as
it is in perpetuity.
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December 3,2009
No, of course there's not. But if we came in to develop that
property inconsistent with this map, then we have an issue to deal
with, because this map would be approved as part of this rezone.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Exactly. That's the whole premise
under which we approached this. That's the whole premise under
which you had to come back, because we didn't have this to begin
with.
I just want to make sure that we're not opening any other doors
than what are opened by what you're showing here.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So are there -- Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just for the layout of the future
development area, even though there's a IS-foot buffer shown on the
northern property line, that couldn't be interpreted that you could raise
that development area up to it, could it? Or -- I mean, this is
obviously showing us that you're going to be quite a distance away
from that.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Well, I think the way the chairman
characterized this map is the appropriate characterization.
This is the worst case scenario. We cannot exceed this. The
reason we didn't show you anything before is because we don't know
what a site plan or subdivision plat might ultimately show. But this is
a worst case scenario. We cannot develop under this map in the area
outside of the future development envelope.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. So even though that
development is approximately, looks like 500 feet away from that
boundary, the IS-foot buffer, I'm not sure what that would do.
The -- and also in one of these exhibits you quote the section of
the LDC as it is today. Would it be a problem just to quote it as it
would be in effect at the time you're doing the development? I mean,
there may be requirements in here that we may change in the future.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's one of the conditions this county
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December 3,2009
attorney is going to introduce when we get to her. She's got a series of
-- that stuff you e-mailed me, I'm assuming you got that in print
somewhere here we can put it on screen so everybody understands, or
we can verbalize it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The answer is going to be yes
ultimately.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. That's it, thank you.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, if I could respond to Mr.
Schiffer. I think there's an elaboration that could be helpful to the
Commission.
The reason that we reiterated those standards is we wanted to
eliminate any question as to the development standards that would
control ultimate development on the land. And to the extent there was
an impression created that this would be a standard ago zoning and
there was a misperception that the rural fringe mixed use overlay
wouldn't control, we wanted that to be absolutely evident, right on the
face of the map that we submitted to you, that there are precise
standards, they were adopted through an extensive public planning
process, they were intended to provide balance, there was active
public participation.
And whether or not -- I've talked to the County Attorney's Office,
we're very comfortable ultimately to basically say what the code is at
the time that we make application is the code that will control
development on the land.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of the applicant?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes. Mr. Passidomo, on Page 2 of
3 of your -- under notes. Number one says single-family residential
dwelling units and other uses in the particular LDC section.
What are those other uses?
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December 3,2009
MR. PASSIDOMO: There's a long list. You may want to refer
to staff. But they are -- there are permitted uses, there are ancillary
uses and there are conditional uses. And obviously the conditional
uses have to go through a conditional use process prescribed under the
LDC.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, you're saying here that you
want all of them permitted as of right.
MR. PASSIDOMO: I think if you go on from that, Ms. Caron,
you'll see as of right pursuant to standards prescribed in the LDC.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That is the same question I had posed to
you, John. Because the way it's written, it does appear that way. And
I'd offer, the county attorney I think has language to clear that up too.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Would you like me to address that
now?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, let's just make sure Ms. Caron's
finished.
COMMISSIONER CARON: That's all I wanted to ask for right
now. And certainly if we have clarifications on everything, I'd like to
hear it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, let's go -- Heidi, then let's go
forward with it.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Okay. I had checked the sites that Mr.
Passidomo has in the note one that you find on Page 2 of 3 of their
conceptual plan, and it does refer to the conditional use procedure. It
makes a reference to Section 10.08.00.
But I agree with the issues that have been raised today, and I'd
prefer to delete that section and put in its place something like, you
know, development will be in accordance with the LDC at the time of
development. And then on your third page, just remove that 2.03.08.A
that he has there.
As the ordinance is drafted, we don't have this conceptual plan
attached to it. I do understand that it may be your desire to attach that
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December 3,2009
to the ordinance. If you do that, my recommendation is to label the
plan a map of future development envelope.
And the reason for this is that it seems that what you really want
to restrict is the area of development. That seems to be your main
concern.
And environmental has raised some issues relating to submittal of
an EIS. So I think if we label it map of development envelope, we
take care of that issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, so --
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: You also probably don't need to
reference item two either, because those are the setbacks that are in the
LDC.
So my recommendation would be to delete one and two and in its
place, place the language that I've mentioned, that all development
shall be in accordance with the Land Development Code at the time of
development. Attach those to the ordinance and remove just that
section of the LDC reference on the third page of the conceptual plan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I've made notes to all that effect.
Ms. Caron, does that--
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, actually, it both helps and
doesn't. I guess I will wait for staff.
But I'm a little concerned about the other uses that we are
granting within this envelope, and whether those are actually things
you want or not.
Is the intent single-family homes?
MR. P ASSIDOMO: There is no intent. The contemplation is --
COMMISSIONER CARON: So it could be oil and gas
exploration.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: That is one of the -- that is one of the
conditional uses which would have to come back through a process,
would have to have an EIS submitted in conjunction with it.
There's no anticipation now or at any time in the future that that's
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December 3, 2009
a reasonable possibility, let alone likelihood. But that is listed in the
overlay district.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I was trying to remember
the list. But it is a long and very detailed list.
MR. PASSIDOMO: It is.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And some of the uses are
extremely impactful. And I think we probably should cover those
here today and make sure that that's really what we want to be
.
approvIng.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ray, can you pull up the uses that
would apply from Muni. Code so we can discuss those.
COMMISSIONER CARON: It may be fine, but --
MR. BELLOWS: The agricultural uses or the rural fringe?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The uses this applicant is asking for,
which is 2.03.08.A.3.A.l.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: I have my Land Development Code.
MR. PASSIDOMO: We've got some notes on this one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If you put them on the screen so we can
review them. If there's something objectionable there, we can make a
note of it.
MR. BELLOWS: I can't put it on this screen. Mine's not hooked
up.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I thought you were just handed hard
copies. Wasn't that what Ms. Perry handed you?
MR. P ASSIDOMO: We've got notes all over that one.
MS. DESELEM: Is this what you need? Here's neutral, here's
ago
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Is that what they're asking for?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They're asking to go to what Ray is
putting on the screen right now; is that correct, Mr. Passidomo?
MR. PASSIDOMO: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I just wanted that clarified,
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December 3, 2009
thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: While he's doing that, Mark, a
question?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In the last approval, we didn't
eliminate any uses from the agricultural before, correct? I mean, we
just focused on --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, we didn't give them any uses
either. We just said that -- we agreed that they could rezone but no
density or uses would be allowed until they came back to us.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Did we actually say uses, or --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'll read it. I got it somewhere in
here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It should say no density shall be
awarded by virtue of approval of the rezone.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And look at number three.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And any changes have to be
brought back.
So this essentially leaves them wide open to conventional A
zoning, and they would not have to come back here for any use --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- permitted.
So we're turning this into a PUD hearing, I think.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, no, he's still asking for a
conventional rezone. Although I think what Ms. Caron is saying, we
ought to review the uses under the conventional rezone, and if there
are some there that are not good for the area and possibly the applicant
doesn't need them to have them there, we might solve -- kill two birds
with one stone, more or less.
So with that in mind, Ray, if you'd take us through the allowable
uses that would be on here, or if Mr. Passidomo wants. I guess the
first one is I-A, agricultural activities.
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December 3, 2009
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: What page is it?
MR. BELLOWS: I just wanted to make a point of clarification.
What's on the visualizer now is from the rural fringe mixed use
overlay, which when this property was rezoned agriculture, most of
those uses in the overlay is designed to apply to agricultural zoning.
We also have the separate uses listed in the agricultural zoning
district. So do you want me to read from the agricultural zoning
district or from the rural fringe?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think we need to --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Both.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- look at both.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, which one would be subject to
today's approval?
MR. BELLOWS: The agricultural--
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: The agricultural.
MR. BELLOWS: -- uses.
But in retrospect both, actually.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, then we need to go
through them, if that -- and Mr. Passidomo, if you can shorten this by
simply telling us the uses that you're looking for and we write those in,
that might just save a lot of work.
But if you don't know that and you want a blanket series of uses,
we need to walk through them to understand what they are.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I might
be able to focus that discussion a little bit.
Weare not looking for anything of a commercial or intensive or
industrial nature on the property. And even though we're talking
about property that could be developed five, IO or 20 years from now,
we can clearly exclude those.
And there are some in the conditional use category that could fit
within that characterization.
I don't think that there are any within the permitted use category
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December 3,2009
or in the excessive use category. Those are really of a residential
nature, more of an agricultural nature.
And of course we've got to go through the EIS, we've got to
come back through the process.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the way it looks, John, we're
halfway to where the problem was last time. We now have your
development envelope area, which was what we didn't get last time.
We have your development standards, but now we need to get the uses
resolved.
And I think if you could define that, we don't have to walk
through them all. But if you just say that the permitted uses in the
district, we need to see the permitted uses then in the ago and in the
rural fringe to see then what it is you're asking for.
MR. PASSIDOMO: I agree, Mr. Chairman.
So it is the permitted uses, it is the accessory uses. And if I could
go through the conditional uses in the overlay district that we think are
appropriate and that are not in any way a commercial in nature.
The zoo, aquarium, botanical garden or other similar uses, that
would be fine to remove.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Why don't you just tell us the ones you
want to keep.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Okay. The community facilities. The
multi-family residential structures. Essential services, under both E
and I.
Those four.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: And there's a clear line of demarcation, we
believe, with --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So community facilities,
multi-family, residential structures and essential services of the
conditional uses. You'd still go through the conditional use process,
but those are the ones that would only be allowable to you without a
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December 3, 2009
rezone.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Ray, now that he says basically
they're looking for all the permitted and accessory uses, so now let's
see what those are.
And this is the rural fringe?
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Now we still have to look at the ago as
well, because it's the base, or not? I saw you talking to David, so I'm
wondering what --
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, Mr. Weeks has indicated that the
overlay's designed to -- and please correct me if I'm making a mistake
here, that the overlay supersedes the base zoning. So the uses in the
overlay would apply, not the base ago zoning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So the rural fringe uses that
we're look at here are the ones we have to focus on because they don't
have the opportunity to go to the agricultural, which is one of the other
options you had originally brought up.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, the purpose and intent of the overlay is
to supersede the uses in the ago district.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The purpose and intent. But does it?
Everything has a purpose and intent. I want to make sure it does.
MR. WEEKS: For the record, David Weeks, in Comprehensive
Planning.
Commissioners, this is a -- I don't know if muddy is the right
word. But the plain reading of the zoning overlay would suggest that
it doesn't matter what the underlying zoning is, the overlay is what is
applicable.
And I would suggest to you that that can result in a ludicrous
outcome. Because we do have properties within the rural fringe
mixed use district neutral lands, such as the subject site, that are not
zoned agriculture today. It is zoned golf course.
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December 3,2009
And it was never the intent when the Future Land Use Element
was amended to establish the rural fringe mixed use district and then
Land Development Code amended to implement that, that it would
apply and supersede the non-agricultural zoning of property.
I mentioned a ludicrous outcome. There are properties within the
neutral designation and neutral zoning overlay today that are zoned
commercial. And some are zoned mobile home and some are zoned
village residential. And of course the subject site here is zoned golf
course.
F or the overlay to supersede that underlying zoning results in a
ludicrous and I suspect arguably illegal outcome. If someone were to
come to the county and say here's my piece of property with the
neutral overlay but it's zoned commercial, I want my site plan
approved for this commercial use and the county staff says no because
the overlay supersedes, I think we'd be going down a path to leading
up in court if that ultimately was the position of the county that
remained.
And I think we have to take the position that that overlay,
whether it supersedes or doesn't on non-agricultural zoning has to be a
decision made across the board. We can't say that overlay supersedes
the golf course zoning but it does not supersede the commercial
zoning or the village residential or some other non-agricultural zoning.
So it was -- to try to summarize, it was definitely the intent that
the neutral overlay, as well as the receiving and the sending, is
applicable to underlying agricultural zoning. And if you don't have
agricultural zoning underlying that overlay, that underlying zoning is
what is applicable.
So saying -- because if the overlay were to supersede, there'd be
no reason for them to be here in front of you asking for the agricultural
rezoning. It could simply come in and implement the overlay through
the necessary administrative process, SDP or file their plat.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, David, if the applicant here today
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December 3,2009
acknowledges that they're looking for the uses that are in the rural
fringe neutral category that are in front of us and they accept that and
that's what we conditionally approve, does that fix it then? Does that
make it not subject to any further debate, it's basically those uses?
MR. WEEKS: If I understood the question correctly, if this
property is rezoned to agriculture as they're requesting, it will then be
eligible for all of the uses listed in the neutral overlay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, but only those uses as agreed to
here today with the applicant and this board. Subject of course to the
BCC.
MR. WEEKS: It's my understanding that you have the legal
authority to do that, yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right, I want to--
MR. WEEKS: So if there's 50 uses under neutral and you limit
them to IO, then that's the IO --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: See, we have the opportunity to clean it
up and avoid the absurd interpretation or conclusion that could result
as you had previously described.
MR. WEEKS : Well, I don't think the outcome is ludicrous. If--
rephrase that.
If the property is rezoned agriculture, then the overlay makes
sense. That's what it was intended to apply, how it was intended to
apply.
Now we have underlined zoning of agricultural. Here's the
neutral land uses that would apply to -- and standards that would apply
to that piece of property.
But because this property is not today zoned agriculture, I do
believe you have the legal authority to make a recommendation and
for the board to endorse a limitation on what uses would be eligible or
allowed on the property, just as you would with any other rezoning of
property .
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I think I see a way to get there,
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December 3, 2009
depending on how the responses come back from the applicant.
MR. WEEKS: Maybe just say it one more time a little bit
different way.
When someone walks in the door today and there's a property
zoned agriculture and they want to rezone to C- 3, the county has the
authority to say no, we will not approve all C-3 uses, only certain
ones. As long as there's good sound reason for doing so.
I think the same case here. Their rezoning to agriculture results
in the neutral overlay being applicable to the property and if for good
reason the county says no, some of those uses are not appropriate, we
won't allow them, I believe you have the right to do so.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, David.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Dave, would you just then
recommend we stipulate that only the allowable neutral uses, and that
way we just lock into what's allowed on that and they can't read any
further into the code?
MR. WEEKS: I don't think that's -- I think it's only necessary to
place limiting information in the ordinance if you wish to limit their
uses to less than what is allowed in the neutral overlay. If that list of
however many uses are in the LDC for the neutral overlay, if you are
comfortable with those, if you have no reason to not want to see them
there, you don't need to say you're limited to neutral lands, because
I'm saying that as a matter of application, that is what will be allowed.
But if you determine, for example, that the oil or gas drilling or
some of these other uses permitted by right are not appropriate on the
property, you know, have some sound basis for prohibiting that use,
you have the right to do so.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Ashton?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Yeah, I'm okay with that procedure, if
you're both in agreement as to the -- you know, the overlay for neutral
lands that would apply.
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December 3,2009
It might be more simple to just eliminate, you know, prohibited
uses, have them all be allowed, unless you specifically prohibit them
in your ordinance.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I just -- I mean, I've already started
some notations and I think we can get through this pretty easily.
Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, actually, my question, and
I think it's simple, Heidi, what -- are we going to -- the result of this
process will be an amended resolution -- not resolution, ordinance?
Will we be amending the ordinance or initiating a new one?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: I see what you're saying.
Well, you had approved an ordinance, but it never went through
on the consent agenda, so it never went to the board. So we probably
have to maybe let the Board of County Commissioners know that
there were two hearings but that you, you know, are essentially
withdrawing the first recommendation and going with whatever you
decide today and subsequent consent agenda.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So it's still a proposed ordinance.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Yes, nothing's been formally adopted.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Because earlier you said
something about adding the land and other information, and I wasn't
sure what that represented. You've clarified it for me, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Ray, or I guess it's John's show.
I'm sorry to bother you.
John, let's just walk through the uses that are in front of us right
now. And in the permitted uses as of right, that's this first page, we
have agriculture, single-family residential, dormitories, duplex and
other types of staff housing in support of conservation uses.
And if we move down, Ray, on that, it's group housing uses,
subject to the following -- he walked away.
Ray, you're a media guy today. Could you slide up that -- family
care facilities on the unit one to five per acre group care facilities with
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December 3, 2009
an FAR of .45. Staff housing and farm labor housing limited to IO
acres in any single location.
Let's go on down further.
Single- family duplex, mobile home. Well, that one's going to be
a problem. Multi-family dormitory, 22 dwelling units bed per acre.
I'm not sure why you need that, John.
Sporting and recreational camps, essential services, and then golf
courses with a series of reservations. Let's just run through the whole
list real quick and go back and see the ones that are problematic.
Ray, can you run down -- those are all the golf course
restrictions.
Go on, let's go down to the next set of uses. Stormwater
management ponds, site preservation.
Okay, let's go down to the next one. Public -- yeah, schools, oil
and gas exploration, and park open space and private schools.
I'll start off. John, there's three things there I think the -- first of
all, the -- I don't know why you would want private schools or that
you need those. Because they do create a traffic concern and intensity.
I'm not sure we even want to get into that, since you're in areas where
there's other housing not too far along.
And when you went up on the first part, we had dormitories.
And Ray, if you can go to that, I think the top of the second page.
Number i and ii there, do you need either of those?
MR. PASSIDOMO: The camps.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: I want to reserve a response on all these and
have an opportunity briefly to confer with Mr. Barton on it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So i and ii are the sub-notes to
what, Ray? Not the camps, the one above it, John, is what I'm talking
about.
MR. PASSIDOMO: All right, sir.
MR. BELLOWS: Looks to be farm--
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Farm labor housing.
So I don't think that you're going to need farm labor housing in
that area since you don't have a farm. So it may not hurt to strike that
one. And then as we move down, the other one --
MR. P ASSIDOMO: The land is zoned ago
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if you're going to put farm labor
housing there, John, that's a little different use than what's in that
neighborhood.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, we've really got us in a
Catch-22. We're trying to plan in perpetuity, and it's being
characterized as what we're going to be putting in there.
All of our responses are really -- should be couched in the most
cautious context of -- we're trying to just basically say we want to
eliminate the noxious uses, the commercial uses, the industrial uses,
but we don't want to be able to tie our hands unnecessarily if the
county really doesn't care what happens.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Farm labor housing is a deal breaker to
you?
MR. P ASSIDOMO: No, sir, it's not. I just wanted to frame the
discussion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'm just -- I'm a little surprised
you're pushing so hard, only because when you came to us last time, it
was always you wanted single-family residential, you wanted
residential. And when we got into this deeper and deeper, we seem to
be not heading in the direction you originally told us. And I'm kind of
glad we didn't follow along that pattern originally, we're back to where
we are today, because it's fleshing out more issues that I think needed
to be fleshed out we didn't understand before.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, I hope nothing we're doing
is perceived as anything but cooperative and just simply trying to
protect our reasonable interest.
And to put us on a level playing field, everybody else within the
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December 3,2009
overlay district has all of these uses. We think it is appropriate to go
through them and to carve out what is under no reasonable foreseeable
conception could be used. We want to be cooperative. I think we've
indicated and we've proven that we are being cooperative and we're
not trying to push back or be aggressive in any way.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ray, the other item that was
further down, just after -- and I'm sorry to keep you having to shovel
pages around. Would you mind going back another page or two? One
more.
Private schools. Do you have a need for private schools on that
site?
MR. P ASSIDOMO: I'll talk to Mr. Barton. I don't --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, now let's look at the accessory--
well, I seem to be the only one discussing. Anybody else have any
concerns with the uses other than what I've articulated so far?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You seem to be doing pretty
good.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Are we going to --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I don't have a concern with
some of the uses you've articulated, so -- in other words, the private
school, that might be an excellent location for a private school.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, then you need to say so.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We won't know -- I mean, fast
forward 50 years from now, that might be the perfect location.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I mean, that's fine, I'm not -- I'm
just trying to point out. I do -- that one didn't bother me too much, but
I just wanted to make sure we weren't getting ourselves into a high
intensity use as you had said you did want any high -- no intensive
uses.
MR. PASSIDOMO: No commercially intensive uses. And I
think that was a clear line of demarcation.
But clearly, if we come back in, we're going to have to go
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December 3,2009
through a traffic impact analysis, we're going to go through an
environmental impact analysis, we're going to go through that whole
process. And that's what the LDC is all about and that's why it is
difficult to stand here right today and say what could conceivably
possible (sic) at any time in the future. Mr. Schiffer's indicated it's
pretty hard to do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Can you run down the accessory uses,
Ray?
Well, that's it, there's only a couple of them. Okay. Then the
conditional uses, you've already told us you're going to limit your
conditional uses to community facilities, multi-family and essential
.
serVIce.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Barton asked me, Mr. Chairman, if I
could, there is one that clearly we had no contemplation of ever using,
but there could be a misconstruction.
G, earth mining and extraction and related processes. Clearly
that would not -- we agreed to have that removed. But if that's
ancillary to an otherwise permitted development, if we were building a
lake we don't want the elimination of that conditional use to be
perceived in any way to prohibit us from building a lake, extracting
materials and removing them from the site.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're suggesting and I'm just thinking
of the Jones Mining pit that's 10 miles or 15 miles further out east and
all the trouble it had in a sparsely populated. You're thinking of
putting a commercial excavation pit in this location?
MR. P ASSIDOMO: No, sir, that's not what I said.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Then we don't need it.
MR. PASSIDOMO: No. What I said is I wouldn't want the
elimination of this to be misconstrued as prohibiting us from building
-- constructing a lake on the property and part of a residential
development.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, there's a big difference between a
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December 3,2009
lake in which you need the fill for the property as well versus an earth
mining operation which is dug intentionally deeper to much greater
intensity so you can make a profit off the exportation of fill.
You know, you've done enough development -- you've been
around enough developments and so have I, you can dig the lakes you
need adequately for the amenities that they provide, plus the fill for
the property. There is no excuse to take it off-site. And to think you
want a commercial excavation in this location is a concern.
But anyway, Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, aren't these conditional
uses, though? Wouldn't they come before a future board and they
would have to plead that case with them? I mean --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, it might. But there's also, there's
been several attempts of putting excavation facilities through at the
state level as a necessity for our need for fill for the county. And there
was at one point. If that had gone through, it would have eliminated
the county from stepping in and trying to prohibit them.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, isn't earth mining G
anyway, it's not J? So that's not the big issue.
But I just think that if these are conditional uses normally in ago
and they can come before a future board and a future Board of
Commissioners and make a case and it's acceptable, that's the
protection I think we need.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that's the danger I find.
Anyway, Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, to that point, essentially
today we are being asked to approve an up-zone of one -- in one
respect or another. So I think it's perfectly appropriate to limit the
extent and the intensity of that up-zone. Because we're going from
golf course to a whole section of additional uses.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: But I think, Ms. Caron, in fairness, that
whole section applies to all of the overlay district. All we're asking
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for is to be treated the same as everybody else.
There's a golf course next door. These are the standards, the
regulations that govern development on that golf course next door.
We think this is a helpful exercise to go through and extract things that
are inconceivable as future permitted uses.
But the fact is, we're not looking for an up-zone to distinguish
ourselves, we're looking to level the playing field and to have the
same rights and regulations that everyone else in the overlay district
has to comply with.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, anybody else have any questions
of the applicant at this time?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I just wanted to--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: -- support one little thing.
Mr. -- you had stated that you want to leave the option open to
build some lakes. Well, as I recall, wasn't the last time we met here
was that you were supposed to dig ponds or lakes for the water
management -- the storm management? I'm sorry. As I recall, that
was one major issue that must have taken 45 minutes or an hour to
discuss the storm management of the property.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, this --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Is that what you were talking
about?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The Item G that he's asking about is a
commercial operation. It basically allows earth mining and extraction
from the property and he's selling the fill.
The excavation of stormwater lakes has never been a problem
and wouldn't be qualified under G.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Well, I know. I had
misunderstood, that he just wanted to make sure that he was able to
put a pond or lake without being considered to be a commercial
operation, that's all.
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December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, Ray, does number G only apply if
they want to remove material from the site and sell it commercially?
MR. BELLOWS: There's a section in the code that allows a
project to excavate and haul off-site 20,000 square feet offill without
having to get that conditional use for earth mining excavation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And that's a standard clause in--
MR. BELLOWS: That's a standard for all residential
developments.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But ifhe wants to dig his water
management lakes --
MR. BELLOWS: That falls under that 20,000 square feet.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And ifhe wants to dig lakes more than
what he needs for his water management capabilities because he wants
to use fill on-site for house pads and roads, that's okay too.
Well, I mean, everybody's doing it.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I don't -- as long as they comply with
that limitation, I believe that that's fine. There's a -- and I need to do
some checking what constitutes a commercial excavation. I'm not that
familiar.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I understood it to be if you take off in
excess of the allowable yardage and you're selling it, it becomes
commercial. If you use it on-site, every project in this community --
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- digs their lakes for use on-site.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, that part, you can move it on-site, sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of the applicant?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, is there any--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Did we resolve gas and oil?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No one brought it up as a question. Did
you have a --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Minimum of 100 holes.
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December 3, 2009
MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, if you can just --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're going to hear staff report, so if
you want to talk --
MR. PASSIDOMO: But if you can give me direction from the
consensus of the commission as to which of the permitted uses you'd
want excluded, I can consult with Mr. Barton.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: From my perspective, I made the
following notes: The rezone to ago with the following uses, permitted
uses, not acceptable; that is no farm labor housing.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, would you mind referring to
them by letter?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I can't, because I don't have it in
front of me. That will be cleaned up before we get done.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: That was H.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: H.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm just giving you the information.
And the only conditional uses would be community facilities,
multi- family residential and essential services. Those are the notes
that I made.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So now, if anybody else wants to yea or
nay it, go right ahead. Because he's asking for our consensus and I'm
not giving him a consensus, I'm giving him my notes.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, actually, this is difficult,
not being able to flip through this paperwork. I mean, I wonder if we
could take a quick break and Ray make us copies.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Good idea.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ray, if we take say a five-minute break,
can you make copies of those pages for us?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, well, let's take a break until
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December 3,2009
11 :01.
(Recess.)
MR. BELLOWS: Kay Deselem is making the copy.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You didn't send her back to
developmental services to make the copies, did you?
Is there a staff report on this particular application?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Kay?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, Kay's got that too. You sent the
only person that could talk to us off.
MR. BELLOWS: We're running out of people here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We'll have to hold off till Kay shows
up. So unplug us, thank you.
(Recess. )
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Kay has returned. And because
she has, we are allowed to go forward here today.
With that in mind, she's passed out the neutral lands uses.
And Mr. Schiffer, what questions do you have, sir?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So just to run through this, what
are the ones that we're thinking of not allowing?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the only one that I had suggested
at this point is H.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And when you get to conditional uses,
the applicant originally said they wanted B, D and E.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: B, D and E?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Again, my only comment is
since they are conditional uses, these uses might be fine, but in the
future there's no way we could tell now. I don't see the harm in some
day there could be a sports camp built out there. Could be a golf
school for the citizens. I see no reason to eliminate honestly any of
these.
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December 3, 2009
I don't want to touch the gas and oil, because I think that's a
complicated issue. And if they -- the county's ever to the point where
they need earth mining in the future and the people who govern the
county believe that that through a public hearing is acceptable, then I
trust them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And so Mr. Passidomo was
looking for a consensus. I offered some suggestions. Mr. Schiffer,
basically you don't believe we need to have any restrictions on the
permitted or conditional or accessory uses?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm okay with H. I don't think
that's a good place for farm houses.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But you believe that all the conditional
uses ought to be opened?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I still don't. We need a
consensus from the panel on this board. Does anybody else have an
opinion?
Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I tend to agree with Brad at this
time, why tie their hands, let it be dealt with some time in the future if
it becomes an issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, as I said, you know, I think
that it's appropriate for us to deal with this now. We're being asked to
up-zone this property and I think, you know, we should take a look at
these things.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And--
VICE-CHAIRMAN KELLY: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I happen to agree with you
in this regard. I think it's time to look at it, see if we can make sure
that we don't have future issues.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: I would be more inclined to let
future people look at this.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does it mean Brad's position or mine? I
don't know what you meant by that.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Yours.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It was to not let the future
people --
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Oh, I'm sorry, Brad's.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad's.
Okay, anybody else want to weigh in?
Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: No, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, sir, you don't care one way or the
other?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I don't have anything to add
right now.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, I'm trying to get a
consensus. So far it's 3-3. So let's look at it this way: We need to
give some direction. I will not vote for this and I will work against it
if they're going to include all the conditional uses. That's flat out. So
whatever the consensus is, it may end up being voted that way, you
will not get my support, Mr. Passidomo. So you can judge it any way
you want.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, I'm not asking for it. Let me
see -- as a matter of expediency, let me remove that issue from
consideration. We'll abide by the conditional uses that you articulated.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Which were the ones you originally
articulated.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Yes, sir, that's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's all I was asking.
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December 3, 2009
MR. PASSIDOMO: I think you may have misstated, Mr.
Chairman, though. We asked for I as well as E, in the list of essential
services. B, D, E and I.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, I agree.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, let me ask the question.
One of the ones we're not doing is a botanical garden. To me
harmless. But in the future if somebody wanted to do a botanical
garden, we removed it from the conditional uses today. What process
would they go through to get their botanical garden on the site?
Would they not just have a public hearing anyway to get it?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: A rezone.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: They would come in to overrule
what we made here, using the excuse that everybody else around us is
allowed a botanical garden, why can't we. So is that something I
guess you're not worried about? I mean, I see no need to take it out,
but --
MR. P ASSIDOMO: But Mr. Chair, I think that's really why we
come to the conclusion we come to. We have to come back through a
public hearing. If it's a conditional use or it's a rezone, this is so
speculative that as a matter of expediency we say we'll come back in
through a rezone.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I don't want it to be a deal
breaker, so I'll bow out.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Whatever you want, Mark.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'm just -- I'm trying to follow
what the applicant said. And what I want to remind everybody, this is
way beyond what we originally talked about on the original
application. It was for single-family residential housing. They want
to do a proj ect.
So all of a sudden through the processes that we put in -- I guess I
should say the roadblocks that we put in, we're now coming back to
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December 3,2009
where the more or less real nature of this project may go. And I think
that we have every right to question it now versus what we were told
originally.
So that's all I'm sticking to. If they hadn't come in originally and
said what they said, I wouldn't be so concerned with it today. But if
you're going to stand to the plate and say something, then somebody's
got to hold your feet to the fire and that's where it's at.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Chairman, I'm very comfortable with
that, but I object to the suggestion that we're being disingenuous in
any way. We're telling you exactly what we told you. There is no
project.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I'm not saying you're disingenuous,
I'm just saying that what we were told originally is -- we're getting
now more than what we were told originally. That's why you're back
here today is to tell us more.
And I'm glad that we forced your hand, or if you voluntarily
came back in, fine. But I'm glad it came out this way. Because now
we're looking at the various uses that could be there instead of just
what we assumed would be the primary use, which was single-family
residential.
Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Well, and that's what I was
waiting for you all to try to ferret out from John. What do you want? I
mean, what is it? I mean, you keep saying what we'll accept, what
we'll not accept.
I know you want to keep it open as much as you can for your
client because you don't know what is going to happen a year to five
years from now. But on the other hand, we need to know what's going
to go on.
MR. PASSIDOMO: And Mr. Wolfley, it's--
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I mean, we've been burned
before here by not being told the whole story that oh, it's just
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boilerplate and just leave that in there, and the next thing you know,
something gets built that we got burned, so --
MR. PASSIDOMO: Well, it's the permitted uses except for H.
And it's the accessory uses. And it's the four conditional uses
described in 3.B, D, E and I. All the other conditional uses would be
eliminated.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. And that's what we're down to.
Okay, are there any other questions of the applicant? Ifnot, let's
hear the staff report.
MS. DESELEM: Good morning. For the record, Kay Deselem,
Principal Planner with Zoning.
You do have the supplemental staff report prepared for this date's
hearing. It is revised IO/30/09 in the footnote. And I won't belabor
the issue. You've had a lengthy discussion about it.
Staff is in agreement with what's being proposed. We believe that
the project remains consistent with the Growth Management Plan.
And I -- along with what the County Attorney's Office is
recommending and what you have so far come to an agreement on as
far as discussion wise, staff is in -- you know, would recommend
approval of that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I have one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Kay, were you at the
neighborhood information meeting?
MS. DESELEM: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Do you think there's anything
that was said at that meeting that this would contradict? In other
words, did the applicant say anything to the neighbors that now we're
doing something different?
MS. DESELEM: I'd want to take a moment and go back and
look at the synopsis of that.
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December 3,2009
But overall, I don't believe so. Because the whole idea was it
was rezoning to ago with a rural fringe neutral designation. So I can't
see where if you're limiting to even less than what would be allowed
by right in that or by conditional use that it would be anything less
than what the neighbor's would have understood to be proposed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, the prior staff report
said that the neighbors had asked that -- Mrs. Perry to paraphrase said
that it would go to agricultural that would allow the property owner
more uses such as single family, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, let me read it to you. It says right
-- we have it in our package. The petitioner re -- let's see, one resident
wanted to know where the access to the property would be. The
petitioner responded that it would be in the same place as it is today.
No changes proposed.
The same resident wanted clarification that no commercial uses
could be built with this rezone. And the petitioner assured him that
commercial use is not an approved use under agriculture or in the rural
fringe neutral area and that in order to allow commercial uses, a
Growth Management Plan amendment would be required.
Several residents asked if there were any plans to remove the golf
course. The property owner stated that he intends to keep the current
golf course intact. That's the synopsis.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I read that. I was worried more
about the paragraph above. It does point out that they're aware of the
fact that there's more uses, the agricultural uses, such as --
MS. DESELEM: I think the such as doesn't say only. And so
the implication is that they just culled out one that at that time they
had looked at, but it didn't preclude them from having anything else
that might be allowed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And they had no objection?
MS. DESELEM: That's my recollection, sir, yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
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December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: But, and you know this for a fact,
Kay, that when you go to those neighborhood information meetings,
when you say there are uses such as and the rest of the discussion has
to do with single-family homes, what do the neighbors walk away
thinking they're going to get?
MS. DESELEM: There is that possibility, but --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Nebulous other uses that they don't
even know and never were detailed for them? No, they expect
single- family homes.
And what we're learning here is that mayor may not be the case.
And that's why I think we need to go through these things. The
neighbors need to know that there are all these other uses. And they
may be fine with those other uses.
But did you detail all these other uses to the neighborhood?
MS. DESELEM: No, I did not --
COMMISSIONER CARON: That's--
MS. DESELEM: -- but I'm not the one that does the
neighborhood information meeting.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But did Mr. Passidomo or whoever
respected him at the time?
MS. DESELEM: When the neighbors, you know, understand, I
assume, that it's an agricultural zoning district, they're going to, I think
they would have some assumption from that --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right.
MS. DESELEM: -- that there are other uses that would be
permitted. But you know --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But Kay, the word--
MS. DESELEM: -- what they say about assumption, so--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The word agricultural connotates row
crops and citrus and cows. I can tell you, you've given this board
eight pages of uses that is now going to be applied to this property,
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December 3, 2009
that even members of this board knowing that this was going to be up
here today did not download and print themselves. So how -- I would
expect that nobody in the public at that meeting would have these
eight pages with them and would have known that every -- like group
care facilities and care housing facilities and FAR of .45, the public
doesn't -- when you say agricultural uses such as single-family
residential, the public doesn't expect that to be one of them.
And I'm not saying that's bad or good. But I'm saying we cannot
rely on the fact that because the public didn't ask the question about is
it only going to be residential and that they were told it was
agricultural zoning that meant they conceded to all these uses. That is
not something I think the public is generally aware of.
MS. DESELEM: Yes. Plus you've got the issue of the neutral
lands, which is what that list is taken from. It's not so much the ago
rezoning, it's the neutral lands, which was in effect at the time
anyway. And that really never came up, to my knowledge, in the
neighborhood information meeting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So had the public gone to look for
something, had they looked at the agricultural zoning, which they saw
this going to, they still wouldn't probably have known that an overlay
applies from the rural fringe that has another series of uses that they
would have had to look at.
MS. DESELEM: I can't say what they knew, but I can tell you
that in the advertisement it does mention that rural fringe. And
obviously they have the opportunity if they have questions to contact
staff or the applicant, and it's kind of hard to be all things to all people.
You can't make people ask questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I just want to follow up on that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Kay, those people are mostly in
agricultural zoning in the neutral fringe themselves, so essentially the
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December 3, 2009
rights they would be given would be essentially the rights that they
themselves have.
MS. DESELEM: That could be. But the one property adjacent
to this one does have a conditional use for a golf course so it's
reasonable to assume perhaps that if they have a conditional use others
could get conditional uses.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: This is adjacent to the Estates, Brad, and
some of the people that attended, at least one of them I know, is an
Estates resident.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Looking at the information, it's
agricultural around it. Some with -- you know, I think it has a lot of
trailers and stuff, right?
MS. DESELEM: Yes, I believe to the north.
But like I said, I can't assume to know what anybody leaves a
meeting with is an understanding.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Not a big point.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions of
staff?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, with that, are there any public
speakers, Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes, we have one speaker. Tim Pratt.
(Speaker was duly sworn.)
MR. PRATT: Well, I'm -- my name is Tim Pratt. I'm a resident
of Golden Gate Estates. I live on 25th Street Northwest, so I've got a
concern about this.
I'm really happy to see that you guys are taking so much time to
really ferret out what's going on here.
I've got a -- I would request that you don't allow this. And the
reason being is when I was -- when this was rezoned to a golf course I
believe many years ago, I didn't get involved in that. I thought well, a
golf course, that's no big deal, that won't hurt me.
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December 3, 2009
And since then they've decided to build the Vanderbilt Beach
Road. They didn't want to destroy the golf course, they moved over
and they're going to take dwellings.
So my contention of this is they have really not been a good
neighbor. They've made no concessions. No attempt to try and save
people from losing their homes. And I just -- I guess I'm thinking that
this can't be good for us either.
I'm wondering if this is -- they admitted that they don't know
what they're going to do. This is for some five, 10, 15 years down the
road. So they're just -- I'm wondering why they even need this. Is it
just so they can, you know, run cattle and save some tax money? I'm
just not sure.
I'm a little apprehensive about this, and I would just ask that you
don't let them do this. But thank you for your time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Pratt, your issue about the road is
one that I personally have tried to follow myself. And I certainly
agree with you in that regard, that road didn't need to be moved, it had
to be moved now because of properties that are in their way that are
more expensive apparently and more important than homes in Golden
Gate Estates.
I still disagree with that. Although unfortunately this -- that is
not an issue we can weigh into this factor --
MR. PRATT: Oh, I understand that, yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- here today. But I -- I live out in the
Estates too and I'm disgusted with the road situation.
MR. PRATT: Well, I just -- like I say, everybody here -- I feel
much better. You know, I -- and it's my fault, I haven't been very
involved in -- actually, this is the first meeting I've attended. And I
feel much better knowing that you guys really -- you seem to be really
looking out for us, and I appreciate that.
But I'm a little suspicious of the Ole Florida Golf Course. And
that's why I would -- there's something in this for them, obviously.
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December 3, 2009
And they want to make money and I can understand that. But at what
expense? Are we going to lose -- are they going to run cattle and try
and, you know, save tax money or -- I'm just -- I'm a little suspicious
of them. Thank you for your time.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, I have a question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sir, he's got one more question from
Brad.
MR. PRATT: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I obviously -- you
followed the road conversations closely back then?
MR. PRATT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Was the point made that they
weren't able to move the holes on their golf course? Was that the
reason why the road --
MR. PRATT: Yeah, it would be very expensive to move the
holes on the golf course. You know, I'm not a golfer so, you know, I
can't say.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But essentially then we have
this land for housing that could have contained the holes that they had
to move.
MR. PRATT: That's what I'm thinking. There was -- I mean,
there was other land there that -- and, you know, I'm not a golf course
designer, I'm not a golfer, but there was a lot of other land there that it
seems to me they could have moved to. And I'm sure it would have
been very expensive.
And I think it was -- what they did is they went, you know, by
the dollar amount. It would be cheaper to force these people to leave
their homes than it would be to move the holes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, thanks for that.
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December 3, 2009
MR. PRATT: I'm just speculating. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
Are there any more speakers, Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: No other speakers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: John, do you want a rebuttal?
MR. PASSIDOMO: Very briefly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I shouldn't say -- I guess corrected by
Bruce, we don't call those rebuttals. Do you want to counterpoint?
Whatever you want to call it.
MR. P ASSIDOMO: Just some conclusionary remarks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. PASSIDOMO: Obviously the Commission recognizes the
issue of the relocation of a road that occurred years and years ago that
was made with the -- in the best judgment of the Board of County
Commissioners. It is not an issue in front of you today.
But you would be interested to know that although you could
have relocated some of the holes from this golf course, you couldn't
have relocated some of the holes from the golf course next door. The
Golf Course of the Everglades is 18 holes -- it's only 18 holes. And
that would have constituted a taking of an entire golf course.
If I remember correctly, the testimony in front of the Board of
County Commissioners was that the differential in cost was $45
million. So whether they were right or wrong, the Board of County
Commissioners had information in front of them to justify what they
did.
There won't be a reduction in taxes. We're increasing the amount
of uses, not decreasing the amount of uses. So presumably the
property appraiser may want to look at that, but there's certainly no
contemplation that we're going to run cattle here.
What you see is really what you get. We want to be treated the
same as all of our other neighbors, to have the same overlay district
uses on ours, as revised by the Commission. Not to have any special
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December 3, 2009
privileges, just to have a level playing field.
We appreciate your consideration, in particular appreciate the
Chairman's leadership in getting the map in front of you today. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ifnot, we'll close the public hearing.
And I think we might want to start with discussion, if that's -- nobody
objects.
There's a list of items I've written down in regards to this issue.
And by the way, I think we ought to also consider, if we weren't
looking at rezoning this to standard zoning like's being requested with
the limitations we may impose on it today, they certainly could come
in at any time with a PUD request. And the likelihood of that getting
approved is probably the same. I mean, it would -- I don't see them
being denied the more use on this property because of its size.
So whatever we do, we should be doing something that tries to
make it the best we possibly can out of a situation that's going to have
a modification to it sooner or later anyway. And so that's where I've
been coming from in trying to understand what to do here today.
First of all, I think we ought to make the approval subject to a
stipulation that includes the map of the future development envelope
that's been presented to us today as a limitation to the property.
That we delete on Page 2 of their -- of those map pages, items
number one and two, and we substitute in language as recommended
by the County Attorney's Office concerning consistency with the then
current Land Development Code language for the rural fringe area that
they're asking to be part of, or the agricultural -- with your rural fringe
overlay.
That we delete the Page 3 reference to Section 2.03.08.A,
because it is in the LDC and it will be part of what their requirements
will be.
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December 3, 2009
There's something I didn't bring up, but I see it just as a
correction. Number five on the notes on Page 2 it says, the area
depicted as future development envelope is the area within which
future development on the property will occur.
I think the word "will" needs to be substituted with the word
"may". It just -- because we don't know until the environmental is
done. So I would suggest that correction be added.
And that lastly we add the condition that the rezone to ago with a
rural fringe overlay is acceptable. But Item H is not eligible under the
permitted uses for a use. And under the conditional uses, only Items
B, D, E and I are eligible for application for conditional use and
through the regular process.
And I believe that's all the notes I have.
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I just have a question,
because I don't want there to be any questions down the line.
Mr. Passidomo said that they would take out any commercial or
industrial uses. And if we make that as one of your stipulations, then
are we leaving some question when you get to permitted uses as of
right under D, which the greater category is group housing, which gets
into family care facilities, group care, which are commercial type uses.
And I just don't want in the future somebody to say well, I think
this is allowed and somebody else to say no, it's not allowed. Either
we're taking out commercial and industrial uses or we're not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The reason I worded my stipulation
referencing specific uses was to avoid that concern. If we just left it
no industrial commercial uses, that would be harder to interpret than
saying of the non -- the uses that are permitted by right, the only one
that shouldn't be used is H.
I understand your position --
COMMISSIONER CARON: So you're fine with some
commercial uses.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : Well, they're all limited to the height
and density restrictions in the regular zoning overlay, so they're not
going to be as harmful as multi-family could be, for example. They're
all so limited in their intensity. And by those standard regulations that
no matter what they are, they're going to come out the same in regards
to intensity. That's where I was coming from.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm good. I'm just asking the question.
I don't want there to be any confusion later.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, in the area where you
wanted to change it from will to may, I think it's moot. Will is the
intention to do and if they're restricted because of any number of
limitations associated with either environmental or other factors, they
simply won't be able to build on there. I don't know that changing it to
may makes it as restrictive as perhaps we intend.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Ashton, I had mentioned this one to
you the other day. Do you see a -- what is the better word to use
there, will or may?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Let me ask for clarification. Do you
want the "may" to attach to the first sentence or the second sentence
where you're dealing with the preserve area?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The first sentence.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: I think that you won't be able to hold
them to it if you put may. Will you'll be able to hold them to it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: What I'm thinking.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, well, that's fine. I appreciate the
correction then.
And that will be -- we'll leave number five as is, so we won't
stipulate a change to that.
Okay, are there any other comments, discussion?
(No response.)
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a motion?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll make --
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So moved.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. If Bob wants it, he can
have it.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: No, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll move that we forward with a
recommendation of approval RZ-2008-AR-I3951, Olde Florida Golf
Course, Inc., with the requirements we put on it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And we go -- before you finish,
though, we also had four stipulations originally.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Two of those I believe still apply,
number one and four. Would those be included in your motion?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Correct. We would eliminate
two, we eliminate three and add the additional requirements.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Number one and four.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Mr. Schiffer, seconded
by Mr. Murray.
Is there discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
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December 3, 2009
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 9-0.
Thank you, we appreciate everybody's time and help in getting
through this today.
And we have a decision to make. We have one more case. It's in
Golden Gate Estates. It's -- Mr. Hancock is handling it, which means
it's pretty well laid out. We can either proceed with it or we can take a
break and come back. I'd rather we just work and get this done, if
that's okay with everybody.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm good.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And Heidi -- or Cherie', what do
you need for a break? We just had a break for five minutes. You
want to take a IS-minute break right now?
THE COURT REPORTER: Ten minutes is fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ten-minute break? Okay.
Tim, we're going to take aID-minute break. We'll resume at
11 :40 and we'll work through lunch.
(Recess. )
Item #9C
PETITION: PUDZ-2007-11398~ SHOESOP PROPERTIES~ LLC
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, welcome back from break. We're
going to try to work through our lunch to finish up here today.
And now we're approaching Petition PUDZ-2007-AR-I1398,
Shoesop Properties, LLC for the Fakahatchee Plaza CPUD in Golden
Gate Estates.
All those wishing to participate in this item, please rise to be
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sworn in by the court reporter.
(All speakers were duly sworn.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, disclosures on the part of
Planning Commission. Anybody?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I had a discussion with Mr. Hancock I
think yesterday, and went over some concerns that he's going to be
addressing today.
So with that in mind, Tim, it's all yours.
MR. HANCOCK: Mr. Chairman, thank you. Commissioners.
F or the record, Tim Hancock with Davidson Engineering, on
behalf of Shoesop Properties, LLC. Mr. Michael Schoeller, owner of
Shoesop is here in case you have any questions for him. He's also a
pretty good bat in the lineup on my softball team, so we're happy to be
here representing Mike.
The arrow before you shows you the project location. What's
before you today is a CPUD rezone, a 5.46 gross acres of land located
at the northwest corner of Golden Gate Boulevard and Everglades
Boulevard in Golden Gate Estates.
The property is designated in the Golden Gate Area Master Plan
as neighborhood center subdistrict, and as such has provided the
opportunity to seek land use entitlements consistent with that master
plan.
As shown on the aerial, the adjacent properties to the north and to
the west are currently developed with single-family homes.
As you're aware, the granting of this rezone would allow for
adjacent parcels totaling up to five acres to request a rezone for a
limited number of conditional uses. At this time neither property
owner to our knowledge is contemplating that, but that opportunity
does remain available to them.
Thank you, Ray.
Consistent with the Golden Gate Area Master Plan requirements,
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December 3, 2009
the buffering on the proposed project is significant. The west and
north property lines which are adjacent to residential retain a 50-foot
native vegetation buffer. The vegetation in these areas will be left in
place as it is today.
Additionally, the entire site is then subject to a 25- foot landscape
buffer on all sides, creating in effect a 75-foot buffer adjacent to
residential neighbors and 25 feet along both roadway frontages.
The required buffering and landscape areas will comprise 23
percent of the usable site area. This site is already encumbered by
1.12 acres of roadway easement, resulting in a net property of 4.34
acres before we get into the development standards that we'll be
outlining today.
The intersection of Everglades Boulevard and Golden Gate
Boulevard is currently in design for widening. The plan is to widen
the intersection to accommodate the ultimate build-out condition of
both Everglades and Golden Gate in advance of the two roadways
being widened.
In other words, the intersection's going to get done first before
the roadways get done, mainly because the restriction at the
intersection is turning movements as it stands today.
These plans are at a 60 percent design stage, but like many road
projects in the county it is on hold due to budgetary constraints.
Mr. Schoeller has agreed to convey to Collier County an area
totaling almost four-tenths of an acre, again some nine percent of the
current useable site. Since this donation exceeds what could be
construed as reasonable mitigation for project-related impacts to the
roadway network, transportation staff has agreed to compensate the
property owner for the difference, as spelled out in the PUD.
Areas required to compensate for site-related turn lanes have
been removed from that calculation. In other words, if we would have
to give I2 feet for a right turn lane into the property as compensating
right-of-way, we have not included that in the calculation with respect
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to the donation, if you will, to the county.
The result of these requirements is actually a development
envelope totaling approximately 2.I acres out of that original 5.46.
Access is fairly limited, as shown on the PUD master plan,
mainly because of the proposed widening of the intersection. It will
result in fairly restrictive access to the site.
Once hopefully at some point down the road if conditional uses
are approved on adjacent properties, that access may improve, but for
now we have what we have.
As you can see from the plan really with the 2.1-acre envelope
and the access as shown, the access is adequate but really serves as a
restriction of the degree of small-scale retail services that could be
constructed on the site.
I'm aware of a couple issues raised by the Chairman, and we may
need some clarification, so let me try and put before you some of
those at this time.
The first is within the PUD, in addition to listing the uses that are
permitted, we also listed the use that are prohibited. During the NIMs
I stated that there were two uses that would not be permitted on the
property, but I did fail to include them in the PUD and I'd like to
correct that now.
Those two uses are one, a gas station. The reason being, we are
in the WS-I well-field protection area. Believe me, gas stations would
love to be on this corner, they simply can't go there because of the
well-field protection area. And I think there would be other use
limitations that this board may be interested in. So we will be adding
under number 15 gas stations as a prohibited use.
The second one is fast food restaurants with a drive-through.
Again, we'll be listing these as prohibited uses because primarily a
fast- food restaurant with a drive-through, the drive-through becomes
fairly substantial in the operation of it and I believe does qualify as a
drive-through establishment under county regulations and as such
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would be prohibited. We want to go ahead and make sure those two
are specifically listed under prohibited uses in the PUD.
Secondly, a resident, Ms. Susan Mason, requested that we
include some development constraints in accordance with the Dark
Skies initiative. Some of you may receive that e-mail. And that seeks
to protect rural areas from unnecessary ambient light intrusion.
Since this project is surrounded on four sides by Estates
residential lots, the request seemed reasonable. I inquired of a lighting
engineer, and while the language before you today may result in some
higher development costs, they do not appear to be extensive or
impossible to meet.
It's also likely by the time this site develops, more fixtures will be
designed to address this issue. As it stands right now, those fixtures
are somewhat limited in meeting Dark Skies initiative, but that list is
growing every day.
So while I don't purport to have done exhaustive research on the
item, I feel we can address this issue in our PUD. And I encourage the
county, actually ask this board to maybe make a recommendation to
the board that they form a small committee to actually look into this
further and help develop some standards. And if I can assist in
achieving that, I'd be happy to serve.
But I think we can do a little bit more to tailor the ambient light
issues in the rural Estates. And this is a shot at doing that.
The first criteria really is to limit the wattage of the lights to 250
watts HID. And HID is high intensity.
What HID does is it -- to give you the best example I can, instead
of seeing kind of the yellow glow of a typical bulb, it would be more
ofa white xenon or a daylight type of light. And that's what high
intensity discharge is intended to do, to mimic daylight more when the
light's in usage, as opposed to some of the less attractive light fixtures.
So the 250-Watt HID. And we're excluding anything that's
required for life safety issues, whether it be exit signs or stairwell
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lighting or those types of things. And I thought by limiting it to life
safety, that would be a successful limitation.
But any exterior lights, whether they be pole mounted or whether
they be on the building, would have to comply with this 250- W att
HID limitation or lumen equivalent, and to be fully shielded.
The other things we're doing in this language is we are
eliminating any landscape up-lighting, and any signage lighting would
have to be fully shielded. Again, if you're living adjacent to the
property, to see lights shining up makes absolutely no sense in a rural
setting. So we hope we've been able to achieve that with this
language.
There also was brought to my attention the potential for a lack of
clarity regarding the right-of-way to be conveyed to the county in
accordance with the PUD.
The PUD master plan that is included in your packet was really --
it became more of a transportation document in dealing with this
right-of-way issue. And so all of the detail was intended to show well,
what's not included in our reservation and what is. And in that we
probably lost something along the way.
So what I'd like to do is propose that we add a note to the master
concept plan that states -- as you look at this plan you see the
crosshatched areas, and there's three different types of crosshatching.
What we want to be clear about is that entire area is included in the
right-of-way that is to be conveyed to the county within 30 days of
PUD approval.
The areas that are hatched differently in there are those areas that
are part of the compensating right-of-way. So rather than distinguish
between the two in the PUD, which doesn't make any sense, I think a
simple statement on the master concept plan could read as follows:
All compensating and reserved right-of-way is subject to Item 3.A of
Exhibit E in the PUD document. That is the part of the PUD
document that says the right-of-way as shown on the master concept
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plan will be conveyed within 30 days.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But Tim, the point that -- and I brought
this up to staff, is that the annotation here that there's a right-of-way
reservation then is no longer really true. This is right-of-way that's
been bought and paid for, is that--
MR. HANCOCK: Partial donation, partial paid for, yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. That was the whole basis. I'm
trying to understand what a reservation was and we had no legal
mechanism for such.
MR. HANCOCK: It was a -- yeah, it was a reservation because
we weren't sure how to figure out the balance. Because, you know,
how are we going to -- what's the level of compensation.
We finally realized that and figured it out. I put it in the
document, but I failed to amend the master concept plan to reflect that.
I believe this language will achieve that, if it's acceptable to this board.
The last item I'd like to mention, and the reason I motioned, we
have one of the residents who lives next to the project here in
attendance, and discussed with them what their concerns may be. And
the master concept plan as you see it, if you look at the upper left-hand
corner, the access drive on Golden Gate, the county transportation
department asked us to move that as far away from the intersection as
possible. Which we did.
One of the concerns then is it lies pretty much on the property
line, and as a result could be a problem for the adjacent property
owner.
So what we're going to ask is that the access drive be at least IO
feet from the property line to allow for a Type A 10- foot buffer and a
six-foot fence or wall along the length of entry drive. That's so that
cars coming in and out of the project do not become a burden to the
adjacent property owner.
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The second item that the neighbors have asked that we consider
and that we are more than willing to commit to, is that within the
25-foot landscape buffer along the western side of the property, which
is adjacent to their home, that we provide a six-foot fence or wall to be
included in that buffer.
I will tell you that at our first and second NIM, the property
owner to the north was present, made no such request. We still have
the option of doing a fence or wall or vegetation on the north side.
But again, being a small project, and I've already -- I've designed and
we've actually gone through the construction of one of these, the
building tends to focus more on the corner itself and the space, if you
will, tends to be to the rear, but at this point we think addressing the
concerns of the neighbor to the west is sufficient, and we'd like to add
that language to the PUD.
With those points aside, I at this time will turn it over to any
questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Questions of the applicant?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray, then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You want to operate the site
from 6:00 a.m. to 11 :00 p.m. And you relate to Big Bear CPUD as the
base.
6:00 a.m. to II :00, you're not going to have a gas station --
MR. HANCOCK: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- so what would you be selling
at 6:00 a.m., groceries?
MR. HANCOCK: I believe those are the same time limits that
were applied to the Snowy Egret PUD where we have a Walgreen's
drugstore at this time. They usually like to operate 24 hours a day.
But as someone who's had to run out in the morning and get cold
medicine for a child before going to work, that's why the 6:00 a.m.
limitation is in there.
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So you anticipate the possibility
of a Walgreen's?
MR. HANCOCK: I do. I anticipate the possibility . We have no
one in the wings.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. That's what you're
focusing on, more or less.
MR. HANCOCK: As I've told the neighbors, I've done a couple
of these, and they tend to go one of two ways. It tends to be a single
end user, such as a Walgreen's or CVS which operates more than just
a drugstore these days. It's almost--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Kind of like a grocery store.
MR. HANCOCK: --like a mini grocery and essential needs--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I need a qualification.
Recommendations, the second recommendation of the hours of
operation on the site for all non-essential services, what was the intent
there? That -- it's creative language, non-essential services.
MR. HANCOCK: That's carried over from the Land
Development Code. In essential service, we anticipate under that
definition to mean a fire station or police substation.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No, I understand that part of it.
So I'm just -- well, do you intend to have a fire station?
MR. HANCOCK: Well, within the PUD essential services
would be permitted. It's not on our radar screen, but those are
included in the Golden Gate Area Master Plan as permitted uses
within the neighborhood center subdistrict, so we just rolled them in.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's interesting to me.
Normally I don't get into too much detail on these matters, but it
seems to me if you wanted to have a neighborhood center where you
could go get cough medicine or milk, you're going to leave yourself
open to other things.
I don't know, that throws up a curve to me. Maybe I -- I'd like to
hear more. I'm not saying no, but I'm just wondering, if the hours of
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operations for all non-essential services and of course the LDC says
it's for essential services 24 hours a day --
MR. HANCOCK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- how do -- I mean, suppose we
put -- I don't know that we can, but suppose we put an essential
service -- does a well-head represent an essential service? I don't
know. That was--
MR. HANCOCK: It's a good question. I've--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: What I'm getting at is if you had
one that was essential services and you had next to it another, and I
don't know that there's room so I'm not trying to go -- but that's my
quandary, okay. And I'm visualizing with such a limited space,
especially with 25K, that you're essentially looking essentially for a
store and a half.
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, sir. Or a small, you know, if you will, a
mini-mall or strip type facility. Those are really the two directions
these go once you have your limited development envelope.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, I'm not going to balk at it.
It's just that I just wondered, it seems we talk about restricting -- the
last go-around we had here, we talked about restricting in anticipation
of leaving people in the future with something that they weren't happy
with.
To my way of thinking, the people who were there who have
bought out in the Estates want the peace and quiet. Now, if you have
some arrangement with our county government that they might be
interested in an EMS station or something of that nature, I think we
should know about it and I think the community should know about it.
If not, I'm disinclined to want to grant such a thing as that. I'm
thinking grocery stores, et cetera.
MR. HANCOCK: Well, we will certainly follow the direction of
this body on that. We don't have any type of an arrangement or
anticipation of a fire station or police substation.
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I will say that, for example, a police substation is a far less of an
operating concern than would be a fire station. But again, we were
just rolling the uses in that are contained in the Golden Gate Area
Master Plan. If it's this body's desire to withdraw that or exclude that,
we'll certainly make that consideration.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, we'll see what the
. .
commISSIon says.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes. Ray, could you put up the
aerial photo?
And Tim, my concern is, is again protecting that neighbor to the
west. So moving the road was one of the issues. I think that's fine,
you're going to put a 10- foot buffer.
Could that buffer follow the curve in the road? Because the other
concern I have is you're going to have water management in that
50- foot retained area. From the drawings you're showing, that could
be pretty devoid of trees and vegetation.
So it would be nice if these people sitting on the front porch
weren't able to see cars or lights from cars anywhere in that curve.
MR. HANCOCK: And I'll have a hard time wording this on the
fly, but the intent here was whether we follow the curve or whether we
extend in a straight line that when that fence line stops it would be
picked up in the 25- foot buffer so that we don't have a window there.
That was my intent was that the two would in combination create a
visual buffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But the concern I do have is
that, you know, do you call this native vegetation and water
management? If there's a lot of water management in that area, it's
going to be pretty devoid of vegetation, so --
MR. HANCOCK: We're not allowed to remove any of the native
vegetation to allow for water management.
As a matter of fact, the water management, we have to
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demonstrate that it will not adversely impact the native vegetation. So
there won't be the removal of any area -- any trees in that 50-foot
native area.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. HANCOCK: But if I can -- I think I can address that by just
indicating that the wall and buffer will continue along the entry road
until it creates a visual buffer along the entire western side of the
property. That was our intent.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And you are putting a wall in
the 20-foot landscape buffer, correct?
MR. HANCOCK: In the 25-foot, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Twenty-five foot. So that wall
would connect with that wall. So essentially if you did it right, you
could run that wall all the way past the preserve area, correct?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, sir, we could do that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. When you say you're not
going to remove any trees, but the section you have shows natural
grade, and you're going to berm and then kind offill for the
development pads on top of that; is that right?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, that's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So where would the water be?
It would be around the trunks of those trees that are in there, or --
MR. HANCOCK: Yes. This is -- and this is something we're
going through in the EAC/LDC sub-committee right now. These are
pine flatwoods. There are limitations on how much water you can put
into a pine flatwoods without adversely affecting it. We've used those
limitations successfully on a handful of projects.
So the water management system basically would be designed to
pretreat before it discharges into any of the preserve area. You'd only
be using a limited part of the preserve as a containment area. But it's
just to let the water sit and percolate to the greatest degree you can,
which I think is preferable to running off to adjacent sites or the
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right-of-way.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, that's good.
So you really are concerned that those neighbors will not be able
to look over and see vehicles moving or at least six feet down see
vehicles moving?
MR. HANCOCK: That is--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the lights.
MR. HANCOCK: That is the concern they've expressed, and I
think with the modification you've made, we've -- in addition to 50
feet of existing vegetation, the wall will achieve that as a visual buffer
and also provide a little more sound attenuation being closer to the
development than if it were on the property line.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. The next thing you had
is the lighting. You kind of said it has to be this 250- W att HID
lighting. I mean, is --
MR. HANCOCK: Or equivalent. Or lumen equivalent.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Because that could be -- that's
still a pretty bright light.
MR. HANCOCK: It is. We -- that came directly from the Dark
Skies website. It does -- there are lighting plans out there that exceed
that currently. And it does require a few more fixtures than otherwise
allowable.
I think it is a limitation and I think it's a starting point in absence
of us having any regulation to go by at this point. I'm kind of relying
on the expert and the resident who made the request to help guide us
on that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the fixture will be such that
it won't -- obviously no light will be spread. Really, the way you
worded it, it will be shielded so that it does not pass the property line.
But could we not word that so it does not go into the 50-foot buffer
and give ourselves that extra protect -- the way it's worded now, they
could have bright trees right alongside their property line.
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So would you have a problem wording that? It's on Page I7. It
is A, and it's shielded so the light rays do not pass property lines.
MR. HANCOCK: If you want to change from property lines to
development area?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, yeah, that would -- or the
50-foot buffer. You're going to need some spillage to maybe light the
back of these buildings. You're not going to come in here and want to
put signs on the back of these buildings, are you? Just kidding.
MR. HANCOCK: And we -- we promise not to appear before
you asking for signs on the back.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, good.
Anyway, I think that if you just -- in that 50-foot, if you really
started to pretend that was something serious, then it would definitely
not bleed into the neighbor and they won't be looking at bright
landscaping.
Thank you, I'm --
MR. HANCOCK: I think we can accomplish that, because the
light fixtures will be on the development side of the 25-foot buffer,
and with full shielding we shouldn't see spill into the native vegetation
buffer to any degree. The full shielding is actually something that has
-- right now they're having to modify most fixtures manually to
achieve that because there aren't enough of them commercially
available. I'm hoping by the time we see development on this parcel,
there will be a list of commercially available fully shielded lights that
meet hurricane code standards. Which right now it takes a lot of work
to do that.
But I understand the effect is not to light the property up to its
perimeter adjacent to the residential. And so I think by wording it that
no light will spill into the native preserve areas, we can word that
effectively, I believe.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of the
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applicant?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, Mr. Hancock, I had a
question on Page 8 of your PUD under the conditional uses.
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And I'm asking this because I
honestly don't know.
What is the ancillary plants that you're --
MR. HANCOCK: Typically that is for larger projects that
require things such --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right.
MR. HANCOCK: -- as chillers and whatnot. I think we can
strike that. I don't -- let me back up, because I may need Ray's
assistance on this.
The Walgreen's that was constructed at Golden Gate and Wilson,
there is a pump that is required to maintain pressure for the fire
system. That pump needs to be covered. That becomes a structure.
Whether that would constitute an ancillary plant or not, I don't know.
It's a gray area.
COMMISSIONER CARON: All right.
MR. HANCOCK: So that's my concern is I don't want to
preclude that, because we do have to do well and septic out here and
that material does need to be covered in some fashion.
So if that's an accessory structure and if I can get something on
the record that says that would not qualify or be required to be an
ancillary plant, that that's a part and parcel of the development, then
I'd be comfortable removing that.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, and it may -- they may
qualify it as a structure, I don't know. That's why I asked. I just
wasn't sure what --
MR. HANCOCK: I think it's only fair we make Ray do stuff on
the fly too --
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December 3, 2009
COMMISSIONER CARON: Absolutely.
MR. HANCOCK: -- since we have to.
MR. BELLOWS: For the record, Ray Bellows.
The -- I suggest striking ancillary plants from the conditional use.
That appears to me to be a reference to things like school boards that
have ancillary bussed facilities.
COMMISSIONER CARON: That's what I was thinking.
MR. BELLOWS: The things that Mr. Hancock's referring to I
think we typically treat as accessory type of things to the use.
MR. HANCOCK: Cherie', you got all that, right? Okay. Thank
you.
We're comfortable with that, we can strike ancillary plants.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Thank you.
And on Page 10 under your development standards table?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I have a question -- well, let me
start I guess by asking about your minimum floor area, which is 700
square feet. And then there's a note, it says that that 700 square feet is
for the principal structure on the first finished floor.
Are you -- aren't you only allowed one floor here, one story?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, ma'am. We are entirely guilty ofa
careless carryover.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay.
MR. HANCOCK: So we can strike the footnote there.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Then let me just ask you one final
question here, and that's on the maximum height, which is 35 feet.
And you have an actual of 47 feet. That's a 12-foot difference. I
mean, can you just tell me what you need 12 feet for?
MR. HANCOCK: We have routinely done that, added I2 feet
for purposes of -- and the example's always been an elevator shaft that
extends onto the roof. Well, obviously we're one story, we probably
aren't going to have elevator equipment on the roof.
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December 3, 2009
It's just a -- it's something we consistently do. We add 12 feet just
to handle anything that may be up there.
We may find that it's better to put AC units on the roof and do a
parapet wall for noise attenuation than putting them on the ground or
something like that. So, you know, that shouldn't take more than five
or six feet.
I'm just -- not sure what that number really needs to be. But the
intent obviously is just to handle mechanical equipment on the roof,
which then of course has to be shielded based on the architectural
standards. That's the sole intent. If there's a lesser number that -- Mr.
Schiffer may be of greater help than anyone on that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One problem is that the actual --
let's take a sloped roof. The actual height's to the middle of the slope
-- I mean, I'm sorry, the zoned height's to the middle of the slope.
The actual would be to the peak, or could be a lightning rod or
anything else. So lowering that number just lowers the slope of the
roof, which doesn't really help the neighborhood, I don't think.
MR. HANCOCK: I was thinking clearly of flat roofs, but you're
absolutely right, if we were to do a pitched roof on this, it would limit
the pitch.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think -- well, Mr. Schiffer always
has a reason for additional height. That wasn't really the reason for
my question.
And actually, in asking my first question it was solved. What I
was trying to avoid was the fact that perhaps you were building this
building over parking. And, I mean, you have a very small envelope
and I didn't think that that was allowed and I wanted to make sure that
that wasn't the case. But you've struck the on -- over the first finished
floor, so we're fine.
MR. HANCOCK: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: This will be for two parties,
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December 3,2009
actually. Ray's involved in this too.
In your PUD where you show your permitted uses, under your
alpha, I don't see essential services as being in here. And perhaps it
isn't even required to be in a listing.
But inasmuch as that statement was made in the stipulation about
non-essential services issues. So my question really is to either party
who can answer it.
MR. MOSS: Yes, for the record, Commissioner, John-David
Moss, Department of Zoning and Land Development Review.
That language was taken directly from the Big Bear PUD right
across the street, and so that's why those hours of operation were
incorporated into this one, because they were the hours of operation
that were decided for that PUD.
And the reason I left that in about essential services is because
use number 155 says any other uses considered comparable in nature
by the Board of Zoning Appeals.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, that's the hook.
MR. MOSS: So that was the hook, right.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I wish we were more clear, but
okay, that's fine.
MR. MOSS: Sorry about that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Wolfley?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: You've got forgive me, board,
but I seem to forget why we had issues. Why did you add I4 of your
prohibited uses, which was fast food drive-through? I came up here
and I'm sorry, my mind, it's age.
MR. HANCOCK: In the Golden Gate Area Master Plan under
prohibited uses they have the phrase drive-through establishments.
And there's been the discussion with this board and the board in the
past what that means. And the general definition that we have arrived
at is banks are not drive-through establishments because they're
specifically allowed.
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December 3,2009
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Money's good, food is bad,
okay.
MR. HANCOCK: Money's good -- well, fast food is bad, and we
all agree with that.
But the one other allowance we've had so far is pharmacy and
drug stores with a single drive-through lane. This body has in the past
said that that's not a drive-through establishment.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Okay, drugs are good, food is
bad.
MR. HANCOCK: Well, legal drugs are good.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Well, we might have a
discussion about that too, but --
MR. HANCOCK: But the point being fast food drive-throughs,
the drive-through becomes a very dominant part of the operation. And
we've had requests from folks, certainly not the neighbors, but folks in
the area say, well, we need more drive-through -- I think you even had
it on the Golden Gate/Wilson, you had a woman pleading --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: There was a lady, yeah --
MR. HANCOCK: -- for a McDonald's.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: -- that begged for a
McDonald's.
MR. HANCOCK: So I think that's why we're eliminating it is
because I think in fairness to the neighbors, no matter where we
oriented that drive-through, it would be a noxious presence --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: You mean lights going, flashing
by their homes?
MR. HANCOCK: The lights, and quite frankly the speaker box
that goes up until the last minute you're operating. And with the hours
limited on this, a fast food restaurant, I have yet to have a fast food
restaurant agree and go into any site where they have to close by
II :00 p.m. So to us it's a moot point. We're not going to get fast food
restaurants on the site with a drive-through.
Page 11 7
December 3, 2009
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Okay, money, drugs is good,
that works, okay.
MR. HANCOCK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: All right, got you. All right,
thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there anything else of the applicant?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Tim, since we're on the issue of
drive-throughs, on your Page II of your PUD you talk about the
drive-through pharmacy. Do you have any problem restricting the
drive-through portion of the pharmacy internal to the site? Meaning
the drive-throughs always have, in especially in a Walgreen's or any
other similar prescription area, they're going to have people
conversing with someone behind a window in a loud speaker.
And, you know, if you have that internal to the site so that your
drive-through is between another building or facing a road if you can
meet the architectural criteria -- but I hate to see that drive-through
opening up and facing the neighbors next door, because they'll hear
every prescription discussion and all the problems of someone's
ailments trying to go through their pharmacy.
So do you have any problems with limiting the drive-through to
an internal exposure to the site?
MR. HANCOCK: I -- only from a practical standpoint, and if
you'll permit me a brief discussion on it, I may be able to get very
comfortable with that.
When I look at how, for example, the Walgreen's is oriented on
the Snowy Egret CPUD, the drive-through is actually on the side that
is next to -- there's residential next to it. That ultimately became a
commercial.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But that's why that happened, yes.
MR. HANCOCK: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We knew that was going to be --
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December 3, 2009
anyway.
MR. HANCOCK: Typically you're not going to get them in the
back, because that's the loading area. So that leaves the two sides that
front the roadway.
I'm comfortable with it being on those two sides as long as it's
not precluded in the architectural design guidelines.
As a matter of fact, I think Walgreen's would rather have the
kiosk on the side visible to the roadway, because it ends up marketing
that service a little bit more. It just has to be shielded with
landscaping is my understanding. And if I am incorrect on that,
J ohn- David --
MR. MOSS: You are incorrect.
MR. HANCOCK: I'm incorrect?
MR. MOSS: The architectural code does discourage
drive-throughs between a building facade and a roadway. But it does
allow them, if you enhance the landscaping, by providing a Type B
buffer. And if you also provide a porte-cochere over the
drive-through window, it does allow it in that circumstance.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, and the other point I would make
is that if you were to put a Walgreen's on the north or south end and
then put another building alongside it, you'd still be internal to the site
and you'd have that other second building as a buffer internally. So
that's kind of why I was asking if you would mind stipulating that.
MR. HANCOCK: With what John-David has clarified, we're
comfortable stipulating with it. Because it just means -- I mean, we've
got a 25-foot buffer out there anyway. Beefing up that buffer and a
porte-cochere is going to be required anyway because of where we
live and the elements.
The one thing I will say, Mr. Strain, is typically if you put a
Walgreen's or CVS, I know for a fact there's not enough room for
anything else, particularly on this site.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Wolfley?
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December 3,2009
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: That was going to be my
question, how many square feet is the Walgreen's.
MR. HANCOCK: Well, the maximum that we're allowing is
25,000. And I will tell you, that's a bit of a pipe dream, because that
assumes you do 100 percent office. Because the parking demand is
lower. And that's how we arrived at the 25,000. You cannot
physically fit any more than that. If it goes to retail, the number will
be below 20,000, because you simply can't fit it in parking.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: So the typical Walgreen's is?
MR. HANCOCK: Fourteen to 16,000, depending on the exact
footprint.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: That's just what the Chairman
was talking about, another building. I was thinking, how are you
going to fit another building.
MR. HANCOCK: Yeah, I know on the Snowy Egret Plaza
we've got the Walgreen's, we've got this little tiny postage stamp of
green space behind it that you might be able to put a I,500 square foot
building on. That's about it.
This site is smaller because of the right-of-way issues.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Tim, on Page 11 of your PUD, Item F,
do you mind striking that? I can't understand what it's doing here in a
PUD.
MR. HANCOCK: I believe that was -- that's a bit antiquated. I
have no problem striking that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. How you get your approvals and
you move forward through your process with the neighborhood is
something you're more than capable of and more knowledgeable of.
I'm not -- I don't see why we should be referencing in a PUD private
entities for approval, so, or for review.
MR. HANCOCK: We agree, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, does anybody else have anything
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December 3, 2009
else of the applicant before we go --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One more.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, then Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Tim, below that you reference a
five-foot fence wall. What would it be, are you changing that to six?
Look in G.
MR. HANCOCK: Come to think of it, that's actually in the
Golden Gate Area Master Plan that the fence shall not exceed five
feet, if I'm not mistaken. I would like to put at six-foot fence up next
to the neighbors instead of a five-foot fence.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: That's a new one on me.
MR. HANCOCK: And I did not bring my copy of the Golden
Gate Area Master Plan.
I would like to say that between here and this coming back on
your consent, if we can look at that. Ifwe can do a six-foot fence
there, I would like to specify a six-foot fence in that location. If the
Golden Gate Area Master Plan does not provide for that, then I think
we need to add some language that the landscape buffer within one
year of planting shall reach a height of six feet so that between the
fence and the buffer we get that elevation reached.
That's -- again, I'm trying to create that six-foot visual buffer,
because, you know --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, you'll check on that?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, sir. I just need to make sure we're not in
violation of the Golden Gate Estates Area Master Plan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I wanted to ask, looking at
what's on the screen right now, behind the house is an open area. I
mean, it looks like a parking lot, but I can't imagine that that's what it
IS.
Right there. Do you know what that is?
MR. HANCOCK: I don't. The homeowner is here. But I'm not
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December 3,2009
sure what that is.
I do know this area, there was a fire that went through this area
not too long ago. But beyond that -- it's obviously not -- I honestly
don't know.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But the homeowner who lives
there is here?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay.
MR. HANCOCK: And whether he speaks or not is entirely up to
him.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, depending on the use, it may be--
COMMISSIONER CARON: Be moot.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- the wall idea may be silly.
But anyway, okay, any other questions of the applicant before we
go to the staff report?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Tim, thank you.
J.D.?
MR. MOSS: Thank you, Commissioner. For the record,
John-David Moss, Department of Zoning and Land Development
Review.
Mr. Hancock was very thorough in his presentation. I don't have
anything to add, but I would be happy to answer any questions you
might have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Boy, I like the thoroughness of your
presentation.
Are there any questions of county staff on any of the issues that
we have?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If not, Ray, do we have any registered
speakers?
MR. BELLOWS: No one has registered.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody in the audience wishing to
speak?
(No response.)
MR. MOSS: Mr. Chairman, if I may put something on the
record. I know it's been very well pointed out in the staff report, but I
just want to make sure it is clear that normally drive-through
pharmacies are not permitted by the subdistrict. But because there has
been a precedence for one in the Snowy Egret PUD, the applicant is
requesting it. But it is not consistent with the compo plan. I just want
to make sure you are aware of that. But of course you're entitled to
recommend approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: And just because we allowed it at
Snowy Egret entitles them --
MR. MOSS: That's true, it's not an entitlement.
COMMISSIONER CARON: It's not an entitlement.
Should we make that change? I mean, is there any talk about
making a change -- that particular change to the master plan?
MR. MOSS: Not that I'm aware. Maybe Ray knows of
something.
MR. BELLOWS: That is part of the Golden Gate Area Master
Plan, so it would have to go through comprehensive planning to make
that change. But we'd have to double check with David.
COMMISSIONER CARON: All right, so there's no reason--
MR. BELLOWS: Not that I know of.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- overwhelming reason? All
right, thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, are there any members of the
public who wish to speak on this petition? If you do want to speak,
please come up to one of the microphones.
Sir, come on up and identify yourself to the microphone and then
.
say your pIece.
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December 3, 2009
DR. MANDELKER:
MR. VlXAMER: Good morning. My name is Y onel Vixamer.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Could you spell that for the court
reporter, please.
MR. VlXAMER: Y-O-N-E-L. V-I-X-A-M-E-R.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. VlXAMER: Yes, I'm okay with everything that was said,
except that my wife is not too comfortable. She's not a -- she doesn't
like speaking in public. But she's not too comfortable with the hour of
II :00 p.m. That's the only concern that we have now. Because we
have four small children that we are raising right next to the
development. That's the only concern that we have now.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll certainly bring that up to
the applicant.
Sir, before you leave, do you own the house directly next door?
MR. VIXAMER: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Way in the back of your home, that
apparently is a cleared area. What is that?
MR. VlXAMER: I think it's -- that's another house that's all the
way in the back. It's the parking of that house in the back. You may
not see the house but of course there's a house there.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: No, that's on his property.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So there's another house behind your
house?
MR. VlXAMER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On your property?
MR. VlXAMER: Not on my property but right next -- at the end
of my property there is another house there.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: He's on your property.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Guys, we all can't be talking on the
record, so --
Okay . Well, we'll have to -- that's odd. Thank you.
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December 3, 2009
MR. VlXAMER: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Hancock? There he is.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Are you calling him back?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Tim? Yeah.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Because I would have a
question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're bringing him back up.
Hours of operation. Your reaction, Tim?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes, sir. Speaking to Mr. Schoeller, I think
we can pull that back to 10:00 p.m. without precluding something like
a drug store. Because if I'm not mistaken, Snowy Egret closes at 10:00
p.m., the Walgreen's there. So I just mentioned it to the applicant's
wife, and we'd happy to put IO:OO p.m. as our hours of operation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And what time in the morning was that,
6:00?
MR. HANCOCK: Well, she's got young kids and if they're
anything like mine, you know, 6:00 a.m. is -- we'd like to leave it at
6:00 a.m. but limit the evening hours to 10:00 p.m.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, Tim, do you happen to
know whether there are any Walgreen's that will build if they don't
have an outside drive-through? Someone testified once before here
about that and I just wondered.
MR. HANCOCK: Let me let Mr. Schoeller, since he's the one
that's had discussions directly with Walgreen's on a previous project.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I do remember something about
it.
MR. HANCOCK: And Mr. Schoeller was sworn in.
MR. SCHOELLER: Mike Schoeller.
I did develop that property for Walgreen's, and they will not put a
Walgreen's in without a drive-through.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think I remember that with --
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December 3,2009
MR. SCHOLLER: That was our big issue and that was even
going to be a deal maker or breaker, because they had to have the
drive-through for people that couldn't get out that would just drive
through and didn't want to.
But to set their minds at ease, the way these pieces of property
are designed and the way that the master plan has designed them,
there's so much of a buffer and so much property between the house
and the building, if you go to the Walgreen's and look at it and you
stand behind that property, you can hardly even know there's a
Walgreen's there. You can hardly even see it. From the road you
can't see it very well because of the buffers and everything.
And when you go from 5.46 acres down to two net acres, we're
losing a lot of land on the sides for development, but it's to preserve
the Estates and to preserve the aesthetic value of where we live. I live
out there, I've lived out there for 23 years. And I want everybody to
be happy around me, I don't want to cause a problem. So when I do
these projects, I try to talk to the people and Tim talks to them and we
try to make everybody as happy as we can, you know.
But yes, Walgreen's or CVS will not build without a
drive-through.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's what I thought.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
Anybody else have any questions of anyone?
David?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Well, I just noticed that there
was another house north of this. I didn't see it from before. And now
it makes me wonder where the gentleman lives. Right there, yeah.
And I didn't know whether this gentleman lived off of Everglades or
off of Golden Gate Boulevard. Not that it makes any difference.
MR. HANCOCK: That property is accessed off of Everglades.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: The one to the north?
MR. HANCOCK: Yes.
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December 3, 2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Look at his driveway.
MR. HANCOCK: There's a driveway connection --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I'm sorry, I meant off of Golden
Gate. Yeah, he's off of Everglades, correct. So I -- because I had a
question, I was going to bring it on the very end, were there intentions
of buying the properties to the north. Now it looks like not, so --
MR. HANCOCK: No, sir. Mr. Schoeller's bleeding enough as
.
IS.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, I have one question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Tim, one thing you -- in
dropping back the hours, does the pharmacy stay open with the
drive-through past 10:00 across the street, or -- because a pharmacy
drive-through is really a good service to the community. It is no real
-- other gain than that.
MR. HANCOCK: That was the question I asked of Mr.
Schoeller. The one up at Snowy Egret, I believe it is limited to IO:OO
p.m. And the building and the pharmacy, they all close down at 10:00
p.m.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. HANCOCK: So I don't think we're precluding a CVS or
Walgreen's by having a IO:OO p.m. limitation, particularly if we can
leave the operating hours starting at 6:00 a.m.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And you wouldn't want
to push to maybe keep the pharmacy open till 11 :00, or just forget it?
MR. HANCOCK: In deference to our neighbors, I think it's not
the right thing to do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, does anybody else have any
questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Tim, did you have anything? You're
complete, you're done?
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December 3, 2009
MR. HANCOCK: No, sir. If there are questions on all the
background we supplied for the pharmacy drive-through during the
Snowy Egret, I'll be happy to go into that. But I would prefer not to.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I wouldn't open any more doors than
you have to at this point.
MR. HANCOCK: No, sir. Then I will quietly step aside.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They may be asked to put aID-story
high-rise in there or something, so --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Good. So long as there's
parking underneath.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, with that we will-- is there
anybody else that wishes to speak? If not, we will close the public
hearing.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I have a list of things I'll read for
discussion, then we can go from there.
If there is a recommendation to approve, the following 11
stipulations I've made a list of.
They would add gas stations and fast food drive-throughs as
prohibited uses.
The Dark Sky language as presented and modified in our
discussions would be incorporated in the PUD.
They'd clarify the master plan concerning the right-of-way issue.
They would move the driveway IO feet in from the property line
and buffer it with a wall.
The 25-foot buffer on the west side would have a wall
presumably of six feet, but that will be something that Tim will
research and come back to us with on consent. But whatever the
allowed height will be will be the maximum allowed height, not to
exceed six feet.
The reference to ancillary plants will be struck from the criteria
for conditional uses.
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December 3, 2009
The footnote number one -- or the only footnote on Exhibit B
will be deleted.
The drive -- if there's a drive-through, it will be set up so it's
internal to the site. If not, it will be -- meet the other architectural
standards in whatever format it will. But the issue here is not to have
it exposed to the residential neighborhood.
We'll strike Item F on Page 11.
Verify that the fence height is five or six feet, I already said that.
And the hours of operation be limited from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00
p.m.
Those are the issues that I made notes of while we were
discussing it, should someone want to make a motion. Is there any
other discussion?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Have -- has any beside myself a
question or concern regarding the essential services issue?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't have any, and--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- it's just as we presented it.
Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, is there a motion to approve
subject to the stipulations?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll make that motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray made a motion to approve
subject to the stipulations --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- and staff conditions.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Second.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: As you stated and as staffhas
stated.
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December 3,2009
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Wolfley seconded it. All those--
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 9-0.
And I wish to compliment Mr. Hancock on the way he has
handled himself in this affair. It's typical to your style. And Tim, did
a good job and you worked very hard with everybody. We appreciate
the effort you put forth, so thank you.
MR. HANCOCK: Thank you very much. Thank you all for
your time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Made the meeting much more pleasant.
Okay, we're on to old business. Are (sic) there any old business?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If not, we have new business.
David -- I think we took care of David's issue in the beginning of
the meeting so that has gone away.
There is one thing I'd like to mention to staff as something that
would be a very good policy for you to institute in the future. When
you have neighborhood informational meetings and you have a PUD
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December 3,2009
or a rezone being presented, if you could have handouts or at least in
your discussion with the people in the audience, you explain to them
the actual uses as stated in our code for the areas that are being
modified, I think that would go a long way to help people understand
that when someone says it's agricultural, such as residential, they
mean it's agricultural with all these myriad of other uses that could
possibly be there. And I think we would have a better reaction from
the public if the staff went -- took the effort to do that.
MR. MOSS: I think you're right. And we've started, as
Commissioner Homiak recommended a while ago, listing all of the
uses in the PUD, rather than just the general SIC Code. We've listed
them individually. So now people can request the PUD and see what
they are, for that very same reason. So I think that's an excellent idea.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Mark? And not only for the
neighborhood attendees but also for us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, yeah, I agree with you there.
Although we have the opportunity ahead of time to do our
research and bring that matter -- bring those -- download that material
and bring it with us, but that's not -- certainly we could include it.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: It would be helpful if the staff
could do a little of it too.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah.
MR. BELLOWS: And for the record, we will also do the same,
if someone's rezoning to a standard rezone, such as C-5, we can
provide -- make sure that the copies of the C-5 uses are provided at the
NIMs.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That would be much more helpful to the
public as well, thank you.
Any there any other comments, any public comments, any
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, is there a motion to
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December 3, 2009
adjourn?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: To moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Mr. Wolfley, seconded
by Mr. Schiffer. All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Motion carries. We're unanimous.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 12:50 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK STRAIN, Chairman
These minutes approved by the board on
presented or as corrected
as
Transcript prepared on behalf of Gregory Reporting Service, Inc., by
Cherie' R. Nottingham.
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