good morning everyone if you've uh not already would you please take your seat welcome it's now 9:00 a.m. and the February 26th big CA meeting will come to order this morning's host municipality is North Readington Beach thank you for the wonderful breakfast uh
everyone please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I the United States of America the stands na indivisible liy and justice for
all all right our form of roll call is uh self-introductions I'm going to do a little bit different this morning we're going to start right over here and uh everyone please go around the room and introduce yourselves and then we'll introduce the big
seat throw good morning JN goodr with the city of Treasure Island good morning Barry Rubin with the penel beees chamber Renee rose with the city of Belair Beach I'm Gary Curtis commissioner North Readington
Beach uh Jenna Abby with horn supporting pelis County Ryan flry also with horns supporting pelis County Tyler Bridges horn supporting pelis County Matthew Spore assistant County Administrator pelis County
Adriana nees town clerk town of Readington Beach Mary Campbell town clerk North Readington Beach Nikki rnck madira Beach resident CJ hoit commissioner town of Readington Shores Janet Wilson vice mayor city of
Indian Rocks Beach uh Brian Scott chairman panel's County Commission Mike Twitty panel's County property appraiser Charlie Justice Tampa Bay beaches Chamber of Commerce Christopher holls citizen St
Pete Beach Michael Ballard student fellow Institute for strategic policy Solutions Sam Jenkins spc's Institute for strategic policy Solutions Rodney Chapman division manager for
panel Francis robelli city manager St Pete Beach Keith boder Public Works supervisor North rington Beach John morte M Beach Fire Department Clint Bel fire chief M Beach
Fire Department mik mlin Town Administrator ready to Shores Tina Porter Town Administrator Indian Shores Rick Swan chief of police for Indian Shores and rington Shores Bill Queen semal
[Laughter] Dan cell resident me a bigger microphone Peg Shannon resident penelas County Tim Johnson Waterfront realy I
love this thing Gina Johnson Waterfront realy Helen rdon Valley who media Megan Powers assistant to the city manager madira Beach J super incoming mayor North rington Beach be Burton
pelis County Dave Conor director of communications for pelis County anybody else need the Box Megan W first city of madira beach good morning Robin Gomez city of Mader Beach anyone else all right let's start
on this end Diantha Shear mayor of Indian Shores Denise halberg mayor of Indian Rock Beach R director mayor of the city of Clearwater Kevin Kennedy vice mayor North rington Beach Dave gtis mayor of Belair Beach
and vice president of Big C Lisa Hendrickson mayor of Readington Shores and treasurer for the big sea anarie Brooks mayor madira Beach John doctor mayor of Treasure Island all right thank you everyone uh our first order of business
is approval of the agenda move to approve any changes no all in favor I I all right the agenda passes uh I think I'm supposed to actually
uh uh supposed to uh say who did the first and the second so the first was shear and the second was Doctor yes all right um next up is approval of the minutes move to
approve second oh man that's a tie I'm going to give that one uh let's see here give that one to Brooks and to Hendrickson all in favor I any opposed
all right the am minutes are approved uh now we are on to the treasurer's report mayor Hendrickson thank you mayor gatis for January 2025 our beginning balance was $1,144
44 we had no deposits no dispersement so our ending balance as of January 31st 2025 1,144 thank you all right do I have a motion to accept this report so moved motion is made by mayor Rector do
I have a second uh second hburg all in favor I any opposed all right the report is accepted all right now we are on to new business uh we have a presentation from
commissioner Brian Scott good morning everybody how you doing good morning good morning um so what I'm going to do is is basically just kind of introduce the the topic of the community community development block grant disaster relief program and
then turn it over to our Consultants or to help us develop the uh the plan for that but um as you have know or probably heard uh pelis county has received a block grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for $813
uh million okay um that is to provide disaster uh recovery uh relief uh res for resilience efforts and rebuilding that is for unincorporated panal County and all of the municipalities with the exception of St Petersburg which got
their own uh separate award so we have about 90 days to figure out develop a plan of how we're going to basically spend that money and this is the first of several Community meetings that we're going to have to determine what those unmet needs are and then we will take
that plan we will submit it to to HUD uh they will hopefully approve it and then we will uh be able to stand up Grant programs uh to get money directly into people's hands to to help them uh rebuild and recover so um kind of the timeline on that and
and our Consultants are going to go over that is probably we're looking at late summer realistically before all of that is going to is going to be processed I me obviously we'd like to get that done as quickly as as we can um so this is the first of several meetings that we're
that we're going to have and the county hired Consultants uh horn because they are experts in in in HUD Community uh development block grant programs and and we are not so uh We've hired them to
help us through this process and uh we're very excited to have them on on board and with that I'm going to introduce uh Jenna and Ryan from horn to uh take it from here good morning good morning good morning everybody my name
is Ryan flry I'm uh director with horn um been with horn for about 6 years prior to that I was with the Department of Housing and Urban Development I was the assistant director of of the disaster recovery division there spent about 10 years with HUD uh working with grantees all across the country primarily in the southern part of the
United States where most disasters hit manag about $40 billion um of of Disaster Recovery funding and since I've come to Horn I have been supporting grantees all across the country um as they recover so Jenna and my name is Jenna Abby I'm also a director with horn
been supporting cdbg drr grantees all around the country for about 15 years now my background is in project management and I've been blessed to put those skills to work supporting Disaster Recovery efforts around the country really thankful to be here supporting pelis
County thanks one thing I forgot to mention I'm also pelis County resident I live in St Pete so went through the storms understand where a lot of people um you know what they've dealt with what they're going through and very excited and um honestly honored to be here to to help support the county and you all with the recovery so to
start we're going to start very basic what is cdbg drr cdbg drr is the Community Development block grant disaster recovery program this is a program that sits on the chassis of the annual cdbg cdbg program that goes to states and cities um all across the country it's appropriated annually it's
an authorized program by Congress whereas the cdbg drr program is not it's a supplemental appropriation that comes from Congress uh when events occur that really sort of um outpace and outweigh the ability of the local or state government's ability to rec cover um
they're very flexible um you can do many different things which we'll get into that um and you know one thing that I want to kind of highlight is the history of these of these grants really dates back to 1993 with Hurricane Andrew so how used cdbg Congress used cdbg um as a
conduit to get the funds out to the states and local to the states and local governments at the time and Florida was a big recipient of those funds over time it's developed and so it's grown it's turned into its own sort of Quasi program and that uh regulation have been developed um but not formal regulations
they come in the form of what's called a Federal Register notice that lays out the rules lays out the allocations for the programs I and for the grants and then ultimately um it's it's it's kind of grown to a point where back in 1993 we had very little rules now fast
forward to where we are today about 124 pages of rules so I highlight that because it is a very flexible program but compliance is a challenge there's a lot that goes into maintaining compliance and into delivering these programs just a quick overview of the funding process so it starts with Congress
obviously Congress appro uh passes a bill it's a it's signed by the president it goes to HUD and HUD uses a formula allocation to make Al to make the allocation formula to make allocations to grantees um it's a formula that takes into account things like FEMA data SBA
data uh census data and so on and they determine where um where the funding should go based on the the the the amount of damage and the need that they that they calculate within each uh you know jurisdiction they then publish a Federal Register notice as Ed mentioned that lays out the rules leads out the
allocations and then ultimately um it goes to uh the the the state or the local government through a grant agreement when it goes to the grantee the grantee has to prepare an action plan that's where we are today so we're developing an action plan which really has to take into a whole a whole large
account of you know data of U information that we collect from from folks like you all from the public um we'll be doing surveys we'll be doing a lot of Outreach events and efforts um and then ultimately once that action plan is approved the grantee then take has that takes the action plan and turns
into programs administers programs gets the grant agreement from HUD and then runs programs to to implement the recovery so this slide outlines the steps to how we how do we get to program launch as Ryan mentioned we are currently in the development of the
action plan phase which is the first step step um to develop the action plan penel County must collect data from sources like FEMA nfip and the SBA on the impacts of the disasters the covered disasters in this case are hurricane
Adalia Helen and Milton we will also collect input from uh residents uh Municipal leaders and other stakeholders and um publish the plan for comment the plan must be published for comment for no fewer than 30 days and
during the period of action plan development the county must host three public meetings to solicit input from the public on the plan after the plan is complete the plan will be submitted to HUD for review and acceptance by Hud per
the regulation HUD has 45 days to review and accept the plan upon HUD acceptance HUD will issue the county a grant agreement which essentially opens the line of credit and allows panel's County access that $813
million in grant funding which in turn allows the county the funding source to be able to open those Grant programs uh the action plan does have some requirements the county must meet um first of all the county must conduct an unmet needs assessment that needs
assessment is informed by the data I mentioned on the previous Slide the data is supplemented by input from the public that data and public inp put will formulate What's called the unmet needs
analysis the unmet needs analysis looks at recovery impacts in three primary categories infrastructure economic revitalization and housing the action plan must program the
funding into programs or projects that proportionately address unmet needs So currently the County's initial unmet needs analysis for example shows large unmet needs in the housing sector because we're seeing large unmet needs
in the housing sector HUD will expect to see programs to address housing unmet needs um we must consult stakeholders must have at least three public meetings and 70% of program dollars at minimum
must be programmed to benefit low and moderate income households which for pelis county is about $76,000 for a family of four HUD also sets some budget thresholds for how these $813 million
must be programmed um in this allocation we have $77 million for unmet needs this $77 million is for unmet Disaster Recovery needs so these dollars are
intended for um needs that are directly related to impacts caused by those hurricanes there's also a 15% set aside or about $106 million for mitigation activities
mitigation activities can be projects or programs uh to fund activities that are not necessarily related to direct impacts from the previous storms but projects and activities that make the county more resilient in the face of future
disasters the county is subject to a 5% Administration cap so the county has around $40 million to administer the programs over the six-year lifespan of this Grant and again 70% of the program
funds must be spent to benefit LMI populations all right so what can you do with these funds to start there are three sort of main components to each project each project has to meet these three requirements it has to be an eligible activity and we're going to
talk through what the eligible activities are they range from housing to infrastructure Economic Development Public Services very Broad in nature uh they also have to be a national objective and so 70% has to go to L low to moderate income benefit right for
households persons um that are at Bel at or below LMI um in addition you can serve uh through unmet needs I'm sorry through Urgent needs and Urgent needs are really something that's an urgent need pretty self-explanatory that is a result of the of the disasters of the hurricanes and then finally there is the
option to use a slum and BL National objective which is very in it's very infrequently used but it it's something that can be tapped into if needed and then what's critical is that is the tieback concept so when we talk about unmet needs every project has to have a tieback in some way if it's a it's a if
it's a home some damage remaining if it's an infrastructure project it has to be addressing you know potentially damage or some something that occurred as a result of the of the Hurricanes that you're that you're addressing long term can also be a mitigation need as Jenna mentioned mitigation needs really are looking forward looking what can we
do to protect from future events from future storms so this slide shows the host of eligible activities we could do with cdbg drr um $813 million is a lot of money but it is not likely enough money to do all of these activities so this
slide shows sort of the menu um of things this money could be spent on um cdb gdr can be used for housing activities things like construction or Rehabilitation of single family or multif family housing units um it could be used for infrastructure and public
facilities things like repair of bridges Economic Development or economic revitalization things like Workforce training or small business grants and Loans could be used for mitigation activities such as storm water infrastructure improvements you can be
used for public services activities some examples of that might be legal aid or housing counseling Services can be used for planning like Hazard mitigation plans or Disaster Recovery plans and of course there are funds set aside to administer the
programs the County's plan will not likely include every eligible activity here the next slide will show what the county is currently contemplating so when we first sat down with the County Administrator and the ACA um what we heard loud and clear was
that we need to develop a plan for the people it's really about getting help two people first right so we came up with this concept uh it's really a branding a concept of people first programs um under that concept we're looking at ideally what would be a single application portal one portal
where you can apply to a number of different types of programs depending on what your needs are who you are with as an applicant and what and and what you know what relief you may be seeking so to start looking at homeowners so we know homeowners um are are still facing a significant challenge in in rebuilding
repairing their homes so there's opportunities for them to have their homes reconstructed or re rehabilitated there's also potentially a pathway to receive reimbursement for things that you've already paid out of pocket um maybe you're in a tough Financial spot and tap in your 401k things like that it's eligible something we're
considering in terms of renters renters often get left out of recoveries in this way so HUD has offered a new um activity which are called disaster relief payments and drfs for short allow us to provide assistance if there's a hardship and they're still you know trying to get back on their
feet local landlords the concept of a local landlord would be you know small mom and pop landlords maybe an accessory dwelling unit maybe a couple of houses that you own that you rent out we can provide assistance to rehabilitate um or reconstruct those those homes and we usually look for like a 5year period of
of affordability to go along with it and then finally small business owners grants and Loans can be offered um repairs to to businesses ultimately working capital things like that can be offered and in addition so that's the people first component we also don't know that there's an infrastructure need remaining
so what we're considering still and still you know talking through this is a two-phase process for infrastructure for mitigation purposes the first phase is a planning effort providing funding to cities and the county to be able to plan to determine what projects are best um
are best to be selected for ultimately funding to to provide for infrastructure repairs that would uh again look to seek to reduce harm going forward and lastly timeline um so as mentioned we are currently in the planning process we expect to be in the
planning and public engagement process through um late April of this year when the draft action plan will be published for comment the comment uh the comment period will run from late April through late May of this year at which point the
plan will be submitted to HUD for review and acceptance HUD has 45 days per regulation to accept that plan and we expect the grant agreement to be extended to to pellis county in quarter 3 of
2025 I'll note that from today actually from before today all the way through submission of the plan in late may this public engagement will continue um there will be public meetings scheduled there will be informal consultation with
stakeholders like yourselves the public there will be surveys going out we want public um input to really inform this plan so that what is ultimately delivered and accepted by Hud is truly a plan for the people of pelis
County all right do we have any questions from the council for Jenna or Ryan anyone yeah I assume we can get these slides after today I don't know if they were I have a copy of the presentation
I'll make sure that it's thank you yeah very helpful released thank you all right I did have one question about the mitigation needs uh does that also fall under the um lowincome priority okay yes sir all right all right thank you any
other questions or comments the other the other question I would have what what do you need from us as uh local government leaders um we're going to have a direct conversation with you about our own municipalities or what kind of input can we give you to help you do your work sure you want to take
it so you know the developing the plan as you saw is a very tight timeline I'm Barry Burton by the way with penel County um so 23 municipalities we we'd be months you know trying to get individual you know um ideas but what we
can do is get all your ideas and one of the things we said to the County Commission last night is let's let's collect those ideas somehow they've got to formulate a plan that fits with Hud's requirement and so let's let's not get into the sausage making that needs to
occur but let's get the creative ideas what are the things you think would be helpful for your community and and and then we'll have to formulate that and then we're going to come back out and share okay based upon everything and the formulas and mitigation between direct help and mitigation and administration
here's our idea of a plan and then you'll have another shot at at saying what about XY or z um we've also tapped M sport to lead this effort for the county that way you have a direct contact you know Matt is familiar obviously with the community was a
longtime city manager of Safety Harbor now he's on our staff and he's an assistant County Administrator and we've Ted him to do this to where we can have ongoing dialogue with you directly because this is a six-year process this is not something you know we we we talked to Lee County
for instance they're just now putting programs out you Mal Le County got hit two years ago right we we want to put these programs out now so that's kind of the way we've organized but there is no bad thought and so share your thoughts and ideas and then we'll come back with
kind of what we see as a plan um both to you and to the County Commission who ultimately have to approve approve this if that's helpful yeah thank you thank you Mr chairman any other questions or comments
all right I appreciate everyone uh coming today and presenting for us thank you thank you all right next we have an update from Mike Twitty who is the pellis County property appraiser welcome Mike good morning everybody good to see you see you all
thanks for having me in on short notice um just wanted to convey some some updates to everyone um our office has been working closely with with the Mayors and the councils and the county and our residents obviously um it's been a big
lift a lot going on but I wanted to make sure can we convey a few updates that are going on from our office we do have an important deadline coming up for those that want to take advantage of the partial property tax refund that deadline is March 3rd statutorily it's
March 1st but because that falls on a Saturday we're extending to the Monday which is March 3rd that is a a real deadline uh you know we also have Homestead application deadline there too but that's a timely file for Homestead if they are late for Homestead they can
still do a um a late file application um however with this because it's it's a tax refund that actually is coming out of you know the pockets of the taxing authorities this is a is a hard deadline on March 3rd for the for
the refund um they will have additional recourse but they would have to file a VAB petition and go through that process unfortunately so I want to make sure we're getting that message out um Bay news9 was in last week that that was pushed out we've obviously we've done
mailings we've had information on our website and we've gotten over 6,000 applications in so far countywide and they're still pouring in so um if you can share that with your with your residents um that would be helpful also
um wanted to let you all know many of many of you all sitting here know that we started a new process called a building value reconsideration that was a relook at the depreciated structure values on our FEMA letter on our website that's really helped hundreds of of people cut through that process and in
shorter fashion and not necessarily half to get an outside appraisal doing you know an actual cash value appraisal especially when people are close if they're near the bubble it's a great way it's obviously a free service we're running about two and a half to three weeks out on those because they they
we've had a lot coming in and it's it's been quite a backlog but um also the private appraisal process I a lot more appraisers in the private sector have geared up to provide those actual cash value appraisals
throughout our jurisdictions um just want to remind them if if they're tuning in to make sure that they're you know communicating with the reviewers following the checklist those types of things so that they can keep the bumps the speed bumps um as low as possible when they're when they're working with
the the city building department the flood plane administrator and their their clients um another process that we started a lot of people were pulling Builder owner Builder permits and that was creating an issue especially if their property was held in
in a trust because building departments do not have to accept those um they treat them like a corporation even though they're not a corporation so we found a process because we're vetting those owners for Homestead already so we've already reviewed their trust
documents for legal and Equitable Title so we are providing a a trust um ownership verification letter so that can be requested either by the citizen or by the building official and we can provide that if your jurisdiction will allow that so that they do not have to
do bad things like try and unwind their trust just in order to get a building department or building um permit uh but a quick reminder and this has probably been conveyed around but I've I've read it a lot on uh social media and next door but if you do pull
pull an owner Builder permit you do have a one-year restriction from renting or selling the property and also want to remind people the Elevate Florida program is out there that is the best um program I've seen out there to date to really help
residents um in most cases it's a you know a 25% out of a homeowner's pocket to elevate their existing home so I would encourage people to go online and check out the Elevate Florida program they're taking applications now and that is supposed to be an expedited program
so um and there there is funding in there now and we expect more to come also on the Calamity front so those that do want to um that are repairing or elevating their homes or rebuilding they
can do so up to 110% of their original living area square footage and not reset their save our homes cap so that cap will stay in place and just wanted to let them know that that is out there if they if they are interested in doing so make sure you contact to our office
because if a home comes down things like that we want to make sure that we're keeping their Homestead in place throughout that process and they have a 5year window to do that so it the way they need to um initiate that process is pull a permit so once you pull a permit as long as you pull a permit within that
fiveyear window from the event from the January 1 following the event and I think that covers it for me for today today all right happy to answer any questions any questions or comments for Mike Twitty y Mr chairman I I'd just like to
thank Mr Twitty For All You've Done uh your office has been for my my seats just been outstanding in the way you've really and the suggestions you gave just now just on how uh we can help people in programs that will really help people I
really appreciate your service and particularly your service to our community during a very difficult time and and all of your office is just From My Seats been outstanding so thank you for that I appreciate that thank you mayor anyone else I'd like to follow up on that I totally agree um the
communication has also been great so thank you you're welcome you're welcome thank you and I would agree also it's uh it's awesome to know that you actually care about the residents of pelis County the way you do so thank you so much for
all you do well thank you I'm fortunate to have a fabulous staff so you know if you if you call our office you're going to get a human on the phone in short order um and you can always you guys I know I'm very accessible so anytime I can do anything great any other comments
all right thank you Mr appreciate you being here all right I'm going to um I'm going to shift this around just temporarily um I I know we've got Rodney Chapman on hold uh I'm going to switch over to discussion items right quick
because of time constraints and uh one of our members has to leave early uh so do we have any discussion items no okay I have uh I have a couple uh the first is an update on the two letters that were drafted and signed by the Barrier Islands Mayors um sending
both letters uh separately today and they should arrive at the White House tomorrow um uh congresswoman Luna was kind enough to actually send digital copies today so uh they should be arriving uh at the White House Lea On's
office um if they're not already there um and that's well I actually did have one other while we're discussing letters I have another letter from The Big C that is addressed to a Mayor Bill Queen ah well there he
is Bill would you mind standing up May so we've got this letter here that's addressed to you and uh as you know we strive to uh keep the budget low on the big sea so rather than buying a stamp I
thought that I would just read it to you directly is that okay with you all right all right Mayor Bill Queen on behalf of the barrier islands governmental Council The Big C and all its member municipalities we want to express our deepest gratitude
for your two decades of dedicated service to North Readington Beach and your invaluable contributions to our Collective efforts throughout your tenure you have been a steadfast Advocate not just for your town but for all communities along the Barrier
Islands your leadership integrity and unwavering commitment to Coastal resilience Beach preservation home rule and responsible governance have strengthened Army municipalities and helped ensure a better future for the
communities we serve your presence on this Council has been marked by thoughtful collaboration tireless dedication and a true passion for protecting the unique character and well-being of our Barrier Islands
whether navigating complex legislative matters championing Coastal initiatives or offering your wisdom and guidance you have set a standard of Excellence that will inspire Future Leaders for years to come as you step into retirement please
know that your impact will be longlasting and your leadership will be deeply missed we wish you all the best in this next chapter may it be filled with relaxation happiness and plenty of time to enjoy the very beaches you have
worked so hard to protect with sincere appreciation and best wishes the Barrier Islands government Council professionally known as The Big C let's have a nice round of
[Applause] applause please come up we have a small token of our appreciation and and this is this is the last picture so we might as well get one
with a big c while you're here come on around looks just like our logo thank you very much thank you it's been an honor and a privilege to represent North ready to beach at the Barry Islands governmental Council this
is a very very important group you guys your strength is through your Unity stick together on all the issues and you'll do well thank you very much you mind stay up for one second I'd like to get a picture with everyone absolutely and then we'll uh we'll get right back to business that's
cool thank you Mary got it all right all right thank you thank you very much [Applause] appreciate all right thank you for letting me stray on
the agenda there now we have a presentation from Rodney Chapman with Ford pelis hello Mr chadman good morning uh Rodney Chapman division manager with Fort pellis and before I go into the details of our work to update pelis County's multimodal impact fee
ordinance I wanted to give you a little bit of background on one of the growth management tools that is available to local governments and has been uh in place here in the county uh since 1990 so what is the impact fee ordinance well it is a structure that was adopted
in 1990 to allow for property owners and developers to pay into a fund to mitigate the impacts of their transportation on the transportation system of their development projects it's sort of a fair share approach and uh the fees that are levied are based on
a formula that formula includes things like the cost to construct one uh mile of roadway uh the particular trips that are generated by certain land uses and other factors uh one one of the things to keep in mind is the fees that are collected in a certain area have to
generally be spent in that same area so for example if fees are collected in St Pete you couldn't spend them in North Readington Beach for example and I'll show you a map of the feed districts and how that uh plays out in practice again
the funds are used by local governments to uh pay for transportation improvements uh the key word there is capacity meaning uh allowing projects to occur that will reduce uh congestion in our
communities so why does the uh ordinance need to be updated well there's three main reasons uh the first of which is that uh there's been changes in state law uh the legislature last year passed House Bill 479 and one of the things that uh was
included in that bill is the need for local governments to use localized recent data in those formula calcul that I mentioned earlier also the fee ordinance requires that it be periodically evaluated to
ensure that the costs are uh are recent and true and the last time those costs were looked at was back in 2016 and then lastly the current ordinance has uh several use types that uh probably need to be looked at things
like video rental stores racket clubs and the like are still in the current ordinance as well as uh there's New Uses that have popped up over recent years that aren't clearly spelled out in the ordinance and so we will need to take a look at uh what needs to be removed and
what needs to be added to the existing ordinance uh as we talked to uh your staffs from around the county they've also shared with us that the ordinance can be a little bit difficult to administer and so there is a lack of uniformity in administering the
ordinance around the county so we want to bring that into alignment uh we also want to take another look at those uh fee and benefit districts uh there's 13 across our County it's by far the most in the State of Florida as we've looked around and uh our
stakeholders have also told us that we uh need to pay close attention to ensuring that these changes that we make to the ordinance don't place an inordinate burden on Workforce housing on Small Business Development and ensure that we come out of this process with something that's more transparent and
userfriendly so um let's talk about the spectrum of when the fee is applied and when it's not applied because I think it's an important distinction to to draw so uh essentially when you have a piece of vacant land and you have a property on a developer that wants to construct a
building whether that be a home a business or any other type of development that's when the fees are levied because you're taking a piece of vacant land that doesn't generate trips and you're converting it to something that does and and that is the trigger for the payment of the impact fee on the
other end of the spectrum uh there are several scenarios when the no fee is required and those essentially uh try to capture when you have an existing home business or type of development that is redeveloped and and we are obviously a redeveloping county so we see a lot more
Redevelopment than we do Greenfield development and in these scenarios no fee is required because those trips are already captured by that that pre-existing development so what have we found so far uh we've been working on this project uh since the summer uh we had a little bit
of a break because of hurricanes Helen and Milton and so we hope to be farther along in the process but we have been able to do a thorough background review and Analysis we've looked at the current ordinance uh the current County Charter and how it speaks to the countywide authority we have looked at relevant
State statutes as well as uh done a pretty good assessment of the the current formula and we've looked around the state to see how other uh similarly densely Urban counties like Miami Dade Palm Beach and Broward address a
multimodal impact fee ordinance and we have looked at how the fees collected have been used to fund Transportation projects and I'll share some of those details in the sub subsequent slide and then uh lastly we have forecasted out to
2050 what those transportation needs are and what uh how the fund if adjusted could help meet some of those needs uh we are also uh in the fact finding and stakeholder Outreach uh phase of the project uh we have had
several meetings with uh County Administration the county attorney's office uh the building and development rev Services staffs not only at the county but each year local governments um just to get a sense of what's working well with the ordinance what's what's a bit of a challeng and what they'd like
to see changed within the ordinance and then we're following up uh beginning tomorrow morning in gulport with a series of small group Focus small focus groups with uh local government staff so we split the county into North County uh midc count and South County and the
beaches and we'll be having uh similar conversations with with again with the staff uh our goal is to uh present our phase one findings to the board of County Commissioners in the form of a work session uh because there are some
key policy questions that we'd like their input on in terms of um sort of the the fee split because right now the fee is split 50% with the county and 50 to the cities we also want to have some direction on the number of fee districts
uh because one of the things that is a bit of a challenge is the fees have to be spent within a certain time frame and if the fees aren't spent within that time frame then they're supposed to be returned back to the developer so the more benefit districts you have uh
especially with some of our smaller communities it makes it harder to spend the money so earlier uh I talked about the number of feed districts and this map shows you the 13 that exists today in the current ordinance uh generally follows jurisdictional
boundaries uh with a couple distinctions uh one being the beaches so you'll see from the map that uh the beaches split into South County and midcounty beaches those being districts 12 and 13 so how are the revenues looked over a
period of time so what you're looking at here is a sevene snapshot of the fees that were collected under the existing ordinance you can see it's about $15 million in total and uh probably to No One surprise uh the midcounty and South County
beaches didn't collect a lot of impact fees because you're probably not seeing the type of development that they're seeing in some of our larger communities in Clear Water St Petersburg and panel's park so how those dollars uh been spent well over that same time frame you will
see that uh the majority of the funds have been put on roadway capacity or or adding Lanes to our transportation system or intersection improvements but what's also important to see there is that fourth bar there from the top is that uh 12 projects have been funded to
improve our uh traffic signal operations and that is um something that's convenable and this allowed the county to to uh build out their uh traffic signal operations in a more efficient way the other thing I wanted to share
with the council was uh some detail on how uh the impact fees in its current form are used to fund Transportation projects as I noted earlier it's not a whole lot of money and this illustrates that point what you're looking at here
is a page from the county CIP for the replacement of the Becket bridge in Tarpon Springs that's about a $33 million project but you can see there in the uh box to the to the bottom there uh impact fees are only covering less than
1% of that total project cost so why is that important well if you look around just the Tampa Bay Region you can see here in this chart how panel's County's fees for these five land uses single family residential multif family uh
office warehouse and discount superstor compares to our uh our partners uh to the to the East and and to the South and uh for example Pasco County charges about 13 between 8 and
13,000 uh for their multimodal impact fee for a single family residents uh um Manatee County charges about $5,100 for a an office use and uh what we tried to do in this uh table is summarize at the bottom what that
deficit is if you average those costs of our neighboring counties and compare them to what the current ordinance levies for those same uses so you can see there's a deficit I mean we charge less um for these uses so for single family residentials about $6,900 less
multif family $4,600 less and so on so next steps uh again we're here around the county doing uh similar series of presentations to get fe uh feedback and review some of our initial findings
on uh the ordinance update we are hoping to complete what we call phase one of the work here in uh the late spring and then it's probably more like early summer we want to get uh some time with the board of County Commissioners to
review some of these findings and get their feedback on some of these policy questions so they can provide us direction for the the more technical work where we looking at trip generation rates uses uh other construction cost formulas to then uh fold that data into
a revised ordinance that uh we'll bring back to this and other groups around the county and that whole process of phase two we're thinking is going to be between six and nine months so um just be on to lookout for that so with that I'd be happy to answer
any questions you have Council any questions no thank you very much Mr Chapman all right now we are on to legislative updates do we have any legislative updates no all right I guess we're on
the City events let's start on this end is your microphone on no now it's on um we have a rotary runs the beach so if you want to walk a mile or run a 5k we'll be holding that at the 17th Avenue beach access I believe on on
March 14th at 8:00 a.m. thank you well we um we started uh Philadelphia Philly spring training on Sunday we had an opening day and um I managed not to embarrass myself by actually getting the ball across the plate on a first pitch so uh but we're
off to uh a really important spring training for us for for really all of us here in the county not just us but the Blue Jays just we really need those tourists back uh and this morning I had a chance to welcome the first group to have a meeting at the opal soul on
Clearwater Beach um they haven't you know Grand opened yet but they have got a soft opening and first group there today and and that's such an important uh asset for our community it's the largest meeting space we'll have in anywhere
along the coast uh here in penel County but uh the largest meeting space we'll have now in Clearwater Beach and so I told them uh it's American Bar Association was there uh their labor and employment section just how important it is you know I I thank them for coming
and supporting us also tell them that um you know our Hospitality workers here throughout all the buried Islands they went through a very tough time through two or three months and and I like to see us you know continue bu if we could find some of this money to help out some of these folks that uh were relying on
wages and tips and didn't get them for about three or four months and they're still struggling so I encouraged them to to tip but tip generously and uh we can all do that to the folks that are visiting that uh I think that's really important to our families to support our our important tourism industry here now
then we've got Sugar Sand coming up Festival coming up here soon and uh just looking to have a robust spring break uh that will help all of us if you can't stay in Treasure Island or St Pete Beach or Readington or anywhere along our Barry Islands this year uh we hope that
you at least come back to penel County so that next year when you're able to have them back in your communities uh they'll be used to coming to penel County and not have fallen in love with some other destination uh for one year and and that they'll stay here so uh we have capacity and we've got most of our
Resorts back open and and uh so we want to help all of us succeed together and uh so hopefully we'll have a successful spring break and we'll all do that together next we things are quiet in North Readington we don't have any any events
going on and just take this time I want to thank bill again for all of his years of service and then we also going to have Gary Curtis and who's been with us for over 20 years and also Richard Bennett who's been with us for about 20 years all three will be retiring so I just take this time to thank them on
behalf of the city thank you very nice uh all quiet in Beller Beach well for Readington Shores we don't have any events but I do want to acknowledge Helen Ron being with us here this morning she is on her way to
Tallahassee and stopped in to join our big sea um Helen stand up for just a moment I just want everybody to recognize you because you've done a lot of work for our beaches free and she is the the director of communications and
public affairs with B who media and that is the boat with the big screen that goes over our Waters and in preparation for Spring Break um Helen and I connected to start the free messaging again the PSA is about filling our holes
how we love our pets please leave them at home and uh ebike safety so I just wanted to acknowledge Helen for making a beine here on her way up to Talahassee and then also uh to my friend Bill Queen
I wish I had more time to work with you and mour under you and in my short time together with you I've learned a lot and I thank you for your service in madira we have our Wednesday morning Market is open so on your way out you can stop there and do a little
shopping um we also have our monthly cleanup on March 1st and the seafood f Festival is March 28th the weekend and the grunt Hunt is the 20th through the 22nd so we've got a lot of fun stuff going on and the weather is
fantastic well I think that uh it was said best by clear water that uh you know our events are basically spring break for the next six weeks um and I think that uh the the smaller events but uh just as important are that uh our Chambers are helping us get back on our
feet uh all our restaurants and retail shops they're doing regand openings for these folks ribbon cuttings um and those events are very important for our community because really the small businesses uh the hotel motels the uh uh
uh everything that we've got our bars and restaurants and that it is the backbone of our economy and uh so hopefully we're going to have a great six weeks thank you all right I guess that's it I'd like to thank everyone for for being here
this morning and I'd also like to thank madira Beach for their Hospitality um mayor Queen if you'd stay back for just one second and uh this meeting is adjourned