Good morning everyone. We're going to call this meeting to order. Today is 9:01. It is Monday, October 20th, 2025. All council members are present. Town manager, deputy town manager, town clerk, and town attorney. If you'll please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by the uh invocation by the
pledge of allegiance. I'm reading too fast. What would I do? >> We are thankful for the many blessings and opportunities we experience each day in this community. May we act with fairness, integrity, and compassion on behalf of those people of Fort Myers
Beach listening with open minds and respectful hearts. As we listen to public comment and to one another, let us do so with open minds and respectful hearts. May we may the decisions we reach today benefit the people of Fort Myers Beach both now and in the years to come. Amen.
>> Amen. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Next, we have the approval of the final agenda. Is there any amendments or a motion to approve the final agenda? >> Move for approval. >> Um, mayor. >> Yes, ma'am. >> We would like to ask uh council to approve uh cancelling and removing the town attorney item A, which is the uh
litigation executive session that had been scheduled for 3:00 today. >> Okay. >> Cancel. that's been cancelled for today or just this item, but we still having the meeting at three or no? >> No. Okay. >> We want to totally cancel it. >> Okay. >> Is that good news?
>> We'll find out. >> We just don't have uh we were kind of led to believe that we would have some type of settlement proposal, but that hasn't materialized. So, we just going to cancel to save your time. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> John, would you like to amend your motion as
>> I would love to amend my motion. >> All right. Got a motion by councelor King. >> Second. Seconded by councelor Woodson. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Next we have public comment.
>> Madam clerk, >> I have nobody signed up. >> Anyone out there want to speak in public comment? Don, are you sure? >> No, you can't. All right. >> Speak twice. >> Just trying to keep you on your toes.
>> All right. We'll close public comment, local achievements, and recognitions. Councelor Safford, >> I would like to recognize uh town staff again. Um we had a great grand opening at at Bay Oaks on Wednesday, and you know, I look back at how much
devastation there was, especially in that area, which was our debris field for all intents and purposes, and how we have bounced back and we've built a more resilient gym. Um you hats off to you, Jeff, and your team. I mean, it was it's it's great and it's great that we got it
done right before season. So, good luck and hope I hope we have a good season. >> Councelor Woodson. >> Yeah, I will reiterate what Scott said about Bay Oaks. It was great. Um, I had friends in town this past weekend that
haven't been here since last February or just this past February. And even from February to now, the changes that they see and the progra progress that they see in the building, I mean, they were just ecstatic. So that's hats off to the
entire team. >> Anything else? >> Vice Mayor, >> I'm sure others will expound on this a little bit more, but I would say a couple things. Uh, I was unfortunately out of town this weekend, but I had a chance to watch on Facebook the
walkaround, the boataround on Saturday, uh, led uh, by Kim Ryan, and, uh, our chair of the Anchorage Advisory Committee, Chris King, and our wonderful harbor master, Curtis Lewig, and they did an excellent job of showcasing the Moing Field and all the facilities that
we uh, welcome folks to Fort Myers Beach with, and I commend uh, their efforts on that. And, and if you haven't had a chance to see that, just go back and watch that. Uh it was on Saturday and it was excellent. Again I I was watched from afar but I watched the VFW event
and just a a tremendous event and I just contri congratulate all uh Beach Talk Radio Ed and the mayor were there for the show. I think I saw John was there John King and so it was a great event. I wish I could have been there but just com uh congratulate everybody involved
there. Um I wish Chad was here this morning. I thought he was going to be here for the agenda, but I would recognize Chad uh our consultant team, our vendors. Uh I'm was told by Chad uh late last week that we're over 160,000
individual plantings on Fort Myers Beach to enhance our beach reourishment. Just try to put your get your head around uh 160,000 individual plantings. uh that will not only beautify our beach uh but it will also help retain uh some of the
sand that's been uh uh brought to Fort Myers Beach and our beaches. I was actually in uh Sarasota and and Leo Key and Siesta Key and our beach now after the renourishment is unrivaled. So I commend everybody in their efforts on that front. And then lastly,
a month from now, the elections for vice mayor and mayor will occur. And I always like to to to reduce the drama and create a nice smooth transition for everyone. So, I'm going to announce that I'm not going to be seeking or accepting the nomination for vice mayor. But I uh
but I I I think it's just time to pass the baton and give someone else a chance to serve in that position. But I wanted to give my colleagues enough time to kind of think about what they might want to do in the future and how they want to proceed and and so it's not a big dramatic moment a month from now. So, just to help with that contribution or
that that uh that uh that transition, if you will, I just wanted to let folks know that that's my intent. So, that's all I've got. Thank you, >> Council King. >> Well, uh I'll have to acknowledge the vice mayor on that. Um you've done an excellent job uh since I've been on this council, and I I appreciate your passion
and your hard work for the town of Fort Myers Beach and its residents. So, thank you. Um wearing pink today. I know my some of my online critics don't like it when I wear pink, but I'm proud to wear pink, especially with the rest of these folks up here today and everybody uh here uh for breast cancer awareness
month. Um it's something that's touched my family personally. Um when I hear the phrase warrior women, I think of uh people like my mother who was a two-time uh breast cancer survivor. I think of people like Karen Woodson who uh is a very strong woman and a survivor as
well. and a friend of ours, uh, Vivian, who's, uh, facing a reoccurrence. Uh, we pray for these women. We think of these women and we'll support these women. Um, it was a great event yesterday at the FMB of VFW Post 100097. Mayor, you did an excellent job. You've
uh, really grown uh, and did a you were more of a co-host than a spotlight. So, I think maybe we'll get you your own podcast when you since you don't have enough to do. Uh, we'll call it maybe in the morning. Mayor in the morning. We'll get you a jingle. Um >> opposite is time slot
>> or maybe uh we'll call it hours on the air where you can talk about anything as long as it's air conditioned. Um >> it was hot. >> But uh thanks beach talk radio um and everybody that did a great job in supporting those veterans and uh saving that post. So it was just great to be a
part of that. And uh finally, thank you to the town manager. U the article, the editorial he wrote, I guess, which has been titled by the news press over rebuilding for Fort Myers Beach Elementary, a responsible investment in our future. I can't think of a a better
article that I've read regarding anything in a long time. You just have a way with words and I thank you for all your hard work in putting into that as well. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, Councelor King. Well, everybody's covered all mine, but I just want to go a little bit farther on the
VFW thing. Yesterday was honor. I think they raised 75,000 or just over 75,000 to save that VFW. And I think it's important that people remember it's because of their public service and sacrifice that allows us to sit up here and be public servants to our constituents. I just wanted to share a
story that really really resonated with me from one of the gentlemen that came up and spoke um because I think it it has a lot to do with what we've gone through over the last few years. Obviously, no comparison to what he did, but I think it it it kind of is parallel to it. And he told the story about he had spent 5 years in captivity. Uh and
when he was released finally, it was I think it was 5 years and 8 months if I remember correctly, but he had spent a long time. He was the whole time he was telling the story, he had a smile on his face. I couldn't believe it. He was telling the story. So, I'm sitting next to him listening to him. And at the end, his wife got up because he he he couldn't he was having a hard time telling the story. So, his wife got up
and told the story for him. So when he was was finally released, it came back states side. He went to work for a a airline and he was only there for about six months when they went bankrupt and they they uh ended up having to fire him. So the news people obviously knew his story, came up to him and said,
"Well, how do you feel being back now that you just got fired?" And his answer is what stuck with me. He said, "I'm better than I was a year ago." And I thought, "Wow, that that to me hit home because it was, you know, three years ago to where we are now, it is night and day difference." So whenever you think
you're down or whenever you think just remember you're better than you were a year ago. You're better than you were yesterday. All right, I'll move on. That's it. All right, next we have advisory committee items, reports, and appointments. It is the cultural and environmental learning center advisory
board, CellCad. We have redo this. You want to talk through this while we're redoing this again? Just to reiterate, I think last time we had someone that was inadvertently left off the ballot that was supposed to be on the ballot. Uh, yes, Mayor. Last um last meeting, I
guess it was, we left off Carolyn McKon off the ballot by mistake. And so, we're bringing this item back to you with all six applicants um on the ballot. >> Okay. So, we are to select four of the
six people on the ballot. sleeping on the Okay, so we currently have four positions or seats or vacancies on CellCap. Um, so you can vote up to four. And let's start with Jim Adhalt.
He voted Natalie Dela Tore Sales, Carolyn Maccawan, Ellen Vaughn, and Rebecca Werner. John King, Carolyn Macauen, Ellen Vaughn, and Lorie Wolf. Um, there was only three votes on that
ballot. Uh, Scott Safford, Carolyn Maccawan, Ellen Vaughn, Rebecca Wernern, and Lorie Wolf. Karen Woodson, Carolyn McAuen, Ellen Vaughn, Rebecca Werner, and Lorie Wolf.
And um, Dan >> Mayor, I was like trying to decipher the signature here. Natalie Delator Sales, Ellen Vaughn, Rebecca Wernern, and Lorie Wolf.
>> And does that reflect your votes? >> Scott, >> yes. >> Karen, >> yes. >> Jim, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> And I'm yes. >> Okay. So move my mic here with five votes is Ellen Vaughn,
Carolyn Macauen, Rebecca Werner, and Lorie Wolf all had a total of four votes um individually and then Natalie Delat Sales had two. So the top votes would go to Carolyn Macauen, Ellen Vaughn,
Rebecca Wernern, and Lorie Wolf. So, council, for recordkeeping purposes, if you could start with a motion to rescend your prior appointments and then a motion to make these appointments. >> I'm sorry. >> Go ahead.
>> I'll go ahead and move to rescend the previous uh election or ballots and appoint these individuals to the committee. >> I'll I'll second that. And clerk, would you read the the the four folks who were victorious again? >> Yes, sir.
Uh, with five votes is Ellen Vaughn, and each with four votes is Carolyn McAuen, Rebecca Werner, and Lori Wolf. >> Thank you. All right, we've got a motion by Councelor King, second by Vice Mayor Adder Halt. Any further discussion?
>> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed? >> Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. Congratulations and thank you for your your service to a volunteer. Next we have Marine Environmental Resource Task Force MURF report. Mr. Dave Nesbomb
starting to become a a weekly or bi-weekly event. Dave, >> turn that button on. Dave, >> you can turn your turn your mic on. >> Push your button down. >> Dave, how many of the 160,000 plants did you personally plan?
>> None. Me neither. Uh, good morning, town council staff. Uh, my name is Dave Nusbomb. I'm chairman, newly elected again, chairman of the MURF advisory committee. So, you're
stuck with me for another year apparently. Uh, and the results of the election also had Jennifer uh, Rusk as the vice chair. So, just to advise you of that and some housekeeping issues and I apologize that some of this
is outdated a little bit. Uh, Jennifer was supposed to come in and due to re family reasons, she couldn't give a report. So, I'm going to do a little catch up for the record if I can. So, please bear with me.
At our August meeting, the MURF committee had a presentation from El Elizabeth Falton and she was senior vice president of Evans Engineering and she gave us a report on
the benefits of concrete wave mitigation walls uh for the island itself. We uh asked her numerous questions and determined that there was a real uh benefit to having those on the island.
And we voted four to three to advise the council that you should continue to pursue this avenue both to assist the property owners and the resiliency of the island in whole on whole. So for the
record, I just wanted to report that at the uh following meeting uh chair uh Chad Ches uh the environmental project manager for
the town presented a canal uh dredging project outlining what needed to be done and how to what avenues the town had as far as paying for the project and we discussed that in
length. We had had numerous residents from the town at several meetings before that talking about how the storm damaged the canals and they were important to the viability functionality of the canals as well as
the property values and if there was so much sand in the canal they couldn't use it at all or even bring beach boats in. So, we voted as a committee again to advise the town council on a vote to six
to one to continue to pursue um Chad's report, determine what the best avenue is. We didn't see any we didn't want to give you a solution because there were a lot of options in there and we thought that was something that town council
needed to review and fine-tune. But there is a demonstrated need to get back and get the canals functioning again as they were prior to Ian. So that was our for
the record vote 6 to1. At our last meeting we discussed a couple of things. Um, and just to go on the record, on fe February 4th, 2026 is going to be a toxic collection day at
Bay Oaks for the town. This is free to all residents. We're going to do a little more advertising on this, but if you have paint that's left over, if you have primer that's left over, anything, you know, paint cleaner, whatever you can, we thought this was a great
opportunity with all the construction for people to bring it in. It's free. Lee County will collect it. All you have to do is bring it to the site. And we're going to do a little more advertising. And we think this is a great way to
protect the environment um and stop people from hopefully not dumping stuff on empty lots which are all over the island and this gives them a place where they can get rid of it. We also discussed Arbor Day in April.
>> I'm sorry. What date was that for the toxic? >> I believe it's February 4th, >> 2026. I remembered it because it's 246. Um, >> whatever it takes to >> whatever it takes. So, and and again,
we're going to try and get Beach Talk Radio and some other, you know, the Beach Observer and anything else, the town, you know, uh, newspaper, whatever we can do cuz we think this is a real benefit to the island. Uh, also we
discussed Arbor Day, uh, which is in April. I don't have the exact date and we were the beneficiary of some donations from several people including Alex King. Part of that was used to repurchase additional activity books for
the children. But we also voted to take some of that money and put it in because we want to have a an arbor day where we can get the local nurseries to either discount or donate. um and we can have
an arbor day and have residents come in and get a free tree and transplant it on their property. We lost so many trees during the storm and this would be a good time to to sponsor an arbor day
every year to get trees back on the island to help hold the island and to bring it back to what it was, shield lights from the turtles, so on so forth. We just need to get more trees on the island and we think that's a great thing
for us to get behind and go through. And finally, and then I'll get out of your hair. Um I'm here to u ask the council if they would approve um our nominations
for the Mullhalland award. And for those that don't know, the Mhalland Award is an annual award that's given by the town of Fort Myers Beach uh for outstanding stewardship of the island and it's uh named after the first mayor of Fort
Myers Beach. So, we had two applicants that came in this year and um we Dave, just not to correct you, but you were corrected in the past. He technically wasn't the first. He wasn't the first mayor. Anita was the first mayor, but I just wanted to correct it for you so you
didn't get hammered in social media like you did last time. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Just trying to be proactive, Dave. Just trying to >> Okay. I have a thick skin. I can take >> I know you're from Wisconsin. You've got it.
>> Uh we had two applicants. Uh and because we have not even recommended an award for the last 3 years to the town council, a lot of us were busy. Um we decided that with the two applicants, we
felt it was worthy that both of them would be considered for nomination by the town council. Um, one of the nominations was Bill Bronsword and Mitch Fusk. They're co-founders of
Tunis. Tuniskin was uh had their first uh shop on Fort Myers Beach. They were they were the founders of Tuner Skin. We we were their original store. They have
been extremely proactive in the stewardship of the island. They've sponsored numerous be beach cleanups over a decade. They've been contributing to uh keep Lee County beautiful. I think last
their last cleanup they had over uh 500 volunteers and took over I believe almost three tons of garbage off off the island and donated $5,000 to keep Lee County beautiful and that was their 10th year. Um they're very unsung heroes and
we felt it was they're they were deserving the nomination. The other one was uh submitted u and it was Mary Rose Spalta. Mary Rose was served nine years I believe on the on the MURF committee as well as other
committees for the town. She's been an active member of Turtle Time and because we had two and no one uh we did not give an award last year or the year before, we felt it was beneficial to recommend
that both parties re you received the Malhallen award, but that's for the decision of the council. >> Well, I'll tell you what, Dave. I'll happily make a motion to accept the recommendation of the MURF committee for the members mentioned for the Mahalland award.
>> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed? Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you very much. I'll see you next month. >> Thank you.
Next, we have the approval of the minutes from the town council meeting October 6, 2025. Is there a motion to approve or any amendments to the town council minutes? >> Move to approve is printed. >> Motion by councelor King. >> Second. >> Seconded by councelor Woodson.
Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Next, we have a consent agenda that does not have anything on it. Um, so there is nothing removed. It brings us to our first public hearing.
Do you need to swear anyone in before we because it's legislative, Nancy? >> No. >> Okay. This is a legislative agenda item and is the first reading and public hearing on proposed ordinance 25-24. If approved at first reading, a second reading and final adoption hearing will
be scheduled for November 17th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. or at another time identified by town council. This is an ordinance of the town council of Fort My Town Fort Myers Beach, Florida, adopting an impact fee study dated August 25th, 2025 and prepared by access infrastructure and DP
Guthrie LLC amending article 4 entitled impact fees in chapter 2 entitled administration of the town of Fort Myers Beach code of ordinance to one incorporate updated information contained in the ref referenced impact fee study. Two, reduce the number of
impact fee categories and specific uses. Three, change the method of calculation of fees or for single family homes per dwelling to square footage range to reflect the typical impact of larger homes. Four, reduce the amount of fees based on updated population and project
expectations. and five providing for an update every four years payable for from collected impact fees providing for other clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scriveners errors severability and providing for an effective date Jason
>> morning Jason Green community development uh yes uh I'm going to introduce uh Dwayne Guthrie here uh from DP Guthrie our subconsultant uh Dwayne's pretty much a foremost expert throughout Florida and impact fees and we're happy to have him on the team um we'll go through a little bit a presentation. Uh
I would like to also mention that the LPA uh listened to this item last week. Um we're under a little bit of a deadline to try to get it done in the next month or so. Um so that yes, those meetings are stacked, but uh so they had some feedback and in your agenda item, it should include a little bit of a discussion uh of their discussion since
the meeting minutes were not available. Um so with that, I will introduce uh Dwayne can come up and we'll do the presentation. Be happy to take your questions after. >> Change the size of that. >> Yes. >> Okay. Nice to be back. Uh some of you might remember I was here in January to kick
off the uh impact fee update process. We did a little work session there and talked about some possible changes to the ordinance. And so I think what Jason's referring to what the state keeps tweaking the impact fee acts in Florida and uh you have a basically a year to complete your study uh once you
start it. And so that's what he was referring to. So you're you're not right up against the deadline, but you can't just keep kicking the can down the road or you'll have to start over again. So yeah, want to go through some um less than a dozen slides here um to give you
an idea. Which way? There we go. So here's our um current fees on the left. Let me just kind of give you an idea of the chart. It's kind of small. >> I'm going to stop you. I'm going to put you on the spot here this morning before we get real granular here, which is
wonderful. I want you to set the table for folks who might be watching. Talk a little bit about what an impact fee is, what we had before, and what we have now. I know I know that's part of your presentation, but if you could go up 10,000 ft and just kind of give folks the parameters about what we're talking about this morning before we get in too
deep, I think it would be helpful for folks. Happy to. The unique things about impact fees, they're not just a general revenue. It's a it's a dedicated um uh source of funding just to fund growth related infrastructure. So you can't do
operating and maintenance costs. You can't replace things that got knocked down in a hurricane. You can expand them. You can add to them. Um and you can build new infrastructure, but it's growth related infrastructure. So that's part part of the key thing. It has to go
into a special account that your accountants keep track of. you have to do annual reports showing how what money came in, what money went out on what specific projects, all those kind of things are required by the Florida Impact Feact. Um, and we have now
continuing to add some rules and regulations about that, about the update process. Um, looks like most jurisdictions are probably going to be updating their their fees every four to five years. uh there's kind of more rigorous things have come along um over
time uh from the Florida impact fee act. And so uh that's the general um overview. Uh they're tied to development activity. So we t typically collect those at the time a building per permit is issued and it's tied to uh impact
related or development that generates an impact on infrastructure. So all those kind of things are are a consideration. I'll give you a overview of what you have now and the general changes that we'll be going o into. Uh any other question before I go on? >> That's a great start. Thank you very
much. >> Okay. If you look at the uh the chart that I've got there on the left, the the land use categories are listed down the left side. At the top, the ones that are shaded that kind of orangey tan color are the residential categories and then below that you see non-residential
categories. There's roughly a dozen of those non-residential categories. We're going to consolidate it down to two general categories. Basically, retail, restaurant, eating, drinking, places are all one category. So, if you sell anything, an item, you sell, food,
drinks, all that, you're in that first category. And basically everything else, all your other services are in the other category. So offices, business services like banks, um real real estate offices, lawyers, all those kind of things would be in that other other category. Um
there's a lot of categories that you see up there today that kind of tells me a lot about the way the fees were done before. The Fort Myers beach fees were very much um correlated with the county fees. And that's why I think you have the the kind of odd um regional parks and community parks. You see the two
columns there on the right. most um municipalities don't have that kind of distinction. That's kind of a legacy from the way the county fees were done. And also if you look at the numbers on the transportation fees uh and the categories, those are um categories that
came out of the Institute of Transportation Engineers trip generation rates. um they every every four to five years the it re publishes a new set of of trip generation rates and so your previous transportation fees were kind
of like the old school um we're going to do fees based on theoretical more formulated driven um trip generation rates and the need for additional vehicle capacity. So how many vehicles can you put on a on arterial um you know
what's your level of service standards? Those are all the kind of inputs that went into those first early generation impact fees. In urban areas, we're we're transitioning to what we're calling mobility fees or multimotal transportation fees where we're more concerned about moving people, not just
moving vehicles. So, it's it's all modes, pedestrians, biking, transit, and vehicles all all together. So, that's kind of the one of the big changes in your update of the fees this time around. And so, >> and that, excuse me, that that includes water fairies as well for transportation,
>> all modes. Yes. Thank you. >> And so that and we'll look at specific capital improvements in just a minute and you'll you'll see that very much. So, um, also you can kind of see there's distinctions in the like the differences between a fast food restaurant and a
regular um sitdown standard restaurant. Well, the old impact fees were just done on trip generation rates. like a traffic counter was across a driveway. So, it was just counting vehicles coming and going. The old impact fee studies didn't account for pass by trips because you you know when you you go driving
somewhere, you're not going to go out of your way to go to a fast food restaurant. You're just going to stop one along the way. So, to be a little more fair or equitable or proportionate, it's the key word in the Florida impact fee act. Um we've added um adjustment factors for pass by trips and those kind
of things and we've switched more to um people driven multimotal fees for especially for urban areas like yours. Um so we're going to consolidate those last two categories. This is going to be called parks and recreation. We're not going to call them regional and community parks anymore. And we're going
to use the term multimodal transportation for your um transportation fees. So any any questions on those before we we go go on? I want I want to if I could go back again up a few thousand feet. >> Sure. >> For who just again for folks who are
watching who who pays these impact fees? In other words, if you're remodeling your home after uh after the storm, do you pay? If you're replacing your home after you after the storm, do you pay? If you're enhancing the size of your home, do you pay? Who who pays and how
does just kind of give an overview of how how it works both for residential and for businesses. >> Sure. And one of the misnomers of kind of a common thing the impact fees will they'll like a lot of people get up and kind of testify that we want to stick it to the developers and make them pay
more. Well, generally in a normal market economy impact fees are passed along to the end user. So the homeowner, the renter, the business that occupies the building, those are the people that ultimately pay the impact fees. Most of the time the developers will just pass those costs along. And that's one of the
reasons why Florida requires a 90-day effective date. So even after you adopt the fees, there's a 90-day wait period before the um new development will charge the be subject to the different rate, the new rate. So there's those kind of things that help with the
transitioning. Um and then also in Florida, we have things now. We have phasing requirements. it's not going to be applicable to you because we're recommending the fees to to come down. But there's all those kind of things that keep the basically developers usually from having to pay those fees. They'll get passed along to the end
user. Now, as far as how we're doing the fees now, they're done just by type. If you're just replacing a single family house with a single family house, you don't have to pay anything additional. But what's happened in a lot of our beach communities, we have older, smaller homes, two, three bedrooms. say
they, you know, less than 2,000 ft square feet of living space or climate control space. A lot of those are being replaced with um multi-story units that might be even used for vacation rentals or those kind of things that might be two, three times as big as the the
current house. Well, going to a fees by size, if that happens, you can set a threshold as as when you want that to cut in. But if you build a much bigger house, then you're going to pay the difference between what was there and what the new one would be. And that helps to cover some of the the
additional cost from those things, especially vacation rentals, because that's a a big uh deal on most beach communities. Um so that's one of the reasons why we're simp we're recommending that we go to the size thresholds for the residential fees. And you'll we're not concerned about type.
And the problem with the type u approach is it gets very complicated in that you're mixing the type of structure with ownership patterns. So time shares versus condo. They look the same but they're owned differently. And we don't have to worry about that anymore if we
just do it by size thresholds. It'll be just based on the average size of the unit in that building. So, so how does it >> because if I'm not mistaken, if you go to say like a a triplex or quadplex that then goes into the commercial bucket, right, versus a residential.
>> No, if it's still it's a residential unit and you pay the fees that you'll see are per unit. So, if it was a triplex, you'd be three times the average size of those in the units. As long as it's a residential home, whether it's a triplex, forplex, whatever,
>> rental. >> Yes. >> It would still fall under the residential versus a commercial. >> Yes, it would. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> So, so on the business side, if a business comes back again, rebuilds, is it also then determined by size? >> Yes. And the fees that you'll see on the
proposed update are per thou. It's the same um structures we have now. It's per thousand square feet of building. So you don't just pay a fat a flat fee per retail space. It's based on the size of that space. So if you if you pay if you
have a 10,000t building and 100,000 foot building, it the the larger one would pay per thousand square feet the same rate but the amount would be 10 times as much. >> Do they get uh do they get grandfathered in what they had before? >> Correct. >> Okay. So it's just additional space that they get charged for.
>> Correct. >> Okay. And most communities will have a time frame specified as to how long or some point in time as to um you know to determine whe when there was an existing structure. So that's one of the things that we'll make sure we're on same wave
with the attorney as you guys talk about that. And also on the size thresholds that can be like if you you don't want to nickel and dime somebody if they want to just add a small addition to their house. So some communities will set a 10 or 20% kind of a threshold that if you
don't expand the the house by that threshold, then you don't have to pay a fee because you hate the you know somebody wants to add on just a little bit to um have them pay an impact fee. But it's it's entirely up to you. That's a local decision and communities will have different either they'll say any
addition you pay or they'll have some threshold so that they don't have to worry about it if there's a small addition. So I I hate to pin you down on this, but it's just it's interesting to me that so for example a proposal that like Seagate where there were was an RV community uh but they when they bought
the land they were entitled to 141 spots. Do they get grandfathered for the 141 or do they start from scratch in terms of the impact fee? How how would it work from a practical standpoint in a situation like Seagate? Uh yeah, there's a process that we again Jason Green uh
there's a process that we go through that evaluates what was on site uh and I guess had a right or was built. Uh we went through that process with Margaritavville as an example. Um and then you you treat those as kind of credits and then we do the math on what the proposed use is and do all that fee
and then we do the math between the two and whatever the difference is is ultimately gets paid. So there's so we sit with we create kind of a form for each developer that shows uh what all their credits are and what all their charges are and we make sure that they agree that they're getting the credits that they're supposed to.
>> So you have like a formula that you put forth. >> Well, it's based on what was on site, right? So and using and I was going to try to get that. >> Let's use the let's maybe use the Neptune for an example. I think they've doubled the number of rooms. >> So it would be the all the new rooms, right? essentially addition a single
building with 50 rooms and you're building a single building or two buildings with 100 rooms. That's a pretty simple math to do. You get a credit for the 50 rooms at the rate that's in the in the adopted schedule. Um something like Margaritavville where they had a multiple uh uses on site. They had some duplexes. They had
>> before you go on go back to what you just said there. So if you is it based I'm a little confused because is it based on the number of rooms or the size of the rooms also? So if they had 50 units, they' get a credit for the 50 units. But if those units were 400 square feet, but now they're 800 square feet, do they pay the difference on them
on on the size of the square footage even though they had the 50 units? >> We we have a hotel, motel, lodging kind of category, those are per unit, no size applicable. Okay. But the residential units that are designed for, you know, have full kitchens and all that type of
thing, those are by size thresholds. >> Right. So, in most of your residential buildings, you're most likely going to have similar sizes, right? You're going to have a condo building or apartment building. Most of those units are going to be around the same size as each other. So, it's it's a pretty simple uh calculation to do. So, let's say you had
a building of 100 apartment or condo units that were,00 ft² each and then your your rebuild comes back and you're doing you've approved double that amount. They get a credit for what they had there and then get charged um for the new increase based on the new
schedule. So, it it's only for new development. So, you always get a credit for what was there. >> I assume it's a bit complicated. What do how do you how do you handle an entity that was previously an RV park? Is there a is there a credit for an RV or is it based upon the units or how do how do you do that?
>> Uh well, some of those were not just RVs. Uh some of those there's examples of they were fixed modular or or mobile type homes. And so, yeah, we would go we would go through each of those lots, try to look at the records. That one's going to be a little more probably complicated and timeconuming, but we go through everything that was on-site and legal um
and give them the credit for that based on the unit where it would fall based on the category that it falls into in the in the um schedule. >> So, in essence, it's anything that's new and additional to what was there before. >> Correct. So, one of the things that's in again this is also a text amendment to the land development code. Um there's a
recommendation to move from the five years to seven years. So that once the demo permit essentially or when something's removed from the property, that's when that triggers at seven year the currently 5 years. We're recommending that you go to seven years. Um mostly because of the storm. We're
already three years in. Uh only two more years left for people to maintain that credit. Uh it's going to be a tight window for some of them to rebuild. So we're recommending for now you go to seven years to give them a little bit more room to recover. Thank you. And then just a quick
question on the on the uh retail side of it. So you're you build something back that wasn't retail before that it has now retail use say it's 10,000 square feet. Does the property owner get assess that impact fee based on the 10,000 square feet or did I hear you say that
it's based on if they break it into 10 1,000 square foot is it each pro each section then that would have a prorated rate based on the 10,000 square feet or how does that work? >> No. So it's that it's that's the building permit side. So when when the permit is picked up essentially they pay the impact fee
>> for the whoever's developing the site whoever's constructing it there some an entity an owner will be responsible for that entire impact fee up front. >> That's what I thought I just wanted to make. >> So and to your point though to change we also have dealt with and one of the way this is going to make it easier for us to do by having fewer categories um is
also when you change uses within a in a unit or a space we're supposed to charge the difference in the increase in the impact fee. So, if you went from something that was a lower impact fee to a higher impact fee based on this current schedule, we we're supposed to charge you when you change the use. Um, and this will kind of standardize all
that and make that happen a lot less um and make it easier for us to track and not have to charge people just for changing uses in an existing shell or in an existing unit. So when you say it's implemented when you change the use is that I mean I thought I heard at some point through
this conversation that we this is months ago that you would pay the impact be fee when you apply for the building permits or something that is that right? >> Correct. So as an example I'm trying to see which ones are lower and higher here. Um if you had a restaurant standard you built a building for a
restaurant and then it got changed to um what's a higher one? a bank restaurant built. It was built as a restaurant and it gets changed to a bank. Traditionally, we would take that change of use and apply the difference in the fee to that to that building because of the change of use and collect
the difference in the impact fee. So, if it was a new build, you would charge them the impact fee or existing and they remodeled for a restaurant, we wouldn't change anything restaurant to restaurant. But then, we've had this happen where it changed to a bank or something else. We have to charge the difference. >> So, >> we have less categories that do that
now. So, it's going to be simpler to to track. Is the money substantial enough to create perverse incentives? In other words, are you punished if you if you uh if you develop something on a brand new piece of land that did not was not developed before or or are you better
off buying a piece of property that had something there before, so you get that grandfathered credit, if you will. Does it create any perverse incentives or is the fund is the money not enough to create perverse incentives? >> You sure? Um, generally the impact fees are
relatively minor. I mean, we're in residential, for instance, if it, you know, we're spending $200 a square foot and they're getting, you know, charged $2,000, you know, the math is usually not enough to to to make any influence
on the market. Um, and especially on on the non-residential size, it's more location driven as to, you know, what's the highest and best use for that property. It's going to be very location independent. So I mean dependent. So I think uh generally the impact fees don't
make a big sway on the market. >> And it sounds like and I don't want to put words in your mouth but it sounds like what you're proposing today makes this consistent with other communities in the county and other counties. It's sounds like we're becoming much more standardized with surrounding areas. Is that a fair generalization?
>> Yes. And I would also say I think we talked about this at the workshop and stuff is it also almost incentivizes those other uses. So you're and I was looking at this this morning the medical office um it it really kind of almost standard or makes it easier and cheaper to develop that use which I think is
something that you guys have mentioned that you want to encourage that. So we we've I think there's some encouragement of through these fees by standardizing them into fewer categories. >> That's good news. Thank you. >> You were leaning in like you wanted to say something. >> I just I still have a question on using
the Seagate example. So I know that you get a credit for what was there and you have to go through and figure out all the intricacies intricacies of that but so in Seagate and I cannot remember off the top of my head how many units they were actually talking about but I know
that some of them many of them maybe were much more square footage >> than obviously an RV. So, does the square footage then come into play in that kind of development or is it strictly the number
of units? >> Uh, so yes and no. I guess it depends on the type and it depends on the the setup. So, I think I'd have to look at Seagate again. It's been a while, but I think they have certain types of units in a building and then another building has different types of units. So, it's going to be different.
>> Um, some of them may be resort hotel style that fall under their lodging. There's probably some residential buildings and we'll look at that square footage. Um, they probably have a few units that are larger than others, but for the most part, residential has a tendency to have two or three types of units um within them. And so, we'll just
I I don't know exactly how we're going to do it. We're going to have to look at it, but we'll play it by ear, but it's it's going to be based on both square footage and unit type. It goes to the use, and those mixed projects are the ones that are going to be a little bit more challenging to to do the math on, but um it'll it's not too difficult.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> And so, so just another odd uh kind of application of this would be the Arches project, which was a functioning marina, and then you basically turn it into a a massive hotel with retail. >> It sounds like most of that would be
considered new. Is that is that how you would calculate it? >> Yeah. So, we'll do the math on what the square footage of of Marina, warehousing, whatever was there, um, whatever that in the schedule would calculate to, and that's their credit. And then the new is the new. But those those warehouses are massive. What would
they what would the credit for a warehouse equate to? >> Adopted chart, right? So whatever we adopt here, right? So what you use the current the chart that you have adopted at the time. Um so this is the current one, but we would if we adopted a new one, I guess we would use the the non-residential category for the credit.
>> Convert everything to dollars, >> right? We convert everything to dollars based on that square footage. And our c the whatever fee schedule's in place when you do the credit, that's when you do the math. We don't go back to an old impact fee study. >> Yeah. And I'm trying to get a sense uh
Jason through some of these questions is the fiscal impact to the town. >> Sure. >> Do you get a sense just just as you have done your research this last year and you obviously know where a lot of the new projects are. Do you see the town experiencing a significant infusion of of of of uh of impact fees or would it
be enough to be a gamecher? What how do you can you give us some kind of a rough estimate as to what you're speculating at this point or is it too early? >> Uh no. I mean I I think it depends on how you look at it. So I'll let Dwayne hit that again. Um I tried to address that a little bit at the LPA and maybe missed the mark. Um but again I think
Dwayne opened with this is impact fees are here to to pay for the capital projects that are created by the impact of growth. Right. And so there it's not going to pay 100% of projects. is going to pay for a proportionate share related to growth. >> No, I get that. But I just But but
having said that, just from a practice, is Joe Joe's over here salivating? Should he be salivating or should >> because he can't go anywhere other than their their account. >> Yeah. So, >> yeah, we'll we'll show you the exact dollar amounts in just a minute. You'll see them. >> All right. Sounds good. Thank you. And >> it's in the millions, but it's only a
percentage of the toll. And I try to when I get asked about impact fees a lot, it's a lot it's very difficult for a lot of people to understand that don't have the benefit of talking with people like you and I always try to give an example of using ball fields. So say you have two ball
fields and a development comes in that is going to increase the impact of the use of that ball field. You could use those impact fees to build new ball fields but not repair or add on to the existing ball fields. You have to basically use the fees for the impact that is created by the development that
is happening. Is that the easiest way to I mean that's the easy way I found to say it. >> Correct. But you might add lights which would give you more you know use expand the uses >> and so that would add capacity. So but generally you just can't replace what's there or make it better or just you know
replace the sod and that kind of thing. You you generally need to expand capacity. So allow people to have better use. Like if you if you did lights, it would allow them to use it at night. So that would be an expansion of the capacity. Okay.
All right. Let's go ahead and look at what how we're going to calculate the fees. Um the chart on the left with the blue headings there, you see the two categories, parks and transportation. We're going to do the feats townwide, the one uniform schedule for the entire
town. for parks and recreation. We're um we're going to use peak population to allocate the cost. So, it's going to be the year- round folks, the seasonal folks that live in housing units, and the seasonal visitors in hotel motel. So, that all goes into your peak
population because it is a big difference between your year- round folks and that peak. And so because we're um we're we're sizing or accommodating seasonal population, we're going to use that in the peak population to do the math. And then on the
transportation side, we're going to allocate the cost based on functional population, which has to do with how many people and jobs are in the community, but with some adjustments for commuting pattern because we we kind of know how many people live and work here, how many people work off the island, and
how many inflow commuters you have. So we do some adjustments to kind of make it proportionate as possible. We call that functional population. There's a table in the report. I didn't put it in the slides a little too too geeky, but basically we split cost between residential and non-residential. And then on the residential side, we we
allocate the cost per person. And then on the um non-residential sides, we we use the inbound primary trips to allocate the cost between um res retail and all other um services. If I could put our our our assistant
town manager on the spot. So this capital improvement plan, how does that marriage with the strategic plan? Are are you working in concert with this? Is this is this impacting your your strategic process? >> So the strategic plan through USF and Angela Christ took into consideration
all of the resident impact and the surveys and the comments that they received through that and we did send it over to um uh access group when they were looking at the comp plan. So they also had the resident comments when they come forth with the comp plan as well. >> So so this will impact the strategic
plan and your strategic plan will impact this particular plan. >> I would say the strategic plan would capture some of the projects in the way forward whereas this would support that strategic plan in terms of some additional funding that could come forth. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> And generally your strategic plans are a
little shorter range time frame. This is a 10-year CIP and the categories are really trying to be kind of balancing between giving people enough idea of how the money is going to be spent but not, you know, tying it down to a a specific
spot or a specific year. So, let's just run through them and I think you'll get a better feel for it. At the top there's the the improvements for parks and recreation. And you'll see there's additional facilities at the your four existing beach parks and that's a $5 million total cost and gross share what
impact fees are going to pay for is is 20%. And that's based on your projections for residential development over the next 10 years. The additional residential development and that's what we can um reasonably attribute to to new growth. So out of that $5 million line
item, impact fees will pay $4 million. So it is significant amount of money, but you still have to come up with the other four million. So that's the kind of the trade-off there you need need to be aware of. >> On the park side, are we limited to improving existing parks or could we actually purchase a pocket park if there
was land available in part with some of these funds? >> You could. Yes, you could use that for an additional park. Okay. >> Um but the beach access is the same way. We've got 24 sites now that you know, which is a great number for along the beach. You can make improvements to
those by adding parking, landscaping, lighting, boardwalks, you know, whatever makes sense. Bike racks, any anything that add makes that more effective, more capacity for people to use that know it's there. Any of those kind of improvements would be u eligible. So, of
those 24, that's 100,000 to each site. Um, but the fees will only pay for 20% of that. >> So the town's cost portion of it, if does it matter how the town secures those funds? And what I'm trying to say is it whether it's through grants, whether it's through appropriations,
>> does that change the 20% number at all? >> No. And that >> that number stays static. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so that we're counting on you to have grant money or tax money or sales tax money. Any any source of revenue u would work for the other
non-impact fee share. Okay. And then the last line item is the recreation campus improvements. A million dollars. Again, that's just kind of a a general line item. You could, you know, make the details of during your annual capital improvement budgeting process of how you
want exactly you want to spend that money. So, of that, you know, $ 8.4 million capital improvement program, we're paying for 1.68, I think it is, uh, out of impact fees, 20%. Similar on the on the multimmoal transportation
improvements at the bottom. Uh, we've got additional bike lanes, we've got multimmoal trails, and we've got sidewalk connectors. Uh, again, we're trying to focus on things that are going to benefit the entire community. So, we don't want to just do a sidewalk on a
residential street. We want to try to focus on sidewalks on main streets or that that connect um in in the downtown your um Time Square, I think, is what you guys call your downtown kind of area. Anything like that in a commercial
area that where you want people to park once and walk around or not park at all, just bike or walk there. Any of those kind of connectivity things would be eligible for impact fees >> even. So obviously our main road is a stero boulevard that's owned by the county. Would that these impact fees
couldn't be used on that because it's an entity owned by the county. Is that >> there could very well be a local share to those improvements. They might ask you to participate or um you know add um like for the bus stops you might want to make those more user friendly but with
shading and lighting and landscaping and those kind of things. If if that's a local cost then you could pay for that. So, as part of the whole traffic light synchronization pre-torm that we were doing with what do you what they're doing at the bottom of the bridge and then the lights that were over on Old
St. Carlos and all that. Um, that was I believe that light originally is paid with impact fees. The our portion of that project was to contribute and pay for that that traffic light and so that came out of impact fees because that helps with the capacity and the flow of traffic. And then I I'm assuming in
having conversations with you that you couldn't use these impact fees for maybe potentially a mitigation wall, but you could potentially use them for a bike lane or bike lanes on that mitigation wall. >> Sure. Yes. If you're creating recreation and capacity and opportunities or or transportation. Um same thing with I go we go through this a lot of communities
where road and transportation projects are in one bucket or department and then recreation is in another and you're seeing those things overlap more. And I'm encouraging other communities to make sure they overlap. So it's not just parks and wreck building a trail and transportation building a road or sidewalk. Sometimes that sidewalk is the
trail. So mix those recreation and transportation funds to complete a project whether it's grant or impact fees to go towards that. So sometimes things s serve a dual purpose. So the last line item on the mobility transportation um table is the ferry
access facilities. We propose five of those. Um, so you'll have a million dollars from impact fees that'll you can use towards that and that that coding the R2P2 is, you know, that refers to this process where you guys went through and the recovery resiliency partnership
project u and that you planning effort you've already approved and that's where those um five fairies access points are. Any other questions before we go on? I'll dive into the details of the fee calculations for parks and recreation. We've taken
that 1.68 million from the other table, carried it over here, and we're going to allocate it to the projected increase in peak population over the next 10 years to get a cost per person. And then we're going to multiply that by the number of um people per unit. Um and you'll see the different multipliers there. But
basically as you get bigger uh we have demographic data and we have the building permit data that kind of match those two up the so we knew knew the size of your units and that's how we came up with those thresholds. Uh at some point it just kind of caps off.
It's not a straight linear curve the relationship between size and number of people. It it it curves over a log curve or flattens out. And so you know after some point it doesn't really make any difference. So it's the top one is 4,000 or more square feet of living space. So
even if you built a you know 6,000 square foot McMansion, it would still pay that c that amount. And then the last one is lodging and that is just per room. So and you can see on these the lodging doesn't change much at all. It's
a drop of $54. The other ones um change more. And I think that the main reason for that is the difference in methodologies. Now we're allocating things per per person with seasonal population. The old one was just based on traffic generation rates and you know
vehicle kind of moving vehicles around and and and um well in parks it was it was just averages by size. And so there was average for all multifamily and average for all single family. And you know, single family varies quite a bit
from very small kind of starter home more in the thousand square foot scale up to the very large units. So this way it's a little more equitable or proportionate to the actual, you know, impact based on the size of units you're you're making. And we don't have to
worry about the the variations and types because there will be some attached units that are going to fall, you know, in more in the middle categories. they could be well above 2,000 square feet even though they're attached condos, that kind of thing. Um, now they will pay according to the size, not just per
unit. All right, let's look at the numbers on the transportation fees that we again the number at the very top was the carryover from the previous slide of the 2.9 almost $3 million capital improvement program that's going to be funded by growth. This one we split
between residential and non-residential using the functional population calculations that I talked about. So 68% of the cost is going to be paid by residential development and 32% by non-residential development. And then we do the math to allocated per person or
per inbound vehicle trip. And you see the same multipliers there for the residential and on the bottom the non-residential ones there. Those are inbound primary vehicle trips that differentiate between retail and all other non-residential.
Uh and on these the um the drops are a little um less significant on the non-residential at the bottom. You'll see very u minor change of roughly $500 u per thousand square foot. Um some
people have a hard time relating to per thousand square foot. So if if you kind of want to think three decimal point points and so that would be just a drop of 50 cents per foot if that helps you to kind of relate to that because a lot of times people think of per foot cost when they think of building. So the
decrease is 50 cents per foot you know so it's not a huge amount. Uh and on the residential side those are um mult I mean the the amounts are per unit again. So the differences are based on the the categories that you have. So, you have
um multif family are basically the ones at the top that are shown now. It's $2,59. The single family is the ones in the middle there. I've used the bold lines to kind of help you see that your current routes are 2,971 per unit. And so, the the the decrease
will vary by size. And then the change on the lodging is per unit. So, it it goes from $819 today to 2237. So that's those are your changes. Any questions on these?
Okay, our couple more slides and we'll be done. Oops. So here's an administrative fee that we're going to add. Um the Florida impact fee act um back in the old days people did percentages. That's not allowed anymore. You have to estimate your actual cost and you can have it a fee the for the
covers the cost of administering the impact fees. So at the top you'll see that we've put in $40,000 for staff time and $80,000 for consultant studies. So that you know that our work is you know covered by the impact fees. And so it's
you know relatively minor amount we've allocated to the projected increase in development over the next four years because generally the new impact fee requirement is that you you have to use data within the last four years. And so most times people kind of try to update start the update of the impact fees at
that four-year window and then you know give yourself a year to get it done and get it implemented or approved. So roughly a fiveyear cycle is what I think most communities will be going to. No longer can sit on your impact fees for 20 years. That kind of thing. It's just
not um gonna be allowed. You'll get challenged and you'll you'll lose very easy on those. So you got to keep your impact fees updated. Um, so you can see those the administrative charges and then here's the total all put together on one chart. So the proposed total is
the blue co with the blue font there and the current fees and you can kind of see the changes again the less dramatic drops on the non-residential side those are pretty much pretty similar but on the residential side um we are showing decreases
to $200,000 per unit. If I could just uh since we have everybody here, uh will Frankie, Jeff, Joe, obviously this is going to impact all of your worlds. Uh do will will will somebody in your shop, Frankie, determine what these fees are? Will it be in Joe's shop? Will it be a
cut Jeff? Will will it be a combination? Will have you thought through how you're going to to >> Yeah, it starts in community development and then uh community development will you know have a discussion with community services department if you know if there's a crossover or or it's
solely in one area or another and uh then the discussions about how to apply that of course in consultations with Joe um in in the proper usage of that. But I'll I'm happy to let either Frankie or Jeff expound on that if you guys want. >> I guess what I'm trying to Will will it require an additional person or will you
just do this absorb this internally? >> Okay. >> No additional. >> All right. No additional person just for the because people couldn't hear. No additional uh staffer would be required. They can absorb the the impact of the implementation of the new impact fees internally. >> Right. We we do that now um through
planning and building staff essentially. And so I don't project it to be anymore. I just thought with with all the excitement uh post Ian, there's going to be a lot more activity than there was prein. So I just was curious as to the impact on staff. >> It should be about the same that we're doing right now. So and it's covered in
the fees to be able to cover for that. Um and and honestly, you'll be able to see that more on an annual basis. So the idea is if you're doing it every four to five years, every year you should be adopting a five-year CIP as part of your budget. And every year you're rolling a new fifth year into there. in those projects you see that progress going
from the fifth year projected to a first year when it gets actually done design construction. So, um, as we move towards that system, uh, and implement that consistently, you'll be able to see this and and how it relates to in 5 years from now when we update this, what do we want to change, what do we want to add,
what part of that 10-year list gets modified, right? So, you're going to be on top of this, I think, on an annual basis essentially. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So, that concludes our presentation. I'll be glad to answer any more questions if you have them. Um
we have this the study that um is available hopefully can get published on the website if it's not already done. Um and then also you can publish the slides if might be easier for people to relate to whatever you think is appropriate and our contact information is there. We're glad to help with any these kind of
questions. We routinely help communities with the oddball things that come up. uh any impact fee um any builder or developer when they go to pull a building permit if they think that they always have the option of a asking for an independent study or doing an
independent studying and showing why they're different or why they're unique. So that's something just administratively you try to do to avoid any kind of legal challenges and work it out the details if you have unique developments. So that's kind of a a common thing that's done. Hopefully this
covers, you know, 99% of all the building permits that'll come through the door. >> So, what I've handed out to you is basically just >> before we go on, I've got I'm not sure how to actually address this. I've tried to bring it up before uh in uh in my
meetings with town staff, and this is my learning disability uh problem, but um one of the communities in in Lee County has gone away from impact fees into mobility fees. Uh I'm not sure why they would do that because basically I don't understand it. But my understanding is
we also have mobility fees that we do collect, but apparently it's not something that we're doing a very good job on. Uh I don't know if I I thought that's what I've heard you understand in the past is that we're not doing a very good job with it or it doesn't fit or I don't want to put words
in your mouth, Frankie, but >> So this isn't a mobility fee. It always has been. I'll let Dwayne describe the difference between >> Yeah, the Well, there's a couple unique things in in state law that they've added an extra If you use the term mobility fee, then it has to actually
the plan the I mean the um the mobility plan that goes with the mobility fee has to be adopted as part of the comprehensive plan. So, there's just an extra administrative step there requirement. The math you've transitioned basically to mobility fees.
We're now doing the fees based on capital improvements. We're allocating the cost more not for moving just vehicles, but for moving people. So, we're calling it a multimotal transportation fee, but you're the math
basically is a mobility fee. Like Jason was saying, we've we're it's just a packaging thing. The state gives you either option. If you want to call it a mobility fee, then I'll have to add it the plan into the comprehensive plan process. is an extra step. Most
communities aren't wanting to go there, but if you read the requirements in the in the law, you are an urban area. You you your types of improvements that we've identified are the types of improvements that you would see in a mobility plan. So, we're just it's more
of the semantics of what we're calling it, a transportation fee, a multimotal transportation fee, but we've transitioned away from just moving vehicles to moving people. and the allocation is like a mobility fee. >> Okay, thank you for that explanation and I apologize if I put words in people's
mouth or misrepresentative. Thank you. >> Uh yeah, those words get thrown around different places I understand. >> Um so what I handed out to you is essentially a previous project calculation just as so you can see in um how we did the math and calculation by
by category. Um and these I would say properties that are bought and consolidated and they have mixture of uses on them are a little bit more challenging. Um but also resorts and and places with multiple uses. Um that's one thing we haven't talked about yet. So if
you have a hotel but you also have restaurant and you also have some other items on the property, all of those uses will be charged an impact fee individually. It's not just per the rooms, it's all the other parts of it have to be charged also. So, this is an example of Margaritavville, uh, how we did the commercial credits. And this was
these were all an analysis of all the things that were on their properties prior to their improvements. And then the second page essentially is the the math on the new development. And at the bottom of that second page, I gave you there's a totals of new subtotal, credit
subtotal, and then a net total. And that'll give you an idea of each of those columns of transportation, the regional, the community park, and we also did the fire and school for them. So that that's how the math got done on that. Obviously with less categories, it'll be simpler for us um and less accounts, but it would be done similar
for any project moving forward based on adopted categories. So, so Jason, going forward as Fort Myers Beach rebuilds after a horrific storm three years ago, >> right, >> uh, as we grow and rebuild, it appears
from this data that you've handed out that the Lee County School District will benefit from that rebuilding of Fort Myers Beach. Is that a fair characterization? >> Well, they're they've adopted their own impact fee. It's separate from yours. We're just we just agree to collect it on their behalf and pass it on. So, good
community citizens like poor Dawn who's been waiting patiently out there as they contribute and rebuild their properties on Fort Myers Beach, they'll be contributing to the Lee County School District as they rebuild and rebuild Fort Myers Beach. Is that is that a fair >> correct? Because any Yes. The the school
district has an adopted fee. >> So, as the school is this is is as Fort Myers Beach rebuilds and prospers uh of our own valition, uh the Lee County School District will benefit whether they have a school here or not. Is that fair? >> Uh yes. So any additional unit, correct?
They would pay a fee for that based on their fee schedule and their adopted ordinance. >> Very interesting. >> Good gig if you can get it. >> So anyway, you can see the numbers there and how we did the math. We'd give the credits and the new uh required and we'll do the same. So if you have any questions,
>> Jason, usually when it's typically do the staff obviously does their analysis like you just handed us, >> does the non-commercial or the residential or the commercial or residential user do their own study and you compare or do they take yours and then review it and if is there do they
challenge it if they feel that it's not accurate or how does that work? So I I would say absolutely with the with the more complicated projects we have shared those with the property owner applicant or whatever um to make sure that they had an opportunity. So Margaritavville absolutely we we did the math. We sent
it to them. Uh they looked at it and reviewed it and confirmed and said yeah we agree with your assessment or we don't or we think you had an credit you had a um 1176 square feet but we really had 2,000 square feet of retail and here's the records of that. like we will we will have and do have those
conversations with complicated projects. Single family homes or or what have you are a little bit different. They're much more straightforward. Either there was a house there or there wasn't. >> Well, and this will be easier now that it's going to square footage versus dwelling units. So, the square footage is easy to to find from property records is what was there before.
>> Yes. In theory, the number of units gets a little challenging sometimes. We've had that conversation in the past of what's grandfathered then. But we also have that process ongoing when people come to rebuild. They say we had three units. We only have proof that they had two. You have to go through the records. Once that's established, then then the
replacement part makes it easy because it's usually like for like on the residential side. >> Right. Scouts, any question for these guys? >> Um, I just want to follow up on um John's question. I I know he asked you
to Joe, you're always my guy. Do you could take a look at these numbers? Do the numbers look the projections look look pretty reasonable? Is you feel comfortable? What's what's your take? I hate to put you on the spot, but I always do.
>> If I can add on to that question because my question was going to be similar to that. You have projections, right? You can only project based on previous and what you think. Is there a path of the town? Are we locked in at these numbers? Say two, three years from now, all of a sudden these numbers are way off because
the population growth has gone way up. Can these be re-evaluated again? Does that be a whole another study? >> That's absolutely why you should do it every four to five years is to make sure that those trends are accurate or has there been a seismic shift in what policy comp plan, right? A new comp plan that allows
>> don't forgive me for saying this say you adopt a comp plan allows three times as much as you previously did, right? That changes the opportunity and the buildout scenario of the community. Yeah, you're not doing that. But as an example, you would want to reevaluate. That's why all these things, all these studies should be consistently re re-evaluated every so
often and they all feed into each other. So they support the strategic plan. The comp plan is supposed to be reanalyzed every seven years. These get done every four to five years. They all work together. So yes, you're always re-evaluating. >> Um Joan, finance director. And I would
just have to say I have to defer to their expertise since I don't have expertise in this area and their on their reputation. I mean looking at it at the face of it, it seems reasonable. I I don't have concerns in that way. I am concerned about how we're going to come up with our town share, but um that
other than that, I mean, it seems very reasonable and I appreciate all the work that went into it. Um especially in in in collecting the information regarding the the capital improvement plan. Okay, fair enough. Dan, do you want to follow up on >> No, I think he I kind of expected that
that's what Joe would say, but >> I just want to get on the record. >> Yeah. No, >> thanks. >> Thank you, Joe. >> Yeah. And every year your capital improvement plan may change, right? Your your five-year outlook. That's why you evaluate that fiveyear plan every year. And that again, that oh, hey, we found a
new project we need to do. Well, then this can be updated to reflect that. Nancy, I guess my question to you would be this can't correlate into Senate Bill 250 or anything like that. So, say we we set this impact fee now and we all of a sudden see an influx markets change,
things happen and you see this influx of of development that's happening that's going to correct this. Is there anything that they can come back and say, well, you're now change we made a decision to move forward based on these impact fees, but now you're changing them because the market has changed and and your population has changed. Does any of that
have any legal ramifications to the town? >> Well, they could always raise the argument. Um, however, you know, this the standard right now and and um there are some legislative proposals already regarding SB180.
Um that basically, as you're aware, the restriction is if it's um unduly burdensome or unreasonable. Uh which are terms that have yet to be defined. um what you're proposing here doesn't
appear to um create an issue regarding those standards. What happens in the future, we don't know. But if the market changes and there are valid reasons to change it, um as long as you continue to
not be unreasonable or un overly burdensome, you probably would be okay. Um but that's all speculation. That's crystal ball. >> Um because we don't know what's going to happen to that current criteria that is there. Now
>> where where some of the communities are getting in trouble right now is because they are raising their impact fees whereas you really are not you're changing the categories um and you're just modifying it where it's not unreasonable. So I don't think
you have any SP 180 issues with this current proposal, but down the road we we have to look at that. >> We also have a lot of communities that did a study identified with a 100% impact fee for transportation, parks, wreck, whatever it is, and then they adopt something less. And what you're
hearing a lot is them when they say they're increasing, they're actually going from that 60% to 80 to 100% rate. So it's different than what you're doing. businesses. That's a whole another thing because they didn't want to adopt the 100%. But then now they're trying to adjust to they're not collecting enough because they adopted less than the 100%. They're trying to
increase that percentage they're getting caught under all these other laws. So you're not I don't see you facing any of that situation. I think it's a much cleaner um position that you're in moving forward. >> Very good. >> Can I ask Jason a question? Um so I know we went to the LPA with this and there
was a big discussion there and hopefully a lot of people were able to view it. um online, but have you gotten any feedback from anybody in the development community regarding this? >> No, I think yes, in some respects is can they're asking us to calculate it twice
right now. They want to know the timeline of this. Um and they want to know what their current schedule fee is versus what their um potential adopted fee will be. Um so that may be something you want to consider. I don't Dwayne, maybe you can answer this, but legally
um delaying the collection if you see fit to the new fee schedule since there's a 90-day wait period, uh there's going to be a few uh developments that get caught in between that 90-day and are paying the current fee versus the proposed fee. So that may be something where we want to delay the collection or
charge of their impact fee until the 90-day wait period is up so that they can pay the proposed fee since it's less. >> Okay, that just confused me a little bit. >> Current fee is higher. They're getting ready to pull a building permit, but they know the impact fee is coming in
and for their category lower. >> So they either delay pulling the permit >> or they need >> That's what I thought you said. They need something from you that says we will somehow delay the collection of the impact fee until the 90-day period is over and then we can charge them the new
fee. It's not significant significant money for them or for you, but it's it's a question that we're being asked. >> And Nancy, what can we do? I mean, we'll look at policy before before second reading. Yeah. and you might be able
just to um deal with the scheduling of the collection. So So there is an uh a fee that's going to be assessed and collected. It's just when >> correct. >> Yeah. I I don't want it delay any I don't want somebody sitting on their
hands for 90 days. It just slows down the whole rebuild process. >> Yeah. Look Yeah. Nancy will fill us in I think by next reading. >> Yeah. And I'll sit down with Jason and uh Will and Tracy and we'll talk about who is in that >> Sure.
>> in that range and what kind of and Joe as well as far as the financial impact of it. >> Yeah. Because an example it would be nice to see an example of >> the difference between what it would be with the old and versus what the new one would be if it's adopted. >> Yeah, we're working on that right now with a project, a commercial project
that is getting ready to pull the permit. they're almost done with that part of it and they want to um they're asking they're they don't know whether to move forward or not. I don't I you probably want them to move forward and so >> so they probably don't even know what the final number would be based on >> right because >> so they want to know the number to just
to make a decision >> and at the same time because what's going to happen from administrative standpoint is after that 90-day wait period finance will open new accounts for each of these categories for transportation and for and we'll we'll have two brand new accounts and then
we're trying to spend the money that's in the existing accounts >> and so if we keep collecting and adding to them at the same time it gets harder and harder to spend because you want to get rid of the old money first and then start fresh with new accounts for new money. >> So I guess piggybacking on that, Joe, we're going to have multiple accounts,
but eventually those those other accounts will dry up and we'll be able to close them. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. Yep. >> All right. Great. >> Yep. And then you open new interest bearing accounts for the new revenues that come. >> Okay. Thank you, Karen. Any questions here? >> Yeah. I know there was a lot of
discussion in the LPA about I think everybody was shocked as well as I was when I was watching of why things were going down instead of up giving you know you're >> sure >> I mean common sense would say if you're going to have more building and you're going to rebuild and you're going to do
all this that those fees would go up. Can you give kind of an overarching perspective on that or >> Yeah, I'll try to explain that. I don't think I did a good job before. Um I think Dwayne talked about the percentage, right? So your growth percentage and how much you're growing as a community is related to how much
percentage pays for the project. Uh and I mentioned this to Will before um today earlier today. You could add a billion dollars worth of capital projects to your list that you want to do. It doesn't mean that growth has can pay for all of those, right? So it's got to be a percent share. And what we're doing is
trying to do a better job of tying a project that's needed and growth is requiring it and you're paying for that rather than honestly currently it's let's come up with projects to pay for with capital with impact fees. So the other part to that what you mentioned is
um the growth is it it seems like a lot. There's a lot of commercial redevelopment but percentage wise over over the next 10 years it's not like a huge we're not going from 10,000 people to 50,000 people. It's mostly transient in nature. Our residential growth is typically pretty flat. Um, and
previously there was a negative growth at one point for us. So that's why it's because it's growth percentage related to that. So it's very very limiting now than it used to be of what we can spend the money on. >> And that's and that's basically by by law. >> By law. >> Correct. That's not because we're
changing categories or doing anything like that. That's what the law is telling us. >> Yeah. And you're replacing things. I think you got some grant money to do those. you're replacing infrastructure that is putting back something. We don't want to spend impact fees monies on that. Um and Dwayne, if you want to add to that.
>> Um a couple key words in the Florida impact fee act is that we need to consider it's like two sides of a coin, need for improvements and benefit. And so for instance, on the new ferry access points, that's a whole new thing you don't have now. Well, that's going to benefit everybody in the community. So
you can't just say new development, we want you to build all these ferry systems and new ferry access points and pay for it all because that's more than their fair share. So that's the kind of you have to think about that what do you need and then who's going to benefit and
a lot of the things you're going to do will benefit existing fee payers. So the I think the fairy access is probably one of the easiest ones to see because you don't have that now. So you can't just say new development pay for it all because then it becomes kind of like exclusionary. You're trying to ask
people to pay more than their proportionate share and you know the impact the act saying no no it's got to be pro proportionate and you got to consider not only the need side but who benefits from the improvements. So >> would you say that it's just simple math that there's more people participating
so your your your percentage is is going to be less. way your impacts be is going to be down just a little bit but the overall hole is going to be more yeah I think the methodology by which was done to calculate the impact fee itself for each category is updated so
again we're using today dollars and I think car that was kind of your question we go to do kind of what was the cost of sidewalks and roadways those are all current day dollars that we're using to to calculate the capital project cost and estimate that Um, and moving
forward, what does that inflation look like for costs, right? Because everything goes up. But again, the share of new growth has to be equal to what the new growth is, right? So, you can't say new growth is going to pay 80% of this when our growth is only a few percentage points. >> Gotcha.
>> And I also think there's a lot of chatter between impact fees being charged and public benefit. So, >> correct. If you go to the example of the ferry and like stations whatever so as a
public benefit for example um the arches is putting in their ferry station but that's a public benefit how does that affect the impact fees? Well, it won't. And so I I think from a term don't don't this in no way will restrict your
negotiating ability and analysis of projects, right? Those those are two separate things. >> So at the end of the day, >> Fort Myers Beach is a little bit different, but I've always encouraged communities to let the developer build the infrastructure that they also need, but also benefits the public because it
gets done right away versus and then get the credit. I mean, honestly, if you never collected a dime of impact fees, you're probably okay because you've given somebody credit and something was built and something was done rather than you waiting five years to collect to do a project. So, there's always it all it
in my opinion, it gives you an opportunity for negotiation with timing um and infrastructure. And again, is it a public benefit? Yes. Who's responsible for it? Whose share is it? Can you negotiate that timing with a developer differently than what you would do just sitting back and collecting impact fees?
Okay. Thank you. >> It's a it's a tool to >> So based on that complicated tool. >> So based on that what you I I agree with what you said but based on that who does that negotiation? Is it town staff with the developer? >> Because once the policy decisions are done then in this case just use
infrastructure, >> right? >> If if they're willing to do more than what they were required to do, then staff could administratively then look at that and say that is a a better use of giving credit versus collecting impact fees. Sure. Yeah. I mean, you obviously every approval that changes
the landscape comes to you. Uh you also have your developer agreement process that's a local um and then Nancy, correct me if I'm wrong, but you also have a statutory development agreement process that is infrastructure timing and and who's responsible for what and when. Honestly, Margaritavville probably should have had one of those because they built infrastructure for the town.
I think the town reimbured something that they needed to do and the timing of all that. So, that's kind of what that tool is for. Um and and then impact fees plays into that and you get the credits and we do the math. You built this capacity. Here's your credit at the bottom line. >> Yeah, we can go into all those, but it's
um it's a part of the negotiation. No, it makes sense. Could be benefit for both absolutely >> the town and for the development. >> I mean, if you want if you need something now rather than wait five years, >> the way to get a credit >> the way to get a credit. Yeah. Get give some credits. They're always going to
get credit if they build infrastructure and they can ask for it. Uh the timing of that is between you and the developer. >> Anything else, Karen? >> Nope, I'm good. >> Vice Mayor, >> just want to digress for just a minute to illustrate a couple points. Um I I
can't remember if it was the mayor or the assistant town manager who came up with the aggregate number of how much the town of Fort Myers Beach contributes to the Lee County School District annually. Was that was that your number, Mr. Mayor? Was that Tracy's number? >> I'll let Tracy.
Actually, I send it to the mayor so the mayor can certainly answer. It's >> What is that number? >> I want to say close to 30. >> Yeah, it was 30 million 29.3 millionish. >> Yeah. Right around there over the last 12 months. >> Yep. So, we're we're contri contributing roughly $30 million annually for a beach
school that that that is not open. Uh we're uh we're also refining and collecting on behalf of Lee County School District impact fees as the island rebuilds uh for Lee County School District for a school that does not uh uh currently exist or is open. It
certainly exists. It's not open. And then to add insult to injury, we've got a school district that's making up allegedly seems to be uh making application to FEMA, a federal entity for disaster relief
premised on the suffering and the tragedy here in Fort Myers Beach, getting money and then reallocating that money for other purposes. Uh I just think that's fascinating given the uh environment that we're in, how much this
community not only contributes to the school as a community, but also contributes financially to Lee County School District. Uh this just again as an opportunity to highlight uh the absurdity of that whole discussion. So, I'm hoping on November 5th, the superintendent will come to the
mediation uh with with a with a grasp of that information and an appreciation of that uh of that information and then hopefully work with us to uh rebuild our B school. But that's all that's all I've got. >> Just wanted to clarify a little bit of your synopsis. They did make application
to federal funding and did receive obligation for said funding based on that application. That's the only >> Yeah, I guess the only alleged is is whether it was legal or not, right? >> Still to be determined. >> Yeah, still to be determined. John, >> I'm not going to follow that, but thank
you for doing that. Uh I appreciate your intellectual digs. So, uh no further questions. The only question I had I think I know the answer but is there any scenario God forbid we have to go through
another emergency situation to alter the percentage that can be used of impact fees for emergency purposes only. Is there legislatively anything that we can do to, God forbid, we have to do something again where we have impact fees that are sitting there, whether it
be borrow against that account to be able to to fund something that needed to be done immediately if we didn't have emergency funding to do it. Just curious, just thinking ahead. >> No, >> a lot of sheds heads headshaking. No, I kind of >> Yeah, that's what I figured. the impact
fee act there's some specific reporting requirements and things that Joe has to do and it there's limitations that you have to only spend it on you know the pro project specific kind of reporting that how you spent the money you I would
say no it's very restricted >> yeah all right >> that's all right >> we've tried to give you as much flexibility within the guardrails of what the act tells you have to use it >> sure so >> all right thank you gentlemen >> yep So this is both study and land development code amendment um as part of
this ordinance. >> Okay. Any further discussion or a motion on >> I think we need public >> public comment for the development >> public comment. Any any of you three like to speak on public comment.
>> All right. We'll close public comment. Uh any further discussion or a motion to move uh this to the second reading on November 17th at 9:00 am? >> So moved. >> All right. Got a motion by councelor King. >> Second.
>> Seconded by councelor Safford. Any further discussion? >> Councelor King. >> I. >> Councelor Safford. >> I. >> Councelor Woodson. >> I. >> Vice Mayerville. >> Hi. >> And I'm an ISL. That motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you gentlemen. >> Thank you.
Next is our administrative agenda. The first thing up is What's Up? FMB is seeking an approval for Lanterns of the Island procession illumination parade to be held on November 15th. Don, you want to come up and fill us in exactly what
it is for those that may not know. >> Okay. So, um I did ask them to save the video if we want to show that. It speaks for itself. >> Okay. There you go. So, this is exactly what I would like to copy and and have on our island every
year. >> Will you be wearing the top hat? >> No, I'll have a whale. I'll have a whale. Imagine that. You can see how beautiful it is in this part. They're walking down the beach,
which would be my ultimate goal. Um, but I love the birds that are, you know, they got the legs moving and everything else. Hopefully everybody sees that this is a beautiful thing for our island. [Music]
Almost sounds like our tuba player. >> Yeah, >> I'm ready for Mart. >> Yeah, no kidding. >> We don't have to watch the whole thing. It's like 45 minutes. I think that's sufficient. But >> yeah, >> we get the point. Yeah,
>> I'm already trying to go to sleep after the preceding discussion. But at any rate, so I'm Don Miller. I'm here as president of What's Up FB and our purpose is to um bring our tourism
back to our island and recreate the vibe that we used to have. So, uh somebody brought that parade to my attention and I it I couldn't think of a better way to to bring some vibrancy back to the island. So, in working with um the town,
LCSO, and the fire department, um I'm here today to ask you to approve us to have that parade on November the 15th at dusk. >> Don, where would it start and where would it end? Uh this year it is planning to start at Bayside Park and
it's currently slated to go to the um I can't think of the name of the avenue there, but it's between uh Tuniskin and what was once the Cottage Bar and Chuckers, although in my ultimate perfect world, we'd get down to Diamond Head. So um you know, I'm open to
whatever the town will allow me to do. Um, this year it is going from Bayside Park only because that's what I I've already asked for. Um, but next year I think I'm going to try to go from Pink Shell to Diamond Head. >> Okay. So, you're going to go up Old San
Carlos out by the pier and then down >> right out to the beach and then we'll go south. >> Okay. Any questions for Don Scott? >> Not this time. Karen, >> I just have a clarification um to help you um because there's a lot
of comments about you can't set those off. You can't have, you know, everybody keeps thinking it's a torched parade. It is not a torched parade. It's battery operated lights. You hold on to these things with a stick. You do not release them anywhere. Am I saying anything
wrong, Don? >> Not at all. No, that's exactly it. In fact, if somebody destroyed my whale that I'm having be built, I'd be devastated >> because if you have gone to any of these sessions to do this, it is painful. Absolut. I mean, some people love it. I
am not a DIY gal at all. It is painful. >> Wait a minute. You can't just get these on Amazon. >> Well, you can, but you can get little lanterns and they're not anything like this. And I'm telling you, >> it's painful. As you will see, my painful fish >> in this parade.
You will look at it and think it's painful. >> Yes. >> Chad, you don't need to come up. Just nod your head. You don't have any issues with this environmental side, do you? >> Or or would you like to come up and say something? >> No. >> No. >> Okay. That's all we need to hear.
>> All right. >> Vice Mayor, >> I would first of all say extremely cool. Thank you, Don, and for your team to put this together. Extremely cool idea. Could you just elaborate a little bit as to how people can participate? You I think you're colloqually with Karen
suggested that a lot of folks make these themselves, but to the mayor's point, can you get certain things on Amazon? And then do you sign up to be part of the parade? How do you uh how do how do you get how do how do folks engage in this because it's a really cool idea. >> Thank you, Jim. So, we have had a couple
of workshops. Um, I also took supplies to the Bay Oaks grand opening for the kids to make them there. Um, I'm going to host a few at uh, Station 31 for those that want to participate. And you can buy the supplies on Amazon for a
basic version. Um, we also have artists on the island prepared to make large ones like my whale, much like what you see in that video. Um, obviously this is our first year. We're not going to be a big parade and we're certainly not going to have a lot of the big lanterns, but
uh you know, every year I think it'll grow. >> I don't know. I have to add that Rick Lowry. >> Yes. >> I think he's going to have like four people have to carry his. It's so big. >> Yeah. He has he has a very large I think 10 foot lantern. >> So again, Don, for folks who might be
watching, what are these? What's the actual name of these type of of l are they called lanterns? A parade lanterns? What do you call them? I believe they might be called Chinese lanterns and if you go like to a classic Chinese parade, you'll see them, but our version would be more uh marine animals and and island
life type things. So, also wanted to add that I did I did do a signup sheet. It's free to participate, but it would be nice for us to know who all will be there and what kind of lantern they're bringing so we have an idea of size and length of the parade. >> And who who do they reach out to to
communicate their interest in participating? Uh, so we have a Facebook page called What's Up FMB and on there is where I have the actual sign up link. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Councelor Kane. >> No questions, but I just want to thank you for your passion, your commitment,
and all you do for this island. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, it's a very cool idea. I'd like to and I like the spirit of competition with it, too. Not that there's any competition on the island, right? >> Actually, I will say that uh Rick is already planning his lantern for next year. Uh, of course.
>> Well, there you there you go. No, it's great. Looking forward to it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Don. >> All right. Any further discussion or motion for approval or denial of the I guess is it is it a special exception
or just a permit or just the use? What are we looking at here? The events >> special event permit. >> Just a special event permit, right? Okay. That's what I thought. So I'll move forward to approve the event permit for the illumination parade for what's up FMB. >> All right. Got a motion by councelor
Woodson. >> I'll second. >> Council by sec secretary safford. >> Wow. I I got to have like a a jar up here. >> You know you do. You do. All right. >> Dollar. >> All right. Any further discussion?
Councelor Woodson. >> Hi. >> Councelor Safford. >> Hi. >> Vice Mayor Adho. >> Hi. >> Councelor King. I >> and I'm as well. That motion carries unanimously. >> Next is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach providing direction to the town of Fort Myers Beach Charter Review Commission
regarding the role of alternates to the commission who were appointed by the town council providing for an effective date. And it says to refer to council member Safford for further explanation. >> Nancy, would you like to start by giving the legal
reason we're doing this? Well, um it's really more of a a logistical um in order to keep the um I mean, first of all, let me state but that you don't amend your charter every year. So the any potential amendments to
the charter and the review is is a very serious thing um because it gets to the heart of how the town of Fort Meyer Beach functions as um a local government and your charter required you to appoint
I believe it was five people to serve on that. you had more people interested and so you basically um selected two additional in uh individuals to serve as alternates. They did have their first meeting um and they're very enthusiastic
and rolled up their sleeves and they're ready to get to work on reviewing the charter, but there was some uncertainty as to what the role of the alternates would be. And there was some follow-up discussion um as some options that they
could and in your resolution is where we put um what the options were just to add that well first of all as Nancy said what a great what a great group uh Jim Dunlap's the chair um Brian
Thomas is the co-chair a lot of enthusiasm so when we go through this charter review process after 10 here is some things change. So basically the charter review is is to do big things that will require reprimand that that are permanent. In other words, we they
may decide that you know it's not council at large. There's five districts. It's big stuff like that. But as we're re reviewing the charter, things like this come up that can be taken care of with with a resolution or with an ordinance. So this was one of
the first things we found. there was really no nothing codified of of how we handle >> the alternates. So this is that hope we're going to meet um the second Tuesday of every month up until April and by then hopefully they'll they'll
have ref you know big referendum items but in between the first meeting and in April I'm sure they're going to uncover things that have changed over the last 10 years that don't necessarily need a referendum that could be changed by either an an ordinance or a resolution.
So, this this is the first one. >> And so, the um the resolution that's before you today that we're asking for you to approve um would kind of set some guidelines for how these alternates could function. Again, having the two
additional alternates is not in conflict with your charter. It is not in conflict with your um code of ordinances. Um so so the guidelines would be that the alternate should shall attend all meetings and shall participate as non-
voting members. So they would basically sit at the dis um discuss but when it is time for the vote they would not vote. Um and in the event of an absence of one of the uh appointed members, the
alternate that is in attendance shall become a voting member. Um and then the two alternates, so they their attendance would be required at all meetings, but they would alternate. So in the event that one person was absent, the first
person would be able to vote in theirstead. Um and then the next time if somebody is absent then the other individual would be able to vote in theirstead. And they also would be um subject to compliance with the sunshine
law as well as public records law throughout the duration of their uh appointment as alternates uh to that. >> Yeah. And they they went through this and trying to figure out the best way to to do it. I think this this way is is the most equitable and transparent. I I
think it's it's it's moving forward. It's really going to help them make some good decisions. >> So, basically, this is just saying the two alternates would be there and in the event that someone doesn't show up alphabetically, the first alternate would then become the voting member for that meeting. >> Just for that meeting.
>> Just for that meeting. Yeah. >> But what's really good is is um their input. So that although they they they're not going to vote, they they can, you know, give us give some insight, you know, why why was it like this or hey, what do we want to do going forward? So the conversations were really good
>> and the attendance was a an issue that was discussed somewhat because of the fact that you want that person to know what the charter review committee has already discussed. So if they don't come to the meetings then they may not be as up to speed or understanding of the
debate of the issue. So making sure that they attend um was an important consideration. >> That makes sense to me. It's similar to the model that TDC uses. You have input but you don't have a vote but you're there. >> Any questions? John?
>> None. >> Jim. >> None. >> Okay. All right. Is there a motion to approve resolution 25-300 the charter review commission role of alter alternates as proposed? I'll make a motion to approve as opposed
based on the recommendations from the committee. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Mayor Aller, seconded by councelor Woodson. Any further discussion? I'm an I. Councelor Woodson. >> I. >> Councelor Safford. >> I. Vice Mayor. >> Hi. >> And councelor King. >> Hi. >> Motion carries unanimously.
Next is resolution 25-301. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving a supplemental task authorization number one with Access Infrastructure LLC in an amount not to exceed 280,000 to provide technical support GIS and special project
management for the 2025 2026 fiscal year effective October 1st, 2025, authorizing the town manager to sign the agreement providing for severability and providing for an effective date. >> Will U. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. really nothing more to add to that language.
Just that this is a supplemental task authorization uh to access to provide some more services to us to help us with our permitting, planning, uh comprehensive plan, development, LDC work, etc. Frankie uh can if you have more questions I would defer to the community development director.
>> Okay, Council Safford, any questions for Frankie or Will? >> As always, uh is the money there? Is it budgeted? And >> where's it coming from? >> Yes. So, uh, if if um Joe, if you if you want to add more, but I think yeah, the answer yes, it's there. It's it's
already in our our >> building. >> In our building fund. Yep. >> Okay. Frankie has already coordinated with finance director on that. >> That was my main question and always will be. Thank you. >> All right. Councelor Woodson, >> I have none. >> Vice Mayor.
>> Councelor King. >> Councelor Safford took care of mine. >> Yeah, >> that was I think everybody's question. All right. Uh any further discussion or is there a motion for resolution 25-301 for access infrastructure STA number one
fiscal year 2526 services >> so moved >> motion by councelor Safford >> second >> seconded by councelor king. >> Any further discussion councelor Safford >> I councelor King >> I vice mi >> councelor Woodson I >> and I'm an I as well that motion carries
unanimously. >> Next is resolution 25-302. This is STA number 14 for Coastal Engineering Consultants. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the town manager to execute supplemental task agreement number 14 of
contract RFQ-21-09-EN between the town and Coastal Engineering Consultants, Inc. for additional construction phase services regarding uh re-erveys and shorebird monitors monitoring associated with the Astero Island shoreline protection project and the permit required post construction
winter bird monitoring funding support stakeholder coordination and project administration services for a cost of $161,720 and providing an effective date. Will >> yes uh nothing to add to what was
stated. I'd like Chad Shoots to come on up and uh be prepared to discuss these in more detail as well as the following item E. Okay, >> good morning Chad. >> Chad, >> Chad Shoots, environmental staff for the
town of Fort Myers Beach. Uh so this is the additional uh construction management monitoring uh and re-erveys that were needed for the extension of the beach reourishment project. So, the contractor should be picking up this
bill. It will should meet the definition for actual damages in our contract. Um, I think Miss Nancy is good with that. So, if you have any other questions, please let me know. >> That was a question I had. So, ATNA will be covering these these additional fees. >> Yes, it should come off the retainage
for their last >> uh payup smittle that they will be submitting. >> Okay. Uh, councelor Safford, questions for Chad? >> None. Councelor Woodson, >> I have none. Vice >> May hope none. Sponsor Kane, >> nothing. >> Thank you, Chad. You're >> welcome.
>> All right. There's no further discussion. Is there a motion for approval for resolution or denial for resolution 25-302 STA number 14, Coastal Engineering Consultants. >> So move. >> Motion by councelor King. >> Second. >> Second by councelor Woodson.
>> Any further discussion? Councelor King. >> Hi. >> Councelor Woodson. >> Hi. >> Councelor Safford. >> Hi. >> Uh Vice Mayh. >> Hi. and I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is resolution 25-303. It's ITB-25-02-EN, change order number one for Dune
Planting Project. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the town manager to execute change order number one to contract ITB-25-02-EN between the town of Fort Myers Beach and Earth Balance Cooperation, increasing
the contract price to $95,720 to construct the Dune plant project and providing for an effective date. Chad? >> Yeah. So, this is for additional plings associated with our Dune planting project. Uh this adds about 25,500 plants. In addition to the initial
135,000 plants that were on the contract, we had a few properties including Diamond Head, um Best Western, uh Sterile Beach and Tennis Club, Bermuda Dunes, uh Leonardo Arms, and Island Zen that wanted
additional plantings, additional width, and we're happy to accommodate that. It's going to help stabilize the sand and provide additional habitat for our nesting sea turtles. Um, so, uh, this will be picked up by the FDM grant and,
um, so no cost to the town directly. >> Councelor King, questions. >> Yeah, a couple. Um, I I discussed with town management before the u the need to address the
invasives or the sand spurs. Are we doing something about that or is that up to the individual property owner or >> so? Yes and yes. Um according to the D management plan, it is um up to the property owner. Uh however, town uh staff uh has been out there with the
initial planning to clean up sand spurs. Um in addition to the accesses and the the new plantings where we had some um colonizing growth from uh sand spurs. They're native species. That's what they do. They're going to get in there. It will keep feet off the dunes. If you do want to protect your dune and
not have people walking through there, sand spurs are a great solution for that. But, um, at the property owner request, we did, uh, remove, uh, um, those sand spurs and continue to march down the the dune alignment and get those out of there.
>> And to piggyback on that, since you mentioned folks walking through the dunes, uh, we've got that happening on a regular basis. yesterday. Um, well, actually Saturday, I guess I watched Lee County Sheriff's Office drive their buggy over along the dune. What are we
doing to prevent folks from traversing that? >> So, we have some stakes at uh do you know where they were driving over it? >> Uh, Carlos Point and into Island's End. >> Okay. Um, so we can reach out to them and and educate um them on where it's at
and what we've done. Uh so we're we're putting out some stakes. Um we've concentrated on the downtown area that's the most frequent in areas. I haven't seen uh on my patrols, you know, there's a few spots here and there, but uh by and large um people are finding those
sandy paths and using them. So we can reach out to uh Lee Lee County Sheriff's Office if property owners would like uh some additional staking around their property just to uh delineate where the accesses are. and um call attention to
where people should not walk. We can uh we'll certainly respond to those requests. >> Thank you, >> Vice Mayor. Hold >> Chad. You weren't here earlier when I was praising you. >> I heard you. Thank you. >> For 160,000 plantings, which is what we talked about
earlier, but just doing my simple math here. I have 130,000, which you referenced just a second ago. And then you want to potentially add with this provision 25,000. So that gets us to 155,000. So is there some kind of a controversy, a scandal going on with
these plantings? What how come we're not at 160,000? I'm I'm kind >> I thought we're at 135 and and 25. >> So 135. So that gets us to 160,000. So So the 135 has already been planted. Is that fair? >> Uh correct. Yes, sir. >> And so you're hoping to plant these
25,000 additional plantings. >> Uh correct. >> Yeah, that's spectacular. I thought the 160 were planted, but I'm still excited because that's a I mean, that's a huge number. I mean, how could you just give people an idea? I mean, the warehouses or where these were grown. I mean that not warehouses, but uh
>> Yeah, green houses. >> Green houses. I mean, this was a I assume how many people were involved? Were they literally >> bending over planting one at a time? Are there machines that do this? I mean, this is a this is a pretty big deal. The island ought to celebrate it a little bit.
>> Yeah. I'm not uh I'm not in a position to um give away any trade secrets of uh Earth Balance, but it is quite the operation. Um I was very impressed at the warehouses that whenever we made the visit to uh do a quality assurance on the quality of the plants that were going to be coming towards Fort Myers Beach. Um but saw all the different
stages from the very, you know, right when they're sprouting and very delicate to uh where we got them right before they came over here. Um healthy root systems. Um they actually, you know, the the railroad vines that they had were um you know, it could have been up to six feet long and they actually trimmed
those u before bringing them over here just because of the tanglement and all that. But the roots um the health of the roots is really what we're uh putting that money towards. And um >> but is somebody physically planting each individual planting or is there a machine that does it? >> Again, I'm not in a position to uh
disclose. Yeah, I I don't know the vice mayor. The >> you must have been out there when they were doing it, right? Not the uh not the initial plantings. No, I think >> I witnessed it and it was done by people >> individual planting hand planted. Is that >> I think they they Yeah, they sprinkle a few seeds and they actually send um so the seats that are
>> in some cases they drill down and >> Oh, so we're talking about I I didn't know if you meant in the uh >> No, the 135,000 that have already been planted. Were they planted individually plant by plant >> in the greenhouse? Are we talking about out out here? >> Oh, on the beach. >> Oh, okay. I thought we were talking about on the beach.
>> No, no, no. I don't need I don't need to know in the greenhouse. Yeah. So, out on the beach, it's just a uh >> a augur that they're using. Just a hand augur. It's almost like a uh like a weed eater kind of thing except they have that implement and they're just Yeah. poking it down 160,000 times.
>> Type thing. >> And is the plant then part of the of the of the augur or is it dropping separate drop? >> Yeah. Yeah. They're dropping it in and um moving the sand over with their feet and moving along. >> That's a lot of plants. >> It is. >> Yeah. That's that's I mean that's
tremendous. I mean I think I heard a lot of skepticism from some of our glass half empty folks are always we have a reservoir of constant critics that somehow this sand would all go away because we wouldn't do any plannings. And it seems like this is a massive
uh uh piece of the beach nourishment plan because you had said and I'll just say it again or have you say it again because I think it's important for people to to think about this. But the plantings not only do the obvious thing by being a plant and and helping retain that sand, but they also potentially
when it's windy collect the sand and help help build the dude the dune and then the the plant continues to grow grow higher. So preserving that dune and creating a more of a emergency burm. Do you want to just I just think it's really interesting. Just talk a little bit about that because I think it's a big part of this planting process.
>> Yep. I mean, you said it very well. So they um they're sticking up. The wind's going to slow down while they while it breezes by there and drop out some sand. And as that happens uh minute after minute, day after day, and uh month after month, we get a doom built up. And
um it'll offer elevation for those waves to hit and break before uh instead of breaking on the the infrastructure and up in properties. >> And the and the uh the properties that you referenced that will be supplemented with this provision, they've already been planted, but these will be
additional plantings, >> right? So, um, yeah, this change order is in addition to that 135,000 and we have some more to plant in front of Leonardo Arms, and we are going to be coming back hopefully with another change order for uh some additional uh
seaggra plantings, beach access plantings, and uh uh some canopy trees. >> And that that's obviously because these are these are these areas have been are prone to serious erosion. I mean, it's it's obviously to supplement the areas of the beach that are most vulnerable.
>> Yeah. Erosion. Um, the sea grapes are going to be a bit more woody, so they would act um similar to like what the mangroves do in the back bay. Um, helping that wave action, stabilize the the shoreline to that wave action. So the sea grapes will have those uh uh you
know in addition to the woody stems a little bit more of a uh deeper root system and uh also offer the benefits of shielding light from our parking lots and the uh the um parking areas underneath the condos. >> Would you mind referencing the names of those properties that will receive that
supplemental planning? You I think you went through them. I think they're on your list. So, we have uh Best Western got some uh Diamond Head, uh Leonardo Arms, Astero Beach and Tennis Club, uh Bermuda Dunes,
um Islands End, Newton Park. Um >> I think that's all of them. >> All right, that's great. Thank you very much. Thanks for your efforts. Councelor Woodson, >> I have no questions, but I just think it's a great great job to walk along the beach now compared to what it was. I
mean, it's just heaven. >> Yep. >> So, thank you. >> You're welcome, >> Counc. Yeah. I again, what the beach looked like three years ago, even a year ago, and what it looks like today is >> it's night and day. >> Night and day. Thank you for all all you do. >> Y'all are welcome. And if anybody else
wants to sign their easement, um you know, reach out. We'll get the plantings in and then you'll enjoy the benefits of the dune management plan. >> Should they reach out to you directly? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. What's your email address? >> ch hd at fmbbgov.com.
>> Okay. Do you want to provide your number or no? >> 239-4628127. >> Very good. The only question I have is how fast can people I was at Diamond Head this weekend and saw how they're doing plantings have and I know they were kind of ahead of us, but they're really growing in nicely there and really filling in that dune. How what
can people expect as far as growth over a year to see those plants increase? >> Yeah. So, it'll pause out a little bit as the days get shorter and the the weather climate gets a little drier. Um uh the other thing I've noticed is the ones that are on grade where our
emergency burm got washed out and they're on grade. They are growing a little bit quicker. They're a little bit closer to the water table and maybe have a little bit more sitting water after the rains versus the ones that are up on some of the burms that we were able to rebuild with overwash sand after uh Helen and Milton. Um so those look like
they're, you know, you can just tell there's a little bit more lush down closer to grade than there is up on the burm. But >> um other than those differences, they all seem very healthy and it will take uh you know on the order of years to get healthy dunes back. But uh hopefully we'll be blessed with a few more calmer
uh storm seasons like we had this season and uh they'll get a chance to establish. >> I think what you meant to say is we will we will be blessed with >> Yes, sir. >> accomplish years. >> Yes, sir. >> That's what I thought. I I just I don't always have the greatest hearing, so that's what I thought I heard. >> No worries.
>> Thanks, Chad. >> You're welcome. All right. If there's >> Mr. Mayor, if I if I could just add, Tom Yazo did reach out already to LCSO about uh to answer your question about driving over the dune plantings. They acknowledged uh but also just to emphasize what great partners they are.
There were there were some extra patrols this the past few days here on the on our beach in our area to help us enforce the leash law and the no motorized vehicles on the beach ordinances which we've seen an increase in that with people returning you know to the beach because our beach is so great that uh so
but uh they'll yeah we got the message to them to uh use the sand access points to get on the beach. >> Yeah. And I apologize in no way did I mean to disparrage them. Uh, I think it's just more of an awareness and educational. >> No worries.
>> All right. Thank you. Is there a motion uh to approve or deny resolution 25-303? >> I would move that motion, Mr. Mayor. >> All right. Have a motion by Vice Mayor Adhalt. >> Second. >> Seconded by Councelor King. Any further discussion?
>> Vice Mayor Adhalt. >> Hi. >> Councelor King. >> Hi. >> Councelor Woodson. >> I. >> Councelor Safford. >> Hi. and I'm nigh as well. That motion carries unanimously. Our last administrative agenda item is resolution 25-304 ongoing miscellaneous professional
services RFQ-25-06- A. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving seven individual professional service agreement with the following firms which were negotiated by town staff as directed by town council on August 18th, 2025 in response to
RFQ-24-06- entitled ongoing miscellaneous professional services. Number one, ADG Agar Agriculture LLC architecture, I'm sorry, LLC, Bowman Consulting Group. Three, CW3 engineering. Four, LGA
Engineering. Five, Tetrate Tech. six traffic and mobility consultants and seven Weston and Samson Engineering authorizing the town manager to execute an agreement with each of the top ranked firms for each category of work within the request for qualifications and which were successfully negotiated and
providing for an effective date. Will yes Mr. Mayor, in continuation with the directive from council, we've continued negotiations with the firms for our rolodex of professional services. Um, our contracting team as well as finance team and the appropriate directors have
completed seven more negotiations. We've reached agreements with those and these proposal for those seven. After this, we will have nine remaining of the 32 for consideration. >> Council staffer, any questions for town manager? >> Not this time. Councelor Woodson, >> I do not. Vice
>> May, >> councelor King. >> Nothing. >> I do not have any either. >> All right. Is there a motion for resolution 25-34? Either >> make a brief comment. >> I suppose I guess >> I just wanted to acknowledge staff and thank them for all their help in doing
this. This was a total of 32 contracts that needed to be created, um, negotiated, and then brought back to you for approval. And they did 16. Now they've done seven. So, they only have nine left. So, I just wanted to give them a shout out.
>> Very good. All right. Anyone else? Amy? No. >> Deputy Deputy Town Manager? >> No, sir. >> Okay. Is there a motion for resolution 25-304?
I'll make a motion to approve. >> I'll second. >> I got a motion by Mayor Allers, seconded by Councelor Woodson. Any further discussion? I'm an I. Councelor Woodson. >> I councelor Safford. >> Hi. >> Vice Marvel. >> Hi. >> And councelor King. >> Hi. >> The motion carries unanimously.
>> Next is final public comment. >> We do. We do have somebody. >> Okay. >> Let me hold on. Let me wake my phone up. It is Angelis. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Come on up. >> And Armando Martinez. You going to go
one at a time or you coming up together? >> Yes. >> One at a time or together? >> Together. Together. >> Okay. Got it. >> Good morning. My name is Angelis Martinez. He's my husband, Armando Martinez. I has a question because I try
to explain you. My English is not perfect, you know. But we had the catamaran in the morning ball field. Then usually I pay 400 something every month because I using the ball for long
time. Then now I see in my bill the amount is going up is 500 something. Then I has a question is is some reason for the change because I has too many friend in the ball. Uh I using the ball
I park in the boat all the time. Uh, usually I go to the Key West or Dry Tortuga or whatever. Anyway, I pay the ball but now it's really high for me. Then I am not sure what happened why the
going up. No, it's $20. No, it's $30. It's a hundred something dollar for every month. then I am not sure if you have some reason or I don't know what happened because I think right now for
Mayer beach have the more high rate in all this area because I go for many different place and in right now in for example it's in Key West is 25 then right now when I see the rate in the
west side the last week the last Saturday is 410 And today is 532 something then I am not sure in Naples is really high too you know then because
the people not using the >> yes in Naples many people not using the ball because it's very high the price then many people go for the federal water and it's free you know but I think for me for my boat is better use the
ball you know then I am Not sure what is what happens if you have any >> then is this one now is the price we need move the boat you know because anyway I paid the ball using the ball or not using I pay because I want to keep
the ball for my boat you know then maybe I think maybe the reason is for the maybe you need more money but I think maybe me and some friends in the in the board he say me is This is the price right now. I moved the boat for the next
month. Then is I moved the my boat and many people move the boat. What happened then? Do you know have four four and 500? You lost the money for I don't know you have any reason
money for the insurance more money for the ball for money money. >> Anyway, I pay for the parking my car. I usually not park in my car because >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> We'll have one of the staff members get with you.
>> I'm sorry. >> One of our staff members will be able to Well, can we have someone meet with them to to fill them in as to what the changes were? >> Okay. They will meet with you to discuss. Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Jennifer R.
>> Jennifer. >> Hi. Good morning, Jennifer Rask, resident. I just wanted to I heard Mr. Nesbomb from MURF uh come and speak about uh give the MURF report, which was amazing. Um but I just needed to come in and clarify something with the budget.
The money uh that there was a vote. It was I believe 6 to1 uh to uh uh allocate some of the money from our budget to go towards other things. It wasn't specified that it would be trees. So, there wasn't a vote yet for that. But
after that vote and after the MURF meeting, I did uh speak with one of the contributors who said, "No, I really would like all that money that we gave to go towards the children's books. I reached out to Joe, asked him for a print out to so I could look at those
checks, and the money at the bottom was allocated for those children's books. So, we just wanted to let you all know to be determined. Um, I think MURF needs to have another discussion on that and that's it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Jennifer.
>> Anyone else? That will close public comment. Town manager items. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, a few things to discuss or or inform the council about. So, FEMA final submission. FEMA FEMA CAB final submission was Friday,
October 17th. I'd like to commend uh Dr. Kohler and the rest of the staff for uh for getting us to that point uh very well and very judiciously. They got the a lot of work a a lot of work went into each every one of those submissions and
uh they did meet the suspense. We're waiting for FEMA to provide the final uh response to th those submissions. It's a little slow now uh because there were some impacts of the shutdown on uh the FEMA staffing. Uh so it's a little slow. don't know exactly we don't have a
timeline in that response but what we are moving forward with anyway is putting together our submissions uh for the community rating system um which would be the next logical step in that process and as possibly a good indicator
we were already given uh provided the point of contact for our CRS uh representative in that process to start working with them already from the FEMA region 4 team they they gave us that so that's a good indicator but not receiving the final letter of the CAV visit yet. I'm hedging a little bit on
that, but but it's good. We continue to work with that team and I'll let Tracy please add anything to that if you'd like. >> Um, I think that will set it perfectly. Um, I'd like to thank Tom Yazo and the code compliance staff, Frankie and his
staff for and the flood plane manager for all of their hard work, their notifications, their documentation. And um we had some pretty good discussions with FEMA and on a case-byase basis with
each one of the properties at times and um really just helping them understand our situation and how our flood plane regulations apply to a specific property and we feel like we've moved in a really great positive direction. Again, thank you to the residents who are coming forward and and providing those
documentation pieces that we need such as elevation certificates, updated surveys, etc. that really helps with our documentation with them and we look forward to the final letter and potential clearance. >> Can you just give us an update on the
roughly 100 properties how many we have gotten official word back that have come into compliance? >> Uh we originally had 252 properties on the list and we are close to 80% compliant. Um someone wants to do the numbers. Let's see. that would be 20% of the two a little over 50 properties um
that we are either going through nov through code compliance or we're waiting on litigation um through the circuit court or that we just need guidance for example the the flood panels we're waiting for guidance from the state from FM department of emergency management
>> great work I know you guys work really really hard on this and >> yeah staff did huge >> being involved in a lot of those conversations it is it can be very painful and very frustrating, but you guys did a great job of making the dead. >> We appreciate the um other opportunities for community leaders to talk to our
political >> Yes. >> components to that as well. So, thank you, mayor. >> Absolutely. What else you got, Will? >> Okay, continuing on. Uh this Friday night, Bay Oaks Fright Night uh is coming up this Friday night uh with music, bounce house, candy prizes, uh
costume contest. I look forward to to judging there, I think, along with a couple of council members. Uh so it should be a great event. I invite everybody uh to attend this Friday night. Um also like to highlight uh the community services team for uh coming up
with a I think a really good interim solution for lighting down in uh um Old San Carlos Boulevard. Um I I directed them to to look at a another interim uh maybe an improved interim solution for some solar lights down there to provide some nighttime lighting. And I think the
solution was pretty good. I went down and checked it out this weekend and I heard some feedback from others that are that were appreciative. Um it's not the long-term solution. Uh there's still our team is still working with the county on the CDBG uh project and others uh that'll that'll continue are are ongoing
down there. Um so and then finally uh f well two things. Uh thank you everybody for wearing pink today in some form or another to for awareness breast cancer awareness month. really appreciate uh our continued support for those efforts
and uh received word from the fire district fire district that they are also working on a strategic plan. They sent out or or will be sending out a survey to residents of the beach. Um and uh they asked me to also forward that to our town staff and to all of you if you
haven't already received it. Um so just FYI on that. That's all I have. >> Okay. I'll just uh piggyback on what uh Will offered that uh I was there yesterday when one of the business folks came up to you and and was pleased with with the lighting. Uh so that was that
was great feedback to hear and and nice to know. >> Yeah, I think it's what frankly the third time, second third time we've had to put lights up due to due to infrastructure destruction from storms. So nice to see we get some lights back
there again. Any questions for Will? I have one and I keep pounding on this but the the light at Old San Carlos and Asterero. Do we have any other information on that? Because you can
already see as you come over the bridge and how it's starting to get backed up with the busier we're getting. People are crossing like crazy. They pay no attention and it's becoming it it's going to be an issue. >> Go ahead, Frankie.
Ah, good morning. Frankie Karpachic, director of community development. Uh, we've talked to Mr. Rob Price with the county for uh almost every other week now on a couple other different projects. They have put that out for bid as far as the electrical um portion of
it. It has to be raised for that light. Um, we can check with them on Wednesday to see where they're at and I can report back to you uh when we have our meetings. Um, but currently we don't we know basically what you know. Uh, we've been asking for the last uh I think
almost two years now uh to get a little help uh with that and we were promised such and uh so we'll just have to see where they're at. >> I I'll discuss with J Dave Hner this week as well. >> If if I can piggyback on your question if the chances of that being up and
running by season now is probably slim to none. Could could when we talk with with Mr. Her look at possibility getting the tempor a temp temporary lighting solution as opposed to having to hire crosswalk. I mean they did a great job but it was still very inefficient if it's possible to be able to get some
sort of temporary you know sunb belt or whatever those lights that you could put out there that are temporary to be able to use at least during season to be able to help mitigate that traffic because I think councelor Woodson's right. You're starting to see the backup of of traffic coming up the bridge because of the pedestrian crossings there. There's no
light to or no control there. So, if we could talk to Dave about that, that'd be great. >> We'll do. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Will >> town attorney items? >> So, I have two items. Um, first of all, I do want to acknowledge the hard work
that Tom and his team of code enforcement officers have done being the recipients of the various cases that uh FEMA has asked us to go ahead and and move forward with. um they've done a really hard they had to dig deep. Um as
everybody knows paper doesn't float and uh going to the magistrates making sure that we have our cases tight. Um I do want to go ahead and recognize them publicly for for their hard work because I basically work with them and and review their work as that process goes
forward. Um the second item deals with our meeting that we will be having with the school board on uh November the 5th. Um there are requirements under the statute for advertising. Um and there's
other um issues that have come up. I think at the last meeting there was some discussion about well will the public be able to come and participate? Where are we going to have it? Um, we do have uh we didn't have, let me back up a little
bit. The school board through their attorney has made several requests to us um as far as changing the location. We were not authorized by you to deviate from that and we did have some advertising deadlines that we wanted to
make sure that we adhered to. So, the advertisement has gone out today and the meeting will take place here at um Fort Meyer Beach. The um school board of course is not really pleased with that. Um and uh concerned too with how the
meeting is going to um proceed. um making sure that everybody has the opportunity to discuss and um hopefully making some type of uh resolution and and working out what our conflicts are.
With that said, uh the idea of using a facilitator was raised and um Becky and I both uh encouraged that. We wanted to go ahead and get your approval to do that. Um, an individual who was not opposed to by the school board is Derek
Rooney. Derek Rooney is an attorney with Gray Robinson. Um, he also serves as the city attorney for Bonita Springs, which gives him I feel very comfortable knowing that he understands how local government works. He also understands
how school districts work. Um, so he would be a a great person to be a facilitator for us. There is an issue of costs. Um, I don't think it's going to be significant, but significant is in the eye of the beholder. Of course,
>> I believe Derek used to serve at one point as town attorney here. He did. >> And he currently serves as the attorney for the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization. >> That is correct. and he's also been a mediator for us in a dispute that we had
earlier, well I guess a couple years ago involving a vendor shortly after um Hurricane Ian hit. So I would strongly recommend uh Derek to serve in that capacity and I just wanted to get your approval to do that um simply because we
don't really have any authority to make decisions on your behalf um outside of a public meeting. I know Will has been very involved with Becky working on on these issues. Um the hot but buttons seem to be um you know are we going to
make opening statements? How is that going to work? Because typically in a mediation the parties separate, they go into different rooms, the mediator goes back and forth. This is more of a conflict resolution which is I believe intended to be more of an open
discussion but somebody needs to kind of maintain some uh decorum um because at this point uh it seems that we are pretty polarized. >> I think Derek would be an excellent choice.
So, so a couple things. Uh first of all, uh to Will, Tracy, Nancy, and Becky, uh thank you for standing firm that this be the location. Uh we all up on this deis as well as many parents and concerned
citizens have made the extremely long drive out to Lee County School District headquarters numerous times for long meetings that have at least initially bore fruit but recently over the last year have not borne any fruit. So for
them to come here uh in our brand new town hall I think is excellent and we will welcome them and be gracious to them. I have no problem with a mediator, but I would suggest this, Nancy, as you discuss uh sort of process with the Lee
County School District. And I'll just speak for myself on this. I would like to see the superintendent be able to go first because I can sit here today and honestly say publicly that I really
don't know what her position is about the Fort Myers Beach School. Clearly the lack of activity has indicated uh uh a a a less than favorable response as
far as our we are concerned. But if they have a long-term vision for the school, if they have a plan for the school, uh I think that's a great way to start off the discussion because for whatever reason, having watched all of this
unfold over the last three years, I've not heard the newly elected superintendent definitively opine on what her position is on behalf of the administration. I've heard lots of individual elected schoolboard members, some of whom have
been very gracious. Uh I've yet to hear the superintendent articulate what her vision andor plan is for the for the Fort Myers Beach School. So for her to start off, that might it might uh answer a lot of our questions, may solve
problems, trying to give her again the benefit of the doubt. Uh, I just think that would be helpful for everyone, not just uh the the uh council, certainly for myself, but for the ad hoc committee and the parents and all the rest of the community to hear our elected uh
superintendent just give her vision andor plan or philosophy for the beach school. Then we can kind of work from there because it's difficult to mediate a process where we really don't know what the foundational principles are for one of the parties who's involved in
mediation. We know what our position is. We've been very clear on that. So, if if you could talk to the mediator and or the school district, it might be nice to start that way respectfully. Uh because I can sit here today and tell you that I
aside from sort of an abdication of responsibilities. I I still don't know what this elected superintendent's position is. And so, I think that might be a nice way to start. Give her that opportunity. I'm just my my thoughts. I would support
that. >> Okay, I can definitely take that. That's the type of feedback that we would like uh working with uh Mr. Rooney and also with the the school board's attorney. Um Will, I'll defer to you if you have any more that you want to to add.
>> Sorry, one more one more quick thing. I' I'd like to facilitate a a process where at some point the public, particularly the ad hoc committee, the parents of the school children and the members of the ad hoc committee have an opportunity at some point in the process to to articulate their thoughts and concerns.
In in a perfect world, it'd be great for the public to have that opportunity as well. But if we're limited on time or pro process, at a minimum have those ad hoc committee parents have an opportunity to chime in as well. >> That was actually one of my questions. Is this open to the public and if so
what time does it begin and how does this >> it is a public meeting. Um so yes it is open to the public and um we do believe that they have the opportunity to comment. Um how many members of the public are going to come I don't know.
Um we do have to maintain order and and the decorum of the meeting. Um which is why again having the facilitator there um will assist in that regard. Um you know the school board they have um as far as public comment the mayor you know
this how they have a tiered process depending on how many public comment requests are made that determines the duration of time that each individual gets to speak. Um so those are I don't think at this point we can really make a
decision regarding that or or I can take feedback from you. Um you know how how would you propose managing that because at the end of the day it's probably going to be uh you know you may want one thing the school board may want another.
Again that's why we have the facilitator there to try to come up with some type of reasonable uh process. I just to clarify Councelor Woodson's point, it is just for folks who might be listening, it is 1:00 uh p.m. on
Wednesday, November 5th here at the town hall meeting. Again, as to your point, it's open to the public. Not sure exactly what public comment will look like yet, but certainly open to the public. >> I guess I would be a proponent of of keeping the structure that we have during our normal meetings. Uh I
understand how they do it. I certainly don't expect us to get nearly the people that they see at their meetings like we saw at the last meeting that through their policies and procedures allow them to decrease the amount of time to speak. Um, I do have spoken to several ad hoc
committee members that would like to come and and say some comments, and I think they've earned the right to be able to to say their comments um in their in their own hometown, if you will, um, and not be not be their time should not be any shorter than what they're allowed to speak here.
>> That that would be my preference. >> That's that's good feedback for me to take forward. >> I I don't have anything to add to what Nancy said. I agree. >> The the cost I think will you just said first they said that we would split it but now apparently that's changed. Is
that correct? >> No. Their their most recent uh response indicates that they would cover the cost if we do it at a different location for the for the um mediator or for Mr.
Rooney. Um if that's was agreed upon by them. I I I if I don't agree with that and Mr. Mayor Council, my recommendation would be it it's within the amount you authorize me to. So, then I would be willing to cover that cost to have it here if that's something that they want.
>> Well, I I think out of uh to use some of their terms, out of fiscal responsibility, I think it would make the most sense at minimum for both sides to split it. Yes. >> Understood. >> I agree. >> Then we'll add that to our >> negotiations.
and that that they'll pay is, you know, location of their choice. No, it's going to be here. We've decided that and split. Um Okay. And if they say no, uh Eric Eric Derek doesn't uh doesn't work um
for free. I mean, we do have to pay him at some point. >> It would be my suggestion uh if if they say no to splitting the costs. Apparently the 29 million and change is not enough each year. Uh I would say that uh I I would trust uh this
mediation session to be led by our council and their council and then you all determine the process uh amongst the the two councils and we would not have a mediator then at that point if they would not split the cost. I think we have excellent uh counsel and I think they've got a very professional counsel
that we could work through a process uh internally that could facilitate a good dialogue. >> Yeah, I I I support that that direction. I I think it would makes the most sense. Uh both parties are in the interlocal agreement. Both parties should bear the
cost to uh to see it through. My my only concern is that the cost that we're talking about is basically um perhaps what four hours to eight hours of whatever his hourly rate is and to be
able to not go forward. >> No, no, we would go forward. I think that I think what we're trying to at least what I'm trying to say and it sounds like the mayor agrees and not I'll be interested in my other colleagues uh view is that we would we would use Derek's services if we split the costs and if we have to incur the
cost then we would just allow each our council and their council to facilitate the process and I I don't think it's the money at this point. I think it's the principle involved uh for the town to have to incur the cost of the mediator for a a process that we're not even we
would rather not even be going through uh and because they've been negligent uh in and with respect to their their their their obligations. I think it's more of a matter of principle. You're right. And in the big picture, it's not a significant cost, but as a matter of principle, um I think I think it would
be hard for me to to to support paying for that out of I mean, again, it's okay to split the cost, but >> So, what I'm hearing is that we are okay and and maybe a formal motion um by the town council to work with Derek um and
then on the fifth discuss the payment. >> You know, I I here's here's the motion I'll make, Madam Town. would move that the town council approve uh the location of the Fort Myers Beach Town Hall on November 5th at 1:00. We would also approve uh the use of a mediator if it
can be agreed on beforehand that both sides would split the costs. If both if if if one side or the other refuses to split the cost, then we would just allow each uh each uh party's town council or and their Lee County Lee County School
District council to then become the facilitators at the at the meeting on the 5th of of November and then we would proceed accordingly. >> Second. >> We got a motion by Mayor Vice Mayor Adhalt and seconded by Councelor King. I think we should add in there legal
counsel as opposed to just town council. >> That's fine. >> I would I would make the motion as amended. >> Councelor King. >> Second. >> All right. Got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Uh, Vice Mayor >> I. Councelor King.
>> Well, I will just say that um the onus should be on them. I mean, they're the reason we're in this situation as it is. So um yeah I I just find it uh very sad and pathetic actually. I will vote I >> councelor Safford >> I. >> Councelor Woodson
>> I >> I agree. I think in this spirit of of continuing to stay open-minded and conversational. I will be an I as well. >> Okay. >> What else you have Nancy? >> Thank you. Well that's enough. Two two
items today. So that's good. >> Okay. Uh, just as a reminder, there will be not be a shade meeting at 3:00 as was originally planned. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. Council member items and report. Councelor Safford.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Following up on the charter review committee, um, they had a question and and potentially next month a request. They wanted to know if there was any funds available um for the charter review. Um they're they
were they've talked about perhaps doing a survey um islandwide. They've also talked about maybe doing a partnership from one of the local universities with with their government classes uh to get some young input, young eyes, maybe a
professor or two to to give some input. I I know a number of towns have done this. They they've done a partnership with local colleges. So the question I guess my first question to Joe is there is there a budget available or monies
available for the charter review Joe Finance Director there isn't anything specifically available but with your approval we can certainly take some whatever portion you're speaking of from the contingency account. That would be
really the only source. >> Okay. >> I will I'll bring that back to the committee and and uh there we're going to try to get some exact costs so we we know what we're we're looking at. So if >> very good >> if my colleagues here agree I can take
that back to to the charter review committee and say hey if we're going to do this there potentially could be but I want to know what the exact cost is going to be. >> Yeah please because you know there are different avenues for surveys uh that are are free uh and I would hate to
think there would be a cost associated with a university but I don't know. So, but please >> So, we we all a not let me rephrase that pronoun. They all agreed that we're not going to pay a consultant. We're not going to go out and find the I hate the
word consultant, but this would just be a survey, but somebody would have to, you know, take the information and put it together. Um >> I I'd also like to see when they say survey, we've seen a lot of surveys that have been done that just haven't reached anyone. So what kind of plan they
foresee to be able to reach the most amount of residents to be able to fill out that survey because so far most surveys have you've gotten less than 100 people that have filled out a survey. So I >> I think they they they had spoken about that too. They want to make it as farreaching and as pinpoint as as
possible. >> Very good. I'd like to see what their plan is to be able to achieve that if they >> Okay, that's all I have. So I'll take that back to to the review committee in two weeks. Okay. >> Thank you. Councelor Woodson. >> Um, just a couple quick things. So,
Fright Night on Friday night, I get to be a judge again. I'm so excited. I was asked. Um, I've done this in the past and it's really, really fun with these kids. >> Um, so bring on those costumes, guys. This will be great. Um, the other thing
I just want to comment on is Don Miller and her tireless work that she has done to get people back into our community to literally participate, spend money, uh,
get the word out. I mean, she was instrumental in creating this 501c3 what's up FMB. Um, every time you go to one of those meetings, I mean, there's probably 30 plus people and businesses
there representing and doing things. Um, she is probably, you know, she's a good friend of mine. I will say that, but she's probably one of the most creative people that I've ever seen and the ideas that she comes up with and the hard work. So, I just say we are so lucky to
have Don and Mike in this community. Very good. Anything else? >> Nope. That's it. >> Vice Mayor. >> Uh, beautifully said, Karen, I have nothing additional to add. >> Council King, >> just a couple items. Uh, I chaired the
Lee County MO on Friday. Uh the Lee Tran uh representative had an update uh that I already shared with town staff, but I'd like to let you and the public know that uh the FDOT SR865 project on Fort Myers Beach related to two bus stop
pulloffs continues to progress. The traffic signal of Fifth Street is now activated. The yield to bus signage has been installed and buses are no longer on detour. Delivery of new shelters for the two stops to be located in front of Margaritavville and Crescent Beach Park
is expected by the end of the month with installation to follow. Uh they will also be opening the new bus pulloff at Main Street and St. Carlos Boulevard by the end of October. Uh also today begins uh as a member of the board of directors
of the Florida League of Cities, today begins Florida City week. Um, I'll try to get more information to uh our PIO to disseminate to the public, but it's a time for me municipalities to foster civics, education, collaboration, volunteerism, and more. So, that's all I
have. Thank you. >> All right. Thanks, John. Just a couple of things. Um, if you didn't get in, you know, FPL sends us stuff all the time, either via phone or via email. If you missed it, I did get a a call at the end of last week. I'm sorry. I don't remember the exact dates. I didn't have
a pen to write it down, but they let us know that there's going to be drones flying overhead looking at the lighting situation on the island. So, if you see some drones flying over, that's more than likely what it is. I just wanted to make people aware that you don't have to freak out and call the town. That's probably FPL doing their their surveys
from above because last time a drone was flying around, I got a call from my wife and it was the end of the world as we know it. There's a there's a drone flying down our street. So, I just want to make sure everybody was aware that it you're probably going to see some drones over the next week or two. Um, the other
thing is a lighting update. Usually on a call every Friday with FPL about the update on Astero Boulevard. Uh, as you see, there's more poles, more lights going up. The county is currently working on doing the crosswalk. So, that's why you're seeing some sections where there's poles and lights on it.
Some sections there not. So, they're working concurrently with the county or with the FPL who is doing the work for us. Uh they're scheduled tenatively the first week. Thank you to Representative Botana for his help uh in in getting FPL or getting um FWC to the table. They
want to do a final review before they sign off on illuminating or lighting energizing the lights, making sure the shields in the right place, things like that. So the first week of November, if I remember hearing correctly, they're going to they're going to be down here hopefully to be able to sign off on some of that. So some of the south end segments that you see the poles and the
lights on hopefully at the beginning of November you should start to see those energized. I know Jeff's been working with FPL closely to get our um load center areas identified and contract set up to be able to get those done. So as of now they're still on track as far as they tell us the end of November to to
finish the project. Uh they're working currently on the north boulevard boring. So, if you see them up there, they're going to be doing some work uh very soon in the by speaking of old San Carlos and Fifth, they're going to be doing that area. So, you're going to start to see some some uh light stansions going up in
there, but we're getting closer. It's been a long time. A lot of us have been working on this for six, seven years. So, we're getting closer. Thank you, Will, for the update I was going to give that, but you already did on the uh old San Carlos Boulevard. There's some lights down there now. And then the last thing I have is this Wednesday from 6:00
to 8, speaking of the school district, um Mangaritas, if you know, Mangoras was on the island before the storm um down in Time Square and are now set up off of 41 in a Fort Myers Astero from 6:00 to 8 this Wednesday. They will have a panel there with Superintendent Carlin, uh
member Fleming, and uh Lee County Sheriff's Office for uh Lee County Sheriff's uh Carmine Marcino will be there. Uh I encourage anyone that would like to share your thoughts with the two board me with the the superintendent and the member to to be respectful. Um but
do show up and ask your questions, they will be there. Uh I don't know if it'll be an open question answer forum. Um but certainly if you have some questions, you have some thoughts or u you know share your passion but be respectful. Uh be a good person. Don't don't go there
screaming just but uh but I plan on being there to to to share my thoughts obviously with with the with the superintendent and uh looking forward to those discussions on November 5th. >> With that >> Yes. >> I just want to remind everyone this Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. we're going to
have the all committee sunshine training recording here in chambers 9 a.m. should only last an hourish >> and that is for all committee members. All committee members um we will broadcast it also. >> Okay,
very good. If there's nothing else, >> uh any more words sung by Sly and the Family Stone, I want to thank you for letting me be myself again and I'll move to adjourn. >> All right, we are Any objections? We are adjourned at 11:45.