Try it again. Are we back up and running? All right. Anybody want to double check before we hear from Mr. Brady? I want to make sure everybody hears the public comment. Jason, you have Yeah, we're good.
You're good. Okay, go ahead, Tom. Can you pull the mic down just closer to your mouth, Tom? Thanks. Who am I supposed to listen to? You or my spouse? Oh, you know I'm not getting in the middle of that one, sir. I'm telling you. Okay. Um,
I was a little dis disappointed to see the town's echo response to the Seagate uh response to our pit our rid of Cerseiari. Um, I expected Seagate push back. No, no surprise. And there's a legal response coming, but there's this is just a little off of that. But for the sound the town to sign up to every
argument was a little bit strange to me. And I wonder did you did anybody even review that document and look at it prior to it coming back out other than the legal staff and they're just saying, "Yeah, we're going to doever whatever gate says and we're on with all of it. Um, we gave opposing council courtesy of
another week. We thought we'd get a better response and frankly I'd hope that the town would have done a mulligan and not a me too with Seagate. Um, I've spoken publicly before about the flawed math in the view corridor. This is a couple things that they said in there.
There are many other things that I disagree with with Seagate's response, but um, the misuse of the term view corridor. Um the plan defines view corridor as a permanent view to the Gulf or bay waters. The Seagate and now the town by the fact saying town agrees with
everything Seagate says claim a view from the back of Seagate's lot. I can't wait to take the judge out to Seagate's lot and have him look and see if he can see through a quarter miles of trees in the Tanzas Pass previewer preserve into the waters of the Gulf. Unless you have
superhuman Xray eyes, not possible. Worse, they include an elevated pool deck in their calculations that covered with umbrellas and people walking back and forth. Go down to Margaravville across the street. I did yesterday, took pictures, you might get one glimpse of
the water from the other side of Asterero Bay. Elevate their sorry Aella Eststera Avenue. Elevate their pool three feet. You will see nothing of the Gulf waters. There is no golf view there. Their calculations are blatantly
wrong. So, um, and they introduced a new concept that I've guessed you bought off too. I don't know where it came up. Somehow they now state in their proposal that one foot of view quarter equals one foot of height. It's in there. So, they think there's an equivalency factor there. Never heard that come out in
anything in the town. Finally, I want to take issue with the with your latching on to the dismissal of all the residents comments. They threw out all of them. Now, that is a judicial tactics. you don't have standing blah blah blah. The the lawyers get it, but I don't get the town jumping on that. Your case would
have been solid in my opinion without taking these actions and the optics of saying, "Oh, if you're a resident and you don't come with a lawyer in your back pocket, they dismissed all of Mike Dy's comments because they weren't in legal ease. Mike Dy doesn't speak in legal ease." And he did. We did not
bring lawyers because we were not organized before the Seagate thing. So, every comment was not legal. So that was my concern. My concern is that you jumped on that and um and we hope that a lawyer sorry we hope that a judge will
see through this uh legal gymnastics and recognize what's really going on here and thanks for giving the time to comment. Thanks Tom. That's all I have signed up. Anyone else like to speak of public comment? All right, seeing none, we'll close public comment. That brings us to local
achievements and recognitions. Councelor King, we'll start with you. Um, I'll take a minute just to be selfish and say thank you to everybody that uh expressed concerns about my recent hip surgery. It'll be three weeks ago tomorrow. So, thank you. Um, thank
you for my wife who puts up with this burden. Um, I'm reminded of a Delbert McClinton song. Um, keep sending me angels. And, uh, then I'll welcome a new employee apparently, uh, Joe onesie. Joe
onesie, twoozy, threes. Um I'm not sure what his name is, but welcome aboard. I hope uh hope you do as well as the last guy that had the job. Um I guess um apparently uh travel time and sleeping are overrated. So welcome
aboard, Joe. Vice Mayor, welcome back, Joe. Nothing additional council Woodson. So, we had our first mullet madness extravaganza this past weekend. I don't know how many of you were out there throwing those
slimy things, but I was um I was zero for 21, I think, something like that. Anyway, it was a fun event. Hats off to Don Miller, Mike Miller of their team. They were the instigators of all this, and I think there's more fun
to be had. And officially, welcome back, Joe. Staffford. Yes, Joe. Welcome back. There you are. Um, let let I know we've been off for a month, so let me go back to the 4th of July. I I I think it was a great day. It
was probably a good decision to um not do the parade. Uh the beach bar opening was fantastic. Congratulations to the Boyds and the crew down at the beach bar. It was a fantastic event and uh it's great to have them back. Uh, and I
want to also thank Seagate for the for the donation for the fireworks. It was a it was an impressive show. Very good. Well, now mine have all been covered. So, I won't reiterate everything that everybody said, but uh except for welcome back, Joe. All right. Next is advisory committee
items and report. Maybe we have anyone. Anyone here from a committee? I don't see anyone. All right. Next is the approval of the minutes. We have the town council meeting from June 16th, 2025. the joint town council session with the LPA on June 26th and then management planning session from June 5th. Is there a motion
to approve the minutes from those three meetings? So move. Got a motion by councelor King. Second. Second by councelor Safford. Any further discussions? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Next is the consent
agenda. We have four items on that all pertaining to the state of emergencies for the four lovely storms we've dealt with over the last few years. Uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move second. Motion by councelor King, seconded by councelor Safford. Any further
discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Next we do not have anything that was removed from the consent agenda which brings us to our public hearings. The next three items on our agenda are public hearings for
review of various land use requests for the benefit of the public. Please please be aware that these items are quasi judicial in nature. Our attorney will further explain. Thank you, mayor. So today you have one resoning on your agenda as well as one special exception and one variance. And
as the mayor mentioned, these are quasi judicial in nature. And that requires that today's public hearing comply with procedural requirements that have been established in Florida law and in our land development code. So these quasi judicial proceedings, they will be less
formal than a proceeding before circuit court, but they will be a little bit more formal than the remainder of our meeting. And we must follow basic standards of due process that requires certain notices, the application of the correct standards and decisions to be
made on competent substantial evidence that is presented to the town council either in written documents or through oral testimony. It is your job as the town council to evaluate this testimony and information for each of these quasi judicial items and draw a conclusion
regarding whether the criteria that is in the land development code or state laws may be applicable has been satisfied. So pure speculation or just an opinion that is not based on competent facts cannot legally be considered by you in
evaluating an agenda item. Testimony by professionals who have been qualified as experts in a particular area such as land use is considered competent evidence by Florida courts as well as testimony by neighbors and residents who
have factbased information such as minutes, surveys, engineering reports, or their testimony that is based on their personal information. The town's decision is final. If a decision of approval is not obtained or if a tie vote results from the motion to approve
or a motion to deny, then the matter being considered is denied unless a majority of the council members present in voting agree by motion before the next agenda item is called to take some other action in lie of the denial. Uh
such other action may be moved or seconded by any member regardless of his or her vote. Denial of an application or a request is a denial with prejudice unless the council states otherwise.
Um, if uh you intend to speak as a member of the public, please keep my comments in mind. When you come forward, please state your name clearly for the record, whether or not you've been sworn in, and your qualifications or your interest in the matter before town
council. So, for purposes of efficiency, before we begin our public hearings, I'd like to go ahead and uh take care of a few housekeeping items. First of all, I'd like to ask the town clerk whether all our agenda items today have been properly advertised or noticed uh
pursuant to our land development code. Yes, they have been. Thank you. And also council, if at this time any of you have a conflict of interest that would prohibit you from voting on any of these three items, please disclose that at this time so
that we can ascertain that we have a quorum present for review of the matter. Councelor Safford, I do not. Councelor Woodson, I do not. Vice Mayor, none. Councelor King, none. And I have none as well. Thank you. So, at this time, we're going to go ahead and ask if there is anyone
present, including the applicant, property owner, staff, who intends to provide testimony to any of the three quasi judicial hearings. If you would please stand, raise your right hand, and be sworn in by the town clerk. That'll include public comment.
Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay. All parties have been sworn. Hey, mayor. Okay. The first quasi judicial item is a first reading and public hearing on proposed ordinance 25-14, Fishtail
Marina. If if approved at first reading, a second reading and final adoption hearing will be scheduled for September 11th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. or at another time identified by town council. This is an ordinance of the town council of Fort Town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving approving with conditions or
denying an amendment and restatement of Lee County resolution Z-94-013 that reszone property to commercial plan development to allow for a revision to the master concept planned and one additional deviation for setbacks for the redevelopment of a commercial marina
for property located at 7225, 7291, and 7295 Astero Boulevard generally identified to strap numbers 03-47-24-W1-000011.000010 03-47-24-W1-000011.000020 and 03-47-25-W1-000011.003B in Fort Myers Beach. Restating
previously approved conditions and deviations. providing for other clarifications as necessary, providing for conflicts of law, scrier's errors, severability, and providing for an effective date. If any town council member has had any exparte communication to disclose, please let us know the
subject discussed in the identity of the person, group, or entity with whom the communication took place, any correspondence that you received or observations made of the site. Mayor, before you do that, um down at this end, uh we heard you read that last uh strap
number as um 03 04 uh 47-25. I believe it's 24. Okay, I will. Is that correct? I will restate that last number. It is 03-47-24-W1-000011.003B. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Councelor Sappford.
Um, I have not received any emails, nor have I had any meetings, but I'm very familiar with the property. Council Woodson, exactly the same. Vice Mayor, I went out there last week and um went to their office and uh talked to I
believe the woman's name was Sue, who's the director or co-director of of the of the office, and took a look around a little bit and just just basically gleaned general information. Okay. Councelor King, I have nothing. I have nothing as well. Uh Jason
Smallley has been qualified as an expert already by this town small this town council based on his education and experience and has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Myers Beach. Are there are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf
of the applicant at this time? Come on up, sir. Good morning. My name is Brock Petra. I am a civil engineer uh working on behalf of Loggerhead Marina. Morning, Brock. Any questions for Brock?
His qualifications. Could you just state this? I have a civil engineering degree from Michigan Tech University. Um and I have an EIT license from the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Bro, can you spell your last name for the record? P E T R A K. Thank you.
I was so close, Brock. One extra letter. I work at Edgewater Group. We are the engineering, architecture, and planning firm uh that's managing the property for Loggerhead. Okay, mayor. I'll move to accept him as a witness or expert. Okay, got a motion by Councelor King.
Second. Seconded by Councelor Woodson. Any further discussion? Uh do you want a roll call for it? Doesn't matter. Yeah, a roll call's fine. Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Woodson. I. Councelor Safford. Hi, Vice Mayor Adholi. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously. Congratulations.
You're an expert. Thank you. All right. Has the property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff? Okay, proceed. Good morning, Jason. Good morning. Good morning, town council. Morning, staff. Morning,
everybody online watching. My name is Jason Smolley. I'm a senior planner with your planning and zoning department. here today to present uh the Fishtail Marina. Uh this is a request for an amendment of an existing CPD. Um if
you'll indulge me just briefly, uh I'd like to go through just a brief history on this for anybody that hasn't uh seen this project yet. Uh sort of establish where we are in time here and and what they're proposing to do that is uh out that is different than what they have
been previously approved for. Uh so again briefly uh Fishtail Marina this uh was initially uh granted a CPD from the county in 1988 later amended uh through in 1994.
The bulk of the um conditions of approval and deviations that you see in this document have been have come through these previous agreements. In fact, uh the point of the CPD amendment today is really to just sort of clean up
some things. Uh bring it into today's standards, but to also ask for one deviation that was not included in there, which relates to an existing restaurant and an existing outdoor deck that has been enclosed. uh staff at this
time is unsure how the uh the deck was set at a at effectively a zero setback, but it has existed. Uh we are not aware of a mass of complaints from the community. So, they are requesting and and staff is recommending approval with the conditions listed for that
additional deviation to ensure that the restaurant and the existing deck can stay where they are, which is a zero setback from their least boat basin. Um I wanted to differentiate the basin from the rest of the adjacent water area
which is controlled by um the state of Florida and those setbacks will continue to be the 20 foot that would that were required under the previous code amendment or the uh previous CPD. So effectively what they're asking for in this single dev additional deviation is
just to allow the existing restaurant deck to continue its use in its current position without um having to change any of the structural um setup of it how it how it is cor uh currently. Uh also in this request they are asking for some
minor changes to the um footprint and layout of the buildings. uh staff has done a deep dive in the previous approved um CPDs. The uh total square footages for the site are going to stay under the existing one that the existing
CPD limits that have been in effect through the 1988 and the 1994 amendment to their CPD. So they are not asking for additional height intensity. Um in fact they are requesting that they uh increase their parking by about 10
parking spaces and reduce their dry dock uh storage to accommodate fewer but larger boats. So the intensity in staff's opinion is staying the same and you could argue that it has uh the intensity has lessened a bit. Um also
here today as I mentioned there were some changes that uh wanted that we wanted to get into the master concept plan. largely it was the out parcel that uh in the last amendment to there they just sort of threw a large box and said here's 20,000 ft available for retail.
So those uh those buildings are now going to have actual footprints. They will be actually laid out on the master concept plan in that out parcel and that out parcel I'm speaking of is generally considered to be the uh the Walker boat area where they do sales and service.
Those uses will continue on that site. Uh new buildings will be brought into compiance with today's uh lighting and flood codes. On top of that, some minor changes to the area of the boat barns or the dry storage. Uh they're reorienting one of
the buildings just to make the um the area between the buildings easier to bring vess larger vessels in and out. Uh they are also proposing to um develop a ADA compliant uh restroom and
um boat club rental office. So, this was this was originally envisioned in the master concept plans uh from 94. They're putting it into effect today. They will bring that into code compliance uh with lighting, flood, and ADA. Um there's a
lot there's a lot of small things going on here. The I think the overarching thing from staff's uh review of this has been that they are keeping everything they had previously said they were going to do. and the changes are relatively dimminimous. I did want to point out one
one thing that uh I saw in the in the staff report this morning. Uh our line through of the term phase two apparently got dropped out of this version. Uh I will be bringing back on the second reading if if you uh approve this to
come back. I'll be bringing back a new uh lined out version with four references to phase two. Phase two is being dropped out. It's no longer relevant. It extends from the 1994 approved CPD. Phase two projects have already been completed and this is just
a way to ensure the future staff isn't confused about whether phase 2 is completed or was ever started. I know we've been over a lot of ground here in a short amount of time. Are there any questions or concerns that uh that you have for staff the applicant and is here with a presentation?
Councelor King, nothing currently. Vice Mayor, not at this time. Not at this time. Not at this time. I don't have any at this time either. Thanks, Jason Rock. Thank you. As Jason said, we've got a real short
presentation uh just to show you guys what this modification is that he just described. Also with me today is Augustina, an architect that helped with some of the images you'll see, and Ron Schultz, who's our CEO and principal. Next slide, please. Yeah. So, we're going to go over the existing
conditions, why we're here, amending this MCP, uh what our master plan is moving forward, uh the improvements that are inside of that master plan, and then I I will summarize all of the project elements at the end. Hey Brock, if I could just a couple if you could sort of
set the table before we get into the granular details here. You want to talk about the ownership of the marina? Is the the marina is still called Loggerheads Fishtail Marine. Is that correct? Yes. So Loggerhead Marina is a group of marinas that is owned by Equity
Lifestyle Properties. ELS um is a large real estate fund out of Chicago. They own and operate RV parks, marinas, mobile home centers. Um, they are they are an owner. They are a large real
estate company that owns they do not really sell. They buy, develop, and then manage uh rental properties. And then just for people who are watching, uh, they own the property and then they lease it to walkers. Is that correct?
ELS owns the entire Fishtail Marina. They manage and operate, call it 80% and lease that outward parcel to Walker so that they can do boat service and sales only out there by the road. ELS also has an agreement with
Freedom Boat Club who's on the property now to have some slips available for boat rentals. I just think it's helpful because some people see that walker sign and they get a little confused between obviously the marine is more for storage and selling potentially down the road
fuel and bait and other items and and the walkers is for buying boats and getting your boat serviced. Is that fair? Correct. Walker is a separate business within Fishtail Marina. It's it's all good. It just it sometimes gets a little mysterious for people who live in the area. And I if you drive by
like we just did, there are probably four or five signs on all the different buildings that could be confusing. And that signage, is that part of your plan to try to help? Yeah, you'll see in one of the uh images coming up, we've got uh we want to get a loggerhead logo kind of on the dry
stacks that shows this marina and the storage component. This is this is the loggerhead business and Walker can have their signage out by the road as well. Very good. Thank you. Excuse me if I may. Yes, please. get up to the mic if you were there. I'm sorry. Just if I may. Uh, also
Pinchers is a tenant. Yes. So, ELS is a landlord. They operate the wet slips. They operate the dry slips. They operate the marina. They lease out to pinchers. They lease out to Walker. Ron, since you're here, that's actually very helpful because I had a number of questions on that front as well. So, so
the pinchers, I've talked to the Failen family and they're they're very interested in coming back as a pinchers and I was told by them that their their their timing is contingent upon some of the work that you're going to present here today. And based upon what you know today, what do you what would you expect
the timing to be for pinchers to come back? Originally, when I talked to maybe six, eight months ago, they were going to be able to come back for this coming season. That may be a little uh ambitious, do you think? What do you think? I think this coming season's a little ambitious. Uh, one of the variances uh
was mentioned earlier is the setback of their existing restaurant to have that approved. As soon as these approvals are completed, which is uh the other question was you mentioned a September 2nd reading and we thought it was 11th. September 11th.
Yeah, we thought it was uh August uh 18th for the second one. We'll get clarification for you. Okay. Um and and I think at that point we're going into final drawings and bid out the work and get construction started. So uh both for pinchers and for
all this other work out here. So I think it'll be active in construction. It depends how quick contractors can get to the work. Yeah, we we certainly wish you nothing but the best because that's that's a that's an institution and a and a much needed one particularly with the restaurant shortage on the south end of the island. So anything we could do to
help get pinchers back as quickly as possible is much appreciated. Yeah, he was at the planning commission meeting and he's anxious to go. We've had several meetings on site. It's it's all teed up, ready to go. We just need to get through the approvals. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Just while you're here, as you know, there was some retail
space, office retail space right next to the to the pinchers there or the fishtail restaurant that was torn down. Do you have particular plans for that space? Is it are you what are you going to put there? Maybe that'll be in the presentation, but I just wanted to make sure. Yeah, I think Brock will show in the presentation, but that's going to
expand some parking right there because the office has moved back to the to the back of the site. So, that that won't be rebuilt in any kind of structures. That'll be just additional parking. Open space and parking. Correct. Okay. Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you. I I have one question for you. Um at one
time there was rumored that it was going to be a deep lagoon instead of Pinchers, but that's totally off the table. Uh Pinchers is under contract. Pinchers. Okay. All right. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Nancy, can you um
address the notice issue? Um I'm gonna defer to Amy because we were just looking at the calendar. Right. Um usually the the the deadline to get the ad in to be compliant with the statutes is tomorrow. Um, when we're hearing these things today, it's really
pushing for to get that ad in and be in time to have the second reading at the next meeting. That's why we always push them two meetings out. Is it is it possible, Amy? Because this is a unique situation. They're really I don't know why, you know.
Well, I think before we put the cart before the horse, we should probably No, I appreciate that. But just procedurally though, it's possible if all the stars align correctly. Yes. Okay. All right. Very good. Continue, Brock. Not preferred, but
if the stars align, it is possible. Go ahead, Brock. All right. Thank you. Um, so obviously, as everyone here knows, uh, Fishtail Marina has been operating for a while and then Hurricane Ian hits. The dry stacks were severely damaged. Uh losing
the roof of dry stack number four. Most of the roof of dry stack number two. Uh and a lot of sighting around the site. Uh many of the boats that were on site, both in the buildings and in the water were displaced and destroyed. The floating docks themselves that were in the marina basin floated up above the
piling that they were anchored to. Uh some of the docks were displaced out into the bay and others were just torn apart there in the basin. Next slide. Here's another photo. Uh on the right hand side you can see the um the top of building four completely removed and on
the left hand side there's a dry stack building five what we call it with significant siding and roof damage. Getting right into what our master plan is now. Um got a pointer here but it doesn't seem to be working. The far left
hand side of our screen there's a uh red shade over the building. That's Pinchers. Uh just to set the scene here. So Pinchers, that is the existing footprint and that is where they will be uh renovating that building to reopen in the same spot. Like Jason mentioned, the
existing building has a zero foot setback where the deck is right on the water. It's, you know, quite nice when it's open. Um we are just trying to incorporate that zero foot setback language into the MCP. That's why we have that in the ordinance. Um, like
Nancy, I believe it was Nancy, somebody just asked, maybe it was Karen, just asked about the um the area next to Pinchers where there was previously a marina office and some retail. As Ron mentioned, that's going to be planned for expanded parking to help out
Pinchers. And then the marina retail, call it a ship store, will be on the, as Ron's going to point to, in the middle of the site out on the peninsula. Brock, can I interrupt you for one second? Apparently the slides aren't coming on.
They're not going to be able to see the slides. Okay. Okay. The slides are attached to the agenda items online. Okay, fair enough. I apologize. That's fine. Um, what I was just speaking to, Ron, if you point to it there, there used to be a ship store and retail there, and we're moving it to the
There you go. The uh ship store that'll also help house the boat rentals. That's going to be an ADA compliant building and that will have restrooms and showers as well. So that'll really help out everybody coming through the site. Uh make it more of a boat club marina feel.
So that'll be that'll be a new building for the ship store. That will be a new building. Correct. And what kind of services do you aside from the restrooms? What will you expect? Is that where you sell your bait and other things? That'll be the the ship store. You're getting your bait there, your ice. um that'll connect with the existing
building that's on the corner there where you'll you're selling fuel. Uh the two buildings will kind of play the role together. But the uh the new building is really going to focus on ADA compliance as well as showers, restrooms, all that. When I was there the other day, they
mentioned that fuel is about it's a big deal for the people on the south end of the island having fuel and and you said you're about 60 to 90 days out from getting the fuel. So the fuel is not contingent upon this new building being built. Is that fair? No, the fuel is a big priority for us as well. And so the
fuel is on a fast track. It's in permitting now and we will have temporary fueling while the docks are being built out and then permanent fueling as soon as the docks are built out, but we want to get fuel up and running as soon as possible. So we are going to have temporary fueling soon.
Excellent. Thank you. Yeah. And before we move on, Brock, just for those listening, if you want to follow along, packet page 132 is the diagram that they're looking at or you're showing now. Okay, thank you. Um, so some other, yeah, some other things
to point out on the site. The wet slips themselves, um, they have been remodeled to accommodate larger boats and actually less boats than what is approved. Um, the boat market continues to expand with longer and wider boats and so we're
going to expand with the market. We're also prioritizing a larger navigable center lane in the middle of the basin that allows for easier access to the forklifts for anyone that's using the dry stack marina, not just the wet
slips. Uh in regards to the forklifts, the building number four, the largest of the yellow blobs, yes, that is being uh rebuilt with a modified layout than what was previous. Again, that is to
accommodate larger boats as well as larger forklifts. And then building seven, directly across the aisle from building four that is as well being rebuilt as a dry storage facility. The final building out by the roadway is a more permanent structure for the
existing tenant, which is Walker. This building will accommodate both sales and boat service. It'll be a covered building, so that's where you can be maintaining your engines. We're also, I believe, building out a painting garage. And Brock, that'll replace the the temporary shell. That will replace the temporary shell
structures. Yes. Thank you. That was going to be my question. What's going to happen with the temporary the old marina store that you had there? Those So, the the existing building that's there is to remain as well as the existing dry stacks on that end. But the two shell structures that you see now as
you drive by, the Walker building, the boat services building will replace those. What about up by where the fueling was? The old fueling before the storm right out the old chip store. Yeah, it's like a little cottage, the octagon type. Yeah, that existing building uh that was
renovated now a year ago, I believe. And that that will remain. Okay. Uh and then the final thing to point out is we are going to have some uh expanded parking. Like Jason said, we're going to add probably 10 parking spaces. Uh, and then as Ron's pointing to now, we're
going to be able to accommodate the water taxi um with that transient broadside dock that you see next to Pinchers. And then it looks like you're expanding your floating dock all the way around the south side or east side depending on uh yeah, so plan East, but yeah, Compass
South that uh that dock was there a wrapping floating dock previously and we we'll rebuild that as it was. That's what I thought. But in your plans it says new. Yeah, new meaning it's a new dock. We're not replacing the old concrete dock, right? Okay. Um
Brock, I don't want I don't mean to uh to nitpick here, but you you mentioned water taxi. We've got a situation in the next few years where we're going to have a water ferry. Yeah. And and through the arches at Moss Marine and then their one of their stops is hopefully at your marina. Yeah. And that's a water ferry, not a water
taxi. And that's a critical stop uh for people on the south end to be able to go to the north end during season. Is are you envisioning a a potential location for the water ferry or are you envisioning that for a water taxi? Yeah, I the ferry and taxi
uh the different term here. The the plan is for that dock to be accessible for anybody traveling whether it's a ferry that's operated by the city or a private taxi, we can share the dock. Beautiful. And I believe in our code it refers to both water taxi and water ferry in the
same if I'm not mistaken. Right. Yeah. I just want to make sure because they are different. water taxis for an individual or a small group, a ferry could be up to 49 people. So, yeah, just we've got we've got adequate depth. If a if a ferry any boat has made it that far up the channel, then they'll be fine to
dock there. Beautiful. Beautiful. Um, currently this marina layout is permitted by the FD. Um, obviously now we're getting um approval here at the city level and we are almost complete with our Army Corps permit. It's just
going through its final steps of US Fish and Wildlife evaluation. So, we are very close to getting these docks rebuilt. Uh, if we go to the next couple of slides, we've got some images here of what the buildout will look like. There's obviously, you kind of notice
building four and seven as well as pinchers down there in the corner. Um, we're excited to get a restaurant back. As the mayor alluded to, the south side of the island really needs one. Uh, and then you can kind of see on the the left side of the screen, Ron, if you point to the peninsula where the the restroom and
shower building is. That building's really going to help uh all of the the customers here. The the restroom issue was not great before the storm, and this gives us an opportunity to uh really accommodate the customers. Next slide, please. Here's a look at
that restroom building. As we said, we're going to build out um an ADA ramp so that everybody can get in there and use the showers. Next slide. Here's an angle from the other side as well as you're catching a corner there of the proposed building 7 which is a dry
storage facility. So to wrap things up, uh we're bringing the marina back to its full functionality, which it was before the storm. Uh we really want to address the fact that this is a commercial marina. The public is welcome to come rent a
boat, store their boat there, get dinner at Pinchers, come and buy bait. This is not being and and ELS the ownership group is adamant about this that this is this is an open to the public commercial waterfront this isn't being closed off for anyone u we're bringing pinchers and
the water taxi or ferry back that's going to really help access to the site uh the ADA compliance and the restrooms are going to provide a lot of needed service to the customers the marina layout itself is being redeveloped for
modern boats so if you've got a large catamaran and you couldn't get in there previously ly hopefully you can now. Uh the total slip quantity uh in regards to the manatee protection plan is actually decreasing by about 20 boats from what was previously approved. Uh we'll have a
new building for Walker so we can get rid of those shells and have both sales and services all under one roof and we're going to improve the parking and circulation around the site. So happy to answer any questions. Thank you guys. Councelor Safford, I do not. Looks great. Councelor Woodson,
I think it looks fantastic. Vice Mayor This is great news. Uh, and appreciate you being here this morning. Uh, just and I know we don't live in a perfect world, but in a perfect world, what would be your timeline for all of this activity? Um, with this approval, well, now first
reading and then second reading when we get that. Um, we would go into final contracting with a contractor within the month. So, give that 30 days. Um, then they've got to mobilize and order material for docks and buildings. We've
got another couple months of final architectural drawings for some of the upland buildings. Um, so you would probably start to see construction on the water side of the docks, construction within three months of an approval, and then that buildout. Um, it's not a tricky marina to build out.
So that buildout would be six to eight months. On the upland side, like I said, we've got a couple months left of architectural drawings that we're waiting on this approval, and then we'll go forward with finishing those drawings, bidding that out, getting a general contractor on board, and then on
the uplands, we're probably looking at a year of build out with all those buildings and the site work. And on the pinchers piece, if I if I could just what would be the what will be the threshold for them to get started? Pinchers is actually accelerated than the rest of that. And that is because the existing bu building skeleton those
bones are remaining and they are just renovating that building. Um those drawings are at about a 95% completion uh my understanding. So with this approval our second reading in that approval um pinchers is probably closer
to 8 months n months than uh the rest of the site which could be 14 to 16. Very good. Thank you very much. Yeah councelor Kane. Nothing. I have nothing further. Thanks Brock. All right. Thank you everyone. All right, next we'll open it up for public comment. Uh, are there any members of the public who wish to
comment on this matter? If so, please come forward to the podium and identify yourself, provide your address, and whether you were sworn in. Public comment. All right, seeing none, I will close public comment. I'm assuming Brock, you don't have any based on public comment,
you don't have any rebuttal comments. Uh, I will now close the public hearing and request a discussion or a motion from town council to approve. approve with conditions or deny with reasons or a continuence to a time certain. Before we go on, I I did have one question for you, Brock. Sorry, I forgot to ask you
if you don't mind coming back up. Is is the applicant okay with the conditions of approval set out by the town staff? Yes. Yeah, we worked through that with the staff. Okay. All right. Discussion or a motion? Mr. Mayor, I would move adoption of ordinance 25-14.
All right. Got a motion by Vice Mayor Adder Holt. I'll second. Second by councelor Woodson. Mayor, just for clarification, this would be approval to move it to the second reading. Correct. Okay. Thank you. And when would that second reading be? Well, this
you made the motion. I will let you with respect to the date. Yes. Well, I I'm I'm looking at our clerk. I don't want to get crossways with our clerk, but if it's possible, it'd be great. Uh, but if it's not, I I understand. But we would need a date certain. I love when the town moves at the speed
of business. Not necessarily. You don't need a date certain because you're not continuing the item. You You're taking action today and then we're we're just scheduling. Sure. As soon as possible. I'd like that. As soon as possible.
All right. Any further discussion? All right. Vice Mayor Adhalt. I. Councelor Woodson. I. Councelor Safford. I councelor Kane. Hi. And I'm an I as well. Motion carries unanimously. We'll see you soon.
Welcome. The next item is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Approving approving with conditions or denying special exception SEZ 202500046 to allow one consumption on premises coop outdoors within 500 ft of dwelling
units. Two, new outdoor entertainment in the Commercial Boulevard CB zoning district. Three, new live entertainment in the CB zoning district. And four, outdoor seating that is open after sunset in the CB zoning district for the property located at 6425 EO Boulevard,
generally identified as strap number 34-46-24-W4-000046.0000 and providing for an effective date. Mayor, just to clarify, so number four was for new outdoor seating. Is that correct? Did I not say new? If I did not, yes, it's for new outdoor seating that is open
after. If any town council member has had any exparte communication to disclose, please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the pres person, group, or entity with whom the communication took place and any correspondence that you received or object observations made of the site.
Councelor King. Um, probably a half a dozen against, maybe one for if I recall correctly. Vice Mayor, I I received something similar to that. Okay. Uh, Council Woodson, I've met with the owner twice on premise
and I've also received a number of emails from the neighborhood. Oh, good. If I could, Councelor Woodson reminded me I did I did uh I did meet and toured the the property about eight months ago, maybe something like that. Safford.
Yes. I toured the property probably gosh eight, nine, ten months ago with uh Patrick Vaness and the owners and I I too have received uh a few emails mostly against mostly in the neighborhood.
I also have toured the property roughly about eight months ago with Patrick and his team and the owners also received the same emails uh in objection specifically to the outdoor music and time frames and the detriment to the
community potentially. I also received a email concerning the noticing of it for the LPA. I did as well. Um, so I did forward that email to the town attorney for clarification just to make sure that uh
we can move forward without having to send this back to the LPA for reconsideration based on that uh advertisement. Nancy, will you go ahead? Sure. Thank you, mayor. Um, so your land development code in section 24-236C um provides that notice will be mailed
to uh residents within 500 ft. However, it also clear specifies that in the event of a delay that is really beyond the control of the town um that that is not that does not constitute a defect in
the noticing. So it is proper. So there's no issues. Okay. Uh that is all I have. I forgot your first name, Mr. Utley. Just another Jason. Just another Jason. All right. Jason Utley has been qualified as an expert
already by this town council based on his education and experience. Has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Myers Beach. Are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time who haven't already been we don't need to
reaffirm Patrick, do we? No, he's uh it's in the record that he has already been qualified as an expert. Okay. Is there anyone else on behalf of the applicant, Mr. Elbert? But I think you have as well. He has. Yes.
But I thought I don't know. All three seem shady to me. And has the property owner of the applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff? They are noting this. Go ahead, Jason. Thank you. Good morning. Um, I'm here
today to present special exception SEZ20250046 with resolution number 25-239. Uh there's one parcel that's subject to the special exception. It's located at 6425 EO Boulevard. Um this is a general
on the the slides here on the screen. You can see the general location of where the the parcel is on the island. And then this is a a closer in view of the the location of the parcel. So um as as you had read the special exception,
we're we're considering four items here. Number one is consumption on premises. Um, oh, let me mention this. I'm sorry that the the base zoning uh for the parcel is Commercial Boulevard CB. We're not modifying the or we're not the applicant is not proposing to modify uh
the zoning district. And then the base future land use is mixed residential. So, four items for consideration here today. Consumption on premises uh outdoors within 500 ft of dwelling units. Uh, new outdoor entertainment in the
Commercial Boulevard zoning district. New live entertainment in the CB zoning district, commercial boulevard, new outdoor seating that's open after sunset in the CB zoning district. Um, staff had in the staff report, uh, staff
recommended denial of item number two, which is new outdoor entertainment in the Commercial Boulevard district due to potential concerns about the noise. approximate to residential units. Um the LPA heard this on June the 10th and they
had voted six to zero to recommend approval with conditions of special exception. There were 16 conditions and just to sort of highlight those I can read them all if you'd like but to highlight them um the
the noise any proposed um activity would have to be in compliance with the town's noise regulations. hours would be limited. Um, limits on the type of music, not the genre, but the type of music and music
amplification. Um, games would would not be able to have loud or buzzing sounds. Uh, sea turtle regulations, um, signage on the on the dock that would express that this is not open to the not open to the public. It's for
private use only. Um, waste up at regular intervals. Shared parking agreement that would occur. We we had talked with the applicant. We had recommended that this was shared parking agreement with Dolphin in or other nearby properties. And I think
that they're going to limit that to to the Dolphin, but Patrick, we'll discuss that in a moment. All the employees will be required to park off site. Uh valet parking service will be required. Uh no parking signs would be
erected. um uh along the rideway where the subject parcel butts egret and curu streets buffers um at the at the time of site permitting perimeter buffers appropriate perimeter buffers um and that's I just wanted to highlight that because there
are 16 of of these items but I can read them in if you'd like if you don't have any questions for me Patrick can give you a more detailed um review of the site he has a 40 40 page. He was trying to go through quickly. I guess he's
saying 40 page uh uh not spreadsheet but PowerPoint presentation. SC Scott questions for Jason. I think the the two questions I have is is based on the LPA meeting staff still feels the denial for the outdoor entertainment and the parking.
We don't typically change my understanding is we don't change our recommendation. It's uh we we present that and then the LPA hears our presentation, reviews our staff report materials and then they make the recommendation to you guys. Okay, fair enough.
Excuse me. But I believe that the things that you were denying for the applicant has put in other variances or or they've talked and they've addressed those. Correct. Yes. at least from what I read in the packet
attempted to address that. Okay. So, all of the denials have been have been addressed. Yes. I And Patrick will speak to that, you know, the the concerns that were raised. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, Vice Mayor,
ju just along those lines, Jason, based upon the proposal as as it as it was originally presented to the LPA, uh, which of the conditions did the LPA add to the proposal to address some of these noise issues?
Patrick said he can go through that. All right, that's fine. Council King, I guess I'm just a little confused looking at the recommendation of a denial of a special exception for outdoor entertainment, but approval of a special exception for live entertainment. That just kind of
confuses me. Um, just my understanding was the live entertainment would have been upstairs on the first floor enclosed in the building versus in the building. Yeah. Okay. That that's the way I but I'm sure Patrick will cover that. Yeah. All right. Thank you.
Um, so just to go down the same path that they've been on, Jason, so based on the changes that have been made since the LPA and what is here, staff still recommends denial of the outdoor entertainment or the outdoor music, I guess.
This is full transparency. This is my second uh presentation before you. So my my understanding is that that we do not modify um our recommendation in the staff reporting is that Sorry to put you on the spot.
This becomes Jason squared now. Double trouble. Uh, correct. Generally staff wants to establish where we were coming from, what what we looked at initially. If things change through the through the adoption or through the
recommendation of LPA, uh staff is still setting a marker where where we reviewed the thing and where we believe that it was relevant or where it was um uh approvable or whether it needed to be recommend uh our recommendation is that
it should be brought back for further refinement. This is the further refinement. Um, if we get if we get all the things that the town council is looking for out of the last staff report, it'll be self-evident that the the project has gone through multiple iterations and it's been changed. But
sta staff generally doesn't flow with the with the changes that we see. Um, that's really your purview. That's that's what you guys do. Um, we we just establish on on our initial reading where the deficiencies were and why we do or don't uh believe that it was recommendable at that time.
Okay. Thanks, Jason. All right, Patrick. Good morning. For the record, my name is Patrick Vaness, certified planner with the neighborhood company. It's a pleasure to be here this morning to discuss the former Beach Theater
property located at 6245 Estster Boulevard. Um, well, I'm happy to be here. This room gives me a little PTSD, though. So, I I I can't wait for our new town hall and and
uh hearing chambers to be open. That'll be great. Um, joining me today, I got uh Steve Bo, who is the uh ownership representative and the applicant um for both petitions for the special exceptions and parking variances. Uh
joining me also is our project architect Albert Damrose and Ken Gander who is a planner with the neighborhood company. So we've got two general requests. Um one is a special exception
um four components of that special exception request, but it's associated with the uses on the property, consumption on premises, and uh entertainment uses. And I'll go through that in a little more detail. Um, the second one is associated with variances.
If you give me a little leeway, my presentation is combined. I'll go through that. I've got a bunch of slides, but I'll skim through those quickly. I'm assuming you've looked at the LPA hearing and are familiar with the case. Um, you can stop me anytime and ask me for more detail as I skim
through things. And when we get to the other component with the parking, I will just say ditto. Same presentation applies. Moving forward, subject property is um.7 of an acre. It is
located on the south end of the island. Um fusel is mixed residential. Zoning is commercial boulevard. Okay. So this is the general location map. As you can see, it is located on
the south end of the island. Just one second, please. I sort of interrupt you. It's actually Commercial Boulevard. It's not Did I Did I say something else? Yes. Okay. Apologize. Zoning is Commercial Boulevard. Okay. Thank you. Right. Okay. Um general location south end of
the island. As you can see, um the intent uh behind this venue is to serve the needs primarily of the south end. There's a lot of demand as we know for restaurants on the south end and that is the intent. Um, a little more
specifically, uh, the property to the north of us, we've got Kuru Street. Beyond that, we've got, uh, vacant Charlie's Boat House property. Uh, to the south, we've got, uh, Egret Street, and beyond that, we've got the Dolphin Inn property, which is vacant. Um, to
the west, we've got multifamily condominiums, and more specifically, the Privateier and Santa. And to the east of us, immediately abiding, we've got a uh vacant single family lot and the canal and beyond that we have single family
homes. So, uh just quickly, the intended redevelopment of this site is to convert the beach theater, which the owners bought one year prior to Hurricane Ian,
and convert that uh use that. Um unfortunately, it's it's sad to see the the beach theater go, but all theaters are very challenged uh nowadays with with changes in habits and technologies and people watching movies
at home. So, uh changing this to a more viable use. There's a lot of demand for restaurants on the south end and that is what they're presenting. Uh the concept is very similar to Junkanoo and Fresh Catch. So, two restaurants ground level,
a casual restaurant, um covered by the building, under the building, but open air. And above we've got a higherend steakhouse. Um forward, please.
Um so, just jumping straight into the uh special exceptions. Um as you guys know, we updated the zoning district and uh CB zoning district used to be very very restrictive as to what was allowed. We allowed more uses. However, a lot of
those uses require special exceptions. That's why while we're asking for one project, we have to come in for four separate special exceptions associated with that use. So, the first one is uh if you've got consumption on premises and you're within 500 ft of any
residential, you have to ask for a special exception. Um, new outdoor entertainment, same thing, special exception. Uh, new live entertainment. And as the mayor pointed out, the distinction is uh live entertainment could be indoors and that's why we have
to ask for um just real quick on that one. Yes. If if this should go forward to a second reading, can we clarify that within number three that it's indoor? Um, I don't think this needs a second reading because it's a special exception. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm still stuck. just put
it in as a uh condition. Okay. Um and um number four um new outdoor seating after sunset within the CB district and as you will see um we've
got the the uses downstairs and we also have a new uh outdoor deck. So with regards to variances, all the variances are associated with minimum parking uh that is required for
restaurants and for the bars within those restaurants. Um so at the LPA we presented the proposed changes to the building. Um the structure itself is a very strong
resilient structure. Uh it fared very well through the hurricanes. Uh however um most of the changes that are being proposed are to the interior, some of it to the exterior and um very little associated with any structural elements.
Um so most of this will be taking a very large space. Uh we had four different theaters in there and converting that to a restaurant on the interior and then using the downstairs for a a casual
restaurant. So, this is the um the rendering that we presented at the LPA. We were asked to make some changes and we'll highlight some of those changes. So, as you can see, we were asked to confine the consumption on premises uh
with some kind of a structural barrier. So that's the fencing, the railing that you see all the way around. Also, one of our commitments was to provide uh enhanced buffering all the way around the property. Um and uh to have a
continuous hedge row all the way around. So you see that on these two slides. Next slide, please. Patrick, hold on before you go on. Could you go back one? Yeah. In your in the packet, it shows on what would be the the canal side, the back side that the sides that face the
the adjacent property owners, it shows brick wall, but it doesn't really show it in this. Is your intent to enclose that with a brick wall. It we it will be on the back side. Uh we just don't have a rendering. We just have two renderings produced for that. But I will go through that in our next
slide. Okay. So this is what we presented uh at the LPA. We some changes and I'll just skip quickly through that and go go on to the next one. Um, so a few things to point out. So on the rear of the back
part of the property, we have uh concrete block walls. Um, we have a staircase. We have u a weight staff area and bathrooms. Uh, that's all going to be enclosed. Um, we have to go
through uh the proper permitting. Patrick, Patrick, just so I understand, when you referenced that brick wall, is that a new brick wall that doesn't currently exist? It's a new brick wall. So, it's going to be enclosing the back portion of that parking area.
Okay. What will that that would help on the sound front to some extent, wouldn't it? Yes. How tall will that wall be? It will cover the entire back area. Okay. Um, so
the And beyond that, we have a uh buffer, an enhanced buffer with a six-foot uh opaque fence. Um the discussion was yes, this provides uh
sound attenuation also just screening from those uses. We were asked well what about the uh on on the sides? So, if you go to the right side of the building
or left side of the building, we've got uh we added uh additional concrete wall there to enclose that side and uh glass wall. Uh and then on the right side, same thing. We've extended some of the concrete block wall and some of those uh
glass um biffold windows that can be uh enclosed as needed. Again, uh we're not expecting a big party scene here. I think during the day, the idea was to
keep those uh doors windows open and uh into the evening possibly close that if sound is a concern. Um, also what you see is um that fencing railing that we put to really delineate
the consumption on premises area. Where while you're on the slide, where would the performer be? So you towards the front of the building, you've got a little gray hatched area. That would be where the performers would be. Um what we had previously, we had
some arrows kind of showing where the sound would be projected. As part of discussion with the LPA, we made a commitment to not have PA systems projecting the sound, but to have an integrated sound system with smaller speakers throughout the area. So it
would uh again kind of lessen the the impact of any sound or noise and we could keep the volumes a little low lower and they would be controlled by management not by the by the uh performers and the the the speakers on that integrated sound system would they could
you face those out? They will be most likely in the ceiling pointing down point straight down. Yeah. And there will be no speaker system in that outside area or there will be garden type speakers up there. Steve can can confirm that but I think
the in intent is to keep them under roof. Under roof. Okay. Correct. Okay. Um moving on. So this is the uh site plan that we had um that we presented at the LPA. And the
next one is some modifications that we have made. Um so I think if you go one more slide uh keep going. So we have identified that we will have enhanced buffers on um
on all sides um with the the the added detail that along Egret Curu and Eterero we will have a continuous hedger and at the rear of the property we will have that uh
opaque fence uh six foot opaque fence through the rear. Uh, also we have um added some golf cart parking. We went from two to four and we have some bike parking uh towards the the side
rear of the property. So I will go through each of the special exceptions real quickly and let you know where the LPA and staff stood. So on the first one which was consumption of premises, staff recommended approval. So
did the LPA. Moving on. Um with regards to new outdoor entertainment in a commercial area in the commercial boulevard category, staff recommended denial. LPA recommended approval and the
approval came from numerous conditions uh that have been put in place to mitigate and ensure compatibility. And I will go through each of those conditions uh at the end of the presentation. Uh with regards to live entertainment in
the CB zoning district, both staff and the LPA recommended approval. Uh and with regards to new outdoor seating after sunset, uh both staff and the LPA recommended approval.
Um the findings and conclusion. This is the section where we go through um what is in your packet, how we meet LDC and comp plan requirements. I'm not going to belabor that. We're just going to skip right through that. And um I will jump into the parking
variances. So uh with regards to parking as mentioned uh we have to deviate from three different parking sections but it's all about minimum required parking. Moving on um this is the criteria for variance
variances. We believe we meet uh all the criteria and that was uh discussed extensively at the LPA and it's in your packets. So moving on, keep going forward please. Um so one of the things that we we identified
um at the LPA is we are retrofitting retrofitting an existing building. This is a very large structure. We have way more space than needed. We'll go through the floor plans, but what you'll see is we have very large corridors. We have um
a huge kitchen area. Um, we've got a third floor where the projection room was that is just going to be used for storage. So, if we were to calculate all the square footage that we have um within that building, uh, we would need
172 parking spaces. That would be the code requirement. Patrick, I've got to stop you just because I you threw me a loop there. So, the projection room is going to be used for storage. I thought that was going to be like a special room. Probably one of the most interesting architecturally. Unfortunately, with
regards to ADA requirements and other Yeah, we cannot use that. That was such a cool room. Yeah, safety issues and all that stuff. We would need an elevator to to go up there. So, we cannot use uh that room. We do I will go through the floor plans.
We do have two uh private rooms for uh private groups. And again, we had so much space just kind of made sense to have those private rooms. They may or may not be used on any given night, but we've got that extra space. Um, so as mentioned, um,
172 parking spaces, as we all know, our code already double counts when it comes to bars within a restaurant. Um, we feel that the code over parks most of the uses, but this especially given this big building um, a lot of extra parking
requirement. So moving on, what we did is we um we looked at the usable spaces and what we calculated was the areas in blue. This is ground floor uh the bar and the area in that pinkish color is an
outdoor uh game area. Um, and that's where you can have uh people playing these giant Jenga blocks or um different board games. We had the extra space. Uh, again, very large area. We don't think
that all that area is going to be needed. So, it's to find a use that could be attractive to some people. Um, but we had to calculate all that as part of our parking. Uh, next floor plan. Uh this is on the first floor above um the
ground level. Um the back space in green is just office space again undetermined at this time. We just had so much space. Um we we want to allow that use on there. Um on the right side uh towards
the back is one very large kitchen. Uh it could be separated into two separate kitchens. one for the steakhouse, one for the downstairs. There'd be a dumb waiter there to service the downstairs. Um, we've got two private uh dining
rooms that can be enclosed. We've got very large bathrooms that existed uh because of the existing theater. And towards the front uh of the property is the steakhouse. We are going to have new doors, glass doors opening to the uh new
outdoor seating on that uh front balcony. Next slide. So this is the third floor. That was the projection room. Um again used for office and storage only. Moving on. So what we did is we we looked at
the um the usable space and we said if we start excluding some of that surplus space hallways uh you know very uh very large corridors,
bathroom area, lobby area and we looked at really the restaurant usable space. Um we recalculated that and we come up with a requirement of 115 parking spaces.
Next slide please. So um what we discussed at the LPA is we felt very comfortable that we had solutions to address and mitigate the parking issue. Um we
talked about keeping things open. We were looking at several options for off-site parking. Um through the discussion of the LPA and also uh following up with the ownership group, we have a commitment to use the uh
dolphin in property as off-site parking. Um, so I'll show you a parking plan for that area, but with um with the dolphin in and the parking on site, we now have
78 parking spaces. Previously, the theater had 65 parking spaces. So, we've increased the parking that existed. Um, and what we're asking is for a plus or minus 32% parking reduction, which is
very consistent with some of the reductions uh for for other commercial restaurant uses that um occur elsewhere on the island. Patrick, before you move on, quick question. Didn't the applicant also purchase another property at the same time with this one, if I wasn't mistaken?
So, they they own a few properties. They um own GW Manor across the street also. Um there, you know, at the time of our discussion with the LPA, we did consider maybe we could have some parking uh at
GW Manor. There's extra space on that property. Uh that could still be an option for the future. Uh we also have talked to um council members where several of you suggested that we are going to have a parking lot for the new
town hall that is not going to be used in the evening. So that could be potentially where we enter into an agreement with the town and that could be revenue for the town. Again, those are options for the future if needed.
One of the things that um that could potentially occur is that the dolphin in which is mostly the same ownership group as Beach Theater, but there are different owners. Um, at some point that could be sold or it could be redeveloped
as lodging units and we've got a commitment, it's part of the conditions that should that happen before any kind of construction starts on the Dolphin in, we have to come back in with a revised uh, parking agreement where we
identify another site for the off-site parking. Is there I'm just curious as what the reasoning is why we wouldn't use property that you already own. I mean, I know you said you're part owner in the Dolphin in same thing. Golf View Manor is is relatively the same ownership group, right? But some different folks.
Understood. Um, so, uh, as discussed, we we went to the LPA. We explained that we felt there were very valid solutions. We made a commitment, uh, to use the Dolphin in as
the off-site parking. We also made a commitment that all employees going to park at the Dolphin in um from the get-go. Um if you look at parking requirements when it comes to restaurants, about 30% of that requirement in the code is associated
with staff. So just taking a lot of that staff and putting it at the dolphin end frees up uh some parking on site. Um we are also going to have valet service from day one. Um again, it's going to be ready. is going to be available. Uh if
there are slower times where it's not needed, uh they may not be using valet every single day, but we are going to have valet ready for peak season, peak times. And um valet is going to be both for the existing property and for the
dolphin in property. So this is the going back to the uh dolphin in uh parking plan. Um this shows a preliminary plan where we fit uh 44 parking spaces and again this is I
this is code um parking spaces meeting all the dimensional requirements uh meeting all the buffers. If you valet you could probably stack them uh in even more so and have even more parking spaces on that site. That was going to
be my question is the valet part of it like they do down in Bonita. They really jam some cars in there. It says maybe you can get 30, but there's 60 somehow and all these get out of the window Dukes of Hazard style, whatever. But they seem to somehow get out of those cars. Yeah. The staff doesn't take into recommend into consideration that I'm
guessing it's a staff question, but I'm assuming the fact that you're going to validate doesn't in our code that I know of it doesn't allow any more leniency as far as the amount of required parking. Even though you know you could park more, there's nothing written in stone that would allow you to lessen the ask the 30% 32-ish%.
Correct. Um th this is based on code requirements and meeting uh development standards um currently in the code. So I have a question. Does that need to be separately approved because it's a new parking lot or is it fall under
this? So, it's they are related, but to answer your question specifically, yes, we would have to come forward to get that parking approved on the Dolphin Insight. Um, what's before you today is
the approval for the variance related to the theater. So, you could approve the variance today, but before they actually start putting it in, they'll have to come back and review that with staff. Yeah. My my understanding is uh it's a
development order issue and that we would go through the development order permitting for that phase. Yes. Yeah. Correct. Um so that would that I guess to council safer's question would that require them to come back before council or would
this be a variance issue where it goes before the LPA in a unanimous? No. My understanding is is the use itself is allowed and accessory to to u the beach theater and the development order. Um when it comes to site
improvements that would be approved through staff review it administrative administrative approval. Right. But you can't they can't make that a paid parking lot during off hours. Correct. No. They would have to have administrative approval to to do that.
Now, if you're going to do like shared parking or something like that, then I think that that might be a different story. No, that's that's not the request. The intent is not to have paid parking, and we understand that any kind of paid parking, we would have to request that through the special exception process.
Okay, moving on. Fair enough. Um some some of the other issues associated with with uh parking was not just having enough parking space and managing the parking with the valet but it was also being cognizant of the
neighborhoods adjacent to us and making sure that uh we have proper signage along Egrit and Kuru where we bought those rightways. Um it's also for the management and one of the things that we discussed is Steve is local. Um he he's
lived on the beach before. Uh he will be the managing entity with uh Cory Yankee who will be in charge of the restaurants. Um those guys will make sure that they educate the patrons if they see people parking in the wrong
areas. They will make sure that uh they communicate with the neighbors and any kind of issue associated with people parking the ride ofway or parking the wrong places. Obviously, they want to um address that immediately and work with code enforcement to address that.
Well, and that I'm glad you brought that up because I I've been thinking about this a lot with with some of these projects that are coming through. Obviously, the big concern is overflow parking. People are going to park in the rightway. You know, it's busy night. you may be having a special event there or something and you just don't have enough parking and then they're going to start
parking down Egret and Kuru and now the neighbors are going to be they're going to have an issue. Is there a path or is there something that we could do to provide signage? I know there was discussion about signage, but go even a step further, much like the short-term rentals where there's a number that's provided that the residents can call
directly to get instant action, whether it be finding who owns a car and get it moved or having it towed if that need be and get that addressed immediately. That's certainly something instead of having I mean obviously they can involve the town, but I think that would be the last resort if they have an option to reach directly out to your
staff or management staff to say you got a car parking in my driveway. Yeah. Get it out of here. I mean, if it's in the driveway, they're probably going to call a tow truck first, but you know, if it's in the town's rightway to handle it before it gets to the town level. Yep. Okay. And and you know, one of the things that that we talked at the LPA is
compared to some other projects, the the we have a kind of a slope to the property leading to the edge of pavement. Um, not very conducive to cars parking there. Other areas of town, it's nice and flat. It's easy for people to park in the rideway. This is a little
more difficult. We also have a pump station along Curu. Makes it difficult for for someone to even want to park on on that grass. Well, I agree. But as we've seen over the last two years, people don't care. They're going to park where they feel they they're entitled to park. And yeah, along those lines, Patrick, if I could
just digress for a second and and and yield to our town manager. when our two new town hall or maybe Frankie when our new town hall is open if someone who doesn't have business with the town particularly was to go in and park in
our lot at say 5:30 6 o'clock what would happen to them or what is the plan to have happen to them we're we're working through those plans right now Mr. Vice Mayor, we haven't uh uh come to a decision as far as a recommendation to to council, but we're
working through those plans of of how we're going to sign and uh potentially um lease that that parking area after hours. And I guess my question is, is there a possibility that this could be a potential overflow opportunity? Yes,
for both them and for us. Yes, there's a possibility. Most importantly, keep people off those little streets. It's a possibility and it's something that we're in discussions with among staff right now and and absolutely if uh the the developers want to have those discussions. I believe some of those discussions have already
occurred but we'll we'll continue those to find a good solution. Okay, very good. Thank you. So Patrick, I have I have another question. Uh you pro you may be addressing this in the future, but uh a lot of the emails um there was concern about the the
traffic um in the waterways. Do you guys plan on having docks there set parking for boats? What size? So there there is a dock that has been uh built already and it was permitted through the EP. Um we had that
discussion at the LPA. Uh the intent is to have very clear signage that it's for private use only, not open to the public. What do you mean by private use? Just for the owners or So the owners? Okay. Owners and friends. So there will be no no boat parking for
patrons. Nope. Okay. So um ju just to clarify also we we are here discussing um the variance because um there was one objection from a
neighbor uh that came in after the hearing. If not for that objection, we would have been approved by the LPA. Yeah, look, we we we've got to cover all the bases. You have to understand that. So So we did see the comments. Um, and
we we looked at those comments and I think and and and I'm not sure and I'm sure we're going to hear from from those neighbors. Uh, I think that a lot of their concerns have been addressed through the the conditions that I'm going to walk through and I think u all
these conditions have been put in place to address the concerns and also mitigate for for potential impacts and ensure that compatibility. So I'll go through those conditions one by one right now. So um condition number one,
all music and entertainment on the property will be in compliance with the town's noise regulation. Hold on, Patrick. I before we move on from the document, unless it's you're going to cover it in the condition part of this. Yes. What? You said something that really kind of stuck in my head there for how
is the people that are living on the canal going to know if it's the owner or if it's a friend of the owner that's coming to use the private dock? there's going to be no way that they're going to know that. And I only bring that up because it to me this becomes a it could be a he said she said code enforcement issue or
compliance issue where someone's coming down, you know, they live on the north end, they want to come down by boat and they park up and what's to say it's just friends of the the owners and they're just coming to to see the own. I mean, do you understand what I'm saying? It's going to be very difficult to Yeah. disseminate between what's friends of
the owners and what's p public and what's private. I I think the idea is we we want to make it clear that this is not a commercial use. We are not bringing people with a ferry to the site. Um and we are not
attracting more traffic down that canal. So I think that it a it's not going to be advertised and b people that do venture down and see private use only. Hopefully people learn that we're not going down that
canal. I can't I can't moore my my boat there. So, I think that that's the idea. Um and and over time people will know that that's not a spot for the public and hopefully you don't get increased traffic, boating traffic down that canal.
I hope police and and same thing the the owners will will monitor that dock and and police that dock. Well, I guess where I'm stuck I guess where I'm stuck on it is is you've already got a dock there, right? It's been permitted. It's people are going to use it.
And if I'm not mistaken, in our in our land development code, it allows the use of people if you're resident or non-resident to go down the canals. There's nothing that says that you can't. But what you're clarifying and maybe we can codify this in the conditions is the commercial part of it because I think
that's the the crux that people have with some of these canals is the commercial part. And if they're willing to put in there that no commercial activity, whether it be water, taxi, ferry, I think that will help alleviate. I can't speak for the residents there, but I think that would help alleviate some of the concerns. Yeah. Um I I think the idea was to not
commercialize the canal and and we've heard that with other projects and we wanted to make it clear. Um with regards to a water taxi, that's where I'd like to keep that opportunity open. I I think there's a distinction between a ferry
and a water taxi. A water taxi is available to any resident. So, anybody that lives down that canal, if they don't have a boat and they want to go downtown, once the s the the the water taxi is established, they can call that up, taxi will come get them, bring them
downtown, and bring them back. Uh, I think I think that same opportunity should apply to this property. Again, we are not attracting fairies. We are not attracting people to dock there uh all
evening, but having a ferry if if people want want to hail a ferry uh a taxi, I mean, and be dropped off there. I think that's a that's appropriate to me. Well, I guess I'm just a little confused that you said two different things. At least I heard two different things that you didn't want it to be commercial, but
you want the option to have the commercial use of a water taxi open to be able to use. Well, I think I think one is associated with a with a I guess what I want I guess what I'm trying to get at, Patrick, is I just want you to make sure that you're asking for specifically what you want so that
it's on record. Yeah, we don't want to prohibit water taxi. We don't want to prohibit water taxi. Okay. Um the intent is not to have a ferry whatsoever go down that canal. Uh again, the intent is not to attract more
boating traffic, but the water taxi, I think, is is is going to be an opportunity for all the residents to use down any canal, and we just don't want to make an exception for that property. Okay. Just wanted to make sure it was clear for the record. Yeah.
Um so um that first condition um all music needing to be co-compliant. Staff would have put in their uh in in their staff report. We fully agree with that. Um condition number two, uh general hours of operation will be from 7:00
a.m. to midnight. No food and beverage service prior to 10:00 a.m. at the ground level restaurant. You can go. Um, so that was added per our LPA discussion. Um, condition number three,
uh, hours of amplified music will be limited from 11 to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 11 to 10:00 p.m. on weekends. And, um, that there was already a condition similar to that that existed, but it was enhanced. And we put in
there, all amplified music will be distributed through a unified speaker system controlled by management. no bands. So that's three or more performers or drums, percussions unless approved through the town's special
events permit process. So that was uh a revised condition and an enhanced condition. Uh that came after the, you know, from the LPA hearing. Uh number four also came from the LPA hearing. Before you before you go on from that one, Patrick, just yep. Want to add see if there's a way to
maybe strengthen that a little bit. Obviously, one of the other big concerns was the noise. I appreciate the wall that you're talking about putting up in the brick and then you've got it looks like some on the the east side or egret side. Y um
what about being able to close off those glass doors at a certain time frame? You know, I understand going till 9:00 or 10 o'clock, but to help alleviate some of the issues that the neighbors have as far as hearing music until 10 o'clock at night, we got an email from someone that works from home. Both her husband and
her and and her work from home. Um, so they're concerned with being able to work with the amplified music up until 10:00 or I got a little number two. I'm not 100% comfortable with either the midnight thing
with those doors open until midnight. I mean, it's a nice night. You want the doors open. I get it. But with that amplified music, I mean, if you're just having your radio on and you're just playing music at the bar, that's going to that's going to go down that canal. Yeah. We all know how water, you know, goes down canals.
Is there something we can do here to maybe close those doors to try to soundproof that wall a little bit better at a certain time, allowing you to do what you would like to do, but also protecting the neighborhood as much as possible? Yeah, I think so. U I'm going to let Steve and and Ken maybe and and Albert
hash that out a little bit. We'll go through the rest and then maybe you guys can give me some direction. Okay. Um, also want to clarify that the 7 a.m. to midnight was this idea of of general operations, meaning that um, I think the
way it was drafted at first was, you know, and that's why we clarified no service before 10, but we wanted to make sure that no one complained if they saw cars pulling up and the prep guys are there 7 in the morning prepping for the day. So we just want to clarify sevenies
and everything else that so so that would be for for general operations and then uh not before 10 for actual service. Um so um yes Mr. Mayor we are going to address that and I think we've already
got mitigating factors uh put in place but we'll we'll see if we can uh enhance that a little bit. Okay. Um so um number yes this might I don't want to throw you off your stride, but it might be a good time to have Steve come up and just I'd like to ask Steve a couple questions just
about the operation of the restaurant. What's he envision? Obviously, it sounds like they're going to serve lunch, right? And just I'd like to hear him kind of it's getting close to lunch anyway, so people are already hungry. Interested to hear what he's going to serve. Well, Vice Mayor, hope you you mind
they're kind of discussing something now. If when he's done, maybe then he can come up after the conditions and we can go back to That's fine. Well, then when we're talking about conditions, one of the things and I'll be interested to hear what the folks here say one of the things that was interesting to me as a
southsider who who loves this concept is that is that at at pinchers and at the outrigger, pinchers would end their lives music at nine o'clock and outrigger would never go past nine o'clock. Now, pinchers had full bands uh for the most part and and uh
outrigger would generally just have an individual for one or two people just like you're proposing here, but they would never go past nine o'clock at Outrigger. I wonder if that 10:00 thing is really they seem to people still stuck around after the the musicians ended. I just wonder how critical that
course maybe I'm an old fddy daddy. I don't know. But but it seems like nine o'clock you could kind of take your get your live music fix and then still sit around and linger and talk to each other and hang out. No, then they went over to Oliver's. Well, that's true. But that but that and we did too. But that's that that's
that's enclosed. That's that's the difference. See that's Yeah. And I think we we um we heard that comment. Uh I think we've addressed it with these conditions and I think there's the big difference between uh the wind and the pictures venue is
these were loud rock and roll bands and we are we are saying no bands, no percussion. again sound system very different and the ability to enclose the downstairs. So I think and and also the
distinction between again what's what's live entertainment and amplified sound. So even if we were to have the radio in the background, it's still considered amplified sound. So I think the idea is we do want the ability to have music.
The bands will not be there every day. Um, but we do want that flexibility and I think we've put a lot of physical um, mitigating factors in place to be able to address those concerns. So, so from a practical standpoint, when the when the band stops on Friday or
Saturday night at 10:00, does the house music then just continue on at the same There would be some ambient music, but is it ambient or is it going to be like house music continuing on at the same level that the band was? No, I don't think the the idea is to, you
know, there's going to be ambient music, but not not uh not house music. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah. No, it's not a the intent is is to have uh like I said, a concept very similar to um to what we have at Junkanoo and and
uh so background music and yeah, fresh catch. But people won't be dancing to the house music past 10 o'clock. Correct. Depends on what they're drinking. Well, that's true. Okay. So, uh I think I was at uh number four. So, from a salmonigation
standpoint, um uh it will be provided by concrete block walls and biffold glass doors um or other retractable door. They're looking maybe at a possibility of garage doors that would come down. Um, and it's as
depicted on the schematic plan sheet D1 and that has been provided and we looked at that sheet and that's part of our packet. Uh, number five, uh, no consumption of alcohol shall be permitted outside the restaurant uh, bar and accessory game
area delineated by a 36 inch um, rail and depicted on the attached schematic plan sheet D1. Uh just a a little correction on the slide. I've got 36 foot railing. It uh should be inches,
not feet. Um number six, um that was uh something staff had put in there and we fully agree with it. Games in the accessory game area cannot include loud electronic beeping, ringing, or buzzing. We agree with that.
No problem. Um, number seven, development must comply with the LDC sea turtle conservation requirements. That's really the lighting and um, of course, we agree with that and we will need to comply with that. Uh, number eight was
associated with uh, the dock obtaining uh, an LDO or DO. Uh, that is no longer required. They have obtained their permits and they have constructed that dock. So then the new number eight is at
time of site development signage will be installed on the dock stating that dock is not open to the public and that is it is a uh it is for private use only. Um so that was added u per the LPA meeting.
Uh where you going from that one Patrick? This is the one that I think there could be potential issues based on what you're initially trying to seek with the water taxi. Is this Nancy, maybe is this going to cause some Yeah, I think that the wording would
need to be modified. If you're asking for the water taxi, you should actually put that wording in there. Okay, that that's another thing. I'll let Ken and uh the team maybe craft uh a little bit of a different language to
identify the water taxi. And we'll Could we Could we just elaborate a little bit on that, Nancy? So, if a water taxi was to come to a private home to take them down to the north end for restaurants from the south end, would they would that be all right? I I don't see why not because the the
private property owner is allowing that visitor to come uh to their dock to drop people off. Do you just think it has to be noted here in this language? I'm just because it's a business. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm just trying to if
approved head off any potential things for staff that they may have to address. Yeah. And this could really clarify some things based on what you want to ask for. Okay. When I finish going through those conditions, I'll let Ken come up and we'll come up with these uh Yeah. So, you might
these little edits. Instead of saying not limited to the public, not open to the public, maybe you just say limited to public taxi, water taxi use only or something like that. Okay.
Uh number nine um was um requested by staff uh and we made a little edit to it. The dumpster enclosure enclosure shall be refurbished in coordination with the solid waste
carrier to allow closure of the doors. Solid waste pickup shall be provided at a minimum twice per week excluding Sundays. Um that was clarified at the LPA to exclude the Sundays and not not
have pickup on Sundays. So number 10, uh the property owner will submit a shared parking agreement with the Dolphin Inn. Um we had or other nearby properties, but again we we've narrowed
it down and committed to the Dolphin in and we had PLLDC 342183. um that was crossed out um because there are certain requirements of uh that shared parking
agreement, joint use agreement that limits uh joint use parking to 750 ft from the property. Um so I think the idea would be that we would probably deviate from that requirement or we might deviate from that requirement. One
of the sites that we're potentially looking at long term could be the Windham property, which is probably going to have a lot of parking spaces. So, that could be an option. Again, we talked about uh Giew Harbor being one
option. We talked about the new town hall parking lot as one option. And then those are in close proximity within 750 ft, but the Windham's a little further. So that's why we crossed out the code section because we might have to deviate
from that. Um but um that condition was added at the LPA and supported by the LPA. Um all employees are required to park offsite. That was also added at the LPA. Uh Valley parking service will be established when the restaurant operations begin and will be available
as needed to meet peing needs added at the LPA. The property owner will coordinate with town staff to install no parking signs along the right ofways where the subject property of bots egret and curu that was also added at the LPA.
And maybe this would be a good spot based on their conversation of adding that number, you know, if there's any number if we could add that to that one. Yes, I I agree with you, mayor. This would be an appropriate place. And I don't know if you wanted to mention towing.
Well, I I would hope that that if if a resident calls that number that the staff member would handle it appropriately fairly quickly. I mean, this is part of your potential approval. So, I think you'd want to handle it.
Yeah. And and you know, I I think I I've brought this up at other hearings and the example I use is Bonita Springs and Hickory Boulevard. And as we all know, no one would dare park along Hickory
Boulevard because everybody knows that as soon as you do, you will get towed. So I think one of the ways where you curtail people doing things they shouldn't do is you enforce it very quickly and every single time. And people quickly learn that it's going to
cost me a lot of money and it's going to be a real pain if I park here illegally. So, it's not just warning people, it's towing them and making people understand that this is not going to be accepted. Maybe that's verbiage you'd want to add to that sign. Towing at owner's expense.
Yeah, that will deter at least the good actors. Yeah. Um, so number 14, at time of site development, the property must provide perimeter buffers as depicted on the
approved site plan. um that condition was added and I think that the distinction what we have before the LPA we do not have a statement committing to that continuous hedro uh around the property. Uh number 15 any unrediated
violation of the conditions of approval shall render the special exception null and void. Um the the revision that was made to that the word unrediated violation was added. So it used to be just any violation will render the
special exception null and void. We put unrediated. Uh we sure hope that there won't be any need to make some changes, but uh you know we'd like the the opportunity to address any concern if it comes up. Not to get too far in the weeds on that
word unremediated though. That's a pretty broad word for violation. I understand your point of violation is very broad. This this brings it down a little bit, but what does that really mean? Does that mean you get a violation for people are parking in the rightway continually or
just trying to get a better understanding of what the vision is for? Well, typically with with most jurisdictions, you've got code enforcement that does their job and they will inform typic and and and I'm not sure how our
process works, but it's multi-step. You know, first step is usually to inform the property owner there's a problem. Can you bring it to compliance right now? We won't issue uh code enforcement. If they don't comply, then something is issued. They have certain amount of ta
days to come into conformance and if they don't conform, then it gets relegated to um a hearing. In this case, what would happen is we would lose the spe the special exception that's been approved.
I guess what I'm trying to get at, Patrick, again, is it's to protect the town as much as it is protect the applicant in the future should this get approved. We won't always this always won't be the council. This always won't be the management staff. This always won't be the attorney. I just want to make sure whatever is in
there, again, if this is improved, that does that mean after 31 days that you haven't come in compliance? if there is a code violation that that is now unrediated or is it based on a magistrate or can you change wording to go through the code enforcement if you go through the you know what I'm
trying I agree yes mayor and I agree with you I think um you know for purposes of due process if we say uh of finding an order of the special magistrate finding that there is a violation of these conditions
would render it null and void because that does give them the opportunity to go in and fix it. Um there in their mind they may think it's fixed but code may think it's not fixed. So then when you have a neutral third party like the magistrate he or she could decide
whether it's been fixed or not. Um I think that's a very clear line in the sand um as to whether or not they are in compliance with the terms and conditions and we're agreeable to that. That's not a problem. Just want to eliminate any
interpretation of Not a problem. Right. Yep. It's it's always good to to be very clear. Um next slide please. Um so that concludes our presentation. Um in my professional planning opinion, our
team's opinion, uh we are consistent with the comp plan, the land development code. uh we have provided ample justification and backup uh to our positions and uh justifications for our
requests and um I'll let uh Ken come here and maybe so so I I think if Ken is telling me we probably need just a little more time to word smmith some of the conditions. Uh perhaps if we go to public comment, we
can come back after public comment and have uh some some language edited and we'll be back to you on that. Okay. Thank you. Sounds good. All right. Are there any are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter? If so, please come forward to the podium and identify
yourself, provide your address and whether you were sworn in. Mayor, I have two. I have Christine Madden and then following Christine will be John Madden. All right. Good morning, Christine. Good morning. Christine Madden, 181 Egret Street. My
comments today are regarding both the parking variance and the special exceptions. We've owned our home on Egret Street for 39 years, and we intentionally sought the quiet south end of the island, comfortably away from Santini Plaza in a
lowdensity neighborhood with a familyfriendly atmosphere. I am here today because I believe that outdoor music and entertainment, an outdoor bar, use of the residential canal, lack of adequate parking, and the
potential for valet parking to back up onto Eststerero Boulevard will cause a nuisance and be injurous and detrimental to the lowdensity neighborhood that is directly behind the property and the mixed condo um development across the
street from the property. Well, they say that this is enclosed on the bottom. It is enclosed on the back wall coming just around the edges and then they talk about the biffold doors, but the whole thing is not enclosed.
At the LPA meeting, it was presented that the applicant is facing a hardship because their building and parking lot can't be expanded. I would argue that they should have known that when they purchased the property and that the neighborhood shouldn't have to bear the nuisance and safety issues because of
the changes they want to make to address that issue. I agree that there were commercial uses in the area which purposely coexist or which peacefully coexisted with the surrounding uses and were compatible with the condos, hotels, and residential
uses. But those commercial uses right next to the lowdensity neighborhood didn't have outdoor entertainment or music. They didn't have outdoor dining or an outdoor bar or insufficient parking or use a residential canal to
access the business. And in fact, their hours that they were open to the public were quite different. While many things have changed since Ian, the adjoining lowdensity neighborhood at its essence has not. At its heart, it is still a
quiet, familyoriented neighborhood, and any redevelopment shouldn't take away from that. I think it's fairly safe to say that we all want to see businesses on the island be successful, and I believe there is a path for the owners to have a prosperous restaurant without
disrupting the delicate balance that's existed for over 20 years. They can have an indoor restaurant and a first floor uh an indoor restaurant first floor above flood which could allow for indoor music and entertainment, an indoor bar
and an outdoor upper dining deck. This would allow for the necessary parking to help mitigate the overflow into neighboring streets, alleviate congestion and safety concerns, and would keep noise contained to the inside of the building, all while providing the
neighborhood some assurance for the future. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for reading my letters, too. John Madden. And that's all I have signed up after Mr. Madden. Good morning, John Madden. 181 Egret
Street. And kudos to the neighbor that raised the concern, given us at least the opportunity to speak because we certainly aren't on the island every day. We're not on the island every month and summer is not the time.
This definitely won't be as eloquent as Christine. She is much more polished than I am. But I'll give you my perspective. You know, it's always interesting when the logic or argument for a business change is that they need
something special to make the business work for them. It's not about what changes the community needs. It's not what changes the neighbors need. It's we need this as a business. And you hear it over and over again.
All of the asks make it sound like someone made a poor business decision. They can't make the business work without significant changes that fall on the adjoining neighborhood. They appear to be asking for parking requirements to be cut in half from what they have
today. Keep in mind that's 40% of what's required for a restaurant today already. So 40% is too high. It's got to be lower. You know that just doesn't swing right. Look at Charlie's. Charlie's was
a thriving successful restaurant just down the road. They had comparable parking. They were filled every day. They had the same walkability. They're in the same general area. So why
suddenly would less parking be an effective thing? You know, certainly valet is an option, but every valet I've seen, Doc's Beach House, uh next one across the road from it
really backs up on the road. And we can't afford that on a stero. There is no passing on a stereo. There's no second lane. So it really causes that congestion. If I saw their map correctly, it looks like the exit for parking and perhaps entry if they use the Dolphin is going
to be on Egid. Lots of pedestrian traffic on Egret. Walking to the beach, walking to other places. Now have them compete with more traffic. Just what everybody needs. I think I heard somebody on Beach Talk Radio just recently say, "Pedestrians are the
biggest cause of the traffic issues we have on the island." Great. that's going to combine it and be worse, at least for the people around us. They also offer these solutions that feel like temporary solutions. Maybe they'll be able to sustain parking.
Maybe they'll be able to do these things for remote parking, but for how long? What's the commitment? What is really the long-term strategy? Not this 15minute fix until they get what they want. They want outdoor music. They want outdoor entertainment. They want outdoor
games. They want an outdoor bar. I think we've all seen those in places. I mean, I have. We have a property up north, not very far from a bar, restaurant on the water. The sound carries. When the music plays, we're a mile away. We still get
to hear music. The water carries it. No matter how quiet they intend to be. You know, let me just wrap up with, you know, certainly change is not unique and it's not surprising that the island would be facing that today. You know, businesses around us need to thrive. We
want to see a business be successful and certainly welcome a restaurant with the loss of Charlie's to the neighborhood, but I don't think an outdoor bar and outdoor live music are appropriate immediately adjacent to a low density neighborhood. And the one other concern I would raise
is I don't understand when you approve entertainment does it truly lock down what that entertainment is and so John thank you three minutes is up don't become evixens if people can change their entertainment in the
future. Thank you. Anyone else? All I have signed up. Is there anyone else that'd like to speak public comment? See none of close public comment rebuttal comments. Patrick,
do you want to come up and discuss what we did you have enough time to Okay. So, uh if we go back to condition number eight, um what we are proposing to um add
is um signage will be installed on the dock stating that the dock and this is the new language will be available for water taxi and private use only. Kim, can you clarify? When you say private
use, what does that mean? Private use by the owners. Private use by who? Owners and friends and family that you know, family, friends of the business owners.
Yes. You know, look, I I I think I think and you're the at You tell me. I'm looking for clarity. What's Yes, but what's the plain meaning of a word? I think we know what the intent is behind private.
Who are I guess I'm I'm not trying to be difficult, Patrick, but who are these private people that are going to be using it? I I would assume it's it's uh owners, friends, and family. Friends, and family of the owners. I mean, how do how do we
know? I mean, if code goes owners, friends and family, it's like it's like any private dock. It's it's any private dock who goes to your house when you have a dock. You have yourself using it and you have family and friends that stop by once in a while and it'll only accommodate one boat at a time.
No, I think it's got space for three boats. So it's it's kind of open I'm open to suggestion but I I know but I'm trying to figure out who I don't know what else put on there who are you authorizing to use that. So up to three spaces
by at the owner's discretion. I mean how how how do you envision that working? That's where I've been that's what I'm struggling with too is it if I live on that canal, how do I know if there's three boats there routinely that they're not family and friends or if you're
looking at it from an owner's perspect perspective on that to me there's nothing in there that gives staff or your applicant the ability to say I mean they could say everyone's a friend of the family we're all friends and family on this island it seems like. So where is that delineation between what is I
don't know that there's an easy way to to say it but because we all know that vote DACA is going to be used for people to come in for lunch and I just don't see how you're going to stop it. I'm not sure how we we clarify that but I've you know we we have certain places on this island where
you can use your boat to go to some of these establishments. Some of them you know clearly that they welcome the public and you're allowed and the other ones you you're taking a big chance if if you if you dock your boat there uh
you're going to be told real quick that you're not welcome. So I think it's it's the same idea over here. I just don't know if we have clear signs saying not for public use. I think that's
that's the remedy right there. again are we going to and that's where you know we have these hearings we try to look at every single bad actor and how we remedy a problem for every single bad actor and at one point
it's like how much can we do how much can we clarify this I think not open to the public private use only is is clear enough I'm I'm not sure that that's accurate but uh living on the south end on the beach where we have more signs than I've
ever had since I moved there. People still use our parking lot because it's not enforced. So, the key will be enforcing. Yeah, good point. You put whatever sign up you want, but if you're not enforcing it, I mean, I I've never seen so many signs telling people that it's private
property and you will be towed, but because it's not enforced, Yeah. it doesn't matter. So my thought maybe perhaps restricted use and that would make it somewhat discretionary on the part of the
property owner. Um so as a member of the public if I'm boating by and it's restricted kind of implies to me that maybe I'm not allowed to go um and who can say who can go and who
can't. So what would be your recommendation from a language standpoint? Restricted use, not for public use. Yes. Okay. So who identifies what who can use it, who can't again it's restricted.
What does that mean? Say not instead of the doc that the dock is not open to the public that just to your point that the uh public access is restricted. somehow word it that way.
I don't know if it makes a huge difference quite honestly, but well, restricted public use to me would imply that I'm a member of the public, so I might be able to go there under the rhetoric of of
being restricted maybe certain hours. How would you feel about not for public use, restricted access only? I'm more comfortable with that. Um, and if I could just ask the question, um, in
the event that the deputy sheriff needed access that they could contact and then they would be allowed to stop there. Yeah. I'm okay with that verbiage if you're okay with it. Yeah, I think it's a little clearer. I mean, there's still some ambiguity
there, but I think that based on the conversation, the questions that have been asked, I think we understand the intent of that. um which will help. Okay. So, so the language would be not for public use
restricted access only. Then moving on to condition number 13. So um at the end of the existing sentence we would add additional s
signage along Egret and Kuru streets providing restaurant management contact information will be displayed to help alleviate parking violations in the neighborhood. So it would be some kind of custom sign that they get made with management uh
phone number that they would put along the rightway. And if you want to add that towed at owner's expense. Yes, that would be that would be good to add that as well. Yeah, we we will add that. And I think the last item was
um and that's where I haven't come up with any uh language for number 15 yet, but you know as maybe as determined by um special magistrate at the end. Okay. Okay. So, keep the same language
but at the end put as determined. How about after the word approval? Why can't you just make it basically based on the the town's code violation procedures because that
allows you to then go to your point the magistrate to if they change then it it's not having to change what this says. Mayor, I think I would rather be specific and actually have that order because the codes procedures could be our code officer going out there which
might disagree with what the owner's uh interpretation of what a violation is or is not. So the third party neutral making that decision I think is is very you wanted to specifically say basically a magistrate order. Yeah. Yeah. Would would then make that exception
null and void. Correct. because that's that's a pretty big hammer um to make it null and void. Um and and we want to be crystal clear and and that gives them their due process rights to present evidence and and have that dialogue that hearing
before the special magistrate. So Nancy, any proposed language for that? I'm just any unreied violation of the conditions of approval as determined by an order of the special magistrate.
We are fine with that. Not a problem. You know, oftentimes we use as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, but we are not going to court. We're just going to go to the magistrate to make that decision.
Okay. Um I think that addresses all your um recommended changes. Um so with that said, um I'll conclude and close our presentation. We're going to have the owner come up if you could and just talk about his vision
for the restaurant. Yeah. And before before that, we you still were going to talk amongst yourselves about potentially closing and closing the doors for the music. I don't know if you were able to come up with a after a certain time. Um, I think Jason,
um, Jason Squared would like to, uh, make one little change. I'll let him address that and we'll come back with the, uh, limited hours for, uh, live music and when the doors get closed. Okay. I I was Could you go back to four,
please? I was just going to say to avoid any problems with um flood issues in the future, they may want to consider changing the language from and. So sound mitigation
will be pro provided by concrete block walls and biffold glass doors to and or um some type of mitigation that's um compliant with the flood regulations.
just think that that and could create a problem if eventually they move down the road and they're coordinating with Kelly and and Kelly says you can't have concrete block walls here to the extent that they're proposing
you know for for flood. So could I ask? So then you're proposing that the end be substituted or to an or and then maybe put at the tail end in compliance with the town's flood plane regulations. If if the applicant's okay with that, I
think it would you're looking for a little more flexibility. Albert, do you understand what he's saying? Come on up. Let's give you a little background and it may help maybe clarify the statement if if
it needs to. Um when we went through the Albert, you got to identify. Oh, sorry about that. Albert Damro studio ad architect for this project. Um when we submitted the original variance and special exception to town staff, it goes to all the departments department
flood. Um Carl Thomas did a review. He has some objections and comments for it. Uh we responded with Patrick along with the other conditions and comments from all staff from various uh departments. We explained how we were going to do this in compliance with the flood plane
managements. Carl Thomas approved it. Moving forward during the LPA meeting, the subject came up with flood and um I believe it came up that we because we were changing the walls and adding more walls and adding the bifolding glass
doors and the railings that we should go back to staff, make sure everything's still fine. One of that staff members was flood, but now it's Kelly. We brought up the situation also saying that Carl reviewed it. It's the same intent. Um we didn't get an in-person meeting with Kelly, but we had multiple
emails. I shared my presentation to her holds so the history of this building. This building was built in 1999 as an Azone and an Azone you're allowed to dry flood proof. So as long as the building is not a substantial improvement we're less than 50% which is what this project
is. We're still allowed to maintain the ground floor with commercial usage dry floodproof. So that is why all those walls that are there originally are actually not breakaway walls. Those walls that were proposed and put in are also non-breakaway walls because we're going to dry floodproof the back portion of it.
And that's also double dipping into the sound situation since those walls are not breakaway walls. They're not hollow. They're are solid cast in place concrete wall. And clarify brick and block two different things. Block is 8 in thick. We're talking about cast inplace concrete wall. So hardly any block
whatsoever. Uh as far as the bifold doors and any glass doors, again the the building is open and sterile and a little bit on the parking lot side. So any flood water that does come in has a way to get in. That's the purpose of that thing. Any orc store front doors,
any impact glass doors that we design in any buildings, they're all designed to fail in flood loads. Wind load is one thing. Flood load is four times the load of that. So those doors would potentially fail. Um, so I think as long as we have some sort of language to say
we're doing this per the intent or per the building code and flood codes, we probably have that covered as we move over to the construction document phase. So back to Jason's point, do you have any do you have any quums with what he's proposing that language to say?
No. As long as it's saying that we're following the town's flood plane management regulations and the Florida building code, that keeps it open to us to flex wise if we need to adjust because of Kelly's comments. But between Kelly and I, we're basically on the same page now. Okay. So, you're okay with adding that
verbiage to that condition? So, Albert, before you go, just having an engineer's uh opinion, given the the the solid block, I'm sorry, the solid concrete wall and the other additions that you'll be making to this particular
property. Can you talk a little bit about its actual impact on sound and how how it will sort of direct this and and any openings that might be open will be on the Astero side. Can you just kind of give your engineering sort of take on
how what you're designing will help mitigate sound versus what's there now? Sure. So, as an architect, so structural engineer and that's my structural engineer will take care of the actual nuts and bolts of designing the rebar and all that stuff from aructural standpoint. Wall being solid, nothing
stops mass more than sound more than mass. You know, block walls when we build them nowadays, we we have fill cells every so often in the middle of them are still hollow. One made one one way of making them more soundproof is filling them up solid completely. You
take it another step further. If it's a cast in place concrete wall, that's like I need a cast face concrete columns, it does not block while solid concrete. That's actually more denser and so sand can't penetrate that. So, it blocks all the frequency levels where it's a low
frequency or or high or low high frequency or low decibel um frequency sound. It blocks all that sound out. The doors that we're adding on to the side on a on the plan that we showed was on the left hand side, those doors are going to remain closed. They're only used for egress purposes. So, there's no
in and out of that sound be pro that door being propped open. Um I don't know if you want to go back to that slide that shows the floor plan. Yep. up. That's the go back. I'll just go up here in person. I know it's hard to see. Maybe on your exhibits, it's kind of hard to see as
well, too. This is the wall we added. That's block wall from the LPA. We added this glass wall right here. There's an egress door here. This door is going to be what is put on what's called a DTEX alarm, which mean it only can be opened during emergency egress. So, it's not an in and out for the business. So, it's
always going to be closed. We added the glass there just to get some natural light in that back area, but also get a visual connection of the landscaping in and the canal is back there as well, too. So, you want to make that a dark corner. These walls don't exist right now in the
current building. None of these do. So, we're adding all of these as solid concrete walls all around the perimeter. These have to be all solid concrete walls to provide dry flood proof into that area in order to have plumbing and bathrooms and kitchen underground floor. So you have that wall, that wall, this
wall, this wall and of course these are the opening doors allow for natural ventilation and they could be closed if sound becomes an issue. I'm not sure that answers your question. That's actually very helpful. Thank you. Welcome. Anything else?
Thank you. Okay. And Steve, if you could for obviously you'll identify yourself, but could you talk about initially, we'll get into the steakhouse piece, but if you could talk about your vision for this first floor and what you see. Is this an area where people will just sort of have an appetizer and a cocktail before they
have dinner or is this like party central or what's what's your vision? Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, just first, uh, Steve Bogue, one of the owners of the Beach Theater. Um, but yeah, to answer that question, Jim, um, really it's not not planning to be a full-time party place. It's a casual restaurant.
You know, the the point of the outside area is, you know, it's Florida. Everybody wants to be outside. Um, so that was the majority of it. Upstairs is, it was an old movie theater, so it's kind of dark. There's no windows. Um, fits well for a steakhouse, but not for more of a casual afternoon if you're going to go have a couple drinks and
lunch. Um, that was kind of the idea for the downstairs. Will they will they be serving food downstairs on that first floor? They will. Yes, we will have food. Yeah. Will it be like a full menu or just appetizers? It It'll be a much different menu than upstairs. Upstairs is going to be more of a South Beach grill, high-end
steakhouse, seafood. Downstairs will be more casual. Burgers, chicken fingers, salads. Um, much more casual downstairs. So, it'll be it'll be a functioning restaurant then. Yes, it would. It's not just like a it's just not like a bar. It's it's a functioning restaurant. It would be a functioning restaurant. Correct. And the table placement will take up a lot of that space then for
those um I mean it's going to be it's a huge area. Um so we've got quite a few tables kind of planned, but it's not going to be I mean there's still quite a bit of space in between tables and um it wouldn't be jam-packed with tables. Also why we kind of added that game area is because we just have so much space down
there to to utilize. Um so that's kind of was was our thought process. And and the and the deck on the second floor, is that just going to be an outdoor area? Will you have umbrellas? How how will you We are planning to have some sort of shade cover up there. Um whether it's kind of a temporary um pergola of some
kind or we have just individual umbrellas for the tables. Um but it won't be screened in. It will I don't think we're going to have it screened in. No open air. And then talk about your vision for the restaurant itself. Um yeah, for the steakhouse. So my partner Cory's he's a restaurant guy. Um he's
got 11 restaurants right now. Um mostly in Iowa, but a couple in Florida. Um, so he's kind of got the bigger vision as far as what the steakhouse is. But I mean, it's it's going to be a lot like a a Fresh Catch or a South Beach Grill. Um, you know, focusing on seafood and high-end steaks and and maybe nice
high-end cocktails and drinks. Um, so that would be the the plan for upstairs at least. Okay. Thank you, Steve. Couple questions for you. If I'm playing devil's advocate and I'm a neighbor, based on your comments, then what would be the need to be open till midnight if the intent is downstairs to not become a party place? What we've
seen in the past, as you're well aware, you look at some of the places that are open like this that stayed open till midnight, 2:00 in the morning, it has a tendency to bring those that have had a good day and want to extend it even longer. So, if I'm playing devil's advocate, I'm a neighbor and I have a concern with
this. What would you say to them? You know, certainly we're not going to be open till midnight, not every day of the week by any means. Um, we also didn't want to we wanted to leave it open-ended if we could, um, just for the the fact that there are going to be certain times in and, you know, special events and and and big big days that
people are are wanting to stay out later. Um, but it's not going to be on a a Monday and Tuesday night. We're not going to be open till midnight. I I don't think there's a a market for that in the south end of the island. Um, I just don't think people are going to be be up that late on the south end. So, would you be Well, I I don't know. I
I just I'm concerned with the 12, you know, the midnight thing because if you've got music, even if it's ambient coming from the ceiling with the water being in close proximity, right, they're going to hear that down, you know, they're going to hear that down the canal. Yeah. Um it's just been my experience on the
island in the past after to your point, Councelor Woodson, when when they closed down at 9:00, everybody gravitate gravitated across the street because it was the next place that was open and but that was enclosed. So you couldn't, you know, and you weren't surrounded by residential neighborhoods.
So I'd really like you to to consider adjusting some of these hours of operations or the music times. Um, it would make me feel more comfortable if if this moves forward. Is that something that you're open to? Yeah, we're open to that. Absolutely.
Can you go back to the condition part of it? The midnight thing is really not sitting well with me just just for that. What would be your recommendation? I mean, I would feel more comfortable with the 10 p.m. to coordinate with your your amplified music um instead of
midnight. I I like the nine o'clock. I mean, nine o'clock even at this time of year allows you to have music past sunset. I think the model that we saw at, this is just my personal opinion. I think the model that we saw at Pinchers worked really
well. Granted, it was a much, you know, was a full band, but it still ended at 9:00. People were still able to enjoy themselves. At 10 o'clock, they went across the street to where the live band is. I think at some point there's going to be something else down there that's going to offer an enclosed area where
people can go, similar to Oliver's. Uh, I mean, would you be open to splitting them? So, the upstairs is can stay open later because it's all enclosed downstairs. Yeah, absolutely. I think the upstairs I don't think the upstairs area is I mean, if people want to continue upstairs where it's enclosed and the neighbors can't hear it, you know, as long as it's
not outside on the deck, but it's inside the enclosed space. Yeah, I would be open to that. Yeah, I think we'd be okay with that. Is the upstairs space is that something that could also be rented out for like a wedding or reception or something like that? Potentially, yes. Um, I haven't really
gone too deep into that yet, but that was kind of the idea of especially with the bigger parties and everything. Um, but yeah, we we'd certainly be open to that. Absolutely. Okay. Which then would make sense if it's a private party to have it weddings or something upstairs. At least
it's an an enclosed space upstairs. Yeah. You know, won't have an impact soundwise to the neighbors. I mean, you did try to alleviate some of it with the the dry flood proofing, but upstairs is fully enclosed versus downstairs. Yeah, understand.
So, Mayor, could we could I work maybe with Patrick? Um because you know there has been some delays after you all approve things and then there's like a delay because there's some misunderstanding as to what's actually approved. Um so my preference would be
if if we could agree to the wording today now. Sure. Um so then that will facilitate moving it forward through the process. So, I think what I'm hearing is on number two, we talk about the ground level
restaurant uh nothing happening there until 10:00 a.m., but there is not a closing time for the downstairs. What I would suggest is no food and beverage service prior to 10 a.m. and after 1000 p.m. at the ground level
restaurant. So basically 10 to 10 the hours of operation are 10 to 10 for the downstairs correct ground floor and then keeping the upstairs. Um is is there any concern about the
days of the week or just 10 to 10? I think we Yeah, we'd like to keep it 10 to 10. Yeah, I mean holidays don't always fall on certain days of the week. And and then the the other question for um for
council and also for Steve to address is we have a new outdoor seating balcony uh upstairs and I I think that type of restaurant being a higherend steakhouse,
you're going to have a lot more of a subdued am ambience up there. Uh, I think sometimes people have nice dinners that go a little later. Uh, I would ask that we keep the 12 PM for
the upstairs restaurant, not clarify indoors, outdoors. Um, as far as operations or as far as music? Uh, no, just as operations. Yeah, correct. Just operations. Yeah. And I think that's kind of what I was getting at. So people Yeah. So, someone gets there
at 9:30, eat dinner, and they're there till 11:00 because they're chatting. That's one thing. But just no music. Not having outside amplified music. That works. You said 12:00 p.m. though. You mean 12 a.m. 12 a.m.? Yeah. Tricky one.
So, um, Nancy, I don't know if we need to I I would, um, let's let's just add some word words to number two. Um,
so we were basically saying no food or beverage service prior to 10 at the ground level restaurant. And then to go ahead and clarify that the hours of operation for the second floor. Well, I think I think we we talked about
general what if what if you just operation hours from 7 to midnight. What if you just simply said food and beverage service to cor to coordinate with hours of operation of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. I think they asked for midnight, right?
But on but you'd have to ask the that's on the ground floor. We're not talking about Right. Right. Definitely having a closing point on the ground level restaurant. Yeah. So So I think if we modify number two, we say general hours of operation from 7:00 to midnight for the upstairs
use. Okay. So you're adding for for the upstairs and then no food and beverage service. Before you go on from that one, can you add to that not not to include outdoor entertainment on I mean want to make sure that it's it's covered.
Yeah, I think it's covered under three below. So we'll we'll go to three after I see what you're saying. Yeah. So we're talking about operations in number two from 7:00 to midnight for upstairs use period. Then no food and beverage service prior to 10 a.m. or after 1000
p.m. at the ground level restaurant. Sounds Sounds like what you all have been talking about. And then number three deals with amplified music. So what we're saying is 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
on weekdays and we had 11 to 10 p.m. on weekends. Um but we heard the concern about maybe further limiting that. So, we are proposing for number four where we talk about the biffold doors is that we would
add a sentence at the end saying biffold glass doors will be closed by 9:00 p.m. I think we should actually clarify it in number three because in number four we were concerned more with the flood issues. So
some mitigation will be provided by well the hours of amplified music will be limited from 11 to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays. Um there as to outside or inside. I think that would be clearer
or I guess what I was getting at is just keeping it at 9:00. You can still stay open till 10 o'clock down there, but the music stops at nine o'clock. You can can continue it upstairs inside the building. That's more what I was getting at versus trying
to make it too complicated. Client says, "Yes, we can live with that." So, um, hours of amplified music will be limited to 11 to 900 p.m. period and then take away on weekends. And
correct. And so we we've come around to the pinchers model that essentially. Yes. Oh, all right. I like it. All right. Very good. Okay. Because you have something pinchers didn't have. You have an upstairs space. You have Oliver's so to speak upstairs. Yeah. So people won't have to go very far. They won't have to cross the sterile
boulevard. Yeah. So So I think with that being said, we can conclude. Uh just want to reiterate that we've we've come a long ways from the initial
uh submitt uh the LPA. We've put in a lot of conditions to mitigate and to uh ensure compatibility. Uh and I just want to really emphasize that from a need uh
there is definitely a need for restaurants on the south end. There is a demand for it. there is a thirst for these locations. So I think this is providing a use that is desired that the public wants and also that we have
decided as a town that we would modify our CB zoning district to allow these uses. We knew where they worked. We knew that as soon as we made the changes, we would allow restaurants in those areas. So this is to me a very appropriate
location. uh and we've put in all the conditions of approval to ensure compatibility and to mitigate for any uh potential impacts. So, with that said, um we respectfully request your approval for
the special exception and then um we're going to have to close that and reopen for the parking variance and we will be requesting the same thing for that. Thank you. Maybe then I'll save to the the Madden's concerns. Maybe
that's better brought up under the next item versus this item. Nancy, well, go ahead. I think taking it one step further, I I I think we need to have, you know, when the Millers did the whale, they they
were adamant about being good neighbors, working with the neighborhood. I mean, I I'd like to see some open dialogue with the Maddens and other people that were unable to attend dur, you know, during your construction phase, you know, pre-opening, maybe have a soft opening with all the neighborhood, address their
concerns. I don't want to see hotline set up that people call. I want them calling you and and you acting before it gets out of hand. I I think the neighborhood would appreciate that as well. I don't want to codify, but I just like to get your buying on that to be a
good neighbor. Absolutely. Um I mean we we definitely want to be good neighbors. We understand it's a you know there are noise concerns, there's parking concerns. Um but we are here locally. I'm here year round. Um and we're going to have general managers and everybody that are
that are there every day um that we'll be in contact with. So if there are issues, I'm happy to give my cell phone out to neighbors to anybody um they can call me and we'll we'll make sure it's handled as quick as possible. Um hopefully there's no issues or minimal issues, but um when there are, we're
certainly happy to to do what's necessary to get them get them taken care of. You know, the Maddens, Steve, the Maddens did raise a concern that I guess I thought about, but it didn't pop in my head until they they said it, and that was the stacking. And they raised a very valid point. If you look at down at down
in Bonita, yeah, during a busy day when they're they're doing valet, those cars stack up and they block traffic and it becomes very dangerous. So, I think that's something that still needs to be addressed and how we can mitigate that if it moves forward because I I don't want to see that become a problem.
Right. I was thinking of way after they mentioned that I was thinking of ways we could, you know, pull further into the the parking lot where where people drop the valley off rather than closer to the road docks. It's right next to the road and so you can get two cars in there to, you know, before you start slapping traffic. Well, potentially using your
parking lot, just thinking off the top of my head, potentially using the parking lot on site just as the stacking parking lot to move the cars via valet. So maybe having valet all the time is the solution. I just to try to prevent that stacking on busy days where you're going to have people at the steakhouse. Yeah. They can
they can stack in the parking lot, park in the overflow. Yeah, absolutely. And then come back. Just trying to think of ways to mitigate that because that is a concern, right? Absolutely. Any other questions for Steve? Can I ask an out of the box question? Do you have
a name for this place at all? Otherwise, it will forever be the beach theater. Um, so the the Boardwalk Grill is is the name that we're thinking for downstairs because we kind of have the the dock and it's a little bit of a boardwalk even though it's not necessarily part of the the restaurant part of it. Um, we're
still working on a name for the steakhouse. We don't have an official name for the steakhouse yet. Okay. All right. I was just curious because otherwise it will forever be It will anyway. It will anyway, but it'd be nice to if it had a respectful name.
Yeah, we we're trying to come up with something kind of related to the movie theater and the name. So, we're we're throwing some ideas out there and open to ideas. Steve, since we're digressing a bit, a lot of folks still ask about the theater itself, and I know the the business model for the theater is difficult.
Yeah. But is there did I hear at some point that you referenced that you might try to save at least the capa the capability to show a movie in one of the one of the rooms. So we we've been trying to figure out ways to do that. Um so we're still kind of working with Albert on how we can do that. Some sort of of movie theater
aspect to it. Um we're just not 100% sure exactly what that's going to be yet. But utilizing Albert's connections to Hollywood. Is that what you pretty much exactly? Real steakhouse has a pretty good ring to it. Salt and Real was one of them that Hey, look at that. Yeah,
Albert left Miami now. Hollywood. All right. Thanks, Steve. Yep. Absolutely. All right. If there is nothing else, uh I will now close the public hearing, request a discussion or a motion from town council to approve, approve with conditions, or deny with reasons or a
continuence to a time certain. Mayor, may I make a few comments? Absolutely. Thank you. Um, so this is, um, we've often run into this situation. It's kind of a chicken in the egg in that we have a special exception that would require
an approval of the variance and you wouldn't review the variance without the special exception. And you've also heard testimony today during this special exception regarding the variance. Um so my recommendation to you would be that
whatever motion is made should it be for approval that it be subject to the approval of the variance which we will then go into and when we start talking about the variance we will incorporate by reference the testimony and the
information that's been provided. Okay, it's a little complicated, but um I want to keep the record clear so that if in the event that there would be a challenge, we know exactly what the record is and what it is not um moving
forward. So, whatever motion, if there is a motion to approve that, you would also include um a condition that there is an approval or subject to approval of the variance. He's nodding.
Yes. Uh to be uh fully and uh transparently clear, Ken did point out uh condition number eight, if we can pull it back up. Um number three, actually, sorry. Um the way this reads, the first sentence, hours of amplified
music will be limited from 11 to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays. So that would also apply to the inside part of the restaurant, and I don't think that's what we want. So I think we if if you guys are okay with it, we would put hours of outdoor
amplified music. Yeah. So you've kind of closed the public hearing already, but you did hear an additional request and if that's okay, we can put that in the motion as well as part of your deliberation and discussion.
I have no objection. Okay. So, you're essentially just asking for the word outdoor to be included into condition number three. Okay. And Nancy, you're saying if there's a motion to approve that that
should be included into the motion. Yes. Change because the public hearing has been closed. Yes. Got it. And also the uh subject to approval of a variance for parking. Okay. All right. Council discussion. Is there
anyone that would like to continue the discussion or is there a motion? Councelor King. Any further discussion? No further discussion and I'm not going to touch a motion because I'm confused. Okay. Uh Vice Mayor, any further discussion?
I I have nothing additional. I appreciate the uh the dialogue and the concessions on all sides and I think we're making progress. So, I have no further discussion. I'm willing to make a motion, okay, for approval, but make sure I get all the
bits and pieces in here. So, I'll make a motion to approve resolution 25-240. 239. 239. Oh, sorry. 240 is the next one. Yes. Approve resolution 25-239
subject to the approval of the variance coming up in resolution 25-240 and to amend amend item number three to include hours
of outside amplified music to be 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays as well as all the other conditions that have been discussed as well as all the other conditions that have been discussed. Well, there's a not weekdays. It's period.
Weekdays and weekends. Period. Does that suffice as far as um Yes. So, um the wording on weekdays, you're leaving that in and adding in weekends.
I think you agree. Change it to daily. Daily. Okay. So then there should be a period after 900 PM because that would encompass both. Okay. I think I think everyone understands
it. Yes. So the word hours would go hours of outdoor amplified music will be limited to 11:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. Correct. Period. Period. Clear enough? Okay. All right. Got a
motion by Councelor Woodson. Is there a second? I'll second it for discussion. Offer have to go to you. Sorry. Oh, that's that's fine. I I just I want to re you know, we rarely do this, but I want to thank the LPA um because I I
think they sort out, as you can see, quite a number of the conditions of approval, and I I think they they did a a fine job going through this in in great detail. Yeah, and I want to further explain why I second it for discussion because this
is, you know, I agree with you that LPA did a great job of vetting through a lot of this. I think we were able to add a few more things. I appreciate the willingness from the applicant to be able to address some of the concerns. I think that weren't 100% covered. Um, but we're covered here today. Um, I don't
know that it completely alleviates the the Madden's concerns. Um, I have spoken to several people around the neighborhood and and down on the south end that do support this. Um, but I also have heard from people that live in the direct neighborhood that don't. Um, you
know, I think our goal, the reason I'm I'm going to support this is I think the goal for this council and those that live in the CV zoning district was to promote walkability, bikeability, and having areas where we can keep cars and congestion off of Vstero Boulevard. Um,
I know in the next the next thing we'll get into the stacking and and some congestion issues, but for me, I think this this meets the goal that the greater amount of the people in the community are in support of to pro again to promote that walkability and bike
ability. Um, I believe in good faith that the neighbors will try to do their best to be good neighbors. If not, I'm sure you will hear from those within the neighborhood if you are not, much like the whale did at their temporary use. So uh that is why I'm supporting this today.
Any other comments? Okay. Councelor Woodson I I'm an I. Vice Mayor Adhalt I. Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Stafford. Hi. Motion carries unanimously. Do we need to take a 15minute
recess? Anyone need a recess? Just a quick parliamentary inquiry. Madam town attorney, is this this is now passed? This does not have to come back the second reading. Did I hear you say that? That is correct because it is a special exception and it's not a resoning, but it's contingent on
I understand. Yeah, okay. So, okay, we'll take a break. What's that? Like five minutes. Yeah, say 10 minutes. Come back in. You guys Okay. All right. We will call this meeting back to order. It is 12:09.
We are on to our third public hearing. It is a resolution of the town of Fort Myers Beach Town Council. A resolution of the Fort Myers Beach Town Council approving approving with conditions or denying a variance application VR202500047
for the property at 6425 EO Boulevard generally identified as strap number 34-46-24-W4-000046.0000 0000 in Fort Myers Beach for a variance to decrease the number of required parking spaces from 115 to 33 parking spaces and
a bicycle rack for a restaurant, cocktail bar, and entertainment area providing for Scrivener's error severability and providing for an effective date. If any town council member has had any exparte communication to disclose, please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of
the person, group, or entity with whom the communication took place. any correspondence that you received or observations made of the site. Councelor Safford, uh, same as the last hearing. Council Woodson, same as the last hearing. Vice Mayor Hul, same as well. Uh, councelor King,
also same as well. And mine is also the same as the previous hearing. Uh, Jason Utley has been qualified as an expert already by this town council based on his education and experience. Has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort
Myers Beach. Are there any individuals other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time that haven't already so been? No. Okay. And has the property uh applicant seen a copy of the agenda
backup material from staff? They are nodding. Yes. Take it away, Mr. Okay. As you'd mentioned, um same property as we had discussed previously. Um so there were the the four special exception items. This is the one
variance reduction as you'd mentioned from 115 to 33 parking spaces. Um staff did have some concerns uh with the number of parking spaces. Mayor, I'm I apologize if I may interrupt Jason. Um there has been
reference made to the prior hearing. Could I ask if there's a motion to go ahead and incorporate the record from the prior hearing into this variance hearing? So move second. Okay. Got a motion by I don't know who
was first but motion by Vice Mayor Adhalt seconded by councelor Safford. Uh any further discussion Vice Mayor Adholi. Councelor Safford. Hi. Councelor Woodson. Hi. Councelor King. Hi. And I'm n as well. Motion carries.
Thank you very much. And I apologize Jason but this way any reference you make to the prior hearing is all in the record for the variance. Sounds great. We look to your guidance. Absolutely. So, no problem. Um, so staff did have some concerns about the uh the parking reduction that
was provided in the staff report uh which the staff had had recommended denial. This item went before the LPA on June the 10th, 2025. At that hearing, the LPA voted six to zero to recommend approval of the variance. So, I'm
available available if you have any questions. Councelor Safford, any questions for Jason? Yes, so I have so I have a question. Um and we we've been struggling with this parking issue for quite a number of years. Uh the main concern is that especially with a restaurant, our code,
you always take the square footage of the entire entire building. Whereas a lot of towns just take the the restaurant area. So in other words, if you have a huge kitchen, you're you're actually penalized because you have to have more parking. Given that I'm I'm not saying to change the
code or anything, but if if our code was written to where it was it was just eating area, would your opinion be any different based on the reduction in parking? It's it's I would have to know maybe
what the area was, the square footage. It seems like when I was reading the materials, um, this is something that's been going on for a while and it's been identified, but as you'd mentioned, that maybe the code needs to be subject to to your direction to staff. Maybe this
needs to be looked at and and there needs to be a rewrite in the code or some something some I mean I don't want to do it today, but I I think definitely in the future um we need to take a look look at this because it's it's we're we're an anomaly compared to most other towns especially
in Southwest Florida. Well, I think to your your point, councelor Saffron, and maybe it was before you were on council, we did have discussions about with Jason and Sarah about this specific issue and I think their guidance, if memory serves me correct, was to get through the comp plan.
Yeah, that's move on to the land of Elco. I think everybody's fully aware of the point. Okay. I just want to reiterate and I also think it's what Patrick in his presentation tried to show us too of taking just the square footage of the
meaningful restaurant areas and breaking it down as to what the parking would be because that's where your patrons are going to be, right? Yeah. Okay. Any other questions, Scott? No, sir. Uh Council Woodson, no, I'm good. Uh, vice mayor,
not at this time. Councelor G. Nothing currently. I don't have anything yet at this point. Thanks, Jason. Patrick, good afternoon. For the record, Patrick Vaness, um, I'll jump right to the slide where we show the required parking
and, uh, provided parking. Um, meanwhile, um, this town attorney, thank you for putting the previous presentation and hearing into the record. Uh I would have asked for that. So appreciate it. Uh yeah, right there.
So um with regards to counting the gross square footage, uh Mr. Safford, uh you're correct. It's it's a bit of an anomaly. We also double count the space for the bar and the gross area, which is
also an anomaly compared to most jurisdictions. Um, so that's what we tried to do in in looking at what the codes strictly based on the codes what the requirement would be and then if we eliminated some of the um non restaurant
use areas. Uh we did calculate some of the kitchen area also in there but we we didn't calculate the entire square footage. So, um, what we came up with and and we presented that to staff and I think staff, we didn't get any push back
as to was that a reasonable methodology, a reasonable way to present it. Uh, I think staff kind of agreed that you're dealing with a huge theater and you're trying to retrofit it, you're going to have a lot of unused space. Um so
looking at at it that way we came up with a requirement of 115 parking spaces and um what we did is to mitigate for that is you know a there's an acknowledgement that this is a walkable
area. It's very close to a lot of residents especially in season. You've got a lot of people on the south end in those in those condo buildings. Uh so there is uh a lot of clientele right there that can walk and bike. There's
also a bus stop right in front of the property. Uh and then we we said yes, we're going to need some parking. Um we're asking for a 32% decrease from that 115. Uh we think that is again uh fair and
consistent with other districts in the in the town. And we are also uh providing some bike space and some golf cart uh parking spaces and and we are implementing the um the valley parking which I think is going to alleviate a
lot of the concerns. We did hear about making sure that that stacking is not an issue. So, I think we've got um two parking areas that we can we can configure it u where it makes sense where maybe everybody goes to the
dolphin in parking and goes in there valet there or perhaps there's a circular pattern in in that existing parking lot where people drop it off but there's enough space for queuing and then the valley folks park it in the
right right uh area. So I think the valet um will alleviate those concerns and um just for comparison's sake um the
the number of seats in the theater versus the number of seats and I know we don't count it by seats but it's roughly the same uh at 260ome seats um for the restaurant and for uh the theater and
right now we are exceeding what the theater had. Theater had 65 parking spaces and with this uh Dolphin in Valley parking we're going to have 78 parking spaces. Um so with that said I I think we've um addressed the parking
issue uh and mitigated for it and I think we want to again promote walkability and alternative modes on the island. So with that said, if you've got any questions, happy to answer those. I've got one question. Would there be
some consideration for just like we have just like we've initiated downtown could we get one or two spots for Door Dash, Uber, Uber Eats, uh, you know, an Uber place to pick up so it's no confusion as to where, you know, if somebody's ride
sharing, they they have designated spot or if they're if they're doing Door Dash pickup, that seems to create a lot of, you know, where do I park, where do I go? Yeah, I I I would assume that any kind of
Door Dash or delivery service would be worked out with the uh the Valley parking attendant. So, what about a spot for just if somebody, you know, doesn't want to drive, you know, just that they take an Uber or
whatever or one of the taxi one of the golf cart taxi services. Could we Yeah, I think we could we could do a dedicated Delivery parking stall pickup parking spre. No, I'm I'm covered. Thank you.
Vice Mayor Hope? No question. Councelor King? No, nothing. I do have some. My concern, as I said, is with the stacking. You know, I agree with with councelor Safford when it comes to how the calculations are, but you are asking for a significant
increase in what was used there before and a decrease. I would really like to see much like they do down in Bonita, they have a whenever they're open, they have valet service and it really if you watch them do what they do, yes, they do get some stacking at peak hours during
but they have a much smaller area than you do. They don't have an off-site area, but they really pack them in there. Um, but because they have that, you know, you never know when you're going to be busy and when you're not going to be busy. I would really like to see you have the the I think have the the uh the valet all the time. Right
now, it's kind of uh we'll decide when we think it's necessary or not. I'd prefer to see you have it all the time. I think with the reduction in parking and I think the business that you're probably going to do there being able to control the traffic flow so that they're not backing up on a sterile boulevard bringing them in like you said you could
park them in the center maybe make it so they can turn around just come in and you can stack them up and have your valet run them out and park them down the street I think would help alleviate a lot of that both for the stacking and the safety of the you know cars coming down that road are usually moving pretty pretty quickly and we've seen people try
to use a center lane for passing and I would really like to see you consider adding the valet parking as a as a I don't know if it would be a condition or or something but that it's there that when you're open it's open. Yeah. I I think the intent we from the
get-go we would have valley available. I think I think when they open up they'll probably have Valley there every day and they're going to get a feel as to what the needs are. So I I think again it's it's more of an expense and and trying to
help our local businesses in and in and not having extra expenses if not needed. So I think the the idea would be to provide enough flexibility where obviously if the restaurants are highly successful and they need those every day, I think
they have full intent of having those every day. But, you know, on a Monday or Tuesday off season, um, I think the feeling is between the existing parking on site and the dolphin in property, there's going to be ample
parking and wouldn't warrant the extra expense of having the valet there. So, I think I think they they can commit. I think the intent is day one when they're open and when a restaurant opens, we all know people flock to it would would would be having valet there, but when
they get to the point where they're off season, it's not it's not justified. It's not warranted. It's an extra expense, I think they'd like the flexibility of not having valet if that's the case. And I'm certainly sympathetic to what you're trying to say and and you know the cost
of doing business and I get all of that, but you're also asking for a neighborhood to buy into what you're doing for something that they didn't have before. And I think if that a small concession, although it may be a little bit of a cost to the business, you're
asking to take what was a movie theater and turn it into a a probably highly trafficked area both by foot, bike, and people will be coming there. If it's a good steakhouse, are going to be coming by car like they did for Charlie's. you don't have the flex. You don't have the ability like Charlie's Charlie's did to
park them there on that same site. But even at Charlie's, what you noticed, people would drive around, they'd go back on, they drive, and they're waiting for a parking spot and they'll just continue to circle around and go back on. I think having valet would eliminate that and potentially add some safety value to the neighbors knowing that
they're not going to have cars driven uselessly for people driving around and it would help prevent some of that stacking. So, I' I'd really like to see you reconsider that. Um, yes, I understand. I'm sympathetic to the cost. Maybe do do you have a suggestion as to maybe how we we can create a condition where
if it's not needed, they don't have to to provide it. Again, I I'm thinking Monday, Tuesday, off season when a lot of our restaurants on their own decide to close at 9:30 because the business isn't there. They
send staff home. They close early. Sure. Again, if you if you've got staff, weight staff there that you're paying and you've got a eval service that you have to pay, that's just an additional cost that if by all means in season when
we're busy, I get it. But I I I don't want to create a hindrance or or a challenge to business offseason when they're trying to get off and trying to Well, and I understand and I'm not certainly to your point, it could be pouring rain all day and there's no need to have two valet people or even one valet person sitting around because your
parking lot's sitting empty. Yeah. I I I totally understand that and that would be that would be up to you. I mean, if the parking lot's empty, I guess if there's a way that we can find a compromise on this um as opposed to right now it's open-ended. You get to decide. You could decide we're not going
to have it on Friday and Saturday because it's too busy. It's too expensive for us. We don't want to do it. It's a waste of money. Whatever. Right now, it's kind of in your in your hands as to when do you want to do it or you don't want to do it. And I'd hate to have complaints come in and now we have to go back to the previous hearing that we had and you've got violation issues
because you're backing up traffic on the sterile boulevard or they're parking on the sidewalk. To me, this would it could be a very easy thing to help eliminate some of the the neighbors concerns. And I certainly don't want to speak for the neighbors, but at least from the ones that I've spoken to uh and just walking around and
talking and having their input, safety is a concern for theirs. And especially when it comes to stacking and and cars driving up and down their streets looking for places to park or turning around in their driveways. And to me, it would be a I don't know how much valet people make, but I know they probably work off of tips a lot. So, uh, from
what we've seen down at Jacks, Coconut Jacks, those guys hustle and they don't have an issue with keeping them employed. So, if you have a good product, the money for those employees shouldn't be an issue. And again, I go back to you're asking the community in that neighborhood to to make a sacrifice
with music and outdoor entertainment and things that weren't there before. So, I think it would be something if you want to talk to your that I would like to really see that as as something added into this to help alleviate some of that. Um, I I'd like to hear comments from others.
I I think if if you have a suggestion as to how we can address both concerns, I understand the mayor's concern. Uh, I think I think making it a condition of approval puts an undue burden on on the
business. And again, this this unknown and this risk that they're taking and this significant investment, you know, we think we all understand the community wants this use. It's yes, there are potential impacts for many businesses,
but this is something that is desired on the island and we want our business owners to be successful. So, not not um watering down your concern, but just more of how do we how can we condition
it? And I think I'd like to hear from others if there's a way to condition it. Maybe we say in season versus offseason. Um something like that might might work. I'll talk to my client, but uh I I think I'd be open and and valet in season for
sure and off season as needed if that works for you guys. I think I'm getting a nod from from our our client. Well, do you I think that's fair to hear from the other that's just a concern that I had. So, councelor King, any
thoughts or comments on what Patrick and I have just been discussing? I understand both sides of the argument. Um I guess I'd be willing more to lean towards more in season for the for the valet. Okay. Vice Mayor,
I think that's a fair compromise. I think in season uh uh should be encouraged and out of season. I mean, look at just just July and August has been very grim and obviously things are going to get better on the south end, but I think the season in season
compromise seems like a fair one. Okay, council. Yeah, I mean I look at it as a business operation issue and it definitely behooves the business to have valet parking so that people can get there and
they can park and they can enjoy their dinner and that type of thing. So, um I mean I could I could definitely go along with the in season versus full season or out of season kind of thing, but I do
think it's a business operations issue. Mr. Safer. Yes. Seasons and holidays. Okay. So, how do you want to I'm open to compromise. How how would you want to potentially describe what is season, what's not?
Ken's got that for us. I have a suggestion, but I don't know that you would be happy with it. Is it? I'd like to hear your suggestion. My suggestion would be to coincide with uh with with turtle season.
That's kind of daylight savings time type of area. You know, it's u But that's all it's what November 1st through May. I mean, it's so defined date every year. It's not I'm open to suggestions. That was the first thing that just popped into my
head. Um I'll I'll read you what we drafted and um we'll take it from there. So at a minimum we'll so so this would go at the end of the exist existing sentence. Um at a minimum will be
provided during season November to April and Thursday to Sunday from 5:00 pm to close. So, April, how about instead of April through Easter because that's usually when our se, you know, usually after
Easter that works, which is usually coincid, right? Because it can be March, it can be April. It could be the end of Yeah. I mean, it could move around and then what was the second half? I'm sorry. Um, Thursday to Sunday. So not
during the first days of the week and from 5:00 pm to close. So that would be a guarantee. That would be the minimum that would need to be provided. But if I'm hearing that that you're saying that those would be the hours would be during season or would it be?
So it would be during season. Okay. Thursday to Sundays 5:00 pm to close. Those that would be the minimum provided. So you would be mandated during th that time frame to have valet.
So is the upstairs restaurant open for lunch as well or is that just dinner service upstairs and the downstairs is lunch and dinner. Both going to be open for lunch. Okay. Which would lead me to not agree with
what you just said. I think if you want to keep it clean and simple during season, if you're gonna have two places open for lunch, not everybody's going to want to sit downstairs, especially if it's raining, they're going to want to go upstairs. Some will sit downstairs depending on heat, bugs, all the other things. You're, you know, you've got
essentially two restaurants that you're going to be running from the time you open till the time you close. I would feel comfortable if you provides, you know, during hours of operation that you're providing uh the ability for valet during season based on what you said through November
1st through Easter. I you know, obviously there's going to be discretion there. We we're we're all adults. We all understand, you know, it's pouring rain all day and nobody's coming. You have the ability then to cut staff at your discretion, but you're offering the
ability to have that service while you're open during season. Yeah. I I think you know the one thing I'd like to reiterate is is they are taking whole other property that they're encumbering right now and instead of putting a
project on that property, they're putting parking. So again, big investment, big risk on their part. Um, and we're talking about a 32% reduction. So, we're not talking about, you know, we've seen other projects
where they came in and asked for a 70 80% reduction. That's not what we're asking for. We're asking for 32% reduction. We actually are hoping that a lot of times that's sufficient parking to let people park without an attendant.
So I think what we're saying here is it's a commitment to what the minimum would be and then obviously if they're busy they would have valet every day and that's what we're hoping that they're so successful that as as councelor Woodson
said it would behoove them to have valet there and take care of that business. So again I I think I'd like to hear from from others. I think this is a a good compromise. Uh
and like to see where everybody stands. Sure. And I'll I'll do the same thing we did before, but you know, again, I go back to, you know, we're looking out for the residents that live around there, too, who have who have reached out to us and shared concerns with parking being an issue. I think that they understand the
way parking is calculated doesn't make a lot of sense. I think we can all agree on that. However, you're still asking for a reduction and and I try to look at what's going to happen there. I think you'd probably be very successful there and you're going to do it and this will won't even matter. But what I'm trying to prevent is the stacking and people I
know you had mentioned earlier that they're going to go to Dolphin in and maybe we direct them there. They're not going to do that. They're going to pull into the parking lot that's closest to where they want to go. And if there's no place to park, they're going to drive around until they find one or they're going to see someone who's trying to load up their car and they're going to sit there and wait for them to back out,
which is going to cause people to back up. Having valet during season eliminates that because you control where people park. They pull up, they get out. Now you're in control of creating that traffic flow versus someone that's just driving around trying to or they're stopping talking to their buddies or you you can you So
that's where I'm at. To your point, I will be happy to listen to what other council members feel that's where I my stance is on it. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. Just a point of clarification. When when during this period where a valet is valet service is required to be offered, are the customers all required to use
the valet service? In other words, is that optional or does the customer have to use the valet? I would think that they would have to use it. I think that's defeats the purpose if it's an optional thing. I'm just because some restaurants you it's optional to use. Sure. Use it when they have enough parking. It's an option. Just trying to understand what what you're saying. Y
I agree. You you kind of have to make it mandatory if they're going to be there, if the attendants are going to be there. I'm just trying to understand what we're talking about. And I'm and again, I'm not trying to dictate if you charge for Valley, that's up to you. If you don't charge for it, that's up to you. That's a that's a business decision, but I'm just trying to look at it from a neighborhood
decision and a and a safety safety aspect. So, Council Safford, you would call me first. Um, try to try to I I think at a minimum during, you know, I get the the two to five dead period, but I I
think you should have complimentary valet service for lunch and and for dinner during season. Council Woodson. So, you said dinner during season? No, it's cut lunch and dinner. Oh, lunch and dinner. Okay. I mean, if
you don't if you don't if you decide not to have the upstairs open, I I get that. I mean, I'm I'm kind of looking at what's the traffic flow at Junkanoo and Fresh Catch right now. It's not very busy during during lunch, but you know, during dinner, that that parking lot's hard to get into. I'm kind of using them
as a model, but off season, I I don't see the need to make them have a valet parking. No, I'm I'm totally open to that. that I mean again hopefully they're so busy their stakes are so good that they need to have it. Yeah. I mean I'm I'm still comfortable
going with it as a business decision for sure for dinner five to nine or whatever it may be and then optional based on how busy you are for lunch. Vice Mayor Hall. Yeah, I'm I'm wrestling with this in terms of getting in and
micromanaging the the business here, but at the same time, I'm also thinking about obviously the neighborhood, but I'm also thinking about a sterile boulevard and a sterile boulevard in that area doesn't necessarily back up that far, although
it has uh unfortunately, but not very often. Uh but I would think you'd want you wouldn't want a situation with J like Jackson. You'd want to you'd want to uh you'd want to avoid any traffic issues during rush hour, which would be
that dinnertime uh hour and you wouldn't want to create additional traffic challenges during that time. But the lunch hour, the stereo moves very nicely and it just seems like and again I hope you're I
hope you're very successful and this is this is not a problem but I at this point it seems premature to require lunch. I I just my gut I I don't know but yeah I I'm comfortable with your language. Okay, councelor Kang I think uh I'm um I'm in agreement with
what councelor Woodson shared. Okay. All right. Thanks Patrick. Can you re restate what because it sounded like the majority of them were in favor of what you said. Um at a minimum
uh will be provided during season we had November to April but that would be changed to Easter as a bookmark and Thursday to Sunday from 5:00 pm to close.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Public comment. Are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter? If so, please come forward to the podium and identify yourself. Provide your address and whether you were sworn in. Public comment. Maddens. Again, if you wish to speak,
which madam would like to go first? John Madden, 181 Egret Street. And I'll go with I don't really want to speak again, but I will say, you know, I have some reservations about their approach. Yes, they have
business decisions to make and they've been asked to engage with the community, which they haven't done previously. They've said, "Oh, you you've got to trust them a little bit."
Well, we did and we observed them doing unpermitted work previously, so they kind of burned trust a little bit. They inadvertently removed mangroves. Well,
you know, when you have it done, it's not that inadvertent. It's intentional. Maybe they meant we inadvertently didn't have our permits in time. But again, that sort of burns trust. So now they're saying, "Oh, you know, we'll do the right thing. We'll provide
parking. We'll provide valet parking when we feel it's necessary." But their trust is worn out with me. I have no confidence that they will deliver on anything that they've said. And I hear
them constantly referred to as a steakhouse and a restaurant. But part of it's that bar environment, too. Bars do draw customers. Bars do draw traffic. It's not just this sitdown restaurant stuff.
And so I think to say, oh, just in season, okay, in season is the busy time. I'm fully there. I get it because I don't come here much in the offseason either. But just in the evening,
there's still no passing on a stereo. there's nowhere to go if that line builds up. So, if they don't feel it's important enough to manage their customer flow, you know, that's unfortunate for all of us, but it's the community that gets to
pay the price, not them. Appreciate your time, Christine Madden. Um, 181 Egret. I guess I would say um initially I thought that the valet parking was a great idea, but then I started to think about how
exactly does that work and so if it does back up onto Eststerero, I think it causes real concern where we've created an area where we want people to be walking. um if traffic is backing up on either one of those parking lots to get into at the where the movie theater is
or at across at the Dolphin Inn, it has the potential to be cutting off the end of our street, the end of Kurlo Street and totally taking out those sight lines. So, I think it becomes a really dangerous thing. And I know one of the things that they in their initial proposal was that this is a walkable
space, but um and I don't remember the specific number in the comp plan, but it also says that it's walkable and a safe environment. And so how if I'm I'm just listening to and trying to figure out if they're doing valet at both places, then
is is it just exclusive to those lots? Are things being shuffled across? So, do we have a constant stream going back out onto Astero through Egret and back over again? So, those are the types of things that are still concerning me with it. I would say that the movie theater at 166
or 266 seats um came out to be about four seats per parking space. Charlie's was 247 and they roughly came out to four spaces for parking seats that they have. Um, another concern I have is that both the Gulf View and the Dolphin Inn
are um, both up actively for sale. Um, so I'm not exactly sure how permanent of an answer this is. While I appreciate the idea of like the Windom, I really don't think people are going to park way down there and walk back. So, um, I think in my mind there are some things
that still really need to be resolved along the lines of of safety and protecting the neighborhood. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else want to speak in public comment? All right. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Rebuttal.
Yes. Um for the record, have an ask. Um I would like to address some of the comments that were made. Um first one is is with regards to trust and uh the permitting issue. Um we did discuss it
at the LPA. Um, and I've also read comments online where um I I think if people understood the permitting process and I think you guys as council members do understand that
there are multiple layers of permitting and certain things are taken care by the state. So you go to D water management district, you get an approval and certain things are also taken care at a local level. So when it came to some of
the clearing they did in the mangrove issue, they had obtained their D permit. The owners didn't fully understand that they also needed a local permit. So they had a D permit in hand. It was a mistake. They corrected that mistake.
They obtained local permits and went through that approval process. And I think they they if they had to redo it all over again, they would not make that mistake a second time. It was in a burden. It was a mistake. Um
the other issue is when it comes to Can you help me with that? Because this has come up at Murf at the MURF meetings. There was a fine levied, wasn't there? I don't know. I don't know the details
of And that I don't know that that was from the town. I don't know the details. Client saying he doesn't know the details. Well, but my understanding is in talking with with some of the ownership there the confusion was between D
approval and town approval. My understanding, my understanding, and I'm I'm sorry I'm not clear. I wish I wish Chad was here. He would he would know specifically, but there was a punitive
fine put on there and it wasn't from the town, I believe. Okay. I think it was a state. I'll check with my client and and if if I'm wrong, I stand corrected. That was my understanding. Um, the other issue is folks, I've been
here for over 20 years. I remember when the theater was packed. There was never a backing up issue on a derel Patrick. And I know we can we like to compare it
to Jacks, but those are apples and oranges. But the theater had parking underneath it. You're taking that away and creating another use down there and another bar down there. Understood. And and so you're trying to compare apples and oranges here. You're taking away half We're gonna have more parking and we're
going to have a separate lot that's going to be easier access. It won't be under a building where you have to maneuver columns. So again, I think we're looking at a worst case scenario of jacks down in Bonita where
they need some stacking. They need some kind of a turn lane and we're trying to apply at the the beach theater. Again, I I'm I've been here for more than 20 years. Okay. I remember when it was packed.
When I would finish work, my wife would get there early so she could get one of the back tables and I'd never encountered a stacking issue going to the theater. So, while I understand the concern, I think we've got both space
on the property on the beach theater property and on the dolphin in property. We have space for cars to enter the lot and and have stacking on the lot. So, I have a question on clarification.
So, is there going to be valet parking at both Beach Theater and Dolphin in or I think there would be valet parking at one spot. I don't know where they would put it. Yeah, I think I think you enter into contract with a valley company.
They know the best way to do it. And either, you know, either lot where there you go to where the attendant is and the other one's closed the public. People can't just enter it, right? So, if the valet is not on duty, then it could be that there's signage at
Dolphin Inn or wherever else, overflow parking for Boardwalk Grill or whatever the name becomes or whatever it may be, so that people can just pull in there when there's no valet parking.
Yes, that's it. Thank you. Well, before you go though, I mean, I I think to the the public comment raises the value. You know, the the properties that you have put up here as current parking spots are for sale and
they get sold and you have to find another. There's a lot of whatifs here and and I'm just trying to provide a little bit of stability to those that live in the neighborhood that understand that no matter what happens, you're going to be in control of it. Especially during the height of the season, you're going to be in control of where those cars go. You're going to make sure
they're not ending up down the side streets parked in front of the signs whether they can read or they don't read or choose to ignore it. You are going to be able to control that which would I think give some some comfort to those that live around there. But to me there's a lot of lot of whatifs. What if
both those properties sell tomorrow before you even start developing the property? I what if you can't get it to work down at at the at the Windham property? There's a lot of what ifs. there's not a lot of certainties in in what you're asking for. Currently, yes, it's 32%, but that may not be the
case a year from now. But but the conditions are there and they're solid. And and the condition also says that should do Dolphin in be sold, they have to find a replacement agreement and work with staff and and make make sure staff is supportive. So
there is a condition in there and there will continue to be a condition. Okay, I think we've made our point. Looks like he's got before we continue to move on. Um with that said, that's um we'll close our presentation. Okay.
Um we have a full packet uh that has been provided to staff, reviewed by staff, and is in your hands. Um we obtain unanimous recommendation approval from the LPA and um our packet fully
goes through justifications and how we are consistent with the evaluation criteria. Thank you. Thanks Patrick. Um may I ask Mr. Vanessa a question very quickly? Sure. Um so we've been made aware that there's
some outstanding fines or um I don't know if it's fines or application fees. I don't know. Um, are you guys agreeable to paying whatever? Um, I think it's roughly $300. Yes. Okay. So, we'll make sure that that's all taken care of before.
I think it may have been a advertising fee or something like that. I'm not certain. Um, but it's it's only it's nominal, but we might as well get their commitment to go ahead and pony it up. Yep. Thank you. All right. I will now close the public hearing and
request a discussion or a motion from council to approve, approve with conditions or deny with reasons or a continuence to a time certain. Discussion or a motion safer. Any discussion?
So what have we agreed on as as far as the parking? What the inseason dinner time? I believe that was their proposal from 5 to 9 or 5 to close if I'm not mistaken. up close. Okay. During season or well from November 1st through
Easter. Okay. I could I get clarification on what Easter the date is because it apparently it changes and which is why we said Easter and not just April or March or time before the end of April. No, it's
it doesn't go. They're nodding their head as though they're okay with Yeah, it doesn't November 1st through April 30th. Thank you. No problem. Okay, that clarify a little more for you. It does. Thank you. What else you got, Scott?
That's it. Okay, councelor Woodson, you have any discussion? I have no discussion. Vice Mayor, nothing additional. Okay, councelor Kane. Good. All right. Hello. I'll entertain a motion from someone that would like to
uh move this along. I will move approval of resolution 25-240. Got a motion by Vice Mayor Adhalt. I'll second. Seconded by Councelor Woodson. Further discussion. Well, I'm certainly excited for you
guys. It sounds like you're going to move forward. Um I'm not going to support this this variance. Um simply, I think, you know, I'm hoping you'll do the right thing when it comes to valet. And again, I hope uh everybody can work together, but I think you had an
opportunity here to to gain a little bit more support in the community by offering something that's fairly minimal in the scale of what you're trying to do. Uh I hope I'm completely wrong and have to eat crow and say that stacking doesn't happen and people aren't parking on the side of the streets and and uh
doesn't become a safety risk, but I'm not confident that's going to happen. So, I won't support this at this time, but it sounds like you're going to have enough people to move it along. Okay, Vice Mayor Adderhold I. Councelor Woodson I. Councelor Safford. Hi. And councelor King.
I'm just gonna throw Oscars out there as a name. Oscars. Oscars. Academy Awards. Oscars. Oh, okay. But as long as we're going to moving and I'll go high. All right. And I'm No, the motion carries four to one. Thanks.
All right. Our final public hearing is, let me go to it. This is a legislative agenda item that is the second reading and public hearing on proposed ordinance 25-08. This is an ordinance of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, amending land
development code section 34-236. Notices for reposted public notice notice posted public notice noticing prior to local planning agency and town council hearing. amending the manner of obtaining information by contacting town staff and the use of layman's language
in required notices providing for severability codifications scriveners errors conflicts of law and providing for an effective date Nancy so this is a um legislative proposed change to your land development code
regarding um noticing and it it actually came to you for two first readings the first reading uh that you had the title was a little less specific. So, we brought it back to you before um the
break to enhance the um the title of the ordinance to show all the various changes that had been made to it. So, this is now the second reading. There was no opposition to the second first reading. Um, so I think from a policy
perspective, you've probably already reviewed um this item and I would look to planning um one of the Jasons to go into some further detail if they like on the proposed changes. This is something that
Judith had been um handling and I guess they're not coming forward. Jason, do you have anything you want to add on the the changes from the first reading? No, we I I can go if there's questions. I mean, I can go quickly. If you look on page uh 282 of your packet, um we've
added um under the requirement for notices, we've put in um a notice requirement for development agreements for consistency. Yep. We've changed uh quasi judicial to talk about administrative appeals.
Um uh as far as the public availability, the application can be available by contacting town staff. Um the methods of providing notice, um this is where we've added the
requirement to use layman's language. So rather than um using language such as um multifamily dwelling to go ahead and say apartment building to make it more clear. Um the requirement for the mailed
notice is now on the uh agent or the applicant providing that notice taking that burden off of um staff. Single family homes and two family home variances. Again, there's a little bit of a change there. Um, also in the
posted notice, um, the bottom line is this will allow staff to be more efficient and, um, shifting that burden over to the applicants to provide staff with proof of notice that they've complied.
No one here that I see would like to, unless Joe's got something to say. No. Okay. Then I will close public comment and Mayor, I'll move ordinance 25. I got to go through my Oh, mayor. Make sure we're all on the up and up here. All right, sir. I will now close the public hearing and
request a discussion or a motion from town council to approve, approve with conditions or deny reasons or continues to a time sor. I would like to make a motion to approve ordinance 25-08. Notice noticing. Okay. Got a motion by councelor King. I'll second.
Seconded by councelor Safford. Any further discussion? Councelor King. I. Councelor Saffford. I councelor Woodson. Hi, Vice Mayor Adhol. Hi. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries four to five to zero. Uh next is our administrative agenda.
The first is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, adopting the tenative operating adera mill rate of 1.25. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Uh I'd like to start before Joe, our finance director, comes up. He's got a presentation to take you through on this. And I just want to also
uh point out that today is what we're proposing is to set the tentative millage rate um not to exceed limit. Uh we're required by statute to establish that no later than end of day today and notify and then make notifications as
such. Um and uh the vote for uh actual decision to either increase or not increase the millage rate won't occur until September after the budget hearings. Just wanted to clarify that. Joe at two meetings that will be at 501.
Yeah. Two public public meetings which will start at 5:00 pm both times. 501 501. Thank you for that correction. 501. that if I may that is the second part of of today's resolution um have we confirmed
the location of those two meetings is okay so prior to your vote on this resolution we do need to confirm as you know um our our modulars are gone right
from our um Oak Street from from Bay Oaks um and we haven't quite completed our new town hall. Um, so we may end up being back here for our budget hearings, but we do need to decide the location
and announce that to the public today. Understood. We will. Okay. We're we're working to confirm if we can use this location again for those. I just I don't want to take the chance of of of setting it for the new town hall
and unfortunately not being able to do it there. uh hold the meetings there just in case. So, we're going to try to confirm we can use this facility again. All right. Okay. Go ahead, Joe. Oh, good afternoon everyone. Joanzic,
finance director once again. Um I would first of all like to thank Cassandra Penner for preparing the presentation. She's done an excellent job from what I understand and from what I can see um in preparing the budget for you this far. So, um it's been very good work. I'm
very pleased to have her on board with us. Um so, this is just to reiterate um what the town manager has said and this the purpose of of what this um resolution is. It's to set the not to exceed
millage rate and this is per Florida statute. Taxing authorities are required to set a proposed millage rate and provide notification to the property appraisers's office within 35 days of certification of value. That date then
is today, August 4th, 2025. This rate again is simply a not to exceed rate with a final rate to be established at the public hearings that will be held in September. Um and then there's also a budget workshop I
understand that's been scheduled for the MNP meeting. So there'll be more opportunity to discuss the budget in detail then um as well as um any other discussions that we can have between now and the public hearings.
This is just to give you a brief um glimpse of what the general fund budget is in just very basic form. So we have the advalorum revenue that is increasing by $670,000 based on just the increase of the
appraised property tax value taxable value itself. So this is without any increase in the military. So it is property tax itself the revenue will increase $670,000.
There is um Adalor revenue increases as well. This would be such things as parking revenue um etc. That increases 617,000. The bridge loan um amount I think it's different than what was described in the
resolution blue sheet. Um, since I I've come back and we've taken a closer look at that, it's um become evident that the amount that we're allowed to use for the bridge loan is the $1.4 million.
And that's um the result of taking a careful measurement between the budgeted revenues of 2026 and comparing against um FY22 actual which was like our pre-Ean revenue level. So, because it's
um only 1.4 million, we have 1.4 almost 1.5 million less of the bridge loan that we can use this year. Um there's also um last year we one slight difference is we had $50,000 that we were using to purchase vehicles that was carried
forward from the prior year. This year we don't have um that situation. So we don't have that carry forward of the 50,000 but we also don't have the expense of the 50,000. Um similarly the astero landscape maintenance funding um
we had carried forward the full amount that was available from the the grant from Lee County um last year. Very little of it from what I understand has been spent this year. So we're carrying forward the same amount next year. Um,
and then the actual amount that we can spend next year will actually will be reduced by whatever amount was spent this year. But for budgeting purposes to start with, we're just using the same amount. Expenses um excluding the transfer to
the emergency reserve um have increased by 881,000 over last year. And then we're also increasing the transfer to the emergency reserve by 65,000. So that results in a budget gap or
deficit of almost $1.2 million. So Joe, could we go back to that first part? Sure. And I asked these questions is to help illuminate what we're wrestling with here because what's being proposed and I know it's just the the cap is a 26%
increase in our military. Do you agree with that percentage amount? Yes, I do. Okay. So, so just for folks who might be watching, the advalorum revenue is up, we're going to get an additional $670,000 more than we got last year.
Yes. From from the county, back to us, from our taxpayers. The non-advalorum revenue is up 617,000. Yes. That's more money than we got last year from non advalorum revenue.
And we're utilizing an additional 1.482 million from our bridge loan. Is that correct? Is that what that one point is that one that 1,411,000? We're we're utilizing that bridge loan to to meet expenses. Is that right?
Yes. But that's not an increase over last year's usage, but it is an additional amount we're drawing down from the bridge. So basically what you're saying, and I don't want to put words in your mouth. So even though our assessed value has gone up and and that results in 670,000
additional dollars coming to the town, additional parking of six and etc of 617,000, we're still short in terms of our revenue stream 1,482,000 plus some other variables. Is that
right? So we've been op even though the the the revenue is increasing, we're still operating in a deficit. Yes. And maybe what might help explain this is the more our revenue increases, the less of the bridge loan that we can use
because we're and that's almost it's like the blessing and the curse of the bridge loan. It's it's making up the difference between our current revenues or budgeted revenues and what we were at pre. And but what that's also ending up h doing to us is that it is actually
freezing our revenue at pre prein levels, but our expenses in the in the meantime are increasing as they normally would. So even though our revenue is increasing relatively dramatically, we're still in
a deficit spend overall. Is that correct? Which is well why we have to utilize the bridge loan, which was what we did last year. So last year we were deficit spending as well. Correct. Uh yes. And and then obviously the first year after the storm we were deficit spending because our revenue pretty much
dried up that first year, right? Yes, that's correct. So what so so is your goal as the finance director to get us to a point where a we're no longer operating at a deficit and I assume the recovery of Fort Myers
Beach will help take care of that naturally. But B also you're going to eventually have to repay this bridge loan. Correct. That's correct. And then and then and then last year you were able to figure out a way to even build up our reserves
uh even though we were at a deficit spend. How did you do that? Just to remind us. Okay. What we were able to put into the reserve was our savings from previous years. So that's what we were able to then move into the emergency reserve.
Um, I believe it was a total of $4 million. Yeah. That we were able to do that. Plus, we also contributed, I think it was $435,000, I believe. Um, yes, $435,000
from the general fund as part of the budget into the emergency fund to try to keep up with what we might be spending each year. So even as we were replenishing the emergency fund, the reserve fund, we were still in a deficit spend. We Yes. In comparison to preune levels
and what the bridge loan allowed us to use, that's true. So just just just for context, the uh the fiscal year 26 adorum revenue now that we have an additional 670,000, are you is it fair to say that even with
the additional 670,000, it's less than what we had prior to Ian? Well, actually on the adalorum revenue line item that at this point with that $670,000 increase back to even. It's it's about $70,000 above where we
were. So basically even. Basically even. Yes, sir. And on the on the nonadalorum revenue, are we are we uh still at a deficit there? Are we back to even as there as well? No, we're No, that's what that one point almost $ 1.5 million use of the
No, let's see. I'm not looking at this correctly. Um, well, over in the FY26 column, the $1.4 million use of the bridge loan indicates how far short we
are in comparison to pre-Ean levels. That that's interesting because I I thought I heard somebody from the town staff say the other day that that parking revenues are actually up because we're running our parking better than we ever have. So what is it in the non-advelor revenue that's still down post?
Oh my goodness. I don't have just off the top. I mean it's it's all of almost all of the other revenues. What are those big items that that that were we're still in a significant like the half cent sales tax. Um we have communication taxes. We have franchise
taxes. Um We've got um code enforcement um revenues coming in. Um I'm sorry, but but but but it's obviously even though parking is a big part of our revenue and we're good on parking, these
other non uh advalorum revenue pieces are significant enough where we're still at a $ 1.4 million deficit. Yes, sir. What's the what's the answer to remedy to that? just will time take care of that or what what's the what's the longer term goal to remedy that just off
the top of your head? Well, off the top of my head, I would think time would obviously as as the the beach builds back and the revenues would also start increasing and bring come back to where they were, but I don't know how much time. But in the meantime
though, if Adalorum property taxes continue to increase um at a a good a good pace, you know, they may start helping to replace some of that other lost revenue and help us get back to where we were
because one would one would think uh Joe on the non or on the adorum side we would have a dynamic where um notes on the non or on the adalorum revenue side.
Uh we're we're we're basically even as to where we were before Ian and now with the home inventory being rebuilt bigger and with all the turnover a lot of the folks have lost their homestead. So these are new owners with no homestead
or fresh homestead assessments. So, the home dynamic is going to really explode in a good way for terms of revenue for the town and hopefully for the island overall. And then we've got a list of businesses, if you will, new businesses
that'll be either being built or coming back. the Pink Shell Boutique Hotel, the rebuilding of the 7-Eleven stores, the Arches project at Mosh Marine, Lighthouse Hotel renovation and expansion, uh potentially Lola, Salty Crab, uh the Whale, the Beach Bar, the
Cottage, Hoosiers in Paradise, they're rebuilding their building, Meerside, Ebia, a new condo building, Neptune, uh uh Seagate, uh Sandy Bottoms, Beach Theater, soon potentially the Outrigger
maybe the Windham at some point. These will all obviously help on the commercial side and when the residential side is obviously booming. So there is hope, right? So is your is your is your goal then to basically grow our way out of this uh this hole here or are there
policy shifts that in addition to a millage rate that could help us get there? Boy, those are very good questions. you know being my second day back I guess I haven't had a lot of time to consider all of that I mean basically I was focused on this but I mean everything
you mentioned um I think is very positive outlook in terms of growth in advorum tax and probably like our sales tax our share of sales tax and those types of things so that will certainly help us parking revenue should continue
to increase so I'm thinking you know things will naturally improve Um I don't there's see and also any fee increases that we were to implement. I mean that will certainly help reduce the amount of
um bridge loan that we would need to tap into right now. But as we move forward then that would also then increase our revenues if if any fee increases were appropriate. I am I don't want to belabor this but I am a little just additionally curious
since the two largest sources of revenue which is the advalorum revenue and parking out of the non-advalorum revenue are increased. Can you give me just one example of the non-advalorum revenue that's lagging so significantly that we have a $1.4
million bridge loan because that seems awfully big. I I don't have it at my fingertips, but I can I will certainly send you something. I can publish something that shows trying to have the public understanding. You do have a line item by line item comparison. Obviously, we're reeling still from Ian,
but but how is it that we're reeling and how what's how do we get out of it, right? Um well, you think about that. I mean, I have I have the calculation. I mean, what what numbers specifically just more conceptually? Well, it it would give you
the line every single line item, revenue line item, and the the the delta, the difference between FY22, but obviously it's an aggregate number of items that create this big number. It's not just one or two. Yes. And I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking we would get into all the detail here, so I wasn't
Well, we have to though because you know the here's let me give you the reason why we have to get into this is that I I just saw on Fox 4 uh they interviewed somebody on island and and and they about the the 26% tax increase that Fort Myers Beach property tax increase at
Fort Myers Beach is is going to you know sck you with and the quote from the resident was I'm on social security. I have a part-time job, then I have to pay my property taxes, and a 26% increase is just a brutal blow, said one of our residents.
And if I could just I don't mean to filibuster, but I have to say this because I don't think we say it enough is that we have a lot of challenges post that that we're working to address. And the for the first three years, we gave our residents a lot of grace and and understandably so, but at some point,
we've got to get our fiscal house in order. But I think it's so important to provide not to minimize this conversation but to provide some context. Uh when this this woman was interviewed, the context I don't think was provided to her that when one gets their property
tax bill, Joe, this this is all off the top of your head. You don't have we don't have to get into granular numbers, but it's such an important concept. When somebody gets their property tax bill, I got mine last year. It was6 6,000 I'm sorry. Yeah. $6,874.
So my property tax bill under this proposal, worst case scenario going up 26%, it's not 26% of 6,874. It's 26% of 6% of my property tax budget. Is that fair?
That's true. Six or seven percent. So, when I get my property tax bill, and I know a lot of people know this, but there are a lot of people who don't, particularly when they're just sort of counting on some of our friends in the media to explain it, they they think that all of a sudden we're going to get a 26% tax in our
property tax bill. And our property tax bill is significant in the aggregate. But when I look at my property tax bill from last year, I'm paying 1,00 out out of my $6,874, I'm paying $1,887 to Lee County. I'm paying 3 71 to the
Lee County school system. I won't make any comments about the beach school. Uh I'm paying $496 to the for the town of Fort Myers Beach. I'm paying $1,44 for the fire department. And then
there's about eight other items here. everything from the library board, the school or the fires mosquito control district, the uh the Everglades levy fee in the uh highest uh control district, which I think is for invasive plants, a
lot of small things, but so when we talk about a potential 26% increase, again, I don't mean to minimize it, but I want to put put it in context. It's 6% of your property tax bill that would be potentially receiving this 26%
increase. Is that a fair characterization? Yes, that's true. So, I guess the challenge is today is that is that we do spend a little time letting people know where we've been, how we've gotten here, and and and how
what what's our what's our what's our goal to fix it? Because one of the things that concerns me is that if we do a 26% increase in our millage rate and and this island takes off and it will take off. I want to make sure that you
as our finance director have some sort of vision or metric for the future that says, "Wow, all these new homes, all these new businesses, this massive infusion of adalorum revenue coming to the town, you know, we're we're now exceeding our needs and
instead of saying, "Oh, let's just continue to grow government, maybe it's time now that we fully recovered, let's let's let's kick this military back again." because everybody understands the need to I think most people understand the need to do it in our in this post bizarro world in which we're
living in. But when times get good again, you rarely hear local governments say, "Gosh, we're flush. Let's let's let's start moving the military back again." In in your philosophy, would that be would that be a fair approach to governing? Oh, yes. We cannot collect more taxes
than we need. So, that wouldn't I don't even think that's allowable and certainly wouldn't be something I would recommend. But okay, I'm just trying to trying to make sure that this is properly discussed in context. So I I'll I'll
I'll I'll be quiet and listen. Well, I just want to jump in there real quick. I think there's a couple points that I'd like to add to what you were saying. You know, we had Matt Caldwell in who who kind of gave us a shot across the bow, if you will, basically say um change is
coming. it's not going to always continue to increase at the rate it's increased over the last couple years. I think that reading between the lines is essentially what he was saying. Um, another issue that I have is when people think growing government, I think if you
look at the numbers since Hurricane Ian, our government has shrunk, not grown. When I and when I say that by the amount of people we actually employ, we're doing more with less. Correct. So the the I think the misconception out there is that this is
to grow the government and and that's not my interpretation of what this proposal is for. it is to contain or continue to provide the same services that we are providing today but because of the cost and and I think will if you don't mind kind of jumping in here you
sent us a very good detailed email yesterday explaining a lot of the reasons why staff is making this proposal and if you wanted to go through a couple of those I think now would be a good time to kind of go off of what the vice mayor was just saying so that people could understand because again I
think the misconception out there is that this is to get more employees to to do more things that your proposal what you're proposing to us now but that is not necessarily the case that it's almost the opposite it's to to continue working with less like we've been doing since the storm than we had pre-torm is
that a fair assessment it is fair Mr. mayor and and I appreciate it. It the number one reason uh for this proposal is to is to cover the budget shortfall uh that that Joe laid out eloquently and can discuss in has discussed in great detail and and
can discuss line by line if necessary either now or during the budget hearings. But that's the number one reason you know this it would be sufficient this increase would be sufficient to cover that budget shortfall. It's it's we're not really looking for anything else to your point. not looking to grow, not looking for any
other specific uh uses right now. Um because I really want to continue as has been done by Joe very well up till now and continue to be good stewards of of the resources that we do receive and balance the budget each year. And then
we look then I look towards other things that we could possibly do with revenue after we balanced the budget and met all of those services to the public. But it would always be in a in an effort to continue to pro provide services to the public. Other areas, you know, I mean, I
I I sent that. I think the main reasons to do it is is, you know, we we yes, the uh adorum from property tax revenue. We've seen an increase, a proposed increase for this next year. I'm not 100% sure that we're going to receive a
similar increase every year. Um, but I I think I agree with the vice mayor that um that things look good and and we could potentially uh in the future definitely look at uh proposing roll backs, you know, on this would definitely be something that I would be
looking at every year. Um, but we've rightsized our staff. Um we continue to seek other sources to help other funding sources to help um manage some of the programs here on the beach uh such as
our our storm water our our um you know road our roads and our other services. We've received great things from the uh from the state as far as uh grant funds that are 50% match. We have to identify 50% of our own funds to
match those. Um, so that again is something we have to take into consideration when looking at revenues. And before we move on from that, I'm sorry to inter I think that's a key point that I'm glad that you brought up. Although, you know, we've received grant funding from federal and state agencies
to your point they're 50% match and 50% is better than us having to pay 100% of it. So part of your proposal is covering some of those needs to cover some of those 50% matches. Absolutely. That's right, Mr. Mayor. And then finally on that note, uh I'd also
like to say that, you know, we u I agree with the vice mayor that things are looking good. We have a lot of uh development that has been approved by the council uh recently and I think there are many more like we had today, many more coming forward. Yes, there
will be impact fees associated with a lot of those developments, but but those are are in the future. I I not even in this next fiscal year for most of those impact fees. We're definitely considering those as Joe and I look at at potential budgets going forward, but as of right now, I have to look at for
FY26, there still will be a gap, a deficit here. Yeah, I'm happy to and then Joe, if I can just on the bridge loan, I think you said something there that maybe needs a little bit more clarification because there I think the understanding was at
least at the beginning when this initial proposal was sent out. It was that we were expounding or expending all of the funds that were left in the bridge loan. This is not the case. This is based on what you said. the calculations allow us to draw down less because of our
preenalum numbers. Um that's true. I think there was just a misunderstanding um you know because there was nobody here left who sure knew the ter terms of the bridge loan and so they just I think the understanding was that they could use the remaining balance of it for the
budget and that's what was included in the um blue sheet. But the reality is according to the terms of the bridge loan, we can only use it to make up the difference between what our budgeted revenues are compared to what they were pre. And so that's why we had to ratchet
it down as much as we did and bring it down to the 1.4 million. Um, thanks to um, Cassandra who was here and had her laptop. We did bring up um, the spreadsheet that does the calculation of the non-edalorum um, amounts or actually the um, what
makes up that $ 1.4 million of lost revenue. And so some of the other line items would be public service tax was down almost 300,000, state communication service tax like almost 260,000.
Um state revenue sharing is down 88,000. Hapsent sales tax down 128,000. Um right away um revenue coming in down 114,000.
Um let's see. And actually parking facilities revenue is down 326,000 compared to preen. Um let's see there just maybe a few more um to highlight. Um
just some miscellaneous revenues down 98,000. Then there's other um several smaller amounts um that you know add up to the full 1.4 million. Joe, if you could for Thursday, I'd like to have you extrapolate a little bit on all those items in terms of what the
prospects are for the future. Are they Ian related? Will they cycle back up like everything else cycles back up are those institutional reductions that we won't see again? I want you to think about that for Thursday. But what I would like to say is one of the things that's interesting to me about this
proposal and you know I I I hate this process where we we predict that that we've got to pick predict the worst case scenario that everyone says you you're raising taxes 26% then we ended up not doing it and then we you know it's just it's it's a very challenged process.
Nonetheless, the thing that always gets me is unlike our friends in Washington, I'm willing to vote for an increase if we're going to balance the books. And our books are not balanced. We're deficit spending for obvious reasons as
a result of a of a cat 4 hurricane. And I'm I'm unlike our friends in Washington. I'm willing to take the hit and not pass along those those those debts to our to our kids and grandkids. But I just want to make sure we understand structurally how that gets
fixed and maybe we could talk about that on Thursday because that's a that's a disconcerting number and we need to we I think we need to understand it better. We also need to sort of project where those numbers are going forward. So I I appreciate your your comments. Yeah, Joe, if you could I think to the
vice mayor's point, I think it would be nice at least for me to see where we were at Ian and how those numbers, you know, to see what the trend is. how you mentioned parking. We're still 300 some thousand where we were then after Ian and how those percentages have increased to see
if there's any kind of delta of averages of what the percentages to be able to plan for the future. For me, it would make a lot of sense to be able to see it in black and white, if you will, to understand, you know, we were at 600,000 or a million right after the storm, but it's it's gradually increased, which has lowered the amount of the deficit
spending that you're talking about to understand how we would not have to continue to draw down on the bridge loan. Okay, that makes sense. I can do that. I think too, Mr. Mayor, is it fair to say the first year after the storm, there was great optimism that the bridge loan would be forgiven? And I think that
optimism diminishes each year. Is that a fair characterization? Well, I I wouldn't say that. I mean, there's always you can ask for anything, right? The answer is always no if you don't ask. And and we did not ask for that last year because we were pretty much told don't. So, no one did. Uh we have not been told
that yet this year. So, I'm just saying that the chances of it being forgiven continue to decline. I'm not saying it's not possible, but we have to plan for it not being forgiven. I 100% agree. You've got to plan for it not to be forgiven. That's all I was trying to say. Yeah. And I could um maybe remind you that we
did receive the seven almost 7.6 million of revenue replacement grant that the intention at least before I left was to use that towards repaying the bridge loan. So that because as soon as we can become um independent from the need to
use the bridge loan and we have enough um built up to um repay it, then that would free us from all the other obligations that come from the bridge loan and restrictions that are restricting us to do any capital improvements until we have enough um
saved to pay off that bridge loan or actually pay it off. Until we can do that, we're not even allowed to do any capital improvements because they're expecting us to use all of the revenues coming in to go towards repaying the bridge loan. So, um I don't know if this
would be helpful, but one of the things I've thought about um in terms of well, how did we get to where we are and why is it all of a sudden now this huge increase um whereas we didn't need to do this before? And I just I mean these are just basic um recollections of going
back and looking at things. But you know immediately after Hurricane Ian in FY23 um we were able to survive that even though we had such a dramatic decrease in revenues because the first part of the year were emergency response and
emergency recovery efforts that were primarily funded by FEMA. So what would normally have been expenses to the town for normal operations were covered by FEMA because the focus was on um recovery um and response and so we that
helped us. We also had many vacancies after Ian that helped us. So we were able to get through that year and then we had the bridge loan um that we could then apply toward the lost revenue for that year. FY24
we were able to get through that year because we had $18 million of ARPA funds that we were able to use. So that helped in addition to the bridge loan we made up the difference between with$.8 million of
ARPA funds in FY25. We didn't have ARPA funds, but we had interest revenue of about a half a million dollars that we never had in the budget before. So that kind of helped replace ARPA funds. But the other thing
that in hindsight and looking back, we I had overestimated the amount of bridge loan that we would need to use for FY25 by about 6 million.
So6 million. So the 6 million plus the um the interest revenue that we didn't have before that took the place of the um the ARPA funds and helped to kind of bridge that gap of increasing expenditures. So that is how
we got through these previous years and budgets without the need to seek um a military increase or further expense reductions. So now this year we don't have the ARPA funding. Our interest revenue is flat. It's not going to go up
again. Um and our bridge loan is limited. So it'd be fair to say the band-aid box is now empty. Yes. So now we're facing so I think last year if if I had estimated the amount of the bridge loan correctly, we would have
been facing a6 million deficit last year that we would have had to have made some decisions on. Now this year it's up to 1.2 million almost double. So I think we escaped it last year but in reality it's not a sudden increase. If we had if if I
had correctly estimated the bridge loan amount last year we would have been facing like 6 million deficit last year. But we so that kind of I hope that helps you explain why it wasn't just a sudden increase to 1.2 million but it's been
over time. And these increases are because our revenues are frozen at FY22 levels, but our expenditures are increases. We have COLA. Um, I mean, just to give you an example, we have the COLA increases year-over-year. We've had health insurance increases
year-over-year. Our liability insurance went up dramatically because we were underinsured previously. So, our sheriff services have increased for traffic issues and other um services they're providing. Um and we've we've put more
money into the emergency reserve than we had in the past. So all of those things combined are what led to the increases that we are now seeing today that need to be funded. And and also I think looking at previous
year's budgets, we pretty much were to the bare bones. Um and and then where we did try to have a little bit of contingency last year, I mean, we called it out. This is contingency, some of those contingencies were stripped away for this year. So,
when I looked at the budget coming into it, I didn't know what I would see, but they they've really did a good job with keeping where we were at and actually cutting more. and they've rearranged some positions um to try to be more efficient with um how services are being
provided. Um so I I I think the budget is in a good place. I mean there there could be decisions that you might choose to make where we may have to cut things that in your view may be better than increasing the military, but that's up to you to decide as we move forward.
So again, I I don't want to characterize your your comments or my colleagues thoughts, but I I think it's fair to say that this council and this town did everything possible for the first three years while people were really hurting and recovering to spare them any kind of a millage rate increase, but we've now
reached a point where there's no more there's no more tools in the toolbox. No, not if we're going to maintain operations. Thank you. Um I do have a couple more slides but maybe they're continue on they're um they're not as relevant but
this tells you um it's just the formal calculation of the um ad balorum tax revenue that we'll be receiving simply as a result of the change in estimated taxable value. So the taxable value went
up 75 million I guess that would be um the based on the same millage rate it's going to generate $698,000 of um gross tax revenue but then when
you take it down to.96% which accounts for discounts of people paying earlier and that type of thing. Um and required to budget at least 96% of it. That that's what yields the $670,000
increase. You could go on. Now, if we were to increase the millage rate to 1.255 over the 0.99 where it's currently at, this is where it shows the calculation of how we arrive at the almost $1.2
million of increased revenue. And that is exactly what our budget deficit is. And I think is that the last one? So basically to wrap up the decision regarding the not to receive exceed mill rate must be made today unfortunately
because today is a deadline for submitting that. Um and of course it may be reduced in September but it may not be increased in September. Councelor Kane questions for Joe. I don't know that I have questions. I got statements if you want to hear those. But
I've added um I guess it's very disheartening to see that uh we're projected to be in a deficit situation for for a budget that hasn't even started yet. That's very very disheartening. Um but the last two
years, haven't we come in under budget? Uh yes, we have. How much? Oh boy. that. So, I my memory isn't there yet, but we can save it. Yes. Thank you. Um, mayor, I watched your show yesterday.
Um, I know there were folks in there that are still trying to get their houses mitigated and raised, and it's been three years, and I understand that they're not paying the full amount on their property taxes that they could be because they can't use the property for what its intended purpose is. But I
still have difficulty increasing um on those folks and I know there are what maybe a hundred but that's that's a lot to me. Um this state is if they're still talking about it and moving in that direction of getting away from
property taxes. So I think we need to look at different avenue streams. Um I know the constitution gives us as m municipalities certain uh avenues to do that. I don't know, Nancy, maybe this is where you can weigh in and it doesn't
have to be today. Um, but um maybe putting more of the onus on our visitors. Um, as somebody that goes to Maui every year and has done it since 1994, I I continue to get jacked on those uh car rental, um, condo rental,
everything. Uh, so I don't know if that's something uh we need to work with the county on doing or something, but to help out our residents, our property owners. I think that should be at least an avenue to look at. And just like last year, I'll challenge you and you did a
great job and I appreciate that uh of trying to cut where we can and save where we can. And uh you did a great job of uh keeping us from having to raise it last year. So, thank you. And that's all I have. Vice Mayor, any
questions for I think I've been talking too much. Councelor Woodson. So I think it'd be interesting because I you had your list, Jim, of everything that's been approved going forward as far as building and
that type of thing. But we're not really sure when any of that's going to take place or at what amount the revenues will start at what time the revenues will start coming in and what the amounts will be. So that's this big unknown if you will.
Um the only known fact that we really have is that we are going to miss in 2026 if we don't raise our military. That's our only complete known. Correct. Oh, that's correct. Or cut expenditures
or combination of both. Okay. And and that we're going to be looking at we're going to have the workshop at M&P and everything. So this is and I agree with you Jim too about this whole process is kind of backwards
like you have to name this highest rate and then you have the opportunity to do more work and bring it back. But I do think there's areas of fees that we should be looking at short-term rental fees. Um,
you know, we went from like zero to 300 kind of thing or 50 to 300. Well, maybe now with the short-term rentals that are coming back, we need to look at things like that again. So that could help offset because like you said, we don't have to
necessarily depending on what we do in the next month could still affect that final decision in September. Yes. And I I just like to clarify that actually any fee increases that are, you
know, implemented, it would simply reduce the amount of the bridge loan that we would need to use. It doesn't really change the deficit, unfortunately. Okay, that's a good clarification point. All right.
Could you just to your last point, Karen, could you could you just shine a little more light on that? Any fees we increase wouldn't wouldn't reduce our deficit. Could you increases revenue, Jim? Yeah. Right. So, um, going back to the calculation of
how we measured the difference between our budgeted revenue and pre-EN revenue, FR22. So that difference so if you that difference is what determines the amount of the bridge loan we can use. So if you increase the revenues that we're
budgeting for next year that reduces the difference which reduces the amount of the bridge loan we can use. But long term it could potentially help us get out of this deficit cycle. Absolutely. Okay. But not for 26. Gotcha. Gotcha. Uh, councelor Safford, I'd be interested
to hear what uh the audit committee being as the being as the liaison, I'd be interested to hear what what their thoughts are on this. Well, I I can't speak for everyone on the audit committee, but you know, we we were pretty surprised that the last
three years we haven't increased our millage rate whatsoever. I mean, you see Santael has um it finally it we finally came to a head this year and I you know I it was a difficult decision last year
but I get it but we have to look at like I I hope on Thursday we can look at individual silos. For example, the Moringfield I think we're going to be close to budgeted $383,000 loss. So I think we need to take a hard look at each each of these silos where we're
just bleeding money. Secondly, you know, Jim, I I agree with you. I I think down the road a couple years, we're our our re our revenue from Avalor is is going to be great, but on the back
end of that, we have to still look at what our emergency reserves are. Um I still at we'll be at four and a half million maybe five million after this. Am I correct? Well that's what it should have been but
I'm I'm concerned that maybe there is spending going on that has depleted it somewhat so that we need we need to take a look at that too if we get I know it's going to be hard to pull those numbers this quickly but you know we we have to look long term you know we have to have the right insurance. We
have to have the right reserves in case we get hit again. Um, we also need to look down the road at at canal dredging at at at things like that that are going to affect our bottom line down the road. And those are, you know, necessary
things. So, I I don't want to raise taxes, but right now it's it's one of those, hey, we got we got in a car accident. We've been living at our parents house. They've been put foot in the bill. Now, it's time to get back on our feet, and we're going to have to, you know, we're not can't rely on that money from from mom
and dad and our grandparents. So, it it's tough. I I don't like it, but it's it's one of these things we're just going to have to fight through next next couple years. All set. All done. I'm done. Yeah, I I agree with with Scott. I I
would really like to see all those silos that are, you know, the individual and then we can make decisions based on that if there's a way, you know, I've said it at the beginning. Staff-wise, I think you're running pretty lean, at least from what I can see, to be able to produce what is being produced with all
the things that the challenges that we're facing. But are there other things in that in the budget where we can as policy makers make decisions on is that important to have at this time? Should we revisit it at another time type of thing to uh to do what we can, but I agree with Scott, you know, at some
point I think we all knew this was coming, whether it was little bits year in year out. Um I'm still holding out hope that through our discussions on Thursday that we can't or won't have to. Um, I don't think anybody wants to raise taxes, but you still have to operate.
Um, you still have to get you still have to get through it. And and to your point, I think the bridge loan, although it's a benefit, it it is acting as a hindrance for us right now. Um, but it's it it's the cards we were dealt. If we wouldn't had it, we would have been in much worse situation than we are now.
So, I think the staff has done a very good job over the last three years to do what you can with with what we've got. Um, but again, I've always been a fan of this is a preliminary hearing. It's a as far as it's not raising anything. We've already covered all of that, but you
can't go backwards. And we still have the two highest months of the hurricane season coming. And it's always been an issue for me that you put to me, it's like we're putting the cart before the horse. But, and I I want to remind everybody, we we did look at I think it was 1.04 1.05 last year in in this meeting and we came
back. So, this is this is a not to exceed. So, I don't want everybody to panic and you know, if you've got a and look, it everything costs more, but um with this with this proposal, if you have a million dollar house, you're
looking at another $265 more dollars a year, $22 a month. So, it's not like your entire tax bill, as we said, your $6,000 tax bill is going up $1,500. It's just a percentage of that tax. Well, again, yeah, I think I'm looking
forward to Thursday seeing those individual silos to see, you know, is there potential to be able to still cut some I mean, we keep cutting year after year. Is there is there potential to to change up some services at least for the time being to to try to alleviate not
having to increase it 26% but we'll have those discussions on Thursday? It sounds like. Yes. Give you a little more time, Joe. Maybe two more days. Mayor, we'll we'll have some discussions on Thursday. Yes. And then also dur as we move forward with the budget hearings and stuff, but we'll have more
discussions in detail. Um, right Joe? Well, and I think last year too, you had things change between this initial meeting. They will. And when we got to September when you have a chance to really wrap your head around where we ended up this year. Yes, that's for sure.
And we will we'll make sure we take into consideration and come back to you with things talking about the uh the different silos. Definitely got that down. We'll talk about the staff is reviewing different uh fees across as as were mentioned by some of the counselors across the you know that the town has
right now and maybe some recommendations to the council as well with that. So we're looking at all possible sources. Joe, are we still scheduled to have our audit next audit committee meeting next Monday or I would like to have at least a meeting before, you know, our first
September meeting. Yes. Um, in fact, I think the um agenda may be sent be sent out today. I think, you know, I'm trying to scramble to pull together what we can. I think the audit report um should be finished this week.
It should be able to be presented to the audit committee on Monday. So, we'll have that much. Um, and then there's the RFP for the next um audit cycle um that needs to be reviewed so we can get that out as soon as possible. So
those are just a few items. Um I don't know that well I won't be able to have financial statements ready for then and I think the last set that you was given to the um committee was February's. So it's there's a quite a gap that needs to
be covered and prepared because we it's really important to get a handle on where we're at um in terms of financial statements. So yeah, just just to let the council know, Joe had had done a fantastic job of breaking
out. So we have a budget of parking at say whatever, say a million dollars. He broke it out by month and we were even getting to the the point where we would say, look, our our average parking revenue is double in season, so let's
kind of track it that way. So we we were drilling down to where we could see see what silo was doing well and which silos were were not. So I I hope that we can get back to that point where So is it is it your intention councelor Stafford but it sounds like it is and
I'm encouraged by it. Uh our leadership prior to Ian uh for whatever reason uh never took advantage of the audit committee uh tremendous talent on the audit committee. Is it your is it your goal then and you as well Joe chime in.
Is it your goal then to use the audit committee not just to look at the audit but also to look at our budget and maybe look at for some potential savings and look at those the the last six months before Joe left we we were getting to that point where Joe was giving us monthly updates and we
could we in fact in our meetings we had discussions of hey why is why is this silo so low? Why is this? You know, uh, for example, our our code enforcement silo was so high. It's because we had that $600,000
um suit. So, we we can we can see in our in our um audit committee meetings what the trends are and and so to answer your question, yes. I mean, it's it's not the audit committee's job to do that, but but with with those
financials, we we can certainly help. Yeah, it is a the audit committee can do things that the council directs them to do and and by state statute and I think for whatever reason our previous leadership before the storm uh never
never wanted second eyes on things and I think I I look at it like you know you're playing blackjack and and some blackjack tables you see what the the dealer has and some blackjack tables you don't and but I guess my hope is is that is that you'll have the audit committee both of you will look at the presentation we
just got here today and and maybe they'll have some ideas too as potential economies and so forth before our budget session because those folks are it's a good group. No, it there's there's you know from chair on down I mean they're lot of talent
there's a lot of talent there and I they're all willing to you know help and in any way they can. No, they've been great and I I I just I don't want to belabor it but they were unfortunately very underutilized before the storm. So, I think it's great that they're taking a look at that.
Thanks. Thanks, Joe. We'll take it from here, I guess. All right. Any further discussion or is there a motion for resolution 25-210? Any discussion?
Motion. I'll make a motion that we pass resolution 252-10 fiscal year 2026 tenative tenative mill rate and I will second that mayor um do we have the date the time
and the place for the two budget hearings? Yes, the place will be the new town hall and the date 6231 EO Boulevard. The dates, Amy. September 11th. September 11th. September
24. 24. And the time? 501 p.m. Thank you. Nice. No pressure. Will little bit of pressure, but we'll make it. All right.
We got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? I will just say that I have never voted for one of these because I really think the process is flawed. But I think in fairness to having Will here and Joe here and the efforts that they're putting in and the fact that we
really have held off for the three toughest years terms of this milit perspective mil mill rate uh that I'm I'm going to support it today. Uh and hopefully we'll be able to to chisel that back a little bit and uh but I
think we've reached a point where We're either going to pay pay our bills as we go or we're going to sort of move into Washington DC mode and deficit spend and leave our kids and grandkids and people who follow us with debt and I I'm uncomfortable with that. So I I'll I'll
be voting yes today. All right. Any further discussion? Councelor Safford I. I'm an I. Vice Mayor Hul I. Councelor King. No. Councelor Woodson I. Motion carries four to one with councelor King desenting.
This is what it's like to be on the losing end. All right. Our next uh administrative agenda item is a resolution of the town council, the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. You're coming one approving an amendment to the existing
agreement between the town and Goldman Wolf LLC and financial consulting services. One, to increase the not to exceed amount from 50,000 to the budgeted amount of $197,600. And two, add a $5,000 statutory contractual penalty in the event of
breach of agreement during the emergency recovery period to the terms of the service agreement and providing for an effective date. Who's taking this one? Mr. Mayor, it's myself and then Tisa is here on standby too to talk. Okay.
My my goal with this is with the uh again with the absence of the the finance director and gaps in our finance department over the last few months as you know we we brought on Golden Wolf Consulting Fina the finance firm to help us and I am really grateful uh with their assistance and they've been
tremendous with the assistance they provided in the high quality staff that they have been have provided and are still providing. uh in discussions with with Joe when he was coming back on and with Tisa, our HR director, we realized that we we still need to keep some Goldman Wolf uh folks on to help Joe get
his feet fully underneath him and to continue in some of the key finance positions uh that we still have vacancies in. Uh my further goal is to roll those back as soon as we possibly can once uh Joe feels that he he either no longer needs
uh the consulting assistance from Goldman Wolf uh and that we're able to through HR HR's great efforts uh to bring on permanent staff in some of those vacancies. Uh now I just need to ask that we further push that not to exceed limit a little bit more to cover
that time period but not my goal is not to go up to that full amount if we can at in any ways avoid it. Well, I will say seeing firsthand this last week of the finance department working based on a meeting we were in, it was it
was truly extraordinary to see how fast they could get information and documentation to us that we've never seen before in the past. So I I was really kind of blown away at how quickly we received that information. So I will support this for sure based on their
work so far. I've certainly noticed it. I I'll echo that as well that they're you know they they got the audit done um close to the finish line. I mean they've they've done a fantastic job and especially jumping into to a situation
like ours where we're we're post hurricane. were were not like any other town and they they just they rolled and I you know Tisa thanks you for finding them a great job. I I think they they've been a great asset the last couple months. Yeah. And even to take it a step
further, I certainly don't want to speak for Joe, but from what I noticed um before is you were certainly certainly working very hard and taking on a lot of tasks. And hopefully this allows you to be able to concentrate on what you're
exceptionally good at and provide that support staff that you need to be able to not have to stay up till 2 o'clock in the morning. I mean, not that I don't enjoy receiving emails from you at 3 o'clock in the morning. Um, no one should have to to kill themselves, so to
speak, um, for their job. So, hopefully this gives you a little bit of comfort knowing that you have support to allow you to do what you need to do. Well, come on. The sand was more reourished on this side of the islands. Um, not taking Joe into consideration
because obviously he's back, but in my recollection, we're down at least two people in the finance department or is there more than that? with not taking Joe into consideration. Yes, we we were down two and now we we do have uh um two
back on uh is it two right now? Tisa from Goldman Wolf filling those gaps. You can go ahead and step up to Lisa, why don't you answer this question more detail than I could. Good afternoon. Hello, council. My name is Tisa Olivera,
human resources director for the town of Fort Myers Beach. So, initially we were down um three employees. Then we hired Cassandra Penner who has been a fantastic addition to the town as our budget manager. And so currently, yes,
we are down two employees and Goldman and Wolf have two consultants in place who are um currently actively fulfilling those positions. So, Cassandra is our employee or she's employee. She's ours. Thank you. You're welcome,
Mr. Manager. Thank you for um the words you said on this that um you don't want to have to use it if you don't have to. I appreciate that and I respect that. Thank you. Any other discussion, questions? Is there a motion for resolution 25-234?
So moved. Motion by councelor King, seconded by councelor Safford. Uh any further discussion? I assume it's to approve. Yes, sir. Should have should have clarified that. Sorry, Nancy. No, that's okay. I was just going to add
um there's a second part to that resolution and this is just to bring this into compliance with SB80. Um SB 180 is the gift that doesn't stop giving. Um and um so you're going to see that in some of these other contracts
that are coming to you. Okay, we got a motion by Councelor King, seconded by Councelor Safford. There's no further discussion. Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Safford. I councelor Woodson. I vice mayor. I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously.
Next is resolution 25-232. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, designating an administrative authority to receive, review, and process plat and replat submittals and administrative official responsible for approving, approving with conditions or denying
proposed platls as specified in section 177.171, Florida statutes, and providing for an effective date. Frankie, good afternoon. Uh, council members, town manager, assistant town manager, uh, Frankie Kach. Deputy,
excuse me. I believe it's deputy, but I'm sorry, deputy. Community development and planning director for the town of Fort Myers Beach. Um, basically what this is doing is it's state would like us to appoint a person to be the administrative officer in
charge of allowing for plats and replats in our jurisdiction. Uh, we currently use the county for that. I foresee using the county in the future, but uh it still asks that we have a person in place and this would fall into the guise
of the town manager um if so approved. All right, questions for Frankie Scott. When you say guys, it means he's going to do it or do we have to hire somebody else? Nope. It would go for the town manager unless he sees to fit to appoint someone else. Yeah, fair enough. Correct. So, no
additional cost? No. Fantastic. No additional staff, right? Okay. Any questions? That's it. I have no questions. John, thank you, Frankie. Thank you.
All right. Thanks, sir. Any further discussion or a motion for resolution 25-232? I will move resolution 25-232. All right. Got a motion by councelor King. Second. Second by councelor Woodson. Any further
discussion? Councelor King. I. Councelor Woodson I. Councelor Safford. Hi. Vice Mayor Ederhol. Hi. And I'm as well. That motion carries unanimously. Brings us to item D, resolution 25-519. This is a resolution of the town council
of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida accepting an easement related to the provision of public storm drainage pipes and a oh boy aert a pertinent drainage. Never seen that word. drainage facilities in, over, under, through, upon, and across a
portion of real property located in the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and providing for an effective date. Mr. Mayor, excuse me, I think there's a typo in the on the agenda. It should be resolution 25219. 20. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, in the packet
it says 509. So, it's 25-219, I believe. So, okay. So, just making sure we've got the right resolution number. It's 25-219. Double checking right now, but I believe so. Okay. Well, we'll move forward and come back and address it if we need to.
Well, is this you? I'm going to have to ask Frankie or Jeff to come up and talk about this one. Okay. There's subject matter experts, but they're ready. I believe this is the one on Carlos Circle. Is that correct? Yeah. So that we just need to have an easement in order to do to help out with
drainage on Carlos Circle. There's al also some more improvements we're going to be doing on there. Um as pertaining to the SRF loan, we're going to try to add it to some drainage issues on Carlos Circle as well as a couple other sites. So this is just an easement so we can uh run a drain run the pipe uh
to the residents. Okay. Any questions for Jet? So this easement's our easement or it's on the I'll get her to look at it. Wasn't on my list. Let me look at the
Jeff, while you're looking, uh, just for the record, a pertinent is belonging or pertinent pertinent to something secondary buildings that are a pertinent to the main building. I never heard that word either. So, just we all learned something. See, there you go.
So, Mr. Mayor, for clarification, both those numbers were wrong. Okay. The correct number is resolution 25-241. 241. Okay. Do we noted? And what the question was again, I'm sorry, the easement. Whose easement is? Is it ours? Private.
It's giving um they the dream maker legacy LLC has agreed to grant the town a drainage easement. So, okay. So, it's his his property. We're he's granting us the for an outfall. For an outfall for an outfall.
Okay, that's what I thought, but I just want to make sure that's clear for everyone. So, council, just uh as a point of information, whenever um property owner gives um real property to the town in the form of an easement or other type of property, it's always brought to you for
acceptance. Um this makes the town aware of record as to what it actually owns. And also it eliminates it it gives you the ability to reject the acceptance of property that perhaps is has hazardous
problems with it or is otherwise um not in the town's best interest. In your opinion, this is in the town's best interest. I'm assuming it's in the town's best and the resident's best interest as far as flooding goes. Yeah. Mitigation and the neighborhoods. And the neighborhoods. Yeah. And our email inboxes.
And your email inboxes. All right. Karen, any questions for Jeff? No. Vice Mayor. John, would you just clarify what an SRF loan is? It's a state revolving loan. We already have it uh through the tier one project uh doing a lot of the the flood
mitigation and and drainage issues regarding storm water. Um th this is just one step in kind of our it's not tier two, I'm not saying that, but we have some additional things off of tier one that we want to mitigate some flooding. um throughout the town and and
uh Carlos Circle is one of those. So, we're going to try to add those funds to the SRF loan to pay it back. Thanks, Jeff. All right. Thanks, Jeff. Probably have the next couple. Any f any further discussion on resolution 25-241?
I will move approval of resolution 25-241. All right. Got a motion by councelor King. Somebody wants to go home. Second. Seconded by councelor Safford. Any further discussion? Councelor King. I. Councelor Safford. I.
Councelor Woodson. I. Vice Mayor Holt. And I'm as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is item E. It is resolution 25-236. I hope. Yeah. U this is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach,
Florida, ratifying action of the town taken on April 22nd, 2025 and approving contract with Andrew site work for the emergency purchase and replacement of 36 non-operable fire hydrants located throughout the town in the amount of not to exceed $290,512.
approving an addendum to the ratified contract to include additional terms and conditions required by Florida law and providing for an effective date. Again, Jeff Hoggy, uh, community services director. Uh, good afternoon. I didn't say that before. I'm not going to
go over names because I don't want to be corrected. Um, so we had we had checked 200 or 342 fire hydrants within the town um that we owned. Some of them we don't uh that are private use. But the ones that we owned um 36 were not operable.
Uh we had to replace the entire hydrant. It wasn't even we couldn't even get them open necessarily to check the I guess the guts of it if you will. Um so we're got to replace 36. And part of that funding is also to replace some of the guts uh or a mechanism in inside some of the fire hydrants so we don't have to
replace the whole whole thing. So that's the gist of it. So, we're you can see throughout the town there's fire hydrants with bags on them. We're in the process of of repairing those or replacing those. Are all the fire hydrants on the island town owned?
No, there's some that are not um out on Well, we're we're working on that, but uh I can't remember that. What Beach? Bay Beach Lane is not is not ours. So, yeah. John, questions for Jeff. Where's funding coming from? Uh the water fund balance on that one.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Question. Just a comment. I think it's of utmost important to get our fire hydrants working. Agreed. And we have a we just to talk about that too. Uh the fire department does it
every two years. Um we are we put in our own system now to do it every every single year we're going to be testing fire hydrants. So, um, Mark Ashton has that on his plate to to do all of them and and they did check all 342 of them. So, so Jeff on that point, so that the
bifurcation between the town and the fire department, the the obviously the the replacement is our responsibility, but also the checking and the inspection of them as the towns as well. Uh, it's the fire department's ultimate responsibility to check them. U, we put it on us to do it every year instead of
every two years. There are some that hadn't been done um since Ian. But we inspect them in addition to the fire department inspecting them. Correct. We do. Does that seem redundant or No. Uh we'll do we do it every year. So if we know that a fire hydrant, we just do it in the account of public safety. So
um our guys it's just on their rotation to do they just got to open up the valves, make sure everything's flowing, and then they shut the valve off. I guess my question is does the fire department do the exact same thing? Yeah, but we don't get a we haven't got a report from them. We requested it, but I have not got a report back. Wouldn't that be a good conversation, Mr. Town Manager, to have with the fire
chief? Maybe we could maybe there's some synergies there. Yeah, we just found that there was a number of them after we were trying to go, you know, use them for for various things around town um that they weren't working. So, we just took it. I understand. You've got to do what you got to do. But it seems like if the fire department's doing the same thing, there
ought to be maybe we could coordinate and just have one entity do it and we can talk for Yes. Scott question. I was gonna ask ask the same question without that fancy bifurcation word, but thank you for asking that. It's a pertinent pertinent to the word
bifurcation. My question, Jeff, is when I first read this was, is it common for this service or the maintenance or the repair of these to fall under municipality and not the fire district? I guess that one too because it seems to me like this would
be something that would fall under their budgeted items. No, it's under ours for sure. And is that normal? It is. It is normal. Okay. It just seemed it just seemed odd to me that Yeah, you would think that the fire department would control there, but we also use them for other things throughout the town, too. Um, but yeah,
they're in our right away. Fair enough. It's the only question I had. Thanks, Jeff. Is there any further discussion or a motion for resolution 25-236, fire hydrant replacement? Mr. Mayor, I'll move resolution 25-236 for approval.
All right. Got a motion from councelor King. I'll second. Seconded by councelor Woodson. Any further discussion. Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Woodson. Hi. Councelor Stafford. Hi. Vice Mayor Hall. Hi. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously.
Uh next is item F. This is resolution 25-238 for BCI controls. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving the purchase of equipment and programming services for BCI Technologies as a sole service provider in accordance with
section 2-48C of the town's code of ordinances in the amount of 63,52.37 to allow monitoring of the water pressure in the town's utility system at the south south booster station authorizing the town manager to sign the purchase order and provide for an
effective date. Jeff. Yeah. So, the the BCI controls um are basically the only one that that will connect to us and Lee County. They have to be able to talk to each other. So, that's why it's a sole source because it's the only only one that'll do it
with our system. Um we're also changing our system at the south tower um and to a new fill-in pump. It hasn't been updated since 1986. So, it's definitely it was time to do that. And part of that was putting in the new controls and the BCI is the only one that will work with our system. and
in collaboration with Lee County. So, um it's also part of Homeland Security that that's limited access. That's why there are very few companies that can do this and the BCI control is one of them. Scott questions? Not at this time. Karen, I'm good.
Vice Mayor, no. John, funding through the water department fund balance. Yes. Sorry, I was going to say that. Yeah, water fund balance. Yes. Thank you. All right. I do not have any questions. Is there any further discussion or a motion for resolution 25-238
for the BCI controls? We'll go ahead and move from approval resolution dash sorry 25-238. Okay. Second. Got a motion by councelor King, seconded by councelor Safford. Any further discussion? Councelor King. I.
Councelor Safford. I. Councelor Woodson. Hi. Vice Mayor Adheri. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is item G. This is resolution 25-237. It's an RFP. It's RFP-22-25- A for STA number 9, Tetratech GIS. This
is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving supplemental task authorization STA number nine with Tetratech, Inc. in the amount not to exceed $74,500 for a cumulative total of payment for services under RFQ2-25-
A in the amount of $727,348 for the continuing of mapping services in the town's geographic information system, the GIS, to comply with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection rules requiring a local government to keep mapping of its utility distribution system updated,
authorizing the town manager to sign STA number and provide iding for an effective date. Jeff. All right. So, this one um the town does not have a GIS staff um you know on our on our payroll. So, we contract with Tetrate Tech to do that. GIS uh gives us
a complete picture of the uh utility system. So, they did all the mapping especially after Ian. Um and this is just to continue that service. Uh and it's also a requirement that we have GIS done as part of the MS4 uh permit that we have with the county and that's just
a municipal storm sewer uh system. The MS is so it's just an updated system and we have a permit with the county um that they help us with this and Tet just another partner in that. So uh again the water fund balance on this one as well. All right, Council Staffford question.
Not at this time. Council Woodson, we're good. Vice Mayor, you also use him for call before you dig on them. Uh we do contract with them. Yeah. For our locates right now. Yes. But that's a different contract. All right. Thank you, Council King. Nothing. I do not have anything either.
If there's no more discussion, is there a motion for resolution 25-237 for RFP 2225 AD Sta number 9 for Tetrate Tech GIS? Move approval. Mayor motion by councelor King. A second. Second by councelor Woodson.
Any further discussion? Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Woodson. I councelor Safford. I vice mayor. Hi. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is item H. It is resolution 25-235 ITB25-05-PW
for water meter replacement. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. awarding ITB25-05-PW to National Metering Service to replace all 5/8 inch and 1 inch water meters in the distribution system for use in the
advanced metering infrastructure metering reading system AMI to the town is installing order to provide for a safe and reliable utility metering system in amount to exceed where was that in order to provide for a
safe and reliable utility metering system in an amount to exceed amount I think is that supposed to say an amount not to exceed not that's where I got okay in order to provide for an amount not to exceed of $1,619,790
authorizing the town manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with the National Metering Service subject to legal sign off and providing for an effective date. All right. Again, this uh this one's pertaining to our water meter replacement townwide. Um, our funding
source is through the water fund. Again, on this one, this is to like it says to replace all all meters. Um, we are hopefully going to be submitting some to FEMA through Tidal Basin to try to get these these replaced, but um, we have to replace all the ones that are 5/8 and
and one inch meters to comply with our new system. Okay. Officer King, any questions for Jeff? None. Vice Mayor? Woodson? No. So, how many is that percentage wise on
the island? And how long will it take? I think I got to look it up, but I think it's find the data here all of them that we haven't done already. Um, we've done about we've replaced
about I think we're probably up to about 1300 meters right now. Um, so this is the rest of them, which I can get you those numbers. I don't have them. It's like halfish. Maybe half. Yeah. Little less. So, so budgetwise obviously it's going to take it's taking
more than a year. Is that factored in on the water budget, Joe? That's fair. Yeah. I'm trying to look where Come on, Joe. You've been on the job since Friday. But the funding comes from the water fund. Yes.
I would assume. Yes, it does. I guess my question my question I don't know if you can answer nor if Joe hasn't looked at the numbers yet, but is this coming out of 26 budget, 25 budget, 20
this one is coming out of I think we have to sign the contract now. So I would assume it's 26. 26. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I I'll get you a number. Um, I just have the cost per meter. So, I'll get that. Yeah. What does it break break out to
cost per meter? Uh,000. The 5/8 are cost of the town is $353 each. One one inch meters are $425 a piece. And there's no labor because it's town. The town does them all. Yeah.
Okay. That's That's not bad. Yep. Okay, that's all I have. Thanks, Jeff. Yep. All right, there's no further discussion. Is there a motion for resolution 25-235? So move.
Motion by councelor King. Second. Seconded by councelor Safford. Any further discussion? Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Stafford. I. Councelor Woodson. I. Vice Mayor. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously.
Next is item I. It is a six-month review of approved resolution 23-87 for special exception SEZ20230126 that allows for temporary outdoor consumption on premise with retail use at 163 Old San Carlos Boulevard.
Doesn't look like Go ahead, Will. There's no I see no movement. I know Frankie can discuss this a little bit. This is we did not receive a response in in the adequate time frame given. Is that right, Frankie? That is correct. So, the business referred to as Susie Q's uh was uh
reached out to by Judith to remind her that she has a meeting coming up and her her time was running out on her agreement which was every six months. Um she chose not to renew and not to proceed. Um so after talking to town
council, this was the best way to basically tie it all together. Okay. Thanks, Frankie. Yes. Anybody else have any questions? Well, what what are we wanting to do about this? And well, I think the action would be then to recommend denial.
Yeah. Well, to expire, to not renew it. Vote to not renew it. All right. Any other What's the What's the aside from the obvious uh Nancy, what's the practical
implication? If she wanted to start a business again, she'd have to come start a new again. Yes, that is correct. Any other questions? Yes, I have a question. So, all that stuff on our property, does that have to be removed? Is it FEMA compliant? Can we
say that publicly? What's the process? So, that the current property, I don't want to speak for code enforcement, but the current property, uh, where she had her, uh, wine and beer trailer and that, uh, that would all have to be remediated and put back. Uh the sand can't be
there. It was not there before. Fence um the fence, the trailers, all that. And as far as the structure next door, um that's already they taken out a uh demo permit. Her and her contractor had come in and done that. Um and it's also on the desk of our building official um
for a red tag. So we're we're going hand in hand with both of those. Fair enough. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Is there a motion for the six-month review of SEZ 20230126?
So moved. What are you moving? Oh, I'm moving to move it forward to approve it. To not rem to not approve the not renewal of the correct the do not renew.
Okay, got it. Got a motion by councelor Woodson. Do not renew. Yeah. Is there a second? Second. Second by councelor King. Any further discussion? Councelor Woodson. I. Councelor King. Hi.
Vice Mayor Edo. I. Councelor Safford. Hi. And I as well. Motion carries unanimously. Uh last administrative item is a support the distribution plan for the 167,700 or 473 Edward Bryan Memorial Justice
Assistance Grant Program Funds. JAG. Mr. Mr. Mayor, this is a request from Lee County Sheriff's Office. They are one of uh I believe three applicants to this grant. Uh with their portion of the grant, they just uh there's a requirement that over 51% or more of the
municipalities all concur with their use of those funds. They're planning on using them for ballistic shields and for license plate readers. And does this funding will have to go specifically for police departments or can it go for code enforcement officers? kind of go for
this is specifically this isn't really for us at all. This wouldn't be like for our we wouldn't receive any of this. This is Lee County Sheriff uh office that disperses this receive as far as this grant and those the that's how they plan on on utilizing their portion of this grant. Okay,
is for those two purposes. you know, the ballistic shields just increases their officers emergency responsibility. And the license plate readers is definitely something that us as a town can will benefit from as well as they uh you know, enforce traffic enforcement and other uh emergency
services here on the island. Very good. Councelor King, any questions? No. No. No. Okay. Is there a motion for uh support of the distribution of the plan JAG funds?
I will move to support. Is there a second? Second. Got a motion by Mayor Ali, seconded by Vice Mayor Adhalt. There's no further discussion. I'm in I. Vice Mayor I. Councelor King. We'll come back. Councelor King. Councelor Woodson. Hi. Councelor Safford.
I. Councelor King. Hi. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Final public comment. There's no one here. So the futon manager items. I'd just like to cover a few things, give a town hall construction update,
but I think you already I showed my cards um by uh by saying that uh we're we're Nicole's done a tremendous job in the last several weeks pushing the uh contractors and pushing our uh uh partners in the fire district and and
others to uh to stay on schedule or to get back on schedule. And we I I believe that she's done that. Uh and uh we're going to make a lot of progress. So, we've made a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks. We'll make even more in the coming weeks. Uh, you know, we're finishing up the walls, start some
painting. Uh, the painting and the mural will start here in the next few days, then we'll move on. Would you mind just I I I saw some email correspondents about the mural. I know that the arches folks donated a a a painting of the of the arches, but I understand that
there's a mural uh potentially to be cons to be painted as well. Where where in the new town hall will that be painted? Nicole, please. And I understand it's the same artist who who did the mural for the old town hall. Yes. Um Nicole Bergen, communications
director. So the mural is going to go on the back wall of the council chambers. So right when you walk into the left hand side, the wall that's right next to the electrical room will have the mural and it's going to be the same one that was painted in the old chambers, just condensed to fit onto that wall. So a little bit smaller. Yes.
All right. Thank you. Next item, the FE give an update on the FEMA cab assistance. Well, before you jump off of that one, what about the elevator? I know that's been a Nicole can speak to the latest correspondence. Meanings are wonderful, but we get some correspondence from the contractor finally.
Yes. So, we're still waiting on a part for the elevator. Um, but that will not hold us up on opening the building because we can always come downstairs and accommodate to the public. So that won't hold up an opening, but we are still waiting on a part for that. So hopefully in the next few weeks, we'll have more of an update on the elevator.
Whoa. Okay. Okay. So you might as well not leave yet. Leave yet, Nicole, because I think this will be under you, too. So what is the plan for like um grand opening um open to the public kind of thing? We're going to do anything along those lines.
We haven't solidified anything. I think that we would like to do a grand opening. Um, if we can make it before we're actually in there for council, I think that would be ideal if we can make that happen. But we haven't really solidified anything. Yeah, Nicole's right. I haven't solidified anything yet. I have uh taken
into consideration, you know, multiple of the counselors have brought to my attention that that to think about some kind of a ceremony um for that uh that location. And uh we're definitely going to talk with the staff here in the coming weeks and
figure out a plan. Great. Okay. Thank you. Probably stating the obvious, but whatever is planned, please make sure you include our our delegation members that uh made this possible. Absolutely, Mr. Mayor.
So, CAB update. Uh we're still reviewing the 252 properties identified after the the CAV visit. You know, we've got the deadline of August 8th. we're going to meet that deadline. Um, as a matter of fact, the deputy town manager and the staff have been submitting tranches of
of data, working through that list. So, we don't just wait until the very end and send all 252. She's been sending uh batches of that data and they've been received by the region 4 team and they've been reviewing them uh as as we go through this process from from the initial trunch that uh Tracy sent. Have
we started have we started receiving any responses from them in your week in your daily meetings as far as the the tranch? I know it's a good word. Um, no we have not. Uh, they had some issues on their end being able to access the photo links
that pass through their IT system. So, we had anticipated original feedback on Friday. Um, that was not attainable from FEMA's end of things. So, we're anticipating either the end of day or today or tomorrow morning. Okay. And again, that would just be for the
first batch of of properties that we had submitted. And I know there's been discussion about sending out, you know, information if people have reached out to to see if they're on. Are we going to be following up with them to say we've re received a response one way
or another from FEMA based on the initial input of of the properties that you've sent in? So what we had done as a staff is we had replied with whether the property was in compliance or not in compliance based on our flood plane management practices. So once FEMA gives
us feedback on our rationale then we'll be able to move forward with informing the public. Yeah. um talked about that. Um Fort Myers Beach Elementary School update just uh as tasked by the council to continue to
work with the school district on uh the ILA and uh maintaining both ends of that agreement. Ongoing communication with the district in Lee County that district assured us they remain committed to maintaining a school on the island during our last meeting. Uh no plans though have been revealed or options
revealed to date. Um and we just continue to res request regular updates from the district on their plans. Um have not received any solid plans. Um I did notify uh you Mr. Mayor and several others that I did see some ongoing work
in the school uh last week. stopped and checked on it and was informed by the contractors there that it was they were putting in temporary flooring so that the more contractors could come in and continue with um wall working on walls and other mitigation efforts inside. No
further details on that. We did ask for an update from the school district. Have not yet received an update on their plans for that work. Um on that issue are I don't want to put you on the spot. Are you going to talk about that under your items? I plan on as much as you can. Yeah. Great. Okay.
And then finally, uh, an update on Ascension Parish, the Church of the Asens Ascension Catholic Church here on the island. Myself, uh, community development director, deputy town manager, met with the chancellor and the building director for the dascese of Venice. They provided us, uh, with just
beautiful plans that they do have for rebuilding the church, rebuilding the parish on the on their property here on the south part of the island. Um they were unable to leave those plans with us because they're still in the process of notifications across their dascese uh
which will include uh as the chancellor told us a an opportunity for uh residents here of the island those of Lee County Collier County and so forth to uh to attend a public session at at a at a parish somewhere in the area. He said maybe St. Leo the Great or one of
the other close parishes for the public um to receive to take a look at those plans and provide public comment. Then they'll move on to the next stage uh which uh from what we saw is is just going to be a beautiful building that will definitely be a destination for our
island and will you know really uh be good uh resource for our residents here. And with that with that that's all I have. All right. Any questions for the town manager? those plans. Do they have uh are the nuns and priests going to
They do not plan on bringing back the uh um the rectory the monastery. You know, they do not plan on bringing that back. Um they are going to refurbish the building. They've already basically the chancellor said they've already relocated uh those th those
those religious um uh order that the religious order that was there. they've relocated them already and uh but he did state that they want to refurbish that facility, keep it in use. The dascese is seeking or is is opening it up to
another religious order if one is identified. So they they plan on the if you remember that that building the second and third floor received almost no very little damage. They're going to repair those. They're going to turn the first floor into just storage uh as is
required by code. And then they're going to tear down the old uh parish, tear down the community center, rebuild a new combined parish and community center in the center of the property. Uh and then they're going to they want to refer uh refurbish the memorial garden on the
north side. And then the dascese owns the well the rectory they're going to to to bring back and they actually want to bring a priest back as soon as possible to the rectory so he can oversee the construction as well. And then the on the southern part of the property is dascese owned buildings which they're
also going to renovate and bring back. That's great. Need a place to go to confession. Thought you went to the beach for that. That's true. Council Wilson, any question? I'm good. Thanks. Thank you.
All right, Nancy. Okay, so um I do have one item I just want to kind of bring you up to speed on the status. Um when we were first hired, we did inherit a couple of um code enforcement lean foreclosure cases. Um
we've worked through a lot of them. Um we do have one that still is um in the process of being litigated and that is 80 Avenue E. Um we had uh filed it in um circuit court. It was moving along and
um it came to our attention that there was a documentation issue. So we basically we dismissed it and we're starting over with one of three leans that is in that case. Um over the summer while you all were not in session we
were moving forward to the special magistrate. We had a hearing that was scheduled in July. Um we uploaded um all our documentation that we had found. Um so this time hopefully it would go forward.
um last week um because of your meeting today, we thought, well, we'll give it one more shot and see if maybe there could be some kind of resolution of it. So, we did schedule um a mediation session with the owners of of White Sand
uh properties. Um I can't speak to the uh issues that were negotiated um because of confidentiality associated with that mediation um other than to say uh we don't have any type of proposed settlement to give to you today and that
was something that we thought might be a possibility and we wanted to um to pursue that. Uh, so right now it looks like we will probably be going to the special magistrate um in September and
most likely refiling um the litigation on two of the three leans and that's it. Okay. Can I say anything or should I not? No, you can as long as the mayor did participate and thank you and so did Will
um in the mediation. Um, Becky Vos participated by uh by phone and uh Khloe Baron and was also available for um for information that we need needed on this case. Um this is not an easy case. Uh
it's somewhat complex. There's a lot of documentation associated with it um from the past and uh again we we tried to um to see if there was any opportunity for some type of settlement. This is the
matter that came to you back in I don't remember the month, but for a lean reduction. Um and um the offer was made to the property owner to reduce the lean. The lean right now there's three leans. One is um 594,000,
the other is 594,000 and then there's a 500,000 or $500 lean. um council, you made an offer to resolve the matter for I think it was 247. Um that offer was rejected by them and
so therefore we have continued forward um with the case. Yeah. I mean it was a it was an attempt to try to to end a longstanding issue that has been going on long before
most people were involved. that uh to say it it ran into a brick wall I guess would be a severe understatement. Um we felt that we had we had made a a very very good offer um to end this for both cases.
We were very very far apart. Um and I believe we did let them know that I was going to make a recommendation to the council. Can I say what I was going to say to pursue it? To pursue. Yeah. um the two current uh open
u I just lost the word uh for closures two of the three leans and that yes and council had already authorized so today you were just going to reaffirm that that was still the position of of council um once we refile those two we
would be able to have an executive session at which point we could um discuss the detail details of possible settlements in the future, what the legal theories are and the case itself, but at this time um we're really not
able to to discuss in detail um some of the issues. And is it within my purview to recommend or the council recommend depending on how this third judgment hearing goes to
move forward with the outcome based on what the magistrate rules. Yes. On the third lean. On the third lean. Yeah. So essentially if the magistrate rules in favor of the town to give you authorization to go ahead and proceed as these two cases would be Yes.
forward. Yes. It would be the town's strategy to go ahead and and do that. Okay. Do you need a consensus from council to do that? No, really. I think it's really more of an update and just reaffirming that that we are proceeding as you were direct as
actually our predecessor was director John Harren um back in 2022 to go ahead and foreclose on this. Okay, that's it. Anything else? Nope. Any questions for Nancy? All right.
town uh council members items and reports. Scott, um I've got two things. Uh number one, I I may need an excused absence for Thursday. I'm having a procedure done Wednesday. Um I hope to be as strong as
John King to get here on Thursday. But um just in case, may need an excused absence. Okay. I can lend you my walker. It's more like how I'm going to see. Maybe we can get a discount on two wheelchairs. Yeah.
Um and then secondly, I I just got a ton of tax calls um regarding the new water software. There's there's apparently a lot of people that are having some issues with, you know, did they get a bill? Did they pay their bill? There's
just a lot of confusion about the new software. Can you provide an update? Can someone provide an update on where we are with that system and people are afraid their water is going to get shut off and all kinds of you know
I don't know if we're in a position to provide an update on that right now. Um Jeff we're not going to show they're supposed to be getting a bill. I I don't know. It's the utility billing is now under finance. So I don't have much Well, there's there's just a lot of people haven't gotten their bills. So,
we can definitely check on that. Maybe if you know, like I said, usually one or two one or two people. If I get one or two phone calls or emails, I I just got a ton over the weekend, especially like one neighborhood. They're all just, you know,
Yeah. If you want to forward them on to to myself or Joe, and we can get those answered, and we'll get we'll get an answer for everyone here probably by tomorrow. Okay, that's fair. Okay. I expect to answer right this second, but I just want to let you know we'll get on it an issue.
Yeah, I had I the same concern like I'm gonna have my water shut off. Is it the system change? So, I never get a paper bill. So, you don't know what Well, there there's some people look, there's some people if they don't get a bill, they're they freak out. So, it's one of those things. From what I was told, everyone's
supposed to get a paper bill, too. That's what I was told by Roxan. So if not, I'll I'll So if if you were if you were I guess one of the biggest questions was if they were set up on automatic payment that automatic payment still in effect or
they have to re I can tell you from personal Yeah. From personal experience, you you have to go back in and resign up for the new the new software. But you need your account number to be able to do it. So, we'll we'll get with
finance tomorrow and and figure out what's going on with it because that's actually the first I'd heard about it, but it's not really my department. So, okay. So, can we put something out? So, we had put something out. Um, we're on it. We'll Yeah.
Can't remember how long ago, but we did put something out with instructions on how to how to sign up. I remember seeing a post. Well, I mean, if if we're I don't want to add add cost, but if we're we're sending everybody a bill, can we just put a little note in there? Hey, this is how you pay it. Yeah. Do you want to comment any of that? Maybe.
I'm not sure. I'm sorry, Scott. What did you ask? So if if they have to re if they're on not if they set up their debit or bank card or bank account to to pay every month and now they have to re resign up.
Wouldn't it make sense that in their next water bill that you have a little note in there saying this is how you do it because apparently everybody's calling. Everybody's calling and the voicemail's full. They're freaking out. You know, just want to make it easy on
our residents. Sure. I don't know what was done, but we can make sure it's done going forward. Okay. I That's one area I have I have not Welcome back, Joe. I don't I don't know where we're at. I'm sorry. I I mean, I do know Friday there
was an issue because they're they're doing they're still in the process of doing the conversion and they were I think the payments were still collected. the automatic payments were still collected in the old system that needed to be applied to the new system.
And I as far as I understood it, that's where um what they were the point at which they were working on last Friday was just getting making sure everything was updated in the new system according to what was paid in the old system. Okay. So, I would hope that there's
there's a breathe easy dispensation period where if somebody didn't pay their water bill, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt that there's a billing andor payment issue. Got a little update. Somebody must be watching. So, okay. Um, so you have to
go ahead and sign up for autopay again. Um, if you hadn't if you have to still do that, go ahead and do that. And then billing should go out this week. No one will be shut off. Okay. So, just an update that's from the If I could just ask Scott because this is obviously the utilities a pertinent
a pertinent to the finance director, right? So, but do we have a new paradigm shift here and that and that billing now is handled by the finance department? Yeah, the water utility folks utility billing had switched over even when Joe was here before. So, they they
take care of the billing, we take care of the field work. So, that's correct. So all the internal if people have questions about their bill, they don't call water utility. They call the finance department. Correct. Oh, I did I did not know that. Oh boy. They're supposed to be Huh. Oh boy.
Still the same line, but they did ask for the billing. But the receptionist should be able to decipher if it's a billing one, it goes to a certain one, or if it's a field one, it goes to a different If somebody has a customer complaint, if it's billing, it goes one way. If it's regarding their pipe, it goes your way. That's the way it's supposed to work.
Okay. All right. Well, just FY, it's been kind of crazy the last couple days. So, people we've kind of been talking about doing two separate lines, too, and two separate emails because sometimes the Yeah, we will follow up with the information
Jeff just provided and and have I'll have Nicole reiterate, resend out the message that prior with updates. Yeah, a lot of lot of people are just a little bit older and like I said, they're they're wait they're they don't get that paper bill. They they think their water is going to get shut off,
you know. Thank you for letting me know. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. That it that's it. Karen. So, just a question. We get a lot of updates on Santini thanks to
Mr. Adhold. Um, do we have any updates on Seag Grape or on Kestero from any direction legal or anywhere else? Fine fine gentlemen. No, no. Um, I I've been in conversations
with the entity that has been interested in purchasing one of those two properties and have been in negotiations and for a while it seemed fruitful, but as you can imagine the volatility of the folks involved, it's ever evolving. But,
uh, sad to say no. But I'm wondering if our town attorney could work her magic. And, um, as far as Kiao, no, we're still waiting on the court to um to take action. Um, we've done everything that
we needed to. And you said Se Grape or Seagate. See Grape, which is the other, which is where Island Pancake House is. Um, The only thing that's actually in Cape is Island Pancake House
and that's owned by the same by the same entity. I'll have to research that one and let you know. That's all. Vice Mayor, everything's been covered. Councelor King, couple things. I've reached out to F DOT
um and asked that uh they sit down with us the town manager and I and see what we can do to facilitate u having two lanes go off the island in the afternoon and two lanes coming on in the morning. Uh have yet to hear back on that. Um so
I'll keep you updated on that. Um July 24th I became vice president of the Southwest Florida League of Cities. With that becomes u need to attend the Florida League of Cities convention which will be the 14th through the 16th
I believe in Orlando and at that time I'll also be become a member of the board of directors of the Florida League of Cities. Congratulations. Congratulations. I'll get in with you. See you up there maybe.
Oh you weren't going. No well I'm going to try. John, uh, one of, since we're not allowed to discuss these things except in public, one of one of my dreams for the League of Cities has always been if there's a disaster, those cities that are not
impacted by the disaster, if they could if we could create a kind of a a mutual assistant program where they could send permit texts to us from other communities that are unimpacted and vice versa if we're not impacted just on a loan basis. Boy, that would that that
that would have been so helpful to us after the storm to have some seasoned permit tax from Florida, some other community that was not impacted to spend, you know, a month or two in Fort Myers Beach to help us get over the nightmare. That's just a that's a dream I have of that organization. So,
yeah, I'm with you on that. Um, thank you. That's something that I will try to champion. Yeah, I think now's a good time. Just a just a little shout out to Holly Smith from Santael. She will be at that same event. she will be getting the president
of Florida League of Cities. So, um obviously she's fully aware of everything we've had to go through and she understands all the issues. So, um she is a bulldog. She is a very hard worker. Um that's an understatement. Yes. So, we we'll be fortunate to have her at the lead uh over the next year,
but I believe she I believe it's at the same event that she's What else you got, John? That's it. Thank you. All right. I just got a a couple of issues, minor issues that had going to your point there, Scott, with getting a lot of emails about boys mails being
full um not being emptied out. They can't get through to anybody, not getting calls back. I know we've talked about it a little bit, but it seems to be amping up a little bit more on not just the water bill, but other issues with code, with community development,
with a lot of lot of emails saying the inboxes are full and they're not getting they have no way to get a hold of people, especially pe those that are are uh remote. So, just wanted to bring that up in the public meeting that we we we
hear you. We we're bringing it forward to the town manager. he's fully aware of it. The other issue, uh, just to give an update on the school, um, much like like Will and and and staff have met with Denise and their staff, I've met now
individually with all but one of the board members um to try to see if there's a a solution to keep the school on the island. I won't go into details as to, you know, what has been said. I I get the same inclination that you do, Will, as far as the I believe the intent
is there to keep a school in some sort on the island. Um what the recommendation will be from the superintendent at at any point to the to the board members. I'm not sure what that's going to be yet, but I have the same feeling that you do, Will, that you know, it sounds to me like it's moving
in the right direction. What that's going to look like yet, we don't know, but they are having a a meeting tomorrow. I believe it's at one o'clock and I believe the last agenda item is a discussion about the school. I don't expect to see or or have any resolution
from that, but they will be discussing probably what Denise and our staff have have or the superintendent and our staff have talked about as well as maybe what I have talked about with with the individual members. So, looking forward to see what comes out of that. But, um that's a that's a full school board
meeting tomorrow. Uh yeah, I believe it's a it's like a management planning is what I'm And we're actually on the agenda. I believe we're the last agenda item on it. You know what time that's at? It starts at 1. If if I'm able to, I'm going to try to attend in person just to be able to listen. Um being the last
agenda item, it's probably not going to be right at 1:00. I don't know exactly how late it's going to be, but um they can tend to to go on a little longer, much like our M&P meetings can too. So uh but that's tomorrow. You can obviously tune in, I'm sure, and see it via YouTube or their their their
channels to be able to see it. But, um, there's still talks, there's still communication, there's still hope, there's still progress. Um, and I really want to thank the board members that have have met with me. They've been very receptive to meeting in person or via Zoom and and having an open conversation and and understanding where we are
coming from as a town uh as a group. When I say town, I mean town council, ad hoc committee, school board member or the school, you know, the kids, everything. And our goal is to ultimately get those kids back in the school as soon as possible. Um, with trying to look at creating a long-term
solution with a structure that we don't ever have to discuss again that that that's resilient enough to have to deal with anything should we ever have to deal with it again. So, I want to thank all the school board members that have met with me uh for their time and their their willingness to listen and add input um and have have have an open
discussion. It's been very beneficial and we'll see where it goes hopefully sooner than later. With that, I Well, I'm going to I'm just going to commend you for uh meeting with six of the seven schoolboard members, trying to coordinate with their schedules and your schedule and go to their place of work
or wherever they are. That's a that's a big investment of time. So July was a busy a busy month for for those meetings and working with they were obviously trying to take a vacation. So it was it was it but it worked out and and uh they were very productive. So looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Is there anything else? If none Joe looks as tired as I feel. So I move for a nap. I mean adjournment. Right. Got a motion by councelor King. I know. I'll second that. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I
opposed hearing none. We are adjourned at 257. She was right. What I say you were the closest to