##VIDEO ID:aaGAvvew0sY## it is now 2:31 this is a regularly scheduled Fort Myers Beach management and planning session all members of council are present with councelor King uh via remote Town manager Town attorney town clerk um if you all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Joe is going to lead us in that I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right before we start we need to take a mo we need a motion to approve the appearance of councelor King via remote in a grass cour somewhere in Hawaii I'll second any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none motion carries unanimously all right our first item for discussion question is the Metro forecasting Model come on up I don't have your name in here sir so I can't tell everybody what your name is Mr Mayor my name is David farmer happy please all right good afternoon uh my name is David farmer I am the uh CEO of uh of Metro forecasting models we are a data an analysis and forecasting company we work exclusively for governments such as yours we never work for developers when we say something we want you to know it comes our heart or from the data we have not because someone paid us to say that we always let the data to the talking today I'm standing on the shoulders of my partner Dr Paul Van buker he invented the interactive growth model which is uh the signature tool we use for forecasting purposes uh well we can do forecasting for you we should do some forecasting um our data that goes into that forecasting is very useful for other purposes and that's the subject of really what I want to talk about today uh my partner are both licensed Professional Engineers both certified uh city planners and I have a masters of in public administration with an emphasis on fiscal neutrality the issue you brought up with parking uh we call that a policy issue and I studied that from my Masters on how to make sure towns Villages and cities and counties can can keep their budgets uh fiscally neutral and not uh not go over budget so excellent stuff next slide please all right so you know what if what if you knew how things would develop and with that said uh sir could you just take one second and set the table as to why you're here how you got to be here what what tell us a little background as to what what just I tell you let me go back to a year and two days ago how's that so a year and two days ago I had a meeting uh via uh Zoom I think with your town manager because I was working for the limo doing the 2050 lrtp the long range Transportation plan which means I'm forecasting all of your residential all of your commercial industrial and needs for public facilities and so forth so that they can size the woods properly and all of that as part of that discussion uh I worked with Sarah propes before and that got into discussion talking about the the data for the town and such and that led to an introduction to Judith which led to more discussions about the type of data that we provide and how it might be useful for you to uh use for making some decisions or trying to figure things out for example I was watching the hearing this morning and you guys have a lot of information Al be it one-sided pushed at you uh we offer uh data analysis on a more objective level not that your staff is an objective but we provide objective data so you can maybe evaluate a project level or just overall how you want your town to grow or not grow what it might look like so we're happy you're here I just so you're here to kind of pitch your services or you actually giving us a formal report that we've already paid for or requested uh our little both more about just a pitch I'm going to show you some of the data we did for I don't mean as a pejorative just trying to understand what's happening I'm introducing myself to the town so you know who we are and I think our services could be very useful to you but it's it's your decision no it's okay that helps me I just didn't know the background yeah oh um so I actually thought that it might be a good idea to have Dave talk about this because um in a lot of our conversations we're talking about like uh for example you've talked about wanting chiropractors dentists uh hairdressers things like that trying to figure out how much commercial is really possible what's realistic what kind of parking we need what kind of demand we're going to have in the future I mean this plays into all of our infrastructure water commercial needs and we don't have a good idea of where we're at so I started talking to Dave about that aspect hearing that he was involved with Lee County so that's that's why I thought it might be a good idea and then sort of talk to Judith about it and we all kind of thought at least we would have Dave come in and let you guys hear what he does and what his company does and if it seemed like something that we needed to sort of get a grasp on where we're at it sure sounds like a good idea that's just helpful background thank you y and for what it's worth I served for a year I was the only consultant that I know of that served on the Lee County resilient task force that turned into that $1.3 billion um I was asked to sit on that on behalf of Kate Coral that one of our clients as well and so I'm I'm fairly entrenched in Lee County I understand a lot of the issues that I'm want to know at all I have been coming to this beach for over 35 years I used to own land up on the the North End of the island uh so before Co and before some of the hurricanes too thank goodness but uh um so I know this town I think very well I'm not trying to say I'm one of you but I know this town very well I care a lot about it and um and so forth very good thank you all right and so because we're data people we do a lot of work on GIS uh geographic information systems uh so we you know what if you had a map of your vac man spoil I'm going to show you one at the end uh however I want you to preface this with I don't have any dat from yesterday on you our data for you basically dates back to about October of 23 um when we did the we that's when we pulled the data to do the work for the Lee County no but I think you'll see some interesting things in that data um so we can also help by providing you access to data and mapping uh to communicate your policies or show you sometimes when we do our analysis we'll show you what your policies mean you don't like it that's fine we're not saying this is how it is we're saying well if your policies were implemented across the board this is what it might look like you might go I don't like that picture great let's change the policies but we're here to make you uh make you aware help show how things might turn out you know there's that law of unintended consequences we try to help demonstrate and show you those things uh next slide actually the bottom the bottom part of that slide is very interesting so one of the things we do is we do population estimates I know Bieber does that for free um we're more accurate um I'm nailing down all all every door knob of every unit uh on on the island and and we're applying the proper demographic spatially across most people use what one size fits all we've got I think you brok it into like 25 different pieces with different demographics for each section we can also do transient population most people want to say well it's 2.5 people for this no no no no we we we're actually analyzing every every hotel room and and its occupancy and that sort of thing and then uh we also monitor your uh your seasonal residents so that those are not only the ones that are renting units but people that own propert that live here less than 100 days a year and we have uh those Parcels pretty well broken down basically at the parcel level throughout uh throughout the city or town for what it's worth we've also used to work four years ago we worked for uh holes beach one of the things they had that I thought was very interesting is they had every one of their every room that you could rent you have to register this with the town I know because I'm a former property owner here that you require people that rent to to register with the fire department it's safe and everything but I want to drop that idea on you just to think about if you had it by a room because but it's interesting then if I know they have two rooms well now I know okay well one or two visitors per room you can start to see how the peak population might really change one of the things we don't have access to is the vbro and the U Airbnb type stuff that that information is very difficult to get our hands on now we're very aware of your condo to your condos your condo hotels and that sort of thing and we know how to analyze those for purposes hope that was to in the we next slide so if you want to know uh uh pre prean the housing I have about probably about 20 different data sets because of different clients we work for every time we work for a client we pull a new data set from the county and sometimes things change a lot sometimes not very much but my point is we could actually go back in time and and say this is what you had then this is what you have now if that's of interest to you not try to push it or say you need that but we have that kind of capability uh next slide uh so the only work for government uh so you see the city of St Cloud uh Sarah I both work for them city of Naples Village of esta we do their their impact fee forecasting so we don't do the impact fees but we forecast how how their impact fee revenues are going to change over time so they can properly budget for that uh um and of course the city of K coral and city of Auburn did some School District stuff for that next slide so Lee County has been using our data since at least 2015 if not even 2010 for their lrps uh Cate Coral has been using us since 2007 uh my partner Paul Paul Van buer uh in 2010 there was an article that census that just come out and they said that our data was as accurate as a crystal ball I think we nailed it within 150 people it's pretty good especially when 150,000 people um so the village of Estero we helped with their very first data analysis for their very first comp plan and then uh We've working for the city of Fort Meers since 2020 doing their utility work not we're not do the utility design we're providing the population data so they can properly size their facilities and so forth uh and then Le Count utilities we help with their septic to septic to sewer conversion analysis again on on the people side of things next slide so what we try to do our goal is to is to help uh local governments such as yourself uh understand how growth might occur and and and in in essence help manage that growth Again by looking at your policies what do they say what do you not like how would you like to change that Implement some like Sarah to implement the policy to do so so we the goal of our data is to help you plan long range and and understand what your Capital needs may be now I realized with uh um this last Milton and Helen going through that there's a lot of capital needs we don't forecast hurricanes I'm sorry we don't do that however uh during during those if you want guys want to look at me on on LinkedIn you've been looking up we were broadcasting we were taking uh Noah's GIS layers and lay them lay them across um all the counties on the west coast and predicting uh who would be under at least 3T of water the number of housing units and the value of not the land but the the structures on top of land it was in the many many billions trying to let people know what might happen in the process our signature tool is the interactive growth model that's what we use to forecast both population growth and the need for additional public facilities such as Parks schools fire stations and that sort of thing I realize you guys don't have your own fire stations that's a separate special district f but we can still help analyze those things I'm not so sure you need those but we we have that capability and my goal is never to try to sell you something you don't need just tell you offer the services that we have and you guys can pick and choose what you like don't uh so I once again try to say that um my employees me and my employees uh we have owned property on Fort Meers Beach we've woried here we've played here uh I remember in 2008 confessionally didn't discover the Shrimp Festival until 2008 we got stuck just about a mile down the road there was a nice place off say you can't go any further mean I can't 8:00 it's Saturday morning what mean I can't go any further so we learned the very hard way but from that year on we never missed the shrimp cabbage until 2020 of course the shrimp cabbage Festival just a wonderful time my son was four we started coming up for that and uh had a great time um we really do understand the unique history of the Town even before it was a town and not that we know it all but there's a lot we've witnessed over the years firsthand by being here and seeing how things have have evolved and developed and we think that we pretty much understand the residents um concerns about growth and so forth and uh sometimes we can help them understand what's good sometimes you we suggest sometimes if you had more commercial in this location it would actually reduce traffic it's a I know it's something like an oxymoron but sometimes the right thing in the right location can cut down a trip lanks or trips that can actually ease congestion and so forth uh to just go off the rails for just a second one of the things um so when we analyze neighborhood shopping centers which are a private facility they're not public right a public something like a public it takes 15,000 people to support one of those I'm about to show you in next slide or two you have about 6700 maybe 6,800 fulltime that was actually preil and pre U um Helen or so something like that no that was pre prean yeah um okay uh anyway so so that population you see is about half of what it takes to support that and so um I know that um this is a a free society and people can do what they want but the more we could encourage a few more permanent people to live here I think it would help support some of the businesses that You' like to see here it's very difficult to do an urgent care we did some analysis with leak hounding we found that just like a neighborhood shopping center it takes nearly 15,000 people support uh a permanent urgent care facility so I I know peak season there's feels like 20,000 right uh but we need enough people here year round in order to support those uses and that's sort of one of the challenges I think the for the town um uh so we can evaluate and by evaluate structures it's not the structural things that Engineers do got cracks that's not what we do but we can evaluate tell you exactly how many housing units what type they are where they are where we have vacant land and how that vacant land might develop we can do it by different things we can use average densities we can use maximum code not trying to scare anyone we could say well what if this wasn't here what if there was maximum code rebuil it could be a very could be a very large number I don't know about doing analysis um we can also talk I was just talking about the document how we existing commercial goods and services we document what's here but then we can help advise too and what would help to uh support businesses and be here more on a year round basis uh and then of course what's the collective impact of all these future projects coming online how are they likely to change the level of service for various things like utilities or uh Parks or whatever in the whatever you want to measure in the city in the town excuse me and then what if certain land uses were converted what if residential was converted to commercial commercial back to U residential and so forth uh because sometimes uh we we call that land use allocation and sometimes things can be out of balance I don't I think that things are out of balance right now but that can be um one of the tools I'll bring up the term substantial component evidence our model and our analysis has been used as substantial competent evidence to help make decisions about whether a project is right for the municipality or not instead of just saying I don't like it you can look at a piece of data and say well this data says that that project isn't well supported the needs not there or the impacts are too great or whatever that might be it's not arbitrary but it is a source of of information for the town next so we can help answer questions you know what if another uh you know natural disaster wiped out everything on that that's a that's a um just a a very extreme example what have everything got knocked down I know at one point we're looking at FEMA numbers that just made me sick to my stomach I was looking at 10 to 11 feet across the entire Island thank goodness that didn't turn out that way but some of those Maps feem was putting out we were modeling it was just breathtaking what it could have been the hair is standing up on the back of my neck right I'm talking about it um how can you maximize the return on investment of City owned property or even privately owned property so that it's generating the most taxes possible Revenue possible uh for the town uh side note is we also do fiscal impact analysis again only for governments we're working for U City of uh Fort Meers right now and we regularly do analysis for the town of uh uh St St city of St Cloud so they can understand annexations or whether projects are worth being approving and then um then the question and this probably doesn't really apply to you but when you were doing u u Margarita though something project of pretty large scale we can help tell you if it's going to trip over the need for additional public services or not my gut instinct looking up and down the beach and the vacant land and what no one product is going to probably move the needle but that you know uh planners that work for developers call that a dominous impact but I call it Death By A Thousand Cuts right and if you get enough you oh they're all minor but Mone you're bleed to death and so will help you understand that where is the Tipping Point for some of these things next slide please here's the data I was going to show you so uh as of the property phasers data uh you had about 2100 single family homes this would be again in late uh 2023 uh we did our best by studying the the uh area of Photography to try to identify we we had we actually have Noah's um photography about three or four days after this after Ian hit so we're trying to identify which houses were no longer there we assumed if a house was there for the purposes of of the M remember I don't have a very large budget that if a house got knocked down that a house would get rebuilt uh we now know in some cases a house gets knocked down and maybe something more intense comes back in its place uh we also measured just under 6,500 multif family units that's not to be confused like so you look at the the pink shell right that's a condo hotel uh in normal parlament that's going to be recorded as a condo we actually recognize it as a hotel and so we pulled that so that's we don't record that as a multi family record the pink shell is actually Hotel units because that's what they're being used for we knowe that you had about 35 Acres of vacant commercial land based on our analysis and uh and zero Acres of of industrial land which makes sense for a town like Fort Meers Beach right you shouldn't this is not an industrial sort of um there's better uses of the land here for industrial purposes in the most part and you had about 2277 hotel rooms now with all that said I don't I think the occupancy was probably less than half of what we're showing you here um um shortly after Ian uh even look but on down the beach now there's a lot of things that AR aren't occupied next slide this is I think the last slide so this is the vacant land that we had recorded as of again about December of of 2023 you might know if other lands that are vacant uh sometimes there's a lag in the data and so if we don't have you know real time satellite a AO photography it can be difficult to assess some of those things out but you see a fair amount of black and and that black in my business that we call that currency right because vacant land you can change things with no vacant land you're sort of you H in and you can't change anything at all so we look at this as as an opportunity for the town to grow the way they want to and see the things they want to see without a b car Clan with that said I'm happy to answer any questions I know when I say get excited I talk quickly I'm not a fast talker per se I just I get excited could have fooled me talking pretty fast I also know you guys have been here all day too yeah yeah first of all this is this is great because we are starved for this kind of data quite honestly particularly the Census Data how much of your data is dependent upon the US Census Data and if the numbers that you've come up with on your own based on your modeling uh if you had to compare them to previous like prean numbers that don't use your modeling how does how do they match up and again how much how how do you how much do you use the US Census Bureau data so as far as the census um we have great respect for the census we tend to only use the demographic side of that um and some um socioeconomic numbers uh uh like number of children or things like that what we do though is we take we count your housing units and then we apply the spatial demographics to them that's how we understand why this area is more seasonal than this one or it isn't like on a housing basis because these these shapes are fairly large I think there's like 25 different shapes that cover the uh the the the stero Island itself but what that means is we have 25 different flavors of different demographic household sizes vacancy rates seasonal vacancy rates you don't have much group quarters around here but it also breaks those out as well so we use the county property phaser data that we hand verify by handling sound expensive but we don't just take that word for it we actually go and ver yep that's a house yep that's a house oh that's actually three houses let's change that in the data make sure it's recording right properly and so forth um one of the challenges is going to be the the Lee County property appraiser is that we their data there's often a six-month lag it's not a it takes time to get everything into the system and so the homes that were destroyed over the last six or eight months or so uh we're going to probably to work to understand those so we get a proper accounting of what is there but isn't I know we're running late so just one one quick question because you said something really was interesting to me and I'm not I'm trying to track your data so I thought you said during offseason you you predict or I'm sorry during season you predicted our population was around 20 ,000 I'm just pointing that out of okay I was just going to say anecdotally we've heard over the years it's between 40 50 60 during season that was prean of course um does that does that make sense to you or do you have any do you have any sense as to what our population is now off the cup I'm going to say no but what you're referencing sounds more like what they call a daytime population which is sort of voodoo you take all your seasonal you take your transi and then you take Le Train you say well how many times did the bus come over and how many people are the bus and and you start doing that to come up with some sort of anal I have spent many many uh fourth of July's up here I have seen what you're talking about this there there might be 60,000 people on here when you're talking about either a New Year's Eve or a shrimpfest shrimpfest well shrimpfest that probably feels more like 35 or 40 you got the bridge closed right for the the race and such uh but we can do that type of analysis it's not overly difficult we've already tracked all the hotel rooms and such and things uh so I need to analyze it to know the no doesn't necess care about PE so we don't go through all those mations thank you for being here so as a followup to that question so you I'm I think a lot of us are looking for data that okay once this hotel opens up once this Bar opens up once this restaurant opens up what does that translate into daily visitors can you track that we can we can use some data to estimate how that would change um they're always based on factors I I prefer using um concrete things like how like how many seasonal visitors we have have how I see seasonal residents do we have how many transient residents do we have and then we can start backing into okay what about the people coming over the bridge don't live here don't aren't staying here but are yet adding to that and I think we can there's some analysis that we can do to help determine what that daytime population looks like and what it will be and what yeah right anding in the future so one of the things we did with homes Beach is we looked at what their Beach capacity was and that's a very you know fluid thing you say okay I need 10 sare feet per person or or in in their case we use the number of parking spaces to estimate okay how how many people could this PL can the beach support based on the existing parking spaces um there's no end to what we can do and if we think that it's going to be lead to a number that's very squishy and unreliable we're going to tell you up front that yeah we can do that for you but I don't think that's going to be a number you're going to I think the other thing we're looking at too is we have so many condos just I don't know if you were here that one guy said one of his buildings is going to open up in January another February we have dozens of in that situation can you get your hands on that data too as as you know I I know you can do it with houses but can you track the condos that are coming back online uh so we know where all the condos are uh again I would like to work with the Lee kind of property P to understand which ones have been fully condemned we realize that some have been condemned um but uh but many appear to be very close to opening if I had to guess maybe three or four months some of them uh based on on the drive up the beach that means 68 and uh what that means 68 could be 68 material materials and all that other fun stuff uh but yes we can we could that's not we've never been asked to do that but I know exactly you're okay as as a I can't remember condos as something arm was there something arms Leon arms as as that comes online okay here's another 523 people or whatever and keep going on down the line and the seasonal component of that too because we recognize too most people don't use their units um you know 365 they often rent them out or just don't come back I'm curious to go a little more granual than that okay let's go so you'd said something in your presentation that was interesting to me compens comp competent substantial evidence what she said y it's been a long day how how can your data or can your data how granual can your data get with what is here obviously is what councilor saff was saying but what is being projected let's say we've got someone that comes in with a proposal we're going to do whatever can your data take that analyze it and give us something that we could say you're proposing X this data that we got from you tells us that we don't have either the infrastructure or the resources or the services to provide what you're proposing or what you're proposing with the benefits that you're providing is either Overkill not necessary it's really not a benefit because you can support it based on your analysis can you get that granu to give us data to be able to help with that Vision I don't want to say something that I can't do but I want to say generically yes yes we work at the parcel level we don't forecast at the parcel level I don't know how many houses are going to have red doors and I don't know uh you know we don't know I've got 10 Lots I can tell you that three of them are likely to develop by the end of the year but I don't know which exactly three lots but what you're talking about is taking a look and say of proposals and I have something fixed in front of me we're going to build this many units or this many square feet okay and I'm make it then work on and say what are the impacts that result from that what is the impact of traffic and I don't really don't want to do TI statements and that kind of thing but we can help review those sorts of things they should be submitted as part of their approval packages right Transportation study and and so forth uh and we can help you tell you what the impact will be to the town's facilities and that can be used to help you make decisions on whether that's best for the town or not and that can be used as evidence under a decision one way or another yes um so basically your decisions that you make they can't be generically arbitrary discriminatory or unreasonable you are able to take the testimony of experts and based on qualifications uh that Mr farmer has as Sarah and Jason and um Judith as well and rely on that testimony um and it would be based on their data and their analysis and then so when you make a decision let's say hypothetically to deny it would be based on the on the the delivery of of evidence and testimony from an expert yeah and I guess what I'm getting at is it goes both ways whether it's approval or deny but yeah you know based on what you're offering to us our data tells us that you really need a hair cutting place or you really need a dentist or you really need I you know what I mean that level you get what I'm saying or you need you don't have enough of you don't have enough restaurants to support what this proposal is or you have too many to support that so what they're proposing really isn't a benefit because you can already support that you see you see I'm getting what I'm getting at to help make decisions or help I want to use negotiations but help with having a conversation with a proposal that comes before us because I I mean our staff goes so far but this could this go further into recommendations than what our staff is capable of doing or help or help right but I mean it' be a piggyback to the recommendation quantitative data rather than qualitative because you can say there's going to be a traffic impact he's going to tell you how much uh within a degree of you know estimation and and expertise this is what the impact's going to be based on someone else's looking at their ts against the background data that's not the specialty of what we do TI's and things like that overell so do you have a Delta for hurricanes I I know that if you take a town like Estero and they have so many empty lots and you know that the economy is good you you you can forecast how that's going to grow but down here money's tighter a little more expensive of land do you have a Delta for the beach as far as regrowth no because what what we're finding out is is we've all run into this we all thought it was going to be three to five years to work back on our feet but we we all know it's going to be 10 so so do you have some type of Delta there that help that is just for Fort Myers Beach so let me tell you so the answer direct answer is no but let me tell you a quick story about me so uh I left professional engineering in 2000 I went to work for my best client because she needed someone to build the projects that I had been designing for the last whatever years and so I got baptized in my fire learned how to actually build projects she goes wow you're doing such a great job go get your go get your contractor's license and I started building the projects and the houses and she goes why are you doing such a great job go get your broker's license we you go find my or land so got my Brokers license went started finding more land the point with all I've also taught 11 years for the urban Institute real estate development ac across the country what I'm trying to relate to you is I have a very very good understanding of how development occurs why it occurs the things that are impediments such as sometimes interest rates or or cost of things uh I interview uh land owners all across all across the State of Florida particularly a lot in the county and I hear stories about oh that's we're going to build a thousand units by next year oh sure you are no you're not no one's going to build a thousand units and sell them in one year uh conversely someone might say well I'm building this project and it's not going to absorb might look at are you kidding you build that product it's going to absorb like that there's a lot of professional experience that I have that I bring to the table that you can't take a class you can't um I'll ask you to trust me once and show you what I can do and for it's worth of my gator but uh my gator sucks um so I I recognize we're not public here and going say some app regret in the future uh but for example I just gave you this example let's say you wanted to have a public to make sure the public stays here and does maybe they get they get sideways on you want to get off the eye well the way to do that is to have permanent population well you know what what is not permanent population condos so you might want to it could the the advice could be well if you really want to support this is the town's goals and objectives what you need are more permanent residents and so if someone's proposing a project that doesn't add more permanent residence that can be a reason for denial right the town wants to be economically uh sufficient in order to Independent in order to do that you need to have closer to 15,000 permanent residents here and there's a lot of different ways to achieve that but that could be used I'm just trying to give you an example as a as a mechanism to say yes or no to maybe certain kinds of products because it doesn't achieve the necessary goals of the town uh and I would even go back to fiscally to be fiscally neutral or fiscally conservative that you need to have uh enough people here uh so the businesses stay around so that you keep uh economic Vitality of the town going because if everyone you know as long as I've been on the beach almost all the service workers live off town or don't tell anyone but there's illegal units looks the houses there used to be there's not so anymore um and so for service workers and things like there's I don't want to get too deep into it especially at this at this forum but that's the kind of information we can help you bring again to achieve your goals and just so happens the answer well that means we want less of this kind of development and more of this kind of development I don't tell you what you want I just tell you how What policies can achieve what you want yes John do you have any questions I just thought it was interesting what you just said there about condos and how it relates to permanent residence more of Mr Safford there um so I've seen a lot of things with the problem is people can pay $10 million for a condo but as soon as they do that it's a sup cost meaning that I've already I I I'm not spend any more money I don't have to I already own that I can sort of forget about it tell me every time you've seen someone rent an apartment and not use it almost almost never right who LS an apartment for a year doesn't use it it could happen I guess now watch someone structure a deal so that gotta careful what I say on public record but um my point is that certain kinds of development procure permanent residents and some kind of development don't so um I don't have a specific scope of work I I propose i' worked something out with the um the town manager and your your planning team and you know see how it goes I will tell you every client I've ever had I have um usually when they get a taste of what we do they like it they want to see some more of it we're not heavy-handed we try to under promise overd deliver uh and when we say we're sure we've triple quadruple check to make sure especially if it's something you know really important we want to make sure we have the right in Goods so when litigation happens and and we've been there we were involved in the stero lawsuit and in the end a developer walked away um they couldn't prove our data was wrong so we realize that people at Kate Coral is basing $3 billion dollars worth the water and sewer improvements based on our forecasting we understand the magnitude of the number some people are just numbers to us it's not just numbers that mean something we mean something to the people into the Cs I personally think this data could be very informative and very helpful in what I think we're going to have come into Force the next couple of years at least it's scary um and I forgive me it took took me two months after Ian to get up here um and I was prepared and I got here and I wasn't prepared it it broke my heart I you know I had like more than a million ice cream coms at Derek Queen I can feel myself in flush and don't get Frankie all wound up so when I got there you know I'm an engineer I understand damage I I I I understand structures and when I got there the block there was no evidence that other than the black the red tile floor there was no evidence of that you the kind of energy it takes to completely sheer off steel and wipe something completely away it was just absolutely devastating I miss I'm sorry that CLA sold for $20 million or whatever because that was one of our favorite restaurants de only 3.4 I only for like five square feet so so I'm kind of into timing today um with everything that's going to be coming at us in the next 12 to 24 months what is your timing to put together these studies and get us information and be able to utilize that in upcoming decisions uh well we get started with the scope of work and I can start immediately I mean you know we're busy we have projects going but I'm very good at scheduling things and we can work on multiple things at one time uh and Sarah I on the spot she can vouch that we always we always meet the deadlines if not exceed them um you know I can't have something ready for tomorrow there's a lot of work that goes into this but this is not a yearlong thing Friday would be good I can give you last year's data by Friday no problem I can it probably hasn't changed that much actually from last year well see the problem is there's a lag in that property praiser data so by now the data is almost a year and a half old than will be used to do the lp so I mean because at our last election our population our voting population was 3,200 wow so that's how off that information is right well that's right right okay d by half yeah and some of those people don't aren't even back on the island no they're just voters they're registered voters but they're not living here necessarily I mean I think if you actually got down to who's actually living on the island it would probably be a third of that or half of that agree the services are just now coming on is Publix open yet forgive for asking is open until you have things like that it just becomes so hard to live here you know that's why I think your data just based on the limited information you gave us would be interesting to see how we can what we can do to drive that number up you know how do we get back to that to get people more in the school to to do things like that and if your data can generate at least some Vision as to here's the things that you we suggest you do to to drive those numbers back to where we need because I think I don't want to put words in your mouth but basically what I heard you say is full-time residence is what drives your economy essentially and keeps your economy sustainable not necessarily transient not necessarily visitors are great because they they they come and they spend a bunch of money and they leave but you know it's not that permanent thing that we need to support all these businesses that we want to see you know the restaurants and I've heard the be the beach whales returning that's correct I hope it's com summer the whale this summer just the whale just forget the beach okay Scott how do you feel about putting together a scope of work to at least take a look at I mean I love out councelor king what do you think move forward you have your direction all right sir mayor I like it thank you um thank you thank you for considering this town means a lot to me and uh we'll put our heart and soul into our prise we'll run you through your Paces don't you worry no we're nerds nerd so looking forward to it um anything else okay thank you so much for your time I know you've had a really long day I watched the first three hours of your day it was long um so thanks for for I appreciate it yeah thanks David for coming I think that was our only agenda item if I'm not mistaken no I think we've got an add-on if if we do you'll indulge us with Joe in a little presentation I asked him to give us about our um back on that we purchased and the oh okay the return on investment I'm sorry you tell that's okay yeah this should only take a couple minutes so I thought it would be helpful since um some questions have been raised about the jet back um the cost of operating it and that we could be achieve by owning it and operating it ourselves so we can go to the next slide um so I just wanted to start out with just a how I came up with this calculation because we we really don't know how much um fuel is going to be used um by the jet vac or what the maintenance costs are yet but what we do have we have the FEMA reimbursement rate for operating um this piece of equipment and so the FEMA reimbursement rate is ended to cover the cost of depreciation the cost of Maintenance the cost of fuel so those are for those brave souls who still may be watching would you just explain what a jet vac is the jet vac um well I don't know maybe and you could explain it better it it's it that piece of equipment that we purchased to help clean out our storm water and our uh drainage and and uh it's called a Von actually and but it is a jetb it's it's a a very technical piece of equipment that's going to that we already use on the island through a a contractor and this is just one we'll be having in-house okay so I just wanted because we we do know the FEMA reimbursement rate and since it does include depreciation with that I kind of backed into what then um if we were to run that machine like fulltime for the entire year and then use the feema reimbursement rate for that we can calculate total cost of running it for a year and then if you back out depreciation you could then kind of have an idea of what the fuel and maintenance cost would be so that's what I that was my basis my rationale for coming up with this so you can go to the next slide so then this is my um calculation some of the components of my calculation so the cost of the jet vac or the vcon was $656,000 um we're just conservatively we depreciated over 10 years um the life of the machine is probably much longer but our our standard depreciation rate is 10 years so that would be a depreciation expense of $65,625 so if you take the FEMA reimbursement rate of the $ 97.76 cents multiply it times the maximum number of um hours operation hours in a year say that there are 2,80 hours that would be running at 8 hours a day um 52 weeks a year the total cost or um according to the female reimbursement rate would be 203,000 and then you subtract from that the annual depreciation that we calculated above so you subtract from that that 65,67 you end up with what FEMA woulds according to the FEMA rate would be the cost of the fuel and maintenance and that's $137,700 because that's we have a like if if a full day would be seven hours because there's a paid lunch in there um and if we only worked 45 weeks during the year because a person who an operator could potentially have four weeks vacation and then we have roughly about two weeks of holidays so that leaves only 45 weeks so I was trying to bring it bring it down to um to calculate the total number of hours in the year then you go would be like 315 hours if it's one day a week um 630 hours if it's 2 days a week and all all the way along up to 1,575 hours for the year if it was run at 5 days a week so then I just calculated what percentage of the year are are those um calculated hours so it's anywhere from 15% all the way to 75% so now if you multiply the percent of the Year by the total cost of the fuel and maintenance which is that 137,000 ahead calculated on the previous slide then you get the amount of the fuel and maintenance for running it that number of days so like for S days a week it's 20856 um 14 I'm sorry 14 hours oh two days a week or 14 hours a week would be 41,7 $13 and all the way to where you get to 5 days a week the cost of the fuel and maintenance is 104,000 so I wanted to show you this just because so it's not like a mystery in smoke and mirrors I wanted to show you the backup supporting data that I used to try to come up with this calculation so now I know according to this calculation how much it's going to cost for fuel and maintenance for the number of days you run it for that um a week but what we know would be fixed and be the same amount no matter how many days a week you run it would be the depreciation so that's always going to be 65,0 $623 a year and then if you add to that the cost of the employee we already have a vacant position in storm water maintenance um that we have budgeted in order to hire um an operator who's skilled at operating this machine that would increase the budgeted cost of that employee by$ 2,632 so that cost is going to be the same all the way through the year no matter how many hours um they or how many days a week we run that machine so that's where I then I calculated the cost the total cost of operating it according to the number of days of the week so that's like the total cost is 108,000 $111 if it's run seven days a week all the way up to 91,5 37 if it's around five days a week so now now we know the total cost depending on the number of days per week it's operated and now we can compare that total cost to the cost of Earth view and this would be um what we have been doing is we've been we have been utilizing Earth view to to run that machine for us they're charging $350 an hour so if you multiply the $350 an hour times the number of hours you on that third line above um we end up with the cost that Earth you would charge us so that's $10,250 for 7 days a week all the way up to $550 1,250 for 5 days a week so now if you do that comparison between what it costs for our running it to the cost of Earth viw running it that's where that bottom line savings would be so basically we would break even um by running it one day a week and we'd save like $2,139 and then depending on how much you actually use it we could save as much as 359,000 a year for you rent it every day compar quick question here Joe when it comes to FEMA then yes are we still allowed to charge that rate that you're talking about there whether we own the machine or if Earth view is doing the work or is it based on what we actually spend if we it's based on what we actually spend as far as what we get from FEMA so if we're Contracting with Earth you at a cost of $350 an hour they reimburse us at $350 an hour if we do it ourselves they would reimburse us that's 9776 per hour abuse of equipment and then they' also reimburses for the cost of the employee so we it's either way P reimburses our cost but doesn't payment do 85% of the cost well true I mean it would depend on the nature of the disaster and what percentage is true plus you're helping our grandchildren and children with the national debt by saying the federal government some money as well obviously right well that's true and and we also then have um the ability to utilize is you know when we need it and not based on the availability I think what Jim meant to say is you're saving our inbox from why is my drain not drainy because we can get we can get there on our I'm sorry inter that's the thing is we call them when we need them Y where this is can be preventative maintenance as well you know we we go in when when we have to call them and and need them but this could be sucking it out and being proactive about it so we don't have to do it is it safe to say that that is usually too late that's after the fact always usually yeah I mean and then we have to wait two to three weeks till they can get us in the schedule correct and we we're making and we're using arpa funds to purchase it so it's not general fund money that we're using to purchase the piece of equipment that's a huge intangible that um you're talking about with the time um and the immediacy yeah I look at it as the proactiveness of it we know a storm coming we can get out and get these drains cleaned so John would you say that's priceless I won't go there exactly because I'm not Frankie but um Joe a couple of questions maintenance insurance is covered under the maintenance part I believe so I mean it's it's supposed to be all of our costs so that would be um insurance as well and as soon as we find out what that insurance number is I can break that out separately and redo this calculation but we don't have that yet and lastly does it save us more or cost us more if the mayor drives it way more probably cost probably long run a lot more all the wrecking insurance would go SK High I haven't hit anything yet John just asking for clarity asking for a friend yeah I do like I would like to drive it's a sweet operation yeah Mark could fix it go yeah maybe one day thanks Jo is there anything else you want to that's it sir that's it yes sir okay uh agenda management John I've got nothing vice mayor just it sounds like you guys just met with fot the other day um at some point it would be great to have them come in and just give the public an update as to where the project is what the timelines are what the projections are what they're trying to accomplish just kind of a re-education because people are going to be right in the middle of the traffic or season and for them to at least be aware of what's happening and why might be helpful and I asked before to again don't want to interrupt with his workflow because the renourishment on a time crunch obviously but if Mike pfff has a chance to come by again at his convenience give people an update on the re nourishment I think people find that very interesting we got him scheduled the 21st yeah he's scheduled on the 21st wonderful thank you that's all I have I'm just looking at now we got a lot of tbds on here though um for meeting dates and things so it would be great if we could personal those out yeah okay Scott I agree with vice mayor I'd love to have fot come in here I would like to get FPL added that list where they're at on a stero Boulevard project I mean they've been no pun intended dark I know lately the two of us have had contact with Mr Po in the last couple days here and I know we can definitely get him in yeah it would be nice to have him here to answer questions at the timeline and if not him somebody with I well I prefer whoever is the decision maker I don't want to go through the same exercise we went through yesterday meeting with Mr uh Powell tomorrow afternoon at uh 3:00 okay I would add on that Frankie told me something the other day I'm sure you already know this Mr Mayor but I thought it was interesting that when fpnl uh and and their affiliate begin to install those lights again starting on the south and moving North they are actually going to be operational as they're installed so we won't have to wait till the whole Project's done before those lights to turn on which I thought was interesting that's what we that's what we've been told yeah but again it would be nice to get an update we've had two hurricanes since then that you know may or may not have changed altered the the the delay or or the but along the FPL thing that you know we talked about the funding for my understanding that old San Carlos that lighting is under the same contract you think you might want to look at that Jeff I know you're shaking your head it's not not the electrical part of it but the poles going to do the fixtures but not the poles not the actual that's what I was getting they'll do the fixture up top but we we got to do the polls so they are doing the lighting we just had to supply the pole whatever FC so the that that they'll continue to match throughout that was the whole discussion or the same yeah we we've had conversation with them about more decorative ones down there just because it's kind of downtown right so we have Lum out put all that stuff all right and then the only other thing is the you know we're in season now the beach wagon thing that we had talked about looking into I know you said that you would talk with Nancy about we're going to talk about it this week yeah and try to get it moving yeah as traffic is backing up I think people would start to use that I'd use it I'd use it I would use it for sure but we have to get a so we have to get a contract so that we can get it out to our beach vendors to see who's willing to yeah come in and do it y and this funding could come through parking Revenue whatever Council policy decisions don't need to decide now just yeah we talked about that we talked about the the workforce housing money we talked about sometimes sorry yeah which which was funded by the parking and the short-term rental fees okay so those the only two things I have I think I think you've already been having the discussion too with Dave herner about pier and status of the pier I'll be I'll be meeting with Dave once a month we've going to uh we've established that the first one I believe the 31st but we're going to be routine on that he'll come out here some we'll go there so okay great very good anything else if not John do it so we are any objection none we are Jed at 327 --------- ##VIDEO ID:IAYNX5Cdukk## good morning you ready good morning everyone we're going to call the meeting to order today is uh Wednesday January 8th it is 9:01 a.m. all council members are presid John King is remote uh Town manager Town attorney and town clerk if you please rise for your invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance through it the better we all be before we get started we need to take a motion or is there a motion to approve uh John King to uh be in the meeting via remote access so move second a motion by councelor Woodson second by councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signified by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is the approval of the final agenda is there a motion to approve the final agenda or any adjustments to the final agenda councelor Kane oh hold on just asking if you had any changes to it you had any I do I do not okay looks like Judith has got something um yes we've have an applicant request a continuance um for Item B on the uh public hearings that's 1479 esta Boulevard the lon Kai shared parking lot unable to attend so they would like to continue to a date certain of uh January 21st okay are there any other changes to the final agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended motion by councelor King second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries next unanimously next is public comment just want to remind everyone if you are coming up to speak for public comment please try to be respectful um and if you can address all the council members please do not make any personal attacks we're all adults here we're all going through a lot of stressful situations in our lives so please be respectful Madam Madam CL yep uh I have Robin capella up first followed by Sam lurry I'm Robin capella sorry my printer broke last night story of my life got to love technology this isn't going work um I live on Bay Beach Lane I'm a full-time resident I'm just here to address a few issues that are really bothering me I've ask and ask and ask again what the town council's vision is for the future of FMB I've had a couple of answers um three of you have not answered me um I don't want words like we want everybody to get along and we want snowbirds and all that I want real answers um measurable answers you know what your you want 6,000 residents 60 restaurants three strip malls th000 hotel rooms 15,000 snowb Birds I want answers like that 10 new condo buildings No taller than 17 stories because we know apparently 17 stories is okay um tell me what your vision is because I know people out here have all told you what their vision is and I think think it's only decent that you tell them what your vision is so I'm I'm asking to give us the decency to tell us what your vision is or just tell us you're just willy-nilly and it around because I just I'm asking second um please explain why you're good with giving multi-millionaires billionaires pretty much whatever they ask but people that just want to get back there a couple of weeks on Paradise why they why they can't get it I don't I don't get it I just want you to tell explain that to me um they had Paradise on B for a couple weeks a year or whatever they had in EBC and you're not willing to give them that back um vice mayor I'm I'm perplexed um on why you even bother to listen to us your speeches you already have speeches prepared when Cate did their very first meeting address us all please okay I've not seen anybody else have these but the speeches are already made I've seen where people are set up to be told oh what's your Roi well Roi is a number anybody can I mean you there's an old saying that if you ask an engineer what 1+1 is he'll say 2.0 if you ask an uh mathematician he'll say 1.99 if you ask an accountant he'll say what do you want it to be at least that's a good accountant joke and I am an accountant I can make it I can make your Roa be anything you want it to be besides the fact why do we care it's not up to the Town Council to care what the developers are making so why are we doing that why is it your concern it's disheartening to the residents of FNB to spend the time the money take off time from work to do this to stand up here when you've already made up your mind and it it's already in your letters you it's written down um the silent majority thing concept is a joke it's either the greatest political slight of hand I've ever heard of or it's Bonkers and nobody's listened to it if you've ever read about the if you've ever read about think tanks they'll tell you that in local elections unless there's a scandal then cant always wins okay um the 2% difference is nothing is absolutely nothing it it doesn't even attribute it to the incoming Advantage so it doesn't even make any difference both those people should have won I mean they're both thing finally I want to ask what really bad thing happens if we develop very slowly SL and with thoughtfulness don't tell me don't talk to meed the minimum density permitted end of story we would have a development similar to Margaritaville and everything on Santa Bell but no one followed up no one followed up when seates Tina eblad equated a 200 foot View Corridor that has absolutely no view from the road with a vertical increase of 200 ft in Building height no one contested it using that equation for windom's 460 ft of Frontage they can build 65t Wide building with a 300t view corridor at a height of 345 ft or 30 stories they will take that to court with Seagate as precedent and they will win Property Owners of of myerside Seagate Neptune and Outrigger knew their property rights to build when they purchased the properties it's not council's job to social engineer the island it's their job to enforce the existing LDC and comp plan council members took an oath to uphold the laws and regulations that implies the LDC and comp plan if you don't like it there's a procedure it's a lengthy process that includes public input not a pick and choose random granting to individual developers I was an active real estate developer active real estate broker uh when the original comp plan was written no one on Council was here but it is the current rule it's lengthy and well vetted it's a living document it could be changed consistent rules and applications make for a consistent Market doubt creates a volatile Market council's decisions are so scattered and erratic there is no consistency that will always generate a volatile and unhealthy Market there's an easy fix you can do it today but it takes some intestinal fortitude on the part of council there have been no approvals by Lee County no shovels in the ground make a motion revoke these non-conforming plans for myerside Neptune and Seagate and stick to the comp plan have developed ERS resubmit plans that comply if you don't like the comp plan initiate the process to change it the current breaches of the comp plan will create Decades of lawsuits long after you leave office don't make that your legacy stop this nonsense of picking winners and losers and Phantom public benefit and get back to your responsibilities in the business of the town you can get back on track today and no one can sue the town for en enforcing our existing LDC and comp plan this is a matter of ethics and upholding the oath of office thank you any time any time left haven't heard the buzer yet coup want to tell you uh first of all in case I miss it at the end I'm here today to ask you to reconsider your vote on uh on Seagate red cop reconsider it discuss it again and come up with make the developer come back with a better plan he he's capable of it you're capable of uh arranging that have that done back to the comprehensive plan this is the original plan right here original Town Council original LPA mayor Anita Saras vice mayor Ray Murphy councilman Dan Hughes M Holland Fitz Sim on and on and on the original LPA Betty Davis Simpson Roxy Smith malland Campbell Layman Dan Hughes on and on and on what they really should have done is added one more line down here at the bottom which said and the good people of the town of Fort Meers Beach that's really what they should have done here because that who was that's who was involved in putting this plan together and I'll tell you how that happened it didn't fall out down from the sky uh it it wasn't introduced to us by divine intervention at least not that I know of it was uh it was put together by the people listed here on these Pages listed here out in these seats some that are not still with us most of them still are when the when the uh planners when we hired the planners for this we had we had sessions down at Bay Oaks they were called charettes what the what they did was the Planters came in and they facilitated these gatherings of the whole town the whole town was invited all the town's people came they had 20 to 30 easel maybe 40 easels set up in Bay Oaks when you walked in they gave you a bunch of sharpies and crayons and said have at the the the assignment that day was to go up to the easel and write down what you thought the town of Fort Meers Beach should look like no constraints on money or or any other constraints involved at all just what you just your ideas and everybody went at it they went at it for hours and those were all accumulated all those pages from the easel were taken down and they were assembled and the planners took them back worked on them came up with plans the plan started like this and it ended up like this and this is what it is today right here and it's not just a plan it's the law it's ordained on Fort Meers Beach this is the law of Fort Meers Beach okay so I ask you again to reconsider your vote on this idea and and do what is right do what is right follow follow the plan follow this plan it's a it's a good plan and you'll you'll find out in here when you're reading it all all the good portions of it and what uh what that what that site what the uh the potential of that site is the true potential of that site is thanks right so I ask you again okay thank you Mr Mayor thanks again for your uh con consideration and please vote to reconsider your vote is there anyone else that would like to speak in public comment yeah come on up just my name's Jesse Titus and I'm here to ask you to reconsider your vote I'm here to ask you to work for our benefit the people who have stood behind you and have become your friends a toilet and a walkover is not what we want this town deserves better and more what we the people want is for this island to be what we intended the future to look like when we all came together and devised the comp plan an award-winning plan and a plan that is very clear crystal clear regarding our main purpose and breaking away from Lee County if you actually negotiated a toilet and a walkover to be what we the people wanted in exchange for our way of life while your negotiating skills suck when mayor Dan for instance when mayor Dan asked segate Matt twice if he would like to voluntarily withdraw the project and return with another did you notice that seate Matt didn't say no he didn't say no twice he said twice not at this time you should have taken his lead voted against the project and have him come return without prejudice as per councilman safford's motion the towns people would be hailing your decision instead of wanting to remove you we will not forget how you had the opportunity to save what's precious to us and did not we will not forget and we will not forgive you for doing this to us this is not a threat it's just the way it is you will be a council member to a town of people who will no longer even want to say hello to you you will go down in our Town's history as betraying us please give this town please save this town from that and I promise you that this town will survive quite nicely and will prosper and flourish even more without seate Matt's Towers this is your golden opportunity to turn this around and prove to everyone that you really do care what we the people desire and what we deserve please don't let this happen please change your vote thank you thank you Jesse come on up good morning Council my name is Lori Webster and I am a very sad resident of Dora Boulevard I'm here speaking again because it's important at your last meeting you made a Monumental decision that will negatively impact this island and its residence it's especially sad that what you did could be Revisited if only one of the three yes votes would listen to the people they represent instead anyone who sent an email asking for that action was met with a form reply no thoughtful responses explanations or even invites to discuss it just a stalwart refusal to face the music that you composed the people of this island are angry some of those people are dealing with their anger and ways that I personally do not condone it's not helpful it does not help the cause that we are fighting for and for that I'm sorry I'm sorry you have to deal with threats and pitchforks it shouldn't be this way truly all we needed was for the people elected to be our voice to listen to the people who elected them there will be more propos coming that go against our code hopefully none of them are as egregious as the Seagate project all the concessions without any benefit to the people who live here please don't repeat the mistake you made two weeks ago please don't Litter our Skyline with more highres it's not what our little piece of paradise is about please listen please interact please do the right thing for the right reasons we need to protect our little Island before we lose it anyone else Bill come on Council mayor um Bill V for the record the uh I was looking at the Town Charter the other day and it says explicitly that the town the the council are elected officials who are accountable to the citizens doesn't mention anything about being accountable to the bottom line of Developers that as as it would say in HR circles is is not in your job description this whole process I think had a lot of problems from the beginning number one as and I understand part of the Sunshine Law there was a lot of negotiations that was going on behind the scenes with the developers between councilmen and and between staff uh that was not part of the public eye in this negotiation the people of shellan neighborhood were continually down downgraded by a prioritization of getting stuff off of stero and pushing it right next to neighbors imagine if you had a single family home and across the street from you they were going to put th000 foot wide 250t tall wall of condos with that'ss looking into your yard it's just it just doesn't fit the neighborhood at all um the uh the other thing is some of the testimony relied upon there was there was a lot of talk about people relying on um on testimony from the former owner of the pink shell saying this be onethird of the density that was there um that person es of the developer this if if they if they put let's say just simple math $ 150 units at $1,000 a foot and they're 4,000 ft that's $600 million that they're looking to to gain if those be built at $500 a square foot which is just rough numbers you're talking about even after land you know hundreds of millions of dollars of profit and you get a bathroom and a walkover I mean and you're you're taking you're you're taking a neighborhood and you're in tuming them behind this giant wall an entire neighborhood imagine if this was your neighborhood had you you would feel so I really encourage you to do the right thing reconsider this start again from the comp plan and work in the public what the x- mayor said made a lot of sense get the public involved from the beginning hear their input all the way along don't go through a bunch of closed door negotiations and then walk into a meeting with your minds already made up because that is not um that is not being accountable to the citizens as you're obligated to do in the town Charter thank you thanks Bill please please think you don't you know I'd like to thank my constituents who have given me some positive feedback whether you want to believe it or not I do listen to all sides before I make my decisions um and I also want to thank all of the people who have been so kind and helpful um with my husband being home and not able to walk not recovering well um there has been a lot of people they brought food they've brought prayers they've brought a lot of things and I really really appreciate that there was a lot of conversation about my phones this is my Council phone this is my personal phone on my personal phone I have the entire outline and page numbers of what we go through today so that I can reference it quickly you will also see me walk out again if I get a phone call from my husband husband from physical therapy from the doctors that we're waiting for referrals on and I'm hoping that my council members don't have an issue with that if you do you need to let me know I hear none so we can move on thank you Council sord uh for the essence of time uh I have nothing but hope Mark has a speedy recovery he not really Speedy right now and for the sake of time I will also foro my achievements this time next is advisory committee items reports and appointments we have Barbara Hill from cell cab sorry Dave she was closer good morning Council um this is uh um a cold morning so I'm hoping everyone's comfortable but it's Florida so it's better than being basically anywhere else in the United States so I'm happy to be here um um I am um chair of the uh cultural and environmental Learning Center and as chair I would like to report to you the um meeting that we had uh last November um and during that meeting Museum manager Adam Knight reported his findings concerning the sustainability of the underground Kalo exhibit which we call the stories beneath our feet as you know this exhibit was temporarily closed to the public from prior storm surge damage and remains closed until further notice due to new damage from Hurricane Milton Mount housee staff recommended to ccab at this November meeting that this exhibit closed permanently and not undergo undergo planned repairs due to sustainability and budget constraints among other issues after considerable debate celab voted unanimously to recommend to councel and staff that they explore all possible options to ensure that this underground exhibit can in fact be repaired and once again be safely open to the public vice mayor aderhold as Council leison recognizes cell Cab's expertise and long-standing Community Service as Mouse volunteers we appreciate his support of our recommendations in the past and we hope that all the other council members would agree with um our vote to work on getting all of the um um options explored to keep this um exhibit open um lastly I want to I'm sad to report that Patrick maau who was one of our respected ccab members and author of The Beautiful moundhouse book passed away suddenly in early December he will be greatly missed I hope Council will soon appoint someone to fill this vacancy again please keep this underground exhibit open and let's look at how to make that happen uh thank you very much for your time Barbara before you run off I'm sure there's gonna be a couple questions for you sure Barbara first of all thank you for being here this morning it was a very troubling meeting in November and I just want to make sure since we're not allowed to really talk to each other as counselors that want to the input of my colleagues with respect to keeping that underground exhibit open uh exploring all options to figure out ways to keep it open I think cell cab has been very flexible in terms of how we re how we we we we we look at solutions to keep it open and and I think they're very open to a wide variety of solutions but I think they're very firm and and I think you can include the friends of the mound house as well on this uh they feel very strongly about in some fashion keeping that underground exhibit open we've got a lot of smart people engineers and contractors that have had a lot of experience dealing with hurricanes and flooding and I it appears as if those Solutions haven't been fully explored and it was I was sadden to hear the museum director recommend the closing I think it's unanimous from from the friends and from the the cell cab members I just want to make sure that my fellow counselors feel the same way and that we send the the town manager some direction on this because obviously it's going to involve resources and maybe some of those resources could be reimbursed by FEMA Etc but I just thought this morning I think since Barbara took the time to come here this morning if I could just hear from my colleagues just in a sense give the town uh leadership some direction on this in terms of the passion because I I don't want to speak for my colleagues but I I thought I was the other at that in that November meeting I think I am but but if folks have a differing opinion I certainly respect that but I think today or this morning would be helpful for Barbara and the cell cab folks to have some direction thank you vice mayor well I'll just you know in a time where we're fighting so hard to preserve what history we have left after that storm I'd be fully in supportive looking at whatever we can do to make sure that stays that's wonderful thank you yeah I would love to hear all the options and totally support keeping it whatever we have to do wonderful wonderful thanks I I would agree that we need to come up with the solution for for future flooding Ian we can't that was going to be my next question is did that flooding come from the front side of the door did it seep in from the top or combination com from underneath from underneath yes and maybe Jeff yeah it pretty much comes from all it comes in from the top the bottom um because it does have an open pit there that that does flood we've seen some uh some erosion on the shell itself that's been washed out so right now we're going to get a an engineering to see if it's even safe to be down there um because if that collapses that's a lot of shell but it does come in from every single area it floods there's a some pump that's that doesn't do any good it shorts out you know immediately once once we get three feet of water in there so it's we're looking at options we just met down there a couple weeks ago um to look at options but yeah it's coming from everywhere we get a bigger pump exactly some and and and this by the way this was a million-dollar exhibit that was um you know fully supported by the town at the time that it was built and that underground exhibit was designed to accept some water from Storm surges and from high tides and that some pump that Jeff talks about is actually um you know obviously at this point with all of the increased Storm surges inadequate for proper drainage at an an important timing um and so that's been the problem but there's no reason why we can't explore making something more substantial I would think if the clusin needs could figure out how to make it work age we should be able to figure something out exactly exactly and to uh the vice mayor's Point um we do believe that there is FEMA funding and we do believe in the archaeological Community um in Southwest Florida that there are people who are fully in support of keeping the underground exhibit open so I um and this is probably the only time in my knowledge um that cell cab has ever disagreed with staff and this is a a sticky point for us all and we're hoping that we look at all of the options in a very objective way if there's a will to do it it will happen Council King yeah uh I would just wanted to share that Chris and I are both uh members of the mount house so I personally support it and as a counselor I'll professionally support it so thank you thank you and and a little sidebar which I just totally the first time remembered that January 25th is the silver anniversary of the mount Housen friends is doing a wonderful um evening which we hope you all will be attending thank you very much for your time thank you Barbara thank Barbara next we have Dave nespon from murf for the record Dave nusom murf advisory committee good morning Mr Mayor vice mayor counselors and staff uh our murf our recent murf meeting on December 12th was the first meeting we had since the uh new committee was uh formed so at the December meeting we had uh the reappointment of Jennifer Rusk as Vice chair and I was uh appointed uh chairman as the committee which is why I'm here today uh some updates on our meeting murf is work working with Kye Wilson the Southwest Southwest Regional shoreward biologist for Florida Fish and Wildlife to assist in educating the beachfront property owners to continue the working agreement between property owners and FWC uh cooperation was the key in the successful hatching of this last season of four and injured bird species the oyster catchers black skimmers lease turns and snowy plovers a little bit of fact for you if you weren't aware of counselors the uh four rare birds uh Fort Myers Beach is the only habitat where all four breeds mest and uh spend their vacation time U throughout the entire State of Florida so also we were significant in improving the snowy Pulver population by percentage points not points of points but full percentage points there's only 102 breeding Snowy Plover pairs in the State of Florida and we added I believe six fledging to that total u in April Dr daily and Dr saves presented murf with some resilience Solutions uh for storm surge on hurricanes they offered to provide free uh computer simulations uh as to the benefit of BMS and seaw walls uh we requested several simulations at that point in time and we haven't gotten any response back yet I requested chat chuts to follow up with Dr saves and Dr daily to see if they performed the uh simulations and uh what they presented as far as solutions for armoring our Coastline finally both will and Bill Perry and Christ and ginger Weber received the murf award uh Will Perry and the Webers have been identified as Beach heroes in the FWC SE newsletters of the FWC we at murf also acknowledge their dedication their ongoing stewardship to the beaches and with the wildlife we share them with uh prompted both Awards they were long overdue and that's the end of my report our next meeting is the end of January and hopefully I'll have some uh information on the armoring of the post the next time I can report all right questions for Dave John thank you all right have a good day thanks Dave you too thanks for coming next we have the approval of minutes we have the town council meeting from December 2nd 2024 the management plan and planning session from December 11th 2024 and the town council meeting from December 16th of 202024 is there a motion or any changes to the meeting minutes I'll move to approve by councelor King second by uh councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is the consent agenda on the consent agenda we have one two three four five items all pertaining to the extension of the local state of emergency for the plethora of hurricanes we've dealt with over the last two and a half years is there a motion to approve the consent agenda I will move to approve the consent agenda second second by seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion I like that word plethora uh all those in favor signify by saying I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next there are no items that were removed from consent agenda that brings us to our public hearings the next four items on our agenda are our public hearings for review of various land use requests for the benefit of the public Please be aware that these items are Quasi judicial in nature our attorney will further explain thank you mayor um good morning and happy New Year to everyone um zoning revisions and special exceptions and variances these are all quasa judicial in nature and that this requires that our public hearings today comply with procedural requirements that have been established in Florida law and in our Land Development code these qu I judicial proceedings are less formal than proceedings before a circuit court but they are going to be more formal than the remainder of our meeting and we must follow basic standards of due process requiring the uh delivery of certain notices the application of the correct standards and your decisions to be made on competent and substantial evidence that's presented to you um in written documents or through oral testimony your job is to evaluate the testimony and the information for each of these four items and draw a conclusion regarding whether the criteria in the Land Development code or in state law as may be applicable has been satisfied so pure speculation or opinion that is not based on competent facts cannot legally be considered by you in evaluating each agenda item testimony by professionals who have been qualified as experts in a particular area has been considered to be competent evidence by the Florida courts as well as testimony by neighbors and residents who have fact-based information such as minutes surveys engineering reports or their testimony that's based on their personal information the town council's decision is final if a decision of approval is not obtained or if a vote TI vote results uh from a motion to approve or to deny then the matter is Con being considered uh is denied unless a majority of the council members present and voting agree by motion uh to take some other action in lie of the denial such other action may be moved or seconded by a member regardless of their vote on the earlier motion also if the council decides to deny an application or a request the reason for the denial should be stated in the motion and the denial must not be based on the determination of public support or opposition to the application the reason for the denial cannot be arbitrary discriminatory or unreasonable and should be based on a lack of competent substantial evidence in support of the required criteria so the denial of an application is a denial with prejudice unless the council States otherwise and if the application is denied with prejudice no similar application for a rezoning especially exception or variance um shall be resubmitted for a period of 12 months however denial of an application um with prejudice will not prevent U the application for a different uh resoning special exception or variance which is substantially different if the town council's denial is without prejudice then the applicant can make modifications to the original application and submit the modified application to The Count Council for reconsideration um not having to wait the 12 months um if you intend to speak uh as members of the audience um and the applicant um please keep this in mind uh 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 the Town Council so for purposes of efficiency and time management um before the beginning of all these four public hearings um we'd like to go ahead and and take care of a few matters um first of all I need to ask the town clerk have all these agenda items been properly advert uh excuse me properly noticed pursuing to Our Land Development code yes they have been okay and um at this time I want to uh assure that we have a quorum present to take action on these items so if any Town council member has a cont conflict of interest that may prohibit them from voting please disclose this at this time John none vice mayor none counc Woodson none counc Safford none I have a conflict with the first item item a I have a business arrangement with the pink shell Resort I will file my Form 8 with the town clerk okay thank you mayor um and also at this time if there's anyone present in the audience um um including the applicant the owner staff who intends to provide testimony in any of these four quasi judicial hearings if you would please stand raise your right hand and be sworn in by the town clerk do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay all parties have been sworn okay okay mayor this First quas Judicial item is the first reading and public hearing on proposed ordinance entitled an ordinance of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying the commercial plan development CPD Zoning for 6.02 Acres of the property located at 275 322 Estero Boulevard 200 Estero Boulevard 192 Estero Boulevard common element only 142 Estero Boulevard 171-279 stero Boulevard and 309 stero Boulevard generally identified as strap numbers 24-4 6-23 DWI uh- 0070 d. 028 Alpha a 2446 d23 wi-7 .34 24462 3- wi-7 0290 2446 d23 w1700 .330 2446 d23 wi-7 .320 24462 3- wi-37 00.00 CE and 2446 d23 wi- 0410 .ce in Fort Meers Beach to allow expansion of the existing Pink Shell Beach Resort to include a new 40 unit Resort Hotel two additional Hotel units in the White Sands building and two Standalone guest structures providing for clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scribers errors and severability and providing for an an effective date if any Town council member has had any expart 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 con sord um gosh probably two months ago I had a zoom call with Fred um who's representing the client and uh it was before the LPA meeting none since then I have not had any communication with the pink shell but I have had received emails both pro and con Vice may I am the same for me as councelor Stafford about two months ago I had a zoom call with the applicants uh and have had uh numerous uh emails of both pro and con mostly con councilor King I would say I would do councelor Safford and vice mayor adol a zoom meeting and uh corespondence pro and con mostly con okay um mayor we do have um the applicant is present today with their attorney um at this point perhaps we could just ask if there's any additional questions the attorney would like to ask regarding the disclosures she's shaking her head no thank you okay all right Sarah pro has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council and based on her education and experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development of the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time that have not already been pre-qualified yes sir come on morning all my name is Carlos Rios I'm here representing MK architecture on the pink shell project uh I'm an architectural designer and project manager at that firm and my experience ranges uh to about five to six years working on local residential and Commercial projects as well as Federal Aviation and Hospitality projects I attended the University of Florida where I earned a bachelor design on architecture and I have a master of architecture from Georgia Tech so Mr Mayor I move that this gentleman to be approved as an expert I'll second that motion by vice mayor adhal seconded by councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I can't vote on motion carries four to zero with mayor allers abstain mayor for purposes of the record um could we just identify at this time all the experts that will be testifying in this matter sure you previously uh who have previously been accepted let's just get their names on the record yep that's you guys good morning Council for the record Amy too with retzel and Andress and the land use attorney on this project so I am not an expert but I am happy to discuss uh go through the team of experts that we have so of course you've already heard from Carlos and admitted him and thank you very much for that um um you're going to also hear from Fred dck who you guys know well he's been admitted as an expert several times to date um you will also hear from Bill wulus who is an expert in the operations of the hotel and you will hear from Bob boin who's an expert in the development and management of a hotel as well um and that is it for today so if you have any questions for me please let me know have you seen a copy of the backup agenda materials from staff I certainly have thank you and just to confirm all the individuals um with the exception of of our first speaker um have already been declared to be experts by Council correct yes okay thank you okay thank you thank you go ahead Sarah good morning Sarah FES with Community Development jbo LLC owners of the Pink Shell Resort is proposing a CPD to include existing property and structures with new properties that have been purchased by the OWN ship and proposing new structures and amendments to the existing structures the applicant proposes a 40 unit Resort Hotel on the Bayside of Aero on the parcel closest parcel's closest to bich Point Park it is proposed to be a six story building and 60 ft over base flood elevation the proposed CPD Amendment also includes two proposed single unit guest structures and two additional hotel rooms in White Sands Hotel uh there are are seven deviations associated with this request I will go through those briefly uh there's a request to deviate from LDC 10-46 D2 table 10-8 which requires a type-c buffer with a wall when proposing a commercial parking lot next to a multif family residential property and this is to allow a type-c buffer with no wall to allow visibility to the redesigned public Boardwalk which will be on the marina property uh a deviation from LDC 34645 table 34-2 that specifies that CR zoned properties on CR Zone properties no building or structure shall be placed closer than 20 ft from a rear property line this is to allow a 15ot rear setback uh at the location of the proposed single guest unit in the CPD area number two which is in your uh staff report which is the location um where there was previously a single Cottage and a duplex um that's on the beach side uh there's a deviation request from 34- 640 top F 645 table 34-2 that specifies in the CR zoning District uh no building or structure may be close place closer to a side property line than 20 ft and this is to allow a 10-ft side setback to the east side and a side setback of 7 and 1/2 ft to the west side and this is in the CPD area area number three in your staff report and the proposed location of a single guest unit that is in the Pro on the property where previously there was a single family residential unit next to the marina property uh a deviation from 34- 645 table 34-2 that specifies in the CR zoning District No building or structure shall be placed closer to uh side property line than 20 ft and this is to allow a 10-ft side setback on the west side of budding bage Point Park the applicant is proposing to meet uh the 20 foot side setback to the east uh which adjoins a multif family residential lot right now um this is in the CPD area number four the location of the proposed 40 unit Hotel uh a deviation from LDC 34645 uh table 34-2 that specifies in the CR zoning District No building or structure may be placed closer to a water body than 25 ft and this is to allow a 10ft rear setback uh where the proposed hotel is on the Bayside uh there is a deviation um from uh 34- 675b that requires a maximum height of 30 feet above base ele elevation base flood elevation and no more than three stories um and this is to allow a 60 foot tall structure above base flood elevation and a six story structure that's five stories over parking um and a deviation from LDC 34803 A1 that establishes hotel and motel guest units um can be substituted for dwelling unit density units um of an equivalency Factor up to 2.0 uh in this instance they're requesting a multiplier or an equivalency of 6.7 to allow the total number of Hotel units for the entire CPD property which is 6.02 Acres um according to the Land Development code you must evaluate the CPD per section 3485 B and C and 34262 deviations must be approved groups modications or denied based on Section 34- 2164 um I'm available for any questions you may have and the applicant is also here okay Council Safford questions for Sarah not at this time counc wson I'm not at this time May Sarah if it if this can be simplified the applicants proposing to build a 4unit hotel on this particular property in your professional opinion what what does the applicant what do they have a right to build so uh do there there's a lot of history um if we go all the way back um to uh 1995 there were a total of 59 units allowed on that whole section of Bayside property um in the year 2000 um 47 of those units that were on the marina what is now the marina property were moved over to the Beachside property and and that was done um with conditions stating that uh a within 90 days of the adoption of that ordinance or at that time it was a resolution um there would be a uh Covenant restriction placed on the property they in that condition they stated that it should be it should remove development rights from the 3.2 ACR um that was the entire section the confusion here is that in the meeting minutes there was only conversation about the marina portion of the property and removal of 47 units whereas the entire thing had the right to 59 units at a later date um so that multif family dwelling had uh 12 units remaining so they didn't actually remove all of the development rights from the whole property and they didn't um they couldn't have removed rights for development or aew um on the property with the multif family so it's a little unclear specifically what they were asking for the Covenant was adopted uh or not adopted sorry it was recorded um yes you keep saying B could you specify who Bay is is that the Town Council at the time so the resolution would have been the Town Council at the time so all adoption that was associated with that um and then the uh de ation and restrictions uh the Deeds covenants and restrictions that were placed on that property uh were recorded by the applicant um so the town didn't have as far as I can tell any involvement in that portion of the process the Declaration applies only to the marina property so there's no way to know if that was the intent by Town Council at that time or if that adoption occurred without the input from town C and a review so then following that trail a little bit further two months after the Declaration was recorded there was a change an amendment to uh the original resolution which was O7 so this amendment was called o7a um o7a was uh essentially took out the boutique hotel property from that original Amendment so in the adoption of o7a they removed they Town Council because it was adopted removed those two properties the boutique hotel properties which is um it's the let me tell you which properties it was so there's no confusion about this just pack at page 15 help is that that's where you've got the color quoted sections of the property well it it changed after that oh okay yeah because there's always more stuff to find um so the o7a removed um Island Shores Club section block D Lots 39 and 38 from that original resolution so the clerk is um going to get a copy of the 2007a and uh provide a copy to councel because you don't have that in your packet extra copies so and I I do apologize um all of these things are continually we're just finding new things um I've looked back through the agenda files to find to to determine if what was submitted with that o7a Amendment um we don't have agendas back that far uh we have them back to 2004 not back to 2000 so we don't know exactly what was presented at that time and the meeting minutes are very scaned uh so it's it's not clear whether Council what council knew about what they were adopting at that time so I was ad I do have a question in what you're saying and with what you just saw so you know Legend has it that they gave up all density rights in perpetuity for that parcel but you're saying with this addition of 007a that went back and was amended and it was given back it wasn't that it was amended it removed those two properties the uh lot 39 and 38 from that original document and therefore those two lots were not included in the requirement the condition that they remove development from it sorry no I'm sorry that's where this proposed Boutique Hotel is going or wants to be placed on 39 and 38 yes that's correct so that document she's referring to the amendment is actually the last two pages of the packet that you have been provided Nancy just for the record for people at home can you describe exactly what we were just given um and I think the clerk is going to have copies for anyone in the audience that would like a copy of it as well so this is a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Meers Beach uh resolution - 07a amending resolution -7 um and the document uh talks about um a scrivener's error and the resolution did not accurately reflect the correct legal description of the Bayside parcel making it necessary to amend the resolution reflecting the Cor legal description described as follows with a meets and Bounds um description uh whereas the plan uh correctly depicts the above described property there's a strap number the mailed notices to the property owners were accurate and um therefore uh it was a unanimous vote by the then Town Council in the year 2 um June 29th to adopt this resolution amending the legal [Applause] description okay so may ask you a question so is your legal opinion that paral did not swe it so where does it stand now as far as the the density transfer what was it transferred I believe the density was but the um the uh restriction the unified control document um does not appear to include the legal description that's there now I will tell you I first became aware of the existence of this document yesterday and I have not been able to actually compare the legal description here with the legal description in the other um because of the um the nature of this project um staff has diligently been searching and so it should not be surprising that additional information um has surfaced um this is the first reading of a proposed ordinance um I I did do um an evaluation of the legal descriptions and did it does appear that uh several Parcels were removed um but the only two Parcels of concern here are the the two that on the Bays side I'm gonna just continue on Sarah and I appreciate that history very helpful uh but I'm going to ask the question again in your professional opinion the applicant is proposing to build a 40 unit Hotel on this particular location in your professional opinion given what you know now what do you believe they have the ability to build by right they don't have the ability to build this by right um it would have to be only through a CPD uh due to the height and to the requirement for equivalency factors um being higher uh I think that it's important to note that we don't we don't consider Hotel units to be density we consider them to be equivalency factors and that's where that deviation so they're not asking for more density they're asking to maintain the number of of density units that exist but they're asking for an an additional multiplier so by right uh is something totally different than um what they can ask for through a CPD I think that they can ask for this through a CPD um although it wouldn't be allowed without the approval of several deviations um I think that the uh deviations having to do with with setbacks uh you know they're they're those aren't necessary in order to build a hotel however they would have to have the height deviations the equivalency factors and you know they are the experts on how that hotel has to be positioned on that site how large it needs to be let me rephrase them uh with respect to the hotel units if if they were not utilizing the CPD process in your professional opinion how many units could they build on that location um I would if it was not part of the larger CPD development it would be based on the size of the parcel which off the top of my head I can't tell you is it is it roughly half is it 20 is it 10 is it five what what uh it's probably far less than that um our equivalency factor is two if if they have an acre on this site they would be allowed by right six units multiply by two that would give you 12 um so by right outside of the CPD process that parcel on its own you know I can't I can't say that that's exactly right but that is in the ballpark ballpark being 12 can you in Lay terms lay out what you know now versus what you knew at the LPA hearing um and the difference the the only thing that I learned between uh then and now is is about the amendment um that indicates that this piece of property was removed um there are still questions regarding what was intended with the original 00007 um and whether that covenants and restrictions met that conditional requirement it's it's really hard to tell based on what we have but I can tell you that the change through 007a does give them the uh legally removed those two Parcels from the requirement to uh remove to restrict the uses on the property so they can ask for those uses uh they don't have to provide a view corridor per what's legally in the record at this point thank you that's all I have for now councelor King questions so what is staff's recommendation on this and did it change and if so why uh I don't believe my recomend changed um I believe it's still a recommendation of denial based on height um but if you hold on one second oh no I'm recommending approval yeah approval if the proposed public benefits are determined to be adequate for the deviation for Building height because that's how the code basically States it the code gives you the flexibility to allow the additional height in exchange for this public benefit concept um I think that's the big sticking point at this point in time and is that adequate is that a reasonable tradeoff um because we don't have a true evaluation of public benefit at this time um I didn't feel comfortable saying yes or no but if you were to find that that uh deviation was reasonable because adequate public benefit then um the rest of it is is uh fairly in line with what has uh what the code would allow with the deviations thank you all right I think we're good for now Sarah thank you Amy on good morning again council members again for the record Amy tupo with presid Andress I'm the land use attorney on this case and um I'll kick off our presentation today um if it would be helpful um as I go through this I can also hit on some of the general discussion regarding the legal descriptions and the restrictive covenants and the intent and how that all plays into this um but but we will also be getting into that we have some slides in our presentation that will will'll use to discuss this in Greater detail so again you've met a lot of our team already we have Bob boy Bo and Bill wulus with jbo Inc and boyin management uh Fred dck our planner with rvi and Mike Sheil and Carlos Rios with MK architecture and Ted our traffic consultant with TR TR transportation and so as Sarah mentioned this is a CPD that we are requesting to rezone um just over six acres from CPD and CR to CPD so course I think we're all familiar with this we have the we're proposing you know the new 40 unit um Hotel structure two Standalone guest units converting one floor of the spa to two additional um hotel or condominium units Max of six stories for the new Boutique Hotel that we are proposing Max height of 60 ft um measured from design flood or about uh 75 75t 6 in from grade and a floor area ratio of point2 which does include ground level parking so Fred will go into all of that in Greater detail shortly um quickly I before I turn this over to to Fred okay so highlights since LPA we've talked about Sarah talked about this um a little bit so as you may recall Vacation Villas um we were working with them coordinating and we did ultimately receive a letter of support for this project project from their board so Vacation Villas is right across the street from this property um we have coordinated with um The asero Island beach villas condominium which had originally intervened in this proceeding in opposition to this particular request um they have withdrawn their opposition and their intervenor status in exchange for um providing letter of and they provided a letter support in exchange for us um slightly amending some public parking we had proposed there for a beach access um we have also worked with MK architecture they have reduced the width of the building and we have reduced the number of setback deviations from what we had originally requested um and I think that overall you will see that the deviation requests have really been improved and and slightly minimized since that time and um before forgive me when you said you've made some changes you say since since you were at the LPA or or before that since we were at the LPA so could you just spend a second just because I'm trying to get a sense of what's changed since the LPA hearing can you give us a good synopsis of that or is it is that premature I don't if you're going to get into that later that's fine Fred is is our planner extraordinaire so I'll let him speak to this so so and also Fred if you could if you could explain are your changes as a result of input you heard from the LPA or could you get into that a little bit yeah I can and I do have I do have slides on it you're going to get to it in your presentation that's fine but I can get but the quick overview might be helpful now just we have context as we go through the uh the changes that we made were two two fold one you know we had public opposition and intervenor Status so we wanted to continue working with them to try to alleviate that and be uh you know I think it's really our responsibility as an applicant to try to work with the neighbors to the greatest time possible so in in better understanding what they wanted um we came to the table with them and uh in response to that really the confusion everything that an intervenor status generates to come to the table and make an reach an agreement with their board to withdraw that so um that did remove the public parking um on that beach access that we were doing that was a big reason that they uh were opposing opposing that but not the only reason we just continue to work with them um and get better understanding of what was going to be across the street and just Clarity on the restricted Covenant and you know all that information that was brought up then we worked through with them and at the end of the day they felt that uh it was in their best uh interest to withdraw the other part was uh um that you know the massing of the building and that was one of the complaints they had the the cardboard thing up here that showed the size of the building and everything um and we had deviations for the setbacks on that so because of the LPA comments on that because of the public input we went back to the drawing board reduced the room sizes reduced the width of the building and therefore reduced the F based on LPA feedback um and then as a result of of of those those changes we were able to to um either increase or or improve the setback deviations requested one if we didn't have a public parking lot on the lot on the golf side we were only proposing one unit there and we were able to meet setbacks on the side setbacks and just had a little deviation for a rear setback so all this was based on changes for public comment neighbors or from the LPA thank you and again I just want to quickly um hit on what Nancy and Sarah discussed earlier with regard to the restrictive covenants and condition four in resolution 00-07 and you know what does this restrictive covenant actually do what was it intended to do so um as we'll discuss in a little bit greater detail Florida law is clear that when we're looking at Deep restrictions we look at them um they're a contract affecting real property you're essentially contract ing away some of your property rights to benefit other people typically um so as with any type of agreement um that would affect real property this is the type of document that would need to be recorded in the public records of the county in which the property is located so for this these types of agreements and documents would need to be recorded in the public records of Lee County Florida to be valid and to really encumber the property so there has been some confusion because as Sarah mentioned we have that 1995 zoning or uh resolution from Lee County z95 017 and that does include the entirety of the Bayside property that we are zoning here today it includes all of that Marina parcel and it does include Lots 38 and 39 which are the adjacent Parcels kind of a singular parcel that are proposed for this Boutique Hotel when they came back in um after the town had incorporated in 000 as they mentioned that original zoning resolution 00-07 did include um Lots 38 and 39 in the Bayside parcel description however discussion from that January 10th 200000 meeting um and we have those minutes actually in I believe exhibit B Exhibit C um along with that original resolution that was adopted the same day um there was discussion at that time that demonstrates that the intent was not to encumber what we are now calling the boutique hotel parcel it was to encumber just the marina and so condition four of that resolution that was adopted does did require that restrictive covenant it required that it would be recorded within 90 days so that was January 10th on April 7th of that same year the applicant did record the restrictive covenant that reflected the intent that legal description for the Bayside parcels that's exhibit a of the restrictive covenant it's also exhibit a to my memorandum um that legal description did not include Lots 38 and 39 of block D Island Shores Club section um which again that's the boutique hotel par so at some point they discovered a discrepancy and by they I mean Town staff Town Council applicant this discrepancy was discovered and so in piecing together the intent here if they had intended for the restrictive covenant to encumber the what we now know as the boutique hotel parcel it would have been the restrictive covenant that would have been amended we would have seen an amended restrictive covenant recorded that would have included plots 38 and 39 what we are now calling the boutique hotel parcel and and and that would have been quite frankly I would say the town's power to require that based on the zoning ordinance or zoning resolution 00-07 but instead on I believe it was June 29th of that of 2000 the same year um Town Council unan unanimously voted to amend the legal description in the zoning so taking together the minutes the restrictive covenant the amended zoning resolution and the timing of all of these it's clear here that the intent was not to encumber Lots 38 and 39 UT cotel parcel with the restrictive covenant the intent was just to encumber that Marina parcel so I hope that that is um clear um again Florida law does also require strict construction of these types of deed restrictions um typically the law does not favor restrictions on the use of property so while these types of covenants are valid um they are strictly construed in favor of the property owner who has abdicated certain rights in these covenants we will discuss that a bit more um later on in the presentation But ultimately when we're look when we're constructing a restrictive covenant Florida law mandates that we look to the intent of the parties when we're trying to decipher any any ambiguous provision so here was the intent to include the the boutique hotel parcel I think if it was we would have seen an amended restrictive covenant not an amended zoning resolution I know that was long-winded and redundant but I hope it it clarifies um what you have in front of you today just a procedural question if I could Nancy this document that she's just been referencing is this is the you see you just saw this as of yesterday I did I just heard about it have you had a chance to review it um I've reviewed it um as we were going through our meeting today but have you had a chance to review it to a level well it I mean it does represent um a resolution and a resolution is would typically be used for uh the correction of a scrivener's error um and and that seems to be what the intent was that there never was um an intent to rezone um those two Parcels um I guess the debate would be whether or not removing a parcel is is actually a scrivener error um but other than that I mean the words are what the words are um it does say scrier error uh which would go to the intent of the fact that that's what was originally um intended um I do agree with Miss tubo in that um if it was intended to put it into the unified um document that there would have been an amendment to that as well thank you sorry to interrupt no thank you I appreciate it if you guys have any other questions please let me know okay seeing none I will invite up Bob to discuss the history and the vision thank you good morning morning Mr Mayor vice mayor counsel and staff wasn't that fun um I I want to thank you for your time today but I really want to thank you for uh you you guys draw the the lottery ticket and I'm not sure if it's a good one or a a a really difficult one but being in a position to deal with the decisions that you guys have to deal with uh not easy and let me put it in context uh this uh I was in London uh with Bill on a insurance renewal Ian was a one in 10,000 year storm and so you're here dealing with something that might not have happened until 7500 years before Christ walked the planet so it's a it's a Monumental thing and I don't think people appreciate the magnitude of what we all went through through here and the challenge to bring it back and you know when I showed up here and and bought the pink shell in 19 98 um it didn't look anything like what it looks like today I mean it was a completely different unrecognizable say for the santel view building um and so that was then the only constant was the beach uh that was phenomenal and it remains so today and so I tell that story to make a point which is that this hotel is a is a uh metaphor for pink showell for the Fort Meers Beach it's an evolution and it always has been and it probably always will be and so uh you know we we got here through in just a little history to fill in fill it in so I've been in the hotel business my entire career our family started in 1959 and and since then you know the Ping shell was originally owned by a public company that I ran we that subsequently my brother and I bought it from the public company when we sold that public company but we've got uh I could go through a list of 10 hotels we've owned operated and developed here in Florida uh I am a Florida resident since 2007 I'm down here quite a lot um the uh you know pink is an iconic Resort on Fort Meers Beach uh the the statement it makes I think it says a lot it's why the Lee County visitors bureau often calls us for uh fam tours for for uh different groups that we can work with to show them to encourage tourism here on the island and and I think and you know Margaritaville adds to that um people there isn't anyone of these projects that hasn't been controversial uh so we just listen you know and we came in some time ago with a really big project started talking to Jim and Dan about it uh before Ian trying to solve the parking and traffic issue well the world changed uh in Ian obviously and so we listened and the message we heard was we need we need boutique hotels on the island to come back now the question you all are going to have to ask is are we a residential island or are we a tourist destination how much how much lodging rental inventory do we want how much residential do we want which many of which might sit empty for half the year and and what does that do to restaurants and shops and all of that it's a it's a tough deal you got to figure that out but our thing thinking is you know we could bring some inventory back because you know who you're dealing with with us we've been here you know for 25 years uh our reputation is what it is we're very transparent and uh you know we we we just heard what people said they wanted and that's exhibited by going back to Vacation Villas and beach villas and hearing hearing their concerns and let me tell you skin in these cats it's just is not for the faint of heart I mean you know I know people are going to get up and say uh let's bring the island back to where it was I would love to go back to before Ian but it's just not going to happen so we got to look forward that's your job you guys are doing in my opinion e excellent job of figuring it out and you're never going to make everybody happy so uh we understand that um we you know when we bought the property I spent a lot of time as we developed it with Roxy going through uh her thoughts on it and she was she was a a Visionary she was a great uh Ally she supported the things we we wanted to do and I think she would be in support of this project I do recall this particular discussion we had just to lead into this and uh it was Beverly Grady was our lawyer and she caught the scribers error and that's why it was you know brought back around to correct so it's true that density was transferred over to the white sand Villa location but it was for the marina parcel but most importantly I want you to take a look at the public benefits because we're not asking for this just because we got some land and we want to build more density we've got some real good stuff to bring to the table today and with that I'm going to close up and let uh Fred get into the fun part okay thank you thank you lot of pressure Fred give me accolades before I even start I mean how it's g go a few other slides there my har on this too long um so what to expect from from my presentation so I am going to do my best to not be tedious um there's uh the the packages you know that you received is is fairly accurate there's been small minor tweaks since then but I think 90 98% of it is is accurate so I won't try to read every slide there is some pieces I want to go through you know with the density transfer I have a little bit of a I guess a simplified way of going through it and just uh kind of summarize that one last time and then as my professional opin I as a planner you know what what really what really uh happened and what the intent was of that from a planner's perspective um and then after that we'll go through the uh we'll have Bill wulus come up go through the uh public benefits um we'll outline those and what we're intending to do um and then uh I'll run through the the deviations um I have some graphics and some detail on those that'll hope hopefully help you understand those uh with a with a lot of clarity and then just simp go back to um the path to approval that um you know with the efficency factor and then wrap up in a conclusion from there so um to begin with um this is just the simple part but as as part of uh my expert in planning um it's important that we're we're just rezoning the the pink area from the existing CPD to a unified CPD um and unified to mean there was a you know since this original CPD there was one additional so the address of that is 309 Estero Boulevard it's it'll be now added to the CPD it's on the south or eastern most end of the marina parel it's in the red on that uh on that uh exhibit there so it will now be included in the overall CPD for the pink shell in one unified zoning document the future land use category is not being changed and it's just just say it in the microphone sorry forward slide so and the only reason I point that out is that there's just no change request to Future Landes category we're in mixed residential and Recreation and um the pink areas in the recreation that's the the Total Parts is 11 11 acres I mean rounded and then our developable area which is in the red and the mixed residential is 6.02 Acres uh we're doing no changes to the comp plan land use category next slide um so let's say just a quick walk around the master concept plan because uh there's a there's a few changes since the LPA so since the LPA we have um as I said earlier we have removed so let's start on the golf side and on the slide Bel lower right hand side where it says a new guest unit which replaces three units um that is long you know beach access there were three former units there one Cottage and a duplex we're just proposing one unit there um that's a change we did have two a single unit and a public parking in that area for the beach access so that changed in in in in agreement to working with our neighbors so that's changed since there um the uh additional parcel in the upper right hand corner there is the 309 Estero that's being added to the CPD um there was one unit on there before we're proposing another a guest unit there that will be all and the both of these units are not residential units that will be part of the rental pool and under control of the pink shell um in their rental pool just as they do with the other with the other unit so um it's not a residential unit it is a hotel guest unit as part of the overall uh unit count of 239 which would be the final number of units in the pink shell CPD and then the big the rig red square is the legal description area for the density transfer so that's the historical density transfer of parcel as amended in 007a um and in that in as recorded in the Covenant so that's that red that's the red area um and then on the uh the boutique hotel is on the end next to bouic you know next to The Bouch maintenance area um and in that area we uh uh were able to increase some of the side setbacks um on both sides to provide you know at least a better View Corridor and less less uh Mass on a stero Boulevard there is part of our request too is a uh is converting part of the spa so in the White Sands building um there is uh 6,000 square F feet on two stories of spa it's not used that much that was a recommendation when they originally built the spa that there would be that much of a demand or has be quite that much demand but it's also not unused so they're taking 3,000 square F feet of it which is one story and want to convert that into two units to get better use out of the space um but not get rid of the spa because it's one that not only people that are visiting the pink shell use but also other people can come in and use it by the public so it is I think it is a uh you know it's used by the the general public as well all right so the master concept plan next slide please so this one same thing um I colorize it a little bit so you there's lots of talks about the D and what was approved in the Covenant those blue light blue areas are the view corridors that were were approved in the Covenant we're not changing those we are we do want to modify and enhance that area um because it's been you know there's uh obviously part of it was was destroyed or not looked like it was ever intended to um we want to improve that by adding uh a new walkway um the walkway then was and you can see it on there it's a little little area that goes through the you know the edges or even the center of some of that um but it ended at certain spots near the like the dock building in some areas it didn't it never really completed itself and and connected as a true a great walkway um interpretive walkway as it was in the Covenant so we're proposing that to to redo that that walkway and you know at not an insignificant expense uh make a boardwalk that would actually extend out over the water as will allow and um complete that walkway so that you can go have bike racks ride up to that um put put your bikes on a bike rack walk through there um have seating look out over the msas pass look at the the boats and the Yachts coming in um which is really fun to do um and just have a good experience with a nice landscape uh and landscape architect plan um which is also part of our our package is a conceptual landscape plan which will you know be in concept be locked into um so that's what this slide is really to show where those View Corridor were and then the the pink or red areas are the places where we're making either replacing units or adding new units um so those are the areas just to give it a little bit of a simplified View and that purple line is your walk through yeah that's the the the board walk and would not only fulfill the original Covenant um to a greater extent but then also be enhanced from there all right next slide so let's let's let's just revisit this a little bit I won't have to spend a whole lot of time on this slide because I think between Amy and staff and and um the uh and just Council in general this has been addressed fairly well so what what this this this what this is exibit is just a show is an an excerpt from the actual Covenant and with the Highlight areas are the lots that were included in the Covenant and I think we've we've gone over that enough that Lots 38 and 39 were not included in that final Covenant that was recorded and um the image down at the bottom is a you know a survey from 2023 and that was there as reference for you to show exactly where the the where the Lots were uh Lots Lot 37 is the current dilapidated house that's that hopefully be removed soon um and then Lots 38 and 39 that go towards bage are the boutique hotel the next slide is the one I want to get into and spend a little bit of time on so let's talk about the the 3.2 Acres so this mCP was established in the 1995 I believe 017 resolution so when um when jamee plumber brought this up um at that time um I mean we had seen it in the past but there was so much history on this that um I knew the current I knew the current survey didn't add up to 3.2 Acres but we need to go back and identify where did that 3.2 Acres come from this is where it came from it was a 1995 approval at Lee County it included Lot 37 which is obviously not part of that anymore that's uh that's under separate ownership and has been since just before the 2000 resolution it included lot 38 39 we believe and from what I was able to scale out that this was 3.2 acres and the reason that it's larger is that it included some some water um area in mananas P that is now part of the state you know submerged lands and it included um it appears to include there um property lines to the center of the RightWay for stair Boulevard um and the reason I conclude that is you can see there's parking on the uh uh against bage there there's the I think it's six parking spaces that are part of the Vacation Villas uh least uh uh spaces for them that have been in agreement for a long time um and there you know with in within the property lines but then later in the uh in those that that there's a line that actually runs almost you know that shows that those parking spaces end up kind of in the right away they've been since redone obviously but it included a fair amount that I think adds up to that 3.2 Acres from what we can best tell the I think the important part so that's the 3.2 acres and it's where it came from and why it was bigger than the current one um resolution Z z07 reference the 3.2 acres and establish the condition for the density so this I'm hoping this isn't going to be T but because I think I can run through this pretty quick that memo that was provided is pretty large I mean it's 50 or 60 pages I boil this down to just a few pages that I want to hand out and just really just thumb through and walk through it's the same resolution same my we're talking about I just have highlights and notes on some of it for a little bit of clarity all right the very front page of this and you can see in the upper right hand corner z951 7 the reason I put this in there is because this establishes a 3.2 acre reference and this is the mCP that I show on the exhibit there highlighted in the center of that document shows the lots that are included Lot 29 through 32 33 through 36 and 37 through 39 that that is accurate it seems to the 3.2 Acres all those lots are are are accurate so that was established at that point you go a couple of pages to the next piece that's highlighted which is the mCP and that is just to show you that Yep this is where I got that from so um that resolution established this as the 3.2 acres for the base High Parcels as mentioned it looked like the they include the center line of right the RightWay M Tas pass water and um Lot 37 which is now not part of the CPD whatsoever the next page highlighted with the notes on the top Is Res is excerpt from resolution number 00-07 this is the density transfer resolution this established the condition for the Covenant on the Bayside Parcels it was approved by 4 to one vote January 10th 2000 highlighted part at the beginning of that just shows the units that that Sarah was referencing they removed 47 units here's we have 59 units total total density at that time with 12 units being on L 3839 approximately 12 units on 3839 and so this was the trans this established that transfer um on that on the next page of that is just outlining what was exactly amended amend the commercial plan development pink shell Bayside to remove 47 units and amend the golf side to add the 47 units and this is when the White Sands building was able to go up to Nine Stories and be built what it is today like I said that was the 10th day of January 2000 the next page that was part of that resolution so they included the legal description from the 1995 case that established the 3.2 Acres except that lot uh Lot 37 it's not clear that that was even included in that part which makes sense because that was sold at that time before the 2000s so this description as you can see from now that I'll show you the next legal description that was actually recorded and this was kind of prob just needed to be redone I mean it was pieced together over the years um uh and obviously we get better at these things all the time so um but that was the excerpt that was attached to the resolution was that from 1995 zoning ordinance also attached was the next page and included that because there's a reference in the Min there's a reference in the resolution to the conditions condition number four is the condition that established that there need to be a covenant um the covenant made and agreed upon you know with that's condition four uh you know says within 90 days of the approved and request Amendment the applicant must must have approved and recorded a document that assures binding permanent restrictions are placed on the 3.2 acre Bas side property to assure all development rights of the hotel you uh units and dwelling units have been transferred to the golfside par parcel to guarantee the permanence of the transfer so the confusing part here and the part that would was that needed to be amended was that the 3.2 acre par so even at this point wasn't exactly accurate because parcel 37 wasn't to be part of the new resolution so there was there were errors there Beyond just um other scri or theirs all of which I don't know exactly um what were what were found but what was found was that this was the the the the legal description in that zoning resolution was incorrect so since after this was approved in January 10th then as Amy stated April 7th the recorded um Covenant was was made just over 90 days later which then our that that is in fulfillment of this this condition so then you can skip to two or three pages later to the next one page that has red notes on the top so this was Amendment uh 007a and that was uh as has been stated that's the correct the scrier error in the legal description it was unanimously approved uh three months after the cover was this the highlighted section below the golf side Lots the Bayside lots are the legal description exactly as they are in the Covenant as was stated it would have been much easier to go back and amend the Covenant and record a private agreement that would have matched the zoning then it would be to do the opposite and come back through the zoning to amend that and and make it correct because of that that leads us to conclude that the legal description was incorrect the density transfer that is recorded in that Covenant is correct the one piece I found from the meeting minutes that I thought was interesting about you know from that original zoning hearing was so it was when Pam was here on staff which I worked for Pam in Lee County years and years ago it's great uh she said a condition of Miss's recommendation is that the applicant must submit do documents that will guarantee the permanence of the transfer and these documents are now being reviewed so that was at the January hearing and the approval so she was the whatever the Covenant agreements were already in the staff's hands at that point in order to be worked through is what I conclude from there so um fact that those documents were them being reviewed then the the Covenant was recorded um you know in April 7th and then three months later there was another hearing to amend the the zoning ordinance to that leads me to feel that there was full full transparency and knowledge of what the Covenant agreed to the area that it covered and that the 3.2 acre reference was Antiquated the legal description wasn't quite right and they had to fix that and they fixed it as soon as possible from an applicant standpoint from from my standpoint from a January approval from an April 7th recording and then to be back in front of council within two to three months later there was stuff in it was it was being worked at and it was found it was found early that they had to be back there because I mean we can't get back in front of Council in any new case an amendment within two or three months so in order to do that they knew they knew it was happened they knew it needed to be corrected as they were working through the Covenant and had that set up and in Motion in order to be in that kind of timeline so because of that and because of this deep dive I mean there's a number of these things that we knew from the beginning that that that it was there was no prohibition of units for the Lots 38 and 39 we wouldn't have spent the last two years or year and a half doing this if we thought there was a we were at risk of not being able to request a building on this lot now we've had to be challenge to dig a lot deeper and I appreciate it because there are some points when I'm looking through this I'm like oh man we were we wrong did we missed something I think the evidence points out that at the end of the day the approved resolutions is all that we can stick by the approve the approvals um and the public record are all that we can go by and what we have is is the conclusion that we were able to build on that on those two lots and the density transfer was honored we're going to honor the continued honor the density transfer we're not proposing any development on the in the view corridors we're not changing the view corridors we're trying to improve and enhance those and really get those to be what they were I mean even better than they were always intended to be um and I think we have the right to ask for um the uh Hotel units and change the equivalency faxer and build on that parcel whether you agree that's this is the right project that could be the next the next piece but I think uh in our mind um and working with staff and and everybody in Trans in transparency of this we couldn't figure out any Smoking Gun that would shut this thing down in fact I think I found the opposite I found that this was I think for me as clear of a conclusion as maybe we can ever get to that this was what was supposed to happen based on the timeline that is on that slide so that's all I have on that section and unless there's more questions about that I will move on to the details of the actual development just real quick Fred sure Nancy is this the first time you've seen this particular document I'm sorry which docum the document that that he's just been referencing the um the 077a yes well no it's establish 3.2 acre bide mCP oh um no I have not reviewed this one but I can before your second reading for sure thank you yeah yeah and I didn't it it it's a same thing that's in the memo I mean it's just the excerpts of the resolution so should be should be but no new information but can I ask another question absolutely I asked Sarah uh at her professional opinion how many units uh assuming you didn't go through the CPD process how many you'd be allowed to build by right and In fairness to Sarah she was just doing a rough estimate in her head she came up with 12 well in your professional opinion what would what would how many units would you be able to build by right yeah that that she's accurate that's her understanding as well okay thank you I think there's a little bit of rounding there but yeah it's 12 minutes thank you you have any questions for Fred before we move on good all right um next slide I thought this was just interesting so this the last thing on that on the density transfer um the visually I think this is interes so the bottom is the 3.2 Acres the top is the current survey and I think you can see just the width the the depth of the property went to stero Boulevard the the area that's been removed in m t's pass um I think it just show how how we went from the in the removal of the Lot 37 probably I think this closely shows how we went from 3.2 acres to the current acreage that we have now but then obviously the uh correction of to what the was transferred in the the density transfer um as well so this was just a visual representation of the two so we're trying to just be out there and transparent and share with everybody the depth of what we were able to find without biased we were just following the evidence and following the trail and that's where we ended up I mean obious were biased a little bit but we followed the evidence on this one may I ask a question um so Sarah and I did go over a lot of the documentation prior to today's meeting um what we found of Interest was the unified um the Covenant of unified control it did have several things in it and maybe um I thought this is a really good picture to show where those walkways are what pure you want um exhibit it's this one of the big pack handed out correct um so I thought Fred maybe you might highlight for Council because that's a very good rendition of of what that document actually does um the scenic Corridor area the walkway okay so in the in that green section on each end of that green area there's a there's Dash lines that that you know kind of arc Arc around and and they stopped near the uh existing dock building um on both sides so it seems like one started on the East End one started on the West End curved went towards went towards the water and then looks like it kind of stopped but that was the those dotted areas are the recorded legal and they're legally described in the Covenant as the interpret of walkway areas we are proposing those in a little bit of a different area so that will I mean this document and the legal desp of where those are will have to be amended because we want to we want to improve those move them out a little bit to the side not put buildings there obviously so there's still The View Corridor piece um and just surface parking but to have those those connect um in full and go out over the water a little bit to enhance all that um so the those dashed areas are legally described in this and that and legally described as what they're supposed to be you know walk pedestrian access over six foot walkway um that they describe an exhibit e um they they put hours in the in the in the Covenant from 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily um access is limited to humans I don't know if we need to put that on there now because we all want our pets to be able to follow us around so that's I don't know if we care about that anymore but um and there's there's some other things about the interpretive walkway part you know have information about um you know what kind of plants are there planning some things you know the Landscape Architects are going to spend some time putting some things there and they have the the sign in front of the vegetation that shows the native vegetation we're coordinating with the Garden Club on that in order to make sure that um it's as salt tolerant as possible we know everything can't survive when it gets flooded by the seawat but we'll do the to the greatest extent that we can um and then really fulfill the interpret of walkway of this but our proud enhancement of this and I'm glad that the boyin are are willing to willing to do this and look at this is you know that Boardwalk that's going to extend out over the water that is uh over and above in my opinion what they would have needed to do to fulfill the Old Covenant and make that improvements because I think that's just so exciting to be able to walk out on a boardwalk in a peer- like fashion that's out over the water have places to sit and look at those boats without it you know kind of being near a parking lot and everything I think it's just going to going to be beautiful so does that F you want yes um because Sarah and I we spent some time trying to see exactly what what what was provided um in exchange for the density transfer and that pretty much Illustrated it with your um commentary I think that might be helpful to good and uh I know in the zoning resol I mean there were even details about number of plants and those kind of things so I not opposed to all all that I think we'll probably they weren't unreasonable so we can even be that and most likely it'll be exceeded because of the park life the park life feature that we want it to be all right it's all right I'm going to go to the next slide we'll get into just a few of the planning the planning pieces here to some to sum things up and then I'll I'll just spend a little bit of time on the deviation so this is a summary summary SL for the intensity and density uh requested um so the pink shell currently has 195 units the proposed complete CPD if this is approved would be 239 guest units um 197 hotel and hotel Conor units in the existing Resort so there's 195 over there now the the two additional to make it 197 would be the conversion of the spa to two units uh two new guest units that was on the 309 Estero on the Bayside and then the one unit on the golf side um as part of the rental pool also so limited to you know uh limited to the rentals as the existing pink shell is um not a uh residential unit that would be under separate ownership and be able to be rented out um or just owned as a as a condo um a new 40 unit Hotel uh Boutique Hotel um includ in in addition to that the marina does have 41 boat slips and in fairly recent approvals 39 Li boards um so there was a question at the LPA I think it was our first LPA hearing was those 39 Li boards considered to be um density units and count count against density so in the code in the LDC 341 1861 they are considered to be living units but it's specific in there that they do not count towards dwelling units per the comp plan so there is that allowance for the liver boards that they don't count towards that and those are limited correct to 30 don't they have a time limit on it like 30 days at a time uh yes yeah it generally yeah yep yep uh and then Resort Amy so the the really important part of this intensity and density summary is we're doing this and proposing this new one the all it really needs to change is that is that equivalency factor which is not nothing but it's but we are are meeting two important criteria we're not exceeding the F that's allowed in this land use category that's 1.2 with the reduction of the building we're you know we have we have some pretty decent buffer that we're under that 1.2 now because we eliminated a little more than 8,000 sare fet from the existing from the proposed building um and then we meet the parking requirements so um to the greatest extent we could to itemize everything even in the worst case scenario we're counting everything that the resort does we're going to be able to meet parking there will be some public parking uh or it's open to the public and there will be should be parking spaces on that Bayside available for the public as well um we're proposing a little over 400 parking spaces in total existing and Bayside surface parking and under the new Boutique Hotel um other parking as well the new units I mean it's all going to be under story parking um you know I'll show I'll show this in a little bit but the one guest unit on Gul Shore Court was had parking that was kind of out the easan in the right away a little bit and was like front parking and backing out right onto the street um in an kind of in an awkward way so now we'll be able to raise that up put all the parking underneath the buildings which is I know Common request when we go through variances and other things all right next slide so this is this is just to show and I I think we're we're covering this real well enough but the interesting part about this uh is is going into the equivalency Factor um um so if we just go if we just take it according to straight current day code the we would be able to develop 36 units because we have six developable acres that's per the comp um Maxim the maximum by right equivalency would be 2.0 so the CPD and whole the six acres has 72 units available to it obviously we're requesting 239 so the equivalency Factor is is the way we get there the existing units partially because it was uh it was approved you know some of this was approved in uh you know before the incorporation of the Town um and and it carried forward there was never an equivalency Factor assigned or that they that the existing units were under they were kind of beded and over the movements of the years they just kind of worked with what they had so what we are willing to do is bring this up to Modern code or or want to do is is apply the equivalency Factor through the entire CPD to make this easy for people to figure out where did we get the numbers how did we get there so um if we did that all the current units that were out there we'd be at a 5.4 equivalency factor and we are asking for 6.7 so we go to the next slide and it just shows where we are in the some of the recent approvals and where we fit um so increasing from 54 4 to 6.7 nepe Myers side and Margarita Bill kind of sandwich Us in the in on the other sides of that as far as our equivalency approval so um we didn't try to push the envelope too much we did we just honestly the one of the driving forces for this was that there is a and I think you've heard this before there is a sweet spot for Resorts operating especially with the amenities that they need to provide to be successful and that is somewhere in that 40 to 250 260 range um and that is a a just an efficient economic place for a resort to be um allowing them to operate efficiently and allowing us to then hope provide the public benefits that we're we're doing as a good offset all right so next next page so this is the floor area ratio analysis on here so the proposed 40 unit building is now 70,000 square ft it's a reduction of just about 10,000 ft from 78,000 um and this was eded directly because of the discussion from the neighbors and because of the comments from the LPA about the size of that proposed building so um we knocked 10 feet or five feet off each side it enabled us to provide greater setbacks and uh and reduce the room sizes and reduce the building size um by uh 10% and the front edge on a stair Boulevard by 10% as well um so and then so then the to Total floor area didn't change it a whole lot because that's 8,000 s feet out of 312,000 is not huge but it it did give us some uh percentage reduction in the overall F and kept us below that um I think we're at 1 point5 or maybe 1.1 some somewhere in that area so we're under the f um so we're not trying to push the envelope past past what's uh permitted in that Realm all right let me go to the next one this is a hotel update you've seen this several times where where the where we are at Fort Meers Beach as far as the hotel room update um this was uh fairly recent um November yeah y uh it was November and so shows were you know only at 44 and a half perc uh open of what was prean so um this will help with that inventory and shows that we're just in we're still in recovery still in need of to get back to where we were let alone you know the uh additions of you know what's needed for the future desire to be on Fort Meers Beach um next p next slide So Stories and height um so this is and the reason I have some of this on here is one to show you know how we are in comparison I mean part of the comp plan allows for uh you know pairing and requesting height in areas that have height that's similar or greater to the request um we don't have the building that we're proposing doesn't have anything on the on the directly AB budding it but across the street obviously is the Vacation Villas um and this was the one that's directly comparison and the one that we thought most about because this is the neighbors that we don't want to upset and we want to work well with um their building was uh seven stories uh we're proposing uh five living stories one over parking uh which would be six and then they're 57 ft above flood elevation um the part about this that I think is interesting is that they were you know with their really 65 ft were able to fit seven stories in there and part of it is they were built at a flood elevation of about 8 ft and we're at 196 now um so that's some of our height and then just the modern floor uh the floors have really gone from maybe 8 and a half to N9 n and a half sometimes even 10 we're proposing somewhere in the middle of that about 9 and a half so you know it adds up to being some of the additional Heights so the 14 ft and then the extra foot and a half per floor or foot per floor you know adds up um so it's a comparable building in several ways um it's just but it is a little bit taller mostly because of the flood elevation and then the surrounding properties are you know around n you know the tallest White Sands is 92 feet above flood capeville is 70 feet sand view is six stories but it's a little bit shorter uh 47 ft above flood elevation so I think we're comparable the next slide shows that and this is just an overview this the one that has been going out on social media and some other things to just show comparisons um we believe that we fit into this neighborhood compatibility so if this is the neighborhood we believe we're not doing anything that is out of the ordinary for this area in fact um I think we're proposing something that um is right in line with what is in this neighborhood so it won't change the character and I think it'll fit right in um all right I want to show the architectural rendering so the revision now this uh so go to the next two slides so this is you've seen this this picture now what you may have noticed we didn't need to compare because it didn't just visually just five feet on each side just didn't seem like that much but really what it did um it it it cut that down five feet on each side so this is a reduced building we just tried to make it as light as possible and um the couple of features we did do is the pull into the underground parking um switch we we had it on the the north side and we moved it to the South side if the request of vacation vill is to coordinate with them better um vacation vill is is getting their lease spots and we've increase the number of spots they're going to get and that will be now secured and under story Park and under building parking so I think that's an improvement for them to get their cars out of the Sun and to have a gated uh entrance to their least parking spaces um that will provide them perpetuity and we increase the number of those that we're giving them um so overall it's be 10% reduction based on the LPA feedback and feedback of the neighbors all right now let's go through the public benefits so I want to for this I want to bring up um Bill wulus you oper director of operations the hotel um and he's really the face of this and has that that great longstanding relationship with the neighbor so I want him to walk through these and the history of when these things were done um and what it'll take to execute them in the future so I'll bring up Bill before we run off I just make sure nobody has any questions Scott any questions I'll be back up can you can you go back to that picture of yeah am I missing the floor it looks like there's five above top one yeah yeah is there another one way no just five living stories and then one story one one I know it's counted as six from grade so six stories total gotcha yeah yeah Karen any questions no I'm good for oh I do have a question so at one point I can't even remember when this was I think this was right after Ian when there were some original plans on this it was much bigger um there was conversation about Workforce housing so that has all been eliminated correct that is that is correct yeah that has been eliminated okay uh yeah the the original larger structure was part of part of the reason for the I think we were over 100 residential units that we were proposing on that plus the four or five story parking garage you know in order to address parking problems on the on the island um the part of the reason that it needed to be that many units was to offset the uh the housing the cost the what would have been the workforce housing because it's it was really going to be used to be rented to the employees of their of of the resort um in kind of a more dormatory style at that point um and that's we're not going to make money I mean not going to make no money off that but it's it's a it's a loss leader it's not a profit maker um so without the larger development it just wasn't to make that we tried to do a number of other things that we'll get into but right so there's no proposed Workforce housing on the property at this point correct okay Jim questions nothing addition John you got any questions for Fred nothing cly thanks Fred good morning Council mayor staff uh for the record Bill wulus pink shell U we can go to the next slide um so you know we looked at you know what public benefits we could do obviously to in regards to the to the height you know as Fred mentioned before the that walkway obviously bringing that out more to the water uh to where people could walk along the water I mean it's beautiful over there I mean we have sometimes yachts in that are 120 ft long um five6 million Yachts to be able to walk along that uh that Shore um so that enhancement is is significant it's somewhere in the 250 to 500,000 range um we also you know obviously we've now replaced I think the Landscaping twice after these storms but we want to take over the responsibility the the property the town has in front of the resort and maintain that in perpetuity um for several reasons one is is obviously the look and feel of of that you're you know at the pink shell um you know it's nothing you know something dies you know we want to replace it pretty quickly and not have to you know work with Town staff not that they are not responsive but we would just rather just take care of it and replace it um so um working with the Garden Club and Cathy and coming up with a plan um and that you know would be about $150,000 um to to to maintain all that um the other Bigg e uh that we're doing right now is is the pump out for the moing field you know we we it's two to three times a a week that that boat is coming in and we're pumping it out um I know there's um it's challenges with areas on the town that um homeowners do not want that in their backyard um it's part of our you know operation we were doing it um as a as a as a good neighbor to the town right now but we would want to continue to do that ongoing and solve that town problem that you wouldn't have to worry about what are you going to do to pump to pump out uh and that that that uh is in place right now um uh water taxi has been a big topic we obviously would love to be the the North End drop off and pick up for water taxi if that gets rolled out um we have several spots right at the marina we could do our doc Master being able to help with that taxi coming in and uh helping people get on and off um uh one of the other things and this is already in place but it's probably 2008 around 2008 you know the town owns that end of the North End of the Road and the water drainage was a major problem we'd get a small storm and the road would flood um and the town you know had couldn't come up a solution of where do you put that storm water and um we actually in those two view corridors have have an easement where we put the the I what you going to call them catacomb all the storm water goes to On Our Land um we didn't ask for anything you know to do that we did that as a good neighbor and to do the right thing for for the the town I just put it on here as as a point because it solved the problem um unfortunately at the time um there was nowhere else to to to to do and we stepped up the plate to do that you go to the next slide this is uh the the the the Landscaping plan that uh working with uh recommendations from the Garden Club and the plans from rvi our landscape architect um and how we how set up the that area and go to next slide and then just you know when you categorize public benefits it's just a these are just some of the special benefits that to make you aware of that the resort does um we provide working with the the commute connect program U we have two 15 passenger vans um cost us uh about 40,000 um but that's 30 Associates every day that come in on those vans versus um 30 cars that would be coming to the resort um we are actually looking at increasing that um um obviously if um we did get approval for uh additional units this we would increase uh the the van usage it's a it's a great benefit to our employees um and it also gets cars off the road uh improved Transportation circulation uh with different modes uh the golf carts bikes um you know encouraging our guests we have a not like a lot of resorts but we have a pre-arrival con year we actually call the guest before they arrive we encourage them not to bring a car um we give them options we pre-book you know um you know the day beds golf carts um just to make it or we make arrangements for their transportation it's been very positive it's just a little upper class type of service but it also gets people more knowledge that they don't have to drive to the resort uh with a car um again you know obviously uh the pool is down at Bay Oaks we work with uh the summer program I mean how do you have a summer program and don't have kids can't go into a pool so we provided our pool um to the to the Bay Oaks and also the stero Island U summer programs we would obviously continue to do that until the the pools are back online uh and again with our new this new project we would include the the Florida green lodging program where for Palm one of the only Resorts that's has that designation and we also have our completely Turtle uh certified in the new building would be that also you go to the next slide um I just want to also just mention you know I know you've gotten pros and cons of letters and I I'm in the business of making people happy so you know I I get I've come to the realization I can't make everybody happy but in those letters that you've gotten you know the two associations we work closely with and got approval for both of those associations so the majority of those associations recommended approval you know you're going to hear some that are against us you know we unfortunately can't make everybody happy but the goal that we made was how do we talk to everybody and listen and support them and try to make changes and we did so I just want to make that point with that I have any questions for me Scott any questions for Bill no at this time K you mentioned two associations are these within the pink shell units or these These are uh neighboring Pro we can uh can go to the slide that has the the whole the CPD oh that's a good one so um you can kind of see on the my right but the the where the boutique building is um across the street is Vacation Villas that's the the yellow building we work closely with that Association and that board um in your packet you have a letter of support from that Association um you know we we've they have a challenge with parking I mean they literally have a Lally almost a spot for per unit we if with the if we were to get approv we would be increasing those spots for them and and helping them amongst other benefits that we would we would we would give them um and then also with beach villas which is another which is the blue building just to our South uh it's not part of the pink shell both of these buildings were developed by the pink shell years and years ago but they're not in our our uh program um that also uh we gained their support they had an intervener originally and have now given a letter of support uh for the for the project also you we used to rent those units you know when you look at you know Bill why do you want to have the extra 40 units I mean Vacation Villas and beach villas we used to rent those units out um and it just caused operational challenges for us because we don't control the the corridors or the look and feel of the the buildings and we would get complaints from people when they stayed at one of the main buildings and then stayed at one of the those it just just didn't work um so you know when you look at this project you say well you know you're not building any more facilities well we don't need to because our facilities that we had handled all those units and those programs over the years um today we don't rent any of those units out anymore but those are the two associations that I was speaking to thank you than mayor could you comment a little bit more and elaborate on this concept ccept of economies of scale in a resort such as yours and how these units would help you achieve certain economies of scale to help you better utilize all the various amenities you offer sure well you know as uh you know take the beach Villa's building you know there's 42 units in that building they those 42 units used to be 100% in the pink shell program um Vacation Villas um you know part of that building also was in our in our program so we rented all those units they Ed the facilities they Ed the our food and beverage they Ed the pools um you know the sweet spot for a resort wise is in that 240 250 range I know you've heard it from other projects but it's when you get to the scales of of of of uh of benefits um you know an elevator costs you know $500 to $700,000 doesn't you know you need an elevator for five units or 50 units but when you start getting those scales of those expenses that's where those those those those uh benefits come into play but you know for us it's really we had that size and we just want to be that size with the facilities can you can you discuss that concept as it relates to a poan experience in other words your economic VI ability as as a you're probably one of the top employers on the island uh clearly a pillar economically for our community can you talk a little bit about having that sort of economic uh viability is is it relates to that uh that sort of economies of scale Dynamic and if and how it would have helped you recover uh financially and and both physically and financially your physical plant as a result of hurricane Ian just kind of blend those two together if you could sure you know when you look at look at the pink shell after Ian the first Resort that reopened was the pink shell you know the first Resort that opened after Hela the pink shell first one after Milton the pink shell um we housed FEMA we housed FEMA I still have FEMA from Milton in the resort right now uh you know homeowners that are that were displaced on for Myers Beach um we housed FEMA right after Ian um about a 100 units um we were able to do and I think what you see is the newer construction and buildings that were built were have that ability um and we would have that ability you know if we had another building to to be that resource and we employ over 300 employees at the pinkville I mean we're we know we're we're an engine for this island you know the the the our guests are eating in the restaurants they're going to publ they're they're using the the uh the the gift shops in the area and um I mean it's it's key I mean to the success of of of uh you know this County um you know it's a shame when you see that slide of 40% of the hotels are only back online I mean that's and I and I can tell you when we're here next year that number ain't changing much I mean it's still going to be in that 40% range and it's it's it's it's tough um you know I think you know Karen mentioned about you know employee housing one of the Grim realities out of these storms there's a lot more people for jobs to where we haven't had to bring people Internationals over um a lot of people lost their job and it's it's I will say if you compare compared to prein it's a lot easier to hire people right now because there's a lot less restaurants and hotels open you know you've been in this business a lot for a long time and you're you serve on the TDC in fact we served together for a year I guess my question is you look at that 40 some percent return rate for the hotels you said that's likely to remain stagnant for another couple years at least do you have any sense just given your knowledge of the island and the industry what that number will eventually get to over the next five years I don't think you'll see the number get back to fully I think you're going to see projects that are you know going be converted to residential um rather than hotel I think that's just you know the the Grim economics of of you know with real estate and where our our pricing of real estate is now um obviously if you would develop a hotel your return on investment is going to take a lot longer than it would be be selling as residential so I think that number is going to be less that you're going to see as as as as if you want to just call doors for hotels is going to be less um I think you'll see a mix of vacation rental I mean even in those numbers just the amount of vacation rental that we've lost also uh and you know we see it in our bed tax numbers every month it's it's a challenge but I I think you're going to you know I have no doubt we're all going to get back there it's just going to take us some time to get back and and um you know we're seeing you know we're seeing a very strong first quarter I mean people are looking forward to coming down I will say November December was tough I mean a lot of people changed their plans after the the two hurricanes and you know we were expecting much stronger November December to be in weaker but the first quarter again looks looks good um you know I think I think people want to get back to Fort Meers Beach and I you know we we've got a premier destination and uh you know I I I I know the challenge you have but the biggest the biggest complaint I get is people when they come over the island it's like H you know chain link fences buildings that should be brought down I mean that's what we are trying to overcome as as operators right now to convince people to come and and you know we're trying try to just you know get to the resort stay at the resort as much as you can until the rest of the island can catch up I I asked that because my struggle with this application today is is you're not rebuilding as a result of Ian you're you're in essence creating new density here and that's why I'm trying to to to to to try to see if there's a correlation in terms of a poan recovery Dynamic and I think you've helped well I I think there's I think there's that you I think there's also the fact of you know we had four homes I mean we lost those homes those were I mean we weren't imp not impacted by by the storm you know our insurance claim on on the pink shell was 70 $72 million you know and that's newer construction but 72 million uh um heavily affected by by the storm and I I'll tell you between Hela and Milton it's probably another million and a half to2 million just in in loss of of between damages and and lost bookings I mean it's just man we can't catch a break it's all here thank you John any questions for Bill Bill um you mentioned the pump out and I believe the term on the the sheet the slide was almost Priceless for the town you expound on that yeah I I I I I actually took that quote and and uh from Frankie because you know you know I've watched all the the meetings and LPA and and you know the direction was you know put a value to what these public benefits were and I you know I was trying to do my research I'm like you know Frankie what you know what's pump out what would be pump out and his words to me were Priceless I mean um it's a challenge I think and I I don't mean to speak for for staff but you know I think and I think some of you are aware it's it's a challenge right now on the island of you know a lot of home owners do not want that in their backyard um at all and and um you know either a from a land equipment or smell um and we have no issue going forward and doing that and solving that problem for the town for forever so I in perpetuity would you consider that or yes yeah the those all the public benefits are inity obviously the with the Bay Oaks obviously I I don't until the pool is built but I you know I I wouldn't uh see that ongoing but we would do that until the the pool is back online because I think it works better for them to obviously use the use BS so that's something we could put in writing then PP out yeah yeah no no no doubt and that that was our expectations that that would be forever okay thank you for clearing that up Frankie um I don't want to put you on the spot but your name was brought up can you help me out here yeah the conversation was at the time um we didn't have uh we were trying to find the the property behind that was purchased uh the Old Town Hall property um other areas around the town that we could possibly use as a town run pump out station for our war field boat um we don't really have an option at the moment um future development we can't really rely on um the pink shell has been there from day one since the storm as far as providing that service um never mentioned anything never raised a a flag or hey by the way we're doing this for you type of thing and uh it was just in response to uh being appreciative of having it available to the town at the moment until we can find a solution on our own thank you uh can I ask Jim a question since he's a layo on for the Anchorage committee I'm I'm here um what what are your thoughts on that Jim is has someone does this address the Anchorage committee's needs uh clearly right now it's a tremendous challenge there there is potential Solutions but they're pretty far down the road uh so at this point it is a very helpful uh uh service to the town and will continue to be for for certainly the next few years okay thank you I think Fred wanted to clear yeah to address councelor King's question those uh our original application our first LPA hearing we were just outlining the public benefits as a lot of applicants do but we uh since then have been included those uh and they're in your packet as conditions of approval so they would be attached to the resolution and there's General language in there about imp perpetuity and and some of the other pieces I mean the financial pieces are taken out of there but the general languages are part of the conditions of approval of the resolution be caught about sure you got more to say I do have a little bit more I'll try to keep it short um it's we're down we're we're we're down to the well we have to we need to go over the deviations so if we can put the presentation back up there um I will go over these fairly quickly just to provide the clarity and then just let you ask questions about them if you have any questions um so the next Slide the um deviation one is uh is Sarah mentioned is about uh no wall where there is a park commercial parking lot of BU multif family we just thought with the Park Lake structure that wall we're going to meet the buff requirements in fact they'll be far far exceeded but to have a wall against those properties would kind of re wreck the The View Corridor that we're trying to make so that was with deviation one uh deviation two next slide is on the golf side where uh in front of Estero Island associate beach villas this is the where we're proposing the one unit so the yellow Dash lines and the yellow are the setbacks that we're proposing the blue are the setbacks of the former duplex and the cottage that were there so we're trying to improve I think we're trying to drastically improved conditions um we're adhering to the front the street and side setbacks and the rear setback was is required to be 20 feet we're we're asking to be at 15 it provides us with nice depth to do double double stack of car parking underneath um and just provide a nice size unit there um as as you can see then the there's a large multif family building next to us and then one of the duplexes were just a couple feet of setback so um we're improving that to a substantial degree we feel um the next slide deviation three this is across the street so this is that additional lot that's now asked to be included in the CPD it's 309 esto Boulevard um there was a residential unit there that was you know set set kind of oddly but it had three and um three foot Set Side setbacks and um really kind of almost just one foot on one on the one side next to the uh other property um bill and the boyin know the a budding property owner owner well um we adjusted the setbacks uh and tried to improve it set the 10 foot setbacks on that side and seven and a half against our parking lot which would be the not parking lot it be the view corridor and the landscape Boardwalk area uh to improve that circumstance this is a non-conforming lot it's a 50 foot lot so um there's allowances and other parts of the code for 50 foot lots to to have uh less less setbacks than are required in the CR zoning District so I mean we'd be required to have 15 ft on each side which would leave a pretty narrow shot on style house left there um so that's why we asked for that setback we're adhering to the rear and to the street setbacks on that um so we just tried to provide a reasonable size and a reasonable improved setback but one goes to your parking lot correct one side of it one of the The View quter okay so that okay and then that's okay got it yep yeah and you can see the uh the the pier that's kind of in between the two pieces of property up there that's the one that we're proposing to be a water taxi drop off that would come to fruition that's that's the the drop off there but since it all part of the and that's why we wanted to improve that setback a little bit on that side versus the two or three feet that it was just to provide plenty of room for the boardwalk to connect to that um and the view corridor to be you know not on top of the view corridor the next slide deviation four there's there's two on this so we did have side set back deviations on both sides the requirement is uh for water front or water side Lots is 20 ft on each side um we had uh requested 10 feet on each side before um so we reduced the size of the building so that we could meet the setback uh at least on one of the sides and we chose the side that's next to an abing property to be a good neighbor uh to that piece of property so we have 20 ft on that side and then 10t against the maintenance area outage um so we didn't change that request it's just uh that is we still have that deviation and then there is a rear rear one so we did try to either improve or match the current um the current setbacks I mean the parking lots now are pretty much wall toall on that um including the rear um the rear would be required to have 25 ft and we're asking for 10 on that which matches where the current parking lot is it improves a little but uh we're asking for the building to go there because the parking lot the under paring would pretty much match what was existing there the deviation uh five next play next slide I did I I numbered it wrong oh these the deviation four was actually four and five I'm sorry because there's a rear setback and a side setback so mistake in the presentation the documentation and the packages are correct uh deviations and the mcps correct deviation six is about height um obviously we're only allowed at 30 ft over base flood elevation and we're going to uh 60 feet over base flood um and instead of three stories six stories total and then lastly deviation 7 is the equivalency Factor so this is from the Land Development code um by uh and this is this places the entire Resort under the equivalency Factor uh of 6.67 so those are the seven deviations that we have now there were 10 three of them had to do with the public parking lot that was going to be on the beach access so those are now removed because that that isn't proposed anymore um but we think we improve the rest of them by reducing the building size and um reducing or just improving some of the uh building layouts of the other ones and improve those deviations the last couple of slides I have is really the uh you know the stuff that we just want to have on the record um there are 12 criteria for approval for zoning um we believe we meet the we meet these given the deviations that we're requesting um staff can opine on on their feeling on these but um we we do feel like we're uh in compliance with the intensity of the district um and whether or not the f counts the bottom floor of parking or not we need it um so we didn't need to ask for a deviation for the f um and uh if we were to apply a density use we would exceed the density we've we all know exactly what that what that means and the equivalency factor is the path forward on that uh to allow that to increase um with meeting those and with the approv of the de the deviations we be believe we consistent with Land Development code um and uh there's other things like the proposed mix of uses is appropriate obviously this is the same type of use that's in that entire area on the North End other than some of the Residential Properties leading up to it so we're still in the hotel hotel condo rental rental business up there um so we believe it's appropriate and in the neighborhood uh and doesn't change the character of the neighborhood at all um next slide is just the comp comp compliance with the comp plan and the consistency with the comp plan um we outlined really the five significant uh comp plan policies that we we believe we meet um there's there's some mening one on there like policy 8-1 um the changes along a stereo Boulevard should be improved uh the characteristic that make it a Boulevard and character not just a name safe and interesting to walk along impressive landscaping and scaled to people rather than high-speed traffic and that's what what we're trying to do by offering to not only improve the view corridor and the boardwalk um and provide that kind of access way which meets into the the hidden path system that's on there with policy 7 d-5 which speaks directly to Hidden paths running along Bayside parallel to EST sto Boulevard um but also to take over the landscaping and perpetuity of that entire stretch of our CPD to make it beautiful and add add the the Nice Landscaping uh and keep it maintained nicely at no cost to the to the town um it meets this policy and it meets other benefits to the town as well um building Heights uh we allowed to consider the you know deviations to building Heights if if it's uh if the sticking to the existing height in the comp plan is is unreasonable I don't think it's ever unreasonable to stick to that but does it does this one exceed what would be in the character of the neighborhood um it does not there's taller buildings close by and there's ones that are very similar in fact if it wasn't for the flood elevation some of the just the modern building we'd be right in line with all the rest of the buildings that are in this area so we believe you have the a white a way to be consistent with the comp plan as far as graning height and be consistent with this um and then traffic um I think we're trying to we're trying to mitigate as much as we can do traffic's been an issue it will probably always be an issue was um it will continue to be but we're trying to do everything that we can to limit that um Bill mentioned the fdot Le Tran commute connect program I think that's absolutely great in the program that uh the rest of the resorts on the island should consider um there's Alternative forms of transportation we have the you know they they provide bikes bike rentals they provide golf cart rentals um all the encouragement with their Cony Air Services and other services are to not have people bring their cars in the first place and then use Alternative forms of getting around including bikes golf carts walking um and and other forms to get the vage and even down to Time Square which is just about a mile walk could be a very pleasant walk with the proper Landscaping at least longer parts of the property um so the traffic impact I know is always a big deal um more units does not lessen the traffic we we understand that but we're doing everything we can programmatically and as conditions of approval to alleviate that as much as we can so my last conclusion of that is because there was a lot of discussion at one point well do we have the legal path for approval on this do you are you able to legally approve this um the intervenor brought you know tried to make some decent arguments about that um or some in-depth arguments I don't know if they were decent or not but just in-depth arguments about that um I think we're on the same page with staff that uh that through the equivalency Factor through the Land Development code we're allowed to request that deviation as long as we meet uh certain criteria sorry skip ahead two slides these are the criteria that we need to meet um according to Land Development code 341 18032 um that allowed to approve as a deviation through a plan development zoning process uh and for such approving such a deviation might must be found that um all other aspects of the development all the things we've been talking about high traffic intensity of use of character of the neighborhood compatibility um are compatible with the surrounding areas we believe we are based on that what we've proposed and the public benefits and special benefits prop proposed and uh propos a clear exceeds all stands of the fort Meer Beach comp plan we believe we're consistent with that um the fact the staff was able to come to a place where they're recommending approval based on your policy decision as to whether we offset the the request and the equivalency based on our public benefits uh we believe we meet that uh and our consistent with the comp plan and uh then um the equivalency Factor increase exceed the maximum intensities allowed in Fort Meers Beach the intensity is the floor area ratio and we're staying under that so we meet we believe we meet that criteria as well so now I'm going to sum it up um with the last with the last slide so in our in our conclusion so what you really heard today was the pink shell is trying to seek uh to develop into its mature form you heard that there you know some of the units and the other AB budding associations were at one point uh underneath the pink shell rental program and operations they built their amenities and everything to that size in order to accommodate those for many years those have not been part of this the final development plan to get to that nice operational place is what's in front of you today um We Believe obviously this will we had a slide on there we didn't want to be labor economic uh economic aspects too much but I mean obviously Improvement of that piece of property from a parking lot to a a hotel will increase the tax Bas significantly and help with recovery for the uh rental units and the hotel units um and staff is recommending conditional approval I think it's a testament to our hard work and and your staff's hard work on figuring this thing out and really get down to the the bottom line of this um and now it's just a policy decision based on you know your feeling of of this and based on the public and special benefits and then we've put in the hard work uh we believe we we have now have the support of neighbors um now we have Port of the boards I'm sure there's going to be individual owners in some of these that are going to probably have opposition to that and like Bill said we can't make everybody happy but we did work with their boards in order to get approval so we believe we have no real neighbor uh opposition at this point other than individual owners that don't that don't agree with this is a good development and that's that's fine um we believe we're compatible with neighborhood we meet the F we meet uh we meet the parking believe there the the boying group has shown to be good neighbors um and good stewards of the property and of the land and good friends to the town uh and uh we addressed alternative transportation greatest extent that we can and providing what we believe are substantial public benefits so in my professional opinion as a ascp certified planner uh in agreement with our other experts uh we believe we're consistent with comp plans goals policies and objectives the town's Land Development code ordinances and other applicable regulations so that's my official part at the end um and that's it so that's the end of our presentation and so we're here for questions now Scott any last questions for the applicant no I'm good okay I do um and maybe I missed it in the whole packet but we haven't talked about timing like what you are looking at as far as if we go through the whole approval and when do you what are the next phases when what is your outlook on timing when this will be built oh yeah that's a great question so that bill will so uht Boon again this is a uh a real challenge today if I brought a bank down to say hey we need to get some financing going they're going to look at that building next door and they're going to say well what about that even if I found that bank to finance this idea and then we built it and it didn't you know suffer a major occurrence with a fire next door because that's are concerned to us greatly um I'm not sure how the customers would receive wanting to go check into uh what's next to it so I can't I don't know the answer to that question I mean I'd love to hear the answer as to when are we going to see some action on getting rid of that building but uh but that's my dilemma so you know it it is a function of you know we've got a we've got a rendering we don't have set plans so even you know if that building wasn't there just to start today between doing the architecture and the planning and all the stuff that it takes in this day and age you're maybe just shy of a year of work to get ready to then go out to bid and then you got to build it now this is a pretty simple building so I don't think the construction side is is uh brutal but it's you know it's a year and something to to bring it up but my biggest concern right now would be uh I I I don't know how to get out of the blocks on something like this until we fix our neighbor so I guess that leads me into two more questions um Town staff where are we on that building I believe um councelor can address this so it's my understanding a couple things are in play that the um first of all my last conversation with the attorney tells me that they were intending to fix it um I have personally seen the building I don't think it's repairable I think it is definitely a a structure that needs to come down so we now have a DOA process uh for code enforcement in place and it is supposed to go on February I had conversations with our uh code enforcement department yesterday um indicating that this one needs to go February in front of the uh the DOA hearing examiner the judge um there is uh my last conversation with the attorney for the property owner was that there was some type of pending approval um and I would have to defer to Sarah as far as what the status of that application is um and so that's pretty much where we are one more item is that um recently it has been observed that there is a uh derel vessel in the backyard and I understand too from code enforcement that they are proceeding with an action to address that part of the um the uh condition of the property that's what I know um staff might have some additional information and so basically with the the red tag process that led into the litigation process or proceed litigation process um since that has been going on there are other avenues that we can pursue well that may be in the process uh which the councelor uh alluded to going on the public safety der vessel um just the condition of the structure um regardless of what pink shell is granted or not granted just to the neighborhood and to the town uh having a a building or want to call it that a a of a structure um in that condition so we're we're pursuing several Eagles and that will be going to the magistrate as the councelor suggest in February yes ma'am I noticed staff commenting back and forth do you have any updates at all this would be on the Redevelopment yes um the CPD was submitted the last uh interaction we we the staff gave them comments in mid November we just recently received letter actually towards the beginning of December received a letter asking for an extension so it it's not clear when we'll be seeing movement on that but they are saying that they requested an extension in order to complete the documents that are requested so is there I mean I get the Dilemma but does that keep you from going through the process of the renderings and starting on the architectural design which is in a year that's a year right there yeah of going through that is that something that can be started on well so there's the there's that issue if you will the other issue is as Bill alluded to I mean 2024 we thought we were going to do better than we did um was not a great year uh our our look into 2025 is encouraging um I'm going to you know in order to even approach the economics of debt and Equity we've got to have proof not just forecasts and so I need to see the season this season is critical we have to see this unfold in the way we think it's going to it's it's looking good on the books but in order to go out and do this work which is it we're over $300,000 to stand here and have this conversation for us right now so to keep going going is uh you know it's just expensive and we need to have the confidence that okay we're going to be able to have a set of numbers we can take to the lender you know I don't the equity I'm not as concerned about but the uh but we are going to need debt to do something like this and uh and so I'm going to have to put the season under our belt before we know where we're at but what if that was a condition that you would start within the next year of the for renderings and that type of thing then we probably wouldn't do it I can't I can't be held to a guarantee that the that the season's going to happen so that you're asking someone to make a uh I don't know what the number is but call it a you know 3040 million bet all right thank you now only thing I will say don't don't look at what we are hoping to do look at what we've done and how we've behaved over the last 25 years and so that's that's my best answer to the question I appreciate that thank you I've got a follow up on that go ahead John well you're the one that brought this to us then if there're so many unknowns why are we here at this time doing this well we've been at this now for uh quite a while and uh I was expecting 24 to be a better season than it is I'm confident in 25 uh and the planning process is quite long so you know we're here because when the time comes we we want to get going but you know you're you're you're asking a lot of someone to say make a commitment in the face of the economic uncertainty that is Fort Meers Beach you know just as an example when when are we going to get a traffic light at Time Square I wouldn't have thought two and a half years after the storm we'd still be wondering about that but but I want to be ready to go when the market says it's time to go and ultimately the Market's going to decide you know are the customers coming back to Fort Meers Beach when they come back I believe we're going to be uh in the first position to get the customers we always have and and I think that'll be the case but uh but that's why we're here uh we we want to be prepared for that day but you know this is this is one step at a time it is a sequential process uh in in many regards thank you since you're up there John you have any other questions for the applicate nothing at this time no vice mayor nothing additional okay thank anything else to add anyone Fred no okay then uh at the request of a Anonymous person we're going to take a three 10 minute Comfort break before we we uh start public comment Comfort break Sarah can I ask you a Qui e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right John are you there we're going to call the meeting back to order I'm here all right we'll call the meeting back to order it is 12:17 we are now at the public comment portion of this public hearing is there m is there I have a couple signed up uh first up is Phyllis scruggy scruggy and after Phyllis is Holly boo all right good afternoon hi are you people awake it's been a long morning are you awake now all right good nerves always do that sure okay I'm Phyllis Scraggy I am an original owner of Vacation Villas the only one okay I can answer some of the questions that they stated about when they used to when we used to rent through the pink shell just move up a little bit so people can hear things through the pink shell and the reasons that that ended first of all they didn't have the pools that they have today so we you know we can't compare whether the people all using Vacation Villas would have there would have been enough room for them okay second of all the majority of people left the rental program because they could do better themselves we were one of the very last ones to leave and it was happening that they were not able to rent our place it was too far from their amenities people wanted to be there in the White Sands CU at that time that had been built okay now what I really only have a couple of major concerns first of all the pink shell is a really good neighbor and and I have stayed there with my family because we always have come for Thanksgiving and this year we went to the pink shell because our place was not available those if they are having a bad year those pools are pretty crowded so I'm not quite sure what if they have enough amenities for future growth this new building that they're talking about building on the Bayside we're talking about at least a 100 additional people if they're full or more and it is across from all of the amenities the only way you can enter that their amenities is through the main entrance everything else has been closed okay how many people do you have going back and forth more than once a day many times a day we're talking about a safety issue if they want to go to the beach how do they go to the beach if not through the main entrance right next to the vacation Villa pool or possibly let's just walk right through Vacation Villas that's what's right there across the street this just not seem like a very good plan to me it will also that little section and granted they may have the right to do this they are now going to have a tunnel effect and we really don't want to look like Miami Beach okay thank you I took a picture just need you to wrap this up three minutes pass around this was last Sunday it was cold last Sunday and I happened to have company and they wanted to see what was happening at the beach this is the traffic over the bridge we'll take a look 10:30 in the morning you really want more appreciate it thank you Holly and after Holly will be Katherine scholz good afternoon hi my name is Holly baggot I'm an owner at Vacation Villas um 100 EST stero which is the proposed property uh that's going to be most impacted by this new hotel I want to set the record straight on a few points our board is five members the vote of our board was 4 to one to agree to not oppose the pink shells plans and just like we all agree they're a great neighbor and I think our board was so concerned that they're going to get everything they asked for and we're only 30 people 30 owners once again four voted for owners didn't vote this was not a full wide vote of any of us but we are going to get three parking spots more now I want to talk about the parking spots across the street it is a deeded easement we don't lease those when the tenants courts were removed if you look at the 3.2 acre parcel that started all of this those six parking spots are in that lot already designated for Vacation Villas so once again these aren't least but they're going to do us a favor because we only have 30 spots in our parking lot we have 30 spots 30 owners 30 units so once again what I want to say is if you look at the comprehensive plan this is a mixed use residential area we are the only residential building we've got vage for one side beach access 43 to the other we now have their new events Garden next to that that you approved last year we have 39 Li boards across the street which don't count towards density and now they want to put the 40 unit Hotel directly across the street in front of us I didn't want to live at Disney World I don't I don't mind they've been a great neighbor but I don't want to be surrounded by guests of a hotel and have nowhere to go I've got public on all sides of me they didn't lose this in Ian they lost nothing in Ian to this scale I think when they talk about the size of that parcel I believe it's 047 of an acre it's not a full acre lot 38 and 39 so if Jim you asked for these density numbers from Sarah and what could they get if they could get something regardless of the comp plan the Covenant taking all that away I don't think it's 12 units if one acre gives them 12 units it's only a half an acre now I did bring our box presentation to show you how big this property is this is the parcel we did revise this because you as you know they have three 10 foot setbacks and they have 20 foot to the neighbor this is how that's going to look on that you're coming down sco this is the front of the building this is what people will see this is us across the street they aren't compared to we have a 45 foot setback from the road all the properties really have a a very large setback this thing is what everybody will see if you allowed them to have it and for us and the safety concerns and the people coming across the street we will be impacted most by any decision to allow them to have more of a hotel thank you so thank you uh Katherine scholes and after Katherine is Jack holsome good afternoon um I tried to understand the legal description of the property better by coloring in some maps so this is a map of the warranty deed when um boyin first bought the property um I think that the deed was confusing because um the prior owner had assembled Parkers over time and so over the next two years boyin actually submitted four corrective Deeds but this is the property that's covered by the Covenant um the Covenant is supposed to this is exhibit a which is supposed to describe the property known as the Pink Shell Resort and it is indeed the case that the tennis courts are not included but so is this whole area down here which is where Santa Bel view is and in um June of uh 2000 they submitted a final warranty de this is the corrected property of pink shell so you can see that the Covenant didn't include a lot of property um not just the tennis courts so as to whether or not um the intent was to encumber Lots 38 and 39 um the staff report for the LPA hearing reads the Bayside CPD parcel is approximately 3.2 Acres development of the CPD from north to south is with existing tennis courts existing five unit building owned by Peter Lage a park with an interpretive walkway a 78 space parking lot the existing and proposed expansion to the administration restaurant building a 35s space valet parking lot and continuation of the interpretive walkway and Park area in the narrative associated with this hearing they say we propose to remove all buildings on the bay with the exception of the existing building containing the office Etc other benefits include increased Public Safety due to a decrease in the number of instances when our guests would have to cross a stero Boulevard to reach the beach side of the resort having all the residential use on one side of the road where most of the recreational amenities exist the proposed Arrangement maintains existing density and finally the removal of structures on the Bayside creates a Vista that will be unsurpassed in terms of water wildlife and boat views and will serve as a wonderful gateway to bage Park which is next door so your attorney has said that the words are um what the words are if they were going to go to the trouble correcting the warranty or correcting the the description on the Covenant why did they not also remove the phrase 3.2 acre Bayside parcel um because there are a lot of words that suggest that 3.2 acres is that whole Master concept plan um my last caution for you is to really think about what imp perpetuity means to you and to this applicant because apparently it means as long as it's convenient thank you thank you very much Jack holsome and that's all I have signed up let see if they can hold on second you find the master plan got him I have one more after him for the record my name is Jack hson and I'm a neighbor my name is Jack holson and I'm a neighbor to the pink shell at 319 Estero we were part of the group that was wiped out and are suffering through the rebuild process right now so if you look at that Master Plan 309 is the far upper right and there's one residential lot next to that and then that's where we are so my first question if you look at the master plan is for 309 is that being proposed as a single family residence that just the resort is going to manage or is that going to be U like Hotel unit we'll have them we'll have them address it on the rebug comments okay so if that's going to be we have no issue if a residential a single family of residents is built there they have the right to do that we doing that but we would not support deviations to the setbacks or doing three living stories or height changes all the homes on the Back Bay all are built according to the same rules and there's two stories above living and they they meet the setbacks so it wasn't clear to me either whether the setback from the bay is 25 ft in the street I couldn't see that then if you go across the street to the Gulf Shore property again the right to rebuild single family residences have no issue with that if they're looking to put Hotel units in there and convert that to Hotel units then um we would oppose that and ask that you not incorporate those into this CPD and leave those as Residential Properties subject to the same two floors above flood and with theight restrictions and rot line variances the biggest thing is again this proposed hotel if you look to the right I believe this area is now what's claimed to be covered by the C is that correct in the middle of 2023 I think the pink shell put a in before the LPA that developed that whole section with the exception of L 309 now the there's a proposed development on that little piece with a big hotel on it so one concern is a neighbor and I don't want to be here we love the we love our neighbors but there's a lot of people that are concerned there a lot of people in their 70s and 80s that just don't feel like they can speak out love the neighbors so much we don't want to do it so I'm not here because I want to do but um if if this was put over in perpetuity and there's a development proposed in the middle of 23 to develop that whole thing what does perpetuity mean and how how can we ensure that if something's approved on this piece that something's not going to be proposed later for the rest of that piece so that's a concern that a lot of the neighbors have so if I think there's a lot of ambiguity as to what was the intent I've spoken with neighbors well we'll have them address that at the end I think they we understand what you're saying and I think they do as well I'll be real quick wrap it up for me please um spoken with neighbors spoken with um LPA members Etc I believe the intent was the are asked to eliminate the density on the Bayside give us what we want over here that was a spirit of it to preserve the North End and that's what was that's what was done so I would ask that sometimes we need to just want what we have the pink shell has great people great management great owners thank you great Resort a great Marena let's want what we have more isn't better thank you sir thank Ray Murphy Ray Murphy I'm still on the roow you get a you get a history lesson every time I come up here I was sitting in the exact seat you are right now Dan I was mayor at the time when this uh CPD came before us there was a discussion earlier about the uh the intent and the ambiguity of the intent at the time well I can tell you as I'm standing here right now the intent at that time was to transfer all the developable units on that side on the bay side the entire piece move them over to the uh to the White Sands on the other side and in perpetuity that side was to remain undeveloped that was the intent now that's changed that's changed something somewhere along the line here so just to be clear they wanted they wanted their units transferred from the Bayside over to the Gulf side to get their extra story stories what what what have you that was fine at that time we didn't really talk too much about public benefit per se but it could could have been perceived at the time that that was a public benefit by moving it over there and keeping that whole side of the Bayside undeveloped now that's changed that's changed somehow and I'm not privy to these uh to these other these other documents that you're talking about and I I'll I'll get another look at them I guess but uh but I'm sure if you brought my my former colleague Anita Sasa back in here she'll tell you the same thing that was that was the intent at the time okay so I think what you have here and and this is what you're going to be facing you're facing it with Seagate you you faced it with Meers side you fac you you're going to be facing with all these larger projects is you've got these Property Owners coming in here and piling on after Ian I call it the post Ian pile on everybody's trying to get more and more and more that they're not entitled to they're not entitled to so I respectfully ask you to uh to not reconsider this but to uh to vote no on the resolution and if it's doesn't carry today well then I'll be back when it does again thank you that's all I have signed up is there anyone else that would like to speak public comment seeing none we'll close public comment you guys want to come up and answer that one question don't have to but you'd like to answer the question about 309 I believe it was sure for the record Bill white schis uh Jack uh th those lots 309 and Golf Shore Court they would just be just say you would build a home they would just be a residential home that uh we would have part part of our program but not not Hotel units I mean it just be a a house the home and just to clarify on Vacation Villas that um H's right it was a vote of four to one on their board but they did survey all the owners and the majority was to support the project so it just want to put that on the record also so thank you yeah Amy any rebuttal anything you'd like to thank you yes I have a a few points for rebuttal that I would like to make and in fact um would it be possible to get the presentation put back up quickly sure what any specific page you're looking for um the last two slides I think would probably be most relevant here Jason can you get the last two slides up for us thanks keeping it easy on you guys so first and foremost as we're getting there I just want to again acknowledge um Sarah and her team Nancy Frankie everybody who has been involved with this project who has helped us understand you know what can and can't be done um and who you know they've spent a lot of time and effort on this and on this review not just on you know reviewing the deed restrictions but on so much related to this project so I I we would be remiss not to acknowledge them um so just a couple of things I want to hit on quickly because there's a lot of discussion about the intent of the restrictive covenants and all of that so we do need to look for intent where there is ambiguity in the written document but to the extent that there is not ambiguity in the written document we do not consider previous Communications corresponden agreements that were not incorporated into the restrictive covenant so what that means is we really have to look at the restrictive covenant itself that is what is enforcable and only when the language is ambigu is ambiguous do we start getting involved do we start um excuse me employing statutory principles of statutory construction and these theories about strict construction versus liberal construction and all of that so here the legal description in the restrictive covenant is not ambiguous um but even if it was it would be construed strictly in favor of the property owner again because these types of restrictive covenants are kind of the the the case law on this is is clear that these are not favored by law um it's also really important to note that the case law also states that the opinion of witnesses um regarding what the use of the premises would be is not binding here we look at the actual language in the instrument so we can talk about what was intended or not but the instruments are clear that Lots 38 and 39 of block d um which is the boutique hotel parcel is not intended to be here so I just I wanted to hit on that quickly and another thing that I want to hit on we've uh Amy was kind enough to forward me some additional emails that had been received in opposition to this project yesterday and this morning and what we've heard in public comment today what we've read in the emails there's a lot of concern about impacts things like traffic negative impacts from increasing the equivalency Factor um things along the lines I think there were some concerns about drainage and environment and you know other impacts so as Nancy stated earlier the burden of proof here is competent substantial evidence so what is and is not competent substantial evidence is pretty clear and this was discussed really well in a 2017 case called cther B llcb Fagen which is out of the first DCA and lay Witnesses may offer their views about matters that don't require expert testimony so they use the example that the natural beauty of an area can be competent substantial evidence when testified by a lay witness when we start talking about traffic impacts things of that nature that's where Florida law does require that we have an expert to testify on that and you've heard from multiple experts today but specifically the experts in planning would be Sarah and Fred and and there're in agreement that the impacts from this development don't exceed what the criteria for approval here so this is not to discredit um public opinion on this project it's simply just to state that the impacts really do need to be reviewed by a professional in this area and they have been they've been reviewed by multiple professionals and they're in agreement that we're good to go on this um there was some discussion that the development of this particular Boutique Hotel would affect people's enjoyment of bage Park I I think that's a little bit of a red herring so I just want to put that on the record and say that this is private property people have rights to use their property in accordance with what is allowed by the town the state and the federal governments so you can't it would be improper to deny development of a parcel simply because it's next to a public park we just don't see that um there was some discussion about safety concerns again that that comes back to I would I would argue that's something that needs to be discussed by an expert but we do have sidewalks here um and quite frankly I I believe that if there was an issue like a real concern here with safety about Crossing EST sto Boulevard to go from the proposed Boutique Hotel to the White Sands amenities I feel pretty strongly that would have been caught in staff review by Sarah or another staff person that is involved um and there was some discussion about you know concerns from owners of Vacation Villas that folks might try to access the beach through their property that concern is very well taken um my suggestion there would be to consider the law on this does require Property Owners to engage in self-help so um a hotel owner is not responsible for its guest trespassing on private property but the Condominium Association is responsible to prevent that type of trespass so that is something that can be handled very easily I mean we see this all over the island and really all over the world with development people take steps to prevent trespass um I also want to clear up the discussion about the 12 units that are remaining on the Gulf side so as Sarah hit on in the very first part of her presid present ation the 1995 zoning ordinance or zoning resolution that was adopted by Lee County provided that there were 59 Hotel units approved for all of the Bayside property which does include Lots 38 and 39 the boutique hotel parcel um and I believe that actually also included Lot 37 with the now dilapidated structure in 2000 when that density transfer was made it transferred 47 units not the entire 59 so again that indicates to us in Pari Materia when we're looking at the legal descriptions the original 2000 zoning ordinance the the recorded restrictive covenant and then the amended resolution and when you take that into context and you also see that there were 12 units that were not transferred it just further bolsters the argument that the intent was not to transfer developable rights from the boutique hotel lot and then um oh the final note that I'll make regarding timing I know that there was some question about you know should this be approved now if this is not going to be fully designed and into permitting in a year um just as a quick note typically Florida law does not favor expiration dates on zoning approvals um many jurisdictions actually used to put expiration dates on either the zoning approval itself or on the master concept Plan and there's quite a bit of Florida case law that has found that that's improper so in the interest of not only preserving the property owner's rights but also making sure that whatever decision is made by the town by y'all um to make sure that it's legally defensible I I would just say that timing conditions can be a little bit challenging um and I would just again not only just for the applicants interest but for the towns I would suggest that we not include a condition regarding timing um but certainly we are open to other conditions related to other concerns that you might have you know any anything that um youall might want to throw out there so I know that was longwinded thank you for your time please let me know if you have any questions John do you have any questions before we go to at this time mayor yeah I just want to go back to the excuse me I just want to go back to the amendment um 007a um which basically said those two Parcels were not to be included in this in perpetuity and at that time I mean Dan Hughes was the mayor um and it was a five to zero vote in favor with that with Anita Saras Dan Hughes Terry Kane guy Reynolds and Ray Murphy so that's I think what we're talking about is to keep that these were not included in the perpetuity correct right just the boutique hotel Parcels just 3839 that was I shouldn't say just they didn't own 309 Estero at that time either but the the 38 and 39 where we're proposing the boutique hotel was clearly not intended to be encumbered by that density transfer okay thank you thank you thank you all appreciate your time oh did you have a question for me mayor no I just asking have Scot this no I do not thank you all I appreciate your time all right if there's nothing else I'll now close the public hearing and request a discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions deny with reasons for a continuance to a Time certain discussion oh I I think that U Miss Pro wanted to say something as well after Miss do I have to do I have to unclose the hearing this mayor I think you can do a lot of things un Clos it all right so so just reopen reopen the he just for clarification um Amy was talking about the the 12 units uh that were remaining on that that uh Bayside parcel um that was referenced um those 12 units were already allocated and they were moved um seven remained no five remained on that multif family property uh that's now the dilapidated property and seven of those units got transferred to Kasa so the reason they couldn't have so those aren't remaining units that could be used those are units that that are allocated already to the existing multif family and over the cost Pia so I didn't want it to seem as if there were 12 units hanging out that somebody could use so I have a question that so the 47 units was that with with the hotel equiv equivalency factored in or was it just 47 then they times it by two at that time they didn't use an equivalency Factor okay so they just called it 47 Hotel units okay Karen questions J John anything addition no but thank you for clearing that up sir thank you just to get come on we reopened it so let's hear that rebuttal well I just want to I want to answer your question okay sure because there was 47 over there can you move up just I'm sorry there was 47 that got transferred across the street but on the site where the white sand vill building is and I'm going to round numbers here there was 43 or 45 Cottage so those numbers were added together so there wasn't an equivalency Factor it was a it was a consolidation if in one location of of density gotcha okay that makes sense thank you thank you okay now we'll close the public hearing and as for a discussion or a motion from councel John anything you'd like to say I guess what I would I'll wait till a motion comes forward thank you okay Jim okay Karen wonder who's gon to make a motion I'll wait I can't so down to you Scott okay I I I think the the biggest issue I had and I was struggling with this was during the LPA hearing it was it was hey we we transferred all this density and in perpetuity and that that seemed to be Anita and um Jane's big hangup with not approving this but you know this is a quasi judicial hearing and the EV evidence here today is clear that that this parcel was not included in that and for that reason and I believe the public benefit is is great and as staff recommended we if we can get to the fact that there's there's public benefit I do believe that there is that we should approve this so I make a motion that we approve ordinance 24-35 Pink Shell Resort CPD and that's moving it to Second reading moving it to a second reading on February 3D no is it January January 21st January 21st February 3r date certain with with all the deviations okay and conditions okay there's a motion by councilor Safford is there a second I'll go ahead and second it okay got a second by councelor King further discussion uh I would before the second reading I would like the two items that were talked about as being Priceless to have some prices put with them um the economics of the benefits of the town would be a big uh help for me what was the other one or I'm assuming you're referring to the pump out boat it was the moing the pump out and then the street the storm water isues okay I just have a comment yes um because this in perpetuity lots that was a big hangup for me as well I think that has basically been solved but what is still a hangup for me is the timing and even though we can't put in formal conditions or anything like that I believe that you know if we look at Seagate they did commit they didn't put anything in writing or anything like that but they did commit to timing and so that is a huge open piece for me for now and I'm hoping that by the second reading if this goes through that we can maybe get there so I I would like to comment on that if I may u yeah Karen um you know seate there that's those are condos the hotel business is totally different than a condo so to ask a hotelier given the market and I was a hotelier I still have a vacation rental company and I can Echo his sentiments right now I mean November December were were not what we thought they were going to be January still is Ian February and March look good but you know got to go to go to a lender A lender is going to say show me your numbers so for us to put hey you got to get going right away that it's just not fair I mean they who knows what's going to happen with with our economy not just Fort Meers Beach but the you know United States economy who who knows what interest rates are going up I mean but the bottom line for a hotel years he's got he's got to show his lender that the numbers are going to work and right now that I I have to agree with with Mr boyin that's that's a tough deal that's a tough sell right now Jim any comments yeah I'd say just a couple things um these uh two new documents appear and I use that word carefully appear to address some of the LPA concerns they appear to address some of the concerns raised by uh mayor Murphy but i' I'd like to reserve my right to change my vote on second reading if that is indeed not the case I'm a bit concerned that our town attorney hasn't had an ample time to review these and I'd like to have staff review them just to confirm that they do indeed elay those concerns um this one is a tough one uh as they quite frankly all have been uh this is a new build it's not a rebuild as a result of hurricaning in and I think a new build should have a higher threshold if you will uh in terms of public Ben require B of public benefit then and then rebuilding as a result of Hurricane Ian at the same time it's hard to argue that the shell was not severely impacted by Hurricane Ian and it's quite honestly its recovery could be used as a as a as a as a model for others uh so again as as all of these have been extremely complex uh I'm going to vote Yes today and I'd like to see that these two documents are affirmed by our town attorney and Sarah and her team and uh but but but that's that's where I stand as as a this as of this afternoon okay there's no further discussion there's a motion by councelor Safford seconded by councel King uh councel Safford hi councilor King hi vice mayor hi Council Woodson n the motion carries 3 to one with mayor allers abstaining to go to the second reading on February the 3 at 9:00 a.m. ni yeah I'm sorry all right the next one uh Item B under the public hearings has been continued continued to 21st so that takes us to item C hang on just a second we it's awful noisy back there just give everybody a second to gather up and so that one was what four hours all right we're going to continue moving it's still got a long way to go the next item is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying special exception sez 202 4158 to allow shared use parking lot for LDC section 34 all right hold on hey you guys might going outside and having your conversations that'd be great thank youbody likes all right we'll start again this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions and deny or denying a special exception secz 202 4158 to allow shared use parking lot per LDC section 34-2 2112a for the property located at 1240 esto Boulevard providing for scrier errors severability and an effective date got to go through my whole sheet resolution yes okay if any Town council member has any 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 corresponden that you received or observations of the site councelor King vice mayor I I don't believe I've had any I don't believe I've had any either counc Woodson I've had one conversation okay and counc cord I've had none whatsoever okay who's heading this Sarah PR has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council based on her education and experience has been expected has been accepted as an expert witness in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time all right see may may I ask is the applicant present today yes yes okay okay than you has the applicant or seeing a copy of the backup agenda from staff packet material agenda from staff he does not believe he has yes so yes you have okay go ahead sir good afternoon um the applicant Reginal Beach on behalf of ganam Properties LLC is proposing a 25 space shared parking lot with one Ada parking space this parcel is located at 1240 Estero Boulevard it is in the downtown zoning District adjacent to the parking lot owned by the town next to Margaritaville a shared parking lot requires approval of a special exception per section 3422a and must be evaluated per section 34- 88b the proposed spaces are angled 90 Dees and a 45 foot wide Drive aisle is proposed code requires a 22ft drive VI the applicant intends to utilize the existing 27 foot wide access point from a stero Boulevard the applicant Pro proposes to meet or exceed the Landscaping requirements of the LDC LDC section 10-46 c2a requires one tree to be planted per 250 square ft of internal landscape area or seven trees for the site the applicant proposes to preserve all nine remaining healthy trees along the periphery of the site uh LDC section 10416 c2b requires at least 10% of the internal parking area to be landscaped the applicant is proposing 5 foot wide landscaped areas along the east and Western boundaries of the project to meet requirement the applicant is also proposing a 17t wide internal Landscaping Island on the east side of the parking lot uh the code requires a 10- foot wide internal Landscaping Island uh so the only thing that is required for this special exception uh for this shared parking lot is approval of the special exceptions no variances are needed at the December 3rd LPA hearing the LPA recommended approval uh with one member absent okay John any questions for Sarah is this a permanent thing or a temporary um at this time we don't we don't have temporary parking lots so it would be permanent but I don't think that the long-term intent of the property is to be used for this but the applicant can speak to that thank you vice mayor I'm sorry sir it's getting it's getting on in the day so what exactly are they are they this is the applicant asking to be Exempted from certain landscaping or is it just the special condition Dynamic it's just the special exception that's required for the use so they they're meeting all of the variants they're they're meeting all of the Landscaping requirements uh drive a widths size of parking lots ADA requirements they're meeting all of the requirements but the use requires a special exception so it's just not zoned for parking and so that's why we don't have an opportunity to all shared parking lots all um paid parking lots are a special exception use okay thank you counc not this time uh not this time but I do do want to amend my comment I I did receive one email about this okay I don't have anything at this point at this time just as that point Scott I think I did too but I don't think the person mentioned this specific property in my but I could be wrong it was a it was kind of a generic email about yeah things like this but anyways just for the rec okay thank you sir want come up yes good afternoon good afternoon sayate your name for the record and Reginald Beach anything you want to tell us about this or Prett pretty much that's it I'm not to use the words I used the last time trying to reinvent the wheel here there was a um motel that washed away in Hurricane here and it's just been early bacon piece of property since then um I believe the owners would like to sell it if they can find the right buyer in the meantime in the interest of just trying to pay the taxes and do something useful with it it's an Isa I want to park some cars there so happy to do what I need to do you good people will this be a man parking lot or will it be really thought about I'm thinking of going to have an attendant there yeah but there will be an automated facility as well QR codes same thing as the town has so is your intent to have people like flag them in off the street no absolutely no they not just trying to get to what's the point of having an attendant and a and and a paid thing you got to feel it out and see how it goes if the problem with not having an attendant is if people don't honor the honor System got it um then you got Enforcement issue I don't want to be towing cars away that nothing good comes of that so I'm going to be flexible with that and see how it goes okay John any questions for the applicant not currently thank you may just to just kind of piling on my prior question to Sarah what what is your plan for the landscaping for the property to make it a a proper lot a proper parking lot well this gravel there now um i' I've done the uh the landscape in irland which was part of it you kind have more than 10 cars in a row so I've had that installed I'm just so you've already complied with all the Landscaping requirements of the Town not not completely I've still got to nail somebody down to uh put some shrubs in but that's part of your plan yeah absolutely yeah I anticipate doing that assuming you good people sign off on this in the next week or so because um you know seon right around the corner so I want to move forward on it so this is going to be a gravel parking lot not a pave parking lot and not have the drainage and everything needed no it's uh I've got the required 57 grade gravel um which I was told is what I needed to do so that's already been done didn't we have a standard that we were talking about with new parking lots and going forward is we looked at these I thought there was conversation about standards of I don't I don't think anything was fully adopted um and all of this is existing so there isn't um additional storm water that needs to be done um and the vast majority of the lot is not developed um so there's adequate room for storm water um they're not creating additional impervious uh I don't believe there's any requirement for um materials but uh let me let me double check mine okay thanks Scott I'm good the only question I have is is just is I it remember I remember when we were dealing with Wast and a away next door to it the fire district had an issue with being able to turn around at the end of that if they had to pull into that lot and be able to turn around so at the end you notice there's no parking down there is this adequate to meet their standards to be able to turn an apparatus around in there if I respond to that this my lot's wider than that lot I understand I'm just asking a question if that question has been raised to the fire district oh um chances are it's not deep enough to require it um because if you think back to the the majority of of in most instances the um fire district has determined that they don't that when it's not very deep they don't have to turn around they can back out but let me check the link just makeing sure and it looks like it's got a little jog out there I'm guessing is what the beach side is yeah is it it's always been nice so what's who owns that little section there is that no the Mr gam owns all of it okay so why is there the jog out there why isn't it just squared off it was a swimming pool from the mo from the um motel that was there before is it swimming the swimming pool is not there anymore taken out no it's I don't want to deal with it I don't want to build anything make me I'm just renting the property from him so I don't want to invest okay you know it's it's this is like a a transitory thing so that I can try and make a few dollars pay the taxes until he get somebody to come along and build something there um so I went around that okay um 150 ft uh so this is less than the length that is required for 150 ft then you need to turn around is that yeah okay um I mean this will be reviewed once it's at site plan phase by the fire department um however in in my years of experience if it's less than that length they don't ask for it because they can back out so this is a according to the drawing it's 155 ft on the one side would be the I guess you'd say the east south side depending on who you talk to where they will have to comply with all site plan requirements at time of site plan so you're approving the special exception got it but we can make sure that all the details are worked out at that at the point make yep I don't want to him to get his hopes up for someone to tell him he can't do what he wants to do now if five ft is going to make a difference I'll trip five feet off the back of it all right any other questions for the applicant all right thank you sir thank you thank you everybody uh public comment anyone Chad no all right we'll close public comment I assume you don't have any rebuttal statement okay I'll now close the public hearing and request discussion or motion from the Town Council to approve approve with conditions deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain discussion or motion Scott any discussion uh no the only discussion I have is you know this seems to be temporary until they figure out something else um but I I still wrestle internally with we keep talking about traffic we keep talking about encouraging Park you know no more parking and cars not to come on and a sterile Boulevard is like a sea of parking lots and do we want sterile Boulevard to be a sea of parking lots or do we want it to be something attractive and restaurants and boutique hotels and bars and entertainment so that's my struggle you know I Shar I was thinking about that reviewing this as well but what I have noticed I think we've all noticed is people are parking there anyway whether it's it doesn't make it right though I didn't say it doesn't make it right but this is potentially an opportunity to clean it up until something permanent goes in there and if you're going to have it managed I just assume my person opinion see it landscaped see it look at least nice it's not just a dirt ground no you don't I don't need you to exactly I don't need you to come back up I got appreciate it thanks I'm arguing on your behalf so probably best that you don't say you can handle it so that's why I'm looking at but I agree with what your point is but if this gives us an opportunity to put some Landscaping in there clean it up keep it monitored as opposed to just having anybody Park in there wherever they want to park now I I see it as a is a benefit going forward and hopefully somebody put something in there permanently to do exactly what ccil Woodson is saying ni I thought that was a good debate I enjoyed it good discussion between you two yeah councelor King still got the concerns I think that Karen had mentioned um Sarah forgive me but I'm not going to use the right terminology again but it says the special exception request to allow a permanent Sheriff parking lot and I I guess um that confuses me as to whether it's permanent or temporary or what it is um the code refers them as permanent shared parking lots because we used to have temporary parking lots and they were allowed with different criteria um when this change was made we changed the language from temporary to permanent because in our opinion there isn't really a temporary parking lot it's a parking lot when it's a parking lot and then if they want to do something else in the future they change the use um um so that that's why the language says that is just because of the code reference and uh the clarification that that was made when we when we change the code thank you for that so I have a follow question sorry so reality is this could become a permanent parking lot even if it's sold people could just continue to use it as a parking lot that is possible um it's likely not the highest and best use for this proper property um it's not likely that it will sell for the amount that it it will probably sell for and remain as a parking lot additionally um they are requesting very minimal number of spaces because they're just trying to make use of it um and they didn't want to have to go above and beyond and do a bunch of things so they I mean they're proposing a pretty small parking lot not even the maximum that they can fit on this lot so um if somebody were to purchase this and come back to us the likelihood of them needing variances and needing something additional is very high um so if someone were to purchase it you will likely see it again if they want to keep it as a parking lot because they'll want to put more spaces in there than than uh uh Mr Beach is proposing I don't know if that gives you you any comfort with this situation but I mean just that's the likelihood that they'll want to get more out of that space yeah Karen I I agree with you I think you know everybody's and we just talked about we're at 40% hotel rooms right now and this used to be a hotel I know this where you know this density argument these these lots are parking lots on sterile Boulevard well I I'll make the argument again it's a parking lot regardless of whether you let them clean it up or not I mean I'm not arguing with you you know so now you're going to see potentially you know tow trucks and everything else going in there to take cars out or cars stuck in the sand or whatever is going on I agree it's not the best and highest use but it's the best and highest use as of right now and if anyone you know has money to buy the property and put a boot T Hotel up have them come see us but until then I think that this is It's a reasonable request um your neighbors across the street I don't know if you've talked to them they're always they were looking at solutions to try to alleviate some of their parking issues that they had to build what they're building across the street so I would suggest maybe reaching out to them maybe there's something that it doesn't become a public parking lot maybe it could be a use for you know your your neighbor across across the street but any other discussion motion I'll make a motion to approve resolution 25-24 sez 2024 4158 at 1240 EST stero parking lot based on the recommendations from staff I'll second second motion by mayor Alex seconded by councelor Safford any further discussion I'm an i counc Safford hi counc Woodson nay Vice ad hi and uh counc King hi motion carries 4 to1 with Council Woodson de thank you thank you next is item D it is resolution 25-25 this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort MERS Beach approving approving with conditions or denying a special exception 202 424 requesting a special exception for the property Loc loated at 2 2584 stero Boulevard gener generally referred to as a stero Beach Club condo strap number 19- 46-24 w302 z00.00 CE to allow for the replacement repair of P decks pool shell and coping cement walkways a cement foot wash station irrigation lines and a fence along an existing retaining wall located partially and entirely within the environmental critical zoning District providing for other clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scriptor errors severability and providing for an effective date if any Town council member has had any expart 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 counc Stafford I have had none counc wison I've had none I have not had any also vice mayor none councelor King nothing that I recall okay uh Jason Jason SMY has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council based on his education experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time no okay has the property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materal matal from staff Yep they're nodding their head okay go ahead Jason good afternoon uh my name is Jason SMY I'm senior planner with your planning and Zing Department uh as was mentioned before uh before you today is a request for a special exception this is a requirement of uh section 6-3 66 B3 that requires uh applicants to come in and request for the Redevelopment of um anything that was destroyed with within the environmentally critical area uh before you today as was mentioned are multiple smaller parts uh con uh consolidated it we're talking about roughly 3,000 square fet of different types of material but this constitutes roughly 35 to 40% of their um of their pool deck so the replacement is largely their pool deck the shell of the pool itself uh some walkways fencing and and a few smaller um few smaller things that that were mentioned in in the application here uh the applicant is uh was originally or excuse me the uh applicant building was originally developed in roughly 1971 to 1972 staff has confirmed that all of the uh aspects that they are asking for today to replace uh we can track those back to at least 2001 in some and much further back uh for others uh depending on what we have available through lepa's Aerials if there are any questions or concerns from U Town Council I'm here to answer those otherwise the applicant is also here for um for your discussion okay John any questions for Jason I'm good vice mayor none wson no s I do not this time I neither at this time thanks Jason the applicant like to come up for the record name's Mike Mirad vice president of the stero Beach Club board I'm here to uh ask for acceptance of our proposal and thank Jason for the work that he's done and if you have any questions regarding our application I'm here just one for me okay essentially you're putting back exactly what you had before this nothing new nothing more nothing greater nothing exactly okay we're rebuilding right you and we're very anxious to get started financially it's it's been a killer not being able to we're going to be done with with our reconstruction and and we just can start on our commment elements now if this gets approv okay con s questions uh my question is for curiosity what what's your timeline to reopen do you think uh the condos yes the um one building is on scheduled to reopen um by the end of January the second building is on schedule that reopen by the end of February fantastic fantastic our common elements are untouched but um hopefully we we can resolve that today that's great that's all I have Council whatson I have nothing mayor H King comment congratulations on that uh somebody who's going through this now and just at the amenity stage I can appreciate it and respect it thank you thank you right thank you sir okay thank you public comment anyone here would like to speak in public comment seeing no one here we will close public comment and ask I will now close a public hearing and and request a discussion or a motion from the Town Council to approve approve with conditions or deny with reasons or a continuance to time certain discussion or motion mayor I I moveed we approve resolution 25-25 sez 20242 42584 esto Boulevard esto Beach Club councelor Safford uh was that with the conditions included with the conditions yes I'll second okay we got a motion by councelor Safford second by councelor Woodson any further discussion councelor Safford hi counc Woodson hi M hi councelor King hi I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimously congratulations I'll get to work all right next is our cdbg sub subrecipient agreements um this is to authorize the town manager to execute two subrecipient agreements for the awarded cdbg drr funding and the amounts of 8,336 753 and 4,681 84490 for the project submitted to the public facilities and critical infrastructure cdbg drr programs Tak thank you mayor part of the um there's basically about three projects one of them is coupled together with Parks and Recreation revitalization projects and the other is the north U Tower project so we've got a total of 13, 8,597 and99 9790 uh this this is part of that HUD funding that was dropped in to 1.3 billion or whatever so we've got we're getting our piece of the pie to be able to do these projects and Jeff can explain a little further um you know what projects are are involved they they come under his purpie so we have the uh identifier oh I'm sorry Jeff Hai uh Community Services director um so under this of course we have the uh Beach Park um that's going to be getting redone um once we have access to that lot um we also have uh street lights down old St Carlos uh which we all know we desperately need um the pool is also one of them the B Recreation pool and then the North Tower as well when is the expectation to receive these funds and Frankie can yeah we're looking at documentation till about the end of March so probably looking at uh the end of April by the time the funds actually get transferred and are we going to put out rfps for these projects for the funding that is the next phase of the RFP stage with the representatives that uh handle this program currently and each week we have meetings and we go through those little steps each time so we're almost to that point where we can uh put out our okay questions for staff Scott not this time okay I'm good vice mayor I think this is great work if you could just delineate we've got 8 million and four million one's for projects one's for programs is that correct could you just explain that just quickly y the the 8 million is a is a group I ask the infrastructure is for the water tower M uh and that was the 4 million ask all the other ones were come together that would be the Newton Park the old San Carlos Lighting and the community pool that's that's the 8 million and change yeah very good thank you very much good job councelor King no questions but I'll just uh kind of get what the vice mayor said thank you for all your hard work on this yeah it'll make a difference for sure all right any other discussion or a motion I'll make a motion to approve item a CBG Dr subrecipient agreements I'll second got a motion by mayy Aller seconded by councelor Stafford any further discussion I'm an i s hi counc wison hi councilor King hi vice mayor I motion carries unanimously next is Item B it's the 2025 legislative priorities this is a discussion and approval of legislative appropriation requests for the 2025 legislative section thank you mayor uh Jason will come up in just a moment but we've got a a meeting tomorrow with the Le County delegation to kind of go over these priorities um in in light of what we've received in the last uh this last fiscal year uh the tune of about 22 uh $15 million uh for the town hall and for the parking lot Joe informed us earlier this week the I say parking lot the 7-Eleven property that that we we've gotten all of our funding for that we're also are getting our uh 7 point approximately 7.7 million probably next week of our Revenue replacement so the state's been really good to us in the last year for sure and and even prior to that so we're kind of looking at some priorities that that we feel like are are just ongoing and we have we have to stay on top of this uh storm water is one of them the lell road Tower complex that's been in disarray um that's what you would refer to the South Tower that's been in disarray probably since around 2015 or 16 uh it just needs some upgrades and some improvements down there U of course water lines uh I think they depending on the direction of the water line of what we own and what the county owns and that type of thing but we're looking at portable water project and then of course Town infrastructure structure sidewalks U that sort of thing um Jason if you want to come on up and I I don't know if you got the email in front of you that that we got from um um Title Basin but there's these projects are in there and I'll start with the uh storm water systems um currently it's it's it's about a isal boots on the ground estimated about $8 million of course we we have to be uh it need to be shovel ready type projects and they need to be more like you 50-50 split so it's $8 million project we have have to be on the hook for four or you know somewhere south of that is probably the ass the other one with the storm water projects um obviously it is ongoing U it's about a looks like um there's been no estimate amount talked about I'm sorry the South Tower South Water Tower project let clarify that uh a generator for that project is about a $250,000 purchase we feel like you know do you sit and wait on FEMA for as long as FEMA may take or do you just go ahead and kind get the ball rolling with the state at a 50/50 split of 125,000 and then anything we have to pay we would only ask FEMA reimbursement for part part of that uh the other is the the um townwide repairs latest post Ian again that's the numbers we have right now and and from Title Basin and that just has to deal with what was damaged anywhere from about an estimate about a half a million dollars um up to maybe a million so we're kind of tossing those figures around so if you want to go ahead and right address some of the conversations we've had yes so Jason Freeman for the record um good afternoon Council it's about that time of the year again when we're starting to work with mayor and with our lobbyist and town Administration everyone to start putting those requests for the next uh legislative session which is start up here in March uh so it's coming before we know it uh so we've got an initial word from uh runbooks Team that they would like us to start working on those uh House and Senate forms um so we just need some direction on what we would like to go for um in the past like Andy said we've got our storm water we got our town hall Revenue replacement um which have all been really successful uh but just looking for some guidance on on on that and then we can work on doing a nice little flyer and everything that we can bring up um for everybody to use as well so um yeah looking forward to an exciting session um and yeah just getting the information they Town Council just to start that we'll get our initial forms to our lobbyist and then work with the mayor and administration everybody on completing those and getting those submitted got questions from Jason not right now okay I have a question so the three that we have outlined here I mean how first off how many can we include or as many as we want yeah I mean it it's so we we do a form we can do as many as we want um the forms do take a little bit of information we get that Financial background on them working Joe's Department um and then we can write a little narrative and just kind of explain the stories with them so it requires documentation for each but um there's not a limit but they do recommend uh like Andy said construction shuel ready projects um and then always trying to have at least a 50% match to the project so is there any opportunity to include um Canal dredging in any any of this we we've asked those questions and that's typically not something the state's going to get behind either um because of the the amount of money that's going to take uh probably something in that we might get maybe a $220,000 appropriation which really wouldn't touch what we need to do and their conversations with me have been we aren't really at a point where we have a program in place yet correct so it' be giving money to something that we aren't really sure how we're going to manage it yet so we have to get that in place before started asking for help gotcha okay kind of the same thing FEMA told us when we asked for money to Drudge the canals we didn't have a program in place to do it we kind of been talking a little bit to you know our lobbyist and and the information they're getting back is it's going to be conservative year they're going to really try to tighten the belt a little bit so you know we felt like a a lower ask and I've been working with the county with Dave Horner and and and Dana in Santa Bel some of the ask are are pretty similar of what not dollarwise but but similar projects couple questions this is I think it's just I'm working under this assumption and I assume it's true I just for the Public's benefit um as we prioritize this list I assume we're working with representative Botana and he's giving us guidance as to what would be most viable in terms of what the appetite of legislature is and then so second of all I guess my question is it sounds like like this Appropriations that we're requesting requires a 50% match and we're going to use potentially a FEMA through SL tile Basin funding that's it's sort of nebulous as the match will the state go for that so and that's that's something new on the forums this year um that I've seen is just that it does ask if you're receiving any sort of is it is there a tieback to a hurricane or natural disaster and then also are you already uh have you applied for federal funds FEMA funds and FD funds so that's something that they're asking us to put on the actual uh preparation requests this year um I think probably to ensure no duplication benefits or anything like that but something that they want to put have us put on there the vagaries of waiting for FEMA money in this instance actually helps us it sounds like that is um yeah I mean I think there's a big difference between which Joe maybe can explain this obligation versus that you know just applied for the funds so um there's a lot of projects I believe that we don't have obligated yet submitted for but there's nothing guaranteed yet for it so so I guess and lastly I know you guys are already thinking about this just for just for my own edification that the state would view the the the the volatility of our ability to get the matching Grant uh from FEMA through a Title Basin they would not view that with concern or they would they would be comfortable with that that's something that we can look into um I think always having you know backups um you know alternate funding sources I think that's one of them but yeah we can definitely talk with everybody and see just a question yeah I don't I don't know the answer to that okay thank you you know for me I think some of this is the shortest distance between two points like you were saying Jason it's with FEMA even if you w get to the point where it's obligated you got to outlay the capital before you get it back if we can go the appropriation request route and get at least where we have to match half of it we're only outlaying half the capital yes we're not getting a return from FEMA on that but it's an initial hit that's much smaller at the beginning to our taxpayers just to help supplement some of the the the funding so get moving on things and and it gets the projects moving exactly councelor King questions for Jason yes are you just seeking our approval of these uh three projects is that all what you're looking for I believe so um I think and then you know we can work with everybody on on doing those final amounts we're gonna our R and Ron book they've asked just just to get the draft forms into them so they can take a look at them this weekend they're already back up in Tallahassee so and then we'll meet with the mayor and the administration everybody and just kind of move forward with those so potentially just some authorization maybe for for Andy and the mayor just to continue to get these forms submitted would be great but we just kind of wanted to narrow down the projects and the focus um and then we can you know work with you on the specifics of the financials and and all that for the request but I'm just want to kind of get everybody to agree on that in a public setting here so maybe that's what maybe you cut out ear but that's what I'm asking you're looking for us to approve these three for you to go forward correct yes yep and exactly all right thank you um follow up I guess along some lines maybe to Andy and maybe Frankie and Jason I think was there and then I know you were mayor in DC with the lobbying of of Congress weren't the storm water issues things we were looking for help from Congress have we got any more information on that or no we we did submit through through Congressman Donald's office our appropriation request part of it was for the South Water Tower rebuild as well as other things um equipment things like that I don't know the exact dollar amount of what has stalled out and it's not moving forward and what is still moving forward there's you know the election is going on so our intent is to reach out I guess I can't speak for Andy but our intent is to speak out reach out to Congress McDonald's office after the inauguration and see where exactly we are um if there is a duplication of of ask S obviously wouldn't be we wouldn't we wouldn't be asking for it on this but to answer your question yes it was revolving around infrastructure on the South Water Tower specific right okay thank you for clearing that up appreciate it and I guess if we could for some clarification it it is to to con it's these specific but I I I would like if we could get the approval to expand upon the whole infrastructure if need be I mean these are just specific items but depending on what title B and Fs and what our staff and what Ron book recommends and and through tweak it a little bit based on the infrastructure route if you will yeah sir we can do that Mr Mayor yeah I would make a motion that we approve the 2025 legislative priorities with the Proviso that we Grant the mayor and town staff uh uh the authority to determine the various appropriation levels uh with respect to each request as they and to use their discretion as needed second motion by vice mayor adalt seconded by councelor Safford uh further discussion I certainly appreciate that vice mayor we we have the delegation meeting tomorrow they don't need specifics at that meeting tomorrow it's it's just to let them know essentially where we're coming and what we're looking at doing um you know obviously thank them for all their efforts but I would I would if you don't mind add to that that we bring back a final version of what we're going to send absolutely to what will be our formal asks to through through round book so that everyone gets a chance to take a look at that before U before it goes in for final submission I would include that in my motion I would just say that um thank you all for your leadership on this it's it's a very much appreciated okay we got that motion in a second any further discussion I don't think there was oh yeah counc sa vice mayor hi CC Safford hi counc Woodson hi councelor King hi I'm and I as well that motion carries unanimously next is ITB 25-01 PR the Bay Oaks Recreational campus Redevelopment project this is a request to reject and cancel all the it- 25-01 pr proposals for the Bay Oaks Recreation development project with cause since all bids far exceed the estimated or budgeted amount as provided in the invitation to bid and section 2-48 A 11 of the town code and providing direction to staff to rebid the project Jeff yeah so I think we've been working with this beok Redevelopment project for quite some time now um we finally got a chance to put it out to bid um all of the bids came back too high so we're going to have to do some thinking um put some more specifics down to the actual bid proposal uh and and get that that number down and rebid it and just for those that maybe not don't understand what exactly was in that bid what what exactly we were looking to do with where we're sitting so part of it was we we had that Grant um that was a match Grant with us and it had certain criteria it needed a multi-purpose field not necessarily a softball field but a multi-purpose field uh walking trails lighting pick more pickle ball courts um parking uh so those those were Incorporated in the in the thing well we decided to just do a nice big open Park you could use it m very multi-purpose maybe put some uh some structures in there for uh Tiki Huts for maybe bands or concerts just a nice open Park which we don't have a lot of green space on This Island right now so um utilizing that but the the bid the bids all came back uh fairly fairly high and we'll need to Reid I remember we were going through this back before the storm we were talking about building that building here and the direction was we were going to try to piece it out instead of having one large lump project piece it out is that an opportunity to do that to get the bids down so part of that was in phases it was the this took away the building the actual um Rec uh Community Center it also took away that that I think it was phase three was the new um the new gymnasium that was on that so this was just that piece with the park The Walking Trails um the parking the pickle ball courts and and the lighting so we that wasn't even including the community center which we had that that $10 million grand for that that expired um that was a loan I mean Al loan I'm sorry alone big difference yes Jo's lit up yeah so we we had that initially but uh we didn't get we didn't get an extension on that due to and we couldn't build due to H the hurricane so um we are putting that we are going to kind of put a package together and rebid that um and hopefully we can get it done this time we feel like that what we can do is the way we're going to hopefully get it bid is this item this item and then we can say okay it's going to be a cafeteria plan we're going to do these three because it's the money we have if you know kind of work backwards and kind of are there are there restrictions on that matching grant that it has to be specific and I guess what I'm trying to go with this is to think outside the box with the CBG funding that's coming and the pool is it possible to piggyback those two together through the same contractor no cu the well it'd be very hard to do we're not it's a wait and see though that they they're two different projects too I mean could be the way to get it down and it's kind of a time crunch now with the the grant grant and the procurement standards are different from the federal procurement standards for hudan would be yeah versus the the project which we could do internally under regular RFP here sure John any questions no vice mayor no no no all right is there a motion to approve the rejection that's it of The Bays recreational campus Redevelopment project and send it for rebid I'll will make the motion to approve based on St Town staff's recommendations I'll second all right got a motion by mayor all second by councelor Woodson any further discussion I'm an i counc Woodson I coun Safford hi VI May and counc King hi motion carries unanimously next is resolution 25-27 right of way R licensing this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida ratifying and authorizing the insurance of pre permits issuance of permits licensing agreements with private parties for the use of the town right away for parking of vehicles bicycles motorcycles and other Mo modes of transportation requiring payment and annual permit fees and compliance with other conditions as needed providing for scrier are severability and an effective date Judith hi good afternoon Judith Franco principal planner um so if you recall we spoke about this um at the M&P in December so this is a draft version of the um taking what we spoke about and kind of codifying it um in order to change the fee uh we will have to bring that back as a change to the um the fee schedule so um if you would like to move forward it's a kind of a two-step process um you'll notice we um put the rate at $1,000 a space that's a placeholder um we you know would like your inut of whether you feel like that's the right amount or not um and then we can make that correction and then we would bring I guess this back at the same time as bringing back the the fee schedule change okay Council Woodson I know you had some questions about this when we were discussing at the initial time as far as the cost of the spaces yeah I mean I'm just looking it's right where I went to page 685 um has a list of the row RightWay permits that were issued and the annual fees and so we're actually talking now so let's just use for an example 1901 Estero nine parking spaces annual fee was $900 so that's $100 per space per per year correct and we want to take it to a th000 well that's as I said it's a placeholder it's not really a recommendation but we talked about it should be more than $100 definitely should be more than 100 I I have no qualms about that one but what I guess what I'm getting at is and I know we we have to do a different meeting for fee schedule and everything but we'll we have a placeholder will there be recommendations based on other municipalities of what that fee is that's usually charged is there anything in existence like that where we could get information um I would have to do some research okay Wonder just a suggestion I don't know if it makes sense or not Joe you might be able to help with this because they're actual spaces am could we let's say we didn't allow these to be used could they be parking spaces for the to they could be just the meters on it well what I'm asking does it make sense in order to try to kind of like we went through a few years back with the the fees for the pair selling and all that we kind of went to that fluctuating scale right so that we didn't have to keep revisiting this all the time I don't want to make more work for you Joe but would it make sense to instead of trying to guess and figure out what everybody else is doing what is the average based on the spaces that we have on the town that we're charging what is that average per space per year right and that it will fluctuate every year to me it just seems clean and easy and makes sense now people that are going to use these spaces may not like this change but I mean to me that seems like a fair way to say here's what the average space in the town generates per year and if you're going to use nine of them maybe they only want to use four of them then we can use the other ones to me it just seems like it would be a good suggestion but I'm open to hear what anybody else thinks of that idea instead of trying to come up with an arbitrary number yeah so are you saying though that we would actually put the QR code on these and they would be open spots and or we're still renting them yeah let's just say it's for simple math it's it's $100 per space we make per parking space the town owns per year if they have nine then it would be that 900 right but let's say it's $200 the average base makes well then because those then it gives the the person that is at this 19 B on our own just based on our own Revenue that we got it right got it and I think what that would do is it would allow forbid we have to go through another storm and we saw that parking Revenue go up and down it it will fluctuate for the people that need that space to use it to coincide with what the town is making out the revenue okay so if I understand correctly to do a calculation annually and then the fee will adjust annually based on inhouse calculation I think to me that makes sense simply because it's a now they it won't make sense for the five or six properties they're not going to like it probably but at least they'll know in advance what what they're getting into and maybe it's retroactive because our year doesn't coincide with or maybe we make it coincide with our fiscal year my my only hesitation with that specifically talking about the 1901 property because we know that they need those spots in order to make their development work um they're they're going to be locked into whatever that rate is they they wouldn't really have the ability at some Future Point say the the because now probably the town is not at capacity so I know Tom yasu did a calculation of what the full potential of those spots would be if they're rented you know for the the ma 12 St um and that was a very large number and that's probably not what we're getting right now but I would imagine whatever that rate would be now say for example it's $200 um as the town rebuil that rate's going to go up right because there'll be more demand for parking because there's more businesses and things like that which would make the town right away much more valuable of a space true but if it became unaffordable for the development they they would have to find some alternative way to satisfy their parking requirement yes or come and ask for relief from they would still be able to do that is another option correct and I think we Joe correct me if I'm wrong we we know how much Jenner Revenue we generated from parking alone last year right and we could easily divide that number by the amount of spaces that we have to come up with a per space number so it wouldn't hold up their wanting to come forward they would know that number pretty quickly as to what it would cost and again that now it leaves them the option to choose four spaces five spaces no spaces all nine spaces in this case again this is just an idea I had I'm not saying it's the right one or the wrong one it's just to try to not have to revisit this every single year under the fee schedule it would just fluctuate with how our economy fluctuates it seems to be fair hoping to input seems to be fair would be I do agree with that I was thinking if I were asked that that would be my recommendation that we calculate what the average parking Revenue per spot would be and then we would know that that at least that that would be like the maximum that we could reasonably charge them and you could certainly charge less than that but that would be you know an appropriate maximum Scott what do you talk I like it i' I'd actually like to know what we're making right now well yeah I mean how many spots we have how much each is generating if you want we could we could do that and bring this back to you yeah when we do that yeah I'm okay with that John are you okay with getting those numbers tbling this and bringing it back to um if I could add I think um there's a couple things that are uh embedded in this resolution um I'm just looking at the sections um that they have okay the first section is yes we can adopt resolutions but section two reads the count Town Council directs the town manager does need to update the fiscal year 2425 fee schedule to increase the fee per parking space we could put a period there or or just eliminate two $1,000 and then Joe can bring back a resolution that talks about how we calculate it and what the fee would be then we could do it all in one one meeting we would have to approve this then come back with another one to approve that one no you still have to come back because we don't have the numbers as far as the calculation of what the fee is going to be for the fee schedule what I'm saying however is that you could adopt this resolution today which is authorizing staff to offer this option I got it okay to um projects that might want to um get a license agreement for parking spaces we just have to amend section two a little bit um to say again uh fee scheduled to increase the fee per parking space to be paid annually to the town no later than November 30th for subsequent calendar years we just take out the $221,000 would it make more sense to change that date to when we actually know what that number is going to be so you know I guess November is not that far after October but October I guess I'm looking at Joel for guidance as to what would be easiest for a county to be able to receive those funds we do receive parking Revenue figures monthly so we can calculate the annual amount um at any points in the year you know up until you know the previous month that we received those figures and so we can set that right you know at any point um and of course you have to do it in advance because it takes you know a month or two to get through the meeting cycle but um we could do it at any point um and if we need to know this sooner rather than later um I'm not sure what a specific date would be but we can do do it now well so I guess what I'm asking is this November 30th date if at the end of our fiscal year you'll know the previous year what was generated in Revenue that would allow you enough time because then we could approve it with our fee schedule at the end of the year and then they would have till the 30th to pay that amount is that that's enough time for you to be able to oh yes it is but I I was just thinking if you need to know now for this purpose we could do a calculation now as well and then updated Judith um do you have a project that's made be waiting to make sure that they they have this option available yes I mean that's what initiated this is we had a project come forward the um that's the 1901 Estero um and we said well you know you're asking for these parking spaces and we don't know whether how the town council's going to feel about that so we wanted to wait until we had a decision that they could indeed utilize those as part of their development project well which I thought we gave Direction at that meeting we we said we are in favor of doing that but we just didn't know what that fee would be and they were okay with at least having that yes but this would be the formal action taken through resolution that they would have knowing that you all have made the decision to have that option available um what I'm trying to say is that in section two if we just eliminate the um the two $1,000 um you could adopt this today giving the um applicant some a little bit more assurance that you're okay having this option and then coming back with an amendment to the fee schedule that tells them exactly what the cost is going to be it's just one scenario alternatively you could say you're not going to to adopt this today and you can adopt it at the same time that you have the actual number well I think just based on what you're saying Judith and what you're saying I'll make a motion to approve the resolution 25-27 with the suggestion from the town attorney to eliminate to eliminate the the monetary amount and to come back with what has been discussed today as far as setting the cost per space at a later date yes that cover everything that works okay I think that keeps everything moving okay I'll second that and a motion by Mar second by councelor Woodson any further discussion I'm an i councilor Woodson hi Safford hi vice mayor hi councilor King motion carries unanimously next is resolution 25-26 ratifying contract fmcr Marine debris hurricanes Helen and Milton this is a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida ratifying sp-24 D14 for action of the Town taken December 2nd 2024 regarding the waving of the town's competitive procurement policy and Contracting with Florida marine contractor and Recovery LLC to remove debris from the waterways in the town of Fort Myers Beach caused by Hurricane hel in Milton and dispose of debris at authorized Waste Management site at a cost not to exceed $200,000 and providing for an effective date hey Chad happy New Year hav seen some of y' all since last year Chad Shoots for the record uh so yeah Marine debris um good news is uh FEMA is paying for this 100% um we I'm not sure where we're up to but uh Florida marine Contracting and Recovery has done a great job um they've been using the Lee County uh staging area on the other side of the P to uh get the debris out of here I believe they're on like around Canal 18 uh working with uh our Harbor Master Curtis um hand in hand and uh I think making a lot of people happy getting the debris out so uh we uh do anticipate in coming back to you and um adding an addendum to this uh it's it's more than we expected taking a little bit longer than we expected um but again the good news as long as we finish it by um believe it's February 10th is for the cut off for Milton for 100% FEMA there won't be any uh cost to the town for this project are they Sorry are they on track to do that track to do by February 10th yeah I feel good about it um been very impressed by Steven Lee and his crew over at Florida marine Contracting and recovery so we do feel good about it he's gotten um he came highly recommended by Charlotte County Lee County and uh engineering contractors so he's he's looking up to good CC question no counc King Nothing m y great news Chad thank you for your efforts thanks Chad my pleasure all right is there a motion to approve resolution 25-26 so moved second motion by councelor Woodson secondly by councelor Safford in discussions hi CC Stafford hi vice mayor hi councelor King hi and I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimously next is resolution of the Town Fort Myers Town Council of the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida approving and authorizing the town manager to execute change order number one of contract it- 24- 03- between the town of Fort Myers Beach and etam Marine and construction company LLC adding 24 days of contract time to construct the Estero Island beach renourishment and hurricane recovery project and providing for an effective date Chad right so uh due to the storms um asking for additional time uh uh my recommendation is it's a reasonable ask um we just started pumping or will be pumping down south they've gotten everything situated testing the pipe integrity and boosters right now so uh 300,000 327,00 paid cubic yards to date um and another 30 or 40 free cubic yards they're their price of doing business I guess if it's not in the design template so we've gotten a lot of sand out there um and we're we're moving to the South right now which um it's a it's a great moment that's a new project we've never put sand down there before as a uh as an engineer design and uh going to be adding a lot of beach for folks is the minor changes to the pump situation we got to do on the North End is that going to add any more time delay to this uh there may be a change order coming for that um but uh we'll talk to adna I mean there's there's always a lot of you know for trading and they're happy to make us happy to a certain point um which is why we're asking for it to to as you know we've already moved at another you know a couple hundred feet from the first placement and then we're going to move it another couple hundred feet they've just asked if they can do that during downtime so not sacrificing production we're already on a tight schedule with the uh shorebird situation and uh wanting to get the South pumped um to design uh as quickly as possible okay counc King any questions for Chad currently nope s I'm good all right is there a motion to approve resolution 25-29 for the at a change order move move by councelor King second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion councelor King hi counc Woodson hi coun Safford hi vice mayor and I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimously next is a resolution of the town of Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida ratifying sp-24 d13n for action of the Town taken October 24th 2024 regarding the waving of the town's competitive procurement policy and contract with IC materials ink to screen debris from the Sand overwashed by Hurricane Milton to reduce Beach compatible sand placed and grade Beach compatible sand onto the beach remove debris from the beach remove debris sand from RightWay and on property and deliver to debris management site and dispose of debris at authorized Waste Management site and approving payment of the IC materials Inc invoice numbers in inv v121 024 D31 IV d121 024 31 iv1 12124 D31 in v121 924 D31 and iv22 32431 in the amount of 72181 1417 and providing for an effective date ch right so this was uh the sand at the Old Town Hall um staging area uh I think it ended up being around 20,000 cubic yards so quite a bit of sand uh this is also a category a uh FEMA Public Assistance project it's 100% paid for by FEMA um uh if you look at the price per cubic yard I think we're under $40 a cubic yard um easily maybe $35 uh I haven't done the math on that 721 but sounds about right and with the market rate being around like 7 $85 a cubic yard uh it makes good use of that material it'll put it back on our beach to protect our properties um we uh basically use the old uh emergency BM template um to place that sand um IC was a contractor for that so um they had the plans uh stayed out of the Cobra zone for FEMA and the uh us fish and wildlife folks and uh it's good project GL we got it done questions councelor King questions but uh Chad been busy and thank you for all your hard work yes sir you're welcome thanks counc no I'm good CC no great job thank you yes I do not have any as well uh is there we don't have a resolution number for this so mayor it's uh resolution 2523 25-23 correct okay so it's not the 24- got it okay sorry about that is there a motion to approve resolution 25-23 for icpa 24-13 for h hurricane Milton sand and screening so moved got a motion by councelor Safford seconded by councelor King any further discussion counc Safford hi councelor King hi counc Woodson hi Vice May adle hi and I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimously thank you thank you next is a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort MERS Beach Florida ratifying action of the Town taken September 27th 2024 under the emergency procurement policy to contract with Andrew cwork LLC to take emergency prot Ive measures to remove hazards to public health and safety from the town streets and RightWay authorizing payment of invoice number 20241 19e number one in the amount of $4,285 and providing for an effective date Joe um Joe onik Finance director and I had volunteer to get this resolution as well as the following resolution on the agenda um the need to have um formal contracts established um for FEMA reimbursement purposes for these two emergency uses of Andrew site work um is important to do I think initially there was this informal contract or agreement with them because they were already here they were already doing work for us and they were in agreement to do that for us and there was just a little bit of uncertainty as to how go about formalizing that and we sorted that out so these are actually two separate additional contracts with Andrew site work specifically to do the cleanup for um hurricane um Helen and then Milton okay John any questions r no Stafford I don't have any is there a motion to approve resolution 25-21 ratify Andrew site work LLC emergency contract for Hurricane Helen so move D second second John got a motion by councel woodon second by councelor King any further discussion councelor Woodson hi counc King hi counc Stafford hi vice mayor hi I'm and I as well all right the last one is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida ratifying action of the Town taken October 10th 2024 under the emergency procurement policy to contract with Andrew sitework LLC to take protective measures to remove the hazards to public health and safety from the town streets and RightWay authorizing payment of invoices number 2024 d19e number two and 2024 d19e number three for a total amount of 967877 and providing for an an effective date Joe yeah so this is the second of the two contracts with Andrew sitework um and this one is specifically for um the clean up after Hurricane mil okay is there a motion to approve resolution 25-22 so moved motion by councelor Woodson I'll second it any further discussion I just wonder if it's a little less money from Helen because of your heroic efforts mayor to remove that dumpster from the middle of the bouard that early morning don't forget the boat parts and bicycles and everything else Dr out of the yeah you really enjoyed the dumpster he was into it yeah that that was a blast from the past for sure thanks John any all we've got a motion by Council Woodson second by Al counc Woodson hi I'm an i Vice May hi councelor K hi counc Safford hi motion carries unanimously next is final public comment there is no one here so we will close final public comment Tom manager itams thank you mayor in in interest of time I I'll try to move as quickly as possible I think the the main thing that that I'm focusing on outside day-to-day operations is the town hall um second third floor should be uh completely finished probably within the next uh seven to 10 days which is a good that's a good step that's a big step we've got the final electric things being done now um the first floor we are in the process now of getting that going we we're um getting a flooring guy a ceiling guy HVAC duck work person working with our electricians um going to have uh working with some um um contractor sheetrock guy to get us going there so we should be going pretty quick uh on those hopefully in the next U 7 to 10 days as we transition from the upstairs to the downstairs the elevator they should be coming in the first week of February to start working on an elevator so it seems like it's been a long time but it's really been longer because this company has been engaged with the previous owners of the building so they've really been getting lined up to get this done so we're we're ready to go um and should be completed by the end of February so that's a big step also the the second big step after talking to Joe spec is our fire doors downstairs and our our our our stairwells those have to be in place we working to get those fire rated doors put in working with the uh of course we have all our permits working with the fire department working with everybody that that we need to to get this accomplished the painting for the most part is complete um so we're pretty excited about that um the next thing is we did have a meeting the mayor and I and Frankie Jeff and with fot yesterday and went over several things with them amongst were um the landscaping or lack of landscaping in that area um there seems to be some discrepancy of course we were working with a Construction Group they they were the ones that came so we're going above their heads and respectful way their words not necessarily mine they wanted us to go talk to people above them about certain things which will all be all this we they made notes and and going to offer feedback I just got an email from from the Pio that was with them a a few moments ago also looking at the traffic control about flaggers that type of thing I'm working with lcso on our end about you know traffic control that type of thing at at uh stero Crescent Crescent and Fifth and also at the Old St Carlos North estos just like we did before so I'm working with that Andy just one just a little further clarification on that because I thought we already were using some staff to help in those areas is that true we are we do have our staff trained to to work in that area and they have been helping and we do I do know that the times that they're out there does seem to flow a little quick quicker our our guys are really when they get out there they do a good job the of course they still get beeped at and yelled at and you know they're doing the wrong thing but you know they're they're they're really Troopers they're get out there do a good topic just to jump into that this is a good time and Joe is here I think we can all agree that when our staff is out there someone's out there moving traffic it moves much faster but it was brought up in the meeting yesterday the concern is the overtime that our staff is having to be paid and should we be paying for that or for someone else one do we have enough staff and are they willing to do it if we were to authorize the the payment can we afford it one in the meantime time because as they told us in the meeting yesterday it could be months before they get approval from the top and then season over and we're we're kind of back to where we started but in the interim while we're waiting do we have the funds if if if we make the approval to do that or direct the town manager to do that and do we have the staff to to fill those spots well I I would have to look into it better but I just my initial response would be we probably do have the funds because we have vacancies and so we have savings from vacancies that you know carry through the entire fiscal year that can be tapped into to fund that for sure and if if I some reason it exceeds that we still have savings from last year we can tap into and we have a contingency account that we can tap into as far as staff go as far as staff goes the vacancies that our finance director mentioned is part of the reason that we are kind of limited on what we can do that the people we are current interviewing as the Tom Andrew said but the people that we do have here every day are more than willing to step up and and we have not had any grumblings um that said we've been doing it for a little while it may get a little long in the Toth year as we go along and felce has been doing a great job of trying to get people in here and stuff so long answer longer um we can make it work quick addon to that question we traditionally have had a contract with the Lee County Sheriff's Office for officers is that contract in place for this season yes I have executed that and they have it in place it's in place and they're getting staff now their biggest thing is getting Off Duty Officers to do it but they're working on that now to get that accomplished they haven't formally started not formally but I did notice uh I guess it was about a week ago uh it was actually New Year's Day I I have come came through that intersection and they had a lcso officer at Crescent and fifth standing there and that's not somebody I'd asked for so to to the mayor's point this is a very very frequent topic of conversation here in Fort Myers Beach so all efforts appreciate well I I would be I feel my colleagues I feel comfortable in directing staff if resources are there to getting people out there the peak hours when we need them there to to keep traffic flowing especially during the week when construction traffic is leaving at the same time we've all been in the traffic we all understand it and if we have the resources and the manpower to do it until we know we're going to have a a schedule from the lcso to be out there I think the focus one focusing to your point from yesterday was having somebody at Old sand o St Carlos and uh North Estero at certain times of the day because of the tra the oncoming traffic especially the first half of the day as they go to make the right turn to go that way there is no turn lane anymore and I would I would feel more comfortable having if we only have a choice to have an lco Deputy at one spot that would be the spot versus Cresent Fifth and fth our guys can handle that you're just telling people to turn there's not a lot of foot traffic there Opera the light we can't most people aren't going to argue with a guy with a gun right so correct you put you put him at that intersection he can actually get people to stop traffic correct or our Rangers no offense to them but no you know I don't know that taser is going to stop someone I'll pass that along to my contact with lcso is she's starting to do the schedule and stuff prioritize that and then work out I would support your uh your increased authorization Mr Mayor for additional help on traffic control I'm good with all this my only question was even at time and a half do we know what the difference is per officer versus our own staff I'm guessing cheaper lcso deput well we we cannot man the traffic light um that has to be an employee of lcso gotcha so the only thing that we can do are the non-regulated intersection regulated would be fifth impressive it until the light gets back at s Carlos that would be another one because it's not considered an active intersection this it is for our Our concern but once the light get back then we could not be there got it okay and the last thing one of the last things we talked about um which doesn't affect us but affects the whole process is is the signalization at on St Carlos the double lights that used to one used to stop and they were explaining that now they've shifted over and apparently it's not picking up on the other one because there's it was a whole conversation with that so I I talked to Dave yes I talked to Dave Horner this morning and he was going to U commissioner Mika was going to speak with him about because I know that's an email that he had gotten about that specific so I know that Dave was going to address that um this morning with with his his staff so that's all I have there and then the lady the L yes I I know and that's one that was kind of a source of contingent with me yesterday because I sit there and I stare at that bridge every every night and it's like the lights are and you turn on there you sure the lights have been working absolutely so and and I talked to Dave about that as well this morning and then he was going to address that with his staff and from his angle as well so we and he also sent me a contact at the state level that they use so I just got that this morning so we'll be reaching out to that that person that's it ncy no items I can just one quick one for you Nancy I had an in about the litigation with the uh uh K owner of kesto on the parking enforcement litigation that's currently ongoing and notice that it was not on the special magistrates calendar to be heard as can just give us an update as to what's happening there on kesto the key owner of kesto yes yes that one is actually pending in uh Court in the judicial court not before the special magistrate no no um for um an appeal so the magistrate had rendered a decision basically in favor of the Town um the owners of K kesto basically had an appeal period and they did file an appeal um now their time period has run and we have to file a response by I believe it's the 24th of this month and we're working on that right now the pellet brief and then we're at the mercy the the court schedule at that point um yes but kisto still has the ability to reply to our answer and then we will see what the court says thank you but in the meantime the fine is still uring based on the magistrat that is correct do I have an idea where he's up to now this time around the amount of the fine um I do not have that number be interesting if we can get that that's all yeah at $500 a day wasn't that the ruling was it $500 because he do a repeat violation that's a lot of cracker that pays for over time well played anything else no sir thank you okay uh council member items report counc second I have nothing none none cons King I'll just quickly uh thank you for commentating me today uh this is the only vacation my wife takes and in the past I've come home early and I enjoy spending the time with my best friend so thank you welcome hope you're having fun uh I just have I am a real if we could get an update I know we had talked about in January potentially scheduling uh the comp plan review with yes with our residents is what's the plan with that um we had a meeting with uh Frankie Andy and regarding uh extending the contract for forino group um as they would be involved in the public Outreach portion to because it's still the comprehensive plan um I would be handling sort of a component of that from the LDC side um but we need to get that contract ironed out so that they can move forward with that um working on it it sounds like without being difficult Sarah this is this is for them to handle the public input side yes so the the idea was that you wanted to have more of a a vision um so no I love the public input side but having them do it versus gives me pause it's it's still within the comprehensive plan that's not really a component of the Land Development code in the same way so the comprehensive plan visioning process is much broader than what we would have for the LDC visioning process because I did have it in my contract to do some amount of that for the LDC but it's much bigger process when we're looking at the entire comprehensive plan so you don't have the capacity to take that on I do not and and they have uh a very good background in the public engagement realm so what's a time frame I know people we're starting obviously we heard it today in the public hearings people are starting to reference what we've told them is coming we have any inclination as to when this is going to be ratified so we can we we had a few talks um right before the holidays and that's kind of where it's sat so this is that's going to be up and handled possibly this week okay yep and uh I mean Eddie and I have already been discussing timelines and what would look where would what it would look like and what we would be interested in doing so um based on the conversation that we had with them look you know what they're interested in having what the town wants to do we're going to move forward from there so I apologize that's not a straightforward answer but that's the answer I have so is it is there potentially going to be a meeting this month for people to come and and give input that would be the Hope by the end of the month okay that's kind of where I wanted to get but we do want to make sure that there's adequate advertising unless we're going to do a pop-up event you know I I am interested in doing some popup events that would be at things like the Farmers Market on a Saturday something like that where we would get like regular people that are just out and about doing their you know shopping whatever they happen to be doing around town so that we can get some input from people who maybe aren't as interested in showing up to a meeting so um it might be sort of that kind of event that we do this month that doesn't require the same amount of advertising and then plan to do something that does require advertising and scheduling in in the next month okay well since you're there I'll ask you the other question okay impact fees how are we how is that coming along uh Jason will be at the next Town Council hearing on the 21st uh to discuss with you where we're at in that process okay and I can add that Jason and I have had a couple of conversations on that and we've already started we've already developed some good ideas on where we can get projects you have to have a designated project in mind to correlate that impact2 sure and uh so we've got to compile a list of that and get that all to you as well to you is that before the meeting perfect good that's all I got thank you thank you if there's nothing else John to adjourn in Aloha motion to with us uh second all those in favor signify by saying I I I I we