Highland Beach Town Commission meeting. Today is Tuesday, October 7th and it is now 1:30. We'd like to call the meeting to order. If we could have the roll call, please. Commissioner Chinowski, present. Commissioner Goldberg, present. Commissioner Peters, present. Vice Mayor Stern,
present. Mayor Moore, present. Town Manager Laby, present. And Town Attorney Rubin, present. We can all rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance. United States of America. Moving on to the approval of the agenda.
Are there any changes to the agenda? If none, if we could have a motion to approve. Yes. Motion to approve the agenda. Second it. All in favor say I. I motion carries. Moving on to presentations and proclamations. Resolution number 2025-026,
a resolution of the town commission of the town of Highland Beach, Florida, ratifying the selection appointments and term of office of members of the board of adjustment and appeals and providing for an effective date. And we have a candidate uh Barry Donaldson who um is
volunteering for the position. And if you'd like to come to the podium, state your name and your address and uh say a couple of comments. Mayor, members of the commission, I'm Barry Donaldson. I reside at 3700 South Ocean Boulevard. Uh pleased to be back
with you here again today uh for your consideration of my application. As I mentioned, I uh had the privilege of serving on the the rules and appeals a number of years ago. Uh it had its uh challenges. It was a very interesting uh
board toh sit on and I hope I'll have the opportunity to sit and join the other members. Thank you. And we'll go through uh each commissioner with question. I just met Barry for the first time, but I had been reading all about him and I was very very impressed and um thank you for
volunteering and uh putting yourself in this position. We hope you'll do the right thing and get elected. Thank you. Well, I certainly uh second that. Uh I was so impressed with your background and mostly I mean professionally of course, but the fact that over the many
years that you've been here that you've always come forward to sit on the commission on various committees and it's admirable really the breath and scope of your knowledge that you're going to bring to um the committee is great the commission. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Yeah, Barry. Like the third that um I thank you for all your commissions that you're on and even filling in as a commissioner for the town. I appreciate that and your volunteering. Thank you very much. Thank you. I for that. Thanks, Barry. Barry's done a terrific job and everything he's done and thank
you for everything from this town signing to your position on the commission. So, thank you and uh thanks for coming to this uh uh appointment. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes. I also support your appointment as well. Um, and a huge thank you for all
your contributions to the town and as the vice mayor had mentioned, uh, the town sign. I will always bring up the town sign and your contribution to the design and winning the design contest and how beautiful it turned out and I think how fitting it is uh for our
community. Um, so uh yeah, thank you and uh sounds like we all support the appointment. So, if we could have a motion, please. Yes. I move to adopt resolution number uh 2025-026.
I second that. Commissioner Goldberg, yes. Vice Mayor Stern, yes. Commissioner Chanowski, yes. Commissioner Peters, yes. And Mayor Moore, yes. Congratulations on you and welcome. I apologize for not being able to stick
around for the comprehensive plan review. I have another appointment unfortunately, but I wish you good luck on your deliberations on that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Moving on to item B, state of education report by school board member Erica
Whitfield, District 4, school district of Palm Beach County. She she Oh, you know, just realized she didn't. Well, um I guess when she arrives, we'll we'll um have her interject. So um and
uh moving on to item C, domestic violence awareness month proclamation. Um we have a proclamation here declar de declaring the month of October 2025 as domestic violence awareness month. Whereas domestic violence impacts
millions of people each year and continues to be a major social crisis and healthc care concern in our country, state, and and county. Whereas regardless of race, age, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, or citizenship,
victims receive the empathy and compassion they need to heal and equitably access and equitable access to medical and legal services, counseling, safe housing, supportive services, and those who choose to cause harm should be held accountable for their actions and
provided opportunities for rehabilitation. Whereas the town of Highland Beach recognizes the vital importance of reducing domestic violence through prevention and education. Whereas aid to victims of domestic abuse incorporated, AVDA facilitates prevention programming
in line with the CDC's recommendations to prevent domestic violence. And whereas the social changes needed to prevent domestic violence are created through education, community engagement, accountability, and institutional change throughout communities. And whereas the
Palm Beach County Coordinated Community response team builds key partnerships among justice agencies, health providers, allied professionals, domestic violence centers, and victim services to assist victims and their families and to hold offend offenders
accountable. And whereas in supporting victims of domestic violence, the town of Highland Beach joins local programs, state coalitions, and national organizations committed to sending a clear message that domestic violence will not be tolerated.
Whereas the town of Highland Beach recognizes the vital importance of designating a time devoted to increasing the general public's awareness to hold forth a vision of community of a community free from domestic violence. Now, Natasha, now I, Natasha Moore,
mayor of the town of Highland Beach, on behalf of the town commission, do hereby proclaim the month of October as domestic violence awareness month. And um I'd like to welcome to the podium uh Pam O'Brien. Thank you so much, Mayor Moore, and
members of the commission. We greatly appreciate your support in declaring the month of October domestic violence awareness month in line with that being the national month as well. So we really appreciate your support because uh so
many people need our services and we are very aware that there's a critical need in our community. That is why I brought Matt with me today. He heads up all of our violence prevention programming and uh through that each year we reach about
11,000 people in this county. We also want to take this moment to express our deep gratitude for Chief Hartman and the police. chief serves on our board of directors and is one of our vice chairs of the board and his leadership among
the other chiefs has been a just an invaluable service to us as we work so closely with law enforcement. So, thank you very much and thank you chief. We appreciate you. Thank you for all you do. And here's the um Thank you very much. Thank you for
everything. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, she's here. No, she arrived. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Um, so, uh, just, uh, going back to item B, state of education report by school board member Erica Whitfield. Welcome.
Thank you very much, Mayor. I apologize for my tardiness. Thank you, commissioners, for having me here as well. Um, it's a pleasure to always come and just speak before you all. Um, I'm just going to really briefly go over a couple of updates from your Palm Beach County school system and then be available for any questions that you all
might have. Uh, my name is Erica Whitfield. I have, uh, served almost 11 years on the Palm Beach County School Board and, uh, represented Highland Beach during that time. It's been a pleasure to do so. Um, I am, um, uh, here really to talk a little bit about what's going on in your schools. So the
biggest news that you may have seen in the last month or two months has been uh the number of students coming to our school system. Uh we are very proud currently to be an A-rated school system and that's something that we've been excited about for uh a couple of years. We had a little blip for a moment there.
We went down to a B, but we're back up to an A and everything is going very well. So we're very happy about that. Um but one of the big news um items that has come out of the school district has been uh this year we anticipated um a certain number of students for showing up and about 5516
students did not uh make it to the school this year. So what we do as a school system is we go and check on all those students to find out where they are. Um we want to make sure people are coming to school that they know it's a requirement to come to school and if they're not coming to our schools what school are they going to? So we make
sure that they are attending some sort of education. Um some people have moved out of the area. That is definitely the case. We have had the impact from the voucher program. That's a big case. And then we are seeing a very large number of people who are just nervous to come to school. The concerns around
immigration have been um very real within our community and we've seen that. And so understanding that that is a uh an impact, we do everything we can to make families feel comfortable and welcome into our school system. um also providing them with opportunities for other education if they if they need it.
So that's something that we have worked on um being sure to do. Also anybody who is willing to come back, we would really like to see them come. Uh in October we do the official FTE count and that FTE goes off to the state and then we make our money in our school system based on
the funding that we receive. So that is a true impact to us of um after all of the balancing of of teachers and rotating who goes where um the funding follows the student but also the teachers follow the students. So if a school is down uh like Lakew Worth High
School is down 400 students it's quite an impact. Students then move from that high school to places where they or the teachers move from that high school and they'll move to a place where there is teachers needed. So that's how we adjust. So, we were able to just have a hiring freeze, which is what you would do in any situation here, and um not
hire any new people and just readjust as needed. So, that's what we've done. Um we're down about still about another $25 million um from where we expected, unfortunately. Um and that is uh definitely having an impact, but because we are such a large system and because we do have reserves and we have been
very uh fiscally sound, uh we have been able to absorb this impact. um by and large um there's some adjusting being done, but that's something that we've been able to handle. Um but it is something that I think as a community should keep an eye on going forward because we want to make sure that our schools remain strong in Broward and
Miami Dade. Same trends have been happening. You're seeing people not coming into their public schools for a variety of similar reasons. It's actually happening throughout all the urban districts in Florida. So, we're watching all those districts and how they handle it as well. So, we're doing uh better than most. We're very happy
about that. But there's definitely a trend that we're seeing um throughout the county. This is the first time Palm Beach County has been impacted. So, as we go forward, um we see this as an opportunity for the students that we can um is to provide better service to really try to improve our customer
service within the school system so people feel that they are welcome into our schools, but also that they're getting the value for what they're asking for. So, the great education that we know is possible. One of the things that's really happened in the neighbors just to your west in Delray Beach, we've
had some really great successes within our schools there these past couple years that I want to share, we just got our grades in not that long ago. And um Pinerove Elementary that you all may know, very close to downtown Delray Beach, um has actually gone up to be an A-rated school. And so we're very very
proud of that. They got a new school building recently, so that probably improved it a little bit. But I wanted to share with you all um how that something like that happens. extremely briefly. Um, in the state of Florida, the grading is two components. One is proficiency. So, how well do the
students do on the test? And the second part is something called learning gains. So, learning gains means if you have a student who is potentially not proficient, but you move them to another grade level. So, we do a fivepoint scale. So, say they're a level one when they come into us, but then during that
year they become a level two student. So based on the testing, the school would actually get points based on that for a learning gain. So 50% is proficiency, 50% is learning gains. If you look at the proficiency at a school like Pinerove, you'll see that their proficiency is still in the 35
percentile range. However, the students there have grown so much in their academic journey that the school's profing gains are so high that it balances out that they were able to get an A rating. So, it's a very amazing feat for the teachers to have done
something like this in that school. So, we're very proud of those schools and I just want to explain that to you in case you're hearing about the grading system within our within our schools. Um, so that's happened at many schools in the county. Um, that is just one local example. Um, but we're very proud to see
our teachers getting those students to a higher level. And really, it's a sign of a great school when you can bring in a student who's below level and get them hopefully to grade level. So, the other thing I wanted to mention um is really more important to you all here. I'm sure you're um very interested in ways that
you can help the school system in general. So, on November 5th, we will be having a workshop within the school board. And that workshop is going to be to talk about um how uh we can do a better job providing the employees that everyone wants in their communities. Um
so, the businesses in our community are looking to hire. We want to have students that hopefully meet the needs of what you're looking for in your employees. So, we have um choice programs for the students in the school system. We have technology programs with vocational programs. And all of those
programs we're looking at holistically to see what kind of programming we need within our system to be able to provide the employees that are perfect for the state of Florida. And that's what we're working to do. So, I have been asking all of my communities, if anyone in your community is interested in partnering
with the school district so that we can make sure that we're creating the job, the people for the jobs that you have, um, please call me, let me know. That workshop will be on November 5th. I've had a few people talking to me about, you know, what they're looking to see from their students when they come out
of the system. Um, and so we have all levels. We are working to get, you know, your highest academic students, but also people who want to work in trades and make sure that we're providing those opportunities. And then through this workshop, we're going to be looking at how do we streamline it so that if a
student starts in a program, there will be continuous programs throughout the school for them to be able to continue all the way to the end. For instance, one of my schools has a construction academy, but it takes six years to get a certification in construction in the specific way that we're trying to do it.
four years is not enough time in a high school. So, we really need to move that program into middle school as well. So, that you get the first two years in middle school and then they finish up the four years in high school and when they leave after six years in this program, they're coming out with a cert certification that is going to translate
into a job for them if that makes sense. So, um with that, I'll just stop there and see if you guys have any questions. Um that generally gives you some ideas of what's going on in the school district, but I am open to absolutely anything that you all have for me. Thank you. Yeah, I do. Thank you for being here. Uh
my question is with the atmosphere in the country right now, big focus on artificial intelligence. Yeah. Um and you mentioned technology and I understand that right now there's going to be more focus on specialized areas. How is this how is the how are you addressing that right now? So, we've we
do have um a technology uh uh like it's called safe technology programming with in our curriculum so that the students are all learning about how to be safer with technology. We've added an AI component to that so that way they can understand a little bit more about what
what their interactions with AI are and how they can be more uh like just safer students around it. So, it's a little bit of protection to try to talk to them about it. We've also created something called um we've actually been one of the biggest adopters of this in the country.
Um something called Kmigo. Kon MIGO is um an AI that will help you with your homework and it is um in what they call a protected garden so that it if you ask a question to the KIGO AI um it will uh
only stay within the realm of what we all consider acceptable for students. So they can't ask questions that go outside of that. So it's made for children. Um so we have one of those. It's through the Khan Academy. If you know Khan Academy, it is an offshoot of that. So it's an experience for the children to
have AI and the teachers to have AI that is protected. Um so the con MIGO will actually sit down and you can type in your homework question and it will not just tell you the answer. It's going to prompt you to guide you through on any subject, anything that you're interested
in. So, that's one way that we're able to give them that experience without being in an unsafe environment. And then, um, one of the things that I'm working towards is that we can hopefully put in an AI class specifically where students could take it to learn more about it and really be an entire piece
of the curriculum. So, we're working in little pieces of AI that have been incorporated into the curriculum. I think we need to make it an even larger part of this discussion that we're having on November 5th as we're deciding choice programs when we're creating technology throughout the school district. And we have a quite a few of
them. We have a program at St. Lucius that's um a cyber security program. I think we need to be putting in like modules specific to Are you concerned about the reliance on AI? Oh yeah, I think we're all concerned about it. But I'm I'm hoping that I'm
hoping that we can um at least from an education standpoint embrace the opportunities that are there um and really teach our children so that they don't go the worst thing I think is that they just figure this out on their own without any guidance because the AI is there. So if we can have our teachers
teaching around a curriculum of guidance and understanding and then hopefully protection um I think we can do a much better job. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. I had uh some questions with regard to the concern um of having such a large I if in fact it
is such a large reduction in attendance. You said over 5,000 and is this in Palm Beach County alone or what area? It's in every it's statewide in every urban district you're seeing those numbers dropping. So, do you have handy
any or give us some idea um percentage- wise how many are going to homeschooling or is it transfers? I'm concerned not about those but about the numbers and the fear factor you mentioned they're afraid to go to school. Yeah. So, we're also seeing the same
trend in charter schools just so you know it's uh very similar. Our trend is 3.4% of the population and I think charters is 3.6. So very very close um in the percentage of numbers. Um I don't know how many have gone to homeschool as
far as a number but it is it is there is a section of students that have done that. Um I would say we're still doing better with homeschool than we were during the pandemic. During the pandemic we had a lot of students going to homechool. I would say it's less than that. Um as far as the vouchers um that
is the program where you can take your funding and go to a private school. Um we are seeing a few private schools opening up here in Palm Beach County, but by and large um they have had weight lists and they're not um there's not a lot of space in private schools. So we're not seeing a huge shift over to
them. I anticipate over time you'll see more private schools open up within Palm Beach County. And so that's where the competition really comes in what we are providing, how we are able to provide that education. Um but right now we're not seeing a huge number. Um, I have gone and visited with some of my
principles and asked them, um, we do ask that they go follow up on every single student because worst comes to worse, we don't want the child to be in a danger. Um, so we want to make sure that they're okay. So we see that as our responsibility to follow up on the children. Um, and if they've moved out of state, if we can get a forwarding
phone number, if we can figure out where they went, are they in another option? Some parents are just choosing to keep them home. Um we do have truency proceedings that do follow if they choose not to bring their kid to school. Um so we have been working with um one of the judges here locally, Judge Kroll.
If a parent is not bringing their child to school, we will follow up. Um and there could be potential legal actions that come in after that and we don't want it to get to that. They do a lot of work to try to make sure that they're encouraging a student to come in and just that threat is usually enough. Um we haven't had to go through
but other than truency, I mean the fear factor is concerning to me. Very real. So I would say the majority is So what are they fearful of and what what actions are the school board taking? We are not taking any overt actions. We're just doing our very best to but be
welcoming. We have not had any situations on our campuses of anyone coming in um and coming to talk to our students um while they're there on campus or anybody trying to come in and and take them as far as like an ICE raid or something like that. has not happened
on any campuses. So that's one of the fears that I try to dispel as much as possible because that is a concern but to me it is has not happened yet. So if it does happen obviously the community will know about it but right now schools have been a very safe place for every child to come and so we work on trying
to communicate that to everyone. But that is one of the fears is that they're afraid if they go to school they might not be able to you know they might be picked up or not be able to come home. So, that's been a concern of of the communities that we're we're really working to hopefully mitigate as much as possible.
Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. My only thing is I'd like to thank you for being on a school board and uh I I know as a parent growing up, I've been to many schoolboard meetings and I've been very heated at times there. So, I
thank you. I remember you speaking last year and you seem very dedicated and caring. So, I just want to thank you on that. And where is the the workshop on the 5th? Where is it? It'll be at our school board. At the school board. Yep. It'll be November 5th. We do it usually around two o'clock in the
afternoon. Um haven't got the agenda for it, but generally it's around then. And I I'm hoping that the community a lot of times when I go speak to people, we talk about the businesses in our community. And I had the opportunity. I don't know if any of you were able to go, but when economic council did the trip last year to Dallas, we were able to go and look
at how another community that's similar size to ours is working. and working with their um their schools. And one of the things that I was so impressed about was how many businesses were truly engaged in their school system and the impact that that had on their economy to be able to have people coming in and
teaching the students uh the things that they wanted them to know and then employ them immediately after that. So with uh comparison to Dallas to us, Dallas is about the same size as people, but they have twice as many businesses as we do because Palm Beach County does not have as many businesses as a place like
Dallas does where it's also more affordable to live. Um we would like to get to that point as a school system to be able to have in the engagement of the business community. And many times I'll speak to the business community and they wish that they had more of an engagement within the school system. So, I think
this is a good step for us to take to figure out what is it that the business community would like to see. How can we engage more businesses in Palm Beach County and then also within our school system so the students can be ready for whatever the jobs of the future are. Thank you.
Have you seen any changes in autism? The amount of students lower, higher, stable? So, I would say you know it we do identify quite a bit and autism as they talk about is a spectrum. So when you look at the spectrum of autism, um there
are people who are very severely autistic and they may be in a special classroom, but then there are also students who just need a little bit of help, a little bit extra assistance. And so we try to identify everyone that we can, not just with autism, with any developmental disabilities or delays or
specialties, really just any differences in learning style. We try to identify everyone we can because then we can give them the right services. So, um, you know, even my daughter gets a little speech help. That's something that I was fortunate to have a teacher bring to my
attention that I wouldn't have known had she not been in a preschool setting where they were looking into that. So, I think it's really important um to have that because we do have services available. So, we have so many opportunities, especially with the step up money that came with the vouchers. We
can even get additional funds um for people to make sure that they're getting even in the private setting, you're getting a student that's getting additional uh support. Even in a you know a homeschool setting, you're getting additional support. So there are all of these programs set up for us to
be able to get that to happen. So I think you'll see there's a lot of people identified, but the I don't know if it's an exploding number of cases as much as it is just really trying to make sure that everyone's getting the support that they need. And that's that's kind of where we said is well how can we best
serve the students because we need them to be able to do well in school and overcome any difficulties that they may have. And some students you'll see after they get a little bit of services they may not need services anymore. And then we'll be done with those services because the students have learned how to deal with whatever the issue is that they came in with.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for coming again to speak with us. Um I I really look forward to your presentation every year. Um, I think Palm Beach County is doing a great job uh with their with the schools. Um, I think I've told you
before I have three kids that have gone through. Um, I still have one left um who's a junior in Bokeh High and I've told you um how great the roster of classes that Bokeh High offers and is uh
much more robust than many of the other high schools. you know, I've compared, you know, I've looked at like some of the Broward high schools and things like that and uh we book a we're very fortunate to have um the ACE diploma and all the advanced placement classes and
um I I really like what you're saying about uh the connection of the employers in the area to the high school students and um the emphasis on trades because it does seem like we have a real shortfall with um young people going into the
trades and college is not for everyone. Um, and I think all those efforts going into making those connections for young people, like if that is a better fit for them,
why get in debt or whatever it takes to get through college, you know, you know, the added expense for our family, which, you know, can be a burden. And if it's not a good fit, then, you know, perhaps it's not the best use of funds. and not the best use
of time. So, I think making the connections in the local industry of, you know, what we actually need here, I think is uh excellent. I think that's a a great idea and um I would support you,
you know, continuing to do that. I guess one thing I I personally see as uh one one reason why some students are leaving the public system is uh like the top athletes are going to
the are are being drawn to the private schools. So, the private schools are just grabbing up the best athletes. Um, and they have a lot to offer them. Yeah.
Um, and I think I think one thing and I, you know, and I'm your presentation is the first time I've heard this $25 million um shortfall. I imagine that's probably going to be athletics and all the, you know, maybe that'll come from extra. I don't I don't
know where it comes from, but um I know Bokeh High for one has gone to kind of you know drastic measures in trying to uh get donations for these programs. Um
and uh so I think that you know might be another reason why we're losing some of those students is because we don't have as much the public you know the public system doesn't have as much money for the athletics and so and I don't know what the numbers
are. I mean, I only know of, you know, a handful of people, but well, I'll give you one really quick comparison so you can understand the difference. But, um, with the school district, we recently just got our funding allocation from the state. Um, so we know how much we were going to get every year for our students. So, we do
all this education for $9,000 a student. Um and if you look at the private school uh funds that they get um you're seeing some schools getting on the order of 304 $50,000 a year per student. So um the limitations are real. We do get quite a
bit of benefit from economies of scale. So we're able to have maybe one of some position or 10 of some position that you wouldn't be able to put into a private school. Um that helps a lot with our um ESSE for our um students with disabilities. um we're able to provide
um one thing I always laugh about is we have like one um school psychiatrist that we pay for that for the entire school system which we're able to do because we have such a huge system. So if somebody needs medication we do have somebody that we can call um but you can't really do that at a private school
because of the economy scale we're able to do it. Unfortunately, um we do not have as much money as you would get from having a much larger um you know, tuition bill for people to come in. So, we do rely on our communities more. Um so, fundraising is definitely something
that happens. As well as um we do go to you all for the referendum every year. We will be coming back again next November. It's on the agenda for tomorrow for the school board meeting to approve the language going forward for next November to ask for that millillage to be re-uped. that has helped us a lot
with teacher salaries. Um we are able to give additional funding to our teachers and very difficult to live here in Palm Beach County. So we do try with those situations. Um but it is difficult um you know to be able to provide every single opportunity. Um and as you mentioned with the ACE program, my
daughter's in an IB program. All of those highlevel classes are something that this community actually came out when the state was looking at cutting funds for and came out and fought for to make sure that we continue to have it. I want to make sure that we continue that because I think it is one of the best
things we have going in our school system. How many students are getting college credits while still in high school that then transfer over to their college degrees uh free of charge for the parents. So, it is a um it's a super benefit that we have within the school system. But all of these things can't go
forward unless we have the support of the state and funding and the community. Absolutely. Uh okay. Well, do you want you want to come up and ask a question? Sure. Your timing is perfect because there's
been something that's bothering me now for a number of months and maybe you can help me. I was trained as a a educational advocate about seven years ago in conjunction with the Guardian Ed Lightum program and everything's been fine. About six months ago, I started
getting emails every several weeks from the school system saying they needed kids that had that needed go educational advocates literally every several weeks. And this is only over the last six months and I've been an educational advocate for seven years. What's going
on? Why all of a sudden is there such a pressing need? Number one, and number two, what are they doing about it? Thank you. Let me know. Jack Halpern, 3420 South Ocean Boulevard, Highland Beach. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, first of all, thank you very much for doing that work. It's a wonderful thing. I'm not sure why they're asking you for so many more, but I'm happy to look into it for you and figure out if we're having a higher need for advocates. Um, and to be able to do that
kind of work is just really incredible. We're lucky to have people in the community who will take time out and be a part of a child's life in that way. So, I thank you for your service. If you would like, I'll give you my card and you can call me and text me. Let me know. Yeah. I always I also wonder if maybe
somebody decided to just reach out more. It might have been Yeah, sometimes maybe somebody got a job that it was a new job. So, um but yeah, I'm glad you're doing that work. Yeah. Anyone else? Any other questions from anybody? Anyone from
Thank you, Highland Beach, for being so engaging and interested in what's going on in your schools. I really appreciate it. And um we'll be back next year to talk about the millillage. So, thank you all very much. Have a great day. All right. You too. Moving on to public comments. Do we have
any public comment, Joanne? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Just to refresh everyone's memory, my name is Joanne Ryan and I'm the permit holder through FWC for Highland Beach. and I felt it was important for me to
come here today in person to thank you all for your continuing support. Um, we've had a busy year. We have a very diverse um, group of volunteers. I am permitted to have 25 volunteers on the permit uh, per FWC and I am at full
capacity right now with about three people waiting in the wings to train. Um, this year I was able to have a young college student that goes uh her family lives here in Highland Beach and she goes to Boston University at Amherst.
She'll be graduating in the spring and she'll be coming back as a fully vetted volunteer with us. But, uh, her school contacted me and I was able to get her some college credits for the time she spent with us. But I had an interesting interaction
with her um on the beach on her last day before she went back to school. We had a live hatch out of turtles, like 50 to 75 little turtles scurrying across the beach. And she was so excited and she was writing a um a a paper to go back to school with. and she said to me, she
goes, "This summer has inspired me so much that when I graduate, I think I'm going to come back and live at home with my parents and continue my PhD at FAU and hopefully work in Dr. Wine's lab at Gumbo Limbo." So, that was one of the
things. Um, I have another young lady that just graduated from uh Florida GF Coast. She uh works for the Southern Florida Water Management District and her and her fiance capture pythons at night after the morning she spends on
the beach. Um they have a YouTube channel. It's called the Critter Cult if you're brave enough to watch it. Um they are out there doing amazing work and she's not 100 pounds soaking wet and she's holding up these huge snakes
sitting on eggs. So the the stuff they're doing for the environment is just special and I'm very happy to have her on my team. Um we have married couples that walk together and um we I love it and we have
um a married couple that bring their two little girls out there with them and Bri happens to be here with me today. Um Bri has been How many years have you been with her? Okay. Um Bri has um taken a very
proactive position with um me on the permit. She is soon to be my new qualified assistant. Um and she is helping me move this little nonprofit forward with website, dedicated email, um more fundraising. And my point here
is young people are the future. Um, and with Bri and I working together, when she's ready to take over, she could be the next person that takes over this permit and keeps it going. Um, so with that, I just wanted to say the partnership that we have with the town
of Highland Beach and the Natural Preservation Board has been very inspiring and very exciting. And when that envelope came in the mail, I was so grateful and so happy. it en enables us to um keep going with purchasing
supplies and um outreach tables and educational supplies. So, thank you all very very much and um please be on the lookout for your invitation to our annual recognition party which will be right after the first of the year. I hope to see you there. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you for all your work and you got the volunteers do a great job. Any other public comments with Jack? Firstly, as an external handmaiden, thank you very much. Zone one, five year
five years. Jack Hopin again, 3420 South Ocean Boulevard. um a proud 29-year veteran of Highland Beach and just moved into our third condominium uh north of here uh on July 17th after what seemed like an
indefinite period of construction. Uh my wife and I are I'll cut it short because I'll watch the time. My wife and I are both avid recyclers. My wife's even more than I am. We buy bottles somewhere. She brings them home. We carry uh containers in our trunk. So we
have someplace we have the extra food, we bring it back in the containers. And so we're putting them in the blue and yellow containers since July 17th at our condo. And uh about a week and a half ago, I'm out early in the morning and I watched
the maintenance guy take the yellow and the blue uh and put them into one garbage pail. And I look at him and he said, "Yeah, that's what we do." Uh the next day I went over to a maintenance manager and I asked him
about he said, "Oh yeah, they the waste management takes that in their recycling trucks. Uh the the combing the waste and uh they're not buying the the waste anymore. Nobody's it's all being burned. It's garbage. It's there."
Coincidentally, it was not planned. You know, everything happens in fate. I belong to a dive club and we just did we do a lot of environmental stuff. We had a visit to the solid waste plant yesterday and had a chance to go through and look at see all the recycled
materials which they're getting paid for. They're getting money for their cardboard, for their newspaper, for their aluminum, for their steel. The only thing they're not getting money for is their glass. And that's and somebody is picking that up. The interesting fact I heard is Boca Raton got a million and
a half dollars in kickback last year from their recycling. What is Highland Beach doing about it? If they can get a million and a half, I would think we get something. My condo, I figured out during season has 2.1 tons of garbage. You know, I'd love to know
what an average amount of recycling to come out of 2.1. You know, and I'm not telling everybody in my condo, you got to recycle. That's your choice. You don't want to recycle, throw it down the chute. Just don't contaminate it. Whoever wants to do it, do it. It seems like people want to do
it. But we didn't know that it's being co-mingled and done like that. I wanted to come here to the town. I I'm not sure where I'm going to head on this, but I'm, you know, those of you who know me know I will be heading someplace. Uh,
you know, where where the town's at at that. I know we're not passing legislation about you will recycle. We're not going to do that. But we should be able to at least control our contractors like waste management that their recycling trucks are picking up and not picking up coal mangle uh waste
and such that it doesn't count and that we're keeping track of these things and look at it maybe. So we're doing good for the environment, we're doing good for people and at the same time maybe we get cash back and I don't know if we've been doing that as well. So, I'm raising
that as a thought for the town in terms of where we're at and really in terms of what is waste management doing. I know I for one want to come down there to try and find out when they show up with the recycling trucks and take a look and see what they're doing and where they're at.
You know, I've been up to the re the uh the transfer station up in Delray. Well, we moved. We had tons of cardboard and all kinds of other waste. So, I got to know that place real well. and you know they they got a good uh good recycling place in terms of where where it can be
done. So So I ask for the town's help. This is something that maybe get some cash back and some extra money in the budget. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Jack. Yeah, go ahead. I'll just give a quick summary. We do
they do track it. We did about 400 tons last year and we get the thank you for recycling, but it doesn't cover the cost, so you get zero dollars. So, they keep track of it and that's run through our our solid waste contract. Uh, if your building's coming, it's supposed to
be collected separated. I don't think we do co-mingled here unless they've changed the rules and neither of us know about. So, it should be separated. So, if you coingle it, it'll get trashed. So, keep it in the the blue and yellow separate. [Music] I will uh Pat and I will talk with
Barbara uh at Waste Management, but we do we do recycle. We do get reports from the south uh S SWA out out west from the the recycling. We did about 400 tons last year if I call correctly. Every quarter we get a letter with how much we
recycled and not enough to make money. So they're we get a report from them every quarter on the volume probably like Bokeh volume which is probably like 30 times the volume um than than we do especially if if we come
to find out that it's co-mingled like that and it's being wasted then we're we're not tracking much uh if we're just throwing away all our recycling. But we do get it from uh the county gives us a report on how much volume comes in by community. So we'll see it with everybody. They do significantly more
volume. I can't tell you the exact number, but Bokeh does do a larger volume, but um we'll put something out. I got something I'll work with Madison. We'll put out some recycling education, let people know, give you the latest updates. Maybe we'll put out the report now that we have our app. Hopefully everybody has it. Um and we'll put out
that uh data so everybody knows. Get it out to the condo groups, too. Good reminder. Yeah. Thanks for the comment. Yeah. Yeah. Good one. Any other comment? No. Okay, moving on to ordinances. Um,
uh, proposed ordinance. This is the first reading and also the first public hearing on the ordinance and it's an ordinance of the town commission of the town of Highland Beach, Florida, amending the town's comprehensive plan to implement the town's evaluation and
appraisal review, adding data and analysis section, modifying the goals, objectives, and policies of the future land use element, the transportation and mobility element, the housing element, the infrastructure elements, the coastal management Conservation element, the
recreation and open space element, the intergovernmental coordination element, capital improvements element element, and the property rights element. Modifying the map series in accordance with statutory requirements, providing for transmitt, providing for
severability, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date. So there's a few elements I nine to be exact. Okay. Well, good afternoon, Ingred Allen, town planner. Um, I did want to start off just by stating that the item, these
proposed amendments to the comprehensive plan was routed to the commission on September 26. We wanted to be sure you had ample time to review it given it's quite voluminous in nature. Um, on page 15 of your packets, I provided you a little bit of background on the amendment, sort of a how do we get here
type situation. So, I'll briefly go over that. Um, Florida statute does uh state that at least once every seven years, each local government has to evaluate its comprehensive plan um uh to reflect changes that may be in the state requirements or even changes in local
conditions that can also trigger an amendment. Uh based on preliminary meetings that we had with our town consultant, Inspire, uh the town uh made the determination that we will need amendments to the comprehensive plan. Uh back on December 19th, uh the town
submitted a letter to the state land planning agency letting them know that we were going to indeed move forward with amendments to the comprehensive plan. Actually, the Florida statute requires that each municipality notify the state land planning agency again of your intentions whether you're going to
amend the comprehensive plan or not within that seven-year period. Uh so we have Inspire here today. They're our planning consultant. they uh prepared the proposed amendments to the comprehensive plan which are based on the evaluation and appraisal review that they uh conducted as well and staff.
We've been working with Inspire on this for six months now. Uh the uh consultant did have a kickoff meeting with town department heads on December 9th of 2024. This has been quite a bit of a collaborative effort with several town departments. Um and on page 15, I
provide you those nine elements, right? Um we have over 200 goals, objectives, and policies. And as a result of this evaluation and appraisal review, uh there is a new proposed data and analysis section of the comprehensive plan. Our comprehensive plan right now has no data data and analysis section.
Uh so that's newly proposed. Uh there's also some corresponding maps that go along with the data and analysis. And there are changes to the goals, objectives, and policies uh that are currently in the plan in the comprehensive plan. and um some changes to the future land use map series and
inspire. We'll go over some of those details with you in just a moment. Um on June 17th of 2025, the commission, if you recall, you all did a preliminary um sort of an intro or conceptual review of these amendments and the motion that you made was to move the amendments to the
planning board for their review. on July 10th and on August 14th, the planning board considered the amendments. And on August 14th, they did go ahead and make some recommendations which are provided on pages 16 through 18 in your packets. So, just want to make sure um it's clear
to the commission. On those pages, you'll see several policies that were pulled from the goals, objectives, and policies. Uh the the goals, objectives, and policies in their entirety entirety uh start on page 60. So the planning board's recommendations are the bolded
right double underline or double strikethrough. That's what the planning board's recommendations are. Obviously the underline is additions they would like to see. Strikes strikethroughs are what the uh the deletions they would like to see. And any other single underline or single striketh through
those are the amendments proposed by Inspire as part of their evaluation appraisal uh review. Ingrren, can I just with that the the ones that are identified by the planning board are not incorporated within the policies and goals yet. Correct. So on page 60 of your packets, those are the goals objectives and
policies. We did not incorporate the recommendations because again the planning board is a recommending board. So if you all decide to move forward with those amendments, then eventually you know they'll be added um into the goals and objectives and policies, right? Um so these type of amendments they go
through a two-phase process. there's a transmitt phase and an adoption phase. So obviously today is the transmitt. So if you all approve the amendments um they will be transmitted to the state land planning agency and other state agencies that review these types of amendments. Um the state land planning
agency will then provide an ORC report which is an objections, recommendations and comments report. Uh they will provide that within 60 days of the day that they receive the amendments. Um and when we get the ORC report, uh staff along with our planning consultant will
address that ORC report and then the amendment will come back to you part of the second phase which is the adoption phase. There'll be an adoption hearing. That date will be determined at a future time. Um and so with that said, um I wanted to go ahead and introduce Inspire. Excuse me. We do have Chris
Darity. He's Inspire's uh principal planner. And we also have Emily Agra. She is the planner and she's also the project manager for the uh evaluation, appraisal, review and the corresponding amendments. Uh so I'll go ahead and give them the floor.
Good morning. We're just going to test the Wi-Fi. Um I can use my hot spot. Yeah, now right. Mhm. You're all locked in.
Okay. Um, apologies for the error. Um, thank you, Ingred. Um, good morning. Uh, good morning, Madame Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor and Commissioners, my name is Emily Ger and I am a planner and the project manager for this project today. Um, with
me is Chris Dhy, principal in charge um, of our firm. So, over the past several months, we've had the opportunity to work with the town um, Ingred, the town manager and staff to update the comprehensive plan. Just as a brief introduction, Inspire
Placemaking Collective, also known as Inspire, was founded in 2022 with over 30 professionals who specialize in landscape archite architecture and planning services. So, the purpose of today's hearing is to present the draft amendments for your
approval. We will begin with a brief overview to explain why the comprehensive plan is being updated and walk you through the amendment process. Um then we will summarize the key changes as well as um some that were recommended during the planning board meeting um and outline the remaining
steps through adoption. So to provide you some more background on December 19th of 2024 staff had notified the Florida Department of Commerce which is the state land planning agency that amendments to the town's comprehensive plan were due. This
last update was completed back in 2018. So these amendments are part of the evaluation and appraisal review which state law requires every seven years and it's just to make sure that it remains consistent with Florida statutes and any updates that are needed. Um so the town
is required to transmit these amendments uh within one year of this notification. The amendments presented today extend the plan through the 2045 planning horizon. Um it's important to note however that in 2023 um the um the
statutes were updated to require both a 10-year and 20-year planning period to address growth um through the horizon. The amendment process involves three overarching steps. The first being data and analysis, the second the goals, objectives and policies and third
required public hearings. So the process began with us um gathering data that was provided by the city and we reviewed each plan element to ensure that the information is current. Um next we used we created this legislative matrix um to identify the necessary revisions to the
last update and then based on this and with staff conversations we revised the drafts the goals objectives and policies for each element. Um, we also updated the map series which is included in your packet. And we're here today um as part of one of the required public hearings
which is the transmitter. This slide over here lists the nine elements of the comprehensive plan being future land use, transportation, housing, infrastructure, coastal management and conservation, recreation and open space, intergovernmental
coordination, capital improvements and property rights. The main updates to the plans and references as well as supporting information include adjusting the planning horizon from 2025 to 2045. Um, we also
any outdated statutory and regulatory references were also updated. For example, references to the Department of Community Affairs was updated to the Florida Department of Commerce as well as um any language as head rules 9J Florida Administrative Code was updated
to chapter 163. Um we also removed any completed projects or policies that are now addressed in the land development code to help streamline the document. New plans were also incorporated such as the 10-year water supply work plan, the beach restoration feasibility study, and
the coastal resilient partnerships climate change vulnerability assessment. Um, we also updated data such as the potable water flow and along with any edits to improve just the uh clarity and consistency of the text.
And as mentioned, our team also updated the map series using the most current available data and this includes updates to the future land use, the existing land use, and just maps showing current and projected levels of service amongst others. This slide highlights several recent
statutory requirements and preeemptions that have been incorporated into the updated plan. Um so first the plan uh well we understand that the town only um has sanitary sewer but we incorporated language to ensure that all future development um connects to sanitary
sewer and this aligns with the state's priorities for long-term infrastructure resilience. This update also adds another policy stating that the town shall allow floating solar facilities on storm water treatment ponds and other water storage
reservoirs within the designated future land use categories. Um we also added a policy to recognize and protect resilience facilities such as infrastructure that's needed to withstand climate impacts. Um there's also a state level preeemption um
related to fuel terminals. However, this is not expected to affect the town specifically um as these types of facilities are not uh currently allowed um or anticipated within the town. And here we included a quick reference guide to the statutory updates and how
they've been addressed throughout the plan. Um it outlines the key topic, summarizes the relevant changes, and points to where you can find the corresponding updates in the document. It's just really help uh meant to help you navigate the document a little bit easier.
I also included the revisions following the July 10th planning board meeting. Um so there were a few recommended changes for the future land use, transportation, housing elements which are listed here. Um I'd be happy to go back to them, but for right now I'll just um quickly
overview why they were why the changes were made. So the first is um for objective flu 1.1. This language was revised to clarify the intent of the original text. um it seemed a little confusing so we just uh made those
revisions for policy flu 1.1.4. Uh this pol policy was part of a greater conversation of the town. No recommended changes were um made but it's part of a greater discussion for the town and it relates to the existing buildings
and whether they should redevelop or um be renovated at their original densities. Um for policy flu 1.1.7 the planning board chair had uh recommended that this policy be removed.
Next uh for the uh this is a transportation policy 1.1.4. It removes encourages and supports as requested. Um in policy housing 1.5 we revise the language to include as applicable
in 1.5.6. 6. Um there was a request for more flexibility um as well as 1.5.7. And so that brings us to the remaining steps. We're here today for the town commission transmitt hearing October
7th. Um so once uh if you choose to approve these amendments, um they will be transmitted to the Florida Commerce for a 60-day agency review period. Um, this allows the state and regional agencies to provide more comments and we will work with staff if there are any
comments to prepare these and return for the adoption hearing. And that concludes our presentation, but we are happy to welcome questions. Thank you. I I do have a quick question before we start. Um so a lot of my comments are more
about um the evaluation and appraisal review. It the comprehensive plan is the entire package, right? It's those policy things that you went through and then also the evaluation and
appraisal review. Okay. Um, yeah. I guess I I had an maybe an overriding thing and then I'd like to, you know, go through each commissioner, but I thought I would um because I feel like this is uh something that uh underlies a lot
of of what was said in the in this discussion. So like I didn't know what this was. I've been involved, you know, in the town since like 2019. I had no I had no idea what this comprehensive plan was. So I I um looked at other towns
comprehensive plan and um you know obviously read through this uh document and so as I tried to investigate what this even was it sounds like and correct me if I'm if I'm off base here but it seemed like the
legislature implemented this because there were uh municipalities in the state of Florida that were growing faster. faster than their infrastructure could manage. Um, population was growing, outgrowing the water capacity,
outgrowing the infrastructure capacity, the sewage, you know, maybe they had septic. And so, you know, this whole thing about uh moving to sewer, not enough schools, not enough roads. And so it sounded it seems like to me
the whole reason why this came about is for municipalities to really think about um the the growth and plan more thoroughly for
population growth. Is that an is that am I on the right track? Okay. Okay. Madame Mayor, uh, Commissioners Chris Dardy, uh, with Inspire. Um, so this goes back to roughly the 1970s.
Um, really 1985 is when the Growth Management Act was enacted, uh, requiring every city and county in the state of Florida to have a comprehensive plan. Um, so every community does it a little bit differently. Um, we do
recognize that Highland Beach is effectively built out. I mean, you have I think we listed what, like four or five uh vacant properties, and when we go through our evaluation, we determine how growth can happen in a community. Um
and and again, we we recognize that the town is, you know, at a point where there there really isn't a lot more growth that's going to happen. Now the statutes do require that you plan for what is referred to as the Bieber medium
projection. Um the challenge with that so that's the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida um is they don't do projections for towns and cities. They only do them for counties.
But we can extract those from the the countywide projections. Um and in our practice, we've developed a methodology that that's professionally accepted and accepted by the state. Um when we go through that process, we also have to
compare that to your future land use map and understand how you actually can achieve these projections. And in this case, we determined that it wasn't possible. It just it it's not going to happen. Um so you'll see in the data
analysis that we said, hey, you know what? You're probably at a point where you can only effectively add maybe 23 more people, something like that. I I don't have the number in front of me. Exactly. In the next 20 years. I mean, that's that's the lowest of the low that I've
ever seen. In fact, well, what we don't really want to show is that your projection is going to go like this. Uh we don't want to show that you're losing population. Right. Right. I I mean I think that's something that's actually unique to
Highland Beach. Like I don't know our concerns here in Highland Beach are traffic is I mean if you talk to any resident in Highland Beach we are all concerned about too much traffic. Um the environmental concerns you know too many
people the impact on the environment. Um so I guess what I you know cut you know make it a shorter conversation. Um, you know, I think Highland Beach is very different from what this whole concept was supposed to address.
You know, I I think uh me personally, and you know, I don't know how the commissioners feel, I'm okay with no change, and and you're projecting no change, and I and I think that's fine, and I agree with that projection. Um and uh like I I I
personally have no concern over the no change in population and I guess I would also point out that our you know number of persons per household is also much lower you know that's another factor of you know population is
the number of persons per household and we are very low compared to all the other municipalities we're like at 1.84 May4 and if you look at other municipalities it's like 22 and above. Um it's it's a characteristic of Highland Beach. And so I guess I kind of
felt like there were a lot of warning signs, a lot of a lot of verbiage in this evaluation and appraisal review um that could be more tailored towards um the town of Highland Beach issues.
And so at least um a lot of my comments are going to be about removing uh the concerns about uh population because I don't think um a stable com uh population or even a
reduction in population is an issue and may actually be something we want. I don't I don't know. It is for me because I think, you know, we have a lot of traffic and and um just the environmental considerations, the
coastal just the uh the the issues with being a coastal community that we are and the size, you know, that we are. Um, so the the theme of my comments are going to be about
removing uh these like when I read it and I and I don't know if a legislator who doesn't know anything about the town of Highland Beach would be like, "Oh, wow." You know, population is is not growing. If anything, it might be going down. And like that's kind of a
you know, that's not a bad thing for Highland Beach. And what I what I didn't get from the review, which I I think is more important for Highland Beach,
um is the uh the mitigation and the resiliency um due to climate, you know, hurricanes and and all that kind of stuff. So I felt so I guess in general my comment is
to remove the comments that are are alarming about the level of population because I don't think they're appropriate and to maybe highlight a little bit more of the importance of uh
resiliency and the coastal considerations and even you know I think one of our are our you know the the capital improvements uh or the capital investments or the infrastructure. I thought that was something that what
because of our environment that is much more of a concern for us and traffic even um than what is uh discussed in the in the review. So,
I guess that was that was like an overriding uh theme for me is we're not like the typical municipality in Florida that has the issues of growing and has the issue of um being above capacity for, you
know, we're well under capacity for water and sewer and garbage and all that kind of stuff. So, it's more about the other characteristics of the town. So anyway, I'll I'll let the other commissioners also provide their comments.
Well, obviously we have not spoken, right? Um Chris, um I'll be very frank with you. I loved it. I love the presentation. Now, I want to separate my corporate experience, you know, from working here as a commissioner. My corporate
experience would say when growth stops, decay begins. When growth stops, decay begins. And I had to live by that my entire career. After I read the entire report, I really saw the word upgrade in my mind coming up continuously. So I I
understand what the mayor is saying, but I saw a pristine area where if there wasn't a lot of growth, the upgrade of the existing properties will make it even more valuable. Uh you use medium as far as income levels. I tend to use mean
average income more than even median. But I understand from from a consulting point of view why I use that. But I I felt that uh the planning board itself in getting this exercise uh Evelyn outstanding job. I thought they did an outstanding job as far as the verbiage
making it clear so we'd be able to look at it and the changes that were made. But I stand by uh many of the suggestions in there even though they might be small. They might be small. Even the upgrade of a walking path, the trees, the shade. I saw the word safety
coming out over in my own mind. I said, "This is going to be a safe paradise. It's going to be an opportunity in three and a half miles for people to enjoy themselves all the way to 2045. And they'll be continually upgrading as we're going through certification and things of that nature." So, as a new
commissioner, I said, "Wow, boy, am I happy to be living in this community." Uh, and I can see as we leave this to others in the in the future, uh, they're going to have a great time here. So, and the mayor has more experience than I have, so she's viewing it. But I had to
view that from my corporate experience and now as I'm working in the community, and I thank you for the work that you both did. I thought you did a great job in reading this. I uh, again, I'd like to thank the planning board. Excellent.
Excellent. Um now in reading this in the resolution it appeared when I first looked at okay what is this about it's it's a story about where we are um but it's not just a nice story that we undertook it's mandated I mean we have to do apparently uh every seven years or
10 years whatever the state says um and that's why we're doing this this comprehensive valuation uh there are many things that don't apply to us but I think it's very realistic we do have a growth potential at this level of uh height and you know whatever our zoning
is um unless we drastically change of 23 people. Um and to reiterate, you know, this is a older population and I think all of that is is um uh well said in here, well laid out. I think it's very
good um job. Um and I felt overall it was uh a compliance with the state when we had to do it particularly when I saw um uh workforce housing
and um while that may be very beneficial for the state live local um that doesn't apply to us not now and I don't see it in the foreseeable future but uh but it could you know we have a county property here and we don't know if tomorrow the
county may decide well I mean now they're under a you know a decree uh but what can happen to that property so I think that uh some things were necessary and I'd like the verbiage as
more not mandatory but more permissive um in um in setting the narrative because a number of these things are pretty frightening. um the uh deletion of the classification that was 1.1.7
that was taken out that had to do with um land use classifications in an aging population. Uh that was eliminated. I think that was very important. Um when they speak it in the transportation section, it addressed um buses.
I thought, "Oh my god, on this little three miles of heaven, we're going to we could possibly have, you know, part of the transportation system. That's frightening." Now, um it's state roads. We may not have anything to any really
authority um if and when that comes out. But again, it was um in the way it was modified by the planning board, I think it was effective. Again, if it's applicable, if we have to do it, this is what we'll do. So this is how we handle
it. Um so if it's mandatory and you have to confirm with me if it is that we have to do this uh appraisal review. Very well done. And I would um in looking over I think
we're going to go back to it. One of the things that was concerning to me u that has arisen um in commission discussions over the few years that I've been on the commission is the fact that
uh now if we have um a um 10story uh condominium and there is some circumstance that uh puts it in jeopardy there's a hurricane or there's you know terrible fire or something like that um that our zoning
and planning now do not provide that we can build as uh as it had been rather than what the present law is. So that has to be changed. So that's really important. Um well just to clarify if there is a catastrophe right you can build the way
it is. If it's a catastrophe you can rebuild the way it is. It is not. What if we elective reconstruction? We see not to date in our town but in condominiums and other places where people have walked away because of the high assessments
because of the restoration that they're mandated to do um uh by state law and municipal law. Um that not in an emergency. So, this addresses it or at least now after doing this, I would assume that we're going to be revising
the ordinance. How does how does that It's on our strategic plan. It's all in our zone density is is a topic on our strategic plan. Okay. Yeah. So, that's very very important and I think that has to be taken care of with um but other than that I I congratulate
you. Thank you very very much in doing this. Yeah, I want to congrat. I think the planning department did a good correction on a lot of the verbiage and uh sounds neater and uh more professional. Um I I uh I see in our
building we're getting a people buying more younger people are coming in and changing their two bedrooms to three bedrooms. So I I agree. I don't think the population is going up anymore. maybe settling or bringing partial kids
are coming down during the season. Um I don't want to see our community be like I I probably shouldn't say but Pompino which the people are buying condos are 20 feet 20 stories high and they're putting 30 something stories in. So I'm
against that. Um my only question is I I see they changed the present footage the rightway and s from 80 to 100. What's the difference between 100 foot right away and then a 50 ft local right of
ways? What's the difference? Do you know that? So our side roads are 50 Belair all everything in Belo, they're all 50 foot wide is 100. Okay, that's my question there. Yeah, that's state law, is it?
That's just the width of the rideway. Change depends on where they're at. If they have more land, they'll get it. If they don't, A1A is and you those are generally 100, but local roads are generally 50. Rather than to repeat what was said, I can say that I agree with Judy's
comments for the most part. I've gone over these probably the same comments with the town manager. I think the planning uh board did a great job their wording and just a note and concern a thing that changed and I and the
affordable housing kind of thing probably in my opinion doesn't belong there in the event that Judy said the the uh county changes and wants to build on a well you know what that's going to change the number of people that you have for the growth because there' be a heck of a lot more people in affordable
housing in that area. So, if we have to look at what we have now and going forward, it it seems to be very unlikely, very unlikely that that would happen. Uh those are my thoughts and and I just like a follow-up comment on that. Um what the planning board um
when you said requested more flexibility of that that short sentence is is done very well. the town recognizes the benefits of affordable workhouse uh workforce housing and may support the implementation of relevant uh uh housing
programs. So, it's very broad kind of loosey goosey, you know, and I think we had we have had we have to um acknowledge that because it's um state law, right? And that's why it's in there and many of these um sections are
because of that. Is that correct? Um, okay. So, I agree with everything that the planning board suggested except for one item and that is uh the thing about the zoning. So, the um the addition of the FLU 1.1 for and we'll
open this up for public comments. So we'll um if anyone has any public comments after we've had our discussion and the reason why I'm suggesting um not to take that recommendation so to strike it strike it from the proposed
change I guess is what I'm suggesting is um to me this is on our strategic plan and like all the other policies are we'll do this we'll do the all all the things that we are supposed to do and
this is one that says the town may work towards um so I feel like this is captured in our strategic plan um I mean we we may do a lot of things I
don't know that we need to capture all the things that we may want to do um so I think it's more effective that we make sure that it's on the strategic plan, which it is. Um, and I don't think that
it I I just don't think it belongs in in the comprehensive plan. That's my own personal opinion referring to. So, I am on page 17 of the agenda. I'm sorry. Yeah, page 17 of the agenda where it summarizes
um all the suggested changes from the planning board. And I really do appreciate the thorough review that the PL planning board did. I thought um everything was very well thought out. Um and I think they took input and it's on
you know a lot of people's minds about zoning density and it's and it is rightfully so on our strategic plan. It's it's I don't remember what priority it is and I think that's where it belongs. The strategic plan is what we review on an annual basis. Like I said,
I've never even I didn't even knew this existed. So, I don't I don't even know like I feel like yeah, like um a lot of us of us have said, this is to be in compliance with the state and to incorporate uh you know, this is more I
almost feel like this is more of a compliance document. It to make sure it reflects all the most recent statutes and all that kind of stuff. Um, so I just I don't know that this has
really been vetted like it should, like it will be done when we go through our strategic plan. Um, mayor, is it possible that Lynn or Marsha could weigh in on in this? I think the point is well taken, but I'm just from a legal point of view and from
a town manager, I'm just curious how they see this. You want to take legal or administrative? You could go legal. From a legal perspective, I don't think we have to include it. But again, it's it's a permissive. It's a may and it's
something the town has talked about, but that's really a commission discretion whether you want to include it or not. I think the interesting part we all brought out with this is when I started here, it took Leno and I forever to find even a copy of this comprehensive plan.
It shows the value. Then we finally got it, got Ingred on board. She looked at it and said, "This is a mess." Um, so this hasn't been a driving document for this community. It really has never, we've probably done this exercise once thoroughly, probably in the early 90s
following that 85 deadline when we were pushed to do it and it kind of is set. So this is good that we're, you know, bringing it all together, giving it an update. It is um, as you've all disc, it is a it's a compliance document. And really, I mean, a lot of these things just the likeliness of it happening, uh,
you know, some of these things that are really scary probably aren't going to happen. Um, but we are required and the preeemptions that are out there, we have to put a compliance document together. Should it have some more uh transitional nature uh language at the intro to say
that Highland Beach is not your typical, this is not you're going to be your typical comp plan. uh this is more of like what we have to do because the state said so. Um now on the topic that seems to be we why it's on the strategic plan this one conversation is there is a
difference of opinion and there's about 15 tools in the toolbox of the planners toolbox to achieve some level of where we might compromise if at all on some type of density change. There's a whole bunch of ways to get there. There's
temporary, mid-range, long-term changes. Those all exist and I think it's going to take us a long time. I'm impressed how quickly you guys caught on to comp planning, right? Um the planning board is on board. Staff get gets it. So, I
think we're starting to transition, if you will, and and enhance our understanding of the document. That conversation is going to take a long time. So, it's really going to be and I don't want to like punt it. It's really going to be your decision if this um goal or objective shall be included,
right? Operative word shall be included. Um what what do you what do you want to do with it? I mean, it's it's going to take us a while to digest. I mean, it's going to take us I would say years to be honest um to talk about that element. And that comes to some of the other
comments. The planning board's concern over it. You had Mr. Donaldson had said some comments to it. you guys are clearly communicating knowing it and that's kind of why I think Ingred and I talked with the consultant said this conversation's happening and we thought well maybe we put it in the compliance
document but it doesn't have to be there but it kind of shows like this is kind of like our big issue over this horizon everything else you know infrastructure capital I think some of the stuff on capital improvements a little over the top in here we'll take care of it we
know what we have to do but that's the one issue right that's really going to take us a long time as a community to figure out how we want to move forward if at all, you know. So, brilliant. You guys, if you want to leave it in now, we can get it in seven years from now after you hit it with the
strategic plan, or you could put it in here now knowing that it's something that's going to grow over time that we're going to have to address. What is the uh are we being pressured by the state to have it filed by a certain date, but to have it hand? Yeah. Yeah, we have deadlines we have to
meet. So this is a compliance activity. Um you know we this is a pretty streamlined process for I've been in strategic done a comprehensive plan at a county level before. It's monstrous document. They need 30 people as a consultant to go through the process.
This is pretty pretty quick pretty easy uh more compliance focused than you know this dissertation on our future you know or guidance documents. I don't know that we really need that because we kind of are built out know what we want and use that strategic plan. We spend more time
on the financial side and the capital planning. We that's really our strengths, you know, changes of land use. This probably not going to happen much. But the big conversation is do we look the same electively as value propositions on the
coast change over time, right? So that's a tricky thing to do. So we're not required to put anything about zoning density in the plan. And my concern is this really has this is a huge
important topic for us and it really has not been vetted. So to put it in our comprehensive plan at this point in time, I I just I'm not in favor of it and I want to keep it on the strategic plan. Um I like our strategic plan. It's
nimble. It's it's driven by us, not by, you know, we're not trying to like force it into this, you know, format. Um, you know, all the other things I feel like are more established things. I I didn't
really have a problem with them. And I thought that I I thought the planning board did a really nice job of streamline and a lot of the changes that have been made have been a lot of I I would love to see even more streamlined, but I mean a lot of it has been to streamline it. I you know I was I was
happy to please to see it. We need Well, I I changes so that was just one. So let me let me go on with my other changes. Um just my clarification if we look at the uh um Ingred's uh memorandum
um where it it highlights those specific areas um which which one are you referring to because 1.1 is that the section it's on page 17 policy the larger document 1.1 yeah for okay page 17 of you yeah it's page 17 of
the agenda it's it's in um Ingred's um memo ex explaining all the background and all that. So I guess my thought here is um I'll go through all my changes, all my suggested changes and then have public open it up for public comment and
then we can wrap it up with any additional discussion and motion. So I guess I'll just uh continue for the sake of time. Um okay. So page 22 of the agenda um
there is and actually uh actually let me just uh more more page 23. So I noticed that not every section of the
review, the evaluation and appraisal review had future considerations. So like for example um uh there were yeah so I'm okay. Sorry.
Okay. So I'll just so just so we don't uh get so confused. page 23 under future considerations. I would like to to strike or change um the last couple of sentences of
future considerations. So, it talks about uh the aging of our buildings and that they may need to be heavily renovated or rebuilt within the planning horizons. And I actually um I think
about our building department and how I thought the um reertification was really key um in in keeping our buildings in good
condition. I also so you know I have all these thoughts going through my mind. I also look at I was struck by South Palm Beach and how their values declined of all the municipalities they declined and it's a coastal town with
nearly I think it's 100% you know condos. Um, and I I don't know what all the differences are and you know I I don't know all the reasons, you know, why, you know, some of those things happen, but I actually think
keeping up with our building standards and making sure buildings are in good condition, like that's a key piece of of um future considerations. and and that
this sentence about attracting developers um and and the same services to fewer people. I just don't think that that is correct. Um I I think I don't know that we even need a future
considerations for this or um I to me future considerations regarding the population is you know we have issues with traffic and we don't want um more population because we don't want more traffic. You know, I think the burden on um the environment on our
beaches, you know, there those are good reasons not to have that lack of population growth or a reduction in production in in population might be beneficial. I just felt like this paragraph was going in the wrong in the
wrong direction in my opinion. Um, I think when when it comes to the buildings and I I think the building department is key and making sure we're keeping standards. Um, uh,
so I don't know. Okay. And then moving on to other considerations. Um, page 25, future considerations. implications could include limits to services and increases to taxes if current services
are supported by fewer residents. I I thought that was incorrect. Um I think really it's the property values um that is really tied to the level of at least you know right now it's not the
number of residents. Um we already have a very low number of residents with the 1.84 per household. Um, so I thought that either I don't know either we remove that future consider I don't know that we
need future considerations in and I know that there were page 10 of page 25 page 25 of the agenda or page four of the memo. Okay. If if I may, I think it's some of the I think what was addressed is maybe
some alarming language that that's in the future considerations. Not that it's not a correct consideration, but um soften it. I don't know. Or I would take off like after existing buildings are rebat to allow just take the whole last two sentences off on the
underpopulation and remove heavily and uh conceivably. Those two adjectives kind of add alarmism to it. Like it's going to be he have heavily renovated. Well, all our buildings are now reconstructed, right? They've already done the heavily renovated. So, I don't know if I would
go with heavily renovated. I would say renovated or rebuilt within the horizon. You're keeping the adjective out of it so it it doesn't the reader one way or another, right? um might help maybe to
down that language that's and maybe say something about traffic considerations, you know, traffic considerations would support a con, you know, a I don't know uh maintaining the level of population that we have now because you know with our main
thoroughare we can't really handle anymore um traffic um you know Marsha the only thing is these are projections right and that's all they are their projections and to say that with all the information that they're putting put
forth to simply said that possibly down the road we might have a slight decline in population is not going to stop investors coming to Highlands Beach that I can tell you I don't know that it's the the investor
piece to it it's it's the value proposition density how does it look I think is where from our forplex ES to our triplexes to our 12 unit condos to our 200 unit. I think it's a little bit different on
each of those. it is and I think it's going to take us a long time to you know uh you know going back to uh Commissioner Chanowski you know in today's society we're going to have to learn how to disagree when we have this conversation right so we got to we that's that's why it's going to take us a long way to
how do we address each of these little pieces almost by zoning district what is a difference look like it could be on a a quadlex on a rebuild it's a rounding right or on a 200 unit maybe there's flexibility and it looks more
like a planned unit development or a contracted type of change versus this prescribed change of bonus. It's it's going to I I you know in time it's going to attract money. I think it's stuck south right now once the the the spets open up again and the South
Florida development machine takes its 3.0 or 4.0 version. We don't know what that's going to look like and what the value you know it's good. It's going to be I look forward to the conversation, but it's going to be an uncomfortable long-term conversation, multiple boards,
lots of residents, lots of public engagement, cuz it's going to be the future of us, right? Like what do we want it to look like and where and how much and it's that part's going to take a while. But back to these, I think if I was to
summarize, it's some of the language is kind of is striking a nerve a little bit. And maybe if we soften that in the projections in this compliance type and maybe some different transitory language from the data to conclusions a little softer landing
might might help. I'm just putting out my what I'm hearing. Yeah, thank you for translating. Yeah. Um yeah, for me it it's for preserving and or allowing for increase in value for Highland Beach if I could sum it up
in a nutshell. And I think it's very different for Highland Beach than it is for another a different municipality where growth is important. You know, um because of our characteristics, value takes on a different um
uh you know um characteristic to it. I I'm not sure how else to say it. Um so and like on page 27 same
same definitely remove like that last sentence where you know so it's page 27 of the agenda page six of the memo I'm not sure which page number everybody's following but um where it says you know
investment in the re in the redevelopment you know I I I don't agree with that. So, yeah, if you could maybe read through the document, um, and and and so one paragraph in particular that
I really agreed with, page nine, page 30 of the page nine of the memo, page 30 of the agenda, you know, where it talks about Highland Beach contains, you know, almost 41 acres of land designated as coastal high hazard areas and um you
know just the the attention to um our coastal you know the special circumstances of our of our coastal area and you know and that does conflict with a lot of things too there there's a lot
of conflicting comments I felt like um and then the other one that I uh paid Page 41, page 20 of the So, page 41 of the agenda, page 20 of the memo.
Um, the town is likely to face population plateau and perhaps decline, perhaps decline the repercussions of which the town should consider with priority. Um, yeah, I I don't think um the population
is our priority. I think there's other um issues that are much more of a higher priority. you know, the building codes, the coastal resilience, um the impact to the um beaches, uh the
flooding and all those things that were mentioned other in other areas. Um I think that that pretty much covers all of my comments. I wanted to open it up for if if we're ready if we could open
it up for public comments. Okay, go ahead. Evelyn David, 4740 South Ocean Boulevard. We weren't the planning board was not concerned with the level of population.
We were thinking more in terms of number of units. So it was housing more than population because we have a lot of units that only have one person living in them and even if nobody lives in
them, it still is going to have the same value. One of the levels of concern was a surfside situation where if a building collapses for whatever reason,
we want to be able to have the unit owners keep the value. Because if you can't have a developer come in and replace on the same footprint,
you're destroying the value of anybody who's living in that owns in that building because it's then gone. Uh because if they can only build four stories, that's a problem if you've got a 10story
building. It was also part of it was we want to encourage updating and of forplexes for example. If you want to update a forplex now you've got
it. You can't really do it. You can't raise the level of it because you wouldn't be able to put back. It would only be able to be one, maybe two. And that's discouraging people from
going with protection really for protection against hurricanes, protection against uh water levels rising and we want to pro we want to protect the nature of this town.
While our population is pretty homogeneous, we have different levels of housing. We have massive single family homes. We have town houses. We have condos.
And it makes for this town to be very unique in that there's in essence something for everyone within the nature of the town. And we'd like to keep it that way. We don't want to put it so that if
you want to replace a forplex that you can't put back four units but that are better than what is there now as opposed to making it a single family home which then has a more limited appeal to bringing people into the town. We're not
looking to increase the level of people. It it that was to be fair that was never a consideration one way or another. We're not worried about it going down. We're not worried about population going up. It was more to preserve the nature
of the town and against a a real catastrophe to be honest. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Rick Greenwall, Tranquility Drive. When I first saw this uh topic come up
on the agendas a while ago, my first thought was this was just some, you know, one of these pro-form statemandated compliance things and that wasn't going to be worth wasting a whole lot of time and effort
uh figuring this out. Then I started to read it and it's been pointed out. I said, "Well, half of this doesn't even apply to us. found on the beach only and were built out and there's no real room for much further growth and a lot of this is irrelevant.
Then I read a little further and then I said, "Oh, some of this is actually a little bit scary. I'm not so sure about some of this." And then my eyes started to glaze over and that was it for me with this stuff. So then I became very glad
that you guys took control and uh had Inspire come in and the people here, Ingred obviously did a lot of work and Marshall and Lenn and I'm sure Jeff and maybe Pat and some of the other folks um and then the planning board obviously
put a lot huge amount of time and effort into this and a lot of thought and also to thank people like uh Barry Donaldson who went to a considerable effort to really obviously pour through the document in great detail and make a list
of uh suggestions for further consideration. And uh I won't opine on any of the specific suggestions because I don't really have an opinion on it. Uh but I did want to thank everybody again. I'm kind of a process guy and I think the
process is uh is good. I mean you enlisted people that know something about it and are experts in the field. Hopefully they went and compared us to other like and similar towns and I think the process getting to here is fair and whatever we end up with the
only thing I would like to see and it's it's been alluded to I'm sure you'll do it is to make sure that we retain flexibility so that as we want to improve the town change densities maybe change height requirements whatever zoning changes after appropriate study
seem appropriate that we have the flexibility within this document to be able to do whatever is necessary uh to ensure the preservation and growth in if not in population in uh the quality and uh style of life and
everything else that we've come to appreciate in the town. So, thank everybody for the work that they've put in on this project so far. Thank you. Any other comments? Well, I agree with those that
Okay. I think if um and certainly if this if this is a document um that new residents, developers, um appraisers, evaluators are going to look at. I think it it'll be necessary
really for us to go through each paragraph. Some is uh uh like very much how uh how you described it. Um, and I'd like to know, Marshall, perhaps you could guide
us in this. Um, since we cannot meet, you know, individually, two or three of us. Um, how how are we going to digest this? So, we've we've got some time still, which is good. So, we can make some, I don't want to say quicker in meeting
changes that were suggested. We could make some of those, send it on to the state. They'll review it, get it back, and that'll give us time also to continue to dig in and make other minor changes. You holistic changes and total change of all the goals and objectives,
we would have to start over. But the narrative, the story that's being told in the front end of the document, we have time to massage that a bit before it becomes, if you will, bound and distributed. Right? So, the state's going to look at the meat and potatoes.
The state's looking for preeemptions, right? state loves those things. Where what did we miss? What didn't we hit? They're not really reading the front. They're going to skim the front end and then they're going to look to make sure we're we're hitting goals, objectives. I mean, they'll look at some of the analysis, too, to make sure we did it
right and make sure zoning's accounted for. Um, but we have opportunities to further refine language um if so choosing. You know, Marshall, I I really believe comprehensive plans bring the best out. Um, I've been through a number of them and I think that just the dialogue
that's going on today brings out the best. So if someone would say to me, what's the benefit of a comprehensive plan? It's discussions of this nature. True. That is the benefit. That is the true benefit. So I think they've done their you've done their job by bringing this to our attention, the planning board,
and I think it brings us all with some good thought processes are in effect. I I absolutely agree. So, are you saying only the policies get forward and not the review? No, the whole thing thing does. I'm just saying you have times to massage
language a little bit more if you wanted to make some quicker changes to keep the process moving. you can then go back and look at how you may want to rewrite certain language and we'll have time to make those minor adjustments because they are minor in nature I would think
uh moving forward and then we can have when we have another public hearing again we'll have a clean version because this is hard to read for the lay person and the public we need to clean it up and get rid of the red lines and double strikes then distribute it to the public for that second public hearing so it's
one clean document uh but we can make changes is in there. So, are you saying to have another first reading with a clean document? You could slows the process down. Okay. Okay. Got you, so um
so um I would say make a couple of changes and then move it on with the state and then when it comes back we can make another set of changes because we're required to have yet another public hearing. It's like reading an ordinance. Like we'll do a first read and ask Len to make three or four or Ingret to make three or four, five, six
changes and then the second read it comes back with those changes. So we have time in between because it will be public noticed again for the second reading. Okay. So the state has it because the state could ask for changes. Okay. Yeah. So that I'm in favor of that. That's the process that it goes up to
the state. The state gives their ORC report which their objections. They give recommendations. They give comments. comes back. Um, objections you have to address, but the others you don't necessarily have to address. But, and I think what Marshall was saying is true, the introduction is really more for the town's own benefit.
They're making sure all your elements are there, all your preeemptions are covered, all your statutory requirements are satisfied. So, that can be tweaked before adoption. I mean, I me personally, I'm okay with that because really my only issues were in the um future considerations, right?
the rest of the report I thought was very factual and and correct and all that kind of stuff. So for me I guess the um the motion I would make maybe if I can say that is to adopt all the changes including the
um planning board changes except for um 1.1.4 for and that staff takes in the um my com our comments about future considerations and
okay um scale them back a little bit or remove them as necessary and I will copious notes as Ingret is I'll second that recommendation. Yeah, we have a
so roll call. Um Vice Mayor, Madam Mayor, point of clarification. This is not to adopt. This is to transmit. I just want just as part of your motion, we just want to I move to transmit.
Um, you're adopting our first reading, but you're transmitting, correct? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Good. Mayor Moore, yes. Vice Mayor Stern, yes. Commissioner Chznowski, yes. Commissioner Goldberg, yes. and Commissioner Peters. Yes.
Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Thank you everyone for everyone's very thoughtful input and um I think it highlights zone density. I mean maybe that's something we might have to move move it up in priority um because I think it is uh obviously a
very important topic and it's going to take a long a long time. So thank you to everyone. Thank you very much for all your work. I really appreciate it. Thank you. and to all of Highland Beach staff. Consent agenda. Thank you. Go ahead.
Thank you. Moving on to consent agenda. Any discussion or or um anything about the consent agenda? If we if not, could we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move to approve the consent agenda. I second it.
All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Uh moving on to unfinished business building department reertification program update. Well good afternoon mayor vice mayor commission. Um Jeffrey miss building official town of Highland Beach with an
update. Um Katarina is off today with her for her birthday. So um we'll start the normal thing that I do here. Total number of buildings it has been 53 for the last many years. It is now 54 because a building that we
didn't even catch or was contacted by their insurance company and said, "Hey, you need to do the milestone." We thought it was a three-unit, like two and a one and ends up being it was a 4unit and we didn't know that. So, we had to add another one to it. So,
they're just beginning the process. Okay. Um the reertifications that have been completed, 25 buildings, that's actually it says a lot for the
community. It's 25 buildings that are actually complete and certified and have their little I guess you'd call it certificate diploma on there in progress. We're not reviewing anything
because there's nothing to look at. um things that were submitted, nothing. Uh we have one building that's under permit for electrical and we're trying to close out a a few more
and ultimately um we have 23 buildings that are under restoration as we speak. And I will tell you because it is relevant to the previous conversation.
It it's been challenging with a lot of it because of a lot of the buildings. Um they may have taken an old bathroom and tried to years ago, decades ago, convert it into a fire pump room and now that fire pump room needs to be replaced and
we we can't legally do it or it's in a flood zone. So it's been challenging. So, uh, between the fire department and myself, we've been working with them and trying our best, but we just can never gain 100% compliance because these buildings are just so old and so tightly put together and things are added on
that we just don't have them. So, um, but it says a lot for the community that they're continuing to move forward and put money and invest. And uh like I said, we do have 23 buildings that are currently still actively undergoing restoration, which again does include
electrical and structural. It is both. Um we just sent out a notification letter to one building that is going to be due with the new due date because they're newers. That's Tuscana West uh 3720.
And we still have three buildings that aren't even due yet because they're just newer. So, we're in really good shape overall. Any questions? Anything? Well, thank you very much for the update. Thank you. Yep. Moving on to the Florida Department of
Transportation tripleR project update. It's proceeding, albeit slowly. Um, they're still working on grading out the right ofways. Uh, you know, doing driveway finishes. Um this rain lately slowed them down. Um didn't slow them down before, but it's
slowing them down now. Um again, they're still targeting a mid to late November completion date. Um and with that, our project tied to sanitary sewer, I think, is tied to those completion dates. So, our sanitary sewer lining project. So, we're pushing them along. Uh I've had
some brief conversations because calls have reached um I was joking. and I called her aunt Peggy, but uh Peggy Gosset Simon, she's getting those calls. So, um she's going to have a talk with Mr. Braun to make sure our their commitments to the town are honored
because their their language is changing with FDOT that we didn't say we would do things about drainage. Oh, yeah, you did. So, we just want to make sure and maybe a little pressure from the top will pick up the pace and improve uh the final stretch of the project. Marshall, I see they're putting sod down
right now. When is the next layer that they're talking about going down? That's been the big question. When the very end of the project, the final wear course down and you'll see all the lips disappear. Uh they're also doing the sidewalk work. I still believe they should do the entire project.
Um I think Peggy will have that conversation. So, um you know, they're they're working on but the lift is the last when you see them start doing the final final paving, you know, they're working their way out of town, which will be good. So, uh, again, it's still that that mid November target.
So, they'll be they'll it'll be right during season when that that final will be right it'll be done before they get here for the heavy part of the season. Hopefully, if you think like mingle jingles like a traditional like everybody's here, it should be done by then. Yeah. Has there been a slowdown in the work?
A little bit. The rain slows uh things down a little bit. Um, but no, I mean like you know most contractors at the end of the project if they're behind they bring all their other crews from other projects. This firm doesn't have other crews. It's a it's a small operation. So they're
deploying everything they can. They finally started getting subcontractors to help with the brick paper driveways, driveway reconstructs. That's helping them move along. Um, and they're just finishing out the excavations. Um, so hopefully things will will get
better. But uh they keep on telling us to be patient. So hopefully we we should I think over the next two weeks we'll see some significant move towards it looks like they're ready to do the final pave. I think they'll get out of town a little bit more. Finish it up in Delray and then pave.
That's what they're telling us. So okay. Thank you for the update. No new business. Town Commissioner comments. Commissioner Shnoski, any comment? I think our comments have been very, very clear.
No comments today. Yeah, no comments for me either. No, they said if not, they certainly didn't show preferential treatment. They took the hedges out in front of my condo, which was a question. Yeah, the debate over your shrubs was settled finally.
No other comments. Thank you. None for me. Town attorney? No, ma'am. Thank you. Town manager. Uh just briefly, I'll send some stuff to you guys over uh you know, the next week or two. Some other stuff we'll talk about um over the next week as well. But one of the interesting things being proposed uh by staff um is we're going
into another big roof re-roofing project. We used to use these S tiles. There's a a request to consider changing that look. the fire station and the fire annex will both be flat roof buildings. So, they're not going to really have the
roof elements. Um, but we're going to do two of the biggest buildings next. And the concept being proposed, and we'll get prices to to give you those options. From what we budgeted, we could put metal roof on. Um, and it would be like a brown or bronze metal roof. So, it's
not going to be white or any silver, but like a bronze, more traditional white and bronze look. Uh, we had some uh Sergio did it in AI. I think it looks good. Uh we're going to give prices for three option. The S tiles to keep it the same look, but we repainted kind of moving away from it. The book tile,
which is that flat uh tile, and then the metal roof. Metal roof. Jeff, you said what? 50 60 years would be like the the bottle of life on those. So, it's something that we won't have to do every 15 to 20. It' be a 50year and it's within budget. So, we may want to consider that. Well, we'll share some
photos just to get your if you're comfortable with it and what it looks like um to go with a metal roof cuz it's library and then it's public works. So, we're going to do in the next two years. So, like most of the campus will be done. We could tweak out the fire
station for next to nothing to take the S tile little highlights and make it the the metal brown roof. So, it'll transition the look. This building would be the last of course, but um just something to think about. That's all. Great.
Okay, moving on to announcements. Uh, we have a few board vacancies, one on the code enforcement board and one for natural resources preservation advisory board. Um, October 9th at 9:30 is the next planning board regular meeting. Town hall is closed in observance of uh,
Columbus Day on October 13th. October 14th at 1 p.m. is the special magistrate hearing. October 23rd at 10 a.m. is the Board of Adjustment and of Appeals. And also on October 23rd, starting at 5, is the homecoming food truck event, which
will be fun. I hope everyone can join us for that. And then November 4th is our next at 1:30 is our next town commission meeting. There are no board action reports. And with that, uh, I think we can adjourn at 3:33. Thank you very much, everyone. A kiss.