all right are we ready Thank you all for spending your St Patrick's Day here with us at our regular city council meeting We're going to begin by the invocation and salute to the flag led by Councilman Sutton Please rise
Have the new handheld tonight So let us pray Dear Lord we uh we thank you for your grace and mercy shown to us uh every day And I lift up this council and and pray for discernment and wisdom for
this body and and for our city staff as we work for all of our constituents and to make this community better We lift up uh our military and particularly our first responders um today as we hit this one-year mark from
when evil sort of showed itself here in Jacksonville Beach last St Patrick's Day And we're thankful for and celebrate the successes we've had in building back our great police force which is not such an easy thing to do uh in this day and age
And especially this week Lord we thank you for our excellent health care professionals and your healing that is delivered by and through their hands each and every day We lift those up facing challenges and pray for your protection and healing because you are
the great physician We ask these things in your son Jesus name Amen Amen This meeting is called to order Madam clerk roll call Council member Golding here Council member Horn here Council member Jansen
here Council member Sutton here Council member Wagner here Council member Wowers here Mayor Hoffman here Moving on to approval of minutes Item E I move we approve the minutes from the city council briefing held on March 3rd 2025 Second We have a motion and a second Any
discussion All in favor signify by saying I I Any opposed Motion carries B I move to approve the minutes from the regular city council meeting held on March 3rd 2025 Second We have a motion and a second Any discussion All in favor signify by
saying I I Any opposed Motion carries Item C I move to approve the minutes from the city council workshop held on March 7th 2025 Second We we have a motion and a second Any discussion All in favor signify by saying I I Any opposed Motion carries Item D I move to
approve the minutes from the city council briefing held on March 10th 2025 Second We have a motion and a second Any discussion All in favor signify by saying I I Any opposed Motion carries I move to approve the agenda Second We have a motion and a second Any
discussion All in favor signify by saying I I Any opposed Motion carries Council announcements Miss Golding Thank you Mayor Um first of all I want to let everyone know that on Wednesday
April 2nd that's just in a couple of weeks there will be a state of our schools meeting that will be held at the uh Beaches Branch Library in the community room Um Dr Christopher Bernier who's the new Duvall school
superintendent and our beaches representative April Carney will be there and this will be at 7 o'clock at the beaches branch library It'll be an opportunity to hear them talk about the issues uh related to our schools here at the beaches and there are several topics
that we expect them to cover including the interlocal agreement that exists between DCPS and and the beaches Uh so I would encourage people to plan to come out to that that meeting Um it's being hosted by beaches watch Um also want to
uh mention that there was a town hall held on March 3rd I believe it was at the beaches branch library with our atlarge Jacksonville atlarge council members and Rory Diamond And uh that was recorded You can go to beacheswatch.com
and see that town hall was very interesting very enlightening to hear from our Jacksonville representatives that that we don't often get to see And so they came out to the beach and spoke
to the beaches community Um also want to mention we have something fun that's going to be um happening that the city has organized free yoga for tomorrow night March 18th at 6 p.m at the Seawwalk Pavilion And that should be a
lot of fun You just need to bring your yoga mat and a towel and water And then we have Moonlight Movies that are starting Friday the 21st at 7:30 p.m with The Little Mermaid So um that's always a lot of fun Encourage people to
come out for that And then just a quick update Um I think several of us were probably on the Florida League of Cities call The Florida Legislative Session is going in case you may not know that and the our state legislators
are challenging us again this year with a lot of bills that are very concerning for Jacksonville Beach And uh we will be going a large group of us will be going next week to Tallahassee to talk to our legislators about these bills and
explain to them the impact that these bills would have on our community And um so I would just say that I know that there are several things the local business tax that they're threatening to
to take away and several other several other things that are very concerning for Jacksonville Beach So um we will be following those issues and um we'll be talking to our legislators next week
Thank you Miss Golding Anybody else Mr Waters Thank you Mayor I want to thank uh Councilman Sutton for his beautiful prayer and to thank our police force for their brave
actions one year ago tonight And if it's been on my heart and I just wanted to have a moment of silence please for James Jones III his family loved ones and friends who lost his life Thank you I appreciate that I yielded four
Thank you Mr Waters Mr Horn um I just want to say one thing uh when Councilwoman Golding was discussing issues at the state level just so you guys know you know one of the things that's coming out right now at the state level is that is a state rule that would change the way we can as a municipal um
uh utility transfer funds and regulate the way we use the money that comes from Beach's Energy Service And um I'm not going to belabor this point but short and sweet you if you look it up the person whose district this is in does not have a municipal service they're fed
by um a national conglomeration that feeds them Um I'm not going to name names but bottom line is is interesting You know you got to look at where these things come from and there's something behind it It's not meant to help all Floridaidians It's meant to help some companies and we're going to do our best
we can to make sure that the citizens of Jacksonville Beach the areas that Beach's electric service uh services uh get the best service they can and we don't get stepped on by the state Thank you Your light's still on Did you have something else to say Nope you're fine Um anybody
else I would just like to congratulate uh Rory Mroy who won the players this morning uh in a three-hole shoot Is it called a shootout No three-hole playoff Playoff That's it Me and my sports terminology He won it on St Patrick's
Day in 2019 as well So I guess luck of the Irish was with him but that does as has been mentioned brings back memories of where we were on March 17th last year Um and not only did we have a shooting in town but we talked about we were um just kind of coming through the um cyber
event here at the city So if you looked closely at your financial reports you noticed some blank spaces there So um just really gives me time to reflect on how far we've come And I think we have come out stronger um as a city and of course we've made some some big moves
with our police department Um I think the spring surge uh was a really well communicated and publicized um effort that I think is is working the way it was intended Um obviously time will tell the tale on that but um so far so good
It has gotten a lot of media attention We've had a lot of proactive communications um through our social media and other channels So um I think I don't want to jinx anybody so I'm just going to stop talking right there Um one item just to note as far as
city events or events in our city the 904 popup was supposed to be last Sunday due to weather Um they proactively moved it to this Sunday So make sure you go out and support them and thank them for making the right choice based on the weather predictions for the safety of their vendors and their guests Any other
council announcements Okay moving on to courtesy of the floor We have with us the honorable Mitch Reeves the former mayor of Atlantic Beach Come on up You're still You still get to be the honorable forever Come on up You're the honorable
Thanks I'll be uh pretty quick with this Um I'm here to present a a plaque to the city of uh Jacksonville Beach And I'm not here on behalf of the Ferry Task Force because I'm not uh on that
committee anymore But in 2012 I was the chair and I was going through a box the other day and there's three plaques that I found in a box And so I have a plaque to give you to I'm sure it's going to end up in somebody else's box but u I
have a plaque to give to you on behalf of the St John's Ferry the task force give out certain cities and different people the plaque and it just it's a simple plaque from St John's River uh ferry city of Jacksonville Beach and it's called a plank owner Anybody that
knows about the Navy they understand what the plank is And uh it was it was issued to you on October 1st uh 2012 from the task force and we uh we we waited for you to be not first but last
to get it But I I do appreciate it And then real quick I I would like to cover something that as a former mayor I think it's very important Uh council person Golden mentioned that we had the the council here for a
meeting and uh Diamond and and our at large were there and during that meeting I asked them a question which I was surprised they actually answered The question I asked them is the sheriff's office is a county
service Do you feel that the fire department is a county service They all said yes My next question is Councilman Diamond will you present a resolution to the council to make sure
that that's language is put in there that it is county those that are familiar with interlocal agreement It makes a lot of difference to us here at the beach especially Atlantic Beach and you not as much Neptune Beach but I just want you to be aware of that listen to that tape and then uh it might give you
a move to the next direction Thank you Would you like a photo op I mean I wasn't even on council when that was originally No you guys got more more important issues to Bush I I don't think a photo you I I I'm sure you want to
make fun of it That's okay We all have one of those sent somewhere but I can stand here with Bush now but no Give it to the clerk Yes please Okay Thank you so much Thank you Thanks for the visit Kira Marorrow from Dig
Local Hi I'm Kira Marorrow of Atlantic Beach Um and I am the board president of Dig Local which runs our two local community gardens and the beach's green market Um here to just give an update and report on happenings at the market
Um we're we are in Penman Park every Saturday rain or shine from 10:00 a.m to 2 p.m Um we have an average attendance now of roughly 700 shoppers a week Um with between 20 and 25 vendors Um we've
been in our location now for three years Um thanks to you all particularly Mayor Hoffman for facilitating our move down here from Atlantic Beach Um and we are still the oldest weekly
farmers market in Northeast Florida We predate Riverside Arts Market by just a few months Um we started out in Neptune Beach and Jarbo Park and then when Mayor Curry shut down the parks during COVID we moved to Atlantic Beach their parking lot outside city hall and then
eventually found our permanent home down here Um it's been a great location for us Um we're seeing a lot more utilization of the park during the market Um folks showing up to play basketball or to play ball in the field um behind the memory unit Um and even
folks staying to eat after you know hitting the occasional food trucks or getting a hot coffee A lot more people staying in the in the market area um than we we never saw before Um that park was pretty underutilized for many years
I guess Um we've also gotten kind of like a good neighborhood local set of folks who bike and walk to the market as well as a lot of traffic coming in off Penman Road Um which has been great And it seems like every week as the weather
warms up we're seeing um our attendance go up and up Um so uh the market is doing really well Um our needs our main needs at this point um just from feedback from both vendors
and shoppers is that the park could use at minimum a handwashing station Um currently we rent a portallet um which is unlocked during market hours but we don't have anywhere for folks to wash their hands And because we don't currently have restroom access to the
building um rented by ARK or the Lion's Club building um even an outside handwashing station on the side of the building would be um would go really far Um and that's kind of all Do you all have any questions for
us Thank you so much We appreciate the report Keep up the great work It's a a great asset Thanks It's been a really nice spot and we feel quite supported by the city So thank you very much for your patronage Thank you Cara Rick
Powell come on up Yeah Give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes to address the council My name is Rick Powell Um company is Barefoot Marine Address is 10945 Patton Road Jacksonville Florida 32246 Um I wanted to address the council
because we get a lot of calls We're a marine contractor um state license as a general contractor but uh Lake Duvall I know there was the council had voted back in 2003 Um and it was u obviously owned by
the city of um Jacksonville Beach but the the issue we're having is that those walls being as old as they are we have to rebuild those walls Um when you have a wall that's six or seven foot tall holding back dirt you don't have a lot of room Uh the state of Florida allows
us 18 in in front of existing walls because they don't want the customer's property falling into the rivers Um it's it's not feasible in a way for us to dig off six foot of dirt 15t back and then find a place to put it in order to build
a new wall and and limit our um exposure of of the the fill behind the wall getting into the lake So uh we do have a a client who uh I was asked by Dennis in the uh public works department to come down and present this to the council as
something that we'd like to look at Uh they do need to rebuild this wall They have other construction that's going to be taking place And um I don't know how we address it So u I'm not sure what the reasoning was back in 2003 of saying no to everything Um but um it it's it's not
feasible for these properties um to try to figure out how to build a wall how to remove one and put another one in without having major swell loss and other other factors So I just wanted to bring that to the council If you have a question I'll try to answer it or if you guys want to get back to me I would
appreciate that Thank you Mr Powell Okay that is the last courtesy of the floor card Moving on to consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda Second We have a motion and a second All in favor signify by saying I I Any opposed Motion
carries City manager new business item A Good evening council Bill Rer director of information services Um this is for the uh for us to get new ERP software Uh as you know we are moving uh in a direction away from Tyler Munis as an ERP provider
Um and this would be a alternative solution to that um which we've been trying to do for the last several years Uh this solution is from Central Square This is going to give us a solution for I'm sorry This is going to give us a
solution for um all of our enterprise um management that we need software management So we'll start with uh general billing Um we have we use central square for general billing Now this is going to be an upgrade for it Eventually this is going to lead to us centralizing all the way we take in payments here at the city Um from a
billing perspective including credit cards uh here at the counter Um this is also going to be for um HR and payroll Um we use Central Square for HR and payroll Now there's going to be an upgrade giving us some additional functionality in addition to
employee self-service so we can look at W2s and tax information take all take care of all that ourselves versus going to HR Um this is also going to remote host our hardware So right now we have this IBM mainframe hardware here on city property Um this will allow central
square to remote host that for us And why that's kind of a big deal is the people who actually maintain that hardware um are very difficult to find and even more difficult to pay appropriately Um so this is going to be a a huge benefit for us to have this hardware remote hosted um at Central
Square location Um this will also give us enterprise asset management We talked a little bit about this a couple weeks ago when we were at the event Um the need for this and I know Dennis talked about that He's been talking to me about it since I got here Um and I don't blame him we we should have this Um so this will be asset management which would
give us um you know would help from a finance perspective with depreciation We can track that more easily We can track maintenance of equipment more easily Um so all that's with enterprise asset management which will integrate into our existing GIS environment This will also bring us community development Community
development um is really around permit management and code enforcement management Um we do have a solution for that right now in central square This will be a significant upgrade in capability in what that department can do Um it will also upgrade our ability to interface with customers Our current
coast environment is provided um through the solution um that will also get an upgrade Um and finally um really payments um there will be I think it's noted in here uh we will be coming back when we finalized the
negotiation of our payments term with them That's a little bit separate than this What we're asking for here there's really no fees necessarily associated with that Um we have to agree on what kind of credit card charges we're going to have Um you should have all the financial information in there and I'm
happy to answer any questions With me here today is a couple of representatives from Central Square So if you guys want to get underneath the hood a little bit um we can have some technical answers if you if you feel like you need that Thank you And a motion on item one I
move we approve the solutions agreement with central square for ERP related software and services Second We have a motion and a second Any discussion Mr Jansen Um just briefly for the benefit of the citizens of Jacksonville Beach can you talk about the financial you are
Miss Gossing talk about the um financial impact How much Yes So the financial impact the annual So this is going to be uh what's called uh annual maintenance The annual maintenance for this is going to be roughly $330,000 With that comes it's really
more or less a subscription service So much like anything else that you subscribe to every month this is the same thing except you subscribe to it every single year There's two costs associated with this The annual subscription and then the implementation cost Um the implementation cost for this is roughly
$61,000 That's a one-time implementation service Both those numbers have been negotiated by the city um and have been reduced uh in our negotiation with Central Square Thank you Mr Wagner
Hello On what uh Jan's quil Jansen's question uh to help kind of provide some insight for the folks in the audience here Can you can you share some insight into how um this new capability is going to create a a
platform for additional capabilities in the future Some of the things that were discussed around uh additional capabilities we'll be able to look at that we don't have today Um so the additional capabilities this is going to give us um for most of those things I mentioned
earlier there'll be upgrades for the capability that we do not have right now that this will give us is in terms of enterprise asset management So right now for the city we're we're managing assets but they live all over spreadsheets in different departments So Beaches Energy has spreadsheets and and they're
literally using Outlook calendar to help them maintain all their equipment Um public works has a very different way of doing that Um Parks and Wreck has a very different way of doing that And we're going to streamline how all that is managed All of our assets are managed throughout the city and how they're
maintained A lot of these things require um maintenance at different intervals and we don't have the ability to effectively do that now This is going to give us that capability Other capabilities that we don't have right now that we will have again is employee self-service for HR um uh public works
um I mean um I'm sorry our permit management software right now um will also be upgraded There are some regulations required for permit uh management George Knight has all the details on that that he has spoken to me about Um but we are not able to meet some of those right now and some of
those relate to how we communicate with someone about the about the process of their permit management and where that is Um that also will be new capability Miss Golding thank you Um so I don't know if this is a question
for Bill or for Ashley but $332,000 a year and that's that's the fees right Every year that we're going to pay and those are going to go up Yes As as the memo mentioned in years two and three and then four and five and
then beyond Correct Um that's significant amount of money on our budget So I guess my question is do we have a plan for how we're going to be able to cover that going forward Be you know is does this implementation
actually help us to be more efficient and save some money somewhere or how how are we going to be able to afford that Um Ashley Gosset CFO So yes this agreement will require $332,000 in maintenance fees or
subscription fees per year Um but we're getting a credit of $155,000 in our current agreement And then we're also getting another credit from Munice of 68,000 So the net impact to the budget this year will be $108,000 And part of that and Bill can
probably speak to some of the details is we're transitioning to subscriptionbased models versus hosting it on our own servers and having to replace our hardware Um and it's also um helping to kind of realize some savings in staffing as we don't require the same skill set
to be um uh a full-time employee It is an increase in fees um but it is kind of providing us a lot of benefits in terms of kind of um support in the IT department of having uh the backup in
the cloud and the staffing um we're going to plan to inc uh include it into the budget into our leased properties fund where we generate revenue from our um our tenants So that's been what we've been using to pay for our u maintenance and subscription fees And in general
right now we're paying about $850,000 entitywide for um maintenance and subscription fees Uh $150,000 goes to Microsoft licenses alone Um so it seems like a large number but it's kind of par for the course and what we were
expecting to pay if that helps Yes Thank Mr Horn The the portion that Yeah I mean following up on the subscription fees and the the portion here that talks about annual subscriptions to increase
by 3% for years two and 34% for years four and five and 5% any year after that year five I'm assuming that our plan is to continue using this I mean is there an end to that I mean is this a standard that you can just automatically assume that we're going to need 5% more money
down the road Three four percent more money I mean these they're built in but it seems like that just doesn't in my simple mind make sense Is that is that routine Is that standard It is actually there is a
for again for subscriptionbased software this is a standard Our Microsoft agreement is has about the same increase every single year There are other agreements that we have that have the escalator agreement in it every single year And this is all for remote hosted software If this was software we were
going to host here we would have an annual maintenance with that This replaces the annual maintenance and even with an arrangement where you have your software hosted here on your servers The annual maintenance also has an escalator every single year So this is pretty
standard for all software agreements Um I mean I have seen this for years and years and and all the contracts that I've negotiated It's not out of line from my and from my perspective The the $850,000 that was just referenced annual
subscription fees that we pay Are these services going to supplant any of those I mean is this covering something else that we're already paying for And so we're going to lose you know we're going to not pay some of that $850,000 because of the money that we're paying here Or is this
a totally separate entity So this is a uh it's actually a little bit of both So it is very separate There will be some new fees associated with this I think Ashley mentioned the number $105,000 So net at the end of the day this is going to increase that number
$105,000 But it's also giving us a lot of value for that $105,000 remote hosting of the AS400 the addition of enterprise asset management Either one of those by themselves would almost be more than that a year So this is a great value of doing it this way consolidating
it like this $150,000 of current central square money will go away but then this will be added And I guess my last question and you may not be able to prognosticate this Do you anticipate in the next few years as you know computers when we start looking
towards you know these super computer chips and quantum chips and things that are coming down the pike Do you anticipate us possibly being able to purchase get hold of something that we don't have to pay things like this we be able to manage our own or is that a
possibility down the line or we I mean I'm just I'm wondering I don't mind if it's what is appropriate to pay for yes but if we can also find a way to do it that costs the taxpayers less money I'm all about that as you all everybody on the day is well aware and hopefully
everybody watching at home I just you know just wonder that's and that's kind of a maybe that maybe that's not a question for here we'll we'll chat offline about it well just a quick response we already live in a hybrid world where we have some things in the cloud and some things here on premise and it's really a function of when we
look for a solution do they even offer it to be loaded here locally Most are not doing that anymore They're only offering a remote hosted solution and the reason of that is because of the recurring revenue that they get So we could try to find something that we could house inside There's staff costs
associated with that But again most of these vendors are going to this model where they want to host it in the cloud and we don't have a choice Okay Thank you Mr Sutton exact same um thing Bill on the 5%
beyond year five I'm just curious I mean I I wish I could get you know 5% price increases beyond a couple of years in my business That would be awesome So what is that based on like and I don't know if this is a question for you or our friends at uh Central Square but if you
say it's industry somewhat industry standard maybe you can answer it Is it additional FTE costs ongoing labor costs andor you know hardware equipment of theirs and just prognosticating that they need that 5% increase 10 years from
now So I think it's based on all of those things that you just said Every few years they have to replace the hardware uh hardware costs go up every few years They're they're growing their business which includes growing staff Um so we pay incrementally that every
single time that that happens So it's a combination of the hardware that they have to do the upgrades that they're doing for us every single year um software modifications that we might ask for all of that is included in that So that might be that's some number that they're comfortable with that they've
come up with that could include years with flat or decreases but also could include years with 10 or 15% increases in Okay Mr Wowers Thank you Mayor I just wanted to ask please forgive my background knowledge
Are these uh folks replacing existing partners or old partners or are we bringing them on board as new partners They are existing partners Okay Thank you
Miss Golding Just a quick re revisit Um so I know that the agreement term is five years and so at at at the five-year mark then what we go and and have to do another agreement and or what Renegotiate We renegotiate Okay And then
at that point who knows what the fee increases are going to be or what the fees will be or the increases will be Well we hope that obviously that will work out to our advantage but that's what the negotiation process is all about Okay Thank you
Any other questions from council I nominate Councilman Horn to participate Um thank you and thank you you guys have done a really good job keeping us briefed on this issue and it it won't be as easily quantifiable as a a service agreement
but the efficiencies that will hopefully come especially from from the asset management of I mean I can't imagine because multiple departments touch many of our assets so to have it be on someone's outlook calendar or on someone's Excel sheet I just I can't
imagine hopefully the streamlining and the efficiencies that will um from this implementation So thank you I know this has been a labor of love for you to get to this point so I appreciate it Uh any other comments on item one Madam Clerk roll call Council member Golding yes
Council member Horn yes Council member Jansen yes Council member Sutton yes Council member Wagner yes Council member Wowers yes Mayor Hoffman yes Motion carries Item two I move we authorize the mayor and city manager to execute the
solutions agreement with Central Square for ERP related software and services Second We have a motion and a second Any discussion Madam clerk roll call Council member Horn yes Council member Jansen yes Council member Sutton yes
Council member Wagner yes Council member Wowers yes Council member Golding yes Mayor Hoffman yes Motion carries Uh item A Oh wait I'm sorry Yes Resolution A Uh is your
city attorney You got this one Thank you Yes Thank you mayor Uh the Florida statutes authorize us to enter into a contract with a special magistrate who adjudicates our code enforcement matters for us that is to ensure that there's a neutral third party with legal expertise
um handling cases that come before uh that where code enforcement issues citations Uh the city has used the law firm of Lewis Longman and Walker PA and currently the attorney Brena Duran under our existing contract It is open for one-year renewals and the term is about
to the current one-year renewal is about to expire Um we've reached out to Miss Duran to see if she would still be interested She is there would be no cost increase for this extension Um so therefore at this time the city is satisfied with the services
being provided Both parties are amendable to continue in the contractual relationship under the current terms Um so we're recommending that uh city council approve this resolution which would extend the term with our code enforcement magistrate for one more year
Thank you madam clerk Will you read the resolution by title please A resolution of the city of Jacksonville Beach Florida extending the contract between the city of Jacksonville Beach and Lewis Longman and Walker PA for primary and alternate special magistrate services for code enforcement providing for
adoption of recital repeal of prior inconsistent resolutions and council decisions severability scriveners errors and an effective date And a motion I move we adopt resolution number
2190-2025 extending the contract between the city of Jacksonville Beach and Lewis Longman and Walker PA for primary and alternate special m magistrate services for code enforcement Second We have a motion and a second Any discussion Madame clerk roll call
Council member Jansen yes Council member Sutton yes Council member Wagner yes Council member Wowers no Council member Golding yes Council member Horn yes Mayor Hoffman yes Motion carries And while we are on the legal topic I'd like
to uh congratulate and thank Mr Migot for completing his first year here at the city of Jacksonville Beach Applause are appropriate All right Our final item is going to be the second reading of our land development code Um planning
department do you have an update Thank you Mayor Hoffman Um Heather Ireland Planning and Development Department Uh the document that you have in your packet it will have some track changes in it based on just some further
changes we've made Most are additional uh definitions some formatting and typo issues We also cleaned up the language in the section about our board of adjustment uh and planning commission to make them consistent So thank you to all of you who found things and shared them with us because uh our eyes are
certainly crossed after looking at this for two years All 320 pages I think we're up to Um so we're all here to answer questions uh follow-up questions or new questions that you may have thought of Um if if you don't mind I'd like to just kind of
say a few things regardless of how tonight's vote goes Um I'm going to reintroduce myself real quick Heather Ireland 23-year resident of Jacksonville Beach proud Seaside Play Garden uh Seabbze SE Fletcher Middle and Fletcher
High School One more year to go Parent Um go Senators Um I want to thank you all for entrusting our team with this project I know it's been a long time coming for us to get to this point I want to thank the the public for participating in the
process business owners property owners um pretty much everyone you can think of came to the table and helped us do this which we would not have been able to do on our own Uh thank you to our partners at Kimley Horn for their professional expertise their guidance and to help us
materialize some of the ideas that Christian and I brought to the table that seemed a little outside the box They helped reel us in and make those ideas a reality instead of some of the just the ideas swirling around in our heads Um the goal of this project has always been to put the city into a
position to be better off in the future than when we started this project and to meet the goals of the strategic plan address concerns and desires of the community residents and businesses to encourage the things the community wants to see and discourage the things that we don't want to see And while we're never
always done with this process as you know we'll be coming back to you in about a year from adoption to update you and possibly recommend some future changes Um we know that what we've been able to accomplish over the last two years has been positive for everyone uh in the end And I'm going to just share
something with you guys real quick I shared with Mayor Hoffman last week Um I wasn't able to be here for the first March meeting due to the passing of my grandfather He was really proud of all the work that we did here at the city And the joke he would always say to me no matter what we talked about regarding
my work say "When are you going to be mayor?" and I would have to explain to him over and over again that that's not how it works But he was also very proud that we had our first female mayor No thank you I'll leave that to you Um but I wanted to share that with you guys because he was always interested in politics and government and what we were
doing and he always had questions about what we were up to So um I wanted to share that with you guys And again please we're here for questions Um technical stuff I'm going to leave to the the people who are a little smarter than me for that stuff So thank you Mayor
Thank you Director Ireland U Madam Clerk will you read the ordinance by title please Um yeah there will be time for questions once we get into the into unless it was something about her grandfather or personal life Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your loss Uh okay Madam clerk will you read the
ordinance by title please An ordinance of the city of Jacksonville Beach Florida repealing and replacing chapter 34 land development code of the city's code of ordinances in its entirety providing for legislative findings repeal of conflicting ordinances severability scribners errors
codification and an effective date This ordinance for the amendment of the land development code is before this council for public hearing and consideration on its second reading under the laws of the state of Florida An ordinance which changes the actual list of permitted conditional or prohibited uses within a zoning category
or which otherwise changes the text of the land development code is a quasi legislative proceeding A quasi legislative proceeding means that a governing body is acting in its rulemaking capacity It is the duty of the council to arrive at sound decisions regarding the use of property within the
city This includes receiving citizen input regarding the proposed uses within a zoning category The application has been reviewed by staff and the planning commission for consistency with other portions of the land development code and the comprehensive plan The council may hear from all interested parties in
the legislative determination of an amendment to the text of the land development code The council's decision on a text amendment application is based on the criteria set forth in section 34-211 of the land development code Each member of the council has been provided
a copy of the criteria I will now open the public hearing on ordinance number 2025-8220 We have a couple of speaker cards We will start with Terry Delo Come on up You know the drill Name and address Can't get this clock to work
So just envision three minutes Thank you very much Uh it's Mayor City Council Um first let me just say you guys have done a great job No question about it uh being part of the uh planning department for all those years I got to see behind
the scenes and I know how much hard work Miss Ireland Heather Ireland um the consultants um Kimley is that right Kimley Horn and all the workshops and everything and I know how much you guys put how much time you guys put into this
So I just want to say first off that's it I want to also say I should probably not even get up because maybe this will just slip through without any changes to something that's dear to my heart um the digital signs Maybe I shouldn't even say anything and it just go through and we can revisit that later uh with some more
workshops about luminosity and things like that That's my hope But um I do have to uh comment the digital signs don't contribute anything to our beautiful beach community I have to also say that in fact many coastal communities don't even allow digital
signs um including our neighbors I also um we all want this beach our beach Jacksonville Beach to be the best it can be And so that's why I'd like to think that you will think long and hard about
any of these decisions that are going to impact the quality of life here down the road um not not next year not five years from now but 10 20 years from now Um hopefully I'll be around to see those decisions Um and uh the last thing is we
can we can keep accepting the kind of communities that develop with these kind of decisions or we can make the community the way we want to make it We can form it into what we want and get better and better Um and so I I just I'm a little concerned that if we if we go
down this road um changing this that it won't go back the other direction It won't become stricter most likely until it gets out of hand and then we will reel it back in So let's not go that direction in the first place Um and that's it Thank you very much I appreciate all your time and all your
hard work Thank you Thank you Mr Delo Mike B give us your name and address and three minutesish Yeah Uh Mike Boils 104 10th Avenue North Um thank you guys for everybody for everything you guys have done so far I first would like to echo
uh what the gentleman was just saying about making uh this city the city we want That's what this code does It allows us to do that Um to start I first I'd like to applaud council member routers or routers for voting no on the land development code at the last
meeting and standing up for the citizens that have been expressing concern uh with some changes I feel like we're in an epidemic of workshops where I go to these workshops not enough time is given for everybody to speak A lot of people get up and express concerns about things
I don't see things getting changed or update or very little It seems like that's pretty concerning I saw it with the stadium deal millionaires walked around and said "Here's what we're doing with your money Take it or leave it." I see it when I go to Degan's um workshops Here's what we're doing And I don't see
much changing At the last workshop we held for this there wasn't enough time for everybody to speak There's a lot of concern out there that nobody heard because the time was cut off Again I heard a lot of concern uh about the the LED lights and the flashing lights I haven't heard one positive thing about
that except for businesses Yet they remain in our code Maybe I heard of Lumen's restrictions uh at the last meeting but yippee now we're gonna live in a dimly vit lake Vegas strip rather than blinding lights Um as Mayor Degan just urged all of Duval County to go
dark at night for bird migration patterns just last Thursday Jack Peach says "Hold my beer Let's blind and distract drivers and mess with birds trying to survive so we can sell tourists more junk with flashing lights." Just my opinion on on those Uh
three more quick examples Lot coverage short-term rentals and setbacks It seems we're trying to cram as many tall structures as we can on smaller lots This is great for short-term rentals and development investors but it's awful for full full-time residents that enjoy a
neighborhood feel at Jack's Beach Instead of allowing three-story structures to be 5 feet apart apart on property line how about we dive deeper into the details of the language and stop structure walls at the 10 foot we're already at but allow a pad for pool pump or an example of something
small that's not invasive up to the 5 ft This is all full-time residents want the ability to responsibly improve and beautify our properties without ruining our neighbors quality of life A blind five- foot setback just means new construction is going to pile 5 foot 30
foot walls um piled on smaller and smaller lots right next to each other That's all it's doing is opening the door for that lot coverage A slab of concrete is different than pavers with drainage channels in between each paver It's different than synthetic turf with a full rubber backing that doesn't allow
water to go through it It's different than more expensive synthetic turf that's all meshed in the back and allows water to fully drain through it with proper gr uh granite underneath it and proper drainage channels You may think I'm full of it My education is mining mental engineering I know how to pull
stuff out of the ground I know how to drain it properly I know how to do it right If you do that if you set up a code that in that empowers people and trains people to do that responsibly then build then uh full-time residents are going to be able to enhance their
yards responsibly Instead we have extremely vague language that let our leaders as it seems spend to approve some things and spend to approve to deny others I've seen it firsthand Short-term rentals Since 2015 I've watched one
block Come knock on my door any day I'll walk you through this From First Street North to Second Street North on 10th Avenue North it went from 2015 it went from four short-term rentals in 15 either full-time leases or full-time
residents to just four full-time residents and 16 short-term rentals That's one block I have 16 short-term rentals on my one block It's absolutely ridiculous Yes the new LDC is close to being good but it's far from approval And to say it's a living and breathing
document doesn't mean much at the moment because it's been forever since this has been updated and it's taken us two years to get here How many terrible ideas will get grandfathered in because we rush to approve this leave these doors open without truly listening to citizens like myself and others who have been working
hard to bring this to people's attention Again thank you for your time and I appreciate it Thank you Mr Boils Would anyone else like to speak in favor of or in opposition to the ordinance Public hearing is closed I'd like to ask for a motion
please I move we adopt ordinance number 20258220 on the second reading repealing and replacing chapter 34 of the land development code of the city code of ordinances Second Before opening the floor for discussion or questions by the council please be reminded that our
decision will be based on the criteria set forth in the land development codes in the land development code staff's reports the recommendations of the planning commission and the public input at all hearings We will now open the floor for discussion Mr Jansen
I personally want to extend my um extreme uh appreciation for Kimy Horn's work that they did in the past two years Uh for Christian and Heather for the work that you and the commitment you put in for the benefit of the city I know it's been a long time coming 34 years is
a long time to leave a land development code um relatively untouched There's been some bandaids but nothing really significant Um I know that that's you know if we're looking for the utopia perfect document we might be here for another 34 years We don't want that So
um I personally want to extend my gratitude for all the hard work that you guys have put into it Thank you so kindly Thank you Mr Jansen Mr Wagner Okay So I fully transition from my day job so I won't be calling anyone else a
doctor So I apologize for that Um I want to do something very similar and express my appreciation The the process while never would it be perfect while never would it please everybody um and as I said in a previous meeting the
fact that it doesn't please everybody means it's probably about as good as it's going to get Um you know if if half of us are happy and half of us aren't that's a problem If all of us want something different we we're probably getting a whole lot better Um I know that the team has worked very very hard
Um and and I know it's tough to some days for the amount of effort that's put into it and the feedback you get it's probably probably pretty rough some days And so I just just want you to know that how much you know I personally just really appreciate the getting up every day bringing it to people stepping in
front of groups of folks unfiltered feedback coming your way left and right and really trying hard to understand what people are asking for and getting us at least part of the way if not all the way there So I do appreciate that and and I will share and I've shared
this in previous discussions Uh this will be a living breathing document as long as at least I'm on the council right Because I will insist we bring it up I will insist that we continue to look at it and I know that there are many others that are just as passionate and feel just as strongly about that
component of it as I do Um the fact that we didn't do it for 34 years with people that I have no idea who they are Um I'm not going to sit here and be or be judged by the actions of others Um what I can do is I can be judged by my
actions and I can say that I will champion us to continue to make this a better document for our community Um just like many of our staff and the the council also feels that way I'm sure So thank you again from the bottom of my heart I really appreciate it all Thank
you Mr Wagner Mr Sutton Thank you Mayor Um um same thing Appreciate Kimley Horn and all the work you've done and Heather you and your team and all the work that's been done Um having been on the
planning commission for many many years with Mr Delo I can tell you that this LDC is dramatically improved from what we had to um administer um that was sort of taped together and glued together uh
over the years And so long long overdue Um but it is a a dramatic improvement And to uh second what Mr Wagner said um you know there there are three people up here that are here for the ne at least
the next two years and four people that are here for at least the next four years Lord willing on all of that And um I think everybody is committed to you know have a revisit annually to see if we need to make any changes Um so I
appreciate all the hard work I I will say just for myself um regarding the digital sign thing I'm not in favor um um of any um changing to that I'm not hearing a big outcry from
the business community of um you know changing that to something different than what it is today And um I think that's one of those things if we if we continue to hear that over the years maybe we can have a revisit but I think it's fine where it's at Thank you
Miss Golding Thank you mayor Um I want to echo what my colleagues have said Thank you to Heather and to Christian and in particular for your patience and all the time that you've spent with me over the last couple of
months in the questions and the reviewing of of this land development code to Kimley Horn for all that you guys put into this But I also want to thank the community because um the community as Heather said did come out and participate and Kimy Horn listened
and I do appreciate that and I and Heather and Christian listen too and I feel like there are solutions in here that are addressing concerns that the citizens had and um and I'm I'm hopeful that that some of the things that are
changed in here will be better for our community Um I I understand Mr Boille's concerns about the setbacks and just wanted to ask you guys to to please clarify because I understand Mr Wilders
has similar concerns but the five-foot setbacks are only in certain zoning areas correct And could you explain because I spent quite a bit of time with you on this and I think you helped me to feel better about this but and Christian
I was the one who explained it So please explain how the five feet you know is going to work and why why the five feet was the change that is being recommended Hopefully I can clarify as well for them
as I did for you Um okay So the only place you're going to see a big change in setbacks are going to be in the RM1 and RM2 categories Those are our multif family our densest categories For the remainder of the single family we didn't really mess with the setbacks except
we've offered some options for rear setback reduction for small additions and things like that But those existing setbacks are what's moving forward So if you're in RS2 right now your sideyard setbacks are maximum or minimum 15 ft
That's combined Your smallest setback can be 5T So literally right now and arguably for 30 years you could put two houses next to each other that were 10 ft apart So this isn't anything new that we're proposing in that sense Um in the multif family categories we have tried
to address I think probably the biggest issue that we've heard at least throughout the years which has been multif family and uh town home parking And based on the lot sizes that we have here which again were mostly platted in the 20s through the 40s um there is uh a
trade-off basically between providing more parking providing wider town houses providing more architectural interest or providing bigger setbacks because we currently have 10-ft setbacks for our town homes and we get 15 foot wide town homes and we get a single car driveway
and that's been an issue uh particularly with the short-term vacation rentals So we've tried to create a situation where for town homes you have a smaller setback more parking Multif family we're keeping larger setbacks because they have to provide parking but they're
communal parking So they're going to be surface parking lots things like that Um and then the uh the one change for single family that we made was in the RM2 category We created the urban single family which I wish I had that drawing that I did but um those sort of town
homes that everybody did like that were attached by the breezeways Those were basically on 30 foot wide lots They had setbacks that were in the neighborhood of as low as four as big as seven and a half Um but we wanted to make sure that single family was as competitive or as
uh um attractive to developers Um because if you're required to do larger setbacks larger yards and you can get two units on what would otherwise be you know one unit there's an incentive to do more town homes There's an incentive to do more multif family Um this way the
urban single family will basically match in setbacks what town homes can get and it helps protect that neighborhood character that we've kind of talked about so much Um we've coupled that with a bunch of uh new exemptions for existing single family so they can continue to renovate and exist and
aren't necessarily under pressure um to sell or tear down Um but I think that's really the biggest impact is we're trying to provide parking where we need it provide some competitive nature for single family in denser areas and uh hopefully address some of the concerns
that we've heard over the years Thank you Christian That it definitely helped me a lot when you went through all of that So I do appreciate you going through it so that hopefully the the community who's here and watching the video could better understand some of
the reasoning behind it And um also just a quick followup too to Mr Bole's concerns about the vacation rentals I am so sorry that you have to live with what you live with And unfortunately um prior city councils were didn't have
the foresight that Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach had to um prohibit vacation rentals or or to make vacation rentals in their communities be uh 60 days or 90 days
Jack Beach didn't do that and the state preempted us and we can't do anything about it We have very little we can do What we're doing is um is putting some additional guard rails in the code this
new land development code but even that is limited because the state has totally preempted us And the last thing I want is to hear that we have 16 vacation rentals in one block of a neighborhood because that's not what we want for our
neighborhoods and that's what we heard when we had these workshops with Kimley Horn So I think a lot of I hope that some of the things that we are changing in the land development code from that perspective with the vacation rentals will help to improve the situation there
as best as we can until we can get the state to to release the chokeold that they have on us that is keeping us from being able to do anything Um so anyway thank you very much Uh I do appreciate again appreciate the work that
everyone's done and um and again the community's participation because that's that's so important to making sure that our our codes um support what we want for our community Thank you I just want
to add on that Miss Golding that the prohibition on vacation rentals would have had to have been before 2011 So they weren't even really a big thing at that point and certainly the council that was there at that time which none of us were on would never have imagined
that they would become what they have become in our community And then I also just want to address the um because it came up in both comments the digital sign frequency we are back to where it started So there has been no change to the digital sign um frequency So just want to make sure we're all on the same
page there Are you are you finished with your comments Thank you Miss Golding Mr Wowers Thank you honorable mayor Excuse me David Uh as our city attorney um is this a legislative hearing
This is legislative This is not quasi judicial Thank you David for that clarification Again um there's so much to take in in process right now Let me do my best First of all the affected area is over 40% of our
population being RM1 and RM2 and it also extends to RS3 in certain uses including town homes for the side setbacks So we're talking anywhere upwards of 50% And in my view uh making this favorable
decision for side setbacks allowing more town houses to be cr crammed onto a piece of property where there used to be a single family home only encourages more Airbnbs Um I have many concerns about this LDC but I'd like to speak on one that is uh
correlated to the matter we're discussing now That being the rear setbacks being moved from 30 feet to 20 ft in RM1 RM2 and RS3 Uh as I understand the LDC is to
implement a comp plan and the comp plan clearly reads "Future land use vision FLU1 the first sentence ensure the character density intensity and location of all land uses provides a system of sustainable smart growth and
redevelopment that enhances the quality of life and safety for all residents of J Beach The comp plan defines smart growth as among other things making the community more attractive It also states that the development should fit the character of an existing
neighborhood Many find town homes crammed right on top of each other unattractive And I would just ask you to go by Gonzalez Park and judge for yourself This change does not allowing this new side setback as well as the
rear setback uh does not improve the quality of life for adjacent properties or the neighborhood Current residents in affected areas almost 50% of our population have had the protection of 35 ft rear setbacks since they built or
move in The new structures block out sunlight ocean views of sky It diminishes the value of adjacent properties and some would suggest this constitutes a wrongful taking when considering how your property drops in value When taken in context of the
diminished new side setbacks this additional change exacerbates privacy flooding and a host of other issues Therefore I make a motion to amend ordinance 2025 8280 in that the proposed new expansion of rear setbacks found in
article 6 chapter 34 section 613 RS3 as it pertains to single family dwellings and town homes Section 614 RM1 as it pertains to multif family dwellings two family dwellings and town h houses and
section 615 RM1 as it pertains to all uses to strike the 20 foot rear setbacks and retain the 30 foot rear setback protections currently in place In my view these are much more consistent with the letter and spirit of the comp plan
Such changes could be done quickly as I know a lot of folks who like to be done with this and frankly I would too But I think we can do better I think it's good but I believe we can do better And that's I ran on that promise and that's why I'm sitting here today Thank you
There was a motion to amend Is there a second Seeing none motion fails Back to the original motion Is there any further discussion Seeing none I would like to echo the appreciation to our planning department staff and the Kimley Horn to all of the citizens who are involved for
this council um for the two years of work on this Um and I I don't want to belabor the point but I think we've really come a long way and I think we've really gotten creative with some solutions towards all of our goals including maintaining our neighborhood
qualities So um I'm proud of this document I hope everyone here is as well And with that Madam Clerk roll call Council member Sutton yes Council member Wagner yes Council member Wowers no
Council member Golding yes Council member Horn yes Council member Jansen yes Mayor Hoffman yes Motion carries And before we move to adjourn I would like to ask Director Ireland Although she had some sad news
in her family recently as you heard she also had some very exciting news And I'm going to ask her to share it because I don't want to mess it up Well I did forget to wish my nephew Allan a happy 14th birthday I promised him that I would do that And if you've met him
you'll understand why he so excited We will give him the gift of not happy Yeah He asked if we were going to sing I said "Absolutely not That is your name." You're welcome Alan Um so tomorrow in fact the announcement will come out that my dad who worked for the Miami Dolphins for about 38 years is going to be
inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame which means we're going on a road trip to Canton Ohio Some place I never thought I'd want to visit but here we go And please tell us who he received the call from Dan Marino of course I could play you the voicemail later I'll just get it from my mom's house We'll do that after
the meeting Congratulations to your dad and to your family That is really exciting news especially to have this all come as we are crossing the goal line Okay Right Right All right We are uh we
are going to take Oh wait We already took vote It's passed Motion for adjournment Motion I move to we second All in favor signify by saying I I Any opposed Happy St Patrick's Day I need to ask