This is the Lake County Board of County Commissioners agricultural lands workshop on June 23rd, 2025 in board chambers administrative building to Florida. Mic is on. Mic is on. Y Just trying to get Nan in here.
Recording in progress. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to this June 23rd, 2025 meeting of the board of county commissioners. And uh as you all know, our focus today is agriculture. And we are going to start our meeting
with the pledge of allegiance. And I'd like to welcome Kirsten Aninsley representing Mount Door FA and Danica Keel representing Lake County 4. They're going to come forward and Kirsten will recite the FFA creed and thereafter Danica will lead us in the pledge of
allegiance. I believe in the future of agriculture with a faith born not of words but of deeds. Achievements won by the present and past generations of agriculturalists in the promise of better days through better ways. Even as the better things
we know enjoy we now enjoy have come to us from the struggle of former years. I believe that to live and work on a good farm or to be engaged in other agricultural pursuits it is pleasant as well as challenging for I know the joys and discomforts of agricultural life and
hold an unborn fodness for those associate associations which even in the hours of discouragement I cannot deny. I believe in leadership from ourselves and respect from others. I believe in my own ability to work efficiently and think clearly with such knowledge and skills
as I can secure and in the ability of progressive agriculturalists to serve our own and the public interest in producing and marketing the product of our toil. I believe in less dependence on begging and more power in bargaining in the life abundant and enough honest
wealth to help make it so for others as well as myself in less need for charity and more of it when needed. in being happy myself and playing square with those whose happiness depends on me. I believe that American agriculture can and will hold true to the best
traditions of our national life that I can exert an influence in my home and community which will stand solid for my part in that inspiring task. Thank you. Hold on. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Kirsten, and thank you, Danica. We appreciate that. Um,
we are honored today to have several distinguished guests with us. Um, first I'd like to recognize Senator Trunow uh in the front row, Keith Trunau. And I believe that Representative Cobb is on her way. So when she's here, we
will certainly recognize her. Um, Okay. All right. Appreciate that. Um, just want everyone to know that Senator Trunau serves as the agriculture committee chair in the Florida Senate. So, we're very proud of his work there and we appreciate all that he does for
our community. Without further ado, we are very honored today to have the uh Florida agriculture um commissioner um Wilton Simpson and he is here today and he's going to give us an overview on agriculture in the state
of Florida. And so we appreciate you making the trip to be here in Lake County. It is our honor to have you here at our meeting. And as you know, this is an extremely important topic to our community. And you've probably heard as we lined up this meeting that uh um
there's deep concern with um the threat of agriculture uh in Lake County and throughout the state of Florida, but particularly here in our county where we see a lot of development pressures um and just circumstances that are leading to farmers um deciding to uh you know
stop their endeavors and move on and do other things. And so we are interested in hearing the state of agriculture in the Florida and get your thoughts um on on our community as well. So thank you so much. Thank you. Um it's an honor to be here today.
It is a real honor to be here today and and to just to talk a little bit about the importance of agriculture to the state of Florida in economic terms. Today in the state of Florida, two million people went to work in the um agriculture. Second leading driver of
the economy, over 200 billion dollars of economic output and um is thriving in Florida. And again, during a pandemic, during a recession, agriculture is the leading driver of the economy in the state of Florida. When you're in um better times, non-recessionary times, of
course, tourism is number one. So, we're very proud of the economic status that we hold in the state, but the reality is is everyone needs a farmer three times a day, right? And that's the more important um issue. And um when you think about agriculture, I think of it
in terms of um national security. And today, we all know that we're fighting um over in the Middle East again um major wars. Um we're on the precipice of potentially a major war. and oil prices. We spent trillions of
dollars um on on oil fighting over oil and many lives, American lives. And to have a six-mon strategic supply, by the way, here in the United States, that's what we have. We have a six-mon strategic supply in case the wrong oil gets blown up. Think about your food in
terms of what if there were seven days, seven days of no groceries in the grocery store, right? you'd have chaos in this country and in a matter of 30 days you'd have people starving to death. So anytime a government um is going to tax put a hurdle in the way of
regulate agriculture that's the lens you have to look through and you have to think about the smallest farmer in that food chain and several of the things that I um would like to mention here today. One of the things is is the wildlife corridor in this state. The wildlife corridor represents about 18
million acres. as Senate President was one of my top priorities to put in place and define the wildlife corridor. So then you would be able to protect it, right? Define things so that then we can put resources towards protecting that area. We're over a little over 9 million acres today, which means we've got about
9 million to go. The wildlife corridor does run through in several areas of Lake County, and it's something that as as a local government, obviously you're aware of, but should be aware of. What is the wildlife corridor? There's an official map you can Google and look at. But the way I look at it is is if you
Google a map of the state of Florida at nighttime, you will see all the beautiful lights in this state. Um, you'll see all the beautiful lights around Lake County. Everywhere it's dark on that map is a wildlife corridor. It's where we grow your food. It's where the water the aquifer is recharged and it's
where animals traverse the state. If we want our grandkids's grandkids' quality of life to be similar to ours or better, you have to protect that wildlife corridor. And so I think as you think about it, you know, from a local government perspective, it's something
that should be high on the list. Since 2022, um, we have a program called Rule and Family Lands at the Department of Agriculture. It's been in place since 2001. So the first 20 years of that program, we accumulated about 56,000 acres of
land in the rule and family lands program. This is where we buy development rights from farmers. What are the advantages to buying development rights rather than buying property? And I think this is very important um because in some cases you have to buy it, but it doesn't mean you
have to maintain that purchase. But if you decide to buy development rights instead of buying property, you generally pay 40 to 50 cents on the dollar of the fee simple. So your money will go twice as far buying easements rather than buying property. The second
thing would have to happen is if the if this board or the state buys a piece of property, it comes off of the local tax roles, if you buy the development rights, it stays on the local tax roles at whatever the previous rates were because it's in green belt. So you have private people taking care of that
property. And by the way, um they have to use what we call BMPPS, best management practices to take care of that property. If the county purchases property or if the state purchases property, you then have to uh uh come up with additional dollars then to manage that property. That's a challenge,
right? And so, but and it's in perpetuity. Now, you might could have a lease on some of them and and avoid some of that, but in the long run, you're going to be responsible for paying those um bills. And the the really good part is is if you buy those development rights from farmers um th that property
stays in production agriculture in perpetuity in in theory. And so we're very proud of those things. Um this year in our um again I was saying since 2022 I've secured about $700 million for the department and purchasing devel
development rights. We have went from 56,000 acres secured two years ago to over 215,000 acres today. And with this additional um dollars allocated this year, I hope to be well over 300,000 acres before the end of the year. So, we
are doing as best we can um in securing that wildlife corridor and and removing those development rights. An additional um thing we did in the farm bill this year, we've got a lot of solar farms um coming up in the state of Florida and they're going all over the place. A lot of a lot of those solar fields are on
really good agricultural land. So in this year's farm bill, we said anywhere there's a solar farm, the first one was put in the state of Florida in '09. Anywhere there's a solar farm, when that when it gets decommissioned, the utility has to remove those um solar fields and
their equipment. The state of Florida, the Department of Agriculture has the first right of refusal on that property. So our intention with that would be is to buy that property, and this is something the county could do also. we because we're going to have to buy it back from the utility at that point, remove the development rights, and then
surplus it right back into agriculture. And so when you're thinking about these solar farms taking up a lot of today, a lot of our agriculture land starting in about 15 years or so, um we should start seeing our first solar farms go back the other way. And um and we're really looking forward to that time when you
start seeing our agriculture land come back in those areas. At least we have that as an option. Um today at the state level we've done many things to try to protect agriculture and I just jotted down a few just to mention in the last five or six seven years we started
agurism. You have a lot of agurism in Lake County today um where farmers can enclose their barns or use their barns for weddings or 4 meetings or sheriffs or what have you. You can have meetings in those barns. That was a big win for a lot of small farmers have done that to be able to maintain their way of life.
people go out to those farms and get to see green space. The right to farm bill, um we've nearly eliminated nuisance lawsuits to your farmers in the state of Florida. Um that bill was passed while I was Senate President and and what we said there was is we had all these folks during COVID moving out to buy the
farmland beside us and then they were wanting to tell us how to operate our farms, right? That's the next thing that happens when population moves towards you. And we did two things in that bill. And I didn't realize how many billionaires around the country just like agriculture. But there were many
lawsuits from out of our state that were suing our farmers on nuisance lawsuits basically putting them out of business. And you think, well, why does farmers not want to continue to farm or if they're profitable, they will. And of course, if they don't have lawsuits to the tune of some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, um they
can stay in business. So we did two things. We said, "If you're going to sue that farm, you have to live within half a mile of them. So, you're going to be a neighbor. Number two, when the farmer wins their lawsuit, you have to pay their attorney fees. Um, so that certainly has eliminated a lot of those nuisance lawsuits. We've updated all 13
BMP manuals at the state level. Um, a BMP manual, best management practices, um, allows farmers to um, work within that structure to make sure that they're not overusing water, nutrients, um, fertilizers, all the things that would go into farming. We also put a uh an
additional one in place this year was for the small farm less than 20 acres. We've talked about that for many years. Um this year we went ahead and did that. I think that's very important. Those manuals had not been updated in some cases well over a decade and some maybe even in two decades. We did them all in
the first two years. Um we banned in the state of Florida our foreign enemies from being able to buy agriculture land or land around our military bases in the state of Florida. We ban fake neat from being sold in the state of Florida. Um, you'll hear I'm of course I'm getting sued today for doing
that. Um, but um, you have a lot of California companies that want to get rid of our beef industry in this in in the country. They believe you have to to be net zero by 2035 or 2050. Just pick your number, right? And um, we're not
going to let them destroy our beef industry in the state of Florida. and we don't even know if their product is um even safe at this point. They have provisional FDA um go aheads and I said look in the last 20 years there's been 10,000 provisional go-ahads shot down in
the end from the FDA. We are certainly not going to risk our way of life on a maybe. And when it get right gets right down to it, I believe it's more greenhouse gases to produce a biomass that they would send you. you would grow in a petri dish and then you would use
your handydandy 3D printer to print out the piece of meat that you would like for it to look like, right? And um we're not going to do that here in the state of Florida. And one of the things I'd love to mention too is about our FFA. I know we have a few kids here today from FFA. We found out several things about
ourselves. So if you go back three years ago, we did a great grant program at the state level because we had a lot of parents who wanted to put their children in FFA but couldn't afford it. We had approximately 30,000 kids in FFA three years ago. We did a three-year grant to make sure that it would produce the
results we wanted. Today, we have over 65,000 kids in FFA. And that is private parents and private students on their own taking advantage of this, not some state heavy-handed uh mandate. That's number one. Number two, we discovered
there are many school boards in this state um that would not give excused absences for a 4 or an FFA event from school, which sounds ludicrous because we want more and more of our children in in in those types of activities. So, two
years ago, we passed a bill that said you shall give a an excused absence for FFA and 4 sanctioned events. And then part three of that came this year when they said, "Well, we can't build agricultural facilities on our school systems because we're not zoned
properly." And so in this year's farm bill, we took that away also and said on any educational facility, you can build agricultural um facilities, barns, green houses, and alike so that our kids can not only participate in agriculture and learn about agriculture, but then
participate in their local fairs with those projects. So when you think about I think what we're mostly here to talk about today is the um the ideal of partnering the ideal of how do we preserve as much as our farmland as
possible. At the Department of Agriculture um after next um this coming week we'll know if we continue to get our $250 million. We have a ranked list of projects and I believe there may be 300 projects on that list currently um
in order that we would start buying those development rights. Let's say that Lake County has number 47 and number 117 for the sake of argument and there are several from Lake County on that list. um if Lake County had a matching grant
um 50% grant, we take that from number 47 and just move him right to the top of the the line. So if Lake County wants to stretch its taxpayer dollar as far as possible, it would go into the rule and family lands. Part two of that, that's the easy way for Lake County to have
this achievement is to look on that list and say, "We will partner on the Lake County projects." Number two, if you had additional resources and you thought, "Well, I'm going to have to buy some of these farmlands because not all farmers want to sell their development rights. Some of them want to sell their land."
Um, this year, just like as we did with the solar farm, you could have a program to where you could purchase a farmland, remove the development rights, and surplus it. And what would that create? Let's say you bought a piece of property for $10 million in Lake County and fully
fe simple. And then you thought, okay, well, if we strip the development rights and sell that to another farming family for five million or six or seven million in most cases, you have that much more money to put in your program again. So, I believe you I heard you'd had $50 million. You could easily turn that 50
into well over a hundred million either through partnering with the department or um buying properties where you had to and then surplusing those properties immediately back into a production. Here's the really good part. All the things I said earlier would still count.
Once you surplus that land back out to farmer farmers, it goes right back on the tax roll. The farmer is agreeing to use best management practices to maintain that farm in that property. And so you'd have to be careful about, you know, the type of farming and I don't I
to be very broad, right? Because today it may be row crops and 30 years from now it may be warehouses with crops inside of them, right? It could be any of those things that would be green belt permissible. And so if I were going to put an easement out there that was blind before I um I I would do it as a if it
was green belt permissible then then a farmer should be able to do those things. By doing that you would minimally double and I would say in you could almost get a two and a half to three timeser out of your dollar here in Lake County. That's going to support the what the county would like. It's going
to help you get to your goal quicker of how many acres do we need to preserve in Lake County? How many's within the wildlife corridor? And then we don't only do wildlife corridor at the department. Um about 92% of our projects fall within the wildlife corridor, but um we we we take them in a rank list and
if they're outside the corridor, we do those too. So, you know, it's great to have that wildlife corridor, but we need to preserve much more than that. And u so when as you think about agriculture and you think about what we've done with the fresh from Florida program, if you're not familiar with that program,
you should look that up. You know, that's our only antidote to really bad trade agreements. If you're buying fresh from Florida products, you're supporting green space, you're supporting the aquifer recharge area, you're supporting the wildlife corridor. And so, we've really pushed that. Um, we again, two
years ago, we had about 450,000 people on our social media sites. Today, we have over 1.3 million people on that Fresh from Florida program. And if you go to if you buy your groceries on a cell phone, like a lot of people do, you actually have to go past a Fresh from Florida product to get to something else
that's in that store when it's in season. And if you go to our website, you can see what's in season. And we're very proud of the accomplishments of Fresh from Florida. We're going to continue to grow that brand. And again, it's one area to where we can really support Florida farmers because if Florida farmers are profitable, we have
many things to overcome. the 350,000 people are going to move to the state of Florida this year. Net 350,000. We got to overcome that. We got to overcome land prices. We've got to overcome a lot of challenges. Hurricanes, all the things um that we overcome and a
continuing mutating farming business. You know, 25 years ago, we produced 290 million boxes of citrus. This year, we're going to produce about 10 million boxes because of citrus greening substantially. But you citrus greening, canker, hurricanes, um just one thing
after the next. the most important thing we can do is to preserve this farmland for the long-term benefit of the state of Florida and with the dollars that you currently have or if you decide to put additional dollars towards those if you give yourself that type of flexibility
to partner through the rule and family lands to partner um with other organizations and and not get in a position to where you buy a piece and think you have to keep it. That's that's the big one. That's where I get in trouble sometimes. We have a lot of land in this state. the the development
rights could be removed from and sold and you'll get a you'll hit a nerve with a lot of environmentalists on that if you want to buy the other nine million acres of land, where are you going to get the money to do it? And if you remove those development rights and surplus some of these lands
that are not environmentally sensitive, by the way, we all know that, right? And um and I've worked extensively when I was in the Florida Senate, you know, on Everglades Restoration Act was one of the bills I did. The funding of all of those reservoirs down there, the C43 and 44 and the EAA reservoir, the southern
reservoir, northern storage. I was a part of all those things, the you know, repairing the between CMI and and Okachobee, repairing that canal. We've done an amazing job trying to clean up those areas. We've also done an amazing job of cleaning up our spring sheds. Um,
we currently put $75 million a year towards those efforts of state dollars only before you get to the basin boards and things. So, we've done an amazing job of these things and I think scientifically we could go out and this is what I ask the environmentalists to accept. If you want to actually do three
or four million more acres in the next decade, the only place you can get that much money is by if you have to buy these properties is to remove the development rights and surplus them because those additional dollars can be used in this program. So as you develop your program, I would make sure you have
that type of maximum flexibility to be able to do either of those things. And then if you have something you're buying that's very environmentally sensitive, of course you're going to take that off the rolls and keep it. And um and then some of them you may use as recreation, same thing. But all of that production agriculture property or capable of being
production agriculture that can be surplus would be a funding source for additional purchases. So thank y'all for having me here. Um I'll be glad to try to answer some questions if there are any. All right. Well, appreciate that um
information. Um any questions from board members? I have I have one question. Um, I I completely understand uh how this would benefit all of us here in Lake County is if we were to purchase
the land, strip the development rights, and then sell it back for farmland. The problem we're facing here in Lake County is we have municipalities that come in and annex and add their own
densities to the to the land. How do we stop that? That That's a tough one. At the ballot box. No, it's easy. Um at the ballot box. Um in all seriousness, it's kind of amazing that um you know, from time to
time, I'm an entrepreneur, so from time to time I've bought farmland and you get overrun by growth sometimes and you sell it and growth comes in there, whether it's a county or a city. Um the fact is is when you buy those lands, they are zoned a certain you can look at all your zoning today and all the entitlements
that are out there today. And if you buy a piece of land that's entitled and you're buying that entitlement and um but the only way that I know and you've got a lot of pressure on I live in Deed City, Florida, just outside of Deed City and same thing there. There are thousands of houses that are slated to
be built there and we don't have adequate sewer systems, water systems, and the only thing you can do is continue to not reszone to heavier density properties. And a lot of those were done 20, 30 years ago by a lot of our farming families. And so they have those entitlements on them, but
otherwise um the only way I know to do it is to first of all, you can buy it. So you can go in and buy land um that you don't want developed. You can strip those development rights and sell it back into agriculture. That's a way to do it. And that's probably the biggest way from an entrepreneur, a private
enterprise. If I own a piece of land and I want to sell it, I'm going to sell it to where I can get the most money, right? That's what we're supposed to do when we're we're negotiating those deals. If the county or a city wants to stop some of that growth and the entitlements exist, you're going to have to go write a check in most cases. But
case number two, the city of Z Hills ran out of water um what 18 months ago had to put some certain kind of building moratorium on until they renegotiate with our swift mud um to get additional water. So you have water restrictions,
you got sewer constraints, you've got all types of um internal problems that you could have. And by the way, the vast majority of the pollution that you're seeing in our waterways, farmers get, you know, a lot of get dinged a lot. Um and the vast majority of our farmers are
using best management practices. Today it's septic systems. Now through the building code, we've increased those requirements to you know where you have to use the the aerobic type systems and things like that. But it's still when you're thinking globally of Lake County and you know where all your cities are,
you've got to focus your attention where that you think that growth's coming, where you want to stop it. And the easiest way to do it I have seen is buy the development rights or um in the case where you'd have to buy those properties and surplus them that that's the other opportunity to do so. The third opportunity is not if it's not properly
zoned the way they want to do it then that's that's a political decision that the local boards would have to make. See that's the problem what we're facing is we we have a land that is one to five. a city comes in and
annexes it and makes it 4 to one and we can't stop it because they're now a municipality municipality takes precedence over the county's code. So that's what I'm asking. How do we change that? You you've got to change the will of those local municipalities. Number
one. Number two would be to buy those lands or development rights of those lands in and around those cities where they're not they don't have the appetite to continue doing it. Once that development right is bought, I get a lot of push back of well, you can always remove them. We in the department of agriculture have never had one that
we've surplused ever um through the so this is in perpetuity when you buy those development rights. So are so maybe I'm misunderstanding when we buy the development rights municipality or another government nobody gets can come back and put more entitlements on it.
That's correct. Perfect. Thank you. Once those development rights are gone that's where I was missing it. I'm sorry. Yeah. So that once they're bought there, it's literally an act of Congress, act of the cabinet to undo it in any fashion. Thank you very much. Commissioner, you you
mentioned that under the Rural and Family Lands Act that you're waiting to see whether that $250 million is going to stay in the budget. And if that stays, um, as far as the Wildlife Corridor properties go, are the those
are the top priorities or not? They get ranked. I I appoint as a commissioner I I appoint folks from the University of Florida and some of my through the department they come together with criteria that they use to rank the properties. It's it's blind basically. So they all get ranked and then we just
start going down the list and again if you look on that list and you can look on the department's list now and see who in Lake County would like to participate because they're on the list and where are they currently ranked. Now the ones that just came in in um January are not ranked yet. they will be ranked in the next few months and um you'll see where
they're all ranked. If those projects are important to Lake County, you would you would engage our office and say, "Hey, we've got money." Um and if you're willing to come here, we're willing to do a 50-50 match. We would immediately send a team to Lake County to do the
analysis and come up with the pricing. And out of all of the lands we've engaged, all of them, there's we we're 100% right now. out of all these properties we've engaged on there doing this um we we have one now that's in question out of I don't know how many
we've bought 60 70 80 of them and um so it's a very successful program very fair program very analytical and um we've had a lot of success at those so if I were in your exact position I would look at that list um and obviously we can give
you a contact there at the department um to to follow that list but you you could um take every one of those off of your projects um next year and I don't know how many are on there but I think it's several thousand acres in total. Okay. And then you mentioned a term called the
green belt green belt permissible. So you gave an example of in the future for example more agging inside of buildings as opposed to maybe row crops and that's right. Um but there would still be sufficient property available that that
could function as a corridor for wildlife and green space. That's right. So yes, ma'am. So when you think about um green belt permissible um today a lot of people have beef cattle and that's what they do. Some people have pine trees, some people have row crops that
watermelons you we just had a big watermelon season. Um strawberries, citrus, you got citrus in Lake County. You've got a lot of different agriculture products in citrus. You got a big winery here in Lake County. You've got a lot of really good agriculture. If it were me and I were in your positions,
I would not restrict your agricultural uses for that land in the future. When when you strip those development rights, green bedable permissible uses is the way I would define what you could do next. And so no generally like and I'll give you an example on my egg farm that
I had in Trilby. I was probably using 20 acres of it for that was very intense buildings where chickens were housed. the other 220 acres was open land and of course that's a green belted um process and you know you need eggs need a lot of
eggs now especially and um so so when you think about agriculture if I were I would make it very simple for the people who would want to come purchase that property to be able to to know they would have broad um opportunities for agriculture which is what we want um
when you have that you know and again another thing you would want may want to look at and and our team could certainly help. Um, you may want to say something like for every 200 acres there could be one house built, right? So that farmer could build there and if they buy 400 acres, they could have two houses, one for them and one for their kids or
something. And um, so we negotiate those on the back end. Now, if we're buying those development rights and a farmer wants to add a house for their kids or grandkids or something, that obviously takes away from that total appraisal. But those things can all be negotiated
in upfront. And if you do a few of those things, it'll more incentivize more people to want to bid on it. And what I have seen over the years is I believe if you bought a $10 million piece of property today and that was fair value and you give yourself say 24 or maximum
of 36 months to strip it and surplus it, um you'd probably get six to 8 million three years after the purchase for that land that's only good for agriculture. you then you take that money and you put right back in the same program and that
would perpetuate the program um for quite a while. It'd be sustaining u for quite some time and um a lot of folks have said suggested let's just do this going forward. That's okay. Um and um but there's there may be a lot of properties here that would be really
good agriculture land um that could be surplused and um and put back in production and put back on the tax rolls. Just something for the board to look at. What What's the prognosis for citrus? You mentioned that uh it's not looking
good this this round. Is there any hope that's going to bounce back or what are you hearing in this year's budget? There's over $und00 million to support the cit citrus industry to replant. It's called a craft program. Any of your farmers that are out there listening and they're aware of this probably if they're in the citrus business. The
state will help you replant those trees to get them in the ground and get going. Um we have got genetics. Um we have a tree called the Donaldelsson most everybody's heard of but there are others um that is an even crisper technology that's worked in citrus where we've not only eliminated perhaps the um
greening but also canker and so I believe what the industry the goal and I was with a group um a few weeks ago um their goal would be to return maybe to a 40 50 60 million boxes a year um which would be substantially less than
what we were but it would be of course six to 10 times what we have today. Citrus would be a great crop. There are many crops though that people are planting in Florida. There's peaches, there's blueberries, there's there's all types of critical mass type products that need to continue to come in. The
challenge with citrus is going to be is we could support a industry of 290 million boxes 25 years ago. The question today is is can you go back to 40 or 50 million boxes? Is there enough market for it today? I believe there is because I believe that parents want to have
orange juice and grandparents and they're going to send it send fruit to the school with their kids to eat for lunch. So, I think there's a market there for it. But that would be another challenge that they're going to have to overcome and the facilities to pack those that citrus, right? We've lost nearly all of our ability to pack that
citrus now. And so we're going to have to have people take risks, entrepreneurs, and there was, I believe, $10 million in the budget to help keep some of those facilities available in case we can get back on track. So, the citrus industry is working very hard. Some of the most resilient people you're
going to know on this planet are your farmers. And um there are a lot of people that would love to plant citrus again. There's a lot of farmers in South Florida with those water farming today. um saving the state of Florida a lot of money by removing nutrient on their farms um from water in and around the
Everglades. That was another option. If citrus comes back strong, they could quit the water farming business and go back into the citrus business. So, there's a lot of land available and uh but it's something that we're going to have to continue to support from a state and federal level if we want to see a
robust citrus industry again here in the state. Do you have questions? Yeah. Um, Commissioner, want to thank you so much for coming today. This is this is a big day for us in Lake County. Um, and I will attest that um, you're being humble. I see you out all over the state
talking about the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Seen you at several events over the years speaking and then your rural and family lands protection program that you're the greatest advocate for. So, thank you so much for doing that. And um corridor compatibility is the word we do have a
representative from the Florida wildlife corridor here today and a is corridor compatible. Uh we were at the summit last two weeks ago at the Florida wildlife corridor summit and you were speaker there but uh and I don't I don't know how many people were there but there was a good a good portion of the
people there from around the state of Florida were in a were actually part of that and equestrian activities as well too. So it does show that agg is corridor compatible and our lands um through the countywide conservation strategy document that we have done um
we actually have mapped arable lands the good good quality agricultural lands especially and that goes into that countywide conservation strategy. some of the some of the science that you mentioned is is there to promote a a program perhaps where we uh buy these um
development rights down and um I guess my question just related to that is your thoughts on TDRs because transfer development rights outside of perhaps a program where we're matching money to get um those uh easements on properties
but then also having an optional uh TDR program available in our county one that you know we're being really careful I think trying to make sure that one works. We get one that works. There's a few around the state that do, but what are your thoughts on that? I mean, does that just like help our program go further or what? It Well, thank you for
that. And um and we always have to remember that your farmers are your first environmentalist, right? Farmers want to take care of their land. They want to stay on their land. They want to produce food. So, wildlife corridor compatible. That's a big checkbox there when you're thinking about TDRs. And
I've never been on a local board. Um so I've not really dealt with um TDRs a lot, but I would have every tool in my toolbox. Um you can look around the state and see other programs that have worked very well. um you can drive up obviously the cost and the price of
those developments by um having TDRs and because you've got to go somewhere and negotiate, but I certainly would have that as a tool to where you could go remove development rights and get development rights on another piece of property or a little more density somewhere where it's more appropriate where you already have the infrastructure, the roads, the sewer
systems, the water systems and things of that nature. And actually um you know I think there are restrictions um even at the state level um relative to those things relative to be able to put those cities putting in many more houses than they have perhaps water for. I know that
in my area of the state in Pasco County there's been several cities um that had to quit growing houses and annexing property and things like that because they run out of room. So I think having a database of where all your development rights are, where where are they, right?
What's possible for Lake County, I think Pasco, it has 700,000 people today. We were about like you now about 20 years ago, about 400,000 425,000 people. So in 20 years or so, we're up to 700,000. And I know there's a number, I don't know if
it's a million or what it is, but there is a number that you know how many sites you've approved or how many the cities have approved. And I think using that as part of the ability to take down part of your wildlife corridor, your agriculture area would be an effective tool. Those
things don't cost you dollars, right? It cost you opportunities in areas because you're going to remove them from one area and put them in another area, but generally it would keep it a little more compact and um keep that rule rule and family lands program, wildlife corridor program. It would tie into those things.
So done properly, I think it can be an effective tool. Yeah, it sounds like all of this goes handinhand with us working with the cities and the cities working with us because it won't work if we have the continued annexations or and the upzonings on those properties. It'll
make this program completely unsustainable. So, we got to have coordination and I think going and identifying those lands around those cities that may be vulnerable to you buying the development rights would be a good place to start. I know, you know, in our area of the state, if Pasco County would have done that 20 years
ago, Date City wouldn't be sprawling the way it is. But again, a lot of those farming families, their land is their retirement. They need to sell that land at the end or they're going to pass it down to the next generation. So, the idea of buying those development rights um or TDRs
um is a way to that farming family, that's their 401k. You know, I always told my wife, we're going to build one more chicken house. The most dangerous thing in the world is an egg farmer with a dollar in his pocket. he's going to build one more chicken house, right? And um and so farmers t we tend to do more
of that. And then we got really, you know, quadruple whammedi here in the last five years with the Biden inflation. And you know, you could plant bell peppers 5 years ago for $1,800 an acre. Today it's $8,000 an acre. While if you're a small farmer, you can't take that risk perhaps. And so when you look
at all the different crops and the amount of inflation and of course COVID and hurricanes and 350,000 people a day moving here, we do not need more regulation in agriculture. We need to get people out of the way of agriculture. So I I kind of have a tough
one and I don't really expect you to answer it unless you really want to. Um, but you mentioned the nuisance lawsuits and it brought to mind um a couple of the um places we have in in Lake County that are um marijuana
production facilities. So there's that blur between agriculture and actual industrial type uses and it's created conflicts with surrounding properties because of the smells, the sounds of the
generator and the humidifiers and and and the lights and all of that. So, is there any hope that Florida could distinguish between, you know, that type of use versus what we're talking about is agriculture where you grow stuff that
people need to eat and survive. And not not to say that what they're doing at those production facilities isn't important. Um, but it just feels like it's more industrial than it is agricultural. Um, most of that, you know, is determined by your property appraiser.
So, if your property appraiser of um Lake County gives someone green belt to do industrial type products, then they have green belt and then they have that entitlement. If you have a production facility only, a processing facility only, that's probably not green belt. Um, you know, if you've got um and I'm I
don't make judgments on them. There's everybody's elected in the state on the property appraisers are duly elected to do their job and for the most part do a great job on that. So, you may have a challenge with your property appraiser issuing green belt where they maybe not should. Generally, that's not the case.
It's normally the other way around. And um and by the way, I always love the tough questions. I always I normally tell people this upfront. If you serve in the legislature for eight or 10 years and you ask me a really tough question, I can give you like a five minute answer and you're going to be like, "What in
the hell did he say?" I didn't say anything. But but the reality is is that if you look at um um some of those things that um that that would be between your property appraiser and that farmer and if they are purely a manufacturing plan that's probably not
green belt and then by the way all site things are regulated back to the local government. Um so if you had a slaughter house for instance you can't put everything down the city sewer and that'd be okay. Um that's up to the city and that's up the city to regulate or the county and things of that nature. Even in agurism, we said off-site
parking, noise, things like that would be regulated by the local governments. And so, you know, there's some there's some ways there that local governments um can intervene. But if a farmer has green belt on their property, and that's not a zoning, that it doesn't matter what the zoning on the property is. I
could have 100 acres of industrial property zoned and plant pine trees on it and get it green belted. Um that then that counts. Agricultural zone land does not count in itself. It has to be green belted by the property appraiser um
certified before um it counts as farming. Yeah. I I just I know with like the marijuana production that they have to grow and produce on the same location. So I think it that's where it gets really complicated from a legal standpoint. Um so we'll keep working on
that and uh trying to look out for the folks that are getting impacted. But this has been really helpful. Any other questions before we wrap it up? I just want to make a statement. Uh, first of all, Commissioner, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Uh, very insightful. If this was a private entity, you wouldn't
have $250 million in the first month. This this is an absolute fabulous program to have. And and we can parlay it and continue it and continue it and continue it. And what I would say to everyone here today, we're in Lake County today. Every county in the state
has finally woken up to this. Been some of them has been awake actually. And but the quicker you can put your program into um if come July the 1st we'll we'll have that $250 million. Any project that's on that list that Lake County wants to partner with, we can start in
July doing the assessment. And that process is normally just a few months. So before the end of the year, you could actually start doing some of your work. And u the main thing I would say is is just keep it as flexible as possible in the ways you can spend these dollars because the more entities that you can
partner with. And there are more than just rural and family lands in the state that do these things. But um but we're probably the biggest one that do it. But um there's many entities that do it and you just have to be careful when you're not you know dealing with a non you know department of a and lake county would be
have similar very similar interests but you have a lot of um organizations that by development rights and um as long as you have control of the end product on those you probably are in good shape there too. So there's a lot of matching grant opportunities and I know a lot of
counties are as fast as they can putting a pot of money in place to do this same thing. So, the the sooner you um you know you start on this project, I think the the more likely you'll have success and if you have to buy property, remove those development rights and sell it,
get your money back and do it again. All right. And just just so I'm 100% clear, if we strip the development rights, they cannot be put back on. That's correct. Thank you. And that's the way you're the easement go. That's right. When you take a conservation
easement, um, you should be and and your lawyers will do a very good job of this, I hope. Um, you have to be very clear that these are in perpetuity, and that's the way they're all worded. The cabinet has some special power sometimes to be able to swap. Let's say you had, um, our
rules are we normally get three times as much value as we give up. So, if there were 500 acres in Lake County that DOT was going to put a road in and you said, "Oh my god, we got to have do we got to have that road. Can't do without it." and it happens to go through one of our easements. I have seen other counties
say, "Okay, we will give you that, but you we're going to give you that 30 acres to put the road in, but you got to give us 500 acres somewhere else to offset it." And then, of course, that's a board judgment, you know, because sometimes they'll come with swamp land, right? Sometimes they'll come with
something you don't want, but if you but if you do that right, um that that is um certainly permissible. Uh, but it's something that is extremely rare to have happen and anybody that's selling those development rights to the department know they're in perpetuity. There's no
misunderstandings on this at all. Thank you. Well, again, it's been an honor to have you here. We appreciate you taking your time to visit with us this afternoon and um I think we all certainly have learned a lot today and um we we will stay in touch with you in
your office. We'll be ready. Thank you. All right, moving along in our agenda and before we we do our next presentation, which is from the um the president of the Thousand Friends of Florida, I want to recognize that um Ryan Atwood is in our audience today, Ryan, if you don't mind just standing up
and letting us recognize you. Ryan is um on the St. John's River Water Management District board and he's also a local farmer. And so we're just really fortunate to have you um serving in that capacity and and looking out for the interest of of of everyone in the
district, but particularly being um our Lake County um member of that board. So all right. Um and also one more thing I wanted to ask. If you are a farmer or you've been
a farmer or you are associated with farming, would you mind just uh standing up so we can recognize you and I would be remiss if I didn't um note that Jim Styer is in our audience today. And Jim was the public works director in Lake County for many many
years. And Jim is a farmer and he's here today in that capacity. We appreciate that, Jim. Okay. U moving now to our presentation by Paul Owens, president of the Thousand Friends of Florida and we're going to talk about conserving agricultural land
and um continue this discussion. Thank you, Madame Chair, commissioners, distinguished guests, Senator Trunau. I am Paul Owens. I've been president of a Thousand Friends of Florida since 2018.
We are a statewide nonpartisan nonprofit advocate for planning for fiscally and environmentally sustainable communities in Florida. We are based in Tallahassee,
but I live in Orlando, so I've spent plenty of time here enjoying Lake County. And uh one of 10,000 Friends directors, Timothy Salon, is the co-CEO of Cherry
Lake Farms uh in Groveland. 1,000 Friends prioritizes a number of policies to carry out our mission of sustainable development, including
preserving high priority natural and agricultural land from development. Last year with our partners of the University of Florida's Center for uh landscape and conservation planning, we
released a report on the impact of population growth, development patterns, and sea level rise on the future of agriculture in Florida. And I'm going to be talking about that for the next few minutes.
So using population projections from the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, which I think is the same source that you all use in your planning, our state uh could add another 12
million residents by 2070. And uh a report projected at that growth rate, Florida could lose 3.5 million acres to development in the next 45
years. And that total would include 2.2 million acres of agricultural land, which is roughly about 20% of the current amount of uh farmland under
cultivation. in uh Florida or um I say under cultivation it also includes ranch land and silva culture. So losing that much agricultural land would not only impact Florida's economy
and food security. It would also take a big chunk out of the ecosystem services that agricultural land provides. These services include protecting water quality and quantity, mitigating
flooding, preserving wildlife habitat and biodiversity, sequestering carbon, promoting agurism and outdoor recreation. And as we all know, you can't undo
development. You can't uh unring that bell. Once farmland is lost, it's lost forever. But fortunately, there are a number of strategies that we see to achieve our
objective of protecting high priority natural and agricultural land from development. One is purchasing land outright through state programs like Florida Forever or local programs like Lake Forever, which
80% of county voters renewed this past November. Another strategy is, as uh Commissioner Simpson was was talking at length, buying the development rights on
farmland through programs like the rural and family lands protection program. Uh and uh Commissioner Simpson mentioned that $250 million was included for that purpose in the budget that the
legislature approved. uh a week ago. It it's uh going to the governor and uh hopefully he will uh he will approve that. This is a very positive step for preserving agriculture in Florida. And
an emerging possibility is paying farmers, compensating them for those ecosystem services that I mentioned that farmland uh provides. And finally, there is utilizing the
community planning process to promote sustainable development, which is a core priority for us at 1,000 Friends of Florida. So one of the primary elements of sustainable development is
accommodating growth using less land leaving more land for agriculture and nature. Uh it's important uh if you're absorbing 350,000 new residents a year as the commissioner
mentioned that uh this kind of consideration is paramount. As you can see from these examples, it's possible through good urban planning to leave 50% of uh an area or
even 80% of an area in open space well accommodating the same population. Here from our agriculture report are three key maps. The one on
the left shows a 2019 baseline of developed land and protected land in Florida. The red parts of the map correspond to development. The map in the middle is the sprawl
scenario for 2070 which assumes Florida uh absorbs that additional 12 million people but remains on the current trajectory for uh growth. the current uh density in uh Florida for growth. And
the map on the right is the conservation scenario for 2070 where Florida uh grows at a modest 20% higher density and rules out development
on high priority natural and agricultural land. If Florida achieves the conservation scenario, we will save about 800,000 agricultural acres compared to the
sprawl scenario while still accommodating the same population growth. There's no difference between the middle map and the one on the right in terms of the population growth. It's just how we plan for that population
growth. So now I'll tighten the focus to Lake County where the population is projected to have nearly doubled from the 2019 baseline we used to.
And um this will not come as a surprise this rate of growth because it's already as we know grown substantially from that 2019 baseline. So here's what the baseline for Lake County and its 22070 scenarios look
like. As you can see there is a lot more developed land in that uh sprawl scenario. the business asusual scenario compared with the scenario on the right, the conservation scenario. And again,
the conservation scenario is a modestly higher density rate and ruling out uh development on high priority natural and agricultural land. So the numbers u lay out the extent of
this. Under the sprawl scenario, developed land increases by more than 180,000 acres in Lake County and agricultural areas plummet by more than 3/4
from 123,000 acres on the baseline down to just 29,000 or a little less than 29,000 by 2070 under the sprawl scenario. But under the conservation scenario with the
same population growth, there are 74,000 fewer acres lost to development compared to the sprawl scenario. And the loss of agricultural land is not nearly as steep. It's uh a little over half from
the 2019 baseline to about 62,000 acres. So the question is, what can governments like those in Lake County do to come closer to the conservation scenario by
2070 than the sprawl scenario? Through a thoughtful land use planning process, they can steer new development away from prime agricultural land as well as from priority natural lands and
vulnerable areas like flood plains and wetlands. Through their comprehensive plans and land development regulations, they can promote infill and redevelopment and gradual growth outward from urban
areas instead of leapfrog sprawl into rural areas. More compact development in urban areas not only reduces the development pressure on agricultural areas. It's
also more fiscally sustainable and taxpayerfriendly. It generates more tax revenue per acre, makes existing public services more efficient, and lessens the need to extend them. So, I always say even if
you don't care about the environment or farming, but you care about uh keeping a lid on your taxes, you should be interested in more compact uh urban oriented development wherever possible
and where it makes sense for for local neighborhoods. I'm not talking about uh high-rise buildings in uh historic neighborhoods, for example, or using up limited urban green space. It's it's
about striking the right balance. Local government leaders and planners also need to keep in mind that development patterns that fragment farmland may deprive a the agricultural
sector of the critical mass it needs to maintain to be economically viable. Local planning that doesn't keep the future of agriculture in mind can lead to the end of local farming.
But good public policy, planning, and land management can sustain agriculture and its many benefits for the environment and the economy for the long term. So to sum up, here are some strategies
to secure the future of agriculture in Lake County and throughout Florida. Utilize federal, state, and local funding sources to purchase development rights and preserve working farms. Sear
growth and development toward urban areas and away from rural areas. Utilize science to identify high priority land for protection and the effective
management of it. Design and fund programs to compensate farmers for the ecosystem services they provide. That's a heavy lift and probably more realistic at the state level than at the local
level, obviously. And if anybody would like to dig deeper into the subjects, I've summarized in my brief presentation today the work we've done with our partners at the University of Florida. Here are some places online
where you will find more information. And with that, I'm happy if uh anybody has any questions to do my best. All right. Any questions from the board? Um, do y'all have funding available for
us to help purchase property? Yeah. And unfortunately, we can we we are a a small member supported organization. I've got six people who work for me even though we're statewide. What we can do
is first of all, we endorsed the the Lake Forever um initiative uh last November and help promote it through our platforms. We can uh help
connect uh local governments that are interested in funding sources with those funding sources. We're happy to work with you as a resource, but we don't have our own funding to to provide for
governments. Thank you. Sure. I got a question. It's a technical question. Sure. Sure. So, when we want to, you know, the commissioner talked about buying development rights, which I think we should do. I talked about it in an earlier meeting with $50 million. I
think that's the best bang for the buck. Um, you know, there's other Some are going to want to advocate we just buy it being simple. My question is and Commissioner Smith kind of touched on his questions is you know you're looking
at all this land and there's develop some have more development rights than others. Yeah. Do you find it to be the case in a lot of counties where you're going to a land owner, you're saying, "Hey, I'll buy your development rights before you get them." Or is it, "Okay,
this terrible municipality has given this privileged piece of land enormous overdevelopment rights." And now we're trying to come in with a fire extinguisher be, okay, please don't do that. We'll buy the rights back. You don't ruin this part of the county and you know, whatever. And and buy it after
the fact. So, are the sales occurring before or sort of after they're getting it? Let me frame it just one other way just because it explains the instance I'm talking about. Somebody's like, I'm going to go, you know, I own this land. I'm going to push to get development rights unless you want to come buy them
from me to begin with. And should we do that? Because that's a better price than waiting and then a municipality grants them, annexes them, grants them, and then we have to come in as the county and try to buy those rights back kind of what's what's your thoughts on that situation? Yeah, I I think it makes a lot more sense at the front end before
they have, you know, before they've been zoned for for dense development. Um it's it's less expensive. Um it's it's more forward thinking, works better with long-term planning. I think there are
other um tools that that can be utilized for the second scenario that you mentioned like transfer of development rights. Um but that's that's a complex uh that's a complex u situation that um
I think a lot of smart people are working on because um that that system doesn't always work the way people hope for it. But but the short answer is um it's much more effective uh
to go in before there's those dense development rights. If I could just do one followup. So is it but is it unusual for example for a county who's this sort of program to have this money and to look and to see a piece of land that a municipality has already given them all
these rights and to say I know they're going to ask us for arm and like but we really don't want that to happen because it'll ruin the whole that whole part of the county and so do counties do that with these types of programs or is it just like okay sorry that one's gone they already have their
apartments coming in we're not even going to touch that let's go look over here on the outskirts and quieter areas. I think that happens less just because of the price. Um, you know, um, $50
million is a great investment, but it is it is most valuable as a tool to leverage um, state funding, um, private funding from from groups like the Nature Conservancy and federal funding from the
National Resources Conservation Service. And um so I I I I I think local governments have to be really smart stewards of their limited funds and go for for the biggest bang for
their buck. Okay. Question. Um I guess a comment and a question um and maybe an answer or some comment to Commissioner Sabatinis. But first of all, thank you again. Great presentation. For all of you that don't know, u the lecture the lecture series
that you do every every other Wednesday, I believe, or at least a couple times a month is amazing. And so I encourage everybody to go and and it's so easy to do. You just sign up for it's free and you can listen to it wherever um where you cover all kinds of topics like this
and your advocacy. So thank you very much for doing that. Um, I think the answer to maybe the the question or part of it to Commissioner Sabatini's very good question is, you know, we have there's the good news is is we have data we have science and data in place
already through that conservation strategy document that was a mapping high level with UF and Stson um as well as public input. It wasn't just sort of geeks in the back room. It was a lot of public input as well. So we I think the
good news is we already know where a lot of those lands are that we need to perhaps pursue now um before it does become it become more of a circus if you will out there. So I think it's I think we know that it's there and then to the cities it's like can you get the cities
now to start using the the the data that we have the strategy document as as part as part of a JPA or at least have them adopt it and they can see this then they know okay these are some of the highest priority areas that we need to we need to protect and as much as we're seeing
some shocking cases recently of a lands being lost there's more perhaps that are even on that high could be on a higher priority list. So that's what that conservation strategy document does is it it allows a process to prioritize because we only have so much uh money
available. But to your point about the partnership and you know leveraging that's the beauty of the 50 million is maybe it le it turns out to be 150 million by the time you leverage it. So, I don't know if it was a question or more more of a comment, but um I I
obviously say I thank you for what you're doing and the I guess I would ask again about TDRs. You I think you said you you know some that work, but be careful. I mean, do you have any other thoughts about TDRs, transfer development rights for us that how it could fit into helping us get some of
these lands? Yeah, I I my understanding of TDRs is there are some programs around the country that have been very successful and I think those are are models if
you're interested in in pursuing that to look to them for best practices. Um and um so I I I just think it the the you know it's a complex market oriented um
undertaking and and um you know if the market changes it may change the success of the program but I would look to some of those and we've got information about it online of some of those other um
states that have successful programs. There's there's a successful program apparently in Maryland, I think in Montgomery County, Maryland that that has worked well. All right. Thank you. Appreciate. Thank you again. Can we go back to that slide
where you showed the 2070 Lake County the comparison between the sprawl model versus the There you go. Um I mean it's subtle in some ways. um when you look at the 2070 sprawl versus conservation, but
if you study it enough, you can start to pick up on where those locations might be that land was conserved. Um, a lot of it looks like down in the green swamp, but we've already got Green Swamp. Looks like a slanderous attack on my I'm
kidding, but district one. I will not be voting for well the the green swamp area of critical state concern already has significant limitations on um higher densities and then over on the northeast side we have we have the waka protection
area and we've got the national forest and so I see some increases in the sprawl model of red out there. Um, I'm just kind of curious how when you all did this modeling, did you take into account those limitations that already
exist in those two areas, the Waka Wakiva Protection Area and the Green Swamp? Right. And and to clarify, the University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning did the modeling and we packaged it and and have
been circulating it. But um I'm I'm sure that that you know this this is extracted from a statewide report. It's not a parcel by parcel. And it also one of the things I tell folks is these are
these are projections. They're not predictions. Mhm. But there's some there's some basic um criteria that they used for the likelihood of land being developed in terms of things like its
proximity to um highways, its proximity to other development, it's uh the the extent of wetlands on the property because wetlands are obviously more expensive. it's more expensive to
develop if you have to deal with wetlands. So I I assume that that uh they weighted those factors along with the other factors that they consider. Mhm. Um and and it looks like in that
best case scenario under the conservation model you conserve you end up with 36% developed of the land versus under the spraw 46%
developed. And that is because when when you when you absorb the kind of population increase um I mean, you're you're going to you're going to lose a lot of land to development regardless.
Um, but if you develop at a at a higher density, you'll lose less land. And 20% is is a pretty modest increase in density. We're not talking about doubling density.
20% is is um in a lot of neighborhoods probably wouldn't even be noticed that much. And I mean knowing that I mean a lot of the the county um on our future land use
map, we have rural and rural transition lands that surround most of our municipalities as you go away from the urbanized areas. Um so I'm just um You know, thinking about all the things that were said today about coordinating
with the cities, it it it seems like in a in a clustered development model where you're trying to concentrate density and save green spaces that those areas could be the prime locations for trying to do more of a conservation designed um
development model. Um if that's where the cities in fact are going to expand and grow their boundaries. Um, ideally they wouldn't expand and grow their boundaries there. They would concentrate on infill and and and stay within those urban areas where they've already sort of mapped out where they intend to be.
But but if they were to go out, the conservation design would be the better scenario. Yeah. and a conservation subdivision design is another one of the tools that that local governments can do
to minimize the land lost. And um it it frankly makes more sense as you build out from uh urban areas than it does, you know, on the fringes of urban areas rather than kind of in the middle of of
nowhere, right? Apart from urban cores. And that goes handinhand with what you said about keeping your agricultural areas intact and not bifurcating them because once you start to bifurcate them then you make it less likely for the egg to be able to survive. Exactly.
All right. Any other questions? Excellent. Appreciate you being here today and thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Um, I'm probably going to mask this name, but I'm going to give it a try. Dr. Polardi. Got it. All right. With UFAS, um, we're
going to talk about um, state and federal programs available to farmers in Florida and um, we appreciate you're with the School of Food and Resources Economics, right? Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Uh, that is correct. And I think that's the first time my name has been pronounced perfectly in a uh,
right? my you know years coming to present. So thank you. Um it's it's I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today and present in front of the board um and all of the audience here. Uh this is a topic that is of great personal as
well as professional interest to me. I grew up in Okone County, Georgia uh which was once a rural county. Um my route to school was entirely lined by cow pasture grazing land all the way. You really wouldn't know that now. has been entirely infilled with uh grocery
stores, subdivisions, doctor offices, strip malls, you name it. It is it you cannot find uh the agricultural land except for what the University of Georgia. Sorry, I don't shouldn't mention that here. Uh but except for the land that they own within the county. Um
so this is this is a topic of great interest to me and is something that came up uh in working with the Florida Farm Bureau. you know, they they approached uh my department, the food and resource economics department. Um I'm an extension economist within that department and they asked us to produce
a brochure for land owners in Florida uh mostly farmers uh on to help them navigate the complex web of conserv uh agricultural conservation easement programs because there's a lot of farmers in the state that want to conserve their agricultural land but it
is a hurdle to familiarize yourself with all of the programs and policies in place that regulate it and you know where are you going to get the best offer. Which program should you apply for? Uh what land trust do you partner with? What does it mean to have an agricultural conservation easement on
your land? So, I created a brochure with Florida Farm Bureau, developed it over the course of a year looking at federal, state, and local policies uh that are in place to incentivize uh farmers to place agricultural conservation easements on their land. And this brochure is available now online. It's available
through the Florida Farm Bureau. If you want a PDF copy of it, please contact me. I'm more than happy to provide that. I'll provide my email at the end. Of course, I forgot my business card because I never bring them with me. They're they sit in my office. But, um, please just reach out to me or Florida Farm Bureau and I'll make sure to get a
copy of that to you. Uh, but with that um starting with going back to that question earlier, uh, what is an agricultural conservation easement? It's a less than fee acquisition. Well, what's a less than fee acquisition? We've talked about this a little bit already. It's not buying a property outright. it is purchasing the
underlying development rights while the landowner retains ownership of the property. Uh so I used to be a TA back in a previous life lifetime for an a law class and the way that the teacher explained this uh she's uh an a attorney and she would say think of your property
rights as a bundle of wood and you can separate out the different rights with it that you have attached to your property and sell those individually. I was in Colorado at the time. So, you would be able to sell your water uh rights on the private market there. Here, what you can do is you can separate out your development rights and
retain the rest of your property rights. And that is what you're doing when you're selling a conservation easement. The landowner retains the uh underly ownership of the underlying property. They're just taking out that stick, which is the development rights. Um we've talked about this a little bit
too. uh in order to be a conservation easement uh uh they uh the owner is compensated and that uh takes away the development right in perpetuity. It has to be in perpetuity otherwise the IRS doesn't recognize it and it's no longer uh and you just get hit with taxes as
though there's no easement in place. So it has to be in perpetuity otherwise uh it's not recognized as a conservation easement. Most importantly it's entirely voluntary. So you must have a willing seller and a willing buyer. You must have a agency, a department, a land trust that is willing to buy and
purchase and hold the conservation easement. And you have to have a land owner that is willing to sell it. It can't be forced upon either party. So, what are the benefits of selling uh a conservation easement or selling your development rights? Uh I'm an economist,
so I like to separate these out into private and public uh benefits. Private benefits includes uh uh tax incentives. If a farmer or rancher decides to donate or sell their development right below fair market value, they can get a tax break and that can roll over year year
to uh um onto uh multiple years uh depending on how much of a uh a donation that they are making. Um they get a break in the form of property taxes because it uh lowers the value of the property because you're selling a piece of the property uh or you're selling a
component that would increase the value of the property. So that lowers its value and you and they are now tax less. And conservation easements are also often part of a estate planning process. So uh if you want to pass your land on to your heirs but you don't want to burden them with a large inheritance tax
burden, what you can do is you can place a conservation easement on that land again because that is lowering the overall value. Uh you're not burdening your heirs with as big of a tax burden as otherwise would be. These programs often also come with technical assistance. uh we talked about BMPPS. In
order to enroll in these programs, the uh the agricultural uh activity on the land has to follow BMPs and a lot of these programs offer technical assistance so that you can be in compliance with that. Um as well as a cost sharing for whatever it takes to get that land either uh remediation or
to uh uh get it to the point where it can uh be on function under those BMPs. Thanks. Um so that that way uh uh that that's one of the benefits that uh land owners get when uh uh you know working with conservation easement um uh uh organ uh
organizations that give out conservation easements shouldn't say give that purchase conservation easements. And then finally control over legacy. Um we talked a lot uh uh about development in rural areas and farmers they want to keep that rural character
for their children and their grandchildren. I I I talk with land owners a lot and that seems to be a big big concern there as well. They want the children to have the same quality of life to experience the same things that uh they grow up and their grandchildren and their grandchildren childrens to have that same opportunity. And by
putting a conservation easement on their land uh that can ensure that it stays in agricultural production and for generations uh uh that uh uh that legacy remains in place. So there are public benefits as well. Um
uh from a county perspective, it is a way to manage uh urban and suburban sprawl. Uh we talked earlier about the cost of extending services. Uh that is a a a big uh um uh expenditure when you have this rapid growth and uh uh
pressure uh to uh uh the development pressure that is on a lot of counties here in Florida. Um it can also help maintain a critical mass of agriculture which is something that uh has been brought up uh a lot today. Uh agricultural supply chains really rely
on a critical mass of agricultural activity in an area. And when you have processors and packaging facilities located in an in an area, if that critical mass is no longer there, they'll have to leave and move elsewhere. And when that happens, the e
it becomes less economically viable to farm in that area, which causes a further reduction in farming, which causes more of the agricultural supply chain to leave. It can really create a negative feedback loop if you lose a critical mass of agriculture. And so agricultural conservation easements can
really help preserve and ensure that your county does not lose that critical mass so that agriculture remains an economically viable industry within the county. Um, again, preserving agricultural heritage at the county level. Uh, wanting that, uh, uh, you,
you know, you want the county to be a pleasant place that has that rural character, uh, that you grew up experiencing, and you don't want that to change. Um, counties are faced with this decision of, okay, how do we manage growth? We want to improve the uh, economic well-being of our constituents,
but we don't necessarily want all of the uh, ailments that comes along with uh, development. So agricultural conservation easements can be part of that balancing act of you don't want to stand in the way of economic development but you don't want to trade your agricultural character for that economic
development. Um providing open space as well and then uh we talked about wildlife habitat species corridors um uh spring recharge conservation easements provide all of these benefits as well. So, I got my degree at Colorado State
University uh in agricultural economics. And there was a study that uh Colorado State did that focused on land owners who started the process of acquiring an agricultural conservation easement on their land and then backed out of it because they wanted to know why did land
owners back out of getting a conservation easement after being interested in it. And what the study found is that um often the expectations of land owners going into it did not align with the reality of it. So these are some of the considerations when as a
county uh you're uh if you choose to develop your own uh agricultural conservation easement program. These are some things that you can convey to land owners upfront at the beginning so that they are aware of uh when they're engaging with this process of what to expect. Um so one is that the process
tends to be lengthy. This is true uh even with uh uh the rural family lands protection program which uh uh not to brag but it is one of the flagship agricultural conservation easement programs in the entire country. No state has a program quite like Florida's and I don't think any state has conserved as
many acres through a state program as as much as Florida has. It's it's really one of a kind and is a model for the rest of the country. Um but even that program the process is lengthy. It's a one to twoyear process. It's not like selling your house, which can happen in less than two months. Uh it's a one to
two-year process. Land owners apply to the program. The top candidates are selected. The county sends out an assessor, a surveyor. They test the soil. They look at the history of agriculture that has taken place on that land. Um the private land owner also
brings out an assessor. You negotiate on a price. You try to find cost sharing matches to come together on a uh make a deal. And when you get through all that, it's it it's been a year or two. So that's just something to know upfront.
Uh the process is complex. Uh I again being a TA for an A law class, I can't stress enough how important it is to get legal and technical assistance. Um these application processes, especially if you're going to engage with some of the federal programs that I'll talk about later in this presentation, they're
pretty complex. Um, and uh, and when you're applying to these programs and you want to make your application the most competitive uh, as possible as as a land owner, you're going to want to engage experts who can speak the language and can work within and who know the system that that they're
working within. So, I highly encourage uh, both the county and land owners to work with a lawyers that specialize in agricultural conservation easements. Uh, the process is competitive. So, I think uh Commissioner Simpson mentioned earlier there were over 300 uh
applications uh uh to the RFLPP this year. Um not all of these applications are going to be selected. And part of making a competitive application again is uh having the technical assistance that'll let you word things, highlight uh the uh uh the most attractive
features of that property to that specific program. Um, and just making sure that you check all the boxes in terms of qualifying and that you do all the paperwork, get everything submitted on time. And finally, funding is cyclical and subject to change. Uh, this is one of the biggest ones when when you're
talking to land owners about, you know, agricultural conservation easements. A big concern, and this is a very very important uh, and valid concern is, well, what if the property value goes up 2 to 3 years, 5 years from now? I'm not going to miss out from uh on on that revenue if I sell a conservation
easement now. And that is absolutely a a risk. It's uncertainty. However, trying to time the market itself is risky, but also program funding fluctuates. It may not be as well funded next year or it may be a more competitive application next year. Um so these are things that
also need to be taken into account. Uh uh this is more on the landowner side. When you're applying to this, you uh don't only need to be uh concerned about the property uh uh uh property values, but another concern is also what about funding for the program? How likely is my uh application going to be accepted
this year? Is it going to be more competitive down the road? Is the program funding even going to ex I mean at the federal level, is the program going to be available at all next year? It might not exist. So, these are things to consider when you're uh thinking about applying to conservation easement programs.
So now I'm going to run through some conservation uh easement programs that really are focused on uh uh preserving agriculture. Um but we've talked about all this quickly. So I'll go through it uh uh uh without taking too much time to to leave leave room for questions. So
starting with the RCPP program uh this program is uh designed to uh prevent a land from being converted to non-aggricultural uses. That is that is the mission of this. And this program is a bit unique in that rather than uh uh
buying conservation easements outright directly from land owners. What they do is they provide funding to projects managed by lead partners. And those lead partners are either government or land trust. In Florida, they're all land trust. Um and the projects uh all have
distinct geographic boundaries. I have I'll put a map up here in a little bit that'll have those boundaries for where the six RCPP projects are and their lead partners in the state. Um, but each project has its own objectives. Some of those objectives are more permissible in terms of what type of agricultural
activities they'll allow. So projects that are focused on habitat uh corridors and wildlife corridors, those are going to be more permissible. They're going to allow more types of agriculture. Whereas ones that may be more focused on spring recharge, uh uh those might be more
concerned about uh pesticide nutrient application, they may be more restrictive about uh the type of agricultural activities that they'll that they're willing to allow on land that they're going to purchase a conservation easement of. So, it's really important for land owners to
consider what type uh uh what the goals and objectives of the uh lead partners are and whether their land management uh objectives align with those goals. Um, by the way, for each program, uh these slides will be made available to anyone that wants them. I've included a link at
that button that's at the bottom. Uh uh you can click on that, go directly to that program's website and learn more about it. So RCPP has six active projects in Florida spanning 28 counties. Three of those include Lake County. So those
bottom three, the Ocala to Oyola, the lake to the lagoon, and uh corridor to coast. Those three all overlap Lake County in the northeast corner, which you can see on this map. So there are land owner uh potentially land owners uh in this state who could qualify uh or
apply to be uh uh to get a conservation to place a conservation easement on their land from the lead partners for any of these three programs. And the three uh lead partners for these programs are the North Florida Land Trust, the Elatchua Conservation Trust, and the North uh oh sorry, the North
Florida Land Trust and the Elatcha Conservation Trust. Um both of those uh land trusts by the way have preserving agriculture and working lands as one of their primary objectives. I'll talk more about land trust at the end if I have time. Uh but working uh when you're selecting a land trust to work with it's
really important to make sure that la that land trust prioritizes preserving working agricultural lands because there's all kinds of land trust out there. So there's also at the federal level the ASAP ALE which uh ASAP stands for agricultural conservation easement
program. ALE stands for agricultural land easements. Um the primary objective of this program is again to prevent the conversion of a land to non-ag uses. Um unlike the previous program uh this one uh works directly with land owners but also with state agencies. It's primarily
a cost sharing um option. So if you if a land owner wants to apply for uh the be a um for a conservation ement through the rule family lands protection program as a alle might step in and say hey we'll cover 20% 30 50% of the cost to acquire that conservation easement. That
way the RFLPP or a county program can stretch its dollars further. Um this is really designed to just really help state and local programs get the most out of their money by sharing the cost of acquiring these easements. So that's something that um working with the ASAP program might be something the board
would consider down the road. Um allowable land uses again they're broadly focused on preserving agricultural land preventing it from being converted to non-ag uses. So uh they allow a lot of uh uh types of agriculture. Um they do require uh that
uh applicants uh land that goes into uh this program meet at least one of the following requirements, but these are pretty easy to check off. further a state or local policy consistent with the pip uh purpose of ASEP Ale. If you qualify for the RFLPP, you qualif you
you check off that requirement. Or if there's a county program in place and the land owner qualifies for it, they check off that box or you know 50% of uh agricultural land be prime unique, protect raising uses or related conservation values or contain
historical or archaeological resources. Um, other requirements in order to cost share with this program is that the average adjusted gross income of the land owner be less than 900,000 for the previous three years. This is because they primarily target small and medium agricultural operations because those
are the ones that tend to be most at risk for conversion to non-aggricultural uses. Um, again compliant with USDA's conservation requirements for highly erodable land BMPs. Make sure that they're, you know, they're following following BMPs. Farm records established with the FSA. This is something that
county extension agents uh can help farmers with uh if that's an issue. And then written pending offer from an eligible partner. So this would be an offer from either a program at the county level or the RFLPP or a land trust lead partner through the RCPP. I'm throwing a lot of abbreviations. Sorry,
that's man. Yeah, you work you work in UFIS. You throw around a lot of abbreviations. So let me know if anything's confusing. Okay. So, state uh uh programs uh I've it's been talked a lot about all day. I'm not going to talk too much more
about it. Uh it's an it's an amazing program, rural family lands protection program. Um unlike the previous two programs, it t it focuses on directly acquiring and holding conservation easements from land owners. Um and it is available to a lot of different types of
agricultural activity. um some requirements uh it must protect agricultural land threatened by uh conversion. So say that the uh county extends uh services uh by a plot of land that land suddenly becomes a lot more
attractive to development that could qualify for uh as being threatened by conversion or the parcel beside this uh was just sold to a developer. That makes that adjacent parcel much more uh likely to be converted. Uh so that checks that box. uh or it could uh uh uh perpetuate
open space on lands with significant natural areas, protection and enhanced natural bodies, spring recharge, uh aquafer recharge, that type of uh ecosystem service, and then promotion and improvement of wildlife habitat. The RFLPP does prioritize uh have a prioriti
prioritiz prioritization matrix uh that it uses to to rank properties. um ranch and timberland that is managed sustainably following BMPPS gets priority. Uh parcels that perpetuate the viability of ongoing a operations. This comes down to size. The larger the
parcel the more that it's going to perpetuate the ongoing viability economic viability of a operations. um the you know a 10 a 10acre parcel that's great but if you can conserve 500 acres uh that does much more to preserve the economic viability of agriculture
than than the 10 acres uh in most most situations parcels that are most at risk for conversion get priority uh parcels that protect natural areas and projects uh that are eligible for cost sharing. RFLPP loves to make its dollar dollars go as far as they can. So, if it can
cost share with a county program, if it can cost share with a federal program. If it can cost share with all three, that's the trifecta, that's great. You're going to get a lot of bang for your buck doing that. Uh, Florida Forest Legacy Program. This is very similar to the RFLPP, but for Silva Culture. So, I'm not going to
spend too much time on that. Um, Florida Forever. This is different uh from the RFLPP or the uh Florida Forest Legacy program. Uh, that's because the previous two are run out of F decks. The Florida Forever is run of the out of uh FD. Um
FD is much more focused on conservation in general, but one of the primary objectives of them uh that they have for the Florida Forever program is the protection of working landscapes. Um so even though it's not specifically focused exclusively on agriculture, the goals may align in certain cases. uh if
you have properties in the county that are located in wildlife corridors or sensitive spring recharge areas that are adjacent to existing uh protected areas or that uh provide flood protection to developed areas. Um that land could be eligible for cost sharing with the
Florida Forever program. Again, they're going to be more restrictive about the type of agricultural practices they allow though just because they are they are focused more broadly on conservation. Um, so this was something that uh was
pretty new to me. I was unaware uh that there were county conu uh agricultural conservation easement programs and still until I started working with Florida Farm Bureau on this project and I was able to identify six across the state. Uh the Elatchwa County forever pro um agricultural land conservation strategy
is the probably the newest one. It was uh passed by the board earlier this year and it is the only program whose primary objective is the protection of agricultural land. Um but this just helps organi uh this chart just helps you uh kind of conceptually organize
these conservation easement programs because at the county level these programs vary a lot in terms of their funding, their scope, their mission, how they uh rank the properties that are that apply to them. But there are existing uh examples in Florida of
counties with agricultural conservation easement programs uh uh that if Lake County wanted to look at them and maybe learn some of the lessons from them or say, "Oh, that's a model program that we would like to look at." Um all of their uh uh conservation matrix uh for
example, uh how they rank properties, all of that is available. Um it's um if if you're having trouble finding it, reach out to me. I'm more than happy to to to share that. Um, but I tried to organize them uh based on how much they prioritized uh the uh the conservation
of a land as well as what types of agriculture were allowed under each program. Um, so you can see that the Elatcha County Forever uh is the only one that uh uh has conservation of a land in its primary objective. Compare that to the Indian River County uh
environmental lands program. Uh this one uh is a little bit interesting because the protection of a llane is listed as one of several objectives but it doesn't appear at all in their ranking matrix. When you look at their ranking matrix there's economic values, there's social
concerns, there's environmental values, agriculture is not mentioned anywhere. So, it's just one of those things where it can be an objective, but if you don't rank uh put it in the waiting of how you're uh ranking properties, how how likely is it that an a land is going to come to the top of that uh
prioritization? Um so, that's just, you know, an example of of of how different counties have gone about it. I'm more than happy to provide more information on any one of these if there's any questions on that. And finally with land trusts, uh land trust, uh just real quick, are community-based nonprofit organizations
uh that work to uh permanently conserve land. A land trust can be local, state, or regional in scope. Um and they uh work directly with private land owners as well as uh state uh and local governments and federal governments uh uh to protect land and some uh uh focus
uh primarily on agricultural land. Um, the way I like to describe it, uh, for land owners is once you start working with a land trust, that land trust is going to be the one that holds oftent times the agricultural conservation easement, especially if you're working with the RCPP. And if you
go that route, think of it like a marriage. And when you marry someone, you're going to want to make sure that they hopefully hold the same values and have the same objectives as you do. So, this is a a this is a agreement that is even going to outlive you. So you want
to make sure when you're establishing and you're negotiating that conservation easement that your objectives, your goals, your values all align. Um so conservation e uh uh sorry land trusts come in many different flavors. Uh so I came up with this chart. Um this again
these presentation uh will be made available. These are all of the land trusts that have been certified uh by the land trust alliance as uh uh um uh they they basically are the gold standard. If you're a member of the land trust alliance, you're a trustworthy land trust. Uh you you are trustworthy
and and they encourage people to work with these certified land trusts. Um the ones that have stars beside them uh on this uh chart are ones that uh list agg uh protecting agriculture as one of their primary objectives. And then I have all the counties that they operate
in. So, for example, the Elatcha Conservation Trust is active in Lake County. The American Farmland Trust is active in all counties. That's a national one, so they're a little bit harder to get funding from just because they operate at a national level and they're more of a networker where they'll tie you to local land trust, but
they are spread all over the country and they don't have a whole lot of money to allocate towards individual projects. But groups like the Elatcha Conservation Trust or the North Florida Land Trust, those are the ones that are going to be cost sharing and providing some of the money for agricultural conservation easements.
All right, so I think I spoke fast enough for everybody. I hope that's clear as mud. Um, this guide is available online, but we've been having technical difficulties. So if you have trouble accessing it, just email me. I'm more than happy to provide a PDF uh of the document if you're having trouble
getting to it. Uh, with that, thank you for your time. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. Um, if you need me to go back to the prior slide, I'm happy to do that, too. Just let me know or Yeah, great. Great information. Commissioner Bar just real quick as I know there might be other questions and a little more discussion,
but uh thank you very much. Appreciate you, Dr. Polardi and um love UFIFAS and the benefit to help us shape uh policy uh here in Lake County and all around Florida. Um if just real quick with the uh the the land trust you just touched
on that just again just my opinion how important that is. Uh I don't know if you could put that slide back up there but the Elatchua if not no biggie but the the Elatchua Conservation Trust. So about four years ago I was like really really getting into all this and I was
ready to just like go out and start my own trust. I was a little naive you know but but I was told no no you need to you need to go and and uh work with Elatchua. So I will put the plug in for us as we move forward that that is a great they're great for us as well as American Farmland Trust which I've met
at the Florida Wildlife Corridor. So that is a key part and they the key part to emphasize that is they have money so they can shorten the time frame for those in a that want lands to be preserved instead of waiting years for money to show up. They can bridge that
gap. So, I just think emphasize that that is going to be really important for us is to get the to I think to go with Elatchua personally uh and maybe American Farmland as well, but there's others. They're all good, but um so I don't know, more of a more of an opinion, I guess, than anything other
than to say thank you. And um I look forward to getting a copy of this presentation. Um I thought it had a lot of good information in it. Absolutely. and I can provide uh uh some copies of the brochure for land owners to the county to Lake County as well if uh for the interested land owners here. I'm
sorry I wasn't unable to print out any to bring with me today to the meeting, but um we can provide those u and we'll also have them available through our local extension office here. So yeah, thank you. All right, any any other questions? Awesome. Great information and we're
going to move into a panel discussion. Um, Meg Brew, uh, D, executive director of development services. Um, actually, I think it's Kathleen. Did I say Meg? I meant to say I'm a sad stand in for Meg, but I am who you get today. So, well, we're happy
that you're here to do this and moderate a short panel discussion um with local leaders in agriculture. Um, so we're going to let you take it from here and get this. Yeah, for the record, Kathleen D, executive director of development services for Lake County. And I know we've thrown a lot of information at you
today to um digest, but we didn't want to end without letting you hear from some local farmers and leaders in agriculture. So, it's my privilege today to welcome um Ryan Atwood, if you'll come on up. Tom Frost and Austin Spivey.
Um three outstanding members of the Lake County a community. And as you heard in the FAA um FFA creed so beautifully put, these men truly know the joys and discomforts of agricultural life. Um we have a few questions to help begin the
conversation. So gentlemen, if you would first please introduce yourself and share what you enjoy the most about working in agriculture. Uh Austin Spivey. I work uh with Cherry Lake in South Lake County, Grolin. Um, I
came into agriculture about 11 years ago and uh, one of the things I did not anticipate, I love the idea of having that farm as my office. Beautiful rolling landscape, lakes, sunrises, the whole thing. The one thing I didn't anticipate was the quality of the people
that I get to be involved with every day in a some of the most humble, hardworking, high integrity people I've ever encountered. So, uh, that's probably what I love most about agriculture is the people I get to surround myself with. Um, my name is Tom Frost. Um, got into
agriculture about 12 years ago. Our farm is a um a cattle ranching operation. We do cow calf and some uh some backgrounding um of beef cattle. And then we're a horse farm. So, we um raise quarter horses um
raise about 30 year um trained 2-year-old cutting horses um and sell them out at the Western uh bloodstock sale in Texas. Um so, the best thing about agriculture for me is uh I get to work with my kids. Um I've got three
kids, my uh my oldest two and 8-year-old and 10-year-old. They work with us every day. They homeschool, so we're on the farm together. Um we've got a great team. Um, our uh our team is is eclectic. We've got guys from South America, guys from Europe, guys from
Alabama. Um, so we have the whole mix and it's a it's a good good place to to work and a great place for my kids to grow up and um I get to pretend like I'm a kid every day. So, can't ask for a better life than that. I'm Ryan Atwood, one of the owners of
H&A Farms. Got I was a city kid growing up. um not from agricultural background, worked for Lake County as an agricultural extension agent for fruit crops. Fell in love with the people much like Austin did. I found the people to be excellent, high quality, just wanted
to be around them. Saw some opportunities to start my own blueberry operation. Uh partnered with the Hill family, great great people. Um, we started a packing house and Michael Hill, who's the CEO, has grown it into, I believe it's the largest packing house in the Eastern United States, if not the
whole country now, for blueberries. So, it's pretty been pretty successful. Um, and just really the people is what got me interested in it. Thank you. And we know that there are plenty of challenges even with the resources available to farmers. There are challenges that can
make farming difficult. Severe weather, foreign competition, um pest diseases and labor related issues have all been cited as challenges for farmers. In your professional experience, what have you found to be the greatest challenge to farming for
productivity and profitability? probably and I can only speak for our operation. Uh probably labor is the greatest challenge for us because we're we're very specialized and labor intensive in our farming. I think it takes um one person per five acres for a
whole year to perform all the different tasks. We have 720 acres. So that's like 143 people we have to employ just to produce the crop. Doesn't get it to market, doesn't get it to the loading dock, any of that stuff. doesn't sell it. Um, and so labor's been a challenge.
We're we're innovative. We mechanize. We automate uh as much as we can, but um but yeah, labor's been a challenge for us. Um we engage in some of the uh some of the federal programs, H2 programs. Uh they've been wonderful to us. Um they're
antiquated and they probably need a little bit of updating. I think 1984 is when they were rolled out and I don't think there's been a single update to those programs. uh since then, which is absurd. That's, you know, 40 years. Um there wasn't even the internet when those uh were implemented, right? So
there's probably some things some opportunity there, but it's a it's a political, you know, hot stove. And so um so we haven't gotten a lot of traction there. But yeah, to be brief, um labor is the biggest challenge. And uh more specifically, domestic labor. um
being able to hire and recruit domestic labor has been a significant challenge for us. Ours is a bit different. Ours is land. Um you know, we raise beef cattle and the only way you can make money and raise beef cattle is for them to graze. And the only way you get more way to
graze is more land. And uh at one point in time we had 1,500 mama cows and we were on 19 leases spread from uh Kenanville, Florida all the way up to Graceville, Florida, which probably driving that's a probably a eight hour
drive between those spots and uh and we really cut ourselves down a lot. Um Moras just couldn't do it anymore. Um and we would lose leases and so we'd lose money um we'd lose money to houses. We we you know we'd lose out to a guy who wanted to build houses. we'd lose out to a guy who wanted to build
blueberries uh you know blueberry field. You know the the the the worst possible uh you know um financial solution for for a landowner is to have beef cattle on it but probably the best um environmental solution is beef cattle. Uh probably every neighbor wants beef
cattle. Um you know comes with the own set of problems. and people who are who are bordering our property even even our our main our main ranch in Lady Lake. You know, we'll put down lime um which is just uh you know like spreading sand and we put down lime and and our
neighbors think we're trying to kill them um with a chemical. It's not chemical. Um but uh but that that I see that for the big challenge for everybody else. Um but yeah, our biggest challenge really is land. Um I think people love the the ranching life. Um, we don't have
a hard time getting really good talent to to work with us. Um, we got a great place to work. Um, you know, but, uh, we have way less people. Um, you know, I know your guys challenge. I've been to your dormatory and all that stuff. It's it's it's a lot. Um, but yeah, ours is,
you know, it's land and and, uh, you know, we have to buy at about $5,000 an acre to be able to to do our job and make money at it. Um, we'll buy for more than that. Obviously, we we've been buying for more than that. Um, but that means it's going to be a um a labor of
love. So, we do it a lot of it's out of love. Um, we definitely need more land or more access to land. So, this is a topic I could speak hours on literally, but I don't want to take that much time for you guys because I know it's been long enough. But labor
would be one, land would be one. Honestly, the rural urban interface, which is very, you know, much important to Lake County is another. Uh, just as an example, I get people every year that are not happy with me because I'm running my bird cannons or my bird
squelters, which legally we're allowed to do an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. We turn them off, but still doesn't matter to people who like to drink heavily and sleep until 11:00 a.m. and I turn on my cannons at 8:30. And then they send me literally three-page long text messages that are
just nastier than anything you've ever read. And then you have other neighbors come over and they want to fight you. And then you have neighbors come over when you have COVID because you're picking your crop and they don't understand why you've got 100 people in your field because you're supposed to be socially distancing. And then you've got
police officers who work the night shift and they come home and they want to sleep in the day and then they tell you every uh rule and law that you're breaking by having semis come to your property. And anyway, I'm just giving you small little tidbits over the years of things that we deal with. I've been in this office before when people have
tried to get H2A housing in this county. I've never seen so many pitchforks out before and that's a legal program through the government. So, there's a lot of a lot of challenges. We haven't even talked about environmental hail storms, you know, things that happen. So, it truly is a labor of love in a lot
of ways. Uh there are a ton of challenges, not only on the local level, but on the federal level. And so, it's it's it's a very difficult profession. There's a lot of ways to lose money to be honest. And um I'm going to be brief. So, okay. And last question. In your
interactions with colleagues across the country, have you come across local programs or initiatives that have been effective in helping individuals who want to continue farming profitably be able to do so? If so, could you share
one? Yeah. So, um, one of the programs I encountered, so one of the things that didn't really get talked about today is there's a lot of wonderful programs to help put your land into um, prop perpetual uh, green space, right? But the the
assumption that's made is that um, well, I want to see my land continue to be farmed. But I think um one of the big problems and perhaps this dictates the decision making a little bit is um succession planning you know that I
think only 30% of agricultural operations make it to the the next generation right so I think there's this big gap in um succession planning because you know if I'm if I'm a guy that owns a a swath of land I yeah of course I want to see my labor of love
preserved and all that but do I take pennies on the dollar and then not have anyone to give it to to see that through fruition or do I take, you know, my 401k in full, so to speak, right? And so I think that's a challenge there. And so I
would encourage anybody that's looking at developing programs for conservation um to also consider the succession planning services. Um, you know, there and specifically there was a program in Colorado that um that I I was made aware
of um in my time in Wedgeworth and um and basically these guys had got together and they basically crowdsourced a bunch of aspiring farmers, got their resumes, got everything that um you know that that made them credible um you know
in terms of of being a potential employee. And then they looked at the aging farming population that didn't have a good succession plan. Their kids don't want to farm it. They don't want to take over. They live in urban areas. Um, and they basically created a service
to where they could match um, you know, people that wanted to keep their land in agriculture and people that wanted to become uh, farmers, you know, that but the greatest barrier to entry is land, the cost of land, right? And so they were trying to put these two together
and um and I think that's a wonderful program. Um again the statistics show the the farming population is aging. The amount of uh second and third generation uh farms is diminishing greatly. Um and you know so there's this little gap
there and I think um considering that gap and creating something uh you know to meet that need um would go a long way. So, we're actually in the process of putting our land in through the um Royal Family Lands program. We've submitted
our application. It's a 90page application that we filled out and um we're working with Dean Saunders and his group um JT Thompson who's a a local guy, local grew up here. Um so, that's what we're doing right now. So, we're
putting 512 acres um in that program. There's a lot of negotiations. That's kind of one of the biggest things. It's it's negotiating every little bit what you can do with the land, how it could get subdivided into smaller farms. Um you know, if that was was something, how
many houses can get built um over time and uh so we're in the process of that and that'll probably be for us, my wife and I. Um that's the generational change. Um so you know 500 plus acres of high and dry land in in the area of Lady
Lake where are we are I mean as development land that's really valuable. Um just trying to make sure that we get enough that it makes it worthwhile cuz you know um I think you get in there and we've we've spoken to the Lal Land Trust and Tom Kay and and the guys over there
really smart guys but it's like they you sit there with them and a lot of times they're going like okay well yeah we'll give you like 2 million and you're like yeah um I I I'm I'm 10 in like like thanks but no thanks. Like it went up
like it doubled. So for like $20 million, you're going to give me two. Like that's probably not a good negotiation. There's not. And so I think that's the biggest challenge. Um but I think assembling the programs together is really important. I think finding a good partner is really, you know, I
think um you know, S, you know, Dean Saunders has done a great job at it. They just know. And so I think anybody who's interested in I think you know, not to, you know, represent them. We haven't finished ours yet, but there's so many pots of money. I learned a lot today um listening um and uh and it
looks like there's you know I'm sure that the Saunders guys know kind of how to navigate that. But that's that's the biggest part is kind of going to to that. But that that's going to be the biggest thing for my family to be able to continue to do this. Um I don't know what happens in the third generation. I don't know. My kids are pretty young. Um
but you know I think when you're doing it you hope that they'll do it and if they're doing it every day more than likely they're going to one of them's going to do it. So, so I was negative with my last comment, but I'll be more positive this time. One of the good things about the urban rural
interface is you can do aggro tourism. And as most of you know that I'm also an owner of an aggurism farm called Amber Broke Farms in Eustace and uh as the population comes to you, you can you can successfully do that. And I know a lot of the growers that have agurism tourism agro tourism towns in Lake County that
have been very successful. Grahams up with their peaches. Transitioned from a failing citrus operation into a very, you know, successful uh peach you pick. Obviously, the Hill family down in Claremont is probably the poster child of all Florida agricultural a tourism
farms in the state if if not the top, one of the top. Um, so I think there's an opportunity in that realm for our county. Uh I still think there are there are more and more coming in and compet there's competition healthy friendly competition but I think that for our area the future that could be something
that would be of benefit. So I just want to thank you all for your time and expertise and really all of our speakers. We've had people travel from all over the state to come be with you today. So with that I'll turn it back over to you for any questions or discussion.
You guys have questions? You want I I have a question and it's probably for for all of you, but um since uh Mr. process going through this process. Would you would you say that if
this process was less cumbersome, it would help bring down the price and get more people interested in going through this process? I I think that the time like you know,
we've been in it for over 18 months now and and we don't see like, you know, he said a year or two. I think you should probably say three. Um that's a long time for anybody, especially a lot of farmers transition because of health issues. Um I think there there needs to
be some somewhere that they can bridge loan it. You know, you can bail a guy out. I mean, I was in a tractor this morning. I don't know about these guys, but I was in a tractor this morning. Like, you know, I'm hauling cows to the market tomorrow. Like, if I had a real bad health issue, like a developer can
make me a deal tomorrow. and and and and there's the time is the biggest part problem. Yeah. You you you're saying it was 90 pages and I'm sure you have an attorney involved. Yep. So there's an expense there that's just absolutely to me is ridiculous that we can't
streamline this process some way to Are we listening back over here? We need to streamline this process a little bit so we can make it less cumbersome because not all farmers have the resources that some of y'all have. I mean, we're talking some farmers here that just
barely hanging on and they're just and they're wanting to to continue farming, but they're not sure how to do it and they're not sure how to go through the process. Yeah, I think it's one of I think it's on us to get with the the the state and the federal level to figure out how to make this less cumbersome.
So, thank you for your remarks, though. Mr. We'll come back to you. Sure. Yeah. My question is more staff. The u um $50 million bond issue. Will it allow us to go and use that money for like the rural
and family lands? I mean, the way it was written, can we parlay the money into making money? Yeah. I I don't have the language in front of me. At the time we developed that ordinance, the discussion of buying
development rights really didn't come up. Um it is written that we would be acquiring interests in land. So a development right would be an interest in land as you all you talk about. You picture that bundle of sticks and that could be one of the sticks. So I think that's something we'd have to explore a
little bit more as to whether it was intended to reach to that level. And the other language though just I know you don't have the language in front of you but working off a memory um there was a lot of focus on you know
water quality um green spaces um correct it it was focused on water quality green spaces um there is a section that does talk about um acquiring property to protect against overdevelopment
um that that term is actually in there. So, but again, your initial discussions when we came up with that language wasn't so much as TDRs as much as it was to acquire property like you had done on the original issuance. So, so we could acquire property
and if we wanted to get rid of the development rights, we have the property. Why could we not sell the property? You can, but because it's a restricted funding source, of course, whatever the sale prices would go back into that fund. You have to be you have to be
careful too because these are taxexempt bonds. So there are some federal regulations where you have to be really really careful about buying something immediately and then turning it around and selling it. Every time we look at selling um one of the properties that we purchased in a previous previous
issuance, we do go to our bond council and have them look at that and review it to make sure we're not violating any federal regulations. And I think that's why Commissioner Simpson had said uh two to three years. Um, I imagine there might be a time frame on that. We we
need to research that. Correct. We'd have to look at the federal regs. Where that might where that might to your point where that might come into play is the 50 million of course with partnering with other agencies is say you say you did have a agricultural piece of land,
but there was some environmental features with it associated with it. But it's a large track of property and there's agricultural operations going on on one part of it. But then other parts have some environmental features, water resource protection, but the person
that's in a is getting rid of wants to get rid of sorry to put it that way, but the the whole entire track. So maybe maybe the money goes towards more what's lined with the conservation strategy mapped lands and then you you marry it with rural and family lands protection
act money. Maybe you throw in somebody else and you're wheeling and dealing and that's how you can accomplish that. Maybe. But my goal is to make the 50 million go as far as we can. As much as we can. Absolutely. And if that means we can
make money on the way through without hurting the bond, not the the the bonding. I I think we should look into it. Commissioner Sabatini. Sure. My question is I mean all three great farmers. Thank you guys for being here. It seems to me
like uh Ryan you're the most into agri tourism obviously of the three in my opinion. How do we expand agurism and how does the county partner with you or other operators on um expanding? You know you always people talk about economic development and one of the big
complaints they have is we you know developing people to come in and compete against our local guys. I want the car I want the county to really partner with the with the stakeholders in the community to incentivize them to spread agurism or maybe take farms that make
great money and are very profitable but don't have an aggra tourism sector and incentivize them to do that. I think that's the my opinion the most economically viable way uh to keep a high and growing uh you know obviously viable but also keep the quality and
cultural you know life. What what are what are your thoughts on that? Do you have maybe like hey maybe a partnership? I mean I'm just curious what what can we do from our side? My initial reaction is I don't know. Um I do think there's some things that as a agricultural producer
that are more challenging in that business because the the truth is it's it's a different kind of business, right? Like it's not just out there growing blueberries and dealing with my employees and and that's a totally different. You're dealing with the general public. You're outward facing. You have you need different skill sets
in a lot of times. My wife for our small deal when we started it was perfect for that because she's total extrovert and did a really good job with interacting with folks. But then you have other challenges maybe where you could help like with uh traffic patterns. I mean we I went to our Easter egg hunt. I don't
know Leslie lives up nearby. She might have saw it. But I was like oh my gosh we back traffic up a mile. I was like people are running on the dirt road you know on the pave road. I'm just like this is a nightmare, you know, but it wasn't intended obviously, right? But it's just one of those things where it
was popular, people wanted to come to it. We're, you know, we've done it before, but we're not experts in how to how to deal with those kind of situations. So maybe that's where you could give assistance to people and and help us with those kind of issues.
And then this is just a thought going from Q&A just to just conversation here with the board. But just a thought I had um is you know obviously these are limited dollars and we want to get development rights and everyone's going to want to be if if they know they want to sell the development rights they're going to be applying and it's going to
be competitive. I almost think there's a way to incentivize agri tourism by tying it in legally into who gets who who we purchase from in the sense that okay we'll purchase from people who are interested in doing good agurism in our
county and proven operators can come and it's like okay you know you guys already know what you're doing you got a great farms you're going to get points right under the board to jump up and then like we literally buy development rights or buy land and let these guys operated
through I guess it would be a separate legal agreement to incentivize in increase agurism as part of this conversation. I just think it's the best way um to to incentivize this this healthy and
good industry which I think improves the um culture or quality of life and desiraability to live in this county and so it sounds like an aggressive approach but it's just something to think about that's all you know I'm just sort of thinking in that regard of how we can
really incentivize agurism more than any of the other counties in central Florida. All good thoughts. Um, okay. Yeah. Two two two questions I I think. Quick. Um, the the um succession planning services. I think that's a a great idea. I mean,
wow. That could be really big. Do local banks are local banks involved with that in Colorado? Like if our local banks that I do not know. Okay. Okay. Because what I understand is is it's it's for somebody that knows that it's not going to stay in my family, but I'm going to be sort of matched up with somebody that
proves themselves to want to be. Yeah. And and I think one of the attractive things was well, you know, the it's wide open as far as what the arrangement could be. You know, it could be, well, my family continues to own the land and we have a very lucrative lease offer for
you and you profit off of it, right? So you're an owner operator in the sense that you own the operation but yet you know the family gets to keep. So they they they explained quite a few different arrangements that they had envisioned. And so but I just think um
offering that service will bring more people to the table, right? Because the guy that's sitting there it's like my kids don't want anything to do with this. You know, I got all this land. It's worth a chunk. And um and basically I can take that or I can, you know, get
a a diminished amount, a small amount that may hold me over, but then I have all this land to maintain that I'm getting too old to maintain by by giving them this third option of of maybe putting them in touch with people, you know, that would would aspire to maintain their land and to to operate
and to make a great living in agriculture. I think that's just a great um incentive to bring more people to the table. And and is there any consumer decision that we could make like today today that would support agriculture? Maybe a
loaded question, but to for all three of you, but Good question. Fresh. Yeah. Fresh. Okay. All right. I mean, going to a grocery store. I'm not going to mention names and things that how they manipulate sometimes and stuff like that, but So, fresh from Florida, that's what we as consumers should do. I I get
frustrated in myself because sometimes I could go three miles down the road and get a piece of fruit that's three days old, right? But yet on my grocery store shelf, you know, they're marketing the stuff that's 3,000 miles away and three months old. And it's just it's really
discouraging to see that. So I always hunt for the fresh from Florida label. And the produce manager in my grocery store, he knows me and he's always ducking me because I'm always calling him out like, "What are you guys doing?" you know. So, yeah. Yeah, he's he's well
aware. So, no, thank you. I appreciate them. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for being here. We appreciate your input. Um, and we look forward to hopefully working together and and helping you continue to do what you do. Thank you all. Thank you. Privilege. Thanks.
um bringing back for a little bit more discussion. I my impression though is that in a ordinary situation um the best case scenario for the land owner is outright purchase and then we take
the development rights off and then we go back to the market um for it to be used by another farmer. which ties right into the whole succession planning thing where you're linking farmers up with other farmers. Yeah. Um it seems to make a lot of sense, but I feel like a big part of this is going to be our outreach
to the cities as we continue to have our discussions about JPA, but um the last few days giving a lot of thought to the situation with the cities. I think it, you know, we keep looking for um you know, these opportunities where if we, you know, we've talked about the whole charter thing and you know, what what
could we do to make the cities work with us? I think we really have to strongly appeal um to to to them to make this decision for themselves that this is in the best interest of everyone in Lake County. this is in the best interest of the cities as well to to join our forces
and really focus on how do we protect the rural um properties and how do we join forces on issues like TDRs because if you have a real TDR program in place you could you could in fact make a lot of this um you know work without their
participation TDRs is really don't be need mean to be negative here but it it's almost impossible to do because that's where the density needs to be and is supposed to be in the urbanized areas. So without the participation, this whole thing with TDRs doesn't really um work. And if we're going to
buy development rights, we need to be able to put them somewhere. So um you know, so that there's a market for them. And uh unless the cities agree that we're going to look at the the University of Florida numbers and say, "Okay, here is the number that is a countywide number and we're not going to be going this is what we're targeting
for we have to accommodate." Then it it and we just freeze everything where it's at right now. I mean, it makes so much sense if you can come close to freezing things where they are now, then there becomes a market for the TDRs to go to those urbanized areas for them to add
densities where it makes sense to have densities. But absolutely right. Um but I think it's been I think it's been really helpful to hear um from our experts today and from our our farmers as well. Um, we do have a couple cards and we weren't going to do public input
today just because we really want to focus on on information gathering. Um, but I I certainly want to give you a chance. There's just three cards. So, if you do want to speak, if you want to forego speaking, we will be having other public meetings in the future. Um, and you certainly can email us or reach out
and contact us. But if you feel like you've got something to say that would would add to to what we've already discussed, um, I've got um Cindy Newton. um a a card. It wouldn't be a county meeting if Cindy Newton didn't fill a
card out to speak. Um and and that that was a compliment. Cindy Newton incorporated Eustace. Uh the importance of our a land is often overlooked and often it's just viewed as acorage
waiting for development. We do need a sustainable food source that's local for many reasons even with what's going on on the national level. Uh something I'd like to see at either the state or
federal level would be the farmland soil of unique importance to be protected similar to similarly to the prime farmland soil. A lot of our high recharge type A soils
are also unique farmland soil. And while we're losing our recharge, it's also very important to keep that soil because once it's gone, it's gone. Um uh more on the local level of course is
our changes that we're working on with the ISBAs JPA to better protect our rural protection areas, our rural areas and our special districts, the uh green swamp protection area, Ferndale,
and I think we could even expand that into some of our overlay districts such as the Lake Aapka overlay. lay. There's some farms in there that uh could possibly be at least partially in that
district that would help. You've got some a land coming up pretty soon for uh zoning changes that are within that property and also the cups that are coming before the county
in the A area. if those could be reviewed and not just put out there and hopefully looked at when somebody calls in for code enforcement violation. A lot of
times those cups end up expanding without knowledge and affecting the a land that's around it besides the a land that it's sitting on. So I would like to see some of those things at least looked at too. All right. Thank you. Appreciate
it. Um Lori, is it Forester? Thank you. Go there. Hi, Sean. Hey. Um although I live um just over the Lake County line in Orange County, my counterpart in Lake County is
delivering a baby as we speak, so she can't be here. So, I'm going to try very hard to um communicate both. Um I live in the Lake Avalon Rural Settlement. It has 421 parcels. We are the Avalon Home and Property Association also includes
298 parcels off of Phily Peters Road in Lake County. We work jointly as a group to ensure that we can preserve a lands as much as we can in our area. We are surrounded by the conserve. Uh we're um and immediately to the south of that is
Well um sorry is Horizon West to the south to the north is um Winter Garden and to the west is Wellness Way. Flat Lake also ends the community on the um Lake County side on Phil Peters Road.
So that kind of gives you an idea of where we are. Um, not only are we trying to preserve a lands for crops and and um livestock, but our rural area also acts as a water recharge area, the heat burden offset, air purification,
wildlife sanctuary for both South Lake County and Orange County. And all of these are absolutely critical for the quality of life for those that live in our South Lake and West Orange County areas and the developments that are in there. We understand that it is a growth
area and we appreciate that the majority of our parcels are in the Wakiva River Basin and as Commissioner um Simpson noted that our land is less expensive because we're agriculture and we're one home per five acres. So developers are constantly trying to buy land within our
rural settlement to develop and within the Lake County area to develop. As noted several times today, annexation changes the intensity and density of those lands. We feel it is important to that this issue be addressed regarding land entitlements for annex land. Um,
Commissioner Parks is familiar with what happened with Park View Trail Subdivision, which is has a common property line with us and our folks that are in our association on the Lake County side. They are developing 958 dwellings with 200,000 ft of commercial
space. All of Wellness Waste will have 15,000 dwellings, several million square feet of commercial buildings, and they were told that we were told that they would do non-potable water. Non-potable water does not exist in in that area. So
um because of the intensity and density that's coming there when we are advocating for Lake County to mandate that infrastructure be completed prior to providing cos with the promise that infrastructure will come and if annexed
make a mandatory requirement for a m municipality to annex the land and take that requirement of having the infrastructure such as non-potable water there before they are issued cos via a
JPA. Thank you. Um, James J. Grryer, Lake County Cattleman's Association. Thank you. I'm Jay Griner, lifelong resident of Lake County, and I'm currently the treasurer for the Lake County Cattleman's Association. And with me
today is Joe Crawford, who's our current president of the Lake County Cattleman's Association. And I just wanted to make the board and the people here know that the there is a Lake County Cattleman's Association. We are an affiliate group of the Florida Cattleman's Association, which is an affiliate group of the National Cattleman's Beef Association.
So that's our that's our voice to go to Tallahassee on legislative weekends, to go to Washington DC on legislative weekends. Um this past year, the motto of the Cattleman's Association has been loyal to the land. Year before that, it was cows keep Florida green. So, the
Cattleman's Association have been fighting this battle all over the state and the nation for a long time. The Florida Cattleman's Association started in 1916. I went through a box of archives that was passed on to me through the Lake County. I found a letter that acknowledged the Lake County
Cattleman's Association was on March 28th, 1963. Um, my passion is to raise a cow calf operation. I love cattle. I've worked a career as a fireman and kept cattle on the side. The fear that I have and Joe has and there's several of our
members. Um Mr. Frost is a member of our organization. I farm on leased and rented land. Um it gets lost every month. I don't know in this past year I've helped four of my fellow cattlemen go move cattle off of land because the development has
started. Um and right in front of my front door of my house is slated for a development to come. But I just want to thank the board for pushing to find resolutions for this and know that the the cattlemen that are true true good
cattleman. We're producers. Sometimes I call people that own cattle pet owners instead of producers. But I just want to thank the board for your attention to them conserving our county. Thank you. Appreciate you being here and appreciate what you do. Yes. You have a Can we ask
you a question, Jay? Yes. I don't want my clock to run out. All right. So, so I just a lot of people don't know this, but Florida was number one in cattle. Where are we sitting today with cattle? Um,
I I don't I don't know if I have that number with me today. I did see in the National Cattleman's book or the Florida Cattleman's if you I will solicit a little bit. If you own a cow and you will join the Florida Cattleman's Association, it's $150 for dues. $50 of
that comes to our Lake County Association, which we use for the junior cattleman shows. We have been able to do scholarships in the past and help a lot of FFA stuff. We're we're pretty quiet because our membership is low and pretty much non-active. Um,
when I got out of high school in Leburg, right after Mr. Morris did, don't tell how old we are. I I worked c I worked cattle for a living for seven years in the Lake County, the West Lake County borders. And I like to tell the v the people live in the villages, my horse may have pooped in your front yard. Um,
but I've seen all that change and that's all we did was we I worked cattle for many years over there. Um, Florida was supposed to be number two in cattle production then. I would vent I think the last I saw their ninth or 10th. Okay. Lake County the the data that I
have from the association that we pay our dues on now, Lake County is 19th in the state. And if you'll let me look at a paper here, 2023 it in and 2023 24 the data came back that there was 16,400
mama cows in Lake County. That's not counting calves on their side. That's producing mama cows. If you went back to 2018 and 19, we are at 14,000. So we we stayed about the
same. We rank 19th, I think I said, in the counties as far as um we're ranked 19th in the counties of Florida as our number of mama cows that we have. So, yeah, it's um cattle land's taking a hit. I think the only thing that's taken
a bigger hit is orange groves. Yes, sir. Since 83 and 84, the orange groves took a bigger hit than the cow pasture did. But um our cattleman are still out there fighting and pushing for conservative. Well, I appreciate that. But I just want to let all the people know that's not from Florida. The Florida used to be
number one in cattle. I I always I always understood we were number number two in cattle behind the state of Texas. Now that might have been Texas saying they were bigger. They were bigger, but I mean back I'm going back to what I remember is that the set late 70s early 80s. So I'm going back to the 40s when
it was national. I don't know the the data that comes out from the the National Cattleman St. Will you find out for me? What's that? Will you find out for me? I will. Oh, I just I'll find out and let you know. We're number 13 now in the country. 900,000 head of cattle. Texas has 4 million.
Yeah. And I think we'll stay somewhat high as long as the Mormon operations, which owns so many. But if the Orlando thing happens, they're all gone. So, only half of it. Yeah. 50,000 acres. The the data I saw, I don't know where
to go back to it, but it was 888,000 head head of cattle in the state. So, I didn't know where that ranked us, but um y that's the south Florida, south of CMI, south of Orlando and south of CM there's is the majority of the state cattle business. Um the old
cattleman said you had to be a grass farmer before you could be a cattleman. So, if you didn't grow grass and take care of your land, you couldn't raise a cow. But, um Well, Jay, my understanding is we don't ask how many cows you have because that's asking how much money you got in the bank.
That's That's a pretty good statement. You get a few. I got a few. I got a bunch. But um I always tell people, you know, fell as you want some more cows. I'd always love to have more cows. I just don't have anywhere to put them. And I don't I don't have anywhere to put them. And uh
I hate to say in today's world, you're real cautious about who you get to come help you with to work or who you get to come. The me personally on my operation in local most of the land that I operate on is investment land and the fence was
built 50 years ago and the guy that leases you the land says you got to maintain the fence. Well, you got to give me something to maintain. I say I can't keep my cows on there because I'm tired of getting up at night when the sheriff's department calls me and told me they walked out or somebody ran through the fence. Um,
if you have to go into a land and put up a new fence, which used to be, you know, $2 a foot, now $6 a foot, you you and you're only making, you know, you can land only sport 25 or 30 head of calves. So, you're you took your profit for the next 20 years on a land that you don't
even own. So, that's that's what I don't say keeps us beat down, but keeps keeps in small operations. But, I do love my my time out in the what land is here left. to get to see some pretty parts of Florida. Well, this is great great information. It's really helpful for us as we have
these ongoing discussions too with the cities because, you know, we talk about places to grow food and and and the need for that. But I haven't really heard until now the the the concept of we need places for the cattle to graze right in Lake County. And if we're number What
did you say? We're 19th in the state. You know, we can make our target not to go down any further. We've got to have enough space. That would be the other other programs that that they haven't touched on today is USDA programs through the farm service agencies here
in in office in Tavaris. It's it's paperwork intensive and to keep up with it. But there is programs that I participate myself in to um drought assistance, hurricane cleanup assistance, conservation. I do put I don't own the
land. So there's some programs I can get in as a lease. Some of the land owners are in on them and some of the land owners like I don't want government on my land at all. And so it's a there are programs out there that do help. I say that's what kept that's what's kept me from losing money in the last four or
five years. And I don't need a tax break enough to where I can afford to lose money. So um it there are programs out there to help the small small farmer to go right along with the programs we've discussed today. Great, great information. If I can be of any other assistance, you can find me at
Lake County Cattleman's. So, thank you, Ch. Thank you. All right. Um Okay. All right. Couple more uh cards and then we'll be wrapping it up. Michael Hill, um
agriculture sustainability. And we've heard the Hill name mentioned several days, several times today. How y'all doing? Uh my name is Michael Hill. Uh live here in Lake County. Um I'm a third generation central Florida
farmer. My family grew on the mucklands of Lake Aapka back from the 50s to the 90s. You all remember those days. My family owns Southern Hill Farms. Um and Ryan and I are partners here in Lake County, Orange County with H&A Farms, so
we grow blueberries and strawberries. Um my parents tried to talk me out of farming since I was a kid. um I denied it. Went to school, studied agriculture economics, you know, it's numbers and a I knew that, right? And then I got into farming
for myself and start realizing the real numbers behind it all. Um and I think the reason why we're talking about this issue is is an economic issue, right? Farmers are selling their land because it's not profitable
anymore. It's, you know, it's just not. and not many people want to do it. I'm 37 years old. I'm completely bald right now. And a lot of it's because of how how stressful it is, how hard it is to work. Um
and we have more imported products from other countries than we're producing. So there's, you know, um Simpson talked about we used to be 290 million boxes the state of Florida and that the industry can only sustain 40 to 60 million. Now you're probably thinking why is that? There's 290 million. It's
because it's all being produced in Brazil, right? It's the same thing. Blueberries, we grow blueberries, right? 60% of the blueberries are grown in other countries, right? It's it's not that we can't we would be investing to buy more property and farmers wouldn't
be selling their land because they love their way of life, but they're just not making money. So the problem is f finding leases that you can purchase property on but then lease it back to a farmer. The numbers make sense. If you buy it for $10
million, you only lease it for $20,000 a year. It's not a good investment, right? So that's that's the issue that we're in is there's farmers out there that want to grow and want to continue their way of life, but they literally are dying,
right? And I'm seeing it firsthand. We work with farmers all over the state on packing and selling their fruit and I see their numbers and they're they talk to me every day saying I don't know if I can make another year, you know, and that that's food crops because we're in
the state of Florida. We produce at the same time that Mexico does. Our wage rates are going to 145 an hour. You know, they pay so we pay $200 a day pretty much $150 to $200 a day. They pay5 to $20 a day.
35% of our cost of goods sold is labor just to harvest the crop. When 35% of your cost of goods sold is is at $200 a day and your competition is doing it for 5 to 20, which is a 20th to a tenth of their your cost, there's no way to stay
in business. So we we're working hard. I'm going to go a few seconds longer. We're working hard to work with the University of Florida, Ephus, to try to develop machine harvestable crops that we can grow and not have that cost, but there's a lot of growers just aren't going to make it. So, the reason why
farmers are selling is because they are losing money and they're and they're they they can't feed their own family, right? And and we say fresh from Florida. Well, the produce buyer at Publix, shouldn't say the name Publix, but any retailer is going to buy the product
that's cheaper for them. Okay? So, we have to compete on a free market with other countries that have way lower costs than we do. And yes, you can ask for freshman Florida, but at the end of the day, the buyer is going to buy the cheaper product, right?
So, anyways, I'm off my soap box, but it's it's a real issue that growers are having, and I'm the youngest grower probably in this room today. Um, and I'm just trying I I plan on going for decades, right? But I'm telling you the real challenges I'm sitting here
facing saying, how do I make it another five, 10, 15 years? A question. Chairman, if you just a question if you could. Yeah. So totally sympathize and obviously see it the same way you do. But obviously some of what you described is a federal and a state. Yeah. You
can't do anything about it. But in the sort of limited resources and regards we you know we have in terms of this bond and this land buying, what role do you think or would you like to see this board play in using the limited power we
have to expand and protect? I'd like to see it expanded, but really at least protect working agricultural lands. What are your thought? I mean, not trying to put you on the spot here, but what do you think that the county can do to help partner with farms in the county so that
they expand? I mean that's all we can do is buy land you know entitlement rights keep land basically if we bind land in such a way where it can only be used as a I mean is that something you think that would be good for the working farms
in the in the county I mean well it depends on what your threshold is of what you can buy it and what you can lease it for. It comes down to an economics. That's what I was trying to say before. Because if a farmer needs to sell his land, just like production land, he said he's 10 million in, they're offering him $2 million. He
can't do that, right? So, but if you're leasing it to cattle, they can probably pay $250 an acre, maybe. I don't know what is cattle lease going $50 an acre, right? The numbers don't make sense. 20
$20 an acre. Okay. $20 an acre. You can't make an investment and then put cattle on it for $20 an acre. You're going to lose your that money will be gone before you know it, right? So that's the true economics behind this issue. So you said what can you do? It's really
in in my opinion what you could do is do a social media campaign with everybody in the county calling out the retailers to buy domestic product. Totally agree. Yeah. But it's not go to the produce manager. He's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay." He has no he has but the the the
customer of the retailer is the consumer. Oh yeah, I totally agree. But the and they don't like upset customers but and it's that's a that's a little thing. It sounds little. No, but it's big. Yeah. But US growers are going out of business because we have free trade with other
countries on food, right? And at a much cheaper cost to do it. And our labor costs are going up and up. our our insurance costs are going up. Everything's going up and it's just pushing us right out. So, yeah, you can buy it, but I'm concerned you're not
going to have anybody to put on the land. And everyone says, "Well, we want farming. We want farming." Well, go buy a farm. Get in it. So, anyways, and you said agurism. Agurism is great, but I tell you, that's another tough business because you got
to maintain a lot of property. You got to deal with customers. Um I mean honestly we haven't made much money in our aggra tourism business as it is. We're trying to as see it as diversification model. I'm just telling the God's honest truth. Um
because that's a tough business too and more competition in that makes it even harder to make business make make profitable business. So anyways, no that's great information. That's really helpful. And and I like I love the idea of maybe through um our
economic development efforts that we really push the uh you know grown in Florida and in Lake County agriculture and use that as a way to get people more in tune with the fact that we um want to support our local farmers. And I think that would then go a long way to us
continuing our land use efforts, you know, with our cities so that we just get everybody on the same page. This is really what we want to achieve. We want to have a lake county that continues to have farmers and agriculture um throughout our county and just start
right there with pushing, you know, support as consumers. Let's support our local our local farmers and just one of many things that I think we need to be doing. But um but I like I like that idea a lot. Yeah, I'm seeing a potential
resolution maybe from the commission encouraging, we won't name names, but encouraging uh to buy local to buy state of Florida. Well, I was I was thinking about FFA and and fence building and well programs to like even help get out there and sort of make some of that
stuff happen. Point about the I mean it that's where it's going to we have to make that big change there by starting to buy local. Yeah. Well, you know, if I could just say one more thing. Usually we don't it's like an extension of the panel, but you know, hopefully you're very involved with the the network of political
agricultural organizations cuz Tallahassee bends over backwards for publics and the agriculture in Florida needs to do everything you just said and just really hammer public next legislative session. say, "Listen, if you're going to allow all these
countries to put out Florida farmers, why is our state legislature doing everything Publix wants? They are one of the two or three. They're right there with Disney, most powerful special interests in the states." And and and you guys should just absolutely, you know, hammer that and make that your
number one thing that they're this retailer needs to differentiate, you know, whether it be shelf space, etc. Emphasis. I mean, the freshman floor sticker is this big. Maybe it needs to be a section. It's not saying you need a government law, but they need to put pressure on publics to to get with the
program in my opinion. But sorry, not trying to pass the buck. We have limited resources. I want to know I've been very clear that I want to use between just pure agricultural or, you know, conservation easement, pretty land to look at or buy entitlement rights to
keep working farms. I'm on the side of the working farms. I want to use all the all the power money we have in Lake County to help a not not just buy pieces of land that look nice and sit there. So, but I hope the state responds. All righty. Thank you. And the school
board is meeting in here after we finish and we have three cards. So, if you guys can try to um either defer your time or keep it super short so we can get out of here and get the school board in here. So, Mark Mark Ronco, you'll you'll defer. Thank you. appreciate it. And feel free
to send us a an email. Uh Mark Ronco and I'll come tomorrow at 9:00 am. Yeah. And we have a meeting tomorrow at 9:00 am. Andrea, if you want to call in at the beginning of our meeting, that would be another one, too. But Mark, um so hi, I'm a resident of
unincorporated Howie in the hills. I'm a native born and raised of Lake County. Uh my family's been here pretty long time. Um, I come from a farm background. In fact, my mother's family, her farm in her native country has been in our
family for over 300 years. So, the fruit literally didn't fall very far from the tree. Um, I've had the privilege of owning a grove in Howie. Well, we have, my family, for the past 25 years or so. And, uh, I recently replanted that
grove. So, I'm on a mission from God. There are very few growers left. Um, and I think it's kind of ironic and kind of sad that in Howie, especially, and as you may know, Commissioner is a town founded basically on citrus by a citrus baron. And I'm probably the last grove
that I know of anyway, unless maybe something on the other side. So, I wanted to say thank you to you guys, um, all of you for your zeal and and for this, uh, this harra to try to protect what's left. I think we're an endangered species. You know, we're right up there
with the panther at this point. Um, so I appreciate that. I I wanted to um to just say too, I've worked with lovely people with USDA, NRCS, FDAX, uh, St. John's. I' I've had the privilege of
working with some lovely people. Um, I had a little bit of push back from some of the county offices and I certainly hope that because you guys are doing this that excuse me um that that will carry on to some of the offices as well
and that you're you know your offices will be a little bit more understanding or more willing to I guess support and work with those of us that are left in this dying industry. And that's really all I wanted to say and I thank you guys for your time. I hope you guys have a good rest of your day. Thank you Mr. Bronco. All right, Rick Gonzalez. And
that'll be our last card and then we'll be able to wrap up and let the school board get on with their business. I just wanted to be brief that I had I'm glad that Tom mentioned Dean Saunders. He's him and JT are probably the kingpins in this subject matter, but we
and I don't know how many applications there are in Lake County right now. I know that our office has six. I think you should go look at what's been ranked already and pick the ones you like because it's a took a two-year process
to get on the list. So, just let you know that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for I had the opportunity to have lunch with the commissioner and I've already asked to have that list sent. Okay. Great. All right. Well, that's very helpful and I know we're going to be assembling our uh advisory committee
very soon. Um and we're going to have to work on some parameters as well and get some advice from our attorneys on how we can um uh work that criteria into making sure that we stay within um the what's allowed and required by the um
referendum itself. Yeah. Just just real quick um while we got whoever's left here, if you notice the the mural and the um rotunda, right, that you see all that as you're coming in um that I just wanted to make that uh I we're going to have a press release on that. I think. But that is a gift from the Florida
Wildlife Corridor Foundation for us. It's alone. I know, but it's alone. Uh through our process. How long do we have it? Sorry. How long is it here? Um it's a uh I think for a year. I think it's going to be for a year. Um till October. Only till October.
October. Oh, so we got to finish our comp plan by October. October. Okay. Well, I was talking with him. I was biking it would be a year, but that's all right. We're we'll uh um I just just go ahead and take a look at that. Um that was uh I I like to call it
the people like us do things like this mural. So that you'll see the agricultural influence that's part of that and everything else that we do. And I'm just thankful to them if they're still here um for us for loaning that to us. So well and I I appreciate that and everybody enjoy it. And I think the key
now is I mean we we talk about these things. We we we know what we want to we we know we have a vision for what we'd like to see happen. Um the key now is finding a way to actually make it happen. And that's where it's going to
get uh harder and more difficult, but you got to start somewhere. And so I think this was a great start today. And um I look forward to working with everyone on this endeavor. And thank you to our farmers for all your participation. and we'll we'll see where this takes us, but um hopefully it'll
take us to a place where we we save more agriculture and we promote agriculture continuing in Lake County. So with We're going to go ahead and call the June 23rd Carver Heights Montlair area CRA to order. If you would please stand for the invocation and pledge.
Gently Father, we come to you this evening. We ask that you give us wisdom to make the best decisions for the city of Leburg in your precious name. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Move to section two, the approval of the minutes for the meeting held on June 9th, 2025. I'll move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Seeing none, roll call. Commissioner Peterson, yes. Commissioner Barry, yes. Commissioner Connor, yes. Commissioner Bur, yes. Chairperson Rayman, yes. Item three, discussion, discussion of budget requests for fiscal year 2026. I will turn that over to the
city manager. Okay. So, this is uh this is a uh topic really for for you all to get feedback and kind of pontificate on the upcoming budget process. uh the uh initial workshops for the bud for fiscal year 26 budget is we'll be starting
about two weeks I think July 7th is the first one and then I think we tackle the CRAAS in that second meeting which is the 12th 10th okay 10th um so I I wanted the CRA to kind of talk a little bit about uh and at y'all's request uh some
of the goals that you have so with that I put together a quick little presentation I handed it out to It's up here as well. Ann, if you hit the slide. So, it's just kind of give you where the where the draft is at from a staff level right now. So, our revenues this year are about $989,000.
That's only about $10,000 more in fiscal year 26 versus fiscal year 25. Um, now we're looking like we're going to have about 10% growth uh overall our taxable uh funds. So we don't know the the
breakdown quite yet of general fund and then the three tiff funds. Uh but in short that that number feels a little low. The biggest reason why it's a little bit low is because we received notice from the water authority that indicated that they should not be paying
an incremental payment into the community CRA. That is pretty correct. Um however how the the phenomena that this had that this why this was going on is is it's
gone on inception and as a water district the county has been in control of setting that levy and collecting that levy and then it's distributed to the the to the uh to the water management district and the county included the
their t their millage rate as part of what's payable to the tiff fund. Um, in short, I think that was a generous interpretation by the county in our favor and really to make matters right moving forward. I think we're the the
the concept the concept in general although no nothing formal has taken place is moving forward do not include those special districts. the the the the TIFF fund should really only be comprised of the city's increment and
the county's general fund increment and so that's why you don't see a big jump in revenue. Um so with that just a boilerplate as far as your expenses. So, we have uh a personnel which is and you've got the details of this broken down in your in
in front of you and again you'll get this agnosium as we get through the workshops but about $88,000 in personnel general operations bunch of different things in there about 58,000 the resource center operations about 665 and then debt the debt payment
is on the resource center that's about the the $100,000 payment for the million dollars or so that the the tiff borrowed from the electric fund which I think has about three years left on it. Is that right Brandy? So it's
under a thousand. 600. Oh 600. Yeah. So so it's about so about six years left. Okay. So then I just made one big cash unallocated number. So that um so there's 80 $682,100
really is what you have in projected fiscal year $26 uh to reallocate to assign to different projects so on and so forth. So then I made another little box there on things that trying to if all things being equal if we repeat so that would give you
enough money to do the another $600,000 home grant and then put the rest in reserve at 82100. Um, and then also, uh, you've got about 530,000 in unallocated reserve funds. And if you hit that next chart, that chart that
that shows you kind of our projection as of April 25 where your unrestricted cashes. So, and if you go back, so in total, you really have, you know, effective October one of this year, which would be the new fiscal year,
about $1.2 2 million of funds that you can that you can put towards whatever projects you all deem as important. So, I thought that that was um an important kind of debrief as you pontificate on goals and objectives for fiscal year 26
and that gives you the opportunity here to discuss a little bit prior to the workshop. I have a question please. Can you go back to the explanation of the um calculation from the county of the water district revenues? How long how many years have they been including it since
inception? That's what since inception and someone realized now that it effective for this year fiscal year 26. I want to just make sure question for you with regard to the uh the reserve
balance. Yes. Previous years historically is do we like to keep half a million? Is that or is that kind of a a number that um this is going to run contrary to to some
things I you know in a in a in anal district probably the reserve requirement isn't as critical as the general fund right or some of your other enterprise funds so I wouldn't be hard
fast set on that. So you with that being said, you you know there's another 400 grand in reserve there. So that 1.2 could really be closer to 1.6. Um I don't know if you want to run it bone dry. Um but I I don't think you it it's
not as a hard fast rule as the general fund. Although I just think out of just some fiduciary and and being conservative, you want to keep a little cash in there. Um, but I I don't think it needs to be as great as the 90-day requirement.
Couple couple comments or question, Al. Um, number one, it's in the city commission meeting tonight. Um, the res the CRA is going to have to absorb 137,000 on the new AC, the air condition. The air condition. Um, and I
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm going to bet there will be cost overruns on Susan Street. So, I just want to keep that in mind. I just don't want to go spend all this money. No. And I think I like having the reserves and and obviously street primarily. So the five the 532 in cash number. So right there that 532
less the AC. So right off the and remember that's as of April. So and that was a July expense. So you you're already looking at the 130 grand lower than that. So it's not destitute the AC. We're in great shape financially. I just I'm just talking about students. We're going to have surprises like we do. It's
a major project. So I just want to bring that to everybody's attention. those two funds, the the Carver Heights CRA and the 44127 CRA, probably if we do, hopefully we don't have overruns, but you know, inevitably we got to deal with them. Those would be the two places
where we would go. Um question, the funding that was um pulled from the CRA for Carver Heights Montlair, I thought that was a solid amount. I didn't know that was in addition to overruns. I thought whatever
was pulled from what was granted the the amounts are fixed right now. I'm just anticipating cost overruns which we typically have on almost every project. That's all I'm saying. I understand. So could we rely on the CRA from 44127 or it's going to be both? I would think you
would I think you probably want to look at both. Um, and I and and you know, if we're really going to split hairs, then we probably need to to figure out because remember that the Carver Heights CRA and the 44127 CRA line really kind of split the middle of that park. So, I
mean, if we're So, if we're going to split hairs, we almost need to figure out what dollars are on this side of the line and what dollars are on that side of the line and then do a proportional adjustment. So rough house, you know, I would think if we run over a 100 grand,
then then my suggestion to y'all would be 50/50. Okay. Fair enough. I was just saying when you said run over, I was thinking that if any Well, I'm I'm still hopeful, right? Anything that is not in plan, we just automatically go to CRA
car heights because I'm hoping to really not I mean, you want to do some new projects and things and put in place. And as far as the CRA, I mean, I know we'll discuss that in that budget for 27441. What kind of estimate is given from the
I mean, what what dollars from the tiff comes back to that each year? Do you the 4412? It's hangs out around three million 3 million total revenue. So that's a million and a half from the county and a million and a half from the city. Okay. I was just curious to see. And then the
debt on it is around a million. So you generally have about 2 million of of and I think we've spent that one down a little bit. I don't have that number off the top of my head because we've allocated a lot of that tiff towards the Susan Street project.
Go ahead. No. Um I was just going to point out also I mean I don't think the risk is as great as it was a month ago but you know the CRAAS were being talked about in Tallahassee with the risk threat of them going away in one two three years. We also I don't want to forget about the debt service we have
here. So my whole angle here is I don't want people to see these reserves and just go on a spending spend. Uh yeah and I think on that note it's probably important to talk a little bit about that and I think we can be I can be super brief on that. So when that uh CRA
policy came out in the legislature this past session, the initial bills were to eliminate CRAAS period. Carblanch and the only thing that was the the the saver in that was uh the ex if you had existing debt, your tiff increment could
still be paid and cover existing debt, but it was no new CRAAS, no new projects. And so remember anything you do in the CRA I think by definition is going to be a project. So Home Grant as a project. So uh the payment to the CDC
would be considered a project. The the the the money going to Susan Street is a project. And so the wording of that initial legislation was no new projects which mean which basically meant no new
spending other than debt. Uh that then got modified to uh and whenever the start state legislature starts defining uh a specific category it means they're picking on somebody. So then that modification uh that that legislation
got modified so that there was a a specific kind of area so they were picking on somebody and said okay no more CRAAS can be started was kind of the how that that manifested it's changed and then it and then it didn't
go forward again does it come back next year probably in what form anybody's guess so my advice to you is just to be mindful that that legislation's out there. You're probably going to deal with it again next session. Um, and yes,
you're you you probably you don't want to spend everything. Um, but but most of that legislation was date certain. So, start of a fiscal year moving forward. So, what's in the hopper probably could stay in the hopper if they go back to something pretty draconian. Um, but we
we'll see where it goes next year. And I realize the legislature could change the rules, but I just want to be sure I understood you clearly. What you're saying right now, what was talked about this past year? You're saying existing debt, would that would that phase out the county's obligation? Would it it would phase out the We wouldn't
just lose half and have to pay out of our Yeah, we never got to interpretations of what that legislation meant. Okay. And I realize it could change. I don't want to get bogged down My interpretation of what it meant was uh if you have let's say you have a million dollar CRA and of that million
dollars that you're getting total increment half a million was debt that would mean instead of getting a half a million in an incremental payment from another jurisdiction you would only get the portion that's the half of the debt
that's what I understood as well I have um just a little concern if this is a big concern if CRAAS go away because it doesn't just affect again I still continue to say it's not just one
um dis one CRA district of district one I think it will affect the entire city and that's what I'm really worried about and I'm hoping that this will all be gone away and I'm being reassured constantly but in the back of my mind I'm understanding that we should play
and be prepared to expect And of course, if it doesn't, that's a great thing. We can continue another year. But if there is possibility for the CRA 441 funding, if we could consider some of the homes um on the east side of town that runs on
a quarter of the district 1 for that area for CRA 4412 to use that CRA budget to try to apply some of the home improvement grant if we can get pulled from there. for homes where now tell me 441 and 27
using that CRA for the east side of town because there's no funding on the east side of town for town for CRA to be in the district. It is in the district. So where I think Commissioner Barry is going back to is trying to find and fund
the home grant program outside the Carver Heights CRA. So the way the city has it funded currently is the Carver Heights CRA is the sole funer of the city home grant program. So is it's a
it's a citywide program, but the commission and the CRA boards have only funded it in the Carver Heights CRA. So, as the program operates right now, that home has to be located within the Carver Heights CRA. There's a couple other
areas that Commissioner Barry has talked to me about. Agnazium as well as the commission and she has been seeking other places uh to expand the home grant to um and those locations would be um kind of up there by John L. Johnson
Park, uh, which which might touch into some areas of the 44127 CRA. Some areas on in in kind of the I'm going to call it the East Main Street CRA, you know, the the Pine Street corridor area that is that so both of those areas don't
have funding. And then, of course, if you're not in one of the three CRAAS, then the program would be eligible for the general fund. But again, that would be uh allocations that the bodies would have to formulate. Um so this body is obviously funding the home grant and the
Carver height CRA, the Carver Heights CRA board or the the 44127 CRA board, which the city commission, you all would have to do that. Um the downtown CRA honestly in in in in with all due respect that CRA is pretty tapped out
with how we have the incremental funding um to um the CDC and then the remainder of those funds go to run the event the division of the city. So there's really not a whole lot of money left. So to to fund to to really to fund and we I'll
I'll double check commissioner you asked me to look into this and I and I failed to do so. I think there's a tag of homes up there by John L. Johnson Park that would fall into the 44127 CRA. Um but but budgetarily wise to expand the home
program to Eastern Pine Corridor, you probably would then have to lean on the general fund. So I think this is again the commissioner's plea to this body to consider expansion of the home grant to other funds of the city. Well, that's my reason for requesting because I know the
general fund is pretty tapped out and to the penny of what is expected as well as what's res remaining in reserve. That's why I'm asking for the CRA 441 to be a consideration for the homes from New Hill Road down to I think it's right at
Katroli East Street if I'm not mistaken. And it's not many, but it's on if you're traveling north side. It's on the north side of Yes. if if you're traveling on the north side, I think there's more homes to the right versus to the left. So, that's just a consideration. I
continue to get calls from um constituents that live on the east side of town wanting and needing home improvements and asking when will this be on our side. when it was initially introduced, it was stated that the home improvement grant will be hopefully
funded for the next year and the next year with potential chances for it to come across. So, I'm just asking for the commission to consider um I know this is not the right board, but I'm just saying I'm just putting it out there of what I'm asking to consider. Just thinking about the
home improvement grant. With that said, is there any more discussion on this? Um, I also would like to um make note um of um Excuse me. I don't I didn't know if you were you saying Okay. I also
would like to make note if possibilities of mending the CRA um general plan if we could consider that amendment. Say it again. amending the CRA plan.
What what kind of amendment? Um just to consider additional homes that have been built. Um I think the plan was last date 2015 and just putting in um just considering the changes that have happened just from the economic development. We have more
new homes in the Carver Heights area. Um there's other issues that we need to consider. uh will go in further detail, but I was just wanting to put it in the the mindset of some to think about. Is that you? Is I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. So that we can amend
the plan. You can a commissioner Barry. Again, this is Commissioner Barry's plea with the commission. We we talked about this last year and this was putting aside some money for a consultant to update the CRA master plan and in the CRA master plan
we outlined projects and and priorities of where to spend the money. We estimated I think last year that bringing in such a consultant would be about 50 grand to update, review, freshen up the project. Again, Commissioner Barry is asking this body
to consider uh spending that sum to update, upgrade, and and bring up a new priority list would be the the hope of what the consultant would bring us. It's just that we have new stakeholders now
in the area to consider. Um homes have been built, so we have more um affordable home as well as expected building to come that is has been approved. D I don't know what when and exactly when that would take place for
maybe 2026 but just want to just put it out there just to consider and I could provide further details of my reasons why but just for the sake of stakeholders in the area the economy itself has shifted um the actual district has grown more
people so just a lot to put in place the CRAAS are working beautifully Um, I remember I can't believe it's been a year. I remember the 50,000. I remember being vocal. I'd rather give that 50,000 to two more homeowners for home improvement grants versus just another piece of paper. That was my opinion a
year ago. Um, we also a year ago talked about the uh the the downtown CRA gives 50% of the revenue to the CDC. I don't want to get go sideways on that, but you know, if you compare it to the Carver Heights CRA, about half is going to home improvement grants and half is operations and to me half is going
downtown, but half is going to the CDC. So, I suggested this last year. I can't tell them how tell them how to spend their money, but you know, I think that there's some involvement there, you know, with the CDC on the homes. My last comment, if we're going to continue to talk about home improvement grants and
we're going to even begin to talk about the general fund, this has got to be opened up to the opened up to the entire city. Uh it's not fair just to focus on, you know, two areas of the city when there are plenty of areas in the city that need beautifification and home improvements if we're going to expand it. So, that's that's my comments. Oh,
that is my goal as well. I'm talking to the entire city of Leburg. Preferably now CRA is where the cash is available and that's where the home improvement is working. But I am would love to see this go across the whole city of Leburg. That is my goal. That was my goal from the beginning.
Any other commissioner comments? Any public comments? Seeing none, we will move on to roll call. Mr. Peterson. Nothing tonight. Commissioner Barry. Um, that that
pretty much was the gist of my plans and I can definitely talk further later on when we get into the actual budget planning. Commissioner Connor, I am going to leave with the commissioners just a pre-budget thing I
want you guys to look at of certain things that I want to kind of have added into the new budget coming up. So I I have it and I'll just disperse it out to you guys. Would that I think that would need to go to Al to send it to him. Yeah. Send it to Al and then he can
disperse it. Okay. Commissioner Alderman. All right. I have some things that I would like to send Danny some ideas. Uh I think we had talked about eventually doing a like a project meeting so we can just discuss things. Yeah. So I would
recommend you get your ideas to the city manager and then he can disseminate those to the whole board. Right. Okay. Yeah. Just like we talked about the last meeting. Yeah. Just to bounce some things off. Yes sir. Thank you. Commissioner Con? Nothing. Commissioner Bur? Nothing tonight. Chairperson Reason. Nothing tonight. I'll take a
motion to adjourn. So moved. Meeting is adjourned. The next meeting will start at 5:30. Everybody ready? Jimmy, you guys ready? Yeah. You ready? Let me switch my meeting.
We'll call the city commission meeting for Monday, June 23rd to order. We have had the invocation and the pledge in the prior meeting. We'll do the proclamation. Uh we have a pride month proclamation. Whereas pride month commemorates the June 1969 Stonewall uprising in the New York City which is
generally recognized as the catalyst of the LGBTQI plus rights movements. Whereas the nation was founded on principle that every individual has infinite dignity and worth and the city of Leburg calls upon all our citizens to embrace this tenant and work to eliminate prejudice everywhere it
exists. And whereas the city of Leburg passed ordinance 15-20 on May 6 26, 2015 prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, handicap, or marital status. Whereas the city of Leburg
acknowledges and appreciates the cultural, civic, and economic contributions of the LGBTQI plus community, which strengthens our city as a whole. And whereas it is important for communities like the city of Leburg to show support for all residents to actively promote the principles of equality and acceptance and to stand in
opposition of intolerance and discrimination. Now there I for I Alan Reeseman, mayor of the city of Leburg, Florida do hereby proclaim the month of June 2025 as Pride Month and encourage everyone to reflect on the ways we all can live together through mutual consideration and respect and understanding. Is there anyone here to
accept that award? Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. So, we have the presentation and in recognition of K9 Officer Joe Hoiser and K9 Nick. He's on his way up right now. He just went down to get the dog away.
Okay. So, I'll go ahead. I have a little thing to read. We'll read that while he's he's getting ready. So, tonight we telling me to slow down. Now, I know what he meant. Tonight we are proud to highlight a major achievement by two outstanding members of the Leburg Police Department,
Senior Officer Hoyer and his K9 partner Nick. This evening is a celebration of their second place overall finish at the Treasure Coast Police K9 Competition. An impressive accomplishment at one of the most competitive K9 events in the region. I had the pleasure of attending this event and witnessed firsthand the
level of precision, discipline, and professionalism required to comp compete. Senior Officer Hoyer and K9 Nick stood out among top law enforcement agencies from across Florida and other states, making this recognition all more meaningful. Their performance reflects the excellence they bring to our
community every day through patrol work, narcotics detection, and the unwavering commitment to public safety. We're incredibly proud of their achievement and equally proud of all the men and women at the Leburg Police Department who serve this city with integrity, courage, and heart. On behalf of the city of Leburg city commission and all
the residents of Leburg, thank you employees. Join me in presenting this plaque in your honor and I'm we'll give them a minute to get up here. Yeah. I would just like to thank the commission for recognizing uh particularly K9 and K9 Nick. They've uh they've competed in
several competitions, have done very well. They exhibit everything that we hope that our K9 unit uh shows uh for the hard work and effort that they put in. um they're a force multiplier to any organization and they do a lot of great work for for our city. So, thank you to the commission for your support of the
police department and in particular here tonight for the K9 unit. Yes, sir. Nice. I hear them. Here comes K9 Nick. So I'm happy to so proud of your hard work and dedication.
He knows he's getting his picture taken. He's bigger than the Jeep. Thank you so much. Next, we'll move on to public comments. This section is reserved for members of the public to bring up matters of concern or opportunities for praise. Please note that issues raised during this time will not be discussed in
detail during the current meeting. They will either be referred to the appropriate staff or scheduled for consideration at a future city commission meeting. Each speaker is allocated three minutes to provide their comments. I adhere to this time limit to ensure equal opportunity for all participants and to support the efficient conduct of the meeting. Thank
you. Are there any public comments? And this will be for anything that's not on the agenda. We'll allow public comments at the end on for each item, but if this is not on the agenda, you can come up. Just state your name and address for the record. Yes. My name is Richard Tolman. I'm here
on behalf of the V um the Leburg Shuffle Club. I'm a member there. I'm not a member or I don't have an address in the I live in the villages. I don't live in Leburg, but I'm here on behalf of the shelfboard club. Um, a number of
communications have been addressed with the city staff. There's been some work there and done there cleaning up the benches and that and we appreciate that and a little bit of the uh work that was done at the hurricane through the hurricane and that was taken care of. We
appreciate that. What we need though is the courts resurfaced. There was quotes that were taken last year and the prior year there was money in the budget and then it didn't get done. Last year after the quotes came in didn't get done. If
we have all the other work done and don't have courts that are sufficient to play on and host tournaments that are other players coming from across the state to play on, then it's kind of useless. But we need the courts resurfaced otherwise they're going to
get in worse shape. So I know that your workshop for the budget for next year is coming up and we wanted to address this here. Could everyone here representing the shuffleboard club just raise their hands? Okay. We we had a little bit of a light turnout today but I'm glad we
didn't have more. It's kind of crowded in here. We just wanted to bring it to your attention so that you can talk about this in your workshop. If you need any more information on it and what is needed, please contact our club president or vice president and we can
get you all the information needed. But it is a city-owned facility and it should be in the budget. I speak to you as a former city council member back in Minnesota. And I say former, you know, I'm not a city council member
anymore. I did serve and I'm just saying I know the process and when you're going to start your budget workshop, we'd like you to have that in consideration for our shuffle boards. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other public comments? Yes, ma'am. If you guys just would create a
line that way we can go right the same if if you're speaking for public comments, if you could start a line up there, that would be great. Thank you. Okay. My name is Carolyn Kuchi. I'm a resident in the plantations development.
Uh, as everybody should know, we have a new development going in next to us, uh, at our, uh, Westgate. It's called Manor Oak. I just went to the Plantation HOA meeting to find out that the developers
at Manor Oak want to use our property in order to have emergency services because they've only planned for one entrance, which means if an ambulance needs to get in, if the traffic on 33 is backed up,
they're screwed. uh they do have the opportunity maybe to use the um I don't know what you would call it the causeway underneath the electrical lines or they want to use us and that's not fair if you keep building the developers need to
have the wherewithal to figure how emergency personnel can get there if there's an evacuation plan how people are going to get out of their facilities. uh if if you know the area, there was flooding after the hurricane, there were
trees down. Anyone in that new community and any other community that's uh projected that's going in if they don't have the resources thought out, those people are going to get hurt. the communities
around them are being imposed upon to a thing that is impacting our safety, our resources. It's not right. Somebody needs to put a a little bit of a thought process into it. If an emergency crew
has to get into this new development, they have one way in. If 33 is backed up with all the dump trucks, person might not make it. And that's poor planning on the developer part as well as the city. And anyone that would
leave here to go to the plantation right now, you're going to take a 10-minute or a 10 mile process into a 30 to 40 minute uh traffic mess because of all the traffic this is generating without
expanding roads, without expanding resources. So, as a concerned citizen of the plantations, I'm also a concerned citizen of the Leburg. And I think it really needs to be addressed, looked at, and it'd be really helpful if there
would be an updated map of what you've already approved because when I asked for a map, it was over three years old. So, there's a lot that you guys have approved without updating that map for the citizens to see. Thank you. I will say that there is a development map on
our website of all all the commercial and residential growth, but it's not if if I could if I could add, there is an updated map. It's on the website. And and as far as the emergency entrance, uh Dan Miller is is floating around here somewhere is our public is our uh
planning and zoning director. that that emergency in ingress egress into plantation will probably not move forward because that subdivision in question has a boulevard entry. So there's an exception to the rule on that. So if you go speak to Dan, he can
probably give you more data on that. So pretty much your whole concerns probably will be nullified on a staff level. There's Dan. You can speak to him to get more details on that issue. Yes, ma'am. Okay. My name is Gail Howell
and I am the president of the Leburg Shuffle Board Club. I and many of our members have come to ask for your help in renovating our courts by resurfacing before they are ruined. The cost is $22,000.
We have been requesting this for the last two years, but we're told it isn't in the budget, and it should be. It's always been in the budget because this is done every 5 to seven years. Our courts are deteriorating to the point that the finish on them comes off every time we sweep and they run very slowly
and very unpredictably. Other city courts like Tavaris, New Smyrna Beach, Coronado and Dand have all been renovated and glide like ours used to. Our members enjoy playing together, laughing together, and crying together all because of the shuffleboard. 19 of
us worked through the hurricane, raking out debris, carrying loads of metal and hardware off the courts, and even clearing the sewer so water could go down. We've painted, fixed, patched, taught, cooked, and garden for Leburg,
as well as becoming good shufflers. Some good enough to be in the Hall of Fame. We have all kinds of shufflers. We have teens, a homeless man, married couples, widows, widowers, and singles. All of whom make up our club with ages
up to 92. And the 92year-old and I just made made it into the Hall of Fame last year. So these people are not little slouches. So you see, shuffling is a wonderful sport for senior citizens, and we welcome all. I have asked Congressman Daniel Webster to look into a grant for
us, but have not yet heard from him. We first need the $22,000 for the resurfings f resurfacing for our courts to bring them back to a good playing level by October 1st. That's when we start our meets and they can't be done afterwards. I was told that might be
done by then, but we have to have it done before. Then we would like to have roofs over all of our courts, not the nailed shut rusty ones we have now. Thirdly, we would like toilets at work when we have tournaments. It gets embarrassing. Fourth, we would like the ceiling in the director's room fixed. I
know the last three are ne necess necessary dreams, but the courts are are of prime importance. Please help us. Can you state your address for the record? Um 1313
Mo Court, Leburg. Thank you, Mer. Hi, my name is Carol Halur and I am the secretary of the Leburg Shuffle Club and I've had that position since 2016. I live in the Villages, but in 2006, Leburg offered to let the villages have
their senior games there, and I learned about your facility. It's amazing. I'm I don't want to speak negative about the villages, but their courts are terrible. Um, we we have I have learned from them become a I'm a pro shuffler and I became
a Hall of Famer because of the help that I got from the people in the Leburg Club. We would like to expand our club to the city. We we meet in the mornings, but we could do the evenings so people in the community could take a chance to
be in and learn shuffle board. Shuffleboard is a healthy sport. It's a mind sport. Um, we have young people, we have old people, but we need to have your help to get this out in the community. We're willing to come in the evening to get our club to grow and let
the community use it. I'd like to tell you real quickly how shuffle board started in Leburg. It was a hundred years ago. They had a it was a community event and they had shuffle boarding. And
then in 1950, the WPA made the Venetian gardens and they put 16 courts over in the Venetian gardens, but it was real swampy and the courts deteriorated. So in 1971, our facility was made with the
director's um house with our clubhouse and 24 courts. Okay, it's 44 years old. Things get old. things need to be replaced. And Gail said some of the things that need
I'm not going to repeat that, but you've kept up with giving us new courts when we needed it. You've kept up with keeping the things in order. Um, we just are asking for you to consider redoing
our courts so we can continue playing and helping us find a way to get more people involved in the city. We are willing to work with you on that matter. Um, I know you have a website for us, but not many people that work can come in the morning. So, we'd like to expand
our club and we'd like to have um your help to make it a better place. And I appreciate all you did to give us a club. Thank you. Miss Helper, would you state your address for the record? Yes. It's 1841 Harding Path, The Villages
32162. Thank you. But I come down here all the time. Thank you, Miss Albert. Yes. Um Deborah Fred, 1205 Susan Street. Um on an agenda about a couple of months ago, it was something on there that they
were going to put sidewalks on Susan Street. Um just curious, you know, is is it both sides? Because I just can't imagine that. But my most concern is we really don't need sidewalks. We need speed bumps because it's like a little
curve and they I don't know if they be distracted, but they have knocked my mailbox down three or four times. And just this weekend, it was a fourc car accident cuz they they just get distracted. So, I'm asking if you consider because we asked for speed bumps four or five years ago. We got an
email saying wasn't in the budget telling us how much they cost. But I would like you to consider speed bumps. And if I had to have a choice between the speed bumps and the sidewalk, we would rather have the speed bumps, especially with this new complex
coming up pretty soon. Thank you. Yeah. Uh sidewalks was a CDBG application. I'm not sure which sidewalks it were that the the grant application is pending, but if you see Cliff, I just saw him walk around in the back. If you speak to him about your speed brows, he'll take
some information from you. Okay. Cliff. Cliff. Street will be cut off. It's traffic the facility. Hello. Oh, shoot. My name is Jacob Slal and I'm one of the teenage members of the Leburg
Shuffleboard Club. So, when I was 10 years old, I won my first tournament there and that's when I became totally ambitious into playing shuffleboard. I've been playing since I was 6 years old, 7 years old, since I was this high and holding up a stick. For the past few years I've been a member, I've been
seeing that the courts have been deteriorating. I know that they've already told you this. I'm just here to say that I'm one of the people who want to continue playing shuffleboard and that this is not just investing into the next couple of years. This is a long-term investment that I can then continue playing shuffleboard and my
twin sister Olivia also plays shuffle board with me. This is also for a whole bunch of teenage kids who could grow up learning this sport and then become Hall of Fame members like Al who's here or Carol. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
My name is El Grfield. I'm the first vice president of Leburg Shuffle Club. I've been the president, the court master, president twice. I play professionally all over the world. And I can assure you the Leburg courts right
now would not make it in international competition. They'd shut it down. I played on every type of court there is from the Nikico finishes to uh embedded bead courts. The central district has
many of those courts. That's down in Zephr Hills, Lakeland, so on. They're enclosed facilities. They take a little bit more pride in their senior citizens and keeping them healthy, keeping them out of the sun, maybe cheating a
dermatologist out of a little bit of their money. But these courts have got to be addressed and they have to be addressed before we start the season October 1st. That's six six months of our season.
October 1st through the end of October. Our courts are supposed to be smooth like that tabletop. Right now they're so porous that the beads we use to make these discs that we use run faster.
It doesn't work. The beads are finding the little nooks and crannies in the porseness of the court. They don't do their job and people are throwing the rotators and everything else out trying to get the disc down the courts. These courts have got to be taken care
of real soon. Like I said before October 1st, um I've worked with DC Modellin. I've worked with Jennifer, Amy, and now Cliff Kelsey. Cliff's a top-notch guy, and he's helped us out in many ways,
getting our benches redone. Uh, he fastened down our sliding roofs to where we can't adjust those according to the sun anymore. But people are coming to Leburg. They're not coming there to play dominoes and checkers. They're coming there to play
shuffleboard. And without the courts, we're dead in the water. We'd appreciate you getting on that as soon as possible. Thank you. Any other public comments? Seeing none, we'll move to the consent agenda. Routine items are placed on the consent agenda to expedite the meeting.
If the commission or staff wish to discuss any item, the procedure is as follows. One, pull the items from the consent agenda. Two, vote on remaining items with one roll call vote. And three, discuss each item pulled and vote by roll call. Are there any items the commission would like to pull this evening?
Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call. Commissioner Conell? Yes. Commissioner Bur? Yes. Commissioner Peterson? Yes. Commissioner Barry? Yes.
Mayor Reeseman? Yes. Item six, public hearings and non-rine items. During public hearings and non-rine items, the commission requests that those in attendance respect the process and maintain order. As such, in accordance with Robert's rules of order, please refrain from speaking out, cheering, or applauding during these proceedings.
Your cooperation helps ensure a fair and respectful hearing. I'm going to ask our city attorney that if anyone is here to speak on any first or second readings to please stand and he'll swear you in. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, as the mayor said, if anybody is here this evening
and plans to present any testimony or evidence on second reading items 6A3 Venice at Lake Harris SPUD reszone, 6A6 Bari 2 PUD reszone, 69 Richie Road
reszone or first reading 6B3 Lake Margaretta PUD reszoning. If you would please stand and raise your right hand so we can get you all sworn in. All right. Do you swear or affirm that all testimony you'll give tonight will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. All right. Thank
you all, Mr. Mayor. We're all good. All right. Would someone please introduce 6 A1, 2, and 3 to be read by title only? I'll introduce. Has to be read by title only. 6 A1. An ordinance of the city of
Leburg, Florida, indexing certain real property consisting of approximately 8.77 plus minus acres, being generally located east of US Highway 27 and north of Magnolia Avenue, lying in section 2, Township 20 South, range 24 East, Lake
County, Florida. Provided that said property, so annex shall be liable for its proportionate share of the existing and future indebtedness of said city. providing that such annex property shall be subject to all laws and ordinances of said city as if all such territory had
been a part of the city of Leburg at the time of passage and approval of said laws and ordinances providing that such annex territory shall be placed in city commission district 3 and providing an effective date 62 an ordinance amending the future land use map of the
comprehensive plan of the city of Leburg changing the future land use map designation of certain property containing 8.77 plus minus acres from Lake County urban low to city of Leburg low density residential for property
generally located east of US highway 27 and north of Magnolia Avenue lying in section 2 township 20 south range 24 east lake county Florida and providing an effective date 683 an ordinance of the city of Leburg Florida changing the
zoning on approximately 8.77 plus minus acres from Lake County C1 neighborhood commercial and R six urban residential district to city of Leburg Spud small plan unit development to allow for commercial and attached single family
residential uses for property generally located east of US highway 27 and north of Magnolia Avenue lying in section 2 township 20 south range 25 east lake county Florida and providing an effective date. Thank you Andy. Can I
get a motion move for approval? Second. We have a motion and a second. Uh Dan staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Under the overall proposal for this property, it consists of 8.7 plus or minus acres. It's generally located east of US Highway 27
north of Magnolia and south of Corley Island Road. This is request for annexation smallcale comp plan and reszoning. Under the future land use would go from Lake County urban low to city of Leburg low density. The zoning would go from Lake County C1 which is
their neighborhood commercial and R six which is their urban residential to city spud which is small plan unit development. Uh they're requesting future development of 26 attached single family units which are town houses and a
commercial area on the west side there along US 27 under the PUD requirements as we stated 26 attached town houses two floor maximum height an area of commercial development which would be contiguous to highway 27 that includes
approximately 21,000 square ft of retail uses there. No other uses would be permitted in the proposal. All the units would be rear loaded, meaning the garage is on the back side of the home. And so that would give you a a shorter front setback that could be used in the
design. The townhouse units would be 20 ft in width with uh 1,000 square ft minimum size and two off- streetet parking spaces for each unit. Extra spaces are also provided in the concept plan. Um there are urban excuse me there
are design and architectural standards required um which would apply and that's a five features that must be selected from a list provided in the plan unit development. Dark sky lighting is required. There's significant buffering to the adjacent properties is provided
in the site plan in the PUD with a 25- ft buffer tract around the property. There's also a 40ft buffer required on the south side of the property. Uh landscape buffers are not part of the lots. They are separate and must be maintained by the HOAs. So they're not individually maintained. There would be
a 6'5 privacy fence provided adjacent to the parcels on the northern eastern boundaries unless the vegetation is opaque. In other words, you can't see through it and of comparable height. Uh we're requiring beet and bermuda grass, one tree on each between each lot
because these are town houses. Uh there will be signage consisting of decorative entryway feature no greater than 5t in height on the entryway. Under recreation, there's a requirement for 5200 square ft devoted to a separate recreation area which has various
amenities such as a pool, playground, trails, dog parks, pavilions, etc. The recreation area must be constructed at a the time the 13th unit is completed. That's 50% of the structures there. And finally, we have the standard phasing
clause which allows four years to reach uh substantial commencement or there's automatic reversion to the RE1 zoning standards which is one acre per unit. Um all the development has to be on city water and wastewater. Um Lake County
Public Works has given their comments including drainage and flood study, storm water management basin study um and traffic study and requested that the applicant meet with Lake County Public Works. Um, we did receive significant public response to this pro to this
request as a part of the original sending out of the surrounding property owner letters and advertisements. Uh, summarizing those comments, they included concerns regarding the wetlands that are present on the site, flooding, water contamination, trees, traffic, and wildlife. And that's just a summary. The
residents also provided a petition, which I believe has approximately 80 signatures on it, which is in your packet. Uh staff did request that the applicant would conduct a neighborhood meeting to speak with the neighbors and staff wanted to thank the neighbors and the applicant for participating in that.
Both the applicant and the neighbors have presentations tonight um which I'm sure they would like to bring to you today, Mr. Mayor. And finally, Mr. Logan Upsell from the firm Louns Caner in Orlando is here to answer any of the questions that you may have, sir. Thank
you, Mr. Miller. Any comments for Dian before we move to the developer presentation? What was the the planning commission recommendation? The planning commission recommendation was two to five in a no vote. They they
recommended a denial basically. Thank you, sir. All right, we'll move forward with the developer presentation. Is the developer here? Yes. had a hike today. Good evening, Logan
Opsall, 215 North Yola Drive. Good to be with the commission. I'm going to grab the clicker. I see it here. Do you have their presentation, Miss Anna? We do not have it. It's from the May May 12th. No changes.
We don't have that. Yeah, it should have been rebrought to us. Sorry. Hey, they don't have the presentation. I don't know. It should be It's in the main
Here comes Mike. Sorry. Thanks. That should work. May 12th. All Thank you, Miss. Thank you very much. Appreciate everyone's patience. Um, so I'll be I'll be brief because Dan went
through this. We are here tonight on second reading. So, I want to touch on some of the specific details, particularly what we heard from our neighborhood meeting um and some of the changes we've made in light of those. Um, so I'll move forward with this in haste and then at at some points uh
cover more substantively. But here's the subject property. It is an assemblage and what Dan noted to you previously was there is some split zoning although there is a consistent uh future land use there in Lake County. Here's a look at
the future land use map. We are urban low density consistent with the area around us. There's urban medium across the street and you have some some denser development there to the south. Currently counting zoning designation is C1 and R six. Again, consistent with
what's around in the area. I want to pause here just a second because what's unique about this project is we're here with you tonight and and virtually identical entitlements standpoint from unincorporated Lake County to the city.
Of course, we're here because the interlocal service boundary agreement designates this property uh as being annexed into the city for the provision of utilities. What's being accomplished through your PUD process is a mixeduse
of C1 retail commercial, which I have some renderings we'll get to, and of course the site plan, and R six uh consistent with the R six zoning. However, uh what's being proposed to you today is a total of 26 units. So, in Lake County, because of the underlying
future land use designation, we have R six zoning, but because of the underlying future land use designation, we're capped at four units an acre. What's being proposed to you today uh equates to 2.96 units an acre with a commercial component, again, consistent
with what you see today. So, this is the previous concept plan. This is not what's before you tonight for approval. This was what was proposed at the neighborhood meeting and and working with staff. It shows the town homes which had uh
this this equates to 46 units and a smaller retail component. Uh in our discussions with your city staff and what we've heard from the neighborhood meeting is a reduction in the unit counts would be appreciated. Uh other topics we'll we'll cover as well. Uh
what we've heard somewhat consistently at the neighborhood meeting at first reading um and from staff is that the retails out there. We understand that Highway 27 has significant uh commercial and that there's there's not a a large
issue with the commercial. Um it's the retail component. Um this is another look at the previous plan. And so what we did is provide for 40 approximately 40% reduction in units to allow for 26 town homes. What you see
here is an improvement of the open water which connects to Lake Harris. You also have a uh significant retention pond on the northern portion of the property to accommodate any flooding uh any runoff and all the storm water as required by your city code.
What you'll also note is it allows the retention of a whole lot of natural vegetation and buffering. Um particularly on the east side with the recreation, you can see a tree preservation area is pretty pretty heavily wooded uh at that portion of the
property. And so Dan mentioned in his uh initial presentation that uh we we can maintain that that vegetation or provide fencing. What we've heard consistently is as much of the vegetation we can preserve the better to allow for that buffering. So signifi significant
buffering and of course a whole lot of uh capacity for uh storm water and and again that open water which US 27 drains to. If you'll indulge me very briefly, I want to call up here Mitch Collins, our project engineer. uh he's going to spend
just a minute uh talking about the retention pond, this open water area, and and specifically some of the concerns we heard about flooding and and runoff. Mitch. Hello, mayor, commissioners. My name is uh Mitch Collins, uh 801 East South Street, Orlando. Um I'm the project
engineer. I just want to give you a broad overview of some of the permitting requirements that uh if we're fortunate enough to move forward after tonight, uh we'd need to work through in order to get under construction. Um this project's a bit unusual in the amount of uh permitting site related permitting
that would be required. Um we would have looking specifically at storm water. Um we would have two local agencies, two state agencies, and one federal agency that would uh be reviewing the project. And again, that's just regarding storm water. Um city staff would review to
make sure that our pond is sized large enough and that we're not uh affecting any existing drainage patterns for neighboring properties. uh Lake County Public Works both because of our driveway on Magnolia and our storm water work and any uh modifications to this
canal. They would also be reviewing the project. Um I believe they're already aware of the work. Um we have a requirement to have a St. John's River Water Management District permit. They're going to be reviewing the project as far as storm water uh drainage as well as any wetland impacts.
Um, we have a a Department of Transportation permit that we need to get as far as any impacts to the canal. We normally need a permit for any ponds that drain to the department. Um, in this case, we actually have the the
department draining to us on its way to uh Lake Harris. So, we've had meetings with them and uh that would be a very complicated and detailed uh review. Um if everything goes fine with that, we have a uh some flood zone uh impacts
that would be proposed. Um that would need to be approved through the uh through FEMA. Uh so that would be the f federal agencies. So in total there will be five agencies reviewing this. So if we are fortunate enough to move forward tonight, I just wanted to provide that assurance to you that there would be
several agencies reviewing uh the project and that's specifically with uh with regards to storm water. Thanks. So, appreciate that outline and and of course there is a whole lot of permitting that goes into this which we we know and and expect for a project of
of this caliber and in this particular area. I want to outline those because we're here tonight at zoning. uh we're coming to you on the annexation uh to avail ourselves to to your code and your requirements, your design standards, which we're happy to have reached a a
really successful resolution here um and and in working with the neighbors, but also to outline that at this at this stage, this is the concept plan, the unit count, uh the the layout that we would be committed to. Uh but as we move
forward to engineering uh we have full confidence in your staff uh thirdparty consultants and of course federal state and your agencies to effectuate a fully engineered plan that handles appropriately the storm water runoff for
the site and for the area as outlined by the project engineer. This is just another look at the proposed concept plan which shows that it's uh kept at two stories. a little bit more detail on the layout of the parking and where things will be located in relation to
the aerial we just saw. Just some future land use and zoning maps for your reference. So, I I think this is a helpful slide because it outlines what uh we've been able to achieve in hearing some of the concerns, some of which you'll you'll
hear tonight. Um there'll be two phases of the project. the the retail commercial component and the town home residential component. What was initially initially proposed was 42 town homes. Tonight for your approval is 26. Again, that's approximately a 40%
reduction with significant buffering setbacks, landscaping, preservation of uh natural vegetation, and of course the retention and improvements to the open water for the storm waters. uh expansion of the retail commercial
component to better service the area which was feedback we heard uh both from residents uh and and the city. Um and of course that equates to a big reduction in density um to under three uh from where it was at 4.79.
Um again in the county it would allow four dwelling units an acre. And keep in mind as well that what's being proposed from the county C1 to to urban low to again in the city a reduction in density
commercial and and and residential while being able to achieve these significant setbacks and a minimum of 35% open space which is in the ordinance before you. Here's a conceptual rendering of the of the town home. This is the residential component um with some unique
architectural details that will meet or exceed your city code. And commercial uh this is the commercial buildout uh concept plan which shows the elevations for what would be built out on US 27. Um we do have a recommended approval
from staff. I will tell you we've done a number of things. Uh I'm going to go back just a few. We've done a number of things and and working through this process. It's been over a year going through um this process and and and working with your staff providing things
like the recreation area, tree preservation, extensive buffering, reduction in units by approximately 40%. Improving the open water, the canal to allow for better flow. Uh there will be a boat ramp there to accommodate kayaks
only, not motorboats. um improvement of the open water and retention pond area to alleviate uh some of the flooding that quite frankly happened during the hurricane and we can appreciate those concerns. This uh keeps all of those capacities in mind uh fully
amenitized with a small trail and a courtyard before you. So quite a number of list of things we've been able to accomplish and I just want to thank your staff, your time, your resources and particularly those folks who are here and and some of which remain in opposition but I want to thank them for
their time and thoughtful feedback and represent to you that those have been heard and affectuated to the best of our ability. I'll reserve a little bit of time to respond to specific comments but thank you for your time. Thank you sir. Any comments for the developer?
I know in the first reading we heard a lot of comments on the wet lands and all these drainage concerns and I and I I don't think everybody understands the process. I think you touched on it and I appreciate that how there's you know St. John's all these other people with oversight but I guess if you maybe we're going to hear the we're going to hear
the opposite from them. I guess if there's any more you could add to that maybe you want to include in your wrap-up. I just know that's been a big topic and I do understand it that projects have to be self-contained uh and so forth. I mean it is a lowlying area. Sure, I have concerns, but that's I guess that's not really my role. I
mean, I'm not here to manage the wetlands. Um, that's other agencies, but uh if there's anything to add to that, may maybe do it in your wrap-up maybe now. But that's I heard so much comments on that in the meeting and outside the meeting. Yes. And I'll be very brief because I I know we want to get to
public comment. Uh, yes, that's a good note. There's there's open water. So, we understand the topography is is rather low in relation. uh the open water will remain. There are some impacts to to a wetland area around the water. Most open water has wetlands surrounding them. Uh
Mitch, maybe you can briefly talk to the fact that we have to self-contain the drainage very briefly before we move into public comment what that requirements are. Uh sure. Um of the five agencies that review this, um when FEMA reviews it, they'll be looking just at the flood zone issues. Um basically
the the city review, the the county review, uh DOT and especially St. John's. Um the two main items they look for is uh are you uh retaining the storm water you need to retain before you outfall to someone else. And the second
item would be that you're not affecting uh any existing drainage patterns of any neighbors. So both of those items are going to be looked at by four different agencies, primarily St. John's and and uh Lake County. Um but those are the two main things that we'll have to be uh
will have to adhere to and that will be reviewed by several groups. So um will be looked at by uh like I said two local agencies, two uh state agencies and then then also FEMA. Um, but all of them will be looking or four of them will be
looking specifically at are we providing enough storm water uh management facilities on site and number two are we uh make sure that we're not affecting any existing drainage patterns for any upstream or downstream uh neighboring properties.
Thank you, sir. That was Thank you, Commissioner Peterson. We're happy to cover specifics as well. Thanks. All right. Any other comments before we open up for public comment? We're going to open it up for public comment now. if you would. Um, this is for people who were sworn in. If you would come up to the microphone and create a line and
everyone will have three minutes and don't forget to state your name and address for the record. Good evening everybody. Um, thank you for your time. My name is Michelle Norb. I live at 4243 Corley Island. Um, I was here for the meeting before last and I
wasn't able to speak last meeting. So, I know you've heard a lot of what I want to say also, but what I want to reiterate is the way that these the neighborhoods are designed. We're elevated and everything runs down into this wetlands.
It works 99% of the time, except when we get overrun by a hurricane. If you look at the original slide of this proposed area, it's heavily heavily wooded with mature, beautiful trees that drink all
that water and keep that area um level, if you will. When those trees are removed and concrete and asphalt and recreation areas are put in, there's there's there's going to be no balance.
It's going to be a concrete playground. Those wetlands are alive, too. There's so many animals in this whole area. Gopher, tortoise, eagles, turtles, frog, you know, it's it's an it's it's its own
environment. And our neighborhoods are used for e for owls. If this development goes in and those lights are put in, then we lose our owls, too. So, please take that into consideration. I
appreciate your time. Any other public comments on these items? Yes, sir. Did you Did you get sworn in, sir? You did. You did not. So, we'll do it one more time. If you're here to speak on any of the items, you do have to stand up and get sworn in.
Okay. Yes. Thank you all. Anybody else that was not sworn in previously, if you would stand up and raise your right hand so we can get you sworn in. All right. Do you swear affirm that all testimony that you'll give tonight will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Yes, sir. You can come up. I'm Lauren Lon at 29213 South Corley Island Road. My house will be on the very back side of their recreation area. I've lived out there. my entire life which has been 75 years so far. My
grandfather bought bought and that property back in the 20s. So where the town houses are at one time was a pond. My grandfather dug a drainage ditch in there and it drained it out. So that's
why you see it the way it is now today. and uh they crossed Corley Island Road where Dr. Littinger's office is now. There were three small springs that fed under the road through there into that
where you see the pond there. Two of them have been covered up. One is still working. And so basically where the houses are was a reptention was a pond area that we drained out for
cattle at the time back in the 40s and the 50s as before a lot of you people were around. But uh I've been I'm not too happy about the recreation area being built right behind my right
beside my house. But uh that's gives you a little more idea of where where that was. That was all a ret a pond at one time. Not a retention pond, but a pond that was a natural pond. So
that's all I got to say. Hello, my name is Victoria Williams, 4227 Corley Island Road. Um I have lived there now 16 years with my husband Jack Jr., My father and mother-in-law could not be
here. They're Jack and Deianne Williams. Um, they are dealing with some things right now, but they have asked me to speak and to ask, "Please do not allow this to go through." I understand there's growth. I understand people want it, but right
here, this is not it. There is a lot of wetlands back there, and once you take out all of that, it is like Mr. list and said it is literally going to be like a sinkhole city back there. And I understand there's going to be fil dirt or whatever brought in, but if you look
at all the different subdivisions and things coming in, there's a lot of places getting sink holes because too much is being put and strained on the resources here. I know a lot of people spoke about water runoff, storm runoff,
and I can attest to it because several hurricanes were up to our knees if not more. And my husband and I live on a higher elevated part, but the house that my in-laws live in, it's up to their door almost. We do not want this. I know they do not want this. Our whole family
does not want this. And the nature that's also behind there and the canal is it's going to be devastated. And we really would appreciate if you would vote no for this. Thank you. My name is Mark Staylor. I live at 4246
Lanzen Lane. It's right off of Corley Island Road. Um, the only thing that I want to bring to light is when you guys make your decisions as far as what's going to be built and what's not going
to be built. I understand that there has to be certain amounts of fill brought in to build on. When you do that, you're bringing up that elevation and there's absolutely no way you can tell me that that's not going to affect the
neighborhoods that are in place currently. Number two, if they go to build this, how are they going to get their materials in there? Are they going to build that bridge right away when they're not going to build the rest of the recreation facilities right away?
How are they going to get all that material in there? most likely coming down Corley Island Road through the back end of the property and in right through our neighborhood. That's three years worth of aggravation.
And then we will have what we have, which will be probably most likely flooding. You can't do it without it. I mean, I know uh I watch the news at night like you all do. You see the flooding after storms, the best minds
that were available at the time said, "Well, okay, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, and we're going to do that." It still happens. I can't see where this has to be squeezed in to an existing neighborhood
that all of the things that they've done still aren't going to address the main problem. that you're taking a natural wetlands and you're building on it. Simple fact.
Thank you. Any other public comments? Yes, ma'am. Good evening. My name is Jamie Queen Roosevelt. I live at 29411 Jesse's Lane. Um, I have lived in this neighborhood
for nearly 40 years. I've lived there pretty much my entire life. Um, I am extremely blessed to have a daughter um, who I just had. She is now four months old. I would like to introduce you to her. I bring this up because I was
blessed enough to grow up in a neighborhood that we were able to ride our bikes through the neighborhood. I knocked on the door of pretty much everyone there at some time or another. The Williams family, their grandmother, Mrs. Carmichael, I regularly visited.
Uh, someone lives in Mrs. Goodrich's house. Now, I say this to help you guys understand, we are a family. We're not neighbors. We're a family. My daughter, we refer to my next door neighbor as Mimi.
Uh, Mrs. Williams, we refer to her as Aunt D. We are bringing in additional people, doubling the population of our area. She has input, too. Um, I'll be taking her three minutes now. So, doubling the
population of our area is not the way to go about uh building our family. All it's going to do is tear us apart. Um, I do want to bring up also that in all of this development, everyone out there is
on wealth. What will this do to our wells? I know living on the lake, we already have enough issues, well issues, drainage issues for those wells and those septic systems. What is this development going to do with the
pre-existing and in most cases very old structures that are already there? I know when my house was built 40 years ago or 38 years ago, we still have all of the the plumbing and everything from that point.
Advancements have been made since then, but I really don't have the $50,000 that it would take to make those improvements to make this a viable option for me. I do want to touch on what Mark was saying about bringing
in dump trucks and things like that to access the back of the building or the back of the property. So, the average SUV is 50 I'm sorry, 85 in or just over 7 feet, not including
the mirrors. That's the axle width. The narrowest area of our road of Corley Island Road is 112 in or less than 10 feet. So in other words, this is not including mirrors. If you drive through there, you have less than a foot and a
half on either side. Again, not including your mirrors. What are dump trucks going to do? Any other public comments? All right, we'll Yes. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. Hi, Angie Lon, 29213 South Corley Island
Road. Can you pull the microphone down just a little bit? There you go. Is that better? Yeah, I can hear you better. Um, hope I can remember. We're, as my husband said, right next to the recreation center, that little piece of
road that's owned by this development that comes out into the funky tea. I have concerns about that and the six or eight houses that properties access from that road. I've expressed concerns before. I've never heard answers. I
really would like to know for these couple homes if this goes through is there any chance of something coming in the future that
the development could limit or interfere with our access on that road? Is there anything where they could claim they need to do something? they need easement and they take easement off of our property that our lots are then reduced. Who maintains
this little chunk of road? Um, if this is zoned in the city because these few homes are now only accessible on a city zoned road, would we be forced to go
onto city water, city sewage, anything at all? are are all these just crazy fears that I can totally ignore or is there any legitimate concerns for anything? And that little chunk
years ago when the county paved that road, they forced us the execut of that listed estate. That was all of that property. Um, she had to sign that over to the county. that should have been under county
rule. I don't know how that ever ended up in the development. Um, but it is what it is. So, what happens now? What are future negative impacts if any? So,
thank you. If anybody's got answers, I'd love to know them. Any other public comments? Yes, ma'am. I can't stand up, but I just say there are no curves at any you know um
part that uh is part of this and that side they're saying that um this is not going to have a fence on the west side and we own the property that backs up to this uh area that they're talking about
parking cars for overflow And we're right next to it. Yes, ma'am. Ma'am, can you can you say your name again? I'm Diane Kelly. Diane Kelly. Thank you, Miss Kelly. Any other public comments? Seeing none, we're going to
close public comments and we'll give the developer a chance to answer any of the questions from the public. Thank you all again for your time. I would take a note so I want to address all of them. Um I'll kind of go in reverse order so it's fresh on
everyone's mind. Uh first there is a portion of the roadway. It's it's indicated on your screen as a private roadway with easement. That's not going to be impacted by this site. And so I want to just state on the record for for your comfort level as well that that will not be interfered with this
development. In fact, there is a a legally binding document that that allows uh that runs with the land that allows access to those roadways. We would not be interfering with that area. And if it would be helpful to make that as an additional condition, we're we're we're very much comfortable with that to
ensure that that will not be interfered with. Um the the fencing that was just me mentioned, the tree preservation area is heavily wooded. Um, and I my understanding is is preferred not to interfere with that by virtue of installing a fencing. However, I believe
that the PUB ordinance accomplishes that already. But again, if we want to put in there that fencing be required in that area in addition to the tree preservations to to make sure that any glare is is accommodated for or other uh
issues raised, we're in agreement with that as well. Um, again, we talked about flooding. uh we are mandated to accommodate flow both before and the after. We've addressed the the topo and I I actually the history lesson was really enlightening that this was
previously drained but I want to be clear that that there is a significant portion of this property that that is upland u that is where the residential's going. I noted at my case and chief that there are some wetland areas around the open water. Uh all of those will have to
be fully permitted, go through all the proper uh jurisdictions and permitting agencies. That open water area will remain, will be improved, allow for uh the flow of water into uh that drainage basin, into that open water, which the
surrounding area would benefit from, particularly in instances like a hurricane, to allow that flow fully engineered in the after condition, which again we're legally required to do. um phasing uh access around Corley Island Road. I that I can completely appreciate
that infrastructure will begin on a hor horizontal basis. So, it will accommodate the access roads first. If we need to come up with again a condition that that relates to access, we're comfortable with that. Uh we do not want to disrupt this neighborhood, particularly folks that have lived there
for decades. Um and I will say thank you again to this to this group. Uh their feedback continues to be positive, substantive, and things that we can address. So, I I thank you. I've actually enjoyed getting to know them and and please give my best to your mom and dad. I've really enjoyed getting to know your mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs.
Williams, as as well, too. Now, in conclusion, I will wrap up this time with with where I started. This is a unique project. um what's being proposed to you, why why we're here, why I'm at this podium in the first place is by virtue of the interlocal agreement that
was negotiated and executed by the city and and and the county to allow for the provision of utilities here. The silver lining in all that is we we avail ourselves now to your performance standards, your design criteria, your requirements, and the conditions that are in the PUD and the ones just offered
to make sure we're providing the best project we can. This is not a whole lot of concrete. That's a whole lot of preservation of tree areas and open water and a retention pond. Why I keep saying this is unique is because this isn't
agricultural land. This is not we're not creating uh entitlements out of nowhere. This is zoned commercial and it's zoned R six in the county. that what we're providing you is the same development program but with far less density and
again to your city's standards and requirements and no matter what we do today those entitlements exist and I just want to be clear about that for everyone's purposes those who have been sitting with this for a year and providing all this feedback deserve to know that and uh I
appreciate their feedback and how we've been able to address it with your staff which is ultimately uh recommending approval and thank you for your What is what is the width of the road to get back there? The proposed of the
asphalt the proposed asphalt road is I believe 35 ft. Is that correct, Dan? It's in the PUD. I'll pull it up. What are we talking about? This would be the You're talking about the boulevard entryway. Commissioner, I'm talking about to get back to your subdivision. This one right here on the north of Mr.
That doesn't exist. Okay. We're gonna the proposed I believe public city standard city standards. So it looks like 30 feet 30t when it's back and it's 50 ft of rightway at the mouth 40t wide.
Thank you. And just curious your your roadway is going across I'm assuming the I'm assuming the blue is water. Yes sir. It's an existing canal into Lake Harris. It's open water. So, how So, you build a bridge or you
There will be a bridge over that open water. Okay. And the bridge will be the same width as the the bridge will be 30 feet. Yes, sir. I I just heard some comments in the back. I I don't know if they can hear you or they clearly understand. But
what I heard you represent to me is this is your only this is your only entrance. It's your primary entrance and you just I just heard you say the site work will all be done first. So the I just want them to be clear the road will be built. Sure. And I can let Mitch confirm this is the the boulevard opening there is
our main access point and there is an exit on Magnolia as well. Yeah. I just wanted to clarify that there would be a a second access point on Magnolia that's proposed. So, it's not 100% just on uh US 27, but just at the bottom of the screen, there's a U
access to Magnolia, which I believe is a county uh roadway. Do you need a second exit for the this size? I I don't see it. Number one, number two, I didn't think you I didn't think you needed one. Sure. Let me handle these in kind. The canal doesn't go that far south where it's being shown on
Magnolia. Um that's that's all canal goes all the way to the lake. Yes sir. Do you So how do you get access to Magnolia? So on the bottom left side that's that's all part of the upland portion of the parcel after you come
off. Yes sir. Yes sir. Okay. I thought you were referring to I appreciate I appreciate the clarification. Yeah. Thank you. That helped me too. Thanks. Any other commissioner comments?
All right, seeing none, we will do roll call on Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. 6A1. Well, I mean, I I thought you meant for him. I have Oh, no. Sorry. Go ahead. Um I I just think this is a really bad
location for any type of development. Um I I just don't think we should be putting those type of units, twotory units down here in this this area. I'm sure most of it is sensitive, but um with with um vegetation, everything else, but I just think it's a bad
location to be put any additional development. And you know, I've heard several times, we can do this in the county. Well, then how about this? Do it in the county because they're coming to us because the county is not going to let them do it. Let's be honest. I mean, that's why they're coming to us because if they can do it in the county, then
let them go to the county commission and get the county commission to approve it. I don't think we should approve it. I I know the the zoning and everything else density they're talking about. Well, they're coming to us for a reason because the county is not going to let them do it. I don't think we should have let them do it either. So, I think we
should deny the annexation. Any other commissioner comments? All right, we'll do roll call on 6A1. Commissioner Bur? No. Commissioner Peterson? Yes. Commissioner Barry? No.
Commissioner Conell? No. Mayor Reeseman. No. So with that, the project fails and 6 2 and three fail as well. Yeah. Two and three would become moved. Mr. Become you. Yes. All right. We'll move on to 6 A, four, five, and six. If I could get
someone to please introduce those. We'll give it a minute for the room to clear. Thank you. If if you guys could remain quiet. Did we get a motion to introduce yet? No, sir. Okay. All right. So, if we could get someone to introduce
6 A45 and 6. I'll introduce and ask to be read by title only, please. Thank you, sir. 6 A4 an ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida, annexing certain real property consisting of approximately 39.05 plus minus acres being generally located
north of East Dwey Robins Road and south of Dwey Robbins Road lying in section 5, Township 21 South, range 25 East Lake County, Florida. Provided that said property so annex shall be liable for its proportionate share of the existing
and future indebtedness of said city. Provided that such annex property shall be subject to all laws and ordinances of said city as if all such territory had been a part of the city of Leburg at the time of passage and approval of said laws and ordinances providing that such annex territory shall be placed in city
commission district 3 and providing an effective date. 6A5, an ordinance amending the future land use map of the comprehensive plan of the city of Leburg, changing the future land use map designation of certain property containing 39.05 05 plus minus acres
from Lake County Rule to City Leburg estate residential for property generally located north of East Dwey Robbins Road and south of Dwey Robbins Road lying in section 5 township 21 south range 25 East Lake County Florida
and providing an effective date 66 an ordinance of the city of Leburg Florida changing the zoning on approximately 39.05 05 plus minus acres from Lake County Agricultural to City Leburg PUD plane unit development to
allow for residential for property generally located north of East Dwey Robbins Road and south of Dwey Robbins Road lying in section 5 township 21 South range 25 East Lake County Florida and providing an effective date. Thank
you. Miss Andy, can I get a motion to approve? Second. We have a motion and a second Mr. Mr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Excuse me. This is the Bar Key 2/Grace Groves property. It's request for an annexation smallcale comp plan and
reszoning to SP to PUD. Property as indicated is 39 uh plus or minus acres. Generally located east of US Highway 27 south and south of Dewey Robbins Road as you can see on the map on the screen. project is surrounded by the existing Barke Grace
Groves project and is proposed to in in the end be a part of that project. Um project was not under contract at the time the Barke project was reviewed and approved by the city commission. Um so it's basically just going to be integrated into the overall Barke
project. Future land use would go from Lake County rural to city of Leburg estate. The zoning would be Lake County agricultural to city PUB planned unit development. Um the request is for future development of 156 single family
units. Um does not over add to the overall density of the existing bar project. It simply becomes part of it. Um two floor maximum height under the PUD requirements. I should say you have 156 single family detached units. Two
floor maximum height. It will be a platted subdivision. So individual units will be sold just like in the rest of Barke. No other uses are permitted in the proposal. There are the standard design and architectural requirements that require listing five features
choose choosing five features from the list of architectural features. Again 35% in open space which is exceeded the dark skylighting. Um significant buffering is provided to adjacent properties in the PUD
around areas that are not directly bounded by the bar key development. So if they're adjacent to the existing bar key that they become part of it, they don't have to have that buffer. There's an open style fence or a landscape burm
which will be required along the eastern boundary of the site. Um landscape buffers are not part of the lots as always. We are allowing BA and Bermuda grass instead of St. Augustine. The standard sign requirements no more than 5 feet in height at the entryways. And
we did receive a letter from Lake County requesting that we work with them on um taking over some roadways in the area. Staff is working with the city manager in Lake County to um in that regard. And our PUDs are written specifically to support any roadway upgrade requirements
that Lake County has. So we will add that. um we will work with them on that. And then finally, there is a phasing or expiration clause which you have heard before that allows the four years or um going back to RE1 zoning requirements
and Miss Cindy Terrapany of Terrapany Planning Strategies is here to represent the case and answer any questions you may have. The planning commission did recommend approval on this project. Dan, I have a question for you, sir. Uh what
was the reason this 39 acres didn't come in when the Barke property was originally brought in. It was not part of it was it was separately owned. That was a couple years ago and they So, they're continuing to add property to Yes, sir. This this one um actually is
surrounded by the uh Barky property. It was kind of a hole in that in that PUD and they were they were ongoing negotiations going on for a long time. So, any other questions for Dan for the developer presentation? Yes, ma'am.
Thank you. Good evening, uh, mayor and commissioner. Cindy Terrapany with Terrapany Planning Strategies. I represent the applicant culture development. Um, just to um add to Dan's comments, uh, Commissioner, um, this case today that you're hearing today, we're calling it bar key 2 really, you
know, original as compared to the original Barke one, the larger property. It's completely separate ownership. It wasn't available. Wasn't under contract at the time that bar the original barke went through. It has subsequently been put under contract and that's why Culture is here today to add it to the
rest of the Barke project. Some of these is there a Yes, right there on the side. Um just briefly, you've heard this before. I'll just outline our staff that's here with me today. Um with from Brookfield Culture is Eric Morset the
vice president with them. Also Tom Daly who's the landscape architect for the project. Our civil engineer Brett Tobias our traffic engineer Iman Sidi and Biotech is the environmental consultant. They're not with us today but they're working furiously I'm sure back at their office on all these projects. A culture
has been around since at least 1997 over 28 years. And they're building communities in these five states. Um they have 100 plus active projects and they have recently done a project um it's similar size and scope and complexity um in Lady Lake. This is the
uh just an um a master plan for that project really just to illustrate the culture um has the capability financially and management wise to be able to do projects of this complexity and size. So as uh Mr. Miller mentioned the site is kind of the hole in the middle of the
donut. The blue outline there is the original Barke that was approved, you all approved in November 2022. The yellow 40 acre outline. So you can see it's surrounded on three sides by Barke. The east side to the east of it is um the Anthony property that is always also
approved for residential. This is the original uh concept plan for Barke. Um and this is the master plan for Barke 2. this parcel we're talking about today. It will access through the lighter
yellow colored parcel and then onto the loop road. It is landlocked today. So, um really Barky is really the only is the most logical developer um for it to be added into. It's only 39 acres. Uh has no road
frontage at all of any type. Um the maximum proposed development is 156 single family detached units. And again, as I said, they'll access through the existing village 10 of Bar Key. Yeah, I'm sure you all remember the access road, uh, the loop road, um, for
the project is is a pretty major feature of the project. Um, the project has two major entrances. One on US 27 and the second one on the north side at Dewey Robbins Road. Um, the loop road that's shown in the dark orange on this map shows how the project project will be
completely interconnected. You can go from one village to another without having to go go on the local roads. You can also get to the commercial shopping center which fronts on 27. It's the west edge of the property without again without going on any local roads just through the loop road proc uh loop road
that is proposed. Actually it's that part is approved and the a phase one of this project has been approved by the city in March of this year. It includes 546 units. the major in the original entrance, the big entrance on US 27, the
secondary entrance on Dewey Robbins Road, um and the community amenity center on on the lake. So all of those are part of the first phase of the project. This new uh Bar Key 2 part portion, the 40acre portion will be in phase two of the Barke overall
development. Again, just to show you um how the project will be laotted out and again show you how that uh new bar key piece is added in. The orange is the parcel that we're talking about today to be annexed and added into your comp plan into your zoning code. The blue is an
estimated size of the storm water management area. Uh just one quick slide to show you. We have just just slightly under one acre of wetlands,8 acres of wetlands on the that little blue dot in the very southern portion of the property.
We are asking tonight for a voluntary annexation into the city of Leburg. Um as I mentioned before, the site is surrounded on uh three side well four sides by city property. Three sides of those are Bar Key 1, the fourth side being the Anthony property. We're also
within the ISBA area for the city of Leburg to annex. The plan amendment request is the same plan category as exists on the Barke one and exists on the Hodgees Reserve to the north, the Anthony property to the east, and Lake Co to the west. So, it's the same plan
category that you have in this area. And the reasoning, all those projects I just mentioned are also in the city's PUD zoning district. Of course, each one of them has their own master plan, but they're also are in uh using the PUD district, which the benefit to you all and to the public and to anyone who buys
in that project is it's what you see is what you get. Only the only things that can be built within that project are exactly what is shown on the master plan that you all approve. And if you approve the second uh portion, this bar key 2, same thing would apply. It's exactly
what you see is what you get. No major changes can be done to either this part or the larger original Barky one unless it comes back through the public hearing process. Uh again, this is just what I was mentioning. All the surrounding properties have the estate residential
plan category. Just a couple of quick uh notes about different comp plan policies with which we are consistent. within the 45 foot lots uh um both in Bar Key 2 and the original Barke. We are adding additional parking at the ends of
each blocks to account for overflow parking, parties, holidays, things that you know where there might be a need for additional parking where your family comes over for a big event. Want to make sure that didn't overflow into the streets. So these would be parallel parking spaces at the end caps of the
blocks. And as was required by your code, we're happy to present these architectural elevations. They are the same models that will be in bar key one. There are three models uh excuse me, four models. Three of them are one story as you can see. The fourth one is the other fourth
one is a one-story. They range in size from 1500 square feet to 2400 square feet. So we think they'll be very compatible um with the neighborhood and with what's going on in that particular area. Uh before I finish uh and then happy to answer your questions, I just wanted to
mention um I've had the pleasure of working with uh Mr. Miller and his staff, Miss Harper and Miss Van Allen, um now for gosh, almost six months, I guess. Um it's the second project we've worked on with them. I found them to be extremely professional. You're very lucky to have a really great staff.
They're professional. They're thorough and fair in their evaluation, and they're genuinely nice people, and they return your phone calls, and we appreciate all of that. So, I just want to give um Dan a shout out in public. We do appreciate that. I'm going to stop here and I'll be happy to answer any of your questions. And again, if you have more technical questions that I can't
answer, our engineer is here as is our landscape architect and our traffic engineer. Any questions for the developer? All right, we'll open Thank you. We'll open public comments. If you're here to speak on these items, you have three minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.
Feel like I should live here. Um, Michael Anne Houston, 8601 East Dewey Robbins Road, technically in Howy, but I want to just say you have already approved just on Dewey Robbins Road, in case you aren't aware, 3,440 homes on
just Dewey Robbins Road. That road is what, two miles long. Now you go down south Dewey Robbins and there's another,000 homes going on South Dwey Robbins all the way on East Robbins to 27. How many cars do we have to put on
these roads to make it totally inhumane to be there? People are selling their homes now. Nobody wants to live near this. I'm sorry. If I wanted to live in the villages, I would have bought in the villages. You have destroyed the entire neighborhood, everything out there. There is no farmland. We just came from
Lake County City Council. They know that farmland and agriculture land is being thrown to the wolves constantly. They're working hard. Actually, amazingly enough, Lake County City Council is against all of this. They actually want to preserve agriculture land. They want
people to be able to drive down a road or ride a bike down a road and not get hit by cars going by you. Also, since none of you care, this is the road that they use when the turnpike blocks off and they have to divert traffic. I can't even get out of my own driveway because
they divert the turnpike onto 19 east Robins South Robins Dewey Robinson back up to 27. This is not just your housing. This is also an emergency road. But go ahead, put 20,000 cars out there and don't think anything about it. This you you've just made the whole neighborhood
just the worst. I mean, is this the intent to really We are the people that Well, I don't get to vote because I live in Howie, but the people who voted for you didn't intend for you to make every square inch of Leburg concrete. Nobody in the world would want that. Would you
please stop? They really need another hundred. And funny, that number wasn't even in your little bylaws thing, but it was in your listing. They really need another 147 acres or 150 some homes. Seriously, can we just stop for a minute? Why don't
we stop and see what happens with what they're doing? All of this destruction out there is going to cause a problem. Do you have to say, "Okay, do it. Do it. Do it." Can you just stop? You're creating a snowball. You aren't prepared to stop because you're doing it. How's
doing it, and Groveland's doing it, and all three of you have access to these roads. It's really shameful. Any other public comments? Seeing none, we'll close public comments. Would the developer like to say anything
in regards to that? Uh um well, what I will say is um all the project all the roads within our development are required to be they're the obligation of the developer, of course. Um number two, any improvements to Dewey Robbins Road that's required by the county which will be required by the
county um are also the obligation of the developer. a separate developer is putting a light is obligated to put a light at Dewey Robbins Road in 27. Not our developer, but a another developer on that road. And if and when uh the project triggers a traffic signal at its
main entrance at US 27 and the main entrance to the project, we would be obligated um to put in the traffic signal at that point as well. Um, so we're we're we're regulated by FTO of course and by this county for Dewey Robbins Road and of course by you all
for your um for your development as well. We really feel like with two entrances, two major entrances to a project that we will be able to handle all of that. But again, we're not talking about Bari 1 today. That project has been approved. We're only adding the
39 acres with 100 maximum of 156 lots to the Barke project. Um, that's what we're asking you to do is just that last 39 acres um to be added. I'd be happy to answer any more questions that you might have um for me. Thank you so much. How many how many lots does Barky have in
it? Uh 1,700 was the maximum approved on 717 acres. Any other questions? Any other commission comments? Seeing none. I I mean I Yeah, that's what that's what Yeah, this is what this is
for. Please go ahead. I agree with some comments made today. Um as I've discussed many of times, we have over 30,000 lots already approved out here in the city. Um there's already 1,700 already approved of Bari. Do we
really need to add another 156? I don't think we need any more lots. Um, you've got a slew of them. It would take the city 30 years to build out what you already have. I don't think we need to keep adding to, in my opinion, an existing problem we already have. Um, I
think we need to consider this and and and not move forward. I mean, they've already got 1,700 lots to build on. It's already been approved. I don't think we need to add plus or minus another 150 to it. Any other final commission comments?
Seeing none, we will do roll call on 6 A4. Commissioner Peterson, yes. Commissioner Barry, yes. Commissioner Cono, no. Commissioner Burray, yes. Mayor Reeseman, yes. 65. Roll call. Need a
motion. Motion to approve. Yeah, we need a motion. Motion. Motion to approve 65. We have a second. We have a motion and a second. Any final discussion? Seeing none. Roll call. Commissioner Barry, yes. Commissioner Connell, no. Commissioner
Bur, yes. Commissioner Peterson, yes. Mayor Reeseman, yes. Would someone please make a motion for 68? Motion to approve 686. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, a roll call. Commissioner Connell.
Uh, no. No, not on the density. Commissioner Bur, yes. Commissioner Peterson, yes. Commissioner Barry. Yes. Mayor Reeseman. Yes. Before we I did want to say one thing and I think Al touched on this. Uh paragraph 3E of the 2014 ISBA agreement
between the Lake County and the city ensures that all current and future roads are brought up under the city dedication. Can we do a study to see which roads need to fall under that? You want to take that or Yeah, we'll we'll speak to that. the the agreement um stipulates that if the city accumulates
a certain percentage along roadways then that roadway becomes the cities with some maintenance requirements. That paragraph is a little tricky for two reasons. Uh the reason number one uh how do we calculate 50% of the linear
roadway the because the the paragraph stipulates collector roads. So we're probably going to have some issue or we need to have some discussion on what the definition of a collector road is going to be. So for example, Dewey Robbins a collector road could be the 50% of the
the linear frontage from collector roads which would be 27 and 19 is any little intersection along 27 a collector road for example. Um, and then the second one is the last sentence of that paragraph has a however clause that kind of then
unwraps the the maintenance requirements. Um, as you all know, we sent a uh or I sent an email to the county to talk about some JPA issues, roads being a primary one. So, we'll have some initial discussions with the
county on how we go about firming up our portions of of the ISBA agreement. But as far as your adoption, I don't think what we added uh this evening complicates that issue any more than it's already complicated. All right.
Thank you, Al. Would someone please introduce 6A789 and 10? I'll introduce NASP read by title only, please. 6 A7 an ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida, annexing certain real property
consisting of approximately 81 plus minus acres, being generally located west of Richie Road and south of West Main Street, lying in section 28, Township tip 19 South, range 24 East, Lake County, Florida. Provided that said
property so annex shall be liable for its proportionate share of the existing and future indebtedness of said city. Provided that such annex property shall be subject to all laws and ordinances of said city as if all such territory had been a part of the city of Leburg at the time of passage and approval of said
laws and ordinances providing that such annex territory shall be placed in city commission district 2 and providing an effective date. 688, an ordinance amending the future land use map of the comprehensive plan of the city of Leburg, changing the future land
use map designation of certain property containing 81 plus minus acres from Lake County urban medium to city of Leburg General Commercial for property generally located west of Richie Road and south of West Main Street lying in
section 28, Township 19 South, range 24 East, Lake County, Florida, and providing an effective Date 6 A9 an ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida, changing the zoning on approximately 81 plus minus acres from
Lake County R6 urban residential to city of Leburg C3 Highway commercial to allow for commercial uses for property generally located west of Richie Road and south of West Main Street, lying in section 28, Township 19 South, Graange
24 East, Lake County, Florida, and providing an effective date 6810, an ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida, adding a PDO plan development overlay to the C3 highway commercial zoning on approximately 81 plus minus
acres to allow for outdoor storage uses for property generally located west of Richie Road and south of West Main Street, lying in section 28, Township 19 South, Range 24 East, Lake County, Florida, and providing an effective Eight.
Motion to approve 6A7. Second. Motion. Andy. Mr. Miller. Sir. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. This site, as indicated by our city clerk, is 81 plus or minus undeveloped acres. Part of it's undeveloped, the backside, I should say.
The request of is basically in four separate parts. One is an annexation, one is a small scale comp plan, one is the zoning, which is standard. Then we added one more which would be a planned development overlay under the future land use. It would go from Lake County urban medium to city of Leburg general
commercial. The zoning would go from Lake County R six, which is urban residential to city C3 general commercial under this very simple uh PDO we put together. Um, it would allow for the standard C3 general commercial uses
along with, and I want to point out the property right here. Um, there we go. You have the 301 Richie Road, which is the existing building. This property down here, and there's a fence running along the east side, the
south side, and the PDO requires a fence along this side as well. Um, and that's where they wanted to have the RV storage. So, there's nothing on there now. They wanted to add RV, boats, those
kind of things to storage there. Um, there's no other, it's a very, it's a straight zoning other than that. Uh, standard C3 zoning like the rest of the property in the area. Um, so the sundown provision is not applicable because it just goes to a straight zoning. We
didn't have to put much um much into this. The proposed use is consistent with the zoning standards and comp plan. We received no comments from Lake County Public Works and we got an approval from one neighbor as long as there was a fence. So, it's it's really just
annexing a piece of land zoning at C3 like the property and there may be a zoning map in there, Anna, I I believe on one of the next pages, I hope. Um, but that'll show you it makes it consistent with the zoning in the rest of the area. Yes, sir. I thought I saw something. One of the
neighbors wanted a higher fence or That's correct. The neighbor that meet that criteria. Yes, sir. Um he wanted and what we did was put in the PUD that it could be from 6 to 8 ft. Anywhere from six up to eight. So, um if you want us to require the eight, we can do that.
I have Would the eight be only on the Richie Road portion or the eight can be wherever you want it, sir? Because I know they do. They already have a fence on the back. There's fence on the south and the west side. I think I might have said east earlier, but it's on the west side and the south right now here and
here. But we can make that requirement if you like, sir. Yes, I would like to see it at 8 ft. Okay. Especially with RV and the height of those. The height of things. Yes. Okay. Taller fence. I would like to ask does
will tractor trailers be included in this or is this just tra I mean any kind of outdoor storage would be possible? Yes ma'am. And anyone can utilize this property. It would be open it would be open to the public as long as long as you paid your monthly fee. Yes ma'am. And then this would be protected and um
secured for security reasons for anyone. The fence would be the security. I do not know if the applicant plans to add any further security measures but at least the fence would be there as a security. this be possibility for jobs for people for security?
I would hesitate to say yes on that because it's just a fenced area. If they wanted to hire someone as a security person, they they would have the option to do that, but I'm not sure it would not sure it would be needed. It's it's a small space. It's point. Is there
anything in the language that when they put RVs or semis there that no maintenance can be done on site? We can add no maintenance. And how long are they allowed to sit? I mean, how long to be there? I'm thinking of um RVs that you roll out to put in
whatever that would that Yes, ma'am. That's But is it all specific for each vehicle? A storage, someone pulling something, a you RV, a tractor, trailer, a boat. I'm just curious of what it would be. Somebody might pull their boat
out summertime so it's out every weekend then back in winter time is there. Is there a term to say 6 months, eight months? That would be that would be whatever they wanted to do in the contract. Yes, ma'am. I think it's like a storage facility. It's a parking lot.
You're written a little place. My cons Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I'll just jump in and say I think there is some difference um potentially in terms of how long the person might be renting their space. I think that if it's 6 months or lower, I believe they're
considered a transient uh renter. And so that's a little bit easier for the landowner to deal with removal of those types of folks. A little bit more rights come the longer you're there if you hit that six-month threshold and you get a little bit uh a little bit stronger protection, I I believe is my
understanding of that. So, it very well could vary depending on whatever the owner wants to do with their sights and um you know, someone may have an RV like you said that's you know easily movable and and someone may be storing something that's a little more difficult but and
this could be done with any private property in a commercial zoned area or I mean if they because we are having other things going forward I'm thinking now food trucks Um, in terms of the food trucks, we've got we've got an item
coming up about that. And I think the answer potentially is yes. It depends on the individual site, but I I believe that something like that would be possible. Dan, I thought this I thought this was a permitted use under C3. Well, I did too
until we found it wasn't. Okay. Okay. Okay. I mean, I didn't mean to question you. I was just No, that's I mean, at least it was a couple years ago. My last comment and I we talked about it when we did our ride along. Yes, sir. Is there anything to add? It can't be an immobilized vehicle. The vehicle has to
be running. I know there's trailers, but like a junkyard. I just don't want it to become like a junkyard of dilapitated. We can we can add under um it would be required everything that's allowed under the C3 zoning would be allowed. We can call out that it
cannot store junk vehicles. You know, it would have to be something like that. I believe that is called out in the C3, but we can add that as as a particular that uh um must be licensed, registered, something like that. I would think I mean I I I'll just say I don't have any
problem with the annexation, reszoning, whatever. I have my concerns with outdoor stores. We Lord knows we drive you drive down the roads, we got enough junk already we're staring at. We don't need to keep adding to this problem. Um well, this this this one's set well off
the road in a area. that I would call heavy commercial, light industrial. So, it's a pretty good fix. I understand it's on the main drive, but still, I mean, I I just don't want to continue to add to something I think we already have a problem with. I would think anything that's stored out
there, I think it needs to be very limited. I think we need to have a real scope of what is allowed. Um, I agree with you, Commissioner Barry. Tractor trailers, I I don't see it. Um, if we're going to limit to boats and RVs, then I think it needs to say boats and RVs. Um,
and I think anything that's there needs to be properly registered and tagged. It's this isn't a just a junkyard drag in some old piece of junk and you Well, I don't really know what to do with, so I'm just going to leave it here for a year and I'll figure it out later. I
mean, I just no problem with the zoning annexation, but I don't know. We need more outdoor storage, but if we're going to do it, I think there's need to be some major restrictions on it. Commissioner, I I disagree. I think we're grossly overly complicating
outdoor storage area for the applicant. Um, my you seen some of the other stuff down that outdoor storage? I would not approve this on a major thoroughare. It's it's this is a good location for this type product. I'm just trying to be respectful to the applicant. Well, I mean, I'm not trying to be disrespectful
and just say it. I just I just don't think this I'm not saying it's a bad fit. I'm just saying it needs to be some high restrictions on it if we're going to allow more outdoor storage in this town. I would like to add, please. I don't want to see this on a major thoroughare foot as well. Um, I agree to
this area, but I'm just concerned now that with what's in yards that need to be moved to an area to be parked here. When you ride through neighborhoods that aren't in our HOA or
have nothing but my personal property, you have a boat or RV and now you're going to have maybe possibly a food truck. I'm thinking that we have to have something stronger restrictions put in place. the length of time, the in and-out, security, something just to
provide. I respectfully disagree with all that. We're about to talk about an ordinance, you know, that addresses food trucks have to leave their basically moved out every night. So that's, you know, you can't you can't go block storage areas in town. I mean, I guess I'm missing
something. So go to your house. You're saying they just Well, we won't let them store at their house. So they're they're going to have to resort they go to this place if we would approve it. Exactly. So, which is a perfect fit. That's a in and out. That's what I'm saying. That's what it's for. That's what I That's what
I'm saying. I'm not That is what I'm saying. I stand on my comment. I think we're overly complicating it. I'll try to be quiet. There's no restrictions on what they can store. Is that what you're saying? In this area. Okay. First of all, it's only 081 acres. He can only store so much. Um I don't want to be a We're not
approving a junkyard. That's a different zoning category. Um it's not if it's not tagged and registered. It's probably junk. So, I'm not going to argue all those points. Um, I I just think we're overly complicating it. Um, we don't want a
junkyard. I agree with that. The tractor trailers, I don't think that's how his intent is, but the property's big enough, but so we can put a restriction on. Um, that was just a question I'm asking you. It stated RVs, boats, and I was asking if that's that's what I think of. There is a problem with tractor
trailers being parked on sides of roads in community in residential areas. This is need and that would be in the county by the way in the city that would be prohibited. Yeah. So that's a code violation. Exactly. So they're not only are they on the side of the roads, they're also in their back against their
side of their homes. So that is my concern. I'm not disagreeing with the zoning. I'm supporting. I listen. I mean I'm hearing what you're saying. But my question, I'm just concerned is will there be more of these? Will we have to hopefully get an area to store things?
If we have something coming down the pipe that will make um food trucks move, they can't go to their homes, right? Trailers that drag um yard landscaping industries, they can't park their trucks on the side of somebody else's property
or on this would be ideal for a landscaper. Yes. to park um boats, RVs, landscaper. The owner and applicant is here if you'd like to hear from him. But I I do have a question. Why Why can't we limit on what could be stored there? As long as we're reasonable. I mean, let's talk to the applicant. I
mean, tractor trailers, I don't think he cares. Um I don't think that's his intent. I I more parts. Um I I know you're I know you're going with that. Um, I I just got through saying I don't support it on a major thorough affair,
so I don't need I don't need that kind of badger on the applicant and see what his thoughts are. Um, good evening uh, commissioners, Mr. Mayor. My name is Chris Kelly. I reside at 4525 Myrtle Street and Edgewater, Florida. And, uh, first of all, I want
to thank you and also thank staff and Dan. They did a great job in helping us go through this process. This was sort of a an evolution overlay. Uh initially we didn't really have any kind of a storage facility in mind. We still don't. Um our first preference on this
property actually is to uh put a warehouse uh that meets all the setbacks and possibly have some outdoor storage because there's some types of businesses that like to store for instance PVC or something if they're in the sprinkler
business or whatever. So having lay down space uh as they call it in the uh industrial storage uh or in the industrial business having that as availability could make that a little more marketable. And I think what Dan and his staff was trying to do was to
not have us come back before you with uh something that didn't meet what your requirements were under the zoning that you have. So this is sort of evolving into something that it was never intended to be. Um, our first preference really is not to store boats or RVs or
junk or any of that stuff. Our first preference is to put some sort of a warehouse. And we have talked to an engineer locally here in the city. I think he's done several projects with you guys and and and have them do a conceptual plan because it's not part of
a storm water uh retention system that's in place for some of the other properties around it. So, we'll have to we'll have to come back. we'll have to store water to do a development and it would be small. Um, but we're we're sort of just trying to uh not have to come
back before you for a second um a second time and I'm uh sensitive to the comments that have been made about what's happened on Main Street. I've seen it. We don't want to be a part of that either. Our our intention is to have a very clean uh nice warehouse with
possibly some outside storage if that requires going from 6 to 8 ft. There's already a nice white vent uh vinyl fence on two sides. We keep it mowed. Uh we're doing our best to be good neighbors. We own the warehouse that's immediately adjacent to it to the north. Um and we
just we're just looking for options, developmental options, and just trying to keep the door open to do something that's going to be beneficial for that property. and for the city and and just a good business move. So, we're open to your suggestions. Um I certainly have no
um issues with junk and cars and boats that aren't registered and all those things. We would not entertain doing that anyway. And to be blunt with the commission and and you, Mr. Mayor, we really don't want to get into that business. But I think um Commissioner Connley before has said, "Well, if it
gets approved, it rides with the land." and he's absolutely correct. So, I'm sensitive to what your what your wishes are. So, gauging the commission, you're okay with 8 foot fence restriction uh registered entitled vehicles and then is the commission want to just put a
restriction on no semis and then allow the other ones. Is that are you happy with Commissioner Canel? I would like to conclude. I mean, I know the space is limited, but and I Mr. Kelly, I mar I think this is a great idea and I think it's much needed in the
city. I just would just had questions like how would they enter in and out? Do they just drive in freely? Is it an automatic gate of Well, again, we're to answer your question, we're really not interested in doing that product at all. Our our first preference is to put a warehouse and and in some cases those
those types of businesses like if they're I could think of one that was in Sanford. was a sprinkler supply um business and they had the warehouse where they they stored a lot of their stuff, but then they also had racks outside where they kept a lot of the PVC. Like for instance, if it's a
plumbing business or something like that. So, it's it's outside storage, but it's not RVs. And in some cases, businesses need to um if they're in the um uh you know, they do land development, they might have uh pieces
of equipment like skid steers or something. they need to put those in a place and so that might be considered outside storage. So it's in conjunction with a warehouse concept. I don't think that we're really anticipating going into the storage business with it being
a self, you know, standing boat or RV, although Dan and his staff has brought this because it's not part of that zoning um wording. So, you know, but again, to to be sensitive to uh Commissioner Connley, you know, we're,
you know, once it's once you vote on it, you voted on it and and if we sold the land, then that then those entitlements run with the land, and we're sensitive to what you guys want to see, uh, longer term. So, um, Okay. So, it's a warehouse that you're putting in. That's our
objective. Stacy, boat, that's their final objective. They're still working on that. So, right now, they're wanting to do storage. Their ultimate objective is to do a warehouse later down the road, but right now they're with us for storage. Okay. So, take the warehouse out of the picture. Right now, we're
focused on storage. So, we've had discussion. If someone wants to make a motion, Commissioner Canel, then we can move forward. Um, well, I mean, I just want to clarify, you know, it referenced possibly PVC piping and everything else. Now, we're getting them completely away from vehicles. Correct. I mean, so what
is it? I think if if I'm going to pass it, I mean, I I want it listed on what is permissible to be stored there. If if it's just going to be an open-end storage u that they can just kind of put whatever they want out there, then I'm going to absolutely know what if if I
may, Mr. Mayor. Mr. I didn't explain it correctly to begin with. I apologize for that. He wants to come in and use the C3 uses basically expand the existing warehouse or add another warehouse. The PDO is simply to add an option for
outdoor storage if it is necessary once the project is annexed. For example, if a plumber uh someone does sprinkler systems, as he was saying, they're going to need that storage area to lay out their pipes and and they need large amounts of storage. When you have
outdoor storage, you can easily get into vehicles. That's not his primary consideration. And the primary consideration is to warehouse either a new small warehouse or expand the existing one. But the PDO is simply to
say if outdoor storage is needed then you can use it for outdoor storage. But if you use outdoor storage we have to take into account that people may want to rent a space for an RV, an old car, um whatever. And if you wish to restrict
that to say no semis. Well, let let me ask you. That would be fine. But it would be a great place for the the um uh food trucks. Can we can we do the annexation and reszoning tonight? Not do the PDO until we get a a full list
easily of what would be allowed underneath it. And if you if you'd allow us to put it off for u we could do that, sir. You'd have to do the PDO. Yes, but then we need to to res
Well, actually, isn't it just an overlay for 10? So, that's a separate separate separate zoning. So, I don't think we need to I I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. So, we need time, date, and location. We can bring back the list at that
meeting. We can if if this is first this is second reading. So if we if we continue it annex it tonight do all three and then when you get to the zoning and land use we just make it a
time certain. Okay. Just the PD just the PDO piece. Just the PDO. Yes sir. Okay. That would be great. We can make that work. We can get a list for ready to go. Just to kind of give you a little
history on it before you before you do your vote. There was 50 ft that was owned behind the existing warehouse there. When we purchased that warehouse, we added another 50 ft from the owner to the south. And none of that property
that 81 acres was wasn't was still in the county. But some of our tenants that were um that are leasing that space in the warehouse were using that big grass field to park trailers and they were parking uh linares there. They're parking some of their trucks. So
actually technically they're parking on county property and they're using it to to park a couple vehicles there. So, um, we acquired the extra 50 ft and then this all we we realized we got to bring this into the city and we've got to change the zoning so that we meet what
your expectations are as a city. So, that's that's how this all sort of began. We actually do not have any kind of a business plan for that property. It may stay uh a grass field for quite some time, but at least the two or three cars
that are there or if we have a tenant that um has a a trailer that they need to park behind the warehouse that's there, we'll have the fence up and at least we'll be in compliance with what the city would want us to be. So, well, may I ask?
May I ask then and you come back? Can we have a business plan of what you are looking to do with this? Doesn't temporary storage ancillary to the primary to the
warehouse, right? Okay. Wow. Um, any other commission comments before we open up for public comments? Any public comments on these items? All right. Seeing none. So, we're going to vote on 6 A7, which is the annexation of the
property. Yes, sir. You already made the motion to approve. I I'll second it. We We already had that. So, any final comments? Seeing none, roll call. Commissioner Bur? Yes. Commissioner Peterson? Yes. Commissioner Barry? Yes. Commissioner Connell? Yes.
Mayor Reeseman? Yes. All right. Would someone please introduce 688? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. We already introduced this. A motion to approve 6A8. You're right. Sorry. So, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call. Commissioner
Peterson? Yes. Commissioner Barry? Yes. Commissioner Connell? Yes. Commissioner Bur? Yes. Mayor Reeseman? Yes. Would someone make a motion to approve 689? Okay. So moved. Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Commissioner Barry, yes. Commissioner
Connell, yes. Commissioner Bur. Yes. Commissioner Peterson. Yes. Mayor Reese. Yes. 6810. Would someone make a motion? Motion to approve. We have a motion. Second. And then but we're going to amend that. Motion to table. Someone
make a motion to table it till I move that we table this um 610 until is it two weeks? July 14th. July 14th when we have more information to consider before voting. Good job. Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion
on that motion? Roll call. Commissioner Connell? Yes. Commissioner Bur? Yes. Commissioner Peterson? Yes. Commissioner Barry? Yes. Mayor Reeseman? Yes. Would someone please introduce 6 A11? Introduce has to be read by only. Yes.
We're okay just by going to table with that, right? Or do we need do we need a Yeah, we didn't we didn't deal with 10, right? Yeah. No, but we amended the motion to table 10. That's right. Yeah. Just to confirm, Andy, the yes vote was
a motion to table item 10 into July 14th. Correct. Yes. And that passed. That's all we need. We're on. Okay. All right. Would someone please introduce 6A11? You did. We have a Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion in a second.
Giving Andy a second to catch up. You're good though. 611. An ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida, amending the city's code of ordinances, chapter 25, section 25-292, parentheses 18, mobile food vending,
providing for conflict, severability, and an effective date. Motion for approval. Motion to approve. We have a motion and a second. Mr. Miller, thank you, Mr. Mayor. As noted in the June 9 meeting, there has been a significant increase in
the number, excuse me, of food trucks in the city over the last few years. Uh the city's under the city's current ordinance. Technically, they're required to get a permit and meet specific standard listed on the permit specific standards. The Florida legislature preempted permitting on food trucks
under section 509.102 102 Florida statute which included that we can't require licenses, registrations, permits and fees. Um this is the case with food trucks, tree permits, group homes, business tax receipts, other functions of local
government when the legislature chooses to control those because of that preemption staff is charged with updating the local codes to meet those state requirements. And under the ordinance that is being proposed for you, I'm just going over this real quickly. There'll be three
options to allow for mobile food vendors. One is to require a letter of location compliance, which we're allowed to do under the state statute. That's not a permit. That's just saying this location in particular meets the requirements of the ordinance in the
statute. Two would be to allow them two times per year under a temporary use permit. That's if someone comes in and says, "I want to try this spot. See if it works." Then they could come back for a permit if it worked. excuse me, for a letter of location compliance. And
finally, would we be allow mobile food vendors in conjunction with a special event such as Bikefest, Artfest, and those kind of things. So, at the June 9 meeting, senior planner Max Allen gave us a presentation about the proposed changes to the mobile food vending
ordinance and answered some questions from the commission. And she is here tonight to go over the revisions of that ordinance with you as requested by you last meeting. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Good evening, commissioners. Today,
staff is providing an update from first reading on the mobile food vendor ordinance, city code section 25-292, parenthesis 18. Next slide, please. Thank you so much. So, the first section that was amended
was section I, location requirements. We added no active unresolved code enforcement cases as a requirement for an eligible location. Um that was per commission wishes. We have also added no
mobile food trucks within a 200 ft buffer from a brickandmortar restaurant unless express written consent is provided. Also per commission wishes. This secondary uh location requirement that I mentioned is based on the
following research. Next slide please. Thank you so much. So we conducted some research looking at 500 ft, 200 feet and 100 ft radi. We were looking at this particular
location and we measured from food truck to property line in this case for this study. So the 500 foot buffer you can see is quite large. We have uh four conflict areas that are uh showing up
here as brickandmortar restaurants. The yellow dot in the center is our mobile food vendor and you can see that the larger yellow circle the buffer crosses North 14th Street and beyond. So, our
research shows that for the 500 foot buffer, we're dealing with a very large radius with the potential for many conflicts, especially when it comes to smaller parcels with single mobile food vendors. Next slide, please. The 200
foot buffer is a more medium radius. In this case, we found two restaurant conflicts. still crosses across North 14th Street in this case. So, we are still picking up a good area. It's not so much radius, however, to
pick up extraneous conflicts. This is planning and zoning's current recommendation based on the research. Um, backing up a little bit, this research involved plotting the current mobile food vendor permits on a map and
then running this buffer to create the the circle radius. Um, so that this is just one case example, but we did do this for every permit going back to 2023. Next slide, please. The 100 foot buffer
staff feels is small. In this case, we did find one restaurant conflict at this location still, but it did not sufficiently cross across the street um as the other buffers have. This is highly dependent on where the mobile food vendor is parked on the property.
if we were measuring from food truck to restaurant property line. So that was our major concern with the 100 foot buffer. Next slide please. Moving on to section K operational standards. Uh we clarified special event
permits would allow overnight parking in the case of weekendl long special events such as bikefest. Uh we also added all state licenses must be clearly displayed to customers in the window of the mobile food dispensing vehicle during operation
per commission wishes. Next slide please. Next section was section L grounds for revocation. Clarified the police as the backup enforcement agency outside of city code enforcement operating hours. We also
added no unresolved code enforcement cases for mobile food vendors, vehicle or principal business. So this is another area where we're clarifying that. Um we wanted to add that those changes came about as a result of the conversation from our last meeting. So
they're all specifically taken from what you asked for. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Moving on, we discussed at the last meeting a food truck alley. So staff went ahead and identified three sites, one publicly owned, two privately owned
as potential options. The first being this portion of the city resource center property highlighted in green in the top. This is a city-owned property. We would need to work out some sort of mechanism for food truck leases. Um, and
we felt this was an appropriate area because there was a lack of restaurant options surrounding there. So, this would fill a need at this particular site. Next slide, please. Another option, privately owned, would be a portion of the Lakes Square Mall. Um, we've had
interest from both the mall and planning commission to have multiple food trucks at this site. So, we feel that this may be an appropriate uh location to look into uh multiple vendors. Of course, we would have to work with the property
owner, drop some sort of agreement, perhaps a plan development overlay to get that to work. Next slide, please. Site three, we discovered on our rideound mapping the mobile food vendors around the city.
There's a vacant property across from Yellow Jacket Way, which is currently privately owned. It's off of US 27, so it's off a major thoroughfare. Of course, we would have to work with a property owner in this case, but it is a vacant property that could be developed
at this time. And that is all I have for today. I'm available for any questions or clarifications. Thank you, Max Allen. Any questions from Miss Max Allen's or Dan? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, you're saying
staff proposed a 200 foot radius? Yes, sir. So that 200 foot from the location of the food court from the location of the food truck to the property line of the property with a restaurant. We are open
to amending that based on commission wishes if you have some thoughts. Okay. So I just I'm clear. So the location of the food car to the actual brick and mortar building or to the property line that the brick and mortar building sits on? The property line that the brick and mortar sits on. Okay. But if you just if
you pull it off the food cart, how do you know it's going to be parked the same exact same location every day? That is something we could look at versus if it versus 200 ft away from the property line that the cart sitting on to the property line the brick and mortar
buildings on. I mean to me if you do it off the food cart they're mobile. So not be parked in exactly the same spot. Mhm. It may, you know, I mean, you know, if it parked in, say Pal Plaza, I mean, you know, that's 200 feet across the parking
lot. So, it's Tempon Plaza, but now it's much closer because it's parked, you know, way far to the north this time than than what was shown yesterday further south. I just I just want to make sure if if we move along with this, it doesn't become a problem for staff
trying to keep track of of where these carts are exactly parked at every day. Absolutely. There are two ways I could see to address this. One would be doing property line to property line. The other is uh adding a site plan as part of that letter of location compliance
where they show us where they're going to be parked and that would be part of their location compliance. we would add it into some of the language saying a site plan would be needed to be compliant. That's something staff could investigate or we could switch to
property line to property line for that measurement. Thank you. In the last meeting we discussed, you know, we debated, you know, the 100, 200, 500. I think you just alluded to it. U in this example, this guy's out of business. Well, I guess he can move his
truck on the property, but we put we put this guy out of business, period. I My question is at 200, how many what percentage or how many food trucks are we impacting in the city? I'm trying. Sure. Uh I don't I'm not looking for exact number. I'm just trying to get some kind of
idea. Uh I would say based on the mapping I did probably roughly about a half. Yeah, I would agree with that. And how many do we have roughly? I'm not looking for exact numbers. I have no idea.
We probably got close to 20 right now. Okay. I would have guessed 20 30. Okay. Right. There's quite a number. Um the food trucks would if they're within that buffer, then they would have to get permission of the property owner saying that they didn't mind they were there the of the other of the restaurant, I
should say. And may I one question please? It's one per property. So whatever it's one truck on that property, correct? And that part that does that rotate if another truck wants to come another month or that's one forever. That is one per property
until written uh revocation is um provided saying that this vendor is no longer here. Then the new vendor could apply for that location. But we do need it in writing to say that the And what would be the time frame that for that? Uh one year. Oh, one year. Or would it
be based on the principal business of how long they want them to be there? But what if the vendor decides after two days they weren't successful with revenue and they don't want to be there. So they have to wait one year before they can go anywhere else. The one year is the uh letter of compliance. So on a
permanent basis they reup every year by uh providing coming in for their letter of location compliance and providing that packet and then in addition if they wanted to leave and go somewhere else
then they would provide that written uh paperwork to us and so they have an option they have an option where they could say hey this site didn't work for me I'm going to revoke okay here and this new site doesn't have anyone there yet. Let's try my fortunes here.
Commissioner Barry, I think if they try option two, which is the two days, two times a year to test the site to see if it's revenue generating and then they if that is, they could go back and apply for the letter of compliance which gives them the year long. So, yes, that is correct.
Commissioner Bur, did you have something? So, uh, the state of Florida, do they require a 200 foot on these? Yeah. Do they require that the food truck has to leave every night? They do not.
So, we are we are putting restrictions on folks that are operating businesses and putting half out of business. I would say more than that. Um, and not only So, just be aware
of what we're doing. You know, I'm just not I'm not really in favor of this. Commissioner Burr, not even to mention the out of business, we're also taking residential areas, making parking lots in the front yards of the food truck to move the next day or whenever they go
out. And that's what's happening now. It's not a good look at all. They they can't do that. Uh that's what's being done is call code enforcement and then what? Well, I'm just saying, okay, I'm being I was being a little bit smart about my last uh No, but but listen, we
we're coming up with a plan, but we don't have a plan. I mean, no offense, I'm saying we need to think this through. Cuz now you're telling a truck that they can't s sit at the auto station. You got to move your truck where they're going home. They live in a residential area where it's not allowed.
Where will the truck store stay? So, they go to a storage facility like U-Haul or something like that. That's what I'm trying to say. But who's going to go there every day if they don't know that? We have to give a plan, a time frame I think to say there's lots of businesses that store their pro business property at a a storage facility and go
there every day to get it and get back go back. And there's also that's my point. I'm trying to figure out what will be our plan for providing a storage area for someone to go to. I know the city's not into the storage business, but we have to consider this when we say no.
We just tried to approve on it got very complicated. Well, it wasn't complicated. He didn't it wasn't clear what was being presented for me. And then as we see we he didn't have a plan. He's saying oh we're well we're not going there just we're talking about the food trucks. I'm just trying to be clear. How can we be fair for these
people? I mean people who is this is their income feeding families. Most families are working these food trucks. I can't see us just coming in saying this this this, but we don't really you I mean I just I do know that we don't need the eyes of the food truck sitting
right on the streets. We don't need them next in front of restaurants or businesses where we want people to patronize, but just remember some of the five-star restaurants started on a corner in major cities that are now have a restaurant to sit down. So, I just want to be fair, equitable
across the board, and not just hastily make a decision when we haven't really thought it through. That's all I'm stating. So, I mean I mean, I brought it up two weeks ago on the food truck issue because I I want to make sure that these food trucks are not harming our brick
and mortar restaurants. And I think it's fair enough the proposal the the 200t distance. But if the the the the established business, if they don't have an issue with it, they can release it and it the 200 feet goes
away. I think that's fair to to our business owners that hey, if you don't think it's affecting your business with this food truck sitting right basically practically in your parking lot, then sure, sign the waiver and let them sit there. And I'm fine with that. I'm trying to give our business owners some
protection here. I agree. I agree with you. Agree. All right. So, are we good with comments and we'll open it to public for right now? Oh, I'm fine. All right. Thank you. We'll open public comments. If you have any comments on this, you have three minutes. State your name and
address for the record. Afternoon, evening, I guess. Now, Gary Kuster, 89. Pull the mic up just a little bit so we can hear you. 8909 East Treasure Island Avenue, Leburg. Um, I'm in the county, so this really doesn't affect me, but I do have a food truck on
my property. I rent spaces to park big trucks. Uh, I rent spaces to park boats and and it's all through the county. But you are in effect, they are businesses,
Jay. They're a business, too. These people are are providing jobs. Some of them in the case four different people work for them on a food truck. So they're they're
making money for the family to live on. I understand I understand the difference between a food truck and a brick and mortar established restaurant. If a brickandmortar restaurant who has air conditioned place, now there's another
thing. You've eliminated having tables and chairs at a food truck. That That's in the old ordinance. You took a took a four page ordinance and made it eight pages and now they just added some more.
But you got a brick-and-mortar restaurant with air conditioning, weight staff, and if if somebody wants to go to a food truck to get food, they're going to go to a food truck because they don't want to go in a restaurant and sit down. These are the
people that mow your grass, the people that paint your house, that put your roof on. They want to eat food quick and easy. We're not eliminating them. You're You just eliminated half of them. eliminating the the location. Yeah. If
the restaurant doesn't think it's not if if it's the restaurant doesn't think it's affecting them, then they can they can sign off. But if a brick and if a brickandmortar restaurant can't compete with a food truck with weight staff and an air conditioned facility, then they
need to step their game up. I I respectfully disagree with you, Gary. Well, I don't I agree with me. I'm sure you do. I just cannot believe that you want to put these people out of business. Now, I
went around and I talked to all of them. That's what you ought to do. Most of them are minorities that are running these places. So, if you put them out of business, what are they going to do? They got to go somewhere. And you just
don't have a place for them to go. You want to put them on an alley, a food food alley or in the mall. Not everybody has access to the mall. You know, it's it's close to me where I live, but it's not close to everybody.
You know, that's why they're spread out because people work in different locations. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Uh, good evening. My name is Colon Robles. I'm the owner of Super Tagos
truck in 441. Uh first of all, they have to be some special provisions. I'm the owner of the plaza where my food truck is located at. So I'm not renting a space or something. My parking lot is where is it registered
to? Through the same corporation. So if I have to move it, where I'm going to move it from this parking lot to the next one to start. I got five families that are supported by this food truck. I don't believe is any business, any restaurant is going to allow going to
give me a letter saying, "Huh, it's okay, do it." That's it's just not my thing. Ridiculous. I mean, if you put that clause, nobody's going to accept that. So, so you own your property and and this ordinance will put you out of business. The 200 foot rule will put you out of business. Okay. I'm sympathetic
to that. Okay. No, thank you. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I was just seeking clarification. Thank you. Thank you. I know where your business is. Which restaurant does it conflict with? You got uh Ranchito, you got now a new breakfast place and I heard some complaints about us because we are Yeah,
I know where it's happening. Yes. Uh yeah, I mean there's China one but they they okay but I mean nobody is going to say yes. Here's a letter. So if you're the property owner though, you can get a you're authorized to put it on your property though, right? That's what I say. I mean, if I have to do my process
though, too. Every night you got to move. It's your property. I agree. But he also, and I'm not picking on you, but you're also storing two food trucks there, an RV and a boat. That That's correct. But they are I'm I'm constructing right now. And I understand that it's been that way for a couple years. Those are going to be gone. They
are not going to be there. And when I talked to you months ago about this, I brought that to your attention. Yes. Correct. And I've been working in the roof. Put a new roof in the building. It's a I respect it. that I'm doing. Yes. Just a bad idea. I just
Is the buffer what's catching everybody or I mean, I chimed in when Jay brought it up. I I think the intent is good and I fully understand the intent, but when you get into the the weeds here, I I just don't like the we're putting people out of business. I'm troubled by that. I'd like to slow this down and maybe let
staff work a little bit more. I don't have the answers tonight. It's a tough one, but I can't I I can't support a mo a uh a resolution that puts 10 out of 20 food vendors out of business tonight. I mean, granted, they could move and this and that, but it just troubles me a little bit. And and Jimmy brought up a good point. I mean, it the state has
regulations on this. Um it's a complicated issue. Well, it is and isn't. Um I'd like to slow it down just a little bit. I mean, but I don't I don't know if we're going to accomplish anything. Is there a way for staff to tell us how many of these food trucks are on uh code violation facilities? Now that's a whole different issue there
that um we can we can do some research on that. It may be a good idea. A lot of them are at like slow it down because there is some there I'm sure there's plenty out there that are not permitted. Yeah. Um we should start with I mean I should say
a letter of compliance. I mean uh you know the ones that aren't properly licensed um the ones that have code viol you know code enforcement issues. I think we I think we need to toughen up on them. But the hardworking gentleman like this, I I don't feel good. This guy
owns his own property. That makes that even compounds it. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just saying it's a tough issue. If we go with the recommendation of putting areas that was suggested for the trucks to sit and let that be a known area that
um vendors can experience to see if it's financially feasible. If we have an area that we know that it's nowhere near brick and mortar and that we could address um workers that need to eat quickly, get there quickly,
and provide several spots like what was recommended and then see how that goes to see and we'll have to approve a zoning overlay to allow this on any property by the way. I mean, so this whole thing just can Yeah, it it does kind of um scroll down. Um, I do like
the idea of slowing it down and give us some time to come back and do additional research. I know that in our ride around we talked about some different locations that could potentially be food truck areas. Um, but staff would appreciate a
little additional time on it to um, if it's possible to continue to do some re research, get some individual feedback. Yeah. And I think we can come up with some clarifications. And I think staff did a great job on it. I mean it it's a tough assignment. This is a tough ordinance. This is a great presentation,
but uh it's a tough ordinance. Putting people out of business bothers me. I think we can satisfy everyone's concerns. It gives a little extra time. We can put in a buffer uh which is what Mr. Connell wants. We can look for some different places, which I think really becomes a separate issue than just this
ordinance, and figure out about not taking them out overnight perhaps. I'm not sure, you know, we but we need some feedback if we could and um we can we can do some um changes and make it make it better. There were some good things in here. Personally, the the moving
every day that bothered me. That's that's very that's very burdensome. Um you would be okay with long-term if they have the year compliant letter of compliance then they can stay permanent based on what I've heard here. Um I guess we're not letting them put up table chairs. I mean, it's it's I mean,
I haven't seen one that really bothered me too much. Um, I I understand how this started competing with restaurants. Um, and I think I'm openminded. I some of them were putting like tents and drilling into the ground and things like that and dumping oil on the ground and things like not saying these guys are, but that's where a lot of Well, I think
that's Yeah, I think we need to be tougher on those type issues. Um, so earlier I said um, you know, let's let's focus on the ones who are not licensed, the ones with code enforcement issues. let's focus on them in the short term while we sort this out. But if you could
give us 30, 45 days, something like that, that would be a big help. And we can come back with some revisions and if we get some additional feedback from the individual commissioners on what you like and what you don't like. I do believe we can make something work. May
I ask for private property? Is there did we say no private property or we can can a private property host an area to have private property can absolutely you could I mean not at a storefront I'm talking about private property of a area but I think it requires a zoning overlay
if it would it would potentially require a zoning overlay potentially but if it's a C3 if there's good access if there's parking and so forth um we we could make that work on a private property situation the owner is going to want to
charge each truck and that's that's contractual private sector. We don't have to worry about that. But we do need to worry about access and enough parking and those kind of things. If the city owns the property and doesn't have a plan for it, then we need to get with the city manager and and this city
commission and see if that's something that would work because there are food deserts um out there even in Leburg where it's difficult if you if you don't have a car access to transportation. Um you know there's there's things that we need to pay attention to in that. and uh
and the idea of the one over there by the resource center staff really like that one um to be honest because that is a a food desert area and so I think there are some things that we could add and make some revisions. I think Max has
done a great job with making changes. So, um I think if you give us the opportunity, we'll make it happen. I'd like to make a motion to table this item to date certain second meeting in August
August 25th second and uh in that meantime maybe speak with individual you know we got a lot of different ideas and I think we need to thank you I appreciate that and look at it and let's announce that he is planning and zoning so for people like you and other food truck people they can maybe contact
planning and zoning because we want their input too. If you could stay after, I want to I want to ask you a few questions. Need a second. We have a motion and we did get a second from Commissioner Barry. All right. So, we have a motion and a second to table till date certain of August 25th.
Any We will not be here that meeting. Will you be here the 11th? You want to change? I'll change that to 11th. August 11th. I won't be here. No, I'm just You won't be here. No, I'm just Okay. So, we have a I could say something so smart. All
right. So we have August 11th. Got your comeback as well. Make it August 11th. All right. And we have from Commissioner Bur. Do we have a second on that? Allison seconded it. Oh, I second. Okay. I second the August 11th date now. All right. Any further discussion?
Commissioner Peterson. Uh, roll call. Commissioner Bur? Yes. Commissioner Peterson? Yes. Commissioner Barry? Yes. Commissioner Connell? Yes. Mayor Reeseman? Yes. Thank you staff for your presentation and I apologize. I cut I I I didn't let you speak. I didn't see you. So, if you want
to give your three minutes. Yes, sir. Good. Uh me and my wife, we have a food truck. We started hard. We started from the flea market. We just have a grill. We have all dream to do it. Uh
we have a rain days, cold days, hot days. Okay. We go to the next step. We go vacation. When we go on the vacation, they call us and say we cannot do any more sales in the flea market. So we decided to buy a new food truck for $45,000.
We started dream in Lisbour again. We lost all the customer because it was on Mar County. So we moved to Lisbour. We start over. Zero client, zero money for couple of weeks. We put all tables. We put all tents. We make it back. And then
we have a s news. We had to remove the tables and the tents. So you cut the hands off for us. We almost one step for open a business with the food truck and a builder. I think I took with you couple of month with Mr. Tony and
Tony and Mr. Hu right soon you take the tables out and the tent we lost a lot of clients. So you tie the hands to us. Okay. We have all the permit. We have all legally with us. We have it everything we needed to sell on the street and now they send us a letter say
we had to move the trucks every single day or every single night. That's going to be hard because she work in the cool trucks. I work in lawn care. So the only person can driving heavy trucks is me. So it's going to be difficult to us to start over with new trouble like that.
So we coming here together we hear the meeting. So we want to poor little bit comments about it. We cannot competition with a restaurant. Reference was a restaurant but they cannot competition with food trucks. We feed the workers on the street. We
feed the labors on the street. They not want to go inside the restaurant and pay $65 in 30 minutes. Compared to food, they pay 15, 12, 10. And we even support the people work for
the city here for the lake. When they come into we say a free drink for you because you working for the lake for the city. We want to help you pass you know but we needed your help guys to can help more little bit to the food
trucks. We starting there tomorrow can be we have a restaurant but that's all dream. Please thinking about it in those. Thank you. May I ask where your food truck is sir? What was your name? What was your name? Oh, Jesus. Jesus. My food is on the plaza
across the street for rural king. We saw chicken on the grill and ribs on the grill. Okay. So, were the trash? No. No. He's at we're like one mile from him next to the Palmer restaurant. You're next to La Palama. Yes, sir.
Supply. He's He's a trash. Yeah. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Moving along to 6B. First readings. Would someone please introduce 6B 1, 2, and three to be read by title only? I'll introduce to be read by title only,
please. 6B1, an ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida, annexing certain real property consisting of approximately 91.07 07 plus minus acres being generally located south of County Road 48 and east of
number two road lying in sections 17 and 20 township 20 south range 25 east Lake County, Florida. Provided that said property so annex shall be liable for its proportionate share of the existing and future indebtedness of said city. provided that such annex property shall
be subject to all laws all laws and ordinances of said city as if all such territory had been a part of the city of Leburg at the time of passage and approval of said laws and ordinances provided that such annex territory shall be placed in city commission district 3
and providing an effective date 6B2 an ordinance amending the future land use map of the comprehensive plan of the city of Leburg changing the future land use map designation of certain real property consisting of approximately 91.07
plus minus acres being generally located south of County Road 48 and east of number two road lying in section 17 and 20 Township 20 South range 25 east Lake County, Florida and providing an effective date 6B3
an ordinance of the city of Leburg, Florida changing the zoning on approximately 196.07 07 plus minus acres from Lake County A agriculture, city RE1 estate density residential and city A
agricultural to city of Leburg PUD planned unit development to allow for 586 detached single family residences for property during located south of County Road 48 and east of number two road lying in section 17 and 20,
Township 20 South, range 25 east, Lake County, Florida and providing an effective date. This is a first reading and Mr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is the Lake Margareta Escapes project, 196 acres located south of County Road 48 and east
of number two road. Um there is a annexation large scale comp plan and reszoning. Approximately 103 of this 196 acres are already in the city limits. So a part is being annexed and then the entire property 196 acres is being
reszoned in comp plan city the currently has city zoning districts of agricultural and estate density residential and future land use of estate that agg that's the property that is in the city and the comp plan for this property is for the remaining 90
acres and zoning is for the entire 196 acres the comp plan is requesting a change from lake county future land use of rural transition and rural to city of Leburg estate. The zoning would then go from Lake County agriculture city RE1 and and the one of the last few
remaining areas of city agriculture to city of Leburg Pud. Um the request is for the development of 586 attached and detached single family units as seen in the conceptual plan. Uh, no substantiative comments came from
the city that's outside the Leburg U electric area. Project is subject to school concurrency. Lake County Public Works had a number of comments including sidewalks, um, potential traffic signal at County Road number county road 48 and
number two road. Um, additional right ofway, left and right turn lanes, and um, a number of other requirements. In addition, they also had comments on number two road. So, the county is fully involved in uh the expansion of the roadways should this project be
approved. Um, we did not receive any specific public comments. We did request that there would be a neighborhood meeting to discuss the project and we'd like to thank the neighbors and the applicants who attended and provided input. I believe some neighbors are here
tonight. Under the PUB requirements, 586 single family homes, two floor maximum height. It is a platted subdivision, so the lots would be individually sold. No other uses. There will be three sizes of lots, 50, 60, and 70 feet. Two parking spaces for each
unit. Under design and architectural standards, you have the standard architectural requirements with a list five um five different um items coming from the list of about 20 that they must apply to each home. 35% open space which
is exceeded in their in their plan. Dark sky lighting is required. Significant buffering to adjacent properties is provided in the PUB including a 25- ft buffer tract around the entire property. Um the landscape buffers are not part of
the lots again as is standard. Um signage will consist of decorative entryway features. Bermuda and bea grass are permitted. Excuse me. A minimum of 2.7 acres is devoted to recreational uses including a
swimming pool and cabana with on-site parking, children's playground, and gazeos. In addition, there's requirement dog for dog parks, trails around the retention areas. And if a retention area is dry, it can be used for a field as a play area if it's dry most of the year, which
we've done in quite a few of the PUDs. The recreation areas have to be constructed by the time 50% of the residential units are complete. All the development has to be on city water and wastewater and there is our standard phasing or expiration clause which you're all familiar with. Um
believe Mr. Mike Rankin of land planning group is here to represent the case and several other uh members of their proposal team are here as well if you have any questions. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Any questions for Dan? No. Would you guys like to see the presentation from
the developer? I I do have one qu one concern I had that uh so uh in the middle the stuff that's staying in the county where residents live those folks two of the two of the homes have access to number
two road currently right yes so that's my understanding so how that is preserved for them through this okay so how are you going to keep the new folks
off of Dewey number two road. A um I know that they've been talking about this. The last I talked about it was a gate with a some type of keying mechanism and we're confident that that is going to keep that's going to I guess if you can't get through the gate
because you don't have a key that's but I can't guarantee it. That's my only concern because what, you know, the idea is to keep the traffic off of number two exiting on to 48 and
but you do have a couple folks. Yes, sir. And and that's part of the PUB is to preserve their if those folks are are confident with what you know what has I have not talked to them. I believe these the applicants have no if so that's my only Okay.
Would you guys like to see the presentation? I don't need to see until second read. Okay. Any questions for the developer? That that was my only only thing I wanted make sure everybody's happy with that. Thank you, Commissioner. Any
public comments? Yes, ma'am. Anybody else? No, that would be because when we had our meeting with the developers. If you would state your name and address for the record, ma'am. My name is Sandy Russ. I live at 6813 Lake View Drive in
Yolaha, right down the street. So, the reason there's not more people here is because when we met with the developers representatives, they told everybody at the meeting that we wouldn't be able to speak at this meeting. So, that's why nobody's here because
when I called this morning and spoke to Andy, I put it out on social media, please come to this meeting so we can get some input. But you can see I'm the only one here with my neighbor. And it was also on the table for us to take as we signed
in. It was printed on there would not be allowed to speak at Okay. So we we spoke with the developers representative about a lot of different topics. when he presented to the planning board meeting, he said it was
mainly traffic and people passing, you know, illegally on County Road 48, we talked about density levels. We talked about the fact that there's no wildlife corridors provided here. We talked about traffic. We talked about the access points number two road. We talked about
the quality of life for the current residents who are encompassed in that and the ones in Trippy Triumpy Place. And we also talked about the need for this amount of homes. I am not against growth. I know you have to have it for
to sustain the city. I know it's it's necessary. I'm only lived here for five years. I'm so happy that there was a lot that I could buy and build my own house so I wouldn't end up in one of these developments where you're on a 50-foot lot and you can reach out and touch your
neighbor. I like rural. I came from South Dade County. Grew up in a rural area. Watch it be destroyed by this. why I moved here. You take a 50 by 120 lot, that's 6,000
square feet. An acre is 43,560 square feet. That's 14% of an acre what the majority of these lots will be. Those four and five acre lots there, that's 2.75% of that. So that to me is not
compatible. In the Lake C, the Leburg comprehensive plan, it talks about compatible densities. I know you all know what it means to us that is not compatible. We talked about the housing needs. Oh, before I forget, I watched the planning meeting. I was really
surprised that two of the board members said they didn't they didn't understand rural and rural transition densities, which is what this area is in Lake County. Thank God they came out and looked themselves at what this area looks like. I looked at the Leburg comp
plan to see why would they not understand that it's not in there. It's not defined. Why is that? Is there no rural land in Lake County or Leburg? This is a rural area here. You've annexed all this land and there's hardly anything to show for it except a lot of
rooftops and traffic. We talked about housing needs. I will say this, your development map is stupendous. I think every city and county should have one because it shows the residents exactly what's being approved, where it is, how much, what year. So, what I found 2020
when I moved here, let's see, you approved 6,500 houses from 2020 to 2025. 6,500 houses from US27 east south of County Road 48. About seven developments. Do we really need
that many houses here? So I looked at the comp plan. So it says that the Leburg midlevel average estimated demand is for approximately 7,374 new housing units through 2045. So the
area that I'm talking about here, east of 27, south of 48, that's going to supply almost 90% of your needs through 2025. So, what's going to happen to those other 20,000 or so houses that are approved that are on the development
map? So, you can see our frustration. Thank you, ma'am. I have I have a lot more, but I'll just ask you just say no. Think about it. Just say no to this. Thank you. Just for the record, you will be permitted to speak at this
at the public hearing. That's an advertised public hearing. That's the second reading. So, let your neighbors know. I'll be back. I'll finish today and our neighbors will be back. Mr. Mayor, my name is Tom Daly. I'm I'm the applicant or representing the applicant
and I just wanted to respond to this lady. We we had a community meeting and it was a couple months ago and what we told them at the community meeting was that we told them there'd be a first reading and a second reading. We gave them the dates of what we anticipated
that to be. We told them we weren't sure if the first reading was going to be open to public, you know, open to discussion or whether that was the second reading. We asked them to reach out to your staff to determine which hearing was the the one that you would
be opening up. So, there's no smoking mirrors here. We didn't try to deceive them or try to tell them anything. In fact, we tried to be overtly open of telling them what the dates were, relaying to them what, you know, obviously what we're doing. But I don't
want you to come away thinking that we tried to trick them into something that they weren't supposed to be here or not. We gave them the dates of the meetings. We asked them to reach out to Dan and and Candy and your staff to determine whether they would be coming and and you know, presenting or whether they would
do on the first reading or the second reading. And that's that's it. Thank you. Can I say something? I took a note. It's okay. We understand. That is not what was said. We're we're going to refrain from We're going to refrain from this. Thank you. All right. So, any further commission
discussions? So, 6B2 does need to be transmitted to the state. So, someone will need to make motion to transmit for state review. So, so moved. We have a motion. Second
and a second. Any discussion? Roll call. Commissioner Peterson, yes. Commissioner Barry, yes. Commissioner Conell, no. Commissioner Bur, yes. Mayor Reeseman, yes. Moving along, 6C, non-rine items, we have none. Informational reports. Uh,
any questions on the financial reports as of April 2025? Seeing none, city attorney items. No reports. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Grant. City manager items. None. None. Okay. Roll call. Commissioner
Conill. Nothing. Commissioner Bur? Nothing tonight. Commissioner Peterson? Nothing tonight. Commissioner Barry. Um yes. I would like to thank um Officer Riley Snavely, Diane Yuckle, and Dan Miller for their time. I really do
appreciate it. I was able to get um much needed knowledge and understand better just how um code enforcement works in the city. Thank you so much, Mayor Reeseman. Uh tomorrow night at the Leburg Lightning is first responders night with our Leburg PD and Leburg Fire
Department. Our chiefs will be throwing out the first pitches. Uh they'll have the SWAT trucks there, the fire trucks, police vehicles. It'll be a fun night with kids. Uh good family atmosphere. Hope maybe you'all can all come out and see that. With that, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Meeting adjourned.