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we're going go ahead and call the February 10th 2025 City Commission meeting to order if you would please stand for the invocation and the pledge dear heavly father we come to you tonight and we ask that you give us the best wisdom to make the best decisions for the city in your precious name amen amen I pledge aliance 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 we have no proclamations we do have a presentation from the home Grant Lake Community Action Agency presentation is Mr Blue here if you would please come up and you can do your presentation uh my name is Derek blue um representing uh Lake Community Action Agency I'm joined by director of
operations Mr Tim Bridges and uh hopefully I can trouble you for seven to 10 minutes talk about our uh talk about the home program uh first though I would like to uh thank uh City commission for uh seeing to it that uh projects and programs like this can actually happen uh in communities uh uh in in the CRA areas uh because there's certainly a
dire need for uh improve Improvement of uh owner occupied uh home so uh I want to say kudos to you guys for that special thanks to commissioner Allison Barry thank you for being a champion for this program hearing the feedback from the community uh is uh is just is it's encouraging and thank you for coming out and uh visiting and and kind of walking around with us to uh the city manager Al thank you sir uh for all of your help and assistance and helping us push some
things through uh to uh Andrew Wilson Tracy uh Kier and the team uh over there at the community center so uh I'm going to try to be as brief as possible I I I had a 90 page report but I I realized that uh that was a little bit too much but we we focused uh this time on 12 projects um these 12 homes actually and uh you guys chose the the homes that probably needed to work uh the most
uh these 12 projects of contained anything from Bad roofs to faulty electrical systems to Plumbing issues indoor air quality problems and what we did um is that we came in and we did a thorough inspection on those homes uh we've been uh doing this particular type of work for over 20 years uh one of our funding sources is the Department of Commerce uh we partner with the Department of energy to identify health and safety issues in homes
as well as um as well as issues like indoor air quality and so forth so our areas of focus was primarily to make sure that we could rectify health and safety issues health and safety conf concerns and then also Energy Efficiency improvements uh what we've learned statistically is that most uh a lot of uh lowincome families uh spend a large portion of their um income on utility
bills and uh we wanted to address address that and then our last area Focus priority rather was cosmetic uh we rather for them to live good than just to Simply look good so we focused on the Cosmetic piece at the end so what I'm showing you guys here is just some before and after pictures um there were thousands of pictures that we we that that we took however we wanted to kind of demonstrate uh you know some of the improvements like uh paint jobs you can kind
of get an idea and see the house before and after uh a lot of these homes probably hadn't been touched in about 30 plus years and we were able to come in clean them up uh get them painted and it was amazing just when you look at the curb appeal and you start looking at the Neighbors coming outside and taking a look at their homes and and and one important thing that this type of stuff did is that it made the homeowners that we were working with decided decide to uh to come out and help out a little bit it gave them a sense of Pride and
and uh it made their children come over and start making some improvements so uh several of the houses of those 12s we we painted the interior as well as the exterior uh we also addressed a lot of uh kitchens what we noticed in the housing stock that there were a lot of Plumbing issues and Cabinetry that hadn't probably been addressed uh since the stuff was installed so uh we made well use of the space created some Storage Solutions uh modernized the Cabinetry
that was falling apart uh in several of the houses as well uh one big area were uh was the the the restrooms um and uh I wish you guys could really see I I was going to try to uh embed a video into this but um it's it was um in in taking a look at a lot of the restrooms and even the living conditions uh we realized just how important this program was and if you kind of take a look at this before picture that was kind of the condition
of the entire bathroom and and then now you can look at the after picture uh where we did some accessibility uh improvements completely gutted the restrooms completely new everything inside of those restrooms uh if you look here uh this is actually a a room in one of the uh homeowners um houses uh you can kind of take a look and uh we couldn't even make that up and uh she had been living there for years her husband built the house and it hadn't
been touched in a while and the children uh were trying to do the best that they could to help out uh but you know we came in and we were able to deal a lot with the mold issue the client also had a breathing problem and I'm sure was exasperated by the mold that was in the house but we were able to address a lot of those things deal with the leaks uh lead in some cases lead testing and uh pretty much create a a safe and comfortable space for the uh for
the resident things like indoors interior exterior doors uh were replaced in the homes for security while we were uh performing services on one project um the uh homeowner sent us a ring camera view of somebody actually burglarize and trying to burglarize and kick in the door in one of the houses so right on time we were able to replace some doors add some security you you won't see this but a lot of what we did also was add security lighting uh as well
as has um cameras in some in some instances some security lighting uh fences uh to basically make the areas more secure and of course as as we mentioned the priority as always is not only to do those cosmetic things but we we did a lot of the things that you probably can't see uh like insulation uh it's surprising if you take a look at this house right here this this home probably had about three solid inches of
insulation and if if you're familiar with with insulation our value we insulated uh till about around probably R40 to make sure that the house was was working good to uh to make the home more energy efficient in some of the houses we replaced the old uh jousy Windows um we replaced um old single pane windows with uh energy efficient windows and you know one it looks good but
two it uh prevents a lot of the air from leaving that particular house uh on several of the houses we remodeled the kitchens um and uh if you take a look at this particular project here this is this is pretty much the state of that entire kitchen um it was falling apart and that been falling apart for years if you would have pull that the Cabinetry open you would see that uh water leaks mold uh that
room that I showed you here is actually actually the other side of that kitchen so we were able not only to to address we we gutted that whole room and and and uh new countertops backsplash new Cabinetry this house got a refri a new refrigerator a new stove exhaust that flooring there uh complete new flooring painted and and so much more in that particular house and then of course the the higher areas were the the roofs several several of the properties had
active leaks in their roofs um which caused a lot of the mold and moisture that that were in that house and we were able to replace the roof uh in a lot of cases we ended up pulling all the boards off and putting new plywood uh because they had been in that situation for so long several roofs under this program were replaced uh of course HVAC systems uh several of those were replaced the inefficient old like 10 11
ser units were replaced with 16 sear units um and the great part about that is uh is that you know we require all of our contractors to warranty uh the work for a year that the labor for a year so in some instances they'll come back and service at pro bono um there was a training a educational piece on how to use the new equipment um and we we we replaced complete new systems uh we did a little Landscaping if you look
there on the top left uh that was the front of one of the uh the homeowners houses and uh there were elderly family and uh unfortunately didn't have anyone to help so we were able to remove the debris do a little bit of landscaping uh and and kind of make it make it look good from the curb you know some good good curb some good curb
appeal so uh I'm almost finished so the city of leeburg uh allotted $300,000 for this program to uh enhance the housing conditions and improve the quality of life for residents within that specific uh CRA District uh we uh successfully delivered under budget completing the initiative at $293 618 and we averaged about $2,468 17 per home and if
you're familiar with the uh original uh agreement the uh amount the max was $225,000 so we kind of pride ourselves at uh you know as as often as we can stay under budget and I think we did a a good job of of doing that our uh our team and we work very closely with uh commissioner Barry with uh Sandra Wilson and her team and of course uh Allen the city staff to to make that happen so I will say also thanks to the uh
building in zone loing Department who who work with permitting for us and all of that good stuff uh but in addition to what uh you all invested our organization invested around aund th000 $100,000 in material and labor as well uh basically to to to leverage those funds and I think it is noteworthy that um to say that we as often as we can as much as we can we we try to utilize local contractors to to do this work and
uh if uh any uh local contractors are watching I don't know if you guys televis this or if any of you guys know anybody that's interested they can go to our website which is lak ca.org uh and uh we accept contractors um different various trades to to do this work specifically you know local contractors and handymen and we you know we pair the services based upon what we need and we operate one of the things that help us a
lot is uh we have a a system called standardized pricing uh and that standard pricing has is basically it gives us the flexibility to one manage the cost but then also make sure that Miss Johnson doesn't have 15 20 vendors going through her house only the only for one of them to get the job so what we do is uh we have a system in place to where we say this is what it this is what we'll pay to do this job and it's fair uh and if you
can do it at that cost uh you can have it if not we rotate to the next person so and we've been doing that probably for the last decade and a half through our other programs and it's proven to work for us uh and again I just want to say thank you all for uh making this happen because it I I can I can tell you it's made a a continued uh a major Improvement we've been able to uh help a lot of these homeowners just feel better about their houses
a lot of the health and safety uh concerns were were completed I'm not going to lie to you and say that it was a walk in the park uh uh we did have challenges like with any owner occupied uh rehab uh situation but you know with the help of uh people you know and and citizens and the staff we were able to overcome all of those type of things and it's one thing that I I would want to say before I take my seat
here um and I think uh one of the houses that we worked on was a um a lady by the name of Dorothy Jackson uh Dorothy uh Miss Dorothy's husband uh we found the original permit where he built the house um I think that's on waitman waitman Avenue her husband built the house and we were going through the uh utility room and we found the original permit where he built the house and uh Miss waitman was probably in her 80s I believe and uh
kind of in and out of the hospital and she was just she was at peace but the house was it seemed like it was certain areas of the house were falling apart and we were able to come in there and uh and and help her uh we we you know the contractors donated material Labor uh we used the the city's funds we use the weatherization funds and we were able to to turn that house around and she wrote this letter and I just want to share
it with you uh says my sincerest Gra itude and appreciation to the city of leeburg and Lake Community Action Agency for formulating and bringing to fruition the plans and and various projects to revamp and restore the Lake County and Carver Heights area of leeburg Florida the home my husband Peter Jackson and I built in 1968 on two 2207 waitman Avenue in leeburg Florida was brought back to life in a great part due to the men
and women who worked count hours days months to get the work completed from the checklist things done that needed to be upgraded for safety and totally repaired it took a little longer than I expected but I it's been amazing an exciting journey to see the finished product and to feel once again the same sense of Pride that I felt back in 1968 my family and I are blessed to have chosen among the few for this community uh for this community restoration project again we are thankful and
and grateful for the dedication and hard work of all of the agencies contractors and people involved in revitalizing the homes in our communities my family home is among them may God continue to bless you Dorothy Jackson and family and why why I decided to read that is Miss Jackson uh passed away um a couple weeks ago I believe she passed away and she was able to sit
in her house and enjoy uh the upgrades in her house uh for a while before she passed away and uh she wrote this letter before she passed and I just want to again I want to uh commend you for uh you know for championing uh commissioner Barry to the commission um you all for championing um programs like this because they truly truly make a difference and again my information is here
if you have any questions for me me uh that's my sale up there I don't know if I want that up there but if you want to reach me you can find me I don't know but uh I want to thank you uh any any questions for me thank you so much thank you all good all right thank you we're going to move 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 this issues raised during this time will not be discussed in detail during
the current meeting they will either be referred to appropriate staff or scheduled for consideration at a future commission meeting each speaker has allocated three minutes to provide their comments kindly adhere to this time limit to ensure equal opportunity for all participants and to support the efficient conduct of the meeting thank you if you would state your name and address for the record Caroline van 120 pal more Boulevard um first off I just want to um I Kim earlier concerned about the water and I just wanted to thank Cliff at Public Works and Al at the water department for taking time to
speak to me about the forever chemicals that are um that I was concerned that were in our water um they do an outstanding job keeping a vital resource our Vital resource clean and available at all times and I I learned a lot from my meeting with them and my tour um right now um as far as I'm concerned we have some of the best water in Florida and my concern now is we're going to be adding additional fluoride on top of the fluoride that's already naturally occurring
in the water we have naturally occurring fluoride in the water right now and I I think that kind of got overlooked with a lot of the discussion that was going on so now we're going to add more um I read the minutes and saw the discussion with all the people for and against I don't want to go through all that um I saw residents and I also saw non-residents here talking about how they wanted it in our water um it's the bottom line for me is is that the Commissioners made a medical decision for
our community you decided to add something uh that is prescribed by a doctor to our water at least as a community we should have gotten the chance to vote on it as a community if we wanted it in our water or not and just a fun little fact as I close because I saw a lot of back and forth about how fluoride keeps you know cavities way um lesburg fluoride system has not been working since the year 2000 we moved our family back to lebur
and 2008 I had a three-year-old son he is 19 years old today and to this date he has never had a cavity now funny that his generation is kind of made fun of as being the most hydrated generation we've ever seen they carry their water bottles everywhere we have mandated breaks through soccer through any kind of recreation sport we're constantly taking water breakes even when it's 50° outside we have water breakes
which is ridiculous to me but they're constantly drinking the city water and yet today he's never had a cavity thank you other public comments if you would state your name and address for the record please Donald Shoemaker
9823 Hickory Hollow Road consider uh concerning Wayne storage Annex just was curious do you want to discuss that when it when it gets pulled on the agenda that's fine I thought it was part of this no we'll have it'll be on the agenda for later in the meeting sir any other public comments seeing none we'll go to the consent agenda routine items are placed on the consent agenda to expedite the meeting if the commission 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 a roll call vote three discuss each item pulled and vote by roll call are there any items we'd like to pull this evening uh yes C6 C7 C9 one second C6 C7 C9 C9 C10 C10 is that it commissioner canel uh I would like to pull 5 C1 and 5 C11 so just to confirm we have
5c 6 7 9 and 10 commissioner can now all right and I have one and C 11 all right can I get a motion to approve the remaining items yeah yes so moved second please we have a second from commissioner Barry roll call or uh any public comments on these items seeing none roll call commissioner canel yes commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes commissioner
Barry yes mayor rean yes would someone please introduce 5 C1 to introduce as be read by title only resolution of the city Commission of the city of leeburg Florida approving a proportionate share mitigation agreement entered into by and between the school board of Lake County Florida M and C hunt LLC and the City of leeburg Florida to allow for payment of Lake County School impact fees
and providing an effective date any motion to approve second thank you I pulled this item just because I asked Al to give a little debrief I think there was some misunderstanding previously that correct me if I'm wrong Al that payment does not get made to the school board unless the development actually happens correct that's correct okay so and I didn't pull 5 C8 and it was the same thing I just want to clarify because I think there was some uh miscommunication that right we do these at in the time of inception
and then the city collects all the impact fees actually and then we pay it to whatever jurisdiction typically it's our impact fees Schoolboard impact fees and County impact fees but they don't get paid until until the co all right thank you that's all I had if there's no other further or not Co but permit issues permit issues any commission commission comments public comments seeing none roll call commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes commission conell yes mayor re yes would someone please introduce f C6
I'll introduce ask be read by title only resolution of the city Commission of the city of leeburg Florida authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute an interlocal agreement related to bus stop shelters between the city of lebur a municipal Corporation and Lake County a political subdivision of the State of Florida and providing an effective date motion to approve second we have a motion in a second commissioner conell yes I
know this has came up before um on moving this bus stop from the college I guess I have a few questions I mean why why is leeburg paying to move a Lake County bus stop off of state-owned property to the city of taries when you got all these other jurisdictions involved why are we paying for this okay so um this as as this body knows was an issue that came up uh during
the sale of about 10 acres of airport property which is governed by you all uh to the Blue Rock Development which which you approved as part of that sale when I think we did first hearing or the resolution on that sale and it and the and the matter became public uh then College president uh Bard uh had had taken issue with the concept of the city selling uh the property the history in short of that property as you all know
was that uh once upon a time it was Schoolboard property that was donated to the college and then the college donated it to us at the city's request and I think that request happened sometime back in the the late 1980s is um we found out about that uh at that time we discussed it publicly um and we passed a resolution to say that we would Endeavor to you know try to make amends uh I
did some re research on the topic I didn't find anything overly significant that would uh state that the city in fact promised never to develop this property um that was essentially the position of the State College which was well back when the college donated the property to the city uh we needed it for Airport runway protection area and we would never develop it um so now that we were selling it um I think that got the
a of then College president uh Bard and that a still continues with the college um at this time um we have worked uh we put together that resolution that said we would Endeavor to try to remedy the situation the documentation that we found to substantiate uh what president Bard thought basically just minutes I think we presented those or had that discussion at the at the at the meeting um and the minutes didn't
elaborate anything specifically saying that the city will never develop this but the minutes indicated there would seem to be some sort of disgruntled between the city and the college at that time in the 80s um and that's I think really all we could really gather from the the documentation was that there was some sort of disgruntled um so with that we continued on with the sale the sale has now closed the the money's in the bank um and
there is you know potentially some sort of Remedy there that we that we resolved um in good faith to to do um I don't think you're bound to vote for this I think in good faith you probably should vote in favor for this um one of the places that we did now let me move into the concept of what the the bus stop is so there still will be a bus stop at Lakes hter College um what um what is moving is
the trans transer station um so that that bus stop location at the college there at the lesburg campus of Lake Suter housed both a a bus stop for Lake Sumpter Lake Express rather um and a transfer station um again the college uh felt like the transfer station uh brought a little more traffic and some other items that they didn't like at their campus and so kind of the quid
pro Quil was well because leberg is selling the property um if you guys do this we'll we won't fuss over the relocation of of or the sale of the property so that was kind of the quick proall what can we do to make the college happy so we went we endeavored to find a location for the transfer station in leeburg we looked at the mall um thought we were going to get a location at the mall and at the kind of the 11th
Hour the mall all backed out for various reasons which I didn't explore other than it didn't work um we also pointed them to some other properties um which are airport property technically but it doesn't look like airport property those those locations were the empty lot that's next to the uh Waffle House um and another location kind of behind the Cracker Barrel those are airport property um the county didn't like those areas uh and then ultimately the county found the proposed
s now which is I I don't know exactly but somewhere in downtown uh or downtown taries um so the county had I can say that the county had a uh a litness test of things that they felt the transfer station needed to have um the mall had that that potential um but the mall management at the end of the day didn't want to do it the county didn't feel that the the other City Sites had the potential to do it but the site here and
taries did so when I did get word from the county uh that they were going to move forward with transferring it to the city of tar I did say well since you're moving into dearies do does the city still need to pay um and the answer was yes which is commissioner is your question um and to the the reason for it is kind of the old legal but for you know but for the city selling the property we wouldn't need to to move the bus stop so I think your net was
around 2.5 million I didn't I didn't see the closing CD Grant you probably might know that number but but it was around 2.5 million that you netted after after the sale I think that the sale price was 275 uh we had some fees and all that kind of stuff so those numbers were shared with this body previously um but so yeah so you're so the cost to relocate the the bus stop to keep peace
with the entities is 50 out of the $2.5 million so I think that's it's probably not the the greatest of expenses um but you keep some police between organizations the county and the college that are important to us and the community um and you you you still had a $2.5 million profit on the sale this doesn't the 50,000 bucks that we're talking about that would have been our cost at the mall and
or at inar we're yes that's all it's not going to be a yes I believe the agreement say up to that's it so there's no agreement in writing back from the 80s that we couldn't sell this property that's correct so the mall or the so Lake Suter just came up with this we weren't supposed to sell it and then well if
you want to sell it we won't we won't complain as long as you move this transient station I mean it doesn't even make any sense to me I mean it's not our station it's it's on State Property belongs to the county and it's going to the varies I I don't know why we're paying for this and are we going to start making concessions with everybody and anybody every time we sell a piece of property and that the adjacent neighbor says well hold on a minute now we don't want you to do that but if you do it we want you to
do this for us for 50 $75,000 I I think it's that's a very bad president here to to to get into this I mean if Lake Sumter doesn't want it there Lake Suter can pay to move it or they can work out something for Lake County to move it I don't know why leberg is responsible to move this transient stop for $50,000 of taxpayer money I I I get trying to be a good neighbor but trying to be a good
neighbor can this has taken it too far any other comments from the commission any public comments on this item seeing none roll call commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes commissioner conell no commissioner bur no mayor rean yes would someone please introduce 5 C7
has be read by title only resolution of the city Commission of the city of leeburg Florida approving a downtown building Redevelopment Grant To Dance Dynamics LLC for renovation at 606 West Main Street and providing an effective date motion to approve second commissioner canel uh yeah I pulled this um we've had this discussion numerous times so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it but I do want to bring it up one more time my understanding this is the last application of money
that's left in this this particular program sir my concerns in the past and there still my concerns has nothing to do with the business that being proposed to go in here which is Dance Dynamics uh it has to do with the policy um I still have a problem with the policy we have there's no strings attached to this policy I mean other than some matching funds I mean they don't have to retain ownership for any length of time there's no requirement they even open the business after after
they spend $250,000 of the city money like I said they can sell it at any time I mean there's no criteria they have to employ a certain amount of people there's nothing um so I I really think this policy needs to be revamped and we need to have some guidelines in this policy that just just because you own or buy a piece of property that happens to be within this window on Main Street that you qualify with this and there's and that's it I mean there's nothing else
attached to it other than you match you match what you're applying for I I just think it's a policy that needs to be adjusted there needs to be some guidelines put in this has nothing to do with the the applicant who's proposing tonight for the money but we can't just give away free money with no guidelines and a policy on it yeah I did have one other comment um originally when we were uh
mulling over this concept of revitalization of certain buildings there were eight buildings that we identified and this particular building was not one of those when I read the uh eligibility requirements this building does qualify so I just wanted that pointed out wanted it to be part of the record that initially it wasn't on the list but it does meet the requirements of our application and I think uh I
think it's pretty important what this particular business brings to our downtown is a lot of people to be there so I think it's a good idea I would Echo those sentiments and I would just ask that with this new business potentially moving in there with the existing businesses next door that they put appropriate sound proofing in and I'm sure they'll take that into account so any other commissioner comments public comments on this
item roll call commissioner Barry yes commissioner conell no based on the policy commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes mayor reesman yes would someone please introduce C 5 C9 introduce has be read by title only second resolution of the city commission City lebur Florida authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute a post closing occupancy agreement between the city of leeburg and frosten BG
LLC and providing in effective date move for approval move for approval commissioner canel yes this is the property we we sold right not too long ago we didn't realize at the time we we when this came up to sell that we potentially we're going to still need it no sir we did uh and I would say we had a handshake agreement that they were going to lease it back to us for a dollar couple months after we sold it I
got a call from from the developers and ask for a payment that represented taxes and insurance um I think I think worst case scenario uh Pro if you assuming you approve this probably looking at a year at the location uh so it's about 4,800 bucks uh all in uh if I had hindsight's 2020 we probably should have done uh an option to purchase instead of sold it outright uh so where we're at is
their request and whether you want to Tender it or not if you say no to the lease and they kick us off then we'll need to relocate some what do we have on it now it's a pretty important piece for the for the gas department um there's a lot of equipment there um that they use every day their welders their trucks storage of of parts and uh daily materials that they use and they also use it to park so just I'm understanding when
you were negotiating this it was your understanding that he was just going to let us use it for a dollar a year and then now he's completely backed off that promise and now he wants basically $5,000 a year for us to buy it back or release it back from for a piece of property we sold for $50,000 yes I that's just bad business I mean on on his part I I just I don't I mean I understand what you're saying we need it
but it's it's it's that's just bad um I think I mean it's gonna take much to eat into the $50,000 at $5,000 a year I mean that was a piece of property I I wanted to keep to start with to put a parking lot on for some additional parking for Main Street but I think that because we have so many um other moving parts that will follow and have already made arrangements for for if we're needing this for this group and we got still the um
arts and then making sure that everything comes together I think we could just move go ahead and move with this a granite hindsight but now that we have we need this to do this this to do that I think we should just move forward Al you you mentioned uh that technically they could default I don't think they would do it but you're saying technically they could default the lease over this and I think the term was month to month was perhaps what was discussed
so you know in terms of a termination period of time would not be that long on a month-to-month agreement sort of typically anyways but the stuff we have on their out is it is is this fenced yes it is fenced yes okay so we it needs to be in a secured location yes there's nothing you could put we could use the parking lot of the art the old art center that we're going to be tearing down it secured as best we
could um I mean there's I if they ultimately say you guys got to you get 30 days notice you got to get off or if we don't approve this you got 30 days notice we got to get off we will it will be a scramble because that stuff that we use there is a daily use it's across the street from gas HQ so the ask does put us in a bind so I don't disagree with anything you said commissioner um and my op my my my
I I thought you know we had them a month to month no fuss no mus so the ask for the the rent that represents taxes insurance I understand their side it wasn't what was contemplated if we were going to go down that road I would have brought an option to you versus this long term I think it's the right strategy because you sold the parcel or resold the parcel to redevelop that's going to ultimately bring more value than having the
gas department there so longterm it's good it it's a it's a short-term inconvenience for sure uh the dollar amount isn't killer uh it does take away from the value of the property if it was much more than that I probably would have bed and not even brought this to you so honestly I do I would say this is one of the things you hold your nose and and move forward with similar to the to to the sign issue that we just dealt with um but the gas department does need that facility um and if we
didn't have it we would get by but it would be difficult it'd be difficult for parking um we probably shift some of that stuff over to the site at the uh old steel building which public works you know down the road on Main Street so we could get by but it would it'd be difficult and and frankly in that regard I just you know I understand making a point and I understand values and principles of a business deal but I just
as a at the at the cost and at the disruption of of the gas operation service it's I I don't think it's worth the yard the the whatever's on this site couldn't be moved to The Upfront where the center of the Arts is and use that property um wouldn't be that wouldn't be wouldn't be that far of a move you know no maybe some of it like the parking and that would be something I would talk with Corey about what he would want
to store don't answer that now I mean unless you you know there's some stuff that you probably want in a more secure location and then there's some stuff that yeah we probably could move it over there into the parking lot like the employee parking but they have they had what cor what I know there's some welding stuff and I I want to say copper but it's there's some stuff that you guys deal with that has some value that we had some theft issues with um yeah so we have all our our trucks our
equipment back hos track hos welders um that's like so we park all our work Vehicles there so for us not to have that lot it would be very difficult to operate we could get by um maybe we can have some of the guys like some of the tchs and stuff possibly if y'all are good with it take their trucks home to make it a little bit more where we didn't have to basically trans get people to their
work Vehicles every day but it would be very difficult to uh to run an operations for sure without that piece you could move no sir it's not secure you know um there's no like all our trenchers backos welding trucks I mean they' jump the fence now and get into things um we lock stuff up the best we can but we still have issues with the so be not fenced in would be probably uh a free-for-all for everybody that walks down that trail
probably the easiest option is to probably move the equipment and the valuable stuff to public works and then to park in the parking lot by the art center and and and and just just the you know the probably half hour before the day and end of the day that now that everybody's got to run over to Public Works to get your stuff and go where now it's walk across the street so yeah I mean it's it's not optimal Commission
commer I didn't anticipate that this would be before you um thought we would be out of there in time I thought the DAT the month to month was going to get it but I mean the the new owners of the lot through us cball what is our timeline for the gas department moving um I'm going to say probably 12 months um there's there's obviously this project is already a year old there a lot of moving parts that we were trying to accomplish with this so I think once everything is done and complete
will be happy um with it but getting there is obviously the hard part um end of the month our RFP on architectural service should be here so you should have an architectural contract in March um hopefully we're not we're not designing a Taj Mahal here so hopefully my guess would be by Summer um that design is done and we're out to bid so fall we're building it so maybe I mean if we're lucky Christmas first first quarter 26 so about a year
out of respect for our employees in their time even though this might be a bad situation like commissioner canella said I respect our employees time and you know they are very busy and that hour every day it's time is money so I would support this I and I I I I get what you're saying and I I agree with that I just hate rewarding someone that made a bad business deal with us any other commissioner comments any public comments
seeing none roll call commissioner conill yes commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes mayor rean yes would someone please introduce 5 C10 I'll introduce has be read by title only resolution of a city Commission of the city of lebur Florida authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute a commercial lease agreement between the city of leasburg and lesburg Art
Festival in and providing an effective date we have a motion in a second commissioner Canal uh yeah I pulled this again um it goes back to the same thing we had with the U melon patch I'm not I just don't think it's in the city's best interest to to continue to enter into these 25 50-year leases I mean they're just way too long uh it it just you never know what going to happen in in 5 10 years maybe you'd
want the building back or something these leases are just entirely too long it's just not in the city's best interest to enter into these super super super long-term leases nothing against the center of the Arts hey they're great but it's the it's the length of the leases that I have an issue with and plus I mean obviously there it's it's basically a free lease uh so you're basically saying hey you can occupy the building for 25 years for free
I will actually agree um I didn't like 25 years when I read it I don't know if we agreed to this when we you know they sold their building I don't think there's any pre agreements but um I fully support them um but I agree 20 I didn't like we had I don't like 25 years um I don't know 10 or 15 I mean the the I believe we the lease is pretty much set up the way the existing lease is and I want to say the existing leases
were with the Arts were 10year leases but melon patch had longer well they own their building melon patch had a I think we did 50 years with Mel patch I mean look not to be sarcastic but the the city has a history of doing this with clubs that are important to the city the boat club is the first one that comes to mind with Prime Property which I think was a 99 was 99e lease um that may be a 50-year lease but that was another long-term lease was it 9 uh melon patch
was the 50-year lease uh but that partly because they provided uh and they they provided 150 Grand to the city which which they paid right um as of I think Friday uh but they paid um and also the improvements and the activities Arts has typically not had that Arts requested a longer lease um I'm not going to throw Arts under the bus so I presented it um I felt like the legal stuff and
the terms and condition s and the the semantical stuff of of typical leases was addressed so term is really up to you I I you know I don't want to speak for Arts but I would say that if you if you change that term I don't I don't think they're going to B too much so if you guys want to make an amendment to change modify the term and then that's approved I can send that back to the Arts uh with with your what you're willing to do well may I
ask what would be the need to change the time frame if the melon patch is going to be there that got long there in the same building they're providing the same um providing arts for the community we shorten it then what I mean then we come back again are you just saying doing in increments well I mean I again it had nothing to do with the melon badge I had I had an issue with the length of the lease of the melon badge which is the same issue I have here um I just
think getting to these long longterm leases that I mean basically long-term leases that they don't even pay anything um it just doesn't seem like a good business practice for the city maybe somewhere down the road maybe in five years we might have a use for the other half of the Tropic or something or or maybe it doesn't work out the center of the Arts is not doing something we agree with but now we're stuck with them for 25 years I just think we need to give ourselves some options out out of these things
not lock Us in for a you know for decades are you okay with 10 years I wouldn't want to go over 10 no I'll just you know I I don't want to slap them around I don't five I'm sure it's going to aggravate them but um I could live with 10 I think the organization wants some security I think oh I understand that and how many years have we been partnering with them forever we we've shown our support have I mean if don't like the terms they
can go and find their own building age with you commissioner but I also value what they bring to our community just like what we value in the Tropic we spend money and we give the pat Thomas to other organizations we spend money on those organizations they don't pay anything to use our Fields either well we don't have we don't least I mean we own back Thomas we we don't lease it to nobody I'm saying the the the lease is the issue here I understand that but as an organization that's been good and they do a lot good good for our community and I've been going to their events and they draw a lot of people especially from our retirement communities
on your in your district and they fully support this and they're excited that the city is investing in the Arts and giving the organization longevity in our community yeah I did not want to send them the wrong message i' you know I've always been a supporter I'm glad to have him as a tenant I I respect commissioner canel's comments I mean 25 years I kind of regret my vote for 50 but I do remember the basis was they put money into it and you know sold their building you know so um but the commission live with 10 years I hope I'm sure the
art art group can live with 10 years what you do 10 year with an option for that doesn't really I no both parties have to agree to it still uh that doesn't bother me I thought you meant I I thought you meant tened option similar to an airport lease that's okay as long as we have rights I'm fine when I think of option I typically think of tened option but uh if that will keep the process simple down the road for the commission they can I'm fine with that how will that work Grant well if there's an option and they have a right to an option in the absence
of a default you know if they're not in default of the contract then we would have an obligation to at least at least evaluate that request in good faith in in whether or not to decide to extend um you know what does good faith mean does that mean that the city has to accept it not necessarily um but I think if if they've been operating you know in good faith under the lease they're in compliance with the terms of the lease they request
an option um you really need to look at that um in good faith and consider that option and um in the absence of some you know basis to to deny them um it's hard to to push back too much with somebody that's that's trying to exercise that if they have a contractual right to do it you made a comparison to uh the airport leases are those clear that it requires both parties both parties have to agree
okay but but you're saying grant that if we didn't have a reason they they could opt they they could do well I mean I think it depends on the wording of it but but if you have for example a contractual provision that says that the tenant would have an option to extend the lease for five more years provided that they're not in default of the existing lease term then unless they're in default of the existing lease term
or there's some other real clear reason why to say no it's hard to say no under those circumstances if you word word it differently then you know it could be a little bit more flexible and more beneficial for the city but in this case it'd be kind of hard to be in default because they don't have to do anything and I would let me just throw this out for discussion as you all talk about this I and I I appreciate the mayor's comment about the airport lease and an option but the the big tangible difference in this one is the airport leases
had an asset so in the in the day you know there was a a a vacant piece of land uh an airport tenant came got a cheap lease from us and then they built a facility and they put X doll they put a hanger you know half a million dollar Improvement and so at the end of that lease that asset is becoming the cities in this case I think commissioner canel's point is there's there's nothing tangible that's coming and while we may want to help this organization they're not that they're not giving
anything Financial back although they're giving tangible improvements and assets back to the city so in that regard I if you want freedom of where your building is going to be in the future I would suggest you need to make a term certain 5 10 15 20 25 years what whatever this body agrees don't I wouldn't recommend an option in this case I agree with that because then I mean you still have the ability if if you decide in 9 and a half years that
you want to pick up talks with the art center again try to negotiate an extension on that you have the freedom to do that but you're not contractually bound to do that yeah the best it's it's just whatever term this body is is is jointly agrees to and I would put it you know am the amend the lease or approve the lease and send it back to arts and see what they do well the agreement originally was to bring the Arts together melon patch and the City of leeburg Arts so now the building is being um of becoming
a parking lot the option was Everything Under One Roof and far as the Arts and that's what the plan is and the agreement when we agreed to the 50e which are long term why Chang it now in the Midstream when preparation is moving forward to go into the building with the understanding that this is our agreement that the city has offered well I mean no disrespect but I mean I voted against that okay because I have an issue
with these long-term leases I just don't think it's already have one for a melon patch for 50 years we having the other side so but at least you still have a a half of a building you could possibly do something different with if you wanted to in five or 10 years not lock it down for another 25 years I would make a motion we amend it to a 10year lease second we have a motion in a
second discussion no no comments not further comments public comments see none so the motion is to amend it to 10 years 10 years yes sir from from 25 Amendment Amendment amend Amendment roll call commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry no commissioner conel yes mayor rean no pass to two
have a vote on theas so we have a a failed motion or approved approved motion for 10 years sorry um and then for 10 years and then roll call on the item any further discussion further public comments roll call commissioner Barry yes commissioner conell yes commissioner bu yes
commission Peterson yes mayor rean yes thank you all right next item is 5 C11 would someone please introduce I'll introduce ask ask it be read by title only resolution of the city Commission of a city of lebur Florida authorizing the transfer of $84,500 motion to approve second
thank you I pulled this item just so Al could give the public a debrief yeah back I think October September the the city commission um ended the the the agreement with GE so we started off with GE almost 15 years ago um when we went to Smart grid to update our metering capabilities and all sorts of other stuff in the electric Department uh that agreement was about to expire I think the the official was
it 27 brand when 28 when GE ended so we're actually getting out of the GE contract early so back in September you approved an agreement with GE to terminate the agreement effective November of 25 and you entered into an agreement with itron uh to do all our automated metering uh for the electric Department that Financial movement was a significant savings that in the long term um after the initial year of of
operations so year two I think it was a 10-year agreement that you have with itron so after year two you were going to see about a million dollars in savings the unfortunate part about it is you had to cough up sorry for the direct comment there had to cough up a million bucks to to to finance some changing of of the Guard so that's software stuff that's interaction between GE and it and I and GE and and and kind of
shifting from one house to another um when we discussed this uh back at the time that we approve the agreement I brought that up to you the $840,000 is is a total payment that spread out over the course of fiscal year 25 um so we it all doesn't go out of the house at one time um it was based on Milestones which were reported to you in that other report which I've honestly forgotten what those Milestones are um trust me
Brad and it has not forgotten what those Milestones are um but in any case um part of that contemplation when we did the lease was is where do we want to take the $840,000 from um and and I and I vaguely said you know we might want to take that out of the general fund um so what this resolution does is it authorizes the payment of the GE itron switch uh out of the general fund the basic reason for that
is is uh number of items one we continue to do everything that we can to keep electric rates as low as possible having said that we may even have to be entertaining a base rate increase probably more that if it would come it would be in October please note that's a base rate increase different than the power cost adjustment um but we we will contemplate that long and hard um during the the budget time uh secondly
just inflation has has incredibly hurt the the electric Department uh pretty much everything they touch was expensive and now everything they touch is double the cost examples are Transformers used to be, 1500 bucks now they're 3,000 um wire poles all you know Supply meters in themselves um so inflation has has has significantly impacted cash reserves in the electric fund now that's a and
then com related and attached to our continuation to keep electric rates down um so we'll get into that more that discussion in the budget process because you remember today's electric rate is less than what it was 11 years ago when I became your city manager amongst a a growing system um and inflation we've still been able to do that so I just question how long we're going to do that and then lastly we've also made a number of system improvements M ments where we've
used cash reserves um so with all of that said uh the electric Department sitting pretty much kind of bounces up up and down lately probably the last two quarters were maybe half a million dollars plus or minus where their where their recommended Reserve requirement is supposed to be so they're sitting about $7 million in reserve I would Breathe easier at night if that number was probably 14 or 15 million I don't think it needs to go back up to where it was at 20 million but at 7 million uh
and then with us bouncing back and forth plus or minus half a million bucks that reserves gets a little bit too tight um the other area that it that it shows up or will show up is uh with our creditors they do annual Bond checks on us and um they haven't downgraded us yet based on our cash reserves when we did debt issues our cash reserves are extremely high so we got favorable interest rates um so I could see our credit rating sliding a little bit now mind
you on that note you know that that's not a catastrophic event for us if our credit rating goes down um but what it does do is if we if we do need to go borrow money that will affect interest rates and probably a couple of points I don't I don't think you would see a full percentage point but I think if if our credit rating goes down you you you could see it go up and that again that's only if you need money but on the other side of the house where
the general fund has been the recipient of millions and millions of dollars literally from the electric fund the general fund sitting on about 15 million which is way in excess of our Reserve um and and I think we've guarded that extremely well so cutting out $840,000 to go back to the electric fund to help do all the things that we just talked about is I think a Smart Financial move so this resolution just authorizes the
trans transfer of 140,000 840,000 uh from the general fund Reserve to Electric to pay for the itron G change what was the amount you said that you would like to see the um Reserve I'd like to see electric hanging out around 14 15 million about double the reserve um and that's twofold um a it's good for our bond rating and B the electric fund can have catastrophic incidents um where if something
does go bump in the night and a major Transformer goes out or two you know you're looking at something where you could need three4 million dollar at once storms um storms are a little bit different animal this year I don't think we have our number counted up but we spent um what was the storm it was well it started with an M right Milton you know no I was I was I was talking about money but it was tied
to the hurricane and we've had so many hurricanes that that I I forget their names mil we probably spent around two million with Milton out of uh out of cash for uh restoring the Electric System um so that's another reason it kind of dinked down a little bit um and right now everything's on freeze so when we get that FEMA reimbursement back from the federal government don't know I'm sure it's coming but those are so those are the reasons why the the electric fund really does I don't really like keeping
it at the red line um and and we're keeping it at the red line to try to keep the rates down so the general fund has the cash it makes sense and it longterm the change over from GE to itron is going to be financially good for us any other commissioner comments I'm fine with this I just Al touched on rates just going to say good time to tell I know sent you a couple articles been some news in the paper the big boys have been raising their rates I
think storm related fees and I just I was wondering where we rank right now I believe we rank very well where I'm G to you know there's a lot of interesting Dynamics going on right now overall if you go to public power.com and you look at the FMEA Florida Municipal electric site we're probably a little bit over average so of compared to the 48 Municipal electric UT electric utilities and the four I use um we're probably
a little you know getting back towards the back quarter uh if you then um look at the all requirements project which I think is a little bit of more fair comparison uh because of all the the requirements that are that are goes into that pot to buy our supply we're pretty competitive in our own electric pool um the reason that we're falling behind on average um is is is because
there's a number of Municipal Electric utilities that don't that have contract Supply Power meaning they buy it on the short term so right now they look good and their rates are extremely competitive um but those you know the the the the trick with a short-term power supply uh contract is you you you definitely get rewards when um there's capacity which is going away and then when there's not capacity your rate really goes up so where we're at with the all requirements
project is really where we need to be longterm cuz it's it's solid it's consistent it's predictable um but I will tell you too with our investor own utility comparators um we're killing Duke we're our rate is a lot better than theirs um FPL is is we were uh we were sneaking up a little bit past them but again at the at the Public Service Commission uh du because I believe FPL also has uh
rate tariff increases that that seek for for increases based on storm expenses hardening of the system coming in the future okay that's what I want to hear from you unfortunately you know the short term is is that everybody's going to continue probably to go up and the reason I asked you to bring that up is you know in 2022 everybody waved the FPL Duke rates in front of us and it wasn't comparing Apples to Apples I knew that we were competitive now so and as predicted when they brought those rates up we said they just wait they're
going to go higher and they did and and Duke went much higher thank you any other commissioner comments any public comments on this seeing none roll call commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes commissioner cill yes commissioner bur yes mayor re yes next is public hearings and non room tenant items uh if our City attorney if you're would swear in anyone who would be speaking this evening yes sir thank you Mr Mayor uh if
anybody present this evening wishes to provide any testimony on item 6 B3 Wayne storage PUD uh resoning or 6 B4 Lee School 2025 SPD resoning if you would please stand and raise your right hand so we can get you 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 all right thank you all Mr Mayor they're all set and just as a
reminder commission these are first reading items so there's no vote required no large scale comp plans or anything like that tonight thank you grant we have no second readings tonight so first readings would someone please introduce 6b1 2 and three I'll introduce as be read by title only 6b1 an ordinance of the city of leeburg Florida annexing certain real property consisting of approximately 6.52 Plus Acres being generally located northwest
of County Road 44 and south of Hickory Hollow Road lying in section three Township 19 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 annexed property shall be subject to all laws and ordinances upsid city as if all such territory had been a part of the city of leeburg at the time of Passage and approval of said laws and ordinances providing that such Annex territory
shall be placed in City commission District 5 and providing an effective date 6b2 an ordinance amending the future land use map of the comprehensive plan of the city of lesburg changing the future land use map designation of certain property containing 6.52 plus minus Acres from Lake County Rural transition to City elburg General commercial for property Journey located northwest of County Road 44 and south
of Hickory Hollow Road lying in Section 3 Township 19 South Range 25 East Lake County Florida and providing an effective date 6 B3 an ordinance of the city of lebur Florida changing the zoning on approximately 6.52 plus minus Acres from Lake County R six Urban residential district a Agriculture and CP plant commercial to City of lebur Spud small plan development to allow for a self storage facility for
property generally located northwest of County Road 44 and south of Hickory Hollow Road lying in section three Township 19 South Range 25 East Lake County Florida and providing an effective date thank you Andy yes sir Dan could you come up thank you thank you Mr Mayor and commission Dan Miller Planning and Zoning this this overall proposal is for
as our city clerk stated for an annexation smallscale comp plan and rezoning it's approximately 6.5 Acres again it's west of County Road 44 you can see it there south of Hickory Hollow and just north and south of variety Tree Road on the of course with the annexation to bring it in the city you have the smallscale comp plan which would take the property from Lake County Rural transition to City of leeburg General commercial and then following that the zoning casee would take it
from County R6 CP which is urban residential Agricultural and planned commercial to City Spud which is small plan unit development under the Pud requirements The Proposal would consist of an indoor self storage facility with some outdoor storage for boats and RVs there would be one on-site apartment for management and security use uh no
other uses are permitted within this proposal we do have design and Architectural standards the proposed facad should be shown in exhibit D there we have dark skylighting 35% of the property in open space there's also a 15t landscape buffer required around the entirety of the property along with a master landscape plan um standard use of bahara or Bermuda is is permitted in place of
St Augustine grass uh planed main access points are subject to be reviewed and approved by Lake County all areas which are directly adjacent to residential areas are required to have a fence which is a minimum of six feet and a maximum of 8 ft in height finally there is a phasing or expiration Clause with which you are all familiar the development need to move forward within four years through substantial commencement or the property has an autom atic reversion to go
back to the re1 zoning District uh I believe we have Representatives here to speak to the case and be happy to answer any questions and the representatives do have I believe a slideshow if you're interested thank you Mr Mayor I I would like to see the slideshow if that's the applicant would come up good evening um my
name is donica olerio I'm one of the planning team with chw nv5 out of alatua and this is what we've got for you guys tonight to go over the Wayne storage project which Dan which button do I press on this this one okay yep thank you um so there are three applications here as discussed the annexation the small scale comprehensive plan Amendment and the small plan unit development the Spud
resoning the intent for this project is to allow for connection to City of lesburg utilities when those are available to provide a non-residential use to support the growth along the County Road 44 Corridor and to provide an access easement and roadway pavement improvements on variety Tree Road and I think you saw on Dan's map and I'll show you again where that's located here's a context map um as you go further north on County Road 44 you'll see that to the South
there's orange Bend residential subdivision and Liberty preserve residential subdivision under development down there and as you go uh further north on County Road 44 you'll see the Browns Auto Sales which is part of the city of leeburg um Hickory Hollow Estates United Southern Bank and several other um RV parks as you go further north here's a closer view right around the subject property you'll see that along County Road 44 we've got the Bank the sports bar and Pizzeria The Cutting
Edge hair ston and across the across County 44 Browns Auto Sals uh Hickory Hollow Road is to the north and variety Tree Road is uh kind of bisecting that bottom end of the South and both of those are private roadways prescriptive use private roadways as part of this project the strip of variety Tree Road that crosses the parcel which is about 270t long I believe and about 30 feet wide would be paved to provide um access for the residents living West on variety Tree Road um
here's our overall project timeline we've met with planning staff several times we got our application turned in in October of last year we had our Planning Commission meeting in December and they approved recommended approval and sent us forward to you guys so here we are tonight February 10th for the first reading uh this is a list of the submittal materials that were with all three applications we've got a topo boundary tree survey legal description deed property appraiser tax records affidavits we have an environmental
natural resource report we have future land use mapping zoning mapping land use table traffic impact statement water and sewer connection Covenant which I'll get to in just a moment annexation application forms all the justification reports and a conceptual site plan all three of these are what the planning staff has reviewed and uh let's go into a little detail about three of those elements um the water and sewer connection Covenant which is part of this package uh here's a tiny version
of it right here it's a binding agreement that the property only will connect when water and waste water is available to the project it's been signed and notorized by the owner and the City Utilities we also have an environmental natural resources assessment um document within the package and that contains on-site field surveys and database reviews conducted by qualified ecologists in the report you'll see that there are no rare or endangered natural plant communities no hydr soils the property is entirely upend there are
no listed designated animal species on the site and um there are no suitable habitat for some of the species listed here although they have been found within a mile or two of this location the uh report specifically states that there's no suitable habitat on this site for bald eagles waiting Birds scrub J snail Kites and sand skinks we have also included a traffic statement in our submitt um there are very low traffic volumes associated with this type type of project the PM Peak total trips
estimated are 14 afternoon PM Peak total trips the central parcel on this property is CP zoning which currently would allow retail restaurant office medical and hotel and as you probably can imagine that would you know be 400 or more PM Peak trips so this is a very low traffic volume type of project for this location here is our conceptual site plan and starting at the southern area you can see where variety Tree Road is um that's where the 30- foot wide easement and pavement installation would
happen for residential access it will also provide access to the main office area you see where there's an entry driveway to the office there's five parking spaces one office restroom and a gated entry to the storage area the um in sight plan view you can see the yellow buildings or one-story buildings there is a 15t wide perimeter landscape buffer and um along that entire western side you can see the dash line that runs from the far left all the way down there
is a 6 to 8ot high opaque fence proposed adjacent to that residential area and that would be um it has to be opaque so it could be a faux stone it could be vinyl it could be wood but it has to be completely opaque that's part of the sped requirements um right over here you can see uh a little label for the landscape storm water basins and perimeter buffers this site is proposed to meet 35% open space requirements part of the bud and there is one additional access at the North
that gate is going to remain closed for security purposes and again here's our closer view with the adjacent properties this is a um this is a transitional non-residential low trffic development here are the Spud requirements in a little more detail uh there will be development standards of course as planning staff has mentioned building setbacks Building height open space requirements access and circulation requirements architectural standards include
dark sky lighting requirements which means full cut off so that the light doesn't spill anywhere outside of the site facade design requirements for any buildings with Public Road visibility signage requirements screening requirements and open space landscaping and buffer requirements you can see those detailed here we have the 15ot wide perimeter buffer around the entire site and within that perimeter buffer the applicant is required to put two canopy trees for every 100 linear feet of space and 33 ft of shrubs for 100 linear
feet of space to help with buffering the project the opaque wall or fence 6 feet to 8 ft high and there are irrigation water use requirements maintenance requirements storm water and utility all packed within this bud and here's a quick summary on the Le hand side of the slide you'll see this is again a low intensity transitional non-residential use that's consistent with the land use pattern and character of surrounding area it reports the current growth along the County Road 44 Corridor orange Bend and Liberty preserve
being some of the more notable examples it is a low traffic use as I mentioned with 14 PM Peak trips there is a legal agreement in place to connect to Water and Sewer when those are available to the site there is an access easement planned and Road roadway pavement improvements for variety Tree Road there is one access point at variety Tree Road the one to the north again is for emergency only um the project will not impact levels of service for water or traffic or schools again there's no listed species no critical habitat no
hydric soils there are specific Spud requirements for this site the buffering the opaque wall architectural requirements and dark sky the proposed use has only one story buildings and the proposed use is also fenced secured and closed at night and here's a list on the right hand side of the uh comprehensive plan and Land Development code consistency these are all the elements of the future land use Transportation element and Land Development code that the project will meet the
uh city of leberg Planning Commission recommended approval when we met with them in December and again city of lebur Staff has recommended approval of the project and we are available for any questions you may have thank you any commissioner comments any public comments on this these either of these items I know we had yes sir if you would state your name and address for the record Donald Shoemaker
9823 Hickory Hollow Road uh as far as the annexing of this property are we doing just a partiel annexing of this property for the city of leeburg or are we talking about the whole Corridor of 44 it's just the subject property just that particular partial okay thank you yes sir
any other comments oh yes ma'am sorry Linda James 9705 Hickory Hollow Road I adly oppose the destruction the stripping and destroying of all the trees and burning them replacing them with con replacing the land with
concrete there's just too much building going on I invite and plead with the city of lesburg to consider comprehensive community-based conservation keeping in mind that Wildlife though they may not live there they do need spots to land in and and feed on I just believe that what you're doing as a city is not considering anything about the wildlife or nature there's a
lot of projects that go along that are going on around in the nation about habit hat protection and um conserving land within the development that's going on to consider that land use needs space for um Wildlife I I what I see that's going on is just complete stripping of all the
trees and dredging up the the land and replacing it with just Lawns that are sprayed with pesticides and herbicides I mean it's getting to be a very toxic Community The Villages probably gave you the idea and is the model of what you're now following to completely destroy everything for
the people that are moving into Florida and I know there's a lot of people coming in that need a lot of Housing and different services but I just ask and plead that you consider reserving land for the Wildlife spaces I know six acres doesn't seem like a lot for um Wildlife but my friend who was just here his land AB buts the trees and the forest that you're going to be cutting down and
we he gets bluebirds he has a bluebird house that they nest in there's Hawks okay there's not Kites and there's not all the other protected species but there are um pieces of wildlife that live there where I live right now um in Hickory Hollow Estates it AB buts uh cattle uh a ranch there within there there's all kinds of milked the cows do
not eat the milked and I have there's hundreds of Monarch butterflies that come there every year and the farmer is aware of it so he's not going to destroy the plants and neither are the cows so there's there are pieces of land that the wildlife is really counting on and I just ask you plee to please consider not tearing down all the trees and burning them thank you m James
for your comments thank you any other public comments yes sir you would just state your name and address for the record hi my name is Steve Clark um I'm at 9844 Hickory Hollow Road which is the property that's most affected by this project that's being proposed uh they're they're behind me and they're beside me and when I purchased uh two years ago you know across the street this morning
we've got cows feeding 14 acres across the street and then these are wooded currently right so we're talking about changing the entire feel of the entire area and me being a a very experienced licensed realtor uh I understand that that's going to only negatively affect the value of my property U being surrounded by metal buildings um as opposed to trees or residential that property to the right there of me my
house is there U on the upper left to the right is currently residential so we're trying to reone that to be commercial um the other concerns that if this does go through um that I have earlier tonight it was mentioned um boats and RV storage that was never mentioned in the plan or anything I've seen so far until I heard it tonight um I'm not for boats and RVs leaking oil and having a look at those every day so if that's going to be something that's going to be allowed to enter the
project later you know um because it's approved um because that was mentioned along with a six foot fence six foot fence is not sufficient I understand you say six to eight but that means they could go back to six so if we could go eight or higher um just you know do what we can regarding um light pollution and sound pollution um because again this is just going to come out of my personal pocketbook and obviously this guy's going to do okay but I guess those are the majority of my comments thank you Mr any other
public comments commission comments this these three items will lay over till our March 24th uh for second reading would someone please introduce March March she needs 30 days would someone please introduce 6B four I'll introduce nby read by title only an ordinance of the City leeburg Florida resoning approximately 4.87 plus minus
Acres from Spud to Spud small plan unit development for property joury located west of Lee Street north of hearnen Street East of Perkins Street and South of West Line Street as legally described in section 26 Township 19 South Range 24 East Lake County Florida and providing an effective date thank you Andy sir you thank you thank you Mr Mayor
this is request for resoning the old Lee school property from spu to Spud with revised conditions property consists of just under five acres it's generally located as you can see north of hearnen south of westline east of Perkins and west of Lee Street the request is for a future development of 102 unit multifam apartment complex I want to give you some background on this project if you would bear with me just for a moment sir um the Lee
school was abandoned as a school sometime around the early 2000s there were no developers interested in the property we had some Tire kickers nothing nothing serious and the property sat for many years in 2015 the property was sold by the school board to an Orlando investor and in 2016 it was rezoned under ordinance 16001 that zoning did allow Assisted Living Independent Living Memory Care Medical Offices and things of that nature
that that zoning did keep the two buildings uh but once again we found no developers who were serious about coming forward and doing anything on the property in 2018 it was sold to another investor and in 2021 this new investor rezoned the property under ordinance 2119 which allowed 49 town houses and 14 Apartments again no developers were found that we come forward that wanted to develop that under that particular scenario so
in 2024 and keep in mind we're looking at early 2000 of 2024 the historic preservation board did vote to allow the buildings to be demolished and they were they were demolished last year so the buildings were actually unused from the early 2000s until 2024 so it was a long time where they sat there um and during those zonings and discussions staff and our city manager
and Planning Commission and this this commission along with the historic preservation board we all made every effort to save the previous buildings perhaps find an Adaptive reuse there was no one coming forward that was just over and over so today in 2025 the request is for an accom apartment complex to be built on the site as you may recall at the January 27 meeting uh staff did present a proposal for an expansion of the downtown mixed use uh future land
use District that is a utilizing the current downtown mixed use district and expanding it um to about I think it was 120 to 130 Acres candy if you can if you remember that but it was expanding it northward to the old railroad rway which is the lesburg Wildwood Trail Eastward past Pine Street and portions of Rambo street toward Ward but not in including the hospital and then South to Dixie Avenue and back
West which frankly included this Le School site so the purpose of that change was to expand investment opportunities for areas in and adjacent to downtown so what we're anticipating here is that this will be the first project of what we hope will be several more over time that will increase investment levels in the core of downtown these things do take years but we if we take these steps now we feel like we can be successful so under the Pud requirements as set before
you now this 102 multifam units the applicant is asking for four floors which is seen in the attachments I want to note here that the Planning Commission recommended that it be brought down to three floors and also like to note that the previous buildings were two floors but effectively because there was a basement in very high ceilings they were three floor structures there are no other uses permitted
in this proposal there's a 50ft setback from the road the unit sizes are varied and they're planned I believe it's just one and two bedrooms uh I don't believe there's any three bedrooms the parking will be per city of leeburg code requirements um there are architectural standards which are required and there are facades shown in the exhibits uh which were reviewed by the historic preservation board and they approved those there's dark skylighting 35% of open space there's a 25t buffer along the entirety of the property boundaries
in Green Space there's a fence required which would could be rot iron with brick and stone columns our standards in regards to no St Augustine two main access points one would be on Lee and one on hearen um the signage would be a decorative entry feature no more than 5 ft tall at least 10,000 square ft in recreational area which includes a swimming pool SCH playground maybe even a a fenced off area for a small dog
park in gazebo um there will also be there's also a requirement in the Pud for monumentation Which memorializes the lee school and there are some examples in the exhibits there and finally our standard um four-year phasing uh Clause expiration Clause so that is the presentation for the first reading um if you have any other questions Mr Mike Ranken with LPG is here um
that's it thank you Mr Mayor thank you D any comments from the commission yeah you I like this project I uh I appreciate the developers patience uh we've put him through a a lot on this um I'm one of the people that said you know give me I just wanted better parking last time around I said uh I would go four stories if that's what it took to get the parking um but I'm fine with this development I'm thrilled to have this this number of units uh in a walking distance to our downtown any commissioner comments just a question
as to why uh why did our planning folks only want to do three stories instead of four it was they were trying to compare it to the size of the previous School the Lee school and it's functional it was the Lee school was functionally two stories but big stor but they were large stories therefore if you put a standard siiz floor Flor you were getting three floors the the functional equivalent of of three floors
even though it was two store buildings you had to go up stairs to get into the first floor and then there was a basement below and the ceilings were taller than what we have in here so it was functionally or I should say aesthetically a a a three- floor building functionally a two and the Planning Commission wanted it to be a little lower be be similar in height to the Lee school um there were some efforts made by the applicant in that area but it did reduce the open space
I don't remember the exact numbers on the percentages on that but um it did reduce the open space when it brought down to three that is a question that this commission will need to U respectfully make a decision on do you recall how tall the former building was I mean I don't know number of feet the previous building I'm asking because of our code and what we're permitting here that the prior buildings looked they looked tall they were tall and St I guess I was thinking it might be somewhere between it might be closer to what we're approving
is my point it could be I it was someone called me today and said they thought there was a typo in here so I need to look in there and see if there's some typo in far as the height but um we what we wrote was for four stories Planning Commission wanted it to come down to three so your decision I think this is exciting I think I'll Echo commissioner Peterson's comments this has been a long road and a long journey for all of us I think we're excited to uh see this project come to fruition and I'm excited to see um
all the foot traffic that it'll bring you know get people off the cars walking trails getting into our downtown I think that was the whole purpose of um one one other thing that reminded me thank you Mr Mayor is that uh Beacon College is very interested in this project um I don't know at the latest negotiations but they are interested in taking as many of these units as possible and um a lot of the beacon kids do not drive and it is within walking distance I think there's a one M radius map in the packet but it is easy walking distance to
Beacon and write down the trail or come down uh Meadow Street here so there's good access for them but I do know that Beacon is very interested in pursuing this project thank you any other commissioner comments any public comments on this item to and this item will roll over till you yes my name is John O Kelly 611 like Shore Drive uh I just like Le
school has been a an ongoing project for the property for about five or six years now and I'm not opposed to the development of it I just feel like um a four-story apartment building is a little bit overwhelming for the singal story primarily houses in the perimeter of that block those are historic old houses many of them are um the old site or
the old buildings were in fact probably a three-story height building because you had to walk up about 10 steps to get to the first floor so just for your consideration uh I would like you to consider even if it's I don't know what if there's a problem with uh density or Green Space by having more footprint if there's if we get
the footprint to work with the 100 units it would be just more just more it's placed on the north side of the property those folks are going to be looking up about 60 ft right there a blank wall uh I like to consider you know the possibility of just approving it uh considering with a three-story limitation thank you Mr B any other public comment this item will lay over till February 24th we'll move
on to non- routine items items uh this 6 C1 would someone please introduce introduce has to be read by title only resolution of the city Commission of the City lesburg Florida adopting the street name for the veterans road infrastructure project at the leberg international airport and providing an effective date moot motion for approval well there's there's a resolution with
a blank in it yeah so we uh so I think actually the code says new roads are to be named by the the city manager but I brought this one to you all it's a city road so this is the Veterans Road Project um where the the airport's endeavoring to put a a culdesac and develop that that set to north east corner of the airport over by the um by the fire department so basically at this stage we need a name
U so there's a couple of names suggestions in the packet um and I wanted to bring this to your attention to fill in the blank in the resolution so we can get the project onto DRC and move forward to the next phase of the project so so my first comment when I read the packet was I'm G let the airport Advisory Board make this decision but I see they you know deferred it to us U and I I did see a comment that referencing the has to be court court okay okay I saw like 12 names but only like four or five
had court let me clarify that that's a county a county code I don't there's nothing in our code that says it has to be a court obious say cold the sack so I don't want you to be tied to court I think Court makes sense um so maybe you don't want to do Avenue or Boulevard or you know something like that but you know court or I had two recommendations for you uh it was sule Court um she was after Miss jod sule who just passed for cancer she was instrumental and a
longtime airport resident ATT tenant and she also was uh very involved with our EA and the young kids um helping them get into flying and then my second recommendation would be um H.G Morris Court for Gary Morris who is instrumental in getting us US Customs and the tower so those would be two recommendations I would throw out to you guys to consider and I'm f with either one
same with me someone's gonna make a motion I'm good with either so I'll make a motion to name it sule Court second a motion in a second any discussion any public comment roll call commissioner Barry yes commissioner conel yes commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes mayor re yes informational reports any questions from the commission on those um yes I'd like to make my request
please I'd like to move the on line item under the West lebur CRA to 120,000 to be moved to the CRA Reserve please for future use I don't yeah that so that's in your that's in your uh your budget package uh on the quarterly reports we call it the rollovers so that project commissioner Barry is talking about is the Boys and Girls Club rollover of 100,000 so instead of doing the lease with the
boys and girls club she's asking that the money just be return to the the uh Reserve account in the CRA now I did have a question sorry go go ahead on the um working with the police department for security for March 16th 2025 I thought we amended that where we were accept we were asking for the money up front so we weren't holding us hostage for getting the money for the police I thought we had CH which which
door which one are you looking at um General the security working with police department for security for March 16th to 2025 I thought we had adjusted that so they had to pay in advance whose day it was uh Carissa Mosley come March 16th what what is the what is the event yeah I don't know it says working with police department for security so but I thought we a long time ago adjusted it where they had to pay in advance yeah that well that's a that's a forward payment I think I'll
double check on that for you okay that was all I had any other questions or comments I guess was this this was CRA all we're doing was move it was CRA money that went to boys and girls club now it's going back or was this yeah instead of going to Boys and Girls Club the recommendation is to go back into the reserve but it came from CRA money yes okay okay all right next uh City attorney
items no sir no items this evening uh just enjoyed being with everybody hope you all have a great rest of the week city manager items uh no items for you roll call commissioner Peterson nothing tonight commissioner Barry um yes I have a thank you I would like to give and I see that the Community Action Agency have left but I definitely want to thank the commission for the push an agreement to allow the Home Improvement um I saw
the pictures but it just didn't do just do from walking through what I've seen but I just wanted to say thank you and I will write this up and send it to the Lake Community Action Agency and hopefully that this will move the project now for phase two that other people will want to join in and come on but more importantly I want to thank you all for your support on this one commissioner cill nothing commissioner bur nothing tonight mayor re couple things I wanted to thank Tracy Dean for putting helping put on
a wonderful event this weekend uh there was felt like thousands of people there uh and looking forward to doing it again um just so you guys are aware we have a couple of bass fishing tournaments coming up the next couple weekends we have discover lebur on the 14th uh the 21st is the lebur Chamber of Commerce Taste of lake so hopefully you guys all can make that out and then downtown is blues BQ on the 22nd and then on the the uh 14th or 13th is the Lone Oak Cemetery special Moonlight tour um
with that if there's nothing else I make a motion to adjourn second motion meeting moved and seconded how about that meeting adjourned