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good morning and Welcome to our February 11th 2025 board County Commission meetings I'm calling the meeting to order um please join me uh as we uh celebrate a moment of silence and followed by uh Michael DST is going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance
thank you Mr Dr I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all can you tell us about
your service absolutely um good morning Commissioners County Administrator um my name is Michael D and I had the honor and privilege of serving in the United States Marine Corps um back in 1994 through 1998 in active service and in uh inactive reserve from 98 to 2002 um my journey all started here in Martin County I I grew up here my my entire childhood going to jensa Beach Elementary Stuart Middle School and finally graduating here Martin County hi it was there that my journey
to the military service began where the recruiter walked into the library came right up to me introduced himself as sergeant Collins um told me a story and before I knew it I was signed up for the delayed entry program uh uh the only there was one minor problem I was still a minor um I actually had to convince my parents to sign a waiver for me to go to boot camp so I was uh under the age of 18 um made it to Paris Island South Carolina uh first thought what was I thinking
um uh we we we we all came there as individual boys and uh we graduated as a unit as a team um part of the uh most uh uh prolific fighting force in the United States um after graduation I went to a camp guer North Carolina uh there everybody every Marine is always uh trained as a Rifleman uh after we graduated from Camp guer it was off the 29 Palms California and if you've never been to 29 Palms California I don't know if there's actually 29 Palms
out there um it's it's a it's a huge desert in the Mojave Desert um there for radio operator school um graduated from Radio operator School my first Duty station was okan Japan uh I was with first thinger battery at Fatima airwing uh spent uh spent a year in okan Japan uh was deployed out to the DMZ in South Korea to defend the air space between North and South Korea for about 60 days um turned out to be
more of a training Mission than anything uh came back to Japan and found out that uh the Marine Corps is doing some Outreach with the yokan community and they were sponsoring a all Marine soccer team for Japan uh I tried out uh I was I made the team and we were able to travel the community and build relationships with local OK Island playing soccer in in in different Villages um finished my deployment uh after a year in Okland Japan and went to uh Camp leun North Carolina there I was stationed with
a second amphibious assault vehicles um did a lot of desert training back out to California and CA combined arm exercises um finished up uh my service in uh 98 uh came back to United States and the military provided many opportunities for me number one it led me do an education I was able to complete my bachelor's degree in public administration um I made more friends and more more connections throughout the United States than I can ever imagine uh it's funny my wife and I talk about it
where do you want to go it's well I know somebody in Colorado I know somebody in Washington um uh it's it's just a great Community to be involved with that military um although my service I never did see any action we were always at the ready because we knew it was vital to National Security um I also want to thank everybody here in public service as you make our community uh wonderful to live and and be a part of so um that's that's my story
so I appreciate thank you let's see um we'll start with our uh public comment the first speaker is Sadia sefes do the agenda first I don't think we have the agenda okay can we have
a motion to approve the agenda move second there's a motion in a second all those in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously good morning good morning good morning everyone this is sidas after reades from Golden Gate I'm here this morning to ask you please to approve you know the light and the calming on Jefferson Street I thank you first for
doing a great job I mean resurfacing our community Al look a real grand I my dream was in 2000 when I become an advocate for Golden Gate is uh one of the question I was asked by uh the consultant how would you like to see Golden Gate I said number one I don't want him to call a golden goo
anymore because we are very blight community and number two I would like to see it like a celebration around community over Disney World course that's a Dream well we are 34 has a celebration Community we have so many kids in the neighborhood that is got I mean Jefferson's got at least about four stops for the bus people don't really respect you know the
traffic even though we have signs all over saying 25 sometimes I even make a mistake if I'm in a hurry so anyway I am here because I really really we need traffic coming if you ask me not only to Evergreen in Jefferson you may add Golden Gate Avenue because people they take it from you know has a shortcut so we see a lot of traffic coming in the deputies they stand there
they stop people but they're not taking you know but traffic coming will help and I appreciate you listening and I want to thank you for everything thank you thank you Lawrence Lee is next followed by Brian Allen good morning morning got
to get my eyes on here my name is Lawrence Lee and I am a resident Homeowner of section two Fork River Estates here in uh Stewart at the present time two water water board officials of the South Fork homeowners utility are trying to coers four local residents to Il legally reform
a dissolved HOA in effort to sign over the right of way in our community for water and sewer repairs our roads are private which was not disclosed to us when we purchased our homes by various realators we have many issues with a previous reinstatement of our dissolved HOA and are unanimous in not wanting an HOA conducting business in our behalf again we are in favor of transitioning to County
water sewer and Roads with an official County ballot and let the majority of homeowners rule Florida Statutes state in order to exercise the right of a homeowner's association as provided in this chapter the mobile homeowner shall form in compliance with sections SS 7237 72378 and
excuse me and 72379 which shall be a corporation for profit or not for profit and of which not less than 2third of all the mobile homeowners within the park shall have consented in writing to become members or shareholders commissioner Sarah herd has referred me to Leo retti to discuss these issues however after six phone
calls and attempts with messages to call back Leo has neither answered or returned my calls my whole neighborhood is frustrated and angry about this behind the back approach to force us to do something we don't want to do an informational bulletin board was ripped down on the corner of Fort drive and Riverbend by an unknown person to hide transparency please allow a democratic process to facilitate this
transition Lawrence Lee homeowner section 2 I have several documents here and papers pertaining to the issue however it might be uh a little too much for this meeting uh I've got the results of a ballot that I took with the ballot copies of the ballots in this folder that I'm willing to give to the board if you want them make copies and give
them back at a different a different time your time is out okay thank you very much thank you and Mr Donaldson can you make sure that someone from utilities gets in touch with Mr Lee yes I will thank you thank you next is Brian Allen followed by Charles Marshall good morning
Commissioners morning my name is Brian Allen as you just announced uh want to talk about a variance that you approved back in December it's a right away for magot terce you might recognize my name because I've sent you multiple emails and have also tried to call so the board uh heard the request for minut right away development of two one acre lots and my property ad joins these Lots so obviously of a vested interest the board approv
I a variance and I believe was uh false or misrepresented information um just after this uh January meeting the property own owner despite saying that it was going to develop the lots and sell to individuals uh the property owner listed the property and said he was not going to sell individual lots and was trying to get the property developed and so the listings States Prime development
opportunity with approved easement in downtown Jensen Beach this offering includes two adjacent Parcels subdivided into eight plats providing endless possibilities for building large homes town homes or even multif family units this is located Northeast mangot terance just off Skyline Drive so I also sent some regulations that I won't um get into the details but some highlights where misrepresented of the application to building official May
revoke a permit approval issued order under the provisions of this code where has been false misstatement or misrepresentation of material fact and application or plans which the permit or approval was based there also uh misrepresentation if there's evidence in an application development was considered wherein a misrepresentation fraud deceit deliberate error of emission of a material should have been disclosed the county should initiate a re-hearing to consider the development order the county should approve reapproved with new conditions or ey
development order based on the standards of this article so that's why I'm requesting um specifically uh I could give the entire history the Lots but the short of it during de summer meeting the county Engineers stated the property owner wished to build a road sell the Lost individuals wishing to build a home there was never any intention of the private property owner to build anything the only intent was to use the board in an attempt to market the property
and this is supported by the listing that I just read and our contact with the owner and the real estate agent stating that they will not sell individual lots and no less than nine times during the meeting the owner or his representative stated that uh the Lots could not be developed without the variance this is not true and I've have done the research uh there are alternatives to property in question and I believe you misled the board to get the approval of the variant
thank you thank you can't be Miss Woods I have been following the emails that I've been receiving and I also read that uh ad for the property may you uh review that that process was handled I was one of the people that voted for it I heard what the applicant said and then nearly immediately following there I saw the Zillow Ed and I feel uncomfortable with the way that process has worked if you
tell me after a new review that it was handled appropriately I will I will hear you but I have a lot of questions on how that went down and I was one of the people that voted to let that happen based on what I heard that day and the assurances that we heard now if if it's legally done and they you know allegedly were able to work an angle on us then it's a valuable lesson but I'd like to have that reviewed yes sir staff I can
tell you that public works as well as the county attorney's office is preparing a response to those emails and we'll have it shortly and we will brief in the individual Commissioners I'd like to have it yes I'd like to have it because everyone's heard it now oh of course I'd want to have it come back as yes sir not an item I'd want you to give us an update oh of course at this meeting so everyone gets to hear okay that's not just me individually we'll do so are you prepared to do that at
this meeting no I don't think I'm looking at I I will have it at the next meeting I know people are waiting but I just I was very uncomfortable with how that what transpired in the days and weeks after that agenda item I just need to and I'm up here a long time and I don't remember ever having that happen to me like that before Elise Elder Deputy County attorney we are looking at it I'm in the middle of preparing a response um some of the commission AIDS reached out to us so um I don't know if if it'll be
be done today but it might be done by the end of the day if not it would be the next board meeting but we are working on it now I prefer it be at the next board meeting and discussed in the morning when more people are paying attention than at the end of the day we will have that ready that good thank you okay Charles Marshall is next followed by Julie priest oh commissioner Vargas you wanted to respond yeah I did uh because I did vote in favor of uh that item um
and I feel that the owner's situation could have changed and it was not manipulation of the board or their vote so we need to keep an open mind about that we cannot mandate and we need to stick by what the evidence was at that time Mr Marshall I'm here to speak about the same issue is it necessary come back next time are you
serious no you're entitled to speak give your three minutes okay I'll just read um in December of last year after conducting a quasa hearing this board approved the road width VAR variance for the road that doesn't exist to allow access to the property where there are no plans for road construction and there's no plans for development of the property others and I believe that you were misled to believe that without the ver ience being
granted there was not access to the property which is not true you were told that the intentions for developing the land was to sell individual lots for single family homes well facts were omitted from that hearing that the property is accessible by construction of a private driveway on the existing RightWay and now that you have approved the variance the land owners are advertising the property for sale to be used and quote from the MLS
providing L possibilities for building large homes town homes and even multifam units and that is exactly what we predicted to you might happen because over the last three years and as of recently as a month ago we have made offers to purchase single Lots two lots or even four lots and every time we've been told that the property is only for sale as a whole and we have not even been able to get into any type of negotiations to purchase individual Lots the property
has been basically for sale since it was purchased about three years ago and there's not any attempt that we have seen to develop the land or construct a road only to resell the property we're asking you to review the quas judicial hearing and reopen discussion about the future of the property to prevent the community a community uprising of a zoning change request for development of town homes or multifam housing and this is not so much about preserving The View that
we have from our proper properties our our view will remain unobstructed and this is only would only be changed by us overlooking rooftops instead of overlooking grass and trees providing that tall multifam homes are not built this is about this is not this is about not putting the carriage before the horse by approving a variance without the proper information of the possibilities of what that variance opens us up to as far as
how might infringe on our property rights and effect and the effect on the entire neighborhood on Skyline Drive which is one of Florida's and Martin County's most unique prized areas thanks Mr Marshall it thank you thank you for your attention appreciate it Julie priest is next followed by Gary earler good morning chairwoman herd honorable members of the board and staff uh I am Julie priest from Rio I have been a long time proponent for walkable
communities and I'm here to discuss uh item number 25597 that comes up much later today one of the very first safety projects in Rio CRA was the installation of traffic calming measures on Alice street because it had become a racetrack alternative to Dixie Highway the measures greatly improved safety for pedestrians and children on bikes as a major collector Road Road Jefferson has more traffic than
a local Road Golden Gate has a high percentage of families with children Jefferson is the shortcut to St Lucy Boulevard a four-way stop makes sense because Evergreen continues South to Kensington Street Evergreen intersects Jefferson almost in the middle of the Jefferson portion that is within the CRA boundary safety should be the top priority as a member of the Mo's bicycle and pedestrian committee I urge you to
vote in favor of the resolution vote for safety thank you thank you Gary earler is next followed by Susan rendes do you want to talk now or do you want to talk on the item you want to wait till she said yes okay good morning good morning commissioner Gary erer for the record Port solarno um I do have
have some pictures I believe you've all completed a copy I'll put them out here um I guess there isn't enough room to get them all but we will uh three minute Starts Now please um this is this is the uh Upland facility in uh Port Salo um the construction being done a lot of these pictures uh uh
were taken by myself some of them off of the internet um they had a I want to say a water main relocation due to the fact of the building um water was shut off at first I I was told it was uh it was scheduled then there was a supposed water main break so uh boil water order was in was in effect but um
the conditions around the place I I'll start no trash dumpster no restroom facilities no signage on the fence uh of the responsible parties or contact information no hazards posted to the work site I spoke to uh Mr Ronald rudner from uh the project manager capital projects with the county um some of these issues uh I understand there's no room for a dumpster well there's no room for that building in that Park
uh no restroom facilities they're using the uh portable facilities well every other building permit issued in the county you have to provide a dumpster or a collection area you have to provide uh restroom they're fortunate enough not to be able to do that um there were workers installing wire and rebar for the slab of the moing field they had no face Shields no safety glasses uh they're operating a gas
operated Target saw and with metal sparks flying everywhere no personal PPE was done was was being used um contractors working in and around an open hole those are the dark uh no trench box to protect them no notification to the residence the pl shut down and the boil water because of it the relocation of a fire hydrant right next to a tree that looks to be removed at a later date um the connections of the rebar out of the
ground they didn't have caps on them uh the fencing around the back with trash outside of the construction area the silt fence was improperly installed allowing soil to run into the mangr and ultimately the manate pocket I guess we'll find out if that's been cleaned up um and we'll find out the next rain if in fact it's working but uh these are just some of the things that are going on in in around Port solo um I ask that you all attend our NAC meeting
sir your time is up thank you Mr jnelson will you make sure that this project remains in compliance yes ma'am thanks Tammy maota is next followed by John dial good morning morning um I
am just here because I know see oh okay um and I would just like to um put my recommendation in to have the three people on the NAC board to be reinstated which is Jamie Royal Kathy Harvey and Casey Cass um and there was something else and I didn't write it down so I forgot it but anyway I just I just wanted to put my word in for those three and um that's
it right now thank you have a good day thanks John dial is next followed by Lori whan morning good morning Commissioners how are you doing um first off I thank you all for the time to be up here number two is the uh Jefferson Street stop sign living on horseshoe point we can identify as some of you know what the traffic is there I think a stop sign is probably War on a lot of
these streets or some sort of uh traffic caling device but I do a lot of business down in Golden Gate uh with some people that I know and uh so I think a stop sign on there is probably warranted the other thing that I'm going to bring up that was brought to my attention is the CRA money that is talked about being rescinded I don't know much about that only what I've read online and I'm hoping you'll leave that CRA money where it should be which is inside those communities as I'm looking at a property
in Port Sero to build for someone that works with me to enact some affordable housing and it's very difficult to do and if you take away that money that's earmarked for that Community then I don't know that that's going to be a wonderful thing to do the last thing I want to bring up is I think there's a big misconception with the County Commission on Clarity Communications and I think one suggestion I wrote down in the last meeting was you guys could have your
own portal for giving polls on important information you can get people to register when they vote or when they pay their taxes if they want to participate in that much like you see on some of the other uh media sites where you control the information that goes out there and we could all get it and you could go gauge your decisions more than what just you know a few of us in here show up because I think you all are very good people I think you got very difficult jobs and thank you very much for the time for letting me come up here and
speak with you thanks Mr dial and there are no proposals to take away money from any of the cras or NAC uh Lori whan is next okay uh Amy pritchet is next followed by Kathy Harvey morning good morning Commissioners it's nice to see everybody I would like to ask for your support
for three of our NAC members Casey Cass Jamie R and Kathy Harvey each one of them bring a unique perspective to our community but collectively they all want the same thing and that is for our community to thrive and for everybody to get their voice and I really find that they have invested in our community more than I've ever seen before and to take that away would be a shame so I'm asking for your support to please reinstate all
three of them thank you thank you thank you Kathy Harvey is next followed by Angela Garcia good morning Commissioners morning Kathy Harvey from Port Salerno I am up for a reappointment today but I'm not here for myself I'm here as an NAC board member for the entire board when we apply for this position it is completely voluntary we volunteer
our time and our opinion we solicit and we're very passionate of our neighborhood this appointment is typically two years I've been on this board since 2017 Mr Cass was appointed in November of 24 and we're asking him to reassign that I've never seen this since 2017 when we take this we take it seriously because we love the community we're in
and I just ask that each of you consider why Mr Cash is being asked to recertify after two months he committed in November for 2-year term thank you thank you Angela Garcia is next followed by Jeff Whitman good morning Commissioners
um I am speaking on the um public hearing notice one in the public hearing quasi judicial one and two I am a homeowner in the Oaks Community I'm also serving my um homeowners association as a director on the board of directors I'm not speaking on behalf of them I'm speaking on behalf of myself as a homeowner I'm in opposition of changing um the the status of the property from um residential to Commercial and I'm also an composition
of building um a three-story storage unit we have 20 storage facilities within 10 miles of that property I live across the street from where the proposed property is so I'm not even a within 1,000 ft I'm within 50 so I know that we don't need that storage facility I know that within five miles there are 10 um storage facilities and within one mile both north and south of the proposed site there are facilities and neither
one of those two are full to capacity that would warrant the need for a one two or three story storage facility to be built I purchased my home in hobtown because of the green space we're building a tennis community center just a few um 100 feet south of of the proposed storage so I would like to see us retain the green space and not put in another storage facility because clearly that is not something that's warranted or needed and I think that there's a unique opportunity for people to seek
storage Services elsewhere and for us to keep that property um from becoming um commercial thank you thank you Jeff Whitman is next followed by Frank mccristal good morning good morning Commissioners Jeff Whitman H sound um I'm going to speak on that um storage unit facility thing in a minute um commissioner Vargas it
was great to see you at the Battle of the lockah hatchee you and Bobby that was a lot of fun um enjoyed it um what most people don't know is that Palm Beach County had a plan wanted to turn that park into a regional sports complex with eight softball fields a golf course and 850 parking spaces so they would have destroyed it um the lockah hatchee battlefield preservationist stopped that by proving that the battle was there and that
seven US soldiers are buried on the property somewhere they don't know exactly where it is um I come to you today to speak about the Hop sound storage facility which is coming before you today with a land use change and a zoning change um I'm not going to ask you to vote one way or another I am going to offer a win-win for the county and for the landowner this land unlike the five acres bought in Palm City
by previous commission is entirely environmentally sensitive land the back half is Wetlands the front half is Coastal sandpine scrub which is considered rare and endangered I went out there the other day sand Pines um saltpaw Meadows Rosemary pawas it's it's very beautiful um it is right
next to preserve the East Fort Creek which was a multi-million doll conservation project with a 20 acre lake and a 700t flow way to manate Creek the people of hop sound who have seen enough habitat destruction have no way to access it and you can't park at the church the last environmentally sensitive land in hopes sound that was bought by the
commission was the ham property thank you commissioner herd we're so grateful for that that would have been 84 houses with the passing of the half penny sales tax referendum the county will get about $200 million over 10 years parlayed with the state that could be rise to 8 800800 $800 million almost almost a billion that and those figures are from Jim Syer
thank you Jim so the county has lots of money I ask whatever the outcome of the vote today sit down with the owner who is a good guy and talk it could be a win-win for the owner and the people of Martin County in Hope Sound thank you thank you Frank M crystal is next followed by
Tom Pine and Mr Pine is the last request to speak form that I have if you'd like to address us please fill out a form and we'll good morning good morning Commissioners I don't know if it's my frame of reference but it just seems a little serious and stressful around here this morning so maybe I'll keep it light there's no doubt that there is a pickle ball boom it just
fit fits our society today uh most importantly you can multitask while you're playing pickle ball you can be checking your Scot your your stocks uh all it takes is a twitch uh there's instant gratification the the rack the whatever you want to call it is basically right there where your hand is so there's no there's no learning curve and two day or third time you're playing pickle ball you're probably as good
as all the other people around you because the bottom line is it's just a big social Gathering pickle ball all right um you've got humans packed in tight spaces which goes with the larger narrative also um and they're just having a good time man it's just a party all right it's loud and that irritating tank tank tank tank all right yeah
so it just goes with our with our our society today I get that now that being said four tennis courts in Jensen Beach four tennis courts north of the bridge is not too many tennis courts not to the extent of pickle ball but tennis is experiencing a rebirth also don't know why they don't deserve it that's
for sure okay um also the Overflow pickle ball for the reasons I just mentioned pickle ball and Tennis are in no way compatible so any ideas about multi-purpose quarts should be thrown away also the the tape they bring out to put down their extra lines and then they lower the net they never clean up their dirty underwear when they leave it's always so now you got
to deal with that also the sound there're just two different sports tennis takes ultimate concentration and so much your feedback involves what you're hearing on the other side of the net and uh I would say I I I'll take it a little more serious and say how about some signs at Langford that say no pick a ball allowed on the tennis courts have a good one
take care now thank you Tom Pine is next followed by Elaine Kalo something like you'll pronounce your name properly when you come forward good morning Commissioners my name is Tom Pine I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years presently living in the Jensen Beach area today in the consent agenda this commission will
approve 11,516 19780 that was spent between January 13th and January 26 2025 without identifying the payes or the purpose of the payments the definition of the consent agenda clearly states in Google a tool used to streamline meeting procedures by collecting keyword routine non controver items into a group whereby all are passed in a single motion and vote our M County government continues violating the
essence of the consent agenda for more than 20 years our parks department has spent now over a million dollars developing yet another business venture on the taxpayers back all hidden in the consent agenda it's a massive RV park out at fips Park the the only reason I know is I went to the grand reopening of the RV park several years ago when it was stated that the parks department had already spent $7 to $800,000
and still had several projects to go all conveniently hidden in the consent agenda it was a very sad day at our last County Commission meeting to listen to senior staff and the district commissioner from Palm City tried to con the taxpayers into believing it's a good deal to sell County owned property using Market analyst from 2023 and 2025 thanks to our newly elected commissioner from Jensen Beach area for
not backing down as she continued to push the county for a new update Market analyst before the property is put up for sale it looked like just another scheme to give substantial financial advantage to the good old boys as usual when selling county-owned property and it was quite disingenuous when the district commissioner claims the County government shouldn't be competing with the business Community when selling property when he already has voted for several different businesses that
the parks department presently operates thank you for your time thank you Elaine Colo okay good morning good morning pull the mic down would you pull the mic down please sure thanks okay y okay y so um before I came to hobtown I lived in West Palm Beach and uh a
couple of blocks away a storage unit went up and um I had bad experiences with the storage unit because people were coming in the evenings late in the evenings 1:00 2:00 in the morning uh in and out and uh it was very bad and then I moved to Hope toown and I loved it because uh it's a lot of green space and it's wonderful well now I feel like we're getting inundated with story storage units and
car washes it's like hob sound is becoming the capital of the storage world or something right a couple of blocks away now we have that big huge storage unit that went up and then a couple of blocks later there's another storage unit I think at this point in time we don't need another storage unit in h sound and I I feel really sad that we're going to do something like this next to a residential Community I live in the Oaks by the way and um
it's beautiful with the you know we have the preserves and uh I think this is um sad that we have to put in another storage unit I mean if we want to do it we could do it maybe somewhere else in Steward or somewhere but again I feel like H sound is becoming the place where storage units and car washes seem to spring up so I'm against the um storage unit obviously and
thank you for your time thank you that's the last request to speak form would anyone else like to address Us in that case we will move on to commissioner comments commissioner Vargas in late January I attended the Florida Association of counties Tech Summit held at the world Equestrian Center in Okala they're on 2,000 acres it's a training fac facility for
equestrians University of Florida has an ecin and small animal boarding grooming and Veterinary facility on the 2 acre Resort you can watch the trainers work with the horses early in the morning throughout the day in the numerous Rings you can pass by and see the jumpers and doing their Maneuvers for for their particular sport you can also pass by the air conditioning heated modern well-kept Stables you'll see folks practice jumping and Dr they
have three facilities there the latest which is under construction so this particular Summit was a collaboration between Florida International University the University of South Florida and the University of West Florida offering self-paced state-funded cyber security training sessions we were taught by a graduate level Professor they offer cyber security training realistic Cyber attack simulation experience which is
used internationally and nationally and virtually in person or hybrid or as I said virtually for government agencies and private Enterprises and counties there's a lot of sensitive data out there some of which include Social Security numbers information on employees family members medical information about the patients employees and polygraph results they stress the losses that can occur within law enforcement Fire Res resue Transportation payroll Building Development
public works there was also a very real example given by the attorney for Highland County um Sheriff's Department very Vivid example we also talked about the underserved and unserved sections of counties and the potential to receive federal grants grants in the amount of 1.16 billion they work with Workforce Development they bring digital literacy to the Workforce in
order to qualify for office jobs that students might not have the opportunity or the potential to realize they also structure a county pilot project by advising Consulting and monitoring threats uh they have tabletop exercises and they do audit analysis from the inside they make the resources available to all constitutionals including the supervisor of elections office they also talked about AI you know
that chat gbt and AI they have a terrific program which I I was I didn't know it because it's called doll E3 and you dictate what you want to design the mood identify your target AUD audience and in a matter of minutes they will process something for you um something I picked up a quote managing change is a process in and of itself after that I did attend the National Conference
on beach preservation technology now I will say and folks that know me I am not I am not at all a geologist I'm not an engineer and this was attended by those folks a few County administrators also and Commissioners but this was organized by the Florida Shore and Beach preservation Association and this was held in Panama City Beach so over there we learned quite a
bit also we were dealing with the habitats um of our marine life uh throughout the State of Florida they want to evenly distribute uh the um the the workings that they're doing we talked about Jupiter Inlet dredge and maintenance I learned about Hopper cutter and correct me if I'm wrong Mr Donaldson cutterhead dredge clam clamshell and truck halls and about 3 to8 miles of discharge distance the average being four miles miles there are federal and state
dollars available we have to respect our Turtle nesting season there's a window for that and it also dictates The Depths uh we learned about the activities that can be done in the planning of relocation of turtle nest uh we understood about the cost and we noted the seaw walls public private walkways Dune walkovers and geotes still studying that one uh we know about the certain Windows November through April is a very sensitive time
also we have 8,000 nest on the beach last year last year Alone um we talked about Jensen Beach also which identifies and relocates sea turtle nest and we use mechanical screening to reduce the impact we also talked about dredging and there's been special requests for that there's a whale season here too did you know that I didn't know that um and there's also possible conflicts with Spring
Breakers so we also looked at uh the pictures of the Hurricanes that have hit our state unfortunately over the last couple of years Nicole Ian Milton Helen a lot of that touched the Southwest coast but we had some of it over here at least the winds and of course those tornadoes um the government there's aund millionar request for these projects it showed the before and the after uh the drudging industry I understood about that the possibilities where will the ships be transversing in the next few years
the next 18 months we need to put equipment out Florida has a tremendous demand for equipment and we have to respect sand removal are we going to haul it by truck or hydraulic and the thing is that we need 200 hydraulic trucks but we only have 60 we talked about the roads the roads to be able to afford our citizenry to conveniently pass through our state but then of course we have the concern
we have the Florida Panthers we have the queen conch which is my understanding that a lot of folks that are in their boats they may drop the ks coming from the Bahamas and then of course they start to feed on the grassy areas not in the sand areas so having said that I went there because I wanted to see how we could have better coordination between the federal level to the local counties to be able to bring some of these monies back to us these are our tax dollars we
just need to Circle it back to us for our benefit so uh there's an industry working with projects to get contractors in and to retool the bids for the future our biggest challenges are the easements and those lovely Queen con and I understand about underwater I am a certified scuba diver but I understood some engineering talk too except when they started talking about Pi I checked my news break because I didn't understand the formula but anyway it was a great conference and I'm glad I
was able to attend thank you commissioner caps I want to mention a few things I've been able to be involved in since our last meeting on January 31st my executive Aid Colleen PTZ and I got to take a helicopter ride over Martin County the pilot was Ed Ed stag Miller of the Martin County Sheriff's Office and we got to ride in
that uh Sheriff's helicopter and which is a spectacular piece of equipment our tour guide was senior project manager of environmental Resource Management Mike Huston who did an awesome job uh explaining to us what we want to preserve in Martin County uh particularly the Western lands it was a a stunning View um
from the air I I've never done anything so fun it was amazing one thing that was a little alarming was some of the damage that's being done to some of the wetlands out there uh by these big swamp buggies um it would I have pictures that are uh really shocking you know those nice beautiful water pools that you see from when you fly over them some of them are just ruined you know with these big monster trucks that uh just run around in circles but and hopefully we'll be able
to purchase some of that and get it restored and taken back to its original state but it was very revealing what what we seek to preserve in Martin County and how we want to be different uh we have natural lands in the western area that can be used for environmental preservation and and environmental restoration to the Everglades uh as we sit uh as the northern Headwaters to
the Everglades so that was really fun and very exciting on uh February one and two we had the Hope Sound Festival of the Arts which went off without a hitch this year U the last few years they've had wash outs from rain so that was great to see I think the chamber probably did pretty well on February 4th um had the privilege of touring the D facility at
the Stewart Airport which was uh very very interesting to learn about the major components that they build for big jets and and how they also uh produce components for smaller Jets as well and to hear about their expansion plans at the Stewart Airport uh they're going to be preserving 480 uh jobs and they're
going to add 180 jobs um in their expansion plans they're going to be assembling two different types of small aircraft and what's really cool about this is it's not going to have much impact on our airspace over the Stewart Airport because they're just going to be assembling these planes and flying them away and so there's not going to be a lot of additional aircraft coming in and out of the the airport so that I thought was uh exciting
particularly for the young folk uh who may be needing jobs in the coming days and the last thing I'll mention was on February 6 I had the privilege of touring an organization in Stuart called Volunteers in medicine many of you may have heard about it I was very heartened to see how well this organization has run and how much of a help they are to the most vulnerable Among Us um they
offer free medical care and medications to people who qualify and I was surprised at the thresholds of as to what it takes to qualify uh surprisingly they were reasonably strong um so if you know people who are in need of medical care and medications please have them look into Volunteers in medicine they use a lot
of retired doctors and also area doctors who are not retired who just like to volunteer their services they they can link you up with anything a knee surgery a heart surgery whatever you need so I uh it was an amazing tour and I would encourage you to get familiar with volunteers and Medicine thank you yeah Volunteers in medicine provides more than care they provide topnotch care commissioner campy thank you madam chair
just one quick uh announcement on Friday February 21st we're having uh music in the park on map road at the patio at Palm City place we're going to have uh anyone that lives in Palm City might be very familiar with Miss lauriana Collazo and a couple of her young protes will be singing we're having food trucks along the way there that start at 6 probably 5:30 to 6:00
the music starts at 7:00 ends at 9:00 it's a free event you can either buy food and drinks from the food trucks you can pack a dinner or you can eat at one of palm City's local restaurants we attempted this in January as well it was a complete Monsoon evening so Carla Holbrook who everyone loves who was going to be in January will come in March it's a free event come with your friends and neighbors or
if you're looking to make new friends with your neighbors uh come and enjoy the evening it's on map road immediately north of the Palm city fire station thank you thank you commissioner heatherington yes um on commissioner caps I also toured dier and it it was an amazing tour um I've had the opportunity in the past to go to uh VA and I believe that's the future of Martin County the aviation and Marine some of those
specialized jobs um those are exactly the kind of companies that I would like to see in the future um hiring more people in Martin County so it was a great tour and I congratulate them for their expansion and we had a great Arts Fest downtown this weekend uh Martin County Council of the Arts put on the Arts Fest in downtown Memorial Park and um commissioner herd presented the proclamation for the the Martin County
centennials uh 100th birthday so we're excited to celebrate that all year long and then there was a gentleman here this morning um who I had the pleasure of talking to yesterday Mr dial talking about communication transparency and polling I think I've always said the county can you know we we've improved I think immensely every year and communicating with the public there's always ways I think that we can improve the tourism Development Council which I'm on the board we have the
strategic planning process which has a very intense polling mechanism which I think has been great to gather data so the more input that we can get from the public the more that we can share what we're doing in the county and provide transparency I'm all in favor so I think we can look into any opportunity that will give us that that much more communication you know and if people can't attend the meetings they're able to to dial in or provide their
input and of course everybody knows that they could always visit our website and um our app but I think that we could probably even do a little presentation from Communications in the future so that the public knows all the different ways that they can engage and interact and participate so that's all I have for today thank you and I just uh wanted to say that there were reports um last week
of um unprecedented pollution in the South Fork of the St Lucy River I know people who observed it personally and we need to make sure that our projects that are in the Western lands are compliant with all of our regulations uh to make sure that they're not polluting our delicate delicately balanced South Fork of the St Lucy River um ALS and here Commissioners I accepted on your behalf a proclamation from our legislative State Legislative delegation celebrating
um our Centennial and we will find an appropriate spot to mount this and that's all I have Mr Donaldson I have nothing thank you Miss Woods we will take in that case can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move there's a motion in a second all those in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously now we'll take up public hearing uh
number one which is a legislative public hearing to consider adoption of the comprehensive plan Amendment 23-2 hobes sound storage amending the future land use map of the comprehensive growth management plan good morning Miss Offenbach hello so again for the record my name is Amy Offenbach Department
this is you pull your this is comprehensive plan Amendment 23-2 a future land use map Amendment request for a property known as nine gems I'm sorry Hope Sound storage the application was submitted by Thomas Engineering Group LLC on the behalf of the owner this is
a smallscale Amendment requiring two public hearings and the amendment was considered by the LPA on June 1st 2023 and the vote was 2-2 this is the second public hearing for final approval so the request is to change the future land use of 4.01 Acres from medium density residential to General commercial and and the site is located
along the east side of Federal Highway south of Southeast Heritage Boulevard in north of Southeast ponana Lane and the subject is highlighted in red the existing medium density residential future land use and the proposed General commercial future land use both are meant for accessible parts of the primary urban service district and allow a maximum Building height of
40t the main difference here is the existing medium density residential allows eight residential units and the proposed General commercial allows a building coverage for 60% commercial which is also governed by the parking standards the existing filen use requires a minimum open space of 50%
where the proposed future L use requires 20% the adopted future L use map shows the subject property and the property to the north and west across uh Federal Highway designated as medium density residential to the South is institutional conservation and to the east is low density residential the proposed
future land use map would show the subject property designated as General commercial and as you can see there are other properties designated with this General commercial and the light purple and the dark blue here is commercial office residential future land use the national wetlands inventory map shows a a great amount of potential
Wetlands on the rear of the property and a 50ft buffer would be required between any wetlands and development on the property the existing uses along US Highway One include uh mix of commercial and residential uses and this is the subject here and so The General commercial land use is meant for highly accessible
parts of the urban service District the subject is located along US1 a major Corridor within the primary urban service District the request complies with Section 1.1 of the comprehensive growth management plan by meeting two out of four of the criteria in order for staff to recommend approval and the request discourages urban sprawl pursuant to all 13 of the criteria required by state statutes
and meets eight additional criteria that discourages the proliferation of urban sprawl so staff recommends approval and is available for any questions commissioner Vargas uh yes um this property I did some background here liveo Capital Partners was the buyer but this is the employees money purchase pension plan and Trust agreement of Boer rone Cardiology Associates
babic and Vinci PA for the benefit of Steven babic is that correct that's correct the application must be um from the owner yeah for our future L map Amendment any further questions applicant good morning chard Commissioners how are you this morning uh for the record my name is Bob Reigns I'm a l use attorney with the gunster law firm here this morning on behalf of the applicant um I would like
which is Live Oak uh so uh I would like uh to for the record to reflect that I have with me today the uh proof and notices to the surrounding property owners for this hearing and the rezoning uh next and I'm turning those in to Clark at this time um Commissioners we're pleased to state that we have reviewed the staff report we do agree with the staff report and the staff recommendation uh we believe this is an appropriate land use uh designation for
this property given its location on US1 which is a highly accessible Highway and um I would just like to point out just a couple of other quick points and I think Mrs Offenbach did a great job as a matter of fact we had a presentation to give but it's so close to hers I don't want to take your time I know you got a busy morning but what um on page five of 18 of the staff report 1.4 it talks about past changes
in future land use and there were eight I counted and six of those are all to General commercial one was institutional Recreation and the other was highdensity residential so I think that's you know evidence that this this is the trend that's occurred along us one uh and I think The General commercial was an appropriate land use designation uh we'll be glad to answer any questions you have but we would ask you to accept staff recommendation and approve
this request questions for Mr Reigns thank you um Lori whan and Susan rendez rendez both have requests to speak for um I think public hearing quasi judicial too but would you prefer to speak now this is when the the first decision of three will be made so Lori followed by su
Susan um good morning uh my name's Lori Wayan I am a resident and I live just south of the proposed site um I I didn't receive the notices of the hearing so I'm just kind of learning about this um and I understand the Investment Group purchased this as a small farm District zoning property which
was then changed to a RS6 residential property um and the residents were in favor of that as it limited um as residences would limit runoff um of water to the sole drain that drains the property um we feel like the a commercial building is going to add to the flood which is already a concern
um because we have a single drain that empties all the runoff um when we have large amounts or heavy rains and and there have been three instances where the road was not passable as a result without a storage facility being built there um I came to the meeting last Thursday to try and understand more of what's Happening um and
I listened to these this group talk about how they were trying to be good neighbors and that they were trying and that they saw very little opposition to the project but I know from talking to the neighbors on my street and the people at the church and the people in the Oaks that there is a lot of opposition to the to the construction of this property um I talked I believe that more
study needs to be done on the flooding concerns I listened to the engineers lowest floor elevation for the property and compared it to a neighbor who had asked to put a um addition on the back of her home and was denied not very far from the property because she's in a flood zone so she was denied the ability to put a bedroom on the back for property yet we're going to allow a
large storage facility to go there um so I think some study needs to be done um there I feel like that's a big hypocrisy and I and and I listened to the low flood elevation that they presented and I know the low flood elevation of her property CU she had to have a survey done and hers is lower than than what they reported and their property is higher um and the building from top to bottom
is 48 feet by the way it's not 30 because of the facad that's going to be on top of the building so my time is ma'am your time is up thank you thank you Susan renes good morning my name is Susan rendes um I also live on Lexington
Avenue and my home directly above buts this site that's going to be proposed I've lived in my home for 25 years zoning has been the same since I moved here 25 years ago and probably prior to that I we are dead set against a a residential zoning being changed to a General commercial Zone I've done study on General commercial I know what can be put on that never mind a 94,000
square foot storage facility three story that would be out of place in this particular location it doesn't belong there nobody inheritage Ridge and there's a lot of people here from that that are for it another would have more people here but they work and they can't take a day off and not get paid to come here to voice their opinions but there's a lot of people that are dead sent against this zoning change and I really hope and
pray that this commission will really think about the residents because it is it's about the residents thank you thank you any yes Mr Reigns um thank you again for the record Bob Reigns if I could respond just to a couple of the quick comments uh I think with respect to the flooding issue and concerns we certainly appreciate and understand that I'm not sure that's really you know an issue for
the land use all of that stuff would be handled if we ever get to a site planning on this property or whoever would sight plan this property at that point in time so uh and I think we can address the flooding issues I have my engineer here to also discuss that um but uh we think that's more of a site planning issue the question right now on this particular item obviously and I don't have to tell you but maybe for the for the audience is whether you know the General commercial is appropriate land use designation on this piece and I
think given the size of the property because we can talk about the Wetland and preserve areas and stuff you know uh The General commercial I think is an appropriate use uh for this particular piece with respect to Neighborhood opposition and stuff I'm I'm really pleased to say you know I've been doing this for 28 years I can't remember any applicant who met with neighbors and attempted to meet with neighbors more than Mr tedar the applicant did uh we
had me we had meetings with the Heritage Ridge uh POA board members and the Oaks I think it's the Oaks if I hope I got that correct across the street and their attorney Deborah Ross before we even filed any applications for anything because we wanted to make them aware of what we were doing and wanted to take their temperature on what we were proposing to do we then had and Mr tedar also reached out to the pastor at the church next door prior to any meetings
occurring and had good meetings with him uh he had then left uh and we continued to have meetings uh throughout with the board and then Matt solivan I believe is here today in the POA I believe they uh sent a letter of support Mr solivan also uh coordinated helped us coordinate a meeting with the entire Heritage Ridge POA that we invited everybody to all the residents were invited to and that meeting was fairly well attended and
everybody who left there I think left and felt uh pretty positive about what we were proposing to do and then we continued again to reach out to the church and uh the any anybody that would want to talk to so there's been an enormous amount of an attempt to reach out to community people I know Miss Wen um was at the LPA the other night and she talked about her flooding concerns and Mr tedar made a beline after the
meeting and said here's my card and cuz she had mentioned an engineer you know if you want to have our engineer your engineer call us we're happy to go through this so we made every attempt to be a good neighbor and I think Mr tedar has done that and I think the fact that we got a letter of uh approval from the HOA as part of that so thank you we not any questions for staff or the applicant Mr Reigns if you have a letter
from the HOA I see people shaking their heads behind you can you show it to us please sure absolutely while he's looking for that Commissioners there are four criteria for a future land use Amendment and this is a legislative decision not a cause I judicial one the first one is pass changes in land use designations in the general area make the proposed use logical and consistent with these uses and adequate public facilities are available
or growth in the area in terms of development of vacant land Redevelopment and availability of Public Services has altered the character of the area such that the proposed request is now reasonable and consistent with area land use characteristics or the proposed change would correct what would otherwise appear to be an inappropriately assigned land use designation or the proposed change would fulfill a public service need that enhances the health safety or
general welfare of County residents if in order to to re in order to uh uh vote to approve a land use Amendment you have to find that at least one of those conditions has been met so carefully consider whether you regard all the whether one of those conditions has been met yes yes uh commissioner campy to answer your question there's the letter that we
received and I believe Mrs Offenbach also received that letter is that correct excuse me commissioner Elise Elder Deputy County attorney it's also attached to the agenda item so it is attached to as part of the record okay commission caps I think that the existing land use for this property is the most appropriate so I move that we deny this app uh this amendment to to the comprehensive
plan Sarah second second there any further discussion seeing none all those in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you thank you so the amendment request is
denied so that means that we don't consider public hearing uh one or two probably thank you Commissioners I think they're wondering what's going on y so we will now move on to public hearing quasi judicial number
three which is a public hearing to consider a request to designate a Brownfield by 9670 Southwest marineway might want to explain to the crowd what this means so by way of explanation we denied the comp plan Amendment therefore it we we will not consider the zoning request or the the uh uh master master site plan here thank
you the land use will remain as it is today or you can turn it in now and then it on the record
Miss naobi please proceed excuse me commissioner this is a quasa Judicial oh sorry have you turned in all the necessary materials to the clerk yes a copy of my work history and the agenda item has been turned into the clerk terrific commissioner Vargas any expart disclosures none and it's been filed
commissioner caps if I have any they have been filed if I have any they've been filed commissioner campy if I have any they've been filed and commissioner heatherington if any they've been filed and commissioner heard this item um because of my relationship working with Ferrera I will have to abstain and recuse myself I've filed my form 8B with the clerk and I will be abstaining from this item thank you anything else to swear in the witnesses please swear in the witnesses do you
swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth than now we're ready good morning Madam chair Commissioners my name is Jenna naby senior planner with the growth management department and this is the second public hearing on a request by 9670 Southwest marineway LLC to designate property as a green
reuse area also known as a Brownfield since this is the second public hearing a lot of this information was covered in the first public hearing so I'll just give another brief overview of the request but the property is located at 9670 Southwest Marine Way in Martin County the site has a future land use designation of commercial Waterfront and a zoning District of Waterfront General commercial there is currently An approved site plan for the property that would allow a marine
construction equipment warehouse office building space a boat ramp gravel parking storm water dry detention and green space section 37680 of Florida statue outlines the Brownfield program Administration process and these requests must demonstrate that they meet the five criteria outlined in the statute in order for the local government to designate the property as a Brownfield via resolution the
applicant has stated their intention to utilize these state-based Financial incentives that are afforded to Brownfield sites through the Florida Department of Environmental Protections brownfields program and with that staff recommends that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments including the staff report as exhibit one and move that the board findes the request meets the criteria outlined in section 37682 c
of Florida statute and adopt the resolution designating the property as Brownfield and I know the applicant is here today as well that concludes staff's presentation applicant good morning Madam chair members of the commission and County staff my name is Brett rumman with the Goldstein environmental law firm here on behalf of the applicant I will not add to my presentation from last week other than to uh
reiterate that the applicant does and the project satisfy the five criteria criteria for designation namely the uh applicant is the one requesting the designation they have a Redevelopment plan and a rehabilitation plan the Redevelopment will result in economic productivity and create at least five new jobs at the property the Redevelopment is consistent with the local comp plan and Land Development regulations a notice was provided and we held two Community meetings to give those receiving notice an opportunity to comment and ask questions and the applicant has provided reasonable assurance
and the financial resources to complete the rehabilitation and Redevelopment uh that I respectfully ask for approval of this resolution today and I'm available to answer any questions thank you any questions commissioner campy yes thank you uh this is the second time we're hearing this I remember the last time we did that I thought it was a well done project well thought out well well considered it'll be an environmental benefit it'll be an economic benefit and the the owner operator and the people involved are of the highest level so
I don't have any concerns that they will be able to accomplish what they say they will it's um I'm happy to make the motion to accept staff's recommendation and wish you the best of luck is there any public comment seeing none is there a second I'll I'll second any further comment there's a motion in a second all those in favor I I opposed that motion passes 4
Z with commissioner heatherington uh abstaining thank you thank you let's take a 10-minute break commissioner heard I thought you
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you're on we
are back taking up uh Department quasa judicial number one which is a request for approval of the First Amendment to the 7js North Industrial Park planned unit development zoning agreement including a revised master and final site plan uh Mr Elam have you turned in all the necessary things to the clerk copy of my work history and the
and the agenda item okay commissioner Vargas any expar developments no and they've been filed commissioner caps if I have any they have been filed if I have any they've been filed commissioner campy I don't have any and that's been filed and commissioner heatherington if any they've been filed would anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony please stand up and be swarm do you swear the evidence you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth please proceed thank you madam chair uh good morning Commissioners for the record I'm Brian elim the principal a principal planner with growth Management Department copy of this agenda item of my work history have been turned in as exhibit one for the request of the applicants legal council I have the following documents to offer into evidence to be and to be included in
the record as exhibit two work histories this is a request by Steven Cooper PE and Associates Incorporated on behalf of Palm City Holdings LLC for approval of the First Amendment to the 7js North Industrial Park planned unit development zoning agreement for permit ready Industrial Development the planned unit development zoning agreement for the 7js and Industrial Park project was approved on September 27th 2022
this application proposes to increase the depth of the development's existing Lake 2 from 20 ft to 40 ft the increase in depth of the existing Lake requires 2 PUD agreement exhibits to be modified exhibit D of the Pud agreement which is the 7js North Industrial Park master final site plan has been revised to reflect the changes in depth of Lake 2 and exhibit F special conditions section has been modified to include language related to the regulations
governing the excavation depth of Lake 2 subject site is located north of the approved 7js industrial subdivision and east of the Martin County Recycling landfill at the North Terminus of Southeast PMA Drive approximately 1 and a half miles north of Southwest Martin Highway in Palm City included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities exemption this is uh an aerial picture of the lake
2 on the 7js property that uh is being proposed to be uh excavated to a depth of 40 ft you can see here the underlying industrial future land use of the 7js and the Pud zoning it's the northern section up here with the Pud zoning this is just an excerpt of uh
of sheet one showing that the the lake depth has been increased to 40 ft that's uh the exhibit D for the Pud uh the applicant has offered a public benefit uh to the county um within 60 days of the approval of this to contribute a sum of $50,000 towards the Construction and design of our proposed fire fire station in Western Palm City this is just
a picture of the sheet one of the master final site plan um with all of its data and the lake two right here and the the lots that will be uh coming forward after the Plaid application comes forward review of this application is not required by the local planning agency and development review staff have found the Palm City Holdings LLC application to comply with all of the regulations of the comprehensive growth management
plan is detailed in the staff report staff recommends approval of the Palm City Holdings LLC application for the First Amendment to the 7js North Industrial Park PUD zoning agreement including revised master final site plan we move the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments including the staff report is exhibit one move the board approve the First Amendment to the 7js North Industrial Park PU zoning agreement including the revised master final site plan that concludes the presentation have happy to
answer any questions questions from Mr Elam uh commissioner campy more of a comment Madam chair um I had a conversation it was a long time ago but uh the application and the presentation reminded me so when I said I had none X parte I did and I will file it okay questions for staff I have one commissioner Vargas yes I I think this is my question Mr pulma um everything that we do up here is for the
good and the benefit of the citizens of Martin County and I would like to know what consideration are you offering towards building of the next fire station right you want me to answer that commissioner sure okay good uh for the record Bob Reigns uh with land attorney with the gunster law firm and I'm here on behalf of the applicant uh so commissioner um you know the public benefits are supposed to be commiserate with what relief you're looking for from
the code in this particular instance you know the 40 foot is allowed in the code the reason we're amending the Pud is it was changed after we already got the Pud approved that being said um I have spoken with Mr PMA and we we've agreed obviously to put forward a $50,000 contribution toward the design and construction of a fire station which I think is is commiserate with what we're asking but as a a good faith Mr um p is willing to up that uh contribution to
$100,000 so we would be willing to do that and and make that change do you want to make a presentation yeah I was going to you but I wanted to hear thank you okay yeah uh so um so with that again for the record Bob Reigns here on behalf of the applicant uh we do have a very short presentation again this we agree with the staff's staff report and the staff recommendation uh this is really just again no change this is an
existing permit ready Park uh we're just proposing to go to ad depth to use the fill which will one of the great benefits it's going to keep a lot of trucks off 714 that would otherwise be required uh but at this time I'd like to ask Mr Cooper Steve Cooper to come up he's our engineer he's going to make a very short presentation because again there's not much to to talk about as far as what's changing but uh I would just ask Mr Mr Cooper if he could identify himself for the record Steven Cooper scpe Engineers for the applicant and have
you been sworn in sir yes I have and can you uh kind of state your background your work history your education uh we got a uh ocean engineering degree from FAU in 1986 I worked for South Florida Water Management District from 86 to 89 then I worked for lindel Browning Ferrari hrom and Stewart here from 89 to about 94 and then I worked for another firm in Vero Beach and then I started my own company
in 1997 which we've been doing civil projects around the county since then and can you identify the paper I'm handing you sir it's my resume and is that a current resume it's a current resume and commissioner I would just like for the record to reflect that that's the same document that Mr elim handed in for the record earlier so they have that so Mr yeah um we prepared the original site plan that was approved in the past and really the only like he said it's pretty short uh presentation
all we did we represent the applicant and we changed the site plan to reflect 40 foot depth that was that was pretty much it so we're here to answer any questions about that as like any questions I commissioner caps yes um you know Lakes these days often times have what are called loral zones around them where they put Plants around that
helps clean the water and um will those kind of measures be taken you think yeah we we we were doing loral shelves on the on the original master plan which is shown on the pl on the plans and uh we added some other you know prare environmental consultant back there we added some other Upland uh transition areas and some other uh loral shelf around the whole lake good thank you commissioner Vargas
okay it's my understanding that the reason that you are here is because you want to dig 20 feet deeper is that correct yes yes commissioner okay otherwise it be rubber stamped um because he is not a minor correct m i n e r no oh no ma'am this is for site planning this is not a mining operation am I answering your question yeah yeah exactly because if he were selling a product product to another end user then that would be different it would be not here contained within his
property yes ma'am and we're not going to Bea just to be clear that to your point we're not hauling anything offsite either I I understand that and this is a huge convenience and a huge costs saer to you correct Mr PMA okay it is absolutely the cost for a fire station today is approximately $17 million we had that discussion I appreciate your late latest offer but it's
simply not enough we have to take care of the residents and the growth is continuing it has been unbridled so I would appreciate if you could please go back and make an offer that this board could consider well a couple of couple of points on that commissioner and I appreciate your comments uh you know I I understand that there's a lot happening in Western Palm City and there's going to be the need
for other fire station but again I think his we're what we're proposing today it's already an existing project number one number two what we're proposing is not increasing any impacts to anything in the community it's it's actually going to keep uh it's going to reduce impacts because he's not going to have to truckload put trucks on 714 to bring Phil to the site and then second of all I think it's a very fair contribution given what we're impacting and I don't think it's fair for this project to take
on this huge burden so what's the number you have in mind because I don't want to sit here and you know you you tell us what you think the number is because we think we've got it right and I'm I'm certainly happy to listen to it and hear what it is yeah you know you're going to have you're going to have this this Warehouse facility that you're constructing correct well it's it's a series of them it's well an industrial permit ready Industrial Park correct correct of which it will be a business
of which you may be uh leasing there'll be definitely more movement MH you have to give me the number that you feel we have 100,000 okay that's not enough that's not enough for what you're proposing to do here okay you have a viable concern if you want to take a few moments to speak with your client that would be fine with I will check with him because that's my obligation but absolutely commissioner campy thank you uh obviously there's five of us up here for
a reason so you get five different uh opinions uh I have known the PMA family and Frank for a long long time this project has been it's it's not just happening it's not a brand new project the poas have been generous uh throughout their history uh and their relationship with Martin this is a great project it's a smaller scale industrial park that allows businesses that are going either from start up and need a place to go or that first level of
uh uh Improvement and expansion so the park is beautifully designed beautifully kept beautifully maintained uh as is all of the PMA Family Properties I thought 50,000 was generous considering as you said Mr Reigns um the project exists already uh I thought that when you bumped it to 100,000 doubling it was generous there are other partners and projects that are happening out there that would have to take on a
larger percentage of of what these buildings would cost uh new fire stations and that would draw more uh reason for fire stations to ex additional fire stations to exist I think the offer of 100,000 and the fact that he's a major taxpayer and that his he employs a lot of people with his own projects they do the family and that their tenants employ lots of people and pay all sorts of
taxes that you're not asking for something unique and new he's talking about going from a 20 foot depth of the pond or lake to a 40 which is as you mentioned an a rule that had taken place after the original Lake was approved so you're just coming in to ask and then you're not taking the fill off as far as I'm concerned it checks all of the appropriate boxes I make a move I make a motion to accept staff's recommendation commissioner heatherington I I agree with all those
comments and you know in order to take the burden off of residential taxpayers we need industrial parks I've I've been there it's a a nice smaller Industrial Park there's a very minor change which the commission approved the 40 foot depth um I wholeheartedly support your efforts and appreciate your contribution um as well I just want to be mindful of this board when we're talking
about extracting benefits from our applicants that the state will come in if we continue and you've seen it happen in other parts of the the county or the state if we start extracting benefits that don't have a rational Nexus although I would I would enjoy if everybody would contribute the state will come in and preempt us and we will be we will not be getting your $100,000 contribution we will be getting nothing so I want to be very cautious to what this board does to actually extract
benefits and more have a mutually beneficial relationship where you've offered so thank you I will second the motion commissioner caps I wanted to mention that I did have a conversation with uh attorney Reigns that I failed to tell my aid about so I'm making My Confession no so but I'm I'm satisfied with the offer and I will support
it as well and the and the U this measure I'll support it commissioner Vargas I've heard the comments from my fellow Commissioners again I appreciate you building out there and um certainly your family um is is a wonderful example of what you've been able to accomplish I would appreciate if you could please go back
and speak with your client we do need help on building fire stations yeah I I did speak to him again commissioner and I appreciate your comments and I want you to understand we we took to heart what you said at least coming in forward you know and raising it due to your comments and stuff so and I appreciate it but and I just double checked with him during your all's conversation and 100,000 is we feel is the fair number and we appreciate your comments and
we respectfully agree to disagree I want you to know that we're not we understand you're what you're trying to accomplish Mr Elam article four is uh site development standards division 8 is excavation uh filling and Mining in the Land Development regulation section 4.3 47. a .6 says that maximum depth
for these Lakes is 20 ft at least that's what munic code says there's a new uh piece of code which allows this which I believe it's not been updated munic code I I think it is nope I looked at it this weekend because I wondered why on Earth there was a proposal for a 40ft excavation when we only allow depths of 20 I've
seen it uh Elise Elder Deputy County attorney so it's in the next provision for the mining standards it's in 4348 I believe and it was amended to allow miners to go from 20 to 40 feet so since this is a PUD agreement if the board decides to make this revisions we would allow this applicant in the Pud agreement to go from 20 to 40 ft when did the when did the change occur in 2022 I believe why okay I looked it up this weekend and it wasn't in munic code so
it's I have the yeah it's in um 34848 B5 talks about the maximum death going to 40 ft I believe so does 4.34 7.86 says 20 correct and that you so you got some inconsistencies in there and when there are inconsistencies you take the more strict regulation but the the 40 ft is just for a mining operation everything else is 20
ft so that is correct your commissioner this is not a mining operation correct correct so we take the more conservative approach a mining op Excavating it's if the mining operation it's Excavating to 40 ft he's not selling a product doesn't matter but but again we're and this is a PUD so that's why we're you still have to obey the ldrs well you can have you can that's the whole point of a PUD is you
can go away from some of the ldr requirements really that's that's news to me that that's why not my understanding either yeah with the Pud you can't be inconsistent with the comp plan or with the ldrs just because you're a p that doesn't Grant you exceptions from our rules no no I did not say the comp plan ldrs yeah the well the whole thing in their ldrs you have setback requirements and during the puds
you can get relief from those isn't that correct everything in the ldrs is negotiable except for the height uh which is in the comp plan and uh no it's not no the commissioner Pauling not negotiable for all for everything in the ldrs is not negotiable just because you're have you have a PUD if it complies with the comp plan it can be negotiated then why bother having them
commissioner uh good morning if we don't have to if we don't have to comply with them Paul Schilling growth management director May Madam chair so there there are Provisions in the ldr which can be varied that is the request uh for example on setbacks lot sizes things of that nature this is an example of a deviation from the code there is no prohib prohibition on applying for uh and seeking approval of any
variance or deviation from the ldr there isn't a variance that's provided in the ldr commissioner get that you're seeking one but it's not allowable the purpose of this hearing is to seek that approval commissioner campy try to bring this in for
a landing um Mr Schilling did your growth management professional growth management staff review this yes sir do you feel that the uh recommendation you made is appropriate yes Miss uh Elder did your in your legal opinion did you review this I did do you feel that legally as a lawyer that this is appropriate I do my motion stands I called a question
second there's a motion in a second all those in FA we need public comment sorry is there any public comment seeing none there's a motion in a second all those in favor I I opposed opposed that motion passes 4 to one with commissioner herd dissenting we need to have further discussion about the about how you can just wave the ldrs if you have a PUD because that is absolutely not the truth commissioner there is a provision in the in the ldrs that allows for that it allows a negotiation of the zoning
standards for PUD agreements in section 3.24 one so it is allowed per our Land Development regulations for PUD agreements thank you for your opinion but it has to be consistent with the comp plan yes that that is not negotiable that part none of it's negotiable thank you Department one Office of Management and budget items which require board
approval good morning Miss merley good morning Stephanie merley director of OMB here to present seven items on today's om item our first item is a permission to accept the supporting healthy aging through Parks and Recreation or the shapper grant um The Parks and Recreation Department is requesting the the acceptance of $1,000 um to facilitate two instructor trainings and participant materials for the
walk with ease program for the Aging population and there's no Grant match required for this grant item number two is a permission to accept the Florida Department of Transportation um lap grant for the State Road 714 Southeast Monteray Road and County Road A1A multimodal pathway project the public works department is requesting the acceptance of $2,246 1880 um for the construction of
a multimodal pathway that will connect existing bicycle Lanes to the north and south side of Southeast Monterey Road there is no Grant match required but the remaining balance of the project budget of 285,000 will be is programmed within the fy2 signalization and intersection Improvement CIP item number three is a request from The Martin County Sheriff's Office is a permission to accept the Bureau of Justice assistance Criminal Alien assistance
program Grant this is a grant award in the amount of $5,988 that'll fund um cost at the Martin County sheriff's corrections facility for the training of Corrections Officers related to offender population management medical and mental health services and vehicle rental and purchase for the transportation of offenders and there's no Grant match required item number four is a permission to accept the fdot runway 1230 Precision
approach path indicator and Runway end identifier lights replacement um this is at the Martin County Witham field it's a grant award in the amount of $3,125 to design to design everything I just stated in the title um uh there's a local match of $3,125 which is budgeted within the airport Capital Improvement plan item number five is a permission to
accept the fdot um Witham Field hold Bay extension uh this is a grant award for the airport of $ 37,6 for the cost of construction the hold Bay extension at the runway 12 end of taxiway Alpha there is a match required in the amount of $37,500 which is budgeted within the airport Capital Improvement plan as well well and item number six is a permission to accept the fdot rehabilitation of Taxi
Lane B Construction this is a grant award in the amount of $921,000 683 which is also budgeted within the airport Capital Improvement plan and last but not least this is a request for a budget transfer and a CIP modification from the utilities department
um utilities is requesting an additional $120,000 from their utilities Enterprise reserves um in order to begin the construction of the Martin Town's Wastewater repump station project this was initially delayed and due to that delay the additional funding is required in order to get this project moving and that's all I have today questions motion to accept Miss
Merle's presentation second any further discussion there's a motion and a second all those in favor I I opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you next is Department two contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of a million dollars or greater Miss Brotherton agenda commission good morning Commissioners Christy Brotherton Chief procurement officer um I have three items for your
approval today but we do need to um separate out item A2 is that what your question commissioner heatherington yes um Commissioners could we please separate out A2 as a um consultant for forer construction I will be abstaining from A2 I've filed my form 8B and um thank you okay we'll vote separately on that okay um if it's okay with you I will present that item first sure okay so the first item for
your consideration is item A2 which is our Port Sala Peninsula neighborhood restoration project um staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder which is Ferrera construction company in the amount of 1 million $40,100 the fiscal year 25 amended CIP sheet for the port Sero Peninsula neighborhood restoration project and three move that the board authorize a County
administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request commissioner campy um I would make a motion to accept staff's recommendations for one two and three especially if it's going to benefit Port soleno Peninsula I have questions about two and that is please tell me what exactly this is It's port cero and Rocky Point George Zama
Public Works deputy director so the scope uh incorporates um our typical neighborhood restoration um of uh drainage improvements and um it also incorporates uh low pressure Force main throughout the neighborhood uh which is um east of Dixie Highway uh uh between Dixie Highway and manatee pocket and you
the utilities and department has also uh elected to incorporate a service area of low pressure Force main in portions of Rocky Point um so we added that scope to this project for for cost efficiencies and there's also another component that the CRA is contributing for some improvements in the neighborhood so um you know in an effort of a team-based approach between three uh separate departments
um we combine scope uh to complete the project okay so it's just a move to be do this more efficiently okay correct so Rocky Point um just for reference Rocky Point you know there's thresholds for neighborhoods for um low pressure Force M and a vacuum sewer system this is um a section of of Rocky Point that's kind of a trans position zone between the peninsula and the mainland if you will and um utilities felt
it was uh better to serve with low pressure Force main so we just because we have a a great magnitude of scope with this project we just added it on in this little section which is really along um manate Cove Road area um so that's the service area for this additional scope okay uh any further questions is there a motion to approve these I have motion to approve this is there a second second commissioner cap seconds any
further comment there's a motion and a second all those in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously I'm sorry four to zero with uh commissioner heatherington abstaining thank you okay so we will go back to item A1 which is our Professional Services for the bathtub Beach sailfish Point Beach nourishment project 2027 rebid and staff is recommending that
the board award the contract to fa infrastructure and environment which is doing business as Olen Associates in the amount of 3,127 and two move that the board authorize the County administrator or designed to execute all documents related to this request and last but not least we have a contract Amendment for the Professional Services for the operation and management of the St Lucy Inland contract um staff is recommending that
the board approve amendment number one to gagen and Bryant Associates in the amount of 464,000 $432 15 and two move that the board authorized the County administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request and that concludes this item any questions on A1 or B1 one yes uh I do have a question on uh bathtub Beach if you could scroll back
to that okay I was looking at the dollars that are being spent uh was the breakdown how much of that amount is ADV valorum taxes Jessica Garland Coastal program manager for the record um so that $3 million is going to be spent over 5 years um and it covers uh design construction engineering inspection so we
can get um it'll be 63% of that expense the 36.99 per of that can be covered by Grant and then we also have a sh sfish Point share that will cover part of that as well so it's not a full 63% covered by Martin County so it's it's uh as I understand it was Hutcheson Island I saw something on here I don't scroll down a bit says hutchon Island mstu there is a small portion from
the MS you as well okay and so what what portion percentage would be at vorum is this countywide or is it just that section of Sailfish Point that would be contributing commissioner the uh funding for the coastal uh Inlet uh uh program is uh mostly funded by um Ador funds General ADV funds there's also some funds that we get from the uh that's Shar from the um um sales
uh the um tourist tax dollars there's a certain amount of tourist tax dollars and then there's a the smallest portion is the Hudson Island mstu which is probably in this particular case less than a percent um uh and then those funds go into the inlet management plan and a core of engineers uh we use that to match with the federal program and also the state program and then we have an agreement with Sailfish Point that for projects that are specifically Beach
nourishment on sfish point they split the local cost 5050 so that um at any given time uh sometimes we pay as little as uh well 0% on the core doing some projects under fcce projects um and then sometimes we're paying up to 50% so it depends on on on the um on the project and the storm damage recovery that we benefit or from congressional Appropriations um
and so that in the end our staff's job and our job is to maximize the amount of of funding that we can get from the state and federal to offset our local dollars we also have an agreement with Jupiter Island on how we are funding and spending this program that we've had in place for some time to ensure that the impacts from the inlet are uh to South Beaches is being mitigated uh um uh on a timely manner so that
uh uh we can discuss that with you in more detail but that agreement is also kind of central to to how we operate the inlet and so the bathub beach a portion of that project is operated by the inlet management plan and the fact that the inlet has caused erosion to the north section as well as the South and so there's a portion of that project that um under the agreement with the state of Florida we're obligated to construct right I understand everything you've said and of course what I picked up
from this last week um it's just if a constituent comes to me and says well how much is this costing me I I don't I can't give him an explanation as eloquent as you've given I need to say this is what it is do you know what I'm saying so if you could say about a third of it is uh is the County's funds so that's total County paying for that of course I know that you're seeking as much as you can to bring back those tax back to us again which is what it's about yes okay so you're constantly monitoring this yes anding Grant
absolutely okay and you'll be helping with us to continue to I will I'll be right there me my little calculator any further comments questions is there a motion to approve A1 and B1 no moved second there's a motion in a second all those in favor I opposed that motion passed unanimously next up is the dep Department 3 which
has discussed the 2025 priorities of the board of County Commissioners Mr barus you want to elaborate on yours um well I think it's everything water water water uh anything dealing with that I think that boils it down um do you do you have those four fors um is it in here in the book right don Donaldson yep yes okay right there all right that's fine I may have made some notes in there
I didn't know um okay um so yes there is a building that I've identified so far one building there could be two buildings but this particular one is right in the central commercial area it's on the back street of Jensen Beach Boulevard uh on the corner of pineapple almost pineapple it's actually Ru Terrace and pineapple and that's been vacant for quite a few years I did go into the building and
I I was not pleased but what by what there was it was built in the 60s um it's it doesn't have the effects or the acutron or anything that you say we we really would like to preserve this from the outside so it's my understanding that we are seeking opinions um outside of our County uh to see how we might benefit better whether it's going to be um bringing the building
down implosion or somebody is interested in reconstruction we still own the property uh they would be a user and end user of that project and so this is one of the properties although we have others uh throughout my district that I'll be looking at but this particular one is definitely on target for me this this particular year I looking at state and federal funding of which I learned so much about in the last couple of weeks about the wildlife quor I understand the
loaly and the Jonathan Dickinson park to um create this Wildlife cor Corridor and this will protect the habitat water quality uh the Agriculture and of of course for public Recreation I might even use it myself I I shall use it myself actually I will say that I'm also going to advocate for federal funding funding for the uh construction of the St Lucy Inlet operation and maintenance the South Jetty construction and Hutchinson Island Shore protection project
so those are a couple of different um um uh areas that we're going to pull together uh and also I'm looking for the water quality grants on Hazard mitigation Grant programs and revolving loan programs that are available to us so we want to tap every sources possible um and then of course support increased funding for for Ser which I think the governor has just made a mention and I have that article upstairs and expedited construction of projects
that uh will benefit the St Lucy River and Estuary so as I say it's water water water everything dealing with that Shoreline and I'm so glad that I went to that conference last week it opened my my eyes to the potential and the possibilities and what we can bring back to Martin County so but I'm still looking at that building but there are other buildings too so I'll speak with the necessary department heads about that okay to make that happen thank you commissioner heatherington yes okay so um our first
we had a a ribbon cutting recently for El Camino Trail which has been a priority of the Golden Gate CR for some time and it was bid and then rebid and construction costs went up and so I was really pleased that we were able to do the ribbon cutting and it is should be under construction C soon but I want to make sure that we s continue to have the funding and um secure additional funding we
had to phase out a portion of the project so I'd like to see that included in the future so um and with with the federal funding kind of volatile at the moment um I just want to make sure that we maintain the funding and see this project to uh to fruition it's been on my priorities for the last couple years I hope to be able to take it off next year because it will be completed so the second one is the and interestingly
enough we have a departmental number four right after this is um pedestrian and safety and traffic calming we've started with this St Lucy Corridor over by the Martin County Golf Course had received many many um resident concerns years ago on that road and we put in speed feedback signs we put in a speed table a three-way stop in front of the golf course and the residents have been
very satisfied with those work and I wanted to continue it down St Lucy Boulevard and Jefferson Jefferson as again you'll hear the next agenda item is a really straight away from Dixie Highway to St Lucy it was just resurfaced it's a um it's a and and there several driveways and streets again we'll talk about that the next item but the reason it's on my priorities is because it's so vital important to our community and the
safety The Pedestrian aspect as well as the intersection of Jefferson and St Lucy there's a crossw walk there currently and you'll note it as the Banyon trees it's got a tiny little sidewalk on the side of the banon trees which we really can't you can't move because of the banon trees it AB buts right on the road so we want to do on that crosswalk a pedestrian lighted flash sign and a liquid brick Crossing so that makes the crossing more Den
notable for that area and um is safer for pedestrians so hopefully we can get this accomplished this year and again the next item will address um traffic caling on Jefferson I have not wanted to put in speed tables because those don't seem to be especially with Marine Traffic um the right Solution on these roads and then septic to sewer um sitting on some
of these the Indian River Lagoon Council and Martin County has a model septic to sewer program throughout the state the way we've um added our own skin in the game our contribution how many connections we've done we have a model program so we need to keep funding that and keep moving along in that program and I know that srf funds have been um more competitive now to get so whatever
I can do to go to Tallahassee and continue to bring those srf funds we will do Workforce housing we continue to talk about it interestingly in my district I've had a number of constituent calls because of certain areas who were um maybe uh hun or they they were controlled um they had a affordable housing component which have just expired so I've got a number of people on my district that are like
the rest of the nation you know really um being priced out of their homes and the county so um I know that campy that was on your priority and um I want to continue to have those quarterly discussions and updates and look for opportunities for Workforce housing and then uh of course reduce and maintain current tax rates and I added in this year um with all that I
think you know our our discussions on bringing different kind of tax revenues into Martin County is important so that the burden doesn't rely on just the single family residential and with our Homestead exemptions you know we have the way our rate payers pay it makes the budget process interesting so we need to continue to hold those rates down and look for other sources of revenue and I'm really as the rates come
in for these recreational facilities that again is an amenity and I want to try to keep those you know within reason as um flat as possible for our beautiful Recreation facilities that's all I have thank you commissioner caps well and talking with our County Administrator about how long this list could be he he encouraged me to boil it down to our top five right and and that kind of the the idea um
there's I only see one through five on mine right it it's hard to boil it down to just five things but uh I know that's what we need to do to in the interest of timing you know District 3 represents three distinct communities hobtown Indian Town and Northern taquesta um unlike some of the other districts that are more centralized in
one community in Martin County you want 15 right I think that would be good um but anyway uh I thought about two thoughts when I was thinking about my top five one would be like what is the most important countywide priority that applies everywhere and the first thing that came to mind to me was improving water quality and how do we do
this uh by uh purchasing conservation lands uh which we're going to be able to do in a great volume in the coming days because of the half cent sales tax referendum that passed in November that will give us lots of resources these are going to be very exciting days uh for conservation and we look forward to that and then also by converting from septic to sewer uh the County's on a good track
I think it's a 10,000 homes in 10 years is the goal and I think we're on track with that let's get it done so I think to me that's the most important countywide priority and then I thought about how I'm to represent all three communities in District three and and I thought of some District priorities two for Hobel the Dixie Highway streetcape project in downtown hob sound I'm I'm
sure many of you enjoy eating at the restaurants uh along our access road on Dixie Highway Citron and Sophia and those uh wonderful places to dine and maybe you've been to uh attorney Mark Gaylord's office for a real estate closing down there and and maybe you've you've been there when uh you've had to step out of your car in a heavy
rainstorm only to find your your shoes sinking into about four Ines of standing water and the parking areas there we've been plagued with drainage problems along the access road for many decades and they've never been able to really come up with a good solution the water spills out on to A1A or Dixie and creates kind of a
uh a hazard for the motoring public so all that needs to be torn up and redone with better drainage and better asphalt better parking um and we look forward to that in the coming days secondly in hobes sound is the new fire rescue building at hobes Sound Beach this is going to be a big deal for hob Sounders um because we've we been used to the old canopy uh for many decades and uh my wife and I enjoy sitting down there uh looking at the
beach uh I don't walk on the beach a whole lot I like to walk out in the woods but um but uh we we love to go look at the beach and um and many locals love it too and so the new building is needed by fire rescue um for emergency situations uh right now they're operating in very substandard
conditions um uh basically performing medical procedures on on a little kitchen floor as I understand it and uh and also the bathrooms there are really old and outdated and need to be replaced so we need to come up with a good design that's satisfactory to fire rescue to the hob sound locals and and to the town of Jupiter Island um so that's going to be a big deal in the coming days in Hoban when I thought
of Indian town and something realistic and something that might be able to be done in the next few or several years the first thing that came to mind to me was the 714 710 Road realignment in Indian town if you take the Martin grade West to where it merges into 10 that goes to IND uh okobe um you know there's a a sharp hook in the road right there at the end
and that has C contributed to a lot of accidents and and a lot of problems um and so the idea is to straighten that out and to run that little hook through a cow pasture um so that it's straighter and I I believe according to the no that's a PRI it that would be coming up reasonably soon is that right uh the next few years maybe we could get it done yes sir commissioner I think
with this board's continued pressure will help uh the do both do districts uh keep their commitment to fixing that good good and then lastly I thought of uh Northern taquesta we tend to forget about those folks down there U they are Martin County residents too and and they they need something uh out of this deal as well and we have a bridge on County Lane Road close to
Heritage Oaks and little Club back in that area it's a little Bridge um that is going to be replaced real soon I believe we're breaking ground on that thing in about a year is that or 6 months or something like that so uh that's a big deal for the taquesta area so those are my priorities commissioner campy oh that's very kind of you four uh correct broadband connection
issues believe it or not in 2025 here in Martin County there are residents especially in the Palm City Farms area that are still without uh uh consistent and uh and appropriate Broadband or internet access I know that we have working with our staff for a long time and getting much closer working with Comcast uh Mr stokus has been leading the charge for us and I
appreciate it I know that there was even some Grant dollars but uh I want to be careful every time we have a positive I reach out to the folks out there that are on me about this issue and I say oh it's going to we got it and then it's still such a complicated process that we're not there yet uh I know that with Mr Gordon's help and our public works department we have been working for several years uh on a drainage and flooding issues in Palm City
Farms we did a whole um very expensive and detailed analysis because it is so complex and and everything is interconnected or related drainage and flooding issues start way in Western Martin County work their way through Palm City Farms over Martin Highway way into canopy Creek under or over the turnpike into Martin Downs I know that there was some issues being discussed uh even today about Martin
DS and things like that and then it goes through Martin DS back towards Lighthouse Point and then into the river um residents have been patient every once in a while they have rally meetings at the uh at a church out there and they're constant looking for not just the answers they're looking for the solutions and I think we're closer so I just wanted to make that uh one of the issues uh
number three has been something that a different constituency group all over the county but specifically in in Palm City is the is the strong desire for us to construct and open a dog park uh I know the city of Stewart has two um I still believe that we need to negotiate with with our friends our dear dear friends at the South Florida Water Management District because we have identified a site that I believe is
absolutely perfect um it's a least piece of property that uh every time they say that they're not interested that that doesn't work for me and so I know that our sweet dear friends at the South Florida Water Management District will like to come back to the to the table when we can show them exactly what we're talking about and a group of residents private residents have been funding for many years uh a fund that would be a contribution to the County's efforts to
create this uh there's also been a very very generous offer that instead of using natural grass for a dog park which if the park is what we would expect very well utilized uh it's tough to maintain that grass uh so what a lot of um communities throughout the United States and probably globally use is a synthetic grass um that is actually
more environmentally friendly and sanitary than real grass and someone is willing to donate all of the grass this the turf that would be necessary to do that and that's well over $100,000 donation and then as my colleagues had also discussed is the construction of the septic to sewer converion projects I know that commissioner herd and I were the original ones that when we tasked staff
with really a very aggressive um desire and commissioner heatherington came on right as we were doing it they've been doing terrific we originally for folks that might not remember or new to the community we had prioritized based on environmental need um a list of how we would do it and and old Palm City or you know U east of map road along the river but also west of
map road along um Sunset you know Thelma and the rest of them these folks have been waiting for many many years some of them um reluctantly postponing needed septic repairs or Replacements not wanting to spend 25 or $30,000 to replace the septic system only to find out that the following year the county came in and figured it out so I know that we are very very
close to getting that done um for me I numbered them one through four but any one of them I could have probably numbered most of them just one because they're important to the constituents like if you don't have a dog a dog Park's not that important and if you have a septic issue then that's your concern so um it was easy to redo this list year after year as commissioner heatherington said the best thing that could happen is that they get accomplished and I don't have to put them
on again and I know our staff is working on them it's not a critique of our staff it's just a lot of moving parts to make these things happen but I want I want them to be first front and center for me front and center for our staff and I want our residents to realize especially within District 5 this is what we're focusing our attention on and one final comment to commissioner caps that 7114 710 um retrofit there as well as the
Tommy Clemens area of 710 those I'm glad you've inherited those and made them your priorities because they are very very important priorities thank you thank you and mine are first to stop over development in Martin County that's pretty much self-explanatory uh next is acquisition of natural lands component for the completion of the Indian River goon South plan that's our portion of ser um the natural lands component is an authorized word of project so it's
eligible for funding and now whoever wants to be our partner can use that toward their um Ledger they Ledger keeping both the state and the federal governments if they choose to partner with us can use that as part of their Ser Ledger which is extremely important right now uh Port solo community redevelopment area I simply want uh for the county and the the uh the uh
CRA to make prudent investments in Port Salo so that it redevelops uh as best it can uh cease gunfire and illegal activity in Palmar um this has been an ongoing problem um it's commissioner caps you just took a helicopter ride I'm sure that you saw uh lots of examples of the illegal activity in palar both off-road vehicles uh destroying the wetlands
and also lots of of unpermitted structures uh we now have a uh security firm that's going to be helping us code enforcement needs to be helping us the sheriff needs to be helping us so that we can make sure that our conservation lands throughout the county are maintained uh that the habitat is is healthy and also that people are safe and lastly um spoil sites the uh
muck removal in St Lucy Estuary in the Indian River Lagoon is also an authorized project so now it's eligible for funding um so and once again whoever partners with us can put these contributions on their ledgers so in order to be able to start letting contracts we need to have spoil sites because we're going to be dredging n million cubic yards of mck from those estuaries and
that's that um Miss Gordon before we move on to um the the other items do you want to do the board appointments yeah commissioner herd if I could just wrap up the last comment so just uh the uh as your administrator and our staff well obviously these these collectively become part of the County's priorities and part of our strategic plan so uh
along with some other items that we have routinely done we um Miss merly is going to work with me on bringing back to you out of kind of a a summary of our strategic plan of which these elements will be uh are part of the tip of the spear if you will what we we will be focusing our efforts on this next year thank you I just received a a request to speak for on this is this on the um board
appointment with your permission Commissioners can we hear from uh Dr Fogelson yes absolutely sure please come forward and you'll have three minutes to address us she's got a good timing she did very good time we're about to take that item up thank you so much uh my name is sus fogon I am a business owner and a land owner in Port Sero um you may not have met me before but I wanted to introduce
myself and kind of give you a little bit of background of why I'd like to be part of the Nic um over the last couple years I've kind of been a silent participant um going to meetings and kind of listening to what's happening in Port salaro um and I feel like um my position or my proposed position on the NAC May provide a different perspective uh to the community I think there has been a
lot of aggression um which has been a deterrent for me to get involved unfortunately um I feel like there's a lot of sides being taken and I want to be a neutral party and um be part of the community and help the community and you know I I live there I work there I'm there every day um and I want it to succeed and I want it to be a beautiful community that people can enjoy going to um I spend weekends you know uh going to some of the facilities down in uh
manate pocket and my professional office is actually there about a block away so all of the changes that are happening with the CRA and the proposed developments really impact me and I'd like to be able to have a say in that but also represent an underrepresented community that maybe doesn't want to step forward for fear of for lack of better term bullying um and I want I want to be part of it but I also don't want to be targeted so I've been really hesitant to speak out until now
but I am a part of the community and I'd like to be represented and I know that there's others out there like me who potentially want to be represented as well thank you thank you so much if you if you don't know Commissioners Dr Fon is a is a veterinarian she's mostly a pathologist and she does pathology go of of large animals from all over the world yeah I actually have a specialty in fish as well um so about 60% of my
practice works with fish both wild and captive um and so I have a really big stake in looking at uh disease um in fish um and so uh you know I work with FWC and some of the state agencies to try and help keep our waterways and our animals healthy um as well as human so I kind of at the intersection of humans animals in the environment um and so I'm trying to do the best for all of them uh that I can with the specialty that I have so
yeah I'm a a veterinarian but with a a passion for fish and Aquatics and I apologize for being late today as I was actually at a local Aquatic Facility trying to help their fish stay healthy thank you commissioner campy I just wanted to mention doctor that uh this agenda item was going to be first so at least I have already submitted my ballot but it's a pleasure to meet you and I would tell you as I have said many times in the past when we have to vote
to pick one private resident who's willing to participate in the system over another it's probably one of the at least for me the most difficult decision to be made because in a perfect situation we would let everybody that wants to participate especially as volunteers and bring their talents and their uh their time to the process uh but we can only pick a couple and so having not known you it's a pleasure to get an opportunity to meet you I would say I don't know how the
vote will go but uh if it's not you this time I would certainly uh encourage you to apply again thank you I appreciate your time and it's nice to meet all of you thank you you and commissioner caps I have one question do you watch Dr pole on TV that's my wife's favorite show is it yeah I thought that one close down there I thought he he retired a little yeah he did but we watched the reruns yeah yeah I I I did a little bit when I was younger unfortunately you know it's part of
my daily life so usually when I'm not um you don't watch show about professional yeah not so much you know I like to actually get out in the water and you know have fun at the beach and uh do all the things that the locals like to do exactly yeah so it's kind of I do I do every every once in a while I'll watch it and you know see some of the medicine that I don't get to see on the regular okay thanks sure miss Gordon this is for the Golden Gate
hob sound Port solo and Rio Golden Gate there's two vacancies but didn't have any applications Hope Sound there's two positions and two applicants and I'm recommending Michael Banis be reappointed for a term to in in February 29 and Ms Butler to be appointed for a term to in in September of 26 and that's to complete an outgoing memb term and then jumping to Rio there were two positions open and no applicants
Port solo there's four applicants three positions Miss Kathy Harvey received five votes Miss Jamie R Taylor received four votes Mr Gerald Cass and Dr Susan Fogle each received three votes so we have a tie how can they each receive three votes since they're only five of us yes I double checked I I can read them off if
you want could that be possible it's not it is if there's three votes for oh well I'm not going to second guess you because I know that's not going to work yeah see I learned that a long time ago I I went through them because it yeah I can go through each voting sheet if you want me to yeah because if you could do that because if you said one of them was four to one so right that that person didn't yeah Jamie R Taylor received four votes so one of the her
votes for somebody else exactly making it six so you got to give so give our sheets back to us and let's let's break the tie so you want us to Circle three again or no just just
between Cass and fbl okay thank you yeah just the one between the top two and pencil can you tell what mine is I just wrote
it is that again and Mr Gerald Cass received four
votes motion to accept the votes as presented by Miss Gordon second there's a motion in a second all those in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously Madam chair may I Susan corz community development director I just wanted to clear up a little uh information that was spoken about
earlier today about NAC appointments um the reason that Mr Cass was on the committee and then had to reapply after two two months is because he accepted the term of another member that had resigned and it doesn't generally happen that they're that close together but there's particular criteria that applicants um apply for in the NAC and so he took someone else's term and
finished it out the same thing happened in hob sound actually with Mr Banis he took someone else's term finish it out so they would have to reapply for a new term most terms are I believe four years so that's why that happened it had nothing to do with um that he had to reapply for some other reason it was just the completion of a term thank you thank you anything else let's move on to
Department four which is a request to consider installation of stop signs on Southeast Jefferson Street at its intersection with Southeast Evergreen a motion to accept don't need the Mr grisela please proceed good morning Commissioners um for the record I'm Michael grisela the County engineer and this is
a request by the residents of the area of Golden Gate and surrounding to install excuse me a second uh always stop condition at the intersection of Southeast Jefferson Street and Southeast Evergreen Avenue the history on this Southeast Jefferson Street is a major collector which connects County Road A1A to Southeast St Lucy Boulevard in sandpit park so
there are many motorists Towing Boat Trailers along the corridor residents of Golden Gate and its surrounding areas have complained of excessive speeding along the corridor many conventional traffic calming features involve vertical deflections such as speed tables and raised intersections which would generate irritable noises for nearby residents or horizontal restrictions such as Lane narrowing and Bulbs outs which would deter motorists from trailering boats although deterring motor from trailing boats along the corridor seems
reasonable there is no other feasible access to sandpit park from County Road A1A the route along Indian Street and St Lucy Boulevard is a feasible alternative to Jefferson Street for passenger vehicles however is not feasible for high profile Vehicles because they cannot safely pass under the historic tree canopy along St Boulevard as an alternative to Conventional traffic caling features the residents of Golden Gate in the surrounding areas have asked the public works department to install stop signs
on Southeast Jefferson Street at its approaches to Southeast Evergreen Avenue the county has adopted the Federal Highway administration's manual and uniform traffic control devices the mutcd provides warrants for engineers to use to determine where stop signs should be installed the warrants are based on Crash experience distance transition to signal control 8 Hour volume and other factors none of these warrants have been met at this intersection therefore staff cannot support the installation of St
stop signs on Southeast Jefferson Street at its intersection with Southeast Evergreen Avenue because when stop signs are installed where they are not warranted unintentional unintentional consequences result so the staff recommendation is to move that the board deny the res his request for the stop signs however we have also um provided an alternative to this which would be moved that the board adopt a resolution authorizing the
installation of stop signs on Southeast Jefferson Street at its intersection with Southeast Evergreen Avenue and authorize the chair to sign the resolution and that resolution has been included in your package if you so deem to go down that right commissioner heatherington yes thank thank you Mr grisela so the the residents have asked but they've really demanded that their safety be improved and the reason this board is taking this item up is because there are Provisions that
when you can adopt the what is the engineering standard warrant that this board can for the safety of the residents um provide these Provisions it's happened previously in um speed limit changes it's happened on St lcy buou with the stop sign in front of the golf course which wasn't warranted however let me just give you a little picture of this particular Road it it it
Jefferson is a it's a ma major Corridor that connects Dixie Highway to St Lucy uh sandsprit Park uses it and a lot of boat traffic does so yes while residents wanted to slow the traffic down we resisted from putting speed tables and things that would um impede the flow or um not be acceptable to marine traffic so the solution was and if
you drive from Dixie approximately to Evergreen there are a number of driveway connections driveway after driveway I went and sat and visited with residents sat in their front yard on their back porches and watch the traffic and while I say a snapshot in of traffic warrants study on a particular certain um time there are a number of speeding vehicles through there it's a danger to the kids
there's at least three bus stops on that street and this was a good compromise to not putting speed tables in but to put a break in the traffic the road hasn't been striped since the resurfacing Lisa wixer and I you know former County engineer before she retired we had been working on this for several years but waited until the sewer project was done and the resurfacing and now with the resurfacing I would say the speed has increased because it's a it's a great
surface it looks like a Runway because it hasn't yet been striped and we do have some landscaping and some things like I mentioned in my board uh priorities the reason this is a high priority in my district is because the residents expect and need this so I would humbly ask your consideration and that's why this provision comes to the board because there are alternatives and I would make a motion for approval
second commissioner Vargas yes I have a question maybe two um so staff did not recommend what was proposed initially is that correct correct okay and the reason why it it we follow the the standards provided by the federal government for installation of traffic control devices and adding a adding the stop signs at this particular intersection does not meet any of the warrants for
adding the the stop signs okay um but however you said an alternative would be another solution and so why did you make that decision is that correct the alternative is the the you all vote to accept it and and install it at the resident requests okay from my knowledge what
is the cost of a stop sign I want to say they're about 200 bucks each $200 so 200 and 200 and 200 and 200 well there's two stop signs already there we'd be adding two just two so 400 okay but about the traffic would that impede the flow that's going to cause people to stop correct I understand that but I mean slow them down I get that I get that's what we do with a stop sign but what I'm saying is back up you I mean there are other places where you say well it's going to
be like a a backup or an imposition on I mean a good example of this is in Palm City with along uh Cornell where they've added years ago they added three sets of stop signs along Cornell to do this to do this exact same thing which was slow people down and and slow the cut down traffic down like said looking at the other Alternatives along that road for tra for speed control it doesn't make sense on that road because you put humps in there or
raised intersections it creates a lot noisier things for the residents especially with the boat traffic or the trailer traffic I should say going up and down that road so I mean this this is one alternative it's just that myself as the County engineer cannot recommend it because it does not meet Federal standards but it's not to say that you guys can't direct direct us to go forward commissioner caps has a question
yeah basically I wanted you to kind of restate things and non-engineering lingo for us basic people um like you you had mentioned unintended consequences uh any thoughts about what any of those might be early on when you add stop signs like this a lot of times you'll end up with more rear end crashes because people are stopping and people behind them don't realize it um a lot of that
though can be avoided with advanced warning signs and letting everybody know that you know these are coming up that they're being installed I mean over time you know that that gets mitigated but the initial stuff that kind of stuff does happen and commissioner heatherington you had mentioned uh certain exceptions to Federal standards being made around the county for various reasons uh can one of you comment on that a little
more uh commissioner maybe I can step in for a second so so uh if this meant the warrants um the uh the County engineer and their traffic staff would have all the authority to estop install the stop sign um under under those regulations um and uh uh but since it did not they brought it to you for consideration if this was on a road that was um had in the county Engineers opinion
a very high risk of um of uh of of complexity or or or just simply high risk um you know the your county attorney and and others would weigh in on that we would still not recommend the board install it so in this case because it's a uh in a part of the neighborhood and the character of the the road they included the resolution for uh accept you know knowing that if the board collectively uh deems it is appropriate it
is uh the risks are sufficiently low that the they put the resolution in there if the if the risk were significantly higher there would be no resolution and there would be there would be lots of conversation before we relented to the pressure of the board but anyway so that I think that's uh just just you for your um edification um it it is uh it is not a preferred method of traffic calming I think is what the engineers typically
see however we do experience in many neighborhoods and many areas where there is these minor collectors um where stop signs are put in and we get used to them and the traveling public is able to accept them in a safe manner we could not do the same thing on US1 regardless of the public pressure to put a stop sign in the middle of us one just would not work right so so that's the the kind of the contrast of the two just trying to to to put it in perspective the
risk is sufficiently low the staff included a resolution for you to adopt good that was very very helpful and um and I'm I'm satisfied with uh the motion and the second so I'll support the motion commissioner campy thank you I know that sometimes can be frustrating for our professional staff especially Engineers they're very technical uh when Mr Donaldson was the head of the engineering department he and I had a couple
of rounds on traffic lights on Martin Highway and that's when um Terry route was here and Lisa wixer and I remember I was a new commissioner and we were having speeding issues Martin Highway was recently two laned uh that created a lot of U speeding opportunities for residents there were accidents one that had a fatality at Barry and Martin there were kids
that were trying to cross to riding bikes that got hit by cars and so we pushed real hard they did not warrant traffic signals and there was concern that the residents will feel like there's too many and now I'll tell you you've all driven that length of Martin highway I don't know what we would have done without him um you know especially as commissioner heatherington was saying about individual driveways uh where people have to like literally pull out of their homes and I know that this is
a one of those gray issues where U you know thoughtful individuals can disagree uh but I get that there's a federal guideline which is more of a obviously um Universal guideline that it's over the entire nation then there's State guidelines but there's no person uh no one that's more uh in my opinion should be giving what the actual situation is
right where it exists than the residents that live there the frustration that they have with people racing past their homes or not getting out of their driveways or being fearful of their kids riding a bike on the sidewalk with sand sprit there uh there's a lot of out of the area people that are driving they don't you know I see this sign that makes a lot of sense to me it says drive like your kids lived here or your kids played here and I don't think we have I think one of the biggest issues that I
hear about I'm assuming you all do as well is from our constituents is traffic and road safety and you know we just our staff work hard to put a traffic signal on Murphy there was a lot of controversy with that uh We've it goes all the way back to several commissioners before me they did Islands to slow people down they did blinking Islands they did speed tables elevated intersections stop signs I think are helpful even though it's
shocking how many people just take those as they're simply a suggestion for stopping it doesn't mean you genuinely have to stop which it does um but I think it'll give the residents an opportunity most people will stop at a stop sign and so I appreciate you know commissioner heatherington going against that kind of recommendation because we represent the residents especially right where they live and I think it sends the right message from us that we hurt we
got the I got a whole bunch of emails about this I recognized a lot of the names on the people that were emailing they're reasonable people and so I was glad to Second it and there'll be other times when you all will come forward with residents I I don't know the specific situation I don't drive that way that often but if our commissioner who does know that area says this is something that she feels or any of you will feel is important in the future then it's important in the future to represent your residents right where they
live and so I think I know especially for the two of you that are new you'd feel like oh I don't really want to necessarily go against this engineering recommendation but as Mr Donaldson said the reason that there is even a resolution in there is at the end of the situation it's your decision that that rules the day in this case thank you madam chair Mr grisela because you
the engineering department can't Warren this warrant this stop sign and because they're and you're fearful of unintended consequences what additional liabilities does this board take on if we do in other words if there is some sort of an accident and there wasn't a stop sign warranted by our engineering department but rather we made the decision
to uh disregard the recommendation of the engineering department what additional liability do we face I don't really know that off off my hand it's like um it's a it's a it's a individual choice to to to do what they want to do whether they're going to follow the traffic control device or not um does it open the county up to additional liability because it's not warranted I don't know that answer off my
hand I mean that's more of a an attorney thing than okay attorney's can answer um Elise Elder Deputy County attorney it could potentially open up the county for additional liability if there are additional rear end crashes ideally those wouldn't be big crashes but if we do the precautionary advanced warning that would offset the liability um so I I don't think it's a great risk but of course you can't stop somebody from suing you but if we take
the proper precautions you can alleviate the much of the liability commissioner I think if this stop sign will let's say was on um same neighborhood situation but behind a sharp curve where you couldn't see it Advanced and we did it anyway that would certainly have a liability that that's much higher I think the reason why the resolution was attached because it will be easy to see it said a intersection of another road that comes through that has it so I think thatway four-way yes the
four-way stop would be um um I think that's inherently obvious that we could do advanced warning to so that it's there uh which is why they included the resolution commissioner heatherington yeah I I would say that in addition I'm concerned about the liability that we face when residents are saying that there is an unsafe condition on the road there kids you know there are people speeding and again there is zero zero
in Cornell was a really good example because I attend church over there and that needed a break um between that road but there are people flying to get from Dixie to St Lucy or vice versa and there will be an accident just like there have been on Dixie we've done a lot of improvements for pedestrians safety on Dixie Highway because there were crash I would be more worried about not taking action and the liability for that so
that it there there needs to be safety um precautions on this road commissioner Cy thank you commissioner heatherington made that point that I was going to that when you hear repeatedly from residents and don't act that leaves you just as open for liability uh and then the other thing I would recommend is that we use one of our electronic totes in both directions you know I know that you can put a permanent sign that says you know stop sign ahead but those totes for the locals especially uh for 10 days out or
whatever and I know you've done that in the past you know especially with traffic lights signals that say you know two weeks from now a stop sign a stop sign ahead so for the people that have driven that way forever the locals that were unaware that there's a stop sign I do that for a bit and then because you're really trying to just reach the locals if you're driving through an area for the first time all of us travel outside of the areas that we're familiar with
if you're driving down an unfamiliar Road and you see a stop sign or a light you're supposed to do those things and so I think that that's what makes this a uh an appropriate decision on our part and I appreciate that staff gave us uh sort of an an alternative commissioner Vargas yes uh could you tell me us what an advanced warning signal might be that you might place in addition to a stop sign well what we're talking about here is we would
definitely put the put the message boards out ahead of time but you can put Advanced stop uh stop ahead signs as well that you know would they be flashing we they could be so this is something that's fixed electric and it's flashing it it could be okay just from my knowledge what's the cost of that you'd have to have two correct one in each direction if if we go down that road yes um they I want to say the the the solar powered flashing ones are probably
in the in the $ 122 to $1,500 range each each any further comments or questions there's a motion in a second all those in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you we go on to Department 5 which is to consider approval of a resolution establishing the environmental lands oversight committee Mr Houston two weeks
in a row for you in the suit I know right I'm G to have to trade in some of my swamp clothes and like go to a suit store right this keeps up uh good morning M Commissioners I'm Michael Houston senior project manager for uh Martin County ecosystem restoration environmental resources division so um and we're here to talk to you about our land acquisition program and uh what what we've been up to
so uh with the adoption of the ordinance and the sales tax that uh passed uh back in November there are certain requirements we need to do to start our land acquisition program and really the first thing that we have to do is uh pass a board resolution uh and and in addition to that set up a a committee a citizen oversight committee called the environmental lands oversight committee or elock and elok yeah uh not to
be confused with elok but say can't you figure out something with a W uh you know it was in the ordinance so I couldn't get too creative with it um but in essence uh why we're here today is to uh the first step is for you to set up the committee that's not to say at this meeting we're going to appoint the members but we need to start by uh having you agree to set up the committee itself so uh so that is why we're
here today and to pass a resolution in regards to uh the sales tax as well um once that happens we will send out uh we we had talked previously about uh having different environmental groups and different organizations in the county that would be involved and would receive uh the ability to appoint somebody to the committee so that will be the next step is that we'll send out those nomination forms they'll come back to you and then you'll be able
to agree with uh or not agree with the people that have been appointed by those different organizations and that will happen at the next board meeting on February 25th in addition to that we've written a public lands acquisition manual which will be kind of the guid and document that will tell us us what we're doing and how we're doing it how the committee Works what the different responsibilities are for so we'll be we'll bring that in front of you uh at that next board meeting and once that
happens we will start working to set up the actual committee and and and get them to work so uh John do you have anything to add to that I do not all right thank you Mike thanks commissioner Vargas yes um my office had sent to you several suggestions for organizations did you receive those uh John M environmental resource division manag yes yes ma'am we did it was about four or five you know yes yes
when uh we met with each of you um and you know our our understanding of the ordinance was that it was um asking us to identify organizations to bring forward and so we met with each of you and went through exhaustive lists and and um what we presented today was our our best attempt to capture the collective input from each of you I think this was after we met then it was a followup of other suggestions I just want to be sure you send it if
you didn't okay yes ma'am all right thank you I know that when we first uh made suggestions about uh membership composition we were concerned about pointing members that we had would have confidence that in 10 years that these organizations will still be viable and that they have a history they have a past as well as a future and how confident are you that all of these organizations fulfill that goal well uh one
one thing that we did in response to that concern was uh in the ordinance we use generic descriptions for those organizations so that in the case that uh an organization no longer exists or is viable to send a nominee we could make that adjustment by a simple resolution and action by the board versus having to vote on it with the public again right correct that's not answering your question but
um I and I I just couldn't answer I guess on the viability of those organizations it it also allows the board that if there is an organization that the collective U board felt that they were no longer serving in the best interest of the county just the organization itself that you could um simply eliminate them and add somebody else how do you do that it would be by the board bringing for this resolution establishes the membership and then it would
be an agenda item to come forward and say we want to have under the ordinance identify a different organization that would require the supply so that that that is um uh how you would do it and there are some guardrails in terms of you know somebody rep representing that can omic interest somebody from a a citizen like taxpayer Advisory Group a Realtor Association uh two representing agricultural interests and four
representing environmental uh groups within Marton County so those are the the limitations established by the Ordinance do have some constraints but there's beyond that there's uh uh freedom to pick and choose who you want Miss Woods I just wanted to I just wanted to reiterate when we were drafting the ordinance that was
validated by the the um referendum that was the idea of having of kind of a descriptive form in the ordinance and then being able to narrow the um Advisory Board using a resolution because you really can't go back in aend you can't amend the ordinance without going back to referendum so this would allow the BC to do that I also think the staff when
they came up with um the input for the resolution these organizations are a fairly wellestablished organizations from from that standpoint that would fit the criteria and in my legal opinion all of the uh organizations identified in the resolution fit within the ordinance's descriptive terms I I would also just add that the manual that we are in the process
of drafting um will'll probably have some triggers um as well for instance if there's a board member that's not attending those meetings uh a certain number of meetings a year that that would automatically trigger a review of that that position and um allow the board to um take different action Miss Woods I believe I'm sorry the resolution if we can put the resolution up the the
draft resolution has a provision for attendance let me see if I can having trouble pulling it up do you have it John yeah that's right there three consecutive meetings yeah which that we pull that from previous land acquisition committees we had in the past when we had a sales tax so you know we felt like three consecutive was a because this is going
to be a vital committee and we need attendance and how did you determine the term of office you didn't want to complete in general when we've set up advisory committees and in specific for committees like this it's standard practice and policy of the County that you don't want the whole committee turning over every few years so this was to allow for staggered terms I believe it's four years and then there's a couple of folks that do two years they can certainly be reappointed but it
allows a cons consistency but it also allows for someone who no longer can uh serve or only has a limited time so that'll be uh you know up to the board who they want to appoint when we come up with um specific people how who you want to put in those fouryear slots or those twoyear slots and who will make that determination you the board based upon what criteria I don't know that you need
a criteria they all have foure terms it's just that some of them have but they start out as two but they and then those then they will equalize they start out different this is standard a lot of County committees other words you're you're just trying to say that you don't have all the members expiring four years from now that you'll have you'll start someone will start out with a two-year term and then in two years from now they have to get appointed for a four-year team so it's really just staggering the
beginning so that the the terms will the four-year terms will not all be um expiring at the same time all right so there'll be nine board members originally yes I understand yeah okay so um so so the really there isn't um the determination who gets the first two years that's I mean we could do as simply as the pick them out of a hat or the first you know you know we can talk to you
about that it's fairly because in the end they will have a four-year term after two years right well I guess it's similar to what we do here right all just don't expire at the same time right precisely I I should also say that when we bring forward the public lands acquisition manual in two weeks it specifically goes through what uh what they're assigned to do what Their responsibilities are and what their limitations are uh it goes through what county staff what what our role in the process and the board of County
Commissioners what your role is in the process and at the end of the day all the decisions are made by you they a citizen Advisory Board and that's a role to provide advice to you on which properties uh they feel should move forward with acquisition commissioner campy thank you madam chair I was thinking just as a suggestion if there's four members of environmental that when we do stagger that to like if we pull the
names out of a hat which I don't believe we'll necessarily specifically do that that all the members of a specific category they would have to split like if it's two agricultural one was a two and one's a four if it's four members of environmental it's not all of them being two or all of them being four that's just housekeeping Logistics uh and then also the individual groups that are selected they could then pick their own person
to be approved by us or we're going to start picking and choosing everybody uh What uh our Our intention is to send nomination forms to those organizations and they come back and say Here's the person we're recommending that's how I like it better versus us trying to hand select every category individual thank you commissioner Vargas yes um I see that this could be similar to what we did just now voting you know for for The Knack or whichever committee
I I think that we have to be very careful and I assume that that particular organization will understand as you said before that they don't have a sway in a certain direction I.E a commercial real estate broker we talked about that also certainly yeah we tried to avoid any conflicts of interest with the selection of those organizations and they understand that that they need to do that as well with their nominations right and our first eloc
committee a big part of that meeting will just be Sunshine laws uh ethics all those kinds of issues so that will be a a big Focus uh uh early on in the process any further questions no what do you want well the recommendation is that the board adopt the resolution regarding the establishment of
the environmental lands oversight committee a second that's not a motion that is I'll motion that yep there's a motion in a second any further discussion all in favor I opposed that motion passes unanimously that brings us to the uh would anyone like to address it's now time for public comment
would anyone like to address US seeing none commissioner comments commissioner heatherington I'm all set thank you commissioner campy I'm all set commissioner caps I am all set commissioner Vargas yes uh to commissioner campi I I wanted to pass on some information to you from one of the uh events that I attended about underserved underserved or unserved for the process of getting everybody on board for connection with internet
and uh whatever else you need out there um I can give you that information I'll have my Aid send that to your Aid and um call them they're waiting for you they're waiting for you and they will come out and meet with you personally or they'll do it virtually okay make your life simpler I appreciate all right thank you Mr Donaldson yes I just have one announcement and that's uh uh that we have the state state
of the county address being held on Thursday February 20th at Palm City New Hope doors open at about 8:15 and the program will start at 9:00 uh the residents are invited to join us as we take a look back at the highlights and accomplishments of 2024 uh more information on how to RSVP can be found at our website at www.mm martin.fl.us I look forward to it thank you Miss
Woods I have nothing thank you we are adjourned