[Music] Good evening. Thank you for waiting. And I'm calling this regular meeting of the Stewart City Commission for the 22nd of September, 2025 to order. Roll call, please. Madame Clerk, Mayor Rich,
here. Vice Mayor Collins, here. Commissioner Clark, yes. Commissioner Gobi, here. Commissioner Reid, here. The invitation this evening will be provided by Pastor James Hart of the Seward Alliance Church. And will you then lead us in the pledge of allegiance
afterwards? Please stand. Thank you for the privilege of praying tonight for this meeting. Father, we thank you for this beautiful day. Uh we thank you for the gift of life and health to be able to be here this evening. Lord, your word tells me and as
I'm reminded quite often that we are to pray for those in authority, those that have been placed in a position of leadership over uh people in a given area. So Lord, we thank you uh for the city of Stewart. We thank you for these that have been elected to lead us, make
decisions for us, and provide a place, God, that we can enjoy your presence and your purpose and your power. I pray tonight, Lord, that you would just be with each one that is here. Pray for each one that comes to this microphone, Lord, that you'd fill their hearts with your words and your direction and that
your will would be done in Steuart as it is in heaven. Thank you, God, for all your goodness to us, your many blessings. And thank you for such a beautiful place that we can live and work and and raise our families and and just see evidence of your hand all around us, Lord. From the beautiful
sunsets to sunrises to everything that we have around us, God, we give you praise and thanks tonight in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Pastor Harp. Comments by city commissioners. Commissioner Gobi, do you have any
comments to start us off? No comments. Thank you. Commissioner Reid. Yes. Uh my first one is I will not be in attendance for the joint meeting on October 3rd. And I also wanted to the consensus from my fellow board members.
I'd like the city manager contract and the contents of the contract brought back as an agenda item for the next city meeting which would be October 13th. You would like his contract to be discussed by the commission as a whole.
Correct. So, I'm looking for a consensus from the board. Sure. Sure. I would have no objection to Yes, I agree. Okay. Commissioner Clark, do you have any objection to Well, it's my support of life. Okay.
Does that conclude your comments? Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Clark. Um, I don't really have any comment except that I just want to thank our board and also the CRA members. We just had a
meeting before this and just trying to make sure that the business of the city goes forward and to thank the staff. There's times when staff feel like they're, you know, put upon and so many things. So, I just wanted to thank that
the staff and make sure that um that's where the buck drops at the city is the people who do the work behind the scenes. So, we appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Yes. I just wanted to say it's it's been
a a heavy, you know, two weeks. Um, you know, since we last met, there's a lot that's happened in the world and I've been wrestling with it. I'm sure a lot of people have. You know, my family
and pretty sure millions of people were watching the Charlie Kirk memorial yesterday. I can't tell you how many people were at the vigil that was in Memorial Park. That was, you know, a last minute thing and there were a thousand people there.
I can't tell you. But I'm just really proud of our community that even among wrestling with it all, that there hasn't been violence, you know, in our country, there haven't been riots. And that
a situation like that that um countless communities are having candlelight vigils and praying and singing worship songs. It's just songs. It's just um it's pretty incredible. I I would, you know, as somebody who is in a position
of leadership as um as not a very influential one, you know, city of Stewart commissioner, but I would be remiss if I didn't encourage everyone to not turn, you know, there's an
opportunity when these kinds of things happen to create more division to look at somebody who maybe you know you categorize as the other political party you know as an enemy and and to get angry and point that at people and um in
a position of leadership I would just encourage all of us to use this in the other way to come together and you know find where we agree and it and I don't say this to be offensive I really don't but in watching
everything that has happened I would say more than ever our country needs Jesus. I believe that we need to get back to those fundamental values and morality that really can make uh
this country great. And my hope is that through all of this that that's that's ultimately what happens. I would caution, I've seen some of this already, but people who are in leadership positions that might have um I won't name names, but I would really
caution against using this as an opportunity to talk about punishing the left or punishing people that, and I'm a conservative Republican, but punishing the other team and using, you know, somebody's death who was very much
bringing up, you know, people that he wildly disagreed with to the microphone to debate. You know, using this as an opportunity to censor people, whether it's on a larger scale or in our community, I hope we can all see what happened as
maybe an opportunity to reach out an olive branch to people that we don't necessarily agree with all the time instead of the alternative. But that that concludes my comments. Uh thank you for those remarks, Mr. Vice Mayor. Um I do have some remarks. My
first one is wow this is amazing to see all you. I mean we are so lucky to live in a community where people care to this degree and so many people care about an issue such as this. So, first I wanted
to thank uh Commissioner Goi and Commissioner Reid and Commissioner Clark because we all attended the reading of the Constitution the other day. I forget and I'm sorry I had to leave early. I couldn't stay to hear you, but we were excellent.
And it it it it is an event that I've uh been lucky enough to take part in before, but I must say and for obvious reason it held particular significance to read those words and really
understand how important they are. And so I'm not who who puts that on Commissioner Clark. I don't even But the group that does. Yeah. I The group is you Clark. Oh, it and Ula had her red hat on.
Well, it's good she says that because I actually attended an event um on Tuesday, September 16th. And one of the charms of working in a city this small is I'm never more than 10 minutes from any event. Even if I'm late, I can be I'll be right there. But I I put it on
maps and I had to travel 45 minutes because it was a remembrance ceremony. the storm of 1928 out in is that Pahooki? Was it in Port Maka? Fort Maka. And it was a very uh powerful
event. Um it was a remarkable storm in scope and the devastation it wrought on primarily non-white communities. And I really was not aware of it. And there in fact was one survivor, a woman who's had
held her dad's hand through the flood and it was quite a story and I was proud to be able to provide a proclamation from the city of Stewart. But it's a remarkable serendipity to me and I was struck by it because we're here
considering an issue a business that was started actually two years before that. Dennis Hudson senior founded the bank who we're going to be talking about in 1926.
And how lucky are we that we can have this tie to history, not only in that event, which was a tragedy, but to have a family and a business that
wants to maintain ties to the community that built. And I just could not overlook uh that those two events have taken place in and so close in time. So, Mr. Mortell, do you have any comments?
I I just have one comment. Um, this week we received or uh the uh community services department received a letter or email from a John Treyhan who's the Treasure Coast running uh director, I
guess, and he wanted to let the city know that they were very that he was out of town for the summer and had returned and was very impressed with the condition of the Russell Holloway track and was very excited about the renovations. And if you remember, they had made a donation to us as well. And
we did the uh improvements to the track and they're completed and he's very excited to for the track meet that will take place on January 24th of 2026. But the improvements were done and he was very happy with the outcome. That's it. Yeah, that's all I've got.
Can I get a motion for approval of the agenda, please? Move approval of the agenda as published unless somebody wants to pull anything. Thank you, Mayor Rich. May I? Certainly. I wanted to pull agenda item three, resolution 86205.
I know some of uh I guess it would be the tow truck drivers. They wanted to provide some comment and get clarification from the city on that agenda item. So will you amend your motion pulling item three? Yes. So we have a motion by Commissioner Clark. Second.
We have a second by the vice mayor. Is there any public comment on this item? I have no public comment. Seeing none. Sorry, I do actually. There should be one at least as regards the agenda. I'm sorry. This is approval of agenda, not consent. I All in favor?
I I I oppos. Okay. Do we have any comments from the public? Madame clerk, on non-aggenda items. Yes, I do. Um Kevin Shy, will you introduce yourself, sir,
please? Kevin Shy Sharky Air and some of you may know and some may not know I'm Molly's father from Molly's house. So I appreciate what you're doing tonight and I appreciate all the people that are here. You know C Coast and
Stewart are synonymous. I understand you're working hard to control growth and I applaud you for it. Some of you may know that I'm also, as I said earlier, a local contractor. And so I'm very familiar with the growth
of Stewart. I remember looking down Main Street when we moved here in 1989 and there weren't any cars because there were no stores. They were vacant. And how far we've come. All right.
31 years ago, I appeared before this chamber asking for some minor changes to directives so we the entire community could build Molly's house. It has been open as of yesterday, Molly's birthday,
29 years. [Applause] And better yet, it has served over 30,000 families. Wow. We could not imagine the impact it would
have that far along today. What why am I saying all this? Since 1961, Ca Coast has been a vital member of this community and for generations have worked there.
generations in this room that have worked there. And let's not forget all the contributions that they make to the charities here in town. Molly's House being one of them. They are they are
such an important pillar of this community. A 64 year old building is showing its age. I know. I helped take care of it. All right. The weight of this project rests
squarely on your shoulders. I implore you not to turn them away, a cornerstone of the community. Their requested changes are for safety, and it makes great business sense. I trust your common sense will overcome
some words on paper. Remember, they are not adding a building. They're replacing a 64 year old building. Look behind me. Look beside me.
And you see not only our leaders, you see our future leaders here. I'm 74 years old. How long before somebody pushes me aside? I don't know. But I needed some I think it's important that
you hear their words and you understand how important C Coast is to us and that you allow them to build what they need. As I said, they're not building a new building. They're replacing a building.
So with that, thank you. I want to thank you. Thank you. So, I thank the gentleman for his comments. I would just like to remind you that this is where we get comments on non-aggenda items and the coast bank
is definitely on the agenda. So, are there any other madam clerk? I have no further public comment. Okay. So, can I get a motion for approval of the consent calendar polling item three? Move approval. We have a motion for
approval by Commissioner Clark. Second. A second by the vice mayor. Any public comment on that? Seeing none. All I I I do actually have some public comment on the consent count. There was a public comment for this. All right. I'm sorry.
Okay. I say that would be a first. Do you need to take the roll call again? Not all in favor. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? See none. Okay. Mr. Mr. Bagot, will you read item three for our consideration, please?
Sure. Resolution number 86-2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, adopting types, fees, rates, and charges as appendix A to the city code of ordinances as provided and permitted in
various chapters of the city's code of ordinances. providing for conflicts, providing for codification, providing for an effective date and for other purposes. Does staff wish to make a presentation of any kind on this? So, this is appendix A, which is the
fees that the city charges for all of the different for renting a gazebo or in this instance the tow truck driving fees. Commissioner Reid asked to be pulled because I guess there was comments from tow truck drivers or somebody that wanted to seek clarification on it.
Yeah. KW towing. You have to fill out a card though. Okay. You can fill it out after, too. Uh, Commissioner Reed, do you have any questions of staff regarding this? I I don't. They know more than I do about it. This is Okay. So, in order to allow public comment, can we get a motion, please? In a second. Some moved.
Second. Okay. We have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by Commissioner Clark. Um, is there any public comment on this item? I do have public comment, Mayor. No. And do you have some of your own, madame clerk? I do. Okay. For this item, Nathan,
would you call them, please? Nathan Misjen. Okay. Sir, have you handed your green card in? Okay. Yeah, we'll get to you. Hi, how's it going? My name is Nate Mscuan. Um, I own All Hooked Up Towing. Um, local tow company here. Um, we've been open since, uh,
2013. Could you pull the microphone just a little bit closer? Yes. Sorry. Can you hear me a little bit better now? There you go. Thank you, sir. So, um, we wanted to go over some of the things here. You know, um, we have a few issues with our pricing. Um, there's some discrepancies with our pricing in the
city versus some pricing in the county. And we were kind of trying to get that to coincide and to be similar, if not the same. So, I think that was kind of what we were trying to accomplish here. And um uh I think that's kind of where we were heading with our with our meeting and um trying to get that to go
down the same route. Um there was um you know, some of the charges on on ours don't line up with um the the city. They they're just completely different. So when when
customers come to our lot who have had a a tow done in Martin County per se by a police toe, police directed to one in the city, they're like, "Well, why is the price different?" There's all this kind of talk. You know, we we kind of have no really explanation for it and
they're just a few miles apart, if not in the same area. So, u we were just trying to get the rates to mirror one another to make it more uh transparent and easier uh to um for people to understand and for us, you know, to be
more fluent. Um because we're providing the same service basically in the same area, things like that. Um some of the things that we were having issues with was um [Music] where our wreckers um have to operate,
our heavy duty wreckers have to operate um on scene increments after 30 minutes. Um they were paying us uh on here $51 per every 30 minutes when really it should be um a much higher rate. Um
there's just some some things that we need to change and update and we were just looking for approval on that and we had submitted some different pricing that we wanted to basically mirror the county if we could. [Music]
And that's really that's really all I really have um on my end. There really wasn't much that I was looking to do. Um, as far as my notes go, I know we were looking to stay with um
with the uh rotation, you know, with maintaining the the 30 minutes. We were trying to look for a 30-minute rotation uh ETA. I know there was talk of a 20-minut rotation uh ETA um due to some traffic constraints, um the population
growth and things like that. that we were having difficulty getting to accident scenes an ample amount of time with traffic and things like that. Um we haven't been able to make those ETAs. It's been very difficult. So wanted to see if we can adjust that as
well the 30 minutes and that's all I really have. Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Thanks. And and to the members of the board, I I don't have any idea about the 30 minute policy one way or the other. The appendix A is the fee schedule and our
police department several meetings ago during one of the budget workshops explained to the board that it was meeting with the county and that we were going to adopt the matching fee schedule as the county and we have made those changes. If you go to appendix A under
chapter 12 businesses 12-45 like 12-130 says license fee for records and vehicle businesses and then back below that it starts class A/rollback. It was 570 $5.73 per hookup mile and
it's now been changed to $7.7 per hookup mile which was the the total or the original price was 164.81 81. That's been changed to $29.99. Class B has been changed to $294. Class C has been changed to $458.
Class D has been changed to $694. Labor on scene after of accident after 30 minutes. It says, see the schedule below. And then it's a fairly extensive schedule, but it's for for 6 to 24 hours
after 24 hours inside for 6 to 24 hours after 24 hours. It's my understanding that we simply adopted the county schedule verbatim. So it's the county schedule. Okay. Thank you, sir. Clerk.
Yes. I have Dustin Driscoll. Two for one. Yeah. Hi there. I'm Dustin Driscoll. This is my father, Warren Driscoll. We're owners of KW Record Service. Um, another local company here in uh,
Stewart. We are on your guys' rotation. And although the appendix A has been adopted to match Martin County Sheriff's or the county rates, not everything has been updated like you were talking about the with the labor on scene uh of an
accident after 30 minutes. It says see the schedule below. That has the schedule that you mentioned has nothing to do with the labor on scene. It mentions the the schedule of how long a vehicle has been at our yard, not the actual labor on scene. As far as that I could tell, it is a long list, so I
didn't get to skim over every little bit of it, but from what I can see, that's not what I uh that's not what's valid. Also, as far as um the the appendix A, I don't I don't know
that if it has been adopted. At least we haven't been given any notification that it has been adopted. We haven't been told by this Steuart Police Department or anything like that. Yeah. Well, sir, it's for adoption tonight. I'm sorry. It would be adopted tonight if the
commission votes on it. Okay, I got you. New ideas. Yeah. So, um, in general, as long as it's, you know, as long as it's adopted, it just helps along with the community, helps us, it helps make sure that the community is all around all across the
board even, you know, because um, we're just trying to find that what on on the the rate sheet. We do have the rate sheet for where it shows the labor that's not on the appendix A.
Appendix A if you'd like a copy of it. Give it to the chief. Yeah. Hold on, Chief. Let's just wait till they're done. Absolutely. Okay. Are you done? Bring that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Chief. Do you have a comment on
their remarks? Hello, Flores and Alex Police Department. Um, I spoke with Ryan Cabo today, the parallegal. I set this schedule based on the county's fees, so we would mirror it. When she was reviewing it today, the the portion
about the dolly and the first 30 minutes and the extra 15 minutes, it just fell off of the transfer from the word document to the fee schedule. She was taking care of that today. So, we adopted it exactly how the county's uh price chart is right now. Okay.
So, do we have any any other public comment? No, I do not. Okay. Questions or comments from the commission on this item? No, I got clarified. That's clarified. Okay. Mr. Martell, do you Are there any questions from their part?
You don't seem I'm not We're just the staff's asking the commission to adopt exhibit A. Okay, thank you. That was a motion. So, we need a vote on that. We have a motion for the approval of the agenda. Okay. I think we already did approval of resolution number.
All we need is a roll call. All we need is a roll call. Second. We just call We had a motion, a second. Roll call, please. A second. Vice Mayor Collins? Yes. Commissioner Dobby? Yes. Commissioner Clark? Yes. Commissioner Reid? Yes. Mayor Rich?
Yes. And when we did the adoption of the consent agenda, that needs a roll call as well. We did it by um all in favor. So, if we could just ask for a roll call on the other balance of it to for the record to maintain it. Are you asking us to go back? Yeah. Okay. Roll call, please.
This is for the consent calendar. Yes. Commissioner Clark? Yes. Commissioner Reid? Yes. Vice Mayor Collins? Yes. Commissioner Gio? Yes. Mayor Rich? Yes. That ends the consent calendar. Item number five,
Mr. Bagot, will you read C Coast Bank headquarters major conditional use and major site plan for 815 South Colorado Avenue? This is Qui Quasi Judicial. So, do the commissioners need their
yellow card here, Mr. Bagot? No, just you. That's your That's your sheet that you make sure you follow along. Will you please read the item for our consideration? Of course, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, granting a major creek district code conditional
use approval and major development plan for the Sea Coast Bank headquarters project located on the southeast corner of Colorado Avenue and Kindred Street, granting approval to construct an approximately 58,647
square foot three-story headquarters office building with drive-th through bank teller lanes and drive-thru ATM. M a detached 90,762 square f foot three-story private parking garage and mainta maintain the
existing outbuilding structures outside the redevelopment affected area requiring specific policies to be considered including parking requirements and architectural standard standards. providing an effective date, providing
for a timetable of development, providing for conditions of approval and for other purposes. Okay. So, the first question I have to ask of my fellow commissioners is, do you have any exparte communications to disclose regarding this item? And
Commissioner Gobi, I'll speak with you. You never met with the applicant or Okay, I'm sorry. No. Yes, I've met with the applicant actually twice. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Reid. Yes, I met with the applicant twice. um a phone call with Jimmy Smith and an
in-person meeting with United Way with uh Carol Commissioner Clark. I've met with the the applicants uh the representatives and I know many people at Secos Bank employers employees there
and um I have I don't think I have any other meetings but I'm here with an open mind. Mr. Vice Mayor. Yes, I met with the applicant. Okay. I myself met with the applicant twice. Um
I've known Dennis Hudson for 45 years, so I've spoken with him. I've spoken with tens of citizens specifically regarding this project. Um I spoke with Mr. Estie regarding this project
and I spoke with Mr. Capra this morning specifically regarding some of the drainage issues. So, uh, Mr. Bagot, will you place the witnesses under oath, please?
Yes. With all people who be, uh, presenting on behalf of the applicant and staff, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So, help you God. All right. Thank you.
Okay, Mr. Mayor, may I be heard real quick? Excuse me? May I be heard real quick? I I just wanted to point out and I had sent all of the commissioners a copy of an edited version of the resolution. Um, and there was a couple of scriveners
errors in the resolution and a few of the warehouse clauses. And then, um, in warehouse clause number eight, I made more substantial changes just to clarify uh, the distinction between the two buildings. one's being developed and one's not. And then um in exhibit
C um conditions exhibit C it's called conditions of approval I added a paragraph number 23 and in that was applicant developer or successor shall maintain the existing outbuilding structures outside of the
approximate 4 acres of redevelopment. said out building structures include a three-story office building consisting of 27,529 square feet and a drive-through teller building consisting of 838 ft. And I just wanted to point that out that I had
ran that by council for the applicant and they were fine with these edits, but they were not posted on the agenda a week ago. So, uh, but that's some of the edits to the most recent version. Just wanted to put that on the record. Okay. So when staff makes her
presentation, you'll clarify which buildings we're speaking about specifically that are included in item 23. Is that correct, Jody? Uh yes, sir. Okay. Are you prepared to go ahead? Yes, sir. Uh good evening, mayor and
commissioners. For the record, my name is Jody Cougler, the development director of the city of Stewart. Tonight I'll be presenting agenda item number five for the major conditional use petition and concurrent major development plan application for the project to be known as C Coast Bank
headquarters. In accordance with the public notice requirements outlined under section 11.02.05 of the land development code. The applicant mailed 30 letters to the adjacent property owners located within
300 feet of the subject parcel providing details of the requested development and the date and time of tonight's meeting. Additionally, three signs were posted on the property along US1 Colorado Avenue and Kenri Street with the same information.
The 8.13 acre subject parcel is located on the southeast corner of Colorado Avenue and Kindred Street. The parcel is situated within the creek district overlay and is zone creek south within a downtown future land use designation and
is located within the city of Stewart's community redevelopment agency. The property is also situated within the city of Stewart community redevelopment area and creek district in in 2023. The city commission adopted the formbbased code which this development is being
reviewed under. And the commission's primary goal when adopting this code was to encourage infield development and promote the arts entertainment community within the creek district. The subject parcel is the properties situated to the south, east, and north
are designated by the creek south zoning district. The parcel to the west is designated by the B2 business general. The parcel and properties situated to the south, east, and north are designated by the downtown future land use. The parcel to the west is
designated by the commercial commercial future land use. The downtown land use is applied to properties within the community redevelopment area and it generally allows for low density and multifamily residential, office, commercial, recreation, lodging, public
facilities, conservation and mixeduse developments. Tonight the applicant is requesting for four major conditional use to one is to allow for a p private parking garage as a permitted use within the creek south district. The second one is relief from
the strict interpretation in requiring a primary street frontage located on a street as identified in the frontage facing US1 and Colorado Avenue. The third relief from the requiring a 10-foot sidewalk along US1 and Colorado
Avenue. And the fourth is to relief to allow the private parking garage to be exceeded the 200 foot horizontal length to 246 feet overall. Pursuant to the land development code section 3.04.03
parking part private parking garages and lots are identified as allowable use within the creek south district. However, the code requires a conditional use approval from the city commission. The applicant is requesting a conditional use to allow a detached private parking garage as a primary
parking for the customer's employees for the C Coast Bank headquarters office building. The parking garage will consist of approximately 252 parking spaces. The second request is in accordance with the land development code section 3.04.05
outlines the requirements for frontage type design for buildings within the creek district. Frontage type shall be located on the primary facade. Primary facade shall be located on an A street as identified in the figure CD-07
theorero as lined outlined in red. Per this figure both Colorado Avenue and US1 are considered a streets. And a street is identifi is intended to develop over time as a pedestrian-friendly environment as such and to hold to
higher standards regarding building placement, building frontage, and the location of parking lots and service uses. B streets outlined in orange are not held to the same standards as A streets. The applicant is requesting relief from the requirements do not
include access or a primary entrance facing US1 or Colorado Avenue due to security purposes. The front entrance to the building is proposed facing an interior neighborhood open space. The design of the neighborhood open space meets the intent of a pedestrian plaza
connecting the building entrance to the street and a pedestrian passageway. The police department has reviewed the plans and it supports the SE coast bank's request to relieve to allow for the main entrance at the rear of the building. This approach aligns with the
crime prevention through environmental design principles, enhances customer safety, and provides a more functional and secure design for the headquarters. In accordance with the land development code section 3.04.06,
06. The Therapare standards access and parking standards requires a 10-ft sidewalk along US1 and South Colorado Avenue. For conditional number three, the applicant is requesting relief to maintain the existing sidewalk widths of 7 ft along US1 and South Colorado Avenue
until such time the existing infrastructure within the rights away can be adjusted for meaningful addition to the pedestrian sidewalk. In conclusion, the applicant is improving to include new 10- foot wide multi-path
consisting of US connecting to US1 to Kendra Street at the intersection of of Colorado and US1. The fourth and last relief condition is pursuant to land development code section 3.04.09
09 PND development standards requires building massive not to exceed 200 feet horizontal length maximum. The applicant is requesting relief to allow the parking structure to exceed the 200 foot horizontal length to 246 feet overall
length. The proposed parking parking structure is proposed kept to purposely to kept to a 25 ft to limit the mass of the structure. The longer the garage allows for gentle sloping ramps and a safer scenario for users.
The de development situated within the creek district greater than 35,000 square ft area is a major development plan approval must be granted by the city commission as per land development code section 3.04.01. [Music]
The applicant is proposing to consist a to construct a new 58,647 square foot three-story headquarter building, freestanding drive-thru, and a detached structured parking garage. The property consists of a total of approximately 8
acres. The proposed redevelopment plans, has an infected area of about 4 acres. There are two existing buildings on the subject site that will remain operational during the construction of the new proposed headquarters. Following the completion of the new headquarters building, the existing main building,
which is includes the bank branch, will be demolished for the construction of the proposed parking structure. The existing driveways along Colorado, Kenri Street, Hudson Court, and Johnson Avenue will remain. The parking garage entrances located on the first driveway
along Colorado traveling south, and an existing oneway out of the parking garage at the second entrance traveling north. Associated site improvements include landscaping, pedestrian connections, refuge collection, storm water and utilities improvements, public art, on-site lighting in and
installation of bike racks. This just shows the overall height of the building. Uh the main building will the bank building will be at 44 feet high with three stories maximum and the garage will be at 25
some change and be about three stories. This just shows the overall parking data for the uh for the infill site and for the existing site. The C coast is required to have 195 parking spaces. They are providing 252 for the garage
and 27 for around parking that includes handicap parking spaces. [Music] This is the proposed headquarters building elevation facing US1. The applicant is proposing an aluminum window wall system with blue tint glass
glazing and window frames to be gray. The exterior architectural elements include longboard Italian rosewood grain finish and metal screening. The primary fir the primary building's first and second floor incorporate pre-cast walls with wood cladding pillars attached to
blue glass glazing that wraps the around the entire third floor. Again, this is the proposed elevation facing Colorado, depicting the same materials as the front's facade. The plaza is located between the rear of the headquarters building and private
parking garage. The plaza consists of pedestrian walkways, benches, large tray, shade trees, benches, and artwork artwork. This area can be utilized by park public, including customers and employees. The detached parking garage will be constructed with the same pre-cast walls
and open space for each floor. The building will include the blue turquoise wave along the frontage and all in all sides visible to the public view. The parking garage will also include planters and a wide variety of landscape materials to soften the horizon facade.
Staff has reviewed the major development plan for environmental impacts and found the development complies with the land development code and the comprehensive plan. All tree mitigation will be on site including preserving an existing oak tree and a banyan tree. The landscaping will consist of variety of shade trees which includes but not
limited to 14 gumbo limbo trees, silver buttonwoods, and 20 southern live oaks. All trees will be planted with a root barrier system and irrigated. The applicant has also provided a submitted a master signage plan that enhances the overall building
architectural and incorporates a wayfinding sign for the historical down downtown Stewart area. [Music] In reviewing these applications, staff has determined the applicant has demonstrated they comply with the standards of review set forth in the
land development code sections 3.04.00 and 3.01.06 06 and were found to be consistent with the comprehensive plan goals, objectives, and policies. It is consistent with the code in the city's comprehensive plan. Will further
implementation of the CRA redevelopment plan will measurable improve the form and function of traditional neighborhood characterist characteristics has satisfied site qualitative design development standards as set forth in section 6.00.04
04. At the September 15, 2025, the community redevelopment board voted unanimously to recommend a to forward a recommendation of approval to the city commission as presented by staff. In reviewing these applicants
applications, staff has determined that they comply with the standards of review set forth in the land development code sections 3.04.00 and 3.01.06 06 and were found to be consistent with the comprehensive plans, goals, and objectives and policy. Stack
recommends the city commission approve the city approve the C Coast Bank headquarters major co conditional use and major plan development plan with the conditions outlined in resolution 85-2025. Okay. And now I I will ask the
petitioner to present there. Can we ask you any questions? That's not what it says. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead, please. No problem. Good evening. For the record, George Mamemer. I'm a partner with Cotler and Hearing here tonight on behalf of the applicant C Coast Bank and
I have been sworn in. Thank you. Start over. For the record, George Messmer with Cotler and Hearing here tonight on behalf of the applicant C Co Coast Bank. Uh I have been sworn in. I'd like to just start by thanking the commission uh mayor, vice mayor,
commissioners for your service and being on this uh commission. Uh I appreciate Commissioner Collins words at the start of the meeting. Um the service that you do is a benefit to the community and it takes courage to come up and stay say your opinion. So just like to thank you personally and professionally. Um so
getting into the presentation again um our team that's been part of it uh local professionals that have decades of experience in land development and engineering architecture. We all went through an extensive interview process with SECO's bank. They were very
particular about who they hired to design their site and the future of their their company. Uh so we're all extremely honored to be part of the project. Myself, I was born and raised here in Stewart. I grew up surfing and fishing in the rivers and uh it's just been an absolute honor of mine to be
part of this project as many who grew up here in Stewart. I mean it's odd to think see a bank being a big part of your life but it really was um my first bank account was opened at C Coast when I was a kid and I just I've heard countless stories of the same. Um so
again it's just been an absolute honor. Um but our owner and applicant again C Coast National Bank uh owner's representative Tambon Companies to guide Sea Coast through the process of construction and land development. Tamboni companies Richard and Lori are both here with us tonight. Uh Cotler and
Hearing we were the land planners and landscape architects for the project. Our architect Baker Berios, Mr. Wayne is here for any questions. Our civil engineer Captech engineering Joseph Capra is also here for any questions. Uh and then our traffic consultant,
Mackenzie Engineering and Planning, and we do have Sean McKenzie as well here tonight. Now, just briefly summarizing the application again, there's two items on the agenda. One is the major development plan because the proposed office building exceeds 35,000 square ft, and
the second is the major conditional use for the parking garage. As a part of that conditional use, we have three design deviations that are proposed. Uh in my experience, uh the to only have three deviations from a formbased code is pretty spectacular. We worked really
hard with staff to go through those uh and and meet every intent and every code requirement that we could. And we'll walk through the site plan and go through all those requirements. Um but these type of approvals are very common in other municipalities. They're called
waivers or alternative compliance. But we've done an excellent job in our opinions of bringing the best project forward that we could and that's been the goal from day one. It hasn't been cutting corners. It's what's going to be the best for Steuart. What's the best for C Co Coast? Uh and so we'll get into
it. Looking at the site location, and I think we're all familiar. This is the site off of US1 in Colorado. We are just to the east of Caner Highway in Colorado. We are just to the north of US1 and in relationship to where we are
tonight. Briefly, I'll, you know, we are just a stones throw away from the original 1933 location. Uh, and just thinking back on the history of C Coast Bank and our community is pretty special. Uh, and with that, we'll jump right in to a 3D
video that we had modeled. This is accurate landscaping for what's been designed. See if it plays for us. There we go. I'll be try to be quiet through this part because you'll hear enough of me here in a minute. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think our
staff incorrectly indicated that the US one side is the Colorado side because if I remember Jody showing that it was the two. Yeah, I think one of the renderings was labeled as being the Colorado frontage.
So could you just indicate clearly which is which? Yeah, no problem. So So this is a view looking west on US1 at the front edge of the building. So Colorado, you can see the intersection just to the left there as the video
plays. Uh you're moving towards the intersection of Colorado and US1. So this would be the frontage facing US1. our extensive landscaping there providing height and scale to the building as well as providing shade to
the perimeter sidewalks. And then this would be the Colorado facing side of the building. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. and that brings us to our next video that we'll play and we'll make sure there's enough sound for everybody to
hear. Um, Mr. Denny Hudson could not be here tonight, but he did provide a short video clip as part of it just to so you could see his face and hear his words. [Music] For nearly a century, SECOS has been
proud to call Steuart home. And we're excited and honored to share our vision for our future headquarters and excited about our continued commitment to the city of Stewart. Sikos began in Stewart with a simple promise to help families, businesses, and communities thrive. From our first
branch downtown to decades of service on Colorado Avenue, we've been here through every chapter of Steuart's growth. Our story is rooted in trust, resilience, and partnership. We all feel such a sense of pride
working with multiple generations of customers and families over the years. Today that legacy and long-standing dedication continues not just in banking but in the impact SECOS makes across our community. Here in Steuart Sikos Bank
supports more than 200 local jobs. Many of our Steuart based associates have worked at the bank for 30 40 years or even longer. They're constantly making meaningful local contributions with millions of dollars of local impact to strengthen Stuart's economy.
COS has been a great partner with us over the last 13 years. helping us get the Gaffford off the ground in 2012 and most recently C Coast uh has pulled their whole team together to help us open a second restaurant within the last 2 years. They have been
through the ups and downs. They provide trust, stability, service. There are very few if any businesses that can say they've been a part of a community for nearly a century. We proudly support dozens of nonprofits and community organizations contributing
thousands of volunteer hours each year. [Music] United Way in communities across the state, but here specifically in Martin County, we serve as raising resources whether that's financial or in kind in
our community and we distribute it back out to the community. COS has been amazing. Not only do they financially support us, they also support us with volunteer hours, they serve on committees. They are the number two most generous workplace in Martin County. We
are so proud of the relationship because it's more than just a financial transaction. I am just always amazed about the support, not only financially, but all kinds of things that Sikos is involved in in our community. And I would hate to lose that really. It's,
you know, almost a hundred years. We want the next century to have CE Coast based right here in in Stewart, Florida. Our legacy is built on history, but our future is based on vision. The new Sea Coast headquarters will be a vibrant anchor for downtown Stewart that serves
customers, supports employees, and inspires the community with a sustainable design, expanded green space, and accessible public areas. The project represents more than a building. It's our renewed promise to Stewart's next chapter.
[Music] Right. And with that, I'd like to introduce Tracy Dexter, the chief financial officer with C Coast Bank. Talk a little bit more about the bank, what they do here in Stewart, and then I'll get back into the site plan and the
conditional use items. Good evening, commissioners and staff. Good evening to our community partners and friends. My name is Tracy Dexter. I'm the chief financial officer at C Coast Bank. Uh I've lived and worked in Steuart for nearly nine years. As we
embark on this very exciting project to refresh our headquarters, I'm just really proud to be uh the representative of all of our Sea Coast associates in talking about this project and sharing some of our um our intentions with you. So, you've seen a little bit about our
journey and our values, our deeprooted commitment to this community. So, I'll just share a couple more things. What we hope to convey um is just how strongly CEO's history is woven into the very fabric of Stuart's story and our
reputation for professionalism. Our people centric culture really anchors our commitment here. I thank you each very much for giving us the time to do that today. This project really revives and refreshes our headquarters here in
Stewart. It allows us to better support local homeowners, small businesses, uh, neighbors, and our partners here in the community. I'm going to save you another uh couple of minutes from some of the history that you've heard so much about. As you know,
the the bank's been here for many years. The location where we currently sit uh was created in 1961, and a lot has changed since then. Um, our business has grown quite a bit from the one original branch in Stewart to over a hundred locations across the state by the end of
this year. Uh, here on the Stewart campus, in addition to our client serving banking team, our headquarters site houses our executive team, many of the leaders and professionals in our operations, accounting, technology,
compliance, many other functions that support the day-to-day operations of the business. Of the nearly 2,000 overall employees that Sik Coast will have by the end of this year, the Steuart campus is home to 225 people. Our growth in
recent years has included establishing other operations and back office hub locations across the state. Doing that has allowed us to support the local decision makers in those areas and it provides flexibility and resilience to our business. Our delivery model then is
distributed, but our Steuart campus remains at the heart and the center of this growing business. Beyond just our growth in size, another indication that I wanted to offer of our success is the frequent industry recognition that we receive. We're
consistently recognized and have a strong reputation for being a great place for people to work. Our culture supports an atmosphere for professional growth and it celebrates professional excellence. Our goal with this project is to provide the surroundings that
align with that culture. A bit about the impact um that we hope to bring to the community. Um, as one of our busiest locations, the branch at our headquarters campus here in Stewart is where over 5,000 local residents and
businesses, they entrust us with their deposit relationships. So, we process 12,500 transactions every month. That's about 600 transactions every business day in this branch or at the drive-thru or at the ATM at this location. That's a
lot of customer touch points. And it's really important to us that this our flagship location really represent us well in those touch points. We actively fund the people and projects that we know make this community vibrant through our small business lending and
mortgage lending. Today we have $215 million in loans outstanding to customers in the city of Stewart. The average loan size $150,000. Our lending activity enables the success of hundreds of small businesses and has
provided financing solutions to generations, thousands of families that fosters the economic resilience and the prosperity of this area year after year. Our 225 local associates spend hundreds of thousands of their dollars each year
at local businesses. They frequent lunch spots and coffee shops. They go to the dry cleaner and the gas station. As a corporate entity, we also spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, corporate events, catering, hotels, that kind of thing. We also rely on our local
businesses uh to help us maintain our facilities and to provide supplies and services that we need every day. I am the CFO. COS's impact is not measured only in dollars. Our vibrant communities are built through active
involvement and meaningful engagement of our people. Our employees volunteer over a thousand hours each year here in Stewart with local organizations. We sponsor annual community events, financial literacy programs. We host blood drives. We collect and donate
school supplies. So many other efforts. We serve on local nonprofit boards providing leadership and connectivity to help these organizations flourish. our people and their deep sense of service to others really creates that vibrancy.
Our vision here is to create a modern and dynamic campus that'll honor our nearly centurylong dedication to being a trusted advisor and community focused institution that'll continue to anchor our presence here for decades to come. I'm going to turn it back to George to
get into the details of the project, but I know there are questions about the back portion of the parcel. Um, and so I'd like to take a moment to just address those and offer clarification if that's helpful. Our plans right now only include redevelopment of the front
portion of the site, what you see in the proposal that we're presenting today. There are probably three points that I'd like to share as it relates to the remainder of the parcel, the undeveloped or or um the the the rest of the parcel.
Uh so first know that we are currently and we will continue to use that back portion of the parcel for our operations. That's the Kindered building, the drive-thru, the parking. We're using all of that now and through the period of construction. I know that
the proposed project will take a long time from start to finish, maybe two to three years to complete. uh we'll be focused on getting this project done well and during that time we're not expecting to turn quickly to evaluating what happens on that back portion of the
parcel. So when we're finished with this project at that point we can turn our attention to evaluating our needs related to the rest of the site. The second thing, whatever our needs are as we approach that future date, it is certainly important to us that anything
happening on or next to our headquarters property is very much aligned with our community values and something that complements our business. We have great interest in making sure that any use has a positive impact on the community. Um, and then the third thing I'd offer, of
course, is that your involvement in that process will be very important. I understand if there were to be any development activity on that back portion of the parcel that would come through this process with the thorough review I'm sure of the city staff and the agencies and by this commission. So
for now with no plans to make changes on the back portion of the parcel our focus is bringing this project to life. The new headquarters will enhance our operational efficiency. It'll improve our customers experience. It'll provide our associates and their meeting groups
with modern facilities that really match their level of professionalism and show them at their best. It also provides a distinctive gateway for visitors to downtown Stewart. So today, we respectfully ask for your support of our headquarters redevelopment project.
Commissioners, thank you very much for your time and thoughtful consideration. George, I'll ask you to come back with the details of the proposed project. We look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. All right, we'll move into the meat and
potatoes of the design. Got just a couple renderings here that I'll move through since we've seen the video already. Again, this is the view from US1. This is a looking view view looking back east from Colorado. And then this is a view looking west from the interior of
the site. You can see the freestanding drive-thru that's being proposed as well as the north side of the proposed bank office building. Uh I'll try to skip over uh any information that was said in Jod's presentation just for essence of time.
Um but the property uh is just over 8 acres in total size. We have a downtown future land use and a South Creek District uh zoning designation. Uh understanding the proposed site design requires some level of understanding of the existing site
itself. Uh as you've heard, this building was built in 1961 uh and has not been substantially updated since that time. So the need for C Coast to be able to update their headquarters uh is critical at this stage. So there are two existing
buildings. The larger one, the 71,000 square foot building is operational as their both flagship ranch location as well as their uh corporate office headquarters. There's also the 27,000 foot office building on Kindred Street
which is currently being utilized by the bank and will be used uh into the near future through construction and C Coast will evaluate its need post completion of the new new building. So what that means, C Coast has a need to remain in
that existing headquarters building through construction of the new office building. Uh and so a location on the existing property was identified at the corner of Colorado and US1 as the location for the new headquarters building to be constructed. So once the
new building is built and coed, all the offices and the bank branch will be moved into the new building. the existing 71,000 foot building will be torn down uh and then the parking structure would be built following that completion.
Something else uh to consider uh with the square footages of the existing headquarters versus the proposed headquarters. Uh as you'll remember, this is a 58,000 ft² proposed office building including about 2500 ft² that will be the new branch location. So,
it's considerably smaller than what's existing. And the reason behind that, obviously, the building was constructed in 1961, and it's highly inefficient in terms of the use of space. It's got very wide hallways, very large offices, uh something that's just not seen in
today's office space. Uh and so there's a consolidation of some of that space that's underutilized within the existing headquarters. Uh and so you may have noticed in the traffic report that was prepared, the theoretical traffic trips for this redevelopment is actually lower
than what the existing theoretical traffic trips are for the existing headquarters. And that is because it's a reduction in square footage. Uh we know that it's the same number of employees that are going to be there post completion. So there won't be an impact to traffic either way. But when you're
talking theoretical numbers and how traffic trips are measured, that's why the report shows a reduction in trips. So as you look at the proposed site plan and the area I've highlighted shows that area of the existing site being redeveloped for the proposed
headquarters building. Now a little bit further on building placement. Uh the CRA district, the Creek District is very specific in its land development regulations. It is a formbbased code and so it specifies precisely where buildings need to be
located. There is provisions that require buildings to be located on the corner when two primary streets intersect. As well, there's a build to zone within the code, which means you can can't build your building any closer or any further away from a specific
range within that creek district. And it differs based on your use, where you are in the district. Uh, and so, uh, in this section of the Creek District, it's between 20 and 30 feet, I believe, within the code. We've heard comments, uh, about building
placement and the scale of the building. There's concerns over, you know, having a three-story building closer to US1. Uh, and we understand those. And something to think back and consider is when the Creek District code was implemented, there was a desire for this formbbased code, which removes parking
lots from the front side of a property, puts them behind the building, so it hides your field of parking or in this case, if you have a parking structure, it puts it not up on the frontage to where it's the most visible point. Uh and so if you look at other buildings in the area such as the Bank of America
building, uh it's set back from the road over about 150 ft in that location. But when you look at it from the street, it doesn't feel like it's that far because there's no buffer. There's no landscaping. You've got a large amount of parking area in the front, but it doesn't do anything to
soften the scale of that building. There's some design considerations with the architecture of course um but there's not a lot of protections in terms of that. So when you compare that to the proposed design with the expansive landscape buffer in the frontage the large canopy trees provide
a scale to that building it softens uh as well the architecture being you know miles better than uh what the some of the surrounding buildings are. some of the basic information of the site plan. We are meeting and exceeding
all development code requirements. Uh particularly of note is the green space provided on the site. Um so we're required 20%. And we are nearly double that. Uh so we're actually substantially increasing the amount of green space
that's existing today uh with the proposed redevelopment. Part of that is the sustainability initiatives that we've implemented in in the design process such as including a parking structure. Those parking structures are a significant expense. I think the latest estimates on a per uh parking
space cost exceed $30,000. So, uh it's not a decision made lightly. Uh and it's an substantial investment in the development and it improves the sustainability of the site, increases green space, and overall just makes a better project.
So, talking about access, I'm sure we're all familiar with the site, but we'll just go over some of those access points and how it operates today. Uh, off Colorado, there is an existing ingress and egress. These are one-way uh drives. So, your first intersection or first
driveway access point off Colorado as you go north is the entrance. And then uh just further to the north is the exit. Off of Hudson, there is an entrance into a one-way ATM lane as well as multiple
driveways that intersect at the same point at the perimeter of the property. This creates somewhat of a conflict point. It's not heavily trafficked, so we haven't had significant issues with it, but we're definitely improving uh the access for the site and flow of circulation, providing options. So we'll
look at off Colorado again maintaining traffic flow. One of the things to consider when you're redeveloping a site uh that's previously developed is you have daily employees and customers coming to site that are used to a certain traffic flow. And if you change that, it can cause uh conflicts in the
short term. So that's something that we paid close attention to. We wanted to maintain as much as possible but still improve the overall flow. Uh you'll notice in the area where that we had those conflicting driveways on Hudson, it's limited now to an exit only
from the drive-through lane. So far fewer conflict points. It's also moved further away from the intersection of US1. And then also included is a two-way alley that connects Hudson to Kindred Street. Now, that is a recommended
connection within the Creek District code. And the intent behind that connection was to create a connection again between those two streets. It shortens the block length of that 8 acres, providing an optional route to get conveniently through the site with
minimal conflict points. Looking a little bit closer at the intersections on Colorado, it's important to note the existing conditions of those intersections are a lot of pavement. They're extremely wide despite them being only oneway drives.
So if you look on the image on the right side of the screen on the bottom portion, it's more than 30 ft for the entrance into the site and it splits immediately. You can either go straight towards the parking lot or you can make a left towards the ATM. It's very
confusing. Um, and as we all we all know, people on Colorado in that location tend to be moving rather quickly, trying to move from the right lane into the left lane because of the merge that's coming up. Uh, and so we've reduced, if you look back to the image
on the left side, we've reduced the width. Uh, it's still larger than what we would typically need for a one-way entry drive, but what that does is it shortens the distance that a pedestrian has to walk and cover to get across that driveway. So when you have more than 30
feet of pavement on an driveway entrance, the distance that a pedestrian has to walk to get out of the conflict zone is substantially larger than it needs to be. So we've done that on both the north and south drives, reducing from more than 35 ft on the north to 12
1/2 ft uh and simplifying those designs. So it's also creates substantial more green space uh and better design. Looking at vehicular access through the site, again, similar traffic flow as today. It's just a little bit easier and
more convenient. You have uh your east south driveway going from Colorado to that alley, which then connects you to either Hudson or Kindred Street. And then we have our one-way drive aisle that uh empties out onto Hudson.
There are three entrances proposed to the parking structure. Something that's really important when you're designing these spaces is providing options for people to go. Uh so in peak traffic times, they're not all funneling out into one location. They're going to find
uh the easiest way out of the site. And in this location, there's multiple egress routes from the site to other intersections so that we don't have again funneling everyone into one spot. Pedestrian circulation. We do have existing sidewalks on the exterior of
the site uh along Colorado and US1. And then we're proposing an internal network of sidewalks providing convenient access uh through the rest of the site getting out to Kindred Street, getting to the parking structures and then also getting to Hudson and back to US1.
Uh as part of our pedestrian network, we are providing a large neighborhood open space in our pedestrian plaza at the main entrance of the bank. And this provides a nice uh shaded area in front of the building with uh good secure access uh and security from the entrance
to the building. Uh now a little bit about landscaping. Uh Cutler and Hearing did the landscape design and now there's very specific requirements within this property specifically due to its frontage on US1 as well as the Creek District in general
providing certain elements. So on uh for example US1 we're required to include oak trees as the canopy tree uh for the design recommendation of the corridor. Uh so we are substantially exceeding the landscape requirements of the site both
in area and quantity and quality of those trees being much larger than the minimum sizes. Uh as well as that, part of our design process is to design the landscape to fit with the building. And so paying
close attention to where windows are located, uh what species are providing scale to the building, what species are providing shade to the pedestrian areas, making sure that they're uh as a high a percentage of natives as as we can put
on the site with to uh increase sustainability, reduce irrigation needs, uh and overall provide just a better quality development. Something else that we'd like to touch on is uh the crime prevention through
environmental design. Jody mentioned a little bit in her presentation. It's a very important part of development these days. And we try to implement those uh policies and design recommendations as much as we can. And one of the elements that we Oh, well, I'll go back. One of the ways
that we do that is hang on jump ahead a little bit. Sorry, I'm out of order. So in the pedestrian plaza at the front of the building, we've provided substantial canopy trees, very little midlevel, and lots of understory. And so the reason that we do that is it
provides clear sight lines from the parking area to the main entrance of the building. We don't like to have blind spots. We don't like to have corners. We like there to be clear visibility. It's very important, especially when you're designing a bank site, that you're not creating those potential hazards for employees and customers.
Jump back a little bit. So part of the landscape design, we've created uh corridors of landscape implementing royal palm trees. So on our main entrance as you come in off Colorado, it's a formal streetscape where you've got royal palms on each
side lining it, providing a very beautiful design. Uh on the western side of the property, we do have overhead transmission lines. These are hardened power lines from FPL. uh and per their guidelines, we are restricted in how high we can plant landscaping. Certain
species don't work next to power lines. As we know, large palm trees, canopy trees conflict. You end up hat- racking them or those strange V's cut out of the large canopy trees that we all love to see. Uh and so there's some design considerations there. Uh but on US1
again we are providing those large canopy oak trees which are going to provide great scale to the front edge of the building as well as shade to that perimeter sidewalk and then some of those renderings of that landscape.
Now this is the Colorado frontage of the parking structure. Uh so you'll notice again in the front where we have those overhead power lines, we don't have those very any tall landscaping so it won't conflict with the power lines. We're not going to have issues down the road with that. We are providing canopy
trees on the corners as well as landscape that is designed specific to accentuate the design of the garage. We are implementing uh and which we'll go over in the architecture section of the presentation the sea coast wave on the exterior of that garage to enhance the
design. And so really trying to design a space that complements landscape as well as architecture. And then here's the south side of that parking structure which faces the interior plaza and some of those large royal palm trees
on that main entry drive. So going over the architecture, I'll do my best. I am no architect, so if you have any questions, we do have Mr. Wayne uh from Baker Berios here. Um the theme uh initially from the onset of the
project was making really a class A office space to accentuate this being the corporate headquarters and flagship branch for C Coast Bank. So playing off the coastal heritage of Stewart as well as uh some of the code requirements
within the Creek District which requires percentage of transparency on the building. So that's not that doesn't just mean glass that means nonextremely reflective glass like you see at the Royal Palm Financial Center. So that is uh curtain wall glass but it acts as a
large uh blank facade essentially no different than concrete in some cases. So the transparency of those windows really provides a more airy feel to the building. You can see into it. It creates um more light within the interior of the space. Um as we went
over the height of that building is 44 ft. The max within the district is 45. Uh so we are under that. Uh there are requirements for clear heights for floors especially on the ground floor. The minimum is a 12 foot clear height for the first floor. Part of the reason
of that is you're creating a articulation and separation of floors elevating the design and the form the form based code's pretty specific. So there's a lot of requirements in there. Some of those design elements uh to accentuate the exterior of the building,
the exposed wood beams, the increased transparency on all floors and then integrated balconies. And just another view from the interior courtyard space. We are screening all the rooftop mechanical equipment on the roof. You
can see that uh it's extremely beneficial when you're able to implement the the mechanical equipment on the roof of the building because it takes up a large amount of area and if you put that on the ground it reduces your amount of green space and really hinders some of your design strategies that you can use on the ground floor. So
you put it out of sight well screened on the rooftop of the building. As we talked about the secos wave on the exterior of the garage providing some articulation on that building really elevating the design. As we talked about some cases when you implement large
amounts of glass it doesn't necessarily enhance the articulation. It can still act as a large blank facade. We talked about signage a little bit. The one thing I wanted to note is that we were very specific in how we designed these signs to reflect the architecture
of the building. Uh we didn't want a sign that stood out too much and was very different from that design. So really integrating those design principles and color and material across the entire site to make for a unified development. So when you're there looking at the wayfinding signage, it
really relates to the development and where you're positioned. Now, talking about the conditional use, there's four main criteria listed within the Creek District for evaluating those conditional uses. Um, Jody went over them in her presentation. The main point
there is that we are meeting all of those criteria as outlined and supported by staff. Now, why do a parking garage in the first place? So, as we talked about a little bit, the parking structure is an extremely sustainable design option. It
reduces your footprint of parking. It reduces your overall amount of asphalt. Uh it reduces the heat generation from that parking field and it's a benefit from a storm water management perspective for all of those reasons. Uh the other reason is the crimerevention
uh strategies when you talking about a financial institution both for customers coming to a bank as well as employees leaving that bank. If you have a very long distance that they have to go from the front door to get to their vehicle, they're exposed for a longer period of time. And there are very well doumented
instances of people watching people leaving a bank. Uh that's not to be an alarmist. It's just a reality of the world that we live in. And so creating a strategy and a development that corresponds to some of those things that we deal with uh is really important in
providing the safest and best design possible for this site. And we talked a little bit about the storm water. And so again, everything ties together. Reducing the footprint of the parking means that you're increasing the amount of green space, which means you're improving the storm water uh
design of the site. So again, more almost double the amount of green space that we're required to have the inclusion of pvious pavers. Uh the existing storm water design and how water flows uh in red arrows particularly pay attention at the corner
of US1. There are some flooding concerns with that intersection and the way it's currently designed. It does currently accept storm water from the sea coast property because of the way this property was originally developed. And so part of the new design removes that
condition to where we're not going to be dumping water immediately off the site into the roadway. It's captured internally through a series of inlets as well as being kept interior by the perimeter berm that we're required to have and then it enters our treatment
train. So uh what is a treatment train? And so that is all of the implementations within a site in development uh to uh store, discharge and treat storm water that's uh from the site. And so you can
see our exfiltration system which collects the water allows for percolation through the soil and ultimately will take it to our uh dry bio retention area. And that is an area that we've added to the site as part of our increased green space that provides
some storm water retention or detention. Uh and also increases water quality at that point through the use of the the bio the the landscape material that's included that's water loving uh landscape species to improve water quality. Ultimately it drains through a
baffle box uh to the north of the site which is the existing outfall of the property. So we're substantially improving the storm water management system of the site. Now, the first design deviation that we're requesting is for the front entrance of the building. Again, the code is very specific that it wants its
front entrance off the primary frontage, which faces a primary street. In this case, the requirement is to be on US1. There's numerous reasons for why we uh don't want this uh design as part of this development. Really, it boils down
to safety and security uh for employees and customers of the bank. Uh having two entrances of the site doubles the security risk uh increases um dangers from US one. It also promotes additional activity on US1 which uh we've heard
from both the sheriff and the city police department they're concerned about. So our request is to provide that main entrance and access point facing the neighborhood open space interior to the site. We've designed that space to be very uh welcoming and comfortable both
for customers and employees. And here you can see again some of those uh landscape design that we've included to provide clear sight lines to that main entrance. The next design deviation that we'll talk about was the perimeter sidewalks. Within the Creek District code, we are
required to provide 10-ft sidewalks on both Colorado and US1. They're existing at seven feet. So that would be three additional feet. There is substantial uh infrastructure on both US1 and Colorado which is owned and maintained
by the city as well as FDOT uh from traffic light intersections uh or traffic light um control boxes, control arms, um ADA uh indications, street signage, uh street lights, um as well as
underground infrastructure existing. There's a city water mane that runs along the front edge of the property on US1 which prevents us from putting landscaping too close to the street to mitigate that we're not providing the 3 ft on Colorado and US1. We're offering
a bypass a 10-foot multimmoal sidewalk getting from US1 to Kindred Street through the site. We're not required to provide that connection. We're wanting to provide an alternate route because there is so much infrastructure on US1 to get people off the street into the
site towards downtown as well at the corner of Colorado and US1 providing a bypass to get around that hard corner which has the most significant amount of infrastructure in place to some of the street views of that infrastructure. You can see we've all been past it every
day, but sometimes you don't really take a m minute minute to look at it and understand that blue line represents that existing city water man that's in the ground. So, our position is if we were to pave the additional 3 ft of the sidewalk, it would be unusable due to that existing
infrastructure that we can't move. Uh there have been uh questions and comments related to FDOT. There are discussions about some potential inter uh intersection improvements that they were going to be making to Caner uh
Colorado and the intersection of US1. It's entering the design stage. So they're not open for input to additional design, but there's a potential that uh the sidewalk could be expanded in the future. In that case, C Coast would be
willing and open to uh providing an easement for the increase of the width of that sidewalk. So, we wanted to to let you know C Coast has done everything that they can to make this the best poss pos possible project. They're not looking to avoid cost. It's a practical matter looking at the design, the
aesthetics. They want to improve safety. So providing the bypass sidewalks through the site improving the condition that's there today and then understanding that there's a potential in the future to where through these improvements by FDOT we could still get to 10 ft and C coast is not going to
unreasonably withhill withhold that possibility. Our final deviation that we wanted to talk about was the garage length. So again, within that formbbased code, there's a specific requirement to not exceed a 200 ft building length. It does
provide for an exception if you provide a 10- foot wide by 10 foot tall vehicular or pedestrian via or pathway through the building. We could potentially argue that with a parking garage, um but we probably don't
meet the 10-ft clear. And so we wanted to talk about why is it 246 ft long? And we've designed this garage to be the most efficient and safest garage that we could possibly design. Uh we've designed it so that the shortest shortest frontage of the garage faces Colorado.
We've designed it so it's increased setback off of Colorado more than 50 feet at the at the closest point. The design of the garage and its efficiency is based on the slope of the ramps. So, it's been designed to have a gentle sloping ramp with parking on both
sides of the ramp. If you were to shorten the length of the garage to meet the 200 feet, you increase the slope of the ramp. You remove the possibility of having parking on both sides, which means you have to have speed ramps. Probably all been in a garage with speed ramps. They're uncomfortable. They're
cramped. And those ramps are usually higher speed and there's tight corners. uh see it all the time with black marks on the sides of the walls for prefill ran into the garage. And so again, we wanted to make a safe design that's comfortable to use and we're not going to have conflicts
as well. If you were to shorten the length of the garage to the 200 ft, provide the speed ramps, you'd be adding a floor to meet the necessary parking requirements of C Coast Bank. We talked a little bit about already about the parking requirements within the CRA. So
within the Creek District, all commercial uses require one space per 300 square feet. It's a pretty generous code and the reason is you're trying not to provide an overabundance of parking. We understand that this is an existing development. We're redeveloping. We know
how many employees there are. We know how many spaces we need. Again, 30,000 spaces minimum per spot to construct that garage. It's a significant investment and C Coast doesn't want to overbuild that garage by any means. They have 225 employees on a daily basis plus
customers plus daily and weekly meetings from their uh executives, employees from all over the state that come to their corporate headquarters. So this is the minimum parking that we think we need and we're trying to reduce the mass of that garage as much as possible. So on
that frontage on Colorado rather than having a fourth floor of parking, having it a little bit longer than the 200 feet doesn't impact your view from Colorado except for to reduce the height as much as possible. 25 ft to the top. It's about 30 31 ft to the top of the stair
tower and elevator bay. So in conclusion, uh the requested site plan and conditional use substantially meets the land development code and comp plan. But for those three deviations that we're requesting, it's pro promoting the business retention within the city. It's
maintaining the public facilities needs of the site while also increasing the value of the property and the the taxable value of the property. um city staff as well as the CRB board recommended approval of this development. Uh and it's a continuation
of that C Coast legacy that's more than 90 years in the making here in Stewart. And so we'll just close with our video again of the development and we'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you very much for your time.
Okay. So, this is questions for the applicant. Mr. Vice Mayor George, I thought you did a really good job. You are smooth and relaxed, professional, very well prepared. So, thank you for coming in here with that.
One ask I would have for my fellow board members is because we have one shot at doing this. This is not like a typical two-step process that we would have is that we would reserve a motion for after we've all had the opportunity to ask questions.
It can be um you know you can want to jump to a motion especially to try to make everybody in the room happy. But I would ask uh that we wait on a motion until we've all had a chance to ask questions. Actually the process requires that the motion is after all our questions.
Sometimes though it can be uh Yeah. So can the process be overruled? No. No. No. Just to put it on for discussion. Can I make a motion? I don't believe the vice mayor has concluded his Oh, sorry. No, we're asking questions of the applicant right now.
Okay. I thought you were wanted to put it on for discussion. No. So, Jody, the required number of spaces is 195. Yes, sir. That's correct. Does that include the um handicap
spaces, the customers, everything? It's is you want to answer it? I can answer. Sure. I'm sure you can. You're very prepared. Yeah. Yeah. So, the parking requirements based off the total square footage of the building. It doesn't separate out the bake branch or the offices. It's all
commercial uses regardless. One space per 300 square feet. And that equates to 195 spaces including the ADA requirements. And so you guys have with that 252 plus was it 27 more?
Yeah. So the plus the additional surface spaces uh on the site. So in front of the building there just on the north side there's existing well proposed surface parking including ADA spaces. Yes. So there there's some ADA
spaces in the garage, but also some directly in front of the building for more convenient access. Total spots would be the 268 268. Yes. Okay. That number. And then that's just for the new headquarters, correct? So there's no sharing of parking between
the two office buildings. You know where I'm going, don't you? You are prepared, man. So that that was my main concern was, you know, what happens with phase two. And I do appreciate the comments from you that whatever does go
there is is and I get this sense from what's in front of us is you haven't spared expense on who's representing you and everybody's doing a really good job. Everybody's very prepared. So I do get the sense that whatever does go next door is going to be appropriate,
you know, absolutely since they're going to be looking at it. Um but we can't control once this is approved and there is a phase two if that parking is shared. That's one of the things that we're not really you know that that loses our opice. So
that's that is one of my concerns is you know what will phase two be um because once there is a garage approved and that that's been um one of my concerns initially and and today I I am
more comfortable with it with this new resolution that our city attorney has provided. I am comfortable now that the applicant will have to come back for that to be developed. But is there a mechanism by which you know
we can beyond you saying that that we're making sure that we're not sharing that parking for what could go on phase two since we are parking this particular spot in abundance at least per our code. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think from SECO's
side when you look at their parking need as well as from a liability perspective, they're not developers, they're not um permitted by by law to be a landlord or a developer. They're very strict regulations by that. And so they're
required to park their site. They're they're parking it for what they need and they don't want to increase liability unnecessarily potentially with another developer. Um, so while you know with a standard development when you've got someone coming in that's just saying, "Hey, I'm building an office building, they don't have a tenant
necessarily that they're willing to share or they might not have it yet and they're just building it on the giant sea coast logo on the side should make that abundant." Yeah. So they're the user that's their parking. That's what they need. And so the expectation is that if they were to not need that phase 2 area or future
development, again, it's just likely a chance that they do need it. It's a from the start of this project and over the past couple of years, the bank's grown by about 20%. So, their needs are growing. There's a pretty good chance that they still need that property growing into the future, especially three years down the road
when construction's complete. Um, so either way, the bank would be looking, if they were not to not need it, they would have to sell it and they would be particular in who they sold it to and they would have to park their site. whatever area they bought, whatever proposed development they wanted, they'd
have to provide that parking on that portion and per this updated resolution that would come in front of us to to deliberate. So, I'm comfortable with that. Uh, in terms of landscaping, do you have that other side of the garage? Uh, some sort of rendering for that because I see trees there, but I
wasn't sure on that other side what that looked like. So, the north side of the garage is what you're talking about. No, so I don't have a view of that. uh prepared for utility. We're looking at the same scale of trees as well. Correct. It's actually much larger. So
that northern side, we don't have a lot of the encumbrances with overhead utilities and some of those other things. So it's a similar royal palm theme. There's a few more of them because we don't have the driveways on the north side of the property. So we have large hedge material um that could grow, you know, up to 12 feet at least
on that north side as well as the large royal palm trees providing scale to the height. Okay. You may not have a picture, but do you have an inventory of the plants on that side? Yeah, I we have a copy of the landscape. Okay. Yeah. So, there's um
and then my my next question would be the the face that is facing Colorado. Yep. Those trees I saw that rendering. For me personally, if I was going to make a condition on this, um I I have no real issue with everything else that you've
provided here, but I I'd like to see more mature trees up against that garage bigger. I'm not a landscaping architect, you know, so forgive me. But I do think um they'll grow because that is the entrance to Colorado there. As proud as we are of this
garage, you know, and that wave, I would like to see as as one of those conditions, larger mature trees, sort of like you have at, you know, the sea coast building headquarters otherwise, you know, because it does seem a little bit sparse. They're smaller trees to show the wave maybe in the logo, but I
would like that garage at least from Colorado to have larger, you know, potentially oak trees or something that wouldn't interfere with the function of the garage, but would make it less visible from the entrance of Colorado. Understood. We appreciate those comments. I think if you were to make a
recommended condition to staff that they work with us to provide more mature trees, we would absolutely do that and we can coordinate directly with staff. Um just it's a you know no problem. We want to again make the best development that we can. If that's your concern, no problem. Um I would ask that you not
specify a specific type of tree. We're not, you know, opposed to oak trees. Obviously, we're we're providing them. There's other considerations when we get into that design process, how close they are to the parking garage. You know, we don't want the branches impacting and then having to, you know, saw off half
the tree every year. So if you were to make a condition, make it such that it was more general and providing more mature, larger trees that might mature into a larger tree as well. Okay. Beyond that, like I I mentioned where I've had issues with this garage in the
past. Um and really to be transparent, again, I was worried that this is opening up more capacity for what might go on phase two. At this point with the resolution now amended per our city attorney and from your
comments I feel comfortable minus you know some of the shade tree you know. So those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Is it my turn? Well if you would like. Thank you. Hi. Thank you so much. Um,
thank everyone and I want to thank everyone who's been here to turn out for C Co Coast and your loyalty and again a great show of community. Um, how's the baby? He's doing good. Four months old now. I know. Yeah, we every Sunday we come here to downtown. We go to Kowanas Park.
Right. I I had the same concerns that the vice mayor had, which was that other piece of property. Um, I was a little bit encouraged when you said the bank's needs might grow and I see that maybe it would be something as a huge IT center, whatever. But again, having its own
parking. Um, so that's uh I I'm more comfortable with that. And the resolution um really covered whatever might go there that you might sell because I know that you made it clear during the meeting that the bank really is constrained as to what they could or
could not do. I mean, they could sell that property, but unless you're doing an expansion of the bank or an IT center for the bank that you really can't develop land or be a landlord. So once again, thank you so much Commissioner Clark.
Oh, thanks. I have three questions and it probably I need Mr. Capra, but um I'll just He's here. Yeah, he he perked his head up there. You weren't falling, Mr. I just wanted I don't know if um Jod or
Mr. Capra has the the drainage plan cuz everything is very very tight and I know that uh US the bank is high up from US1 there and I want to make sure there's a hotel that's going to go in on the other side of Colorado and there were other
things. I just want to make sure that the drainage in the entire region and onsite is good. And then just a question for C Coast Bank um when we get to it after Mr. Kappa answers my question. I want to ask about
the roof and whatever you have whether it's air condition or something. I was wondering why you wouldn't have some solar in either that or the garage facility but that's something I just want to ask you to explore that and then I want to ask you some question about
the garage also. So Mr. Capra. Okay. Um, Commissioner, thanks for uh inviting me up because I was kind of getting bored back there listening to all these great items here. And as usual, storm water is the last item. Can you hear me? Okay, I'll start yelling a little bit
more. So, anyways, I just want to go back to this exhibit so everybody recognizes it. So, essentially what happens right now, this is the the site where the building goes is going now. And right now, this area of the site is draining or overflow draining. as you
can imagine in ' 61 we didn't have the same rules we have today is overflowing and into the intersection bring this up because you know having worked on that intersection before we know it floods and and the benefit of this is we're going to take that that water from that area and we're actually
going to follow the blue line into Bruner Pond so what happens to that area right now by piping Colorado as you know we did that project also basically it goes up here follows the red line goes through a baffle box and goes into Frasier So what the what the sea coast
is doing is actually putting in a parallel system to go the through their own property to to get that water out of that intersection. I just want to make sure you understand that's that's a benefit for for what we're doing. The other thing that as you know we have have to provide water quality treatment nutrient load
reduction all those are requirements. We are actually going to be meeting the new storm water rules. Okay. 80% for nitrogen and and actually above 50% 50 50% for phosphorus. Okay. So we are exceeding what are the requirements now
but even when we do have when we do go through the process of the water management permit we will be exceeding the requirements anyways because on top of that we're providing water quality treatment to the site. Okay. So we will exceed it's important to recon we are going to exceed the city's requirements on in this area of storm water
management treatment as well as storage as well as reduction in flooding. Okay, the next uh slide that's on the list, if I can make sure this goes in the right direction. It's not going in the right direction, George. Okay, one more. So, I'm going to show
you the pipe system and everything. And if you look down here in the bottom, again, I know I'm boring everybody's tears here, so I'm going to talk about this stuff. Okay, so basically, this is the patio area, and that's pvious papers in there. Okay, so we're going to have
some pvious papers in there. That's part of a treatment train that we're talking about. On top of that, these blue pipes are actually pipes, storm pipes that takes the storm water underground storage and brings it towards the back of the site. On top of that, we also have what is a dry bio retention area
right in this location. So, the water goes through the xfiltration system, goes through the bioell, ultimately again picks up some more xfiltration. These are all treatment train elements, okay? And essentially ultimately comes over here to the baffle box outfall.
Okay. Then it goes into Bruner Pond. So we are treating it. We're providing extra water quality treatment as but but in addition extra storage. That's that's the list of the treatment train right there. Anything else? No. No. I think on the on the bio on the um
the drainage that's good. Solar power. Thank you. So in in which application you want to talk about either either the office or the girl. Yeah. Any opportunity? I was just thinking.
Yeah. So um it's not ruled out in either case. The parking garage, we've actually, if you look at the the rendering, we've included a shade element over the center of that parking garage. And that's got a solar reflective surface to it. So, it's going to be reflecting the sun, reducing the
heat generation of the rooftop of the garage, providing cover for those rooftop parking spaces, and it has the ability to have solar added later. Uh, it's not being proposed right now in terms of offsetting any potential power need for the site, including solar
panels at this scale, is a drop in the bucket um for this development. It's certainly um possible in the future. uh and we wanted to make sure that it was for Sea Coast. It's just not part of the current proposal. So, we appreciate the recommendation. As you as you can tell,
we've been very focused on the sustainability of the development and wanting to make sure uh that it was uh eco-friendly and green as possible, lots of green areas on the site. Um so, we appreciate the comment. Okay. On the um garage, um
I know when I met with Did I met with you? Yeah. Yes, ma'am. And in terms of the um evening parking or weekend parking for others who are not customers of the bank, how does that work? Is will that
will there be any opportunity? Right. So if the commission discussed and they wanted the potential possibility of having public parking on weekends, you know, COS would be open to that discussion with the city. Um so um
it's not part of our proposal. Obviously there's an increase in liability, but Sea Coast wants to be a good neighbor. They have been for almost 100 years. Um so if the commission felt strongly about the potential of improving parking uh for other areas of downtown and a
potential solution was to have weekend parking, C Coast would be open to that discussion. So, if you guys want to discuss that and let us know your opinions, we we'll be happy to respond. Yes, I do remember uh talking with you about that. Okay. So, everybody's
wearing these teal and pink. Can you pull up the picture where you video when you go around the building? I see that you have all these um rosecoled I don't know perennials or something. I know that we won't have exact flowers, but um
it's just interesting that you have that as a standard in your landscaping. Yeah, I think those might be oyster plants. You might be able to get that to work. Oyster.
That one there is pink muy grass. Okay. So, obviously we show it when it's in bloom. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Reid. Yeah, George. Um, I know it's not a requirement. There's no impervious max
percentage, but what is it just for my own record? It's a excellent question. Got him. Got him. If you give Jod and I No worries. I have some other You have it. The That's what what we're proposing. The maximum.
Oh, the maximum. U We've got it on the site plan. Yeah, I have it on the site. Let me just pull that up for you. And do you want it specific for the redevelopment area or the total site redevelopment area? Okay. A very strict title. Um, what was the garage setback on the
north side of the property? It's not required, but it's five feet. Okay. I was just making it is five foot if it's a garage. Based on the height there's correct. Yeah. And then what was the two stories versus three and it's
equivalent to a two-story building. And then what was the principal building height versus the garage height? Yeah. So the office buildings 44T to the tallest point and then the garage again 25 to the top of the parapit and about 30 31
to the top of the stair tower. So, it's it's much lower. And then I I know Ula had a question on that for the parking. I saw it somewhere in the land development code, too. Let me see if I can get to it. That 44 ft includes equipment works.
No, I believe the equipment screenings not included as part of that. So, 44 to the tallest point not including the screening equipment. There's some overlap. How tall is that screening? Um, Wayne, eight feet. And uh to touch base on your comment,
Vice Mayor Collins, I think George did the the tree height like that because they have a diagram uh in the land development code. That's why it was like that. Commissioner Reed, if I may answer your question regarding the maximum impervious is 65% is the maximum
impervious and they are doing 61% almost 62%. So they are under the requirement. Okay. For the redevelopment area, a large amount of that is the plaza space.
I think this is what maybe Ula was asking, Jody, and you might know. So, in the in section 3.04 for the Creek District Code, I'm looking at figure CD37 for parking design dimensions.
And it it mentions uh for 9B it says structured parking may be permitted through conditional use approval and shall provide the shade on at least 30% of the exposed parking on the roof with an age solar reflective index. I think
that's what you were touching on. Maybe it's a little different. Um so I think the question was more specific to solar panels to for power generation energy generation systems too for possible. Yeah, included as part of it. But there's certain uh there's a
index of reflectivity for you know basically the color of the surface. Um so um that's what the proposed material on the roof is just to reflect the the solar and the heat. All right, that's all my questions I
had. Thank you, George. Okay, thank you. Um, I forgot to mention that I did attend the CRB meeting where you made your presentation.
I would like to point out that unusually there were all all seven of the members were there including all our appointees and it was in fact unanimous. In fact, one of them asked if it could be if it could be in enthusiastically unanimous
and it can only be unanimous. I like this project for a great many reasons. Um, and I learned a lot attending the media. I have to say it was that was time well spent. Um, I like the fact that in the parking
garage, the shortest facade is the most visible facade. So, even though we are granting you that conditional use for the extra feet to keep the overall height down, it won't be that apparent. So, the 10-ft sidewalk, I love that
little bypass path, which deals with it in my mind. Um, I'm sure most people who use it, who walk or ride, will like to get off of the road as to as great a degree as possible. Um,
is there some a means by which in the future we can if we can work something out with DOT that we can get to that 10-ft sidewalk if we is there some sort of means of
Mr. Bagot relocation? They have to relocate with Is there some sort of ownership they can provide or right away or easement or I mean right now they I guess I don't know the status of the FDOT but he said it's in the design they're not even open to
it's constrained in there. So, um, if the commission wanted to make a condition of approval that C Coast would not unreasonably withhold an easement for getting the additional land that's necessary to create the 10-ft sidewalk in the future in conjunction
with FDOT, no problem. Yeah. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Okay. Um, I have a finished. Okay. Um
this is only the second develop major development with the this code this new formbbased code. Correct. That's correct. I believe the creek district was adopted in 2023. Yeah. I'm wondering why you even need and you can clarify this to me why you
even need the first conditional use because if I look at 3.04.04 primary facade main entry shall be prominent well lit and oriented to the street. There's actually an exception in E
where it says or a neighborhood open space shall be provided. It seems to me you are providing a neighborhood open space. Yeah. So did you notice that? Yeah. There. Well, there was some discussion back and forth between us as the applicant and the review staff as to
what exact neighborhood open space type we were providing. There's certain criteria for those neighborhood open spaces to be fronting on the street. So either Colorado or US1 or at the at the corner of the intersection. And if we were to design it that way, you've got a
nice neighborhood open space that nobody wants to use because it's right up on the street, right? And so we believe we're meeting the intent of that section and providing a neighborhood open space which is adjacent to the front entrance, but it's, you know, in the rear of the building. And so open transparency. We
wanted to make sure that it was part of the request so that everybody understood and walked through the the design and the intent behind both the code as well as se coast. I agree. So I think you you're really doing a good job there with this new code that we we haven't looked at that and I don't think the
code really anticipated this corporate headquarters like this. Um the your water treatment is just a terrific benefit to the city. And this is this is a difference I've noticed in the six years I've been involved in
approving projects for the city is the manner in which we treat storm water has changed completely. We use the acronyms LID and gsi which is low impact development and green storm water initiative. And rather than in the past
dumping all that water under Colorado or US1, you in fact are capturing it all and treating it all, reducing these pollution levels as Mr. Capra
uh pointed out, even though the new updated storm water rigs don't go into place, you are going to meet those. And one of the goals the city has had for quite a while, this was even in the previous commission, was we want to restore Frasier Creek. We'd love to have
people be able to paddle board up Frasier Creek. I wouldn't recommend you go up Frasier Creek right now if you want, but the one of the big problems we face is we don't have enough flow out of Bruner Pond into and out of Bruner Pond.
So, this is a huge potential benefit for us. not only the quantity of water but the water quality. So I appreciate so much that you made the effort to accomplish that. Um I'm going to make
one extra ask for you there and actually you gave me the idea because in your application there is a document from 19 94 or 19. Do you remember that? Which document? But anyway, it talks
about we've gotten this agreement from Mr. Patel who's building the Hilton Hotel and he's going to do some trimming and cleaning up in the creek. And could I ask you to work with staff to help from
Bruner Pond, let's just say to the bridge on Colorado, help get the Brazilian peppers out there. clean up that was clean up the shore and agree to uh annual mangrove maintenance
trimming which is you can only trim 20% a year. Yeah. So C Coast doesn't own any of the property that French Frazzer Creek or Bruner Pond. Um so there's a whole lot of other implications for that type of request. Obviously, C Co Coast wants to
do as much as they possibly can, but um in terms of that specific request, since they don't own any of the frontage, they would have to get easements and there's probably not feasible, but I don't know if we could find a way to get
I know it's complicated, but maybe you could make a contributions of funds, write a check, and negotiate, right? Can't do that. Hey, I'm asking. Right. Spearhead some sort of volunteer
situation from the seos. I'm not supportive of you're doubling the green space. That Hudson and K kindred connection is terrific. Locals are going to love that to be able to go down there and avoid
that intersection. Um, and let's finally let's talk about the parking because and locals have mentioned this to me. If they knew they could go to that space on the weekends or and
get in and out of their cars undercover and hop onto the tram and go downtown. They would love not to have to drive their car in W. Um there's commissioners up here who have
talked about, you know, solving the parking problem. The ability to keep all those cars out of downtown during certain periods of time, I think would just be an enormous benefit. it would really energize the the creek district.
Um, which is something we've been trying to do to get, you know, stretch our downtown. And by the way, I want to mention that you guys, you do allow Frasier Creek to do overflow parking behind behind in,
you know, behind them in your parking lot, which is very nice of you. So, I know it's difficult liabilitywise, but I boy, I wish we could find a way to make it work. And we have this new stage going into Memorial Park.
Those are going to be big events. And to say to people, you don't have to drive all downtown. You don't have to go to Colorado. You don't have to go to East, you know, park here and we'll f you over to this uh venue. So right now our proposal includes that we
would just be the exclusive users of the parking garage. Certainly if the commission thinks that it's an appropriate use, we would definitely be willing to consider providing nights and weekends access under whatever terms you all think is right. Maybe a trolley
stop. I can understand why that might be desirable. We're open to it. But would act on the instruction of the commission. For me, I wouldn't want to put that liability on them personally. Do we have any other feelings on that?
Yeah, the liability issue. If there were a way that, you know, someone who parks there could sign off on any liability to Susie Co would be nice. I think we have parking public parking right across the street too at that parking garage. I think nights and weekends. Do we Lee? I think
where at at the Royal Park Financial Center. So I don't know the answer. We have any I'm pretty sure when that came in front of the board No, the people who use who have I don't think it is. The hotel there was going to be a tram stop. I know that. Yeah, the hotel for the hotel. The hotel was offering a
tram stop, but we don't run a fixed tram route anyway, but regardless, we could put a fixed tram stop, but they were just going to put a location for the tram to stop and pick people up and take them downtown. Um the parking itself
though was just a part of the hotel parking. I'd like to point out too that the code the conditional use is for private parking garages and lots. Um public parking garages and lots don't require conditional use. So you're kind of okay. Okay. I was asking
saved. Thank you. Yes. Maybe in the future. But um yeah, it's a terrific project and it's essential and it's at the entrance to the city and it's very exciting.
Thank you, Mr. So, Mr. Mayor. Yes, Commissioner Dobby. Thank you. Uh the cut through to Kinred is a great that is so great, but I didn't notice on any of the um
landscaping or uh anything. Is it well lit? Because people would be utilizing that through the night. Yeah, we're providing lighting to all u public pedestrian surfaces throughout the entire site, both vehicular and pedestrian. Thank you. Y
does the I'm sorry. I just wanted to say one last thing is uh before we get into votes with details out of the way. I do appreciate that SECOS is keeping its headquarters in Stewart. I'm sure there's a lot of pressure to
not be here in this little town, but I do appreciate the commitment to this city. Obviously the tax roles, we all appreciate that here in the city, but I'm thankful that whoever and however it happened, Denny maybe, I don't know, but I'm thankful that that's what's going to
be happening. So, just wanted to say that. We're a long way from a vote. Sure. Does the petitioner wish to offer any additional information before concluding its presentation? Uh, not myself. I I believe there was a
member of the sheriff's department that was going to be willing to offer some testimony to the public safety benefits if you all. Yeah, that's a good point. So, both the sheriff and chief spoke to the importance of actually not having the front on the
street. Would the commission wish to hear those comments? Yes, sure. Is that from the reasonable? I don't Okay. I don't think we I think we all agree with that. Thank you, Chief. Not Not that we don't like hearing from you. Yeah, it was.
Okay. So, the presentation of evidence has ended and the hearing is closed. Now, all of you, does any member of the public wish to make a comment? Madame clerk, I have Rhonda Glass.
Yeah. Don't talk us out of it. We left. Rhonda who? Rhonda Glass. She left, I'm told. Next, I have William Corbin. when you get to Yes, I will say something. Uh, good evening.
Good evening, Mr. Corb. Hope you're doing well today. Um, William Corbin, um, business development board uh of Martin County and, uh, happy to be speaking to you before uh, today. So that's right. I just wanted to
to mention that uh the primary mission you know of of of the BDB uh is just strengthening uh the local economy and achieving this we support our existing businesses particularly uh legacy industries marine
aviation manufacturing um and these companies derive a majority of their revenue from the um out of the local economy and then and then reinvesting those dollars into uh our economy by way of expansions and investments um in facilities, equipment, job creation,
things of that nature. And this generates more tax revenues uh from the commercial sector, thereby easing the tax pressure on homeowners, as we've discussed earlier and you've heard. Um and the redevelopment of Sikos Bank's headquarters uh will also generate more
tax revenues. Um um in fact, uh likely have an estimated post taxable value of 25 plus million dollars. So uh more than double the current taxable valuable uh value uh increase of about 250,000 in terms of
revenues for uh you know from those taxes and the city of Steuart of course gains the most u adorum tax um you know growing a great amount um Martin County the school board also see large increases. Additionally, the uh
essential aspect of any strong economy is uh headquarters. And I wanted to say a few things about headquarters and uh those types of businesses and large companies and businesses of of those sizes like C Coast. Uh additionally, um you know, Dair,
they're included in that 500 or so employees. Pursuit Aerospace 300 employees, hot technologies, 200 employees um along with C Coast all in the city of Stewart and headquarter businesses by their very nature are um deeply invested in their host
communities. It's evident uh with CE Coast and the tens of thousands of people that they serve locally uh in addition to the hundreds of people they employ locally, the countless charities they support locally and headquarters businesses do send that
message uh to others that the business climate of a community is healthy. The regulatory environment is predictable. The tax base is stable and the level of opportunity in the community, which is for me most important from a business perspective. It's reliable. It's
consistent. And that's really especially true when the headquarters uh in question has been around for nearly 100 years. And conversely, when a headquarter business leaves an area, uh it sends a very different and discouraging message. So, we really
appreciate your consideration uh and and we do encourage you all at the commission to to send that right message and we um we've we've heard you today um encouraged by the discussion um and to the larger business community and the community at large. Uh we appreciate
your consideration and hope you support the proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have Ted Estie. Do you want to announce the next one as well? So they're ready. Nick Blunt. So I'm Ted Stalie, longtime resident of
Martin County. Um, and also uh I'm not speaking on behalf of the economic council today, but I'm the CEO of the economic council Martin County as well. And I I I feel like I should just be asking should you call the question instead of spending two hours listening to us all. um for you.
But um I I just want to just I know there are literally hundreds of people here in support of C Coast tonight. Um it's hours of testimony. It's I don't think there's anybody here not in support. I think everybody has a sticker. Uh so I just want to be right
straight to the point and I want to say that I just want to ask you to do the right thing. this corp long-term corporate headquarters icon of our community supported this community's growth and development and redevelopment timeless timeless times
and you know I just want you to go down in the history books as the city commissioners that were sitting here that kept Ca Coast here for another hundred years. So I want to see that written into the history books and so thank you for your support. Then I have Nancy Terrell.
Mayor Rich and Commissioners, uh, I'm Nick Blunt. I live in Stewart. I'm I'm in my 52nd year as a resident of Stewart. Uh, you know, I spent I've talked before this commission or other commissioners several times on a number of subjects. It might have been
franchise agreements when I was with FPL or quality water quality, economic development, affordable housing, but I never thought I would be up here trying to defend the pillar of this community, which is C Coast Bank. I'm encouraged by what I've heard in
your discussion tonight, and I appreciate that. I came to Steuart in uh in the early 70s as a young engineer for FPL contract. I mean, contrasting popular belief, I did not work with Thomas Edison. Uh, but
when I did come to Stewart, Denny Hudson was just a summer student at the bank. So, uh, I do have some history with that. And my wife worked there when we first came to Steuart in 74. In the late 70s and early 80s, uh, I was
dealing with the counties and the cities. And it was during that time that I began to see the importance of of then First National Bank in Steuart. They were involved with everything. The executives were, the employees were. Um I was involved with United Way early on
right when they were chartered in Martin County. And I could there was always this friendly competition between Publix, Florida Power and Light and yes, First National Bank on who would raise the most money. that continues on I
understand today and that's a good thing and you you saw on one of the slides all of the organizations that C Coast has been involved with and there are people here tonight first two speakers talked about about the economic benefit of being here but I want to emphasize the
social benefits of Ca Coast being here uh you know and I review the plans I looked at them closely on what it looked like as far as the gateway into the city when I came here, there was a uh gas station on that corner.
And I can assure you that this bank is a much more welcome, inviting facility coming into the to the city and certainly would be more inviting than a another storage facility or a car wash.
So um so I urge I urge you to be to make this decision. It's an important decision as uh Ted said, you know, doing the right thing, it would be your legacy. I encourage you to prove the
matter before you tonight. Uh the community will be grateful to you forever as you make this landmark decision. Thank you. Thank you. After after Nancy Terrell, I have Gordon Proctor. Good evening, Miss Terrell.
Good evening, commissioners. My name is Nancy Turl and I've been a resident of Steuart for more than 30 years. Hard to believe to myself. Um I'm here to speak in support of this C Coast Bank proposal that you're considering tonight. I'm a customer of C Coast, but more importantly, I've had the privilege of
working with many of the many of their employees over the years through my role in the nonprofit sector. The leadership at C Coast doesn't just serve customers, they serve our community. They give generously of their time, their expertise, and their wisdom. I'm
going to skip my personal anecdote because I'm conscious of the time of all the other speakers behind me and I feel like we are moving forward in a positive direction. Um, I just wanted to also add though that because this isn't just a bank branch that we're talking about,
but the corporate headquarters, the level of leadership talent concentrated here far exceeds what you would typically find in a community bank. The ta that talent translates into stronger partnerships, more volunteers, and greater community impact. Ca Coast has
been a part of Stewart for more than a hundred years. Supporting their continued investment in their headquarters is worth a few minor exceptions to the codes. Keeping Stewart rooted or CE Coast rooted here benefits us all. Thank you, and I appreciate the
staff's dedication and hard work on this project as well. Thank you. Then I have Ashish. Oh, you're up. That's the next one after you. Hello. I'm Gordon Proctctor, uh CPA with
Proctor Kirk and Crowder are now car rigs in Ingram. just to say uh we built our building in 1984 and I we've been actually in downtown close to 50 years and I really support the the what we did in downtown which was really led by the
city of Stewart with the revitalization and to me this is just an extension of it and I think we're all better off we got we'll have a higher tax base and jobs so I firmly support the proposal. Thank you. Thank you sir.
Then we'll have John Gonzalez. My name is Ashish Sashrak. I'm the president and CEO of a company called Big Five Tours and Expeditions. I've been a resident of Martin County since 1992. I'm a Mets fan as well. I'm sorry. No, that's good. Go Mets.
I went to Martin County High School. I graduated. I actually went to work for Charles Capital Markets. It is rare to see a publicly traded bank in good standing with a central bank in our community. C Coast Bank financed my business. They loaned me $1.1 million to
build $11,000 facility that now facilitates a yoga center, facilitates a doctor's office, and facilitates one of the top tourism companies in the world. Keeping them here for the another hundred years is a legacy that three generations of my family will now
appreciate. I'm the son of a refugee from Sudan. I'm the second generation from Kenya. Commissioner Clark, I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with you at with my family and my kids at the miracle on 10th Street. It's because of C Coast Bank that we were able to do that. So, I
thank you for being on the right side of history tonight. Thank you. Thank you, John Gonzalez for the record. Um, thank you commissioners. It sounds like that we're heading in the right direction. And you know, I I know there were rumors flying around and um I'm I'm glad to
believe that they're probably not a rumor anymore. Um and so I'm proud to know that S Coast Bank is going to stay here. My anecdote is my father used to be the the correspondent banker in Jacksonville that the Hudsons would come
up and borrow money and bring it back to lend to families in Stewart. And every time Mr. Hudson saw me at the dry cleaner, he would ask me how my father was. That's how important this family is to this community and how important this bank is to so many people in this community. Thank you.
Commissioners have Andrew Treadwell. Treadmill. Treadwell. Sorry. I'm not sure everybody heard. No. Go on. Okay. Sean Playmill.
[Laughter] That's great. Uh 51 years I've been here. I've had a bank account since I can remember. C Coast was part of helping my dad build his business and me building mine. Jenny, thank you for keeping the teller open so I could get
cash to buy my wife a engagement ring. C Coast has been through all the milestones in my life and keeping them here as a business owner who owns property in downtown is crucial and I again encourage you to be on the right side of history. Thank you, sir.
I have Bill Moore and then Scott Turnbull. Bill left. Scott Turnbull is walking in. I think he's filming. You see him? Yeah. He's coming around the corner right now. After Scott, I have Christopher Smith
rapidly. Uh good evening. Scott Turbull. I'm a resident of the city of Stewart and also managing partner for Curry Buchanan. uh one of the longest uh uh law firms in in the city of Stewart. Um we are here to
ask the commission to approve uh this application. I can speak on behalf of my partners that we have a longstanding relationship with the bank and uh Rick Kra was telling me today that he learned the practice of law working in the
corporate headquarters at SE Coast when our firm had uh its offices there and he started as a clerk in the 1970s and the relationship has continued over the years um with the bank supporting Mike
Kra and his 911 blood drive that he did for many many years in honor of 911. And so, you know, we thank you for the encouraging comments and appreciate your support for the bank. Thank you.
Thank you, Christopher Smith. Good evening and thank you very much. I'm Christopher Smith and uh I just happened to stop in the bank last week and uh to do some business and was talking with Patty and she uh told me uh there was a little bit of discrepancy or
what was going to go on with the uh with the application. So I said, "Well, you know what? I'm going to come down. I'm fourth generation in Martin County. I was born and raised here. My great-grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents, and now my family all have
banked with SE Coast National Bank. We've trusted them. We h we can walk in the door. We can see somebody. We can sit down. We can ask questions. I can tell you there was a time when I would pick up the telephone. I wouldn't get an
answering service. I was get Diane. If I recall correctly, she was the switchboard operator. You could get Beverly. You could get whoever you needed and you could get what you needed done. I've listened tonight. I've learned a lot of information tonight through the
presentations and as others have said, I think we're on the right path and I'm thankful for that. The one thing that I can tell you when I sat with Patty and she showed me the design intent on the screens and I thought to myself, why
would there be an issue with what I'm looking at? Time was put into it. Thoughtfulness was put into it. The design intent is impeccable. Now, I can tell you I'm also in the building business, but I'm just here to
talk to you tonight. I can remember when it before it was C Co Coast, it was First National Bank and Trust Company. And from the architectural design standpoint of what we're looking at tonight, I go back to what the original
bank did for the community. It was a cuttingedge design. That gold honeycomb screening that you see on that building, you might not really think of it much now, but think of it when that building was built.
C Coast National Bank has really always put their first foot forward. They really look out for the community and they do something extraordinary for it. I have no reason to doubt, as I'm sure
you all do and everybody else here does, that the design of this building is fantastic. There's been discussion on the outline property. I have no question in my mind
that Sea Coast would not make sure that whatever goes on that property with the help of you all looking at it as well would not be the same thing. Impeccable. They've proven it over the course of
time in our towel. We're proud to have them here and I think we're on the right track to keeping them here. And just thank you very much for taking the time tonight to listen. I have Eric Keane and then Jeff Bowers.
By the way, sir, that element on the face is called the brie. And there are many people in town who love that and want to know what's going to happen with it. maybe an architecture. Good evening. Uh my name is Eric Keane.
I'm uh the president and CEO of CNW Technologies. Um you know I I my Thank you for this um this opportunity for us to speak to you all. Um my business is 40 years old. I've been a and I've been
my business has been in the city of Stewart for over 39 years. So I have a com um you know I have a fond heart for Stuart because it has built my business over the years and we are still in business and we are the headquarters of my business and we stretch um uh
statewide and um even nationally and that's saying something from a little business that's part of Steuart uh and what Stuart has done for us and I think uh you know it's a great example of what uh C Coast
um formerly First National, formerly before that, um you know, has demonstrated over time that they that they have contributed to this community. Um they've been here for 100 years. Uh
and we want to see them here for 100 years more. And uh I think um Commissioner Jobi said something early on that I I think was really um related to something I had seen that um you know C Coast has has been loyal to Stewart.
They've shown their loyalty to the city of Stewart and to this community and I think it's uh I think it's for you it's an easy yes to show loyalty back to them and help them be here for another hundred years. Thank you.
Thank you. Hello, sir. Good evening. Thank you for your time tonight. My name is Jeff Bowers, and the cool cool thing is the longer this meeting goes on, I keep editing things out of it, make it shorter. Um, I'm the founder and owner of Masterpiece Design
Build at 410 Colorado Avenue. And for the record, our family um holdings include the real estate on Colorado Avenue and two residential homes here in the city of Stewart, including the home I grew up in on Krueger Creek. Went to high school with the Hudson kids and Chris and Ted and a bunch of other
people. Um so I wanted to share my personal thoughts. I'll try to make it quick, but I am also representing the Treasure Coast Builders Association as a past leader and president like 30 years ago, but I'm still pretty involved. Um,
all these years later, you know, Se Coast continues to be a tightly woven fabric of this community, but it took me back in time to kind of rethink the history with this. In the early 70s, my parents did all their banking there. So when I started my first business in
1977, yes, Eric Keen, almost 50 years ago, I had several accounts in vehicle installment loans. Um, they really kind of helped me get things going. But today, Patty McCauley and her team at
Sea Coast are still taking great care of us. This doesn't even address the number of construction loans C Coast has financed for our clients who have built new homes or bought existing properties and done renovations. But I can assure you if I counted them up, it's tons,
dozens and dozens. What I'm trying to illustrate is how much of a tangible part of the community Sea Coast Bank really is. And it got me thinking about the movie It's a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart playing George Bailey. And um that bank in that movie played a central role in the film's theme by
generosity, community service, and resisting corporate greed. As the story line of the movie goes, can anyone even imagine what Stuart would look like if Ca Coast and the Hudson family had not been here all these years? So really, that kind of wraps it up. I
wanted to get it from a personal side. Um I appreciate where this discussion is going tonight. I appreciate the work you guys put into this to make Stuart great. But in conclusion, on behalf of our community, I would urge you to approve the C Coast Bank project and then sit back and take pride in what gets
accomplished because of your decision tonight. Thank you. I have Jennifer Atinson. Love it. I'm sorry. Hi. Um, my name is Jennifer Atinson Lovevet. I am the owner of Remax of Stewart and I come to you today um
speaking on behalf of So I My family has lived here in Stewart for 47 years. I had to do the math next to Shawn and I said, "Holy Lord, I'm getting old." Uh, so my family moved here in 1978, but I'm actually, some of you may not know, I'm a descendant of Cynthia Haney. So she
was my great great great aunt. So Sandy Thurlo loves to tell that story. So, I really do care about the history and the legacy of Stewart. It's super super important to me and C Coast. Um, I'm very proud to say our company as a second generation, our business, Remax
of Stewart, has been serving this community here for 45 years. And we're very proud to partner with Ca Coast and with Jenny and Patty McCauy are my bankers. And so, they just do so much in the community and I'm so thankful to hear the way this conversation is going.
So, just thank you for um supporting them. They do so much in this community and I just really believe in giving back to the community and everything that they do. It's super important for the way that we lead our company and what we do. And um just ask that you please
support them and it's not it's what they give to the nonprofits and also um Commissioner Collins, you talked about your faith and as a member of St. Mary's um I can tell you that they have done so much for our church for St. Mary's. Um we like to call St. Mary's St. Hudson.
The Hudson family has truly built our church as well. And I know Sea Coast has been a huge part of that. So um personally, I feel that the plans that they have brought before would be an absolutely beautiful showcase to um
welcome people to Stewart. And so I truly ask for you to please approve their plans and I just thank you for their time and also thank the staff for everything that you've put into it. So thank you very much for your consideration. Next I have Murray Fini.
I'm Murray Forny with Treasure Coast Hospice. I'm the VP of philanthropy and administrative operations. C Coast has been an invaluable partner not just to my agency but many in the community as you've heard tonight. As someone said a few minutes ago, I could
go through these notes but most of them have been said in some way, shape or form already. What I'd offer to you though is a perspective from someone who's been raising funds across this country for 40 years. There was a time that banks took their role in the
community seriously. They worked hard. Their staff made an investment of time, treasure, and talent. And I saw that disappear throughout the state of Florida until I came to Steuart, Florida 10 years ago. C Coast stood up right away when my wife
and I got married and helped us get established in the community. They've helped countless families as they've lost loved ones. They've helped them envision life after loss. When we started our president's circle program 10 years ago, Cush was one of
the first five businesses that not only committed $5,000 a year for five years, but also said, "We'll do one better. We're going to reach out in the community and we're going to help bring partners in to make this happen." Thanks to the vision of Ca Coast executives and friends that has grown to be over 20
organizations annually committing minimum of $5,000. I encourage you to do everything you can to retain this valuable organization because you will not find it in other parts of this country. They make a tremendous difference and I look forward
to y'all approving the conditional use permits that they've requested because it's a great resource for the community. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I have Christy Bur and then Angela Browning. Thank you. I'm Christy Bur. I'm the
president for the Martin County Realators Association for the Treasure Coast. I'm here to follow up on our letter that we recently sent to support Ca Coast Bank and their proposal for this property. It was really important for us as an association to stand here
alongside Sea Coast in in relation to the fact that we are turning a 100red years old and we are celebrating with them and along with them to stand by Stewart and Martin County and how relevant and committed we are just as Ca
Coast. One of the things I wanted to say because like everyone else so much has been said and I've rewritten everything but I want to leave you with one thing. C Co Coast is not just a bank, but they're the partner in life. Not just for the individuals, but for Stewart and
Martin County. I respectfully urge you to vote in favor of the proposal and the changes. They are here for us. Let's embrace it. [Applause]
Angela Browning. Gone. Bob Zakio. Bob Zakio. He's here. All right. Here we go. All right. Hey, I got to tell you, I've changed absolutely everything I was going to say from the
time that I walked up here, but I can tell you right now, I'll never miss the opportunity uh to say thank you to C Coast Bank uh for all that they've done. And now that I know uh that hospice gets 5,000 a year, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna up that. You know, also uh
just to let you know too, a little, you know, antidote is that Patty McCauley's gotten a ton of um uh shout outs. She is my neighbor and we share a driveway. So top that everybody in this room. Uh but the reality here and having um Mr.
Proctor here is really poetic for me too because he actually coached my baseball team that was first national bank and trust with his son who was throwing rockets at the time that none of us could hit. So thank you for that. Tell any stories. Yeah. Right. That's kind of the way it
goes. But I'm never I'm never going to miss an opportunity though uh to say thank you to this commission. I mean we can all see the direction that this is going for sure. Um, and to to Chuck, I would love to make sure that Project Lyft has the first event in the courtyard and on top. So, touché all you
other nonprofits out there, but but again, uh, but again, uh, just so you know, too, just a big deal to me, uh, First National Bank and Trust, obviously, C Coast Bank, and one other quick antidote was Wendy Hudson was on our founding board of directors when we
put Project Lift together. So, that's how deep uh, this runs. So, thank you all very much. I have Susie Hutchinson followed by Jimmy Smith. Been waiting here. Jimmy. Well, at least now you'll have a calm
person here to talk to you for a couple of minutes. I'm Susie Hutcherson and for the first time in 50 years, I'm talking to you as a private citizen, having retired a little bit ago. But I will tell you over those 50 years both personally and professionally C Coast
was always there to help us. Uh I guess I can still say we have our new home because of their help. But I also think it's really important and I think those of us that have been here for a long time forget how important it is to have the headquarters here because we do get
somebody else said it but I'll steal it. the cream of the crop. When we look at board members, when we look at fundraising, when we look at volunteers for our programs, and for me, here is one of the most important things that I found in addition to all of that. Back in the day, I could actually get Denny
Hudson on the phone. I had to threaten him a little bit, but I got him. Um, today, because the headquarters are here, if I have a question, I just call Jenny Yingling. I don't call an 8800 number and get put on hold for 30 minutes. So, thank you C Coast and thank
you all so much for what you're doing. After Jimmy Smith, I have Kevin Powers. Hi. If you don't know me, my name is Jimmy Smith. Uh, small business owner here in Stewart, uh, president of NAACP. First of all, I just want to say give a shout out to the Kurt family. Uh, Mr.
Colin, you mentioned earlier about how uh nobody deserve to be hurt like that. Uh regardless of what you believe, I want that's been on my heart that um cuz I can remember in the 60s those things was happening and you said something
very early that uh that should bring us together in America. It's enough pain and hurt going around the world that this should unite America together with love. In spite of that, uh, I heard everybody was speaking and some people said
they've been here 50 years. I've been here since the early 60s. I was trying to see if somebody was going to beat me out. But, uh, uh, yeah, I wanted to say that uh, I've been here since the early real early 60. My mother were working for Henry H. Flower,
Secretary of the Treasury, United States, and I was a little boy. And Miss Flower, his wife, she was one of the greatest women in the world. And I remember that uh she gave my mom her first car and uh we went to the bank and
I seen this bank at the sea coast the first national bank and you know all that back in those days $5 was a lot of money and she gave us our first $5 and uh man let me tell you you can buy five cookies with one penny back in those days. And so just to say that I always
remember that uh when it was a Christmas program uh that where you opened up a county at First National Bank and being a kid was so excited and know that at the end of the year you know I come from a very uh poor family but we was rich in
faith and spirit and uh it's 21 of us 11 girls and 10 boys at the end all the rainbows. Uh what what I want to say about this bank here, First National Bank, it was an opportunity for us to learn as young age. I don't know they do that anymore. In school, they used to
teach us come and teach us how to write checks and learn how to balance your checkbook and all those things. Those things stick with us today. But I want to also say this with Patty and with the bank that have been working with so many great things in the community that I
could see the the success that they have brought to this city or Stewart. Uh you ever called the bank and you got to talk to somebody way over in another country that's kind of very heartbreaking. And you know can you speak the same language
they speaking? So, but with C Coast, I can say that you can go directly there and speak to them as a family. And also, I want to just say to the mayor, mayor, you said about the cleanup of the creek. I have a small landscape business. I have two bars. I have some trucks
and and I know I know it's a bell ring. And I want to say this to the mayor and I have a small barbecue business. I do catering. I'm willing to sacrifice both of those business. I went in to bring my bobcat and I'm quite sure we got some volunteers. We will come help clean up the creek if that's going to make a
difference and take those pepper trees out and I will feed feed free barbecue at the end of the rainbow. [Applause]
My lucky night. I get to follow Jimmy. Thank you, Jimmy. Give it up for Jimmy one more time. Good evening. My name is Kevin Powers. Uh I'm here this evening as the president of the Martin County Taxpayers Association. Um but like many in this room, our family our family's roots also
run very deep in this community. And I can tell you there's never been a chapter in our family's history that hasn't included Se Coast Bank and everything that was said in with regard to that. From a taxpayers standpoint, um this is an excellent redevelopment project. Um the numbers speak for
themselves in terms of a return on investment from a taxable value standpoint. I don't need to expand on that. Um our board was unanimous in coming together and supporting CE Coast this evening. Um your CRB I think was unanimous in supporting this and uh we
would respectfully ask that this commission be unanimous in supporting C Coast. Thank you very much. We have Karen Ripper. I feel like it's old home week here in the room. From me teaching Lama back in the early 70s all the way to delivering babies and now at the council on aging
in Barton County. I've come full circle. Know a lot of people in this room. But I just want to say thank you for your consideration of this project. C Coast means so much to us at the council on aging. Do you know that we started the hugs program which is helping understanding guidance um and empathy
for people with dementia in Martin County and CE Coast stepped up. All we had to do was call and say, "Hey, can you help us write the curriculum for the tellers so they know when something's going on with a customer and that we can teach your tellers how to work with people with dementia and their families?" That's just one aspect. their
philanthropic efforts with the nonprofit community is outstanding and I'm not I know you want to call the question. Thank you very much for your consideration. Carol Hartz Diaz followed by Selma Washington. I have the mic and I could be long but I
won't. Carol Howard the with the United Way of Martin County. Um I ditto everything that was said. The nonprofit world is a better place in our community because of Secos Bank. And I will arm wrestle Bob for the first event. Chalk. All right,
that's it. [Applause] Selma Selma Washington is not here. Correct. Um Paul Shopppee. I don't see him yet.
Mark Breickville. Mark Brickville. Mr. Breville will not have left. So, uh, Mark Breckill and I'm representing the CRB in this. I am what you get when you ask for enthusiastically
coming. So, our board enthusiastically approved this unanimously and um, they were and I'm very excited about that. There were a couple things that I think they made points on. That board worked very hard. They made points on a couple things I want to mention that they were really excited that this is a
redevelopment project, not a development project. And that's a big difference. And and to be able to grow up and and live in a community and know that there's a pathway that doesn't involve leaving for you to find a job or have an opportunity was a big deal. And so I
think that that's a big thing. A lot of people don't realize when I came to Steuart originally uh I was a banker and I had to compete against Danny and Cost and uh well First National at the time and uh the problem was they knew all their customers and their customers knew
them and it was all a personal relationship and that's hard to fight and that's the thing the the good thing about a a business like C Coast is we have their values they have our VA values and we've grown up with that and to give them now this opportunity I
think is is huge. And I I want to thank all of you guys. And um and I'm going to sit down and shut up because I know you can talk too long. And the final comment I have is Mary Hutchinson. Oh, you have the final comment. Former
Commissioner Hutchinson. Hello, Mary Hutchinson and City of Stewart. Like everybody else, I did write something. Um, but I just wanted to say that we've talked about the partnerships that the city has had with Sea Coast. In a lot of your meetings, you've talked about Haney Creek. What you might not know that we only have
Haney Creek because we partnered with C Coast Bank back in the recession in the 2000s when they ended up holding the note for it and they worked with us, the city of Stewart, so we could get our ducks in a row row and purchase that property. So, because of them, we have that gorgeous piece of property north of
the bridge. And thank you, Se Coast. Um, with that I'll close us up by saying to those that know Corki, he's probably in heaven sailing on the Galatia, smiling, seeing everybody here. Thank you. Nothing, Ed. No comments, Ed.
Okay. Um, I was only here that if the vote didn't go the right way, the county would have grabbed them. Yes. see how important night meetings are. It can be sensible.
So, the applicant has the opportunity. Do you want to provide new evidence or testimony? No. Uh, do you wish to respond to anything you've heard subsequent to? No, that's a good idea. So, thank all of
you so much for staying. I mean, you've been here a long time. We're used to it. But first of all to be here and then to wait and then to speak uh with so much concern for this. It's a company. It's a
business. But I hope I hope Denny's watching this because we're so lucky, you know, we're so lucky to have a a local business that has created so much loyalty um and success in this small community.
And sometimes I'm really overwhelmed by the charm of a small town and this is such strong evidence of that. So I am seeking a motion. Were there um any other conditions? We had shade trees. Uh that was my idea.
Larger around the Colorado entrance of the garage and then not unreasonably withholding right away um if and when FD gets that intersection sorted out. Was there any others from the commission? Do we have Jody? Do you feel like you have sufficient
mayor though? That was the two conditions? No, I don't have anything else. I'm asking the No, that was it. No, I don't think I have anything. You want to make a motion? I'll make a motion. Go for it. Yeah. Okay. With regard to item number six, Secos Bank headquarters resolution
number 85-2025, I make a motion that we approve the staff recommendations and include the conditions with regard to um shade uh choosing shade more shade trees or the
or larger shade trees around the garage area and to also leave the option open to ex to have the right away if the DOT or anybody needs it along Colorado Avenue. We can put that in the agreement.
I'm sorry. Did you I was seconding. Okay. So, we have a motion by Commissioner Clark. So, just just for clarity that that would be not unreasonably withholding easement there. Yes, Jody has the language. Yeah, that was the direction, right? Not right away easement. Okay.
We have a second by Commissioner Gobi. Um, so we need to repeat Mr. Bagot, will you repeat the motion
as the we are instructed? Yeah. Can I ask the city clerk because she takes everything down? Okay. Madam clerk, approval of resolution number 85-2025 including um sorry, where is my choosing
larger shade trees around garage and leave open or option to open uh the rightway on Colorado and the to provide easement and more landscaping on the back end of the so larger shade trees on the Colorado
facing wall of the garage and then not unreasonably withholding easement uh there at the intersection. And there was additional there was additional um landscaping behind the from me. I was satisfied with the the
palms in the back. It just looks sparse on there, but I'm sure they'll fill it in. Mayor, if I can just clarify one thing on the motion. Okay. Do we have it? Madame clerk. Yes, we have it. If I could just clarify that um if if at the discretion that staff could work
with the applicant on the species of trees just to make sure they're up mature. Correct. We didn't choose. Okay. Thank you. As they indicated, they wanted some flexibility there sensibly. So, okay. Is there any additional discussion or questions among the
commissioners? Commission. Lee, this is for you. Do we have to file anything if we have had bank accounts at C Coast or will have bank accounts? Is there a form that because I would imagine most of us have probably used them for their business or for campaign purposes.
My campaign bank. I just I just want to make sure I'm doing it correct. Yeah, right. That's a good question. Do you need an answer to that prior to your vote or uh No, not prior to my vote. I just want it on the record. If you have a conflict. Yeah,
that we actually need to probably answer that before. Yeah, because I would I mean that no one can vote. I know. That wraps it up. Well, I don't believe I think it's more general than that. So, I don't Right. I I
You don't have a special interest. You're not You don't have a special interest. You're not gaining as a result of it. You just hold all your money. You're not inuring a special gain or loss by them being here or not being here. So, business loans by chance or what's that? Does that include business loans by chance? I'm just making sure because I
want to make sure I'm okay. Right. Vote. Um, did Hudson tell you that you'd get a loan if he gave? No, he didn't say that. There you go. And you don't have any special interests, then you're okay. As long as I'm okay with city attorney, then I'm I'm cool with that. Are you?
Based on what you've described, I I I don't see an issue with it. Perfect. Okay. In full disclosure, I've had all of my campaign accounts at C Coast Bank. I know Patty and Beverly and Tom Hall and Chuck Shad. I go way back. We
already did exparte. We're moving on. Okay. I'm So, our deliberations are concluded. Madame Clerk, will you please provide a recorded vote? Yes. Commissioner Reid? Yes. Commissioner Gobi? Yes. Commissioner Clark? Yes.
Mayor Rich? Yes. Vice Mayor Collins? Yes. Can we take a break? Mayor Rich, I'm glad you're finding your way there. Vice Mayor Sean. All right, we will recess for 10
minutes. We will reconvene at 9:15. after you. about at what point do the budget because it's got to be done before 12. We said before midnight. We better get there before midnight. Okay. I'm reconvening the regular
meeting of the Steuart City Commission for the 22nd of September. Um, if there's no objection from the commission, can we have Mr. Bagot read all three items of the next three
items, six, seven, and eight for consideration at the same time? That's fine. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Okay, Mr. Bagot. Poor Ruth. Ruth just wants to go get dinner. Could be worse, Ruth. They could have put the budget ahead of you.
Hold on a second. I've lost my agenda. I got it on my computer. Items six, seven, and eight. All right, Mr. Bagot. Resolution number 91-2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida,
authorizing entering into a standard agreement for professional legal services with the law firm of Harvey M.Sheldon, Sheldon, PA, providing an effective date and for other purposes. Item agenda item number seven,
resolution number 92-2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, authorizing entering into a standard professional services agreement for federal government relations with Thornrun partners, providing an effective date and for other purposes.
And item eight, resolution number 93-2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, approving a work authorization for existing city contractor Holtz Consulting Engineers, Inc. to subcontract with Hazen and
Sawyer, PC, providing funding for the subcontracted work, providing an effective date, and for other purposes. Miss Holmes, will you come to the lectern, please? This is your agenda items to present. Thank you,
Miss Homes. Can you straighten that back out for Thank you. Is that better? She's a little OCD. This is fine. Thank you. Um, and I know I have big shoes to fill, so um I only have a five-page introduction, so I hope that's not too long.
Um, so, uh, as part of my initial efforts, uh, as your environmental attorney, uh, I have three contractual items for your consideration tonight. Um, but before I get into the brief substance of each of these contractual
items, I want each of you to know and and the public to know uh, that the money that uh, I'm requesting here for each of these contracts is money that's already been appropriated last year. This is nothing that's going to affect uh the upcoming 2026 budget.
Um the first uh contractual item is a legal services agreement with Harvey Sheldon. And uh you all probably remember Harvey. He was one of the applicants for this job. He has significant federal um environmental
experience working uh as general counsel for EPA region 5. uh and also uh he did a lot of environmental work uh in the attorney general's office for the state of Illinois. And uh when Harvey and I began talking about um potential
strategies going forward, um he and I really saw eye to eye on a lot of um things that can be done that are really not so adversarial in nature, but uh just more administrative uh proceedings
that could be done um relatively or more inexpensively than other types of proceedings. Um and with his federal experience and my state experience, I think that we would make a really good team together. Um so I am recommending that we enter
into a contract um to hire him as a consultant. Also, so you know, um just because I have uh um put a a not to exceed amount on his contract doesn't mean necessarily that he's going to spend every dollar of that. It's just
it's just a budget going forward. And also I think it's note uh noteworthy to say that um his contract and all the other contracts tonight I reduced their their initial proposals pretty significantly.
In fact with Harvey I got him at a lower hourly rate than the median that the Florida bar recognizes. So pretty good on that one. Um the next uh the next contractual item is with uh Thornrun Partners. Thornrun Partners is a
government relations firm out of Washington DC. Um they do of course lobbying efforts but also part of those part of uh the services provided under the larger umbrella of what we all kind
of know uh as lobbying is providing the client us providing us information on what's going on congressionally. Um, as you may know, um, the Water Resources Development Act was just signed in January of this year. So, we've got
another year and a half to prepare for the next one that's going to come down the road. And we need to prepare for that. And we need to be talking to our congressional representatives, Congress, uh, Congressman Mast. And this is a way to help us know what's going on congressionally with Army Corps of
Engineers, um, what kind of, um, funding uh, might be available in the near term. Um I have heard that there's some federal appropriations that are going to start up in the next um 5 to seven months. So we need to be aware of that. There may be grant funding that's
available to the city uh for additional monitoring, water quality moni monitoring, much more specified specific water quality monitoring than what exists right now. So I am recommending that contract as well. The last contract um is a work
authorization like uh Mr. Bagot said it's a work authorization for an existing contractor. Um they're an engineering firm. This is not an engineering contract, but because it it's going to be work that's conducted by engineers, I thought I would bring
that up and we thought it would be appropriate to have it um managed and a second layer of engineering eyes from um your current consultant uh Holtz contract, Holtz Consulting Engineers. That contract uh or work authorization
is going to be for the subject matter experts, their subcontracts, Hazen and Sawyer, um to evaluate all of the existing the planned and con constructed or under construction uh SER projects and other regional storm water projects.
The reason this is important is because you might think, oh well, doesn't the Army Corps or the Water Management District have information on their website about what's you know what uh projects are operational, what their capacities are? Not really. I mean, if you you can look around and you can see
some of the existing storm water projects, the larger ones that are operational and uh what's happening with those. um but you really don't get capacities and you really don't understand what kind of benefit they have for the St. Lucy River and estuary.
We also don't have direct information on what you know some of the other projects that are going to uh positively benefit St. Lucy River and estuary like the C252 24 um uh reservoirs and the interconnects with the C44 and we need
to know those things because the city as you know a local government it it's not so much about being adversarial with uh the federal government or the state or whomever. It's also about recognizing what kind of projects actually are will
or and will benefit the St. Lucy River and estuary and for those projects the city um could do well for itself to advocate for those and to support those because it's good pol it's good government policy where there are some projects that have not yet been
constructed or are not fully operational even though there's been several ribbon cutings. We need to know why. And we could also be the squeaky wheel or a squeaky wheel and making sure those projects get maybe put ahead of some of the other ones or
just um put the pedal to the metal and get them up and running. So this this project that Holtz Con uh Consulting is going to um put forward to us is going to give us that knowledge and it's knowledge that just it is just not
publicly available. So, we'll be able, you know, with with that kind of information and knowledge, the city will have um a a level of credibility that a lot of local governments just don't have. Um the knowledge is going to be or the information is going to be from an
independent source. Won't be coming directly from the federal government, won't be coming directly from the state government. It'll be your consultants that by the way have all have experience at each level of government. So, um they do know what they're talking about. Um
and with that I would recommend unless you have any questions for me but um otherwise I would recommend uh that you approve each of these uh contractual items each of these resolutions. Okay, we have to well why don't we why
don't we just question her about any we're going to have to vote on each of these individual but why don't we go just go ahead and question her like any staff presentation about all of them right now. So Mr. Vice Mayor Okay. So, in terms of holds consulting and engineers,
um, first I would say thank you for hitting the ground running for not just hanging out in your office but actually trying to get some things done. Um, in terms of the item number eight, I feel like this is hugely important and this is a one-time expense, correct?
Right. Cool. Right. So, this is this is hugely important to have in your back pocket and as somewhat of a road map, you know, as you go forward. Um, item seven, if that helps you feel comfortable federally with what's going
on and and uh gives you that info and intel, I'm all for it. That's a recurring expense, though, right? That's a recurring monthly expense. Uh, but the contract itself is a not to exceed for a 12-month period. So, do you anticipate this is ongoing,
right? Well, you know what? See how it goes? I I think it's to see how it goes. So, you're signing a a a 12-month contract? Yes. Okay. And overall, this is going to cost how much? Uh that number seven or all together? Seven.
Seven is 36,000 for 12 months. So, 3,000 a month. And then eight's going to be 80 82 82 plus. Where I am more reluctant is going to be Harvey. And I I've talked to you about this a little bit before we talked on the phone, but for Harvey, uh, I would
like to see where I'm like full full support for seven and eight. With Harvey, I would almost like to wait and see and or as needed more than jumping into a contract like that. Even though I know you would probably fight me to the death over this.
you want Harvey, but uh spending that going that hard that fast, the other two I feel like there's more um especially eight I feel like hugely important and seven again if it gives you um you know if if that's givingven you
what you need. But how do I say this? What's in terms of Harvey? I know you want a team. My hope is like I hired you. I want you you to be the team. I I I understand, Vice Mayor. I completely understand. But the realities are that
and if you got to kind of lean on them a little bit and pick, you know, right, we have a budget for being, you know, but like an ongoing larger contract, I feel less comfortable with. Well, I'll tell you, um, in support of his contract, um, I would say, you know, it
it is not it is not a, uh, a flat fee monthly retainer like it is with Thornrun, or it's not a you're going to give me a written product in six to eight months with Hazen. It's um, it is it is just a it is a budget and he can
the way that we wrote the contract out is he can um, charge X number of hours per month. Um, if that happens, it may not happen that way. He may not, you know, it it may not be that much. I
mean, I I will say uh that um we negotiated an hourly rate for him at 250 an hour, which is pretty low. And and I'm not I'm not long-term opposed to doing this with him, but just like right now, while you're still getting going to jump right into a
second attorney, you know, I'd like to the these other resources be fruitful and start to give you a road map and and and as you're developing that he very well may be hugely important but right out of the gate I know I know there's that previous budget you know that was
there that wasn't used but I don't know if yet right now is the time for him are just my thoughts on it Mr. Uh, Bagot, did you want to make a comment on that? Yeah. Um, the city manager pointed out to me, he had a question and so it's
regard to the resolution. So, each of the contracts have the city mayor um, signing the contracts, but in the resolutions, it's just authorizing the city to enter in the contract or so to enter into the contract. So, I think we just need to have language. Most of our resolutions identify who's signing it, whether it's city manager or city mayor.
The charter only allows the mayor or the city or the manager to sign contracts. After Commissioner Reid's comments at the last meeting, I just wanted to be clear that any vote tonight is authorizing the mayor to sign these contracts because the mayor's signatures on them.
Okay. Uh, Commissioner Gobi. Um, I think there is value in I think there is value in the agreement with Harvey and only because you know I understand you want to get on the ground
running but again it was kind of almost ad hoc. I mean so if attorney Holmes does not reach out to Harvey for like a month he's he's not billing us as like three hours a month. He's billing us as per we use him. So, I think it would be
important to have that available because a month down the road, she might find a need for her state abilities and his federal to to um you know, make a good decision. Commissioner Reid. Yeah. My only thing would be Vice Mayor
Collins, maybe maybe we can send a letter to Martin County and Okachobee County. Maybe they should contribute because all their residents are affected. It's not just the city of Stewart. everybody that uses that river for recreational purposes or business purposes. They're all affected. So maybe
they would contribute some of the funds. That would just be my advice. Um so well those items are not on the agenda this evening. That's a good idea. Yeah, perhaps. Uh Commissioner Clark, do you have any questions or Okay. Um,
so none of these agreements or proposals total an amount that exceeds what we've already allocated in our fiscal year 25 budget. Correct. That's right. That's right. And there's actually there's about as it stands now
um if the contract with Harvey was 100% utilized um there would still be about $52,000 left from last year's budget that has not been spent. And if we don't expend these funds and the manner we expend them,
it's called an obligated fund account. So, it's although the we won't pay him all this money this year, it's we're allocating it into this obligated fund account. Correct, Mr. Mo? Is that that's how it works? Okay. So, if we don't
spend this money, it just goes back into the general fund. Um, if you don't obligate this money by purchase order prior to September 30th, right, it rolls back into the general fund. It doesn't carry over in the environmental attorney's account.
Correct. these purchase orders are issued, then she can spend the money through the course of the purchase order to carry it forward. Right? So, I I've had many meetings with Miss Holmes. I've had meetings with Miss Holmes.
We've had Zoom meetings. I've brought individuals in to meet her. I and they have been very impressed with the level of her knowledge. And I think it was the vice mayor said she's trying she's hitting the ground
running trying to get up to speed. I do not want to under undercut her at this point at all. She's dealing with a vast number of regulatory agencies that can provide an opportunity for us to be successful in the future. I don't know
which ones they are. If I did, I wouldn't have hired you. But that's why you are here. Um, I was very impressed by I'm sorry, I forget Harvey's last name, Sheldon. I was very impressed by Mr. Sheldon and
I talked to a number of attorneys afterwards and they agree that his insight and experience was invaluable and that in fact may very well represent the best way
forward. The Clean Water Act may pro ultimately provide us the solution we're seeking. And I don't want to foreclose that at this point. We're not here to play. We're here to win. And I think we need to make the investment up front and find the strategy that's going to allow
us to clean this water up. I appreciate Commissioner Reid's suggestion. That's always something we should be thinking of. So, I certainly am in favor of supporting her on all these issues. Is there any other discussion or can we go to the vote on each item?
Well, yeah, I'd like to make a motion. Okay, let's start with number six, please. Go. Yeah, number I'd like to make a motion. Resolution number 91, 2025. Resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, authorizing entering into a standard agreement for the
professional legal services with the law firm of Harvey M. Sheldon, PA, providing an effective date and for other purposes. Second. Uh, we have a motion by Commissioner Joby and a second by Commissioner Clark. Is there You can have it. You can have it. Ladies
first. Stop. We have more staff here. Is there any public comment on this item? Seeing none, roll call, please. Um, Mayor Rich, yes. Commissioner Clark, yes.
Commissioner Dobby, yes. Commissioner Reid, yes. Vice Mayor Collins, yes. Item seven, please. I'm looking for a motion. With regard to item number seven, resolution number 92, 2025,
I move the recommendation of our environmental attorney on this matter. We have a motion by Commissioner Clark and a second by the vice mayor. Is there any public comment on this item? Seeing none, roll call, please. Commissioner Reid. Yes.
Vice Mayor Collins. Yes. Commissioner Clark. Yes. Commissioner Gobi. Yes. Mayor Rich. Yes. And item made, please. Looking for a motion. I'd like to make a motion, but I just want to make a comment before I make my motion. Um I think Commissioner Vice
Mayor um Collins. Collins. Yeah. That Yeah. Yeah. Vice Mayor Collins, you know, he was talking about hitting the ground running. And I must say, um, even as an
attorney and meeting, um, Miss, uh, Holmes as a another attorney, it was just very refreshing to me to, um, to meet with her and to understand her perspective and to have her lay out um,
her plans and her ideas. And I know that uh the the the the the way that she came here um you know we've we put in this position in and it's been something that people have talked about for years then
we finally decided to get something done in the budget even though there's other things but I and I talked to her about that but I tell you with that and with what she laid out to me on the work product that we would get out of especially this item number eight. I um
must say that I I haven't seen the work product yet, but I commend you for the thought that you put into this. And with regard to resolution number 93-2025, I move that we um uh go with this as
long as everything works out with this. You know, we have the sole source with this um current contractor and then with uh the subperson. But um I move that whatever the recommendation is and whatever our procurement procedures are that we follow those and that we um
follow through on this. I'll second the motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Clark and second by Commissioner Job. Is there any public comment? I would just like since Jolie is here. Jolie, there is no way you would allow her to exceed the
allocation that that office is provided by us. Correct. I would recommend she put in a requisition tomorrow for each of these. Yeah, September 30th is here. I also I I I don't believe it's a sole source contract. I didn't see that. So,
I just want to clarify the record that Okay. I just wanted to be Okay. Well, all right. Just because we have the current the point of that comment, Mr. Martell, I just the Commissioner Clark commented that it was a sole source contract that we were piggybacking and I believe it's
simply a piggybacking contract, but not professional services or professional services is a different Okay. It's actually It's actually a work authorization from an existing contractor. Oh, professional services. Okay, fine. Thank you. I don't I assume you see no trouble with the the structure of that.
I gave her the numbers. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. Roll call, please. Madame clerk. Mayor Rich? Yes. Commissioner Reid? Yes. Vice Mayor Collins? Yes. Commissioner Gio? Yes. Commissioner Clark? Yes. Okay. Mr. Waiting.
Yeah. Thanks, Ruth. Thank you very much. I I seriously thank you for your consideration of all these. It's it's it's it's important. You do awesome. Thank you. Item number nine, please, Mr. Bagot, for our consideration. Resolution number 94-2025,
a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, authorizing the adoption of legislative priorities for the 2026 legislative session, providing for an effective date and for other purposes. Mr. Chosky, good evening. Good evening. Seems like we just ended
up in a family reunion here with the SEC coast and we're on a roll here. So, let's continue the party. Uh Jim Carrollski, community services director for the record. Um I'm here to represent resolution 94 2025, which is our legislative priority.
wanted to um give you a little bit of a background and um our Department of Community Services has been managing some of these legislative appropriations and some of the um uh issues that have come up for about a decade now. And as you know, Ben Hogarth is no longer with
us. So, I'll be representing that role now moving forward. And um I did it earlier before Ben was here and I'll continue doing it now. Um, I wanted to also let you know that as a before we get to the actual request, um, little
schedule here that we've got for the 2026 or 2028 legislative session that we've got here, 2026, I'm sorry. Um, October the 21st is when we have our Martin County delegation. Every year we go before there. The mayor always
represents the city and presents to our legislative delegation. This year it's not going to be over at the at IRSC. Um it's going to be at the Blake Library. So that'll be at nine o'clock in the morning. And then our legislative session itself in 2026 is going to be
January 13th and it'll end in March 13th unless they have some kind of delay. Early session this year. Yes, it's very early this session. So if you go up there, make sure you bring your coat. Um while the last couple of years we had some surprises, we ended up um having
surprise a couple of years ago with SB 102 as you know and Lyn last year we had SB um 180 and that was kind of snuck in on that emergency bill. This year I'm trying to anticipate what we might be expecting and Governor Dantis has made
it very clear that he wants to see some kind of property tax relief. It's been in the news. you probably have been hearing about it. Um, Representative Overdorf has um he's the co-chair of this particular committee. There was a couple of bills filed. They died in um
they died on committee last year and um they decided to create this committee to study the issue. Uh Representative Overdorf is one of the co-chairs of this. They had an initial meeting earlier this month and today and tomorrow they're in Tallahassee
discussing this issue right now. Um, I have no idea where this thing is going, but I think that there's enough political momentum on this thing that something is going to happen. There's a call for complete tax reduction of all um real estate tax. I don't see how
that's even possible, but you never know. They might be able to come up with something, but I do think that um there's going to be some some relief on some level. So, I just wanted you all to be prepared of that. We'll be watching it and we'll be reporting on it as we go through the sessions. As it relates to
what our legislative appropriation is for this year, I sent out an email to all the all the senior staff members to ask for ideas on what they might want to have an appropriation for. I really didn't get too much of a response, but um the CRA and I talked a little bit
with Panol and we felt that having a it's it's about time for us to be able to look at our community center. So this year's request would be potentially upon your um your approval would be up to a million dollars for a design build for
the renovated 10th Street Community Center. The reason that we're asking this isn't necessarily specifically just for recreation. It's actually to create a hardened structure as well. We don't have a hardened structure really anywhere outside of the public safety building in order to be able for us to
prepare in the unlikely event of a disaster or a hurricane. So having a a hardened um structure kind of double serves as both a community center for a multigenerational intergenerational community center now that the kids are
no longer there so that we can serve a broader age group as well as having um a hardened structure for the city. So is this it just this doesn't supplant the EOC. This evacuation.
For what it's worth, last year the uh state focused and passed a huge hurricane relief act that included lots of grants and funding opportunities to create um the ability for you to shelter
in place. when the city of Stewart uh declares an emergency and we actually implement the EOC, there's a certain list of employees that all have to stay in the EOC. We then also have police and firefighters that have to stay at the public safety building on duty. And what
we've done in the past is through interlocal agreements with the county, we've created a secondary shelter for the city employees, families that can't stay in the city EOC that would be staying in JD Parker in a separate area
but with the public um in the public shelter. That shelter is actually at the will of the county and the school board and it's not a city county. But in light of the fact that number one, the state saying they don't want to see any more water grants or water things, we figure
we're not going to send one up just to get a no. And secondly, the states saying that they do want to see the building of shelters and resiliency and and and ability to shelter in place rather than evacuations because they don't have the road network to do so.
Since as the timing of this would work, the Guy Davis Park will be under construction and when it's finished, the 10th Street Rec Center was never part of the Guy Davis improvements. So we could turn and turn 10th Street into
a complete rebuild and remodel under the pretext that it's going to be used as an a city shelter probably for employees of those that are um required to stay at the EOC during the time. It would not serve as the county shelter at all. It's
a good opportunity if um if the neighborhood had some damage. There's some opportunities after posttorm and and instead of like we had a meeting with the county, we are agreeing to volunteer and staff JD Parker in the event of a hurricane. Well, we could
instead of doing that, if we built this properly, we could have a commercial kitchen in it. We could have it set up. We could have it designed so there could be separated areas for people and and be more organized in the in the way of a storm. Right now, JD Parker is go on in the gym and and you know, find a place
to sit out. Let let me share a funny story with you. About seven years ago, we thought, well, why don't we just use the 10th Street Center as sort of a hurricane evacuation center? And I'm like, I know we used to do that, but has anybody really gotten this thing evaluated? So, we had it evaluated. It
was only really evaluated to withstand a hurricane too. Wow. A category 2 hurricane. So, when we found that information out, we were, you know, we were stunned. I'm glad I asked it because if the last thing you want to be able to do is have people inside a building and have it crumble. So
you can do that for just a million? No, we're just like asking the money for Guy Davis. It's just a project and moving forward. We know also that when we finish Guy Davis, we're going to have to using CRA
funds and other funds focus on redoing Tenth Street because it's been 40 years since it's really been remodeled. So, you know, it's tired and so we might as well fortify it and make it a true shelter if we're going to go down that path. Anyway,
the other thing is that it's right in the center of the city. So, it kind of makes some sense from a geographic standpoint. Okay. Any other? So, this is it. This is the sole this is that and and protecting home rule with every bite we have.
So, I was just at a league meeting and they are pursuing what they call a glitch bill on 180, which is to remove the language that's of concern to us. They feel that's the best way forward. Sort of trying to give the legislators cover. Good. We're hoping they're claw back
some of that. They have no idea. I mean, they had no idea was going to be in there and they have no idea how their talks are going, but nonetheless, I certainly will bring it up with our legislators, right? Um
I attended Toby's meeting. Mr. Martell was there. Somebody who else was there from the city. Anyway, but I will convey to you his thoughts were
there were quite a few. I mean one of them for example is a 20-year resident will have property tax reduced by 10% a year. The 3% may be over two or three years. The save our homes 3%. Um
there's a real pace real estate that passes to your heirs will not be at my old business days not at a stepped up basis. Um they are throwing around a lot of ideas. Heard about the 5% of every sale of
every house and sales tax increase. Here's a lot of little formulas out there that they're they're looking at. Your impact fee will be abated uh through your tax at the end of the day. They still need money to run cities and states. So, they will get it one way or the other. And and and uh
Toby Overdorf clearly stated that nobody on the committee was seeking to abolish right adorum. He said, "There's all sorts of discussions of tweaks and changes and what we could do here and what we could do there, but nobody was seeking to abolish it because they recognize
exactly what you just said. It would be impossible to operate the state without the revenue." There is a a really interesting um little YouTube article that was done just yesterday and I'm happy to share it with you. It was a good interview with with Representative Oberdorf and you can
hear directly from Okay, any other questions of Mr. Choski? If not, I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion. Resolution number 94, 2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of
Stewart, Florida, authorizing the adoption of legislative priorities for the 2026 legislation session providing for an effective date and for other purposes. We have a motion by Commissioner Joby. Second. We have a second by the vice mayor. Is there any public comment?
Seeing none, roll call, please. Vice Mayor Collins, yes. Commissioner Clark, yes. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Commissioner Rich, I'm sorry, Commissioner Reed. Yes. Mayor, soon enough. Um, yes.
The first day of fall. We're on a roll here. Thank you. Seeing no other items for our consideration, this meeting is adjourned. Stick around, commissioners. Oh, yes. We're here. I don't see a need. Steuart City Commission.
What? You ready? Yeah. Okay. September the 22nd of September, 2025. Okay. Roll call, please. Mayor Rich. Yes. Here. Mayor Collins here. Commissioner Clark. Yes. Commissioner Gio
here. Commissioner Reid here. And for the last time tonight, pledge of allegiance. Please stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation,
indivisible, liberty, justice for all. Boy, we mean it tonight. comments by city commissioners. None. Are you taking him first or I'm taking you first. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I'd just like to thank Jolie and
the city manager. I know. And the staff, they worked very hard on the budget. Thank you very much. Commissioner Reid, I have no comments. Commissioner Clark. None. None. Mr. Vice Mayor, just after looking at this, I want to
terraform the whole thing. Start over. I'm We're here. I'm I I had a a Red Bull. I'm ready. He thinks it's April Fool. Perfect. No, I'm good. That's all. Okay. I have no comments. Can I get a motion? Oh, sorry, Mr. Mortell. No comments.
Oh, no comments. A motion for approval of the agenda. So move. Second. We have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by Commissioner Clark. Is there any public comment on this item? Mr. Breill, you're silent.
join. Yeah. Seeing none, all in favor? I I oppose. None. Okay. Mr. Bagot, read item one for our consideration, please. Resolution number 96-2025
a resolution of the city commission of the city of Stewart Florida of Martin County Florida adopting the final levying of ad valorum tax taxes for the city of Stewart in Martin County for fiscal year 2026 providing an effective date and for
other purposes to are there Mr. Martell Mr. it. I will take it from here. Uh the purpose of this meeting is that by Florida law, two public hearings must be held to ultimately adopt the final miller rates and annual budget for the city of Steuart, Florida. The first or tenative
hearing was held on Monday, September 8th, 2025. Purpose of tonight's ME second public hearing or final hearing is to hear public comments regarding the proposed millage rates and budget, amend the budget if necessary, and to adopt the final mill rate and city budget for
fiscal year 2026. The final public hearing has been advertised via public notice in a newspaper of common circulation and as a result um we can discuss the budget now if necessary or I can move on to announce the final
millage rates. which the city of Stewart, Florida roll back rate for fiscal year 2026 is 4.7014 mills and was published in the uh tax collector's notice that went out to all the property owners in Martin County or at least in the city. Uh the city is
proposing a millage rate for the fiscal year 2026 which exceeds the roll back rate by 4.22%. The city is proposing a millage rate of 4.900 mills. The purpose for the increase is to fund current operations and accommodate normal increases in the cost
of those operations. I uh hand it back to you uh mayor for any uh any changes since last last time. No, sir that we've made no changes to the budget document. Mayor, I'd like to move resol resolution number 96 2025.
I'll second. Have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by Commissioner Clark. Is there any public comment on this item? Seeing none. Are there comments or questions of the staff by the commission? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Madam
clerk. Commissioner Gobi. Yes. Commissioner Reid? Yes. Commissioner Clark? Yes. Vice Mayor Collins? Yes. Mayor Rich? No. Motion passes. Mr. Bagel, will you read item two for our consideration, please?
Resolution number 97-2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida. adopting the final budgets of the city of Steuart, Florida for fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30th, 2026, providing an
effective date and uh and for other purposes. And quickly, just obviously agenda item number one was to adopt the millage rate, not any actual budget. Agenda item number two is the adoption of the budget. And as the finance director pointed out, there's been no changes
since the last meeting. Mayor, I'd like to move resolution number 972025. I'll second the motion. We have a motion by the vice mayor. I think he has a motion record this evening. And we have a second by Commissioner Gobi. Is there any public
comment on this item? Seeing none. Um okay. Um any questions or comments by the commissioners? Yes. Okay. I'd ask about Bryant Miller and Olive just for new commissioners and so
on. And I know that Jod doesn't have a crystal ball, but Jolie, sorry, I'm interested about Jody. I've been doing it my whole life. Go ahead. But um I just know that I know we had the budget workshop, but we know we have to always think in the
future, but if we could at least get them over here to talk to us. Um can Brian Miller all the bonding agency and they're our bond council and they also provide the services related to the fire meeting. You had asked that and we said
the appropriate time would be in the spring and we've talked about it already and we're planning to bring forward for presentation. It just makes more sense to happen in the spring. Yeah, I hear you. Um the reduction in our millillage does not
threaten our bond rating at this point in time. No sir. In fact, uh I will provide all of you the latest Moody's rating again where the city's report card is uh very healthy on that stance. We have the highest rating for a municipality of our size.
Well, we could get Yeah, we can't get AAA but you know a how would lowering the military? Well, if you don't generate enough revenue to pay your bills, they could be a source of concern. they look at what the ongoing concerns of the city are and is your future revenue projections
sufficient to meet your bond payments. Do you have, you know, um sustainable plans for providing for the expenses and everything into the future? And so Moody's is the rating firm that rates the city and they take our audit and budget and all the other available
documents and they come up with what our overall debt rating is, our credit rating as you would. So, and to the mayor's comment, you know, we get an AA2, which is the highest that we can get at our size. So, um, the 4.9 mills
Moody's didn't make any indication to me because we hadn't adopted it yet. So, after it comes out, but I I I don't think it's going to adversely affect our bond rate. No, because our alarm went up. So, yeah. Yeah, it's it's as we recognize actually the people's bills are not going down.
They're just not going up quite as much. But yeah, it's a consideration and long term. I mean, the those who preceded us have done an excellent job and uh the city is in terrific financial shape and we need to
uh safekeep that going forward. So, thank you. And seeing no other comments, roll call, please. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Commissioner Clark, yes. Mayor Rich, yes. Commissioner Reid, yes. Vice Mayor Collins, yes.
Thank you commission. Seeing no other item for our consideration. Meeting adjourned.