Okay. It is time to bring the sustainability Committee together for Thursday the 18th of December. And today, since we're in the holiday season, is
the fifth day of Hanukkah. It's seven days till Christmas. It's eight days till the start of Kwanzaa and 19 days till epiphany. So it's a great time
to celebrate. And we also have a winter solstice coming up, which is the darkest day. But it then starts bringing us a light, which indeed the holiday
season is about bringing light. So we welcome all the guests and our committee members and
our illustrious Holly. So could we take roll call, please? Would you like to call it to order at a specific. Did you
call it at the beginning? Sorry, I was starting on my. Chairperson at present. Siobhan Meehan. Present. And Loretta
Richetti present. Thank you. And Doctor Molina previously let me know that she would be absent tonight. She had a conflict, so she has an excused
absence. Okay, so where are looking at the minutes? May I have a motion to accept the minutes? And first the motion.
How do you say it? Sure. You can say. Yeah, I make a motion. I make the motion to accept the minutes from last meeting. And I accept to accept the minutes.
Rather, I second. All in favor. Aye. Are there any corrections to the minutes? I don't think
so. Okay. Okay, good. And we have any public comments? Hello, Denise Menino. 470 Cypress
Street, Tarpon Springs. And I'm just here to encourage anybody that hasn't realized that they can come and make comments to join the sustainability
Committee meetings, but I wanted to thank you, Carol, for Doctor Mickey, chairperson of the Sustainability Committee, for going to the Board of Commissioners meeting. Last
time you were on top of it and you saw what was on the agenda. I watched it after the fact, but I find that those meetings go a little late. But I really appreciated that you got up and
made a comment about a piece of land that didn't seem appropriate for the project that was on there, and I hope in the future that that the Sustainability Committee will
have the opportunity to be in the loop prior to anything getting that far along, because it's you you made an excellent point that Manatee Plaza right
across the street, it's just been redeveloped and it's sitting there. I mean, there are some medical building facilities that are already there. The Optum and Quest, and
it's has a perfect opportunity for all of that space to be filled without tearing the wetlands up. So I think that was awesome. And congratulations on living with
coyotes. That was a really excellent presentation. It brought a lot of exposure to the committee and I thought that was wonderful. The only other thing that is a a global thing that I wanted to bring up,
and I just think everyone should look into it. And the reason that I'm mentioning it as a public comment is because I feel like as citizens of the planet, one of the global
issues that we're going to be facing, and we need to be alert to it before it overwhelms us, is the fact that so many satellites are being launched without any regulation. And
there's a lot of these satellites, a lot, 2 to 5 of them come back into the high atmosphere per day. And when they've sent aircraft up five
miles above where the cruising altitude of normal airplanes are, they have able to chemically detect what's up in
that pure atmosphere that never used to be there before, which is a lot of aluminum oxide from the breaking up of satellites. Of course, we're just a city
that has a a sustainability committee and probably a small impact in that realm. But I think that all of us, as human beings of the planet, need to
start writing to our legislators and asking, where is the regulation to protect the planet? Because this aluminum oxide is directly
damaging to the ozone layer, which protects our planet. And so it's going to be I think it's just starting to be an issue that people are more aware of. You can't go out and
stargaze without having the interference of satellites, but I'm more concerned about what the satellites are doing to the atmosphere around planet Earth. And then by creating all this
space junk. But thank you for listening. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Hey. We are. Very
pleased and honored to have two board members and a husband from the Western Klosterman Preserve group, and you're going to be giving a
presentation, and then we'll have a discussion. Hello. Glad to be here this evening. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Rebecca Hughes. I live
in Palm Harbor, as you said. I'm a board member at large with a preservation group. I also work with Pinellas Community Foundation and my name is Maria, and I'm also on
the board of the West Klosterman Preserve, the preservation group, and I live in Palm Harbor as well. So if there's any questions that you all have as we're going through this presentation, please feel
free to interrupt. I'm much more interested in the discussion than maybe you need to speak into your mic. Is that better? Yeah. And they recorded so okay. Wonderful. So you can
both do that. Absolutely. Thank you. So any questions while we're presenting please feel free to interrupt okay. Preservation Group came out of
a really neighbor led initiative in 2020. There was a property owned by the Pinellas County School School Board, and
it was up for sale. There were offers from developers at the time, and the neighbors were able to interact with the school board and really convince them that it was really in the interest of the
neighborhood and Pinellas County broadly to protect this 14 acre piece of land. And so, through a variety of conversations that took place over five years, including with
Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, we were able to secure the property for for preservation in perpetuity. So
the land itself is 13.9 acres we've rounded up. It is immediately adjacent to the Mariner's Point Management Area, which is an already established
preserve managed by Pinellas County. So by combining these two parcels, it really does create a 90 acre oasis for wildlife in North Pinellas. We
were able to raise $1.5 million through donations, and Pinellas County provided $1.5 million of the purchase price through
Penny for Pinellas funds. So in terms of the specific location, it is really at the corner of Carlton and Klosterman Road. So just that tail end of
Klosterman, before you get to the water so you can see it outlined there in teal, the red X is where there is an access gate that just opens up right
onto Klosterman. So at the beginning of the project, I think one of the primary concerns was the amount of traffic that would be added to
the neighborhood by introducing townhomes or even residential spaces, as the neighbors really spoke about what they valued in their neighborhood. Having all of the wildlife that utilizes
the preserve came to the surface as something that was incredibly valuable to them. And so there's a number of species that are present on the property, whether they're
residents there or whether they use that as a resource bank for, you know, their travel or seeking food. So we have seen small gopher tortoises as well
as the larger, more mature adults, eastern screech owls, several different species of owls, actually bald eagles, ospreys especially. And then we do have a number of
horticulturalists who are interested in the property for the interesting variety of green organisms that live on it. So the giant airplant is one of
them, as well as the Florida rosemary. The habitat itself is scrub and sandhill habitat. This is from the Florida Natural Areas Inventory which
has been conducted. So it really does serve as a corridor for those species that require this habitat in order to thrive.
With the way that the property is structured in between existing developments and the sort of bayou nature of the
Mariner's Point Preserve, it really does help to handle a lot of storm water that comes in from those areas. And so by preserving, we call it wcpe.
We've been able to effectively help manage that storm water intrusion, which could have happened with the onset of more significant rains, the onset of
what more significant rain scenarios, hurricanes, things of that nature. So our group, we've formally incorporated as
a nonprofit in 2020. We are a 500 1C3. As I mentioned earlier, we do have standing relationships with Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County government, both staff and the
Board of County Commissioners, Pinellas Community Foundation served as our first sort of space for people to donate to being established. As a
relatively young organization, we really wanted to have a partnership with someone who could manage larger sums of money. And so PCF has really been, notwithstanding my
relationship with them through employment. But they've been a wonderful partner for Wkbg. We have conducted ecological assessments of the property as we were starting to develop
those relationships, want to make sure that our assumptions about the property were accurate, but also to have professional assessments of the land that we could provide to our large donors who may be
interested in understanding the true impact of of their dollars. So we executed. It's not quite accurate. The county and
Pinellas County schools executed a sales agreement with an original deadline of July 1st, 2022. Dallas County Schools was very, very generous
in extending that sales agreement until we were able to raise that 1.5 million. And so the agreement was executed in April of 2025. And Pinellas County now has full management
of the property, and we are working with them to establish a memorial on on the grounds to help recognize the impact that
our donors have made to to the project. So if you'd like, sure. Go for it. You've been talking and talking. So happy to give
you a breath. So who has helped? There's been so many people, and we do want to recognize and thank all of the people in Tarpon Springs who were so helpful and instrumental in
getting this over the edge. So that includes volunteers. And Rebecca has been a wonderful volunteer coordinator for us in person and remote. We had some volunteers and donors from all
over the country. I think all 50 states. Wow, hands on. And our strategic individual contributors and leaders and again, donors, any individual
organization or business that donated any amount of money in cash or in kind or by pledge, including a lot of local businesses here in Tarpon Springs, were very, very helpful. And supporters have
been very helpful, of course. And that includes anybody who's willing to help us in a non-financial manner. They talk about time, talent and treasure, and we've been lucky enough to
have all three by volunteering, spreading the word, manning booths for us at some of the the organizers of some of the events that went on, including
First Fridays and Sponsor. We had a number of individuals, organizations and businesses that donated financially, either in cash or in kind, or
just spreading the word by putting like a sticker in their window, and also spreading the word through their their networks, through LinkedIn and
just through Facebook groups. And anybody who signed up with our preservation sponsorship program, which Rebecca spearheaded. And then we had a level called a partner. We had
supporters, we had different levels of sponsors, we had partners, which is any business or organization that is involved in a like minded mission who has helped us
spread the word for our cause within their contacts. And that could also be a donor if they donated financially in kind or
through cash. And I think is at the end of our presentation. Those are all our those are our slides. Do you have any questions for us? Well, I just
want to first off start by saying that I had one of the signs on my front lawn. So thank you. Thank you. I drive
by that land every day. So that's a precious place for us just driving by, see what's there. It felt so good to take those green ribbons off. Yeah,
we thought it would take, like, all day, but I think it took an hour. We had a lot of volunteers who took the ribbons off in March, you know, and each ribbon represented $20. So $20 donation. Yeah. So I drove
by the gate where all those ribbons were, and I showed my daughters. I'm like, look, it's saved. I was so excited. So congratulations. Thank you. And
thank you for all the hard work you did and all the coordinating that you had to go through to make this happen. So
I, the animals and the community. Thank you. Yvonne, do you have questions or comments? Well congratulations. You know this has been a long
time coming. And I often thought, I don't know how you're going to get over over the finish line, you know, because at 1.5 million is a lot of money. But you said you had
donors from every state. Is that what you said? And how did you do that? How did you accomplish that? We were fortunate, first of all, to
have Marie as our social media manager. And so her expertise in initially beginning that local push to really understand who who is going to help us in
the community is how we were initially successful. We I had an opportunity to partner with a an influencer and I'm
terrible with names, but she was lovely and she has a very large following herself. We invited her out to the property to do a video. And so just
through her network, we had a small viral moment on TikTok. And I believe that is what triggered that sort of ability to pull resources from every
state in the country. We've had international donations as well, but it really was something that was initiated through through our social media reach.
We started a little campaign like, okay, how many tap your friends in other states and see how many we can get? And then we had a program, I believe, that that tracked down where the donors came from. And I
think it was like Hawaii was the last one, maybe, or Alaska, but but we got all 50 states and we were very proud of that. Yeah, that's quite the accomplishment. And what what
is your background, the two of you? Okay. My background is journalism. I was a local journalist for many years, and now I'm pivoted to marketing,
essentially marketing, writer writing. I'm a I'm a copywriter for Bluepearl Pet Hospitals. Yeah, that's been there. That's great. Yes. My background I
have a degree in biology, so I'm just interested in how natural systems work generally. I was in volunteer management at a local attraction, and I've
had a brief stint at software startups and learning and development, both internal and customer facing. And I'm now in philanthropy with Community
Foundation managing grants. Nice. Wonderful. So. I'd like to know and, you know, I think thank you. I thank you for
giving me a tour. I'm glad you're here. It's very exciting. One thing I would like to understand is the county now
basically owns the property as they do the adjacent one and it's county property. It's not Tarpon City property. And so
what's going to happen with the land? It's a preserve. So it just stays there. How you said the county's involved in
managing it. So what's involved there. And also. What do you think the relationship can be
with the city of Tarpon and with our committee? Do you want me to tackle some of that? Sure, sure. I know it's many businesses like there's two in
there. So the first part, in terms of how the county plans to manage the land, we are not directly responsible for it. However, we do have an ongoing
relationship with them. My understanding is that there will be an invasive species removal process. I'm not sure what the timeline is on that,
and it has become part of their portfolio of preserved lands to manage, and so it will be done in alignment with their current strategy. And we do get a say
in whatever they want to do with it. And that won't be anything big at the very most. It could in the far future involve like a shell path, kind of like what you see with Wall
Springs extension. And I would say with that, what we have learned is that even that level of access introduces liability and maintenance requirements that will depend on their own budgets and their
determinations of whether or not that's appropriate. So are they going to let the public in? Are they going to? You have to go by appointment. My
understanding right now is that it is a it is a no access space. I'm not sure what the correct terminology is for that. And
any access to the property has to be coordinated through the county. And so when we coordinated your visit, that was in conjunction with the
county staff. And how about the. Marine point is there what Mariner's point? Mariner's point is there easy access to
that? Is it different or is it managed in the same way as this parcel will be? I don't have direct knowledge about Mariner's point. I imagine it would be similar process. However, since that property
isn't something that is directly connected to it would have to be coordinated. But is it a preserve as well? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So it must have similar rules. That's our assumption. We just don't have
specific knowledge. There's no access to it right now okay. By the public. So then the second question was what could the relationship with this
committee be. And then the relationship between the county property and the city. And then with us, that would be a discussion with the county, at
least with county staff, I assume. But that's not something that we are able to speak on. And with us, we of
course, yeah we do. Yeah. Mutual support. Love to attend some of your meetings because it's all the land is belongs to all the all the species, you
know. And it doesn't just stop at Tarpon Springs and begin in Palm Harbor or Pasco County. There have been a discussion and Robin Sanger had spoken
with you and spoken with us about how to coordinate other parcels of land in Tarpon for
preserve. Now, have you thought about that in your group? We have so kind of broadly, I think I understand your question a little bit better
now. I think Wkbg could serve as an advisory group. If you all have specific questions that are related to land preservation, navigating
different environmental groups within the area, we'd be happy to share our knowledge of those existing organizations and sort of their areas of expertise. If that's something that would be
helpful to you all. We've done some strategic planning this year and have recognized that our mission is the mission that we have, which is to preserve small parcels of land. We're
also a small group of people who have many hats that we share and wear. And so our organizational efforts are going to be focused on those projects that we're able to
identify using a framework that we've developed to assess whether or not it's appropriate for our group to engage on a particular property. So that's sort of broadly where we are as
an organization and in terms of how we can engage with you all, I think we would be very happy to attend meetings in this fashion to be available for email inquiries, phone calls,
examinations of properties that types of things to to give you our our impressions. But I'm not sure that unless a particular parcel has been identified as a wkbg project,
that we would be able to provide manpower or resources to secure a property for preservation in the city of Tarpon without going through
that framework activity, do you have criteria for how you determine or how you would determine a piece of land that would be good for preservation?
Like, does it have to be a certain size? Or we prefer to focus on properties that are under 500 acres. What we found is that anything larger than
that is usually going to have access to funding sources that smaller properties are not eligible for. We've had folks suggest working with The Nature Conservancy, various land
trusts in the area, and our conversations with those groups have indicated that they prefer to focus on larger parcels. So we are trying to fill the gap by focusing on smaller parcels.
And what's too small, if it is ecologically significant and it provides a benefit to the wildlife, there is no property too small. And we do have criteria we just established.
We had a series of meetings with our board and we established what parameters we're looking at to consider a property. We are looking at one or couple right now. We'll be
ready to announce details in the beginning of next year most likely. Cool. So one of the things I've heard you say a
number of times is wildlife. So I guess any property is going to have wildlife, but are things like trees important? Oh,
absolutely. Okay. Longleaf pine is one of. Yep. One of the criteria in our framework. And there are several related to the nature of the land itself,
whether or not it is globally imperiled or otherwise identified in that Florida inventory program, if it's identified as an ecologically significant habitat, that's
part of the criteria. The amount of intrusion of invasive species is important. And how likely is it that that could be remedied, whether or not the
land has already been developed and needs to be rewild right this second? Our organization probably isn't going to be able to support a full rewilding
event on our own. Maybe in 5 to 10 years we can change our parameters to include that type of work. We're just not there as an organization at this time. Another element that we look at
is the biodiversity that's present on the space. If it is, you know, if it's just pasture land, all other things being equal, a wetland that has a variety of species, we have to
make a decision between the two. We would choose the wetland because it offers more biodiverse opportunities. So I have one more question and then
let you guys ask questions too. You keep mentioning invasive species. So could you say what an invasive species is and why
one wants to get rid of them? Well, a lot of them were introduced to Florida years and years ago. As you know, I think it was Brazilian pepper that they would pepper the land with
to stop flooding in South Florida. So Brazilian pepper is one. There are many, and we're not botanists. I don't know if you can think of any more, but
they encroach. Sorry. Melaleuca. Melaleuca, yes. There's a number of fern species as well at Fern. Yeah. You'll see the first sort of 50ft back from
the fence line is all all fern. And that's all invasive. And air potato. Yeah. And they and they crowd out other things.
Native species. The other challenge is that they take up the resources that a plant needs and in order to survive, and it keeps those native plants from growing, which provides food for the animals
that live here. You've heard of the iguanas in South Florida. Those are another invasive species that would eat the food that's available for our native wildlife. And so there's a
variety of of invasive species that we would look out for when assessing a property. I guess
I'm more to say I don't think so. Well, I just I've always been curious what's on the other side of the fence. So if if you're going to have any
tours in the future, how would you get that out to the community if anyone else wanted to go see it at some point we could set up a tour for all of
you if you would like. And we just do it sort of by invitation, you know, since we don't really own it anymore, we need to get permission from the county. So the challenge also with that is that the purpose
for our preservation effort was to remove the impact of human activity on the creatures that use the space. And so we do
have to be mindful of that responsibility. So it isn't something that we would encourage the general public to be seeking the agreement. My
understanding, the agreement that we have with the county to access the property is to help demonstrate to stakeholders like yourselves and to folks who are looking to make an
impactful difference in preservation work. Generally, if accessing the property is going to help further those goals. So while the property
does provide a lot of homes for a number of animals and plants that they rely on, spiders and spiders and rabbits, I see rabbits running in there. Yes,
it really is intended to be space for those creatures and organisms to use that for its intended purpose. Okay, I, I want to follow up on this
native species and invasive species. So native species are are what I mean. What does that mean. That means that you're
kind of getting into a philosophical question. Yeah. Well that's what I have my PhD in. So you would think I would say that. Well, it's something endemic to Florida. Okay.
Here's why. Here's why I'm asking this because. It's it it keeps triggering this parallel
to me between and the political discussion about immigration. And so, you know, immigrants,
immigrants provide really good stuff. Right. And plants that maybe weren't native to Florida can provide. They're beautiful.
They don't necessarily take over things. They add joy and pleasure and they enrich the soil. So just because something's native or just
because something's not native doesn't mean it's harmful. I understand the invasive stuff, you know, things that take over
and take things away and push other things out. But it just it makes me question, you know,
just the focus just on native and not on things that may not be native but yet beneficial. Well, we do have experts who are going to choose what to
remove and what is okay to keep. I can tell you that. Yeah, it's just that this discussion keeps every you know, I keep hearing this distinction not just from
you, but from your doctor. There are a lot the University of Florida, you know, the IFAs extension. They offer some webinars and they have a lot of resources on their website.
That's the I would say go to probably a 30. And I watched a webinar within the last several months about this specific topic. And I think you bring up some valuable questions, though
I don't necessarily know that, you know, if, if, if Maria and Rebecca are, you know, this is it could be a discussion that we could delve into as a whole. Separate discussion, I guess,
is what I'm trying to say. And there are a lot of resources out there. And I do agree that, you know, labeling something native versus non-Native doesn't doesn't mean valuable,
you know, invaluable necessarily. As Murray pointed out, Brazilian peppers, if we remove them from a shoreline and they are stabilizing the shoreline, we could in fact be
doing damage by doing that. So there are the experts that again, determine which things are meant to be removed. They have the training to make those determinations in most cases.
So I think it's a great line of questioning. I just don't want you guys to feel put on the spot to answer things that you may or may not, you know, want to go down that road. But I would encourage you to go to
the extension and see what resources are there, because they have amazing experts on exactly this. And there are atlases like the Florida Native Plant Atlases, that really talk about even some of the things
that we think of as being native actually aren't native. If you even start to dig and dig. So it's a whole long. Well thank you, Holly. This is exactly what I wanted the to
get out there, because I think that part of the role of this committee, since we're open to the public, is to raise these
questions and find out, like, Holly, just what are the resources we have to examine this and to bring these questions up? Because I for me,
that's part of the role of our committee, whether I know the answers to these or not. Oftentimes I know, but I still think the question needs to be
asked. And because the preserve is so important and the work you do is so important, knowing what the criteria is that you use and how we can support you
is really important, and that we can also demonstrate your great knowledge of things. And we want the public to know that
so that they can know that. What most people know about you is that you have this property, but you're much greater than that. And we want to, at least
as our committee to celebrate that and let the public know, definitely appreciate that. One thing that occurred to me, Holly, as you were sharing that resource, which I will be
looking into myself. This is sort of personal, Rebecca, sharing the observation that immigration systems are artificial and created by humans and so we can change them as needed. Whereas the
natural systems that we all live in and rely on have been here for quite some time, and they rely on natural means in order to persist and thrive.
And so when we talk about invasive species, to your point, it's kind of a catch all topic of just anything that's not supposed to be here. But the gray squirrel isn't supposed to
be here. And yet they are persistent across the country. And so maybe when you're thinking of, well, invasive species, they can't all be bad. Another word that I've heard
recently is an introduced species. And so an introduced species can be can be beneficial and can serve a really important natural function. And so when these
experts that we rely on for their their expertise, what we have found is that they tend to look at the holistic needs of a
space to determine which pieces are invasive and which pieces are actually serving that broader piece, like the the shoreline stabilization. So
that might be something to help introduce if you all are trying to develop your own framework, maybe invasive versus introduced versus endemic. The other thing is thank you. That
was helpful there. There are categories of invasive species. And number one as I mentioned
melaleuca or potato grass. And Japanese honeysuckle, old world climbing fern. So those are horrible horrible species that
are doing a lot of damage. And then as you go down the line, you know, down to four, they're you know, they're not as
dangerous. And and also there there's a classification of exotic. So. Exotic introduced
species. But in answer to what you said, because I'm a landscape designer, I, I always try to incorporate natives into
my work. The state recommends 60% of a garden should, should, should strive for 60%. But there's a lot of exotic plants
that are interesting and and are pollinators, which are really good for the environment. So we can look at look at it that way. But the thing I wanted to ask about was in the
removal process, is there an opportunity maybe for volunteers? We sure hope so, because that's something that we could probably help you out with. Yeah, we could you know,
and it also this would be a good learning opportunity for kids. Yes. Yeah. I had the opportunity to present oh I cannot remember the name of the school. But Sherry with their
second grade class, what we were doing and they were very excited. And so being able to engage on an educational piece is also in alignment with our
mission. Maybe we can help arrange an adult. Volunteer opportunity, and then maybe there's outreach into the schools, because this is a
wonderful learning platform to show kids would be great for Bright futures. Yes. For scouts. Yep. Definitely church groups.
I did a project at Howard Park where we my husband was he was the president of Friends of Howard Park, and we did a lot
of we did coats on the out on the beach and we provided a lot of money for that sort of thing. And I ran a garden group at that point called the Garden
Fairies, and we had a big tour and we raised $10,000, and we were able to give the money to the park. We started a an outdoor classroom in
conjunction for at risk middle schoolers and from Tarpon Middle. And it was amazing how much the kids loved that. But
then the county got all worried about liability. So I with my dealings with the county, not easy. So yeah, I'm glad you
mentioned that. That is something where if there are invasive species removal projects on the property, it would have to be done in conjunction with the county. But if there are opportunities within the city of Tarpon that
you all would like us to help promote or to, you know, bring our own group of volunteers, I know that that would be something we would be happy to support with enough notice.
This is terrific, and thank you for coming. And please come back and you know how to contact me. So we'll keep
communicating. Yes. With you. And it just seems like a really good partnership. And who knows where we'll go. But this is a
really great beginning and thank you for everything you do. Thank you all for having us.
Thank you very much for coming. Okay. So the next discussion is
about living with coyotes. And I guess I'll talk about that. So we had the event at the
Leepa-rattner and the woman from. Fish and Wildlife Commission, Fish and Wildlife and Wildlife gave the presentation. And she, she
brought with her a stuffed coyote, which was so adorable. What? Zeus. Zeus. Yes. His name. And I got to carry it around.
So what was really impressive about that was not only was her talk so good, it was really incredibly well attended, but
the question and answer period actually lasted longer than the presentation, and there was such interest in this topic and
really thoughtful questions. And it. I think everybody was so happy that we did this presentation and made this
event happen. The museum was really happy that we had that, and I think would really like for us to do more. And Christine, the director, said
she would like to do more, which, you know, maybe we want to do a presentation about preservation, what it means to do preservation, and why
preservation is so important, and maybe have a panel on that about climate, about all sorts of things connected with
preservation, wildlife and and that I think the museum would probably be interested in doing that as well. So I think this is a really was a really good
start, actually. It was an amazing start. And I was just thrilled by the whole thing. And thank you, Loretta, for
taking it. You're welcome. You all have comments you'd like to make. I think that's a terrific idea about doing interfacing with them. The other component
there is the college, and there were a lot of college students who attended because they were giving credit to come to that talk. So another thing we could do is talk about invasive
species, maybe get somebody from the county, and then you all have these contacts. So, you know, maybe we form a list of different things that we would like to because it would
be good for us to get out into the, into the public. I agree, and that that was just terrific. The coyote thing, instead of
just, you know, we we spent a lot of time building our foundation here. But the real key is to get out to the public. Maybe we could have Florida
Wildlife Foundation, someone from there, maybe. Mallory I've done a conversation with Mallory at the museum that maybe she would come back or
someone from there. Yeah, to connect, to have a network. But this is a would be a good thing to talk about. I'm very
interested in how preservation is so important for helping to cool the planet, and how trees and everything absorb the CO2, and how we need to have them
and not tear them down. So for me, preservation is really important. The other thing is because we're faced with so much flooding and after the two
hurricanes, which really tested carbon because we have the most amount of waterfront in the entire county, because of all our bayous and our river and
access to the Gulf, and we're failing miserably. We have so many people who are still struggling here. They're still living in motorhomes. You know,
when you drive around. So maybe there's some way to pull that in. In preservation is so important to preserving our wetlands because there was, you
know, up to that, there was so little awareness in the 60s, 50s, 60s and 70s. They were just not thinking forward about,
you know, cutting in canals. I mean, the Ace Hardware here got 3.5ft of water in it and, you know, and and people, so many
businesses, so many people were affected in our community. So that's one of the things that we're really interested in. Right? I also wanted to. To
mention that if anyone missed the presentation, it is available now on the City of Tarpon Springs YouTube site.
And then I went on Facebook to the Tarpon Springs community page, and I also posted the link there. Right? So if anyone
missed it, they are able to view the entire presentation. It really was so instructive about coyotes and and talked about a lot of myths
surrounding them that aren't just aren't true. And and also just to appreciate them. And from the sorry from the
audience, you could tell that some people are really afraid of them. And this was a way to, you know, distill that, that sort of fear because they, they
don't want to come in contact with. And our job is to learn that there are neighbors just as much as everyone else. The
biggest thing that is to deter coyotes from coming near one's home is to make sure one doesn't put food out. So to feed cats or to feed. And there
are big studies. She went over to show that if you remove the food, the coyotes would go away. And I know that in my neighborhood, people were putting food out for cats and
ducks and and they were. And they complained that the coyotes were coming too close. So we learned very clearly,
just don't put the food out. So. Holly, it really was well. And thank you for your part in making it happen. It was my
pleasure. And I, if I may recommend that at a future meeting, maybe the next meeting, if we want to put this discussion on the agenda as far as you all. Coming with your
preferred, you know, topics and kind of how we could work towards accommodating maybe a few a year. I mean, obviously it does take quite a bit of coordination to, you know, I don't know that we could do a
monthly meeting and a monthly presentation. We kind of did that presentation in lieu of the meeting. So we would just need to, you know, you all would need to kind of have some strategic thoughts and discussion about that. So I
think that might be another future meeting topic with the correct and the appropriate, you know, experts to bring in for whichever topic we, you
know, that you would be hoping to discuss. Yeah. Okay. So moving on. Last time we had
talked about sustainability, sustainable development guidelines. And now it's a topic for us. And are you doing
a presentation. It's it's a loose. So I'll give you a little. So just so you what we
had talked about was how, how can the sustainability Committee. Make recommendations
or contribute to what's going on in the city. So we are starting to see how we can do that and what criteria we would use. Yes. So a little. Yeah. So
this is kind of a little a little background and the basis. And just to frame the conversation and remind you know everyone the sustainability committee is an advisory committee. So that
role is going to be very different from, say, the Planning and Zoning Board. The Planning and Zoning Board makes official recommendations on developments and how they, you
know, should proceed or not to the board of commissioners and things of that nature. They are allowed to hold quasi judicial hearings and so that they
review, you know, the planning staff reviews and again, recommend how if those need to go before the board of commissioners and things of that nature. So this is a very different role. So what these
guidelines would be would be non-regulatory. They would be suggestions possibly in some cases incentives. It would, you
know, kind of just give a framework for looking at developments, proposed maybe redevelopment or new development. And so some of the
basis for bringing this in, though, is that we do have some actions in our sustainability plan that essentially instruct us to create something of this
nature. So we have sustainability plan action 26, which says encourage the use of green stormwater infrastructure and private development. So again, encourage. And that
folds into action 28 which is make a make green infrastructure a core goal of the city's infrastructure master plan. Let me also say I am not sure what this is referring to, because I was not here when the plan was written
and we don't have an infrastructure master plan. We do have a stormwater master plan, so that might be what this is referring to. Create green building standards and
sustainability practices for city facilities that include considerations for improved energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and which promotes sustainable landscapes as well as public health and safety. Require new
city facilities to meet elevated standards and encourage the use of green building certification programs such as Lead. So one component is how we would encourage or
create a framework for our city owned properties to elevate their sustainability considerations. And then we go into action. 29 adopt local design criteria land
development codes, which again, we don't do land development codes, but we can work with planning and the appropriate entities that require proactive green infrastructure practices from new developments to
encourage sustainable development and the use of green building. Certification programs such as Lead Action 21 make retrofits and upgrades to our buildings that will increase energy and water
efficiency, and then lastly, improve facilities and infrastructure throughout the community to be better prepared for climate change threats. So, you know, there are there are multi layers in here because we've got city buildings and
then we've got private development as well. So but I do think the sustainability plan creates a basis for us to proceed in discussing, you know, kind of what that might look
like. And they would be you know, I think most cities have kind of a separate or at least, you know, a policy that's about the city owned facilities and
then a different way of reviewing or determining sustainable inclusions for private development. So just a couple of the tools, the rating
systems that exist in the world that other localities either rely on or develop their standards by pulling some of the ideas and concepts from these. The Florida Green
Building Coalition has green development standards for horizontal development or redevelopment of land. They have a green home standard, they have a green commercial standard. And then the Green
Building Initiative is more of a global organization. They have the green Green Globes rating system. That's an environmental assessment for commercial and institutional buildings. Dunedin actually
used this for their city hall. So it is a Green Globes goodness. I don't know why I'm so tongue tied on that tonight. It is a I think it's there. It's like you can get up to a
certain number of globes. So depending on what all is included in the project and they have a separate program for residential and then kind of the gold standard as far as
green building or rating systems is from the US Green Building Council. That's the lead program, Leed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This rating system has been around for, you know,
quite a number of years. And they have, again, specific rating programs for new construction versus commercial interior building, shell, existing buildings, homes, neighborhoods. So they it's
they have very specific criteria and it is very thorough. So all that said, a lot of cities do pull and
create their own guidelines based on this. If we're because requiring private developers to do to follow these can be very, I guess burdensome in some
cases. So I don't know that the city is you know, we're not necessarily saying that our buildings are going to be lead or that we would require Leed. We would just encourage people to include, you know, again,
whatever we decide should go in the guideline, consider aspects of sustainability. So some of the questions for you all to think about. And this is probably going to be a multi month discussion tonight is
really just a you know we're just kind of whetting our palette for this wedding our appetite for this. But is there a threshold that you envision would trigger a sustainable development guidelines review.
So the reason I say that is someone building one single family home. Probably not. Right. There needs to be a consideration of the scale of the impact, what that would be.
And then what are your primary concerns that you would like the sustainable development guidelines to address or include? So new development and redevelopment. And as I mentioned, those might be
slightly different or separate. Maybe we can do a policy for the city. We could do again, the guidelines as part of the technical review process. And
these are just suggestions of of strategies, things to think about. You know, how the developer incorporates, you know, integrates numerous things within their design. Are
they giving any proposal towards renewable energy sources? What type of devices are they saying they would use for indoor water versus outdoor water or, you know, irrigation, landscaping principles, Florida
friendly stormwater considerations? Again, the sustainability plan is pretty clear that there are a lot of green infrastructure would be desirable. You know, what is
their building design energy systems. And then I, you know, thought if they're coastal or especially in like a hazard area, obviously we want to make sure they're considering and
following the appropriate requirements for flooding and incorporating anything along those lines. So this was really just, you know, some of our
neighboring cities have again, existing guidelines. And Eden has a matrix that they developed, I think they've been using for a number of years.
And then they also do encourage the use of green building standards for both city and then for, you know, they encourage obviously developers to do those as well. And then
Saint Petersburg, obviously big cities, Saint Petersburg, Tampa and Orlando pretty much you know, they're obviously on a different scale than us, but they do have well-developed programs. So just, you know, there are plenty of cities
around the southeast that have these processes kind of in place that we could always reference and see, you know, what they're doing. And if there's something that you particularly like, we could, you know, kind of use it as a
jumping off point. So thank you. Holly, that was great. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if we could, like, incentivize the construction teams to follow
some of these. And then we would maybe give them a an award or recognize them in some way. I mean, incentives definitely could be part of it. I mean, I, you know, that that
typically the only thing that works are, you know, financial incentives or, you know, you trade, you say, okay, if you include this, we'll give you more allowances for something else, right? So that would definitely be something we'd
have to work with obviously, like planning on as far as you know, what types of allowances could possibly be, you know, a give and take throughout that. But yeah, it's definitely part
of the discussion. Absolutely. Incentives are a tool. Well, I mean, if they're going to be spending a certain amount on landscaping, then we can just say, oh, well, since you know,
you're in flood zone A, choose salt tolerant trees, for example, something just, you know, some guidelines. One incentive for using Florida
friendly landscaping principles is you will save on your irrigation, will save them money in the end, if they do flood because their plants and trees will still be there and they don't have to pay for a
tree company too. It's definitely multifaceted. So I think just thinking kind of about, you know, I guess in a way, I wanted to just introduce
this and give you all kind of the not necessarily homework. I don't want to phrase it as that, but time between now and the next meeting to think about, you know, some of these, these design strategies within these,
what you would want to really highlight and, and make very clear are the priorities that you see that could be infused into these guidelines. And then,
you know, come back with questions or, you know, oh, I saw this in Dunedin, or I saw that Saint Petersburg does this. You know, one thing we've talked about is at some point
in the water conservation, you know, encouraging people to utilize less, you know, Sod right. Do more of the landscaped area as beds, you know, however, these are all
just ideas and things that could come out of this. Right? So so one thing. To distinguish
is one thing is new development. And then enhancements or and redevelopment or upgrading. So those are different aspects.
One thing that was really fascinating about the commission meeting, discussion of that property on mirrors and
alternate 19. And it would be really interesting to listen to it because it was an incredibly good discussion and varied. One
thing was that property and the development was not under the current comprehensive plan. It was in the previous one because
the the project had been introduced with the comprehensive plan. Correct. So a lot of the restrictions on wetlands didn't apply. So they
couldn't say, well, you didn't meet this, so they couldn't do that. So there's a lot of layers to how this works. And
there were one of the big issues was there was only one way to access the property. And instead of two. So the issue about the wetlands and then
where the parking was going to be in the front or the back, you know, how esthetically it was going to look, but also it was a question of how did the development fit in to what was
around it, you know, other things. So the conversation about this is really wide and there's stuff about sustainability, but
sustainability is also about and we've talked about this before is is the thing that's going to be put in there going
to last or is it going to shut down. In a year or two. And in that area there's so many empty
places. So the conversation is short. And so my colleague says it would behoove us. To spend
quite a bit of time talking about how we want to look at this and also to understanding, yes, how this fits in with, you
know, anything that was able to be reviewed under the sustainability, you know, umbrella, it would most likely just be again, a a checklist
almost if you will. Or like I said, Dunedin has a matrix that I as a staff person would be utilizing. So it wouldn't be the board wouldn't be. There's not a mechanism for the board
for you as an advisory committee to be in the review process. So another thing we could do, you know, is just, you know, maybe we could even bring planning in and give an
overview of really what the development review process is and how they see this kind of fitting in. Just so we understand what that what the mechanism would be, because it
wouldn't be this this committee is not a review committee. So it would never be coming before you. All that it's not that's just not part of the
development flow currently as it stands in the city. So, you know, I just want to obviously make sure everyone kind of has that big picture. And. Yeah,
and but it's also a way of us individually as citizens being prepared to. Absolutely. And I
also want to say that, Pat. In planning and zoning, she amazing. And she would be great to have. Sure. I mean, she's so
knowledgeable and just like, yeah, it's a good example of how to do this. Exactly. So the more that we as a
sustainability committee can understand the breadth of what we can think about. Great. So
that'll be on the agenda. We could I can ask if yes, I could ask if Pat would be willing to come whether it's next time or February or something. And then
I also know that side note, since we're talking about scheduling, but Moana, our arborist, also, she would be available to come in January, she said. So that's, you know,
a possible we could bring up and bring it up at the wrong time. I'm doing a boo boo. That's a future meeting topic. But it kind of it kind of ties into the sustainable development guidelines. So and
that would be great to follow up with their project that we had a hand in at least commenting on and finding out
where that is with our new arborist. Okay. That's terrific. Holly. Hey. Thank you. You're very welcome. Anybody you guys have anything else you want to
say on this topic? No. Yeah. Okay, so there we are, Holly items for our next agenda. Items for next agenda is going
to make sure. Okay, I left my notes over here. Okay. So would
you all want me to. Would you want Moana to come in January. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. So we'll do that. That might be
interesting for you all. You know what the the plans that the arborist, the projects in Tarpon and how that can
interface. And then otherwise continuing. Oh, I would say the discussion about presentations.
Yes. These programs correct public outreach that you all are interested in facilitating over the next, you know,
several months. Yes. So we could plan ahead. And then otherwise, just maybe I'll
reach out to Christine and see what would work for her in terms of every three months, or how it would fit in with their
schedule. Just so we can think about that. Great. And then I think just picking up on, you know, this again, the sustainable development guidelines, maybe we can, you
know, look specifically at one, I put Dunedin's matrix on here. Not because I wanted to go over that with you all tonight, but just so you all had access to it so we could, you know, look
specifically at something like that next time and kind of see, you know, is it too in depth? Is it does it kind of fit what we're looking at. You know. So that's that's really all I
would think. I think between having Moana come and give kind of an overview of where the arborist program is and then planning and discussing public
presentations and then revisiting, you know, sustainability, sustainable development guidelines, again, that would be probably a meeting. Okay. Sounds good.
Great. Do you have anything else you'd like? No thank you. No, that's always answer. Okay.
I think the next thing is just staff comments. So I was just quickly I had sent this to the committee. The call to artists is posted for the Tarpon Springs Storm Drain mural
program. So this is the inaugural phase one of installing asking artists to provide proposals to install
some beautiful no rain, nothing but rain down the drain related storm murals on our infrastructure on some specific locations. So if you are public
and you are watching this and you would like to submit a proposal, you can find the call to artists on the Tarpon Arts website or on the public art through the public Art Committee and through various
other. We've linked it on Connect Tarpon. We've linked it on the sustainability website, so lots of ways to find it so very exciting that that is
moving forward. The artists will the proposals are due in early February, February 4th. I believe the public Art committee is going to meet on February 11th. Decide which
artist proposals are going to be accepted, and then the artists that are chosen will have until June. So they will have to do the painting, do the installation of the mural by
June 1st so that we beat the rainy season. Hopefully that's the goal. So very exciting program. So kicked it off here. Public art committee picked it
up and I'll be coordinating with staff on some of the the other just, you know, logistics and things once it's progressing. So great exciting
program that is new. And then we will have in January on January 27th, the consultant that completed our solar feasibility study will be presenting to the Board of
Commissioners. So that will be the second meeting in January. And then we I didn't put this on the agenda because it's really just come up in the last
week or so working with Pinellas Beautiful on bringing a composting presentation to Tarpon Springs. Composting. Oh, good. Yeah. So that'll be kind of a workshop isn't really the
right word because it's not really like hands on. It's just more of educating. And they will give the presentation on, you know, how people can get started in their own homes and things like that. So we'll be hosting that at the recreation
center, probably in it'll it'll be very late January or early mid February not we don't have the date set, but we're kind of looking at doing some internal thing. You said that was in the
middle of January, some presentation to the commission. Oh, on January 27th, the solar feasibility study results. Got
it. Great. And then we also have solidified through the Southwest Florida Water Management District, some funding that really we don't get the funding, the city
doesn't get the funding, but they will be doing work essentially on our behalf to educate citizens about water conservation so they can mail out postcards to high water
users. They will be creating some social media graphics for us that we can post just about different topics throughout the year relating to water conservation, such as, you know,
skipping a month, a week of watering in the winter. You know, when it's when it's dry season, you don't really the grass isn't growing. It's not growing season. So you can skip a week, you know, checking your
sprinkler settings, all kinds of things when before it's when grow season. When grass growing season is upon us, it'll be reminders about, you know, again, checking your sprinkler
settings and what our watering restrictions are and things like that. So that's going to be really, really cool. And it's just it's kind of something that I'm facilitating through sustainability. So just
want to let you all know that you as citizens will probably see some things out about water conservation. So that's all coming through sustainability and just doing a lot of this. I
think the theme for 2026 is outreach. So those are really my only updates right now. Okay.
With all the rain we're getting, we won't have to water our lawns. We needed it, that's for
sure okay. Do you have any comments? Loretta, I really don't. Thank you. Siobhan. No,
all I have a comment. So one of the things about sustainability is we tend to focus on environment, but sustainability in a community is also about
culture and about how the community works together. And I want to commend this city for this year, putting up Hanukkah
decorations in Craig Park. And that had always not been included in tarpon. And and so a group of our citizens were
excluded. And so the city has done that and did a ceremony yesterday at the sponge docks. And I just personally want to
thank the the city for doing that and commend them for being inclusive. Any other comments? That's fantastic. I didn't know
they did that. So that's wonderful. Yeah. Okay. So do I have a a move to a adjourn? I'm
motion to adjourn I second okay. All in favor. Aye. Hey. Thank you for coming so much. Thank
you. Invitation. This is great. Our pleasure. Come again? Yes.