meeting of the combined Planning and Zoning Board local planning agency and INF infrastructure ctax oversight committee to order and it is uh for the village of taquesta and it is 5:30 on March 20th
2025 Nick will you take roll call of course chair Leslie Dasher here Teresa maio here elizabe shower here Sher Ambrose here Jean Mel Downey here thank you okay has everybody read
the tonight's agenda yes and do we have any changes or we get motion to approve I'll motion to approve the agenda second all in favor I any opposed motion passes agenda is approved and then we'll do all
three meeting minutes soon okay and okay the first one is the planning and zoning board meeting minutes from January 16th 2025 has everybody had a I have a spelling correction um it's on page
two um second um one two the third line down she further nothing she it should be she further noted that oh as her late father oh good one and there's another one there's another one on that same
page the par the sent above it says she explained that the project was a collaborative effort it says amount you're right yeah we're good we're good yeah feeders okay you could get a
job well we used to proof read so I missed that one I did too yeah otherwise I make a motion to approve with the two Corrections second it all in favor any opposed
okay the meeting minutes are approved as with the changes and let's see the next one is the local planning agency meeting of January 16 2025 if everybody has had a chance to look that
over I make a motion to approve second all in favor I any opposed no meeting minutes for the local planning agency are approved and finally we have the meeting minutes for the infrastructure sir tax oversight committee meeting from January
16th 2025 has everybody looked over the meeting minutes yes make a motion to approve the minutes I'll second all in favor I any opposed okay the meeting minutes are
approved okay chair the next item on our agenda is an application that being said I need to if anyone is present this evening and plans to give testimony regarding application V 1-25 I need to swear you in at this time
so if you do plan to give testimony if you would please stand with me and raise your right hand do do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury in the laws of the State of Florida to tell the truth the whole truth say nothing but the truth I do very good you may be seated uh members of the board at this
time I would also ask if any of you have had any expart Communications regarding this application to disclose them at this time none no okay very good with that chair you can call our um our applicant I believe staff has a brief
presentation on this one too okay all right good evening Jay hup community development director um so I know we haven't had a zoning variance in a while but just for your clarification if a zoning variance is requested in a residential zoning District it goes directly to the PCB and you take final
action on it if it's in a commercial District it goes to Village Council so tonight you will be voting on uh on this um we typically in my career we try to deter people from applying for zoning variances if it's not valid or there's
no actual case um so we certainly get a lot of people that have situations that arise and they say hey I'd like to get a zoning variance and I will walk them through their criteria and say do you think think you can meet to these legal justifications often they don't um this
was a case where um we we met with them and they in staff's opinion and I think also I don't want to speak for Dylan but he and I conferred and I think he agrees there is certainly some validity to to the Casal here tonight um I'm just going to give a a brief introduction to the
project uh 354 z uh Riverside Drive uh as you can see the star there so it's on Riverside Drive uh just south of the Desta Bridge um it's immediately north of Dober ditch um which is uh kind of a drainage ditch
um so as you see there's a lot of sediment at the end of the ditch as it gets into the river and there's a lot of Shing and um and issues so you'll hear a case tonight that that the applicant has difficulty accessing their docks and need to extend their docks because of
this the Shing which is um something that that they really did not right this is from a a drainage ditch that that they have no control over um here's another image um that shows that you know as you can see it's it's quite shallow there um almost a
sandbar looks like a lovely spot to hang out um but uh certainly makes makes boating access difficult uh so the variances requested there's two different variances requested the first one is from section
762a it says that docks can only only be 75 ft from um the mean high water line um they're seeking to construct a 97 ft long dock again to give them a little bit further distance away from um from some seagrasses and from from that Shing uh
situation the second one is um section 7620 f um this says that any um intersecting dock sections can only extend 20 ft from the main dock so anything that would that would um be horizontal to the dock um can only be 20
ft they're seeking to construct a 24t extension there so it's it's a 4ot difference from from what would be allowed by code um Dylan so the applicant's going to give a a presentation now um Ali Alexandra um is going to give a
presentation on behalf of the applicant when she's done with her presentation um Dylan will walk you through kind of the the legal findings of fact and uh kind of the legalities of the decision you're going to have to make after it so I will hand it over to them Miss England if you can state your name
and address for the record please yes absolutely um my name is Alexandra England and I'm from the law firm of Jack Harris our address is 790 Juno Ocean Walk in uh Juno Beach Florida thank you good evening board members again my
name is Alexander England I'm here tonight on behalf of the owners of 354 Riverside Drive David and AMD Swank for are here with us tonight I'm also joined by professional engineer Matt Butler from isinger and stubs engineering he is
the owner's Coastal engineer consultant with this project before you hear from me a bit further I would ask I would like to ask Mr Swank to come up and say just a few brief introductory words thank you hi I'm David Swank uh my wife amate
and I have been uh per year round residence inesta since 2021 uh we live here with our large family we have five kids and a golden retriever uh three of the kids are in middle or high school and two are off at
College um and we we moved to to Quest and made a home here because we're struck by it being a you know maybe a warmer and more neighborly area than some of the other areas uh around here
we were impressed that it wasn't overdeveloped and it was very livable and I love that we have family here my brother Tom and his wife live in taquesta and my niece Hattie lives in taquesta and we have some great neighbors as
well uh one of the other reasons that we moved to taquesta were all the out you know the great outdoor activities that that are available here whether it's going to the beach or boating or fishing uh personally I've all my life loved the outdoors I think
that the wildlife that we have around here is amazing whether it's the fish or the birds or some of the marine mammals that we have in the the river like like otter or or NES or even Dolphins um but with that said part of the appreciation
for the nature here is also understanding that the overall ecosystem is really critical to uh sustaining that life and that includes uh the seagrass which un Ely seems to have been disappearing from the lockah hatchee river at a kind of
alarming rate um the the dock that we've designed and that you know we're we're asking you to consider today would help preserve that seagrass I think it would also help to keep safe people who might be on or around the sandb
bar uh you know at the the mouth of the drainage ditch that that flows into the river and I think it would also help to keep safe our our families we're we're boating so I appreciate what this board does to help keep the The Village a you
know a beautiful and special place and I appreciate you taking the time to consider our application for variance tonight thank you thank you again my name is Alexandra England thank you so much in advance for your time and your consideration of this application I have a PowerPoint that I
want to walk you through that I hope you will find helpful and I hope it provide a good understanding of the hardships that the sanks presently face that have brought us here today we have an opportunity to work together to accomplish something really meaningful which is to provide the owners of this beautiful waterfront
property the ability to safely utilize their Dock and to protect seagrass beds that are currently at risk of harm I'll start with an excuse me I'll start with an overview of the property you'll see the property outlined in blue this is application for two
variances relating to a proposed environmentally friendly dock that's needed to avoid the extreme effects of Shing that have occurred in the Swank for perian area as well as protect these seagrass beds here in red you will see the two
docks that currently exist on the property today and here in green you will see these seagrass beds protection of the seagrass is one of the main reasons for these requested variants the blue illustrates the proposed dock
which will move boating activity away from these Cass beds by extending it in this way we're able to increase the distance between boating activity and the seagrasses by about 700% these proposed plans call for removal of the smaller dock in its
entirety the proposed dock has already been approved um from by the Department of Environmental Protection and by the Army Corps of Engineers both of the Swank's neighbors those directly to the north and directly to the South have who are you know in
fact most impacted by the stock extension have provided letters of support supporting these variances and this proposed stock like Jay mentioned the property is situated on a bay directly north of a drainage Canal again you'll see the
property highlighted in blue and you can see just a bit of space below the blue that is the drainage Canal the drainage Canal benefits numerous properties Inland while providing a unique privacy buffer from the southern neighbor the property's location on the
bay causes its Shoreline to be located farther away from the deep water and the navigation Channel than the neighboring docks also this part of the river is very wide and there's a large area of navigable deep water so you'll notice in
the picture just how far away the dock is from the channel by looking at that boat Bubble path and you can see really just how wide the river is right in this area you'll also note just how close that boat is coming to some of the other docks compared to the Swank both
currently as it's pictured and even if it were extended a bit more sediment outflow is continuously occurring at the mouth of the drainage Canal which has resulted in increasing Shing or sediment buildup right in the Swank reparan area you can see the the
Shing highlighted in the red circle in that picture the sh inhibits the depth of the water creating environmental navigation and safety concerns among others and you can also see from this image that the sediment is building up
more so on the north side of the drainage Canal or that left side um which is right in the Swank reparan area as a result of the Shing at low tide a sandb bar is revealed next to the property which is attractive to kayakers paddle boarders and other members of the
community who do frequent this area here is another picture um of the sandar at low tide and you can actually see that because of the Shing the small dock on the property which is um Illustrated in this picture is completely dry and
unusable this is the dock that will be removed as part of the proposed plans the Shing is causing continued Shoreline accretion which has resulted in the mean High waterline moving water bird in fact in just a short time frame of about 18 months the mean high water
line moved waterward by about 5T the prior owners of the property actually had a boat lift on the south side of the dock closest to the Shing which they were forced to abandon and then ultimately remove because of this worsening condition
the sanks themselves have tried to avoid the sh and they've relocated their boat to the west side of the dock to try and access as deep a water as possible given the current dock configuration but these efforts have been unsuccessful the Shing is progressing and now requires that the
dock be extended into deeper water in order to avoid the sh as I've mentioned the property's repairing area has established seagrass beds near shore and those are at times being shaded by the current Dock and Boat Lift because they're just so close extending the dock as proposed is
going to permit additional sunlight to reach these seagrasses fostering its growth however most critically because the water depth around the property has decreased because of the sholing the Boating activity has become closer to the seagrass Beds which has increased
the risk of harm to the seagrass by boat propellers and other boating activity and as you saw in an earlier image there are currently two existing docks on the property both of which were on the property when the sanks purchased it in
2021 we understand that the smaller dock is a non-conforming structure and because the plans call for removal of it in its entirety it's going to result in an overall reduction of non-conformities on the property and increased Conformity with the taquesta
code here's a copy of the proposed doc plans that I know Jay showed you a little bit ago um as I mentioned these have already been approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and at the federal level as well there was no special permit required by the AR core of
engineers the proposed variances are a necessary solution to these multiple unique challenges as for Dock length the Swank need to extend their dock to a depth where the dock and Boat Lift can be utilized safely and the seagrass can be
better protected a longer dock is going to increase safety for the sanks it's going to increase the distance between boating activity and that Shing and allow them to get away from that shallow water it's going to increase safety for the community because it's going to reduce that conflict Zone that's created
between the Boating occurring so close to individuals using the sandar it's also going to promote the seagrass health and growth currently the distance from the terminal platform to the Nearshore seagrasses is about 5T and under the proposed plans it's about 40
ft and so the proposed dock actually extends boating activity is going to occur about 35 ft away from the seagrass Beds which is about 700% that's going to reduce risk of damage by boat propellers and other boating activity and allow that
additional sunlight to reach the seagrass the proposed dock was professionally designed with safety and seagrass protection as the leading factors and again by removing this existing smaller non conforming dock we're reducing non-conformities on the
property and actually reducing the total Boardwalk on the property by 204 ft if the swangs are unable to lengthen their dock to access deeper water and avoid the Shing they may end up with a completely unusable dock just as with
the second one like we saw in that picture the rate of Shing has the potential to increase at any time and the existing dock can be rendered entirely unusable overnight I previously mentioned that the mean high water line has moved waterward and in fact from
July 2021 to December 2022 we've seen Shoreline accretion or sediment buildup which has caused the mean high water line to move waterward by about 5T the inability to utilize the existing dock on the property because the water is just too shallow is going to
negatively impact the value of this beautiful waterfront home and the Swank will be denied a right commonly enjoyed by other uh waterfront property owners in the village the proposed dock extension is consistent with the neighborhood these are approximate measurements of some neighboring
docks the proposed dock is only 488 ft making it smaller the many neighboring docks also the depth to which the proposed dock will extend is right around that 3 and a half to 4T Mark which is consistent with the water depths of some neighboring docks
the proposed dock is less intrusive to the Waterway than some neighboring docks and here in this picture the proposed dock is the third from the top you'll see um a white line that's been superimposed on this aerial and you can see this this line
that we've drawn electronically which shows the proposed docks extension into the river compared to the neighbors and in fact it's about 47 feet behind this imaginary line connecting these neighboring docks as for the terminal platform the sanks
are giving up allowable width for slightly additional length to minimize the length of the dock needed to reach safe water depths to avoid the Shing to permit safe access to the boat on the lift and to lessen the impact of boating activity on the neighbors so a bit of a
trifecta of benefits coming along with this terminal platform the size is consistent with the taquesta code it's 120 ft which is allowable under the Testa code and again just slightly additional Leng width is given for additional length which
ensures safe access to the boat on the lift when boarding it allows the boat passengers access to the stern of the boat as opposed to the bout which is not as safe it's also designed to allow both uh boat lifts to be located on the terminal
platform which again reduces the variants requested and the length of the dock that's requested to reach these deeper waters relocation of the smaller boat lift from the north side of the dock to the platform is going to protect shallow seagrass beds and it also lessens the
impact of boating activity on the North neighbor by tucking that boat lift into the L these proposed plans are actually more to the detriment of the sanks as their view of the river is more impaired by a perpendicular to the dock uh boat
profile as opposed to a parallel to the dock boat profile again the terminal platform size is consistent with the neighborhood these are approximate measurements of some neighboring terminal platforms the four to the north and four to the South appear to have terminal platforms that
are bigger than the proposed and in fact one is actually appearing you know appears to be about 2 feet longer and 2 feet wider so really all of these comparisons just go to say that the proposed dock is nothing out of the ordinary or unlike anything that already
exists in the village today to conclude the unique physical characteristics of the property necessitate the requested variances particularly the drainage Canal causing extensive sholing and the Nearshore seagrasses the property is suffering at
the benefit of many others Inland who are supported by this drainage canal and seemingly no one is more negatively affected by the drainage Canal than the Swank the dock has already been approved at both the state and the feder Federal level and it's going to allow the sanks
to make safe use out of their dock it will better protect the environment particularly those seagrass beds and the community it will not have any impact on the neighbors or navigable Waterway and is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood now I have the technical
criteria up next but I kind of put all the important stuff the good stuff up front and I've already spoken about it so if you would find you know going through each criteria to be duplicative I don't want to waste anybody's time so I'm happy to end here um turn it over to staff answer any questions that you may
have any questions for um I just I have one um I really liked you you spent a lot of time and this is what I enjoy when we have residents that hire people to do
something and it's done professionally because it's very detailed and um you definitely have um really I mean it took me over two and a half hours just to go through everything but I mean I it's it
it it's very well uh presented and the other thing that um I do what material I I don't know can I ask I mean because of the doc I mean what type of material are you going to be using when you construct your new
dock that I don't know um off the top of my head that's not my area specialty but you know Mr Butler is here he's the coastal engineer he may have an answer to that um I mean is there any special criteria for I mean it's been a very long time since we've had to approve a
dock I mean yeah so the building we have standards for that the building department will look at it like they said the DP is already looked at it so it'll be consistent with whatever the Florida building codee requires and whatever the Testa code requires the other the other you have a very
unique piece of property only because of where you're located right next to the DOA ditch I mean years ago that ditch was a very um controversial it created a lot of
problems and the village had to go back and redo everything so I mean years ago you didn't have the rocks that were there The Village did that I'm sorry I've been on this board for a very long time um so I I mean I mean when I was
reading this and I'm like I said crap he's right North and and I knew the the problem that the previous owner had you know with that because he had come and asked and and that's why we put the rocks in
we tried to preserve the land that was there so um really this was very I I mean I'm I'm saving this for the future because it's been a very long time since we've had to approve a doc I mean Leslie
and I have been on for quite a while so yeah so and and and I appreciate everything that you've done thank yes of course no thank you guys okay questions for Miss England um I do have one question about
the uh um terminal uh sure platform uh it's the same square footage but you're asking for it to be longer instead of wider is that exactly so it's the same square footage um I believe under the tester code it can be six feet
wide ours is only 5 feet um so we don't need the 5et in width we just need a little bit of the extra length so that's why when you do the math the area I'm not great at math but um that basic math it's 120 F feet which is what's allowable under the code the 20 ft by 6
feet okay and were there any other questions for England we're dealing with this and this is why I'm um we have several docks that are becoming not usable where I live on
the inter Coastal and they're filling in underneath um and I can't even imagine trying to get an ex exension on our docks to get over where they're filling in I just wonder what this means for anyone else
that you know is having their docks fill in because of you know whatever boat traffic causing it to fill in It's All Case by case yeah Case by case variances are Case by case but um that that's
that's really kind of we because I deal with this every day we talk about it every day we have three that are becoming unusable U because they're filling in underneath um your area is also probably the second most unique area in the
village after this one right because of the Jupiter Narrows right that's what you're talking about um so there's a possibility that somebody can make a compelling legal argument for the same thing there but but each thing looked at
on a case- by case basis we're not necessarily setting any kind of precedent for future thing because it's so you don't feel is setting a precedent unless the code Chang changed anyone who wanted to go past the limit would have to come in front of the board for a variance
request or change the ordinance or change the ordinance yes which we've asked for previously I just I only have kind of one question as it relates to the requirements for the ordinance right and it's that you all are asking for the
minimum variance that's required right my question is actually related to that that but not that exactly are you sure this is enough given the amount of Shing you have there like you feel confident this solution is a durable solution for you I I assume your engineers are you
wouldn't have asked for it I just right yes no I think we do and our engineer Mr Butler he can weigh in if I um don't touch on anything but I think exactly that we're going out only as far as we feel is required in order to avoid the sh protect the seag grass kind of deal
with all the issues that we've discussed because it wouldn't be awesome to do a second variance like five years from now is all I'm really getting at on the same property we unfortunately Dylan and I have conferred and and you cannot Grant a larger variance than requested to
correct no no I don't want to I just in everywhere problem with this thank you yeah but they their their property is unique because of the do ditch understood yeah you know um and I didn't
know that ditch name but I didn't know I never knew it had a name I either no I'm sorry you can tell them yeah it's just yeah okay okay if there's no other questions for Miss England no other questions okay thank
you than you for your uh presentation I see a lot of guests with us today I just want to make sure if there's anyone else who wanted to speak on this I'm from our side then we should call for public comment okay okay we're ready to uh for Public public
comment I don't have any cards Meg do you Marie Marie if you'll state your name and address for the record please um mariea pury I live in the country club I appreciate Mr Swank's concern for overdevelopment to Questa and I share it
um The Village's comprehensive plan 1.3 point or 1.3.2 um states that the village will minimize adverse environmental effects of residential development and that special attention should be given to the environmentally sensitive areas abing the lockah hatti river this dock would
do the opposite Testa already allows long docks this dock would be almost twice as long as what is permitted in Jupiter which evidently has a 50 foot limit making even large longer docks for potentially bigger boats would have an adverse effect on the marine animal and
plant life in the river after this precedent is set we all know that in all likelihood there will be other requests for longer docs we have seen this happen before very recently not in the dock context but in a similar one and the result will be significant quantities of
new structure and larger boats in the water which would make this in the end a highly un environmental approach that is inconsistent with the comp plan as well as the code the argument that this proposal would protect the three seagrass beds better than a two code dock is not credible and that means that
the analysis fails under section 78 sever 76-7 B7 and 8 the seagrass beds are not currently impacted by the end of the current dock but the proposed dock takes the end of the dock and the boat lift significantly closer to the outer bed and makes it much more likely that
boat traffic will cross over that bed when accessing the dock in particular you can easily see that by comparing Pages 22 or 20 and 22 in the PDF the flight path of boats going boats going to the dock will be much closer to the outer bed as a result of this change and that will affect the grass which is
unacceptable under Section subsections 7 and 8 there's also insufficient evidence to support the assertion that the sediment deposits are increasing or that the mean high water line has changed there is only the bald assertion that a coastal engineer approximated the mean high water line that has changed five
that and that change has been 5 feet between 2021 and 2022 that is not actually evidence of where the mean high water line is as my understanding is that that requires 19 years of data it is instead a self interested assessment that cannot support a variance from the
law the Board needs to rely on facts to justify action different from what the law provides however satellite photographic evidence which is very useful to see the evolution and overdevelopment along the coast from at least 1999 on Google Earth shows that sediment has been in that location in
evidently in relatively stable amounts for the past 25 plus years the photos from 2009 and 2010 in particular show at least as much if not more sand in this spot than in 2024 so the approximation of the engineer is not deserving of credibility without additional evidence and some this
application does not meet the requirements of subsections seven and8 and longer docks to support bigger boats is fundamentally at odds with the priorities in the comp plan and the code and should be rejected thank you thank you Marie any other further public
comments I address some of the issues okay Jay or I'm sorry Jared I'm sorry if you'll if you'll state your name and address for the record please Jared Gaylord um live at 20
Laurel Oak Circle um just wanted to ask I don't know like who has ownership of the do ditch I guess is that like to Quest Village The Village okay do they like dredge that ever or not really yes okay the do dis starts there where his
property is and it goes all the way down past Seabrook okay okay I mean and years ago we had we had that 100e storm and the do ditch just I hate to tell you this it
just overflowed I mean we had massive flooding but they said that that was like a 100 yeah so it it would it needed to be addressed and then just improvements were done over the years as they were addressed so interesting um I
was just wondering about the silt and everything like that because it does clearly appear that from the aerial photo photographs that there is silt material that accumulates and Acres near this property um so as far as I'm concerned I think that the applicant
meets the special and unique criteria on your standard and your variant standard so I'm not voting today but if I was I would vote for this thank you Jared any oh miss England you wanted to yes yes
thank you so much um Meg could I get the PowerPoint back on because I have a few additional slides that I think can help address some of the concerns that Miss safiri raised which I absolutely I do understand um but I have some slides that I think can help address
that well while she pulls that up can I maybe ask her a question so I understood the materials I received to have been developed by experts and reviewed by experts and like Co you know engineering I don't believe Missi has any technical credentials in
that regard so maybe you could also just remind us of the credentials of the people who assembled the packet absolutely um Mr Butler if you want to come up you can start first he can tell you about his background his uh his credentials and all that he's been our main uh Coastal engineer with us Mr Butler if you'll state your name and
address for the record please Matthew Butler I'm with isinger and Subs engineering uh our office is at 649 US Highway 1 uh North North Palm Beach Florida thank you um here on behalf of the SNS um I've been with Isa minger and stubs I'm in shareholder now I've been
there for 19 years and 21 days but who's counting um I graduated from Texas A&M University with the degree in Maritime systens engineering took about a year off from school and uh after I graduated and have
been in Sunny South Florida ever since that I was migrant sub engineering um I met with David Swank oh man it must have been at least a year ago now on at his property we were looking at two different things first we were
originally looking at the do ditch and um its impacts on the property and as well as invest investigating uh potential dredging out around the dock to reduce the sh um to to be able to have navigation to the dock um through
the course of doing a seagrass survey looking at do ditch looking at at aerial photography having multiple surveys done on the property uh it was determined that the best thing for for the Swank would be just to to extend the dock out to deeper water away from the sh that
way we can avoid the sh avoid dredging and avoid um potential environmental impacts from dredging uh with the seagrasses there dredging is not necessarily um feasible uh dredging seag grasses is something that can be
permitted but it's very difficult it involves mitigation it's very expensive it's something that we like to avoid at all all costs if if possible um so
uh myself and and my employees swam around the property took water depth measurements observed the seagrasses and came up with again what we thought was the best solution was to extend the dock out to uh to sufficient enough room that
will not be back hopefully in five years asking for anything more um the currently the boat that's on the north side of the dock Shades seagrass the bow of the boat when it sits on the boat lift it Shades the seagrass um maybe
Miss England can pull that up when um when she gets back up here also um the survey the property was surveyed twice I Believe Miss alen said they were about 18 months between the two properties
that's how we determined the difference between the mean High waterline and that the shoreline is actually creting and not eroding which is very rare most shorelines erode basically What's Happening Here is the do ditch Shor line is
eroding and it is not eroding from boat wakes it is eroding from from rain yeah as rainfall lands on that Shoreline it is eroding the dirt into the canal and as the canal floods out you got this
it's kind of like an e tied sh if so uh as the the water comes the water doesn't really flow into that Canal very much or the ditch but it does flow out and that's what you're seeing here sort of like the eptide Sha outside of the big Jupiter you know you get this big sh
brings all the standand out um so anyways that's that's where the um where the evidence of accretion is from from the two different surveys I don't know if I have anything else the the boat lift the the picture there you can see the boat lift on the side of the dock the boat is not on it I
think this is maybe I'm not sure what year this is maybe it was before I sorry I was just guessing Okay thank you that answered my question okay thank you Mr Butler you um Mr Swank just reminded me that
the new dock is going to be higher than the current one it's going to have some spacing so that's also going to allow the additional sunlight um the two topics that Mr Fury had previously raised that I wanted to address only because I had the slides ready to go um
I'll go through it was the um the impacts on the seagrass beds that are further offshore and you can see those pictured here um and actually we don't have a concern about the seagrass further offshore because the Boating activity is still going to occur about
45 ft away from these seagrass beds and also because of the depth of these seagrass beds uh we're not concerned with increased shade cover or risk of damage from the boat propellers and U Mr Butler also spoke about the mean high water line and
comparing the two surveys and I have that for you here so the mean high water line that is shown on the proposed dock plans comes from a December 2022 survey that was done by Legacy surveying and mapping so Legacy conducts the survey in
conduction with a different dock that never came to fruition they provide their um their file to ice minger and stubs who uses the mean high water line the property lines to make their proposed stock plans so this is from
December of 2022 so this is the survey from Legacy now ignore the actual dock that's there that is not the proposed dock but these are the lines that were taken and put onto the proposed dock plans here this is the survey that you were
provided in the variance packet um of the proper property and if we zoom in right at the shoreline area this survey was conducted in July of 2021 so the mean High waterline is that uh is that solid line right there sort of as
waterward as you can get and you can see that the mean high water line from July of 2021 intersects the the big dock sort of right at that angle right where the big dock kind of juts out and is a bit bigger um so it's right at that angle is where the mean high water line is
intersecting now if you keep this in your mind and you compare it to the proposed doc plans which again are from December of 2022 so the mean high water line was resurveyed 18 months later and you can see that the mean high water line is more waterward
it's further away and it's no longer at that angle and so these are the legitimate surveys that you know our professional reviewed and was able to determine yes the mean high water line has moved waterward by about 5T between the two times that those service we're done so I hope I just wanted to clear
that up I hope that answers any questions that been in your mind thank you okay we'll close the floor to public comment and board comments board members before you make your decision I'm going to go over the variance criteria for
these for this application so you actually have two separate criteria for you to consider when making your decision this evening you have section 78- 652 which is our standard
criteria for variances and that section states that you may authorize upon application specific cases such variance with terms of this chapter as will not be contrary to the public interest we owing to special conditions a literal enforcement of the provisions of this chapter will
result in unnecessary hardship the power to Grant such a variance shall be limited upon making a f by the Planning and Zoning Board that a special conditions and circumstances exist which are peculiar to the land structure or buildings involved and which are not applicable to other land
structures or buildings in the same zonings district B the special conditions and circumstances do not result from the actions of the applicant C granting the variance requested will not confer on the applicant any special privilege that is denied by this chapter to other lands buildings or structures
in the same zoning District D that literal interpretation of the provisions of this chapter would deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by other properties in the same zoning District under the terms of this chapter and would work unnecessary and undue hardship the applicant e the variance granted is the minimum variance that
will make possible the reasonable use of the land Building or structural and F the grant of the variance will be in harmony with the general intent and purpose of this chapter and such variants will not be injurious to the area involved or otherwise detrimental to the public welfare on top of those
General variance criteria the section relating to the dock has additional variance criteria for you to consider in section 76-7 those include number one the variance being requested meets the definition of the term variance two no
hazardous condition would be created three the flow of water would not be impeded or interfered with four no obstruction to navigation would occur five it would not appear with traditional public uses of the Waterway including but notlimited to swimming fishing or boating six it would not create an appreciable obstruction of
Waterway views or other detract from aesthetic values seven it would not appreciably disrupt interfere with or disturb marine or benthic life eight it would not contribute to the pollution of the Waterway or the degradation of its condition nine it would not interfere with the lawful rights of riparian owners and 10 it would be consistent
with any other applicable laws rules or plant so those are the criteria that you should be considering um when reviewing this application and I would ask that as you entertain a decision on it um should you entertain a decision
to approve you make a finding that the those variance criteria in section 76-7 and 78-65 have been met in this case okay it's 76-7 and 78-65 board
comments did you have comments or concerns anything okay Teresa this was a very comprehensive package of information so I um compliment you on that uh we have letters from Neighbors who have no problem with this doesn't
impact them and your situation is very unique so I think we all understand that and everything here speaks to the fact that you have met the requirements I believe of of asking for this VAR so I
just want to make that comment in the record thank you I will make a motion to approve the variance of 1- z25 I feel that they meet the criteria for section
78-65 of and for Section 76-7 second I'll second that all in favor hi any opposed okay the variance is granted GL enjoy thank you for joining
us you're free to stick around although you're certainly not obliged to do so we won't be offended just in case you want to rent your house out or something that's right yeah that's a next topic a good evening thank you all very
much you're welcome screwed up Myer person we're getting used to them being I okay are we ready to proceed yeah for our next agenda item okay we will move
on to gracious planning Z well let me see what the number is here um ordinance ordinance yes we're going to move forward to
Planning and Zoning sitting as local planning agency ordinance 0325 and I can read it or if you'd like to read it whatever you would prefer I'd be happy to read it if you'd like me to either way it's fine
okay this is ordinance number 0325 it's an ordinance of the Village Council of the village of taquesta Florida amending chapter 78 Z in article 14 vacation rentals at section 78- 891 vacation rental permit application and
section 78- 893 vacation rental standards in order to accurately conform these Provisions to building and Fire Prevention codes providing that each and every other section and subsection of chapter 78 zoning shall remain in full force and effect as previously adopted
providing a conflict Clause a separability clause authority to cify effective date and for other purposes and I am actually your presenter for this ordinance this evening okay so I will take it away if that's okay with the
board yes so what you have in front of you is simply an update to our existing vacation rental ordinance there is a state statute which says that um local governments can
inspect and vacation rentals for requirements of the Florida building and Fire Prevention codes so what this ordinance does is it goes through uh the r ordinance and updates it makes it clear that that's exactly what we intend
to do uh it removes some outdated requirements and update we do have a a PowerPoint here for you to take a look at uh it it removes some older um nonc
requirements and clarifies some other requirements of the building and fire codes within our ordinance itself I'm happy to answer any specific questions that you might have okay section D local telephone service yes
okay so many people are getting rid of their landlines now and just having cell phones so we're saying okay so you have to have a landline or a cell phone so it's the requirement would
still be a land a landline telephone um or One telephone with voice over Internet Protocol which still look there phone there still exists no no it's it's landlines with basically internet service option instead of your
traditional cable so in other words if if I want to rent my house I would a land I I have a landline so but everybody is getting rid of their landlines so if you want to use your house as a rental so then you have to go
back and reinstall the landline or place over R yeah yeah which looks like a regular house phone but it's just yeah I just and and it is just vacation it is just vacation vs versus yes this is a shortterm shortterm correct well yeah
and what do you define as a shortterm rental less than days less than less than 30 days yeah it's interesting because I think a lot of people are not aware that we do have those that I mean I think people think we don't have
airbnbs in the village of Testa I can't even tell you how many people have mentioned that to me they weren't aware that we have register them yeah we have supposed to be definely it is the area of vacation
rentals uh has a long history in Florida um it the legislature changed it to where it's now most regulation is preempted to the state you're not allowed to limit the frequency or duration of these um so essentially you're not allowed
to you know try to narrow them to certain areas or other things like that or or control the amount of time that someone can stay in one of these uh what you are allowed to control is you are allowed to inspect them for compliance with the building and fire codes and
that's the intent of this ordinance and of course this would not pertain to Condominiums they have their own rules correct not less than that's private property and the documents of the private property would control that and I did have one question um it's
on the U item f is it on page four of this uh it's I just didn't understand the wording any other material modifications that would increase the intensity or use or implicate the Florida building code or FL fire prevention code I didn't quite
understand the wording let me pull that up that's here yeah there it is so the intent of that is if someone is going in and changing
fire related you know if they're doing if they're installing new systems or um changing window sizes or things like that we want to anything that would implicate the Florida building or fire code we want to have the ability to
inspect it when it's happening to make sure it's in compliance with those okay okay but wouldn't the build the inspector wouldn't that be part of his criteria and that and that's why we want this in there oh okay
okay I I learned a lot so yeah I have no other questions and so basically we're just going over the the few additions that you where it says um set of fire code
fire prevention code and most of it and right we're removing a few removing a few requirements uh clarifying well the co uh Co detection system has to be hardwired not not with a battery so I mean there just those minor things
okay I thought it was interesting that every bedroom needs a firearm we have it's true now anyway yeah oh yeah renovate your house and you find out all these fun things that have changed over years yeah yeah we we have them in all bedrooms and
right outside the bedrooms as well yeah in other words if I go to sell my home I have to put fire not unless you modify it and make something requires a per you just can't rent it short term yeah you can't change you can't ex you know long
term change the use of your property or do some modification to it if you did then the new codes would apply I just went through that with the electrical contractor how do the town get involved with each rental
so so they have to apply for a permit to the town uh it has an inspector has to go out check out the location then issue the permit a lot of times U code enforcement will find that there are rentals operating you can clearly see on
the various sites totally without a permit that's true and there's more of them than you think oh much more than you think absolutely a lot of times they have to issue violation to get the people to even come in compliance with the the code you can reach out to the Village
staff if you need to to ask if a property is registered properly as a vacation rental yeah they're very responsive does every rental have to be reported in one property yes you mean every time it's rented every time it's
rented no just that just register one once per year you intend to rent your property yeah for shortterm it's happening to me next door to everyone I mean I just keep hearing it
yeah this all seems like very common sense yeah very much so yeah but that was 2011 yes Dylan did you have more I was it say just for clarification too if a municipality had prohibited them before
the state preemption in 2011 they could you could still outright ban them so you will see you will sometimes see communities that do not allow them I think new smrna Beach Atlantic Beach where I used to be a director do not allow shortterm they they do not allow
new samna beach does not allow it's so I I don't know if it's city of the new SMA but it's maybe it's even the county but I know there's issues down there with it because I have a family I have a family member that has a vacation Ral if they're that's a whole
thing I've said too much no it's on the record we'll just send the tape up to new Dylan did you have more to I have nothing more to add okay and uh okay we can open for public
comments okay closing the oh Jared the only this is a really if you'll come to the podium please thank you does he have to State his name again no this is Jared Gaylord this is no bearing on substance the only thing is on page seven you deleted some
items in sixa uh I believe like one through four and so would oh no never mind you're you're fine I thought I thought it was like a number right it was not highlighted highlighted yeah okay
sorry uh we will close the floor to public comment and board comments any questions or comments I will make a recommendation to approve ordinance number 3-25 okay and you did say to recommend
yes I did okay okay I'll all in favor I okay any opposed okay the motion passes thank you okay any staff comments yeah I just wanted to kind of Workshop something with you guys think it's fun and
exciting we are undertaking a Mobility plan in the village um we're partnering with the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency on this Mobility plan they're they're paying for half of the study we're paying for half um it's really exciting we're going to we're
going to look at basically every aspect of Mobility roads bikes uh pedestrians ebikes um which is a of course a hot button thing right now Jupiter is actually having a thing tonight at 6 I
would have liked to have been able to go to but I'm very happy to always be with you guys um and uh so so any aspect of Mobility uh we have a really great firm called kson Associates from Orlando they're
really great um and so we're going to do this Mobility plan and um we're doing we're kind of in the public input process right now I'm you know I'm trying to do as much as I can to reach out to as many people in the village as possible um we had a session at uh the
food truck thing um couple week last week two weeks ago we had 100 over 100 people really great turnout they the Consultants did a Palm Beach countywide thing and they're like wow we had more input at this than we did on this countywide thing Marie thank you for
coming she came and gave a lot of really great feedback um but I would love to just hear if you guys have any ideas or thoughts and if you don't have it tonight we can always bring it up again in April and kind of circle back yeah Meg can you pull up a map I have it I
have it on um Firefox there but just throw the kitchen sink at us if you have any ideas thoughts suggestions feedback Transportation related um you have the floor certainly like to be able to make
a list is my qu is Jupiter addressing ebikes tonight tonight yeah they're having especially after those yes they're having a a special session which I'm sure is going to have a lot of people there uh I I hope it's recorded so we can we can all watch it that
happened pretty close to where I live by the way really um very close to my house where the accident I mean I wasn't here you know I just my kids know yeah it's it's a it's crazy I mean we've had funerals at St June for I I mean it's
it's just really sad on the way here there's kid on an ebike doing the wheelie they think it's a motorcycle on seab Brook Road on SE I'm at the lake and this kid is approaching and then the and then as I'm I'm got my thing on the
turn here and the little buer flips me the finger while he's doing the wheelie it was it's just awful and they what they do I live inqua Garden there's 10 of them every morning running up and
down westw because there's no traffic there but we have people walking you know people are walking in the morning and it just it drives me absolutely crazy we have a quiet street but um these kids won't move out of the way there's you know there's cars in the
room and and they're they're up on their they have their feet up on the seat of their bikes you know riding like that and then they just like they'll turn and look at you they see me coming and yeah well one thing one thing we're going to I've already talk to the Village manager about is preventing people from Towing well we used to call it Towing but
having multiple people on the same bike yes so the the kids that that got hit in Jupiter had two kids on the same bike oh they did two they were on the same bike and passenger who was pulling pulling a skateboard that too but I I believe it's
actually legal in the Florida Statutes to to do that and so we're I I believe so we're going to talk to the PD and see if maybe it's something that we could start enforcing because that's that's another big issue we we can't control a lot at this point legally but that's one thing we can control is you know wearing
helmets having multiple people the other thing is is possibly having there right the police on the sidewalks educate have the sidew have these kids come you know they're they're doing some you know I I mean it's just it's sad I mean they just
don't and ebikes are so common in Europe and in Amsterdam the people that ride bikes have more Authority than me crossing the street oh yeah they just keep on going I mean you know they keep saying so watch
have you been to Mexico we do we do I I will say this about the Mobility plan though we do want to create an environment in the village or I think a lot of people in the village want to create an environment where cars go a little bit slower and where bikes and pedestrians do have a little bit of of
that um not necessarily with the eikers going 30 mes hour but we do want to create a more bike and pedestrian friendly Community right and I think we have an opportunity to do that that and now did the other meeting was that um are there notes so we can look it up to
see what was already brought up and the the visioning thing that we had so they got a lot of individual feedback they're going to ultimately pull it into they're still synthesizing into stuff um it'll make its way into the report as along
with all the other feedback we get there's there's actually a website they have I I should have had it on here but there's a website where you can actually go on it and double click anywhere in the Village and just you can do it anonymously you could put your name in there and say hey I think that we need a crosswalk at this intersection here hey
there's too many people going fast on ebikes on this street you can go and put it in all over the village so there's there's maybe 10 or 12 and say that I want a traffic circle on but it's a county road so interestingly we are
going to try and work some things like that into it someone pointed out that it's there's not a crosswalk at sebr and County Line it's in palach County but our residents use it and that's insane right so I think things like that are going to work their way into the report
as well and we'll work with the county or we actually have to work with Martin County on that one too but anything that's kind of in the greater immediate to Quest the area throw throw it out here I mean the I mean a Village
Boulevard and um County U not um yeah what is it A1 no us it's not us one uh Dixie Old Dixie Highway I would love to see a um not roundabout a traffic C let
me tell you I have gotten stuck and I have sat there for 10 minutes waiting sometimes whereas if you have it it goes I mean I I I've been in circles and it's just it it works I mean it's just
getting people to that was the location that got the most feedback at that meeting U we had a lot of people bring that up it's also in the village master plan already um that was done a few years ago but but uh that got a lot of
traction even our Consultants were like cuz they're not they're still familiarizing them so they they're like I don't get it why is this why is this spot the issue why why was it roundabout in that master plan and then they at the meeting they were like okay I get it now I mean you come out of Publix so you come out of San I mean and
if you're there for quite a while I've never had a problem oh aren't you lucky I you don't go the same time as we do I guess not I'll tell you what time to go because you turn right don't you cuz you you live turn both ways she can go both ways
the same the left turn is but the left turn the left turn from Village onto Dixie is is the struggle so can I just ask I think I think it's great you're gonna include ebikes in the the whole effort are comments about shade warranted for some of it like my
teenager rides around with her friends and a lot of the routes that make the most sense have like no Shade that's I'm so glad you mentioned that CU yeah we we also want to look at things like plac making and creating this like pedestrian environment creating even like bike
paths where we have a map that says hey here are the best routes you can you can go and along those ways maybe in doing like up lighting at night and like markers or shade area so absolutely Dixie I agree with the Village Boulevard being a problem um
there the master plan had more trees more like so it doesn't look like a Runway where people are just taking off because getting out of the library getting out of the post office going left is all horrendous so like I mean I think we need every like there needs to
be median there needs cre so like we yeah but if calm everybody down might not be able to see the cars coming well no the so you can as long as they've got canopy up you know like just to keep and just to chill everybody out a little bit
when they're there because that the problem is it looks like you're about to take off and people years ago that's why we did all of the oak trees down Country Club dry and that was in the80s and and um and it's great well it does it looks
great it's just that the branch the root system is upgr is you know pushing the side walks and stuff but yeah I mean but there's got to be another tree other than an oak because an oak tree is so dirty it drives me crazy so to to your point Marie that
that was one of the first things the Consultants noticed was that the average daily trips on Old Dixie don't necessarily warrant it being as wide as it is and so they they said with the number of trips there and the kind of the RightWay withd there's some real opportunity to to put in medians or do
some things to slow traffic down beautify it um I don't know if you guys aware of this but Bridge Road at at Dixie is is the most dangerous place in the village driving wise absolutely we've had some really bad accidents there I'm trying to get the the the data
from the police department I would say is a big problem I mean my I think route one has a lot of work that needs done but old Dixies but that but that specific little section is we we have so I'm trying to get the data on it but
there's been some yeah there's been some fatalities there and bad accidents and so um that's one of the things that that we're going to be looking at as well but we don't have to solve it all tonight but if you want to come back we can continue workshopping it in April we'll be working on this for the next few
months and you know wrapping up sometime this summer awesome make a list thing make a list make a list yeah one um my beef with root one is
that um we have the two halves of taquesta we have the island and then we have everybody else and it's really hard to get across route one with as a pedestrian or even on a bicycle it's we don't want to do it right no one wants to walk there so I think that
intersection at Testa drive and Old Dixie so that we can get there and then get down to the beach and across and people can walk the other direction too that needs to be a priority to unify Testa yes and like trees to shade it because it's hot like I see these poor
people you see these poor people like walking and biking and running and I'm like but it's you know it's very unpleasant there but we it shouldn't be yeah there's there's just an overall lack of crosswalks there's not a crosswalk at at kados or at uh the Jona
properties from one side to the other there's not one at the entrance to JC on Beach Road which so I met with the JC city manager and she was like we've got to get this in so there's a lot of real I call it low hanging fruit a lot of really low hanging
fruit the craziest one is there are not bike racks at Constitution Park yeah that's wild right like yeah so there's a lot of low hanging fruit that we can solve but then some some big ideas that will also people weren't biking as much then when we were doing it years ago
yeah biking has become a there were bikes before the community racks before the community center went in you could do a lot more with bike racks and now that the entrance is on the side there's a lot it's a lot different to leave yeah a bike yeah it was nicer we had the bike racks in the
front so now you got it on the side so we're working on it yeah awesome okay if we're ready to adjourn make okay I second it all in favor I think we should stay
meeting is she stay here alone