Before we get started, I want to let everybody know that uh if you're going to speak tonight, you do need to have a card filled out and we'll give you until 6:15 to have that card submitted to the city clerk.
All right. Good evening and welcome to the regular commission meeting of September 2nd, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now, if we please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. CB city clerk, please call roll. >> Good evening. Vice Mayor Vazquez >> here. >> Commissioner Clark >> here. >> Commissioner Sison
>> here. >> Commissioner Dicki >> here. >> Mayor Doctor >> here. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Approval of regular and workshop agendas. Does anybody have any changes? Okay. We can move on.
uh proclamations, recognitions, and certificates of appreciation. And I'm going to ask that Jim Brainard please come up. And uh Jim has a uh he's a consultant. He has a presentation that's going to be made and uh he'll talk a
little bit about himself and uh and what we're trying to accomplish with a economic plan going forward. Mayor, this is just document for the fellow you and the fellow commissioners. Tell us a little bit about my background.
I'm going to ask for it up and now it's gone. >> Do we have somebody from it? >> Oh, here I think I see it now. >> Okay. There you go. >> Thank you.
>> I think I'm better off not using a mic. I've been told I have a loud voice. So, >> I'm afraid you're going to have to use the mic for the people that are watching on uh on TV. I'll try to do speak loudly and use the mic. If it's too loud, tell me.
>> I was mayor of Carmel, Indiana, which is a edge city suburb of Indianapolis, uh, for 28 years. It's a little different system there. The elected mayor serves as a city manager. And so
did I was reelected seven times. We started out very small city. We're growing because we're in the face of all this growth. And one of our issues was about quality growth. And so we
spent and mayor and some of the others here in Treasure Island have asked me if I'd consider now that I'm out of office. I went out a year and a half ago uh considering helping Treasure Island. So I what I want talking about is is um
what we did to see if you think there's some relevance here. Um we don't have the beautiful water out there. In fact, >> well this thing doesn't work. >> There's an on switch.
I don't know what the hell I'm doing either or something. >> Oh, there we go. Thank you. >> So, I'm going to come back to this slide in a minute, but I will start my presentations by saying that is not Caramel, Indiana.
Neither's that. That's Aspen Mountain in Colorado at twilight. That's not Caramel either. That was what we had to work with. We did not have a beautiful golf out here, but that was our pallet. And I always reminded people, they had the
same pallet. Lousy weather, no mountains, and no oceans. And they did okay. They built a beautiful place. There we are. And there's our city, 50 square miles, which is a big area. That's double the size of the island of
Manhattan in New York, actually. Uh, so we had this little town. We turned that into an art and design district. it was falling apart. Nobody went there. Wasn't any pedestrianism. So, it wasn't big enough to be a downtown for a city 50 square miles. But we went in and did
started there, then bought 88 acres and master plan a brand new downtown um about eight blocks south and then another redevelopment district combined them all over this period of about 28 years. There's a before and after what
we did. Of course, the architecture in that part of the country is very different than what people here would want, but that was very traditional Midwestern architecture. Uh, again, before and after. That building uh has
120 cars underground. And I see that as sort of the key. We used to build beautiful cities in Europe and in the United States prior to the time we got over about 25% car ownership. Then we quit designing our cities for people.
Thank you, Ardan. I forget. We quit designing our cities for people and started designing our cities for cars. So what we tried to do in Caramel was saying, "Okay, everybody has a car. We're still going to have to accommodate cars, but we're going to start putting
people first so that it's walkable and bikable and uh people get to know each other, too. We have all these, you know, in this fractured democratic republic that we have. Uh, we need to create opportunities for people from all different backgrounds to have an opportunity to get to know each other,
too. Different faiths, different places of origin, different races, we need civic places for them all to come together. And when cities don't have downtowns, it's not good for us. Uh, there's again before and after that building you see in the lower part again
that has a two-level underground parking lot. uh garage, uh beautiful court, and I understand you can't go underground here, but we also did we also paid a lot of attention to public art, uh all sorts of different styles throughout the city,
uh over a 100 pieces at this point. We spent 1% of our budget for public art. We didn't put it all in one place like a sculpture park like some cities did. We put it throughout the city so that people had an opportunity to interact with it on a daily basis. Um
that's one of our courtyards and one of the buildings that was a public private partnership. So the problem with putting cars in structures and underground is underground is about $80,000 of space to build it. It's about 40,000 of space to
put it in a structured above ground garage. So how do you pay for that? And so we used a process called tax increment finance which doesn't isn't paid from any existing taxpayers contribution. It's paid only from the
new property tax that uh of the new development that's built. We also had a rule we didn't go over five stories. In some places we didn't go over three or four because all sorts of research that shows you go over first of all building techniques change. you can't hide the
cars very effectively over five stories. Um there's a lot of medical research now even the data shows that people who live in buildings over five six stories the mental health uh rate uh mental health illnesses go way up. There's all sorts
of data about that. So, the way we used to build our cities, I always thought back in uh you know, prior to structural steel being invented in the 1870s or so was probably the way the way old Paris, the way old Europe was built was
probably about right. So, we stuck to that. It's a human scale. Um there's examples. All those buildings are individual office and retail condos on our main street. All new projects. Um a lot of outdoor dining. This is I laugh
at this one. I think this is somewhere out west. But this is the way we look at walkability in the United States. These guys, now think about it. These young men are going up that escalator to pay money to get on a stairmaster.
And this is not caro either, but that's the way I mean, who goes for a romantic walk past that? Um, we can do better as a society. And that and that that's about uh billions of dollars of
concrete. They'll have to be replaced every 30 to 40 years. We can do better than that, too. If we design our cities as do mixeduse zoning as opposed to singleuse zoning where all the stores are here and all the businesses are over here and then people you create this
thing where they have to drive all the time. If you have some mixed use in your downtown area, a lot of those trips will be very short trips and there's been studies done as well. People living in mixeduse developments drive about onethird somebody living in a sprawling
subdivision. I want to meet the engineer that did that and that. You can't walk anywhere and you barely know your neighbors. The garages, you know, stick out to the street. No front porches. And then that's one of my favorites.
This is interesting. Uh people that might be interested in the environment. This is Chicago. Lake Michigan's that white area off to the right. And that shows the amount of carbon being admitted from the city of Chicago. On the left, that's the total amount of carbon where it's dense down by the
lake, you know, the tall buildings. And then look what happens when you do it on a per capita analysis on the right per person. it totally flips because the people in the mixeduse area aren't driving as much. Um,
from a financial standpoint, everybody wants to pay as low a taxes as they can while still having good services, I think. So, this is an example uh under Indiana, but it says up top left, that's one of our five-story buildings with two-level underground parking and a
court, beautiful courtyard, that one I showed you a minute ago. So that's showing $24 million of assessed value to which the tax rate supplied per acre. And then on the right is a big box store, the Meyer store. I don't think you have them down here, but it's like a
Target. It's out of Michigan. Um, and look at the assessed value for that. It's a fraction, you know, 150th. And so parking lots don't pay anything in taxes, but yet that road that costs 12 to$14 million a mile for a two-lane
road, you're paying for that road along that whole area, but yet that business is not contributing the amount of taxes it should. Um, as another example, uh, that's a Top Golf and an IKEA store. Again, showing a fraction of what that
five level building showed. So then we went outside the old area and bought that site. That's an old grocery store site. Kroger, if you're familiar with Kroger's in the Midwest. Um, and bought 88 acres and master planned a new downtown. So that's what it looked
like when we started about 1996, 1997. There's another picture of it. There it is today. fountains again parking underground and in above ground garages there both uh it's a center of our new downtown.
There's our farmers market. The building on the left on the top is interesting because that's hiding a 900 space parking structure. Parking structures are just as ugly as parking lots in most cases. So we put buildings
around them again to beautify the city. It's how we compete for economic development, just a higher quality of life for people. People say, "You're spending all this money on making the city beautiful. What about poor people?" And I said, "Well, where'd you go on vacation last year?" And they told me,
"Some beautiful place, Hawaii, Florida, Maine, somewhere." And I said, "Well, poor people can't afford to go to those places. We They deserve to live in our city and have it be beautiful. There's again office buildings. See how subtle
the underground parking is? This is our concert hall we built as our anchor. It's one of 14 true concert halls as opposed to theaters in the United States. Um it was inspired by Padio's Villa Rotunda uh in the town of Venza
just outside of Venice in Italy. Uh it was $125 million, but we didn't have to raise a penny of residential property taxes for that. It was all paid from the tiff from the new development. That's the building that across from it
has two small theaters and some private offices in that building, but really it's hiding a parking structure. Again, that building on the top has underground parking. We bring the stores up to the street and pedestrians we know do better if there's
cars, you know, parked along a street and then a side a big sidewalk and a building. They feel secure in that space where there's a big parking lot. Pedestrians won't use it as easily. Um, there's a brand new street we did. If you can see
that it's a little light, but the uh gray street in the middle is for bikes only. The smaller gray street in the middle and the bike streets bigger than the car street is for walkers. And then there's a 9- ft very narrow lanes. We didn't even have to put up ste uh speed
limit signs. Uh that's through our third redevelopment area. We'll get hundreds of people walking on that street every day. probably a couple hundred people for every car. Uh because it was built as a pedestrian way even though cars are accommodated. We put a lot of there's
one of our parking structures. We uh did a lot of public sculpture in that area too. People that remember Lewisa that statue of bike is very important because that was one of his soulmates in Poland. Uh the sculpt he now lives in St. Lewis and
was short of money. So we commissioned him to do some of our public art. But he uh shared a cell with Wesa when they were fighting the communist. Uh kept making sculptures about free speech and human rights and the communists didn't like that.
There's our bike path. There's a public plaza. If you're building at slightly higher densities, you need to pay a lot of attention to public spaces. negotiate with the developers if they're going to get the benefit of tax increment finance for
parking facilities, uh the taxpayers. It's a it's a negotiation. There's a quid and a quo quid for a quo for for u things. And so we would uh pay for all these public amenities, the art, the fancy
the bricks on the streets, you know, a lot of the amenities that really made the place beautiful uh out of tiff, so it didn't impact taxes. We uh had the lowest tax rate of any major city in our state. Bike shares are important. So then we
also built uh try to make traffic move better and more safely. Our fatality rate from traffic is the lowest in the United States. It's one6 the national average. It's two deaths per 100,000 per year. The national rate is 12 deaths per
year. Indianapolis with whom we share it streets at 15 deaths per 100,000 per year. It's about speed when you come to the uh intersection. Uh cost is less, better for the environment. We save about on average 24 tons of carbon for
every roundabout over a stoplight cuz cars aren't starting stopping as much. Safer for pedestrians. Our pedestrian fatality rate is a fraction of places that don't have the roundabouts. We have hundreds of pedestrians using the pedestrian crossings. Um
and um they also move 50% more cars per hour so we don't have to widen all the lanes. So many times city manager or the mayor or city commissioner will get a call says you got to do something about traffic and the idea is well let's add lanes and all you're doing is building a
bigger parking lot I think to get more cars through the green cycle of the light. But if you can put the money as opposed to lane capacity into intersection capacity, you don't have to pave over paradise as much and the engineers know exactly when you have to
go from two to four lanes and that sort of thing roundabouts. So we did a lot of roundabouts. We also they're great places for public sculpture. That is homage to Hogi. Hogi Carmichael from Indiana wrote Stardust, the most recorded song ever. People of a certain age in this crowd may remember that.
people under a certain age may not. Um, but that's, you know, old Vict Trrella with the stars and the moon's coming out right in front of our concert hall. We also did these cool car sculptures. That's the Marman that won the first Indianapolis 500 along a a strip where you had a lot of car dealers,
Studebaker, all antique Indiana cars. Um, some of our art. Uh, we use these guiding principles. This is my last slide. mixed use, less emphasis on single-use zoning because people drive less. There it's good for traffic
congestion. We tried to build for pedestrians, not cars, a hierarchy of buildings. Public buildings ought to stand out. They ought to be made with local materials, but they still at a human scale. They ought to be in harmony with the land and the built
surroundings, enclosures. Pay attention to the aesthetics. Get the density right, which is not too much, not too little. and learn. Quite honestly, architecture was the only field of human endeavor I've ever seen, you know, in the last 70 years say we don't like
anything that we learned in the last 3,000 years. We're going to start over. And uh it hasn't served us very well. We have a lot of empty ugly boxes out there that pass for architecture. So going back to what we learned for 3,000 years, modernizing it, incorporating it is what
we did. I want to go back to the very beginning of the presentation and show you. I hate to brag, but I'm going to here for a minute. Um, is what the rest of the country thought of what we did in Carmel. I'll get there in a second.
There we are. Wallet Hub's a website. Best small city to live in the United States in 2023. Same year. Uh, Niche magazine said, "Best place to live in Indiana." 2011,
CNN's Money Magazine named us the best city to live in the United States. Uh, 2021, I'm trying to read this from a distance. Niche magazine named us best suburb to live in America. Number one. Um, safest city to raise a child in America.
Unfortunately, we were fourth, not first. um number one bunch of times in Indiana, but we got quite a bit of national recognition. Um because not many suburbs did what we did
and it's all getting the public sector and the private sector work together creating some money. So what I was asked to put together a presentation for this commission to consider and it was to come in what I did as mayor manage a
team. There's probably only half a dozen really good planning firms in the United States that know how to do mixed use and get it right so that it works. Um there's specialist in tiff law, tax increment finance law. They're
specialists in landscape architecture and places. Uh but put together a team. It probably be about eight professionals. It includes civil engineering including somebody help us with bike infrastructure all these various things and actually get it done.
I work with a lot of cities across the United States. Now I joined the uh research faculty. I'm not an architect, but I was a lawyer, but I was asked to join the research faculty at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture because they have a program to help cities in about a 100 mile
radius of the university. And what I see, they've got cities all over, have all these great master plans on the shelf, but they've never been nothing's ever been done with them. And what we did in Caramel, we took that good planning, then we figured out how to do
it financially, keep our taxes low, and create a really what I think is a really good place for our city. So, that's what um some of your residents asked me to come down and present to you. Um so, I'm done talking for now. I apologize if I took too long.
>> Okay. Thank you. Uh just a couple of quick notes. Um Jim has uh come down here twice um on his own nickel and uh and I know that he he saw what had happened to Treasure Island and uh most
of the beach community and uh and he's he's here to help. Um, one of the things that I would like with the uh from the commission is to uh if we can take uh just a consensus on have uh Charlie move forward um and
bring back to us a contract to uh for him to uh to help us uh going forward. >> I am an absolute no. We weren't even told that this was going to happen. Um it was um the last I heard uh Mr. Vasey
had brought um and absolutely no disrespect to you whatsoever that Mr. Vasey had had brought you down. Um and if I'm wrong on that then I'm wrong but I do know in the last time that you came down or the first time you came down that you were taken out on a boat with
the mayor and Mr. which I just feel is improper and now this is being thrown on the commission with absolutely no prior knowledge. So I think just putting a 15minute because it's not like the help is going to be free. It's going to come with a big
price tag. And I think just throwing it on the commission with absolutely no prior knowledge to it being there. And hey, maybe I'm the only one that feels that way. I don't know. But I just want to express that, you know, this was nowhere on our agenda. This has never
been even brought up to that it was workshopped, nothing. So again, absolutely no disrespect to you. Um I'm was born in Indiana, lived here my whole life, but I was born there. So I'm, you know, I have no doubt that you're good at what you do, but I just feel this is
100% improper. >> Okay. Well, thank thank you for letting me go next. Uh very impressive presentation and and uh have been a mayor for 28 years. I can't imagine I can't imagine. But you've uh you've got uh you've got
some impressive credentials there and uh you've done great work. Uh, I do have to agree with Vice Mayor Basquez in terms of uh the fact that there there's no real notice about this or or
>> uh I I'd like to know more about what uh our arrangement would be, how much it's going to cost and stuff like that. I'd love to have you come down here quite frankly. So, don't misinterpret what I'm saying is I I'm opposed to it. If anybody can come down here and do some of the things that you did up there
here, I I'd love to do it, but I just think we need a better better understanding of what the what the uh requirements uh for the consulting is and how much it's going to cost us. >> Go ahead.
>> I didn't say I was gonna say >> Oh, age before beauty. All right. Guess I'll go. Uh, congratulations on your years of success. I was actually in Cicero, Indiana last year or two years ago. Got
time flies. So, I've driven through Carmel on the way to the airport. Um, gorgeous roundabouts actually. Uh, I went through a very nice affluent community. I got lost. U, but, uh, gorgeous struggles with roundabouts.
>> Yes. And, uh, and roundabouts here in Florida. That's a problem. Um, so I'm also kind of shocked to see this. In my meeting with uh the city manager today, he had no mention of this presentation. So, uh,
I'm sure it'll come at a price per month and a retainer. Um, I don't think Carmel, Indiana has much to do with Treasure Island, you know. So, I think it's we obviously can't have underground parking structures and if like you
mentioned through stats, five over one is what we currently have, where are we going to put parking? So, um there's other uh questions and and and so on, but I'm kind of shocked to see this on the agenda, you know, without any proper
uh information from my meeting at 12:30 with the city manager. So, I am against uh giving any direction at this time. Thank you. >> And and mayor, I mean, just let me again just emphasize, I would love to have him come down here. I'm just saying we need to know more about what we're buying
into. Um I happen to some know Jim. My my uncle is involved. >> Oh I I happen to someone know Jim. My uncle is involved in um a politics up in Indiana. And after we had the hurricane,
I I had I had mentioned to him about you know the state that our city was in and he said someone down there should talk to him. And I I think I think that that our mayor already was looking for some help. So, um, couldn't have enough good things to say about Jim and what he did
with that city. Um, I I I'm with Ardan. I I I think this is some something that we absolutely 1 million% need. Um, I think he's going to be able to bring in developers that are willing to work with
us, the whole city, and and do do what we want as a city, and have it look the way that we want and have it, you know, and also structure deals where these people are giving back to the community
through, you know, negotiated benefits like they have to provide parking, they have to find green space and and you heard him say that that you know all this is done through like you know tiff districts and thing like that where it's
not raising our taxes and I think that this could move our city ahead 10 years time very very quickly and um you know I just I don't think that we have
really I mean I think the guys up at Gators you know know what they're doing I don't know that we have other developers here that are going to be able to do what he's going to be able to help us do. I mean, you saw those pictures. There's not tons of tall
buildings. There tons of green space. There's bikes there. I mean, I mean, if I didn't want to be by the beach, I'd want to live there. But, um, anyhow, so I mean, I just I just don't see and and and Ardan, I'm going to I'm going to say something. I hope you don't mind I say
because I've heard you say it twice. You said it once in my living room and once on the dis is that everything we do in Treasure Island is halfass. Do you do you remember saying that? I'm not taking you out of context. Right. And and and if we don't work with someone like this,
that's what we're fixing to do. And so that's just my opinion. >> Okay. So would we would the commission be comfortable putting uh the workshop on the 16th of
September and then doing a workshop? >> I mean would it and I'm and I'm just asking a question. Isn't this something if we're looking for a city planner that should go out to RFP or RFQ? I mean that's just a question because I truly
don't know the answer to that. Uh, so this question came up and it really depends on the price. If it's at 35,000 or more, then you have to competitively bid it. But if this is somebody who's coming in at a lower rate, then this city has the discretion just to hire
that person or somebody else. >> I'm just I am um my biggest concern is again Carmel, Indiana and Treasure Island, Florida look very different. We don't have underground parking. we can't have underground parking as far as negotiating green space and public
parking. I mean, that is something that we do in the deals without costing our taxpayers any extra money. Um, without bringing in yet another consultant, which the very people that are supporting this are the very people that
have complained about us hiring consultant after consultant after consultant. So, one of the you mentioned master plan. Yeah, we do have a master plan. One of the reasons that it has never moved forward is because we've one never had a
commission strong enough to move it forward. And I believe that we do now have a commission strong enough to move it forward. Um, this city has been planned, replanned, and planned again. And now we're wanting to spend more
money to plan it yet again. And again, I want what's best for Treasure Island and I mean absolutely no disrespect for for um the gentleman who spoke, but I just don't know that someone from Carmel,
Indiana building underground garages are the one is the one that we need. And I just um that's my opinion. I if we want to look at someone who has experience, coastal experience, and we want to look at that, I don't think it
needs to halt what we're doing. Um because we're already a year after the hurricane, and here we are. And we still have fences around hotels, we still have dirt lots. So that's that's my opinion.
And again, that's only mine. So >> go ahead, Chris. Uh I would just say yeah the reason we we've gone all these years and don't have anything because we never had someone like this and the developers and things and architects he would work with. They don't only how to
know how to do things in Indiana where there's underground parking. They they're they're the premier experts in the field that would know how to do something that we want here. Maybe we want the place to look kind of like a whole art deco city. Maybe we don't. maybe wanted to look, but it would be night. It would be nice if everything
kind of matched. It wasn't like a hodgepodge of you got one tall building over here, one short building over here, and none nothing looks like anything. There's no bike pass. And also, you mentioned that we we do all these deals to give back to the public for green
space parking. I didn't see that in any of the deals that we're voting on tonight, but may maybe I'm wrong. >> Did you not get the Thunderbird presentation? Because I guarantee you in the Thunderbird presentation, if you didn't meet with them last week, they have over 67 parking spaces for public.
They have green space and this is just the beginning. We haven't even negotiated yet. >> So, I would disagree. >> Hold on. Can I just say one more question? Yes, I did actually speak to them and met with them and the last question that I asked them was, "What kind of things are you going to do to help our city with the increased
density? will you help with like walkways out in front or maybe we need a bigger sewer because of the increased density and the answer was no. We haven't gotten that far. So, um yeah, I did I did actually ask him, but thank you. >> All right, I think we'll take this offline.
>> Oh, I if you'd like I'll be brief, but I could perhaps answer some commissioners. >> I I think that uh our time tonight's going to be tough. Okay, that's so I appreciate it. Thank you very much, Jim. And uh let's move on. >> Did you have a question?
>> The uh the next items are the attorney uh city attorney and city manager reports. >> Uh I'm going to have a lot of comment. Obviously, there's a lot on the agenda. So, I don't really have a board separate from these big items that are on the agenda and some of that have been
continued to next. So, instead of going in details about the board, I'll probably just interlace my comments tonight. >> Yep. Microphone. >> Sorry, I'll repeat it. uh most of my comments are on the items that are this month and next month since you have very significant items in front of you. So instead of having a separate report,
I'll just kind of interlace my comments on those items as we go. My focus has been on everything that's on this agenda and next agenda. So >> all right. >> All right, Mayor. Um the the top of my list was the September 11th beachwalk,
but we have some firefighters here that would like to talk to you for a minute or two about that. about that. So, if we could let them go first and I'll get into the rest of my stuff. >> All right. >> So, Stephen Roland. >> Yes, sir. >> Good evening. My name is Steven Roland.
I'm a lieutenant with Treasure Island Fire Rescue. Um, I'll be very brief. I know you guys have plenty of business to get to. Uh, purpose for me to be up here tonight is to invite and promote our 911 memorial walk. Um, there's flyers out on the front desk with all the information. Uh, just to highlight a few of the
details. Uh this is a 3.43 mile walk to honor the 343 firefighters we lost that day. Um there will be free parking during the event around city hall and at Kingfish Drive. Uh transportation will be provided to and from both the start and the finish line. That's uh via the
city shuttle bus. Um refreshments will be along the route as well as after that'll be donated by our benevolent fund. Um the event is growing every day. at this point it's not possible without the help from other city staff. Um so thank you to all them. Uh again the
flyers are out front. Uh if you guys have any questions uh my contact information is out there. Um and look forward to seeing all of you out there. Appreciate it. Thank you >> Lieutenant. >> Thank you very much. >> So on on that day um I'm going to allow
max participation among city hall staff. Not everybody's signing up to walk almost three and a half miles. So there'll still be plenty of people in the building. Uh the permitting department will be providing uh some of the Gatorade or whatever is along the route. So we'll open up permitting at
noon that day. Um, and while we're on CDD, last week within between Monday and Friday, um, a couple of our rock stars in there, uh, Bianca Dette and Emily Ellis went through 1,900
same day permits. 1,900 in a week. Most of those, and I hope they're watching or listening or somebody can tell them later, but um most of those were flood plane reviews and both of those were the two ladies I
mentioned last week or last meeting that had just gone through that flood plane uh certification. Um we have a lot of permits that have been requested and jobs that have been permitted that haven't been closed out. So, if you're amongst those people or
you're watching and listening, uh, please close out your permits. Uh, god forbid we get hit with another storm. But if it did, it would be as if you hadn't done the work maybe that you've done and just haven't called for the final inspection and you'd be stuck at that old 50% rate. So, please call for
your finals. Uh, keep going on that. Um very happy to share that uh human resources and risk management have confirmed 100% completion on submission of all damage assessments from Helen and
Milton. So we're about a month ahead of schedule is a is a hard deadline of one year uh post storm. Uh very significant milestone. Uh it ensures that we've clearly documented all the storm uh damages. Um
we've filed for every bit of insurance that we can file for. We've gotten a lot of it in. Um so we're on top of that. Um we're updating our statement of values like how much this building, every other thing the city owns is worth. I've been
through a couple of those meetings. Uh Jessica Zamora, I don't know if she's in the room or back there in CDD has really done a yman's task on that. Um and she uh in true fashion uh just wants to
extend that uh thanks to the other city staff uh site inspectors and a special thanks to Kathy Haduk, Mike Barker or Baker, excuse me, Steve Viola, JP Agra, and the public works staff in the building department. This really was a
huge team effort to get that. I'm just coming in at the end of all that. Um, so if you have nothing else better to do, there's two podcasts. I'm assuming they're on Facebook. Yep. Treasure Island Facebook and YouTube. Uh, Miss
Joan Goodrich, our economic development director, uh, was the guest on one and I was the guest on the other. And, um, so that's out there for your listening pleasure. Um, I was always told I was blessed with a face for radio. So, just
listen. You don't have to watch. Um, a Barktoberfest is coming up October 26, 11 to 2, um, at the John Moroni Memorial Dog Park, uh, costume contest, pet adoptions, live
music, giveaways, food, beverages, etc. Um, and we're really moving along. next um next meeting I'll have a very substant update for you on some of our uh CIP and other public works projects. But that's all I have, sir.
Thank you very much. All right, we're going to now move to public comment that uh this is public comment not associated with the agenda items. first. Uh, Richard Harris. >> Okay. So,
>> all right. I'll give you a call in a minute. Uh, Diane CrarAl or actually, do you just have the one issue? Uh, Diane. Diana. >> Mr. Mayor. I have that for H6 and H9. >> Okay.
>> So, it's not anything agenda. nonaggenda. Thank you. >> All right. >> Okay. Is anybody have you submitted one? And and uh because they have all got four, six, seven, eight.
West Thank you, mayor. I actually u didn't have a card in on time because I didn't realize we were going to have this uh uh presentation at the beginning. So, I just wanted to comment on that. West Evans, Isa Palms. Um I noticed that mayor, you called for maybe having a
workshop on the 16th. The vice mayor said she's against it and then all discussion was shut down. I'd like to point out how many workshops of garbage over the years we've sat through in this room, the other room, stuff we didn't want that did nothing good for the city.
We've all sat through them. Now we have someone who's coming in and has done great things for a city. All we need to do have a workshop. Let him really lay it out. Let us all ask questions. You guys ask questions. let him answer the
questions, which he also offered to do a second ago and got shut down on. Uh, let's have a workshop. Maybe, yeah, it's going to cost some money, or like he said, there's ways that it offsets the taxpayer money. We've dumped a lot of money into plans and drawings and things
that we didn't need. We're one year out from the hurricane, something we desperately need now, and you guys are putting it in the dust bin. I say on the 16th we have a workshop. Let the man talk and let the citizens know what's going on and let them have a say on if
this something we want to go through with. Thank you. >> Thank you, West. All right. I do not see any for just general comment. Do you have a card submitted? Um,
be quick. >> Hi everyone, Carlos Mural, District 3. I want to thank uh the uh person from Carmel who came to speak and I want to thank mayor for having him. I just want to make a quick comment, you know, uh about consultants fees. You know that I've talked about that many times in the
past and I'm actually surprised that today is the first time I've ever heard anyone from this table talk about consultants fees and say that we shouldn't be paying the consultants fee. That's the first time I ever heard anyone from this table say anything of
that sort. And what what they did in Carmel is what we want in Treasure Island. We want a small town Treasure Island. That's why people come to move here because we're not like St. beach. We're not like MadiRaa Beach. We're not certainly not like Clear Water. We want
a small town treasure island and this man can help us understand how we can build that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Now, we're going to move on to our approval of minutes. >> I move that we Oops. I move that we
approve the amendments as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. We'll close that. And do we have any discussion up here?
All right. Call roll, please. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez. >> I. Commissioner Dicki. >> I. >> Commissioner Clark. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Sison. >> Hi. Mayor Doctor >> I. >> Thank you. >> Consent agenda.
Motion, please. >> I move to approve the consent agenda items as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and second. Do we have any public comment? >> It is.
>> Okay. Thank you. Come on up. All right. Thank you. Mark Hoey, District 3, 2254th Avenue. Uh this little gem G7, if uh the folks out there are uh following along, is a
significant change to how we're accustomed to doing business with regards to property, handling property here in Treasure Island. And I didn't want to let that go unnoticed. Um, I re recognize and those of you that follow LPA and some of the other
development uh areas have heard all about what the Senate Bill 784 has done or is intending to do uh to how cities manage their own internal affairs with regards to
property usage, etc., etc. So, that caught my eye. Um, and it caught my eye for a couple of reasons. one is I guess at some point this uh bill or this law is going to get tested somewhere uh for its validity, but we're taking a pretty
quick approach to put it in effect right now by basically taking uh platting responsibilities out of consideration for the public and putting it squarely as a responsibility for the CDD department. If you read
through it, we're just basically taking that and you know again this is not anything on a personal level. This is more governmental change that's pulling that in. We all have heard that uh public hearings and resolutions and
ordinances uh governing how things are changed be it height and density platting all that have been thrown out the window. It'll get tested. don't know how it'll fall, but we're moving ahead as if it's proven law, and I don't think we're quite there yet. But more
importantly, here in Treasure Island, um we're putting that squarely in the responsibility of the community development department director, squarely in the hands of Miss Bobby Shay Lee.
Now, you may recall, you probably don't, but on June 5th, I wrote an open letter to you all about that, about the lack of qualifications of that person. Again, nothing personal, but we had gone from a period where we had a 30-year qualified
individual in charge of that department that had full complement and use of all the needed information to make decisions that were ultimately brought to the city manager and to you for approval. We are
now saying, "Sorry, the CDD director is going to make these decisions on behalf of all of us herself." Well, she doesn't have the qualifications. And again, CDD is not one person. I get that. It's a department. There's a lot of great
qualified people in there. But who's the one that's going to end up making the decision and being the one to carry it forward? It's going to be the director. And as I pointed out at that time, it's all about knowledge, experience, and
credentials of which Miss Lee does not have those for this particular role. She does not. She You can't compare someone that is going to be responsible for ordinances,
responsible for LDRs, us living up to building codes, comprehensive plans, you name it. All that bucket is going into the hands of someone who does not have those qualifications whatsoever. And it really happened in a very short
period of time. And as far as the public was was concerned and the public didn't have a say so and shouldn't. That was the city manager's decision at the time. But it was made without any idea of who else was available for the job, what
their credentials were, and what they're able to do. She was selected and now and now resolution 25-9 is going to hand her
plat approval replats and reviews for all of that is going to go into her hands. Now I can understand if the new law says well it becomes a administrative function. Well, then yes, our city
manager, he doesn't have spare time in the day to be doing that as well. It makes sense that you would hand that off as is allowed to the CDD. But it is a critical issue for us that
the CDD is going to have the ability to make that decision. I ask you to reconsider and vote no. >> Thank you. Um, at this point, do we have any further discussion? >> Okay, we have no motion.
>> No, I uh Okay. Yeah, I I heard what uh Mr. Hoey had to say and I, you know, and you know, I reluctantly agree with him when I say reluctantly because because uh Bobby Shae has impressed me since she's been here and she's doing a lot of good things. But I do when I did read
this I I did think who you know and I did study up on Senate Bill 784 to make sure I understood what what it was. Uh so I do know that we have to do this but I was concerned. I was saying who when I was reading I was going to say okay this I see we have to do that. I just don't
know who we were going to assign it to. And it does make sense for it to go to the community development uh department and that uh she do it. But uh maybe we can ask a city manager to to uh talk about uh his feelings in terms of her
ability to to perform this function. >> Well, I don't ever speak from feelings. I try to speak from facts. And the fact is I've been here six weeks. No decision at a CDD has been made in isolation.
Um, and when we need opinions from an architect, an engineer or somebody uh with a license or a particular skill set or background, we seek those out. Um, I wouldn't expect any senior executive
um to make decisions that they're not qualified to make. I mean, we get legal advice, we get architectural and engineering advice, we get land use advice. That's just all a matter of course. We have open uh contractual
lines with Kimley Horn and others. Um so although I can appreciate just an off-the cuff thing, um it has its limits with me and the the one gentleman from the public spoke. I
would really really like I mean free speech is free speech. I'm a big fan of the first amendment and the second and I like all the rest of them too. >> Um >> we need to >> we need to get out of the um habit of
just calling out staff by name. If one of you five commissioners has a problem with an individual staff member, you can come to me as your city manager. I have all the authority in the world to deal with whatever it is. Um, but nobody that's sitting here tonight knows. Um, I
don't even know for sure. I haven't gone through each person and looked at how many resumes or applications were considered for each job. I used to get a lot of flack about hiring um particular people um from particular subgroups in
the school system. But the truth is some days I only had one or two applicants for a job. So, I I don't know what all the wise and wherefors, but we're not going to be getting out over our skis and uh plats or anything else without doing our due diligence and getting the
correct um advice from the professionals we need it from. So, I hope that will allay your concern. >> Uh that does uh and and I think you could have stopped at that point because I certainly wasn't lashing out at any no >> any uh city employees. I did not I did not take I just want to make sure your
answer was was was uh helpful and it made me feel more comfortable with this but but like I said I was not attacking >> No sir I did not take your um what you said in any way is that >> thank you >> okay we have a second we have a motion
any further discussion >> not let's call a roll >> vice mayor Bazquez >> I commissioner Sison >> I commissioner Clark. >> Hi, >> Commissioner Dicki. >> Hi, >> Mayor Doctor. >> I >> Thank you.
>> All right, moving on to our first item of our agenda. >> Second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 202506, budget amendment.
Do we have Kathy? This is actually the second reading for the budget amendment for the um award of the tennis court fence from um uh the USA contract too that we have the funding for the hurricane damage. It's
actually your third reading. Um, we just had an issue with getting it out in enough timely manner to advertise. >> I'm gonna go ahead and read it for you, mayor. >> Please do. >> Got to read it for the record. Second reading and public ordinance uh hearing of ordinance 25-06
budget amendment to fund Treasure Bay Tennis Court Reservicing and fence replacement in an amount not to exceed $231,650. >> Great. Thank you. You got it. >> Do we have a motion? >> I move to approve and adopt ordinance 2025-06
at the second and final reading at public hearing. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing no public comment. Uh do we have any discussion up here? No. So uh let's go ahead and uh have a
roll call, please. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez. >> I. Commissioner Clark. >> I. Commissioner Sison. >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki. >> I. >> Mayor Doctor. >> I. >> Thank you. >> H2. First reading of ordinance 2025-13 creating chapter 60 introduction of the
land development regulations. Do we have a motion? >> I move to approve ordinance 2025-13 creating chapter 60 introduction and schedule the item for a second and final reading. >> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any public comment hearing? None. We'll close public comment. Any discussion up here? Hearing none. Roll call, please. I'm sorry. You >> I'm sorry. Does the attorney need to read the title?
>> Yeah, I'll go ahead and read the uh full short long short title as I call it. I apologize. One second. Ordinance 2513, Ordinance of the City of Treasure Island, Florida, creating chapter 60, Introduction the City of Treasure
Island, Code of Ordinances, Creating Section 60-1. Title citation relocating and amending section 68.3-3 purpose from 68 to create section 60-2 creating se section 60-3 authority
creating section 60-4 applicability creating section 60-5 comprehensive plan relocating and amending chapter 68-1 rules of construction chapter 68 to create section 60-6 relocating and amending
section 68-4 for interpretation from chapter 69 to create section 60-7 providing for severability providing for conflict codification at effective date. >> It's not really that short.
>> Thank you clerk for reminding me. Uh now would you please call roll? >> Yes. Vice Mayor Vasquez I. >> Commissioner Sison >> I. >> Commissioner Clark >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki >> I. >> Mayor Doctor >> I. >> Thank you. H3 first reading of ordinance 2025-14.
Would you please read the ordinance? >> Uh, this one I'm going to do abbreviated but sufficient reading of the ordinance 20 ordinance 2025-14 ordinance of the city of Treasure Island amending chapter 73 signs of the city of Treasure Island code ordinances by
revising section 70 73-3 purpose and intent. >> Can I have a motion please? I move to approve ordinance 2025-14 amending chapter 73 signs and advertising and schedule this item for a second reading.
>> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any discussion up here? >> I've got uh a couple of questions I wanted to ask. I I I looked on page 100 of the agenda packet uh that affects
this particular uh uh ordinance that we're talking about. It it uh had it lined through the the changes that were being made to the to the original uh signs and advertising
uh stuff. Anyway, it took out two what I thought were important clauses. Clause number 17, again, I'm on page 100 of the agenda packet. It says to lessen the visual clutter that may otherwise be caused by proliferation, improper placement, illumination, animation,
excessive height, and excessive sides. Uh that seemed like a pretty important uh element to keep in it. And I noticed they scratched that off. And also they they scratched out uh number item number 14 on the same page. and that was to
regulate the appearance and design of signs in a manner that promotes and enhances the beautifification of the city. Uh I thought that that was uh I thought both of those clauses were important enough to keep in. I did ask
uh ask uh for from the city a why those were removed and the answer that I got was that there's other other uh bullet points in here other sections that kind of address that and they do but but uh but not quite as clearly. Can
we approve this at this stage with with with and just to say that we would include those two items or >> you can amend it. Yep. >> Yeah. So, so I I guess I would like to if the if the rest of the commission is in agreement to to keep those two
clauses in the original or in the new uh ordinance that we're getting ready to vote on. >> Can we have uh someone from city staff elaborate on >> ask? Yeah, th the those two items I Aron, I don't have my email that I I had sent to you, but they're essentially
non-regulatory and after speaking to the consultant, they were basically taken out because they were duplicative of other ones that are already in there. >> Um, but if you I have no problem with putting it back in. If you guys want to make a motion to put it in, we'll certainly put it back in. >> Yeah, I would just move with and say I
move to approve with the exception of these remove these two redactions or un unre these two sections. Okay. I move that we uh move this motion forward with with adjusting for uh section 14 and section 17, adding those back to the
ordinance. >> I'll second. >> Okay with that. >> I'm fine. >> Okay. >> All right. >> What about number 25, Mariel? That was redacted. >> Hold on. >> What pages is that? page 101 >> to allow for government signs placed on
the community that promote city tourism and then it just removed that. I mean, I assume it's probably duplicative. >> My understanding is those are also already stated. Um, I'd have to look back through here, but I believe that anything was t that was taken out that
was non-regulatory was stated somewhere else within the regulations. So, they were removed just for that reason, but we can certainly Oh, yeah. Um, because it looks like it's on page. Would you like me to introduce Mr. Kelly
Cleer, who is the consultant for us? Kelly is with Kimley Horn. He's actually the one working on our phase one LDRs and slipping me notes. >> Great. Thank you. >> Good evening, mayor, commissioners. For the record, Kelly Clapper with Kimley Horn. Um, you're absolutely correct in
what uh the questions and you know what we identified. One, these are non-regulatory in nature. They're feelood statements. Uh, but more importantly, like the one that you're specifically asking about with 25 is already addressed under A1 as well as a couple of others. Again, we're not going
to sit there and say you shall remove those because that is this body's uh authority to do so. If you want to retain those statements in their entirety, all we have to do is unddelete them and bring that back for second reading as amended.
>> Thank you. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Uh any public comment? No public comment. We'll close public comment. Any discussion up here? >> So, just to confirm, we're putting 14, 17, and 25 back in. >> You'd have to restate the mo original
motion or amend the motion. So, somebody wants to retract the motion and then state it with all three un unreoving all three of those sections, you can do that. I'd like to uh make a motion to retract
the uh statement that Commissioner Dicki mentioned and put back 17 uh 20 I'm sorry 14 17 and 25 >> second. >> Okay. Motion and second
amended. Uh any public comment hearing? None. We'll close public comment. Any additional comments up here? No. Let's have a uh roll call, please. >> Commissioner Sison, >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki, >> I. >> Commissioner Clark,
>> I. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez, >> I. >> Mayor Doctor, >> I. >> Thank you. >> H4. Approve the city manager to sign contract Kimley Horn for phase two uh updated land development regulations and authorize the city manager's
purchase authority of $151,100. Motion, please. >> I move for the city commission to approve purchasing authority for the scope of work with Kimberly Horn in the amount not to exceed $151,000 for preparation of phase two of the land development regulations.
>> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any public comment? Hearing no public comment, we will uh move to any comments up here. Hearing none, let's have a roll call vote, please. Vice Mayor Vazquez.
>> I, >> Commissioner Clark, >> I. >> Commissioner Sison, >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki, >> I. >> Mayor Doctor, >> I. >> Thank you. >> H5, first reading of ordinance 202515. And I
will let uh the city manager or say attorney, please read it. >> All right. Ordinance 2025-15 ordinance of the city of Treasure Island amending chapter 68 zoning regulations of the city of Treasure Island code of ordinances by amending 68-542
allowable encroachments to provide for relief from the setback requirement for a balcony when an existing structure is being elevated as a minimal encroachment into the setbacks providing for several ability providing for conflict providing for codification providing for an effective date.
>> Motion please. I move to approve ordinance 2025-15 and schedule a second and final reading. >> Second. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment >> hearing? None.
We will close that. Do we have any discussion up here? All right. Uh, please give a roll call, please. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez, >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki, >> I. >> Commissioner Clark, >> I. Commissioner Sison. >> I, >> Mayor Doctor,
>> I. >> Thank you. >> H6, first reading of ordinance 202516, amending the city of Treasure Island comprehensive plan. I'm going to let the city attorney read it. One second. Ordinance 2025-16, Ordinance of the City
Commission of the City of Treasure Island, Florida, amending the text of the adopted comprehensive plan to adopt alternative temporary lodging density intensity standards and resort facilities medium and resort facilities high future land use categories by amending policy 1.1.3 of the city's
adopted comprehensive plan providing for transmitting agencies in accordance with the requirements of law, providing for several ability, and providing for an effective date. Motion, please. >> I move to approve ordinance 2025-16
at this and at this first reading and recommend transmitt to the Department of Economic Opportunity in accordance with section 163 3184 Florida statute and other reviewing agencies as required.
>> Second. We have a motion and we have second. And I know that we have some public comment on this. Richard Harris >> and well before public comment merits traditional allow the applicant to open with their um comments on the item. >> All right.
>> Sorry we've moving so routine and robotically that we >> forgot to moving quite efficiently tonight so we don't mind. I didn't mean to stand up and wave you down. So thank you so much mayor um city manager Mr. Attorney Katie Cole with the law firm of Hillward Henderson representing the
property owner of the Thunderbird Hotel who happens to be the applicant of this um request. So I appreciate uh the time and I know we have a room full and based on the uh social media chatter a lot of interesting comments that we're going to
hear on this. So hopefully we can offer some clarification a and um explanation in advance and and clear some things up. So um first of all um we want to thank you uh
for the opportunity to be here tonight. Obviously we've already heard the impact of the storms along the beaches is already so great specifically here in Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach and um the South beaches as we've seen. and you have an iconic property in the
Thunderbird who is an owner who has a strong desire to reinvest in your community and wants to do it in the right way. And while last year um he or excuse me, last summer um this past summer, a couple months ago, he obtained approvals to reconstruct the Thunderbird
at the same density that it was previously approved for. um in speaking with the city staff, with some of the uh locals and with the um planning and zoning board, they said, you know, we wish that this could be a more creative design um perhaps provide something a
little bit different um provide uh something that might uh be a bigger impact to the city. So, in talking about that internally with our team, uh we were looking at the countywide rules and uh looking at options uh as to what
could be some options for the owners that have been so significantly impacted. And so I just wanted to walk through that. This is a similar presentation as was given at PNZ board. So some of you I know have already watched that. So, the Thunderboard
opened in 1957 and obviously was closed last year after the hurricanes and in June it was approved by the city for reconstruction at 106 rooms. Um the countywide rules um are
and this is something I wanted that you know the text amendment before you today gives the flexibility to enter into a development agreement with a property owner to reconstruct or to build a property. It does not provide by right
density and intensity. It just provides some flexibility. The countywide rules created this flexibility uh understanding that there were different needs in different circumstances in the community. Uh for those of you um who may not have served on a forward penelis
board or are unfamiliar or didn't come up through the planning world of of the side, you know, Penelis County is unique. The state legislature felt that uh 24 municipalities in the county couldn't regulate itself from a common zoning standpoint. And so they created
the forward penelis agency as a countywide planning agency who drafted the countywide rules that are uh each municipality is uh required to comply with both the countywide rules and the state law. One significant uh
misrepresentation that was stated that I want to be clear. There's not an obligation to match the countywide rules. There's only the obligation for a city to be consistent with the countywide rules. Um there was a lot of discussion about that be because of some
of the comments that were at the PNZ board on the other item that's not on your agenda tonight. Um to for clarity there was also some communication between a resident of Treasure Island and Whit Bllandon the executive director for Penllis uh where Mr. Blandon's
response seemed to imply that the forward penelis agency had not met with the applicant or the city on this application and did not declare it to be consistent and um that is also untrue. Um I'll pass around for the record uh
that this is a letter I I saw that on social media. I sent it to Mr. Blandon and asked him to clarify. Mr. Chapman who's the executive director of the planning side of forward penllis called me immediately this morning to apologize for the confusion and to confirm that
our planner had met with for penllis on June 18th. They had reviewed it. They had discussed with your staff about it and um that it certainly is consistent with the rules. So I I wanted to enter that into the record please. So, um, we've established that this proposal is
consistent with the countywide rules. The city's general land development regulations and comprehensive plan must be compliant with not only state law, but also the countywide rules. Um, the countywide rules do provide for a cap and forward penelis also provides for resources for local governments to
provide these regulations. So, this application is consistent with these rules. Um, as I've said and as is evidenced by the letter that I sent you, we met multiple times with your staff in talking in the prior city attorney and then this city attorney about what the
best way to achieve these results. When we identified that the countywide rules provided this as an option um and suggested it to the staff, everyone said that would be a good option for Treasure Island. It provides flexibility for property owners but provides the ultimate control to you the commission
because you're negotiating a development agreement. It is perhaps unusual that this is a uh citizen initiated application but um candidly as with all jurisdictions in Penllis County right now uh all the planning staffs are really underwater. your community
development staffs around the area have just been um obviously very b busy with substantial uh det um substantial damage determinations with reconstruction um and the priorities being the residents wi which we all want um all of our
residents I'm also waiting to get back into my home you know back in our homes but that doesn't mean um the the backbone of the community the commercial corridors um also need an opportunity to reconstruct in a um in an advantageous
way. This proposal does not create by right density. It creates an opportunity for the property owner to negotiate this development agreement for the construction of a new hotel. And this is limited only to transient accommodation
units and overnight occupancies. This is not condominiums. This is not um any other use. This is limited only in these two zoning districts for transient accommodations. So the proposal is a comprehensive plan amendment and a companion land
development regulation text amendment which is your next item on the agenda which allows for these alternative temporary lodging which combines both density and intensity. So while it increases the density there's a cap on intensity. So you have to measure both
not one or the other. So you have both a acres uh units per acre and an floor area ratio and you would have to comply with both under these regulations. It is applied only for resort facilities in
the two zoning districts uh resort medium and resort facilities high. Um there's no residential use, condominium resorts, Airbnbs, etc. A development agreement is something that's provided for in chapter 163 of
Florida statutes and also is regulated by your development code that allows for the city to negotiate with the applicant design considerations, mobility management requirements, operating characteristics and restrictions. Um, as Commissioner Clark said, parking and
open spaces, all of those items that you want to see out of a development, the door is open to have those discussions with the applicant. So, while you have seen some uh potential plans for the Thunderbird, that's just what they are. What could something look like at this
density and intensity? It's not a final product or a final application. A development agreement would require public hearings before the LPA and the city commission. Therefore, giving you after negotiation with your staff an opportunity to then further discuss this
in the public. So the ordinance tonight in the comprehensive plan amendment and the re and the text amendment is not to approve any project and it's not to approve by right density and intensity. It's providing property owners an opportunity to negotiate with the staff
for a project in a building that is beneficial to both the city and the property owner. Uh with that I think I'll hand it over to Isabelle if that's okay. So, I'd like to introduce uh or actually I was gonna introduce Donna. Let's introduce Donna
first. >> Donna Jolammore with the um Thunderbird and uh she's going to speak a little bit as to the process that they've been going through. >> Thank you. >> Um good evening everyone. Mayor Doctor, Vice Mayor Vasquez, city commissioner, city staff, residents. Um, we wanted to
thank you for giving us the opportunity to present our amendments uh to the current city codes to provide an option for a property owner to increase the density and height at the Thunderbird Beach Resort and um certain areas of Treasure Island. Uh we wanted to take
this opportunity to address a few items though. Um our team will be going over each of these items in detail during the presentations. Um, first on the height, we are requesting the city to consider an increase up to 80 feet for the right projects. To put that into perspective,
that's simply me standing on top of my next door neighbor, the Treasure Island Beach Resort, and waving to everybody. That's how high we're looking to go. Uh, we're not looking to propose a high-rise. We're not looking to become Clear Water Beach. We're not looking to become Miami Beach. We want to remain
Treasure Island, coastal, charming, and in harmony with the landscape that already exists. Um second, um the density request is quite simple. We are asking for the city to adopt language from the countywide rules providing an alternative of 100
rooms per acre with a cap on the FAR for the Thunderbird. would allow us to rebuild to 184 rooms um if the commission also supported the project and an associated uh development agreement. Um why this matters for the community? Um Treasure Island is the
heart of America's best beaches. Um America's best beaches are ranked among the top tourist destinations in the United States year after year. Uh visitors are coming and they're going to come whether we're ready for them or not. Uh when we don't have enough hotel rooms, uh the visitors turn to the
short-term rentals in our neighborhoods. Um that means more noise, more traffic, and less of the community character that we all value. Um hotels, on the other hand, were designed to manage visitors. Um we have the staff, we have the security, we have the designated
parking, we also have rules in place to keep things orderly. Um we provide steady jobs for the local families and um we generate tax revenue that supports the schools, the parks and essential services. Um more hotel rooms keeps
visitors where they belong and that's near the shops, near the restaurants, on the beach and out of the residential streets. Uh we can't stop the visitors from coming, but we can decide how to host them responsibly. Um allowing additional hotel rooms is a better path
forward. Um that's for residents, for businesses, and for the city as a whole. Um throughout the process, I know there's a lot of like they said chatter on social media. Our team has been transparent and collaborative. Uh we presented our
plan to the LPA which voted 5 to2 in our favor. Prior to this, um the team worked directly with the city staff and the staff of Forward Penelis and presented an action plan to them. And tonight, we're here to continue the same open dialogue with everyone. Um the request isn't just about
rebuilding the hotel. It's about restoring a landmark that has welcomed families for generations. Um with your support, we can rebuild in a way that strengthens Treasure Island, protects neighborhoods, and preserves a coastal charm that we all love. Um one final
thought that we would like to share. Um, as we considered the direction for the hotel rebuild over the last 11 months, we made it a priority to speak with a lot of the Treasure Island residents and to hear the thoughts on height and density. Um, earlier this year, also myself and the ownership team met with
key city leaders, both past and present, to gather additional perspective. Uh, what's most important is that the voices of Treasure Allen do matter to us. Um, and I we do want you to know that we listened. That is why our request is limited to an option that requires
additional negotiation with the city and input from the community at more public hearings. That is why an increase in height is limited to the 80 ft. Again, me standing waving on top of the Treasure Island Beach Resort. Um, and that's also what is seen in other
buildings here in Treasure Island and why the additional density is a trade-off with the floor area ratio aimed to retain appropriately sized buildings. So, um, we believe that this code changes, this code change provides
a path that can facilitate projects like the Thunderbird to be a source of pride for the community. Um, and that by working together, we can achieve something that honors Treasure Allen's character while also supporting its future. Um, it's our sincere hope that we have your partnership and support as
we move forward. Thank you. >> Thank you, Donna. I'd like to introduce Isabelle Albert who is an AICP planner. Um I would like to enter her resume into the record and ask that she be qualified as an expert. I don't know if the mayor needs to accept it formally or if um
>> No, no, it's just fine. It's marked. >> Okay. Thank you. And then also for the record and it may be easier to see than on the computer screen here are here is the PowerPoint presentation. So >> thank you. >> Thank you again Isabelle Albert with half. Uh I am a certified planner and
I've been assisting um staff and the client with um these amendments. Basically, we would have to do a comprehensive plan amendment as well as a land development code amendment. Right now, we're hearing the comprehensive plan. I reached staff back in June um
early June and trying to figure out how are we going to go about this? I mean, how do we implement this? And they were they were overwhelmed. So I said I'm going to go and reach out to board panelas and I'll talk to them and see there's other jurisdictions doing this. So let's let's see what they've been
doing. And basically that's what we are proposing what other jurisdictions have implemented and went forward Panella staff and your staff has supported. So basically it's just and in these two categories we first came in with the resort facility high but then in discussion again with staff they're
saying let's also include the medium um density because they are also for the resort facility. So now we're addressing the resort facilities um along the beach and again it has to be um included with a development agreement and this the
language that was uh supported by your other jurisdictions. Section 68121 these are the um land development regulations that we have to uh make sure that we meet those criteria. These are four criterias that we have to meet with. We
meet the first two and the C and D are not applicable to this um to this request but we do meet the first two. We then had to do the land development um regulations. These are the five sections that we had to amend. The first
one obviously is was to address the uh definition to include that into the definition and the next two are for the zoning the two zoning districts that this will affect for the uh result facility. And then we talked about the lot and bulk regulations and obviously
we had to introduce a new development agreement section in there. And these are the four um items that we had to amend. They're introducing that and this is also part of your record. Um these are the two district zoning district
that we had to um amend to include these two. We have your um the regulations for the schedule of um bulk and lot schedule. And this is where you're going to see an added section for the resort um the
alternative temporary lodging where you have that. So we introduced those two items in there. again um it has and they refer back to the table. So everybody there it's it's all interconnected and this is the development agreement. There's a whole um couple pages in um
that's been introduced and that Miss Cole went through and explained to you. Nothing can happen without this in place and this approved by all of you. And these are the standards. These are two standards that are required uh to which we meet. Again, I've met with
staff, your staff, Ford Panilla staff, and um worked with them, and by the way, they're great people to work with. And um you know, and and like you heard, this is not the first item that's going to have a higher height. You've already these two structures next to us are
actually, you know, 75 ft and 148 ft. Obviously, one is is grandfathered in. It's been there for a longer time. But this is not a new concept that we're introducing to Treasure Island. Um that concludes my presentation unless you have any questions.
>> I'd like Jalad to introduce um the owner as well. Gelad Ova can say a few words. >> Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the city council and for the residents to come in today. Um, I want to say uh
first of all that uh we come over here from all the good reasons to submit an application to rebuild the Thunderbird Beach Resort. We've been business owners and operators over here in the city of Treasure Island for 25 years both on the
surf style flagship store and on the Thunderbird over the last five years. We renovated it. I think we did a lot of good things that have been for the community community over the years and like many others of you, we've been affected by the storm and we want to
come back and rebuild and uh get back to work. We've been out of commission for a year and we need to get back. I think that uh you know we worked with the city for the last 12 months already in January we met already with
some of the council members talking about the rebuild of the Thunderbird looking at the opportunities that they were there uh from the get-go we were presented that even we looked at it from just you know from business standpoint obviously when you're going to do an
investment in that scale it has to pencil out and the amount of rooms that we currently have 106 rooms it does not pencil out meaning the ability that you need to provide for that much parking, elevate the building and create that much of amenities and more than what we
have today. The project needs to be able to have a return that is going to basically sustain the date the debt that we're going to take to build it. So, um, it doesn't pencil out at the 106 rooms. And from the get-go, we were recommended
by the the planning the planning director, Katherine U, to go in two parallel directions. One of them is to grandfather in the 106 rooms that we have and the other one is to go with something that's expanded which we work
with our LEGO team to um to provide and with the city for quite some time to get to that type of conduit and I think the conduit that was provided to the planning director that also supported it and also staff supported it is a reasonable one. We're really asking for
additional 20 ft be over the allowed height and for a density that can support the project and we are here to do it. I know there's been a lot of discussion over here. Like I said, we're here 25 years. We've been through some of those master planning for this city. It takes time, takes a long time. I know
just for that pro project that we're doing right now to use the countywide rules, it's it's by itself, it's going to take few months to do that. I know that master plan is going to take two years. Right now, the downtown between us and the other properties on the on the east side, you know, everything over
there is flat, is down. I think the city also has a responsibility to get the business owners up and running and that's for the city's sake and for the for the business owners as well. We need to have our city come and revived and what we are submitting over here for a proposal today still have the city as
the last say of how it's going to happen. I think definitely get the planner involved is a thing that is a blessed and should happen and we're willing to work with. We definitely want to create and add more amenities that's also going to be for the public. I think we mentioned it to every one of the
council members in the meeting. We're willing to provide public parking, additional public parking. We're willing to create uh like almost like an avenue between us and the Bilmore that's going to be a beach access something that's going to be very nice and continue to create the amenities that we have the
interaction between the boardwalk the eeky wu the famous iku that we have that is award-winning all over all over the uh county um and continue what we're doing but we have to get in motion and working the ability to give us to move
forward with that today would also let the city to work on one side on planning with any type of consultant but keep the things in motion if we put those things you have to consider if you put us aside right now and that's us we coming I think as a pioneer over there but that's
the entire downtown if if everything is going to be shut down for two years it takes from the time that the city say go that we have some kind of a master plan takes probably six to nine months just to get it permitted if you're very diligent on what you're doing and then
on a project of our scale it's about two years to build it and then you have to transition it to stabilize it and do all all that stuff. So we're talking about five six years down the road just to have our downtown coming back. I don't think that's reasonable. I think we should think about doing something
that's work in parallel and still give the city the ability to navigate and control the process. So that's why we're here for you today and I thank everybody. >> So thank you. I just like to reiterate how wonderful your staff has been to work with. um first with Miss uh with
Katherine, but when she was here and then uh Mary Ellen and they've been uh quite quite easy um and collaborative in talking about what your desires are as policy makers and and how the redevelopment and rebuilding of the city
can fit into these. So, uh, we hope that you agree that having this development agreement option and backs stop, but with the flexibility of this additional density and F, uh, is the right path for resort facilities in Treasure Island to
to give those property owners the opportunity uh, to rebuild uh, more quickly. So, with that, our team's happy to answer questions. I'm sure the city staff is as well. So, um, and I know you have a lot of people who would like to discuss it. And just for the record, um,
our presentation and I think our comments were applicable to both, uh, ordinance 202516 and 20257, which is the next item on your agenda. We didn't think it was, uh, it would have been too timeconuming to separate it up into two uh,
presentations. So when it's basically the same >> and you can take them up together, mayor. So if somebody put comments on one versus the other, they can you can address them all together. Okay. All right. Does anybody have any questions for them?
>> Yeah, I I've got a couple of questions. Uh the Thunderbird is in zone RFH50. So, it's which is the west uh side of G Boulevard. I I was curious why your proposal includes uh recommendations for changing for
changes as well and RFM30, which is the east side of G Boulevard. For the record, Isabelle Albert, uh, this was actually in discussion with staff and they were saying if you're going to make a changes for the high, you may as well do the changes, you know, if we're going through the
process, let's do it once and get all the um to to to capture all the resort facilities and each of them, you know, the 30, they still have some caps and that's going to be based on their sizes. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Uh, another question I was going to uh had I know you talked about having 184 rooms. Uh, I had seen somewhere along the in the last couple of days where you were talking about a parking lot that had 185 parking spaces. Is that is that
not did I not see that correctly? >> That's No, that's I I have not seen that or we don't exactly have anything downplay. So I'll let you answer your name. >> I can answer that. No, we didn't present
any plan that shows that. But uh I think we mentioned before that whatever the required parking that is going to be required, we are willing to provide additional probably 50 to 100 parking spaces additional for the public that is going to be within the project.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. So, now let's uh go to the public comment section. Yeah, we're going to uh to take a restroom recess. So, if uh we can be
back in uh let's call it uh try to do it five minutes. Thank you. to call this meeting back to order. >> I'd like to call this meeting back to order. Can you use that or not? [Music]
Would everyone please take your seat? >> Oh, that was a good idea. >> Gary, >> good job, Gary. >> Taking command. >> All right, so we're going to be doing public comments. Before I call the first
one, uh, please, I think that we all know the heightened density. You're either for it, against it, what, however, but please, if it, we want to get out of here before midnight tonight. So, and everybody has written down six,
seven, some six, seven, and eight. So, uh, I'd appreciate as well we kind of treated the first two, especially number six and seven for the heightened density and, uh, that, uh, it's when you come up, deal with them both at the same time because we're going to try and deal with
them, uh, here as well for the vote. So, first is Richard Harris. Good evening, uh, mayor and commissioners. Uh, Richard Harris, 374 Bay Plaza. I've been a professional civil engineer for 39 years now, and
I've worked on about 6 million square feet of, uh, retail, including being the engineer for Bay Plaza. So, I've done a little bit of revelopment. That was a good project in downtown St. Pete, which is now known as Sundial. So do have a
little experience with that. Been a resident for 39 years. You know, we're talking about uh two distinct zoning districts. The resort facilities high, the resort facilities minimum. A lot of the hotels in those areas are kind of
old and dated. The ones that survived Hurricane Helen real quick and were able to open real quickly were uh interesting ones. They were all the new ones. the uh Treasure Island Resort, the Ocean Club, uh the Fusion, uh Crystal Palms, you
know, they cleaned up the mess and got back in business. You know, what we need to have now is a little bit of redevelopment. And an incentive is needed that will help that redevelopment. What is being proposed by the Thunderbird owners is that
incentive. And it's not like we're going to give it to them cart blanch. we get to see it again as a head of the uh PNZ. If it's on the east side of the road, we get to see it. And if it's an ugly building because a developers agreement
is included, we can turn it down. It has architectural review. U you know, if there isn't the proper services in place, we can also turn it down. And the other thing is if it's on the west side
of uh Gulf Boulevard, city commission will will see it again. But if there are not water system, sewer systems, uh sanitary sewer system, storm sewer system, roads and evacuation plans, we can turn this plan down again. This is
not the last time that this commission and the PNZ board will see it. You know, Ford Penelis has looked into this. They were talking about a special area plan. We've done a lot of plans in this city. Right now, we just redid the
comprehensive land use plan for the city. We have a zoning plan for the city. The downtown area has a downtown redevelopment plan that was done in 2006 and in my opinion is a failure because nobody stepped up and did something for
19 years. Obviously, for that to go forward, we need to revise it. There had been a lot of uh visioning surveys and plans. Right now, none of those have gone through unfortunately.
You know, it's just my personal opinion that 20 ft higher is just not that much. One thing I did say at the LPA, we do not want to be San Key. Everybody who uh posts on FA Facebook, the first thing
they do is post a picture of San Key. I was an engineer on one of the buildings up there. Don't want to do that one. That I even ran into an owner of a one of the buildings up there. I said, 'You are an example of what we do not want in Treasure Island. We max out at 80 ft.
That would be fine. It's just not that much more than uh 60 ft. And I think that would be the incentive to kick off what we need. Um and it's also a matter of where these zoning districts are. We don't want a repeat of the mistakes that were made
back in the 70s. I mean, mansions by the Sea, I'm sure fine people lived there. Sun Chateau, fine people live there. They shouldn't be built where they are. They're out of place. Uh Treasure Sands is grandfathered in should never have
been built. Uh, we just want a nice looking building with a lot of amenities that also the residents can go see, like a nice new restaurant. It'd be nice to give the middle grounds a little bit of competition. It's the one high-end
restaurant we have in town. Um, one thing I would do want everybody to recall is the Buccaneer and the Fargo Hotel site. That was uh where the Treasure Island Resort is now. That site sat empty for 10 years. Obviously,
nobody in this town wants that to happen again. I mean, I couldn't believe that nobody wanted to build on that site. And finally, the owners of the Treasure Island Resort said, "Yeah, we'll build there, but the first thing we're going to do is we're going to ask for variance because we want seven stories over
parking." And rightly so, the commission at that time turned it down because they really didn't have a hardship. But this is uh going through the right process to get it done to 80 feet. So let's see the um I'm kind of getting out
of uh this area, but the Pirate Square for instance that was torn down two years ago. This looked like garbage for two years. I mean, we want things to move along. It would be nice to have another Well, once again, I'm repeating myself. Another nice high-end restaurant in town.
>> We need to I'm going to have to shut you down. We have too many. Uh, we've had our five minutes. >> That's fine. I'm about to be done. >> Okay. >> One last statement. I was over at Walt Disney World and Walt Disney was a very smart man. I saw some of his quotes on the wall. His quote was, "The way to
start the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Let's get it done. Let's go build something for once instead of talking about it." Thank you. >> Thank you, Richard. Mark Hoey. >> Good evening again. Mark Hoey, District
3. Thank you. And thank you, Richard. I I do believe that Richard and his group uh have the best interests of all in mind when doing their work, which is very uh repetitive and difficult. But let me start and I I attended that last
LPA meeting a couple of weeks ago at which time saw these very similar presentations and the like. Let me say at the beginning I am not anti-development whatsoever. I'm not anti- height and density changes
at I'm willing to listen. I am pro personal property rights. I believe the owners of these private lands have a certain measure of rights to do what they need to do to be able to be profitable on the land they own.
Uh but I'm mostly here to talk about being pro-citizen choice that the citizens have a choice in the matter or a say in the matter. And that's what caught me in that meeting. It wasn't this has nothing to do specifically with the Thunderbird
whatsoever. It was that all of a sudden, and again, good old state bill, Senate Bill 784 gets thrown up again as a justification to change our process that everything's getting thrown out uh citizens rights to uh have a say so and
it gets thrown out. So, let's quickly get out there and do something with it. I recognize the development challenges that we face. The city is years behind. We all know that. years behind in developing uh any new stuff of any
consequence. It's just been slow grind for anybody who's tried. But still, this effort feels forced that we're forcing through these uh fundamental changes um so quickly and that the city in
itself is seeding responsibility. We're seeding responsibility to private equity. Now again, it was said quite clearly the folks who were here worked for the property owners. They spent the money to fund
them to come work with our city staff. Is that wrong? Maybe not. You have your opinions of it. Maybe it's no different than us hiring Kimley Horn to work with us to overhaul our regulations. So that I get that. But it's going at such a
rapid pace and I think that is going to ultimately uh wash away the citizens say so in what the area looks like and develops into especially with the resolution that was just passed earlier
which basically says you decide you are going to decide much of the development things going forward. it's not even going to ever come back to the city owners. So, I guess that's what I want to leave you with is we need to develop,
we need to go forward, but we don't need to seed all of our uh responsibilities, should I say, or our authorities over to private hands. It should be worked together, but it shouldn't be turned over to total
private hands. and ultimately somebody hopefully other than Treasure Island challenges 784. We don't have the resources to do it. Hopefully some big city uh Mr. Attorney will step in and take this to task and find out just how that's going to hold up in the long run,
but we shouldn't change everything before that happens. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Marie Barba. Uh, good evening, mayor, commissioners. Marie Barbara, District 4. Um, I was
also I attended the LPA as well. Um, and the Okay, I'm an engineer. Sorry, I'm not civil electrical um PE uh computer engineer, but I calculated that when I looked at the
ordinances that were before us, 2025, 16 and 17 for the Thunderbird and of course 24 the downtown district which is the pirate square. uh it just shocked me that no nobody came up with the ratios of the intensity of the uh increases on
the density and on the intensity fars. So let's talk about the Thunderbird because I am here to say I recommend you reject this on the premise that the densities and the and the intensities are extreme. the proposed RFM30 motel 30
density would go you are um they are proposing to go from 15 units to 125 units per acre that's a 733% increase come on the far the floor area
ratio which is the building uh plot I'm talking to a lot of people that are just not aware of how you calculate this I haven't done this in a long time but I remember doing this myself and the building itself where it sits within the property, you're asking from for a
footprint from 0.85 to 4. That's a 371 increase. And this is not just one building. We're talking about everything on the island that is motel 30. Okay. The Thunderbird is RFH50, which the density there when you
calculate it, they're asking for 50 to 125 units per acre. That's 150% increase um on on the units on the FARS again the building plot that they're asking for a 1.2 to4 which is a 233%
increase that can affect the setbacks that can affect the um the just the the building width it it it can make it it's just too much. They're not asking for a little like they they like it sounds.
So, um, in addition to the seemingly huge land grab by, my opinion is a land grab by the property owners because I think they can build if they if these were to have been, uh, slightly lower, I think they can build this and still make a profit. These proposals would
dismiss ordinance. More insulting to some of us that have been here for 20 plus year 45 years was the um proposal that would dismiss ordinance 200204 which establishes the current density and height levels voted by 72 to 76% of
the of the Treasure Island constituency. So the relationship is not just with the business owners and the commission. It's the residential uh people, the residents, the business owners, and the commission. So, we forgot one com
important important component here. And um let's not forget probably over 60% of the property taxes are paid by residents. In addition to a seemingly huge land grab by property owners, these proposals would dismiss that ordinance that in
2002, it established these densities and and uh height levels that were uh voted in by the constituency by referendum. This was all done by initiated by a petition and then had to be brought into referendum because it met all the criteria there for referendum. And I do
not um and our city attorney our city attorney stated that increases height in density not do not require a referendum due to the Florida bill. I have 718 I guess it's 784. However, language in the city charter our city charter
specifically states article 7 under section 7.07 results of election may contradict this position. So amending or appealing initiative or referendum law, any local ordinance voted into effect or repealed by the electric pursuant to initiative
or referendum procedures respectively as set forth in this cha charter shall only be subsequently amended or repealed by the electric at the polls. So in other words, it's not just an ordinance. It's our charter that is you're you're you're
looking at here at at uh and you're looking at a challenge which I think some of you have gotten the letter today. So you have to be very careful. I'm not the attorney here but I I am reading this from other attorneys. So um
the the requirement here also in what I read in 718 I have to excuse me for 784. I read that it was if it's was not the state stipulated was not if this was not in the charter before 2011 that you have to honor the the the the
the referendum. Um thank you very much. >> Thank you Marie. Not sure. Tim Van >> Vanic not here. Okay. >> Is that it? >> Vanic. >> No, I know Tim.
>> Tim. Okay. No, >> I don't see him. He was here. It looks like he might >> Jeff Banan. Good evening. Uh, my name is Jeff Bayon, 11460 9inth Street, Isa Palms. Uh, I am uh I'm
speaking a little differently than the other the lady who spoke eloquently. I'm just speaking as a resident of Treasure Island. My wife and I, we moved here five years ago after visiting for 30 years on this
island. Uh, we took many trips up and down the West Coast to make up our minds. We also continued our search from St. Pete Beach to Clear Water. We finally decided on
Treasure Island as it was the ideal spot for us. It was unique that it wasn't overcrowded like Sarasota or traffic and density uh or tall buildings like uh like Clear Water. Uh we also knew that
there was a mandate a mandate on height and density here and that was very important to us. We strongly feel we uh we would like Treasure Island uh excuse me we would like Treasure Island
to be mapped bland like that gentleman came in today. I thought he had great ideas. Uh, I did some work uh in real estate in New York City and uh I thought I I thought he was uh he was a breath of fresh air
and uh we and uh my wife and I both feel in the interest of transparency and integrity any commission or that has any commercial property that can benefit from height and density changes should
recuse themselves. We think everyone on this board should be listening seriously to your residences who live here and invest in our community. We want to see growth in our town. I reiterate map and planning is
essential and thank you for your time tonight. >> Thank you very much. Barb Adams, can I be recognized for a second? No. We're going to keep moving forward. >> Cool. >> Yes. >> Okay.
>> Um Barbadoms, Isa Palms, um Isa Palm Civic Association President. Um we're kind of in a really unique spot here due to sort of two kind of tragedies really. One is the
demolition of our downtown which you know is I mean because we've had the storm it looks like it was wrecked because of the storm but it's been like that for a long time and then of course the storms what they did. Um so we are
in the in we do have an incredible opportunity to create something magical here. We do need to update. We do need to make changes. Um, we do need to have ideas. We don't want to just throw things up.
Um, and I, you know, the idea of, um, of a plan like we saw with a Carmel was was pretty damn cool. Um, and I like the way that the buildings had different facades on the front. It wasn't just like some
strip mall or, you know, one big look, you know, that's going to be out outdated in 15 years. it. There was a lot of personality and style and part of what we have in this community I think and we need to get it back is we have a
soul. there's something special about here. And it's kind of like what Jeff was just saying, you know, that's we were looking everywhere, too. And then it was just like, whoa, this is where we need to be. And okay, I know that the parking is an
issue um and we don't have the underground space, but if we do like the um downtown area, put the buildings close to the sidewalk, put the the parking in the back so we can still walk up and down. And I understand that with,
you know, we with you can have businesses on the ground level. You don't have to just have have that part elevated. Um, you could also do buildings like how he showed us where parking buildings that look like structures. You know, they they don't
look like parking buildings. They have, you know, and they have under, you know, they have a store underneath and, you know, you go around the back and you go up and you It doesn't look like a park an ugly parking garage. And I I mean,
the um Thunderbird is iconic. It's special. It's like what you see. It's what you think about when you come here. And um I know they want to to do something special and we need it. Um,
but we don't want eight stories because it's going to start that means the whole Gulf boulevard on either side is going to be like that and then who's to stop it at eight. Then the next person says, "Well, they got to go to 8 feet. Well, I want
to go to 10." you know, um that's part of our personality and who we are and the residents care passionately about this. Everywhere I go, everybody I talk to, um they care. They want the height
restrictions and you can do cool stuff. And if you want to make more money in a hotel, make it more elite. make the, you know, make the rooms like really cool, elite, special. You can still make more money. You know, you don't have to just
cram a whole bunch of little boxes in. Um, make it worth the extra money. Um, have all the, you know, the the cool features that would bring in the community also. But I think we want to be able to walk. We want a walking
community. Um, put the parking in the back. hide the parking. Um, but let's keep our height where it is. They're saying, "Well, oh, we're just going to go up 10 feet." No, it's it's eight stories. Right now, we're at five over
one. There is a difference. And there will be people saying, "Well, now we want more." So, let's not just like throw out the soul of our community and what makes Treasure Island
so so cool and funky and special. >> Thank you, Barb. Is Charlie Justice still here? >> No, he actually Okay. >> Thank you. >> Derry Smith. Hi, my name is Derry Smith. I live at
5579th Terrace and um I put together a petition. I don't know if you all have had a chance to see it. I can send it to you. Um I put it put it together with a developer from St. Pete. he developed
for like 40 years and I I just want to mention that he thought the the F of changing it from I think what is it 1.6 six maybe to three. He was shocked. He thought that was crazy. Anyway, and he
develops down there. But um so I put together this petition few days ago and I've had a lot of people sign while I've been sitting here. It went over 200. Um I went door
todo too and I have to say that uh not one person has said oh I want height I want higher um more height and increased height and increased density. Not one person have I talked to has who has said
that um everybody is always happy to sign. They want to sign. They do not want it. And I just I would like to give this to you and I'm I can send you the ones that are online and I can send a petition and I'll send it to you all
also. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Gary. >> Grant Smith. We're a team. Good evening, commissioners, mayor, staff. Um, my name is Grant Smith. I live on Sunset Beach. I'm also a member of the LPA and at the
recent LPA meeting, I voted against the resolutions 20 uh 2516 and 17 and I voted subsequently for 2020. In retrospect, I would vote against all three. My positive vote for the last one was based on a perception of information
provided by the applicants agents as well as our city staff on the appropriateness of that. So, I would vote against all three of those. Again, I was one of the two dissenting votes against the first two. Um, private developers are critically important to us. We all want to develop. They bring innovation. They bring ideas. We saw it
earlier today. They bring great stuff to our community. We need their investment. They improve our quality of life uh for not only us, but also the visitors who come see us. However, when private developers put forth uh proposed change, uh we can assume that they stand to
benefit. they're not going to put forth a proposed change that's going to punish them. So, prior to implementing any of these changes uh by developers or any other party, it should be clear how the municipality and the residents will also benefit from the change. In the ordinance presented by the LPA, there
were several claims put forth by both the representatives as well as staff um in support of these. In my field, I'm not from Richard's field, but I'm an academic field. Critical thinking is defined as the ability to evaluate the evidence that supports claims of fact.
So let's look at the claims that have been put forth in the evidence supporting them. The first claim is that modifications for increased height and density are required to be consistent with the city comprehensive plan. From the developers agent, they said the
amendment is intended to bring us in line with the county plan. from staff. It said land development regulations are required to be consistent with the county plan. There was a slight correction from the agent this evening. We already are in compliance. We already
are in alignment. There's no reason to change it. Consistent does not mean the same or equal. It simply means that we are not exceeding. We actually have the right as a municipality to build more restrictive components to it. The second
claim, additional density allowances are required for development to invest for developers to invest. This claim lacks adequate evidence. There is no evidence. There's no feasibility report that was uh given to LPA. There's no financial analysis.
There's no expressed interest among other developers on what their levels of investment would be. We simply have two developers saying, "You have to increase height and density or we won't invest." Today we got another piece of evidence. It doesn't pencil out. That's the extent
of the evidence we've got supporting these. The third claim, developers will build will not build to maximum. In other words, we're just getting in alignment with the county maximum. As Richard said, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to build to that.
It's going to be subject to review. First of all, this claim lacks evidence to say they're not going to build to the maximum. And it's not even logical because it's inconsistent with the preceding claim. If they need additional height and density to be profitable, they're not going to not build to the
maximum. So, you have to reject this. This is just ridiculousness. Logically, the developers asking for as much as they can so they can do that. And we can't fault them. It's their business. The final claim, the proposed changes will be a net positive for the city.
This is an interesting claim, right? because it lacks evidence and only presents half the story. Benefits, recovery from the storm, walkability, tourism, investment incentive, increased tax revenue. All of these benefits are available under our current plans with
redevelopment. We saw it in Carmel. We saw what can be done with height and density remaining the same if we have imaginative developers to come in. We don't have to change anything in order to get a net positive. In addition to that, there are costs associated with increasing density
um and height. There's infrastructure demands on our sewer system, our water, um on our storm water, public services, police, fire, EMS, all of these are going to be increased. Traffic density, evacuation concerns, it goes on and on. The fact is there's no evidence
supporting that this is going to produce a net positive for the city. There's no comparatives from other cities. There's no costbenefit analysis that was presented. There's nothing. We did get another piece of evidence from the agents representing the Thunderbird today and that is we believe this will
be good for the city. That's the extent of the evidence we're getting. The proposed ordinance for increased height and density are based on claims that are erroneous or unsubstantiated. Prior to adopting any ordinance of this magnitude, steps should be taken to move from the developer assertions to
evidence-based determination. Policy recommendations should be grounded in data, not speculation, particularly when the parties advancing the claims stand to gain personally. Thank you. Thank you, Grant. >> Chris Downey. >> Uh, evening, commissioners and staff. Uh
I'm Chris Downing, District 2, I love Palms. Uh first, uh Grant, thank you for laying out the case as it is before you. I think you know, he he went through every step to indicate whether or not
you should go forward or not in this case. Um really good job, Grant. You know, I wrote a letter last week after the I'm also on the LPA and PNZ, which you all know. Um, I was also one of the no votes on two and if I had to do it again, I'd be a no vote on the on the
three. And it was because of what I learned afterwards that in in some study that we didn't have to go to the max to be consistent on the with the county plan. We were allowed as a city to do something other than that. And as was already mentioned, we're already
effectively in, if you will, consistent with the county plan. We just don't have that not going up to that max. And when you allow it to go up to that max, naturally developers are going to come in and ask for going towards that max with every case.
And it gets harder and harder to hold it back. So there's always this level. And you know, it's been mentioned 10 feet, 20 feet, whatever it is, that is a lot. No matter how you cut it, you're changing what's going on. And the density increases are very, very
substantial with these changes. You know, Barb, you said magic. You know, we have the chance to do something magical here in Treasure Island. We have a blank pallet to work with because of some of the tragedies and because of
because of the storms, but and because of downtown, what happened before the storm. Um, so we have a chance to actually do something magical. And Richard talked about Walt Disney not, you know, go ahead and go forward
without a plan. I am positive that Walt Disney had a plan for Disneyland and he had a plan for Disney World. He didn't do it without a plan. So, we're we're a small city, but we should still have a master plan. We have a comprehensive plan, but that's not a really that's not
a master plan to develop the city and to do it in a consistent way so that everyone can succeed, the residents, the businesses, the developers. And I applaud, you know, the, you know, the the Thunderbird for wanting to do
something and stay here in Treasure Island. We want you here. We want you to be profitable. We just don't want to change the whole city for one hotel. And that's what these ordinances do. These changes to the rules, they change not just the rules
for the Thunderbird, they're going to change it for those two districts. And those two districts are substantial changes. And so I think all of us should take a step back. We need a master plan. If we don't do it this way, I think it's going to be, you know, if
we don't do a master plan and take the time to do it, we'll end up in more litigation and it's going to take more time, not less time. It's going to, if we take a step back to do a plan, it'll actually speed things up. I know no one
wants to spend more money to do that. We don't want to slow people down. We don't want to slow the redevelopment down, but honestly, you just can't do it without a plan. You know, a point in every direction is just no point at all. And that's what we're going to end up with. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris. Mayor, mayor, I'm going to wait till the end, but if you ever if anybody has legal questions because instead of just opinion, there's a lot of legal points being raised. If you want me to address some of the legal points, I think it's important to probably do that in the interim if there especially if there's a lot of comments. I just a couple just need to be made
very quickly. This is an amendment to the comprehensive plan that allows you as the commission to in the future if you wish look at a development agreement and say okay we want that. That's it. It doesn't entitle height. It doesn't entitle density. If you pass this
density doesn't go up. Height doesn't go up. What goes up is the options the city has to potentially if you wish enter into an agreement or even receive proposals from parcel owners to be
considered and for you to then again condition etc. So there's just there's been at least three comments says this is absolutely everyone's going to get the max. There's going to be precedent. They're going to get the max every time. No, you can vote no every single time. So you can pass this and then 50
applications come in and you vote no on every single one that asks for the max. Just that needs to be made. That's a very important point. Legally, you're not constricted. So that's I think that's the most important one that needs to be made. It was made by the applicant, but I'm here to affirm to you
that it's you're not being tied into a particular development agreement in the future. And if you have questions about that, feel free to ask. >> Great. Thank you, Anthony. Diane CrarAl. Diana CrarAl.
>> Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners and staff. Um, as you well know, I'm not a unfamiliar face around here and um I'm going to come out straight and ask you to at least delay this vote tonight. I'm
not I'm I'm everybody's kind of beat around the bush on saying why they don't want it and things and I don't disagree. Let me put it this way in a positive factor. I agree with everything that has
been said tonight. However, I will have to say I do not like that we have the that we have two petitioners, shall we say, making a tax amendment. um that when we're looking at this,
that's like two properties or like four parcels total between um Thunderbird and what the Burn family is going to do. First of all, I think what TR what Thunderbird has planned sounds
wonderful. They're an icon. I want to see them stay. I want our downtown developed. Burns are willing to do that. I don't think that this should be voted on tonight and I'm going to go a little bit for on the master plan. But the other thing,
who and I I'm I'm asking a question and I know it won't be answered, but who's been representing us when we're doing this countywide plan? Who represents Treasure Island? We need to take a good hard look at that. Um because you follow
the money, who's going to get the majority of the money? It's going to be the county. It's not going to be us. Looking at my real estate tax that I got, only 23% of all of the taxes come back to Treasure Island. So follow the
money. So the when they come up with this countywide plan and it may be varied just for the max, we need to be asking ourselves what are what are the statistics for our water wastewater capacity with increased dens density.
Not in just these two instances, these two cases, but for all three of these pl these uh zoning areas. if they went to their maximum, what is that going to do to our wastewater systems? Are you considering the buying, selling or
transferring of density from one property to another? This was a tool box, a toolbox item that the LPA had several years ago because as being a prior member of LPA and um PNC, this was
a discussion that we had in our comprehensive plan when we were going back in that in in probably 2020 and it didn't get passed because of COVID and everything until later on. So that was that's another consideration
that you have to do. What financial effect will this have on our new solid waste contract? What effect will this expansion have on our letter of interest to the county for possibly taking over our complete uh uh sewer system and
stuff? There's a lot of unanswered questions that we need to have before you make a decision. This is my opinion, but I just think it's kind of prudent looking at that way. And if you increase density, you're going to have to have
taller buildings. Okay, we already have problems trying to decide on a fire station, the location, and not having uh trash trucks to pay. And if you go higher in higher in height because of
the dense ata, what's the chance of you needing an aerial fire truck? That's considered a lateral truck if you're not familiar with that. I looked that cost up for a new truck that's $750,000 up to over $1.5 million. How are we
going to house this underneath current conditions or how is that going to affect a new safety building for the fire or fire/ police department? Again, you have to follow the money countywide plan. Who's getting all those
tax dollars? It's the county. Do we get a little do we get a little out of that? Yes, for visit uh St. Pete Clearwater, but that's not St. Treasure Island, Treasure Island. And we're getting some beach nourishment out of it this time, but that's not always. But we're also
funding the race. I can watch those on TV free. I mean, you don't have the aviance of being the of being there at the game. But I just, you know, you've got to be following the money and asking the real hard questions on how it
affects us. With that, um, may I just say we we need workshops and please for these longl lasting plans and please at least delay if not deny this uh request and the other ones. Thank you.
>> Thank you Diana. Sarah Pennington. Sarah Pennington. Good evening, Sarah Pennington, Isisle of Palms. Um, my comments are applying to H6 and H7. And I do want to start out by saying that I love the Thunderbird.
Uh, West and I are also residents that move to Treasure Island specifically for we love the vintage signs and the motel and all of the charm that we have. We love that and we we love the Thunderbird and I I don't want to see that um go away. I think many residents that are
against some of this development get painted with a brush as being totally anti-development, and that's not accurate. Uh I'm definitely not anti-development, and I look forward to having a beautiful downtown in Treasure Island. Um but I do agree that it is unusual for a developer to be the person
initiating the change, which is um what the representative said there. I I do think that is unusual. And um I noticed that um she had clarified that finally finally clarified that the city does not have to match the counter county but it
needs to be consistent but there was no definition of what consistent means which Grant Smith actually then further clarified for us that consistent means just within the plan and we already there. So, even though if we decided to do this and it's done on a case-bycase
basis for each hotel, it concerns me that precedent will be set, um I know our um attorney just said, "Well, you can say no to all of them." I I don't think that's realistically going to happen. Why would we even do this if you were going to say no to all of them? And
then once you say yes to one, how are you going to say no to the next one and not set the city up into peril of having a potential lawsuit? So that is a concern for me. Um I did notice that the agent had referred to the LPA voted 5
to2 in favor for this, but that's because the LPA was erroneously told that we were required to be in line with the countywide um plan, which is not correct. So, the Thunderbird changing density, honestly, it may or may not be
a good thing. I don't know that. But I think allowing them to actually change our city's comprehensive plan could put us into a bad situation. Like I mentioned, lawsuits, once you um allow one, how are you not going to allow the
next? So, I believe that if we are looking into making any changes to our comprehensive plan, um that should be done with a master plan, something similar to what the gentleman from Carmel did in his town. Um doing things just with urgency because we desperately
need it right now and not having a plan got us in trouble already. Things like terrain modification manual, things like this building, uh the living shoreline. There's things that we've done as a city because oh my god, we have to do it right now. and um and and it didn't turn out so great. So, I think it's important
for us to take the time and have a plan. Um, another concern that I have in mind is how do we ensure that developers aren't just coming to the commission to get these increases approved solely for the reason just to increase their property value so they can sell it and move it along to the next developer. Um,
while I believe that businesses must be profitable, it's not the city's job to ensure every single developer makes the most profit off of their property. Um, I'll also say that if an investor buys land and they cannot make a pro a profit developing it under our current
regulations, does that not mean that that person just paid too much for that property? Like at what point is it the city's responsibility to make sure that someone makes a profit off of their land? So, I think if our comprehensive plan is going to be changed, it should
be initiated by our city on behalf of the residents and the businesses with everyone in mind. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. West West Evans, Isa Palms. Uh Sarah kind of stole a bunch of my I think she was
looking over my shoulder. Um we we love the Thunderbird. Um, it's true that one of the reasons we chose, it's not one of the reasons, the reason we chose Treasure Island is because it was a cool little vintage mid-century town. It
still had all the Florida architecture and Florida charm that we loved. In fact, when we first uh were looking at places down here, the realtor kind of tried to just drive us through Treasure Island at first uh cuz he wanted us to find a big tall condo somewhere where,
you know, he could put us in there and make a big commission. And uh we saw Treasure Island and we couldn't believe how charming it was. Uh and one of those things was of course the Thunderbird. We love pulling down 107th and seeing the Thunderbird sign lit up at night. Uh
with that said, uh I understand that the Thunderbird uh has an investment and uh a certain amount of profit they need to turn, but like Sarah said, uh it's not the city, the commission uh or our staff's job to maximize a developer or a
business's profit. That's on the back of the developer or the business to do themselves, which I don't fault them for coming here and trying to maximize it. Uh but that's also our job as a people who have our own investments and our own
uh in our own homes, our own neighborhoods and the lifestyles we live in this community. And that's 6,000 people invested in this community, not just one person invested in one property. So I think that needs to be taken into consideration. And I also
think uh maybe if we had some sort of master plan like the gentleman from Iowa or where some place that's not Florida. I don't know. I only care about Florida. All right. Uh but uh God bless him. He did a great job in his town and
uh had a very a nice presentation there. Uh it seems like he knows a lot about um introducing tax incentives and and the tiff system or whatever. It seems like things like this, if maybe he could
speak to the property owners of the Thunderbird, maybe in the end this could end up saving them millions of dollars and still have a very profitable uh hotel on their hands that benefits the city uh benefits the residents and benefits the property owner as well as
the people who come visit because of how nice the property will be. So I would say uh we need to look towards having a master plan uh even if it's not the gentleman that spoke earlier uh but someone that has uh some kind of experience like that we could have a
cohesive community uh a very you know a a wellthoughtout plan where everyone is happy everyone uh can be proud of what we have here.
So, uh, I would, uh, I'd like to ask the commission to, uh, table this or, uh, vote no on this, not because I dislike the Thunderbird, but because I think it's the right thing to do for the city. And I just ask for
the Thunderbird to please take the residents in mind and be a good neighbor to us as we want to be a good neighbor to you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Wes. Ingred. >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commission, and all my friends. I'll be
brief because they've said everything that I would have said, too. I love the Thunderbird. I'll tell you a quick story about that instead of all everything. First, I'd like to ask though about the um the referendum that we did have nearly 10 years ago and um really a huge
opposition to any increase of heightened density. By the way, I'm um Isisle of Palms District 2. Um what happened to that? Does that not have any weight here? Uh is it now just up to the commission? I wonder how did that
happen? I'm really asking. Is there some legal way that you can just override that? Um, that's in place. That's, as was mentioned, part of our charter perhaps even. It's certainly an ordinance. It's certainly part of what we've decided on 10 years ago.
>> Yeah, Anthony. >> You want me to jump in that? Yeah. It's the referendum process that question. >> The referendum process that's in the charter is a general one about overwriting ordinances, including ones that have to do with development orders. It's now void, completely void. Um,
there was another mention of a referendum that's in the form of an ordinance from 15, 20 years ago. That's also void because all ordinances that control development orders um that require referendums are also now void. So, there can be a legal challenge. I'm
100% certain it will be dispensed with very quickly. It will not be successful against the city. the referendums are are the way that this one is constructed. Even though there's a clause in the statute that passed and says charter amendments that are specific to heighten density that are
previous to 2011 or grandfathered in, that's not what we have here. We don't have a charter provision regarding referendums that's specific to heightened density. We have a general charter provision pre201 that speaks to overriding any ordinance that uh a group of citizens don't like that they could
force back over over the commission and that those themselves are not been grand grandfathered and so that's why a legal challenge would not be successful. So I again I would just want to reiterate like the threat can be made. It's not going to be successful.
>> You're saying it's void though? >> It's void. >> Yes ma'am. All right. >> Well, there could be another perhaps, too. Yeah. >> That's more carefully worded, but you know the intent of that. >> Well, I'm saying Tallahassee has taken control of that process. Not
>> Okay. Yeah. Thank you for >> Okay, just for clarity here, too, for I'm sure I'm not the only one that has that question. But back to the Thunderbird because that was when I was 10 years old. True story. I live I grew up in Tampa. Been here almost 60 years.
And we drove I don't know how long because there was no interstate came to for a 10-year-old birthday party to the beautiful Thunderbird. And I was so impressed that there was a mosaic of the Thunderbird on the bottom of the pool. And when I came here to live 10 years ago, I'm like, is it still there? I hope
it is. And it was. And I hope it stays. That's just part of the charm of this whole place. And to Barb's point, we have a chance here now for magic for it's a blank slate. It really is blank. All right, we have a blank downtown. We
have the chance to move our garbage trucks and the city hall and all the police and fire off the water, have a park there. There all kinds of opportunities. And I think that the green space is being overlooked as equally important to occupied space.
Once you pave over that, it's gone for at least 200 years at least. Right? That's not the only way to have a profitable, viable, successful, beautiful place. You don't pave over everything and make the most squeeze all the money out of it. That has money.
That is a an asset. And it's one that other places don't have on this beach. Up and down the beach. You can't even see the beach anymore. But here you can you can catch a glimpse of it every now and then right here. And I hope we can for for many years to come. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Ellen Lunch Lint. L U C H T. Okay. Mike Penel. >> Thank you. I don't have a lot. Is this on? Yeah. I
don't have a lot to add. I really have enjoyed listening to all this and there's some great comments here. Um, I'm going to go old school because I'm really old. Some emails and some Facebook pages have uh been flying around for the last
couple days. There's some pretty serious allegations have been made and uh it's pretty disturbing for an old guy. I I believe in character. I believe in values and I really believe in local government is the place where you
started pushing back against all of the stuff that's been going on in Tallahassee and in Washington DC and we got a chance to do some good stuff here right now. Unfortunately, a lot of people have been wiped out because of this. But with
every disaster, there's opportunity. When there's clearly conflicts of interest, stated, intended, or otherwise out there, just the perception of those in somebody's leadership position is wrong.
It's dead wrong. And it needs to be fixed. It's wrong. And I guess us old guys take that to heart. We kind of live by a different code, I guess, than some people do now. And it really means a lot to me personally. That's an important
thing. So, I'm not accusing anybody of anything because I think what that was was a whole lot to do about nothing. But it brings up the opportunity to say you guys, all of us are in this room for a reason. We all love this community. We're all part of this community and we
all ought to be working towards some end goal of this community. And that end goal is a master plan. That end goal is having a freaking plan. Where are the sidewalks over this that we've planned to go back and forth from this side to that side so people are not ganged up?
Where are the walkways to get out to the beach if you park here? If you're coming from St. Pete and you got to park somewhere, where are those things? Where's the bike paths to do that with? There's some really neat things we can do right now. And we need to start, I think, planning that and plan it around
something so you can invite in people. I think the biggest thing I've heard tonight is where's the bait? Where's the bait to invite in these these great business entrepreneurs and bring them in here and get them excited about building
something back and and that's leadership, guys. And that's got to that's got to start in this room. And we got to instead of biting the fighting among each other, I think we really need to go the other way. Just really really look at this. get everybody's input
quickly and let let the gentleman that want to want to get things going get them going. I don't like the height requirements and all that, but I've heard enough tonight to know that there something could be worked out here. And if I was if I think I was running the damn thing, we'd have some solutions
right now because I think there's some good good opportunities. But anyway, I integrity is the most important thing that you can do and it isn't legal. It's in your heart. >> Thank you, Mike.
>> All right. And that's >> at some point I think it's appropriate for me to address the concern about who can vote and who can't vote. So, just I mean, if you want me to do it earlier, you want me to do it later, it's up to you. But I'm happy. >> Let me let me close the uh public comment
>> and the card that you had. We had uh everybody had to fill out a card and they needed to be in by 6:15. >> It says Thunderbird. >> I'm sorry. >> I did. >> Yeah, but you did it later in the in the program here.
[Music] >> All right. Um so, uh now what we're going to take a look at is uh we actually need a motion or did you read one? Um, we did a we have a motion in a second, but >> Okay. >> I
>> They obviously weren't in time. >> Okay. And your name? >> Okay. >> Come on up. We'll open our public comment for you. Good evening. My name is Sharon McClendon. I live well now I live in
South Pasadena because my house had to be torn down because FEMA told me that I had to tear my house down. I didn't have any different other considerations. I didn't have a ordinance or anything that said that I could keep my house. I had to tear it
down, but I'll be back. So, these are just some comments that I have. So, um the representative from the um Thunderbird said that we need to keep visitors where the visitors need to be and away from the neighborhoods. We have
regulations in place that keep short-term rentals where short-term rentals should be and out of residential areas. Um, and some of those houses that they've been building that are um, those big box houses like on Sunset or
whatever, those are houses that people are renting. Those are rentals. People don't want little hotel rooms. They want condos. They want houses. They want things that are um, better than just a
a two queen-sized beds with a little refrigerator and a microwave. I don't know if that's what the increase in density gives them, but I don't think that that's the the way you want to go. Um, I also wanted to say that um we do
welcome all visitors. We want more visitors, but we can't have so many that we can't that we can't take care of. We have a fire department. We have a police department. We have a sewer system. We have trash. We have all that stuff. If you
start building an increase on both sides, where is where is all that going to come from? Um, and I don't know how many stories 80 ft is, but it seems big. Um, an increase in um
Oh, sorry. The storm should not be an excuse to change the complexion of Treasure Island in 2004. and again some other time later after that when we could still vote on
how the city would be looking. It was turned down both times. In 2004 when I was on the planning and zoning board, the city recommended that we pass the height and density increase and we didn't.
I don't know if the second time it had come up since then if it was also recommended by the city that we should go forward with that that we didn't. In 2004 when that happened, Chuck Cower was the city manager. Chuck Cower who then
went to work for Bill Edwards who was one of the main developers that was going to be building on the island. Just a thought. Um and I don't understand. So if and and and this is obviously new things that have come from Tallahassee, but if if you can tell one
person that they can go up eight stories or 10 stories or whatever and not tell another one, isn't that like spot zoning? I mean, you zoned that particular one for something and now you're not going to let that person
and the attorney saying no. But it just seems like it's a um >> if if you want I could just very briefly respond. It's just not a legal precedent. If your question is is it a legal precedent that could then be held against the city later? No. Because it's fact specific sight specific to those
sites. And each one again with the development agreement can be mitigated with certain things that are unique to that site. This site has this traffic pattern. This one has that. Therefore, it's not precedent. It does not open up the city to any liability. Spot zoning
is a different concept. But thank you. And then in response to that, have you ever driven by the Thunderbird from February through say Fourth of July when the signal is and and the people are trying to get in and people are
trying to get out, the traffic pattern to get in and out of the Thunderbird is is a nightmare. I've seen at least three accidents where people were trying to get out because the light had just changed and they had to wait for two other signals. So, that is something
that you would have to change again. Um, and I don't know why we would have all these ordinances if you can if you can pass if you can say no to every one of them, why would we even bother doing this? And then my last thing is um there's an author um a Florida author
who recently passed away. His name is Tim Dorsy and at one point in time in one of his books he wrote about he had Treasure Island in there. I think it was Hammerhead Hotel and um he picked Treasure Island because of all
the quirky quaintness that we have. So I'd like to keep it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sharon. Okay, now we'll close public comment again and we have a motion and a second. Can can we just mayor with your
permission can we um go ahead and and have the attorney address the voting issue before we vote on it? That way everybody kind of know and and just >> sure kind of >> Yeah. So one of the commissioners asked me or several did actually to explain the law of when you have to abstain. You
only have a conflict a voting conflict which would require you to abstain if you have a special private gain or loss. special private gain or loss means that that vote uniquely advantages either you or an associate or a family member. If
you're part of a larger class of people that benefit or don't benefit from a particular vote, then you don't have a voting conflict. If you don't have a voting conflict, if you have determined you do not have a voting conflict, then you must vote. You actually must vote.
There's another statute. That statute is Just one moment. 286.012. That says if you've determined you don't have a conflict, then you must vote. And there's a four-factor test. I've written a memo. I've distributed to anyone who's
asked about when there is a conflict. And no, no members of this commission at this point have a conflict because no one has property that's part of a unique class. It's a general class. There are dozens if not hundreds of parcels. um that are affected by these votes. It's no different than you voting to cut taxes when you know it's going to
benefit you because you're part of a general class of property owners that are going to benefit from a tax cut. So, uh there is no conflict here. You're obligated to vote if you agree. Again, this is advice. Each commissioner has to come up with it his own determination. Uh but if you decided applying the four
factor test of chapter 112 silence in the >> you don't have a conflict then then you must vote. And again, you know, obviously, uh, the applicant has the chance to come up and summarize their case, but I just want to reiterate one more time because I think
it's extremely important and it's it should be extremely clear that if you vote for a comprehensive plan amendment that allows you to in the future consider higher densities, it's not a precedent to any application and it doesn't entitle them to a specific
higher density for any application because they're all subject to a development agreement. development agreement is a very peculiar thing in Florida law and it allows all types of conditions that you can mitigate the property with through considerations. There were comments about parks and fire
fire service and water. All of that can be part of the development agreement. So just something to consider. With that said, I think you can go either to debate or have the uh applicant, you know, do a conclusion. Would you like >> would you like to do any type of
conclusion? Thank you, mayor. Um, just briefly since we have been here and I know we heard a lot of the um, same things. So, I just wanted to recap. Um the proposal is not to use a cliche that came up a lot at um the planning board, a tool in the city's
tool um belt to use to stimulate and negotiate redevelopment in your city. It's actually provides you a path to create the vision that's been discussed tonight. It allows you to negotiate with
these um property owners with respect to the sidewalks, with respect to the open space, with respect to the mobility challenges that otherwise if a uh site plan comes in and meets the criteria for your site plan approval may not be on the table for you to ask for that
information. Uh that's the only way to get these added benefits that everybody says that they want tonight. um and to provide the flexibility to the developer or to the property owner to to really have that discussion with you. Um that it gives
the property owners an incentive to reconstruct. It provides guard rails for the city. It requires these negotiations. Um and I don't didn't want the development agreement requirements that are proposed to be lost. It um has
required hurricane evacuation plans and procedures for hotel rooms. It has um mobility management requirements and it has a development agreement under 163 has the additional opportunity for the city to discuss the infrastructure and
concurrency needs that have been discussed to date. Whereas otherwise a potentially a site plan application um may not have have those same abilities. So this is a tool that we hope you recognize can be used with these guard
rails and with these further discussions. I also wanted uh to remind you uh what was discussed at LPA and what was started uh discussed at the beginning of the hearing. This is the first reading. This then would be transmitted to the state for a concurrency reading and a second hearing
would be be in about 60 days. I would hope and expect since you have a property owner who is ready to have some of these discussions and is anxious to rebuild, I would think that not only the property owner who's asked for this, but um others may be in line knocking on
your staff's door to start these discussions about how this might work. Um so this is really just a tool. We hope that uh you want to include this tool in the city's toolbox and allow these property owners who want to
rebuild uh the opportunity to do so. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Are we ready to take a vote? >> I I think we should have more after hearing >> Okay. >> comments. We should >> have a
>> Sure. Go ahead and start. Well, I was just going to say >> microphone. >> I assume we're all going to comment. We just >> Sorry. >> Assume we're all going to comment. We just want to go district >> mics. >> The mics need to >> I just said I assume we're all going to comment. Do we just want to start with
district one and go through the >> We don't have >> That's fine. That's good. No, >> no, you can go ahead. >> No, I'd like uh Commissioner Clark's suggestion. >> Okay, that's fine. >> That way I get I get to go last.
We don't want to be on CVTI's bad side now. >> I know. Burn. >> So, thank you for the presentation. It was very good. And and you know, my hopes would be that um those not only
that are here tonight, but those listening in truly heard the reasoning behind this and that it is a tool in the toolbox moving forward. you know, comments were made about, you know, it's not our responsibility. You're absolutely right. I'm a business owner.
It's not your responsibility to make sure that I make a profit. However, if the city of Simol and the city of St. Petersburg, where my businesses are, had restrictions in place that even restrict a conversation, that's an issue. We've
had the Gator property sitting empty for over a decade. And you know, it was said in in one of the comments, um, that no one, you know, only two property owners, um, the Pirates Square and Thunderbird are the
only two who have said they won't rebuild if they can't have that. Well, first of all, I've never heard the Thunderbird say that. But second of all, and and quite frankly, I've never heard Pirate Square say that. But I have heard the Gator Property say that and has proven that unless Treasure Island is
willing to have a conversation that they'll sit on it. And we come over that bridge and we look at that empty, awful piece of property just sitting there. And that is the entrance to our city. So much beautiful things could be
done with that piece of property and it sat there for over a decade. A lot of the people, and I'm by no means discounting, a lot of the people that I hear complain the most are the people that have been here for five years or less, six years or less. I grew up here.
I've been here since I was a little kid. I was eight years old when we moved to Treasure Island. And I love this island. I know if you've been here five years or less, you still love this island. But why is it okay for you to come here, but nobody else? Are we just supposed to put
the bridges up? I don't think so. We have to look forward. We have to look to building this city back. This is a tool. This is not anything more than that. There's been so much false narrative put out there that and I feel bad because
those who read it and who maybe don't have the time to come to meetings or truly do their homework, they they see that in passing and they're like, "Oh my gosh." And it's it's shock and awe and it's it's not fact, it's opinion. Just
like when people say, "I think they can build it the way we think it should be built and make a profit." You know, numbers and facts and figures don't lie. What that is, I don't know. I'm not a developer. Never been a developer. However, what I will say is having a
tool in our toolbox is what we need to move this city forward. What we've done for the past few decades has it doesn't work. Now, I love I'm anybody who knows me knows I'm a mid-century modern freak. I love it. I love the look.
Unfortunately, the storm took most of that away. The Thunderbird wants to keep the sign. Uh they want that vintage sign. That is what people know when they come over that bridge. But you can't come over the bridge and you can't drive around our town right now and if you're
honest with yourself, you can't say, "Oh, I love our charming town." Our town is not charming right now. We are ran down. We have fences around motel. We have dirt lots. We don't have a downtown. And there's a reason. And no
matter what we all feel in our hearts, I would love to have the Treasure Island of the 80s. I would absolutely love that. I don't know who wouldn't, but it's gone. And we have to be storm resilient. We have to allow there to be tools in a toolbox. We have to be able
to look forward of what is going to be for the next few decades. And it's our job up here to listen. We've all gotten these emails. I know I get accused quite frequently on social media of having
ghost constituents, which is hilarious to me. >> They accuse me of having >> as I have no doubt there's really only there's really only one person they don't accuse of that. However, all of us received all the emails and I can truly and honestly say
I have even been surprised that the emails we've received in the last 48 hours have been pretty equal. people for the yes. Every all of us got the emails. You can laugh if you'd like. That's perfectly fine. But I am telling you no. And as a
matter of fact, we could have read them. They asked for them to be read, but we chose not to. >> And I am tell Oh, I would gladly read one with with permission of the mayor. >> May I read it? >> Let's just Yeah. >> Is your hammer not working today? >> Yeah.
>> Because everybody accuses me of this. I would be more than happy to read the one that starts off with the reason they're not here is because of the amount of bullying that they would receive. Did Did everyone receive that email? >> Did everyone receive that email?
>> I don't. >> It came in one email >> and lit. No, it's not one email. This particular email, but several emails. >> I'm not going to but I apologize. Several emails came in in support. Just
because not everyone here agrees with that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. We all got them. My point being is we cannot continue to do what we've been doing for the last few decades. That's why we are where we are at today. We're
not sustainable. If another storm hits us, we are it's scary. I don't even want to think about it. But what we do have to do is responsibly work with our property owners and quit telling them no on everything. We've been doing that for
decades and that's why we have empty lots and fences around our hotels and that's that is my opinion >> Chris >> if my teeth are chattering it's because it's like 20 below up here. But um I am
um a million% for development. Um and I love the Thunderbird. Um but we're at a pivotal time here with our city. Uh we have two hur we have had had two hurricanes and we have a real blank slate to build this town back into
something amazing. Um, I've talked to a ton of people and I think one of the most positive things that I've garnered out of those conversations over the last couple of months and weeks is that I think 75% of
the people who in the past wanted zero development in this town now realize that we have to have development and and that we can't go on with empty parking lots. we can't go on with um you
know a town that's run down. Uh but what they've all said is that they want smart development. Um and you know I I I can just give multiple things. I had 60 people or 65 people at a budget meeting upstairs and
we talked about the budget and then I talked about some of the other issues of the town. I brought this up. What do you guys think of this? And and that's really that's what I got. I got is we want development. We just we want we don't want a hodge podge. We don't want
something over here, something over here. Nothing that doesn't match. Um and I was I was at a resident's home last night with 20 residents at it and I heard the same thing. And that is why when Jim stood up and talked I'm like
this is someone like Kim doesn't have to be him. If some people don't like Jim, there's other people that could do it. I mean, because they we can't he can't build parking garages underground here. I saw parking garages in his pictures that I didn't even know were a parking garage, like a beautiful building. But
anyhow, someone like him that is gonna come in and knows what they're doing, knows how to do public private partnerships, tiff tiff districts, and can he could probably help us build our fire station, you know, and um
you know, we can say what we want, but I don't know. I'm not an expert on tiffs or public and and I don't believe anyone up here on this commission are and I don't really believe there's very few people in this town that even know how to do it. So, we need someone doesn't have to be Jim, someone like Jim to come
in here and help us. And that's what we've never had and that's why we never have had anything here. And and so I mean I said it before and it's we need to bring in developers and that's someone like someone Jim could do. They
could bring in the best. They've worked with the best architects, the best engineers. They can bring in the developers that are willing to not only do stuff that they can make money, but they're going to give back to the town and really help us. And what what what people don't understand is that's going
to bring up all the other developers values here also. Um, and so like I said, we need to bring in dollars that are willing to work with us and what we want and how we want it to look and and that are going to give back to the
community. And and again, we we now have that opportunity because so many people that didn't want development in the past now know that we need it. And to me, we're just doing this backwards. We're letting the developers do it. We should be driving it. we can making sure that
we're doing stuff that is is um beneficial to both us and them. I want it to be beneficial for them, too. Um and again, I we're we're trying to go from zero to 100. And and I love I love Richard Harris. He's great. I love going
to lunch with him. And but we're going to pull another TMM here. You know, Richard wanted field dirt. We wanted TMM. We got it. And now what are we trying to do? Richard's trying to help me get rid of the thing. It's been a disaster because we because we rushed
into it, you know, and um I just And the other thing I heard a couple people bring up, we're not responsible if someone comes in and paid too much for their property. I'm not saying that the Thunderbird did, but I have a question, I guess, for some of these developers.
If we if we um if we're going to pass this and they're going to build to the max and then sell their place in 5 years, will they split the profits with us? I guess that's what I like to know. Um I want an awesome
town. I want something that looks like Rosemary Beach, you know, or some place like that that's just it looks awesome, you know, and we're not going to get that going down this road. Um, my district wants development. Like I said before, they just want smart development. And I don't care what
people say about me. And I've heard people say that I want I'm only I only vote because of a small group of people or for one individual resident. I have a ton of residents here tonight. And I've talked to probably half the people that voted for me about this. And
one thing I can guarantee you is this. I don't vote for one individual, for one group of people, or for Charlie Brown, or for Mickey Mouse. I vote for my what my residents want, and my residents know that, and I thank them for it.
>> Commissioners Sison, >> would you like to go? Oh, thank you. >> All right. Well, my my notes are scattered everywhere here. Um, Gators actually has been empty for 18 years.
Yep. All right. Um, I want to do a full disclosure. It's not what you think. Um, I personally gave Greg Smith, Citizens Voice Treasure Island, $2,000 early on when he approached me with his idea of
Citizens Voice. I asked for a refund a couple times and I haven't got it back yet. Um, and although I really don't care what residents have uh talked to me about online, but when you're banned on
uh Facebook pages and you can't um you know have a rebuttal to uh Mr. Vassy's uh attack on my character um because he doesn't know all the facts. He's just used chat GDP to figure it out. um as
stated on some of the emails that came to us. Um so I mean I think that's >> Yeah, it is relevant. And you actually sent me an email that I'm a fraud. >> You want to share all of them? >> Sure.
>> Okay, please. We're we're not going to have a debate with the audience. >> Thank you. Uh so let's see here. So I mean um uh so my vote is based on uh these assumptions that height and density can
be uh considered later. I would love to see what our leader uh what his thoughts are on the issue and that's you commissioner or mayor doctor. That's really all I have. Thank you >> Commissioner Dicki. >> Okay. We we've referenced uh Senate Bill
718 and House Bill 41 quite frequently tonight. Uh and that bill basically uh was passed in 2023. And it allows uh city commissions and county commissions to make decisions on LDR changes and the
like. And it took away uh the citizens right to to vote for which which I think is a was a bad idea. But but it did do that. But it doesn't mean that that as commissioners we we can't uh or we should ignore what our residents have
said. And and I uh and I was a little bit surprised uh because I I did go through the the list of uh emails that we've gotten in the last 48 hours or so at home. And I I don't know how well you can see this list from over there, but on the this
side is the people that were for and on this side the ones that were opposed to passing these ordinance. And and I wrote all the names down so you all can see, but I went through all 40 all 33 that we got and there were 30 30 and uh that
wanted to oppose these ordinance and and three that was four. So I don't know where I'm sure we messed up because not everybody sent all the mayor and commissioners the same thing. So, I'm not uh disputing uh Vice Mayor's Vasquez uh numbers. I'm just saying when when I
did it, it was overwhelmingly uh in favor of opposing uh these changes. The residents have told us in two elections, they've told it, they're reaching out to us now. You've heard them tonight. They're telling the commission, this is what the residents and the citizens
want. And you know, if we want to if we want to vote as a and we don't listen to these people, then let's let's vote for this and and approve it. But if we want to listen to our residents, listen to the citizens and what they've had to
say, overwhelmingly they have said, don't change heightened density. [Applause] You know, I look out here and I see a lot of magic in this room. Uh I I think that there are ways for us to figure out
what is going to be best going forward. Um I think that uh what what is going to be best is that we are going to need to have some public private relationships uh for our our our growth. I mean we don't have the money sitting here. The city certainly doesn't have the money.
Um, so what we need is somebody with imagination and I think that we open the meeting today uh with Jim Brainard who has imagination. Uh, but he makes it he makes it real. It comes to life and I
think that uh you wouldn't be here if you if you you know didn't really care. And I and I think that's extremely important. Um, you know, the the one thing though that I I hear a lot recently and you probably have too is
about our parking and about how much our parking is expensive and that people are trying to find the cheapest parking. Well, I'll tell you what, we do have some on some days we have some real issues with cars. It's because they are trying to figure out where the cheapest
parking is and you know that am I going to park and have to pay $18 for the first two hours not even knowing that I just was going in for a burger. uh you know we there's there's a lot of issues but once again we're going to lean on those public private relationships
especially for parking and you know so I am I I I'm mixed on on a lot of this and I think that a lot of us are but uh you know I would like to see what our
development uh agreement looks like. I I would like to do that. And I think that if if we just kill it off tonight, even though we're going to have multiple chances of of it, you know, going forward, if we kill it all off tonight, we kill that look at what could be a
great relationship with the uh with the developers. And we're not talking about bringing in money. We we have the money here. We have the owners here. And so, uh, you know, I I'm taking a a I'm taking a point that doesn't say that I
am for or against, uh, but I do want to see what we can do together moving forward. Okay. Would you please uh call the role? >> Vice Mayor Vasquez,
>> I. >> Commissioner Sison, >> I. >> Commissioner Clark, >> no. Commissioner Dicki. >> No. >> Mayor Doctor >> I. [Music] >> Okay. So, now we're moving on to the next item, H7, which is the other half
of this. Uh, so would you uh call the RO or I mean give me a motion, please? I move to approve ordinance 2025-17 and schedule a second reading following the approval of ordinance 202516 amending the text to the city of
Treasure Islands comprehensive plan. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. We've already done our public comments. Is there any comments up here? >> Okay. If not, call roll. >> Public comment. Are you going to do the reading of the
ordinance? >> Um, real quick. So, we just did the comp plan, correct? And now we're on LDRs because I thought I misheard it. Just want to make sure I'm not going crazy. Sorry. >> You're correct. >> I will read the 2025-17 ordinance amending the LDRs, land a
development regulations to allow for alternative temporary lodging units in line with the city treasure island comprehensive plan and countywide plan. >> All right. Call the RO, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez, >> I. >> Commissioner Sison, >> I. >> Commissioner Clark, >> no. >> Commissioner Dicki,
>> no. >> Mayor Doctor, >> I. >> Our last item for tonight before we go into uh the reports on the commissioners is resolution 2025 20 adoption of the
2026 to 2030 strategic plan. I move to approve resolution 2025-20 adopting 2026-2030 strategic plan. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Uh I do
have some cards if people are still here that specifically wanted to say something about the strategic plan which was 8 uh H8 and Maria Barba. and Marie Marie Barbara. Um,
this is about the um Pirate Square and um, of course, I'm going to object. It's not in the Again >> of um, the densities is too much of a land grab. >> I'm sorry that that was taken off the agenda for tonight >> for the Pirate Square.
>> Correct. Yes, it was asked to be removed. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mike. Do you have anything else? Okay. >> Uh Diana Crarable.
She's Oh, there she is. >> Hi again, Diana CrarAl, District 2. I'm just a little disappointed that we had this strategic plan on an offsite rather than being here at city hall and inviting the public to participate.
Five years ago when we had it, we had it in the old city hall. You had people that were invited because of different positions that they held within the community and you had it open to the community. Um, I just think it's terrible that we did this off island and
things. And I just wanted to let you know that I think in the future when we have something as important as this that we need to have that take place on island where everybody can participate. In addition to that, they had it on a Saturday morning where everybody, if
they worked or not, could also attend. So I would just like maybe to take that in consideration for future meetings of great importance. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. We will close the uh public
comments. Any discussion up here? All right. So uh please call the role. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez. I Commissioner Sison. I >> Commissioner Clark. Hi, >> Commissioner Dicki. >> Hi, >> Mayor Doctor.
>> Hi. >> All right. And now we're going into Commissioner reports. Commissioner Vasquez. >> I just wanted to um touch on um the people who have reached out about the
police and we actually just got the contracts for Madera not long ago um and for St. Pete Beach. And to dispel yet another rumor um that we could save up to $2 million by outsourcing our police,
um our police budget, I believe, is $3.4 million and we have um marine patrol. We have at least four units on the ground on all shifts at least. um when we have
special events and you know holiday weekends and such like that um we we scale up we scale down um and we never have to pay additional for that the budget is the budget um in St. Pete
Beach, their new budget, I'm I apologize, their new contract with the sheriff's department, they get three officers per shift and one floating sergeant that they share between that and Madera Beach. Um any extra if they
need beach drivers for any special events, anything to that effect, that is approximately $50,000 more when they need them. Um there's several several things. Um if you need special events to scale up and
however many officers you need, it's at scale pay. So their latest uh contract is $3.7 million. So it is significantly larger than ours. Um it is a year-to-year contract with the sheriff's
department. And since 2012, it has gone up 146% on their budget. So I apologize on their contracts. So the um to dispel, they do not have and Madera Beach has less
officers. They have two. Their latest contract is 1.9 million, but they get two officers per shift, not four. They get two. Again, no marine patrol, none of that. And they share a sergeant with St. Pete Beach and they are paying 1.9
million is their new budget. So again our budget is $3.4 million. We have beyond excellent service with our officers. We do not have to pay additional for additional officers on
holidays and special events. So, I just wanted to kind of nip once again um the misnomer that, you know, we're we could save up to $2 million a year by going with the sheriff's department. Not true. Very much not true. Not Tammy words. You
can go on St. Pete Beach, you can look at their budget. You can go on Madera Beach, you can look at their budget. That's what the sheriff's department, unlike outsourcing trash, there are multiple trash companies, multiple to choose from. So, if one raises a contract, and you don't do one-year
contracts when you do trash, but they raise it, you have nine, 10 more companies to choose from that are going to work hard to earn your business. You don't have that once you go to the sheriff's department. That's it. They've got you year by year, contract by
contract, which is why they've gone up 146% in the since 2012 in St. Pete Beach. So definitely wanted to address that for sure and the 911 was addressed. The 911 firewalk was addressed um
already. But let's please remember the 911 memorial. Uh Madair Beach does one as well. And I think we're going to kind of because I sing at that one then I'm going to come back and walk with our guys um uh on 911. So, please try to take part in some kind of a um a
ceremony or recognition somewhere for 9/11. But other than that, I think that's it. >> Thank you, Commissioner Clark. >> Sure. Um I wasn't planning on talking about this, but um and I actually don't think my residents would support
outsourcing the police, but I just want to make one correction. I the the Mad Deere Beach mayor sent me the contract and you're correct about the 1.9 million, but that also it's not apples to apples. So, it includes includes crossing guards, code enforcement, and a
bunch of other parting guards. So, I'm just I'm just saying >> two parttime crossing guards. I'm just saying >> I have the same contract. >> Okay. So, >> um so anyhow, the only thing I was going to talk about tonight is and I brought it up to the city manager before. I
continue to get the most emails about the fact that we still have all these yards that aren't mowed and and you know part of our neighborhood's starting to look really good and then we have all these people that aren't taking care of their property. I mean I don't understand any other place I've lived
why can't we go cut these yards and charge the people and if they don't pay us we slap a lean on their house. I mean it just looks terrible. And I mean I get I get probably two emails a week about it. If I could jump in quick. So, this was just discussed. I don't know why historically the city did not do this,
but is >> And I'm not saying that he's not doing what I asked. >> They're cutting the grass every day. >> No, no. I'm I'm just saying why can't we I I I historically the city right now, >> but we're we're drafting it right now and already met with staff once on it.
So, but this was the first time it was brought up. We I mean, historically, I don't know why the city did. >> So, what has Do we have to like vote on it or ordinance. Yeah. >> Okay. Are we going to bring that forward? >> I think it's ready by your next meeting or the one after. >> Okay. Cuz I mean it just it just I just
people I don't I I'm sorry that they're not in their homes, but you got to still take care of the grounds, you know. Thank you. I'm done. Uh to touch on uh Commissioner Clark's point, uh there's a lot of newspapers being piled up and they uh with the
torrential downpour that we had a couple weeks ago or a week ago or so, uh they've been piling up in the um leaf uh grate in these drains. And uh on my walks at night, I've uh saw and I emailed Gary regarding it. the a lot of
the grass clippings are stuck in the drains and they pile up over time, thus not creating proper drainage. So, um if you see a drain that's clogged, you know, please email uh public works uh to get that taken care of.
Um so uh in my uh weekly meetings with um our city manager Charles Vanzant, I will bring up uh uh the city planning uh situation uh that we discussed today. And uh if that's the will of the
commission, I think we should go out for RFP. We shouldn't specifically target a a particular person. Uh, I think we got to do uh proper research and planning and maybe find someone that best fits the description for Treasure Island. Uh,
and uh, like I said, I've been in that city and it is gorgeous. Uh, definitely a lot of corn fields, but uh, something that we don't have here. Um, and uh, although we can't have parking underground, Miami does have a tunnel
uh, in it. So obviously with enough money uh and uh P3s uh anything could be accomplished but obviously we got to have relationships first before we go go down that route. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Uh I'm going to need Brett's help here
uh to move to the next slide or do I right right click right click. Okay, there you go. Okay, thanks click. Uh a couple of my about three to be exact uh residents as they passed my house while I was working out in the yard in the
last several weeks talked to me about their most recent tax statement and they said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. I thought you told me that we weren't raising your taxes and I thought uh I thought property values were going down and I I was expecting lower a lower uh
tax trim notice when I got it. In fact, it went up. Uh, so I took a look at, you know, at my bill and I've walked them through this, but I thought I'd quickly walk you through it as well. Uh, you can see the the total tax bill, the total millage rate last year that we got as
Treasure Island residents last year was 16.148. The proposed is 16.6. So it's up almost 3% or 46%. You can see Treasure Island here is flat. So there we didn't have we didn't raise our millage rate but but the uh big increase
there came uh from the public schools especially the local public schools and uh most of you will remember last November uh the county voted 68 to 32% to raise the school district millage rate by a half a point. So that's that's
where you're seeing your increase. This is a um I want to say a typical bill. It may not be that typical. was probably fairly typical of a tax bill with the with the millage rates that I just talked about uh uh in 2024 and 2025, but
these are the actual dollars. So, in the city of Treasure Island, uh our on this particular bill, which is mine quite frankly, uh our bills going up uh what is that8 $84 or something there uh from
prior year. Uh that's still as you heard Diana CrarAel mention earlier that's less than 23% of the total bill but it did go up and and even though we didn't raise a millage rate and why it's because this assessed value came up. So
again, because I was asked this and I I called I called the county to get some clarification on this and I because I was kind of expecting I I knew about this half percent uh from the school board, but I I thought property values were going to be going down and in fact property values
went up and I said, "How can you raise property tax values in this situation? Everything I've seen shows that it's going down." Uh, and they said, 'Really, it really doesn't matter because until this number here, market value equals your cap value, you're not going to see
a decrease in your taxes. And I said, I understand that, but I still don't understand why this could go up 11%. Uh, especially given what we've been uh what this area's been through. But anyway, there wasn't a logical explanation, but I share this with you again because several of the residents asked me uh and
I did call and talk to them to get some information. But you will see to total our uh my tax bill and I'm sure yours will too. It will run very similarly went up 6% year-to-year. So just in case you're wondering what happened there. Uh
I know uh Arthur's quite capable of defending himself. Uh and I know he's come under some some uh pressure uh lately. uh specifically uh the the mayor and commissioners got an email earlier
in the week uh that uh from Andrew Vassie uh uh telling us all these bad things about Commissioner Sison. And again, I'll I'll let him defend himself, but I just want you to I wanted to I felt compelled to talk about a couple of things in here that I had personal
knowledge about uh that were untrue unt untruthful. one that's the first two items in this email and one was about the fire side or the fire station location. Well, both of them were about the fire station location. I don't know why Mr. Vassie continues to insist that
the rebuilt TI group was conspiring to to put the uh public safety facility in the park. That was not anything we ever talked about in terms of uh in terms of uh it just wasn't on our radar. It's not
something we talked about with the rebuilt TI group was put together to go after uh uh grants that that might be available. It wasn't to to talk about where we're going to place the uh the public safety facility. So, that was
mentioned twice in this email and I did want to clear that. Uh furthermore, uh Vassie attacked one of the resident volunteers on the committee. uh you know and you know you can attack me which you do from time to time and you can attack Commissioner Zan which you've been doing
a lot of lately. Uh we're both public figures and we signed up for that. It comes with the territory but attacking the volunteers people that took their time and spent months on on trying to help this city get get public uh to get funding for for rebuilding the city I
think was was inappropriate. So, I I wanted to mention that uh while I had a chance uh on the on the good news front, I I'm almost uh I'm wrapping up here, but on the good news front, one of the iconic
uh uh signs we have out on Sunset Beach is this Living on Island time, and it survived hurricanes Helen and Milton. Uh this is what it looked like uh a couple of weeks ago. Uh but some people got together and uh and and uh took that
sign down and came up with this new sign and and specifically I want to uh and it's beautiful by the way. It's really getting a lot of uh buzz out there. Uh but specifically I wanted to thank the artist uh John uh uh CR who who did the
artwork on this and uh thank the Sunset Beach Community Association for sponsoring and paying for it. And thank uh also Richard Harris for finding the artist for us, taking the old sign down and installing the new one. So, you know, it takes a village. You wouldn't
think uh uh up upgrading a sign to uh would would be such a a challenge, but we we got it done and it looks great. And uh you know, people people love coming out to Sunset Beach, the visitors, and having their picture taken
in front of that. So, thanks again for everybody who made that happen. And that's all I have. Mayor, >> thank you. Uh, the only thing that I have is that uh we are now in September. Uh, the American Legion uh has been
closed now for almost one year. Uh, but there is going to be a grand opening uh at the end of this month. So, uh, all of you take a look and and see. uh they're probably going to start uh just with a bar and then work their way up to uh the
kitchen, but uh it'll be good to see something, you know, uh for the veterans and for all of the residents uh to take part in. So with that with the meeting is adjourned.