e e e e e we're going to call this meeting to order today is Monday March 18th it is 9:00 all council members are present Town manager Town attorney town clerk are also here we are at the Bay Oaks Recreation Center today as our town temporary Town Hall trailers will be used for the election tomorrow if you please rise for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance let us Embrace each new day in every transition and change as we enter into each newa with excitement and even some anxiety let us recall compassion presence and abounding love let us be thankful for the experiences that have brought us to this day and for the work of others that gives breath and depth to our work amen amen amen IED Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you before we move to the final agenda I just want to kind of put out a public service announcement a reminder that every Friday at Town Hall during normal business hours Lee cares is here to discuss and help with questions of the programs for the housing Rehabilitation the home purchase assistance the voluntary residential acquisition so if you want to come in anytime every Friday Andy's going to make sure this goes out every probably Thursday as a reminder to come in anyone that needs Assistance or wants some more information on this to come in and talk to those from Lee County for Lee cares uh there might be some good programs there that can help out our residents so don't forget about that next is the approval of the final agenda is there a motion to approve the final agenda mayor I'd like to uh pull uh both consent agenda items for further discussion please okay councilor king would like to pull consent agenda item A and B I add evidently so does Siri is there any objection hearing none motion carries in do we need a motion for that yeah you John you want to make that a motion I would move to pull a and b from the consent agenda for further discussion second got a motion and second any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none motion carries unanimously now is uh now is there a motion to approve the final agenda as amended so moved second a motion a second any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppos hearing none motion carries unanimously Jacob are we still live or we're still live okay maybe a little darker out there in TV Land but e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e assume that's why're well I don't know all right let's let's try to get this meeting back on we had a little someone pulled the wrong lever somewhere uh next is a public comment just a reminder if you're here to speak on any the public hearings and you want though that testimony to be put into record as part of the decision for those hearings to save your comment for the public hearings so with that it's open to public comment yep Madam clerk um first up I have Karen Troutman and after Karen will be Ed Ryan and that's all I have signed up Karen good morning good morning uh my name is Karen Troutman can you pull that mic for us down Karen so we can wherever you need to how's that sure uh my husband and I have been coming here to Fort Meers Beach for 20 years and we own a condo on lenel by CVS behind Santini Plaza and we really love coming here and we just love the people and we've always considered it a family friendly Place well we were walking downtown the other day and saw a I I think it's a t-shirt shop I I I sent everybody an email on the board I don't know if you got got it but I was so offended by the name not making any judgments against anyone but I knew my grandchildren were going to be coming here soon and I felt very embarrassed that they would see that I did speak with the town manager and Frank told me that that was there before the hurricane and I had never seen it before but I think maybe because the sign is so maybe it's a newer sign a bigger sign whatever but I don't think it's compatible for families and uh it's a shock and I guess there's not much that can be done about it now but maybe going forward you might consider having a a a plan for the for the town especially right there in the in the front that that consider the families and the grand children and the and the children who who come through there and and and see things like that and it and that that's really all I had to say and I thank you for listening to me I just wanted it to go on record because I think that's very important um how we bring up our children and you know I don't think that's something that should be on Main Street in a in a in a beautiful place like this it has so much going for it thank you all right thank you Karen Ed take a deep breath Ed morning Council Ed Ryan for the record uh three quick things um Sunday in case you guys didn't know there's going to be about 60 volunteers uh in Time Square uh we raised uh $8,000 for new plantings that are going behind the wavy wall thanks to Frankie and the town for helping with that uh so that's going to take place Sunday and Monday the goal was 5,000 so we raised 8,000 the Estero Island Garden Club is going to supervise the planting behind the wall and I know Tony said he wanted to touch the wall up and he might reach out to you for for touching the wall up so uh we uh have 60 volunteers both Sunday and Monday and Kathy Turner from the Garden Club is supervising the volunteers uh second thing was last Thursday in about an hour we raised $1,000 for uh something that we're going to just uh pass off to the town if you want to use it it's great if you don't no no uh no hard feelings um buckets and post for people to take the buckets and clean up the beach and in the buckets if you want to use them uh there was $1,000 donated and I didn't use 480 actually giving the government money which is something I've never done before but there's some extra money that was left over that was left over from the donations I want to make sure everybody knows that the town has that if you want to use it for paint or signage or rip it up what whatever you decide uh so we'll be dropping the buckets are supposed to be delivered Saturday but they won't be here until today so we'll drop them off with the post already um put together on Friday or Saturday and finally I want to apologize to our followers for our poor performance on Saturday at the pickle ball game I take full responsibility for the loss I think the final score is 28 27 or something like that 296 but who's counting we did uh raise $500 for the Art Association I know you guys raised 750 is for the Women's Club and I want to thank the Community Foundation for putting that on it was a lot of fun so thank you guys for allowing us to be part of what you're doing here thank you thanks is there anyone else that like to speak in public public comment seeing none we'll close public comment we now have a presentation we've got Chris Holly our former interim Town manager here and representative Adam bana Chris you gonna go first good morning so great to be back on the island yeah see everybody to be back in a community center that looked pretty bad when I was here the last time but it's look looking a lot better and uh probably the reason I'm here is just to kind of wrap up my year and a half of help here uh my contract came to an end last Friday and it was designed to do that at the end of the legislative section uh the second one um and so for me it's kind of a um a way to say thank you for allowing me to be involved the the island the town looks a lot better uh than it did when I came in November year and a half ago or so um and so you always start with with the thank yous and certainly thanks to the council for having confidence in Keith Wilkins and I to to be your interim managers uh Keith's in Arkansas someplace I talked to him yesterday he sends his regards um he's still trying to settle into retirement as I want to do uh here over the next few months um and representative batana is is here and and I can't help but say that Adam's kind of the guy that got me involved um and he uh through the two legislative sessions that I was helping with was was just our go-to guy I mean whenever we wanted to know what was going on or whenever we uh you know needed a heads up on something Adam was always there and and I'm going to give a lot of credit to um someone that we met uh the first week we were here Keith and I and that's Senate President Kathleen pasido Adam was instrumental in setting up meetings between the managers of of all the jurisdictions in this region that were affected by Hurricane in and the Senate President and to have a presiding officer on your team behind you as these two legislative sessions went went went forward was just totally critical um so um I know the mayor Center a thank you note uh every time we went to Tallahassee which was two or three times a session she met with us uh she listen to us um so thanks to all the other legislator Senator Martin I sent him a a text over the weekend told him we were going to have a brief discussion obviously as your Senator he's very important um but you know and you have to give credit to director Guthrie at demm who's always been on our team and helped us resolve problems uh going around but um and of course the mayor spending his time in Tallahassee is what Adam will tell you and what Ron book your real lobbyist I'm just the part-time one is that the engagement of of the electeds in in in coming to Tallahassee and telling your story and keeping that story you know people kind of forget about disasters as time goes forward and so you have to refresh their memories and having the mayor go and Andy and Frankie and and at my suggestion uh Jason Freeman was appointed as your legislatively aison I think Jason's done a great job and learned a lot this last session he'll be able to step up and help you prepare your legislative platform for the next session work's not done I'm not saying it's all done I'm just saying at this point I think you're well prepared uh to move forward so let's cover real quickly the things that I think were the highlights of the two sessions that we worked on you know if you remember the legislature went into special session right after the storm and started doing things rightfully so created funds rightfully so created a refund program for uh residents that lost their entire property uh on the tax bill that was due at the time so they gave a credit against the tax bill that was taken out of last year's ADV valorum and that was around $400,000 uh and with Adam's help in the legislature they put money aside and you received your refund uh for that credit that was given uh at our request through those meetings um you know a loan program I was involved in recovery from Hurricane Michael and the Panhandle and there was money put aside to for jurisdiction to apply for to just a a gap stop Gap Revenue replacement and it took us two sessions um no it took us the one session to get Deo uh money to be able to do that we were the first jurisdiction to get the Deo loan and that's 11.9 million there's work ahead to decide um what to do with that loan originally it was uh due I think in a year or two and Kathleen kept listening to us that that wasn't going to be long enough we were in this for the Long Haul and I think it's been amended a couple of times it's now a 10year zero interest loan so you have plenty of time to decide what to do with that money and work going forward um the appropriation process last session not the one that we just finished was uh totally different because the legislature gave the Department of Emergency Management $350 million to kind of decide what to do and the bulk of that according to Mr guthy 85% went to frontloading uh uh FEMA projects the problem with FEMA is that takes a long long time to get FEMA funding in place and talking to your staff this morning you're still waiting you know for that money to flow and it's some of it's tied up in funding for you know Eastern Europe and the wall at the border and some other things but um we got $5 million set aside to frontload your needs for your FEMA reimbursement um I think um Santa Bell got like 28 million the bulk of the money of that Loan program went to frontloading uh FEMA reimbursement and I hope it stays in a pot because future jurisdictions that go through a disaster like this will also need this uh down the road it's a new program and I hope it stays in place um the craziest project project we worked on was Turtle liting for the for the island I don't have to y'all have been through it even more than I have but it's it was a big challenge I want to give representative bana a lot of credit because one of the steps we had to take was get FWC to approve the lights that everyone wanted to use and he got on there but um and wanted an answer and wanted it quickly uh and we got one and we got lights approved and I'm told they're going to start here next month in with that project be I want to come back down when all the lights are up on side streets and neighborhoods and the stero Boulevard and and Time Square and all that it'll be great for the island to have state-of-the-art adjustable lighting turtle friendly safe hope it all works out U for the best um so then uh we kind of uh move on I I'll throw out you know obviously the governor's office funded Bayside Park improvements um but the the most recent legislative session just finished up a week ago and the two big projects that we worked on the most was uh you're obviously going through a difficult time financially you lost over 40% of your aborm tax base um it will take a lot of time for that to rebuild and so them listening to us about Revenue replacement and Santa Bel and and Fort Meers Beach were the only two jurisdictions that lost value everybody else you know were they were okay but and I want to give credit to Dana Sosa the manager in Santa Bell of coordinating with us and their lobbyist and our lobbyist of making sure that the legislature had the right information Joe your Finance director put a great PowerPoint together explain all the revenue sources not just avalor it's your parking fees it's it's building fees it's everything that you projected that you were going to lose over the two fiscal years last fiscal year and the one you're in right now so the specific number 7,547 805 is the number that Joe came up with and that we went to Tallahassee with now I'll pause and say that the budget's been approved by the legislature but the governor hasn't signed it yet so we're not totally out of the woods yet the governor has the option of Beto and different things that are in the budget so if anyone has any and I'll say thank you to the governor because he's always been on our side as well and I don't think we're at risk on losing these appropriation requests Adam will keep us posted I don't think the legislature has even given the governor the budget yet he has two weeks to sign the budget once they give it to him obviously the July 1 deadline is the beginning of the state fiscal year so it has to be signed by July one so the revenue replacement was a big one and obviously we've explained to everybody you're now in in your third set of trailers as as Town Hall uh since I've been here and I went over and looked at them and so that's uh for the town for the citizens for the for the staff and everybody deserves better than to be in trailers and so there's $8 million that the legislature has appropriated to help with a with a town hall replacement program so between loans and grants I've got this at 50 million north of 50 million over two legislative session let me quit talking and hand it over to Adam cuz he's the one that helped orchestrate the whole thing and you know I can answer any questions that y'all might have it's been a pleasure to be on the team so to speak over the last couple of legislative sessions and I'll turn it over to represent hold on before you just in case someone's got a question for you and you getting off that easy John you got any questions for no but I just thank you you know you know how important you are to us and and we thank you for everything thank you Council enjoyed it I will also uh uh Echo uh John's comments uh thank you uh to both you and Keith for coming in at a critical time I think at some point the whole story needs to be told but I believe that you came our way uh in part uh due to representative bana's referral initially when we really needed the help and to the mayor's credit ask him to tell that story somebody ought to get some credit for having you and Keith come our way and I know the mayor would played a big role in that but at the same time I think at the Genesis was with represent pres of bana but I may have that wrong but I want to I'd love to get that clarified for the record cuz it's been very good for our town and we're very thankful for it but thank you for your service yes sir appreciate CC Woodson well I'll just Echo the thanks I hope it doesn't take two years maybe for the lighting to get you back here I don't know I think you can come in between um but seriously you and Keith were God send to us and really really appreciate everything you've done and um Adam bana by your side I'm sure that was a huge lift as well but you guys have just done phenomenal things for our town thank you yes ma'am counc Safford I'll Echo the same thing thank you so much for everything you did for us well I'll turn it over to Adam listen I've dealt with a lot of legislators I've been in this 50 years in in public service and and Adams to me is hands down the the easiest legislator that I've ever worked with he always responds to text messages Mees and phone calls and truly cares about his district and um you know the politics is always fun to to to to go through the Personalities in Tallahassee are always there but he's been a pleasure to work with and I I'd love to hear how I got here because um I I'm not really clear on it Adam the last stream thanks Chris let me let me drop this down here a little bit uh thank you folks thanks for having me here and uh thanks uh for letting me represent you uh this year's Appropriations uh for the total District so Coastal Lee County and Northern Coler Bonita stero is roughly about 96 million that's been approved well approved by the legislature obviously like Chris said it has to go through the governor's veto list I think we'll will'll be okay uh to Echo what Chris said you know with our governor he he wrote $2 billion right out of General Revenue to get us back on our feet when we when the storm hit the hit our area so it's been a big big uh big thing so just to touch on a few other things we got 17.5 million going to Santa Bell 9 million almost $10 million for Revenue replacement there we've got over um $34 million for education for FGCU and FSU uh we're actually uh got another 5 million for Le Health graduate medical so we're we're part trying to put a lot of money back into our district uh but as always folks I'm here uh have an open line with all of you open door we' love seeing you up there in Tallahassee as as far as this gentleman uh we all were here when the storm hit and uh it went dark quite a while on Fort Meer speech we had a lot of conversations with uh people in Tallahassee the governor's office and uh just said hey I needed somebody that's dealt with this so a number was given to me and uh I called this guy up and he said well I'm in retirement I go well we might need you uh and that's how the ball started rolling so originally came from governor's office so that's uh they knew that Chris has done a good job in Mexico Beach and other places around there and uh I said hey we're gonna need you help down here in uh southw Florida and eventually it came to for wishing uh but uh I thank you for all the kind comments and uh it's been a pleasure working with you guys it's nice to be out of a suit and back into shorts in my normal boat washing attire so uh looking forward to uh being out there on a campaign Trail this uh this summer too so any questions I can answer uh from legislative I know we're working on Insurance still there's some new things coming on that I know a lot of people are concerned about that and uh like I told Ed will come back with a couple suitcases worth of money uh we'll we'll do that again next year hopefully and just keep working towards that because it's still going to take a long time to come back but it was nice to come up the beach this morning and see all the new construction it's good to see pilings going into the sand and see new houses and new business opening so thank you any questions I thanks for being here this morning representative bana and thank you for all your efforts I I wanted to I don't want to gloss over this Revenue replacement issue because that's a big deal and I'm afraid for folks who who don't deal in this every day they may not appreciate what that was so for you and Chris and the mayor and the team it's a huge accomplishment explain what Revenue replacement is and how it works here for Fort Meers Beach yes absolutely thank you for the question you know this was something that came up at the beginning of session we were talking with Kevin Guthrie like what can we do about this and there was pots that we go out of I talked to our Appropriations chair uh um Tom leak which is a great great representative from valua County his area got hit with hurricane Nicole you know and this wasn't an appetite this wasn't on the appetite they're like we don't we don't think we should just be writing checks I really have to say you know this $9 million for you well 9 million for Santa Bell and 7 and half million for you guys is a is a big thing because that's a straight out of General Revenue it just comes right out of the pot to keep your you know to keep your feet underneath you to keep moving forward because that's important for our area I have to say Kathleen pasido was a huge lift we couldn't I couldn't do anything without her and Senator Martin our counterpart in the Senate so it's been a big a big lift but I want you to go up 10,000 ft just so people are clear so the money we were short as a result of the disaster in year one and year two that money is being replaced by the state as a grant not as a loan is that correct correct that is that's huge that's taxpayer dollars going to work for our area so that's flans helping Floridians well I I commend you and the mayor and Chris and the whole team that's I don't think people realize what a we were we were literally there were rumors of bankruptcy and all these things we we did okay without the without the revenue replacement but this is this is really the the the ribbon and the bow on the president because it it really helps us in the next couple year for this last couple years and going forward I also would ask too uh I know you have a great relationship with the governor but is there anything you would advise everyone in this room in the town in terms of the the the the uh line item veto strategy do we need a strategy are you do you have that covered you feel good about that anything we should be doing we have a great relationship I have a great relationship with the governor's office you know that is a a thing that we work on it's all about relationships up there in Tallahassee at all as you know with with politics and state legislatures but I think a nice formal letter from the mayor and you guys you know asking you guys to to you know to not veto our stuff I don't think it's going to happen uh but it's always a good always good to touch people out there thank you thank you again for your efforts on behalf of our community no wor councilor King any questions no I just say um representative Matan thank you for being there for us uh I appreciate all your hard work uh also to Senator Martin and uh president pasido some great folks there and we appreciate uh looking out for us and not forgetting thank you what one more thing Mr Mayor if I could I think you left off another subsid of item which was money for a new town hall you want to comment on that if you'd like yeah absolutely uh we've got $8 million in the budget there uh and that was funded fully um you know we're going to see where where that hends up I mean this is going to be a step in the right direction for you guys to uh figure out what you want to do and uh get that taken care of so I mean that's $15 million alone for Fort Meers Beach I mean that's a huge huge lift in 100 million area excuse me that 8 million for the town hall is not a loan that's a grant as well correct correct y thank you very much Y no problem Council Woodsen well again I mean thank you for everything that you guys have done I know that um the governor could still veto this but um hopefully you're going to be up there by his side when he signs that bill it' be great thanks I'll that go the same thing thank you so much being um in the auto committee meeting on Friday it's it's just amazing how much revenue I mean you think about damage but just the revenue that the town earns during two two years is just amazing I mean parking Revenue fees everything else it just adds up substantially and I want to thank you well I mean we've gotten to know each other pretty well over the last couple years and it you know lots of drinks lots of conversations and and I I try to pride myself on listening especially when you're asking people for money which has never been a very big strong suit of mine it's not something I think anybody enjoys doing but it was something that was necessary and to be able to follow your guidance on how you get through it and cathl pasido senate senate president pasido and Martin you know the first year we listened and and we we came back this year we tried to adjust based on the um the information that was given and I think that's why it was so successful but it it didn't come without a lot of hard work I know on your end and a lot of phone calls and and for those that don't know he was the first person that reached out to me after the storm um no one else did but you did and what can I do and the first thing he did was bring over water with your staffers and help carry it because you couldn't get past 7-Eleven you know so they're helping carry things over building so to say he's not committed to our area would be a severe well you know what I mean but thank you for all your efforts um we'll be reaching out with that letter I was going to bring it up later to see if I can get support to do that so thank you for bringing it up thank you for all your work and Chris's work and um we'll see you again next year absolutely thank you guys and I have to say Chris Holly uh has made it easy because he's been there but I'm glad he took the phone call the first day so but appreciate you guys thank you and I'm glad I didn't mess it up when he called me exactly thank you thanks next we have uh local achievements and uh recognitions councelor Safford we'll start with you well I I again shrimpfest was incredible it it felt like the first day that our Island was was truly back I mean we we had we host a little gathering at our our former hotel and it know was a little Bittersweet knowing that our place wasn't there I I think a lot of people felt the same way but once that parade started it was just like you went back in the time machine four or five years ago I mean just the spirit of the community was just incredible and to everybody that put that event on and help of the town and and the Sheriff's Office and everything it was it was was just a great day it was sure was concer whatson well not only shrimpfest but yesterday's St Patty's Day the pre St Patty's Day parties at the whale um the only thing that was missing was our St Patty's Day Parade so I think that's going to be where's Jeff I think that's going to be on the agenda for next year right so we'll get moving on that you could start now it would be fun but seriously it was it was just a great weekend there so many people here and so many people just lifting up everyone and it was fantastic sure was W ditto to I forgot I forgot the pickle ball that was fun the big winners of the pck you guys should stand up and take a bow we are Champion we're thankful we can still stand up yeah right the uh just real quick and I I've I've done this for the last few weeks but I'm I'm going to continue to do it because it's such a busy time here on the island just want to thank those folks who are continuing to use The Pedestrian overpass at Margaritaville which is open to the public right there on Crescent and I also want to thank everyone who is uh letting their renters their friends their visitors uh know that that pedestrian overpass is available it sure helps keep traffic flowing there's no need there's no real reason to cross the street there's elevators there all open to the public just encourage people to continue to use that I know a lot of the folks who are visiting are looking for for ways to give back to the community as well uh Ed just mentioned a couple ideas I I I noticed that the uh in fact my wife and I just signed up for the keep Le County beautiful Inc uh Great American cleanup which is Saturday March 30th from 8:00 a.m. to 10: a.m. and it's at the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School they have filled 53 of 115 slots and you just go to their website again keep Lee County beautiful Inc It's the Great American cleanup but it's a great opportunity to help continue to to to to help our Island and clean up the various issues the other slots are full but that's the big slot that's still open here on Fort Meers Beach thank you Mr Mayor thank you coun King uh I'll start off by thanking uh Public Works director Mark Ashton and his church group um Cape Christian for the paint job they did on the concession stand out there uh the bathrooms and the pool building thank you so much for all all that hard work it looks great um talking about the shrimp fest um I wasn't able to attend just feel comfortable yet but I wanted to recognize staff for all their hard work on uh before during and after the festival uh in particular Jeff Hagi Danielle deona and Tom yazo um also thanks Captain ler and the F Folks at the Lee County Sheriff's Office I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting not planed but uh when they were uh uh Jeff Captain ler and Tom yazo were working on U getting the parade uh set up uh how it was going to be handled and things like that and uh that was no easy task and thanks for that lastly I'll congratulate the Minnesota Slama and the hooer slicer for their pickle ball prowess um against Kim and Ed uh I've fallen and I can't get out of the net Ryan um I tell you it was uh I loved seeing the mayor and the vice mayor in their uniforms the headbands which I couldn't read what did they say pickle Ballers pickle Ballers very unique the shirts the shoes the shorts the wristbands although I did get a little hungry for the ice cream uh when I read your shirts so um it was a great event for for Meers Beach thanks to the uh for Meers Beach Community Foundation for their uh work putting it on uh the challenge raise money for the Ford Meers Beach Women's Club and the Ford Myers Beach Fort Meers Beach Art Association and also thanks to the staff here for uh their support for this event as well and that's it all right well all of the things I was going to talk about have been covered so I won't reiterate everything but you know just in general just want to thank all the nonprofits on the island and all the people that keep continuing to donate to them it's it's really shocking and Beach talk radio I mean anytime somebody puts out a bat signal that they need help with something it seems like it goes above and beyond and then you have the nonprofit Step Up and and do the leg work of doing the plannings and and the and the staff working with them to try to get the shrimp fest going and it it takes a lot of people to make that happen and to see the Shrimp Fest Parade and the smile on the kids' face and the parents and the I think it was the first time I can remember everybody was smiling everybody was happy and it was that we're back you know we're back so uh nice work everyone next we have advisory committee items and Report looks like we've got something from the murf committe there you are Mr Johnson thank you mayor Town Council um we've had two recommendations at our recent Advisory board meeting held March 13th first recommendation to Town Council was for additional education to the community on the upcoming sea turtle lighting compliance and the municipal lighting ordinance for the uh ment in the gry zone area so the recommendation really is in consideration of staff's request to review the lighting compliance and enforcement for sea turtle conservation I believe uh they've come and and asked for your input and as such then we took it up as well uh first there was a need to enhance the efforts to educate the community on on the sea turtle lighting um as an annual notice requirement is actually included in the um sea turtle conservation ordinance of the town uh the current plan from staff was actually to send out one in the annual notice in the water bill mailing which we realize really only reaches a fraction of the community now since uh many people receive their bills digitally um this management of the gray area geography and this is sort of this area that's behind the the beach front itself uh the Marine resource task force realized that uh many efforts are being made for turtle compliant you know see lighning compliance on the beach and and uh those that are really in in the um uh the the most uh affected area however there's this cumulative lighting issue uh which really a sky glow that affects the the issue as well and although we have a dark skies Municipal lighting ordinance um in the town uh we feel it's it's virtually unknown in the community and that's something that we can help educate the community to uh to follow as well uh to reduce effects of cumulative lighting uh so any advisories or alerts or maybe participation from our um our Pio would be very helpful second recommendation uh was to alert Property Owners of potential sewage leaks it's another item that was on our initiative list additional reports had been received that when tested lateral sewer lines had shown that there are cracks in the pipes that are allowing raw sewage to leak into our groundwater so the latest report was from a condominium where they I believe the general contractor had scoped their lines and determined there were three cracks in their pipes so I believe they um either reigned it or they've taken care of the issue but without that recommendation it's very well that that things would have gone untouched and we would have had uh you know this this this leakage into our groundwater so different mitigation options of course a replacement repair installation of of a liner and uh currently the only recommendation uh is to advise the property owners to potentially to to to scope their lateral sewer lines future considerations could be to uh to uh actually mandate hopefully um scoping of the sewer lines uh to ensure our local water raay uh waterways ensure clean uh or I should say contribute to clean water and there's also uh some advice to pursue potential grant opportunities as we search through different towns they have programs to do exactly what uh we feel uh might be necessary here on our Island there's Hut Appropriations obviously that's that are out there currently potentially that's a sour FD I believe was a source for other Town programs uh to assist property owners in any Financial considerations for that uh meeting that objective in uh Steve on that item um you know on the water side of things if you've got a water leak it's generally reflected in your water bill and it's kind of a nice signal that you've got a challenge or a problem is that is that I assume that's true on the sewage side as well or is it much more subtle that you can't uh much more subtle there's nothing regulating what's really going through you know sewer charges are based on the amount of water you use I think it's a percentage of the amount that's uh that's consumed so but there's no there's no meter measuring what kind of outflow each personal person you know puts out so how would a a homeowner know that or how what what what sort of other ways would they know unless unless it's formally uh checked by a professional is there any other ways that you could know that you might have a problem on your property aside from the obvious smell or other issu not really smell soft spots that that really don't go away in in your in your yard um but otherwise you know up north there was always an issue with tree roots grown into sewer sewers and and expanding and cracking sewer lines so and in that situation usually you have your your ground usually gives a little bit or there becomes a divot in your yard and that's a result of the has has bur had the folks from Lee County uh sewer come in is is there our vendor and just kind of talk about that with you guys and best practices Etc that was brought up we we did discuss that uh the county I personally saw the county out they were fogging the main sewer lines this is not too long after the storm and we went up and talked to them a little bit about it and they said they're they're fogging and if there are substantial breaks you'll see fog coming up in the middle of where there shouldn't it shouldn't be rising uh or shouldn't be rising at all um so but we haven't discussed having them come in uh but there was a uh discussion as to inquiring with them to to ensure that the main sewer lines have been completely checked by by by the uh the county just because of the the massive volume that would be going through there would would obviously contribute to the uh to the issues might be worth having them come out to one of your meetings and just kind of testify and and maybe talk talk about best practices and what they're seeing on the island and maybe there's some brainstorming opportunity there yep excellent recommendation it also I think it would be along the lines with the water and maybe this is something the staff can help and maybe there's something in place that I don't know to be proactive you know sometimes when you get your bill I know it's happened to us where you know we've had a leaky toet or something and you didn't know and all of a sudden your water bills 16 times more than it was and now you got to go through that if there's something that we can do or we have in place or we could put in place to to preempt that to say hey we noticed you know over the last week you're using three times as much water or four times as much water that you normally use is everything okay MH um I know we had an issue on the island where someone had used thousands and thousands of thousands of gallons of water and not even realizing that they had used it so I don't know if there's something that the county can work with or maybe there is something our staff can work with murf both for the sewer and the water side of it for early detection I know we've had an issue where you know our driveway had sunk a little bit because the erosion from the the pipe going out to the street was faulty for whatever reason cast iron it broke and it was leaking underground and the only way we detected it is cuz we noticed the driveway was starting to sink the P driveway and eventually one of the papers fell 3 feet into a hole that you drove over every single day so if there's a way that you guys can come up with a preemptive or some sort of system to preempt any kind of damage like that maybe the scoping is the way to go I don't know but any kind of information would be help yeah one discussion was just the fact that since there is so much Plumbing going on that it's just usually just an incidental charge to have them scope that and the first three cases that were brought to us that were in the Randy Lane Williams neighborhood uh that three people actually requested that while they were in having plumbing and each each of them found that they did have cracks in their in their sewer lines and I don't I believe those that's a cast iron area I think in the 70s is when the sewer system went in uh I have a neighbor Jim Murphy who actually was here doing that that's why I moved here um so it is an aged INF you know part of an aged infrastructure especially if it's cast if it's been replaced by PVC I think you're in much better shape but the other consideration that was brought up was that that the that the weight of the water that surged over this island was tremendous uh you know at 8 pound per gallon water is extremely heavy and uh as the back surge came back out you had this fluctuation of weight and and it just um potentially cracked a lot of these sewer lines the um and if I'm not mistaken I think a lot of people don't realize that the homeowner is required if I'm not mistaken the homeowner is required for the line all the way out to the street connection is that is that correct that's correct yeah and I don't think a lot of people understand that they think that once it gets into the RightWay that it's no longer their responsibility but still is their responsibility to maintain that line all the way up to the main connection MH so to to your point I think to the the committee's point of getting do you know how much that cost is to have that scoped it's not it's not a great amount of money I think it was upwards if they're there already I think it was upwards of maybe $100 is what the and is this something that the town can help with I don't know if it's there's an appetite to do if we're going to be doing these side streets as we go does it make sense to scope those at the same time m going in with the homeowners to do it going into private property you know could be a an issue or maybe just send out reminders through but we could remind people to do that I think what you're going to see is people start to come back online it's actually in my opinion cheaper to just put all new lines in and and abandon previous ones and that way you don't because you don't want to go back and dig it up later have you put landscape and everything in so you know it's just everybody needs to be mindful of what he's talking about and we can send out notices and reminders and that type of thing yeah I think with all the construction we're saying it would be it'd be really important to get that information out because everybody forgets about the infrastructure stuff you don't see that pretty the non- pretty stuff you know everybody's focused on the pretty stuff but to your point Andy the the sewage and the lines coming in if you build a brand new house and you got well I'm not going to F this is going to be a bad pun but it's about as non pretty as it gets yeah yeah it's not pretty uh so in conclusion I just also wanted the murf Advisory Board had wanted to um extend a personal opport uh a personal invitation to the Town Council to attend the um the building resilience capacity to storess in a coastal setting a panel discussion that'll be held this Thursday from 9:00 to 11:00 in the uh council chambers uh we've got a panel of experts uh who will be sharing lessons learned from Hurricane Ian based on their research done since before and since the storm so um there's a lot of topics that will be covered and the selection of a panel Forum would allow you to attend and ask your personal questions and have those answered versus a lecture format that would um you know potentially put everyone to sleep so uh again it's a it's the main event you don't want to miss it Thursday from 9:00 to 1100 if I could ask Amy could is could you notice that in case more than one counselor comes we could have that publicly noticed certainly we also could have a conflict with the election equipment still in there it'll be out okay just want to make sure that it's clear okay any other questions for Steve n thank sir all right thank you Council next we've got the approval of the am minutes the town council meeting from February 20th the town council meeting from March 4th the management and planning session from March 7th and the Town Council joint session with Public Safety Committee from March 7th move to approve and a motion from councelor King second seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously consent agenda has all been pulled so we will move on to the items removed from the consent agenda item a um John go ahead um I just wanted to uh get a further explanation for the public of uh the process how much it's going to cost and what we need to do to support it and how well it's going so far well first I'll start the last it's going well so far um one thing that that we've wanted to do that this uh Council we' we've all discussed and John I'll have him come up um was bringing more things in housee bringing it away from the East Coast bringing it closer here this is finalizing that this is getting that done now so I'll let John address this it's not necessarily you know the numbers are one thing but the actuality might be something different John if you will morning mayor council my name is John dolmer and I apologize for my voice voice I have an oak tree in the yard and this is what we get so excuse me uh to go back a little bit in time uh councelor King uh we've been working on Staffing this department going back to last fall and the uh intent was to bring people online as they were hired and trained and ready to go and so we have been peac mealing things as as we've had staff ready to to perform those duties we are at a position now where all of those uh jobs are filled and they are performing those jobs this amendment before you today attempts to take all those previous time of materials and previous uh peace meal contracts and put it into one so there's one lump sum task So currently all of your building inspections are performed on a time and materials basis so each of those inspectors that are out there are by the hour this will change it so that you all have a very predictable cost for your building permit and your building permit inspections thank you appreciate your efforts go ahead John while you're up here I just wanted to be clear we we had this East Coast firm prior to the storm or immediately after the storm and we we we continued that while we were transitioning to your firm because we wanted to have it all inhouse is that now complete now are we are we shipping anything out anymore to my knowledge no those inspectors have not been on the beach for a period of months so everything we're doing now with respect to inspections and permitting is all in-house now just wanted to make sure that was clear for the record for the public yes sir you now have three full-time inspectors that are assigned for for Fort Myers Beech you also have a building official and permit technicians that are on site that's a big deal so thank you for that yes sir yeah I'll also add that I mean we first started all of this every other email that we got was regarding permitting and now it's quiet if anything we get compliments on how quickly our permitting is happening so whatever you're doing keep doing it cuz it's working thank you so it's safe just a piggyback on what he was saying so it's safe to say the money that we were paying to the other firm is essentially just being rerouted now to bring everything inh house yes sir that is correct okay and this uh is an Enterprise fund so whatever you're taking in for building permits can only be used for building permit inspections anyway uh so don't don't gloss over that John because people are paying a lot in permit fees right now yes sir but I think they take some comfort in knowing that that that money is not fungible that money goes solely to support the permitting regulatory process it doesn't go to other sources or or other causes around the town correct that is correct the only thing it can be used for is the enforcement of the Florida building code all right thank you John you got any more questions no I'll move to authorize the town manager to execute amendment number two to the Jacobs project management company agreement I'll second got a motion by councelor King second and by councelor e any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is Item B the Land Development code updates John I was just uh seeking uh more information for the public on this yep Sarah's here and she can address it more um this is just following up on uh Land Development code updates that have been discussed in the past and trying to you know put a ribbon on it and and and move it to to to Final Destination Sarah yep uh this is just the opportunity to get started on the Land Development code as we're finishing up the comprehensive plan so that we can make all the changes that we've all discussed and the issues that we know are within the plan we're hoping to do some public Outreach so that you know the communities involved aware what's going on and uh make some changes that are sorely needed and Sarah this this is just for your firm correct yes is not for the the other firm that we had for the comprehensive plan this is for your firm yes we may we may have some subs on specific components but only things that we're not specialized in at this point I don't know what that's going to be if any don't want to put you on the spot but since you're up here um there's a lot of projects pending out there that are commercial in nature CPD type projects large projects do you have the appropriate staff and resources necessary to take that on or do you feel like there's a backlog forming we could use additional staff uh it is I mean we're working with a pretty small crew I have uh folks on my team working in the background they don't come to the meetings but they do uh complete reviews and send out letters and help me you know move projects forward uh we could certainly use additional staff will you let us know I mean don't you have to come to us for additional resources then in order to make that happen or how does that what's that process um inhouse staff I think that that would be a conversation with Frankie and Andy if if I needed to bring on I mean my company is bringing on additional people to help with this project with your projects and others uh so we're working on our end to make sure that we have additional support um if the town was interested in bringing in additional folks that would be a conversation with Andy and I got that but on your end because we contract with you to do some of these larger projects you're acquiring the necessary resources to prevent a black a backlog from occurring is that fair we we are working very hard to hire people yes all right thank you mhm any questions for Sarah no not so much for Sarah but I'll just ask Andy and Frankie because we haven't really talked about addition to more staff in house is that something that you think is needed or viable or at what point are we at I think we're still reviewing that you know at some point you get you you have to you have to look at the the bigger picture you bring somebody people in for two years and then things drop off and then you know is it going to be five years or seven so we're really in the mix with doing that now as we start to see these projects come on so it's still a a a search and rescue type situation to understand what we're doing okay well I think you I want to speak for everybody I think but anything that needs to be done to be able to help make it streamlined for Sarah and her staff and our staff as well I would certainly support doing what you need to do to to make that um as smooth and as fast as possible other questions for Sarah thanks Sarah thank you home move approval of uh supplemental task authorization to update the Land Development code LDC is required to make the LDC consistent with the proposed comprehensive plan I'll second got a motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Safford any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none we'll motion carries you unanimously would you like to take a quick break before we get into the public hearings yes all right we'll take a brief 10-minute break we'll come back at 10:15 thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we got to make a couple of changes to our agenda here Item B is going to be swapped with item C because they're not quas ijo so we are going to do item a item C then we will do B through B through G as quasi judicial and then we will also do Under the administrative agenda items b c and d the lean reductions followed right after item G because that is also quasi judicial does that make sense yes sir Everybody follow that okay so the first item we have is ordinance 23 24- 03 flood this is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida amending Article 4 of chapter 6 of The Land Development code of the town of Fort Meers Beach to require all manufactured homes installed or replaced in special flood Hazard areas to be elevated at or above at least the base flood elevation plus one foot adopted November 17th 2022 flood insurance study for Lee County Florida and Incorporated areas change the substantial Improvement and substantial damage determinations and amend the definitions of market value and substantial damage in order to comply with recent changes to the community rating system necessary to retain a Class 8 which assists the town in maintaining its class 5 Community rating system designation providing for codification severability scrier errors conflicts of Law and an effective date we will now open the first public hearing go ahead good morning Kristen Shumaker Town Fort Meers Beach flood plane manager I have before you our flood ordinance this is required for us to amend before we have our CRS visit which is coming up within the next two months reiterating we are required to elevate manufactured homes to base flood elevation plus one foot as everyone is aware the flood maps changed November 17 2022 and we are updating that in our ordinance to reflect that date also other requirements that we need to do are change substantial Improvement and CH substantial damage determinations because we have that look back that we had if a property was damaged by a flood prior we have to look at their per prior permits we are removing that uh we also need to amend the definition of market value um we are required to remove the 20% from the Property Appraiser's office and we are removing the requirement of a second appraisal and also with the we are doing sorry I can't see the definition of market value we kind of shorten this we're going to bring back the flood ordinance to amend everything else we have prior I know Council you've read other ordinances that I have or drafts that I have brought up we will need to bring this back once this is approved chapter 6 Article 2 the substantial damage definition needs to be updated as well as we're updating it in the flood ordinance is that it that's all any questions can I add um Kristen's done a lot of work on this ordinance um coordinating the language with the state and um the state has reviewed it and they are perfectly fine with our ordinance um we're not changing anything other than what is required in order to be FEMA compliant P so I have a question so it when we change this ordinance if people are still trying and I I don't know you might know this how many people are still trying to get under the 50% rule right now is is that pretty much done and gone or are there if we change things how many homes will be affected by this this wouldn't be affected by any 50% the 50% rule is the 50% rle we're just updating it like how I said we're removing that look back period okay can you explain further for people that don't understand what that means um part of the code stated let me grab this real quick I even double checked it this morning I can't I can't find what section it is it's for the substantial damage substantial Improvement but one of the items for determining substantial damage is that we would take a look back at prior permits from a storm for example and you only get you don't get those permits kind of go in together to determine the 50% it's 25% from one storm 25% from another so we're removing that look back period okay so it sounds like it's a win for property owners with uh with that and then removing the need for a second appraisal yes it's in the definitional section under substantial damage yes thank you it's a deleted language yes any other questions for Kristen so we're we're we're in essence formally removing the requirement for a second appraisal because I believe the previous building official declared that some time ago from a policy perspective but this just codifies that is that correct correct okay thank you all right thank you Kristen thank you we will open it up for public comment is there anyone that would like to speak and public comment on this seeing none we'll close public comment we'll bring it back for discussion is there any further discussion from the council is there a motion I'll move ordinance 24- 03 flood to the second reading yes got a motion by councelor King I'll second that um any further discussion a roll call vote councelor King hi vice mayor ederal I mayor allers I councelor Woodson I councelor Safford I motion carries unanimously next we have item C that we moved up that is ordinance 24-7 National Gas franchise agreement this is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida granting to people's gas system Inc its successors and assigns a non-exclusive natural gas franchise agreement to use the public rights of way of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida in prescribing the terms and conditions under which said franchise may be exercised providing for findings severability and providing for an effective date we now open the first public hearing yes sir morning counselors uh my name is Carlo FY I am the external Affairs manager for too people's gas in Southwest Florida first name what was your name Carlos c a r l f a SSI uh and I'm the external external Affairs manager for too people's gas in Southwest Florida uh I know there are a few questions I don't know mayor if you'd like me to address them beforehand or after but I did want to thank uh your city manager your Finance director your contract specialist and your City attorney for uh working with us to renegotiate a new a new agreement this has been expired for a few years and we're happy that we can come to an agreement and hopefully get this passed in the next handful of weeks why don't you go ahead and address the questions that you already know ahead of time so I know uh councelor King uh had had asked me about the expansion of our pipeline in Fort Meers Beach it is mostly customer-driven again we are a regulated utility company uh governed by the Florida Public Service Commission here in uh the State of Florida and when a home builder a real estate developer commercial or or residential or interested in having natural gas connected directly to their home or to their business they would reach out to us or any of the other natural gas companies in the State of Florida about connecting uh their home or business to our pipelines uh we would then determine how much gas each that customer would use and depending on the amount of gas that they would use we determine what the cost would be for the construction of the pipeline and the connection from our main pipeline to their home or business so it varies it really just depends on how close you are to our existing pipe and how much gas you'll ultimately use uh Publix's for example I know recently we did connect uh the margarita Ville here uh on the island and uh just depending on the gas will will be how much it would cost for the customer where does the line currently run where where's the stopping point we line uh we run from North to uh from the north entrance to the island uh down south I don't know the exact uh Road where it ends but we I'm also not permitted to share a map of the pipeline just for safety concerns makes sense uh but I can get you um more or less where we are located and I also know that we have about just over a 100 customers on Fort Meers Beach on the island here so if someone wants to have this at their resident down a side street does the entire Street have to do it or not necessarily I know I answered a question for a counselor a few months back about connecting their home um to the to the pipe it does make sense if anybody um yourself or any of your constituents or anybody else who would want gas if everyone on your street would like gas as well it would make the the operation cheaper for you know the single person who initiates the process because you would be splitting the cost of the construction and getting the the pipeline built underground what ballpark what would it cost for construction costs are I I don't want to give a ballpark just cuz I know they're constantly changing but um uh I I'd be happy to to get a quote if you have a specific address uh that would be probably a few we process that I could get a number for you okay so we'll direct them to you yeah please and and you all have my contact information I know uh your your town clerk does as well I'm happy to to help you or any of your constituents or any of your your favorite businesses restaurants that that are interested in Connect in to our to our main I'll also say we have uh just shy of about half a million customers in the State of Florida uh we've been uh servicing the town of Fort Meers Beach for for decades uh and we uh I I wasn't with the company at the time but I feel like the the company did a fantastic job um uh on the wake of hurricane Ian I I understand we had about 99% of our customers here on the island restored by I think it was October 4th so maybe a handful of days after the the storm we did have to shut off the valve um so that there wasn't gas flowing during the storm uh immediately following the storm once once uh it was made available we deployed about three uh mobile guard methane detection vehicles to ensure that there were no leaks uh here or in the other the other uh Fort Meyer Service territory uh I believe the only customers we did lose unfortunately were those where the the homes or the businesses were were lost entirely I have an echo Carlo can I ask a question please and I apologize for contacting you so late last night but I had a chance to review the franchise agreement and uh have a little bit of a regulatory and insurance background and I was looking at the insurance section section 14 of the of the proposed franchise agreement and I don't want to bore people but I think this is important from a pipeline safety uh Dynamic section 14 reads during the term of the franchise the company shall file with the Town Clerk and shell keeping full force and effect in all times during the effective period hereof Insurance certificates evidencing a general liability insurance policy or policies of evidence of self- insurance the terms and conditions where of shall provide the town of Fort Meers Beach is an additional insured as to the company's negligent operation of a natural gas distribution system within the corporate limits of the town is the currently I'm sorry I'm reading this from my phone as they currently exist may exist and may exist in the future each policy shall provide for the minimum sum of 2 million for injury or death to any one person I believe the previous contract was 1 million and for the minimum sum of 5 million for injury or death to all persons where there is more than one person involved in any incident or accident and for the minimum of 2 million for damage or to property res resulting from one accident so you doubled the the the amount for each individual injury but the aggregate cap is still 5 million I was just doing some research online last night that seems like the $5 million number seems a little uh inadequate and I I I had asked you last night to see if you could reach back to your corporate folks and see if you could double that number and I'm curious as to what the results of those conversations were uh so the standard agreement that that we submit to all our municipalities is what you're seeing now we were able to double I believe the 1 million to 2 million for personal injuries and after speaking with our corporate office in Tampa we can double the uh uh the aggri cap on damages to 10 million as well and that'll be codified in this new agreement so long as so long as the council votes in a majority to to bring it to 10 million and it's it's passed yes we we would be willing to sign that agreement I appreciate that very much thank you of course job any other questions for Carlos is there would there be a difference in fees or how would that normally you're delbin coverage so how does that play out there would be no difference in the Fran I'm assuming um counselor you're referring to the franchise fee that would that would not affect the franchise fee whatsoever no it would remain at 6% and we we are through our negotiation with the administration we are keeping the franchise fee from the original 2001 agreement that expired in 2021 it's remaining at the 6% that that your your constituents and and the town has been seeing since okay and just for the record in my in my limited review last night that that 6% is pretty standard as I understand it for all municipalities in Florida yes sir yes sir we we we do not want uh residents in St Petersburg uh upset that residents in Jacksonville are are spending or are paying more uh so we keep it standard across the state very good any more questions for Carlos no thank you Carlos thank you we will uh going to take public comment if there's any more questions we we'll have you come back up thank you we will open for public comment is there anyone that would like to speak uh in public about this seeing none we'll close public comment and we'll bring it back to council for discussion or a motion is there any further discussion Mr Mayor I would remove approval of ordinance 24- 07 natural gas franchise agreement I would say uh uh Tio people's gas has provided good service for the island we're anxious and excited to see them expand down the island where that makes economic sense and uh they seem to have provided good service thus far so I I support renewing the franchise agreement okay we got a motion by vice mayor adhal second seconded by councelor Woodson um discussion just uh if we can make sure at the second reading that we make that make that change okay uh any further discussion okay roll call vote Vice may adal I councelor Woodson I councelor King I councelor Safford I mayor allers I motion carries unanimously for the second reading all right the next eight items on the agenda are public hearings for review of various land use requests for the benefit of the public Please be aware that these items are quas judicial in nature our attorney will further explain thank you Mr Mayor um zoning r ISS uh a rezoning which we have before you today um special exceptions these are all quasi judicial in nature and which requires our public hearing to comply with procedural requirements that have been established in Florida law and in our Land Development code quasi judicial proceedings these are less formal than proceedings before a circuit court but they are more formal than the remainder of our meeting and they will follow the basic standards of due process requiring certain notices application of the correct standard and decisions made on competent substantial evidence presented to the Town Council in written documents or through oral testimony so the Town Council will then evaluate the testimony and information for each item and draw a conclusion regarding whether the criteria in the Land Development code or on state law as may be applicable has been satisfied so pure speculation or mere opinion that is not based on competent facts cannot legally be considered by the Town Council in their evaluation of an agenda item testimony by professionals who are qualified as experts in a particular area has been considered competent substantial evidence by Florida courts as well as testimony by neighbors and residents who have fact-based information such as minutes surveys engineering reports or testimony that's based on their own personal knowledge and information so if you intend to speak please keep the in mind when you come forward please state your name clearly for the record whether or not you have been sworn in and your qualifications or interests in the matter added to the list of Quasi judicial uh matters today are the three uh lean reduction requests that are will be presented to you um after the other land use items um so for purposes of efficiency before we begin any of these public hearings um we'd like to go ahead and uh put on the record a few items first of all I need to ask the town clerk if all agenda items were properly noticed uh pursuant to Our Land Development code yes they were thank you and the next question that I have relates to making sure that we have a quorum available for the review of each item so I need to ask if any Town council member has a conflict of interest that would prohibit them from voting on a particular item any anyone have a conflict councilor King none Vice May edal none I do not have any councelor Woodson none coun Stafford none okay very good um at this point if there's anyone that is interested in providing testimony we will be swearing you in so that um it could be considered as uh competent substantial evidence so the town clerk if you could please first of all anybody please rise and I'll turn it over to the town this includes public comment speakers on any of these items okay all right if you'll all raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth all right all parties have been sworn okay all right this is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance entitled The ordinance let me go off this it be easier the ordinance of the town of for Myers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying the commercial plan development Zone CPD for the property located at 351 Estero Boulevard generally identified as strap number 29-4 6-24 W1 d0120 c.1 00 Fort Meers Beach providing for other clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scriveners errors severability and providing for a a an effective date we now open the first public hearing good morning Sarah sorry I'm sorry jumping ahead of my sheet now if the town council member has had any exart communication to disclose please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondents that you received or observations made of this site ccor King just driven by it Vice mayle nothing nothing as well counc Woodson nothing counc Safford none okay Sarah pro has been qualified as an expert by This Town Council and based on her education and experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as expert Witnesses on behalf of the applicant at this time they were previous but they need to do it again or no um if Town Council has any questions regarding their qualifications if anything's changed no um if you've pre-qualified them no anybody have any further questions for the no okay has a property owner and applicant seen a copy of the agenda and backup materials from staff yes they're nodding their head they have go ahead Sarah I'm still getting used to the script you and I both good morning Sarah propes with Community Development the neighborhood company on behalf of the Southland Corporation the property owner for 3051 Estero Boulevard has applied for a commercial plan development rezoning to develop the property on the corner of Vorhees Street and a sterile Boulevard with a convenience store the Commercial Boulevard zoned property was the site of a 7-Eleven store and a gym prior to hurricane in a convenience store was previously on the site but the Commercial Boulevard zoning District does not allow the convenience store or gas pump use in order to rebuild the convenience store with gas pumps a commercial plan development is necessary the CPD includes several deviation requests from the Land Development code for site design which I will go through a deviation from the vehicle access separation requirements in section 10- 285 has been requested the code requires a minimum separation distance on a stero of 250 fet however the access point on a stero is 97.7 ft from Vorhees on local streets the code requires 125 ft of Separation the proposed site would provide 73 ft from the from the uh nearest Road intersection and 105 ft from a stero Boulevard a deviation from LDC section 10-46 D3 table 10-9 to decrease the minimum type c buffer width requirement of 15 ft for a type- c buffer the deviation would allow a minimum 3T wide uh buffer along a portion of the northeastern boundary along the proposed dumpster location a deviation from LDC section 34-74 A which requires build two lines for a sterile Boulevard to be established at 5 to 10 ft from the property line the deviation would allow for a build to line of 5 to 90 ft from a sterile Boulevard the proposed building would be located 89.9 ft from a sterile Boulevard Frontage and the gas pumps would be between a stero and the front of the building the proposed development requires a deviation from section 3476 D to allow access from a sterile Boulevard and Vorhees the code requires that if a site has access to a secondary Street and Estero that the access must be from the secondary Street however there are two access points on Vorhees and one on Estero Boulevard a deviation from LDC section 34-74 b1a which requires minimum Street setbacks for streets other than a sterile Boulevard to be 10 ft the deviation would allow a minimum of a zero foot setback from Vorhees Street a deviation from LDC Section 341 1744 b4d which requires screening of refuse containers to not exceed 6 feet in height the deviation would allow The Refuge refuse container screening enclosure to be a maximum of 7' 6 in in height this request is to match the request that the Town Council asked for uh for the 7-Eleven on polaro Circle the proposed development request should be evaluated for section 34- 85b and c and 34-26 of the LDC these findings and conclusions are listed in the staff report deviations must be approved modified or rejected per the findings in section 34264 these findings can be found in the staff report also several conditions are listed in the staff report including a requirement to replace any Landscaping damaged during construction as the proposed wall appears to be very close to the hedges that are existing on the neighboring property this is uh the LPA recommended a unanimous approval at the February 27th public hearing this is a first reading of the CPD a second hearing will need to be scheduled for April 1st M do you have any questions questions for Sarah yes sir I have a question uh Sarah uh I watched the LPA hearing on this and I was a great presentation I think a good conclusion I guess as we continue to wrestle with our process here particularly after a cat 4 hurricane I note in the applicant's uh uh submission extremely significant traffic impact statement for a 7-Eleven that was here before and just coming back again I know they're adding gas pumps but in your professional opinion was that traffic study which looks extremely expensive and extensive was that helpful to you or necessary for you to do your job do we need to be requiring it for that this type of a proposal I don't do reviews of traffic uh impact statements um so for me they they aren't necessarily a component especially for an existing use which isn't expanding um very much um it did have gas pumps before so there isn't even an expansion of gas use I don't believe so um in my opinion we probably would be able to remove some of those requirements I would need to have more conversation with some Traffic Engineers to fully understand what the ti can affect um because for as we all know a stero Boulevard is busy it's always busy no question about it but you said something to me you said you don't review traffic studies I don't who who does who who who reviews this uh we have a subc consultant who reviews them for us and what do they I mean for again an an entity that existed prior to the storm what are they reviewing and did they did they gain any value from it did they share it to you with you that this was helpful to them or they stated that it was accurate um so so I mean and in in some instances that's what we're getting that they gave us the correct information and they're meeting the requirements of the code I mean and that's really where we're at with a lot of these things the code requires this so this is the step we have to take we evaluate it per the criteria that's contained within the code um I don't think in most instances we're going to be especially if it's a use that was already there at an approximately same um intensity as was there previously I don't think it's going to have a huge impact um but I would really need to talk with the traffic engineer understand and this is this is not germine to the to the applicant's proposal here but just as we listen and learn as we go through this I I and I understand where this could be extremely helpful for certain proposals but I would just encourage you as you look at this particular example to see if going forward we can figure out a way where if it's not necessary to make the applicant do this I mean obviously where it is helpful that's great but where it's not it just seems like a I mean this is how many pages I can't imagine how much it cost it seems if no one's really benefiting from it it seems like an odd thing to include particularly as we're trying to rebuild just just food for thought and it's not your fault just this is what we require but but maybe we should give a little bit more sophisticated thought to what we require in particular circumstances that's my only suggestion yes I and I think that makes a lot of sense especially going forward as we're updating the Land Development code thank you m and Sarah I'm just trying to find it but I I can't figure out what exact page it's on on but the memory serves me that the actual square footage that they're requesting is less than what was there previously with a combination of the gas station and the gym right I believe that overall the combination is less um however because the rebuild isn't required or allowed um that's why the CPD came into effect and the convenience store use is larger but the overall building size won't be larger so you are correct it's on page 137 is that what it was yeah 137 I'm in the 200s it's 137 there it is I got it yeah okay any other questions for Sarah all right thanks Sarah thank you would the applicant like K come on up and sir have you been sworn in yes sir okay all right okay I'm going to see if this works oh much better uh good morning mayor vice mayor uh Town Council again uh for the record I'm Ken Gander been sworn in uh been found to be an expert uh here on behalf of the next 7-Eleven uh project uh as always pleasure being before you um thank you to Sarah and the staff for getting us to this Point uh has always been a pleasure working with them um so what I what we're wanting to present before you here is we're coming before you kind of in a nice circumstance we have a recommendation by staff with conditions we have a unanimous approval by the local planning agency we're not aware of any public opposition uh to this project so uh we don't really have anything further to add than what uh staff has presented before you uh this is a a rendering of the project uh again we'll have uh maintaining the fuel stations uh there is proposals for opportunities down the road for electric vehicle charging on this site it's a little bit bigger than the others so we're able to accomplish that uh if need be uh we are consistent with your comprehensive plan Land Development code criteria uh So based on that be happy to answer any questions uh and we respect request your uh approval on first reading um just one quick question I yes sir my internet cut out when I was watching and I believe Cher s brought up the question about that picture that's up there and she was talking about how people would cut through there before you know there was really nothing that kept people from driving and making that cut there so I didn't get to hear what the answer was so about that that section right there utilization of the curbing New Curbing and whatnot will uh enable restrict uh that cutting off or uh so all the site improvements will bring it up to code uh to ensure that that won't happen and that digital sign there won't impede that view triangle so obviously that detail will have to be worked out through the development order so if it has to be adjusted a little bit but yes uh it will it will not impede the the vision triangle and are you okay with the staff recommendations for condition of approval yes sir okay any other questions for Ken are the gas pumps going to face toward the store as depicted in that picture or was it the way it used to be uh I think it's a big deal I'm just asking yeah that's a good I don't know are they all they're an alternative location they're angled differently so they'll be different than what was before they'll be the same as the is is that picture correct or is it the way it used to be you need to be on the mic what page is that I don't know if we can see by it's not a make a break deal just curious go ahead I have nothing more to add braer fry for the record I've been qualified as an expert oh looks like I see what it is okay it looks like they're turning just kind of at a 45 degree angle from the way they were before yes so if you Scott if you go to page 146 and zoom in on it you could see that how they used to kind of be parallel with the sterile Boulevard it looks like they're kind of turning at a 4 Dee angle to um Vorhees and a sterile okay which makes more sense yeah that makes more sense that answer your question Scott yes sir all right right any question yes sir I just had a curious just out of curiosity Ken and this is sort of a softball question but I'll ask it anyways did you learn anything did you glean any insights from the traffic study that you guys uh contracted to have done did was there any sort of aha moment as a result of the traffic study uh for us no aha moments but to kind of reiterate on process and what we are we appreciate going through we are required to do a pre-application meeting so there's conversations that we can have with staff to evaluate the need for what we're proposing and the ti um and based on this with the the changes it was dis deemed appropriate that we provide that t and the information provided there so just out of curiosity you don't have to say but the the range of just give me maybe a range if you're comfortable what does it cost to have this type of traffic study done just ballpark I can't answer that particular question uh anybody else in the stat just Paul Park it there are a lot of different factors um depending on the severity of the use that's being proposed but I don't know I'd say anywhere between 5 and 20,000 depending five or 205 to $20,000 $20,000 yeah depending on who are your neighbors currently at this for this new location directly next door fire department trying to get my head around Street fire departments across the street so we have the fire department across the street uh you have a multif family residential parking lot to the uh West Northwest there uh to the South uh I think that was uh what's the restaurant uh to this point there U I don't recall Junu yes Jun Jun new uh yep and some residential transient lodging short-term rentals do you uh does does 7-Eleven uh obviously you have to have a certain amount of standardization but do they survey the neighborhood to see if there's any unique uh things that they should be caring based upon the needs of the neighborhood or desires of the neighborhood yeah they they said brought that up at the last one they said they they well he can talk we'll have the mark Haron with 7-Eleven speak to that have you been sworn in sir I have okay uh Mark Haron with 7-Eleven and uh yes we do actually uh our company's founded on a principle of what's called retailer initiative so every store has the right to customize its assortment for its neighbors we allow our franchises to go out and purchase things if we don't Supply buy them they can go out and purchase things so things like uh activities for the beach beach wear fishing that's all going to be customized by location and and and what would if if you had a if you were to advise a group a neighborhood that's around a 7-Eleven and by the way we're very thankful that the one in the South End is about to open extremely thankful how what would be the process for Neighbors in that area to say gosh 7-Eleven we'd love to have you carry this type of frozen pizza or this type of milk or I mean what's the process for them to they can talk directly to the franchisee or they could they could contact myself and we could make sure that happens okay I'm just curious thank you very much Mark before you before you run off since vice mayor brought it up and has been so diligent about staying down there and keeping your Crews on task um do you have any updates on that South that you are ready to or you could potentially give we uh we are going to uh take it from construction tomorrow so construction is complete oper ations will go in we need um about 3 weeks to get it stocked and open we're planning to open it on 48 and then the following Friday will be our grand opening event at the store but it'll be open to the public 48 48 yes thank you for that update thank 48 so that's that we can take that's official then now you just made that official CU okay 48 is official 600 a.m. 48 I didn't mean to steal your thunder there no no that's I thought it was 44 but I'd like the 48's just fine that's that's beautiful thank what are your hours going to be it's going to be 24 hours 24 hours yes that that may adjust after we open but when we open we will open 24 hours and we'll see what traffic looks like at night but more than likely we're moving to a 24 hour location we opened Santa Belle a couple of weeks ago it's operating 24 hours um there's plenty of traffic out there at night to support us being open so so not not to put you really on the spot but if it's 48 and you're open 24 hours a day do you open at midnight you open like at 7 we're gonna open at 6:00 am on the EG and then we'll be over 24 hours from there you going midnight I think I know who the first customer going to be standing in line well you have Donuts there that's the next question for John yeah we we get donuts fresh every day from our Baker We will have Donuts a lot of anticipation so thank you yes the biggest question I get is are you still going to have those quick made pizzas people are waiting for their Pizza yes we are going to have a pizza we have three types of pizza it takes three minutes to cook a whole pizza um we'll have some type of special going we'll give away free things for the first five weeks so there'll be a free pizza free hot dogs free coffee so there'll be a lot um got some really nice fishing shirts that we're going to give out the day of the grand opening that has Fort Meers Beach strong on it so lots of things for the community on our grand opening event I saw you had a nice cappuccino machine in there already capuccino yes ice coffee I coffee can can I offer a disclaimer can I offer a disclaimer there's going to be traffic folks just be ready it's not going to be easy getting in and out down there just be ready the town knows it already everybody should know it you got it all right thank you Mark thanks we can do about it do we have any other questions for for Ken and his group I do you you briefly mentioned the electric charging stations is that something that you're doing for sure or is that by demand or how is that going to come about it it it's an evaluation based on the need uh when we worked with staff it was identified that into order for us to ensure that it could be done we wanted to make sure that was in our schedule of uses identified on the master concept plan so it's it's not necessarily for sure but the trend obviously is that's where things are headed and so you want to have that availability for that type of uh fueling so the the last charging stations that we have were by Yucatan in that parking lot are those I don't even know are they back or not back or what is happening with those the town lot or the private lot um private I think it was a private lot so that would be I know that we I've looked into we've worked with somebody a couple years ago but that contract expired or something it went away so we've we've I have looked into it but I think that was a private lot from what Amy saying yeah so in essence right now if you did that it would be the only charging stations on the island and you weren't considering that for um the north end up by preo no none none of our uh electric charging stations are uh proposed in any of the other locations I believe it was the fact of being a fueling opportunity here that fueling opportunity as well for uh uh electric charging so and this building it's not it's not the ve Zone right no sir are you still planning on drrive flood pring this one or no yeah we'll have to meet all the uh requirements for the appropriate flood proofing for location yes sir that's all right any other questions for Ken thank you sir great thank you you're welcome are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter if so please come forward to the podium and identify yourself provide your address and whether you were sworn in is there any public comment seeing none we'll close public comment are there any additional comments from or rebuttal or closing statements from the applicant guessing no okay I will now close the public hearing and request a discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions or deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain I'll move ordinance 24- 05 dc1 12023 194 3051 to stero Boulevard got a motion by councelor King are you adding the conditions approval counselor does it need to be in there since it's already been recommended this is simply a a motion to continue it for a second hearing or to move it schedule and move it right move it to Second hearing right but my question is he but there are conditions here that that need to be part of the record to move it forward I believe it's part of the recommendation from uh from town staff okay just wanted to clarify that thank you we got a motion to uh move this to the second reading by councelor King second second by Vice adalt any further discussion uh roll call vote councelor King hi vice mayor edal hi mayor allers I councelor Woodson hi coun Safford I motion carries unanimously next we have resolution 4-35 6-month reassessment the whale a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions denying a special exception Amendment se22 300052 requesting a six-month reassessment of previously approved amendments to allow for outdoor alcohol sales and live music providing for clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of Law scrier erors severability and providing for an effective date if any Town council member has had any expar communication to disclose please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that you received or observations made of the site consor King none Vice May I've had a number of emails in support including from the applicant and I've had none in opposition I have as well councelor Woodson I have as well exactly councelor Safford I've had several conversations with the owners and I've also received several emails and support okay s oh Jason SMY has been qualified as an expert already by the Town Council and based on his education and experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant seeing none as a property owner applicant seeing copy of the agenda backup materials from staff they're nodding their head yes go ahead good morning my name is Jason SMY I'm with the town's planning and zoning department so good morning to counselors and staff today is a request before you to uh there's a there's a request to uh approve a special exception extension uh the previous special exception was due to loss of the whale building and so they needed to come in to amend uh some prior approvals today special exception is a continuance of that uh if I may I'd like to go through the conditions of approval that were the real Crux of uh what they have come in for the request before you today is to allow for music uh outdoor music to be played uh the conditions of approval uh included things such as the ability to have the Town Council to have the applicant come back on a six-month period uh to assess whether or not those mitigation of any noise nuisance or other nuisances uh for Neighbors uh could be addressed uh included in that uh limitations uh the live music was allowed but drums were disallowed as part of that approval uh included in the approval was also the allowance for Amplified music until 6 :30 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays after which uh the Amplified music could not be any louder than 65 DB as long as the remainder of the conditions are upheld such as not having uh drums there the Amplified music is also allowed Friday and Saturday um those times are being controlled by the town's uh noise nuisance and so that would be enforced by the sheriff's office as well uh there are a couple other boiler plates in there that don't deal with the actual use on the site but staff is bringing before you the six conditions of approval that were approved last time uh including the requirement to have them come back in six months if they have not begun uh construction of the building uh which we don't expect that they would be done by that point if there's any questions for staff we're here for that and then obviously the applicant is here as well so if they have to come back in 6 months they don't have to pay for another request for a variance or will they have to pay again uh staff cannot wave that so ostensibly that would be the determination by Town Council if they'd like to wave that require that U cost if they if you bring them back in six months okay any questions for staff I have a question you said if they did you say if they haven't started building in 6 months or they're not built in 6 months well they're not one of the uh one of the portions of the conditions of approval is that whichever happened first either the expiration of the six months or them going back into a building where they could do these activities inside of a building staff is not expecting that they will have a building ready in six months for them to go back into so if all of the conditions of approval are kept they would be obligated to come back in 6 months from today to go through for this same process I'm looking at B on the condition of approval it says until construction of a new building has begun whichever happens first yeah we aren't expecting that construction is going to begin either so if you'd like to amend those obviously this would be the time to do it but as of right now uh we would expect them to be back here in another six months if they continue uh any of those uses on site okay we'll get that answer from them any other questions for staff all right the applicant please proceed with your presentation on this item thank you for the record they are handing out what appears to be decibel readings from 12 5 1210 of 2023 is that accurate that was just that first page first page but I don't see anything on the other page keeps going oh yeah it keeps going and for the record that's the uh same um uh same list of decibal readings that I handed to the LPA yeah it looks like it goes from 125 of last year till 226 of this year correct go ahead good morning Mr be and Council I'm Greg Von CR the uh managing partner of the whale um and yeah we're here today to have that um our special exception uh to Extended for another 6 months or until we begin construction which we are hoping is far far sooner than 6 months from now so uh but that's why we're here today in front of you so you that did that answer anyone's question as far as so you're hoping that you'll be starting construction within six months and not have to come back correct okay any questions for the applicant I don't I don't know if it's for the applicant or for staff what is the hold up for still 6 months that's the part of because I know that everyone's been working diligently on this is there some certain thing that is happening either in the construction or built or for another 6 months maybe not to be under construction uh I believe we are expecting to submit our final permits or plans for permits I believe this week um but that's probably a better question for Mike or maybe for staff so you haven't submitted yet for your final we've not what you're hoping to do this week do you have any um issues with the conditions of approval the six conditions that were laid out through the LPA uh well I mean ideally we would eventually like to be uh you know really under the same restrictions as anyone else that zoned downtown just like we are So eventually but um currently no we do not any other questions yeah well I'm only doing this because you're here and every there's a lot of anticipation uh do you mind commenting on when potentially uh the transfer uh while you're building the whale uh the transfer over to Sandy Bottoms might occur and what's your timeline is you don't you don't have to share that but I just thought if you want to get that word out people are very curious and excited that have another restaurant opportunity available as well if you'd like to share that yeah uh we um are still unfortunately in some design phases with Sandy Bottoms so um that'll be several months yet at at at the earliest uh we might move the um everything that we have now the tent and the containers things like that down to the parking lot in Sandy Bottoms I believe there's a few issues with the CPD we have to kind of get situated first before we can do that okay we trying to keep the staff working and you know I knew I thought that was your plan and people were excited about that because I think the Sandy Bottom again just since you're at the microphone the the the cuisine there is potentially I understand there might be something uh something unique in terms of a Smash Burger is that yeah absolutely yeah all right beautiful we got some we got some exciting plans for that a lot of hungry people here I know it I know it there's not much in that area right now so can you put on their hoer slice pickles and uh um well while I have you up there over the last week or so I have been hearing some people making comments about the parking that's going on in the RightWay and the private property adjacent to you I don't know if if you can do anything about it but hasn't been a loud voice but there have been a few people that have made comments about it so just uh be weird be leer of or weary or whatever word you want to use aware aware thank you it's probably a better word losing my voice too must have been that oak tree that uh so I just wanted to let you know that that no one has formally sent an email about it but they have stopped me on the street anyone I've seen Park uh from code enforcement I believe this was probably around 6 months ago when I chatted with them it was The Far Side of the Street basically on on palmo where 7-Eleven was that was the side that no could nobody could park on um anyone I've seen personally that parked there I've told them they cannot park there um but there has been people parking there that I obviously did not catch before they ran off no I I figured you were aware of it I just wanted to make sure that I brought it up I told him I would bring it up so I did any other questions thanks Greg Mike hello everyone Council um my name is Mike Miller for the record and one of owners of the whale and um I want to reiterate some of the things that um you had just mentioned about the parking on the streets and stuff like that uh Greg does a great job on trying to get that um um uh stopped uh one of the things my wife and I over the weekend we pulled in we couldn't get a parking spot uh I mean barely snuck it in with our golf cart okay and they were lined both sides of the street in vacant Lots we walked into our facility and it was half empty so what people are coming and finding out is that hey let's go park at the whale for free because we don't charge for parking and then we literally see them get out of their vehicles on the side of the street and head straight to the beach or they're heading to Margaritaville or wherever they're going to go so I just want to reiterate that cuz we were at literally half of our tables were empty and our parking lot was buried as well as the streets so um very good point glad you brought it up so we want to do everything we can to help out um and also you know like Greg said before we want to be just the same as everybody else with these regulations um once we build the new building plans should be going in this week it's going to take 12 to 14 months to build um this will obviously expire um because hopefully you know as soon as we can get the permits stamped and we've done all the dos and they're like ready to hand this thing to be rubber stamped and comments and whatnot but we would like to be just have the same as any everyone else you know the same lot uh hours of operation for you know outdoor entertainment you know outdoor entertainment it's not like uh the pool at Margaritaville we're still going to be inside of a structure we're not going to be like sitting in our parking lot having um music you know like our first and third floor are going to be open air we might have a an acoustic person you know or one One Man acoustic person playing with uh throughout our speaker system um obviously we can control it very easily and it won't be very loud um but on the on the same token you know more than likely after we do break ground uh you might be seeing my smiley face in here again going hey let's get this outdoor uh Amplified music restriction eliminated and follow the current guidelines of what the town has for the downtown area appreciate that let's get through this one first you know it I can appreciate that all right any any questions Mike thanks sir great thank you we'll open it up for public comment are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter if so please come forward to the podium and identify yourself provide your address and whether you were sworn in is there anyone that would like to speak during public comment seeing none we'll close public comment are there any rebuttal statements from the they're shaking their head no I'll now close a public hearing and request discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions or deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain discussion or a motion I have a couple discussion items go ahead so based on what Mike said about the parking and that's not his property where they're not supposed to park is that something that the town can help with and just no Park working for the whale or Beach or anything like that because right now there's just nothing there yes ma'am we can definitely take care of that we can get uh signage temporary signage put up there for no parking to assist them and also please feel free to reach out to our community services people we can send people right down there and uh deal with it uh so yes there's a couple of different situations that we can handle with okay I would really like to see that if at all possible because I know the people on poo as well they're you know while they haven't made any official um comments or anything but they are upset about all the people parking there when they're not supposed to be and that's not the whales property so tell right away yeah right with being private property we'd have to reach out to I believe it's a 7-Eleven group that owned that other piece of property on other side of the street they would be the ones that would have to take the first recour of lising at his private property no parking wouldn't that be T right away though not their property I we have to find out where the town RightWay is there first before you usually way we can get it handled yes because and the fire district might have an issue with not being able to get a truck through there so I would make sure it's not town right away before we involve 7-Eleven yep and I have one other comment the possibility of removing condition B of having them come back every 6 months and paying these fees and I mean if they're in compliance and we have no um issues from from anyone complaining about it why do they have to keep coming back every 6 months you know I thought about that too but I think this that b kind of falls into what Vice mayoral was talking about and what we had talked about before if it goes through an LPA process and it doesn't have any issues does it have to come through I mean the fee thing for me I agree I don't if it's six months and there's been no complaints so there's been to have to go through this entire process every six months is it something uh Nancy that we can put into what we just approved as far as you know still have them come back I think we want to allow neighbors if they have an issue to have a voice um as well as the applicants but I'm okay with the fee part of it and if it can go through just the LPA process and not have to go through this part of it as well so it was a condition of approval on a previously approved um permit the LPA is recommending that you retain that condition um you know is that going to um conflict with the comprehensive plan I don't think so um so I think you do have the discretion if you want to um take that out can we change it to six months or to whenever they break ground I just need to verify code says I'm sorry toas instead of 6 months to change the word to whenever they break ground mhm to eliminate the six-month period so it would just be when construction begins yes correct I have a little concern with that though because in watching the LPA hearing some of the neighbors were comfortable I think with the six months being able to come back if they had to or if they were felt that not that I expect them to but things got out of control and drum set started showing up and they just wanted to have the but I want to make it as easy as possible if they're doing what they they been doing to have to go through this entire process over again every 6 months is a little redone but it's still to me would offer the residents around to have a voice should they need to and maybe nobody I mean there's nobody here opposing it so I don't know that we'll have an issue but okay so I needed to ask Jason is it a code requirement or is it a condition that staff is recommending and the LPA has recommended for this particular site this particular application that's distinction correct it it was distinct to this request and this site thank you so then we could change it and not do the 6 months but until construction we can change it to what whatever you'd like you were saying that you or could we do it like it would have to come back if there were complaints or well I think the I mean it sounds like they're going to their hope is to start construction in less than 6 months so we're talking about a mute point but for some reason it goes to 12 months I don't know that I'd be comfortable because of what the neighbors were concerned with you know that's pretty open-ended to say you know a lot of things could happen between now and three months from now that could stall it six months or another six months or a year things outside their control you know production construction Crews product things like that and to completely get rid of it I don't know that I would I would be comfortable with that but I'm okay with the fee part of it and I'm okay with the um not having to go through both if we can do it legally not have to go through all the extra steps I think it I think it provides both certainty for the applicants as well as some some comfort in the neighbors that live around that there's still there's that you still have to be good people let's put it that way for for discussion purposes you could go with nine months rather than six I mean it still gives you that checks and balance that things are moving along but it seems like it might be a mood issue on in this particular project I think for me I'm with the mayor on this um the fee is the sticking point for me I'm okay with reviewing things at six months but charging people to do that is uh is a little much I think especially if nothing changes if there's been no complaints if there's been I mean it's you're copy and pasting for the most part indeed is it out of line to ask the applicants to come back up no not at all you guys when you guys want to come back do you do you have any issues with the six-month time frame if we don't require you to pay the fee to come back to do the the review again if we can streamline I still haven't got that answer yet if we can eliminate the council part of the process if there's no objections at the LPA process um are you are are you guys comfortable with that sure absolutely does that give everybody kind can we can we streamline it though um I'll have to look at the ordinance that I'm in the process of of fixing for the variant and then if I can put this in there as well I will work that in there well we certainly hope that we don't have to have this discussion six month for your your benefit as well as the public so thank you okay is everybody okay with that kind of sure did we have a motion or do we just still in discussion we're still discussing discuss any other discussion you said you had a couple things Council Woodson well it was the six months and it was also the fee so that was my two okay the parking yeah is there a is there a motion I I'll make a motion to um approve resolution 24-35 um six-month reassessment of the whale I'm trying to open my computer again sorry with the conditions set forth but to include the waving of the fee for the variance if it should go to six months and to uh encourage our town attorney to uh get an answer as to the process not having to come through the the council second all right got a motion by mayor all second by councelor King any further discussion roll call vote mayor allers I councelor King I vice mayor edal I councelor Woodson I counc Safford I motion carries unanimously if I may just ask real quick clarification so from what I've hear heard so far you are removing the requirement for fees uh if this goes for another round of six months and you are still asking for them to come back in six months if they haven't Broken Ground yet correct with with the exception if the attorney finds a different process correct excellent thank you very much you guys understand that as well got it all right congratulations next we have resolution 24-42 sez 20232 8012 Estero Boulevard a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying a special exception sez 202 30280 to allow reconstruction of a pool pool deck fences and walls Grill area foot rint station lighting and beach access path in the environmental critical EZ zoning district with conditions for the property located at 102 Estero Boulevard providing for scrier a severability and an effective date if any Town council member has had any expart communication to disclose please let us know the subject discuss and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place and the correspondence that you received or observations made of the site councelor King none that I recall Vice may I believe I've received a number of emails on this I have as well I also went by the site I received a lot of emails I've also gone by the site councelor Safford the same for me okay Sarah pro has been qualified as experts as an expert already by This Town Council and based on her education and experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town Fort Myers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as expert Witnesses on behalf of the applicant at this time right seeing none has a property owner or applicant seen a copy of the agenda and backup materials from staff anyone hey go ahead Sarah you're fine have you received have you see receive the documentation from staff okay um Mr Mayor may I ask also if the applicant has any questions regarding the EXP parte disclosures because the statements were made that emails were received do you want further information about those emails or okay so those of you that made the disclosure concerning the emails could you say if they were in support or who they were from or the context of it so he needs to dispute that yeah there's I don't think it's anything of a controversy but there has been a Litany of emails from residents in this facility some in support of what I think we're talking about today but some also expressing concerns about some things going on at the pink shell which I know is a separate issue but it gets a bit confusing for us uh but but I think the emails that I've received have been in support of this particular project I haven't received anything in opposition I don't believe I think that was well said that some are being kind of mixed together with what's going on next door so and just for the record um despite having received the emails and reviewed it you're still here today with an open mind uh listening to the testimony yes absolutely there good morning Sarah propes with Community Development pink shell Vacation Villas not to be confused with Pink Shell Resort located at 102 Estero Boulevard has applied for a special exception to allow the replacement or repair of accessory structures that were in the environmentally critical zoning District on the common element portion of the condominium property prior to Hurricane Ian the these structures include a pool pool deck pool fence and knee wall at grade PA path to the beach a foot Rin station and a grill area including lighting pavers and movable G grills no gas connection is proposed the grill area is proposed to be moved approximately 8 ft closer to the side Lot line not towards the beach the applicant is requesting the special exception through the ordinance amendment to section 34- 652e that allows reconstruction or renewal of primary structures and major accessory structures partially or fully within the EC zoning district with the approval of a special exception the EC zoning district is the land seword of the 1978 Coastal Construction Control Line This condominium was constructed in 1976 prior to the creation of the 1978 cccl the applicant is the applicants are not proposing any additional development in the EC beyond what was in existence prior to Hurricane Ian at the LPA hearing on February 27th the LPA unanimously recommended approval of the request the staff is available to answer any questions you may have and there's also a representative from Pink Shell Vacation Villas if you have questions you know what just uh I I think I made a mistake Madam attorney I I do have a conflict of interest with this one and I totally gloss it over until just now okay so can you disclose on the record the nature of your conflict uh yes I have a business uh agreement with the pink shell Resort I'm sorry say that again oh I saw pink I just saw pink shell Vacation Villas so that's still the pink shell no it's not they are they are separate entities so Pink Shell Resort is okay then then I panic for nothing yes um so pink shell Vacation Villas is the condominium that my apologies I'm sorry I just it rang a when I read pink shell vacation Bill we're going to blame a pickle ball injury for that I did get whacked in the head a few times not enough not enough never mind sorry about that move on that I disregard you that's fine complete of judgment do you have any questions for staff or the applicant I I would love to have the applicant just give us a thumbnail sketch of what you're trying to accomplish well just so that I'm following the script and make you know when I have a script I'm just fine good morning my name is Richard row I'm the vice president at vacation Villa pink pink shell vacation Villa but the Pink Shell Resort does not like us using the term pink shell so we call ourselves vacation Villa um we are wanting to well thank you for all your help and thank you for all the you everything you've done over the last two years with the the Huracan thank you also for passing ordinance 2313 last year which allowed us to put forward a application for special exception um and all we're trying to do is repair exactly what was there before uh our pool is structurally sound the the walls around it did get knocked over um we are when I said exactly we are going to add a ADA compliance ramp because the current ramp to the pool is steep but that is actually on the land side of the cccl um and I think as Sarah mentioned we are moving our um barbecue area by about 8 ft just so that it drains more towards the beach rather than under our building otherwise we're doing nothing additional it's all what was there before we're ready to go we just want your approval would you mind if I asked because of some of the confusion between you and pink shell could you just describe how your structure are you a traditional condo are you a time share what we're a traditional condominium we have 30 units yes thank you any other questions for the applicant do you have you don't have any issues with the conditions of approval um I think they were clarified I mean the but we just need to get you know we're ready to go just soon as we can get approval we want to get on with the work I mean appreciate thank you any other questions for the applicant thank you sir thank you are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter if so please come forward to the podium and identify yourself provide your address and whether you were sworn in is there any public comment seeing none we'll close public comment are there any additional comments or rebuttal or closing statements from the applicant he's shaking his head no I will now close a public hearing and request discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain is there a discussion or a motion so this one um Mr Mayor is the special exception so we don't have to continue it I think your vote would be final today I'm just reading from your script oh well ordinances um so this one is a resolution okay so don't have to read that last number four and correct got it okay I'll move resolution 24-42 for approval a motion by councelor King is there a second second got a second by councelor Woodson any further discussion uh roll call vote councelor King I councelor Woodson I coun Safford I Vice may atol I and mayor allers Den I motion carries unanimously congratulations thank you next we have uh item F this is we are going to open this and then it's going to be moved to a Time certain so we will open it take public comment and then close it it is resolution 24-4 se22 30202 for 1028 1 Street a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying special exception sez 202 30202 requesting consumption on premises to allow a barcocktail lounge within 500 ft of a park for the property located at 1028 fth Street providing for clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scrier errors severability and providing for an effective date um before we go I it says 1028 First Street but in it says Fifth Street so there's a mistake in there it's actually Fifth Street not Fifth Street not First Street U Nancy do I have to go through all of this even though we're not going to no I think if you um as as you stated if you'd like to take any public comment and then I believe that it's the applicant who's requesting a continuance of this item to a date certain but if there are members of the public present okay you can accommodate them are there any members of the public that are present that would like to speak on the resolution 2441 for 1028 5th Street seeing none we'll close public comment um is there a motion to we continue to a date certain is there a motion to continue to date certain which I believe is April 1st Andrew is that correct no who Andrew oh yes Jason Andrew never mind Jason sorry that that is correct I was wondering why Jason's looking at me like what are you thinking I'll move the resolution move to continue to a date certain yes got a motion I'll second is there any further discussion uh roll call vote CC King hi mayor alers I vice mayor hi councelor Woodson hi councelor Safford hi motion carries unanimously next is resolution 24-40 sez 202 30293 9233 Street a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying special exception sez 202 30293 requesting a special exception from LDC 34-32 3824a which requires an increase to the number of residential bedrooms which may be developed within UT utilizing the post- disaster billback ordinance for the property located 9233 Street providing for the clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scrier errors severability and providing for an effective date if any Town council member has had any expart communication to disclose please as know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that you received or any observations made of the site councelor King none that I recall vice mayor Edo none uh just driven by it a few times Woodson none but I know the property well he my neighbor Safford I had a brief conversation with him a couple weeks ago okay Jason SMY has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council and based on his education and experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Myers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as expert Witnesses on behalf of the applicant at this time seeing none as the property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff he's nodding yes go ahead excellent again my name is Jason small I'm with the town's planning and zoning office so the reason for this request today is during your most recent Amendment of the town's dis pre excuse me post- disaster build back policy while the allowance to use the full uh footprint of the house for rebuild uh was was allowed for in that Amendment including the lower area it did limit the number of bedrooms to the number that existed previously and created a uh pathway through this process a special exception to come in and request additional rooms in conjunction with the approval to have additional space so that's what the applicant is coming into day four he is requesting additional rooms a total of six whereas previously we can uh staff can validate three bedrooms uh in the in the unit so the request today really is just to discuss how many bedrooms they could feasibly have staff has recommended a couple uh specific conditions of approval I know that the applicant had some questions about those at the at the last LPA meeting uh staff is here for any questions that you may have about the staff report or any other issues and the applicant Mr moero is here as well Jason what was the specific reason for the denial recommendation from staff uh I think it largely had to do that we don't have a very good history of how to assess this but I think it also came down to the fact that when we did the analysis we came up with an average bedroom number of bedrooms in the surrounding neighborhood of approximately 3.2 so the applicant's request is almost double what the average pre-storm number of bedrooms were so I think the staff had a concern and and wanted to bring up the fact that we would be talking about double bedrooms uh double the number of bedrooms and possibly double the number of people that it could feasibly um entertain for uh short-term rentals so we wanted to be very careful about how we assess this and again we don't have a a any history to go by about how the Town Council has looked at these reviews or really what uh performance indicators we should be looking for I think as this process goes on we'll have more of a background to be able to look back on and see what the concerns were okay any other questions for Jason yes sir Jason if I I I remember watching this at the LPA uh but I don't remember what the vote was it did it pass out unanimously uh yes absolutely the voted LPA was 70 to recommend approval and then there was some discussion there about uh whether or not the process could be further streamlined but staff didn't get involved in that but this particular proposal received a 7 to zero voter this particular approval got seven to 7even to zero approval recommendation for approval I should say thank you was that with or without the conditions that you had suggested in they they kept all four of the conditions the two with actual meat to it were the requirement to ensure that he is going to have four uh parking spaces on site and then St recommendation to have the applicant plant buffers just to help uh Tamp down on any possible noise nuisance that might be created by an increase uh increased number of renters and really that's concern about neighbors that might be on the side not necessarily Moss Marina behind them thank you and in in that that condition too there's really I mean just as a landscape buffer so there's really no I mean that could be a dandelion we could get more prescriptive and and call for Heights but I don't think we wanted to go there that it was really just uh the ability to allow Town Council to discuss whether or not you believe there would there was any need for any sort of mitigation for the residential neighbors to them okay any other questions for Jason thank you excellent Gra good morning Council my name is Chris moero I'm the applicant and um homeowner at 9233 Street um like Jason said uh my special exception I'm applying for today is for um some additional bedrooms in my house um when the post disaster build back policy was um passed or recently revised by you guys it was said um where our square footage can be utilized um based on our under roof um space and on the first floor my house previous to the storm um uh there was an upstairs living space and then downstairs was halfway enclosed and then the other half was a a parking area carport laundry area um so the post disaster build back policy allows me to increase my square footage based on that space underneath the home but doesn't allow me to to um increase the number of bedrooms um past what Lea says I guess um unless I come here and ask for for a special exception you guys um had that pathway in here um Town Town staff has said and and leap's data says that our our neighborhood has a average of 3.2 bedrooms um in the home still existing post storm um our neighbor hood is a very unique neighborhood it's straddled between um old San Carlos downtown and Mos Marina it's a very transient neighborhood um and actually if you pull leapa data or leapa data says 3.2 bedrooms um actual bedrooms are 4.3 when I went through and and counted what I know my neighbors have and what they what they advertise it's more um I wanted to also give you some more data on on our neighborhood um so our neighborhood Hood Third Street Harbor Court um and Bonita street that area kind of off Old St Carlos um there's 19 homes um 19 structures Still Standing post storm nine of those homes are duplexes so um uh including mine leapa did have that part correct that that we were a duplex of those 19 homes five of them are completely short-term rentals no no one lives in them um they're just strict used for short-term vacation rentals we're in a weekly vacation zone of the remaining of those um four of them are part-time rentals so uh I'm I'm sorry four of them are part-time residents where their snowboard their snowbirds they're here in the winter um when they're not here most of them rent their place um it's a rental neighborhood and then of of our full-time residents of our five full-time residents all of them are but but one our duplexes they all rent they're all rentals um so again I don't think adding more bedrooms in our neighborhood is going to be extremely detrimental my intention is to live in half of the duplex and rent the other half of the duplex um I am on property I'm uh I I run I own a business here I own an IT company I'm not I'm not I'm moving from my home anytime soon so I I'm I have the ability to monitor um visitors who come and go um also something to look for is we've seen the development of M or the intention of the development for MOS Marina and bayron arches um three bedrooms in our neighborhood is not going to change the identity of our neighborhood MOS Marina Bayfront arches adding one additional bedroom over there that they they previously didn't had will change our neighborhood that's that's the kind of um things that we see that that um can really affect our neighborhood so with that said um yeah I guess it it looks on paper like I'm doubling my bedrooms um I I had four bedrooms previous to the storm three upstairs one downstairs um and we're I'd like to utilize that square footage um in bedrooms I guess any questions for Chris other question I have Chris is do you have any objection to the staff recommended conditions of approval I don't have any objection to the conditions of approval parking's not an issue um my intention is to keep the first floor of the home on stilts so not enclos that it's going to be it's for parking um I would like some clarification on the the Landscaping thing I'm not opposed to doing any kind of landscaping buffers whatevers required um I'm not sure how Landscaping can affect I'm putting a bedroom 15 ft up but I guess for parking purposes and things like that I'm I'm happy to do whatever's Landscaping just need some clarification on that I'd like okay so I think Chris if I'm not mistaken the houses on both sides of you are rental correct um the house on the on one side of me is a full-time is a full-time rental the house on the other side of me um is a a full-time not a full-time resident a uh a part-time resident she's she's um parttime and then she rents the other she didn't previous to the storm um they've expressed that they want they're interested in doing that but they didn't not back to normal yet I don't think not quite not quite yeah okay Chris if you don't mind just so I'm clear so so if this passes today you'll in essence have a duplex and you'll live in one side of the duplex and rent the other side is that right correct all right thank you okay thank you Chris just a quick question for Jason about the Landscaping what would be the staff's recommendation to give him some clarity for the landscape buffer so I think uh and I really appreciate him actually bringing up the Crux of the issue we're we're not necessarily concerned with the upper floors they'll be enclosed it's people hanging out downstairs just utilizing that area so for staff we didn't want to get into a fact of requiring him to to do a fence but if he uh as part of his Redevelopment wants to do a fence fence I think that does the same the same concept otherwise I think staff would be happy with just making sure that he has uh between four and six foot high Hedges planted on the sides we don't necessarily think that the back is going to be useful but again just to buffer some noise from that ground level on the sides uh the 4 to 6 foot would be the normal allowed for fence Heights and he could go in there and plant that is there is there a class number for that or I mean is there a determination in the code for that height of type whatever landscape buffer what is that well it wouldn't be a a tight buffer because that's generally going to be for commercial uses but what I'm envisioning is the same requirements and height limitations that you would find on normal fences with four feet on the front until you get past that first 25 ft of the property and then it can go up to 6 feet uh and then they can do six feet Hedges all the way around again staff didn't want to get too prescriptive we just wanted to make it apparent that we were looking out for neighbors and any nuisance that might be created from this so just for clarity for the public and for the applicant if we were to say in that condition 3 to six foot vegetation buffer or Andor a fence either I think either one would would address the concerns from staff absolutely okay and is there any objection no all right thanks J we'll make the changes thank you we'll now open this up for public comment are there any members of the public who wish to come comment on this matter if so please come forward to the podium and identify yourself provide your address and whether you were sworn in is there any public comment for this resolution seeing none we'll close public comment any rebuttal comments from the applicant no I will now close a public hearing and request a discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions or deny with reasons is there any further discussion or a motion I'll make a motion to approve resolution 24-40 sez 20232 93 9233 Street with the amendment to uh condition number two in the staff report to read 3 to 6 foot um vegetation buff and or a fence a second got a motion and a second any further discussion uh roll call vote mayor Al is I counc Woodson I counc Safford I vice mayor adol I councelor King I motion carries unanimously thank you our next item is in the administrative agenda still quasi judicial it is item number B lean reduction request for C1 18- 072 4 who starts this I think Frankie's going to handle he'll start okay we're going to try anyway um so this is a uh C 18- 0724 it's for the lean reduction uh with daa Cabello Ortiz um to the council her request was for 100% lean reduction um this case started back in I believe February of 2020 and has continued to this day um we've been almost a thousand days without compliance that is staff's recommendation to deny and to go with the full charges which at this point uh amount to $286,700 it is if I can just give you a little bit of an overview um and actually today um these three lean requests are for the same property but they are different leans so we would have to have a vote separately on each one okay what your code has is basically a two-step process for these lean reduction requests the first step is um the submitt of an application with documentation to the town manager who then looks at the document ation has criteria that applies but the the uh primary criteria on that first part of it the step is whether or not the property is in compliance I will go ahead and tell you that um item D the 700 ce18 d700 is currently not in compliance however because it is the same property owner um these property these leans are have all um attached to the same property there is a pending foreclosure we went ahead and put that one in uh your packet for your consideration as well so once the uh Town manager makes a determination that there is compliance then there is criteria in your code that you are to evaluate and consider whether or not to Grant the lean request um the criteria in your packet appears under the management recommendations it's a through G um we also included a copy of the code in your packet um for your review so for the benefit of the public if I may I just want to quickly read what the criteria is again you'll be asked to apply this criteria to each individual request but this is just somewhat of an overview so the first criteria is the gravity of the violation and staff will have comments regarding each one of these criterias um the second criteria be the amount of time it took the Violator property owner to come into compliance the third criteria C the acred amount of the code enforcement lean as compared to the market value of the property uh D the fourth whether there is a prior recorded mortgage on the property and if so whether such mortgage is in default and or whether the principal amount of the mortgage is of such a magnitude that it would not be practical for the town to initiate a lean foreclosure um the next one e any previous code violations of the applicant owner F consideration for the future or proposed use of the property for public purpose G the number and status of all other properties owned by the applicant owner in Lee County Florida so you are to take these criteria into consideration and it is the burden of the property owner to bring you evidence and proof and competence substant evidence that is competent substantial which could be her testimony today however based on what was in the record um and we'll go back now to the very first one which is ce1 18- 0724 I believe it was staff's opinion that there was not sufficient competent substantial evidence to show that the criteria had had been satisfied so Frankie if you would like to review what staff's uh findings were regarding the criteria for the very first one I believe it's on page 457 of your materials7 we're getting there my computer crashed just one moment would you like me to read them or or does he need to read would you like me or I can read them I can read it doesn't matter okay and you want number seven the management recommendations that's what you want to read the management recommendation to the Town Council is to deny the request SEC 2432 of the town of Fort Meers Beach code of ordinances identifies criteria for review of a request for a lean reduction and Management's reasons for denial and highlighted below a the gravity of the violation violation the violation of unpermitted roof repairs created a risk to the welfare life and or safety of the community when the property was not in compliance B the amount of the time it took the Violator propop owner to come into compliance it took the owner over it took the owner 1,144 days to come into compliance C the acred amount of the code enforcement lean as compared to the market value of the property the accured fine in the amount of $286,700 $599,900 whether the PRI whether there is a prior record more there whether there is a prior recorded mortgage on the property and if so whether such mortgage is in default and or whether the principal amount of the mortgage is of such a magnitude that it would be it would not be practical for the town to Institute a lean foreclosure action per the application there is a mortgage on the property where 3140 $341,000 including the amount in fault is owed e a previous code violation of applicant owner the the property the particular property owner also has two other violations where there have been leans filed against the property ce1 18- 0700 remodel without a permit is in VI is a violation that is still not in compliance and daily fines continue to acre ce20 0597 rentals for less than one week is a violation now in compliance with an aced fine of $2,075 furthermore this lean is included in the pending foreclosure case in initiated by the Town f consideration for future or proposed use of the property for public purpose it's non applicable and G the number and status of all other properties owned by the applicant owner in Lee County Florida this is the only property Dania carbal Ortiz and Daisy Garcia onen Le County so it would be appropriate at this time to hear from um Miss Ortiz M Ortiz on which one the first one the first one um for unpermitted roof repairs so the roof repair got to pull that mic forward and identify yourself please Dona carbo I'm the owner well my mom and I both own the property did you speak a little L I can't even hear um so my mom and I both own the property uh Daisy Garcia she's one of the owners da carbo I'm the other owner the roof repair was done we had a violation because it was said that we had redone our roof although there was a roof repair we've spent a few years where my mom was in charge of certain things I now take full care of her she has Alzheimer's this kind of interrupted some of this happening in the last several years but putting all that aside when the hurricane hit we've now taken this one to compliance red the roof completely um although the roof had never been changed it was the same roof it just had a roof repair and once we came in front of you guys or whoever was here a few years ago and explained this is not a new roof this was a roof repair still this was done so now the roof is done in compliance the permits are closed um so that one is done the other one as well the second one was for short-term rentals hold on just a second do we want to just stay on just cover this one for now we'll have to do this over on the other two yes no I yeah if you guys look at the aerial shots of the roof you have to stand by the mic here and identify yourself um William Rodriguez um if you guys look at the Arial shots of the house for the past 15 years you'll see that the roof was never replaced so it was a white metal roof um that roof was never replaced what she's saying is a fact that it was repaired but the roof itself was never replaced at any point and you guys can see that through the aerial shots of the property even through Lepa all the roof um the color Chang yeah you can see it there cuz we painted it after the after we did the repairs it went from Aqua to white but that that specific even tile was there before I bought the home it was a very it's a very specific very little shelfy kind of tile it never changed nothing of that roof changed just the repair part and it was um finded as a new roof and I kept fighting it is not a new roof it is a roof nonetheless that happened the roof was replaced this past year because of the hurricane um it's in compliance the permits are closed that whole process is done now there's a brand new roof it's a completely different roof but from this one if you look at the photos it's the same roof when I purchased the home so now that I changed it the only thing that changed was that we painted it white and did you pull a permit for that repair no okay it was a a smaller repair but there was no um permit pulled for that repair at that time I wasn't as involved with the actual um with this process as my mom was and unfortunately a lot of things kind of fell through the cracks and now we're kind of trying to close everything up and get everything to compliance even the last one here I mean these got just stay on these lean um reduction applications um Christine took them out of a drawer of one of your employees because I had been sitting since October when you see the stamp on your lean reduction um permit um request and they were pulled out of his drawer because I came in person it have been months and this has been and I understand the hurricane set everybody off but you know this has been a process that has taken some time um since the hurricane and even to get this here on the agenda and to get the lean process going this was pulled out of somebody's drawer so that we can actually be here and she did her best to get them all together and get them on the agenda even that third one that was not supposed to be on the agenda today because that um permit is in process like it's let's just again let's stick to just this the roof the roofing one for now the roofing but all of these I mean I know that they're being heard together so the roof one that's that's where we're at it's closed past paid um like that one that permit is closed so I know you keep talking about the storm but it looked like this fell into non-compliance on February 29th of 2020 why did it not get brought into compliance before the storm that hit two and a half years later yeah excuse meair um they did the repairs on the inside and then we painted the roof okay yeah okay no but I mean 2020 right so the when we closed in 2020 we shut everything down right I mean I could good the answer is I couldn't afford to do anything in 20 by March when we shut everything shut down from there before the storm I think we rented maybe a few months before the storm from the storm to now we've never rented the house again um the whole 2020 shutdown kind of put us on hold with I mean Financial you know issues of of Finance before our mortgage was 3,000 today our mortgage is 4,900 just on insurance and tax you know the the raising of our insurance so the financial burdens just I I think I can I can I can say everyone on the island certainly understands financial hardship especially since the storm I don't think anyone would be able to say it hasn't affected them financially negatively since the storm but n has this this has obviously gone through the magistrate process and all of that's been yes and so today you're really not evaluating the validity of the lean that's already been established through the code enforcement process um there is a pending foreclosure case regarding this specific lean so that's one process but this is another process that a property owner has to come and ask you if you want to reduce the amount of the lean this particular is um $286,700 per reduction uh basically forgiveness of the lean um and we're taking these three leans separate so the Foreclosure case has all three leans in it um if you choose to forgive this lean we would we would amend our case and uh just have the two other leans unless you take similar action in those two cases it's a little complicated because there's various um opportunities and avenues and um and that's where we are today okay Mr May or Mr Mayor I I think I heard you say the date of the first violation for this item one did you just say that Mr Mayor or Nancy do you know the date well just in the background it says based on the town's records the amount of the lean and then says the property was in non-compliance from February of 20 February 29th of 2020 to April 18th of 2023 which is 1,144 days I guess my question my question to you is can you describe what happened during the time prior to the storm was there communication throughout with the town of Fort Meers Beach of the challenges you were facing was there just no communication how did what was your what was your history of communication with the town on prior to the storm on this particular issue yes on the roof one yes here's a picture this is the same roof um here's an email here's you know just trying to show the roof was not replaced and although my my um the complaint is oh but you did a new roof and no I don't have a new roof and we'd come again this is the old roof this is the same roof just different color for example and then February 2020 February 29th within a month we shut down for Co um which then just again another Financial blow I don't know if um anyone here has rentals but when you're on any website that you rent your property anything that any monies that you have in your account that are either deposits or renters coming through it's immediately pulled out so from cancellations from cancellations so it's a finan control cutting off of the head not even a month March 29th we shut down what what I'm trying to understand is is is your communication with the town did you come to the town hall and meet with staff in person yes is it just through the magistrate hearings in other words did they have to constantly try to find you or were you trying to no I was here I'm asking yeah yes yes um yes with emails uh with photos to know I mean there's there's a point that I was just so frustrated that I was just like I'm I'm just talking to myself and it just felt it just felt like oh these are just fees and they're fees and they're fines and they're fines and it it's just a NeverEnding burden of money just every day you know and in a follow-up question it seems like you're here today because the lean was placed on your property was there was there is that's what is that what's driving the fact that you're here in other words why was there no attempt to resolve it prior to the lean well we have been we have an attorney with your with your attorney uh working on this from August of 20 21 um we've been working on these things um how would you how would you characterize those how would you characterize those negotiations between separate than what's happening with the town so the attorneys that represent you guys and my attorneys were um not FASTT tracking but trying to get everything moved um for myself to be able to get everything to compliance pull permits bring everything to Cod do everything within my um Power to do so then the hurricane hit in September and they said it's okay just keep going um don't stop your process we went through the process but there was some sort of disconnect the last time I was here I think a month ago maybe they did a whole another um hearing another to start a foreclosure when we had done that in 2021 which is why I hired an attorney why we started working with your attorneys and they've been doing all this work we've been going back and forth and then my attorney said maybe they lost of paperwork maybe something went through the cracks because of what happened here but it's like I'm going against the current going to ask one just one more question sure why do you think that your attorney and our town attorney couldn't resolve this prior to Hurricane Ian because we started they sent us the paperwork for in that August uh I think we Maybe started working with them August and the hurricane hit in September so we really it was why why why did you just get an attorney in August prior because that's when they send the paperwork okay sounds it sounds like the violation occurred a lot before that I guess that's what I'm trying to understand within that year okay yeah all right I at that moment I still was trying to recuperate from us being closed all the co closures so when I uh got the paperwork I had to to hire an attorney and so they've been they were we have been working even yesterday uh I was getting emails last night from my attorney because I couldn't pay him to be here today who had been in communication with your attorney and another extension for the well for the last one that we're not talking about um for that one because of the permitting the permitting was a little bit slower even the process of you know all my paperwork being in someone's drawer because they got fired a few months ago there there have just been small hiccups but we haven't stopped working with them they haven't stopped working with us they just wanted please be in compliance get the permits through um go through the process and your attorneys um said get the lean reduction we need to see the lean reduction paperwork that you have put it through I put it through in October and that's when it it got stamped but it got put in a drawer and we kept sending um messages back and forth so finally Kristen got it was given a key and she got them out and so here we are in March from October so everything is just time an extension of time because of these Pro I guess the way that this is like going if maybe we Wen wen't in like a slower mode right now because of what happened it might have gone quicker you you mentioned that you sent a couple emails or had correspondence with Town staff did you ever make an attempt is this violation started just before we took office in the month after I don't recall you ever coming to a council meeting maybe you did and I just don't remember but I don't remember you ever coming forward and during public comment or anything and any comments about this situation was going on um so I'm just trying to you keep talking about things are in a drawer but I would think if I was being violated for something daily I would I would be the the the squeaky wheel in there every day talking to anyone that I could to try to come in to compliance if indeed that's what I really wanted to do so I'm just kind of struggling with the fact that you keep referring to something in a drawer but you never came that I can remember maybe Jim you have a different I don't ever remember seeing you come in and saying I need help with this staff is not doing anything or well Mr Mayor I I might be able to add what's in the drawer was just the this the the this uming as a reference this reduction so I might be able to add a little bit of information as far as the sequencing of events okay um the violation itself occurred in 2020 and yes we all are aware that covid was was there um in 202 in August of 2022 which is I think when she said she hired an attorney um there was actually authorization from the Town Council to initiate a foreclosure proceeding with your prior uh Town attorney okay when we came on board We inherited the file and um the issue was basically getting her into compliance and at that time she was putting on a brand new roof not dealing with the repair from where the violation was um and so I think there has been a lot of communication between um our attorneys and her attorney in the Foreclosure case she did mention that she wanted uh the the proceeding that she was referring to a month ago was a little corrective action that we were taking um based on statute so we could proceed with the foreclosure she then indicated um I guess in October that she wanted to ask you all if you wanted to reduce the amount of the lean that we're trying to foreclose on which is her prerogative to do that and we're fine so we've kind of been on hold with her foreclosure um proceeding to see to give her the opportunity to come before you if you want to reduce her lean if you want to forgive it in whole um and that's kind of where we are today the whatever's happened as far as putting it in a drawer I I'm not aware of that that but it's before you today but even if it was put in a drawer what when did the money when did the find stopped ticking when she got the permit um and I think is code here that can provide specific dates of when she came into compliance it looks like well the 1,144 days is how they calculated it yeah it looks like it was April 18th of 2023 one have came into compliance right so at that point she got a permit for her roof and she got her new roof put on so three years so she never really came into compliance with the old roof that was damaged and she they did repairs without a permit that was the the Crux of the violation hurricane Ian came and she was required to get another roof anyway right so she got a permit at that point so the fine stopped um at that point I have a question I thought the fines um had stopped when the attorneys sent the paperwork what paperwork are you refer in in 2021 when they request for foreclosure or for we initiated the Foreclosure so yes but I I was under the impression that when that happens that everything stops no because um 700 is still not in compliance and that foreclosure is proceeding what will happen then um if the Foreclosure goes forward the judge will tell us what the amount is on that lean so yes you can go into a foreclosure action if there is not compliance but you can't come really technically to the Town Council for a reduction until you are in compliance but your three are all somewhat interrelated so we we did place that here they're not obligated to give you a decision on that on the third one on the one that's third right and those permits are actually I'm sorry I have a hard time hearing it that those permits um are actually being submitted today and tomorrow corre I think in your application you indicated that you were trying to resolve that yes any other questions Council questions for you were I know but you keep referring to emails back and forth that you've tried to have all this yes communication but I don't see any emails in this packet at all unless I'm just missing them I've tried to like scroll through everything multiple times um should I put something together and send it just like I can't well I would think that it would already be in there if you were trying to get these fees waved or leans waved but um 3 years is a long time mhm yeah unfortunately we have 2020 closing and as soon as we put our head over water boom hurricane Ian so it really hasn't been a lot of us have been in that same situation yeah exactly so it's been um a financial like everyone else I don't know so in the vacation rental business we were closed for about 45 days and and after after we were closed it was Boom Town because we were the only people open in the United States I was not allowed to rent my property anymore you guys said don't rent the property so I was not allowed to rent the property because I know we're on the roof but on the rental right I had no I couldn't rent so I couldn't rent the property so so her house has not been rented for the past year though and at that at this moment it's for sale so she's trying to sell it I think right now's at 1.49 are that what's happening now I I'm I'm just trying to wrap my head around your your testimony here because you said you know when Co hit it affected everybody it it affected us for about 45 days and after that I mean everybody was running like crazy down here I mean the whole the whole United States was was down here it was really a good good time for us but I guess my second second question though is why didn't you get this all handled at at this with the Special M at the magistrate hearing I mean why what I would think at that point in time you would want to do everything you can to get into compliance when you're in front of the special magistrate I mean I I I know that that that would seem to be the time when you're like oh gosh we got to do everything we can to do this unfortunately in that moment my mom and I share this uh owner of this home okay it was at the very beginning now I take care of her full-time of her Alzheimer's so a lot of things kept falling through that she was taking care of or that she was in charge of a lot of Mis moments or miscommunications or no we have it or I have someone taking care of it again it it just Falls to me anyways because I am the younger person and I'm the person who is now facing this in the last few years I'm trying to get past it and and try to fix you at the special magistrate hearing was I yes yeah here the last one the magist that would have been for the time of the violation so there's a citation that's given or a notice of violation and then you do there's a a compliance date and then you appear before the magistrate and in the event there is not compliance then the property is assessed a fine which then becomes a lean so it would have been way back probably yeah I mean way back when when before it became aen well was in the fine stage were were you did you have representation at any of those meetings legally no one you guys just didn't show up I I didn't show up I might have thought that she was showing up or that but I did not show up I might have come to one or two but not towards the end when I got the package in 2021 that's when we hired someone to help us with that process with this whole process you said that you couldn't based on what Scott was just saying you said you couldn't rent you weren't allowed to rent after 45 days was that something that the town said you couldn't do yes but you haven't this is I've never heard so was it because you were in non-compliance that's why they wouldn't allow your short-term rental yes because of well so the second one is for short-term rental and that one well I know but you you testify that you weren't allowed to rent right we were not allowed to rent because you were in violation because we were in violation would you think that would have been a good indicator that you should try to get this corrected so that you could rent it to make money yeah but you didn't at that moment no there was a you know and I don't live here I live on the east coast so there's now this is solely my um responsibility so now I have to do whatever we need to do I just I'm trying to make this work I understand and I certainly sympathize with what you're going through and as I said at the beginning we there's not a person on this island that hasn't gone through financial hardship from that storm and from covid quite honestly so although I certainly can you know sympathize with that it it just to me it doesn't seem there was a lot of there was a lack of or there has been a lack of willingness to participate in trying to fix something before it got to this dire situation and and that is on you quite honestly not the town I mean you have to be proactive if you're doing something that you're not supposed to be doing and you get caught it is your job to try to get back into the compliance and and it doesn't to me everything I I don't see anything that that tells me that that was done or even attempted so it's it's very difficult for me to again although I sympathize with you I'm really having a hard time seeing how the town really is at fault for for upholding their their ordinances and their codes but any other I guess I I just I just wanted further clarification that councelor Safford talked about the rental market during Co and then how quickly it recover covered down here and how strong it was and you say at that time you weren't allowed to rent it seems to me if I had a rental during that market knowing that you could generate significant Revenue you'd want to get that resolved immediately and it seems like something broke down at that point because I I I don't know what because I have joint ownership with this home with my mom so we had joint um responsibilities a lot of things fell through the cracks at that point yeah that's what I'm wrestling with because I just I guess not sure how that's the town's I mean everybody has to wrestle with these same issues I'm not sure how that's I'm if the town was at fault I'm I I'd be very sympathetic but I'm trying to understand how the town is at fault for that no I'm just asking for a lean reduction to make this something that I could pay okay so basically you know she's not bling fault on the town in any way she's asking for leniency and mercy um for a Le reduction perhaps not the 100% but something in between um she is in the process of selling the house because of the financial B burdens that she has she does not have that money to pay now or in the near future she will have to sell the house and it to pay it but with that sale of the house she needs other she has other responsibilities as well so she's just asking for leniency and mercy basically councelor King you've been off quiet would you have any questions or comments no still pondering okay so this be through a motion yes a motion uh a motion to um either uh approve her application for um a 100% lean reduction of um CE the lean associated with CE 18- 0724 or a reduction of an alternative amount rather than the 100% um a different um percentage um or approving it so you have your Mr just a parliamentary inquiry of sorts not really uh Madame attorney you're obviously in settlement negotiations correct we have a a pending foreclosure case that we've kind of put on hold we're about to file our amended um complaint taking into account the ACT ction by the special magistrate in February so fixing that and then we would intend to move forward with the Foreclosure as was directed by the special magistrate and the council it's not to foreclose any opportunity for perhaps a settlement through that process um today should you choose to um completely forgive it we would then go into that amended complaint that we're intending to file and take out that count because it's a three-count um foreclosure action or we would uh notify uh we would put in our complaint your action today to reduce the amount from the 286,000 to another amount I guess my question is as you go through the for foreclosure process you reserve the right at any time to settle yes sir if you see it in the interest of the town to settle at at some agreed upon amount for the fine correct yes so so we're not we're not if we don't act today we're not we're not giving up the right to settle and an agreed upon Mount corre that you as our Council would advise was in the town interest process that we would continue to be um pursuing just want to make that clear for the record I now I'm super conf confused and and I apologize wouldn't they have gone through it to try to settle this before it got to this point in your neg possibly um again we inherited the file um what our notes indicate is that there is some attempt to get her into compliance I.E getting the permits that she didn't get that caused the violation as far as a monetary settlement we're open to that um but I don't believe that that has happened in this case so let me ask you this if if I may the the the other the other instances like this I'm still confused would wouldn't they try to to come up with a settlement before you put a lean down well we would record the lean and then at that point yes they would they would try to resolve it uh through some kind of um negotiation yes but they didn't ask for that or is this the only vehicle they have this is the first opportunity that she is asking for that so there is a valid there's a valid lean of record and now she's coming to you to ask you to reduce that amount foreclosure is a separate procedure okay just one okay thank you it's a little comp may I so the attorneys that are for the town down please so we can hear you the attorneys that are your attorneys they are the ones that have requested and suggested that I do this process of the three lean reductions once the permits were closed and everything was to compliance as they close and they're in compliance you know uh please send us your lean reduction uh request and once you go in front of the council and you get the amount you know um get that back to us because they have been your attorneys have been trying to you know get this done with my attorneys we've been working again since 2021 we're 2024 now the lean reduction process it from October now we're in 2024 from 2023 so the years yes it's years of you know move there's a lot of um time but things take months it's been months and months and everything's been pulled but we are working with them and this is the process that they asked of me through your attorneys to my attorneys this is what we want now this is what and that's what we're doing so that's why I will so the two cases are in compliance but there is a continuing fine that's accruing on the last case yeah but we're we're we're talking about this specific one right okay so I'm going to make a motion um and again although I sympathize with your your situation everyone has gone through it I think there could have been times that this never had to get to this point over the last four years but the fact that they are here and it is now sitting at our dis that we have to make a decision I will make a motion to deny your application for a request and move forward with the management recommendations Mr Mayor I may sir we got a motion is got a motion by uh vice mayor aderholt May motion by the mayor mayor allers seconded by vice mayor aderholt U discussion is this for the C1 18700 yes item BC 81 180724 right the first one the first one just B Item B just Item B only um excuse me if I may yes sir so as the uh Town attorney was mentioning the the way these processes works with different municipalities are in order to negotiate once the property gets a lean the only way you can negotiate is once you get into compliance I disagree with you sir you had the opportunity to negotiate at the magistrate hearing that you chose not to show up to you could have negotiated there the fact that it came to us is that there has been no negoti so if there's no negotiation and we get something put in front of us that we have to make a decision on after listening to you and reading everything that's been in the packet I don't it it hurts that you're going through this I I really feel for you just like I feel for everybody else that has had to go through this over the last four years through Co and but I think there has been plenty of opportunity in my opinion to get this corrected to where it never had to get to this point but now it's here and a decision has to be made and it's a hard decision to make but we've got a motion we've got a second is there any further discussion but the dates of August of 2021 when we hired the attorney with your attorneys till now this is all we've been doing we've been working towards this ma'am I understand that but again you didn't show up for a magistrate hearing that's the magistrate is the one that imposes the fines they you didn't show up to make your argument you and this has gone on it's it's been four years and it it it's at the point now that something has to be done unfortunately and and we've discussed it we've sir appreciate it we we've made a motion we've got a second is there any further discussion is this a roll call Vote Yes um mayor allers I vice mayor adal I councelor King i u councelor Woodson I Safford I motion carries unanimously next is item C lean reduction so this is for a2059 for a separate lean um in that particular code case and again you're going to be looking at the criteria and if I can read them this time if Sor um the first criteria is the gravity of the violation and um the cons the response from staff is that the short-term rental violation posed a nuisance to the neighbors by allowing guests to stay for less than the minimum time allowed um criteria B the amount of time it took the Violator property owner to come into compliance and the finding by staff is that since 2019 there had been two other cases with violations F found this is an ongoing violation for the property instead of ongoing I think um and I don't want to put words in staff's mouth but I think they wanted to say it was a repeat violation it was it was more than one um the accured uh amount of the code enforcement lean as compared to the market value of the property this fine is for $112,000 and7 $1,751 Point uh one 1,599 N900 which I really don't feel comfortable speaking on behalf of staff to be very honest with you um if staff is available um if they could provide testimony to this regard I would I would appreciate that um but I believe that this number came from um the application that was submitted and and that is why it was put into the um agenda materials uh criteria D is whether or not there's a prior recorded mortgage on the property is it in default U the amount and whether the principal amount of the mortgage is of such a magnitude that it would not be practical for the town to Institute um a lean foreclosure action um per the application there's a mortgage on the property where 341,000 including the amount in default is owed um any previous code violations um there is the violation in case number 700 which was the remodel without a permit on the upper left level and the violation that we just discussed the 0724 which was for unpermitted roofing repairs um there's no public use uh proposed public use of the property and um Miss Cabello and Miss Garcia they are the owners and this is the only property that they own in the town or in Leake County so for this particular one um Miss Ortiz is uh requesting a 96% reduction in fine okay go ahead the house hasn't been rented we are in compliance um trying to look and see where it is that's money money so it says that it came into compliance on May 20th of 2021 is that correct Frankie it so I again I I I apologize for interrupting but I think that staff should be able to provide you with more information because this one apparently is different from other violations that have occurred the special magistrate appears to have imposed a fine for uh for this violation per violation so if staff if you can Kristen if you can just explain that I think you were involved let me ask the I guess let me ask my question is we've heard the testimony about they couldn't rent it and now we're saying we violated because they were renting it anyway is that what I'm understanding here the property owners is this good enough you put your name got to say your name oh Kristen Schumacher Tom for Meers Beach at that time I was the short-term rental coordinator that processed short-term rentals and followed up with the violations at the time of Miss Ortiz cases every time we found a violation for the short-term rentals we brought it to the special magistrate so she found instead of daily fines every time the violation occurred so this one was a repeat violation and we take it to the special magistrate find evidence showing that it was non-compliant so we stopped it when the lean was recorded didn't I did an inspection didn't see any violations on that date doesn't mean that we couldn't find a violation another day because the way the special magistrate did it it's per violation does that make sense how yeah so you're saying you found 24 violations regarding the short-term rental occurring at the property correct and it wasn't a daily acre fine it was just per violation that they were violated for corre cor what was the date range of those I saw one was started in 2018 but those were separate cases um this was this kind of a time frame from when when the first one was to the last one about when did I start 2019 to that 2021 where we had the cases open so basically over two years correct the violations continued yes did you ever tell them they couldn't rent in the order it says you can't rent due to life and safety okay but honestly I do have evidence showing they rent it up until 2022 so you're saying even though the testimony was they weren't renting they were renting correct any other questions for Kristen thanks welcome any questions for the applicant anyone okay is there a motion anyone like to make a motion I'll make a motion to deny uh lean reduction request C20 d 0597 um and to follow the management I'm sorry and to follow management recommendations uh in accordance with the lean and forclosure okay got a motion by councelor Woodson is there a second I'll second any further discussion roll call vote um councelor Woodson I um May Al I vice mayor edal hi councelor King hi councelor Safford hi motion carries unanimously item D is lean reduction request for ce1 18-7 all right Nancy can you start with this one because you said this a little bit different frantically trying to scroll to it it's page 595 585 595 595 thank you9 would you like me to read the management recommendations while you're looking excuse me is this the one that we're going to move the dates because it's still in process sorry ma' we can't so this one um is a little bit different uh from the last two because this one is not in compliance so the fine on this one is continuing to acre and as of March the 1st of 2024 the amount of the fine was 365,000 $575 technically this one would not have come to you for any type of action um however we we thought that it would be best to go ahead and bring it because of the other two that you have um and the reason it would not be proper before you is because it is not in compliance the the facts surrounding this case are very similar to a lot of the facts that you've heard on the other cases only the violation here is for unpermitted work that was completed on the entire house including exterior work after a fire that had occurred in um I think it's 2020 again I don't have the facts so I have to rely on staff actually involved in that is this one going to be moved until for hearing when we finish with the permitting okay so I think what you're asking for is uh a a continuance a continuance or Council can take make a motion to take no action on it at this time and you can resubmit with the documentation right that might be better to do that to do what I'm sorry to not take action on this uh lean request reduction request okay no action at this time she can resubmit her application with whatever documentation she wants to add regarding this one okay and in the meantime we would proceed with our foreclosures okay um if that is your recommendation do we have to make a motion for that you should take a motion yes but um offering her the opportunity to um to make whatever comments she wants it would that be satisfactory to you yes to um at this point can she apply for the reduction and and still continue no yeah the case the the so it would be preferable that she comes into compliance and then apply for the reduction because again it's kind of a two-step process the first is getting into compliance and then the second is requesting a reduction it's in the process of getting into compliance now so once that's done and wrapped up then so you might want to another way we could do this is just to have you withdraw this request for reduction okay now yeah if you want to do that by doing so would she have to pay for another application later on it would be a new application yes so let's just continue this one then yeah let's just if we're able to it's at the prerogative of of council um if you want to allow her to continue it so she doesn't have to pay another fee um it would be a continuance until the property comes into compliance can we have we received any correspondence from the applicant as far as a permit has a permit been applied for is it been in review is that's happening today like as of this as of today no sir I mean as of this time comments so let me understand on this one so so there were two separate so one floor was permitted another floor is still not permitted is that what yes because they asked for more permitting so that's the what we're submitting today but did you have did you have a permit on the first floor is it the first floor yes do we have an open permit the okay the permit the permit that was just closed recently was for the first floor that was flooded by Hurricane Ian the whole first floor was redone all permitted okay this permit that that's in question is for a fire from 2020 or 2018 there was a fire and she had done work inside the unit without a permit so that's what's being discussed now so this has been opened since 2018 this case 2020 but this one they asked for these permits to be pulled that's what we're going to submit today your attorney's requested that that be done for this one so that is what's going to be sub now so that that could go through the process for this um 0700 which is why I guess it's better to move it until all that is processed because that's what will attach to the third um to the third one they're all separate things they they are all separate but again this one is distinguished from the other two because it is not in compliance so that fine is continuing to AC crew every day and um the amount as of March the 1st is $365,500 four years this code case was actually opened in 2018 the CE stands for code enforcement 18 stands for the year that it was opened so it's six years so what has taken so I mean if this is open since 2018 why is it taking so long to pull a permit 18 to 21 and 21 is when we started working with your attorneys that's when I took over everything that has to do with this home from 201 21 to here the time has just been very slow because of what we just went through so in 2021 when we hired an attorney and I took over taking all these things right now we're in 2024 from 18 yes in 2023 we had submitted things in 2022 we submitted um permitting so everything is pushed and pushed and pushed if we look at the numbers it's years of but unfortunately it's just fallen into this um but I've been working with your attorneys since summer of 21 it this is just the process of just this process was five months just this just to get here it's been five months so it isn't like oh I put something through and it's the next week why didn't I guess my question is why didn't the five months it took start in 2018 why did it wait until 2024 I started to work on this as of the summer of 21 when I actually got paperwork from the attorneys and then I took it over from my mom and I'm taking care of everything so the burden lies on me why wasn't the permit pulled in 2018 I can't answer I I'm just I'm I understand the continuance part of it but I'm struggling with is that changing any of the facts and is it just going to continue to increase the amount of money she could potentially owe the longer we continue this and it's I mean it's been six years I'm trying to do the right thing for for people here but it Madam attorney if we deny continuous are we denying due process that's good question no you've given her due process today she's had the opportunity to appear before you she's had the opportunity to give you evidence um you've had the ability to have uh interaction with her she has notice of today's hearing you can take action on it it's just I I don't know what the Fe is for submitting this um perhaps staff can advise us for the application of thing I think it was $250 for the to to refile another applicational reduction and the amount of lean that's acing per day is is 250 250 yeah so I mean well I guess that's what I'm trying to get at is even if she submits for a permit tomorrow and it does come into compliance and it goes through then we have a stop point then it it stops the fines ACC the fine the acral of the fine correct so whether there's a continuance or not it doesn't really matter well I mean I mean she'll be out another $250 but if she's allowing it to continue to be $250 per day um I rather apply again once we submit today and I guess we'll have the numbers through and then it stops it like you said it stops it from occurring it's we're in the hundreds of thousands of dollars at this point it's I'm just trying to get through it understood it so you want to pull your application is what you're saying so it's a withdrawal yes okay so then we can reflect in the record that um lean request lean reduction request for CE 18- 0700 is re is withdrawn at the request of the app applicant okay that correct is that a correct statement' yes okay we need to restate it or the fact that you stated is sufficient no I think that should be sufficient okay and is there any request or is there any need for a motion then at that point or no just okay okay all right thank you our last item for the administrative agenda is item a cdb gdr affordable housing development evaluation committee selection who's going to talk about that one Mr Mayor um as far as the town is concerned we this is one we can have an eligible employee for yes that'll be representing Us in the Housing and Development evaluation committee process and so we're going to be selecting a a person here to uh take that and go to those meetings and get the information back to us well looks like the town's manager is suggesting you correct my recommendation would be Mr kic anyone have uh questions or concerns with that I have none is there a motion so moved got a motion by seconded by councelor councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none motion carries unanimously it takes us to final public comment all of you that have been sitting there so patiently waiting would you like to say anything yes ma'am the lone person madin Boyd 21050 St Peter's drive and coowner of the beach bar um my question is just when are you going to get some signs up for the crosswalks it's very very dark I ride my bike all over people just don't see me crossing my bike in the crosswalk especially uh when I'm heading home around dusk sometimes from the the bar we'll answer your question as soon as we get to town manager items okay which is coming up next okay Mr Town attorney um I think that I'm going to be assigned uh the task of amending the ordinance that had previously been reviewed uh to include something about um are you jumping ahead of the Town manager oh I'm so sorry Town manager items right now I thought you said Town attorney that's all right he did say he did oh did I I'm telling you got to throw me under the going to have to get him a helmet the next time he plays pickle ball I was doing and you said Town attorney I'm like Dam so I'm happy to go ahead and incorporate um the conversation that we had today regarding the coming back for reviews the six month permit reviews because you all had mentioned that before I I think I got an understanding of what you want me to do okay I can't believe I said I'm sorry I can't believe you're playing pickle ball without a helmet jeez but I have no other items okay then now we'll go to town if we're on Town attorney well we are now evidently Madam Town attorney there there continues to be some confusion about the kyero property and where we are in that uh litigation could you update us and also let us know if if if the uh offending party comes in and does pay a check do they still have to come before the council to get a permit in order to to be able to start parking again or what's what's what's happening procedurally with that so the the status update on kisto is we did um receive a settlement check um when I say settlement it's really more of a payoff of the lean that had been placed of record um we uh how much was that for I'm sorry how much was that for I believe it was 188,000 um plus a little bit more okay um we're waiting to get the satisfaction and release uh prepared and and recorded at that point we will dismiss the pending foreclosure case that uh was active in that on that particular property um at that point if the individual is continuing to violate it would be a new code violation uh that code is I think monitoring although code has been working with uh the property owner and who has now hired an attorney to try to bring them into compliance which would require some land use approvals my question is will before this particular owner is allowed to park again will they have to come before the council for any sort of variance or special consideration I believe it's a special exception um and Sarah Pro and I we had some conversations about that this morning do we reserve the right as we consider that application to consider the fact that this is a shopping plaza and that they have potential for tenants that could benefit the town of Fort Meers Beach yeah so I'm going to differ to Sarah um in other communities there's a change of use um that would accom you take that into consideration but Sarah can comment good morning Sarah propes with Community Development I wish it was morning Sarah but oh yeah good afternoon um so in order to do permanent shared parking on that property they would need to do a special exception as part of that special exception they would need to let us know how many of the units Square footages uses are proposed to be used within that building um so if they weren't using that retail space at all then all the entire lot could be permanent shared parking which they could request a special exception for but part of them coming in would be letting us know which which units are being used how much square footage so how much parking needs to be set aside for the users of that space so Sarah do we have any discretion as a town to because it is an actual shopping plaza building on the property to to require them to conduct it as a shopping plaza or can he literally just shut the shopping plaza down and just park that Spa the remaining space I mean that could be the special exception request it would depend on what he came forward with do we need to change our ordinance for to to regulate somebody that owns a shopping plaza that's in tremendous need on this island for for small businesses to have brick and mortar storefronts do we need to do something procedurally or in our ordinances to require folks who own a shopping plaza to actually run a shopping plaza as opposed to a parking lot I would say that's probably encroaching on private property rights um I mean I don't know specifically but I would I would have a feeling that that may be overstepping our bounds so do we do we have any legal options as a town uh no I think it's a decision made by the property owner as far as the highest and best use of his property um and making sure that whatever use is selected is consistent with the town's code so he can let that property or that property sit it and turn it into a parking lot he can't turn it into a parking lot unless he gets the special exception right nether but but you're just telling me that we don't really have any grounds to deny the special exception it it is his no there's criteria that has to be applied through just like all the other special exceptions that that you review right criteria that's easily met in other words I we I don't know because I think I heard Sarah said she wasn't sure of what his intent was yeah you can't you can't really speak on something that hasn't been submitted all right let's take him out of it and let's let's let's just discuss somebody has a piece of property of significant size that has a contains a shopping plaza on it they decided they decide not to be in the shopping plaza business and they want to have a a special exception permit to turn it into a parking lot what sort of considerations would be involved in getting that that special exception permit off the top of my head I cannot call exactly what the special exception criteria are um I I can remember the variant but I can't remember special exception so you would need to evaluate it based on that criteria I just want to make sure the town has the ability to to legally deny it in the public interest in an appropriate way uh if we can well Mr vice mayor he came in several several years ago and asked for a special exception and it was denied by both the LPA and the Town Council right I I remember that special fine so I guess my question now is that if he's if he's paid this can we go back to finding him day by day because he's he does not have a special exception to run a parking lot right now that's a very good question so that would be at the discretion of Code Enforcement as to whether or not there is an existing a new violation let me let me raise it that way he paid the lean off for violations that occurred in the past if there is ongoing activity that constitutes a violation code would go in and uh give him notice of violation and at that point we would go through that process again in the meantime we would hope that I mean the goal is primarily to bring him into compliance and in the meantime we would hope that he would be pursuing the appropriate land use approval we've been led to believe that he is going down that path his attorney has contacted us and I think we have a conference call set up tomorrow um to discuss specifically what he needs to do in order to come into compliance that's my understanding of where we are when you use appropriate land use how it's zoned in other words is it zoned to be a shopping plaza or is it zoned to be a a parking lot I think your code allows it to be a parking lot with the appropriate special exception approv approval he doesn't have that approval yet right I just want to make sure I know we can say no and I'm I'm happy to say no but I just want to make sure we if he comes into compliance with the special special exception criteria it makes it difficult for us legally to say no right yes but you determine each case on a caseby casee basis based on competent substantial evidence that's given to you you come with an open mind to listen to whatever evidence is being presented yeah I guess I guess the concern and I I I don't want to speak for councelor Safford but I think I saw it in his eyes that if he comes promising to start up a shopping plos again and then continues down the same path that he did before we're back to right right where we started again and then the whole process I we just I I don't think you you have any substation about what what he's going to come before us but you know right now he does not have a special exception to run a parking lot there's guys down the road that has paid a lot of money gone through the property Pro processes and our parking cars there's other guys that have lots that could open a parking lot and they they would be sub subject to a fine so he's not playing by any rule he's playing by his own rules I I don't we as a town to protect the people that have gone through the correct process they need to be they need to be protected and what's going to happen is if he if he continues to do this other guys are just going to open up empty lots and start parking cars I agree with you 100% what I'm what I'm trying to to do is get him back in the shopping plaza business if we can yeah if we can Ju Just a point um vice mayor uh code has been monitoring this and documenting it every day um so we we are ready to proceed when we can okay I just from a public policy standpoint obviously we have a tremendous incentive as a town to create retail space for small businesses and I just want to everybody keep their thinking caps on as to how we can best incent that particular property owner to get back into the business e of um but we would want to evaluate the pros and cons of doing that because we don't want to go down another road that's not going to lead us to compliance can we increase the amount of fine no you it's by Statute it's by Statute okay well let I guess at this point There's Hope is sounds like all we have so you said that code enforcement has been monitoring this so basically if he's agreed on this settlement and now he's still running a parking lot he's out of compliance as we speak that is correct is out of compliance at this point so he might have satisfied the past currently he is out of compliance from this day forward that's where we have been going with this what we waiting yeah what is the next step then for code enforcement to get this we we are already started a case and we're moving that forward with our documentation and the monitoring every single day just just a legal question or Frankie question if if he's continues out of compliance do we have any tools in our toolbox that can shut him down while he's out of comp compliance shut his parking lot down that's what I was trying to get at I don't think you can uh shut him down unless you go through the proper procedures affording him his due process rights right so what is what do that entail well it depends on how which tool you want to use if you want us to you can evaluate the pros and cons of doing some type of injunction action we can um I think code is already working on another um violation which they hopefully will take to the special magistrate in the next month or so um you know there is a citation process but that doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent that sometimes becomes just the cost of doing business that's that's the challenge this has become a cost of doing bus being F right now yeah well he hasn't we don't have the ability to find only the magistrate does but we we can site and I believe believe we are citing then it goes to the magistrate the magistrate rules corre correct okay okay I just encourage everybody to keep their thinking caps on on that one and so do we want to directs our legal council to look into alternatives for the possibility of shutting him down in any way shape or form so I would just I mean we're happy to do that to evaluate each process that you have but you have a process in place you just need to do it you need to use that process and on the compliance side we have um a conference call I believe scheduled for tomorrow to talk about the compliance component um I sense the frustration from from Tong Council um but we just need to get this done well please keep us posted I will on how that conversation goes okay do you have anything else no are we on the town manager now backwards I don't know I don't know are we yes thank you very much um a couple things U actually real sorry an but real quick yes since she was so polite to sit here the entire time can we give her that answer that we we know the answer to that if you could just correct the answer is it's the County's problem that we live with uh we have been in touch with the county manager consistently about temporary signs they have an $8 million countywide sign project that they're lumping everything together under not separating the the hurricane damaged area but with with traffic signals and other signs across the whole County so they're waiting for FEMA to say go before they do that we've asked for others consequently we've also or as it as it may be we we did our sign project all of our streets and everything in a a pretty record amount of time time so it can be done but we are working with them to put temporary or anything out there to help us it's it's just a county problem that we're dealing with actually sorry I wish we had better answers but we do have the one crosswalk at Lenard lenel that was put in we worked with the county that was that was put in but it was never damaged it was not a damaged inter uh Crossing signal uh also the lighting project that's coming there's going to be some some additional lighting put at those intersections but that doesn't help today so We are continuing to work anything else mayor anything nope I hopefully that answered yeah I guess it's not the answer you wanted to hear but it's in so so the biggest thing um U tomorrow is the election here obviously all the equipment has been delivered that the the council chambers reason while we're in here is secured um we don't want any issues with that so even staff we're not allowing them in into U that room or to access it tomorrow um during the election all of our staff will be parking like over at the library and points further away to to allow ease of access to the to the polling place um we don't want to be in the news um we also want to make sure that um our Our Town Hall is still open and everyone knows that so the entrance to town hall will be through what we call trailer number one but the trailer that faces the parking lot we'll have signage out we'll have staff in there that usually sits in the lobby in in offices to be able to assist anybody that comes in uh during the day also there will be still be uh staff in the front offices in the side offices to be able to help people that might wander in looking for something else so we've kind of got a a check in Balance going there um of course Town Hall will be open I guess I think polling 7 to7 tomorrow I think it starts they'll start poll workers around 5:00 a.m. to about 10 p.m. so we'll be providing whatever they need during uh tomorrow it is both polling two polling places in in the town of Fort Meers Beach so we are mindful of that technically three technically three but but but yes two of them there it's my understanding this election and then the presidential election in November will be there and then they will pursue U potential options after that we'll try to keep all three here going forward I know where that's going and we got two at least two here but hopefully get three but they've got them where they are because the churches no longer exist so there was some issues there um one other thing I do want to make sure that you know that I continue to to talk about our employees and you know there's some sitting back here that have have endured um um quite a bit being in in the meeting but but others that are helping us F tune and tweak and do the things we need to do throughout the town as we continue to get back to where we need to be that's all yes sir if I can do this that I won't have any Council items uh Frankie you and I were talking a little bit before the meeting about the uh food track food truck situation in Santini Plaza and I don't want to get involved in anybody's private business here but it it sounds as if the owner of Santini Plaza uh You' you've spoken with him uh it sounds like there's a couple of food trucks that are interested in participating there it sounds like it's the obligation of the owner to to make application use his previous application and work through the town to get those food trucks appropriately permitted and I I just want to let people know that those conversations are ongoing and we're hopeful yeah that they should not take very long at all uh we're just talking like maybe a day or two the the one thing is he took a application out for permit back in Jan January that vendor backed out uh he has subsequently found three other vendors that wish to go onto his property uh which is in his right to do and so we are working with him now to get us those names and the insurance liabilities and things like that of those vendors as quick as we get those in the system uh he should be up and going that's wonderful thank you very much appreciate your help on that that's all I've got anything else Andy no sir you're good okay Andrew we have the we already did the town attorney council member items you have no you thought you were calling her again no no I you know go ahead come back to council member items and reports Council Safford um I have one and and a followup uh to to uh vice mayor outer hold's comment about the traffic study you know it's one of the reasons we're doing these developmental agreements is to eliminate those but at certain for certain things uh vice mayor I mean we had a case back in the LPA about five or six years ago and someone was asking for high density usage and they they snuck in a traffic study from September so you got I I know they're they're hard to go through but I think any traffic study shouldn't be in September I think it should be March 17th or March 15th or in that time I don't disagree yeah so I mean there for the for the larger for the larger projects I for sure they need a traffic study and and done at the appropriate time that we're all affected by so I don't that's my two cents on that but um uh my only report is there was an audit committee meeting on Friday John thanks thanks for the opportunity I felt like I was in a advanced math class back in high school was great so can you imagine what I felt like so so the uh the subject of the forensic accountant was brought up uh to the committee is the committee's recommendation that um Joe speak with the Auditors who actually handle all the documents and do the audit and he's going to report back to us on April 8th I believe and um get their recommendation then take next steps if if so needed um you know it's the the main takeaway from that though was that we we need to have best practices in place so going forward there's going to be no need to even talk about a forensic accountant so they they talked all the way from contract negotiations to to invoicing to the way invoices are you know signed off on Works given and processed I mean currently we have 27 27 FEMA related projects going on and FEA has been great helping us get through the process but we we actually have to have some standardized processes in place so that BS will go smoother down the road the items will get paid we won't have any any hanging chad so to speak out there so that was that was their recommendation I'll follow up after our next meeting on April 8th very good is there anything else no council Woodson I have nothing today Vice May I'm good thank you very much counc King couple things that came up last week when I was at the executive committee of Lee County Metropolitan planning organization one's just an FYI one um indirectly impacts us on the island especially U when you're leaving to the South coming up on uh March 26 A Tuesday uh fot is holding a uh um project development and environment study in Bonita Springs regarding the intersection at us41 and Bita Beach Road uh whether to um seek improvements for safety as well as congestion on that uh road so there are two options to take part in that one is an imperson option on the 26th at the Bonita Springs Recreation Center 26740 Pine Avenue um that'll be it looks like it goes on uh starting about 5 o'clock that day the other is a live online option uh that you can register in advance I I I'll get the information from this flyer to Amy and to Nicole to put out information um to the public on that the other is a u f do again with in conjunction with Sheriff Carmen Carmine marcino presenting operation spring into safety uh a big event at uh the HS Arena that will be taking place on April 13th from 9:00 to noon and again I'll share that information with uh the Town Clerk and the Pio and that's all I have all right the only item I have is we talked on a little bit at the beginning is to to get a authorization or consensus from the council to direct staff to draft a letter formal letter to the governor in support of not vetoing our two appropriation light items that were discussed so if council's okay with directing staff they can get that letter together and then send it out to all of us to take a look at you know Jim you're very good at at the higher level drafting so if you could for sure take a look at it and and uh make sure we're we're going down the right path and and get this done sooner than later because we don't know when he's going to get the budget but we don't want to be caught behind the eightball so no one has any objection to that I would help out with that too Nancy I don't know if you're involved I'm happy to do that if I could since we're we're not allowed to talk to each other I would encourage you after we do the letter Mr Mayor I would encourage you just in your capacity as mayor just to call the governor directly and I would call ask to speak to his chief of staff if he the governor is not available I think to hear from a mayor of your stature given what we've gone through would have an impact as well I will certainly do that is there that's all I have if there's nothing else is there a motion to adjourn so moved I'll second motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Woods any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none we are adjourned at 122