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 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 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 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 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 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e test test very loud test test test [Music] yep Danel Barrett 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 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 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 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e perfect e e e e e e e e e e e e e one two three four 5 6 7even 8 9ine 10 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 e e good evening the time is now 7 p.m. and I'll call to order the town council meeting of February 20th will begin with an invocation followed by a moment of silence and then the pledge allegiance if those are able please stand dear God May Grant wisdom for each decision made to protect and serve the citizens within our community and give hope and guidance for a brighter future amen let's have a moment of silence please join me in the pledge States and we have a roll call please mayor ketky here vice mayor Delaney here councelor for here councelor may here councelor sunstrom here Town manager Kito here Town attorney bar here okay uh we begin tonight we have a proclamation um about the 211 helpline awareness month which I'll be presenting to Miss Patrice rer and let me read it first and then I'll come down to present it a proclamation of the town of Jupiter Florida declare in February 2024 as 211 month Awareness Month whereas tens of thousands of people reach out to 211 helpline each year and whereas during these challenging times that seemingly increase increasingly uncertain 211s highly trained and accredi of Staff continue to be Frontline responders available 247 and whereas 211 is that Central Access number where individuals and families people of all ages and walks of life can find life- saving Crisis Support guidance and hope and whereas people have expressed growing struggles with mental and emotional health addiction and ability to meet their basic needs of housing Utility payments food and other concerns 21's caring staff listen to each and every person to provide available resource options and help them strategize and problem solve and whereas 211 also specialized has specialized advocacy and support programs for to the community that include caregiver support Project Help Me Grow Elder crisis Outreach and 21's life saving Sunshine daily calls for lonely and isolated seniors and caregivers and whereas 211 is also the infrastructure and responder for 988 Lifeline number and additional support lines that include First Responders in my Florida vet for veterans with peer-to-peer support and assistance for these specialized groups and their families now therefore IIM kety mayor of the town of Jupiter to hereby Proclaim February 2024 as 211 Awareness Month in the town of jupitor and urge all citizens to be aware that if they are overwhelmed and in crisis or just need to talk 211 is available any time of the day or night 211 staff can also provide referral for mental health counseling substance abuse Health Care employment food assistance daycare support groups volunteering v a free income tax prep and so much more and witness thereof I have set my hand this February 20th day of February 2024 and I'll come down to present and then you can uh say some words if you like [Music] I'm going to have to lean in because I feel really short thank you so so much mayor City Council Members you know 211 is entering its sixth decade of service to this community and um I just it's just so important I know the Proclamation was a little long but we have so many programs and so many things to offer and we've saved lives every day last year we had over 124,000 individuals reach out to us with different needs of of that we're getting about 350 calls per day of that 42,700 were people in need of mental health care and substance use disorders we had about 4,583 suicider related calls we average about two excuse me 12 suicide calls a day and that did increase with the 988 number which is the National Suicide Prevention number now the 988 suicide and crisis Lifeline so we do get roughly like I mentioned 12 per day so our staff are in the trenches and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the number of housing calls we get we get about a 100 call housing calls a day and this is for our five count area to be specific but I did leave some brochures for you I wanted to Spotlight our two support lines we do have a my Florida vet support line we can help veterans get engaged with the VA and other services out in the community but we can also help their families so we provide peer-to-peer support which is also helpful with that crisis situation but again we can help their families find those critical services that could help them we want to give back to those veterans that have served so much for us our newest is support line is that first responder support line so I know that a lot of municipalities do have a uh you know services for their their employees but this is an extra safe safety line so if a first responder which would consist of an EMT 911 dispatch could be fire firefighter law enforcement or a corrections officer they could be active duty or they could be retired but if they are struggling and they want to reach out where that extra piece that can di 211 or the line that's listed there and also again we do that peer-to-peer so we do have First Responders on our staff and we can also help their families so again those two support lines are not just for that individual in crisis but the family unit as well so I just wanted to kind of Spotlight that we also again are here for anybody of any age that is looking for the services that you mentioned we have a lot of people looking for assistance with food we have a lot of people struggling with utilities and of course housing is a tough one and that takes the community to produce more of that affordable housing right now which we get calls every day people's rents are going up $800 $1,000 so it's very complicated right now but we're doing what we can to help them problem solve and get to other services as well and lastly I'll go ahead and mention our caregiver support project if you know of a family caregiver we know a lot of these individuals are isolated doing that very important job every day if they're you know would like to have a daily call from our Sunshine we can we can also help them find Supportive Services as well but again I want to thank you for taking the time to support us as you guys have been doing that every year for us and I really appreciate that thank you so much we we'd like to say thank you you know fortunately we benefit because for a number of years you come here and that's how we learned about the program but I think it is important you know annually to keep this up because then those that uh are either here or do watch Us online live or after the fact then maybe somebody among that might learn about 211 and and and help somebody so thank you thank you so much okay moving on to presentations we have uh two presentations tonight the first one is on jfrd implementation update good evening mayor and councel uh my name is darl Donado your fire chief first time addressing the council in the community and so I want to begin by just really thanking you for entrusting me with the honor of serving as your Town's fire chief so I've been here for three weeks now and uh and so I tell you the thing that's really most notable to me in this three weeks is just how friendly the staff and residents are in this community it is truly a pleasure to be here uh so a brief update over the past three weeks uh we've been working on uh a project with uh Town staff and WGI on the P Place fire station uh project goals timelines General design considerations and next steps and so WGI is working working on that now and they'll be drafting an initial building design um that will uh come back to us for a detailed discussion with the town's team um sometime in the next few weeks so we hope to have an update following that meeting we've been working with our Town's Graphics designer Sandy mccre and the vendor for ambulances and fire trucks to finalize exterior graphic design schemes the goal is to ensure that the town's ambulances and fire trucks are consistent with the town's brand they're clearly identifiable and they're unique to the town of Jupiter and that our residents will be proud to call them their own over the next 10 to 15 years of their useful life uh in conjunction with the town's human resource department we've been advertising for position a couple positions fire rescue executive assistant and the fire rescue deputy chief position so these positions will be essential in accomplishing our next steps in the process to build the Jupiter fire rescue department and the number of applicants has been significant and we'll be reviewing and establishing processes for screening and selecting uh those positions in the coming weeks and uh lastly and more recently we've spent some time talking with the team from Palm Beach Gardens fire rescue and we've toured their training facilities and Logistics centers uh Palm Beach Gardens as you know is a community immediately Jason to the town southern border and uh they'll be an important uh partner in our future and we're working closely with Palm Beach Gardens fire rescue and coordinating future service Mutual Aid and training opportunities so that's it thank you much thank you okay uh next up we have U presentation on the 2023 citizen survey results good evening mayor and Town Council for the record sha Reed community relations manager for the town in the fall of 2023 the town conducted the citizen survey 2023 marked the 10th year that Jupiter had conducted a citizen survey and the ninth time that Jupiter had utilized the national research Center's National Community survey the cons consistent use of the national Community survey has allowed the town to track progress in a number of key areas since 2009 and provides the town with an instrument that is both nationally recognized and endorsed by the icma or International City County management association joining us tonight provide more insight on the results of the survey is Jason new Jason is a survey specialist for po Poco and the national Research Center Jason app excellent thank you thank you uh I am happy to be here tonight all the way from the frozen tundra uh in Green Bay with Wisconsin the last two days I really enjoyed your Sunshine uh but before I begin on behalf of myself and my poal co-workers I would like to thank sha Reed he's been our primary contact throughout the survey development and implementation process and he provided thoughtful and detailed feedback I would also like to acknowledge my colleague Grace arneson who is Jupiter's uh NCS project manager for this year's survey and uh conducted a bulk of the work here for this important project a little bit about us uh before we dive into some of these results poco's online community engagement polling platform provides the information tools that local government and other public sector leaders need and today we work with hundreds of organizations Nationwide uh to develop strategic plans to develop budgets and to empower resident voices we make civil verified Community Engagement online not only possible but accessible the national Research Center at Poco gives local governments and other public sector organizations the data that they need to make more informed decisions since 1994 we've worked with hundreds of organizations and jurisdictions Nationwide NRC as I'm sure you know is best known for our benchmarking surveys including this the national Community survey as well as the national employee survey and the community assessment survey for older adults our Benchmark database is the largest of its kind in the United States NRC and PCO merged together in 2019 to more effectively serve local government and to project resident voices and as was brought up before and you can see on the slide here we are also exclusive partners with icma and NLC and we work closely with the engaged local government leaders Alliance for Innovation the American Association for public opinion research the University of Wisconsin Madison and the Hoover Institute at Stanford University now before I dive into the specific results from this survey I do want to emphasize that there are a variety of ways that these results can be used most commonly the jurisdictions that we work with will use this survey data to monitor Trends in Resident opinion over time to measure government performance and ratings of public trust and to inform their budgeting process and strategic planning our results also allow you to Benchmark your community specific characteristics and services to those same characteristics within other communities within our Benchmark database our hope is here as these present results are presented it will spur ideas for you and what can be done with these results and where you'd like to continue digging deeper so the national Community survey or the NCS is why we're here the NCS is a standardized five-page comprehensive survey that allows municipalities to assess resident opinion about their community and about their local government the NCS focuses on the livability of Jupiter by categorizing survey questions into these 10 facets of livability shown here these facets have been identified through extensive survey research as those that are most impactful to Residents quality of life the NCS includes items within each of these 10 facets to provide a full picture of how residents feel about their community and finally these facets tend to align with Municipal departments making it easy for staff to quickly find the information that is of most importance to them now all households within Jupiter were eligible to participate in this recent survey a list of households within the ZIP code serving Jupiter was purchased based on the most updated listings from the United States Postal Service using the gis boundary files that were provided by the town addresses located outside of Jupiter's foundaries were removed from that list and then from that finalized list 3,000 addresses were randomly selected to receive the survey the 3,000 randomly selected households received mailings beginning on October 16th and this survey remained open for 6 weeks the first mailing was a postcard inviting households to participate in in the survey the next mailing contained a cover letter with instructions that five-page survey questionnaire and a postage paid return envelope both the postcard and the cover letter also included a web link to give residents the opportunity to respond online should they so choose now one additional note here about data collection as I'm sure some of you have heard a link to this random sample survey that was connected to Area 1 in Jupiter was shared on a local Facebook page each area has a specific link that allows us to provide you with those Geographic comparisons that you've seen over the years upon further evaluation of that shared link we know that it was shared on October 25th and so we Dove back into the Raw results upon completion to see if we could provide some clarity here and some reassurance of the 145 completed surveys for Area 1 39 occurred online after October 25th but we were able to verify using timestamps zip codes and IP address locations that 15 of those were completed by residents of Jupiter when looking at the entire Community this accounts for just about 5% of all surveys that were completed during this project now we do have some additional evidence to suggest that these numbers might actually be on the high end and that this post did not generate a lot of traffic to the survey of those 24 surveys we could not verify only three were completed the day of the link being shared and only 12 occurred within a week of that post while six of of them or exactly 25% occurred during the last day that the survey was available which is very very typical as people see that deadline upcoming so although it is not ideal that a survey link for the random sample was shared the issue does not seem to be widespread and we can confirm here that over 95% of the total responses to this survey were unaffected by this situation so in total 441 completed surveys were received from these efforts which provides us with a response rate of 16% and a margin of error of plus or minus 5% we then compared the demographic profile of survey respondents to all adults living in Jupiter using the most recent census and American Community survey data and we waited those final survey results in addition to this randomly selected sample a link to an online CommunityWide open participation survey was also publicized by Jupiter that open participation survey was open to all Town residents and uh on November 13th the survey remained open for 2 weeks and 35 responses were received the presentation that we have here today the report that you have in front of you are all based on the random sample mailbase survey the responses to that open participation survey are provided separately in the report all right one of the major advantages to using uh our community surveys is the opportunity to compare ratings given by your residents to those from other communities around the nation NRC was the first organization to conceive of this idea to create benchmarks of public opinion and currently actually we need to update that slide there are more than 600 comparison communities in our National Database Jupiter received comparisons to this entire Benchmark database which I'll be referring to as National benchmarks but also opted to receive custom Benchmark comparisons to a subset of communities all of which were located here in Florida so on to the overview of survey results in the survey itself we have two questions that ask directly about those 10 facets of community livability that we identified earlier the first asks residents to rate the quality of each of those 10 facets and you can see the result in comparison to the National Benchmark in the shading on the chart in front of you the second question asks about those same 10 facets but is centered on how important residents think it is for the community to focus on each of these facets over the next 10 years so we ask about the quality and the importance of these facets and we use these answers to create this the quality importance Matrix we use this chart which is also included in the final report to help determine which areas are of relatively higher importance and lower quality to Residents those that are located in the lower right hand quadrant on the screen this chart is one of many ways to interpret your data and can be used to identify key findings and to help communities to determine which areas may need additional Focus or resource allocation in the coming years and which others are performing well by comparison so when looking at those Benchmark comparisons of the 122 survey items for which your residents provided evaluative ratings 28 received ratings that were higher than the national Benchmark 92 received similar ratings and two received lower ratings ratings are considered similar if they're within 10 points of the national average and higher or or lower if they're more than 10 points difference from that average a full table of these National benchmarks can be found in the report starting on page 37 as I said earlier Jupiter also elected to compare their results to a custom subset of communities from the national from within our National Database this includes over 30 Florida communities who have all completed a CommunityWide survey within the last 3 years of again the 122 survey items for which residents provided evaluative ratings 33 received higher ratings 88 received similar ratings and only one received lower ratings a full table of these custom comparisons to other Florida communities can be found in the final report again in a table starting on page 44 now in addition to these comparisons we can also show changes over time with within Jupiter itself when compared to Jupiter's NCS ratings from 2021 in 2023 six items received ratings that were statistically higher than the previous survey iteration 69 received similar ratings and 63 received lower ratings in order for a change to be statistically significant from 2021 the ratings had to change plus or minus 6% there are a couple of reasons why we may have seen a higher number of declines from our 2021 survey many related to the extremely high scores that Jupiter had in that last survey and that are still evidenced in the higher than average benchmarks that we saw on the last two slides additionally across a number of topics we've seen National declines in the postco era including here uh which is many uh ratings related to local governance including confidence acting in the best interest of the Community Trust and a number of items related to services and the availability of services the information that you're going to see on this slide and the next actually display the overall ratings from every Community which has completed the NCS over the last 10 years during 2020 and 2021 when Jupiter last surveyed many local governments exhibited a lot of leadership and spent a lot of time taking on the pandemic and protecting citizens and based on survey results both here in Jupiter and nationally we saw that during that time residents appreciated it however after that initial Peak we've seen a steady decline in these ratings the 2023 numbers are still being finalized you can see they're not included here on the chart but I can uh unfortunately assure you that this National trend is continuing in addition another Trend that we've been seeing nationally and that shows up here in Jupiter's 2023 results are rather steep declines in economic and affordability sentiment ratings you can see here that some items like the availability of affordable quality housing shown in green have been declining for for some time but others like the cost of living the availability of affordable quality food or the availability of affordable quality Child Care have shown large declines post pandemic I don't think this will surprise anyone here as we've been navigating the very high inflationary times combined with increasing interest rates and up until recently very low consumer sentiment about the health of our economy so although we do see declines in some of Jupiter's ratings from 2021 many of them do relate to these broader trends that we're seeing nationally this isn't to say that Jupiter should or shouldn't address these issues but hopefully this helps to place these ratings into a broader context by also taking into account the hundreds of other communities that are found in our National Database again a full table of these Trends over time can be found in the final report that table starts on page 54 the table will show you results for all questions dating back to the 2009 survey implementation all right so moving next into highlights of our findings I do want to point out a few items that stood out to our survey research team there is a lot of additional data in the full report that we won't cover today but the rest of this presentation will focus on a few areas that we found to be most noteworthy in these final uh Jupiter's final results so key finding number one Jupiter residents continue to enjoy a high quality of life and have a strong sense of community safety virtually all uh 96% of Jupiter residents gave excellent or good ratings to the overall quality of life within the town about 95% of residents applauded Jupiter as a place to live and nine and 10 respondents plan to remain in the town for the next 5 years Jupiter as a place to raise children and Jupiter as a place to retire were also highly regarded with both ranking higher than the custom subset of communities here in Florida these high marks for quality of life are likely correlated with the strong sense of safety experienced here by Jupiter residents roughly nine and 10 respondents offered favorable marks to the overall feelings of safety within the town virtually all residents indicated that they felt very or somewhat safe in their neighborhoods during the day and nine and 10 also felt safe in Jupiter's downtown and Commercial areas during the day about 9 and 10 also reported feeling safe from violent crime while 8 and 10 felt safe from property crime all of these ratings for safety uh held steady from the 2021 results indicating consistent approval in this facet key finding number two the local economy continues to remain a top priority for residents and poses an opportunity for additional focus when asked about which general aspects of the community the town should focus on in the next two years about nine and 10 respondents identified the overall economic health of the town to be a top priority a strong majority 95% in fact of residents gave favorable assessments to Jupiter as a place to visit higher than both the custom and National benchmarks a similarly High proportion offered positive reviews for the variety of business and service establishments and the overall quality of business and service establishments both exceeding National benchmarks While most of the evaluations for Jupiter's economy were similar to or exceeded National benchmarks a few areas of opportunity emerged mainly around affordability employment opportunities were eval valuated as excellent or good by less than half of respondents showing a statistically significant decline from 2021 additionally two in 10 respondents felt that the economy would have a positive impact on their family income in the next six months and roughly 177% of respondents offered favorable ratings to the cost of living in Jupiter down from 31% in the previous survey the availability of affordable quality food the availability of affordable quality healthare and the availability of affordable quality mental health care also showed also showed downward Trends garnering positive reviews from roughly half of the respondents these finding again are reflected uh in ongoing National Trends but they are still concerns being raised here by Jupiter residents nonetheless key finding number three residents appreciate Jupiter's Community design but do raise some concerns about new development the overall design or layout of the residential and Commercial areas was highly regarded by about 3/4 of respondents higher than both National and custom benchmarks the overall appearance of Jupiter also received above average marks with 87% of residents providing excellent or good reviews while 50% of residents approved of Jupiter's well-planned residential and Commercial growth many ratings related to Housing and Development did decline from 2021 including the overall quality of new development from 64% in 2021 to 50% in 2023 well-designed neighborhoods 76% to 67% the variety of housing options 49% to 38% and the preservation of the historical or cultural character of the community 74% to 61% now in a series of custom questions that were unique to Jupiter's survey respondents were asked to rate their level of concern with different aspects of new development or Redevelopment within the community nearly all respondents indicated that they were very or somewhat concerned with increased traffic due to new developments around town about nine and 10 felt similarly apprehensive about increased housing density while 8 and 10 voiced concerns about allowing increased building Heights and allowing changes to zoning and land use however respondents indicated that they may be more likely to accept these impacts if the development proposal included public amenities such as Green Space public art or public access to waterways or affordable housing these ratings May Merit additional research and consideration to further explore not just residents perceptions and preferences uh but in addition to their preferences regarding future development here in Jupiter and then finally our last key finding here the community's natural environment remains highly valued by residents about 9 and 10 residents applauded Jupiter's natural environment and identified it as an essential or very important area of focus for the community in the coming two years highlighting both its value on one hand and its importance on the other a similar proportion praised the town's cleanliness air quality and water resources and you can see here that all of those came in higher than the national Benchmark residents also gave positive marks to the overall quality of the natural environment surpassing counterparts Across the Nation and in other Florida communities and then finally in another custom question unique to this survey residents were asked to rate how important if at all they thought it was for the town to devote resources to the following environmental initiatives around 9ine and 10 felt the town should devote resources to preserving seagrass beds and encouraging New Growth a similar proportion in indicated support for preserving managing and creating Open Spaces in natural areas and managing how runoff or other environmental factors affect water quality in Lakes streams Rivers Inlet waterways and and beaches and their inhabitants so these are the four key findings from our survey research team at PCO first and foremost Jupiter residents continue to enjoy a high quality of life and have a strong sense of safety two the local economy remains a priority for residents and poses an opportunity for additional Focus three residents appreciate Jupiter's Community design and raise concerns about new development and then fourth and finally the community's natural environment remains highly valued by residents as you know the online version of this survey was hosted on Poco after completing the community survey residents were asked if they would like to join your Poco panel if you wish to dig deeper and find out more about the opinions and perceptions of your residents you can continue to engage with them uh through the Poco platform you can share new questions through social media email in-person events and other channels to engage with your online panel by asking follow-up questions to this community survey or reaching out about Hot Topics or policy issues as they arise Jupiter has a large panel on Poco 889 residents have signed up you can continue to ask questions and engage in constant dialogue with these Community me community members at any time so with that uh I will catch my breath and I would invite uh any questions you might have about the survey process or these final results thank you does anybody have any questions I I have just a few and and uh first of all I U we we appreciate I don't know why the mic isn't quite working well here uh we do appreciate this survey um and you know I find I'll be referring to it to mine data for days excellent I'm glad to hear that so no no it's great great information and I've probably spent about four hours so I'm just still touching the surface but just wanted to point out a few things that I'm curious sure even though some of these may not have clear some may have clear answers some may not to the degree you do this want to ask was number one um and it's helpful the distinction to know um so I appreciate you gave similar was plus or minus 10% from average but yes I thought I noticed an inconsistency from higher and much higher what is the extinction on much higher oh sorry I should have included that here as well much higher as 20 points or higher okay okay um and that's not from rank but it's from uh from the national averages across all of the communities rank doesn't matter it's uh it's exactly and if you look at those tables you'll actually see the rank is listed there as well and the number of communities that you're compared to because I had looked at for example water resources and overall quality of natural environment yes and the you know one was three of 23 uh yes appears the other was two of 24 6 to 230 you know and yet one was much higher and one wasn't so it's really not the rank exactly the rank is your position compared to all other communities that took it uh kind of like a percentile which is also listed there as well the other thing um and some of this may be somewhat unique to Jupiter but then I'm sure with 600 you know communities there's a lot of unique but um so we tried to move away from just talking about a downtown because we don't really have it downtown or the few downtowns that we have um you know maybe they're not doing as well but it's interesting so we use the words um for you know downtown commmercial area because for example for us most of the commercial areas along you know like Indian toown Road which interesting because then when I look at and this is one of your slides but yes the overall quality of business and service environments is rated 89% yes the variety of businesses and service establishments was rated 80% so those are high um and uh they were higher than and yet the vibrancy of downtown commercial area was 55% so what seems what strikes me is that probably when they're answering this to the degree that they seem to rate high on you know commercial but yet when they talk about vibrancy they're not seeing it there so I'm hypothesizing that they're focusing on on what they think is a downtown area despite the fact we have downtown commmercial any comment about that that could be um ultimately we can uh change the language of individual questions but we don't want to change the so if we wanted to remove downtown for example and maybe just ask about commercial areas in that question we certainly could um but we don't want to change the meeting too much because we asked that question in all 600 communities and we want to compare apples to apples no and I understand that and just for some of my colleagues that are Doer here on this sure we consciously changed it from downtown which was the conventional to include commercial area uh because we realize that you know that we have a lot of commercial areas that's not in downtown right and um and then I'm always pleased that we're seeing that overall satis you know higher satisfaction with the business community at large if they're just not in the downtown area that's just my takeaway um on the custom questions um which obviously we the town choose those to give us information and um they were very helpful because uh while I think all of us have a sense for what the community is concerned about um obviously gets reinforce when you see it in the survey but then the questions that we asked C about what know if we did this would that change your feelings about approving you know an exception and it's I find it interesting that affordable housing in Workforce housing um were rated differently um and um I'm wondering if in my hypothesis is is that there people were willing to accept more exceptions for affordable housing but not Workforce housing and my hypothesis they may not understand what Workforce housing is because I don't know why there'd be a 10 plus difference where they're not keen to Workforce housing but they are to affordable housing have you have you dealt with that anywhere else I have not seen that uh in other situations I think you're right that um maybe parentheticals in that situation might have been helpful uh just to clarify the two but that is a interesting hypothesis well and you know I point to this this is um in the book on page 35 for those of us up here because the question was are you more likely to be accepting of the items listed in the question above if the proposal included Workforce housing and the answer was yes 48% but when you say affordable housing yes was 59% right so we probably have you know have some work to do or or we just accept it as a fact that they do know the difference and that means I'm going to ECT that they're thinking affordable housing is more broader and might affect somebody that's you know would think they're not going to be counted as a Workforce I think that's probably right but that's again I just thought a few of these I wanted to bring up because we're all dealing with that right up here on the Das and I just wanted to you know have you weigh in on that yeah I I think that's probably right and public amenities is the third option there uh and you see that that had the exact same percentage as Workforce housing right um however we did include as I said Green Space public art public access to waterways for public uh amenities um I I I think your hypothesis until we test it we can say for certain but I I think you're probably right about that yes okay um anyway thank you very much this is extremely helpful for us particularly you know the way it's presented all these different ways in our book yes is helpful that if we want to go and look the trend over time um and it's helpful that you provided the national perspective so that we can put it in context with you know nationally you know the last thing is is clearly I always go and look you know where we're not uh we we're lower right because that's certainly an represents an improvement opportunity so nationally we we had two lower and that was cost of living and availability affordable quality housing that's right and then to our peer communities cost of living we were lower so cost of living is a big issue right um and of course we all understand that certainly um with the economy and everything um but um I thought it was interesting that yet and one would think that to some degree retirees would have the hardest uh time dealing with affordability and cost of living and yet we rank three of 25 to Pure best Mark communities on Jupiter as a place to retire yes an 11 of 372 so that's somewhat inconsistent with what I would have thought um so it must be people retiring here um although they may not like the cost of uh of living increases they still rate they can afford it yeah right but I just wanted to kind of point that out too that's a clear inconsistency from expectation so you kind of agree with that Hy I I would agree yes um now I I would say as as was brought up in the presentation um when which is why we like to bring in the National perspective of all communities that have done this because sometimes it is difficult to disintegrate your local economy versus the national economy or you know what's happening around you more broadly uh so again we see those Trends and affordability that were included I believe on slide 13 or 14 uh that we that's a coners ation when I'm giving these talks in other communities we have a similar conversation there as well we're seeing it all over one of the things we're challenged with is a residents wanted we wanted and have created a very desirable relatively place but that makes it more expensive correct yeah you know but U and we're pretty well built out so it's kind of hard to you know move the needle on a change at this point in time but nonetheless we're trying to do what we can so again thank you very much for this information and I do appreciate your perspective um because then I know it's coming from you know having looked at hundreds and hundreds of these as opposed to just Jupiter so thank you yes yes you're welcome and if any other questions do arise I'll move us forward here one you can reach out to myself um or or Sean or Grace who ran the project here and we'd be happy to get back to you with follow-up commentary as you work through oh yes S I do have a quick question very very useful by by the way this is very very useful thank you um I personally I think most counselors would agree that trying to take care of what our citizens are asking for is of utmost importance um I'm concerned by the low participation rate and and don't feel very comfortable with that low a rate um have you had that similar complaints from other cities and what can we do to improve that participation rate certainly so when we're looking at the number of um completed responses uh really what we're looking for is over between 300 plus is the minimum that we're looking for because at the end of the day the rate is one way to measure that the other way to look at it is the margin of error uh so ultimately if we can get to our number which we got to here was 414 I believe or is it 441 441 uh that allows us to calculate a plus or minus 5% margin of error around every one of the numbers we gave you in this survey participation rates have been decreasing since I don't know the 7even mons right we we don't get response rates like we used to uh but anything really in the rate of 12 to 25% is pretty standard and actually I think our participation rate increased a little bit uh this time I think our number was 14% uh in 2021 and we went up a little bit here we certainly try to do everything that we can to get as many people to respond to that random sample as possible we have the opportunity to send out an additional postcard we want to post as much as possible on social media and other outlets um but at the end of the day our goal is to reach that 400 number uh so we can get that margin of error where we really want it I would think a a large portion of it would be the the snail mail version of how this is being accomplished um and I saw there was some hesitation on your part to sending links around yes was it a specific link or a specific reason why you're shying away from links I would think it'd be more more effective to mass fire as to every citizen that has an an email account registered with the town right so there is an open participation survey uh at the end of the process but in order to um calculate the the ultimate numbers that we have here the margin of error and everything we have to stick with a random sample and so therefore we do not want to um you know blast this to every individual person why by having a random sample it actually allows us at the end to wait the results uh in order to make it more representative of your recent census numbers that just came through so at the end of the day we have do have two parts so we do have a portion that opens it up to everybody and those results are at the end but the statistically valid margin of error scientific portion has to be randomized so that's why we still do the Outreach to the 3,000 exactly yes but we do think it's very important to hear from as many people as possible which is why during the last two weeks we open it up to everybody as well and you see those results at the end specifically along with the mayor was talking about we've been at least I think I have and a majority of us have been struggling with trying to increase Workforce housing um First Responders firefighters police officers it's important to us to create those type of housing units sure and I think we've been looking at going into increasing density and causing more traffic problems if we can get some viable workfor out of it and it seems like that might almost be misguided in a way and I'm very concerned about that because I thought that was very important most of not all of us um the the correlation between Workforce housing and affordable housing might be part of what we're struggling with is the the lack of knowledge of what Workforce housing really is and what what it could do for the town and maybe that's Inc combing upon us to help educate the town a little better what we're trying accomplish I I certainly don't want to create more traffic problems or more density problems if we're not really making the town Happy by creating Workforce housing so this is something I want to consider that's always the conundrum you know because um people confuse affordable housing with with Workforce housing and for variety of reasons and then they you know they want Workforce but they're also against you know higher density more traffic so it's it's a catch 22 it's been very frustrating but the way this is set up is really smart it's like okay you've got all these problems are you willing to tolerate these problems if we do this and Workforce housing showing up kind of low and I'm surprised by that so maybe something for us to consider and talk aboute in the future but again thank you very much very useful for us and I would say uh also you there are 900 panel participants who have signed up right and they want to get more content and get more Outreach maybe we could work together to put um a Workforce course housing or availability or I'm sorry affordable housing uh survey together we have a number of communities who have asked for that we have templatized surveys in our library and that's something we push it out to everybody we get as many responses as possible and we do a little bit of uh waiting on the back end to make it a little bit more scientific right it's not a random sample but it gets closer to it we can certainly do that in the future as well I'd like that it' be great great yeah we we'll work together to get that yeah put together yeah you're welcome I've just one quick is there a point to when you're sort of advertising getting the random samples out if you push too hard you would skew the results I'm sorry I missed the beginning is there a point where if you adver if you push you want a random sample for for the scientific you know right edge of it um is there a point where if you push that too hard you'd skew the results you got to be so as long as we are getting so when we are publicizing during the random sample we will tell people if if you receive something in your mailbox please respond we don't share that link we have the ability to close it and make it private with a pin uh but residents tend to not like to have a unique pin identified to their address that we mailed to them they want it to be anonymous uh so during the the random sample portion we will not share the link publicly we unfortunately did have one get onto a Facebook page we dug in it had minimal impacts uh but during the open participation survey we have a public link that everybody can participate in so we're very careful not to share those public Links at times it it can occur as it did here but usually we're able to shut that down quickly and identify which ones can be verified and which ones cannot and again here it was 96% were verifiable the other 4% may have been Anonymous residents who were part of the random sample or may have been people who found it on that link but it's still a very small number yeah thank you this is a treasure a trove of information for us to get you know public opinion it's difficult to kind of feel the vibe of the top sometimes and all the different issues so but we appreciate it thank you yes just one more Point basically you know that comes to mind you know here and my colleagues um if you want to comment on this so I'm not fault finding but I think it's significant that the survey is rather long M so a lot of people that are getting in the mail might look at it and say I'm not going to spend that much time so I would suspect that when you do this one and we want to get it long because you're trying to do a whole scope of items that's why even when we ask custom questions we try to limit it so we're not you know go going longer but that may be where can you maybe comment that if you then did a more targeted uh survey more narrow you may get a higher response rate than when someone looks and it's a page versus you know a dozen any any comment about that we certainly do not uh advocate for adding more C some questions than we added in this one uh the average completion time for this I believe was just over 15 minutes uh so not super long but not super short either uh to be this comprehensive and to get the benchmarks and the trends over time that you've had for what is that 14 years now a long time uh we do need to ask the questions in a similar order in a similar way to make sure that we're consistent from uh survey effort to survey effort but when it comes to specific topic areas usually the Cadence we see is a jurisdiction will do the NCS they'll look at the the random sample results and then they'll see maybe this mismatch that you identified an affordable versus um Workforce housing and then we do a targeted survey to those 900 panelists and we say here's what Workforce housing is here's what a affordable housing is and now we're going to ask you a bevy of eight questions all of those people have already signed up all all those people have input their demographic information the survey could be four questions and we could wait it and probably get a higher response rate that's the point I was asking right I don't know if the response rate would be higher because it's available to everybody but the total number of responses might be higher yes we we may be able to yes yeah okay thank you thank you thank you so much and as I said if there are any other questions please feel free to reach out to myself and we'd be happy to discuss them with you okay moving on to Citizen comments uh this is the time for non-agenda items limited to three minutes and anyone wishing to speak is asked to State his or her name and address for the record prior to addressing Town Council um do we have public comments yes mayor we have three we're going to start with Cindy Lo Hi how are you my name is Cindy l i I'm a Jupiter Farms resident um I am here to speak about the my arrest on 524 2023 Jupiter Police Department do not have dash cams installed in their cars zero dash cams your officers can claim anything without any accountabilities V victims of police Mis conduct are left with the burden of proof I am deeply dis appointed in the inaction of this town and Department I can't I can't and will not accept this Injustice no woman should be subjected to and forced to pull into an unsafe dark Road left vulnerable and terrified I ask what do you tell your family to do now that you've heard my story because I told them my dad was a police officer I have a copy of the report officer lost dat she did not feel safe I advise L she passed several safe points to come to a stop she advised she did not see me walking toward her vehicle I find probable cause to arrest Cindy Loth she did willfully and willfully flee and elude so I've raed two teachers and I break the words down willfully is to commit an act regardless of the consequences it's like a child knowing they will get into trouble but can't help themselves to flee is to run away way the person initiating is a person initiating their hazard lights engaging directional signal stopping at a yellow light the last leave an intersection when the light turns green consistent with someone trying to run away and to lose to hide from so I stopping at a CVS the first inhabited area in the first available parking space with hazard lights on and windows roll down represent eluding or is an officer walking behind around the back of his card behind his blaring lights hidden in the dark and further from the driver's view so he cannot be seen a more accurate example of Aude as he stated on his body Cam that was the point this was at 9:00 at night heading west from 95 to on Indian Town Road to CVS to Jupiter Farms all within a m mile that represents 2 minutes and 12 seconds the time your officer turned on his lights a point to the point he took deadly cover pointing a gun at me I had a Glock pointed at my face at least seven guns pointed at me screaming dogs Riot GE and I was deprived of my freedom I I could have been murdered that night the majority of those officers responding to that man call assisted an assaulted battery of one of your citizens my father was a Metroid police officer he pedrol Liberty City riots in the 80s he and his partner responded to a call a woman was trapped in a burning building my dad B Bob York and his partner ran inside to save that woman my father was a hero I'm sorry just prior to my Dad's passing in March of 2022 the staff had to tie him down because he thought he had to go rescue that woman once more and I I know I'm going over my time and I don't have any expectation anybody's going to make this right um but I am trying to learn how to use my voice um so that I could be heard um and I'm taking this forum to learn how to speak publicly because I previously lived in a bubble like peace but thank you for your time can I say one Karen Vincent hi Karen vinon 10003 s Street I'd like to hear what the town's plan on doing in order to stay at or better than the current response times of Palm Beach County fire rescue without taking the park space without taking the Green Space why are we looking at places to build fire stations because the town has a surplus of money in their eyes and double standards in mind the biggest reason for the council wanting their own fire department was to was because of increased cost from Palm Beach County fire department Mish County fire rescue has always acted physically responsible just as Jupiter says it does everything is going up in this day and age and I would expect that cost to go up also pales County fire rescue knows the fire rescue needs of Jupiter better than anybody else due to 40 Years of excellent service just as Mr be and his company have given us 38 years of excellent service for years Palm be County fire rescue gave Jupiter a special rate because it was Palm Beach County it was Palm Beach County Commissioners that had a problem with it and directed fire rescue to adjust their price contract of Phil still was negotiated important Faith there's still time to fix this if you're going to build then please do look at Riviera's new uh station you have to take care of those who are going to take care of the town and the people that are in it why not ask for a presentation from Palm Beach County fire rescue with your very specific questions and issues defined why not try to come to Common Ground for the better of the people I invite Palm Beach County fire rescue senior leaders to speak with the town account town Council and try to address the differences and do what's best for all the people have a round table have an open discussion have a presentation like you just had you may have and I know I've heard it many times that you had this prior you did not have it on the level that you have meetings now there has been a change there is more discussion at the end of every meeting there is more discussion than there's ever been that I've ever seen on any of these tapes and I appreciate that and that's what I'm looking for I want to effect a change I want to change the way you do stuff the rest I'll talk about on the next one thank [Applause] you Kristen Henry good evening mayor council Christen Henry 109 work away um the meaning of the word same means identical not different since we continue to hear that Jupiter fire department will provide the same if not better level of service as Palm Beach County as a resident I'd like to know what are the benchmarks used when comparing level of service will Jupiter fire department have whole blood portable ultrasound brush trucks jet skis or any special ops a class one rating among others if the answer is no to any of those then a level of service will be provided but as you see cannot be the same so when you promise the same or better level of service did you mean right away in a month in a year in a century which is the length of time many Municipal departments including town of Palm Beach have been operating and if the plan is to add any of the above mentioned in the future have there has there been any talk about what that does to increase the budget for Resident transparency if I may address Chief denado congratulations on your new position if the pending lawsuit does not hope does not uphold the department creation respectfully you have a large road ahead I appreciate that you have many accolades experiened and seem to be well connected unfortunately you're now in the hot seat so I have a couple questions as I'm sure you're aware the recent League of cities meetings and white paper findings by the Florida Chief Fire Chief Association highlighted the growing issues on Recruitment and Retention especially in smaller departments across Florida things like pay benefits Kelly days and lack of room to move up or advance in skills were among several reasons though Jupiter is a desirable area it's very busy in EMS what is your plan to retain local Personnel where the median home in Jupiter and its surrounding areas according to realor.com is $849,000 affordability is a is a big area just pointed out in the survey presentation Jupiter is a city of over 61,000 residents which increases immensely with tourism and season we have major road arteries and major destinations that local out Towners come here to visit it was last reported that over 8,320 calls in over 23 miles were responded to here in 2022 again respectfully coming from the town of Palm Beach with just over 9,000 residents which cuts down a lot off season isn't a throughway or a visited destination for locals and others visiting um can you tell us um how you plan to manage the same three station department on a much larger scale since the town of Palm Beach has three stations responding to a reported 2,600 calls in just under 8,000 Miles lastly back to the council it seems that in the survey results residents are concerned with impacts on increased building lack of green space and environmental sensitivity all areas creating a duplicate fire department will further infringe upon um that your residents are not happy with so thank you for your time okay um moving on to the minutes uh Council we have before us the minutes of the February 6 Town council meeting um if there's no uh requested changes can I have a motion to approve the minutes so move second Motion in second uh all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries unanimously moving on to the consent agenda this is items 5 through 8 uh on the agenda uh is there any member of the public that want to pull a consent agenda item yes we have one member of the public they pulled item five okay uh anybody on the Das wish to call pull an consent agenda item yes item seven okay uh can I have a motion um on a REI amended consent agenda uh approving resolution 29-4 and resolution 31-24 so moved as amended Motion in a second to approve agenda item 6 and 8 um all in favor signify by saying I I I I motion carries unanimously moving uh on to we're back to agenda item number five ordinance 924 for a first reading pulled by a member of the public uh would that member U come forth uh to state your comments or questions Karen vincon you Karen vincon 10003 Sue Street on consent agenda number five according to the language in this um document it's uh according to Jupiter it states strategic priority of this particular ordinance change uh change is to be physically responsible so Jupiter's idea of strategic priority is physical responsibility I've talked about this before then it talks about the requirement for at least three quotes to be obtained before any purchase of $10,000 to $25,000 is made and you want to stop the quote requirements on any purchases from 2,500 to 10,00 000 while I see the reason behind this and I do not see a problem with this frankly I agree with it I do see a double standard again with the town why is this not done for larger purchases I see this process and I love what the town is trying to do to be physically responsible and at the same time use some common sense with that being said why does the town not follow those same policies and procedures with purchases like fire trucks bids for contractors and vendors for the new Fire fire department the new Jupiter fire department that they want the town manager stated last meeting I believe that this suggestion that his suggestion to Grant approval for the uh work order for the WGI group for the preliminary design and services for the design and construction criteria package for the fire station of the park at pirate place and the park at pirate place this was the recommendation without requiring any competing bids because we have a we have used them in the past and had a good relationship used Palm Beach County fire rescue with a good uh relationship also for 40 years the same was done with the consulting firm that may or may not have been an acquaintance of the Town manager really doesn't matter because no one obtained any other bids for the job that no one knew was going to happen the firet truck threw a company that did not have to submit a bid because the state vetting proc I think it's some State vetting process that you use if I remember correctly this is why I keep saying that there are double standards and there's no transpar Arcy I'm only going off memory and I am just a lay person trying to understand the process but I would think that there would be more bids submitted the bigger the project and I see less and less evidence of this this is why I have so many questions and wanted the wanted the whole Jupiter fire department decision to go to the voters in the community I still don't think it's being physically responsible and I do not think it's in the best interest of the residents of the town of Jupiter unless it's under a vote let us vote [Applause] um Mr rynolds um I'd like to to give you the opportunity to comment but uh but I also wanted to ask specifically you know could you explain uh to us and to the public two items that I think were brought up one is Professional Services on how we're Bound by um and I might even have a different opinion but we're Bound by state requirements on how to acquire Professional Services I think that's one item I heard correct and then the other item if you'll address um has to do with when we leverage uh effectively competitive pricing in other um from other contracts as as an efficiency I believe you know as an efficiency gain uh but could you address both those and and anything else you thought uh I absolutely will mayor um the the professional Services contract uh is a provision of the of State statutes that's allowed through What's called the CCNA process uh those uh contracts are vetted and allows the engineering department uh such as Thomas or Amanda to be able to have on call uh uh Consultants that can be used uh uh as needed uh for professional studies uh to do engineering work now talking about the specific pyot Place project that project now has to go to bid once that portion of the Professional Services are complete and I believe Mr herandez spoke about that uh when he had you all approve that contract he will have to come back to you now uh for the bid process to actually start the construction that will be a totally different process that will have to actually go out for bids but the professional portion of that which is the engineering we're allowed to go under the CCNA statute uh to have these contractors uh available to us as needed and approved by the council the other portion is the piggyback provision uh that is allowed that's actually mentioned in our uh purchasing policy uh and we do it every year all municipals and County governments are allowed to piggyback other uh contracts throughout the state they do have to be bid out they do have to be done in a in the procurement process uh and bid uh the state contract that we use for the fire apparatus and that the uh police chief uses for the police vehicles uh those are Bid through the Sheriff's Cooperative contract process so they are vetted and they usually are the best price uh that's why it's being used all over the state uh when they do those piggybacks every year but it does save a lot of time uh and again usually that is the most competitive price uh that you'll find on a vehicle that's why we utilize it thank you thank you um with that is there any other U comments or questions from the Das um Yes again for you Mr rnold I think Miss Vincent brought up some really good points um the two that she brought up specifically had to do with the um the fire department contracts that were done without bidding can you discuss those specifics the the two you mentioned a uh State Statute that allows just professional contracts to to go through that path the CCNA uh contract that we're speaking of about specifically about Pet Place those are pre-selected engineering firms that Thomas and Amanda will have a list of those uh pre-determined uh Consultants that they can call upon those are approved by the Town Council uh prior the one that you're referring to in relation to Mr poso uh th those Provisions were waved uh or requested to be ra by waved by the council uh in relation to saving of time and energy and ultimately money because they would have to recreate a lot of the data points that was needed in the initial study to be able to go forward and implement the fire department is there a limit for what type of project prices if they could Implement that type of process not that I'm aware of no so there's that that you know a $10 million no bid project is theoretically possible well it's not a project it's it's Professional Services there's there's a difference if it's a project there are limits to the dollar Valu and exclusively Professional Services correct and again that's common among other municipalities that is that is do we like to do it and in fact the the day that we brought that contract back uh I vocalized to the council normally this would not be the process we we would not do this uh we want to make sure that we're receiving the most competitive price on anything that we do uh but looking at the uh scope of services basically if we were to hire anyone else they would have to recreate a lot of the data that was already provided by that same vendor so we knew going in it would have cost more money for someone else to be able to do that contract so that makes sense how often do we do this uh very minimal very minimal this is probably the second time in my history here that we've actually had to do it okay so very very minimal yes okay all right thank you m okay uh with that um on ordinance 9-24 first reading i' ask for a motion in a second second Motion in a second I'd ask Mr bar to read ordinance 9924 and short title ordinance 924 an ordinance of the Town Council of the town of Jupiter Florida amending subpart a of chapter 2 article 3 division 2 section 2 109 with the town code pertaining to the town's purchasing procedures providing for severability providing for the repeal of laws in Conflict providing for codification and providing for an effective date I have a motion to Second all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries unanimously uh moving on to item s resolution 30-24 um pull by councelor sunstrom um what's your pleasure you have uh you want want a presentation or do you have questions thank you mayor I just have a couple of questions uh if Thomas could come up so Thomas the scope of this uh work order is for playgrounds at Jupiter Community Park and find Park um just the design of them the demolition of the old ones so we've got a contract in place with Miller leg um doing a master plan for recreation the council has committed um a lot of funds has made a large investment in Recreation and in playground specifically which this is a representation of but in terms of getting public input into those playgrounds or into those recreational facilities um these are tired it's once but every 20 years that we do this at the end of its useful life how can we ensure public input and is there a way to tie what we're doing with this contract in with the Miller leg consultant to allow for public input on these playgrounds specifically and in in future um recreational items you know down the line so for the record Thomas Hernandez director of engineering and Public Works uh so we currently this as you mentioned this is the design work order for for find as well as uh as duber Community Park we're also working on a couple of others that we have already authorized through a um through a similar work order uh so at this point we're in the early stages we still have time to go through the uh kickoff process however it's not to say that this can't be and it would likely be set up where it would be uh concurrent with the overall Miller leg study and the and the overall Parks master plan study um Kristen has likely some better better input on on the actual timeline for that so I'll go ahead and defer to her for that that por thank you good evening mayor and Town Council for the record Kristen George director of Parks and Recreation for the town town I'm happy to report that we do have um an alignment process that we're working on to make sure that Miller leg as our consultant for the facilities master plan they're very well aware of the the playground CIP as well as any other cips that are related to Parks and Recreation and the dollar amounts that are associated with those projects so one of the key things that we'll be gathering during our public input sessions which at this point we are scheduled to have stakeholder meetings which will include one-on-one interviews with each of the council members through during the week of March 12th through the 14th is what we're targeting and we do have some flexibility with that as well those will be some inperson or Zoom meetings with the consultant uh for the councils key stakeholders like our youth sports organizations and then a public meeting to follow that would take place either on T Thursday March 14th or on Monday April 1st where there's a few moving parts that are involved with that as far as getting the Consultants there are several of their team that are out of state they have to obviously make sure that they're available to attend space we have to make sure we've got enough space for those meetings to take place um but the the progress should move along concurrently for the playground so that the public will have the opportunity to provide as much input as possible on those designs and as a followup for those who may not be able to make the meeting will there be an online option or survey made available um for those that can attend yes we will be working we have been working with our community relations team and potentially Poco uh we are going to be having a citizen survey that will go out specific to Parks and Recreation facilities how do you feel they look now what improvements would you like to see what changes uh and that will be open for the public for a period of time um beginning likely just to align with the the public meeting as well okay thank you you're welcome thank you thank you Kristen will the public meeting be at the community center like we usually do with these things that's what we're hoping we uh we have the two dates identified and we are just trying to decide which date will work best uh we do have some some limitations on Space due to early voting that's scheduled to start taking place here within a couple of weeks so we just have to see which date works better but yes we are planning for the community center great thank you how are you advertising to the citizens we are working with community relations to uh have we're scheduling like a media blitz so to speak so that we will make sure that we're including information that's already up on the town's website about the master plan the process uh and also through social media content uh making sure that we're pushing information outwards um also we're intending to put some signs within our parks that are frequented by a lot of our users that have the valuable input that we're looking for um as well as any other information sources that the uh consultant can provide us as avenues that have worked for them with previous master plan studies sounds good thank you you're welcome any other questions that's all I have thank you okay uh can I have a motion in a second on resolution 30-24 motion to approve second motion a second all in favor signify by saying I I motion carries unanimously uh moving on to regular agenda ordinance 4-24 and first reading um I is turn it over to staff for presentation good evening Council for the record thatch har planning and zoning department uh this is a town initiated application to amend section 27264 entitled applications for rehearing uh the section outlines the procedures for the application withdrawal and rules that restrict the resubmittal of any application that has been denied in the past 24 months uh by this body staff has provided you in your packets with research regarding similar procedures that are followed around the region and um the language provided to you within the ordinance in the packets has been updated since before going to the Planning and Zoning commission to reflect and provide different types of thresholds for your consideration in line with typical topics of concern that uh come up during the hearing process if you'd like to receive an updated approval from the Planning and Zoning commission staff can provide and schedule an applic the application return to the commission uh but I'd be glad to answer any questions that you might have for me right now thank you there any questions just real quick does this change the uh ability for an applicant to withdraw their application at the time like the day of the meeting or you know in the past they we've had where an applicant didn't feel like the vote was going to go their way so that they were given the opportunity to withdraw their application from that meeting does this take away the their ability to do that I believe they would be able to still do that if it falls within the uh the um CLA judicial process okay any other questions um I have a question you said this is similar to other municipalities within palmach County uh we provided the research that we included in the packet that shows other uh generally generally okay thank you yet yeah um you know over the years we sort of had you know we had some language that wasn't you know clearly defined about you know you know withdrawing and re resubmitting after you know or resubmitting before the 24 months but um the five criteria to just impose one of them I think it has enough teeth I think we should impose at least two because I I still don't want to see uh staff overwhelmed with you know applications coming back a month or two later and I want applicants to we're always very serious about hear about our development not to say people play games but I just want them coming in with something that's serious don't ask for the world and then you know then we're going to beat them up on the council and you know horse trade and all that I want proper applications coming up and if they can't do that that to bring a similar application back on the same property it's going to be drastically different so I I just think I don't think this holds has enough teeth for us for for myself to be comfortable with voting for it so I would I would ask that we impose either one or two and three so one and three or two and three and I I I'd be more comfortable with voting for this you're talking about intersection under B excuse me you're talking about the requirements under B the five requirements yes yeah so you want to do specifically one well it says you you have to um you have to apply um uh meet one one or more of the five um requirements I I I think we should do at least two two or more two or well yeah two or more one through three so one or three or two or three minimum and then if they want to do more which I doubt it but I want this to have some teeth yeah I agree so um just a comment um and then certainly it's whatever the majority decides I just want to comment a couple things in touching on that number one I appreciate the attachment for what other municipalities have done that's very helpful and just for the record I want to say that because I think what was presented to us was I think more stringent than these others had from what I looked at um but then I just want to defend the position that we're doing because for example the gardens had similar applications would not be considered for six months I think we're hearing from the public right that you know it should there should be a time delay so I just wanted to distinguish that there's a conscious decision made by staff even in presenting it for us to be distinguished but yet it was helpful to see because it seems like like the ranges of change were stepped up in here which I appreciate so in other words you know decrease in intensity of 25% decrease in density of 40% those are significant changes otherwise they do have to wait um so I just wanted to point that out now I'm open if the majority and this is first reading so you know we could also ponder about that um but but it's the pleasure of the council whether you ready want to go ahead and you know with as you were suggesting or we we think about it whether it should be two or more or specific ones or what have you um but to some degree for example a decrease in density of 40% is likely to Res result in a reduction in traffic you know I mean so some of these things you you'd almost expect you're going to get multiple just an OP just an observation right but but I agree with the concern if there's a way you could you know that they could just eat by by just doing one then I'd be concerned so again you it was your suggestion what your uh it just appears to me just since the the recent the the Seaglass situation where you know he came they came back and we it got to prove it was changed drastically I don't want that to continue because since I've been here you know like you asked about the denial or with withdrawing the day of a vote I'm all for that if they don't think they have it they can withdraw and and tweak it but I don't want just wishy-washy applications coming in over and over again it just it ties everybody up yeah it's not fair to them it's not fair to us it's and staff yeah I I agree changing it to make it at least two of those five um and then also I know that it was stated in the uh report from staff um the Town Council want to receive an updated recommendation from pnz commission staff can schedule that item for the reconsideration so whatever we decide here I do think I'd like to at least get input from them because I know that it was a 4-3 vote from them for this in the first place and the reason was because they were favoring a 12 month restriction instead of a 24 so um I'd like to at least get input from them back before like once we kind of figure out what we're going to do and make sure that our commissioners uh agree with that as well so I think the intent you know was to to clarify and provide criteria um we we learned from staff that you know over the course of something like 10 11 years as long as um the staff member at the time in October when he was presenting to us was here this has only come across one time so it does not come across very often and we want to be careful in how much change we introduce to our code over a single instance in 11 years um in that way you know I was very hesitant and actually I think you know I disagree with the 8 days because that is a significant departure um we have a practice of allowing it closer to the day a lot can happen in eight days um I know that um Boon Beach you know is one example but I in conversations with others you know some allow up until the final action you could allow until the day or the motion whatever it is I think we shouldn't have such a major departure in that regard because the intent was to provide um criteria right what makes a materially different application and so then my question on Section B was under these criteria listed could Bush Road come back you know could that item that we had come back under these criteria and the answer is yes it could have so that's with one or more um and and I had a question with the building height by one or more stories because depending on how large the project is taking off one story may not make such a big difference um depending on the design or whatnot of you know intensity or density so you know it's helpful to hear this this is the first time we're talking about it and there are you know a lot of options um to maneuver with it I thought you know eliminate number four um I like the idea of two or more I hadn't thought of that so that you know it's a good item uh I would like to eliminate the eight days and keep the practice that we have but create those criteria because that eliminates the burden on staff they understand the direction of council it does make it more difficult um but provides flexibility within the system so you know it's kind of where I'm at right now I think that one one thing I want to add because I heard staff say that per they're able to withdraw it per quasa judicial I don't know specifically what that is but in that last hearing when I gave them the right to withdraw it it had been Council policy to always do that so to you know who's ever sitting in the seat to other than Council policy changing that was always our practice I just want everybody to understand but I'd ask Mr bar he I think he made want a comment about quas judicial what rights do they have in there well as Council knows the quad judicial process winds up with Council deliberation and at that point there's no more participation for from the parties that being the staff and the applicant so if the council's desire is to continue with the unofficial policy and not the Quasi judicial judicial policy that you had then I would suggest you change the um eight days to until um um Council begins its deliberation that would give the mayor the opportunity to say council's now going to deliberate on and vote on this item do you wish to proceed Mr applicant or Miss applicant and uh that would restore the essentially The Unofficial policy that you had sense I like that idea I agree another thing to consider is how many times do we want to allow an applicant to exercise this option yeah they keep doing it over and over and over again until they get something through us or do want a limit how many times 24 months I I think as Council sunam said from from practice this hasn't been an issue and so what we're doing here is what we never had before is we never had criteria so now we've deliberated about that we have solid criteria and again this is as much for the public as it is for us just then they're confused when they think we reject Ed something and they see it come back so you know that's why the time it gives them specific targets to I like that the the old method we had I thought worked well but it wasn't clarified so I think we need to clarify it so so with that I'll take a uh accept a motion on the floor on this ordinance um motion to approve amending SEC under Section B starting at line 19 uh change one or more to two or more and then under section two line 14 changing uh the 8 day requirement to uh State until Council begins deliberations second Motion in the second um I'd ask Mr bar to read ordinance 424 on short title an ordinance of the Town Council of the town of Jupiter Florida amending chapter 27 article 3 division 2 section 27264 of the code of the town of Jupiter pertaining to development applications and rearings providing for severability providing for the repeal of laws in conflict and providing for an effective date we have a motion a second all in favor signify by saying I I motion carries unanimously moving on to reports um Town attorney thank you mayor uh we have had a series of mediations going on with respect to the sper property it is important that uh the town manager and I meet individually with each of you for a half hour um to up dat you on that uh before Friday I know that's a constrained time frame but uh we do have a uh another attorney's meeting on Friday and then we have a uh continued public hearing on February 29th at which time if we have not reached some type of mediated settlement agreement the uh magistrate has indic indicated that he wants the hearing to begin so we have a a constrained time frame I think we've made good progress but we need to we need to update you on that so that we can make our plans for the upcoming meetings and that is it okay uh Town manager thank you mayor just a couple of things on on my report um first of all um some of you may have seen that in response to recent citizen comments some of our Town Council meetings regarding transparency and dissemination of information we've upgraded the website now updated the website to include content related to utilities construction projects um under the heading of what's happening around town the web page and if you go to the web page you can click on the link provides information such as project names project status anticipated project completion date and a brief project description for active and upcoming construction projects being being administered by the water and storm water utilities uh going forward the content will be updated on a monthly basis or as often as the status of the project changes um we're also in the process of developing an interact interactive map which will allow visitors to the web page to see where the projects are especially located throughout the town limits and water service areas so um that's a pretty significant Improvement there we'll continue um working on the things that we hear through these uh through citizen comments the second thing is I'm sure many of you have seen the emails regarding uh the frequency that bright line is going through town and the use of the horns and and so I wanted to just update you on a couple of things as you know we're we are um going back and forth between uh bright line and FEC on the fence issue and I know the town engineer Where's Thomas he's here somewhere um has recently as this afternoon had more conversations but just a couple of concerns about the grant the rais grant does not expire and bright line is currently working with fot and F to finalize the grant agreements um that we expect to complete the notice of establishment application for The Quiet zones within two weeks and um we've reached out again uh to Bright line and opened up some discussions a lot of this these challenges are relating to maintenance of that fence so we're opening some discussions on the potential you know can we expedite this if the town agrees to um take on the maintenance and what would that look like and um and we've been told that um they would uh they they would take our um suggestion under consideration they've acknowledged receipt of our request and are looking into what that time frame would be to give us a response back and in large part because they have so many communities along the line uh I guess that are relating having the same issues that we're having and so um so we have been following up on these things including the use of the the uh train horns and the decel levels and um you know everything that we see bright line is inmet liance with um you know the state statutes federal regulations in terms of the use of those horns but we'll continue working uh through that issue and then um just other couple of other small things um you may or may not you should if you didn't see the uh information I sent to you today the CRA the stakeholder public meetings began today and you know and so I know um we had the first of several and uh and we'll be giving you feedback on that and you should you've received a request from us for a CRA workshop on March 13th if you can let us know if that works for your schedule or not we' appreciate it so we can get that out and notify the public and that's my report mayor councel for um I'm gonna piggy back on what town managers was just talking about the quiet zones versus um fencing and I know the two had been linked together and I'd like to see if we could possibly separate the two so they're not linked together on the quiet zones I believe are option that's being paid for by the trains themselves and the quiet zones have to do with intersections not areas in between whereas the fencing was in the areas in between so they aren't really related in a in a clear and obvious way but the horns at the intersections are huge complaint from a lot of people I've talked to and it seems almost needlessly so if we can get those to be quiet zones it'll be safer in that there it's virtually impossible the cars to drive around it with the double barriers down which makes those significantly safer with or without the horns and the horns now are are four times an hour it's as many as six times an hour hour which is very common almost continuous sound effect so if we could separate quiet zones from the thin scene I think that would go a long way to helping a lot of Citizen complaints on the mov um they have a 110 decel limit on the horn I don't know if they're adhering to that or not but sometimes we can hear it starting out at Tony pen and it's near blast until they're through with County Line Road so it seems like they're very common and somewhat accessive and again I don't see quite how that's relating to the fencing project um Chief could I put you on a spot real quick I'm sorry to do this to you unprepared but how many incidences have we had I know you you uh gave us great news and that you prevented two suicide attempts on the tracks how many Crossing mid intersection is have we had any fatalities or accidents where fencing would help I don't recall any accidents where someone was just walking across the railroad tracks as a train was coming the incidents since that we have all always been purposefully done in an attempt to commit suicide which this probably won't help so much as having an officer respond possibly any any measure would be a a helpful measure but not likely well another issue too is whether we have offenses on both sides of the track um do you think that would help that situation well the the intent of at least one fence is to cause people who um wish to just cross the railroad tracks to go to The Crossings rather than that mid block two would be preferable for people to keep them out but there would Al ultimately be entrances at the crosswalks where an individual could walk through so it wouldn't completely um block it off or prevent it I guess would the fences be far enough away from the tracks somebody did get caught in between those two I'm sorry say that one more time if if the proximity of these fences to the track are they far enough away so somebody could grab a hold the fence and let a train go by and not be caught up in it there's a significant difference you could stand in between a fence and the railroad tracks without being in danger being hit by the train okay so maybe we can get by with one for now and then maybe add a second set if we find that necessary again we're but now it sounds like we're almost fixing something doesn't have a problem yet and I think we see that it is a problem throughout the whole line bright line but not necessarily Jupiter since we've not had an incident yet it sounds like other than not an accident but just some thoughts about that I'd like to be proactive especially when we're possibly saving somebody's life very much like that idea but part of the reason why we can is the expense of this taking on the expense of the Town um it'll be easier for us expense wise to only have one fence and if we were to do that I'd recommended be on the West Side between the community that's where it is the track that's where it is we we made that decision I'm G to comment on that but I was waiting to go down the Das till it came to me is that all you had yes uh vice mayor um I was never comfortable with the safe zones until the fences went in uh you don't have a problem so you have a problem you know so I I mean the more you can keep people off the tracks kids Indigent whoever um a town manager any timeline on the fences is there any I mean no they're still going back and forth between the two and you know that was my point that was bringing up is they've acknowledged that we've asked about this meaning bright line um but they're not prepared to give us a response as of this afternoon in terms of how much time it would take to work through all of these things okay um so we we were going to get one fence correct on the on the west side west side Pine Garden South um I don't know I hear the trains all day every day I know it's it's a major issue but um you know we've been lucky but look's probably going to run up some some point so I mean any need DET turn to get people you know between the crossings from Crossing and some people will do it anyway but you know um I know I'd like to hear what my colleagues think about this now um by by the way so just I'll comment about and give a status on the quiet Zone because I in fact as the uh Council representative on the TPA uh I've stayed in contact with and I talked to the town manager every once in a while with an update so I've stayed in very close contact with bright line for several years now so just to give a status number one we had by I believe Das action concluded that we weren't going to pursue the quiet Zone till the fence was in now we can change that so um I want to make sure that we had been under the understanding I had that we couldn't submit a notice of establishment till bright line was ready I heard now that's changed so we can submit it so I just heard the town manager said we're going to proceed to do that correct so that's the next step whether or not you know it's implemented that's the next step correct uh Mr kitro correct mayor okay so then yeah so so then um the issue is is it isn't bright line bright line has to work through FEC who owns the RightWay so FEC is the one that's hindering the progress here and I'm just I'm not going to say anything more than that on the record so I am working with bright line and um because they were the one that put up a hallwood fencing going anywhere um otherwise phase one would have have been installed um I understand the uh what the public is going through heck I hear it where I live it's just incredible so just so you know I've asked a question I was curious does um are they at the higher level you know of the decimal level it seems like it so I've gone down that path I haven't got an answer yet but I'm wondering if they've raised it so then if there's a limit they have to be within course we'd have to ask them then so I've asked the information have a got it yet but I was just pursuing the possibility which would be their discretion of whether or not let's say if it was at the upper end or if they could lower it because it's certainly gotten louder so I understand that so that's you know I'll report as we make any progress on that whatever but then I'll just suggest I've told the public this for years when someone asks is the quiet Zone does not give a right does not absolutely assure that they're not going to do the horn and they still it just means they're no longer obligated to push the horn and um I'm kind of inclined to believe that bright line since it is the highest fatality Railway per mile in the country is not going to be inclined to even if we got the designation to stop I think we've spoken them enough about the need for some fencing that they may and this is just speculating on my part and uh you know so um because there's been so many instances of uh you know so yes it could cut it down but that would be there that's their right only thing we can do is get a quiet Zone designation so they no no longer obligated to do it so that's why we continue I appreciate staff reaching out the bright line we'll do like likewise and we'll get give a status update and I appreciate now we're going to move ahead with the notice of establishment to get that process going uh but you know seeing that we saved two lives already um on people attempting suicide I'm so grateful for that um because uh and I do believe that the fencing that we had set as a council you know requirement had negotiated it with bright line that they're going to pay for it the phase one um they had the funding but again FC stopped them from doing it that's the fact and um I'd feel better because it is on the west side of pine gard and South I do believe it would even inhibit somebody that you know to some degree that you know might you know take their lives but even more importantly you know I'm concerned about kids as a lot of kids that's a that's a beaten pathway you know to go from Pine Garden South to Public Shopping Center so that's the status on it but but I understand we have to probably make some tough decisions here um and first step is we'll file this notice and see where it goes from there right right which is what and we but we never expected we'd be here at this point in time still not having def fening so you know I I can't say that but you read every week there's another fatality so while you said it's virtually impossible to get stuck still happening all the time so yeah any event that's the status on that I have a I have a question mayor you're sort of you've been the front man on this but um long with staff long with staff um do you feel there's a higher probability if we get the quiet zones through that the fencing issue with bright line kind of goes away is there would you is it basically all FC it is all F I know what is insurance and all that but FC owns the RightWay bright line doesn't it's their track and we were lucky to get bright line to accept it because the what other municipalities have had with way of issues is not having property to put a fence on you know so uh we couldn't construct the fence that Bright's going to because we don't have rights to go on FC property so you know we went down the most practical approach um and again so I'll uh we we'll mutually try to get a status I we wanted staff to be pursuing this separate from what I'm doing but if the situations change to change I just from memory I recall we we tied the fencing to the to to the to the quiet Zone we did to make sure everything happened because we again we thought it was going to happen you know in a reasonable and now that it isn't that's why I've started to pursue other options if there even options to ask about decibal level you know are they at the upper level but you're an engineer you can question that as well because that that that'd be that'd be a viable solution possibly right if they're at the upper limit G can you lower it still stay within the limits but that would be their they would have to make a change to their horn right but at least if we could get the data then you could ask I've asked but I haven't gotten an answer okay um so then um I just wanted to comment about two other items um one is on ebikes number one um others may have seen where Key West passed an ordinance prohibiting ebikes and uh secondly I just want to emphasize because we've talked about this a number of times and even you know as recent as the last TPA meeting you know County Commissioner and others have been concerned about the the behavior and safety uh issues that are being created by irresponsible ebike uh bike users um and U looking at the minutes um a couple meetings back councelor sunrm had Su had asked for an ordinance on ebikes and if we all don't know here on the Das when one person asks something and it isn't second or third then it may not be going anywhere so I do want to number one recognize her for because I've talked about ebikes a number of time but you specifically asked uh Council sunstrom for an ordinance I do think it's time because basically all local governments are concerned about this uh and ultimately it may take you know some State changes but uh it's fast upon us we're getting you know we all probably got an email from a resident um so uh I don't want to belabored on the Das other than to uh support um three he makes it happen um an ordinance and then I would just suggest staff get with us individually and start working on what could what is a reasonable ordinance um don't want to get into kind of what should be in the ordinance but I do think we have to take some action um so that we have more than what we have now because everybody I've heard when I hear it at the TP it's asked there isn't any answer other than it's it's a mounting concern here um so um and then lastly just on Park improvements I again I appreciate councilor sunstrom um helping to Champion the effort on the park improvements and I just wanted to say a couple things with regard to that because you know one of my granddaughters is in travel soccer so I'm having the opportunity again to uh travel to other areas and see what others have it always was the case that Jupiter had uh some of the finest uh you know parks that exist because you know so many people would come here I do think our Parks have become dated and um so we may have the same quantity but they're become dated so that's why we have this program um I which I support and uh um I just wanted to share that perspective and it's interesting because little amenities make a difference you know is let's take in soccer fields for example um you know the parents or and even the teams in some Fields I think ours some of them don't have even benches for the team to sit on um and then you know as I travel around you know others do so it may be some simple things that could be done in some cases to make improvements sooner than you know years I'm just going to make that suggestion and then you know I think one of the things particularly when um somehow we need to emphasize that we have a regional park in the gardens and somehow we have to make sure we're leveraging that because the public should know that the gardens you know to some degree should always now have the best because we agreed years ago for the funding to go to the Gardens to pay for the regional park um and we probably should be just making sure that our residents and our programs are getting a fair share use of the regional park because effectively it's part of what we're entitled to that may not be happening so I just want to kind of point that out um on the his with you know saying you know let's somebody maybe with Parks I know that uh uh Parks Rec left but we can follow up on that to see making sure again that we're getting we're not being denied one time we had been given and and I have it I don't know where I put it but the agreement for users and it and it is open and it has to be because it's a regional park one of their Parks is with that that's all I had I moved down to das to to councelor sunstrom now I'm all worked up um so I'll just say that uh on ebikes it is something that we are hearing more in emails also uh I went to a president's council meeting so the presidents of uh each HOA in Abacoa and that was a topic of conversation it was brought up in that meeting they're all seeing it they're all facing it um I had brought up you know the idea of looking at zoning you could look at speeds there are a lot of different things to look at there but also just enforcement and knowing what the rules are you know I can't say I'm per perfectly clear on that on speeds on sidewalks versus roads you know they can they can go on either they're different types capable of different speeds so I think you know maybe a comprehensive approach of just understanding what the rules are um and kind of having a common understanding sharing it enforcing the rules on the books but then also looking at what we could do because you know councils can create ordinances that are and we've got State statutes but they can be more restrictive right we can't be less restrictive than State statutes but we can be more restrictive in ways that serve us maybe we don't want them on Trails we have a lot of walking trails here and depending on you know the people and the reason they want to do that um pal Beach Island doesn't allow motorized vehicles on the Lake Trail so that's a big issue and a lot of people misinterpret the signage there for you know motorized like golf carts or something like that they don't necessarily think of Scooters or ebikes so um I do think it's something we should look into and and if we can I'd love more information on jpd what they're seeing um you know what what the rules are and how to enforce it um quiet zones so I haven't been here too long but you know what I've noticed in conversations that we've had on the stas about quiet zones is that and what I've not you know noticed just out and about in the county is um how strange you know I lived in London briefly and the trains are always outside of the city you know on the edge they're never in the downtown area and here in Southern Florida you've got several downtowns or commercial areas that this train is traveling through and the characteristics are so different um I live on Frederick small Road I hear it hear it at Donald Ross hear it at Frederick small hear it at Tony Penna so um but we have a lot of greenery there and then you go into intersections with Indiantown more commercial area you know things like that I know in West Palm there you know you have lots of pedestrians Frederick small doesn't have as many pedestrians as you know Downtown West Palm so you're having so many conflicts and the lights and the synchronizing of Lights is really difficult as well I remember the gates closing on me when I had a protected left turn green light so there are just a lot of thing you know it we all need time to ensure safety across the board and um and I think they're still working things out because I love those lights to be a little better and we're still working things out but I think the connection between what you see you you know specifically in our town because it's different in different municipalities in the space between the intersections they are linked because you know during the day we've got this Crossing from Pine Garden South to Publix and we do see children we see a lot of people a lot of pedestrians making that Crossing and you can tell because of the path that's been worn and there's warning for those pedestrians right um in those horns that are required if they're not required given the speeds of the train which are higher speed now um it could lead to real problems we've gotten very lucky and I would hate you know to see that especially given the track record um that this train has so far um and then just with Parks you know I've been trying to explain it to Residents and and I live in Abacoa so I say you know our Parks it's like a 25y old house you know it's time to get new appliances we got a new roof you know we we're not getting the new iPhone every generation we wait until the end of a useful life and when the useful life is complete we upgrade that's responsible home ownership it's responsible um you know leadership and so we're getting to the end of the useful life of a lot of these facilities with Recreation and so now it's time to look at that upgrade and it's exciting it's good news we should be really excited about this and I think it should be a really fun exercise with our residents to look at what we can do in Recreation um specifically but I agree with the mayor the regional park is one example and another you know jtaa it's Jupiter taquesta Athletic Association but we provide the fields right taquesta has fewer Parks than we do and so in terms of who's providing what facilities and who's providing which participants and the numbers just ensuring fairness across you know the structure of recreation I think that's really important and I encouraged the consultant to look at at these structures because there are a lot of resources to us um in the regional park you know in our Partnerships and we should make sure that they're fair to Jupiter residents you guys touched on everything I wanted to talk about so thank you very much Al righty uh with that um time is now 9:03 and we'll join the meeting e