e e e e e e e back in Action department number one Office of Management and budget items that require board approval Miss Stephanie merley good afternoon we have two items on the department 1 om item today um our first item is a permission to accept the Federal Transit Administration section 5307 formula grant this is a grant Award of 1.1 million to provide operating and capital assistance funds to the Marty um system this grant includes $400,000 for the purchase of a bus a grant match of 58,000 is required which will be matched with another public transportation block grant as well as the transit division operating budget which is already budgeted the second item is a permission to accept the um FD T South County Line Road Bridge replacement project um we are getting an award for $3 million for funding the construction of the bridge replacement it requires a a match of approximately $3.2 million which is already budgeted within the bridge maintenance CIP um and we just need a CIP revision to recognize those Grant revenues that were unanticipated and that's all [Applause] second okay we have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner heatherington all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously Contra contracts that meet the threshold for board approval over or or million dollars or greater Christy Brotherton excellent speech this morning very well done very well done absolutely we don't have a mouse down here okay um Christy Brotherton Chief procurement officer I have one item for your consideration today which is a continuing Services contract for Aviation planning Services uh this contract has a maximum not to exceed value of $3 million and a maximum not to exceed term of 5 years staff is recommending that the board award the contract to environmental science associates Corporation and Hoy Tanner and Associates and staff is recommending that the board authorize the County administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request and that concludes this item second motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner hatherton all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously department number three discussion for the board to provide Direction on next steps for the Palm City Property purchase in October 20123 Mr Donaldson and Stephanie merley thank thank you Stephanie for hanging around on this one she wanted to walk away and come back I don't blame her um no in dramatic effect yes dramatic he's cominging back coming back okay so the this is to talk about the property that we acquired in in Palm City uh this last year um and uh which we purchased for $4 million $28,000 the board uh directed staff to um look at any public purposes that we might need for this property and also we did a uh a a bridge loan if you will from uh reserves um and then we were directed to consider a bank loan uh the third item was to uh you know look at Future uses of the property so since that time um two things have happened one that are significant one is Public Works has had in the CIP for a number of years the Improvement of Danford Creek uh in the vicinity of this property uh it shows up on our studies in terms of some restrictions that we need to clean out and so this having a portion of this property to provide access for danworth Creek um uh would be valuable they don't need a lot of it but there's a triangular piece that is to the west of the entrance Road that's already there uh and and in proportional to what we already spent um acreage uh unit cost it uh values at 800,000 so that those funds uh uh uh we would use from uh our our some fund balance in public works um to to pay for that and uh would not affect our our current year operations the the other piece of it was the the district funds has uh 250,000 that we were going to use on the down payment no matter what for the loan and uh and with a bank loan uh currently at 4 and a half% uh we'd be looking at an excess of I think 500,000 or so in in interest charges over the life of the loan I know there's a desire also to look to be to look at the um millage rates this year and keep all millage rates flat there um we were close on the district millage on whether and to be able to keep that flat to be able to pay for the um payment and interest charges on a bank loan um it's also significant to note that we we took 4 million out of the uh fund balance or from uh general fund reserves um the 800,000 uh plus the uh 250,000 uh will go back into the general fund reserves and then uh the clerk had done a good job this last year with um uh our investments in terms of uh uh what we do with what we have in our in our reserves and Stephanie in your item earlier was able to put back a couple of million dollars into those uh general fund reserves so we have and she also mentioned hurricane reserves which is we have a separate fund now that's kind of dealing with uh capital projects where Parks Public Works types of repairs um so we were able to reimburse that largely with FEMA reimbursements that we finally got in and some other funds so that leaves you about a million short on the general fund reserves and so that's why um the first item was should we continue with a bank loan and staff's uh apprisal was that uh it would make more sense just to continue this with a just an interfund loan since we our deficit in the general fund Reserve is now significantly reduced the other concept is is that there's been discussion with the district uh uh about putting this back on the market market and if you were to sell this depending upon the bank loan you may have penalties if you pay it off early and those types of things so given the fact that um um depending upon the loan we get it would be simpler to do an interfund loan so the the policy discussion on this is twofold one is would you accept switching to go from a bank loan to an interf fund loan and then the second piece of that is historically for the last um 10 years or so you've been doing inter fund loans at 0% and that's what's presented in here although if the board wanted to change that policy you could you could uh charge a nominal percent of something similar to what um uh srf does which is around 2% so that's so that's the first uh uh policy discussion is simply that was the main point of this item was to look at one accepting the the use of a portion of the property by public works and allow them to uh purchase that piece from the uh essentially from the uh the CRA and the district uh and then the second piece was to allow us to go to an interfund loan and if you consider that then what's the um interest rate and uh and then finally the other item to consider was um the final disposition of the property and how we resolve um what is to be done with the remaining property um it's been suggested from some uh expressed interest of of members of the business community that they would like to see some like an opportunity to build some uh um commercial office space or something of that in nature there and so um what the only way we could see of doing that and still retain the the original purpose was to limit the scale and intensity what was going on there was by a deed restriction and we've had some conversations with um um our our uh legal council that has helped us with the um real estate matters in the past and it's it is within the board's purview to have a deed restriction that would it essentially limit the type of activities that could go on there whether you could limit the number of Stories the number of square foot you can even limit to the type of development let's say It's Only commercial and no residential I'm not asking you to uh actually come up with that today but the idea was that if you are willing to consider that staff would bring back at a future agenda item a recommendation of what the or specific those restrictions on there since I don't have um the actual deed restrictions for you to approve today but we would bring that back uh if that was uh okay with the board so so that's the the uh uh um the general overview again we're we're looking at uh first I think the most important thing for us to to to establish is whether or not we continue uh going out for a bank loan or authorize the internal loan uh uh we are recommending that we go to an internal loan again for two reasons one that we've been able to put some the the amount of deficit that's in the general fund reserves has now been reduced to 1 million while the the CRA and the district still owe the amount that was borrowed um uh the uh the other reason was is that if there is an inclination or approval to put this back on the market this likely would be a temporary loan at best anyway so that's um that concludes my remarks and Stephanie's here to help with any uh uh analysis on on on on loans or rates if we need to uh and then myself and Miss Woods can talk to deed restrictions if uh if that the the purview of the board commissioner campy thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Donaldson it was very difficult to sit there quietly and hear that whole presentation but I appreciate you very much and miss woods and Miss merly we have had uh colleagues we have had plenty of meetings about this behind the scenes with staff I wanted to First say thank you to the folks that help us uh put this deal together in the first place I'm sure some of you had heard from the same people that I had that this the uh just to bring folks to remind them what we were talking about here um it's a 6 acre piece of property on Martin Highway uh right next door to Palm City Elementary School and also uh adjacent to Palm City School Avenue which in the old school configuration was a somewhat uh much less used entrance and exit to the school site most of the traffic for school Palms Elementary School came down 34th Street but when they built a new school they eliminated all um vehicular traffic on 34th Street to the school site except for teachers and buses and all of the students biking walking or riding in a car with their parents have to use Palm City School Avenue the second thing is is it's 6 Acres but if you can you bring up the picture of site that shows I guess the parcel that the Public Works was interested in that okay so now the 6 acres is all encompassed to the right here where it says 1.7 acres in that green section and then you see Southwest Newberry Court the Newberry court and everything to the west of it that green shaded area counts as the density calculation but really nothing could have been used used there uh or done there for the development most of it would have had to happen on the site to the East and also if you see right above where it says 1.17 Acres there's a little house there in that corner that little corner part is not part of the property so imagine if you will for the my colleagues know this but for those folks maybe watching at home along the bottom of the screen is Southwest Martin Highway and so if you see right to the left left of where there's a tree at the entrance of Southwest Newberry Court the three-story the first of the three three story apartment buildings would start 14 ft off the sidewalk it would be 30 to 35 ft tall it would come directly heading east and stop sort of where that dashed line comes down the center dividing that Center portion in half is the first building then to the right of that building to the corner of Palm City School Avenue is the second three story building then you turn the corner there was this you know just north of the building on Martin highway is a swimming pool and Clubhouse and then the third of the three-story buildings aiming east facing East would be there so as you know in the CRA that you have to build close to the road so the concept of a landscape buffer or anything like that would have been minimal you actually would have opened your door if you had one of those apartments you would have opened your front door stepped out onto the porch walked down a couple of steps and been standing on the sidewalk on Martin highway so I really appreciate that um we were able to stop that now people say why did you do that well it was legally uh allowable so there wasn't much uh in our discretion to stop that kind of project now would that have been compatible with the local area no there's nothing at all similar to that not not just here nearly anywhere in in all of Palm City that would have been the first time something like that would have happened and then some folks said to me well you know you're supposed to be you know a big proponent for affordable housing and you're eliminating 90 Apartments these were not affordable housing units these were going to be market rate units there were going to be 123 parking spaces for 90 apartments one two and three bedroom apartment so I don't have to convince my colleagues hopefully that this wouldn't have been our best work now some people say well you just gave money to the developer you just gave him a free they paid 2.1 million they probably they didn't share with us exactly what they had spent to date but you can imagine bringing a 90 unit Apartment project through our development process it's got a price tag I was ballparking between a half a million to 600 or 700,000 to bring It Forward um so then we had it appraised uh three of of you agreed with me to uh at least enter into the negotiations which I very much appreciate we did it appraised for 4.5 million in one appraisal and 4,50 th000 in another uh it came back to the board for the final um and we were able to still maintain a majority to purchase it that day we started to talk about you know how would you fund it and my friend and colleague commissioner Jenkins was pretty adamant about making sure it was going to be a bank loan I did not want to get too deep into a debate with him at the time because all along my intention as the district commissioner was that we would not hold on to this property it uh you don't spend $4 million to make it a dog park even though people we need a dog park but that wouldn't have made fiscal Financial sense lots of residents reached out to me and said just leave it alone just leave it exactly the way that it is and I don't think that made fiscal sense either um if it was already our property maybe but you can't spend that kind of money and then it also if it's if it was a governmental uh use it's off the tax roll forever so I did not want to at that time negotiate of the negotiation show all of my cards up front but the goal there was to get the property into our um ownership and then um the second phase which is what we're doing now is to put back out I will share with you all that several people prior to that whole experience and many more afterwards have reached out to me and said I like a piece I have a great idea I have this can I get a can I get a percentage can I get the whole thing but as you well know this has to follow the governmental process of request for proposal and I told all of those people that you know some were probably not in a financial situation to do it but several are and I told them please you know um follow along with the process and when we get to an RFP please include you know your bids in the RFP process now to what Mr Donaldson said about deed restrictions you know a lot of people would say well you know how do you stop this from happening again you know how do you uh make sure that the person that buys it doesn't build 70 Apartments uh or something that the community at large would also not feel is compatible and then miss woods and and her legal team said that could be accomplished through deed restrictions um short of changing the zoning it is still within the CRA but um making sure that it it's now that we have it in our uh our ownership that we could have a little more say we would all like to have that ability to have a little more say on what would be developed you know truly in in this portion of Palm City in the heart of palm City and and I heard a quote yesterday uh the CRA had a development uh presentation at the Blake Library which I thought was very well done and the gentleman that was making the presentation said you we can't eliminate development but we can guide it and I thought that was clever so now here we have our opportunity to guide development here um five of us up here including our staff there's all sorts of like it should be this or it should be that um to commissioner Jenkins point about the financing I would hope that we can um based on what we heard Mr Donaldson say and understanding now that there's no intention of trying to hang on to the property for any extended period of time if anything it's the opposite of that I appreciate staff bringing it Forward today because we're trying to move along as quickly as possible to get it back out there if you will so an interfund loan um is the smartest for several reasons it's obviously internal as Mr Donaldson said if we do um engage a on the street Bank a retail bank there's a lot of strings attached if we end up keeping the money for 6 months or three or four months or whatever how long the process would take to close why would we want to just you know penalize ourselves with fees if we didn't need to I hope you hearing from our staff and me that we our ultimate goal is to as quickly as possible put this out as an RFP I went to the NAC with Susan corus and Jordan Pistorius to address the NAC board because currently they are our partners in this because some of the funding would have come from the CRA funds in Palm City as well as all of my district funds my goal is that as I said to them is that we never put our hand in the pocket of the NAC for the funding because if we turn this the way I'm hoping they are they're in the funding for years three four and five yes and the district funds were for one and two um so hopefully that will work in terms of the restrictions I believe that um commercial is appropriate uh the only restrictions that we're talking about and you I Mr Donaldson said that maybe we'd have to come back but that's delaying hopefully you guys can see it clear to that we would have as my suggestions no more than two stories and uh back it off from some of the current CRA requirements that would put it back up on the sidewalk uh I'd like to back it off the road uh off of Martin Highway a bit I think that it does not need to be residential uh at this particular point in time I think the commercial value of the property is more uh appealing to the folks that have reached out to me no one if I have eight people that have engaged me none of them said they wanted to put residential on it they all had unique business uh goals in mind when I met with this CRA in the NAC board in Palm City they had originally said well maybe we can make a list of the things that would like to have there and I said that that would be a very narrow kind of structure to I said it needs to be the opposite of that we need to discuss the things we wouldn't want there and let the market dictate um the free market dictate what someone thinks would work um with the criteria now obviously you can't really see it in this picture but all of those white roofed buildings to the to the right upper corner that's a self storage and some industrial but directly behind that just just just on the top of that picture is Palm City Elementary School residential leaves you open to who lives there you're within 100 feet I mean less than you know 100 fet of of the property of a school I would hope that my colleagues would agree that a commercial uh Endeavor would be the way to go and then in terms of what else did I have to tell you the inter interfund loan uh hopefully won't even as Mr Donaldson said won't be a long-term loan the money that uh the public works is looking to use um and then the district funds that I have in there currently would be the first sort of bite at it the other thing and I and this is I asked if I was allowed to mention it publicly and I am but it's not a done deal there's folks that own the property that's treelined in between um the shopping center to the west and that green box to the east that there is that is actually a portion of that is a developable piece of property that the owner has struggled to come up with anything that would be palatable and was hopefully still interested in potentially uh donating it to the county uh just to say look let me get this off my off my ledger sheet and uh and work that out so that's I know it was very short my my response but I hope that um I can answer your questions and that we can move forward on this um hopefully today thank you sir commissioner her yeah first of all the the $4 million appraisal was that for the existing raw land or was that for the developed project it was it it the the appraisers knew of the entitlements with the property uh but obviously doesn't include any actual construction on of it was a but it did uh they did consider the um the zoning and uh the current market value of that land and its development potential at $4 million 4 and a half million highest and best highest and best use yes um also the storm water piece what's the size of it 1.17 Acres okay uh also if you're if this is isn't in the CIP is if this wasn't programmed for purchase and you're going to instead be using $800,000 from Public Works what is not being done um this funding actually came from interest earned from the uh Market Investments that the clerk's office does okay that's countywide so every taxpayer is paying that um it's the franchise fee the storm water infrastructure franchise fee okay um hurricane Reserves countywide $10 million so all every taxpayer is paying for that general fund reserves every taxpayers is paying for that this isn't just coming out of the Palm City taxpayers uh Pockets we also have a a uh an informal policy of uh no indebtedness on our successors on our possible successors so and we o have uh we know that we're going to be pressured to have no new taxes this year so what's the uh mstu from this past year so the with the $250,000 down payment there's 600,000 available for carryover and then we would have to Levy the same 370 that um District 5 is currently levying so what is this it was first of all six plus 370 yes 250 plus 250 plus 6 Plus 370 so there's 600 that's already in the the uh was it was in unspent yes and three where are you getting the 370 the 370 is currently what district five levies 370,000 and and so the annual Tiff is the annual Tiff is going to be approximately $600,000 and it's going to pay for 3 years yes if you two and a half years from now you still own the property 1.8 and okay um yeah I I have I have real difficulty with an interfund loan because it's it m it's making everyone one in the county pay for it and we're depleting reserves in order to do this when it wasn't a a uh an anticipated expenditure it was a spur of the moment expenditure that taxpayers are going to be be on the hook for five years for yeah I I uh I'm I'm not going to be able to support that if you had if you had sufficient mstu funds and if you had sufficient uh Tiff funds you know i' I'd be I'd be supportive but this is not the case this is a a project that's being uh financed on the backs of countywide taxpayers can I say something yeah of course okay so we're taking $800,000 out of our $4 million purchase leaving 3.2 are you envisioning be able to off this property with the deed restrictions and the amount of acreage that's been reduced and recover 3.2 is that a question it is yes for a couple of reasons one and when okay how well some of that depends on you all first to to answer your second question first would we be able to sell the remaining property for approximately 3.2 million give or take there's a little bit extra there or less the par the parcel that's been removed was the most detrimental portion of the property for anyone else nothing could have happened to the west of Newberry court it's D you can't see it there in the picture but to the left of that green is Danforth Creek but it had value for density it had value for density however we're not making this a dog park or or you know uh something the value of Palm City centrally located Palm City property the meat and potatoes of the four acres the most valuable portion of the four acres is still there and so you've knocked down you've for 800,000 no one else would have had a value had any use of the property except for density increase except for public works because they're going to use it as access to Danforth no one else really could have done anything there and to with all due respect to my colleague um she is looking at a scenario that we don't have this conversation today that we don't put out an RFP that we leave it alone and you know I respect her opinion and her mindset she did not support the con the conversation to even negotiate a contract she did not support the purchased so that being said if we did follow along with my colleagues strategy they would be building 90 apartments right now right now that would have 90 apartments and so then not only the district commissioner but everybody else would have to uh this room would be filled up with people whether I brought them or not saying what are you doing most of the speakers this morning said stop it enough it does it's not compatible you're destroying the the the feel of our community there's nothing like this anywhere in Palm City I with the help of staff and some local residents crafted a plan that took basically a four approved project 90 Apartments um off the drawing board to our you know most of my residents probably our residents didn't realize this was going to happen but had they we would have had nothing but screaming and yelling so I appreciate my colleagues that backed this decision it's not on the backs of all taxpayers because you heard from miss merley the first two years are coming from District funds and the last three years if it even went that long are coming from the the CRA the Palm City CRA that's not everybody but that being said with the $800,000 to purchase this I mean give me a week and I will go through every land purchase that the county has made throughout the entire County and shown how much money the Palm City C and District 5 residents taxpayers chipped in to buy property in hob sound Port solo new Monrovia Jensen Beach tropical Farms I don't ever think of it that way everyone in the county should look at this and say okay that that worked I I I see this as a uh as one of the higher achievements that I will have accomplished in my political career is to not only stop those 90 apartments from being built right there but then put the property back out to something that the community can Embrace and uh there's a lot of different ways I I don't want to share with you what the folks all recognizable name local folks would love to have an opportunity to build there it will be it will go from something that was a blight in my opinion on the landscape in Palm City to some something that everyone will be like this really is an enhancement for the community one of the things that I've always factor in is storage units um assisted living facilities and apartments only benefit the people that actually use them if you're not storing stuff it is no value to you if if you're not putting a relative into an assisted living facility there's no value to the general community and if you're not living in one of those apartments there's no value versus retail space restaurants doctor's offices professional office space benefits everyone I think this is a tight plan I would very much hope to find support from at least two of my colleagues to move this forward because it's doing what I said I would do which is stop the apartments and put the property back out onto the tax rols at really no um dramatic Financial um detriment to our taxpayers Mr herd yeah this project could not have been built would not have complied with the Inc unincorporated regulations it only is complies it only works inside the CRA and that's because these the commission majorities over the years have weakened the regulations in CRA to allow a 90 unit apartment building to be built you've increased inreased densities you've decreased compatibility you've decreased Open Spaces you've decreased setbacks you've forced the the uh buildings to be placed right on the road I voted against every one of those things in order to protect neighborhoods like this this is one of the one of the problems with the CRA is that these uh the regulations are just so different there than they are in unincorporated and that's why you have a proposal for 90 unit uh res 90 unit apartment building because it's allowable but I voted against every one of those well if you ask waah in hoop sound they directly the opposite happened to them so um commissioner Smith yeah I don't unless staff's done an analysis on what could have been built here when it was in its former configuration of life I I don't know the answer to that whether it could have been more or less or IND different Ed the only the I said the only a couple things I um just want to share with you um in terms of how I I I think about something like this we had 150 120 people whatever it was show up one day to support you to uh purchase this piece of property I was supporting them okay either way um regardless we listened to the community that showed up uh a lot of recognizable faces and a lot of people that are fully involved in the community but there were different opinions that were shared lots of them um and so what I'm concerned about is somewhat the approach that you're thinking is that somehow in your mind we've already defined what the end use should be for this and and I think an opportunity that we're missing with the community at large that showed up is to work with them to have them tell us what they think ought to be there I think it is an incredible opportunity to take a prime piece of real estate in the middle of the old Palm City CRA and like you said there there are maybe some really great potential uses um I just think I I think for this particular type of property not going back out to the community and engaging them in the discussion to start forming the parameters of what something like this could look like is a missed opportunity and what you would be giving the 150 200 people that showed up here the opportunity to participate in is having your community actually help you define what it should be um and whether or not the design kept it up to the street front or not if it was the right use and it was the right location maybe that is the right thing to do we don't know and we won't know um the other piece of this I I I think is that no matter how narrowly we design the covenants let's say I mean let's say the Assumption here is that someone's going to bid $3.2 million to buy this right I mean that's kind of where where you're taken us on this what if somebody comes in and offers you six and it's not exactly what you want and and and and I don't want to pick on any particular retail outlet but let's say it's a retail outlet that seems to be trying to locate itself in every kind of community what if they offer you 10 because quite frankly to them it's four acres in the prime heart of of a very urbanized community that for that particular use would be prime time I I just I I think I I I think the possibility could be very real that that happens that someone says look 10 million bucks for a piece of property in the middle of Palm City for what my intended use for it is nothing great for paying back the taxpayers fantastic but it may not be the use that you have in your mind that is exactly what it wants to be I think the power of going and having having a night where we bring in people to help us the other the other component of this and we've done this multiple different times with projects and that I've been involved in over the years the commercial real estate folks in Martin County will have a definition of what they think should go there absolutely they'll know what they think will fit there for huh and how much they're going to pay for it and how much they're going to pay for it but that also doesn't for a second say that somebody's willing to do something outside of what they would ever think of I mean Harold just mentioned an example in hopes Hound never crossed my mind that someone would come in and tear down a Bank building and build a wahwah in the corner I but it's all together possible so I just I I I think the I'm supportive of the financing mechanism Ed to to get us you where we need to get with our internal loan I I heard about after the last presentation we had how much interest we were looking at and that never came up in the conversation and I think had it we wouldn't even be having this conversation today if we'd known it was going to be $6 800,000 in interest um over the course of the loan um and I think I think I was supportive but I went along with helping you try to get to your goal on this thing but I I I I would have I would have supported an internal loan because I know we would have figured out how to pay it back and and it would all worked out so I'm okay with that I I'm okay with the structure of the financing piece of it I just think as much engagement as you had from your community it would be super cool because at the end of the day what I think you're going to want Even though in those 200 people 150 people whatever there were maybe there were six ideas that popped up or five ideas right there's going to be winners and losers on the idea the people who wanted the dog park it's not going to be a dog park but if you gave them the opportunity to sit at a table with six other people and say I want a dog park and the other five people don't want a dog park but they think it ought to be this and all of those things come together and consensus is built from the community this is what we'd like to see happen then I think it's a home run I think you get the best of all worlds you get complete Community involvement you get complete buyin and sure there are going to be people that want to dog park that aren't going to get dog park fair enough so that I I'm you know and I'm I'm just suggesting that you might want to do that thank you well think about how you're going to put that into a motion while Mr campy talks well I can do make a motion um I appreciate that Doug uh I did not after we got the uh approval from and yes commissioner Smith you were supportive of this decision uh this mind this concept from the beginning and I appreciate you for that very much um because I think you know I keep saying 90 Apartments because that's what it was going to be and I brought Miss chorus up because I remember you telling me something that that the unincorporated or the CRA did not increase the density is that true C did not increase density past 15 Acres uh 15 units an acre throughout we don't have any densities past that so making it a CRA or those rules didn't necessarily make it go from fewer units to 90 it could always have been 90 that's correct okay it just brought it to the street and all the other things that's correct and you know obviously I'm a big you know historically lifelong proponent of the cras commissioner uh Jenkins as I've mentioned in the past I think his political career started and his frustration on what was happening on Bridge Road one of the reasons I had even thought about coming back was how all of a sudden map road the wheels just fell off and we had brought our residents right to the be you know to the Tipping Point of having something start and then it was like no we're not doing it so that's why two of us are sitting up here for the most part now however to me a CRA is a main street uh Vibe map Road Bridge Road Jensen Beach Boulevard you know acola Main Street Martin highway is not a main street it's not designed to be a main street but through the history of and I was not here when the CRA boundary was stretched all the way from map road down because this project you see to the left was originally Steward Fine Foods that was done by my predecessor uh back in in 2000 or 2003 or four and at the time I would have agreed that that was a smart uh strategy to bring a much needed Supermarket to Palm City when there was only one so that's why and the concept of I don't want to get into a tit fortat with my colleague we're trying very hard to be collegial uh and cordial to each other but throwing down some of those things make it difficult to make it sound like this is our fault and she voted no on all of those things because if I were to go there I would say that things happening in Port Sano are all over the place so let's all focus our attention on these individual projects and not try to beat each other up over it I understand a complete you know difference of opinion but this wasn't my fault or commissioner Smith's fault or my colleagues to the left here who were newer than the the the three of us this is what I was dealing with at the time and I think we've created a strategy that works commissioner Smith I had not been quiet or silent with the colleagues and my constituents in the district lots of people after afterwards came up and gave all sorts of suggestions and the reason I sort of steered clear of a of a charet or a more formalized process is there was no um there was no uniformed response there was no consensus can I interrupt yes that is the process I understand the process is you take you take the most Divergent ideas and you you take the vision of those Divergent ideas and you start to mash them together and what it also does is is people sitting at one table that aren't having the same conversation in another table and they're having an entirely different conversation in the table next to them when presentations are made with what they come up with some people at the other table go I never thought about that that never crossed my mind and so I'm not saying it's perfect Ed I just think given how much attention this has and given the opportunity I I just it would be it would be well worth I think and healthy for the community to to participate in a way that you end up with they end up with a consensus that most people will be okay with but that that's just me I appreciate it let me just before you go to commissioner just finalize my thought um I'm not opposed to that we got some feedback from the NAC board members uh gotten feedback what I would request humbly request of my colleagues that are interested in participating hopefully two of you uh would be that we follow the funding uh recommendation from our staff knowing in your minds that this is a very fluid moving process and that the concept of keeping it separate from additional internal funds to go to a bank loan uh and then forcing us to pay 25 3050 whatever the number could potentially be I'm estimating is not in the best our best strategy and two that and this is a motion if you don't put it out there a motion that we accept staff's recommendation for the funding mechanism um and two that we allow an I will uh participate with with Miss chorus's help uh and the NAC to have an evening at the Palm City Chamber very quickly to invite uh everyone to participate in a brainstorming session but so that we're also on a parallel track not wasting time to allow a RFP to hit the street because there's a long right you give okay uh it's a process the only reason I say that is is that if somebody comes forward with the financing and a vision of what could happen there then we bring that to the community and say what about this because instead of the community saying this is what we would like now go find someone to do it this is someone that's saying I would do this here thank you that you have the ability to say no well that's the RFP process okay commissioner hington what I heard this is was not my original comment but what I heard Mr Donaldson say was put it back out to Market what I just heard you say was put out RFP that's the only way you can put it out to Market you just can't we can't put this on Surplus as take out the um so you're going to take the storm water piece is going to be included in the parcel and you're not going to Market this as real property or put it out on Surplus you're going to put an RFP together um and I Mr Donaldson can jump in think state law requires if we're going to sell the property that we would put it out for bid we wouldn't if we put it on the Surplus list you would auction it uh no we could ask for a request for proposal we would the preliminary discussions that I've had was that we would have an idea of what the deed restrictions would be and then put it out for a request for proposal um this was done back in the day with the gers spine property where um what's it called RAR River Place is I don't know if it's River Place anymore but if you remember in at the um North End of Jensen we did a request for proposal the RFP kind of outlined what the county was looking for and then we received the proposals we only received one but again then that would be up to the board it would come back to the board to decide which one we we have put property up for it's it's similar to a bid but it allows you a little more discretion if the board wants to look at what they want to do it it it also allows you to reject it if you don't think the price was bid too low yeah you know so that that's why we crafted it that way commissioner heatherington uh Susan corz office of Community Development I just wanted to add that statutorily any disposition of property in the CRA has to go through an RFP process no I I never was you know I appreciate commissioner Camp's efforts and he did it you know with with good intent I think with on behalf of his residents I just I never supported the in fund loan I was adamantly against doing it I understand that there's costs but there's you know there's cost sometimes to um having this unconventional way to guide the free market so I I think that that process that you're describing is not like remarketing the property is going to take a considerable amount of time and I would be against Contin I would still stay with my original intent I would not agree with providing an in fund loan for the property and I what what kind of timeline are you thinking for this are you talking to me I was I was looking at Sarah woods but if you have an answer well I can offer my my answer two things to your comments one if as Mr Donaldson said we haven't done it in the past but if you if it makes you more comfortable and I need it to happen uh I can use District funds while I am the district commissioner to pay a interest pay rate to the interfund so it's not zeroed you know it's not a 0% interest interf fund loan if you are comfortable with a couple of percentage points would make you feel more comfortable and I need your support then I would put that on the table two commissioner Smith's idea of the charet and going through the process in my mind is an excellent idea but I see like in the oldfashioned movies the calendar Pages Falling Away um that's what I see versus my idea was to move this pretty quickly I have a hugee Advantage I know people that are waiting for a bid to hit the street that will come forward with ideas that are really great and I think you know yes there would be a little bit of a leadership push for the community uh I feel comfortable enough with the groups that have reached out to me after the fact that say okay we we want it to do this my only concern and and commissioner Smith that is traditionally the way we've done a lot of things bring the community together to see what we want I don't see this one because of the financing and the speed that we're looking to move at and two this is not one of it's not like jock Leighton park or Charlie Leighton Park this is as commissioner herd said something that came up we crafted a strategy that could work to guide what we want our community to look like under this current set of circumstances and move it quickly each of you come with a different sort of uh decision and mindset that I'm trying to appeal and um and work with each of you so that I can get a couple of you to agree it would be so much easier if I sat up here by myself but that being said I I'm confident and remember I'm stopping those apartments you'll hear from the same constituents it wouldn't have just been yelling at me about the apartments they would have yelled at you guys too so you can take as much credit as you would prefer that this was a project that stopped it I'm done I yield my time back I'm going to I'm going to speak now so where I got excited about making sure that it was encumbered by the Palm city folks and not you know was because it was going to be a $4 million in my mind we're talking about a $4 million dog park we're talking about a $4 million property hold we're talking about if you are actively pursuing um recouping at least the 3.2 we've Justified the eight it doesn't I'm going to resend my thing that it doesn't make sense to go out and pay closing costs and interest and all this other stuff if it is a shortterm thing we have the they bring us back an idea of what deed restrictions are going to be whether that is through through staff or whether that's through public input and this is FastTrack to because this is a very desirable piece of property I don't think it would take long I agree with so I I would support that thank you right I promise I commit to making this as fast as the government allows but when we were first talking we had no idea this is going to be a long-term hold and I'm going no my hop sound folks are not or Indiantown folks are not going to pay for your dog part I agree with you I just couldn't mention it to you at that time I was trying to negotiate piece by piece to speed this along where this conversation is going I'm supportive of thank you commissioner Smith let's try another couple angles on on how you get where you want to get we did a project down in Lake Worth for the regional planning Council a year ago there was a historic site there was a lot there was a parking lot and there were a couple other things it was a really tight tight site and there was a ton of opposition to just selling it off and redeveloping it and doing its thing and the RPC went down there and they worked with the community and they worked with them and they worked with them and they came up with some spectacular concepts of how to deal with what would otherwise have potentially even eliminated the Historic Site altogether and or been something that nobody wanted they are the best at what they do they have incredible amounts of resources and talent their financial guys that they use that come in and do analysis on what is highest and best what is the E what are the economics of the site is really worldclass stuff and not that that should make a difference Ed I I don't think but I I think from the actual end use because another thing you're going to want to do I would think and I know it may take some more time but there's an iterative proc process for doing request for qualifications do they in fact even have the capability the developer whoever it is to pull off and do what you're wanting to do yes and well yes they not even a question about it and that may be but you're going to put this thing out to bid right and if there's six people that you know that are going to bid on it and the seventh person out bids them well we have the choice I I just wanted to inter we were talking about a request for proposal so that would it wouldn't be you wouldn't be bound to take the lowest money I mean the highest money bid you would be able you would look at it as a whole let's use the opposite spectrum and I have no idea and maybe they've already told you what they're willing to pay you for it but let's say the goal is to recoup the 3.2 million okay let's say five of the bids come in at 299 300 or 3 million and a seventh one comes in at 3.3 and the others are $300,000 short of what the payback price is but you don't know the seventh person who are we going to pick or are we going are we going to be forced with the decision at that point well we would know who the seventh person is because they'd have to follow the criteria of the bid just like if we knew none of them would there would be criteria for which to compare each of the proposals to see which and that again would be up to the board to decide I just I I again that's going to put us in a bind because the other thing that's going to happen and this will happen this wasn't dissimilar to the property down in hop sound that was the fire station right we went into that with the best of intentions and an individual bought it and we didn't like the outcome and that put us in a real bind and of course the next door neighbor wanted to buy it and his bid wasn't enough or something to get him where he needed to be and it went to the other person so I'm I just if I get it everything's complicated if some of this stuff can be done upfront and you can eliminate as much of the conflict which we talked about with the fire station that perhaps we should have done a better job of eliminating the conflicts that's just that's it isn't that what we're we're talking about having minimum standards of what we're looking for for on this property if somebody comes in with another 90 unit apartment building they're going to get bounced I don't care whether they got 10 million or not right I get that yeah but like the fire station they wanted to put a water purification company in but our zoning said no you can do this in in this box because we didn't do predo the zoning we didn't change the zoning we should have changed anyway and we are doing that this time with the deed restrictions okay commissioner her yeah commissioner campy I completely concur with you that the 90 unit apartment was a disastrous proposal no one would want that in their CRA so I wish you the best I hope that the perfect plan uh lands in your lap and it May thank you I hope it does I appreciate that thank you could you repeat your U my motion is that we would allow uh the look we're in an interfund loan temporarily right now which was part of the original motion that said to allow staff to do this while we were out there looking look for the financing what I did not want to say at the time is we didn't need to be looking for long-term financing because there are people right behind the original purchase that want to step in motion yes the motion is that we uh leave the funding mechanism in place that is currently set and that we put out an RFP after some um deed restrictions are put in place to answer your questions about how do you stop it from doing that again my only caveat of the deed restrictions is that we don't make it so restrictive that we eliminate potential users that would have paid for it or to many of my colleagues points if you restrict it to the point where it doesn't have the value I'm not going to get 3.2 million my restrictions are more front side back setbacks height restrictions and nonresidential that leaves it open enough that anyone that wants to participate can participate to commissioner Smith's Point what if we don't like it well hopefully there'll be two or three would they qualify to actually be able to pull off their deal if the people that I know that are involved and maybe it'll be somebody else that has a better idea but all of you know who I'm talking about they can easily afford the property and what they're looking to do is this still a motion yes that's it leave the funding mechanism in place and put out an RFP RFP with the deed restrictions end of motion who's going to create the DAT restrictions it will come back to you at our next meeting at the meeting after that one yeah I I was just going to make sure that it was it's clear the RFP and would be developed by your directing us to develop that RFP and the proposed deed restrictions and then it would come back to the board for authorization are you going to do some NAC Outreach I have already and I will like what Doug has asked I did that and we'll do it again okay I have my key person right there okay you happy with that I'm on the edge honestly I was trying to talk more to win you over but Harold doesn't want me to talk anymore Mr Donaldson I was just going to clarify the beginning of the motion which was leave the funding in place which is the first two bullets of the item which allows us to transfer the other Pro ownership that would uh that would more specifically Define what leave the funding in place means if you all are okay with those first supporting that because we are actively moving forward to disperse this property right yes okay so we have a motion that doesn't bode well for me if you have to pass the Gap and I'll second the motion okay any other discussion we have a motion on the floor then by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner Jenkins all those in favor I opposed opposed opposed motion carries three- two with commissioner heatherington and her dissenting thank you very much thank you commissioner Smith and commissioner Jenkins the other two Commissioners I don't remember what their names are but they're dead to me I'm only kidding I appreciate your nice comment okay with that we have reached the end of our meeting do we have any 505 uh 245 public comment Keith Burbank any comments seeing none our next meeting is March 12 have to come forward to make the comment I'm sorry that was you were supposed to I apologize did you miss the Paul M discussion that was on consent oh that means it was was approved on on our first motion this morning with no discussion if okay with that our next meeting is March 12th 2024 we are adjourned