I pled alleg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all righty roll call Lenny Arnold present Lisa Colorado here Margaret schneer here here Charles Mason Alexandra Bobo here ly mckenley present fantastic it's that time of the year good afternoon everyone that we uh have the pleasure of electing our chair and vice chair for the planning board for the 2024 year um the way this will work is I will uh ask for a nomination for chairperson uh if there is a nomination made in a second I will ask the nominee if they accept the nomination if they accept the nomination we'll proceed to a vote at that point if it's a positive vote uh the gavel so to speak will move back to that person uh to uh conduct the election of the vice chair uh so with that said uh do I have any nominations for chair I nominate Lenny Arnold a second do you accept the nomination yes all right let's go to a vote uh all in favor uh say I I all oppos like sign all right we have a chairman there we go all right so now we'll take nominations for vice chair I nominate Lisa Colo all right a second second do you accept all right all in favor say I I I any opposed all right passes um next up is the approval of the agenda do I have a motion a motion to approve the agenda I'll second it all right any discussion all right all in favor say I I I any opposed passes unanimously and then next up is approval of the minutes from December the 4th uh meeting I move to approve the minutes of the December 4th 2023 meeting and second all right any discussion all right all in favor say I I I any opposed all right first thing up is unfinished business 2025 comprehensive Plan update chair if it's okay with you um staff wanted to know if we could swap new business and unfinished business so C1 could go first just for an introductory of Staff yeah that's fine anybody introductory of Staff that's thank you Mr chairman I appreciate it uh Randy Stevenson some of you know me some of you don't I'm like a bad penny I'm back for a period of time so we'll see if we can move forward uh before we started talking with you about comprehensive plans and things like that I want to make sure y'all knew everybody so uh I'll do that we have to my right my left here Devin tally who's a senior planner planner 2 will be operating with us we'll be working a lot she's covering the CRA for us as well as some senior planning duties uh I've got uh Corey Hall Paul Hall back here obviously I'm new too Cory Hall is is planner and he's handling a lot of our day-to-day uh uh activities relative to permitting relative to uh some of the long range stuff that we're doing as well and then uh Lauren and Lauren will will will C is our principal planner and he's going to be talking to you in a minute about where we're at with a comprehensive plan just to kind of give you keep you up to date I wanted to have a meeting just to introduce you so you know who you're working with and to kind of get on track for the for the coming year we do have some things that are going to be coming your way uh in terms of projects fairly shortly if things pan out the way they seem to be panning out now and if you have any questions on any updates for any projects I'll be happy to answer those or staff will be happy to answer those and let you know where we're at and what we can expect in the near future fair enough sounds good great yes ma'am can I just request that we get a copy of that in writing who the staff is and what their duties are that we get a copy in in writing so we can put it in our book of who who's who and what they do yes thank you we can do that yeah I'll get that together and I'll send it out to the board thank you I give you a a little bit of update on the comp plan process since last time we met the it's as we got doing in going into some further research with the status where we really are at the city the 2122 update that you did a while back was uh recognized by the state as meeting our 7-year um er requirement which kind of gives us a the state doesn't look for another major update until 2028 for us but that doesn't mean that it still we still don't need to update and work on the comp plan so the right now there's this past year maybe year and a half you as a Planning Commission and the city commission approved a couple of PD plan development projects that require a map Amendment zoning map Amendment so we'll probably make those adjustments to the to the plan and work with on making those uh more minor comp plan amendments before we start digging into the um working on amendments that will um move the time frame the the two things that we're outstanding on right now is the the new law requires a a seven-year kind of time frame plan and a 20year time frame which will require us to look at the different uh elements of the comp plan and make sure that we're are schedule in there like our levels of service and things that are dated or extrapolated out to meet those time frames and so it'll take us a little bit to look into those things to kind of figure out what is our level of service for some of those entities and capacities and things like that for into those two time frame Futures the seven-year and the 20year time frame so as we start to gather those together we'll we'll come back and work with you but first we'll we need to work with you to get the zoning map amendments done for the actions that you've already taken and get those up to date and then and then move into the other stuff so that's I guess a quick update any questions um what what's the approach or plan to get the community involvement feedback we talked about it last time like how how you get input from how we get input from the community on what's important yeah we'll have to we'll have to outline that when we get into that I don't know that of course you want them for everything but the the Minor map amendments probably going to look different than the major one but uh for when we start to look into the comp plan for the seven year and the 20 year we'll have to put together an outline of public participation out what that's going to be working with you guys and and outline that whole process whether it's going to be committees or citizen groups Etc we'll have to answer those questions and and establish that as we move forward so will you all come in with a kind of an approach for us or you're right now I don't have one no I mean at whatever right time when when it's right to start or get close to starting that process you'll bring in in sort of an outline or strategy it as we get looking at this the the next if the seven-year plan extending it for seven years we can probably do that with the local you know minor process we may not have to bring anybody in because a lot of that work when you did your current comp plan the city adopted some policies in there that like our Capital facilities plan it adopted the current plan and Court there's some language in there so it automatically amends each each year when the city updates its capital facilities plan automatically gets Incorporated in so a lot of that type of work has been done so it it's more minor amendments but extending it out 20 years yeah we need to look at the vision we need to look at all that and that'll that'll require establishment of you know a work group a citizens group Etc to make sure that our vision is still the same and and and things to get the feedback the more we can do to get public participation the better I agree okay thanks any other questions I'm a little confused um do you have like a a a plan that you're at least thinking about of how this is actually going to work in the next year or two years that it gets worked on I mean is is it going to you first going to tackle the things that are just staffed what you consider minor things that don't really have to have big input from the citizenry and things like that are you going to take care of that first and then move on to other larger scope I think what we'll do once we move on get this Minor map Amendment done which is more administrative action but still has to go through the public process right um then we we will'll put together a proposal and an outline of and get your sign off and buy off on it and how we want to work with the public it's not just ours it's your plan too so we want to we'll we'll work on that massage it to something that you as a planning board are comfortable with and meets the state requirements and move forward but I don't have that kind of outline right at this point but but that's what we can look forward to receiving yeah we'll do that together as this as this starts to has it gathers momentum basically okay any other questions hello everybody name is Cory Hall New to the planning department but um it's good to be here good to see y'all meet yall um if you turn in your packet to a little graph like to talk about that a little bit about um what kind of activity we've had last year yeah so that's going to be D2 um staff and City attorney reports Financial disclosures all right so basically we had 4575 um building permits or permits I should say all types of permits but a total of 45007 5 within those those permits have to go through many different departments you've got sewer and water engineering planning um and of course inspections as well so these are just the high level permits so the amount of activity Beyond this is amazing um if you look at the chart the bottom one is the building permits that makes up about 2200 of the 45 and then the btrs make up another 3,300 and out of the btrs there's about 600 vacation rentals btrs that tie together with that and just I'm kind of tracking them as we go as well just so that we can maybe get a little bit better at our our reporting but basically to show you what's happening through last year at least the activity levels that we had to process so are these open permits not necessarily and closed these are all completed okay yep and we get about anywhere from 250 to 300 requests for permits per week is what it's been averaging so far everybody's familiar with the open gov and how they go through that process right okay all right any further question any questions can you remind me like did the homebased business did we did that get changed during the whole covid the home base like rs1 is called vacation rental and that's more of the residential areas so I don't I don't think there's a oh homebased business is we haven't really changed that uh it it's it's that's when you have operating a business out of your home vacation we haven't really changed that uh we are being a little bit more uh determined to make sure that we don't get a contractor in a homebased business an accountant operating in an office with no visitors that's the type of business we're talking about in homebased business it can't really change the residential character of the neighborhood M they don't put up signs they don't leave you know they don't store back hose by the side of the yard or anything like that that's what we're looking at that uh and those really haven't changed we're still trying to to monitor that now we're going to have some that are get away from us and we'll have to address those through code enforcement but the homebased business is basically uh that's the what's allowed so there was really no need to change it per se or just looking at it maybe from a p perspective of people being home even if it was temporary I think IT addresses the need because again if I'm if I'm well in my if I'm an architect and I have an office at home I'm an engineer I know uh that operates out of my home office you I got a phone and a desk and a computer right uh I I drive my car or I don't drive my car there's nothing plastered with signs out in the driveway things like that that's what we're looking for something that like said they're no they no uh customers or clients coming to the home uh any more than you would have a normal single family resid residential the the intent is not to disrupt the single family nature of of the uh of the uh own yeah of the neighborhood unfortunately the same can't be said for our vacation rentals but we're working on that too so so you brought sorry brought up vacation rentals um airbnbs that kind of thing does that fit in the definition of residential compared like if you look at the resident like a definition of residential in our code and comprehensive plan it it's sort of I don't know ify does it really include Airbnb as residential because you know the zoning and everything is single family dwelling we have mixed dwelling and all that kind of stuff which is a little bit of both in areas but now we kind of have airbnbs and that kind of stuff in residential areas that are more like temporary or the way they Define the vacation rental in the residential area is you can rent a bedroom or the whole house and it's short term so um now the owner can be there and rent the bedroom is that how it's defined in the yeah in the code but there are some and then the rest of it is really called more transient rentals the b&bs um and that's not um what it's called in the residential area any other questions yeah I have couple questions um how would if it does and I think it would how would that rs1 vacation rental registration application tie in with the the BTR vacation rental business tax application that that would fall under that the BTR just what you're asking right there the BTR vacation rental business tax application that's where the vacation rentals would fall am I missing your question well there's a separate line item vacation rental registration application there's only 189 of those yeah the very top line and then um oh that's that would be new and the btrs is probably more renewal oh okay all right so that the the rs1 is not factored into the BTR it's different yeah I'll have to I'll validate that and let you guys know for sure but um I believe that's the new ones and the other are just basically renewals for the btrs okay and then my second question I'm not sure who best would address it but um I've had several people ask me about the vacation rentals and why why they can have these and communities around Florida but they're concerned about Coco Beach and about the proliferation of vacation rentals vation rentals is regulated by the state we we have to is pretty much what it comes down to um we have to allow that type of business so that's a that that that would be a state level um that' be addressed at the state level if it were to be rescinded correct uh is there anything local communities can do to I guess put um like limits on it or well and when it comes to that yes but it's it's still limited we still have to follow the statutes of the state well last year we did put restrictions we all cars have to be in the driveway they can't be on the street no matter how many bedrooms there's it's a maximum of what eight people or 10 people eight people right people in the in the house and you have to have at least one a whole set of regulations that were that the city was able to do um but Cory's 100% right this is if somebody has if someone wants it resend it all together they have to contact their state legislators legislature about that because we can't I mean we can do as a city can do just so much to try to regulate it but we can't make it go away so are the people who are um who have these vacation rentals are they do are they residents of Coco Beach and can you require them to be be residents if they're going to have that was part of that was part of the the restrictions last year that they have to either be there the M themselves or have a represent a responsible representative within 45 minutes if a a time limit that they have to respond by you right and if I could interject and Garrett correct me if I'm wrong this is something the state clawed back against home rule on we can't I guess as Corey told you we cannot say they can't be in the residential neighborhoods unfortunately uh what we do have some ability to regulate in terms of number of people uh one of the things that we're battling right now with at least four or five different addresses is they will go into a home and either been unbeknownst to us or what they're trying to do is rather than having renting out the whole house or one bedroom with a with a a uh an owner occupied resident they're separating into three or four rooms and putting exterior doors on and now you got a mini motel that is not allowed and we're having to fight back against those because like that's where you wind up with four cars in the front yard and a different four people every week and uh I always liken it to living next to Animal House it's except it's different on animals every week so we are we are fighting that and back to a little bit of what you said miss boobo the BTR they have to get a BTR as part of their registration so there's a registration process and part of that includes the BTR because they are a business and a lot of people coming from out of town and buying these homes not as a residents but at a as a business with a projected Revenue generation on those things so that's kind of what we're up against and as you also stated M nider there the maximum is eight regardless of how big the house is and we have trouble we we see them advertised we'll sleep 11 we'll sleep 15 we'll you know all you have to do is go on any of the sites and you'll see that I think the important thing is is that if you see if you see a house in your neighborhood that's obviously become an Airbnb to to call the city to make sure they're registered yeah yeah for sure we got a software program now we're working with a company called rental scape that is helping us identify and go after these they they do a lot of the perusal of of the websites to see which ones are being advertised it's kind of hard to say you're not a vacation rental if they could got you advertising on three different sites right so we are being more proactive than we have been in the past on that so how many are we up to total now I don't have that number with me right now I'll probably April May we're going to begin to attack the condos and that's literally thousands uh at one point in time they had had us at 12 or 1300 vacational rentals in Coco Beach and when we when the the legislature was looking at this we tried to get them to understand well and nothing against pooki by the way uh it's different in pooki than it is in Coco Beach but it was they unfortunately passed a one siiz fits-all so that's kind of where we're at yes begin um I was just wondering previously there was a count or not a county one of our commissioners who who was working on home rule stuff do we still have a like one of ours attending those meetings and and um coming back with information of what they're doing Mike Miller was previously doing that when he was elected so I was just wondering if there was another city I'm not aware what was your question there was commissioner watching were involved in that I'll get some information on that any more question just to put a cap on that conversation it's a area that the legislature has preempted us from uh restricting outright uh there are Pockets that we can regulate in but it it's constantly changing I have a bill pulled up on my laptop right now uh Senate Bill 280 that just passed the floor to Senate a few days ago relating to short-term rentals and it does a whole bunch of stuff that will completely again change the landscape uh it seems to be uh somewhat positive though in giving back some powers to local governments um authorizing the pro the same program that we've implemented here in Coco Beach um for having a registration program things like that the ability to find folks who who don't comply with that um so it is a is a hot issue up there in Tallahassee so um you know should have some uh updates on that uh soon after the session's over any other question one question it might be more for okay you Garrett but I had people want try to get creative and how to tackle this but um is it possible to have a homeowners association that can make a rule that says that for that homeowner's association you cannot have vacation rentals in there if everybody agrees and signs up to that is that is that supersede does that violate the state um it it depends the state may have restrictions against that sort of Covenant but uh generally there are much less restrictions on those types of HOAs than on local governments uh that Implement you know those same restrictions so um I don't know specifically what HOAs can do Beyond kind of their normal Authority you know if you buy to an HOA generally those rules are are safe but um yeah the the best advice I can give you to tell folks is that you know obviously you can't have an anonymous code enforcement complaint anymore in Florida but uh you know just notify code enforcement if uh something doesn't look right because that's really the only enforcement mechanis question was the HOAs was residents that don't have an HOA now wanting to get together to form one in their neighborhood with that rule and I don't like like that's way over my head to talk about and I'm not the from legal perspective I like people getting creative because they're they're not liking it as I understand it HOAs can still regulate they can specify that any rentals no rentals or any rentals have to be longterm or 6 months or longer I think that's one of the last defenses against uh these things coming in least I told my HOA I said you want an HOA for no other reason than that uh but if you don't already have an HOA I think it's a 99.999% chance you'll never get one because you have to have think Garett I think they have to have 100% vote and if you've got one vacation rental in there they're not going to vote for you yeah so single family a new HOA I know that my my where I live in my condominium we changed our bylaws to reward about rentals that blocks now that that ever happening but sing this is mostly single family homes that that people are buying yeah and and turning into airbnbs and it's very very very difficult to get 20 homes to agree to to join an HOA they I don't want to join an HOA I mean that's usually the response all right any other thank you all for your time appreciate it all right let's see the other report we've got is the year end report uh any questions or concerns of yeah so you'll see um a summary of the 2023 year end planning board report so all the members that were present or that were absent and then just brief synopsis of the activity that was held at these meetings that were not cancelled okay Mr Olson do you have a report no report for me tonight all right then um looks like we're down to uh general public comments anyone from the public like to speak I just want to staff all right um last up is final board comments Mr boo um I I don't have any okay M um well I don't know Lauren or or or Cole or Corey or I'm sorry Devon Devon um I'm sure they're going to do a great job and I'm very excited personally to have Randy back because he was he's been he was terrific when he was here last and I'm sure he'll be even terrific going forward and I appreciate that I we didn't have it on the agenda but I wanted to take this allow you an opportunity if you have any questions just in general about development or developments you've heard about uh if if it please the chair we can I'd entertain any of those questions you might have just to give you an update this is kind of a meet and greet for us so just so you'll know what's going on and what the status is the bigger project things like that I'll be happy if anybody has any questions to answer those or at least try well you know me I'm I'm very interested in pursuing something that helps us to create more affordable housing in the city for our First Responders or te the people that we need here um and whether that be a density bonus in the form of a density bonus for any new developments that come along or even some sort of a fund that CU we're going to probably I I think my own opinion is we're going to have a lot of tear Downs now and and rebuilding maybe a fund that that if you redo your the the the structure that that's currently on the property that maybe you should put some money into a fund for affordable housing I'm I'm very very interested in that and I I really would like to see that and if you recall we we did do a density bone I'm sure you understand the density in Coco Beach is bifurcated I call it right at 28 for transient lodging which we don't really need any more of and 10 for permanent lodging 10 maximum it could go down to five for for permanent residential and if you're in a transient lodging facility or vacation rental a you can't have kids in school system and B you can't be gainfully employed that's not my law it's the state so when we would looked at the property up on 520 we were able to to reverse that and and get permanent residential units of 1500 ft or less uh that can be be considered permanent residence but at a density of 28 units per acre just in that specific area and some other very defined areas within the city to try to do just what you're talking about to rather than somebody trying to look at a a house or you they can more long this is more along the lines of an apartment type resident that might be a little more uh amenable to to on the affordable side it's hard to picture affordable housing in Coco Beach but we we are trying to look at that and uh as Lauren was talking about the comp plan that's one of the things we need to maybe address a little bit better as we look at that 20year time span there that 20-year forecast M yeah kind of along those lines like what's the latest on the Weston and the Westgate and I guess I saw the commissioner took the glass Bank project off of the last agenda and went on 520 all okay Weston obviously it's a Big Rubble bun pack pile of rubble they're hauling it off I think they got two trucks running pretty much full time uh that's coming down the latest my conversation with Coral Gables is the latest is probably late April early May for any meaningful construction uh if you recall the history of the project the Marlin that sits right in the Southeast corner of there that the we knew the sewer line was tied in with the with the the International Palms they actually went South went through one of the buildings actually went underneath the kitty pool you're sitting at by the kitty pool on a nice recliner and there's a 4 foot sewerman hole right underneath you and then it went out to so we had to unravel that and as I understand now this last year theyve discovered the water lines were also entangled and they had to make sure the Marlin continued with water service while they were doing this demo and that slowed them up a little bit but I would say probably all the plans are in review right now now as you can imagine it's quite a large set of plans but probably late April early May is the latest projection that I have uh we just uh on the drift project the one I just mentioned up on 520 we just cleared up a little entanglement on their da their da is recorded uh I have yet to talk to them but my presumption is that they'll be probably moving forward fairly quickly now that that's been cleared up I'll try to keep you up to speed on those with the uh and we'll probably pass along some of the information on these on a regular basis every meeting as far as what has changed uh the uh Pier or Westgate we have a meeting with them on Friday to begin to move that project forward hopefully they've been tied up trying to negotiate with the county on the uh access to get uh equipment to the north side of the pier to continue the the uh Beacher nourishment program which is important to everybody here you know if you've seen our beaches after the hurricane we fa usually Fair better than others uh they were wanting 20 or 25 ft and my concern was they want 20 or 25 ft easement and they're transporting this property to the site on a 12ft lane so I was trying to put the two together but I understand from the applicant and their representatives that they are close to getting that resolved I'll know more Friday after we meet with them so and what about the uh project over by the Hampton in by where the Hampton in there was a uh gosh the other side yeah on here down on um to the church the church Hampton in and and the uh and the United Methodist Church the two hotels there in the surf Drive yeah okay we I have not contacted them either since I've been back so I'm not sure uh that was 24 24 units back there uh I think they've closed out some of those houses they were in pretty bad repair a need of repair uh it is oceanfront property I assume they'll go forward with that I'll try to get you an update on that one as well I just haven't contacted them yet and the glass Bank um we're going to be coming forward in probably March there is a section of the code and the height is vested at 82 ft there is a section in the code and it deals with a dword density okay but there is an allowance currently in our code and has been there for a long time that would allow them to go from 28 units an acre Transit up to 30 no more than 30 if you recall and you've been following it there was a a we're not sure exactly what to trace it to but for years that property was listed at 2.64 Acres my suspicion is that it had something to do with all the entanglements with the property to the north and all that going back and forth it is actually only 2.1 Acres so they thought they had 74 units in in fact right now they're sitting at 56 units uh we have two choices uh right now as it's appears we can we can entertain the variance for four additional units across and make it 60 and get a nice mixed use retail uh Hotel type of unit with a with a restaurant or we can uh leave it at 56 units and just get the units no no mixed use that is a prime piece of property it it has been known to have some derel activity on it there is no storm water management on it it just sheet flows off so if we go forward with a project which I my personal opinion is I not supposed to give that to you but I'm going to we should uh then we get new storm water we get a storm water plan we get retention on site rather than simply discharging off into the street storm sewers and if you know anything about our storm sewer system especially as the river Rises those pipes are usually surcharged there is no capacity there it just you know it's just full so that project is moving forward I would think we would probably after the variant request if it goes forward we' be back to you with a site plan uh probably at your April meeting is what I'm anticipating and the last development we talked about was over by the Presbyterian Church that last I saw they property on the sou side used to be called Diamond Bay last time I checked that project is for that property is for sale I they may have abandoned that one why why did that happen I don't know it's just it was it was it happened during my Hiatus and I got back and I saw there was a for sale sign on it so we had we had uh a site plan was approved we had some variances that had gone forward and uh they were looking to put I believe it was some tow houses as well as some condos there on the river they had a deal with the church uh I don't know the current disposition of that m boo but I can find out it's it's not really atypical there are developers who will take the property to approval because that increases the value and then decide to sell it then put it on the market there was also a restaurant side on 520 as proposed as part of that so I think part of the issue I don't know if you remember was the stop sign Corner the traffic management was really um an was a question a big question I remember well now they have that extra traffic yeah yeah for the people crossing nobody when you had asked if there was anything sorry um besides agreeing with the ladies on um affordable housing I personally would love to see more asked of people when they're coming through for more sustainability efforts yeah one of the things that has been used in the past is uh that that I've used is is uh projects where you had tax credit financing unfortunately when people mention things like tax credit financing or tax increment financing people automatically hear Section 8 and there's a stigma to it it's really not the case we've done those in the past you can't tell the the the affordable housing unit if you will from the market rate housing it's all in the same thing uh another aspect of that as far as as you know the carrot is density and if you follow the path of density request in the city it's very very hard yeah but it could be used as an incentive yeah I'd like to see like if we're going to Grant variances which I feel like we often do um you know like hey maybe we put something where certain places have ssts or they have Forest pavement or anything to address yeah any of the other issues that we have ongoing it's a it's kind of a negotiated settlement there's a give and take if if we want to to move forward with affordable housing we've got to probably give a little bit uh to get that so especially when Market rates are what they are in the city right now any other questions comments all right thank you brand all right that completes the agenda our next meeting is T will be scheduled for March the 4th with that we are adjourned