##VIDEO ID:hMULatelB0U## you guys ready in the back okay good morning everyone we're going to call this meeting to order today is uh Monday December 16th 2024 it is 9:01 a.m. all council members are present including the town manager Town attorney and town clerk if you please rise for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance As We Gather here to make decisions that affect our citizens and Island we ask you to lift our your heads open your eyes and open your hearts our most serious duty is to look to the community we share the examples we make and the legacies we leave that should be our greatest most courageous and Noble intention amen amen 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 thank you if everybody give me just a minute to if you could please remember to silence your phones we got a lot of people in here um this is probably going to be a pretty long meeting so everyone we ask that you be patient please remember to use some decorum there's going to be some differences of opinion in here not everybody's going to agree with everybody but everybody can be civil everybody can have their opinion you will get time to speak both the applicant and those opposed or for any project that we'll hear today so we please ask that you you you respect uh the council you respect the applicants and you respect yourselves and keep the quum during the meeting so that we can get through this and everybody can get on with their wonderful day so with that we'll move on to approval of the final agenda is there a motion to approve the final agenda there is one change um in the consent agenda at the very end the town attorney has said we have to add the words as needed after the word the committee and again that's just the consent agenda for resolution 24-290 the town disaster advisory Council appointment and authorization is that sufficient that is sufficient just a point of clarification it's it's really just to say that um the town manager will fill any vacancies on those committees as needed in the event that someone who you initially appoint um is no longer able to serve it doesn't have to come back to you the town manager can fill in that spot and keep that committee going okay any other changes to the agenda move do approve as amended a motion by councelor King second second by councelor Woodson all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next public comment mad CL I have a few okay uh first up will be Michelle Cherney after Michelle will be uh Bill V good morning Michelle good morning um for those you don't know me I'm Michelle churny I've owned a home here for 15 years I've been a full-time resident for 5 years and I'm not leaving I love this island I'm here to ask for your vote to Michelle can you pull that microphone up so everybody can hear it um I'm here to ask for your vote to become a Bay Oaks member Advisory Board I use all the facilities I play Pickleball every day I know the Island's rebuilding and I believe Bay Oaks needs to meet the need of the residents a place where we can rely on locally for health and wellbeing I so my business last year and since then I've been trying to find something to keep me occupied and use my leadership skills I built a company from the ground out to 50 employees I actually specialized in outside plan engineering I worked with easements right away utilities engineering for uh the fiber industry during my career I also worked with many firms doing advisory boards for SWAT analysis what are your strengths weaknesses opportunities and Trends during my career I also um finished off with hurricane Ian I live in Fairview ISS and after Hurricane Ian I was asked to take on the president because of the work of the communication I did with the residents I brought during that time if you ask any of our 178 homeowners or approximately 400 residents I was the one that strived to help to get everybody answers whether it was permitting communication what was going on with the town the LIC and and even rebuilt our Common Grounds um and brought together $34,000 to build them ourselves versus waiting for town boks I believe is um got a lot of opportunity I've looked at sandel I've looked at um Blakes Park and kind of just pulled together people that support me in the nomination of this uh position some of the strengths our location we all want to bike we want to walk there we want to stay local we don't want to drive off especially during season weaknesses our Gym's too small for those been in there you can't even walk between the equipment it's hard move around uh feedback we need a dedicated space for the the uh yoga classes the Zumba classes it's just not a large enough space and people are signing up for that daily we need um pickle ball courts I don't have to bring that up that one constantly comes up we need a bigger park for the kids my boyfriend's got 16 grandkids when we get here we always go off violent because you can't even um hold them here um and we BS we need opportunities Community engagement a park is where we can all ga healthy local Alternatives Farmers Market um Regional pickle ball tournaments I mean it's growing at 53% year-over-year dog parks people I mean I get done with pickle ball and people take their dogs off violence um the engagement is something the trends pickle ball it's growing um Community Gardens um both with that being considered water stations we need Pavilions for special occas so this morning I ask if you to cast for my boat I'm committed to being part of this I need a new challenge and it's a place residents need to utilize to start building a communica Comm community that we can all gather locally thanks M thanks uh Bill V after Bill is Kathy Turner morning morning Council um Bill v um for the record um the the I want to talk about is this um the the the bit to revoke all of the temporary use permits um it seems to be be pretty broad I read some of the FEMA correspondents and I understand that they consider and they're um legally a container is a building and the building is what causes the issue with being built in the uh in the flood zones um but it it it mentioned that in letter of um of the November 11th as being a distinction between RVs and buildings so containers are considered a building but they said they are not recreational vehicles if this is as broad as it looks and you revoke all the permits for temporary Vehicles which means people like me who are living in these trailers it' be essentially um evicting people from their homes at the beginning of season when it's very difficult not impossible to find another place to stay so I just make sure that it's either not going to be that broad or if it is you realize the ramifications of revoking those permits and the effect that would have on people who live here thank you thank you Bill uh Kathy Turner and then after Kathy is Lori Webster good morning Kathy Turner full-time resident in shellmound park um I support and agree as far as the meeting to Quorum uh I think you just didn't go far enough because it was directed really at the the audience and not necessarily inclusive of the applicants so I think it's important there are times that some of the applicants are having sidebars when there's sitting and if you're sitting in the audience it becomes very difficult to hear over them so that's just a suggestion going forward um vulgarity should never be tolerated and they should be subject to removal that's just not negotiable um public comment is just that and it is our right to be able to express our opinions without being censored and feel like that we're being criticize um again in my opinion the development agreement was not designed or or thought to be used for a project of this size and I found it very difficult to compare the concepts with the written document and I sit there and poured over some of these these documents trying to figure out and I live right there is this dinora or is this Aero what are we talking about um I think you're put going to put a huge burden on the staff on a development order of of this magnitude they're going to have to read between the lines and if there are errors in there does that carry forward I don't know so I think the process only benefits the applicants and may put an enormous responsibility on staff I didn't send an email to the Town Council it seems of late of late that I'm getting a response from two out of five it's it's record it's silence for the other three so I'm here I didn't really want to continue to be here I'd like to be merry marry and stop you know the Ang so instead I'm here for my up to 9 minutes um finally meetings that with developments that proposed that Garners a lot of public interest and comment you should allow for the opportunity for widespread residents to attend 9:00 in the morning on a weekday is not necessarily the best time for everybody to come they may have to take their you know a day off of work um and then and we're generally getting the same response we're not hearing from you so we don't know if you're reading them you don't care whatever the reason is so I'd rather be home preparing for the holidays but instead I'm here again and I may be here for three public comments today so I thank you I appreciate the work and that's been thrown at you um since Ian since Helen since Milton but as residents and I've been here after Ian since December of 2022 it's not easy living here so I thank you thank you Kath uh Lori Webster after Miss Webster excuse me is Howie Hoffman good morning part of what I'm going to say I'm going to repeat during the Seagate section so please forgive me but it Bears repeating I think there's a very Elemental premise that some of the council members have forgotten you were elected you were elected not to represent your own ideas but to be a voice for those who elected You by dismissing your constituents you're regressing to an area of Fort Meers Beach government that I thought we had put behind us we were you all have accomplished so much in the last two years and we are grateful don't backpedal now there has been a talk of plugging a leak of information the this implies that there is information that the public is not entitled to know Secrets if you will isn't that why you were elected to put an end to the closed door meetings to put an end to the under the table deals and contracts to put an end to the advancement of personal gains at the expense of the public being a council member is not a glamorous job it's not intended to bolster your celebrity you're a leader but you're also a servant continue to serve continue to be a voice for your constituents even a dissenting opinion is worthy of being heard you're representing the people of Fort Meers Beach it is after all why you were elected Howie Hoffman after Howie is Tom Brady morning H good morning hi everybody my name is hoe Hoffman I've lived on the beach 26 years the mic up a little bit to you and um the only thing I want to say is we all survived hurricany and since then you have a special bond with these people not only are you friends but you're you surviv the ttan Titanic together all the people that are trying to work here that have their food truck and things like that they just want to eat we'll never get that money back before and there'll never be anything like that but let the servers let the bartenders let the owners eat that's all I ask for you to do it only makes sense it's not hurricane season everybody has wheels they can move let the people leave that's all I got to say thank you very much and I'll see you guys soon thanks Tom Brady after Mr Brady is Craig loose it's the goat Tom Brady 339 medicine uh my apologies if I was part of the Outburst of the last meeting when I feel my quality of life as being permanently impacted by a skyscraper in my backyard when I see the truth stretched or I feel lack of due process I react from emotional basis two things I want to talk about election results and view coord yours the developers under oath speaking about my vote in the election results is complete nonsense he is wrong about my vote there was no refer referendum on the ballot for 17-story buildings if you wanted a referendum you could have put it on the ballot other communities do this I suspect you know where that would have gone mail and ballots were mailed out on October 1st early balloting started on October 21st the first reading wasn't until October the 2 8 most ballots have been submitted before that reading there were 5,494 votes cast the vast majority 4,274 votes were early voting and mail in ballots cast before the first meeting do not say they know what was going to happen only 1120 ballots were cast The Day of the election scasny took a position on the development sitting council members did not take a position and rightfully so voters did not know how you were going to vote don't tell me we I knew how you you were going to vote in my wildest imagination I did not believe that adhal and Safford would vote for 17 Stories the signaling was for moderate developments C candidates said in previous development projects they turned down because they were not in alignment with the comprehensive plan no one was more surprised to the outcome of of the first reading than Beach talk radio who supposedly has their finger on the pulse of the community if you think the election was a mandate for Seagate development then you are projecting or delusional you were doing a great disservice to council member Safford who has a lot more to offer than just being a vote for high development as for view quarters there is no view quarter to the Bay it is a ratty trees behind their property the bay is is a thousand feet away from the back of seagate's property as for other view corridors Sarah you were much more knowledgeable than their planner or the res for the resident and and you represents the Reser voice please check their math and definition of their view on the north side of their property they claim there's a 120 foot view quarter it's 120 ft that goes down to 90 ft it's the 90 feet on the Gulf side that counts not the 120 on a stero Boulevard but 10t of that is an existing beach access not something that they can give up so that makes 80 ft that they're giving up on the other side is now a pool that is elevated 3 feet with pool chairs and louers on top of it no one from their car or from pedestrians walking down the street will be able to see anything on the gulf so as the developer stated um they their prop in their proposal that 50 feet of the view quarter is in the village District that they're required to give so wrap it up Tom please okay there's a lot of people that want to speak thank you okay uh Craig loose sorry if I didn't say that all right good morning uh resent Myers Beach at crente I want to thank each of you individually for your uh help and support to save the iconic Landmark on Fort Myers Beach which is a Santini Pier your accessibility Communications and interest prove vital to quickly resolving this issue we have a lot of decisions to make and we know it can be a thankless job up there at times not this time there overwhelming support to save a part of be Port Mar Beach history I thank you I do have one question any future possible work on that or removing of the pilings would that come before the council before any any work commenced don't answer your question but during public comment but send us an email we'll respond to you thank you very much your accessibility is appreciated thank you that's all I have signed up for general public comment on up yep we'll get to you next D with 1920 bayew Drive um topic I want to talk about this has really affects all future votes coming forward after not just the one today but the question is is the height restriction in the mid 1990s still an issue with residents in 2024 uh my contention is and we have proofed basically that the intent of the residents of the town of Fort Meers Beach Remains the Same as it was in the mid 1990s when the town was established supporting documents are number one the beach talk radio survey which I created and I gave to Ed and he graciously published it uh was an open-ended questionnaire asking whether they were for or against these elevated height projects both could respond there was no bias one way or the other and the results of that survey showed at a ratio of 8 to1 that residents are against restricted height how however it does show that the residents are willing to move somewhat on height so even actually half the vote said that they would be willing to accept less than less than 10 stories that's the first item second item is the election November 5th was not a mandate um I've come contact and I've got responses from four of the counselors um mayor vice mayor Scott and John all of you have voiced and I want to put this on the record that they they do not believe that their the election on November 5th was a mandate I provided and it's in the record uh supporting documentation of why that's not true U and I just want to make sure that there's no further discussion you can talk about it if you want and the applicant can do it and that really upset me at the last meeting that he started bringing out this issue that it was a mandate for that uh for Elevate height it's not true the third item is there's a petition running right now it has uh 860 signatures over half of them are residents or Property Owners on town of Fort Meers Beach and it's 100% against so you have the beach radio survey which is 900 you have this petition which is currently running at 860 and all I can say is what is the turnout you've had on any of the approved projects like Neptune or myerside you don't get this turnout there's a reason there's a turnout it's because this project should not be allowed to proceed thanks a lot appreciate it thanks da come up good morning Council cash is up in Fort Meers Beach I have two quick things to say first one is the LPA why do we have an LPA when you blatantly go against what they recommend Anita Saras was our first mayor that put this comp plan together she was our mayor again she's an expert at this stuff she rejected this project Jane plumber is a real estate real estate agent on this island and has been for a significant period of time I've been here 38 years she's been here longer than me she also voted no so what's the point of having an LPA if you guys now we have two projects today in front of you that were rejected by the LPA it doesn't make sense second thing is it's very hard to trust some of our council members when they run on lies I'm sorry Scott I'm calling you out but this says reelect Scott Safford Scott was never elected he was appointed by Town Council after Bill Beach stepped down so you have someone on your Council that ran on a lie just letting you know thank you good morning hello good morning everyone Melody King I apologize about my Outburst however I've been pretty emotional regarding the fact that I found out $1.5 billion was allotted through a Community Development block grant for disaster relief to Lee County the community leaders and residents of Fort Meers Beach are urgently calling for a revaluation of allocation of disaster funds this Fund in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian the town has been struggling to rebuild homes lives while facing significant challenges due to the misallocation of critical Disaster Recovery funds despite the immense need for housing Rehabilitation rent and mortgage assistance this grant has been directed towards water treatment facility parks and public parks while these projects are essential for the community they never should take precedence over providing secure homes for residents who are still facing devastating effects from many hurricanes and we are just talking about a grant from Hurricane Ian that was achieved we allocated $370 million to public facilities and infrastructures while only dedicating 175 million to housing Rehabilitation and that is unacceptable and I'm letting all five of you know you knew about this we need secure roofs over our heads not just improved water facility Parks you can't live in a water facility Park our water is still tainted you can't live in a park so the residents of Myers Beach demand the immediate reallocation of these funds to address urgent needs and I actually went to Washington DC and I have the framework from a woman who is responsible for 90 billions worth of federal funding through the Community Development block grant for disaster relief I am building the bridge between our homeowners who need home repairs for construction financial assistance this is actually down the pipeline the third atrp from FEMA that would then lead into anybody underinsured or not insured rece receiving a grant there are 46 names from Fort Meers Beach residents and I can't wait to get my hands on whose names have actually been allocated this money although mayor alal adhal I appreciate your honesty I understand this money has yet to actually reach the town of Fort Meers Beach these programs aligned with the law from the federal government guidelines are imperative that you understand that these funds were to go toward the severely impacted areas not water treatment plants or Parks shame on all of you for even hearing the Seagate when you know you're choosing skyscrapers over the lives of our community and I had to go all the way to DC and talk to the senator about this I want to also add before my time is up that I represent actually 50 disaster survivors that went up there from 14 States and we have 23 national disasters that I lobbied in Congress for these funds to come down since there's 3 million people suffering because of this bottleneck we've created pay attention to your people that is all thank you anyone else yep oh on the right come on up morning Jesse this needs to go down good morning Council my name is Jesse Titus I've been a resident of Fort Myers Beach since 1980 and own fort Meers Beach realy prior to that I owned L realy Council I am one of your biggest supporters but as for seate you really got this wrong really wrong if this project moves forward you will not be remembered for all the good you've done you will be remembered for bastardizing the intent of our comp plan and disregarding the will of the majority of Voters I was on the LPA when the comp plan in LDC was written alongside Anita and Jane it's a beautifully written carefully crafted Plan full of purpose our desires to maintain our natural beauty and preserve our quaintness and which took thousands of hours of work we knew our mission there should be absolutely no doubt of its intention if you approve this project you will be remembered as the council that allowed a development to devalue dozens of single family homes and Condominiums if you don't believe their property values will suffer along with salability think again the impact on these homes and their residents cannot be overstated you will be remembered as the council that chose not to protect us you will be remembered as weak as a realtor on this island for well over 40 years and as a former president of the board of realtors I took an oath to protect private property rights we have riparian rights the right to quiet enjoyment and the right to privacy and hopefully sooner than later to have the right to privacy in our airspace what I like to call Air Paran rights the Seagate development will cause harm picture 9 10 14 15 and 17 story buildings looming over your home in many cases a mere 100t away and all these eyes looking down on you from their perch into your private space no more skinny dipping no more stargazing in your hot tub no more of a lot of things like sun but there will be a lot of shade which will alter our preserve and harm our precious Wildlife this is a Paradise Lost in more ways than one none of you live in the adjacent subdivisions and neither do I councilman Safford you told me that ocean Harbor doesn't bother you from your home on Sable when you bought that home ocean Harbor was already there you had a choice the residents most affected by Seagate have no choice you also mentioned that Seagate could sell to a hotel with 350 units by right and that scared you well it's their job to scare you but I'd take a three-story Hotel over this bouth any day it would bring affordable options for families to vacation and it could even offer Workforce housing an amazing public benefit which would help with our school issue we are the family Island we want progress but it must be the right kind of progress Seagate may have Built Homes some commercial buildings but they've never developed a high rise meanwhile the Bonita Springs Council voted 5 to one against a Seagate proposal just this August why because it didn't fit their comp plan imagine that Seagate could not bully them into submission the overwhelming majority of their constituents are against this project surveys and petitions reflect this like what about 1500 uh in opposition and only 10 in favor four of you said the election was a mandate what more do you want ster I try thank you Jesse anyone yes M ma'am come on good morning good morning my name is Katherine Kon and um I am a full-time resident on for Myers Beach my first trip here it was in 1953 weren't even born weren't even born you weren't even born and then moved here in um fulltime in 1960 and my parents had a house built in 1962 63 you know when you're a teenager you don't think about that stuff and my sister and I are now living in the home and we survived Ian and I just want to say please don't okay this he spent 53 million 54 million and none of us care that he spent that much money because he knew when he bought the property that he there was a building restrictions because when I went to the meeting at um pink shell I asked him if he was aware of the building restrictions and he said yes so and I want to say that Santa Belle became a town because they didn't like what the county was doing Fort Meers became a town because they didn't like what the county was doing and Santa Bell has a lot more money over there than we have here and they have not caved please don't cave in to whatever pressure you're getting to build this I know for my speach needs to be rebuilt but it doesn't need to be rebuilt tall thank you thank you anyone else yes sir oh sorry Barbara I'll get to you after come on Barbara good morning good morning mayor good morning Council staff uh my name is Barbara Hill a full-time resident uh living in Shell Mount Park um my comments to you today is that the vision of Fort Meers Beach when established Our Town Incorporated which Incorporated decades ago is today under threat the seag Seagate proposal of six towers all between 133 and 17 stories high which includes the parking will forever destroy that Vision located M Mid Island in the middle of our quiet walkable residential neighborhood it is simply not a good fit each of you as our representative has the power to say no the power to say no to this developer it is in fact your duty to do so since the deviations requested does not fit into our comp plan don't nicely ask the developer can you build smaller demand it negotiate nowhere did I hear during all of this information that we've received during hearings did I hear the word compromise negotiate yes but compromise is the way to go reduce the units by a third I know they have by right X number of units but that's their proposal that hasn't that doesn't necessarily have to be your answer have Matt come back with a revised plan featuring lower buildings and yes fewer units I have questions how can Council approve this project when Seagate in fact doesn't own the deed beach access owned by Gulf View Colony another question has the Council or the town determined developer impact fees if so what are they will the town impose impose this on this development and in future developments such as Neptune will this fee be retroactive to previously approved developments such as myerside we as voters want to know you as our leaders are legally bound to abide by our comp plan and our LDC as it is written you all in fact promised to uphold this Vision aren't you also legally bound to honor these ordinances will your decision today become a challenging litigious situation going forward if you don't thank you thank you bra yes sir we're in that shared proud today aren't you absolutely big game uh good morning morning my name is Fred Malone I'm from the Buffalo Grill um I actually wasn't prepared to talk today but I just wanted to bring up about the uh the food trailers um obviously we have a place down the Time Square my background isn't food my background is a developer and contractor back at home I've been to a lot of these meetings um and I also own an emergency management business and I've done work with FEMA for probably 20 years don't be scared they're all going to be gone in about 30 days they're all going to get fired so don't be scared of FEMA um I just want to say that you know when we came here we wanted to bring a little bit of love to the beach not just myself all the food trailers here every state in the United States offers permits for food trailers there's no reason you guys can't do that when you issued us issued us a permit there were guidelines I followed them to a te just like a lot of these people did don't punish the ones that follow the rules for the ones that don't follow the rules that's all we ask before you you know make that Amendment and change it and pull the permits from everybody we've had a lot of help from people on the on the council we appreciate it um you know the people on the beach love it so it's not just myself but others out here so hopefully you guys relook at that when you uh consider voting on it thank you thank you go [Laughter] bills good morning good morning Council can you just pull that mic down for us so we can hear you sure yeah thank you close to Jesse's good morning Council my name is Tana shot um our family has owned a home on the island since the late 90s um that would be directly affected by the Seagate proposal is why I'm here today this height issue is a problem it will def affect our home directly um I'm also a local licensed realtor on the island for 15 years um I do feel that we when we incorporated This Town Incorporated that we had a plan we had a vision um and we need to stick to that um we're asking you to support all of us you can hear as many people that were here today asking you to support us and support what the LPA recommended so that's all thank you please consider this in your vote and we truly hope you deny the proposal as written and ask them to resubmit to something that conforms thank you to our current plan yes sir come up good morning Council my name is John Sher 280 Nature View Court um I'm a registered landscape architect I've been practicing landscape architecture designing and development such as Cate for four over 40 years representing clients like that um so I'm very familiar with this process and development but this and um this is a blatant poor example of urban plan period this whole town here agrees that we need to develop as soon as possible but we need to do it responsibly and intelligently guidelines are set we need to follow these guidelines and adhere to them we can't be going around prostituting ourselves for one guy here in this way these people are going to fall in line just because we need funding and whatever else and income and people coming back to the town we mentioned these things about public benefits while public benefits basically should be uh required and demanded not a bonus because he's given us this or that they're too vague too inconsistent and arbitrary and you're going to run into problems in the future if you approve this project because this is going to be bottom line this is going to be setting presidents and the next person and developer is going to get in line and say Hey you allow this to happen here you got to allow this to happen for my project that's going to happen period I've been involved in them and I see this excuse me happening and I've seen it happen um you should be renting us as a residents here and basically whatever uh and and representing Us in making Intelligent Decisions on our behalf this is a shortterm we uh Pro this is a short-term shortsighted approval here that you're doing here today we got to look at the long term this is approved we should be basic I you know there's going to be some issues here with other developers like I said coming in here and doing that we meet again we need to make intelligent responsible decisions here today it's absurd that you're even considering a project 17 stories not even close to what this town wants the character and the charm of this town I appreciate it have a great day thank you anyone else yes sir good morning morning Mark lexon 281 Ohio Avenue resident since 1989 uh uh my children all of them went to Beach Elementary School and they're in their 30s right now and they hope that my grandchildren would be able to go to beach school also um I'm a Contractor on this beach and um I know what I can build and what I can't build and that was because we became a town uh and we got a comp plan we figured for flooding we have elevated homes here and basically everything that was elevated did very well during these hurricanes uh we're we're looking at a 17-story building that's in a residential area that is an older neighborhood basically one and two stories um I don't see anything else midrise highrise anywhere around it uh as a contractor here on this beach I know when I buy a piece a lot I know what the lot goes for what what its value is I know how much my home is going to cost I don't try to run through the building department a six-story a seven story Residential Building why because we have a comp plan it says how high I can build how wide I can build and everything else like that I'm actually upset after two weeks ago that I was here and heard what the vote was I I say to us we have everybody here I don't I don't know how many people here are positive but they're negative negative negative on this I don't know why we have Council and I don't know who it is which ones but I'm just saying how can it be that we the people that have been here for so long are against this and you people you five know better than we do we're all stating what we would like to see or what what we don't want to see and and and and you're going against our wishes I could go on and on but I'm going to let that go thank you anyone else yes sir thank you for allowing me to speak yes sir uh I've been a resident in Captain Bay for since 1999 can you state your name for the record please my name is Lee farer you can pull that mic up too and be a little easier for everybody to hear in the back is that better yes okay they'll let us know if they can hear you okay um I'm civil engineer and I've worked in site development for 40 years um that property the Red Coconut property is large enough that they could build a development within our height restrictions and make tons of profit by allowing these multistory buildings you're just allowing them to maximize profit I believe it our expense I just my question is why I don't understand thank you thank you yes I'll get to you back there next I can't see who it is but okay I have not been sworn in yet so oh this is this is a regular public oh good good my name is Lind D naazy good morning everybody councel and you find folk back there um the Red Coconut deed is it not I have not found a deed for the Red Coconut that states that it should be either an RV park or Villas why we came to this conclusion or delusion that we should even think of going over our height limit is beyond belief to me and I'm going to get infected more than anybody CU I live right across the street and I'm going to have a wall to look at does that sound nice to you folks I did choose where I live I chose it 40 years ago when it was the Red Coconut RV park and I could see a sky view and I could see people on the beach not in a restaurant across the street and everything else but not a council that want to sell us out is just not right you guys really really really need to go past the pocket book into the brain in the heart of this island that you move to to protect us not him thank you thank you Yes Man good morning good morning uh Carolyn Eric Styer full-time residents on Driftwood first I'd like to thank you mayor allers for trying to keep the comp plan and keep to the original Mission of the Town second we've never been more disappointed in a group of elected officials as we are with everyone else here and we come from the state of Illinois we we've been disappointed next we moved here because of the small time Town charm we didn't want tall buildings crowds crowds traffic like Clear Water Beach Marco Miami when we found out the town became a town because of the comp plan we were even more happy with our decision to move here we're not against this these developments we're against additional height and additional density I think everyone else here is in agreement mark maraville did this without a problem I don't know why Seagate can't there's no reason except for greed that these developers need to build the way they are proposing as the mayor asked for during yesterday's Beach talk radio segment for a solution the Seagate 17 stories can be spread out evenly over all their properties they can be on one one level of ground parking with three to four feet of uh living space just like Margaritaville did did not everyone is going to have a spectacular view of the gulf but that's not our problem seate chose to build here I'm not sure how many of you council members follow social media but a majority of the residents don't want these huge bu buildings we've heard that here before last public comment there were 25 or so against Seagate and about two for Seagate that that's 92% against you guys were all voted in here to represent us 92% of the people here do not want this that means four out of five of you need to vote no against Seagate again we're not against the development as a whole just the additional height and density finally I'm not sure why you're considering these projects and please don't insult our intelligence with public benefit because what they're wanting is and what they're offering is public benefit just don't match don't say additional tax revenue because margar raville is giving you guys additional Revenue seate doesn't need 17 stories to give us Revenue you all have the power not Seagate not London Bay please say no to the 17 stories thank you thank you anyone else are you coming up or just stretching all right come on my name is Dennis alier I live in 165 Flamingo Street morning and I think uh I think the biggest thing here is the precedent you're going to set I'm looking at London Bay doing a project at the corner right by the corner of my street they want to do the same thing now I don't know how you're going to tell them no when you tell these guys yes I mean how does that work it's not going to work they'll take you to court they'll beat the hell out of you it's it's either one way or the other either you're gonna let everybody do it or nobody there's no in between here you know what's going to happen with court don't you you're going to lose because you can't you can't pick well yeah these guys it's okay for them it's not okay for them it's both you know and then the whole thing you know it's tough to say but the confidence in this council is where look at what happened with after Ian how could we have any confidence in this Council it was a waste product around here nobody knew what the hell to do so why should we be confident now that you guys are going to make the right decision really than about it was anybody happy what happened after Ian here not a person that's why they all got bounced out of office after a and I think the same thing will happen here if you okay this thing it'll be the last time we see any of you guys and I think it would be a great idea when you have a crowd like this here who's not here all the time be a great thing to introduce each one of these councilmen so we know who you are because I don't know anybody here outside of you Dan the only guy that I know and and could look at and say I know who this guy is I don't know any of these guys it' be great to introduce them at the beginning of the meeting this is this guy this guy this is where you are I think it would help everybody here thanks and I hope uh you work it out thank you yes sir hi I'm Walter pilkins I live on Bea right across from what used to be the Outrigger and I'm also concerned about the height of the Outrigger I know they want to put up big Bill buildings but I wanted to mention trailers trailers have been allowed on Fort Myers Beach for more than 50 years the Red Coconut was a historic trailer park it was the first place in America that had cold storage lockers for people staying there so I know at one point when we came up with a policy that said you can't live in a trailer it at a residence it had nothing to do with the flood plane or the Hurricanes it was so that your neighbor couldn't look out his window and see your uncle Sid in in a crappy trailer so I'd just like to say that I know the policy that that you wrote that said you can't um live in a trailer just needs a tweaking to say that generally speaking Yeah trailers are not allowed in residential areas except when the house is not livable and it could be from a different reason it could be because you had a fire in the kitchen or a flood or some some for some reason your house is not livable and for those reasons you get a permit you can live in a trailer until it's repair I happen to be living in a trailer behind my house the house is about five months from completion but I know there's some people that they haven't even started because you know you fight with your insurance for a year you fight with Femur for a year maybe even a small Business Association it takes time I I may actually be ahead of the curve because I'm only five months away from moving into a new house but I hope that somehow you can work with I know FEA said they they're upset that you had a policy that it said no you can't live in a trailer and after Ian you said all right you can but I believe we still got to tweak tweak to say all right these are the reasons these are the conditions where you can live in a trailer in the residential area that's my two cents thank you thank you anyone else yes sir good morning hi there good morning I'm dit Willis 99 Andre Maher and I also currently live in a trailer house was leveled by Ian this process takes time and I think everyone's aware of it here um besides trying to find funding because the price of the new home is astronomical compared to what was there it took me eight months to get a set of plans um it's going to take time I finally have a set of plans from a licensed engineer and everything else that I can go turn around and build a house with they still have to go to the town to be approved I don't know how long that's going to take and if you walk in and take away the trailer I'm living in do I do I put up a tent I mean we kind of have to get realistic here as to what's going on maybe people forget how badly this island was devastated at on Andre Maher there is not a single house four Lots deep because everything was devastated give us a chance to rebuild I feel bad for the small businesses who have little trailers are trying to operate out of that's money for the town you're cutting your own throats here I'm confused as to why decisions are being made when it does that doesn't help you it doesn't help me it doesn't help anybody in this town that's just my humble opinion um thank you for listening thank you sir is there anyone else come on up I can't see if there's anybody out there raising their hand so if anybody sees anybody um my name is Jerry prik I live at 7820 esto Boulevard my house was completely destroyed in the hurricane it was a concrete block house and um I'm trying to rebuild um so I'm worried about my permit which is expired September 23rd 2025 so I'm living in a trailer there I'm afraid you're going to make me get out of there next month they two months next week you know you're supposed to be voting on this today and I'm not sure what power you're voting on this but I really need that trailer I have nowhere to go I'm homeless without that trailer so that's it thanks thank you anyone else seeing none we'll close public comment next is local achievements and recognition we have a donation is that who's going to that you Andy yes okay um the highes I can turn it over to Jeff has been working with this uh but the highes the last two years three years have decid have donated uh the poetas that we put in our Po catry and we just want to recognize them and and give them a great uh big thank you for for doing this for the community okay do you need a motion to accept the donation yes okay is there a motion I'll make a motion to accept the donation from Jay and Mary Hy for the point sadiat trees for the uh the the Christmas Point C Tre at Time Square I'll second and thank you so much got a motion by mayor Alex second by councelor Woodson any further discussion just again thank you again for for stepping up and doing that it's something that everyone loves every single years so with that all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously John anything nothing in a matter of time VI I'll I'll I'll do the same out of interest of time okay Council Woodson same counc Safford Doo I'll do the same as well closes local and next is our advisory committee items reports and appointments um with if Council doesn't mind with the exception of item a which is the boks recreational campus Advisory Board Item B for the town advisory boards and item C for the county uh outside committees to take a just uh acknowledge whether or not everyone is okay with their current positions or if they would like to change if if so we will read who's staying with each one but as opposed to going through asking if anybody changes is everyone okay with that fine I'm good with that okay all right BS we have mayor could we just announce certainly what uh Town advisory committees the council members are should we do it should we do it when we get to that item or you want to it's Item B it's item it's three separate items so I thought you were I was going to do the bat first and then we'll do B and then we'll do that's fine that work yes and I will I'll announce yeah just so the public knows who's serving on what committees fair enough okay okay we have two uh members who have applied for The Bard cab position Michelle churny and Diane Richardson M cour you have our Bots our ballots do not can we just can we go to the next item we will table item a if anyone has any objection to that we will table item a go to Item B the town advisory boards um does anyone have any interest in changing the current board that they they sit on to anything else I do not counc Woodson I would remain okay vice mayor fine coun King I'm good okay I do not have any objections as well so the leaon for the Anchorage advisory committee will continue to be vice mayor aderholt the audit committee will continue to be council member Safford uh the BS recreational campus Advisory Board will continue to be councelor Woodson the cultural and environmental Learning Center Advisory Board will continue to be uh vice mayor aderholt the marine and environment res resources task force will continue to be councelor king and the public safety of committee will continue to be myself all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next we'll go to item C and then we'll go back to item a item C is the outside commit IES uh does anyone have any objection or would they like to change any current committees that they are sitting on councelor Safford I'm fine leaving the way it is okay counc Woodson I'm fine Vice May fine counc K good okay I'm as good as well uh so the first is the coastal and Heartland National Estuary partnership uh councelor member Kain will continue to serve on that the coastal advisory committee um will continue to be project manager Chad shes guess I should have asked him um he's fine the fort Meers Beach Elementary School youth Council I will be honest I didn't know that I was in charge of that so I will continue to do so now that I know that uh Horizon Council uh is myself Metropolitan planning organization will uh continue to be councelor king the southwest Florida Regional planning Council uh is Sarah PR is that or is it going to go to Judith it might make more sense for it to go with Judith but um I mean I'm open to that discussion it'll be one of our planning staff okay and the TDC will continue to be myself is there any objection to those uh appointments all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously we'll go back to the for cab there again is I two people um applying for one spot ran off too fast Amy do we still have an opening on the Public Safety Committee you have your I believe we do okay thank you and we have one on ccab now also there is a vacancy on Sal and I'm sure they posted on okay so our our town clerk shall announce your votes and uh it'll be reflected on the screen okay um from Karen Woodson uh Michelle shney churny sorry uh Scott Safford is Michelle churny mayor allers is Michelle churny Vice mayor aderholt Michelle churny and John King is Diane Richardson so that would be four votes for Michelle churny and one for Diane Richardson so a vote to certify that the accuracy of the results is there a motion to certify the accuracy of the results for the Bor cab committee open seat so moved I'll second motion by counc sa Safford seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously if um um a minute mayor U I had reached out to Diane Richardson before I knew Michelle had ran uh because Diane had submitted that she'd be willing to work on any committee uh so maybe if we could reach out to her see if there's something else she would like to serve on since we have two more openings thank you thank you John thank you next is the approval of the minutes a vote oh I already did you voted to certify oh and now a vote to appoint oh is there a motion is there a motion to appoint the so moved got a motion by councelor Safford second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is the approval of the minutes is there a motion or any changes to the minutes that anyone would like to make have any we don't have any I didn't think so were sitting here in his pile of paper we don't have any for this one okay nothing we'll move on to the consent agenda uh it's for resolution there's one item on the consent agenda that was amended to added the words as needed it is for resolution 24-290 Town disaster advisory Council appointment and authorization is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so Move Motion by councelor King second second by councelor Safford any further discussion all those favor signify roll call councelor King hi councelor Safford hi councelor Woodson hi Vice May ad hi and I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimous the next three items on our agenda are public hearings for review of various land use requests for the benefit of the public Please be aware that these items are quas djal in nature our attorney will further explain thank you mayor um today you have your three items um are the possible approval of a development agreement a um commercial plan development and a variance and these items are all quasi judicial in nature and this requires that today's public hearings comply with procedural requirements that have been established in Florida law and in our Land Development code so these quasi judicial proceedings these are less formal than proceedings before circuit court but they are more formal than the remainder of our meeting and we must follow basic standards of due process requiring that certain notices the application of the correct standards and that your decisions are made on competent and substantial evidence that has been presented to you in written documents or through oral testimony your responsibility today as the Town Council is to evaluate the testimony and the information for each item and draw a conclusion regarding whether the criteria in the Land Development code or state law as may be applicable has been satisfied so pure speculation or mere opinion that is not based on competent facts cannot legally be considered by the Town Council in evaluating an agenda item testimony by professionals who have been qualified as experts in a particular area has been considered competent evidence by Florida courts as well as testimony by neighbors and residents who have fact-based information such as minutes surveys engineering reports or testimony that is based on their personal information the town council's decision is final if a decision of approval is not obtained or if a TI vote results then the matter being considered is denied unless a majority of the council members present in voting agree uh before the next agenda item is called to take some other action in lie of the denial such other action may be to may be moved or seconded by any member regardless of his or her vote on the earlier motion so if the Town Council decides to deny an application or a request the reason for the denial will be stated in the motion the denial of a quasi judicial matter must not be based on a determination of public support or opposition to a application the reason for the denial cannot be arbitrary discrimin atory or unreasonable and should be based on a lack of competent and substantial evidence in res in support of the required criteria so the denial of an application or a request is a denial without with prejudice unless the council States otherwise um if the denial is with prejudice um there is a 12month period of time that must be uh that must pass before a application can be resubmitted um in the event it is without prejudice um the application can be um modified and brought back and within that 12 month period and um resubmitted stating which modifications have been made and other changes so um I advise everyone that if you intend to speak please keep my comments in mind when you come forward please state your name clearly for the record whether or not you've been sworn in and your qualifications or interest in the matter so for purposes of efficiency before the beginning of any hearing we'd like to go ahead and put on the record a few um what we call housekeeping items um the town clerk could you please advise whether all agenda items have been properly noticed pursuant to Our Land Development code yes they have been thank you and at this time time I need to ask if any council member has a conflict of interest on these three agenda items that would prohibit them from voting uh we please disclose that at this time so that we can assure that we have a quorum present for review of the item uh councilor Zord I do not counc Woodson no I do not as well Vice M none Council King none okay our next item is um at this time if there is anyone in the audience and staff um including the prop the applicant property owner who intends to provide testimony in any of these three quasi judicial hearings if you would please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in by the town clerk can you before can you please make sure that they got the message if there is people outside the door I can't see if there are or not all right good all right um if you'll all raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay everyone's been sworn okay if any Town count council member has had any expart communication to disclose please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that you received or observations made of the site this is for the seate this is for I read the title oh I'm sorry you want me to read that first yes all all right our first hearing is ordinance 23 24-34 da22 4170 Cate home rule development agreement Red Coconut this is the second reading and final hearing of the proposed ordinance 24-34 entitled an ordinance of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving a home rule development agreement for property located at 3 2001 Estero Boulevard 2943 Estero Boulevard 2932 Estero Boulevard 21 Donora Boulevard Fort Meers Beach Florida strap numbers 2946 d24 dw1 d145 do10 29- 46-24 w1145 50000 30-46 d24 w 2- 000000 1.000000 29- 46-24 dw1 d0120 a. z0010 and owned by Seagate Fort Meers Beach LLC as authorized by section 2100 of the town's Land Development code and in compliance with the procedures for application and approval of development agreements with deviation set forth in resolution number 24733 for the purpose of Redevelopment of the property previously known as the Red Coconut RV park providing for terms and conditions including but not limited to the identification of the proposed use of the property a finding in consistency with the town of Fort Meers Beach Comprehensive plan commitments and development obligations deviations needed for development providing for other clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of Law scribers erors severability and providing for an effective build now if any town council member has any exart communication to disclose please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that you received or observations made of the site councelor Safford I've had SE several phone call conversation since last meeting with Mr Price and I've met personally with quite a number of local residents received quite a number of emails um even got some text messages via Facebook Messenger please don't do that that's it councilor wizen I have had exactly the same uh I've had two different conversations with Mr Price I've received a lot of emails uh mostly negative um I've had some positive conversations with other residents VI yeah very similar uh emails uh both pro and con uh obviously most of them Con on the email front lety of conversation with with a variety of people both pro and con uh including the the applicant Council King uh emails again pro and con mostly again con and I had a nice uh level of conversation yesterday with Barbara Hill regarding seate okay since the last hearing I also have had received many emails um mostly against the project I've had conversations with Mr Price um and his team uh I have uh briefly spoken about it on the Sunday show of beach talk radio um and that's about it obviously I've had personal conversations with people in the public that have come up and talked to me as well so mayor having heard the disclosures I just want to place on the record are each of you um able to fair and impartially hear the testimony and evidence presented to you today and you have not had a um preconceived uh opinion as to to this particular development counc Safford I can be fair and honest this counc woodon I'll be honest ccor ccor King as I told Barbara yesterday I'm openmed Vice May sa very open-minded um mayor also we have uh representatives of the applicant here today it this is an appropriate time for them to ask any questions that they would like of the EXP parte disclosures would you like to come on hello again good morning for your record Richard Aken representing Cate I don't have any questions about the disclosures thank you thank you Richard and also uh there's reference to a lot of emails that were received I'd like the clerk to say um has those copies of those emails been provided to the applicant yes they have been okay okay I see you just sat down Sarah pro has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council and based on her education and EXP experience has been accepted as an expert in the FI field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Myers Beach Are any are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time yes that haven't been before do they have to do it again I know we keep asking if they've already been qualified as an expert in a prior hearing it's not necessary um but we have quite a group today so I don't know do you mind doing it again being qualified okay just just just if you both can take a brief just come up and and say who you are and what qualifies you and we'll take the vot Matt price Cate Development Group um been in development for 25 years uh looking to get um qualified as a development expert thank you man okay good morning good morning for the record I'm Tina eblad principal at Sage entitlements I have been an aicp certified planner since 2011 I have a master's degree in public administration from Florida Gulf Coast University and I've been practicing planning in Lee County Fort mys Beach and the S municipality since 2005 okay you previously accepted me as an expert in land use and I would like to be accepted so today okay thank you any questions for Tina before we take a vote all right is there a motion to approve Tina and Matt as expert w w Witnesses in the field of land use development cover so move councelor Safford second by councelor Woodson any further discussion counc Stafford hi councelor Woodson hi Vice May hi councelor King hi n i as well motion carries unanimously uh has the property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff they all nodding their head yes okay Sarah Sarah come on up I wasn't gonna stand up till he [Laughter] knew you're getting your steps in good morning Sarah proes with Community Development this is the second and final hearing of uh home rule devel agreement for the seate Red Coconut property the applicant has provided an updated Master concept plan and development agreement since the last hearing and those are contained in the agenda packet this is a development agreement to allow 137 dwelling multif family structure four single family units which may be increased to 12 single family units with density transfers from adjacent properties not to exceed a total of 149 units with potential density transfers a p a pedestrian walkover over a sterile Boulevard a 29,000 foot Beach Club 10,000 ft of commercial space public restrooms a beach park a Bayside Park and a linear Park through the property the applicant will now give a presentation and then staff will return to provide a recommendation prior to opening up the meeting for public comment okay thank you Matt you going go y let me make sure I read it from machet though uh would the applicant please proceed with their presentation on this item now I'm ready to go now you're ready to go well first things first um I'm lucky my Eagles beat the Steelers my business partner is a Steelers fan and the BET was I would have had to wear a Steelers jersey to this and that would have been very awkward for me so for all us so so thank God my Eagles uh W uh secondly um I was admonished by uh vice vice mayor adalt and rightfully so um I tried to maybe jump in at the end uh but we were already in public comment um uh what I said um should have been said there's no excuse for it and I apologize to councel staff and the public that was there and the public that hearded here so um there's just no excuse for it I did have a follow-up conversation with uh the mayor uh we talked and he got some feedback that uh our team was talking a lot uh going back and forth Etc so I've had discussions with my team and hopefully um our deorum has changed uh in the positive way and if it hasn't please let us know and we will change accordingly so just wanted to hit that fact um there's a lot of people here I'm sure they want to talk I want to give them the opportunity to talk um just want to hit hit on a couple quick points then Tina is going to get up and say what she needs to say and we'll let everyone speak speak um the um the process that we started almost two years ago now um started with a a meeting with each individual council person out on site um to walk around um at that meeting I asked each individual council meeting or each individual council person and that was including Bill Beach I think is here today uh he's no law own counsel um what would be a better starting point to a project an increase of density or an increase of height each of the five Council people at that time responded to me that height was a better option than density um there were others that uh on the LPA Anita met with Anita I think she's here too see again um um that also at least alluded to the effect and again I'm I'm I'm not talking about 17 stories at this point to be fair to everyone on council at that point we did not know the stories at that point so I want to make that abundantly clear um there was a discussion about um instead of spreading it out and indid you may remember this yeah that that discussion that's how we started this whole process and when we had our first meetings the initial negotiation was to take that height off the beach and to push it off off the beach that was the starting point of our negotiation and I think that has been lost in the discussions as we've been talking here um I just wanted to state that for the record um now I I when I was discussing with um the mayor the other day uh we had a discussion about every single time that we've had a public meeting or any type of meeting we've always come back with a chance to make the project better um vice mayor adhal pushed me pretty hard for a bathroom um but he didn't stop there he wouldn't leave me alone about it especially with the issues with FEMA um there's a lot of uncertainty there and the thought of a trailer scared um and rightfully so scared a lot of people that we would come up with the trailer and then it would not be approved and then their Seagate promised ing something they're not going to give um I also had Neighbors on the North side who weren't in love with the idea of the trailer being pushed to their side of um the park so we went back and in our new plan we have created a public restroom area that is attached to our building and elevated out of FEMA the flood plane I think we'll show pictures of it when Tina comes up that's elevated and off the flood plane so it'll be there in perpetuity there'll be public bathrooms um Sarah I believe when we were meeting was very happy with that she finally said she feels comfortable with calling it a public park now that there's a permanent solution to these restrooms um there was one other discussion that has been happening about beach access for Gul Coast or Gul VI Colony uh we've had this under contract for a while we F out a contract not supposed to be known but no secrets on this island um we have a a couple solutions to that but as of right now people are correct I do not own that piece of ground so as of right now I have a solution to build we have a park it's going to be one side of the park and the other side of the park bifurcated by that line I've offered some other solutions to maybe push that line over but um just like I have property rights they do as well and we're going to hopefully work on maybe us purchasing that it'll go away but they want to make sure that they hold their property rights until after that process goes through so unfortunately we thought we had a solution coming into the meeting um the previous meeting but with it getting pushed so long uh we got out of contract so that's a little bit of a solution but we work with staff we went over it and there is a solution to have um two distinct parks with a with a line going through there's access on both sides and it'll be uh it'll it'll work out just fine but I'll even if this project gets approved the project is not done and there's plenty of planning that is going to go on and so I look forward to if it does get approved more feedback as we go through the design process things can change this is not a final turn it over project this is just to create the box that we're designing into so so things can change going forward and I'll look forward to getting any public input for that so I'm going to stop there because a lot of people want to talk I'll come back for discussion if we want unless there's any questions you have have any questions for Matt at this time Council King not at this time thanks l m I've got a couple questions yes sir so Matt explain a little bit about this concept there's been a lot of discussion about there's been no negotiation no back and forth no tradeoffs explain go back to the Genesis of this when when you first proposed this or proposed the the discussion of this Exchange for not massing uh units on the beach uh and pushing those units back off a stero uh in return for additional height that that if that didn't occur the the the the alternative for you as a developer would have been to because the most valuable piece of that property I don't want to speak for you is is obviously closest to the gulf your incentive would would have been to mass those units on the beach is that a fair characterization that's correct Jim um you know right now per the per what we're allowed to build there would only be a 50ft view Carter that would have been necessary on the beach obviously if we're looking to maximize the the profits from the um existing density putting as many units as much as we can get on the beach um the also the other discussion would have been a lot of people bringing up margarit Bill love Tom love what he's done different project um but Tom did get a significant increase in density for what he gave um so I I was told that density because of traffic and a lot of other issues especially Mid Island was a significant push back so not only did we try to limit um how many units we had we also tried to limit the project we built um we did have a multiplier to be allowed to go to a hotel um Hotel would have created a significant more traffic on that on that piece of ground so that's where we started our whole project design um as we went through that the comp plan um needed to be followed there needed to be a road in so when when that road gets in and we start designing the project you know we start filling in those squares and that's what this design process has done and it's come to um you know public parks Public Access public bathroom uh access to the park um uh for mananas uh walkways bike ability so we heard all these things and we tried to put it together as we went through this process and even continuing to the last meeting um you know um going to my team and challenging them and my team asking me why are we you know why change it it feels like everyone's okay because it's the right thing to do and that's what we did and so even up to the last meeting you know here we are trying to change something to give a benefit to the town and and I think that I think that shows we're willing to work and we've we've been through this process this whole time and and again even after if this does get approved my door and phone is always open people can call me and talk to me there's we've changed things through this whole process and if someone couldn't make the meeting or has a better idea and it works we put something in the development agreement that allows us to come back and discuss and change the development agreement based on on new information and based on um based on going forward but yes Jim if if we would to go back to the original um and I think Fran came here one of the first meetings and talked about it but pretty much every developer was trying to maximize the beach and what we tried to do was understand the value of that beach and then try to pull the units and the height off the beach and and that was our first starting point of a negotiation and I think if you talk any of the real estate brokers or developers on the town who do the valuation that that's a pretty significant starting point and and and I and I I I believe anyone could understand that you ask for any additional density in your proposal we have not no I'm I'm going to have some more questions later but thank you that's all I have right now you got it oh hold on sorry um I do have a question I don't know if it's a question to staff or you but sure it was brought up in public comment about the impact fees yes and where we are with impact fees and has that been decided in this whole negotiation I've agreed to pay all the impact fees even though I don't know how much they cost okay which is not necessarily the best thing to do as a developer but understanding where the town is and understanding this is a special case coming out of Ian and there needs to be a solution you know as a developer you got to be solution based and we know typically that we're going to be paying impact fees on on projects so we were not assuming zero and I would hope that the town Town's impact fees are based on other municipalities and they make sense and um but we are ready and willing to pay them and Sarah I think you can probably answer but that is in the that is in the U development agreement thank you you're welcome counc saff one of the things we've had this conversation M but I want to make sure it's on public record is I'm still having a problem with this road and I understand it's in the comp plan but I guess this this question would be for Sarah does it have to be a road can it just be a bike path or a golf cart path according to our comprehensive plan and our Land Development code it needs to be a road and I think that it is to the benefit of the town that we maintain that additional intersection I mean we would we would want that additional connection since traffic is our largest issue on the town and we hear it at every single meeting um it does make sense to have additional ways for people to get around the town without getting on a St Boulevard so uh it would be my recommendation to maintain that within the the requirements um but it is in the Land Development code and it is in the comprehensive plan because I I look at I look at those diagrams and my office is on Lovers Lane I don't unless we imminent domain something I don't see how that Road's going to connect to lovers lane and then continue it I don't know either however this has been brought by staff on multiple occasions that's I think I'm not going to speak for everybody but I would feel more comfortable if that road was in the very back move those houses somewhere else and push the whole whole thing back I I can't speak to the environmental impact um however I I don't think it probably isn't a good idea to have it at the rear of the property where it could have imp can we move it to the front we have lots of options um I mean what what is proposed here is you know in the back quarter um however it would it would be up to Matt if if they have another suggestion let me ask let me re ask a question if if we could in the next upcoming months and this may be a question for our attorney if if we can update the comp plan knowing that that Road's Road to Nowhere it's kind of like the bridge of Milwaukee for 20 years um can we write this agreement where if we can remove that road and or change it to a bike path we can move move the property back and get the height even further off the beach or off the front of the property so I'm I don't think that um it would be wise to try craft something into the future like that I think what could happen is you could approve it today if you go in that direction and then they could come back and amend it um they would not want to come back and amend it yeah I mean I I I think it's tough for us to agree to something that you know everyone wants us to stick to the comp plan which I which I hear and what we're trying to do the letter of the law way and for us to put something in a development agreement that contradicts the comp plan changes our whole argument and probably I I I don't know how it gets approved that way now I will say like I said if something happens quickly and I've already we we've had discussions I think with most people um on putting together people to help with the comp plan on both sides to really try to understand what the comp plan could be if there's a chance that something changes and we could redesign a project base that that helps based on a new comp plan we can certainly take a look at it at that point but I I I just don't know how you do it I don't know how you put a contradicting uh that's why I asked her I I felt felt the same way but I I but but certainly and again I I think I said it Scott and and I'm ready and willing to listen to anybody um you know I I I stood here at the after the last meeting asked anyone to talk to me I mean I anyone can get in touch with me I'd love to I'd love to talk to people that have great ideas but as of right now we are where we are and the project is where it is so um and just going back to the Genesis of this proposal Mr V was the the point guy at first and I I took his spot yes but in my being on the LPA for so long it was always about density and one of the things I did like about your project was you weren't you're asking for what what you have by right nothing more so that's and we we did try to stick within the density again this goes back now people's emotions change things change over time you know once a project comes in front of people and I understand and and and I I get it um I just wanted to give everyone the history of how we got here and we did follow a process and we tried to follow a process that we thought was the most digestible from the public um that that's how we did it and we Tred to take the direction from the decision makers of the town the LPA talked to some other people and that was always the the the idea of keep density to a minimum because of the traffic and a lot of the other issues so that's that's how we started with this project again I I I would assume you know I I heard a lot of people talk about precedent setting and everything like that I I I think it's going to be I I would assume we're the only people on the island who are going to come and ask to take units off the beach maybe I'm wrong but um I I just don't see it happening for anywhere else anything else that's all I have for right now man I've got quite a few questions the most are probably for for Tina okay but I'm sure there's some that you're going to have to apply on so if you don't mind when I ask them if you guys want to decide who's best to answer it well I'll let her do a as she's going through the presentation I'll have some questions so you want me to let her go yeah I don't have any questions right now directly for you but when I do ask him if you feel I'm I'm perfectly fine with you coming back up and answering if you feel more comfortable that's good morning still Tina good morning for the record Tina EAD principal of sage entitlements um we do have copies of the presentation for everyone and maybe the same okay um I wanted to I'm not going to go through every slide of this presentation um I'm going to summarize what you've heard previously and the changes that we've made since the last meeting I do want to have this slide up so that everybody can see that we have um addressed the Western Park and taken that vehicular access out that was in the previous diagrams um so that that truly becomes a park it's a little difficult to see at scale but we did add in the um structure for the bathrooms that Matt was talking about um and so I thought it was important for you all to be able to to take that in and to see that so um to to begin the presentation I think there are a couple of of reminders that are helpful and that is that your comprehensive plan does identify this property the Red Coconut and the Gul VI Colony as a Redevelopment area it specifically states that it's a Redevelopment area to give consideration to appropriate future uses of both properties in the event of a change in ownership or a natural disaster these properties obviously have both criteria um and so with that Redevelopment district there are then additional flexibilities but also requirements that need to be met through other policies in the comprehensive plan and also the Land Development code and that is what we started with in those initial discussions that Matt referenced what is what was that Vision how can we bring that Vision to life while also taking into account that the flood plane maps have changed three times since this Redevelopment area was implemented and the regulations related to those flood clim um construction practices have changed over time as we all know in a vzone it is very difficult to enclose area and then provide usable residential or commercial space and so that is a challenge on this property the other thing um that I think Matt articulated extremely well that I won't uh sit on for a long period of time is we wanted to transfer the density off of the beach we wanted to keep the intensity that was there at a level that was not as impactful to the neighboring properties as the previous commercial use um and so we made it a private beach club that is open to Residents and guests and I we landed on a specific number of of the public that can also have a membership there um it's important I think to remind that that Beach Club is consistent with the height requirements of the village zoning District and that is um three stories and 30 ft by right we did ask that the um parking not be included in the F calculations for all of the structures and that's because like I said we can't use that that enclosed space at the ground floor for anything else um additionally when it comes to the Redevelopment I think Matt articulated it very well we I personally and the team watch a lot of the meetings where the new potential Conference of flame was considered where other projects were considered by the LPA and by Council and we heard the comments that were made Matt did fill the whole team in on the feedback that he got during the individual meetings many of us attended the multiple Community meetings and interviews and we heard that it was important that the buildings not be across the entire uh 9.4 developable Acres and so that's another unique characteristic that this property has that quite frankly many others in the town don't we have a larger acreage to be able to to put structures together in a way that yes increases the height but also keeps larger areas of clear space open for Access Recreation and and those public benefits that we talked about um we did amend the development agreement at multiple points through the process after every community meeting that we hosted there was an amendment that was submitted many of them included design changes an example that I'll give is we did hear from the residents along dinora that they were not happy with our access points so we collapsed that down they were concerned about school buses picking up on a stero and so we came forward and said great we're going to help you with that those things are written into the development agreement so that because this is the first step at a much longer process when we come forward next with our development order for the town or the building permit it is clear that we can work through these things and um provide the benefits that we've committed to the other thing that we did is um we kept the property as a hole at at that 9.4 Acres so that we could submit an environmental resources permit with the Water Management District to ensure that that surface water was not impacting any of the surrounding Properties or roadways um same concept the beachfront will have to go to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for additional permitting as well I mention all that because yes this is a concept this is not the last stop but we did also provide um very clear instructions that if there was a change related to the orientation of the height the the density the uses within the structures um and the intensity that that all had to come back to Town Council there were some other things that we could do administratively with staff as Sarah mentioned appropriately but those things all had to come back to town Council because there would be an impact beyond our property boundaries um and so in doing that we think that we've provided enough flexibility for this concept to go through the process and all the additional permits that need to be secured but also provide that assurance that the concept that has been presented is not going to change you've heard um a lot of things about height um policy 4c4 specifically gives flexibility to those Redevelopment areas to have a different height and it does the Land Development code gives a different height by right to this District than is referenced in policy 4c4 the policy goes on to give Property Owners the opportunity to ask for additional height part of that is this process the council created the development agreement process and then as you know there's a plan development process that can be used um as as an alternative and so that is one of our asks today height is not limited in the same way that F is for example the comp plan is very clear that F outside of The Pedestrian commercial future land use cannot exceed 1.5 that same maximum limitation does not exist for height because every property is different the size of every property and the benefits that can be provided is different and that's part of the negotiation and the process of the community meetings and the public hearings and things of that nature the policy does specifically reference if you're going to ask for height there needs to be view corridors and other public benefits and that all needs to be evaluated as part of this process we do have view corridors we have two to the be Beach and one to mananas pass there have been comments about not being able to see the beach um about the the pool and the equipment and seating and such the p in the past Town Council has made a policy decision that that is acceptable for a view corridor when you consider The Pedestrian environment that we are trying to create along Estero with the maintenance of the sidewalks and the enhanced Landscaping um people will be able to see over 3T the average person is taller than 3et having said that if the council feels that that enhanced Landscaping will obscure the view we are willing to consider an alternative as we discussed at the last meeting um but I don't think that shade trees which will be taller than six or seven feet will negatively impact the view corridor and I think it staff is correct that it will benefit the town in the long term and so as I have said in the past and I will say again in this meeting it is my professional opinion that our request for additional height is consistent with the comprehensive plan and policy 4c4 based on our location in the Redevelopment District based on the provision of the view corridors that exceed the height that we're asking for and based on the other public benefits that we are offering through this project um Matt addressed the question about impact fees in terms of the fact that have committed to paying them um and Sarah is free to jump in if I mess this up but it is my understanding that the town is working through that process to have an ordinance to establish impact fees those fees are typically assessed either with the development order or the building permit and so it is our anticipation that that ordinance will be adopted prior to those applications coming into the town and therefore yes ourselves and any other project that is approved um in that time frame will be assessed these fees and that will help with um the uh infrastructure funding that the town needs I I would also remind you that we added language into the development agreement that should an expansion or some sort of improvement be necessary for example to utilities that that cost would be borne by the developer um we added language into the development agreement regarding the turn Lanes to make sure that we're not negatively impacting the traffic on a stero Andora and so um when you look at your packet we did include a clean copy of the development agreement we also have a strike through an underlined version that clearly demonstrates all of the changes and all the items that have been negotiated with Town Council we your LPA also negotiated very strongly with this project team and we uh Incorporated all of those recommendations as we could before getting to Town Council and then as I mentioned during our community meetings we made changes to the design almost every time um as well as the text of the development agreement so um it is my professional opinion that the development agreement before you today is consistent with the comprehensive plan that the deviations have provided appropriate justification they are also consistent with the comprehensive plan and the public benefits that are offered um do justify the ask today um and we would respectfully request your approval of the development agreement I understand there are questions um and so I will do the best I can to answer them I as you said mayor I may have to tag team with Matt but yeah ready for some questions do my best okay I've got a few questions so bear with me because we don't have a lot of architectural detail here some of these questions are going to seem would normally not ask because I'd have the information but because I don't have it I'm going to ask you on in public form okay so I'm looking at um page 145 of a packet just for reference for the record I know it's not in yours it's in our packet but if you look at your packet page three which I believe you have up here okay in the packet you've got essentially six residential Towers or buildings that are going to be there I'm going to be asking questions from the top left hand of the screen on the on there as building one I'll just call it building one and then move my way clockwise around if that's all right okay the in your packet you have the 15 story um Residential Building as 235 ft above base flood elevation what is the overall height from ground level to the top of that building uh we have not designed the parking structure yet within base flood so I would assume that it would be somewhere around 255 but we have not designed that and your Land Development code measures height from base flood I I understand I'm just I'm just for purposes of having that please hoe um if we were to just do simple math are you okay if you take the height of 235 and divide that by by 15 stories that's about 15.66% architectural drawing so it's it's difficult so I'm just trying to get an overall height um you've said you haven't designed it so if I'm just using the 15.66% in the vzone you have to use the highest uh flood plane elevation which be would be 17 and then your code permits what's known as free board between one and 3 feet so 17 plus 3 is 20 at 235 ft plus 20 is 255 so I I'm that would be what I would agree to the maximum height okay we'll use that that's fine I just wanted to get an idea of what we're really talking about here overall height and you'll understand why as we continue to go through the question so 200 building one is GNA be 255 feet just saying um building two which is the next one is 13 to 15 stories so that's going to be a stair step right but the tallest point of that being 15 stories would additional be again 255 ft um I don't believe that we committed that that next structure would be 15 stories I believe that we committed it would step down and therefore the height would be less than 255 I'm just going by what I'm reading up there building number two on your Building B which is what I'm calling building two correct is 15 stories so that would tell me that it's the same height as the one to the left of it and I'm trying to clarify that we committed that that square with the number two on it would step down okay and therefore would not be 15 stories okay so it says 15 in the packet in your presentation it says 15 is the Terrace that's the roof level of the building next to it it's got an arrow to the square that you were just talking about yes it's going to step down right I I I I get that we'll just move on to the next building which is 11 to 13 stories okay the maximum being 13 stories I don't have a do a quick calculator I just want to continue to use the same rough mat using the same 15.66% floor the the next building to the next on the corner there would be the north it's probably easier to see that's difficult to see the Northeast what would be the northeast corner of this this property that would be using again the 1566 that's about 204t for the 13 stories and parking again you don't have to agree I know it's you haven't designed it I I understand so now we're going to move further south which which would be the next whatever you have on there the number one would also be a 15 story correct Tower at 255 ft correct so now if we go down to the next one that 13 to 15 that would be another structure at 255 ft at its highest point and again we committed to bring that height down so it would not be a maximum of 255 it would be less than okay and then we'll move on to again the last one which is what would be on the back side of the restaurant public space Terrace right there correct which we committed to nine you committed so it's not 13 it says L9 terrrace we committed to being Nine Stories there on the back side of the restaurant but in the packet it shows 11 to 13 that's why I'm so the packet information is not correct page 145 L9 in the packet as well please please please everyone please I'm just trying to get answers because I don't have the numbers in front of me I mean what I'm looking at and what Sarah has on her screen says L9 Terrace so nine stories are you on pack of page 145 I know you got a computer up Scott you could probably find it too it shows 11-13 stories so I'm just trying to understand which one are we which one are we are we we we hearing today are we hearing the 11 to 13 or The Nine Stories that's yeah it's totally different okay that's in the project narrative which has not been updated since before we went to the LPA okay just trying to get clarification so the The Nine Stories is what will be that that the further the furthest south um Residential Building correct so we updated the site plan to eliminate this the the vehicular drive that was here and exhibit B to the development agreement has been updated okay um I have not had the opportunity to update the project narrative since before the LPA that's fine you clarified it I I appreciate that okay so the lower building is 141 fet using that if you're still using the 15.6 we're still using so it would be actually 66 [Music] times that would be 172 would you say 172 ft yeah I have that here I got it right here too thank Youk um so that that one would be with parking would be if we use the 15.66% you've got a 10-ft setb to the edge of the sidewalk what is the what is the setback so I want to clarify that that's not the sidewalk that's the building Podium and then the tower that we were just talking about that ranges from 9 to 15 stories is set in from the building Podium that's that's what I'm trying to get at so the the 10- foot setback would be the garage or the the park structure or The Bu the building structure the 10 foot setback and then it will be set back in yeah real quick um what page of your packet are you on I just want to make sure that everybody's looking at the same Master concept plan that's updated well I'm just looking because the numbers it doesn't have all the other numbers with it so I've just been looking at 145 if if you go to page uh 51 which is the actual exhibit which is what they have here okay yes that has the updated information perfect so this is what we this is what we have that you Matt handed me so the 10 feet is to the beginning of the building what is the setback from the same starting point as that 10 foot to the edge of any of those buildings on the west side or the east side and we have as I explained in the last um hearing I believe to Mr safford's question that part has not been designed yet the intent is to push the buildings inward so that you have a stair step not just back from Estero but also in from dinor just like we haven't expressed the setback from Estero for the Nine Stories we don't have the setback from din for that side other than the building Podium being at least 10 feet which is 10 feet greater than what's allowed today so is it safe to say that it because it hasn't been designed it could be just 10 feet the building itself could be 10 feet not based on this drawing and the language in the development agreement no we would have to provide that at the time of building permit foration it could be technically then one foot I don't think that structurally that would be appropriate but because it's not designed we don't know fa the the intent of this drawing is to have a stair step and a setback from the building Podium the depth of that has not been designed yet it could be greater it could be more than 10 feet it could be 20 could be 30 could be 40 could be what we just don't know okay and you are my next question was going to be the same question from from a stero Boulevard you don't know where the start of that n to n plus story building but we're putting a functional restaurant in front of it so I would assume it would be a fairly substantial distance okay um that's I just again thank you for bearing with me I just wanted to get some answers to the the numbers that I couldn't see here and try to put some try to put some numbers to it and the reason I'm doing that is because ocean Harbor has been referenced it's referenced in your packet as a 15 story building that 15 story building is 184 ft tall so is it safe to say at this 17 story if approved or 15 stories over two stories of parking if approved would be what's simple math I I will 65 roughly 65 70 feet taller than the actual I think what you're looking for from me is a um agreement that our building is taller than ocean Harbor and it is my understanding that it is I do not I do not know the detailed height of ocean Harbor to commit to that yeah I fig I know you could and again that was a Google search on my part I was I didn't know what it was either so but I appreciate you you you asking it the next couple questions I have and then I'll move on down the line but and again these might be for Matt or it might be for you whomever you want to have answer but if you you're referring back to the comprehensive plan you you referred a lot to 4c4 but I'd like to talk about about 4 a um 4 A1 specifically and I'm going to read it into the record because it's not in your packet and for the fairness of the people paying attention for policy 4 A1 in the comprehensive plan says maintaining the town's current human scale is a fundamental re Redevelopment principle Fort Meers Beach is best enjoyed from outside a car new buildings should be designed to encourage use of ad use and encourage use or admiration by people on foot or bicycle rather than separating them from Gates walls deep setbacks or unnecessary building Heights Based On A Sterile Boulevard and with your testimony so far through the hearings you have said that could it be designed different sure would you agree that 17 stories would be unnecessary building Heights based on policy 4 A1 so my analysis regarding policy for I believe it's for A1 yes is that the design of the building which includes the restaurant and the water feature and the linear Park fronting Estero and being consistent with the height regulations is therefore consistent with policy 4 A1 so I think that it's important that we consider the project as a whole again as I mentioned the private beach club is consistent with the height requirements the frontage of that structure along a stereo Boulevard y has been designed consistent with the height requirements in the LDC and then we've pushed the height back and then stair stepped it so that again you don't have this overshadowing um and that we can maintain that small town character and so please please everyone all right we let them speak please we're trying to be respectful everybody here including your time when you had to speak and which you're going to have in a little bit so I ask you again please be respectful of Tina and her team and allow them to speak speak and keep the the laughters or the claps or the grunts um to a minimum please or at not at all let's just put it that way sorry Tina move on um so where I was going with that is as a pedestrian or a driver moving down a stero Boulevard your perspective is going to be those two to three stories of those initial buildings which are consistent with the height requirements and therefore consistent with policy 4 A1 and this this concept of encouraging use by foot or bike to that end that's part of the reason why we included the linear Park part of the reason why we have the the road in the back as required by the comprehensive plan is so that the the existing neighbors and whatever gets redeveloped next door can move around without being required to drive a ster Boulevard and to have an environment that is described here by maintaining the height limitation fronting a stero Boulevard and then setting back the additional height off of Estero and dinora whether we were to ask for additional height or not the base flood elevation would require a a 17 to 14 story structure start Point that's that's two stories fair but again my my question revolves around you do not feel your testimonies that you do not feel that there is any unnecessary building Heights based on policy 41 I don't okay now I want to ask you just quickly about 4 A3 I'll read it again because it's not referenced in your packet the town shall protect residential neighborhoods from intrusive commercial activities would you consider the three buildings along dinora Boulevard that are closest to it we won't count the top one at 172 feet up to 200 excuse me 55 ft would you consider that intrusive to the resident neighborhood across the street well it says intrusive commercial activities and they are residential structure the RV park was a commercial use that had a greater intensity and turnover than what we are proposing so from the perspective of uses switching to residential is actually less impactful and less intrusive than the previous development when we consider the commercial development of the property previously and the fact that we are only asking for a 10,000 ft commercial restaurant right actually decreasing the commercial activity in the area and bringing it into greater Conformity with the residential neighborhood and so no I don't consider it to be an intrusive commercial use okay I appreciate that the other I have uh just one more in excuse me 4B of the future land use map categories reduce the potential for further overbuilding through a new future land use map that protects remaining natural and historic resources prever preserves the small town character of Fort Meers Beach and protects residential neighborhoods against commercial intrusions would you agree that or not agree would you would be your testimony that you believe you meet the requirements set before be of the comprehensive plan yes you do meet those requirements as I explained in the initial Town council meeting the private beach club and the commercial restaurant and that portion of the property are within the boulevard future land use which promotes a mix of uses and the residential towers and the single family have been purposefully placed in the mixed residential category and so at a design level where we could be mixing these things to be more integrated we have actually purposefully separated them to be consistent with that underlying map and the bifurcation of the property into the two districts when you consider the fact that we're in a Redevelopment district and the description that is given in the comp plan um further down regarding the Village um excuse me I'm sorry the Gulf View and the Red Coconut RV part and that Redevelopment area and how we are supposed to uh redevelop due to a change in ownership or redevelop due to a natural disaster yes we are consistent because it talks about taking that previous intense use of 27 RV units per acre and reducing that to 15 residential units per acre with supporting commercial with beach access with public Recreation which we are all providing um are there deviations yes absolutely is there flexibility that is necessary because we cannot enclose the ground floor and provide Gathering space yes that is that is absolutely a shift but that is required um as you all know the federal government will not allow us to do that so I guess my I'll just ask it specifically this way is it your belief that we'll just use the three the three that we're referencing we won't use the one in the the northeast corner because those according to your renderings are the closest to daero Bullard would you agree that those three buildings two of which are substantially taller than the tallest structure on the island protect the residential neighborhood across the street it is my testimony that the project as a whole which is what is being evaluated today protects the residential character of the existing Community yes to break out very specific items in a comprehensive package like this I don't think is fair to the ask we've done a lot to um address that concern we've pushed buildings back we've closed vehicular accesses as I mentioned we're providing the stop for the school bus we have a public park in the back to Manas preserve that we've agreed not to to design until this is approved so that we can appropriately meet the needs of the residents and so as a comprehensive package yes this development agreement and this design is consistent with objective 4B and um Dan you you started your question with forget about the single family homes you're developing in the back and I think that's a pretty strong statement when you're asking if they affect single family homes when the developer is actually buildings in single family homes closer to these buildings well In fairness the context of mine was I was referring to just the tallest buildings that's why I said it it had nothing to do with other than I wanted to focus on the heights of the buildings that we didn't know and to that end I I want because and sorry to interrup but Matt if you want to come back I'll ask you since you're here is your is it your intent because that those haven't been discussed is it your intent to design those four homes within the current restrictions that you face through the comprehensive plan we've agreed okay so therefore bringing up the height of those buildings is irrelevant when I was asking about the other ones but I appreciate your question and to your point about the the structure closest to dinora it's important to remember that the facilities that were on the opposite side of dinora there are an existing multif family complex the the fire department which is no longer there and the um Art Association thank you the Art Association which we've been conversations with the Art Association and so to suggest that the entirety of Jora is ploted single family is not entirely accurate there is a mix along that street and um the building has been designed such that the ploted single family lots north of shellmound you know have a greater setback to the increased height and then keep in mind that that that residential Tower it's the lower increment that's closest to that street where those plotted single family lots um occur and then also when you look at this site plan it's important to note that where the pool is there's a break in the tower and that is so that light and air and other things can get through and that portion of the structure is not Nine Stories it's two it's that parking garage it's that building Podium so yes it is my professional testimony that we are consistent with objective 4B and it is protecting the residential character of the existing neighborhood and you I appreciate that thank you tin and you made a comment about it's it's not necessarily fair to look at one section or one section of an objective excuse me or policy but In fairness in your packet you've referred to a few things that are within the same comprehensive plan that you've left out some of the context within what you're referencing especially for C4 I would like to clarify that when I made that statement I was referring to the comprehensive package of the site design not the comprehensive plan okay and then I just have the policy 4c4 which you're referenced in your packet and you've referenced here it says the town will approve this section I don't believe is in the packet the town will approve modify or deny such requests after evaluating the level of unfairness that will result from the specific circumstances and the degree from the specific Proposal conforms with all aspects of the comprehensive plan including its land use and design policy pedestrian orientation and natural resources criteria and then it goes on to say what you already have in your packet my question is up to this point the testimony that you've heard from the public coming into this hearing would you agree that you meet the requirements of fairness outlaid in 4c4 I think that the process that we have gone through is fair I think think that it it says the level of unfairness that would re result from the specific circumstances specific circumstances are we had a hurricane the Red Coconut property was destroyed it is designated to be rebuilt in your comprehensive plan with a very specific Vision there are processes in this policy by which an applicant can request additional height one process is the development agreement that we're going through today and another is a plan development your adopted ordinance to the development agreement says that it is tantamount to a plan development and the process by which we went through was to meet with all of you individually to have multiple interviews to have multiple Community meetings and to take in that feedback and make adjustments to the design and then to go through four public hearings where we have continued to Define the design so when it comes to specific circumstances I personally feel that this team has gone above and beyond to hear and make adjustments so that really we're down to one issue in front of This Town Council because we have negotiated and made those changes and brought it forward and so no I don't think it's unfair that we've had Community meetings that we've given people the opportunity to have input that we've had four public hearings and that we have not limited any of it and we've made changes throughout the process so again we are down to One Singular issue that is not unfair I certainly appreciate you you saying that and we all are agreeing that you have been more than fair with making changes some don't so I will agree you have but I would tend to believe that based on the testimony we've heard so far people that live right across the street would consider 255 feet of concrete unfair but I can't speak for them I'm just based so please stop sorry I don't mean to be rude but just this is this is a very important this is a very important hearing they're doing their best to provide their side you will get your chance to say your side our staff will get a chance to say their side and we'll get a chance to say ours so please bear with us and let us get through this sorry Tina I have some more questions but I'll save them because I've hog enough of your time but and these questions might be more for Matt than than for you but um councilor saffre any questions for Tina not right now councilor Woodson not at this time thank you m yes please I uh Tina could you could you help clarify Sarah mentioned that your your proposal asked for 137 uh condo uh units and four single family homes with the potential of 149 adding up to 141 with the potential of 149 explain a little bit how these eight addition these would be single family units is that fair that explain explain to me how that works and what your you can address me afterwards like my wife yes we have agreed that they will be single family homes where are where they where will they be located so that would be one of the Amendments that would come back for that where the four single family are they would have to go in that tract and that is written into the development agreement that they can only be located there but but but help me understand where I'm I'm looking at the map oh would they just go higher what would would so if I may and the reason I told Matt I got it is I'd like to back up um your comprehensive plan does have a policy regarding density transfers and it outlines a very specific process so I I will answer your question but I want to back up and explain when we find that property that we are transferring the density from we have to have a separate agreement that has to come before the town and you all have to agree to that transfer before it goes anywhere and then to get to your point we would have to come back with this site plan and amend it so that you wouldn't see four single family units you would see I think it's eight so so eight how do we get for so it's eight additional is that what you're that's what Sarah was implying when she said you're you're potentially going going from 141 to 149 that's correct yes so so it' be eight additional through a density transfer but it's your testimony here today that that would be a completely separate proceeding that would require approval from the council and the LPA and public input and so forth the transfer itself yes so that would be so so today you're here for 141 units correct and that and the and the and the additional units would be a separate proceeding is that is that correct yes okay before you move can I just please back on that I have a question for Nancy about that that's not the way I read it in the development agreement I read it is they would have the right to be able to transfer we have to find the units first you have to find the units remember there was discussion about proximity and correct and that's what gets negotiated in that other process is that proximity so I guess what don't want to ask your question so what you're saying is is that this necessarily if approved may not go to 149 it still has to come back before us and that's what I'm trying to get clarification it's kind of like a reservation that in the future they could bring those units it's giving them the right to come back and ask for those eight but it doesn't necessarily give that to them by right correct because you you would have to decide on the actual density transfer okay I just wanted to make sure that was good because I had read it a little bit different I that that was Reas for my question yeah absolutely and we were trying to limit what we could come back and ask for in adding that language we didn't want it to feel open to as many units as we wanted we wanted it to be eight and eight only so B just a quick history on this because this is important so when we purchased the property there were three different surveys when we originally designed the project it was on one of the surveys that was uh would give us 149 units because it's based on where that cccl line is and the multiple when we went through and got our final survey that number moved from one 49 to 141 for exact units based on the new you know information that we received and so any property has the ability to ask for more density in a transfer and so we talked to staff and said look we lost these units going through the process we could ask going forward we're okay not adding it to the condo building as we understand that there's a push back on that but so we limit it only to the number and also only limited to be single family homes that was a push from staff and that gave staff and the town the ability to basically cap and not have an unlimited ass coming forward so in all honesty the the cap at 149 was staff's recommendation to basically say we didn't really think about you bringing more units into here but if you are going to do it you're only cap to this and they can only be single family homes so that's a little bit of the history so so I don't want to put words in your mouth but you're in essence reserving the right to come back in a separate proceeding and make this request correct but only up to 149 I couldn't come in and ask for more even if I own the property next door I'm limited to 149 and I can't put them in the condo buildings and and just really it's it's it's I don't want to beli this but just out of curiosity where would you put the eight additional home we would make the single family home smaller and skiner um and probably build it that way should be the same in the same area where it would be exact same nothing would change there would be no additional just be they would just be small those are pretty wide houses right now we'd probably shrink around the the size of the houses and build them if we even did I mean we may just build the four um you know again we just wanted to reserve the right to to look at that going into the future that was it that's helpful I just wanted to better I just want to give the history of that once you stay up a couple more for for you man if you would you uh you mentioned the uh the restrooms I just want to make sure it's clear that the restrooms the what you're now proposing today is to actually build them into the clubhouse is that they will there's actually a little box in the drawing that's up on the thing there but we it will be elevated it will be out of flood there will be a ramp and stairs because they need to be both have ramp and stairs for Access for Ada they will be Ada accessible and we are going to be building them and they will be permanent structures that will be permited and in the perpetuity and those are those are permanent public to the public to the park as well as the people walking up and down the beach correct we work we work with staff on that it's it's we have it right now planned to be coming off the building there maybe we're going to put it in we still haven't really designed the outside of the building yet but there will be a ramp there has to be a ramp and there needs to be um stairs to those and it was again I know you hit me pretty hard with that and it was important we've heard from a lot of people how important that was staff pushed pretty hard so challenge the team to say okay let's let's try to make this solution and then my neighbors to the north are pretty happy as well that that restroom is now on our side and not theirs could you could you take one more shot at this there's been some discussion about concerns about Gulf colony and and the property that they've got and your property and how would it would affect the park sure could you take another stab at explaining how that will resolve itself sure so so as of right now um gol VI Colony owns a strip of ground that goes through you can see it on the diagram right there it's in red um on that that has always been owned by them see it's in there's a no no no there's a little line in between you guys in your in your packet do you have exhibit SE that's in our packet because that shows it much better I don't know if you do or not I'm looking to see if I can find it so it's in essence it's it's the little it's the strip that goes right through the mdle looks like so it's in essence a beach access correct y okay I'm sorry go ahead I didn't that helps me y so that beach access um exists um as I mentioned before where kept secret on the island we've been working with uh GW County and unfortunately because of the delay and the extra hearings um you know we got out of contract with them we still are talking to them and I I do think we're going to if this project moves forward I think we'll be able to work something out with them and and move forward um the overall goal if we did move forward would be to move that beach access to the side and still allow for that beach access and then landscape it for them I'd offered that up to G VI County even coming out of contract and their response was let's just talk about it after the hearings which I get it's their property they want to they want to delay this discussion but if if by chance we can't come an agreement and not move it the the vision is we have plenty of room for a uh that beach park still to be there with the with the bifurcating line and then I I was talking to staff about the idea of on the other side could be more of a in of a beach park with the tables that we're already going to have maybe some kind of Red Coconut to the Red Coconut that that that was the vision of having the two parks there that if we had two parks I I do think eventually when we we sit down that'll probably move and that's why when we talk to Sarah and the team about that we do have two solutions the one that has to be on the paper is the two parks but I think for everybody's sake including our neighbors it's probably better for it to move to the property line but we'll we'll get there when we can and that that again it just shows that there's a lot of stuff that happens in this development process and putting the boxes together to to really come down to it adds more questions and you need to work together and that's why if this does get approved today this isn't the last time we're going to be talking to our neighbors talking to you talking to staff there's a lot of work that needs to go into this project going forward we're just trying to set the Baseline so we can really get into design and a lot of the feedback we're getting now from Dan Etc the the setbacks and everything our team is listening we're going to we're going to take that and and work and and understand and talk to our neighbors we're we're we're fine with that we've been open the whole time so I I think it's important to really underline that fact that this isn't design plan submitted build tomorrow we still got a lot of we still got a lot of uh time in this the uh this is the last question at this point for me uh this morning for you the uh Fort Meers Beach art art association yes has been your neighbor since 1965 literally directly across Ross the street from your largest structure yes they have galleries there they had lectures classes exhibits and they're on the cusp of having to leave the island because their facility was destroyed uh and it's a valuable Community uh uh entity for Fort Myers Beach it has tremendous history here we talked a little bit about this at the first hearing yep uh I'm curious if you could update me on on your status you offered to help sure we also talked about the potential of the symbiotic relationship between your development and the Art Association how both could benefit if the Art Association was allowed to stay in sure or could stay and and Thrive sure Jim so uh we had a great meeting uh with the ladies they are fantastic people and they still want to be on the island um we had a very direct conversation on this and um so we sat down and there's a lot of processes to go through to to figure out if if it's viable for them to stand stay on the island uh we went through a similar process with the Women's Club we sat down with them um we we um went through our development process our development process includes looking at the piece of ground looking at the exact uses that they're looking for how big the building absolutely needs to be sometimes people go and design a building that they fall in love with without really looking at costs and uses and your know bang for your buck um and we went through a similar process with the women's group I think it's gone really well we have a great teamw work on that and we're just starting a similar process with the women's group um I do think there's a there there and I do think that they could come back to the island um you know when we first met with the women's group it was it was tough I mean the budget was here and needed to be here and we were able to work with them to get it down and uh we did all that um you know and again I I I don't like to get into this but people asked that we didn't charge them any money we did this on you know to work with them it's the same thing with the Art Association um you know I don't like to blab that stuff out but I understand that we got to talk about it but but they generally are good people they want to be on the island and we've signed a development agreement and no charge with them to go through this process to see what the viability of building their building is we've started that process and and then after that they're going to be looking for investors and stuff and I've I've had some discussions with them and I I I think there's going to be plenty of people that want to see them stay on the island from the people that I've talked to so I think there's there there I think they could be a mainst the island and they would love to be my neighbor is my understanding so the uh I I'm I'm a bit uncomfortable doing this but I'm going to do it anyways uh because they are your neighbor and there is the potential for a symbiotic relationship between the two and they have such a history on our Island Ken I'm I'm sort of old school I'll take you at your word can you assure us today that you will ensure that they will they will have a facility assing your in sync with the Art Association can you assure us today that they will have a new facility of some kind you will help facilitate a new facility on our Island well I I've signed a contract with them to do that um now again I I don't run the association and they may get an offer on their piece of grounder but as long as they want to work and try to get this done jim I've already agreed to do it and agreed to do it at no cost agreed to do what to go through the development process get numbers walk them through design the building at to their budget because they have a budget they need to hit so we got to design the building to the budget work with them to go through that process and then work with them to go build through the process get the permitting and take them through the process so we got one more step there Matt are you also agreeing today to help them find the financing to make that building Possible Oh I in part of our development agreements we always work on the the financing side of things so we we introduce people to Banks we get them in involved I mean that's part of the development agreement that we sign with them okay we're going to go one more y y here comes your lawyer y y is that your goal trying to get there I don't care how he get there but all right hold on everyone so um this is why I this is why I don't like to to bring this stuff out like this my attorney's in my ear saying look you know you start getting close to a contract zoning on this type of stuff when you're I'm just asking so so this is not I am doing what I'm doing and I didn't bring it up so you know it was brought up by somebody else we're working with them because they're our neighbor and they ask for help that's it's the same thing with the Women's Club they they're on the island they ask for help we're helping them we're working with a couple other people on the island they ask for help they're we're working with them so that's just who we are so I but you but you don't want to put words in your mouth but you cannot Envision a scenario where they will not have a facility and be your neighbor and in perpetuity I I I don't know how to answer that sh like at this I mean I I'm going to do everything in my power to to help them and and that's I think that's the only thing I'm allow to say but I'll take but I've already signed an agreement with them and that's public so people can know that I'll take you at your word on thank you thank you anything else J all for now counc K just a couple um there's concern about this uh and and touched on it briefly but this uh Gulf Colony beach access um helped me understand why that shouldn't make us want to pause this project so um couple of reasons the legal description and the boundary survey that were submitted initially to the town for consideration did not include that property that property is under public easement for pedestrian access to the beach which is to use vice mayor adol's word symbiotic with a public park we have language in the development agreement currently that our facilities cannot um align with their facilities meaning when we commit to you that there will be a beach access it does not include their access it is separate and apart from um a public park which is what we have committed to is consistent with their existing access we are not proposing to encumber their easement in any way that's part of the reason why we re redid the plan for approval in front of you today um there is a hope that we can continue to coordinate with them so that we could relocate their beach access to be more direct to the beach um but what is before you today does not negatively impact them in any way it continues to allow us to provide all the commitments that we have previously um and as I said their property is not subject to the development agreement so you know I understand the perception but we have done all the things we need to do legally to make sure that they retain their access and we can do what we've committed to throughout this process thank you um we heard comment earlier today about view corridors and there seem to be some uh confusion or or dispute about your numbers uh for the 240 ft to the gulf 120 to the Matan of pass what do you have to say about that um The View corridors are dimensioned on this plan and so it is 120 ft the qu excuse me let me back up the view corridor in question is the public park that we were just speaking about and you can see that it's not a perfect rectangle it is 120 feet on a stero Boulevard and yes it is 90 ft along the beach front even if you were to take away that 30 ft we are still providing you with more View Corridor than we are asking for height so we are providing you with 280 ft of view corridor and asking for an addition additional 205 ft in height so we are continuing to exceed that requirement in policy 4c4 with respect to the fact that you can't see the bay um matanzas pass preserve is indigenous habitat that will never be cleared the park is operated by Lee County and what we are providing is the opportunity for viewing as described by your comprehensive plan and the opportunity for Access as described by your comprehensive plan and so it continues to be my testimony that we are consistent with that policy okay thank you that's all I have for right now okay before we get on to the um the town coming back up Matt I'll ask you I've got some questions about the park so okay I don't know if you want to be up here in case you want to answer it sure I'm I'm referring a pack of page 67 for anybody that's following along it's Exhibit C that you have in there which basically just shows the green space the parks that you have in as public benefits in in this what you have up here would be number nine number nine and number eight is what I'm talking about would you be willing if this were to get approved I know first let me say I I appreciate and I agree with you that throughout the process you guys have listened you have made adjustments you have come up but this is still a public hearing so there may be potential for some more changes so that's where my questions are coming from um if you're looking at Exhibit C if you have it if not it's talking about number 9 that that would be 211 to nor Boulevard you have that access as a a park to to to the residents to to the community would you consider deing that to the town since it will be a park for the for the public um so when we first spoke with staff and Council on deeding park over um the response was not great uh because of the maintenance um the town didn't want to have the maintenance um responsibility on the parks so so instead of deeding over the at least and you guys can ask Sarah in the town but the and the staff but the the thought process on this was if we owned it and then we maintained it you know again the the town has access to it with an access agreement that was the reason we did it that way um I have to have a discussion with my team on a sidebar on if that if if that is something that you want to have happen and staff needs to Aline on that and and then we can have a discussion about it I think it's fair enough I just wanted to ask you yeah that that that was the but that was the main Crux of because we did have a discussion about who owns what and the response from staff was we really don't want to have to have the cost and the responsibility to take care of all this property so since you're here it's essentially the same question for an Exhibit C which would be number four which is 2943 is Terra Boulevard it's not including the linear Park it's 29 9 43 is STO Boulevard Park portion of it same question applies yeah same same answer okay I think you know we want to talk about that we can talk about it but as of as of through the discussions that's why we landed where we landed so okay and then the question I have is for again in Exhibit C which is item number three which would be the South West corner of the gulf colonies right away not the side where you're going to you're opposing the the permanent bathrooms the same question would apply to that section it doesn't show it as here it shows as number eight on your yeah yeah no I understand which one you're talking about and that my same response would be the same fair enough I just wanted to ask it before we went to them no that's and I'm assuming you're going to want to come back up after public yeah I I just want yes that's correct I think probably we want the reserve to read I don't know if we're going to say anything but I'm sure you guys have some questions afterwards so okay that's all I have for now that's it okay are you good with those responses on that that's what I expected okay see all right thank you Tina no all right Sarah good morning Sarah propes with Community Development um so I'm just going to go over uh sort of a how we got here you know what our code says and then um recommendation so the comprehensive plan provides a byright option for the Redevelopment of Red Coconut and G view colony the Redevelopment of these sites had been envisioned uh since the initial comprehensive plan was written the pre-approved option in the comprehensive plan as we've discussed several times is in policies 3 A5 3a6 and 4 F2 primarily um and it's mirrored in the Land Development code sections 34691 and 692 there there are essentially nine uh main con con steps for the Redevelopment of the property including water views variety of housing type traditional neighborhood design detached housing near existing homes and lowrise multif family at the center mixed uses provision for public access to matan's pass preserve highly connected Street networks sidewalks and Street trees Street interconnections between Nora and shell mound to the north the proposed project meets many of the concepts but not all additionally the comprehensive plan and LDC Li by right Building height on the Bayside to Bayside of a stero to 30 fet above base flood elevation in two stories proposed development on the Bay Side is a total of 15 stories um above that and 205 feet above that so due to the height of the proposal and because it does not meet all of the Redevelopment Concepts the applicant submitted a a development agreement a home rule development agreement resolution 2473 determines the development agreement process the applicant submitted all of the required documents for the development agreement project review and discussion between planning staff Town management and the applicant occurred several times over several months and culminated in the development agreement that was presented to the LPA the applicant received feedback from the LPA Town Council and the public over several weeks and Incorporated many suggestions into the development agreement as well the LDC and policy 4c4 the comprehensive plan allowed the town to consider different heights for the Red Coconut Redevelopment the policy asks that particular attention be paid to any permanent view corridors to Gulf or Bay Waters that could be provided in exchange for allowing a building to be taller than two stories the LDC indicates that adjacent Building height and provided public benefits may also be considered in the decision-making process the applicant is providing view corridors Beach and matanzas pass park access and park areas on the beach and adjacent to matanzas pass Park a linear Park a beach restroom and public art Town Council must balance the requested height against the proposed public benefit in this case the applicant is providing 310 linear feet of view corridors to both the bay and the gulf in exchange for the height increase of 200 feet above the 30 foot Allowed by right height neither the comp plan nor the LDC details criteria for determining public benefit benefit as this has been discussed and will be part of the comprehensive Plan update if the project were developed as a CPD the deviations could be evaluated per 34264 however this is not a CPD if after considering the comprehensive plan and the LDC the council consider considers the public benefit provided by the applicants development proposal to be greater than the benefit of abiding by the byright height limitations Town staff recommends approval of the project however if the Town Council determines that the public benefit provided is not sufficient they should recommend Den um Frankie or Andy may have something to say now as we still have not determined what the public benefits are per se per per Council we can only adjust and recommend and suggest what public interest would be public interest is the long-term economic driving engine on this island for redevelopment and done the right and competent way um after discussion with both sides this the town staff management and and the party for you today uh we believe that this is such an engine that would Devo an economic driver for the the island um so it is our recommendation as well for approval okay any questions for Sarah Scott and not this time counc wson I'll Reserve okay Vice may not right now that's okay I got a couple I'm not sure if they're for Sarah or if Nancy needs to weigh or both um are we violating Town ordinances or the comprehensive plan or the Land Development code by approving this I don't believe so no because you have a separate code that allows you to enter into a development agreements um that code required that uh you could have home rural development agreement ments as well as the statutory one this one is a home rule development agreement you have adopted procedures um to review and um possibly approve these type of of structures so I think that um we have complied with everything that we need to under your code uh for you to render decision um also I I assume you're speaking regarding height because that has been the issue or were you speaking about any other component I don't believe that we are um in violation of any of the regulations as long as you make the finding that the public benefit is adequate for the request and and for clarification I do have to leave at noon I was I have to be in a meeting on the other side of the state so if there are any questions you do think of please feel free to ask before then if possible okay um this is probably another Nancy questions but what happens if we demand the developer bring back a plan with less than what they can develop by right then they might go and want to develop it by by right because it's going to be less than what they would be entitled to under the code I guess I'm not I've asked they have a right to a certain amount correct if we demanded less than that is that set us up for some sort of lawsuit or if if it's by right they have the right to come back and get the approvals to actually develop it because it's already in your code okay I was just seeking Clarity on okay if it was if it was to be developed what they could do by right it would have no need to come before right thank you I have a question for sir if you have to leave what how what is your opinion of their interpretation of policy 4c4 it's a long one um you got 18 [Laughter] minutes okay um so it's primarily Building height um and and this is where it really comes down to so it talks about unreasonable unreasonable burden um so if there were tall buildings adjacent to them you know that they may say there's an unreasonable Bur and they have to build a tall building um otherwise you're going to be look or level of unfairness so if they said well we try to design it um that's that's height and we absolutely cannot make the number of units we're allowed by right fit with the within the height you know that could be unfair they could say well we have these density units and we can't use them um or you know it talks about specific circumstances uh and the degree of the specific proposal so so you really have to take this in its hole and look at the benefits to the town uh versus the impacts and you know what how can you um create the best project that gives them their ability to do something um in the interest of the town both in both from the town economic standpoint or from the from the top public benefit or all of the above I am rarely talking about um economics so you're you're more focusing sorry Fe back you're more focusing on the public benefit aspect of that yes yeah um we don't have I personally don't have any ability to evaluate their economic impact okay thank you but wait a minute there a lot of our packets have an economic impact statement that staff is not able to evaluate um potentially someone else on staff can planning staff we do not have that background okay thank you question real quick are you done yes it's unnecessary burden does that apply just to the applicant or does it apply to the surrounding neighborhood in this case or both um so it it talks about unfairness and it talks about's unfairness now okay um so it talk it says in those few cases where individual Parcels of land are so surrounded by tall buildings on lots that are contiguous that two stories of height would be unreasonable they that land owners can seek relief and then it says the town will approve modifier deny such requests after evaluating the level of unfairness that would result from the specific circumstances and the degree the specific Proposal conforms with all aspects of this comprehensive plan including its land use and design policies pedestrian orientation and natural resource criteria so it sounds that it would apply to all parties I don't see any reason why it would apply specifically just to because you're evaluating the level of unfairness so you could be looking up both party or at all parties in my opinion but that may be a nany question so it is your comprehensive plan so you are the interpreters of your comprehensive plan so uh it sounds like the language is subject to two two interpretations and by your vote um you would show what your uh understanding and intent of that language is okay Frankie since you chose to testify you said your and I don't know if you're speaking for the entire staff or if you're just speaking for yourself is it your testimony that simply because of economic reasons your recommendation is approval no sir so that's not what you said it is what I said okay based on my statement but if you're talking about staff approval and what we came up with for our part of the approval process it is not so when we're talking the management side of the approval process we're looking at the total package so we talked with our planners and and get their interpretation we also talk about what the applicant has provided in the negotiation part of it which sometimes other staff members were not included but the town manager and myself so all those weigh out in the grand scheme of things so to speak and backing up what I said we're looking at what can drive development on this beach what can drive the the impetus to to make Fort Meers Beach back strong resilient taking all those factors into consideration that's where we came up with our suggestions sir well I'm going to say it for the record and I didn't know this was coming so I apologize that I'm I'm doing it in the public forum but it's concerning to me that nowhere in what you just said did you mention the residents in the neighborhood that surround this property it was all around economics that is very concerning to me that that was not even mentioned but you've given your recommendation we'll move on um so I have a follow-up question if I may yes sir um would you agree would you agree with u Mr Price's interpretation of the the Genesis of the negotiations were you was that when was handed off to to your team Andy and or Frankie what was that agreed that the the height would be off the beach from get-go I guess my question is when did in this negotiating process because vice mayor aderholt asked the same thing what it seems like the public doesn't think there was enough negotiating so at what point did you did your team step into the negotiation process so in the initial stages uh the developer and Andy and I had just a general discussion here's the plans what you have seen the concepts and talked about what they had proposed from that point on we started dragging in staff we brought in the town attorneys that's when our development agreement process started okay um it was a long period of going back and forth with Matt's team our team um our legal team and finding out exactly what we could and what we couldn't do um and that's where this all thing more or less blossomed into what you see before you today okay so it wasn't any particular stage where they just said You know here it was through a negotiated back and forth don't forget I mean this is the first time the town has grabbed this out of their toolbox to use so this is this is Virgin and ground for them coming into Fort Mars Beach and using this and also for staff using this going forward good thank you Andy I got a quick question for you do you feel is it your opinion or do you agree is that Frankie is speaking on behalf of our license planners I think yes as being part of the um as having the responsibility of that department he's speaks with them and he speaks for them when we have a communication that that puts us in this position and I understand it's very uncomfortable so I'm gonna ask another uncomfortable question do you agree with staff's recommendation I know it's a difficult one it is because you know it's almost like you're putting me in the position of making a decision um I do B I do agree on on the recommendation based off the fact of of the the the LDC and the comp plan that they looked at and but when you listen to both sides of the argument I do see that uh you know there there is another side to the story so um I do agree based off of the fact that of the confidence that I have the confidence that I have in in staff okay any other questions for staff before we move on you got nine minutes to pick Sarah's brain all right if not we'll go to public comment anyy yep I have Kathy Turner up first after Miss Turner is Carol Styer steer still good morning Kathy I did not expect to be first um you know what they said I think I think you have a great example that you need to go back and review this development order this project is way too conceptual and large to be approved in this fashion um this is extremely very uncomfortable uh Kathy Turner I have been sworn in I my qualifications are as I'm president of the Garden Club is Island Garden Club my comments here are purely mine I am not representing the Garden Club um my concerns are intensity not density not necessarily height but certainly height Beyond 10 feet um you're going from a trailer park three 400 square foot dwellings two people one car uh I was never never here during the Fran days where she mentioned the the buses and things like that that was the place that I went to to fill up my gas my propane liquid propane it's where I got my newspapers it's where we chatted where they were playing outside games it's where we had the annual bike parade we went up and down the streets and everybody came out and welcomed us um this is a quality of life issue and I sincerely disapprove of this being reviewed as a financial a fiscal decision how dare you because without the residents there is no town we might as well go back to Lee County and they can build all the high raises you want um I do have a concern with staff driving access points on side roads dinor is a residential street and it's the access point going through shell Mount Park um two egresses parts of dinora um and these services in solid waste who's going to control because we know that during season Services want to handle things oh Dark 30 5:30 in the morning uh you remember the whole controversy with Crescent Street where the the residents there were very upset about all the deliveries and things happening at that area so we're going to have the same thing here um so the access to matan's pass preserve on um behind Red cocona is not the main access it's not the place that we go to to use that before Ian uh the main access it's on Bay Street it had the the uh walkway the going through there and if you came back back through janur you better have your boots on because it really got Mucky and not thing so that's not a a benefit to me I always use the other entrance um I think the terminology linear Park is overused a park is something that provides you with interaction and Recreation it is not a uh Landscaping along side of a sidewalk um there's one era in here that I pointed out directly to seate and also to the council it it indicates that they will use Florida friendly Landscaping uh that requires no irrigation there's no such plant that's going to go in the ground and not require any watering Kathy I need you to wrap it up your time just expired okay okay I guess um don't decide this on just a financial decision this is a quality of life all right thank you Kath thank you okay Carol Styer steer after Carol is Melody King thanks again um this is a beautiful concept can you speak in the microphone just this is a beautiful concept my husband and I would love to live in a maybe 3,000 to 5,000 square foot condo with 17 story wall to wall views of the gulf but maybe this just isn't realistic most of the condos in this island are around a th to 2,000 square fet Seagate seems like a very smart group of people that can build within their right within the comp plan yes they said they have the right to ask but that doesn't mean that we all have the right to say yes you guys can all say no several times these guys have said stuff like we have to find this we're not committed to the height can revise it seems kind of wishy-washy right now and maybe they just need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better plan please send them back to the drawing board please say no and for all the people standing behind me that don't want to come up here or may not have something formal to say please just copy and paste what I just said come up here and say ditto please vote no thank you thank car Melody king after Miss King is Bill V hello again hello again thank you for going to bat for us mayor allers um eye of the tiger okay listen we're not fighting for anything more than our quality of life okay what happens is a square pig trying to go into a round hole councilwoman Woodson when it comes to permitting time we've done wasted everyone's time after speaking with the Florida state wildlife conservation this actually butts up to a Wetlands that I have to tell you will end up being a broken process and all of this will be for not after speaking with multiple members they sent me an email which I'm happy to email to all of you after today they will not be able to achieve permits because of half-hazard construction which they have not done an impact to assessment on the environment yet which leads to Reckless recommendations to even allow this to be heard in front of us today or our planning agency although it's part of Permitting it will not be approved there is something called essential sunlight and no one's actually checked with the kusah Hatchi Indians who deem that property sacred and also with the Florida state wildlife conservation they were actually pretty much disgusted for lack of better words that not one s single one of you Council people have reached out to them nor did Seagate and I just witnessed the most desperate Act of a developer offering Reckless ideas and The Reckless Accord and abandonment to all of you who ever voted yes to this project it will never get approved in permitting and I have to admit it's been a complete waste of my time as I should be seeking full-time employment to fully disclose and discover what This Town Council has been up to and instead of making friends with the developers who are patting your pocket councilwoman Woodson we have some not just allegations but proof enough come on you can't Well Point Blank period the proof will come soon January 1st and with that being said the FWC will ensure this specific project does not impede on the fwc's long-term conservation goals for the Florida Fish and Wild Life resources this is in a wetlands and the reason your guys your constituents are so upset when they build it's going to flood out all their neighbors since 1978 this actual Resort is used as an estuary where all the water actually helps your neighbors not flood when it does rain an inch and a half you get about an inch and a half maybe two maybe 18 in maybe 2 feet of rain over there I'm not sure if you've ever stood over there but the neighbors don't want to drown they've almost all lost their lives including one of the neighbors that has a house over there that passed away during Ian none of us want to drown because of your Reckless decision to approve Reckless development before we move on if you if you have if you're going to come up and make accusations in your public comment against anyone you you should have some it's very it's very well then you should definitely as you walk out the door yes I'm sure you do okay Bill V after Mr V is Jessica Titus okay that's it's a hard act to follow Bill V for the record um I'm sure you can do it yeah so so I think the real Point here it's I you know it really seems like this development is built strictly for the the views from those condos think about 250 feet coming out of the ground and she said actually a little more that's almost a football field there's there's houses single family homes that are across the street which are going to be 65 feet away from that that's going to be a 75 degree angle of a structure there facing where the sunset was now I understand like Karen mentioned once about the Moss Marine one thing that she really wanted that project was to maintain her view corridor um this for a little tiny View Corridor on a stero Boulevard you're blocking off an entire neighborhood um all the people that's a that's a thriving neighborhood it's full of vacation rentals it's full of you know homeowners back there and all of them will be looking at this wall on the back of that structure even when you're that close you wouldn't even be able to see the colors of the sunset let alone the sunset from where those houses are and you know we're an island where the sunset is very important it's a it's a you know that's one of the reasons why a lot of people live here and the other is I think a lot of the very the passion for the people live here it's wonderful it's really these these neighborhoods and the people are really wonderful and um I from what I heard if this goes through there's going to be a lot of people that are moving out of there because the idea of not just having the structure there but having the 10 years of construction of cranes of of all the hammer and all that structure and the town's not going to see revenue from this from a long time because they're not going to see Revenue until these places are actually completed they get their cosos and they get valued out of it until then it's just going to be it's just going to be work for everybody um and I know just a couple other points that are kind of more General Jim you've mentioned before there's like this prean and postan Paradigm we still have prean infrastructure we have one two-lane road we don't control during Adelia we couldn't get off the island because I thing came up quick and for not only when the buildings are there but while they're under construction the people the the the construction workers stay working until the last minute because that's where they make their money and that's a lot of the the traffic we have now and the and the problem with h with evacuating is going to be that the real Crux to me is and I know i' I I talked with Matt before this and I you know I know Nita's little paper thing you know which I always I agree with in concept but I I told Matt then I said you know it sounds okay but the devil's in the details there's a difference between going from 30 feet of building above above flood to 220 above flood 230 above flood um that's a huge step and the reason why I think that's there is not because they're they're trying to um they're trying to to you know keep some open space around it the problem is they're just large units they're trying to pack a lot of very large units in a very small space the condo the towers you see in most part of the islands are set among parking lots they're set away from the road and they're they're not they're in white part of of a stero down south or they're down Bay Beach Lane is that me is that wow that went fast um so I just think you know the height is the big thing and the reason why the height is because they're just trying to pack so many large um condos in a very small spot thank you thank you Bill Jessica Titus after Miss Titus is Kevin Sullivan I spoke my piece before I just ask that you protect us be strong have them come back with a plan ditto to what Mr V said please protect us don't let this happen they can come back they're the big boys they can do it the road to hell was paved or is paved by Good Intentions and there's a fork in that road the devil's sitting right there it's up to you to pick which path forward for us it's our road not just your road thank you Kevin suvan excuse me after Kevin is Robin gorto good afternoon I think it is it is now uh Mr Mayor Mr vice mayor counselors Town staff uh thank you all for your service to our community for the record I'm Kevin suin I reside on Bay Beach Lane I've been sworn in and while I'm in full support of thoughtful Island development I'm against seat's proposal which dramatically exceeds what is granted by right and the intent of our comprehensive plan in LDC on Saturday I had the opportunity to tend a one-year celebration of Margaritaville Fort Meers Beach I sat in the audience looked up saw a handsome three-story building over base flood elevation this development literally started the rebuild of Fort Meers Beach sure Margaritaville got more density for their seven acre development but in exchange the town got real public benefit and a four-story building after the C ceremony I enjoyed the ACR siiz public Sunset Terrace I looked down at the donated waste and Away parking lot and the skybridge entry properties both properties gifts to the town and both have provided significant public benefit later I enjoyed the convenience of the public a ster board a Boulevard walkover public elevators public restrooms all the way while enjoying my resident food and beverage discount contrast Margaritaville with this proposed monstrosity twostory buildings with set down structures of 15 13 and 12 stories 255 ft maybe 272 they won all this de deviation while providing little public benefit and so far we haven't negotiated anything I have said before you you aren't listening to your constituency and particularly you haven't listened to the residents of this neighborhood and even worse some of you've been demiss of their feedback apparently your Gulf Coast Elite friends have your ear and they're way out of touch with Islanders well now you're coming up to Baton biggest game of your public lives you can either hit a home run by doing the right thing and negotiating something more in the spirit of the comp plan or you can strike out and live with the Fallout if you whiff today you'll likely lose public trust you'll likely be scrutinized more and these same residents will likely be less forgiving of prattle about doughnut shops barber shops weed shops and toll boo in a recent article our Island his historian Ellie buttin said we have a beautiful island that people will visit whether or not we have five star fstar hotels or $4 million condos I agree with Ellie we'll just do fine without these massive 17-story buildings there's no stagnation on this island all you have to do is look around Redevelopment takes time don't expose the town to years of litigation because you set a terrible precedent today there's no need to panic rather step up and vote and do the right thing and win one for the comp plan thanks Kevin Robin goru and after Robin is Greg scasny hi I'm Robin gorto uh I live on manderlay road I am my family's been coming to or been living on Fort Mar's Beach since the early 50s I'm the third generation of my family to live here um emotional you know development is good you know we all need development what we don't need is Corporate greed and that's all this is we don't need giant condos there's not condos that are bigger than my house it's insane um really no need to go higher than seven floors I Vision this nice little village build it like a little village with retail shops and some low-level condos U Meandering pads you know pickle ball courts nice things you guys you serve for four years Town Council right but the decisions you make are going to last forever I'm begging you please make a responsible decision about Cate um please send them back to the drawing board and create something that everyone can tolerate something within the comp plan seat seat's presentation today I got the impression clearly Illustrated that they're not prepared there was lots of guessing lots of I don't know you know make them go fine let them develop it but make them go back and bring something within reason so we can all get together and be happy thank you and ditto to what everybody else has said thank you Greg scne after Mr scasny is John SCH scha I'm sorry I'm trying to get as close as possible here hi my name is Greg scy I've been sworn in I'm here representing my family we are full-time year- round residents on Fort Meers Beach my son goes to the beach school and we are active members in this wonderful Community uh in short we love it here and are enduring extreme financial and personal difficulties staying on the island our love of this place has persevered over these challenges but now it looks like that tide is changing and I'm not the only resident that feels this way Council needs to deny the current Seagate development proposal simply put this development is not consistent with our Town's comprehensive plan approving such a development is against Florida law despite what has been said in these Chambers and in many letters we don't need to rip off the Band-Aid for development the island is not stagnating nor will it stagnate um we've already surpassed far surpassed the recovery efforts of other storm devastated towns like Mexico Beach I may have destroyed some of our buildings but it didn't destroy our community but with continued storms FEA debacles and now pending approvals of inappropriate developments such as Seagate that basically could destroy an entire residential neighborhood our council is putting coffin nails in the community that we all hold deer and for what are we afraid that someone else would come and ask for more density if we don't allow this height no one is building a hotel at what they can do by right on that property any future density will have to come in front of councilor and you hold the keys to that density we need to deal what is here and now and we have an obligation to uphold the comprehensive plan what before you today is not consistent with that plan as required by Florida law there are many appropriate developments coming down the pipe already underway or newly opened nept kind of the beach bar The Goods the old hoers building whales Sandy Bottoms The Old Firehouse Santini Plaza the cottage myerside kind of uh s so Mr waves not to mention Island Staples that are already open Margaritaville pink shell Diamond Head Lon Kai yot Taco junken new Fresh Catch waho Wily Snug Harbor nervous Nellies PD upper deck and I can probably keep going for a while none of this sounds like stagnation to me this sounds like a community kicking button taking names um f for re rebuilding takes time and we are well on our way um you have all heard from your constituents loud and clear letters petitions phone calls and inperson meetings have been overwhelmingly against the this proposed development uh no amount of goal post moving will deny the fact that residents that you represent do not want to see inappropriate highrises a lowrise residential area each and every one of you publicly stated that you would support the comprehensive plan we your constituents are here to ask you to keep your word and not so seeds of distrust that have been prevalent with previous councils to drive larger divide between the community and our elective leaders I will quote John D Rockefeller Jr in saying I believe this in the sacredness of a promise that is a man's word and should be as good as his bond that character not wealth or power or position is of supreme worth your community needs you we implore you to stand up keep your words do the right thing uphold the law deny this development as currently presented it's the right decision for the island and the future of our community thank you thank you Greg John schura I I apologize if I've just butchered that name John John John still here um Judy fener on after Judy will be Elizabeth holiday good morning my name is Judy farer and I'm a res president of G VI Colony I'm here because of our beach path and I have a prepared statement that I will read but I wasn't expecting the conversation about G colony to occur um because it had not occurred in the previous meetings that I'm aware of um so just to clarify a couple of things I appreciate Seagate acknowledging that they do not own our beach path um it is a deed parcel with its own legal description owned by golfi compy we are interested in selling our land which is 4.68 Acres on The Bays side we have gone through two offers and due to difficulties getting approval you know and I'm not going to speak to that because I don't know what they were trying to get approved but um this is our second offer that has been terminated by the buyer we hope that we get another offer for our 4.68 Acres that will include our beach path we don't have a desire to have our beach path moved it's right across from our driveway so our goal is to sell our 4.68 Acres owned by golf VI Colony along with the parcel known as the beach pan and I wouldn't have brought up the road but it was brought up earlier I think um it is my understanding I've asked for clarification it is my understanding that if um gie colony which is which is a co-op and has 58 shareholders if that if that land is sold then the new developer would have to put a road in and if not sold and retained by colony because I don't know the future and we would rebuild I don't think that's going to happen but I'm just putting that out there I don't think a road can go through there because it would literally take our residents land but that's not for me to speak I just wanted to kind of of clarify so again I'm glad seate acknowledged the beach path and I will now read my prepared statement which is probably going to be a little bit um repetitor so now it's good afternoon instead good morning my name is Judy farer and I serve on the board of directors of G viw Colony a manufactured home community of 58 residences all 58 of us lost our homes in Hurrican I am here today on the advice of our real estate attorney to publicly acknowledge Gulu Colony owns 4.68 acres of land next door to the red Co coconut property on the Bayside this land also includes the area for any future road that would need to be developed later under your plan we also own a strip of land on the beach side that has served as our private beach path the rendering you have been provided by Seagate that shows the proposed Park includes the beach path G you Colony owns as you consider your final approval please protect the Parcels owned by go VI Colony thank you for your time thank you Elizabeth holiday after Miss holiday is Dennis alfier hi Elizabeth holiday um some of you might know me as Elizabeth denafo because I when I moved here that's who I was and I met my husband here and now um 16 years so this place just means a lot to me I was raised in hiia Florida when it was a small town many of you don't even know what that place was like back then it was dairy farms we played in the fields okay we had Woods across the street it was beautiful look at it now is that what you want is it I mean come on Ian look what it did to our poor island it's ugly I'm sorry the grass the trees everything's dead they it tries to come back and then more hurricanes come and flood it and there it is again my beautiful oak tree is just again getting leaves on it okay what happens every summer you guys this hurricanes they ruin everything Mother Nature is pissed you know that's all we have to say really so go ahead build your big buildings you know do it because that's all you're going to have M every winter you're going to open your eyes and you're going to say all we have are these big buildings we're waiting for the grass to grow back we're waiting for the palm trees to come back all we have is big buildings where give them Room to Grow give nature room to grow to come back I had a bunch of things written down you know um but I I don't know if any of you were here when we went through this whole elevated pools thing that uh the town approved well the town manager approved and then the town ended up getting sued okay when people fought back because of the comprehensive plan all right do you remember that don't approve something that isn't telling you exactly what's going to happen these people are not telling you exactly what's going to happen if you approve it today you're saying to them yes you can go 17 okay I just want all my fellow Beach people to not have to wake up one day and say my god what have we done thank you Dennis Alfieri and after Dennis is Shelley Sheridan I was once before so I don't want to repeat what I was saying about the uh opening this thing up they're going to set a precedent but uh you guys made that you confirmed that if it's uh going to help the uh making the money here on the island we're going to okay it right that's what you said it's going to be advantageous economically for the island to okay this okay so that means now on anything we want to put on the island that's economically advantageous to the Island come on in doesn't matter how big it is doesn't has no idea doesn't matter right with no thought about the residents at all so I'm going along with a lot of these people that are talking about uh their residents and quality of life that's what you're going to change totally and I I live in a spot where I've already looked at uh you know went to a couple of these meetings with London Bay down the street where they got a couple plans same thing big tall buildings the whole bit it's going to change the whole area down there and they've got a few pieces of property we just saw the one I don't know what they're doing with the other property probably the same kind of thing so all I can say is uh think about all that stuff before you make the move and okay this thing I'm sure in time you'll get someone that'll want to develop that property not so high that's that's the only thing make a little more reasonable they don't have to make as much money as they're going to plan make it and somebody will do it that's all I can say thanks thank you Shelley Sheridan after Miss Sheridan is cashia subon good afternoon good after good afternoon Shelley Sheridan 251 Flamingo Street first I want to thank Facebook and Beach talk radio because without them we would have no idea what is going on in this town many of my neighbors are not here because they do not have social media and are not aware and or they lost their homes and have to live elsewhere they are the silent majority in 1980 my in-laws Bob and Janet Sheridan were on vacation staying at the Outrigger they went for a walk one day and ended up buying a small beach house on Flamingo Street that was for sale by owner the older gentleman made them a mortgage himself and he stayed on for the rest of the season Janet and Bob went back to New Hampshire and retired at 55 so they could come down here in the winter to stay warm and play tennis they spent every winter down here until we bought it from them in 2019 when they were no longer able to travel we remember them talking about how hard the fort Meers Beach people were fighting to become their own town and the reasons behind it as we all know I stand before you today on my on behalf of my husband and I as well as my in-laws who are no longer with us to say that just just because there was a devastating hurricane that does not negate the reason this town was incorporated when my husband and I voted for you that in no way meant that we were voting for 17 story buildings I am not sure where that impression came from I voted for you because I was under the impression that you were going to respect the reasons why Fort Meers Beach Incorporated many years ago before any of us and you I believe moved here given what this island has been through personally would not be opposed to a few extra stories being added to a building if they offered a good public benefit such as a park and unobstructed view of the gulf a beach restaurant or bar on the beach or even pitching in towards an hourly shuttle that runs the entire Island that goes directly to the airport to be used by anyone on the island for free a few extra stories means two or three not 17 please vote no today and tomorrow and the next day to 17-story buildings on Fort Meers Beach I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and definitely a happier New Year in 2025 thank you thank you same to you Casas Upton and after Casas is Anita Saras Council good afternoon Casas up in Born race Ford Miners Beach um earlier when Tina was doing a presentation she said that the golf golfie colony and Red Coconut could reasonbly be redeveloped where does 17 stories be reasonable we became a town because a diamond head which sits at 154 ft this is 255 ft that's 100 feet taller that is not reasonable flexibility fine flexibility go to seven six this is absolutely insane that this is even on the docket your LPA denied this yet here we are today again going in front of you as your constituents telling you no it's absolutely insane for the park if you look at the park on the screen the red line goes directly between it so now you're telling me that g VI colonies beach access will be directly in between this park to uh 4 C1 talking about protecting neighborhoods Matt brought up well we're building homes in the back so it's not a big deal no those people are choosing to buy that house the people on Nora and shell Mound they already made that decision and that decision didn't have a 17-story building in their backyard those four people buying those new homes they know what's happening those people that live in those neighborhoods they never saw it I mean you guys are talking about ocean Harbor is 184 ft yesterday I took the boat out the entire channel is is shaded now you want to add another 70 feet to that the shade's going to be unbelievable and opening up to new projects you guys just bought the property down there for the new town hall if London Bay gets 17 stores you guys will never see sun in that building ever it's just it's mindboggling to me that we're at this point grow a backbone support your constituents and have we have a comp plan they're not going over to sandill and building this you want to know why because they have a backbone grow one thank you Anita to Saras after Miss Saras is Dan riddle it's because I don't want to follow him I need to Saras for the record I'm glad there's a piece of paper here so my inFamous Paper trick was this is the box we have now turn the box like this it wasn't turn the box like this and add 10 more boxes on top of it um so uh look I have uh I have woken up every night for at least 10 days trying to think about what I could possibly say to you guys to compel you to um deny this project uh for the record the LPA did deny the project uh Jim you know that I love you dearly as a friend but gosh darn it I wish you were as concerned about my neighborhood as you are about the Art Association uh I sit in my backyard every day playing with my dog and I just imagine not just one 17 story building but all of those buildings that will create an absolute wall in our neighborhood this project is not consistent with the goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan it just isn't it isn't um much like statistics you can take and somebody as clever as Tina because that's a clever girl uh you can take all of those policies and manipulate them to present your case and and make it somewhat agreeable but the bottom line is it isn't i' I've sat here next to Ray Murphy and and looking at the different people who are here in the room thinking about all the other people who have sat in those five seats and they're quite a few many of them have passed away at this point I honest to God cannot think of a single predecessor of yours that would vote in favor of this project not a single one granted none of them were here in the afterbirth of or aftermath birth aftermath of Hurricane Ian but they were and did face many many many substantial challenges on this island most importantly immediately after our incorporation I simply cannot believe that somehow this Council would change a course that has been so set in stone and so upheld by so many different councils and I implore you not to not to and Karen you might want to think about a restraining order uh anyhow thank you very much and please please deny this project thank you Dan riddle after Dan is Jane riddle good afternoon my name is Dan riddle I have been sworn in um my wife and I own property at G Westwind condos 3047 and sterl Boulevard nine months ago we purchased a home on dinar boulard 301 Dinara part of our reasons for our purchases were the the ordinances in effect on Fort Meers Beach so I have one word that I want you to think about respect I respect property owner rights I respect financial decisions I respect all of the time that you all put in listening and weighing things it's a very difficult job all I ask in return is respect for my neighborhood we're going to have a 17-story building if this is approved casting a shadow over the pool at Gul Westwinds pretty much the whole day from about 2 o'clock on respect the fact that when we purchased we knew what the ordinances were I understand we're in a different world here post hurricane more height is going to be necessary but there's a huge difference between three stories above and 15 stories above there's got to be some respect for the neighborhood that ordinance that you read 4.1 whatever it was small town field community that sort of thing that will be disrespected totally if this gets approved my mind goes back to this interview with Matt at margarit bille and I just can't get it out of my mind he was bragging about the first time he came to Fort Meers Beach how he got a ride in met up with friends atlai got drunk didn't want to even go back in that room I don't want that to happen to the area where the Red Coconut was we first camped at the Red Coconut that was our introduction to Fort Meers Beach and we loved it but we knew it wouldn't be be there forever so we made plans based on the Covenant that this town has with its residents from back in the 90s and I will one more time ask you to respect that Covenant understanding there can be some levity but please vote this down send them back to the drawing board let's get something reasonable thank you thank you Dan Jane riddle after Jan Jane is uh Lori Webster hello I was thinking about this and I want to give you a different analogy and it's kind of fun to have an analogy if you're going to do this you need something that you know very well I know about choirs I have been in a choir probably my entire life from a 200 voice with a with a complete full band to a three-person trio Acappella and in every group the most important thing is to blend I even sang in Beach Methodist choir I miss that they were a good group when we started here we were here in we started going coming to Ford Meers beach in 1996 at the Red Coconut we bought as Dan just said um we bought a golf Westwinds condo in 2013 and bought our home on Dinara in 2024 so this and then back to the choir again we this can be a beautiful song well rehearsed and the the problem is is if just one re person or building is louder bigger off key there is no blend a 17-story building will block Natural Life ad traffic I know there was already something discussed about the um you know environmental impact and simply doesn't blend with the one to three story homes that are in the neighborhood that's why we picked that neighborhood you know we didn't go to the south of the island where there were all the giant condos there needs to be Harmony blending and simple common sense for this project in choirs There are rules for volume Cut Off lyrics you can't have one place just going off crazy it doesn't work neither will the 17 stories thank you thank you Lori Webster after Miss Webster is Ray Murphy good afternoon my name is Lori Webster and I own a home on dinora I would like to begin by saying that I am not not anti-development I am however anti-g greed the only explanation for the current CA proposal is greed 3,000 square foot luxury condos generate big money every developer wants big money it's their job however in this case big money equals big buildings in a quiet residential neighborhood I looked at a lot of homes before I bought here I didn't want to be in a condo area I didn't want to be in a weekly rental area I definitely didn't want to be in Time Square I specifically purchased my home because it was quiet I love my home obviously because I've invested a significant amount of money putting it back together after three floods in two years I love the ability to see the sunset colors from that home I'm not next door to the development but it will St will block My Views lower my property values and lessen the quality of life we on Denora already have experience runoff flooding we already have drainage issues my neighbor across the street if we get a little bit of rain his entire driveway is flooded this development will exacerbate this to an entirely new level while I understand that the current code allows developers to ask for more it does not guarantee that they get it the ask isn't against code but the granting is there is way more negative impact to this proposal than there is public benefit despite the planner's claim that the view corridors are there the math doesn't math requirements cannot be public benefit the view corridor to the Nature Preserve it's the road I may be only one voice and I may not impress some council members but I live on this road and this affects me and my investment in this island I'm also going to reference the article by Ellie bunting it contained a quote from an article from the 70s and it's very appropriate here nobody wants to stop progress but there is an increasing awareness that the island is in danger of becoming a polluted Paradise please remember those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it please give our objections the consideration they deser they deserve as I stated earlier you were elected to be our voice you were not on this Council to further your own agendas your votes represent your constituents by dismissing our objections your spitting on the confidence placed on you when you were elected the mayor said he can't speak for us in actuality it's why you were elected to be our voice and I think today we've made it clear 17 stories and 255 ft do not belong in our neighborhood thank you thank you Ray Murphy and that's the last person I have signed up okay good afternoon mayor afternoon Council Ray Murphy for the record uh I've been sworn in again uh you know I was uh my family's been here owned property on the island for over 50 years I've lived here for over 40 years uh I I lived through the incorporation of for Myers Beach and one prior to that so uh I feel that I'm qualified to speak on these uh these issues today uh I want to I want to speak directly to uh the people of dinora and and the shellmound neighborhoods over the years I've known uh a lot of families in there uh people that still live there they're here today my 32 32y old daughter I think she's 32 she could be 33 for all I know thank you Mike she uh she's gone to she went to the beach school with a lot of the kids from that from that neighborhood U she made her First Holy Communion at the church of the the Ascension with uh Mike and Lynn's daughter Sammy the only two that year so uh I've known I've known the people in that neighborhood for a long time and um and a lot of the old-timers that are in there are getting to be my age now where they're approaching retirement or have retired recently and they like the rest of us here on Fort Meers Beach what we want to do is live out our days peacefully here in our retirement enjoy our grandchildren and when our day comes we want to be dragged off the island feet first and we we will have known that we did a good job your job is to ensure that that happens for those people they're not going to be able to enjoy their retirement years and the rest of their days staring at a massive wall that's going to be built there I was also there the day with my friend Anita Saras the day we approved the density for the Red Coconut it was a good day it was a good day because finally Fran and Tom Meers knew what they had there and they could plan they could plan their future which they did so that was settled and now here we are today and uh what became a reasonably good concept back then and and plan which Dove tailed right in with our comprehensive plan has now grown exponentially massive all because of hurricane Ian at least that's the way I'm seeing it uh there seems to be a rush to the gold mine after this uh this storm to see how much everybody can get and uh and that's what's happening now that's what's happening that's not going to improve their quality of life or my quality of life or your quality of life for that matter it's going to hinder it your quality of life will be hindered mark my words I've seen it I've seen it on this island Ellie bunan has seen it I have seen it Diamond Head was the straw that broke the camel's back for Fort Meyers Beach the Mantra in those days was no commercial intrusion into residential neighborhoods now they can tell you today and I respect these people because I was in the business myself I understand it I need you to wrap it up okay I'm gonna wrap it up no commercial intrusion into residential neighborhoods don't fool yourself this is a commercial intrusion when you're looking at a wall that big from that from that residential neighborhood that is an intrusion don't let this be the straw that breaks the camels back going F from here forward after Hurricane Ian because that is surely what it will do that is surely what it will do if hurricane Ian was my waterl if you approve this this will be your waterl and your legacy your legacy on Fort Meers Beach will be that you began the process that encouraged all this massive development I don't want that to be your legacy deny this project thank you very much thanks R that's all I have signed up is there anyone else that hasn't signed up come on on up Mike dag naazy I live on sh Mound actually I'm the closest one to this property the closest house to it you know it's what what are we getting for benefits we're not getting anything really what's it all about it's all about money you know they're talking they can't come down from their 17 stories but they're building 4,000 ft units I own a duplex that's 2,000 ft they want two of my houses for one unit if they wanted to they could condense and come down in size and build a 2,000 SQ foot that's half of what they want that drops it down half the height and still do everything exactly the same I'm not saying that would pass either but that would be a start make them go back to a drawing board make them come up with something that's not just a piece of paper that says you know what I got one in the mail one of very few people that got one I'm one of very few people that gets notice CU I'm within 500 feet okay nobody really got one of these nobody knew what was going on they're just trying to sneak everything in but there's no reason for it make them go back to the drawing board make them say okay we can come back we can work with you you asked them is there any wiggle room they strictly said no there's no wiggle room how can you do that how can you come in here and say I'm in charge you're not I'm building this or I'm leaving that's basically what happened you asked them they said no they said well then we'll leave let them leave there's another developer you know what the best job for that you know what the best thing for this property site is put another campground on it those people made money they had a lot of fun I enjoyed walking through the campground you enjoyed riding through the campground we're not going to enjoy any part of this property there's nothing for the locals I will lose all my son I will not see a sunset again plus not to mention that you know you're talking about this road in the back if you can made that road go all the way through do you know what that would do to our neighborhood because everybody in their mother would know the shortcut and they would be on our street and my street would be totally backed all the way up to Connecticut with people trying to come through that back road trying to get out to the other end because they're cutting off a St Boulevard that doesn't work please get with the program and tell them no come back but when you come back come back with something that's more than I think this is what I want to do I'd like to say this is is what we're going to do but I don't know yet come up with something come up with a working blueprint don't say here's this I'm waiting for you to tell me that I can build this then I'll build then I'll come up with a permit and say it's okay can we go with this thank you Mike all right anyone else Y come on we'll work from the front to the back how about that oh hold on I got p oh survival F thank you um I I've been listening to presentation uh from the big suits here I've L listened to questions from from Council uh it seems like there's almost smoking guns here it's like the questions that have been asked uh setbacks you know a view Carter this and that these are all situations that have to be done in any part of what they're doing I didn't hear many questions except for our mayor here about the height everybody back here that's been speaking has been talking about the height not the three- foot pool height with the people standing there in the view corridor they're talking about 17 stories in there in a basically residential area you know there's there's so much to think about there's so many opportunities you know I look around and I don't recognize any council members here I I I've seen Dan around I do recognize other past council members because I saw them at Bay Oaks I saw them when they when I was dropping my children off at Bay Oaks or my wife and everything else like that and back then we were we were all a family you know was like and that's what we we attempted with our comp plan you know it it's I I I don't even know why we're here for this it's like it's 17 stories and yes they have a right but don't we as the residents here have a right you know three people have spoke that they have the rights yes but that's not in the comp plan they have a right they brought it up and we have all said we do not want to see 17 stories a lot of people say one 17 story it's not one it's two it's a 15 it's a 13 you know it it's not what we want we're not in a hurry we the people that have lived here for a long time we're not in a hurry people said we're waiting for the grass to grow back you know we're waiting for the tree the leaves to come back we that's what we're not in a big hurry we don't want to see what has been proposed here yes yes something has to go onto that property but it's not 17 stories it's you know people say we need change well you know what every one of you here can make a change by changing what you voted for last week thank you two we anyone else come on up hi I'm Sue Patton from um Bay Beach Lane and I am a permanent resident and I do vote for you people I'm not an outsider that comes and goes um I only have a couple of things but you mentioned like the view from a sterile Boulevard or the view from this but no one talked about the view of the Island from the water and if anyone is a boater you know what I'm talking about when you go down the Back Bay okay you see where I live the commons uh Bay Beach Lane I mean and then you start to come down the island and it's a small Queen Island except for they refer it to an ocean reef or whatever it is with the Blu I always know where I am because I see the Blue Roof but remember their buildings are going to be five of those twice as high so if you don't like Bay Beach Lane and Jim lives on Bay Beach Lane water side if you look at Water side would has six buildings or seven buildings picture those buildings twice as high on the island is that what we want for the island now I if I had to do it over again what I would I live and the I I like the condo concept but it doesn't have to be twice as big as what we have now um it could come down uh so that's one of the things and I'm very sad about that because when I was driving my boat I said you know it it's really going to change the whole feel of this island so think about that you know I know we have the laws and we have the but what does it feel like to you to look at the building it's so much nicer to see the sky and the little buildings uh and then we talk about the money okay because it is going to boil down to money is it going to help the island financially yes but no one has asked the question but in the back of my mind all of the residents here are saying we will pay the extra dollars to keep the 17 stories off that's what we're saying really is that we're willing to support the island until the island can support itself we all expect there will be tax Rises but we don't need 17 stories to support the island come down ask them to come down they will come down you know they said they won't of course they'll come back with a different plan they're not going to give up um and make them come down to a level that we can all live with thank you and I do want to say you guys are doing a great job and I feel bad that you have to listen to all this but it's important it's very very important yes sir come on up you're too far in the back you to start you're he he made about three attempts Tom Brady 339 medicine I have been sworn in um first of all I take two seconds to say their planner bifurcated my response when I said the pool's going up three feet and there's lounge chairs on top of that you can't see up past six feet all very few people can and view quarters need to be to a body of water not to a bunch of trees originalism this is a lesson in Civics so originalism not everything can be defined in the law there is a loophole 4c4 that says for public benefit you can allow something else well doesn't say 17 stories it doesn't say it's permit permitted it doesn't say it's prohibited we depend on you as judges judges to monit these proceedings and to interpret that law originalists think how would it be understood at the time the code the law the ordinance was written well we have the original founders of the this town here that wrote that code and they've stood up against this agreement so we know how they feel you don't need to interpret that the loophole for public benefit and the view quarter for Building height is is a loophole but you've got a developer that's trying to shove a 17-story building through that loophole shame on them OB objective Criterion metrics for public benefit are as yet undefined residents were promised a voice in the definition of public benefit this may not be required but for a project of this man magnitude no referendum no charet no Town spons sponsored meetings their meetings not town no metrics no plan no basis for saying the town needing these revenues this blows my mind we have had no testimony saying the town needs the revenues they were not sworn in when they said that nice comment but not true hate to say this John but John you said that one of the reasons you wanted to approve this project is because Jim who I he's a banker but I don't know he can speak on the financial issues said that we need to have this project it was not sworn testimony so the process of this and counselor you should caution them is not in line with ex you know with uh semi quasi judicial hearing so please think about that stuff you know we're we're those rules were put in place to Def to defend our rights and it looks like you're just trampling over that the definition of of arbitrary and capricious decision is that it's not based on competent and substantial evidence there hasn't been any evidence that's competent and substantial to this I never saw the needs for a bathroom that somehow was came from one counselor's opinion that that's what we ought to do so how did that get into the requirements it's not we don't have that in the plan do not legislate from the V bench that's what we tell judges to do go back and fix the legis ation that's what these people are asking for fix the legislation don't legislate From the Bench thank you thank you come on up Sir you made it to the front I did it Eric Styer 153 Driftwood full-time uh resident um I'll make this short I like things simple that's how I live I am dieh hard common sense I know you ran on common sense that's why I voted for you so judging by listening to everyone here even Anita the the the uh architect of the previous plan common sense is going to say vote no and then in in support of my wife ditto vote no please thank you thank you yes sir all right so I got a question uh how many your name my name is William Simmons uh how many people here have attended Beach Elementary anybody how many people have kids in Beach Elementary there we go there the people I'm talking to so like I said like uh what I'm trying to get at is uh I didn't like what seagate's trying to do holding that uh historic Art District or that little building as kind of like Leverage for them just like Margaritaville did with the cigar bar or you know the the old old timey thing that they just knocked down same with Newton Park where they just knock down everything they put all this money into restoring everything and then they just knock it down are they just going to do the same thing at Seagate just knock down the historic Art District question we don't take questions during public comment but anyway that's my comment thank you I just I don't I don't like being uh held hostage by a big Corporation yes sir morning Council Steve Johnson uh 311 seminal away uh uh I had plan on coming today but I decided I would uh I know I've buted heads with many of you and uh and it's all because I'm passionate about this island I mean that's really what it's all about uh I fell in love with the island I feel like I I fight for things that can't fight for themselves and things I enjoy um primarily natural resources today I'm here really for a lot of my neighbors in the MC subdivision that whole neighborhood back off of Sterling behind the Women's Club a lot of those people won't uh no matter how much we ask them won't come and speak uh sometimes they'll send emails uh but they certainly have their opinions so when we talk about the silent majority I think that is in fact the silent majority you know it's been said that that that the this last election was a mandate for development and I don't believe that's the case at all I mean our mayor himself got the most votes and and I would say in this situation he has uh he's been the only dissenting vote against this project uh um the the real issue here I think is is intensity in the terms not defined by development definition so just the intensity of a building and encroachment of a building that seate uh hopes to to build um is just too much for this island I mean really too much for this island to support and certainly for for was never a contributor to those people that chose this island uh and walked past all those all those overdeveloped properties that are littered up and down both coasts of Florida because it's such a special place and most of that is because of the forefathers were able to to actually um to to to ensure that the community was still present uh in our in our um in our Our Town um you know as as as Greg scasny said there are many places you know we're we're back uh so many places are open we've got restaurants we've got uh we've got hotels this isn't Mexico Beach not even close to it and yet I there's a feeling of desperation on the council that is odd I mean they're desperate to to approve something that is is so opposed uh I feel personally that you you're not acting as a representative government for a municipality because between the petitions the PA the original town planning recommendations they're all opposed and yet there's just forceful movement to attempt to move forward and the problem is is that the plans are just not secure enough to move forward with it there's just I'll take it your word uh this could have been I think this should be we're not sure there's no architecture yet it's just it's just too Loosey Goosey for anybody's comfort uh Comfort level so I'm here today really with with with with my heart on my sleeve and just asking you as a as a dedicated resident of this town to please please oppose this development until um until maybe there's there's something more acceptable on the table thank you thank you Steve anyone else care to speak um hi Jean guzzy resident Fort Meers beach I was sworn in um I live on a stero and in that neighborhood um Anita did a fantastic job so I'm not going to repeat it all you're all tired and ready to move on I I strongly just based on the questions and the inability to get the actual answers leads me to say maybe it's time to change your vote till you get more details more specifics because Dan and even others of you had some great questions and I felt like they just this development order you know as a solution goes it was I thought brought here for small development here you come in with a monster so I just feel like there's just not enough solid information so for that reason as well as 17 stories just a know but hopefully maybe somebody's going to change their mind thank you thank you anyone else care to speak in public comment you coming up can't tell if he's coming up or looking for a okay behind the pole there I can't quite see it hi there I'm Bill Simmons uh I came here in spring break 1973 been here through the whole thing great here I can't remember if I voted for Ray or Anita but they they were big time back then uh the uh I'm sure you did yeah that's right uh but anyway his his concept is just like mine it's we wanted to stop the big developments we wanted to stop and think about how do we keep our Island small make it a community thing that kind of got away from us uh especially down around Bay Beach Bo they just developed the hell out of that place so but uh I think you I hate to be set in where you guys are right now because you're going to get scrutinized you this is setting a precedence that's that's exceeding everything I want the development we need to De the development but it's got to be a little smaller and and fit into the community not just come in and and make 17 L they keep it's the height that's what the big deal is here it's not the development it's the height and I think we need to back off take a look at this throw the dice out there and say hey what do we come up with you know uh like I said I I'm I'm against this I'm I'm for development but I'm against the the concept here thank you thank you all right anyone else that hasn't spoken out of the crowd yet one more one more coming up another one behind the pole hi Ethan Mackey 303 dinora my wife and I have three young children at Fort Myers Beach Elementary and want to share my own concern and my family's concern about the overdevelopment we love the proposal the idea the design and what it can represent as an integration into the community but 7 feet is just too high we voted you guys in to fight for the community you guys have done an excellent job helping us get back through hurricane Ian but this is step two three out of a much much longer multi-year process and I ask you to think about setting this precedent is not only going to set the bar and change the community for how things are shaped now but future development years down the road when I continue to have children when my children come back and visit our family so I emplore you guys to encourage development thoughtful development and 7 feet is just egregious uh the the I'm not I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to the laws and the rules around here but 17 fet does not seem like a marginal exception for what they're requesting it is uh very egregious so I'm requesting you guys to please reconsider and vote no for the proposal it currently stands thank you for your time thank you I'll ask one more time there anyone else there's nobody else out there there's nobody in the lobby okay seeing none we'll close public comment Matt you want to come back up I'm assuming you want to do you want to rebuttal before you come back up I want to ask you a question okay and I don't know if it's out of line or not but I'm gonna ask it anyway okay and I'm sure I'll be told if it's out of line I think what you just heard was and what you have heard is is a lot of tiredness right from the community having to go through what they've had to go through last years I think what you've heard is compassion I think what you've heard is understanding yep I think what you heard is a willingness to work with people and I think thus far you have done that I think you have listen to people I think you have altered your plan I think you had done anything so I'll just come right out and ask you would you like to voluntarily table your project to take another look at it um not at this time uh mayor um at this time um I I would like to talk about some of the comments obviously I just wanted to ask before you because I think part of it lends itself to the discussion I I I fully respect everyone's um point of you here I I know that there is an opposing Point here and but I do think it's getting lost in and I and I've and I've mentioned this a couple times and it's a tough thing to talk about but there are a couple big pieces of ground on this island that could be developed um yes there's progress being made uh I do not want to at all push down the progress that has being made there are other projects that are working with infill pieces that are smaller that are getting approved I think the issue and the people in the public may not understand I've gotten three phone calls from a couple of those projects were approved they need equity and they need debt they need it they need a developer to come in and build it and the reason they need it is because there is no right now clear future what this Island's going to look like you know uh did someone mentioned Jim I hope he doesn't bring it up Jim didn't just work for a bank he was the CEO of a bank he was the guy who made these decisions he sits on the LPA and has said this over and over again that if we don't get some of these bigger projects approved and momentum going forward all these fill-in projects are never going to get built the equity and the debt is not there guys like Jim are not going to sit in a room and approve a loan for a town that's waiting to figure out their comprehensive plan it's just not going to happen now some people in the audience are fine with that they're okay with more time and I've talked to some of the audience I won't name them that have told me that they'd rather nothing get built and just open in Green Space so that's not my vision for what I tried to build here I knew I needed to I was going to be the first out of the gate I mentioned it every single one in person on Council I'm sure you guys can all agree with that if I if I put it out I wanted to be first I told you I was going to do it the right way I told you I was going to meet with each and every one of you I was going to meet with the public I was going to have meetings my cell phone would be given to anyone who wanted to talk to me I've talked to a lot of people in the audience for hours upon end discussions we didn't agree at the end of them but they at least saw my point of view and I think that right now I think someone said there is a fork in the road right now there's a fork to U A expedited way of bringing the town back Mr Mayor you've said a couple times today you know that what does this benefit the town and to me I don't see a town without retail fill in development boutique hotels they don't exist anymore and the only way they're going to exist is if there's some backbone behind it to stabilize it and to show a vision I think there's and I've mentioned this multiple times there's five or six places on this island where a development like this could be built that's it the rest of it is pipe dream you're never going to be able to assemble the ground and get the zoning to build anything bigger than that so there's five or six places to do a project like this and to me not only the public benefits for giving but for a local developer and yes we're local Fort Myers we live here come here bring my kids here a local developer that's going to spend the personal time and effort with each and every one of you in the public yeah there could be other developers that come in maybe I'm not going to get approved and I'm going to have to flip it to my myami developer think he's going to be sitting in here meeting with you every weekend coming in talking phone calls arguments to the end of night trying to make a plan better I don't think so I don't think they will and and and so I believe that the process we've gone through and the openness of the process to get us to this point should allow us to bring it to a vote today and to vote in favor um I have not seen anything again I think we had 27 people talked today we had 25 in the past meeting I I understand there's opposition we all knew there was going to be opposition I knew it going in and that's why two years ago I met with everyone and tried to really understand what everyone would look for density or height and I built my whole plan two years ago around height from those discussions I I don't know how else to do this development process I'll take suggestions but I I don't know what I would change through this process to get to where we are today so let me ask you this question how how do you and again rightfully so I think the path that you've gone on to get to where you're at I would agree with you 100% I've said before and I'll say it again I think you've done it the right way I encourage everyone to come forward to do it the same way that you did it you did take public comment you did take input from people right or wrong but I think what you've overwhelmingly hear over the last two meetings when people as it always has been as long as I've been involved on the island there's always been people that have don't know what's going on and that was before we were devastated by a hurricane now those that are displaced still don't know are going on I was getting emails as I'm sure my fellow counselors were today from people that are just learning what's going on because they're back in Indiana or they're back in Minnesota or they're back in Iowa and they've been trying to rebuild their homes here they've been trying to line up financing to try to work through FEMA to try to work through Insurance to get back to the island that they chose to build on and and you have rightfully said that you're willing to work with the community and and for me my question is how how do you expect I'm going to speak for myself me as a council member to look the people in the eye that voted me into this position to speak for them that I'm listening to them sure when there's been not one thing since I've been sitting up at this Das since 2020 that has brought this many people to the table I haven't seen this many people come out or send emails since Margaritaville and that was and that was pre obviously prean but my question and again I I will ask it again I know you've answered it but I've asked it again in in being a community partner which I think you would be a very good one and I certainly hope that you are the ones that develop that property we can't talk about what some other person could do if you decide you don't want to do it but I'll ask you one more time would you like to voluntarily relook at the project I mean not not as of right now okay uh but I do think it's important because I agree that there are people that aren't concentrating on it now I'm not going to tell you that everyone that I talked to that was against it um left that meeting for it I think you guys all know that that's not true but I do think that having an interaction and a one-on-one and discussion about what this project how it got done um I I do think at least brings people to an understanding of okay well I understand how it came and right now I think there's been a pretty big campaign out there I mean we can be honest about it to try to push this project to get denied or to get extended I I know what going on out there I have not hired a public relations firm in fact I fired one when we first started it because I disagreed with everything they told me they told me not to do anything out in public do everything behind you know send Flyers out that's not how we do business and that's not I've done business the whole time so they don't no longer with me anymore and we've done this open and honest and through the process and as I said once this gets approved there's still a lot of stuff that's going to go into this plan and I will be uh available at any time to have meetings discussions if people want to sit down afterwards but to me at a at a second reading third reading really of a plan to go through this whole process to have all the public meetings everything and then at the very end you know to me I I I just it it just hits me the wrong way again I'm I'm ready and willing to talk as we go through this but I do think we've done enough and we proved our Point enough we we now just got a recommendation from the city city manager however you want to say it they recommended approval I know we lost approval at the LPA for to but it's close so I I think it's really up to council because I think there's other people out there that are waiting for this decision to be made and and I don't want to be silly about this but if I came back and said oh we'll do 14 stories on 17 no one on the other side's going to be happy about that they just aren't I mean it's just not going to be there's there's not going to be an overwhelming celebration I think you heard it here and and I'm okay with that I knew that this was going to be this way and I think I mentioned all of you I knew how contentious this was going to be but I do think as a jumping off point being the first one going through this process sticking the neck out to go through it trying to explain how we got to where we got to working with Fran and her family's wishes coming and asking you guys up front and putting this two years of work from the storm in to get to this point I I have a hard time saying well let's go back to the drawing board I I don't think it would be fair to my team my partners or or or anything right now unless someone can specifically point to something just like we did with the the the beach bathroom and we solve the problem just like we've done throughout any of the other questions that have come up in this project but but you can't ask for all this stuff and then at the very end say oh yeah by the way chop off a couple stories of I mean not the way this works so well I just for anybody that In fairness to you Matt you know obviously a lot of darts get thrown your way sure we saw some very very bad comments being thrown at one of our council members today which was completely out of line this conversation that we're having is the exact same conversations or those like it over the last two years so when people talk about when council members are meeting what you just heard is the same conversation we've had in fact you and I got heated on the phone a couple times because you're very passionate and so am I so there's nothing like not bad heated but we challenged each other and I think that the project is a better project because of it um I hope it's okay for me to bring up Anita's name again but Anita same thing with me and her I was told don't go uh don't go meet with Anita she's GNA be 100% against your project which turned out to be the case but she at least gave me a chance she gave me a chance and her and I sat together for three and a half hours and then she had called me after and you know she didn't approve it but I responded and I think she'll agree that I think that she is the main reason that that turnaround circle is not there so she added benefit to the process even people that have been against it and that's what I think everyone's focusing on the 17 stories and I understand why but there's been a lot of movement throughout this pro project and as I explained once that road had to go in and I had to Crunch those buildings down it was a math equation and I hear just shrink the unit countdown well I have to build marketable units because one of the things I've heard over and over again is that if we're going to get this project approved we want it built and just like Jim I've worked with a lot of banks and if I went to a bank and said I'm going to build 2,000 square foot condos I would get laughed out of the room because the market doesn't want that that's that's not what the market is looking for and and I think Alex King actually got up and said that at a previous meeting but but is it fair to say you knew that before you purchased a property yeah I think it's I I think it's completely fair but I I also when I purchased property came in and told you guys exactly what I was going to look at doing and I was very open about it so um yes you are correct uh that but we are in a Redevelopment Zone and we're different than a lot of other properties on the beach because of that and we're allowed to ask for what we're allowed to ask for I agree that you know you don't have to approve the project but it's been two years of back and forth going back and forth whether it's with individual Council people staff Town manager um back and forth to get to this plan this wasn't just PLO down on a desk and it's changed a lot since the beginning so then the last question I have for you and then I'll go to the other council members here to to get their in put or questions that they may or may not have a your Tina the questions I raised before public comment about the three Parks you had a chance to talk to those since continue well I I do want clarification do you do you want to own them because before you the the the the staff and did not want them so well I maybe they did maybe they didn't I haven't heard that from them but that was my question yes and I don't know if I we haven't had a chance to talk about it yeah I mean I mean we we can certainly talk about it but if that's the case um there would have to be some strict maintenance guidelines obviously I don't want to Grass overgrown or bushes overgrown or you know back door Fields obviously we would have we we would have to discuss you know the the viability of that but but okay again when when we went through the process it was specifically asked that not be the case but we okay um con Safford questions for Matt Ora not right now okay I just want to clarify a couple of things um and I and I do believe Matt that you have been one of the best Partners in dealing with everything I mean personally anything I've come to you with and maybe disagreed with you with or brought up because I'm hearing so much from the public and what would you do with this I mean you've been honest you've been you've told me where there's room to negotiate and where you don't think negotiation is needed and I think that's how we continued to grow the list of public benefits correct um kind of what I'm hearing in you saying that you're not willing to pull off the project now or anything like that but what you have said over and over is you're definitely open to design variances and when we get to that point which we won't get get to that point unless we get through this point um you're willing to talk more you're willing to talk to anyone else correct I mean that to me says a lot about the partnership in this project um the local feasibility uh which we can we we're not going to get that out of Miami we're not going to get that out of Tampa St Peak we're not going to get it out of anywhere so those are the aspects of of having you as the developer on this that I really appreciate so that is not exactly a question but yeah I I appreciate that and again I I I do want to underline it because I think it's important because it's you know typically zoning is concept based right and and so the town is used to the plan development um but but what this is is really the box that we're able to build these buildings may not be 235 ft they're definitely not going to be taller than that but they're going to be but they could be shorter depending on how the design aspect comes out of it but what I'm trying to do is give the box to my team to design the right project that design is going to take time and through that process there's definitely other times to have discussions as we go through this process I I do want to be a good neighbor I I live here I don't live somewhere else I I'm local so that believe me this isn't I mean my father's here I'm here sister lives here family we all live here so so this isn't something where I'm able to go off into to nowhere and not be available you can find my address and shove to my house probably but I mean but the point is is that we're here so I I am ready and willing to have those discussions but to me to fundamentally just completely change what this project is at the 11th hour I I I just have a hard time swallowing that Matt would you would you say that what you heard here in the public testimony today overwhelmingly was against the size of the box that you're looking to start with I I I think that's true okay I I I wouldn't I wouldn't argue against that but I also think that you know again there's there this was planned today I get it and and I understand that's how this works so I'm I'm not against it but um and I want people to voice their opinion but um you know so to me I'd love to have discussions with anyone and anyone that we've had discussions with we've made changes to the plan and the project so again that's where I have a little AA is I have been there and I have been available and I have discussed and so that's I guess my concern is that we're I just need feedback from that so if I'm not getting feedback I can only adjust to the feedback counc wson any other questions for Matt no I'm good at this point VI May no additional questions councilor King I think Karen kind of alluded to what I had asked without asking her question but Matt answered it is that there is a possibility that it's not going to be as tall as that's correct I mean it's going to be designed look I I a lot of people have mentioned this I am a capitalist so if I don't have to build higher I won't it it's going to depend on you know what the market and and my design team wanted the ultimate flexibility but I'm not going to build a structure taller than I have to I mean that that would be insane no devel would do that thank you okay Tina do you have anything else you'd like to add you to clean up anything I'll let you go uh Tina EAD for the record we heard a lot and I'm not going to um belabor too much but I there is some um clarification I think that's needed based on the public comment that we heard in some of the questions you all were asking of and I think the first important thing to remember is what the project is it is residential multif family with some supporting commercial it is not a resort it is not a hotel it is residential multif family with supporting commercial it is replacing a very intense commercial project that used to be there with nightly turnover we have written into the development agreement a restriction on rentals as a result of the negotiation that occurred with the LPA we've talked at length about the changes that have been made over time as a result of the public meetings and these public hearings and individual one-on-one conversations and so there has been a very extensive negotiation going on with regard to that the development agreement process yes we are the first ones out of the gate there's going to be a learning curve for us and for the town as a result of being the first ones but that ordinance is very clear about the requirements that a plan needs there's 17 different criteria that we walked through with um the town attorney planning staff and your management staff to make sure that we were addressing that criteria and so when we talk about the Box we're not just talking about the 17 stories that are at issue that keep coming up we're talking about where the parks are located what's included in them what where the commercial is how big it is what the uses are these are all conversations that we've had in other Town Council meetings and shifted and adapted access points many other things that when we say the conceptual box those are all the things that we're talking about and that is very typical of an agreement process or a zoning process um it is very typical to have a conceptual plan in a zoning that gets engineered at a later point in time and we have amendments and continued conversation so I think that the town has tried to create something that speeds up the process um it's been two years I think we are all of us on both both sides are ready to hear the council's perspective um I sincerely hope that you will support the project and and the entire box that we've created not just the 17 stories but all of the public benefits all of the changes and all of our efforts to adapt to the comments that we are hearing um I think that we've talked about all the other issues at nauseum I would simply put on the record that the ask is for uh 137 multif family units four single family units a private beach club a 10,000 foot commercial restaurant um and numerous public benefits that you see on the screen and in Exhibit C so we respectfully request your approval today all right thank you Tina there's no other questions for Tina no okay thank you I will now close the public hearing and request a discussion or a motion from the Town Council to approve approve with conditions or deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain mayor can I offer a couple uh comments regarding what options you have certainly okay so approval um often times you have approval with conditions but in this document I think all the conditions are stated so it would just be an approval a motion to approve the next two or the next one is the before you move on doesn't mean the conditions couldn't change based on a motion correct that is correct that is correct at which point it would be an approval with conditions that are discussed um the next would be a condition or excuse me a continuance to a date certain with directions uh to the applicant for more specific information concerning a specific thing in that situation the um application would come back to you you could deny it uh for a reason without prejudice because of and and um addressing these concerns there's no um time commitment for them to come back um in that situation it's denial without prejudice so they could come back within a six-month period or instead of coming back to the next meeting that you have or the next meeting which would be in the case of a continuance or the last um option I think you have is denial for a specific reason with prejudice and that would prohibit them from coming coming back uh with a very with this project or a very similar project within uh 12 months okay so there's ramifications to each one all right well first I want to say thank you to both the applicants and all the people that took their time to email come out talk to us on the street um today was much better than the last reading as far as uh the Quorum you will except for I was just I was getting to it except for one person that um um well I just won't say it anyway uh but with that you know the testimony today and I think what has continued to happen is it's it's been overwhelmingly they love Seagate they love the people they they love the fact that something's going to be developed there but this just isn't the project and I won't restate all the things that everybody had already talked about but you know when you look at some of the things that you know we're looking at here or potentially could approve or deny here we're not talking about one we're not talking about two we're not talking about three we're not talking about four we're talking about five buildings in one development taller than the tallest building on the island by seven stories that's significant that to me would have a significant um impact on the surrounding neighborhoods not to mention the entire Island uh you look at just the intensity of this building in perspective it's 600 some thousand square ft that's 11 times the size of the White House in one specific center location on the island that's significant I disagree with staff's recommendation that uh approval based on economics is is is just baffles me um however I agree with the LPA and and their findings that it is not consistent with the compreh comprehensive plan as it is proposed and therefore I would make a motion to deny this project as it is currently proposed without prejudice to allow the applicant U to come back with something based on uh the comprehensive plan that would fit within the comprehensive plan um and with that I'll leave it at that is there a second I think we need to have discussion second first you need to have a second first I'll second for I'll second for discussion okay go ahead Scott you know um I've been struggling with this for quite some time I got I got into it halfway halfway through this and my MBA brain is saying this is a winwin win for the island and for the and for the town um it's it's also a win because it's much less density much less density from what they could ask for what another developer potentially come in for but at the end of the day Mr Upton you you I thought you were going to go a different direction with with your comment um I had to put that that I'm running for reelection because I actually possess that seat so Lee County May me do that what I thought you were going to say is on your on your Koozie says we're Rebuilding Together well what I saw today was we're not Rebuilding Together there's one faction over here and there's another faction over here and we're not together on this and we need to move forward and and work out a compromise to to work together and I think we're close Matt you're you're awesome your your team is awesome and I I feel bad that you know you've invested so much time but you know today and not only today but just the the amount of emails and the and the the meetings I've had with with the community and I I made a promise that I would represent them and I would and I would listen and I've listened so at this point I I agree would be without prejudice but I want to hear what my other council members because again there's the other side of me that I'm I'm worried to protect the town of what could be built there I mean condos have way way more less traffic than a hotel I own a hotel I I know but you know at the end of the day the the biggest thing in the room is the height I think everyone here would be okay with a couple more stories I I I sincerely feel feel that um so just for a discussion let's Council Woodson I think I've already stated what I feel about Cate and the fact that they're open to design variances I think they have honesty Integrity in back of them um I think we need to move forward and get moving with this process and continue those conversations okay vice mayor edle well I'm a little reticent to get into a lot of detail but I do think the people here deserve sort of why people are voting why they're voting I uh you know people's motivations are being questioned today and I I just think that's unfortunate I I I don't mind my judgment being uh uh questioned that's that's very appropriate that being said I you know I feel like the people ow are owed some sort of an explanation when this first came about I've been here from the beginning of these discussions post Ian during Ian on on the island for Ian and then so after Ian happened we had a we had a lot of concern about traffic and density and that was a huge issue for the for this island based upon the feedback I was getting from the citizenry I've got no dog in this hunt I I don't I've never met Matt before this whole thing started I have no connections to his company um but I did hear a lot of concern about traffic and and increased density and the impact on traffic and that was resonating because we had some pretty big traffic jams we were during season people were pretty hot so when the when the prop proposition that we were going going to potentially a not only move the massing of the development off the beach opening a viewed Corridor but also moving it back from a stero Boulevard but key the key issue for me was there was no request for additional density and so I thought hey that's that's that's a road worth exploring going down and exploring that and and and we did I didn't know at that time what this how many stories it would take to accomplish that goal uh but there was one point in this process and people think you know you've already had your mind made up there really wasn't it wasn't made up until I heard some testimony uh sworn testimony and again her motives unfortunately were being questioned as well but the woman who who owned the Red Coconut and and and Managed IT for many many years came and testified and she said uh under oath she said that this this proposed development first of all she didn't sell to the highest bidder because she said there was some really grotesque proposals before her and she didn't want anything to do with them but this was something that she thought could match with the island but more importantly she said under oath that she managed the Red Coconut for decades first of all didn't want to sell it sold it under duress her husband was Ill other poan challenges but she said the proposed development would be onethird less density than the Red Coconut that existed prean so you have a potential for a 10 acre plot of land that goes from the bait of the gulf you only only land like that on Fort Meers Beach that literally potentially could have a one-third reduction in density now some people dispute that that's fair but Fran was in a position to to know better than anyone what was going on at the Red Coconut and I think from a density traffic Dynamic which was hot at the time and view quarters were hot at the time uh I was on the lp the council everybody was always talking about view quarters all that seems oddly diminish now we have a a proposal coming right after this where they're asking for double the density so but they've got economic postan reasons why they're asking but so putting yourself in our shoes it's a little bit challenging because the the needs of the island postan you're seeing consistently I'm not making these requests these requests are coming before us in the LPA they're either asking for height or density or a little bit of both and here's one that's ask asking for more height but no more density in fact the the Practical reality is it'll it potentially could have onethird less density than that was there before I know that makes folks angry who are concerned about the height I don't mean to diminish your concerns about the height but these are the issues that we're wrestling with I thought out of respect for the people here I thought you'd least have a better sense of what we're wrestling with as policy makers here as we wrestle with these issues so I I say this not to diminish anything that I've heard today I have great respect for the people that that testified and I have great respect for your p passion for your neighborhoods and I don't mean to diminish it I'm just trying to give you a sense of what it's like to sit in this chair with no no no dog in the hunt no ax to grind except I do love this island just as everyone else does and and I'm not going anywhere uh I've got to live in it and I want to live in it plan to live in it so these are the challenges that we're wrestling with I you know mayor's on an opposite position than I am on this i' got great respect for the mayor you can you can be friends you can you have respect for each other and still disagree on these things so but that's the that's the foundation issues yeah I I'm not I'm not voting this because Matt's agreed to be kind to the Art Association or he's given us a restroom that that's that cheapens I think my position I think the issue that I'm wrestling with and the the thing I'm intrigued by is the a not only no more uh uh density they're asking for but there's the potential that this would be demonstrably less than than that was there before that's intriguing for the reasons that I've stated so I I I'm comfortable with this moving forward it sounds like there's still some some possibility during the process to make some tweaks uh so that that's that's that's it that's my position in a nutshell coner k um I've I've discussed this before um and I know what I know and I know what I don't know and I know I'm not a smart person and I'm okay with that I'm comfortable with who I am my wife likes me for who I am so that's all it matters to me but um reeven the the town's fiscal Revenue has bothered me for a while and when I heard Jim Dunlop say it and I'll say it again yes I I quoted him I find Jim to be a very smart person especially with dealing with finances um we're managing a lack of financial sustainability and we'll be talking about that later on in in this meeting when uh we'll be asking about u u we'll be talking about Revenue replacement and moving money around I guess uh you know we sustained significant financial revenue losses in fiscal years 23 and 24 and the town manager is and and I assume it comes from the CFO as well is uh projecting additional sustain additional losses in fiscal year 25 um we've been able to do some things because of lobbying efforts on behalf of Ron book who has done a great job up in Tallahassee and the mayor for going up there and doing his his part um Andy and and Frankie and Chris Holly and all those folks uh but that spigot is closing and and we know that and I saw and Jim the vice mayor had alluded to it earlier at some point not today necessarily but the the legislature is going to be tightening the screws uh they're going to be um they've got a new budget chair in the Senate and he he was on uh the news the other day talking about how things are going to tighten up and and that's that's a concern so um I I feel again and and and I'll quote you Jim and I'm sorry if I've caused you some grief on that but uh uh permanent investment with a long-term financial implications is is what this this town needs um and so that's where I am fair enough I guess I I'll just finish by saying that you I understand economics play a part in this it is it is it's common sense right the part I struggle with is this sky is going to fall if we don't approve something that is not consistent with the comprehensive plan that is absolutely not the case we had the property appraiser stand here and tell us we will probably be back more than likely to where we were prean in just two years after the storm that's pretty significant all on less of a budget all on less staff and that's because of the gentleman sitting in front of me and the other staff members here being fiscally responsible to make sure that we're sustainable what you're talking about later is Shifting money certainly but it's shifting money to our benefit not to our hindrance um you have our the chair of our our advisory or our Auto committee saying we're in good Financial shape so I I I I struggle with the you know this again the sky is falling mentality that if we don't do this and I share the same concerns you do Scotty you have two hats but what we have heard is you Council whats in you're right there can be design changes but what you've heard I think in the last two meetings overwhelmingly through emails through public comment is that the box is too big to start with the design of the present that you're wrapping is too big to get in the back of the SUV that's essentially what we have heard no one is saying seate isn't a good developer no one is saying they don't build a good project no one is saying that they haven't come in fact all I heard to today was people offering suggestions so I disagree with you Matt that people are not offering suggestions I think you heard a lot of them here I think people are open and willing to work with you this project just isn't the one um for for all the reasons stated so with that I'll I'll call the question there is a motion for denial without prejudice um I'm I'm I'm an i councelor Woodson or councelor Safford sorry s uh councelor Woodson nay Vice May adal Nay uh Council M King nay okay with that the motion is denied hey hold on order please is with that is there another motion on the table I'll make a motion to approve um this project um with all the is it the BBY that I should use to cover everything appropriately I think you've got it there was one question during the meeting about the density transfer if you want we can clarify to make sure that that language is the intent of what you represented as well as the developer it's just a small tweak to the language if that's okay well and I think the clarification was that everything needs to come back through councel correct correct correct Mike Mike I'm sorry Nancy Mike please thank you Nancy it was just uh in paragraph 4A I can get with the attorney um it says may um and we wanted just to make sure that um your approval today is not it is um it will have to come back to you for an approval of the density transfer that was discussed earlier and the developer confirmed that that was the decision but five years from now we might not be here so it's better to go ahead and clarify in the language that that was your intent it is the developers intent as well okay all right so I'm making a motion to approve ordinance 24-34 with all amendments that have been proposed to date as well as density transfer if anything comes along this it will come back to council I'll second we have a motion and a second discussion Scott no um you made the motion you want any more discussion council with no vice mayor no counc King I'm good I would like to ask the motion and the seconder if they would consider adding the condition of the three Parks as decide or discussed earlier be deeded to the town and if there is a concern with maintenance that the applicant maintains the property would you be willing to add that as conditions to your motion wait one that you want the town them to donate the land of town if they're worried about if just the three parks that I discussed earlier and if maintenance is an issue or If things cannot be worked out where the town has to maintain it the way that they want or I'm assuming there's got to be an agreement for that am I that that then they would maintain it has happened with other development on the island in the past so the amendment could be that there be a separate agreement that would come back to you um and and then to to discuss that okay would you be willing to add that condition to to the approve or to the motion of approval is I'll add it as long as it is a separate um condition that we're going to have to go through and discuss I personally don't believe we want to own the parks but I would be open to discussing it I see Matt coming up again under the the um am I allowed to talk just on this one or no it it's in their discretion I just hold on a second man hold on does anyone have an objection to well again I think we're back to where we were I I have a question uh it it sounds like the applicant asked the town if we wanted to own the parks and it sounds like our town leadership said that they didn't want to own the parks so I guess I'm I'm a bit confused well Town leadership didn't say it the town staff said it they recommend it that we don't own the well I haven't heard that from them yet we've heard it before I can defer to Frankie it was it was a combination um discussion discussed it with with Frankie um and with Andy if you look at the the language that's in the development agreement um that's the the compromise we came to it's a Perpetual uh Perpetual Public Access easement so the public will always have access to it but we won't actually own the land so we're not um you know responsible for maintaining it I mean I think they they're incentivized to maintain it because it's you know AB buding their property that's the is the excuse me is the other benefit if there's somebody trips falls yes there are some liability concerns as well if we own it as opposed to if we just have the easement if somebody trips and falls everybody will be sued basically but the responsibility would be um lessened because the developer would have that obligation for the maintenance right and is there Nancy is there any ability in the future and know you said perpetually is there any ability in the future because as we've heard here countless times nobody seems to know what's going to be built yet or what's going to be owned adjacent to it or what could potentially come back before us is there a potential for someone to potentially come back and say we changed our mind on the perpetuity of this and we want to we want to change we want to develop something different now can that happen legally if they want to build on that Park parcel um they would have to come back to you and request an amendment to the development agreement because right now it is part of the development agreement so it would be subject to your your vote your approval I guess my point is there's nothing in perpetuity technically because you can always come back and ask a remark but anyway it is so where we stand right now I I don't know there's tax implication to it as well because if the C if the town owns it then it'll be off the tax roll um but I don't know what the value is diminished with an easement I don't know we don't know at this point so wait a minute I but the other thing too I'll make it easy for everyone I'll resend my request because let me let me ask you this if somebody donates that land now is your far calculation going to be different or is that that's a jth question well you're still approving that deviation so right well at this at this point the development agreement is we've agreed upon the the square footage so I I don't think I think the question is that land if the developer owns it is that then calculated within the far no no longer calculated in the Far So if you have if you have 10 acres and you give the the town an acre are you working off 10 10 acres still or are you working off nine to calculate your far um if the development agreement is so today where the development at this moment where the development agreement is not approved if they were to sell that portion of the land then we would not include it in the application but we're operating underneath the development agreement we've agreed to those terms I'm looking at Nancy did we've agreed to the the the square footage they provided us with their their survey with their land um property description and that's what we've agreed to based our our calculations on right you're based so if you have this box and you give the town a little bit of this and you're right it bumping up at that 1.5 can we still use the the big box to calculate our farm or are now now since they gave up the land you're only using 90% of it it depends on whether you change the language that's that's in here now right now it's under would be under Perpetual easement as a as a par um and so you couldn't the town couldn't build anything on it so even if they gave it to the town it's the town wouldn't have any rights to I'm not talking about the town rights how you calculation the calculation based on the the size of the property um you know again maybe you still want to get an answer to it Scott but I I will I will I will receive my request we're always looking for land yeah you can Enlighten us um is it okay for the attorney yeah go ahead we haven't heard from all day yeah thanks sorry so for the record Richard aen here going just going back to the question about the for the far calculation yeah the way we've done it through the development agreement is always assuming it would be an easement so for the calculation it assumes that it's still owned so we would have to go back and relook at some of the language as currently stated and it would mess things up let me say this from and I understand to represent the developer but I'll just say this I'm not sure what benefit the town gets from owning it over having a Perpetual access easement you have every right that you could get through the Perpetual access easement is if you owned it a lot less of the liability and it doesn't come off the tax Ro I'm not sure what the benefit is is kind of where I'm going with my 10 years from now when you're getting ready to cut the Riven someone could come in be a toly different council at the time they could come in and request that that perpetuity goes away and it could be granted that's the difference and legally they could do that not saying it could it would happen I'm just saying that they could give up my development rights on it into perpetuity would that work if that's if that legally suffices what I'm trying to get we have no intention of making that a park the the the reason and we got into it but it was a liability issue with staff and and the managers they did not want to take on the liability and also the cost to the town which would have been an extra cost to to maintain it so we offered this up there is no intention of us to come back and use that ground for anything else what it's used for it's into perpetuity and I have to sign that in the development agreement that we won't develop anything on that without full approval of the town in the future if you want or not approval the town just agree to it whatever there's no intention to put anything there for the park and Matt I didn't expect I didn't I wasn't saying you had any intentions no no I I get it I can get it by a bus I understand but but the point is is that there's there's no intention of that and the reason that we did that was a suggestion from STA and your city manager because of uh your town manager because of um the liability issues so that that that was the reason that we got to where we got to I just the history I think it's important that everyone understands that this was talked about a lot between us and staff where are we well I think we have a motion on the table from have you finished your motion or I think you did because then I finished it you added to it and then you took it away well yes I didn't realize it was kicking a hornet nest but so a motion to approve as stands okay got a motion by councel Woodson did you did someone second it Vice mayol did any further discussion uh councelor Woodson hi vice mayor adal hi councelor King hi councelor Safford n and I'm a n as well motion carries 3 to2 congratulations going to take a 15 minute 15 minute break come back 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 okay we're going to call the meeting back to order it is 217 our next agenda item is our second public hearing it is ordinance 24-36 DCI 20230 213 the Neptune in 2310 and 2316 and 2320 the Sero Boulevard this is the Myers Beach commonly known as the Neptune resort to allow 148 lodging units and and accessory retail and recreational uses providing for other clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scrier erors several ability and providing for an effective date Judith Judith Frankle has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council based on her education and experience has been accepted as the expert as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as expert with us no yes okay if you'll all stand and raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay and mayor also ex part okay did I skip over there that already sorry it's been a morning um we'll go back then if any Town council member has had any expar communication to disclose please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that you received or observations at the site counc Safford uh yes uh Mr vaness uh called me regarding the bathrooms and I also received an email other than that the got couple emails for and a couple emails against counc wson I've had conversations with the neighborhood company and also received for and against emails I also have for received for and against emails received a updated um proposed condition comments amendments based on the discussion from the first hearing from the applicant Y and than Mr Woodson I am and C after yes and the applicant is present along with their councel if they wanted to ask any additional questions regarding the disclosures no shaking his head okay do we need to rewear in they've been sworn in is there anyone that hasn't been sworn in as an expert witness I should say or done we're good we're good okay go ahead Judith oh has the property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff they're all Notting their head yes just kidding Judith go ahead good afternoon Judith Frankle with uh Community Development um the neighborhood company on behalf of chg Neptune Acquisitions LLC owner of 2310 and 2316 2320 Estero Boulevard has applied for a commercial plan development resoning the property is currently zon commercial Resort and is in the boulevard future land use the applicant is requesting a CPD with seven deviations to allow a Redevelopment of a resort including 148 lodging units and accessory retail use and recreational uses um would you like me to go through all the deviations at this time just as an intro yes okay um number one relief from Land Development code section 10- 285 requirements as justified by the Project's independent parking analysis number four relief from Land Development code section 34- 633 which includes covered parking in the floor area ratio calculation to exclude the two stories of under building parking from this hotel's F calculation number five relief from Land Development code division 4 table 34-3 for the CR zoning District which limits height to 30 ft um zoned and three stories to allow a maximum zoned height of 61 1 ft and a maximum of six stories consisting of four stories above two levels of parking number six relief and Land Development code section 34-1 1803 A1 which allows the conversion of dwelling units to hotel motel guest units per established equivalency factors in order to exceed said factors as allowed per Land Development code section 34-8 of approval that we're recommending if you choose to vote in that manner um I'd like to reserve time after the the applicant's presentation to come back and discuss them with you um I believe that the applicant um has additional conditions that they are proposing based on what they heard at the first hearing okay don't any Judith maybe there's some questions excuse me Mr Mar got info that the video is not working all right it's back on it's back on okay thank you okay questions for Judith since you not at this time no not yet okay no council K not currently can you go over why the staff recommended denial yes um so with a CPD uh we have specific requirements that are in the the um Land Development code that we base our a reduction of 55 parking spaces and proposing more than four times the units permitted by the um current zoning District um and twice the number permitted by right under the town's build back policy it appears that the proposed reduction may lead to an undue burden on the parking and transportation facilities in the town uh a detailed review of the traffic impacts will determine impact fees during development of the property so parking um is part of that um uh review and the criteria that we're using and so um there's that element of the determin um in 34- 85 in 34-26 um uh one of the criteria we have is that the the general intent of the chapter is to protect the public health safety welfare preserved and promoted um staff reviewed the the deviations under that requirement um the proposed deviations are a result of a design choice so um essentially the code is asking us to consider whether the deviations are necessary from um uh something to do with the the property or existing conditions or whether or not they arise out of a choice made by the applicant in in this case um these are choices made by the applicant we consider that a design Choice um and because of that um it doesn't meet that then we recommend denial but if you were to um recommend approval we do have conditions to add to that okay okay that question good enough for now yeah Patrick or who's coming up first thank you mayor good afternoon Council no Davies with the law fir of Davies du come behalf of the applicant for this item chg Neptune Acquisitions LLC the full project team is here again today Adam Valena is our client representative papanass and Ken Gander are here with the neighborhood company and Elizabeth fountain with J.R Evans is here as our civil engineer since we last saw you at first reading we've added more detail and specificity to our conditions going to turn it over to Pat to walk you through those specifics and I'll remain here questions thank you very much thank you good afternoon for the record my name is p ass I'm a certified planner with the uh neighborhood company um and I'm going to go off script here the uh we were we're going to jump right into the commitments and conditions and walk you through one by one but I I do want to address the uh the discussion with staff about recommendation for denial so first one was parking um as we know and I think we we as as a town ackn know that we're overp parked our code and most codes in this country overpark uh various uses we provided a an independent parking study that was done by a transportation professional they use the best available information available to to make an assessment and they said we had sufficient parking so from a parking standpoint best data out there says that we've got sufficient parking uh the the other issue was with the design Choice um deviations by their very nature are design decisions you come in for plan development because the plan development allows you to ask for these deviations and to come up with creative unique and interesting Concepts and that's what we've done so the to me the deviation in itself even if it's a departure from what the code says that's the intent behind deviations and and and obviously we're requesting it because we are making a design choice but we think that the design choice that we've made is an improvement and creates a better project so those are the the two issues I just wanted to make sure I I quickly touch upon them um I'll jump right into the uh conditions of approval does everybody have a copy I've got extra copies here that we can pass around and I'll also ask the uh the a person to blow that up a little bit maybe you could zoom on there and we can do we'll start with number one and just go down the list okay so last time we were here I think generally speaking we we we left the meeting um feeling that we had General support for the project we were specifically asked to go back and look at the conditions and to make sure that all their conditions were uh detailed enough um were uh also where there was some teeth to to the those commitments and where they could be enforced so we went through all of those and then we we had a few questions also um from council members uh looking if we can make certain changes so we have done that uh and we've looked at every single conditions uh and I can walk you through those so the first one is associated with providing pedestrian amenity NOS um so what you'll see in there is we are committing to three pedestrian amenity noes and in there it says at a minimum these nodes will include shade trees public benches bike racks lighting and trash receptacles so again those are identified in the mCP um they are part of a commitment that will be uh in the ordinance and again this is something that is uh enforcable with regards to public parking again identified on the mCP um we are committing to 16 public parking spaces where the developer will construct those and a um an easement will be granted to the town for those spaces with regards to the dra program we were asked to look at the language associated with a monetary incentive um so we've uh the language that you see in yellow um has been um we've added a little detail so maybe if you could on the person on E if we can just scroll down just a little bit Yeah to the next page so what you see in yellow um says that for stays of three days or more guest will be given a $50 beverage credit to be used at the hotel restaurant and or Tiki Bar and will be provided a complimentary alternative mode of trans Transportation such as bicycle ebike electric scooter so again very specific as to what those uh monetary uh incentives are um number four uh with regards to bicycles uh again uh commitment that we will have uh those bikes for rent those complimentary bikes we will also have 32 bicycle parking spaces and those are identified on the Master concept plan uh Golf Park Golf Cart parking um committed to a minimum of six dedicated Golf Park uh golf cart parking spots and those are also identified on the mCP um number six is related to the renderings that we have provided to you guys a lot of times people say well those are very pretty pictures is the development going to look like that and the commitment in there is uh it will generally look like the renderings of course by the time we go to permitting and uh engineers and construction folks get their hands on this there might be some slight changes but um from from a look standpoint it'll be consistent with those renderings um The View corridors we were asked to add some language that uh other than just the control access gates and Landscaping there would be no other obstructions that what we've added in yellow um The delmare Avenue uh View Corridor very clearly identified as 20 ft from the western boundary um and when combined with the existing delmare Avenue which is public RightWay in combination that would be 70 ft um the beach access the next one number eight with regards to delmare uh we do talk about at a minimum the Neptune will install palm and or canopy trees 20 feet on Center along the western side of the delmare Avenue rway from Estero all the way to the beach access and that we will provide public seating trash receptacle uh foot rinse and a bike rack um number nine um we added some language again with regards to Doom plantings uh just with this idea of of uh sense of urgency when it comes to getting uh those Dunes uh planted so if we have another storm the sand doesn't wash away um we're going to work with the town on this unfortunately we reached out um didn't really have enough time to to work out the details but maybe uh we could talk to Chad and when we start construction at the Inception of construction that's where the plantings might uh might go in so happy to work with with the town and Chad on this issue um um the landscape and the buffering we have provided an alternative alternative landscape betterment plan that is part of the application packet and it depicts exactly what our um Landscaping will be um when it comes to promoting the beach School we've added a sentence in there that as part of the employee onboarding and training process um all staff members will be provided uh some materials explaining that they're allowed to send their kids to the beach school and that as employees um on Fort Myers Beach they can also enroll them at the after school care program and you know even beyond that if anybody's listening you don't necessarily have to be a resident or work here if you're off filing through school choice you can to ask to send your kids to the school um with regards to the amenities the beachfront restaurant Tik bar um detail there saying that it's going to be open to the public and that there's going to be a dedicated Public Access entrance uh directly from delmare uh hurricane parking that was a uh an issue that came up as part of the public benefits discussion uh We've added that and again uh if if there's a herking coming in um that second level of uh parking garage can be used for residents to par there Patrick yeah um seems to me I'd asked that you talk to the town about possibly using that for Town Vehicles did that happen or no you to be honest with you it actually you know I kind of missed that one I forgot about that uh I think I think the idea is we're open to either or uh I don't think there's any concern about the town putting their vehicles there I think it's just a question of working out the priority of uh is is are the town Vehicles going to use most of the parking or is there going to be uh some some other parking left over I don't know how many how many spaces you have we can you recall how much on the second floor 60 bases plus or minus I think our our biggest thing is is our fast response to have you know four to six vehicles on on the island that we can get to quickly if we have to okay so not a problem okay we can do that thank you thank you so you'd be willing to add we'll just say six spots yeah dedic to town Vehicles you're okay with that adding that for the parking in case of um locals will be and you're going to have to be a registered local um locals will be and you're going to have to be a registered local uh similar to the program that Margarita Ville came up with and that you would obtain 20% on beverage uh beverages at the hotel restaurant or t okay with that one I got a just a quick question appreciate you considering that and putting it memorializing it in in your request there with another provider on the island that offers the same thing there was an issue or there has been an issue with the 33931 ZIP code versus on island residence what is going to be your wording I knew that was I'm just asking I me uh no 20% is the offer okay okay doesn't matter I always forget to use mine so I'm just asking okay so that's it on our part um we are here for questions and as always a rapid motion for approval is always appreciated thank you questions for Scott you got questions for Patrick no I I think this is even more detailed and you're you given us everything we asked for um and I appreciate the partners you know the working together and um you even added the six spots today because you remiss and I appreciate how you put these packets together and it's it's well done thank you clear thank you very very clear thank you than that was my comment there okay well don't run off we're not done yet M uh first of all appreciate the additional granular detail very helpful uh leave as early as next week probably we obviously have an important holay next week might be the week after they're going to start doing Preparatory interior um but they're ready to go and I think our our timeline should be by the end of q1 obviously there's approvals and we're doing it of course the the right way but by end of q1 we should have that building down and the site nice and neat um so I think that is hopefully welcome and good news and uh sorry it has taken this long but before you before you go to restrooms and I know this is just a tiny little thing I'm just curious because somebody asked me about it the other day and I can't remember exactly what the tile work looks like on the existing structure but there is some tile work on there that's kind of interesting and and kind of denotes the Neptune you know what I'm talking about artistically has a there's just is that going to be able to be save the logo specifically yeah you going to preserve that and put it in your new place or what are you thinking about or have you thought about it so we do intend to preserve there's there's limited uh I think you hit probably the extent of it Neptune I believe we still know where he is uh I don't think we have all his Parts but uh anything of of Interest like that we are going to we're going to do our best to retain and and use in the Redevelopment unfortunately there's not a lot left understand and then on the on the restroom you were going to make a comment yeah on on the restrooms so the uh uh uh public restroom use of restroom so um I think at this time there's really two commitments the commitment one is um and I think maybe the easiest one is a $30,000 commitment to the extent the town um has has the idea it wants to run with um will contribute $30,000 toward a a public restroom option the other one um is really to spend more time figuring out inside our building can we provide a public restroom um and if it's not a dedicated restroom how C how can we do that that certainly is to be a good neighbor and I I mean I want to be very very clear here we will be a very good neighbor we'll be the best neighbor we possibly can it's hard for me to hear publicly say hey yeah any anytime anybody comes up and needs to use a restroom we can accommodate them I just don't know that that would be in fact the case and we have lots of things operationally to work through to be able to more specifically say hey we have a plan plan and we have a resource for people at any time or when they may need to use the restroom um I I don't want to over complicate but I think the the spirit of is a fairly simple concept hey if somebody needs to use the restroom can they come to the to the you know to the Neptune and use it and partly I'd say if that happens come in and use it don't ask me um the other part of me says for me to publicly you know be a be able to commit to providing our our private property for for uses that often in a public restroom isn't as simple as using the restroom for its intended purposes if you get my drift um that's where my operating Partners our investors our lenders and lawyers and everybody could freak out so sorry for a long wayed answer my commitment in addition to at a minimum wanted to put the $30,000 out there there was not something we' contemplated before that was not something we thought of before we we absolutely want to do what we can I think in terms of um ironing out a more specific way to help use inside of our property to provide some assistance to the public in a pinch or or there's a need and somebody is aware that that they're welcome to come in um hopefully not habitually uh but but that's something I think absolutely in good faith we want to do together I just I I couldn't pull together by this time exactly a solution I I appreciate the litigation uh risk and and those issues uh and I guess basically all I'm asking you to do today is to just to express and I think you've done so that you you plan to be a good neighbor and ab and a welcoming neighbor 100% very good thank you you're welcome I got a little pause though because of something you said there you said you know your investors and lawyers and that all kind of cringe at at doing that I I appreciate you vice mayor saying that you know saying you're going to be a good neighbor is good enough I don't know that that goes far enough because we have received communication from residenc who also cringe at the fact that granting you over 100% increase in density will have a s year impact on their lives their daily lives so although I appreciate you saying you're going to be a good neighbor without really having a a strong commitment to what you're willing to do you the fact that your lawyers and your your investors are cringing so are our residents about potentially graning you over 100% increase in your density so if you can before the end of the hearing before we get to the vote if you could maybe give them a call and see if we could figure out something a little bit better than just being a good neighbor no offense vice mayor atle but you are asking you are you are asking for a significant ask and and I don't think it's too much to ask for something that the public feels is important to them so mayor I I think for starters I did commit to a $330,000 that is new in response to the request for a solution um that I don't know you're all's business that's that's our attempt to try to go above and beyond and honestly we're we're well in the whole financially 30,000 may not sound like a lot I'd like to think it can be to to figure out the solution don't know if there's if there's a bigger grander you know opportunity that the town may see that is either defined today or tomorrow so would due respect at a minimum that is a firm commitment toward specifically this matter the the other side of it and I understand your comment and I respect it um I don't know if cringe is the right word or not but we get the the hospitality business we get sued often for some things that will make absolutely no sense to anybody in this room we we have a Target on our back I'm not asking anybody to to either care about that or agree my reality is my reality and all I can tell you is unfortunately I I can't break to to make a phone call to an attorney or an operating partner or a lender to change somebody's opinion at this time I I would if I could um hopefully at this point our two years into the process what we've been able to do and the basket of goods um and what we're putting forward today for this project is something you're proud of that the community can and will be proud of for a long period of time that's our hope okay thank you okay any other questions for me of course just let me know thanks oh John did you have a question for nothing for right now thank you thanks if I may I I'd like to touch upon the uh bathroom issue because we got into a little more detail than expected um I've been here for a while and public bathrooms on Fort Mars Beach have been been discussed before I think you guys may have been around also for some of those discussions so we we had the TDC working with the town willing to pay for bathrooms and what did we say everybody that lived by by by a b ja says no way we do not want that okay so that's not a colle that's not a collective Wei though that's a those who live right next to the beach as this which I understand and then as as a town and the council at the time decided to not push it forward so we made a decision as a town that we'll put this on hold maybe we'll revisit it someday so when I look at the the bathroom issue again if it is a priority for us as a town and for us as residents I think we need to address it as a town I think the courtesy that we give a beach access resident we should somehow give a little courtesy to businesses also that are by the beach access and I think we need to look at the issue strategically we we have to look at where the best places are for these bathrooms and how we do it so I I would just you know that's my personal opinion as a resident I think that we need to look at the issue but wanting to impose it on anybody that comes forward because we have an an opportunity to ask for it maybe not the best way to do it maybe looking at it strategically and and deciding where those best places are and going back to the TDC and trying to get the money would be a good way to do it well but in all fairness you you you do have your voice as a resident but you don't speak for all the residents no and you're the one coming in and asking for something yeah and the commitment is $30,000 and people are asking for something back and I understand the financial difficulty that your applicant is dealing with you yourself me everyone sitting here everybody that's listening out there is dealing with the same hardship I don't think them asking for something or getting a commitment which you have said you will commit $330,000 to is to demean that to me doesn't make a lot of sense from where your standing but that was your choice um well let me corre put it off on the TDC the TDC is not coming in asking for an increase they're not asking for deviations so I I just don't feel comfortable with you demeaning a request that people have told us is important to them okay I I think I was stating a fact of what's happened historically on the island if you guys can tell me otherwise that it did not happen that way well I stand correct will agree to disagree any other questions for Patrick yes sir ad I just want to make sure very very clear we're also committing and I mean this okay mayor I know this is these are going to be words and not as simple as yes no but we we are absolutely committed pending approval here to try to find a solution that may mean a public restroom as part of our project honestly the the first time I've this has ever even entered my brain on this project was two weeks ago so it I want so we we're not just committing the 30 I mean it we'd like to make sure we can accommodate having a a public restroom as I think I mentioned to vice mayor actually we we'll have to rework our first floor plan as it currently stands I know that you might say well how how's that possible it it's it's just what we would have to do so I just want to be sure before we dismiss that we're only going to offer up the 30 I'm saying it's important to you and the town and the community therefore it's important to us so just want to clarify thank you yes all right public comment are there any members of the public that would did you want to Judith did you want to come back up yeah okay sorry goad okay you can do it after to um so um we have some staff has some recommendations if you are going to consider approval um I just spoke with the town attorney this document that they prepared we could include it with their Master concept plan um which goes along with the U ordinance as a way of memorializing their commitments here um this document they presented um we can make the addition of the six town reserved spots in case of um mandatory hurricane evacuation the discussion about the bathrooms is not included here so we want to think about how you want to memorialize that um staff's recommended um conditions are as follows uh local development order is required prior to any development of the site in accordance with the plan development approval all state and local permits including but not limited to right of way and storm water permits must be applied for and received prior to site devel velopment addresses 2310 and 2316 2320 estera Boulevard must be combined as a single parcel under one uh strap number Lee County must approve the permit for the second access to a stero Boulevard uh Landscaping on adjacent properties must be protected during construction or replaced at the expense of the owner chg Neptune Acquisitions LLC uh all signage and Landscaping must meet the vehicle visibility at intersection requirements found in section 34- 3131 uh a parking agreement and Perpetual parking easement must be established with the town for the proposed 16 public parking spots along delmare Avenue and street street improvements prior to commencement of the construction failure to comply with any of the above mentioned conditions of approval for special conditions of approval for the CPD will render the approval null en boid um so I said those conditions could be included with the actual ordinance and then the additional commitments and conditions would be included as an exhibit with the master concept plan okay could you for the bathroom part can you just put in what Adam had already just committed to the since that's not in there are you okay with that being added to what you committed to 30,000 okay to this do at least that would be in the document all right public comment are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter so please come forward to the podium and identify yourself provide your address and whether you were sworn in I only have one but it was for Bill V and I don't see him out there any longer no okay anyone else care to speak if not we will close public comment are there any additional comments rebuttal or closing statements from the applicant no I'll now close the public hearing and request a discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain discussion Council Stafford uh I move we pass ordinance 2436 DCI 20 23213 Neptune in um with the the conditions set forth and the proposed commitments and oh yeah and adding the six parking spots for the town 33 931 zip code discount and the bathrooms accessible to public on first floor 30 30,000 toward completion is that correct I think so I missed the bathroom part I was out of the room I think it was or I think it or or sorry or 30,000 or yeah yeah okay you okay with that um I'll second the motion okay motion by councelor Stafford seconded by councelor Woodson further discussion councelor King nothing I just I appreciate everything you guys did and I really wanted to get to a yes and I think everything you you've listened you've done everything people like it some people don't like it I just can't I can't get behind it simply for the density ass I just don't think to use your terms Patrick the basket to me just leans a little too far one way for me to get there um our number one issue is traffic and to me this density increases traffic so I I in good conscience I don't feel that I Can Vote for This simply for that reason any other discussion yeah I'll I'll comment on that as well Mr Mayor because I mentioned that at the previous for the previous case um I to am stunned by the uh the increase ask and density in this particular proposal but just speaking for me personally I was very pleased that the uh applicant in essence opened the books and gave us sort of the postan sort of economic reality of building and rebuilding on Fort Meers Beach and I even though I have the same concerns as the mayor I was convinced that there are unique this is not an entity that was this this this this applicant did not purchase this property uh as a as a sort of a strategic development project for Fort Myers Beach they bought it before the storm with no intention of of of building a new facility so I I think at least for me those are extenuating circumstances that that complicate this I think to the applicant's favor uh in my opinion and and I but I I share the mayor's concern broader but but this is this is why each project is different this is why each project is unique uh and and and it's why the postan world is is unique and bizarre and uh it doesn't always reflect consistency uh but at the same time you know we've got to move forward and so in that sense I I'll be I'll be supporting it but I I I do share the mayor's broader concern so if I could add um vice mayor so in my discussions with several of the residents over the other project time and time again they said we want to back the guys that invested Preen not the guys that are coming and and buying up Parcels or accumulating which we're going to see down the road they they most of the residents that I I spoke with are okay giving guys extra height giving guys extra density that had skin in the game before the storm and I I think that's the model that most citizens are okay with because they these smaller Lots in order to be financially viable they're going to need a little bit more height they're going to need a little bit more density they're going to need a little less parking and we need to show a commitment to the community that hey if you had a small lot or you had a small business the town's willing to work with you if you can come up with polls like this that's really granular and show the numbers I I think it was the point I was I was making is are you just agreeing is that yes yeah I'm with you y got you I'm agree I'm agreeing more because that age more I was I was surprised too I mean I thought it was I thought it was you know you keep hearing people say stick to the comp plan no no more height no more density no more intensity but when you when you start talking to him and you explain what the situation is and then you look at it as these guys we want these guys back yeah and we want them bigger better and nicer so I I think with the public benefit and you know the commitment from people that got banged around in the storm I mean I think we should work together with them I think this is a this is a classic blueprint for any other any other company or boutique hotel or any anyone else looking to rebuild this is how you do it in my opinion and I fully support it I guess I would caution you on that part I would not say that asking for more than 100% increase in density is the way to do every single project but I understand your point but I I'm I'm not a I'm not I'm don't take my no vote that I'm not happy for you moving forward I understand you were dealt a very bad card you were caught in a bad situation bad timing trust me when it comes to bad luck I'm the leader in bad luck I understand that it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck so I I'm I'm totally sympathetic to that uh I think you have done a great job I want I think the Neptune I think you guys are the great great people I met with you I don't have any issues of it it's it's the amount of the increased density that I have an issue with I think it's it's it's it's too much I'm not I'm not a prune that says you shouldn't have asked for anything I'm not I'm not that person but there is a point where I think too much asked for what is given there is a Tipping Point and for me that wasn't there in this case but I'm going to welcome you with open arms I'll be one of the first people there to to support you but I I can't support it simply for that case but I agree with everything you have said and I agree with everything that you have said this was just a little bit too far for me one way we got a any other discussion no that's fair we got a motion got a second any further discussion councelor Safford I councelor Woodson hi Vice May UL hi councelor King hi and amol congratulations four to one all right moving on to item C this is a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying a variance 20241 0 requesting variances from the Land Development Code table 34-3 of 7.3 feet from the street setback for a front setback of 17.7 feet a variance of three feet from the West Side setback for a side setback of 4' 6 in and for the mechanical equipment and a variance of 12.1% from the building's coverage for a building coverage of 52.1% to build a new single family structure in the RM zoning district for the property located at 51 Pearl Street Fort Meers Beach Florida and providing for an effective date if any Town council member has had any exart communication uh to disclose please us know the subject discussed the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that youve received or observations made of the site counc sa I had one Zoom call with the neighborhood group for about 30 minutes discussing the project okay and I've gotten handful of emails uh from the neighboring condo um against the project okay counc wson I have had the same communication presentation by The Neighborhood company and a few emails I've had the exact same thing that both of you just said same with me as well con k I will just add I think I got a pro U or one or two that were Pro this so otherwi otherwise everything was did okay Judith Frankl has been qualified as an expert by this time Town Council based on her education and experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use Planning Development in the Town Fort Myers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf of the applicant at this time yes come qualified uh Rachel Hansen uh with the neighborhood company I'm a certified planner um I have a master's degree in community and economic development and um I have worked in planning for eight years um four of those in Florida and four in Illinois and Iowa questions and I'm also an aicp certified planer kind of an important piece questions Scott no Karen I'm good Jim no tempted to ask where in Iowa but uh Davenport Iowa Illinois all right is there a motion to accept the uh Witness moved got motion by councelor Safford I second any further discussion counc Safford hi I'm I councelor Woodson hi Hi C King hi welcome expert thank you has the property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff they are nodding yes go ahead good afternoon again Judith Franco with Community Development uh the property owner in application is requesting um property owner together with the neighborhood company is requesting three variances for a proposed single family residents in the RM zoning District um the applicant is requesting a variance for the front setback um a variance from the side setback and a variance from the allowed building coverage uh the site is a beach front lot that is adjacent to Pearl Street as it is accessible via a driveway easement the property owner and their representatives are present um to disc their project and three variance requests um I have additional recommended um recommendations and considerations um conditions that I'll present after the applicant's presentation do you have any questions at this time John any questions for Judith I can wait till the well maybe I better get it in um sorry since I'm leaving at 3:30 um the staff report recommended denial was that before that was before this um resubmittal have you looked at it since or yes so we we recommended denial when it came for the LPA um we continue to recommend denial um similar to what we discussed with the previous application the code directs us to look at whether this variance is something that is necessary due to conditions existing at the site or whether it's a design Choice um and in this case it is a design Choice um based on the the desires of the the property owner um the code also directs us to look at what the potential impacts um on um the surrounding properties are as well um uh the variance from the side setback um is for air conditioning equipment they previously had a um a balcony there they've removed that from their PL so it's just the air conditioning equipment that's going into that side setback um we do not believe that there's kind of any um nuisance or detriment cause there because that side AB buts the Diamond Head parking lot um but the other two have the potential to provide um uh detriment to the surrounding properties thank you Jim I John just asked my question I just have a quick question for you have you received any communication from either the fire department and or Diamond Head in regards to the setback the variance requests on the side on the West Side we've received a number of public comments I don't believe any of them came from Diamond Head although they would have been notified as part of the the the postcard mailings that we do I have not received I was just curious if it's typical for variances we don't send those to um the fire department until they're approved and at that time they'll look at it and they'll have to look at it before um any kind of know developmental permitting would be um issued okay I'll ask Patrick I'm sure we brought it up in our meeting so nobody else has questions for Dre for okay night good afternoon for the record Patrick Bass with the neighborhood company um I'll just give you a quick intro before turn things over to Rachel Rachel is going to do a great job she's very capable of answering all your questions but just to to give you a little context Penny Porter is the owner of the property um Penny like many residents never had to deal with zoning issues but uh again with a storm like Ian a lot of people are having to deal with that she she applied for variance and she filled it out herself and and and again I think the way she approaches is variance allows me to request what I want and um when it went to the LPA I think I think the feeling was that uh some of the LPA members did not see an effort to modify the designed to try to minimize the variants being requested so after uh after that hearing Albert Ambrose who was in the audience suggested that uh Penny talked to us um and then subsequently penny has hired Austin Albert to work on her project Albert has made some design changes to the uh to the property to uh reduce that non non-conformity and to reduce the variance being requested when it comes to the front yard variants and then when it comes to um any kind of potential impacts to adjoining properties um I think once you see the graphics that Rachel's put together uh as to a view shed and view of the beach uh we're talking about um a very minor impact there and uh a property owner that is trying to rebuild and not asking for additional height uh and trying to build something that is reasonable on site um I will reiterate one thing um that staff has mentioned we do have the uh language when it comes to variance what the criteria is um and I'll keep Haring on this I did it as an LPA member uh if you look at the language those are not and statements so it's not like you have to meet one and you have to meet B and you have to meet C it those are or statements so this idea that a variance uh if you don't minimize the amount of the variance and you have other design choices that it should automatically be a no um professionally I I disagree with that that's not the way I read the language I think uh the there's a lot more flexibility to our code and I think that if someone is presenting a house that yes maybe they have a design choice where they could make it much smaller but what they are asking for is a reasonably sized home I think we have the leeway completely with this code to allow that so with that said I'll turn things over to Rachel and she'll walk you through through the detail thank you um again Rachel Hansen with the neighborhood company um we do have a presentation great thank you um the time's Rong on that thing got 9: [Laughter] a it on might have to turn it off and then back on again just to there a first time for everyone if not just politely say next slide please and they'll do it for you yeah uh yeah if if you don't mind moving to the next slide please Jason okay nope try now there we go great okay uh Patrick is already already been over that the property owner is pel B Porter um and we are the uh applicant and then um Studio ad is our architect uh next slide please so just for some context the parcel is um approximately .22 Acres uh the future land use map um designation is Boulevard uh the zoning is residential multif family um it is currently a vacant lot there was previously single family home that was built uh in approximately 1942 um and some of the surrounding uses include Diamond Head to the West um there is a single family home at 41 Pearl Street to the East and then the surf song Condominiums to the east of that uh next slide um and you can see here um the uh subject property is in blue um and this is just an aerial for context uh next slide um so this is showing the subject property prean in 2021 um you can see the single family home at 41 Pearl Street um and then the surf song Condominiums um beyond that uh and then just something to point out there is a um 12 foot access easement uh that is beyond just north of the property line um and then north of that access easement is the parking for the uh Condominiums uh next slide so this is postan obviously um nothing on the subject property um and next slide so the proposed Redevelopment is a new single family home it'll be two stories over parking and storage um the gross floor area is going to be roughly 2800 square feet uh it will be built to current resiliency standards and then like Patrick uh men mentioned we've reduced the setback encouragement um for the street setback and the lock coverage in response to some concerns heard at the LPA meeting what was this square footage of the was single family home or one single level home right that was there yeah it was approximately 15500 square feet okay previously uh next slide um so I will go through all these individually but just uh generally the the um variances that are being requested um one from the uh Street setback of 25 ft to uh reduce that front setback to 17.7 Ft um which would be the same setback as the original single family home that was on the properties prean um then the minimum side setback we're asking for a setback of 4 and A2 ft to accommodate the elevated air condition units and then an increase in lot coverage from 40% to 52.1% next slide and back just a quick second I was going to ask Patrick we had talked about this when we had our meeting our Zoom meeting you said you were going to reach out with these setbacks with the fire district to see if they had any issues I I think the suggestion you had two suggestions that we talked to our neighbors also single parly home um we weren't able to reach the person 41 but the one uh behind us which is or actually in front between the property and the stero Boulevard uh those people provided an email that you receed supporting the variants we did reach out to the uh fire district unfortunately there was no one that could get back to us in time uh to to address this in detail okay okay I've got a clicker that works now okay so uh like I said before uh and and Patrick's already addressed this that um Street setback we've uh increased from the original 12 foot setback request to 17.7 which is the same as the pre in home um the canal lever deck was removed from the west side of the property so it's just the elevated AC units that will be encroaching into the side set back and then the lock coverage was decreased from 54% to 52.1% um that was just a a result of the footprint decreasing slightly and is that loot coverage because it looks like there's a deck on the golf side does that lot coverage include that deck space yes it does yes yes okay um so I was just trying to calculate how in my head how that many square footage home actually covered more than 40% of the lock coverage but yeah and I and I do actually have a slide going through um the the lock coverage and what the square footage would be okay um so uh the um reasons for the request and and Patrick has already touched on this a little bit um obviously redeveloping the site as a result of hurricane damage um to be consistent with current regulations um and then um just a note too that prean um the home that existed there was built uh legally to the existing standards at the time um and as a result of the addition of the 1978 Coastal Construction Control line um and changes in development standards uh the variances are being requested so this is a um the proposed um site design and it's a little tough to see but um the dotted line to the north is the original 12T setback that was being requested the um red line is our new 17.7 foot setback and then you can see the um the uh air condition units um to the West um and you can also see in comparison to the existing three-story home uh at 41 Pearl Street and then this is just kind of an aerial uh visual to give you a better idea of what that setback actually looks like um so that is the prean setback and it's a little difficult to see but you can see where the original footprint of that um Cottage was uh and then in comparison to that 1978 Coastal con Construction Control line um and so um touching on lot coverage so as you're all I'm sure aware the LDC requires that lot coverage be calculated based on the portion of the property that's landward of that Coastal Construction Control line um so the proposed new house on that portion that's um landward of the cccl is uh 52.1% now if she were able to calculate lot coverage based on the entire lot it would only be 18.8% um and you can see just visually that uh the because of the angle of the cccl um she has a smaller buildable area than the neighbor um and we did want to touch on some of the concerns that were raised about the um uh the view corridor from the surf on Condominiums um so this is a view from 2021 so prean um looking from surf song and you can see that yellow area is essentially The View Corridor um that we're talking about um we've identified the original 51 Pearl Street uh 41 Pearl Street and then there's also a pre-existing home on 71 Pearl Street which is north of the parking lot for surf song uh and so you can see it's a fairly narrow View Corridor um this is in comparison so this is 2024 um obviously there's no home at 51 Pearl Street and also no home on 71 Pearl Street which has created a a wider View Corridor and this that blue area that's the approximation of the prean setback um so that's essentially what we're asking to put back um and that would be an approximate reduction in um The View corridor from surf song but it would be exactly what it was prior to the hurricane other than the fact that um she the the property owner is requesting um to build higher but she's actually not requesting um she's building per LDC standards um for comparison these are a couple uh similar Lin lots that are um bisected by the Coastal Construction Control line um the proposed uh home at 51 Pearl Street the gross living area will be like I said before approximately 2800 square F feet um and in comparison it's uh right around the same uh a little bit smaller than uh similar homes on similarly sized Lots um and I know uh Patrick touched on this as well so these are the guidelines for the variance decision um we feel that uh the request for these three variances has met these criteria especially given um The Irregular lot uh configuration as a result of the Coastal Construction Control line and the changing um development standards over time and this is just the rest of the those guidelines from the LDC um and in conclusion we think that this um request is uh consistent with the Land Development code um and the design of the home and the variances requested were reduced and altered in response to the concerns heard at the LPA and we respectfully request that the town approve the proposed variances uh and happy to answer any questions John any questions no BL mayor I do not have any don't you thank you thank you public comment uh we are there any members of the public who wish to com comment on this matter if so please come forward to the podium identify yourself provide your oh you're quick provide your address and whether you were sworn in uh yes I was sworn in in with the second group because I was not here this morning my name is Nick dundy I am a full-time resident Mall my wife and I are full-time residents of on uh I'm also their appointed Treasurer and registered agent I have a complaint that that was only supposed to be for temporary Le or Fort Meers Beach residence only because that's but that's a different issue thank you so I'm asking to for say a no to the variant thank you hello good afternoon I'm Tom Keith I live at 28 PE Street I am and surf song cond I'm On The Board there uh the problem I have is the sight line we've got 20 condos that go over that house I've got really good pictures that you want to see what was before ion and after iron that when she builds this house way back up 7 eight feet deeper and it's going to affect all of our views in these 20 units everybody's going to be affected not just a c stack D stack have any of you guys been by there and seeing where this property is I you have right the old house wasn't 1500 ft the old house is 960 sare ft that's Way shows and attacks and I got that information to if you want to see it you can give it to the clerk if you want so what really what we're to do is can you pass those around these pictures give give the clerk or whoever or Joe there pictures before as long as it ends up here the biggest thing is we got 21 condos that look over this house and now just's going to build this big massive 3,000 foot house a 9 or 60t Square fo house and then she wants to move the house back Clos to an easement that's a very small easement and basically is probably going to be a rental house anyway so where's everybody going to park when they gets to this rental house on our land we own parking lot there okay we ask question we we'll ask all right we noted your questions we'll we'll make sure they get anyone else public comment all right see them we close public comment Patrick um you want to address yes for the record papess um with regards to parking uh the property has never had parking issues sufficient space to park on the property it'll be an elevated home there will be parking underneath the home and some storage under the home so plenty of space for the parking um again with regards to height and rebuilding we're not asking for any varant with regards to height uh this property is allowed to go two stories above parking uh that's what they're asking to do and if you saw the exhibit where we showed that little sliver in blue that's really what we're talking about that's the issue that's what's at play is because of the variance that tiny little blue sliver and if we can put the the PowerPoint back up if you don't mind we got it's working out yeah that's that sliver is really the difference between the request that set back and no no variance what's the overall height of this house going to be uh maximum height is uh 30 feet um and again we we start at BF BF over there will probably be anywhere 17 to 19 feet plus that that allowed allowance of 30 ft okay so P close to 50 total well I don't think that I don't think they'll maximize they're only do two stories standard stories are about 10 feet for uh today's homes and there's going to be a roof line so maybe you some extra feet there yeah okay so good luck John John ccor King's got to leave for a an appointment and then off to meima good for you grass skirts and rum drinks yeah Patrick can this this this blue line yeah it uh I think we heard in public comment that it affects did I did I hear 20 some condos the view 21 21 it impacts the view of 21 so just just can you address their concern I mean is that is that view impacted because of the height the they have by right or is it is it is it impacted by the variance that your your your client is asking for so what what we're showing here in blue is should uh Penny build back at the exact setback line we would be on the um golf side of that blue line okay by her building back exactly where she was not asking for more and just just to correct what the person said here is it's not 7 and2 ft it's a setback of 17.7 ft and that's where the house previously was we're putting it back exactly where it was however the it was an old beach cottage you know it was lower they could see over it but the thing is anybody that's going to build there is going to build the additional height the property at 41 Pearl Street has three stories whoever built a 71 Pearl Street is also going to maximize their footprint so while I can appreciate that people have greater views post the in with that line on the way I can see the golf for my property awesome but I know one day that'll be gone let me ask my question a different way because I i' I've slept since the uh since you gave us your presentation so is it is the variance that your client is asking for that's on the part of the property that's facing the gulf correct in other words is the variance impacting their view their view line or is it the height that that your client is entitled to by right impacting their View Corridor or their view line the biggest impact is really from the height as far as I can tell because from what I understand they lived since the 40s they lived with that existing building that was encroaching the setback line so the only difference would be we now have a taller building so it's really the height that's creating the bigest the height that your client has the ability to go up to by right is what's impacting so it's not the variance that your your client is proposing that's impacting their their sight line well if they if they if my client were to build at the required setback line there'd be a a bit less of an impact but above all it's really the height that's impacting them please sir yeah and and that's it I think we've depicted accurately what's in question is really that blue area that's really what's in question and where the front of the house will be will be where the red arrow is that this to in Pearl Street on the left side as we're looking at at the left side of the the blue line at there yeah and and look I I I I can empathize with their comments but one of the reasons I I decided to to help penny is is also that we had neighbors that came to object a single family home and last hearing people were saying that it was going to cause a drainage problem for Serv on again no merit to that comment whatsoever um and and especially when surong was built at a time where there were no drainage requirements and they've got a building that is far bigger than a single family home there was also comments about how it would impact their parking lot and again there's an easement there it's always worked very well there's going to be parking underneath the building so I I you know I I felt compelled to have to help penny because I I I think again when I look at it what's in question is really that little blue sliver what's the size of the deck on the golf side I didn't see the measurements size of the deck uh varies so so if we go back to the exhibit yeah so these are the floor plans so one of the ways um to kind of ma maximize uh her Outdoor Living is the third story is actually uh a bigger footprint from a square footage and can of levers over the deck that allowed for more deck space and really getting that enjoyment of that Gulf View I so I see that on the right but on the left you can't I see I was just curious I didn't notice that there was livable space on the level over the top of that deck yeah yeah the third the third level can of lever is over the deck okay so if we if we look at this the outline in red and the dotted line is where the structure is and shows the third level of living space and that footprint for the subject property is actually a smaller building than next door at 41 Pearl streets difference is 41 Pearl Street has a bigger lot it again we have an angled Coastal Construction line and leaves penny with uh much smaller lot than chian owns when it comes to development I'm sorry Patrick it's it's been a long day brain's not functioning so the back of the property that that the red line at the back that that aligns with a stero Boulevard that's not changing or it is changing so so what you're seeing here sterile Boulevard is further off right what we're seeing is the area in yellow right is the subject property and that's the development footprint of the subject property her property actually extends onto the beach right should she be allowed to build on the entire property there wouldn't be a need for variance there'd be plenty of space there as we mentioned she'd only be covering 18% of the lot so so what I'd like to remind people is if not for changing rules we would not need to ask for a variance this line right here yeah that was where the existing Cottage was pre and that's what we're asking to be at the same setback as the cottage pre but that line right there you see you're not asking that's the line that would potentially impact their sight line if you go higher by right is that correct yes so what's the variance line where is the variance that's impacting their sight line that's it the line you just said but you just said that's the same line as where the previous house was the variance that they're requesting is s feet less so from that black dotted line up there and I'm not just trying to help explain it black dotted line it's got normally it's got to be 25 feet from that line and we're asking for seven less than that so the red line 17. moving to the dotted line it's moving to the dotted line by seven feet no no no no no no no no no the the black dotted the very top the black dotted line when Penny came in initially at the LPA she was asking for a 12T setback that's what rep is represented by that black dotted line I'm talking about we worked with yeah we worked with Penny and we said penny know let's put it back to where you were so there is no change from prein conditions the change as you mentioned is not the setback that exist at pren it's the height of the building and she's building according to what she's allowed by right I'm starting to follow so so the front where the porch is that's where you're asking for the actual variance then the the the deck is on the rear of the property towards the beach right and that's where you're asking for the variance no it's it's a variance from the right of white where that that easement that's identified in Gray yeah I guess this area right here so yeah so this line the line that with that has the red over it and the on the in the back of the property or on the other on the on the on the side not facing the beach that's not changing from what was there before correct so if that goes Higher by right mhm the variance that that or or not the variance but the but but that particular aspect of what you're asking for does that's what's impacting the Seline but you could your client can do that by right correct the our client by right could go back to the 20 could go to a 25 foot setback by going three stories they would impede their view but is the because right now they're they but is the thir story is the third story what you're asking the variance for how is how is the variance impacting their sight line that's what I'm trying to understand because what they're saying is by being at a 17.7 foot setback rather than a 25 foot setback that building will be in their way slightly so what do you if just assume this was one story that you see up there it it's in the same spot that the old building was right whether it's new or not because they're go what I think Patrick's trying to say is when you go to the second story that is so yes technically the variance is being asked for for the seven feet so that's closer to this dotted line that's what they're asking for what it is the same spot where the old building was but the fact that they're going to the Second Story there's not a variance request to go to the Second Story do that by in the same spot as the old building what do you need to variance for to from because it's being built back it's now so you have to ask for it to go back on the same spot you have to so when you use the word back it's returning returning it to the same spot that it was is requiring them to ask for the seven foot thanks for the help we we've heard your public comments yes let's let me just ask ask ask this question is it moving closer to Diamond Head with respect to because of the encroach of the AC that our but you're but you're meet you're meeting the seven the 7 foot6 if it wasn't for the air conditioners that would meet we meet you meet the requirement so because on the left hand side here the reason that they need the variant for the west side which is the Diamond Head side is because they're putting the air conditioners over there but if those weren't there the building could be built there by right so so so Jim maybe the to try to wrap this up a little bit when this house was built in the 1940s it melt it met the current setback requirements at that time through the years we increased the RightWay set back to 25 ft so what we had is we had a non-conforming house at 17.7 FT if it wasn't for the storm that house would still be there but now we've had a storm that person has to rebuild and they're trying to rebuild a reasonably sized home and trying to use that same setback that existed previously so Judith don't want to put you on the spot but given the fact that you've heard all this this morning are you changing your sta staff's position or you still think it's an optional Choice by the applicant so we're we're Guided by the criteria in the the code and then you can determine whether you feel like that's the the correct uh reading or or not um um we create our recommendations based on the code prior to any kind of public y I guess what I'm trying to get you is is is is what they're asking for today necessary to rebuild and and if and if you don't believe so and it's what they're asking for the variance for is that is it your opinion that that's that's potentially what's obstructing the sight line I'm I'm I'm going I'm belaboring this on well the the the sideline is is one issue and I have not been in Surf song um so I I can't necessarily speak to that what's happening though with the front setback where the setback of a new house is required to be 25 ft that would take the house in line with the the neighboring property so presumably the house that's there obstructs sight lines in some way from the the condominium next door right it it's there that structure is three stories and if it wasn't there they would have more of a clear view so there already exists an an obstruction um if the the house was built to that 25 foot setback it would be in line with the existing house um because of you know the the angle it may still obstruct people's view as the applicant said they have um you know by right to go up higher um they you know that's that's not in in question here but having it stick out further towards the the right of way in front of the property May potentially provide you know um more of a obstruction for review um it's about the variance is for 7.3 fet is what we're talking about difference so they um are willing to provide 17 .7 foot setback and then it would be another 7.3 to get to the the required 25 um I don't think that the the air conditioning equipment that's on the the side of the property for that setback is going to impact anybody's view on on surf song because it would be behind that the house Al together um the the third variance is for the the lock coverage and um both the the front set back and the lock coverage together that impacts the the size of the house that they can build so they can build If This Were to be approved they could build a a larger house then would be allowed by right um that's helpful thank and is it safe to say Sarah if it wasn't for the restrictions of not being able to build seword of the 1978 cccl there would be no need to request for a variance from the 25 foot front setback well the the the property as a whole is is quite large but then when you you know you have that cut off of the cccl it becomes a much smaller property and so and we take that building coverage from the buildable because you essentially can't build anything you know right well that's my point so if they could build past that that would eliminate the require the deviation variance from the loot coverage as well as the front setback because they could move that structure closer to the water if it wasn't for that cccl line yes I mean I can't tell you what like they would want in in that situation but they could build would there be the the possibility of building a much larger house if they had that whole area as buildable I yeah that's true okay Jim any other questions no thank you you sure y I think so all right thank yeah go ahead I do have some suggested conditions if we're at that PT well let's make sure Patrick's finished with two quick things to point out um um in in having to rebuild today we're in a vzone we're going to be starting our height anywhere from 17 to 19 ft and then even if we were to go one story rather than two that's allowed by right we would still impede The View versus what it was before because what it was before was a crawl space was about three feet high from from the sand and it was an old Cottage so no matter what we're talking about a taller building the other thing also is when you look at the buildable footprint um the minimum size for for uh the zoning district is 7500 F feet that's what the code says the buildable footprint that we have for this property is half that size so I think think when we start putting that together it's there are exceptional circumstances there are very valid reason why variance is needed Jud okay if the Town Council recommends approval for the variances um which you could do wholly or individually as you choose um Town staff recommends the following conditions for approval uh approval of these variances does not give the applicant an undeniable right to permit approval development of the property must comply with all applicable requirements of the fort Meers Beach Comprehensive plan and Land Development code in effect at the time of permit approval um except as specifically modified here uh the property owner must ensure that they adhere to the neighborhood flooding ordinance for drainage and 67% maximum impervious requirement uh the variances shall only apply to the single family home as shown on the provided site plan demolition or substantial damage to the residential structure shall render the variances null and void no portions of the structure shall extend past the 1978 Lee County cccl that's what I have okay any other questions for Judith before she back down no okay thank you can I comment or we we already had public comment sir uh I will now close a public hearing request a discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approve with conditions deny with reasons or a Contin to a Time certain Jim any discussion I'm I'm I'm going to listen to my colleagues here all right councilor Woodson so can we just go back to that that one slide that shows the view corridor or the the obstructed view yellow line the yellow yeah okay so that this is so this is what it would be new if it's built this is the view correct yeah and if the building were set back at the 25 foot line the only thing that would be gain would be that little blue portion okay so where I'm getting confused though is that 7 and 1/2t variance isn't that on the opposite side isn't that on the Diamond Head side no side that's a side set back that's a side set back okay okay so I think what's what's confusing too is your blue line there that's technically should be yellow because you're where you're proposing the house is where that the left side of that blue line is so that blue line is still part of the view corridor but you're were just using that to show the setback that you're no that's going to be the you're not going to be able where the blue line is the Blue Line represents the obstruction that's going to be the it's not what you said earlier so you're going to build to the right side of that blue line they're going to lose the blue that that got it okay I was backwards from earlier no sir sir you've already had your public comment not the truth continue okay thank you just just here to answer questions thank you Scott no I get it yeah I I was backwards when I asked you earlier I asked about the red arrow you said yes I probably didn't ask the only thing is it's going to be higher so the lower the the lower level condos see better no no the the condos I got a I have one question will it be as high as 41 Pearl Street it'll be a similar height similar height yeah okay so so some of the the higher level condos you can probably see over and uh obviously if there's no home there there's no obstruction but no matter what when the H when a house goes there there will be some obstruction it's just a given variance or no variance and same thing with 71 Pearl Street don't forget what they now consider a view shed for them looking towards Diamond Head that's going to be rebuilt and they own they own they own that se SE that's in the yellow correct I was just going to ask you to bring that one yeah so what we see here 71 Pearl streak that's pre in conditions you can see the home that was there and the owners were planning on rebuilding that that was probably a better picture for you yeah I mean I I it's easy to trivialize that sight line but if that's your condo and you're you're you're you're losing your your only view of the ocean at an angle as a result of the variance and that's what I'm trying to determine that that that's what gives that's what gives me pause but just to put things in context okay I'm at 71 Pearl Street or I'm at 51 Pearl Street and I want to look the other way and I'd love to have a view of the beach the other way but there's a building called surf song in my way I can't see it do I blame them for obstructing my view of the beach no that's the way it is they have the right to build it it was it was built at a time where the rules were different and it was a legal building and what we're saying is we're trying to rebuild a house that is going to be a reasonably sized home and we gave you a list of a bunch of homes along the beach that are much bigger than this one and we have changed the rules on this homeowner Through The Years government has done that and now this person is trying to come back in and should they have to follow the rules instead of building a home home at a reasonable size for a beach home they would probably have to build a home much smaller that's really what it comes down to and what we're talking about is other property owners so you know same thing with diamond head okay they decide to put a parking lot there should they decide to one day redevelop the property and put a building there and it meets the setbacks and it meets the height requirements is it their resp responsibility to provide another property owner of youed they've got their property rights yeah I guess I guess where I get lost is is I'm not sure why you're in for a variance if they've got their property rights and they could do this by right but I'm I'm I'm beginning to follow but yeah and have you increased or decreased the ask since the LPA was at 12 so you you've taken five feet off of what would have been a smaller Yellow Box in this case and that's been since the LPA discussion yes okay any other questions no okay all right is there a motion well I will make a motion to approve resolution 24- 288 v202 41 00 at 51 Pearl Street with the recommendations laid out by staff um in conjunction with the changes that have been made since the LPA heard the application I'll second got a motion and a second any further discussion I'm an i counc councel Safford hi counc Woodson I and vice May Bill and councelor King is absent m carries 3 to one all right next is our administrative agenda the First on docket is interlocal agreement between the town and Lee County property appraiser this is approval of an interlocal agreement between the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida and Lee County Property Appraiser for the collection of non-ad valum Assessments related to demolition cost of unsafe buildings I believe this is the last step of setting up a framework for the town to recover any funds that that the town spends in demoing any unsafe buildings um as you recall um we had a very similar um agreement that we asked for your approval of which you did with the tax collector and these are both uh both of these Agreements are required by Florida Statutes in order to put that expense on the individual's tax bill and it would be for the tax bill of 2025 okay questions for Nancy Scott uh not at this time counc Woodson no Vice M no my question is more for staff do we have anyone that's in the pipeline for this yet where we've had to line up a contractor to do the work that they have not come into compliance with as I believe from our phone call on Friday that we have at least three properties all lined up we're waiting for the contractors that go after we contact them that we have properties ready they have to go and do their EV valuation they in turn send us what their thoughts are and their pricing or whatever to take down those structures and then we we go we select that contractor then so to answer your question yes within the next 30 days yes and can we disclose or is a public record of who those three properties are now at this point um we can but I don't have them I don't have that information available if somebody wanted to request it as a public I mean we've had issues where we public record but I should say Mr Mayor and Council that so far um almost uh every household we' put on the list with the exception of one have come into compliance in other words they sought out once we red tag the property uh to go out and seek their own demolition company and demolish their houses or structures on their own poition so so far it hasn't cost the town anything because people are just doing it in accordance and of the three properties that you're talking about are any of them commercial or they all residential I believe one is commercial two are residential in because it's obviously a point of contention on the island what did where are we with the the old holiday in with the wind the Windom U we had a meeting Town staff and man had a meeting with the representative of the the owners of that uh we gave them an edict to come in and get a demo permit on their own because they hadn't had one till that point uh they came in I believe they they had chosen watg go construction as their demo they do have a permit for demolition uh on the record and I believe they went with Watco construction to demo that property and is there a timeline on that permit when it expires there isn't but according to our town off uh building official that uh hey you know we we kind of not taking you off the clock when all that process was going through for them to find a a contractor because it was such a large property um but that clock is still ticking so uh basically again another 30 days and uh that's it and we got a quote for that building as well EXC right if they don't act the town will so you're saying within 30 days if they don't act because they now have a demolition permit that the town will act on the town will act and get our representatives to come in there give us the price on that structure and take it down got the price on that one that one $600,000 we do have a price on that one okay so we can do that within 30 days if they haven't taken action they meaning the Windom we can go in and take action yes yes we can do that and um then the bill would then at some point go to Joe who then sends the um the tax information to the property appraiser and then to the tax collector and then it would be on their bill for 2025 okay we'd have to pay initially though we to pay the money up front that's why um you know the efforts of staff to really encourage these individuals to do it ahead it puts us in a better position yeah I mean we've had over since we've talked about this since March um we've had almost 99.9% compliance uh with once you've red Tagg those properties and they understand what's about to happen to them and since we initiated the uh the part with the tax collector and going on your your property taxes this has really got the ball rolling especially with some of the cont people we could not contact or would not respond to us um like a retail commercial owner in the downtown area uh lo and behold they had actually contacted one of our contractors and they took down the building themselves okay this is just the final step to correct okay any other questions for Nancy or staff is there a motion to approve the interlocal agreement with uh the town and Lee County property of appraiser ass so moved second motion by councelor Woodson second by councelor Safford we look Alik that's okay words are kind of mumbling together any further discussion um C Stafford all no counc Woodson sorry Hi I said we look Alik hi hi I'm an i as well and councelor King is absent motion carries forward forward enough next is Item B resolution 24- 296 revocation of temporary use permits this is a resolution of the town of Fort Meers town of Fort Meers Beach Florida adopting resolution a resolution to revoke and resend emergency temporary replacement permits as approved and authorized in section two of ordinance 24-4 of the town of Fort Meers Beach which clarified ordinance 23-05 related to Temporary replacement permits and furtherance and insatisfaction of Direction in the letter dated November 21st 2024 from the Federal Emergency Management agency FEMA mandating removal of non-compliance structures that were incorrectly permited in the special flood Hazard area in order to comply with the minimum flood plane standards and the requirements of the national flood insurance program and providing for an effective date okay so your ordinance that you had adopted regarding temporary placement permits it does have a provision in it that um authorizes you to revoke them as needed um the town has received the correspondence from uh FEMA regarding um non-compliance structures um the town has initiated um some code enforcement actions regarding these and we find ourselves where we have some pending permits or issued permits and a um um a hearing scheduled for code violation so this action would basically resend and revoke those permits um I know there's a lot of concern in the community if you have not received a notice of violation this particular resolution does not apply to you um it applies to um the definition of a structure for flood plane management purposes any walled and roofed building manufactured home or travel trailer without wheels um and a manufactured home is a structure transportable in one or more sections which is built on a permanent chassis and is designed for use with or without a permanent foundation when attached to the required utilities uh manufactured home does not include recreational vehicles so um I do not believe that your residents who are living in um travel trailers Campers at this time they are not impacted by this no we did a inventory of the permits that were issued for what we believe are these non-compliance structures um and we found there's only about 13 of them so we will be taking those individuals to uh a code enforcement hearing before the special magistrate our first code enforcement hearing is scheduled for January the 7th so will all you said there's 13 of them I I believe so all 13 of them be I don't think so not on all not all 13 on the seventh but it'll be the subsequent hearing do we know how many will be in the we think it's going to be I don't know five seven nine something like that he's he's coming up he's coming I for I forgot sign language me either I didn't know what he was doing yeah whe that was to you doing the chicken dance back Thomas yazo for Myers op compliance manager uh the goal is to get it done in the next couple months and that's what we're working towards those 13 that are left are of an original 53 the rest have come into compliance by removing those non-compliance structures from the island and so how many do you suspect will be on the January 7th you said docet yes we're still working on uh the packets for that I know um C has done their part I have to put some uh finishing touches on them we hope to have those issued by Friday uh which allows the adequate notice period before the magistrate meeting so I I think it's like seven I think we're at seven right now yeah because we had something else come into compliance as well yeah seven that will be on the January January docket for DOA right DOA yes yes yeah I just want to make sure it's not it's not our magistrates DOA it is do correct do and if anyone's interested you can access whenever we file them which we hope to file by Friday um you can access them off of doa's website and get the whole packet okay so I have a question so these 13 affected are they is this all on the sand beach side or is there ones that are affected across the other side of a sterile if they're if they're on Wheels and they can be moved they shouldn't be affected correct yeah so that's that's a hard question in one respect but yes it's both sides of a stero plus going towards the bay as well so if they're on wheels that doesn't that doesn't preclude them from being part of this if it's a park model style uh structure that needs to have a tractor trailer take it out of here and it's not ready and worthy to be on the highway then it doesn't then it's not something that can be allowed to stay it has to be something that they can move out of here with to the back of lack of uh better description duty truck that's Road Worthy on short order in short order public information for these 13 properties yes do you have the list of these 13 properties can we just get them can we just can we just get them get them out there so people know yep sure sure and maybe they're you know they'll have time to come into compliance before they get put on the docket which would save everyone they've already received a notice of violation well it help us too because we're going to get phone calls hey am I am I going to get kicked out kicked out so if we have have that list it'll help us respond to the public absolutely I can get that in a more efficient manner just give me a little bit of time to get that squared away we do have that I just want to make sure we have it send it to me yes I'll send it to I'll send it to them and she can send it out okay that's all anything else for Tom no the question I have then is revolving I know we're still going through waiting to get answers back on specific things that um obviously had been talked about with with FEMA how does that work in relation to our codee that we changed after for the residential trailers I guess how long are people in the residential trailers going to be allowed to stay there that's an open question um looking for guidance from from FEMA at this point we don't think that they're in um in violation with our flood plane uh code um so we have not issued any uh notice of violation to them this appears to be more of a commercial type structures so if we if we get correspondence from FEMA that then we will have to this is in their CR then we'll have to come back in yes you've asked that specific question yes I know but if you have as you know just make sure if you haven't received a notice of violation this resolution is not impacting you now okay that's a clarification I was hoping that and I'm glad you said at the beginning so in case people haven't heard that unless you have received a violation as of today is that correct yes then this resolution does not apply to you corre that Fair think that will help alleviate a lot of the phone calls emails text and feas told us since the beginning if they can hook up to a pickup truck and drive away it doesn't and should and should we get correspondents from FEMA in writing saying that this does not go far enough we will make adjustments then address it at that point yes and we'll bring it back to you and and advise you keep you informed if anything changes but we won't make any adjustments until we come back to you yeah if we have to I just had a question your your statement just just for clarification you said I think so if if you've not received a notice as of today you're okay if you have not received a violation a violation notice what you're going to be receiving pursuant to this resolution is a formal notice that you the permit that you were initially given has been revoked and rescinded but if you're out there and you've not received an noov or notice of violation at this point at this time you are okay okay that's helpful thank you um and when for a comment um our special magistrate from DOA will be appearing um via Zoom however the parties will be present here in Chambers um and this will be visible to the public it'll be it will be visible um I well I think so yes um yes yes um however there will be no public comment taken during the uh the hearing itself but it will be streamed I believe so yes that's the plan yeah and again that's January January 7th at what time 9 o' 9 o' okay and then when do you suspect that we'll have a decision no no no the second the second um um he has uh allocated the first Tuesday I believe of every month he's kind of First Tuesday of February we would be able to have that would give us the time to get the remaining six seven whatever it is yes and then since you brought it up decision that's on DOA as to how long the decision takes for them to yeah I do not know um I I do know that um in other jurisdictions often times the the local government will provide a draft order um and we'll do that as well to hopefully expedite um I do know that the one that we have filed already um they have an attorney and so that one will be a little interesting and I don't know if it's talk about what the strategy or not the strategy what is going to be the request from the town in regards to these seven properties that are going to go is it going to be immediate removal I mean what you how last for immediate re removal yes um one of the issues um I mean as a magistrate they have the opportunity or the authority to um give some time for compliance and I don't know if this Magistrate's going to go down that road um we'll just have to see but our number one request is removal is there an appell IT process if they don't like the judges or magistrates decision they can there is yes it it's basically the same as our regular magistrate um process that we have it would go to Circuit Court and it would be based on the record that's established at the hearing now would there be a cost associated with Ju Just the defendant or would the town there typically a administ fee that comes into play of $250 the magistrate can order a compliance date and say that yes you are in violation you have 10 days to come into compliance and if you don't then there'll be a fine for each day that you stay out of compliance and then we go basically into our uh standard code enforcement procedure how much will the town be involved in that after the DOA decision it is our code enforcement Pro process so yes we will be involved what about at the pellet level are you going to rep we do represent the town um in the event there is an appeal if you want to comment with any judicial with any judicial process we have to be involved because we are the complainant through this the respondent is the other side so we would give testimony the judge will hear our testimony we'll hear the respondents testimony they'll give a decision if they decide to appeal it it goes to Circuit Court and then we would have to then present our case again within Circuit Court under the opice that we're using the same evidence from the original trial are we still in violation no all our conic is were removed our shipping containers pardon stress that there's one left but they're picking it up so we have coming compliance um as far as the shipping containers go um one other the thing should be made aware of and we need to really get that out in the public is this is not a the revocation of the permit is a town function the act itself is nothing on the town this was given to us as part of the national flood insurance this is a a federal guideline that the town has to follow every Community has to follow this the only Avenue we have is by going through the code process in our town we we can't forcibly hook these people up to our trucks and haul them out of here um so We are following the process set forth throughout most communities dealing with the same thing I got well hopefully this gave some relief to some of our residents that were concerned about living in their Campers or operating there they food trucks they're not food trucks food trailers trailers trailers trucks again if it can be driv driven yeah that's the whole thing I mean there if it can be driven off on a night nightly basis or that's not an issue it's it's it's the ones uh that can't be so readly taken down okay I'm still a little confused to be honest with you because go ahead the building we're sitting in yes sir does not comply with what you just said no but we are not in that area of concern we're not in by raising our by raising our pad up that we made these trailers available we coming in we looked at what the flood plane was where we sat what we needed to be compliant we also did an anchoring system that exceeds FEMA requirements by tenfold uh the trailers were designed to withstand and certified to withstand uh certain weather conditions so that also already submitted along with our insurance statements makes this a somewhat non aable floating away into somebody else's structure and Carl agrees with you Jackie Bill agrees Jackie Bill agrees yes I've got it writing got reading from Jackie okay that's all I needed to hear that would have been easier to get that got okay that's that's all I needed to hear okay I've got it from Jackie okay sorry um so I'm looking for uh approval of the resolution um once you take that action I will be working with the town manager to get out uh the formal notice to um these individuals um advising them of the appeal process of his action um to revoke the uh permit and also a contact information for anyone they want to call uh if they have question it'll be will include a copy of this resolution and FEMA's letter and uh if we have not already initiated code enforcement action um we would do so but we we think we have gotten everybody in that list okay and we're going to at some point Andy at some point Andy we're going to do some kind of a release to lay the fears of folks who might have felt that they've been impacted those who didn't hear this yes will follow up and just just for clarification that for those that do not know who Jackie Bell is can you let them know who Jackie Bell is she's like the the state director of FEMA that has been working closely with the town prior to even me coming here so okay all right is there a motion to approve resolution or deny resolution 24- 296 for the revocation of temporary use permits I I'll make the motion is there a second I'll second I got a motion by mayor Aller seconded by vice mayor ader halt any further discussion I'm an i vice mayor I counc Woodson I and counc seff I motion carries four to nothing with councelor k being excused next is resolution 24284 authorizing budget am adjustment number three and revenue replacement Grant this is a resolution of the town of Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Lee County Florida approving Grant agreement number d225 with the state of Florida Department of Emergency Management in the amount of 7,547 185 for Revenue replacement approving a related budget adjustment number three authorizing the town manager to sign any and all necessary documents to acquire the Grant and providing for an effective date Joe okay um good afternoon Joe anzik Finance director um as you probably all remember um the town was actively involved in lobbying for Revenue replacement from the state of Florida and it was approved by the state legislature in that amount of 7.5 million basically um it was signed into law um at the beginning of the state fiscal year and we finally got the actual agreement from the Florida Department of Emergency Management um it's a very simple agreement there are no strings attached there's nothing um unusual about it so um it's just we just simply requires a town manager signature um and so we that's why we're bringing it before you but along with that um I wanted to just present to you um the recommended um way that we use this um funding um according to the terms of the bridge loan we really are supposed to allocate any additional revenues to paying off that bridge loan before we can use it for anything else and so um what I tried to provide to you and in hindsight I don't know if it's as clear as I would have liked to have had it presented but basically what I wanted to um first of all explain is that um to date we've used about $8.4 million of the bridge loan that was about 3.1 million to cover uh lost Revenue in fiscal year 2023 um it's was but estimated amount of $2.4 million in fiscal year 2024 and that amount we're getting close to finalizing what that actually was for 2024 but it's very close to that and then what we had budget or expected to lose in your FY 25 and that's almost 2.9 Million so as you can see that that um that 2.4 million is is less than what we're um of lost Revenue compared to what we were projecting the following year which is kind of an indication that it's really coming down and not going up so I don't expect even though we budgeted a $2.9 million loss for this year I don't think it'll actually um play out to be that much but um um because that's all we have to work with right now um we I'm just saying that we have $8.4 million of planned use of the bridge loan we have $7.5 million of lost Revenue replacement Grant so if we were to move that $7.5 million into um well first of all we put it into a brand new fund that we would create and just so that it can be kept trative separately but almost immediately we would move out move it into the bridge Loan Fund to replace what we already have used or planning to use for this year that would leave um about $127,000 left to repay and the reason why it's that much less than what you might expect by subtracting the 7 and A5 million from the 8.4 that we actually used is because we've earned quite a bit of interest on those funds as we've held them um on reserve and and only using them when we needed to use them so we only will be left after we move the 7 and half million into the bridge Loan Fund with about 127,000 left to repay and I think um within a couple of months we should earn that much in interest so basically within just a few months time we'll have enough money set aside to completely repay the British loan we don't have to actually repay it to um year 203 33 and so we would continue to earn interest on those funds and at some point if we were to um be granted um forgiveness of that loan then that would money would become available for us to use for anything else Town Council decides to use it for and also then um the advantage of um having the money in the bank to have that um ready to be um ready to go to pay it back that basically releas us of all those restrictions that the bridal now has on us in terms of any other additional Revenue any other additional savings we could then use that for Capital Improvements like we used to do before we had that bridge loan so it's it's really um a good thing to have this um and I think it'll it'll free us from those restrictions so this um this resolution besides approving um the grant agreement it also um creates that um new fund for the revenue replacement fund and then it also has the budget adjustment that allows us to move These funds into the bridge loan to repay it so Joe just to kind of summarize that was you did a great job trying to summarize it for those are May paying attention at home so originally we got 11.9 million loan yes immediately after Ian through State Appropriations then next year 2024 we received this7 a half million dollar in grant funding and that's going to be used to pay back the expenditures that we have used out of that 11.9 originally yes and with the shortfall with the interest says about $127,000 over three fiscal years yes but you don't expect us to expend the 2.9 Million that's budgeted this year for Revenue loss well that's included it is but but and I don't expect that we would actually need that much but that's part of the plan so remind me what the contract says for that bridge loan what what happens with the interest from that loan there is no um stipulations about the interest so we don't we have other agreements with the state where we have to repay any or pay to them any interest earned but there is no such stipulation with the bridge loan what kind of interest does 11.9 interest 11.9 million earn it's been oh in the the last couple years it's been close to 5% so it's been significant Joe I've I've got a question I think it's a typo I just want to make absolutely sure could be um on page 487 I think you've got two numbers zip backwards it has your actual loss Revenue in fiscal year 23 is 3.85 but you've got the replacement is 3805 oh yeah I well well you're right you're right it is a typo I apologize for that that's okay I just it looked right at 3 in the morning but it didn't look right at 8:00 this morning but I understand okay there's always something somewhere so we could because there's no restrictions on the interest putting this fund back to the 11 .9 original amount earning a half a million dollars a year essentially in interest that can be used for other things like Capital Improvements oh yes very good that's what I thought I just wanted to make sure that's what my understanding was that's right and if we're lucky yes if for Lu any other questions for Joe no I me it's great no great job as always nice mayor okay thanks Joe is there a resolution is there a motion to approve resolution 24 which one is it one am I on 284 resolution 24- 284 so mooved I'll second got motion by councilor Stafford second by councelor Woodson any further discussion counc Stafford hi counc Woodson hi M hi I'm and I as well motion carries four to nothing with uh councelor King absent uh item D is resolution 24-29 author authorized budgeting amendment number four all allocations of remaining arpa funds take away okay um we had originally received 3,5 53,000 um of American Rescue plan funding we have until December 31st of this year to have a fully obligated and by that we actually have to have signed contracts for and then we have another two years to actually completely expend those funds and anything that is not obligated um by the end of this year or fully expended by the end of next year would have to be returned to the federal government so what I wanted to um within the resolution body I started out by explaining that of that 3,553 th000 we've already obligated almost roughly 2.6 million of it and so I listed out um the various projects that we have come to you and sought approval for um really within the last year is when all of this was happening so we have um for the 2024 budget we used about 832000 to help balance the budget instead of increasing the millage rate we um use 41,000 there there's like several title based and expenditures that we not going to be reimbursed for by fima um the these were um things that they helped us with so um I'm proposing that we allocate or we did allocate funding for and that would have been for their assistance with the critical infrastructure of cdb grr um grants recovery and res resilience planning which is also cdb gdr um we had they also helped a little bit with multif family housing um assessments and then with hurricane Nicole for which we did not receive any FEMA reimbursement so those are small amounts but um at least it's it wouldn't um come out of our emergency fund if we were to use the arpa funding for that um we have some um small town hall um temporary Town Hall expenditures that will not be covered by FEMA or insurance reimbursement of 28,000 um earlier this year we had that million dooll um allocation arpa funds to help with the boks recreational um campus Redevelopment um for that matching Grant and we're in the process now of it's it's gone out for bed and we'll be um opening the bed soon and once that happens hopefully we can be um under contract by the end of the year but if not there's a contingency also in within this resolution but so skipping on to the next thing we use 411,000 to to cover that um unreimbursed um verer contractor expense um related to Hurricane Ian we had um the mergency duck bill outfall expense of 104 105,000 um and then we also recently allocated 116,000 to pay for the Strategic plan that first um installment payment that's due in June and then we have another 62,000 of the payment that will be due um in January so we have um the that all of that um totals $2.6 million so that leaves the 932 th000 remaining that we need to allocate and so by um working with um the town manager and directors we've come up with um a few other things that we we know we can have um contracts for by the end of this year or the work will actually be done by the end of this year and that would be that 47500 $47,500 for the palm trees for Time Square that'll be going in um soon we are proposing that we use $648,500 for a combination jetb truck for storm water um drain cleanout there's also a separate resolution um for the purchase of that piece of equipment um in working with a mountainous um Adam Knight he requested 13586 th000 I'm sorry $3,586 for that Mouse walkway lighting system that just for um Public Safety for walking um in the evenings when there is no daylight there's um a coastal Coastal Engineering Canal debris assessment um invoice for 28 842 it was an assessment that was needed to be done um but there is no actual funding for that um then we have the architectural um planning for the Bay Oaks Recreational Center campus Redevelopment that was um that's the project that is associated with that $1 million um matching grant that we are using $1 million of ARA funds for and that was $55,850 and then there's one one um truck that we are proposing that it be our funding be used for and this is one of the trucks that were replaced are being replaced that were um totaled by the storm surge from the recent hurricanes we did receive insurance money for um well for all all of the trucks that were damaged but it's just not enough to fully replace them so we're going to use arpa funds to um purchase one of them and then there's landscap Shing that's required for the North Tower um that I misunderstood and had stated that it's required by Homeland Security but it's actually um required by Our Land Development code and that's 72,000 so all of those individual items um add up to the 927 or I'm sorry 932 $573 that remains of ARA funds and so this resolution is um asking your um approval of those items to apply it to but then in the event we are not able to actually have a signed contract by the end of this year for that $1 million of arpa funds for the boks um campus Redevelopment um project um if it were to you know cross over into the next fiscal year as a contingency um we're proposing that we use 72,3 $23 of the arpa funds to cover the property that we just purchased um by the with the state grant that that's the portion that we were going to um that $20,300 was a portion of that cost that we were going to use insurance proceeds for so instead of using the insurance proceeds we would use the arpa funds and that would free up the insurance proceeds to use for other purposes um also related to that building um is the elevator repairs we already have a signed contract for $139,500 um and then we have um well quotes that were signed for exterior painting of $ 57,7 this is for the new town hall and then interior painting for the new town hall of $ 49,50 carpeting for the new town hall $ [Music] 29,38 and St painting I think the painting itself is a little more but this is all that um the $467 is all that was left of the this full $1 million that we were trying to reallocate as a contingency so it's a complicated resolution but we were trying to get it all in here so that's it's all approved because we have to have it all approved by the end of this year and this was the last meeting before the end of the year Joe how much talking about the the jet vac truck how much probably don't know off top of your head so I didn't get a chance to ask you this before the meeting how much have we spent do you think since Ian on having our drains cleaned up we actually do have that you do do oh anticipation we did anticipate that give it back to me who's on first was our old code enforcement 9,628 yes thank you I'm sorry so is that is that since is that a year or that's since the Assumption that's well yeah since Ian so I think it was roughly 650,000 the first year after year and so 2023 then was like another 300 and some thousand um 2024 and then it's about was it 60 or 990,000 this year so far depends on the the level of the storm every Storm's right now bringing all the sand into all the catch basins and even though they're flat the system we have filling up with sand there's nowhere for the water to be moved to underground so this is a better Mouse trp we think so my next question about that would be do we have qualified staff to operate this we're going to hire somebody who's doing it now we do have two openings in storm water so one of those will be a gap back d certification okay do we have this is just a this is a good siiz piece of equipment and we've got some other do we have anyone certified to be able to work on diesel engines or maintain these vehicles uh we just set up contracts um we had somebody we had him um basically a mechanic uh he just wasn't able one person just wasn't able to keep up with all of them including all the kabas that are out on the beach every day it's just too much work for for one person Andy is that that general practice for municipalities from your standpoint to have a built-in contract with repair service places to do this it is places I've been before when you're when you're a smaller staff you don't really have the all the equipment that would go with this to to help repair it or or have maintenance on it to contract with somebody to to do that on a quarterly or biannual basis I believe that Myers the same thing with okay also so this big equipment that you purchase it automatically comes maintenance with the maintenance package they would prefer that you do Factory maintenance so it stays ahead of the curve and say hey it broke and they're going to say when so most of that stuff does come with that the only other question I have is down the road do we have a plan or are we currently working on a plan to protect some of these I mean these are significant investments in equipment which we need just right and I've talked about some off Island rental space and things like that to keep some of these in or you know we had talked about our our property right over here could be that somebody build something for us when they if if we go that route that that public private partnership where we have a garage that we can store these in at the end okay any questions for staff yes my questions Mr Mayor I'll move approval of resolution 24- 289 I'll second okay got a motion by Vice mayoral second by mayor allers any further discussion mayor if I may yes sir just just observation for those watching this this is no general fund money this is not doesn't affect the general fund okay uh vice mayor ad I I'm an i as well councelor Woodson I councel Stafford I motion carries four to nothing with councelor King absent next is item e resolution 24- 294 federal lobbyist agreement this is a res resolution to approve an engagement letter with gray Robinson PA with addendum to approve uh to provide government relations representation on behalf of the Town Federal issues including but not limited to working on behalf of the town to resolve outstanding issues with the Federal Emergency Management agency FEMA for $7,500 per month for a minimum of six month authorizing the town manager to sign any and all needed documents and providing an effective date manager thank you mayor once we got the letter I'm sorry for my voice I don't know what's wrong um nothing wrong it just is just going away um been a long day vice mayor um I've been working with uh gray Robinson off and on over the last uh gosh 10 years I know Nancy's worked with him as well gray Robinson represents Fort Meyers um I reached out to the lobbyists we used and they do have a lobbyist in Washington DC that they've had they've just exp used to be a Florida only law firm and they've expanded into Washington DC and um they've worked U the particular person I've worked with here at the state's worked with then governor Scott uh obviously Governor Dan santis has been doing it for over 15 years even transcend some of that but also the the person in DC that that we'll be working with that'll be our representative there um she had worked U with um the Department of Housing and Urban Development she's been with Office of the federal office of then Governor Rick Scott so she's got some connections a lot of connections in DC I feel like this is a a win for us to work with and try to understand more about FEMA as we move forward into the uh trying to retain our our rating of of five or or get off Pro stay off probation and I know Nancy's had a lot we've had a conversation with them and she's worked with gray Robinson as well so I don't know she has anything to add um no other than they are a a good firm and um you know I'm familiar with a lot of their attorne um I have no hesitation uh to Andy's recommendation okay we can see how you got a good lobbyist what they can do for you correct and I've spoken with Mr book and you know let him know that what we're doing so um they're they're um informed B mayor just a couple quick questions Andy this this uh this engagement letter it's not strictly uh restricted to FEMA they could also help us with various Appropriations as well that is correct so with just one appropriation it could easily pay for itself that is correct thank you to that point I think we still have I haven't heard anything in the contrary but I think we still have roughly $8 million going through the appropriation process we made it through the first step yeah so would this this could help was it and and there's another thing sorry councelor there's another you know I've heard it mentioned about the $ 1.1 billion dollars this morning that there's little pockets right and she's has a lot of influence and contact with HUD so I don't know you know that possibly could be another angle that we we utilize going forward as well okay any questions yeah I mean that was actually going to be one of my questions because I I'm hoping that after January 20th there's going to be some different structure with FEMA different people involved but the fact that this will actually help us with other commitments or other grants or whatever else were is still sitting out there then I'm fine with it otherwise I was going to say are we putting the cart for the horse but as long as they can help with other things too that's great I've got ask the audit committee question where's the money coming from Jo this would be this I think it's in the the town manager budget they they do have contractual um service line item so we have for the for this fiscal year we already have this in there or we going to have to do another budget amendment I I don't think so I I don't think we'll have to do one yeah I pretty sure there's enough there's and if if not on that line item there's a contingency line item as well okay and now this obviously is reimbursable or not this okay all right get a deal well I I just wanted you know sure so you know total transparency I don't want to walk out here and say while you you know all our taxpayer dollars and blah you know well just going through with with our local representation around book I can tell you that if this person is anything like Ron book that it's not just a matter of it it's they have a tendency to be able to slow the horse down if you will correct sometimes you want to go up there and you want to be you know go go go and they're like well hold on because they have they have inner workings they've dealt with these people at that level where we have not so you go in there with your ideas and then they were like no maybe not I know this person then they can help you get into places that you can't get into so I think it'll be well worth well worthy investment so if I can add something I got an email from Gray Robinson not about this but they were just talking about that Jared moscowitz could be the next FEMA head he's the former um head of the director of Florida's division of Emergency Management before Kevin got three so that's that's another positive potentially for us going forward all right there's no other question is there a motion to approve resolution 24294 for the federal lobbyist agreement so moved motion by councelor Woodson I'll second and further discussion councilor Woodson I an I matter I counc Safford I and councelor King is absent motion carries four to nothing next is resolution 24-1 192 authorizing $656,000 Gap VX Inc for the combination jet vac this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving the purchasing of a combination jet vac from Gap vaac Inc and authorizing the town manag to execute a purchasing order in the amount not to exceed 66232 and providing for an effective date yeah I think we we kind of just covered this one in the arpa funds but uh something that we could really use and in the long run will save us money you know you I don't think these storms and these surges are are going away anytime soon so it' be nice to have something that we don't have to call and and wait two weeks to get it here um we can start cleaning out our own drainage uh relatively quick just to add to thator what is the typical time that you know a resident calls or several residents from a certain Street call and say Hey you know we're having drainage issues on on our street what's the the typical response time now and how would that be improved by us having the vehicle yeah well this person that that we hire is going to be just in in charge of cleaning out storm drain so they're going to try to be proactive about it as well um so especially before like right now our storm water they they can't do much before a storm um you know the most we can do is maybe clear off around the greates but this we could actually go and and keep up some maintenance on on them make sure they're emptied out um you know that that'll be their job uh typical I guess typical with like utility and flood water is uh you should see everything recede within 24 to 48 hours that's kind of it's kind of what the the norm is um and then after that we can go use this back to we'll be able to get a schedule of the the drains that usually we have the most problems with and so we can the ultimate plan is to to stay on top of it and and keep it from uh clogging up another point to your question uh C Safford um I know there's several streets that people have requested us to go and clean out drains we are behold it to a third party to come with their truck at their convenience not really but when they can schedule us um so a lot of times we can sit and say that we'll be there on Monday because we were told Monday and it may be we should have asked which Monday because it'll be a week or two weeks later um that eliminates that and we have a regular course of action as Jeff said we can start a regular routine from north to south south to North East to West very good thank you move Mo approval of resolution 24-1 192 and commend the staff for their uh proactive uh measures I'll second okay got a motion by vice mayor adhal seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion councel adal I counc Woodson I councelor Safford I I'm and I as well motion carries four to zero with uh councelor King absent item G is resolution 24291 authorizing $176,950 contract with Sam Galloway Ford for three trucks a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving the purchase of three vehicles from Sam Galloway Ford Inc and authorizing the town manager to execute purchase orders for these three vehicles for not to exceed amount of 176,000 157,000 and provid $957 and providing for an effective date yeah after the storm again um we ended up losing four uh Town Vehicles whether they um couple were left here that we thought were going to be high enough and weren't a couple drove through some high water trying to get to to areas after the storms so we ended up losing four uh trucks that were that we got reimbursed partially by insurance so we didn't have enough to replace all four so we took the insurance money and paid for two of them and then the arpa funds are going to pay for the the third so we're actually we're down one truck anyway uh with even after all of this but uh we'll make it work for now and I know it's a lot of money so we'll we'll do our best to to make do with the three and the trucks were older getting to their their life cycle as well fortunately or unfortunately they'll be maintained here on the island they won't be basically leaving the island and that'll be for public works and utility who whoever in public works needs to use the vehicles we we want to make sure we we've got good vehicles and I think a little higher profile Vehicles yeah we do have a a a vehicle maintenance person that can do something so he does the the basic you know things that he can do on the cotas and the trucks the tire changes those kind of things but uh he'll have one of them in case one breaks down he can he can bring the truck out and and help out vice mayor move approval of resolution 24291 I'll second had a motion by vice mayor second by mayor alers any further discussion I just have a question what was the um what was the agreement that we latched on to with Lee County that they had with Sam Galloway we just used the government the contract contct so it's already been vetted um okay we don't have to put it out for bid yeah py back all right no discounts though huh oh yeah yeah actually we get govern disc and uh they saved us about $20,000 on top of that awesome so perfect thank you uh we make a motion okay good all right any more discussion okay Vice hi I'm an i as well counc Woodson hi and counc Stafford hi motion carries four to zero with counselor King absent uh item H is resolution 24- 295 hurricane H sand screening this is a resolution of the Town Council of town of Fort Meers Beach Florida ratifying spa-2 24-11 dasen for action of the Town taken October 3rd 2024 regarding the w of the town's competitive procurement policy and Contracting with IC materials Inc to screen debris from the Sand overwashed by Hurricane Lee to produce Beach compatible sand place and grade Beach compatible sand onto the beach remove debris from the beach remove debris sand from right away in the town property and deliver the debris management site and dispose of debris and authorized Waste Management site and approving payment of IC materials invoice number 11 62429 11524 d29 and 11824 d29 in the amount of $427,900 and providing for an effective date so this was basically a big catch all uh Helen caught us flat footed with sand a lot of sand um onto our roadways and some vegetative debris was washed up on our shore um IC has been helping the town for quite a while um they jumped right in um agreed to uh get their trucks and whatnot that was a huge mound of sand that we had here next to the town hall um that has since left and been put back onto the beach with the than of them um it basically just jumping in and of course we know what happened less than two and a half weeks later we'll get to that one next is is this any of this funding uh FEA P re so we are immediately reached out to Dunkey up in the name tetr which is our material uh it would have been like Thompson was last uh with Crowder right so they were actually the mon service the monitors yes excuse me and uh so they monitored every load that was brought in they let monitored every load that was brought out um we also asked IC in the beginning to help pick up hen debris because we could not get enough trucks in here from our our debris hauler they took that all that material uh basically all white Goods at that time took down to Lover's Key where our provider had a site set up and uh they were all scanned in there through um the tetr so it was a regular complete debris both sand beach debris and town debris good so yes it qualifies under all of that okay any other questions for staff I'll make a motion to approve resolution 24295 for Hurricane Helen sand screening second motion by mayor Aller seconded by vice mayor atal any further discussion I'm an i vice mayor hi councelor Woodson hi councelor Safford hi motion carries four to zero with councelor King being absent uh item I is resolution 24287 hurricane Milton Beach cleanup this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach ratifying sp-24 d12n for the action of the Town taken October 7th 2024 under the emergency procurement Pro policy to contract with ICS materials Inc to take emergency protective measures to remove hazards to public health and safety from the RightWay Town property and the beach caused by Hurricane Milton and improving payment of IC materials Inc invoice number 10824 D31 in the amount of 256,000 $167 125 and providing for an effective date this is basically a ditto of what they did for us for Helen but this was over on our Oldtown Hall site and uh one of the benefits of this is they actually left the site in better condition than it was when the state got done after remediating our town hall um so all the sand that was collected from the Milton episode was returned back to the beach in the form of a burm so they trucked it all to the North End and uh stored on that empty lot for a while there and went and recurved the BM that was lost through the last two episodes okay yeah they messed up my Golf View by the way oh boy we'll have to bring them before Council but I'll mention knew I'm just saying I I will make I don't think you have a right to that view right I I know that but as long as I have it all right yes take advantage of it I will make a resol I will make a motion to approve resolution 24287 hurricane Milton Beach cleanup second to by vice mayor adal any further discussion I'm an i vice mayor hi Woodson counc Stafford hi motion carries 4 to zero with councelor King absent and the last one is resolution 24297 adopting cyber security standards this is a resolution of the Town Council of town Town Council of the town of this is not written right a resolution of the I'll read it as it was written a resolution of the Town Council of the Town Council of the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida adopting the National Institute of Standards and Technology cyber security framework as a cyber security standard for the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida and providing for an effective date Jason you look like the cyber security expert for the record so this is just something that we noticed uh State Statute is requiring that four municipalities adopt cyber security standards by the beginning of the year so this just puts us in compliance and we can work with our it team and ni and everyone to finish the form to fill out s the state so following State Statute questions move approval of resolution 24297 second any further discussion uh Vice I'm an i c Woodson hi councelor Safford hi and motion carries four to zero with counselor King uh being absent next is final public comment no one's here close final public comment Tom manager items nobody's interested um I I just have a couple things I won't get into a lot of detail um pushing to get Town Hall no later than uh finished no later than Mar first but hopefully sooner uh the elevator is going to be the biggest thing that we deal with um going forward um we will be closed here beginning Monday the 23rd uh Tuesday the 24th and on Christmas Day the 25th so wish everybody a Merry Christmas I've got um Appropriations requests need to be put in so we'll be having those conversations with each of you as we go forward the Senate and the house we've asked for a lot recently as you as as indicated by the 7.7 million we received today in the town hall we purchased uh recently and in the 7-Eleven property so we we we'll be mindful of that uh again I think it was mentioned earlier the tightening of the Bel at the state so we'll be mindful of that as well already speaking with Ron and Ron book's office about what we do next the other thing is a legislative platform that came out from the Florida League of cities we probably need to get our leg legislative priorities together I believe we'll try to we'll get those past so I'll be talking to you between now and the next meeting so we can kind of have our send out Amy you don't mind you could send out what we passed last year so they could see that and then we can we can talk about that um and then maybe have something ready for the next agenda so we can get it approved before we we move forward and we start our trips to wherever we're going to go to DC or Tallahassee we're going to be doing that as as we move forward this will all be ready before the delegation that is correct that's the plan yes sir that's really all I have okay great meeting Town attorney okay so I did speak with um Tom yazo as well and the 13 the number 13 is now down to 11 so that's good um in regards to the uh active permits that you are revoking okay yes um so the one item that I have on your agenda is a proposed settlement of a deasi uh litigation and um to advise you that there was a mediation the first week of December um I attended as well as the town manager and our um liability carrier attorney Chris Sterns um there was discussion and there is a proposed tentative settlement so by your vote today you would just tentatively be approving uh the proposed settlement and I'll give you the terms in a second and then we will be bringing back the formal settlement agreement to you for final final approval so what happened here is that um and I don't have the actual year but in the past um the town went in and removed Mr devassy's ramp and constructed um drainage infrastructure on his property and um needless to say the town was then sued um so there was discussion at the mediation about um what his damages were he had made several demands ultimately we settled on uh giving the town an easement to allow our drainage improvements to stay where they are located um and mitigation for the removal of his ramp um $85,000 and he would be responsible for building it himself and obtaining all um needed permits Andy did you want to add he started out excuse me wanting us to build it wanting us to get the plans wanting us to get all the permits and we're like no because that's like you know1 to $150,000 for permits with with um DP and all that so we're like no that's not going to happen so we backed down um this is a stretch in my imination but we the town prior I think to any of probably three or four of you on here went in there and put the drainage in and it is on his property it's a little sliver Lovers Lane I think is lazy way lazy way um so yeah so it's uh it's it's a good way to for us to to move forward any questions for Nancy it's dbsi DB yes I'm sorry or just Leo yeah Leo oh got I don't remember when it happened it was it was right around 20 Jason might know you were in public works then weren't you when that when they took that ramp out over there and put the the 2019 right around there could have been like hits me some all right is there do you need a motion from us I do it's a very reasonable uh proposal and settlement of this I mean and if you chose not to go this route I mean we're going to be in litigation and I'm not sure that I can uh give you a positive respon uh result but we would definitely try um so my recommendation is that you approve this tentative settlement that's a not to exceed number two not two all right I will make a motion to approve uh the proposed agreement proposed settlement agreement with Mr devasi I'll second motion by mayor Alex seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion if I may I think we would be responsible for about half of it insurance pays the other half yes that is true okay because you have coverage okay any other further discussion uh I'm and I Woodson I Stafford I I motion carries unanimously anything else Nancy no sir thank thank you happy holidays to everyone same to you councilor Safford council member items and reports not today happy holidays hope everyone has a safe vacation it's 50:04 I will say um it's been a long day and Merry Christmas and happy New Year yeah I will also say merry Christmas happy New Year and prayers to you Karen and Mark these next few days we all be pray for you and that's all I've got I second that and I have to say it before we go hopefully we see everybody next Saturday for the pedals and presents this Saturday this Saturday that's yes this Saturday thank you the 21st is Saturday and I know Joe you're planning on coming all right all right is your cat gonna be in the basket you gonna put the cat in the basket can be the cat I was just going to say is that like the Cat in the Hat lunching tomorrow you got lunching tomorrow you guys can make I know you probably can all right that's all I have motion to adjourn so moved second motion any okay