##VIDEO ID:Oz3bRAZJnE4## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e ni all right Welcome to our September 10th uh Board of County Commission meeting uh we're going to begin our invocation is going to be a moment of silence and followed by The Pledge so if we could all stand especially in this week with September 11th I think a moment of silence is appropriate for all those who lost their lives I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all good morning Commissioners good morning guys Don and SAR uh thank you for giving me this opportunity to say the Pledge for you guys I wanted to make sure that we all did understand uh that this is uh some hollowed times uh September 11th is tomorrow and and a little story about uh myself for September 11th I was in uh I believe it was 7th grade when I saw the towers fell uh so for me to be 21 years old what's that commissioner pause just for a second yes I can't rra my head around that I'm sorry you were seven I I was in seventh grade seventh grade yeah yeah yeah seventh grade so I was and you know the only thing I can remember thinking was uh you know as naive as I was are we going to have school tomorrow that was my biggest thing and then 21 recession hit uh 0809 time frame and got laid off from a job and I thought well military's best option for me so here I am 21 years old fighting the same war that started when I was in seventh grade so uh for me it was a very uh significant time as a child growing up in that in that World um when I turned 34 I'm 35 now when I turned 34 I went to uh Ground Zero I've never been there before I've never been to New York City uh but when I did go to Ground Zero uh I can tell you all if you've ever been I would highly recommend going it's a very hollowed uh somber site you know uh that uh uh a lot of folks that didn't sign up to fight for their country and die for the country did die for their country um so as a veteran as a combat veteran of Afghanistan that that fought during this time frame um it was a very very hollowed somber site I would highly recommend you guys going if you haven't gone already uh it's a big part of my childhood and and uh hopefully uh we'd never ever never forget about it so I appreciate you guys taking the time to uh have a moment of silence and uh again thank you thank you very much Commissioners hold on a minute commissioner Camp's having a stroke because you didn't say your name for the record your name for the record please sorry Jeff Norwood Martin County Veteran service officer and you're younger than my youngest child anyway that way thank you very much Commissioners and good luck today appreciate it thank you thank you very much okay our presets they are um 9:05 public comment uh 10:00 a.m. uh bright Line train station Department 3 with the events last night I think things are different so um uh 1:30 p.m. is article six of the Land Development regulation impact fees uh public hearing number eight at two uh consideration of a resolution encouraging Power Systems manufacturing to submit an application for an adorm tax exemption that's department number five 505 public comment and then uh our exciting um 505 physical year um 2425 budget uh public hearing uh public hearing number nine don't want to miss that uh we have no additional items and uh are we have no consent polls and with that I'll take u a motion to on oh I'm sorry been you missed a week I know morning Mr chairman ret thank you for all that Mr chair I would move uh adoption of the September 10th uh 2024 agenda second okay we have a motion and we have a second all in favor I all oppose motion carries unanimously okay uh proclamations we have Constitution weak and hunger month awareness Miss Laura good morning commissioners the week of September 17th through the 23rd is Constitution week and September 17th marks the 237th anniversary of the created creation of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention in recognition of this occasion the board encourages all citizens to study the Constitution and reflect on the privilege of being an American with all the rights and responsibilities that privilege involves and here to accept we have Kathy McCartney who is Regent with the halao chapter good morning thank you for the this opportunity and for the proclamation from The Martin County Board of County Commissioners acknowledging September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution week in 1955 The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution petitioned congress with a resolution to set aside September the 17th through the 23rd dedicated for the observance of constitution week the annual celebration was established when signed by law by President Dwight D Eisenhower on August the 2nd 1956 NSD is committed to encouraging study and educating the public about the Constitution and the men who framed it thank you again for this Proclamation on behalf of the nearly 300 members of halao chapter we are inviting you to please join us for ringing the bells in celebration of the signing of the Constitution on September 17th at 3:30 at the Stuart downtown gazebo and you all received a constitution book and a marker inviting you to come to that celebration and I'd like to present my group that came my Army Sarah where's your application I'm actually assembling it we have to assemble you have to do genealogy research in order you're not a daughter you can't yeah but I I am I just I have to interpret My Grandmother's Bible you think I can't see down there and these are like m one two three right I only need them for certain things you need thank you thank you and our next Proclamation is declaring hunger action month in Martin County Florida hunger and poverty remain issues of grave concern in the United States the State of Florida and on the Treasure Coast with 250,000 childrens children adults seniors and Veterans experiencing food insecurity on a weekly basis Martin County is committed to taking steps to raise awareness about the need to combat hunger in every part of our County and to provide additional resources that our residents need to that end the board is recognizing September as hunger action month in Martin County and here to accept we have Angela Donovan who is a volunteer and she's be appearing on behalf of the Treasure Coast food bank she is hi there good morning my name is Angela Donovan on behalf of the Treasure Coast Food Bank president and CEO Judy Cruz our dedicated staff and volunteers and board of directors I would like to thank you for proclaiming September as hunger action month as a member of the feeding America Network of food banks treasure Co food bank is leading the fight against hunger and in our community by securing millions of meals and providing them to people facing hunger we are proud to partner with more than 300 local food pantries soup kitchens shelters and other emergency food providers throughout Indian River St Lucy Martin and okachobee counties throughout the month of September Treasure Coast food bank will be hosting many events that include the fourth annual outrun hunger 5K light up orange and more for more information on all these events and more please please visit our website at stop.org thank you again for your continued support in making sure our neighbors have access to the healthy meals and resources they need to thrive [Applause] nice job Miss Woods I see your light on would you oh I I just was going to bring up for purposes of the agenda Don and I both need to um ask something of you as you all know last night the city of Stewart passed resolutions um resending their approval of both the inter amended interlocal agreement with the county as well as their um lease agreement with brightline um along with that uh we were notified by brightline because again this is a three-part party situation bright line notified me that their agreement to the um amended settlement agreement was contingent upon the city agreeing to the or approving both the amended interlocal and the lease agreement so at this point um I'm going to let Don kind of outline what our options are going forward so the agreement anticipates that three parties um essentially participate together to uh to to complete the project and any two of the members of that agreement can't complete it on their own so uh at this point in time our uh our our ability to proceed fully with the agenda item uh uh doesn't make sense given the city's position however the uh um the the board can take uh action as to either one um withdraw the item and take no action or or two you can um uh at least provide staff Direction on if there is an interest to continue to negotiate with um both the city and bright line to bring back an uh see if there is an agreement that can be salvaged and that would be um uh and we can either discuss that at the time of the agenda or you can uh we can have that discussion now well I think if we're going to take no action we should discuss it now to save um a lot of people's time um that uh commissioner her yeah I'd be in favor of continuing to try to negotiate with brightline and with the city to see if we can uh come to an agreement commissioner campy having watched the nearly the entire city of Stewart meeting yesterday um one of the themes that I contined to hear and having read all the information that people have sent to us both forign against reading social media posts and platforms to me what one of the themes were even from the people that were for the station but opposed to the deal so uh even yesterday the conversation was a lot of people that were speaking out in opposition were prefacing their comments even one of the leaders of the uh opposition if you will said there was a deal that could have been struck that would potentially look no one you're not going to make a deal that makes everyone happy but I think there's the possibility of making a deal that would make a much larger majority happy and so I agree with commissioner herd that I'm not opposed to having our staff uh continue to have conversations with bright line continue to have conversations with Stuart uh Administration but our staff can also speak there's two new Commissioners that basically got elected on a on Tuesday August 20th and six days later were sitting in their seats as Commissioners it's basically like being shot out of a cannon so I would recommend that even if our staff spoke to those Commissioners to find out what potentially their concerns were if I was going into a negotiation I would want to know what all of the parties are thinking I have had some conversations with some folks at bright line myself in the last several weeks and um you know there are other communities that are interested in um in the station but I still believe from what I have heard from them that um they would still be interested in potentially hearing what a new negotiation would look like I can't say that we will get get to a deal that they would agree to and we could all agree to but I don't think there's any harm in continuing to have that conversation commissioner Smith thank you Mr chair uh I would for my purposes I would even simplify that further I would I'm still supportive of moving forward but I would leave the city of Stewart out of it and I would just negotiate directly with bright line um and see what kind of deal would be struck with bright line I I just there's this will now be the second attempt of having a station in downtown Stewart 10 12 years ago we had full funding to build Transit Center um and that didn't happen for various reasons and so I think it would be in our best interest if this board is interested in still negotiating with bright line I would just deal directly with them and see if we can't put a deal together with bright line period commissioner heatherington I too watch the meeting from beginning till end about 11:00 last night and the recurring theme was for even the um opposition was they want a fair deal for the taxpayers so I would withdraw the items and continue talks with the city because many of the Commissioners even those that that voted against or voted for resending the item said they wanted a fair deal for the taxpayer so I would say let's let's have conversations with the city of Stewart I also had a uh conversation with brightline as of actually yesterday afternoon and this ship is sailed my friends so we can talk about um all of it I want a station in Martin County we now have a 100 mph train with absolutely no benefit it's ridiculous we fought the train we lost so by the way the train was here before we were so but it wasn't going 100 Mil hour I get it but uh I we can talk to Bright line all we want but unfortunately my personal opinion is um if I was a betting man we got very little chance so with that said now what a motion I'll make a motion you me a okay yeah I think you could make a motion to withdraw the item and provide the direction as stated okay commiss I don't who commissioner Cy you want you want to go no go ahead um hearing from my colleagues I would make a motion that we withdraw the item that we ask our staff uh had by Mr Donaldson and Miss woods and Mr stokus who has been involved since the beginning to uh begin a conversation SL Neti and to commissioner Smith's point I would start uh a conversation with Mr mortell and the city of Stewart and if in your discretion you felt like that wasn't going to work I would have our own conversation with bright line to explore all the options I hear what commissioner Jenkins is saying that if he was a betting man he doesn't believe that there's a deal to be had but being you know a positive thinking person um putting my you said you positively believes there won't be a deal um with that in mind I would think that it it's worthy of a further conversation and so I would start with the city of Stewart If you believe they're not interested in being partners of a three-legged stool then we'll have to find a different stool yeah I on the other hand am confident that we can reach a compromise I'm I'm I'm almost certain that that a compromise can be found and I hope that it won't be very difficult what I have noted noticed is that there's an awful lot of misinformation out there people are making up numbers that just are pure guesswork um we have a finite budget the city has a finite budget and for people to to you know to Triple those those real uh numbers is is is harmful to us um so I'm confident that we can reach a compromise that we can all be happy to live with okay so I'll second your motion any other comments Mr Donaldson your lights on it you done on thank you sir are we taking public comment for this or no that's your discretion I guess we probably should do you have Direction I do have Direction I have clear direction thank you well you got a motion you got to vote on it okay okay um we have a motion by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner herd all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously and with that we're going to uh take public comment um remember if you um decide to speak about an agenda item uh during general public comment you do not get a second bite at the Apple uh after 2 minutes and 45 seconds you'll hear a tone that gives you 15 seconds to wrap up your thoughts and M you have your thing right yes thank you commissioner so prior to coming to the podium just want to announce to everybody that since we are in election season politicking is prohibited which is defined as advocating election or defeat of a candidate or for public office either partisan or nonpartisan this includes the use of words dates signs props and or wearing apparel that convey a message of support for a person or group of persons thank you okay with that said we're going to begin with um Frank mccristal and the only reason I know it's that is cu I see you back there you're handwriting is hard uh followed by Mr Tom Pine leading us off Frank mccristal goodness set the tone for the day nice and PE stop it what an honor to lead off I guess so much to say but I figured I'd go biblical okay actually words of my second favorite libtard behind my mom Bruce Springstein the Big Muddy Billy had a mistress down on a and 12th she was that little something that he did for himself his own little secret didn't hurt nobody come the afternoon he'd take her waien waste deep in the Big Muddy waste deep in the Big Muddy you start out standing but end up crawling got in some trouble and needed a hand from a friend of mine this old friend had a figure in mind it was nothing illegal just a little bit funny he said come on don't tell me the rich don't know sooner or later it all comes down to money and your waste deep in the Big Muddy waste deep in the Big Muddy you start on Higher Ground around but end up crawling well I had a friend said you watch what you do poison snake bites you and you're poison too how beautiful the river flows and the birds they sing but you and I we're Messier things there ain't no one leave in this world buddy without their shirt tail dirty or their hands a little bloody ways deep in the Big Muddy you start on higher ground but end up somehow crawling waste deep in the Big Muddy thank you Mr uh Pine will be followed by Walter Lloyd Mr Pine are you gonna be quoting Bruce Springsteen oh not me sir good morning Commissioners my name's Tom Pine I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years today in the consent agenda this commission will approve 15,1 15,490 70 which was spent between August 12th and August 25th 2024 without identifying the payas or the purpose of the payments here are some of the items I fear that are being hidden in the consent agenda a contract for 1.4 million for improvements at the North Jensen Beach Water Treatment Plant construction of a roundabout widening and sidewalks at High Meadows Avenue in Southwest suntrail in Palm City at a cost of $694,000 $694,900 this is where democracy goes to die in Martin County's consent agenda it appears today meetings will be dealt with the Martin County difference there are enough changes in our Co management plan listed in today's meeting in real life it would take several meetings to discuss what slated to be changed with only a few more meetings left until our new elected Commissioners take their seats I understand the rush as I'm writing this I don't know the outcome of the discussion going on in the city of Stewart commission meeting tonight but the bright Line train station and downtown Stewart I feel confident that the majority of our County Commissioners sitting here in front of me will do everything in their power to push this over the Finish Line no matter how many more in Ren County residents will be negatively affected because the big business interest at the Martin County Chamber of Commerce always get what they want just look around at all the things that taxpayers have paid for to benefit the Martin County Chamber of Commerce the illegal expansion of Runway 1230 of mountain County Airport the moing fields in downtown Jensen Beach in the PO Alo area the spal agree special agreement they got to use at Jensen Beach Community Center to see they see as they see fit the Comm Community Center was open in September 2010 at a cost to the taxpayers $1.5 million these are just a few of the items it never ends the Treasure Coast Food Bank hospice the Salvation Army are just three of the many organizations working in Martin County to help feed our residents as the demand has skyrocketed over the past decade you ask why because our local government acts like the taxpayers are their private little piggy bank to do what they feel like with our T hard-earned money our tax dollars should only be used for items that are directly related to the operation of our local government thank you for your time and have a nice day Mr Lloyd will be followed by Tammy MOS MOS thank you Commissioners good to see you I wanted to start out by thanking uh the commissioner District 4 for her patience and longsuffering and also uh for calling for a lot more study and diligence in bringing these projects forward uh I also agree with her that um in this situation there's probably a lot of misinformation out there but I would like to note that we seem to get more information from social media and things outside of our local governments be nice if we got more information coming from the local government so that that didn't happen there wasn't misinformation uh I'd also like to ask for us not to allow this deal to go forward with taxpayers footing the majority of the bill or 100% of the bill for a private owned company and that we don't give the rights to any land to be utilized for the benefit of anyone other than the public that currently owns it uh I appreciate your time thank you very much Tammy no Tammy okay let me see Michael ra John Michael raffy followed by Gina Louise Kent how y'all doing my name is John Michael rafy I go by Mike I've lived in Martin County over 60 years okay I've never been before front of the board to ask for any consideration for anything at all not on all these 60 some years all right now I am I have a lady friend of mine her husband was a 100% disabled veteran okay he passed away and she's asking me for help because I know the system I'm a disabled vet as well okay and over the years the last couple of years when you request a meeting with this nice vsso group of people over here the veteran service officers well let's see what our appointments are for you uh next thing I can get you in is three maybe four weeks from now well you know the the process to get a claim approved is very intensive you've got to do a load of paperwork to get a claim through these nice people over here and it's not a bit of their fault are doing everything they can for the veterans which is about over 15,000 vets that they have to represent plus all the other loads that are put upon him like Outreach programs that are out there trying to help veterans in the field I ran into one at the library but what I'm getting out with her is that she's asked me to help her and and I ran into one of the veteran officers at the library the other day and he said well just go in there and make an appointment for her Mike I said Ure just like I always do lady said well she said the first one we've got for you or her rather would be the 18th or you can pick the 24th of October now what she's trying to do is she's trying to get the money to help her redo her life again she's 59 years old okay and I'm like to me that's kind of appalling we should be taking care of these people better the vets and their families and I know you guys want to they need Staffing the vsos in the State of Florida and I've had to go myself I've got an appointment for this lady now up in Viro Beach I got to take her up there because she can't wait this long she needs money now her State's not settled in all these other problems she's got to move out because her aunts owns the the the structure she's in and she's wanting to sell it so they took it around underneath an emergency situation just to help but me personally I've had to go to Port St Lucy to see a vso in a reasonable time I've had to go to okobe I've had to go to Jupiter I've had to go to West Palm Beach because they're so buried over here they need help okay and I'm asking for it and if you can there' be a lot of people that like myself that would appreciate it instead of feeling like you're in a doctor's office lineing you got so long come on in get go to cover all this difficult to prepare information to help get your benefits okay thank you minute commissioner Cy Mr Donaldson can you speak to our vso and find out if he feels that they're underst staffed and if they are can we bring that forward immediately there's no reason our vets have to wait yes I don't know I'm sure there's more to the story but you know I hear Mike and I have had one other person that said it's difficult and it's not their fault if the demand outweighs the people that we have in the office then we need to create more people in the office even if we have to rotate someone from somewhere else to come and do that I I can only state that I know that our reputation of having really good service has gone beyond our borders so that's certainly our success and having really skilled staff I think is certainly contributed to the demand oh I get that and I'm not criticizing our staff I'm saying if they need an extra person yes I understand because the level of service is top-notch which obviously creates additional demand but some of these situations can't wait and I'm not saying that you hire a new person I'm saying maybe we could find someone else in the organization volunteers well I mean I don't know how it works and I I apologize for jumping in but you pushed a button for me that I I hear you so and and Mr Donaldson will help her you can tell your friend you accomplished something this morning thank you kind sir appreciate it thank you all all right Gina Kent is followed by John D D hi good morning Commissioners my name is Gina Kent I am a uh Town council member from Ocean Breeze um I am here on behalf to speak for the adopt uh Proclamation for the Treasure Coast Christian Alliance Day of Prayer in Martin County um I've been here for 10 years my mom lived at sailfish for 30 some years so I've been coming down here since I was 15 it's such a wonderful area I mean it's a it's a jewel nobody knows about the Treasure Coast but a lot of people are coming down as we can see um I think that this would be a good uh proclamation to adopt just to bring Unity um and for all for all religions under God as we state in the Pledge of Allegiance so I'm just asking that you favor that Proclamation and that it do go through and you do choose a date for Martin County Proclamation uh Day of Prayer I think it's a good thing to bring everyone together regardless their religion but we're all under God okay thank you thank you John di followed by Sam hay good morning Commissioners good to see you all here looking so f uh my name is John D I'm a Vietnam era veteran and um I'm a US Coast Guard license captain and an FAA pilot so I use all the Martin County's wonderful things we were just voted one of the best places to retire right we all know it's a great place so I think we need to kind of keep it that way and um I know bright Line's been tabled but I'd like to refer to it as not so bright line because I don't see any economic profit for the County on that and that's private entity being funded with government dollars and grants uh they've lost over $200 million do maybe closer to three truth be known it was all about putting tracks in with grant money and bond free money for tracks which I'm not against for Freight but like for example the Marine industry put in$ 31.6 billion do into this state and in the uh Martin County it was 13 or 1.35 billion and we're greatly impacted by the train the schedules and everything else but you know we had the you know let's wait and see but I think Tom was talking about the Common Thread is financial responsibility and transparency with all the local government to the people that live here I just found out last night um there's condos going in Port Sero and somebody handed me this paper which is about seven pages back and forth with the salaries for everybody that works for the county and said there's a 12% pay raise on the table I don't know if that's true or not but if it is I mean these are again financial responsibilities and transparencies and that's all I ask is you know I think uh every commissioner here has a job to the people that they work for because everybody in up here is getting paid to be here and we're paying for it and I run a business and I don't run it at a deficit and I know your jobs are very difficult and I've talked to some of you you know oneon-one and I know you're doing the best you can but please the information coming the other way on a very clear uh agenda would be appreciated thank you thank you Mr Sam hay will be followed by Terry k k Sam yeah I'm I'm Sam hey I'm I live in Port Saro it's my understanding that on your agenda for today's meeting are several proposals for substantial changes to our comprehensive plan considering the history of the current County Commission the prospect of any further changes to the comp plan is unavoidably suspect the recent election results for both Martin County and the City of Stewart commissions indicate that the majority of us feel we've had more than enough of excessive development I urge you now to reject any changes which would continue this trend of overdevelopment given the unambiguous results of last month's elections it would be inappropriate for this lame duck commission to make any questionable changes to our comprehensive plan because these proposed changes are apparently quite complicated I believe that at the very least they should be properly presented to the public and that sufficient time be given for full public scrutiny any effort to rush through these changes would look a lot like our Governor's ham-handed plan to bulldo a major portion of Jonathan Dickinson State Park to build golf courses and we know how well that sneaky attempt was received by the people of Martin County indeed the parallels here are striking in both cases treasured natural areas are destroyed or degraded with little or little regard if any for the wishes of the community wildlife habitat is eliminated our already compromised water courses become further contaminated people lose vital contact with our natural surroundings and Future fut Generations never have the opportunity to enjoy their rightful natural heritage the obvious question here is who stands to benefit from these changes in the case of our state park it's certainly not the endangered Florida scrub jay or the hikers boers and mountain bikers who come to the park to commune with nature in the case of Martin County it's not citizens who who wish for the opportunity to live in a location unspoiled by nerve-wracking traffic increased levels ofme crime and rampant development in both cases we are again faced with the inevitable question of follow the money who typically benefits from weakening the comp plan is developers who seek to maximize their profits at the expense of our environment and our quality of life let's put a halt to this disastrous Trend now thank you you're here Mary kogo is followed by Patricia swii swii SII good morning Commissioners Terry kogal okay bright line is an unnecessary financial burden on Martin County residents why is Martin County being forced to subsidize a wealthy foreign corporation the majority of Bri line was acquired by Abu Abu Dhabi Sovereign wealth company which is owned by Abu Dhabi government founded in 2018 has a diversified non oil portfolio ranging from energy utilities food agriculture Health Care Life Sciences real estate and tourism The Firm claims that it has contributed about 222% Abad dhabi's non oil GDP in 2023 has a net worth of $157 billion so why are we subsid subsidizing 157 billion doll foreign company are we out of our minds there is no economic benefit to the Martin County taxpayers from a payment to a private foreign $157 billion Corporation when the funds are derived from the successful completion of the projections will only flow into the coffers of the 157 billion do private cor Corporation it's illusionary and speculative claim that the shops and restaurants in downtown Stewart which are small will attract consumers to travel for miles away just to Avail themselves to their services at the cost of the Martin County taxpayers however despite the limited hypothetical benefits to the downtown businesses I have no objections for the bright line building the steart train station and its parking garage as long as bright line pays for it let the $157 billion owners of bright line pay for their own business needs heck they can build a thing out of gold we have to be completely out of our minds or just plain stupid to even consider forcing the taxpayers to pay this okay you say that there's been a lot of in uh misinformation out there just do your research on this and you will find that this is a true [Applause] statement Patricia swiki is followed by Carol an Leonard Patricia and she comes there shees more negative in our meetings than City yeah right off the bat good morning my name is Patricia SOI I live in Stewart Florida I had this speech all prepared I'm not going to read it um I'm going to I first came to steuart in the late 80s and early 90s uh the downtown area and it was a tired area when I moved to Florida finally in 197 2017 I was amazed how it had changed and it changed beautifully the downtown area pulled itself up by B bootstraps and that is from the hard work of the businesses the county and the city for that to happen and it is that strength that beauty that is The Shining Star of of what I believe Florida the the deal with bright line is a business deal and with every business deal there are negotiations the deal that we were addressed with yesterday and today um was not a good deal and and and there were many several people who spoke up and wanted a different deal I am not opposed to the bright Line train coming into Stewart I'm just opposed to the deal as it has been presented to us we need to renegotiate the deal and if bright line chooses to bypass the shining star of the State of Florida that's their business decision and possibly their loss as to the shopkeepers in that are in stward right now in downtown Stewart right now it is their strength that will be will be bypassed by the trains as it goes past us at miles an hour thank you thank you I'm just curious I wanted to talk about bright line now and want the microphone at public speaking I wanted to speak about two other items that are different is that okay I'm sorry I missed what you anyway if you need need to come up here and then I want to speak well bright line I believe we're done talking we're we're taking that off the AGA I thought you were talking about bright line now we already voted on bright line public comment now you can talk you can do it in public comment this is public comment speeches she she's anyway Miss lard to be followed by Mr win Chuck win uh good morning I oose um I oppose agenda item dpq J-1 the development of 98 single family homes at caner Highway and Lost River Road that area in Olive caner Highway are highly congested already the approved Mega developments along Bridge Road will be using caner as well as the approved developments west of I95 by caner secondly literally for years the public and the environmental groups have been writing and speaking comments to the Martin County Board of County Commissioners we oppose the excessive overdevelopment especially those outside the urban service boundaries USBS we don't want continual expansion of the rural lifestyle Acres we want few and only beneficial changes to the comprehensive plan there are many other concerns too many to list here the people have spoken regarding the E survey and in the last BCC election surely you can see what we want from Martin County I hope that the Commissioners who are leaving and those that remain will do the honorable thing do what we the majority of the people want don't try to rush through all the things that we the people oppose it's your legacy as far as bright line I wrote my comments to you already I'm in support of it I would think you can find the means to fund it without raising our taxes we need a parking garage now why not use it for the train station and I don't um so that's my comment thank you Mr W will be followed by Judith Farley morning good morning good morning my name is Chuck W I live in North River Shores my comments are directed to the bright Line Station issue I don't have a problem with a renegotiated agreement with a renegotiated agreement that's limited to a station constructed at a reasonable cost per square foot in a parking garage bright line must also share not less than onethird of the costs this must also not be the Cornerstone of a long range sustainable development plan for transforming Martin County into an urbanized Transit oriented Community since your August 27th meeting even more information is surfaced revealing previously hidden features in the severely flawed process that the city followed in developing their proposal again thanks to Mrs casing R mullan's persistent efforts we also have a clearer picture of the excessively leveraged Financial condition of bright line the foreign owned Corporation who would be your partner the transit oriented development pieces were also very well camouflaged under no circumstances should the county deed Parcels of land with development rights that exceed requirements for a station parking and possibly an overhead walkway the current agreement is the centerpiece of a plan for a Transit oriented Community it is not just a Transit stop with a parking garage for a commuter rail system last May this foreign or this foreign owned company reverted to its original business plan of shuttles between Orlando and Miami by ending South Florida commuter discounts over the years bright line has consistently failed at running profitable passenger rail operations the current plan gives bright line immediately development rights on over two acres and also gives them the right to acquire three more Acres south of Monterey Avenue once they are remediated I'm assuming that they're anticipating this will be done at taxpayer expense the one profitable bright line operation over the years has been selling buildings on land that they obtain the exclusive development rights of under similar private public partnership agreements elsewhere throughout this process federal grants have been repeatedly emphasized as sources of funding but none have materialized to date this is a great leap backwards to that HUD driven 750 plan that our County Commission wisely withdrew from 11 years ago do it right this time Judith Farley will be followed by Stephen matal matal morning good morning Commissioners my name is Judith Farley my husband Chris and I are the owners of a a boutique in the heart of downtown Stewart for 12 years now and our longtime residents of the city of Stewart so nervous sorry take a breath you fine as a boutique owner trying to make this yellow shirt fashionable is quite difficult this morning after only four hours of sleep um I want to thank you um for your service I know it's not not easy to um hold your positions that you do and I respect um what you said earlier about going before the um right line in the city of Stewart and trying to negotiate apprciate um I guess I'm here to ask you to try to redeem what happened last night for our city to restore some hope that we will get a beautiful station downtown um the staff of the city of Stuart put together an excellent presentation last night that I believe really answered a lot questions and dispelled a lot of the concern rightful concern um I do believe we should carefully consider and get the best deals possible but to resend last night was I feel an irresponsible decision that did not represent the majority of the constituents in Stuart it was very disheartening um even the behavior of a certain commissioner was just so disheartening to see our mayor disrespect Ed um I just wish that that could be addressed and maybe prevented in the future um our mayor's done so much for our community um so I want to thank you for all acting so um professional today and respectful with each other and to us it means a lot thank you for professionalism and um I just want to say thank you for that and I hope that you do um restore our reputation um we are a bright spot on the Treasure Coast we're a bright spot in Florida and um I look forward to hopefully getting a train station thank you so much you Steve will be followed by Sherry Lee morning good morning Commissioners my name is Step Vitali I live in sus Point I've lived in Martin County for almost 22 years I own the own the old Colorado wi hotel in downtown Stewart I'm a I used to sit on the tourism the Martin County tourism board for several years there is a lot of support for this station for several reasons first of all the lifestyle benefits there obvious I don't need to repeat them secondly the enhancement to our tourist based economy which is so important there is approximately a thousand people that supported the support bright line uh Facebook page and there were almost 250 letters that were sent to the city of Stewart commission the overwhelming majority of them in favor of the station last night at the meeting the overwhelming majority of people who attended were in strong favor of this station I don't know if any of you saw the meeting last night but it truly was an embarrassment to our city the way that some of the Commissioners conducted themselves was disgraceful in my opinion and I appreciate the way you were all conducting yourselves up here and always do and we need you to rescue our reputation after the debaca last night last night the interlocal agreement between Martin County and the city did survive that gives you leverage because it requires the city to spend $30 million on a parking garage to accept the land and to lease it to the city so now you have the power to do the right thing for our County and Save this train station because everybody knows to have this going by blowing its horn hundreds of times a day without the benefit of the station would be criminal absolutely criminal and the chance will never come again please do the right thing and save the station thank you for your time thank you and I am told that my can you hear me yeah it's on it is on okay on people have been texting me they can't hear me anyway uh Sherry Lee followed by Steve Adams good morning Commissioners thank you for being here I appreciate your vote to renegotiate this I was at the meeting last night up very late uh extremely disappointed in the proceedings I think procedure wasn't followed there was a lot of disrespect uh it felt very chaotic I am in the city and in the CRA for 12 years so I own a couple of businesses in the CRA downtown um I own property I'm invested in that CRA that's my money that people are talking about I feel that they're ill informed um I did learn last night that the county spends $30 million a year maintaining our roads I don't know what you spend to build new ones but I feel that uh maybe you could speak a little bit about that today and continue to educate people that are so worried about the money the money's already there for this that CRA has been collecting money from me for uh since I've own my building downtown um I was pulled many years ago about this train and I know from being in Palm Beach County when TR rail started up down there these are multi-regional projects and they're going to happen and you can either get in line and be part of it or you're going to get left behind our community needs to be connected to the huge population that's down south the growth is already here uh the growth is already north of us uh people started coming from California and the other coast during covid that growth is already here and I know you've had a very difficult time managing that growth because people are screaming for affordable housing and the minute you put up a bunch of affordable housing they go they go crazy um so I I know it's a difficult job I appreciate um Doug Smith you saying let's just take this over as a county project I think that's an interesting angle uh I hope that the city was um being genuis when they said they would want to renegotiate I'm not sure that's true uh but bright line is a gift and a blessing to our community how it would connect us to the hospitals the stadiums the airports the sea ports North and south of us our friends and family north and south of us and it's not for us for now it's for our future it's for our kids and their kids they're going to be using this train for generations to come uh I appreciate your vote and I'm going to be following this very closely please talk about that 30 million a year for maintaining our roads I think that's very interesting information thank you okay Steve Adams is followed by wow Nikki vono where is she I don't know she's s in the front with the hat on good morning Commissioners oh there she is I can't see her from here thank you for being here thank you for allowing me to speak uh I'm new here to Palm City two and a half years with my mom I retired good for you thank you I take care of her she takes care of me and um because I'm new here uh I found found out from a lot of Martin County long-term residents that I'm one of the hated people cuz I'm new um that makes me feel wonderful uh but I come from South Jersey right where I'm a retired police officer Patrol sergeant and a lot of people hated me for that so it really doesn't matter not if you're from Jersey the problem where I come from is it's overdeveloped beyond belief you could reach out and touch your neighbor and shake his hand the houses are so close it'll never be the same because that's where I grew up it'll never be the same and there's a lot of residents here that say the same thing Martin County is not going to be the same I plead with you to slow things down big time um and I also with that being said I do like the bright Line Station but I absolutely oppose the way it's going to be funded and I for the businesses in Stewart um but I feel their attention is misdirected because bright line switched out the deal it was supposed to be 50% 50/50 and they changed it so it's not the city of Stewart that is making a bad deal they're looking to make a better deal and I hope you guys can make a deal if you can't you can't but I don't want it coming out of my pocket they're a multi-billion dollar company they should be paying their own way and that's how I feel cuz haters of Martin County who don't like me are all working today because they're struggling with bills and they're struggling with our out of control inflation and maybe that's a problem too so thank you very much appreciate your time okay uh Miss vano will be followed by Michael Dawn yes she is welcome home it's nice to see everyone good morning I'm Nikki vano and I'm a refi a retired um County bureaucrat and so um I did go to the city of Stewart meeting last night and but that's not really why I came to talk to you I basically came to tell you irregardless of what any body says I love you all I think you do a great job I'm so proud of you and and I just really appreciate you and I wanted to tell you about George Washington and Lafayette because their friendship saved this country and we should remember that that friendship is what binds us we are all the same we are all the same and that should be our Mantra we should stop talking about color because quite frankly all the shades are blending in to make a universal construct so so read your history appreciate what George Washington did for our country he saved our democracy and and and that's what needs to be foremost in our minds I told you before I love it when you have a room full of people in here screaming at you because it shows people that we know how to practice democracy and so thank you for your service I'd like to thank that that police officer who was just here I thought I would burst into tears when he was talking about how everybody hates him I do not hate him I applaud his service and his dedication and I want him to know I love him even if he is from New Jersey and thank you all thank you Nikki Michael Dawn will be followed by Our Last speaker form uh Janet Riley apparently not our last speaker for morning Commissioners my name is Michael Don uh Mickey's my nickname so um I I got to speak before the uh commission last night and um I just want to say that um I was very disappointed in the manner in which the people were treated um it was disrespectful um and um I've been to my wife and I both retired from Miami dat fire rescue as firefighter paramedics and so we've been up in Stewart and Martin County for the last 25 years we built the house in city of Stewart and when we heard that the bright line was going to be here we were very thrilled that not that we we we opposed it originally of course we didn't want it to come through our city but once it was here the fact that we could get a station um was really a benefit to all of the citizens I believe in Martin County and I had an opportunity to ride the bright line and I would tell you it was a it was a great experience the worst part of the whole thing was though I had to drive 50 miles to get there now I only have to go two miles I don't have to leave my car at the um it's it's a great benefit for us and I believe that majority of the citizens in this County believe that they need that s that for them there were a number of people um last night that um have to travel down to medical facilities in Miami Fort Lauderdale Palm Beach and this would be an opportunity for them not to have to drive um the fact that it's going to be going to uh the Tamp area also is important and as I I mentioned last night um you know prior to the city elections my mailbox every day was filled with all the things that the new Commissioners that were elected uh promised to do but the one thing that they admitted was abolishing the bright Line Station they didn't bring that up the reason they didn't bring it up because they wouldn't have been sitting there last night had they brought it up I believe the voters in this County would overwhelmingly votee in favor of having the station uh and the stops in Martin County so uh whatever you folks can do I would certainly appreciate uh that and I think that the majority of the citizens of Martin and Stuart would also benefit from that thank you very much thank you Janet Riley followed by detet detet price and again that's my last speaker for good morning Commissioners thank you so much for allowing us to voice our opinions all right there has been so much manipulation deception and abysmal negotiations causing both a financial and safety bursen to the taxpayers of this community when it comes to Bright line future decisions regarding bright line should not and cannot be made with predominantly bright line business owners and politicians in mind bright line has been a worthy opponent but it's time the Commissioners stand with their constituents and resend the least all the lease agreements and um the leases bright line ha has and will continue to defend their financial and physical encroachment into Martin County our job as citizens of this community is to stand firm and not be taken advantage of by bright line AKA Florida East Coast Industries itself a subsidiary of the Fortress Investment Group group which is in turn a subsidiary of mubadala Investment Group and Emira State Sovereign wealth fund you see bright line is not actually a rail company it is a branch of a larger property speculation company yes and none of these folks live here let me address the safety issue from the start of operation bra line fatally struck 110 people at one death per 32,000 train miles this is by far the highest rate of fatality in the United States when it comes to rail to compare the overall Us train fa fatality rate was 1.4 per 1 million miles in 2017 and as one journalist reported and I quote according to Bright line these TR tragedies are always the fault of the person Crossing lovely folks wouldn't you say it's just business to Bright line Sheriff William Snyder who always has been this community's has had this community's best interest in mind has been opposed to Bright line from the Inception in February 23 he said and I quote that bright Line train will be a clear and present danger to our drivers with the amount of people driving across these tracks and the backups that occur naturally across the track it's only a matter of time before we have the same exact thing happen here and he was referring to the Fati fatalities that occurred in South Florida in Del re and he further stated money always carries the day the drivers of Martin Connie are going to suffer for it it's only a matter of time before we have our own fatalities here and he was right there has been 10 train incidents on the Treasure Coast since 2023 and might do and five injured and this is really rich in March 2024 bright line sought tax dollars again to fund fencing and other safety upgrades bright line is a private Venture Madam your time is up thank you tax dollars to mitigate their cost to save I didn't even get to Crime the crime is a big issue m'am m'am your time's up thank you uh Mr Prince is followed by Christine price followed by um Christine Dawn and Tammy I'll get you I got you over here uh good morning um commission my name is DEET price I am actually property owner business in in in the county and in the city and also live over in Souls Point um you know I I I'm I'm sitting here and I listen to the the the various statistics that were just being thrown out and I look at the information that's being broadcast or being told you know last night I learned at a commission that is all from social media so I guess you know what I feel is that as a board hopefully we're actually looking at real professional information and Gathering info from folks that know what they're talking about not just looking at keyboard Warriors um I've lived here for the last 15 years I I actually work in a lot of the municipalities I forgot the bright Line stations I've sat in different boards as bright line has been trying to figure this out throughout from Southeast Florida all the way from Miami all the way up to Orlando um this is not something that is coming it's already here uh the benefit to the community is large my kids that have grown born and grown up here I'd hope for them to be able to have the ability just like me to be going to these different areas to work and being able to live here that's My Hope um I've invested heavily here in order to help create the uh the economy that works I think that proper development yes there's a way to slow things down there's a way to do proper development but there's a way to also create an economic engine to have our kids come back everyone has heard that come up here it's like oh people can't be here because they working guess what you're right but we also have a lot of younger folks that would like to be here or stay here and I'd like my kids to come back we're not all retirees at someday I will but I'd like for my kids to be able to be here to help take care of me not going somewhere else and then worrying about how do they get back do I jump on a train deal with the traffic for 2 three hours I want to make it as easy as possible for them so I think that the idea of going back and renegotiating and looking at how this would work directly at bright line that's an option there's definitely a lot of different options to is the way to go to help create the benefit from traffic reduction you know yeah the the I hear crime as a sta IC I'm like okay so you know what yes it's going to bring Crime everyone complains about the ticket price is being too high but yeah a criminal is going to pay 200 bucks or whatever they're quoting last night to come up here to commit crime I don't see that happening so we need to keep everything in check and really think about the facts um costs listen I do this every day everyone when they look at Cost it's a speculation they make a conservative review until you really get plans and really get down to the nitty-gritty you really will figure out what it will cost thanks Christine Christine Dawn followed by Tammy Mao and just mazot mazot just say what the proper par yes ma'am good morning Commissioners my name is Christy Dawn and my husband as he just stated that we are both retired Mii Dade firefighter paramedics who moved here about 25 years ago obviously I am dressed like bright line I am yellow from head to toe and I completely support it and I can tell you that in the beginning I obviously was extremely against it I was did not felt that the train needed to go through all of our communities historically the state voted twice to have a high-speed rail and it was supposed to be out west where it wouldn't have gone through our towns however that deal was done and given back by one of our previous Governors so there is a history that the State of Florida has voted its residents of voted for for railroad I've traveled around the world my dad worked for Pan-American there is not a country around except maybe the United States that doesn't have rail system to help people get from place to place you can't go anywhere in Florida without a car we had a station we thought a deal was done I same as my husband felt like last night the commission uh the new Commissioners were extremely disrespectful uh that was a whole I was quite surprised and shocked how things went down last night and it's very sad to me that things have been turned down when the deal had already been made and I please implore you to please do whatever you can to save this station to have a train go through here every day disrupting our traffic and our fire rescue services and our boating and our life in general without stopping here so that we can benefit from it to go north and south without having to drive 50 miles to get the train going south and God forbid this train goes to Fort Pierce because I wouldn't leave my car in Fort Pierce and to take the train and you're laughing but it's true how many of you would leave your car in Fort Pierce right now at a train station and as my husband said we are literally two miles we would Uber to the station we wouldn't be leaving our car but look at all the benefit that it would create for this community the as the businesses have said as other people have stated but I'm looking at it as a big picture that we need transportation that isn't just a car we need to come to the 2024 um and I'll give you I'm 67 years old when I was 17 so 50 years ago I was in Japan for Thanksgiving literally about you know I mean seriously I took a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto 50 years ago think about it thank you Tammy is going to properly pronounce her last name when she gets to the thank you Tammy Mota just like it's spelled I actually put in slips to address two things the first one I'm going to bring up is actually the very last it's Department okay so you have another card for that I do should I do them both at the same time so you can't do you can't speak at it again when the item comes up so if you want to speak now okay forever hold your piece you can all right I'll do a little bright line speak piece then I mean it doesn't matter to me I just have the two things to say and that's it so um everyone's on the bright line and I can't tell you anything that you don't already know we know this and as far as um numbers being being wrong and misin information being passed through there's a big reason for that and it's a lot of it is transparency and communication we don't have enough transparency we don't have enough communication so everyone can be on the same page and any choice that you make you are going to get it from the rare and no one's going to be happy either way but I just want to let you know that I have confidence in all of you to come through with the proper decisions for the train station I'm not against it but I'm not for the deal as everybody's already said we got a bad deal going on so um I do have confidence in you people may not agree with me but I do I really do have faith in the Commissioners whether it be the city or the county and I think the right thing is going to happen and I thank you very much for all your patience with everyone and for working under this stress and making decisions for us okay that's it thank you so okay um and with that that was our last uh public speaking form so we're going to go to commissioner comments commissioner Smith thank you Mr chairman um to the folks that commented uh this morning relative to Bright line and relative to transparency information and so on uh I know I worked really hard with staff this prior week uh and bright line quite frankly to make sure that um in the agenda item we would have had today there would been a tremendous amount of clarity as to what is and what isn't at least from what we understand what we know and what our professional staff would have presented so um hopefully that will happen in the future um because there is um a lot of information and there's a lot of fact at least as I understand fact and probably the rest of our board does um so that should be coming in the future regardless of where we end up um with the negotiations uh to the gentleman firefighter or Police Department I guess police you said from South Jersey um my family half my family was from South Jersey um what exit Way South Jersey like real South Jersey not middle Jersey South Jersey um I don't think South Jersey at least for my family was from has changed that much other than the shore has changed tremendously um for those of you who know Ocean City New Jersey what it was when I was a kid was nothing like it is today and that's a shame but we are not that and and I don't think we will ever be that here um and I think that's it I'm I'm I'm happy I I'm I'm glad the merchants um have come forward thank you for for doing that thank you for taking the time to come back out again today from Stuart um there's a lot more to discussion to be had um I think it's important that if we do end up uh moving in that direction um that it is it is good for downtown Stewart and I think it'll be important um I understand it has to be done right and uh I'm suspect the rest of our board feels exactly the same um so I I wish our staff the very best in working through whatever those issues may be um also too um we had our 16 County Coalition meeting last Friday uh a really good meeting um there'll be a transition uh relative to the 16 County Coalition but I think the next 25 years relative to Lake okachobee restoration water policy uh what I think what I consider what I call all things water uh policy has a really bright future you have a great group of people uh that work on our behalf work with us both the core both the Water Management District and and certainly the 16 counties that make up that board have worked very very hard um to make sure that we stay focused on our top three or four priorities which we continue to do uh I'm sorry to see Carson Turner leave probably most of you in the room don't know who Carson is but uh Carson uh absolutely will have left a legacy relative to the 16 County Coalition there is no one I don't think amongst that group of people that worked harder tried harder uh to be consistent and keep keep things moving relative to All Things water in South Florida than Carson and so Carson if you ever get a chance to hear this thank you for all your service and um he's retiring um but he's on to bigger and better things and I feel that we will see his footprint again so thank you all very much thank you thank you commissioner Heatherton I have a couple things but the theme of conversation this morning seems to be communication and it's we've all talked about it up here we've wrangled our head and and and said we have to do a better job communicating out of this building but I think we've tried just about everything we've tried you know YouTube social media press releases workshops and I'm a communication person at heart and I think that the county strives to have transparency and communicate and it is just so frustrating to hear still that you know that people think that we're not communicating and I want to do the best job so to communicate with our public so I'm all years part of the problem is so many people get their misinformation on social media and it just fuels a fire and it's really hard to put that out but I think that we double down and do as much communication as we can and I heard some yesterday and and I try to stay off of social media now because it becomes so toxic I get an email on my personal email from next door which you know I I never careed to see people bash businesses because they're hamburger was undercooked and that's a lot of that and it said that the the Count's taking up these agenda items and they've really had these are the the ear amendments that they've really had no um public comment and they're rushing them through and I mean we'll hear those items later but I feel like we've been talking with these about a year and a half possibly and I'm watching this commentary saying show up they're going to cram these things through and I I always want to hear the comments if you have a comment on an agenda item please by all means but please do not say that they're we're trying to cram things through when they've been talked about a year and a half or more um I also saw online that you were resigning oh really yes so but clearly you you have ch you have chosen not to run for reelection so again the misinformation and I I hope that we can do whatever we can do to continue to communicate with our public and and know that that we have the most transparency out there it's frustrating but we'll continue to to work on our communication second of all I hope many of you and I'm sure commissioner campy will mention this the bridge walk tomorrow we will be honoring uh September 11th and we will be having a BridgeWalk um from the on the Veterans Memorial Bridge from commissioner campy's District to my district and back and I hope you will all join us it starts at Jo Layton Park correct and um what time is it commissioner 8:30 A.M 8:30 a.m. and we value our First Responders both those who um put their life In Harm's Way that day and those who do it every day um in our community so hope you'll join us for that and I think that was my last comment we have a bridge too that goes to my 96 street right we could walk that one might get killed on it but yeah go go ahead me y uh thank you very much um first off thanks for all the folks that came out this morning to participate in the process I really appreciate it uh like I said I watched the meeting I see some of you spoke very late last night and are here this morning um that's how the system is supposed to work and we appreciate it I do like when people wear colors based on their position we should adopt that for everything where people can come in wearing like J dis so we have a better understanding of as they're coming forward what their their issue is uh on a much more serious note I would say that as commissioner heatherington mentioned um we've done uh we are continuing to try to do um all we can to never forget September 11th is tomorrow uh I think it's you know um it becomes more of an adult remembrance uh I had the sad uh experience of being in New York City on September 11th uh watched The Towers fall down probably lost 15 or 20 people that I knew from my neighborhood in law enforcement fire rescue kids I went to school with people I rode the train with um all three of my brother-in-laws were New York City police officers not there that day but there for weeks and months afterwards dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 um by the grace of God the three of them have remained healthy but many many people that they know uh died after the fact from 911 related diseases uh because they were Heroes and they rushed there later that day and worked on what they called the pile or Ground Zero for months and months and months afterwards and a lot of them knew what they were inhaling and what they were dealing with and sifting through was obviously not um healthy but they did it any anyway so for as us for us as a society even though it's two decades later to somehow forget um is is a crime and so we are having events in the morning there are events all over the Treasure Coast but here in Martin County as commissioner heatherington mentioned we're having a our Martin County fire rescue department is having a bridge bridge walk with their personnel um at 8 :30 a.m. in at jock Lon Park which is the park diagonally across from the Palm City post office at the corner of map road and Martin Highway there's a skate park in the front there you'd park there you could walk over if walking all over the all the way over the bridge to caner is too much you can walk to the top of the bridge you could stay in the parking lot and participate it's a solemn event for those people that like to get up and get their day started early one thing I was very happy to hear about is that the school schols are allowing um students that wish to participate uh the opportunity to participate as well as you know obviously be late for school in the evening at 7 p.m. at the Peter and Julie Cummings Library which is Martin Downs Boulevard and matth uh for many years we have had a very solemn event there Martin County High School Opus singers are there uh people that participated that day uh or or have loved ones that were killed that day give their personal experienes uh Dennis McKenna who is a friend of mine has been working passionately about this issue since it happened uh he is constantly the person that sort of spearheads this for us and I know sometimes he can be a bulldog but he's a bulldog for the right reasons uh we also have you can see it there tomorrow but you can see it at any port at any point we have a very large portion of uh structure from the World Trade Center and what I every time I look at it and I think you would as well is you can sense the sheer Devastation the violence of those of those crashes into this structure because we have a tremendously large ibeam and it has little flanges that come off of it that looked like they were tinf foil crumpled like tinf foil um and that just helps us to not forget because you know the way that Society seems to be going currently it I don't think anybody would be totally shocked if something terrible happened again but part of that diligence is that you can't forget the things that happened as well as the fact that how many people joined the military immediately following it that was their motivation to join the military and we've had thousands of our men and women killed protecting us um a lot of them were inspired or motivated to protect and defend our country because of what happened that day so it it ripples across the generations uh I would tell you my own son uh was May June July August September four months old when 911 happened and uh he's currently serving in in Corpus Christie Texas in the Navy and he would tell you that one of his motivations obviously he doesn't have a memory of that day but he has a lifetime of memories of how we how we remembered it so I thank you for the time thank you commissioner herd yeah the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection May once again be considering an application to dredge the Riverwatch conservation easement in Jensen Beach on Hutchinson Island it's a um uh very important habitat uh there are are seagrass beds there there are mangrove forest there there that will be threatened by this uh proposed dredging um this property it's a 12 acre easement and it has a conservation easement in perpetuity uh it was established in uh 1991 and reestablished in uh 2003 um no need for maintenance dredging has been demonst rated in fact the D has noted that sufficient navigability of the flushing Channel currently exists so I would ask that we oppose this dredging permit it's also a a top priority of our own hippie community and by hippie I mean the Hutchinson Island preservation initiative so I would ask that we support the hippie uh group and oppose this dredging this is the first time hearing of these specific issues not that I don't believe that commissioner herd is giving us the information I appreciate the fact that hippie is involved but if you want to maybe do something and come back later today and give us a little update on it I'm sure if there's a if there's a request for dredging I'd like to hear what that request for dredging was even though I I know you delve into the issues so I'm not opposed to writing letter saying that we don't think it's necessary but I don't have enough facts right at this moment you can come back to us later in the day okay we'll see what we can do that'd be good and also um just wanted to to say that we're uh very very pleased in Port solo last week a long awaited business opened it's Gilbert's C coffee bar uh there's currently one downtown by the the Sailor returns and they repurposed an old uh failing building and redeveloped it and it's beautiful they've done a fantastic job so I want to welcome that that uh terrific business into downtown portno that's exactly how Redevelopment is supposed to work this morning's meeting brought to you by Gilbert's coffee bar yeah it is all right um my comments is um I attended the 16 County Coalition meeting um as the sendoff of commissioner Smith and Carson um I can tell you you will be sorely missed for all your hard work over these years um you know and I'm sure that applies to every you've done with uh uh Florida Association of counties and everything else so I just uh it was a moving um tribute tribute um yes and I'm going to go outside my comfort zone here and I'm going to say I watch the city of Stewart meeting last night I've been sitting on this board for years and we have had some pretty serious disagreements right and we've always yeah we've always treated each other with respect and decorum I'm going to say it right now what I saw last night city of Stewart citizens of city of Stewart should have a huge problem with the way whichever side of that issue you were on should have a huge problem in the way that meeting was conducted last night and the total disrespect again both sides right um those elected officials should uh anyway I'm going to leave it at that I I I am very thankful that the five of us uh and Ed Fielding before um you Stacy um we always um no matter we could have been on complete opposite ends of the spectrum but at least we showed each other respect and um and and I do thank you for that and and uh anyway um I did have something else to say which has left me so anyway can you can you update us on the station your station so the station um the moving of the train station not a bright Line Station by the way um it is um the or it was it is going to be yellow it was the original color was yellow you actually found the yellow uh up in the rafters um the um historic train station uh was supposed to be moved last month uh for a number of different reasons that did not happen it is scheduled to move on the 15th um the problem now is AT&T is on strike so we need AT&T the Mover needs AT&T and Florida Power and Light to drop the lines there's I think somebody said there's 14 different lines that have to be dropped altered picked up or whatever for it to get to its current uh from its current location to um the site the site the foundation is poured and in the ground and ready to accept um the train station so again um scheduled for the 15th Sunday um if something happens with AT&T between now and then if not it'll be pushed off again which is um which is a shame is it going to be early in the morning again yeah 5:00 a.m. or something like 5 to 5:30 is what um brownie said they would be turning in the corner at Harry so um but uh Harry's and then breakfast that was the whole idea but this is like the third shot so we're all don't have a lot of faith that it's actually going to happen cuz Harry was going to do a little thing but uh thank you for that anyway so um and that's it uh Mr social media will say commissioner Jenkins confirms the train station will be opened in Hope Sound yes yeah no doubt and it's going to be yellow and it's going to be yellow yeah thank thank you Commissioners I do have an item to discuss there we have a a noted uh Martin County um Native uh city of Stewart Native Allan Gilbert passed away and they had a celebration for him this uh this last Saturday at the uh Port solerno uh Church of God and it was really quite a moving ceremony the city of Stewart um adopted a pro Proclamation for Alan Gilbert uh and he uh born C the city of Stewart was in the first uh graduating class after segregation uh from Martin County High School um but any event I did not know him U personally before that uh service but at the end of it I certainly knew knew him felt uh he was he was certainly a noted uh leader in our community and deserving of all the accolades that were bestowed upon him what I'm requesting of you all is that we could also draft a resolution in support of Mr Gilbert who was 78 years old um uh Middle School band teacher uh all that time uh anyway a lot of noted things and I would bring that resolution back at the end of the day for you all to adopt if that's something you all would support Proclamation move approval of proclamation second thank you he also taught at Hidden Oaks Middle School as the band director and taught over 8,000 students to play an instrument yes many of them came back from around the country to celebrate have a motion by commissioner herd second by commissioner Heatherton all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously we are going to take our 10:30 break 10 minutes late see you in 10 minutes that's the e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e you're on uh welcome back to our September 10th continuation of our commission meeting we are now at um board and committee appointments Miss Donna Gordon Donna Gordon in administration this is one of the two at llarge positions on the board of zoning adjustment and Mr Brian mccale received three votes I'll move Brian mccale second thank you um trying to be magnanimous okay we have a motion by commissioner heatherington seconded by commissioner campy all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously okay public hearing number one legislative public hearing to consider transmitt of evaluation and appraisal report year based comprehensive plan Amendment 24-3 intergovernmental coordination element and text Amendment Mr douan good morning members of the board um with me is Stephanie with the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council and she will be assisting in the presentation of the first four uh plan amendments that we will present to you but before we launch into the uh the first of those amendments I'd like to make um give provide some background information for the board and for the community watching um this process started uh back in 2023 uh we were required uh that is the county was required to provide a letter to the uh state plan plan planning agency uh and it was due December 1 2023 notifying the state planning agency whether or not Martin County would be doing amendments to the comprehensive growth management plan uh every seven years as we're required to do this is the fourth time in the history of Martin County that we have done evalu an evaluation appraisal report and then done comprehensive plan amendments that followed the evaluation appraisal report so there's nothing new nothing unusual about this uh they received the letter from Martin County on November 27 2023 and they gave us this response letter from the Florida Department of Commerce noting that we must that our plan amendments based on our evaluation appraisal should be transmitted to the department by November 27 2024 and that is the reason why we are scheduling these hearings and presentations for the board um as you may also note in bold underlined text in this letter they note that Florida statute requires the updates to the required am amendments and optional amendments must be processed in the same plan Amendment cycle and that's why you will see them all on the October 22 agenda together because we are required to send them all together up to the state before for the end November 27 um these now the year was a a a review that was done uh earlier this year was finished earlier this year and adopted by the board the second part of it is the Amendments and the Amendments go through three public hearings they all go to the local planning agency and they've been stretched out over the summer the local planning agency has been looking at them and is still finishing the last few chapters and then the transm starts today but we're not going to ask you to take action on any of these items we'll only ask you to continue them to the October 22 date and then they will all go to Tallahassee and be evaluated for 60 days by the state agencies and by surrounding communities and then they will all come back and they will for final adoption next year probably not till February of next year so this is by no means a quick process uh it's been stretched out from 2020 three on through till 2025 and uh I just wanted to provide that context and that background information for everybody's uh knowledge and with that we can uh we'll move into public hearing number one and uh the intergovernmental coordination element and I'll turn it over to Stephanie good morning do I have to yeah you're on no you're on okay good morning uh Stephanie hey I'm the deputy executive director of the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council uh we were um tasked with doing just four of your different chapters um for this ear review process uh the first being the intergovernmental coordination uh many of these changes are just housekeeping in nature um things such as updating the names of different agencies such as um including the village of Indian town now since they've been Incorporated since the last year process um dates of different in our local agreements um and then as far as the goals and objectives and policies um Table Three was updated that's the coordinating entities so there were some different names that we needed to put in there agency changes um section 32b coordinating mechanisms have been revised to reference the Treasure Coast Transportation Council which coordinates Regional planning with the St Lucy and Indian River counties and then also the membership of the um makeup of the board of the M uh policy board was changed um references to the County's agreement with the waste management Rel related to to Solid Waste Disposal policy 3.1 a.4 is updated to reflect the renaming of Engineering Department of Public Works uh policy 3.1.4 coordination on Utility Services revised to reference the changes in the name of the Indian toown uh Utilities company and then also um to address the expiration of a date of an interlocal agreement with the town of Jupiter and then policy 3.1 j3 provision of technical memorandums to the school board is revised to reflect current statutory requirements on population projections so very very small minor changes needed to be made and um just more housekeeping nature we did work with County staff on this the no staff and then reached out to those other boards to uh to make sure that all those agency names are now correct and so I'm available for questions uh one more thing I would like to add is the local planning agency considered this amendment and voted 40 in approval of the proposed changes on June 20 commiss her yeah I'm on page six of 17 and it's about the makeup of the mo and that has been changed to all five County Commissioners I believe that was a change that was made within the mo made that change we we are not doing this change we're just updating your complain to make sure it's consistent I'm just I'm just saying this is incorrect it's all five County Comm Commissioners are going to be serving on the mo it is okay wasn't that just approved by the the governor and the cabinet just like two weeks ago something okay so it's been a couple months since we does so I will make a note that we'll go ahead and update to that to say all five County Commissioners will be included and then I'm on page 13 of 17 under policy uh 3.1 E4 and it's about the um coordination of utility services between Martin County the city Stewart Village of Indiantown and Jupiter Island and it says this interlocal agreement expires in January of 2025 what are we going to do to replace the interlocal I mean we can't this this won't even this will expire before we adopt so I'm assuming the reference is to the commissioner read out all there's an interlocal agreement between the county and uh the town of Jupiter Island that's what I'm most concerned about um we've been in negotiations with the the town um we had a meeting probably last December with commissioner Jenkins involved um as far as I know the ball is in Jupiter Islands Court we haven't heard anything in a while but it that that interlocal agreement was a uh result if memory served of a comp plan challenge that Jupiter Island did to us and it was part of that settlement negotiation but so not required by law and just to add to that it was a very amical meeting and I thought we actually I thought we were further along than I'm disappointed to know that we're not I'm I'm just concerned that we're going to have a an an element that's inaccurate by the time it's adopted Elise Elder Deputy County attorney after we transmit it and it comes back if there's a change that that's like a technical change that we would be able to make before it's adopted it won't be adopted till probably March of next year I'm guessing February of next year so we have time yes so how are negotiations going with the with the uh South Martin it's it is well so the issue if you remember the agreement had a um a planning area where we were to to discuss uh how service will be provided uh the the negotiation that we were looking to complete uh and then bring back for the board to discuss would actually Define a service territory boundary for smru and a very knowledgeable boundary by which Morton County would be on there so um uh so we would bring that back to you all have discussions and I believe uh it it will be in in staff's opinion in the best interest of the county and the uh and South Martin Regional utility uh we both are agreement of the concept boundary um and we just need to amend that we'll get the get that language to you here it'll certainly be done before this is it was their idea okay honestly it was is it different it is if logical so if you recall if not to get too much into the weeds in a completely different issue the boundary uh there was a planning boundary that we were to discuss what happens and then there was a assume there was another area west of that that because it was not mentioned in the agreement smru took the um um uh opinion that they could make claim to service territories all the way out to Indian town if you recall so um we would uh uh eliminate all those ins certainties with this uh proposed amendment and keep it uh essentially to what the original planning boundy was so okay good thanks commissioner Smith and Clyde I guess just for clarification again not that you didn't do it really job explaining what we're doing here today but the ear is a required State process that asks us to go back through the comp plan and clean up inaccuracies changes to state law anything else that has really gone on to make sure that the current or the proposed plan is consistent with state law yes that's correct um so relative to this issue if it doesn't make the timeline of the year and something has to be corrected next year or the following year there's nothing that prevents the county nsmu or whoever doing a plan amendment that matches an agreement that either wasn't anticipated wasn't finalized wasn't something I mean this isn't like the end of it with the ear the ear is just a point in time at which we are required to justify not justify correct any inaccuracies that have occurred over the last seven years relative to compant amendments both at the the state level and at or state law at the state level and compans amendments that have occurred over those seven years I consider it of the the ear process to be a house cleaning process you go through and clean your home every so often that doesn't prevent you from doing it again I have a staff table light is that is that you oh that's an old light go um no I think uh We've uh finished our presentation on public hearing number one as I said the local planning agency recommended approval 40 and uh we would uh ask that the board continue this to October 22 commissioner Mr chairman uh with the changes uh relative to commissioner herd's questioning about the five Commissioners in the no language being changed or corrected I would move continuation of this item to October 23rd 22 22 and and commissioner if we could just add a time so 9:00 or thereafter can be heard um just so we're in compliance with the statute uh I'll include that in my motion thank you also pending public comment I suspect we go second please second okay we have motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner heatherington all in favor I public comment oh public comment I'm sorry do we have any public comment on this public hearing seeing none we have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner heatherington all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously again we have a light at the staff table hold that was when I needed to have I'm sorry and thank you for those comments staff part of the process is that we we get it right so I appreciate that duh after eight years I finally figured it out um the next item is public hearing number two legislative public hearing to consider transmittal of evaluation and appraisal report based comprehensive plan Amendment 24-6 housing element and text Amendment Mr Duan uh thank you uh I'll turn it over to Stephanie to go ahead and into the particulars of the proposed changes to the housing element again most of these are just housekeeping in nature um a lot of this um element was based on data that we received from sources such as the American Community survey the Bureau of Economic and Business research office of economic um and uh demographic research and the schimberg center um at the University of Florida for housing studies so um in particular we updated a lot of the um different tables the narratives and available data now so that it's updated so that you can to more accurately plan um and then um that planning would involve planning for the availability of housing units that are affordable for all income levels several tables have been added to reflect current data relative the to the housing conditions within the county tables include um tenure age rent uh value of homes monthly cost for both rental and home ownership and then um also the substandard dwelling units within the county um section 63c is being revised to reflect current County analysis and procedures for vacant residential land section 63 6.3. C is being revised to reflect current County analysis of procedures for vacant residential in section 6.3e is being added to reference um en acted Le legislation related to local government's Authority for affordable housing unit or the live local act um policy 6.1 d. 3.7 is being added uh related to exceptions or waivers for impact fees for the development or construction of affordable housing that is Affordable that was done in 20 that's the legislation from 2019 policy 6.1 E10 is updated to reference the Martin County Community Land Trust which was created in 2023 and policy 6.1 E1 is being updated to reflect current legislative requirements um for the plan planning Horizons that was changed in 2023 you're now required to do planning Horizons for 10 and 20 years we uh communicated with Emergency Management staff and County staff to um to make these suggested edits I'm available for questions Comm her yeah I'm on page 17 of 26 6.3 C vacant residential land um it's the about the vacant residential lands inventory in the residential Capacity Analysis and provides the procedures for doing the the analysis and then what action needs to be taken in order to make sure that we have adequate capacity that language has been stricken therefore we don't have a way to implement the vacant lands inventory the VAC lands with this is it's actually been stricken from here but then it's in chapter four your future land use element so we're just referencing it here because it will be addressed in chapter 4 yeah I I this is a deal breaker for me it needs to be it needs to remain in here um members of the board uh allow me to uh point to this language and discuss with you the particulars of it uh the language is not going away entirely it's been Rewritten and recast here in this 6.3 C and it refers to section 4.2 A9 of chapter 4 of the comprehensive growth management plan just as the stricken language also references it but there's a difference between the language you see that's stricken and the language that is in chapter uh 4 section 6 4.2 A9 one says the primary and the secondary the other says the primary or the secondary so what we're doing is we're eliminating an inconsistency between the language here where it says the primary and the secondary and leaving it consistent with uh making this chapter consistent with chapter 4 where it says the primary or the secondary you're not making consistent if you're eliminating it from here make it consistent I'm fine with that but it needs to be present in both chapters otherwise there's no way to implement the residential the the uh residential lands inventory and the residential Capacity Analysis you're just doing the analysis without implementing it Mr Mr chair can you please weigh in one oh he has a light on go ahead Mr Smith Commissioners good morning Paul Schilling growth management director so I think I understood the the question or comment but as Mr Duan indicated it also cross references as previously section 4.2 pointa pen 9 so that is not being disbanded with that is um just carried on so we have what we need to in the comp plan to facilitate the residential Capacity Analysis commissioner Smith and again just for clarity purposes on all of this the uh an overarching component of an ear is to uncomplicate un if there are conflicts between chapters if there are conflicts between wording it is the goal of this process to uh plain language that and to come up with the most consistent language possible POS is that right and that's effectively what you've done correct and they will review that at the state level to make sure that is consistent and that clearly something like this being pointed out they will draw attention to thank you one retain commissioner campy is it just a matter of opinion if it's there it's not detrimental correct Mr Duan I get what commissioner Smith just said about trying to keep everything streamlined and tight but if commissioner herd requests it is there is is it okay that if you changed what you said Andor the language there but left it there because it makes one of my commission colleagues feel more comfortable with the overall process if it's the pleasure of the board we can recast 6.3 C it's just duplicative so yes I get that it's duplicative but for one of my colleagues who is interested in having it I would prefer that we keep it because for me I'd rather have consistency and approvals from Commissioners because it's not like Earth shattering it's just a matter of having a duplicate passage but it's important to a colleague I would agree with her because I think keeping us all sort of unified in the approval process is more important for me than this would appear twice so that's two you would change that to or and do the change that you had mentioned so you want to do a motion that you feel comfortable with we're just going to ask the board to continue it to October 22nd to 9:00 or there after be heard and then on October 22nd when we bring it back it'll be changed and you can vote on the actual well as long as three of us as long as three was I agree yeah we need to vote on that right or headshake you just need to vote on the continuance not the change this is just for discussion purposes for the purposes of this conversation if you do not put it in a motion there'll be the conspiracy that somehow we're pushing this under the rug and it's not happening no doubt you could you can vote on the change to make the change and bring it back on the 22nd commissioner staff guidance to fix the language according to commissioner herd's request yeah I move that 6.3 C be retained in its entirety and the language be matched with the policies in 4.2 A9 and that the uh public hearing be advertised to be at at sometime after 9:00 on October 22 this public hearing has continued at October 22nd at 9:00 or thereafter as can be heard that's my motion thank you are you done with the rest of this yes unless there are other commer Smith second the only problem with the wording with entirety that says that that entire crossed out section needs to remain if it's not consistent with the other section then it won't be in its entirety I mean my recommendation would be that you give staff the ability to word 6.3. c to be consistent but to retain as much of the language as possible so that it's not somehow appearing to have dropped out that's what her motion said no she said entirety but then she also said consistent so it was D well you've got two words going on and there will be there there will be critics that will say that wasn't what was meant so all I'm doing is just trying to all can do what you want commiss what's the language in uh 4.2 A9 and or that's the only it's or worded differently throughout but the major difference is the or okay so then with the with the the addition of of or rather than and we can do that okay do we have any public comment we have a motion by commissioner herd seconded by commissioner campy all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously look the way we work together that it's amazing now we can keep people in all right public hearing number three legislative public hearing to consider transmittal of evaluation and appraisal report based comprehensive plan Amendment 24-16 arts and culture and historic preservation can I finish no can I ask a question and a text Amendment Mr Smith let me turn your light off I think we voted just on this no she I thought it was all one yeah to continue yeah okay I'm sorry I apologize Mr Duan um trying to get to the right page were you done with that section yeah yeah I think we're done with it that's what I asked public hearing number three now we didn't ask for public yes he did I think he called for public com thank you it wasn't uh wasn't allowing me to move to the that page um this is the arts and culture element I'll turn it over to uh Stephanie but I will say that uh it's been extensively reviewed by our local um Arts Council and uh many of the changes were proposed by them so uh we we feel that this is a um a good change to the plan and go ahead thank you again many of these changes are house caping in nature updating data and Analysis from a um survey that was done in 2022 um most of the changes update agency names they update the narratives the data policies to reflect current conditions um we did work with Martin Arts as Mr Duan said uh CR CRA staff as well because they do have a role in the historic preservation piece of it so um policies are revised to reflect the renaming of the public art Cy committee to the public art advisory committee and terminating the public art master plan and 5-year plan which was done by an ordinance by this Commission in um 2019 and then one of the policies just was better located somewhere else so I relocated that and then um like I said most of this is just to um update the different data and Analysis in there to reflect what is currently going on in the county uh uh another big change was um to add in the support of the library and the County's Clerk's Office because they have now started doing a lot of the um historical document retention so we wanted to make sure that they were included in there as well very very few changes in this element I'll add to that the local planning agency voted 5 to recommend approval on July 18 any questions for staff commissioner Smith anything public comment I would move that we continue this item to October 22nd second on the 22nd at 9 o' at 9 o'cl or thereafter do we have any public comment for this public hearing seeing none we have a a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner campy all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously public hearing number four public legislative public hearing to consider transmittal of evaluation and appraisal report um based comprehensive plan Amendment 24-17 Public School schools facility element and a text Amendment Mr dlan thank you Mr chair um this element we owe a big thank you to the staff at the school district um we gave them the text they sent us back the changes that they wanted and and a lot of the mapping and a lot of the data comes directly from our Martin County School District so uh big thank you to them and Stephanie okay um to add to what Mr Duan said um the things that we changed other than what the school district required uh War to update tables um data Maps narratives enrollment projections um fiscal considerations that um to uh put in current information of the school district's Capital assets and long-term debt Revis language related to school con concurrency related to development um policy 1711 and 1712 are updated to include the village of Indiantown and the annual review of the public school facilities element and then also uh policy 17.1 F3 is updated to include the village of Indian toown and the Martin Metropolitan planning organization in efforts to coordinate for sidewalks bike paths and facilitate travel to and from schools and recreational facilities so with that um we're open for Su Comm campy thank you um any wording in regards to Charter Schools or private schools like all about achieving is that we don't have wording in there for that there are charter schools are references and we have included statistics on Charter Schools but at the local level there's like not a lot you don't have a lot of authority over those but we can in my mind the only thing I was thinking that has changed in the last several years in regards to the school concept was Charters and private educational organizations right and we have put in there and updated the the um different charter schools that are in the county now and went from two to four since the last year process thank you with that noted in there U seeing if there's any public comment I would make motion to accept uh no to continue until October 22nd sometime after 9:00 second okay do we have any public comment on this public hearing seeing none we have a motion by commissioner Public Schools campy uh seconded by commissioner heatherington all in favor I all oppose please note that it passed unanimously public hearing number five legislative public hearing to consider transmitt of evaluation and appraisal report based comprehensive plan 24 4-05 Transportation element a text Amendment uh Mr Duan you are um there's a whole bunch of other names on here that uh anyway go ahead thank you uh Mr chair and members of the board I have with me uh County engineer Mike gelka uh who will be presenting the proposed changes to chapter five this was an in-house work effort um and uh it a lot of it it looks like a lot been changed but actually A lot's been just relocated and and rearranged for uh better Clarity um and with that I'll turn it over to Mr kazula I like having the guest presenters it's nice changes it up uh let me get us to I think you want to be on page you all have to bear with me today too seeing as this all just got dropped in my lap after Luke left yeah two weeks ago soed with that decision whoops no I want no figure I want uh slides around 4:15 where' he go do we know yes tell you later here we go why would we get him back if he left so Superstar it's one of my next gens okay next Generation okay so the some of the biggest changes in here like you said it looks like it's a lot of a lot of changes but a lot of it's just removing stuff around and and reorganizing it um yeah by adding the the the purpose the tent up to the front of it adding emphasis on multimodal systems and the the overall um transportation Network in the county the the roadways the biggest thing with the roadways is using the newly adopted F qualitative level of service concept um which talks about content classifications which what it does does now is it's based on what people are expect delays in traffic depending on what type of um urbanized or rural type areas so that's one of the biggest changes um on a lot of it because we we've gone to this route for our level of service qualitative level of service um it clarifies some of us the long-term and short-term forecasting methods um remove some redundant stuff because it bounced around inside here so that's kind of some of our cleanup stuff that we did um Pathways it's adds some more stuff in there about Pathways and um mitigation strategies for the pedestrians bicyclists uh vehicles and now talks about more the pathway needs and the and the talks also about the new FD fdot adopted its level of traffic stress Concepts which then it basically is how comfortable people are walking on a PCI or walking or bicycling or traveling on a specific um pathway you know whether they're very comfortable with it or whether they try to avoid it so it's all it's it's a whole it's a whole different way of looking at it's it's a stress-based level of service as opposed to a um strictly number of people number of trips could you hold that thought for just a second commissioner campy commissioner Smith is this the time maybe do we need to formalize language about your suggestion of putting the bike Lanes especially on Bridges inside the boundary of the border of the uh barricade is that something we'd want to put in here or no I I appreciate the ask I don't know that this is the place to try to do that um I think that I think two components that one I think I don't know that we can comprehensively planning wise require the state to do things within our RightWay I don't know that we can do that the state's going to Trump us on whether we can or can't I was thinking about that as you asked it and I'm thinking okay well what could we do can we send can we send commentary along with this on an item asking the state to review and look at policies and strategies to make multi-lane Pathways safer for both bicyclists and pedestrians and that goes along with the stress concept because there are some things we as a state could be doing but again I don't know that through our comp plan we can dictate to the state that we want them to do something that's definitely above my yeah I was just thinking that if the state should should agree in the future and then we look back at our rules and it doesn't say that you could so I was just wondering even if we just layered it in there not trying to Trump the state but just try to have something that was in at least you know you know what the concept is is that the bike lane would be on the inside of the of the con there are there are three things that have kind of surfaced as ideas and one that could be instantaneous again I don't I just don't know that the ear is as much as I would love to use the ear to do something like this one would be to have the audible grinding system that the white line that is adjacent to the existing bike lane be ground for audible um that would be a huge change on Bridges at least um moving the Jersey barriers to the ex exterior side of the bike lane would be great but that's a huge State change of doing things well maybe at least on Bridges where you have nowhere to go you're stuck out there and then the other would be painting all of anything anything that would happen relative to a resurfacing or rebuilding like right now Jens Beach Causeway is going through a complete resurfacing and redo it would be the absolutely perfect time for them to paint the bike ways on all of Beach Causeway Boulevard but I again I don't know that putting it in here is Mike I'm looking at you like yeah and is Mr Don some engineering background mic's not on the the comp plan is your your goals and and aspirations and you can certainly talk about wanting to improve safety on the regulatory side the uh uh our our road we limited by state statute on what you can actually do we have to follow the federal rules and the state greenbook in terms of our minimum requirements so you can't introduce a requirement in here that's not allowed by law but you can aspire to make changes that you want to be more safe so I think the uh the idea that you want to add into one of these goals that we could do between now and it comes back to enhance the um you know bicycle safety along Bridges and and arterials that sort of thing um to uh we could do that and and uh and since we still have Mi Miss wixer helping us on the side we could get her to to work on on some of that language and and bring it back when we when we come back I think that would be my recommendation is that we put it into one of the goals or objectives in here uh that would encourage you know that then that would be part of our goal to work with the state on developing new standards that would make it safer that makes sense yes like it you want that in a motion from commissioner Smith yeah I think you can provide that direction when you make the motion to continue it to direct staff to um uh amend uh the goals and objectives to uh uh improve the safety uh of bicyclist on um Bridges and uh major roadways commissioner yeah I think that we can we definitely can can make those regulations for us for County uh maintained uh Bridges and just encourage the uh state to to consider these Improvement safety improvements um on the bridges where they have jurisdiction I will only don't want to disagree with you commissioner but they do the state does limit what we can do on our own roadways as well through the dot standards that's why I was suggesting that we can get the get the state to amend the rules which is the the stand so even on County rules we're limited by state statute on what we can design them to one thing is for sure by doing a goal that would highlight some additional things it would force the state to review it if it's highlighted and look at it and go yeah but we don't like that but you're right because if this is to mirror Zero fatalities which is the number one priority of the State of Florida for transportation then they should be all over if there are suggestions that will make it safer for for bicyclists and pedestrians on their roadways and ours but I mean this all it may do is serve as a highlighting feature to get them to focus on OG by the way here are some ideas but as well in the comprehensive plan like Mr duelan said and Mr Donaldson said it is our goals our aspirations our wishes commissioner Smith can you remind us where why you had to come up with that idea in the first place uh yeah very simply we had a very prominent resident um unfortunately lost his life on one of our state Bridges here in Martin County in sus Point uh and his daughters uh and family members uh came to meet with us and talk to us about ideas that they had um to make what happened to their father perhaps never happen again to someone else that is um using those facilities and Martin Drummond yes sir he lost his life so if it maybe his family could see some positive slight positive outcome from something terrible I also remember in Jensen several years ago there was a boy riding a bike that was hit by a car that was knocked off the bridge into the water unless I had that weird and our delegation is very aware they the daughters have communicated with our folks and it would not surprise me that we don't see some kind of legislation this year to to adopt some of these things but I appreciate the conversation thank you certainly Mr chair add that to our legislative priorities this year too true absolutely so with that said um do we have any public comment for this public hearing I don't know that they were done with their presentation you want to continue I mean oh well yeah maybe we ought to finish before we there not a whole lot I mean we're done uh because now we we we've basically prioritized and changed the order and everything that it goes with the um roadways then into the transit um we've actually added more stuff in transit because Transit didn't have a whole lot in it before more bringing it up to date for what we currently have is what we've done in trans Transit airports really hasn't changed at all um very much except being moved around in in the in the order of things uh railroad we you know brought it up to up up to dates to include all the second track and the high the high speed rail and um we identify the fact that there's a deficiency with the one track Bridge um for both the railroads and the waterways so that affects both both of those elements um induces a little bit more Waterway the basic goals have not really changed on on any on any of these it's just more the way it's being looked at um and of course the figures that go along with that are being updated to to meet up with what New Roads we've put in over the last since the last update and and um that kind of stuff and with that it's pretty much you guys have any more questions and there's a little section that yeah there's um Donna can we go to page 347 thank you um just wanted to touch on the local planning agency recommendation from August 1 2024 the LPA voted 40 to approve the proposed changes and they had some additional comments which you see in red on the page uh you can uh see for yourself they mentioned the uh station and clarifying the dredging of waterways be done with an environmentally with environmentally sensitive methods those were not included in their motion they were just additional comments made as part of the the LPA action commissioner Smith Mr chairman I would move uh that we continue this item to October 22nd with the additional comments the comments relative to um bicycle uh pedestrian safety goals uh in this element um pending public comment commissioner herd yeah um starting on page 15 of 33 under Section 5.6 um it says that the purpose of this section is to establish guidelines for developing the plan for the public non-motorized pathway needs of Martin County based on the changing demographics and the decreased dependency on single occupancy vehicles I don't think that either of those things are true I don't see that our demographics are changing and I certainly don't see a decreased dependency on single occupancy vehicles um you can answer the content I can you you tell me the section again 5.6a on in 15 of 33 which is three page 370 thank you I I believe that as far as The Pedestrian walking goes we are seeing an increase in pedestrians in certain areas of the county um a lot more pedestrian than we've seen in the past um as as well as the the the bicyclist the recreational B bicyclist I should say they're not using it for transportation but the recreational guys are definitely increasing um as far as the decrease in single occup vehicles uh I don't I don't know that answer I I mean just like I said I'm I'm just catching up on this and what's the purpose of this uh table the general use characteristics tables that you were referring to yeah that's all part of the stress stuff that's all part of that um pedestrian and and and Walker bicycle rider that's it's part of their that's it's kind of explaining the the the the level of stress that people are able to tolerate so that's the descriptor so if you're in a stress one then uh then children are comfortably able to ride on the road as opposed to a stress four you wouldn't let your child get near that pathway so it's just try to provide purpose is this so so that no the purpose is that you could then label a particular pathway in the county and say based upon the new DOT standard this sidewalk has a stress level four we need to make some changes to it because it's next to a a community with lots of children how do we change it to get to a stress level one and so it's a way to try to provide some measurement to a description that says the and says there's no way I can let my child walk to school on this roadway what are you going to do about it and it would provide us a means of of of of putting some numeric criteria to saying if we do these improvements we can get it from a four to a three or a four to a one and that's the that's the purpose of the table is just to give you a descriptor of what does a stress level one mean it's it's just a very general definition too so that we could use it as a planning tool in the future is that correct and this has been adop Ed by the the do and so this is the dot standard right so we're just reflecting the new way of looking at the pathways the new numerical method of describing distress yeah may I speak to just that issue do you mind jumping in that I jump in um perfect case in point on Barry Avenue she had the floor I apologize to you sir may I speak please thank you um Barry Avenue from the hammock Creek so from Golden Bear to Martin Highway the sidewalk used to be right on the curb and it's the main drag for a lot of kids that would walk and ride their bikes but they were riding right next to the roadway and we used one of the first things we ever did was move the sidewalk back to create the grassy space like 12T grassy space in between and it was because parents were afraid of their small elementary school children riding their bikes so close to the road so that this art would be perfectly uh accurate and and a good tool for those kind of situations where you'd say well how bad is it it's a three so I like it I I still think it's it's it's not useful I would consider this this sidewalk in front of this building a four that doesn't keep me from walking on it well you're a grownup well I just it's it's it's it's discretionary but so at any rate I I I think that this is is not shouldn't be in our comprehensive plan uh now I'm going on to the next page which is 371 and it's and it's about Transit and quite frankly I think we all those of us who are serving in the mo want to kind of throw our Transit plan away and so I don't know that any of this is going to be relevant for us in the in the next years I think that we're going to try to do something different with Transit and I don't want our hands to be tied and I think that this document is tying our hands uh particularly with regard to uh to to Transit um I'm on page 372 at the bottom 5.6 e Waterway needs um talking about a uh Regional waterways plan uh including dredging uh inlets Bridgets and navig ational constraints um it also has an evaluation of a high-speed fery service from Fort Pierce and Stewart um and and talking about Channel dredging these These Things Are all uh undesirable to me I don't want to have a regional PL waterways plan with Port St Lucy I don't want to have a high-speed Ferry linking Stewart and port St Lucy um I don't want them to to be interfering well and then we're going on to um uh page 383 uh plan for a regional public transit authority um I don't know who that's with but I don't want to have a regional transport a regional public trans Authority either um and then we're going to it looks to me like in policy 5 5 A7 and 5.5 A8 we're going to require employees employers to provide their employees access to public transit and to require uh major Industrial Development to incorporate access to public transit I think that's heavy-handed um strive to expand the fixed route public transit system I don't think we want to do that either um strive to expand access to rail Transportation the county shall collaborate with the Florida East Coast railroad uh CSX Transportation to develop a plan to coordinate expanded Freight and passenger rail access uh to the urban corridor the county I don't think we want to do that either uh so those are some of the oh and then there's um on page 388 a policy to deepen the channel in manate Pocket um you know I probably am the only uh land owner on the manate pocket who still has an natural Shoreline that doesn't diminish the importance of natural shorelines um and also I think that dredging if if there is if it's decent habitat dredging destroys seagrasses so I don't like the emphasis upon dredging so in short the uh my comments about the transportation element is that it needs an awful lot of work Mr Donaldson I would just only address a couple your mic just address a couple of things the um the the regional plan that was mentioned earlier was actually something that the board had already adopted with the no and I think that was just included as a as to uh include a document that the board had already adopted and then under the transit element um those are already existing goals within the comp plan I think a lot of that you can see was changing from transportation to Transit is really it was really wasn't making major changes to what was already in the in the comp plan in terms of the board's changing direction on any one of these elements um you can certainly be still free to do so just because it's in there to encourage or try to um offer different Transportation Alternatives should you decide to do them or not this could always be amended later to to reflect what's actually going on on the ground so I would suggest that for the most part leaving those the same if you want to um uh uh you know discuss some of these other items individually that's fine but I I would some of these were already just minor changes to what the comp plan already said commissioner heatherington my light was on when we had the conversation and can you go back to that table the level of stress who deter that way way back then who determines that um criteria it seems very subjective does fdot have a formula to rank the one through four or is that it seems very subjective how does one quantify what you know uh most children are can confidently use the facility again that's very subjective does the do out outline that formula or if somebody coming up with that I believe this is do language um but if we have to include this in our consideration for adding facilities who determines this level of traffic stress is that determined by the county how do we assign a that n number criteria Jim Gordon Public Works director um so there's dot has a manual called the U multimodal level of service manual that describes how you would assign those levels of stress the county would be responsible for evaluating all of our multimodal Pathways and providing that ranking of um based on the manual that do has so we would do our own rankings but we would use the methodology that's outlined in the dot mod motal level of service manual we we could prioritize safety for pedestrians and cyclists without this table in there as well right of course yeah it was a way to quantify it because otherwise it is entirely subjective and we're just looking at individual pieces um we just did a through the mo we did an evaluation of um congestion management up on US1 north of the bridge and and during those discussions we've talked about that a lot of people feel uncomfortable using those sidewalks on us one north of the bridge that's an example of a level four um but but we can use this manual we can use a different methodology but this one was just one that's available it's already adopted in Florida and it um you know it would make it consistent with What DOT is doing and would there be some kind of like public input I mean I I agree with Comm heatherington at some point how does Hope Sound weigh in and say that Bridge Road needs a safer something sure we get that all the time is is requests to either modify existing or to create new Pathways um so I think this the process would remain the same that we'd go through the request for service where people would like new things or we would get projects through the C NAC um in the respective areas um but just like we evaluate level of service on our roadways um we look at that based for the roadways it's based on number of trips per day and and available capacity on the roadway and things like that um so we do that all the time on our roads every single year we re-evaluate that I just think maybe from what Stacy is saying what I'm thinking maybe what others are thinking when you get a multimodal pathway whatever you're going to Define it as there there ought to be some kind of public perception survey that goes out to that Community to say look we think we hear this we had some complaints what does the greater picture think about it so that you so that somebody that's going to rely on a numerical system to say I'm not putting my kid on a sidewalk That's rated to four or I also wonder about the liability side of this that if you recognize something is as a for and you do nothing about it you're on the hook when something goes wrong and I'm sure I'm sure they have thought about that but the the the followon cost for this I I think it's good that they're doing it but the followon cost could be enormous relative to Ed thing well we move the sidewalk 12 feet in okay that was you know a couple hundred thousand doar probably to do that but across the county relative to every pathway or everything that people raise as a level four we are going to have to get on that faster than not I think anyway just who look who's in the room this seems subjective I I don't it it make the formula that someone and who would determine this is not well defined so I I think it creates conflict in rather than more clarity I I think Commissioners at its best it's used as a tool when you're seeking funding from the Feds that you've done an evaluation that standard to their criteria and you're making the uh request for funding a change to a Improvement you can say that yes on the standard it's a four we're where requesting these additional dollars to make this Improvement so that we can get it at least to a two or something like that major so it's a so it's really a it's a it's a really more of a planning tool to give you a a a chance to evaluate it and and using the state's methodology then we are making the argument of there's nobody using the sidewalk because it's so dangerous as opposed to strictly level of service you want to widen the sidewalk or move it well nobody's using it why would we invest in it this is a new method to try to get you to look at it from um uh using the adjacent Road usage affects the The Pedestrian use I think it's fake so we're using the we're trying to speak the state's language is what you're saying that's exactly right and and we can take the table out if you so desire and leave it the way it is and we would still we still May wind up using the state language even if it's not in here in order to get our goal which is State funding to help us fix things com commissioner camping I think we're bogging down on whether or not we leave a chart in here but that's just me um to some of commissioner herd's points about um I don't know what her reasoning was like you wouldn't want a high-speed ferry to come I don't know if one would but I don't know if that was an ability for people to you know commute out of this area to go to jobs and St Lucy or Port St Lucy that would just be another way of taking some cars off the road I don't know if it's feasible but there's plenty of communities that you know that are along the water bodies that have some kind of water taxi high-speed water ferry that just could be an option so I don't know specifically why you didn't like it I sort of like that one and then the concept of a Regional Transit Authority to me if it's like Rapid Transit Authority is a whole different vibe to me than Regional because a Transit Authority would speak to when I know that there are some land owners in Palm City that are trying to coordinate with land owners on the other side of the canal in Port St Lucy where they might be able to line roadways up that keeps people from getting on 95 and coming around on Martin Highway if I know that a while ago the folks at Ashley Capital were trying to coordinate with the folks that were up in Port St Lucy about creating a road that came straight down to a bridge that went to their kind of internal traffic network if there and I'm not saying we're going to create a whole group over this but it was a little disjointed trying to figure out what we were doing down here and what they were doing up there so I think sometimes having a little more um Regional kind of mindset could help especially for those of us that have districts that straddle the boundary the county line so I don't you know I don't know if it's enough for her to feel like she doesn't want to support this chapter but those things I could see are more just sort of personal decisions than big kind of changes to philosophy a yield commissioner Smith thoughts I think um part of that line that was in there about the um Freight and passenger rail going west was probably recognition of the concept that has been floating around for seven or eight years now about expanding Highway 27's capacity of rail we have a th000 foot RightWay out in the middle of the state that has car and truck traffic but is the perfect opportunity for intermodal truck traffic and rail Freight to get it off the east coast and move it to the interior part of the state and get it out of our if you will urban areas of the coast I don't know if that's really what it was but that's how I interpret that um dredging whatever dredging we would do I guess Mr Donaldson that there is a significant amount of seagrass study that goes along with any kind of a dredging project that you can't probably dredge seagrass beds um for permitting purposes and all sorts of other study purposes so I don't know that that's an issue um I think we do have our regional transit authority it's called the top right um that we coordinate with St Lucy County on Regional Transportation network issues I think right we still have TPO in place pretty infrequent or not TPO but the what's the we do the tctc pctc that's where it was I'm sorry we meet with Indian River St Lucy and Martin County um and then on this rating thing it struck me as you Stacy as you were talking or Ed was talking about it whichever don't you wish we could put traffic lights in this same category like if the public thinks an intersection is dangerous and the green book doesn't say it's warranted well so what if it had a rating of four then somebody would be man mated that we would be able to allow ourselves to put a traffic light in at South River I do right so maybe as a suggestion we we put a note or a footnote or something in here relative to the state maybe adopting the same kind of curriculum language something for street lights to give locals more control over those decisions versus the state deciding that that's not in their best interest as a thought process I think that's an old light yeah let's wrap thank God okay um where are we I'll make a motion anybody want to make a motion go ahead please I would move um that we continue this item to October 22nd on or after 9:00 a.m. uh and that staff uh take the comments that um various Commissioners have facil ated and if there is a place to add or correct or change language that when it comes back in October that those changes are reflective in what we heard today I will second that okay thank god um any public comment on this public hearing seeing none we have a com we have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner heatherington all in favor I all opposed oos motion carries 421 commissioner herd dissenting and with that we are going to take our lunch break and we'll be back at 1:30 to hear public hearing number 8 preset thank you for