##VIDEO ID:zghea3s-tbE## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning everyone and Welcome to our August 27th Board of County Commission meeting we're going to start our meeting this morning with a moment of silence if you would all please stand and that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Kevin frell thank you [Music] thank you Mr frell if you would join us up front good morning morning I pledge of allegiance 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 Mr frell would you like to say a few words morning thank you for uh for inviting me so uh my name is Major Kevin Patrick frell retired US Army uh I've been a resident here for 22 years or so uh raising my family here uh very proud to to call H you know steuart and in Martin County my home and uh happy to be here so uh just a little bit about my service I served a little over 24 years on the last uh 15 years or so was with the Floridan Army National Guard I've served uh more hurricanes and operations than I can uh care to admit but uh multiple tours in uh Iraqi Freedom uh Noble eagle and enduring Freedom as well uh and then probably I don't know probably 16 or 18 of the uh the severe storms that kit over the last dozen or so years so uh very proud to call uh this is my home but also be able to serving uh the Florida residents and especially uh in Martin County so uh just want to say a short word about the veteran services team here that's one of the reasons why I was invited this morning and I really appreciate it uh I'm a service connected veteran uh for probably about uh 12 or so years I've been managing that fairly well uh consider myself somebody pretty much in the know of the of the veteran services that are offered and boy was I wrong so uh I sat down with Jeffrey and the team just a few short weeks ago and and even though I've uh moved into the county and and been a service connected disability and I figured I'd kind of knew wow uh they really steered me in the right direction I cannot say enough the importance of our veterans there's over 15,000 veterans here uh in the county uh and more growing all the time as they move in and I can't stress enough for for folks in your small spheres of influence if you can just reach out to a veteran and your uh co-workers if you have uh neighbor friend family member uh they haven't contacted the team here I highly recommend you do it's making a significant difference in my life my health and the life of my family and that includes uh uh family members of uh of Veterans as well as the uh surviving spouses as well so just a little plug for the team they do a great job so thank you thank you I appreciate [Applause] thanks all right as you can see I'll be filling in for commissioner Jenkins this morning who regrets he cannot be here um we have some agenda changes and uh we have a request to withdrawal from the agenda department number three bright Line train station um Mr Donaldson you have the request to withdraw that yes Commissioners um uh I think it's important to have all five Commissioners here for the discussion on where we are with the uh right line and the it is a three uh party agreement between Martin County and bright line regarding the settlement agreement also between the county and the city in terms of of the uh exchange of property and uh how the station would be paid for and I think I think in that uh situation we need all five Commissioners to to hear the the update also there's been some movement with the city that we need to better understand uh before we come back and make a presentation okay thank you there's no additional items no uh cons Senda agenda polls and we have one Proclamation this morning with that I would entertain a motion to proove the agenda commissioner Smith chair move approval of the agenda um with the withdrawal of uh Department three thank you second okay we have a draw there okay we have um a motion by commissioner Smith second in by commissioner herd all those in favor I oppose motion carries unanimously thank you very much four to zero and we are going to move on this morning to public comment and we have an announ we do the proclamations first yeah okay okay it's been a while since I've been up there okay our first Proclamation will be uh um presented by Laura Dupre hi good morning Commissioners um our first Proclamation is recognizing baps day in Martin County Florida baps forgive me Som Ryan Sansa or baps is a worldwide Hindu denomination dedicated to fostering Faith inspiring service and promoting Better Living 2024 marks 50 years of service in the United States and over the last 50 years baps has grown to over 100 Manders or temples across acoss the country in recognition of the 50th Anniversary August 4th was recognized as Bap day in Martin County and here to accept we have Dr hardic Sony baps community relations director if you'd like to come say a few words good morning pleas morning good morning hi myself Dr hardik son I am a resident of Martin County and I want to say a few words about the baps organization uh baps is a volunteer-driven spiritual organization which is commed to fostering individual growth through Hindu values of Faith service and Harmony it enriches the society with the devoted efforts of tens of thousand of volunteer with different social and professional backgrounds who are contributing millions of volunteer hours every year under the spiritual leadership of his Holiness Mah Swami Maharaj baps nurtures Indian traditions in over more than 100 communities over the North America and more than 3500 communities worldwide this year marks the 50th anniversary of baps North America since it Inception in 1974 baps North America has played vital role in enriching the lives of countless individual through the various initiatives including educational program humanitarian efforts and cultural activities the organization commitment to the peace Harmony and social responsibility has made a significant impact not only within our community but also Across the Nation one such Center is located in South Florida in bton Beach Florida it was opened in 2001 to the South Florida Community and we have our services every Sunday along with the cultural and religious activities there are also kids of activities which were attended by more than 150 kids every Sunday I believe that by officially recognizing the 50 th anniversary of the baps North America we can Inspire others to emulate it example of selfless service and Community engagement and I would like to thank you everyone uh for recognizing the 4th August for baps day thank you don't step on the dog you want some belly rubs one two three yes for the thank you m okay okay thank you very much and now we'll move on to public comment and for those of you that haven't made public comment we have a three minute time frame you will see a signal right before uh 15 seconds before your time is up and that will indicate that the three minute time is approaching and Mr Donaldson you have announcement yes uh since we are in an election season politicking is prohibited which is defined as advocating the election or defeat of a candidate 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 our first Speaker this morning will be David Nickerson and on Deck will be Megan shyri acting chair honorable Commissioners honorable staff ladies and gentlemen good morning my name is David Nickerson I reside at 6687 Southeast Silverbell Avenue in Stuart Florida I've been a resident here since 1987 I'm also a member of the Martin County Orchid Society and we're the group that puts that show show on at the fairgrounds every March how many have been at the show ah thank you love that show native orchids are those orchids that our creator put here on the planet 28 have been known to live in Martin County but most of those have been lost I'm sure you haven't heard of our Martin County native Orchid restoration program but I'm here today to tell you a little bit about it since 2021 our society has made the decision to spend a significant amount of the money we raise at our show on restoring native orchids here in Martin County assisting Us in that endeavor have been the Native Plant Society Martin chapter the Master Gardeners Association and oton of Martin County but to achieve success we need cooperation and facilitation of our local government so I'm before you today to identify give credit to and thank a few very special Martin County staff that have been key to facilitating our Orchid restoration program success with so far over 500 native orchids have been placed on our County Properties to date first Cari bats staff horticulturist with Public Works she is the match that Lit the flame of native Orchid conservation in our County she also continues to propose related solutions for our program always positively benefiting the environment and our citizens next up Ken Brower he is a native Orchid finder Beyond Compare he's a senior project leader in public works Ken's Orchid radar has saved hundreds of orchids new each year and new locations from our County mowing Cruise next up Shan McCarthy principal planner in our growth Management Department with an inherent conser conservation mindset if you know Sean he has facilitated our program through putting us in touch with unique and innovatively possible funding sources and administrator donon doesn't involve County dollars a budget next up Todd Warren urban forestry manager in public works Todd's out of the box thinking has helped us out please recognize these folks as facilit and leading in the Martin County native Orchid conservation along with their teams their support has made public properties even more naturally wonderful thank you for the opportunity to speak today thank you thank you right our next speaker is Megan shye and Megan will be followed by Belinda galel gels gals Megan shy is here hello good morning Commissioners I am Megan shyri the director of marketing and external Affairs for Boys and Girls Club of Martin County and I stand before you today filled with gratitude for your support and your partnership in our recent school supply drive with the county staff and MTM Transit with we appreciate the staff's involvement in helping us to collect supplies and share our mission and I want to give a special thank you to Courtney zman with the county for all of her help in organizing this being prepared for school isn't about just having supplies it's about starting the year with confidence and dignity thanks to the generosity of the staff countless students began the school year equipped with not just pencils and notebooks but with the renewed sense of Pride and Readiness for school your dedication to ensuring that every child has the tools that they need to succeed is truly inspiring on behalf of all of the students and families who benefited from this drive thank you to your unwavering support for making a lasting impression on their lives together we are not just preparing kids for school we are empowering them for great future thank you thank you our next speaker is Belinda Jalel GS and followed by Sandra Thomas say Sandra hey good morning everyone I would also just like to say what a wonderful organization the Boys and Girls Club is and I also thank you for your support I support them myself and I have for a number of years they really they're a wonderful asset that we have here in the community I am disappointed you're not talking about bright line today that was really the reason I came and so you will not be discussing that until November September September 10 our next meeting but what if the commissioner is not here we we're we're not going to do dialogue but please go ahead and make your comments well that was the reason I was coming today but as you know I always have that pet peeve about Tractor Supply and where it was a swamp now it's a jungle and it's still unsightly I think we're going on the third or fourth year now and that's that's my main concern around where I live I see it every day and I hope one day someone developer some of you may demand and from the developer that it be cleaned up because it's an isore and it attracts mosquitoes and we shouldn't have such a thing in Palm City thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Sandra Thomas and sander will be followed by Tom Pine good morning everyone morning I've never done this before so pull the mic down a little closer pull the mic down a little closer sorry thank you okay good morning I'm Thomas I've never done this before it's my first time so I'm hoping that this will work because I've been fighting nonstop for Speed bumps or sidewalks in Fisherman's Cove I am profoundly deaf I walk my dog I ride my bike I want to live a normal life walking my dog I almost got hit twice there are a lot of children in my neighborhood that ride their scooter ride their bike at least they try to um a majority of parents will go with their children these cars drive by so fast I'm asking please is you guys fix up Martin County decorate it beautifully with bricks and uh sprinkler systems and grass or whatever try helping the citizens I'm speaking not only for me but the residents people families in Fisherman's Cove Section 1 2 3 and sumers said we need sidewalks we we need speed bumps they said no they decline speed bumps because of paramedics and firefighters which is understandable when you're doing CPR whatever you're doing on Cardiac Arrest patient it's hard to grow with speed bums and doing that so um anyway sidewalks is permissible by my on my behalf and for others I have a petition here um we have also 3 years ago another petition done by a gentleman and his daughter was walking around in neighborhood getting signatures as well so I hope that you take this in consideration please I know it's not the best area but we have a lot of children please I I want to live there I have no place else to go it's too expensive so I'm actually retired on disability so I want to be safer um by having sidewalks I mean the police department's been there several times and people slow down when they see the signs they're going to ignore it and we also do need signs saying children are play there's one sign 25 M hour um even for the death like myself they have it in St Augustine they have it in Jacksonville so please why not Martin County elderly do lose their hearing that's the first thing you lose when you get older so I would appreciate it if you guys would take all this into consideration please right that's it thank you very much here thank you Miss Thomas you are in District Two and this is the first I've heard of um that but I will have toar oh miss you're in my district and I will have my aid from up uh Patricia contact you thank you the first I've heard of that though for calling me back I appreciate it Mr Tom Pine and Tom will be followed by Bob shot good morning Commissioners my name is Tom Pine I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years there was a story in the Stewart News a week or so ago about our local Metropolitan planning organization doing a study of traffic on US1 it seems Martin County residents are very concerned about outof control Speeders and red light Runners from souths side of the Roosevelt bridge to the Martin County St Lucy line during this organiz primary season from August 10th through August 17th election day on August 20th I held campaign signs at 10 different locations at 10 different intersections for about an hour and a half each day every single intersection had several several red light Runners during my time there I'm not talking about cars and trucks still in the intersection but when the light turns red I'm talking about cars trucks racing to beat the light and lose but of course they continue to High rate of speed through the intersection this is where that dangerous T-Bone accident is born a green light no longer means go go with caution technically if you are still in the intersection and the light turns red you could still get a ticket for running a red light it's been more than a decade since been since the B basic rules of the road have been enforced regularly and now we are paying the price why is turnout and primary elections in August so low year after year with this year falling right in line with a whopping 27.78 turnout are some of the reasons our County Commissioners use the consent agenda as a way to hide anything they don't want to talk about not just spending but special deals too taxpayers fuel it's just like going to a kangaroo court it's hard to tell the difference today is no different today in the consent agenda this commission will approve with without any discussion 23, 362,552 72 which was spent between July 22nd and August 11th 2024 without identifying the payes or the purpose of the payments the schimberg center for housing studies an annual report will not be presented for the public explanation or discussion as to as it too will be hidden in the consent agenda the schimberg center for housing studies annual offers help with the affordable housing problem but it appears our County Commissioners like to talk about the problem and then talk about it some more there was an article in this TC P this morning I didn't have time to read but it seems two newly elected City commissioners and a sitting commissioner will be looking at the rental agreement with this bright Line quote I don't believe the taxpayers are benefiting from this and end quote what you permit you promote what you allow you encourage what you condone you own thank you thank you our next speaker is Bob shot and Bob will be followed by Chuck Quinn see bobot is Bob here this morning B Gentleman the FR yes Bob yes good morning it says you are speaking on departmental number three but that has been withdrawn sir so you were welcome to speak this morning I can hear morning good morning good morning I'm uh speaking this morning in opposition uh to the uh bright light essentially a bright line is uh asking Martin County to invest over $30 million in bright Line's future and I wonder if that's a prudent investment back in October of last year bright line was tagged with a 1.15 million judgment in favor of Virgin the uh first quarter of this year bright line reduced its uh passenger projections by 21% in the first quarter of 20 of this year bright line lost over $16 million in [Applause] May Fitch assigned a b rate B credit rating to Bright line other credit reporting agencies uh assigned similar ratings with a statement being made that that's a the bright line has a stable Outlook but it is subject to adverse business and economic conditions so that means watch out for a recession or similar or any type similar catastrophe cuz bright light probably could go through back in just recently July of this year they were forced bright line was forced to re refinance I don't know the details about that I they haven't been very well publicized and I think that what we're looking at here for bright line is bright line has a win-win situation if they are successful they make money if they're not successful the Martin County taxpayers are out it's sort of a heads I win tails you lose sir your time is up I think the question sir the Commissioners have to ask themselves yes hearing issues sir your time is up invest their own money your time is up up yeah thank you very much thank you sir thank you our next speaker is Mr Chuck win and uh Chuck will be followed by Tammy maota good morning morning L morning gentlemen a record my name is Chuck wi I live at 1520 Northwest Lakeside Trail in North River Shores which ab buts North Stewart my comments this morning are directed at the postponed agenda items concerning the bright Line station and amending and amending the 2018 settlement agreement and uh I'm following a tough ACT first I urge that you reject any amendments to the original 2018 settlement agreement that relieves bright line of any Financial commitments they made under it these include their share of the costs of building the station the cost for The Pedestrian aerial bridge over the tracks and cost for all safety fencing that they agree to pay under the hazard analysis second residents of Martin County owe Mrs Casey Ingram Mullen a debt of gratitude for her painstaking analysis and research that exposed all of the Hidden aspects of this agreement this is far more than a Transit stop on a mass transport system the location of this station in a mixed use area reads like a template prepared by the director of sustainable development of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development their model communities are heavily subsidized by grants from HUD and the US Department of Transportation three Parcels of land totaling 2 and A2 Acres far exceed parking requirements being in a mixed use area they would be ideal targets for development heavily subsidized by Hud affordable housing grants with long strings attached this has all the features of the HUD driven 750 plan that our County Commission wisely voted to withdraw from in 2013 you may recall it's heavy evidence on embedding affordable housing projects but the decisive influence of on the Commission in its decision to withdraw is that these superficially attractive federal grants have strings attached that can gut local zoning powers and financially obligate the taxpayers I urge you to start a new era of financial vigilance by the county demand that all federal grants and especially all private public sector partnership agreements be fully examined before the public these would include key elements like the provisions for management and oversight controls any items like the hazardous hazard analysis for this station should also be fully examined as they were never made public thank you very much for your time thank you Mr W our next speaker is tamy maoto and Tammy is Tammy here and Tammy will be followed by John dial I'm so sorry I also don't hear well I am Tammy Mota and this morning I have I am addressing a question I'm sorry reading for my phone it's for a friend um the staff had presented at the last NAC meeting in port s Port celo that they were going to um apply for a grant for septic to sewer so as the residents when we went through that we were under the impression that the grant was already made and submitted um so 3 weeks has passed the time for the grant the question the basic question is is when we apply for grants for septics to seers and things like that is there a special time that we actually apply for them what is the time limit before we find out if the grant is passed if we're going to get the Grant and um then the other one here is how much is the NAC in Port solo paying for the sewers on Park Drive so those are the two questions um I also have a concern about the bright line I hope that next uh meeting it's squashed like everything else like everyone else in the in the building so um I can't that's it quick easy all right thank you Tammy our next speaker will be John dial and John will be followed by Michael Snyder I think oh circus good morning sorry doesn't look like your normal writing Michel is John D I've got a company called at the helm training we're a boating safety company I came here originally for the uh I'm going to call it not so bright right Line Station which Saddles taxpayers with a lot of money and I brought my tax bill because it kind of you know lets me understand that we all need to work on financial responsibility and that financial responsibility goes from everything from the kind of trees you plant in the middle of the medians that require maintenance to parking to creating these train stations CU bright Line's not brought one dime to the State of Florida the Marine industry on the other hands hand brought 35.5 billion in and we're hampering by bright line uh I watch these trains go by every day and they are empty I mean if there's more than 10% I'll buy a train full of tickets for one of you I uh absolutely booked one of those round trip to go and see Orlando for the day it was $550 one of my friends goes to Miami on a regular basis and he goes oh I I'll go to Miami you go in your car I said okay we'll both leave I live in Rocky Point you live uh in Port St Lucy and we'll both go and we'll meet in visai in Miami and we'll do it on the same amount of money you get your Uber you pay for your parking I said I'll meet you there and oh by the way I'll bring three other people in the car with me and I'll be waiting for you the bottom line is that was built to haul Freight which we're all good with but a station in Martin and Stewart especially downtown Stewart we've got enough traffic congestions and that's going to come back on the taxpayer every bit of that because there's never been a train station ever made it down here that made a profit any train company for pasture I would just like for the commission to really start looking being financially responsible and spending our money wisely instead of running deficits so my bill doesn't go up every single year and I sit there and watch the money getting wasted I run a company it's a for-profit not a nonprofit but my competition is nonprofit so grants and all this Federal funding we all pay for sooner or later until we start running our our government like a business which is financially responsible we're going to be keeping every single time getting higher tax bills people coming up complaining about it and we're seeing a change in commission we're seeing a change in Attitude from the citizens about our government and I hope all of you guys will just kind of pay attention and and work with us to save money and not spend money thank you thank you Mr dial Michael circus sorry that did not look like you're handwriting Michael and Michael will be followed by Terry k for a guy that takes a lot of notes my handwriting sucks I understand I'm not mad at you uh for the record Mike circus Palm City I I just wanted to voice my my frustrations with what's going on with bright Line This is now the second meeting in a row that we've kicked the can down the field and I fully understand and appreciate you know Harold's not here to to to receive the presentation this morning and I understand there were some Monumental changes last night in the city of Stewart so obviously your your presentation item today would have been very different so I'm just here to say that I sincerely hope that at your next meeting we're not kicking the can down the field again uh it's very clear the all the chips are on the table bright line sent their message to everybody in March telling you guys that they want to renig on their 2018 agreement you know we got the numbers in April talking about how much it's going to cost to finance the station bright Line's telling us we're taking away the parking spots in Stewart now we're having a headache regarding Dixie Highway throughout the triangle District I mean we've talked about it so many times fiscal stability we've talked about water quality we've talked about the people the place the project bright lines's made it very clear they don't give a damn about the people Martin County I mean I I hate to say that and they have hundreds of communities their train goes through so I get it we're not going to be the top their priority list I respect that but the fact that now we're being told we need to pay for more than 50% of the station if they can't even keep up their end of the agreement going back to a lawsuit settlement from 5 years ago six years ago why we even entertain the idea of building a station for him this is out of hand at this point you guys have the ability to take the leadership role you don't have to wait for the city Stewart to stay their part you don't need bright line to wag the tail you guys can simply stand up and say Here's the agreement take it or leave it if you don't like it Fort Pierce enjoy your station you guys have that position just got to do it thank you thank you Michael our next speaker is Terry H how you pronounce your last name kog kogal good morning Commissioners yes Terry kogal and again it's about bright line Martin County is bright Line's ATM machine pull your mic down a little bit pardon me pull your mic down can oh sorry about that okay Martin County is bright Lin's ATM machine why is Martin County dishing out and I say this 80 million to support a privately owned for-profit business I say 80 million because down the road the Comm Commissioners will be needing that parking garage and fencing for safety and other projects will arise for 80 million do we get discounted tickets free train Fair we get increased taxes how many more Commissioners do we have to vote out of office before this Insanity stops thank you thank you and our our last public speaker this morning is um Amber D'Angelo if you have not had an opportunity to speak and you would like to speak please U submit a form and you'll be up next Amber good morning hi there uh amber D'Angelo um I am a little sleep deprived so I do not prepare my my statement beforehand so forgive me for all the ums but um I'm just here to kind of of voice my opinion about the bright Line Station I'm not for it I've had good experiences where I've you know been on a nice clean bright train and it was fun but I've also had bad experiences where their shuttle for the train never came and my family 10-month-old and 3-year-old were stuck in the Miami Airport overnight after a 10-hour flight so um they didn't show up for us but you all can and um I think that it would be better in Fort Pierce I have a little bit of insight into how things are going up there like the the energy of that um of that community and the the leaders there that they really want to Revitalize for Pierce and I think that it would do really well up there I think that it kind of fits right into what they want to do so um I would rather see like the money that we would be paying as taxpayers be put into um more efforts for our economy for our public house or not public housing sorry for our um affordable housing um and just you know coming up with more Creative Solutions that I know you guys like to come up with so um and what else the I saw the public couple Public's Works guys out there when I was trying to find parking um there's some signs that are missing along the side where the the um County people are parked I assumed that I wasn't supposed to park there cuz there's a whole bunch of the cars there and they said so you guys could do some new signs there and they said they also need pens specifically black pens pens yes I said I'll mention it for you so I'm just doing that for them them the black pens um but yeah that's my two cents for the the bright line I'm not for it and I hope that we can just hand it off to Fort Pierce if that's possible and be done with it thanks thank you Amber and our last public uh request to speak for this morning is Denise Chesley good morning everyone I am not for right line I was raised in Broward County moved to Port St Lucy in Martin County in 2005 um and what my my thinking is is they have not followed through on what they said right okay so people need to be if this is a company that is all about themselves like someone said They Don't Care About Us I think Fort Pierce would be a better place Fort Pierce needs more revital revital ization we don't I I think you know I think I even read where to buy a ticket now it went up like 850 per or something like the the tickets like a roundtrip ticket and for people who want to commute from say Miami to Fort Lauderdale now they're having to drive because the prices have gone up because we have no control over what a private company will do and they're not allowing the anymore what what happened there now all of a sudden we Stu city of Stewart and Martin County has to pay I just think you know look at how busy we are here downtown um I know your wife has been my chiropractor of after a car accident and I know even finding a parking spot here took me 10 minutes so I just think Fort Pierce would be better I think they're trying to revitalize I think here we have so much already going on and I just think you know if you think about it you bringing people from Miami I'm not trying to downgrade the area by any means because I was raised in Fort Lauderdale but have you driven down there it is it's just's so much more traffic and do we want to bring that to our nice small our town here you go to Palm Beach County I went to Palm Beach Atlantic University graduated in 92 when I go down there I don't even know where to go because they have 20 30 story highrises do we want to make Martin County boka ratton Palm Beach County no we don't want all the traffic that's that's all I have to say I'm not for bright line and if you all would consider letting it go to Fort Pierce thank you very much thank you very much that's my um last speaker comment form so that will conclude our public comment this morning and we will go to commissioner Comet commissioner Smith okay commissioner campy on a different topic that won't necessarily come to us as County Commissioners but I just wanted to be clear it's a very rapidly changing and fluid issue that popped up last Monday night so I just wanted to be clear to say I am 100% opposed to golf courses or any other incompatible activities at Jonathan Dickinson State Park today tomorrow or forever it won't be our decision but I want anyone who's listening elsewhere in the state to understand at least from my perspective that is a terrible terrible idea thank you thank you commissioner H yeah to Echo that I'm so proud of Martin County residents when this proposal came out of the blue last week to put uh three golf courses in Jonathan Dickinson Dickinson State Park our residents let their feelings be known immediately loudly strongly and let the proposers know no uncertain terms that the uh topography in Jonathan Dickinson State Park is some of the most unusual in Florida the uh habitat there is among the most rare and threatened and endangered in the entire State and it's a it's a 10,500 Acres of natural wonder and our residents made sure that everyone knew that they wanted to ter M that way and this is not the first time that this has been proposed a proposed use in Jonathan Dickinson uh it's same a similar proposal happened about 12 years ago then residents opposed it uh and and and insisted upon protecting that valuable habitat and this will not be the last time that there's going to be a proposal to change the use in Jonathan Dickinson so I'm very very proud of Martin County residents for standing up for protecting our natural habitats thanks Don Don do you need um although they have somewhat withdrawn that for now do you need Authority from us to craft while we're all sitting here in the room to craft a letter I I do I in fact uh you know I provided you all a letter last Thursday that we uh recommended the board um strongly opposed the amendment um and part of my commissioner my um my comments administrator comments I I do want to ask you all to um to take a formal motion while we did a lot of activities um to uh without your formal action yes uh last week um I would like you to approve um one um the chair to sign letters uh to strongly oppose any amendments to Jonathan Dickinson State Park and also to allow staff uh to pursue this through uh throughout its process until it is no longer being considered hey so moved second MTH you have your light on I'm sorry make the motion but you can he had his light on okay sorry sorry about that I was looking the other direction um and who commissioner her was that okay and Ed commissioner Smith had the okay so we will um we have a motion presented by commissioner herds seconded by commissioner Smith all those in favor I opposed motion carries four to Z zero or unanimously for today yes I can say that commissioner Jenkins while he wasn't here I did speak to him that I would be making this request and he did say he strongly supported it as well thank you that all for your comments this morning that is all for my comments thank you Woods okay all right well good thank you we are going to venture into our first agenda item which is uh board and committee appointments this morning presented by Donna Gordon we have the neighborhood advisory committee appointments yes all right Donna Gordon for administration uh several appointments Golden Gate neighborhood advisory committee there's two terms but only one applicant Steven Mark caps old Palm City two applicants one position and Jane Landrum received four votes skip down to Rio two positions two applicants Adam guoy and Susan Jones and Port solo um two positions four applicants and Mr Leonard Lee received three votes and Mr Jim peek received three votes move approval of can you scroll up Steven marks caps Brian dunman no I'm sorry Jane Landrum uh Leonard Lee Jim peek Adam guty and Susan Jones all right we have a motion by commissioner herd seconded by commissioner Smith all those in favor I I opposed motion oppos oh motion carries 32 one with uh commissioner campy dissenting thanks thank you okay so our next item is public hearing number one public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending chapter 1 Article 4 code enforcement board regarding reduction of Code Enforcement leans Sebastian PR propolski and Jeff Dy morning commissioner sebas perowsky County Attorney's office we're here before you today um for your consideration of amendment to article 4 section 1.98 General ordinances uh conc in Code Enforcement violations this is specifically we're tasked by um this board to codify the longstanding um practice of reductions of these uh code enforcement leans to 10% of the value of the lean or 10% of the um value of the offending property whichever is less so um we have made those revisions and we're bringing that before you so that it is codified in our code okay and I'm here for any questions that you may have commissioner Smith thank you madam chair you know part of this reason we're here is a conversation I guess we all have had relative to some issues lately from what I seem to remember from a long time ago doing this that it was always I thought it was always the cost incurred from the code violation itself not a fixed number of 10% so if we spend $11,000 $10,000 doing over 10 years the course of a a code enforcement violation in all the hearings and everything else that was what we tried to recoup as long as the property was bought back into compliance and if it wasn't then it would proceed and blah blah blah and somewhere along the line This 10% thing crept in which I don't recall I don't remember us doing so I'm just kind of curious was that ever part of the process or cuz I don't ever remember there being a fixed 10% number I know that's where we are today and I know that's what has been the practice apparently but I always thought it was to recover the cost whatever the cost would be because it and I know Sarah's having like the hand over there but so you have a code enforcement violation of a million dollars that's built up over years are we really going to and somebody brings it into compliance right are we going to really hit them with a $100,000 fee cuz it didn't cost us $100,000 to do that Miss Woods well there's oh I'm sorry I I I just wanted to say th those uh Sarah Woods County attorney commissioner Smith those were two different issues recovering the costs of the the um code enforcement action was one issue and we assess that against everyone the um the the fine is the the persuasion to try to get people to bring their property into compliance and I I'm I I've only been involved in this for now and then but I think Jeff and also sebasian can tell you the idea that we would have a million dooll fine or a million dooll property doesn't really happen I mean there the properties are usually because we have both the prop 10% of the property value or 10% of the fine whatever less it's usually not a uh really large fine and there's a cap on the amount of the fine so you have to be we had this recently you have to be a property owner that allows their property to be in pretty bad shape for many many years in order to acrw that kind of a fine that million dollar number I just referenced is it was not a fictitious number there was a case we had years ago out in Palm City that had become that kind of a number and it was reduced down because it was ridiculous as to what that resolution would really be so it wasn't like I just picked a rabbit out of the hat and said oh what if it were a million dollars we had one that had built up over 15 or 18 years to like a million dollars and then there was a effort to clean up all of the old code enforcement violations that had been lingering for decades to clean them up and do away with you know to get rid of them so there may not be any of that kind of capacity anymore I just like the gentleman that was in from Rio over the last couple of months talking about his enforcement or the value of his property I I just I I'm not a huge fan of the idea the idea that there should be a fine acre I get it that part I get but if somebody brings their property into compliance and it costs the county $33,000 to make manage that process over time and it's brought into compliance did we not achieve what we were trying to achieve to get the property to come into compliance and therefore should we just recover the cost of doing that or do we still pile on top the 10% or the whatever the value of the property I just I'm not a huge supporter of that idea but that's it that's all I got Jeff I'm sorry you started to oh and on the there's as Sarah mentioned uh there's two issues the cost which is a flat fee if you go before the magistrate I think it's $585 whatever it is uh they're given every opportunity to come in compliance 30 days 60 days what have you eventually they don't come in compliance the magistrate sets a per DM per day $100 the F or whatever it is if they're repeat offenders it can be doubled or tripled that uh and particular case they can go on 15 up to almost 20 years and that just continues to add that's where the largest number comes from when a person doesn't do it after 20 years the lean goes away so we have some in the 17 18 year range that if they do hit 20 it goes away so they strategically could be not bringing in compliance once they get to a point to get to 20 years an alternative is if the county wanted to we could actually take it to the judicial system in the courts to demand it we don't do that we wait until they bring it in compliance and then as a practice as opposed to a policy it has been the lesser of 10% of the uh lean or the value of the property that is just in a practice that was established years ago so the the alternative if if the board decided at a certain point of a dollar figure to go through the judicial process that'd be another one as opposed to wait it out when they come in compliance and come to the 10 or 10 whichever is less but that person typically is waiting for 20 years for it to go away and that's in the statute so there's a a a strategic plan to it often times if they sell the house they have to come in compliance or if they try to finance the house it comes into do compliance because the bank will require it so that's usually the driving force okay Don yes commissioner I was just going to state from the bigger picture that often times staff tries to work with a property owner for quite some time to get them into compliance so our first role is not to go to the hearing officer the the magistrate and initially so um that's the number one goal so by the time it gets to these large fines the neighborhood is typically quite upset with their neighbor not keeping up with their house um and there has been some back and forth for a long period of time so by the time they get to this point of reduction typically it's being sold and a new customer is coming in to bring it in compliance which kind of resets the clock and this is an incentive to encourage that happen so the the finding really plays an also a role to remind them that the community really wants them to come in compliance and by the time they get to this fine reduction especially if there's a large accumulation um there has been a lot of struggle with their neighborhood over this for some time and so I think my you know I think the 10% reduction has been debated whether we should do it at all in the past I think it's served us well to encourage the uh transfer of property to someone who's willing to keep it up to the community standards commissioner Smith um so if that and I don't disagree with anything you just said right if that is the driving force though which it should be the community and and when we were coming out of the recession and we had all sorts of foreclosures we had all sorts of properties that were a mess that nobody wanted to touch I get it and if your neighborhood is dealing with a a property that has been let go then Jeff if if there is a statute or an ability for us to go to court do it in two years or do it in a year if if the idea is to protect the neighborhood and someone's not coming into compliance you got a year or whatever after the magistrate or before the magistrate whatever timeline you want to do it but put that into the order and if we want to clean up the property and we can't get it through a magistrate or someone paying their Finance until somebody refinances which could be 10 years if they don't choose to do it then force them into court if that if that's the driving case which it should be to clean up or protect the neighborhood then protect the neighborhood I just don't know that the fine process I don't agree with it the way it's structured I would much rather see this recover the cost and if there's a timeline that we said enough is enough send it to to to a judge let it go that way that's me for whatever it's worth thank you commissioner campy thank you I appreciate the differences of opinions being presented I make a motion to accept staff's recommendation second okay all right uh we have a motion no on I didn't want by commissioner campi and of second by commissioner herd all those in favor I opposed motion carries 3 to one with commissioner Smith dissenting and commissioner um Jenkins absent thank you very much thank you I think there's a public comment that could be we still have time oh we have to take um okay um I don't have would anybody like to make public comment on this item seeing none we still have a motion by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner herd all those in favor I I thank everyone the motion passes 3 to one with commissioner Smith descending thank you okay our next item is uh quasi judicial public hearing to consider a request for zoning District change to plan unit development through a PUD zoning agreement including a master plan final site plan for the Pepperwood assemblage project presented by Brian Elam this is a quasi judicial so with we'll wait till everybody gets in let's let's take X parte while everybody is getting settled um commissioner Smith do you have exper a okay I do when they're filed commissioner campy I did have some and I filed them uh commissioner her uh if I have any they've been filed okay very well and anybody uh providing testimony will you please stand and be sworn in by the cler raise your right hands do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth [Music] okay has all of the your work history and appropriate paperwork been turned in copy of my work history and the agenda item has been filed for exhibit one okay we have no interveners right all right with that we will start with staff's presentation thank you Commissioners uh for the record Brian Elum principal planner with the growth Management Department this is a request by hja Design Studio LLC on behalf of jam Z Properties Incorporated for approval of a planned unit development zoning agreement including a master and final site plan for an approximate 29 and a/4 acre property located between Southeast Cove Road and Southeast Sala Road West of Legacy Cove and south of Fern Creek included with this application is a request for a certificate for public facilities reservation the proposed development includes 43 single family lots on approximately 29 and A4 Acres resulting in a gross density of 1.47 units per acre this proposal includes the dedication of approximately 2 and a half acres of rideway to Martin County along Southeast Martin Cove Place Southeast Pepperwood Drive and Southeast Cove Road the proposed master final site plan includes a total open space of 76% and 6.95 Acres of fresh water Marsh Wetlands 4.41 Acres of wetland buffer and about3 Acres of Upland habitat creation protected under a preserve area management plan that includes the removal of Exotics and restoration of these areas with Native plantings the property consists of three undeveloped Parcels lying within the primary Urban Services district and will have an access will have access to the full complement of Public Services the north side of the property fronts the public RightWay Southeast Martin Cove place which is only partially opened across the two Northern Parcels north of Southeast Martin Cove plac is one single family home in a portion of the Fern Creek PUD which was established in the 80s the east side of the property abuts the unopened Southeast Pepperwood Drive RightWay that this application proposes opening a distance sufficient to provide access to the east side Lots the Legacy Cove PUD lies on the east east of Pepperwood Drive right away property ABS a single family lot to the southeast and of course Southeast Cove Road the properties uh bordering this site to the West are undeveloped the subject property has the estate density 2 units per acre future land use designation and re1 12a residential estate District zoning to the north and west is A1A agricultural District zoning and Rural density underlying future land use allowing one unit for 2 acres to the north and east is PUD zoning with est State density 2 units per acre underlying future land use and on the Southeast side of the property is one single family home with the re 12a residential estate District zoning and estate density 2 units per acre future land use access to the site is proposed from Southeast Cove Road and Southeast Martin Cove place the 22 Lots located on the west side of the property will have access from Cove Road via proposed right and left turn lanes that will be constructed in the RightWay the traffic division of the public works department reviewed the traffic statement for this application and found it satisfies the adequate public facility standard and it has di Minimus impact 21 Lots on the the Northeast side of the property will have access from Southeast Martin Cove place 10 of the Lots on the North side will have driveways on Southeast Martin Cove place and 11 of the Lots will access the site via an extension of Southeast Pepperwood Drive to the development's private roadway Southeast Mandy place there is no connection between the East and West other than what activities are allowed uh by The Preserve area management plan article 3 division five of the Martin County Land Development regulations defines the purpose and intent of the planned unit development or PUD uh PUD zoning agreement allows flexibility in regard to standard zoning requirements found in the Land Development regulations but must be consistent with the requirements of comprehensive growth management plan the Pepperwood assemblage PUD proposal includes smaller lot sizes setbacks and increased height compared to the existing re 12a zoning the applicant is also using the right to transfer one/ half of the Wetland acreage density in return this proposal offers the following public benefits a multimodal sidewalk within Pepperwood Road rideway and a 30ft existing Road easement from Martin Cove place to Cove Road includes the removal of Exotics and path lighting construction of an 8 in gravity sewer um from Pepperwood Drive up Pepperwood Drive and down I think to the end of Southeast Martin Cove place this extension will provide the opportunity for future connections by surrounding residences to the north and requires the existing Road be reconstructed entirely to install it and the owner will purchase a traffic preemption device for $6,000 to benefit fire department this is an overview of the proposed 10-ft anding multimodal sidewalk which will provide a pedestrian path from Martin Cove place to Cove Road and includes path lighting uh will Meander through what can be saved of any um Native plantings and then uh cleared of all the Exotics this application was heard before the local planning Agency on August 15 2024 the LPA voted three to one against recommendation of The Proposal one member had to recuse them from participating in the vote development review staff have found the jam Z properties's Incorporated application to comply with all applicable regulations and the comprehensive growth management plan as detailed in the staff report staff recommends approval of this application and we move the board receive and file the agenda item and all its attachments including the staff report is exhibit one move the board approved the request for zoning District change from re1 12a residential estate District to the planned unit development through the Pepperwood assemblage PUD zoning agreement including master final sight plan and preserve area management plan and move that the board adopt a resolution approving and accepting a right ofwe Deed from jamy Properties Incorporated of Florida profit Corporation to Martin County 30 ft of the dedicated rideway along Southeast Martin Cove place 30 ft of dedicated rideway along Southeast Pepperwood Drive and dedicated rideway of varying widths along Southeast Cove Road as a condition of approval of the Pepperwood assemblage PUD zoning agreement master and final site plan and authorize the chairman to sign any and all documents necessary to complete the transaction and that concludes the presentation be happy to answer any questions thank you Brian commissioner herd what was the LPA vote 3 to one in favor in opposition not to recommend it in opposition okay um and the the uh the Lots in the uh Northeastern sector are generally what size believe it's 7,500 Square fet so that's so um 21,780 ft is a half acre and these are two units per acre and instead these are these lots are proposed to be 70 somewhere between 7200 and 7500 which is a sixth of an acre I believe it's 75 is the so it's a sixth of an acre not it's six units per acre instead of 2 units per acre is essentially what we're getting no sure say about a third right good morning state your name for the please good morning Peter Walden Deputy growth management director yeah the density has taken over the site overall which is only 1.47 units per acre so the fact that the losss are smaller is the subject of the Pud agreement yeah so just just so that I can understand the math of this parcel it's approximately 29.2 Acres 6.35 Acres of wetlands 4.41 of wet Acres of wetland buffers and an additional 2.5 acres dedicated to the county for ride of way and stuff which leaves 16 Acres of usable Upland and that's not including roads sidewalks or anything else that sounds correct yeah that sounds correct all right so that's essentially uh three units per acre on the site overall no the the density is taken according to the comprehensive plan rules so you allowed to have 1 half of the density of the wetlands and the density of the Uplands so a total allowed density on the site would be 50 units so they're proposing 43 which is a little less than what the comprehensive plan allows how many units could you get under straight zoning maybe 15 yeah 15 and instead they were're proposing 43 yes yeah okay that's all I have for right now okay I know seeing on another Li does the applicant have a presentation yes good morning for the record Bob Reigns I'm a land use attorney with the gunster law firm and I'm here this morning on behalf of the applicant and we appreciate the opportunity to be here this this morning um I would like to start uh just by saying that we do agree with the uh staff report uh and the uh comments the conclusions and the recommendations in that staff report I would like to point out in the report I think it's important to note a couple of uh important things and I would therefore like to ask Mr elim with your permission uh commissioner a couple of quick questions if I could um Mr elim you you were responsible for Section F and section g in the staff report is that correct sir yes and and if I could I'm going to read section F that's entitled determination of compliance with the comprehensive growth management plan requirement in the growth Management Department is that correct yes and the findings of compliance in the staff report read that the staff has reviewed this application and finds that it complies with the ldrs as detailed within this report staff recommends approval of this development application as consistent with the guidelines and the standards of the applicable comprehensive plan goals objectives policies as implemented in the ldrs is is that correct yes and is that still sir in your professional opinion the uh correct it is consistent yes and then sir section g is entitled determination of compliance with the land use site design standard zoning and procedural requirements is that correct yes and the finding of compliance under that reads staff has reviewed this application and finds that it complies with the ldr is detailed within the staff report staff recommends approval of this development application as consistent with the guidelines and the standards of applicable comprehensive plan goals objectives policies as implemented in the ldrs is that a correct reading yes and in your professional opinion sir is that still the case yes that's the case okay thank you very much um so Commissioners this this project does meet all the rules and regulations of the comprehensive plan uh but what we're going to do and quite honestly uh what you know we'll we'll fall on our sword here fell to do maybe at the LPA was to present a good presentation as to how this project complies and the benefits of this project so we're certainly going to do that today and with that I'd like to begin by asking Erica bitler to come up and she'll make a a portion of the presentation then we'll have our environmental consultant come up and then also our engineer so uh to do those so I'd like to begin with Miss bitler and if I could I have a few questions for her uh M bitler uh can you please state your name for the record yes good morning Commissioners my name is Erica and have you been sworn in yes sir and can you give us a little bit of uh your history your educational history and your work history please yes so I've um was raised in this community and I've been uh Graduate University of Florida in 2016 for landscape architecture I've been working under Michael Houston with haa since an intern in 2014 and working full-time uh since 2016 so and can you describe the document I'm handing to you yes this is my resume and is that a current accurate resume yes sir okay it I'd like to submit this if I could commissioner to the clerk applicants exhibit are we doing them one or a one how two one we'll just do one so with that I'll let you go ahead and your presentation thank you for me that's for you uh like I said good morning Commissioners thank you for your time I'm Erica biter for the record with HJ Design Studio I am the planner the landscape designer and and the agent for the applicant of this project I just want to say thank you for staff for diligently working with our team for over two years to get us to this point I could pull that a little closer the mic please okay sorry um I never I either talk too loud or talk too quiet um and the applicant Donald Barnes has met with reached out to the budding community members and uh had one meeting so far um and our team is here to answer any questions that you may have um and we'll be happy to answer them like staff uh presentation this site is located between Cove Road and Sano Road about 0.9 miles east of caner West of Legacy Cove and south of Fern Creek and north of Anderson Middle School uh this land use existing land use is a state density and the zoning is re21 and A2 which has a by Rite of two units per acre uh this site is 29.2 3 acres and consists of three undeveloped Parcels that um approximately 9 Acres each and the site is bifurcated by the upper reach of Fern Creek which is makes up about 11.65 of wetlands and Wetland buffers with that uh the south is Axis off of Cove Road and the north is Axis off of solo via Pepperwood Drive and Cove place the context of this site is surrounded by single family residences and to the South is the two uh schools middle school and um uh I think Elementary to high school um as well as the Atlantic Ridge Park so our site uh based on existing zoning the of a state density two units per acre we this site is allowed 44 units um by right and the proposed PUD is utilizing half a density for the wetlands and is can be up to 50 units which is 7.1 uh 1.7 units per acre maximum density permitted the proposed plan that you see here has 43 Lots uh which in turn is 1.47 units per acre and the typical lot size you see here is 60x 125 which is 7500 Square ft um give or take A4 acre uh of this site less the rideway dedications is 26.7 3 acres and uh 9.7 Acres of this uh property will be developed or 36% of the land um with a total of 11.65 wetlands and Wetland buffers they're creating two neighborhood pods oh sorry I didn't mean to go back but it's okay um the West pod consists of 22 Lots with axis off of Cove Road and the East podt has 21 Lots with AIS off of Sano uh via Pepperwood Drive and Martin Cove Place uh the proposed plan will have 100% native landscape which is 25% more of uh code minimum the Pepperwood assemblage PUD is proposing several public benefits a staff mentioned um of that is establishing pedestrian connectivity to Cove Road off-site utility extension fire department contributions and uh preservation of additional Upland habitat the site also offers additional features Wetland restoration enhancement to Fern Creek storm water continuation of flow Improvement as well as RightWay dedications which approximately 88.4% of the site will be dedicated to the county the offsite utility extension is 8 in gravity sewer made that's going to be constucted along South southeast mar Cove which is north of the site highlighted in Orange this is the opportunity for uh residents of Fern Creek uh to the north to potentially connect to this and and get off of Sue septic uh the Pepperwood Drive creation of connectivity is is pretty important as right now uh you have to either go east or west down caner or alt Road um the construction of a 10-ft Meandering path um across the portion of our site along Pepperwood Drive um and the existing Road rway um will strengthen The Pedestrian connectivity uh from the Fern Creek community to Cove Road uh in addition there will be I'm I'm sorry I didn't mean to how do you go back on this there's no going back it's okay it's all right um with with the uh construction of the 10-ft meand during sidewalk addition of exotic removal and 26 native trees and sable palms will be lining the sidewalk as well as a safe lit pedestrian uh lighting for for every user night and day um as you can see the context here the yellow uh arrow is where the path will be located and uh surrounding to the north and to the uh to the East is residential single family communities and Anderson Middle uh Treasure Coast Classical Academy and Atlantic Ridge State Park it really enhan a midblock connection uh to also that trail head Atlantic Ridge State Park which is an important feature for our community another public benefit is the purchase of traffic preemption equipment which is always needed additional habitat create um creation of additional habitat will be uh in between the existing Wetland buffers to continue that connection which will uh just help contribute to that preserving of over 26% the minimum open space requirement totaling 76 open space overall for this site there are additional project features that our team will elaborate on um that I think contribute to this overall project and as I mentioned before 100% native landscape will be provided uh the ex this exceeds the code requirement 25% it's important with the environmental uh habitat on the site that we uh continue doing 100% native all storm water Retention Ponds that you see along the edges here and and um are planted with also obviously 100% uh Native shrubs and trees which will help to improve water quality in the dry retention areas and also the use of native is always important to reduce the need of irrigation long term and pesticides which in turn improves local biodiversity and with that said I'm going to introduce Drew Gatewood who's our environmental consultant to speak upon the wetlands inhabit before you do that let me ask m bitler a couple of quick questions so miss bitler you're familiar with the comprehensive plan yes sir you're familiar with the Martin County Land Development regulations certainly and in your professional opinion does this project meet both the comprehensive plan and Land Development regulations of Martin County yes sir okay thank you now Mr Gatewood can come up Drew if you could please introduce yourself for the record my name is Drew Gatewood and have you been sworn in I have and can you provide us with a brief uh summary of your uh education and work history please I've been doing environmental work since 2001 I've got three master's degrees and a host of licenses and certifications that are on the resume that he's about to okay and I'll hand you that and you can use is that your resume it is and is it an accurate and upto-date resumee yes uh I'd like to submit this as applicants exhibit I went with twos right okay thank you thank you uh okay please proceed all right I've been working on these Parcels since 2014 um doing environmental assessments and JDS as projects come and go um this is the first time we've been able to actually put a project together and do this but I've watched the wetlands on site continually degrade with the density of exotic vegetation this um our wetlands in the South or the um yeah I guess it' be the southwest corner aren't nearly as bad as what it is in the rest of Fern Creek but one of the main things our goal for the Wetland restoration side of this is to create a better flow through this water basin um we have a density of melca and climbing Fern which choke the water out they also prohibit a lot of our Wildlife usage I have very little observations of anything as far as waiting Birds we haven't had any go for tortoises we really haven't had any Wildlife that's out hogs on site um I think going through our pant process with the restoration and the Exotic removal will help benefit that this area um the one thing that I I am excited about this project we um I don't know if you if you can you see our the screen yes yes so where that culdesac is just Due West of that that density of gray is um a stand of maluca it's probably between 30 40t tall we're going to be removing some of those but some of what we're proposing on doing is girdling them so they'll be left upright which I think once we have the rest of this cleared out and start to have some open water it'll create a uh a waiting bird habitat that we haven't had so far um the restoration plan that I've designed is to help facilitate that usage come in um and then with the water management District's guidelines and your pamp guidelines we will be doing uh annual maintenance and monitoring it's perpetual so once this gets cleaned up and actually is functional again it's not going to be reverting back to what it looks like today all right and you Mr gate would uh you're familiar with the Martin County rules regulations with and comprehensive plan with respect to environmental issues I am and in your professional opinion does this project meet those it does goals and objectives thank you yep and our final uh presenter is uh Mr Rick Cree Mr Cree you know the routine sir if you would yes sir would you rck cre cre engineers and have you been sworn yes I have and can you give us a brief uh summary of your history work history and educational history I'm glad you qualified work history I can stand up here all day but uh uh preaching yeah Rick Cree uh 40 years of experience in Martin County um have a bachelor's degree from Carnegie melon University in civil engineering have a master's degree from kraton University in dispute resolution and I've been working on projects like I said here in Martin County and ser engineering and surveying since I was roughly 9 years old so have done a significant portion of the project and is that your current resume sir that I'm handing you yes it is okay and I'd like to submit that as applicants exhibit three go right ahead sir well you know good morning it's good to see everyone first first of all I don't get an opportunity to to speak that often so I wanted to thank everyone here the commission and staff for the wonderful job you guys have done I know commissioner herd you're going on 22 years now so and I was sitting here thinking I got to put my glasses on and I can remember chuckling at Jack cared when I was like a young man you know doing my first presentation and it's like and now now I got to put them on to be able to see and commissioner Smith thank you very much for your service going on 20 24 years so so thank you Commissioners I know it's a hard job and a heavy lift so with that you know one of the things that uh I love about this project is having barefooted around and grew up down in this part of the world in Cove Road when it was dirt uh is Fern Creek back in the 70s used to be a flowing kind of like Wetland system uh I have to applaud Mike Gela he went out with my staff you know several months ago to help determine the seasonal high water table and it was like climbing through a jungle and you could not get through it it was uh a major ordeal just to to get you know feet inside the Wetland so so with uh what Drew had mentioned earlier you know the ability to to um you know take fer Creek which serves the area of Cove Road and Cove roads County project uh as an outfall will definitely uh you know you know help the area in providing flood protection for Cove Road and various other Lots in and around the area uh you know with its outfall to basically you know St Lucy St Lucy River um you as you can see this project as I think uh as I was Consulting with Haley Ward which Dan gruin is here with Haley Ward one of the other project Engineers on the site um in providing that local knowledge there's been some concerns in Soro Road about you know over topping the road and flooding so I encourage them to provide a system that reduced the amount of outfall and discharge to lower than what the predevelopment discharge is and so what I did is just had a little moment here to to show that we're substantially you know considering probably about 20 to 30% Less in our outfall discharge from the site as it currently does today one of the other items that uh you know like to mention is uh you know nowadays you have what you call imp impaired water bodies and St Lucy river is an impaired water body um as a result of that you know criteria now basically and provides for enhanced water quality in those areas so we're now providing instead of what the standard would have been 100% of water quality treatment we're now providing 150% of water quality treatment prior to discharge and we're doing that through a series of driver retention systems filtration and wet detention so I think that'll be a definitely bonus for the area along with u you know meeting Martin County's water quality water quality treatment which is roughly 3 in where uh the Water Management District requires only about two and a half so uh so we're well you know on our way with you know enhancing the water quality from Fern Creek helping the county with some of its strange systems out there the other really critical path here I think that benefits the county and you you know the project obviously is when we clean out the Exotics you know it's going to allow for better flood protection for Cove Road which is a historically uh you know arterial roadway and a historical evacuation route so without you know Cove Road Martin County would be severely enhan you know impacted if it was not allowed you know if it was flooded during that time period um so you know that's the storm water piece um as you can see the dri retention areas are adjacent to you know the project and discharge into the Wetland and discharge clean water kind of give you an overall impact of of Fern Creek and its and its entirety and what it serves it serves Cove Road which primary outfall is right there with that blue arrow is and moves to the north underneath Soro Road out to the St Lucy River so uh this is basically the headwaters of Fern Creek uh one of the other items that has not been in my opinion as as relayed or been performed lately on a lot of projects I've been involved in is RightWay dedication uh here you know Martin County has requested we give up roughly 6 acres to enhance Cove roads RightWay as an arterial roadway such that it now instead of being disjointed rways in the county possibly in the future during in expansions having to do due due diligence and doe imminent domain now are receiving those rways in contribution as part of the project so you know one of the um things that I like to talk about is you know having been you know native of the areas is what I think is what is a good project and I think this is a good infill project it's inside the urban service boundary it's on an arterial roadway it's thoughtfully designed uh there's enhancements of of historical Wetlands that have been for gotten and U and are exotic infested um and it you know kind of you know with the schools being great schools in the area it's going to be a desirable place to live you've got David Anderson across the street you got South Fork Pelon Elementary and Crystal Lake so it's going to be a desirable place and and I think it's going to be a very family oriented aspect with respect to the multim modal path if you know growing up in that area if you would have noticed you know back commissioner hella when she was on the board had implemented the sidewalk program in Martin County Martin County at that time had very little sidewalks or no sidewalks and Mel the little guy with the beard was putting sidewalks in all across the county all by himself and sometimes with a crew of one or two so I think the internal continuity of a multimodal path is integral to connecting those sorno Creek you know communities to um David Anderson and and you know and making it much more communal and providing continuity so preserving the open space I mean that's an obvious thing that we do nowadays so you know opens and 76% is greater than what would be required uh enhancing the infrastructure and public services I mentioned the rideway again and Cove Road eventually it'll be expanded and then secondly is you know providing that septic to sewer program that the County's tried to mandate for years to getting people off of septic tanks and improving the groundwater quality and surface water quality by going to public sewers and then contribution to the emergency services it's the right thing to do obviously you know and to Aid in the public safety for the community and then you know maintaining the character of the surrounding areas I talked about the schools and the single family residential aspects of the project I think it's an ideal spot for it so thank you for your kind attention and with that Mr cre just a couple of questions for you against sir I I assume you're familiar with the Martin County comprehensive plan and the Land Development regulations with respect to this project yes I am and in your professional opinion does this project meet all those requirements and objectives yes and then some thank you thank you Commissioners that that concludes our presentation we appreciate your time uh we believe we've got a great project Here We Believe also we have a staff recommendation of approval and I think we've shown that we do meet all the rules and regulations and the comprehensive plan and we would respectfully request you accept staff's recommendation and approve this project and we'll be glad to answer any questions you might have okay El selder Deputy County attorney Bob can you just confirm that the Affidavit of notice was oh yes I'm sorry yes the uh thank you the uh notices uh to the surrounding Property Owners was turned in at the LPA meeting for this meeting also thank you okay great commissioner Smith thank you madam chair when I met with the applicant and listen to their presentation the only um suggestion it wasn't it wasn't a like you have to do this sort of an idea um the length of that multi uh use path uh and the lighting that's going to be there um just as time moves on and as um as time moves on uh we have found that in a lot of our Parks we have put fiber optics in and we have put in security systems that we know where everybody is and what they're doing for obvious reasons and I think with the connection to the school and the fact that there will be a lot of kids hopefully living in this neighborhood and and wanting to be able to have access to those schools it may not be a bad idea to install fiber optics for cameras for the future so that residents can have the complete knowledge and safety that if their kids are going to walk that long distance to the school through the neighborhood that at least somebody could have an eye on them to make sure that everything was safe um I I just I I think it's a great path I think I I love the idea that they designed it and put it in I think it's fantastic I just think for added security they might want to consider that but it's not something that I say you have to do it's just a consideration that's all right yes sir understood thank you thank you um looking for public comment I don't have any forms would anybody like to make public comment yes sir could you please fill out a form um when you're done and submit it to the Baya I yes you have three minutes for public comment and you will hear a ding with 15 seconds remaining understood my name is Derek how yall doing today um I'm the resident in the uh corner of the the four Lots there and uh just some concerns that I had I I wasn't able to make it on the 17th but um the walkway that that is a great op uh a great asset to the to the value but um from my from my front porch I could see all these people every day so going to set back another 10 15 ft on me which it is what it is at 10 years old I told myself I wanted to save up buy five acres in Martin County and now this dream's being abolished very nerve W wrecking up here um Mr Mr Cree mentioned growing up in that area when he was a child and um my kids are doing that now and have that taken away you know that's substantial to me um the outflow from Cove Road that he mentioned as far as is going through to Salerno it's just going to be bottleneck through my property you know they're not going to be able to are they going to come into my whet lands and you know clear that and remove the uh invasive species there um I've seen what are they rose8 spoon bills I've seen deer Hogs coyotes Bobcats everything on my property due to Cove Royale you know everything's getting pushed out they're they're losing their areas and um that's a constant uh you know you see dead animals on Co road all the time um just wanted to be uh you know voiced and heard so that's all I have thank you all thank you sir uh amber would you like to speak just fill out a form when you're done please it's nice to be here at these meetings because I get to learn about how it all goes um just like a thought I was having um watching this presentation a question really um when it comes to the Exotics that are going to be removed is that an ongoing process like if more Grow Again are we going to remove them or is it like we did it once and now they grow back um and then you know cuz obviously thinking about what um Mr Cree I think just said like that he's got some on his property so so like if they just grow back you know um might want to think about that and as well as um I like the path idea like that sounds very nice I agree with commissioner Smith about the um you know ensuring safety for the kids that are walking that um I don't know how lighting affects the animals that are around there so if there's like some sort of specific type of lighting that um can you know make sure I don't know if it's like you know red lights or blue light you know if there's a certain type of lighting for um that's good for the environment that's all thanks thank you for your comments anyone else commiss commissioner her yeah just I'm sorry Comm go ahead I was just gonna bring Drew up to answer and I'm sorry I didn't catch her last name but Amber's question on let's have Comm heard and then we'll answer all those um comments at the end yeah I was looking at ownership and the the developer's name looks familiar is this the same developer who proposed the 90 units in Palm City yes ma'am okay um sold and sold the property to the county right yeah at the request of the county right so once again I'm going back to um development growth in this Corridor is is uh is rampant and it's ever expanding and the residents are just about ready to melt down particularly those on Cove Road uh because there is insufficient capacity on Cove Road in order to handle the volume of of new residents moving into these new developments um if this project was straight zoning there would be 15 homes that would be allowable according to our staff on this par parcel instead there are 43 units proposed on this property uh more than half of those will be uh approximately a sixth of an acre even though the zoning allows two units per acre instead it will be six because it's a public uh uh PUD and therefore density bonuses are given in EX in in return exchange for public benefit but the only public benefit that's being provided that's substantial at all is a sidewalk I I I think that that as a policy uh we should not be allowing puds in in this Corridor um we should not be allowing density bonuses in this Corridor um so I am I am not going to support this I'm going to to uh uh heed the lpa's recommendation for denial and I would only address just commissioner herd's comments just on a couple of quick things one with respect to the public benefits I respect her opinion on that that's certainly you know a subjective and an opinion that uh when it comes to public benefits I appreciate that I I would just correct two statements one there is sufficient capacity on uh Cove Road I don't want that to go said because that's an inaccurate statement uh the capacity it even states in the staff report that there's capacity and it's a level I believe uh maybe somebody from the staff can confirm it but I believe it's a level C on Cove Road right now so that number one number two it is not six units per acre you know you either believe in the comprehensive plan in its totality or you don't and according to the comprehensive plan calculation is based upon the the the way that Mr Walden stated it in the in his presentation so to say that there it's six units per acre is inaccurate according to the comprehensive plan so I wanted to get those on the record just to clear it up thank you Mr Reigns commissioner campy thank you very much um interesting project to answer Amber's question when a uh area is cleared of Exotics a pamp preserve area management plan is put in place that the association would then have to follow forever uh in regards to the public comment uh the neighbor who's already there on a beautiful 5 Acres right in the heart of town good for you um I think maybe based on what his reasonable request would be that if you are in the process and I'm not trying to put extra work on the on the developer and the applicant but maybe if you are there most of the big expense is is just organizing and and getting the equipment to the location if there's a way you could work to assist an existing neighbor so that he you don't in an effort to clear your spot create an issue for him if that could be worked out to you know collaborate with him to have a benefit for the fact that you know um he will be a very affected neighbor I did receive I think all of us did receive a letter from the president of the property Property association Property Owners Association of Fern Creek I thought that their request they were not opposed to the Project based on what I read but their uh requests I thought were reasonable one was a four-way stop sign at an intersection that would U be created and two uh similar to what our public speaker said about drainage issues that there are already some existing drain drainage issues I would like uh given the um opportunity for the project to move forward that those issues be taken into consideration very seriously uh let's have a benefit come from this we have had other situations where development happening next to exist existing and in this particular case longtime existing residents uh they should see no adverse impact if anything they should see a benefit to that and I think that there's the possibility of doing that in regards to my colleagues concerned that straight zoning would allow 15 units uh instead of the requested 43 um we as a community have been spending a lot of time and effort and energy talking about housing opportunities for everyone if we were to continue to follow along with what would be straight zoning and using this property to create 15 homes these would be million homes if not more and then we're trying to figure out how do we keep our existing residents here how do we allow young people that grew up here to have even the opportunity to live where they grew up to work where they grew up I respect my colleague's opinion 15 units sounds terrific but if that's all we're going to do is build millionaire homes and we are doing that at the very high level if we do that on every parcel every 10 acre parcel 22 acre parcel 40 acre parcel we will literally we will wipe out our young people from being able to live here these homes I would imagine are not going to be 250 350 houses but if we don't create at least think about that segment the half a million to 650 which sadly is like the new Norm we're never going to allow people to come here we will disrupt the the flow of of the market in such a way that we will never have people live here and all we will create is tremendous traffic because the need of a community for employees never goes away if anything it increases if we force our employees to live elsewhere and now the days of living just over the Border North of us in Port St Lucy and tradition that's nearly not an option anymore either because it cost 650 750 850 to live in Tradition and they're also being taxed out of the ability to live there we'll never have it so I I hear what commissioner herd is saying and in a perfect world I like 15 units to the acre and I like that we would never vary from a straight zoning strategy but as Commissioners at least in my world I think we need to continue to create all of the segments of the market where people that went from they bought their first home magically for maybe in the 350 to 400 and now they can step up into probably this neighborhood then someone else can purchase their home and the market continues to manage itself um the concept of too much traffic on Cove Road is something that every single time something comes up whether it's a school or a business or a neighborhood um Cove Road is an issue now I was not sitting up here during the four years that the Cove Road sort of blew up it was long on the list and anyone that's familiar with how the dot operates it was long on the list and finally working its way to the top of the list for years and just as it got to the top and commissioner Smith was here just as it got close to being okay it's the next project that will be worked on the board at the time the majority of the board at the time said we're not interested and it was taken off the list removed and then when the majority came back I came back in 2016 and we asked F dot hey can we put that back on it went to the bottom of the list with really no uh Fastpass you know fast tracking anymore because it had worked its way and then it was knocked down so it's on the list again but it imagine you're getting close to the front of the line and and you voluntarily say I'm getting off the line and then a couple years later you say I made a mistake I want to get back on the line you're on the line but there's a lot of neighborhoods and communities and projects that moved in front of you eventually coov Road will get done it would have been done by now I believe staff can correct me if I'm wrong it would have been done by now uh but it's not and so I don't know if we punish everyone that owns property along that area including you sir that if you ever wanted to do anything with your property uh which obviously it seems like you don't except raise your kids there which is fantastic for you um I I can't use that as a Tipping Point to say I won't allow any other projects there because that was sort of internal politics happening up here and the last point is that 22 of the units will go to Cove and the other Northern portion will go that way I do agree with my commission colleague that some of the public benefits is sort of a personal opinion uh I get that those are benefits the concept and most people are not familiar with if you enter into a PUD you have to give some kind of public benefit um sometimes it seems like a very obvious public benefit sometimes it seems like a benefit to the people that will live inside the project uh the right of way is an interesting Advantage because as we do that Cove Road when we finally do get to the point where we're going to do Cove Road the most time consuming and difficult and expensive portion of that will be trying to acquire the necessary right of way from every single owner along the corridor and this group is already saying we're putting it in up front so that will be one less thing one less expense uh that we will have to work on so I will count that as as a thing the sidewalk when I first read about it I was thinking that's not that big of a deal but when I look at it the map and I see when it's presented today if it is a connectivity way considering that Treasure Coast Classical Academy is there and Anderson middle school so you got Charter and public right there and Treasure Coast Classical Academy is doing nothing but growing from elementary school now middle school now High School a north south uh pedestrian bike riding path for parents to walk their kids to school versus getting in the car in Fern Creek and driving around and becoming more a part of the problem I bet those families will definitely utilize that walkway to come down not just the families that will live in the assemblage or The Parson assem Pepperwood assemblage so will all the Fern Creek families have that as an option so I count that as a as a benefit and so with that I would uh move staff's recommendation for the project after that very brief comment okay um yeah there are no affordable units that are promised in this ped are there I don't mean affordable I just mean attainable someone could are there any attainable houses promised in these public benefits I didn't see any I don't mean the I'm sorry for interrupting I'll wait until you're done Elise Elder Deputy County attorney there's nothing about pricing in the Pud agreement no and that's not what I meant I meant obviously you don't have to be a professional real estate agent to understand if you're Building 43 units on this property versus 15 units on the property on much larger Parts uh pieces of property the market would tell you 43 homes will be less expensive per unit than 15 homes would be it's just market rate and the reason why Cove Road is overburdened is uh not because an additional Road was not built it's because over the last 22 24 years the development crazy board majorities have Grant granted comp plan amendments to all the land owners along this Corridor to increase their densities when I became a commissioner nobody had any land use other than rural one unit per two acres and now we know we got five units per acre we got four units per acre we got six units per acre that's why Cove Road is crowded thanks if I might and I definitely thank you I appreciate that I haven't even said my comment yet Mr Mr campy thank you I definitely do not want to get into a back and forth with my colleague no I definitely I don't however I would say that Trey Bell one of the larger projects on the corridor was a complant Amendment change and if I'm not mistaken it was approved by commissioner herd it was so let's not say that you the sometimes all of us might be crazy because that's a very large neighborhood on Cove Road and requiring a comprehensive plan Amendment change that my colleague did vote to do so it just depends on what your interest level is I assume This is 43 and you know uh our development our I guess I'm one of The Crazy Ones uh I see my friend is shaking his head yes so he would think I was as well but if you look at the statistics we grow at less than 2% nearly every single year so I don't know where the spikes of crazy come from whether we had the majority or the others had the majority it's similar every year it's not like it's not a RoR scale and that's my final comment thank you and we do have a motion on the floor by commissioner campy and a light on by commissioner Smith yeah two other just little historical factoids in that comprehensive plan Amendment Not only was that done um but 300 more Acres were moved inside the urban service boundary and water and sewer was added to what was outside the urban service boundary that was moved into the urban service boundary of which I voted against on Cove Road and Cove Road would have been for laned by 2017 and with that I will move um a second um Commissioners thank you and I just two comments that I had written down during your presentation one commissioner can't be addressed the um um uh the Fern Creek Property Owners Association um requesting a stop sign at Pepperwood Drive and Southeast Martin Cove uh stop sign fourway stop four-way stop sign and then secondly is I I hope the comments on the drainage because this is code Rove widening is n the number one priority actually it's might be the number two priority right now on the mo so uh they should when when they design that project I think taking the concern um has nothing to do with this this project I know you're getting nervous but um we we they should take into um consideration the design the drainage of Cove Road so I I think that's a conversation for the mo but while we're talking about Cove Road it's imperative that they get that drainage right on the Cove Road widening nothing to do with this project so with that we have a motion on the floor by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner yes this just in I'm sorry I apologize do you have an additional comment yeah yes just on on the four-way stop sign what I would ask if if that's going to be a condition added to the Pud is that um it is also based upon staff's review and um concurrence that it is safe it is the right thing to do for that location because I don't know that it is or isn't and there are times where we have wanted to put four-way stop signs in and they're not the right thing to do it may seem like it in the neighborhood but it may not be the safest best condition so I the only thing I would add is if that is a conditional aspect that it is with the review the concurrence of staff to say yes or no and thank you commissioner we would agree with that condition ex specifically based upon what you were saying that was going to be my only concern as we were going to have a condition that wouldn't be it so the way that commissioner Smith stated it is fine with us agree and a motion amended yes and seconder certainly agrees so with that we have a motion on the uh floor and um all those in favor say I I opposed opposed motion carries three to one with commissioner herd dissenting thank you very much and we are going to take now our um overdue close captioning break for 10 minutes and we will be back at 1110 thank you 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 we're on here I am okay welcome back to our August 27th uh Commission meeting and we are starting back with departmental number one Office of Management and budget items which require board approval presented by Stephany 24 items yes um good morning commissioner Stephanie merley the director of The Office of management and budget here to present to you the OM item for today our first item is a permission to apply for the tropical Farms Advanced wastewater treatment pilot Grant this grant is for $510,000 to evaluate the feasibility of achieving Advanced um treated water for portable reuse applications um the estimated project cost is $850,000 and the Grant application includes a $340,000 match which is budgeted Within the utilities and solid waste Capital Improvement plan item number two is a permission to apply for the water quality improvement grant for Martin County's Windstone Evergreen connect to protect septic to sewer grinder project utilities and solid waste is requesting permission to apply for 698,000 um to be used to construct small diameter Forest Mains and lateral lines for the Windstone and Evergreen neighborhoods the project cost is approximately 1.7 million and the Grant application includes a $1.1 million match commitment which is budgeted within the utilities and solid waste Capital Improvement plan item number three is a permission to apply for the water quality improvement grant for Martin County's Bo revage connect to protect septic to sewer grinder project utilities and solid waste is requesting $390,000 for the subject to sewer project at BO rage to construct small diam Force Mains and lateral lines the project cost is approximately $975,000 and the application includes a $585,000 match commitment which is budgeted within the utilities and solid waste Capital Improvement plan item number four is a permission to apply for the FY 20242 Trails Go Local Trail management Grant the environmental resource division is requesting $200,000 for the installation of three new chicky shade structures and 10 new picnic tables at the Martin County blueway paddling Trail a $50,000 Grant match is required which is budgeted within the environmentally sensitive lands Capital Improvement plan sheet you can stop me at any time if you have any questions number five is a permission to apply for the FY 2526 Local Government funding requests from Florida Department of Environmental Protection or D for Beach management our environmental resource division is requesting a grant Award of $92,400 is required and budgeted within our Batha Beach Capital Improvement plan budget item number six is a permission to apply for the FY 2526 um Local Government funding request from fdp for Beach management again this request is for $ 26,8 65 for monitoring funds for the Martin County Hutcherson Island Shore protection project or the Four Mile Beach project the budget match is $243,100 the FD Beach management grant program um it's a requested Grant Award of $2.2 million for design construction and immediate post construction monitoring funds for MacArthur Boulevard Dune Beach project there is a 50% match of 2.2 million which is budgeted within the MacArthur Dune project CIP in the coastal budget item number eight is a permission to apply for the FY 2425 D water quality improvement grant for Port Salerno Port cerno new Monro new Monrovia vacuum sewer project utilities and Solid Waste Department is requesting $12.5 million for the construction cost for vacuum assisted gravity sewer collection system a vacuum pump building and construction engineering inspection services for ports Leo new Monrovia neighborhood the total cost of the project is $22 million and we've already received a $500,000 grant for this project Stephanie just pause one moment commissioner campy Miss merley we had a public speaker this morning asking questions on the timing do you have any idea of the timing Matt Graham is here to answer that question Matt good afternoon Commissioners M Graham assistant County Administrator we're looking towards the end of the year for when we would hear back from the state on that okay so the paperwork's been filed yes and by the end of the year you'll hear Year back yes and then how long would it take let's say we're positive and we get the money is there like another 6 n months or is the money like is there another cycle then that the checks are written or is it come soon afterwards that's be that I don't know I can once the award is done it takes anywhere from three to six months to sometimes get the grant contract executed and during that time um you would go through the uh get ready to do the bidding process and also the special assessment process as well so that we could U begin construction award the contract is uh after we have the contract for the grants in place so just to clarify simultaneously as the check is going through its process knowing that you've been rewarded awarded we are still working we're not waiting to get the check and then start we're simultaneously working I hope that answers the person's question and and and just to let you know that there was a submitt deadline a few weeks ago um which Grant the staff did um um already submit and once you pass this today that affirms to the department that we were serious about this application okay sometimes we not great great thank you Stephanie go ahead all right moving on number nine is a permission to apply for the FD in management Grant um the environmental resource division is requesting 6.5 million for the St Lucy Inlet management plan implementation project which um includes the construction cost for South bypassing to the town of Jupiter Island there is a county match of 6.5 million which is programmed within the coastal St Lucy Inlet management CIP budget item number 10 is a permission to accept the State financial assistance assistance from Florida Department of Law Enforcement or FDLE um State this grant is an award of $500,000 to procure professional planning and Design Services to construct a mental health housing pod for the Martin County Sheriff's Office this grant will also prepare a master plan for the whole Correctional medical facility site and pre prepare preliminary plans for the new mental health housing pod and there's no cash match required Stephanie can I stop yes yes um and just on this one um I think as we all remember from the presentation that sheriff Snider gave us I don't know 6 months ago or so on the cost of what the unit will look like um we are going to have to have a significant um coordinated effort to get whatever funding from the state that's going to help us build that facility because it's a lot of money and so um just long-term term we just all need to I I think be thinking about what that strategy looks like and how our delegation not that we don't have a great supportive delegation wanting to help us on that effort but getting that kind of request through or a portion of that kind of request through the state is going to be a huge lift so agree we should not give up that effort at any time soon I think thank you thank you thank you item number 11 is a permission to accept the housing and Urban Development HUD Grant um this is for the a grant Award of $153,100 to provide permanent Supportive Housing rental assistance for individuals with disabilities who have experienced chronic homelessness and there is no match required item number 12 is a permission to accept amendment number one for the e911 state Grant um this is an amendment for an additional 7,695 $ 4 for the kova logging recorder upgrade the additional funds will allow for the replacement of HP switches that are at end of life for the recording system at e911 at the Martin County Sheriff's Office there's no additional match required item number 13 is a permission to accept the Florida Department of Transportation fdot um transportation Grant agreement amendment number one for the mill and overlay medium intensity Taxi light replacement and restripe for taxiway Alpha construction this is part one of two items for this item um at the Martin County Airport um fdot is awarding Grant amendment number one for an additional $3,886 to complete the cost to of Taxi well taxiway Alpha construction project the remainder of the cost is covered by a local share match of 5% of $3,800 in the FAA portion which is later in this item for an additional 69,000 item number 14 is a permission to accept the fy2 2425 state funded emergency preparedness and assistance grant or empa grant for our Emergency Management division um we're requesting funding in the amount of $28,750 Management in the State of Florida and there is no cash match required item number 15 is a permission to accept amendment number two um for the FTE East Fort Creek storm water treatment area Phase 2 Grant we're accepting an additional $500,000 um to provide funds for the construction of an sta in Lake in accordance with the Construction contract documents this amendment does not require any change to the local contribution that has been budgeted and set aside for this grant item number 16 is a permission to accept the second part of the taxi way Alpha change order um for the FAA portion to increase funding of the taxi way Alpha Rehabilitation and lighting this is for the $69,000 9 $69,950 for the construction of Taxi way Alpha portion of of the airport project item number 17 is a permission to accept the FAA grant for the Reconstruction of Taxi Lane Bravo Design This is a grant Award of $59,400 to reconstruct taxi Lane Bravo there's a local share of $1,260 which will be provided from the airport Enterprise fund item number 18 is a permission to accept the mental health awareness training Grant the human services division is requesting the acceptance of Grant year three of a grant Award of $120,000 to promote and conduct mental health awareness training initiatives throughout Martin County and there is no match required item number 19 is a budget resolution to appropriate the transportation disadvantage planning gr grant for the MP um this is an annual allocation that we receive in the amount of $2,741 for the State Transportation disadvantage funds and om is just requesting an appropriation through budget resolution for those funds item number 20 is there's three parts it's request for funds from Community Broadband reserves um Martin County its is requesting the use of community Broadband Reserve funds to cover upfront costs of repairs while reimbursements are being recouped um there were three separate fiber incidents um that everyone keeps hitting the fiber I guess um at 20 for the amount of $ 26,22256 to restore the community broadb band Network um at the ground box on US1 in Golden Rod Road and then on August 1st 2024 in the amount of $3,913 um at North Citrus Boulevard item number 21 is a request for funds from general fund reserves for the Sheriff's Office the Martin County Sheriff's Office is requesting funding to purchase five portable and five mobile R radios due to the increase in budgeted positions in this fiscal year the estimated cost of the radio purchase is approximately $81,500 which requires a budget transfer from general fund reserves item number two is a request to amend the Martin County Sheriff's Office Firearm Training Facility project um the Martin County Sheriff's Office and the Martin County General services department is requesting the reallocation of funds in the amount of 459,000 from the current Logistics and operations center project to the Martin County Office firearms training project to complete this phase um this is including the replacement of a existing triple wide modular building with two double wide Modular Buildings security enhancement sidewalk adjustments and utility adjustments for the new buildings Stephanie can you pause one a moment yes yeah explain this to me so we're appropriating $758,000 for two new trailers and then we're approach appropriating $459,000 for designing a future facility at the same location it's a reappropriation of funds from one project to another I'll let staff explain get your name for the record good morning Sean Don who General Services director yes this is a we're solving a problem with the existing trailer that's on the site now was one of the old uh Courthouse Modell from way back so it's old it's Way Beyond its useful life so in order to make this safe we need to bring in two new two new modulars while we're Master planning the current site so we can enhance that site down the road uh it was it was debated back and forth about whether we would move that range out to the Western Properties or stay on the same site we decided to look at staying on the same site see if we could fit everything that sheriff's office needs on this site Master planning it and then coming back with costs okay I haven't bought a a uh a triple wide modular building ever but 78,000 bucks for two of them there are two trailers correct uh they're about 100 thou or $ 200,000 each and the rest that's 400,000 where site work to accommodate the trailers and then we're just going to pick it up and spend $459,000 bucks to design a new facility we can use those trailers uh for as long as we need to while we're you know saving up some funds for the future facility uh the purpose is to concentrate on the birming and the range safety uh at the existing location so what is the current CIP sheet for this future building what's the budget uh off the top of my head I don't have that in front of me it's it's around $10 million roughly really but that would be the again this master plan would come back and see what we can do uh on this current site uh what efficiencies we can find uh how long we can use these modular uh while making the site safe and then you use so the Sheriff's Office can use it use it appropriately I think we need to sharpen our pencils on this one that's the plan you're going to spend $13 million to sharpen your pencil to spend 10 more million for a firearm facility okay question all right okay Stephanie next item is a request to amend the Martin County Sheriff's Office Marine operations center at sandpit Park increased cost for fiber technology and Communications equipment has increased the total project cost by $689,500 um there was law enforcement impact fee reserves available to recognize the carry forward impact fees to continue this project in get it off the books Mr heard yeah why don't we rebid it this this Project's been under construction for about a year uh and we took the lowest bid with the well the second lowest bid the first bidder was a yeah but it was 235 and now it's 580 per square foot the that's that's you don't you don't feel it's necessary to rebid when you get a cost increase in that amount when we bid it we had four biders come in I believe three or four and they were right about the same range cost per square foot okay well we're going to have to separate out 22 and 23 when we approve the items and last but not least is a budget transfer from utilities fund reserves for sludge removal um due to an increase in the volume of B biosolids removal from the treatment plants um utilities request is requesting a transfer from Utility Fund reserves in the amount of $400,000 to cover the cost of this necessary Sledge removal okay and that's it all right we have a light on by commissioner Smith and M chair I move approval of all the agenda items less item 22 and 23 commissioner herd I think that was what you said yeah that's good thanks second okay so all items except for 22 and 23 I have a motion by commissioner Smith second by commissioner herd all those in favor I I'm sorry wait SAR was Raising her hand for oh do we need public coma any public comment on these 24 items okay all right she's on her toes though okay so I have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner herd all those in favor I opposed uh motion carries 4 to zero and now we have item 20 2 and I'll make a motion to staff's recommendation for items 22 and 23 for the sheriff's department second and we have a motion by commissioner campy second and by commissioner Smith all those in favor I opposed opposed motion carries three to one with commissioner her dissenting thank you very much our next item is Christie uh contracts that meet the threshold for board approval a million dollars are greater and before you start I have two that I will will be recusing myself from A1 and A2 um as a consultant of Ferrera construction we'll be separating those two out I'll be recusing myself I have uh filed form 8B for both item uh A1 and A2 good okay go ahead you Christy Brotherton Chief procurement officer uh the first item we have for your consideration is the contract for the East Fork create storm water treatment area Phase 2 uh staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder which is Dickerson infrastructure doing business as Dickerson Florida in the amount of 1,826 $461 uh move that the board approved the amended CIP sheet for fiscal year 24 and move that the board authorized the County administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request C uh the next item is a contract for our 96 Street artificial Reef staging area bulkhead staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder which is forrera construction company in the amount of 1,2,3 185 and move that the board authorized the County administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request and if I can get a vote please okay okay um commissioner Smith I'm sure I move approval of both items okay I will second them right we have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner campy all those in favor I opposed and I will be abstaining so the motion carries three to zero uh with commissioner heatherington abstaining thank you okay so the next item is a change order for the Golden Gate neighbor neighborhood resurfacing project uh the purpose of this change order is that during construction of the Golden Gate neighborhood restoration project it was discovered that several of the existing roadways had deteriorated to a point where a standard milling and resurfacing maintenance operation would not suffice um therefore the county worked with a geotechnical engineering consultant to determine the most costeffective and efficient method to properly reconstruct the existing roadways um to bring it up to Martin County standards and full depth Reclamation to the existing pavement section was the um geotechnical engineering firm's recommended action and this change order provides for full depth Reclamation of all roads that have not been milled and resurfaced to date as part of the Golden Gate neighborhood restoration project so with that uh staff is recommending that the board approve change order number four to Eminem asphalt maintenance doing business as All County Paving in the amount of 2 million to 28,500 53371 and move that the board approved the amended CIP sheet for fiscal year 24 and finally move that the board authorize the County administrator or designed to execute all documents related to this request and that concludes this item who's the fun for the additional $2.2 million um this is the FPL franchise fees what is it displacing what projects George Zama Martin County Public Works deputy director this is um this the funding is being utilized from our resurfacing program our annual resurfacing and drainage and guard rail maintenance fund so what projects is it displacing so we have we typically uh program uh miscellaneous projects um that are the bulk of our resurfacing program is either fdot or Florida Department of Transportation grandf funded project which are our major collector and arterial roadways and the rest are have been over the past 5 to six years been accumulated uh with County funds in our local neighborhoods via the res neighborhood restoration program so we also have another program activity sheet for we call them oneoff resurfacing projects so they isolated resurfacing projects that are outside those two areas that we primarily resurface so we accumulate funds for these types of projects uh particularly to supplement neighborhood restoration projects which in nature any any type of restoration um you open a cans of worms and um you know you you you have unforeseen conditions that we like to supplement funding thank you commissioner Smith old light thanks old light okay all right all right I'll entertain a motion with approval second all right commissioner Smith with a motion for approval and commissioner campy uh with a second all those in favor I opposed motion carries four to zero thank you thank you very much all right our next item this morning is departmental number four approval of golf cart lease agreement and equipment rental agreement for sailfish Sands golf course presented by Mike Saunders serious you look very nice this morning Mike thank Youk very serious yeah you do good morning Commissioners uh just want to start off by saying uh the golf course is doing very well as a facility uh as of this morning we are up uh $674,000 in net revenue so um the purpose of this item is to seek approval from the board um for our new golf cart and Fleet lease agreement and equipment rental agreement um our current lease will expire in November and uh the selected vendor did undergo a competitive procurement process um under an RFP um the total uh cost to the county be $65,000 or $6595 52 uh $429,000 will be for the uh golf cars and 176,000 will be for the GPS's uh the staff recommends that the board approve the dlll finance golf cart Fleet lease agreement and the club car equipment rental agreement and authorize the County administrator or does he need to execute all documents related to this request anybody have any questions yes commissioner good bid moove staff's recommendation for approval okay motion by commissioner herd seconded by commissioner Smith all those in favor I post motion carries four to zero thank you very much okay we have departmental number five now we have Martin um Mo US1 congestion management public Outreach study presented by Beth balran and Company morning or good afternoon now good morning I'm Beth Belin I'm the no administrator um of the Martin no um for those watching um m stands for Metropolitan planning organization we're the transportation planning Agency for the county um we have a board made up of the County Commissioners as well as Commissioners from the city of Stewart town of sus point and Village of Indiantown and the no board directed staff to develop a study for congestion traffic congestion along US1 between the Roosevelt Bridge North to the Martin St Lucy County Line um and has contracted with one of our general planning Consultants kimley horn who is here today with their subc consultant Bonnie candrian Associates and they will give you all an update on our study um we are in the process of not only doing the technical analysis but also um doing the public involvement um involved in this study we presented to the city of Stewart commission a couple of weeks ago and now we're here with you this morning so with that I'll introduce um Stuart Robertson from kimley horn to start the presentation good morning Commissioners my name is Stuart Robertson with kimle horn and as Beth mentioned this is an LP study to look at both congestion as well as safety on US1 and we are in our stage of both the technical analysis as well as the public engagement we would love to hear any um comments that you may have and also to address any questions that you may have about the study so I'm going to go through some of the background and the technical information and then I'm going to pass it over to Bonnie to go through what we have found out so far from the public engagement process and also to give more information about the types of public engagement that we're doing so our study area is from Southwest Joan Jefferson way to the St loucy County Line it's about 5 miles Post-it speed is 45 miles per hour and this is the highest volume segment of US1 anywhere within the county and the highest of the high is the uh segment from from Jensen Beach Boulevard to West Morland Boulevard that's where the uh average annual daily traffic Peaks out in in that area I'll talk about Corridor Focus areas in more detail on a later slide some of the other objectives that we that were established for this project were to identify non widening opportunities to achieve viable Transportation options and enhanced efficiency so these would be things like potentially signal timings um Lane extensions for turn lane but also making new connections uh or potentially looking for ways to U Better connect the community together there are some um commercial Parcels along the corridor that don't connect to adjacent commercial parcels and this causes uh some people have to make short trips on us one when they really just want to go next door we're also going to be looking for opportunities to further develop the multimodal network in particular um I say further developing because there are bike Lanes on US1 they don't get a whole lot of use fdot uh this year has come out with a new guidance on what are called sidewalk level separated bike Lanes or sidewalk level spls in their fdot design manual so we're going to be looking at that very closely as um evaluating that as a recommendation for this study in in hopes of being able to increase the safety and comfort of people that either uh have to or choose to ride a bike or walk along us one and also access the transit as well we have bus stops along the corridor so some of the challenges are um I mentioned earlier we're looking for non widening uh Solutions because the roadway is uh deemed infeasible for widening it's a constrained rideway although it's already eight Lanes how much wider can we get so we're going to be looking for non widening options for for US1 we are seeing continual growth in the corridor it's a very vehicle dependent environment as you may imagine uh the the context classification is Suburban commercial so it means many of the uh the the the land uses along the corridor are developed with a single driveway sort of a you hear that phrase one way in one way out development sometimes so US1 serves as the major connection between Port St Lucy and downtown Stewart and this through traffic does create a lot of congestion during Peak travel times um there's also frequent stopping and turning uh caused by the the need to turn into uh driveways uh for accessing the uh the land uses along the roadway and oftentimes as I mentioned some of these trips are rather short um because folks can't drive uh within the uh commercial areas sometimes can't make make a a connection to the adjacent commercial area and have to do so in US1 which does add some slow moving traffic to US1 and causes uh speed differentials which is one of the leading contributors to the uh the safety safety concerns on the corridor so here's our project schedule it's a 12-month process will be done in December I'd like to highlight a few of the very key tasks here one is the project advisory committee committee meets throughout the study to advise the team on technical matters as well as provide local expertise uh it is made up of County staff including from Public Works growth management law enforcement had great participation from law enforcement on this project also Schoolboard staff city of Stewart staff and a staff from fdot District 4 are participating in the project advisory committee we had a public open house in May that I'll allow Bonnie to speak in more detail about and another one is coming up in October so I believe uh We've we've got a date schedule that Bonnie will speak to for the second round of the public engagement and we are presenting to boards such as this throughout the uh the study as well for ongoing input so I mentioned safety uh safety is definitely a concern from the data we've looked at six years of Crash data and uh the the the crashes are somewhat distributed throughout the corridor although the crash the crash data peaks in that highest volume section of US1 between Jensen Beach and West Morland we've also noticed that the frequency of crashes has been increasing since 20 uh 2020 so the corridor Focus areas this is something we work very closely with the project advisory committee as well as through our data analysis to identify and the purpose of these Focus areas is to collect more detailed traffic data we are looking at the traffic volume supplied by County engineering they count each segment uh throughout the county uh every year but the purpose of the corridor Focus areas is to supplement that data with more detailed information such as intersection traffic counts where we count the number of people making each one of the available turning movements at an intersection we also are intending to collect uh travel time and delay studies which means we'll be able to see where the cues are and how they change throughout the day using um these travel time and delay studies some question oh sure what do you do those in um I put my own light on how about that on in peak season and off peak season or do you not consider peak season when you do those we do consider peak season in fact we have factors that allow us to factor up counts taken on in any week of the year to convert them to peak season data we are going to be collecting our counts in September we wanted to wait until school was back in session and uh after the Labor Day holiday but we do have the ability to factor those counts to peak season okay thank you so yeah I mentioned uh that the the project advisory committee had a lot of uh good input and helping to select these Focus areas as well as the type of additional traffic data collection that we would be pursuing one of the other things that we're looking at is connectivity between Parcels as well as connectivity between adjacent roadways so there are lots of popular destinations within uh the this portion of US1 some of which are listed here unfortunately there are a few pedestrian connections between adjacent streets or between the uh developments and US1 so we're going to be looking at uh opportunities and evaluating those opportunities to make recommendations on some connections there are two examples that are shown here the top one is what we've observed related to pedestrian traffic that passed between Golden Rod and US1 I believe that's the Dick Sporting Goods for reference there and then the bottom one is a potential for um a motor vehicle connection between the Maul Loop Road and that's I believe the Target on the south end of that Arrow th those two developments those those um those buildings are very close together but to get from one to the other you have to uh get out onto me too one commissioner Smith um Stuart can we pause here for a second sure um just because I I've got a whole bunch of notes that I these actually were kind of coming already into my notes um the top one uh we've been talking about for years because the amount of kids that go from the high school through the drainage portion there to the West uh into the mall over there which is great uh the one to the north I don't know that we've ever talked about that one before but certainly that could make some sense uh what should also be on that map and we tried to do this years ago when there was construction going on between um I think it was for the In-N-Out burger or whatever that um location is up in the next Mall huh Sonic Checkers or not Checkers but Sonic Sonic Sonic um the connection between um what I would call The Hobby Lobby Mall uh to the South to Dix sporting good um would significantly change some of the having to go back out into US1 connections to go back up into that other Mall um so I would add that one to that list on your lower image um there is or was already in Target's master plan and if you look at the parking lot the ballards or ballards are still there there's a connection further to the east of that blue line that you have to the back of Kohl's That was supposed to have gone through that didn't connect okay um as well if you're going to look at that something else that would significantly improve um and we have the same condition down on Indian Street but is the consideration of maybe putting in a roundabout between um Target and to the South because if you come at a Target and you want to go to the South you have to go to the West make a U-turn and come back and that poses all sorts of conflicts in there and that intersection from there to US1 is probably one of the more congested intersections we deal with that point which intersection was that uh it's really not it's but if if you were to if you were to literally go to the southeast corner of Target keep going down right there and right there don't move the mouse go up with your hand right there it's very if you if you had a roundabout in there you wouldn't force people that are going from Target to the South to what used to be um Bed Bath and Beyond or uh um Michaels or um total liquor Total Wine um it just causes a tremendous amount of conflict in there and people are always racing to get to US1 to make the light there and so if you had that in there you'd be able to Traverse that traffic pattern in between those two with without causing I don't think additional conflicts and that's it for that slide okay got a bunch more up there but that's not on the slide so this is great input this is exactly the type of input we were looking for one from the mall Loop to Target you can just go ahead and do I agree yeah you don't have to discuss it any further just go get it under design put that on the list done go ahead steuart unfortunately we don't own the land so there is the coordination aspect of but um yeah I I do think in my professional opinion that it would do a lot to enhance safety and alleviate some traffic on US1 there is also two stward along that line I mean if we're going to do like a little master plan in that world in back of what used to be Calico Corners which is the southern building uh east of Kohl's there's like another 100 foot connection that you'd have that in Connect already between those commercial buildings and down to Target which is why if where the old connection was to go into coals were still used those commercial properties as well which are not tied to Kohl's Perimeter Road could tie in yeah and again all those little trips that end up happening in there you get all disjointed and you've got to either go out to the Perimeter Road of the Treasure Coast Mall or come out onto US1 and then back down into um either Target or into um uh where Michaels was or is was is calico corner is this the one right up on us one that's Southern cotton yeah Bonnie's talked to that business owner she's going to talk a little bit about that there's a new it's not Calico Corner anymore but Southern cotton Southern cotton okay used to be for decades okay all right then uh moving on beyond the D way connection portion as I mentioned we are looking at safety issues the intersection of US1 and West Morland southeast west Morland has been identified as the most dangerous in the corridor and um I appreciated the comment uh one of the gentlemen that was speaking during public comment public comment mentioned red light running and that is exactly what we have also observed and measured in this study and of all the intersections that we've studied so far for West West Morland is the worst for red light running so a significant portion of one moment commissioner Smith as long as you're looking at stuff um and this was talked about 20 years ago when West Morland improvements were being done by uh West Jensen because they funded all of those improvements up there that happened to US1 and West Morland you have the same condition of that uturn between what is Walgreens on the on the northwest corner of West Morland and US1 and the south side which is BJs and how BJ's Perimeter Road connects to all of that so if you're in BJs or you're coming out of Walgreens or you're coming onto west Morland you've got to do all these stupid u-turns and stuff which causes additional conflicts in there the other one I I forgot about and it's in my notes to why we're on these slides at the North End of all of this um I talked about this during the approval of the last phase of West Jensen for the apartments that are being or condos that are being built up there on on Golden Rod um they two laned the south or east bound Lane up to their driveway entrance onto Golden Rod that um the last phase and at the time it wasn't even extended to the driveway it was a single Lane and and people coming now are cabin off of US1 South onto Golden Rod and down to Jensen Beach Boulevard or crossing to continue to South on Golden Rod the rest of Golden Rod is four laned on the South Side there's now like a half a mile stretch between the new condo Apartments to Jensen Beach Boulevard and it is already a cluster mess there with people racing to get into the through Lane versus the turn lane into the development which is what it dead ends at M and so continuation I think is going to have to happen because of the volume of traffic that uses Golden Rod onto Jensen Beach Boulevard just as another piece of the congestion of all this stuff okay so I'll pass it over to Bonnie who's going to go into our public engagement efforts thank you all so familiar I used to work here I think good afternoon everyone um I'm going to be talking about the public involvement portion of this project who knows more about US1 than the people that travel at every day so that is the point of this component is to actually speak to the drivers and the bikers and the Walkers along us one to see what their feelings are about this stretcher roadway so we began the effort with a public meeting at Flagler Center in Stewart and I don't know if this this window here we had it right at rush hour so while we were meeting you could see that the cars backed up on the Roosevelt Bridge so what what a perfect place to uh demonstrate some of the issues that they encounter um so we basically pulled the people that were present to ask them questions about their experiences along the roadway and which ones they felt were in the worst shape um the bulk of people 85% felt that the section from Joan Jefferson way to Brit Road was the most congest congested followed by Brit Road and Jensen Beach Boulevard which was ranked second um we are having our next public meeting is scheduled for October 3rd from 4:30 to 6:30 and that's a perfect location because that's an intersection that some people were talking about Jensen Beach Boulevard in US1 and at that meeting we will be talking about some options and asking people what they think about our options that we're going to recommend at that time Bonnie are you doing online kind of survey because as many people are in that room I see that many people commenting daily on online Outlets yes that I'll be covering that at the next slide yes okay perfect um clicker can it should be up there the mouse oh just click it okay um so um I went the wrong way that happened to a previous speaker okay back to where we were um so as uh you were mentioning commiss commissioner there is an online survey um and we we created these cards and you'll see the card in the image to the right where it has a QR code so it allows people to take their cell phone scan it they'll have the same exact questions as what we asked at the meeting in May so it increases our uh participation because we only had maybe 25 or 30 people come to the to the live public meeting and we've seen that as a trend people are they're preferring the virtual option to coming to meetings and person and this slide is outdated because now we're at 200 responses which is fantastic um that that was an effort from The Martin County uh your staff who pushed that that poll out and had more people um participate so it more than doubled just just from that and most of those responses are from August from from this month so we appreciate uh their effort to push that poll out um so far the live polling that we did at in at Flagler is very similar to what we're seeing online uh that they still believe that that portion of the study from Joan Jefferson way to Brit road is the most congested in their opinion um another fun part that we've enjoyed or I've enjoyed is the face-to-face interviews so we went to I think over 65 people and said would you participate in a 15-minute interview with with me to talk about your experience es and some some were videotaped so we will have a video diary some were just photographed like this gentleman here from Wok but we did get a total of uh 20 people who we asked open-ended questions and we're going to summarize that in our report and these were businesses and there was one HOA along that route so these are people who use this to go to work people who use this to get home um in their opinion they thought the most difficult intersection was us one at Jensen Beach Boulevard and us one at Joan Jefferson way um one of the the people we inter well two of the people we interviewed were at that intersection of Joan Jefferson way there's a law firm Sean Pall we interviewed and he said he sees accidents on a regular basis just looking out of his office window and the same was said at yeah and and on the other side we interviewed the O changing place I think it's called QuickTime o change he said the same thing he can hear the noises it's it's very scary to see hear and see that um but overall out of everybody that we interviewed the common theme was I don't feel safe I don't feel safe in my car and I really don't feel safe on a bicycle or walking in along this section so I said well why do you feel unsafe uh aggressive drivers was the number one answer that we would get um and the red light Runners but um the the the uh blind spot u-turns are an issue at many of the intersections along the Route because when you get in that lane it's hard to see over the larger Vehicles they just don't have the visibility so people like myself I'm a very cautious driver you're in the line and you're I'm not comfortable driving taking that turn and so people start beeping and yelling at me and all that kind of stuff so the the speeding and the Running Red Lights the blind you turns and then I one of the questions we asked is if it were if we made improvements would you consider riding your your bike or walking and they said yes and they really would like some protected bike Lanes well it has to it can only get better but they would they they want the um protected bike Lanes um one of the people we interviewed was Southern cotton so it's funny that y'all brought that up um when we were talking and Lucine uh from the no staff was with me um she talked about wanting that connection um she talked about a pedestrian uh connection because her daughter comes to work with her sometimes and wants to run over to Target um it's a gift shop so how easy would it be just to get the gift there and then buy the the gift wrap in the card at Target so um I do believe that that particular business owner and she does own the property is interested in talking about that so that was a really good outcome from from that and I did get her on videotape so hopefully we can we can uh show you that clip huh H in case she changes your mind you I have videotape evidence I don't know if that would stand up um but anyway it was you know I was thrilled to do this this project because I think it really it brings it to life to actually put real people saying these things that the traffic counts are saying so that's all I have unless y'all have some questions commissioner SMI Bonnie and it's not specific to you or steuart it's just general comments on on the rest of the corridor and and things I I would look at uh first and foremost I met with uh Martin Drummond's uh two daughters about two weeks ago and had a long conversation with them about bike lanes and safety and what can we as a state what can we as a county what can we do to improve make it safer and so on because no one in their right mind is going to bike on you us one north of the bridge no matter what we do right um so a couple thoughts have come from that and these are some things we should absolutely think about talk to fot about uh and maybe some of them even going to require legislation to to happen in our nation's capital every bike lane that I've ever seen in the last 10 years in DC is green entirely green ours are intermittent and then where you cross into a mall property or something it kind of Stripes it it doesn't it isn't like solid green the whole thing they really do stand out they really do make a difference there are a lot of cities across the country that are doing it I have no doubt there's a huge cost involved but maybe what happens is when we go into into a resurfacing project or an expansion project or something that green that green bike lane is included into the restriping or the resurfacing part of the program they also came up with a couple other ideas I thought were great uh we didn't talk about this the other day but I heard about it yesterday that um maybe also what we do is on the existing white lines that exist for bike Lanes the audible grinding that we're doing now now uh like we have out on uh 714 going uh Way Out West maybe we grind the audible grinding into that separation line between the bike lane and um the traffic so if you drift into that lane you know it like you can't not hear it right as a possible idea uh the other idea uh an additional idea was that at least on our bridges uh which is where uh Mr Drummond uh lost his life uh maybe we even consider and I know this probably has professional cyclists at at conflict with this idea but maybe we start thinking about the bike Lanes at least in those hazardous areas that have Jersey barriers on them like on the Roosevelt maybe the jersey barrier gets moved to the outside of the bike lane marker so that you are physically separated from the driving traffic and at least you might have a chance at not having conflict as an idea I you know again I'm sure there's all sorts of competing interests as to why that may not be a good idea um but it's certainly something to think about uh the other thing um that I would add to the conversation Stuart uh received uh some significant grants over the last couple years to landscape from the North End of the Roosevelt Bridge up to the city county line and that's where that project stopped uh St Lucy County in Port St Lucy on the north side of County Line is now doing their um uh uh Landscaping enhancement and so there's this area between Stewart's City Line and county line that is this Barren awful looking place that also should receive I think the same kind of landscaping treatment as Stuart has and what uh at least somehow ties into what Port St Lucy has going on up at the North End and then the other comments I made during the other slide are the remaining and comments that I had thank you thank you thank you very much thank you thank you very much okay we have any so is that just a presentation and you have input from the board thank you notion okay no action all right well that completes our last agenda item for today and we will take public comment end of the day and I think I I saw tell someone anybody have end of the day public comment no okay with that commissioner comment commissioner Smith thank you commissioner campy all set I'm set Don I do have a couple items if you can wait first off I wanted to thank um Erica Sinclair and and Russell Orville um on Tuesday during the election Vicky Davis called uh around 6:00 needing some help and our RT staff 6 a.m. 6:00 a.m. yes uh was uh before opening to um with some it help our folks uh jumped on it and provide the assistance and um so I wanted to thank them for their uh quick action and uh and and helpfulness uh which was also noted a little bit this morning on the some of the staff working collaboratively on the orchids uh which was nice to hear and for me that was most important to he that you have multiple departments from different areas helping citizens accomplish good things and the last thing um uh Nissa oier um uh brought back some several awards for the tourism group U the Stevie Awards they got a bronze Stevie award for sustainability initiative of year another bronze Stevie award for communications and PR campaign of the year and then finally they got a gold Stevie award for the travel and tourism video which was the category for explore natural Martin ecosystem promotional video this video effectively captured the essence of Martin County's natural beauty and amazing Eco attractions while highlighting the program and showcasing the destination unique ecotourism offerings to a global audience as you know that's been a local initiative that we created here that I think others are going to want to try to copy but it was again just nice to highlight some of the good things our staff are doing so that was all I have today well in one more the Golden Gate Kylie received an award and I forget the name of the award for the Landscaping in Golden Gate yes as well great miss Woods thank you okay with that our next meeting will be September 10th and we will adjourn at 12:16 p.m. have a good day