e e for [Music] good evening everyone I want to call this meeting of Sebring City Council on Tuesday April 16th to order if you all stand with me the mayor's going to lead us in a pledge and prayer please bow with me if you wish Lord thank you once again for a wonderful day thank you for the city of seing the place we live uh for everything that's going on and please watch over everybody as we do improvements and move around the town we ask that you watch over our First Responders as they're out there protecting us and guiding us and keeping us safe we ask that you watch over City staff that is making the city what it is we ask that you look over the council and give them the rights and the minds for making good and sound decisions we ask that all we do in your name Jesus Christ amen amen amen plge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right Miss Haley can you call roll please sir may sh here car here Avery here here Stewart here Bishop here all right uh next business from the audience if anyone has someone they would like to talk about that is not on the agenda you can fill up one of these forms on the front table El and hand it in to miss Haley and she'll get it uh we'll get to that at appropriate time next up is mayor's report uh just a couple things if you all have been to the soda Fest it was a huge event this here so congrats to the chamber tenil and her bunch I put that on just an outstanding event just it was very well done and very it's kind of neat to see it was very family oriented there's you know kids big kids little kids moms and dads Grandma grandpas everybody had a good time so uh on top of that we have sipping on the circle this weekend so it's for the big kids uh primarily but um that should be the the rotary and the Art League are putting that on as a fundraiser so was a good event they did last year also we also have on May 4th the bike fest the fire department uh puts us on an annual basis uh fixes kids bikes giv them entertainment and then uh also gives away some bikes and helmets so they do they do an excellent job it's on the Saturday morning and we are for those businesses out there and individuals that have helped us in the past we're going to start fundraising again for our 4 4H for our July 4th uh fireworks so that's uh the bill seems to be keep going up and last year is about a $25,000 Bill to uh put that show on so we'll be uh again asking our community to help us support and celebrate the birth of America so and that's all I have all right thank you Mr Carlile do I understand it's your birthday today yeah happy birthday to you happy birthday thank you yeah I'm 39 and holding uh well I just want to say the our City's looking really good HGTV and CRA has really improved downtown um the the color that was the issue for the soda shop looks really nice to me it's a nice color so everything looks good downtown and what they're doing so um I'm happy to see it our town needs to keep growing even though some people people don't want it to it needs to so thank you thank you Miss men um good evening um I also too would like to say a thanks to HGTV they're doing a great job and if you haven't been downtown please come downtown and look and um you know um what lonard said is right there are some people that are grumbling a little bit about HGTV coming in but it's wonderful publicity they're doing a lot to freshen and beautifier downtown and we're very grateful and anybody that's had anything to do with the HGTV people they've been most generous and kind and wonderful spirit to them very cooperative and we appreciate them this last week actually it was yesterday I believe I met with Steve Kramer our director of Public Works and Miss Elsa KH down at the uh Park Kent tster I believe the last name the artist who did the park for the cons and we discussed ways to fix it up it it has some issues a little bit of maybe vandalism wear and tear I'm not sure tree needs to be perhaps removed and Landscaping refurbished so we are going to be working on that of course we're very very grateful to the KH family for the gift of that Park to our city and we want to take good care of it so that was a wonderful uh afternoon spent all right thank you Josh uh no report I did have a a question if um council president Rand Bishop is okay with it and councilwoman Terry mandelle wondering if I could possibly swap historic preservation committee liaison with tourist Development Council um asking me yeah the only reason I've been involved with Casey working on a a project um from a septic to sewer at one of the ball fields and I would like to see at all s swi I'm sorry HPC and TDC HPC so I'm switching to the historic pres devel you said something else I apologize preservation and the tourist goes to Josh okay you good with that I'm fine with that okay thank you that's it that's it Harrison there's a big planning over the last two weeks so we had Central Florida Regional planning council meeting uh last week in Harvey County and that was excellent and then the county had a mock Planning Commission U last week as well just really cool to see how things go happen behind the scenes with with all the planning what all the work that goes into it so I just have a different layer of appreciation for all all the planners out there it's a a lot more detail than I thought going to that meeting just was really good to see so thank you to all the planners okay and I have one more thing okay um since we were talking about swap in I I've been thinking um I would love to swap with uh lonard um with he's had longtime utilities and I understand the interest of swapping us around so we get different experience but I've been working with Steve Kramer on a lot of projects too and I would love to stay on as the liazon to the public works if and swap with you for utilities and I love Bobby bogas nothing personal I don't have a problem with that so go for it okay all right so what does that mean swap go for it okay thank you all right next up is the consent agenda any questions on the consent agenda let make a motion we accept the consent agenda as presented second all right Miss hay car yes havy yes mle yes steuart yes Bishop yes okay there is no old business moving on to new business first up we have Mr John Cecil from the military Sea Service Museum he wants to tell us about his Memorial Day event I want to thank the council for allowing me to present this in and our background is uh the museum deeply appreciates the city of sing's past patriotic support for our observances of past Veterans Day Pearl Harbor day memorial days especially the 219 Memorial day where we had Major General James E Livingston of the Marine Corps retired Vietnam a e of Medal of Honor that was an exceptional time we appreciate everything the city did for us uh awarding the key of the city to him and everything and all the gratitude that you showed him our Memorial Day project is wish to inform the city of our plans to host another Memorial Day in sight at 2 p.m Monday May 27 2024 the ceremony is jointly sponsored by the Highland Highlands County veterans count Council and the military sea Services Museum moreover mayor sh is invited to speak as long as you don't talk about rain and the council are Cally invited to attend and we request the following for Rosland Avenue closure between Kenworth Boulevard and First Street from 1: p.m. to 4:00 p.m. traffic cones two flagman the head signs two patrol cars with activated flashing lights on Kenworth we asked for 300 folding chairs but whatever is available will be more than sufficient we appreciate I have to give you a number so I chose 300 the museum will have two flagmen hopefully if everybody shows up the support will be greatly appreciated and go a long way in making another memorable patriotic event our speaker this year is re Admiral Richard and I I'm murder I murder Nam just ask Lenard and but Mr bu I think it's bu kahanan US Navy is a decorated nuclear submarine rare adal so we appreciate and thank Council very much and we appreciate you and all your service and it's been a wonderful event to go to I've been blessed the last couple of years thank you there be another one amen I make a motion that we accept or approve the request that is presented a second all right Miss Hy yes Avery yes mle yes Stewart yes Bishop yes again I thank the council very much thank you okay next up we have the uh site plan for Parkway Trace apartment complex it's going to be presented to us by Miss Dana Rell good evening and thank you Town Council looks like Scott is pulling up my presentation it might be scanned a little sideways so we'll we'll go ahead and Breeze through it um what we're looking at tonight is a property on the corner of Beacon AV and panther Parkway it's not quite on the corner because there is a a little parcel that is not under my applicant's ownership oh and I'm sorry my name is Dana Rell I'm with Stonehenge Land Development Consultants I am a private Land Development consultant um this particular parcel is approximately 19.83% on the next slide I have a little description of our vision which would be approximately 240 unit of uh apartment complex which would entail 24 buildings each of them being two stories 10 units each that would come out to 12 dwelling units per acre we already have Central water and subar in the area due to the development to the north so we would Connect into that and we would designate at least two parking spaces for each unit the minimum living space for each unit would be between 1,200 sare ft and 1,500 square ft and we are also designating open space areas and a recreation SL Clubhouse area we don't necessarily have the specifics hashed out yet we wanted to make sure we actually came to town Council and got a little bit of a blessing before we're actually able to proceed the units would be approximately 1 to three bedroom units because we do want to meet that Target Market in our community for multif family development where we are really lacking those one to three bedroom unit um multif Family dwellings and we're shooting for market rate housing so as of right now we're hoping for a price point between $1,200 per month to $2,200 per month it's not a firm commitment in terms of that exact do amount as construction proceeds that will be refined a little bit further but on this slide you'll also see a conceptual layout this is our layout in color everyone in their packets should have gotten a black and white conceptual layout you'll see the retention areas all the way to the north later on in the slides we'll look at the topography but on the next slide we'll go ahead and take a look at the existing future land use so in in this area even though a lot of the or at least a good portion of the Lots along Panther Parkway have been annexed they still retain County zoning and future land use as noted in your agenda item summary the medium density residential future land use for the surrounding Parcels in the county allow four to eight dwelling units per acre but in the city of Sebring the medium density residential future land use allows 5 to 12 dwelling units per acre so it's not necessarily comparing Apples to Apples but we are trying to shoot for something comparable so we would be requesting the maximum though of 12 doing units per acre on the next slide you see that the parcel is currently zoned R1 with other residential uses surrounding to the north of our parcel we have a mobile home park that's under construction and I believe there will be an element of RV park to it and I actually find this to be really exciting because if you think about it less than 10 years ago we didn't have the panther Parkway actually constructed so here we are at this really transitional point in the development of the city of Sebring so we want to fill that Niche but again we have a developer who is really open to taking any thoughts or suggestions um because it is such a malleable point in time for this particular area we want to make sure we're setting the tone for the Panther Parkway and development along the panther Parkway so just a personal side that I'm really excited and we'll see you know where this goes but on the next SL we have the typography which is what I was discussing earlier that we have our retention poised for the north side of the property because the property slopes from from south to North the highest point being 142 ft and the lowest point being 128 on the next slide I went ahead and just included a larger site plan in case we want to go back to it for a discussion but I'll skip over that because I want to be respectful of your time and you all have that in your packets and a closer um bigger image in black and white so just to clarify the process that we would be going through we would be requesting a future land use change and a zoning change the future land use change would be again to that Medium density residential future land use City designation and the zoning we'd be requesting would be City R3 PD we want to make sure to make it a PD so if there are any site specific requests that we can honor that and the whole process would include a development agreement as the city of Sebring prefers development agreements in conjunction with their PDS they happen shortly after then we'd go through the site plan review process which is an administrative process approved by staff and then we'd go through permitting also an administrative process approved by staff on the next slide is another visual of the concept that we'd be looking at again two stories nice visual interest um apartments up top and below this doesn't necessarily show the entrances to the apartments up top but there would be two apartment entrances and you have our contact information in case there's any questions but other than that I wanted to just see if I could uh not take up too much of your time I hope that wasn't too fast but that is our request and we wanted to understand if um Council had any other Visions for that area before moving forward okay any questions from Council Dan if you put a clubhouse in here you you use up a lot of the Green Space the park space I mean it looks like there's only like an acre there so if you did that there's really no I mean you're going to have there's that many units in their three bedroom you're going to have families in there so how are you going to I mean you're going to have isn't there a requirement to have a certain amount of Green Space Park Green Space not just retention so well in the city of sebrings Land Development regulations they allow your retention to be considered as part of your green space or open space but I think we also have like a just 10% Recreation requirement I'd have to go back and take another look at the Land Development regulations we kind of battled back and forth with providing more green space and building up right now we can fit 240 units with two story apartment complexes but if there was a request or for some reason we weren't able to meet the Land Development requirements for open space or Recreation we also would be willing to go up to three story apartment buildings and I'm not sure how the town um city council feels about three stories in that area so Dana so in other words you're thinking that you want to stay with the 240 units that's number and then if we needed more green space then you would go up the story if you got approval right with approval and I have a question also um do you have uh elevators or are these all walk UPS right now they're slated for walk-ups I believe you can go up to three stories in the State of Florida without requiring an elevator Jeff is that right correct that makes it awful hard people moving in yeah we would definitely have some ADA Compliant um units on the ground floor so there's another Development coming in uh Willie Downs off hammock Road and I know they they have some apartments poised for certain different kinds of disabilities so some for the deaf some for those that can't see very well so I know we would definitely have some that are wheelchair accessible in this particular development and depending on our target market we could potentially add more ada8 compliant um units even families with young children you know all you have to carry and going up and down stairs that's seems like there'd be more of a move to have um elevators for the convenience of the uh tenants I I would think that'd be a very good idea myself I know that's a very added expense but um I I think it's important thank you that's good feedback for us to bring back to our our developer it'll probably be really a nightmare with a design because these are all single units so if you put an elevator would you put one with each unit or would you have to make a hallway outside or inside yeah I don't know how you do that yeah it seems like we'd have to do an elevator for each individual unit I don't know if that will really be feasible for this particular development well a lot of hotels and all they have elevators that go up and and then you have a walkway uh to the unit so that's the way you solve that problem like a second floor walkway second floor third floor walkway the elevator takes you up and then there's a a walkway like they have in hotels when they or motels I'm not sure what but a way to do it because that's really difficult uh it's difficult for older people it's difficult for families with little kids it's difficult for a lot of people yeah it's just a thought thank you well definitely something to bring back to our applicant Dana how long are is the developer going to be in in this process are they going to be the ones who are actually renting out the units potentially as well and sticking with it or are they just going to develop it and then sell it they haven't made that commitment one way or the other yet right now it's just very preliminary seeing if this is even feasible and they're open to developing the project but I haven't talked to them about management of the project I would think that they would likely sell it to someone else okay so you've seen that in the past working with with this company correct so my feedback I think we have a dire need for multifan family and I'm on board with this um what's our regulations for height right now is it three stories or is it 30 ft or is it both 35 45 45 45 so so three stories would still be within our typical um regulations I'd be fine with three stories too if it helped you get more Recreation Area Andor a clubhouse I think the recreation area is important especially if you have families in MH right cuz there really there's no sidewalks really either you know but good way to get to our Parks you had a park or something like that cuz that's that's on the middle of nowhere too um internal sidewalks or are you thinking a sidewalk along Panther or Beacon or both um you know sidewalk is always nice to have internally be nice but you you I don't think you'd fit what you have in there but and it's kind of a Clos thing but I just think with families and that stuff you're going to the Green Space to me is more or the recreation space is more important so so and I'll comment on the sidewalk along Panther or Beacon that may be dictated by the county that's probably will be that's true y uh the what she was talking about the the U hallway or whatever along there that's the way Majestic Cove is built elevator and each floor has a wall to the road Majestic Co is a beautiful development absolutely I think you'd be asking him to build 24 elevators if they have these are 24 separate buildings no there's only one elevator goes up and you walk the hallway I know but their development that they're proposing has 24 separate building if she does what Miss ask about I guess it would depend on I mean they didn't have floor plan design here but it would depend on if the unit itself is two stories or if there's one downstairs and one upstairs yeah you know what I'm saying I do unit is two stories the elevator conversation is out the window right well we definitely need more housing so I know I would like to work with them on this thank you okay any questions from the public yes hi uh Christopher tuffley uh Sebring um the only thing I that I I would hope that you would consider is that these are going to be going for a premium rent um and and when there there are questions about Green Space and there are questions about uh elevators if you're going to be asking a premium rate it just seems to me that you should have you know a premium space and and this is it it's it's in the right direction it's a heck of a lot better than a mobile home park uh and and and I like all the trees um but I I just think it needs to be thought out more um especially in view of elevators and uh well and what you get for your money thank you thank you Dana have obviously you've done some form of a study on rent averages in the county where does this fall on the scale of what we're proposing right now is market rate and even a little bit under we're really trying to meet the needs of our community with this but not necessarily do affordable housing or low-income housing this is strictly market rate and also not trying to encroach above that into luxury housing so we are really trying to be mindful of our our dollars moving forward okay I think that you'll find there's not a lot of a 1,200 ft minimum at $1,200 a month in Highlands County so pretty big perose right yeah so one of our Inspirations is um Highland's Cove down in Lake plet and that's where some of these images come from and it is a little bit of what you mentioned where some of them do have a bit of a townhouse approach where it is one unit but two stories and then right next door you could have a unit up top and a unit below so we're trying to do basically a little bit of combination of everything and just seeing how how we can meet those needs but the numbers on the actual rental like I said I really can't commit to those I haven't we want market and we want to come in a little bit under market rate um but it's not like a firm commitment in terms of the actual number so I just want to be clear on that okay all right what's your flavor I I mean I would I guess just a motion or do you just want them to say we're on board just a concept no motion needed you don't need to have a motion you can just provide comments they come back with some more information yeah absolutely you're asking us if you should proceed with a PD basically if you have heartburn let her know so yeah I'm I'm good with it okay yeah all right no heartburn everyone's on board thank you all and it was good to see you all tonight I appreciate your time good to have you back thank you all right next up business from the audience we have one for Miss Elaine daff she wants to ask us about a crosswalk at Kennelworth and Pen Avenue hi Elaine daff I'm a resident of city of sebr um this is my third time um asking about this topic I think the last time the first time Chief detman was on the council um trying to see if there's a I feel there's a need for a crosswalk at the intersection of Pimon and Kenworth Boulevard um the now that the Pimon Commons is done and um i' I've seen young families and young students trying to hop across there the only crosswalks are down by the high school and down by um demetries and then the north side of kennworth doesn't even there's no sidewalk the sidewalk isn't even continuous so I did email Scott and Scott emailed me back um July 20 July 3rd of 2023 saying Elaine I have spoken with JD Langford the County engineer and he requested that we give him a week to look into it kennworth is a county maintained Road and W need County permission thanks Scott I'm just here to find out what's going on I haven't heard from you from from I don't know JD ler so he is the he's the County engineer and uh have spoken to him I've spoken to him two or three times about it um they ultimately make the decision put the funds aside in order to make that happen did he did he say whether or not he sees a need for it or um I think he sees a need for it I think and I would have the discussion with him but I think there's a concern about how it would get accomplished just situationally on that intersection okay so does it just so um just you know to point I'm not saying we don't need one there but there is a sidewalk on both sides of Kenworth so I mean there is past that intersection down by that is it St camil nursing home and then the um Christian School it disappears there's no but on the south side of korth right there is a cyc I just think nor with the high school kids and the fair and the football games it would just I just think it would be safer I've seen young families I don't disagree with what you're saying but to get to both of those places they could walk down the sidewalk on the south side of Kenworth and then cross at the Parkway in Kenworth okay thank you just for I'm not shooting you down I'm just stating that there are other means of erress I'd still like to know what um Mr Stanford Langford would he I'd still like to know what he thinks about it since they're in charge of the main and you all aren't yes ma'am thank you all right next up we have city attorney's business agenda item 12 a is a OS settlement agreement and release between the city of Sebring and the owners of the Sebring Village and woodhen estate mobile home parks it has been uh yep signed by the other parties and there being proposed by staff as a favorable resolution to the balance of this litigation okay anybody have any discussion on this topic okay I will entertain a motion I move to approve settlement agreement and release as presented and authorized Roland Bishop council president to execute second I'll be quiet I have a motion by Mr Stewart second with Mr Harrison go ahead car yes T yes mle yes Stewart yes Bishop yes okay next up the city ministrator good evening Council agenda item 13A is a budget amendment for the max long restroom rooms uh the staff is recommending uh interconnection with the city sewer system uh currently it is a septic system the Drainage Field has failed um we estimate the cost of um interconnecting with the city sewer system to be a little over $220,000 uh plus materials which is $5,000 uh we learned yesterday that we may also want to install a water meter to meter the flow of water um which might be an extra $3,000 as well um that way they can measure the sewer on the back end with the associate reading of meter uh on the front end if you will um we did receive a uh a quote for $7,100 for a drain field but it would be our recommendation that we just go ahead and connect these restrooms to City who are um it may also give us the opportunity in the future to expand and and you know pipe that into the city sources okay anybody have any questions what are you going to do with that catch base and that's on the YMCA portion so it's not going there it's going to our own manhole so it's not going so it's there there was an original design that was thought that would take it to the YMCA Li station that is not the case here okay so we're taking it to our own you coming back out gravity manhole if you you coming back out to uh Westminster um Bob could you speak to that mayor what we're doing is going north to I think it's golf is it golf view or it's in the U the subdivision right there next to the uh YMCA right but there's a manhole right there that we think we can get into that way we're not double pumping if we don't want to load YMCA any more than what it already is too right it Services the other concession stands uh it's the concession stand and uh the east bathrooms I believe right yeah so there's a what Scott saying $5,000 that's for the pipe that's necessary to to get it all routed to that location okay but um okay seems to be the best way to go anybody else on that one side of that first house uh yes sir it's right in there that that general area that's where that other line goes in we we may have to get into the road just a bit to get into the manhole but you know that's something we we have to do occasionally that's where the YMCA line go that's where that's where their Force main comes yes that's correct any other questions okay any questions from the public all right I'll entertain a motion make a motion that we approve budget amendment number 59 and staff recommendation to interconnect restrooms attached to the playground of ma complex city sewer system as presented second all right Miss Hy yes yes yes steart yes yes uh just one I'll have one more question for you Scott on the the the trees around the circle where do we are those coming down soon or have not had the discussion with Steve about when he's going to take those down um all we have a lot of Road closers coming up right in next couple weeks if we could schedule it around one of them that would be i'lli I'll discuss it with Steve see how we can accommodate that I know his crws we may it may be something we s about okay all right thank you all right um next Miss Haley second I two first I the bills lard that you know I pay the bills oh well then I second his payment of the bill all right P the board yes yes L yes yes yes all right