City Council - Regular Meeting

call the January 7th city council meeting to order. Fisher Smith, you give us the prayer and then we'll have the presentation colors and then the pledge. Let's add to the prayer. Our father God, we come once again thankful heaven father for how you blessed us through 2025 and allow us to come to 2026 and we just say thank you for your blessings. We ask the Lord to bless this committed meeting commission meeting today. Bless all those that are present. We pray in thy son Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Presentation of colors. I pledge 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. Exhale. Right face. Arch. Back to the bed. Congress set January 7th, 1789 as the date by which states were required to choose electors for the country's first ever presidential election. A month later, on February the 4th, George Washington was elected president by state electors and sworn into office on April 30th, 1789. Fact of the day. All right. Welcome to the public meeting

of the city council of the city of Apopka. Please turn off all cell phones or set them to silent. The city council permits and encourages input and comments by members of the public on all matters which may come before the council for action. If you wish to address the council this afternoon, please make sure you have filled out a card with your contact information and have presented it to the clerk. When called upon, please proceed to the podium and speak clearly into the microphone, stating your name, address of record, organization if any, and direct your comments to the city council and not to individual commissioners, staff, or members of the public. The council and the city staff encourages constructive criticism. However, personal attacks are prohibited. Please observe general rules of decorum and civility. Speakers and members of the audience shall refrain from rude or derogatory remarks, shouting disruptions, reflections as to integrity, slander, abusive comments, profanity, vulgarities, and statements as to personalities. Any violation of these provisions may result in the issuance of verbal warning, including trespass warning. If violations persist after such warnings, violators may be removed from the council chambers. Okay, with that, Jody Dr. O. Happy new year.

Happy new year. Happy new year.

It's been a bright and s sunny one after the fog lifts. This year I'd like to see some improvement in our heat islands. Uh whenever you go along roads, you've got a lot of heat absorption and lack of trees. And when we add trees to these areas, adding canopy back that we've removed. And in subdivisions where trees have been removed, the houses and all um get hotter, the roads dissolve faster. when you're looking at and you confirm it with your streets department is that asphalt should last 15 to 20 years normally. Well, in Florida, it lasts seven years in the heat without um trees surrounding it. And I'm not talking about being over the top of it. I'm just talking adjacent to it. And when you then turn around and add trees to the sides, they can last a little bit longer. You're also talking about people being willing to walk and go out and have a leisurely stroll or take their children out or walk to work as opposed to putting more cars on the road. They get better gas mileage. Your vehicles in your fleet, the tires last longer. There's so many features and uh we have a agriculturalist on the the board here and he knows the benefits of not only giving off oxygen that everybody seems to know about, but they they don't know about sequestering carbon and the toxicity that it takes out of the air. If you don't have the trees along the side of the road, you don't

have the toxic fumes from the cars being absorbed. And then if you have pollutants in the water, they also absorb the water. Besides that, these trees can absorb up to 4,000 gallons or so a year. You put 10 out there along a pond or a lake that has been flooding, um, that's 40,000 gallons. You put 30 trees around there and uh look what you've done. Um you're removing a lot of water from that area. That evapo transpiration then cools the area and uh makes people happy. And then new research has come out of Louisville where the people um have put 8,000 trees along one interstate, another section of equal e socioeconomic people and ages. And they found out that where the cytoines were measured for years of the people with the 8,000 trees versus no trees that they had a drop of 10 to 15% cytoines which means lower cancer, lower heart disease and lower lung disease. And I have this research if anybody wants to read it. Trees are powerful. They hold the soil in place. They clean the water and that's the purview of the Orange Soil and Water Conservation District. So, please consider replacing trees, raising the quantity of trees maintained in the complexes, the subdivisions, the business places. Um, one local area has a 2.15 acre lot. They built a large building on it. They filled the parking lot. They still added

106 new trees to it. 106 full-size trees were just added this past week. Thank you.

Michael Kennedy Uh, hello. How you guys doing today? You raise there's a button. Raise it up just I'm sorry. I'm nervous. Um, I live in 2131 Majestic Woods Boulevard and um they they say we uh we're going to have new septic tanks put onto the city because we have our personal ones right now. And um we've been paying a thousand dollars extra on our taxes, but they haven't started working the project. Say that again. I'm sorry. I

uh we're on public um our private septic tanks and and on Makiba they're trying to put us onto the city and they're charging us an extra thousand dollar for our property tax and they haven't done work yet. Only thing they did was come and spray some signs and that was it. I I'm not sure. I got John Hansen's um can might want to reach John if you got a card you can give him and y'all after the meeting. Yeah, because it's an extra thousand extra every year on our on our property tax that I paid and they haven't they haven't done no work on it or nothing. I sense Yeah. So,

and they they they sent out um uh letters to the community and stuff like that. And all they did was come and measure, mark, and spray and then never came back in and done anything. I'll get Yeah. So, if you get a card from John, he's our building official. Okay. We'll get you figured out. That's all I had to uh Okay. Thank you,

Dr. Jim Weer. Good afternoon. My name's Dr. Jim Warrior. I'm the elected orange soil and water conservation district two supervisor. Happy holidays to everyone individually and collectively to the city of Apakka. We have our meetings at the Orange County um at 2011 South Rosland Avenue in the county building. It's the second Friday of every month. Now it's from 3 to 5:00 p.m. and beginning last October, we're on Orange TV. So our meeting is this Friday. We're going to have appointments for the positions, the chair, the vice chair, the secretary, the treasurer, and the public information officer this Friday. So, I would encourage anyone interested to come downtown Orlando to our meeting this Friday between 3 and 5 or if you're unavailable to watch us on Orange TV that the county graciously started allowing us to be on Orange TV. Thank you for your time. Best of luck to all of you and God bless. Bill Aerosmith.

Bill Aerosmith 12943 Lake Dor Circle to Varies. Good afternoon. Um, as you recall, last month I appeared and uh had a request that you named the all-inclusive park on Jason Dwelling Parkway um after a fallen hero, Roger Griffin. Um, unfortunately I had to leave early so I didn't realize it was coming up, excuse me, coming up again at the end of the meeting for further discussion. Um, but from what I understand, uh, there was, uh, suggestions that, um, a street be named after from after him in the back of one of the larger subdivisions. Um, and that's, uh, that's not at all what I had asked for. U, I'm asking to honor somebody um, by name park after them. Uh, to actually have a memorial there for him with a plaque on it. um for giving his life to our country. And like I say, I I think somebody suggested that um possibly there's a new policy uh we should put in force as far as and there again going back to naming streets and that's uh not what I was talking about. um you know with the uh idea that you submit applications and resumes and things like that. Um you know Roger Griffin graduated from high school in 1964 and he died in a a rice patty in 1966 in Vietnam. So he had a very short resume. Um I don't think this should be included in that type of a um venue. I think we should uh look at things on a one by one form. So anyway, uh I guess my question

today is what what is the feeling of the commissioner on this?

Anybody got I know that we we they talked about you know the criteria which you just mentioned he didn't obviously because his life was cut short and didn't meet it. I'm I'm perfectly comfortable although I as I said last the last meeting is that that um I did know Robert Griff obviously um but I I think that uh that you Bill Air Smith deserve and that and that's not what we're here to talk about. I understand that but but I I think I need to get on the record that that if anybody deserves something named after M

and that and that's completely different from what I'm talking about. And I want to talk strictly about Roger Griffin and honoring him. And I think it's a perfect opportunity uh with this new park. It's a is there on Jason Dwelly Parkway, which by the way, as soon as Jason Dwelly lost his life, uh this commit, not this commission, but at the time, uh Jason Dwelly Parkway was uh it was named immediately. Uh we have a monument out there for him. And you know, I think that uh that's a different situation. But okay, Bill, I'll tell you what I'll do. Let me I'll put it on the agenda for next the next meeting as an agenda item and we will vote it up or down, but so that everybody in the community has a chance to look at it. Okay.

So, I will I'll make that commitment to you that that we'll have it on the agenda and it'll it'll be on the I appreciate that. Thank you very much. All right. Thanks, Bill.

Sylvester Hall. Happy new year. I want to point out the clock and hold my time. I've been watching the clock since I sat there. Everybody come before me been getting four minutes. I've been sitting over there and I've been watching. Now I notice when I get up here, it gets down to three minutes. Roll back the video and you'll see. I've been sitting over there watching. And I had a conversation with Mr. Bell. I said, "Are they giving us four minutes now?" He said, "Well, no, she may not know." So I said, "Okay, let's just see how it roll out." And so when I come up here, I notice exactly it starts to three minutes with me, but everybody else before me was getting four minutes. Why is that? Mayor, commissioners, why is that? So can you start me over at four minutes, please? like everybody else before me. You can't do that, right, Mayor?

And then I noticed I I called my town. I noticed when Mr. Aeros Smith was up here, you didn't cut him off exactly at his time. And you had dialogue with him. You don't extend that courtesy to everybody else, man. So, let's start the new year, right? And that's why I'm here today. I'm here today with a powerful message for we the people. We the people in the city of Apakka, in the state of Florida, and in our country, too many good people are standing by watching bad things happening and not doing anything about it. Some of them are even even bow down to participate in it. It is time for us to stand up against hate. It's time for us to stand up against corruption. It's time for us to stand up against racism. It's time for us to stand up against greed and it's time for us to stand up against white privilege. I had a vice president, my vice president say in America, we don't have to apologize for being white. Well, I want to say to every black American, you don't have to apologize for being black. For every minority, you don't have to apologize for being a minority. When we normalize the atnormal, we desensitize the truth to the point the truth doesn't even matter anymore. Look at the dog and pony show we going through. And then when we do it, we try to sit down and have intellect dialogue with the abnormal conditions like it's a way of life and like it's the truth. And we know it's so far from the truth. When I talk about racism, I was born in

' 62. You can hang a negro then and then have no have little recourse for it. And it's about the same way. But it's sad in America today when a black man can't identify his oppressor. It's a sad day in America. And if we don't deal with racism in America, racism will deal with us. And if we have another civil war, I'm keeping it real. America will no longer be America as we know it today. So I tell everybody who can hear my voice today. Stop giving the government a blank check. When I come to these meetings, we have less than 10 people that comes to these meetings to oversee what the government is doing with their money. We have 33,000 registered voters. A few over 8,000 show up to cast their votes. Your power is your vote and your voice. When you give it away, don't complain about the future that you're leaving to your kids and your loved one. It's time for America to look at herself in the eye. And when we nominate our candidates to serve to serve the people, not to rule over the people, to serve the people. We have to understand these principles. Principles matters. Integrity matters. Honesty matters. Accountability matters. Responsibility matters. Morals matters. Ethics matters. Character matters. Procedures matter. Leadership matters. Laws matter.

Justice matters. And all God's people matters. When we pray to Jesus at the beginning of every meeting, then when we stop praying, we started we start with our wicked ways. So when you go home and you pray to your Jesus, ask him, are you doing are you serving the way he wants you to serve? And that's to love everyone. We don't tried everything else. Let's try love. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. You can wait,

Mr. McKimmy. Albert McKim 363 Golden Gem Road. I wish I had a dollar every time I'd held Sir Hall saying procedures matter. About two years ago, I came to city hall and I did an audit on the paperwork for the candidates and the rose of office. What I discovered on that day was that not one of those papers and that includes everyone on this dis had been completed. There were errors of emission and there were places where this the the city clerk should have signed and hadn't signed. There were places where the uh person that that was was um authorizing the paperwork had missed out if they knew the person or if they' seen a driving license. So Sylvester's right. Procedures matter. A year after that, what happens? Procedure wasn't followed again. And we had another catastrophic event where all the residents didn't know whether or not a commissioner was entitled to run for office. Now, I'm not here today to go back in time and discuss that. What I'm saying to you is if procedures matter, why are we in the same mess yet again? Today you commissioners were asked if we could make some changes to the charter. So the city records clerk was responsible for policing the information that came in. It's not happened. And now after the

city have got behind candidates and things have been promised to the city by particular candidates. Now we find a candidate is going to be excluded potentially because of a clerical error or a mistake that could have been corrected by judicious intervention by the city clerk. Now you're going to say to me it's not the the city jobs clerk to to police it. You've already said that. But you people have a responsibility to us and that man sitting there is a responsibility to the public to make sure that the city clerk is doing her job. If she's not doing her job, she needs to be removed. Now, let's move on quickly because we're running out of time. We spoke about New Year's honors list. Yeah, in lots of countries around the world, we have a New Year's honors list. So, let's look at who we might also name a park for. in a pocket. What about Austin Guran? What about the 2650 Foundation? How much have they provided to this city? We had a firefighter who died through, in my opinion, city negligence. Before we start naming any parts after anyone, let's start to look at what's happening in the city just now. Let's acknowledge the loss of a young man's life cut short in its prime. Let's if we're going to do anything about naming a park, let's consider Austin Guran. Now, time's running out. Let's have a look at a question that that has been asked of me. We recently had some pension changes, and I'm all in favor of those pension changes for for the the city of Pap employees, but I'm led to believe that some of those changes are retrospective. And I've been asked the question is that that'll come up on the agenda item.

Oh, no. Listen, you you're cutting me short. This is my time. So what I would like to ask because nobody wants to answer me when I ask the commissioners. I want to ask has any of the commissioners had a chance to look to see what effects any retroactive changes might make on the budgetary requirements for the city. Nikki Magcguire. Nikki Maguire, Naomi Kids Apopka. Happy New Year's to everyone. It is awesome to still be alive. Thank you to everyone who has supported us at any time from 2014 to now through prayers,

volunteering, in kind, and monetary contributions. Our 2025 community Christmas event was a great success with 102 kids registered, plus some walk-ins. Thank you to Vice Mayor, Commissioner Nester, and our police chief for attending, Mr. Gibson and the Boy Scouts for assisting with breakdown. Domino's for sponsoring the food and bicycles. All right, let me stop listening because I'll miss someone. So, thank you to everyone. Please visit the city of Apaca's YouTube channel to save and share what I have on the screen or reach out and we can email it to you. Naomi stands for never alone overcoming many issues. We are not a religious organization. However, due to my strong faith and belief in God, our vision came from the story of Ruth and Naomi in the Bible. The way they stuck together after the sons and husband died with unwavering loyalty and selfless love. We do not discriminate against anyone based on their beliefs. It's God's job how he deals with his children. Our goal is to protect the minds of today's children to help become tomorrow's leaders. This is accomplished by letting every child know that they are important, loved, and an asset to the world. Our doors are held open by the grace of God and your generosity. We are reaching out to you today to please contribute to our program with your volunteer time, become a guest speaker, give inind supplies, and or monetary donations. You can select an area from the list that's on the screen, or give to our general fund. Time is limited at these meetings, so I'll be coming back at each meeting to

give a little more on each of our 2026 projects. Feel free to reach out in the meantime for more information. Registration for our summer program is already open to accommodate the parents who want to take advantage of our layaway payment plans. Pay a little every week from January to July. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you for listening and may God continue to bless you above what you ask or you imagine as you bless not only us but other organizations as well. On the screen you can see we have our summer mentoring program. We are doing our back to school clothes um and supply shopping. That date remain private because as we learned from our Christmas event people will just show up and funds are limited. So we will if you're donating specific for that event at that time we will give you the specific date. Our Thanksgiving basket that's something we've done annually from 2014. We'll continue to do that. Our Christmas event is set for December 12th and we are relaunching our kids cafe where kids will come and um they will get a hot a supper meal help with mentoring with homework whatever areas they need thanks we did apply and receive step up for kids so we will be able to accept that as a form of payment for anyone else we still going to be doing as much as we can free to the public you do have the QR codes. So, please use them or visit our website. Call. If you have any doubt and hesitant about donating, that means you have a question. I'm here to answer your questions. Thank you and have a fantastic rest of the day.

Is that it, Jody? Okay. Francina Boyen. You could go ahead. Thank you.

Good afternoon, mayors, council members. Um, happy new year to everyone. Good to see everybody again. Uh the Museum of Aopkins literally took a hit a couple of days ago. Couple of days ago, but that is not but this is not about the museum. It is about the growing concerns of pedestrian safety, traffic backup along Fifth Street and long lines. Uh we were blessed that no one was hurt. Um, not sure just what happened, but a vehicle uh crashed into the entrance of the museum. I did not realize how sturdy those logs were because it prevented more extensive damage. You know, there is some damage but not significant damage. Uh but I think what should be done at this time is that some study be done to address the safety in this location. I observe oftent times uh people waiting in line, people backing up. It's just very chaotic especially on the days when um I guess it's the last day uh to get in to pay and then the city was closed on the hall was closed on Monday. So it created, you know, a a huge backup and chaos. And fortunate enough, I wasn't out front picking up paper and trimming leaves back when this gentleman's vehicle plowed through the steel beam and knocked over the grill grist mill which slowed the vehicle down because I think that grist mill must weigh about

200 pounds or more which was donated to us long time ago to Maryland from the uh weak iva uh area. So um just that is my concern. You know museum have taken a lot of other hits but this one I think we need need to address because it could have been the other way around. Oh and by the way um you all can keep that $88,000 for that study for the annexation because we don't want it. Thank you. Virginia Street. All right. Just um Virginia Street uh 2119 Palm Dista. Um, I just want to just first I just really want to thank each one of the council members for the support that I got this holiday season from each of you. Um it was overwhelming uh the support that we got um on from the unhoused they felt cared for or seen and you know I let them know where things come from that I'm not the one providing these things I'm just the one that's passing

through. So, I I just want you to know that um as 2026 comes has come in. Um just continue to support me as I I I continue to stay in front of the situation. Uh now, I don't know what has happened with the property that we were going to secure. Have we done that? Where are we? Have not yet.

Okay. So, um I I we really need to move on on something. Um, and this year will pro that would probably be my number one goal is to have that resource center available. Um, so that during the daytime they have a safe place and that they're they're not in front of businesses. I see I know where they hang out, you know. I could take you if you followed me uh in the evening time when I make my rounds. They're right in front of businesses, you know, because they have no other place, you know, they don't have, you know, adequate places to use the restroom. Um some of the um places um along Main Street have told them they can't use their restrooms. So just imagine trying to find a restroom um and and you don't uh uh and you have to go place to place to look for a restroom and then the ones they do find are not very clean. Um I want to propose um I have an idea that I would like to propose um to you. Um um a and one of the ideas is creating a place that uh they can have storage lockers within the community that they can lock their book bags and their backpacks in. Uh there's a lot of theft that happens between them, you know. Um and every time they lose something, they have to regain it again. So they lose their backpack. Somebody they leave their backpack because it's real heavy to go get something to eat from somewhere. They come back, somebody has taken their backpack. So now they've got to go get IDs again. They got to go get, you know, you know, uh, birth certificates, you know, passports, whatever they have to get. They have to start all over again. And that is wasting so much time. I can't tell you how many of how many times I've helped people get their ID

again because something has been destroyed. Um, so the same way they have the Amazon boxes in the in the in in front of stores, if we could have some kind of box that would be assigned to a person that people can put their things in and I think that would keep people from and if they have a resource center to go to even if that is in the resource center. But that is a way of trying to cut down on the traffic and trying to minimize the amount of of um unhoused people that you see in front of businesses. You drive down Main Street, you'll probably see about 10 people that are unhoused between between this light here and where the split is. Yep. You'll see them, you know. And um there's nowhere else for them to go. the I I am happy about the lights that you that we've done for Christmas, but that's also a place they've been. So, if you will help me with that project, I'll be very appreciative.

Thank you. Thank you. Leo Bell, you No, that's fine. It's fine. Leroy Bell, a pop girl. Happy New Year.

It's a new year, but the same old crap. The same crap. I I honestly came up here to talk about the way a pop is smelling, but thank to the last speaker about annexation. You know, it was a statement. Uh they said they put it on uh Soldier of Truth. Some said she made the statement. Some said she didn't make the statement. But the statement is she could have freed a lot of more slaves if they only knew they were slaves. Make that make sense. Here we is coming into an election. Don't nobody want to talk about annexation. This administration have his pundits coming up here telling, "Oh, you can keep these $80,000. We don't want it." But the election is in the city of Apakka. But if you go down in South Aka, you find more you find more campaign sign down in South Aka than you do in the city of Apaka. Make that make sense. I don't get it. It's all about power. It's all about keeping people knuckled down. We got lawsuits going on about candidates. We got candidates lying about where she was sleeping and where she was staying.

Make that make sense. Sylvester Hall get up here and talk about integrity. So I got three minute. Sylvester got up here and talking about integrity. I'mma make it known. Thank you, Commissioner Nester, for your integrity. Thank you for standing up for the rule of law. This administration have made a mockery out of DEI. We have a parade coming up uh next month. Martin Luther King But every last one of you guys that voted against DEI will be sitting in the parade waving your hand. Some of you that's sitting on the dasis right now. How did you get through school through the HBCU? But no, we don't let DEI. But I'll leave you with one last quote and that's Carter B. Woodson, we will never get out of the ghettos as long as you keep on accepting fake reparation from the oppressor. That it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Got approval of minutes from the 1217 meeting. Look for a motion to approve unless we need any corrections from either the dis or from the public.

Do you want to speak? I think Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Come on, Bill.

Um, good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, council members. My name is Bill Worththington. I'm a 52-year resident of Apopka. Um, I came here today to uh point out that u Votar Road westbound. Um, 200 feet west of the entrance to the uh 7th Day Adventist Church, there's a dip in the road. It's been there for quite a few years. They dumped a load of asphalt in it a few years ago. Uh, the dump the dip has reappeared. Um, I spoke to uh Commissioner Neesa at the site u a couple months ago. Uh, I spoke to the mayor at one of our local eeries on uh Veterans Day. And I understood, Mr. Mayor, that you told me two weeks. We're two months out. Uh, I don't know if I misunderstood you or or what.

I did I did talk to Michael Ortiz, our our roads guy, and so I know it I will I'll make sure it's it's either this week or next week that that dip is um hazardous uh you hit that dip and you're not expecting it uh you could end up losing control of your vehicle and there's a lot of traffic on Vot Road. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, Bill. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. not look for a motion to approve the minutes from the December 17th city council meeting. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second.

Second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. Next up, presentation by Barry Dunn. Strategic plan. Good afternoon. How is everybody today? Good.

Um it's very good to be here. Um, I wanted to spend some time with you all this afternoon walking through the initial draft of your next 5-year strategic plan. Really excited to be at this point. As you all know, we started this process, gosh, late spring. Uh, um, did quite a bit of community engagement, did a community survey, had a retreat with you all um, in October where you provided guidance and policy direction that led us to this draft. The next day, we had a fantastic work session with gosh, what 25 Sorry. Thank you. U with about 25 city staff um who really engaged deeply in the process and what you're about we're about to walk through. After that meeting, we did virtual follow-ups to work on performance measures um and feel really good about the draft that we have here today that reflects the feedback that you all gave us their hard work and their expertise and really excited to walk through it with you all to get your feedback. So without any further ado, what I'll do is um in front of you and I'll scroll the screen so we can stay there is I want to walk through first your mission, vision, and core values. As you'll recall, the mission statement is your purpose for being. They're kind of boring. They're local government. They all kind of sound the same, but why are you here? What is the essence of what you're trying to serve the community? The vision is where you want to go. What do you want to be? How do you want this place to look and feel in the future? or what do you want people to think about a popka? And then finally, the core values is how do you all show up every day? How do you treat one another? How does staff treat the community? How does staff treat you all? What does that look like from a shared um value standpoint? Uh um so with that, I don't know, mayor, if you want to walk through everything word for word, if you want to scan and then take comment, what's what works best for you?

What's the pleasure of the boar? What would you like? I think it'd be valuable to maybe not take a deep deep dive but still go through some of the high level points just so residents um can understand some of the conversation points and then we can jump in if there's any additional questions.

Absolutely. That works great. I just want to be mindful of your time and your agenda. Um so first the mission statement. Um you'll see here it's up on the screen for those of you in the audience. We deliver accessible highquality programs and services ensure public safety and strive to enhance the quality of life in our community. One of the things you all talked about quite a bit at your retreat in October was the importance of public safety, the importance of quality of life, the importance of access for the community to good things here in Apopkco. We feel like this mission statement captures the work that city staff does towards that goal that some of that involves direct city services and some of that's partnerships with others in the community. Um the vision statement, we talked a lot about how you want this to be a place where people come home to, right? We we I remember we talked a lot about that. We talk about vibrancy and what does downtown look like in the future and what do newer parts of the community look like? What is that business vitality? Um so the vision statement um to be central Florida's Florida's most cherished hometown celebrated for our vibrant community and be beautiful natural environment. That natural environment piece was something you'll see in other parts of this plan as well as the springs that are here, the state park that's nearby, that uniqueness that you all have of place, making sure that shows up in the vision that these are important to you all. Um, any comments on the mission or vision? Does this feel right to you all? Do you need further time to reflect?

Any any thoughts? Okay. I think we tweaked it quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I I think we probably one of the things I think would be helpful if you could and maybe you'll have to think through this is is the amount of touches that that not only staff but here at the DAS and and also the public because I think that's important. It wasn't just a a one-off meeting. No. So trying to think how many meetings we've had. We had three public meetings.

Many. So there was a three community forums where we got feedback from the community. What's important? What's important today? What's important in the future? We had the community survey on the online website that anybody could go to. I think we got almost 300 responses there. Same question. What's important today? What's important in the future? Some of the feedback we heard from that community engagement was around a sense of place, a sense of wanting economic vitality. Um the importance of managing growth and infrastructure. We all know that this place is going to grow. is going to continue to grow, but how do you make the right investments in the infrastructure, the streets, the roads, the water um to make it liveable going into the future? Um and then that sense of making sure that it continues to be a safe place to live. That's something that we hear when we do this work throughout the country is that's important to people as well. So we took that, we brought it to you all um in a work session and you all provided your feedback on what we heard from the community, feedback on the statistics about where the community is, what the growth rate looks like, what housing values are, kind of all the data and details that is aka um and then went from there into your perspectives, which is where we had that really lovely conversation around access to jobs, um access to people who grow up here coming back coming back here, the natural environment, the parks, the ecoourism, some of those things that make this place unique. Then when we talked to staff, they talked a lot about the importance that they feel relative to the work they do all day every day. That notion of creating an environment where people can thrive. The streets, the sidewalks, the public safety, the fire service is really what I like to talk about, the blocking and tackling a local government that when it's done well, people don't notice it um because they take it for granted. So, we talked about that. Um and actually this vision statement um is very heavily influenced by one of the staff members when we were going through the iterative rounds of the drafts. Um so I will say that so what we did as a team is we took your feedback, the community feedback, the staff feedback and we came up I don't know how there must have been five or 10

options of each one of these um that then we went through an iterative process and that's how we've landed um on these two options today for you all to consider. You're not adopting this today. I should have said that out of the gate. Um, this is really for feedback and it will come back again one more time. So, there's still an opportunity for those that are here today and others in the community to weigh in on on what's in this draft. Good. Good. Okay. Any other feedback on the mission and vision? All right. The Yes, ma'am. We just we just got this, you know, over Friday. Well, actually, we just got this I got this yesterday. Okay. So I would need to kind of absolutely but for today's uh presentation would be good for the public.

Okay. And for us to see how you interpret it because we each individually spend time with you via Zoom. Then we had the workshops and then we had the survey over the the website. So um I just need some more time into this. Of course. So, I appreciate that you're here just kind of presenting it and it would allow the public to kind of even have some time to feedback.

Yeah. And that piece is really important because we talked about this in our work session, but a really good local government strategic plan really balances the community perspective, what the community vision is, your all's perspective, what you bring, your expertise about why you've run for office, what you want to accomplish, and then the technical expertise of staff, what they know about the regulatory environment, the way things have to get done, the things that they know need to happen from their professional perspective. And you get all of those working together, you end up with a plan that's really able to be implemented over time. Um, next, if it's okay with you all, we can walk through the core values. Um, these went through that same vetting process. Um, we literally talked about um in the session with you all and with staff and then continuing on um after our inerson October, what words are important uh um for you all when thinking about how you engage with the community? What's important from an accountability perspective with staff? In fact, one of those words is accountable. So, you'll see the core values here. The first one, community first, which I just absolutely love that that percolated up in the staff work session, but really the intention here is we provide high quality services for all residents, working to ensure that every decision reflects the values and needs of our diverse community. So really putting that community first perspective in their day-to-day work as a value of what they bring into um their work site every day. um accountable. Um this is the whole notion around local government about being transparent, open, honest stewards of public resources. So making sure they're minding the budget, making sure they're being responsive, making sure they're being ethical in how they respond um to you all in the community. Um professional in that same vein, we earn confidence through ethical ethical conduct, expert service, and a commitment to respectful and meaningful dialogue with all community members. Um and then finally, committed. Um this is about the culture of the place right so we cultivate a culture where all are empowered to take initiative act decisively and stay the course to make

progress toward our shared vision of Apopka so when we think about that one of the things from a management lens when I'm looking at core values is what are you going to tell employees on their very first day of work what's important that committed piece is really about building a culture and we have a priority area that also addresses this where employees are empowered at the right level to make the right decisions on the behalf of the community and they're given the resources and the training they need to do that work and what that does that makes you more efficient and better over time. Um so having that as one of your core values is really meaningful especially from that management lens. Questions or feedback about the core values off off the cuff.

All right. Next we're going to start walking through the priority areas and there are five of them. So they are quality of life, infrastructure and transportation, organizational health, economic vitality and safe and healthy. Oh, I did the wrong thing. Sorry. All right. So, the first strategic f focus area we have is quality of life. And really what these um priority areas are to remind everyone is these are the really the key areas of focus that you arrange all of your work within. So, typically in local government strategic plans, we see four to six. Um counties tend to have more than cities just because of the range of services. Um, but the goal of these priority areas is that they're evergreen over time. I always like to use an example. I work for local a large local government in North Carolina and they established priority areas in the early 90s. Um, those same priority areas are still in place today and that community's um, economic and demographic and political makeup shifted entirely, but they're the same priorities because there's what that is what is important for local government to focus on. Um, so for you all, this first one is quality of life. So you see the goal statement here, foster a vibrant, healthy and connected community through expanded access to recreational programming, wellness initiatives, and cultural events. So really um boy in the sound of the nutshell, this is the things to do and ways to get places that isn't driving a car kind of priority area is really what we're talking about here as well as a little bit of that business vitality, but that also shows up more in the economic vitality um focus area. So you'll see here the objectives. Some of these um objectives when we went through the planning process is we worked with staff um in that second day to say what are you all working on that meets this policy direction that we heard from the board yesterday and we heard from the community. What's in the comp plan? What's um in your infrastructure master plans? What are things that you're required to do from a regulatory standpoint? What are all the things that

are already occurring that we need to make sure show up in this plan? because the end result as um we know is really to align your budget and time and resources to working on these things. So making sure all that comes in. So this first objective right here is really influenced by the comp plan um and portions of it. So develop and adopt a trails master plan based upon an active transportation network study to increase bike and pedestrian connectivity within a popka as well as to neighboring jurisdictions. So that interconnectivity between parks for bikes and peds. The next objective you'll see here is around um programs and events. You all already do a whole lot from parks and recreational programming, but making sure you're doing more as people want it and what are those um opportunities for all types of people regardless of age, ability, or interest. So, maintaining that and growing it. Um the next one you'll see allocating resources um for workshops, scholarship opportunities, and new partnerships to expand the access to the programs and services to all community members. So what does that partnership piece look like? And how do you make sure that everybody can participate regardless of ability to pay? The fourth one, develop and implement educational initiatives for community members that promote physical and mental health to improve community well-being. One of the things we heard a lot from you all, one of the things we heard from um the community and one of the things we hear nationally when we do this work is concerns around physical and mental well-being. Um the mental health challenges that are facing really every community in the country are significant. So, what can you all do from a parks programming standpoint standpoint to help with that from a well-being? What are some things you can do? Exercise classes, partnering with others um to help improve um opportunities for people. The next one is about the connection to your um really unique regional amenities and how do you build um ecoourism here? How do you make sure that some of those things are um available and enhanced for residents and visitors? You'll see here the amenities like Lake Aapka and I'm going to put I think it's Wii Waka Springs. What's it

Wawa Springs? I should have practiced that before the meeting. Sorry. Um so um partnering to highlight those regional assets. The second to last vault you'll see there increase passive and active park amenities um to meet the needs of the community as it grows. So as you all are growing, as developments are coming in, making sure that that open space is aligned in a way that makes sense over time. And then finally, um updating your parks and McMaster plan um to guide your future investments, making sure that that is updated and aligned to this strategic plan. So that those are the draft objectives right now um in the quality of life priority area. Um we feel pretty good about how all-encompassing it is. Like I said, we had the meeting with staff and then we had an hourlong virtual session and then staff worked on the document a little bit more. So that's how we got to where we are here. I won't belver the performance measures, but then below that you'll see how staff intend to measure progress towards these outcomes. Um, should these be the final objectives? And we'll do more with this during the implementation planning phase. So, initial thoughts on the quality of life. I'm curious, does this feel like the right goals? Does this feel like the right direction?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I I I like the performance measures side of this just to help track. I think that's something we discussed a lot when we were meeting is yes, we can dream of everything, but how are we actually tracking if we're on point or not? So, I think that really helps us to to get there. I may would want a couple tweaks here or there depending on um just what our comp plan is and what discussions have gone on otherwise. Um but again, I I like the performance measures to really truly be able to track. Residents can hold us accountable. We can hold ourselves accountable and and be able to move forward with it.

And that's really important in building that discipline in the organization. And what you'll see is a combination of three different types of measures. There are milestone measures, so accomplish something by X date, right? It just needs to happen by a certain date. There's output measures, which is really about counting things, how many programs, how many trails, how, you know, and then there's the outcome, which is our our people satisfied. So here you'll see maintain participant satisfaction rating of 90% or higher for programming. That's an outcome measure. So there's a mix here. I will say this is the first time you'll have done this. This will get better over time. Every year as you update the plan, new data sources will come online. As you do some of the other planning that needs to occur, then that will naturally create other measures to put in your annual reporting through the budget process. So, we really view these as a starting point. Um, and there's always refinement that happens with these over time and a lot of it's just around the access to technology and the ability to actually measure things. Um, which comes with investment. Other thoughts on this focus area before we move on to the next one?

Well, I know we have partnered with um what is it? Best foot forward. Yes. And we've we've given a lot of input. I mean, we've actually had them come to the city where we've done that. And um for me, like you said, the connectivity um making the city more walkable um and and safer. paper crosswalks. But we had that was an input that I had given to best foot forward just talking about different intersections in Apakka that I feel that are used almost daily and often by pedestrians.

Yeah, we actually have an objective in the safe and healthy community around pedestrian safety because that's one of the important pieces around providing community safety is making sure the roads themselves are safe. So stay tuned. More to come there. Okay.

All right. So our next um focus area is infrastructure and transportation. So the goal statement you'll see here develop and deliver infrastructure that meets the needs of the community, accounts for future growth, and supports commercial development. Um so really getting the timing of the infrastructure aligned with the growth and development that's occurring in the community and occurring in the region. recognizing that you all don't have full control over some of the roadways. Some of those are county roadways, some of them are state roadways. Um so being mindful of that and using this process and this planning effort is a way to help people understand that constraint that you all have relative to the structure of transportation infrastructure. Um so the very first um the first three or four of these are all about water and sewer infrastructure. So you'll see the first one um make appropriate operating and capital investments in the water and wastewater infrastructure to make sure you have a reliable service for residents and businesses. The second bullet down is um promoting water conservation and reuse to create long-term sustainability for your water system. The third objective is about regulatory compliance. Um it's one thing to have a water system. It's another one to operate it in a way that meets all the standards that you're required to meet which candidly takes quite a bit of operating and capital investment. So making sure that there's an objective for that in your plan is important as you use this plan to make budgetary allocation decisions. The fourth bullet um is about that timing of growth and infrastructure. So in coordination with development trends and annexation plans implementing the 2040 water master plan with five-year updates to meet the needs created by growth in the community. So you have your water master plan, there's five-year updates, making sure that syncs up into this process as well. The next few bullets get into transportation planning. Um, so the next bullet down is enhance mobility and connectivity by investing in tools and technologies to reduce congest

congestion and travel times. So how do you work with um your light and the timing? How do you make other investments as this technology rapidly evolves? How do you help improve throughput of traffic through the streets of Apopka? The next one is around the regional planning. Um I just mentioned that you all don't control all the streets that have cars and traffic in the community. So how do you partner with the county and other jurisdictions to conduct the northwest Orange County area transportation study uh um to work on the regional transportation system. The bullet after that is um coordinate the transportation system with the future adopted future land use map series to ensure existing and anticipation population changes residential non-residential land uses and employment patterns are consistent. So that comes out of your comp plan. So that's reflected here in your strategic plan that alignment. Um and then the second to last bullet um is about the affordability and care and feeding of your water system over time. So conducting a comprehensive water and sewer rate study to ensure current and future rates are fair, you maintain your system reliability, and you fund those necessary infrastructure improvements um to keep the system viable. Um and then the last bullet, the last objective is to maintain the city streets in accordance with the established safety and quality standards um by implementing a proactive maintenance program that includes regular inspections, timely repairs, and preventative treatments. So the measures that go along with this um I'll scroll down um so people can see it's around the water use per capita meter reading success rate um the fourth bullet down the maintain a pavement condition index of 75 to 80 for city streets and roadways that talks about what's the quality of the pavement how good condition is it in and that's something that you can definitely measure um the re rehabilitate or replace 2% of the water infrastructure

annually annually speaks to keeping the water system current. Um, and then finally that milestone measure around the regional transportation study. Questions about this one? Do you feel like anything's missing when you think about the needs of the city and what you all hear from the community? So, this is something that was kind of near and dear to me, the infrastructure, because that's something that I feel that as a city, we've kind of over the years in the county has kind of kind of felt the residents in regards to planning for the growth. So, one of the things I see here is the comprehensive water and sewer rate study. I know that we've recently completed a study. Have you seen that study that we've done recently? Was it the one for the um

the rate increase study? It was the impact fees in Yeah, I have not seen the water study. Okay. So, is this the same? So, I would like for you actually to review that study to see this study is the same study that we actually already completed. In addition to that, um the roadways, I know that um

we from my understanding um the county and the city the relationship in regards to the roads. Um I do feel like we need more of a comprehensive approach with the city and the county in regards to these roads. I think it's oh it's not our road, it's your roads. I think we need more of a you know it's both of our residents that we're servicing and making sure that we're creating more of a approach that serves the residents and not really pointing fingers. So, I would like to see something more detailed in regards to that and also some type of performance measures to make sure that we're actually meeting whatever that those objectives are. Okay. Thank you. Other feedback.

I think it covers a lot uh and I appreciate that it covers a lot of the um need for the water systems and making sure we're staying ahead of that as well because obviously that's been a huge deficiency of the cities in recent years. So um especially with the water meter reading. I mean again the the performance measures are so key here and and getting those right uh help with understanding both this dest future ones to really track our success level with that and to make sure and again to have the residents hold us accountable. So I think you're on point with the performance measures there.

Thank you. Um and then one thing I have to say that's is encouraging over time with the measures that they're not a check the box but they really show where resources need to be allocated. to building the culture inside the organization that if you don't meet a performance measure, it doesn't mean something's wrong. It means you need to look at resources um and what is important and the trade-offs to accomplishing. Anything else on infrastructure and transportation? Okay. Is this process working for you? I'm a facilitator. I always have to check in. Everybody good?

All right. I just want to check. Um next we have organizational health. Um and this is um what I lovingly call the care and feeding of the organization um focus area. As you all know, local government is a people business. It takes people to provide the services. It takes people to be police officers, firefighters, street workers. Uh um all the work that happens to make local government go. So the this goal statement is promote a high performing and financially sustainable organization by improving internal communication, investing in staff development and technology and maintaining sound fiscal practices that support the city's long-term goals. So what's that internal infrastructure that makes the external services shine is really another way to think about this one. Um so the objectives here in working once again with staff um iteratively over time is the first one is about internal communication. So formalizing the internal communication structure to make sure everybody's aligned and efficient. Everybody knows what's going on. There's a meth method methodical way um that organ the information flows to the organization so people feel connected. That's really important to culture and employee engagement. The next bullet is a is around the um ongoing need just to continue to make the right investments in um technology that is a quickly and rapidly and expensively evolving area for local government. So developing an IT master plan so you can manage manage the resources limit your full total number of systems make sure you're taking advantage of the full capabilities of the systems you have and making strategic investments in new systems. The third one um is about employee retention, succession planning, change management um and transitioning to new software tools. So as things continue to change, make sure you have a um organizational developmental culture and practice and the tools so that your employees can go with the change, move through time. Um that as people are

ready to retire, there's a clear path of who is going to step in and fill that void that people see a future here. One of the things we heard from staff is there is a little bit of a challenge with people staying past that fiveyear mark. Um so that gap of kind of midterm service. So how do you build that into the organization through some of these um um initiatives around attention, excuse me, retention. The first fourth bullet here um is um maintaining an operating balance, excuse me, maintain a balanced operating budget to support this plan, accounting for community growth, and supporting the long and short-term service delivery needs. A way to think about this one is how are you making sure you're making the right investments and expanding staffing resources, reallocating staffing resources, um investing in capital and operating uh um to meet your current needs and future needs. So being strategic about that budgeting process. The one below that um a long-term financial plan. This is the capital side. So it's one thing to have your five-year CIP, but really what is the plan around how you're going to use um payo money? How are you going to use municipal municipal debt financing? How you going to use grant funding to pay for the long-term capital needs that you all have, whether that's public facilities, water, sewer, infrastructure. So, it all works together so you keep your debt service at an appropriate level, um, in a way that makes the long-term capital needs affordable. Beyond that, the next one down, um, in compliance with state statutes, um, making sure that you're in, um, alignment there with what the state requires, completing formal impact fee assessments at regular intervals. We just talked about you just completed one which is great but make sure it's happening regularly um to so you can maintain those current levels of service um to making sure that the new development that's occurring is um contributing appropriately to the financial resources of the city. The next one below that um I really this one we talked about quite a bit with staff

um and how the world is evolving. As the city continues to grow, explore developing a dedicated communications office to better educate and inform the community about city programs and services to and to promote the city brand. Um, so right now, as you know, you have um it does a bunch with social media. There's a lot of other things that happen from a communication standpoint with the city, but looking at over the course of this plan, that doesn't mean next week or next year, but over the next five years, exploring what a dedicated communications function could look like. Um that's something we see more and more in local governments um quite candidly is that um public information officer communications director that manages that um for a city. Um another engagement um objective below that explore launching a digital or in-person citizen academy to increase understanding of city responsibilities and services. So that's another thing we're seeing nationally is there used to be and I think you all had one too. traditional everybody shows up on a Tuesday night and the departments run through and it's police departments on October and fire goes um November and they're competitive with one another about what they do. Uh um but people just don't have time to come out to those anymore, you know, one night a week per month. So what are other ways that you can provide that same level of information and engagement? So exploring what that could look like is an objective here. Um and then the final bullet is um conducting salary studies every two years to make sure your um wages are competitive with what the local market is. And then the performance tier you'll see is a lot about um staff certification. So you have staff you have certification requirements across the board whether it's water treatment operator, police officers, whatever they are that is 100% compliant with whatever their standards are. Um percent increases in social media um increase in time spent on city website pages and then so on and so forth down through there from a performance measure standpoint. Um, one thing here, I think it's because I used to work in a budget office, it's always

important to me, but third from the bottom, maintaining your bond rating. Um, because if you're maintaining your bond rating, that means all these other things are going well because those rating agencies um are very thorough. So, that's a a good one to look at and keep an eye on. Questions about this one, feedback, things that are missing or things that you particularly like? I think this is helpful for sure. I would this be a part to kind of go over like uh or add in kind of cultural health like discussing that or implementing some type of kind of soft not soft cost but soft uh values I guess within a city like a um like soft skills training.

Yes. Yeah. And and then is there because I mean depending on the cultural health of the departments or the city as a whole we can build confidence and autonomy and obviously then creates efficiencies as well. So I don't know if this is the place to do that and add something some metrics in that capacity.

Yes. And what we often see is that third um objective that incorporate best practices that can get to what you're talking about from a tactical standpoint, but then adding a measure around doing an annual employee survey and just tracking um employee engagement or what they're reporting over time is what we often see as a way to measure that culture. Um and there's some some people like to do the annual survey, some people do the more Gallup oriented poll surveys like once a quarter, two or three questions. There's different ways to get at that. Um but that regular feedback from the employees is a really good way to measure outcomes in this um priority area.

I think that would be valuable to get some feedback on that as well as kind of how do we implement some type of survey that the the employees feel confident and safe to provide feedback and whatever that looks like and then what do other municipalities do once they get that feedback because it's great to have feedback but how are we changing and adjusting and adapting quickly to make sure the cultural health of the city and their employees in each department is is strong. Yeah, that trust is really key. Um, some organizations are able to do it internally, others contract that out just so employees feel completely confident that their answers are um not going to be shared in a way that they would be inappropriate, but it just it just depends. But there's lots of ways to do that. We can think about that.

And then it I think this is the same spot or same area that uh focus area that we would kind of put this in. There's there tends to be and this is not unique to the city by any means but through any business or any probably municipalities that there's somewhat of silos of different departments and things of that nature. And if we can start to kind of bridge those better, build some efficiencies not only with time but in money um to where one department is just solely working on one thing and nobody else has a piece of that. Uh I think that builds a lot of efficiencies and and again I'm not sure exactly how we can provide metrics to that. Um I mean well there there's it depends on the department I guess obviously so maybe adding something some type of metric for that as well of okay showing efficiencies and synergy between departments.

Um what we often see with that is around business process review organizational assessment and then that turns into um quicker service times like a a classic example is like you install a new permitting system you change that process. Sure. Permit turnaround is faster. Yes. um or you automate a process so you can redeploy employees doing manual work into other higher priority needs. Um so we can look at what that that might be. Yeah, I think that'd be valuable here. Okay. Uh I noticed under performance measures uh you have listed list of citizens academy by 2028. Is that something that a majority of the cities are doing?

I would say that's a great question. of these that I have done in the last three years, about a third um are relaunching the traditional citizen academy. A lot of them went away during COVID. Um people continue to not be as engaged as we all know and it's hard to it used to be, you know, back in the 1900s, as my children like to say. Um you'd have a community meeting and the room would be packed and overflowing on any topic in local government. And that's just not the world we live in today. Um, with advances in video and AI, there is now a tool out there, um, that I have a client that's using, they're really excited about where it literally scans their website and creates a script that then, um, an employee can sit and read and record on their phone and post on social media in little snippets that's really accessible for people in kind of the Instagram world. Um, so there's different ways that they're doing it. Um, so I'd say but about a third or the traditional we need to bring this back because we're not seeing the number of applications we'd like to see to our advisory committees. Um, we're seeing dropping attendance at our um, meetings like this one, whatever that might be.

Okay. So, why don't um, internet, would you kind of put that on your radar just to see what what's out there as far as I I know it is. So, this is actually something that I actually wanted to actually bring to the council to implement. So the city of Sanford actually have a citizenship academy that's extremely successful. So it was definitely something I was actually um meeting with some of the staff in in Sanford. So they have a really good citizen academy in Sanford. Yeah. I have some clients who and I actually work for a community that implemented this too that they made if you participated in the citizens academy you got a higher priority when it came time for those appointments like a planning board which was hot commodity in some communities that are growing. So that's that can be a way that people um reignite those as well.

Other feedback on this is great conversation. I really appreciate it. Other feedback on this.

All right. The next one, let me get this straight. Is economic vitality. So once again, as I mentioned, a lot of what we have done is look at other plans and initiatives. So, we wanted to make sure that the work that's happening with the CRA is incorporated and folded into here. Um, so you'll see a lot of that, but the goal statement is advance the city's prosperity by fostering a vibrant business environment, supporting thoughtful development, and creating opportunities to attract new and support the expansion of businesses. So, this is about really what is your your business climate like? What does that um mean for the community? Um, the opportunity to do things here, to have restaurants here, to have retail here. So these objectives you'll see the first one um encourage and incentivize new development and redevelopment that mixes land uses to encourage a blend of residential, commercial and rec recreational activity hubs within the community. Um the next one is about the brand. So we talked about in our session about the brand staff talked about the brand. Um so establish an attractive brand for the city with a particular focus on telling the Apopka story. Um so that's an objective within this focus area. um the public private partnerships to increase the tax base and improve quality of life amenities is another another objective um as that's appropriate. The next one down is consistent with state mandates um conduct regular reviews of city codes to make sure the regulatory environment uh and is appropriately calibrated and supports desired development outcomes. The one below that, develop and implement a recruitment and retention strategy to increase the number of diverse businesses within the community. Partner to help build a workforce that supports the city's new and current businesses by leveraging nearby educational organizations and partnerships. In our session together, we talked quite a bit about um workforce training, educational institutions providing access. So, how do you partner with those um neighboring institutions

both here in Apopka and maybe elsewhere in the county um to really support the workforce? The one below that partner with regional tourism entities to promote ecourism in Apopkco, we also talked about in our session together quite a bit about that being a unique asset for you all. Um and that obviously would generate um economic activity in the community. And then finally um and pointing to that CRA work plan. So implementing it to improve quality of life and strengthen the commercial development with a focus on local retail and dining to drive economic growth and to increase property values. So those are the objectives that we have here. I have a feeling some of these look similar because you've been looking at that CRA work plan. Um but that alignment's important. And then you'll see the performance measures. So a really easy way to measure this is your commercial tax base increasing or not? Um so that's one of the measures. um the percent increase in new businesses annually um projects completed um in the CRA those next two the dollar value of private investment leveraged um complete business recruitment and retention strategy by 2027 and then that initial branding effort also by 2027. So what's missing from this one? You feel like this one is in a in a good spot?

Yes, ma'am. So we currently have a partnership or some type of consulting agreement with retail strategies. Have you seen the work that we've received from them and kind of what the objectives are? No, but I will get that and make sure that those line that there's there is there one in particular you're thinking. So just the whole entire so I think what probably internet our CR director probably will get with you and kind of because they've done a deep dive in kind of this area and I think it'd be extremely helpful to kind of look at what we've already started what they've kind of the research they've already done on

yeah they do good work. Okay. uh under the performance measures I I don't see anything that addresses the first objective uh that talks about encourage incentive for new development um especially in in the area of blending this residential especially in a time when we're needing workforce housing and I don't see any performance measures that addresses that objective. Okay. So we need to build out some measurement for that first objective. Let me get with staff and see what they have already that they're measuring and see what we can come up with.

I like the I'll just say I I think we're hitting a lot of good points here. U one one that we're kind of running into and in and um it piggybacks off of Commissioner Smith's point here, especially on the workforce housing or especi residential housing in general right now is that uh we're getting push back on that obviously as we start to develop more residents aren't wanting as much development. So, it's how do we balance that um with what the residents currently want, but also understand there's growth coming. So, making sure that performance measures aren't just, hey, we're your property values are going up. Good for us. We have a bigger tax base, but also how are we respecting the residents that are here?

And I think it's important, too. Um creating and and establishing an attractive brand. Um I think that's a huge one is that we've really lost as a city our identity. We used to be an agriculture focused city and we're not that anymore. and we haven't really established what that looks like now and it's evident uh by how we're developing, what's being developed, what's being approved. So, I think that's huge and and again kind of bringing in the historical context of how our city got here, but also understanding um what our future looks like and what the residents want of our future. So, I I I think the branding component of this is a big one that'll be very um indicative of what how the rest of the economic vitality functions. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. We good on this one? Thank you.

All right, y'all are doing great. You're hanging in with me. All right, last and certainly not least is safe and healthy community. So, and I went too far. Um, so this focus area is the goal statement you'll see here is strengthen our residents sense of safety, health, and resilience by prioritizing investments in professional public safety services, infrastructure improvements, and community engagement activities. So, when we think about this goal statement, I want to point out this is beyond police and fire. This is about the importance of infrastructure and safety as well to the the comment made earlier and then the engagement around um public safety. Um so the first bullet is all around um your folks operate in an environment where they're um there's professional compliance standards. So maintain those so you have well-trained public safety workforce. Um that's critically important for every local government. The next bullet point um this is this is the big ticket item I think in the plan but develop and open a new public safety building and training facility to meet the needs of the police and fire departments. Um so we see that as an objective in this 5-year time horizon. Um the third one identify and plan specific funding for future public safety needs including technology staffing and equipment to maintain the appropriate level of public safety services as the city grows. Um you all know how expensive things like body warn cameras are, tasers, some of those things. Uh um so what does that funding plan look like to make sure that you have a welle equipped adequate um public safety workforce? And then the same with the the fire apparatuses as well. Um the fourth bullet down, develop a funding plan for public safety technology needs to keep critical equipment current while minimizing impacts on the city's operating budget. Um the next bullet points to the fire strategic plan. So implement the fire strategic plan to maintain highquality fire services to city residents and businesses. The next bullet is about how um policing occurs. So enhance feelings of safety

and security by datadriven patrols and community management. Um so using that technology and using staff training to make sure that the the policing approach is strategic and makes sense. But what after that? Maintain and enhance public safety community engagement activities to educate and inform the community. Obviously, that's occurring now. So, how do you um continue that in a way that makes sense over time? The bullet be below that evaluate response time and asset location with community go growth to have reliable responses. So, as the community grows, are the fire stations in the right place? Do you have patrols in the right space? What does that look like for you? Um the bullet below that is around the street infrastructure. So making appropriate investments to upgrade intersections and crossings, improve traffic calming and and complete street principles to meet ADA standards and to improve overall safety. Um and then finally the I think yeah the last bullet collaborate with the local regional transportation agencies um FDOT law enforcement the school board and other related agencies to implement vision zero and target zero strategies. So really reducing the impacts of traffic collisions and reducing pedestrian car collisions by car collisions um to enhance overall safety. the measures here. Um you'll see um 100% compliance with police and fire regulations. Um a public safety uh a funding plan for the state public safety building. Um maintaining that ISO class one rating. I always get very excited when you see an ISO1 rating mostly and I'll own this. I spent quite a bit of time working in a water department and I know how much that water infrastructure contributes to that ISO rating. So it makes me happy to see that because that's often the stumbling block. um the annual reduction in reported um property crimes and then finally and certainly not least on the very bottom the number of intersections improved. So what's missing from this

one or what do you have questions about or what do you really like in this this focus area? Um I noticed on the objectives uh you had implement the five strategic plan but I didn't see one for police. I don't think they have one. Am I wrong about that? You don't have one? Yeah, it's not uncommon. Okay. Yeah. Just noticing this. Anybody anything else other feedback? All right. Well, with that, I am at the end of this document. Um, mayor, I'll double check this with you, but really next steps is to get additional feedback from you all.

Yeah. uh um additional feedback from the community and then when I see you again having an updated version um for you all to formally officially adopt if that works. Awesome. Thank you all for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. Um let's see here. Opportunity of Popular Business Expo internet. Good afternoon. And Trinet Forbes, economic development director. I'll be extremely brief and just wanted to inform the um commission as well as the audience about our upcoming business expo. It will be this Friday at the community center from 900 a.m. to noon. Uh this expo is basically to help our future business leaders, our entrepreneurs, our business owners, connect them with some of the local free resources that are available to our community. We have thousands of registered businesses in the city and yet we have a very small but mighty department. So one of the things that when we do our one-on- ones with businesses, we try to help them in ways that we think they may need assistance. Now whether you are a seasoned business owner or you are new to business, that doesn't mean that you can't learn new things. So we have over we have 31 resource providers that will be on there on site Friday. Um everyone from SCORE to SB I'm going to try to use acronyms. So from SCORE, the Small Business Development Center, the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program, the National Entrepreneurship Center, um the Manufacturers Association of Central Florida, uh Apakka Chamber will be there, the Hispanic Chamber will be there, the African-American Chamber will be there, Duke Energy. There are tons of resource providers that are local that are here to help our existing businesses at no cost. So all of these providers are either 501c3, 501c6 or they are government funded organizations that are here to help our

businesses at little to no cost. So I just want to encourage all our businesses to attend. There will be some light refreshments that are there. Um I also wanted to make note that we have about 48% businesses that identify as homebased. So we would like to at some point see them trans transfer from homebased to a brick and mortar. So this is part of that process of connecting with them so that they can help their business grow. Everything from uh budgeting to exit strategy planning. Not every business is a business that's going to go into perpetuity, but it may be one that goes on for a few years and then it gets sold. And what does that transition look like? So there are several different organizations here to help our local businesses. And I just want to invite everyone to to come.

Okay. And any I just I just want to say thank you for putting this together. I'm looking at some of the businesses that's going to be here. I think the community is definitely going to benefit from this. So thank you for this. This is really this is huge for this community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. We have a have six consent agenda items. Does anybody from the public or from the dis need to pull any? If not, look for a motion to approve the six cone consent agenda items. for a motion. So move. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Anderson. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. That was Oh, no. That's okay. It's six items. Go ahead.

Got a motion by Commissioner. Okay. Commissioner Anderson and a second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor? All oppose? Motion carries. Next up, interlocal agreement with Orange County. That That's what I thought was on the consent agenda.

Okay. Good afternoon, Jean Sanchez with the community development department. Today's item is the interlocal agreement with Orange County for the transfer of Golden Gem Road from Kelly Park Road to Capitol Reefway. I want to start by emphasizing one thing up front that the approval of this ILA does not authorize construction nor does it commit funding and it also doesn't set any kind of construction timeline for the city. Um, this action establishes jurisdiction. So the city retains control over it if when and how improvements occur consistent with the Kelly Park interchange formbbased code vision and the development projects council has already entitled and approved and that are now underway. Why Golden Gem matters. Um just to take a step back, Golden Gem Road is a key corridor supporting development, access, and mobility in the Kelly Park interchange area. And since the State Road 429 interchange opened, traffic volumes have increased significantly. The road is substandard and requires more than resurfacing to meet city standards and support planned growth contemplated by our comp plan as well as our land development code. The exact limits of the transfer is from Kelly Park Road to Capitol Reefway for this ILA. the city is not taking on the Park View preserve segment um that you've seen before. Um these limits matter because they are the same limits council approved on June 19, 2024, reaffirmed on

August 6, 2025, and the limits that Orange County agreed to in writing on September uh 24, 2025. So in June 2024, council approved the original ILA for this segment to allow the city control to design and the delivery of improvements needed to implement the formbbased code. That decision was about planning control and not immediate construction. In 2025, Orange County proposed expanding the transfer south to Park View Preserve boundary. And that change added roughly 1300 lineer feet and increase projected cost by um almost 3 million 2.8 million without C county funding participation to that extension. And so staff brought that amendment agreement to council if you recall. And so on August 6, 2025, council unanimously declined that expanded version and reaffirmed support only for Kelly Park Road to Capitol Reefway. Staff communicated that decision immediately to the county. In response, Orange County agreed in writing to revert their limits back to Capitol Reefway, contribute $585,000 towards resurfacing, and retain responsibility for the segment south of Capitol Reef Way. This letter is the basis for the agreement before you tonight. And in November 2025, city staff confirmed acceptance of those items and requested that the county take them to the board of county commissioners first and county staff confirmed that the ILA was revised and submitted accordingly to the BCC agenda. After that confirmation, Orange County notified staff that they now require city council approval first before placing the item on the agenda. And while the process change of terms did not, the limits, funding, responsibilities

remain exactly what count what council has consistently supported. Um, I want to be very clear on what tonight's vote does and does not do. Okay. What is what it does do is establish city jurisdiction, preserve city design standards, allow the ILA process to move forward to be placed on the BCC agenda. What it does not do is that it neither authorizes construction nor appropriate funding for it and does not set construction timeline. Any construction decision would come back to council as a separate action with full cost, scope, and funding details. Why um approval makes sense? Approval aligns with the city's long-term vision for the Kelly Park interchange forbased code area. Local control allows the city to face improvements, pursue funding strategies as we did with the build grant for AOA Popco and deliver a complete roadway project when appropriate rather than reacting to county reservicing decisions that don't meet city standards. This keeps the city in control preserving council's discretion over cost, timing, and construction. For these reasons, staff recommends approval of the interlocal agreement with Orange County for the transfer of Golden Sham Road from Kelly Park Road to Capitol Reef Way and authorize the mayor to execute the agreement. Staff is available for questions.

Questions for Jean? So that's still We still don't have the entire road. I'm sorry. Do we still have Do we have the entire Golden Gem Road? We're not, we've never wanted the entire Golden Gem Road. We only wanted what's been contemplated in our comp plan as well as our land development code which is up to Capitol Reefway, which is where the regulating plan for the formbbased code is.

I mean, so who negotiated this this deal? So, so these limits in particular was negotiated initially with Bam Richmond um then transportation coordinator and towards the end um planning community development as well as public works and um our CEO was involved in the discussions.

It doesn't really make sense. So, we're we're a agreeing to take how much is it? Five $585,000 for how many linear feet off of Golden Gen? I don't know this exact limits with Capitol Reef Way from Kelly Park Road, but then but then half of or a quarter of Golden Gem is still going to be county Yes. Because we don't have It's about one mile. Um what we're taking over one mile. Mhm.

And it doesn't make sense. Why? Why does it not make sense? We did it for a Koa Apopka road. I think we only took a little over a mile as well for Koe Papka Road. And this is the exact limits that you all already approved a couple of years ago almost. But we're talking about Golden Gem. Yes. You approved this these limits. You approved these exact limits a couple of years ago for Golden Gem Road in 2024. Can you show me on your screen? So Golden Gem goes from Pankin to Kelly.

Correct. So where so where does it stop? Where? Show me where now the county is going to own whatever they own and where and what do we own? The county will own south of Capitol Reef Way. You have the pointer there, Jean or Bob. Okay, thank you. It just kind of if you can. So, okay. Okay. So, this is what we will own right here in blue.

What's in blue? Kelly Park Road to Capitol Reef Way and then to the entrance of Park View Preserve. And then these are outside of our Kelly Park form base code area. Most of them are in the county. This is in the county. This is the Harvard construction recycling facility. Um and all the way down to Ponan to that intersection. Also Ponan is owned by the county. I think you guys already know that.

Is that south there? Is that all golden gem under where it ends? Yes, ma'am. From Kelly Park Road to Ponan Road. Show me where Golden Gem Pond is at with your Show me where Golden Gem is at at the right here. No, no, no. Other side. Other side. That's our pond is right here. No. So hard. Oh, sorry. I'm so sorry. Hold on.

I lost my bearings right there. Where is it? It's still blue water there. So that's still going to be that's still going to have a county road. Mhm.

So, so I think what the the concern is is this, and I do understand that years ago they voted on something that wasn't a more so of a cohesive cohesive approach. And my concern is is that we're going to be improving potentially part of the road. So, we're not really fixing the problem because you still have to travel down the road. So, my concern is is that once again that I feel that CD and county need to come together and come up with a plan for this road because right now this is not a real plan. I just think we're only developing I mean doing infrastructure on part of the road is not even true infrastructure and we don't even have the budget at all to really do what improvements are needed on this project. So I just think I personally myself do not think this is actually um something that is beneficial to the city residents right now. I think it's a kind of a patch on it and this is not even enough money to do what need to be done.

So I I'll tell you why it came to this partial kind of proposal. It's because um the city um years ago when this happened with Pam with city staff negotiating, the city asked the county if we could go in together, go half and half on improving the entire road and the county absolutely refuses and to this very day they still refuse to do anything but resurfacing on a substandard road. So, I think that Bradley can attest to the fact that we did try several times with the county to discuss those kinds of compromise and negotiations to to improve this road because the county has known about this since we adopted our comp plan because they were involved in adoption of the city's comp plan. Um, this was contemplated always and it was going to come to this. I'm not sure.

I mean, are you proposing that we go back to the county and take the entire road? I am because we're taking because what the from my understanding the county was okay. They have something in their plan where they're going to improve the road temporary a temporary pavement of the road. Correct. Even if we don't take on the road, they're going to use resurfacing. Correct. Resurfacing the road. So why we take on a road that is in subpar condition when we know we don't have the money to actually they have because you because you have your developments on there devel but there we don't have any type of development right now going on the area that's going to committed to actually assisting us with this road.

We you have wild oaks in here and golden gem is specifically named and pioneering. They did, but they also said that if they have money left over, which is like a million dollars, that's that's if they have the money left over from I I can't comment on that as well. Though he actually said himself in the last meeting because we asked about it and he said that maybe a million dollars could be left over. So we know from my understanding it's between 15 and $20 million to improve this road. So we know we don't have the funding. We don't we don't have the money for it. So to take over road knowing that we don't have the money

and that's fine. This is you know for you guys's benefit to make this decision. If you want control over Golden Golden Gem to realize your form based code, you know, vision, um, we'll do that. If you want us to go back to Orange County and ask them if we're going to have the whole road, I am sure they're very generous with giving away the road. So, I'm sure they'll be happy to give it to us. I don't think No, I don't I don't know. I don't want the substandard because they already determined that we need what between 10 and $15 million to get Well, just for just for this portion just about half of Golden Gem is about that. Yeah.

So, which includes I know we don't have a a storm water pond which they would need we need to add at the bottom of the hill. And also, how many feet is are we shorter? Maybe you know, Jean, how for the width of the the road, it's two feet two feet short of our our standard. Well, in in some sections, it's actually worse than others. Yes. Right now, the the width of the road is 18 ft. Yeah.

Most of the area. Uh we verified that. Uh the situation is basically that's considered still by the county as a rural section road and that's in accordance with the Florida green book. I think you can have it uh maximum minimum as an 18 ft which is a 9 foot travel lanes. Uh now we're going into urbanization of that area and of course we want to bring it to certain standards. So that will require reconstruction of the road which we already have uh the designing process. We're at about 60 70% plans on it. But but what's what's how much additional width do we need to bring it to city standards? Two basically it will be at least two feet total right for 20 ft.

Okay. Maximum. Yes. We have our consultant here for the golden gem road design. Um Mike Woodward.

Sure. So the the width to meet the form based code standards is substantially more than the two feet. Uh Vlad's referring to just meet basic green book standards to to make it effectively a safe road. So for it to meet your own standards with the formbbased code that were put into place when the interchange plan was made um you would need substantially more uh uh space and also right away from several of of the properties. Many of them have been willing to to donate and uh some of it includes uh pond storm waters storm water ponds for the storm water that's needed for the wider footprint of the road. But the typical section would take it from that kind of 9 foot wide travel lanes to have 11 foot wide travel lanes plus bike lanes um curb and gutter a median in the middle as well as uh bike path or or sidewalks on both sides of the road. And so with all of that space you need you need significantly more and it varies throughout the corridor because uh the rightway currently as you go from one property to the next it jogs by 10 feet 15 feet depending on where you are. So, um, that's a there's several answers to that question, but somewhere around 20 ft of right of way is is often what what's needed, but that again that's that changes as you as you go up and down the corridor.

Um, and then just a final point about the limits as you if the the city would like to uh acquire the the the rest of the road further south and then make improvements there. It's it is about it would be about double the cost to maintain that same typical section south, but you would not need to do that because the southern portion is not in the formbbased code portion that was the part of the Kelly Park interchange area. Only the northern half is. Any other questions for Mike or Jean or Vlad?

Is there city property on the other part of Golden General Road that we're talking about not taking? Yes, that that pond that we um indicated earlier, that's our pond. Um do we have do you have other properties on there? I think that's all I our property is that southern portion. Correct. Correct. So the the pond there is our that's only a small frontage. Majority of the property is on the east side where the big pond is. So this so it still doesn't make sense to take half of the road

and leave the other half unimproved. Um and then we're talking about accepting $500,000 for a $15 million project. Mhm.

No, I understand I understand the challenge with that, but the $585,000 was never intended for the construction cost because obviously that's a drop in the bucket. So, um I think it's my understanding that the initial negotiation, at least the talks, never even really included those allocated resurfacing dollars. Um but the county um said that they have only um budgeted $750,000 to resurface the entire um extension of Golden Gem Road, not just the southern part, but the whole thing, which I mean, I've been slightly involved with some roadway construction lately, and I don't know if that is going to cover the whole resurfacing of Golden Gem Road, but they said that's their budget.

So if we if we deny this, does this affect the Kettle Park project that we currently have in place?

Um there are a few projects that have been entitled or some underway that are depending on this. Um there are some I think who have built their projects um with the intent of thinking that Golden Gem will in fact be because it's contemplated right in our in our Kelly Park Road master plan. Um it's uh specifically listed in pioneering agreements and things like that. Even in the Wild Oaks development agreement, it's also um mentioned on there. So there are I think just a couple that is popping up in my mind. Um, just to let you know, Wild Oaks is obviously building um some roadways for us. Um, they have undertaken um some stuff with Kelly Park Road construction and part of their um master plan that we've seen involves um involves connection to Golden So, so, so could we get with our city attorney to look at the KPI agreement to see how this agreement will affect that so that we can make a determination?

I mean, I think that would be something I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure you can give him that guidance direction. We want to make sure that we're not that we're not liable or obligated to anything with this road. Okay. if you'd like. Um I I what would you like for us to do? Would you like to table this or I think we should definitely get with our city attorney because Commissioner Smith off the great point. If we are, you know, yeah, if this is mentioned in this KPI agreement, we need to look at our make sure that we're not legally obligated to do anything with that road. Okay.

Yeah, I think that's an important point of of are we defaulting on any of our developer agreements in that area if we do not take over this road? And I think that's an important piece to know and then we can kind of make an educated decision from there. But at the same time, we're looking at based on the numbers you provided, it's about $2,500 per linear foot to develop this road to KPI standards. So I understand staff's position is, hey, we established a a form-based code to follow. This is how we follow it. The problem is is that at the end of the day, too, county's going to give us this road anytime we ask for it. is the reality of it. So, it's not like once they spend 750,000 or more on it, they're going to say, "Nope, we still want it." Right?

There's going to be a time on and a time frame where we can do that. But at the same time, if we were to take this right now and then take their 585,000 for a mile of road, we we would basically still have to spend about $12.6 million um based on those numbers, too. And that's just that's not the whole road. So, and then there's basically three sections of that road then. And I think too when we originally approved this, at least my understanding when I was approving this um back in 24, the pioneer agreement was still somewhat of a nebulous of what's included, what's not included, what's going to get paved. And it's still somewhat of a nebulous.

I agree. And so that's that's where I think a lot of an understanding, I'm not going to say a direct agreement, but an understanding was that funding from that agreement was going to flow over into Golden Gem. So of course, why wouldn't we take it over, right? That's obviously not happening. We have no impact fees or any money at all to put towards this project. So that's our concern or at least that's my concern and I understand staff's position too that look this follows the formbbased code. This is obviously this is why we're recommending it. Our jobs are obviously to make sure we have money to do that.

We we are obviously advocates of the code that we w have to work within. So yes, that's exactly what staff's position is. And also I would like for you to keep in mind that once those properties at some time that you do decide to take it over which would make perfect sense as staff um that those properties are willing to give us right ofways where we don't have to do any rideofway acquisitions and we do ponds may not be th those opportunities may not be there. Um, which is why I think the Kelly Park Road construction works really well because now we're at the sort of beginning of the formbbased code getting realized. So, um, those are things to be considered. I understand the fiscal picture of it. I do. Um, but yes, staff is for those reasons I I highlighted staff is recommending approval. So, I we will do what your direction. Absolutely. Attorney hand one one final question on on my part is if we take this road over we obviously don't have any we're we're designing it but I heard about 60 or 70% through the design phase.

I think it's a little more than 60 now. Yes. Okay. So 60 to 70% through design. I mean we're not developing this and we don't have any funds for it at all. So even if we did we still wouldn't be years down the road. Are we taking on a liability if somebody gets hurt? if um a car is crashed into a a truck because the line the the uh road is too narrow. I mean do we take on liability uh for that road if we take it in its current capacity?

What I would say is you know any any type of liability is always of course statutoily limited and you have sovereign immunity. So uh it depends on you know and there has to be some sort of negligence. Um just having a particular road width is not a measure of negligence in and of itself. Okay. Thank you. I have one more question. So we currently have agreements in place right now where they're willing to commit to writeaways for that whole entire road. Go ahead.

Not the whole entire road. Most of it. There's there's one portion where we can either work with the property owner or make some adjustments to the design to allow utilities to go through. There's enough room for the road, but not for the utilities next to the road for one property. The rest of it, the answer is So, it's only one property that we currently don't have. That's That's correct. And what exactly we need to do there is still to be determined. Okay.

But just the one. And I did just want to um make a small clarification on on the cost. After the 60% plans, we ran opinions of probable cost based on actual quantities and came up at 9 and a half million. So it's fair enough to say as a rule of thumb about $10 million per mile. So about 10 million for that first half. Nine and a half was our was our calculation. Any other questions? No. Anybody from the public wish to speak? Can I have you first please?

So just before you give me a moment Mr. McKenna. So this is golden gem. It's not part of the base code. The the one is not part in blue is pardon blue is pardon that's not in blue is not. Well, that's two different questions there, though. Any road that we have is part of the formbbased code. It's that road is not part of our it's we don't own it, so it's not part of our formbbased code yet. Once we take it on, then it will be. Is that an accurate description?

It's not part of city's jurisdiction, but it's part of our form base code master plan. Yes. So, it is contemplated to be somewhat ours in terms of control. So where's Jean? I just want to ask you a question, Jean. It's not part of the formbbased code right now. This golden gem pond.

Okay. So there are two things you're asking. It is not in city jurisdiction. That's why we're having this ILA discussion. But that portion is contemplated to be to as a part of Golden Gem Roadways. We have a roadway master plan. It's in fact an exhibit to the pioneering agreement and Golden Gem is part of that roadway master plan that you all approved. Plymouth Sarrento is not ours either, but that is also part of Kelly Park Road. So you understand? I mean, it doesn't have to be ours for us to make plans for our formbbased code area.

Okay. So, to answer your question, yes, it's part of the Kelly Park Interchange formbbased code roadway master plan. Okay.

Albert McKime 363 Golden Gem Road. As you're all aware, I live on Golden Gem Road and I'm firmly against the city taking this over. It's an inconvenience to me, but you guys could be ended up spending multiple millions of dollars more than these people are telling you today. Why? Because the road is 18 ft wide. To bring it up to standard, you're looking to make it 26 ft wide. We can argue about it, but I'm telling you, it's 26 ft wide to come up to the the standards that you need it. So, that means that we're looking at 8 ft of right away that we need to take. Is that four four feet each side or 8 ft at one side? Because what you guys need to appreciate is there are already electrical poles that were moved to put in power. Some of those may need to be repositioned again. You already put down uh all the infrastructure pipes and things on the hard shoulder on the right away along there. You can't suddenly just build a road over the the drains and water pipes that we've already put in. There's a whole lot of things here that you need to be aware of. The next thing is you're not going to be doing anything with this road for the next four years because your own comprehensive plan and the agreement in the paraneer agreement said that Golden Gem Road would come after all the other roads. FA road still needs to become. It's difficult for you guys to appreciate what's going on here. But if you look at that area in blue that's determined Golden Gem Road, which is a mile long. If you take that and split the difference between the green area and that blue area, that's where uh the continuation of FE road is going. FE road is already continued halfway down there. So if you delay taking over that road, it's sometime there will be a road parallel to that which will allow people to to to use that road while Golden Gem Road's closed. Golden Gem Road isn't about resurfacing. It's got to be completely lifted because there's no

subbase in it. So, you're going to have to to completely remove the road, but in subbase, compress it. But that's a problem just now because Golden Gem Road isn't a flat straight road. It's still a problem because it's undulates and there's areas where you can't see. There's blind spots. And it's a problem. My wife's been put off the road several times. I had a Range Rover which took four or $5,000 worth of damage. It's only 18 ft mirror. It's not funny. And if you take over that road, you are putting us our lives at risk. I would appreciate if you treat it with some decorum and you put me completely off of where I was there. The fact of the matter is we could spend a lot more money than you guys are anticipating. There's a lot of questions and Pam's not here to answer it. The the other thing that I object is the fact that you've been given to June the 1st by Orange County to make a decision on this. The gun's being put to your head. No decision needs to be made in this. They're begging you to take off the hands. And if they're begging, they should be paying you millions.

Okay. Anybody else want to speak on this? Rod Olsson, 3156 Rolling Hills Lane. As you know, as a volunteer, I drive all the streets of Apakka. Today, yesterday, I'm delayed on Vic Road because of repaving one of the better roads. Although there's potholes, but they've been repaired. We're looking at taking on this operation. You guys sit up here and rep approved one development after another. The developers need to pay for these damn roads, not us. It's an afterthought. Hundreds of homes went in along Golden Gem that you on this set of dis approved. And now we got road problems. Two buses cannot pass each other safely on that road without a bus going off the side. And there are children in these developments. You've got to do better. This is not in good best interest for us. Anybody else public?

All right, we'll close the public hearing. Oh, I'm sorry, Andrew.

Commissioners, I do want to clarify I do want to clarify my comment a bit uh because I don't want it to sound summary. Uh you know, as I said before, when it comes down to negligence, there has to be that element there. Uh as far as um and it gets more complicated. So just specifically say you know like as I said in and of itself there could be a sum of all factors and it depends on what the facts are underlying each case is going to be if there is a case for for negligence is going to be individual and what we'll be looking at is is there direct causation is is what the condition of the road is did it cause the accident um so it's difficult to say uh without um you know knowing what the individual facts would be But from a standpoint to answer the question uh you know what the the government has as a duty of care to keep the road in a safe a reasonably safe condition.

Thanks for that clarification. But that same condition also applies with it being a county road. Correct. Pardon me. I said that same situation applies even with it being a county road. Correct. Yes. Okay. All right. So we'll close public hearing. Look for a motion. Looks like we're looking for a motion to table this or what what are we to what if we table it we're going to be dealing with the same issues

and I think what's important is making sure that we're not violating any type of agreement that with that KPI agreement. So I know the attorney said he'll look into it to make sure that we're not liable or or to any type of potentially you know liabilities in regards to that. So I think that's important. That's definitely important and I think too I mean but even if let's say best case scenario it doesn't violate any of our agreements we still don't have money at the end of the day to do this. So I would move to deny this interlocal agreement. Okay. Got a motion by Commissioner Nesa second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously.

Okay. Special action appointment of alternate canvasing board member Jody. All right. Good afternoon. Jody Wrigley, deputy city clerk. Um, at the last meeting on December 17th, this item was first heard and was postponed and ordered to provide additional names for potential alternates to serve on the canvasing board for the upcoming municipal election in the special election that's being held on March 10th of this year. As a recap, the city canvasing board shall be composed of the city clerk and two members of the city council who are not candidates. Due to Commissioner Nesa no longer being eligible to sit on the board, a first and second alternate canvasing board member shall be appointed by the majority of the city council today. The first alternate canvasing board member will serve as the third member of the city canvasing board in the event that he or she cannot fulfill their duties. The second alternate canvasing board member will serve as the third member. The city clerk's office received emails from local residents offering to serve as alternates and the names listed are as follows. Eric Mock, Michelle Torres, Nikki Maguire, Dennis Harper, and Dr. Olmstead. The recommendation today is that the majority of the city council to appoint the first and second alternates to the city canvasing board. So, I think did everybody get the Michelle's um resume?

Who's Michelle? I didn't get one of Did you get I called and so we received the emails. Well, Susan received the emails and she Susan gave her or what her recommendation would have been as well, but I don't know that she received or I can't speak to say that she received a resume. Okay. But it was not sent to me. Well, just that she she Well, you can just give just her a quick bio of her.

So, um, basically, bear with me just a moment. So, um, when Michelle Torres had reached out, she advised that she had previously had 22 years of experience working in elections. Um, she was at the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office. Um she has worked closely with the elections and the canvasing boards and she stated that she has extensive knowledge of the inner workings of elections including ballot um tabulation uh canvasing procedures and statutory requirements. She's familiar with board processes, expectations and etiquette and require minimal training. She resides in the city of Apakka and she can remain entirely impartial and have the ability to serve as needed. She feels that her years of experience in the field of elections have uniquely prepared her to serve in an unbiased manner while upholding statutory requirements.

And Jody, just for the record, did she did I reach out to her or did she reach out to the clerk's office? Uh Michelle Torres reached out and emailed Susan. Okay. um on her work email address on December 19th. Okay. At 12:10 p.m.

So anyway, I I didn't have she she just so everybody knows just for for clarity here, I I didn't ask don't I don't even I don't even know that I know her. Although I served, you know, I was on the canvasing board once way back when. So if she was there eight, nine years ago, I might have might have met her. Don't know. But so I for for all intents and purposes I don't know who Michelle Torres is if that's um she did say in the email first um and I only am looking back at what Susan has sent me. She just forwarded this to me.

Um she did say or Michelle Torres said that she wanted to reach out after seeing several public postings regarding the city commission's search for a new canvasing board member. So she had came across it. And with full transparency, I'm actually the only one that's not up for election right now. So I know the the concern was that it would it would be biased for the mayor to actually um suggest someone, but unfortunately all four is up for election. So I don't know how we would move with that. So I mean full disclosure to the you know to the public so we can be very transparent that all four are up. Correct.

Running for office right now. And you say that Susan did make the recommendation. So our so our city um so the municipal code is basically stating that it needs to be the majority of the city council period to vote. It does say that. So that's why we're back in the same Yeah. Um I my own interpretation would kind of be to that if anyone is is a candidate. Did anybody else send their resumes? It this wasn't a resume. It was just an email. Was it required? No, it was just someone maybe giving us just information and um they were had interest in

I know it was for other comm the other commissioners submit a name because I know it was each commission name. Oh, so they just submitted themselves. So So I guess everyone just emailed correct. It was the residents emailing our office directly. Nothing came from any um commissioners. Yeah. So these are the residents. Okay. Only residents to us. Oh, I'm familiar. I just want to be clear on the correct which is why we Mhm. allowed time for them to reach out so that we could make it fair. Okay. So any looking for some recommend

No, we would have to choose two. So we have to have like a first that in the event that they are unable to fulfill their duties then our second alternate would take place. So my recommendation would be first obviously um Michelle Torres because of her experience with the cameas and board and understanding working already at the um SEO office. Is that who Mrs. Bone recommended as well? Okay. And my second would be Eric Mock because of his experience already working with the local government. So that would be my recommendation.

So let's let's open up. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this? If not, okay, we'll close the public hearing then. Oh, okay. Yeah, we had it on the list. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. So, um any other suggestions? If not, look, we got a motion uh for the the primary to be Michelle Torres and our our alternate would be Eric Mock. Got a motion by Commissioner uh Anderson, second. Second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? I I oppose. Motion carries. Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Jody.

Okay, next up. I need to take a two minute break. Two minute break. Okay, everybody. Two minute break.

He's in

All right. Next. Next up, discussion. The new board member to the Apopka Community Redevelopment Agency, CRA. Bradley. Or is it Bradley or Antonet? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

We're ready. Awesome. Antonet Forbes, economic development director. This item is in reference to the appointment of a new CRA board member. So, we received a uh the city clerk and I received an email from Nikki Williams, the CRA cityapp appointed board member that she was resigning effective December 31st, of which all serial board members received um that information. And so, according to the resolution from June of 1993 that establishes kind of composition of the board, it talks about um the one city appointed member being appointed through the collective of the city council. So, with that being said, we are now looking at staff um for discussion and possible appointment of a new member or at least some form of direction of how you'd like to move forward for that appointment. So, the whole time that I've been here with the CRA, I've worked with Nikki,

and actually her profession was an attorney. And I always thought that that was a good fit for our CRA board because she understood, you know, the the CRA and we kind of depended on her professionality. Even though we have an attorney, she always came up with some really good ideas or, you know, some suggestions. So I this rather than us kind of trying to figure out to give a name um because I did ask our uh chief administrative we have a policy what happens because it's the CRA board is each of us Orange County has one appointed member

correct and I realized with her resignation that it would fall upon on the CRA board to make an appointment, but we don't have a policy in place. So, my suggestion would be to the CRA board makes an appointment or the city council the city council makes that appointment. City council or the CRA board, right?

Would be to put something out in the street and let um have it open so that somebody wants to uh participate in the CRA board. I would prefer somebody that has uh some kind of law degree and that understands what the CRA is. I mean that's my suggestion.

So I will say and I I um neglected to mention that that resolution also does not establish any criteria for that board member. um trick recommendation though if I remember reading it correctly like they should have they don't have to have but certain if it can be and I don't I don't have the list right in front of me but it's real estate experience appraisal experience surveying experience something along those lines correct

so I was about to say that historically in my experience I've seen other CRAAS establish such criteria for example they should live or have a business within the CRA or they should have certain uh industry specialty or something that is conducive to um what your strate excuse me what your master plan Well, I think similar to what we did with the canvasing board, let's put it out to the public, let them submit names, and then we can make a decision similar to that with some type of criteria. I I recommend I think we have it's in I'm fairly certain we have it somewhere that it's I just haven't seen Well, I may be thinking the planning commission,

right? I I did research and I did not see any criteria. But if you all direct us as a a collective, then yes, staff can put something out, publicly notice it with specific um things you're interested in. Um I was about to call you board member, but Commissioner Velasquez, as you mentioned, like the the legal background could be something or um if it's a particular profession or it could say preferred. Yeah, preferences are X, Y, and Z. But we do need some type of understanding of we don't want the learning curve too great. We don't understand what CRA kind of consists of. Some type of is there any minimum criteria is they live in the city. Is that it or do they

not right now? That is not a criteria. Would you like that to be a criteria? So I think we just we can come up with a criteria here and then we'll put it out and then um I think they either need to live in the CRA or have a business in the CRA. That would be my number one. You know, obviously you've got you've got more of a vested interest than somebody from Well, Nikki didn't live in Well, not necessarily, but in the city. In the city. In the city. Not in the city. Yeah, in the city. In the city, I think. But having a business in the CRA would be helpless. Yeah. But is there any other I mean I'm I just think legal is going to really restrict well to have some knowledge of

Yeah. Um but Nikki didn't live in the CRA and she didn't have a business in the CRA. So right um I don't think having a business in the CRA should be a criteria because um that would limit that very limits that limits even the pool. So, would you like them to have some redevelopment in experience? Sure. Um, and that could be in commercial or residential um real estate that could be in business development. I mean, that's kind of broad, but at least then they can explain what they're what they feel is applicable to redevelopment. So, do you want internet to come up with a

I think she'd probably come up with I mean, the only reason I was trying to do it today, but And it's fine because we have do this we've got we have a CRA board meeting before the next council meeting. That's fine. We can we can they'll just they won't serve on the next meeting. So interest if you just go in and put together a a uh a criteria and then we'll um are y'all okay with her just putting it together and then we'll just put it on the website or do you want it to come back and No, I think I think she has the professional but but I would suggest resume required. Yes. So resume required and then internet will count on your expertise to come up with a Yes.

Okay. So everybody good with that? Okay. All right. I don't know they really need an action item on it. Um won't be a So yeah, I think that's good. Thank Thank you, internet. Okay. Um next up, let's see. the main street of Popka. Bradley,

uh, interim city administrator Bradley Williams. Uh, good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Uh, the item before you this afternoon is in relation to the Main Street of Apopka funding agreement and the response to notice of default. Um, staff seeking further direction from city council regarding the main street of Papka funding agreement. Uh the notice of default letter sent by the city to Main Street Popka along with subsequent email communications covering the timeline below in your staff report have also been attached to the staff report. Um Main Street Popka has uh provided a response on December 12th which was provided um uh within the notice secure period. Uh, I've pulled out of that response the items of cure that they have they've uh proposed that they've completed. I do believe I supposed to have somebody from MSA. Oh, here we go. Uh, here a representative from the board uh also available to to take questions or if you have a comment. Um, but really just looking for direction. The uh next steps would be for the council to either approve or disapprove of the cure items um to either maintain the the agreement or end the agreement. So available for questions.

Yes. Any questions for Bradley? If not, we'll have the

Hello, happy new year everybody. I am Yvette Anderson. and I'm one of the board members of Main Street of Popka and I am here to give you some updates before you make your decision. First update, which is most important, is Caitlyn is no longer with the board of um on the board order director. She is not working with the program at all. She actually resigned effective this fall. So, the board has been taking care of everything since she resigned. We also have some good news. We were approved for the main street national America and they will be promoting a popka for the next three months. So the reason I am telling you this so you could have that in consideration because that would be very important for our city to be a part of Main Street National as well as the state and they have approved it. It has been officially approved. So, Caitlyn remained up until the fall until that application was complete and they had the hearing and then we were approved.

Do you guys have any questions concerning that? I know that was one of the issues. I have a few questions. How long have you been part of the board? July 2024. I had to count. July you were part of the board when this agreement was for with the agreement between you guys. No, ma'am. I was not. You say I'm what's the date again? June. Uh I want to say mid July. July I came aboard 2024. Yes ma'am. So I have a few questions for you as well. Give me one second. 2024 2025. You had to be 2025. 20 25. You're right. Okay.

Last year. How about that for our new year? Okay. All right. So, just full transparency, I'm just a little concerned about the integrity of this organization and I know you see you've been part of this board since July of 2025. Um, looking at some of the expense reports, uh, some of the I mean, which is great you're here, so you probably can just answer some of the questions that I have. So looking over some of the expenses, uh there were several items that were on this expense report that I feel did not align with the current agreement that we uh that the city u was looking to and give me a second as I pull it up. Commissioner Anderson, I'm going be honest before you keep going. I probably won't be able to answer that. We do have an attorney. Um, but she got called away uh to a case and she was supposed to be here. So, I'm I'm not going to be able to explain that as I was not a part of preparing that.

Okay. So, with that being said, I just know I I don't think um that I recommend that the city continue um any type of agreement with Main Street Apka. uh the attorney I think it's really important that with something this serious with default with an agreement with the city that the attorney will put in their schedule to be here so to answer any questions and then and she was on the way but she got called to court so you know

and unfortunately for you know we we I don't think you know being to able to justify sitting continuously spending taxpayer dollars on an organization that have clearly defaulted on agreement and have spent substantially a lot of money that I don't think is justifiable. So at this time I actually move that the city completely terminate our agreement with Main Street um Apopka and look at future engagement at a later date with some type of perimeters where the city is more involved in the organization so that we have better oversight over over the spending. So will you be sharing that in writing? No I that's just my recommendation that we terminate right now and f further look at something in the future in the in the near future.

Well that's what I'm speaking of like further look at something in the future. Would that be a part of something he would be saying? has to decide that. Yes, I understand that. But what your comment is also is important. I'm listening. So, I want to make sure I can articulate that to the board. Can I ask you how many are on your board currently?

Right now, it's five. So between you getting the letter that was sent October 29th and now um there was never an attempt by anyone from your board to come before us or to contact any of us to sit with any of us to kind of bring us up to date as to what the intention was for Main Street. Um, and the one thing that I was concerned with was I think initially when our chief administrator sent a notice out, we really wanted to find out what happened and that has not been answered. No one has really taken responsibility for that. when Cashetta was on board and she had a couple of events because I went to them um and supported some of the events. Of course, the mural has been the biggest fallout from Main Street. But since that time till now, no one's made any attempt to at least contact any of us to say, let's sit down and let's just just talk about, you know, go over what was our mission, what did we what did we accomplish before the mural and then just even talk about the mural that that has never been done.

Yes, ma'am. So, I I can only attest to myself and no, I have not reached out to anyone um to discuss any of that because as I said, Caitlyn resigned. So once she resigned in the middle of the application happening with the state and all of that, we felt that took precedence because we need to be a part of the national main street because that's going to help bring funding to Apakka Main Street without us having to take funding from the city. So we as a board voted that that was a priority. So we took that on. Um we still do have the assistant Carla who was working with Caitlyn. She was providing us with the information to let us know what was going on. So, no, all I can say is I apologize for not speaking to you all, but we had to make a decision. Once she said she resigned, she gave that to us and then we were in limbo with things that needed to be handled right away as it related to what was going on in Tallahassee.

So, where does that leave you? If we terminate this relationship with Main Street, where does that leave you now being approved by the Main Street organization? Well, we would still move forward as Main Street of Popka because that's what they approved. So, we would move forward without your funding and right now it seems like without your support. So, your agreement with Main Street does not require that you have a an agreement with the city, any type of collaboration. That agreement doesn't require that. Not right now. No, because we're still in they're in the process of that 90 days of, you know, uh coming in seeing what we have done, what is going on on with the Apopka Main Street.

From my understanding, speaking with Caitlyn, that was actually one of the conditions that you do have a partnership with the city. So, they are aware that Caitlyn has resigned. They after the application was processed, they are aware that we are having this meeting today. They're aware of everything that's going on. So we are going to report back to them. So are you stating that in the event that we do terminate this agreement that Main Street has advised you that you guys can continue to operate without the support of the city of AA? Because we will have the support of the state of Florida. So we are part A is a part of Florida. So we would be able to go before them and speak with or without you.

So how would you promote APA if we're not partnering with you? Well, we could still, you know, have events for the the constituents of Apka and do things in in the area, but it's again, it's going to be contingent on how much money we could raise to try to have these events and to continue to support. And I guess one of my other concerns is that since we actually execute this agreement, there hasn't really been any events other than celebrations and staff, you know, parties and, you know, different things that we're funding. So that that's another concern is that it I just don't see where this has actually benefited the residents of the city of Kapa at all. Well, she did well the one the the

and we did go out and help some of the business obtain some of the money that you guys have for community development. We did canvas the area and you guys helped I believe eight of the people that we brought in. Well, I'm just based off of the the expense report is that the expenses that was actually mostly But that wouldn't be an expense for going out canvas and to get people to come in to help apply for that. You guys said a train is a training meeting or it's just, you know, $500 here. How many employees do you guys have? There's no It was only the one lady, Carla, that was the executive assistant. Because there was like a I guess there's a DJ expense here for a staff um retreat for for how many staff? I did not attend a retreat, so I won't be able to answer that for you.

It's on the expense report. So, I'm just It's just things like that just kind of questionable. Understood. That's all. Any any other questions? Who are the other four people on your board?

I don't know their names by heart. I'm sorry. uh is Margaret Logus, Stephanie Brinkley, and Mark don't have his last name on here, but um he's the business owner that owns the uh karate place on the corner there. Oh, he's still on the board because I think he was an original member. Mark or Matt? Matt. Matt. Is it Matt? Yes.

Yes, Matt. Sorry. Okay, that's three. We're missing one. I thought you said there was five of you. Uh the executive assistant, Carla and myself. Carla. Okay.

Mr. Nesta, you got any question? Uh no. All right. So

I just, you know, I when when we started this whole Main Street originally, we went to Dan and we were really impressed and I mean we met not just with the commissioners, we met with business owners and we met with the core group that began the main street and it takes time. It takes time to build Main Street, but you got from what you're telling me, getting the uh certification, is that what you got from Tallahassee? It's a it's a big deal because there are Main Street is not local. Main Street is throughout the United States where they belong to a bigger organization and they're promoting their downtowns, their city and Dand has actually done a very good job. Even Orlando has Main Street. Um I don't know if Sanford has Main Street.

Winter Park has it well. Winter Park has Main Street. I mean there's success with Main Street. Unfortunately, um you were in the infasy infancy stage and it kind of fell apart and in falling apart they lost trust and kind of the support of the community. Yes.

Um you know if you saw social media even the news I mean we were just plastered all over over the mural and until today we still don't know how it happened. I'll be honest, I wasn't a part of that hiring and all that took place. Like I said, I only came on in in July. So, I'm on the back end of all of this and then nobody could come today but me and the attorney. So, I came to just stand up here and let you know that I feel like moving forward removing some of the people who were in place that caused this problem and not having an accountant, which I am an accountant. So, um, to have somebody to vet what is really going on, it does cause problems. And I recognize that cause distrust for you all, but I can only answer from July on what I was a part of. And that was one of the things I brought to the board, that you're not going to spend another dime that you get without somebody vetting it. You're not going to make any more decisions of anything without the whole board being on board and meeting about it. But that takes somebody strong to come in and say that. So if that's not present then of course it's going to cause distrust and again all I can say is I apologize for what you have experienced so far but I do know that the national organization has approved us when we go back to them if we tell them you guys are not on board then we're we don't know what they're going to ask us to do to continue in the area. I can't say that because we have to go back and tell them what happens from today.

So now I I support Main Street. I I truly believe in its its um principle and and what it does for cities. The only thing I would recommend is not at this point to terminate any financial support but to give you an opportunity to kind of build on Main Street but without our financial support. And I feel like that's fair because she brought up valid question. You can't I can't explain what's on that budget to be honest because I wasn't a part of preparing it

and my only concern with that is is having the identity of the city of Apollo because unfortunately when that situation happened because of the partnership we're still in partnership so we still were held liable. So at this time could you kind of go over the experience and what the qualifications of these board members and what skill set they have to actually contribute to this organization? So I um speaking of myself I am an accountant. Um, this is I've been in the area for 30 years. I've lived in Apakka for 17 years. You're an accountant. And what about the um Matt is the business owner? Business owner. And then there's another business owner of the furniture. Before we can have in context, Matt is the business owner. What business does he own?

Um, no, I know that, but everyone doesn't know who Matt is in the audience. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know the name of the business, Miss Anderson. So, you could say it. Okay. So, he owns a Okay. A karate shop. Okay. Yes, karate shop. And then it has um I know it has other classes and stuff that he has on both of the floors. So, what are the other board members? What are they? Um Carla has a job. She works for um one of the restaurants in Apopka in the shopping area. She is the musician there. Musician. Okay. Yes. And then Stephanie Brinkley is an attorney, a local attorney here in Apka.

Okay. So, who on the board has any type of econom development experience to or any type of experience to do what we're trying to do with Main Street? Who who has that? Because I don't I I'll be honest, Miss Anderson. I would say none of us would have any of the CRA experience.

Yeah. I I think that's really what we're missing here, that key component, because I think that's how we kind of got here as well. So I think that once again I think we need to go back to the drawing board with this you know with the partnership and really really outline that was one of my concerns from the beginning is that and I did if you go back and that was one of the concerns I had that looking at the resumes to say are you know is the qualifications there the desire could be there right but do they really have the true skill set to do what we need to do and are we responsibly you know managing our taxpayer dollars by investing in an organization that you definitely have the the will, but do they really have the skill set to do what we need to be done? Yes, understood.

Any other questions for Miss Anderson? If not, anybody from the public wish to speak on this one.

Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners. Happy New Year. um just came by to say that um kind of like how we're asking for resumes for the CRA board. Um, as a local business owner in the CRA, I would love a an effective Main Street program, but I think it needs to be a well-run Main Street program, and it needs to be ran by people with experience in retail, in um, food, hospitality, so that they understand what it is that the business owners in the CRA need, what they want, and how to be um, truly effective as a program. Um, as of two minutes ago when I checked the Main Street website, Caitlyn is still showing as the president. Um, that's truly disheartening when we have the organization up here saying that they are ready to take the lead and the website has not been updated. None of the people that were just mentioned with the exception of Matt Hutchinson um, that are on the website are actually on the board. So, all that I would ask is that you please this time truly vet the folks that are taking up the charge to give us a Main Street program and really make sure that they are up to the task. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. I am 100% behind the support of Main Street Apakka. The idea of Main Street Apakka. I've attended every single one of the events in the past supported them. However, we're talking about our money. the citizens or the residents of Apakka money and we have to be careful because nothing against anyone on the main street board personally but as a fellow business owner in Apaka plus a nonprofit owner I'm concerned that when we have a member nothing against you personally I don't know you this is first time I'm seeing your face but when we have someone who's representing a board who's been on the board for five to six months cannot not name five board members. We we've seen because it's all over social media. Um what Commissioner Anderson was reading their financial report. A lot of the stuff had my eyes popping because I come up here and y'all know I ain't too proud to beg and we don't all the money goes back to benefiting the organization. So, a lot of concerning questions because each one of you commissioners up there have assisted us and we appreciate it. However, the city of Apopka itself, long story short, refused to support us and to back us even though we've been doing this for 12 years in Apopka. Main Street Apka, every year you look on sunb.org, that's public records. the board members changes. There was a point in time when there were no board members listed, which is a IRS violation. You're

supposed to as a nonprofit always maintain at least three board members to be in to be considered a nonprofit. So, what I'm asking is that the city, yes, I'm not saying in the future do not support Main Street Apakka. It's a great program. has a great idea, but give them time, especially if we're going to pass the buck because that's what I'm hearing. If because if I take over a leadership role, I'm Yeah, it's all good. I wasn't there when all this happened, but it's my due diligence to find out, well, what am I getting involved with? Because people will have question. How do I address those question? What happened in the past? No, I get it. I was not part of the problem. I'm here to be part of the solution. So, I need to know the history and how to move forward to fix it. If I don't have those answers, then what are we doing? So, they do need time to go to the drawing board, get to know their members because that should be public record, the first, the last name, the addresses, all of that. Get to know your board and then bring it back

to the city for funding. Anybody else from the public wish to speak? Okay, we'll bring back to the council. I'm looking for a motion. I already made actually already had a motion on the floor already. Okay, so motion is to to resend the the financial agreement with Yes. Main Street Apopka. Got a motion by Commissioner Anderson, second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor?

All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. All right. Next up, ordinance number 3117. Ordinance number 3117, an ordinance of the city of Apopka, Florida, changing the zoning from county A-1 Citrus Rural to PD plan for development for certain rail property owned by IPM S-1 Rio LLC, HMF LLC, Charles P. Stallings, Kim L. Stallings, Ulie Stallings Jr., and Crystal Denise Stallings. located on the northwest corner of Onit Road and State Road 453 and State Road 429 comprising of 1.9 sorry correction 196.83 acres more or less providing for severability conflicts and an effective date. So it must be changes. G

no changes. No changes. Okay. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this matter? If not, we'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to adopt ordinance number 3117. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor? I. All opposed. No. No. That was the one I voted. No. She was the one that motion carries four to one with Commissioner Anderson in opposition. Next up, ordinance number 3128.

Ordinance number 3128. An ordinance of the city of Apaka, Florida, amending the land development code of the code of ordinances of the city of Apakkco, Florida by amending the city's platting and replanning procedures to establish an administrative approval process. Establishing a process to expedite the issuance of building permits for residential subdivisions prior to recording a final plat. Updating regulations pertaining to model sales homes, updating definitions, providing for a legislate for legislative findings, providing for codification, providing for severability, conflicts, and an effective date. Andrew, any changes? No sir.

Okay. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? If not, we'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to adopt ordinance number 3128. Um, the only thing I just want to say thank you to Bobby Howell, which is the community uh development director. Although none of this has to come before us, you are sending emails kind of updating us on the approvals and I appreciate that. Thank you. Was that a motion to approve? Yes. Okay. Got a motion by Commissioner Velasquez. Second. Second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Next up, ordinance number 3140.

Ordinance number 3140, an ordinance of the city of Apakka, Florida, amending the future land use element of the Apakka comprehensive plan of the city of Apakka, changing the future land use designation from in progress to residential very low suburban for property owned by Lincoln Douglas Haynes and Lauren Elizabeth Haynes. located at 10:30 East San Piper Street comprising 1.79 acres more or less provided for severability conflicts and effective date.

For record, Amir Hamza, planner uh so the applicant has submitted a small scale feature landings amendment that will change from in progress to residential very low suburban for property located at 30 10:30 East Sandpiper Street which is between Usler Road and North Thompson Road. These are the vicinity and aerial mass are 1030 East Sanaper Street uh site. The total site area is 1.79 acres. The applicant is requesting a feature land use amendment of the property to be able to apply for a special exception application at a later date to develop an accessory dwelling unit. Uh the future land use is in progress as mentioned before and proposed to change to residential balo suburban as shown on the map to the left. The zoning is currently transitional and proposed to change to rce residential country estate. The development review committee has recommended approval at the December 9th, 2025 meeting. The planning commission anonymously recommend approval of the future land use amendment. The recommended motion is to accept first reading of ordinance number 3140 and hold it over for second reading and adoption on January 21st, 2026.

Any questions for air? I I did have one question because I read um your project summary. So what I thought was interesting because I mean even Orange County I remember when they approved that we can now have uh uh give permission for ADUs. Yet on the very first paragraph, you put, "The applicant plans to apply for special exception permit at a later date to be able to build an accessory dwelling unit on the subject property for his elderly parents. Approval of the future land use amendment does not constitute approval of the ADU on the property." That's kind of contradicting. So, so basically the zoning has to uh match with the future land use. So, right now there's no current um zoning on the it's transition, but they need to reszone the property to residential country estate which will allow them to have a um aid you under a special exception uh permit.

So, that's the next one that we're going to hear which uh the reason is going to be after the future line is for the same property. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions for air? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Okay. Well, um Andrew, uh need your advice here. Uh my my property backs up to that to this this property. Should I recuse myself from the vote? Without knowing any more of the specific facts regarding that, um if that is your option, you're able to. Uh, and um, of course, city clerk has has the forms. I

Okay. I I just just just for for precaution, I just go ahead and like to recuse myself from the vote. Yeah. The next two penalty for doing so. Okay. All right. With that, I look for a motion to approve uh, ordinance number 3141 at first reading. Doesn't back up to that property. Um, your property doesn't back up to that one. There's two properties in between before that one gets touched. Did we open this up for public comment? Yeah, nobody wants. Oh, okay. Yeah, there's two different properties with that gated community there that then it's this property. Which one? The mayor's property on the third on the third one.

The third back up to it. It doesn't touch it at all. It's up to him. It's up. Yeah, I think he has a right to attorney commission. I mean, the American exercise right to Well, I mean, they does he

typically a a council member has to vote or a commission member has to vote on business items before them unless there's a special private gain or loss. So, that that is the standard. Usually proximity can play into that and of course if it's within a subdivision, how many other units are within the subdivision? But again, not knowing all the specifics of exactly how orientation is and what relationships are and so forth. U it's it's really up to the discretion of course of the uh the official. There's two houses a half house in between. So it's up to him to make a decision. That's fine.

But I I just would assume recuse myself. But I mean we'll see how the vote goes. And so look for a motion to approve. So got a motion by Commissioner Velasquez. Second. Second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor. And I'll recuse myself. So it'll be four to zero vote with Mayor Nelson. Um I need to recuse myself as well actually now that I think about it. My company had a dealing with this at one point. Um so I want to recuse myself on that as well just so there's no impropriy or even view of impropriety in a capacity. It wasn't my customer but um so we got to go back because you already vote. What I'd recommend in that case is that the uh commissioner revote. You got to revote because you already voted on Yeah. Okay. Okay. Motion moved.

It's a motion by Commissioner Velasquez. Second. Second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor? I. I. So, it's three three to three to zero. Two recusals. Next up, ordinance number 3141. Ordinance number 3141. An ordinance of the city of Apakka, Florida, changing the zoning from T transitional to RCE residential country estate for property located at 10:30 East San Piper Street owned by Lincoln Douglas Haynes and Lauren Elizabeth Hannes comprising 1.79 acres more or less providing for severability conflict center effective date.

For the record, Amir Hamza, planner. The applicant is requesting a reszoning of the same property 1030 East San Pepper Street um from transitional zoning to rce residential country estate. And again, the property is located between Usler Road and North Thompson Road. These are the same vicinity and aerial maps of the 10:30 East San Pepper Street property that was shown for the future land use amendment. The total site area is 1.79 acres again and the applicant is requesting the reszoning of the property again to be able to apply for a special exception application at a later date to develop an ADU for his elderly parents. As mentioned before and shown on these maps, the future land use is was in progress and proposed to change to uh residential velobur zoning is transitional proposed to change to rce residential country estate. The development review committee has recommended approval at the December 9, 2025 meeting. The planning commission and recommend approval of the change of zoning. The recommended motion is to accept first reading of ordinance number 3141 and hold it over for second reading and adoption on January 21st, 2026.

Any questions for air? Yeah, I I have one. Sure. If if we're changing the zoning, why would he now need a special exception in order to build the accessory drawing? The zoning of the property currently is transition, which under transition uh um uh a accessory dwelling unit is not a permitted use. Now, if we change the zoning to rce, residential, country estate, it is uh it will allow an ADU under a special exception, which means it's permitted but not by right. So they have to apply for a special exception permit at a later date to be able to develop an ADU under that zone uh proposed rce zoning.

Is this the first one that we've done for for what accessory dwelling? No, we've done accessory dwelling units um in in the city, bunch of them. And all of them had the special exception. All of them have been done through a special exception process. Yes. Okay. Okay. Any any other questions for air? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? If not, look for a motion to approve ordinance number 3141, first reading hold over for second reading and adoption. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Anderson, second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor.

Three. Uh those recusing themselves, Mr. Nest, Mayor Nelson. Thank you, mayor.

Okay, next up, ordinance number 3147. Ordinance number 3147, an ordinance of the city of Apakka, Florida, changing the zoning from T transitional RSF-1A residential single family estate and MU-ES-GT mixed use east shore gateway to PD plan development district for certain rail property generally located east of Vic Road, east of Jason Dwell Parkway, north and south of Ponan Road, south and east of Pitman Road, and east of Pon on Kin Summit Drive owned by Paluchi Acres LLC comprising 618.36 acres more or less providing for severability conflicts and an effective date.

Good afternoon. Bobby Hall, planning manager. Property is generally located east of Vic Road J east of Jason Dwelli Parkway, north and south of Ponan Road, south and east of Pitman Road and east of Ponan Summit Drive. You can see it's outlined in black on the screen. The slide to the right is the aerial photographs of the property that show it's quite extensive. properties are approximately 618.36 acres in size in zone transitional RSF-1A mixeduse eastshore gateway and has future land use designations of mixed use residential low suburban residential estate and commercial excuse me applicants requesting resing of the property to PD that consist of 1,034 lots consisting of single family detached units and town home units two non-residential properties are proposed to be the northeast and southeast corner of the intersection Ponan Road and Jason Dwelli Parkway and a 145.56 acre dedication of Parkland to the city is located on the south side of Ponin Road. This would be the dedicated area for the parkland. Maximum density it's proposed in the PUD is 1.67 dwelling units per acre which is less than the maximum density that's permitted in the assigned future land use designations. Of the 616.6006 6 06 acres. 200 acres are proposed to be dedicated as conservation. 147.76 acres will be dedicated as open space and 12.2 acres will be dedicated as right of way. The master plan proposes residential and non-residential development on the north and south sides Punkin Road and only residential development on the east side of Vic Road. This is the 40 acres that was annexed unanimously by the city council back in the summertime. The residential is there is the non-residential parcel that is here corner adjacent dwelli and pan and then on the south side future land use amendment was unanimously approved by the city council I believe back in October of last year and uses

were dictated in that future land use agreement or amendment as well as a right-of-way vacation partial right-of-way vacation that was approved unanimously by the city council back in the summer of 2025. Master plan of pros is development of two non-residential lots on the north and south side of Ponan Road. Specifically, 5.92 acre parcel located at the northeast corner of Jason Dwelli Parkway and Ponan Road and a 4.9 acre parcel located on the southeast corner of Jason Dwelli and Ponam Roads. For the residential portion, excuse me, for the residential portion of the development, a total of 134 units are proposed in a mix of 876 single family detached and 158 town home lots. Single family detached lots are propo are front and rear loaded. Front loaded lots range in width from 95, 85, 70, 60, and 55 ft in width. The rear loaded lots range in range from 40 and 34 feet in width. Town home units are proposed in six and eight unit buildings. Master plan proposes 25 foot wide landscape buffers adjacent to the existing residential subdivisions and you can see those on the master plan uh outlined in green. Permitted uses for the non-residential properties are detailed within the PD master plan, but include include but are not limited to coffee shops, including those that have a drive-thru component, banks or other financial institutions, child care facilities, and restaurants. Residential amenities include a pool, cabana, tennis courts, sports facilities, playgrounds, tots, outdoor fitness stations, and or picnic rest area. Picnic rest areas. The applicant held community meetings on January 11th, 2025, March 5th, 2025, August 4th, 2025, and December 2nd, 2025. Proposed use of the properties

consistent with the comprehensive plan, and Orange County Public Schools indicated capacity for proposed development is available and it's vested as there's not an increase in the amount of units that are proposed. Location is served by the following schools: Rock Springs Elementary, Wolf Lake Middle, and Apopka High. The master plan details a 30- foot wide section of 30 foot wide dedication rightway on both sides of Ponan Road to Orange County to allow for future widening of Ponaman Road. And I can show you on the it's best shown on the master plan. Email correspondence is provided in your packet from Orange County indicating that this is sufficient right away for Ponan Road. Master plan proposes future vacation of a portion of Pitman Road that currently exists to Ponan Road. Uh it would be up in this area. Pitman Road permits access to the Hammock Estate subdivision. If the future portion of rideway of Pitman Road is vacated, access to the Hammock safe subdivision will be via proposed roundabout located on Punkin Road as you can see it right here. It would go up that way. Pitman Road kind of comes down currently. You're probably familiar with the location for that. It's right here. To access Hammock Estates, you have to go up Pitman Road over and through here. Approval of the master plan does not authorize vacation of the portion of the Pitman Road rightway. Vacation of the rideway be via future action of the city council to come forward as a resolution and this council could either vote it up or down. An indepth overview of transportation will be provided by the city's transportation quarter coordinator at the conclusion of my presentation and we have our consultants here as well that will go over some of the transportation issues. The development review committee recommends approval at the December 9th, 2025 meeting. The planning commission recommended approval with a vote of 5 to one uh with member Robert Ryan voting to deny due to concerns with Rogers Road not being up to city standards. And with

that, uh our recommendation is accept first reading, hold it over for second reading. But with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Wharton, a transportation coordinator, and he'll go over some of the transportation issues related to the result. Can you repeat that again with the planning and zoning? the one member that disapproved. What was the reasoning? He had issues with Rogers Road. His concern was Rogers Road is not up to city standards.

Okay. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Wharton. So I do want to say that I have met with the engineer and developers on several occasions because I have all the I have a collection of maps from them. Hi Bill Wson, transportation coordinator for the city. Right. But we review the the traffic impact analysis, but I think it's best for the consultants, traffic engineer to present that to you. And then after that, if you have any questions about how the city reviews it, I'd be happy to answer. Okay.

The last one I got. I got you after lunch. Hi, good afternoon. Can y'all hear me better now? All right. Good afternoon. Uh, Elisa Sell with Shuts and Bowen, 300 South Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida, 32801. I apologize. I thought there was going to be a little bit more of a transportation presentation up here. Um, was there a question that was being requested or are we moving into our presentation at the moment and go forth with our presentation? Will you all be addressing the transportation aspects after the fact?

Wonderful. Okay. I just wasn't sure based on planning commission was done a little differently. Apologies for the confusion you all. Okay. So, thank you all for taking the time. I would like to thank um Mr. for Bobby Howell here. He has taken a lot of time and effort over the past year working with us and we really really appreciate all the time and effort that has been put into this project. So we have um made a real concerted effort to ensure that the community's input has been incorporated into this project. And I think that you'll see that as we move through this presentation. Um but for example, we hosted not just one required community meeting, we hosted four. So let's see if we can get into our presentation. Here we go. So before we get into the project, I would like to just go over the property's history for just a moment. So the total acreage of the project is 618 acres. All but 40 acres were annexed into the city back in the 1990s. So over 30 years ago. And when this property was annexed into the city, it was no longer zoned agricultural. The property when it was annexed into the city was approved with major development entitlements. And those major development entitlements have been in place since that time.

And you say it was the early 90s. Early 90s. So yes, my understanding was 1996. We've had some hard time identifying the ex the exact time frame based on records, but I'd say it's been at least 30 years. So there the ability for the current owners or any owner they sell to to develop the amount that you're saying here, 1829 lots and over 6 million square feet of mixed use or commercial has been in place since the 90s. Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you. So, the current development rights right now allow for up to 1,829 homes and up to 6.3 million square ft of commercial. And just to give you a little bit of an idea of what that looks like because when I hear that, I've got no idea what that means. That's like five Altoont malls plus like a super Walmart and a 7-Eleven and apartments. You're getting the picture. It's a major major amount of development and the city's code currently contemplates for the area shown in yellow here on the map that there would be apartments, gas stations, light industrial, and big box retailers. Those are the contemplated uses for this area in yellow right now. And that's what could be built today. someone could come through and submit a site plan and move through the process and not have to go through the process that we are going through today. So, and sorry to interrupt again with new legislation that came into play and something similar to what we just approved as well. If you guys were to change anything and build to what is entitled currently, would any plans have to come in front of this council to get approved? we would have to be moving through the MDP process, but again, we would have all of the zoning already available. So, we would be working within the straight zoning of your code.

Okay. Thank you.

So, but again, this is what is absolutely able to whether you can actually fit all 6.3 million square feet on the property up for debate, but that's five Altimont malls. Like, that's an insane amount of square footage. Um, so proposed entitlements, as we've just discussed, this is not new growth. This is a massive reduction in the growth. This decreases the number of homes by 800. This decreases the commercial development by 95%. And this downzoning creates a development that is so much more compatible with the surrounding existing community. The proposed development has less than two dwelling units per acre, which is equal to or in most cases less than all of the existing surrounding communities already. Again, showing that it is very compatible with the existing development. The PD before you all allows us to create uniform standards for the entirety of the project. It contains a number of community benefits and it also contains a number of restrictions on the developer. One of those restrictions Mr. Howell mentioned are the permitted uses and prohibited uses for the commercial parcels. So those future development commercial parcels have been have lists of permitted uses and prohibited uses and those lists were tailored very specifically and a number of conversations over the course of the community meetings and when we're here in city council we've taken those into consideration and those lists absolutely reflect that. So, one of the main um primary points of this project that we are very excited about and we think is very important to

the city of Apakka is the open space piece. Right now, under the existing entitlements that we've been talking about with the 1829 homes and the 6.3 million square feet of commercial, only 10% open space is required north of Ponin and only 20% open space is required south of Ponin. This project is committing to a minimum of 50%. And again, you heard Mr. Howell mention there's 200 acres identified as conservation open space. So that is air that is open space that is going to remain in its natural state. That's 200 acres. So additionally with respect to buffers, no buffers would be required under the existing entitlements. Here we are proposing a 25- ft landscape buffer between the development and any existing neighborhoods which is very significant. You're also going to have like to like lock. So if you're a resident and you would back up to this development and say you've got a 95 ft lot, you're going to have your 95 foot lot. You're going to look into your backyard. You're going to see your fence. Then you'll have a 25 foot landscape buffer and then there will be a 95 foot lot. So it's going to you're going to be looking at what you already have which is again very consistent and that is not something that the existing communities surrounding this project have at all. So the primary item with respect to the open space though is this preservation of 145 acres in the form of a passive city park. So and you can see this on the map here. It is in a wonderful location and it's a great um asset when you're taking into account the active recreational facilities with the ball fields and the amphitheater right there off of Jason Dwelli. You're a 3minut walk down to this city park that's

contemplated to have over three miles of natural stabilized trail system that's going to run through around the trees. It's going to be under the canopy. you're going to get to enjoy the lakes. All of this right now is private lands that the community is not able to enjoy. This proposal will open this up to be a public benefit for the entire community. So, you can have a mom who's dropping her kid off at soccer and say she wants to go pick up a coffee park and go do a nice little three-mile walk and then go pick up her kid. It's a wonderful aspect of this project. In addition to the city park and the over three miles of trails within the park, there is contemplated to be over seven miles of trails within this project itself. So this project is really focusing on walkability and having that open space and giving that really nice aka feel to this overall project. Moving on to our favorite topic, road improvements. So, we've heard confir concerns from the community regarding Ponen Road and we have worked with the city and Orange County. We've had a number of meetings and we have identified major real solutions to problems that are existing right now. So with respect to Ponin Road, we are proposing 30 foot right-of-way dedications along both sides of Ponen Road within the development. That effectively doubles the width of Ponen Road. It enables Orange County because Ponkin Road is a county road. It would enable the county to do widening at some point in the future, but more importantly right now, it enables us to facilitate a lot of the safety concern

improvements that we think are needed. So this right ofway dedication would be approximately 12 acres which is significant but what's more significant and what we've been talking about a lot is the roundabout. So there is an existing intersection at Pitman and Ponan and we understand it very dangerous intersection. So this roundabout has been analyzed greatly. We have our transportation consultant who can speak to that after the presentation. But the roundabout location was identified at a particular place in Ponkin Road to help slow everybody down and to help facilitate a a much safer traffic pattern. So in addition to the roundabout, we also have the trail that there's currently a sidewalk and I understand it's constantly in disrepair. So this trail would be located at the northbound of that dedicated rideway. So it'd be much further away from the road. It's going to go the length of Ponkin. So, it would be going approximate a little over a mile down Ponkin. It would be wider. And there's also going to be street lighting that will be added, which we think is actually going to make a very very big difference on this road.

So, the the Sorry to interrupt again. The sidewalk, not the length of ponkin, but the length of ponkin that your property within the development, which is over a mile. Okay.

So, it I mean this it's s that's significant. Um, and it would end at Jason Dwelli with the school. And so it just adds a really nice walkability aspect to this project. Um, so each of those improvements, the roundabout, the street lighting, the trail, the rightway dedication, all of these items are going to be done by the developer. It's not going to be done by the city and it's not going to be done at the city's cost. It's going to be done by the developer at the developer's cost. And the developer is not asking for impact fee credits for any of this work despite the fact that this is not required in the uh traffic study. But because we've heard so many comments and concerns about this roadway from day one, we felt that it was important enough to include it in there. And this project is big enough to be able to absorb the millions of dollars that are going to be required to construct these improvements. So, we're also going to be doing rightway um dedications along Vic Road, and those will likely align with the city's design of the widening of Vic Road, which is currently within your 2025 2026 budget this year. So, and to address Rogers Road, um we are of the understanding that Rogers Road is in fact a up to city standards. Um, we are willing to work with the city on Rogers Road um, in connection with any future improvements that the city is looking to perform. I would like to note with respect to transportation impact fees. So, I'm going to skip ahead a little bit. Um, transportation impact fees are estimated to be about $10 million based on 2023 rates. We all know transportation impact fees are going to increase significantly, right? This development is not going to be locked in. They're going to have to pay the current rate as it increases. So that $10 million is likely going to increase

significantly. And this project will be built in phases. Stay with me for a second. It'll be built in phases. The first phase is estimated to generate approximately $3.7 million that will be paid to the city in transportation impact fees. Those transportation impact fees can be used by the city and allocated to transportation projects in the surrounding area. For example, Rogers Room. So, another important aspect of this project are the utility improvements to the city's system. And one of those that I would like to highlight to you all is the reclaimed mainline. This facilitates looping the cities two different reclaimed systems that currently cannot connect. This is not required by the project. It's something that staff has worked with our project engineer on and the developer is agreeable to this. This is contemplated in the PD agreement um for the developer to design and construct this extension of the the the loop system and that will ensure or it should assist with capacities and flows because during our a number of our community meetings we've heard from a lot of the residents about the reclaim um system pressures and this should hopefully help that. So, I've talked a lot about improvements and generally we hear with projects, we're going to do a bunch of improvements or we're going to pay a lot of money, but the question is always when? This nice visual shows you the public improvements on the top line. You have a time frame of the project buildout in the middle and then the bottom is the home construction. So if you can see a number of the improvements are going to be done in the beginning of the project. So

that's before or concurrent with development. If you see first home construction is contemplated for late 2027, that's likely going to be early 2028. All of these items are going to be started before the first home building permit is pulled. So everything is going to be coming along in the beginning which is a very unique aspect and it allows to provide for to at least address some of the infrastructure concerns that we have heard. Although city staff has confirmed that the infrastructure is or will be addressed and will be satisfied in connection with the project with respect to all of the restrictions and the limitations that we have agreed to in the master plan and the PD agreement. So, a little summary. This is a downzoning. There's 12 acres of rideaway dedications along Ponkin. We are constructing major roadway improvements to create safer roadway conditions and connections, most of which are at the developer cost, not at the city's cost. The ride-of-way dedications along Vic Road to facilitate the widening. We talked about the approximately $10 million in transportation impact fees, which again at 2023 rates. I'd also like to note the total amount of impact fees that would be generated from this project, water, sewer, are closer to $36 million. So, it's a significant amount of money. We understand that those are paid generally at building permit. But this project is going to be a 10-year approximately buildout, but you're going to be seeing those funds flow in over the course of time. And again, that first phase is significant. It's going to be generating a fair amount of impact fees for the city. Um, a few other items, the reclaimed mainline, we talked about the

preservation of the 145 acres via the dedicated city park. We will have a construction of over four miles of public trail systems. And we didn't touch about on this too much, but with respect to the future commercial parcels, those are going to create job opportunities and local retail and restaurant opportunities. We've heard from a lot of folks at the community meetings about how they just go to the Jason um the sub shop. Sorry, I'm blanking on the name. And they would love to be able to have something closer. And this project would facilitate with the trail system and with the location of the future commercial. We think it would be wonderful for not just the surrounding residents, but also of course it would serve the ball fields in the amphitheater and all the folks who would go there in the afternoons, in the evenings, and all of the time on the weekend. So, at the end of the day, we think this is a really great project. Um, it clearly meets the city's comprehensive plan and land development code requirements for approval and your professional experts, city staff and outside consultants agree with this, including with respect to the infrastructure component. And I do just want to note that normally I'm up here asking for extended development rights and I am quite literally asking for the opposite. We are asking for a down zoning today. This project encapsulates everything that a great project has. It decreases the number of homes, bringing it to be more compatible with the surrounding community. It secures over 50% open space, including the dedication of 145 acre park. It provides solutions for safety concerns along Conan that are existing today. So for these reasons and consistent with staff's recommendation, we would of course request your approval

of the proposed resoning and myself and our development team are here to answer all of your questions. Okay. Any questions for the applicant? Are you going to put a separate road presentation or are we there's some things you want to have to answer specific questions but if you want an overview of fine we can do that as well. Okay. Any questions for the applicant?

No, I actually don't I don't have a question. But um I actually am happy to see that actually um a down zoning and this is something we talked about last time. I think it's because of the infrastructure and you the developer is taking a lot of the accountability and something the residents have said that they want to make sure that developers are you know paying to their fair share and you guys have definitely did that. So there's been extensive you yeah the 30 ft um right away um the roundabout on pon um the dedication of the 145 acres for the passive um that uh public park is very um great so there's a lot of benefits to IC to this so this is something I actually will support any other questions for the applicant

uh yes I was going to ask price point for these homes last time yes Um Erin Strucker, PY Homes. Um good good evening now. Um I think uh but thank you for your time. Uh right now we I would think it's going to be fairly consistent with a lot of the new homes that you see in the area. I think MI has a community just on the north side of Ponkin and I think you'll am I right uh close by and I think you'll see some of the larger estate lots go for comparable prices to that which um I think are in the 600s to

uh more yeah I I think they have some starting homes in the 600 but those go up to 8 900 those are for your single family detached lots um town homes in the area are comparable probably to what the pricing you're going to get in the Kelly Park area um so those town homes I they're starting in the 300s I think right now for some of those um with some high 300s um so from that number all the way up to around a million dollars potentially for some of the largest state lots once you add options and premiums and those sorts of things. So, we wanted to capture a range of different housing opportunities from someone who might be looking for something smaller uh at the entry level all the way up to um someone who's a move up buyer with more um options and things like that that they're looking for. Well, well, I I I think our our price point needs to go just a little bit lower uh for someone that really wants a good starter home and to be able to live within the same community that as they receive promotions or the income increase that they can still move within the same community, the kids go to the same school with and have same friends in the same neighborhood. and and if it's any possible if you would consider at least a few at a little bit lower cost

and and and certainly that the PUD enables us to have a variety of different unit types and our goal is to be able to capture as much of the market as as we can. So, and the reason why I I say that because you know we we have our police officers, our firefighters, our public works individuals that you know we we're not paying a $600,000 salary. Um, and we would like for many of our employees to live within the city as possible and uh, so we're pricing them out of the city. So if you would consider that, I would appreciate.

Yeah, we're looking at a range of different options based on the development standards that are included within the developers agreement and the master plan that enables some sort of creative opportunities with uh, some of the housing types that might enable us to try to get some um, more opportunities for those income levels. So, I appreciate it. Commission Nessa,

I I got a couple questions here. Thank you for the the time and the presentation, very detailed. I know we've met a few times and also I think I have attended the majority of our community meetings. Maybe not all of them, but I I've definitely been to the majority of them. And and the point of those being there is to really hear from the residents. What are the concerns, likes, dislikes, you know, pros, cons? Obviously, residents don't want a lot of development right now. That's obviously the top priority. Stop what we're doing. Secondarily to that, it's it's how are we what are the environmental concerns that come along with these developments? How are we preserving green space and then also the wildlife that is within this project as well? You know, growing up here in Apakka, this was all, you know, farmland for a long time, then obviously seen it slowly come in with Rock Springs Ridge and some other um newer developments as well. So, it's Walk me through, I guess, the you're saying it's it at least 50% or more of green space

that's inclusive of that. um uh the proposed park as well. Correct. Yeah. Okay. So, that's part of the conservation. So, the open space is comprised of your typical open space, a little bit the you get a piece of the storm water, uh the landscape buffers, the uh proposed city park. Anything that you see that is translucent is going to remain in its natural state. So, a number of the areas. So, that's 200 acres. And then you will also have all of the solid green areas will remain open space areas. Okay. So it's about 200 acres of preserved not touching and then about 100ish of a little a little over Okay. 150.

Okay. Understood. Okay. And then which is nice obviously I think trying to preserve that as much as possible to still have that feel there of the rolling topography which is really unique and cool there. Um it I'm interested to see how you guys are going to overcome some of those hills there because that's it's unique. Um the transportation uh well the impact fees the total impact fees you roughly I'm not holding you to this was like 36 million total impact fees. Correct. All all everything every piece of it. A portion of that 36 million is going to Orange County though. Correct. for their ponan road fees or is that 36 million completely aka that's going to aka okay okay I just want to confirm that on

there are no impact fees that are going to be paid to the county and the developer is not receiving any impact fee credits with respect to the road construction for for schools schools excuse me are included in that $ 36 million number okay so school will be backed out of that but it's not going to Orange County okay it's going to the school board. Okay, understood. Thank you.

Okay, any other questions for the applicant? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Sure. Albert Mckame 360 Golden Gem Road. This is the sort of project that kicks all my boxes. What we're really looking at for a popka for the future is more of these sorts of pro properties. There were some concerns about the prices of the properties, but market will dictate what these properties sell for. The market will dictate that when a property is of a decreased value, it'll bring people into the area with more money to spend. So it may be that by going slightly up more market that we will bring in people with more money, higher paying jobs. We don't know what it's going to do, but market has a great way to dictate what things themselves do. So I'm fully on board. I like the fact that they're looking at doing extra work on the on the the piping and the water for distribution because of low pressure. But here's my problem, and it's nothing to do with the developers. It comes back to the commission. The comprehensive plan already takes into consideration that Golden Gem ponds are functional. Golden Gem Road ponds are not functional. Golden Gem Roads will not be functional until, in my estimation, 2030. Now, you may argue that you can put a a 50 million gallon pond up and running, but remember there's a lot of other development going on that's going to take up that that water. So, when you guys move forward today, and I I sincerely hope that you you'll move forward with this project, but what I need to hear from you is a commitment that you're going to push Golden Gem

Road Retention Ponds to be able to deal with that. And remember recently we are involved with Orange County asking for 2 million gallons per day for sewage. So these developers are showing initiative. They're doing everything that that I think developers should be doing. The question is guys, what are you do going to do to facilitate it? Anybody else? I have a Joshua McMillan that Oh,

okay. Good afternoon and happy new year to all. My name is Joshua McMillan. I live in Bridalwood subdivision bordering this proposed development. Firstly, I just wanted to thank you, Commissioner Anderson, for voting no to the Anditch Road gated community. I see that you are listening to residents and their sentiments to slow down development and then act on it. And I actually felt represented whenever you did that. So, I'm hopeful that your vote will be no to this project as well. Um, Paluche Acres will be more than three times the size of the current largest residential development under construction in the city. and add over 1,000 highdensity residential units to an area already struggling with inadequate infrastructure. This will not slow down growth, but rather speed it up. I want to clarify that I am not anti-growth, but for sustainable and smart growth in the right places and at the right time. Does Apakka really need more housing at this point in time? And when will we see the portables removed at Wolflike Elementary and Middle? As an eighth generation Plidian and third generation Apopkin, I do not want Apakka to become nothing more than suburban sprawl. This land is also well-known gopher tortoise habitat as previously mentioned, including parts of the Apakka uplands. When looking at the project map and overlaying it with an elevation map, we see that the only land quote unquote left alone, which will have sidewalks cutting down lots of trees, um is the lowland and wetland areas of the property. In essence, destroying all

of the sandill upland habitat, which has been destroyed by up to 90 to 98% statewide. Many gopher tortoises are killed intentionally and unintentionally at construction sites across the state, including here in Apakka. Even whenever tortoises are relocated, due to their homing instincts, they try to return to their original burrow sites for the rest of their lives, resulting in fatal road crossings. It's been brought to my to my attention that there is a fear of lawsuit if this resoning is denied. I encourage all of you to think about the community that you represent. If you vote yes to this project, what community will you be representing? The fear of lawsuit should not guide the city council's decision. Citizens voices should. And I just wanted to add that I did not feel very respected by the developers after the last city council meeting after Alisa so told me something along the lines of, "Well, good thing you live in Jacksonville now going to school where there's more nature." I don't think that they want me or many other locals to stay in our city. Thank you. Next up,

Tara McMillan. Okay.

Bring it down just a little bit more. So we Yeah. Thank you. Yes.

So I grew up eight children and I grew up taking them to I'm just not quite surebody

if I can interrupt you and I sorry they're they're telling us that I think your mic is off right and that's not your fault by any means.

I'm sorry. No, that's perfect. Thank you. Um, so anyways, I was feeling called to just speak up about, you know, I've raised eight children in Apakka, going to the theater, the schools, just the whole area. And I feel like, you know, we could use more schools than we could use more homes in this area because the schools are already overflowing. um the traffic. I've had children in accidents on multiple of these roads and I just feel like it's only going to cause more conflict and more congestion. Like we're going to need more, you know, um hospital. We're going to need more, you know, emergency personnel. If you're not going to make Ponan like a four-lane road, like then there's no purpose in putting all this here because you're going to need more red lights. You're going to need more lanes. um even on Vic Road also. Um I just wanted to to share that and uh I I see that this would be a great beautiful opportunity to have growth and money for the city, but just as a person living here and raising children, I feel like that needs to be looked at too. Thank you.

Anybody else? Sure. My name is Eloise Beach and I live on Vic Road. I've lived in that location for 58 years. It was a dirt road when I moved there and uh you know, you know about that road. Didn't even go through to 441. And so I've seen a lot of changes and honestly what you're talking about are all the fees and all the things you're going to get and all but I live there. I live on Vic Road and I live a stones throw away from that massive bunch of homes right there in the bottom right corner right now. the traffic on Vic Road at the stop sign of um of Lester will back up and rush hour and go past my driveway and also when people are and this road now extends right to the 429 429 intersection that's that road h so you've got all the traffic that comes off a pawn can going down Vic Road and then when people come home at night at at the high school there the traffic light will back up clear almost to to the the old Apuffka highway with people trying to come home. So there's a tremendous traffic problem on Vic Road that hasn't even been discussed and you know we have to live there and all the people that are coming in have no idea and that's only going to add things plus the idea of the environment and that's a wonderful hilly area which I love so much and I hope that's not going to be destroyed and I personally witnessed across the street when that orange grove became a subdivision of a of a guy in a pickup

truck coming in with big long wires and hooking those gopher turtis tortoises out, throwing them in the back of his pickup, which really really hurt me. And I remembered that vision forever. And there there are still gopher tortoises living on my property because I preserved my five acres of wooded area, too. I have a plant nursery there that I made sure I used um I did it where I I had an environment left. I live in the middle and I don't see my neighbors. So, the problem that I see here is not really about all the fees and what you're going to get and all you you got to think about the people that live there. And I would say if more people knew about this today, they would be here because there were no signs from the city or anything today about this. I had no idea until I saw something that that other fellow put in that there was going to be a meeting today. So, I feel very strongly that you should not support and you should vote against this project because it's really going to impact this area a lot more than you realize since you don't live there. Thank you. Anybody else? Anybody else from the public? Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Just a couple of comments I think kind of echo what um Commissioner Anderson was talking about. you know, we're what they've done is they've downzoned it 800 fewer units, obviously a lot less commercial. Um, we're talking about road improvements on pond can. Um, one of the things that it was talked about but kind of glossed over and that is that the help with our reclaimed water line which will make a huge impact on get making sure that Rock Springs Ridge and that neighborhood gets the the water they need at at the pressure they need to to to operate their their um their sprinklers. So, I you know, for all these reasons, I I think it's it's a great it's a great project. I I

appreciate the efforts that the uh the applicants put in to, you know, make this, you know, something that not only they're proud of, but that we as city residents can be proud of. and and you know the 146 acre park is 145 acre park is an amenity I think that we're going to see a lot of the kids who don't play you know little league or or or pop Warner or whatever uh they can go down there and walk the trail or maybe even throw a wet a line you know which which I did a few years back um as a kid so it's it's a I think it's a great project that that I think is um will be an asset to the city of Apopka Any other final?

Can I just add something? I did spend um a few hours with Mr. McMillan and uh I did go over everything that I had with um uh all the meetings that I had regarding the Pali acres. And the reason why I support this is because I already know what entitlements it has. And if we disapprove this, they can go with the original entitlements, which is not going to have any consideration for any of the neighbors because it's already there. So, um I'm sorry that you don't agree with this, which is fine. That's your prerogative. But um I did go over and I emphasized the entitlements that were there from 1990. And with SP 180 and with Tallahassee tying our hands, if the developer decides the council doesn't want to go with this, they're going to go with what was originally there. And we can't we can't fight it. And and let me remember it's not about their money or the uh or the revenue that it's going to make with the impact fees, but 1996 entitlements were 1,829 homes, 6.3 million commercial. I don't want that in my backyard. I live in Rock Springs Ridge and it took a lot for the developers to convince me even for the 10 acres that they wanted that the Puchi family wanted to keep and and give away the rest and sell the rest. And in doing so, I really was on the fence over it. And they went back and they worked to restrict what they can put their commercial. And they came back with a

list. And I think that was presented at each of the community meetings and the community overall were satisfied that it would not have a car wash, a dollar store. Some of the things that we in the city already saying we don't want an auto store. We want sort of a restaurant. We don't even want a fast food here. I think so. Um I'm in support of this because I know what the entitlements are already. And we can't we can't say no to a developer who buys a property. We we don't have that option. So we have to work with what we have and I've been working you know I've been meeting with them god for almost what a year and a half and I have all the maps and we keep saying okay change this change that can we give that and at the community meetings you did the same thing and I know that I was on the fence for those 10 acres and it took a lot to convince me and you actually created a list and this is the list that the developer is going to stick to and no matter what happens there these this PDU this PD will be there and they cannot stray from this list

and let me say I went to their first meeting and u and I listened to the residents and they were not happy with the way the meeting took place and and I went to the developers and I told them I said you all need to do this over again. Oh, they did.

And and and they did more than once. And so I think that they really have gone beyond um our expectations to count to come to the point where they can present something that we would can accept and would be appreciated and like Commissioner Ness said earlier. this is better of the other option that we have of them already having an entitlement to develop even more and leave less green space than what they have agreed to give up. And so I I my my only concern is about the price point. Other than that, I I appreciate all that they've done and I don't think they were very receptive when I told them they need to do another meeting, but they did anyway. And so I'm very appreciative. Thank you.

Yeah. And if I may too and the residents that did speak, thank you for doing that. But I it definitely is not falling on deaf years. I take copious notes. So I I definitely hear you and and I feel the same way. I echo those same sentiments having grown up here and in um in ' 96 when these were approved. I was in grade school playing out here and things of that nature. So it's I I I too echo the same sentiment of how do we preserve what we do have the great stuff that makes our city unique. What has happened is the state legislature has overreached I feel and is taking away our home rule effectively making it not impossible very difficult for us to deny projects at this point and if we do deny it they'll litigate sue us we'll spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars litigating it and they'll still be able to get the project done. So that's what my concern is is that we get into a latigious area and we spend more money on attorney's fees and this still goes through. And again, the die was cast unfortunately in 1996 to allow well more than this. And not that I'm I don't I don't love it, but we're here now. It's similar to um the Onage North property that it's I didn't want I voted no to annex it, but you're here now. And so let's just make it as good as possible um for not only the new residents but the residents we have here and to retain the green space we can. So um it's we're we're stuck between a rock and a hard place again. If we vote no, I still feel like this will still move forward and we may just spend a lot more money to get to the same spot is my concern.

Okay. All right. With that, Commissioner Anderson, you ready to make the motion? I thought you I thought you were I don't think No, you didn't start. She didn't make the motion. No, I thought you were talking about Okay. No, I Well, yeah. Yeah, you can. Well, okay. I'm looking for a motion. Yeah. So, move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second.

Second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Next up, ordinance number 3151. Ordinance number 3151, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Apopka, Florida, amending chapter 54, retirement systems, article 2, general employees retirement system by amending section 54-23, contributions to provide for an increase in the member contribution rate, amending section 54-24, benefit amounts and eligibility to provide for an increase in the retirement benefit multiplier. Amending section 54-32 minimum distribution of benefits to adjust the required minimum distribution age providing for codification providing for severability providing for conflicts and setting an effective date.

We're back again. Hopefully this time will go smooth. I guess we missed something on the last um what was that called? Radley the um business impact estimate. We got that all taken care of now. So, we're just bringing it back to you with that included address for the record.

John Lewis Hansen, building official, city of Apopka. Um, so yeah, we're just bringing it back. Um, see, you've got well, garner as many employees as we had the last time here. So, it's just it I'm just so glad that even though it had to get put back on the first reading that the last time it was unanimously voted for and hopefully again, for the record, you know that I had sent an email um the opinions of two constituents, correct?

And um during the agenda review, I was assured by our finance director and And that's what really matters is the fin that this was not an impactful to the city residents and the businesses in this. Correct. Correct. Yep. So, any other questions for John? I just had to I did because I I I got contacted by residents as well. may have been the same ones, may have not been, but uh their concerns were and I'd asked this in my agenda review as well of the actual the actuarial estimates of the increased costs

both being retroactive and increasing it moving forward, just the accuracy of that. How do we budget properly as a city council to do that to make sure that we're getting it right? Um because it just it seemed like a low number to me. I'm not an actuarial so right. Uh I'm not that's what they Yeah, I know it's not a real big number and I I was sort of a little bit surprised myself. Yeah, I think for the the impact if this number is truly accurate, the the total change the total increase in contribution between both um

I was going to say the residents, the employees, general staff and the and and the city is 430,000. So annually, correct? Annually, excuse me. Mhm. increased completely. So it just seemed like a very large or for what we're getting the benefit that you're getting that investment seems like it's worth doing. So I just wanted to make sure that was the correct number because it seemed for the benefits that are coming out of it long term uh it it it makes sense.

Yes. And again this was calculated by the actuary. So I do support the number. Again as we discussed in the briefings there's a lot of factors that goes into this calculation. This is a normal process to get an impact statement when you have a benefit change and again this is something that we can you know incorporate in the budget going forward. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's not this is it's not red flags. It's just I want to make sure that we're budgeting now and then into the future properly so that we just know what we're looking at and as long as that's the correct number uh I think it makes sense for what we're doing. Thank you. And and I think what I asked during my agenda review, I was told there was about a 90% fund uh

of the pension fund is it funded about 80 to 90%. Yes, it's it's very well funded. Almost 92 90% very well funded. Okay. So so something that we can sustain. Yes. Okay. All right. Any other questions for Blanch or for John? Anybody from the public want to speak on this one? Okay. Okay. Look for a motion and obviously I've got to recuse myself because I'm in the plan. Um look for a motion to approve ordinance number 3151 at first reading and hold over for a second reading and adoption. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second by Commissioner Neesa. All those in favor. And one recusal Mayor Brian Nelson. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Ordinance number 3152. Ordinance number 3152, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Apakka, Florida, amending chapter 78, utilities of the Apopka code of ordinances by repealing section 78-23 industrial and commercial retreatment guidelines and creating division 1.5 industrial and commercial pre-treatment guidelines providing for cotification, conflicts, severability, and scribers errors and setting an effective Man, I thought they were here for me, but I guess not. Uh, good afternoon, commissioners. Mayor Glenn Brooks, utilities operations director. The action item before you today is to approve the first reading of the updated sewer use ordinance. In summary, the city of Apopus pre-treatment program was audited by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on September the 10th, 2025. During this audit, FD FD identified that the city's sewer use ordinance did not include several required components outlined in the EPA's model pre-treatment ordinance. Specifically, FDA notes that missing definitions and missing enforcement authorities that are necessary for full program compliance. The items identified by FDP as missing from the sewer ordinance are required definitions, categorical industrial user, control authority and required enforcement authorities, injunction relief, civil penalties, criminal prosecution, and non-exclusive remedies. On October the 20th, 2025, FTP provided the city with the required steps for updating and adopting the revised sewer ordinance. The city submitted the updated draft to FTP for review and FD has issued a preliminary approval authorizing city to begin the ratification process. Adoption. Adoption of the revised sewer ordinance is considered a substantial

program modification and requires the council approval following by public notice and final FTP approval. And uh the recommended motion staff requests that the city council approve the first reading of ordinance number 3152 and hold it over for a second reading and adoption. And with that, Adrien Watson, our environmental program supervisor is here who oversees the pre-treatment program. And I'm available for any questions you may have. Okay. Any questions for Lyn Brooks? So this is the number correct. Oh, I'm sorry. Is the ordinance number correct in your recommended motion?

It Oh, it's Well, it wasn't. I changed it. That were you looking there on the recommended motion? It's got 2933. That was the old one. I did catch that. The old one. Yeah. Yes, that was the old one. So, it is 3152. Yes, sir. Caught that this morning. Okay. So, they're basically holding the city of Apaka to a much higher standard. Correct. And you will be punished when I say update. Yeah. Okay. And legal has reviewed it also, our legal team. And uh and well, like I say, we got much more stringent and Yeah. Right. And I I think that is what our public is looking for. Yeah. Any other questions for

Yeah. And I appreciate you guys or Mr. Brooks meet with me yesterday uh when I was handed a one sheet summary and I read all 89 plus pages that were in the So bless you. Bless you. Bless you. I read quite a bit and I had to like Google stuff because you guys have a lot of acronyms and and so it was great reading. Um and and our discussion yesterday went into uh just different provisions within this agreement and or in the ordinance itself and what um the director I guess can now do and not do and and just this the standards uh like it was said that um that would need to be holding some of our major industrial users to. Uh so that that was um

interesting to see as well as the different plans that they may be requiring or not requiring that we could implement if we wanted to or not for those different users as well. I thought it was just valuable and very informative, more than I I knew I wanted to know. Um, and then what I thought was interesting too in the is that 95 the uh representative that filled out the what is this I guess interview form is uh the D representative that that was included in the packet. something they they said and I just thought this was very noteworthy is that the um uh they stated it uh the CA looks the CA looks while in the field in the building department will notify the wastewater program of any new users. The CA asks possible users to fill out applications. They will inspect possible users as well and then they go on to state the business tax receipts help ensure no possible IUs are missed. So, it's just it's cool to see and it's something we spoke about earlier in the meeting of how different departments are kind of having some synergy together and that's great to see and that's why I'm glad we kept the business tax receipts and that going because even a a totally independent department or agency is finding value in that here locally. So, again, I just like to see that that synergy. Um, and again, reading every page here was just great. So, no, not not at all. I appreciate the summary. It does help for me to speak to residents about it too. Um, and then we did talk about that the only other thing was that the uh uh the solid waste I'm not sure if that's the correct uh vernacular for this. It was like 500 plus tons annually that we

Yeah, that's the waste rust our our solids uh our bioolids that are hauled off site. Yes. And so and if I remember correct in our meeting estimating around Oh man, I was going to say like 400,000. Yeah. Plus or minus I'm not holding to is what our cost to that. Yes. Okay. And those costs are slowly going up every year. Yeah. They just actually really increased this past year at the end of last year and uh we we looked around and it's it's just one of those the hauler that we're using local here. We can all know who it is but uh it's competitive. Yeah. No, sure. I understand everybody's calls are going up. So just want to thank you for the time yesterday and obviously um for for providing this summary as well. Thank you.

Any other questions for staff? Okay. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Not. We'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to approve ordinance number 3152 at first reading and hold over for a second reading and adoption. So moved. Got a motion by Commissioner Velasquez. Second. Second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. Next up, resolution 2025-45. Resolution number 2025-45, a resolution of the city council of the city of Apopka, Florida, establishing utility system tampering fines and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Jody. Bland, chairman, finance director. I want to ask for the same grace that others have had before I came up here. Okay, we're back again with the meter tampering fees. Um, we went through the ordinance process and we got the ordinance approved amending the ordinance that allow us to implement this tampering fee. We had a resolution. We separated from the previous resolution and now we have the separate resolution. We've incorporated additional language in this resolution explaining how it is unlawful for any person to willing willfully and fraudulently without the consent and authority of the city council to tamper with meters, lines, mains, and connections. So, I'm here before you again asking for approval of this resolution so that we can move forward with the effective date of January 1st. I know we passed that, but still effective date of January 1st for the meter tampering fines.

Any questions for Blanch? I do. And I just want to thank you for the time yesterday you spent with me. And again, so it goes back to some items that I spoke about on the ordinance side of this is just the concerns of enforcement. residents were here of saying, "Okay, well, what if somebody does it? I don't know that that happened. Uh, why am I getting fined for it?" And then,

does this truly provide a huge windfall of money into our coffers to be able to reduce rates and things of that nature? And then also, after a third offense, services are cut off. What happens to get it turned back on? And there's not like a process in place for that at this point. Not no it's not a process in place but I want to give you some examples. Um again if they say for instance if someone is disconnected for nonpayment raise the microphone. Okay.

If someone is disconnected for non-payment and say they go back and reconnect their services they will be fined. That initial fine will be 250 and again they cannot be turned on basically until they either become current with their um account or you know come to agreed upon payment plan.

That I mean that's a I I get that scenario. I absolutely hear you on that one. uh how it was presented previously is not that same scenario. And and again, there's there's residents that came in with the concerns. And then the verbiage in there too that that's still in there that says if if you open or close your valve at all. So if my house is flooding on the second floor, pipe burst in the wall, I can't turn off my own water. I've got to wait for the city to get there. And if it's 2 am on a Sunday, I've got to wait for the city to get there or else I'm going to be fined. And again, we have to look at the the words also that indicate willfully or fraudulent fraudulently. You know, if their intent is to defraud the city, that's one way. If you cutting off your water because you don't want to flood, that that's logical. It makes sense.

And I and I agree. Obviously, my my ask is always to have a human component of everywhere that we have every resolution. But again, it's it's in there. And I just don't want this to come back to affect us negatively and hurt our residents at the end of the day, too. So, it's and again, I guess the goal and it's what we said yesterday. It's about compliance. We don't want to collect any of these fees. We just want everybody to be compliant. It's a deterrent. Yeah, exactly. I'm still not comfortable with it, but thank you for taking the time with me. No problem. Any any other qu I mean, and quite honestly, we could if you just want to scratch the one word um close because I Why would If I close it, I got in the cold already.

Yeah, might be in the ordinance. What about taking out willful and just say fraudulent? Well, the sentence itself is no unauthorized person shall open or close valves, cut into or make any connection to the system fraudulently. I think this is already in the code. This is just the resolution. Correct. So, we would have to go back and adjust the ordinance itself. The code of ordinance. Yeah. This is language where is Yeah, we're referencing this is establishing the fines itself based on the ordinance. Yes. But I think will finally and fraudulently kind of covers the individual that if your house is flooding and you went to church of water. Yeah. That's not you're not defrauding the government of anything. Exactly.

But that's not what the sentence says there. And it's not what the ordinance said either. This is this is a deterrent. This is not this is not meant to raise any any money, but it's a deterrent to keep people from from from doing it fraudulently and and to to to to collect or use have water using our water without paying for it. That's what that's what this is all about. It's it's people that that knowingly and willingly, fraudulently leave a valve on when they know they should or they turn a valable on they shouldn't be because they haven't paid their bill or they figured out a way to to circumvent our our system to get free water that they they they should be paying.

Will help all. It's not a lot of money, but it's going to help all of us to reduce our our water bills every month. So, it you know, fraudulent we we hope we never have to find anybody. That's the the whole goal here is not to find anybody. It's to get compliance that you know that you're not supposed to be doing this and that we get them into compliance and we we're able to, you know, to drive drive those rates, you know, down. It's less cost for us to have to go. Exactly. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? If not, close the public hearing. Look for a motion to approve resolution 2025-45. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor? I. All opposed.

I motion carries four to one with Commissioner Nesa in opposition. All right, Commissioner Anderson, why don't you get us started, please, ma'am? Oh, I have nothing. Happy New Year. All right, Commissioner Vasquez. Okay, one minute. I know we've been talking about Matthew's Hope uh sleeper bus. Do we have any dates that they're coming that it will be in the city? Not I think they just he said they were working on the final remember last night first or second probably end of the first quarter is what he said last. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

The other thing was that Orange County quietly cancels the 24 unit affordable housing project. Where are we going with that? What do we do it? We're not even sure that we're talking about Hannibal Square on on on 6th. Quite honestly, I'm not even sure who owns the property now. Does AR did Orange County take it back? I don't Oh, yeah. No, they don't. They don't they're not Oh, I thought I said maybe I don't think I looked it up. I don't think um from my understanding it was initial partnership with Orange County. They were getting them funding. So, I don't think did Orange County ever own the property though. I don't think Orange County ever owned that property. But I they they gave them funding, right? Some type of funding. So it's in limbo. Yeah. It has nothing to do with

correct that project. Um the other thing is the March elections. Yes.

Okay. I realize that it's from 10 to 6:00 p.m. for 2 weeks. But from 10 to 6, nobody's voting. I mean, we when I researched the last election cycle for seat one uh two and the mayor, we did one week from 31 to 36 from 7 a.m. to 700 p.m. And um I mean the purpose of of having the elections open at 7 is to allow all the residents who leave Apakka to go to work to have an opportunity to vote. If you do it from 10 to 6, they're already left Apakka to go to their employment and at 6:00 that's when they're coming home. So, can we change the um the time frame?

Sure, we can. Okay. Is on the weekends as is it for the weekends as well? Tennessee. That includes Yeah, that included the weekend if I'm not mistaken. I know that uh speaking with Orange County, I think, weren't you in on Jody that they were going to mirror our our early voting hours and they're super office,

but still I just 10 to six is not conducive for our voters who leave a we have a large percentage of residents that leave AOPKA to go to employment. So 10 from 10 to 6 is not conducive and I and I agree and nobody's going to drive over with the supervised election office. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So I'd like to, you know, kind of get a consensus from our commissioners up here and the mayor. Both weeks or could if we if we went from seven to seven, could we just do one week? One week. That's what we did. That was the research.

I'm good with everybody else. Seven to seven one week. Yeah. Is there a preference, you know, through a a full seven days. So you get both the weekend. Yeah. The first week or the second week. Is there a preference? Well, you would do the second week so that it ends on that Sunday and then so it' be the eight that it ends on, right? March 8th. Everybody good with that? We'll we'll reach out to supervisor elections Jody if you'll um Okay, that fine. Perfect. Thank you. That was important to me. Sure. Okay. That it, Mr. Smith.

Um, well, of course, Commissioner Aris Smith was here again today. Uh, and I forgot what your response was uh in reference to naming the uh the park after uh Roger Griffin. And I I know at the last meeting I recommended we do that or name the road since that's what uh while Oakson suggested if we wouldn't do it we didn't do the park but uh Commissioner really would like for the park to be named after Roger Griffin. So, I'd like for us to consider that. And uh and I also mentioned about Commissioner Aerosmith. Uh I mentioned six years ago uh that we need to do something in honor of his service here as commissioner. So, I still uh stand on that point. I would like for us to do that. And and I know we mentioned about coming up some kind of guideline and I said after we do this, I'm fine with the guideline. Uh but I think we need to do this was in place before we thought about that. And then uh also uh it was mentioned from forgot who it was about our firefighter lost his life Austin Durant.

Uh if it's possible to name Fifth Street after him. uh trying to think what businesses is on Fifth Street and that would you got the uh the hearing uh the speech therapist, you've got the the daycare or um then you've got and coming down this way then um you got church. You got what what's the street the fire station on? That's fifth. That's fifth. Yeah. And the speech I thought the speech she's writing six that's six. She's on Sixth Street. No, not Sixth Street. No, no, no. Because they're they're right in the they back up to the parking lot at First Baptist.

It's on the northwest. This station right here, right? That's fifth to central. This street. Yeah. To Central where dead ends. So, right. But the hearing place, I thought she was on the street where the police department is. No, she's right here. Right. right on right on the the west side of of the First Baptist parking lot.

Okay. It's it's it's just right on the street from Ryan London. Right. Right across across street. Okay. Yeah. 235 East. But still, is there a problem with naming that street in its own? No problem. Um so because I think that's the only firefighter we've ever lost, right? Correct. Okay. So So you want to do the whole fifth street or or the portion? I would like to do the whole fifth street. Okay. Now I I think Well, I think we should and we talked about this before like a committee or something. I don't think like um we did I did get some feedback

feedback on that as well when it was first mentioned and um I think it'd be best was We said about a policy about naming rights and I know I found something at home in my records. We had we had kind of discussed it because it included the amphitheater at the time. Well, that that's that's maybe that's that's that's money. Bobby, is that something you could look your team come back? Yeah, because um so Bobb's gonna take a look and see what he can he can find out on on road naming or or because I I did get some feedback on and then internet I don't know maybe if you kind of look as well

if there's something um and we'll come back but but I I made commitment to to to build airmith that we'll at least we'll bring it back and it'll be pass or fail. Yep. Yep. Anything else, Mr. Smith? That's okay. But I will ask if we bring it back that we actually know who because with all due respect, I don't I didn't know who that person is. So, we have some type of description of who that person is and we because I don't know who that is. I thought he gave everybody, but I Well, yeah, but that's I don't He just said three words. I don't still don't I don't Oh, he gave us, but it wasn't like I still don't It's still for the residents to understand and have the same in the in the package. And we'll put that in the packet. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. All right. Got it. Commissioner Nestle.

Absolutely. you know, just uh happy new year to everyone. We're we're through the holidays now and everyone having 15 different things to do in any one given hour. So, um happy to do it. Kids are back in school. So, praise report on that. And uh so I just um happy to be back. Happy um good meeting, good January coming up. And I just want to remind everyone office hours resume for 2026 tomorrow here at city hall from 11 am to 1 pm. Um you can make an appointment 30- minute increments or uh feel free to drop by um tomorrow. I do have 11 a.m. already scheduled. So anytime after 11:30 would work perfect. And uh if for some reason you don't feel comfortable coming in, I'm happy to meet you anywhere everywhere that you are comfortable and I'll make accommodations otherwise. Thank you.

All right,

Bradley. All right, first meeting of the month. So, I do have our utility meters replacement program status update. Um uh happy to report that we did uh surpass our goal of reaching the 12% mark. Uh as of January 6th, we're down to 11% of estimated billings. Uh that puts us at 3,153 uh billings still remaining estimated. We have processed another 1,97 work orders in the month of December and reduced our no reads by 814 uh down to 1,873. Excuse me. So this report that I'm sharing monthly is related to the big picture estimated billing. We also utilize additional uh reporting on the specific meters themselves through our census uh system. uh utility operations use that to track on a more granular uh data point. Um so these percentages are also moving in the right direction. So if you look at this uh the total number of reads are the actual reads that we're getting communicated back to us um with an actual good number or act sorry communications pointtooint. Uh the total estimates is a number that's coming back that for some reason that read we're getting communicated the read's not happening though. So, we're driving those numbers down as well. Uh, if you look there, December, uh, we've dropped that down to 3.64%. Um, there are still meters obviously out there that are older that are needed to be replaced, uh, that are outside of this, uh, report as well, but this is more of a granular uh, unit byunit look. Um, and it helps our utility operations team uh, be more proactive as we go through months. The total number of reads is what? Because we don't have 76,000 accounts

out there, do we? Right. No, we do not. So, but uh accounts may have multiple meters. So, the system is pinging those meter those meters. These are meters then. Correct. These are reads reads we read twice a month. So, basically you divide this in half.

Okay. Um, but again, this is showing us every time that we're trying to get a read, which is twice a month, we're getting this back and this is the number and we still have an estimated amount coming back again. It's a it's a setup issue that we need to go correct or we need to go verify the meter or the flexet is actually operating properly. We might get what how what are you deriving from the data here of gaining losing 10,000 reads then gaining 10,000 again losing 10,000 like every other month it switching what what's happening there yeah um I have to get back with the utilities team on what that variance is um I mean that's a weird consistency if just looking at a very small data set yeah

that's very it's a trend right and the I'll get the clarification and get that back to you all on what that difference is um that's a tangible will change every month. Like

it is a it is a jump there and we are looking to make sure that that trend on the very far right goes as low as possible. Uh just a review of what we've done uh over the uh over this period. Um we completed a full review of operations. So we restructure our public service departments into two separate departments. Uh again giving us a better focus on utilities operations itself. Uh the uh we've created new efficiencies and strategies aimed at clearing the backlog. So that's included adjusting our work order assignments uh performing a strategic meter repair work during overtime periods, adjusting our equipment and material supply ordering to ensure adequate stock and mitigate any potential back orders that our suppliers may be experiencing. and adjusting our processes on new meter installs uh to ensure that we're m minimizing the the the need for us to go back and touch that meter again after it's been installed. Uh we've also provided additional staff training on the census meter system directly with census um staff. The new base station was installed in operational in December. Um this map shows our um issue point still. If you look in that northwest corner, we're looking very clear up there. Um this will help us uh reduce the need for our manual driver or manual uh meter reader to go drive that area to get reads now. So we've been able to pull him off that area and move him to other areas of the city while we continue to work on this project. We've also developed and implemented new tracking reports for budget expenditures and overtime uh uh use across utility operations department. Uh again, this is just to help continue that management focus on our expenditures and the overtime trends throughout the fiscal year. And just an example of of kind of

where we're at. Um, as of this week, this last pay period clearing up, we're 9% under the budgeted target year, uh, for the current year for the water maintenance OT and, uh, 7% under budget for the sewer maintenance. Again, this is all relies on when emergencies pop up, we might have to hit this a little harder, but we are keeping that uh, in the front of mind and also as we do those overtime work periods to make sure we're we're being as effective as we we can. And then we uh continue to reassess equipment needs and purchases as we move throughout the year to make sure if there is equipment that we had initially put on that capital plan that as we're moving through this operation, we're able to kind of hold on that. We're we're assessing that as we move throughout the year. And then we also updated the fees for new service taps and backflow preventers. So we just we just accomplished that. What we still have coming, uh, we're working with Census still, and I mentioned it, uh, I believe last month, uh, they have a mobile base station unit. Uh, we're trying to get a demo set up with them to equip, show us how that equips onto a vehicle. Um, again, this is just to provide more efficiency for our single meter reader that we have. Um, the mail base station unit, more powerful unit, would allow him to drive less of a route than what he has to right now with the smaller unit. Um we're uh finishing up the implementation of the credit card searchcharge. Uh in quarter three of this fiscal year, we're planning to get with census and uh do another assessment of our flex base station system. We're hopeful by that point we'll the the log of issues uh that we have with meters will be at a point where we can get a good assessment of how the current towers that we have are operating and determine if there's actually an increased need for additional towers that we've budgeted for.

And then as we mentioned at the time of the um uh rate stud or rate um setting the rates uh now that we're through quarter one we're going to in the process of re-engaging with graphillis to assess our quarter one trends. Um we've started uh blanch blanch and her team and UB we've already started providing them information for review and just kind of highlight uh some of the things we're seeing. Um our total revenue factored in the model for FRI 25 uh was 36 million. Our total unodudited revenue realized uh and 25 was 39.7 million. So there is a there is an increase uh in revenue that we had experienced. Um we are providing that information to Raf Tillis to make sure um uh to see what we can do potentially about reducing a rate um in a in a in a nearer term. Um and uh that will be brought back at the first meeting in February with Ref Tillis. So provide some uh information and some recommendations based on the trends that we're working. I mean that's a 10% increase over what we were budgeting

that's a oh this right here poorly or force majour so an act of god happened that we're getting 10% more

well we have been making we've been making big strides in the operation um to again clean up these areas that that have been been there um so it's a positive sign we're providing additional information to Rafillis to to make that assessment for um and see what we can do. So, they'll be back in February to uh to kind of go through what what they're seeing as far as our trends are. Uh the only other thing I have um the uh apologize my screen locked out here. Uh Orange County has uh set their final dates and times for the Noats uh North Orange uh roadway planning meetings. And I have that information here for you. I also share it with you. Okay. and that's the northwest Orange County area transportation study. Uh the first meeting will be held January 26 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Popka Community Community Center. The second meeting will be held January 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Kelly Park School. And like I said, I'll share this uh

28th 26th and 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. At what time? 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. 6 to 8:00 p.m. It's basically the same meeting as the 26th. I believe it's just two different times that they're holding. Okay. So, this one's at the Kelly Park School. 28th is at Kelly Park and the 26th is at the Papa Community Center. And I'll share this uhformational card with you. Okay. I think I saw that posted somewhere. Yeah, they've started advertising it. Yeah, I didn't see the 28th, but I did see the 26th. Okay, that's all I have.

Thank you. All right, Andrew, I know he's going to go over I'll pass out this a bill that maybe will give us some relief on Senate Bill 180. Uh, so I'll give you this. Obviously, it's it's only passed one committee in the Senate. There's no House Companion yet, but yeah. But anyway, it's it's a start. And so I I ask Andrew to go ahead and kind of go over some of the the highlights on this bill that will give local authority back to the the locals. So Andrew,

yes. Thank you, Mayor. Absolutely accurate. Uh um and I know it's been a long meeting, so this is Senate Bill 840 and three and a half minutes or less. Um you'll of course all recall uh Senate Bill 180 was a very very long bill that addressed uh multiple aspects of emergency management and also touched on planning and development related decisions uh effectively really restricting severely uh severely restricting um decisions that local governments could make. Uh we're seeing Senate Bill 840. It's a very targeted bill. I believe the mayor passed it out to It's a very short bill as opposed to the very long bill that we had with Senate Bill 180. And the big uh or really what this bill does first of all the the the real key to it is it keeps the ban on it does keep the ban on more restrictive and burdensome planning changes for local governments for the uh this 2024 series of hurricanes. If you recall, initially under Senate Bill 180 that ran until October 2027. that is now shortened uh to June 2026. This bill in its current incarnation will become effective July 1st. So really as soon as it becomes effective uh that uh portion of Senate Bill 180 is immediately revoked. Some of the other things it does that are significant, it narrows applicability for future storms. So under this new bill, um a future post hurricane block on building codes would apply only to rebuilding properties that were damaged. wouldn't uh apply to all new development and have the sweeping broad repercussions that we saw with 180. So that's being pulled back by the legislature should this bill become a law. Um in addition, it cleans up the language a lot as attorneys. I think uh really our profession is struggling to interpret um what the language used in

Senate Bill 180 meant because of its ambiguity and its uh lack of precision. Um, multiple references to restrictive and burdensome have been taken away. It's much clearer what qualifies and what direction the legislature is giving under this bill. Uh, in addition, good news for local government should it become a law. There is a limitation for legal challenges by developers and so that's been honed in and curtailed as well. And so there's no longer the broad uh attack that developers could have to automatically bring lawsuits. That's been reigned in by this bill. Um, another notable change is uh the restrictions that were in place, the more burdensome restrictions that the language that of course is also eliminated. But what was really curtailing local governments from uh doing the planning that they needed to do as well as uh develop certain planning restrictions. Uh that was all within 100 miles of future hurricanes track. So very wide swath whenever a hurricane came through uh the state of Florida that has now been lowered to 50 miles. So if you have a hurricane that causes a regional impact, well you know you now have a radius that is shortened by uh or you know diameter that essentially is uh been shortened significantly. uh so it doesn't encapsulate you know unaffected uh municipalities and counties with the new uh geographic scope of restrictions. Uh in addition there are very specific exceptions within the bill and there are carveouts relating to storm water, flooding, drinking water and sewer system ordinances. is clear that these are not uh contemplated uh within the the scope of of restrictions and so the governments can continue to regulate and

um utilize their home rule powers to to regulate those particular areas and specifically mentioned um really that is uh that's what this bill does. It may morph uh as the mayor said, it's only in its its first committee has been filed and is under review, but um certainly a step I think uh in the right direction.

Yeah, I think it's kind of from my my my perspective, it's it's trying to narrow it down to reconstruction, not construction. It's also the 50 miles is a big a big, you know, big change. And I guess the other thing is that they're not they're keeping the restrictions on giving us the ability on any kind of flooding. So, which I think is is is right. You we we need to be able to to um to limit growth if it if it impacts flooding in in our city. So, I think it goes a long way. Now, you know, there's all there's a you know, there's another 60 days to go between now and end of session. So, anything can happen. But I think it's a it's a a real good first start. So, you know, keep keep an eye on it and I'll I'll have Andrew or Cliff keep us every every meeting. Hopefully, we get a if we don't get a house sponsor like I think it's got to be today. No, it's it's coming up really quick that we've got to have they can also they can make some some House bills that will you know without without the process. But anyway, so keep an eye out on this. So, thank you.

We'll do and I'll I'll keep an eye out for the companion bills as well. Great. Thank you, Andrew. Anything else? That's all I have. Good.

All right. So, couple things. Um, all good news. Well, one of them not. I'll start out with um went to the um um the the funeral for Eddie Cole, who was the former mayor of u of Eatenville. And my what a what a it was a great testimony to his his character. I was um I was I was really moved. They even had old coach from Rollins, Glenn Glenn Wils, who coached there for 30 something years, came up and talked about his his his uh about Eddie Cole. So, it was a a real moving service and and I'm was glad I could I could I could attend. Okay, a couple other good good news, everything. Um we completed the last sale uh land sale to Taurus um on the 31st, like the last day of the before the the rate that would have gone up. So, we are out of the the uh the property in in the uh town center. So, that's been completed. Um we've got, you know, the Wild Oaks uh the commencement for the Kelly Park Road expansion. It will be January 14th, 2 o'clock at 4322 Golden Gym Road. So, this is your opportunity to come out and we start the uh the uh the road construction and and the all the improvements on Kelly Park Road. So,

what time was that? Uh 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock

January 14th at 4322 Golden Gym Road. Okay. Um I don't know which is which I need to go. Well, okay. Next one. Saturday Sounds will be Saturday. Uh the band will be Velvet Stone. So, five o'clock. come out and listen to Saturday sounds. Um, how should I go next? Okay. Um, really interesting. We were at the obviously went to both uh hurricanes and to Fifth Street as you know we did the New Year's Eve um celebrations and u so we were sitting at at Halls on Fifth and I looked over and there's a gentleman there that had a big necklace around his neck and he had the the Longhorn um emblem on his chain. And I go, "Well, tell me what are you what are you doing here?" He goes, "Well, they were at the the Citrus Bowl and Citrus Bowl gets it was an afternoon game." So he says, so he goes, "I don't know whether they went to Google. I don't know where how he got, you know, but he somebody chat GBT somebody says, "Hey, where where would be a good place to go tonight for New Year's Eve?" So from the Citrus Bowl, you know, down in Orlando, we came up with the number one hit for him. So he shows drives, gets a Uber, drives from the game to Apakka, spends New Year's Eve with us here in Apopka based on don't know how he got the information whether I know we did some we did some promotion, but I know that fist merchants did some promotion, but what a cool cool story. So if there was one, there might have been five or a dozen. So it was really neat. And then the last thing, um, I'm sure everybody knows is, you know, Rock Springs Ridge now has the the golf course under their control. So, they've got a 15-year lease to to, uh, to figure out what to do. And so, we're we're so happy that Rock Springs Ridge now is in control of their own destiny. So,

yes, with that, we will call it the name.