City Council - Regular Meeting

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Ouch. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this regularly scheduled meeting of Boca Raton's Community

Redevelopment Agency. It's Monday, February 9th, 2026. The time is 1:30 p.m. and we're calling this meeting to order. Now, everyone, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. [snorts] Thank you. Miss citins, please call the role. Chair Wter, here. Vice Chair Thompson, thankful to be here. Commissioner Ducker here. Commissioner Nlas here. Commissioner Singer here. All present.

Very well. Mr. Soini, are there any amendments to the agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are no amendments to the agenda. Very well. Are there any amendments or corrections to the minutes of January 5th, 2026 or January 20th, 2026? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve. Same. So moved. Very well. Mer second by Miss Knless. All in favor? I.

I. Thank you. There are no presentations today, nor are there any quasi judicial or related public hearings. this afternoon. [snorts] So, we will open the floor for the CRA to public requests. Any person wishing to speak about a downtown matter will have up to three minutes to speak. Seeing no one come forward, we'll close the time for public requests and move to regular resolutions and regular public hearings. Miss Sittens, please read the title of this resolution. Resolution number 20262 CRA, a resolution of the Booker Raton Community Redevelopment Agency consenting to the assignment of the retail lease, phase two lease, office one lease, and office 2 lease all for Meisner Park, authorizing the execution of documents as appropriate, providing for severability, providing for appealer, providing an effective date.

Thank you very much, Mr. Sini. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Kameo will make the presentation our deputy city manager. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Haney. Uh, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and and board members. Could I ask that the PowerPoint that Very good. Thank you. So, this is a an assignment of the lease interest in the commercial leases of of Meisner Park and the ability to um for the board to have any discretion on this assignment is is quite limited actually as as provided for in in the agreements. Uh this is the language that basically says that uh in determining this assignment. The board would evaluate whether the proposed entity has the financial wherewithal equal to or greater than the existing entity that controls the leases. The second layer of any discretion would be in the event that there would be any criminal conviction of the individuals seeking uh the assignment and in both uh the first layer of financial wherewithal uh that question has been evaluated and and we have concluded that that is in fact the case. Uh and not only uh is there financial wherewithal, but uh frankly we're we're kind of excited to have, you know, some of the individuals involved here that played a significant role in the original creation of Meisner Park. Among the management entities or the management individuals is Angel Biano. Uh Mr. Biano could not be here today, but there are uh um you know individuals representing him that if the board would like to ask any questions, they they would certainly u you know uh agree to uh to respond to any questions. In addition, in the audience, we have

representatives from Brookfield. They are the current uh lease holders of the commercial leases in Meisner Park and they are also available in the event that there are any questions uh from the board. Uh this is the uh structure of the new entities being created and and these are you know specific purpose entities that will control uh the leases. I I thought I had the This is the wrong PowerPoint. I had the um Yeah, there should be one that shows this graphic that Phil and I put together today. And while we're waiting for that to be brought up, Mr. Kho, just to refresh the refresh the public's recollection, the reason why this is before us is because Meisner Park is on a ground lease. Is that correct?

Correct. and and if if we could get the [laughter] uh the graphic that is missing which should have been the first uh gra there we go. So these are the various leases that exist in Meisner Park. And it's important to note that these leases were actually in place at the time of acquisition by the CRA dating back to 1988. So, we have the the retail lease, which is let me see if this will uh Okay, there we go. So, the retail lease are the boxes along Federal Highway and the lease box which is on the east side of Plaza Rial in Meisner Park. The phase 2 lease is the uh residential component which is on the east side of the existing uh lease along Plaza Rial. And then we have office lease one which is the department store and then office lease two which is the commercial office building that has a Ruth Chris uh steakhouse on the ground floor. Um that's that's generally the the layout. And so what we have is these various entities that are depicted in the And why is this not moving forward? Can we go to the next slide please?

Well on that previous slide Mr. Kameo sorry to interrupt just my recollection is to just for the public's benefit that the obviously the international cartoon museum is not there anymore has not been there for some period of time. Obviously, people know it now as Yard House, right? Uh and Eddie V's on the first floor and as the Meisner Park Cultural Arts Center, right? Uh as a nonprofit, uh 501c3 occupying the let's call it the second floor and that uh that small portion of the first floor to to get there. Correct. That is unaffected by by this, right?

Correct. So, uh, we recommend that the board find or confirm that there is no, uh, no reason for objecting as stated in the resolution. Uh, the resolution, as I indicated, is is somewhat limited. Just simply confirming that there is no reason to object to this assignment of the lease interest in Meisner Park given that the proposed entities qualify under those uh defined limitations under the existing uh agreements. Very well. Thank you. Commissioners, any questions for Mr. Kho? Yes, sir.

A question for staff or for um city attorney. Could you point me to the provisions here in the actual leases that reflect the obligation of the on this chart stepstone group real estate LP which is the 100% owner of the actual assignees what are what is the obligation what are the obligations of stepstone group real estate LL LP to stand in the shoes or guarantee the performance of the underlying lease holders I I I think there are a variety of of obligations including managing the site uh maintaining uh the site uh and so having an entity that has that level of experience is is an important aspect of this and and that's uh among other things what we determined as you know, concluding that the proposed entity has the ability and the experience [clears throat] to um operate and manage Meisner Park and meet the payment obligations which of course are generated by the rental return by those individual tenants in Meisner Park.

Right. No, I I was asking a more technical question. I did not see in the assignment itself that's something that reflected the obligation of these the 5% 75% and 20% current holders of those singlepurpose entities. So is does that refer back to the original lease where they're standing in the shoes of what that parallel entity was that they in in stepping in they are assuming all of those obligations. there aren't uh a a a distinction. There isn't a distinction between what used to be and what will be. They need to abide by the the obligations under the agreements. I don't maybe I'm not understanding the question.

My question is we have we've got five single purpose entities here. We're not talking about their financial standing. We're talking about the financial standing of the the owners, the parents. How do we link parents to these assignment documents? I Josh, I'm going to ask you to address that. I see the applicant's attorney is here and I'll respond, but I'm going to allow or the applicant to address that.

Good evening. Um, members of the board, Bonnie Mskell here in behalf of Burkefield, the current LEI. So the uh the proposed asenees uh will be stepping into the shoes and proposed to change no uh terms to the existing and underlying lease. So they will be stepping into shoot into the shoes of the current leie and all of the rights obligations and requirements that are contained in the existing lease will continue to survive. They will be assuming them. No, I understand. But then what can you speak about the the five different um single purpose entities? How do we tie them back to the the people who are really behind this deal? So, it's not just the the single purpose entity.

Um actually, um unfortunately, we don't have anyone that can answer that question, but I believe the structure of the lease that they're executing will bind each of them. So, maybe you want to speak to that. and and mayor while uh Brookfield is is confirring just so I understand I mean the under the leases what you're approving is the assignment and assumptions so each single purpose LLC is stepping into the shoes of the existing tenant and I get that you're not questioning that I think what I'm hearing you say is you're asking whether those percentages create sort of proportional uh lease obligations

no actually I was just comparing ing like for example one of the properties tenant is Crocker Meisner Park 3 Limited a Florida LP that's got you know got other layers up executing we should be comparing like kind of to like kind has staff review to confirm that the assets of each of these five new potential assenees is greater than or greater than or equivalent to the assets of the special purpose entities that hold them now I would imagine that answer is a simple us. In in preparation for this presentation, I asked uh Jim Zervis to take a look at the financial backup that was included as part of the submittal Jim reviewed and I I don't want to speak for Jim, but and I'll I'll just have him uh respond because he did review the documents and and drew a conclusion. Um, chair and and board members, I I did review what was submitted with the documentation. Um, from a financial standpoint, there was a 10Q statement uh for the uh StepStone Group, Inc. Uh, that was included in the documentation that you have. There was also a a consolidated statement of net assets from Acre um two of the of the larger partners in in this deal. Um, I can't tell you that those assets um actually guarantee the obligations of the special purpose entities. That's more of a legal question. Um, and we did not receive financial information or I I didn't see financial information with respect to the other 5% partners.

Very well. Um, and then did we look have we what sort of understanding do we have of the current singlepurpose entities that hold the lease now of their financial standing? I I don't have any. Okay. I I think we we should point out however that their their obligation should they not meet it would would be a viol a violation and considered a default under the lease. So if they do not the the defining um you know determiner is whether or not they satisfy all of the obligations and should they not then the CRA would find them in default and we have uh you know recourse uh accordingly.

All right. Thank you. Any other questions Mr. Kaylor is the primary entity jointly and severally liable with the subsidiary entities for the individual parcel assignments that are happening here. You're you're asking if the parent if their parent guarantees are required by the leases. That's right.

I I don't believe they are. I haven't looked at that carefully, but I I know that staff's task was to look at each of the special purpose entities, not against the parent companies per se, and that to evaluate it based on those SPEs and and not to rely on that pool of grouped analysis. Um, but as to your specific question as to what the current Meiser Park lease, uh, I I don't believe it requires a parent guarantee, but I I don't have the answer to that question. Actually, that that is correct. Um when Brookfield stepped in, there were no parent guarantees required. So this is essentially the same conditions as exists today.

That's the question. Okay. Commissioners, any other questions? Seeing none, we'll open up the public hearing. Any me member of the public may wish to speak. You have up to three minutes. Mr. Prolman, please.

So, we've been at the library, Save Bokeh, for the last two weeks, and residents who have lived here for over 50 years have come forward and actually were speaking about Meisner Park. Um, and that it was a sham. It was pitched to the citizens that it was going to be a cultural center. It was going to be a park and it turned into apartments, stores, and offices. Um, and you know, it and by the way, in thinking about this this downtown lease project, it's comes to relevance too because actually the city was was scammed in this deal. uh at Crocker bought the mall for around 25 28.5 million and then uh the the CRA bought it back shortly thereafter for a significantly significantly more money. Um the CRA took out a $58 million bond. Um some estimates have it that the CRA paid $40.5 million over a $10 million quick profit to Crocker. Um, but it could be more because again they took out a $58 million bond. Meanwhile, you everyone talks that Meisner was such a great thing, such a great thing for the community. Meanwhile, the current lease holders, I guess you could say that they're a partner in the same way that uh Bokeh City Center LLC is going to be the partner on the downtown lease. Meanwhile, this great partner actually sued the city of Boca Raton to get the fair market value on Meisner Park down and here they are selling it. Uh, and they just won the suit against everybody here. The city of Bokeh lost that case and they got the fair market value down by getting the fair market value to be appraised as per as encumbered by the lease. So the very lease holders that are holding the lease sued the city to

gain an a massive advantage on the fair market valuation of the property to profit from it to say that it was worth less than it actually is. And now here they are turning a quick profit selling it and it ties back to these other potential partners that you want to bring in. The same thing's going to happen. Meisner Park was a lease. this new proposal that you're pitching to the citizens as a lease, it's very likely that they're going to be suing the city trying to get market valuation on the land down in the same way that this happened with Meiser Park and taking advantage of the taxpayers in this structure of a lease. So, this is a lesson. The Meisner Park was not a was not a great thing. It was a bad thing. Crocker took advantage. The CRA lost the lawsuit. Crocker made tens of millions on the CRA. Let's not let it happen again.

Thank you, Mr. Pearlman. Anyone else [clears throat] wishing to speak? Mr. Warner. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Rich. Richard Warner, 1322 Southwest 9th Terrace. I have to agree with what Mr. Pearlman just said in large part. I know Meisner [clears throat] Park is somewhat of a sacred cow in this community and held up as, you know, some sort of virtuous success. I have to respectfully disagree. I don't think it was ever a success. It was indeed purported to be a cultural center, which it never was. And then the sham cartoon museum was slammed in there, which just made it more painful for residents. [snorts] Uh I think there is a lesson to be learned there. I think it does apply to the possibility of the P3 you're bandandying around. I hope you've learned that lesson from this, but I tend to doubt it. I I'm not I'm not saying there isn't some virtue in Meisner Park. I'm not saying it hasn't produced some benefits in terms of uh replacing the bokeh mall although you can never replace the dive bar. The the bottom line is I think you guys should look at this as something that will provide a look into the future if

you make the error of going forward with the project on the east side of uh Second Avenue. I don't think it belongs there. [snorts] I think, and I've said this before, but I'm going to say it once more. I think one of the basic flaws in the whole thing goes all the way back to the 80s to the CRA making downtown cross the tracks. That is the the basic flaw in all of this. It never should have happened. and hopefully you guys maybe can learn again and do the right thing. Thank you.

Thank you. It's a public request. Anyone else public hearing? Anyone else wishing to speak on this matter? Mr. Unen, good afternoon.

Jonathan Unen, 6501 Congress Avenue. Um, just got to had to go to the back, get a Q-tip, and see if I heard that correctly, that Meisner Park was a bad thing. Um, I'm I live the first street into Deerfield Beach. Uh, I'm in Meisner Park twice a week. Uh, I love the Yard House, uh, as you discussed. Um, and I think it's a great thing for the city. I think it's a great thing for the people that live east of it, that [clears throat] can walk to it, that can use it. I think what the west side of the tracks does is give the people who live over there something equally that could benefit them that they could use. The one thing I do disagree with that I hate hearing is I don't think this city has ever run from a conflict of interest. I think that when you have land use attorneys who represent both sides of a deal, when you have land use attorneys that represent the same entity here and the hospital that then propose an ordinance for standing room ERS that help write that ordinance. I think we need to separate those things for planning principles to make this a better city. So those are my points. I think Meiser Park while it could be better in some ways that could be improved. I think it was a great thing for this city and for the people that live east of it. And I hope that the west side, as I've heard from many people that live over

there, have something that they could benefit from, too. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on this matter? If if I may, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to offer some historical facts. Sure. Related to Meisner Park. Firstly, we we will we will how about how about we close the uh we close the public hearing. We'll ask for a motion and a second to approve resolution 2602C. Do I hear a motion? So moved. So move. Do I hear a second? Second.

Second. Okay. So, uh, let's have some discussion. Mr. Kamehah, you're recognized. If I may, I think a a a detail that is often overlooked and forgotten is the fact that Meisner Park was an option and it was put out to the voters and you know people decided that yes, we want to make this happen. But had that vote not gone through positively, the second option was to do a big box retail uh center on the Boca site. And if you think back, the Bokea Mall was about 300,000 square ft of retail. So, if you were to take that 300,000 square ft of retail and convert it to a Lowe's, a Bed Bath and Beyond, um there were a variety of things that would have dramatically changed what we know today as downtown Boca Raton. You would have had, you know, basically the configuration that you have at Copen's Road and US1. If if that's the vision that anybody would want for downtown and and think about whether you'd want to live in that neighborhood that essentially would be the back of that type of center along US1. I don't think anybody would want to live there. And certainly the housing prices in that neighborhood that back in the day you could acquire any house for $100,000 or less. Today, you know, you need to move the decimal point several times over in order to determine the value of those homes. So, for anybody to suggest that Meisner Park was not worth doing, I I beg to differ based on fact, not just on emotion. So, thank you, Mr.

Chairman. Thank you, commissioners. Any other comments, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Chair. Um, yes. I I think the fact that the uh the home values of what they've been, say, even since 2018, that land values in the Golden Triangle have increased in some parcels six, seven times, I think speaks to what we're talking about. But I would ask Mr. Kaylor, just to clarify uh very briefly in hopefully 45 seconds or less the inaccurate statements about the litigation that concerned arbitration, not valuations that are issued today. Mr. Kaylor.

Sure. I think I can do in less than 45 seconds that uh contractual right in the Meisner Park lease was an option to buy to purchase the underlying lease land. So, the dispute that the CRA had with uh Brookfield had to do with how to value that purchase option. There there is no option to buy under the downtown campus uh master partnership or lease. Thank you.

Good. Thank you. Uh any other comments about this issue? I I'll just say that uh the the answers responded to the issue that the um that we we are comparing the singlepurpose entities to the single purpose entities but there's substantial financial backing behind them to meet their leaseold obligations.

Thank you. And just on a on a personal note on a personal opinion um to Mr. Kho's point um I could not imagine Boca Raton without Meisner Park. I think when you type in uh on the internet what are the top three things to do in Boca Raton, I think number one is Meisner Park. When I think about in the last several years the cultural art things that have happened there, the festivals, the strawberry festivals, the fairs, the um the events and the parades there. I think it is the cultural heart of our city. Um we often say that uh you know the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. Um, and so yeah, there's always room for improvement. Uh, you know, a diamond needs to be shined. The jewel needs to be shined once in a while. And, uh, I'm very excited for new ownership to come in and and and do some of that. Um, just the schematic diagram that Mr. Kho put forward, showed some evolution, right? There was a cartoon museum there. Now, it's it's evolved. Even the diagram that you showed of the amphitheater has since evolved. So again, um, properties do evolve to become better. And I'm hopeful that with this, uh, assignment that, um, that, uh, that the new, uh, acquirers will will be also shine up the jewel a little bit more and make those needed improvements, uh, you know, to, uh, to to keep the to keep to keep it in a great condition. So, with that being said, Miss Citizens, please call the role.

Thompson, yes. Dreer, yes. Nice. Yes. Singer yes. Wer yes. Motion passes five votes to zero. Thank you very much. There is no other business or settlements to consider. Mr. Sahaney, I need a report. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no report. Uh you you you did say that you will do in the workshop a mobility update. Is that Yeah, that's correct. Very good. Mr. Kaylor, any other report? No report. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioners, any reports, Mr. Thompson? No report for me. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Knuckler.

Just like to remind everyone to get the Circuit app on their phones for our downtown. I've had a lot of people commenting to me that they really enjoy Circuit and we need more people to get the app on their phone and use a Bokeh Connect, which is a great way to get around downtown while leaving your cars at home. Thank you, Mr. Rucker. No report. And Mr. Singer,

no report. Thank you. Um, thank you. I'll just conclude by saying yes, please if you're if you have anything if you see anything downtown that needs help. We've been meet with meeting with lots of residents. Um email us, call us. Uh there is a C clicks fix app that many residents use um to log in those to take a picture of uh something that's broken. You know, a lamp post fell down on Federal and Palmetto the other day or uh you know, a street sign or something like that. Please send those things into us. There's so many events going on at Majner Park all the time at the studio, at the amphitheater, everywhere. Go to my bokeh us, myboca. us on the internet, and you can find out all the great things happening in Meisner Park, the cultural heart of our city, uh, the cultural jewel. So, uh, with nothing further, we will adjourn this meeting at 2:01 p.m. and reconvene our workshop shortly. Thank you.

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Hey, hey, hey. [music] Good afternoon and welcome to a workshop meeting of the Boca Raton City Council. It is Monday, February 9th, 2026. The time is 2:10 p.m. If anyone would like to speak, please go outside. Thank you. Um, we have no proclamations or presentations today, so we'll turn to board interviews. Uh, is Mr. Appville present? Please come forward. We're interviewing for the citizens pedestrian and bike rate advisory board.

Please give your name and address and you have up to three minutes on why you want to serve. Uh Barry Appfell, 25504 Northwest 66 Drive. Uh why one is I'm longtime resident roughly 30 years in uh Bokeh and uh I I'm a cyclist have been throughout uh since my youth and uh you know I appreciate the beautiful scenery of Bokeh but I'm just concerned about certain safety issues and I have the luxury of time at this point in my life that I'd like to get involved um you know you know just you for my safety as well as the other citizens and tourists. You know, that's, you know, as simple as that. You know, I a lot of safety concerns and I don't honestly don't know the, you know, what abilities this board might have, but I'd like to do something in a positive nature. That's um it's really all I have to say. I've never I've been involved in certain voluntary positions. um nothing in this particular arena. Yeah, I I my career was is a is is as a pharmacist and working locally, I've seen a lot of injuries from vehicular mishaps that shouldn't have happened and um you know that's you know I'm just airing towards safety. That's um I I didn't have anything prepared to say but that's really it's just for you know everyone involved safety. Thank you for listening.

Thank you council members. Any questions? Thank you for Mr. Applying, Mr. Appil. Oh, please. I'm sorry. Thank you so much for applying. Um, we really do value our boards and I appreciate especially this board you wanting to be on it. I have a question for you. Sure. Are you aware of the um of the need for financial disclosure when you're on this board? No, but I have no no problem with that. Okay. Okay. Just want to make sure some people find out after the fact. Yeah. No, no. I have nothing nothing to hide, so that's that's not going to be an issue. All right, great. Thank you. Any further questions? All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

We'll make the appointments tomorrow night. You or any other applicants who are here to do not need to attend tomorrow night to be you don't have to attend to be considered. So, thank you. Um All right. And before we get to that, I I will note that we should probably pick up this conversation about giving boards more focus. I was going to do something at a workshop today. We're not going to move forward on that today, but I think to answer the applicant who wants to know what we should do, we should task this board and some others with some specific things. I've been talking with Mr. Sohaney about some recommendations. I'll come back to you. Uh marine advisory board. I see at least one applicant here. Mr. Fen, why not come on up? Okay. Mr. Dixon, why not come on up?

Good afternoon. I'm JP Dixon, 245 South Country Club Boulevard. I'm uh here this afternoon for my reappoint for the Marine Advisory Board. Uh we continue to do really great things. I know we got the dredge back last week. I think that's going to continue to go in service this week. We'll get the inlet dredged. Um we continue to offer our input and some of the other variances that come forward to us. And uh we're right now we're trying to figure out how to combat the uh the commercial use at Silver Pond Boat Ramp. So, there's a lot of uh unauthorized uh charters running out of there. So, we're trying to figure out how to how to do that. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Dixon. Again, we'll make the appointments tomorrow night. Mr. Fulton,

welcome. Good afternoon, council. I am Jean Fulton, Boca Raton. I'm here today to uh request a reappointment to the Marine Advisory Board, a board which I have had the pleasure of being the chairman of since its inception, which was back in 2001. [clears throat] Over that period, our board has dealt with a variety of issues. For example, the wa the our waterways, our parks, our bridges, the inlet. We also are concerned regarding anchoring, derelct, and sunken vessels. We also participate in variance resol res revisions and variance requests. As mentioned, the marine board uh is was instrumental in developing silver palm park and its redevelopment which was back in 22 and we made several recommendations and improvements some of which remain unresolved. the back in 23, the marine advisory board attended the parks and wreck board meeting to request their assistance uh regarding the commercial vessels that were using the park and the staging dock. As previously mentioned, uh since no action on that by the board was taken, the marine advisory board formally uh recommended to city council that a member participate in developing a proper procedure which would both regulate and accommodate legitimate users to which we remain awaiting a response. Our sever member board continues to work towards better, safer parks and waterway experience for all. That's my story. I'm sticking to it, but I'll answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, council. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Fulton, and for the signature sign off. All right, we'll make those appointments tomorrow night, and we'll turn to our special magistrates. I see at least three applicants here. So, uh, counselors, please come forward, give your name and address, and you'll have up to three minutes to tell us why you want to keep serving.

Good afternoon, council. My name is Kevin Wagner. I guess I've been serving in the capacity as a special magistrate for this city for u well over five years, I think. Maybe maybe slightly longer. I've worked in the city for 22 years. Um, I'm a member of the Florida Bar. I'm also a faculty member at Florida Atlantic University. I see my job is upholding the city code as you set it forth and to encourage compliance. Um, and I'm open to answer any questions that uh that I can answer.

Thank you, council members. Any questions? I'll just note that you've been serving for 15 years, so time flies when you have that many. That many. Yes. Thank you for your service. Good afternoon. My name is Judith Seter. I believe I've been serving as a special magistrate for about seven years and that is for parking and also for code enforcement and I've enjoyed it very much. I've managed not to get anybody to I rate. I don't do judge duty like I've been on the on the uh bench for 10 years and I know when someone's lying I never say that. I have said to people I don't believe a word you said but I find in your favor anyway. That's is that's the the the meanest I've ever been. I would like to continue serving as a magistrate. I enjoy the work and I enjoy the staff. I find the staff to be very competent and um I enjoy working with them. Um, I'm still a member of the Florida Bar in good standing. I work for two other cities in the same capacity and plan to continue to do that. There any questions?

Any questions, council members? All right. Thank you, Miss Sasher. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Hipler.

Good afternoon, your honor. Harry Hipler applicant uh to to be special magistrate. I think I've been a magistrate for six years or however many years. Uh I don't have as good credentials as they do. But regardless, we all do a great job. I have authored numerous articles as per my CV. I sit in a bunch of other cities as well. Uh five others uh as well as my own law practice. I'm at the point in my life where I can decide what I want to do. Uh as I made my opening statement some years ago, there is great difference given to code officers uh parking as well. Uh and basically I'd like to continue to serve uh because I listen to what everyone has to say. I try do not cut them off in 10 seconds or less because it's as you as you will know it's their day in court and I want to see if I can after the ruling I can explain to them what happened and if they agree with me fine. If they don't that's life like I like to say. Uh if you have any questions of me oh you member of the Florida bar I hate to say it since 1975 but years do add up and the like. So, if you have any questions of me, please feel free uh and I'll be pleased to respond.

Thank you, council members. Any questions? All right. Thank you for your service. Both you and Miss Ser have been serving for 10 years as well. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And at some point, by the way, um and no, please have a seat. Thank you. Um we can address code issues after. Mr. Unjen, are you applying? Jonathan Unen, 6501 Congress Avenue. Uh I am not applying. However, I'd like to comment on uh the board interview process uh if that is allowed. It would be under public request which will be upcoming shortly. So which will be upcoming actually in just a few minutes. So if you'll hang out for a few is there any appointment before?

No, there's no appointment tonight. So yes. Thank you. All right. That concludes special magistrate. Um we'll now turn to future agenda matters. items of council concern. Anyone have anything they wish to raise concerning tomorrow night's agenda or otherwise? Or we can take those issues up tomorrow night if there are any. Mr. Wigger.

Um yes. Uh ordinance 5767 out uh freestanding emergency rooms. I wasn't at the meeting where it was first discussed uh because I was ill, but uh I saw some obviously I've reviewed the proposal and um there are some amendments that I thought were necessary that I had started talking to staff about and Mr. Sohaney I don't think those have yet been included uh or prepared to be included in tomorrow's agenda. So I'd move that we postpone that item for two weeks. That's number 10A uh for tomorrow. With uh with all due respect, thank you.

Yeah, that's correct. And uh I agree. Uh I'd like to suspend that, postpone that to include LURP uh to February 24th for consideration. [snorts] Thank you. All right, I see more comments. Miss Ducker, no. Do we need to make a motion or Well, we're not making a motion yet because it's not on the agenda. We'll have to do that at tomorrow night's motion. But why don't we have Could you just elaborate more on some of the amendments, please, Mr. Wner, you've discussed? I too, by the way, had some concerns with the ordinances drafted. So,

yeah. Uh, I guess upon my review of the ordinance and discussing it with staff and stakeholders, uh, I do think that, uh, there's a certain provision that that, uh, that LURP uh, that certain parcels in Lur would be suitable again as a conditional use, right? So this is an emergency. I don't think it's an as of right use, but it's the way it's drafted as a uh as a um conditional use. I think is proper. Um I do think that it is proper that uh pursuant to the discussion that happened at the PNZ meeting, I believe it was January 6th or January 8th, um within one mile of each other, uh that they should there should be a radius restriction. Um I thought that was uh important. I do still think that there should be uh an arterial road connection or at least some uh at least some access um not secondary or tertiary. Um and also there was a discussion at the uh PNZ about school zones and um I think that staff was correct in stating that this should not be near school zones. Again, school zones are about slowing cars down, about keeping the children safe, and of course, emergency rooms, uh are about as as as speedy as an access as you could possibly get. So, I think having them next to each other can create conflicts, um that that I think are appropriate. So, um I'm going to try to work with staff on getting those amendments put forth so that they could pres presented um presented as an amendment to this uh the the way that 5767 is drafted.

Okay. Thank you. Further comments, Mr. Mayor, please.

So, first I want to thank staff because they brought this amendment forward because I asked them to bring this amendment forward. We spoke about this a year and a half ago. It was really the first time in this room that I remember the term freestanding emergency room coming before us. I remember that date because it was my birthday 2024. So, it stands out in my head. So, I want to thank staff for getting this done. There was a comment made at the meeting, Mr. Wigger, that you weren't at that this was being rushed. If we think a year and a half is rushed, I think we've become far too complacent. So that being said, lurp wasn't included in um the initial goaround because for a few reasons the Mr. Shad explained that um the other areas were more intense and lur as we spent six to eight months discussing CIMD. We're trying to make it a more walkable area. So our first goound where we can always expand that's why it wasn't included. However, I agree. I watched the PNZ meeting as well and I've I've had discussions with Mr. Shad. I've had discussions with uh HCA CEO Kenneth Jones, health care professionals, land use attorneys, fire rescue, and I think also that there are places in LURP that are that are the right places to be. So before this meeting ever started and last week, I actually reached out to the city manager and the city attorney and I asked that an amendment be done to include lurp. So I am for postponing this to a date certain to to February 24th and getting it done then.

Right. Further conversation, Miss Ducker, you said that anything any further comments? I could please.

I can opine. I've I've had similar conversations when I had my agenda review last week. I've spoken to Mr. Kohler. Um I also spoke to some to Mr. Anjen. I spoke to some of the other companies in the LAR area. And again for us it's always been about where do these these belong so that it doesn't cause public safety issues. It's always been about where are they best acceptable and I remember in the meeting that we discussed this at length is that what say what's being said out there is that we don't want these these freestanding room and that's not accurate. What we said in that meeting I know what I said in that meeting. I went back to my notes was that we want those here and I too have met with Mr. Jones from HCA in the past um is they have to be in the right area so that we have the right access for all not just for one section. So um looking forward to seeing the amendment uh and uh yes I don't mind u deferring for two weeks. Thank you.

[snorts] All right. And please, I would just say that um obviously access for to have this use and lurp made sense and made sense from the beginning. I'm not sure we need to necessarily postpone it two weeks to accomplish that amendment. But if that's if we have staff working on amendments to that effect, then and that's staff's recommendation that we come back and do it in two weeks, that's fine. All right. And then Mike, please

can I just say one more thing? The reason for bringing this ordinance forward also was like Mr. Trucker saying too to clarify and empower the use, not to stop the use to put them in areas that really do serve our community well. So we can always expand as as Mr. Shad has said, but you know, it's hard to rein them back in if they're not working out as we had planned. So clarifying and empowering the use is where I wanted to go. Right. Thank you. And then Mr. Soy, uh, there's multiple amendments at work. Uh, do we think, uh, we're going to be ready to present, have them finalized for next week for the package? Yes, we'll be ready, Mr. Mayor. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Well, then, um, I don't think we'll have any further discussion on that. Any other future agenda matters or items of concern? All right. Seeing none, uh, any review for the regular agenda items? We kind of did one for tomorrow already. And now we'll open the floor to public requests. Anyone wishing to come forward? Mr. Jonathan Unen, 6501 Congress Avenue. Uh, so first I'd like to touch on the special magistrate process. Um, from what I understand, it's a paid position unlike all the rest of the boards. Uh, secondly, they're appointed by all of you. Um, I think there's some again conflict of interest. I know that maybe the state may allow it. Um, but you know, when they're working for the city, getting paid by the city, working for this council, I'm not so sure that there's not a conflict there. Um, so and then regards in regards to uh [clears throat] the freestanding emergency room, I don't think it should be kicked down the road. I think there should be a vibrant discussion to tomorrow on it. That should be the first hearing after PNZ. PNZ heard it. Now it should be in front of you and then adopted or not adopted on the 24th to work out those kinks to have a discussion among you and among the public who's the most important people in the room as they're at the top of this city's organizational chart. So we were depriving the people of that. This district and Mr. Jones from HCA wanted that piece of property to be where he put his freestanding emergency room. This is what this man does. If he thought that piece of property worked, if the traffic only creates 30 trips a day, from what I

understand, that's what the data shows. And I think the entities who challenged that property and brought it in front of you sadly hurt their constituency. And what I mean by that are the 10 how many thousands of people that work in the 1.8 million square feet there. You've approved by right under EM that 1,250 units are going to go there. All I can think about is my little 15-month-old daughter and god forbid she was eating and ever choked on something and we lived there. I could have her in emergency care in a minute, not waiting for EMS to come. So, I think that this challenge that happened on behalf of this property owner that then went in front of council when it had been approved was wrong to begin with. I've fought my neighbors and I try and then work things out and I don't think that happened here. But I think that there should be a vibrant conversation tomorrow that then the second reading happens on the 24th so that we can work this out among the people that they have two bites at the apple as what's intended by the two meetings after P&Z. Thank you. This is public request. Last call and we will close the time for public requests. Um, thank you, Mr. Anjene. I think we might have some more discussion. We already touched on some of those points and we can consider that for tomorrow night, too. And I hear what you're saying. Um, and just on the magistrate issue, I wasn't quite following uh your concerns about the conflict. Somebody has to appoint magistrates. Um, I will note that this tradition goes way back. Our city charter of 1925 actually had a mayor's court where the mayor would

appoint the functional equivalents of the magistrates. Now, now we have the entire city council appointing them, but it it goes back to the very start of our city when we were just a town. Um, we'll turn to city manager reports now.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have two reports. The first one is our town center CIMD amendment update and that presentation will be from uh our development services director, Mr. Shad. And then following that, I've got a traffic mobility update as we mentioned in the CRA uh meeting and that uh we've got uh our public works and engineering director, Mr. Beer, here uh to follow Mr. Shad. Thank you. as as Brandon uh sets up, I I just wanted to make a a couple of observations with respect to to this conversation because uh we really just want to have a conversation about opportunities for continuing this strategic placement of residential and that's really what the CIMD is all about. Um, the CIMD is set up to really insert residential into commercial areas that don't have residential. And so, while, you know, if we were to take a snapshot, you know, 2 years after these units are built, you may not [clears throat] be realizing in two years after it's built what the future will really provide for. Because the problem that our society continues to suffer from is the expectation that you can live in a neighborhood, leave at the same hour of the day to go to work in an area that has no opportunity for you to live in at the same time that everybody else is doing exactly the same thing. So by placing strategic residential opportunities within these commercial areas um we are creating that

opportunity for the future. And and it's interesting that probably the most important um hub that we have on our radar is Town Center Mall. And so anticipating Town Center Mall coming in with something that will encompass the old Sears store and look at the entire site for how these residential units could be accommodated on that property. I think it's a really important thing for this council to consider and give staff direction on how uh best to move forward with those concepts. So again, this is future planning. This is exactly the kind of thing that we should be talking about and not really, you know, determine the value based on a short-term analysis. this analysis is you know what happens 5 to 10 years from now because if you if you think about it you know I just mentioned earlier about the second option for Meisner Park which was 100% commercial and at that time downtown had 63 residential units downtown today has 4,000 plus units so the opportunity for commercial viability is in the downtown is not counting 100% on people coming in to the downtown from the surrounding uh region. you now have opportunity for restaurants, for retail, for those activities to to survive relying

predominantly in in many cases on those individuals that reside within walking distance. So I I think this is ideally the opportunity that we're creating by placing strategically these residential opportunities within these areas. So I I don't mean to get on a soap box, but but there should be an understanding because I know that people will likely go, "Oh my god, there goes more residential." Well, we need it in order to plan for the future so that we don't continue to do the same thing at the same hour of the day to at least provide a an option. If you want to live near where you work, then this may be that opportunity. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Brandon.

Thanks, Mr. Cameo.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Brandon Chad, development services director. So, this presentation sort of doubles as a uh update check-in on the CIMD program and a discussion of the request that's been made by the town center mall and how to move forward with that. Um, so quick history, the ordinance for uh commercial industrial multif family development was adopted on um in early 2024. It's been amended a few times since then. I don't really need to go through those in detail. I'm going to talk about what the regulations currently require in a moment. There is one more uh pending ordinance that would amend the um the the regulations scheduled to be considered on February 24th. That is to clarify basically what counts as a a retail sales and services in CIMDs. Um but again, so here is the an overview of what the regulations are today. So, in terms of eligibility for one of these types of um developments, it's anything that's on the future land use map as planned mobility or enhanced mobility. And I'm going to show you right now what that is. So, anything that's in purple is uh currently in the planned mobility future land use designation. There is no enhanced mobility on the map as of today. Um so, that's all planned mobility. So, just to orient you, this is brick. This is Congress Avenue. Military is over here. I95 does this. Yumato. Down here we have the mall. This is where military sort of cuts through there. And this is the around the hospital. [clears throat] Um, okay. So in addition to that location requirement, anything that's zoned commercial or industrial that does not abut existing uh or zoned single family residential and is not abudding Palmetto Park Road east of the inter coastal waterway. Um these types of requirements require uh city council

approval after recommendation by the planning and zoning board. There is a unit cap that we'll talk more about of 2500 dwelling units. um those units that were approved at the Tri Rail station are by ordinance exempt from that cap, but it is otherwise applicable. This ordinance is uh will automatically sunset on October 1st of 2033. And um in terms of density and affordable housing, so if a one of these projects provides 10% of the units as affordable, that's up to 120% of area median income. The maximum uh density is 20 units an acre. If there is an additional 5% of the units um provided as workforce that would be a total of um 15 the 10 and five combined and workforce is up to 140% of area median income. The maximum density goes up to 25 units an acre. Um in terms of non-residential intensity or or overall intensity um it's a maximum of 1.0 F. That's essentially however many square foot you have on the lot that's how much building square footage you can have. Um there is a requirement for the proximity or inclusion of non-residential uses. This is to uh to both to serve the uh residents that will be there and additionally to introduce commercial uses into some of these areas that have traditionally been office and light industrial. So, those essentially are you're within a quarter mile of 25,000 square feet of non-residential, 10,000 of which uh at least is retail uh sales or services, or that you include non-residential as part of the project. Uh that would be 5,000 square feet or 10% of the building square footage, whichever is greater, which would also must include a minimum of 2,000 ft of retail, sales, or services. or we recently made this change a combination of the two. U maximum height on these is 85 feet. Um

because we are trying to promote mobility and it is in the planned mobility feature lane designation, we paid special attention to walkability, uh we require sidewalk improvements, um street trees for shade and those types of things. Um 25% open space. I'm not going to go through the parking uh in detail, but there's an automatic 10% reduction in parking uh requirements from what's otherwise applicable and the potential to get um total of 20% reduction. Um we required equivalency and proportionality between u market rate and affordable units. Um essentially meaning that equivalency is you have to basically be offering the same unit. It can't be inferior quality. has to be, you know, through the same entrance and access to the same amenities, all those sorts of things. And the proportionality refers to the number of bedrooms. So, roughly the same percentage of market rate units that are say two-bedroom affordable units also need to be roughly the same uh percentage. And an affordability commitment. You might remember we spent a good amount of time on the uh applicable 30-year deed restriction um that goes along with these approvals. So, um, we have seven CIMDs that have been approved so far. They're listed here. You can see the total number of units that's been approved are 2,187, which yields 220 affordable units and 87 workforce units. Um, so four the the first four that are listed there are are in for building permit, but have not been issued. So to that point, um there has currently have currently been no permits issued and there are no projects under construction yet. Um and there are 664 units remaining in the bank um again exempting the tri rail um approval and um taking into account how many units have been

approved. As of uh last week, there were three projects listed here that are pending CIMD applications. You can see the numbers there. We can go over more in detail if you would like. Um so after so you see the total number of pending units is 517 including 53 affordable and seven workforce. So with the existing approvals and if all the pending applications were to be approved the remaining number of units in the bank would be 147. So the town center mall has requested that additional units be added to the to the unit bank. This is for the purpose of enabling the redevelopment of the former Sears parcel that fronts St. Andrews Boulevard. This would be a a mixeduse project as it's been explained to us and is not uh is not solely residential, but they are interested in um uh preliminary discussions have indicated 400 units to uh facilitate that project. The Town Center Mall has additionally requested that these be uh designated only for use by the Town Center Mall as opposed to being open to any other eligible property. Um so we're essentially uh here to have a discussion about that request to hear the council's uh directions or concerns um answer questions and talk about what next steps uh might be if any. Um I do want to sort of emphasize that we are when we approved the 2500 unit bank initially we did a level of service analysis of all the the infrastructure and services that are um implicated in the comprehensive plan and we presented that. So this would be a relatively small change. We would update that analysis and bring it back. Um but we would like in the longer term to get away from sort of this more peacemeal approach and talk about what do we want longer term and how are we going to ensure that we can you know serve that as our infrastructure

capacity um improves and increases uh over time and how that relates to the city's larger affordable housing strategy or so so the question basically is um are we going to process an amendment to add these units if so how many and should they be designated again for the town center mall. Um and and again we're looking for additional you know direction on next steps if any and to answer questions. And with that I would be happy to to address any questions. Mr. Swain.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Um thank you Mr. uh Shad. Just just to kind of recap. So we did two years ago we did a level of service analysis for the 2500 units and we came to the conclusion that that was adequate. Um and then two years later we've got about 2,000 units uh and zero are under shovel. Correct. That's right. Okay. And then what you're suggesting is if we decide to add uh 400 additional units uh then we would simply just update our level of service analysis that was concluded uh two years ago. Correct. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, council members. Any questions? Deputy Mayor Nicholas. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, when we when you did bring this forward two years ago, um, and we approved the 2500 cap, I remember originally you had recommended 3,000 as the cap. Is that correct?

Your memor is better than mine, but I do remember 3,000 being on the table. And I also remember that the mayor really wanted to make it a 15% affordable requirement at that time which we said we'll start with the 10% and then we'll come back when we are ready to up update this. So I think that that needs to be part of this conversation as well. um and not just update putting it up to just these 400 additional units, but really looking at what our overall vision is for the city like you were just saying, Mr. Shad, and coming up with a more meaningful number and also coming up with some more meaningful parameters like the 15% or 20% combined, 10% affordable, 10% workforce or 15% affordable, 15% workforce. And what else do we do we need to see if we're trying to make these walkable, more connected areas, more requirements for sidewalks, bike infrastructure, things like that. So, while this opened up the conversation, I think it's part of a bigger conversation that we really need to have and I would like to start with some of those points as well.

Thank you. Further questions, comments, Mr. Wer. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shad and Mr. Kameho for the uh the update. Um, do you know how large a property size a parcel size the town center mall is? Do we have any idea? Not [clears throat] off hand. I I don't recall. It's well over 100 acres. Yes. I don't know exactly.

Well over 100. That's my understanding. Well 100 acres. And it's also my understanding that pursuant to the state's live local act that um because this is these are these properties are commercially designated that um without local approval if uh if the owners of the property so wanted to that uh that they could develop a significantly more number of units than 400 if they were to go under the live local designation. I mean again I think they could do to 25 units per acre uh on on the 100 if if if it meet still meets with the building code and all the other things required by the state's live local act but that's without local approval. Is that right? That's your understanding.

I'm going to say it's going to be a maximum of 20 units an acre. 25 is a is a bonus um that's available only in certain circumstances. But yes, it's a substantial number that that that is potentially possible under that act. Right. Obviously, there's the state's statute is it's has different parameters. It requires 40% of the units to be uh to be affordable within those parameters. uh they do get a tax break and uh it's my understanding that in uh the Palmetto Square development where the Kmart used to be that that is in fact uh I guess that is in fact the methodology that the applicant is is using. Is that your recollection

that it's submitted under the live local act? Yes, that's right. Right. So that means that there is no local there is no local zoning approval. There is no council approval. There is no P&Z approval. they they are applying for their building permit uh pursu pursuant to the building code that we have but that that under the live local act because we are preempted by state statute that that that is how the live local act works. So um there would be a site plan approval. It's required by statute to be administrative. So there would be no planning and zoning board, no city council. Um but we are preempted with respect to height, density and land use. But there is still a site plan approval,

right? Um but to your point when we when we look at these uh the the and so the ordinance that uh the CIMD ordinance which was also I guess started uh by state statute is the discretionary is the discretionary statute that the city can do something in between 0% and 40% um to work with the real estate community and obviously pursuant to Miss Knolas's point that like this is what we came up with initially that it was 10% % plus a 5% bonus as our as our kind of first stab at creating an ordinance uh for a discretionary port portion. Is that right?

Yes. And so obviously we're continuing that discussion. I really like the way that you're talking in terms of holistically we need to look at this larger uh this larger concept of how the city moves forward and terms of concurrency and level of service how these things apply. Um would a site plan here still require a concurrency analysis? Yes. And they still have to go to county or uh and get that uh get that level of service analysis for the county impacts too. Is that

Yes. So there would be a concurrency analysis submitted to the county and there would be a sightsp specific traffic analysis submitted to the city that addresses things like driveway volumes, turn lane requirements, you know, signalization changes, all those types of things are addressed in that kind of a study. And because there's already so much commercial there, does that application have to come in as part of the site plan for what they want to do with the old Sears site, or can the application for the unit just come in and piggy back off of the mixed use because the mall is already there? Would they would they be two separate applications or would we be part of the application for the SER site?

So the mall owners could choose whether to put it all in one site plan or put it in two. But the effect for from our perspective is not any different.

Is it right? Right. Okay. So again, when we're evaluating this, what I what I see happening here is we're giving the path with the real estate community to work with the city, to work with the planners, to to to work with us in terms of something that's uh that's palatable as opposed to going with the preemptive rights where we don't have anything to discuss. And so, uh, with that being said, provided that concurrency, you know, and level of impact and level of service is not decreased, um, which are things that we're already looking at anyway, uh, I think I would be in favor of looking, uh, looking to see if we can accommodate this in a, uh, you know, in a, uh, collaborative in in terms of a collaborative, uh, fashion. Miss Knuckles put up a couple uh she had a couple other points potentially about um uh you know about changing the the percentage requirements. I I'm open to having that discussion. Um one of the things that we always talk about too is transit or TDMs. I know in the downtown transit demand management and the question is um are we starting to include those more? Uh again, I don't recall if the if the mall has its own shuttle service or you know if they would be part of that or uh there's been some discussions of having the Bokeh connect start to expand to the uh Midtown and to the northern sectors. I don't know if that will be part of the conversation too, but I'd like it to be uh because I think again as we as we give alternatives to people driving their cars and obviously mixed use is one of those having the Bokea Connect be in those multiple jurisdictions or whatever we multiple sectors, it would be I think helpful in terms of reducing traffic impacts too. So again, I'm open to having the discussion and hope we can then eventually have this kind of lead into some some larger holistic things as well. So thank you. Thanks for bringing it up. Other comments, Miss Ducker.

Thank you, Mayor Singer. Thank you for the presentation. I agree. We've been having this conversation and um I was I was thinking through some of the stuff that I've attended in the last few weeks and I've been a part of, but that area of Town Center Mall is ripe for that type of growth, controlled growth of residential, and it also has Palm Tran. Palm Tran is right there. It's a ripe opportunity. I happened to be in Wellington over the weekend attending an event. Um they put an incredible event out there on their um in their city hall area where they have a community center, brand new community center, city hall. They had a wonderful event and one of the things that they do is that they bus people from the mall. The mall is not close to city hall and they do that as a free service to bring them to events. And I thought, well, how great would that be that we could have our city hall work with Palm Tran, get a bus to bring people to um to the mall or to that area um in the future uh and get, you know, people moving again effectively, whether it's Bokeh Connect, Palm Tren, or other any other shuttle services. Um I agree with the preeemption. Um we we continue to be preempted by the state. There's been a u a few amendments to live local act part four um that were introduced. they're being heard um in on the Senate side. Uh I I think some uh members of the community have said we're going to repeal Live Local Act. Uh you can't repeal Live Local Act through the city. That's a Florida legislator um repeal and they're not repealing Live Local Act as it is. They're trying to preempt the cities more and more um um whether it's with the schools that are being built or the accessory dwelling units are trying to add more. So I'm always for more workforce housing, affordable housing, and higher amounts of units. and for us to control the growth and plan it accordingly and correctly so that we can have the transportation in place, the infrastructure, the concurrency. So, um I'm h happy to um discuss this further, but that's kind of where I'm coming from that area. Um I've referred to it as a

midtown town center. Um I see it as a whole holistic area um with access. All right, Mr. Johnson,

I will give this some thought. I don't have an answer at the moment. I haven't spoken to any of the stakeholders. They haven't reached out to me about it. I haven't spoken to staff much about this issue. I was not on the council when the original CMD ordinance was passed. I do uh agree that the concurrency question and level of service question is an important one that we have to make sure is buttoned up. Um I haven't spoken to the the any any resident. I don't think there's I've spoken to anybody about this particular request. So, um, I'm I'm going to do that and then I can get back to staff on on where I come down on.

And I'll just add, yes, I think staff should come back. Mr. Shad, you and I didn't expect you to recall from two years ago what the recommendation was, but I would like staff to verify what you were thinking back then. And knowing that we have projects approved and uh not uh construction's not completed, what the recommendation would be on the number of units to contextualize this request and how you would place that this request or this suggestion in the context of the other sites. Uh also I'd like staff to give thought to the particular request that it be dedicated to this particular mall site. There are other the when you show the map, there are other parcels on the south sides of Glades Road that could qualify. In fact, one of them was in several years ago. They were part of that original discussion. The proposal they had at the time was for greater density than what was the consensus here and I they haven't come back. So, uh I don't know their plans, but I think it's helpful just to have those contexts and questions a little more fleshed out. to that end when what was staff proposing in terms of when we have this conversation taken up again

I didn't have a particular time in mind but I you know by understanding what issues you would like to you know us to analyze or to discuss come back with with answers on that helps us to you know to to figure out what it is that we need to come back with um I think we need a few months Okay. Um I don't know I don't know the timing of that. I just um uh we can we can have a touch base too next month too and see where we're at. Okay. All right. Um well, thank you. Uh and Mr. Sohaney, if that concludes that update, Mr. Soy, the next one, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And uh we're going to have a uh mobility update from our public works and engineering director, uh Mr. Zack Beer.

[clears throat]

Good afternoon, mayor and city council. Zach Beer, your public works and engineering director. Uh tomorrow night, you will have on your consent agenda a work order for the uh countywide transportation plan. That's for staff to uh develop those program elements and continue that progress uh of that good work to engage with the county and have the city's mobility plan that's going to inform uh the countywide transportation plan. And there we go. And uh with that uh the agenda for uh this afternoon is three kind of pillar elements that really staff has been advancing from a transportation and mobility standpoint. Uh the first one is the safe streets and roads for all program. That is a federal program put on by the US Department of Transportation that the city is partnering with. Uh our pedestrian and bike safety enhancements that we've been working on. And then uh the final element is that mobility plan for that's going to inform the countywide transportation plan that will be on uh the agenda for tomorrow. Uh so with that just really want to highlight the good work uh that the traffic staff has been doing. Uh I would say this is kind of uh top tier for the uh city in the state of Florida and we have confirmed that I think no other city has done a three repeat in 22 24 and 25 uh to be able to achieve three uh federal grants with our our community. And really that started with council direction and through the city manager's office uh with the vision zero action plan and those elements uh developing that in the correct format and the right way has has given us the ability to pursue those grants and be very effective in that. So a a total win of $5.8 million from the federal uh uh US department of transportation and then a local match of about 1.6 leading to an overall funding of uh $7.4 million in the coming years. So that starts with the vision zero action plan. Staff is uh

intending to uh bring that forward to you to the uh consent agenda. That's an important item for you to consider because that um vision zero action plan informs the remainder of the grants. Those agencies are going to use that as a key element uh as the portion to adopt the remainder and and inform the rest of those. So with that the 2024 grant of $4 million is really focused on bike and ped uh investments that is uh demonstration grants and implementation and then staff identifying that win uh moved on and focused on the signal and opticom system. So that really focuses on some of the things we've heard about AI technology software hardware updating our signal technology uh with the latest uh with the latest technology. So really wanted to briefly kind of talk about those three things. That's the foundational work of a lot of of where traffic is going to be focused over the next several years. Uh so how did we get there? We got there with uh interacting with the public, public engagement sessions. I took my kids to a few. Uh really enjoyed uh those interactions, online surveys, and then kind of a cclick fix specific to traffic and transportation in the city where we got feedback from the uh from the community on those elements uh that residents had feedback on. Then uh the US Department of Transportation safe uh system approach is really what guides us specific to this activity and that safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds, safer roads and post uh postc crash care. All of those have been published by the US Department of Transportation and really have been the guiding principles for our data driven approach. So into the data a little bit. uh over the past six years, Boca Raton has averaged uh seven crashes per day and four uh serious injury or fatal crashes per month. So uh those are uh persistent preventable crashes uh and issues within the city. And then breaking that down a little bit further, we have annual crashes from 18 to 23. And the reason uh the staff pulled that data is that's

part of the standard industry practice for the DOT uh vision zero program. getting that five years of data is really what they're looking for as we do the datadriven approach and pursue those other uh measures and activities that we're doing. Uh so with that as you can see there's not a a specific trend. Uh there's activity at different levels. uh and I will note I added uh for some clarity on the next graph you'll see that uh dash that dashed bar graph and then a line that really shows in 2020 there was kind of a different style of crashes that happened where we had a ramp up in 2019 that you all are familiar with and then as a lot of people moved off the roads and there was less density uh we we saw some very unusual behavior which was like ultra high-speed crashes where people were we've had uh from our infrastructure seen a significant increase in light pulse strikes and other traffic uh uh traffic mass arms and things uh that didn't happen in the pre uh pandemic era. So staff has been evaluating those elements and really working with the police department uh to engage uh with the community to add countermeasures at those locations. So now the other part of that is uh where does that happen? because I think the wear is just as important of a a question. And from a city road perspective, we have 221 center lane miles, whereas the county and the FDOT have 33 and 42. So within the city, it's a a really big uh there there's a big gap between the percentage and the action that's happening. So trying to explain the graph that you're seeing up in the top left, the DOT and the county account for 6 and 8% of the roadways and at the same time have over 67% of the shares of fatal and serious crashes that are happening uh within the city limits. Then uh as you move over to the city and private side, the uh the city has a significant portion of roadway but a significantly lower of those serious and fatal injury crashes. So that that really what that boils down to is the

city has the line share of the roadway and yet has significantly less of those serious incidents. The the majority of those are happening on state and county roadways. Mr. Reer, what is a center line road please for everyone's benefit? Yeah. So the centerline road is just a simplification. That is if you took a I'll use I95 for example. If you took a line and you just drew it on I95 that is the length. It's about six miles of the city. And at the same time, if you took each lane mile, that would be I think it's what, six, five lanes in each direction. So it's significantly higher. It's it's a simplified way of identifying the roadway map system within the city. So you're saying the centerline miles takes the center of each lane, not the whole road or the reverse.

Uh it just doesn't account for an example I would use is ADT, uh accounts for traffic and volume on the road where this is just kind of a measure of the roadway network within the city. So it doesn't account for lanes, right? It's just measuring each one mile of laneage is one centerline mile, whether it's two lanes or six lanes. That's right. Yes. Thank you.

And it ju This was just for clarity. We actually debated internally about how we present this on the screen because it can get down in the weeds, but from a technical basis, we're in we're considering all of the percentage of the overall volume of traffic and those details within our calculation. But I think I want the main thing staff wanted to highlight is the majority of crashes within our city boundary are happening on city or on state and county roads. That is that is the challenge faced by our our uh traffic department and really engaging using those federal dollars to engage with our partners to to really try and use that relationship to enhance those those areas. And I'll get into that to a minute uh in a minute of just how um uh sep how the big of a gap between those two things. So, uh, this is a picture that really doesn't do justice of how much work went into it. On the left side is a very detailed analysis over, uh, several months and and probably over a year where staff work with a consultant using our vision zero action plan dollars to engage with FAU and a bunch of different, uh, agencies to to calculate and gather all of those crashes that are happening, the uh, then the serious and fatal injury crashes so we could identify the high injury crash network. So we have our roadway network and then the higher injury crash network on the right side of the screen. That is the overlay with those uh our high injury crash network and then the road system. So DOT, county or city roads on where that higher injury crash network exists. And those corridor segments totaled 27. So out of the overall lane miles of the overall percentage that we see around 500, we have about uh 7% of that roadway network is where the high injuries are happening. So it is a a much smaller percentage on our uh on our city within our city's municipal boundary. Uh and how are we looking to and uh including 63 intersections. So what are we looking at ways to really engage and and work on our vision zero goal that's speed

management uh protecting vulnerable road users spite sight specific countermeasures and then policies and programs and within that I won't uh list all of them they're up on the screen but taking any questions I would be happy to answer any of them and I would just say from a a traffic staff perspective I think we have evaluated all of these uh in the right circumstance at the right location based on the context classification of the roadway today. Uh all of them are on the table for us to evaluate uh as we either respond to resident concerns or follow that data driven approach. Uh as noted previously in the CRA meeting, would there be an update related to the downtown? Wanted to capture a downtown specific slide. Uh we did all that work related to walkability and investments uh in in the downtown. So we have our quick build and pedestrian enhancements uh that we had come to you before so I won't get into that. our Palmetto Park Road uh traffic calming where we're evaluating measures along uh Palmetto Park Road as well as Meister Boulevard, a Northwest Second Avenue and Fourth Street roundabout. Uh we were going to deploy that, but again that staff's creativity getting ahead of the rule book. Uh we actually have to do a signal warrant at that location even to try a roundabout. So we're actually doing the work order and gathering the analysis to do that. And then one uh across from Louis Bossy uh connecting uh First Avenue across Palmetto as well. also a signal warrant at that location. Uh then uh really focusing on pedestrian and bicycle safety. Uh A1A RFBs, those are complete. We've heard a lot of positive feedback. Uh and we are going to continue as we focused on that primarily. There are other locations where we're looking to install. So we will continue to uh install those uh enhanced safety measures at other crosswalks throughout the city. Then school flasher upgrades. the city implemented the school zone uh automated school zone uh traffic enforcement program and with that that mandated some school zone flasher enhancements and we also continue evaluate them across the city for upgrades and and make sure

they're in compliance. Then education and outreach which is a really important component. We have our kids uh uh kids safety fair at the traffic garden. I drive by there all the time. I don't want to use the term I get emotional, but it's one of those things where I see it and uh it is kind of the coolest part of being in a city. I see kids there one I saw a mom probably about 15 or 20 moms there with all their kids learning how to ride their bikes. It's a it's a very active space and we're looking to engage with a uh educational component at that location. Then Florida Bike Month is tentatively for March 21st. will be sharing more information with council upcoming that includes ebike safety coordination with the women's transportation society and our local IT chapter and then also working with the no on a potential bike tour. Uh and then last but certainly not least, we will be continuing our second uh uh iteration of the bike rodeo coming to you May 2026, which will be very uh exciting. Then down to the mobility plan. So we're looking at what are the city's multimmodal and transportation needs for 2050. Uh when the MO asked, staff put together a list of significant number of projects that included really good advisory comments from our bike and pedestrian advisory board. So we want to acknowledge that we did take a lot of that information and we provided to the MO staff is listening. We took it, we put it into the program, but this really gets down to that data driven process. So the US DOT and those other grant uh granting agencies really want to see a datadriven approach are where's the high injury crash network and what does that come out to be and are you doing the projects at that location. So as part of this mobility plan we're looking to engage with all of the information we have and produce that industry standard document that best positions us to really get those projects listed on the in the county transportation plan and look into how we will connect those into our our local project needs. Then finally, it really supports uh why is this important? It supports our future framework for our alternative traffic concurrency standards and really a

potential mobility fee. So that's the underlying principles of how we'd be able to advance uh that mission and really look at at kind of uh updating our uh traffic concurrency and our mobility fee at a local level. And then with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. City Council, thank you. Council member's questions. Miss Ducker.

Thank you, Mayor Singer. Thank you, Mr. Beer. Just want to take a moment of pride for the city of Boca Raton because obviously I'm I'm on the MO. I'm the NO chair, incoming NO chair this year, uh on behalf of the city of Boca Raton, but also representing the entire county. And I sit with Deputy Mayor Knockless. And I know what all the other cities are doing. The 39 cities um that are um we have 39 cities in our county, but 21 cities are represented represented in the MO. And I know from when I started on council, which was October of 2020, to date, the amount of work that your department has done um with the help of this council. So, first I want to thank council because I often say policy leads to good um planning, to good implementation, and to good funding. We could not have gotten $5.8 million in awards uh without the architects of policy, the council. So, I really appreciate that and I thank you all um for believing that this was so important for the public safety of our community. Second, I want to give a big shout out to city staff. I see a rush out there and Pia that I see throughout um and of course Mr. Beer and his department because they have to do the work. We put the policy, but they have to put in the work and it's a lot of work, a lot of data to get these types of funding mechanisms. And we are a trailblazer and a pioneer in this area. We're one of only two cities that are NACTO uh cities, which is they hold this big it's like the Super Bowl of um of transit nerds or transit champions like I call myself and what we have been able to do in such a short period of time in the transit world is remarkable because transit projects and infrastructure and funding federal working with state agencies working with county and cities that we might cross through um and touch it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of patience. So, I am really really um grateful for all the work that you all have done. Couple questions for you. Um

we've requested a proclamation. I requested the proclamation for bike month. And I know last year we did it late and I really would like to see that happen in February since bike month is all month of March. And I know I asked you this and don't give me a specific project uh because I sit with Miss Knas on the NO. We are going to submit uh for federal funding to the no. You have a project, correct? You're talking about related to the T the TI and LI grants. Yes, we will be in February. We're positioned to do that. Okay. And um we talked about NTO city and we've talked about the countywide transit plan and the city's involvement. Thank you.

Other comments or questions? Miss Nagas,

I'll make some comments. Um thank you, Council Member Ducker and Zack. Thank you for all the work. I I really am appreciative of you've been going non-stop and I see Nes out there and I want to thank Nares too and and the whole um PIA and the whole I saw the mobility team out at the first responders expo this weekend. So, you know, I've been really happy to see some meaningful changes done. The traffic garden, I'll go ahead and say it. I do get a tear also when I see it. Um but circuit, you know, is going strong. I'm going to try to encourage everybody to to start using that and get off the road and and hopefully we'll have another update soon. I'm sure you'll have updates on that. Um, uh, Mika, I don't know what the update on that is. Um, the last couple times I've been in Meisner, I see it parked, so I have not, um, seen it too much circulating, but maybe you have an update on that. We talked about the inroad crosswalk lights downtown, which everybody loves, which hopefully we will uh get some more of those next year. And one thing that was brought up at strategic planning last year that I brought up was the safe routes to school and really working on that as well. I think that's very important, especially um that Palmetto and 12th corridor right there and working with the county on that. And I know you're also working on the um tunnel under Spanish River Boulevard. So we can get update on that as well. I'd like to hear that um the signalization and opticon that um that is something that the AI that we talk about all the time to to keep traffic moving is something that um that staff is implementing now. And from what I read, the mobility plan is going to be about a year. Is that correct? It'll take about a year to That's correct. So, with the county doing all these, they're kind of doing the preliminary meetings with all the stakeholders and then they're going to take information and and then continue to to work collaboratively with the local

municipalities.

Okay. Okay. One other thing that we talked about um in the past was uh Palmetto Park Road downtown, the speed feedback signs. I don't think I've seen that. I still get a lot of complaints from people downtown with people speeding and it's all over town. It's not just downtown. And um I was on military trail the other day and next to a a black Lamborghini that literally had sparks and fire shooting out the back of it as it sped off next to me and very very loud. So we get a lot of those um complaints and you know what can we do about it? So maybe when you come back next time if there's any suggestions about you know what we can do about those types of things. But people are still speeding a lot on Palmetto Park Road in the downtown. The inroad lights are a huge help. I mean, I can see them from, uh, the west side of the tracks when I'm when I'm crossing over, so they're very visible, but there are still people that speed through them. So, um, thank you for all the upgrades. Thank you for all the work. And let's keep going.

Absolutely. Further comments or questions? Mr. Wer,

thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you, Mr. and Nesh of course and the team for everything that you uh have done and continue to do for uh for bike and pedestrian safety and for just uh just generally to make the city move better. Um in some of your beginning slides you talked about uh that the high you know that the high injury crashes um were yeah that one um they're on the FDOT roads and the county roads and of course as we know those are also probably the higher speed limit roads right these are uh Yamato road or Glades Road where they're going 45 miles an hour and probably far exceeding that like McNas said when racing and and whatnot. Is that what uh is that is that your you know is that what we're seeing is that that the high crashes are happening on high-speed roads.

Yeah. Cor correct. I mean there's a direct correlation with the design speed and those elements where we have our major the major arterials especially as anybody's aware uh during peak times obviously you have kind of the stopand go free flow but if you get on glades at 7 or 8:00 at night it's four lanes wide and and limited traffic activities so there is an element where we see the correlation between those especially on the county and and uh the county and state roads. Yes. My recollection is that as part of the uh I guess it's FDOT as part of the redoing of uh federal highway that there's a certain sector of the downtown where they looked at that and that u again please correct me if I'm wrong but that um that they are discussing or considering reducing the speed limit uh by uh by maybe five miles an hour something like that um in the downtown to maybe alleviate some of those uh issues. Is that uh is that right?

So this the DOT still has held to the position that they have their speed study manual. So they've gone through and and really held to the 85th percentile, but with the city staff at the local level, we've identified specific design constraints. Uh I'll use the uh inlet bridge overpass where you have the bike lane that comes up and then it and then abruptly ends. And obviously uh that there's a historic bridge there. So limited ability for there to be a major change in the near-term future, but we did coordinate with them and and uh thankfully the DOT really appreciate their engineering team evaluated and identified there would be a reduction of speed limit there. And then as part of the the federal program or the federal highway uh from the city limits up to the southeast Meisner Boulevard, that is an area as well that they're looking at it. So with the change in configuration of the roadway, they're evaluating that trafficcoming measure as well. So at those two specific locations, yes, but it's really related to design as well as as it's a design element that's part of it, not just changing the speed.

Thank you. And uh my understanding also is that somewhere right around Meisner Park um that we are I guess lobbying or we're trying to get potentially another uh another crosswalk somewhere right around the Meisner Park uh entrance. Are we are we still working on that? Uh so there is if if you're talking up by uh where by the amphitheater there's been they they've added the enhancements of the RFBs at those locations. Uh and then they've done some protection at at other locations. I'll have to check with staff if there's an additional crosswalk that's being requested. I'm not I'm not familiar with that.

Thank you. And um when we talked about AI signals, I know that there was a pilot program and I attended some of those uh demonstrations um with some of the vendors um and uh obviously really getting capturing good data of how many cars are coming into the city, how many cars are leaving the city, how many pedestrians are pressing the button and literally crossing the street, you know, where we could do potential improvements. Um and my recollection is that uh we are trying to install more AI traffic signals to help with traffic flow uh from 12th Avenue all the way to Meisner to Fifth Avenue to is that is that correct? Where are we with that?

That is true. So, the original corridor that we uh tried a uh artificial intelligence on for our signals. And then just a really quick explanation of that because I've tried to like move away from the term AI. People are just throwing that out so frequently it just kind of watered down. It's essentially a coordinated uh signal timing. So, our cabinets have software and hardware technologies that can both look out and sense cars and then take that sensing information into the software and recalibrate the signal timing. So, if anybody The great news is everybody sits at at stop lightss. So if you're sitting at a red, there's a certain duration, then the green time flows around. Well, this technology looks at a very complicated math problem of a system of stops. So if you're going east west, which is our heavy heaviest corridors, you might hit six stop lightss or hit six greens depending upon the timeline of going through that. What the artificial intelligence does is that the the computer really does the heavy lifting on the math to try and coordinate those and then pull in that sensing data to rettime the corridors in in real time to make more efficient use of traffic. And really what we've seen is about a 15 to 20% efficiency gain in those areas. But it really has to be something over time where the the computer does the work then staff looks at it because of course we want to accommodate uh certain movements that we just know from institutional knowledge. So we started with Yamato. We've also been working on Glades and then Palmetto is the next east west corridor that staff is implementing. But it's certainly something uh from what we've seen that you can't just put in and turn on because it does not work very effectively that way. So we're kind of we're trying to judiciously uh deploy those and then implement corridor by corridor.

No, I appreciate that and I'm sure that people do. If we can improve uh traffic flow by 15 or 20% that uh that's a lot of minutes that we can uh save people a lot of a lot of congestion a lot of vehicle miles driven reduced carbon emissions you know all positive benefits with respect to the railroad obviously um I've seen a lot of mass arm errors uh coming through coming through lately I know that we have no control whatsoever on on the railroads but the question related to the uh these let's call them smarter traffic signals when uh when the railroad comes whether it's a tri rail or bright line which might be let's say a little bit faster or a freight train which takes a significant period of time are these uh smarter uh traffic signals able to kind of uh appreciate the fact that the backup is is you know is getting a little bit longer because there's a train crossing and help clear and help and help clear those intersections. Is it going to be able to learn to help clear those intersections more efficiently uh over time?

Yeah, that's a really good question and it's it's uh the challenge of that is actually kind of two systems speaking two different languages. So, as it stands now, the FEC and the SFRTA rail corridors, the SFRTA is on the western portion uh and then FEC is eastern. Uh those those signals are operated independently by those agency. The city has no control authority over the rail gates. that is completely controlled by them. Uh but they they also have their own signal network and our signal system doesn't tie into that. So two two things not speaking the same language. So what our signals can do is they can have they can they can work after the fact. So after a preeemption happens and the gate go down the queue backs up. Our signals work as effectively as possible to clear those cues and give everybody time. a a future uh system that will exist at some point is the gates will tell our signals, hey, I'm going to drop in a few minutes or do something. Make sure you're clearing these before I go down. That is that is just technology that is not available uh at this time. So, we're we do as effective job as possible to clear from what signal capacity that that we have from our system.

No, thank you. and uh as part of our comprehensive transportation plan, is is that a technology or is that is that a bullet point that we're going to try to make sure is addressed or I'm sure multiple cities clearly are in the same exact position that that we are if if we're preempted by the FC or whatnot, uh that that they all face the same type of thing. Is that something that we're going to try to address in the in the master comprehensive plan? Uh that's I'll I make sure and make a note of it. It's something we'll bring up for sure and see see what we can do with that. That's a that's a good point.

Thank you. Um, with respect to self-driving automobiles, of course, we know Whimo and whatnot are in multiple cities. In San Francisco, I think they drove 2 million miles already. You know, there's been some uh, you know, some errors. Uh, is the city evaluating potential self self-driving vehicle uh, vendors? Uh, where are we with that? So, I think we continue to engage with our our partner guidant and really work on that that downtown program because that's giving us I mean they're working really collaboratively with us, but also of course the city roadways are public and we're open to any vendor that's interested in engaging and using that technology. And I would say from a signal perspective with the city uh in a very unique uh uh and special position of owning and operating our own 141 signals, it positions us really well as that technology continues to advance for those systems to speak to each other and and really maximize that technology. So yes, we're well positioned as a city at this point. We haven't anybody haven't had any of those vendors approach the city to to operate uh within within the city of Brokerton.

Okay. Um, with respect to the safe routes to school, I know we've talked about it for for years. It's it's uh it's important and uh obviously with ebike safety, there's another bill that's in Tallahassee this year to uh I guess further register some of these high-speed ebikes and whatnot. But uh like 12th Avenue is a great example where the sidewalk there next to Addison Meisner School is significantly wider to accommodate of course a lot of the the uh the children um and their parents but their their children who might bike uh who might bike to school and I know you know kind of cross-dep departmentally working with um you know building services and uh Brandon's department you know is that something that um that municipal services and you know the building department services are working together more like that in our building code right in the things that we're trying to promote we should be requiring obviously I think we've expanded them to six feet and maybe 8 feet at certain points but the you know are the recommendations that you're making to other departments that we can include in our building code for example wider sidewalks is is is a great one to promote bike and pedestrian safety

uh so we're we're always evaluating those opportunities in the ordinances I mean that includes includes traffic calming and a a few of those other elements that are related to a policy decision. But I would say even as the development review process engaging with our mobility team, you know, we've really added that lens as we go through and review either development projects or other projects that we're working on in the CIP to make that part of the program that we do. So using our complete streets guides and a few of those other things that we've implemented.

Thank you. And just uh just a couple final questions on actual bike uh actual bike trails. Obviously the El Rio trail expanding that potentially, but the bike and pedestrian committee I know for years has had their uh their project bank, let's call it their their their project bank. Um what's your thought process on addressing some of the you know some of the project bank projects that have been there? Obviously funding is one of them, but um you know what what's the best way for us as a city to start addressing some of those project bank things where we see critical needs or conflict points or whatnot.

Yeah. So I think it's a balancing uh a balance that we're always trying to strike is uh being responsive to the residents and then also just noting that the transportation and traffic projects are infrastructure projects and the the average industry standard timeline for one of those infrastructure projects is anywhere from 2 to 7 years. I mean really to to make a sound either grade separation or some of the major enhancements that the the city staff has been working on as it gets programmed into our CIP and built in. It's always um I guess if I said I had a wish, you know, I would wish that those things would happen faster. At the same time, I've been in the construction industry for a long time and really that dedicated focus is the the the optimal way to maximize that delivery. So that's that's part of the vision zero program. And that's our focusing document that identifies where out of that overall network. Uh I was kind of surprised to see the percentage number myself. Where is the where is the specific areas where we're getting the most value for the dollar spent to to enhance that safety. So I think at least from my perspective I I would say as your public works and engineering director, we really let the datadriven approach take it take root and and guide us on those top projects that we're supposed to be focused on. And of course, I mean, we've recently just added some uh temporary speed cushions, we should call it, at a very local hyper level for an ongoing issue that was outstanding for, I think, seven years. We a few of the residents in the neighborhood just could not get through the traffic calming process. So, from our vision zero policy, we've tried to work with them and and implement that as as a pilot and and evaluation. So, we're going to look at that. So, I would say for those lo for those areas, we're going to continue to try and work with residents and solve those hyper local issues, but really I don't want to take my eye off the ball or lose our focus on those those longer term projects.

Thank you. Thanks for all the work you guys do. Appreciate it. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Further questions or comments? Oh, Miss Necklace. Thank you. I just had one more comment, Mr. Beer, because Mr. Mr. Wigger brought it up about the train um the train arms and the signalization. And I I've had some residents who live in Spanish Village um tell me this all the time because this is the route that they um go all the time. And Mr. Wigger just reminded me um it's happened to me when I've been going north on Dixie and take a left on second.

Okay. As soon as I take the left and about to go over the tracks, the arm comes down and you're immediately the lights start flashing and and you start wondering, do I, you know, speed up and just to get across that track or do I stop before? So, I know that that's happened a lot. I hear your ex your explanation. We don't have any um we don't have any coordination with that's FEC and our traffic signalization there. But that isn't a safety issue where you people make that split-second decision about whether to go across the tracks or or stop really quickly. So, I just wanted to bring that up to you. And I also um just wanted to make the comment that I'll start calling it coordinated signal timing now instead of AI. and [laughter] and um I do like that uh you're tying in with development services and Mr. Shad, you know, really connect the goal that I'd like to see is connecting the trails. We have this great system and um but they're not always they're not connected. So, just being able to get around our whole city and, you know, holding the developers responsible for doing their part in helping to connect those trails, I think is is a very valuable thing for our city. Thank you. Further comments? All right. Thank you. That concludes that matter,

Mr. Zane. Mr. Mayor, that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, city attorney reports? No report. Thank you. Thank you. Council report starting on my left, please. Mr. Thompson. No report. Thank you. Thank you. No report. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Ducker.

I have a report because I gonna do it tomorrow. It's all transit related, so I might as well just put it out there today. So, um, last week I got reappointed to National League of Cities. I'm going to continue to sit on transportation infrastructure services steering committee as one of uh four members I think in the state of Florida at the national level. And why this is important is because this group advocates to Congress. So I'll be up there in DC next month to reauthorize the bipartisan infrastructure bill which is really important has to be reauthorized by September 30 of 2026. And that bill is one of the bills that funds our save for streets for all. So when folks out there ask why am I in DC, why am I in Tallahassee? It's because I'm a architect of policy and we have to advocate so that the money comes to the state, goes to the county and the county puts it back into your cities. Um I also wanted to give a quick update on that regard. I attended my first MPAC meeting which is the organization that has all the NPOS's for the entire 61 counties in the entire state of Florida. And again, we're up there understanding federal priorities, reauthorization efforts so that we could fund our NPOS as a NO chair. Um, I attended that um last week or the week prior to that. I also wanted to give an update on FDOT um to go uh there's a there was an update that was sent to us. I'm not sure if everybody gets it. Uh they're going to be installing the wrongway driving detection system. That's going to be happening on I95 on our corridors. It's also going to include Southern Boulevard, but Congress and Yamato south and north, which basically means that it's going to be flashing as a oneway. A lot of the casualties that have happened um have been people entering that area, the highways, the wrong way at night. So, that should help with some of our crash items. We're also monitoring CSSB 1220 is a general bill transportation at the Florida level. That's the bill that includes our budget. The budget

primarily that I've been focusing on is tri rail. Obviously, trial is really important to get people moving effectively around efficiently at a low cost. So far, budget discussions are looking really well that trial will be refunded will will be funded funded um because they took funding away last year, but that's still under discussions. Um we're also um regarding Tri Rail on Thursday, the groundbreaking link at Bokeh next to Tri Rail will be happening. So, really excited about that. And then lastly, as we continue to update, we're in week five of the legislative session in Florida. We're continuing to monitoring today, this afternoon. We'll know if the Senate Finance and Tax Committee is proposing a property tax bill that's coming out either today. If it comes out today, the hearing will happen on Thursday. Kind of the kind of the last week that we have an opportunity to hear what the Senate has to say. Um what we're hearing is the Senate President is aligning with the governor. Um the Senate President have had some health issues. We wish him well. So, continuing to monitor local business tax, the impact fees, and a new bill that's on our radar. Um, I got the update this morning on our nine o'clock. I sent information to Mr. Sohaney to share with the council. It's called the local government spending bill. Um, the Florida League of Cities opposing this bill. We put further restrictions on our local government on how we spend on our budget. How we run our how we run our budgets, what we spend our budget on, and how we report on our budgets. Uh so that's coming from the CFO and the Florida League of Cities opposes that continuing to monitoring about 14 to 20 bills. Um week five is pivotal because if those bills haven't been heard or calendared, most likely they're not going to make it through the session. So I'll be back in Tallahassee in about a a week and a half. Uh we'll continue to monitor everything that's happening at the federal and at the Florida level and I will give further updates as these things move along. Thank you,

Mr. Wner. Thank you. Uh yes, I was in also in Tallahassee a couple weeks ago for the Palm Beach County League of Cities. Um and I will uh talk about some of the other specific bills that could uh significantly impact uh local government and Boca Raton. Uh I'll talk about a little bit more tomorrow. Nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you. And I wanted to throw out something that u I think I may bring up tomorrow night. concerns the ordinance uh for the uh the enabling ordinances for our downtown campus plan. We have certain parcels there that are not um part of that plan. It would be included in the plan and I think it might make sense to and I've asked uh city attorneys drafted something which I'll discuss with them further and may circulate tomorrow. Um a provision that let me pull it up. a provision that would not necessarily um it would keep other parcels not part of the downtown plan as part of the plan, but would require further ordinance by a future council to include those parcels as part of partaking um in that zoning plan. And I doing this to respond to concerns that some neighbors have raised about traffic and the scale of uh development. And I just as we have other provisions in there that are focusing on what's in front of us, I don't think we necessarily need to take the leap ahead right now. So, I'll bring that up more tomorrow night. I just wanted you to be all able to mle that over now. Um, and with that, if there's nothing further to come before us, we are adjourned at 3:37. Good afternoon.