Commission - Regular Meeting

And I go, why don't you just unplug it from here and plug it in?

Shawnee, you want some Cheez-Its?

Open it now, okay?

The scissors aren't up there? Oh, they're, like, sitting up there. I don't know. No. Oh.

Yeah, so you'll make all that noise.

Well, we're back at, like, one of those you have to, like, rip the top off of the containers. No kidding that quiet.

All right.

Did you appreciate that? I did. That had an extra sense. That was, yeah, I could tell. Bye again. Okay.

I think I started, I put up a clothes rack and really just chat GPT about what to pack on my trip. Oh, for sure. I did it. I mean, it's a little lean, right? You've got to do a little. Yeah, but I overpack so much.

I'm annoyed every time because I want to bring stuff home with me.

I'm like, there's no room for it. I put like a clothes rack.

Thank you. Oh, okay.

We updated a slide.

public comment.

So we did on Thursday. Okay.

Good, how are you? Good, good.

Good to see you again. Yes, I did.

How about you? That was good. Relaxing was good. Yeah.

Yeah. Just relaxing was good. That's what I did.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the City of Boynton Beach City Commission meeting. Today is Tuesday, July 7th, 2026, and the time is now 5.30 p.m. We will now turn to the interim city clerk for roll call.

Commissioner Cruz? Present. Commissioner McCray? Present. Commissioner Kelly? Here. Vice Mayor Turkin?

Present.

Mayor Shelton?

Present. Mayor, you have a quorum. Thank you. Our invocation tonight will be by Commissioner McCray, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner Kelly. Let's all stand for the invocation and pledge of allegiance, please.

Let us bow to the creator and maker of all mankind. Here we stand before you in presence, asking that you look down upon the city of Boynton as well as the leadership here in this city. We ask for your guidance, but most of all, we ask for your wisdom. Let us know to do the right thing, and when it's all over with and said and done, you can go home at night and rest and have a sweet relief. I want to thank you for just watching over us, our family, our city, and most of all, our police officers, as well as our firemen. Continue to keep us in your hand. All these blessings we ask, why? Because you still live. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, It stands one nation under God and invisible with liberty and justice for all.

We are now moving on to the agenda approval, additions, deletions, and corrections. Let's begin with Commissioner McCray.

I'm good, Mayor. Thank you.

And Commissioner Kelly. No, I'm good. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Cruz. That's okay. I'm going to hold off for now. Thank you. No additions, deletions, or corrections. Vice Mayor Turkin.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I'd like to see if we can... I have two things. First, if we can move up 10C to after public comment. I know we have some folks in the crowd, so I just don't want them to have to wait here and we can move this item up and start that discussion. The second thing is... under the city manager's report, I'd like to have a very brief follow-up discussion from our budget workshop, because there was some uncertainties that I had as far as the COLA, and then there was some discussion about cuts being made to provide that. Neither of those are actually formally in the budget, so I'd like to just get some clarity on that, if it's okay with my colleagues, under the city manager's report at that, because I know, I'm sure the city manager will have some conversation with that at all.

Where do you want to move it up? Before or after public audience?

For 10C, after public audience.

Okay.

So it would then be 6.

Yep. Right before 6. If nothing else, may we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended?

Motion to approve as amended.

Second. We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. Dan, did you have something you wanted to add?

No, Mayor. That was what the Vice Mayor brought up was what I was going to ask.

We'll now move on to informational items by the member of the City Commission. Let's begin with Commissioner Cruz.

I just want to thank staff for a fantastic 4th of July celebration. The fireworks I heard were the longest in the county and I just want to commend everybody who had anything to do with that and it was amazing. I also want to say I had the pleasure of attending a 250th celebration with the Historic Preservation Board and the Girl Scouts painting rocks. It was really wonderful and I believe we may have some rocks coming up in the future. to the meeting. Thank you. Vice Mayor Turkin.

No, I just want to ditto my colleague sentiment about July 4th. It was a grand slam. Great job guys. And a shout out to the police department for, um, keeping everyone safe and, um, just managing that, that, uh, event very well.

I, too, would like to make a comment about the police in comparison to last year. This year was much smoother for the Fourth of July, and I got a lot of text messages and compliments on the police this year in comparison. So I know it's one of the hardest nights for them to work, but it actually was very, very smooth and much more compliments than last year. Commissioner Kelley?

Thank you. I also just echo the sentiments of my colleagues. I think that the rain held people off at the beginning, and so, you know, next year my only thought would be to put introductions and stuff a little bit later so that people are there. We had a You know, it was a light crowd at the beginning, but then it was a packed house. But everything was smooth sailing. I got good reports from everyone. So thank you to all of the staff from all the different departments because it's not just the events that pull this off. It's every single one of our departments from public works to police to fire. So just thank you to everyone for coming together to make that a great 250th celebration. So thank you.

And Commissioner McGrath.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to ditto what everybody else has said, but I'd really like to say to staff for coming back. Thank you for making me feel welcome and back at home and everything. You all was terrific, fantastic. Hats off to you. Anything I wanted, I think if I wanted to be thrown in the water, you all would have taken care of that as well. You really took care of me and my family. I just want to say thank you. I want to also put a plug in for the Juneteenth celebration that was held at Sarah Sims Park. That was only one observation. It came from two former commissioners who live out on the west side of town on Congress Avenue. And they wanted to know why we did not have signs out there, you know, advertising the Juneteenth celebration. I told them next year we'll make sure that they're out there. They said because they live out there and they felt like they should have been a part of the affair, which they was there with the sorority, the fraternity. Also, I'd like to put a plug in for the wrapping of the witness here at City Hall. Excellent job. Fantastic job. When I came up and I looked at the door when they first started, I said, wow, that's cute. Then I came back a couple days later, and I can't tell you what I said because I'm on the microphone. But I just want to tell you all, staff, continue to do what you're doing. We've got great people here in this city. We have great employees. They have talents. And they're finally stepping up to the plate, and they're using them. Keep doing what you're doing. You're making Boynton look good, and you're making us feel real good. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to item 3A. It is a public hearing item. Does staff have a presentation? And I can, Tammy, will you read 3A into the record?

Proposed ordinance number 26-024, first reading and ordinance of the city commissioner of Boynton Beach, Florida, approving amendments to the comprehensive plan of the city of Boynton Beach, Florida to implement necessary updates and revisions providing for severe ability conflicts and providing for an effective date.

Good evening, Amanda Radigan, Development Director. Thank you all for starting this meeting a little bit earlier so we could get through some pretty heavy material. I will be presenting half of this presentation, and then Gabe Spigny, the Interim Planning Director, will be presenting the other half. We are also accompanied by Chen Moore and Associates, who assisted with this effort, by Nielsa and Osneil both. So this project has been a long time coming this chart is starting from July 15th almost exactly a year ago we had our kickoff meeting with the Commission. Obviously, this board had a lot to do with it before it was a budgeted in the prior years and also procured in the prior years, since the kickoff meeting we have held to public engagement workshops, we have done a public survey. And our consultants have attended several public events, including Pirate Fest, First Fridays, and the Business Pop-Up. We have held a commission workshop. We've held two. And that brings us to here today, which we are doing both a workshop and a first reading together. Last time we talked about this, the question came up about what other amendments were done. And I wanted to be clear that there hasn't been a comprehensive overhaul of the comprehensive plan. And in the last 26 years, these are the amendments that were done, and they were all very targeted amendments. The last one that we did was in 23, and it simply added the property rights element that was required by statute. The one before had revision specifically to the coastal management elements. And the two other ones, again, were very narrow in scope based on changes in state statute. So for at least the last 26 years, there has not been a comprehensive look at the comprehensive plan. So what's in this amendment? Because it is a lot. There are over 130 changes within the amendment, 21 additional policies, 41 deletions, 72 modifications, 10 affected elements, which are all of the elements, and there was one new element added, which is economic development. So when we say this is a comprehensive overhaul, it really is throughout the entire document. There are three areas that we looked at in terms of updating. One is statutory compliance. This is where we make sure that we are following the laws based by the state. The second is policy alignment. So in this time, we've adopted lots of plans, such as the mobility plan, and this is the amendment that gets them integrated into our comprehensive plan. And the third is we modernize this, so this document could actually be used as a governance tool. There are four strategic directions that kind of oversee a lot of the changes. The first one that we walked through was the climate resilience, the second is multi-mobility planning, the third is neighborhood quality, and the fourth is governance modernization. Now there are 13 themes, I won't go over these because I have one slide per each of these 13 themes, but essentially what we did is we took all of these 130 amendments and we tried to categorize and group them. So these are the 13 groups that we came up with. There are 12 themes and the last one is the brand new element and these range from things as mundane to housekeeping all the way to the emergence of a brand new economic development element. So they're pretty widespread. All of the elements do not work alone. Everything is working together. So for example, something like complete streets integration is not only a mobility change, but it is also a climate change. Okay, and here's the meat of it. So the first theme, the first and second theme is plan-wide housekeeping and terminology and agency updates. So some of the directions, we didn't get explicit direction except from the state from this theme. We essentially had to update all of our planning practices to be compliant with the state statute. We had to remove some measurability statements and we also had to reflect legal accuracy and ADA compliance. So that directly, Affected the amendments by changing nuances and words like handicapped to move to disabled County MPO changed to Palm Beach MPO really housekeeping items The third theme is mobility plan integration and complete streets This was a big one so some of the direction we got the Commission raised that we need stronger coordination with our County roads and and that we need to avoid duplicative efforts with some of our partner agencies. There were a couple of the survey questions that directly affected some of these changes. Traffic management ranked top three for citywide investment priorities. Sidewalks ranked top three for desired access improvements. And the commission also asked us to look at integrating water taxis and blueways into the plan. So how that affected the changes. One of the objectives was rewritten from the soft language of promoting pedestrian friendly environments to establishing a connected bike network. We're also changed policies that require GIS based facility inventories. We replaced the 2025 era transit circulator study with the transit plan that's included within the mobility plan. The fourth theme is coastal hazard policy modernization. The commission asked us to raise water raised waterfront navigability improvements, including the buoyant inlet, as well as in the workshop presentation included detailed hurricane evacuation right analysis for all major corridors. So we updated the applicable policies. The policies were revised that reference the old 16 hour evacuation and category five storms to the most recent regional hurricane evacuation studies and local clearance time analysis. We also removed some data deadlines to amend LDRs. Theme five is public transit mode share. One of the survey questions said specifically that public transportation options ranked as the third highest deficiency identified by residents after retail options and school systems. So what did that do for the policy amendments? We updated to encourage public transit to reduce motor vehicle use and traffic congestion, aligning with the city's adopted mobility plan and current transit partnership goals with POMTRAN. And the coordination effort was added as a requirement for the city to coordinate with PalmTran and regional transit providers to improve route coverage, frequency, and connectivity throughout the planning area. Gabe is going to cover the next five themes.

Good evening, Commission. Gabe Savigny, Interim Director of Planning and Zoning. So again, yes, I would just like to point out again that all these themes coordinate throughout the entire plan. You'll notice like on the right side of the screen, you'll have policies in Chapter 1 and Chapter 5. Chapter 1 being the future land use map and Chapter 5 being the recreation and open space. So we're just trying to coordinate that some of the survey comments that came out and the comments that came from commission does affect throughout the entire plan. So again, for parks and open space and green space preservation, proposed evaluating underused parks for alternative public uses and expressed concern regarding park to housing conversions. So some of those policies that we are building in would formally prioritize enhancement and reinvestment into existing parks. Also creating multimodal access in all parks to include bicycle parking and all revitalized and new parks and updating for ADA requirements throughout the city. Water supply and utilities planning. So this was largely updated through the utilities department based off of some of the feedback from presentations highlighting the water supply planning as a cross-cutting issue spending utilities and the future land use plan. So again, there's policies that we're affecting in both the utility section and the future land use plan section. Housing and neighborhood, I do want to point out that this one was also a rather large one based off of the feedback from both the survey and the commission. So some of the concern is about rezoning compatibility and neighborhood character, calls for identifying obstacles to prevent single family owners from improving their properties, and some of the top three priorities out of the survey that was done by the local citizens. So some of these policies require residential areas to be adequately buffered from incompatible non-residential uses with sensitive transitions. Directs the city to coordinate with housing agencies. This is an update to make sure that we are working with Palm Beach County. And in the next one, there is a new goal, two objectives, and actually 13 sub-policies that establish a formal neighborhood improvement program based off of neighborhood plans. as outlined in the next policy that establishes neighborhood plans as formal criteria for review. Over the next few years to several years, you'll start to see some of these start to develop, being with the input from the residents as well as coming to the body for final approval. So the conservation element, again, it's updating a lot of the state and local names. It's updating policies to match stormwater runoff requirements and other key changes that's done throughout the entire document. Some of the direction received, commission directed for green infrastructure and living seawalls, and also on the survey, environmental stewardship. So again, policies were restructured, and two new policies for acquisition and conservation easements, and when it comes to property rights, and establish a case-by-case reevaluation for conservation. There's also two more policies, not listed here, but protecting the manatee habitats and promoting artificial reef seagrass restricting and mitigate baking. So then we move to industrial modernization and design standards. This one, respondents from the survey identified design features for site plans and buildings. So what was updated and or added were requiring a five-year review cycle of future land use for both commercial and industrial, new policies to direct the city to support industrial modernization, requiring CRA redevelopment to prioritize complete streets, activity nodes, and urban design guidelines. and a new policy directing the city to protect character, quality of life, and business community. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT SECTION DID GET A PRETTY GOOD OVERHAUL AS WELL WITH OUR NEW CIP DIRECTOR THAT CLEANED UP A LOT OF THE OUTDATED INFORMATION, DATES, THINGS LIKE THAT, BY CREATING AND UPDATING NEW POLICIES, REWRITING FOR THE CIP COMMITTEE FOR PROJECT EVALUATION CRITERIA AND PROPORTIONATE SHARE REQUIREMENTS EXPANDED THROUGHOUT THAT SECTION. Climate resilience and tree canopy some of those again identified through here are the living sea walls and green infrastructure land comfort conservation in the tree canopy being a large one throughout many of the other things as well. This one again you see an actual whole new objective that was added. with the policies being added to reflect those changes. There's also several other objectives that were added to establish former tree canopies throughout the city and establish the city to work with one another in other departments locally and at the state and county level. AGAIN, THE EXCITING ONE IS THE NEW ELEMENT, THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ELEMENT. IT ADDED FIVE TOTAL OBJECTIVES WITH 20 NEW POLICIES TOTAL. OBJECTIVES FOR BUSINESS-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT, WORKFORCE READINESS, REDEVELOPMENT AND REINVESTMENT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGULATORY SUPPORT, AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND RESILIENCE. So back to the recap, again, there were over 130 changes, but just note several of those were updating dates, removing old language that was no longer affected, and it did go through the entire document with four strategic decisions, and then with one created a new theme, or element, excuse me. That's the presentation from staff. Chin Moore does have a very detailed presentation if you would like them to go into each one of those.

Or if you would like to ask questions this time we can at your direction I Don't have questions, but you know, I do have some concerns Having met with Inca that has a lot to do with the waterway here in Boynton We felt that we should include a parking contingency plan You know which shows proposed modifications to the site plan, you know what parking agreements for off-site parking Valley parking layout with service hours and our association agreements which show an availability of increased parking. Parking is a problem here in Boynton. If you all could address that for me, please.

Commissioner McCray, I think that that is for the marina item that is coming up later on the agenda. Thank you.

Any questions? Comments? Just for clarification, is there anything about a train station in this? I know that's been discussed and thrown around and people don't want that and so I just want to make sure From everything that I've dug in through I haven't seen any of that there there isn't a proposal for a train station within the comprehensive plan and

There has been planning documents that were done outside of the comprehensive plan that cite a station within Boynton Beach, but that was not done by the city.

It was done by- No, it was done by, I think, the county or maybe a DOT.

Yes, there have been planning efforts to be able to be eligible for a site, which is resulting in the development that we have now, but there's no additional efforts here to cite a train station.

And then for the mobility portion, for the waterway mobility, it says like up to, or it says 10 taxi stops. I don't know if that's feasible or not, so I'm assuming it could up to 10.

Yeah, so the 10 is cited from the mobility plan itself, so there are some predetermined locations through that study. It can be up to 10. Obviously, this is a living document. It'll start with one or two, and as activity grows, it'll grow.

Awesome. Okay.

Amanda, you know, in regards to what vice mayor said about a train station years ago, we was talking about placing a train station by the tracks for bright line. That was what was coming up. But like we said, this does not include that. I think the train station really went away with the development of what we've done downtown.

You need a motion? Yeah, since we will now be acting in our role as the local planning agency, may we have a motion for approval?

I'm sorry, we need public comment first.

Oh, okay. Any public comment?

Sorry about that.

If anyone would like to comment on this, now is the time to come down on this item, come to the podium.

For the mobility. Just for the mobility. Comprehensive plan.

Yeah, not for the turtles. You'll have your time. Of course, of course. Tortoises, sorry. That'll be during public comment. Yeah, but not now, not now. It'll be during the public comment, don't worry.

On the mobility thing, one of the things you have in your mobility plan. Can you please state your name? I'm sorry, Harry Woodworth, Boynton Beach. One of the things you have in your mobility plan is a lot of walking and biking, that's fine. The stuff you've got in the marine overlay assumes a lot of walking and biking. Part of that is contingent on actually having sidewalks you can walk and bike on, which we don't. So I don't know how that comes together in the comp plan, but you can't have A without B. I mean, it's got to come together. If you're not going to do walking and biking to these things you've got added to the waterfront overlay, you're going to have to add parking because there's no other way to get there. That's just my comment. It doesn't come together. Thanks.

Hi, Barbara. I just want to remind the public, if you guys did not already remind them, tomorrow, July 8th, The county is coming to our cultural center between the hours of 6 o'clock and 8 o'clock, seeking public input on the county mobility study, which directly impacts us, obviously. So if people are available, this is an opportunity to speak up about the county's mobility study tomorrow, 6 to 8, downtown.

You guys riding together?

Yeah. Okay, if there was no one left to speak, do we have a motion to propose ordinance 26-024 on the first reading? As the local planning agency? As the local planning agency.

May I make one comment before we vote? Vice Mayor Turkin, I did find something regarding a rail, so I want to read it in for you, and you guys can tell me if you'd like to amend it. This is an existing policy. It wasn't amended through this process. Policy two point four point seventeen reads the city shall strive to adapt its transportation network to accommodate the anticipated passenger passenger rail service on the FEC corridor With a new station in the city CRA to implement transit oriented development and provide superior access to the future downtown station this the city shall plan for and then there are four things underneath and complete streets, short blocks, pedestrian and bicycle-friendly design, and a bicycle network with primary routes defined with adequate bike lanes. So I can remove references in here to the station and just promote pedestrian-friendly transit orientation. Get out of my head.

That's exactly what I was going to say. I'm okay with what we're trying to do there. Just remove the passenger rail. But not for the reasoning of the train station because... If you go back, you had, you know, you had our height limit increase and a lot of things change to try to boost development, to anticipate a transition. Yet when you look at Brightline, they're struggling. And then other cities are entertaining them. And then the cities and the taxpayers then get foot with the bill at the 11th hour and the deal falls through. And then what you see is an exponential waste of resources between staff time. you know, and, and effort going into this. So unless, you know, it comes, I don't think we should plan for it. Um, but as far as the criteria that goes under that, that section, I think those are, those are friendly items.

Okay. So if I may suggest then with the approval, please. include an amendment to policy 2.4.17 that removes reference to a passenger rail service.

That's 2.4.17? 2.417. 2.417.

Real quick, Amanda, I would just... I'm hesitant because there have been conversations at the MPO with as far as future looks at SunRail and that option, which is similar to TriRail, which is what they've been... It's on their super long-term plan out. So I... And we have... It's kind of ramped up conversations a little bit more recently. And so I just am hesitant to completely strip that in the plan, even though it's not something we're actively seeking, but without knowing the MPO's position and plan pushing forward. Because I just don't want... yeah but i understand the you know i you know i don't want our residents to incur the cost and maintenance and and all that if it's not providing an actual benefit to our residents into the city that's using it and what i can say is reference to the station within the comprehensive plan does not add or deter from a station coming to the six

The MPO, when the time comes, if the MPO feels ready, it could be proposed. It could be approved without it being within the comprehensive plan. Strictly, Planning Director, we have been planning towards transportation-oriented development for a very long time. A lot of the things in this policy we have been working towards already. Removing the reference to the passenger rail doesn't eliminate the possibility of it coming in full transparency.

Okay, that's fine. I'm fine with that amendment as long as it just doesn't strip all the work that other planning agencies that focus on transportation have been working on for years and years and years.

Okay. As the local planning agency, I would recommend a motion to approve the comprehensive plan with the amendments to 2.4.17, removing reference to a train station.

Passenger rail service. Passenger rail, excuse me. Yes, so moved.

Is that so moved as a little?

Second. We have a second, okay. We have a motion and we have a second. All those in, roll call. Got it. Got it. Got it. Close.

That was close. Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin?

Yes.

Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Then as the city commission, I would make the same motion regarding approval of the proposed comprehensive plan and sending it to the state based upon the vote of the local planning agency with amending 2.417 with regard to removal of the passenger rail as discussed. We have that motion.

So moved. Second. We have a motion, we have a second. I'll turn for roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

We are moving on to public audience. I know a lot of people are here to speak about the tortoises. We have moved that up on the agenda, so I don't know if you all plan on speaking, but we will be getting to that item. As always, the three minutes per person, non-transferable. This is not a Q&A. Same rules apply. The speaker must address the commission as a whole, not any individual. Insults, personal attacks, and disruptions will not be permitted. You will be asked to leave if you violate these rules. After we concluded those in person, we will then go to online. So anybody that would like to speak, I ask that you get up and line up at both podiums so we can keep things moving quickly.

Yeah, we'll do it after. How are you doing?

Please begin. Former Commissioner.

David Katz, Point Beach. First, I'd like to thank you for taking the train station to the train station. Thank you. What's so important about what happened on July 4th, the way all staff presented that, if you take into account the current discourse in our country right now, you had close to 8,000 people there. No issues, no problems. People from all political strains, economic strains, friends. Yes, Thomas. Friends, neighbors, relatives. 8,000 people came for one specific reason, and that was to celebrate her 250th anniversary. And it came off without a hitch, and it was wonderful. And just one last comment. I don't know if you know what's... black and white, and red all over. No, it's not the Palm Beach Post. Thank you.

Next, please, on my left, which would be your right. Yeah, we're gonna alternate so we can keep stepping up to the podium.

Which should I go to?

The one you're at. Yeah, please state your name.

Renee Meisner. Good afternoon, or good evening, excuse me. So, unfortunately, we have to be here again to discuss our neighborhood. and it's quite sad considering it's not just tortoises that are endangered, it's the actual forest itself. Part of the City of Boynton Beach's website is dedicated to integrity, the historic preservation program, and to the local planning, excuse me, review process, and to increase public awareness to our community's unique history. That's part of Boynton Beach's website. While Boynton Beach Forest also known as the last recognized green spaces within the city is being illegally altered. And I say illegally because on May, 2026, we watched crews clear vegetation without getting any type of proper permits. And unfortunately we saw some dead animals that we were praying would not happen. What I was able to actually uncover was something called the take permit that lets you pave over or fill burrows, leaving animals to starve to death and die. Clear-cutting the forest has already started before the appropriate permits have been approved and we're not going to stand for it. We've been living there and this is our backyard. This is where we live and it's devastating to see not just the forest being affected, but it's our neighborhood. This is where we pay taxes, where we live. A majority of the people in here have been there since the 80s. The forest is something that we IT'S NOT JUST THE TORTOISES, IT'S NOT JUST THE PLANTS, IT'S NOT JUST THE TORTOISES, IT'S NOT JUST THE PLANTS, IT'S NOT THE TREES OR ALL THE OTHER IT'S NOT THE TREES OR ALL THE OTHER IT'S NOT THE TREES OR ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS AROUND IT. ANIMALS AROUND IT. ANIMALS AROUND IT. IT IS PART OF A GREEN SPACE THAT IT IS PART OF A GREEN SPACE THAT IT IS PART OF A GREEN SPACE THAT NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED IN THE NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED IN THE NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED IN THE CITY OF WHITTON BEACH. CITY OF WHITTON BEACH. CITY OF WHITTON BEACH. AND I'M ASKING THAT EVERYONE AND I'M ASKING THAT EVERYONE AND I'M ASKING THAT EVERYONE P

Make one comment before we continue going on. We do have a motion. We are going to be discussing a declaration for a restrictive covenant. So that is just for the part that the city has. So what's been going on in the county, unfortunately we are not gonna have any control over. So I just wanna let everyone know that if that's something that you're concerned about, we can only, what we're gonna discuss next is the restricted covenant. So on the land that we can do it on. So... I don't know how this board is going to vote, but I know that that is our main goal is to discuss this and get it done. So if it's your frustration on the county side and this developer, unfortunately our hands are tied on that.

Well, it's not just the county.

We have to move on to the next person.

Okay. Thank you. Not a problem.

Good evening. I'm Stacey Lee Sherwood, and I wanted to address the Boynton's or Nichols Forest parcel. It's been called unused land, but there is no such thing as unused land. That's just what developers call space that they haven't yet built on. In fact, this parcel, like all undeveloped land, is very much used by dozens of species of trees, shrubs, flowers, and wildlife, some of which are legally protected in the state, and I've actually documented quite a lot of that. We know this is home to several documented endangered gopher tortoises, which were just mentioned, as well as several documented native flowers and trees. Its value for them is immeasurable and priceless, but its value for people is also priceless and immeasurable. Countless studies have shown that living near open space adds to property value. It's a way for people to enjoy it, and de-stress from our busy, chaotic, divisive life that we live in. This parcel must be protected from development that we don't legitimately need or want. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. And I think that this fits into the quality of life that you had just mentioned moments ago. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please, sir.

Michael Corcoran, Boynton Beach. I've lived in Boynton Beach since 1980. I bought in the Woodside Homes development. I bought this section because it was backed up by woods. I've enjoyed the woods, having the woods here and where it is, and all the animals that crawl on to my space and eat and poop, whatever they do, and on my property. I think it's a, I've been here numerous times for the same reason. We keep on redoing over and over and over again about this property that we wanna save, and it seems that nobody can get their stuff together and say, well, we own the property, but I guess the county has to rezone it. I don't care what you guys do, whether you take $200 out of your curse jar or whatever it is, call somebody up in West Palm Beach, take them out to lunch, do something to say, how can we do this? How can we get this rezoned? How can we get this so that we can satisfy these people? and this development. So we don't have to keep on doing this over and over and over again. I don't know if you guys are waiting for us all to die or for us to go away or for us to forget it. We're not going to. So please get together with all everybody and vote on it, but vote yes that we can preserve this as a preserve and not just tear it up and put housing in or whatever you plan on doing or not doing. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jake Lang. I just have a question, actually, for all of you guys, if you don't mind me asking. I would just like to know maybe where each one of you guys are born and raised or from. Is that possible? Can I get a response from everyone?

We don't answer questions like that, no.

Oh, shoot. Came up all hot on that one. Sorry about it.

No worries. Next, please.

Cindy Falco de Corrado, I'm also very concerned about our endangered species called life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We're living under communism and you don't even know it. You're being encroached upon every day. I want to talk about transparency and how our tax dollars are being spent. We're told flock cameras, drones, cameras in every corner, and smart meters are for our protection, yet the proposed budget includes approximately $2.2 million for additional surveillance. That's not freedom, my friends. If you are going to spend the money, put it in every police station, every government building, so that we, your bosses, can see how much crime and waste is being done. Again, your life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is being invoked upon every day when you're being watched 24-7. As for me and my house, I respectfully state for the record that I do not consent to unnecessary tracking of myself, my husband, our home, our vehicle through flock cameras, smart water meters, and smart electric meters or any similar technologies. I also oppose the charging residents $55 just to come out to read your meter when you opt And I encourage every American to opt out of the smart meter readers. They watch everything you do. If you don't mind being watched 24-7, even if you're doing nothing wrong, just to know that there's eyes on your life, only besides God Almighty. I also oppose that Boynton Beach provides fire rescue services. Did you know that? To Ocean Ridge, to High Paluxo, to Briny Breeze, and to the Village of Gulf. Are those municipalities paying their fair share or are Boynton Beach taxpayers subsidizing those services? I encourage every resident to request the fire rescue agreement, annual payments, and cost of service studies through public records. I also want to say we provide water and sewer services outside of our city. Did you know that? Are you, are we, the Boynton Beach taxpayers being adequately compensated? I encourage the public to request the intercoastal, interlocal, excuse me, agreements and rare studies, rate studies. Why are residential customers paying rates comparable to commercial customers for trash pickup? Do you realize you're paying the same rate and a business is supposed to pick up that burden because of course they're businesses and they use more trash than you and I as a resident, but yet They're paying the same price you do. Please make the solid waste rate study available for a public review. Finally, public office is public trust. Every dollar in this budget belongs to the taxpayers. We deserve transparency, accountability, and responsible stewardship of every public dollar. P.S., about paying pensions to police that allegedly sexually assault and they go and they retire, but yet we're paying them $7,509 a month. for a pension? What is wrong with us as Americans? Why are we allowing this? Why are we paying so much pensions? I encourage every American to look to see what you're paying for fire departments and police pensions. It is ridiculous. Do you make that much money? Because I sure don't. And they paid a settlement of $275 for the woman who was sexually alleged raped or sexually abused by this Sergeant Fabrice. Thank you. Wake up and do your due diligence.

And excuse me, in the back, can you not block the clock, please? Appreciate it. Next, please.

Michael Swarzena, 9341 Longmeadow Circle, Boynton Beach, Florida. Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Commission, staff, thank you so much for this opportunity. It's a real interesting time here because this is a complex matter, right? We do have the city parcels abutting the county parcels. We do have development on one, not the other. And no matter who I'm talking to, it's kind of something that's challenging to square away in terms of the scope of what's being discussed. So It's a pleasure and it's really unique because right now in Florida, there's a lot of people that are just having their voice taken from them. They don't feel heard, they don't feel like they have representation, they don't feel like they have the ability to go out and make a difference. That's due to some of the legislation that's been passed at the state level. And so it's a real breath of fresh air to be able to come here, voice our concerns. I sent over an email packet that contained, I think we're about to touch 2,800 change.org petitions. We have over 500 people, local residents that signed a separate petition. We have evidence that there is protected species on site. There is a lot of Value to keeping this green space when you zoom out when you zoom out on that aerial map and just see how little unadulterated land there is It really kind of puts into perspective. What's being discussed here, so I really am hopeful that I We've done our part. We've met, we've continued to put in hard work, get signatures, get bodies, do everything that we can. And it's funny that every time Nichols Boulevard and the Boynton Forest is on the agenda item, it's like the room gets really full really fast. So I think that's a really great thing. And I'm really hopeful that if we do see some preservation here, that it's also recognized what the city of Boynton Beach has done, right? The commission, the vice mayor, the mayor, and the city staff have actually done to effectively preserve this land, show that they're listening to residents, constituents, et cetera, and make a difference. So thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening, Brianne Hagquist, Boca Raton. With me tonight are my friends Thaddeus and Little Ted, our spokes tortoises who are advocating for green space and wildlife. I'd like to call special attention tonight to Little Ted, the hatchling, as this is tortoise mating season and these little guys have started hatching out. I'm here because I want to tell you how I saved the urban forest in Sugar Sand Park, which is an endangered gopher tortoise habitat, twice. First, from becoming ball fields, and second, from a cell tower that was going to go over an active tortoise burrow. Gopher tortoises are an endangered and protected species. This means it's illegal to touch, feed, relocate, or harass them. If one is endangered, for example, moving one out of the street to be run over, it's okay to touch it and rescue it. Their habitat and burrows are also protected, meaning it's illegal to damage the land or bury a burrow. Burrows can be up to 10 feet deep and 40 feet long. Gopher tortoises are known as keystone species, which means they can help shelter over 350 other species by sharing their burrows. If the development is approved and tortoises are required by law to be relocated before the ground is broken, then the street or community usually gets a name like Tortoise Trail, Burrow Lane, or in this case, it's going to be Turtle Square, hopefully not. And the community gets a cute nature-themed little logo tortoise out in front. Well, the poor tortoise is left somewhere else trying to dig a new home in compacted landfill dirt. Welcome to Overdevelopment Florida 2026. Thank you. Thank you.

Next, please.

Hello. My name is Alani Welker. I moved.

Sorry, one second. Can you close the back door, please? Thank you. Sorry, continue.

Okay, thank you. Hello, my name is Alani Welker. I moved to Boynton Beach. We bought our first home in August of this past year. And not only do I live here, I also work at the Boynton Beach Mall. I coach kids at Capoeira Carcara, kids in this neighborhood from four to 12 years old. So I have a lot of invested into this community. And just as the gentleman said here before that's lived here since the 80s, a lot of us moved here specifically because of this green space. I heard some kind of patronizing diminishing of the issue. Just calling it tortoise, but that is not just all it is These 72 townhomes would bring a potential 144 new drivers into this neighborhood There are multiple kids on this street on my street on all the streets in the area that walk From their bus stop to their homes. That would be dangerous for them. It also brings us less protection from the storms It brings higher temperatures it brings it worsens noise pollution from the busy streets. It also would exacerbate well issues. If you're aware of this neighborhood and understand the realities that the people in this neighborhood live through, the well water is a huge issue. When I walked around and discussed with my neighbors about this issue, that was something that came up over and over again. By removing this forest, you are directly putting their well water at risk. Why am I being, are you going to pause the clock? from their bus stop to their homes. That would be dangerous for them. It also brings us less protection from the storms. It brings higher temperatures.

They're fixing it.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So as you can see, there are a myriad of other issues here besides the gopher endangered gopher tortoises. And those are a huge thing. There's a lot of value beyond just a development. I would also like to point out that, yes, there are a lot more people here this week than there were here two weeks ago at the last commissioner meeting. And yes, these people may not be as familiar with the political process. They may not be as quick or as aware as the person who was here earlier. She was trying to understand when she was supposed to speak. I would ask that as commissioners, as elected officials, as people who chose to be in this position, that you do not patronize my community. You do not look down and, and, you know, have tone with people that do not understand the process. You were elected for this position. So yes, you may understand, but it's not expected for every single person to. So again, you're, um, You do have a lot of power. You keep saying that there's no power. If it's the county, okay, but as an elected commission, you do have power. You could fight to keep this forest, keep the Boynton Beach forest, and help us have less high temperatures, have less traffic, less noise pollution, and protect our well water. There are a myriad of issues here, not just the tortoises. Thank you. Next, please.

Hello, I'm here to talk about Boyer Park. Can you please state your name? Elizabeth Pierce Rowe, 637 Oak Street, Boynton Beach. I've lived over in the area for 28 years. I've owned three homes in District 2, one in District 3 over the last 42 years. So I'm a little familiar with the city of Boynton. But I was just trying to get some information about the Boat Club Park, Boyer Park. I just noticed that they started removing the grills, they removed the playground, they removed the fishing pier. They started charging for people to park in places that boat trailers are. In the past, as many years as I've been there, I've never noticed that you would get a ticket even if somebody had paid to park there. They're like, no, this is for boat trailers only. We are off season and I see tickets being given out And there's 100 parking spots that are open. And I just feel that I don't know if there's being pressure putting on over on the park. I know that there's an overlay that's coming in. But I was just concerned about that. Another is we've been able in the past to have dogs there. We actually had a poop station with a little fairy on it with her wand. And that disappeared. And a lot of people were like, well, you shouldn't have dogs over at the boat ramp. But if you actually are a boater, you're going to recognize that a lot of people take their pets with them. And as soon as they come to shore, they get off the boat and they have to go to the bathroom. Well, now that those have been removed, it's harder to keep the park clean. So I just was wondering if we can find out yes dogs or no dogs or or maybe we can change the sign of the ordinance that's been there for over 30 years of what can and can't go on in that park. I'd like to get some support from our District 2 Commissioner as well. Also, let me see, if I could just get some update at some point in time with what's going on in the Intercoastal Park. I appreciate it. That's one reason why I've moved there. That's one reason why I was on the Parks and Rec Advisory Board for 28 years. Because that was an important part to me, but thank you very much And I hope that we can get some things going with that park over there and that is best for the city of Boynton Thank you next please Well, my name is Linda McBride I'm from Boynton Beach, and I made a little poster that sums it up.

It says safe pristine land and because I've lived in Palm Beach County since 1973. And over the course of these years, I looked to the left, I mean, well, where did that empty lot go? Look to the right of me, where'd that empty lot go? And it's just been so much development, Palm Beach County. And I think that free space is just so necessary for us. Now, I live miles away from the Turtle-Nichols area, and I went there for the first time two days ago, and it was just, it was so joyous to see some actual native pristine land. And obviously, once it's gone, it's gone. So we need to do whatever we can to keep some native pristine land for our kids to play in, for everybody's emotional well-being. So I'd like for this to be a very important issue for all of us to try to save the tiny little bit of land that we still have. And I know John Prince Park has a little tiny sliver of it, but me thinking where else is there actually pristine land? I can't think of anything. So I think this is a very important issue and I appreciate your consideration on that.

Hi, my name is Jay Keyes, and I am a resident and homeowner of the neighborhood that will be impacted by the Turtle Square proposed project. I am also in the real estate industry, and I cannot for the life of me understand why this is even being thought of yet again. There are over 60 acres of parking lot available at the Boynton Beach Mall. There's over 100 acres within half a mile. That is according to the Palm Beach property appraiser website. your own records. I do not understand why that would not be evaluated further or pushed. I know that it is private property, not under your control as well. With that being said, this being labeled workforce housing is likely a ruse at best, if we're being honest, and through no fault of their own. Development costs are extremely, extremely high, but workforce will not be owning these units. I think we all know that here today. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, please, sir.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I have a unique matter. We purchased a house at 2003 Southwest 20th Place in Boynton several years ago for a flip with a real estate agent by the name of Debbie Altman. She took us nine months to finish the house. The house was uninhabitable. We filed a police report because she's stating now that it was a gift to the tune of $130,000 and nine months of work on our behalf, which I have copies of invoices that were sent to the police department to Detective Drury since in the last month, who in the last month has not contacted us and told us that Boynton Beach has, the White Collars Crime Unit has a, a bigger problem of knifings and killings. And so this is not in her... let's say, at the top of the list. It's down at the bottom. So we contacted the state attorney's office, and the state attorney's office told us to contact the Boynton Beach Police Department because it starts there, and then it gets handled, sent over to the attorney's office, to the state, and They told us to to try again and escalate the matter and so I'm wondering if we can get the mayor to contact the police department and get the sergeant or the chief of police of white-collar crimes to subpoena the documents so that just so detective jury the only thing that she told us was that Debbie Altman doesn't want to answer any questions because she has a lawyer. Well, that's lovely. So why not put her in a room with her lawyer and subpoena the documents to see where we have stated ever that this was gift? Why would we gift $130,000 plus $20,000 in construction costs to different contractors? Why would we do that? It makes no sense whatsoever. And just because somebody lawyered up doesn't mean you just walk away from it. I think that the police department would be, that would be common sense. If somebody, if I'm an honest person, I don't need a lawyer next to me to defend me. I can go into the police department and answer any question that somebody puts in front of me. The only time I would need a lawyer is when I don't want to answer any questions. Why? Because I have something to hide. So what am I missing here? Why can't we just subpoena the documents to state, hey, where's the gift? Total shock after all these years. Total shock that somebody would state that over $150,000 is gifted to them. So I'm wondering, can we get some communication with some higher-ups in the police department and the white-collar crimes to just get these people in? I know my three minutes is up.

Thank you, sir. Next, please, on your left.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Good evening. I come bearing gifts. The Historical Society has had a project last week, and we painted rocks to celebrate... I'm sorry, what? State your name. Oh, I'm sorry, Barbara Reedy. I'm sorry. I should know better. Don't worry. So I brought some rocks for everyone on the day as, and... token from the Boynton Beach Historical Society.

We had the Girl Scouts come and help us paint rocks and Commissioner Cruz came along and so I don't know what's the best way to get the bag of rocks to the day as but thank you very much.

Yeah I just gave up all my rocks. It's an interesting project that we cooked up. The Girl Scouts and the Historical Society board members are distributing the rocks around the city, hoping that people will find them. Susan's been taking them to businesses and having people take selfies with them just to make everyone remember that our democracy is important and it's fragile and we need to... Celebrate America. So take a rock and pass it down. Keep it. Go distribute it somewhere else. Partake in the fun and see if someone takes a selfie with your rock or hold papers down on your desk, whatever you choose. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss.

Hello, my name is Sigrid Grim, and I've been a homeowner in Boynton Beach for the last quarter century. I came to just make a statement about my concern for the forest, so thank you all for inviting us. Small urban and suburban green spaces are often undervalued precisely because of their size, yet their ecological and social contributions are disproportionate to their footprint. The site, though modest in area, contains a mature tree canopy that cannot be replaced on any meaningful time scale. The decades of growth represented here provide carbon sequestration, stormwater absorption, and habitat structure that sapling plantings elsewhere could not reciprocate for generations, if ever. Critically, this green space functions as part of a wildlife corridor. Isolated patches of habitat lose most of their ecological value when disconnected from surrounding green networks. Species diversity and resilience depend on the ability of wildlife to move between fragments for feeding, breeding, and seasonal migration. Removing even a small link in this chain can sever connectivity for a much larger area than the site itself, isolating populations, reducing genetic diversity, and accelerating local extinctions. The ecological value of this land is therefore far greater than its acreage suggests. As public land, this green space also serves as an equity function. Not everyone has access to a private garden or the means to travel to larger parks. A nearby patch of nature provides mental health benefits, opportunities for quiet recreation, and a connection to the natural world for residents who may otherwise have none. Studies consistently link proximity to green space with reduced stress, improved air quality, and better community well-being. Once converted to development, these benefits are permanently lost to the community that currently relies on them. Development pressure often treats small green spaces as low-hanging fruit on the logic that their size makes them dispensable, but that logic applied repeatedly amounts to death by a thousand cuts. The community loss of these causes ecological damage that cannot be Fixed. Preserving the site is not a sentimental gesture. It is a practical investment in climate resilience, biodiversity, and public health that a replacement development cannot offset. Mitigation measures such as replanting elsewhere or so-called biodiversity offsetting rarely restore equivalent ecological function, especially not on the time scale of a mature canopy. So the responsible course of action here is to protect this green space now while that option still exists. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, my name is Will Rosardi. I've lived in Florida since I was like a year and a half. I was a Boy Scout. I work at Publix. I don't know how much more Florida or environmental I could get. And just in the short, I'm sure others have mentioned it even before I came into the room, but just in the short 20 years I've been here, I have watched the ecosystems and environments around us slowly disappear, slowly turn into more and more of the industrialized mass that is on Florida's side, where we live. And all of us understand that more people are moving here, that there needs to be more housing. But we're disputing the idea that this has to be the spot, that this has to be the place that we rebuild more townhouses, build more locations for living. Can we be smarter about it? As someone else said, maybe the Boynton Beach Mall. I find it concerning that we're willing to give up something so essential for humans. We're willing to give up our environment just for more homes. That's all.

Thank you. Next, please, on the right. Hold applause and anybody who wants to speak please come up and get in line at the podium.

Thank you hear that That's our noise ordinance, my name is Kimberly chase Grayson Heights, I'm here tonight to request clarification on how our code compliance department enforces municipal codes regarding severe noise disturbances and after-hours street obstructions and I've repeatedly reported severe noise violations on weekdays and vehicles blocking our streets on nights and weekends. Despite providing timestamp video evidence, Code Compliance Management has not issued citations. Department leadership has arrived twice empty-handed without a decibel meter waiting until the noise stopped before offering to fetch equipment. I denied this offer citing the city's inability to act without a decibel meter reading and the fact that code enforcement doesn't work nights and weekends. This excuse is invalid when the noise happens all day on weekdays and street obstructions are ignored after hours. This isn't code enforcement. It's an operational warning system that ensures violators escape accountability. Passing the buck to the police department contradicts our municipal laws. Boynton Beach City Code Section 15.8 explicitly states that the code enforcement officer is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the chapter, not the police department. The decibel meter excuse invalidates valid complaints by rewriting our laws. Section 15.8 protects our community from plainly audible noise within 25 to 50 feet of property lines. Section 15.10, our sound control ordinance, clearly states that law protects homes based on noise impact, not its origin. Video evidence of plainly audible noise is legally sufficient. Departmental management's lack of equipment and disregard for video evidence has turned our sound and parking ordinance into a shield for violators. I respectfully ask the city manager to review the internal directives in code compliance. Our community needs to know if the city upholds the plainly audible standard or if the department has left residents unprotected. Transparency on code equity is crucial. Why are certain neighborhoods ticketed for parking violations while identical obstructions in others are ignored? I thank you and hope we can foster a better Boynton. Thank you. Thank you. Next please.

Hello, my name is Emily Ryan. I live over on Oak Street. I just had a couple questions on code enforcement. I was looking to get some clarification. My husband and I just bought our second duplex on that street that was extremely overgrown. We wanted to clean it up, make it look nice for the city of Boynton. We were given a couple fines due to the trees out by the road being too big. So I was just looking to see, since we do have four units on that street, Is it four separate piles of the three by three for trees left out by the road for block pickup? And then also I had a question about the pyramids that you can put in your grass so the postman doesn't drive on the street or on your grass. I was fine for those as well. So I was just looking for some clarification from code enforcement. Thank you.

Next, please. Hi, my name is Diane Lundstedt, and I was not prepared to speak today, but I am asking you to please save our forests. I live in Boynton Beach, over in the neighborhood Longmeadow Circle, where you guys are planning on building three-story townhouses. I just would like to mention ridiculous amounts of townhouses that have been built on Hypolexa and Military recently in the past year, the ridiculous amounts of townhouses that are built on Boynton Beach Boulevard next to the Aldi, the big monstrosity out there, the monstrosity that you have down here at the end of your street, the housing that you're building down there. So that's a lot of housing in this area, but no more infrastructure, no more schools, no more grocery stores, no more roads. We have a beautiful green space here that needs to be preserved for our community. You guys, if you wanted to be heroes, you can make it a green space and put a little walking path in there, put some little benches in there. It's so beautiful. Have you guys ever been there? It's so gorgeous. It's so beautiful. And it's really a shame that you guys are going to build three-story townhouses in the middle of our neighborhood. We have homes on one side, homes on the other side. Put yourself in our place. It's really not fair when you have monstrosity, homes, houses, apartments going all around Boynton Beach. Somebody mentioned John Prince Park. Where's a park in Boynton Beach? I know there's a lot of communities that have their own parks, but I don't know if there's a Boynton Beach park. Is there? Is there? Where is it? There are? Like where? Well, a little dog park over here. I mean, where's a big park in Boynton Beach? Okay, name one.

Yeah, we don't do Q&A, but somebody from the park can tell you. We have 33 parks.

Please save our forest, okay?

And again, anybody else, please line up at the podiums, alternate so we can keep it moving. Are you guys speaking? Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Hello.

My name is Destiny. I live in Boynton Beach. I also wanted to comment on the Nichols Forest and say we are stewards of this planet. We are meant to take care of the land. The canopy at Nichols Forest is home to gopher tortoises and Florida scrub jays, which they are endemic in Florida. They are not anywhere else on Earth. The forest provides shade, sequesters carbon, sustains moisture, and it lowers our heat score. And I think none of us want our neighborhood to be any hotter. It's extremely hot. And Boynton Beach is noticeably lacking in trees. So I too am devastated to imagine our map of Boynton Beach being stripped of these old growth forests. They are irreplaceable. They provide a home to our animal friends. They are a beautiful part of our city. And please do not choose profits over our future.

Is there anyone online?

OK. Oh, go ahead. Hello. My name is Doug Brueggemann. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager. I'm here to speak about a little park, a little park that's two houses away from my house, Pence Park, and I wanted to thank you for the Hopefully the improvements that are going to go there The neighborhood is very excited about it see a lot of good things as long as we keep some basketball and place for the kids it's all about the kids and We're very appreciative and really hope that comes to fruition. Thank you.

Thank you There's no one left. We're gonna look online to see before we close public comment. I

Mayor, there is nobody online.

There is no one online. Public comment is officially closed. And since we did move up item 10C. I don't know if anybody, does any of the commission want to make a comment before I make some comments?

Yeah, I just want to make a couple clarifications. I see the news is here and they're pretty good at getting things wrong. So nobody, nobody from this city is building any townhouses. The property that we are discussing tonight is city-owned property. The property that has development now is private-owned property. that the county had administered to the Palm Beach County Housing Authority and that that current developer had purchased from. So what we're discussing tonight is the land that the city of Boynton Beach owns in unincorporated Palm Beach County. And so what is before us is what's called a restricted deed covenant to essentially limit the use of what can happen to this land. And I believe our city attorney has a presentation. We're going to go over that. You know, we've discussed this last year. So I don't want things to be confusing that we are supporting development of any, you know, pristine land, you know, over on Nichols Boulevard. That is privately owned property. This city did not move forward with that initiative. That developer reached out to us and asked to purchase the land. We listened to you, the residents, and we said no. And so now we're here to make, hopefully, a permanent change so that you guys don't come back here and that we can keep. And so that we can keep. You're welcome to come anytime. And I just want to say I admire the civic engagement. You know, it's always healthy when you have civic engagement. There was a comment made earlier that you see a lot of voices being stripped away, you know, not just at the local level but at the state level. And, you know, it's important to have public input, and it's also important to make sure that we get the facts right and that we have the information correct because people shouldn't be – you know, ridiculed if they're doing the right thing. And I know when I got into government, you know, unincorporated, incorporated, you know, it was all, you know, different for me. It was different language, different jargon. And so if you're unsure about this, you know, you can reach out to our staff. We can give you more clarification. And if you're concerned about the property that's privately owned, You know, I don't know where the movement is for that land now, but I believe that they started some unpermitted work. Don't quote me on that. I'm unsure, but I would highly recommend everyone go to discover.pontbeach.gov and you can contact your county commissioners there. because ultimately they hold that zoning authority because it is unincorporated Palm Beach County. So just for clarification, what we're discussing tonight is the land that the city owns that's in unincorporated Palm Beach County that is adjacent to this ongoing potential development.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Shawna Lamb, city attorney. So I prepared a presentation for everyone The presentation goes through how we got here, right? And then what we can do to move forward to protect this land, and ultimately that is up for the commission to decide. And I'm glad, Mayor, that you asked that this be put on the item, because I think it will clarify a lot of things. Next slide, please. Okay, so we actually have four parcels which equal 15.03 acres. On this slide, I have laid out which ones are actually owned by the city of Boynton Beach. As you can see, there's approximately 13 parcels. Only four of them actually belong to the city. So the first one is the Pandora Avenue one, which is the westernmost parcel. And that one, we originally deeded that property as well as some other property after Palm Beach County gave it to us. to the church that is there for their purpose. They deeded that one parcel back to us and they did put a public purpose restriction on that deed. So as we sit here today, that is the only one that has a public purpose restriction. The Nichols Boulevard, there's actually two, that was deeded to us in 1961 and County Deed. Now, I will acknowledge that during that deed, Palm Beach County minutes do indicate that it was supposed to be for a public purpose. However, that was not actually placed on the deed. And unfortunately, the way Florida law treats things is your intent is great, but what matters is what ends up publicly recorded. And so the deed does not have that restriction. And that is the second for the second Nichols Boulevard portion. Again, there's no restriction on the face of the deed. So the Javart Street, there is no deed for that because what we did, or what happened is when a right of way is abandoned, half goes to each owner on either side. So that Javart Street parcel came from an abandoned right of way. Next slide, please. Again, so we receive these things, lots for $1 and there was no restrictive language. The county has asserted that there is a restriction per their resolution, but they never, one, have provided the actual, actually they have provided the resolution, but they have not recorded. There is no recorded, so there was no indication that this resolution was intended to run with the land. What runs with the land is the actual language in the deed. Again, when we took that, the city, in our own resolution, agreed that it would be for public purpose. But again, if those agreements are not in writing a contract, as you heard one gentleman talking about, you know, giving away his property, you know, it's always gonna come down to what is in the contract, what is recorded with the public records. So this kind of just goes through what I also mentioned with the website Baptist Church giving us back the property. In order for us to convey the property to the church, they did have to go to the county for permission to do that. And the county did say to them, if you deed it back to them, it has to have a public purpose. So that is how that actually ended up on the deed. Because initially, none of these had that public purpose restriction. Next slide, please. So with regard to the Westside Baptist Church, it says, said property shall be used for city and its successors and assigns for a public purpose only. In the event said parcel is used for other than a public purpose, said property shall revert to the grantor. And in that situation, because it was deeded back to us by the church, it would go back to the church if that public purpose was violated. So public purpose is actually pretty broad. So it could be parks, it could be recreation, it could be civic use. There's no restriction that says it has to be maintained as a forest, just the public purpose. So to that end, what we have before you today is a restrictive covenant which would lay out what can and cannot happen to those parcels. Next slide, please. So public purpose, again, park, greenways, passive recreation, conservation, those things that we talked about, public open space. Public purpose could also be stormwater management or flood control, government facilities, community gardens, outdoor recreation. All of those things are public purpose. So obviously, if that parcel, as we sit today, was tried to sell to a private developer, commercial developer, long-term lease, all of those things would violate that public purpose. Next slide, please. Oops, trying to keep up on my own. Again, so as I said, you have full discretion over the unrestricted parcels. The declaration is a voluntary act. Understand that what you are giving up before you give it. Next slide, please. So if we go in and restrict parcels go into the restrictive covenant. There will be restrictions on all four parcels to conservation and natural habitat preservation use. That is how we have drafted it based upon direction from this board. It prohibits construction, dumping, vegetation removal with limited exceptions and excavation. It permits invasive species removal, dead plant removal and wildlife mitigation activities. So for example, if there was an invasive species that was taking over the forest, obviously we would still have the right and the responsibility under a lot of the Palm Beach County code that we would have to remove that. So there is that in there. There is also a carve out for future utility infrastructure. A lot of people have mentioned that they're still on septic. And if there is an interest in the future to move to city water or county water, we have to be able to put in those facilities to meet that need. So there is one carve out for utility infrastructure for future use. Now, this restrictive covenant can only be modified or terminated by a unanimous city commission vote. That means every single person on the dais would have to agree to remove the restrictive covenant. And these covenants would be recorded in the Palm Beach County official records so that it will run with the land. Next slide, please. So this declaration that has been proposed will actually go further than what you guys are required to do by law. Because as I said, the deeds are quiet on their face except for the one parcel. So by doing this, you guys are going above and beyond and permanently making this conservation space with those few limited carve outs that we discussed. But I do wanna mention, there could be some commission down the road that could change that, the five votes. It's not a guarantee. but it makes it very difficult, and especially with the amount of public outreach there is and how much is going on, I imagine that would be a very difficult hurdle at some point in the future. And the liability protection is already available. I want to reframe that. Under Florida Statute 375.21, if this was recreational use and someone was injured, there would be no liability to the land. But we actually are going to have to post no trespassing signs up there. Part of the issue is people are using the space and it is unimproved. There are animals out there. There has been some homeless problem out there. We know that people are going onto the property and cleaning that up, which does create liability for the city. So we will have to post no trespassing signs, which advises people that if they go out there they're subject to their own risk. So that is one of the things that will be occurring there in the future, if this is, you know, when this happens.

Can you just explain the utility carve-out a little more?

I can do that. So... A while back we had looked and met with the surrounding neighborhood that's actually in the county. We were proposing to put them on sewer. They already are water customers. So what I would like to do, what I proposed here was to at least allow us, with these restrictions in place, if we don't leave a carve out, and if we wanted to provide a lift station to provide sewer to this neighborhood that's adjacent to the property, then we would be violating or we'd have to go back and amend that restriction. So all I'm asking for with this carve out is that in the future, if the adjacent property owners decided to want to add sewer to their get them off septic tank or they're required to in the future, which is most likely what would happen is that they would be required at some point, then we would already have a place where we could then go ahead and build and construct a lift station. The other thing that is a part of this is if this does get approved by the county, for whatever reason, if the county does approve this project in their jurisdiction, they're going to build a lift station. So it would behoove us if that lift station was built closer to Nichols and closer to Old Boynton. That way it's easier to extend into the neighborhoods and it's less impact. So that's why we're asking for this carve out is for a future utility lift station to provide services to their surrounding community.

If I can just provide a couple of extra details related to that, um, the covenant as written, it does provide a carve out, but it still requires approval by the city commission for that lift station, um, Compliance with all applicable, local, state, federal permits and approvals. Um, and that it limits the installation footprint to the minimum area reasonably necessary for the construction as well as restoration. If anything is, um, disturbed in that project.

Just if we can go back, there was a slide that contained government facilities in the use. Is that in the backup? Yeah. I just want to make sure that language isn't so broad that it can be beyond a lift station.

That's my only hesitation. That was a general explanation of what a public purpose could be. That is not in the restrictive covenant. This restrictive covenant specifically says...

Yeah, I didn't see it in there. All I saw was utilities. I just want to make sure. Correct.

That is the only carve out. But, you know, I wanted this board in making this decision to be completely and fully informed of what public purpose means.

And we go back to liability.

The last slide, please. Yes. Please, go ahead.

Thank you. My concern is that as we sit here tonight, if anybody go out there and get hurt now, are we held liable?

I would have to know the specific facts of the case, but I do have, as your lawyer, some concerns that the parcels are not either fenced off or that there are no trespassing signs out there. And so there has been direction for public works to work with risk to go ahead and protect the city in that regard. to start doing those things so that if somebody is injured, right? This is an attractive nuisance to any kid. When I was a kid, I was born and raised here. We used to go play in the woods all the time. So we know there's gonna be kids there. We know that there's gonna be people there. And so we need to do everything in our power to make sure those people are entering our parcels 100% aware that it is going to be unimproved area and they could run into you know, dangerous situations.

Just to point out, sorry, go ahead.

Excuse me, if we approve this tonight with the no trespassing, are we protected then?

So what is not before you today is the no trespassing. That is not something that would come before the board. That was just something in reviewing this presentation. It came to my attention that I don't believe we have taken the proper steps to either clean the park, one, or if we're gonna leave it open space that we protect ourselves by placing these no trespassing signs, which then puts us protection under Florida state law.

Just wanted to clarify Vice Mayor's question. I actually read the language. So this would prohibit construction or placement of buildings, roads, signs, billboards, or other advertising utilities or other structures on or above the ground except expressly reserved in Section 4 of this declaration, which is the utility infrastructure exception. So they would protect it from any construction.

yeah i think this is a good first step um so i just kind of want to summarize i think you know obviously the concern is like a commission can come this could change that would take everyone who was elected on this board to make that decision and so 10 15 20 years down the road You know, there's an opportunity where that could happen. Very little risk, because all you would need to do is convince one individual that this is not the way to go, and that's a lot easier than three. And so I think this is a great first step. My position, I would like to see it accessible in some way, shape, or form in the future. I think, you know, this is a little sliver of land that we have left, and as it was... As it was stated earlier and as I stated at the last meeting, when you look at an aerial map, you know, over the last 10 years, it's crazy what you see just in Palm Beach County alone, let alone Boynton Beach and Unincorporated just west there. So I think great conversation starter there. I would like to see this go forward. But I think, you know, I don't know what the process of a sanctuary would be, you know, that could be accessible. Because like the city attorney said, you know, if I'm a kid, I'm going to run in the woods. I'm not looking for a no trespassing sign, you know. And so I understand the liability portion. But I think maybe we do a little bit more, you know, to make this more accessible. And that's a conversation for a different time.

Yeah. To make it accessible, I think in the standard terms of what you're saying with hiking trails and those sorts of things, like they have in a Poe Park, right, in the city of West Palm Beach. They do have biking trails and they have different trails and stuff like that. That requires a lot of maintenance and you would have to come back before the board because right now this restrictive covenant would not allow for any of that.

Okay. Okay.

Thank you. How will we vote tonight? I want us to vote, you know, five, you know, in favor of, so that this commission will say that we are all together on this passage. So what becomes behind, then they will be the ones that would do the liability. So we can say that we was all here tonight in favor of what we're doing for you all so that you all cannot come back and say, well, you all did not keep your word. It's going to take somebody else behind, you know, to come back and say, but we want to be unanimous.

May we have a motion to approve this resolution R26120? So moved. Second. We have a motion and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

We will now be moving on to 6A. We're going to take just a few minutes to let everyone clear out. That way we don't have the excessive noise.

I can get back to my agenda. I hit a button. Go like that.

I don't know.

The password. Up here, play around. I don't know. Would you...

All right, we're gonna go ahead and move forward with the rest of the agenda. All right, moving on to 6A, advisory board appointments. Yeah, yeah, she's gotta step out. All right, so for Our first appointment, we have Mayor Shelton.

I have a Community Redevelopment Board.

I'm sorry, Art Advisory Board. I apologize. Art Advisory Board. Nothing. And then CRA. We have two applicants. That goes to Commissioner Kelly.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I would like to, both of these applicants were really qualified, and I, so I'm going to choose Ronald Brito, but I would just, you know. encourage the other one to apply for another one of the boards since there isn't another vacancy because they were both eager to get involved.

All right, do I have a motion? We have a motion from Commissioner Kelly, a second from Commissioner McCray. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. The motion passes unanimously. Next up, Historic Resources Preservation Board. Commissioner Cruz that goes to you.

Yes. I'll go ahead and appoint Terry Pauling. I'm sorry We need to remove that from the table.

I like to remove it from the table that good All right So I have a motion from Commissioner Cruz second from Amy Kelly to remove from the table all those in favor.

Hi Hi motion passes unanimously Now would you like to make a motion to a point? I'll go ahead and make a motion to appoint Terry Polly to the historic resources preservation board.

Okay, I Have a motion from Commissioner Cruz second from Commissioner McCrae all those in favor. Aye

Aye.

Aye, motion passes unanimously. And then we have the Library Advisory Board.

There is no motion to remove that from the table.

Yep, that's still on the table. Correct. The mayor's not here, so I'm gonna recommend we leave that on the table. And then it looks like that's it as far as 6A. All right, moving forward. To consent agenda, do any of my colleagues wanna pull anything from section seven?

No.

One second, one second.

Yes, I'd like to pull C.

All right, 7C. Is there anything else, Commissioner Kelly? No, thank you. Commissioner Cruz?

No, thank you.

All right, do I have a motion to approve the remainder of consent agenda? I have a motion from Commissioner Cruz.

Second.

Second from Commissioner Kelly. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. All right, 7C. Commissioner McRae, did you want to start? Did you want to have staff present this item?

No, I really don't need staff to present, but I just want to say that I'm in favor of this because just last month we had a young child that drowned. And we was talking about, you know, the drones and all that stuff, but it took the drones here in this city to locate that young boy. And, you know, and I'm definitely in favor of, you know, that's before tonight, this resolution. But I just wanted to have it stated for the record, you know, that it's definitely needed. We live in Florida. There's a lot of water. Water is everywhere. And kids, you know, whether they're autistic or not, they just get fascinated by water when they see it. And I'm definitely in favor. Motion to approve resolution R-26-114.

All right, I have a motion from Commissioner McCrae. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second from Commissioner Kelly. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to Section 8, Consent, Bids, and Purchases. Vice Mayor, really quick.

I'm sorry. Andrew, you may know the question. Otherwise, I can get with Fabian after. But how are we pushing out advertising for this drowning agreement? Because as I understand it, it's vouchers that need to get redeemed, and the city residents have to know about it. I just want to... Sorry, I didn't mean to... you know, take us off another path. But I just wanted to see what we're doing to push that out, because it is important, as Commissioner McCray brought up.

Sure. Fabian Derlo, Assistant Director of Recreation and Cultural Services. Good evening, everybody, and I'm here with Marvelous Washington. So we plan to get with Public Affairs to make sure that we get this broadcasted throughout the city. We already have a lot of people asking for it and signing up already. So this is already in motion, and we expect to sell out every session that we have available. As mentioned on the document too, this is for the next three years, so this covers us going into next summer as well. So anybody that we're unable to serve, we'll either present them with other options nearby or we'll get them registered for a future year.

How many children does this help in our community, do we estimate?

So far, we have about 58 vouchers that have been approved, and we have kids that have already started drowning prevention and swimming lessons so far. Majority of the kids that are in the swimming lessons are in our summer camp programming, and we have been advertising on social media and all of those outlets to make sure the community knows.

Okay, perfect.

I have a question. Do you all advertise at the schools? I'm just saying, you know, is that one of your avenues? Thank you.

Yes, yes, no, yes, absolutely. We have a good relationship, especially with Poinciana, being right down the street from our pool, but alongside the high school. So with the summer camp, of course, too, being hand-in-hand with this program, a lot of the parents are taking this information back to their fellow parents at their respective schools, too. So we've been seeing an increase of interest. I'm a product of free swim lessons.

I went on to be a master scuba diver. Thank you. I love the water. I didn't know that. Why are you asking me for fish?

All right, moving forward. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right, do I have anything from Section 8 that my colleagues would like to pull? Consent, bids, and purchases? Nope.

Motion to approve eight consent bids and purchases.

Okay. I have a motion from Commissioner Kelly. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Commissioner McRae. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion passes unanimously. And we'll hit it off with the city manager's report. Nine. Do you want to start?

Yeah, absolutely, Vice Mayor. Thanks a lot. I appreciate the board allowing me to address some of these issues. I know there was some questions as far as the clarity on the public safety pay raises when we did the macro budget during the workshop. I want to say it was last week. So what we did was we went back and And I talked with our CFO, Alan Lawson, and Andrew, and we got both the police chief and the fire chief involved. And Alan, do you want to go over some of the granular aspects of where these cuts came from and how we're going to be able to actually fund those public safety pay raises?

Yeah, sure. And just for clarification, it wasn't presented in the budget at the time yet we were discussing it. And so and thinking I was, you know, wanted just some clarification. And hopefully after we hear you speak, I'm going to look for consensus to move forward to put those into the budget. Since at the workshop, the fire chief and police chief had mentioned that they were taking actions to cut to fulfill this.

I also have probably three or four different items that I'm going to go over. And as far as like the actual setting of the date, I don't want to get consensus from the board, Alan, as well.

Perfect. Thank you. Alan, please.

So if you guys remember, my opening statements at the budget presentation was around kind of the ALP, Strategic Foundation. With the zero-based budgeting, right, the foundation is you create the knowns versus the unknowns. So we knew that there were certain expenses that had to increase and what expenses that you could pull back and make them zero. So part of that strategic foundation is to create a ZBB environment where then it creates the continuous improvement. With that, that created the energy with FIRE all the departments, not just fire and PD. Everybody took a re-look at their budgets. And through those efforts, we knew that we were gonna come forward and be able to do the COLA of at least 3%. So we have found the funding to be able to do COLAs at 3% for everybody across the board, as well as cover what is in the contract for both PD and in fire. So that has been committed to. We have found the $3 million through this continuous improvement. And at the time, we were still working that angle, and we had to present the budget

Is there any questions about that for my colleagues before I ask the city manager to go to his next points?

No, I'm just, I am glad that, you know, it's one of those things when we're talking about, you know, what's coming ahead and what's looming. I just, you know, my position, I made it known during the budget workshop was that, you know, now is not the time to do, to make those drastic cuts and assumptions, and I wanted to make sure that our employees across the board, you know, know that they're, you know, that they're, you know, we're taking them into consideration in this and that, you know, and there's always a way to tighten the belt. They found them, you know, they've been able to find the funds and make it happen. And so I just, you know, I'm glad that we were able to do that and I'm, you know, glad to see that moving forward. So thank you.

Thank you. I have a comment before you go. You know, I'm glad I did, Commissioner Kelly, what you said, because we have staff that's really working hard, giving us top-notch, you know, events and stuff like that and doing all they can. And, you know, I don't want the morale for this city to change. You know, talking about they said one thing, then they voted another way. I want us to all be consistent. I'm just saying I appreciate what you all are doing, and I'm glad we're not even speaking about cuts right now. We want the morale to go higher. I'm just saying, you know, I like walking in and seeing all y'all smile because I like smiling at you. Thank you.

I do want to thank our leadership for looking for reductions in spending so that we can find the funding to actually be able to provide what we agreed to provide years ago. Thank you.

Thanks, I appreciate everyone's support for the public safety pay raises and staff getting a 3% COLA. What I do want to go over next is the utility rate increase we presented was a 17.5% increase. I know that there was some robust dialogue as far as looking forward, what that looks like. I also want to propose a $25 per year increase in the fire assessment. Now, I want that to go in conjunction AND WE'VE TOOK A LOT OF TIME LOOKING AT THE BUDGET. AND WHAT I WANT TO PROPOSE TO THE BOARD IS ENACTING THE FIRST EVER ROLLBACK RATE IN THE CITY'S HISTORY. AND WE HAVE THE FUNDING TO DO IT. SO I THINK IF WE'RE GOING TO DO A FEE INCREASE, WE NEED TO ROLL BACK THE PROPERTY TAXES. And we looked at the numbers going forward next year. And a lot of our short-term initiatives, we've gotten everything set up that we need to set up as far as moving the city forward to where it will be safe. And I think the residents deserve a tax break on their property taxes.

Dan, what is the current rollback and what does that look like as far as our budget?

7.45. That's going to be a reduction of probably about $3 million. So they'll save around $3 million total as a whole city if we move to the rollback rate. I want to say Delray did the rollback rate last year and that'll represent no increases in property taxes for the residents.

I do want to say one thing. Thank you for bringing that up. I just think that something of this magnitude needs to be reasonably publicly noticed so that the public can know that we're having this discussion in the first place. This was not on the agenda. It was something that, you know, so we're going to do a city manager's report night. I appreciate.

That's exactly what I was going to do. I'm going to set the meeting July 14th prior to the CRA meeting. I would like to have a probably about a one hour discussion to allow dialogue amongst the board. so we can publicly notice everything.

For these budget changes?

Correct.

Okay. July 14th.

Perfect. Yeah, because I know we're going on that extended, yeah.

Just for the record, the rollback rate is 7.4257. Okay. 530. 530.

530 on the 14th?

We can do 530 or we can delay the start of the CRA meeting and start at 6. It's whatever the board's decision.

I'm okay with either. I'll flex. I'm okay with 530. But, you know, I really want to make my comment to the city manager. And that is, you know, this is what we're talking about, you know, Dan. You know, you come in here with something to tell us, you know, a city manager's report. You know, it doesn't always have to be good news, but whatever you have to make, you know, the city move forward. This is what we look to you for your guidance, like you look to us for our guidance. I'm just saying, you know, and thanks for stepping up to the plate. You know, you're not playing soccer, you know, you know, not USA, but anyway. I had to throw that one in.

Playing for Belgium at this point.

You got him today. You got him today. But thank you. I'm just saying that's what we call leadership. That's what we're looking at for a leader like for a city manager, and you're doing it for us. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I do want to add one more thing. Because we need or I would hope that we need public comment for something budgetary, I think that 6 o'clock might be a better time for people that work. Even for me, I mean, I made it today, but it's still difficult to come from West Palm Beach and drive in 30 minutes, but not just for the board members, but for the members of the public who live in the city and want to have a say. I think 6 o'clock would be a better time for them to actually be able to show up to the meeting if they wanted to.

I'm indifferent, like I said. But either way, this is just going to be dialogue. And ultimately, there's going to be two more meetings where we will continue that dialogue before finally adopting the budget. So I think that's important to note as well. Is there anything else?

No, that was everything.

Great. Moving on. 10A. 10A. Any information from the city manager on 10A, Dan?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. When I came on almost four years ago, Adam Temple came, highly recommended, as far as someone that could take a future leadership role with additional responsibilities. And typically cities... of our size can have anywhere between two to three deputy city managers. And I wanted to kind of bring Adam along slowly. He was in a city whenever I came on at a time for probably about four years, he came from the city of Doral, a very successful city, low millage rate. Um, Adam came with a plethora of knowledge when it came to planning and zoning code enforcement. Since then he's excelled. He's, uh, did everything I've asked him to do and more. He is one of the most responsive people, I think, in the city. And you guys can attest to that. Anytime you need Adam, he's always going to be there. And I know he's not here tonight. He's with his family in Ohio. But he stepped up to the plate also when it came to the CRA. And that was an additional challenge that we all undertook, me, Adam, and Andrew, and Amanda. And my staff included. So I think it's definitely warranted and it's deserved to promote him to deputy city manager. But I need this board's confirmation in order to do it because he is a constitutional officer or charter officer. My apologies.

May I say something? Yes. Thank you. When we had our budget workshop, remember I told you all about that flow chart. I said, are you sure this flow chart is right?

Now it needs to be updated again.

Updated again. That's looking down the road. Working with Mr. Temple, I've called him all the time at night, and he's always, I don't know if he's dragging it, but he's always responding. And that's what I like about. I like, but I have a problem. I can get in touch with, you know, one of the deputies city manager, because I don't like to bother you because I know you need your rest because you have a full day ahead of you. But I like people that I can get in contact with and I don't have to worry about, are you going to follow through? And less than 24 hours, I got an update saying, this is what we're doing. Commissioner, are you okay with this? If not, do I need to go further? You know, he's constantly pounding the pavement and make sure that, You know, we're satisfied. I can speak for all of us that we are satisfied. He works real hard. Not like Andrew, though, but, you know, you were excited.

I'll do that, Commissioner McCray. I think not only is he responsive, but the level of follow-through and follow-up you get. I mean, there's things I'll talk to him about that I'll forget because we get in and out of it so much, and he'll come back with the resolution or that solution, and that is huge. And not only does he practice that level of service to at least myself, and I'm sure you guys, he also does that for the residents of Boynton Beach. And I'm going to say it's probably because it's a Navy thing, but I'm a little bit biased. But this is a no-brainer for me. He does a great job, and, you know, we've seen leaps and bounds in the CRA level as well.

I need a motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion to approve, and we have a second for R26-119. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Can I make a comment, too, about... Okay, I just wanted to say I concur with what's happening here. I had a pecking order, if you will, when I was commissioner, and I would always go to Andrew, okay, and then to Dan, but then I found out that there was a golden nugget in between those two, and that was Adam Temple. He even rode out to many of the sites with me to get a better handle on what needed to be done. You don't find that every day in our officials. And the rest, Andrew does the same thing and Dan. But I just wanted to say, Adam has really turned over a new leaf as far as I'm concerned. And he deserves this position and this move. He's a great guy. even-tempered. Even when I got upset, he was still even-tempered. So I'm glad to see... Watch it, McCrae. So I'm glad to see this move. Thank you very much.

I think just really quick, I think it's always when you see staff in the audience too, and they're excited about these changes too. Adam is great with us, but with staff too. And he is really, he is even. I think it is a Navy thing, because my dad was even too. I think it totally is. And so, yeah, no, I just think when you have, you know, staff that show up and support and, you know, are excited for, you know, for him, it just shows how much, not only does he help us and help the residents, but he also is an asset to the staff. So just wanted to acknowledge that.

Mayor, this is my final comment. I just want to say to the staff, we're watching you. We're watching you. That's promotions on the way. Thank you.

Okay. Moving on to 10b, discussion regarding creating a beautification board. Vice Mayor Turkin?

Yeah, we had entertained this idea and I just wanted to get feedback from my colleagues if we want to move forward with this, what this looks like, have staff look at this and maybe come up with something. If we still want to do this, I'm not looking for this board to have any type of budgetary spending. We have a beautification department for that, but I think to allow a mechanism to provide some type of creative ideas, initiatives that maybe we're overlooking to provide to city staff and that beautification team. But again, I just wanted to bring this back up to see if there's appetite to move forward. I know some of the potential discussion points as we're having issues with getting people on boards now, which I completely understand. And so, you know, I just want to see what my colleagues think of that. I support it.

I think you'll have people that want to be on this board than other boards.

Yeah, I think, and especially, you know, moving forward, you know, we don't know the unknowns and its potential that our beautification team may end up changing or shifting or, you know, downsizing, and it would be nice to have some other boots on the ground and, you know, I mean. I try and do my best to send texts and emails to Andrew and Adam just about every day on different things I see on my travels. But to have just some more boots on the ground in every district throughout the city that are just there to assist and provide that. And maybe... Spearhead some, you know, I'm just think brainstorming but you know spearhead cleanups and things like that that you know I know our staff would love to do that but sometimes it's hard to just get everyone together to do it and You know, I've talked about it, you know with staff a couple times about doing a district for Clean up and pick a street, you know, you know in different quarters But it would be nice to have some an organization that's their focus and that's kind of their spearhead. So I totally agree Thank you for finally getting it in front of us so that we could have this discussion. So I'm happy to talk about that more and what that looks like.

I'd like to say to staff, you know, we're talking about beautification. I'd like to say to staff, thank you for painting that cemetery fence for me. Thank you. Long overdue.

Just a couple questions for legal. It sounds like there's a consensus to move forward with the beautification. So this... Advisory Board, correct? Yes. Okay, five or nine members? Five.

Okay, and I have a question. And that was gonna be my next question for the board. We're creating a board, we need to create parameters for that board. How many members do the other boards have? Is it all five? Senior has five or six. Tammy may know, I don't know. We should probably make it the same across the board.

I would say five for me. I don't know what the others feel. Is everyone okay with five?

Well, you could do five with two alternates, maybe. Yeah, that's good, because you got four districts, and then, you know.

Okay. How many members do we have in the other boards? I don't know that off the top of my head. We can talk about that when we have the next discussion.

It varies. It depends on the board. I think the Historic Preservation or the Building Board of Adjustments is five. Those are quasi-judicial, right? So there is a difference amount. It just depends on the board and their function.

Yeah, I would bet like the most common is five.

It's usually five and then two alternates. You can just bring that to us when we have the discussion more. Okay, and then just, yeah.

Do you want in the ordinance what they're charged with median and right-of-way landscaping recommendations, tree planting, canopy programs, gateway signage, community cleanup, and adopter street programs, or recognition, ugh. or recognition for well-maintained properties as well. That's typically something that would be involved.

Yeah, all of the above. Okay.

All of the above, yeah. Okay, we will put something together for you.

Great, thank you. Thank you very much, thank you. Moving on, and I'll turn the clerk to read in item 10D into the record, please.

One moment. Proposed ordinance number 26-019, second reading and ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, amending chapter three, article three, section 8E, Downtown Transit Oriented Development District, overlay to remove language in regards to density allowance, units of 750 square feet or less to count as one half a unit, as well as general cleanup of overall article, providing for codification, severability, conflicts, and an effective date.

This is the second reading for these items. Have there been any changes since the first reading?

Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, planning and zoning, there's no changes. We're here for questions, if any. Thank you.

Are there any comments or questions from the commission? There will be no public comment. That was permitted at the first reading. If there's nothing else, may we have a motion to approve proposed ordinance number 26-019?

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second, and I will turn to you for the roll call.

Commissioner Kelley? Yes. Commissioner McCracken? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Tammy, could you move on to item 10E, please, into the record?

Proposed ordinance number 26-020, second reading and ordinance of the commission of the city of Boynton Beach, Florida, amending chapter four, site development standards, article seven, exterior lighting standards to amend the relief process to remove language regarding community design relief, but keep waiver relief and a general cleanup of overall article providing for codification, severability, conflicts, and an effective date.

Thank you. This is the second reading for this item. There will be no public comment as it is now done on the first reading. Have there been any changes since the first reading?

No changes.

Okay. Are there any comments or questions from the commission?

No.

Okay.

Motion to approve ordinance number 26-020. Second.

We have a motion and we have a second. All those in favor, please. Oh, roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. And a roll call vote. The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Tammy. And I'll now turn to you for item 10F into the record.

Proposed ordinance number 26-021, second reading and ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, amending part three, chapter two, I'm sorry, chapter one, article two, definitions, and chapter three, article three, section eight, overlay zones to add a marina district overlay providing for codification, conflicts, variability, and an effective date.

This is the second reading for this item. There will be no public comment. Have there been any changes since the first reading, sir?

Good evening, Commission. This is Tyler Tornese, Planning and Zoning. There haven't been any changes, but I believe there may be a motion from Commissioner McRae. Motion to approve. Well, you made the motion earlier.

Oh, let me go back. Yes, sir.

That addressed the concern. There you go.

To include a requirement for a parking contingency plan which shows proposed modifications to the state plan, site plan, parking agreements to off-site parking, valet parking layout with service hours and or other association agreements which show an availability of increased parking.

Yes, sir. And so staff understands this motion. This will be amending the ordinance on the second reading. So if you approve it today, we'll be adding that to the incentive section of the ordinance, adding just a layer of contingency. We have to approve every site plan that we're approving, has the available parking, has a contingency, but we can incentivize it and reduce parking through this ordinance.

Okay.

I'll second that.

Okay. Roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCracken? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. In a roll call vote, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

I will turn to the clerk to read items 10G and 10H into the record.

Proposed ordinance 26-022, second reading, an ordinance of the Commissioner of the City of Boynton Beach, Florida, approving the abandonment of a portion of 30 feet wide Southeast 3rd Street right-of-way located between Southeast 5th Avenue and Southeast Sixth Avenue authorizing the city manager to execute a disclaimer which shall be recorded with this ordinance in the public records of Palm Beach County, Florida, providing for an effective date and for all other purposes. Approve request for a major site plan modification to the Penns Park improvements project to allow for the renovation and expansion of the existing Pence Park, including sports facilities and a field, a children's play area, and multiple indoor areas for multipurpose office storage and recreational zoning. Located at 600 Southeast 4th Street on a 3.33 acre site,

Just for clarification. Here. I got to get it on record, though, Kevin.

It's coming.

Everything that we had discussed. is from last meeting for the amendments with the basketball court, the pickleball court.

Sorry, before we go into it.

We have to, yeah, we need a motion to remove item 10H from the table. Motion to remove it from the table. We have a motion, we have a second. Do you want to make a quick call? Just removing it from the table.

Oh, sorry.

So all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Okay, now we can go.

Thank you. Just to, again, to reiterate everything we talked about, one of the things that I wanted to request in addition to a fence was obviously to make the park look better and also to protect the kids that would be near the train station would be to add a hedge, which would be like a green fence along the park. I didn't see the word hedge on there, so I just want to verify because we did get consensus at the last meeting.

The hedge is not allowed as a FAC, correct?

From what I understand, we had originally asked that it had been added, but when speaking with the train, it is actually not permitted within that because of the proximity to the train tracks.

There's a fence that runs along the perimeter of the sidewalk, but they won't allow us to put a fence as we've encroached as far as they'll let us with the fence. So there's always an issue with maintenance of that. Maybe you could do something to the fence. Maybe you can screen something within the fence. Yeah, do something green with it.

Make it look green. Just make it look nice.

You could do some slats. Make it look nice.

I did want to mention one thing. I think there was a recommendation for the board to add dog receptacles. Yes. The only problem is our ordinance currently only allows dogs at one... SPECIFIC PARKS SO I DON'T THINK WE CAN DO THAT UNLESS WE ADD THIS TO THE LIST OF PARKS WHERE PETS ARE ALLOWED.

PEOPLE ARE BRINGING THEIR DOGS TO EVERY PARK SO YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT BECAUSE IF NOT IT'S GOING TO BE A MESS.

IT'S GOING TO BE DIRTY. DOGS ARE GOING TO POOP REGARDLESS.

I DON'T DISAGREE WITH YOU. I'M JUST LETTING YOU KNOW THAT We do have a contradictory ordinance on the books.

Thank you for the clarity. So then in that case, I would like to add to the motion that we make this park one of the parks that includes dog cleaning stations.

And does it have to be specified to a dog station? Can it not just be a container with a bag? DOES IT HAVE TO SAY THIS IS FOR DOES IT HAVE TO SAY THIS IS FOR WASTE? WASTE? I'M JUST PENCHING THE I'M JUST PENCHING THE ORDINANCE.

ORDINANCE.

IT MIGHT BE NICE TO HAVE A IT MIGHT BE NICE TO HAVE A LITTLE BAG HERE AND THERE. LITTLE BAG HERE AND THERE. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO NECESSARILY BE IT DOESN'T HAVE TO NECESSARILY BE FOR A DOG. FOR A DOG.

FOR ME I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE IT FOR ME I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE IT FOR DOGS BECAUSE I KNOW FOR A FACT DOGS BECAUSE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE DOGS, THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE DOGS, PRETTY MUCH MOST PEOPLE HAVE DOGS PRETTY MUCH MOST PEOPLE HAVE DOGS NOWADAYS AND TO BE ABLE And we did get consensus originally for that. So I would like to keep that.

Thank you We can add this as a condition of approval, yeah waste containers.

Yeah, I And please pick up after yourself or who. Or your little thing you bring to the park. Either way. Because, you know, I mean, no offense. I get calls of people going to the bathroom behind the check cashing store right here. So they might be able to use this bag one day.

Just for clarification. I was worried about dogs and more worried about people.

Later.

For clarification, Commissioner Cruz, if you want to amend the list of parks that DOGS ARE ALLOWED AT, WE'LL NEED TO BRING BACK A SEPARATE ORDINANCE FOR THAT.

I DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S CONSENSUS TO DO THAT. WE WANTED TO INCLUDE IT AS PART OF THE CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL, RIGHT? TO MAKE THIS ONE OF THOSE PARKS. OR WE WOULD HAVE TO AMEND THE ORDINANCE.

I THINK WHAT WE SHOULD DO FOR THIS TO BE CLEAN AND TO BE EFFECTIVE IS WASTE CANS THAT EXTREMELY MIMIC THOSE DOG WASTE CANS. Because otherwise this is going to get convoluted, convoluted, and I think we can still accomplish what you're trying to accomplish.

Okay. Waste reciprocals. That's right.

Waste reciprocals. There you go.

I have a dog's face on me.

All right. Motion to approve?

Second. Okay. We have a motion and we have a second. Tammy?

Just for clarification, the first motion is to approve the ordinance 20 SAC 6-022? Yes. Okay.

We'll have two roll calls.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCray? Yes. Commissioner Cruz? Yes. Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. And a roll call vote. The motion passes unanimously.

I just want to thank staff and my colleagues for supporting this. This is huge. This is one of the oldest parks in the city. And, you know, you guys have been, you know, on this consistently. So thanks for, you know, thanks for listening to the residents and the feedback that we got. I know there was a little hiccup. So I just appreciate you, you know, amending it and making it right. So thank you, everyone.

And on a side note, I appreciate staff having to deal with the. condemned units across to the north of it. And I know that's taken up a lot of time with code. I know PD is out there three times a day, but it is working. Like there's not the people living there anymore. And speaking of, they would have used these waste baskets because they were going right there. And there has been movement from the owner now that is looking at demo costs to be able to get rid of that because they understand it's taken up a lot of city resources. So that's going to be enhanced Penns Park on a lot of levels. So I appreciate everything everyone's done on that level.

We will need a motion for the major site plan modification, and it does not need a roll call vote.

Okay. Motion to approve. Just a quick comment. Thank you. Just a quick comment. I know that we had talked about having a water feature in the park, something similar to a splash plot, which would be the mist, so I just wanted to put it on the record that that will be included in the park. Thank you. Yes.

Is there a motion to approve the major site plan of modification? Yes, and a second.

Okay, we have a motion, we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to, we already did 10G, right, 10I. I'll turn to the clerk to read it in. This is the second reading for this item.

proposed ordinance number 26-023 on second reading amending part two chapter two administration article two city managers section two dash three zero powers and duties generally by creating a new subsection k authorizing city manager to execute certain contracts on behalf of the city providing for codifications variability conflicts and an effective date thank you this is second reading have there been any changes

No changes.

Thank you. Any comments or questions from the commission?

No motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion to approve. We have a second. I'll turn to the clerk for roll call.

Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner McCracken? Yes. Commissioner Cruz?

No.

Vice Mayor Turkin? Yes. Mayor Shelton? Yes. Motion passes 4-1.

Thank you. Does anyone have any final comments for tonight?

I have one. Cruz, on the TV the other morning, Oh, yeah, you look good. I saw you, too. Yes, yes. You didn't see it? Palermo's. It was good.

And it was so hot, and you didn't look like you were even dying out there. So I was like, you've got some good makeup on today. If there's no other final comments, do we have a motion to adjourn?

If you haven't watched my cooking with the commission, it's on YouTube. It's a lot of fun. I had a great time with the fire department. And so I'm looking forward to planning my next one. But we made burgers, and we just had a really great time getting to know some of the fire men and women and enjoyed a meal. So check it out. It's on YouTube.

It was fantastic. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

Moved. Second.

We have a motion to adjourn. We have a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. With no further business to discuss, the meeting is adjourned at, I can't see the clock back there, 744.