City Council - Regular Meeting

um assigning risk um to different types of assets. Um most of the extreme risk that we're seeing is right along the the inter coastal there. Um and as such it's mainly around like um transportation infrastructure, roads, bridges, some of your marinas so on and so forth. Um also we took a kind of communitywide look and assigning percentages of risk under those types of under those categories of extreme high medium low and none for that extreme scenario with a cat 5 coming in. And in that scenario I'm modeling the the flood risk associated associated with it about 34% of critical assets within the city under that extreme scenario will be at extreme risk. Again, most of those are um coastal infrastructure um natural infrastructure such as your shorelines um the transportation infrastructure, roads, bridges, marinas and the like. So next steps and recommendations again once um we're this is a interim report um I know there's a I think you no you know that there's a draft finish and that's going to be brought back to you um I believe in August. Um where this leads it allows the city to make a a bunch of choices. Um the next step typically from a vulnerability assessment is to get into some level of adaptation planning. Um so that is taking um what we have assessed in terms of vulnerability and starting to develop um and ultimately design and implement projects to assess that vulnerability with the input of the community as well. Um and that can take the form of a plan or that can look at individual projects. Um and then ultimately we're trying to get those or the city will be trying to get those projects to be implemented either with further state funding under the resilient Florida program or other

funding. Um some of the broad kind of high level recommendations and again once we look into developing specific projects this becomes more granular and specific is um you know in areas of high risk um invested in drainage up upgrades um strengthening coastal and tidal defenses. Again shorelines in particular were were pretty vulnerable under certain um scenarios. um really starting to dive into connecting this issue to different parts of the community. um because not everyone is affected the same way or understands the risk the same way or risk may mean something different from one community to another and it's important that all those voices become part of a conversation for a future resilient cocoa and then you know the big thing is to really start to align projects with funding and so we can get them implemented all right so I hope that was short enough um and I'm here for any questions again there's a lot of details still behind us, a lot of data. This was just really intended as a kind of highle summary to update you guys.

Okay. First of all, Mr. Stewart, I want to say thank you for a concise and detailed presentation. You're welcome. And reference of analyzing flooding vulnerabilities, critical infrastructure, critical elevation, and also public workshops. Um, I think it's imperative for you to make a well-informed decision. You must have knowledge because knowledge is power and um, you've indicated that. So, I look forward to seeing you in the month of August. I look forward to being here. So, yes, sir. Um, I do have a light on. Councilwoman calls.

Yeah. Mr. Stewart, can you put up the map? Can you go back to the map that shows our vulnerable areas? Um, is that it or this one? Yeah. So, I'm particularly interested in the area on Dixon Indian River Drive. It looks like it's in white here or see what I'm talking about that where curves up that that's on the coast. Okay. I'm having a difficulty seeing them. I'm sorry. I have the presentation here. It's right here, Mr. Stewart. Um, you see this bottom yellow box right here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Um, heading north of that because the upper bridge is, as you know, 528 and this one right here is 520. Okay. Dixon Boulevard runs east and west, but once it crosses over US1, she's talking about the lowlying area there, sir, that has a vulnerability of being flooded. Okay. Um, and I'm assuming that's what she's talking about. Yeah, you had another map up and it said like 2080 and that's the hundredyear map she's talking about. Okay, theund Oh, okay. Just tell me when you see. Yeah, just the 100 year. That's right.

We just I had a couple of calls on this this week. Um the people there and because we're in the storm season are really concerned because just about every year um during the um harvest moon period it is flooding. Yeah. And um so there do you give us any sort of timeline as to the progression for sea level rise because there are also several considerations for development in this area. Yeah. And those are historic. There are a couple of historical homes. Yeah. So will your final study give us?

Absolutely. Yeah. So we um so the under the resilient Florida pro program, the vulnerability assessments are supposed to take not are have to take into account Noah sea level rise projections um from 20 240 to 2080. So, we'll have those graphs um and that will give you guys the power with um what we've assessed in terms of risk for assets to make decisions based on that timeline. So, they're more granular than just current and 2080. I'm not sure I understand the question. 50. Okay. Because I mean it's Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, it's literally structure for 50 years and but we're actually seeing flooding every year.

No, absolutely. Yeah. But I'm trying to understand the question. I'm sorry. Um, how granular is the timeline? The timeline is maybe not as granular as you would like. Yeah. And I'm just being honest because we, you know, in planning we have to look at these kind of more macro planning horizons. Um, so it it looks at

projections from now through 2040 and then skips to 2080. So um and the the um thought behind that is that as more data more advancements in data collection and technology comes online they as you know redo these these maps and these projections um on a few year basis. Um, so everything hopefully should be updated. Um, and that would allow you guys to update any type of planning based on those projections. But honestly, probably not as granular as you would like, but enough information that you should be able to make some

some um, planning decisions based on that and prioritization decisions. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. We have any other questions for Mr. Stewart? Seeing none, thank you very much, Mr. still looking forward to having your face in the place with the human race come August. All right, I'll be looking forward to coming back. 104, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item number four. Um, this concludes awards and presentations. Is there anything else, madame clerk? No, sir.

Thank you kindly, ma'am. Uh, under delegations, you have um you must submit a card like this if you want to speak about a particular item. you have 180 seconds to talk about your concern or concerns. Uh feel free um to elaborate. Okay. First on the list will be Pam Shia and after uh the village mayor will be Tony Johnson. You're next.

Good evening. I'm Pam Sha. Uh right quick, I just I just would like to thank uh city manager Stockton Whitten and Police Chief Le uh Cer. Uh we've had a little situation ongoing in the village and we all came together and thanks to Chief Cer and to the city manager, the situation is fully under control. So, thank you for that. That's all I wanted to say. Let's keep it up. Find hardwood. Thank you. And I apologize. Uh, Madame Mayor Shia, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Next, Mr. Johnson. Sir, good evening everyone. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor. I'd just like to um State your name for us, please. Sorry. Tony Johnson. Yes, sir.

I'd like to bring to your attention that Koko has his first um woman of color as the postmaster. And I just wanted to um give you a little bit of background about her story. Um she started at this post office. she's now the postmaster of and it's not always a straight shot. So, she had to take a side step and go out to Colorado to continue her journey forward. From there, her goal was to get back home. You know how they say work my way back to you, mom. She was trying to get back to Florida to be with her mother. Um but the side step took her to Texas and and from to Texas, it took her to um Atlanta or to Georgia. And and so what what I'm proud to actually say to you all that she's finally made her way back home here. She's not from Coco, but she made her home Florida. And um her name is Mary Mustaper. She's now the first African-American female postmaster of Coco. So Mary,

let's go. All right, Miss Come on down. Okay, we're going to bring her down here in a minute. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Just ma'am, you got the ringside seat, ma'am. Come on down on the front row, ma'am. Thank you. We We're just percolating. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Give us one moment. Ma'am, you you you just slide over here to your right. There you go. Little bit more. Little bit more. Sister Ford, you'll move your purse so she can sit down, please. There you go. You know, we have we do it like we do in Sunday school. Okay. Mr. Randy Cole Sims. Sir, would you come forward, please?

And then after Mr. Sims, then we'll be uh Dr. Bryant. Sir, good evening. Good evening. I believe I'm here because I had 10 years of serving as a minister to the fistbull of our church of Christ. Amen.

Of which Sister Mustapher uh was a member or is a member of that particular congregation and for that reason I believe I was asked to come and congratulate her. One of the things that comes to mind and of course uh you give a microphone to a preacher and he has to include the word. So from Matthew chapter 5 at verse number 16, the Bible says, "Let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven." Um, not intending to be prophetic, but every now and again I have a tendency to share with members of the body things that I believe would encourage one and the other. Just a little while ago, I sent to CIS a piece uh that suggest that she was being watched. Um, and it really comes from that text and the principal in particular. We are particularly proud of her for what she has realized and or accomplished. And we just on behalf of uh the Fisk Boulevard Church of Christ and its membership uh want to congratulate her. I've had we've had the privilege to watch her. Um and one of the things I've teased her about uh consistently is her favor with God. And so he took her where he did brought her back home and we appreciate him for the same.

Amen. Thank you there, Pastor Sam. Sir, next Dr. Bryant and then we will have the person of the hour in blue come forward too. Good evening. Um good evening sir.

Those that are sitting here um I had no intentions of speaking uh let alone praying. Um however um I'm not from Coco but I lived in Coco. Uh my roots come from here. Uh Joel Collins is my aunt. Uh Leon Collins is my uncle. One of the first uh the first black African-American uh deputy mayor here. Uh so it be befitting uh to come and honor and support and encourage uh Mary uh who has found favor not only in the eyesight of the Lord, but in the eyesight of Bvard County, in the eyesight of Coco. So uh we just want to say congratulations to you, Mary. Uh we love you. Uh and we've been praying for her to come back to Florida. Uh I wanted her to come uh to Fort Pierce. Um but um God saw fit to bring her back to Coco. So uh we're just

uh but it's close enough. It's close enough. So we just continue to uh pray for her well-being as well as for everything that happens here in Coco. God bless you. Yes, sir. Let's give uh the pastors a round of applause. Now the lady of the hour, would you come to the podium, please, ma'am? Um, what members of your family? Do you have any? I talked with your daughter over the phone. Are your family members? Okay. Yes, my daughter. Bring on up. Light it. No, no, no. Ma'am, put the camera down. You'll be a part of the dream, too. They will do it for you. Come on down. All right. Come on. There's power in number, ma'am. Because uh uh to whom much is given, much is what?

Required. Thank you. Because a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. So we thank you. Go ahead, ma'am. The floor is yours. Post. First of all, I would like to thank you all for um inviting me here. My family for coming. Also, a few of my co-workers. Um well, not my co-workers, my well, they are my co-workers. My employees that thought enough of me to come out tonight. My church family and everybody that's here. I thank you all and I'm looking forward to doing great things here in Coco. Thank you. All right, let's uh council, let's come down. Senior manager, city staff. Miss Singer, would you take a picture for us, please? Ma'am,

you know that that old since they quoted Matthew, you know, uh I'm going just paraphrase. I let you rule over a few. You done right by them. So now you have to rule over many. You've been a good and faithful servant for the people. Do I need you know

now? Now, Councilman Gins is right there in Rock Ledge and this is is uh Sister Home Church. So, I'm going to let you say something across the road. Ma'am, we're very proud of you. First and foremost, you're setting examples for the youth. And the beautiful thing about it, we come from different tribes, but we belong to one race. That's the human race because we're all God's children. Amen. So, we're extremely proud of you, ma'am. You're setting a positive precedent cuz proper preparation produces positive productivity. Now, you're looking sharp. Let's give her a round of applause again. [Applause]

Uh well, Sister Mustapher, I think uh at the end of the day, you always been consistent. Uh, I watch you since I was a little little boy. You make sure you pop me across the head every now and then. But but thank you for being so consistent. Your family loves you to death and we're happy to see you back in Coco and make sure my packages get there on time, you know. But but but we really uh we appreciate you. Oh. Oh, Lord. If I got to pend on her. Oh, Jesus help me. But we appreciate you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay. Anyone else? Ma'am, bring your lot. Come on, please.

Captain, that's you, Captain Terry Jones. Let's give Captain Terry Jones, Dr. Captain. Anybody else? Where's your church members, man? Where they at? Where are they? Uh, if you don't want me to call the police, you better come on down. Oh, come on down. Come on down. Come on down, please. Mr. Co. S, take your time, baby. Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. Slow. Slow it down. Come on. Amen.

Well, put that Hey, let the pastor put them healing hands on you. All we need is a ball. Oh, amen. Vicki, come on now. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Come on down. Come on down. Tony. Yes, sir. Man, if you don't want me to tear up your refrigerator, bring yourself on. Who else? Come on. Who else? God bless you. God bless you, ma'am. Anyone else in the audience that's affiliated with you? No, we good. You promise?

So, on behalf of the great city of Koko, we thank you. We come to you with open arms, ma'am, because you're doing phenomenal things to whom much is given, much is required. So, keep on doing what you're supposed to do because it's done decent and in order. Amen. Amen. All right. All right. Wait a minute. Where's your daughter? Touch him. Touch. Come on. No. No. No. She been blowing my phone up. Say something real quick. Wait a minute. Is everybody who?

Okay. Okay. Ready? One, two, three. Okay. Okay. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Since you recording, come on down. We'll bring We'll hold the phone for you. Captain Jones, bring the phone. Come on, man. He's got one fine haircut. Come on. Come on now. Come on. Come on. got it on president.

Can we say cheese? All right, Coco. Can you say city of Coco? City [Music] of Coco. City of Coco. All right. All right. Thank you. You are a blessing, man. [Applause] Okay.

Get some leg exercise. Yeah. How much? How long is it going to take? All right. Miss Keys call out. Yeah, Miss Keys. All right. Thank you.

Okay. Is that all our delegations? Yes, ma'am. That was all. Okay. This concludes this portion of delegations. We will proceed forward to the consent agenda item. What are the wishes of councel? We got a motion on the floor by Councilman Hearn. Second. Okay. Second by whom? Okay. Second by deputy mayor Weeks. Chair's going to call the question. All in favor by saying I. I. I.

Any nays? Eyes have it unanimously. Proceeding on to public hearing. number 6-1. It's that time of year again. Approval resolution number 2025-045 establishing the roll back rate and the approved proposed millage rate for the purpose of notification to the taxpayers of Bard County Property Appraiser and set the date, time, and place for the first public hearing to consider the fiscal year 2026. budget. It also recommended that the city manager be instructed to complete the Florida Department of Revenue Certifications of Taxable Value forms DR-4205-584. Now, I know you're next, Mrs. Bowman. Ma'am, but I just want to get a little quick comment from either my city manager or my city attorney. Anything you all want to say before I turn the floor over to the effervescent, illustrious, industrious Mrs. Bowman. Either one of y'all too.

Okay, sir. Ma'am, as always, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, ma'am. So this is um part of the uh presentations that we need to do as part of the truth and millillage which is required for by Florida statute. So at this meeting we've got a few things that city council is going to need to decide on. Um there's a resolution establishing the roll back rate where we are essentially stating and affirming in a resolution what the roll back rate is which is a calculation. Um we're going to request that you adopt a proposed millage rate um further in the presentation so that we can also comply with trim requirements. Um and according to trim we have to establish a proposed millage rate by August 4th uh again within 35 days of valuation to comply with crim the trim process. Um that vote needs to be a minimum of three out of the five votes. And then um at the end, we're also going to set the first public hearing to be held on September 3rd at 6 PM here at city hall in the council chambers at 65 Stone Street. that is required so that the trim notice can be mailed out or a notice of proposed property taxes um to sent to uh property owners which will be mailed by the property appraiser um in August. So, um, as part of this normal presentation that we're required to do every single year, we look at the, um, horse historical review and avalorum tax base. Um, if you will notice, we did have a 6.1% increase in our property valuation. Of that, uh, 6.1% about 2.1% of that was

um, new construction. So the actual increase in um values was about 4%. And then this is a graphical presentation for you. Um you'll notice going back to 2015 and after the great recession, as you know, property values fell considerably and it wasn't until about 2014 that uh Koko's property rates values started going up. And so now we're uh at about 1.9 billion which was shown on the previous slide. So this slide shows you the review of the millage rates and what the revenue was that's been generated uh over the last several years. Um, if you will notice the revenue variance from the previous year based on gross taxable revenue or I'm sorry, um, at 95% is about $83,000 or 6.6%. Um, you may ask why 95% that's what the state statute says. We have to budget at at least 95%. And uh with that valuation um the Avalor revenue is based on a proposed tax rate of 6.9532 which is the same as last year's millage rate. So looking at the uh the millage rate options that uh council has available. Uh the top section there shows you the revenue that was um estimated to be collected in fiscal year 2025. And then council can go uh with what the proposed tenative millage rate is, which is what the budget was developed and uh the numbers that you'll see later um was based on the revenue generated on the 6.9532 mills. The roll back rate is

6.7367 mills and state statute says council can go up to a maximum of 10 mills. Um so you could go anywhere in between there. Um, and if you will notice the additional revenue based on the 6.9532 will generate about $742,000 in revenue. If we go back to the roll back rate, it would only generate about $340,000. So that' be a loss of revenue of about $42,000. If you'll recall, we have two CRAAS, Diamond Square CRA and Coco CRA. So, um, the Avalorum revenue initially comes into the city and then the city has to pay into the CRAAS. Avalorum taxes based on what the property valuation is in each one of those CRAAS at the millage rate that the city council adopts and then also is being budgeted at the 95% in compliance with state statute. So going with the millage rate of 6.9532 mills, it would increase Cocoa um CRAAS's uh property tax revenue of about $86,000 and Diamond Square is $51,000. So in total the transfers out from general fund to the CRAAS would be $136,786. If city council decided to go with roll back rate, there would actually be a reduction in revenue not only to the city but also to that transfer to the CRAAS. Um where uh Coco CRA's revenue would be reduced $43,000 and then Diamond Square CRA $13,000. Um as part of this process, we always like to see what other cities are doing

in the county. So this slide shows you what the current millage rates are in the different cities in uh Bvard County and then what their roll back rates are and what their proposed uh millage rates are. Um most of them are remaining the same um uh which is uh above roll back. Um, interestingly enough, if you look at Rocklage,

Rocklage was already below their um, roll back rate and they're going even further. They're dropping their millage rate even further. Um but if you will notice they have also have strong property values that they have even with the dropping their millage rate even more they have $14 million in advorum revenue whereas city of Koko has about $13.5 million. So um the proposed um millage rate and the first public hearing as I said um the budget's been developed with 6.9532 mills gross tax revenue would be an increase of 781,000 for general fund or at 95% $742,000 dollar. Uh, one thing that we usually like to show is what's that impact um for the property taxes that home owner homeowners would be paying um with keeping the millage rate the same as it was in the previous year. Um, this isn't exact, it isn't precise. This is an example. Um, everyone has different uh tax exemptions on their properties for varying reasons. So, this is just a representation of what someone could expect at uh different uh property valuations on their homes. So, if we start out at the top with someone with a $100,000 home and uh $50,000 uh homestead exemption, they paid about $348 in um fiscal year 25 for property taxes. Um, Bvard County does have a cap of 3% or CPI. Uh, so it just generally speaking an average increase of 3% which is as high as it can go. Um, that

increase to that homeowner of $100,000 home. Property taxes would be um $369. So it would be a total increase of uh $21 which is g getting cut off there on the side. Um, and then similarly looking at a home valued at 150,000, same uh homestead exemption, uh they would go from $695 to $727. So they would see a $32 increase in their property taxes. Looking at a $200,000 home with the $50,000 exemption, their increase would be $42. and then a $300,000 home with the 50,000 homestead exemption, their taxes will increase $62. So, looking at the proposed budget um which as I said, the budget was prepared with the revenue uh being generated off of the 6.9532 mills. Uh the total budget for general fund is 50 more $54,995,785. Um, if you'll notice at the top of the slide there, the majority of the revenue is being generated for what's called non-revenue, which is interund transfers, the water and sewer fund, the return on investment and payment in lie of franchise fees. Um, and use of reserve. The budget this year, I'll remind council as we discussed at the budget workshop last week, the budget was produced without taking any money out of reserves this year. All the capital was funded with recurring revenue. So there is no use of reserves in that $19 million. And then the taxes make up approximately approximately 31% and that's all the taxes that we collect. And then there's other varying

categories of revenue as you can see looking at the major capital that was funded with this budget in fiscal year 26 in general fund. um the street paving of $500,000. That was an increase. Uh we had been budgeting about $500,000. So that's um adding $200,000 roughly um to the budget for the street paving and ensuring that it's m being maintained at the $500,000 level. There's signage for safe routes to school. Um a stump cutter in public works and a vehicle. uh police department is getting seven vehicles replaced. They also are in need of some air conditioners. So that's about $240,000. Um as we discussed at the budget workshop, the fire station one needs a diesel generator for the station and then bay for bay floor coating at the station and a vehicle and then some uh CPR equipment. So looking at the water and sewer fund, 85% of their revenue is generated by their charges for services or their utility rates in other words. And then they have some use of their non-revenues um from fund balance reserves for that fund. Their budget totals 98,397,0006 $620. Looking at storm water, um they are funded 100% by special assessment, uh which does go on the tax bill and so their budget is $2,41,815. So, this is a slide that depicts the

budget for all of the funds. The um budget um did increase about $22 million. Um again, we kind of went over this at the budget workshop. Uh the biggest increase is the water and sewer fund. And um that increase is primarily due to an increase in capital as you'll see in that water sewer renewal and replacement uh fund. That's a transfer that goes into that fund. So from the water and sewer fund to the renewal and replacement fund, that's a $ 8.5 million increase out of the $12.7 million increase in water and sewer. Um and then you can see the increases in the other funds budgets. Um of note, general fund has a 1% increase in the total budget. So, as I stated, the total budget for citywide is $194,951,00031. So, um I'll go over the requested action, but I'll remind council at this point in time this is a public hearing. So, the next slide I will go and um hand it back over to the mayor and he can um get the public input and then I'll go back and uh ask city council to take action. Um the actions that you will take will be to approve the resolution establishing a roll back rate of 6.7367. approved the millage rate um a proposed millage rate of 6.9532 mills and then set the first hearing date for the budget on September 3rd at 6 p.m. at city hall here in the chambers. Um reminder to city council that once we establish this trim rate, you can go down or up uh in subsequent trim hearings. However, if it is

increased um in the future meetings, uh we would have to re um put those trim notices out again and hold hearings again. Um and then also the if the millage rate is reduced at that point in time, then normal trim voting requirements would apply. So, at this time, I'll hand it over to you, Mr. mayor and uh take public input and then I'll kind of go back to the previous slide to remind council what they're going to be voting on.

Okay. If you would like to expound on this, make sure you complete a card, submit it. Um you will come to the podium. You have 180 seconds to expound on this particular item on the roll back rate and your concerns. Do we have any other questions for Mrs. Nud? Sorry, Mrs. Bowman. I'm sorry. That's what I get for looking at you, Mrs. Newman. Mrs. Nerman can take them for me.

Sure. Like to close this portion to the council and open to the public. Please come forward and state your name for me, please. Anyone in the audience? Going once. Going twice. Chair like to close this portion to the public and return to the council. Okay. Would you digress one slide, please, Mrs. Bowman? Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh, we'll proceed in this order. Councilwoman Cos and then Deputy Mayor Weeks.

Yeah. So there the difference between the 6.95 and the 6.73 rolling back is 402,000. So we would have to find 402,000 in order not to raise taxes this year. You would need to find 402,000 to fund the budget the way it is right now. It is currently right. Yes. you would have to cut or come up with some other revenue source that we don't know of at this point in time.

Yeah. And and last year um when we had, you know, our final um when we put together the final numbers for the budget, we actually spent less than we budgeted by some 12 million, wasn't it? Yes, it was roughly $12 million. And we also underestimated our expenses by 12 million. So we developed the budget with an assumption that everything is going to be spent and all the revenue is going to be earned because we don't know exactly what's going to happen.

Um so the city manager balances the budget. The budget again by statute has to be balanced the revenue against the expenses. And so he looks at the requests of the different departments needs and tries to balance the revenue against that. And as I said, we base that budget with the assumption that everything's going to be spent and earned. Okay. So that money is all used up from last year, even 400,000. I'm whatever's not spent. If if revenue exceeds expenditures,

then that money goes back into fund balance. if they didn't spend their expenses.

Some of that gets rolled over, which is uh uh an agenda item that comes back to city council to approve each year. Open purchase orders on committed or budgeted capital that is not on a purchase order at that point in time. All that gets rolled over and reestablished in the next year. So, while you may end up with $12 million that looks like it wasn't spent, you could be rolling over5 or $6 million of that money. I know from last week's budget meeting, I know um we were told that we more or less this was we needed to accept this. um we needed to tell at that meeting whether we were going to accept this. But you know there's something about getting this much information 24 hours in advance being able to consume it and then you think about it and reflect on it over the week and I thought about 400,000 how small that is in comparison to this total budget and how easy it would be to find that money. so that we didn't have to raise taxes. Um, the last time we raised the millage rate, just a few months later, we raised the millage rate a half a mill, which is about, I don't know, 500 um,000. And just 4 months later, we had 700,000 that came available to us that had been in a fund that needed to go back into the general fund. So I I know that um the numbers look relatively small um in terms of you know 2040. I think um for most of us, as far as I can tell,

it's going to be about a $100 increase. When we consider the water increase, the fire increase, we add all of those in, you're looking at at least a $100 increase, which isn't a lot. Um although we've been absorbing those increases every year for quite some time, Rocklage their valuation or or they have their ad valorum taxes are at see 1,400 what is that about 800,000 difference but they have a population of 30,000 so we're actually you know tracking pretty I their houses are have a much higher value and that's how they're able to uh generate that kind of income. But we're not far away considering we're you know twothirds of their population. Um you would think that there would be lesser amount of expenses associated with having a third less the population. But um so I'm I'm you know really reluctant to raise taxes when we've had such a good year and particularly in light of the fact that we had so much left over at the end of the year last year based on our budgeting. Um it tells me there probably is a little leeway there. And I'll just leave it at that.

So I will offer that the budget is balanced with a recurring revenue. So as things come up, there is a fund balance policy. So as things come up during the year and if it's something that is a recurring cost, then we're going to have to find where in the budget that cost can be cut. Oh yeah. Yeah. I understand that. But I mean, we've we've got quite a bit there. So anyway, Mrs. um Bowman, how many homes on our rolls right now do not even qualify for homestead exemption? Do not qualify for homestead.

Yes. The value of their home is not even say $50,000. I don't know the answer to that, but there's roughly 60% that don't pay taxes. Right. There you go. So, unfortunately, we have to provide that service for them regardless. Yes.

Thank you. And and and then the other thing that I'm concerned about would be it only takes and God forbid um um just think about what took place in Texas. A flood take place and it can decimate your whole um budget, put it in havoc. And I would rather have reserves there and not need them than to need them and not have them because we're trying to keep quality personnel here in our city and provide that um service for the citizens of Coco. We will hear from you deputy. You just say in terms of No, ma'am. Okay.

Thank you.

Because we have lots of reserves. uh still all it takes is just one lots of reserves. It's just like a medical event can decimate. Okay, so that's why we're are good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. And again, we have to keep quality personnel here. There has been a reduction in crime in our city. People are moving here. We are finally getting around the curve and we must continue to invest in our city and I will stand behind our city because I was born here and I've seen the changes. I didn't move here. I was born here and I went through the changes like some of those true cocoons like myself. Again, without interruption, it is your turn, Deputy Weeks.

Okay. Um, in in looking at this and of course in my particular district, we're up to our eyeballs in new construction. We're going to be adding so much more to our roles this year with all the projects down 524 and the new subdivision at the end of Friday Road. Um, me personally, I I would love to see us either do the roll back rate or go halfway between, do something in between like 6.85. At least give the homeowners a little bit of a break and um because all the new construction, yeah, we have apartments, but we have single family homes which are going to pay taxes because they are all new homes and uh the value of them is much higher. Um and only those who transport their um homestead from another property would have advantage of that. Otherwise, they're all going to be paying new home prices or new home uh taxes on it. And as we saw this year, because there was a lot of new new properties that came on, 2.1% of our of our increase came from new construction. It's going to be more than that this year. I mean, look at all that stuff. I took I've got pictures of all of it in my presentation. But anyway, I would like to see us give the homeowners a break. The 40some percent or 39% who are seem to be carrying the load deserve a little break in their taxes because we are going up on the two others um on two of them. One staying the same. But um you know, let's give our homeowners uh a break. we will still be able to do our budget. We're still going to have again take in more money. Uh but that would be my wish on this because I feel like our city is doing great. You're right. And I I don't want to see it slide backwards, but I don't believe

giving a little break on their property taxes is going to cause Coco to go backwards. Make a motion. I make a motion. Yes, I would. I would love to make a motion to have the rate uh for taxes this year be at 6.85. Which one are you you talking about? Roll back. No, in between 6.85. Roll back is uh um you talking about the proposed millage rate? Yeah, proposed millage rate uh between I'm going halfway between the roll back rate and the proposed the staying the same to 6.85 and um to be the established millage rate. Okay. Um, did you get that, madame clerk? Yes, sir.

Okay, I have let me let me do the and we'll come back for discussion. Okay, I have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weeks and a second for the proposed millage rate is what is your number? 6.85. Do you have that, ma'am? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. All right, Mr. City Manager. Sir, I can wait until um Councilman Goings I think he has his light on. Okay, Councilman Goins,

I just I want to know what that the the amount that you just gave, what's the what's the revenue for the 6.85. You get you gave gave us a number of 6.85. Correct? I do. So, what what is Well, it would be halfway between what we showed here. Y'all, I would like to know back rate and the um you if you're proposing this, I need to know what that number is. Okay. Um can Miss Bowman figure that out quickly? Yes, ma'am. Okay. As you tabulate that, um Mr. City Manager Wooden, sir, I'm tabulating too.

Yeah. Okay, we'll give him a chance. Well, I I I go on further. So, my my only my only concern is uh once that number comes. So, so it's two things. Uh well, multiple things. Services

is an issue. Quality of life issue. Uh employee retainage um and our CRAAS are taking a a hit. Um especially Diamond Square CRA. 13,000 or $15,000 taking a hit for Diamond Square CRA could cause uh some major issues especially on their paint and landscape programs for for example we depend on that that dollar amount for the entire year for those homes. So on one end, okay, you went you went halfway in between, but is that enough? I think that's is that enough to give a break? I guess that's my you know what what does that number look like? Is that $50 a home on average? Is that I just need to I just need to know what that what that looks like.

Can I speak to Okay. Um yeah, I picked the middle of the road uh kind of for that for that reason and and I know they'll figure out the difference, but um it wouldn't be the 13,000 hit that they were talking about because of the that's would be with the roll back rate. this is in between and it will help homeowners offset the other two that we're increasing. And I know everybody's talking about um uh the 39% who are paying the property taxes, but uh the 39% um a lot of them are just workingclass families like mine who um your home value all of our home value shot up. So everybody's going to get hit with 3% period. There's just no if ends or buts. So, by um we're going to take in more money, but by uh trimming back that that millage rate just a little bit helps give a break.

Okay. Deputy Mayor, excuse me. Is that it, Deputy Mayor? Yes, sir. Okay. Councilman Hearn, sir.

Uh yes. Um I certainly uh I can appreciate your perspective on that and uh you know, trying to save the homeowners. I'm a property um owner here in the city of Coco and I I'm I don't have any homestead exemption. So, I paid the full amount. Um so, I understand that. However, um just for clarity and for those that may be listening, I think it's real it it's important of us that we make sure we use the correct language. Um even if we was to go with the proposed uh millage rate, we're not raising taxes technically even though there is an increase in property values. So, I think um using the correct language um is very important uh for those that may be listening and don't quite understand what we're doing up here. And um that's just all I wanted to say that. That's it.

Thank you very much, sir. Um Mr. City Man. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, just a couple of points of clarification. And so, and she'll give you the number regardless of what the number is. I think that the 400,000 you can't you can't um weigh that against theund 194 million. What's the total budget? Um we're speaking to the mic please sir. Thank you. So they can hear you.

So the the 400,000 would have to be reduced from the general fund budget. So, so you don't weigh that against the $194 million budget, whatever that number is. 198. What is it, Rebecca? 194. Yeah. So, you're not you're not cutting 400 or whatever the number is out of 194. You're cutting it out of 54 million

because it's a it affects the general fund. Um, every everything that's on the tax ro for the upcoming fiscal year has to be on the tax ro prior to January 1st of this calendar year. So, so, so the new construction that's occurring right now is not on the tax role. Um the the the any any militage rate that is above the roll back millage rate is technically a tax increase. So if you're not going to roll back any rate, doesn't matter the decimal point, any rate above the roll back is a tax increase technically. Um, so just wanted to to to clarify those couple of things there. Again, if we have to look for 400 or if we have to look for

if we have to look for 200 is not against the 194, it's against the 54. Any rate above roll back is technically a a tax increase. And again those that valuation that is not on the tax role uh prior to January one of the calendar year is cannot and will not be utilized to uh to multiply out revenues for the upcoming fiscal year. And again when you also when you're looking at differences between cities you have to look at the taxable value. it is how much higher how much more taxable value does a one city have compared to the other. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Okay, I have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weeks and a second by Councilwoman Cos and I have two lights on and after the two lights then I'mma call the question. Councilwoman calls and then after you council her then I will call the question. I will just I'll I'll thank the city manager for pointing out that technically anything above the roll back rate is advertised to the public as a tax increase. So that is the way the public sees it. Mhm.

Um, and then I wanted to do what is I believe the 400,000 of 54 million. What percentage is that? That's like 07%. I mean, it's pretty small percentage of the budget, isn't it? 400,000 out of the total budget. out of the 54,000 the city manager corrected. Uh you're looking at the general fund the general fund revenue

as you get that number seven ten of a percent 7% 7% I'm sorry it is 7% I guess at any rate it seems a relatively small number to absorb Um, and we're talking even smaller if you take it to if you don't take it all the way back. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Yes, ma'am. Mr. City Manager, of the 54 million, that includes reserves balances brought forward. No, that's just balancing the current year revenue.

That's just current revenue. Current year revenue. Okay. Okay. Have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weekes and a second by Councilwoman McCaus. Chair is going to call the question. All in favor by saying I. I. I. All in favor by saying nay. Nay. Nay. Let the record reflect 32 nay. Proceeding on. Approve a resolution establishing the roll back rate of 6.7367. Chair like to make a motion to approve that or roll back. Great rate. Second.

I got a second on the floor by Councilman Hearn. Chair's going to call the question. All in favor by saying I. I. I. If you said I, raise your hand. Let me hear independently. This is for back. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. I I didn't hear your voice. U ma um councilwoman calls I said I okay we have unanimously eyes have it unanimously now we're going to the proposed millillage rate of 6.9532 chair would like to make a motion to approve the proposed excuse me proposed millage rate of 6.9532 and I'm looking for a second

second I got a second on the floor by Councilman Hearn chair's going to call the question all in favor by saying I I I Any nays? Nay.

That the record reflect three. Yes. Mayor Blake, Councilman Hearn, Councilman Gins, Ben are Deputy Mayor Weeks, and Councilwoman Cost. Now the third and required action request and we set this first public hearing date and time September the 3rd 2025 at 6 pm at the great city of Coco City Hall 65th Stone Street. Move to approve. We have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weeks. Second.

A second by Councilwoman Co. All in favor by saying I. I. Thank you very much, Mrs. Bowman, for your diligent and tireless efforts. Thank you. You're welcome, Mr. Mayor and Caswell. Um, and then just to remind you, uh, with that vote, the city manager will be certifying form DR420 by Monday, August 4th.

Okay. Proceeding on to item number 6-2. Conduct the final public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2025 back slash2026 action plan. Approve the action plan and citizens participation for the submission to HUD and authorize the mayor to sign all subsequent certifications and agreement. This is a nobrainer. I know I have to listen to the public. The floor is yours now, Mrs. Newman. And again, Mrs. uh Bowman, I do apologize. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, ma'am.

This is the second and final public hearing of the proposed FI26 action plan and to approve the action plan and citizen participation plan for submission to HUD. uh in for fiscal year 202526 based on last year's allocation the city anticipates receiving 105,087 in community development block grant funds from the US department of housing and urban development as direct entitlement. Uh the city also anticipates receiving approximately $63,255 in home investment part partnership program funds from HUD as a part of the Bvard County Home Consortium which is comprised of the cities of Coco, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Titusville, and Bvard County. As as we've noted in the past, the CGB CDBG funds must meet the following requirements. uh one of the three requirements national objectives are for low and moderate income persons to eliminate or prevent slums of blight or to meet urgent needs. CDBG allows a maximum of 50% of the grant to be allocated to a public service agency and a maximum of 20% to the grant to be allocated for staff administration. Uh the city also plans on expending the remaining balance of our CDBGCV funds which is our coronas corona virus funds that were awarded in fiscal year 2020. And these funds will be used to expend those to expand our currently funded public service agencies that are working diligently here in the city of Coco to support the residents of the city. uh portion of the funding would assist and be used to house for housing activities by providing food, meals, rental and mortgage assistance benefiting low and moderate income persons that are vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. And so as we as we move forward to this, we received our new allocation numbers uh recently for the second and final reading and the numbers dropped. We last year we had $119,567,000

and and this year we are at 105087. Uh so we did decrease our numbers and our allocation for CDBG for this year. In addition uh the home funds will also decrease uh based on last year's numbers. And so we have uh four public service agencies that we brought to you be at the first public hearing to uh have them present to you what their uh programs are and how they are going to uh present to uh their activities to the city. As a part of the changes in the allocation, we did have to reduce the amount recommended for each of the partner agencies uh just a slight amount. So the the new dollar amount recommended for Central Boulevard Sharing Center will be $3,940.76. The Community Services Council Aging Matters Meals on Wheels is going to be $3,940.76. Family Promise of Boulevard will receive $3,940.77 and the Salvation Army domestic violence shelter will receive $3,940.76. a large portion of our uh CDBG funding is going to repay the the section 108 loan that we have that we used to to build the Dr. Jolie Smith Community Center. And and so we have to continue paying on that through its entirety. And so this year we will uh be allocating approximately $68,36 for that. Uh, additionally we have administration costs for staff to administer the funds and to to manage the projects and the the CDBGCV funds we have available are 68,037 and those funds will be allocated and uh split between the four public service

agencies and then staff will also have administration costs for that and so we are looking to uh get the approval today. We did advertise the proposed public hearing and for 30-day public comment period. The period began May 2nd, 2025 and ended on June 2nd, 2025. Copies of the action plan were placed at the Dr. Julie Smith Community Center, Central Bard Library, and here at City Hall for comments and no comments were received during that comment period. Staff recommends approving the action plan and citizen participation plans for submission to HUD and authorize the mayor to s sign all subsequent certifications and agreements. And as this is a public hearing, you can open it up for comments at this time before uh making a vote. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Newman. Ma'am, do we have any questions for Mrs. Newman from councel? Seeing none, chair like to close this portion to council and open it to the public. I do have one card, Mr. Brew Baker. David, sir, would you come forward, please? My good and thank you. Uh, good evening.

Uh, distinguished mayor and council and and staff. Uh, my name is Dave Brewbaker. I am the president CEO of the Central Bard Sharing Center located at 113 Aurora Street. Um, our mission is to provide emergency assistance and guidance to those in our community who struggle to obtain life's most basic needs. And I often break that down in my u discussions as the food on your table, the shirt on your back, and the roof over your head. That's what we do. And we've proudly done that for 47 years. Uh 36 years at the 113 Aurora Street location. Uh recently, uh we well actually we're here u to say thank you. Um it's always a pleasure to work with the city as a community partner of ours, but also uh in regards to the need. Um we've seen a a great increase in regards to hunger in our community. Just the cost of food alone is driving people to us at record numbers. Uh this uh grant will help us buy u food for our community kitchen. Our community kitchen about a month ago became the only

Thank you. community kitchen in all of Bvard County where you can go every day to receive a nutritious meal. Um, I emphasize that because we are starting to see some folks uh start migrating from down south that had been utilizing some daily bread services, but since they closed their doors, we're starting to see an increase. And again, um I can't imagine this community without uh sharing center in it. uh we are uh woven organically into the fabric of this community and we really depend on a number of segments and community partners for us to be able to meet the need of our mission and so today the funds that um are being recommended and I hope that you approve again 100% of it will go to be used for purchasing food for our community kitchen program

do we have any questions for Mr. Brewbaker, this is a no-brainer, sir. I appreciate that. No, I thank you, my good fellow Rotarian. And I I I agree that u um when you're out there to help your your fellow person, um you know, it makes a big difference. Uh providing that nutritious meal makes a big difference in their lives. So, thank you for your considerations. Thank you for your work. Hold on. I have two light. Yes, I got it, ma'am. Thank you. I have two lights on. Amen. Okay, sir. and we'll proceed in this order. Councilwoman Cost and Councilman Hearn. I was just going to say you work so hard.

I wish there were more because this just um you know it's just a drop in the bucket. Yeah. Well, I'm not going to complain about the amount because I understand the situation. We've suffered with a lot of grants that have either been put on pause or that have gone away. Um, and the the fireball of that is um our our budget is this year's $2.1 million. And that's what I tell my staff, real dollars. We have to raise in order to meet the need. When I started in 2003, it was less than 400,000.

So, you can see in the 22 years, we've grown exponentially. Uh, but our programs have as well. And I would say that 70% of the people we serve uh register themselves as uh from the city of Koko. Okay. And what percentage increase do you think you had this year? Can you ballpark in regards to meals or in regards to Well, in regard to need meals? Um um well, we've we served 38,000 meals this year. Uh we were predicting 36. So that's 2,000 above what we um thought we'd serve. So more than that, but really it's the food pantry that's taken off.

Um sometime in October, we started distributing over 100,000 pounds in a month. And so I encourage you to look at that playbook for that food drive this year. I want to bring that trophy back. I want Stockton to have that smile on his face. And I will tell you, City Rocklage pulled that one out of your playbook and came out with some big checks. Bill Taylor helped out, man. Bill Taylor, I hope you're listening. Bill Taylor, I need I need you guys. Okay. Well, thanks for everything you do. Yes, ma'am.

Council Hearn, sir. Um, first off, I I just want to say thank you for what you do and your organization. Um, I'm not too proud to say that in my family had utilized the Sharon Center uh at one point in time in my life. So, I definitely appreciate the work that's being done.

Uh, my question to you in regards to uh the influx of people outside of Coco starting to utilize the sharing center. Is there if if you're not already doing so, is there any kind of way to track that information so uh that we we could probably provide uh or be provided that information when we're having these conversations with our partners um even with the Space Coast League of Cities. Um you know, when we're coming to the table trying to find solutions for this funding. Um if you could provide that to us at a later date, I would appreciate it. Um

well um the answer quick answer is yes. I can tell you how many people come from the city of Coco and how many people come from outside the city of Coco uh because we do receive funding from Bvard County uh and circumstances and and we do keep the same records in regards to that. So we don't count city of Coco residents towards uh the count that we provide to them each month uh each quarter I should say. So I would be glad to provide those numbers to you. I'll I'll email them to you. I got your email address. Yeah, I say that I'm not sure how the rules exactly work, but uh if for instance, if if these citizens are coming from the city of Melbourne, if they have funding um that they're no longer utilizing because I I know a lot of the uh centers down that way have closed down, maybe there can be a way to collaborate and bring some of that funding this way here. So,

the sad thing, Councilman, is that um they're they're coming in, they're staying. Yeah. They're not going back. Yeah. So that's going to increase the number of homelessness in our community uh and uh the services that people render uh will be taxed even more. So understandable. So um as you stated that's going to create some hard conversations that we have to have with our representatives. So um always when having those conversations having that evidence at hand to to show what we're talking about is is definitely vital. So um thank you again for what you do. Thank you. And I extend an open invitation to each and every one of you to come and take a tour, see what's going on, and um get down with us, you know, so because we're in the trenches. We're there.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. God bless you all. Thank you so much. God bless you. Let's give do uh Dr. Brew Baker a round. Okay. Any other individuals from the audience? Seeing none, chair like to close this portion of the public and return to the council. What are the wishes of council? Move to approve. Second. Like I told you, no brainer, sir. We have a motion on the for by deputy mayor Weeks and a second by Councilwoman Calls. Chair's going to call the question. All in favor by saying I. I. I.

Eyes have it unanimously. Proceeding on to item number six-3. I believe in this. I will stand with this and I am thankful for this. Uh PZ23-02805 430 Boulevard Avenue mixeduse development agreement and concept plan. I believe in you Mr. Nick Fairing, sir, you've already established a positive precedent in the city of Coco.

Um, and we look forward to having that positive collaboration regardless. Okay. And I will see you, Miss Erica Hughes. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Um, before I turn it over to you, ma'am, I just want to get the blessings. Just want to make sure I city manager or city attorney, would you all like to say anything? You good? Ma'am, the floor is yours. Thank you, sir.

Waiting for the presentation to get pulled up. Okay, Dave, stop. Are we good? The kid. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it's okay.

Uh, good evening. Erica Hughes, a planning consultant with RVI Planning and Landscape Architecture. Um tonight we are here um for an application for consideration of a development agreement approving a conceptual plan for the construction of a vertically integrated mixeduse development. The site is commonly known as a Bank of America site. It consists of three parcels totaling approximately 1.95 acres and is located at the northeast corner of Bvard Avenue and Church Street. The current future land use is mixed use and the zoning is central business district uh within the Cocoa Village overlay and within the waterfront uh overlay district. The subject properties designated as commercial mixeduse uh large building type. Over the course of several years, uh, multiple policies have been approved that allow for unique and dense redevelopment opportunities within the city's, uh, CRA and specifically in Cocoa Village where the subject property is located. In 2022, the comp plan was updated to allow for density of up to 25 dwelling units per acre for vertically integrated mixeduse projects. In 2023, the land development code was updated to allow for large scale mixeduse buildings with the maximum building height of eight stories. And last year, a code update was approved to allow for residential use on the ground floor for vertically mixeduse development. As a result of these policy approvals, application request is for a development agreement for a vertically mixeduse building with no fewer than 220 upscale apartments. Approximately 2,800 square feet of commercial retail uses are on the ground floor with the maximum building height proposed of eight stories and a maximum density of 125 dwelling units per acre.

As required by comp plan policy 1.1.2.6 there are 11 factors to consider for approval of the development agreement. Uh the factors range from economic and social benefits to the C city and the CRA, architectural design of development, impacts of public facilities, consistency with the CRA plan, proven experience by the developer, a proposed development schedule, and compliance with all applicable comp plan policies and land development regulations. I'll only touch briefly on a few of the factors listed. Uh for economic and social benefits in the economic impact and tiff projection study provided by the applicant team, the project is expected to have an investment totaling over 95 million for the city with approximately 1,030 jobs um for construction uh jobs that will be created and approximately 300 just over 300 for operation of the redevelopment at buildout. Uh there will be approximately 400 residents um living with in the in the development and within the enclosed parking area uh 25 public parking spaces will be provided um and available to all visitors. Uh proposed enhancements include a clubhouse amenities uh proposed on the ground floor. uh gym and spa will be accessible to the public through a paid membership program and outdoor resident areas include private pool and community terrace. Here's uh some of the building elevations that have been provided on or within your staff report package. You're looking west. This is looking south. This is east. And this is north.

It didn't move. Oh, sorry. It might be frozen. Yeah,

uh, another factor to consider is consistency with the CRA plan. Uh the Koko redevelopment agency continues to seek major redevelopment opportunities to re revitalize the Coco CRA area and the subject site has been identified as a catalyst mixeduse redevelopment site and as a medium priority project in the CRA as part of negotiations since uh the planning zoning board meeting. An updated development schedule is proposed and has been recently added to the agreement. Key milestones are shown on the screen. Uh within 18 months of the development agreement approval, final site plan applications must be submitted with final approval required to be secured within 24 months and construction is required to start within three years of development agreement approval. In addition to the mixeduse policy and the comprehensive plan, uh, appendix A, article 11, section 22 of the land development code require five factors to consider when approving in development agreement and as shown, many of which are similar to the factors that are listed in the comprehensive policy 1.1.2.6 that we reviewed. Additionally, waiver requests are included in the DA um and are allowed per section 15-21 of the LDC. Uh the waiverss listed propose differing development standards than what is found in code and specifically deal with parking space sizes, signage uh and lot standards. Staff has determined that the request of the devel for the development agreement complies with all relevant sections of the city's uh code of ordinances and comprehensive plan and we recommend approval of the requested development agreement between the applicant and the city of Aoko. Uh we are available for any questions and so is the applicant. Okay. Thank you very much, Mrs. Hughes.

I definitely do like this project. Uh, Councilman Hearn, sir. Uh, yes. I hope my my question isn't out of line and um I don't know the legalities behind if it's even feasible or not, but I'm a strong believer in closed mouths don't get fed. Yeah. Um I'm certainly in favor of this project. Um, is can anyone tell me what's the the pro the probable time that construction would begin on this project? Is like a ballpark number? Yes, sir. Good question, sir. Mr. Nick Fren, come to the podium

or Mrs. Hughes. I mean, but I know where I either one of y'all two. We can we can defer to the applicant, but for purposes of the development agreement, a a schedule has been included with the DA and uh construction is is required to commence within 3 years of the development agreement being approved.

Okay. I um thank you for that information. I asked that because I notice uh currently uh there's still uh parking that's going on on the property and there's uh I guess you have to pay to park there. Um, so my question would was would the developer be willing to either allow those spaces until construction began to be free parking or uh donate any proceeds from that parking space to our uh street improvements or parking improvements throughout the village. It's just an ask. I don't know the legalities behind it, but like I said, closed mouths don't get fed. Yeah, understood. I I don't have the authority to say yes to any of that tonight, but we can certainly talk offline about what you're trying to accomplish. Perfect.

Open to it. Thank you. Mr. Nick Herring, come back to the podium. Let me apologize for mispronouncing your last name. I might have said Herring, but it's Herring, so I apologize. No sweat. But I got the first part right. You're a good man, brother man. All right.

All right. Thank you. Any other questions for um either Mrs. Hughes? before I turn it over to the public. Good. Chair like to close this portion to council and present it to the public. Please come forward and state your name and um your comments. U Mrs. uh Madame Mayor Shaya, please come forward. You have

Good evening council and staff. First and foremost, the historic Koko Village Main Street board of directors and over 100 merchants and businesses in this village are so excited over the fact that this is going to happen.

It's actually going to happen in my lifetime. And I know you've all heard that. And so I will have to say that uh Nick came a couple weeks ago. He made a special trip and presented to the merchants and answered all their questions. And for therefore, I have a letter that I'm not going to read, but I will just take I don't want to take any more time and just turn it into council. But basically, it tells you that we are 100% behind this. We look forward to it. His design uh the fact that I believe we have merchants already fighting for the 2800 square feet that he's going to add as retail. We have merchants already signing up. They want him to put in a lap pool so we can all go swimming. So, uh, they're extremely excited. We cannot wait for this to come to the village. That's 400 more people living in this village that will be here as permanent residents for at least 15 to 24 months with the rent, shopping, eating, playing. So, that's more revenue for our police department, our fire department, and the city. So, thank you very much. Uh, my shovel will not rest on this one. Thank you, Nick. Okay,

please come forward. Um, yes, ma'am. Excuse me. I'm so sorry to interrupt. Um, council, um, the applicant does have a presentation that they would like to give. Okay. So, I'll give them my opportunity. Okay. Thank you, sir. Let let us give this praise on right now. Of course. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am. You're right. And thank you, Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Hughes. Come on, Wood. That's green. Yes. Call his name.

Alex Greenwood. Uh thank you mayor council. Um commercial property group is very supportive of this and they represent the u owners of the commercial properties in downtown Koko village and uh it's very simple and this is how I'm just going to end it. Build it. Thank you. All right. That's a no-brainer. Maybe taking out trees. Stop. Alex, do not stop. Uh, disregard that message. But yes, Mr. Nick Herring, sir, come to the port of me or your attorney. Please state your name for us, please. Ma'am,

good evening. For the record, Jessica Gaw with Cobb Cole Law Firm that is at 1 Daytona Boulevard in Daytona Beach, Florida. Thank you. I say and in the famous last words of any lawyer, I will be brief and then Nick will go over um some of the detailed points of the presentation. Um, as we said at planning and zoning, we're really excited about this project being at this point. Um, while this project team has been involved in just over three years of this, which we can go over the I think city vision of this started a decade ago when you adopted that mix land use. Um, and when we look at sites like this and the potential for development, I am excited to represent clients like Framework Group who take the time um to analyze the history of Coco, kind of the development opportunities, the building style. They know that the first public Christmas tree in Coco was at St. Michael's that was then renamed to St. Marks um or vice versa. And so they really take the time to learn the area to see what is needed um and bring that forward into the development program which Nick will kind of tell you about. Um as it relates to the development agreement like it was noted between the planning and zoning and now there are changes just to assignability and timing. We can go over that in detail um if you guys would like with any questions. Um and we will um be coming back I think before this board and before the CRA with some discussions on what this partnership looks like moving forward. Um Nick will touch on that, but I think from day one we've wanted to make this a fruitful um partnership for the city and the project. And so with that, I will introduce Nick Herring, vice president, Framework Group.

Thank you, mayor. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. For the record, Nick Herring, executive vice president with the Framework Group. We're at 1211 Northwest Shore Boulevard in Tampa, sweet 802, 33607. Okay. So, I I will run through this. I know we've um talked at length about it already and heard from the public. Um so, you have my commitment to move quickly. This is the agenda about framework group. Get this slide going. Go Gators. Here you go. Okay. Here we All right. We Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. That's something that happens to you. Way to go, Technical difficulty. One moment. It's okay. No, not yet. That's right.

Yes, sir.

B Yes, ma'am.

It's opening. It's just a very large. Meanwhile, back at the farm. Um, how about those gators, man? It's our year. I think it's our year. Yes, indeed. I know Big John over there. I know John. I know. I know. Dear man. Dear man. Excuse me, John.

All right. All right, take two. Crossed from the top. From the top. Maybe. Maybe. There it is.

Okay. Only pushed it once. Here we go. We've been around since 2010. The framework group. All we do is multif family and mixed use. We look for special urban infill opportunities. We never build the same thing twice. We like to take a big idea approach. Jessica alluded to it a little bit where we get to know the area, what we love about it, and we create a brand, something that's rooted in authenticity and localism. Um, and it's an exciting way to develop and again, it makes everything we do unique. You get a snapshot of our pipeline from this slide. We own about 3,500 apartments. We've got 1,600 in uh future development, 325 under construction. A representative development I want to discuss is right here in Coco Cirrus Apartments. It's on State Road 524, uh, just west of the Cape. It's a $70 million development. It's 280 apartments. And I'm proud to say that today it's about 60% occupied and taken up and up every day. So, we're happy for that. U, hopefully you'll see this is like no other apartment community. Um the big idea was midcentury modern architecture. You know, something that you really associate with the Space Coast meets futurism. Um so you see the glass and the metal um that we've incorporated there to hit on that. And I chose these two images because what you're looking at on the left hand side is a photo today and on the right hand side is a rendering that I showed city council planning and zoning many years ago. So the point here is we are the sort of people who do what we say we're going to do and you can expect that if you can help us move forward with the 430 boulevard. A quick uh location map. You're looking inland kind of hovering over the um Indian River Lagoon. So right in the heart of Cocoa Village, two

acres. The site plan and uh it is shown on the left hand side. We've got some key stats listed. This is going to be between 220 and 241 apartments. Um, that's a little bit in flux because we still need to finalize the design of this building, lay out the interior walls and and so on. Um, it's got 2,800 square ft of retail. It's that kind of red shaded box top left. And it'll be seven stories tall. The parking calculation will go something like what's shown here. This assumes 234 apartments. But you can see the rationale is that we are earmarking a certain number of parking spacers for every different type of apartment. So a studio gets one and a half. Uh for example, a three-bedroom gets two and a half and and we add it up from there. We are also proposing 10 retail and guest spaces and 25 public spaces. So really that's 35 spaces that function as available to the public. uh as a part of this community as well. A keep plan is shown here. So to take a little trip around that ground floor, item number one is the retail I mentioned, 2,800 square ft. Top lefthand corner. Item number two, that large kind of tan colored box is our leasing office, our clubhouse, gym spa, those amenities that you associate with a lot of modern apartments. That whole area will also be available uh by membership to the public. So, we're really activating the street with that use on the ground floor and providing a public a public benefit, too. Item number three is a public plaza and an arcade. So, that's a precedent you see all around the village and we wanted to contribute to that and create an interesting outdoor public space. Item four is what we call the grand courtyard. Now, that is private for the residents, but that's where we're going to have our pool and

sund deck and things like that. Item five is our vehicular access. So, we want to be good neighbors. We believe in the walkability of this area. We want to do our best to keep our traffic off of Bvard and Illinois. So, church was a natural choice. Item six is our structured parking garage. One thing I want to point out about this is that it's almost completely enveloped by the building. And you'll especially see that on the next slide where we go up a story and it's completely wrapped in apartments. And apartments, by the way, that's item seven in kind of the orange and the yellow color. Here we are on an upper floor. So again, you see the apartments wrapped the garage. It's almost completely invisible from the street. Um, and a couple one new thing to note on this slide is that uh we've got item number one. We call that the Bvard Avenue Terrace. That's on the second story looking down, you know, for residents to interact and feel a part of the village. And it also gives the benefit of pulling the building back from the street kind of giving some relief um hiding the building massing a little bit. As for apartment and community features, this will be a high-end in quality and upscale community. Every inspiration image you see on this screen is from a framework property. So, we got some amenities on the left and we've got units on the right, apartment residences, I should say. Those uh interior apartment photos are actually from Cirrus. Um, so that's in actuality what you're getting there. We're going to have a wide array of of amenities. We talked about them already a little bit. Clubhouse, gym, spa, bike storage. This building will be green certified. It'll have on-site property management. The apartments, we're going to have tall ceilings, generous windows, uh private outdoor spaces like balconies, walk-in closets. Uh it's going to be a really upscale and nice property. The architecture we proposed, we call it merkantile inspired, but we've pulled it forward and we've made it a little more

residential. We've counteracted the scale of this building with the jogs. I mentioned a little bit of that already, but you kind of see the effect of that ground floor plaza going up the building. It's really pulled away from the street. Um, the same goes for the Bvard Avenue Terrace that's kind of on the right side of the rendering where again the building pulls back. You get sunshine down on the street. So that sevenstory building starts to feel a lot uh smaller when we do things like this. And we have features that emulate the character of the village. So, we're zooming in here to get a better look of that. Um, that includes the incorporation of brick and interesting masonry and different patterns and things like that. Um, arched openings at our courtyard there and you see some windows top left that incorporate those arched openings. The use of columns, you see that around the village. We've got a pronounced cornice um with decorative corbals, awnings, urban stoops. These are things you see around the village. So, it's something that we worked hard on with staff um to to really make sure that this is going to be contextually appropriate. And there's another view. This is um looking from the corner of Church and Boulevard. The economic impact was mentioned in the staff report, but it's substantial. Um so, I won't run through all of these again. Uh but just to say this is a $90 million development and over 70 million is going to be in construction alone. And to just restate this, this is going to be 350 to 400 plus people living full-time in the village, spending their discretionary income here, going out to eat, uh shopping in the village, being advocates for the neighborhood. Um, so we have been welcomed warmly and I I think that's for good reason.

Jessica mentioned uh a partnership. This is what we're going to come back and discuss at a future date. Um, I'll say plainly, this is an incentive package that we're going to be discussing. In our application, we have explained that what we're going to be looking for is a tiff rebate over 10 years. um probably a combination of city and county incentives, $9.5 million is is what we're seeking. Um also a credit of water and sewer impact fees. Um now that is not up for approval tonight. That's only to restate what is in our application and to be forthcoming, you know, being good partners. Um according to our math, our our financial performer, this is what we need um in order to deliver. We want to provide 25 structured parking spaces again public spaces an asset indefinitely for the village um as as contribution some justification for that and again we're going to talk in more detail in the future but just a taste the current tax revenue is about $21,000 um so even with some incentives that is going to increase I believe substantial substantially um to benefit the current tax roles and then you get a $95 million economic impact on top of that. So these are the kind of things that we're going to talk about. Um, additionally, we don't have comparable properties to point to in the village. There's not another 230 apartments for rent uh brand new urban infill development today that we can point to. So these this is the sort of thing that we need to overcome the hesitation among the lending community, the investment community um when we're doing something that is pioneering. Um of course we've had increases in commodities uh uh material uh and construction cost increases, tariffs, all sorts of things that are headwinds in our industry. So again,

things that we need to overcome. And um we've got elevated costs down the list as well. Um, and again, you know, this is not something that's entirely new. Um, in the 2008 Cocoa Waterfront Master Plan in the 2018 update to the CRA, there's you see it repeated, you know, specifically for this site that's been known as a catalyst mixeduse site. Private U or excuse me, development incentives are encouraged. a tiff tax increment financing is specifically mentioned in these plans uh to fund key redevelopment activities. So, it's something that we're talking with uh with city staff at length about. We're kind of laying the groundwork um negotiating, you know, what's going to work for both parties, but uh this is the partnership that Jessica alluded to. And one last time, we're going to talk about in more detail at a future date. I just want to set that expectation. Um but tonight we're talking about the development agreement, the site plan, the architecture, everything that you've seen here. Um that is what we're requesting approval of. This will be transformative. This is deserving of this key address and location in the heart of Cocoa Village. I hope you agree with me there. And it's long awaited. I've been going around talking about it for a long time. you know, sometime around the start of Cirrus, we put this under contract and and it's been a challenging road, but uh you all have been fantastic partners in that. So, I'm thrilled to be here tonight to take this key step and hopefully win your approval. I'm here to answer questions.

Thank you for your detailed uh presentation. Um, and I appreciate you keeping the same ambiance and aesthetically pleasing that would co-mingle with the downtown Coco Village area. Thank you, Mayor Blake. Sir. Yes, sir. We have Councilwoman Cos. Floor is yours, ma'am.

Okay. Well, I really appreciate the framework group, your approach to, you know, redevelopment. um you know, you don't do you don't clear land and um you go into places that need reviving. And um these uh I love these these drawings. So um a couple of things I picked up on um the on-site underground storm water.

Now, of course, we have storm water. Church Street is all underground storm water. Where will they do storm water? Where will you capture storm water? That's yet to be designed in engineered specifically, but more than likely and and we do this just about every other similar development like this. There's there's a vault underneath the parking garage. Ah, okay. Mr. And so the parking garage is all concrete because I did listen to the planning and zoning meeting the other day. And um I know you got a question about the wood frame. So you go

the first level and the second level are concrete and then the parking garage will be concrete and the rest of it wood frame. Correct. Yeah. The parking garage in its entirety is is a concrete which we know has 50year lifespan at least because it's insured. or more. Yeah. Yeah. Well, would hope more, of course. Yep. Yeah. Um and also talks about I'm just curious the human scale detailing. What's an example of that? Uh I would say the the storefront glass, the the use of masonry that that kind of rich high quality texture there at the ground level.

Okay. um the urban stoops that I mentioned, the awnings, you know, these are the things that are kind of immediately perceivable as you're as you're walking by the property, especially up close to it. Yeah. Well, I really like the idea that the gym is going to be open to the public for memberships, right?

Um and yeah, it looks like it'll be a great stimulus in the village. Um, we've gotten over, you've heard me before, we've gotten over the height issue is, I mean, it's a done issue. Um, but I still look at the diagrams and the streets look so much larger than what our streets actually are. Um, I mean, you're working with a pretty small grid here in terms of construction, in terms of what ultimately is going to be able to pass on those streets. I mean, I guess you've, you know, looked at engineering traffic in and out and um because I know you can only get so many cars parked on the side and can't get two cars going in the same in different directions. Of course, they're one ways.

Um so, last question. Have you spoken, you mentioned St. marks they have a school enterprise and I know they're very concerned about the school enterprise being able to op and this is that basically it supports the church as the foundation of the church uh is their enterprise and they're concerned about how it will be impacted during construction. Have you had any talks with them or thought about reaching out? I I have reached out. I have shown up, you know, left business cards, tried tried to make contact.

Um, I will say I haven't had a specific conversation on how to best manage this, but we are we are an open book. We are approachable. You can see the outreach that that we've done around the neighborhood and we've held public meetings. Um, we intend to be good neighbors here. So, we want to work that out both for construction and the permanent building. you need to. I mean, and we're used to doing this in an urban setting, so we're going to have that conversation. We're going to figure it out. Okay. Thank you.

We have any other questions from um council for Mr. Nick Herring? And I remember maybe by six month, no a year ago, we had that meeting over at the civic center, I think, where that conversation did come up about addressing the concerns of the school Saint St. Marks as well. And it even goes back to then and uh you all were proactive concerning that too as well. And I believe in this project and I know you will be good and hospitable neighbors. Um and that's why I believe in you, Mr. Herring. Thank you for that and we'll get that done. That's on me. I'll make that happen.

Thank you, sir. I trust you regardless of what others may say. Rubber stamping and all that kind of foolishness. Go back to that rendering actual photo. Thank you, brother. You may be seated. All right. Chair would like to close this portion to the public and return it to council. Chair would like to make a motion to approve staff recommendation. Second for the development agreement within the city of Cocoa. I'll second. Okay, chair's going to call the question. All in favor by saying I. I. Any nays? Tomorrow. Uh, you starting tonight, right, sir? Breaking ground tomorrow, right?

Okay. Okay. On item number 6-4, second reading of ordinance number 042025. I know we have a couple of cards here as well. And I know Mrs. Webster um that you're spearheading this ma'am because you are a planner. Thank you Mrs. Hughes. Count it all joy ma'am. All joy. Um and uh this was previous action. It was approved the first reading by council. July 8th 2025 June 4th PNZ approved this um ordinance. And then I I I received a lot of phone calls and I'm going to turn it over to you now and I will let you read it into the minutes too as well as Squire Gargani. But a lot of people from the Diamond Square area stated they did not want a a liquor store in the neighborhood. Period. Point blank. I don't care how you look at it frontwards or backwards.

They don't want it. And that's all I'm going to say for right now. Okay. Esquire Gargani. Sir. Okay. So, second and final reading of ordinance number 04-2025, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Cocoa Boulevard County, Florida, amending the zoning ordinance of the city of Cocoa relating to the regulation of alcoholic beverages imposing separation requirements for liquor stores and package stores from certain other uses. Imposing separation requirements between locations for on premises consumption of alcohol and public parks and playgrounds. Updating the zoning ordinance to be consistent with state law regarding separation requirements between schools and locations for on premises consumption of alcohol. Amending the method of measuring separation for purposes of alcoholic beverage regulations. Amending certain definitions to clarify the application of alcoholic beverage regulations. Modifying the regulations pertaining to alcoholic beverage sales and accessory use. Amending the list of permitted and special exception uses in the general uh commercial district CG relating to the alcoholic beverages providing for the repeal prior and consistent ordinances resolutions incorporation into the co- serverability and an effective date and mayor this is also a public hearing item. Mayor

yes sir thank you very much Gagani do we have any questions before I turn it over to Mrs. Webster. Seeing none, the floor is yours, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

And good evening, council. And, uh, my name is Jen Webster, uh, planner here at the city. And as previously has been stated, this is the second and final reading of ordinance 042025. And a bit of history on the ordinance is that in December of 2024, council gave staff notice to proceed to um to make a few changes to the alcoholic beverage ordinance. Uh one is um revising and updating the distancing requirement between bars and schools to be consistent with the Florida statute um being the 500 foot distance as opposed to the 300 foot distance which it is currently. and also to um impose a minimum 300 foot separation distance between liquor stores and package stores. So, we're adding liquor stores and package stores as a as a category requiring uh distance measuring and also to add parks and playgrounds to the categories that require distancing and also to amend the method of measurement between separation distances and uh which um in which we took a look at the the current method of you know measuring from property line to property line or measuring from property line to building line. So, we did do analysis on that and as a matter of legislation and process, we directed staff not to issue permits or business tax receipts or approve the applications for building permits, development orders, or other land use permits within the city, which would conflict with the pending amendment. And so, that resulted in this ordinance of 042025 regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages. And specifically it resulted in changes to three of the articles in the zoning code. One of which is the article five definitions.

Also article 11 with regard to uh general commercial and also article article 13 uh supplementary district regulations with for alcoholic beverages in general. And so in the definition section um the definition for package store was was updated just revised to specify that for a package store at the sale of alcohol must account for at least 51% of the sales. Also the uh definition for package store beer and wine was revised similarly similarly to say that the um the sale of alcohol must account for at least 51% of sales but limited to beer and wine. The definition for convenience store was revised uh to differentiate it from a package store so that uh where convenience stores uh do not require any distancing. Also, liquor store uh was revised just to say C package store as the two terms are synonymous in the code and they're used interchangeably in certain locations. Also, lounge and cocktail lounge was revised to just say C bar as they're also used uh interchangeably in the code. And so, so the definition for a bar was also revised. Uh but before I get into that, I would like to read the current definition the way it reads currently and that is that a bar, pardon me, I just wanted to just remind everyone that the bar um the what it what it the way it reads right now in the code prior to this change is that a retail

establishment selling alcoholic beverages ages for consumption on the premises or an establishment commonly known as a bottle club in the business of furnishing premises where alcoholic beverages may be consumed. So that's what it says simply now. So it doesn't really give a lot of detail about a bottle club. So what we did is we revised in the definition of the bar so that the bottle club again which is currently in the definition of a bar that that definition reflects the Florida statutes and saying that a bottle club is a commercial establishment operated for a profit whether or not a profit is actually made wherein patrons consume alcoholic beverages which are brought onto the premises and not sold or supplied to the patrons by the establishment where the patrons bring in and maintain custody of their own alcoholic beverageages. es or surrender custody to the establishment for dispensing on the premises and also which is located in a building or other enclosed permanent structure. And that is to say that a business that only has an outdoor area would um would not be able not be eligible for a bottle club license. And again, just the the term bottle club has been in the city's definition of a bar, and it's always been subject to the same special exception and distancing requirements where applicable in the code. And then also we added a definition for alcoholic, excuse me, establishments with alcohol as an accessory use. Now, this was uh done in response to the popularity of businesses that want to offer uh an alcoholic beverages as a complement to their their primary service. And so we had to we had to create a definition for this uh to to capture that kind of category so that we

could create regulation for it. And so the regulation that we've established is that it it won't require distancing. It won't require a special exception. However, it must provide an affidavit to say that alcohol is not their primary business and that no revenue is derived from the sale directly. However, an an establishment with alcohol as an access accessory use will not be permitted to convert to a bar or bottle club without first complying with any any distancing or special exception requirements as stated in the zoning ordinance. And in addition, they must also uh meet all department of business and professional regulations uh regulations and licensing. So another note on the new definition of establishments with alcohol as an accessory use is that is not synonymous with open container. Neither is bar or bottle club synonymous with open container. We are we we are not suggesting or or allowing um businesses to to become open container. We already have uh language in our code for that for um drinking on streets in public areas. And our code says it shall be unlawful for any person to drink or consume alcoholic beverages or possess an open container of alcoholic beverages including but not limited to beer and wine on or upon any street, sidewalk or parking area open to the public in the ordinary course of business. So, so again in the creation of the establishments with alcohol as an accessory use and in the revision of the definition of bar and bottle club, it is not synonymous with open container and we are not allowing that. And then just a quick uh quick edit in article 11 uh which is the general

commercial district uh we just needed to clarify a discrepancy between the uh the uses here. So um where we had cocktail lounges and bars are synonymous and then liquor stores and package stores are also synonymous and there was a bit of a conflict there. So we uh we corrected that and then also we um we made a few changes regarding restaurants where we uh reduced the number uh the seat requirement. We reduced the number from 40 to 20 seats to be considered a restaurant. And we also um are requiring that a restaurant by definition must contain a commercial kitchen to prepare and serve meals. And we we created a new def a definition for commercial kitchen. And uh just as a note that uh special exceptions are not required for restaurants uh meeting that criteria. And then going on to the separation distancing is our current code already uh requires a 300 300 foot separation between bars and schools, churches, and residential zones. So, what we're proposing is to add parks and playgrounds to the to these categories and to also add package stores to these types of establishments that require distancing from these groups of properties. And then specifically with regard to separation between bars and schools, we are making sure that we are in compliant with the Florida statute which requires 500 ft between bars and schools specifically. So the 500 ft only applies to the distance between bars and schools. And also for clarity uh for clarification um we have added a a chart

here a distance measuring a distance measuring chart uh which explains um how certain premises are measured from other premises. And so we hope this will will clarify and and make it easier to interpret. And also just to note that in general the the measurements are still taken from property line to the building. And so in general it still results in uh greater distancing in the community. And so uh staff was tasked to do the analysis uh with the taking the the distancing requirements into consideration uh for the new categories that we've added. Um looking at the buffers for parks and playgrounds. uh we wanted to determine if we were creating any any new non-conforming uses uh with our the buffers with the buffer requirement. So we took a look at the 300T buffers with the parks and uh there were new non there were no new non-conforming uses created by adding parks and playgrounds. [Applause] And then looking at the 500 foot uh distance requirement from schools to bars, um it we only discovered one non-conforming use was created, which is a bar located at at 238 Peach Tree Street, and that was due to them being less than 500 ft from a school. And in this map we we took into consideration we added the residential buffer. So there the residential requirement uh is a 300t buffer from residential zones. And that has always been in the code that bars would be um a separation distance of of 300 ft from residential zones. And so we're adding package stores to that. And in doing this

analysis, we discovered there was one new non-conforming use, which is a package store located at 11:05 Clear Lake Road due to its less than 300 ft proximity to a residential zone. And so we there was some concern that our buffer requirements and I know this map looks it looks busy and it looks like it takes up the whole city, but but there was some concern for the the buffers and the distancing that it would be too limiting and too restrictive. And so we created a map that just shows the residential buffers, the 300T residential buffer. And then we're showing the properties outside that buffer where with the zoning districts that allow package stores. So you can see what's the remainder outside the buffers of the opportunity there for uh package stores. And in the light green are the properties in the city that uh whose uh zoning permits package stores. And in the dark green uh along 520 and uh Clear Lake Road are properties in the unincorporated Bvard County whose zoning permits package stores. And the uh the spots in the yellow, those are shopping centers that are greater than 20,000 square ft where package stores and bars uh are not required any distancing. And also out of concern for availability um of of package stores, uh we did an analysis here and just a count of the package stores, the existing package stores in the city. Uh and also uh a little further out in the local vicinity

um and those are in blue and the package stores in in the city are the red stars and we've included uh also Walmart and Sam's there um which are in the shopping centers greater than 20,000 square feet. So um just as an illustration that um the kind of distribution of existing stores. So the determin determination we made in our analysis is that um most of the bars and only one package store are in the central business district where there are no distancing requirements. um and that a non-conforming use may continue if it complies with the regulations set forth in appendix A, article 10 on nonconformities and with the addition of parks and playgrounds to the list of community uses from which bars and package stores have location distancing requirements and with the increased separation distance of 500 ft between bars and schools and the addition of package stores as a type of establishment that has location distancing. The city is taking steps necessary to address public health and safety concerns associated with the potential of overconentration of liquor stores and other alcoholic beverage establishments within the city. And then we also did an analysis with regard to um uh some some some historical research that's been done with regard to health and safety concerns, increased rates of childhood accidents, assaults and child abuse indust in injuries, weakened social controls uh with the president with the presence of um of package stores, elevated levels of crime and nuisance. And um in in summary of that determination is regulating the location of liquor and package stores is in the best interest of the community and it is necessary to protect vulnerable populations particularly youth and families. The proposed amendment also

updates key definitions and establishes more precise methodology for measuring separation thereby improving clarity for enforcement and consistency with the city's land use regulations. And of course, we did our analysis with a consistency with a comprehensive plan with regard to future land use goals, neighborhood protection, redevelopment, and community revitalization, and that it promotes public safety and welfare through planning and regulation. And so staff finally requests the city approve on second reading ordinance 042025 amending the zoning ordinance of the city of Coco relating to the regulation of alcoholic beverages by imposing separation requirements for liquor stores and package stores from certain other uses. Imposing separation requirements between locations for on premises consumption of alcohol public parks and playgrounds. Updating the zoning ordinance to be consistent with state law regarding separation requirements between schools and locations for on- premises consumption of alcohol. Amending the method of measuring separation for purposes of alcoholic beverage regulations. Amending certain definitions to clarify the application of the alcoholic beverage regulations. Modifying the regulations pertaining to alcohol beverage sales as an accessory use. and amending the list of permitted and special exception uses in the general commercial district relating to alcoholic beverages.

Thank you. Do we have any questions for Mrs. Webster?

As you stated, this is our second and final reading for ordinance number 042025. I do have some cards from the audience. Okay, let me make sure I get them. Um, please come forward in this particular order. Um, we have Pam Shia, then Cliff Repergger, and then Ms. Ms. Jennifer Molton. You have three minutes to elaborate on this particular ordinance. But thank you again, uh, council staff. Uh, great job in explaining, uh, the, uh, my answers to all my questions. Uh, I now understand it and I can support it. So, thank you.

Thank you very much. Let me do it officially, please. Let me close this portion of council and open to the public. And I know you were first. You'll find that was me, ma'am, not you. Next will be um the attorney. Come on up, brother. From Sorry, Mr. Mayor. No, no, you're fine. You're fine. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, yes, sir.

Honorable council members, my name is Cliff Reperger. My business address is 21101 Waverly Place, Melbourne, Florida. I'm an attorney with the law firm of Whitebird and we represent the we represent PMP Investments of Florida uh which is the owner as we discussed last time on first reading of property located at uh 1035 West King Street, Coco, Florida. Uh our site is on the southwest corner of King of West of West King and Fisk. Um it's a site of the former convenience store, a Hess located immediately to the west and across Fisk from the existing Wawwa. Um although we understand the city's desire to adopt regulations that promote the health, safety, and welfare um of the community and um our clients support uh reasonable restrictions on the sale of liquor and distance and buffer requirements for on-site consumption. Our client's position is that the proposed 300 foot buffer distance from the package liquor stores isn't really correlated to the specific harms that are outlined um in the factf finding sections of the whereas clauses of the draft ordinance. Um our client asserts that there's not really a specific relationship or connection to that 300 foot buffer and the harms that the city's trying to cure um or mitigate. In our particular case, it makes even less sense um to exempt convenience stores from the ordinance where citizens are able to purchase alcohol products at hours that are even greater than what a package liquor store would be um directly across from our client's property at the Wawa. Um and those those facilities, the convenience store facilities would be exempt. Um, so for package liquor store uh uh uh uses, we don't believe that the 300T buffer really serves any uh particular purpose with regard to the harms that the city's trying to um eliminate. To that end, um

our client asserts that the ordinance is overly burdensome, excessive, and unduly oppressive on a legal commercial use, which is those packaged liquor stores. The rest of the ordinance our clients do not have an objection to. It's just the 300T buffer from the packaged liquor stores. Uh we believe that the council should respectfully balance the uh economic interests of your business owners and your commercial property owners versus the harms that you're trying to avoid. And we think the rest of the ordinance accomplishes that goal without the 300t buffer applied to the packaged liquor stores. We think staff did a great job of writing the ordinance and the rest of the ordinance is fine. It's just that one 300 foot buffer applied to the package liquor stores that we um object to. We would ask that the council either deny the ordinance um remove uh package liquor stores from the 300 foot buffer requirement or allow for a variance or conditional use process where uh package liquor stores could locate within the buffer requirement if certain conditions were met. And we appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mrs. Molton.

Good evening, uh, council members and staff. Um, I'm Jennifer Molton. Um, I'd like to give a little story time. I also grew up here, uh, in Coco, born and raised, and I like to tell people I come from heaven. I remember my childhood as being delightful, beautiful family outings on Dixon. Every Friday or every Friday that was my father's payday. I knew it automatically was a trip to the city. It was beautiful. So that's how I grew up. I remember seeing the Hest station and being proud and excited because the Hest gas station was also in the commercials and there it was. I was like, "Ah, it was beautiful. Beautiful. That corner was beautiful. Now that story is going to switch to a nightmare." So, uh, as an adult, I expanded and went to the big city, Orange County, Orlando. And I was ex exploring and getting used to the area and I discovered the the downtown area. I found that to be exciting, good, it's beautiful. I said, "No wonder they call this the city beautiful." And so I wanted to continue my exploring and I did. I was expecting to see that beautiful city continue. So, I decided to cross the railroad track and make a turn that I had never made before. Um, it was a very traumatic uh um it was a

very traumatic experience because I didn't expect to see what I saw. Um, I turned down on uh I turned south onto OBT and I thought I was so terrified I had to call a family member to help me cuz I thought like I it felt so alien, so un like I felt like I was in a different country. I felt extremely unsafe. I saw terrible things and the terrible things that I saw I saw for the first time in Coco and that's why I had to call um I saw women selling themselves. I don't we don't need that. We don't need that. It was a beautiful city before. We can be a beautiful city again. We have all these wonderful opportunities coming. I don't want the new people that are coming off those uh train stations to come down Clear Lake and go exploring and see the what I saw recently on that corner. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um chair like to close this portion to the public and return it to council. I have a light on. I have two lights on. Deputy Mayor Weeks and Councilman Goins.

Um, I've wrestled with this. I I said it before. I don't drink alcohol. I hate it. My brother was killed by a drunk driver. Um, however, I think that the ordinance is too restrictive, especially when it comes to package stores, which I will tell you, I've never even been in one. But uh they don't drink on the premises. They sell uh and people take it home um and and consume it there. To put package stores in the same category is bar as bars. And it when you look at the map, my area, my district almost totally is out of range of anything. And with all the growth down 524 uh when they showed it earlier other than where the Publix is and the little Dollar General, those are the only places the rest of the area. Um and so um again, I don't see why we would put package stores in the same category as bars. I personally would love to see us remove that from uh either give them a waiver or remove the 300 foot thing for package stores or put them in a different category. Um the um I think we're going to hurt ourselves down the road uh as well with the development that's going to go in down at the other end uh by the train station. Um, I don't want a bar with close to church or school. I get that and I I have no problem with those. Uh, but to exempt the the shopping centers and somebody wants to come along um and, you know, build a standalone,

uh, I just think we're going to have a lot of we're we're going to be restricting ourselves a lot on this. But right now, I'm going to pick my battle, which is I hate to see the folks who bought that property and were told that it was okay for that to go there at the corner of uh Fisk and 520. Um, and they've spent all the money to to do it. I again, a package store right across from Wawa where you can buy it all the time. Um, I don't think that that's going to hurt that corner and I would like to see us take package store out. Um, so that is my um I also don't like that we have two it's like we have two different cities. The central b business district has its own rules and the rest of the city has a different one. You got two it's we need to treat the whole city the same. in my estimation because why why are we doing that? Why are we setting up two different cities in the same city? I'm asking the question of the rest of the council.

Okay. Council Goins.

Uh yeah, I know. Um so the last question that you you asked you know that's some of the questions that some of the business owners especially that particular business ask me the same thing where you have uh a business that's close to St. March for example could be within 500 300 whatever that may be and then you know a mile and a half up the road and it's kind of confusing the same thing conversation we had about food trucks recently uh food trucks can't be on this particular district where if you go one block over it's acceptable right so so you you you on point with that the question that I have is um Miss Jennifer was about was there a conversation with staff regarding those convenience stores um who sell alcohol with percentages greater than um just say I've seen liquor inside of convenience stores with 18% liquor that they sell. Right? So I asked the question, well what's the difference between uh Crown Royal Crown Royal and Mad Dog 2020? Right? So th those are the question that I asked about the convenience stores

if if they was was it a conversation about the percentages maybe if I'm just trying to figure out like what's the difference

of course and I did um go ahead and pull up the definition um the revised definition for convenience store and it just it says um uh convenience stores may sell at retail alcoholic beverages provided that the sale of alcoholic beverages is incidental to the sale of other items and does not constitute the primary business of the store. Uh shall be freestanding, single occupancy and with a a square footage um u maximum. Um, it does say at the beginning of the definition, it shall primarily sell uh items such as candy, ice cream, soft drinks, lottery tickets, newspapers, magazines along with a selection of processed food, grocery, healthcare products, and miscellaneous items. So, so um drafting the character of a convenience store in contrast to a package store which is strictly you know liquor liquor

beer and wine of course which is the primary you know more than 51% of their sales. So we revised the definition of a convenience store to differentiate it more and to say that a convenience store such as Wawwa, you know, which it the sale of alcohol isn't their primary use that they would not require a special exception. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Of course. And if I may uh just address another um another comment that in that um it was a previous comment made um I'm sorry I'll come back to it. I've just lost my train of thought. Could

Okay, you you finished. You you might be referring to the the statement that was made about they were told that it was approved for the for the business to be there. That's what you was

actually what I it came back to me. What I was going to address was that um Ms. Weeks is uh um giving an example of of of saying that there are two different cities or there's a character for downtown and there's a character for the rest of the city. However, um, specifically in the central business district for a bar package store, that is required by special exception across the board in Cocoa Village. So, there is a measure of control that an applicant would need to come before uh, planning and zoning to get approval for that. However, in other parts of the city, the um, package doors are a primary use and would not have to come uh, for a special exception. So that so that is a little bit different. So so the so the um regulations are a little bit more lax in the rest of the city whereas in Koko village they're a little bit more strict with a meaning that they would have to come for a special exception regardless in the village.

Okay. Thank you. Um is that it sir? Yes sir.

Could you uh go back a few pictures a few frames when you had the Sams up there? Go back. Yeah. right there, ma'am. Okay, let's be honest. Let's cut to the chase. Why does Diamond Square need another package store or bar store there? For what reason? Everybody knows where you can go now to find them. Just like pawn shops or in a designated area, but let me be perfectly clear about this because I want to be fair and equitable across the board. I live on Blake and 520. Across the street from me was uh uh 520, the club and so forth there. They sold beer and packages, liquor out of the store. I'm the one that's the closest one to that. So, I'm the one that dealt with that disturbance for over 60 years. That store was there for a great excuse me, a great number of years. Now, the second thing, look where you all stay at. May it be in district three, may it be in district four, may it be in district two, may it be in district one. None of y'all will be as close as I am. So, you will not deal with the outcome and outcry and the problems that are being dealt with this. So that's the reason I'm asking you to it's not a morality versus spirituality and we're limiting ourselves. What Michael Blake is saying is I've lived there as a kid all my life at my grandparents house and I saw the 20 grand. I've seen the clubs and the attraction centers that come there. And then just down the street heading further um east is Little Child Daycare Center. just east of five um of Wawwa

heading east. So how is that fair and equitable? You all do not live there. So you will not feel the immediate impact as I would as I am now. So when you make your choice, please be mindful of that because and I I don't see any package stores on the riverfront. All right then. None. So, how how can you make a fair and equitable assessment or determination when you don't live there? All right. Good point. Great point.

Or even let's see how far from your house, District Three, to Sam's or Walmart. Is it closer than mine? No. District two or District One? Right down the street from me. And I'm not knocking anybody. I'm just using everybody. But I'm right there at the heart of it. That's the point that I'm saying. We're trying to develop our community. We're trying to do away with that old stereotype. Put it in a certain designated area and it'll be okay. I don't nails not in my backyard.

So that's all I'm saying to you. have a understanding heart when you make this decision because it's not all about the money and and and and and truth be told if you look at the deed restriction of H gas station they didn't want a dog on grocery store there if you look at the original deed restriction you know what they only wanted council woman calls.

Oh, I don't know after that. And um I mean I'll just say I I appreciate not wanting to live next to a liquor store. I I mean I actually grew up not too far from a liquor store and the church was down the street from there as was a school and it wasn't an issue. Um it on Clear Lake Road there are no I've never seen any prostitutes by the liquor store on Clear Lake Road. Um it seems to

go ahead ma'am. You know, the main thing I was struck with was the unfairness to the um property owner who actually thought he could build a liquor store there before spending $600,000 and then the rug was taken out from under him. Um, when I look at this map, I don't see that many liquor stores actually for the population we have. Um, I don't know. Right now, we've got nothing going on there and it doesn't seem to be attracting much either.

So, is having it vacant better than having the liquor store there? Yes. Yes, I don't I don't mind saying it. I'm not scared. Yes to that answer. Okay.

Okay. Well, my biggest problem is the way it was done in the 11th hour taking the rug out from under the sky. And I don't know how we make that right. It's called doing your due diligence, ma'am. Well, he did. There was No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There again, it is the perception. You have to see when you live there and when you walk the walk and talk to talk and experience it, then you will understand. Right. But until then, you really don't understand. Exactly. Because you don't have to live it every day.

Exactly. Right. When I go to bed at night, that foolishness is there. When I wake up in the morning, there's no liquor store there now. Across the street was a 20 grand. Ma'am, you're absolutely right. But for 60 some odd years of my life, and I'm 65. All my life, it's been there. All my life. And it's a difference between everybody in that great grandmother know if you want to find certain things, you don't have to go far. Right. But I if you put it down there, I bet you what? If we put a packer store on God dog on Indian River Drive, I bet you this building be jam-packed. I guarantee it. I bet if I put it out on Adamson Creek, it'll be jam-packed. Yes, sir.

Jam-packed. It doesn't It doesn't happen until you impact it directly. Then you will understand. Wisdom is a principle thing. But when getting wisdom, get what? Understanding. And that's what y. But anyway, I'mma be through cuz I'm getting ready to make this motion to approve the second recommendation on ordinance number 04-2025 zoning ordinance of the city of Cocoa related to the regulation alcohol beverages. And I need a second. Second. Okay, I got a second on the floor. Questions? I know you have your light on, madam um s uh deputy mayor weeks. Ma'am,

uh I can appreciate your passion and what you have what you have gone through. Um I really can and again I don't like alcohol. I would just I mean but but I am in I just feel that the regulation in this particular instance is not only going to hurt us and I appreciate your explanation about the difference between that they need a special exception in the central bis business business district but regardless they are all um there's a whole lot there in a very short small place And uh and as far as anything going on at the Hes station now, um a package store, which you know, if you go out beachside, you see the ABC package stores and all that stuff. And you don't see people hanging around there drinking or doing any of that stuff. They're going in, buying it, and taking it home. And this is along that same line would be like an ABC package store. Uh, and they also sell uh because I know my husband's gone in and boughten sodas in there. So, I know they sell not just alcohol. They sell other things, but um but that nobody's consuming it there. And I would love to see at least a waiver for this gentleman to be able to do his business there. uh because I know he had the letter stating that um before he got started, it just took him longer and he this came up before he could finish what he was doing and um um and it's you know a private property thing. Um there there's a lot of a lot of variables in this and um and I I just don't want to see us down the road that this has hurt us bringing in new business into the area regardless um

because I think it will. I mean, so again, I'm I you have made a motion, a second, and uh I would I would love to I don't know if we can if I can do a ask to do a an adjustment and um about the package store thing um to amend your motion to um to change pack or package stores back to the or take out their 300 foot thing for package stores. I don't know what the easiest way is to do it or offer them some sort of a special exemption. Um I will ask your opinion sir.

Sure. With respect to the ordinance um there's a motion and a second on the floor. So the main motion is to prove as presented to the extent that you want to propose an edit um to the ordinance then it would be by motion to amend the main motion. Mhm. In by doing that can uh because I know can I only do amending the motion as far as the like the verbiage here for the package store and that kind of stuff. Does that is that what yes to to the with respect to the text in the ordinance if the amendment was to um remove the distance requirement applicable to package stores the whole process

then that that would be your amendment. Okay. Then that's what I would like to do. I'd like to amend the motion to take away the 300 foot uh thing for package stores. I'll second. Okay. So you all are asking to time out. Please, please. I guess I don't second him. No. Yeah, you got a second. Yeah. So, okay. All out, sir. Yes. Gargan.

Yes. So, there's a is an a motion to amend the main motion. So, you know, um Mr. Mayor, as chair, you would entertain discussion regarding the amendment um to the main motion, and that would be subject to a a separate vote. If it fails, then you can call the question on the main motion. Right. Okay. And that's what I'm getting ready to do. Now, all I want people in the audience is remember this day, this particular hour because you going to see who's talking about illf trading. Just because I got the money doesn't make it always right. Because you know what we go through in the Diamond Square area. And we're making that change because the area has been enhanced immensely because of the leadership of the Diamond Square and the citizens of the surrounding area. But just because I didn't know and I got money justifies me putting a liquor store in a diamond school. Yes, it does. Cuz that's what you're trying to do. So what we getting ready to do is call the question. And I'm going to let you go. But what I'm what I'm saying to you, we going to call the question. And if we vote no, that means that if the majority of the vote 32, if we vote no on her amended motion to change the verbage, it will die. Then we will come back and vote on my motion that was made. Is that correct, Mr. City?

That's correct, ma'am. Okay, that's all I want to know. Now, I will hear from you, Councilman Hearn, sir, and then I'mma call the question of the amended motion on the verbalage package.

Uh, real quick, as this conversation carries on, it just, uh, as the mayor stated, the historical context is just triggering to me. Um, being here from the city of Coco, uh, being a firefighter EMT, uh, working in the city of Coco, um, I can't tell you how embarrassing it is to hear firefighters say they don't want to work at station 46 right next to the property just because of, uh, the elements that were hanging around that area. Um, just a block away. Um, it was always a running joke about just go to Peach Tree Street and you can find a prostitute walking. um just a block away from that property.

Uh thanks to the the constant nagging of the council, uh Councilman Goens, the mayor, uh our great work of our police department has cleared up a lot of those elements in that area. Uh we just talked tonight about raising uh the millage rate because many of our properties aren't valued over a certain amount. How do you raise property values when you bring these type elements back into an area

where majority of those properties don't pay property taxes because the amount that is valued at? Um I think we have to take a bigger look at what we're trying to accomplish here. Um as I stated before, I I I welcome businesses, but you you got South Coco, City of Rocks, I'm sure they'll take you. Um you got Sharps, all these other surrounding areas. I would advise you look in those locations. Um, this is a hard note for me. Um, I see our neighboring cities, they're welcoming in in better businesses, uh, more positive businesses in their communities. They're not begging for, uh, liquor stores or package stores to come in. And I think we have the same potential. So, I respect everybody's perspective up here, but this is a hard note for me.

All right. We have a motion on the floor. Is that it, sir? Yes, sir. You Okay. Thank you, sir. We have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weekes and a second by Councilwoman Cost. I have a phone. A lot of y'all know my phone number. Um, and I get calls. Please call. Please call. Chair's going to call the question. All in favor say I. I. Excuse me. Hold it. This is on this for the verbiage of t eliminating the word package store. Eliminating the word. No, no. Just taking away the 300 foot buffer for a package store.

Okay, that's it. Okay. All right. There we go. Ch. All in favor by saying I. I. I. Nays. Nay. Nay. It dies. So now I'm getting ready to go back to my original motion and a second by Councilman Hearns to approve staff recommendation on the second and final reading and chair's going to call the question. All in favor by saying I I nays nay nay

that the record reflect 32 no package store in Diamond Square from 300 feet or whatever to 300 I mean 500 feet to 300 feet. That's not going to happen. Thank you very much, council. Thank you for saving the integrity of the community of the Diamond Square that we're making powerful economic gains through the leadership of city attorney, city uh manager of course, and city staff. Thank you. We're changing the imagery and image of Diamond Square.

God bless us all. Proceeding on to item number 6-5. Pass on first reading of ordinance number XX 2025 to adopt an updated redevelopment plan for the city of Cocoa Redevelopment Agency. This is a no-brainer, but it is public hearing. Thank you, Miss Webster and staff. Uh, Esquire Gagani, would you like to read in the minutes of it, sir?

Certainly, mayor. Ordinance 07-2025, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Koko Bavar County, Florida, amending section 8-21 of the city code to adopt an updated redevelopment plan for the Koko Community Redevelopment Agency providing for the repeal of prior and consistent ordinances and resolutions incorporation into the code severability and an effective date. This is first reading of this ordinance. As the title indicates, this ordinance proposes to adopt um a new redevelopment plan for the downtown um CRA. Now, this this has gone to the CRA board for recommendation. Staff has sent out the notices to taxing authorities. So, um it's up for council's consideration.

And the LPA also made a recommendation um of approval. Mayor sir, thank you very much. Esquire Gagani. Um, Mrs. Um, no, no, let me make sure. Mrs. Nudman, is this you, my effrovescent one? Uh, I'm going to start it and then turn it over to our consultant. Okay.

Uh, as as Mr. Gargani has noted, this uh is a ordinance 0722 2022 for the updated redevelopment plan for the Koko Community Redevelopment Agency. And as the the attorney noted that it has been advertised and properly noticed to the taxing authorities and it was recommended by the uh local planning agency at the July 9th meeting. And now I'm going to turn it over to Laura Martinez with Inspire Placemaking Collective and she's going to provide you a short presentation. Uh this will start the Coco CRA one and then when we go into the next ordinance it'll be the Diamond Square CRA. So I'll turn it over to Laura now. Thank you, Mrs. Nman.

Good evening. Give me a moment to set up. Go Gators. Still in here. See, are you a Gator fan, ma'am? Of course. It's okay to show some pride. Go Gators. All right. There you go. Double Gator over here. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Can you all hear me just fine? All right. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council. Good to see you again. Yes, ma'am.

My name is Laura Martinez. I'm with Inspired Placemaking and I'm very excited to be presenting today the final Cocoa and Diamond Square community redevelopment area plans. Um I will be going over Coco first and then Diamond Square right after. Um just an agenda. I'll try to go quickly. I'm going to be going over the project overview for both of the plans. um the plan development, the strategic frameworks for each, and then the master plans for each. Um so, as you all I'm sure you know, we kicked off the Coco and Diamond Square CRA plan updates um back in May of 2024. Um we did these together so that they would run parallel to each other. And we are now on task five, the presentation, the last presentation. And so we started off with the data collection for both plans. Um this involved uh looking at the previous plans, understanding the community challenges that were already in uh you know at play and then the goals that could be carried out into the uh plan updates as this was an update for both. Um we then did our own data and analysis. Um this started off with a CRA staff guided site tour. We pulled our own US Census Bureau of Reports on socioeconomic, housing and economic statistics. And then we also looked at the current regulatory context as well as the existing public services and facilities. We then moved into our uh public involvement segment. Um we had a public or a project website uh for each CRA. They were both active for 4 months. Each website had project information and updates on the public hearings as well

as a survey and an interactive map comment board where people could interact and and leave their comments and concerns for the CRA. We also hosted two all-day openhouse events which was held right here in council chambers. Um, in each of the openhouse events, we had a presentation that explained what the CRA is, how tiff project or how t tax increment financing works, and then a little bit of background on the cocoa and diamond square CRAAS. We also had a series of boards that prompted input across these several topics. And uh, we had stakeholder interviews with CRA board members, local business owners, longtime residents, and council members. So just to get into Coco CRA specifically, this was some of the public input that came from our public engagement segment. Um so in the short term we uh saw comments regarding enhanced public realm, increased lighting, some safety, uh walkability. Um a lot of uh emphasis on improving the waterfront. Um same thing for midterm. A lot of it had to do with the public realm, the ability for a community to come out and sort of engage with things like dog park that was very highly requested. Um, as well as enhanced waterfront placemaking efforts and and the like. um as well as some long-term strategies uh specifically with the helping with the homelessness in that area, affordable housing, uh microtransit especially with the Bright Line hopefully coming in and then harbor patrol and marina improvements. Um our data and analysis also looked at these five segments uh these five topics that came out from public input as well as what we had seen in the previous plans. So, placemaking, connectivity, housing, economic development, and environmental resiliency, which is

particular particularly important for the Cocoa CRA as it is on the waterfront. And then we looked at um all of the information that we looked at from the previous plans, the existing conditions analysis that we had done, uh SWAT analysis, and most importantly, public input. And we came up with these updated CRA goals and their strategies which are both broad enough to allow for um the CRA to kind of you know just be guided um but also focused enough to to really know where to hone in their efforts on um for Coco CRA we took a conservative growth measure of 3% for the tax increment financing projections and with that we offered some proposed projects and programming as well as what subd districts would be most uh benefited from these programs and projects and uh potential funding sources and estimated costs that were associated both with the prioritization of public input but also with estimated costs of these um projected projects. Um so this is an overview of the KCO CRA master plan. It's kind of an elomeration of all of what we uh saw and heard from the KCO CRA. So you can take a look at that. that's in the report. Um, and then the master plan as well. This is Harrison Street as a festival street

and then the Gateway Plaza. So, that's all I have for Coco. Thank you very much, Mrs. Martinez. Ma'am. All right. Do we have any question for Mrs. Martinez? Great job, ma'am. Great presentation. I know you're going to give us uh Diamond Square next. So, let me close this portion to council them to the public. If you have any questions, please come forward and state your name for in reference of the master plan of the Coco CRA. Going once, going twice. Chair like to close this portion to the public and return to the council. What are the wishes of council? Move to approve. We got a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weeks. Second.

Second by Councilman Hearn. Chair is going to call the question. All in favor saying I. I.

Eyes have it unanimously. Proceeding on to item number six. Pass on the first reading of ordinance number X 2025 to adopt the updated redevelopment plan for the Diamond Square community redevelopment agency. Esquire Gargani. Sir, first reading of ordinance number 08-20 ordinance of the city council of city code section 8-59 of the city code to adopt an updated redevelopment plan for the Diamond Square community redevelopment agency provided for the repeal prior system or resolutions severability and first reading public hearing it follow the same process agency.

Thank you very much. Esparani, Mrs. Martinez, floor is yours. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

We'll just wait for the presentation to be popped up again. All right, moving right into Diamond Square. I'm going to pick up on the public input. Uh for Diamond Square, we had a little bit of a shorter operational time frame. And so what we heard from public input is really it's all uh more on the shorter term. Um but the three focus areas were public spaces, housing options, and infield development. So, we heard things like increased public transit, safer pedestrian infrastructure, um, and just overall improved public realm as well as some intergenerational public spaces and programming uh, which we've seen Diamond Square have a lot of success in in the past. Um, housing options included um, missing middle housing as well as live work options, affordable housings specifically with amenities uh, public uh, to the community. Um and then programs that helped increase home ownership and owner occupancy. Um for infill development, this included um improved storefront facades, local business support, and really attracting uh restaurants, grocery stores, and medical facilities. Um throughout the whole public engagement process, there was a lot of really fond um fond remembering of what Stone Street uh really used to be a very vibrant place. Um and so really wanting to support that sort of positive um development and and walkable as well. So mixed use development was a was a huge um um importance for this community. Again uh we stuck to the same stuck to the same framework as the previous plan. So we took um community living, community places, community connections, community identity and community opportunities as the five frameworks.

And then again we looked at previous plan the existing conditions analysis SWAT and public input and with that we came up with the updated CRA goals and strategies and so for Diamond Square we also took a 3% growth um there as I mentioned before there was an little bit shorter operational time frame so that's what you see there on the TIFF projections and we also took a little bit of a different approach on the uh proposed capital projects and programs uh really highlighting um what our proposed items were and what partnerships then could be made and what departments could really champion these. And so we have an overview of Diamond Square. We have the master plan there where you can see where the focus areas of Diamond Square are and then some renderings of what Diamond Square could look like with some really focused intention um and investment here. So, um, this is, uh, an example of what, um, residential area in Diamond Square could look like with some of that improved landscaping, uh, focus on pedestrian enhancements as well as some intergenerational programming, including that community garden off to the right. Um, so this is an example of what Stone Street could look like, uh, with some intention and and investment backed up. Um so again the mixeduse development, pedestrian improvements and uh the improved landscaping as well and then uh that public realm and and parks um aspect to it. So this is what that could look like.

That's all I have. Thank you very much, Mrs. Martinez. Do we have any questions for Mrs. Martinez? Yes, sir. Uh Councilman her then Councilman Go.

Yes. So I was reading that if this plan is accepted as well as the other plan that it would become effective immediately. Uh so with these proposed um initiatives and possible projects um how would we measure measure through like a timeline um on some of these projects like would it be like a Gant chart set up like some kind of timeline on what we would like to get to um like some of these initiatives I see you know of course there's a cost with everything but I see some of them don't have a cost like I saw uh one of the pointers said something about a neighborhood watch program that's something that could be uh supported by our VCOP program or something.

So, a lot of these initiatives would be handled um during the budgetary process each fiscal year

um on those items that would be uh have a cost applied to it. I mean, obviously a neighborhood watch program would not necessarily have an expensive cost to it, but some of the other initiatives would. So, that would be on a budgetary basis. We didn't add any type of timelines to this. We do have a very short time frame. We're the Diamond Square CRA as far as 2038 is concerned. And so we do need to act as quickly and effectively as we can to to do some of these initiatives that we are able to and you know with the financial backing that we have. I mean we we average about $500,000 a year

in revenue for Diamond Square. So it's a limited number of dollars. So we will do the best that we can with the dollars that we have. Thank you. And then uh as far as I know the CRAAS uh they hold uh a couple properties are there like u RFPs is being proposed for some of those vacant lots or I saw infield development was on the pointers as well. Yes, the the the two properties that are on Rosa El Jones uh we are developing an RFP to uh to do some work on that lot. Got you. Thank you.

Councilman Goins. Yeah. Since we we don't have that much time with the Diamond Square and I know the last conversation that we had um dealing with the museum, we know the museum was not inside of our current Diamond Square plan. Is is is that a is it a possibility to add the museum as part of the CRA plan for Diamond Square? That potentially could be an amendment that would have to be done at a later date. the activities of historic preservation with the museum. There could be some cultural activities that could be associated with it that it doesn't fit under one of those broader categories.

It does fit under one of the broader categor. Yes, it does fit under one of the broader categories. Trying to add diamond square. We just have to understand that we have the Florida statutory guidelines do have some rules about how we, you know, do some of that with museums. Um, we could follow the Winter Park pattern uh that they do with the the the programs that they have over there at Winter Park CRA.

Is there is there a particular category Laura or U Charlene you think it it fits under? I would say if it has to do with cultural events or cultural activities, maybe under community identity, I think that would be um you know, there's strategies under there that could support um that of course being within the frameworks of what the Florida State statue allow. Okay.

Yeah. So, I'm I'm all for uh approving this as long with that amendment and make sure that we um add the museum into if the the community identity is if that's what it is, then that's fine with me. I and I'm I'm really doing it for potential future. Um maybe the Diamond Square can chip in on some things, right? But right now, they can't do anything. So, this opportunity to do it, I think is that a form of a motion? Yes, sir. Okay, I'll second your motion even though I know I have to listen to the public. I know. I know. I know. But make sure um u madame clerk, do you have his motion down? Oh, yes, sir.

Okay. All right. Thank you kindly, ma'am. All right. Any questions for Mrs. Martinez from council? Seeing none, chair would like to close this portion to council open to the public. Please come forward and state your name in regards of this particular ordinance for the updated redevelopment plan for Diamond Square. Going once, going twice. Chair like to close this portion to the public. We have a motion on the floor by Council McGowens and a second by the chair. Chair is going to call the question. All in favor saying I. I.

Any nays? Eyes have it unanimously. Mr. Mayor, we did find us um in the plan where it does identify the the museum and cultural activities. It says advocate for the return of culturally significant and age inclusive events. Very good ma'am. MLK and Junth festival. So we do have it written into the the it's under community identity in the plan. Thank you very much ma'am for the point of clarification. Ma'am Council Goins, your light is on. Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, okay. No worries. No worries. All right, this concludes this portion of public hearing. We will proceed to item number seven, council business. The property owner of Tim Leaven Sailor is requesting a reduction of the current code enforcement lean of $24,0 on the property located at 213 Factory Street reference case code # CE22-475 be reduced to the amount of the city's cost 2025-68 87. Mr. Wilkersonson, sir, let let me ask you a question and I know you're the liaison to as well, Deputy Mayor Weeks. There was a number of violations of inspections. Let me say it this way. Number of inspections performed. That was 20 of them

according to the records. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. And this dates back to October the 20 20th, 2023. Um, is Mr. Tim here? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. The floor is yours, sir. I'd like to hear from you, sir. And I know he's being asked to reduce it down to the cost of of the city's administrative cost, which is $2773 decimal point 32. And then I would like to hear from the liaison. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So yes, sir.

Uh the code enforcement board held a public hearing on April 20th of 2023 at which time the property owner was found in violation for city code appendix A article 13 section 1 19B supplementing juristic regulations referring requirements to site plan approvals to the zoning city zoning regulations. The property owner installed millings without the site plan approval at the property at 213 Factory Street. The property owner's ordered to remove the millings and work to obtain a site plan approval. The code board provided the a property owner uh the time frame of October 20th of 2023 to collect correct the violations. Therefore, a non-compliance hearing was held on November 16th of 2023. The lean ran at $75 per day from October 20th, 2023 until compliance was achieved on August 29th of 2024, levying a fine on the property at $24,10. Property owners currently requesting a reduction be reduced to city cost.

Okay. Um, let me hear from my Thank you very much, Mr. Wilkerson, sir. Um, liaison. Ma'am, deputy mayor. Do I need to put my light on? No, ma'am. Go ahead. Okay. Well, the since he's here, he might be able to explain it. Uh, he's next on the list.

Okay. Uh, he owned the apartment building and he bought the lot next door for parking for the apartment building. And uh from what I understand um he put millings down, which I'm not even sure quite what millings are, but anyway, he put that down surface not knowing that he needed to get a permit. Is that correct, sir? Yeah. And once he found out, it took him a long time to get all of the millings out of there because they're so small. And um and he did go he did go back to get uh approval. Um and he did take all the millings out. What did you put into place? I can't remember. It's a It's a completely uh paid parking lot.

Yeah. Yeah. So, that was how that happened. And the code board uh agreed to the reduction of $2773.32.

Mr. Wilkerson, sir, during your time of the number of 20 inspections, I'm going just be honest with you. Um, what kind of collaboration did you have or rapport did you have with Mr. um, Lean Sailor? I had a good rapport. He let me know as soon as things were done. I followed up, let him know. We always kept in contact and had a few things to take care of and he went and knocked him out, took care of them. Good rapport back and forth between the property owner and staff. Okay. So if if I put my neck out on the line to uh report Oh, Councilman Gins, go ahead, sir. But the violations began before you came.

Correct. I just dealt with the property owner from the time he made application for the reduction, right? I know that was previous notes from the previous manager didn't want to let the application were moved forward. Yeah. Because there were certain site inspections that weren't they had either debris on the property or the millings weren't done. But from the time that I came on on the staff, I've dealt with the property owner. He's been nothing but cooperative and even followed up a time or two. Okay. Okay. Esquire Gargani, is the consent decree area part of Factory Street or the heart of Coco? Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Only reason why I'm asking, he's converted that property into parking. That's I'm I'm assuming is Yes. So he's within the the frame of the law. Can I make a motion? If I can if I can help. I don't think that that property had a residential unit on it there. It was it was a vacant parcel when you when you acquired it. Yes. If I can just I have purchased. Come on up. Come to the mic. Come to the mic, sir.

I think a little a little history would be good. I had I had purchased 699 Ullet Avenue, which is a 22 unit building, which was totally boarded up and and empty. I renovated it over a year's time. It's now 22 uh family units, fully booked, I mean, fully occupied. Uh the parking I only had 22 spaces. So I purchased the it was an AT&T storage uh storage area. So I purchased that and started parking cars there and put the millings down.

You know, my fault. Um but once the reason it took so long was because I had to go through the whole permitting process, get the get get the site plan permitted and then the construction of it. It was a uh actually it was over $300,000. So, it's a it's a very nice improved park paved parking lot uh all by the permit and it and it improves the entire property and it is uh you know near near Cocoa Village and I think I really uh improved that two lot combination between renovating the the apartment building and putting in the extra parking.

But that that space is parking that supports the apartment building. In fact, in fact, it's one property now. There is no longer a 213 factory street. I merged the property. Um, it's all 699 unit now. So, it just it's a parking lot for the building now. I'm on team Tim. I'm on your team, sir. But I think someone's going to make a motion. I'm assuming. I just got a strong vibe. I would like to do that, sir. Yes. I would like to make a motion that uh we reduce the lean the fine to $2773.32. I'll second. Okay. We have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weeks and a second by Councilman Hearn. Chair is going to call the question. All in favor saying I. I.

I. Any nays? Eyes have unanimously. Go in peace, young man. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Okay. Next item number 7-2, the property owner of Fair Price Properties requesting a reduction of the current code enforcement lean of $39,620 on the property located at 309 Georgia Avenue reference case, excuse me, reference code case hashtag CE23-000064 be reduced to the amount of $1,000. Um, and I'm sure I'm going get a get an understanding from the um um um um liaison, but I would also like to hear from you, Mr. Wilkinson. Um staff recommendation is $2,121 and decimal point 36. Um, I I definitely want to always cover administrative cost. I'm going to be honest with you. Um, I'm hoping this young man does not sell this piece of property no time soon. Uh, Mr. Wilkerson, let me hear from you and then, um, deputy mayor uh, weeks and then council and we'll proceed from there.

Yes, sir. The code enforcement uh board held a public hearing on October 19th of 2023 at which time the board found the property owner fair price properties LLC in violation for the following city code appendix A article section uh 2.8 permit required was a roof. The permit is required for any roof for that involves construction, alteration, or repairs exceeding $500 in cost. City code chapter 6, section 6-1,3 G. Roofs and drainage. Adequate drainage must be provided to minimize exposure of flood hazards. City code chapter 6 section 6-103C premises identification. The property owner is responsible for maintaining visible housing numbers. The code enforcement board provided the property owner sufficient time of November 18th of 2023 to correct the said violations. Therefore, a the code enforcement board held a non-compliance hearing on January 18th of 2024. The lean ran at $75 per day from November 18th of 2023 until compliance was achieved on April 29th of 2025. Our records show the case was closed, leveling the fine of $39,620. The property owners requesting the lean be reduced to $1,000. Code board held a uh public hearing on June 19th of this year at which time the code board suggested the lean be reduced. The amount of cost was $2,121.36. Staff recommends the same.

Okay. And available for any further questions. Do we have any questions for Mr. Wilkinson? Sir, did I read correct that this uh house is uh going up for sale? I remember this property very very well. Is the owner here? Yes, you got the owner here. We we give you let him um um um you finish with your question, sir. I was asking to my knowledge property ownership's already changed. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Okay. Interesting. I can explain.

And I believe the owner can confirm, I believe, if I'm correct, they were in the middle of a pending sale. Okay. Is the owner here? Yes, he's here. Can you step up, sir, please? So, you're the new owner of the property? Uh, no, sir. I was the owner of Fair Price Properties. Okay. Has the property since been improved? Um, oh yeah, last time I which I frequent there a lot, there was a lot of accumulation of some things there. So, are those elements taken care of? And

Yes, sir. Yeah, the the house was actually renovated and sold um for $175,000 on May 28th of 2025. Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you. That is, sir. That's all I have. Yes, sir. Ma'am. Yeah. Um he he was a house flipper and uh ran into some financial difficulties. You had a partner, I believe. Correct. That left you in the lurch. Yes, ma'am.

And so that's why it took so long for him to get this uh this done. Um but he is in compliance now. And the code board did say uh not the thousand, but the $2,121.36 to recoup the city's costs. Yes, ma'am. If I may say, um, at the code hearing, so I had originally requested the, um, the figure of, you know, $1,000 and then, um, at the code hearing was when I learned about the actual city's cost, um, I asked for it then to be raised to that cost. I can appreciate that.

So, I'd like to make a motion that we reduce the lean to $2,121.36. I'll second. Okay. We have a motion on the floor by Deputy Mayor Weeks and a second by Councilman Hearn. Chair's going to call the question. All in favor saying I. I. Any nays? Eyes have it unanimously. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr.

Yes, sir. Proceeding on to item number 7-3. provide direction for a task order to design and permit a trail head with parking to Cocoa Conservation Area off Cox Road with Myra Planning and Design LLC. No budgetary action is needed at this point. If approved, provide a funding source. Wow. and authorize the city manager to execute this task order agreement and budget excuse me budget transfer. I do have two cards and I know there's a presentation to as well. Okay. Um um okay I have Mr. Billy Long in the audience and then I have Triple Greg Stole Mrs. Um Morgan, ma'am, could you um present us with this presentation? Now, you know, um let me say a few things. I think the state requires 20 pedestrians per hour to be accessible to this for certain stipulations. Also, the um the trail head and parking amount is $131,000. I know um one of the homes abuts against this and I'mma just hear from Mrs. U Morgan and then I'll give my input to as well as well as everyone else.

So, two guys walk into a church. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor.

Yes, ma'am. So, at the April 22nd council meeting, council directed staff to determine the cost and other necessary actions to construct a trail head and parking off Cox Road. This tax uh this task order is for the survey, design, and permitting of a trail head off Cox Road at a cost of $131,87.50. The trail head design will include a picnic pavilion, children's play area, and a sand volleyball court. The design also includes connection uh and the connection to and the improvement of the existing trails in the KO conservation area as well as interpretive signage along the trails. Is that it?

Yeah, we just Yes. Yeah. I think he's trying to wait on Mitch over there. Mitch is the culprit. No, it was me. It was No, you ma'am. No more. Ma'am, Mitch is a culprit in a conversation.

Until tomorrow. Yeah, buddy. Well, I'm not even going to have my presentation tonight.

It's not you, Mitch. It's not you. I've never had these problems. It's not you, man. pretty song. [Music] Not reboot time. Unplug it and plug it. I think he isn't feeding the mice in the computer enough there. You got it. Oh, it's Thank you. You're doing a great job. Thank you.

What I'm getting. Okay. Hey, can I take a uh 10 minute recess? Let me let you so you can work on the technical issues. It's ready, but you're more than welcome to. Okay. Thank you, sir. Should I entertain a motion to take a 10 minute recess break? I need a second. Council all in favor say I. Hi.

I have snacks if anybody's hungry. Snickers bar. Eat it.

Cheetos. All right. Guess what else we're doing? I'm doing calendars. fire department and the police department. Oh, is it just cheese? Okay. Calendar raised money in there. I was at Walmart and Coco PD was there. I met Oh, copper. Yeah, copper. Copper. Copper. I got the sticker on my car. Okay. I want you to see my car. It's parked right out front. You got to Coco knows my car. He knows my car. Oh, yeah. But I'm coming to work for you, buddy. I am coming to work for you. I'm administrator. That's what I do. I have We got Look, you got a lot of competition now cuz we we we doing a lot of interview. Yeah, I imagine you do. Yeah.

I'm doing I'm doing a ride along with Leander and I'm doing a ride along with Let me tell you that you need to know this. I am scraping it out there. The girls told me that work there. That's what you want to tell me? Yeah, that's one of the things I want to tell you. I would tell you how awesome you are. I want to come work with you, buddy. So, I'm doing a ride along with Oh, okay. We're doing Okay. All right. Thank you.

Hey, thank you. What do you think? in the morning neighborhood watch. I want to help with ninja. [Music]

You can feel the rest at Walmart.

They look better. I don't Well, he was the one that was at Walmart. Yeah. Awesome. This is what I'm doing for Rock. I'm riding along with fire station one. Not allowed to. I want to do a ride along with the fire station across from Wawa. When I lived in Coco on Mr. Lane, the other fire department is I think so. I put in catch. You don't. So, where's where the guys at now?

Yeah, we got to get clean. Okay. It was like the next day both of us had lived on. I have life alert. I knew you would like to learn. So you got to test it every

for the Navy. He was in a meeting. It went to my sister-in-law. It came back to Pico. It came back to the fire department when it was on across from Wawa. Here they come ready to rush me to kos hospital thinking that I'm dying. They had all the heavy equipment. I'm like, what's going on? What's going on? Monica ready to rush you to take fine. I'm fine. I was just, you know, I did bring back life.

So now, you know what I did? And then while we were talking about the life exactly firewall completely out Yeah. I mean that's a building department. Right. Oh yeah. I mean we don't need to relocate. Oh wow.

What kind of pictures did their whole graphics and everything? He's on his backyard. I

actually my power All my papers my husband at the university we're inition tells Yeah. Yeah. So, was it anything? I looked at it. It seemed like it was

Rob. So, I figured I'd do a Rob.

He's not allowed to eat that stuff. I got some pretzels, some almonds, Are we paused or what?

Well, I mean, we're they have the visual. They don't have contracts. No. [Music] Okay. Right.

We're just going to have to 48 seconds. 46 45

Oh, he has it on there. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Now, you're good, ma'am. No harm, no fire. Okay, we're on the trail head. Let me make sure I'm on the right. counter. Although he's vacation, what a great place to be, man. Oh, I understand now. Okay. Get a grip person.

He's not. Don't forget there's some pizza in there, man. If you got babies, take that pizza home. Pizza. Yeah, take it all, man. That's the purpose. You 21. I saw when I first came. All right. Make sure you get your trail mix in. Okay. The chair would like to um make a motion to u return from recess and start our council meeting. I need a second. Second. Got a second on the floor by deputy mayor weeks. Chair is going to call the question. All in favor saying I.

I. Eyes have unanimously.

Proceeding on item number 7-3. provide direction for a task order to design and permit a trail head with parking to Cocoa Conservation Area off of Cox Road with Myra Planning and Design LLC. Again, no budgetary action is needed at this point. If approved, provide a funding source and authorize the city manager to execute the task order agreement and the budget transfer 2025-615. Mrs. Morgan, ma'am. So, um, again, so the task order is for the survey design and permitting of a trail head off Cox Road at a cost of $131,87.50. Uh, the trail head design will include a picnic pavilion, uh, children's play area, and a sand volleyball court. Uh the design also includes connection to and improvements to the existing trails in the Cocoa Conservation Area as well as interpretive signage along the trails.

Do you want me to go through those? I think I think if Okay. Only if they're going to talk about the right 524. So, so she has this, but but what you guys directed staff to do was design and permitting on Cox there. And so, so she has that as supplemental if the other uh issue comes up. Oh, so we're going to hear about this one here too, the 524 that was in front of us. Well, again, your d your direction to staff was the Cox Road. I got you. So, so if you guys go to this, she's prepared to to talk about that also. Okay.

Okay. Let me I have two cards out here. Let me let me ask you another question. Um can you put up this one, ma'am, because I would like to see the interest from the um Cocoa Bay area. Yes, please. There it is.

Okay. Now, the the 524 um exit area on Cox Road, I'm sorry, Cox Road. The 524, that little small slither. There are homes here today. We have a homeowner right in here today right now, Mr. Billy Long. And I will give him the opportunity to speak as well. But I'm looking at the entrance, maintaining the entrance of the Cocoa Bay area being accessible to get to the conservation area and also the park area. And here's the reason why. since it's already established and protect the integrity of that small slither of land because on either side of that piece of property um this there's a slope and if we elevate that then it's going to create a problem on the property owners on for 1450 Cox Road and 1430 Cox Road. So my concern is is is to see what can we do, what will be a an alternative without costing us that additional even $131,000 or whatever the um concern may be on the 524 corridor because we know we're going to widen widen 524 when we know that's going to happen. So that'll take away everything from that basically. So my question that I would ask is we have someone to monitor that gate at the conservation camp right there. Well, the conservation park um I didn't mean to say camp, the conservation park there to secure that area. The question that I ask is what is the foot patrol or number of people that visit that area as

well? cuz I know the state um has a criteria of is it 25 um Mrs. Mrs. um Morgan? Yes. The pedestrian the number of pedestrians of that area. Can you expound on that one for me please?

Of course, mayor. Uh so I had discussions with the FDOT permitting staff and they were saying that uh for there to be a trail head access off of their State Road 524, it would require a midblock crossing to address safety concerns. Um he also said that the city would need to perform an engineering study uh meeting criteria outlined in the FDOT's traffic engineering manual to ensure that the midblock crossings are both necessary and safe. Uh and this includes demonstrating pedestrian demand which is typically at least 20 pedestrians per hour. Not to mention the uh midbar crossing cost. Uh uh there's there's one being installed on A1A uh with current costs and it's just north of 500,000.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um it's Christmas in the summertime. Okay. I have Councilwoman Calls. Then I have Deputy Mayor Weeks. Yeah, I'm just kind of um astounded by that. The the uh F dot we're looking at a safety measure across from a park in a very residential area that's becoming more and more residential. In other words, there will be people who would hope walking from one side to the other likely particularly since we have a major park there. Um so it just that's really it sounds like And also, isn't this the same kind of crossing like A1A?

Yes. Um, so is the issue that we're putting in a you're asking for a light? What what is the issue

that you're you're asking pedestrians to access the uh a trail uh by crossing their their road? a crossing across from a park. And yeah, we we would like to think we could put a trail there, but even if we did, this is a public park. It's going to be surrounded by residents who have sidewalks and access that park, right? Isn't I mean, they're going to be other than this trail, there are going to be reasons to have a crosswalk there. That's why I'm so shocked that FOT, who is promoting, you know, vision zero and additional safety measures everywhere you look, is reluctant or is resisting having a crosswalk from our major makes sense.

I I don't know that they're resisting. They just simply said that if you if you you got to you got to justify it. You justify it by doing a study. Study doesn't cost you that much. And their criteria is to give you the crosswalk that you got to have uh traffic volume or pedestrian traffic volume of 20 people needing to cross the road per hour. and and that that $500,000 cost for the for the crossing with the flashing beacons is a is a real cost cuz that's a cost that's known that that is happening at one of the crosswalks there. So, see, she's just presenting the discussions again. Hey, if we if we were to come and ask you for a uh midblock crossing, what are the things that we need to do? You need to do the study. The study needs to prove out that there's a demand of 20 people needing to cross the road per hour. And she's giving you the the real cost of that.

Well, let me ask, what are people supposed to do? How are they supposed to cross 524? Well, they're I've crossed 524 before. It's pretty dangerous. It would be nice if there was a focal point where people could cross safely, where they had that option, particularly as much traffic as we're going to be putting on that road. Yeah. The the only crossings on 524 are at the shopping centers. Right.

If you run the the length of 524, if you run from west to east, there's a crossing. There's not there's a there's a crossing when you get to the light at Cirrus and the uh Publix's Plaza and then there's another crossing at uh at uh Industry and the uh Publix Plaza and then going around there are crossings at uh Walmart. And so there are no midblock crossings at all on 524, none at Cox and 524, none at Friday Road and 524. And so again, this this is the process where if you're going to if you're going to ask for a midblock crossing, then study uh occurs. um studies the the the need is justified and then there's the cost of of uh installing the the walkers. I think that I think now this is actually their standard with the flashing beacons.

One other question so this is considered midblock crossing but it's a long ways before you get to a light. So how how do they determine mid block? I don't think you I think I think it is somewhere other than a light. Yeah. So, it's about 300 ft from um an intersection. Um

but it's a misnomer to say mid block because it doesn't have to be it's not in the middle of of any two things there. It's just there's no light, no um no stop signs. that is is just in the middle of a road wherever that happens to be.

Deputy Mayor Weeks and then Council Go.

Um there's a number of issues. Um first off, the reason we were looking at the second spot was because the residents of Cocoa Bay uh are not happy with the people going through there. There's no signage, nothing that tells anybody that the conservation area is back there. And the and the again the residents of Cocoa Bay do not like the traffic that goes through there going back there. Um so we wanted an area another entrance and when I uh asked for this initially because we have that easement off of 524, that's what I thought was the best thing to do. And then uh it was brought up about off of Cox Road and I know we're going to run into issues there and I've been out there so I've seen how close the neighbors or the homes are to that. Um so that is not ideal either and that's why I went um and uh I had help getting the price of the foot bridge to go over the conserv over the waterway. Even with the widening of 524, you can still put a a bridge a w foot bridge over there um to the uh to get to the trails. And if you do as as you're saying that they're going to uh dig out Mud Lake and make that bigger, it's going to help make that more attractive for people to go into the conservation area. And um so to do this first off, how you going to do a study when there's nothing to go to at this point to know how many people are going to go across on the north side of 524? There is a uh sidewalk all the way down. So even people coming from the apartments and everything on that side of the road, they'll ride their bikes and they'll want to cross the road to go over to the conservation area. And um

and I think it makes the most sense cuz it's close to the train station, it's close to that. I would love to see what we can do to get people into the conservation area off 524 versus uh the Cox Road one. Um because I just uh I I don't think it it is uh it's going to be cost prohibitive. And when you look at the drive there, um, as you said, if you build that up, it's going to cause drainage. Now, I know in that thing that, uh, Stockton, um, sent us, uh, it showed when they do Mud Lake, they're also going to stop that water that's flowing out wh. So, that's going to help keep the water contained, which is going to help the whole conservation area. So, I I would like to see us pursue the 524 entrance and see what we can do on the other side of the foot bridge, whether it's uh you know, a picnic area, um you know, a g, you know, a a pavilion, uh something where people can can go over there and then go off into the trails and have a have a beautiful thing that uh people, you know, all along there. 524 528 Cocoa Conservation Area, you know, and uh where to park and and go across the road. I'd love parking on the on the conservation side, but that does not look feasible at this point. Although, I wonder with all the clearing uh the commercial clearing that's going in next to the public shopping center, why can't we use some of that and then have an access back to the conservation area? And that's Upland's area of the conservation area. Just throwing that one out there, too, cuz I like to mess things up.

Um, city manager, could you answer that, please?

Yeah. And I and and I'm not I mean I want to pick on um state staff, but I mean those are the the the F dot rules, you know, and so and so the timing is off because if you say, well, prove that you have 20 people per hour, you're not going to be able to prove that in the short term. And so at some point you may be able to prove that. Um but again their their process simply is yeah if you if you want a midblock crossing if you want that crossing you got to you got to prove that there's a demand there. Um and they probably will still ask the locals to fund it. Um um and then on the on the clearing next to the uh shopping center that's just private property. So so there's a site plan approved for that. Um and so we don't we don't have access um through that private property to the to the to the conservation area and I think number of some of it may be owned by the county, some of it may be private down there too.

Yes. Additional private properties there. And so I I guess uh Deputy Mayor Weekes in the short term you're not going to be able to prove out that there's a crossing need there because again as you said you don't have an amenity right

but at some point in time um perhaps that will come um you know whether it's a light there or not there and I I have I don't know if you I thought you guys were having meetings with FOT but there that's sort of their graphic. on the whole design of the widening of 524 and so you can see what their thought process is. If you don't have that, I'll I'll I'll make copies and and distribute that to the council there. So you can see what their thought process was or is with regards to the ponds. And you can see how we just simply said why are you making these smaller ponds when the the management plan actually the primary objective of the management plan one of them is to to uh to reestablish uh Mud Lake and to increase the size of Mud Lake. So, that's how we got into those discussions there,

which I which I love. And and whether or not we um I mean, I don't want to I don't want to put off adding another entrance to the conservation area because it's been there all this time and it's not being utilized because nobody knows it's there. Um, but on the other hand, I can see where with what they're going to do, it will make it more prohibitive for us to to do something with it. So, um, I'm just kind of um, at this point I'm uh, I would like to see perhaps if the staff I mean, they did great work on the 520 off of Cox Road. I appreciate all the work that went into that. Um, but I would sure like to see what perhaps they could come up with with this future. What we could do off 524.

Is that a motion? That is a motion. Second. Okay, we have a What is your motion? State your motion. My motion is that I would like to see with uh that uh the 524 uh where our 524 easement is uh what future plans with what FDOT plans to do to the conservation area. What could be developed here, including a potential crosswalk there? Uh what we could do there to uh create a trail head at that point. Can I amend? Yeah.

Or just uh open it up to looking at all the alternatives there. Yeah. Like if we approached the Dollar General store, I mean, are is there an opportunity to have a partnership with them create some sort of, you know, there could be a small piece that is purchased. I'll second your amendment. Well, just just incorporate it. Yeah.

Yeah. and and approach the the Dollar General and see if we could do a partnership with them because then we could put parking there and that would solve our problem right there. Uh but I would like a trail head off of 524 and however we can work on that. That would be wonderful because this is going to really change the whole conservation area with the mud lake and um make it much more user friendly. So that's I would like that please. Okay. I I I know that's convoluted so let me restate it. Okay.

And then I'm gonna hear from the audience too as well. I would like to see us see I would like to uh have staff look at doing a trail head off of 524 in whatever form that is from approaching if there's a way to do a trail head off 524. Yeah. Yeah. Make it we'll just make it simple. Yeah. That's it. Think out of the box. So what is it now?

No, I understand the intent there. So it's to to explore all possibilities for establishing a trail head in or near the uh that's an that's a what we have is a the access easement would be underwater so we have a drainage easement there but but I get it to work with with F DOT with the Dollar General is not owned by Dollar General LLC it's owned by a a couple that lives I think in Sebastian And so and so again, I'm pretty sure they're not listening. So if you approach me about parking, you're going to have to pay for it. Um but

but I get I get the intent and that I think that's easy enough because we're in the PD&E for 524. Now that's not that ain't that ain't happening today or tomorrow. I understand. Yeah. But I would so but but I want to do it right. But we can sit at the table and and say as we're designing uh 524 widening uh take this into consideration. That would be love. Thank you, sir.

That that's a motion, but I'm going to hear from the people. And then I'm going just say it this way. We already have an established entrance already there. Why reinvent the wheel? Period. Point blank. Do you want to say something? Then I'm I would like to hear from my two cards.

Yeah. My my only question was I know years ago maybe maybe three or four years ago um the Cocoa Bay residents they have been rejecting this for a long time, right? So, I guess what can be done on that side to, you know, help help them security-wise or I mean, have you thought about anything like that as far as secure security or making them feel more comfortable?

You you as well the phone calls I've gotten, they just their kids are out playing, they've got cars going through, and they don't like it. They they hate that that trail head is at the end of their street and uh and they get all that through traffic. So I mean that was the phone calls I got which got me really looking into what information on that

because when we started this the homeowners association president was very um embraced the conservation area. In fact she was helping open it up and she left. I know that uh uh Rip Dial when he was here, he went door todo encouraging people. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. To sign his petition so he could fight this thing. So, um as far as I'm sure there are people that are against it,

but I don't know that it's the the movement that we've been led to believe. Um even so, this would be a good I think we have to be open. Really think outside the box right now. Okay. Because nobody knows it's there. There's not a single sign. Okay. Mr. Billy Long, would you come forward? And then after that will be Greg Sto.

Good evening. 1430 just south of the trail where you guys want to come in on road. Um we struggle with it just because we're going to lose our privacy. Um the uh piece that needs, you know, that you guys will be accessing needs at least two to three foot of fill. Um when you do that, my neighbor's home, uh that was built in 19 He's going to drink because um you'll just be filling him in completely. Um you know just the foot traffic, the homeless that all of that stuff brings. um you know in my backyard we we do not want to walk out of our home and see that in our backyard and I don't think any of us want to see that. Um so those are our really big concerns that we have. Um so I appreciate I love the way the conversation's going which is away from this area

so you know I was very happy to hear that. But u you know again that area is it was designed for a residential home. I think when the city bought the conservation area, they bought that piece of property. It's a 25. You're not going to be able to use that as a road to get in and out of that area. You know, once you put fill in it, everything,

you know, having a 25 foot wide road by the time you get everything built. So, um, you know, again, we we like the peace of quiet out there after 6 7:00 at night. is industrial on the other side. We live there for right at 30 years and you know we got 10 acres so it's a great place to live. We just don't want to add so thank you.

Thank you very much Mr. Long. We have any questions for Mr. Long seeing Mr. stove council mayor staff CCA. My name is

My name is Greg. So, I'm gonna mod I'm gonna modify my written preparation here for just a little bit to say one, I am encouraged to hear that we are making progress if it's doing away with the F2 retention ponds and looking at restoring Mud Lake. Uh, also, uh, I hear things about crossings. Uh, council woman speaks, "Put your binoculars on. Look way down the road. How many traffic circles are coming in on 524? Can we make one of them also have a pedestrian crossing which is almost right in front of the Dollar General?

I will now continue with Michael's state. As many of you know, I've spent many hours volunteering in the CCA that have included locking and unlocking gates, trail development, cleaning restrooms, and guiding hikes. Most recently, another volunteer who was locking and unlocking the gate uh doesn't do so now due to authorization and security issues. So, we're waiting on uh that gentleman to to get a blessing from the chief. Uh in reviewing the map in attachment a page five, I have several comments. Uh the hiking trails shown are incorrect. Uh some of the trails shown are underwater at least part of the year. The proposed picnic, play area, volleyball court, 4 plus one parking spot is deficient. I suppose kind of what Billy's talking about. Uh all you got to do is look at Travis Park when the volleyball teams meet. Uh the picnic area adjacent to the Arbor's Landing is not a convenient destination from the 524 trail head access to lug coolers, etc. Just compare that to taking your picnic to the Juny Reunion Park. 37 uh uh other issues, security hours, summarize some sets. Who's going to secure all three gates, all two gates, all one gates? Vandalism. Uh I can't tell you the number of times I've seen those restrooms totally trashed. And of course uh I think now I don't know about now but for a period of time we were not

unlocking them. Uh environmental damage ATVs and motorcycles are destroying the wetlands and wet meadows because the few barriers that we've put up they've gone around. So that's just my observations from my years up at CCA. Thank you. Thank you. I have to get good eyes on it. Yeah. Can I ask you a question? Yes. Um, can I ask you a quick question before you hesitate?

Um, I appreciate very much all that you've done out there. Um, and uh, and I'm asking you what would your recommendation for this be then?

Putting those long glasses on. in off of 24 is probably the least objectionable to accommodate the folks in Cocoa Bay. The big problem that I see with that is once you get over that lake that that retention pond, you have to skirt the corner of the Arbors at Coco Landings, which you better put your waiters on. Yeah, we have to do now. Do you think when they if they if they scoop out Mud Lake and make it bigger, would that make a difference on that?

Uh, I am not an environmental engineer. I'm sorry. I not answer that question. Okay. Thank you. No, I I asked. That's why I asked. Thank you for listening. Thanks. Great. City man, you're light on, sir. But but just to address I thought I thought the chief had actually the police department had actually cleared that one volunteer that was previously volunteering. So So we can take that up in the morning. Uh yeah. Um sir

and then on on page five that's the original uh master site plan that was a part of the uh the management plan. So it's interesting to to hear Mr. Stole say it doesn't really doesn't really work as they actually wrote it down there. So again, this thing is not not a static sort of document or static environment. But if if the motion is to simply explore um through all available means the uh the possibility the opportunity of a trail head on 524 then uh then uh Mr. Mayor, we understand that motion again that that's not an overnight thing.

Don't expect it to be him too. Okay, we have a motion on the floor by deputy mayor cost and a second by council I'm sorry no no no motion by deputy mayor weeks and a second by councilwoman cost he seems to be chair's going to call the question all in favor saying I any n's nay let the record reflect 41 yes I am the dissenting vote madame clerk okay proceeding on to item number 7-4 four. Yeah.

Um, Councilwoman Caus has requested that the council discuss the utility advisory board. Now, a couple of things. Um across every resolution the mandate remains consistent to the UAB shell analyze make findings or facts and make recommendations on the matters involving cities water sewer garbage telephone cable television electrical utilities. It is strictly advisory only. So a lot of our agreements that we have now is done through franchise. Um and it was um also wanted to know that um in raising this committee uh councilwoman cost presented the following lead copper rule on fluidation septic to sewer when I'm finished. Yes ma'am. And also the council created utility advisory board 35 years ago on an on call citizen panel when council or the city manager specifically requested it. Like I stated earlier, we do have a franchise agreement with a lot of our utilities. duplicate staff expertise and consultants analysis, slowing decisions, making and inviting outside jurisdictions into Koko's internal policy process whenever their agenda touches the potable water system. The UAAB membership expands from

five Cocoa residents to nine voting members. Do you want outsiders in your business? That is the question. No, it's really not the question and my ideas are not reflected here. So I, you know, I would like to the late hour table it.

Um, you know, I can discuss it with the city manager, either have my ideas presented or not, but the hour is just too late. Um, this is a policy decision. It does need Thank you for bringing it in front of us. But um this is not you know the these four items they're only the latest issues.

That's not why I was calling for an an advisory board. So I'd like to make a motion to table this agenda until table this agenda item until another meeting after which time I've uh spoken with the city manager and my ideas are more reflected. We have a motion on the floor to table this particular item by Councilwoman Carlson and a second by Deputy Mayor Weeks. Chair is going to call the question. All in favor by saying I. I. Any nays? No. Nay. I didn't hear you. Councilman um Hearns.

You voted for this. Okay. It right. They're just kicking the can down the road. That's all. Thank you. Proceeding on to the next item. Item number four, a reference of travel uh authority. Yeah. Councilwoman Cos wanted to have the city pay to attend this event that which we have planners already um at at the May I finish. Thank you. This should not be an agenda item. I did not realize you were doing this earlier. We have never ever discussed $45. Ma'am,

we're wasting all these people's time so we can fully council member. So I am asking the question to see is it necessary when we already have planners here? Aren't our staff competent, hardworking, and committed planners at why do we need to send someone at the expense of council dollars? That's all I'm asking.

It's $45 and it is described as being for advisory committee members. In fact, I'd love to have any one of you come with me. Um, the most important thing that we do here is planning and for us to understand it, for us to anyone on here to have a deeper understanding is a good thing, not a bad thing in service of the citizens of Coco. But this is beneath us addressing at this hour on the dis. No, it's not. We have to 11:00 if we need to extend

for the purpose of bullying me. [Applause] Go ahead, sir. I'm I'm I am I am totally confused because I don't know what's going on right now as far as this is the second agenda item that that councilwoman calls I don't know what can you explain to us what the issue is that you have directly so we understand because you just tabled an item that I'm assuming you must have talked to the city manager about at some point

I've been asking for for the last year but what was written up does not reflect my ideas or what I was requesting I need an opportunity to talk to city manager. If we can come back with something, that's fine. If staff is so resistant, forget it. I'm not going to waste my time with that. You know, wait until we have, you know, people that are that really want to see um you know, the public interface.

I'm as far as this item goes, this is 45 bucks. I am not going to discuss it with you. I can pay it out of my own pocket. It was suggested to me by people at the TPO um and several other council members that are going. So, it's a good thing. It's good for the citizens. And the only reason it was taken out of consent was to make an issue. How many things have you gone to that nobody else has here? I mean, you pay for Are you speaking to me? The league pays for

I was talking with Councilman Go. Um but the well I mean I think that the FBC LEO situation is for all elected officials only. So it's a little bit different from this particular Yeah. You know bucks I'm not going to discuss it here. Yeah. End of meeting. It doesn't work like that ma'am. Well I'm sorry. Council stop me from going. Um no I'm not stopping you from going. I think you should pay if you go. That's what I'm saying. We have never discussed an item. Yes, we have for 45 up here for my own items and trips out. Look at the look at the staff time that we're wasting.

It's not a debate. Well, ma'am, you're the one carrying on and I have no report tonight. So, you're willing to pay the $45? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Okay. I second that motion. Challenge. There is no motion. I refuse. This is ridiculous. We have a unanimous vote.

Okay, that we're going to really watch how that's recorded the minutes cuz that was weird. Maybe it's time to close the meeting. No, it's not 11 o'clock yet. Items. I've got an item. We have another item. We have another item. Yes, ma'am. You up here ridiculing and Whatever. God bless you. Item number 8-1h uh to the city staff to apply for the National Fitness Challenge. I make a motion that we apply for the National Fitness Campaign Challenge. Second. All in favor saying I.

I have it unanimously. You want to say something? Well, you you know I don't like to unsell the car, but but then don't unsell a car. I like that. I've never heard that verbage before. Can I at least show a picture? Is that just for staff or is that the council too that does the fitness thing? Whoever wants to lead, whoever wants to participate. mobile.

It's a fad. We have a motion on the floor now. We're on It's already been approved. All in favor by saying I I Okay, then Johnson. You did an awesome job. Thank you. Mr. City Manager Stole, you having a report, sir? Mr. Stole, thank you, Mr. City Manager. Yeah, I think Singer has two reports. I I'm so sorry everybody. I apologize. So, um the I left you all Sorry, Mitch. Thank you. Um on your space, you have a little workbook. It looks like a uh Yes.

So, uh Jamie in our in my office, uh she's our public information officer came up with the idea. We host a lot of kids here at city hall. We give them tours of the facility. We talk about what local government is. Um and typically we were using just a generic Florida League of Cities workbook about um you know if I was mayor for the day, what would I do? So, um, she came up with this idea, um, to t to gear it more towards local Cocoa government. Um, and it talks a lot about our mission statement, um, and gives them a little bit of insight into city of Coco government and it's a complete workbook. So, I just thought she did a fantastic job with it and I wanted to give you guys a copy,

down to you by Anthony and show you what we have and we'll use that when we have tours here at city hall. Um or if we go out like we'll give them out at our um backpack supply uh drive as well. Um and just wanted to give you guys an advanced copy there. Okay.

And then um speaking of our backpack supplies, uh we held our collection event this past weekend at Walmart. Uh thank you to Cocoa Walmart and our um great volunteers. We had volunteers from uh the Walmart distribution center um and our great police department and fire department. We so appreciate their support. Um and we collected a lot of supplies and we are have been collecting supplies for the entire month of July. We will collect until the end of July. So it is still going on. You can drop off supplies at any city building. Um and then we will uh pack all those supplies into backpacks and uh give them out. We are handing out supplies this year on Friday, August 1st at 5:00 PM and we're going to do that at the Dr. Jolie Smith Center. Um, so people can come up and pick up their supplies and get a brand new Cocoa Workbook as well.

Awesome. And I can answer any questions. It's okay to give monetary donations to still today, correct? Yeah. Um, you can. Um, we just have to collect them here at city hall. Yes, that's okay. I was out of town at the time, so I still want to make my traditional contribution. Okay. Anyone else from reports, Mr. City? Yes, sir. Okay. Espan. Okay. What What is it today? Uh, Councilman uh Leander, is it odds or even? Odd.

Okay. Which one of my odd numbers would like to go first? One or three or three or one? One can go. [Music] So, organization I'm part of 321 empowerment um is hosting an event August 9th at Eastern Florida State College in Coco. Um we really encourage our counselor to come especially at that 11:00 kids ages from 9 through 12 all males. And the uh guest speaker is Dr. My Ro. If anyone know Florida State,

um he has a very interesting story. Um you know, he actually got drafted in the NFL and actually quit NFL to go be a doctor, neurosurgeon, makes more money. So this this event is really all about uh teaching kids how to overcome adversity and so on counsel might get a sign something signed for

you're so sweet. Um the sec second thing was um so I know I know on on council we uh we have our debates and we um go at it quite a bit um on certain situations that we feel passionate about. But but one thing I know I feel very uh disrespected by is something that uh uh this referring to Councilwoman Cos. Um, you know, Councilwoman Cos went on Bvard News and and did a 30 minute sit down. Um, which I know I do understand that we have a first amendment right. We can say anything we want. Um, but at the same time I I feel in my just in my opinion um we still have to um make sure that we respect one another especially in the public eye. We cannot we don't have to agree with each other all the time, but me personally would never go out publicly and try to um harm any any one of you at all. Ever. I wouldn't.

Wait, I wouldn't do it. What did I say that harmed?

Uh so so the biggest thing that I I took from what you said was definitely for me, which I know I I sit down with Stockton. I call the city managers as well as you do. And to say that we all rubber stamp uh decisions to me um is is ridiculous to me because it it it shows disrespect towards me and my time that I put in that I know that I do my best job that I possibly can in the in the the experience that I have which may be less than you but but on certain things I make sure I talk to directors if I don't have all the information or I I go to my city manager and talk to him about opinions. But to just to me we all supposed to be a team and sometime a team you know that doesn't mean you are going to be holding hands all the time but at the same time at the end of the day we got a damn game to play and regardless of what the situation is we are together and that's how it should be. We may argue with each other. We may not agree with each other. But when it come down to being in front of the public eye, we cannot attack one another. That's how I personally feel. I would never do you that way. And I respectfully ask for the same thing from any one of you. I would not do I don't care how a person is trying to lead me in questions to come off negative. I wouldn't care what they ask me about. If they ask me how do I feel about Mayor Blake in the discussion the other day, you know what I'm going to say? Hey, we had a spirited argument and and and that time the mayor got me. Or I may come back and say, hey, look, I'm going to try it again the next meeting. I lost this one. But all I'm saying is when we in front of the public eye, we got to make sure that we we protect one another as well. That's just how that's just both ways, right? I agree

because I've been stabbed in the back by you and you know it. How I'm not going to get in discussion. Point of order. We're not going to have this.

No. No. But what what I guess my my point is in order to have open dialogue so this stuff will not happen again. We have to be open and honest with each other. We're not arguing at all. I don't feel no type of hate towards Councilwoman Cos at all. I'm not I wasn't even upset. I was disappointed. It wasn't It wasn't upset. So me uh I have plenty of times before before to that that moment you accused me of a sunshine law and I still never disrespected you while we was on the Das because and the reason why you did it is because you was you were losing an argument or losing losing a point. And so instead of accepting that andor fighting for that, what ended up happening is you accused me of a sunshine law violation. But I still never ever disrespected you or treated you differently. Never.

Okay. Well, I need time to respond. I agree with I'm listening against I listen to the whole because five times. First of all, I did not in that interview. I do believe there are times where we rubber stamp things, where we're not as thoughtful as we need to be. So, I was pretty clear in that interview that it's not across the board, but yes, we do rubber stamp things. I've seen many things rubber stamped here. And secondly, as far as the uh accusing you, trying to remember the specific instance, but

but things that were being said would lead one to believe that there was something going on there. So, I mean, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but um I you know, the thing is it goes both ways. It really goes both ways. And I am aware of several times when you've gone around my back, campaigned against me in remarks to other people. And maybe campaign is not the right word

because there's actually, you know, the mayor did actually campaign against me going door to door. But bad mouthing someone um to other people that you know will bring it back is one way to uh stab somebody on the back without directly going up to them and stabbing them in the back.

So um you know I mean you know I respect you uh and for the most part on this council I appreciate working with you. Well, I don't know what you said. For the most part, you lost me. But but I I I will I will say this. Anything I can say about you or anybody else, I can say to you. And anytime someone come ask me about anything or come tell me any kind of rumor about what somebody else said about me, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to come to them directly as a grown person. I'm not going to sit back like a little child and listen to someone give an opinion about what they thought, their interpretation of what I said. I'm going to go to that person directly. And again on the dis I was accused of a sunshine violation and I still never disrespected you one inch after that day.

Okay. There was a question asked. There was no accusation made. There was a question asked. when you when you throw stuff that that's we have to be careful on the things that we say because people will turn it around and twisted on a so-called accusation that goes both ways.

Well, okay. My point is I'm asking these people that sit on these podcast and do all these different things are there not for positive purposes. They ask certain questions to lead us in a direction. That's why a lot of times I I I listen to Samantha in the back of my brain when Channel 9 and other people ask me questions. Well, how do you feel about this? I have to be very careful cuz I'm like Samantha going to kill me because they that leads you to a spot and now you're sitting there in front of a camera and now you end up spilling all of your personal emotions come out in an interview that you can't take back. That's why we have to be careful and that's why I I appreciate Samantha for scolding me the way that she does because I'm I'm an open book to a fault and I shouldn't be at times and that's so I appreciate her for that tell you that publicly even though I don't like it sometimes but but I just I I wanted to say that I could not go another day being in a public setting knowing what I listen to for 30 minutes and not say something. And so it's not again even after today I have no ill feelings towards you council woman cause I understand

why didn't you bring that to me sooner. No I wanted to bring it to you in front of everybody just the way that same interview was taken because when you do things publicly you have to be addressed publicly and that's why that's how I am.

You know that plenty of times I brought people to you directly and say what did you say about councilwoman cost because I am a direct person. I don't play games like that. And so I'm just I'm just telling you, we all have to be careful because these people are out for a division. They're not trying to bring our city together. They trying to tear our behind apart because so they can have clickbait. It's all about numbers. It's all about views. It's all about all that crap. All they want is views and money to come in their pocket. Some of the things may be true. Some things they may bring out, but they're not there to try to bring us together. That's that's my only point. They're not there for that. That's why the first question started off strong on negativity. It wasn't, "Hey, how do you feel? Is it Coco great?" No, it wasn't.

That's that's my only point. And that's again after today, no ill feelings, no it's I'm not going to go home and feel no type of way. And I hope you don't either. So that just that was that was my point. I respect all of y'all. That's all. That's it. Yes, sir. You're three. I am three. Um Mr. Mitch,

this this I we'll flip through this very quick. Um, first off, uh, I hope you all don't think that I ever vote to hurt Diamond Square in any way, shape, form, or fashion. I just want to say that what happened tonight. I got you. Okay. Sure.

So, I just went and actually my grandson was in the passenger seat snapping these pictures. This is the clearing for the new commercial area. next to the Publix. Um, and uh, there used to be a bad homeless camp back there. It's gone. Next picture is that from Yeah. And that's from Publix. Uh, and uh, city manager, what all is going in there? Do we know what what building I mean what commercial products are going in there? Yeah, it's it's a it's a the site plan is for commercial development. So, there is no

Okay, we don't know. I was everybody's asking are we going to get more restaurants on that side of the city? So, I think they have a site plan and it's in its zone parcels or it's zone, but I don't think they have tenants at this particular point. Okay. Uh next picture. But anyway, it's all cleared out. Then this is on the um further up on the west side of 524. And this is a number of you can see the buildings all coming out and again apartments. I I hope we're done with apartments pass the next one

and there's there's more. Um I will tell you some of the apartments in Coco now the new ones are offering the first two months free because they are not filling up. rental prices are coming down and they are not filling up. So, we are definitely full of apartments. Uh, next one. Um, those are the those are the live local act ones on the north side of 524.

Uh, next one. And this is where the old gas station was on the west side of five uh 20 I mean of 95. And the next picture, um, they have not cleared the trees and they haven't done the retention pond. And I got the question from the Lost Lakes folks wanting to know when they're going to put up the little black uh, stuff. The silk fence. That's it. The silk fence. They're concerned about that. I said probably after the trees come down. But anyway, so and then the next picture

Oh, I went to the TPO's open house and uh, the only pictures I have are of the back side of me. But anyway, the next picture and I spoke uh on behalf of not only putting a light in front of Lost Lakes, but that something needed to be done at the intersection of Adamson and 520 I mean and 524. Uh it's just so dangerous and with all our homes there are people, you know, kids riding bikes, motorcycles, all kinds of stuff that electric bikes going to and from work and you've got all those trucks going to and from the dump. So something's got to be done. But they had a good turnout at the TPO. And I think that was my last slide. Yep, that's all I have. 214. Who's next?

Oh, uh, Councilwoman calls. Go ahead.

Okay. Mine's real quick. I didn't have any pictures. Um, but I was, um, I like to Google the city of Coco every now and then, maybe every week week, just to see what they're saying. And there was an article about the city of Cocoa Police Department uh uh monitoring our rails uh crossings and they're going to be cracking down for safety purposes. So I just want to give a kudos to Chief for taking on that initiative and uh continue uh continuing our safety for our pedestrians and citizens. So um other than that, that's all I had. Um, in regards to what council uh, Councilman Go spoke of earlier, I did have I actually had like two people send me that video uh, at the same time of the Bvard news. And um, what the the consensus was, it was kind of indicative of saying there was a Sunshine Law violation. At least that's that's what the uh, perception was. Um, on the same note, what can

Can I say something? Yes. Just let me extend this meeting for 15 minutes cuz it's 11:00 or 10:59 and I need to extend it for 15 minutes, please. And I need a second. Second. Okay. All in favor saying I. I. I. As you were, sir. So, um, that's what I took from it or or at least what the citizens that sent me the video, uh, that's what they took from it. Um, Sunshine Law is is we take it very serious. At least I do. Um, Councilman Goins and my son, they both play on the same football team, so we're around each other a lot. And there's times when citizens will come up to us talking city business, and we'll tell them right there immediately. I I

Hey, I'll let it go. Yeah. So, uh, we take it very serious. Um, and, uh, other than that, um, keep up the good work, City of Coco. I'm loving it. I'll just say I've not listened to the video. Um, I'm not even sure where I go to get it, but I do know that I didn't accuse anyone of sunshine violations. I do feel the rubber stamp thing. I feel it big.

He asked you a he he asked you a question about about sunshine, right?

Or collaboration. and you didn't confirm or deny to citizens. When you don't, it automatically shows a optics of you you may think. And then that's still not good either because you you're saying that you don't you don't necessarily uh trust the people that you sitting with to make sound decision unless they communicate in in a in a unlawful way with each other. And that's so even if you don't say yes they committed sunshine when you when you kind of I don't know when you it it brings that perception to kind of what he's saying it it it just brings that you know even you know even though you didn't say yes they did it. It just makes them feel that way. I'm just telling you.

Well I mean if you're going to school me maybe we should do that off the das. I mean, I have certainly taken my knocks on this dis and there has certainly been what I feel like is a ganging up on me voting against things that you wouldn't even be against except that you see it as a way to get at me. Um, and me personally, no. Oh, and I'll say that. Okay. And and yeah, and we're well aware of the campaigning that took place against me as well as well, there's a long list. I have a long list of grievances like everybody else. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Of course. Of course.

I mean, this is not an easy place to be. I got you. So, and Mr. Mayor, please hold your bowling tonight. Okay. I'm not even saying anything. I know, but I just don't want No, we'll end up with God bless you, ma'am. May he keep your soul cuz you need blessing. So don't don't divert your confusion and frustration from him to me. So I'm going to address you shortly after you finish your comments because I could talk about Jack Walsh when you call him a liar and you denied and you got caught.

So leave me alone. Stop right there while you're ahead. And then on top of that, you supported Alan Coward publicly and he lost by over 2,000 folks. So what are you talking about? at the same time that you were literally going doortodoor campaigning against entitled to that. I mean, you were literally going door to door telling people you had a strategy. You and Rip Dial. I'm entitled to that. Well, God bless you, ma'am. That's all I'm going to tell you. God bless you. Just like you have people to uh make file complaints against the city manager, your friends. I don't have people complaints. the idea that I tell people to do that.

Leave that alone cuz I'm trying to maintain my composure and I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid. God bless you, ma'am. And everybody in this adas know you you and your little group out of district number four. You got a little group and I'm and don't make me go there. Just be quiet and say what you got to say, ma'am. Please, ma'am. I said

please. Well, I'll just say what I have to say then, that I am the elected representative from district 4. The fact that so many people have come in, supported me, came in and have spoke at so many council meetings and are dismissed, disrespected. The issues are obviously not ones this council is interested in or will take on. Fine. But I really really don't like when people are literally laughed at or dismissed or disrespected from this dis. It's just not appropriate. I don't like it as a representative. I don't like it because I was sitting in that audience before became a representative and I'll be sitting in it afterwards.

So yeah. So leave the uh leave my constituents alone. Please. I'm assuming you're finished.

Okay. Um, being the mayor, I'm elected at large. So, all of the residents in the city of Coco vote for Michael Blake. Period. Point blank. Fact. Now, um I'm not going to get caught up in your trap or gaslighting as you like to use that term, ma'am, because there's several things I can cite you on on multiple occasions in reference of staffing and your comments. And as I alluded to, Jack Walsh, you call that man a liar. And that man has a degree, a PE degree, professional engineering degree. So, so that is I mean, and you denied it and you got caught and you still denied it.

God bless you. You know that day when Jack was right over there. But God bless you. I'm ready, Mitch. Mitch, am I ready? Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you. you brought it up. Here it is. Um, this is the 4th of July. I want to say thank you all because I skipped my last two meetings on my photos, but we had a great time at the 4th of July just like the summer youth. They were active in there. Um, that is Mandy. We had a great time at the 4th of July. Uh, great fireworks. Bvard Symphony Orchestra participated as well as council. Um this is a mayor of Auburnale. We were at the Merill um event held at Daytona Beach and also in Sanford, Florida. Um this was held the hometown heroes event where myself, my council member uh uh sister city council member Michael Cador. Um, I want to just say thank you to all the council members that acknowledge me uh for the accomplishment for being one of the few individuals with the hometown hero award from the great city of Cocoa. Um, this is at Pastor Sean Ferguson's 20th anniversary that you all were invited to and some of you all attended. Um, this was at the mayor at Tampa Bay. We toured a cigar factory there in Tampa Bay. We were there. Um, you all remember FRA.

We went there to Some of you all took that tour. Um, this is the freight elevator. I wonder why am I coming out the freight elevator. I'm not going to address that. That is, as you can see, a stoi right there. Um, it's a unique history about Tampa Bay. As you all know, um, the diversity of Tampa Bay, it's one of the few remaining cities in the United States that produce cigars. Um this is held um with the president of the National uh League of Cities where we're at um Columbus, Ohio. This is one of the elected officials, also a member from the National League of Cities, Miss Jacqueline, Councilwoman Jacqueline. Um this was held over at Tampa as well as the mayor's there event. Um I want to say thank you all for council members for your support during the time of um my bereiement. I thank you. Um this is the Florida League of Cities. Um my fierce leader Jeannie Gardner, also Matt Fuller from um Lake Alfred for prayer central, excuse me, Fort Pier central, brother Johnson, Jeff Branch, also Casey Cook. Um this is at the cigar factory as well. Um, this is the mayor of Tampa, um, Mayor Caster, myself, and first vice president, um, Holly Smith, who will be president, um, come, uh, August 14th through the 17th. We have the celebration of Miss Lash's birthday, her 50th birthday. Um, Lewis, um, Jackson, um, we celebrated her event. Um this is the fourth of July. One of my former students and her family.

Um this is we at the the Ohio University um in Athens. Um our president Steve Patterson was there and we took a tour of their facility. Beautiful city at that they have a deer walking throughout the city. It's a historical area and I'm appreciative of it. What city? Um, Athens, Ohio. Ma'am. Athens, Ohio.

This is the president, Gonzalez, the young lady in the middle. And this is, um, Steve Patterson, the president of the National League of Cities. This is where I was at this past week. Um, these are the members at historical black church. They're at um, Athens. It it intertwines within the city itself. Um, this is a repeat. This is at the celebration of Mrs. Leand uh birthday. These are the pictures of the hometown heroes. I'm happy to say um I'm hoping maybe one day in the future several um outside of myself more council members attend. Um the criteria is come on legislative day. Do like we've done before. Talk with our legislators. Bring them in front of us. As you all know, the state legislators will be starting early this year in January.

We were there.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. You're right. Um, this is my nephew Gary on the 4th of July. And this is us back there. Hey, man. A great day at the Orlando Health. Oh, how sweet it is. Um, you know, here it is. Uh, Council Go, you're right, people and other council members as well. um talk about we got to get this provos park right the first time. So kudos to it because a lot of people think it's not going to happen. But we through under the leadership of the city manager, city attorney, chief of police and the fire department and all 400 plus employees of the great city of Coco, we are going to change this image in the diamond square. And as you all know, action speaks louder than words. And there are haters out there saying that we cannot change it. But through leadership, it will happen. Either lead, follow, or get the hell out the way. That's how I feel about it. That's my presentation. I thank you. Um, I'm going end on a positive note. We cannot get ahead without one and I'm a firm believer in that. Chair entertains a motion to adjourn. And if you want to say something to me, pull up.

Motion to adjurnn. I entertain it. He say pull up. Second.