Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

We'll be right back.

Good morning, everyone. We're going to bring this meeting of Board of County Commissioners to order. County Manager?

I think we have a change for the pledge, but let's start with our invocation by Pastor John Huffman from Harvest Recovery Ministries, and then we can have our Pledge of Allegiance speaker introduce herself.

Let us pray. Father God, Lord, I thank you. Lord, we thank you for every commissioner that is up here. Lord, we thank you for the decisions that they're going to make. Lord, we pray that you give them a supernatural wisdom. Lord, we pray for just this county. Lord, we're thankful for it. Lord, all that you've blessed us with in Collier County, the men and the women that serve here at Collier County. Lord, I just thank you for everybody who's going to get a reward today, Lord, or spoke about. So Father, I just pray that you're in this room. that you're over this county, that you continue to protect us and overwhelm us with your grace and goodness. So, Father, again, we thank you for everybody here. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

If you'd like to just introduce yourself, your name for the record, and you're going to lead us in the pledge. I'm glad we picked one of the finest correction officers in the county to do this this morning.

Good morning. I'm Captain Dereese Kennedy from CCSO. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you so much for stepping up. That's what law enforcement does in season and in now.

Commissioners, agenda changes for May 12th, 2026. First, we have an add on item 10A. This is a recommendation that the board, one, certify the existence of a valid public emergency to expedite the cleanup of a controlled, recognized environmental condition identified on the site of the proposed state veterans nursing home near the southwest corner of Collier Boulevard and Golden Gate Parkway by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. Two, authorize the county manager to negotiate a scope of work and a cost to perform the environmental cleanup services including any required engineering and environmental professional support necessary to oversee, document, certify, and close out the cleanup work. and enter into a standard county agreements with qualified contractor and engineer subject to prior review and approval by the county attorney three authorized staff to thereafter immediately issue a notice to proceed to commence the cleanup services for direct staff to bring the fully executed agreement to the board for ratification at a future meeting five to authorize any required budget amendments and six to take any Any other actions necessary to eliminate the emergency? This item is brought to the agenda at Commissioner Saunders' request. Next move, item 16K3 to item 12A. This is a recommendation that the board accept a status update on the Randall Boulevard Commercial Subdistrict. This is being moved at Commissioner Saunders and Commissioner McDaniel's separate requests. Continue item 17b to the May 26, 2026 BCC meeting. This is a recommendation to adopt an ordinance amending ordinance number 2017-27, which regulates the placement and permitting of communications facilities within the county's right of way. This is being moved at Commissioner McDaniel's request. One agenda note, the award dates of Proclamations 4E and 4F were corrected after the agenda package was initially published. We do have court reporter breaks scheduled for 1030 and again at 250 if necessary. County Attorney.

Nothing, thank you.

Commissioners.

Mr. Saunders. I don't have anything else to add, Mr. Chairman, and no disclosure on the summary agenda. Mr. Hall.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I have no changee or no changes and no ex parte.

Mr. O'Caster.

Yeah, nothing to add. No changes, no ex parte.

Mr. McDaniel. Same. And the same for me. No changes and no ex parte.

So I get a motion to approve? So moved.

So I have a motion and a second. Motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign, same sign. Ayes have it.

Item 2A is BCC minutes from 4-14-2026.

I have a motion to approve.

Move to approve the minutes.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign, same sign. Ayes have it. Thank you.

Commissioners, that brings us to item 4, proclamations. And I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Scott.

Item 4A is a proclamation designating May 3 through 9, 2026 as National Correction Officers Week to be accepted by Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, Captain Keith Harmon, Captain Darice Kennedy, Director Katina Bouza, correction officers, and Naples Jail Center staff. Congratulations.

good morning good morning

Thank you. No offense. Sheriff, would you like to say some words?

Thank you.

Morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Kevin Rambos, Collier County Sheriff. You know, recognition of our professional corrections officers is very important for not only they as individuals in our operation, but also for the community. They have a difficult, dangerous and challenging job. They do it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As you know, they maintain care, custody, and control of criminals during that time so that we can be in our community and we can be sleeping in the evenings and at night and sleep there safely. It takes a lot of work. It takes professional standards. As you know, we have multiple accreditations that really set forth the best practices in the industry. And we congratulate them for that. And we also take that next step. that that transitions inmates out of our system and does everything we can do to prevent recidivism in collier county because that continues to lower the crime rate and gets individuals on the right track so i want to personally thank all of our correctional deputies for everything that they do and thank you for your support to enable us to do it thank you thank you

commissioners item 4b a proclamation designating may 2026 as national drug court month to be accepted by judge janiece martin presiding judge collier county drug court congratulations

Oh, she grabbed that one with some gusto, man. I like that. How you doing?

How are you? How are you?

Morning. How you doing?

Congratulations.

How are you guys?

All right. On three. One, two, three. And one more. One, two, three.

Nice.

Mr. Chair and commissioners, thank you. I have to play off the comments of the sheriff and note that our colleagues in corrections really help us identify appropriate clients and expedite them from the jail into treatment where they belong. So we're really grateful. It's always fun to come in on the same day as corrections. I want to thank you for having us here today and for your support each and every year. I've said this before, but addiction is isolation and recovery is community. You are the face of our community. And by welcoming us, you actively support the recovery of these moms, dads, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, employees and even employers. I'm always so proud to walk in here and stand before you with our clients and our team members. Their courage and commitment inspires our team daily. The work that they are doing to change their lives is hard, way harder than just doing time. I thank the members of our team for their tireless efforts. They go way above and beyond their job descriptions to shepherd these people to wellness. They provide structure, accountability and treatment 365 days a year. Recovery is real and it starts with community. So thank you for your leadership and your support of this important collaboration.

Commissioners, item 4C, a proclamation designating May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month to be accepted by Nami Ikula, President and CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Naples.

Thanks for all you do. All right, so we're going to do two photos. So on three.

One, two, three.

And one more.

One, two, three.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Nami Echolov, and as mentioned, I am the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples. On behalf of the Jewish Federation and as the voice of the collective Jewish community of Collier County, thank you. Thank you sincerely and from our collective hearts. This proclamation recognizes Jewish American Heritage Month is more than symbolic. It is a statement of values. In a world where anti-Semitism is at its highest level in modern history, your action today sends a clear and powerful message that in Collier County, every resident is seen, every community is protected, and no one stands alone. Because of leaders like you, leaders who care deeply about the safety, security, and dignity of all our residents, the Jewish community here doesn't just feel tolerated. We feel recognized, we feel supported, and we feel genuinely safe. And that sense of safety doesn't happen by accident. We also want to extend our deep gratitude to Sheriff Rambosk and the dedicated men and women of Collier County Sheriff's Office and who show up every single day to protect this community from those who would seek to disrupt the peace that we all hold so dear their commitment to every resident of this county regardless of the background or belief reflects the very best of what it means to serve and we do not take that for granted So in this month of May, being recognized this morning to specifically honor the contributions, gifts, and investments that the Jewish Americans have made to the rich and enduring story of this nation, and right here in our own backyard, we stand before you with enormous pride, proud of our history, proud of our community, and proud to be part of the Collier County family. We're extremely thankful to call Collier County home, and we're incredibly grateful for your decision to honor this special month on our behalf. Thank you.

And 4D, proclamation designating May 16 through 22, 2026 as National Safe Boating Week to be accepted by Richard Hurd, Division Staff Officer, Vessel Examination, FSO, Public Affairs, and Finance. Congratulations.

One, two, three. And one more. One.

Special thanks to the Collier County Board of Commissioners for their support and recognition of National Safe Boating Month and which is the month of May, and a focus on National Safe Boating Week, which is May 16 through the 22nd. The state of Florida leads the nation in registered recreational vessels each year with over a million registered vessels and likely an equal number of unregistered paddle craft. And because of that, Florida also leads the nation in boating accidents each year. The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is a national organization of about 20,000 members who dedicate over 2 million volunteer hours each year in support of the U.S. Coast Guard and its missions, including this primary mission that we're talking about today, which is national safe boating. The Auxiliary nationally completes over 50,000 vessel safety exams, over 70,000 visits to our valued partners at marinas, cruise clubs, fishing clubs, boat retailers, marine retailers, boat shows, farmers market, as well as our government partners at the police, fire, EMT services. We also teach tens of thousands of students about voter safety classes throughout the year. Flotilla 9-5 at Marco Island is one of nine flotillas representing Division 9 in Southwest Florida, encompassing Collier Lee and Charlotte counties. We lead all flotillas in Division 9 in each of the last three years with number of vessel safety exams completed, number of partner visitations, and number of students taught. We also post hundreds of mission patrol hours each year on the water in the 10,000 islands and around Marco Island. We're proud of our traditions. We're grateful for all our local partners, our government partners, our enforcement partners, and our strategic alliance with the US Coast Guard. We are always ready to perform. We call that semper paratus. We appreciate the commissioners for the recognition and a special thanks to Commissioner LoCastro for his continued support in keeping our local water safe for recreational boating community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioners item 4e proclamation designating May 2026 as ALS Awareness Month to be accepted by Rose Gonzalez and Kathy Grassi congratulations

She likes a few words.

Thank you.

Thank you. First of all, I want to thank you very much for accepting my request for the proclamation for May being ALS Awareness Month. I'm just going to say a few facts about ALS for those who don't know it. It's a neurological disease. There is no cure, and it's a fatal disease. I learned that every nine minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS. Many times it's misdiagnosed and because of insurance purposes, many people have to go through many reasons why they are not accepted until the final acceptance that it is ALS. The reason that this is such a close story for me is that my best friend, my beloved mother, was diagnosed with ALS. I brought her from Miami to live with me in Naples while I was a school counselor in Collier County. And during that time I had someone with her during the day while I worked, and then it was my shift the minute I came home. I went through so much trying to find help, a medical bed, wheelchair. The difficulties were amazing. Well, it's a new time. We're in 2026. And what I hope is that this will bring awareness for more research, more organizations that will help people. And also, it's twice the fact that military veterans are affected by ALS than the normal population.

population so thank you so much I hope this does bring awareness and the reason is because I was very touched by it myself personally thank you so much I appreciate it And item 4F proclamation designating May 17th through 23rd 2026 as emergency medical services week to be accepted by Dr. James Augustine Collier County Medical Director

Thank you. I want to go flying. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning. Thank you. How are you doing, kids? Come on. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Theodotic chance. Come on. Gaston, one more. Come on. This is my last meeting. Where are you going?

Dude. Wow. Have I known you that long? We'll get up front so we can get a picture. Then we'll... I'm the center. Last meeting. Congratulations young man.

Take care, doctor.

It is a busy month for proclamations. Yes. Mr. Chair, commissioners, thank you for this recognition and for the proclamation. May 17th to 23rd, National EMS Week. In 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized EMS Week to celebrate the team that accomplishes emergency medical services in the country and the work that they do. Thank you, commissioners, to the county manager and to the deputy county managers who provide so much support to our team. The theme this year is improving outcomes together. This reflects the team orientation of EMS. When a call comes in, we have a wonderful 911 system. We work with law enforcement. We work with the five county fire districts. We work with the hospitals. We work with a significant team of people in the community. this community is blessed because we have people alive due to the dedication of those who work in emergency medical services one story and one person to feature sunday was a regular busy day in the county but a call came in from a woman who was reporting that her husband was in severe distress When our crews arrived, they found him in distress, but his wife said he had a terminal illness and was undergoing hospice care. Unfortunately, hospice was not going to be available with what he needed for a couple of hours. Our team members said we can't leave him alone, and the wife requested very much that we not take him to the hospital. So our paramedic said we have to do compassionate care here, called one of our supervisors. We organized with hospice the facility where he was and what supplies were available to provide him the care that he needed as he was transitioning to the end of his life for the next couple of hours. and then graciously had hospice come in and finish the work. EMS is a gap filler for the health system both in the county and across the region. It's not an easy job, but day after day our EMTs and paramedics do a wonderful job of providing it. One person, the last 33 years, an individual has served this county. And at the end of EMS week will be his retirement. So Chief Bruce Gastineau, thank you for the service to the county. And for your leadership that has brought us here. Commissioners, thank you for this recognition and recognizing the value of EMS during EMS week. Thank you.

Thank you, Don.

And commissioners, if we could get a motion to accept the proclamations.

A motion. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sound, same sign. The ayes have it.

Commissioners, before we move on in the agenda, I'd like to turn your attention to the back of the room for the artist of the month. In observance of Memorial Day, United Arts Collier is pleased to present the meaning and memory Art of Remembrance exhibition featuring the work of Larry Lathrop, a Marine Corps veteran in 1985 to 1993, deployed to the Middle East during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In addition to his dedication to military service, Larry earned a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame. He is currently a professional illustrator and freelance artist while teaching painting and drawing at Baron Collier High School. Larry continues to serve the veteran community as a member of the executive board of the Collier County Veterans Council. Inspired by the making meaning concept advanced through the veteran art movement, this exhibition provides a powerful space for remembrance and can help foster deeper public understanding of the enduring costs of freedom. With that, we are moving to public comment, item seven, public comment on general topics, not on the current or future agenda.

Troy. Commissioners, we have three registered speakers on this item, two here in the room, one on Zoom. Your first speaker is Cody Davis. He'll be followed by Daniel Zeigaric.

Good morning, my name's Cody Davis, and I'd like to correct the record from last meeting where I spoke on the Corkscrew Grove East Village. I claimed that water and wastewater were excluded from the applicant's fiscal neutrality assessment. And as a result, the SRA application was legally insufficient based on the land development code's explicit requirement for applicants to demonstrate fiscal neutrality for water and wastewater. Commissioner McDaniel asked staff about this, and Mr. Boese, the planning director, said this. Potable and wastewater were both part of the economic analysis. Commissioner McDaniel asked him whether an economic burden was being imposed by the project on our community, and Mr. Boese replied, I'm not sure if it was a neutral determination or a positive determination, but either of the two are the ones that are allowed to pass go, so to speak. So yes, it was provided for. I have here page six of the economic assessment provided by the applicant. In summary table two, you can see under required facility analysis all of those listed items and their assessed fiscal impact. But for water and wastewater, it doesn't say neutral or positive as Mr. Bosey suggested. It says NA. On page 10 of the peer review of the assessment, it says enterprise funds, like water and wastewater, were excluded from DPFG's analysis. Water and wastewater fiscal impacts are explicitly required to be analyzed by the county's land development code, but they were excluded from the economic assessment anyway. The independence of the Immokalee Water Sewer District doesn't resolve the defect because the LDC requires that any unit of local government which provides water and wastewater must be compensated by a special assessment if fiscal negativity is found. The assumption that enterprise funds are inherently fiscally neutral is unfounded. The efficiency of a pipe network, which provides to residential units and thereby the rates that are paid on those utilities, is primarily and generally determined by pipe connections per mile. So if this development, which is significantly isolated, lowers the pipe connections per mile of the network, rates will rise for the entirety of the district. IWSD could hypothetically create a sub-district and charge rates in accordance with the excess cost imposed by the development, but that's administratively complex, costs money, and notably requires an assessment of fiscal neutrality. Without a fiscal impact assessment, the IWSD will be unable to set rates in a way that is just and equitable, as they're legally required to do. The result is that Immokalee rate payers, the poorest in the county, will be required to subsidize this private suburban development. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next speaker is Daniel Zigaric, and he'll be followed on Zoom by Steven Cardenas.

Good morning, commissioners. I apologize. I have cotton mouth. I brought the wrong container to the meeting this morning. My question is, how are we doing on the Isle of Capri in terms of infrastructure? I know when you five approved that project, there were a lot of commitments and promises thrown around. Have we made good on all of those? So that's all I have.

Thank you. Your final registered speaker for item seven joins us on Zoom, Stephen Cardenas. Stephen, you should be prompted to unmute yourself if you'll do so at this time. And Stephen, you're being prompted to unmute yourself if you'll do that for us. Going once, going twice, one last time. Stephen, I see that you're on Zoom. You're being prompted to unmute yourself if you'll do so at this time. Not unmuting, sir. Not unmuting. Okay. That's our final registered speaker for this item.

All right. Thank you, Troy.

Commissioners, that brings us to our add-on item 10A. This is a recommendation that the board, one, certify the existence of a valid public emergency to expedite the cleanup of a controlled, recognized environmental condition identified on the site of the proposed state veterans nursing home near the southwest corner of Collier Boulevard and Golden Gate Parkway by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. two authorize the county manager to negotiate a scope of work and a cost to perform the environmental cleanup services including any required engineering and environmental professional support necessary to oversee document certify and close out the cleanup work enter into standard county agreements with qualified contractor and engineer subject to prior review and approval by the county attorney. Three, authorize staff to thereafter immediately issue a notice to proceed and to commence the cleanup services. Four, direct staff to bring the fully executed agreement to the board for ratification at a future meeting. Five, to authorize any required budget amendments. And six, to take any further actions necessary to eliminate the emergency. This item is brought to the agenda by Commissioner Saunders.

Thank you.

Mr. Saunders, would you like to? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This was necessitated by virtue of a letter that was received by the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs on April 27th of this year. We received this just a few days ago. So this is the genesis of this request. The letter basically says that the arsenic on the property that we are deeding to the state for the Veterans Nursing Home has to be remediated prior to the state accepting the property and the federal government funding the grant that has been approved. What makes this difficult is basically two things. One is that this remediation has to be completed and verified by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection by the end of September of this year. If it's not completely cleaned and verified by that time, then the grant that we have received becomes questioned. And likely would would go somewhere else and we would be back into a cycle of funding again This is a completely new element and I say that because in August of last year on a phone call with the entire development team of the Florida Department Veterans Affairs the Contractors the architects John Mullins myself everyone was on that phone call and And we talked about what needed to be done in order to satisfy the requirements of the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs and the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs in terms of the cleanup and delivery of the property. It was determined by the contractors, by the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, that what needed to be done was to enter into a mitigation plan. that would be accepted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for cleanup during the construction phase of the project. We had been led to believe that that was all that was required. Suffolk Construction, along with their planners and engineers and subcontractors, developed a mitigation plan to eliminate arsenic from the site during the construction phase of the project. that mitigation plan was approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as a complete cleanup and mitigation of the arsenic on the site for the next several months everyone assumed that that was acceptable then we received this letter on April 27th that says no that's not the process at the federal level the process at the federal level is the property has to be cleaned first All the environmental issues mitigated first before they will award the grant and before they will accept the property. So I had a conversation with Suffolk Construction on Wednesday or Thursday of last week and said, here is a suggestion on what we might be able to do to accomplish this quickly. One is for the county to enter into a contract with Suffolk to do the remediation pre-construction phase. Suffolk has put together an analysis of what that would take. That's been distributed to each of you. We don't know the cost of that, but we know that it will be fairly substantial. The problem with the state doing the cleanup is one of those catch-22 things. The state can't spend money cleaning up property owned by Chi or county, and we can't deed that property to the state until it's cleaned up. this point so Suffolk is working on their subcontractor to make this clean up a reality but it's going to be really tough to get it done by the end of September so that's that was the genesis of this issue here we are also working with the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs the legislature is in session right now dealing with the budget and so we've asked them to get spending authority for some of the money that the Cairo County has already deposited so that the property that money can be used for cleanup as well as money that we're going to have to come up with here we don't have to come up with an amount today because I don't know what that amount would be and then the understanding is that the county would be paid back that money if it's anything in addition to what we've already contributed so we have a lot of issues to deal with but the emergency is the fact that if we don't get this cleaned up we may very well lose that grant and we can't afford to do that so my motion Mr. Chairman is going to be precisely what the manager just read which is the headline on the executive summary I could read it again if it's required but I think having it read once is sufficient so Mr. Chairman that's my motion Mr. Mullins is here also if there are any questions concerning any of the details with this Thank You Commissioner second Commissioner McDaniel did you make a motion yes I got a second yes

All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed same sign, same sign. Passes.

Thank you.

Commissioners, that brings us to item 11A. This is a recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners accept the Landfill Optimization Analysis Summary Memorandum, Recommendation to Expand the Collier County Landfill to the East, Option 1, in three phases, and direct staff to acquire land as outlined in Option 1. And Carrie Hodgson, your Director of Solid Waste, oh no, I'm going to let her say her title. I just butchered it.

That's okay. Thank you, County Manager. Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, my name is Carrie Hodson, your Director of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management for Collier County. I appreciate the opportunity to be back before you today to provide you an update on the Collier County landfill long-range planning that happened last year on March 5th. At that time, you directed staff to perform volumetric and financial analysis for various scenarios to optimize the Collier County landfill. That would enable securing long-term disposal capacity within Collier County. From a technical and financial perspective, viable options to secure long-term in-county disposal capacity are consistent with the county's integrated solid waste management plan. While each option has advantages and disadvantages in terms of upfront cost, time, complexity, and capacity gained, both findings, I'm sorry, based on the findings, staff recommends that optimizing the Collier County landfill through an eastern expansion is the best value option. I'd like to talk briefly about why Collier County needs a landfill. Bear with me, commissioners. This one's a little lengthy, but it's very, very important for our constituents to hear. As a reminder, at last year's workshop, other waste technologies, such as waste to energy, were not an economic option for Collier County. Nothing has changed in that time. With that being said, staff continues to stay abreast of industry waste minimization technologies. However, to emphasize why Collier County needs a landfill, even with a waste minimization technology, there are always residuals and process outages that require landfilling. Another primary reason that Collier County needs a landfill, costs. A primary reason that Collier County has been able to maintain a best value solid waste management system is our ability to minimize collection costs for our rate payers and direct that waste to our county's landfill. Commissioners, in the absence of landfill capacity or additional capacity, I should say, in the county, the only choice would be to transfer waste out of county to a market that has a dynamic cost pressure. When the demand for disposal capacity increases over time and the supply of available landfill airspace is only diminishing. In fiscal year 25, if all the waste that was landfilled at Collier County's landfill were transferred out of county, it would have cost the county, rather our rate payers, an additional $16 million. Without a landfill, the county is exposed to outsourcing market volatility, including fluctuations in fuel prices, and with today's fuel prices, that would be high cost. It would be necessary to increase Collier County use rates to provide sufficient funds for out-of-county tipping fees that would only increase over time as, again, eventually dynamic pricing would step in as the demand increases and the supply decreases of available airspace. It will be required to increase tip fees to provide sufficient capital and operating costs associated with building and maintaining a transfer station to transfer that waste out of county. Customers will have significant increases in collection costs for the additional trucks that would be needed to get all the waste from the curb to a transfer station and then subsequently out of the county to another facility that would be closing at some point and avoid odor control of storing waste in the transfer station. The county would need an additional 50 transfer trailers per day to haul the current volume of waste that's generated to an out of county facility, which would place additional burden on our roads and could adversely impact quality of life for our residents, visitors, and businesses. bottom line here is that there is always a need for a disposal facility a landfill supports the long-term best interests of the county and it allows the county to control solid waste destiny and cost over time again there will always be a need for a landfill don't don't switch slides yes sir okay 16 million is a lot it is

We know we have a finite amount of time. We know we have a finite amount of airspace. What's that $16 million break down to the current ratepayers that we have approximately? How many ratepayers do we have?

Current ratepayers for collection on the side, we have over 146,000 residential

rate payers on the curbside collection that 16 million would would impact our collect our tip fees which is subject to residential and commercial customers it's about 109 a month or a year increase in charges currently as they are today plus minus i did the math real quick on my calculator not in my head so thank you no no thank you I just wanted to clarify that because 16 million is a big number a lot but I want to quantify it to the ratepayers as to what in fact that boils down to are these other additional expenses with a transfer trailers and all that included in that 16 million no sir that's a contracted rate to just transfer the waste out of County does not include capital costs for a transfer station 16 million plus correct okay thank you that's all sir thank you thank you

okay a little bit of facts about collier county landfill the collier county landfill is the centerpiece of your integrated solid waste management system and it receives waste from residential and commercial customers for both incorporated and unincorporated portions of the county the site's approximately 311 acres with 184 acres used for disposal the site opened in 1976 we're honoring 50 years of operation this year and is currently operated on behalf of the county by waste management Based on the 2025 AUIR, it was projected that the Collier County landfill had 35 years of remaining capacity, which could be exhausted in 2060 based on that. Over this period, it's estimated the value of remaining airspace at approximately $600 million. Last year, more than 105 customers were serviced at the landfill, and about half a million tons were managed. However, most beneficially used as only about 272,000 tons were actually landfilled. With that, Collier County Solid Waste Management Division is operating as an enterprise fund, and the landfill returned approximately $30 million in revenue from the TIP fees, and that covers the cost of this integrated solid waste management system and contributes to the financial stability and sustainability of your solid waste system enterprise, keeping it cash and carry. We have no debt. Lastly, align with the county's strategic objective to provide services and programs that sustainably manage the county's waste and the board approved integrated solid waste management strategy. That includes guiding principles to preserve airspace. The county diverted over 1,000 tons of household hazardous waste in 2025 and has reached the state recycling goal of 75% for the past four years. Commissioners if we start with the end in mind to have a shirt disposal capacity We can see here that if action is delayed we will reach capacity Disposal capacity at our existing landfill continues to be exhausted a little more each year as our county continues to grow the demand increases and the landfill options not just in Collier County but all over Florida continue to diminish resulting in increased vulnerability to escalating costs for disposal demand just under 15 years the collier county landfill will begin its verbal vertical expansion from elevation 100 to 200 which was permitted in 2011. policy direction is needed to secure disposal capacity within the county the options outlined here have long lead times and do require land use changes land purchases and permitting Here's an overview of the Collier County landfill, and highlighted are the areas that the board requested be evaluated at last year's workshop. The east, the south, and the north. We've invested in the resource recovery business park to the north, which is where a deep injection well was constructed to manage liquids generated at the landfill, and the area also serves as the county's largest debris management site. The county has acquired some land to the east that serves currently as a buffer. and to the south within the property are two preserve areas that serve as part of the stormwater management system. Commissioners, I refer to this as option zero. This is simply we continue our current landfilling activities It's worth mentioning that under this and all options, we will continue our integrated strategies on waste minimization, recycling efforts to minimize the amount of waste disposed and also optimize the use of our existing disposal capacity by strict contract compliance with our landfill operator. The options for additional landfill capacity are consistent with those shared at last year's workshop and the analysis has been completed. The options include the following at the Collier County landfill. Option zero, which we just covered, is to continue what we do with best management practices and waste minimization techniques. Option one is to expand east on adjacent property in three phases. Option two is to expand south into the preserve areas. Option three is to expand north onto the resource recovery park with accommodating future needs. And lastly, option four is to present hauling out of county and hauling and burying at another landfill. Before I walk you through the financial metrics, operational metrics, cost drivers and key assumptions, I'd like to pause here to see if you have any questions.

I would like to ask you, you know, knowing we did the workshop several months earlier, having a foresight, this board having a foresight that this is something we needed to pay attention to because of the fact that the things you pointed out and you came back to us with these options, in your mind, what would you feel to think, in your professional opinion, you think would be the best option for us to take a deeper dive into?

Based on the analysis and the findings and recommendations of the fiscal analysis, the eastward option is what is recommended.

Mr. McDaniel.

Yes. Thank you. He stole my question, number one. Question number two. Does the prophecy of the 35 years left include the estimations of the growth that we're going to ultimately experience as well?

Yes, sir. The AUIR is based on the Bieber populations as well as the amount of waste that's generated in the county.

Have we integrated the CIGM methodologies for population estimations yet?

It's utilizing the Bieber, which is what all of the AUIR uses. I'm not sure if I fully understand that question. I apologize.

There is another entity out there that the county has been utilizing. Mr. Boese can tell you all about it. It's called the Collier Interactive Growth Model, population estimator. We don't need to talk about it right now. You can fill her in at some stage. But it's a really cool model for estimating our populations. It's dispersal where they're going to be and what the future land uses in fact need to be. So have a look at that sometime when you're looking at stuff.

Yes, I'll get with Mr. Mike Bose. I'm sure we're all utilizing the same population growth.

Number two, there was a time before we built the best park in the state of Florida, Paradise Coast, there was a time when there was consideration for moving west. That's no longer an option. There were bioreactors that floated around as a mechanism to reduce our consumption of the available airspace both up and out. Are bioreactors considered in your expansion process?

That would be part of a waste minimization technology that we stay abreast of to see where it's already operating, permitted, and has been successful in Florida. And to date, that has not been the case. When we look at waste minimization, it is something that stays in the forefront of that research.

I'm totally okay with your easterly expansion. I think that prudently is the best path, and we're going to rely heavily on your expertise with regard to these options as we go forward. I would like for those bioreactors to be brought back in along with, and we all know there are other technologies that are available out there, to consume the waste and so I just I want all if possible I would like to see all options availed to us to be able to be at least put into consideration as we're doing what we're doing Absolutely There's no argument that again we there's a finite amount of time and a finite amount of space and I mean you threw out a number earlier Excuse me up close six hundred million dollars in that value of that space And so we have to look at any and all options as we're going forward to review the economic viability of those options absolutely Commissioner Hall Thank You chairman

Harriet, I fully support the eastward expansion option, but out of my curiosity, did I hear you say that we're at 100 foot now and we're permitted to go 200 feet high, so we're halfway there?

The original elevation permitted for the Collier County landfill was elevation 108. In 2011, the board approved a permit process to have the landfill raised to elevation 200. And that is the current permitted elevation. It is not at elevation 108 in all areas. There is one more cell left to line before the complete bottom of the landfill has been lined.

And that leads me to my second, more of just a curiosity question. We've been operating out there for 50 years. And after 50 years, is there a time where decomposition plays a part that might be turnoverable or utilized on the bottom layer? Not that I'm thinking that's what we should do. I'm just curious. Yeah.

Commissioner, for the record, Jim Deloney, your puppy to his department head. We mined a couple cells back in 2006, 2005, somewhere in there, and did some reclamation of small cells. There was a sheriff's shooting range area that was out there. There was a couple of small cells. And we were able to do it successfully. But because of the height and because it was rather confined, and most importantly, we had a lot of room to do the sorting and the take care of that reclamation effort. It was quite successful. To date, looking across the board of the state, it's been a challenge for large, high landfills to do that kind of effort without the kind of room you need to do the sorting. Certainly within the integrated strategy, I would expect the Solid Waste Department Division to look at that as one of the strategies going forward. To the extent it would be successful or economically feasible will have to be determined. You got about, after a period of time, your dirt factor and waste factors in the 50% or better in terms of what's there. So you've got a potential for mining operations. It's just a very difficult and delicate situation with regard to being able to sort through all that and then move it to an area, develop that cell, and then redepose, reset that residual material, and then go into operation with a new working phase. Thank you.

Did I answer your question? Sure. I was just curious. It wasn't like a strategy. I was just wondering, what's the lifespan of trash?

Yes, sir. There is, but there's an art to it. And when we undertook that, I was told we would not be successful by many people within the industry, and we proved them wrong. But today would be much more challenging, given what I told you with regards to the constraints on the site. Thanks for your question, sir.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Good job. Commissioner Cassidy.

Carrie, if we went to 200 feet, does any kind of investment or augmentation need to happen? Do we need to raise the height of the berms that surround what we currently have? Or do we have to invest anything before we start? If we did, raise the height to...

make it camouflaged or in order to contain a higher height or whatnot or we approve 200 and we can just go to it with no no investment or augmentation to prep the site for the additional height there's there's no requirements with that being said managing the landfill is an art and ensuring that we're good neighbors and following best management practices is always part of the daily job of what we do to ensure as we go through this lift, if you will, to ensure that we're utilizing best industry options.

There probably would be recommendations of some type of investment. It wouldn't be astronomical, but they're probably, I mean, I'm just asking you to sort of guess a little bit, but possibly there would be some sort of augmentation out there in order to properly and responsibly raise the height. Would you agree with that? We could look into it.

We could look into it to see what might be necessary. Okay.

I'm just curious.

Mr. Saunders. Thank you. First, are there any registered speakers? Yes, sir. We have three. Okay. I was just going to suggest that I would support the staff recommendation for option one. Going up 200 feet might sound like a solution, but like staff said, we want to be good neighbors. And so I think the expansion to the east is the way to go. I would make that motion when it's appropriate to make the motion. Okay. Troy? Yes, sir.

We have three speakers, one in the room, two on Zoom. Your first speaker is Brad Cornell. He'll be followed by Howard Morrell on Zoom.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. I'm Brad Cornell, and I'm here on behalf of Audubon Western Everglades. I just wanted to note a couple of things. One is I sat on your task force for landfill siting back in the 1990s. along with Russell Pretty and a number of other community folks I think people have forgotten about that but one of the conclusions we came to after looking at I think about 10 or 12 sites all around the county was that it's really difficult to site a landfill nobody really wants to have one near them And so that's part of your discussion today that I think Kerry is bringing to you. Nevertheless, having a site that you already are investing in makes sense in terms of building on that. I also want to support the discussion you had about waste minimization and pursuing current technologies and that's really necessary and an ongoing thing as was reported to you by your staff. We support that as well maximizing recycling which the county is doing a great job of but even going further Materials recovery facilities Murph's as they call them perhaps on a regional basis The landfill mining I remember that when that came up that Jim Deloney was was referencing That's a really good strategy and exploring what kind of geography we need for that to work in terms of space, and he said that was a constraint. But anyway, we're very supportive of exploring the minimization and even the height issues in addition to the expansion.

uh thank you for the discussion and we hope to be involved as it goes forward thanks thank you your next two speakers join us on zoom first up is howard murrell he'll be followed by matthew hunter howard you're being prompted to unmute yourself if you'll do that at this time and i see you've unmuted howard you have three minutes hey can you hear me yes sir how are you

So I just wanted to speak a little bit just about kind of where we stand in the community as a local contractor. We support over 400 employees and their families and the land use that this rezoning would, the landfill expanding would keep that land applicable to our line of work and being able to stay with the county work we've done for over 30 years and Being able to support the county emergencies and the FEMA emergencies and first responders For this would definitely be an agreement with having that land usable Is that all sir That's all.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you your next speaker and final speaker on this item is Matthew hunter Matthew you're being prompted to unmute yourself if you'll do so at this time and Matthew, I see you've unmuted. You have 3 minutes, sir.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning.

Hey, my name is Matthew Hunter. I'm the CEO here at Carter fence company. We've served the community along with Howard for over 35 years here to speak in support of the expansion. Same reasons as Howard. We employ over 80 employees here, and this really helps us keep everything local right here to help continue to support the county. I just want to thank Commissioner Bill McDaniel and the rest of the board for working on this over the past years, and we don't take that for granted, and we're grateful to be here, and we're not going anywhere. So thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, that was your final speaker for this item.

Mr. McDaniel. Yes, and if Commissioner Saunders wants to make the motion for option one, I'll second it. All right, so moved. And then second, for the comment purposes, I just want to make one extra comment. And I didn't hear anything in your analyses and didn't see it with regard to brownfield reclamation processes. So. And there are some movements with the Regional Planning Council in that regard, and I just want to make sure that that is part of a picture that we're looking at.

Sir, you know, this is an integrated solid waste strategy that we send to you every time we speak. Yes, sir. There's parts and pieces to it on a continuum. And Brad said it well with regard to maximizing the resources and minimizing the waste and the impact on the environment. Brownfield Reclamation is certainly within our strategy. It's been approved by the board for the last ever, 20 plus years. So none of it's gotten forgotten. I just want to share with you, at your prompting, we did put in the paperwork to do a phase one out at the Immokalee transfer site. And so we're looking at reclamation with EPA's help, I hope, if there's such a thing, to help us with that brownfield. We have talked to other counties with regard to, just to put on the record, a bioreacting type where we have a place to take our biosolids, which will be an initiative this year that CARE will be working on with other counties. Maybe one would be able to, because of our levels now with our regional plants, we may be able to have our own biosolids treatment facility. Resource Recovery Park was set aside by this board for those types of initiatives to do the things you just spoke to and what you spoke to, sir. So I think we've got ourselves set like the pieces are on the ground. Now, we've got to assemble them. With regard to opportunity at the Cary City, clearly that we look very careful at somebody else doing it first with the right permits and the right success and the right economics. We're not icebreakers when it comes to this. because of the risk and the minimum reward on the backside of that risk, given that you've always got a lot of folks that can tell you how you can turn this into gold, and I've been watching this for over 20 years now, and I haven't seen anything close to that. Hall & Berry remains the optimal with regard to what we can't recycle or recover or divert in some other manner. I'd like to see something different. Your strategy provides for that.

Yes, sir.

And with this board's help, and it has been wonderful over the last 20-something years, we've made significant progress in doing all the things that we suggested. And I see no reason to stop now. This expansion of the east is really the last set piece of that strategy because, as Terry said in the opening, this is the center of that strategy because you have to have a landfill. to be in this business period. Otherwise, you're at somebody's mercy with regard to Otta County, Hall and Berry, in a very dynamic market. We have a slide here, I don't know which one it is, that we can show you how Florida's running out of airspace. This is from the university with regard to what it looks like by region in terms of available airspace within the state. Now, we're out of this equation if we make this move. We own our own destiny. We control our own destiny. If we get out of this mode, if we change our strategy, then we're going to be in a high competition market as indicated by this chart. There's a couple of things here on the upper left. On the left side, you can see what other counties, Martin County and Miami-Dade, what they're doing to cope with their strategies or their lack of strategies in some respects. You're ahead of it, and I think this will keep you ahead of it with regard to how we're going to go forward in the next 100 years or so.

Thank you, Mr. Lonnie. Thank you very much. All right, so I have a motion from Commissioner Saunders and a second from Commissioner McDaniel. All in favor of accepting the landfill optimization analysis and moving forward with the option one? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign, same sign. All right, ayes have it. Thank you.

Commissioners, that brings us to item 11B. This item was continued from the April 28, 2026 BCC meeting. This is a recommendation to provide a final ranking for the 166.63-acre Smits property located south of Stable Palm Road, approximately 1.5 miles east of Collier Boulevard, and to direct staff to pursue the property with funds from the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Fund if ranked on the A list as the property was ranked C list by county staff and A list by the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Ms. Jamie Cook, your Division Director of Development Review is here to present.

Good morning, Karen.

before commissioner lacasse thank you chairman i just thought i would i would set the table and maybe save jamie just a little bit of time um this has to do with the orange grove disabled palm road obviously um for the record we've had a lot of meetings um with the um legal team that represents the owner with uh the audubon society with the cons with conservation collier folks with the conservancy so what we're trying to basically do is ensure that we're being good stewards of Conservation Collier and we are shaking the trees for this very unique piece of property as far as where it's situated, how it's classified, and ensure we're either confirming what possible options could be or we're ruling out things that don't make sense. A lot of people have been guessing at what could be done. When we first started talking about the Orange Grove, we had people that came to the podium and said, oh there's a million different options rather than just throw houses on top of it well there aren't a million options but the handful of options that we want to exhaust and either pursue if they have merit and Jamie would lead that effort or we would say we did look at those three options and here's why they're impossible it doesn't cost a boatload of money to do an appraisal so we can rule out rule in or out if this is a piece of property that we would want to make an offer to the owner using conservation collier. But the one thing for citizens to remember, I know everybody here understands it, regardless of what this property is appraised at, if we decided to support that and have Jamie come back with more information, it's the owner's uh decision to decide if he's gonna we can't you know some of the emails we've all been getting are from citizens who say conservation collier should do this um we actually don't live in a country that does that so we can make an offer but the owner it's up to the owner if they think they have other things to pursue so it's not a matter of um the county doesn't want to preserve the property, or does, or doesn't have the wherewithal, we're looking at options that we can present to the owner. But in the end, it's obviously the owner's decision if they want to accept some sort of offer if one makes sense, or come back to us with some other ideas they have, or do nothing and just sit on the property. But what Jamie is basically going to ask here is for us to move forward just to explore, to continue to explore, as we had said previously, and as we've been vetting in more complex meetings that we've had in our commissioner's conference room. But not to steal her thunder, but I support moving forward on what she's about to offer, and I hope you will as well, so that we can- Show our constituents and also shake the trees of Conservation Collier and all the possible options for this unique piece of land. Because it is a unique piece of property and a very unique location. And so we want to make sure we do our due diligence and we're not just guessing on things or sending the signal to our constituents that we're ruling. out options without having done the research. But Jamie's done a lot of work on this and has answered a lot of very specific questions for a lot of people. So having said that, I hope you appreciate what she has to present and would support us continuing to move forward in our endeavors. Thank you.

Thank You commissioners Jamie cook for the record your director of development review so as Commissioner LeCascio stated if you remember this property you heard for a Request to rezone through a GMP amendment and a PUD back in January and and since then there's been several meetings The property owner did apply to the conservation call your program staff conducted their site visit and it went to the clock Advisory Committee at the beginning of April for their review and ranking Thank you. If you'll remember, this property is a little over 166 acres. 107 of it is Citrus Grove. 38 is disturbed lands. And 22 is noted as native vegetation. But I'll tell you, based on our land development code definition of native vegetation, there's only about three acres on the property that is actually considered native vegetation. The rest of that 19 acres is dominated predominantly by Brazilian pepper and malaluca. It is zoned ag within the rural fringe mixed-use district sending lands overlay. It does contain cypress, hydric pine, flatwoods, citrus groves, and it does contain hydric soils on the site as well. It does provide listed species habitat. Panther, black, big cypress, fox, squirrel, black bear, alligator, American kestrel, and other wading birds have been identified on the property. And just for some context, the site map that you're looking at, all of the green is in levels of preservation, whether it's state lands or federal lands or private conservation easements. So this property is surrounded by existing conservation lands, and it is just east of the Verona Walk community off Sable Palm Road.

Can I ask you a question? Sure. You've got a slide back again. Like I know to the to the west of the because the red is the actual property in question. Correct. So the green along those developments, those were done by the developers to preserve, like an offset from their development?

Yes. So to the north, west and part of the south is conservation easements that have been dedicated by the Oceana lakes development. To the east is picky and strand.

and I remember correctly back in the meetings that if there was develop a portion of the red would also be green correct because of what their site plan would have to they'd have to offset some correct all right thank you um after staff did a site visit of this property and reviewed everything staff did recommend the c-list ranking which would be to not acquire the property

um again due to the low percentage of native vegetation on the site and that most of the site does contain more than 75 percent of exotic vegetation which again does not meet our land development code definition of native vegetation full site restoration whether it's vegetation or hydrological restoration is not economically feasible based on current funding and it most likely would need environmental cleanup of the soil through Phase one and phase two assessment results The clock did rank this on the a-list because for several reasons including the use of the property by listed species or and that the surrounding properties are all in preservation or existing conservation easements. They did see that there was a potential for the possibility of restoration, but did want consideration for partnerships for those restoration activities and funding, the budget implications of taking on those activities, and the current staff's ability to manage that restoration as we don't currently have any staff on site that are experts in hydrologic restoration. So some additional considerations for you. The GMP and the PUD amendment that you heard in January are still technically on hold. But the property owner did submit a zoning verification letter, which is currently under review, to determine if the property qualifies for live local. Even though the property is zoned ag, the rural fringe sending use does allow for sporting and recreational camps, as well as oil and gas exploration. So they have made an argument that those commercial uses are allowed, so live local should be allowed. Mike Boese is here to answer any questions on that, but it would allow for the potential of up to 4,000 units if live local were allowed on this property.

I've got a question about that. Go ahead, Commissioner. This is the rural fringe mixed use overlay, right? Correct. Not the actual zoning on the property.

Correct. It is.

I don't see where there's an argument where they can use that for live local, period. That the property is not zoned commercial property.

I would let Mike speak to it, but I know that him and the county attorney's office have been reviewing that request.

I'll fight that with tooth and nail. I'll fight that till I die. You want to expound on that, Mike?

Mike Bozzi, Platon Zoning Director. Working with the county's attorney's office on the specific request, and that's the first stop that we see. This is not zoned commercial and for qualification for live local is that you need to be zoned for commercial or industrial or mixed use. We find that this is not the zoning, this is not the case for this particular parcel of land. We anticipate issuing a zoning verification letter underneath that line of logic or thinking. probably within the week, and then we would expect that there will be appeals, and then the proceedings from that will take its own turn. But that is where we're thinking, and that same thought pattern is the way that we've identified it as well.

Good. Right is right and wrong is wrong. If they do appeal and it comes back to us as a Board of Zoning appeals, we can live with that.

Thank you, Mr. Moser.

So our request is that you as the board provide a final ranking for the property, and if you choose to rank it A, to direct staff to pursue the funds from the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Fund for the appraisals, as well as a Phase I environmental assessment. And with that, I'll take any other questions you may have.

Commissioner McDary.

Yes, and Commissioner Hall, I'll join you in that fight. When we lean in on this, tipping us over on the worst statute that I've ever seen come through is a whole other discussion. I would also like to say out loud that this board is in the process of determining how to manage the conservation colliers ordinance at all and the ranking processes that you're currently handcuffed with are going to go away at some particular stage so if we have to move this to an A in order to be able to expend the funds requisite for the acquisition do the appraisals and the analysis so be it I also would like while that is being done even though we don't have anybody on staff to do a nifty hydrological restoration I think that's the word hydrological she writes down all my misspoken words so it becomes a matter of public record just so you know but there are people out there who do do that and we have the capacity so The last point is as we're going through this I would like exploration with our state and federal partners who are all about acquiring lands in some form or fashion just to assist with and not totally burden Conservation Collier with the acquisition should it become halfway feasible.

Commissioner Hall. Thank you, Chairman. I want to say, first of all, I appreciate the look of this option, but I feel in no way and no shape and no form that it's our responsibility to save this property for the seller. If we move forward with this, it has to benefit us, period. And what happens with them, that's their business. But with all indications from the grapevine, we have an idea of what that property is worth, what it's going to appraise for. We have a pretty decent idea. And that value is far below what the seller seems to indicate that he's willing to take or that they are willing to take. I don't see it. I don't want to burden staff. I don't want to burden our taxpayers. I don't want to burden anybody with having to pay for things on a wish and a hope that they might do this or they might do that. I want to have, you know, I never have entered a deal without an exit strategy. I never have entered a deal without knowing what my, what my risks are. So I'm coming from that perspective. you have a copy of the slide with you for us to see of your of staff's ranking on this property no the one that shows you know the 200 or the zero to 400 no but i believe it was 205 was the total points okay um that's fine i was just curious if we had it and i also saw something about we'll pay for a phase one, and at what time do we pay for that? Before we make the offer or after we make the offer?

Before. We do the phase.

So we're going to have to spend money for a phase one on a hope and a wish that they accept the value that we're going to show up with. And if they say, no, we don't think so, not today, thank you very much, we're out that money. Yes. We have a good plan, but it's for nothing. Phase one. None of this property right now is zoned commercial. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay. So the CLAC has come to us. They want us to change this to an A category so that they can pursue it. But the CLAC is an advisory committee, which I appreciate sometimes what they have to say. But in this case, I'm going to deny or I'm going to go against their advice. I'm not going to support this one single bit.

Mr. Saunders.

Thank you. Commissioner Hall, we're only $20 million apart on the sales price. That was the word on the street.

So we're getting closer.

No, I agree with Commissioner Hall. I don't see any need to spend money chasing this with a potential acquisition from Conservation Collier. we are so far apart in terms of price that there's no way to close that gap that would make any sense in terms of conservation in Collier so I'm going to concur with Commissioner Hall on that and in reference to live local you know the the threat of live local is always out there And there's not a whole lot we can do about that. There are some communities that have opted out of certain provisions of live local. You can't opt out of live local in its entirety. But there are certain tax provisions and things that you can opt out. I would think that those communities that are doing that recognize that it may be the tax provisions that provide a real benefit that make those types of workforce housing, affordable housing projects financeable and doable. so i'd i'd ask the county attorney to give us a report at some point in the very near future on other communities that are opting out of live local what provisions you can opt out of and potentially what is the impact from a financial standpoint on that type of a project because I don't really like having that threat of live local over us all the time. But I'm going to support the position that I don't see any reason in spending money on this right now. If the property owner wants to come back and say, you know, we're not stuck on that $20 million, $22 million price, then we have something to talk about. But until then, we really don't.

Mr. McCasher.

Do we have an estimate of the phase one expense plus minus Yeah I was gonna say it's short money for us to be able to make a decision on this I mean relatively speaking it's short money and necessary for us to make an educated decision on whether or not this acquisition makes any kind of economic sense. I don't disagree with Commissioner Hall and Commissioner Saunders, but on the same token, look at the map, not this one, the one that you put up there, the other one, the one with the green, that one.

Look at that.

and so phase one short money uh let's make a determination as to whether or not we have partners that could in fact invest with us with regard to this acquisition to maybe help help and commissioner saunders forgot the contract negotiation thing when he went to law school so he's already proven that a long time ago so I think we should take the next step, make an executive decision with regard to the overall expenses associated with it.

And I'm just joking with you, my friend.

I knew you were. Okay. But I didn't know if they knew. I'm just joking. It's good to hear you say that.

He's my friend.

Mr. LaCastro, we have public speakers on this, too. Yes, we do.

I should have probably gone before you.

You had a chance.

No, and I feel the same way Commissioner McDaniel does. I've attended more than a few additional meetings, because obviously this is in my district. And so here's what I would say, and I don't discount anything that Commissioner Hall or Commissioner Saunders said, but I think we have to slow down this conversation a little bit. We're making a lot of assumptions when we're saying things. Well, we know through the grapevine they won't accept the offer, or We're $20 million, okay, we don't know any of that for certain. I mean, we're not stupid people, but I can tell you that if we do the homework and we do make formal offers and they're not taken, which none of that stuff has happened. And so we're assuming all of that, and that's great. But if this landowner makes a challenge using Live Local or something else, we better be sitting on some hard, Facts some some hard decisions. Hey, we did analyze the property. We didn't guess and and to Commissioner McDaniel's Point and we spoke about it quite a bit when we were in our group meeting We're only talking about a couple thousand dollars. I mean and the we're not we're not we're not sending a bill to the taxpayers We're using conservation, you know, call your money and because I mean this map sort of tells it all this is a very unique parcel and And I think, I'm not trying to drive a specific outcome, but what I think benefits us in order to be able to maybe support a position that maybe Commissioner Hall and Commissioner Saunders have, and maybe one we would all agree with, we got to have hard facts in our hands. And I think moving forward with an appraisal doesn't mean the property gets sold, maybe we make an offer and they laugh it off, great. But then at least we've checked off those boxes with concrete facts, not sort of stopping it before it even starts and saying, oh, this isn't even worth the effort. And I think there's so many people involved. There's so many emotions involved. It's not a million dollars, like Commissioner McDaniel said. I use the term a lot. The juice isn't worth the squeeze. I think in this particular case, the juice is worth the squeeze for us to do our homework all the way to the end. um so that when we are talking with specificity to the legal team that represents the owner or we're talking to our own staff we actually have hard answers um and not just sort of guesswork and what we heard through the grapevine and what we think they would accept and wouldn't accept so i don't think it's a it's a big ask to say let's move forward a little you know one more step doesn't mean we do We buy the property or do anything we still have a lot of discussion to happen But I think it's worth the investment to at least bring us back You know hard answers real numbers and not just us guessing when none of us here is an expert on You know preserving land as far as what it costs. We're not We're not, you know, land experts when it comes to making, you know, assessments or having land appraised. And I want those facts, especially if down the road something is challenged. We can't say, well, we thought through the grapevine that it wouldn't be worth it, so we decided not to pursue, you know, getting a hard... appraisal and getting a little bit more, a lot more data for a couple thousand dollars of a look. So I think I support moving forward, if nothing else, just to rule a few things in and out, in or out. And also put some real hard answers that we can sit on should something be challenged or something else come forward. We at least did our due diligence and our homework for this very unique piece of property. And I think the education that would come back from that would be something that would be valuable to a lot of people who are saying, you should just buy it and this and that, or hey, we're $20 million apart. I don't know that we are. until we actually make an offer and it's refused. I don't know what this property is going to appraise at. We can sort of guess, but I don't know that that's going to hold up very well if we're challenged by this landowner. So I think it's worth moving forward to the next step to just give us hard data that wouldn't be guesswork or grapevine guesses, like I said. We have some speakers, Troy, you said?

Yes. We do. OK. But I'd like to make a quick comment. I mean, I just want to look at this as if we didn't know this property, that we didn't spend a six and a half hour hearing on this property already. Already. I want to look at it that way. And I want to look at it if our staff came to us, and once a month or twice a month, we get lists of these properties for conservation call here. And let's just say this letter was sent to this individual without ever having a six and a half hour hearing for this property. And he says, you know what? I want to participate. The staff would have put this on a list in the C property list and this board would never even take a look at it. This board would never look at it because it doesn't even meet a B list. You would bring us an A list every twice a month and we look at those properties because staff has already did the analysis to that point to put it on the A list. And that's the hard cold reality. This is basically pressure from outside for us to go outside the boundaries of how we typically operate this particular program that we're emboldened to watch, to run it properly, to be the good shepherds of the tax dollars we collect. It's one of the big three taxes we assess on our citizens every year when we go through our budget meeting. conservation car is one of the three at the top of the list that we collect on so it is our citizens money we are spending those are tax dollars and You know, I will quote John Adams. You know, when government's ruled by the loud minority, the silent majority suffers. There's 400 and some thousand people that live in Collier County. And if I was to listen to everyone, if they want us to spend the money on this property, it would not meet an A-list, typically. If we didn't know anything about this property prior to today coming to this meeting, would it actually be on an A-list? No. We know it wouldn't be. Would any of you up here vote for a C-list to purchase it? I'm just talking about common sense and honesty here. We have a system. Sometimes we have to stay in the boundaries of that system. Sometimes we have to make the hard decisions in the arena that some people don't like. That's part of this job. But in reality is that we can't sway from the system either because then everybody suffers. Because the next person that wants to come up here and just be loud and continue being loud and continue being loud, a minority of the citizens of this county, we're supposed to change the system to appease them. And I just personally, I am a person, I'm a systematic person. I believe in the rule of law. I believe in following those rules. I know we want to revisit this ordinance. actually I think the language of revisiting ordinance was not even bringing us the B's and C's even seeing them just bring us the A's so in reality I just want to kind of preference that because I know we got to move forward and I don't want to just spend money just to spend money so that's my opinion so I know we have now a couple commissioners up shoot you want to hear public comment or you want to speak let's hear public comment

Mr. Chair, you have five registered speakers. Your first speaker, and I'm going to ask the speakers to queue up at both podiums, please. Your first speaker is Robin Stansky, and she'll be followed by Bibi Cantor.

Good morning. My name is Robin Stansky, and I'm speaking for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is providing comment on the Smith's property, aka Sable Palm. The property is recommended for the A-list. We support this recommendation and ask you that you support this recommendation. As detailed in our letter regarding this property and the staff report, the property contains hydric wetlands and is mapped as containing a majority of hydric soils. The parcel also provides habitat for the endangered Florida panther, the big cypress fox grill, American alligator, and American kestrel. Additionally, the property is adjacent to a private conservation easement to the north, west and south, as well as the Picayune Strand State Forest. Finally, the property is visible and accessible from a public roadway, which provides an opportunity to incorporate hiking and bike trails into the property. We do recommend that the county consider coordinating or partnering with state partners interested in helping manage this Picayune Strand State Forest adjacent property. For all of these reasons, we recommend this property be ranked as an A-list property. Thank you for your time and consideration of our comments.

Your next speaker is Bibi Kanter, and she will be followed by Brad Cornell.

I'm speaking extemporaneously, which is about the only big word I can pronounce that I can also read. My name is B.B. Cantor, and I'm a candidate for the Collier County Mosquito Control District. I agree definitely with the three commissioners to the left, and I agree with the other commissioners, the other two, so that's good. recommend is that since you evaluate these properties every month why don't we give the seller a chance to do all the hydrological studies etc and come up with a cost for remediating the property and qualifying to be on the a-list and that after that is done then we can you the appraiser could use that information because normally what you do is you take the market value of land and then you subtract the cost of remediation and then you come up with the value of so i think just keep it on the c list there's another month and if they're willing to invest in the money to um show us how it can be remediated and get on the a-list let them and then maybe um i am a member of conservation collier maybe there'll be somebody who wants to come up with that money for the cost of remediation and then we'll buy it for 20 million so we're a long way from getting on the a-list i totally agree with dan that community excuse me commissioner cowell i've met you a party so i call you dan now but um i totally agree with you that we can't make special um judgments based on you know the loudest voice in the room so thank you very much your next speaker is brad cornell and he will be followed by caitlyn glenn

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Brad Cornell. I'm here on behalf of Audubon Western Everglades and Audubon Florida. We're here to support an A-list ranking for this. And it is recommended as A-list. It's not a C-list property. It's A-list as recommended by the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Its unique aspects are that it's part of a mosaic, and you've heard me speak of this before. The mosaic of ecological landscape is that it's functional for both hydrology and for panthers and for wading birds because it sits in a larger landscape that is surrounded by conservation, Pekin Strand State Forest and permanent conservation easements and mitigation lands as you can see from that map so that that works that's the way almost everything in Florida is frankly it's all a mosaic we have built our farms our ranches our communities and our wildlife corridors and wetlands they're all mixed and in that landscape as long as we don't conflict too strongly with those ecological attributes, we can still harbor Florida panthers and wading birds and fire, which we talked about a lot at the last hearing. It's all in the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which the legislature has been investing heavily in. It's all wetlands. It's entirely hydric soils. And it would be worth a small effort to find out what the appraised value was and see what the landowner offers or responds to a negotiation. So you don't get that answer. You don't get those hard facts, as several commissioners have already pointed out, unless you go through with an A list and direction to negotiate. There's significant restoration opportunities both for hydrology and for panther habitat and other listed species. And so for those reasons, even though it's not the usual landscape that we're targeting for conservation collier, because of its context surrounded by conservation, because it is a natural resource protection area, overlay and sending land, All those support this being a reasonable direction to negotiate and find out what the answer is going to be. That's the only way we're going to tell. Thank you.

Your next speaker is Caitlin Glenn, and she'll be followed by Cody Davis.

Good morning, Commissioner. Afternoon. No, good morning. Good morning, commissioners. This is my name is Caitlin Glenn, and I'm actually a member on the Clary County Land Acquisition Committee. I don't think we have any other folks from our committee in the group. And so, yeah, just to try to read off my script a little bit more so than I have in the past, I just want to remember why this is being presented in front of you. So you all made a commitment or made the decision to continue the item known as Sable Palm Road Project. And now we're referring to it as Smith's. And you all made a commitment to at least explore whether this property could be a viable option for conservation Collier. And so now that's why we're here today. It came before our committee. And we made recommendations that were within the lines of what you're mentioning, Chair Kowal, that we are going through that process. Sorry, I just butchered your name. It's within, like Brad mentioned, already existing conservation lands, and it's really important to try to keep it within the integrity of the system. And so yeah, I know that you all really mentioned about the seller potentially not taking the appraisal, that we don't know what that amount is yet. And so just to remind you, we don't know what those numbers are, and we are doing our due diligence as a committee, and we hope that you will do the same in hearing our recommendations. We also haven't explored a lot of the potential partner investment opportunities. I know that there was a lot of folks that came out to the hearing that day. And there's been a lot of conversation of folks saying, whether at a state, federal, or even some of these other conservation organizations, that they would be interested in supporting this project. We really haven't gotten to flush out those conversations. And I think you all approving this recommendation as an A project would open that door for further conversations to occur. So I hope that you take that recommendation as well as we are really losing opportunities to keep a lot of these sorts of projects within the larger existing conservation areas. You can see on the map that it is really important location wise and I would really hope that you consider it for not just big species like the panthers, but also for our natural resources within regions like this. Yeah, Mr. Brad Cornell has covered quite a bit, but I truly hope that you'll take our recommendation seriously. We had a very lengthy discussion that you can see in our notes, and so if you do have any questions on why we went with an A recommendation, I really would encourage you to read those notes and maybe reach out to our chair as well. We do stand behind this, and thank you for your time today.

Thank you. Your next speaker is Cody Davis. He'll be followed by Daniel Zagarek.

Good morning. I largely agree with Commissioner McDaniel's points that he made. Commissioner Hall suggested this could be something like a bailout for the owner, and I disagree with that. I think if the owner is overconfident and you make a fair offer, I think that puts significant downward pressure on the price of the property. And I think that downward pressure drastically outweighs the basically de minimis cost of the initial phase.

um and it was mentioned that that cost is very low only a couple thousand dollars if that's the case i would be willing to cover that cost personally and that's all thank you your next and final speaker on this item is daniel zagarek good morning uh commission daniel zagarek i i think about collier cough collier conservation a lot i think those people work really hard to bring this stuff forward to you all, okay? I do have a little bit of problem with the government so often being the highest bidder on a piece of property and using taxpayer dollars to buy it. And I have a problem with not always knowing who's involved because I don't know how hard you work behind the scenes. It's because we're talking about this doesn't make the property any more or less valuable. Because you're grinding on it and spending all your county commissioner time on it, it doesn't make the property any more valuable. Talked to a gentleman last week from Polk County. He said, you can make a piece of property the way this property is right now. you can take an orange grove and do x y and z to it and that's what you're going to have you're going to have that piece of property that in our instance catches on fire health safety welfare i think i think i would i would be happy if if four of your hours were spent out of the six and a half on health, safety, and welfare. Because that's really what your J-O-B is. You're not private business people. You're not walking in reporting to a CEO about how you're spending his money, you're supposed to take care of 400,000 people, right, Dan? And how their money is spent, their tax dollars. And, yeah, no increase in taxes, right, Bill? But that debt's climbing. I mean, it's just climbing and climbing. And tell me it's not going to. You know it is. But, you know, because you're grinding on it doesn't make it any more valuable. Thank you. That concludes our public comment.

Okay. Just to clarify, the six and a half hours was a hearing with 120 public speakers we had in this room in reference to the land change code for that particular property. But can you do me a favor? Was there a slide that showed what this property can be used for as a right and out-of-way zone for? Wasn't there a slide that there was other –

Because I know we've had Mr. Cornell and like I said 120 some speakers that came during that meeting it took us six and a half hours to get through I'm sorry to interrupt but I just had a thought and I'd like to ask the county attorney a question because I think it bears on everything that we're doing if you don't mind I apologize for that We have a pending zoning petition on this piece of property It's been continued. It hasn't been voted on. And we're now having a discussion concerning the potential for us to look at this as a piece of property that we can acquire. We've had one speaker talk about how moving forward with this would put downward pressure on the seller in terms of what the property is worth. And I guess my question is, we never voted to take a look at this property from an environmental standpoint. The only thing we voted on was to continue the petition. We all talked about how this would be a nice piece of property for acquisition potentially. We took no official action. we're now being asked to take official action in that regard and the question I have for the county attorney is that because I would anticipate litigation coming out of this before it's all over with because we are twenty twenty two million dollars separate on what we think the property may be worth and what the seller thinks it may be worth based on the potential use of this so Mr. Klasko

are we marching down a little bit of a dangerous path here in terms of what it could result in some litigation at this point in time no if i could add on to that the owner did actually apply to the program oh i didn't know that yes they they applied and be at the beginning of march so you would you would be here regardless

OK, because I thought from what the chairman said that they weren't following that protocol.

No, I'm not saying they participate. You get a letter and you can participate. I'm talking about the protocol when they're brought to us after everything is done and the staff ranks them. This was ranked a C. As much as people keep saying at the podium it's an A, this was ranked a C in our protocol. And the boundaries of how this works as of today. This is a C. In my opinion, what I was trying to say is, if we didn't know we had six and a half hours of the public comments and everything we did in the past on this particular piece of property, if this was just a letter that went out to the owner and the owner says, I want to participate, this would have been on a C in one of our agendas in the future, in the past, and we never even looked at it. We never even took a vote on it. But now, because of public pressure... and other things that are going on. We're taking a second look, and we have one, our advisory committee, which I don't know their record on where they rate properties. Are they at 99% A, even though when they actually go through the motions, it becomes a B or a C? I don't know that. I don't know that fact, where they stand on that. But reality is, that's what I was referring to. And the only thing I was referring to, because of public comments up here, is I just wanted to see, if nobody did nothing right now, and we didn't rezone this, did nothing at all, what could this person sell this property for? And I just wanted to see this list on here of things that he could sell it for. If we don't buy it, because in the past, and I know Commissioner LaCastro was kind of like tasked to get with the owner's attorneys, get with Mr. Cornell, I don't know if he's still here, And these other organizations, because they stood at these podiums for six and a half hours telling us how there's five or six different options, and there's other nonprofit organizations that would be more than willing to step up and purchase this property for the value of the property because how it's so important to preserve. And I don't know if Commissioner Lacoste wants to comment on it or not, but I don't remember anybody coming forward, and now they're trying to get the government to buy it. Same people said there's several other people willing to buy it through their organizations. And now we're here being brought before us, and their option is have the government buy it. And I don't, you know, I'm not in that position. If it doesn't qualify, it doesn't qualify. I'm sorry. That's all. That's my position, and that's the way I stand. But you can go ahead. And I got three commissioners lit up. Commissioner McDaniel.

Thank you Mr. Chair Mr. Kowal I pronounced his name correctly Nobody usually does It's like McDaniels We know this is a farm. We know there are going to be hydrocarbons found at the fuel stations because farmers, when they're filling their tractors, spill fuel. Those are hydrocarbons. It's not scary. It has to be remediated. We know there are chemicals that have been used in the ongoing Orange Grove operations. Those are sufficient contaminants that usually stay in the upper level. It's really important that we give consideration to the hydrological benefits that can be associated with the remediation here. Hydrological benefits include a retention detention pond, expansion of it. We know there's huge flows, Commissioner Saunders. There's huge flows coming from the north from other subdivisions that are up there. We know the developer appropriated enormous amounts of land for the hydrological benefits of the dispersal of those waters coming off those developments to the north. We know there's a – I've referred to it in the past as the Dam Dam called Sable Palm – but doesn't have any good pipes in it in order to utilize or manage the flow of those waters coming from the north. So I really think we're shorting ourselves. And Commissioner Kowal, I don't disagree with you. A C is a C and an A is an A, and one way or the other, I think we're really shorting ourself if we don't take one more step and actually, and Cody, it's nice for you to agree to offer up the money for the study for the phase one, but I don't think we can do that. It gets cumbersome when we start taking in private money to perform studies on a potential piece of property. But be that as it may, Commissioner Kowal, I agree with you 100%. Common sense, fiscal responsibility. The government isn't here to bail anybody out. We have to consider the aggregate value. And it's tough. It's really, really tough. When you start adding in ecological value to an acquisition, put the green map up, please. One more. There you go. When we start adding in the ecological value to a hole in a donut, and the hole's off center a little bit with regard to this particular site, but there is an enormous amount of value in us exploring this to the next step. By no means will I support a bailout of the government and expenditure of a taxpayer's money. won't do it won't do it but we can't make that economic decision without data that is the key to success i don't care what kind of decisions we're in fact making the the weeds are talking we know there's a fairly large disparity between what the seller theoretically wants and or will accept and what conservation collier may or may not appraise it for those we can't we can't make those decisions without data and i think Yes, C is a C and it's not an A under the current system underneath the Conservation Collier Ordinance as it stands today. But this board's already decided that we shouldn't really be ranking these things that way. It needs to be done in a different methodology. And so I really think with the proper data, we have the capacity to make an informed decision up or down on this particular piece of property.

Mr. LaCastro.

Thank you, Chairman. I'm going to put my bottom line first and just say that I'm going to make a motion that we recommend what's being offered in 11B that we move forward with a very small investment to give us, as Commissioner McDaniel says, the data. I think accepting this recommendation isn't the government buying the property. I mean, there again, I think we need to slow down the conversation a little bit. We're just trying to get the data so that if down the road also something is challenged, we're sitting on a more concrete position. I can appreciate what the other commissioners are saying, but you can say, oh, we're here because of public pressure. No, we're here because of public comment. I mean, we're here to represent constituents. So if 1,000 people stand at that podium and yell at us for six hours, 12 hours, 15 hours, that's part of our job, J-O-B, as was said at the podium. I'm not saying that I love it at times, but also, too, citizens are here to be heard. And so is our Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. I don't think we should sit here and irresponsibly dismiss what they are recommending. They're not telling us to do anything, but to say, wow, we didn't read any of their notes, we didn't attend any of their meetings, but of course what they are recommending to us has no merit just because Just because. So I support this recommendation. I don't think we were grinding anything, as the one speaker had said. The reason we were here for six hours, and maybe Commissioner Cole mentioned that, was because we had so many public speakers. But that's also part of our job. We can't dismiss them because we say, oh, we already know what you're going to say, and we all disagree with it. Part of our job is to sit here and listen to our constituents who we're here to represent, whether we agree or disagree, and hear them out. And sometimes that does change our position. And sometimes it does take six hours. We've been in this room a lot longer for other things as well. I don't think we're doing anything over the top to accept this recommendation to move forward to give us some more data. I think our position would be weakened if during some possible future litigation or further discussion on this piece of property we haven't done our full due diligence. We haven't at least listened or considered the recommendation of the Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. And I don't want to be in that weakened position saying we guessed and we heard things through the grapevine and we decided that it wasn't worth a couple of thousand dollars. If we've not done our full due diligence to formally and fully get the analysis, the data, which is basically what this recommendation would give us, instead of just guesswork. And I think a couple thousand dollars is what we're basically being recommended here. I think some of the conversation is jumping to step 10, which may or may not even happen, but it would give us the formal data. And it would strengthen our future discussions on this piece of property and help with our decision process down the road or any litigation or any further other options that might come forward. I don't think any of us wants to overpay for this piece of property. We'll see if this recommendation gets approved, and I'm making the motion that we do approve this recommendation, which is just one small next step, and the appraisal comes back for an amount that the landowner isn't acceptable to them, then it's not a matter of the county not wanting to save this property or invest in this property or think it's valuable. It's a matter of us saying we're not going to overpay for it, I think with the data in hand from an actual formal appraisal we are in a much stronger position to say we did our full due diligence and it really puts the onus back on the landowner to say listen we made you an offer we did everything humanly possible we invested a small amount of money to give us the exact data instead of guesswork and take take it or leave it it's all we can do and I think it is worth the investment so I Unless anybody else is lit up, I'll make the motion that we accept this recommendation and move forward with what I consider a very small but important next step to give us the data and the formal facts on this piece of property and what the options possibly could be. And we're not voting on any of those options, but I certainly don't want to guess on what those could be. So I make the motion to accept this recommendation.

I still have the Commissioner speak I just got a quick question for Ms. Cook and I'd like the preference that you know we did listen to those speakers and we did not give that owner a rezone so you know whatever was said that day it ended in a certain way for that particular agenda item that the owner did not get his rezone and that's I guess why we're here today But, Mr. Cook, real quick, when we do get the A-list, are these few thousand dollars always spent ahead of time for those A-list items when we get them to us?

When you rank a property, whether it's when you rank it on the A-list, after that point we do the appraisals. This property would require two appraisals because it'll value over $500,000. At that time, if we need any phase one assessments because of previous activities on the property, we do it at that time too. So that way, if we do bring you back a purchase agreement, we can let you know that perhaps a phase two or remediation is needed. To one of the speaker's comments earlier, remediation is typically done by the seller and has to be done prior to the final closing.

Okay.

So what you're saying, I just want to clarify. So what you're saying is when you bring us that A list and we say nay or yay on certain items on it, because we don't always vote on all the A list items. There's times we haven't voted to purchase something. That's when it kicks in the process of this additional couple thousand dollars, the assessment, things of that nature. So what we're asking today is to take a C property that you've ranked a C property and paying the money up front just to make it to the a-list which typically we wouldn't do correct is that what you're saying okay mr saunders and how much was that number um appraisals are anywhere from 2200 to 2500 typically so about 5 000 for appraisals and then a couple thousand more for the phase one assessment

The county attorneys told us that moving forward with this is not going to be a problem in terms of potential litigation that was one of my major concerns I'm kind of torn on this at the moment I just want to set precedents and I think that's what we're doing we're setting precedents that

you know if somebody's passionate about a piece of property and they're loud enough that we're gonna pay up front to make it an a-list well I don't think that's the integrity of the program and I just that's kind of you know what it's looking like we're doing we're setting that precedence with this particular item well I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and support the motion but I want the record to reflect it's not because Commissioner McDaniel convinced me to do otherwise his law degree did include negotiation

So anyway, I guess it's appropriate to call for the question. I'll second it.

All right. So Commissioner Castor, do you want to?

Yeah, I just want to clarify one thing. I understand that it was on the C list. But Ms. Cook, correct me if I'm wrong, we have somebody here from the conservation uh collier land acquisition advisory committee they took a another look or a deeper look and they're recommending that or they they disagree that that it should be on the c list and whether we agree that it should be on the a or c there was there was some deep discussion if you did read their notes that um that that with their due diligence they maybe the argument could be made maybe it's somewhere in the middle but It was on C. It still is on C. But we have a committee that, and if we don't value their opinion, then we should put new people on the committee. And I'm not saying that we should also feel that our arms are twisted because our advisory committee made a recommendation. But, you know, let's not leave that piece out. So it's on, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, so it was on C. The advisory committee took a look at it. They're recommending that, or they're not only recommending A, but they're disagreeing with C, and they're just letting us know that. So I mean, that is part of the puzzle, correct? Maybe I'm not saying it as perfectly as you would, but it is part of the discussion here, correct?

The way the ordinance is currently written, normally you don't see staff's recommendation. Normally it is just the clock recommendation that you see. That's a conversation I've had with with Mr French as we've looked at Commissioner McDaniels requests for rewriting the ordinance. So normally, all you see is the CLAC recommendation. But based on the feedback that we've gotten over the last couple of meetings, we felt it was important for you to know what staff's recommendation was.

So we know a little too much on this property than we would on some others. But to your point, the CLAC's recommendation is A-list.

So let me ask you this then. So the CLAC's original was a C.

The CLAC actually wanted to continue the item and not vote immediately. They wanted to do more of an in-depth review of the property.

So if you're telling us that the rankings directly come from the CLAC, then at some point it was put on a C-list. Was that from the CLAC originally and not changing? No.

C-list was from staff when we reviewed the property.

And we normally don't see that.

Correct. You normally don't get that information.

But when we get them to vote on them, who's the final say on the A, the B, and the C? We are. I'm not saying who. I know we are to ultimately decide or if we move forward.

So the previous executive summaries that you've seen for the ranking lists have all been CLAC recommendations.

Mr. McDaniel. Let's vote. I'll stick with my motion that we accept the recommendation.

It's already been seconded.

All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign, same sign. Aye.

3-2. 3-2.

Commissioners, I think it's time for our court reporter break.

Are you tired of writing down my misspoken words? You're what causes us to grind.

Come back at 11.18.

¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you.

We may still have time, we might still get by. Every time I think about it, I want to cry. The bombs and the devil, and the kids keep coming. No way to breathe, easy time to be young. But I tell myself that The love is the evening breeze touching your skin. The gentle, sweet singing of leaves in the wind. The whisper that calls after you in the night and kisses your ear and ear. Wild man's world is crying in pain What you gonna do when everybody's insane? So afraid of wonder, so afraid of you What you gonna do? I'm crazy on you

Chair, you have a live mic.

All right. Back in session.

Commissioners, that brings us to item 12A, formerly 16K3. This is a recommendation that the board accept a status update on the Randall Boulevard Commercial Subdistrict. This is moved at Commissioner Saunders and Commissioner McDaniel's separate requests, and I will hand it over to the county attorney.

And I put this item on Commissioner Saunders' request.

Yes, and I'm going to defer for a moment to Commissioner McDaniel. This is in his district, and he knows a lot more about this than I do. The reason I asked for it to be put on the agenda, I wanted to give the property owners, representatives, talk about the what the holdup is and they're moving forward and I understand there's an agreement that's been worked out but we're not executing that until other property owners are signed off some easements and things but I don't know enough about it to really go into any detail so this is a courtesy to the property owners to tell us what they need and for the county to perhaps move the ball along a little bit

you

OK. Are you deferring to me? I believe he was. He was kind of deferring to me. Into the property owners. We'll make it official.

Commissioner McDaniel, any comments?

He did. I have some comments. And I do have an enormous amount of intimacy with this development request. And I realize we're not voting on anything today other than moving this project forward. We're not going to approve this development order today, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? when i was involved with the property owners um in this sub-district that was created my memory serves me back in the 90s ish there was a dc a dca that was put in place there were specifics with regard to a developer and commitments and things and then then that developer went bankrupt there's no more even in existence and then the property owners came back and asked that i work with them to assist in creating this sub-district of this commercial sub-district and that was done in 2020 during the covid adventure i remember dealing with all these property owners on zoom which was a real trick Couldn't come to a consensus Then they went off on their own brought. Mr. Dickman back in to try to come to some Resolution with regard to the utilization of these properties Other than the two and a quarter acre current zoning that exists in the estates They don't have a development order. They have made certain commitments and promises to be fulfilled I will say out loud there was not our favorite statute called live local in existence at the time when we were talking about this. I will say out loud that there wasn't a residential component at all with their previous requests. To my knowledge, I mean, I'm dealing with six years of things stirring around in my brain. There is a residential component with this. There is the capacity for live local conversion once you go to commercial. There isn't it already an existent switch from C3 to 16 units an acre once the zoning bequeath is granted. So a caution is to say out loud that Based upon our current infrastructure, we really don't have the capacity to support a far more densely residential development there. So with that, I think the seller, the owner's rep is here. And if you'd like to say a few words or no, you're welcome to. Mr.

Chair, I have speaker slips for these gentlemen, but however you want to do it.

uh would you enter he put a speaker did you put a speaker yes sir yes okay so we'll go ahead and start with the okay andrew dickman will be followed by matthew mcconnell and mr chairman i'd like for them not to be limited to three minutes this is going to take more than three minutes for them to explain what we can you mean yeah they they are the representatives of the petitioner who are the entities that would be involved in this agreement so it's really their interest to have some time to explain this, not as a public speaker.

Okay. We'll go ahead and hear from Trish first, and then we'll go ahead and go to public speakers right after.

These are our public speakers is what I'm saying. I understand.

I understand. It's just not limited to three minutes.

Thank you, Chair Kowal and Commissioner. Matthew McConnell, Dickman Law Firm. So I'm not here in the capacity as a petitioner. I'm just here as we represent the Randall Boulevard Land Trust The trust that comprises roughly 28 of the 52 acres in the commercial subdistrict. When you take into consideration the property that the county owns, the forestry building and track 72, which I believe they bought. You're talking about the county and the trust owning roughly 35 of the 52 total acres in the subdistrict, which is quite a bit. Ultimately, I'm here to ask for one question or one request of commission, and that is simply to direct your very intelligent planning staff to initiate the GMP amendment, which will allow my clients to revamp their PUD. Your timeline is pretty accurate, Commissioner McDaniels. I personally have been working this case for nine years, since 2017, on and off, and it's all been around same request you know you have this development agreement that's tied to all the properties um ultimately we initiated our pud which was strictly commercial at the point at that point but we kept getting kickback from staff um asking questions about the development agreement what are you going to do with this what are you going to do with the entitlements because there's land swaps there's new fire stations there's just a bunch of things related to the commercial sub-district that each party was required to do so then ultimately the parties had a Quasi-mediation, if you will, in county building 2022. Fire District was there. A lot of the property owners were there. And obviously, my client was there, and Jeff and Sally and everyone was there. And we came to what we believed was an agreement, which was the county would initiate the GMP. And I think it's important. I don't know if there's an overhead, but may I use it?

I just kind of want to put it in perspective.

The amount of property we're talking about when it comes to the commercial sub district, because I think it's important.

So our county manager has a difficulty with no no worries.

Happy to help. So ultimately. 72 iglesias property has now been purchased by the county, and that's the plan, I believe, is to use it for stormwater. But the reason that this is important. It's because the Randall expansion project does not happen without frontage from my client, period. My client's property is the only property the county needs to take frontage for for the Randall expansion. It's not the gas station, it's not the shopping center, and it's not the fire district.

Can I interrupt you?

Sure.

Let's not say hard and fast things because you're here today to discuss this going forward as a GMP amendment. That's when we'll get to talk about hard, fast things don't happen because you know in the real world things can happen.

Okay.

Okay?

And I appreciate that comment.

That's an absolute. It's not an absolute yet.

Correct, because you're at 30% design and things can change. I guess the only point I'm making is my clients have been patient enough. It's been nine years. The only thing I'm requesting, you're not approving the PUD, you're not approving the GMP. All of that will be presented to you at a future date. You're not improving the agreement. That will also be presented to you at a future date. However, the holdup right now is just I need the commission, if you will, to direct staff,

initiate the gmp which will allow my client to revamp their pud that is my only request today and i am okay with that and we'll make that as a motion thank you if that's a motion i'll second i don't know if there are any other speakers but yeah we have uh two other speakers i do believe that was uh andrew dickman and um he's back there waving matthew mcconnell yeah and we're happy to see you he'll see his time to me yeah yeah we could have did that officially then

so there's no other speakers Troy okay so Commissioner McDaniel made a motion to go ahead and move forward with the GMP that's correct and here very similarly this allows us to see all of the data the proposition of the property owners the sub-district the contributions of right-of-way potential and so on and so forth there has to be there's a lot to this that we're not talking about right now no requisite to We get to see all that once we initiate this process.

Okay. And Commissioner Saunders seconded that?

Yes, we did.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign, same sign. All right. It passes. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioners, that brings us to item 15, staff and commission general communications. Item 15A is public comments on general topics not on the current or future agenda by individuals not already heard during previous public comments in this meeting.

We have no other comment at this time.

Item 15B, staff project updates. We have none this time. And item 15C is staff and commission general communications. I do have one. We've been working with your aides on the tourism privatization workshop. It is scheduled now in this boardroom on Tuesday, June 30, starting at 1 PM. It will feature a presentation by the Tourism Community Steering Committee covering specific operational aspects of privatization, including the board's request to address concerns of potential fraud and best practices. So it should be on all of your calendars now. That is all I have. County Attorney.

I have nothing. Thank you.

Commissioners.

Mr. Saunders. Thank you. I have nothing to add. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hall.

Thank you. I got a couple, just three things I want to ask about. If y'all remember when, a month or so ago, we had some people on Y'all Road where there were some environmental issues with their dust. And EPA, we asked them to get a hold of Rep Benaroach and get the EPA involved. Well, the EPA did get involved, and there was some violations, and they're getting that straightened out. But it got me to thinking, and... Instead of relying on the state, I wanted to initiate the authority where we could monitor that. So I got to looking at that. And long story short, in order to do that and have the local authority, we would have to basically create a local bureaucracy called air pollution control. We would have to fund it in our budget. The state, we're still subject to the state. They still have to sign off on everything we do. We just have to pay for it. So I didn't want to create a bureaucracy. And I think mainly what we decided would be best is if we get environmental issues like that in our districts, because we usually hear about it. Commissioner, what are you going to do? I think if we would be proactive in getting staff to reach out to the state as well as us reaching out to the state and just be a little bit more proactive as that's our plan of action and that's our fastest action, I think that would be beneficial to not only us but the people that we serve. The other thing was, when are we going to get Collier TV back on? Soon.

um i can speak to that i think mr mullins has taken that over we have uh about two months ago we they developed a problem with their fiber optic transmitter that sends our signal from here to their facility their head-end facility they acknowledged it was their problem and they've just been really dragging their feet on them i think john can expand on the rest of that

And part of it is kind of, sorry, John Mullins, your Director of Communications, Government, and Public Affairs. Part of this is we're being held hostage. There is a situation that Troy just mentioned. And out of the blue, we have received an invoice looking for us to enter into a five-year agreement to the tune of $30,000 to have Channel 97 on Comcast. So I have sent some clarifications back to Comcast in regards to that offer. We have not heard back.

Fair enough.

I have nothing else. Commissioner Kasher.

Yeah, thank you, Chairman. I got a couple of things. First off, just for citizen information, if they're watching, the commissioners, we're all going to make a trip to Washington, D.C., as we normally do every year next week. Some very valuable things. So ahead of time, I want to thank John Mullins and Bridget and the whole team that are putting our trip together. You know, it's trips like that that were very influential. And us getting federal dollars for the Veterans Nursing Home and lots of other help. And I'll also add that just yesterday, Congressman Diaz-Balart was in town handing out some multi-million dollar checks, one in this room, one to the Collier County Sheriff's Office. office, and that's a big lift. And so I don't want to steal anybody else's thunder, but I thought it was worth mentioning that when we meet with him in DC, I'll just speak for myself, I'm always so impressed that he doesn't just sit there and say, we have to vote Republican, whatever the president says, and we have to be concerned. That's great. That's the political piece. But I'll say, I don't know him very well. I've never been over his house. Don't play golf with him. Didn't grow up with him here in Collier County. But that is one congressman that works hard for us and brings back investment to our part of Florida. And it shows. And I think we're all very appreciative. And so yesterday was a good day for our county, for him bringing us some federal dollars that are going to help with some big projects. A couple of us were talking to our sheriff, Sheriff Rambos, last night at an event. And he had a program for a big specialized vehicle upgrade for our Colorado County Sheriff's Office, which would not be possible without the federal dollars that um congressman diaz ballart his team brought us so uh big kudos um to him and uh you know we're going to shake the trees in dc as well we don't go up to dc just to tour around and grip and grin we're up there pounding on desks a little bit and also reminding some of the dc decision makers that collier county is has a short list of needs and requirements and we also come back educated when when john and his team and bridget and all those folks get us into the housing and urban development headquarters or we meet with senior officials from the Veterans Affairs or a lot of the other places where we meet decision makers. Not only are they really impressed that senior leadership from Collier County took the time to come up there and meet them face to face, but we come back with a deeper understanding of what's going on, better ideas on how we can maybe leverage Certain offices and people up in DC for the good of our county and also to we feed them with plenty of information about what is on our short list here in Collier County. So it's sort of all comes full circle. And yesterday getting getting some money that Congressman Diaz Ballart shook some trees for was the benefit of all that. So while our DC elected officials are pushing, we're down here pulling and I think we've saw the positive result of that. Lastly, and this was something I sort of pre-coordinated with our county manager, but y'all remember about a month or so ago, I made a motion that we do what I call an operations assessment of the sports complex. Our staff has done an unbelievable job doing a deep dive into exactly what we directed, which is, hey, we just want a report card. We're taking a look at maybe expanding the field, spending some more money, but besides that, we've got a professional soccer team that had an unbelievable first year, and how was the fan experience, how has the utilization of the fields been going, how has the maintenance been going, and all of that to give us a good feedback. And I'll turn it over to Ms. Patterson. But they've been doing just that. And she'll give you a little bit of a deeper dive. But in a couple of weeks, in our mid-May Board of County Commissioner meeting, we'll get a formal presentation from the staff that's been doing that. But Amy, what did I leave out? I just wanted to make sure that my colleagues here knew that what we voted to do has been on the radar and you've made a lot of progress. You've shared a lot of that progress with me, but what else? Yes, sir.

So after the inaugural season, staff along with FC Naples and the folks that run our sports complex Work together on an after action review. It was completed and distributed in April. As Commissioner Lacaster said, we will be bringing that to the board in May. This basically is looking at the FC Naples season, including lessons learned, operational coordination, guest experience, and improvements already implemented or underway. The second piece of this we're still working on. And that would be the third-party operational assessment of the overall Paradise Coast Sports Complex and kind of tying that up with the ballot initiative that's going to the voters and kind of the future of the park. So that's a bigger work in progress, but we will be coming to you with that scorecard for the 2025 season as well as the lessons learned and some recommendations, and that will be coming in May.

Thank you.

That's all. Thank you.

Mr. McDaniel.

Yes, sir. I number one, I want to say a thank you. You know, we attended a very special evening last night, the three of us, for the honoring of our officers who have given the ultimate to keep our community safe. And you all know my mother watches what's going on. and when that camera swings over there there's an officer standing behind the podium and my mother complimented you today sir she was like you know that officer that stands behind those speakers over there He doesn't watch what's going on in there. He's out there looking out for you and on behalf of our safety. And all of our security officers, there's another one back there in an unmarked and another one back here in a marked and others that are on the perimeter that we don't even necessarily know about. So my mother and I thank you for doing your job and doing what you do for us. That's coming from my heart. I haven't asked for my colleagues here on the board. There's an issue going on with Collier County and a deficiency within our systems, another deficiency with regard to the permitting associated with driving ranges. It's come to my attention that there, I think there are like 16 of them, nine of which don't have a building permit. There is a GMP amendment that is coming through or an ordinance that's coming through that's been to DSAC. It will ultimately come to the Planning Commission and it will ultimately get to us. But I've been told that there, so my ask is short, is there's nine of them that I think I know about that don't have a building permit. largely due to the fact we don't have a code associated with wrapping around the parameters of driving range and the fencing that's associated with it. The one that we all see driving up and down 951 Collier Boulevard right now, we approved that in the PUD that we allowed for First Tee and the golf course and everything to be done. That has a building permit. And so my ask today is that there are code enforcement actions out on some of these constructed driving ranges. My ask is that we stay the code enforcement fines for and until we move through the process and develop an ordinance that addresses the size, shape, and color of the driving range fence. i do not want to i want to be very careful to specify that i don't want to eliminate these fines because some of these people started building these things without a permit and that's a no-no and so they and and they readily admit to that but i i would like to minimally stay the because once as you know once you get in trouble with code enforcement Whatever the fine is per day, it just racks up as it goes along. And I think that now that we're into a semblance of order with regard to the potentiality of an ordinance, a proper thing would be to stay those ongoing continuing fines for until we hear it.

Commissioner Hall. Thank you. In reference to that, one of those is in Quill Creek. They lost their trees during the hurricane. And I think the zoned height for those things is 35 feet. Well, they've put them up there at 65 or 70 feet. and there's poles in the ground and they're loose and they're not even secured and it's a major concern to our to our homeowners and i agree with that concern i don't have i don't mind and they are under code enforcement and the money's racking up i don't mind staying it right but I have full intentions for them to pay every dime that they've accrued so far because they knew that they were doing wrong. And they've been caught. They've admitted it. But they're not willing to take the polls down. They're not willing to do anything other than waiting on some DSAC committee that says, oh, in the name of safety, we need to go ahead and raise that height in case somebody gets hit on the noggin by a golf ball. I'm not in that case. I'm not going to support that.

And I'm not asking you to support anything right now. No, no, I get that. We're all looking at it, and I hear the same thing. I just want you to know from the request is stay the continuing fines racking up, and then we'll deal with the individual ones as we come along.

Totally agree with that. I just want my friends at Quail Creek to know I got their back on this one.

Okay I agree did I say anything off kilter A lot of people migrating up towards the podium I'm not done yet huh what did you say I said we got a few people migrating up to the podium Yeah I see them that's why I was saying Good morning commissioners for the record my name is Jamie French I'm your growth management and community development department head at the

the pleasure of the board we do have two active code enforcement cases and the Quail Creek, and I won't really speak of the cases because they are ongoing, and we would respectfully request that we allow it to run that process. However, they have demonstrated from their engineering that the poles are secure, not permitted, but they certainly are secure, especially as we start to creep in or go into our current process. Hurricane season this was discussed that your development services Advisory Committee where they Took a motion of no vote on both of the growth management or both of the LDC private LDC initiatives so that will be going to the Planning Commission and then it will find its way to you the code enforcement actions are currently under stay the way we operate with code enforcement is that we work towards resolution and in the event that that fails they would be required within a certain amount of time to remove those so we will look at this at both the contractor installing those polls without permits that's where we would bring in the department of professional and regulatory services the dpbr and then we would also look at code enforcement

Not right now. We'll get to all that when we get to all that. Right now, the code enforcement fines can be stayed, and that's all we're looking for right now. We'll look at the rest of the process as we come forward.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Just want to give you an update. Thank you.

Sir? They're not going to accumulate any longer after today. The fines that they have, they have to abide by the ills that have transpired so far and pay accordingly. But for now, the fines are stayed as of today. I have a really important thing that I'd like to share. Commissioner LeCastro, he and I were arguing about who should have went first before, and he got called upon first. I'm gonna I'm gonna thank you if you don't mind holding it. This is what Commissioner LeCastro was talking about Our congressman Mario Diaz-Balard came in yesterday and presented this check I don't know if it'll actually make it through the systems of our bank But such an important infrastructure necessity for our community. This is the funding requisite to do the studies that are necessary for us to open up Everglades and I-75 as a potential partial interchange. And health, safety, and welfare, we've heard people talk about that. Our partnership with our leadership in the federal government is so imperative. Our, and as Commissioner Lacastro said far more eloquently than I, our relationships that we develop with our partners at the federal government, can the camera see that okay we're gonna hold it up our relationships that are developed with our federal partners are off the chart and I can't say thank you enough for the residents of all of Collier County and what was the second check you presented how much two million as well as the sheriff separate check

Yeah it was two million to the sheriff and then we got there was nine six million nine million appropriate yeah we got it was nine million for the uh veterans community center which you know I'll add a comment on that because when we were looking at this I made the request and I hate to say this but I made the request for six million dollars Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart upped it to nine. We're going to need the nine, but I was trying to be more conservative to make sure we had something that they could accept. So again, Congressman Diaz-Balart going overboard for us.

Can't say thank you enough. To that end, I'm done.

Commissioners, if I may, on the code enforcement staying of the fines, we did get nods on that from you all.

Yeah, I was going to ask if we have to do an official hey, nay.

So as long as everybody's in favor.

All in favor. No, that's good. I'm nodding. Sounds like we're all fine.

I'm nodding in a firm manner.

Yes, sir, thank you.

And just to speak on it, I personally went out, this is the construction site at the gate, which is the name of the public golf course that the county is constructing right now with public-private partnership. And I can contest those poles in that driving range are 27 feet in the ground. And the first subcontract, from what I understand, was breaking bits because it's basically solid concrete. It's hard rock. Hard rock. And those things aren't going anywhere. I mean, they're 27 feet buried in the ground. So that's pretty impressive. And they were going through a lot of rock to get it down in there. But that being said, I would just circle back about, you know, a lot of people don't know, President Kennedy deemed May 15th as Peace Officer Recognition Day. And it's basically a whole week of recognition for our peace officers and anybody that provides the public safety. that your local government is probably one of our primary duties is to make sure they have the ability to do their job, have the means to do their job, to make a safe community. Because in the beginning of it all, that's what it all comes down to. If your community's not safe and you don't feel safe in your community, nothing else really matters so that's so important we always we always and me personally and i know that my colleagues up there feel that the same way that public safety is one of our primary duties as county commissioners and you know a lot of people know that i think this year they'll add um 300 or so names to the wall in washington dc to granite wall up there that recognizes the fallen officers from this country and I think it will bring the total up to about 24,000 names this year. So just kind of wrap your head around that since they've been keeping the statistics. And that's a lot of people that gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect the citizens of this country. So that being said, I hope everybody has a wonderful couple weeks. We'll be back here in two weeks. Thank you.

Thank you.

Nowhere to go when you're feeling like a part of you is dying and you're looking for the answer in her eyes. You think you're going to break up. Then she says she wants to.