Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. This is the city planning board meeting Monday, 07/14/2025. At this time, I'm gonna call the meeting to order. And if you could stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, interior public for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If everyone can silence your electronic devices at this time. Please call the roll.

Mister Johnson?

Yes.

Miss Carter? Present. Mister Edwards? Present. Mister Collins?

Yes, ma'am.

Mister Whiting? Mister Kreisel? Chair Clemens?

Present. We have excuses for those that are not in attendance today?

Yes, chair. Mister Whiting and mister Kreisel called in with reasonable excuse excuses for not attending today.

Thank you. If I can get a motion for the minutes.

Make a motion to approve the minutes from the June 9 meeting.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded. Please call the roll.

Mr. Edwards? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Johnson?

Yes.

Ms. Carter? Yes. Chair Clemens? Yes.

Okay. Moving on to new business. Number six, ItemAEZAnnexation2025000219O3South30SeventhStreet. You could take it, miss Driver.

Alrighty. Good afternoon, planning board members. On behalf of city of Fort Pierce planning department, we have an annexation application where the applicant is Gia Gandhi Engineering and Planning, property owners, Patrol South LLC. Parcel ID is 24173310001000. Address is 1903 South 37th Street.

In summary, there's a request for review of a voluntary application for annexation for one parcel of land, again, located at 1903 South 37th Street, where the site area is point six three acres, give or take. Here is a map of the city limits outlining the surrounding parcels that are currently within the city limits. Pursuant to comprehensive plan policy one point eleven point five, properties annex shall receive a land use designation compatible with the county land use designation unless otherwise approved by the city commission. Staff has confirmed that the property is located within unincorporated Saint Lucie County and is contiguous to the Fort Pierce City municipality boundary and within the FPUA service area. Furthermore, pursuant to chapter one seventy one point zero four six subsection one of Florida statute, whereas the legislature recognizes that enclaves can create significant problems in planning, growth management, and service delivery, and therefore declares that this is the policy of the state to eliminate enclaves.

The current taxable value of the property is 34,991. The existing future land use of the property within the county is commercial. Given the annexation is approved, the proposed future land use will be modified to general commercial to this for the city.

The existing zoning in the county is commercial neighborhood.

With approved zoning, the city zoning will be modified to g three general commercial. The flu future land use comparison chart, as it stands existing future land use in the county is commercial where the max density for residential is zero the floor floor area ratio is 2.5 With their proposed annexation, the future land use will be changed to general commercial. The maximum residential allowance will be 15. I'm sorry. Excuse me.

It's maxed with the city, but once it's modified, it would be reduced to nine nine units. Excuse me. I lost my train of thought there. Staff has confirmed that the property is located within unincorporated St. Lucie County and is contiguous to the Fort Piacentia municipal boundary and within the FPUA service area. Therefore, Therefore, staff's recommendation is for the Planning Board to move the proposed annexation application municipal for approval to City Commission. Alternate recommendations will be to, one, recommend approval with additional conditions or recommend disapproval. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions from the board for the staff? At this time, I will open it to the public. Is there a representative here today? Please step forward, sign in, state your name.

Seeing that we have no one here from the public, we'll bring it back to the board. Do you all have any additional questions? At this time, I entertain a motion.

I move to approve. Second.

It's been properly moved by missus Carter, second

by mister Edwards. Please call the roll. Mister Collins?

Yes, ma'am.

Mister Johnson?

Yes. Miss

Carter? Yes. Mister Edwards?

Yes.

Chair Clemens? Yes.

Moving on to item six b. Major site plan amendment, Kings Landing, generally located at or near 322 North 2nd Street. And we have mister Freeman.

Thank you, chair. Planning board. So today, we're looking at the Kings Landing development, and it's a major amendment to an existing site plan. So this application has been put forward by a Hayley Ward and the engineering company. The applicant is Audubon Development Incorporated.

The address is thereabouts, 322 North 2nd Street. There are eight parcels involved with this and I'm not going to read them all out. I'm going to go back to February 2022, where the city replaced the original conceptual site plan with an amended site plan for the subject properties, And that was through ordinance 20 2,003. Subsequent to that, there's been a number of changes made, a number of changes to the development agreement and the potential developers of the property. This application proposes a major amendment to a previously approved site plan, and it's in respect to the King's Landing development.

As you are all aware, is ongoing and under time constraints through a development agreement. And this hearing, together with a hearing from the for the historic preservation board and the city commission will need to be undertaken before or thereabouts September. So we're under a time constraint with this one, so your diligence in reviewing this one will be much greatly appreciated. There is the site location. It's just, West of North Indian River Drive, South of AE Bacchus.

It might have noticed a number of townhome type development going on as part of this King's Landing development. This has now been separated by the creek from that and it's now, two separate developments and this one is the larger portion which incorporates a number of different uses and elements to that. The zoning and future land use, the zoning is planned development and the future land use is Central business district, and that was changed some time ago and remained the same since this application was first envisaged. The original site plan, again approved as an amendment in February 2022, showed the hotel the access route and if you'll note how that is actually formed, in some respects very awkwardly around the site, in a C shape, with some accesses onto North 2nd Street, three accesses being there. So there's a lot of circulation area.

The revision to the site plan was formulated through a meeting with the applicant developer and a number of city departments. And we looked at how this was laid out, we heard the applicant talk about how best would suit a hotel layout, how best would suit better utilization. One

of

the main aims of staff was one to be efficient in the layout, but also how could we create additional parking as far as we could in this property in excess of what already was being proposed there. So this is the amended site plan, and as you can see, essentially it has a one single spine free route from Indian River Drive to North 2nd Street, which will be presented more like a boulevard type arrangement with stores, access to the parking garage, restaurants, hotel and also retail or whatever was going to go on the adjacent buildings. But essentially, the site became more efficient and allowed the development of a larger capacity parking garage within the property. So the original site plan has had 106 condos. That's not changed to the amended site plan.

The townhomes are removed from this rendition and those are being constructed individually and the site has been we would call bifurcated into two, the townhomes and also the commercial hotel and condominium parking garage elements. So you can see the restaurant has been downsized, The retail has been slightly upsized. The hotel has gone from 140 rooms to potentially 148 rooms. We have a parking total in the original of four twenty eight. Now we have a parking total in the revised of five sixteen.

There are also other elements to this as part of the development of fitness center and meeting rooms incorporated into a large portion of this property. So, we, our staff, have reviewed this. We had tremendous input from the engineering department and other departments in the meeting, and this is by far the most recommended site plan before it was drawn, that we've been involved with at staff level. The landscape plan, as you can see, centers on creating a pedestrian friendly, welcoming through street, and also a lot of landscaping around the property. Walking areas and also on street parking, street trees, and a lot of pedestrian access around the whole site.

So it was important with this part of the development to comply with the latest development agreement, which has been agreed by the city commission and the applicant here. And all the dates within this proposal line up with that development agreement, and that's very important. There's different phasing, and we we ensured that those lined up with the program. Now the architectural design, again, some time spent on that and we have the architect here tonight, this afternoon, to go through this more. Essentially, the site that's a roof plan of the property.

And here we have some renderings, three d images of how this property would stand. There are some outstanding engineering comments, which are being resolved at the moment by the applicant. These aren't considered to be serious enough to delay a hearing for the planning board and can be and will be met before presentation to the city commission. And one of the recommendations that we're making today with this is to recommend approval of the modified site plan, amended site plan. And all that the engineering department requirements are met prior to the presentation to city commission.

And I do have a list of the engineering outstanding engineering issues. Let me see if I can find those. Here we go. So it's it's to do with dimensions being put on plans, notes being put on plan, materials, making sure that it meets cross sections details that the engineering department would want to see. And it's a fair it's a fairly standard list of comments that we would see coming in from the engineering department.

As I say, the the applicant and the architect is here this afternoon and could provide more detail on what the progress is on addressing these issues. The as I say, this project is under a very tight time frame, and so part of the hearings is to get the planning board hearing now. And at the end of the month, on the twenty eighth, would be the historic preservation board, which also will look in more detail at the architecture as it fits. And then subsequently to all of those, we would have the city commission meeting, hopefully, in September, and that would be with all these engineering details complied with and any comments made by the planning board and the historic preservation board incorporated into that presentation. So thank you, chair.

That's the staff recommendation is to recommend approval subject to all of the engineering comments being addressed prior to presentation to the city commission.

Thank you. That was a great presentation, mister Freeman.

Thank you.

Any comments from the board or questions for mister Freeman?

Sorry. Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I just had one question about I mean, it it is a great plan. As far as, like, the eco friendliness of this, the the environmental like, what has there been discussions about how to make this even better plan with things like, you know, pervious pavement or

Yes.

Things like that?

Yes. As part of this plan, the applicant, I believe, is proposing large tracks of pervious storm water treatment, so storage on the ground and so forth. So that is part of the engineering in this. And again, the the applicant is here, I think, can address that more cleanly than I can.

Thank you.

Great to see the parking increase, the amount of parking spaces in the garage. Is is the plan to have the hotel parking on-site, or is it still with the former to use the city garage?

I I believe the plan is to have it operational on-site. Again, the applicant is here to confirm that.

Okay. Thank you.

Back to the parking. I know the applicant will probably answer this, but this project is being done in phases. So the most of the the bulk of the parking is in the parking garage, and that's in phase two, and the hotel is in phase one. So that's kind of questionable for me. I would like to have that addressed once the applicant steps up. Anyone else from the board? Seeing none, if the applicant applicant can please step forward, state your name, and sign in.

Absolutely. There's so many here. For the record, my name is David Baggett with Haley Ward, 1025 Southwest Village Parkway, Port St. Lucie. Thanks for hearing this item tonight, and thank you for staff for all their efforts in putting the presentation together.

I have no comments on the presentation. I think it represented the project well. I can help answer a few of the questions that we just heard on staff's presentation. Starting with the I used the term eco friendly, but some of the things that are incorporated in the design of the project. Absolutely.

It's actively being incorporated into the project. And it's hard to see on the site plan. We only get a two d view on the site plan. But we're working with a company called Ferguson right now that does a lot of innovative stormwater technologies for these kind of environments, where you can incorporate them underneath rain gardens, along the sides of the streets, and underneath the roads in the impervious area. This site never had a permitted stormwater management system in the past when it was the old power plant.

Water was just coming off of whatever they were doing out there and going out into the river. There's since been a lot of cleanup efforts on that. Everything was taken out. Even the previous developer, current owner, Audubon, did a lot of work at taking a lot of that concrete out, cleaning it up, and then making an artificial reef out of it, which was really cool. So we're kind of continuing in that trend.

We're landscaping everywhere we can. We actually kind of got told to take some landscaping out of the drainage areas for maintenance reasons by by an engineering department, but that's not, you know, really gonna hurt us too bad. But, yeah, we're we're we need to do the innovative stormwater on this because there you know, to to to pack in as much as was shown on the previous site plan and kinda carry that over into this, but also have respect for what, you know, we have for storm water coming off the site, discharging the rear, and things like that. We're gonna have to get creative. And so right now, we've got a lot of cool stuff proposed.

It's things that will have more detail as we get to the site work permit, the actual construction plans that get approved hereafter. But even just today, I was reviewing some of the drawings on those. And when we address the engineering comments that Mr. Freeman noted, we're going to have some standard details of those. Related to parking and phasing and Bill, you may be able to elaborate a little bit on the structures.

Sign in.

Yes, Bill Ware. Sign in, yes. Thank you again for letting us come here today to hopefully further the progress of what we're trying to do there at King's Landing. In answer to the phasing, we we we have two phases now, actually three. The third phase being the lot that is on the West Side Of 2nd Street.

I don't know if you can, Kevin, whoever's got the site plan can put that back up there. That area there. So in an ideal world, I would like to start phase two before phase one is completed, which means that the parking garage and all of this to the south has to be commenced shortly thereafter. In the meantime, we would use that lot for any parking needs both for construction activity and for the hotel should the hotel be completed prior to the garage being done.

Okay.

That was a big concern for me because I'm like, where are you gonna park all these people?

Right. That's always a great question.

Garage being there.

It's a great question. It's gonna be a very busy site, so we're thankful, quite frankly, that we have the site across the street to accommodate us on the short term.

Thank you.

So

is that enough space then for construction and for, I'm not saying, maybe the hotel would be in full capacity, is that enough space?

It is. Okay.

It is. And

is the plan for the hotel to utilize the parking on-site?

It is. In the garage. At the end of the day when the garage is done, the Top Floor will be dedicated to the hotel people, which is 90 spaces if my memory serves me correctly.

Do we have an indication of what brand the hotel will be?

Marriott Tribute.

And there's no no restaurant on-site of the hotel. Correct?

There is a restaurant within the hotel.

Within the hotel there is?

Yes, sir. And then the building adjacent to the hotel, on the Ground Floor will also be a restaurant space.

Any other questions for the applicant? Thank you.

Thank you.

At this time, I will open it to the public. For anyone that needs to like to speak to this item, please step up, State your name and sign in, please.

My name is Perry Lloyd.

It's not

why I came here, but I find this an interesting picture.

Excuse me, sir. You have to speak into the mic.

My name is Perry Lloyd. I came here for another reason, but this picture is interesting. You know, it's getting hotter, and palm trees don't cut the mustard for shade. And if you go out to IFAS, which has been here for decades in Saint Lucie County, they'll tell you they're not even considered a Florida native plant. But there's no real trees in this place except palm trees. When the palm fronds fall, you can't wheelchairs, baby carriages, and other people can't have to have to go around them or cars will try to go around them too. So that's really under eco friendly design on the lawn.

What else

do you want here? Okay. Sorry. Used to be that creek was also the effluence from Northwest Ford Pierce. I don't know how the smell is now, but years ago when I was a kid, it was fairly smelly.

I'm gonna put a hotel down there, which is near a railroad train, potentially smelly creek and the marina with its smells. I'm not so sure that's all has full wisdom unless there's some more thought going into the planning. I checked with IFAS. IFAS has been here for decades, and they'll tell you what. In the Siktank County, it used to have a horticulturist, Marcus Geiger, who helped with the planning when they were doing planning, would help with the design on plants and foliage and stuff. It'd be nice to have something like that again because there's none in Fort Pierce now.

Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we will close it to the public and bring it back

to the board. Are there any additional questions? Comments? My only other comment is that permit for the drainage. So what is the impact of that? The drainage has to go into Morris Creek, correct?

Yes, please. Step back up.

Yeah. So essentially, the system's going to provide for treatment and attenuation. When we address stormwater and specifically that South Florida Water Management District permit that we have to get, that's not at all out of step with most of your development that you'll see in the city or anywhere else in Florida. Anytime you have a project that either modifies a site substantially or puts down enough impervious, you have to get a storm water management system permit from the state. So we'll be meeting that criteria.

We'll be providing a net improvement of nitrogen and phosphorus discharges from the site. A lot of this we actually got permitted the first go around with the site plan. And I'm way more excited about this design because I feel like we've got a lot more push to do some things beyond what that original site plan showed and since been reached out to by a lot of companies that are developing more of these means and methods that we can utilize that in more urban environments like this. And so at the end of the day, we'll demonstrate a net reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus. We'll also I mean, the second half of it is flood protection.

We can't flood ourselves or others. So we're we're working with the city of Fort Pierce right now on they've actually coordinated their improvements along Indian River Drive and some of the drainage improvements they'll be making along there, separating those from anything that's connected on our site so that everybody's kind of playing nice in the sandbox and not flooding each other. And certainly, the big push for me. As much as we care about water quality, I do realize that the first one to pick up the phone is the person getting flooded. So we certainly wanna make sure that it doesn't happen here.

And then while you're up there, as far as the gentleman's comment about trees, I mean, I'm part of the Audubon Society. I think more about, like, you know, the birds and and then I'm having a home. So is there is there, I guess, room for improvement or is there other thoughts or considerations after you prepare what was commented on from the public?

Yeah. The first statement I'll say is if you go there today, there's no trees. That's We don't look at that, though. We look at what we're required to provide. There's no trees there now. But our goal is to have it won't be complementary if we have no trees on this site. The second point I'll clarify is that it's not just palms. The rendering that was shown up there is not meant to be a tree by tree actual. It's an architectural concept that's shown. Our landscape plan that's been submitted as a part of our application outlines all the species, and there are other species besides palms.

Commenting on that. Okay.

I was actually gonna let you know about that when he had said because this has more landscaping than most projects. There's over 54 trees and 225 palm trees, and they've actually been asked to remove vegetation from it. Mhmm. There is a lot of native species within.

Okay. Thank you for the balance. Helps.

You're welcome.

And thank you.

Any other comments? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve. Other conditions. There were no conditions. Right? With the conditions. Second. With conditions. I'll second.

It's been moved by miss Carter with the condition and seconded by mister Edwards. Please call the roll.

Mister Johnson?

Yes. Miss

Carter? Yes. Mister Edwards? Yes. Mister Collins?

No, ma'am.

Chair Clemens?

Yes. Motion passes. Moving on to item c. Conditional use with no new construction, house of peace group living facility, address 2021 Sunrise Boulevard. We have mister Gilmore.

Yes. Good evening, chair, planning board members. Before you, we have a conditional use application with no new construction for the House of Peeves Group Living Facility located at 2021 Sunrise Boulevard. The parcel ID is 2400Fifteen-seven0Three-one80Seven-zeroZero-two. The applicant is Lashana Roberts.

The site area is approximately plus or minus point one nine acres. The applicant is seeking approval for a provider group home with up to five residents located in the C1 Office Commercial Zone. The existing future land use is offices promote professional and business services with a zoning classification of office commercial C1. The property currently consists of a one story, four bedroom, two bath, single family home built in 1954. Surrounding uses are primarily single family with the exception of South Of Tennessee Avenue.

There's three commercial parcels which consist of mainly office professional type uses.

Okay.

This application must adhere to city code section one twenty five dash two three seven procedure for the review and approval of conditional uses. Here's an aerial of the subject site. As you can see, it's highlighted in the yellow. To the Northwest and East are single family residences, and to the South are office and professional services. This is a future land use and zoning map.

As you can see, the property to the north of this subject property is also c one, and pretty much everything to the south is c one as well. This is the site plan of the existing Sangamo family home. As you can see, there is a residential driveway for parking. Maximum of five residents, the applicant's proposing, ages 21 to 65, male and female, four full time employees with twenty four seven rotating shifts. There's a transit van proposed for medical appointments, community events, etcetera.

Life skills training, they will be providing medications for the residents, and community integration and social skills will also be involved. This is the floor plan of the home.

Okay.

This is these are elevations of the existing home. The applicant has made improvements to, the home. Okay. These are the conditions of approval. Staff is recommending approval with two conditions.

Per city code section code per city code section one twenty five dash three sixteen access control. The residential driveway shall be a minimum of 12 feet wide with a maximum of 26 feet wide. The driveway width must be extended to a minimum width of 12 feet. And number two, limit the number of vehicles parked to no more than two vehicles at a time. Alternative recommendations recommend modified approval or recommend diff disapproval. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Gilmore. At this time, if there are any questions or comments from the board for mister Gilmore? Seeing none. I'll ask the applicant to step forward if they're present. Please state your name and sign in.

Good aft good afternoon, evening. My name is Lashana Roberts. Thank you for having me today.

Do you have anything you would like to add?

No. I just see this as a great opportunity to help, and I look forward to being able to provide the service.

K. Any comments or questions from the board for her? I saw one item about the driveway being widened. Am I correct that it has to be completed? Has that come been completed?

No. Once I've received the go ahead, I'll be more than happy to go ahead and take care of that. Thank you. Thank you.

At this time, I'll open it to the public for anyone who'd like to speak to this item.

It's not Johnny Cash Day. Perry Lloyd again. I saw these nebulous signs on the property there, and I I called the number, which was the city hall here. And he said it was signs regarding a possible change of mission or what the property was. He mentioned group home. I said, Oh, wow, there's a lot of group homes in this neighborhood. There's one about a block north at Southern And Sunrise. He said, That's how it was. You never know when these things change, but it's I saw lots of cars there and it was a city group home. And he said, Oh, really?

I said, Yeah. And there's a couple more, I think, within a block or two of this. He goes, There's some I said, Why is that important? He goes, There's a state law about distances. I don't know that. Other than what he mentioned, from other group homes. Anyway, if that would be looked into, and is there some place you learn where the group homes are? I don't know. He seemed surprised by the one that was actually revamped and rebuilt and modified at Southern and Sunrise. Thank you.

Anyone else speaking to this item? Please step up, sign in, and state your name.

Hi. My name is Lisa Kaufman. We own the property north of the said address. My concern is, you don't know who will be there. It's who the people will be living in the home.

It's located very close to an elementary school and there are all families around there and I just don't think it would be advantageous to the neighborhood to have something like that there. Because, you know, you don't know who's gonna be coming and going, who's gonna be living there. And I feel it would damage the property values as well. It's just my opinion. So and I've got possibly, you know, the future sale of the house would be not be, you know, a possibility with having something like that next door.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? If we have others in the audience, if you got please step forward and get the seats directly behind the podium. We can move this along a little quicker. Please state your name, sir.

William Fatella. Thank you. I'm currently living in a house next door to this property. And there's a school within, I I don't know, 35, 40 yards, an elementary school. There's also a at risk school, Dale Cassins, within a block and a half and then you have a middle school. I work for the school district and I don't know exactly what the house of peace is gonna be for foretold. Is it gonna be a group home for recovering addicts? House of peace is very a nondescript thing. Is it a handicap home? Is it for elderly?

Is it just 21 to 65? Is there more information on this and what it's gonna be used for? Because I do work for the school district and the schools are so close, is this a house of recovery? Is my is my main thing. I can't believe that we would even think about putting a a recovery house this close to an elementary school. Thank you.

Anyone else? Seeing none, I would like the applicant to please step forward again and address that issue for

us. I

also work for the school district. I am a teacher in the district. And this is not a recovery house. This is a facility for, people with mental, disabilities. No one is able to drive. They the only time they'll be able to leave the house is if they are escorted by one of the staff. These are individuals that have no place to go because they have families that don't communicate with them, actually. So it's not gonna be a matter of a traffic issue. It's just, you know, providing people with disabilities, mental disabilities. That's my focus.

It's not a recovery for any people with substance abuse or anybody with, you know, physical handicaps, finest physical handicaps, a place to to live. So I do like I said, I work for the school district. I'm aware of the schools around, and I would never put any students in jeopardy of harm. Thank you.

No one else from the public? At this time, I'll close the public portion and bring it back to the board. You have any additional questions or comments?

Have a question for staff. Is there any precedent on on this type of change in the city?

So, typically I'm glad you asked that. Typically, most group homes would never even come to the planning board. The state has preempted jurisdictions, the cities, and counties that we have to allow for group homes such as these up to six individuals, but only in residential zoning districts. This one was triggered because it's in a commercial zoning district. And as far as the distance requirements, the state regulates that. The cities do not regulate that. So if there is another group home within that distance, they will not be able to get their license through the state. So

So even if it's granted through the city, the state could

Yeah.

Prove

The state has the ultimate say.

And the city doesn't report on that or they don't? No. Nope. So we don't know whether there is or not?

No. They preempt the state. The state controls it so we can't.

Any additional questions? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion.

I move that we accept

with other conditions on this? Yes. Two. Two. With the two conditions.

I second.

It's been properly moved with two conditions

by mister Edwards, seconded by miss Carter. Please call the roll. Ms. Carter? Yes. Mr. Edwards? Yes. Mr. Collins?

No, ma'am.

Mr. Johnson?

Yes. Chair Clemens? Yes.

Motion passed.

Okay. Moving on to item d. Conditional use with no new construction at Institute College at 1404 South 28th Street. And that is missus Driver.

Good afternoon again, madam chairwoman and board. We bring to you Esposure Institute doing business as Esposure College located at 1404 South 28th Street. This is a conditional use with no new construction application. The applicant is Gerardo Rodello, property owners of Fort Pierce Real Estate Properties Incorporated. Parcel ID is 241751000250003.

The parcel sits on about 0.6 acres, give or take. And here's an area map of the location of the property. In summary, a conditional use. No new construction application has been submitted for review. Proposing to operate Medical College Espacia College at 1404 South 28th Street.

The property's future land use is general commercial. SVC is surrounded with some general commercial as well as residential load. The zoning of the property is c three general commercial surrounded by other c three zoning as well as r three. Educational purposes. Conditional use according to article five, section one twenty five dash three twenty five, the purpose of the conditional use process is to allow when desirable uses that would not be appropriate generally or without restriction throughout the particular zoning district but which if controlled as to member area location or relation to the neighborhood would not adversely affect the public health, safety, comfort, good order, appearance, convenience, and general welfare.

According to Section 120 five-one 187 of the city's allowable use code, educational facilities, colleges, or universities, which this application falls under, is conditional based. Here is a photo of the existing building, American Care Medical Centers. The building with signage and operational details. The proposed operational hours for classes will be 8AM to ten, Monday through Saturday. Staff two part time instructors and two full time employees.

They propose to serve ages 17 through 55. Classroom methods will be hybrid. And the list of diploma programs as well as associate of science programs. The existing floor plan for Level 1 encompasses two computer labs, two training labs, and classrooms, restroom, lounge, three offices, front desk, and storage. Level 2 models.

Level Four's layout. It is important to note that there are no demolition plans for, the interior. The landscape plan. As it currently sits, the property currently has five trees existing. The proposed application will be adding three additional trees to the property with additional shrubs.

The proposed application meets the standards of the city's code section 125 to 35, which is conditional use. Therefore, staff's recommendation is for Planning Board to move the proposed application type for approval to city commission with the two conditions. Condition one, signed permit should be applied for prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. And two, a notarized landscape maintenance agreement is due prior to the certificate of occupancy. Alternate recommendations will be to, one, recommend approval with additional or modified conditions, or two, recommend disapproval. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll start. With the landscaping agreement, is there a irrigation system?

Yes. So within the landscape maintenance agreement itself, there are details that talks about irrigation. So the applicant is responsible for maintaining the overall landscaping. So that means if irrigation is impacted, then the applicant will have to bring it up to code to make sure that landscaping is maintained on the property.

Any other questions from the board?

I'm going back to the front.

Seeing none, if the applicant is present, please step forward. Please state your name.

Hi. I'm doctor Jose Garcia. I'm the president of Aspatriya College Institute, actually. We've been approved by the state for college classes. Just to give you a little background, our main campus is in Jacksonville. This will be a satellite campus. We normally will have on-site anywhere from six to 10 students about staff of about four. Most of our classes are all online. Some of the things that the students will do there will be to actually go to a lab there. The clinical rotations will be through our affiliated clinics, so there's no clinical site training there.

So what we have is some mannequins there. The students will do about three months at a time. So it's a very small number of students that are on-site at any given time. Pretty much everything else is done online. For the associate's degrees, that's done online. Students can go there just to register if they need some information. So the the flow of individuals going through that site is gonna be very limited because it's just for some of the training that they'll do there.

Any questions for the applicant? Seeing none. Thank you.

Thank you.

At this time, I'll open it to the public. Anyone have any comments or questions, please step forward. State your name. Sign in if you haven't already.

Perry Lloyd again. Again, I'm not here for this reason, but I've been in that building a number of times over the years and parking was insufficient for whatever was in those two or three stories there. So I didn't hear much about parking today unless I missed it, but that's something that can be of consideration. Thanks.

Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll close the public portion and come back to the board for any questions or comments. I'll entertain a motion at this. Oops. Excuse me.

I was gonna ask, is there an issue with the 10:00 there with the residential around it?

I'll let miss Driver answer that question.

So that is a good question. I haven't read anything or received any notice that there is a issue with the with the time frame.

K.

I entertain them. Oh.

Okay. Well, can I ask the applicant how many students will be on campus at one time? What's the possibility? The maximum number.

The Jacksonville campus, which we opened a year and a half ago, and, obviously, that's a bigger city. We have about 10 students at any given time, so it's a small number. A lot of them are online, and some do come and go. Some are in the morning, some are in the evening, so it's split half and half. So it's not many students that are physically there because nowadays, as you are aware, a lot of the classes are done online. So it's only when they're doing some training there.

Thank you.

And you feel that the parking's adequate for the amount of

It is adequate. Yes. Based on our experience in our Jacksonville campus, it is adequate.

At this time, I entertain a motion.

Make a motion to approve with the conditions one and two noted by staff recommendation.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded. At this time, I entertain a roll call.

Mr. Edwards? Yes. Mr. Collins?

Yes, ma'am.

Mr. Johnson?

Yes.

Ms. Carter? Yes. Chair Clemens?

Yes. All right. We're moving on to item e, proposed annexation agreement discussion. Ashley Capital. Several parcels, including 231480100060001, North Of Pruitt Research Road and West Of Kings Highway. And we have mister Freeman.

Thank you, chair. This is a primarily a discussion item. I've got the representative of that annexation agreement, proposed annexation agreement with us tonight. And essentially, I think it's more beneficial if the applicant or the presenter comes up and and, you know, goes through what this is all about. Essentially, it's a an annexation agreement with an entity, Ashley Capital, who at the moment designing a development off of Kings Highway, South Kings Highway, and they're gonna be doing that in the county.

And this is an agreement to subsequently bring it into the city at a later time and and essentially underwrite the fact that that is acceptable to both parties, including the county. So in essence, the the development will be processed, planned, and approved in the county, and then subsequently brought into the city after it's built or in phases, or whatever that would be. But I'll let the presenter walk through what this is all about.

Please step forward, state your name, and sign in.

Good afternoon. For the record, Lee Dobbins with the Dean Meade law firm, here in Fort Pierce. So I'll give you some of the background on this because I think that would be helpful to understand it. So in 2022, the county put out an RFP. They were looking for a company to purchase part of the county's undeveloped land in the Tesserta Research Park.

That's their the county's education and research park on Kings Highway. And they were looking for an experienced developer to come in and develop a project to provide good paying jobs consistent with what the original vision of what the research park was looking to do. Ashley Capital was the sole qualifying respondent to that RFP and they have a good proven track record in order to be able to deliver on the county's goals of providing economic development and good jobs. Ashley Capital, just to give you some background, they're one of the largest privately held industrial real estate development companies in The United States. They have over a 100 properties spread over the Eastern US and over 30,000,000 square feet of commercial and industrial space.

So like I say, they won the RFP with the county and what they're looking to do there is a commercial and industrial facility. But it's going to be different from a lot of the large warehouse type facilities that we've seen on Kings Highway recently. Those were done mostly with the idea of having one or two big users come in and they were done by developers that were looking to turn around and flip those in many cases. Ashley Capital does not build and flip, they own and operate their facilities and they've done their research and they found that there's a strong need in the county for smaller bays that would be available for up and coming businesses. So a business that might be operating out of a space currently in the county and needs room to grow.

This would give them some place to go to and with a variety of spaces so that they could continue to grow over time. So 2022, they won the RFP. Fast forward to 2024. In October '24, Ashley and the county entered into an option agreement. Took some time because we needed to work out some details on how exactly the agreement would work but basically what we entered into is an option agreement where Ashley makes a series of payments over about a two year period, hopefully less while they get their development approvals.

Under that agreement, there were certain things the county had to do. They had to remove the property from Taserta and the regulations in TESERDA which would restrict it for being used for education and research and Ashley Capital had certain things they have to do. So they've got to get a future land use amendment, zoning change and site plan approval. They are in that process now. In fact, we just had our first DRC meeting with county staff last week.

So under that option agreement, once they get all the land development approvals from the county, we then close on the property and we move forward with developing it. There's also and this is an important point in the deal, there's a revert or calls in the option agreement that says if Ashley Capital doesn't meet time frames in terms of build out, the county can claw the property back basically. So, we have time frames in terms of when we need to get the approvals, have time frames of when we need to get our first building permit and move forward with the project. So the reason I'm here before you is because there there is an interlocal agreement currently between the city, county, FPUA and Taserta relating to annexation of properties on Kings Highway. That was entered into between those parties in 2010 and then in January, it was further amended.

And then annexation agreement provides a timeframe for annexations of these Desserter properties on Kings Highway into the city. Ashley Capital, the property that they're buying from the county is a part of that land and also Ashley Capital has another 60 acres that's right, that they already own that they bought from the school district, which is a part of this development too. So, Ashley Capital wants to be able to develop the property and wants to avoid delays in the development. Remember, avoiding delays is very important to them because of the Reverter Clause. They're concerned that if the property or parts of the property got annexed midstream, that could create problems for them in terms of getting their approvals.

So for example, they don't want a scenario where they've got their approvals from the county for all their land development approvals and then all of a sudden midstream, all or part of their property gets annexed into the city. Now they're coming into the city to pull building permits based upon a site plan that was approved in the county subject to county standards. And the county and the city's standards don't always match up perfectly. In that situation, if county and city have different code standards, Ashley Capital could potentially be required to come to the city to apply for amendments to the annexed portions of their master plan in order to be able to pull sitting building permits. So we approached city staff about, you know, could we enter into an annexation agreement that provides that we would simply annex in phases so that we would get all our approvals from the county, we pull our building permits from the county, we build the thing in the county and then once we get done and get our final CO from the county, at that point, the city could annex it.

And then we would go to the second phase and do the same thing, third phase, same thing. The beauty of it from the city standpoint is the county has all the work in terms of building permits and reviewing things and COs and everything. The city just steps in when the things built and you can, you know, collect the taxes on it and you you annex it at that point. City staff was supportive of it, so we we drafted an agreement to accomplish that and that's what's here before you tonight and with your blessing, we would want to take it to city commission meeting to get it approved and and move forward. That's it in a nutshell and available to answer any questions you have.

My question is why not go ahead and get it annexed into the city and then start the process of doing permits and everything else to our codes and standards as a do as opposed to doing it retroactively, and which means that there may or may not be at our current codes and standards?

It's because this is a county deal and the county wants to control it. So pursuant to our option agreement, the county wants to make sure that they're not gonna close on it until they know that they're getting what was promised. So the option agreement provides that we have to go through the entire process with the city, I'm sorry, with the county before we close. And the process that we are following is a PNRD, it's similar to your plan development, your PD approval. It's planned non residential development is the county equivalent for commercial and so we will be going forward with a PNRD which would include conditions of approval, allowed uses and conditional uses, site plan, all those things.

Part of, you know, the county wants to make sure that they're getting what was promised. They also want to make sure that even though it's been taken out of TESERDA and so it is not under the TESERDA regulations, they wanted something that will fit within TESERDA because TESERDA is still adjacent to it and so they wouldn't want something that would potentially take away or be harmful to Desserta.

Anyone else with questions? Yeah, why is the city planning on annexing this property into the city after it is built? Is that the current plan?

That's the part that's the purpose of the agreement. It's this the agreement to after this has been, you know, formally built

Right.

That it comes into the city.

I get that. But is that the original plan? Like, once this is built, does the city have to annex this into annex this? Like, is like, what is the reason behind

Why did why did they wanna be annexed? Right.

Well, the question of why they wanna be annexed is for the applicant. The city would like to see it annexed because ultimately, it's job jobs and tax revenue for the city. The infrastructure and everything would be completed at that point, and the bureaucratic work to get to that point is would also have been completed by the county. So this this proposal, I'm not sure where it germinates from, but the city at various levels have accepted that this would be good good move.

There's the interlocal agreement which currently exists between the city and the county and it provides that the properties in this area could be annexed within two years. And I believe that agreement provided that the city would not annex the airport but in return, these areas along Kings Highway could be annexed by the city in as little as two years. That was that Second Amendment was entered into in January. So the clock's running on that. So we're only a year and a half out before this property could be annexed which would be midstream in the development of our project.

I mean, I guess there's a possibility and that's why I was asking you what is the city's interest in this as far as annexation annexation and would it normally, after this property is built, proceed to pursue the annexation annexation of the property. Is that is that a normal timeline for

We this you can sort of say there's a parallel here in that properties in the county hook up to city services, water and sewer, and by doing that, they become subject to an agreement where if they ever become contiguous to the city, the city would go and annex them, which we've doing. Yes. It's a similar thing with this, in that, you know, it would be a built development. It does provide significant benefits to the city in terms of tax income without actually doing a lot of the work to get that tax income. So yeah, this has got this far because of that initial agreement and also other discussions with the city staff at higher levels than me.

Is there any concern at all as far as the different codes from the county and the city?

We've we've gone through some of those. We we did take it through the technical review committee to ensure that, you know, we're in the design process, the the applicant and the review teams there would be cognizant of what the city would be looking for, essentially. Although it will be approved and designed with the county's process in mind, it is a planned development, so some of those things can be taken into account. Say, you know, I think there's a degree of trust between the city and the county in terms of this, you know, moving forward. It's a very important piece of the, you know, the Kings Highway area in terms of job creation and setting out a design template and encouraging this sort of development in this location.

And it is a natural progression for the city to be annexing too.

My last question, like what types of biz like what size businesses would be in these buildings?

Joe or Ryan, you wanna tackle that?

She's manic.

Good evening. Thank you for having us this evening. My name is Jill Morasa. I serve as the director of development for the Treasure Coast for Ashley Capital. And my colleague

I'm Ryan Bloss, director of leasing for the Treasure Coast.

So the answer to the question that you had was types of businesses and size. So one of the things that we have spent a lot of time is understanding the market demands here in the region and in Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County. I am formerly an employee of economic development in Saint Lucie County, so I have some experience in that area. Our goal here is to have a small to midsize product.

So think about 4,000 or 5,000 square feet minimum up to the building size of about 200,000 or so square feet. But we're looking at the targeted industry. We're looking at the high quality jobs that are in the region. We're looking at the the clusters that are here. So you think about manufacturing, aviation, the synergy with the airport.

You think about all the trades that are in the region that are here. You think about what's at Indian River State College and what they're doing at the Eastman Workforce Center. And so that's sort of our target market is that we will go after those businesses that are either looking to grow or expand here. This will be the first class a commerce park in unincorporated Saint Lucie County, and I'm proud to say it'll probably be the first one in the city of Fort Pierce as well. What makes us unique at Ashley Capital, and you talk about standards and what it'll look like, we hold our products.

So a lot a lot different than some of the other developments that you see where developers come in and they build a building to the minimum standards. To us, it's really important that we have very high standards, and our company does have very high standards. We have over 30,000,000 square feet across five states in The US. And so when we build a product, we build it long term because we're here long term. So fire suppression, landscaping, parking, attributes of the building itself, all of those are really important to us so that we can, attract the highest and best, businesses to the park. So hopefully that answered your question. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Excuse me. Can you sign in?

Oh, sure.

I'll get your tone.

Sorry about that.

Other questions for the applicant? Seeing none, I'll open it to the public. No comments from the public. We'll close the public portion and come back to the board. Any additional comments or questions?

So we're voting to

We're not voting at all. It's just a discussion.

So we don't have to give a Okay.

A motion.

I think staff will be reporting, you know, on the comments that the board have made. And if there's a general consensus of support to move forward, then we take that to the city commission. You don't need to vote on that.

To To me, it sounds like a good deal. Something that can happen either way and sure mister Freeman will be glad that he doesn't have to I'm

not taking any credit for that.

But, yeah, I I don't see any reasons not to.

Yeah. I feel like this is a win win for the city. We gained the tax revenue without lifting a finger. There's no other comments or discussion? We'll move on to item seven. Any comments from the public? Thank you, everyone. Next. No comments from the public. So we

have the Director's Report. Thank you, Chair. Planning Board. We are moving forward with the review of the comprehensive plan. As part of that, there's going to be two comprehensive plan workshops, both held at the what do you call it?

Riverwalk

Center. Riverwalk Center. I was trying to remember the acronym. So the Riverwalk Centre, and those will be held on 08/06/2025, between five and 07:00, and also October 9, this year, 2025, between five and seven again, same location. Those will be hosted by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, who have been appointed to look at the update of the comprehensive plan, which is required by state statute.

There will be a presentation to the planning board on September 8 at 02:00. That's a regular meeting. And so we'd have some initial discussion points through the Treasury Coast Renal Planning Council at that meeting. And at the same day, at the city commission day meeting, the that they would have received the the same presentation or similar presentation about what's going on. This is gonna be noticed on the city's website, and there's gonna be a questionnaire that people can respond to.

That will be publicized. And we'll get that out as soon as we can. As I say, we've got city staff project managing this, but essentially, it's the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council who are running the whole thing. And it's an opportunity for the city citizens and representatives to put forward, their issues and recommendations. So keep your eye out for that.

And the questionnaire, we'll publicize that and get that out to all board members so they can look at that as we move through. And that's the big thing that we're doing. We're going through the today, we went through the the budget and there was large discussion on the budget about the looking at some potential cuts in departments to get funding for sufficient funding for the police in terms of staffing and salaries and so forth. And also public works were involved with that. So we're looking, this week to rationalize some of our, budget, situation, and that will be resolved hopefully by the end of this week and presented to city commission next Monday, I believe.

So

it's all good fun. So that's the big things going on. The Causeway Cove application is going on behind the scenes. I had a conference call by phone last week to talk about the methodology that that development would need to use for its traffic impact statement. And on that call were FDOT, the county, the TPO, and the consultant who will be reviewing that for those agencies.

Obviously, there are, you know, there's gonna be a detailed examination of the impact of that development, and we'll be ensuring that it meets the criteria. I'm sure the external agencies that's I definitely heard that at that meeting, that there were some changes made to the methodology proposed by the applicant to keep them on track. So once that's agreed, and I think that's close to being agreed, then the applicant will be forming that analysis. Then that would go through the county to their consultant for review, and then we will get to see that result and and whether or not that would be acceptable or what measures would be needed to address whatever traffic and transportation concerns came out of that.

Thank you. You're welcome. Any comments from the board? Seeing none. Meeting adjourned.