Local Planning Agency - Regular Meeting

e e e e

e e e e e

all right call to order the March regular meeting planning agency I have any roll call please Mary Albright Steve coats ton wi James mcferson Melissa OIC Robert renie Jamie cyer Janet Wilson please stand for culations to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all and could I get a motion to approve the agenda I move to approve the agenda seconde V and a motion to approve the minutes last meeting so moov a second who was the second me than all right move carry any public comments not on the [Music] agenda all right this is ordinance number 2176 ordinance to Res Zone 120 liary Place Southeast from C uh CF to MX2 it's an to the city council of the city of for w Beach Florida provid for Authority provide for finance of fact providing for property described as 120 L Place Southeast more particular particular in the body the ordinance to be reson MX2 mixed High zoning District providing for the amendment of the effective portion of the official zoning map Prov for cability and provide for an effective date and this is a quasi legislative hearing uh Mr Gibson's going to speak on

about staff then I believe the applicants are here as well right good evening Tim Gibson planning supervisor for the city of Fort Walton Beach so this project uh covers three separate Parcels with five different addresses um associated with them the addresses are 107 and 109 1 Street Southeast 120 lowy Place Southeast and then 108 and 110 2 Street Southeast um but then the rest of the staff report is refer to the property um on November 9th 2024 growth Management Department did receive an application to amend the zoning district for the property from Community facility uh to mix Ed High MX2 um this property was most people known as the old school board property um it's been Zone CF for that purpose um they've since you know the school board has vacated that they did sell off the property um and right now with the CF it's extremely restrictive but that's why they wanted to move it to the MX2 zoning District on there um on December 10th staff did Identify some differences um with some of what was applied and and some of the information that we had on file um we did have a Mee Mr Ashley uh myself and Daniel Payne the the uh Public Works director to kind of go over what those were um to just kind of boil it down part of it ended up um being a a 30ft discrepancy uh that was shown on some of the property lines uh we felt that you know they had actually uh their survey wasn't showing some of the property that they they purchased um but in digging into that our G's Department really dug deep into that they did find that there was what's known as a scrier eror on the or Subdivision plat uh where it did show one distance um it was measuring out at 146.760 75 ft uh and that's where that 30t um difference in there uh came in uh it was identified on a survey uh that

was done several years ago that there was a scrier error on there um and so that's why we were able to kind of figure that out on there uh there's one other small minor discrepan um about uh there was on the survey that was provided there was an area indicated where uh that portion of the property had been vacated to the city to be part of the rideway um and and right now we're not showing record of that but our GIS department is working to resolve that um but ultimately it will have no effect on this uh rezoning or anything else so the the survey that they have is the property that they have and that is what we are going to be uh working on doing the rezoning forward is what's in that survey um so yeah we did discuss that with the applicants uh they did talk about their survey and everything and that's why we decided to go ahead and press forward with this one here so this site uh the total of all three properties is about 7.57 Acres uh the future land use designation is mixed use mu uh it is currently designated as a CF Community facilities and they're looking to go to the MX2 mixed juice high so for the uh the adjacent properties around there um to the north which is uh the north side of Second Street across the street from there there is some medium density residential uh future land use um and it is zoned as R2 multif family residential although most of the properties up there are actually single family residentials but again that's across Second Street from them uh to the South and to the East are all zoned um as commercial or mixed use um and would be very compatible with this to the West uh is a church that is also Zone as CF which is what was existing uh but we do feel that that would still be compatible there uh section 2.1.5 of the city's Land Development code does outline the criteria for rezoning uh the first is whether the requested zoning district is consistent with the future land use um and this uh does have our future land use already of mixed use so there would no need to change that and this zoning

District of MX2 would be compatible there second criteria is if this is compatible with the uses in adjacent zoning districts and as we just discussed uh we do believe that the adjacent zoning districts would be compatible with this having the mixed use in commercial activities to the East and to the south of this property um next is whether the use is substantially more or less intense than development on adjacent properties and again this go back to the existing on the south in the east side of the property um and then being buffered to the north side we're not concerned about anything being more intense on here uh with the MX2 zoning uh finally would be is if the use is based on soil types topography protection of natural resources and protection of designated historic areas uh this property is not in a archaeologically sensitive area however all of that type of stuff would be uh reviewed in the future when they're doing development on the property uh going through either building permit process or the development order process so with that staff does find that the proposed zoning is consistent with the existing future land use that the uses within the requested zoning District are compatible with the uses in the adjacent zoning district and that the requested use is not substantially more intense or less intense and all of developments on adjacent properties and that staff does respectfully recommend local planning agency approval to recommend city council adoption of ordinance number 2176 to reone um all the properties listed before from CF Community facilities to MX2 mixed use high any questions any questions um how this is the northern boundary then of around Mound is going to swing right under this um we don't have any definitive answers on where around amount that's actually going to go that's still in the PDN phase with um dot we're hoping that

they have an answer for us um by like the end of summer which um I'm sure you're familiar with the different options that were there we're hoping they have an answer on which option that's going to be by the end of summer uh but until then we really don't know where it is going to be in theory where egin Parkway comes down that was kind of the going in theory is that's where it would tie back in so this would be right basically ajacent to that the South uh the round Mountain unit south of this property but again until dot comes up with they actual pl we don't know where that will be okay um and and let's say it does come whatever I know they're working on I think it's 1 a or 1B are the two proposals that fdot is working on are the setbacks associated with around the mound different than the setbacks associated with just egund Parkway Southeast as it is right now with respect to traffic or any other safety parameters um to your knowledge not sure what you're asking about well I mean like like can you know if if MX2 is high use commercial or residential there there must be are there setbacks from a roadway and depending on whether the roadway is two lanes or four lanes are the setbacks different and is that something that we should be aware of yes so zoning um is what determines the setback and really you're irr respective of what roads um are adjacent to them or even if it's you know a side property versus adjacent to a road um sometimes we do have some parts in our code for like a side setback maybe 7 and 1/2 ft but if it's adjacent to a rideway like a corner property it's 15 ft so that's really the only time in our code that setbacks change MH and that's just whether or not it's adjacent to a rideway nothing about what type of rideway or anything like that um right now this one doesn't even technically touch egland Parkway So in

theory if the rount goes there it would not affect this property at all but again we don't know what that's going to look like okay thank you any other questions do we have any anybody else want to speak we just want app I think wants to speak thank you all for it's it's inviting us here tonight I'm just here to answer any questions you might have we still have no idea what we're going to do with this property uh certainly have met with the former city manager and Tim and others to uh get the city's input on what they'd like to see you youone state your name and address for the Larry Ashley 587 Court uh so just hear answer any questions you might have did you purchase this property as a just individual uh yes um we bid on it along with the city a couple years ago and we won the bid so any questions question anybody don't have any questions thank you anybody want to make a motion I will make a motion to approve the changing of the trying to find it yeah are we recommending approval to the city council yes recommend approval okay I'll second that and name public comments on the uh motion for the record all right any public comments nothing

heard all right motion Carri you hand sleep do something nice pull Mexican restaurant you can bring in Texas road so to the next ordinance it's ordinance number 2177 an ordinance meing LDC chapter 4 development standards it's an ordinance the city council of the city of for Beach Florida meing Chapter 4 the Land Development code Define and establish protection requirements for Heritage trees provide for Authority provide for severability and provide for an effective date this is a qual play appearing Mr Tim Gibson's uh appearing on map of Staff good evening again so in 2019 fla statute uh 16304 was uh created um in in that statute it was fairly vague but it did state in there that local government could not require any permit fee or application for tree pruning trimming or removal on any residential property if the property owner obtained documentation from an arborist that the tree presented a danger to persons or properties there was no definition given for documentation or even what they meant by residential property you know there's no real delineation between is that being a single family house or a 200 unit apartment complex uh they're all residential so it was really kind of very vague in there in different places we're doing uh applying that very differently uh I'll say at the time our Land Development code did exempt all single family and two family uh Residential Properties from our entire landscape code requirements that had tree protection in there so at the time when this came out we were already exempting them from anything to do with trees um and that's actually currently what is in there right now so you know like a lot of your commercial properties

that they want to go in there and take out what we list as protected trees um then there's they have to mitigate them by replanting on an inch for inch basis on the property uh replanting it on an inch for inch basis um at a city approved property uh typically we do those in like Parks or rideways or something along those lines where need some trees planted um or they can pay into U what we call the tree mitigation fund and essentially there they just pay in per inch that they took out and then the city takes those funds as we need them to populate trees and parks and stuff and then we go and just do the plantings out of that fund there uh but again um at present and and even back when this was passed uh the one and two family dwellings uh were Exempted from that requirement now in 2022 Florida statute uh one 63045 was amended uh to provide some clarification on the items that I just talked about so documentation was defined as an on-site assessment performed in accordance with the tree risk assessment procedures outlined in best management practices tree risk assessment second edition 2017 by an arborist certified by the international Society of AR arult Isa uh or a Florida licensed landscape architect designed by the certified Arborist or licensed landscape AR architect and it went on to Define residential property um essentially being a single family um residence is what that was ref referencing on there um and again this prohibits us from um assigning requiring any permits fees or applications for that if the tree is determined to be damaged um that's the only restriction in Florida statute right now as part of residential tree protection um so in this one uh if you go into the city's comprehensive plan goal e states that the city will Fort Walton Beach will preserve protect and enhance the city's natural resources encouraging the highest possible Environmental Quality and the best

longstanding man management of Natural Resources um and furthermore policy e51 under there States the city will require preservation of native vegetation species on land proposed for development or Redevelopment in the extent possible and and then I did give just a few references out there um from uh the uh United States Environmental Protection a agency as well as FEMA as far as like what their recommendation and some of the benefits of trees are uh especially in a a flood prone area like we are here the trees can drink a lot of water um and it it even in your background there it does discuss some things like a 1in rainfall from 2400 ft impervia surface one tree with a 24 or 25 ft canopy can absorb all that water uh in an hour so that's where a lot of these trees are very important for the um for the flood plane areas uh there's also some stuff called Urban heat island effects uh which really can lower the entire temperature of an entire area just by having like the shade areas in small portions so even the unshaded areas can be cooled by having these shaded areas so there are a lot of natural benefits to these trees out there uh to implement this uh we did need to make some changes to um uh several sections of Land Development code uh for the Heritage trees uh section 4.8.1 was updated to amend uh the applicability of the section to include single family and two family residential when removing Heritage trees uh this section was also modified to update some of the requirements section 4.8.4 was amended to define a Heritage tree and provide protection guidance so in here uh we did look around to a lot of different uh surrounding jurisdictions counties uh and just even throughout the State of Florida looking for some places that already have some of these things in there uh some places don't have any protection for what they

call Heritage trees some places do um primarily in the area of the City of Pensacola and uh the city of uh Panama City um they both have protection for their Heritage trees there's different definitions out there some of them were based on um multiple charts that they had in their code but just to kind of keep it simple here what we decided to do was um just make it a standard thing that is um if it's on the um State of Florida uh oh wait I just lost it the Florida friendly Landscaping plant guide um sorry um and that's where we just basically went with a standard size for all trees that are on there so if you have a lot of these um non-native trees or these invas species and stuff like that we're not trying to protect those uh those can all be taken out those are not on the Florida friendly Landscaping guide so that's why we really wanted to focus on that one um and just to provide that protection in there um it does we did go in here and some of this language was um you know similar to some of the other areas around here as far as like the uh the permit not being required for single family Residential Properties so long as documentation of a danger to a person or property has been submitted to the city and then it goes into some details about what that would look like for that uh protection um and it does um where it our code has always said protected trees we're just adding language in there now as protected or Heritage trees um because not all the protected tree list that's in our code is is very small it's actually in your in your documentation there there's a lot of other trees that are that are on that florid to Friendly list that are just not in there as a protected tree list that is something that we are working um to eventually

update in here to kind of grow this list out a little bit better um and kind of mirror with that Florida friendly list but in the meantime uh that's what we're just trying to do with the uh Heritage trees in there um and yeah so for that we basically um like I said there's three ways to mitigate typically for commercial properties in there they can plant it back on site they can plant it somewhere else or they can um or they can mitigate it um and to do the planted offsite or to mitigate it they have to demonstrate that there's not enough room on their property to replant the trees there uh we didn't want to force residents cuz some residents just want to have no trees in their property and we understand that so rather than trying to force them to plant it back on their site or anything like that we just kind of Exempted that out of there so that they don't have to do that if they don't want to they they can mitigate that way if they would like to but if not then they would be Exempted from that um and we did put a cap of $5,000 um cuz it's $150 per inch which is established in our uh City's comprehensive fee schedule it has been that rate for at least the last 12 years as far back as I could see so that has not gone up um but we didn't want you know if you got some of these huge trees you know we wanted to put some cap on there that $5,000 does tie into Florida statute for U some code enforcement violations where U permanent damage is done um you know so somebody were to go in there and not be a permit and not want to follow this Florida statute does cap it out at $5,000 there's other fees that would be associated with there that's kind of where we came up with that maximum amount on there we didn't want to you know be charging people more than what they would get fed if they just took it out without a permit if that makes sense um and so with that um staff does respectfully recommend local planning agency approval to recommend city council adoption of order ordinance number 2177 to amend the Land

Development code chapter 4 to Define and add requirements for Heritage tree tempure I have a question how how are you guys ideating these trees I'm sorry how are you guys iding these trees is it just by the make of the or the type of tree typically yes so I mean in the the Florida friendly list there is um a list of tons of different species and stuff in there A lot of times an arborist will get involved in this or um you know the companies that'll come in and remove the trees themselves um cuz again we're talking massive trees we're not talking these small trees that you know home owner might just go in there and take out themselves we're talking the very large ones that more than likely are going to be an actual um company coming in to do that can identify the they have Arbor on staff that can identify these things and be able to say these are what it is um I'll tell you we've had multiple arborist call um over the years asking for information on this because they they personally don't want to go in there and take out these trees um um but they're being hired by these companies and they they're they call us asking hey what are the requirements on this what do we need to do for this um and until now it's always been well it's it's a one single family residential property you can go in there and clearcut it uh no permits no fees no nothing um this is kind of try to bring that down a little bit and protect some of the trees that are out there I have a question you've been you've been saying residential but this is only for commercial I'm little confused here you want so the commercial protection is already out there um the commercial protection um is on that table um that's in there anything that's removed on there has to already be is already protected and has to be replaced if it's a commercial or other than one and two family development so if it's a if it's a multif family residential or commercial or anything like that they

have to follow that already um right now there's zero residential requirements so this is going to have a larger impact on the residential side than it is on the commercial side now what it is going to do for the commercial side though is add in there because like I said this list is small and not all inclusive as the Florida friendly list is if that tree is on the Florida friendly list and is of the size to be a Heritage tree then that would still commercial residential it wouldn't matter they would all be protected under that so it would be it's not going to be a major change to the commercial I guess is what I'm getting at so so what you're saying then is um let's say um in the ferry Park neighborhood you know they knock down a house on the pery of the property or um rather large Live Oaks that have been there since the houses were built in 55 are these the trees then that the the subsequent Builder that's going to erect a new home would have to come into the City and say I want to keep this one but this one needs to come down because of the sewer line or correct I mean the ones they want to keep they don't have to come to but if they want to take one of those out that's exactly what it would be to encourage them to leave those in place um okay yeah got it thank you so if you if you have a heavily treed neighborhood that's historically a heavy canopied neighborhood and people start moving in and decide to start cutting down the trees there's no protection in place that is that would keep that historically treed neighborhood a treed neighborhood because you're saying people could just pay to have trees replanted elsewhere there's nothing that says if you cut these trees down that don't need to be

cut down you don't have to replace the tree on that property that that's correct um but right now I mean you could go in there and clearcut that entire neighborhood and without a permit without any fees without anything it currently could be done without any kind of guidance or any kind of repay yeah I see that's been happening but I was wondering if I mean if there's any way to prevent these neighborhoods that are all of a sudden all the trees are just disappearing because more and more people are coming in like you said instead of finding a property or a neighborhood that's open and buying a house in more of open area they're coming into canopy neighborhoods and then these you know tree neighborhoods are becoming open neighborhoods so I'm just wondering if you could protect the tree neighborhoods in a way stopain you can't you can but there's a way to get around it private property rights so so what you'll end up having though is uh folks will just hire uh arborists to say the Tre is dangerous then at that point and under state state statute if they say the tree is dangerous and I me but you can say any tree here's the thing there has been litigated before actually about an pellet Court in Florida and they basically determined that uh in that case that you know as long like it doesn't matter even if you tell arus I need you to say that tree is dangerous as long as AR just signs off on it and says the tree is dangerous then they'll allow to be cut down so to kind of prevent that from happening most municipalities t want to give people the option and and most of the companies will self comply at that point in time because uh I I had some trees cut down recently nothing parage size of my property but the actual owner of the tree company was also an arborist and actually was talking me out of uh like I

wasn't going to cut these trees down he like you don't want to cut these down right I was like no no no and so the more responsible tree companies tend to not want to just clear cut your yard as well even though they'll make more money uh they uh so kind of in a roundabout way to answer question it you could put a complete Prohibition in here but you're going to start running into some problems with that if you do that and don't give people the option of basically mitigating by purchasing a tree off site and and because then you'll get more actual compliance if you do it this way I mean it It ultimately runs out into you know how far into private property rights do we go um is is really kind of a lot it div into because we say no you have to re mitigate and replant it on your property I mean it just yeah but it's like I I guess I'm thinking of like the overlay development districts where you adhere to certain design standards so if you if you are living in a neighborhood that has a certain characteristic you would expect that that characteristic stays the same so if you buy a piece of property and you're enjoying a a treed you know historically treed neighborhood and then 5 years later because multiple people all of a sudden move in and cut down these 100-year old trees and all of a sudden it's completely not shaded anymore then your property is no longer existing in what you thought it was going to be existing yet so that's that's just my line of thinking is you know that just happened to me my neighbor they just rebuilt their house and this huge Oak was right on my driveway but it was hit on his property but it shaded gave me canopy over my entire driveway practically but he took it out but he had to because it was 20 I mean the roots of that thing was going 30 ft in do property I'm not talking about not letting people cut down things that need to be cut down but just the idea that if you're going to cut down a tree that you wouldn't maybe have to replace it with a new one to eventually come up and shade

like you're saying you can just plant it somewhere else not on your property if we're going to say one for one or something and ultimately that's what the goal is is to you know mitigate these things like I said there is the mitigation fund but we do try to just turn that around and just purchase more trees and stuff with that just to keep the tree canopy in the city I understand what you're saying about specific neighborhoods um I mean we could look into that I can talk with our attorney and see if there's any kind of like overlay like you're talking about um I'm not aware of anything that could be done with that I mean Florida's a byright state so I mean even you know you may have these quaint small neighborhood with these small one-bedroom you know or two-bedroom houses in this neighbor Hood but by right if somebody comes in there and buy a house and they want to build this twostory you know full setback monstrosity of a house in that little small Point neighborhood by right they're allowed to um we can't go in there and say no you can't build that because it doesn't fit into the neighborhood really um so there's a lot of private property rights where we just can't go in there and dictate what they have on their property um as long as it meets the Land Development code then they by except that all of a sudden it affects drainage heat it's start to affect the environment so I mean it does have repercussions elsewhere not just um the other question I had is the price cap y'all put on um you said it hadn't been changed in 12 years I mean doesn't it cost more now to buy a large size tree and have it replanted like absolutely how did those prices you said it was a Florida statute or something that and we have been looking at that um I will tell you um remarkably um Chris forti uh my director he's been with the city for about 15 years 14 15 years um I've been with the city about 5 years um shortly after I started here there was a tree mitigation fund where somebody wanted to pay into that fund um so me

naturally not knowing what I'm doing here yet I go to him and he's like I don't know I've never done all of those before in all of his time here he had never done one um but in the last 5 years we've collected probably even $200,000 uh in mitigation funds in there so yeah we are definitely looking at that um on that need to be increased because kind of the point of that was to we don't want you to pay into this fund we want you to replace these trees and keep trees and we want to encourage that so at the point when it gets cheaper to just oh I'll pay into the fund well that's not I mean we do take that and we do turn around and turn that into trees um it's just not necessarily at that property um and stuff so we are actually looking at that as to whether or not that needs to be something that we need to increase or or whatever okay so it's not based off something Florida said it's y'all can change it if it's oh absolutely yeah that's that's a that's in the so the city's anything we charge has to be in the city's comprehensive fee schedule that's approved by the by city council okay that goes every year to them there's certain things uh like business tax receipt fees that are a lot more complicated to change with some of the are self-imposed fees like that one is something we just need to you know next time that comprehensive fee schedule is going to go to City Council if the decision is that we need to up that uh or increase it to 200 250 or whatever would be appropriate at that point in time um but we just need to make that change and then have that presented to council for them to approve okay is that $5,000 per tree or is that just for any all the way it's written in here is $5,000 per Heritage tree remov and yeah we're talking I mean these Heritage trees we've got them defined as a 30in diameter breast height so you're talking you these are not your small trees these are the massive you know 100y old trees and to help her like the neighborhood is said is talking about would there be like could there be like maybe an incentive to where they don't have to pay as much into it if they plant the tree back on the same

property I mean really right now the way it's written is they've got three options um I mean they nothing in here restricts them from planting it back on their property we would love that in fact um but we just know some of these people you know they want to build the largest house possible on there they want a swimming pool in their backyard with a patio around it and they don't have room for these trees and that's just the lifestyle that they want in their residence um you know some people like to have all the trees around in the shade and and some people just don't um you know they don't want to deal with breaking leaves or whatever um and it's really just to give them that option again the hope is that people just leave these trees where they're at um is really what this is designed to do because again right now there's zero protections for those trees you know these neighborhoods like you're talking about right now I mean if if all the owners got together and said let's just clearcut there's nothing in our code to stop them from doing that they don't even need to come get a permit from us so what made this ordinance come up was there an incident no it's just something that was talked about at the staff level and and it came down to us directed to okay go ahead and draft something up so that it can go to city council for discussion I mean city council may get this and be yeah no we don't want to do that um it it was a staff initiated um responsible planning I'm saying responsible planning well done yes thank you I see here also that it says something about trimming so you got to get you got to get a permit to trim it too that's the intention with these yes because um you know we've talked to a lot of our burst around this thing and and there's a lot of people who will do their own tree trimming um and they end up killing trees uh by doing so or they will trim it down so much that it is extremely topheavy and makes the root structure become very unstable uh so the intent on these things being such large trees we really want to make sure that you know it's not I mean if you want to get a come in and

get a permit to go out there and trim a Heritage tree we're just going to issue you the permit to an arst who can go do that um what we don't want to do though is have just people out there doing these things willy-nilly and then you know they they go and they cut off 90% of the tree branches and then they go and get an AR say hey can you come look at this and they're going to be like well yeah that's super unstable now and then they so we're trying to just make sure we've got good tree practice going on with these um okay so my question is how are you going to inform the public I happen to live in a neighborhood where there's a ton of these trees so how do you make the neighborhood the neighbor how do you make the community aware that this ordinance is in fact in place there will be public Outreach with this I I can I can assure you of that we'll work with Devon um our public affairs officers get stuff out on Facebook and stuff like that but one of the biggest thing with this one is going to be working with the the actual tree companies in the area uh the people who go do this stuff we've got relationships with most of them because most of them are doing all the commercial tree removal as well um CU like I said there's not too many um just overnight organizations out there that are going to go and try to take out 30in trees you know they got to have their right insurance and everything else um to do that to make sure they're not damaging other properties and and everything else with so working with them to make sure they understand that this is going to require a permit so I've got at least half a dozen of these trees on my property so my question is this so anytime I want to do trimming which in the past I I try to keep it trimmed up with canopy and get an arest in there so is there a charge for the permitting to have this trimmed every couple years there is a a land uh what's it called a land we don't want to discourage people from trimming either CU it also helps from from Hur oh 100% yeah yeah if there's it's oh what's going there I forget I've got it written in here

um a land sitework permit uh is what we call it and it is a value based permit um so really the amount is going to depend on what it is so for example a tree company's going to come out and they're going to charge you you know $2,000 to do the trimming that's going to drive the the cost of that permit if it's $5,000 the permit's going to be more um a lot of that is driven by Florida statute there's some permit fees that are just required to be charged sirch charges and and permit costes and fees that that you know we collect but go straight to the state um and that's for a statute requires us to pull those so there will be some fees associated with it it will not be exorbitant amounts of fees we're talking you know maybe a couple hundred okay and that's but that has to be through an arbest like I can't go out there like i i r in a lift truck every couple years and trim on the palm trees a lot of folks do I think a lot of people do especially the pals and there's nothing in here that prevents that it just we want to make sure that permit is in there so that way we can just make sure this is being done responsibly so I'm going back to what she asked how do people know they have to get permit and then we'll be doing the public Outreach on this stuff I mean it's just it's just like any new policy that we do we we put Shi out there as much as we possibly can on social media you know every public meeting that we can find we're we'll discuss it at those types of things and this is a Code Enforcement issue so if somebody's trimming their trees without a permit code enforcement get invol theoretically yes um typically with code enforcement especially with new rules like this it's more going to be hey do come in get your permit but again that's only this tree that's only these trees like I like I said I do my Palms I have 30 Palms on my prop so there's no if I come across and oh there's that Oak there's a on y we're talking the 30 in well I mean yeah but it's lot of those where we live it's it's you know it's encroaching on the

The Palms some of the oak so I try and trim around it a little bit cut that Oak just off to keep the Palms growing over but that technically would need to permy this what you're saying um that's going to difficult not everyone knows what tree species are like that's that's a valid argument yeah I was looking three different of they were all the same five folks if you look at all three of on the table there's five different the table and that's not even all of them that are Florida friendly it's just the ones that I mean this table has been in for a long time yeah sometimes they can grow fast and then a hurricane can knock the branches and they'll get Hollow sometimes you know there'll be that one stray branch that starts encroaching on the house and it's just a basically a trail for the squirrels to get on the roof cut it on the weekend hope your neighbors don't turn I think they could make a recommendation that the permit have no fee attached to it Tim go you you can have no like permits without any fee whatsoever for trimming if you want people to comply with it that was a point why would that's my biggest thing we don't want to discourage do a little more because like I said the State of Florida has three different fees for every permit that the city issued building permit that the city issues there are three fees that get paid to the state period um I I don't know that we have the authority to say well you don't to get paid say some of those fees as far as like City fees um yeah we don't have anything specifically established for this um like I said typically it would probably just be under that landsite work um but if if

the intention is that we just do this as cheap as possible and only charge forter required fees I mean that's a Poss I mean I understand if you're trying if you're talking about um cutting off a 12 in Branch off of an off of an oak yeah I get that you don't want to do that but I'm talking about like you know 2in Branch the most and I understand but where do you draw that line I me how do you know what people are doing and that's where if you come in to get a permit and you say oh I'm going to be cutting off all of these 12in branches off of okay then somebody come but if I'm just going to trim and shape it okay cool I mean so that's really all it is is just really to start that conversation have that conversation so we don't have people out there just killing these trees whether accidentally or on purpose um I know we do have a lot of people who go out there and they over prune trees um palm trees honestly are the one that probably get over pruned the most um and they end up unstable and they die or they fall down um which is what we definitely don't want so the ordinance itself doesn't actually identify the um the fee schedule correct correct we never write um like in the land of all the code you're never going to see fees in there just because fees can change um so really those are managed um through the comprehensive fee schedule I mean that fee schedule has everything from how much you're going to pay to to rent uh items from the rep Center or or reserve a spot in the park to how much you're paying for water and sanitation to you your business it's it's a comprehensive complete list of all the fees that the city charges any more questions does this um release fees supplies to like utility companies that have to go trim trees

that's a good question there's actually a state statute that they they have if if you're talking about in the rideway areas there's a state statute that uh allows them to basically cut all that without even getting permission of but they'll try to get permission to work with the local government entity but they if the local government try to say no they can still just go start clear cutting it yeah and they can do that on private property as well they they can well it's a little bit more limited on the private property but uh and the RightWay they have car launch to cut it all out so yeah they do it on private as well well they do if it's on the easement but uh they have to yeah they have a little bit more liability though Tim do you guys does the city have people that go in trim trees we do we I mean we have a a a right away maintenance crewp that goes out there and does a lot of that stuff most of it you know any of the power line work and stuff like that is going to be done by how do we so my question to you is this if we approve this ordinance or recommend approval of this ordinance then it's going to include tree trimming of any sort at this point on a residential property as well treeing of Heritage trees correct yes correct okay so get it done before this goes into effect sorry so get it done before this goes into effect I mean and and this is where I mean this is exactly why this body exist um if that's something you feel should be different if you want to make that motion and and have that presented as Council as that this is what your decision was to remove that part of it I mean that's I'm more inclined to table it until you come back and let us know if it is in State Statute that it's required for even treat remedes it it's not in State Statute it's not required in state statute for that right now the state statute doesn't even require us to protect these at all um it's it's

allowable for us to protect these the only thing State Statute does is restrict us from requiring a permit or fees for a tree that has been deemed unsafe by an arst okay that's the only restriction in State Statute so we can we can either do nothing and let them just go out there and cut these down that will prun it will or whatever um but we could approve this with a change such that there's no fee could we state that there's no fee for residential tree trimming a permit with in accord soal limitations foral law that you you would like it to be re no no fee yeah okay I'd like to see something just toine the pruning like a branch X you know maybe to an arest or something you know you can't cut down trees and split you know how they split you know two 15 inch branches I going to cut one of them off well it's going to make the other side kind of heavy right so you know I get that but like I said if I'm taking 4 4 in branches that are overhanging the house is that really hurt you I mean heck I did that once and it's all it's grew back it's going to hurt your house more than the tree I don't know how much AR cost but I mean they would have to go get an ARB every single time a trim and that's kind of what the intent here is to get people who know what they're doing with these trees so that they're not and that's why that permit comes in it's just because we don't want people you know I know you're saying like oh nobody you know go on cut that 15 somebody would and as soon as we don't say oh you don't need for pruning they're going to do that and they be like oh oops now it's dying there's more aror than you realize though too cuz I've actually written a couple of these in other cities as well and I've been involved litigation uh over the dangerous tree statute actually before and there's not only there's there's free arborist that you can use through the IAS extension which is University of Florida uh they they'll

come out with like a week or two uh you can get sooner though most of the tree companies uh the the bigger ones have multiple arborists on staff and uh usually the owners happen to be Arbors too kind of oddly so that is one thing it's actually it's a a lot easier to find the Arbors because the State statue says you can use an arborist or a licensed landscape architect they're a lot more rare to find those because they can also do it too but uh that's that's actually expensive to get an architect but Arbor is actually I've been surprised over the years there's lot more Arbor I guess it just also concerns you know I can Google how to trim my tree and you can find all kinds of you know do it yourself things on how to do it and like you said if you let somebody do it they could go in there I just follow the instructions and cut it out you can also get two R it will say two very opposite things true true I mean it really could go either way um I mean I get it you know yes I'm a YouTuber as well and I try to fix things sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't uh sometimes you end up having to take it to somebody to fix what you tried to fix um and ultimately that's where this is around I mean these trees are you know can be very delicate if you bur them wrong you can kill the whole tree and now it becomes a real danger any other questions [Applause] all right do we have a a motion for comments um I'll make a motion uh to accept um ordinance and this is 2177

amending LDC chapter 4 development standards has presented and had you indicated you wanted to include no fee for trimming if legal right for res for the residential correct and that's all this refers to is the residential correct no this will this will also apply to any commercial property that have the Heritage treat on there okay but you can specify that you know yeah we can specify there no Fe for residen so yes I want to make sure I understand you're talking no permit fees like the actual mitigation I still think we need to have permits but no permit fees and we can even go so far as to say on um what do you call it Residential homesteaded Properties because there's a lot of rental properties out there also that have nice trees on so you say no feed you're talking for the permit not $5,000 mitigation correct no I'm just talking for the permit strictly for trimming of the trees not for taking them down okay and we say it this is per tree that's correct not per property I like to see something per property CU if I'm trimming trees yeah I'm probably going to do more than one if I have more than one on my property the the $5,000 will only come in if you're removing completely removing a tree there's no mitigation cost for pruning a tree I mean for not mitigation but for but permit per yeah no it it would be one property you got 50 trees on there you come and get one permit to trim all 50 trees that it's one permit okay so right now the your motion is as it's written correct Mr V right but my understanding is that if it's seconded then we can actually discuss amending it or you make subtitute motion until

there's a motion you can't amend something that doesn't have a motion to put it in play okay so I making the motions get a second then you can amend it then you vote on which is whole another motion right right okay so if this motion dies then somebody else can make a motion with those amendments there's two ways you can do it his way or that way there's multiple work Pathways the same ulate conclusion got okay so is somebody you amending or doing a subsequent motion yeah do I need to Second it first no you can do a subsequent motion before some anyone seconds the motion okay well I'd like to do it's called a subsequent motion substitute substitute teacher like to do a substitute motion such that we approve uh recommend approval of ordinance 2177 with the modification such that there be no permit fees for residential trimming of Homestead Properties I second can I ask to clarify no um permitting fees fees that are not statutorily required by the State of Florida I'll change it to that yes it's exactly what we're think I that's okay yes was there any other discussion after Mr M second M wison ready to vote any public comments sorry are we doing this before we vote well you have to do public comments before we vote okay public anybody no nothing heard no so

quiet okay motion cares now we want to talk about it is there anything discuss are weing the next I I think so yeah we don't have any further discussion on that pass sub pass all right supervisor reports no can I just ask something about unrelated topic from tonight of course it's not really a report but do we have any kind of ordinance against having chickens in residential areas we do well there's an ordinance that allows for um no Roost believe up to six chickens there's rules for sale and how the coup has to be done no roosters are allowed they're supposed to be registered with the city so you can have chickens the last I looked I thought I want to say it's up to six but I can verify that I we have based on the size of the property it's it's not it's just a straight number when did that come was there CU I seem to remember talking about this okay cuz it's been a while since I looked but I know one point I looked and it said that chickens were not allowed so are you going to get some chickens I was thinking about it eggs so crazy no roosters okay all right that's all I wanted all right any other board member reports I do have a question I have a question so while we're talking about trees uh we had a couple months ago a lady come here talk about trees um planning and stuff like that one of them was to City yeah one of one of the ones was to uh dedicate a trade to Lieutenant kall's father I believe you kind of big what I'm talking about I remember actually a csky came in

here's presentation oh yeah was a tree dedicated to um it was Lieutenant kraals I believe right what was her father I forgot her father's name was there was the two trees dedicated one was actually to Ashley's mother um who was a longtime City employee um and I think that's the other one that was dedicated so it's been done that has been done okay are they in Siri Park they both at s Park I don't that was par did that I'm not I'm not familiar with all the details on that I just think was that or not sorry I didn't know it was done or not I didn't know there's a picture of it I saw it on our Facebook page I saw it on Facebook that's that's all I know about is what I saw on there that counts are we moving forward on the tree City thing I'm sorry are we moving forward on the tree City thing that that is that is the plan um it's actually in our comprehensive plan uh that says we will do that um you mentioned actually did come in and do that presentation uh unfortunately actually has moved on to uh other opportunities for her um and that's where the application was so we're going to have to I'm sure a staff member right now and we're we're trying to keep up and that that is out there as a goal to get that done Tim I do have a question so I think you and I sort of talked about this Florida DOT is responsible for Egan Parkway 98 and be right correct are you tracking anything being in motion to fix the potholes on egland Parkway they are swallowing my car mhm and the more it rains the worse those

get I'm not um what I will say and and I can try to get you more details on this one um I know our public works department does track a lot of that stuff there is a system out there all called C click fix um that's been advertised out there somewhere um social Med and stuff if you were up through there that goes directly to our public works department that can then interface with do on a lot of those things or it's ones that they can fix themselves potentially so there's there's the potholes and then there's the bridges so the bridges are the same way the the cracks the the joists in the bridges are getting very bad to where like I've got a brand new truck and it swallows my truck yeah I think my shocks actually replaced on my truck yeah yeah I say just all that reported on C click fix to public works and then they're the ones who have the the connections and and contact with do uh again it's it's do so we have zero control over them or what they do um but I department is the ones who have the contact with them so we all need to start writing letters to do well your County Commissioners too so the County Commission stuck all most of their money is going to the North End for all the rows they they have a discretionary amount of money they could direct and they I think they say it's in 2026 is when the actually will start I know they've been saying Egan is coming up I can help with that I actually okay on the uh Okaloosa Walton County Transportation Planning organization Fant um so I on the TCC for them right so um 2026 I believe is when egland is supposed to be completely resurfaced uh at our last meeting which is about two weeks ago the potholes on egund um were discussed

um it has been a a recurring topic Weber is the the company that has the contract um they were out there today working on some of the potholes um so it is known it it has been talked about now the the spacing on the spans for the bridge isn't something that we've talked about at the at the TPO um there's a virtual meeting on March 19th if you go to the website which is ec.org um which stands for Emerald Coast Regional Council um you can certainly put your comments in there and I would encourage people to um use that website uh you can and the the meeting on March 19th is to discuss the transportation plans uh for the next 5 years um and public comment uh is certainly welcome but the condition of egund is a constant topic there's some funding constraints with Weber um they're doing the best they can they were only allocated so much money and they're pretty much up to the end of that and it's a losing battle trying to keep egland Parkway pothole free um but they were out there today and that to me was a direct result of the meeting that we had about 10 days ago well it just it just kills me it seems like they're and again I don't know all the Back stories but they're picking and choosing where they're putting money on egland Parkway like in shalomar they redid that intersection right it's like okay there are worse parts of egund than that four-way intersection why did they choose that verus something El and that was not explain to us at at the at the meeting that was one of the issues of you know why that particular intersection and it was you know that's fdot telling them that that specific spot needed to be reworked so that was do then

they kind of well the intersection right by the the uh Annex that's beyond filling potholes so dot directed that but pothole maintenance is something that whoever supposed to do on Hollywood Boulevard is that ours or is that what time what time is that meeting at the West West Hollywood on the March 19th at 1: is is the planning meeting that's virtual but you can go to the website or the the number for the cap TPO is 850 393840 and they'll take telephone um they will and I want to clarify though that that meeting is to discuss the priorities list yes now stuff as far as like oh there's potholes here here that is not what the intented this is basically there's the the 2045 long range Transportation plan that is identify all the needs for the entire area for the next obviously till 2045 um and then it's basically ranking those priorities as to you know what do we want to say to dot this is what we feel is most important to least important on there that what that meaning is really do is discuss those those priorities um on there like turn into a at those meetings there is representatives from dot Mr pul I believe proba one there um and yeah he will take those information back and everything like that intend to that meeting just to discuss the priorities for where that funding is going to go for what we as a TP are recommended right and I don't know if repaving egund is on that list or not I'd have to go look at it uh I think it's already in the plan so it's not going to be on the future plan but the ecrc website.org that certainly is is a venue to use to complain about the status par on those on these like this future eggl repaving or whatever do they take into the account like the drainage the water

drainage well it's you I don't know if that's ever going to be soft unless you raise that road 2 feet and put a bevel on it and increase the the ability to move puts on it I I don't think egland Parkway is ever going to be okay I just yeah I'm not an engineer in any way shape or form but they do get an engineering of projects when like around the mound that will be engineered for storm water and everything like that when it comes to just the repaving project I don't believe they do any kind of major engineering into it when you got to think like with the the M the mountain project we're talking about a couple of miles a road and and you're talking you know several years and several million dollars just to engineer and design that um if if they were to do that for every repaving that would become very cost prohibitive very quickly they did they did do something on the last repaving though I remember in the late 2000s uh they did a major repaving then they did EAS be much worse like the S like growing up like the water out there and they did fix East be like the entire stretch out in the parkway most you start going north from 98 all water we all drove on the dirt road for 2 years to sh but it is a little bit better now but I don't like I said I don't know how much better they can make it at this point because there's nowhere for the water to go really one of the questions was who is in charge of Hollywood because that's another bad one the city that's a city well depending on where I even the west side it goes down to Bay yeah they T that up that's the city yeah and and if there's issues on there see click clicks that beot to Public Works and added the city main there and then we get some traffic lights to sink do we not have a traffic light engineer to syn up some of the lights so traffic light is managed by the county um all the timing and everything in there there's actually a PhD um that works on that um timing

very get that email address out too I don't I don't know that I just know that that Advantage at the county level uh for all traffic lights in the entire County even the dot ones they manage all the timing and everything for them okay thank you any other that's the most uh we've ever talked compl anything else I'm all [Applause] right and you want us to shut these computers do you do