Planning and Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

is approximately 6:42 p.m. This meeting is open to the public and if anyone wish wish to speak on the agenda item, please complete the public comment card and give it to the planning and zoning board staff prior to the board discussion and before the public comment section is announced. In no event will anyone be allowed to submit a comment card to speak on agenda item after the item after the action item has been read or considered. The time allotted for each member of the public to comment on each item is three minutes. Please be reminded that the planning and zoning board me um planning and zoning board committee is committed to civility and decorum by members of the public who attend this meeting. We're going to start the meeting off with a moment of silence and the board will lead with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mayor, roll call, please. Board member Lucy Joseph, present. Board member James Gallon here. Board member Anthony Brown, present. Board member Margaret Shepard here. Board member Renee Burgess. Board member Frank Fernandez, present. Chairman William Wy present. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Do you have an acknowledgement of any board member absentee notifications? Sir, I don't have that with me at the moment. I wasn't um informed of Miss Burgess's absent tonight.

Okay. Any acknowledgement of any board member vacant positions? Yes, sir. Um alternate members, district 2 vacant. Alternate member district 4 is vacant. Regular member district five vacant. Mr. Chair, if I may.

Yes. Uh as reported at a previous planning and zoning board meeting, the city council has suspended uh temporarily the reappoints of all citizen advisory boards while they undertake some research. Uh there has been progress and we expect in the next month that um there will be a final determination so that we can uh handle the reappoints of those of you on the board whose terms are expired and appointments to those uh vacant positions that were just mentioned. But this is just an update as to what's transpiring with city council. Thank you. Are they reviewing our compensation package? Is that's why it's taking so long? I I don't have information on that. I second that.

All right. On to number three. Additions. Are are there any additions or any deletions to the agenda? None from staff, Mr. Chair. All right. On to number four. Do we have any disclosures by any board members? And on to the adoption of the agenda, please. A move. Second. It's been It's been properly moved and second. Mr. Chairman, are you ready for the vote? Yes. Board member Lucy Joseph? Yes. James Gallon? Yes. Member Anthony Brown? Yes. Member Margaret Shepard.

Yes. Member Frank Fernandez. Yes. Chairperson Wley. Yes. The vote is unanimous.

And Mr. Chair, if I may, before we get into the substantive items for the evening, um I just wanted to point out that we have um a vacant seat for district 5. So therefore, alternate uh Joseph will be um a voting member this evening. And in addition to that, due to Miss Burgess's absence, um Mr. Brown, who's the alternate for her district, district one, will be a voting member. And um those are your alternates that are voting this evening. So thank you.

Obviously, Mr. Galling can continue to participate and ask questions as we always do. Thank you. On to number five. Um, approval of minutes. Motion to accept the board meeting minutes of August 14th, 2025 and August 28th, 2025. Move. Mr. Chair, that motion has been properly moved and second. Are you ready for the vote? Second. We'll second. Yes. Board member Lucy Joseph. Yes. James Gallon. Oh, sorry.

Anthony Brown. Yes. Board member Margaret Shepard. Yes. Board member Frank Fernandez. Yes. Board member Wy. Yes. That motion car. That motion passed unanimously. Thank you. Um on to number six for unfinished business. Do we have any unfin unfinished business? None from staff, Mr. Chair. All right. On to new business.

Can we have uh Miss Brown read 7A into the record, please?

Thank you, sir. An ordinance of the city council of the city of River Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, amending city code of ordinance chapter 31 ZA 2408 on behalf of the River Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, RBC applicant for approval of a text amendment application to allow properties within the downtown general DG zoning district to develop a maximum height of four stories when the project contains a mixeduse component.

Uh for the record, Mr. Chairman, uh Kurt Thompson, principal planner for the city of River Beach. I want to take you through there are three I this this case involves three different items. The first one is an ordinance to abandon a portion of the existing 15 foot alley that bisects the property. I have passed out to you all some an amendment on that abandonment which I'll go over with you as I go through the presentation. Okay? It'll be much clearer when we get there. Secondly, an ordinance requesting a zoning tax change amendment to allow properties within the downtown general zoning district to develop a maximum height of four stories when a project contains a mixeduse component. Currently right now in the code it is three stories and that also I'll show you in the PowerPoint presentation. Uh number three and last is a resolution approving a site plan for mixeduse development consisting of 45 residential units. 27 of those will be marked as affordable. In addition uh 3,224 square ft of retail office space. Uh and also the applicant is requesting an administrative waiver to reduce the number of required parking spaces as allowed in in the zoning code section 31-539B3 on the approximate 1.34 acres. What you have here now is a project location map. It is indicated by the be a grid dot there of the subject property. Currently, as I said, the site plan is f the site is vacant. The 1.34 acre site is currently zoned DG or general downtown general and has a downtown mixeduse future land use designation or

DMU. The applicant is seeking to maximize the density on the site to support the development of work workforce housing. Here is the site plan as a subject site. Um, you may remember I think you know this all the board me from Miss Jacobs phase one was the villa's phase one project of approximately 36 units. I don't have the marker pointer here but I'm going to make a quick run over here to show you. Um the phase one project was right in here, the 36 uh town home units. Uh Mr. Mr. Mercius, the CR director, is also in the audience. And there's also um the the applicant has um 2 GH, which is one of the planning consultants in the county that's been around a while, and they have representation. Also, Mr. Rick Gonzalez, I've known him a while, too. He's the architect for the subject property. So, this is phase one. This is phase two. Now, here, what you have here is six units here, another six townhouse units here for 12. There's a parking area here. And above that, floors two through four. You have uh units here numbering about 15 for a total of 27. And then you have another 18 units here above the um floors 2, three, and four above the retail office. So what you have here now is retail office on the first floor, residence units on floors two through four, parking here, and then above that on floors two through four

residential units here and then six town homes here and six here for a total of 45. Okay, now here's the fun part. Here comes the fun part. You all have been passed out. Oh, by the way, we have a new planner here. It was passed out by Miss Gabriella Suarez. See, welcome.

Welcome, Miss Suarez. And believe you me, she's she is definitely welcome. She's going to help us all out, particularly me. So, this is the revision. If you if all of you will look at the the the document that was passed out, please go to page two of that, you will see that there are two shaded areas. The first shaded area at the top right hand corner is a part is the abandonment. The first part of the abandonment that represents 3,66 square feet. And then at the bottom left there is the alleyway portion which is 15t wide by 100 ft and that is 1500 square ft for a total of 4,566 square ft. We we had a we used an earlier version in the staff report which is inaccurate and I got the the updated version and I wanted to make sure that the board have the most recent updated version for the for the abandonment to make that clear. In addition, Miss um Emily Mahoney will be making a presentation for the CRA of which she'll be giving you some showing you some architectural areas and color and talk about this abandonment as well. This is another portion of that presentation of the abandonment. I want to make you aware of the shaded area in green that represents the area the land area for the project itself. I repeat that's the land area for the entire project shaded in green. Okay. And then the yellow area you see the areas involving the abandonment. We thought

that that would be a good way for you to see how the shaded area being the project area and the area in yellow is the is the uh abandonment area. Okay. And then just to the south of that is the phase one that you all approve. Um I think you all except from I don't think Miss Joseph was on the board at the time but I think you all may remember that just wanted to refresh memory. Now, here is the text the zoning code text change. You will see here at the very the very top the very top table where you have what is in the code right now that shows three stories at the bottom there maximum height. Okay. The bottom table shows what's being proposed, particularly their maximum height with the asterisk four stories when a part of a mixeduse development and approved by the CRA board and city council. Okay. On the right of that, you see the maximum height of 3 feet. How how it looks right now in the zoning code. What you will see in the if if you make or recommend approve or the tax change and then be subsequently approved by the city council will be an additional four could be added or used. And the reason is that if you notice the project itself goes up to four stories throughout the entire presentation. And it would just make sense. Pardon me it's a little warm in here today. it it would make pretty much sense in terms of this project to have that fourth floor and so they're asking for that um text amendment you okay Miss Shepard okay [Music]

so request from the applicant plans to construct a mixeduse project consisting of 45 residential units 27 will be marked as affordable and plus or minus3 3,224 square ft of retail office space on approximately 1.36 acre site. The site is currently vacant. You have the three parcel numbers here. ID PCN's. Uh the lot size it I say we say plus or minus 1.36. The zoning district is downtown general. The future land use is a community. I'm sorry is from that's that's incorrect. is B that downtown land use is downtown mixuse. Okay, that first part is incorrect. It is already downtown mixuse. Okay, I want to make that clear. Okay, so here's one of the renderings um phase two which showing the mixuse uh with view from Avenue E. There has been extensive review by staff and this proposed zoning text amendment abandonment and site plan. The proposed site plan has been found to be consistent with the standards of the land development regulations or the zoning code and is now ready for the board's consideration. is another rendering. As you can see by the in the bottom right hand corner, you have phase two combi phase one combined with phase two. Again, to show you real quickly, where is one and two? Phase one is is right here. Okay. Phase two starts here. Okay. Now

the next one is phase phase two uh rendering here that you see here on the overhead. So staff's recommendation is the zoning code text amendment to we recommend that you approve these uh the request to allow properties within the downtown general zoning district to develop to a maximum height of four stories when when the project contains a mixeduse component. That caveat is important when it contains a mixeduse component. Okay. Secondly, staff recommend that you approve this uh this request uh of the proposed abandonment of of the 15t alley uh with a plus or minus 4,566 square ft has you your your handouts indicate and as I had initially showed to you in the earlier in this presentation. And then lastly, site plan approval for the development of a 45 residential units, 27 of which will be marketed as affordable and 3,224 square ft of retail office space on approximately 1.36 acres subjected to the staff reports conditions of approval to the Riverb City Council. And here are the the uh list of conditions of approval. Essentially, number one talks about a two-year bond, landscape bond. Number two talks about construction and landscape improvements. Number three, uh the council to authorize the staff to make any changes of greater of of no more than 15%. Number four talks about the development must receive a co for all the buildings within five years. Number five is all future advertisement must state the

development is located within the city of River Beach. Number six is once approved if this were the resolution shall shall supersede any previous site plan approval. Number seven talks about the open the civic open space. Number eight talks about plans for the public palm trans shelter and additional uh conditions that follow there. Number nine talks about the art and public places program and requirements for that. You'll be seeing that this type of condition and other projects as you can imagine. And then number 10 is one that we added that was not in the staff report, but after going through and making sure we dotted all eyes and crossed all the tees, we're issuing a number number 10 which says prior to issuance of building permit, the applicant shall submit and obtain approval of a replat for the subject property. Now, as you probably notice, board members, you no longer the state law no longer requires a re a legislative approval for replass. They're all going to be done administratively per state law that was passed a couple this most last uh legislative process. So now all plat reviews are done administratively now. Okay. And with that, that will complete concludes the staff presentation. Miss uh Emily Mahoney is here to to take up the mantle. Uh Mr. Mercy is the CRA director is also here in case it's needed. Uh and I I I ask that you hold all your questions uh until such time that the applicant makes finishes their uh presentation. And then at that point

we'll be able to answer some questions. The intent here is hopefully we'll have through the presentations we'll have as answered all your questions. Yes. I've got a question city before the presentation. Once you uh accept the text amendment on the DG that covers the entire DG section. Correct. That is correct.

So we're approving the DG here. It's a vacant lot. We're not approving it. We're considering the approval of a DG and an empty lot. Vacant property 11 to 13th Street. But a four-story building might not fit right in any other section within a DG. So why can't we add language in there that although that we have the text if we if the tax uh amendment is approved that the city council has the right to refuse the uh the building of property on a DG with the text amendment. In other words, it gives the city council a right out. Not that we have a developer coming in and saying, "Wait a minute. You have a text amendment here that was approved and and we we're going to build according to that text amendment the four stories."

Right. So, uh, Mr. Sur, I I I would highly encourage adding language that the city council will still have the right of refusal of development even though a tax amendment is approved within the DG. If if I may say real quickly, then I'll let Mr. Surman speak. Yes, sir. But as you as you recall in my presentation, it says the fourth story only if it is a mixeduse development, right? But you could do a mixeduse development in another DG area that would not fit into that area. That's my point.

So it might be great for this area within the DG, but don't forget once you pass an text amendment for an entire zoning area, it incompasses that entire DG within the city. So, what I'm saying is I want to make sure that the city council has a right of refusal even if we approve this tax amendment on a project that might not fit. This fits great there, but imagine building another DG area where you have a single family home right behind it or right or a block away. I'll let M Sherman give a commentary then I can give I'll follow back up. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, if I may.

Yes. Uh that is correct. This uh text amendment would apply uh citywide to any properties that are currently or in the future zoned as uh downtown general. The uh purpose of us bringing this uh to this board is for this type of deliberation. If there is concern or unreiness on the text language as is, uh it's your perview to send recommendations to city council. Um, from my perspective, I would shy away from redesigning projects in front of city council. Um, it it can create uh confusion and issues with staff with things coming back and going back and forth between the staff desk and city council if uh that determination is made there. So maybe an edit to the language that restricts the area or um or um provides different flexibility or geographic restrictions as to where this uh fourtory can take place um would be a type of recommendation that you could make to council as to how this could be amended. Well, if you're thinking that adding language that will provide the city council authority to nyx a project within a DG zone, even though we approve the next amendment and they might approve it, then uh then I I would strongly urge depending on the where the board approves to less restrict where we're going to be building it. So, if we're going to allow this building to four stories, we should have no concerns over that. But then think again of those that are living in the other areas near a DG and you stick a four-story mixeduse property right next to their house or right near it.

Um there is a text amendment that we're also considering for a different project that restricts the um additional height allowance for um properties that are not on Broadway. Um there are circumstances when you could say um as long as it's not adjacent to single family homes um you could consider special exceptions u for the additional floor as opposed to making it by right. Um but there are other options where we can make it more restrictive and not um you know by right on any property zone as that. And um additionally, if there's considerable unreiness, we can uh staff can take back your feedback and workshop this and bring it at a subsequent planning and zoning board meeting as well. So those are are some options, but again, we're here to take in any um on the floor uh amendments you may have um or if again you want to defer this until staff has done more research and work with the applicant, we could do that as well. or what we can consider as after the fact. Let's see in the presentation, but that was my main concern. Uh thank you takes me a minute. Um,

good evening. Good evening, board. I'm Emily Omathy with 2 GH landscape architects and planners. I have my partner George Dentiel, long time raised in Riviera Beach, went to school here, and Rick Gonzalez, uh, the architect of that is bringing life to this district as far as I that's my personal opinion. Um, so we're pleased to bring this before you and maybe give you a better sense of the project uh of what we're doing. And and thank you, Kurt, for uh your introduction. I'm not going to go over a whole lot of this. Actually, replat will have to be done, but um that is not coming before you. This is that we'll start out with the site plan and address the alley abandonment and text amendment. Location map. You we've already discussed where it is. Phase one and phase two are right by each other. And this gives a strong sense of where it is between Avenue E and Wright Street and West 11th and up to 13th. You've um we've Kurt talked about this. Uh this has been acquired by the the CRA and the Riviera Beach Community Development Corporation. The site is totally vacant at this time. Um, this is all part of really looking at Avenue E as creating the vitality in the center of this area in the downtown. This is an illustrative site plan that shows both uh phases way up at the north point with the arrow. It points to the pavilion and a place for the art installation. Um the town houses for phase one and phase two actually the garages face each

other. So their front doors um the front doors of phase one face down to 11 street and the front doors to phase two face up towards that parking lot and into the project. So it's an it becomes an alleyway in between the two where people go use their garages. All those town houses have garages and it is it is the townhouse is a duplication of phase one. So those two look alike. They're mirrored from each other. Um so what's important to know and in this is you've got the town houses down below. I have threes and twos on the three are threetory. Then you have 2222 and you go and mirror it. 2222 33. So the end parts of this building are taller than the center parts and that exactly reflects phase the phase one. Then the two buildings going up East Street are the fourstory buildings that we were talking about. They the first one to the south has parking underneath and then the and the one on the north has the commercial office and retail space and above that on both buildings are uh flats are units. Um, you have 15 units or five on the floor for the south one and you have 18 total units on the north one, which is six units per floor. And it's interesting to note that if there are 27 affordable units, then there's 18 that are market. And all of these units are for sale. That is how they're going to be brought forward. They are not rental properties. So, um the the we're really looking for buy in

and um ownership to really make this a success and really the start of changes going on. Kurt showed you some of these pictures. The pink building on the far left is phase one. The yellow is phase two. Those are both the town houses. So, we're looking north on this. And then you can see the fourstory buildings. is is looking along Avenue E and we have the gables um interesting facades and balconets um it's it brings a life and a character to to this area that reminds me of the vitality that Riviera Beach established on this will continue that these are straight elevations showing some of the color changes this is the four-story buildings So, um, the one side on the upper one is the back. So, we're in the parking lot or that area looking at the building and the one on the bottom is from the street. So, on the bottom one with the street, the retail is on the right and on the left is the parking. And you can see they're treated sort of the same so it doesn't look like a parking lot. And these are the end end views with the end units having uh a little bit bigger uh room um number of bedrooms, bigger floor plans. So this is the uh the four the four stories. So three levels of those units and you have the yellows are one bedroom, the greens are two bedroom and the lavender pinkish color are three bedrooms. Now, these are the uh town houses. The yellow ones are the end ones. They

are at the corner of the streets. So, those are the threetory and then the others are the twotory in between. And you can see the garages on the garage side and then their front doors on the other side. Very similar to what's going to be built already. And these are the different units. So, the two stories are down on the bottom right. And the three stories are up above. The twotory has one car garage and the threetory has two-car garage. And this is a look at the town houses when you are over on Wright Street looking at the fronts of them. And this is once again from East Street looking north and East Street looking sort of southwest. So you're up at the northern um end of the project in this. So the text amendment is which I gather we'll have discussion about. It's for you to uh discuss but it's basically a condition that says you know the maximum height is still three stories and it can go to four stories when a part when part of the mix when part of a mixeduse development and approved by the CRA board and the city council. So that's how it's it's phrased now. Um, we look at the text amendment as promoting urban infill mixeduse projects, making it viable to take the ground floor and do something that is vibrant and brings uh the community a place to go that that they can walk to and take care of shopping and and their office space within the community. Um, and it is very consistent with the 13th Street vision through the CRA and the city's comp plan.

So, and it it also looks at a traditional, this is a transition between the single family houses, we've got town houses, and we have flats. Um, we look at this as the the text amendment allows this to be a viable pro project. It it enhances the area's identity. Um it the potential to reduce automotive dependency. It it creates a sense of community, a sense of place. It encourages economic investment and reinvestment. We're bringing people we're bringing um a liveless that that hopefully the rest of the vacant properties will start to um redevelop because of this. So, we're looking at job creations. Uh, when you infill, you are it's much better on your infrastructure rather than building out in the suburbs. Um, and where you can save environmentally sensitive lands when you're not building on them. And it increases the tax base, something we all we all love. So, we had hoped to abandon the rightway like the the plan up here. Um, we thought, "Oh, we're doing it once. Let's take care of it." You know, the alleyway has hasn't been used at all. But we had resistance from the homeowner, not homeowner, excuse me, property owner that abuts uh this. So, we went back and we did just what is necessary to make this project work. So, we changed a few things. Um, and then as you can see, and Kurt showed you this, this is just the green area is is how we fit into this. So, you can see we only have taken what is needed to make

this work. So, the alley remains for the property owner that surrounds this alleyway as it is today. Um, so why an abandonment? Uh first of all, phase one was abandoned too in between the two buildings. So this continues that it allows the continuity of that building. Uh it expands it. It provides for the mixed use to happen. Um and and it is was untaken care of by the city. Um it didn't need to be an expense. it doesn't serve any purpose the way when 13th Street got redeveloped and um you know things changed it it wasn't needed um and for this the applicant will be giving money it's called the privilege fee for the abandoned property so once again the city is is aided by that

excuse me how much is the the fee that the city will be giving

I think if I remember correctly it's about 6,000 something for one and and probably for both of them somewhere around that. Um, so we we feel that this is consistent with the Riviera Beach codes, the comp plan to have the mixeduse residential. It is increasing housing stock. Very important. Um, it actually is less intense use than what is permitted. Um, and makes for a harmonious transition. The F is allowed to be two on this and and we provide 1.07. So that's great. It's half the density that is allowed. Um it makes the CRA master plan attracting new residents in encourages future developer investment which is very good. Aids in revitalization um adds the multif family residential within the Avenue E. So we're increasing providing a different housing type actually two different housing types in this by the flats and by town houses. Um and it induces introduces the office retail. It helps with pedestrian mobility. We're putting sidewalks. We're giving people places to go and it's sets the president and I think it's a beautiful precedent. I am not the architect so I can say that. Okay. Um and it it we have we've meet the zoning code. We have the as I mentioned two different housing types, walkable safe routes. Um it's a viable addition to the community and really the key point that is is going to start the rest of this and it's going to beautify overall

benefits. uh and we're using all the existing utility resources, the infrastructure, which is wonderful. So, final points, it's infill development that meets the idea of the city's comprehensive plan, the CRA master plan, and the city's zoning code. Um, it has been before the CRA board and has received positive feedback. I caveat that that that may have been through phase one and I'm not sure, you know, I can't phase two actually went to a CRA meeting. I couldn't find that out beforehand. Uh receive staff recommendation for approval. And that is concludes our presentation and we look forward to hearing your comments.

Thank you. All right. Do we have any more? Anyone else making a presentation? All right. Do we have any comment cards on this? I have none. I received none. Um I would like to um as I was told that the CRA director, the new CRA director, sir, um would you like to come up and introduce yourself and kind of give a introduction so everyone know who you are and sort of give us a little brief um description of this the subject of how you feel about this project.

Uh good evening Jal Murzius, the executive director of the Riviera Beach CRA. Um this project is um more in align with the master plan that we have within our CRA. It's also a product of the community development corporation the CDC riverbc as well. Um this plan when we look at this plan we're looking at a vibrant space as the presentation stated um and it's also um an interjection I believe a break within what we have now. um when we talk about affordable housing, when we talk about mixeduse development space, when we talk about um just uh I'd say a when it talks about aesthetics for the first for the for the most part um upon coming here, you know, that space if you didn't know anything about that space and if you're looking to invest, if you're looking at the quality of life of Riviera Beach, um wasn't much to the imagination. just this presentation alone, the vibrant colors, um the aesthetics, the attractions that you see, um it welcomes just exactly what we're looking for in the CRA, and that is the eradication of slum and blight. Um more or less the the welcoming atmosphere, the opportunity for individuals to come and congregate and to live. It represents creative placemaking. Um these are all factors within the CRA that we are looking to implement not only in this project but in future projects as well.

Thank you sir and congratulations and thank you I appreciate you. Start off with some questions from the board then we'll start as we always do with our founding member Mrs. Sheepard.

Thank you y'all. Please forgive me. I'm getting over the flu. Um, so, um, I think this is a very good project. I love the vibrant colors. I love where it's going to be. That land has been vacant for many, many, many, many years. Um, I do want to know, did you do the door knockers? I think I kind of seen it in the book where you did um I assume talk to the neighbors and I'm quite concerned just just a concern because we have the alpha group building we have the boys and girls there and now we have this project so I assume it's going to be a very very busy piece of land and so I I I don't hesitate, but I I just want to make sure as I listen to you, um you talked about jobs. Um how are you going to filter this out? Are you going to have job fairs? Are you going how how just how are you going to precipitate? Because I think the residents of Rivier Beach should have a shot at this particular project as well as the alpha. So, I don't know. Um, hey, Miss Sheper. Hi.

So, um, introduce yourself, sir. Oh, I'm sorry. Introduce yourself, sir.

Uh, Mr. Wy Sheperson, Ezra Safo, owner of Offsite Construction. We are the local general contractor building this project. Here I have my operations guy, Deers. He's the guy on the ground making it happen right now. Uh during estimating process, we did have uh a number of outreach meetings. We invited and hired where we 40%. 40% at this point local utilization. Um, even if you go out there on the fence now, you see we have allowed one of our plumbers who's locally uh here uh posted sign so we can get more business. Uh we're local. Um the electrician's local uh it goes on. I am local. So I believe in it. Uh and far as uh hiring uh you know this phase and any other phase, we're going to make that a priority. Um, so you you've already started hiring. Is is that what I see the sign is up? Um, so you already have started hiring. Is that what you're saying?

We've already hired past tense. Already hired and and we're still um we're 80% bought out and our intent is to increase that number even more. So when uh will this Well, I see the tent there and I think I see equipment coming. So are you starting on this project already? Yeah, we have uh is there any way to show the video? Can you can you email it to your yourself and then show it to yourself for your your setup here? Are you able to email it to her and she can show what we've done today and you can see it?

Just for clarification. This construction has started on phase one which is approved. So and and this is a excellent example of the job creation. But I think this project has phase two has an even higher job um opportunity because we are doing commercial and office space on the ground floor that allows someone to actually have their office and live and work right near home. So they can hire their, you know, if it's a business owner, hire their secretary. They can walk home. They can do that. So this because it's mixed use has a higher it's not just during construction it's after construction. So

well Ezra um I I was over there um can I say one more thing to Ezra? Um, I I was over there and I did see the work and um I would well I'm not impressed about too many things but I was impressed seeing the work being done and I'm very pressed that it's going to be over in that area. I just want to make sure um that we we look out for our own to come to work and I feel comfortable with you doing it. I I really feel comfortable. I I followed your track record. um from the day you started. So, I'm comfortable with you and I'm comfortable and hoping that this project will bring on local people because they do need jobs in this community. Number two, uh the parking. I don't think I heard anybody talk about parking. I I I know. I know. I know. I think I read it somewhere. Before we go before we go to parking, phase two is four times the size of phase one. So that'll give you an idea of how many jobs phase two will create once we start building. I'll let Emily talk to you about the parking.

Thank you. Excuse me, sir. Can you come? Can you identify yourself? I forgot to introduce myself. I am Rick Gonzalez, the architect for the project. Nice. Okay. Nice. Beautiful project.

And it's Emily back again. Um for the parking the the it meets code with with the um uh the the no the there's a certain part of the code that allows for reduced parking for afford for affordable housing. So straight code says two per unit. This allows it to go to one which is all permissible and we're taking advantage of that. We have two parking spaces over the required when using that so we meet parking. Did you conf Did Did I confuse you?

Yeah, I'm I'm kind of confused with that particular project. You're saying one per household? Just um the 27 affordable housing units are allowed by code to park one car per unit. And this is three four bedroomedroom. No, no, that there's two and one bedroom. That would probably be applying to all. Okay. Okay, I get it. I know. I read it somewhere. I wasn't quite clear. Um, how many um handicap spaces? Whatever the code requires. The code is based upon the total number of parking spaces provided. That is

I will I'm gonna get get on to my Yeah. Yeah. So, I will Mr. Phil, maybe you can answer that. How um how many um handicap spaces? Um we're going to look on the site plan, Miss Shepard, because it the we don't have control on that then and nor does the city. The federal government requires so many spaces for parking and accessibility. So, we're going to get that number right now. You have to take the mic. You have to check the mic so it can be recorded. There's There's two spaces, two handicap spaces required.

Just two. Yes. And we have two in there. What's that? Oh, I'm sorry. My name is George Gentiel. I'm u with her. Uh I'm the G of 2 GH. Okay. And I'm the O. Um it's interesting to note that 17 bicycle parking spaces are required and we have provided that. So it's really a promotion in this area of of multimodal and you know your feet your bicycle trying to put emphasis there.

So also ma'am just a question just to pick back off what she stated. You stated that the south I guess the southeast building part two that was going to have the one that was going to have I guess the first floor or the first and second floor parking. Is that correct? Just the first floor. Just first floor. Just the first floor. So So sort of like open so it's like covered parking. It's just going to have some screening along the sidewalk so it's not like looking at a parking lot.

Correct. And then the opposite the north one would actually have the retail down at the bottom portion. Correct. Got it. Well, what I well what I don't like you're saying you're you're doing the one required and often asked when there's a birthday party, a funeral or Christmas and you know I am really kind of stunned that you would say just two per household or one per household. I'm not sure how you figure that into a project like that because people going to come to to to to this particular building. So, I'm not clear how that's working. You could say that this is the code. And um but I I don't think you're thinking outside the box in that neighborhood when people I I've been over to Thousand Oaks and I mean it's horrible parking over there. So is this is going to be like well maybe you don't know what I know what Mr. Gentill know thousand oaks in these gated communities.

Uh this is of course not that intense as as over there and as Emily indicated that the F is almost at half of what is allowed on this site. So, we've reduced the intensity of the project here to make this a viable really neighborhood livable area and it's close enough to be walkable to a lot of things particularly on uh Broadway and uh schools and Avenue E. This is gonna this is already we're already seeing interest in Avenue E north of here uh for some of the older pieces of property and vacant where people are seeing this happening and now are interested in buying and continuing to create that whole corridor of Avenue E all the way up to Blue Heron Boulevard. Um we uh we're looking at uh doing some concepts right now on three lots right now. So this has done a tremendous job for the city to get it stimulated to get people active and building in this area. So

is it going to be gated? A gated community? No, it is not gated. This is So it's not going to be just open. This is open for people to be able to walk and enjoy the area. We have a sculpture uh and open civic space at the uh at the north end of the project that's open to the public to to walk the area. Um uh this we're hoping that Avenue E becomes that walkable main street through the through the uh the west side of Broadway. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's awesome.

Just one thing just to state what Mrs. Shepard was saying also and uh I think that's a very valuable point. um as something as nice as it's going to be, especially with the retail and people living in the area and like you say, are there going to be any road or or street updates? So maybe a widening of the of the streets to where if there's a possibility so we can be able to have better parking because like you said, if you have something of this magnitude, it's going to be very very nice, which is going to attract a lot of people. You're absolutely uh we do we have on street parking that's available to particularly go to the the retail office spaces as well. Um uh

and we're al also adding sidewalks which are not there now as well. Nice. So how many parking spaces could you estimate that you may have for the retail area? Retail parking spaces. Yeah, it's only it's 3200 square feet. I think we have about 10 spaces for that. Yeah. 10 10 on street on street parking. Okay. Okay. Um and we're that retail office space will also generate people walking or coming down from their units and going to those businesses as well. So, okay.

You just want to make sure you'll be able to hold all the people you're going to be bringing in and for the entertainment value. um you know like you said just so just for safety reasons also to be able to have it there. So like I said we just want to make sure that you know it's it's it's safe for the community also and also for the cars trucks driving by or whatever. So we just want to make sure it's safe also. So that's why we're inquiring about it's all being updated. Landscape is going to be uh done very nicely for this area which is you know uh not there now because it's vacant. Okay. Mrs. Joseph, good morning.

Thank you for the presentation. As we know, there's a lot of projects that are coming to that area. Adjacent to this site is going to be that other project that's bringing in what 500 units. So, we can only imagine how much traffic because that other project said, you know, they presented that that's going to be the main entrance into that project. So, now we're getting ready to add additional units here. So again, I stressed this in the last meeting. We have to be mindful about the projects that we're bringing in and the impact that it's going to have on our existing infrastructure in addition to the pedestrians that are going to be walking and the amount of traffic that is really going to be coming through those are the safety. So, as developers, as architects, just, you know, if there's things that we can be incorporating, whether it's speed bumps or, you know, traffic calming measures because there's going to be a lot of traffic coming through that corridor. Now, um, so just something to keep in mind. And this question may be for the CRA. Um, I know in the staff report you mentioned that it's going to be an affordable housing project. Can you speak to the um, AMI range that we're proposing for this project? or someone please if that information is available

typically if I may miss Joseph the for affordable the AMI is somewhere in the neighborhood of 120% of the AMI to about 140 somewhere 120 and below I'm sorry 120 and below because that those are workforce because typically affordable would be 80 and below or 60

somewhere yeah somewhere in that somewhere in in that neighborhood. Um I can tell you this that you know if this is approved if if this is recommended approval by you all and approved by the uh city council we you know we will monitor that and also some of their funding I believe is based upon that that uh AMI because there are they are marketing 27 of those units uh for affordable and as you I needn't tell you we you know there's a need for affordable here. I understand that. It's just that's that's just good information to have as a board just knowing what population we're targeting. Mr. Chair, if I may.

Yes. Yes. I wanted to add that our uh code does have a definition for affordable housing that is at or below 80% of the AMI. Mr. Chair, yes. You know, I always I always ask what is AMI? Area median income. Thank you. I don't I don't know your code, so I have to ask. Sorry. Um and then my last question is for Mr. Gonzalez as the architect. Could you just kind of speak to the design as far as um kind of why you decided this layout versus, you know, doing a parking garage, you know?

Well, thank you for the thank you for the question. Um as George mentioned, the um we wanted to keep the scale small. you know, uh there are a lot of very large projects coming into the CRA. As the director mentioned, there's a lot coming to uh Riviera Beach. In fact, I think it's going to be the most exciting downtown um in South Florida because talking to Frank about that too that the city is that member [Music] Oh, Martin County.

All right. So, I lost my stop, but anyways, we we really wanted uh to transition the scale uh from a neighborhood that is in change without going uh to very large buildings on that site. Um we were inspired by um the history of Riviera Beach, you know, the the Kunch settlers, the Caribbean. So, very early in the design process, we came up with the bright colors, uh, the Caribbean architecture, as you can see, the detailing, um, so it wouldn't just be a white box, you know, type of thing that that happens too often nowadays. Uh, I do a lot of historic projects in Florida and, uh, I love to design my projects inspired by history. So, that's what we were shooting for. And also I think Avenue E, you know, um we do a lot of new urbanism too and Broadway is obviously the main thoroughfare through Rivia Beach, right? Broadway and Blue Heron, but Avenue E has a great opportunity, really great opportunity to become a real main street. And I'm hoping uh starting here at the south with other projects, George is working on other projects and hopefully we'll work on other projects too. there's this great opportunity to become a very walkable street or and the bicycle as as mentioned by Emily you know not everybody um you know all a lot of our new projects are being designed for you know with an Uber stop with bicycles you know to get people multimodal right to think outside of the cars not having to be tied up with a you know cars are expensive to maintain right and so um if we're really trying to make it affordable and you know for for more people, right? There's a huge need. I think I heard there's 20,000 units that we need in Palm Beach County and I'm sure thousands here in Riviera Beach. So, these are only 45 units, but we hope that they'll make an impact for this

area of town and for the rest of Avenue E in the future. And then how many last question chair um how many commercial spaces? There are three uh commercial spaces. There's hopefully there's a little corner one on the north overlooking the little plaza with the with the pavilion. Hopefully that'll become a little coffee shop or a cafe. And then there's two more that could become, as Emily mentioned, it could be an office. Someone that lives upstairs wants to have an office downstairs or or a small retail space, you know, would be kind of nice, you know, that this first project has three um retail spaces. Thank you. That's all true. Thank you, sir. Mr. Fernandez,

I got a couple questions. Um I know the parking has been an issue. We brought it up not just in this development, other development. You're going to have three retail spaces. If each space has two employees, that's six. You only have 10 parking spots assigned. So that leaves you four sparking spots for them. Then you have two bedroom one and twobedroom units. Usually have two h two vehicles per household and you're only offering one parking. I do not know if anything can be done with the parking uh unfort at this late stage of the game but um I'm just laying it out there for future plans if you have anything else parking is a major issue here especially with the uh roadways. Now Mr. sermons. Uh in the past, as you well know, this um planning and zoning board has included a condition on development that six months after the CO, you know, your department is provided with a list of individuals, not by name, but just a idea of how many Riviera Beach residents that were hired, how many local vendors were hired, and how many uh uh providers. We have a lot of plumbing supplies locations in Riviera Beach, electrical supply houses, building construction. Um, is was that added to this um project the language as part of a condition?

No, it has not been added uh to this point um as it it is uh somewhat outside of the land development scope. However, as done uh previously, if this board wants to recommend that language and the uh applicant agrees to it, we can read it to the record and ensure that it's included as it moves forward. Based on the conversations in the presentation from Mrs. Stafford, Mr. Gonzalez, Emily, and Miss Gentiel, uh they've all agreed to making sure that they hire local. So, I'm sure they'll have no problem. Can you please read that text for them? And if they agree, add it as part of the condition.

Not a problem. Uh the previously used language reads as follows. The applicant shall actively advertise employment opportunities for temporary and permanent positions within the city of Riviera Beach, including participation at community job fairs and/or hosting specialized recruitment events. The developer shall provide a report to the development services department at 6 months post certificate of occupancy documenting the outreach efforts to acquire local employees, the number of local employees hired, and the number of local businesses contracted with subject to employment and privacy laws and the percentage of construction costs expended with local vendors. Well, while he's doing that.

Yeah, because phase one, we already doing that in phase phase one. I know that, but we we've got to make sure it's part of the condition because it wasn't added to the language. I didn't notice it on the language. So just just making sure yes it's acceptable by the applicant.

You got to realize that we are Riviera Beach and we have developers coming in uh and I want to make sure that this board wants to make sure that our citizens and our vendors and our suppliers because then they employ additional Riviera Beach residents for their locations. So it just I want to make sure that our our our citizens here get their money's worth. Now, uh, Miss Emily also brought up the fact, are you guys doing any infrastructure improvements at all? We have we have out, as you well know, sir, we have outdated, sewer, drainage, water mains in this whole city and that we're working little by little. Yes. But as we have developers that are developing, if we can ask them to contribute to some of the infrastructure uh in the area they're developing, it's less cost on the citizens of Riviera Beach. Can you

Absolutely, sir. Um thank you Jelle Merzos again um executive director Rivierc. Um I believe in 2019 I believe there was a master plan. Um this master plan dedicated specifically to Avenue E and the infrastructure projects throughout Avenue E throughout um the CRA. Um this master plan involved infrastructure improvements along with some drainage improvements, things of that nature. If it is the will of the board, of course, um yes, we would welcome the opportunity to invite those developers um to dedicate funds for the improvement of the Avenue E corridor. We are in the middle along the CRA along with development services. We are in talks with um the city manager of course um on how we would better improve that avenue ec corridor in preparation for the upcoming projects because as I've heard before not only is billons coming but we also have a plethora of projects to the north to the south and the east and west. Um so yes we have that project. So we're in preparation mode for those right now as we speak.

Right. But as I mentioned to the previous developer that's developing that massive project across the way, they agreed on site to also enhance the infrastructure on Avenue E. So what I'm asking for is if with the CRA's input, if we have developers working within the C district, let's use some of the developers to build the infrastructure and not the citizens. Why? We have a massive amount of money that's going to be coming up for the new water plant. Yes.

Okay. The figures are outrageous. Okay. We got our citizens going to be hit with a 30 to 35% water and sewer hike coming up. So, if we could start spreading some of this wonderful expenditures amongst our developers who are making money, they're not losing money, then I would uh myself and this board, I'm sure, would greatly appreciate the CRA and and making sure those developers and our united uh uh Mr. Surmans group unified also ensuring that when they got development projects coming in, this is what we're going to do. this is how we're going to handle it and obviously amanable to the to the goals and objectives that we have but let's just start spreading some of the expenditures around.

Absolutely. And at our July CRA meeting, we did welcome um we did present an item where we talked about community benefits. And those community benefits um were largely around developers and what um what they would bring to the table as far as not only development but also um additional when it comes to infrastructure improvements throughout the city. So we we do welcome that conversation with the city. Um we of course are looking to for the city to lead in that conversation and CRA of course will follow. But yes, we are open to that conversation.

We definitely need it. Uh we need to start sharing the expenditures. We the city cannot afford it. Uh so this is a great way and I brought this up before. This is not the first development. I brought this up. You're coming in to our city. Start you're building in the area. Let's improve the infrastructure around your area. So maybe you can coordinate with the other developer who agreed to infrastructure improvement avenue E so we don't duplicate and we can figure out what can be done. Now while I have you on there, Mr. Chair, if I may. Yes, sir.

To add on to that point, the city council did approve new utility connection rates uh with that exact uh aim to um expand u the the cost sharing um as it relates to our utility system and the infrastructure. So, water and wastewater connection fees have been implemented aside from the previously existing impact fees which every project pays into, but utility connection fees have also been added. Um, this is a per unit uh fee uh that is going towards our infrastructure needs in the city. So, I just wanted to make sure the board was aware of that as well. That was recently passed.

You are correct. But in addition to the impact fee, some of the developers were willing to add infrastructure improvements because it benefited their development. Now, on far as the tax ratables, I keep hearing about all the tax ratables that this is going to bring in. Within a CRA district, who gets the tax ratables? The CRA or the city? Um, the CRA receives um the tax um search charges from the county along with the charges from the city as well within that district. So, in other words, the taxes that are going to be produced by these developments in the CRA, that money goes to the CRA. Correct. So it doesn't go to improvements in any other part of the city because it's in the CRA district. It would not. No.

Okay. But again, I know exactly where you're going with that. We are amanable to discussing that portion with the city in terms of any type of benefits of improvements or infrastructure. We are totally um we welcome that conversation.

I know that we've been this is one of the main things that we've been pressing on and again um you know I love this city to death. I love its citizens, but not everybody can afford the major hikes that are coming down the pike. So, if I can spread the wealth a little bit, I am sure our citizens would appreciate it. Absolutely. And if the CRA with all the properties that we're improving, with all the taxables that can come in, if they can throw in a couple dollars, I know one of the last meetings you were present, one of the residents on Australian Avenue was complaining the street lights are out. This is out. It's not working there. We would like to like spread the wealth around a little bit. uh you know I know you have your expenses but we are having a lot of tax ratables coming into the CRA district so we definitely have to have that conversation.

Absolutely. Um that's it on the egress. I know the other property owners sir or the 400 I lost track of how many units that was. They're going to be using 13th Street, which is the only traffic light in that whole area, right? Uh because it's going to be a traffic nightmare. And I even suggested the developers to see if they can get with other developers in the area to see because the marina is going to be built up. Uh there's no way to walk if you're a pedestrian from 11th Street across Broadway. So, they got to walk to I was asking them, what about getting together between all the developers? It's cost-effective. and building a walkway right

over over over Broadway. We've done it in major cities in throughout Florida. We've done it. If if other cities can do it, we can do it. And if you combine the developers together, then we can just build the walkway. Nobody's going to want to walk from 11th Street to the traffic light on 13th Street and then cross over on 13th Street. And when we build with that area up with the Marina Village, your project, the project next door, could you imagine what traffic is going to be on Broadway? It's going to be like darting traffic with as pedestrians. And that's not that's a safety concern that I have for the residents that are coming in. So maybe between the CRA and the developers, just take a look at what it will cost to build a walkway. It should be very cost effective. Um Mr. Gonzalez.

Yeah, that's yeah, that's very interesting idea. And especially at that location, it could also serve as a gateway, you know, so you have an opportunity of you've arrive an arrival sense of arrival to Riviera Beach once you go over the bridge

and I know in years past having worked on the Marina village, there had been talk about that, but that's something that we'll explore. I also wanted to go back to the expenses of the uh site and off-site development ideas. So, there's going to be new lighting. Uh, all of it's going to be underground. You know, FPNL, that's a I think we're one of the first projects to do that, right? Because of hurricanes, everybody's doing that now. Palm Beach and other cities. So, all of it underground. All of the utilities, drainage, all the new piping, everything is going to be brand new. If you you know, when you drive by that property, it's it's a raw piece of land with a raw alley. So, it's all going to be improved. Uh, and including on the street portion, additional on street parking and the sidewalk. So, it's going to be quite an improvement, not just on the property, but in the adjacent area next to the property.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, once we're finished, can we go back to the text amendment so we can discuss the language? Got it. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're going to start with more questions on the other side with my other colleagues. Um, we'll start off with Mr. Galla. Uh, I have one question. Is there any way that you all are going to make sure that we have families purchase these town homes and not investors? True.

I know phase one, right? Phase one, uh, it's already 400 in the 400 range. The units are um the two bedrooms and the two stories are in the $400,000 range. Uh, and it yes, it has to be uh by people that have to live there. I think the minimum was 10 years, right? So, there's a 10-year requirement that you have to live in the building. You just can't buy a whole bunch of them. You can only buy one and you have to, you know, comply with the with the medium income requirements as was mentioned by Kurt. And so, there are a lot of mechanisms in place to make sure that no one comes in there and buys six units, you know, which happens in condominium buildings, you know. So, um, and that's never a good thing, you know. So, yes, there are some controls.

Yes. And you have to qualify, fill out paperwork to qualify for the affordable units. Okay. Chair, Mr. Chair, but who has 4 oh $400,000 in that area? Where where are we coming? Where where are we going? I'm just asking, you know, 400,000 in that area. I'm I'm just I'm just asking. I'm I'm confused. That's a steal nowadays. Uh Oh, really? It is. Yeah. Uh just right over in Maron Heights, houses going for more than $400,000 now. Single family homes. $400,000 or more. Or more. Wow.

Yeah. Prices are single family. Yeah. Well, I'll never make it, Ezra. Yeah. And then you one block from uh from the in the coaster there. So that's a steal at four four plus. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. Um Mr. Galler, are you done? Mr. G, you have another question? That was that was my main question. How All right. And Mr. Brown?

Yes. Um this seems like it would be a really nice development. I'm sure with Mr. um Mr. Gonzalez and two gh I mean they have a record of producing some nice developments. My question though is in the abandonment the owner to the north of the property uh do they have any objections to the present abandonment and do they actually have a say

the property owner to the north or 12th street across 13th I think the same owns both pieces to the north and to the north to the west. The west northwest the with what's presented for you to vote on or not vote, you know, to recommend today. No, they do not have a problem. They are not part of any abandonment. We have not made any impact on their land. That's it. Thanks. and and someone is um Jonathan is here representing them if you would like to speak to them.

That is the chair. Who's Jonathan? Did you would you like if if would you like to have him come up and introduce himself? Sorry to put you on the spot. Catch me off guard. Yeah. Hi. For for the record, Jonathan Lissnoff. I'm the uh representative on behalf of the property owner, Garrett Enterprises. We have no issue with We We actually love the project first of all. Uh have no issue with the current uh with the current abandonment. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions by the board? Mr. Chair, if I can go back to um Mr. set since he's the builder um of these projects. Is he are you building one and phase two? That's the plan. Yes, ma'am. Well, you're going to be very busy. Yep. That's why this is a priority and my team are dedicated to this project and um the community of River Beach.

So, you build phase one and after that, how long would it take you start on phase two? Uh well consecutively going just keep it moving. Keep it moving. Yeah. Hopefully there's no gap. Uh I think there's some some uh even some talks now uh based on site plan um approval uh getting some of the infrastructure going for for the next phase. You know, while while we're there, you might as well, you know, think about, you know, where we're going with some of the underground utilities. And well, I ask you that because it's going to be very busy in that area. I don't know if they'll start around with you with the Alpha Group, which I think their project is a little bit bigger than yours. So, that area, I don't know if it will impact the residents.

I'm not sure about the other project. Have Have they went the CDs yet? Well, they just came before this board last week, so

that's such a larger project and typically they need to do their construction documents. So, it's just going to take several months because they wouldn't have done it unless they knew they had the approval. Okay. And so, well, they still have to go before council, I think. Yes. and and they probably won't start those CDs until they get through that whole process to make sure that what's approved they can do the construction documentation on for. So, I just want to make sure that the uh projects don't collide. And then what I'm thinking about is the Boys and Girls Club. it will impact them

uh with all the dust and the dirt and you know um and the traffic because it's going to be heavy traffic the excavators and all that coming through the city. I'm just thinking outside the box. Oh, sorry. He's adjacent property owner. Mhm. Are you going to be doing any kind of development in the next couple of years there? No.

Well, I mean, we're prepared to, you know, any neighboring property such as his lease uh for parking or lay down area, you know, pay for any extra,

you know, area that needs. So, we're prepared to do whatever it takes to to minimize any impact to the to the local residents and uh not, you know, be interference with uh with the other other other property. You know, we we also have the backside, the west side of our property, which is right street that we can, you know, shift some of our our activity on as well. So not to interfere with with much of a e avenue uh as much as possible cuz right now we only we only use it as an ent entryway right now.

Yes, I see. But the heavy equipment that you will be bringing in I think will break down some of the infrastructure with the heavy equipment. Um and I I think that's what uh they were talking about the infrastructure. Are you going to repair the infrastructure or you just go? You know, that's a good question, Miss Shepard. As a matter of fact, our uh Mr. Bailey, the engineer, has already brought up some of those concerns and uh was even talking about going ahead and and coordinating with with our team uh on uh preemptively uh addressing some of those uh you know, older infrastructure issues, pipings and such, you know.

Yes. because that project is older than Mhm. you know, and I don't think it's been an upgrade over there. Not at all. So, you're coming with all your equipment because this is a big project

and you're going to have to park your equipment on the property or somebody's property. So, and then uh I'm thinking about the people that's going to be um affected. They will be affected, you know, because I'm over there with Safe Harbor now and I'm affected by their project. The dust or dirt is coming way over there with me. It's a big project and we can say, "Oh, we're going to make it very light." It's not a such thing as being very light. Once you start digging, once you start building all that dust and dirt, the infrastructure over there now is horrible. So, I'm just thinking that I hope it does not affect that neighborhood with the infrastructure already bad. You can't tell me it's not bad. Well, we we have a a a phenomenal uh pollution plan and and and preemptive with any kind of safety and dust control. We we've we've already put some things in place on that and we're going to continue that. Um making sure that we don't have any impact to the to the neighbors.

Thank you so much. I just want to ask you that. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes. Thank you again, Mr. for because that was um my next question coming up was stating that was there some um local um um property owners that will possibly lease out a certain area which should be beneficial to them if it's an empty lot and also use that you know I guess um sement it off or block it off or even rent out parking spaces or whatever like that to become beneficial to the to the owner of that lot and then also beneficial to you for parking. So that was a great idea. So that was something um Mr. Zafo. Um, good idea to bring that up and be able to hopefully, um, accomplish that and make it a lot easier cuz it will be a lot of traffic in that area. Like Mrs. Joseph said, there's going to be a lot of, uh, traffic in that area. And, um, City River Beach, we need the progress. And, um, I want to see the city grow the way it is growing, but with that, we still going to need parking and we going to need a lot of other things also. Instead, what Mr. Fernandez stated was um, the best thing. It's going to get expensive here

and we're going to have to make sure that the people that are here that are already here will still be able to afford to live here. And then of course we want to bring in more people to bring in more um more income. So again, thank you. U Mr. Gallin, were you done with with your questions? And also Mr. Brown. Yes, Mr. Chair. All right. Are there any other questions by the board? Not on this. Okay. So, so how do we do that with Mr. Sermon?

We we only discussed the input that I had on the on the text amendment because the sermons also included a language that we could limit it geographically which we've done in the past. This is a great project. Vacant land has been there forever, but other sections of our DG are not right. So the language that we used the last time to just limit it to that development, that area for the four stories, can we incorporate it into this for the text amendment?

So the previous project that was before you was the um Alpha Merit um Judge Rogers site project. They had a text amendment related to height. their text amendment limited that additional height allowance to properties only um west of Avenue E if I remember correctly and that was a way that they limited the potential impacts of that to a certain area um with this particular zoning district it is it is found essentially all along Avenue E from 11th Street where this project starts all the way north to um just about for Silver Beach Road. Um there so there's a lot more properties that are in um general downtown general um that and some of them are adjacent to single family homes. So So this was a a a tough thing to kind of limit geographically and it's something I've been looking at um since the comment was made earlier. Some options could be um limiting it to only instead of just or or instead of um mixed use, it could be projects that allow affordable housing um or a project has to do both. So it is more difficult to get the additional height um and it be one of the things where if you provide a public good such as affordable housing, then you can get the additional floor. Um, that is one way that it could um be reduced in scope as to um what cases it could be used, but there is not a a clear-cut geographic way to cut um to isolate this text amendment like the previous one. Um

what about an exemption for this particular development? I I don't know of a and and I'm I'm going to start to look at legal. I don't know of a way where we can amend the code for a specific project because it is written for all of the project find street between 11 and 12 street or you know just geographically square off that area without uh because I know the attorney was going to was jumping up. So I'm trying to limit

and help her get into a nicer area which is the 11th to 12th Street Avenue E uh language. Uh, again, I'm not sure how the board feels about it, but uh I'm I'm sure Miss Shepard would not want four-story buildings surrounding uh the your your neighborhood area or anyone else because you know how they complain about traffic every time they come up here, Miss Shepard. Yeah. And additional consideration could be adjacency to single family homes. Uh that could be written into it. um that uh four floors are allowed if the project is mixed and affordable and not adjacent to single family homes.

That would be a good that would be that would be something that would be beneficial. And and in that instance, for me skimming our city maps, that would primarily keep it on the um east side of Avenue E where most of those general commercial districts, but commercial and down um downtown core zoning districts, which are more intense, whereas on the west side of Avenue E, this district does, but against many single family homes. So that's another consideration of how this could be amended to limit the scope of it.

Well, what would you suggest if we limit it like Jack like you stated with uh uh with all those caveats adding the uh not near the uh single family homes? How can we word it so we can add it to the sec text amendment change which will benefit the developer but not hinder or hurt anybody else who has a single family and now all of a sudden somebody wants to build four stories uh all along a DG area behind their house or in front of the house or next to the house. You just gave some great examples of the language. It could I'm I'm trying to pull up the text myself so I can read it in a way that is respective of the fact that we need to get it on the record. Um to allow properties within the downtown general zoning district to develop to a maximum height of four floor stories when the project contains a mixeduse component is where the text ends now. Um, is there interest in adding affordable housing to that or do we want to focus on the geographic?

We can add affordable housing and the single family with affordable with with a mix of affordable housing not adjacent to single family and you can adjacent. That's a word that could be interpreted a million ways. Just we can limit it. If you want to put fit in there, 200 feet, 150 feet, whatever, however you want to word it, or if or if it's enough with the attorneys to just adjacent to a single family residence, that would suffice and that would have Mr. Chair, if I may.

Yes. If it's the pleasure of the board to recommend these um amendments to the proposed text amendment, you could direct staff to um present a revised version to city council that incorporates um your direction as far as mixeduse affordable housing and not adjacent. Um that might be a little bit grant more leeway so that we're not continuing to draft here. Correct. Well, remember we're an advisory board. or whatever we I'd like I I would love to have that added with the pleasure of the board when we get there add that condition and add then to the city with an explanation as to the reason why we're asking

I'm sorry was that a question for your uh fellow board members or staff we're taking the input of of our attorney which is the same thing we were just discussing correct so we would like to add that language to the text recommend end that language to the text amendment and then we'll vote on it that way.

Yes. So, we have staff has taken notes of those and should it be the pleasure of the board, we will include that in your approval conditions and present an amendment amended text amendment to city council when it gets to that point. Um, I'm assuming the applicant has no issue with us amending their text amendment so long as it doesn't prohibit their project from moving forward. So unless they say differently, we'll work on that with them between now and city council if council I'm sorry if this board votes for that amendment condition. And since this is the second time we've had such issues with tax amendments that will incorporate the entire Riviera Beach in the future, if we have a text amendment that would include zoning within the entire Riviera Beach, could we also incorporate some of that language? Like we had that problem uh with the uh uh with another development that we were going to do a text amendment in one section of the city that would have affected the entire city. So in the future just just for your for your division's

input but we can discuss it. I do want to make sure to just remind that the downtown general area is a limited area that's this focuses on the downtown area. So it's it's not so much citywide as it is infecting affecting the downtown area.

Right. But the other one was not downtown area. It was affecting the city on another different text amendment that they wanted for their property was on North Ocean Drive if you recall Mr. Sherman and it was a different zoning area as well, but they wanted a text amendment narrowing the size of the lot. Okay. Less space and with that language, any other developer could have came in. They get to build more on less space. So that's what I that's what I was talking about. Hey, that's fine. It's just that when we get to that point, I want to make sure we get this wording down right so that you know there's no question. You guys can work on it before you get paid the big bucks. Oh yeah, they understand.

Well, you got these right there employees. It's Mr. J. We will uh we'll agree to work with them on that language as well and help them. Great project. Thank you guys, Mr. Chair. Appreciate Absolutely. Great questions by the board. Yep, Mr. Chair, may I ask you one more question? Yes, ma'am. Uh to Ezra Seo, I guess I'm asking him because he's the developer. With the boys and girls club there and the children running around, you're going to make sure that you put up some type of barrier to protect how how are you going to work that out? Because I'm more worried about the children than anything.

All right. Well, first of all, I'm I'mma let you know I was a a Boys and Girls Club board member in my past life. So, you know, I'm I'm very conscientious about what goes on over there and the kids and and how important it is to keep them safe. Uh I'll tell you that uh our number one function is safety as first on how we plan and do anything. Uh, next is uh just making sure that we are good stewards of the community. So, we're we're gonna actually go over to um some of the management over there at the Boys and Girls Club and and and uh you know, form a a bond with them, you know, let them see what we're doing and and see how we can we can be um you know, attached at the hip on making sure that we don't impact anything that's going on over there. I'm just going to hold you to the fire if I go over there and I see anything, you know, because um my cousin Clara was one of the founding me members of the Boys and Girls Club. She was very protective of the Boys and Girls Club. So, I think I have inherited from her trying to be protective to the senior citizens and to the children. So, I just want to make sure that they're safe because you they have a lot of allergies over there and so I don't want the dust and you know if you can protect it some kind of way.

Who will I thank you for that Mr. and thank you for keeping me holding me accountable for the last 20 years. Absolutely. Great job, sir. All right, Mrs. Joseph. All right, last question. So, the main entrance into phase one and two are off of Avenue E and Right Street or just Avenue E or the entrances into the project site. Is it Avenue E mainly or is it both Avenue and Right? Both.

Both. Yes. And um and well, 11th It's in front of it, but the all the parking for the garages goes between both of the north south streets, right? And Avenue and getting into the parking lot quote unquote comes from both sides. You will see Miss Joseph on the on the east side between the residential retail use and the residential area to the south is Avenue E. And then on the on the west side of the property down there at the lower corn left corner you have an entrance into the parking area from right street. Okay. So, as Miss Mooney says, it's both areas, but and to answer your question, I I would believe the main entrance would be off Avenue E.

And again, traffic calming measures because that butts up, and I'm I'm going to leave it at this, it butts up against that Boys and Girls Club. So, if that is also going to be a main entrance into the site, a lot of bodies, a lot of people, cars, kids, just something to be mindful of. Thank you, Chair. There's Mr. Mr. Chair, one more thing. There's a house that sits right there, Ezra. Um, right there, right in front of the boys and girls, there's a house there. Now, you all going to be coming into that street where that house is at. It was just built maybe about 10, 12 years ago. Have you addressed that? Which house?

It's a house right in front of the Boys and Girls Club. The house is here. The Boys and Girls Club is right here. north or it's going Yes, it's going um So, if I'm on 13th, no, you're coming into where you're building it right now. Okay. On right street. Yes. There's a house, right? It's not but one house there. Oh, it's a duplex there. Yes. All right. So, what are you going to do about that? dust and the dirt is going to get on that property with them.

Besides notification and and being uh very uh mindful of of them, I mean, if we if we dirty it up with dust, you know, it's no problem for us to get uh pressure cleaner and and and offer pressure cleaning and mitigating any kind of issues she may have. That's nothing for us to do. I would just see children over there playing ball. Well, yeah. You know, I'm just mind mindful of the children there or the adults that's there, how they're going to be affected because this is going to be a huge project. A huge project.

Yeah. Our construction entrance is right there in front of our house. We've I've spoken, but thank you for for uh reminding me to be more conscientious about about it. So, I'll go over there uh in the next couple of days and and just make sure she's good along the way. And if she has any issues, she definitely can reach out to our team and we'll address any of her concerns because you know if not they're coming to the city council meeting and they're going to vent. So let's do something before Okay. Uh they come and vent because they will vent. That's their property. Well, I'm glad you told me about it because I I didn't I didn't think that deeply about it, but I will now.

Yes. Well, I passed by the other day and then I came back and I looked again and I want to make sure they're safe, their property is well taken care of while you are building because it's going to be a big project. So, all right. Thank you for your concern. Okay, Mr. Chair, I think I'm through. You think you're through? I think I'm through. Yes, sir. Uh, when we're going to vote on this, 7A was already read into the record for Miss Brown. So, let's just do one step at a time, right? After we're done with 7A, Miss Brown will read in 7B. Right. We'll vote on that and then she'll read into the record 7C and then we'll vote on that, sir.

All right. Yeah, I was going to ask on that because they all have to be done separately. So, in this situation, um can we go ahead and um I guess um go to a vote or is it a motion for 7A? I'm on I'm on a motion amending the city code of ordinance chapter 31A 24008. That is the text amendment with the conditions uh or recommendations that we provided Mr. Surmans who will work with his team which the developers agreed to. Uh do I is there a second? I second it.

The motion has been The motion has been moved and second. Mr. Chair, are you ready for the vote? Yes. Board member Lucy Joseph, yes. Board member Anthony Brown, yes. Board member Marcus Shepard, yes. Board member Frank Fernandez, yes. Board member William Riley. Yes. Mr. Chair, you have that motion passed unanimously.

Okay. So, we're gonna go on to 7B. And I guess we um read that into the to the the record. Here's your um agenda item 7B, an ordinance of the city of River Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, the River Beach Community Development Corporation, RBC CDC, and the River Beach Community Redevelopment Agency CR applicant AB 2401 to abandon an existing 15 ft alley approximately ly 8,7 excuse me. Um, excuse me for a minute, my friend. We need to amend that that square footage to be approximately uh 4,566 square feet. Okay.

Like 45,5 66 square feet. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just want to make sure we get that that down right. Okay. Um

the if I may go ahead and finish this off that that's essentially what this uh was with this pro would mean in that the 366 square ft which was the uh the parcel at the top right hand corner that was a 42 by 73 foot uh uh right I'm sorry abandonment and then the second part is 1,500 square feet which this 15x 100 ft uh area that you saw in the overhead uh that was presented. So um you complete after applicant AB24001 to abandon ex existing 15 foot alley and then approximately and then add the 4566 square feet there and then continue on.

Yes sir. Yeah. Instead of the 8705, it is exactly uh regarding the pro the soldier property located at the north portion of the subject site, a 42x 73 foot wide area that involved the west 12th street area. And and then in addition to that, the second portion of the abandonment is an area 15 ft by 100 ft at the south end of the property just north of phase one. I'm sorry. Where are you reading from?

Right. I'm looking for that also. Where where are you reading from? I have too much information. You have me confused. You're reading something that um Mr. Chair um Mr. Chair, yes, for clarification purposes, um what Mr. Thompson is communicating is that the um discrepancy in the total square footage of the abandonment um is not displayed correctly in the header. Uh so, Miss Brown will re reread the header with the correct number so that you can call the vote on the item.

Absolutely. But again, he's just re uh reiterating what he mentioned earlier in terms of the appropriate square footage of the abandonment area. We'll reread the entire header with the correct number so you can call the vote. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I I didn't mean to confuse the the situation. It's just the square footage, Miss Shepard. That's it. Everything else is I just want to write it down now and get it straight. That's all. That's it. Everything else is the same mail.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, agenda item 7B, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Rivera Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, the River Beach Community Development Corporation, RBCDC, and the River Beach Community Development Agency, CR A Applicant AB-2401, to abandon an existing 15t alleyway way alley approximately 4,566 square ft that dice bisect the properties located at 1116 Bright Street, 1117 Avenue E, 1129 Avenue E, and 1141 Avenue E, and to abandon the approximately 30 ft portion of West 12th Street, right away that dead ends within within the project site providing for applicability conflict conflict seability and codification and providing for an effective date. Do we have a motion?

We pass AB24001.

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Was that a question for staff? No, I was stating, do we have a motion? We have to just somebody motion uh applicant AB24001 second. It's been properly moved and second. Are you ready for the vote, Mr. Chairperson? Yes, ma'am. Board member Lucy Lucy Joseph. Yes. Board member Anthony Brown. Yes. Board member Margaret Shepard. Yes. Board member Frank Fernandez. Yes. Board member William Wy. Yes, sir. That the that vote passed unanimously.

All right. So, let's move on to 7 C and um have that read in and up for approval. Agenda item 7 C, a resolution of the city council of the city of River Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, approving a site plan request SP-240015 on behalf of the of the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency CR to allow for a mixeduse development consisting of residential, retail, and office into two separate buildings. More specifically, the proposed project will provide 45 residential units. 27 will be marked as affordable and 3,224 square ft of retail office space. This project application also includes a request for an administrative waiver to reduce required parking as allowed by section 31-539B3 providing for conditions of approvable providing for applicability conflict severability and codification and providing for an effective date and for other purposes.

Sure. an app for motion on that. Can we we need to add the uh additions and conditions, correct, Mr. Surmans, to that that were previously approved by the developer. That's correct. Uh we are of the understanding that this your recommendation will will be that the discussed condition language is added. Correct. Plus, I believe it's time to add nine up there. Nine conditions. 10. 10. Okay. What do we have a motion for?

Chair, I motion to uh approve the site plan request SP240015 as read into the record with the conditions also read into the record amanable to the developers as well. Second. It's been properly moved and second. Mr. Chair, are you ready for the vote? Yes. Board member Lucy Joseph. Yes. Board member Anthony Brown. Yes. Board member Margaret Shepard. Yes. Board member Frank Fernandez. Yes. Board member William Wy.

Yes. Mr. Chair, that vote pass unanimously. All right. Thank you. and thank you for investing in our community. Thank you. Congratulations. And remember, we know where you live. It's not a caution. It's just an encouraging words for

Mr. Gentiel, so good to see you again as always. And I was a patrol when I was 12 years old on the corner of 13th and Broadway. Yes, sir. Rivier Beach Elementary School. Well, thank you, Mr. Gentle. All right. On to number eight. Workshop items. None from staff, Mr. Chair.

All right. So, number nine. Do we have any public comments? None. On to number 10. General discussion. Any staff updates? Uh, Mr. chair only that the uh previously requested items uh that the board has requested, we are still on track to present those to you at next month's planning and zoning board meeting, including the employment reports and anti-gentrification research. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. I thought you said we're suspended until further notice. Did what?

Oh, I thought you said you're going to submit. Yeah, reappointments uh are put on hold right now for any reappoints or u um term renewals. Um I was speaking to the items that were requested to be researched and presented to this board of uh city staff. So we're staying here until they make a decision. That's correct. Oh, okay. Nothing else from staff, Mr. Chair. All right. Any correspondence by the board? Just a question. Yes.

Um, Mr. S, does or does the city or has the city conducted any sort of transportation study in the last 10 years that you're aware of? I I would have to defer that question to the city engineer. I'm not positive on the answer to that one. Okay. Could you pencil that in there and find out, please? Can we also get a um introductory about a new planner? Welcome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. To those who I haven't formally met, my name is Gabby Suarez and I am planner one. Congratulations. Thank you.

Welcome to the city. Thank you. [Applause] And the only reason why I'm asking that again with all the beautiful projects that are getting ready to come to our city, it would be nice to kind of get a perspective of, you know, with everything, get a big picture.

I know was working because we brought this up with her. If I sent her some information, city of Westbomb is offering free little shuttles around town for the downtown area to get people back and forth, right? Uh so I know son was looking in into as part of our master plan so comp plan so maybe we can address it as a city for uh transportation. I will make note of that. I believe the CRA was working on a kind of a circulator um shuttle trolley type program.

They're working on that but also other transportation needs we need uh on the buses. They were also working on the bus stops. you know, building up the little bus stops with, you know, little cover like Palm Beach Gardens did and everybody else did. So folks don't have to wait there and in the burning sun of the summer. Yes. Yes. That is something we are in the midst of implementing through the development process and many of the projects that have come before. You actually have a condition related to their obligation to construct bus shelters and any stops in front of their development. So um we we have a report that we can share on the success of that program so far as well. question and I'm only speaking from experience

from you know what we're seeing to the north and or excuse me to the south of the impact of these projects coming into the city and the amount of traffic that residents are experiencing and you know the impact to the infrastructure and you know water water is a lot slower now that these bigger projects are coming in. So, it's just something to keep in mind um as a city, you know, really start educating our residents, you know, making sure they they're aware that these projects are coming online and what to expect for the next, you know, 10 plus years.

Okay. So, let's go on. Um and just just just to clarify, there any more correspondence by the board? I don't want to leave anyone out. Okay. Okay. So, um see the next planning and bon um planning and zoning board meeting is planned for October 9th, 2025. Is that correct, sir? That's correct. All right. Um and on to number 11. Do I have a motion for adjournment? So move at 8:20 p.m. Second that motion