About this meeting
- Government Body
- Community Development Board
- Meeting Type
- Community Development Board
- Location
- Clearwater, FL
- Meeting Date
- April 21, 2026
Transcript
70 sections (from 82 segments)
Good afternoon. Miss Mealy of Community Development Board is called to order at 1PM on April 21, I believe. And good afternoon. Please join me in the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. Diane, I believe you got that covered today?
Yes. Thank you for giving us safe arrival to everyone here today at the meeting and everyone sitting here on the dais. Please help us keep all of our distractions at the door so that we can pay attention to what is going to be discussed to we're do that. Unrest. In your son's precious name, amen. Amen.
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. This board consists of seven members and one alternate who are appointed by the city council and serve voluntarily. I am Michael Butzcuss, and I will ask the other members and the staff to introduce themselves beginning on my left. Left. Andy Park, O'Bray Hodraport. Mike Mastrocerio.
Noah Diker, Board Attorney.
Rosemary Call, City Clerk.
Matt Nittig, Assistant City Attorney.
Ted Kozak, Planning and Development.
Lauren Matzke, Planning and Development. Diane Achanelli.
Kurt Heinrichs.
Michelle Chenault.
Andrew Please remember to turn off your cell phones so that did not become a distraction during the meeting. Please also refrain from having conversations in this room so that we might hear all the testimony given today. To ensure a complete record of this board's actions, we ask that each individual wishing to speak, including the applicant, speak into the microphone at the podium in front of us, clearly state your name and spell your last name for the clerk. Now I'll ask all those in attendance today podium are a roster of the community development board, the list of city staff experts and their resumes, the board's rules procedure, and the annual schedule of this board. Our first order of business to review and approve the minutes from last month's meeting.
May I have a motion for approval of the minutes? I motion to approve the meeting at the last minute, pardon, minutes of the last meeting. Second. Made and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. At this point, is there any person wishing to address this board that's here today concerning any matter that does not appear on today's agenda? Any public comment on matters not on today's agenda?
Seeing none, this board has adopted a consent agenda format, and consent agenda items are identified as such on the agenda. Consent agenda items are those items for which the planning and development department recommends approval and the applicant is in agreement with any proposed conditions. Please note that written comments to the case that have been received to date do not result in any item being removed from the consent agenda. Items may be removed from the consent agenda today by a member of the board, a member of the staff, or any person in the audience for questions or objections. I'll read each item on the consent agenda and if any person wishes to remove this item from the consent agenda, please state or raise your hand and we will remove it from the consent agenda.
Items removed from the consent agenda will be heard in the regular order of the meeting. Items that remain in the consent agenda will be approved with a single vote as to each type of hearing. The consent agenda items today are as follows. FLD twenty twenty five-ten thousand and twenty six, a flexible development approval for the conversion to a medical clinic in the institutional district as a comprehensive infill redevelopment project for the property at 375 Turner Street. Does anybody wish to have that item removed from the consent agenda?
Seeing none. Next item is FLD two zero two six dash zero one zero zero two, flexible development approval of an existing eighteen thirty eight square foot commercial dock for a new boat lift accessory to a 27 unit attached dwellings within the high density residential on the state's neighborhood conservation overlay and preservation districts for the property located at 125 Island Way. Does anybody wish to have this matter removed from the consent agenda? Seeing none, next item is LUP two zero two six dash zero two zero zero one, an amendment to the city's future land use map from the residential low designation to the recreation open space designation city Of Clearwater for the property located at 1399 Pineapple Lane. Does anybody wish to have this matter removed from the consent agenda?
Seeing none, last one on the consent agenda today is an amendment to the city zoning atlas in the residential RA district, Pinellas County to the open space recreation OSR district City Of Clearwater for the property located at 1399 Pineapple Lane. Does anybody wish to have this item removed from the consent agenda? Alright, seeing none, then, does any board member wish to disclose any ex parte communications on any of the level two applications remaining on the consent agenda? Those were the first two items I read, which are FLD twenty twenty five one thousand and twenty six, and FLD twenty twenty six-one thousand and two. Seeing none, may I have a motion for approval of the level two applications remaining on the consent agenda?
I move to approve cases number FLD2025-ten 26 and FLD2026-ten six-one thousand thousand and and two on today's consent agenda based on the evidence in the record, including the applications and the staff report, and hereby adopt the findings of fact and conclusions of law stated in the staff reports with the conditions as listed as of.
I'm sorry, did we say
anything about ex parte communications?
We did. Did. This time I didn't forget. Thank you for checking that.
All right.
Do I have a second on the motion? I'll second it. Motion made and seconded, is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Can I have a motion on the level three applications that remain on consent agenda?
I move to recommend approval for case number LUP2026-two thousand and one and REZ 2,020 thousand and one. On today's consent agenda, based on the evidence in the record, including the applications and the staff report, and hereby adopt the findings of fact and the conclusions of law stated in the staff reports with conditions of approval as listed. Do I
have a second? I'll second it again. Just a clarification. The last five digits are 2001. You kind of swap them around. Just want to make sure the record is clear in that respect. I think you said 2001.
Dyslexic.
That happens to me all the time. Trust me. No big deal. Just want to make sure it was clear on the record. All right. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. That's our case's director's report.
Okay. I will take advantage of this time and just celebrate there's so much positive going on in our downtown, and several of those applications came in numerous forms to the community development board. So I don't know about you all, but I get super excited now. There's cranes on our skyline again, not just at the beach, groundbreakings and lots of construction activity going on. City Hall is on schedule, and I'm using that as my lead in because soon there will be a new chambers, soon being like this fall sometime.
And I know that a couple of you all are terming out and, not coming back to the community development board. We need your help. We need to find some people who will fill your big shoes here on the board. So if you know of anyone that has, you know, one of the preferred professional backgrounds, please encourage them. I know everyone enjoys this meeting so much that, you would want to make sure that we have the best qualified people sitting in your chairs.
I do also understand, of course, that it's a time commitment, and we really appreciate everyone's time that you spend getting ready and coming to these meetings, whether they be, you know, all consent agenda items like today or, you know, some of the ones that can take several hours to get through. It's all part of the process, and we appreciate and respect your time. We have a new board attorney whom you probably have met already, but we'll be getting they're going to be representing you going forward and pretty excited about that as well. I don't know if you want to say anything specifically. Sorry to put you on
the spot.
Sure, sure. I went around and tried to introduce myself to everyone, but I missed a couple of you. But my name is Noah Dyker. Myself and my colleague, Jennifer Cowan, are taking over as the board's attorney. We practice the same kind of law that Jay did. We've done this for a pretty long time. I'm from Clearwater originally, so I'm looking forward to working with all of you here.
Thank you. We look forward to your guidance and assistance because we do rely upon our board attorney. Appreciate it.
And that's all I have.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Any board members to be heard? I've just got one thing to say. These people sitting in the front, we always seem to go by it. I mean, we say it, but no. Sometimes people don't understand. Are you here for a certain reason?
Yes, sir. My name is Scott
I live at 2760 Maple Drive for thirty seven years.
I apologize. I if you're gonna speak, we need you to come to
the Yeah.
Phone so that way it gets caught correctly. Yeah. My first Of course, walked by. I talked over a minute ago too.
My name is Scott Scott Lauer. I live at 2760 Naval Drive. I've been a resident at that location for thirty six years. And there's a little park at the end of my street. Well, it was a private residence at 1399 Pineapple Lane.
And
I'm here because I heard a rumor that that land may be annexed to the city and then eventually rezoned for multifamily use. So I'm just trying to quash them rumors and I'll bet that I have a couple of my neighbors here also. We just wanna see if any of these rumors are true.
I I don't mind answering if you
Pardon me?
Like. I don't mind
If you don't mind answering, go ahead. I know a little bit of the history of the property because I represented the previous owners who sold it to the city.
Well, can't speak to the history of the property, but, of course, we do have representatives from our Parks and Recreation Department here. They're the current owners of the property. The annexation rumor is correct. It's currently in the county and, we're in the process of annexing it into the city. The last two items that were approved on the consent agenda today would be to rezone that from a residential use to a parks and recreation.
So it would be going to, recreation open space or open So space it is to be integrated into the park. And if you would like to speak to him, Mark Perry is, got his hand up right there, and he can tell you anything else beyond that. But you'll be receiving several more public notices in the community because, this will be going to, city council, the annexation, as well as these two amendments. They do have to go to the state and to the county for review prior to us being able to finalize anything. And, with this being an election year, this is a great opportunity to educate people.
We're unable we have to take a pause on annexations in the near term because they need to finalize any voting blocks and everything like that. So even though no one lives there and it's a vacant parcel, that's just something that all municipalities have to do. So it's going to take a little longer than usual because we can't finish the annexation until after the elections. So later this fall, but Parks and Recreation can tell you all of the rest
of it.
And Mark, right?
Yes.
I am going
to speak with you as soon as we indicated. Thank
you, sir. Sure.
Thank you for
your time.
Thank you for coming. I'm hoping I answered your questions.
Yes,
sir. And we appreciate. Anytime you want to call, we're happy to answer questions because we know how quickly rumors can get started, and we'd rather provide the information than have people worrying. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for letting me.
No, I appreciate it. I have nothing to do with current ownership rather than my volunteer on the Board here, but the previous owners were intent on seeing it remain part of a park space, and I represent one of the two owners. And so I'm glad that everything's continuing. I was happy to see it on the agenda proceeding in that path. Anybody else have anything else? Okay.
Just one quick thing. Sure. I'm one of the people that talked that you mentioned that are phasing out or timing out on the board. I just want to thank the city and the staff for letting me work, on these volunteer boards. I started out in 2009 on the, Code Enforcement Board. I think Mike was with me back way back then. It's been a pleasure and an honor serving the city, but I thought I'd let some younger people join, and have the opportunity to take my place. So thank you very much to the city.
Curt, you do know until we find somebody you still have to serve, right?
They didn't tell me that. I didn't
read that.
I made it publicly.
Well, thank you very much for your assistance over the years on this Board as well as it was a pleasure. Previously, was in gold enforcement back at that time for a bit, and then jumped over to this Board, took a break for a couple of years and got back on, giving others not to come in as well. So, anybody else have anything else? Well, that will adjourn today's meeting. Thank you very much for everybody being here.
This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.