City Commission - Regular Meeting

Hit that thing hard. All right. Uh, let's do the pledge of allegiance. Uh, Josh, if you wouldn't mind. Be glad to. Please turn and face the flag. 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. All right. We've got um invocation by Mark Wodka. All right. Um Jeremy, would you mind doing that for us? Sure.

If you'd please pray with me. Lord, thank you so much that we have an engaged citizen and uh beach town that are interested in making decisions for our city. We're just pray that you'll have everyone humbly and um morally ple plead their case. We're thankful for the freedoms we have in Florida and the best beach town in Florida. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, roll call. Commissioner Jackson here. Commissioner Huterson here. Commissioner Tamoli here. Vice Mayor Williams here. Mayor Coupey, I'm here but I'm not all there. Oh Jesus. All right. Approval of the agenda. I move to approve the agenda with H4 removed from the consent agenda.

Second. A motion and a second. All in favor? I I All right. Um you you remove number four. Yeah. Okay. Do we have uh any public comment about items that are not on the agenda? Uh Janice did this. Yeah. Okay.

Good evening, commissioners, attorney, city manager, clerk, new clerk, deputy clerk. Um okay, so tonight I'm want to talk about the meeting last night, the board of adjustment [ __ ] show. I just want to tell you that after 30 years watching this board, it's a quasi judicial board where it's like, oh, what can we do for you? That is not their duty. Their duty is to find a hardship according to the state statute. And I'll read a couple of things. It's uh they're always like, "Oh, how can we help you out?" The attorney tried her best to straighten them out. I don't know if you need to have a workshop uh hammer and chisel about this especially for people who've been on this board a long time. So in Florida it says variances are granted when strict application of zoning codes creates a unique non-selfcreated hardship generally governed by local ordinances and interpreted through chapter 163. The key requirements for our variance in Florida are having a unique hardship. That doesn't mean you want it or it would be good or you're you look up at the sky all the time. It means your hardship must stem from a unique physical condition of your property, the size, shape or something rather than than a personal circumstance or economic hardship. Oh, I just really want to do it. I can make a lot of money. No, it your property has to be different from your neighbors. It has to be something unique to you. It's not self-created. The hardship cannot be a result of the applicant's own actions. Buying a lot known to be too small for its intended use. The public interest. The variance cannot harm public interest or break the

spirit of the city of Cocoa Beach comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances. Local zoning boards are authorized also under chapter 163. Administrative variances in Florida statutes allow agencies to grant variances or waiverss when the purpose of the underlying statute is achieved by other means or if the rule creates a substantial hardship. Technical, economic or some other sort of legal hardship which the attorney can guide and the duration of a variance runs with the land. It's not just something you want. This is terrible. It's embarrassing. And that property AC that across on the Bell um excuse me, Angelo Canal, that's a joke. I don't care if you get a BTR or not, but I have one last com Oh, I have one last comment to make to the smart Alec on that board who wants to know, I wear a Chanel perfume.

Thank you, Dennis. Um,

I would like for our planning boards and our board of adjustment to be a little bit more educated on the codes or uh the variances that we have prior to to our meetings. So, I don't know if we can maybe have a workshop on that or or maybe cuz I know like how we get to meet with the the uh city manager before um before meetings and stuff like that. Um maybe remind them that they can they can talk to staff and get information on what actual they are allowed to ask and stuff like that.

Yes. Um there there possibly was a little misunderstanding. The hearing that we had last night was not for a variance. It was for a special exception. So there were standards. And I'm not necessarily talking specifically about that, but I'm just saying in general, I think our our planning boards and our uh boards of adjustment need a little bit more um uh education prior to uh the meetings. Just I think they would go a little quicker. They wouldn't go as as long. Just just a suggestion. Thank you, Janice. Um any other public comments about items that are not on the agenda? All right. Uh staff reports.

Good evening, mayor and commission. Uh I have a few tonight. So first for Ramp Road Park, we're actually waiting to hear back from FD before installing the remaining storm water pipes, but are continuing to work on the parking lot. We're still working through some uh solutions at the park. The vulnerability assessment's final public presentation is planned to be held May 12th at 6 p.m. The meeting will provide results of the assessment itself, presets that are at risk to future flooding, and share solutions. Burn ban is still in effect. Uh even with the rain that we've had here recently, we're still in a severe drought. 90% of the state is in severe extreme drought conditions. Plus, the freeze has created some additional fire load with all the damaged vegetation. So, no burning and no fire pits in the city. The National Weather Service determined that on Monday we had a micro out at the, you know, near the golf course, water recck center area. The city did sustain some uh damage to areas around those two areas. Cindy and her staff are exploring insurance and other options to assist in paying for some of the damage thanks to leisure services and public works because of uh their hard work. The facilities have been recommending the storm and everything's operating as normal. The police department had their 2025 awards ceremony last night at the country club. They had about 120 attendees. Again, leisure services did a great job and thanks to Comm Hutcherson going um Brad Morgan and I met with stakeholders at McNab Parkway this week regarding solutions for the pvious paver issue on that road. Thanks to Brad and Morgan, we are we look to be moving forward with those stakeholders with

some viable solutions to resolve that issue. And lastly, Brad is still waiting on the final numbers for a possible shower install at Bsentennial Park. Thank you. Uh, city attorney. Um, nothing tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, city commission, was I supposed to get an invite to the police awards? I I think I was invited, but I I I read may not have got I read my emails. I I I apologize. I I would I would love to have been there as well. I I think uh I missed it on my calendar. Um

Oh, are we justifying why we weren't there? I have a comment if Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Um just wanted to uh share a little bit as a family we had an incident uh where our absolutely incredible city we got to experience it personally how tremendous it is to have trained expert professionals when it's your family and it matters and I just want to say to both chiefs and to the city manager thank you guys so much. Oh, thank you. Awesome.

Um I I was there also. I saw they they did a fantastic job. I agree wholeheartedly. Um and um yeah, that's all I got to say about that. So like everything's Yeah. Yeah. Healthy and good. Good. Thank you.

Good. Good to know. Um yeah, we did have a micro burst at the school that it was really kind of crazy. I don't know if you all have been in the commons at Cocoa Beach High School. Most of you probably have, but it was such a white out you could not see across the Commons, which is enclosed uh for a short period of time. Um I live on the golf course and I have cameras on my house and unfortunately the power went out just as this micro burst came through, but you could see it coming through right before the uh um power went out and it was it was nuts. stuff started blowing around like it was a a tornado. It was it was a tornado basically coming through. Um and I know that was I know you'll you may have something to talk about that later, but um it's um it did a lot of damage on the golf course. Uh the tennis courts took a lot of damage. I mean, we just built this or they just built, you know, put new fencing and tennis courts in and it got damaged pretty pretty heavily. I'm sure you all saw pictures of that. So, um, but you know, congrats to the the the city staff. Um, you know, just they're on it. Uh, we had a huge tree. I'm not sure it was a a a cedar or something on lakes number five. It's been a pain in my butt for for 20some years.

You know, if any Yeah, I got to straighten my shot out, right? Um, it's gone. It was like You know, so there's always a silver lining, right? There's always a silver lining in uh you know what in these disasters, right? Lord was on your side. He was He was right there. Um so so that shot's going to be a little easier going forward. Um yeah. Well, it's spring break next week for the kids. So be on the lookout. Kids are going to be all over uh downtown, the beach, everywhere all day, every day next week. So, not just the, you know, spring breakers, but Koka Beach High School kids. So, look out for that. Thank you.

Comment. So, Commissioner Jackson, praying for your family. I'm glad things worked out. I'm going to forward you guys an email just um I'm I'm hopeful that the budget process is going to be a lot smoother this year. I'm going to give you guys what I submitted to Hannah so you have an insight. So, it makes that workshop a lot more productive. But, I'll send that on record now. That's it for me. Thank you. What? He's He's saving it for later. Um, I could go on. I know.

My wife said, "Don't say this because it sounds like like I'm just making stuff up, but I actually got caught in that micro burst driving on 520." Like right after I went through it, uh, Wes called and told me about what happened uh, at the golf course. And I was like, I could have swore I drove through a tornado. It was insane. It was straight white out. I couldn't see 10 ft in front of me. That I was driving an RV and the thing was all over the place. I'm glad that nobody got hurt. I'm glad that that uh we're able to to start to clean up. Uh our our maintenance crew has been awesome. You guys have been seeing the the emails of the of the stuff that they've been doing. I really like that. Uh by the way, that's uh it's

Marcus. Marcus. Show. There you go. that it's awesome. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um it's it's something I wanted to see for a while. So, it's it's it's awesome. So, thank you so much for that. I want to say you're doing a great job and uh and it's it also helps to keep people accountable. So, thank you. Okay, I'm going to

So, um, Saturday before last, uh, you know, we had the time change and the, um, the the wildlife doesn't know there was a time change. So, I'm going into work a hour earlier and uh, I'm coming across NASA Causeway. It's a two-lane road. You know, we got traffic in both directions on a two-lane road and these people with their overly bright headlights and I'm on a I'm on a curve and I got these blinding headlights coming at me. You know, if you flash your lights at them and they flash the brights, then you just made it worse. You can't see. And soon as the car went by, 6 feet in front of my car was a a borehog right in the middle of the road. I mean, couldn't help but hit him at 50 m an hour. Uh car was going wppity wity wobble. I go, "Man, this thing really tore up my suspension, you know." And uh then it popped out the back. So I drug it forund and some yards and it, you know, had, you could smell it and within 10 seconds inside the car with the AC off, blood and guts and everything all over the car and the windshield and everything.

Where you going with that? Turned out to be $3,000 worth of damage. So let's get rid of the time change or get a truck with a steel bumper. Well, that was that was insightful. Thank you. Um, we need a second. We will. Do you need a second for that? Are we voting on that? Yeah. Um, no time change in Cocoa Beach or Bvard County. I guess you're not. You were in Coco. All right. Let's Let's uh temporary recess for uh our um TRA and we'll we'll start with our CRA now. All right. Item one. Okay. Item one, discuss adding brick pavers on Bard Avenue. Staff Representative West Mullen, city manager.

Okay. So, go ahead. We got a move to discuss. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. Uh, second motion in a second. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Excuse me. Uh, Brad, can you come up, please? So, last meeting, uh, I believe it was Commissioner Williams suggested that we come back with a price for the pavers on Bard Avenue. So, Brad's got some information for you.

Uh, good evening, commissioners. Um, so for the pavers, the sand, and the gravel that would be required to do this job, we're looking at about $16,000. Um, I chose the pavers that we have on our sidewalks. Now, if that's a consensus to use, we'll do that. I don't know if you want different style pavers or anything like that, but that's roughly what it's going to cost. What street to what street? Minute Man to Fourth Street North. Wow. The entire 16,000. Yeah. That's because we're doing because we're doing the work, right, Brad? Or is that is that just the uh our guys are going to do the work side of the road? I think it's a no-brainer, guys. Where the grass is? Yeah. Well, what that thought

supposed to be grass because the grass is never there. It's full of weeds. It'll keep sand out of the out of the road. I think it's a no-brainer. Um Yeah. So, if we did if we engraved the bricks at at 25 cents per person's name, get it for free. potentially. So, we're doing it ourselves. That That's the plan. Yes. That's material cost 16,000. Right. So, do we have experienced folks? I mean, they'll be experienced by the time they get to the last block doing it. It's not for sure. It's not rocket science. It isn't. It isn't. Yeah. I mean, it's trim work. Yeah,

it is. And it's it is. But I mean, I'm just saying I'm not I'm not judging our our crew on on doing papers, but that's not something we we do on a regular basis. You're you're correct. And I have confidence that they can do a good job. The the first couple might take a little longer until we get used to it, but as we move along, I have confidence they can do. Watch a couple YouTube videos. And the other thing is, right, they they have a curb on one side and sidewalk on the other side, so they don't have to do the edging to keep the bricks from falling off either side. That's the hard part. I would add that if they do this and we get this kind of experience, we have these pavers elsewhere, we have the ability to do repairs ourselves.

It's it's kind of a smart addard is a good corridor. We could make that you last year the parade got cancelled because we the FDOT shut down A1A snafu, but you can potentially do those exercises on Bvard and it's all within the city scope. Did Did we uh do it inhouse for the um alleyway between Orlando and Tiny Turtle? No, no, no. Um between Orlando and Atlantic uh from first to I wasn't here for I Yeah, but who did it? That's what I was wondering. We do it in a contractor. It was a contractor. Okay. I moved it. That was a lot. Support funding.

Okay. I support funding. I also want to throw is there do we want that a second? That was a second. Do we want to consider like some kind of light post solar powered light post as well? I mean let's go baby steps. Okay. Favors. I second that. Yeah. I be for that though in the future for sure. I mean it's a it's a nice corridor. It's nice and wide. I think there's I mean if you look at what they did with um with Ocean Beach Boulevard like especially down in in Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral really did it right. They did a great job. Yep. Um, Bvard is our probably our worst looking street in Cocoa Beach. I mean, with the pavers and maybe some more decorative lighting over there, I think we could have the same appeal. So, I agree. We'll start with the pavers and we'll see how it goes from there.

Did you want to say something? Yeah. I I just want to make sure for the record it's going to come half from CRA funds and half from uh general funds. Just on the record, just so Okay. the commission's aware. And And why is that? Uh because we CRA Yeah, we thought we had enough spare in the CRA this year, but we don't. That's actually budgeted. So, we're going to go half and half. Okay. That's going to be the best way for us to do it. All right. Thank you. All right. All right. Any public comment or can I just add one? Yes. There are spots along that road where the sidewalk is higher than the curb. So, we need to be very careful on that slope that we're not violating ADA um policy. So that's going to be the biggest challenge for us when we install these. Okay.

So, uh, any other public comment? Uh, go ahead. Yeah. Sure. Yes, please. Yes, Don Haynes. I was just curious. You mentioned $15,000, but how much does that work out to per square foot? We're we're going to be doing it's whatever the cost of the brick and the sand is. We're labor to your employees. We're our our employees. But it's a quarter mile by about three and a half foot. You want to do the math? How long? It's a quarter mile. It's $322 cents a square foot. No, it's actually a half mile. That's reasonable, right?

Well, wait a minute. You could add in your fear. In other words, the going rate what I pay for is about 650 a square foot. Labor labor and all materials. And I was just wondering if you were in that ballpark, it might be,000 foot. I don't know. My mind don't work as quick as skips. I need a calculator. But anyways, I'm just saying what the market is is 650 a square foot. So you guys do the math and that'll tell you roughly four. Four bucks. But thank you. We we got the quote for 5,000 square feet. Just uh if we have to cut bricks and anything 325. Yeah. All right. I'm not good at public math, but I'm kind of

Any other public comments? All right. All in favor? I hold on hold on I got I got one thing to say. So we put these pavers in just like we put the pavers in this beautifification we did 10 12 years ago and we didn't maintain it. It's got to be maintained. Yeah. As long as we got a plan to maintain it, I'm 100% on it. I agree with you a thousand%. All right. Well, all right. The form I sent you for my budget inputs focuses on that. I think that's the key thing for the city.

And I will say that um Wes Wes has been very very receptive and and understanding and agreeing with uh we need to make sure that we start maintaining our stuff better. So I have no doubt with Wes um in the helm that we're going to our maintenance is going to just go up from here. So all in favor I motion passes 50. All right. Yeah. Here. All right. We will reconvene the consent agenda.

Okay. This is item H consent agenda. Item one. Approve the March 5th 26 commission meeting minutes to representative city clerk department. Item two was pulled on 317206. Item three, approve contract extension agreements to award biders under CB23-001 continuing services for minor construction projects for a period of one year to expire March 31, 2027. Staff representative Taylor Matalo, project manager recommendation approved. Item F was just tonight. Item five, approval of proclamation Tuskegee Airman com commemoration day, March 28th, 2026.

Approve to uh move to approve the consent agenda as read. Second. A motion and a second. All in favor? I I. All right. Motion passes. 50. Um H4. Okay. This is item H4. It's items removed from the consent agenda. Approve the amendment to the development agreement between the city of Cocoa Beach and EKS Sooner 1 LLC. Staff representative David Dicki, development services director. Recommendation approved. Move to approve. Second.

So, the reason I I'll go first. Mayor, um the reason I pulled this, I just wanted to have further discussion on make sure we understood. Last time we had the first reading of the um impact fee. The motion, I believe, was to provide an exemption to this property and it didn't get a second. So, we're effectively doing that with this revision to their development agreement. So, I just want to have that discussion open with the commission. Correct.

Yeah. I I I agree with that. I I still am not for the extra impact fees, but I agree with this. So, I just I just want to be fair to everybody that's going to be doing projects. That's that's just my my thought on that. But yes, I I will I'm fine with this. I want to hear you guys any David, you could just explain for it's just they've already been in the mix for so long and they and they just finally the only one that's outstanding with the of all the development agreements. Yeah.

Good evening. Um, yeah, I was unclear as to exactly what the direction of the commission was. So, I went back and watched the YouTube video to see specifically what was stated and it was clear that the commission wanted staff to take a look at the language and and and perhaps uh looking at the timing of collection of impact fees. It seemed to be the discussion targeted the four three or four projects that were the subject of a development agreement. And as we discussed, two of the three that are still alive and well are um well, one's the um um the Weston that's under construction, so that's kind of off the table. The other was Westgate, and that's really uh being rethought and we'll be going back through and generating a new development agreement. So, that one is kind of null and void. And in fact, the developer never signed the initial one that was approved by the city. So, uh it's it's also null and void. And the third one was the drift. And actually, um, it was, uh, I'd love to say it was my idea, but, uh, it wasn't. But, uh, I think it was a very good approach. I think we were accomplishing what the commission, at least as far as I could gather, what the commission's intent was, was to take a look at the DA projects and, um, those that were far enough along into the process uh, to um, um, exempt from the collection. And so that's what we're doing in effect with the amendment to the DA. I will let the commission know that I've had conversations with Cole Oliver who was their attorney who was here last last time that we uh discussed this and actually gave him a draft of the agreement and he was happy with it and fine. He actually, as you can see, he didn't even feel like he needed to be here. So I think that's a that's a pretty strong signal. Um, but uh I think we're meeting the intent of the commission and just uh kind of singling out that single that final last development agreement project. It's

going Thank Thank you for that, Dave. Yeah, I I think this one makes a lot of sense. Um I think this is a in particular a project that has leaned forward on behalf of the city in in a number of ways. And so I think with the how far they are in and what they've already offer what one what they offer to the city as a development two what the what the owner and the project have done to contribute to the city already. I think this is a no-brainer. All right. Uh any any public comment? All right. All in favor? I

I I motion passes 50. Uh unfinished business.

Okay. This is um item one under unfinished business. Adopt ordinance 1709 on second reading. An ordinance of the city of Cocoa Beach, Florida relating to municipal impact fees creating chapter 8 impact fees of the city of Cocoa Beach code of ordinances. Adopting the city of Cocoa Beach 2026 municipal impact fee study dated January 26, 2026. Providing legislative findings related to police impact fees. Providing for the imposition, collection, and use of police impact fees. Providing definitions and legislative findings relating to fire impact fees. Providing for the imposition, collection and use of fire impact fees. Providing definitions and legislative intent related to general government impact fees. Providing for the imposition, collection and use of general government impact fees. Providing for conflict codification severability and an effective date. Staff representative David Dicki, development services recommendation on second reading.

Move to approve. J1 is read. Second motion and a second. Any public comment? Uh Janice, go ahead. Well, Janice Scott Coco Beach, it'd be nice if the staff could restate a couple of things about the impact fees when the ordinance is on the agenda. First or second reading. Seems that there's been some um discussion about exactly what is the fee. Is it one quarter of I I don't want to make an example, but could somebody tell us what the impact fee is exactly? Sure. One quarter is that one quarter 1% of

it was more like it was more like 87%. Um at least to the the drift project it would have been uh go ahead um down if you you want to Well, I can just say what it says in the package. It says that based on an analysis contained in the study, the impact fee calculation for a single family residence is $1,080 for police, $1,034 for fire, and $946 for general government, which is a total of $3,060

in addition to about $6,000 in impact fees and connection fees that they're paying. So, a single family will pay about $9,000 $10,000 uh to build and they're and they're building probably going to cost them500 to $600,000. So, the percentage is not that great.

Yeah. Go ahead. Let me start off right now. You know, Don Haynes, Cocoa Beach, I've been building for 50 years. This will probably be my last year. I've been saying that for 10 years. But anyways, I'm building a house in the county. Permit value 850,000. One in Cocoa Beach, 850,000. Just the building permit in the county was 3,200. In Cocoa Beach, 6,400. That's pretty substantial. So, I always like asking politicians, what do you think the total permit, impact fees, everything are to build a single family house in the county? Roughly, they're all around the same. 15.

It's 20. $20,000. And everybody talks about affordable living. $20,000 at 5% is $107 a month for 30 years. That's pretty substantial. I think personally most builders that I know and I've been around a long time, they're just going to add it to their cost. It's no different than buying drywall or nails at the bottom of the line. They're going to add their percentage of cost and overhead and everything. So, you can see where it can easily add up. Now, I don't know where all this money is going between permit fees to put out a permit actually in the building department. $6,000 seems like a lot of money. You know, I know certain people got to review it and write it up, but that is a great amount of money. So, have fun with it, boys. I mean, sooner or later, we taxpayers, which if we add permit fees is the taxpayer, we're not an ATM machine. The ATM machine is broke, you know, for the average person. Not for most people in Cocoa Beach, but we these young people today, I don't know how they can do it with those kind of fees and paying per month that kind of money. By the way, Keith, you're the closest government person I ever heard that to getting the right amount for the total cost to build a house. I've had county commissioners tell me, "Oh, it's between three and 5,000." Thank you all.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, I I own a lot of properties and I know a lot of people that build, so I understand that it it is it is a a added barrier to entry. So, um again, it doesn't just affect people with commercial properties. It affects people, residential people that are just trying to build their house here. So, um any other public comment on this? Any commission comment? I'm going to support this. I think I mean the cost is still there. They're going to pay it whether they come in their Avalorum taxes or in these impact fees. So the cost to operate the city for those services is going to be the same. So whether it's impact fees or it's just built into an increase in the village

the So not like we're charging we have to legally reconcile with the cost of service. So is the city can't profit from impact fees. I mean should we go back and charge all the other residents you know extra because the new people have to pay it to make it fair? I mean, there's a rational meant to say that if you have the opportunity to fix something because you didn't fix it before, you shouldn't fix it now. I I don't think that holds.

I just I just feel like it's double taxation. Again, I anything we can do to get to make sure that we're getting stuff built so that we can get our our yearly taxes on the on the tax roll to me makes more sense. But and we're pretty much built out. So, you're talking about minimal projects of just maybe maybe five possible lots left that could be that could that could actually get paid for and it's not a huge add to our coffers to and we're going to it it is a it is an extra barrier. So, on one side we're saying it's not a big deal, right?

But at the other side we're saying residents should carry that. We're out of we're drastically out of line with other cities in terms of the impact fees we had. We saw this. We saw the research, right? The research says that we are out of line and we're we're levying this cost on residents who it's not their bill to pay. So if it's not a big deal, it's not a big deal. But the right person who shouldn't be paying this not a big deal is the person who's driving the impact. We see that the impact when we talk about being a barrier to entry or prevention, the study that they performed said it's not. In fact, there are many other beach towns and other municipalities who have drastically more impact fees and that it hasn't slowed growth at all discernably. And so I look at this and in reality if as Commissioner Hutcherson mentions, somebody's gonna pay for this. And if we argue that the residents need to pay for this because it's a it's an investment that they get a return on, we haven't seen that in the budget. We haven't seen our residents getting the breaks from the increase in development. So if it's not a big deal, then let the person who owes the bill pay the bill. But if it is a return on investment, show me where the residents haven't got a reduction.

I didn't say it wasn't a big deal. I said it is a big deal. But I'm saying you're talking about making it a big deal for five properties. That's the person who should be paying for it, not the residents who aren't getting the benefit or return on investment that we haven't seen. They do when they come online and start paying their property taxes. That's the thing. We have been going up in in millillage. We have been going up in the payments that residents have been making year after year. I'm not seeing the return. I'm not seeing the reduction. We can say that, but it's not happening. I still had a minute left. Um, this this not it's not how it works, but that's

I mean, at the end of the day, there's a fixed amount of service they need to get. It's just does they get an upfront fee that subsidizes some of that capital investment. I mean, you can almost look at it as cash financing or debt financing. Do you want the current users to pay for it with an impact fee or you want the future users to pay for it with increased taxes? But that let's take the drift for example that $400,000 if they don't pay that impact fees they're going to pay that advalorum. So we're going to nudge up the millage rate for everybody to cover that $400,000 of service. I'm not down for that. They're commercial. So they actually they're going to

but it will be blended in with the with the rate. So I I will do everything I will always vote for residents lower cost to keep Cocoa Beach residential. And I think this is a key thing to do it. All right. Question. So, um, yeah. You want to say something? Um, yeah. You you mentioned that, hey, we've got five properties

under 10. There's there's probably more than that. Um, so what does this do for us short term? Not a whole lot. What does it do for us long term? What if something happens where we have a catastrophic event? Does that impact if we have impact fees when we rebuild? Depends if it was natural disaster. Natural disaster. Natural disaster is exempt. I don't know. Same with building codes and amounts of units. I'd rather hear if if that's an an issue or not. I don't know. Just good afternoon.

Uh Joe Williams from Refellis. We performed the impact fee study. Uh, typically if there was a natural disaster, you would grandfather those properties in to redeveloping and not charging in additional impact fees. All right, that's a good answer. Thank you. Yeah. So, so there's no Right. So, so it is just for a handful of properties. No, if somebody decides to tear down

Oh, yeah. Uh uh six 500 square f foot mom and pop motel hotel apartments and build something grandiose at at uh you know 15 to 2500 square foot per unit. They're going to pay this fee. Yeah. any growth or or an improvement or an improvement on their property if significant improvement.

Yeah. The way we the way we have it set up from a residential standpoint, it's house for house. So if if you're going to put in a put in an addition, let's say a second floor on an existing single family home. There aren't going to be any impact fees. It's a house. You get you get credit for a house. On the commercial side, um yeah, it'll be the difference between what's there. you'll get credits for what's there versus what is going to be constructed after the redevelopment project. So you'll get credits for so and if it's say if it's a it's an office building today and they want to build a retail center well we'll give credits based on the office use and you'll get those credits and apply them against the retail credits. So, um, yeah, and and we don't have many what I call green field sites left in the city. Um, such like an examp I was talking to Mark Granger today. You guys know Mark. He and his couple of his partners are looking at doing a project on the what we call the Marcato property. Well, I always assumed that was a vacant tract historically.

Well, in fact, it's not. Mark corrected me on that. So that's a perfect example of a Greenfield site which is in fact not a Greenfield site. There will be they'll probably get credits based on I think it may have been office use there perhaps.

Um so um so there really are very few true green field sites left in the city. I agree. Um and even the drift another example there was a there was some development there. So if we were going to apply impact fees they would have got a credit for whatever was there. All right. Um, and then just one other thing I wanted to just throw out there, and you don't have to answer, but I mean, how many of you guys actually talked to people that this would affect, developers or or um people that are going wanting to do projects in the city? So, I've talked to a lot, most of them, and uh they've all said that this this would set them back a little bit for what they wanted to do. So, just throwing that out there. Okay, I'll call the question. Um, all in favor?

It's a roll. It's a roll call. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Commissioner Jackson, I. Hutcherson. Hi. Commissioner Tolty. Hi. Vice Mayor Williams. Hi. Mayor Peasy. Nay. 41. All right. New business. Okay. This is item one. Approve the following dispatch service interlocal agreements. BVAR County Sheriff's Office try agreement with Bvard County Commissioners. Bvard County Sheriff, BVAR County Fire Rescue, Tyler Teology agreement added. 31826 staff representative Chris Cune, police chief. Justin Grimes, fire chief. Recommendation approved. Move to approve. Second.

Motion in a second. Uh, go ahead, guys.

Uh, good evening, uh, mayor, commission. I appreciate you tonight. Um, a little backstory. Um, the the purpose of this being on the agenda is not the fire chief and I pushing for the consolidation. Um, this is currently a House bill and Senate bill that's moving uh forward. Um, and the purpose of the the bill is requiring uh every county in the state of Florida to consolidate their 911 uh PAP centers. Um, knowing that that was uh coming in the future, um, we started a conversation with the Bvard County Sheriff's Office, who currently operates out of the EOC in Rock, a uh, mass uh, beautiful new EOC operation. And, uh, we also started a conversation with a couple of other uh, municipalities in the county that have already that are already dispatched by uh, the Bvard County Sheriff's Office. um th this is an opportunity for our current um employees and uh dispatchers to have a seat at the table, so to speak, and that we can get employed um and that we are not uh uh in a long list of uh in in a long queue of PAPs that are closing eventually and trying to get them hired. Um so that's why we are uh one of the first uh in the county to make the move.

Thank you. Did you want to say something, Wes? Yeah. I just want to be clear that bill got pulled back this year. It is anticipated to go through again next year, which is why we're making the move now. Okay. And I think uh Chief Grimes has some comments as as well. Fire side. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Just for the the fire side that I can speak of is um centralized dispatch is something that we've kind of always needed from operational standpoint. And when I say that, I mean that we have multiple municipalities, uh, multiple, uh, organizations that all work together, and we have multiple dispatch centers. There's a lot of overlap, duplication, and things can sometimes get lost. So, for us operationally, from a fire and EMS standpoint, um, they have EMDs, things like that. It just streamlines everything. It makes sure that we get the right resources on the calls and we're not doing a pass through behind the scenes to get everything there. So for us operationally, it really makes sense on the fire side.

Thank you guys. Yeah. Go ahead. So I mean makes no sense. It makes perfect sense costwise for the residents. There should zero impact. This will actually be an improvement of service. Correct. Is that a fair assessment or trans transparent to their on the fire side? Yes. Um the the reason be is that the call we'll be dealing with one dispatch center, not multiple dispatch centers. So for the fire side, it'll it'll streamline things. Same for uh law enforcement. If we, God forbid, have a mass casualty incident, um active shooter incident, uh we're working through the same PAP. We're not kind of we're not communicating through multiple PAPs to get uh incoming units to where they need to go.

Got it. Thanks. Thank you. And just I won't uh give out a specific number, but it is a substantial uh cost savings to the city. Yeah, this is one of those where I think it's just smart, proactive leadership on y'all's behalf. It improves the the cost position for the city, increases the quality of service, and then I think the a meaningful kudos here. It takes care of our folks, our employees. It gives them that early seat at the table, the early opportunity. I think that's just smart and good looking out for our people.

I appreciate that. I'd also like to uh educate Mayor Commission that um Sheriff Wayne Ivy has been uh has and his team has been they've bent over backwards for us. They've been fielding countless phone calls from multiple directors within our city, the city manager, and they they're constantly picking up, always answering, getting us answers ASAP uh as quick as we possibly can educate our current employees. and uh they've they've really rolled out the red carpet and I I can say um without knowing that they are putting other projects on hold to accommodate us and it's uh it's it's uh obvious. So, uh we're very thankful to uh uh everybody over at the sheriff's office. Thank you.

Yeah. Um yeah, I've got a I've got a pretty good relationship with Ivy as well. Um, we had talked about this uh probably at least a couple months ago and uh it seemed like it seemed like it was it was a good a good thing for everyone. So, I'm glad I'm glad it's all working out. Um, and uh glad he's taking care of us as well. So, thank you, Sheriff Ivy, for that. Uh, any other public comment on this? Any commission comment on this other than that? Okay. Um, all right. All in favor? I I motion passes 50. Thank you. Number two.

Okay. This is new business number two. Thunder on Cocoa Beach. Request for inkind sponsorship not to exceed $5,000. This is not a budgeted item. Request Jenny Puit, Freedom Fighter. Move to approve. Second. All right. Any public comment? Yes. Sorry. Figure Janice would probably want to say something. Of course, one thing I am is consistent. reliable.

Number one, it's unfunded this $5,000. Um, it's two months after the beginning of turtle nesting season. And one thing I didn't see anywhere is did they get an approval from the state yet? Because when they got permission from the port that there's no document about there having been approved by the state yet. So, um, it just seems like, you know, move the date. That's all I'm asking. And not spending un unfunded money. Taxpayers don't all approve of these things. So, thank you. How many class three events this year? This is a big one. Thank you.

Thank you, Janice. Any other public comment? Okay. Um, I I know Janice, you know, I I loads But I love I love this event. Um I think it's an awesome event. I look forward to it every year. It's probably the biggest block party we have. Um it brings in thousands, tens of thousands of people to the city. Uh spending probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in the city. Um I think I think this is a great event and I I support it. Um even though it's not funded, I we could we could figure out a way to make it work in my opinion. Uh any other um commission comment?

I've been involved with it and and I know uh Jenny Jenny's in the audience and it's been doing this for close to 10 years now roughly and uh it is a great event. Uh and it does bring tens of thousands of people here every year and I would say closer to a million dollars um for sure. So, um it's to me $5,000 is nothing for for this. Um you know, the return is not just monetary, but it's also um good for the uh the residents as well. And they enjoy it as well. They do. Yeah.

You know, it's worth 50 cents a resident to have the boat show or the boat uh races. Yeah. I'll pay your 50 cents extra if you want. I'll give you Yeah, Jazz. I'll cover up. I'll pay for I'll pay for the next five years. That's good. You know what? I'm going to I'm going to let you speak. Go ahead. It's all right. Just let vote thing. I only ask that the date be moved out of turtle nesting system. Thank you. Um I Jenny, that's not possible, right? That to move in the future. There's the schedule is already set.

I'm just saying in the future. In the future. Uh, so I'm actually not a director for Thunder and Cook Beach. We're the official charity. So that's a little out of my pay grade. I know the um uh the hotel association picks that weekend. They're part of that decision um bringing people into downtown for a specific time and reason. So that would be a director question though. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Janice, I'll I'll I'll ask him if there's a if there's a way that can happen in the future. Thank you. All right. Public comments closed. Um, all in favor I. All opposed. Motion passes. 50. Uh, see attorney K2. K3

or K3. It's K3. K3. Okay. Discuss and provide oak for 520 landscape beautifification project. Staff representative Taylor Matalo, project manager. Brad Calzo, water reclamation director. Recommendation discuss. To discuss. K3 is red. Second motion in a second. Go ahead, Brad. Uh, good evening, mayor, commissioners. Uh, first I wanted to introduce Taylor Matlo. She is the city's project manager. She's been with us for six months.

Six months now. So, you're going to start seeing her face and bringing items to you. Um, so there's Taylor. Um, we are basically here tonight to kind of tonight to kind of get more guidance get more guidance from the city from the city commission, some more commission, some more clarity as to the clarity as to the extent and scope of extent and scope of the 520 median the 520 median beautifification project beautifification project that's that's currently in our budget. Um, we currently in our budget. Um, we have have $100,000 budgeted for this project. $100,000 budgeted for this project. Um, Um, and we were going to be working with and we were going to be working with FDOT on it. Um, we have to follow all of FDOT on it. Um, we have to follow all of FDOT's rules. Um, we are basically here FDOT's rules. uh they require signed and sealed plans from a landscape architect for any reimburseable construction costs. Um they do have a grant available um but they do not cover the design cost. So the 100,000 this year would all be for design costs and theoretically we can start construction next year on it. Um but we're just looking for the extent of the project. Do you want us to go from People's Bridge to Ocean Beach Boulevard, from the Relief Bridge to Ocean Beach Boulevard or CCH? you know, what what area do you guys want staff to focus on so we can start running with this project?

And so you're also saying, Brad, that it's not a match grant that that FDOT has. It's actual they cover the whole thing as long as we as long as we follow their rules and provide them with the the plans. Yep. They the funding only covers eligible construction costs. Okay. All right. Any uh commission comment on it? Where does the Cook Beach sign? Is it the hospital? like a welcome to Cocoa Beach sign. We don't have one right now. East of hospital. It was where the bicesentennial park is. Where the park was. Yeah. They took it down. Okay, that's right. Okay. I mean, to me, that's a a logical place to start it if that's the question today. But I mean, like I said, this was the the focus I want to put for maintenance. I think this is key to have folks coming over.

Yes. Canaveral is putting us to shame. You know, they really are. Walk down Ridgewood. It's, you know, they've done a great job with landscaping and solar powered lights and pave walkways and yeah, I support this. I I would think a natural starting point of that scope would be that Yeah, bysentennial. My original thought was bysentennial as well. Um, but if they're going to pay for the whole thing from the bridge east, um, but that's that's not a guarantee. If you if you ask for basically bysentennial is half the distance. All right. So if you only ask for half of it, you might get it. If you ask for the whole thing, you might get none.

Fair point. I agree. Okay. You guys all think about I think it makes sense. I think it should go. I think it should go to A1A. I I think we can ask the designer to give us both options, right? I'd like to go all the way to Ocean Beach Boulevard with it. I mean, we've got that's when people most a lot of people drive through and they'll go straight to Ocean Beach Boulevard. So, I think it makes sense for bsentennial. Let's move the bus stop, too.

Okay. I do just thinking out loud and and engineer not designer. So, humor me, but if we start at where Cocoa Beach sign starts and you have that pronounced effect of it, you're you're coming into Cocoa Beach. If it's from the bridge on it, not as visually pronounced, I don't have an issue either way. Just thinking out loud. That was my initial thought actually too was, you know, if it if it changes all of a sudden at bsentennial, nice park, nice landscaping, oh, we're coming into something new, I think that makes sense. I mean, we we don't need to pay for the bridge because it's not really

we'd have we we'd need upkeep on all of that. If we have the pronounced effect, we have it at the start of the sign and we have half as much to upkeep the effect and the cost makes and I think I think if we did that section that our that what we have set aside right now will definitely cover all of that um design design work the design. Yes. But so then that puts us on a clean road map to implement that the design is not going to expire that we can then implement the next 5 years next year whatever we have an appetite. He says that um if we can get this design um done soon, he can actually apply this year um for that grant. So that the grant portal closes June 30th.

Yeah. So let's let's I'd like to try to get that going. I doubt you'll have the design by June 30th. Yes, he will. The design has to be approved. Has to go through the approval process with that fact. Right. There's at least a month. I'm going to I'm going to make him do it. Well, I will have to bring a a firm back to you guys at next meeting if I can get a proposal that quickly. Okay. Well, great. For approval. Thank you. Let's try it. I like it.

I appreciate that. Thank And and I just I wanted to say one more thing is that not only I think is there state funding available, but there may also be some county funding available for our our district in the county because when they did Merit Island, right, FDOT didn't pay for all that. Um Chuck, what was Chuck's last name? IAS. No, the county Nelson. Chuck Nelson. Nelson. Yeah. Uh he he was the hammer on that and got a bunch of money for the county commission to do that. So, uh there's other places we can look.

That's a good idea. When it comes to the funding, if we can match half county, half state, maybe it'll go through easier. I don't know. But it's not going to happen by June 30th. Yeah. Well, All right. Thank you. Um, you guys can sit down. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you so much. Uh, yeah, we're going to have public comment and then we'll vote on it. But yeah, or is this something we're voting on? Okay. Yes. Besentennial um east to Ocean Beach. Thank you. All right. What else we got? Number number four. City attorney number four.

Okay. This is item four. Adopt Ordinance 1712 on first reading. An ordinance of the city of Cocoa Beach, Florida, changing the start time for regular meetings of the city commission to 6:00 p.m. providing for conflict, severability, non-codification, and an effective date. Commission representative Jeremy Hutcherson, Commissioner recommendation adopt on first reading. Move to approve K4 is read. You might say this.

I couldn't believe it. You said a second before me, I wanted to have this platform. My number one priority is to have resident engagement. So, if this doesn't work for residents, but it's been mentioned before. I think it gives some relief to a staff, but at least we've got a talking platform that folks can chime in. And I'm impersonal. I can meet six or seven, but like I said, we've mentioned it a few times for I wanted to get that platform out there. I'm not for it because like you said as well, um, a lot of people get off work at 5, six, something like that. And where are they? Well, but there is we have Thank you very much for being here. But when when there is when there is we're not going to get any more here at seven. More at seven than we are at six. But it's a thing. I mean if it

it's really not a thing if it does uh pertain to them. But you know a lot of people I guess don't care. But that's that's one point. And for me also it's getting ready to be summer. It's going to be uh dark at 9:00 soon. So, I try to take advantage of as much light as possible trying to get my my projects done. So, um any public comment on this? Earlier, I want to Yeah, you done with public comment? Yeah, public's closed.

Public comments closed. Um, I'd like to either add or make a motion to amend that. Right now, we have in our rules and procedures somewhere that says if we like in the old days and I sat through a lot of them, if we got to 9:00 and we were still going and we had half the agenda left, pull that back. 10:00 10:00. Was it 10:00? It is 10:00 right now. It's 10:00 hour. Well, let's bring it back to 9:00. Yeah, absolutely. If we start at 6:00, the most we can go is 3 hours. So these poor staff people won't have to sit here past 9:00. Is that a We cut the story time with skip.

I got to say every meeting I was in that went past 10:00, I voted against going past 10:00. And I motioned that we but it always went but it always happened that we went past 10:00. I got to say I've been pretty good at keeping it. Now you got three new guys and then we never come close to I know. I mean we got you guys are happy with me, right? About an hour. We're good. Oh, you used Okay. Do I need to We got to listen to Skip talk for another 10 minutes though. Do we need an amendment or can we just have that brought back for the second read? Add it for the second reading. You just need to tell us what it needs to be and then the second it can be whatever it is. It needs to be 3 hours after finish. Yeah. So 9:00. We have to vote at 9:00 if we're going to go past the clock.

And we did get rid of daylight savings time, right? I did that already. I tried. Thank you. Save the hogs. Thank you, Skip. All right. Um All right. So, public comments closed. Commission comment. Any more commission? I'm good. So, you guys are not in favor of that, right? All in favor? I. All right. All opposed? Nay. Oh my gosh. He's got to get his projects done. Hey, I can't All about with you guys all the time. It's all about you. That was about me 100%. That was about me. Really? And I tried to I tried to blame it on the residents, but it didn't work. You guys saw right through it. Yeah. All right. So, what we do? We moved it to six.

Thank Thank you, gentlemen, for moving this up. Moved to six. Been pushing this for 10 years. Well, you got your wish. Thank you, Jeremy. All right. Nice work, Commissioner. All right. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Jeremy. Um, number five. Okay. This is We got to go. We got to go to your house at 5 in the morning. All right. It's already number five. Your projects. Is that what we need? Yes, if you're good.

Okay. This is item five. Adopt ordinance 1713 on first reading. An ordinance of the city of Cocoa Beach, Florida, adopting the latest version of the International Property Maintenance Code as amended herein providing for the repeal of the prior inconsistent ordinances ordinance and resolutions, incorporation into the code, several and an effective date. Staff Representative Brian Palmer, Deputy Development Services Director. Recommendation adopt on first reading. Move to approve K5's read. Second motion in a second. Um Janice, do you want to know more about this? Could we get

Okay, hold on. Uh go ahead, Janice. Go ahead. This is what's changing. It was in the agenda. I Okay, fine. My question has to do with with someone from the building maybe Dave Dicki could explain why are we under the international building code. I mean people ask me that all the time. So um says oh according to the international building code the attorney is going to answer. Thank you.

Okay. It's the international property maintenance code and it is what virtually all cities use. Um, the Florida doesn't have its own property maintenance code and this is just the standard. What can I say? I don't know why it's named that. I assume it's used in other countries too. Thank you. Dave, do you want to go through some of the stuff that that Yes, sir. Janice would like it. Let's make Janice happy.

I'll take care of Dave. Good evening. We have uh already adopted the International Property Maintenance Code or um you you you individuals have actually and this is just to update what we adopted before. Um we were outdated. We wanted to adopt the or move it up to the 2024. There was a couple sections in there that don't exist in the International Property Maintenance Code. So, we had to put it in here that it just doesn't exist anymore. We had to get rid of those and we deleted some of the sections that we don't need like uh creation of an agency. We already have an agency that enforces this and fees. You've already approved fees. And then the others are just to input some uh information for us like 12 in for grass height and stuff to that effect just to mirror our code.

All right. Thank you. Appreciate that. Any other public comment? Any other commission comment? All in favor? I I motion passes 50.