City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Uh, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to go ahead and call this regular city council meeting to order. Um, first thing we're going to do is rise for a moment of silence. And please follow me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you so much. I pledge algiance 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. Madame clerk, roll call. Mayor Jones here. Vice Mayor McPartland here. All right. Thank you. Council member Nun here. Council member Matthews here. Council member Dodd here. All right. U next thing on agenda are agenda modifications. Lou, we do have one, Mr. Bettton.

Yes. Um so one agenda modification I would request that we add um the item in regards to the golf course that has been provided to you all as item 12D on the agenda. And then also just um for the public once we get to item 10B we will be requesting to table that item until a date certain of May 26th. All right. Uh, council, are there any other amendments? No, sir. Are we all in agreement with that? Yes.

All right. Um, hearing nothing differently. Um, next thing on our agenda um is proclamations and we have two of those this evening. Um, I will read both of those from up here. And then the council and I will come down and take photographs with the Coast Guard auxiliary and put on some life vests. And then we will have our public works team come up and um also take a photograph with the council. And if you wish to speak after that, you may both of you. Okay. Um, National Safe Boating Week, May 17th through May 23rd, 2026. Whereas recreational boating and paddling is a popular pastime in our community enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. Whereas safe boating and paddling practices and consistent use of life jackets are essential to preventing accidents and saving lives on our waterways. And whereas the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary in partnership with local agencies and organizations is dedicated to promoting boating safety through education, vessel safety checks, and public outreach. And whereas National Safe Boating Week serves as an annual reminder for all Boers and paddlers to practice safe boating and paddling habits and to always wear a life jacket while on the water. Whereas the theme of National Safe Boating Week where it emphasizes the importance of life jacket use and encourages all Boers and paddlers to set a positive example for others. Now therefore, I, Fred Jones, on behalf of the city council of the city of Sebastian, do hereby support the goals of the safe voting campaign and pro proclaim May 17 through the 23rd, 2026

as National Safe Boating Week and start of the year round effort to promote safe voting. Our next proclamation this evening is for National Public Works Week, May 17 through May 23rd, 2026. Rooted in service powered by community. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are vital, vitally important to sustainable and resilient communities. And whereas these dedicated individuals plan, design, build, manage, and operate the infrastructure that supports our daily lives, including roads, bridges, fleet management, and storm water. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders and children in the city of Sebastian to gain knowledge and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and the public works programs in their respective communities. Now therefore, I, Fred Jones, mayor of the city of Sebastian, do hereby proclaim May 17 through the 23rd as National Public Works Week and urge all citizens and civic organizations to recognize the substantial contributions they make in protecting our health, safety, and advancing our quality of life. Now, the council and I will come down and we'll take a photograph with each. And if you want to say something, sir, you may proceed. There should be a mic there. Is there a mic up there?

Well, good evening, mayor and fellow council members and distinguished guests and fellow citizens of Sebastian. Yep.

All right. My name is Dan Blankenship and I'm honored to stand before you tonight on behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Auxiliary as we kick off National Safe Boating Week. As we enter the busy booning season here along the Treasure Coast, this week serves as an important reminder that boating safety saves lives. Florida leads the nation in registered boats. And while boating is one of the greatest joys in our coastal community, it also comes with responsibility. The most important message that we could share tonight is, as you said, mayor, wear your life jackets. The United States Coast Guard estimates that approximately 75 to 85% of people who drowned in recreational boating accidents were not wearing life jackets. In many cases, the accidents themselves are survivable, but the lack of life jackets turn a preventable situation into a tragedy. Modern life jackets like the or lightweight like the one I'm wearing tonight, comfortable and designed to be worn all day. One simple decision can make a difference between life and death. National Boat SA safety week is also a time to encourage all Boers to take boating safety course, check their safety equipment, file a float plan, avoid boating under the influence, and always be prepared before heading out in the water. The United States Coast Guard remains committed to serving our community through boating education, free vessel safety checks, our public outreach programs designated to help keep our waterways safe for everyone. On behalf of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Coast Guard, want to thank the city of Sebastian for your continued support of boating safety and for recognizing National Boating Safety Week. So, at this time, I would like to invite you guys to donate a life jacket and we'll do a picture.

Take your Come on. Come on. Come up here. Whoever's going to hold you over here. We won't fight. want to bring your team up. testing test.

Thank you, mayor and council members. I just want to thank you for your continued support over this past year. And I want to thank these fine men and our public works department. Starting off with our fleet division, road and bridge, storm water, GIS, um our citizens request line. It's manned by Tiara and Debbie as well. Um, thank you for all your continued support. Great work. Yes, sir.

Who's going to come in and hold this? Come in here.

All right. Thank you. Here you go, Lee. Thank you, sir. Let me go ahead. Oh, yes. Go ahead. Um, we're going to have the um the brief announcements by Council Member Nun.

Yes, sir. All right. Brief announcements. Uh, Monday, May 25th, the Memorial Day observance, 11:00 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial. City Hall will be closed to observe Memorial Day. The council meeting originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 27th has been rescheduled for Tuesday, May 26th at 6 PM. Also on Friday, June 5th, the City of Sebastian summer kickoff concert at Riverview Park featuring Hot Pink from 6 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

All right. Uh, thank you so much for that. Um, our next agenda item is public input. And this is a portion where you can come up and speak on anything that's not on the current agenda. So public input is open for that reason. Anyone would like to speak? Yes, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Deborah Shelonburgger and I live at U on uh East sorry Easy Street. Um I'm here to talk to you about um the growth in Sebastian. I want to let you know that I'm not anti-growth. I know that growth in Sebastian is inevitable, but I think it has to be responsible, sustainable, and planned carefully. I think right now the needs and wants of Sebastian are a little out of kilter. We've focused so much on addressing uh you know, we focus well, excuse me, focus so much on the expansion that we're not addressing the problems that we already have. Like council member Sherry said the other week, I do believe that we can grow in grace, but I think we need to address the problems that are here now before we address growing. Um we, you know, we have problems with infrastructure, housing affordability, environmental concerns, and homelessness. excuse me, homeless uh remain unresolved. And I'm not saying no to growth. I'm just saying not yet. I think what we need to do is address those other issues before we decide to get Sebastian bigger. Um and it's the decisions that you make today, I know you understand, are going to affect us today and they'll affect us again in the future. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you so much, ma'am. Yes, sir. James Clifton, Cane Street. I mail three letters expressing concerns about the House Bill 1370 to all of you, our county commissioner, Indian River Public Works Director, our state representative, and Senator. The last two letters were addressed to the Florida Department of Environmental Control. The last letter mailed April 29th, 2026 was also copied to the executive directors of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program and the Marine Resources Council. I have not received any comment from anyone. I assume that all of you receive copies left for distribution in the inner city mail. I was told by a reliable source that when the county finished the portable water installation, an offer was made to install sanitary sewers throughout Sebastian. However, the Sebastian City Council at the time responded with a no thank you. That less than smart decision puts us in the situation we are in today with House Bill 1370. In my mind, I cannot conjure up a responsible reason for that decision. The city council must take some make some difficult decisions that were avoided by your predecessors. One, working with the county, a sanitary sewer system for the entire s city must be installed, designed, and installed. The makeshift on-site enhanced neutral removal options is expensive for homeowners to install and operate and on its best day will not perform as designed. The state must be involved in planning and execution of the process to demonstrate good faith efforts to comply

with House Bill 1370 to reduce the nitrogen entering into a lagoon. The only responsible option is a sanitary sewer system. serving the whole community. So, what prompted me to speak tonight? I am retired and honestly have other things I would prefer doing. When I looked at tonight's agenda, it's apparent that a that getting a development annex to Sebastian is a good thing. I'm don't know all the reasons why. I'm sure they're valid, but I do know that the stated water related utility requirements in the proposal that I looked at are way too vague. They need to have a little more oomph put into them. I believe one of the proposed annexations actually contains a significant portion of the Sebastian River watershed, which opens up other concerns that need to be addressed for the lagoon's health. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for that, sir. Is there anyone else in the audience? This is a public input on anything that's not on the current agenda.

Um, anyone online? No one has raised their hand at this time. All right. Uh, thank you so much. Public input is closed. Next item on our agenda is consent agenda. Council, what's our pleasure on the consent agenda? Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as written. I'll second that. See, we have a motion and a second. Um, yes sir. Mr. Dodd, you have something on that? No, I was just Okay. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Any any other discussion? Um, do we have dollars? How many dollars we have? No, we can have a consensus on that. No, no money. Okay, good. Uh, do we have a consensus? Yes. I All right. Good. Yes.

All right. Thank you. All right. Next item on our agenda is committee reports. Do we have any committee reports?

Not tonight. Not tonight. All right. Very good. Um, next item is item 10. Item 10 A. 10 A. Going to go ahead and open this hearing for item 10 A. That is um O-26-3 petition for voluntary annexation. Second reading. Uh, hearing is now open. Mr. Attorney, an ordinance of the city of Sebastian, Florida, providing for the voluntary annexation for land consisting of 204 acres more or less, located south of 77th Street, east of 74th Avenue, north of 73rd Street, and west of SE 66th Avenue, providing for the extension of the corporate limits and boundaries thereof. providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, providing for scribers errors, and providing for an effective date.

All right. Uh thank you so much for that. Um staff, Mr. Mayor. Yes, ma'am. U just for anybody in the audience who may be looking at the agenda packet that was mailed out. We we have a an updated copy of that ordinance in front of us that includes a whereas clause that was not in the agenda packet. Um should we read that so that the audience Uh we we can't this actually. Do you have it? Because I just have one that was supposed to we had two. There was only one missing, right? Yeah. There was there was one whereas clause um

which states whereas the owners of the real property described herein and the city of Sebastian have entered into an annexation agreement approved April 8, 2006 26 setting forth certain terms and conditions under which the annexation will be governed. This was brought up at first reading and you amended the ordinance prior to approval. Um the old one just got posted. Um I just want to make sure but this was it. I just want to make sure anybody in the audience who was looking at the agenda packet realized that was going to be what was in the approved tonight. So thank you. All right. Um thank you so much, Miss Bernard.

Good evening, mayor and council. Um, we will start tonight with a PowerPoint presentation um that kind of goes over the application before you tonight. It's for Here we go. It is for Sebastian Pines as the request. Sebastian Pines LLC is the overall applicant. As the city attorney stated, it's south of 77th Street, east of 74th Avenue, north of 73rd Street, and west of 66th Avenue. They're requesting 204 acres more or less. Um, and their request is to be annexed into the city limits of Sebastian. Here is um a slide showing you the location of the subject parcel. Um you can see the adjacent land uses um to the west is going to be um city of Sebastian city limits which is the Graves Brothers property and to the norththeast and south it's all county agricultural one. Um so the existing uh boundary is to the west of 74th Avenue. I don't know. Okay. And so looking at comprehensive plan consistency um analysis of the area in accordance with the comprehensive plan data inventory and analysis a conceptual development plan has been presented that proposes a very low density land use which means uh the requirements which meets the requirements of the city's comprehensive plan. The land development regulations will provide uh final determination of development standards and permitted uses within the proposed development at the time of site planning. So uh at a future meeting date. This was the conceptual plan that was submitted to our office

and um we'll go on and we'll look at um public facilities and services and um transportation. And the analysis has been provided has found um that the new development on the subject site has the potential of roughly 400 400,000 4500 trips um to the surrounding roadways. However, planned uh roadway improvements will help mitigate these impacts. In addition, um additional review and analysis will be required during the development and approval process. Um, water and sewer if annexed. Utilities will be provided by Indian River County through an existing agreement with the city of Sebastian. Storm water. The property is within the Indian River Farms water control district. Future development must meet city Indian River Farms water control district and St. John's River Water Management Storm Water District. Uh, standards recreation. The proposed development uh meets the city's recreational requirements. In addition, future development will also contribute part dedications or recreational impact fees to support additional facilities and programs. Um, and when we look at annexation criteria, the compactness, the proposed annexation is compact is a compact parcel of land. Um, it's contingent um, it's contiguous to um, what our western the western boundary is and um, it is u meets the requirements of Florida statute 171.0. 044. So then we look at public benefit and so three public benefits that we're looking at is it would increase the tax base. The annexation will increase the tax base for the city development standards. Um the potential for development will follow city development standards um with annexation and recreational funds. A contribution to the recreational trust

fund has been agreed upon as part of the annexation agreement. And with that, staff recommends approval of the request to annex 204 acres known as Sebastian Pines.

All right. Uh, thank you so much for that. Um, is the applicant ready? Good evening. Ken Tum with Urban Design Studio Planning and Landscape Architecture Firm. We have our whole team assembled this evening for this subject property. We did give you a very thorough presentation last time. This is on second reading on first on at the first hearing. You approved an annexation agreement. The application, as Miss Bernard indicated, is consistent with that annexation agreement. I can walk you through a PowerPoint presentation. Uh, but I would like or we could just or I could go ahead and just do a couple highlights which I think are important and then if you need the full presentation, happy to do it after public comment if you'd like.

Highlights.

I I I figured it would be highlights. My bad. So, first thing, we have our whole team assembled and uh the team is here this evening can answer any questions that you may have including the developer Mr. Collins is here. We have our civil engineer Mr. Mills here. We have uh Mr. Robeck, our our our attorney and also the team here from Urban Design. So, as I indicated earlier, we've already discussed the annexation agreement. You've approved that resolution. What is in front of you this evening is the annexation, which is an ordinance on second reading. You approved it at first reading. I want to be very clear for everybody in the audience, what you're approving this evening is not a site plan, not a PUD. That would come later down in the process. So, what I want to get you to here is this slide. Oops, I'm sorry. This slide. So, the subject site on the west side is the Graves property and the Graves property is located within the city of Sebastian. Immediately to the east is the subject property that's proposed to be annexed. It's 204 acres as Miss Bard indicated and it is contiguous to the city of Sebastian along its western property line. And it's an important thing on how floor statutes 171.044 work. It is also compact. You could see by on the screen in front of you that it meets the compactness requirements. Jumping ahead through the through the slideshow quickly. So that is how we meet the criteria of 171.044. Also, as you as a city in and you've heard me say this before, your city has been forward thinking. You have in your comprehensive plan annexations. A lot of municipalities and jurisdictions do not. You have this built into your comprehensive plan. And that requires two things. One, that we provide an annexation study that Mr. Mills went through in detail last time. And then number two, that we have submitted for a

land use change if it's greater than 10 acres. We have made that application. that application is at your very low residential density. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have from our team or walk through an entire presentation. Thank you. All right. Uh, thank you so much for that, sir. Yes, sir.

Um, this is a part of the meeting. Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item? Good evening. My name is Gary Combmes. I live in the uh unincorporated area of Indian River County. I live about a mile from this. Um just heard about it about a month ago. Uh I don't like it. A lot of people don't like it. Uh it is what it is. Um, it's it's kind of like the uh the the camel's nose under the tent. You guys approved the Graves Brothers property some time ago and it's not even developed yet. You want to tag on to that. Um, I know it's good for the city. I got that. But I don't think you're looking at the neighbors. It's not good for the rest of the unincorporated part of the county. There's a there you're looking at a density. It's called low density is what you guys are calling it. I believe it's one for uh three for per acre and uh the county there allows one per five acres. So that's 15 times more than what the neighbors next door are experiencing and have experienced for years. I just don't I don't get it. Um I'm going to go on a a little bit of a tangent. Um state of Florida allows people to have uh shooting ranges on their property. Um, there's someone that lives someone that is high ranking retired law enforcement from your city lives within a quart I don't want to dox him. I told Mr. Nun uh who it was. If you guys need to know, ask him. Uh, they live within a quarter mile of this project and they have a gun range. I don't think any of your analysis has studied that and said, "Hey, uh, what else could maybe influence these people?" uh you're going to have people

move in and they're going to be listening to shooting and it's what people do people have done for years. Also located about 2 miles from this project um and I live three miles so I can give you kind of a what that what that is. Uh I can hear it. Ver Shooting Clays is out on 82nd Avenue and they have all kinds of shooting programs. Uh they're they're open all the time. they have big uh big tournaments. Um I don't mind it by any means. I don't mind any of this. Uh but you can hear it. So you're going to have to deal with that. So I just don't understand why you guys are are wanting to allow something to come along when you haven't even taken and used or developed allowed to develop the the other that was annexed years ago. Um it it's been said that you want to do this because you can't control what's done outside your border. Well, you do this now and there's still something outside this new this new border and there's something outside the to the south of this border. And so where does it stop? Where's it? And and the first thing comes to my mind was hey uh a couple years ago Russia took over Crimea. Well then they went to Ukraine. So where when we do these expansion things in life? It's it might be good for you, but what's it what's it doing to the other neighbors that are still there and have to have to now change your way of life of u living somewhere that was very rural and now you have 900 people across the street. Um just doesn't make sense to me.

Thank you. All right. Thank you so much, sir. All right. Great. Okay. Sorry,

that's the short guy position. Good evening, uh, comrades. Uh, my name is Mike Johansson. I'm the chairman of the Indian River Neighborhood Association, some 2,000 members in the county. I have here, but I'm going to leave with the clerk. on our website. We uh we had some people express their opinions of this annexation. Um 500 of the 700 people were citizens of the city of Sebastian. 500 voted no. So, let me suggest to you that if you really think that you're representing the people in this decision that a a proper way to proceed might be to make it a referendum on this November election. Uh that way you'd find out what this the uh citizens of Sebastian truly think of your annexation plan. Uh, yes, it's going to cost $25,000 and I would suggest that that's a cost that should be passed on to whoever's requesting the annexation as a precondition for approval. First point. Second point, Mayor Jones, uh, when I was listening to him on the Bob Sush show said, "We have to get a handle on this growth. We're growing entirely too fast." And Mayor, I couldn't agree more. Um the when I asked the question at the last meeting about the first reading of the annexation why I wouldn't consider this urban sprawl. The answer was well this is going to annex to the Graves Brothers property which has got a town center concept to it. Okay. Um Graves Brothers property does not have

concurrency. They don't have water. They don't have sewer. Uh is is the Graves Brothers Town Center building and plan really to be considered a precondition to annexing any additional properties that are going to annex onto this? and offers a real world example uh Barrel West uh which was uh Point West which was developed and approved on a town center concept and the houses were built in the town center never materialized because we had a housing bust and the Indie River Mall closed and blah blah blah blah you know the whole story. Finally, uh my last point is is if the idea is that they're going to provide their own water and sewer treatment plant there, I would suggest that you look into what the city of Vero Beach is doing. They started moving the water and sewer plant off of the lagoon out to the airport. Uh initial costs of $80 million. It's now $150 million and not done yet. And it's taken five years to do it.

Sir, thank you. Your time is up. Pumps and pipes going up. Thank you, mayor.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Russell Herman representing the friends of St. Sebastian River. I'm here tonight because we vehemently believe these annexations are a mistake. And I'd like to explain why. The properties before you tonight sit outside the urban service area. Under county zoning, they are agricultural land. One home per five acres. That zoning exists for a reason. The infrastructure isn't there. The roads aren't there. The water and sewer capacity isn't there. And yet you're being asked to dramatically increase density on these parcel with no detailed plans for these services. Study after study has shown that resident annexation does not pay for themselves. The tax revenue from new homes does not cover the services those residents demand. the shortfall gets shifted onto the people who already live there.

We will be subsizing grace we didn't ask for. Then there's the environmental cost. Every acre we convert from open land to pave to pavement increases storm water runoff and nutrient loading into the St. Sebastian River and Indian River Lagoon. We've watched this happen up and down the coast. We know how this story ends. Hundreds of residents signed a petition asking this council to halt an annexations. They're not anti-growth. We are not anti-growth, but we are against converting agricultural land outside the urban service area without a funded plan for roads, utilities, and environmental protection and then asking us, current residents, to foot the bill. Because from where we are sitting, you're not controlling growth, you're enabling it. Thank you.

All right. Thank you so much for that, sir. Next.

Name is Pascal and I live on Wimbro Drive. I'm a refugee from Martin County. I've seen what annexation, what urban sprawl has done to a rather nice place to live. You're heading down the same road, the same road to destruction. You annex 2,000 acres for projects. Now you want to take in 200 more. How many more hundreds of acres are you going to annex? How many more developers are going to come up here and say Indian River County is open for development? Let's go. And they're moving here because I see businesses that were located in Martin County located up here. This is where you're headed. This is the path you're taking. And I'll tell you another thing. The more you annex, the higher the taxes we have to pay for services. The residents that are here now that would rather not have this development. It's a fact. It is not a theory. I can give you example after example, including my own. So before you annex this or any other properties, and I see there's another one on here, do some thinking. It says on here business impact estimate. Their estimate is so full of holes that they're going to get rich and we're going to pay the bill through you. So there it is. Straight fact.

All right, sir. Thank you so much. Uh next, this is a this is not a clapping contest in here. This is this is business getting done. If you all want to understand what's happening, please allow the the process to play out. We understand that everyone has um opinion on one side or the other, but we must listen to all. That's our job up here is to listen to everyone and give everyone the opportunity to speak and be heard without any distractions. So, yes, sir, it's your time.

Yeah, I'm uh Richard Baker, board chair of the Pelican Island Autobon Society, and I like to thank you for allowing us to have some discussion in here. You've got the IRA really strong organization came on here strong a few minutes ago and the CWC uh uh Judy Orchett sent you all a letter yesterday you should have gotten about the water issues that were are facing us and I know development is occurring here it's Indian River County and Sebastian's a beautiful place to live so people are coming down here and so you're under a lot of pressure to increase but I I think we We really need to do it properly in the best way. We just can't go accesses and annexing in and putting more houses in and more roads and schools and things like that for kids uh doing some adjustments to our rules and regulations that we have and you got to work with the county and the cities. I mean, it's it's a it's a big county problem. It's it's a Florida problem. But so the water issues that's been explained to you by other speakers is I think really quite important. A lot of this water is going into the lagoon and we need to do something to save our lagoon because that's where all our money is coming. People come down here because of that lagoon and uh we need to take care of that. Already the lagoon has been impaired by the clean water act and uh we the council should then have a detailed nutrient loading analysis of both developments that are coming on before you today and to make sure that's done in a proper way and I so far I haven't seen any of that develop providing that information to you and also the this uh is just not this is going you're going to have another one and another one and another one is just kind of going on. We ask you to recognize the water, both the water we

drink and the water that sustains the lagoon system depends on us to keep it. We're losing our water. We're losing our clean water. We're gobbling it up. And uh it's it's not right. And just for example, is the trees. We we need to have better tree ordinances both at the county level and both at the city level. You probably require one or two trees to be put in, but most of the time after the approval is gotten, they uh yank them out. I've seen them actually in Sebastian, they yank out the tree, small little tree like that they're supposed to put in and put in a in a a palm. And a palm tree is is kind of misnamed. It's not a tree. It's a grass. And a lot of life and things that trees do for us are not found. Trees are important for our health, for us, our kids, and our wildlife. Uh kids, uh in tree tree areas, uh tree areas uh live better. It's good for our economics. It helps us preserve our water. And uh it's good for our health. And so I would like to see us do more landscaping. How you want those landscapes on these new houses going in? This should be done before you give approval for something like this.

All right. Thank you so much, sir. All right. Uh, is there someone else? Yes, sir. Come forward. Jeff Hamilton on Pinoa Street. I want to start by asking, have you heard the one about the city that obey that respected their citizens votes and turn down a developer? Oh, wait, that's Felmeir. Um, onto the incessant non-stop parade of developer friendly taxpayer burdening annexations that keep getting approved. To paraphrase the off misighted Rita May Brown, the definition of insanity is approving more developer annexations expecting a different result each time. This city continues to follow this mantra, following the same blueprint each time. The biggest boondoggle sham was the Gabes annexation as presented to residents. It was going to greatly increase our tax base, etc. for 2025. Adding up the municipal tax for all the parcels in the Graves development totaled a grand total of $2,200 13. So over three years we've had to provide law enforcement other issues to that area and brought in about 6,600. I'm sure our actual costs were greatly exponential to that. To compare, there's another small parcel on the other side of Rosland that connects tenuously via CER Club. The city border is the small bridge crossed diagonally and includes a few hundred feet of Rosland Road at that point. As per a response from council person Nun to a post of mine that is not Sebastian PD's jurisdiction. Well, it's in Sebastian. Why isn't it? So, since it isn't, why do those 22 parcels pay Sebastian a total of $18,857 yearly as of their 2025 trim notices, or eight and a half times what Graves Brothers pay? One parcel is paying us

taxes and has no access to the city except pulling out onto Rosland Road on County Area. Where is the benefit? As I'm sure our costs of providing even minimal service for the last 3 years far exceeds this amount exponentially and are being carried by the rest of us. This is government provided developer welfare. What guarantee that Sebastian Pines will be any different? Having seen their presentation and having been in the industry for 47 years, I know no develop developer puts out as much as that presentation cost without knowing the outcome. drive around and count the bankrupt abandoned ghost developments. Years later, someone picks up the pieces. But who carries that burden until then? Why doesn't the council get proactive, work with the legislature and the county to attain common sense annexation? It has been done elsewhere in the state and other counties. We enter or exit Sebastian or run along its border approximately 14 times if we ride US1 from south of Barber Road up to Roseland Road and then to 512. And there is plenty of taxable commercial property as you all mentioned a month ago. Need commercial property for the tax base and the income.

All right. As well as infrastructure including sir. Your time is up. Thank you so much for your input. There we go again. People, adults do not learn. Is there someone else? Yes, sir. Which one? Um, somebody in the back. Are you coming up? Yep. Wanted to show something about the Grace property because impact is Can you see it? Not yet. Okay. Um, yeah. I just wanted to point out Who are you, sir? Mike Walker. I live on 73rd Street.

I did some research on the acquisition of the Grace property as it relates to the uh Sebastian Pines because Sebastian Pines connects to the Grace property. Um if you look at this drawing you see circled there, that's the connection of the Graves property to Sebastian. That's about 300 feet wide and it and it represents about 0.7% of the total circumference of the Graves property. that uh according to the state law is supposed to be compact and contiguous over a substantial portion of the boundary. This obviously fails in that respect. So I would I would say that the grace property should never have been approved as part of order.

We're not discussing the graves annexation. Mr. Mayor, yeah I agree. Mod have anything different? So what are you discussing about this sir? We're not discussing the graves property. You're going into the grave. We're not going to go back and litigate that. that has already that ship has sailed. The grace property is in the city now. So what is your other point? Well, the point was is that I wasn't sure that that was a legal acquisition. Well, of course, if it did, it would have impact on the further attachments to it. But and one more thing though is is that I believe that you should at least develop the graves property prior to adding any more because you have 2,000 acres there to develop and as I see it, nothing's been done.

Okay. All right. Thank you for your input, sir. Uh, yes, sir. You can come forward.

Good evening everyone. My name is Bob Steven. I live at 150 Koncha Drive. Been a while since I've addressed you guys. Thank you for your service. I'm here uh because I'm a little concerned with what's going on and u I don't I don't think I've ever seen a city that's been this unorganized. I think maybe you got to get your stuff together before you get any bigger. You haven't figured this out yet, Mr. Mayor. You know, we have no emission laws. We have We can go on and on about this stuff, but we're still using an age and orange type cocktail to kill weeds. Come on. We can do a little better than this. And you want to get bigger. What's next? You know, this reminds me as a pilot. You know, big jet gets on the loudspeaking up time.

All right. Thank you, sir. Okay.

Yes, sir. Come forward. Good evening. Chuck Meckling 1765 of Coney Street and I am a proud developer in the city of Sebastian. One of your earlier speakers lived in our first subdivision we developed Collier Club. We brought sewer down Rosland Road and we were the first water sewer curb and gutter closed drainage development in Indian River County. I'm sorry, in Sebastian, Florida, I should say. And it was a proud and worthy development that today holds its standards. And when we talk about the misinformation of how many police trips and things like this, it's the quality of what we do that directs what happens. That's what we try to do when we strive with these things. Today, I'm the developer of the spirit of Sebastian. We are an aggre. We have many hardwood trees on every lot that exceed the need or the code of the city. But we have worked with city staff who is exceptional and I have been in front of you council members and I believe you're exceptional and I understand that you have a vision for the future of what's going on. There's no development that can go out into this area that doesn't have the ability to provide water and sewer. The earlier speaker that talked about having sewer lines, how do you get them there? If you approve Sebastian Pines, it will extend water and sewer lines, that has been a comprehensive concept with Indian River County Utilities to provide that service into an area that's not currently. Who's going to do the roads? The developer is going to do the roads. Who's going to

pay for it? The developer is going to pay for it. If people truly understood how much money and what risks we take to provide those services that will help eventually provide the city of Sebastian the ability to loop sewer systems into the north section from the area of the Sebastian Pines and through the Graves property and it's a vision concept and I know that this council understands and hears the reality of what takes place because you have the accurate information from Indian River County on the ability to provide water and sewer and the other services. The question is, is the developer a person that you can believe in and trust and do the right thing for Sebastian? I have met the people of Sebastian Pines and I would say yes and I would ask you to approve their development. Thank you.

All right. Uh, thank you so much for that, sir. Yes, ma'am. Come forward. I'm Louise Gotenberg. I live on Asiggo Avenue in Sebastian and I have lived there for over 30 years. Um, I'm here tonight to just say two things. The first thing is the reason so many people get so upset about the idea of a change happening in Sebastian is because many of them haven't gotten here in the last three, four, maybe even 10 years

and they recognize it as a quality place to live. The thought of it changing is frightening, but because it is a quality place to live, I want to tell you it wasn't born that way. It's through the efforts of our city employees, our volunteer committee persons, our city councils who have carefully monitored the changes that take place. I can also um tell you that I get very frustrated with purposely misleading information that is distributed to people and it's like these are the sometimes they are the sins of omission. There is not a subdivision built in this city that doesn't have complete plans for drainage, egg, uh landscaping, all of the infrastructure that's required. It simply doesn't happen. That all has to be there before before the first shovel of dirt turns over. And as far as the developers are concerned, and nobody cares about them, um they have millions invested before they ever cash in $1. Um and of course, um when you own the land, you have the right to use the land. Um everybody would like to have uh beautiful orange groves, but you know what? That doesn't happen anymore because the orange groves die. That doesn't mean we should force those people to use that land and continually try to plant orange trees that won't grow. I can make a guarantee

and you can come after me if you want to 10 years from now and I guarantee you that I will be right and you can apologize. Whether that land is in the city of Sebastian or not, it will be developed. The benefit of that land to Sebastian is not the tax revenue that it will bring. It is not the good neighbors that it will bring. It is the control that Sebastian will have over what gets developed and how it gets developed. And that's the most important thing. And I can tell you that the people who are in charge of that did not roll off the turnup truck last week. Thank you.

All right. Uh thank you so much for that. Um anyone else? Do we have anyone on Zoom? No one has raised their hand. All right. Um public input is closed. Um we go to council for deliberation. Um Mr. Dodd. Thanks. We'll put you on the hot seat tonight. We're starting to the left.

I just have one comment and um in in the u in the application there's a reference to the conceptual plan and I think the city uh staff showed that it's not actually included in this document and I'd like to see a copy of that included in the document. Uh so it's a part of the record uh of what we approve. um it it's not included in our packet and it's not included in the document that was presented with this with this ordinance and I think a copy of that conceptual plan should be in in the document attached to the ordinance that we approve. If I may address the the council uh we will submit as part of a record. It's in my PowerPoint. It would become part of the record.

Okay. I just want to make sure it's part of the record. Okay. And um you know I I made all my comments the last time that we talked about this. So, uh I can understand the fear of growth and I can I I thoroughly can I can understand um I understand the people worried about utilities but uh the the the fact that that uh they won't build it if it doesn't get utilities from the county. It's that simple because we won't allow them to do it and the county has already committed to build provide utilities. They've also committed to provide utilities to the Grace property. Um there is a um a study underway right now on the part of the county utility to try to come up with a plan to provide county sewer to the entire city of Sebastian. Uh I'll be highly interested to see how that works out and how much money they want to do that, but uh they're they're coming up with a plan to do that. Uh so I'm not uncomfortable with this, Mr. Mayor. That's my comments.

All right. Uh thank you so much, Miss Matthews. I'm good with what we what I went over last time. So, all right. Thank you so much, Mr. N. You know, I got a lot to say. Well, we got a couple of questions we're going to answer from some statements.

I do have some some statement questions to answer. So, first of all, uh I'm going to address why the property is zoned agriculture. Was zoned agriculture because it was an orange grove. It's not zoned agriculture because there's no infrastructure. Well, of course there's no infrastructure. It was an orange grove or a cow pasture. So, the only way to change it from what it was being dead as an orange grove is to change it from agriculture. It wasn't made that way to stop it from being built into something. Um, people say that the the water and the sewer is going to be on the backs of the taxpayers. Well, uh, for this property alone, they're they're this developer is paying the county the county $2.5 million in impact fees for water and sewer. Now, sounds like that's probably not a lot of money except for the fact that they're also paying for all the infrastructure themselves as well. So, they're going to bring the sewer down the road. They're going to bring the water down the road. They're going to run it to every single house. The infrastructure is on the developer for this development. On top of that, they're giving the town the county $2.5 million to put towards their infrastructure. So, this isn't on the backs of us. They're literally paying for it and then paying for it again as part of the project. Um, somebody said something about this going into Sebastian. This isn't going into the Sebastian Water River District. This is going to Indian River Farms Water Control District. This will never see the Sebastian River. That's not where this water storm water will be headed. It will be maintained on site and overflow will go to the Indian River uh farms water control district. Um, as far as the infrastructure for the road to get there, uh, 510 is a project being done by the state. They have begun up by the high school. They're working their way all the way to US1 till they build the beautiful circle at 5 at uh, 66th and then move that humongous bridge

across US1. Can't wait to see it. Sounds terrible. Um, but they're building it. They're building the infrastructure for the road to to take care of the issues on 510. Um, somebody said something about Indian River County being open for developers. What you said couldn't have been any more real. Indian River County is open to developers. That's even more of a reason for us to annex this property into the city because they just approved a a project this past meeting that's outside of the urban service boundary because it met the criteria. It's within 1500 feet of the urban service boundary which by the way this property is and they have to pay for the infrastructure which they are. So if we don't approve this the county will approve this where it sits outside of the urban service boundary because they meet the criteria that the county has 1500 ft and they pay for the infrastructure which they're doing anyways. um this developer that people that say there's no planning, they've been working on this project with the county for the past two years. This is part of the time they've talked to the city about this project. They're not just randomly coming up and saying, "I want to annex this property." They've been working on it and spending the money on the engineering and everything else for the past 2 years. Uh this isn't something I I hear people say, "We're not planning." That's all we're doing is planning. Everything we've done is plan for what we're doing. Um, yes. If you want to know the answer, the truth is I would be willing to support almost any annexation for the property that surrounds our city. I will. Why? Because if we don't, we don't control it. We get all the extra bene all the extra negative of the people without any of the benefits and not any of the control and they can build whatever the heck they want. At least we have standards that are a little higher than theirs in my opinion. Uh, yes, we are working with the county. We've been working for the county with for six years. We had a a

joint meeting with them a couple years ago to try to um get a a joint project going to get sewer for the entire city. You know, I people keep saying they want it. They're not going to want it once they find out the price tag it's going to cost us all. I live here and I know it's going to cost a lot of money because they're going to have to dig up every single road to put pipes down it and it's going to be a huge project. Does it need to happen? It does, but it's not going to be something you're happy about when it's forced upon you by the state, which they're already doing. Uh, it needs to happen. We're doing it as much as we can. We did it. We paid for the pipes to go down Rosland Road to put those properties on sewer as well as the airport complex. We doing everything on the river where the septic tanks are close to the river. We are doing everything we can as a council and a city to help protect that river as the best we can. Everything's not perfect. You know, I can't tell you that it is, but I can tell you that this staff and these council members that I sit up here with and Vice Mayor McPartland work really hard for this city to make sure we protect it and the citizens. Thank you.

Wow. Enough said. Right. Um I also heard just a couple little things I heard tonight talking about trees and different things of that nature. Um this city, I believe it's been 25 years now that we've been named Tree City USA. So, what does that tell you about trees and the things that we're doing to protect the environment here within the city? And there's another portion of this is we have had the city of Sebastian has had an agreement with the county since 1995 to provide water and sewer to the city of Sebastian. Do we have is the city of Sebastian covered with with sewer or anything? No. Only new developments that have come in. Those are things that should have been taken care of a long time ago and and we all agree with you all that we need that here and we all need to make sure the county follows up and we get this thing done so that we can take these septic tanks off so that that lagoon can be out there for the future for my grandkids, your grandkids, your great grandchildren. You know, it's one of the things that I'd like to see is this beautiful community that I've been here over 35 years in and and I still see this as a beautiful small community. My wife and I raised our kids here. I'm getting ready to raise a grandchild here cuz my kids came back home. So, I I think this is a wonderful community. And believe me, when we look at these things, we look at every single thing. We just don't sit here and make a decision based on impulses. There's a lot of things that happen. There's a lot of planning that takes place. Our council are part of all of the planning uh commissions on the treasure coast and throughout the state as well as the county. And so we're all involved with those planning organizations. We do work together. So it's not like this is something new that has come up that we're just making a rash decision. We have been planning for years and this will continue. The planning will continue because this city will remain sustainable. Um because we have things

in place right now to ensure that and that's all I have. Um we're going to call um call for a motion. Mr. Okay. I was going to say Mr. Mayor, I'll uh make a motion to approve ordinance 0-26-02. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? I'll second that. We have a second. Any other discussion? Madam clerk, roll call. Oh, hang on. Did I read the wrong number? I think I apologize. I'm going to recall I'm going to recall that motion. Okay, Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve ordinance-26-03. There you go. Thank you. I'll second.

All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Um, Mr. Big Parkland, do you have anything? Yes. I I mean I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. But again, as far as planning the city of Sebastian, this annexation and the future land use designation are consistent with our already adopted future land use element of the 2040 comprehensive plan, which we all spent I don't even remember how many years getting that into completion. And then again, I have faith in the city controlling the property and making sure it's done correctly.

All right. Uh, thank you so much for that, sir. Um, Madame Clerk, roll call. Council member Nun, yes. Council member Matthews, yes. Vice Mayor McPartland, yes. Mayor Jones, yes. Council member Dodd, yes. Motion carries. All right. Uh, thank you so much for that. Um our next item is item 10B and um we're going to table that. Uh yes. Okay. So we open it. We need to table it to Okay. So we'll just open that. All right. And then uh but there doesn't need to be a presentation or the caption. Right. You want me to make a motion?

All right. Hang I got to open um we're going to go ahead and uh um open for item 10B, consideration of ordinance number 0-26-02 amending article 4, land use compatibility table, Mr. Stokes. Yes, we don't need to read the caption, but we would have to have a motion. All right, Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to table ordinance 0-26-02 until a known date certain date of May 26th. Second. Second. So, we have a motion and a second to table this item to May 26. All right. Um, do we need a roll call for that?

Madam Cler, call the role. It's a resolution. Council member Nun? Yes. Council member Matthews? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Mayor Jones? Yes. Vice Mayor McPartland. Yes. Motion carries.

All right. Um we're going to move on to item 10 C. Consideration of resolution number R-26-18. Mr. Sto going to go ahead and open this hearing. Uh Mr. Mr. Mayor, I'm going to uh suggest that we do the um annexation agreement and then the petition for voluntary annexation. Do one hearing. So allow me to open them both, the resolution and the ordinance and then we can have one public hearing and then we'll take the questions one at a time. All right. Does that work?

It works for me.

Okay. The the first one is a resolution a resolution of the city of Sebastian, Indian River County, Florida, providing for an annexation agreement between the city of Sebastian, a Florida municipal corporation and Luther Family LLC, LMNR Grove LLC, Shop Properties LLC, and GDC Florida 1 LLC to memorialize the party's understanding and agreements with respect to the annexation of 382 acres more or less into the city and with respect to the future future development and use of the property, providing for conflict, providing for recording, providing for scrier's errors, and an effective date. All right. Second. So, this is ordinance 0-26-10, an ordinance of the city of Sebastian, Florida, providing for the voluntary annexation for land consisting of 382 acres, more or less, located south of 69th Street, east of 82nd Avenue, west of 78th Avenue, north of Sebastian River Improvement District, ditch C-8-E, providing for the extension of the corporate limits and boundaries thereof, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, providing for scriveners errors and providing for an effective date.

All right, Don, thank you so much for that, sir. Um staff, are we ready?

Yes. So, we will um start tonight with um the applicant is Culture Group Acquisitions LLC. The location is south of 69th Street, east of 82nd Avenue, west of 78th Avenue, and north of Sebastian River Improvement District. sublateral C8E. Um, this is 382 acres more or less and they're requesting annexation into the city limits of Sebastian. On here you can see the map of the projected parcels there and um adjacent land city of Sebastian mixed use land use is to the north which is the Graves Brothers property and its county agricultural on the east south and west and so the existing city boundary is to the north of 69th Street which is the Graves Brothers property and in looking at the comprehensive plan consistency analysis of the area in accordance with the comprehensive plan data uh inventory and analysis. A conceptual development plan has been presented um that proposes a very low density um land use which meets the requirements of the city's comprehensive plan. The land development regulations will provide for the final determination of development standards and permitted uses within the proposed development at time of planning site planning. And here is the conceptual plan that was submitted to our office. And um when we look at uh public facilities and services transportation, the analysis that has been um provided has found that uh new development on the subject site has the potential of roughly 9,500 trips a day to the surrounding roadways. However, planned roadway improvements will help mitigate these impacts in addition to review and analysis that will be required during

the development approval process. Water and sewer, if annexed, utilities will be provided by Indian River County through an existing agreement with the city of Sebastian. Storm water. The property is within the Indian River Farms Water Control District. Future development must meet um the Oh, it's the Sebastian River Improvement District. my apologies. And St. And St. John's um river water management recreation. The proposed development meets the city's recreational requirements. Um in addition, future development will also contribute to park dedication and recreational impact fees to support additional facilities and programs. Um compactness. The proposed annexation is compact is a compact parcel of land. It's um cont um the proposed parcel to be annexed. western property line is adjacent to the city of Sebastian's current boundary and this is um in the request for voluntary annexation is in accordance with Florida statute 171.044 044. When we look at public benefit again, um increased tax base, the annexation will increase the tax base for the city. And then um when we look at development standards, the potential development will have to follow city development standards and um recreation fund. the potential development will have um initial lump sum contribution and um also per development parcel contribution at cos um and for those reasons staff recommends approval of the uh to staff recommends approval of the request to annex the 382 acres known as crest winds and set the second reading for Tuesday May 26.

All right. Um thank you so much for that. Um, is the applicant ready?

Good evening, mayor, city council members. Ken Tum with Urban Design Studio. Thank you for having me here this evening. Here this evening on behalf of Coulter Acquisitions Group. The Cultter Group is going to come up and explain their company and how they work. I've had the opportunity to work with them on many different projects across the state and they are very a very defined uh developer and builder. So, they will ultimately end up building the final product on the site. But the item that is in front of you this evening and I'll go through a series of slides. There are two items in front of you this evening. There's an annexation agreement and an ordinance on first reading. The annexation agreement sets up kind of parameters if you decide to move forward with this project. The annexation agreement which is in front of me here identifies very specific criteria that the developer must follow and that is a resolution. That's what you're approving this evening if you move forward with that approval. The second part of it is in the ordinance which is the first reading of the actual annexation. Allow me to walk through a few series of slides. So first the team that is here this evening and we have a majority of the team including gentleman from the coulter acquisition group Mr. Wymer will be getting up and discussing Coulter and Coulter's uh proposal on the subject site. We have our civil engineer Mr. Mills is here. He will discuss the uh traffic or he'll discuss the infrastructure. We have our transportation engineer Mr. Lambert from TMC will be here. He will also discuss some items in regards to transportation. We have Miss Su from Shutz who actually authored with your city attorney in reviewing it the annexation agreement. She's here to answer any questions you may have. And then of course the rest of the team here from Urban Design. So more specifically what is in front of you is on the screen. As I said a couple seconds ago, the annexation agreement resolution 2618 is this agreement that outlines a few items. And then ordinance 02610

is Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. is on second reading or excuse me is on first reading this evening. What is not in front of you this evening is a PUD. There's no plan. There's no zoning. There's no density increase. There's not a land use change. It is just a request to annex into the city and then also to set some rules of the road that if you agree to annex into the city, you must meet this criteria to the developer. So the sub site identified at the screen in red is 382 acres. It is bounded by the north. I'm supposed to keep that down. Bounded by the north by 69th Street uh and to the west by 82nd Street and to the east to the golf course known as Quail Valley. So the subject site on the screen, you will note here in more detail along the north property line is a continuity for the city. When you look at annexations, you have to be contiguous. The subject site meets that criteria. It is contiguous on the northern boundary. And then also it's compact. It's not creating a serpentine. It's not going on angles. It's not coming out in very small parcels of land. It is consistent and compact even the state statute criteria. And here's our request this evening to annex it into the city of Sebastian. So I'm going to ask Mr. Darren Wyman to get up and discuss a little bit about CER Homes. Then after that, I'm going to have Mr. Mills come up to discuss the infrastructure and the annexation study and also our transportation engineer Mr. Lambert. Mr. Mr. Wymer.

Thank you. Good. For the record, my name is Darren Wymer with Coulter Group Acquisitions. Uh, good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council members, and staff. I just want to say um start by thanking the city and staff for their professionalism throughout this process. Really appreciate the level of thought and collaboration that went into uh renewing and preparing this annexation. Your long-term goals and visions were clearly stated and we listened. So, thank you. As state of the applicant for annex annexation is Culture Group Acquisitions. Uh for those who may not be familiar with the Cultter Group, we are a Florida based commercial and residential real estate development company with headquarters in Palm Beach County, Florida. We were founded in 1997 and to date we've done over 20 billion $30 billion in real estate development across Florida and the southeastern United States. Our projects include master plan communities, multif family apartments, luxury high-rise condominiums, and branded hotels. Across all of these, Culture is recognized for delivering award-winning communities that emphasize quality, long-term value, and compatibility with the surrounding area. By annexation and future approvals, it's our intent to develop one of our award-winning Crestwind granted active adult communities of up to 900 single family homes around a clubhouse amenity designed to support an active and connected neighborhood which will be compatible with this city of will be compatible with the surrounding area as it develops in a positive addition to the city of Sebastian. As a result of due diligence process and coordination meetings, we recognize that the city has a recreational need and an interest in uh preserving working waterfronts. To that end, we're proposing contributions to a city recreational trust fund through an initial payment of $700,000 along with a $2,000 fee per residential unit which will be collected as development occurs. These funds are dedicated solely to create and enhance much needed recreational improvements such as parks, recreational facilities, and related amenities. We believe this annexation represents a well planned opportunity to contribute to Sebastian's early growth, strengthen the strengthen the city's tax base, and enhance the overall quality of development within the city. So, with approval, we look forward to working

closely with the city and being a positive part of Sebastian's future. Thank you again for your time and consideration. Turn back to Kim. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Darren.

It is difficult for someone to speak when they're not as comfortable speaking. So, Darren, I did a very good job and appreciate that. So, a couple things about the annexation agreement that is in front of you this evening and Miss Su here can answer any very specific questions that you have. But as Mr. Wymer indicated, what is in here is our commitment to be very low residential density, your lowest residential d their uh low very low residential density, which allows up to 300 dwelling units per acre. The second thing that is in here is that commitment that Mr. Wymer just indicated that there would be an initial payment of $700,000 and then a per unit payment of $2,000 to the recreation fund. And the third item and the most important one is that we're 100% within the jurisdiction of the city of Sebastian mean that we will abide by your rules and and your development procedures, your regulations. So that's what the annexation agreement basically outlines the rules of the road. The next item which is the Florida statute. So the actual annexation which occurs under Florida statutes and Miss Bernard indicated is section 171.044. First thing you must have all the consent of the property owners. So the statutes indicate that you must have all consent of the property owners. We have all the consent of the property owners. The second item which is contiguous and compact. We meet those criteria for my review. Your staff has reviewed it that we have met those criteria being both contiguous and compact. And then finally proper notice. Proper notice involves sending a letter to the county. It involves noticing a newspaper. I know that your staff has done that and I'm sure they will testify under note that they have met all those criteria for proper notice. So from a statute standpoint, we have met all the criteria. Moving down to the next layer within your comprehensive plan, you have a you have a section that indicates what to do if someone requests annexation. That requires us to do an annexation

study. Mr. Mills and Mr. Lambert are going to come up and discuss the key items in that annexation agreement which is transportation and also infrastructure and then also we're required to if it is greater than 10 acres we are required to submit a companion land use amendment. We have made that application to the very low residential density and also committed to that within this annexation agreement if you approve it. So I'm going to ask Mr. Mills to get up to discuss some trans excuse me to discuss infrastructure and then Mr. Lambert will discuss high level transportation. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Luke Lamer with Traffic Mobility Consultants. Uh quickly to just go over transportation. I'm glad Council Member Nun that you are aware of the County Road 510 project. County Road 510 was recently transferred over to the Florida Department of Transportation. So, it's technically a state road. Now, um as part of this process, we have been in discussions with the Florida Department of Transportation and Mark or Indian River County Public Works Department throughout. We have an approved methodology where they reviewed the traffic methodology and they have approved that as um as early as May of 2025. So, again, we've been in discussions with them for over a year. on the screen there are a couple of highlights of the future roadway projects that are coming online especially with County Road 510. Um drove through the corridor today and it looks like they're moving along nicely and uh especially for this project the 82nd Avenue project is something that we've discussed with FDOT and that is the number four and number five priority project of Inver County no moving into the actual study. So we've conducted a transportation facilities analysis that looks at the long the short-term and the long-term impacts of transportation. So the highle point here is that in 2045 when this analysis was completed all roadway segments will operate at an acceptable level of service according to the cost feasible plan that the MO board has adopted. Um, again, we will go through further reviews for transportation impacts with Indian River County and FDOT to mitigate for specific intersection improvements and turn lanes type of, you know, small site impact uh, transportation improvements like that. And that's it. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Mills. Good evening. Um, my name is Wesley Mills with Mills Shorton Associates. Thank you, mayor, and council members for allowing us to be here tonight to

present. Uh I council member Nun, I wanted to um follow up on something you said earlier about a lot of planning has went into it because there has been a lot of planning. We've been working on this project for two years, so it's nice to be recognized in the sense that a lot of thought goes into this. Um so what I wanted to do is go over infrastructure impacts and some of the capacity analysis that goes into all of this that gets submitted to your staff and reviewed through the annexation. Uh first I'll I'll talk about the utility analysis. So first we start with a capacity analysis and we worked with Indian River County. They were one of our initial uh discussions on h is there capacity in their utility system? Will they allow us to connect and what we need to do? There is more than enough uh capacity in both their water and sewer system. And we took that one step further um that we normally wouldn't do in an annexation process, but we we've gotten down the road with Indian River County as we've discuss the alignment. We know where the utility lines are going, how they're going to get to the site, how they're going to connect to the site, and um the county has a master plan to bring utilities out to the existing residences of the northwest county. And so our project will play a significant role in installing those utilities that the developer will pay for. Um one thing also and when we talk about infrastructure uh the developer will pay the entire cost to construct all the utilities to our site to provide service. We'll also pay for connection fees. Those connection fees are estimated to be about $4.5 million for for this project. And then we'll have continuous service fees that also get paid to the county. The county has issued us a will serve letter. We've provided them with the same analysis that we've provided to your staff. They've reviewed it. They've provided a will serve letter that they are prepared to to provide you um services and capacity to our project. These utility extensions will also provide public benefit not just for our project but a

lot of the uh surrounding residences. Um, I mentioned we're going to pay and extend a good portion of um the utilities heading west um for for the um county, but also we'll provide redundancies in the county system. So, anytime there's a water main break within um the system because of the connections that we're making, we'll have redundancies to where they can turn off valves and fewer residents will be impacted. Um so our system will will provide that as well as just because of the redundancies it will provide better water quality and in the overall system and higher water pressures. Just taking a a deeper dive into the numbers as far as capacity goes. Any river county has 16 16.2 million gallons of water a day that they can provide in their system. Our project demand is 225,000. So that leaves the county with a surplus capacity about 9.7 million gallons per day of excess capacity. As far as wastewater goes, there's about 4 million gallons per day that's available by the county. Again, our project demand is 225,000. So that leaves the county with 1.5 million gallons of capacity in their current system. I wanted to move into storm water. I know tonight we heard some information that I just don't think is correct and and want to kind of um go through storm water with you. Um our project is located in flood zone X and there's portions also in flood zone AE. Uh most of our site that is in AE is the lowerlying areas mostly old citrus furrows, existing canals and ditches that run through our site. So we will we will fill those those areas and raise the site. But to do that, we're going to have to offset the flood plane. And so the current design of the subdivision

has larger than typical storm water ponds to provide excess capacity into um Sebastian River Improvements um drainage system because it will backflow into our site for flood protection. Um and and the project will be out of uh the flood plane. Um the site, this site is located in the Sebastian River improvement district. Um I think one misinformation when we talk about development is the site is currently agriculture and it's it's um and there's cattle on the property. When you talk about nutrient and and pollutants um from from storm water runoff into the lagoon, as the site sits in its existing condition, it has more pollutants leaving the site and more runoff leaving the site than when it gets developed. And we have to meet all the new St. John's storm water requirements, which is pretty significant. In December, St. John's had an overhaul of the design and level of treatment that you have to have for storm water runoff um to address nitrogen and phosphorus. So, our project will meet 95% treatment, which is a very high standard and significantly higher than the current property as it as it sits today. We'll go through multiple agencies that will review our drainage plans and make sure that we're in strict compliance and that we don't impact the city system. Sebastian River system and ultimately the lagoon. The city engineering department will review this. Sebastian River improvement district engineers will review this and St. John's water management district will review this. We've already taken this project a step further than the annexation in that we've already had meetings with St. John's. We've already made formal submitts on an entire drainage design that they've reviewed and provided feedback to us. We've already had wetlands delineations, environmental assessments through FWC and St. John's and we've made a design

submitt to Sebastian River Improvement District. So, we we have taken this project far beyond just what we would normally do with an annexation to ensure that we aren't impacting any infrastructure um with annexation of of this project. With that, I'm I'm happy to answer any questions, but I'll turn it back over to Ken for the remainder of the presentation. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. Just a few more slides. The fun part. Now, this is not in front of you this evening, but on the screen in front of you is the plan that we have submitted to the city. And just to take a look, I know there are a couple questions about landscape and design. I can commit to you that Coulter is very focused on landscaping, their entry features, their amenities, their design. The landscape architect working on this is very talented. I happen to be married to her, so she's very talented and does a very good job on this site and she is working on it in detail and plans have been submitted to the city. But in front of you, you'll see the plan that we're proposing. Um, and there's a couple key items and a couple public public benefits that are on this plan that have not been identified yet. When you look at the when you look at this plan north to to the left on the south side because of the existing canal we are dedicating additional land area for that canal along the south side of the property. Also we are dedicating land area to the department of transportation for storm water for 82nd Avenue. So that one point it's 1.84 acres is being dedicated. So there are some additional public benefits beyond the recreational public benefit that we indicated earlier. So that's the overall plan. One thing to note is the large amenity center. That's an important part of these active adult communities. That amenity center will be the hub of the community and it will be a significant component of the of the project and of the residents future residents who will live there. A couple quick items about access. saw as an important item on the on the left hand side which is north is 69th and that's the main access point and then on the s on the bottom part of the screen which is to the west is a secondary or is the other main access point on 82nd. So what does annexation do and what does

it mean? What it means is it's under your control, your rules, your regulations. And I heard some things in the earlier conversation. You are planning for a long-term horizon here. And this is what gives a city a unique time. I've watched this over the course of my career. And this allows you to have what is in front of you and and be able to manage what is in front of you in a in a longer term horizon. It supports your housing goals. It extends your your base, your fiscal base. So in conclusion we have met all the criteria and most importantly this is a logical and orderly expan orderly boundary expansion as indicated by the statute and also by the city have our whole team happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

All right. Thank you so much. Yes sir. Don't hear it. We need another mic. All right. Hear me now? Yeah, you can hear me now. Okay. Very good. Uh, thank you so much for that. Um, is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item?

Yes, sir. My name is Gary Combmes. I live in the unincorporated area of Indian River County. Uh this is like the other project. Um I just don't understand why that we can't have you guys can't have more of a transitional density. Um, this is 15 times more than what than what neighbors it. Um, I I know it's economics, but if people are willing to pay and build a house on five acres, one house on five acres, these developers should be able to do one house per acre, two houses per acre, but not the three. Um, there should be more of a transitional period. We've always been Vero goes to Sebastian. If you drive between the two, you've always had a area between the two that distinguished the two were separate. It was always more rural. And what you're doing now is you're bringing this density closer and closer to Vero. Vero is eventually going to go the other direction. And you're going to be like down south where if if you go south of here from Jupiter down, it's one city. I I I I just can't get that across to you. You cannot tell. There's no character between this city to that city. It never stops between. And uh like I mentioned earlier about the other property, I'll mention about this one. This one is literally 3/4 of a mile from the the uh shooting range. Uh it's not a matter of safety. That wasn't my point earlier either. It's about the noise. You're going to have 900 homes, however many people that is, 2,000 people or whatever, whatever it might be, 55 and older moved here from

most likely up north. They're not used to the the the lifestyle we have. And if I can hear the shooting from 3 miles away, and I don't have a problem with that, they're going to hear it from 3/4 of a mile away. So this project, the other project, any project, if it's anywhere near these type things, you need to let somehow let the new residents sign off. You not not a deed restriction or anything like that, but acknowledgement that they know what's happening in the area just like you do for like a the train uh if you're next to a train track or an airport. Um they need to be aware of what's going on around there. you're going to get a lot of complaints. Um, that's just where my my viewpoint on things. Thank you guys.

All right. Uh, thank you so much for that, sir. Is there anyone else?

Anyone on Zoom? Oh, so come on up, sir. Again. Chuck Mecclane 1765 Laconia. If they come or if they don't, if you let them have the annexation or not, it wouldn't make any difference to me and my business. But what I will say to you is the Culture Group is an honorable organization. And I will go back again to the whole point of who do we want to have in the accomplishment of this city growing. They'll be an a good neighbor. They are an excellent corporation. And they are people that keep their word. I have we had gone after them in the beginning to have Coulter be the builder in our spirit of Sebastian and it just in their business plan didn't work out. But the part of that was that I had an insight into their organization and they are good people. And so you got to ask yourself if you want to grow, can you grow with the people that are going to be a part of us and a part of a community? And I would say that they will fulfill that part of it and that's the reason I would think that it would be a good situation to do. We talked about all the accomplishments of infrastructure and everything else. Um Wesley Mills did an excellent job of explaining all that. And again, if we're going to grow and we're going to take care of our sewer systems and things like this, the extension of this is part of what'll be part of their plan and that will help the overall vision of the city as well. And I would think that it would be a good thing to do. Thank you.

All right. Uh thank you so much for that, sir. Do we have anyone on Zoom? I have two hands raised on Zoom. All right. Bring them on. First one. Hello, Miss Herman. Can you hear us? Great. Can you hear me? Yes.

All right. This is Sharon Herman, and I just first of all, I'd like to thank the council and the staff for your service um and all the work that you do to put into our cities. I wanted to say that I totally agree with what Councilman Chris Nun said earlier regarding the last annexation. If Sebastian wants to control development and growth, property needs to be within the city limits. If you look north, south, east, and west of our county, it's going to continue to grow. Every plot of land that's empty, the owners cannot be expected to just pay taxes on that property and let it sit vacant because that's what we want. It's their land and they have the right to develop it. Now, do we want apartment complexes? Do we want three-story hotels? Look at that hotel project that's hold right now, but who knows for how long? If that property had been within the city limits, that wouldn't have been an option for them. The county and or the city won't allow it, but certainly the county would in my opinion. If 50 years ago, we should have annexed everything north to Broward County, south to 510, and west to 95. Thank you to the Graves family for loving their land and our city enough to offer annexation to the city in order to be able to control the rate and density in which Sebastian grows by offering the annexation to us. land owners have the right to develop their land and to think that citizens have the right to tell them they can't is ludicrous. I appreciate everything that you do and I want to thank the council again and please vote for annexation every chance

you get. It's the only way we're going to keep from becoming St. L St. Lucy or St. Lucy or Stewart or Jupiter or anything else. Thank y'all. All right. Uh, thank you so much, ma'am. Did we have a second? Joe. Hello, Mr. Gills. Can you hear us?

Hello. Yes, we hear you. Yes. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, council.

My name is Damian Gills. I'm a business owner in the community for over 40 years. Former city councilman. to spend time in jail. Anyway, there's there's a few things that cross my mind. It's obvious you guys pretty much made your mind up. Um, I'd like to look at these projects as a opportunity to partner with the developer and make sure that if there is an impact that they share those expenses and and that burden. Let me give you an example. So, we annexed over 2,000 acres with the Graves Brothers and the annexations are coming. But I'm sure in your annexation agreement it states that they don't pay any taxes because it's going to be in agriculture. With agriculture, you have an exemption. So the police department, are we going to be getting a ranch and grove unit now? And who's going to pay for that? Can we put something in the annexation agreement to cover any and all expenses that brings additional expenses and impacts our community? if we have to send a an officer out to cover these 2,000 acres. Here's another point. The impact, we're a water upfront community. We don't have many script. You're going to double the size of our city, but you're not going to double of where we can park and get onto the river and get out to the ocean. There's no money set aside in your annexation agreement based on the number of units you're going to produce so that we can buy more property and put more parking and more boat ramps in. And I don't think anybody's talked about that tonight. And I I just got out of another meeting so I didn't hear most of the earlier uh meeting, but um the storm water they must pay right away. There's no waiverss. You got to pay as soon as you come in. And I know that there's a a way that they can file file an application and being that there's no development, they're going to say, "Well, we're not going to contribute to

storm water." It's not that they're donating 700,000 and they're going to get 2,000 per unit for recreation or what have you. But I think there's more that can be uh you know to to the community for this impact that they're they're bringing to us. And um they're going to make millions and millions of dollars. So, I think that uh we should go back to the negotiating table and take a good look at that annexation agreement because it's going to cost the existing taxpayers a lot of money. You know it and I know it. Now, if those guys, the professionals that are sitting there, can get up and tell me how they can help with the impact that they're going to do to our waterfront with more slips and more parking and how they can help with the additional Grove and Ranch police officers that we're going to have to send out to their property and how can we get taxes agreement. They're going to release a bunch of cows on these properties and we're going to have to watch them and there's no income. And uh so if the the professionals that are sitting there after I hang up can address my my concerns, I I'd love to hear it.

All right. Thank you, sir. Your time is up, Mr. Mayor. Thank Yes, sir. Absolutely. Thanks for your input. All right. Do we have anyone else on Zoom? All right. Public input is closed. Staff, do you have a final? Nothing. applicant. Anything final after hearing? Whatever. Everyone's good. All right. This hearing is now closed. It's now time for us to deliberate and make a decision. Council, Mr. Mayor, I just want to ask a question from the attorney. Uh, were we wanting to do the the annexation agreement first, then the annex, then the uh, Yes.

Yes. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Uh, Mr. Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve uh resolution R26-18. All right. So, we have a motion for R26-8. Do we have a second? Second. Yeah.

Yes, I do, too. So, yeah, absolutely. Um, so, um, we have a motion and a second. I I've got one thing. I think on number six, the recreational trust fund that is separate from the wreck impact fee. Is that correct? That does not affect the wreck impact fee. So that is totally separate and above and beyond the wreck impact fee. And uh the other question is 82nd Avenue has already been approved to be widened all the way from 69th Street to 510. Is that true?

All right. Thank you. That's all I have. Mr. Uh that that was tax leads into my question. Um yeah, 82nd Avenue that's all approved by the MO and it's moving through. But can I don't know who to ask this of, but has the rightway on 82nd Avenue uh that's adjacent to this property been dealt with with FDOT? That was an issue with Graves property. We ran into that. I just want to make sure that that's okay. Sorry, we got you. I think. Okay, there you go.

Again, Luke Lamer with Traffic Mobility Consultants. Just a little clarification, 82nd Avenue is approved to be a new two-lane roadway. So, the southern limits are from 26th up to 69th and then from 69th up to 510. So, the project is approved through DOT. It's working its way through the work program. It's the number three or four and five priority project. Um, so construction funding is a little further out. It's going to follow the 510 project, but it is one of the county's priority projects. So, it's a new two-lane roadway.

Yes, I I I understand that. I'm on the MO, so I understand that process. Uh my question is, uh the rightway from 69 South, uh has that been approved and has that been granted by and and is this are the property owners for this property involved in that rightway acquisition? I'll tell you why I'm asking that. we annex this and we approve it, the property value skyrockets right away. Cost skyrocket. Uh from an NO perspective, uh that's a question that I think needs to be dealt with. And that's what I don't know the particulars of that, but um Mr. Whit Mills, I believe, knows a little bit more about.

Yeah. So, as it relates to the rideway, DOT is in um active discussions with property owners along that corridor and every property owner is slightly different in that timing, but our commitment is that we have built into the project that we will dedicate that land to DOT. I think it's 50 ft. Okay. Along the entire front. All right. cuz I I noticed that there's a uh there's a storm water lake that I understand from the presentation was part of a DOT storm water off of 82nd Avenue. You mentioned that. So is that part of the rightway discussion with FDOT?

Yes, they have a design um from I think it's 30 36 uh up north to our property limits. And so we took their design plans, incorporated the rightway set back and then they had a pond in the vicinity of our property. So we we incorporated it. Perfect. Thank you. It made it prettier though than what DOT had. But yeah, I I just don't want us to take an action that causes that DOT issues with getting it right away because getting 82nd Avenue done is highly important for Sebastian and our project too. So understood. All right. Anything else, Mr.

I I'm I'm fine. I I right along with the last piece of property we talked about. I I see this as uh once again and I know what some of the speakers talk about the fact that Graves hasn't ain't done with it. There's been a lot of work done on trying to develop the Grace property. It's not like no one's doing anything. Uh and I will tell you part of the issues maybe that they're dealing with is the fact that our development agreement with the Grace property that the council put together was not an easy agreement and the developers have to deal with it. And so uh it it it's beneficial to Sebastian because it protects the city and it protects its residents. It makes it more difficult for a developer to do what they want to do with that property. But there are going to be commercial there is going to be I shouldn't say are. There is going to be development commercial development on that property hopefully along the 82nd Avenue corridor which will feed right into this. This is another one of those neighborhoods to that 2,000 acre mixeduse PUD which will have more than one town center if they want more than one mixeduse PUD. Uh and so hopefully this will lead right into that. And I I just you know people talk about vision. Um the city staff and the city manager uh two managers back and and the uh the council have been working on visioning on this stuff for a long time. Uh and uh it's it's important for people to understand that this isn't I know it was a voluntary annexation application, but quite frankly uh if we could if we could if we could annex it without the property owners will wanting to voluntarily do it, we would have probably already annexed this property quite frankly. So it's it's important to the city that we do this and it's important to the city that we that we um we begin to build our commercial footprint. And this is this is another one of those things that'll lend towards that. You get houses being built in a nice subdivision that's well put

together that sc that sell above the average in the in the area that generates revenue to people who want to build commercial. They see this as customers. They don't see this as urban sprawl. They see this as customers. And that's what we want. Somebody told me today they couldn't understand why you don't have a Trader Joe's or something like that. And I buy the property and build one, but by golly, you're going to have a hard time getting customers, you know, so until we do something and make this an appropriate place for that to happen. So, I'm in favor of this. Thank you.

Yeah. So, and and I agree. But, you know, the other thing is it was said earlier about there was a couple meetings back, I think I spoke about us controlling growth and all of that and and and we do. I I I like this project. I think this is this fits our plan, our long range plan that we've been working on, but I I would suggest that we not go any further south and that that's all I would say. Um there's there's opportunities for other spaces here on the western end, northern end of the city and I would suggest that we don't we don't go any further south. So that's all I have to say on that part. So anything else, Mr.

Yeah, one other thing. I do want to make it clear that when the mayor asked those two questions, unfortunately, everybody answered with a headshake, but they were both yeses to those questions. Just for the record, because there was nothing on the record that those were both answered with a yes. Um, you know, I don't know if anybody noticed on that map that they put up there, but you had Graves Brothers here, that property right here. I don't know if everybody noticed Felsmere right here. It's literally as wide as this property to Felsmere. I I guess I missed where all of these groups that are against us annexing 200 acres. I I guess I missed where they were against Felsmere annexing it all on the left west side. I mean, it's all right there. We didn't want Felsmere to be down there. I mean, we don't want Felsmere to be down there. We want it to be Sebastian. So, I I just, you know, it's perspective. Thank you.

All right. Um, if there is anything further, Miss Matthews, another.

No, I'm I'm um still going to stand by my um statement that I've said many times now that's growing with grace and um again, if we do not annex it, if it does not belong to us, we don't control it. This is the annexation. This is the beginning. And then we get into the minutia and the whole building. And as we go further and as we get in, then we have that control and what we're doing and we work with these folks. And um I I get that people are scared. I get that when you've lived here for lots of years and you don't see this growth and you don't want this growth because you like your privacy, you like your woods, you like your trees, that sometimes this gets a little scary, but you have to trust the the um what's been put in place over the years. You have to trust the processes. You have to trust the people um taking care of the processes and making sure that everything is good. And I hope that um the city of Sebastian, the communities and the residents can um join us instead of constantly misleading and putting that misinformation out there and work with us. Ask the questions instead of trying to argue that you have something that you don't. Um we are here to do this together and to grow together and again to grow with grace.

All right. Um thank you so much for that ma'am. So we're going to we have the u motion and second for R-26-18. Madame clerk. Council member Matthews. Yes. Council member Dodd. Yes. Mayor Jones. Yes. We've lost communication with Vice Mayor McPartland. Um, Council Member Nun. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Um, outstanding. Now we will move on to um 0-26-10. No. Do we need a motion on that? Yes. Yes. Do we need a motion on that? Yes. Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to uh Go ahead.

You read the title already, correct? Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve ordinance 0-26-10. second. Read the order. Okay. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to to do the same request on that that that I did on the the first one, the conceptual plan be made part of the package that was submitted to the council. And if it's a requirement that we modify that motion, then I can ask council member nun to do that. I don't know. It's up to the attorney if he thinks is it there? Yeah, that we will enter it into the record and we will include it for second reading. Okay. All right. Then I I'll second council member Nun's motion.

Okay. Outstanding. All right. So, we have a motion and second. Do we have any other discussion? Hearing none, madam clerk. Council member Dodd? Yes. Mayor Jones? Yes. Council member Matthews? Yes. Council member Nun. Um, yes. Motion carries. U Mr. Attorney, did we need to set the second reading date in that motion? Oh, I would like to. Yeah, let's go ahead and we need to we need to How would we like to do that? It it has been advertised. Okay. But let's get it on the second motion.

No, you can do a second motion. You can just clarify your motion. I'm going to clarify my motion to ordinance 026-10 and set a second reading for May 26 of 2026. I'll second that. All right. Um, so we got that cleared up. Now we have a motion to second. Madame clerk. Council member Dodd. Yes. Mayor Jones. Yes. Council member Matthews. Yes. Council member Nun. Yes. Motion carries.

All right. Um, thank you so much. All right. Um, item number 10E, consideration of ordinance 0-2611, amendment of for the police pension plan. First reading. Who do we have?

Let me let me read it and then I'll take it. Um, an ordinance of the city of Sebastian, Florida, amending chapter 58, article 3, police officers retirement plan, amending section 58-70.4 employment after retirement, providing for severability, providing for codification, providing for the repeal of all ordinances in conflict, providing for scriveners errors, and providing for an effective date. All right. U, thank you so much for that, sir. Um, Mr. Mayor, I move approval of ordinance 02611 on first reading and set the second reading for 26th. May 26th. May 26. May 26.

Second. So, we have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on this? Seeing none. Anyone on Zoom? I have one hand raised on Zoom. Go ahead. Bring them on. Hello, Mr. Gills. Can you hear us? Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Can you hear me? Yes.

Thank you for taking my call. Uh, the police department works very hard for our community. They don't get paid enough as it is. So, whatever you can do to assist them during these hard times and their family, the community, I'm sure, is behind them. They're a great police force and um uh I'm sure you guys are going to do the right thing. Thanks again, Mr. Mayor. All right. Thank you so much, sir. All right. Um, anyone else from the public? All right. Public input is closed. Council. Oh, do we make the motion? Yeah. And second, sir. Okay. Call. Madame clerk. Mayor Jones. Yes. Council member Nun. Yes. Council member Matthews. Yes. Council member Dodd. Yes.

Motion carries. All right. Um, thank you. There's no unfinished business. We'll move on. Oh yeah. Move on to uh new business consideration of employment agreement for the city clerk. Um we've spent some we've spent some time. Miss Garcia, if you want to come forward. You guys have uh looked at that. Um is does anyone have any questions about the agreement we signed or will sign? No. Mr. Mayor, I move approval of the contract with our new city clerk that she can go to work. I'll second that so she can get to work.

I'll make it so so she can go to work. Okay. So, um, they haven't finished her office yet. I see it's it's, you know, being painted, but yeah, you know. So, I think Jim may they may have gotten that done today or close. Okay. All right. Um, so we have a motion and a second. Um, madame clerk, no public input. Is anyone from the public want to speak on this? Anyone on Zoom? No one has raised their hand. Thank you so much, Madame Clerk. Council member Nun, yes. Council member Matthews, yes. Council member Dodd, yes. Mayor Jones, yes. Motion carries. All right. Welcome aboard,

Miss Garcia. Congratulations. All right. Uh, next item is item 12B, consideration of change order number three in the amount of $59,990. Miss Graham, good evening, council. Evening.

So, this is a change order for Johnson Davis. We awarded them a contract back in 2024, which is for the Gardiniah Ditch drainage improvement. So, they're about 60% complete with that project, but we noticed they did not um in the initial drawings, we did not have a crossing that was at Riviera Avenue. So, the city went back to the contractor and asked them for a quote to install a road crossing at Riviera Avenue. So, that is why this change order is being brought. It is something that the city has initiated. So, we are requesting approval to not only issue a purchase order for this change order number three, but also to use um discretionary sales tax fund reserves in order to cover this project because this amount was not included in the original pro uh contract price. So, if anybody has any any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Any questions from council? No. All right. Um, anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item? Anyone on Zoom? No one has raised their hand. Public input is closed. Council, Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve a change order three in the amount of $59,990. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second that. I just have a question. All right. Um, we have a motion and a second. Um, discussion, Mr. Dodd. Okay. This is prim probably for Brian, but how close are we to being done with that? Is this is this getting near the end?

Yes. So, um, the the ditch has is about 80% complete. Um, in regards to installing the pipe, they will complete the last section, I believe, this week or next week. Then they'll do the road crossing if it gets approved tonight. Um, and then they've got to go back and finish some site work back through the ditch. But as far as installing the pipe, we're about 80% complete. Okay. Cuz we're we're pulling like these change dollars out of our reserves basically. And I'm just wondering if maybe the budget item needs some shoring up or is there any reason for us to think that might be we might need to do that?

No, no, no. So, so the original project um and so to give you a little bit of detail, this project was designed seven years ago.

Yeah. Um, and at that time, and we found this in other areas in the ditch that the elevations were incorrect. So, as we've been going through this, our staff recognized that the pipe underneath Riviera is the completely wrong elevation. Um, it was never installed correctly from the beginning and that was not part of this project. That was back in GDC or whoever did it back many years ago. Um, so in order to facilitate and not cause an additional problem after we've done the the the site work and the new piping of the ditch, uh, we need to replace this pipe. So, the original project is on budget. Um, we are we are adding a few extra days. Um, but this will be additional to that existing project um, as we go forward. Okay.

I saw Karen shaking her head yes like that, so she was okay with your she briefed me well before the meeting. All right. Is that it for you, Mr. Dot? Yes, sir. All right. I have nothing. I know they'll be happy to have this project done. Yes, I know, right? For sure. This is one of two ditches that I hope to not hear Gardinia again. Yes. All right. Um, no. Anyone from the public? Did we call that? Nothing. All right. Um, Madame Clerk, roll call. Council member Nun? Yes. Council member Matthews? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Mayor Jones. Yes. Motion carries.

All right. Uh, thank you so much. Uh, our next item is item number 12 C, consideration of change order number one in the amount of 277 for Johnson Mirramum and Thompson, Miss Graham.

So, this change order, it goes along with the change order that we just received for Johnson Davis, Johnson Mirman and Thompson. They are the engineer of record. So, because we are adding this crossing to the Johnson Davis contract as well as adding additional days, we need to add additional days for our engineer so they can continue on with their construction inspection services. So, that's what this change order will do. We're also asking to again use reserve funds because this was not part of the initial project. This is something separate that we're doing and Karen is here to elaborate. One of the reasons we need to add this time is because of Gopher tortoise delays as well as AT&T coordination. So because of those delays, um, we expended a lot of hours at the beginning of the project. So we need additional time for them to be able to inspect all of the work that gets completed.

Thank you. That Gardinia word again. Yeah, I know, right? Mr. Mayor, I move approval of change order one. Do I need I I move approval of this item. Second. All right. Um, so we have a motion and a second. Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item? Anyone on Zoom? No one has raised their hand. All right. Public input is closed. Madame clerk. Council member Matthews. Yes. Council member Dodd. Yes. Mayor Jones. Yes. Council member Nun. Yes. Motion carries. Where are we? 143. See is now you're on the addition.

Yeah. Where do I have it? Oh, there you go. All right. Sorry. Um, we had an addition item number 12D. Um, who's doing this, Miss Graham? I I'm going to handle it for her.

Okay. Um, so this item is a request of city council um for a purchase order in the amount of $29,21247 to replace the irrigation system suction lines um at the golf course. As you all know, we're in the season that yes, we do get some rain, but lately we haven't got received a lot of rain, so we need irrigation functioning at full capacity. There were some issues with the irrigation at the at the golf course. Um, and Hoover Pumping Systems, who uh manages and oversees the the main jockey pump that facilitates the irrigation, came out. They uh noticed that the uh the three suction lines, we had some issues with two of the three um and they recommended that these suction lines were installed back in 2008. They had exceeded their lifespan. And so we are requesting to utilize golf course reserves um to issue a purchase order to replace these three suction lines to provide uninterrupted water supply for our irrigation at the golf course in the amount of $29,21247.

Is this just the um at the pump level or out throughout the area? Is this just at the pump the suction? Yeah. So the suction lines go from the main jockey pump out into the pond, the main irrigation pond that we're sucking coming out of. There's three lines that go out there. Okay. So it's not a long distance there. Uh let's see. I know in their quote they gave us the exact distances. Um I guess

did it didn't give us the distance of it. Um but the distance of it I apologize for that. But it is a one's a 8 in or two are 8 in 8 in pipes and one is a 4 inch pipe and they would install a new uh check valve as well. Greg, do you happen to notice know the approximate distance from the pump that the I do. It's about 60 ft from the uh pump station going out to that uh irrigation lake. You you probably see those floats sitting on top of the water. Mhm. That's where the end of those pipes are. Oh, okay. That's what the pipes are. Yeah. Okay. I got it. All right. Thank you.

Um I I have no questions. Um with that, I'll move approval. Um we have a second. We have a second. All right. Um is there um anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, anyone on Zoom? No one has raised their hand. Uh, Mr. Dodd. Dodd. Um, so public input is closed. U Madame Clerk. Council member Dodd. Yes. Mayor Jones. Yes. Council member Nun. Yes. Council member Matthews. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Um, next item on our agenda is the uh city attorney matters. Mr. Stokes.

Uh, just a couple things. One is the charter review committee uh wrapped up the first phase. Actually, it's kind of the complete phase for them except for they do stay formed until after council acts. Um, but they do have four proposals. I just wanted to tell you tonight that I'm going to be sending those out to you tomorrow. Um, it's going to be on the agenda on your agenda on May 26. Um, your role at this point is to either accept their recommendations, reject them, uh, come up with any of your own, change anything they gave, or send it back to them. I mean, every option is available to you because this is ultimately your decision. Um, and that's why I want to send those four proposals, if you haven't seen them already, send their four proposals to you so that you have more than a couple days to look at them before the meeting on the 26th. So, um, so when you get them, you'll understand why I sent them out to you, um, at this point. So, um, and if there's any questions, obviously, you can call me anytime, you know. Second thing is I'm going to be away this weekend. Um, but I'm going to be available. I have my laptop with me and have my phone with me. Um, but I'm heading up. Um, my son's graduating with his master's degree from the University of Notre Dame and he has some very proud parents that are going up there to uh to watch that. But um I will be accessible to you and to staff um while I'm up there. So

All right. Uh thank you so much for that, sir. Anything else from you, Mr. Stokes? That's it. That's it. Thank you. Um Mr. Benton, I have nothing tonight. Thank you. All right. What? Whoa. I'm going hold on right here. City clerk, I know you have something to say now, don't you? Congratulations to Jane, and I'm looking forward to working with you. That's all I have. All right. Thank you so much. Um, city council matters. Let's start off with Miss Matthews. I have nothing tonight. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, Mr. Dodd. Okay. Okay.

I do have something. Okay. All right. Um, I hate to admit that I look at Facebook and some of this other social media stuff, but I do. And uh one of the common threads that I've seen as we've been through this annexation stuff, and actually I even heard it from one of our one of our own boards the other night about, you know, oh well, why don't we plan this stuff better? Um is the fact that they don't people don't think we plan things very well. uh and and given the annexation as a as a a particularly important particularly important issue, I'd like to recommend that we ask the city manager to do uh to put together and and uh I don't I don't I can work some way or another and try to explain this, but put together some type of a plan to define the boundaries of what we are looking for as a city. uh we have a strategic plan, but no place in that does it say we want this city to be Orlando or we want this city to be whatever. You know, I don't want it to be any of that. But uh I'm I'm talking about looking at potential growth areas, looking at potential city boundaries, um looking at the corporate impacts of those uh on the city and on the on its residents and try to put together a document in which we articulate um I think this evening one of the speakers actually threw back against the mayor a statement that he made uh on a radio show that was not part of any city sanctioned plan. It was him saying something on a radio show and we need to I think we need to put together something that fits within that. I'm not talking about changing the comp plan. I'm not talking about changing the line development code. I'm talking about a a document that that is

presented to and is reviewed by the council that says this is where we would where we are proposing that this city go. Okay. Um, and if we agree, for example, what you said earlier, Mr. Mayor, about I don't want to go any further south. If we make an agreement to that, then let's put that in that document. Okay. That we don't want to go any further south. I don't know that I agree with that personally, but that's a debate, an issue that we can discuss. I personally think maybe we should go to 53rd Avenue or 53rd Street. Um, you know, I kind of like 53rd Street when they finish it all the way out to 95

somewhere. Well, past 95 there's already there's an overpass on 95 already planned for that and FDOT has already said that's the next 95 exit at 53rd Street in 53rd Street that's going to be the Felsmere exit. Um so I'm I'm proposing we do that. I don't know Brian how you want if it's an agreement on uh you know a consensus on the part of the council we move forward. I don't know how you want to deal with that. Um, I'm I'm sometimes really good at throwing problems at people and then walking away and letting them deal with them. I think I did that to you once on the ba on the the pest management plans uh sitting in Paul's office and uh it turned out very well actually. We turned out having two great documents that are were were something that very few cities actually have. So, it's a good deal. So if you'd like to comment.

Yeah, I mean if council get provides direction on this then obviously we'd put together some employees from the city. Um and if you want us to include staff from the county or look at fellow as well because obviously they're surround you know they're right on our borders. Um we can do that. I just my only concern is I don't want and I think we've made it known we don't they don't drive the decisions in Sebastian. Um, we're here to to develop and plan with what's best in Sebast Sebastian, but I think we can work together and potentially bring something back and if if they're not willing to, you know, be involved, then we'll work from a staffing level and develop something if that's council's

cuz I I see this as something that will allow us to let the citizens know that we are planning this. let the council itself come to some conclusion and agreement on on what that direction is and what the what the city might want to look like. That can be the beginning document. I'm not I'm I'm not 100% sure that we can be very successful bringing the county and Felsmere into this at this stage because you you you got two two or three disparent groups trying to come together and the question is are they going to battle each other and head knock. If we could bring them in at the point in time which we can say this is our view of where this might need to go then we have a discussion point that we have a point of negotiation basically at that point in time. So I'm asking for council consensus to to ask Bryant to move forward with this.

I agree with this. I think that it's something that's way over needed um long over needed long overdue. But possibly using that or comp plan as your your guide of course and um a summarization of what what that big comp plan is and and something a little smaller um to where we can look at it as a guide and say okay this is what we are this is what we're doing. Um it's my two I was going to say I I agree and it does not I I think this meeting and this discussion needs to happen within us. I don't think we need to involve at this point. I think we have to have our understanding of what we want before we can say what do you think we should do because

you know I just don't think they have our best interest at heart. We do have our best interest at heart. So I think a discussion within us about this plan for ourselves. I I agree with what council member Matthews just said and take the comp plan and and you know maybe we look at possibly amending our comp plan according to the discussion down the road. I mean it's possible. So but I think it's a good discussion. I think it's definitely overdue as well.

And I agree. I think that's why I said earlier about moving further south or whatever we decide to come up with. But um you know certainly we need to have a plan and put out there to let everyone knows that what what our direction is for the future of this city. So it's important that we put something that the residents can see and understand. So I think is that a consensus that's a consensus for Brian to come back. You want to come back with a plan to do the plan or something like that? Yeah. Let me give let me give get with staff and we will uh we'll come back to you all. Okay. Yeah. We can definitely workshop those things. So, um, Mr. Nun, you're up.

And you'll probably see that on Facebook tomorrow by 51st. But

obviously, you know, I don't really care for Facebook. I don't go on there much. Just kidding. Um, I spend time on there. I I I work it, so I spend a lot of time in front of my computer. And it's probably a a bat on me, but uh cuz I do spend a lot of time on there. And you know, had someone say one time, "Well, you always have an answer." Well, no. I just hate to see misinformation. It drives me crazy to see lies and misinformation. And and I you may agree with my opinion or not agree with my opinion, and I'm fine with that. That's great. You may not agree with any of us up here, but none of us are lying, do you? You know, I I know politicians in the world that, you know, they they make it bad for the rest of us, but I I'm proud to serve with these other four people I serve. I mean, four of us are veterans and and one of has been a a civil servant. She's worked for the government for her entire career and and given to the community and and if if you think that's an easy thing, you know, you don't make a ton of money working. I worked for the county for 12 years. You don't make a ton of money working for the for the county or city. So, you have to do it because you love it. You have to do it because you care about your community. We do this because we care about our community. Because if you think that $600 a month we get is is the reason, then I I'm sorry cuz you need I you you need more money. But that $600 a month definitely is not a reason to to do this job. And I I don't think any a single one of us up here would ever think that or agree that that's the reason. We do it because we love this city. We raised our kids here. We we love how the community is. And I I know you you always want to think some always want to think the worst of us, but at the end of the day, we're we're doing what we want to do because we love it and we want our grandkids to grow up here, too.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I have nothing further. So, this meeting's adjourned.