Environmental Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Call to order. Sunday, 09/08/2025 meeting of the Environmental Advisory Board. Roll call.

Paul Jackman.

Jessica Ike.

Tim Drum.

Casey McGowan. Stephane Califf, board liaison. Alright. Pledge?

Thank you. Okay. Do we have any public comment? Any public comment? All right. Item A25-two 637 approve the 08/04/2025 EAB meeting minutes. Need a motion?

A motion.

I second. It's okay. Vote? All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. We're good. Great. All right. Item twenty five-two thousand four and seventy one, new environmentally advisory board member introduction and a lot of attachments. Are we doing that?

Yes, sir. As per previously discussed by the Board, we concluded that it will be a fantastic idea to have this item on the agenda when we have a new member or members. Just so they have all the relevant information board. And over

the today on sunshine board. And all No,

And not in that regard. This is just for the information of the Board members. And I believe that these attachments are provided as you get accepted to the Board. Absolutely. Just something to have nevertheless. And I was thinking that this will be a fruitful way to start the today's meeting. Right. So with that being said, perhaps, Tim, if you would like to share a bit more about your background and

I can expand from last week's or last month's meeting.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I'm a professional here engineer here. I've been in the area over twenty years. Our firm is the longest standing company in the area. We've designed over 6,000 projects alone in Northport. So we are very familiar with local government, state government agencies, and how all the environmental impacts of septic systems, storm water designs, structural designs of houses, trees falling on homes. I've done inspections for all the past three hurricanes. So I am very, very, very knowledgeable in regards to environmental and structural concerns.

And Tim, you mentioned you are on the residential side of things? Or do you do residential? I'm

getting back into commercial.

Wonderful. And just curious, where are you from originally?

I've been here since I was three, so Okay.

Okay. Wonderful. Well, thank you. And perhaps, Chair, would you like to go around and have the opportunity for the members to say a few words about themselves so Tim gets familiarized with their background? I think that's good. Go ahead, Jessica.

Oh, thank you

for that.

I'm Jessica. I was born and raised in Florida. Lived a couple of different places during my long life, including Atlanta, Georgia, and Western North Carolina in the mountains for the last fifteen years. And when my family died, I came down there to take care of things and decided that Florida was maybe not for me when I was young, but it's perfect when I'm old. So that's why I'm here and I love Florida. I love the environment. I think it's one of our most beautiful states. It really is. It's fantastic. There's so much here. I'd say more wildlife here than I did living in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina.

I

a it. I think that's that we should put an emphasis on our nature and wildlife as an attraction to come and live in the city in a responsible way.

Great. Thank you. Paul? Again, I'm Paul Jacobin.

I've lived in between Port Northport and Port Charlotte since '78. Raised raising a family. Worked with Publix for thirty seven years, loved the company, done a lot of things, helped me do what I do. I am on the my original reason for joining the environmental board was to be

a liaison between the parks and rec

more. But it's also helping me to learn a few more things about everything that's going on in the city. That's about where I'm at.

Mr. McGowan. I've been retired for five years and have lived down here for the past four. Love it. I have three daughters. Every day, we're getting one step closer to getting them off the payroll. So that's fun. And yeah, all right. I mean, I've been a big brother. I've done a lot with United Way and that sort of thing and thought I'd do something in more civic minded. And yeah, this had openings, honestly. And I applied and figured, give it a whirl.

Well, you. Thank you, Chair. I figured to mention a few words about myself as well. Stefan Califf, I am the Board Liaison and I am also the Natural Resources Division Manager. I have been in the environmental field for about fifteen years.

I have my background, my master's degree in soil and water sciences and my bachelor's degree in environmental science. I have been on the private site with, Lake and Wetland and Habitat Management and Assessments. Company currently known as, Solitude, before he was known as Aquatic Systems. Prior to that, I have interned at several places such as NOAA and FWC. I have been with the State of Florida, Florida DEP for few years, then Charlotte County government, their neighborhood and development services team and then Sarasota County, which was my last role as an environmental supervisor.

So as I mentioned, I'm here now, and it's a privilege to make an impact to our community here. So that's what I can say about myself.

Very good. Great. Okay. Item twenty five-two five-two thousand four hundred fifty nine, presentation and discussion regarding potential future development projects in Northport. Stefan,

believe So this is are you going to would you like me to or are you able to scroll down? Perfect. So just to remind the members that this is an item which intends to present some of the ongoing projects that are currently under review and have been approved by the Natural Resources team. Please note that this is just a plan of some of these projects approved by us. However, these may change as these projects have not been fully some of them have not been may have not been approved by other divisions.

So this is a tentative site plan for these projects. But the first one is so it's called Davis Welland Park II. It's a multifamily project. And I am going to go very quite briefly through these. And if you have any additional questions, we can always explore those.

But this month, we're covering projects for the previous few months. So there will be more than usual. And just for the interest of time, I'm kind of going to go over. I would recommend to the Board to familiarize yourself with these, if you're interested prior to the meeting, again, so we don't delve too much into each of these as that may take a very long time. So this is the Central Park project.

We have the parcel ID, and you can see some of our comments. So we are basically we have approved this project with conditions and the conditions are listed below. Those were made by our Natural Resources division. So if you go to the next page, there should be a plan of what this project looked like. And as part of this application, a buffer amendment was seeked by the applicants.

And this resulted into a discussion and conversation with the applicant of what's feasible as we have our unified land development codes, and there are strict buffer requirements. So initially, the goal was to eliminate a significant portion of the buffer, but that was not a possibility per our unified land development code. So we've agreed to in in a

very S.

Proposed strong medical office building in the Welland Park area. The site has already been cleared and graded. So at this point, our comments were focused towards the appropriate landscape plans, which I don't believe was or perhaps it was provided, but it was not finalized. So we had some additional conditions that we wanted to ensure are met as this project moves on. Just to explain to the Board members, as part of the development review process, certain there are certain issues that stops the project or the application process until and until those are corrected or adjusted to where they meet the Unified Land Development Code and the comprehensive plan, the project may not commence.

Others, those are conditions where they need to be accomplished at certain time. Some of them such as the landscaping, there is an inspection at the very end where we ensure that what's provided to us as part of the landscape plan is actually what we see when we go and do that final inspection. So please understand that with these approved with conditions, it's a system of checks and balances where the natural resources team dedicates good amount of time to ensure that what's proposed is what takes place.

So do you guys like make a report and then file it and all that, right? We were there on this day.

Yes, Chair. So as part of the new our new Acela permitting system, all inspections are recorded and documented. We have the ability to take pictures and upload them into the system. And if we would to fail on inspection, we explain why and what we reference the sections of the call that are that have not been met. And then usually the applicant calls us again for a follow-up inspection and if all the issues are resolved, then we approve it.

Each step is documented within a cell. Okay. So Oasis Phase three, that's the construction of 32 single family attached homes on a 6.91 acre parcel with the construction of a stormwater management system. This is the action that our division took for this project approval with conditions. Sorry, if we may go to the next slide. I would like to go

what is a single family attached home, like a townhouse?

It's a, basically several several homes. They are from I believe that they are either attached if you if you can see on the picture, it seems that they're in units of three or four. So correct. Townhomes. Yeah. Townhomes, essentially.

Oh, I see it here on the handout. Okay.

There's a storm water management system. This is just to show you the overall concept of the projects and the footprint and the impacts of it. But as I mentioned, all these are listed on the agenda, so you can read through in detail if you would like.

Let me ask you a quick question, Stefan, So about if they say they're going to install a storm water management system, How does that get evaluated? So not just for that area, right? But one would assume that if you're in an adjacent area or maybe even beyond an adjacent area, that could impact it. So I'm curious kind of like what's the scope of the evaluation of the system?

Without me being an engineer, I think that we have a couple of people in the room who can answer this one way better than I can, but there is a storm water permitting process that's overseen by the state, by SWIFMA for commercial entities. So they look at how much water can be captured within this area. And from my understanding, Tim, correct me if I'm wrong, the sum should be zero where you cannot capture more than So the amount of rainfall that lands and runs off your property predevelopment, there's a

way to calculate the flow rate off. Post development, it cannot exceed that. And then you also have to capture and not even let a certain portion of rainfall leave the property for pollution reasons.

So have

to maintain it on-site.

Let me how we how does it get checked post Case And maybe you were getting there. Yeah.

I went to a planning and zoning meeting one time that they have before at City Council. And they have all the storm water people and all that stuff there. So if you're really curious

permit goes yeah, through

yeah. So you the engineer designs it, runs it through all the software. You get your permit through SwiftMUD, Southwest Florida Watchman District. They're really the entity. Yes, the city of Northport has their own division. But basically, if SwiftMUD says yes, they say yes.

Perfect.

And then you have to have, at the end of the project, it's gotta be okay that was built per the plans. And then typically, every two years, an engineer's gotta go out and certify that it's still working properly.

Very good. I just meant that storm water comes in during those meetings. Right, Chuck? I know I've seen them there. They come in during the planning and zoning meetings.

And as Tim mentioned, just to explain, this review is done by the public works, their storm water team. We have some understanding of the matter, but we're certainly not experts. Elizabeth

Wong still here?

She retired.

She was the one who

I saw her give a couple of presentations. Sure. I enjoyed listening to her.

Okay. So next project, Oasis City Church, again, outcome. Just wanted to mention one more time, these are the projects that have been approved. There are numerous projects that where revisions have been required as part of the review process. So I'm just giving you the ones that have gone through. Okay. Here's another. So this is three office light industrial buildings totaling 2,525 square feet. We can move to the next one. There are a few more.

No problem. Caldera. So this is another not as large project. We can move to the next one, just casually go through it. So this is the City of Northport's emergency operations center. It has the PID. It has the here's the layout. We go to the next photo. Here's the layout of the facility. If you would like, you can go through the agenda and familiarize yourself closely with our comments.

Does everybody know where you can the link that comes out with this stuff and know where to go and look at that ahead of time if you want to, Jessica? Are you familiar with that too?

Perhaps that would be a good time to reiterate over that chair. Yeah. That's you Sarah, are you would you be able to I think Yeah. The easiest way do you all know how to get to the meeting agenda?

We get the email.

When you get the email, the easiest way.

You get the emails, which is the easiest way. Also, you can go through the city's homepage. There's a meeting page, and you can access it through there. But as you go to the agenda I

just saved them on my phone now. Yeah.

You should be able to open these attachments

comes of

And

you, sir.

Oh, pardon me.

Okay.

So that's good that they're finally moving forward, though, on the EOC because this room here was EOC, and this is not a hardened facility.

It's a it's paramount of paramount importance to have that facility being able to sustain Gulf Warby, a serious event.

It was part of instructions during the Public Safety Academy. They came in and we talked an hour about the and what's going on with it.

I've heard some scary stories from Sarasota County where a shelter flooded. So where people have evacuated and it's not a singularly scenario. So there are many reasons for why this is a good idea, I believe.

It's important.

So

these are the projects that have been approved during the month of August. So this one is a smaller project, meets requirements with conditions. We have the PID. We can move to the next one. Okay. This is for the half of what to

ir We're going going a a little sense of be

bit there will some a there will be buffer to one of the wetlands on-site. And then for the remainder of the buffer, we have recommended that buffer to be preserved, but there will be some challenges according to the engineer related to grading the property. And they, at this point, are not certain if that will be a possibility. So they said that they will do their best to preserve some of the native vegetation. But because of the grading, that may be a challenge and that's all I can say.

Are they going to replant if they can't

keep it? So and yes, they are going to they're going to be placing proper buffering around the hospital to meet the Unified Land Development requirements. I know. I live right behind the hospital. It's important. Filling and grading is important. Okay. So there's another one, Welland Park extension. I believe that this area was also previously graded. You can see approximate site plan of the area impacted or to be impacted. So we can move to the next one.

That's it.

That's it.

Okay. Thank you. Again, dear members, this is just for your information. If you have any further questions, we can gladly discuss. Any questions?

Or should we move on? Any other questions, Yvonne? Move on. Great. Thank you,

Stefan. Thank you. Okay.

New business twenty five-two thousand three hundred thirty one, discussion and possible action regarding current and potential future North Ports beautification initiatives.

Turn over over the call

I'm to be

discussed by the Board.

Exactly right. Any thoughts, comments on that? Jessica, do you have anything on that?

No.

Paul? No. Matthew?

No, sir.

I don't either.

Well Do

have any comment on that?

Wanted to just share some of my personal thoughts that as a still fairly young city that has been going through lots of changes, We do have some opportunities to make our city more beautiful, and this is in part one of the goals of the Environmental Advisory Board stated in the Unified Land Development Code. So any ideas of how to make our city more beautiful, they're always welcomed here. Just wanted to provide a couple of updates. A few months ago, we were approved for a state grant by the Florida Forest Service for nearly $48,000 I believe, for utilizing state funds towards planting trees along Sumter Boulevard and hurricane pruning some of the existing trees, which will make them more appealing, more aesthetically appealing and more resilient to, god forbid, severe hurricanes. So we are finalizing this grant contract with all sites.

We're excited about it. And there is a 20% city contribution towards the grant.

Yes, it's going be

a bit It of extra still gets us a pretty good bang for the buck to put more trees in the grounds. Again, mainly the state will pay for this. I think that there is certainly the need. So that will make the city more appealing.

Another How far up and down Sumter does that get you? So I think I hear you saying is it's $60,000 right?

Yes. So it really the goal here is to plant trees that have been previously damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. And those are somewhat far in between. So we will start with them. The goal is actually to go from 75 to 41 and fill some of these voids.

So we should be able to plant several 100 a couple of 100 trees. And please understand that it's a very dynamic environment. With tree planting, things get more and more expensive with time, but I believe that we should be able to put about two fifty trees in the ground. That's the goal. It should cover the entire area from 41 to 75.

And how close are the trees to the road?

Some of them, they will be their configuration will be similar to some of the previous ones that were destroyed. I cannot give you exact distance, but we will take into account all infrastructure. This way, we plant the right tree in the right place and not regret our decision in the future. Will definitely be

We lost a lot along the walkway, the walkway along there. It was just sickening. Big old oaks and other trees and they were just

You don't want certain trees near roadways, in my opinion, from a structural concern. I agree.

Do you have a specific list that you're looking at every time that you're doing this, right, like a checklist that says, it shouldn't be any closer than this, it shouldn't be this, it shouldn't this, it be this. Do you have that?

We have the expertise. Our urban forester, that's one of his responsibilities.

I don't have the expertise. I'm asking if there's an actual list, like a a process because my experience in business is you can have that knowledge, right? But unless that thing is written down and it's part of a process, it's really easy when somebody leaves to Yes.

It's a good question. I believe that there is an SOP pertaining to planting, and it's something that I know that he uses. That's encouraging. So also our urban forester, he's strong on the implementation of root barriers. We're aiming towards either Florida Friendly or native.

And again, right tree in the right place. We would not plant trees, biologically, their root structure, some of them can aggressively undermine roads, other infrastructure. So we will be taking all these into account. And ultimately, it's something that the states and their forest there will sign on as well. So

I don't doubt the group's right knowledge ability of that sort of thing. I just want to make sure that there's an actual process where stuff gets lost. So sounds like there is, great.

I believe so. Yes.

The median is looking better. I noticed that the median strip on Sumpter is looking better. I've noticed some new plantings there.

And I think there will be more opportunities to plant there as well. Just wanted to speaking of beautifying, we planted multiple trees, many of them palms around the aquatic center. And just wanted to explain that it's a very high visibility area, and I know that many of us feel strongly about canopy species with more foliage. Unfortunately, for that area, because of the pump system of the pool and the center foliage creates a lot of hassle. So we had to aim towards planting palm species.

However, we also have upcoming project at the Dock Park, where canopy species will be utilized. So hopefully, at the next meeting, I will be able to share some facts there, but the aim is to plant by the end of the month. So that's approximately 80 native or Florida friendly trees by the end of the month. I will update you no updates on the micro forest effort yet. But also, I wanted to bring up to the esteemed members, we have a cleanup of Suntar Boulevard coming on September 20.

So this will be it will start here at the City Hall and the teams will go around Sumter and they will be picking up trash. So if you're interested, it's a great event. There should be some more announcements done by the public works department as they oversee that. But just keep that in mind. It's my son's birthday, so I don't think I'll be able to make it, but I think you want

to say, look, dude, your present is, let's clean up.

If part of thinking about it, I may give it another year or two. So that's all I have as far as this item.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

B25-two333, discussion and possible action regarding Northport's environmental scorecard.

Yes. Thank you, Chair. Just wanted to share the exciting news that we have our scorecards, I would say, 5% completed. You're looking at the drafts, which the only other step to follow will be some design and perhaps minor tweaks. But I wanted to explain that there are two documents that I've shared with you.

We have the environmental scorecard report, which delves a bit more into the data and where some of our findings came from. And the other would be just the environmental scorecard, where the goal of that is for any resident or any visitor of Northport being able to download it and to easily understand where we are as far as our natural resources. It's something that as the Board brought up in the past, we never had anything like this for the city. So I think that this is a project that will improve over time. I'm sure that the Board will have some great ideas on how to make it better next year.

As I said before, this will be reoccurring effort. And each year, we would like to publish the updated report. Please note that this is for 2024. A lot of the data, it takes some time to for it to be published through some of the sources, including internally. But hopefully, next year, around this time, we'll have the 2025 environmental scorecard.

What's Purple Air?

Purple Air is a private company that specializes in low cost air quality sensors. And all you need is an initial investment of approximately $250 and a WiFi connection. So it's we've gathered some input from Sarasota County. They're thrilled that we have one now here because before, Northport was like a giant empty blank spot. So now they are aware of that data and they actually keep an eye on it as well.

Great. Can we buzz through the

highlight it word

for word. It's cool.

I was not able to upload it to the agenda. It's literally it was yeah. Finalized. I was even hoping to have the edited version, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Me just open.

Give me just a second.

I have one question. Will the scorecard be an ongoing thing that we can look at monthly, weekly, or a yearly thing?

As far as as an item on the agenda or as far as something that will Because

a private citizen wants to to see what our air quality is. They would go to the city's website.

Yeah.

And the data would be recent or from last year?

The data for the air quality is live. So yes, our citizens can find the current data. Also, you can Google the air quality, and that's also using some great resources

Oh, okay.

To know exactly where we are. This Water one

quality too?

Quality, this will be annually published with the next score.

Yeah, because I got seasonal changes and stuff.

Right. Right. Well, it fluctuates, but with the surface water quality, there's so many resources. Air quality is fairly more simple. Yeah.

But just to go through, we have the we have measured six parameters, and there's also two more parameters that are measured by our friends with Parks and Recreation and Utilities. But the six in mind that we have gathered for this scorecard are surface water quality, air quality, tree canopy and habitat, wildlife, stormwater and floodplain management and other natural resources division efforts. We have graded each parameter based on our findings and best of our abilities, including data, expertise and so forth. And you can see for surface water quality, our grade for 2024 was 85%. Air quality, we've scored fairly high at 90%.

We're very fortunate to have high air quality in Florida and other factors such as trees, they also affect it. Tree canopy and habitat, the canopy measured is 38%. That's including the state land such as the America State Forest and Orange Hammock. However, a concern is that we have copied exactly the same methodology as previous study by the county. And that study has shown expectedly decline in our canopy.

So overall, the conclusion there is that our canopy is under significant pressure due to growth and development, which is benefits us economically and in many ways. However, it impacts our canopy. So I speak in more detail about that in the report. Stormwater and floodplain, 85% is what we graded it based on some of the resources available and some of the input from our floodplain administrator.

So that will be something just as a heads up, right? I would imagine that number will get some attention. So I'd be not that you're not, but I'd be ready with here's the facts why we did it this way and that sort of thing, right? Funding is always, yeah.

And like I said, Chair, this will be this is an ongoing effort. I think there's many ways how this will evolve over time. And like I said before, it's only going to get better, I expect. As far as the quality of the scorecard, as far as the score that will be up to us and other factors, of course. Overall score for 2024, we it averaged 81.7% that great comes from the

Hang on. You skipped wildlife.

Oh, I apologize.

That's right. Okay.

Yes, actually, skipped wildlife and there's one more. So we've gathered some data regarding wildlife and efforts by the Natural Resources division, permitting thoroughness as far as verifying on successful relocations, other type of proactive work. However, because of the environmental stress due to developments that inevitably lowers the score. So to the best of our ability, 75% reflects adequately where we are at. I think that we have good regulatory process, but we have a good way to go as far as land acquisition and potentially habitat preservation when possible.

So there's some other natural resources division efforts. I think we have as mentioned before, we've planted some trees. We've donated trees, but we have a long way to go. For this year, considering that, that's the year when pretty much the natural resources team was formed, I think that we did well, but there's always a bit of subjectivity to the grading. So for I would say that for the first full year of this division functioning, we've done fairly well from establishing the SOPs to you name it, pertaining to the permitting process.

But yes, we can if any of the members have any questions for me, again, please note that the final scorecard will be much more aesthetically appealing and easy

be a comparison to other counties, municipalities, kind of the data processes the same? Or is it subjective to the city's interpretation? Or is our standards that you can grade by?

Tim, to tell you the truth, the most challenging with many city projects that I've worked with, it was easy to find some type of an analogy from a neighboring county, neighboring city or perhaps a municipality somewhere within the state. I couldn't find anything similar to our environmental scorecard. There are separate studies. There's nothing. There's nothing.

Project. And I looked not just where you I look nationwide.

I would say from LA to different cities, there's nothing like I mean, I am not afraid to say there's nothing like this. It took me a very long time to try to find something that that that's similar, and I I was unsuccessful.

I think when we get it up, we need to publicize it. I Why It is on my list. All citizens of this county and city.

Just to give you an example with the Gopher Tortoise signage program, it was I, again, have not seen any other municipality in the area do this. And we have already received few phone calls from others who are interested in replicating our program. So in short, no, but it's not it was because none was available. I found for some scorecards for countries, I was able to find that online, but nothing for local Not even close. Yes, local entity or even city or state or county.

Yeah. You might consider right, there's some way to think about is in your report, there's some actual hard data, right, where you have got from the air monitoring or water testing and that sort of thing, right? That's science. Right? And then there's a part that is subjective, which is fine. You might consider in each category, right? So here was the hard data, and this is kind of our take on it and where we think we need to dig into it.

I am excited about the expertise here with this Board. So I am sure that there will be some great feedback. And like I said, for next year, we'll learn. I'm sure that there are some things that will be improved. And that's the goal, just to start somewhere. I agree. Yeah.

Well, what is the process for improvement? Like if we notice air quality dropping. What are we going to do to mitigate that? How will we address it to concerned citizens? So

I meant more as an improvement as far as potential revisions and improvements of the actual report of how to make it better. But as far as as we track these and as we gather the data annually, we're going see perhaps some trends that maybe getting better or maybe some that are not going the

opposite We get wildfires.

Then potentially, we can identify some ways. With air quality, it's really challenging. So that's that's a real challenge to address, but there are some ways that Right. Can be considered.

Saying, like, you know Wildfire is the big Wildfire.

Yeah.

You know, like, I'm asthmatic and really affected by any kind of smoke. So, I would like to know about it. I try to keep track of it on the news and so forth. But sometimes I just walk outside and you can go,

oh, yeah. We're fortunate to live in a state with fairly good air quality, but

We are. Yeah.

Wildfire could be the biggest factor. Yeah.

The smoke thing.

Yeah.

Yeah. You put out the fire, but

Okay. Great starting point.

Thank you.

Excellent. I think it's fabulous.

Any other

comments, questions? All right. Think through this. Obviously, it will be a topic in future meetings, too. So great.

New business C25-two 400 60 nine, discussion and possible action regarding the influence of soil properties on vegetative growth and landscaping in Northport.

There was another item that I believe was proposed by a member

by Well, go ahead.

It's on the agenda now.

Well, what I was thinking is Northport, the city has a wonderful map of soil that's available online that I discovered during my failed gardening activities. And I think you had said there's things you can do to amend. And I think for maybe it would be really helpful if we could add to that map and say, you know, if you if you're in fall in here, you know, you can amend your soil using this, you know, if you want to grow a vegetable garden or plant a tree or that kind of thing. I don't it might there's I mean, the soil maps are quite large. It's not like from lot It goes over, like, whole neighborhoods and

Right.

And everything, and really vast parts of the city, which were once wetlands and are now just sort of basically mud underneath it. So, you know, I was looking for not only pointing something out, but let's try to offer a solution. And I don't know where we would go with that, except to the natural resources people who know more about soils than we do.

The concept is let people know kind of where they are, what soil Well, type they

is there. You have to have the initiative to go find it and stuff. But, yeah, it's there. And so, you know, what's next? Oh, go to a gardening center and find out how to amend the soil. That's not gonna happen around here.

Oh, well, I mean

And you would have to go to the university. Right?

The USIFAS is always a great resource.

Yeah. The the Go ahead. It it count do we have a good county extension for stuff like that? We We absolutely do. Have that kind of thing.

Yeah. Maybe Sarasota County extension

help you amend the soil. So why don't we just, like, put if you have questions about amending your soil or what will grow here, call your county extension. Just have a reminder of that or something. Make it simple and easy. Because a lot of times, people just don't connect the dots. You know? My my question a very serious gardener to get up and call the county extension.

Tim might have a idea on this too. Every one of our lots has about has a few feet of fill put onto it. Yeah. So where does that fill

come from?

That fill could be that

could fill could be trucked in from Texas. Miles and miles well, you know, miles away. Yeah. And it'd be a different location on that map.

Yeah. We have So the USD soil maps, they're half if you're 25% accurate. Accurate. I do soil borings

Oh, Okay.

All the time. So yeah. So

why does he say You don't want it to house two don'ts No, here.

Well, not on the map.

Yeah. Maps put one boring down for every couple square miles. And then they generate these maps. They're not accurate.

Well,

know I can that put my down here 10 feet over. And the soils are similar, but they can be different by quite a bit.

I mean, my particular house, know I can't do any foundation plantings because when Charlie came through and my mom lived there, they got a new roof and they threw all the old shingles on the ground under the roof. So I can't plan anything there because

So all your homes are built up about two to three feet because of the septic system requirements from the state health department. So that fill material, that's trucked in.

So that's why they tell you, usually, with the county to bring a soil sample in. But, again, it would differ from one part of the yard. I have a part of my yard that kinda sinks in where four fences meet. And, you know, I look at it and I think, well, I could plant a button bush or something back there and would probably survive kind of thing. But, you know, it's it's a complete mystery while I can't manage to get a tree to grow out in my front yard. But, you know, all the invasives are just fine. So I don't know. I guess the answer is, so forget the soil maps. Is that pretty much

because you You use them for a little bit of information, but it's so site specific. Go dig a hole.

So you would have to take a a soil sample. What, you put some dirt in a bag and take it up?

So UFIFAS, have a soil testing process that can provide some information. Yeah. I know that it's not free, but it's it's be too expensive. It's been a while since I've done it, but they can tell you about the PAH I'm and sorry?

Who who is it again?

The u University of Florida.

Yeah, UFI Extension.

Yeah, Extension. I know that they have a lab and I've done it before, gives you some of the basic properties. So pH, that's a huge one because you may have to buffer your soil and adjust the pH, but the nutrients, of course, the organic matter. So they can I see some I like the idea of perhaps mentioning this opportunity somewhere potentially on our webpage, on the Natural Resources Division web page where it can take them to transfer them to the office?

The life of the planning trees along Sumter, you have the wide, very broad area by the winding sidewalk, you know, that nice greenway area. Then you have the median strip. And, you know, I I live off Sumter, so I've seen things come and go many times, you know, and sometimes they plant things and they just, you know, fail almost right away. So I'm wondering if before we plant these trees that, you know, we are paying for, we get the soil tested to see if the trees will be a good spot in a good spot.

Well, with the The city.

Yeah. How do they determine what tree they're gonna go where? Or is it just

Usually I know

at one section they just gave up and planted the gambilla in containers. I'm like, well, that's great because, you know, that lives through anything. It's not exactly flor insect friendly or anything, but, you know, it was pretty. And and not everything else they planted there died. So, you know, rather than doing try this, try that, what is their method? Is that public works? My Well, think

that's kind of what you were talking about earlier, right, about

Just wanna make sure

she's at the right place. I'm sorry.

Thank you. Sure. You're very hard on

this. Usually,

some additional soil is brought in as part of those large scale planting projects to kind of mix and enhance the soil and improve the odds of establishment. There's always a chance that a tree that may be planted might die. But if you have if the soil is right, if the tree planting is right and if you have irrigation, those odds are quite low. And if the species are also either Florida native So or these are the key factors and our urban forester, he has planted many, many trees and he knows exactly how to approach this, but it's important to look at the soil. I agree.

Yeah. That's the whole right tree, right place. Excellent.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Sure.

D25-two 470, discussion and possible action regarding gopher tortoise habitat protection and management strategies in Northport.

Yes. Thank you, Chair. I know that this topic came up, I believe, two meetings ago, and I wanted to make sure it's included on the regular agenda now. I wanted to ask you first if you all understand how the relocation process works or if you have any specific topics that you would like to discuss because there are many moving parts here.

Yes. So I was thinking, right, maybe if you buzz us through kind of what the process is, that will be the foundation of it.

Yes. Perfect. So I'll start with what we know and what's kind of difficult to know. We know that there is a relative abundance of golfer tortoises in this part of the state. And in one way, we're very fortunate to have that.

In another, perhaps for some people, not so, but I understand, I respect that. But as our habitat develops and as these areas get more and more fragmented, as there's more traffic and more roads, this population ultimately is going is most likely going down. The reason why I say most likely is because no one has done a full city survey of how many Gulf retortices we used to have back in the day comparing it to now. So there is a cause and effect logic here and just speaking from experience based on other areas, such as Sarasota County. There is a correlation between developments and the overall population quantity of gopher tortoises.

With that being said, there are some things that we can control and some things that we cannot control. We live in free state of Florida, and we have private property development rights, which are part of the rules that we respect and follow. So the process of development, and thankfully, people want to live here, so we're growing. And with that development, there are many challenges. So we cannot stop development.

However, we want to ensure that as this development occurs, golfer tortoises are not So what we do as part of each project, we visit the sites as soon as we receive an application. We visit the sites if need be, again, if we have any, let's say, a neighbor maybe calling us. So we may visit a site multiple times before the development occurs. Then if development is proposed, we see permitting through the state. We the party that relocates the Taurus' usually is a not usually all the time, it's a private environmental consultant company.

They are supposed to, by law, seek local government approval from us. And that's usually in the form of an e mail where they are asking for us to allow them to commence the relocation. Once the relocation happens, we go and verify if it's an off-site relocation, we go and verify that the recipient area is fine. Or if it's an off-site relocation, we still go just to take a look. And we want to have an after action report either way from the consultant.

So they put their name and they explain what was the outcome of the relocation. Now Mr. English, I know you want to say a lot, But we're really trying. And I want to explain that some of these parcels, we go there four or five times. We take photos of the barrels.

Sadly, I've seen we've had scenarios where the owner would realize that they have a golfer tortoise and they would intentionally we assume that it's unintentionally, but we yes, we've had cases that are that we felt very strongly that the action was done intentionally just because of the nature of how the potential violation occurred. At this point, we report the possible action to the state. They do their own investigation, but we just want to be this link to ensure that people are doing the right thing. I understand that it's burdensome. I understand that it's not cheap to relocate them.

The price is determined by the market, supply and demand forces and by the availability of off recipient sites. So that's kind of the process in a nutshell.

And what's the city's compensation?

The city does not generate any revenue from the process.

Sir. We're doing

It all goes to the state and the recipient site and the private entity that does the relocation. Our job is just to be kind of the eyes and ears and to keep an eye on these sites Because when you have sometimes, unfortunately, the more you protect the species and the higher fees are involved, sometimes that may backfire because it makes people want to consider doing the wrong thing.

100, right? There's a fine line

So it's a market supply and demand force where the price of relocation is right now. It's cheaper to relocate on-site. It's better for the first we half

of

I mean, it's our recommendation for people to hire a consultant before they buy a property because couple of golfer tortoises can lead to $25,000 of relocation fees. And with with

foundation for everybody to think question. About, kind of, right? That's what the process is. And then maybe next time, we can talk through any ideas or thoughts somebody has on it.

I mean, it's a state regulated. They're fairly protected. So there's nothing the city can do unless the city is going to give them money to help offset the cost, which city is not going to do that.

We are having some long term ideas to perhaps work with the states, see if we can identify some areas where we can relocate nearby or within the city boundaries. I am not optimistic about this, how this will play out. We've had difficulties even setting up a meeting with the regional biologists, but there are many hurdles with this. But yes, it's ultimately a state driven policy and state driven set of rules. So that's where we are.

Very good. Any other thoughts? New Business E25-two 707, discussion and possible recommendation regarding North Ports Tree Mitigation Process.

Yes. Thank you, Chair. So this item the goal of this item is just to go over the mitigation process and to explain how does that work in Northport and, of course, encourage a discussion between the members. We have different backgrounds, different vision and different understanding of how the process is and should be. And yes, I wanted to make sure that there's clarity and all the members are understanding the process.

Now before we start, I just wanted to mention that we'll have the opportunity to have an ongoing discussion with this item if need be. To be respectful of everyone's time, we usually like to wrap these up around seven p. M.

We have twenty minutes.

So I'll do my best to stay on topic. I know that there's everybody has an opinion about our three mitigation policies. If you would like, I can start.

And then next time, we can give you an opinion. How about that?

Can you repeat that?

Lay out what the process currently is. That will give everybody a chance to think through next time. I

also wanted to let you know, give you a heads up respectfully that if I feel that we're going beyond the powers and duties of the Board, I may make a comment. Ultimately, it's it will be a good discussion either way. So rules are using a form of incentivizing where any project can financially pay a significant amount of mitigation fee or potentially may be able to reduce that amount if trees are to be saved. We are very thorough as a team with this process. We verify each and every survey we receive.

We measure trees. Our guys do this every day. We want to we're glad to as I say, we, I mean, the Natural Resources division. We're glad to meet with any entity to discuss whether something can be done in general or regarding a specific project. In the past, we have seen significant discrepancies between parties promising of what will be preserved on-site and then what happens in reality.

And in some cases, the impact may have been unavoidable. But in others, we've seen simply excavators damaging the tree or in some cases, we've seen trees that may have been successfully protected. And the reason why a lot of the damage occurs, again, in those scenarios, is due to lack of a protective barrier. And this is clearly defined as part of the Unified Land Development Code, and it's something that we have stepped up over the past one years point to ensure that any trees on those properties that are supposed to be preserved, indeed are preserved. Preserved.

And that involves barricading, maintaining certain distance of all heavy equipments, avoiding filling over the root zone, avoiding soil compaction due to heavy equipment and so forth. Forth. And I through my experience as a Natural Resources Division Manager, I've seen many success stories where trees have been preserved and those trees are there since. And to me, this is a part of our strategy as a city to not only minimize impacts or plants on public in public spaces, but also try to minimize impacts and incentivize tree preservation on private properties. I understand that in some cases, this is not possible.

And I understand that that's also may present a challenge. But as a goal operator to I over So we see the numerous benefits to of trees. And the issue with a canopy is that once it's gone, it's very difficult to replace it. So a mature canopy, it will take many, many, many years and it still won't even function properly as it used to. So that's the process in a nutshell.

But like I said, over the past one years, point I must say that we've sat down with many applicants. In some cases, there's simply no space to do anything. But in others, we were able to preserve, let's say, Heritage Street towards one of the corners of the property. We've had many good stories where the compiled effect adds up to thousands of trees. So that's a summary, I would say, the mitigation process in Northport.

That's good. All right. So everybody, the concept is think through that. And if you have discussion points or questions or whatever for next meeting, bring them with you.

Have a little bit of time.

Still got a couple of items to go. Do you have something

you want to bring up? No, no, no. If

we're waiting for next meeting, we can't. I can talk about it now.

Yeah, go for it.

Sure. You

It's said an engineer. Well, yeah, no.

The amount of fees that they've amassed is enormous because you can't save trees on single 80 by 125 lots, except maybe if they're on the rear part of your property. But you also have to regrade the site to meet drainage. So it's very hard to save trees. And the amount of incentivize it's not incentivization because you can cut every tree down you want. You just pay for it.

They don't give you a break on anything else. You can save more trees. Once you get to zero on the thing, they never give you a break on impact fees. So there is not other than the fact, we're just gonna tax you to remove your own private trees. Yeah. It's it's not. Like, have had clients that have had to pay $17,000 because, yes, there's a cap, but the cap doesn't include protected trees. So you can pay the $8,000 but then you got this protected tree. That's the $3,000 30 inches diameter. All these other things.

I'm looking into some state statutes about if certain trees should be even allowed to be the city's taxing people for their trees. No, I have a Well,

don't strong think they're taxing them for their trees. They're taxing them if they remove their trees.

On their

private properties to develop it. City didn't plant it.

But anybody can make an argument that everybody benefits from trees. Not everybody benefits from removal of trees.

Not everybody benefits from trees within a certain distance of a house. I can design a house to withstand one hundred and sixty, one hundred and eighty mile per hour winds, but a 30 inches diameter pine tree falling will decimate that house. So certain trees that are endangering the property I'm looking to state statutes they should not be charging them to remove those trees if they're a danger to the building.

Okay. I have perennial question. I bring this up I brought it up often. I live in an old neighborhood of Sumter, Country Club, Ridge. And when they developed that particular and it's a small neighborhood, maybe, you know, it's got three exits.

They all flood it during the end. But they're surrounded by a lake and a canal, so, you know, it has its own special thing going on. But when they built it, the developer general left for that particular builder, left trees all up and down the middle in the back in the backyard. So there's many, many oaks. There's many, many pines.

My trees that fell during Ian were planted queen palm trees that my mom or somebody planted, and they they fell on the fence. The ones that had been there originally were mostly still there, and they, again, were in the center of the blocks. Okay? Now there have been losses throughout the years. You can see, you know, some blocks have many more trees than others. Some of these houses have humongous oak trees growing right up against the house. Nothing's fallen. Okay? I did have a neighbor on the corner that had several oak trees. One of them, a limb, did fall through the roof.

Her insurance company didn't pay her for three years. She finally got it settled and fixed. But I wanna know now maybe if these were houses were built in the early eighties, and maybe they didn't grade like they do now. And this is a question of curiosity. Okay? Is that why they were able to leave those trees there in the middle of the block?

In the back portion?

Yeah, in the back portion.

Absolutely. I now have to make sure all drainage flows from the rear of the property at the front swell.

So that's why we flooded?

No, you flood because you don't have a storm water system designed correctly for your swell system.

Well, we have have Go to Walmart. Walmart

and Target, did they flood during the when all these roads flood?

I don't know.

No, they don't.

I like that.

Because they're designed to withstand the design. The swell systems aren't cut, maintained. It was a private development. All the swells would have to be cut and developed. The city does not do that until the homes are developed. So you can go up and down my street. When the rain comes, my road's underwater this much. I'm not kidding. I know why storm water happens. And because the city's not done their job to cut in the swales properly and maintain them and do them correctly, that's why we flood.

Well, not everybody we don't even have a swale in my front yard that goes to the neighbors, and it's this hodgepodge of storm drains underneath driveways. The city does drop the lake. It's Blue Ridge Lake that it's on. Okay? And they will drop the lake before the hurricanes and stuff.

But all these general development lots that are applied all the way around, most of Northward, 95% of them, they don't have proper stormwater design.

Well, the my point is that a lot of the newer builds in that neighborhood, and it was one of the few places in the city close to Tamiami that still had empty lots. You know. So there's been a lot of building. And all of those houses are of new construction and properly elevated a lot more than our houses. I understand that part. My particular part of the street didn't flood at all, but all the exit streets flooded. Okay? The, 11 acres of woods that are there that are for sale, that completely flooded. And we're talking four or five feet high. All the houses on the canal, every single one of those flooded and were should have been destroyed or rebuilt.

But no, they were flipped. And now people are like, oh, yeah, let's go live here. And I'm like, nothing's been done to the ground. How is this allowed? That's my one question that pisses me off. Because these houses, you don't know if they're full of mold or not. I would hope not. Okay? But I saw what they looked like. And, yeah, they have a paint job. And, yeah, they removed the lanai screening if there was any. And they look okay now. And so but they were they were seriously they were flooded with four or five feet of water.

I know. Inspected the

People had all their furniture But the thing the thing I wanna know is is that so if our houses had been graded up or down, the streets was still flagged because they're not graded up, like out in the state.

That's strum water.

If I may

for a second, Jessica. If I

may, Jessica, and I'm really sorry about this, but just in the interest of time, even this clock is a bit behind. It's actually 06:55 right now. We also would like to go through the next

meeting is. Advisory board.

I

want to I

end with just a comment on my end and then please, you vote as esteemed members. I would like for this item to be as this discussion occurs, please look at the discussion as how it relates to the definition of what the Environmental Advisory Board is here to do. And I will go real quick, advise the City Commission on matters pertaining to preserving and promoting clean air and water quality. Please I'm sure that you all know these, but as this discussion perhaps will continue next time, we're playing catch up for this month. Please consider how the discussion relates to the powers and duties of the Board as defined by our code.

100%. That's my only comment. Our role is to make the recommendation, right? We figure out what we want to recommend as a Board, and it will get in front of the city commission.

Ideally, it relates to the powers and duties of

the Well, we can make it a set because I only have one more question, and I can save it for next time if I remember it.

Good to the next meeting. Question. I I'll make it.

Seconded. Both? All four?

All four?

Aye. Yeah. It's unanimous.

Thank you, chair.

Number nine, future agenda items. Jessica, do you have anything you need on the future agenda?

I had a thought. It might pertain more to parks or something, but I was wondering why we don't other communities like Eagles, for instance, they have trap cameras for their eagles nest, you know. It would be nice. We have a 104 square acres, and there's no place that you can look at wildlife on a on a camera. And so I realized that costs money, but there's ways around. They're not very expensive. We could do a

discussion around that. Yeah. Got it. Do you have any other agenda items you'd like to talk about next time?

Maybe good publicity. That's all.

Got it. Okay. Do we get that?

Yeah. Got it. Good.

I do not have any future ideas. Jim?

Just a discussion of maybe the tree locations along major roadways and just the not environment like the concern for safety of drivers and visibility and damage during hurricanes. I think that should be addressed. Addressed.

I think that's a great idea.

You also have any others?

Other than the tree mitigation?

We need to put on to appoint a vice chair.

I wanted to mention because of the title change that this month, I didn't include that item. It will be included at the next meeting.

Thank you.

But do we have any public comment?

Do not have any public comment.

Adjourned. Thank you, everybody. That's great.

Thank you.