Town Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight. I'd like to call to order the Oakland Town Commission meeting for June 9th, 2026. Everybody, please stand for the pledge and remain standing.

Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in the town of Oak. Thank you, Delore, for as we approach the 250th anniversary of our country. We need to watch over the people, watch over this town, watch over the residents, watch over staff, watch over the commission. We need to guide us and make sure we are in the middle of everything that we do.

Thank you, sir. All right. Good evening, Kathy.

Good evening. Commissioner Keller.

Here.

Vice Mayor Satterfield. Here. Mayor Taylor. Here. Commissioner Motley. Here. Commissioner McMullen. Here.

Good deal. All right. Thank you, guys. So we'll move on to we have a presentation tonight and a couple of proclamations. So we'll start first with the presentation. And Glenn, how are you tonight? We'll let you go ahead and jump up and tell us what's happening in the state budget in Tallahassee.

Well, good evening, Mayor, commissioners, town staff, and residents of Oakland. Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening. I'm pleased to provide a brief overview of the recently approved state budget, and most importantly, a highlight of a significant win for the town of Oakland. My name is Glen Gilzean, and I'd like to introduce my colleague, Mr. Ron Brise. He's the Vice President of the Arrow Group.

Ah, yes.

It's these little wins, these little wins, especially with technology, because sometimes it doesn't work. All right, so our state budget, this year's total budget is $114.5 billion. And it reflects a responsible and balanced approach to meeting Florida's needs. It reduces the overall spending by $365 million compared to previous fiscal years. while making targeted investments in core priorities such as education, public safety, healthcare, infrastructure, environmental protection, housing, transportation, and tax relief. One of the strongest features in this budget is a commitment to fiscal responsibility where the state maintains more than $14 billion in reserves. It includes an $8.6 billion in unallocated general revenue and $5.7 billion in the stabilization fund. For local governments like the town of Oakland, the state's strong reserves matter because they've helped protect communities during time of economic uncertainty, natural disasters, and unexpected emergencies. All right. So I also like to recognize a very important achievement for the town of Oakland. This year's state budget, the Arrow Group successfully secured for the town of Oakland's legislative appropriations requests of $1.5 million for the South Lake Apopka Initiative. This investment will help fund the extension of the wastewater infrastructure in the North Portland Street area, supporting Oakland's ongoing efforts to transition residents from septic systems to sewer service. This project will improve the water quality within Lake Apopka's watershed and protect natural resources, support reasonable growth, and enhance a quality of life for current and future residents. This project will have a direct and meaningful impact for the town of Oakland. The wastewater infrastructure investment supports improved water quality and responsible growth. It extends sewer service and supports Oakland's transition from septic to sewer services. By reducing the septic sewer systems within Lake Apopka's watershed, this project will improve the groundwater and surface water quality. It's important to note that the benefit will also improve infrastructure, but increase the broader efforts to protect Lake Apopka. In short, this project connects four main priorities by moving septic to sewer, achieving cleaner water, protecting Lake Apopka, and supporting responsible growth for the town of Oakland. All right. This success would not have been possible without the outstanding leadership of the town of Oakland and strong support from your local legislative delegation. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Representative Spencer, who sponsored the project in the Florida House, and then also Senator LaVaughn Bracey Davis, who championed the project in the Florida Senate. Their advocacy and commitment to the town of Oakland helped make this appropriation a reality. I would also like to recognize the member of the Arrow teams that worked diligently on behalf of the town through this entire legislative process, Mr. Derek Bruce, Ms. Julie, and Mr. Larry for their efforts, their guidance, their strategic relationships within the legislature were instrumental in helping secure the funding for the town. So looking ahead, and as I close, you know, The win that we were able to achieve for the town of the 1.5 million through our efforts for this wastewater extension will also help advance the Oakland septic to sewer transition to protect Lake Apopka support residents and going forward. Now, as we look to the future for the upcoming legislative sessions, the two pictures that you have there is Senator Jim Boyd and also soon as Speaker D, Sam Garrison, who would be the next Speaker of the House. It's important that we continue to build on these relationships as we move forward in helping the town secure additional resources in the future. All right, so while the state budget contains many important initiatives and investments, tonight's biggest takeaway is that the town of Oakland's priority were heard in Tallahassee and we were able to successfully secure the 1.5 million for critical infrastructure that will benefit residents and help protect Lake Apopka for generations to come. That concludes my update and I'm here to answer any questions that the mayor or commission may have.

Yes, sir, we appreciate the updates. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I will let Ron say that stuff. Yeah, my job is to say all the good stuff, and then Ron's job is to come in and say all the...

The bad stuff that I could still get a swipe of a pen, right?

All right, so the meeting is adjourned.

Good afternoon, good evening. Ron Brise with the Arrow Group. Yeah, so the the appropriation that is in currently in the budget is still subject to veto the governor has some time left to review all the all the line items in the in the budget and decide whether he's going to keep them or not. So we are working to ensure that we can attempt to influence that process so that we stay within the budget.

Any questions from anybody?

Anybody? We appreciate the buzzkill.

Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you guys for everything and representing us up there. I went up this year. Commissioner McMullen was up there this year and the town manager. Larry kind of led us around, so that was good. Thank you guys. Thank you. Okay, moving on, we have a couple of proclamations to read here today, and we're going to start out with a day to celebrate Juneteenth. And whereas on January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, setting in motion the end of slavery in the United States. The Civil War ended with the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th, 1865. This news reached Texas when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Bay with Union troops. It was on June 19th, 1865 that he announced, the people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free. Celebration of the end of slavery, which became known as Juneteenth, is the oldest known public celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and celebrates the success gained through education and greater opportunity. On a larger scale, celebration of Juneteenth reminds each of us of the precious promises of freedom, equality, and opportunity, which are at the core of the American dream. Now, therefore, I, Shane Taylor, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the town of Oakland, Florida, and on behalf of the entire town commission, do hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as a day to celebrate Juneteenth and urge all citizens to join this celebration.

Thank you there. Move from Juneteenth to National Pollinator Week.

And everybody knows we do the national pollinator. We do all the environmental stuff just because our town, right? Because O&P is involved and it's important to us to make sure that we recognize those things. National Pollinator Week, whereas the town of Oakland is home to many native wildlife and pollinator species such as birds, bees, and insects, which keep our environment healthy and biodiverse, the town of Oakland recognizes that human health ultimately depends on well-functioning ecosystems and that biodiverse regions can better support for food production, healthy soil and air quality, and can foster healthy connections between humans and wildlife. The town of Oakland is working to build a healthy, sustainable and wildlife friendly community that brings the many benefits of nature to all corners of our community. Pollinators play an important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Local plant species, wildlife and urban agriculture all depend on pollination from bees, butterflies and other insects. In urban communities, pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining sustainable urban agriculture and local community gardens. Pollinator species are in decline due to habitat loss and the use of pesticides causing species like the monarch butterfly to decline significantly in the past 25 years. National Pollinator Week is a national initiative that offers opportunities to individuals and communities to help restore native habitat, support local pollinator species, and the Town of Oakland will continue to support local, state, and national efforts that protect, restore, and conserve habitat for our pollinators, as well as foster a greater connection between residents and wildlife. Now, therefore, I, Shane Taylor, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the town of Oakland, Florida, and on behalf of the entire town commission, do hereby proclaim June 22nd through the 28th, 2026, as Pollinator Week in the town of Oakland, and encourage all residents to participate in community activities that support the celebration of pollinator protection. If that was a proclamation on Raccoon Week, I would not be reading it.

raccoons in my attic so i'm trying to yeah get them out but yes we'll wait a month yeah yeah thank you guys

All right, so moving on. Next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. And on the consent agenda is the approval of May 26, 2026 Town Commission's regular meeting minutes. Approval to sell and serve beer and wine at the September 2026 block party. And that's actually on September 18th, I think, from 530 to 8 is what I got a note here from. and authorization to piggyback on the Toho Water Authority Agreement with Asphalt 365 Inc. Any questions or comments on the consent agenda? Hearing none, seeing none, we'll entertain a motion.

Second. Second.

all in favor aye aye all right okay so moving on to ordinance and our first ordinance up is a second reading of ordinance 2026-02 and i think uh you have to read the ordinance first correct

an ordinance of the town of Oakland, Florida, adopting a small-scale town future land use map, amendment of its comprehensive plan from agriculture to low-density residential or certain real property owned by Floriano and Nisa Patina, located at the following address, 2253 Bayline Road, as more particularly described herein with an approximate size of 12.91 acres, making findings and providing for conflicts, severability, and for an effective date.

Okay, thank you. We do the second one later or you want to do them all together?

I'm separate. We'll do them separate. I'll just give an overview for both of them. So good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the commission. I'll keep this one brief. As mentioned, this is the second reading of these two ordinances. As we mentioned, are to change the subject property from agriculture to classifications that permit single family residential development. As a reminder, this is for a facilitation to facilitate the subdivision of the subject property into five distinct parcels of land. The two ordinances before you tonight have not changed from first reading, which was on May 26th. And staff is here for any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any questions or comments on the table? no okay so it is uh we'll open up the public if anybody has any questions or comments in the public about this uh uh ordinance hey seeing none we'll close the public comment and bring it back here and entertain a motion on this ordinance 202602 i'll make a motion to approve the ordinance 2026-02 second reading of ordinance amending the small scale future land use map for 2253 bayline road as presented okay second All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Okay. And then we'll move on to ordinance 2026-03. And you'll just read that one, right? I'll read this one.

An ordinance of the town of Oakland, Florida adopting a town official zoning map amendment from A-1 Agricultural within the Neighborhood General Design District to R-1A Single Family Residential within the Neighborhood General Design District For certain real property owned by Floriano Aniza Putina, located at the following address, 2253 Bayline Road, as more particularly described herein, with an approximate size of 12.91 acres, making findings and providing for conflicts, severability, and for an effective date.

Okay, thank you. All right, same drill.

Any questions or comments on the table?

Okay, we'll open to the public. Anybody in the public have any questions or comments on this one? Okay, seeing none, we'll close the public comment and bring it back here and entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve ordinance 2026-03, second reading of ordinance for rezoning of 2253 Bayline Road as presented. Second.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, good deal. Thank you, guys. Next on the list is the public hearing. And this is the public hearing for transmittal of the Tubbs Street, Oakland Avenue Overlay District's Comprehensive Plan Amendment. And presenting that tonight will be Katie McGregor with Dick's Height, and Emily with Kelly Horns here, too. How are you? Hi, Katie.

Hello, members of the Town Commission. My name is Katie Magruder. I'm with Dick's Height Partners. I'm joined today by Emily Thomas with Kimley Horn, and I'm here to present to you the vision for transforming Tubb Street into a Main Street. The project boundary extends one block east and west of Tubb Street from Colonial Drive at the southern boundary to the West Orange Trail at the northern edge. The core purpose is to re-envision this corridor as the heart of Oakland, a living room for the town, where daily life unfolds at a human pace. From a design standpoint, we seek comfort first, widening sidewalks, layering in shade from trees and structures, and shaping a streetscape that invites people to linger rather than hurry along. We imagine a street that nurtures local enterprise, small businesses that gently spill into the public realm through sidewalk cafes, outdoor sales. Carefully placed plazas and pocket parks become pauses in the urban form, it creates space for gathering celebration quiet connections from an infrastructure lens we see opportunities beneath our feet as well, so integrating low impact development and stormwater strategies that work with nature and strengthening resilience, while softening the landscape. Threading through all of this is our deepest responsibility to preserve Oakland's charm, not by freezing it in time, but allowing it to evolve thoughtfully, honoring its scale, character, and story. Before proposing ideas, policies, or design strategies, we slowed down. We walked the streets, we observed the edges and the intersections, and immersed ourselves in the town's patterns. We listened and we observed Oakland's streets and storefronts, its buildings, its public spaces, and the everyday moments that give the town its life and rhythm. And through that process, we came to understand why Town of Oakland is truly a desirable place to be. That understanding now quietly underpins everything we'll share with you today. Our next step is to look outward towards other communities that have successfully preserved their character while evolving thoughtfully over time. We've studied places such as Bluffton, South Carolina, Serenbe, Georgia, Sanford, Winter Garden, Rosemary Beach, and communities like Oakland Park. Communities that have embraced intentional design, human scaled streets, and architectural continuity to create timeless downtowns. These are models not to replicate, but lessons to learn from. Each of these places demonstrates how careful attention to public realm design, building form, and landscape can reinforce identity, support economic vitality, and create places that feel authentic, enduring, and deeply rooted. With a clear understanding of Oakland's character and a shared vision shaped by both local insight and precedent, this work begins to take physical form. What you're seeing now is a big picture view of the study area, where the ideas we've discussed translate into a cohesive framework for the public realm. From this vantage point, it becomes clear that downtown Oakland is composed of a series of distinct blocks rather than a single uniform condition. In response, the study area was organized into character areas, each defined by its role and design intent, yet working together as part of a coordinated downtown framework. With that structure in mind, we'll now walk through each segment of the proposed streetscape to show how these design strategies would be implemented block by block. Beginning at the southern edge of the study area is the Gateway District, the point of arrival into Oakland from State Road 50. Here, the public realm plays a critical role in signaling entry, slowing movement, and setting expectations. Streetscape enhancements in this district focus on memorable landscape elements and clear wayfinding, including item number five, shown as entry signage. This is a proposed marker for the town of Oakland and an indicator that pulls you in. This section view is the proposed condition along Tubb Street. The design illustrates a shift from the existing pull-in diagonal parking to a consistent parallel parking layout along this block. narrowing the space devoted to storing cars and allowing more room for people and trees and rhythms of daily life to take hold. From a planning perspective, the uniform parking treatment establishes cohesion along the main street, reinforcing predictability, safety, and how much economic frontage you'll have for those businesses along Tubb Street. Moving north, we want to reinforce a clear sense of arrival at Sadler Avenue, where the surface shifts from asphalt to brick. An architectural column serve as visual markers of identity signaling entry into a special place. The treatments along this block continue the on-street parking, wider shaded sidewalks for enjoyable biking and walking, and we recognize that Oakland Avenue is a major east-west connector. We reviewed a previous proposal submitted at the southwest corner of Oakland Avenue-Tub Street intersection. So the drawing you see here is repositioned a bit to remove any curb cuts along Tub Street that perverse the streetscape and save the large oak tree at the corner, that's number seven labeled on the plan, and locate the proposed Plaza space to be adjacent to that corner and activate that corner just slowing down traffic by people even just being there. This is a view looking north downtown street between whole and Oakland Avenue. Notice the Prairie House coffee shop on the left to orient you need to go back. Sorry.

There we go, my apologies.

The intersection design incorporates traffic calming strategies to slow vehicles while introducing visually appealing floral elements that enhance the public realm. Together with subtle branding features, these components signal a transition as you enter the cultural center of downtown. And that leads us to the Canopy District. This segment builds on materials and character that already exist today. Brick paving is present in portion of the block, and the proposal extends that treatment continuously for the full block length, reinforcing its historic identity. The design also acknowledges future opportunity. Across the roundabout from the existing town hall, there's potential for a new commercial or civic development assisting in anchoring the town center. PB, Sarah Silver, materiality becomes a clear organizing strategy, as you move through the downtown the first block is programmed with asphalt and concrete. PB, Sarah Silver, The second block transitions to a mix of concrete and brick and the central block is envisioned as all brick with integrated landscaping marking it as the focal point of downtown. The proposed hardscape palette draws from materials that are authentic to Florida's history, including tabby shell concrete, crushed coquina, red brick, and cut stone, reinforcing a sense of place rooted in local craft, durability, and regional character. And a quintessential landscape palette focused on oak and palm canopy with naturalized ground level plantings. Oakland's charm and historic character are already evident. providing strong bones upon which to build a true destination. One that fosters daily community life for residents while creating a memorable experience that invites visitors to return again and again. To move from vision to action, we shift from design imagery to implementation. The next step in our role was to translate these ideas into policy by amending the Tubb Street, Oakland Avenue overlay within the comprehensive plan. The overlay will establish enacting policies to guide future development and public investment, including expanding permitted uses, promoting active ground floor uses, and allowing greater density and intensity than the underlying future land use. Incentive tools like density bonuses offer developers options for development enhancements that align with the downtown vision in exchange for additional units or additional commercial square footage. And we'll go over those options here in a minute. The existing overlay identifies three separate nodes, which are proposed to be replaced with a unified main street sub area of the overlay. This new sub area focuses policies around exactly what we presented in the vision today. So small town charm, improved streetscaping, neighborhood oriented businesses, urban design and architectural standards, and enhanced connectivity and walkability. So this map shows where this would apply. So this is blown up a little bit. All the properties that you see in a solid color would be required to participate in the overlay, and those in a hatched or striped color would be optional. They could opt in if they wanted to. I just want to reiterate that this is only for new construction or major renovations. So properties will continue to exist in their current form until such time as a major redevelopment or a knockdown rebuild. The main street sub area will further implement the vision by establishing clear maximum densities and intensity levels tailored to each character district. This ensures that future development respects desirable scale and context and small town form, while still supporting appropriate growth. So circling back to the density and intensity bonuses, developments may qualify for bonuses through the following vertically mixed use developments, sustainable development certifications, such as LEED, infrastructure improvements, workforce housing, or an enhancement that's not otherwise required by the code that's proposed by the applicant. Could be something like a publicly accessible park or plaza, public art, or publicly accessible parking. City Council Chambers, Applications for development within the overlay would follow the procedures outlined here first a pre application meeting, then a rb review and PNC review, then to this Commission for review. Today's request is that staff recommends that the Town Commission approve the Tubbs Street Overlay District Comprehensive Plan Amendment with the newest revision to height in the Gateway District for Transmittal. So I wanted to give you some history. The original language of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment that was presented to ARB included the ability to construct to five stories in the Gateway District, three stories in the Heritage Walk District, and two stories in the Canopy District. ARB recommended that Gateway be limited to four stories. So we took these comments back to staff and staff supports this recommendation and actually revised policy 3.8.2 even further. So it would allow four stories for buildings between State Road 50 and Ryan Court, and then shift in height down to three stories between Ryan Court and Sadler Avenue. And so that height will align with the next District North, which is the Heritage Walk District. The next steps would be to transmit this to the state, and then once the comprehensive plan amendment is transmitted to the state and a response is provided, we'd follow up with a presentation on the amendments to the land development code that will guide street design, frontage, materials, and development character along the corridor. and I'm available for any questions.

Thanks, Katie. Appreciate the presentation. Taylor, was there anything you wanted to add in the town planner for the presentation?

Not at this time. I know that we've been working pretty closely with the team in terms of the standards, particularly from the consideration of how we as the reviewers would be implementing some of the standards, but I think their presentation was very thorough and I have nothing additional.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We'll bring it here to the table. Any questions or comments from the Commission?

I just wanted to say I wanted to thank Cal Manager Elise Huey for Thank you for reaching out to us and allowing us the opportunity to meet with her individually to review this, to have a better understanding of what it means. I know for me, just understanding that this is part of the process that we have to have approved by the state in order to move forward with anything was important for me to have a better understanding of that. And I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I appreciate the team and the effort. ARB and planning and zoning committees for their comments. I think that the decision to go from five to four in that first section is really important. It also will be in keeping with the other side of 52 and the project, the Fourth Street project that is developed there. I'm excited. I think it's something that we have to look forward to. Obviously, you know, me and my always worried about the money thing. So, you know, it'll be something that we'll have to We have to get this in place. This is just part of the process for those in the audience who may not fully understand, and that's what I needed to know. And obviously moving forward with any of this will come with the developments that may be proposed and obviously the funds that the town has available to move forward. But I think it looks amazing, and I'm super excited about it. So thank you all for your hard work.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Anyone else? Comments? Questions? No?

um i appreciate you guys and appreciate kimley horn and dick site for participating in this and elise too as well i'm listening in um this is a um it's a it's a it's a big deal for our town and and they were laying this out they were we're doing it where it didn't uh create and take away from that charm that we have in our town. So as she presented, you see the buildup. 50 is 50. 50 is just a commercial road that runs down. But as you get closer and more into the center of town, it starts going downwards more relaxed. And it's pretty much the same as the vision is the same as what you see today, with a little bit of added extra bonus to it. it's something that's needed in the town as far as and we just heard the presentation from the state on the budget and all that stuff and uh homestead property tax issues and stuff like that um this is a this is something that's that's really it's it's something that needs to happen here um to help drive that revenue that we kind of need and honestly folks it's it's all about that commercial revenue um coming in and stuff and the intent when we set out to kind of talk about this and and it's it's a it's an item that i ran on when i was running for mayor was doing something like this to kind of highlight the town but keeping it as low-key as possible um But I think there's a lot of good things that can really come out of this project, not only for towns, but for visitors, for everyone. And what you're seeing here is not, it's pretty pictures, but you'd have to visualize it somehow, right? So you have to make others that can't visualize what you're doing when you read the text from the code, you can't picture what you're doing here. But so I think they did a really good job. There is a lot. There's no, you know, nothing's been picked out. Nothing has been done. As Commissioner Keller said, it's money. But from my vantage point, this is as close as a municipality can come to. being a developer and controlling the development that happens in town, honestly. So the restrictions and the bonuses and everything that we've placed on here as a developer approaches, it's the closest thing I think we can do by telling the developer, We'd love to have you in here, but you have to follow X, Y, and Z. And oh, by the way, we're big believers in public-private partnership. And if you need this, we'd like you to participate in helping us do this. In my career, I've done that, and it worked. It works. It's a great partnership when you start doing that because then you have the private entity that has a vested interest into their project and what they're doing, and then also the public entity and the residents that have a vested interest into what's happening there. So from my standpoint, I think it's great. I'm excited. I can't wait to see what comes of this. Thank you, guys. So anybody else? And if not, so it is a public hearing, so if anybody in the audience have any comments or questions, I'd love to hear what you think, if it's good, bad, whatever. Please, Carlos, come on up.

I didn't even know this was gonna be here today, but cool. 1408 Planted Pine Street. So two things. One, with us being so close to downtown Winter Garden, do we think this is going to succeed with such a big downtown, number one. And then number two, if so, is this the answer? Oppositely to that becoming so big and kicking out those small town businesses for us to kind of become the alternate alternative to that kind of losing that small town kind of vibe. And then we would be maybe alternative to yes and no and no and yes.

So, Carlos, I think the intent is Oakland's its own identity. We're not trying to be Winter Garden, nor do we want to be Winter Garden. Winter Garden has its own challenges. I don't see us wanting to be that big. I mean, personally, for me, it would be great to have a place to go downtown here and eat. I can walk to, ride my bike, or drive my golf cart to and have something to do here. um so if the mom and pop shops in winter garden that are being relocated or you know if this was here today i'm sure they would come right on down the street and have a place here but um to me i think it's a benefit not to the outsiders but to the residents as well i mean the people who i've talked to not about this project but in general the One thing I get asked is why can't we have someplace to eat? Why can't we have someplace to go? Why can't I have someplace to something to do here? Uh, so, so, um, I don't know if that answered your questions, but yeah, we're at anyone else. Yeah, please. I was hoping everybody would raise their hand and say something. It's a big deal.

first time I'm aware of this but thinking about winter garden and what they went through certainly its success down there one of the things they had was room build parking garage and accommodate even though it's crowded still whatever this is going to attract and I don't know that there's enough citizens in Oakland to support those businesses that are projected here. Or we're looking for outside people to come in and support this where they're going to park. You know, I mean basically this is like two projects to me there's a beautification of tub street. A nice sidewalk. Different parking. and you know adding brick or whatever that's nice but including all this commercial development in addition to that i don't i don't see where it's going to be a success as far as improving our town i think it's going to be a a congestion problem and parking problem and kind of stuff now i don't it's my first exposure i'm just that's my gut response so i'm not saying no i'm just saying that has to all be kind of figured in and what would the projected revenue be um what portion of the town has to support this financially um i've always been of the opinion that you know building cost municipalities more money instead of raising enough money to support and give back to the budget. I don't know how that all fits with this.

Anyway. All relevant points, John, and all good points that you make. Do we have something in the code about parking, I think, right, Katie?

I'd be happy to provide some clarification on that. So at this time, The only, no pricing has been done here, and there's no fees or anything that are coming to the town now. We have worked with staff to provide a number of different grant opportunities that are available, and they're searching for means of funding the public realm improvements. But I just wanted to clarify that there are, the development that's proposed here, the rules around the development that's proposed here, it will come through incrementally. So this is all privately owned land. So as property owners come forward and want to redevelop, the goal of approving something like this is that you don't have to negotiate standards for every development independently. and therefore getting an inconsistent public realm and streetscape. When you establish these rules ahead of the development, as they come forward, they have a streamlined review process where the standards are the same along that block face. So it actually ends up saving staff time in negotiations of site plan reviews when you have consistent standards along the corridor. So at this point in time, the city's not investing in any of the commercial spaces that were shown in the presentation. Those will come forward as property owners come forward and want to develop their individual properties, but they'll have this standard set of rules to go by so that you have consistency over time along the corridor. And then to the comment about parking, the on-street parking that's proposed here will provide more parking than exists today. And within the rules, which we haven't gotten into with this board yet because those really belong in the land development code, but individual developments will still be required to have on-site parking. This on-street parking is not the only parking that would be in this area. Just as if a business opened today, they'd be required to have a parking lot, they will still be required to provide on-site parking. So this is not negating that. It's just adding additional on-street parking to support those businesses, future businesses.

Yeah, thanks, Katie. And John, I know that the parking issues, like for Winter Garden, for example, When you go to a restaurant, they actually have developers sometimes pay into a fund, a parking fund, and then Winter Garden will go and set land aside and we'll go purchase land to build parking lots. You've seen those in the parking garage or the surface parking lots behind the Edgewater Hotel or the one that you just recently opened down by the old telephone place. So I think those are just things that we have to be mindful of and work out, but I think a lot of it has to fall to that private

today that's going to come in and and build something um again this is kind of the blueprint so when they do come in the door we can say this is what we need you to do it's what we want you to do type thing i got a comment too john and you and max can relate to this probably better than anybody else in your room president commission included is when we first started the project where we sit here today, where we put a circle in where everyone said, what is wrong with you people? We'll never be able to get a circle in over here. How do we put a school over? It was kind of just division that came first and then us kind of taking the, I probably call it a leap of faith and then a slow burn move to get things going so that we could back up and say, maybe that might not work. So I kind of relate it to that. where we started in that building across the street with John Vanderlay trying to plan all this stuff out. So we're kind of at it again on a little bit bigger of a scale, but it's kind of the same concept. Let's just kind of throw that out there and see what we come up with so we can kind of make Mayberry look more like the TV show does now because it has nice stuff on it too. But we're still going to call it Mayberry. That's kind of where I look at it at.

And that was some of the clarification that I think it helped when I met with Elise. I had questions about parking as well. And again, it is private land, but when those folks come forward, you know, this, what I learned about this process is, you know, when I met with Elise is that This is, you have to file this comprehensive plan information with the state and have this in place. It protects us, as others have said, that when the developers come in, being able to just kind of do anything within what our current comprehensive plan was. So this kind of allows us to help them or take advantage of the fact that if they want to build, they follow within the guidelines so that we develop that main street. i don't think there's any fear of us being like winter garden there's not the space for that to happen um you know we're talking about a few pieces of commercial land that are really accessible this is just that first step in the process and again all of those projects that will come forward will still have to go through all the same steps that they've had to before this just creates that what we want our vision to be so that we do maintain what we want Oakland to be. And it's just an important step in that process. And again, I don't think there's any fear of us having anything on the scale of what Winter Garden is. And I think the other thing too is that, like they said, there's going to have to be whatever they want to develop is going to have to comply with parking. I even expressed to Elise my concern about, you know, we're kind of using some of those lots over there for our events parking too. So that's where the ability to benefit from if someone does develop a space with parking that we would still be able to have access to those for our town events. And that's something that we have the opportunity. So Again, I think it's a step in the process that's important, but I think it's a good step, and it allows us to kind of protect our vision for the future of the town.

Thank you. Anyone else? No? Okay. We'll close the public hearing and bring it back here. Any further comments? And if not, we'll entertain a motion.

Sorry. I'm doing all the motions tonight. um uh the motion on this is to am i making the motion to transmit this to the transist okay so i make a motion for to move forward with the transmission middle of the tub street oakland avenue overlay district comprehension plan um to the state and i guess we'll have a second hearing on this before we move forward correct like any second anybody all in favor aye aye

Okay, thank you for your hard work. Appreciate it, we'll see you next time. Okay, so moving on to our other policy matters tonight, and it is the tentative budget approval for the Oakland Avenue Charter School, and our esteemed Principal Dwyer's here to present that tonight.

Good evening, Commission, guests tonight. My name is Pamela Dwyer. I'm the principal at Oakland Avenue, and I'm here tonight to talk about our tenant budget for 2027. I just wanted to make a few quick notes. Normally we do align this with the tenant budget of the town. I was not certain that I was going to be available at that meeting. So I wanted to make sure that we got this information and that you could hear the information for me. A couple of important notes in your packet is the tentative budget. Again, when we use the word tentative budget, we are creating this budget before we have access to the charter school revenue calculator. So once all the legislative money has all been finalized and approved and everything, they will release a charter school revenue calculator, which we then go back to the table and make sure that all of our numbers are adequate in regards to our revenues. We take a double look, a triple look, maybe a quadruple look at our expenses and make sure that we get that aligned for a final budget, which aligns with the town's final budget hearings, which will happen in September. Okay. Does that make sense? Okay, so at this time I wanted to make a few points in regards to this budget and what is what you see in this long list of items. So it's very important that we emphasize that OACS is fully funded. So I know that there's been talk through the years in regards to what the town does provide in regards to the school and what it costs the taxpayers of Oakland And it is fully funded through student enrollment. So our revenue is going to be what's called FEFP money is going to be created based on a budget of student enrollment of 515 for our K through five school and 60 VPK students. We used our revenue and we calculated a 2% increase from the 2025 school year, just based on what it's looking like in regards to what's proposed out there for legislation. So we will know where it all lands here pretty soon in regards to that. We are budgeting a PTO, which is our parent-teacher organization fundraising contribution of $58,000 or $59,000 from the 25-26 school year. That's from our fundraising efforts, including the gala. We do plan to have a salary increase of up to 3%, and that 3% for staff is based on performance ratings. And we work through that in July and apply those for the start of the school year in August. We are taking, we do have, we have, last year we faced a bit of an enrollment quandary, I would say, is that we lost some students about October, about 10, between October and February, and we were not able to fill them. And so we were a little bit nervous in the middle of the year, because when you start losing 10 students, at about an average of $6,000 to $7,000 a student, that's a big hit. And so we want to be proactive. And last year we budgeted for about $525,000 because we've been sitting there pretty solidly for a number of years. So this year we're building... or being more conservative in regards to our enrollment, but that does not mean that's where we're stopping in our enrollment. So we are, at this particular moment, we have those that have expressed that they're coming to our school at about 5.27, 5.30, and we're still working on that. But in that, we've decided because of third grade, the rolling up into fourth grade was a lower number. This year, we were almost averaging, instead of 22, we're averaging about 17 students. So we've made a decision to reduce fourth grade by one classroom in this year. So that will save us teacher salary and insurance and all the benefit expenses in this particular year. And we will combine the students into the three classrooms. We do plan that. looking at the numbers of the kids that are rolling up, if enrollment, we will return to having those four classrooms in 27, 28. We also added some increase for the 3% for reoccurring expenses based off of conversations between finance departments in the town and on the school. Generally speaking, you know, like anything from garbage to electric to, you know, we all know it, everything is going up in price. So we did put those in there. Hopefully we won't see those, but we are planning for them. We put $25,000 into the budget as an expense for the Disney litigation mediation plan that we approved earlier so that we have not incurred any expenses at this particular moment. I don't have an update to provide you in regards to that process, but that is there to cover that expenditure. other thing that i wanted to draw attention to is that there's an additional line item on there um about two hundred thousand dollars that we plan to bring forward into the next fiscal year because we starting in march we received our proportionate amount of sales tax from the the district So the Florida statute passed, I think it's like 2024, updated the statute 212.055 that allows the schools to get a proportionate of local taxes. We started receiving in March about $70,000 a month extra from that. We have not been able to confirm what the amount is per next fiscal year. So we have been trying to get at that. So we're being conservative, very conservative in regards to what we're budgeting. And hopefully that we find ourselves not having extra so we can continue on with that process of being able to build reserves. and generally offset budget expenditures. And I'm going to go over through some of the budget expenditures that we added for this year or what are the highlights of them. And then also we have the potential, hopefully through mediation, a potential to come up with some kind of settlement, whether it be a reduction in the amount that we owe or settlement just being done with it. The Disney... litigation in regards to their taxes. The estimate has been setting at about $300,000 that we anticipate owing back for that inappropriate tax assessment. so we will see where that lands but that allows us to continue to make sure that what we have in the budget and or in reserves is available to take care of that if when we need to and if we can do it sooner because we have it available to us any questions thus far so one question when you talked about the students and you lost 10 students in october so i guess what it is basically the money follows a student Yeah. It's not real time. So it becomes, it's not real time. The money follows the student. It's not real time. So it gets a little... We're about to share that.

Hey, they went from August to October.

You get... We do get a... We will get a... But we lost them in October. So then we would get nothing. So you know what I mean? So we could have them for three months and... And they could incur expenses, you know, for obviously that time period, they leave in October, that's when it hits us. Now in February, it trues up. So we also had that happen to us last year, we had a true up from the year before, and then we owed $10,000 back for, you know, enrollment here or there. So it's not real time, and it is definitely watching it. So yeah. we do the best that we can, we are seeing similar to what the county is seeing is that many families are making the decision to use what are what is commonly known as the voucher system to homeschool, attend private schools, People are moving, too. You know what I mean? We've seen this for a number of years that our upper grades will try to position themselves to get their students in a what they would deem as a more close knit middle school versus the local middle school that we're zoned for. So it's just, it's been that way for a number of years, but it's always kind of worked out. Last year, it just hit us and we got real nervous, but we had some discussions and then it ended up being okay, so. Did I answer your question? Okay, good.

All right. I've got a question. As it relates to the allocation budget for the Disney litigation mediation, is that a self-derived 25K or is that a 25 proposed budget that may have been provided to you by the council or firm that will be handling the mediation?

The council. Yeah, the councilor. Yes. Our attorney recommended that's the amount that we request for a budget.

Okay.

So the planned capital projects for this particular year is that we're going to have the student bathrooms remodeled. That's been on the plan for a few years now. It's time. The stalls have been there for 22 years, and we've painted them and redone all them, and it's time to... get that taken care of so that the hinges swing properly and do all those things. So we're working on it. We also, it's time to replace student computers. So we've budgeted $85,000 in this year. They're going on six or seven years old. And you probably know that that's a very old computer in regards to it. And we are seeing technical difficulties from that. So that money is budgeted there. And we are continuing, we are putting this in and it's $85,000. At this moment, we are still in the process of working through quotes and pricing and determining what we can and cannot do so for the last several years we have essentially been a one-to-one school our k through k and one are ipads and our two through five have laptops and they're not just chromebooks so we you know it's sometimes people I think that they're not as expensive, but we do purchase the laptops to make sure that it meets all the needs because we are in a state testing situation three times a year that are all computer driven. So we do need to make sure that we have that available. We are very conscientious of the pendulum swing in regards to the talk of individuals in regards to how much screen time students are on. And so we are very cognizant of that and make sure that any particular programs that we're using are very aligned with making sure that we're continuing to promote a good balance in regards to screen time. So we are going to add an additional security camera to the PE court. We have a quote for that. We've actually proposed our safe security grant. I just lost the word. We're asking for an amendment to make sure that that isn't approved. We're waiting for that. And if that's the case, it would be reimbursed from our security grant remains that we had from the last allocation. So that just gives us a better view in regards to what's happening on the PE court as we may need it for one thing or another. Typically student discipline, but it could be something else. fire alarm system upgrade. Last year, we replaced the loops in, I believe it was building D. We're going to continue on with that process to upgrade that system. And I believe it's in building C. We paint the classroom walls as needed. These are building maintenance needs as needed. We go through and take a look at what's being done, and so we'll have some, obviously, the walls painted. We have gutter cleanup and repair. We're going to continue the painting of the exterior. We painted A and B last year. We'll continue to paint one of the buildings, C or D. If we can get to both of them, we will. It is a big project, and we're trying to... have a rotational process to keep the building looking fresh and alive portable skirting uh building skirting replacement um in the portables that we now we own all of the portable buildings and it's time that we replace those um skirting to make sure that we don't get any uh any of those friends that are gonna leave your addict move on over to the school we already have our own um issues with the feral cat community over there so we don't need We don't need any other rodents or any type of animals over at the school. Painting the exterior support beams in the breezeway in the courtyard, front landscaping to remove dead bush. And when I talk about the front landscaping, I'm not necessarily talking about the front of the building because we had actually had some work done last year. Unfortunately, we lost several things in that breeze, which I'm sure everyone experienced that in their yards. I'm talking more about where on the alongside of Oakland Avenue. There's those bushes that have been there for a number of years. There are several areas that we can pull out and look to kind of bring that area back to life. And Scott in the team has committed to helping us pull those out and we'll decide what else we can do after the fact. And some deep power washing throughout the campus, just making it look fresh. And I listed, you know, the various places. Any questions thus far? Okay. Anticipated grants that we hope to get, I don't see any reason why we would not get them, is Title IV, which is well-rounded education. There are some stipulations in regards to this. $12,500 is around the ballpark figure. Title II, which is support... supporting teacher and leader development, kind of a combination of how to be a better teacher and professional development type of things, 12,000. We get a garden grant in combination with our butterfly grants and just organic gardens, about 3,500 and our safety grant for about 3,500, which we will continue to use to offset some of the expenses that come with making sure the school is safe. I have provided you with an overview of our staffing so that you understand what we're talking about here in regards to. We have 26 classrooms, 15 support, which is a total of 41, full-time instructional, instructional support. We have one part-time instructional support person. We have nine full-time non-instructional. And when I say that, that's non-instructional from a state legal institution. So even they might be their VPK. They're not technically considered instructional from a state standpoint, but they are instructing students for the VPK program. Part-time non-instructional, there are 12, and temporary part-time subs, which we attempt to keep 10. on call. So we we plan we don't necessarily have 10 at this moment. So we'll continue to try to fill those spots so that we have substitutes available as we need them. So my request to you is to approve the tentative budget for 2627.

Okay, so any questions or concerns or comments?

We have that number. What that number is? Total number.

Oh, the total budget amount? Oh, sorry. It was 6.4, 6.5. It went from 6.295. It's going to 6. Yeah, 6,489,903. To run a school.

Well, nothing else.

We'll make a motion, please.

Make that a motion to accept the tentative budget for the school.

Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Pardon me? Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you very much. Another A rating this year? We believe so. We won't know for sure until probably around the 4th of July, but based on our calculations, it's looking that way. They could rearrange their numbers, which they like to do, but it's looking good. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, moving along, and it's, where am I at? Public forum. And this is where we'll address matters or hear out anyone who has anything that's not on the agenda tonight. So do we have any takers tonight on anything? Yes, sir. One time, Carlos.

Sir, once again, Carlos, let's give a 14-0, you plan to ponder. I was just biking, and I saw it. So a few months ago, the 7-Eleven transitioned to, I guess, another gas station. But is it really a gas station? Is it a smoke shop? Is it an outdoor venue that has a tent that has parties until 2 in the morning? Is it a food stand that now the – place where they would do kawa or something like that. Like people are cutting fruit there or something. I don't know. So I'm just concerned that it went from being like a legit 7-Eleven establishment to now being a smoke shop that sells all kinds of crazy stuff. And what kind of clientele is that attracting? What are these parties that are happening until 2 in the morning? I guess, what are the rules with that? Did you guys know that? That business was going to happen. Has the police been called? Has anything ever happened? So before it escalates to something more, has this been put on anybody's radar? What are we doing with this business? Are we looking into it? Did it have to apply to become a smoke shop?

I looked at Elyse, and Elyse just pointed right to Chief. I got you.

Here I am. I can speak to some of that. I can tell you this. We assisted the DEA, and they went in there and did an undercover operation, and they were able to seize a small amount of things that are actually illegal. They're handling as far as penalties go and things like that. They have to send the things off for testing and whatnot, but everything that's in there that is being sold right now is 100% legal. We did take that action when we heard something... I can tell you myself, I came in a month ago and worked a Saturday night and went there to that tent. The tent is totally legal within our code and whatnot. And I was shocked. I called the mayor and said, you're not going to believe this. But for one, everybody was dressed very nicely. It was like a fine dining establishment in a parking lot.

I couldn't believe it.

The food was phenomenal. The people were great. There were no issues.

The only issue was parking because they were doing such a good business.

But they are permitted. We've had code enforcement out there. They did identify a couple violations. They held them accountable, and they fixed the violations. So everything I can tell you as of today is on the up and up. I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future. I can tell you that they are operating legitimate businesses right now.

So according to the town ordinances... A smoke shop can just pop up. That's a legit business. There was no applications that needed to be submitted or anything for that.

It doesn't fit the definition of a smoke shop.

It is a smoke shop, right? I mean, they have signs saying it's a smoke shop.

We took those down. Oh, OK. So they were threatened with fines and having to see the magistrate. They took those down.

They had flags, banners, gone.

Those type of things. But by clear definition, it doesn't fit the definition 51% of their sales is not involving smoke shop. Do they sell items? Yes. They sell smoking apparatus, if you will. So does 7-Eleven, right? But if 51% of your sales is not that, you don't fit the definition of strictly a smoke shop, they still fall under the definition of a convenience store.

So you guys are just keeping an eye on it and making sure everything's good.

You could say that, yes. We're definitely keeping an eye on it.

Awesome. Thank you. I mean, I don't know the tent part. I mean, have you been inside of it?

You'll have to get dressed, Carlos.

Go check it out.

Okay. Thank you, Carlos. Anyone else? John? John?

Just follow up with the road project. It seems to me that this project got stalled prior to the new budget coming in, meaning that the continued improvement of VIC. John Potter, My recollection we left that that we were going to delay. John Potter, Improving that road, because we suggested that we would pave that road. John Potter, Because of word connects everything. John Potter, And that there was. impact fee money available to cover that expense. Last time we spoke, we were trying to tie it into another road project to, I guess, get a better pricing per square foot. So I'm not sure where that exists. Now, this is, you know, we're halfway into this year, and I don't know, do we have a schedule? Is there... Has it been budgeted? Is there bids put out to proceed or what can I expect?

So I think it was last commission meeting, me and Alisa and Mike had a talk about it. And so far from what we see, from what the quotes I got back, I'm budgeting for that improvement for next year, depending on how the budget goes this year. So we talked about it and we just plan on, I guess, paving it from what the quotes that I got Next year, I'm putting in the budget for next year.

So let me make sure I understand. So there was a project in place. And my thoughts, John, were exactly what you just said. Southern Oaks is slated to get paved, right? And then the idea was, can we piggyback off the Southern Oaks paving project because of the cost, reduced cost mobilization, what have you on that? And I think that Southern Oaks budget was in place from this fiscal year to be done. Is that correct?

That's correct. We have money for that project, but we don't even have enough money in the budget to do that complete project. And so to add another project on top of it is most likely not going to happen this fiscal year. Money was going to come out of the transportation impact fees for the road on Vick. Using that for Vick, yes, but we have other projects that are also coming out of those fees.

So this is learning about it right now.

Well, you know, we did not complete the project on Vick. And it was suggested or promised that there was funding in the impact fee budget to do that this year. And I'm hearing there's not enough money to do that or possibly maybe being pushed out a year or more now. I'm a little confused about all this.

Do you have numbers? Have we gotten bids on that yet?

Yeah, it's over $30,000 just to do that. To bid? Just bid?

Well, and I don't recall it being promised. I recall it being considered to be looked into because... We don't have a lot of extra money, so that was my understanding is that it was going to be looked into to see if we could piggyback it on the other project or if we had impact fees, but I don't recall us ever promising or saying it could definitely be done. I believe it was said it would be looked into, and obviously it's been looked into, and we don't have the funds to do it at this time.

Is that correct? Are we doing Southern Oaks?

Like I said, we have got embeds for portions of Southern Oaks. We can't not even do the full Southern Oaks project with the money that we have in the budget currently. So we're having to cut that scope down.

Just a curiosity question. Which came first, Big Street or Southern Oaks in the planning?

Southern Oaks has been in the budget since last year.

Well, and Vic Paving was a afterthought after some of the millings. Asphalt millings. Mm-hmm.

Preliminary in the plan.

So all that request by the residents was something, again, that was going to be looked into because we don't have extra money to do it. And I believe it was going to be considered on whether we had impact fees. And again, I don't believe anything. I don't recall us agreeing to do anything but other than look into it to see if... Well, what I recall us agreeing to, the original...

paving of Southern Oaks or resurfacing of Southern Oaks after a couple of product materials were used and poor workmanship by the company that actually did it. That was taken up, which included Vic and all of Southern Oak. And they were forced to, or you guys got another contractor to come in and redo that. But the promise was We're not going to do VIC because we're going to pave it. And there was discussion about whether impact fees could be used for that. And it was decided by the council that yes, impact fees could be used to pay.

So we can't determine whether impact fees, that has to be addressed by our attorney.

You guys can go back to your own notes.

And we can.

I understand that that was said. It was determined that impact fees could be used. Yeah, it was.

However, I do want to add that was at the May 12th meeting and what was discussed, again, that Southern Oak was the prominent project. We would look into whether that was something that could be piggybacked and what Chanel was going to bid for to have a discussion item of. As I understand, we're sitting here today, those bids have come in and the funds are not available to complete the project. So again, it's not something that the commission affirmatively approved as we were moving forward. We worked on the opportunity to see how quickly we could get it done or how we could close it with a .

Okay. It feels a bit like a bait and switch, like the project that we started with is not being committed to being completed. There's not even a definite this year, next year, or the following year decision about BIC. So I'm just concerned that there was a comprehensive plan made to also pave other streets in the process of updating everything. I don't know where they stand.

Well, I For me personally, I'll leave it like this. However it was phrased, I was led to believe that it was fun to get done and it was gonna be a priority. I don't know where we or how we veered off of it, but I am agreeing with you that it was a priority and we need to figure it out.

Well, respectfully, I think it was intended to be a priority to be looked into, but you just heard that the project that we had budgeted for this year, we don't even have the funds to do that project. We can't do things we don't have money for.

Well, in the comprehensive plan to establish a schedule for roads that were going to be upgraded and paved, Southern Oaks wasn't even in that plan.

Southern Oaks was a separate project. It was not in the asphalt millings paving project. It was a completely separate project that has been budgeted for over a year.

But this is the first I've ever heard of it.

Vick has nothing to do with Southern Oaks, except that we were asked to look at the cost as part of that project. And as we got the cost from that project, we can't even complete that whole project while Vick already has a layer of asphalt milling at least to start with, right?

It's a failing road. I mean...

i invite you to go down and look at what's going on i've been down okay um again regardless of because we could go on and on but that was the the understanding whether that was what was supposed to be or not and i and i have to agree to disagree with that we can't do it because we led them to believe that that was going to be paid, and that is really the end of the story. We need to figure something out, and that's where I stand.

Well, and again, we can't spend money we don't have, and that's my concern. I mean, I understand we want to do everything that everybody wants us to do, but I know in my personal budget, when I'm out of money, there are things I can't afford to do. Unfortunately, it's the same thing. We have to be responsible it's hard to sometimes say we just can't do it at this time we don't ever want to have to say that but you know it's it's obviously something that we're aware of it and we want to address it we're not trying to not address it john that's not our intent but we have to have the funds available to do it and we don't currently have them well that's not what

I was led to believe, or my neighbors, concerning Vic until his last few meetings. And it's the council that led this direction.

John, yes, that is what we talked about. We did say, yes, Vic. We all agreed that Vic should be asphalt because of the amount of traffic that comes from it. open park and everybody else going to the park and we discussed that um you know i haven't seen the numbers i don't know what the numbers are yet i know that public works was procuring those numbers from hopefully several bidders and not one better or two better i hope there's a bunch of bidders i've got out there see them but um

And I don't know if there's a way to reprioritize anything.

If Southern Oaks, there's not enough money in Southern Oaks this year, is there enough money next year or the year after? And Southern Oaks, wait a couple years before you repave it, and can that money be used to improve BIC? I don't know.

Well, I would guess that the worst road in Southern Oaks is better than the paving on

It is.

All right.

Anyway, just keep us up to date and figure something out.

Thanks, John. All right. Anyone else? Yes. Is it Rhodes, Tom?

Yeah. Say again.

Is it Rhodes? Rhodes.

If you do pay Vic, we got a lot of little children. Need to get some speed tapes. It's a long, straight road. But it's something else that's concerning. I walk my dog along Vic quite a bit, Ann Vandermeer, and in a very short period of time, found five dead squirrels, two dead possums, and a dead blue jay. Somebody's been setting out poison. Get rid of the squirrels and the collateral damage. I can't imagine how many little animals that I didn't find. So I think the police chief would agree it's against the law to do that, isn't it? Not only that, it's cruel. That's where again? Arrington. Found two dead possums on Dick. Three squirrels on Vic and two on Vandermeer. They weren't hit by cars. So somebody's setting out poisons. That was a little concerning. Maybe we can post something somewhere to remind people that it's not, it's against the law.

Sure. Thanks. Thanks, Tom. Anyone else. Yes, sir.

Good evening.

My name is Eric fighter. I'm at 1740 Standing Rock circle. Just wanted to first my wife and I just moved in August to Oakland from the Dr. Phillips Windermere area. So which wanted to first thank you everybody for the welcome we've received from welcome. Everybody at Town Hall from Faith and her team to some of the police officers I've met at Tractor Supply. They've all been very accommodating. So thank you for that. They've also helped us tremendously with a lot of permitting that we've had done recently for some improvements to our home. Everything's gone fine. One thing we just recently did was new sod in the house. So we were questioning, because where we came from before, when we did a sod or when we, in preparation for the hurricane season, we drained a pool and we'd have some, for the Utilities Commission, I think, some water credits for putting your sod down. We were informed that that's not the case here. Um, I was told that it had come up in discussion before, maybe in the council prior. So I just wanted to call and see. Come and see if that has been an issue that may be brought up or discussed specifically. Like, if you lay side down, your water bill is 10 times what it was, because you have to water it twice a day. Um, we submit the receipt for the sod and then, uh, previously we'd get like a credit for a percentage back of our water usage also for, um.

preparation for the hurricane season when we had to drain a pool or something like that.

The town usually says, hey, drain your pool to avoid collateral damage to the water systems and stuff like that. So I was just come to ask if there is no discussion of that for credit for water in the future for the utilities division or something like that.

Yeah, thanks. I'm not aware of anything. I don't know if staff has any conversation.

The code doesn't currently allow for any reductions. We'd have to change the code to be able to do that.

Yeah, I do know. I think we talked about it last meeting was about the watering of lawns because we have a water storage issue here. And I know that we talked about, you know, established lawns cutting down on those and then following the St. John's. uh, rules on, on watering. I think new sod and stuff is like a 30 day period to water every day until it's established.

I was told that. And that they just was like, they, we have to get a permit for it and then you don't get fined for watering more. But I wasn't aware of that, but I'm glad we did it anyhow. And for us, it's done already. I'm just asking for the future because then hurricane season comes and we drain our pool, uh, and you have to refill it, you know, a couple hundred gallons extra to redrain your pool multiple times a year, it adds up. So that's what I was unaware of. And again, being in a different town, I understand rules are different. I just wanted to ask if that was anything in the future that would come up and something like that, or if that's ever been discussed. Just so I understand. Water's not cheap. And that's exactly why we're asking the same thing, too. And one other comment, if I can, just maybe for the police department, is on old Highway 50, we're in Oakland Trails, There's a lot of high-speed motorcycles, vehicles going down towards the bike pavilion at night. I don't know if that's been reported or anything like that, but we hear a lot of that. I don't know if there's any solution to that because our property backs up right to that old 50 road right where the circle is, where the acorn is. and there's a lot of high speed traffic going down and pretty consistently we've noticed it getting a little bit increased more in the past month or two. So I just wanted to see if that was something that can be addressed or is being addressed. Yeah, sure, thanks.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, so we'll close the public hearing and bring it back here to town manager and department reports.

I just have a couple things I want to cover. Ashley's not here, so I'll just cover employee anniversaries real quick. We have Jennifer Schrupp, who's part-time at Oakland Nature Preserve, that has one year of service. And the rest are over at PD. We have Steven Zee, who's our part-time code enforcement with one year of service. Kirk Cruz, that has nine years of service. And Jason Hayes, that has 10 years of service. So we appreciate all of their years of service. We have a farmer's market this Thursday, June 11, and on Thursday, June 25 from 9 to 11. There's no farmer's markets in July, so we hope you come out in June and enjoy those. I do want to just touch really briefly on property taxes. For people that have been following the news, it's kind of hard to avoid it, but there will be a property tax ballot initiative in November on the ballot of some type or sort. I mean, we're pretty sure what it's looking like now. What we're trying to figure out is financial repercussions to the town of oakland specifically so we'll have our first budget work session june 23rd which is our next commission meeting at six o'clock pm so we'll have more concrete um information we're going to try to do a three-year projection so that everybody is educated as they go into vote about what that means for the town of oakland kathy

No, I have no report.

Nothing?

I have some budget hearing dates. Do you want those? Oh, yes.

Okay.

So as Elise just mentioned, our first budget work session is scheduled for Tuesday, June 23rd at 6 o'clock p.m. Our second budget work session is Tuesday, July 28th at 6 o'clock p.m. Our first budget public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th at 6 p.m. So that is Wednesday,

because there's another meeting, I think, yeah, on the Tuesday.

So, and the final budget public hearing is on Tuesday, September 22nd at 6 o'clock p.m.

Thanks, Kathy. Okay, Gabby. Gabby and Todd.

No, we're just working on budgets.

Yeah, it's going to be an interesting one. If you guys want to come back and listen to that one, that will be a good one to listen to. Police department, anything good?

Tuesday, several departments, we have a meeting here at Town Hall to iron out the watering restrictions, violations, process, the procedure. Ourselves, Public Works, Finance, and the Town Manager, we're all going to sit down and Everybody will be on the same page. So by Tuesday afternoon, the process will be laid out. Not a problem. We have the door hangers. We got them ordered. They're delivered.

That process should be fine.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is a very, very good thing, I think, and it's not in my department. It's in the finance department. Yes. Sir, in case you don't know, Ty Brown recently obtained her master's degree, and she deserves a huge congratulations.

Congratulations. Great. Thanks, Jay. Congratulations, Ty. Yeah. John, what works?

Nothing, just working on budget with the team, that's it. Okay, great.

Taylor, anything good on the planning side?

Nothing project related, but you did ask me to kind of give a little bit more information about the timeline of the circling back to tub street overlay just to what that would mean. So just for a brief overview for Mr. Mayor and the commission. So moving forward within 10 days, we do have to submit the comprehensive plan amendment to the state for the review. for a comprehensive plan amendment such as this the state essentially and the associated reviewing agencies do have approximately a month to get back a formal response letter and talking about a timeline best case scenario you know if they think the greatest amendment since you know sliced bread at that point we'd be able to schedule the second public hearing at which point it'll come back before you going long term in terms of a quote unquote worst case scenario. From the time we receive that comment letter from the state, we do have 180 days to actually hold that second public hearing. So if there are some comments, a little bit of back and forth that has to happen with the state, we'd coordinate that with our team, of course, Kimley-Horton-Dix-Height, along with town staff. So that's just a brief overview of the timeline moving forward with the comprehensive plan amendments.

So 180 days, worst case?

Roughly.

And then from there, developers start knocking on the door?

Well, we would still, like we mentioned in the presentation, we still would actually have to put meat on the bone, if you will, in terms of the actual code language by which we would implement. And once that goes through its process, then the developers start knocking on doors.

Okay, thanks. Thanks for that. Was everybody, Commissioner Keller?

I don't have anything, thank you.

Mr. McMullen? Oh, not much. Just brief. Had a good meeting with a lease on yesterday, you know, talking about property taxes and what's coming down from FLC.

So just wait and see how it's going to be strategized. Great.

Mr. Motley?

Well, I think I'm almost 90 days in now. You are.

Your review is coming up. Review is coming up.

Definitely had an opportunity to begin the onboarding process, and that was our department, police, and Kathy, as well as our principal Dwyer this week.

So those were some successful meetings, me understanding, you know, a lot of operational aspects, things that need to be considered moving forward. And I think the fun part of the last two weeks was the fifth grade flyaway. So I had an amazing time just being out and seeing the parents and the kids.

for them moving on to the future.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor? Did we mention the fifth grade flyer? Oh, that's right. Tom made a good point. Is there something we can do to delicately put out to people about poisoning of animals or something? That's pretty important. Whatever we can do within the limits, I would like to see that.

Okay, thanks. For me, last night I had the honor of, nominated by Gabby, to give a talk at the West Orange Chamber of Commerce's Young Professionals Group and talk to them a little bit about what's it like being a mayor and then what's it like being the business owner as well. So that was a very fun event. Thank you, Gabby and Elise, for attending and Ty as well.

I knew that what you had, I would have bought your dinner.

But anyways, it was a great time at the chamber event. So thank you guys for that. Great. Other than that, that's it for me.

All right. If our hearts and minds are satisfied, let's adjourn. It is 8.34 p.m.