City Council - Regular Meeting

Please rise for silent indication followed by pledge of allegiance.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Court call the role. Council here. Councilman here. Councilman Green here. Here all five in attendance tonight. Moving on to item four. Parks and Recck Director Susan Lavalo and her festive self. Right on. All right. Sam said you were all on the good list. So, here's some candy. All right. Right on.

Tell us about what's going on in parks and recck.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Susan Lavalo, parks and recreation director, aka the head elf for tonight's report. The parks recreation department is getting ready for everything to welcome Santa into our great city. Starting tomorrow at 11:19, we have holiday [clears throat] carols, crafts, and decorations at the adult activity center starting at 12:30. This activity is geared for our 55 and up community. 11:23 High Point Church will host a free Thanksgiving dinner at the Lakeside Community Center starting at 10:00 a.m. This is free and open to the public. 11:29 Touch of Magic brings back the holiday market to Riverwalk Park starting at 10:00 a.m. Um event is free and open to the public starting the month of December. We have the holiday star search which will be available all month long in um in Riverwalk City Center, all children's park and airport road parks. This is like our elf hunt that we've had before but their stars because it's Hollywood movies are the theme to this year's parade. So that will be going on. Um you can search them in all parks or one park, but once you find them, just come on down to the Dorothy Hugle City Center and next on Monday through Friday between 8 and 4:30 and kids can pick up their prizes there. Light up Port Orange Holiday House decorating contest will take place from December 6th to the 21st each evening from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. within the city of Port Orange. A map of participating homes will be posted on the parks and recreation website and our Facebook page during the first week of December. and then everybody can start touring the homes and voting for their favorite home and then prizes will be awarded and I believe the mayor will hand out those uh those prizes. Port Orange Community Trust will have their annual gingerbread house giveaway um December 6th at the treelighting. Uh completed gingerbread houses then are due back to the Lakeside Community Center on December 13th. For more information, please visit the pocr.org website. December 6, Christmas in the park,

brought to you by the city of Port Orange. Join us for a tree as we light up the trees here at city center. Listen to the community choir and have a fun-filled family time to kick off the holidays. That event starts at 5:30. On 127, the 47th annual holiday parade starts at 2 p.m. on Dun Lotton in Jackson. The parade will proceed east to Spruce Creek Road and Secret, but I heard Santa and the mayor will be there, so be ready for that. on 1212 Christmas in Margaritavville at the adult activity center starting at 5:30. So all parro heads come on out enjoy an adult evening of dinner and dancing for the 55 plus community. Unfortunately though this event is full and there are 50 people on the waiting list for that event.

Wow, that's awesome.

12:13 the wreck is hosting a Christmas PJ family dance. Put on your favorite holiday PJs and dance on over to the wreck. Starts at 5. Pre-registration is required for that event and registration is currently open. 1213 will be the last car show at City Center under the Oaks. Brought to you by the East Coast Cruisers. That starts at 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. 12:15, bring the little ones to meet Santa. Enjoy cookies and story time starting at 5:30 at the Lakeside Center. Pre-registration starts December 1st for that event. 12:16th through the 18th, the parks and rep team will have a big the big guy. That's right, Santa at the wreck for family photos at 6 p.m. each night. Pre-registration opens on December 1st. So, a lot going on for the holidays. But in addition to the holidays, we also wanted to update you on a few of our projects that are getting started, either underway, getting started, or starting directly right after the new year. So, our first park spawn project, Willow Run Park, is [clears throat] in the final stages of design. The renewed park will include a new playground, outdoor lighted basketball court. To accompany the lighted tennis and pickleball court, and a new to our area will be a bicycle playground. We will apply for echo on this project, so we expect this to go out to bid in February. [clears throat] The second bond project will be the city center sports complex expansion. [clears throat] It is also in the final stages of design. This project will be on the back seven acres of Silver Sands Middle School. We did that land swap. Um the the project will include two new soccer fields, restrooms, concession, and parking. We anticipate this project to go out to bid also in February. So things are starting to move on on the bond projects. The bond projects three and four, White Place and the train depot. They are in the beginning stages of design. As we get more definitive designs, we will bring that back to make sure you guys get a get a peek at that. The sixth bond project will be the

Karassi Park renovations. Um it is on the agenda actually on 129 for approval for design. Um this will include digging up some of those fields and putting in some drainage. As you know when it rains we we lose a lot of game [clears throat] time just due to the type of soil we have. So we're going to put some drainage in and we're going to put new dirt in sod irrigation and fence on two of the fields. And then next year we'll tackle the next two fields. The golf course also has some projects underway. They are um renovating all the bunkers on the course. They're about 25% complete. So, what they're doing is they're taking out all the old sand. They're cleaning the sock drains in there so that the the sand traps will drain and then they'll replace the bunkers with the new sand. The cart barn at Cypress Head will get a new roof starting next month, followed by a new paint job. And early next year, we will start the renovations of the tea boxes on the course and the artificial tea line. Causeway Park, south boat ramps, and parking improvements will [clears throat] begin on January 5th. We will close the south ramps and about 30% of the parking. The north ramps, fishing peers, and restrooms will remain open for most of the project. It is expected to be completed in July. Updates will be posted to our website under parks and recreation projects. There is a sign down there right now that has the QR code, so if people want to scan that, it'll take them right to that page. Um, and we'll also put updates on our social media to keep everyone up to date, not just with that project, but with all these projects we spoke about tonight. In addition to those projects, we also have nine other projects that will com that will be completed or started in 2026. So, a lot of new things coming into parks and wreck. Our athletic team has the following programs starting in December. December 1st, we have the youth flag football begins at Karassi and City Center parks. Registration is full for this program and there's 43 kids on the waiting list. Youth tennis starts December 1st and registration is currently open. This league plays at Airport Road Park on Saturday mornings.

Adult kickball games start on December 2nd at City Center. Registration is also full for that program. And Little Oranges, which is our preschool sports program, is underway until December 10th. That happens at the Wreck and the City Center Sports Complex. So, woof, a lot's going on in the month of December. Um, but our entire team and myself just wanted to wish you and all the citizens a very happy holiday and a bright new year. And I can answer any questions I hope that you might have. [laughter] Reed, any questions? No, I just

I just want to commend you guys. Really exciting really excited about all the events and just, you know, um, Parks has been so special to me. The the whole group since I grew up, you know, since I was what, 5 years old can remember. Um, and so this is my favorite time of year. Uh, me and my family have already started outlining uh, what we're going to do and when we're going to do it. And so just appreciate you and all of staff and all the hard work that goes in because it's not easy, but it is it's part of what makes, you know, the season very magical for kids. And so I know I've got a I've got a nine-year-old who can't wait. So can't wait to see him. Tracy.

No, I echoing what uh, Rita's saying. I mean, [clears throat] we already know parks bond initiative was was huge and we needed it and uh you just echoed it again. Uh 50 adults waiting, 43 kids waiting on standby. So, we know that the expansion was desperately needed and it's it's nice to see that it's uh 2026 is a big year for that to all come. So, thank you for everything your staff [clears throat] and you do. Thank you. Thank you,

Sean. Now, I just want to say thank you. Uh, I get the opportunity to coach your flag football and I'll tell you, we need coaches. 45 kids waiting on a list is that can field four more teams and that's a shame. But I'm glad uh we're popular in that aspect. There was just the for 13 and under. It was 120 uh kids, boys and girls tried out for just 13 and under. So 11, 12, and 13 year olds. So yeah, if anybody out there wants to uh step up and serve, that would be a great opportunity to help coach these leagues. It's popular.

Again, I'm going to thank Thank you on that. And then I got to know, am I riding with him in the parade again because those shovel hands over here, [laughter] old shovel hands over here didn't get us to the end and we ran out of candy. So I got to know, are we am I right with them or do I got to buy more candies? You can never have enough candy, I think, is the rule. [laughter] But um but until we get the head count, we don't know what we have. Yeah. Head count will be a lot. I'm going to put some tape. I'm putting gloves on mittens on his hands and so he can't throw so much. [laughter] And thanks you guys for your support of the department and all that we do. So we appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thanks, Susan. [applause]

You got a round of applause and a half-standing ovation. Outstanding. Excellent. All right. Uh moving on to uh item B, consent agenda. Have any public comments on consent agenda items only? Items 6 through 11. Public comments on consent agenda items only. Seeing none, can I get a motion in a second to approve tonight's consent agenda items 6 through 11? Move to approve consent agenda items 6 through 11. Second. Have a motion in a second. Will clerk call the role? Council Foley. Yes. Council, yes. Councilman Green, yes. Vice Mayor Grubs. Yes. Mayor

Yes. 50. All right. Quickly moving on to section C. City Council Eastport Business Center CRA joint special meeting. We will be temporarily suspending uh the meeting as the city council. I now call the special joint meeting of the Eastport Business Center Community Redevelopment Agency and the Port City Council to order. Will the clerk call the role for the members of the Eastport Business Center community? Councilman Fley here. I'm sorry. Lance Green here. Jonathan Paul here. Scott Stner here. Tracy Gross here. Chairman Sean here. All in attendance. Will the clerk call the role for the members of the city council? Lance Green

here. Sean Keer here. Tracy Gross here. Jonathan here. Mayor Scott here. All in attendance. Are there any objections to the notice of the meeting? Hearing no objection, the notice is accepted. I will be opening the item for presentation by staff and joint discussion by the city council and the CRA. Chairman Gford will call for the vote by the CRA and I will call for the vote by the city council to open these items. Item two is the approval of BLK Boom Trucks LLC doing business as BLK Boom Trucks Southeast Economic Incentive Agreement as it relates to Eastport CRA Redevelopment Plan and LDC Chapter 20, the targeted business. May I have a motion and a second from the city council?

Move to approve. Second it. Have a motion and a second to have that on the floor. Mr. Mayor, hang on one second. I got a legal issue. Um, Matt, so the company that I work with is is doing business with Vic. Okay. Do I need to abstain? Yeah, I'm going to say. Okay. So, I'm going to abstain. Do we need to note that anywhere particular? We'll get a form filled out, but Okay. Yeah, he's announced a conflict, so he'll be abstaining from the vote as as to the CRA and also the city council. We'll get the form filled out. Okay, no worries. Understood. Move to approve. Uh oh, I'm sorry. May I have a motion and a second for the CRA?

Move to approve. Second. A motion and a second. Open it as a CRA. Tim Burman. Welcome.

Thank you. Tim Burman. The following is a request from BIK Zoom Trucks for an incentive agreement there. They are currently based out of Toronto and they are looking to relocating a um facility in Port Orange here in the Eastport facility there. Their trucks that they make are for basically the construction industry uh mainly building supplies also oak tree trimming um and other trucks there we shoot a couple examples in that report there that they would be manufacturing here in the portal facility uh as we stated basically we've been working with them for about two years on this site they have completed building plan review site plan review and have begun construction during that time basically they have paid the fees associated with those applications along with the gopher tortoise relocation which has been completed also too this is within 660 ft of a bald eagle's nest So they are having to pay monitoring cost associated with that as they go under construction for about a six-month period then. So they have requested the incentive agreement package here. Um again this would be basically reimbursed through the Eastport CRA um as part of the incentives that we offer there for the costs that have already incurred which is around $100,000 um there in terms of permit fees and also the environmental fees terms of go towards mitigation and the bald eagle monitoring. And they've also requested $19,000 in um re additional cost to be reimbursed here in terms of if they have to continue paying that eagle monitoring fee that would cover that then along with associated de um building permits for dumpster enclosures, parking lot lighting and fencing as they wrap up the um permitting process for the project there. Um we basically hope to be under construction here um there in early 2026 and be completed by late summer of 2026 there to be operation here in Fort Worth. And representatives from business are here too if you'd like to talk to them.

Would they like to come up and have a moment? Come talk come talk us out of it. Welcome. [clears throat]

Thank you. Um my name is Elmer. I'm the owner and founder of Vietks. 34 years ago. So, we're very excited uh to uh open up an assembly facility. So, what we do is we take trucks and we install uh truck cranes and the construction industry and the tree room. Um, typically we have 150 people up in Toronto and we're looking to expand down here to up to 40 people and eventually build a second phase of a recently acquired plant just north of us. Uh, which will be another 20 to 25 people in the next few years. Um, 75% of our technicians we train in house. So, you know, kids out of high school who got technical aptitude, you know, like to work on engines or like fiddle around. We prefer hiring, you know, eager uh guys got some mechanical skills and we train them in house uh into uh you know thriving careers. Uh so um so we uh we feel we bring great value in that regards to the local community and we're excited for all the support. Um you know we chose Port Orange business ties over here with my partner. So we're excited.

Excellent. I'm going to I'm going to put in a quick little plug that annually the Port Orange, South Dakota Chamber of Commerce does a job fair uh where they target a lot of the high school seniors getting ready to graduate. So, I would encourage you guys to to be part of that. It's actually Yeah, it's been a great program. It's been well attended. You know, a lot of not a lot of not every kid wants to go off to college and so a lot of them are looking for this very thing to find out what's out there in the community they might want to get involved in. So, might be a great opportunity for everybody there. It's a great program. Thanks. Uh, just stand by just one second. [clears throat] Council, any any questions? CRA and council members? Yes. No questions. Not at all. All right. Good. Guess you're off the hook easy on that then. Thanks.

Any public comment on this item? Seeing none, back to council. Final comments from CRA and city council prior to vote. Chairman Gford, take it away. Yes. Uh, can I have the roll call, please? Green abstain. Jonathan, yes. Scott, yes. Yes. Chairman John, yes. Call the total. Okay, that's four 40 with one sustain. Thank you, sir. [clears throat] Mayor, call the role for city council. Clerk, call the roll. L abstain. Sean Ger, yes. Tracy Brooks, yes. John, yes.

Mayor Scott, yes. 40 with one abstained. Any further business to be brought before the members of the Eastport Redevelopment Agency and the City Council hearing and seeing none, this special joint meeting is now adjourned and we will return to our duties as only the Port Orange City Council. Item D, small business Saturday proclamation. Do I just Okay, we'll come back to that one. And I think we're going to come back to the cops for Christmas. Our presenter on that is actually currently tied up in his professional duties. So he'll be here in a little bit. So let's move on to comments and additional items. Uh city council members Reed.

Yeah. Uh just two quick things. Um I had a resident call me today or sorry um call me Friday um with a concern about ebikes uh on sidewalks. Um, I guess you these are becoming more and more popular with kids ride them to school, other people ride them places and unfortunately a lot of a lot of people who are using them are just not being cautious and it's putting uh some of our pedestrians that are out there walking in some curious situations. Uh he said he's he's almost been hit two or three times and end up talking to a couple other people who feel the same way. So I I did pass that information on to Wayne. I'm not sure what other cities are doing. Unfort Unfortunately, I don't like policing every little thing. And I don't like asking um our officers to have to look for more things out there while they're already trying to do a hard job. Um but when people can't be responsible and just be careful and put other people's lives in danger, you know, this this guy I spoke to is 84 years old. I I don't want to think what it'd be like if he gets hit by one of those at, you know, 20 25 miles an hour. So, I just want to let you guys know about that call. I'm not sure how any of you feel about it, but Wayne's going to just find out what some other cities are doing in that regard. Um, and the other thing I just want to say thank you to uh you guys up here on council as well as staff. Um, you know, my my actual full-time job has been very trying. Um, in fact, I was looking I I was gone 33 out of 52 days and it was miserable, but um that's come to a close now and I get to be home again for the next several months most of the time. Um, but I appreciate you guys, you know, working through everything and also, uh, Wayne, Robin, and and everyone on staff. Um, anytime I have been gone, uh, being able to stay in communication, whether that's email, phone calls, um, I've never felt like I was out of the loop for one second. And I think that's just a testament to, uh, the great people we have in place. So, I just want to say thank you to them for that.

Excellent, Tracy. Great. What I'm showing him is [laughter] a whole listing of ebikes information. Uh Tammy News two days ago actually brought up that Honor Paramel Hospital, Children's Hospital showed a 205% increase over the past year of strictly ebike incidences. 205% increase. So it is it is a problem. Uh at the same time, Channel 9 News brought up that there's a House bill uh 243 and a Senate bill uh 462 that is being pushed along through the the state level. Um so that's that's coming one way or the other. There's going to be new rules and regulations down the line. Uh how we adopt and amend to that, you know, we have to get that once that bill comes out. But one of the big things is is understanding that there's three classifications of ebikes. Um, all of them are pedal assisted. You got a class one, two, and three. They're all pedal assisted. But the big one is on class three is that it reaches a top speed of 28 mph. The other two have to be 20 mph and less. Those are also the ones that are deemed allowed on sidewalks. Anything over 20 has to be in the road. That is the rules and regulations. Anybody under the age of 16 is supposed to be wearing a helmet. That's a bicycle rule and we know we see that not done all the time. But the big one and the one that I want to make sure that everybody understands that may be watching or hearing is that the motor, anything over 750 watts of power and above is not deemed an ebike

for any use on the road or on the sidewalk. And that's where kids are going to get in trouble. and being pedal assist. There's there's things on the internet showing people how to go out and literally put fake pedals on these e motorcycles to make them look like bicycles. This is what our officers are having to deal with. So, saying all that, Sunday walking through Best Buy, there is nine ebike styles and scooters available because of Christmas. So, all I can do is ask that parents when they're looking at going and buying, make sure you buy the safety equipment that's needed for their kids, keep them safe, but also maintain that you're buying something that is not going to get your child a ticket. Now, I've I've said this amongst a lot of friends. A ticket on an electric scooter means that when they go when they hit 16 means they've had a ticket before their driver's license. So, they get their driver's license and they get suspended instantly. Now, I don't know about you, I got two kids. That was fun when they were going through learning how to drive and insurance was lovely, but how would you like to have a 16-year-old that has a suspended license right off the bat and insure them all because of an ebike? So, be wary, understand the informations and the rules. That way when Christmas rolls around that your kids are safe and that you don't have heartache down the roads with your kids and what the future may hold insurance-wise because this this is getting this is getting bad.

Scott, just a quick comment on that. I this is one of those deals where I'm actually happy that the state is going to step in and legislate because the reality of it is is a lot of these ebikes hold a really large charge and so folks are going to go from one community to the next and so forth and so on. So because of that, just like in our motor vehicle laws, they need to know that the, you know, whether you're riding your ebike in Orman, Port Orange, South Tona, Edgewater, unincorporated, Valuchia County, the laws are the same because I think it's going to be problematic around the state where certain communities have already legislated and created sets of rules that most people are not going to have any idea about coming and going through those municipalities. So kind of glad to see the state doing that. Sean, what you got?

Oh, so I just want to talk a little about some of the things that have been going on in the city. Um, I don't know if every citizen gets this uh city manager update, but uh missed the opportunity for our uh fire department to push in a new vehicle, which is pretty awesome that uh we're giving them the tools they need uh to protect our citizens. Also, there's a that uh commercial development going up off on Reed Canal just east of the high school. uh they're moving along really well, which which helps us uh providing opportunities for small businesses to have a place to have businesses out of in our city, which is really important. And um and also seeing, you know, the continuing efforts from our staff to continue, even though it's kind of not the rainy season, we haven't had to talk about rain uh lately, they're continuing to uh uh clean out ponds and and and work on our infrastructure, sidewalks, everything. It just uh it's it's nice to see that ongoing, not just a reaction, but being proactive. So, I really appreciate that. Also, uh had mentioned to our assistant city manager, there was a email sent to me from a citizen that there's a real concern out in front of uh the middle school uh out there off of Airport Road, uh where another child has been, uh was hit. And uh we just uh I know you guys are going to work with the county and and and work on that, but it's just happening too frequently. So, I hope that we can encourage uh the county uh school board uh to help us out out there for our citizens going to that school. I don't know how that all works, but um it can only do so much patrolling, but there needs to be some help out there with that for someone gets killed. That's all I have. Lince,

I'm gonna I'm gonna echo on what Sean said about the uh again another child hit going to school uh in Port Orange and it's um it's all too frequent and I cannot stress enough of how disappointed I am at people still speeding through the school zone on a daily basis and we have kids that go to different schools at different times. The middle schoolers are a little bit different because they're always going against the grain of traffic coming out of Cypress Head, coming out of W's Edge. Everybody's turning right. They look left. They never look to the right to see the kid coming. Now, we've had this situation going on for years. It was really bad W's edge for a while. But again, it's going to go back to we have to pay attention in the school zones. We have to pay attention in the school times. We live in the community with a lot of schools. And again, I just cannot stress it enough. another child hit going to school is not acceptable. Um the other issue I wanted to bring up though was uh on consent agenda tonight on item C uh you will see what there was a grant and we are applying for a grant to buy and demolish 12 homes that have been flooded. Okay, that's 12 homes that we are lo losing residents and that's 12 homes that we are losing tax revenue and we are losing parts of our community. That's all I got.

I want to touch base too on sorry coming back to the consent agenda.

Uh there was information in there about the delay on Oak Street and Jackson Street and the construction where we extended about another 180 days. So this is another example of the city being prepared and and getting things done but waiting on other jurisdictions like Florida Power and Light to get them power lines moved. And I just want the citizens to know that sometimes you want it done, you know, especially when it comes to flooding obviously and infrastructure. Why can't you do it quicker? And we're doing everything we can to do it quicker, but we're at the mercy of something we cannot control. And now we're this is like I think the second extension with this to uh for the power lines to be, you know, now another 180 days. It's going to take us probably into March of next year now,

probably. Yeah. So, just uh you know, I want people to understand that some things just we can't control.

I I did talk to the city manager before the meeting tonight and I've asked him to uh find an opportunity to bring back uh a presentation to us on on on pedestrian and bicycle accidents, looking at like the last three or four years. um and geographically speaking in certain areas where we've where we've had more um and and kind of talk to us a little bit about what some options may be, what kind of new technology may be out there. This latest accident, by the way, turned out not to be what a lot of them are, which is that person making the right turn coming out and they just don't see it. That's actually not what happened in this particular one, but nonetheless, yeah, still an accident involving a motor vehicle and a child. Um, so we'll look at these and a lot of these areas involve roadways um that are stateowned and maintained or county owned and maintained. Um, but we need to work with our with our partners collectively in some of these areas to to see what we can do uh to try to improve the safety there. And so much of it is just simply distracted driving people in a hurry, talking on their phones, doing whatever and and just not paying attention. So,

all right. Um, city attorney comments. Nothing tonight. All right. City manager. I don't have anything. All right. And if you guys will keep an eye on Wayne Gene, we'll try to get him in when he gets a chance. Item 17, art house annual update. He's up. Is he in? Can I I I appreciate [clears throat] you yielding to him. I just became very nervous. No, no, no. Come on in. Listen, all these folks showed up tonight wearing red because they knew you were coming and they know how much Christmas means to you. So, [laughter] Christmas means a lot.

Listen, you have an opportunity tonight, brother. Look at these people behind you. These people are looking to support what you guys what he is fixing to talk about. Y'all talk to y'all. You I'm I'm going to let you do what you want. So, a lot of the folks probably didn't expect to see you tonight, but I think they're going to appreciate what you've got to say and what you guys do every year for the community. So, it is your show. Go ahead.

Well, I'm officer Jean with Ford Police Department. I'm also the founder of Spouses back in the blue. Uh we joined forces together in 2020 to create what's called Tops of Christians. Uh last year we provided 490 children with Christmas. And that's to get some math behind it. I'm not good at it, but seven gifts a kid. Each Um, [applause] it is like I always say when I'm here is it's not a a oneperson show. It is the community coming together, you know, as a family to provide the children with the gifts that they get. Uh there is no way in the world um that we could provide this many children with gifts or food without the community. And I thank God every day that I get the pleasure, the privilege to do what I do. Uh, and that I get to work with so many great people that they boss me around at this point. Um, they tell me what I'm doing wrong, they tell me what I'm doing right, and there's only there's one main she

Oh, she's already been here waiting on you. So, [laughter] um, but it is it is not a oneperson show. It is not. It is a a community coming together to help those who are less fortunate. So, how can they help?

So, Port Police Department I have to go wrap a box here a little bit is accepting donation toy donations or uh spouses back in blue is accepting monetary donations. And just so you understand what a monetary donation give, we go shopping for the kids. The kids don't go with us. So we go shopping for the children. Last year we spent $15,000 shopping for the kids. Uh on top of all the toy donations that the community has provided us provided the children uh we have a day where we wrap toys. Uh if you want to know more about that be involved in it. I welcome you to come out. Uh it's at the Port Arts Pavilion again. Uh they have been nice to donate the building to us to use again. Monetary donations can be written out spouse back in blue. I always tell everybody put in the comment section cops for Christmas because that's where it's going. The toy donations will be at Ports Police Department. Uh several locations, LA Fitness, there's probably 20 25 locations throughout the city. Um,

what's the what's the deadline for them to drop off? December 19th. Okay.

It's already we've already started victimation. I'm a little bit behind just like I am tonight. Um, I apologize for returning this. And this is an amazing program. It really is. And I have to thank Chief Chief Marine for [snorts] allowing allowing this to happen because I I don't think there's a lot of places law enforcement wise in many communities that open up to citizens like we do and welcome the citizens in to help and and and be a part of the program. In fact, over the the past year since last cops for Christmas, had several citizens stop me in uniform and out of uniform uh and thank me for, you know, letting them to be a part of it. Um again, it's it's not one person, it's not five people, it's hundreds of people doing this. And without the support of the community, this could not this could not happen. 490 children.

A lot.

We were all very tired last year. And like I said, last year the the greatest gift on Christmas morning is waking up knowing that there's children out there that are having Christmas. And that's all you need. You I don't need nothing under your tree. In fact, my wife said I was naughty. I'm not going to give you. [laughter] But we appreciate everybody's help, the community's help, and uh we welcome it. And all I can say is I'm not going over nowhere soon. I've been here April's 15 years, and I love the city of Port Orange and the citizens. And it's just amazing to see. One of the unique things about this particular program for those that aren't familiar is that because this program is done by volunteers who are mostly police officers and spouses and family members, they see a very unique personal inside look to some needs in the community. And and he doesn't like to brag on his team or himself as you guys can tell, but they've done things in the past where they've gone to calls for service and having to take care of that. But during the course of taking and carrying that realize there are kids that are sleeping on the floor that don't have a bed, don't have a mattress. And through this program, they have provided things like that. Kids that don't have a pair of sneakers to wear to school to make sure they put shoes on their feet. So while toys are important, they also identify a lot of other things. They've even had vehicles donated for people who didn't have a way to get themselves to work to support their families and things like that. So, the program does a lot of things all year round, but this is their this is kind of their showcase moment. So, I encourage anybody that wants to help out, get those toys and those donations in by December the 19th, and these folks will definitely take care of the rest and you'll feel really

good about being part of something like this.

There there's also going to be a banner at Port Orange Police Department. You can trust that you are good at it. Um, it's inside Orange Police Department. You can make donations through that. It is it's overwhelming, but in a good way. You know, we all year long you hear negative. And this is the one time of the year that we can take all that negative energy that we've got stored up as police officers, as citizens everyday life, they can turn it around and be positive. Speaking of cars, by the family and I'm done. [applause]

There will be a collection box here at city hall as well just to make it easier for everyone here in the lobby. Excellent. Thank you, GENTLEMEN. [applause] Art house. Item 17, art house annual update. Fair to follow that. Good to see you. Hi guys. Just one second. [clears throat]

Good evening, mayor, county council, and staff. Thank you for having us here tonight. My name is Cameron Venson. I am the executive director of Art House. I am the vice president of the Bluja County Cultural Alliance, and I also sit on the county advisory committee for the Echo Gallery. I am here to first Oh, sorry. Cameron Vincent, resident of South Daytona, executive director here in Port Orange. Perfect. Um, I would like to start off tonight by saying I'm very sorry about the last meeting. It's okay.

I tried to give Tracy a a brief update on what was going on and why I could not make it. Um, later on this presentation, you'll understand the gravity of the situation and why I did, and I beg for forgiveness. Um, second of all, I'd like to thank Mayor Stilner for being our 29th annual mayoral judge during our 2025 street painting festival and chalk art competition held during Port Orange Family Days. We had an amazing crowd. It was rained out the first day. We had so many community members come out and still support. The artwork was amazing. And again, um, I'm glad it was you and not me. I I was afraid you were going to get your kneecaps broken in the parking lot. Um, I kid. It's a family. But thank you. you did a wonderful job. You stepped up to it and you did great. Thank you. Um, just a quick update today before I gave you our 2024 annual report. We had Sheriff Chitwood come to Art House today and greet over 24 homeschool students during our Tuesday homechool classes. Um, he came for two reasons. One, to see the kids. Two, to get a great picture with the kids in his sponsored classroom. And three, to help support the food bank that Art House um is currently helping out with. All of the cultural council or cultural grant, county cultural grant um applicants have a food box, food pantry for when the government shutdown, but also we're keeping up through the second week of December um to help restore and reimburse those food banks that still need it for those that are that are struggling. Um, of the 16 organizations, we've pulled in over,00 pounds of non-p perishable foods for the holidays and will continue to do so. All right, now for my fancy presentation. So, here's just an infographic of our

service numbers from 2024. Again, we serve uh 62 public school art programs, 104 Valuchia County art educators, 16 municipalities, and 131,457 Valuchia County residents were served through our classes, programs, and gallery. $16,889 was raised and donated in art supplies and equipment for Valuchia County School's art classrooms. Remember, they get around 47 to 87 cents per student per year for art supplies. It's not enough. We helped mitigate that. 3,619 service hours of art lessons provided through camps and classes. $12,460 in tuition and supplies-based scholarships. 6,421 children reached through our programming. 4,200 works of art featured in the art house gallery and outreach exhibits. 4,154 student artists featured in our art house gallery and outreach exhibits. We did all this through fundraising programming and only $12,914 in grant funds. 89 service hours of art therapy nonclinical for children with autism ages 5 to 16. 116 service hours of art therapy nonclinical for homeless children ages 4 to 16. And 331 service hours of art therapy for atrisisk youth ages 10 to 16. I'm going to break down some numbers for you because while you guys have the biggest hearts, you also need to know the numbers because you are valuable stewards of Fort Orange. 174,000 in free gallery admission. We do not choose for charge for our student art gallery. Um we had 17,458 gallery attendees in 2024. If we were to charge them $10 each, we would have pulled in 175K. That's a free service that we provide to our residents. $9,860 in art scholarships [clears throat]

and the that's just what we awarded to Port Orange students ages 10 to 18. 19,870 in outreach art programs for underprivileged, at risk, and special needs youth. Um 951 students, $20 a lesson, and then gallery attendees in 2024 at $10 each. and $19,220 in free community programs, chalk art competitions, free youth art stations, adult painting classes at the Port Orange Wreck, to name a few. 3,622 Port Orange children enrolled in classes and camps, educational development for 23% of Port Orange families in a safe and creative atmosphere, and and um to inspire growth. And of course, we have some amazing pictures because I cannot go without bragging with our kids. We have right here, this is Zayn. He is part of our special needs art program. He is a savant. He decorated an entire surfboard in roughly 30 minutes with incredibly detailed figures. We have some of our our students, our classes, the galleries. They get a little packed. Um, we even have county councilman Reinhardt coming out to visit one of our camps. Art House's 2023 port on economic impact estabated economic impact for 2024. Sorry, that's supposed to be 24. Um roughly 189,352 a non-resident um Port Orange dining and shopping. That's 83 83% of the families and gallery attendees go out to dinner or go shopping after an art gallery reception. The figure above is just based on a $15 meal choice. Um which nowadays that doesn't doesn't go far. That's barely a kid a kid play. Camps and classes, estimated $55,000 in classes in camp tuition, money spent by families in Port Orange throughout Valuia, and income generated by free art house programming at the Port Rec Center, murals, and art classes.

Okay, so here's where we get into it. We are still doing the classes at the rec center, the painting art classes for $10 each for all of our poor residents and members of the rec center. the down under murals. As you know, you guys entered into a partnership with us for us to provide the murals. We are very excited about that. Here are some of the pictures from the first stage. I'm now having to give you a brief update. As you all know, as Councilman Grub spoke before, um, County Council, although they budgeted for the cultural grant that's been going on since 1989, that provides funding for non nonprofit cultural organizations in Valuia. Um, that funding goes for free and reduced programming for our residents. That's it. They've pulled the funding. It's still there. They won't let us have it even though it was approved. We are currently fighting every day, but this is not football. As much as I love the sport, there's no offense. There is no defense. We are playing chess. We have gone through the county um the county charter commission and working on getting arts and culture put as a core value of our county government. We are working on getting this put on the ballot in 2026 so that is taken out of their hands. Whereas we can have arts and culture. there was money that has been taken for a motocross facility on wildlife conservation land that um it is rumored that this is what the money is going to. So, if we take it out of county council hands and put it on the ballot, much like the echo, I believe it'll be beneficial for all and I think that our residents should have a right to say. Um we are working through petition, through the charter review committee, and by putting it on the ballot in 2026. The reason I'm bringing this up is this could force a possible delay um in the completion of our murals. We are actively and aggressively trying to campaign for mural funding. Um for the

second year in a row, I received the highest grants um score for this county grant. Um we were going to get $30,000, 19 of which was going to go towards the mural program. I'm going to find the money. I will not give up. We will still give you the murals. Just I beg you just for a little time and a little faith and I promise to deliver. I've got mural artists coming from all over the country ready to do this and some of them are willing to do it on an IOU basis just for Art House. Um let's see. I only have about a minute left so I'm going to keep going. These are financial figures. Now these are in public record. You'll be able to go over these at your leisure. Um, we have gone down, we've cut our expenses by $11,000. In the past year, our income has gone up by around $82,000. And our balance sheet along with our profit and loss statement that shows you where we put those funds and where we get the funds from. We are so very grateful for the opportunities. I have about 40 seconds left. I wanted to one share with you the um the the economic impact that it's going to have on us by not getting this grant. We're losing 217 youth arts scholarships. The majority of those are Port Orange families that are affected. This is free child care for 8:30 in the morning till 5:00 in the afternoon. Um free resident gallery admittance, two out of four of our chalk art competitions, our outreach programming. I've laid off staff and I'm reducing our classes. We are working hard. We will not give up. I've seen harder days, especially during co I have one last request before I go. If it is possible, we would like for you to help share our art exhibitions and any family events that we have. We have one right now.

Don't rush. You're good. Right now, currently, we have the extended display exhibition at Art House that will be up until December 9th. It is over 200 works from the Halifax Art Festival Student Show selected out of a thousand. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. They are incredible. They are amazing. I invite you and our amazing community to come see us. Thank you guys so much. Good to see you. Appreciate you. Thank you. [applause] Item 18, Citizen Advisory Committee for the TPO, Mr. Bobby Ball. How are you, sir? How are you? Good. Good to see you. Welcome.

I'll be quick. Uh we had our uh monthly meeting for the CAC for the TPO. Probably involved with the CAC TPO, sorry. Uh we had some typical admin action items. Uh cleaning up some stuff with the uh with the TPO. Uh the biggest thing we had was also uh confirming the call for projects processes and um so that was really just approved, but in a few months I'll probably volunteer to continue to be on the ranking committee so that way we keep our core orange project near the top. And then we also got a presentation on the DOT's 5-year work program, which also includes a couple of term lane projects that the the city has. And uh lastly, there will be no December meeting, so you won't see me in December, at least for this purpose. We'll see you next year.

You'll probably see me for something else. That's it. Unless you got any questions, any questions for Bobby? No. Thank you, sir. Thanks. Thank you, Bobby. Item 19, general employee pension board appointment. Is Paul Serno here? Paul here? I see Paul. Okay. Um, there's a vacancy on the general employee pension board and Mr. Serno, who had previously served on the board, who is now retired, would like to fill the vacancy of the city resident position on the board. The term is for two years and will expire in 2027 and there's only one vacancy and no other applications. Can I get a motion and a second to appoint Mr. Serno to that? Move to appoint Paul Serino.

Solo, thank you. uh to the general employment employees pension board. Sorry. [clears throat] Second. We have a motion and [laughter] a second to Wow. See what you did to me. Point Mr. Serno to the general employee pension board. Any discussion by councel? Any discussion on this topic from the community? Back to council. All in favor of appointing Mr. Serno to the general employee pension board signify by saying I. I.

All oppose. same sign 50. Congratulations. Let him know he's been hired back to the board. All right, moving on to the regular agenda items of tonight. Item 20, discussion waving the 12-month waiting period for submitting a new resoning application for the Vintage Acres site. Councilman Green, this was uh I think believe you brought this up, so I'm going to put this to you to put a motion on the floor for discussion. Yeah, I brought this up last meeting and again it came down to um you know again we we annexed this property knowing uh what the what the finished development was going to be. Um and uh but I think with uh not us not being a full panel, it wasn't uh probably an accurate decision to be made. I just wanted to to do it while we were all here on this panel. So uh with that, I'm going to make a motion to uh wave the 12month uh reapplication. have a motion. We have a second.

I'll second it for a matter of discussion.

All right. We have a motion and a second uh for the discussion of waving the 12-month waiting period for resubmitting a reszoning application for Vintage Acre site. Um so we're going to have some discussion here as the council and then we will go to the public for discussion. I know several folks have already signed up and indicated they wish to discuss for for just to make sure everybody understands the topic is the motion. There is not going to be discussion about what a development might look like, how many houses, how many ponds, all that kind of stuff. It is strictly to the motion for the discussion of waving a 12month period. So when you guys come up to talk, that's what your comments will need to be on is strictly on that particular item that is going to be on the floor for discussion.

And we're talking about just putting it on the agenda on an upcoming No, it's on the agenda now. No, no. What we're what we're discussing here is if it's going on an agenda, correct? Nope. Is that not right? That's why you That's why we're here tonight. Okay. It is on the agenda. Okay. So it will be a decision made tonight. Yeah. If you want weigh in, Mr. just to talk through what what if. So if [clears throat] if that time period is waved, the applicant would then start over. In essence, it's a new application goes through the process. It will come back to you eventually, but it would have to go through the entire process as if it was a new application, right? And what does that timeline typically take? Five to six months.

It depends on on how much they change. So they've got to go through a staff process, planning commission, and back here. So 90 days beyond typical. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. We'll start with you, Lance. Back to you. No, that's all I have. That's it. Yeah. Sean,

so I I I'd like to discuss um the reason why I supported the his motion was because um we took Well, when we voted on this, it was a two- two vote, and I don't think that was a fair representation of what the citizens of this city. We have five people making votes and and you made it very clear that when we have a quorum, our business is going to move forward and I respect that 100%. Um, correct. You know, stop me if I go out of bounds here, attorney. When we when we annexed in the property, it was a 50 vote. And and I I'm not saying that it needed to be a 50- vote for approval of it. I'm perfectly okay with it going um 32 no. We never gave it that chance. It was 22 no with two people in favor and two people against. And that's why this council has five people. So you don't have those split votes. And and I know that there are going to be things that there are going to be times where I won't be here or someone else won't be here and we're going to go ahead and do the business of the city. But what it did was we knew we had an idea that this property was being annexed into the city of Port Orange to be developed and when they came to reszone it for the development we didn't have a full council and it went too and it went under and then now the developer is asking us to hey can we wave that opportunity to bring it back sooner than 12 months and um out of respect for anyone that wants to do business in this city. I have no problem with that. Now, I understand the history of why we had this in our code [clears throat] was because from 19 probably 90 through

200 probably 13, we were this council, not us, were extremely busy with developments. And I actually spoke to a former uh city council member today and I said, "What was the history behind the TW 12-month waiver?" And honestly, he's like, "Well, um, you know, I don't know." He didn't have an answer. And I mean, I get it. Back then projects were coming probably to this staff rapidly. We were having an enormous amount of growth. Subdivisions that were out there now were not out there in 1994 939. So, there was a lot going on and if things didn't didn't um weren't approved, they waited a whole 12 months because there were other projects going on that were occupying the this this council and the staff's work. So, I think that's the history. Maybe someone that was here then can correct me, but that's the way I understand it. It was extremely busy. They didn't want to see things coming back when they were already shut down with a no. So, I don't know. I don't quite understand the history, but I think that we we're not busy right now with new development going on in this community. We annexed in property with the idea that's what that was going to be for. And and I want everyone to be very clear, understand that I'm not looking to annex in a whole lot of property. We're about built out in Port Orange. These [clears throat] are we are pretty much built out and I have no desires to go further. But at

the same time, we welcome these people in and now we um have an opportunity to have a full council possibly within the next um whenever they can bring it forward instead of waiting a whole year. We gave him a green light and then basically gave him a red light, but we didn't truly give him a red light because there's only four of us here. So, I want full representation on this project if it's going forward, whether it be yes or no. Reed, you really ready for me? Sure.

Why not? Um, you know, I simply put about this is I I'm look I'm trying to stay very focused on what we're actually voting on here. And it's not whether or not to approve the actual project that they're trying to build. It's whether or not we're going to wave them having to wait 12 months. Um, Lance and and Sean, who I have an immense amount of respect for are correct. I was not here and so it did fail 22 which a tie is a fail. That's the way it's written in our ordinances. It's the way it goes in almost pretty much every government as far as I'm aware of in the entire United States. Um so I'm I'm trying to make sure that I stay very focused on this here. Um because I don't know how I would feel about voting for the actual project. I wasn't here. I obviously researched a little bit, but I knew I wasn't going to be here and so did the applicant. The applicant knew that I was not going to be in attendance. City council knew I was not going to be here. City manager knew. City manager and staff told the applicant. We will only have four of the five council. And the applicant still decided to bring it forward. They could have waited two weeks and I would have been here. I was here at that meeting. So, they made the choice that led to them having that 2- two vote. At the end of the day, however, I'm going to vote on this comes down to one thing. What kind of precedent do I want to set going forward for other ties? I understand you can get wrapped up in the gravity of this being a very big project and obviously there's a lot of public interest, but it's every time something comes forward and it becomes a tie vote, we're gonna find an excuse to bring it forward and we're going to just vote on it again because if that's the case, we should just get rid of the

12-month thing altogether, take it off the books and don't make anybody wait. They can just go back through the process. And Scott, you know, Sean, you do make a great point. We are at buildout. That's why the only way we're going to get any new addition is by annexing either existing homes or undeveloped property. Otherwise, nothing's getting cheaper. And we're continuing to raise taxes on our residents that are already here. So, you you got to you can go down a very long road here, but at the end of the day, it's just what kind of precedent do we want to set on how this council is going to operate in the future on things that arise like this? Tracy [clears throat]

agree with Reed on the age of the ordinance. It's 30 plus years old. It's like a lot of ordinances that come before us that we change as things change. You know, um for me, my vote wouldn't change. It'd still be 22. But the ordinance that we're talking about tonight

is dealing with impeding business. I'm a business owner. I didn't know nothing about this ordinance until after the fact that a 12 month hold on anything. To me, that that's that's a bite to the city that we tie our business individuals hands. They should be allowed due process to come out and reapply just like anybody else. that a reapply application maybe comes back and it it's a better project. Not speaking for that segment though. What we're talking about tonight is an ordinance that is 30 plus years. Should he be able to go back and reapply? Yeah. I I do believe that any business person should be allowed to reapply. Is he going to get a better vote out of that? We won't know until that comes in front of us. So [clears throat] at the agenda at hand right now is dealing with an old ordinance that I would question to Matt is after we do this is having that ordinance revised. What do we have to do so we're not having to do this again? Do we make it they can turn around in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, whatever it is. How do we address that? That's not up to the city attorney. That's up to us.

Go ahead. Yeah, I would I would agree it's a policy question for for the council. Okay. But we have to go through the city attorney to make sure that we're doing it the right way. Stop.

Yeah. So, regarding the history of the ordinance, the the ordinance has has been there much like many many other ordinances in the city. And just because something doesn't get exercised doesn't mean you always go and change the ordinance. So developers and folks that are interested in building or developing in the community for decades and decades and decades have presented projects asking for reasonzoning. Sometimes they want to switch something from residential to commercial or commercial to residential and sometimes it's it's density changes. Happens all the time. It's happened numerous times since I've been up here probably close to 30 or 40 times. And many many times those requests get denied. There's one right out there off of Hensel Road that we're all familiar with. Same thing. And then the developers go back, they they see, okay, this is not something the council was interested or the community was interested in and it goes through the process and perhaps it's a different developer or a different person who's interested in the land. So, it happens actually quite a bit. Um, so I don't want anybody thinking that this ordinance hasn't been in play and hasn't been an option for people for decades. It has been. Whether they chose to to exercise this part is completely up to them. Okay. So I, you know, as far as the ordinance goes, I don't I don't have an issue with the ordinance at all because if there was a totally different thing in the next meeting and it got denied and that person wanted to do this exact same thing, then then they can do that. um whether it gets approved or not that's up to this governing body. So um I just wanted to clarify that also I think it's important to understand that annexation which doesn't happen a lot but the process and the concept of annexation is different than zoning. Okay. So a property can be annexed in and then it is up to that interested party to come back with a zoning that we like. They can come back and ask we want

to make this commercial. We want to make this one unit uh per acre, we want to make it two units per acre, four units per acre. They can do all kinds of things that is different than the annexation of the property. And yes, albeit I get that in the concept and I'm not in that world, but in the concept I get that there's a lot of moving parts and and there's a lot of trying to figure out well what ifs. So if we if we do this, can we likely get a project that might be like this? then that's the process to go for. My I I'm not against development in the city of Port Orange. I'm looking for good quality development. Through the course of this process and in the last few years, we have seen several incidents that I think has given this governing body the right rightfully to be cautious on what we do and how we do it. Um my my big thing with this particular project is still is that there is an active study for the Spruce Creek wershed that I think plays a big factor in anything that's going on. [applause] Let's yeah I appreciate that but let's let's let's not do that. Okay. But but that plays a very significant role in our municipality. So, um, and I and I get that the majority of the folks that were going to speak that are going to speak tonight as as did previously, they're not residents of Port Orange. Your neighbors, we appreciate you. You're welcome to come and and and share that. Um, but still, nonetheless, our our role is to try if we are going to have development to do what's best for the community, try to try to realize what the community is looking for, try to get the best product. And we've done that honestly. I at one point, you know, in the past elected body, um it one of the council members asked and we went back and looked and it was like 27 out of 30 reszoning requests that were for

higher density were denied. So the concept of denying is not new. It happens, right? And so it happens all over and it's part of the process. And a lot of times those come back and they end up being better projects for the community because it's what the community wanted. you a very good case in point is right out there across from Crane Lakes where you have the storage unit facility. I don't know how many time Wayne three four times we had folks that were wanting to put residential town homes apartment I mean all kinds of stuff going on there and the community didn't want it and the property was owned commercial and so it became commercial. Um so anyway that process has existed for a really really long time. All right we're going to go to uh the public for comments. Again I appreciate everybody doing this. this will help uh expedite this. We do want to hear your your concerns and you are welcome. Um please keep your comments I I'll tell you who who's coming up to speak and then uh maybe who is next to try to help that process and move around just a little bit. Please keep your comments very specific to this motion that's on the floor on waving the 12month period for resubmitting a new resoning application. And I am so sorry for mispronouncing names. I'll just say that once hopefully. Suzanne Schneider may [clears throat]

Mayor if I may really quickly just also in the interest of time there is something that gets done in Tallahassee pretty frequently when there's something when there's a lot of people that want to speak to it just come up and say I'm firmly against it and and move forward if that's all you want to do you just want to make sure that you do that you have that option uh that gets done in Tallahassee on well daily so you know don't feel like you have to take all three minutes but if you want to and you're going to stay on that topic. Take all three minutes by all means. Yeah. And we and we appreciate that not everybody likes to speak in public, so that's okay, too. Uh a after Suzanne will be Jeff Anderson. Welcome.

Thank you. So, I'm just asking that you let me get through to get to my point of this item even though it may not sound like I am. So, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um every other month I attend the round table of elected officials flood mitigation meeting. It has been helpful to hear about the stormwater projects and studies that various cities in the county have acted on. Much to my surprise, after the last meeting, someone sitting at the table asked me privately why I didn't bring up development as a contributor to flooding. After attending these meetings for a year, development was never discussed. The idea that older neighborhoods do not have proper infrastructure and are the issue is not the case when they have never flooded until the new development was built. If an if an area has never flooded but has started to flood in the last three years, why deny that hydrarology has changed with each new development? There is more impact on communities than self contained storm water storage. Any engineer will say there is no mathematical equation for the trees cut down and the water that was retained when constructing new storm water storage. There is regret that no one talked about the impact of developments at the flood mitigation meetings all year. Resolving flooding will take more than capital improvement projects and cleaning ditches. Although that is greatly appreciated, it will also take conversations about what happens when we continue to do more of the same. Building up land, cutting down trees, not addressing areas of flooding, but continuing to approve new developments that change hydrarology ongoing. Gentlemen, there is no disrespect intended tonight. Knowing what we all know now about flooding, please follow the rule that is in your land development code and wait the 12 months. Why not wait and allow the changes to hydrarology to catch up to what the council has already approved. Change

takes time and this allows for additional funding to be pursued through state legislators for projects and for SB80 to be repealed. You do not have to override the existing rule. It is not necessary. It also allows time for additional flood mitigation meetings and planning for the impacts of new development in the southeast region collectively. Good planning means discussions with neighbors and realizing what has been happening has not been working. I just want to add to that during my last moment here at the round table of elected officials meeting, Mayor Dew asked for a Southeast Valuchia committee and that would include you all. Uh there is no competition. I don't speak for anyone but myself and Dream Green Valuchia and I'm simply asking you to consider having a Southeast committee and waiting for your own flood um impacts that you've already voted on. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeff Anderson. [applause] And then the the next one, I apologize. I can't quite make out the first name, but I believe the last name is Marjgerie M or Majerie. M A G G I O R E. Welcome, Mr. Anderson. right here.

Thank you. Good evening. Uh Jeff Anderson, 345 Country Circle Drive West, Port Orange. Uh I think moving forward, if somebody asked me my age, my reply is going to be I'm old enough to witness the rise and fall of common sense. But I'll get back to that. The city of Port Orange, Munich Code, Chapter 3, Article 1, Section 7 states, relication for denied resoning. When an application for resoning is denied by the city council, subsequent application for similar resoning on any portion of the same parcel of property may not be made for 12 months from the date of the city council denial unless specifically authorized by the city council. So that's why we're here. I could not find anything specific in Port's MUN code for the reasons of of a reapplication. However, I did find things that other municipalities would constitute as justification for the relication. reapplication before 12 months. An applicant may be eligible to reapply if there's been substantial change in the facts or circumstances since the original denial. A substantial change could include a significant change in the surrounding community, a substantial change in the applicant's proposal or plans. To my knowledge, neither of those have happened. So, the solution is to change the rules when they don't work in your favor. Common sense. Common sense tells us that the study that is currently being worked on will answer a lot of questions. It's a complete neglect of common sense to move forward with any land development plans on any parcel of land that will directly impact the Spruce Creek basin without the revol results of that study. We have been told by lawyers and engineers that the development will have no negative impact on Spruce Creek or any other adjacent community. We have been told that the calculations make this a certainty. This is a noticeably confident train of thought that assumes that engineers are infallible. I know this thought to be true. Recently, my wife and I had dinner with a group of friends and the very

subject that we're talking about tonight came up. One of the friends is a civil engineer and made it abundantly clear that if an engineering firm made the calculations, they could not be wrong. Frankly, I was shocked. There have been many spoken There have been many that have spoken over the past few months with credentials that weigh on this subject. I have some myself. I have worked for medical device manufacturer for over three decades. Our firm designs, manufactures, and sells devices all over the globe. As senior vice president, I have a hand in in development of these products and work closely with our R&D department that consists of about a dozen engineers. And guess what? They're not always right. In my industry, problems are detected during the prototype stage, which allows for easy corrections. There is no prototype phase when when building a development. Once it's done, it's done. Under this theory that no mistakes are made, no automobile would ever get recalled, no building would have structural defects, and there would be no such thing as product liability attorneys. Let's let's implement some common sense and at least let the study be completed.

THANK YOU, MARK. [applause] I'M LOOKING FOR THE person last name Majior maybe. Thank you, sir. Close. Ne next next speaker will be Elizabeth Mccloon. If you want to just come right on down, be ready here in the front. Welcome, sir. Majority like a lot of majority sanctum.

Oh, okay. I got you. Go ahead. And thank you for the time, mayor, uh, councilmen and staff. We really appreciate this. Uh, I am here to address two things from one from a leadership standpoint on this waiver that we're going to be talking about and you are our leaders. You know, the second thing is going to be about the waiver itself and why that we feel um, the 12 months should wait. So uh Kevin Majori is my name and essentially leadership is about trust and respect and integrity having integrity. So the trust aspect of it is earned. Um the respect, you can give respect, we can give back respect, but the integrity, the root word is being intact. And I'm going to get back to that towards the end of this. But the main body of this is going to be on the second concern I have which is waving the 12 months and waiting period after denial vote last month uh in the reszoning application of Vintage Acres and Spruce Creek. Now, without waiting for the Spruce Creek Water Basin study, any developer could submit reszoning applications, which would create a much greater chance of front of flooding in any and all communities and surrounding areas. Um, you know, a very very smart man once said, when you continue making decisions and do the same thing over and over and expected different results, well, that's a definition of insanity. So perhaps we need to wait. You know, all of these concerned citizens about waiting um that are standing behind me in red and a lot of others is no

different than you, mayor. And I'm going to quote you. Um, our mayor said, "I'm very concerned about Spruce Creek Basin, and my interest is I would feel a lot more comfortable today had that study been done and completed for us to see because ultimately that is the heart for this area. because ultimately that is the heart for this area. And y'all made a decision based on that with a quorum and due justice and now we would like to change cuz another commissioner came back. I respect that and thank you for your time on this commission. But I would also like you to consider how it impacts everyone and going forward for the rest of your days and the rest of our days.

Thank you very much. Elizabeth [applause] get it for the record. Kevin, your address. Kevin, what's your address, please? Need it for the record. Uh 2168 Spring Water Lane. One word, spring water. Thank you, sir. Elizabeth Mccloon and then followed by Jan Albert. If Jan will come down right here and be ready, please. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening and thank you for listening to our concerns. I'm going to be short. I agree with what everybody said. I implore you to please wait until the Spruce Creek water basin study has been completed before any rule changes happen or preferential treatment towards builders or develop happens. Thank you so much. Thank you. THANK [applause] YOU Jan Albert followed by Gary Singleton. Welcome.

Good evening governing body. Thank you for letting me speak. Uh my name is Jan Albert. I live at 435 Country Circle East. been a real estate appraiser for 55 years and a hydraologist. The only thing I want to say is that I'd like you to not to wave the 12 months because right now I went to measure it. It's all stuck at the meander point. And no matter what we disagree or agree on, how much water goes in there, it's stuck. It's not moving. You will find that in the basin study. So I'm asking you to hold to the 12 months until we can figure out just exactly what is what on the hydraology because FEMA has put an M stamp now at that meander point which means map revision coming. They know real world data has changed since 17 and I can tell you that as of today we had 62.4 inch cumulative total. So we don't we we we want you not to wave the the 12 months.

Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] Gary Singleton, followed by Gretchen Howell.

Gary Singleton, 1998 Spruce Creek Circle. The engineer's job is to get water off the client's property, ensuring their new homes do not flood. The attorney's job is to get the project approved by any means necessary, even if it means setting a dangerous precedent intended to nullify an official vote. This is intended to nullify not only this vote, but can be used in any future victories won by the public. It is we, the citizens, that will suffer the consequences of your decision tonight. Long after the engineers, attorneys, and developers have banked their profits and moved on. Is this the future you want for Port Orange politics? Council members and developers with their attorneys allowed to use this rule ensuring victory even after a loss. If the developer had prevailed, would you be considering a citizen appeal to nullify that decision? Visit the site after a good rain. See for yourselves how cows are standing in millions of gallons of water. See for yourself how much rainwater is currently being held on this property. Do you truly believe you can replace a lake with the retention ponds? Do you truly believe the rate and volume of discharge will be the same down?

Sorry, sir. Sorry, sir. Go ahead. You can continue.

Oh, as pre-development as required by law. Are you truly confident that none of the millions of gallons of water displaced by fill will not end up in the living rooms of your neighbors? Don't be unduly influenced by words, technical calculations, and staff reports meant to offiscate the fact that there is no possible way to effectively and safely handle the millions of gallons of runoff from this property or the inadequacies of the current storm water system. To do the right thing, all you have to do is apply the existing rules openly evenly across the board. Deny this waiver. Do your due diligence. review the Spruce Creek basin study when completed and assess the entire storm water system to ensure it can handle the runoff from this development.

Thank you, sir. Gretchen, [applause] followed by David Walters. Welcome

Gretchian how 2685 slow flight drive corner of Brasco Turner and slow flight inside Spruce Creek. I'm here to advocate that you do not forcehorten the period. Give yourself the whole year. The Spruce Creek basin study is going to come out and I am going to make a prediction. It's going to be worse than what folks are currently saying it might be. Here's why. How many of you have ever been on a website called spaceweather.com? It predicts solar influence that drives our weather. We are having we're in the middle of a solar storm right now. That's why your radios aren't working so good. Your cell phones aren't working so good. And one thing that it's going to do is increase our rain. That's why we had heavy rain last year. They say we're already into a solar maximum cycle. Those cycles persist for three to five years. If we don't wait for the Spruce Creek Basin study, and hopefully it will have a prognostication of what happens when we're in a solar maximum and it is raining like crazy, we will have flooding beyond your wildest nightmares. Thank you.

Thank you, David Walters. [applause] Amen. Father Victor Lopez be next. Hi, good evening. Uh my name is David Walters, 2608 Spruce Creek Boulevard. So, I'm on the Spruce Creek F line. Uh, my family's been here for decades. My dad was born in Daytona Beach in 1950 and he moved our family to Port Orange in 1985 around. Uh, we were one of the first families to move into the Bentwood subdivision. I've been here my entire life. In fact, Councilman Green, I used to program video games with your younger brother, Widen. Okay.

Um, I joined the Air Force. I moved away for 13 years and I came back with my wife and at the time my six-month old son. I thought Port Orange is the best place in the world because I have traveled the world. It's the best place for me to raise my family. Everything's great. Two years later, Hurricane Ian hits. Spruce Creek Basin floods. It floods into my home. [clears throat] A tree that was on the Spruce Creek Basin collapsed and fell on my garage. I'm very fortunate that I was able to deal with that. But so many families here are not. My son who was 2 years old, that's his first memory. If I ask him what he did, he remembers the tree falling. He remembers standing in ankle deep water. Last year during Hurricane Milton, he asked me again, "Dad, is our home going to flood?" That's what he asked me every time it rains now. So that's what I have to deal with. He's five. You say that I'm not a resident of the Port Orange and that may be true by technicality, but my son goes to Cypress Creek. Okay, I play in the Port Orange Leagues. My son plays everything. My life revolves around the city of Port Orange. So, when you build [clears throat] over what is once a lake and you turn it into concrete, it will flood. We have to know the effects. What's going to happen when we apply vintage acres because I really don't want my home to flood again. And we know what happens when the developers get their way. They build, they move on. Venetian Bay, right down the street from where this place will be. I know those developers. They packed up and moved to Georgia. They're gone. They don't have to deal with it. But I'll tell you that the residents of Venetian Bay are kayaking through the streets during hurricanes. So I want one day for my son to go away just like I did, start a life and then choose to move back to Port Orange. But

he's not going to if the city is underwater or it's full of concrete. We have to know the effects of what is going to happen when we build Vintage Acres or any other community in that area. We have to know it before my home floods again. And for our children's sake, if we want this city to continue to thrive, because I do believe it is a beautiful city, we have to know before we cause more misery for all of the kids who had to sit there in their homes in kneedeep watering when they'll be able to move back. It's going to happen again next year. We're going to have another hurricane. It's going to happen. I hope you're ready to answer to those children as well. Thank you. [applause] Uh after Father Lopez, it'll be Mike Dantoski.

Victor Lopez, 2156 Spring Water Lane, Port Orange, I've been asked to read a letter to you from Ansbacher Law, dated 18th November, 2025, handd delivered to Mayor Scott Stilner, Ray, Vintage Acres Reszoning. Dear Mayor Stilner, Ansbacher Law has been retained by Spruce Creek Property Owners Association, Inc. regarding the proposed Vintage Acres development. We are writing specifically to address an item which may come before the city council on November the 18th, 2025 that involves a request by the applicant to weigh the requirement of chapter 3, article 1, section 7 of the city's land development code, LDC that the applicant must [clears throat] wait 12 months to submit another zoning request. On behalf of the client, we object to the request to wave that provision of the LDC. And let me explain. We understand that Port Orange recently annexed 56.5 acre parcel. After the annexation, the applicant sought to amend the future land use map flume of the Port AR comprehensive plan and to reszone the property. Our client amend attended the public hearings held by the city council and objected to the land use changes. The city commission denied both the Flume amendment and the reasonzoning request. [clears throat] Unfortunately, the applicant is now seeking to resubmit the application for resoning. Chapter 3, article 1, section 7D of the LDC provides as follows. Relication is denied uh for denied resoning. When an applicant for resoning is denied by the city council, subsequent application for a similar reasoning of any portion of the same period of the property may not be made for a 12-month period from the date of the city council denial unless specifically authorized by the city council. You will note that the provisions of the LDC do not apply to the Flume amendment. As you know, Florida law requires that all zoning decisions shall be consistent with the comprehensive plan section 163.3194 Florida statute. This is why the applicant sought to amend the flume because it was necessary legal condition to precedent to the resoning.

Consequently, we are of the opinion that Port Orange cannot wave the 12-month limitation of the relication of the zoning of the resoning request because it would first require an amendment to the flume which was previously denied by the city council. To conclude, we submit that Port Orange City Council should not authorize the application to approve the 12-month period governing the relication of the zoning request. Sincerely, yours, Terrell A. Alen, Attorney at Law. Thank you, Mike. [applause] Meredith Cassandra will be up next.

Welcome clock here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of the council. Thanks for having me here today. On October 21st, where we when we stood before you concerning Bit Jakers, this council did the right thing. After hearing from the lawyers, the engineers, developers, staff, all of us, and each of other, you did the right thing. You used the information, facts, opinions, and the numbers to deny the vintage acres development. It was understood that a Spruce Creek wershed study was underway as approved by the Blush County Council on April 1st and that the results are due in the spring of next year and the mayor and the and Councilman Grubs agreed to wait until that study was completed and a report submitted before allowing any further development within the city that falls within this first creek wershed area. Common sense. Now, here we are one month later and the two councilmen who v voted in favor of the project, Councilman Green and Keford, both supporters of PIS Homes and Development, have decided to challenge the city's long-standing development code and wave the mandatory 12-month wait as required by law before submitting the plan again for approval. This is an unprecedented move. Councilman Foley was absent, and we have yet to see where he comes down on this issue. What has changed? Has the developer lowered the densities, agreed to put the houses up on stem walls instead of draining, filling, and building another slab on grade cookie cutter subdivision in a market where even the well-established middle class are priced at a range? Has the developer agreed to an additional 30-year bond that covers actual damages to adjoining property owners and the overwhelming uh and the about [clears throat] the over already overwhelmed Spruce Creek Basin? The answer is no. Mrs. Green and Gert have just agreed to allow the developer to get a second bite at the apple. One otherwise denied to all others that come before this body. To be clear, just

because someone purchases attractive land and gets it annexed into the city does not mean that it automatically is assumed that it gets to be reszoned and densities increased, allowing unfettered development at the detriment of the neighbors, citizens, and the environment and the city's future. You already mentioned that you're buying and bulldozing homes because of flooding issues. We listened to all the experts in October all in favor of this development regardless of what the citizenry wanted or needed. Well, who here represents the citizens besides the citizens themselves? Not staff, not the lawyers, not developers, but the officials that are elected for that purpose. You, we think you should vote no on the waiver. Wait till the study comes in. Look at the facts. look at what we can afford [clears throat] to develop in the city of Force and then move forward with what makes sense. The developer can come back with something different for that piece of property that makes sense, that is safe for the neighborhood, safe for the wershed, and safe for the community. That's all we're asking, not to wave the 12-month wait as as it is by law right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Meredith Cassandra. [applause] And then Jessica Sysmazac. Sorry, Meredith Cassandra at 1849 Spruce Creek Boulevard, Port Orange.

Um, I've been asked to read a letter from Jeff Brower to the Port Orange Council um from November 17th. Dear Mayor Stilner and the Port Orange Council, [snorts] I was pleased, as were many of your residents who are concerned about more development and possible flooding, that your council did not pass the reszoning for V the Vintage Acres [clears throat and cough] Development. That was a wise decision that would give the city and the county time to consider the recently approved Spruce Creek Basin study. The findings and recommendations that will be provided in that study are necessary to evaluate how our constituents can be protected and best served as we grow. Although I am writing this email from my own perspective and do not speak for the entire council, I would very much like to see the county and the city work together to resolve the flooding that our residents are experiencing. It will take 6 to 12 months for this study to be completed. It is well worth the wait to protect our constituents with this timely information before resuming any development in the area. In order to have all of the information required to make a responsible decision, I urge you all to proceed with the caution that is already provided in your land development code. Chapter 3, article 1, section 8 requires a 12-month waiting period before accepting a subsequent reszoning application. This would ensure the public is well protected and the landowner has the most up-to-date information to plan the future of the property. The time and consideration this council takes to make these decisions is significant and requires much research and evaluation. I appreciate the time each of you puts into your decisions.

Thank you, Jessica. [applause] And then after Jessica will be Brian White. Okay. Just one thing, my last name is Shimshack. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. uh council, I just want you to take into consideration the fact that it would probably be wise to wait until the first creek basin study is done because it's obviously going to have an impact on whether or not this development can go through in its original state. And also, I don't think letting them skip the waiting line would be nice. And uh yeah, I don't know. I have to consider maybe they're trying to outpace the Spruce Creek Basin study on purpose. I don't know. I mean, it's just me because think about it. If all of a sudden they have a bunch of legal fees, they're not going to want to do it in its original state anymore.

So, yeah, I would just say please make them wait the time. Okay. Thank you, Jess. We need an address. Sorry. [applause] Thank you. Brian White and then Hart, are you the Fendon? Okay.

Good evening, mayor, council members. Brian White, uh, 2464 Lydia Way in New Smyrna Beach. I'm also here as a board member at Thousand Friends of Florida, which is a land use advocacy nonprofit uh, that's present statewide. So, tonight I'm speaking in opposition of waving the 12-month waiting period for a new resoning application. I want to focus on this one thing. Why the 12-month rule exists, why it's standard across Florida and throughout the country, and why it's critically needed in this case. [snorts] The 12-month rule is not arbitrary. It's a fundamental guard rail, and every serious land use code includes a similar provision. 12 months is the [clears throat] universally accepted cooling off period after a reasonzoning denial. Why? because without it, developers could file the same application over and over until they eventually wear down staff, council members, and the public. The rule prevents what planners call resoning fatigue. It protects the integrity of the process. It ensures fairness, and it maintains public trust. This is not a punishment for the applicant. It's a standard procedural safeguard used in in every city, city after city across Florida. And the rule exists because land use decisions require stability. Land use decisions guide the future of the entire city. And if applications can keep coming back repeatedly, the process becomes political instead of datadriven. The 12-month rule ensures time for conditions to meaningfully change, time for new engineering or environmental information to emerge, time for neighbors to fully understand what was proposed, and time for the city to evaluate broader impacts. Without that time, decisions become reactive rather than thoughtful. Waivers of this kind are supposed to be rare. Cities treat waivers as extraordinary requests, not matters of routine, not expected and definitely not developerdriven. Typically, waivers are granted only if

substantial changes have been made to the project and new facts exist that make prior denials outdated. Here, there are no substantial project changes. And critically, the most important new facts, the results of the Spruce Creek Basin stormwater study, do not exist yet. Which brings me to the most important point. The 12-month rule is especially needed right now. We are in the middle of a study, a study taxpayers are funding specifically because storm water, flooding, and water quality concerns in this basin are extremely serious. Granting a waiver means making a land use decision without the storm water data, without evaluating impacts, and without the engineering. If you wave the rule tonight, you create a precedent that applies to every developer. Once you wave it once, you no longer have a meaningful 12-month rule. Developers will expect instant resubmitts after every denial. Future councils will be boxed in, and the purpose of the rule, fairness, predictability, and stability will evaporate. Thank you and HAPPY [applause]

part Feezington followed by Katherine Pante. Welcome sir.

Hi there. I live in uh Port Orange and most of what I wanted to say has been said repeatedly so I won't go through all that. Um but I do want to say one thing. Um which uh mayor I think you really hit it out of the park. We want good development and we want to do it sensibly and we clearly want to wait for the basin study so that we can determine uh whether this project's going to work or not. Uh, one other thing that hasn't been touched on is that you are all elected officials and this is your cont constituency out here, the voters. And it's pretty clear to me that the voters do not want this project. And uh, I ask you all to please consider that that we elected you to represent us and our desires. And what I'm seeing here um is that we've got uh a packed house of people that aren't for the project. I think if we went out in the street and walked around, we'd find another packed house. And uh I hope you guys can think about the people of Port Orange and not just the developers. Thank you. Thank you, [applause]

Katherine Pante. Followed by Davis G. Welcome,

Katherine Pante. Uh, good evening, commissioners. Kath slowed the growth pollution. First, I want to thank those of you who voted against the vintage acres resoning on October 21st. Your decision protected this community and respected the concerns raised by residents. Tonight, I strongly oppose granting the waiver to a 12-month waiting period for resubmitting a reszoning application for the Vintage Acres site. This rule outlined in chapter 3, article 1, section 7 of the land development code exists for a clear purpose to preserve the integrity of the city's review process, ensure thoughtful long-range planning, and prevent developers from repeatedly pushing premature proposals, especially while we are still awaiting the Spruce Creek Water Basin study, which will not be complete until spring 2026. The 12-month waiting period provides essential time for reflection, revision, and community engagement. The applicant has only had a few weeks since a denial, nowhere near the time required to develop a substantially improved proposal. If council is asked to review a similar application without meaningful changes, staff time and public resources are wasted and public trust in the process is undermined. Granting this waiver would also set a damaging precedent. If one applicant can sidestep established rules simply by asking, others will expect the same treatment. At that point, the land development code becomes optional and decisions begin to appear arbitrary rather than grounded in policy, planning, and fairness. I also want to speak plainly about public perception. A request like this gives the appearance of quidd proquo from one builder who sits on the commission to another who made the request. For the numbers guy, the stakes are not hypothetical. During Hurricane Ian, 7,000 homes flooded as well as a thousand businesses. Five Valuchia County residents drowned and BCSO performed over 1,000 high water rescues. These are not numbers on a page. These are lives, families, and neighborhoods. When exactly will development decisions begin prioritizing public safety and

public health over private development interests? You as commissioners have a fundamental responsibility to protect the well-being of your residents. You're under no obligation to approve development applications that [clears throat] increase risk, jeopardize public safety, erode community confidence, or compromise long-term planning. In closing, I urge you to uphold the integrity of our rules and the integrity of this commission. Follow the code as written. Do not wave the 12-month rating period. Require the applicant to come back only when the process and supporting data supports a meaningful review. Thank you for your time and consideration. followed by Adam. [applause] Welcome.

Hello, new neighbors. My name is David G. Last time I was here, I failed to acknowledge your new neighbor status. Thank you. And I hope you will be good neighbors. Six months ago, my neighbor was a farm and it was a Valuchia County farm. You guys decided to annex it. How did that happen? The proponent saw that he could build some houses on that farm. He looked around and he did a calculation. Can I get this past the Valuchia County Council? Probably not. So, he came over and tapped you guys on the shoulder and said, "Hey, if you'll be my friend and annex this farm, I'll be able to buy this farm and turn it into Roman houses." Don't know if that'll help your tax base or not, but I would guess that that's a good motivation. So you guys came to the people and you said, "What do you think?" And we said, "We don't like it." But you voted to annex it anyway. And you're moving forward with the proponent's proposal. Now the proponent hasn't bought the farm yet. He's got contract on that plan, but he doesn't own it. The farmer is still there. It's [clears throat] still zoned agricultural or some limbo zoning in between the county and the city zoning. and your task is to determine when and how to reszone it to fit into your rules. 6 months ago, I wasn't your constituent. I'm still not your constituent, but you're my new neighbor. And the land that used to be Valuchia County, where I was a constituent, is now yours. So, I'm approaching you as a non-constituent, but a very concerned neighbor. and I'm hoping you will be good neighbors to bucks as Valuchia County would have been had this been brought to Valuchia County. Now, the proponent hasn't bought the property yet. The proponent seeks to get it turned into housing, but if he fails, he's out the cost of his legal

expenses so far, his engineering expenses so far, and little more. If he succeeds and he floods our land, then we're all out. The cost of our homes and our livelihoods will be severely affected. So tonight, you seek to undermine, to abregate, to subvert your own rule. 6 months ago, you didn't even have jurisdiction over this land. And now you seek to undermine your own rule to expedite the process that your friend, the proponent, tapped you on the shoulder and said, "Be my friend. and help me build this house. I'll give you taxes. Be a good neighbor and follow your own rules. Don't wait for 12 months. Give us time to discuss this for the water study to come in and make a reasoned, thoughtful decision. As Mayor Stilter, Congress or Councilman Grubs, and Mayor Foley have said so eloquently tonight, vote no. Vote no on extending or sorry waving the 12 month rule. Thanks.

Thank you. ADAM, [applause]

ADAM. NO, ADAM. YEAH, he's right here. Right in the front.

Entertaining. I like this. Adam Novi, uh 1062 Wexford Way. I live three streets behind uh the library right here. So, nowhere near Vintage Acres. um starting to get more involved and this is near and dear to my heart. Uh a couple people have come and talked about how this city is their home. This has been my born and raised here. Um I just got to say something. Obviously my opinion of the acres is a different meeting. This is just for the uh extension to speak to that. Time is the only equalizer we have. This is on the books. Um development have council that work 24/7 every day. They will win eventually. We have residents of Valuchia County, Port Orange, New Simra, everybody here. I actually got a call about three hours ago. I work for I forgot this was even happening tonight. We don't stand a chance. Time is the great equalizer to give everybody a sense of brevity to say, "Hey, where do we stand?" Because without this time, without this 12 months, uh the other gentleman here that was really well spoken, uh reszoning fatigue. Yep, I got that 100%. I drive all the way down. I mentioned last time that I do windows and doors in the area. I go between zero line houses. It's perpetually flooded. But again, that that's not what we're here for. The extension though, the time to allow the little guy to compete on a scale where we can't compete financially. So the time frame uh for 12 months gives the developer a sense of pause because if they know if they over push and they get pushed down, they will have to wait 12 months. Well, guess what? If they had come out with a 40 house development, everybody here probably would have signed off on it. Nobody's against development. We're against overdevelopment. So I think the time frame is appropriate. I [clears throat] would ask the council to deny the 12 month. I want to make sure I say it right. It's getting confusing. You got it. not a 12-month extens extension on

the behest of just your citizens and our new neighbors from what I hear last time. So, thank you very much, guys. Thank you, [applause] Joey.

Welcome.

Uh Joey Posey, uh 420 South Nova. Um, I I'm here um really just maybe to add a little context and some clarity. I I really didn't expect to dive as deep as we did and I will try to keep focused on the uh the points at hand. And uh again, we're we're only talking about a narrow issue. It's whether we can submit. That's simply the question. It isn't a blessing for the project. It isn't a blessing for its design. Uh it isn't saying yes or no in one way direction or the other. Um and we'd have to meet all the requirements of submittal. I I think it was alluded to that a lot of studies that uh of course the the basin study being one being forthcoming uh that that's a reality that existed when we submitted and that's still a reality that existed today and that doesn't change and again at the wisdom of the council and their decision-m that's still the basis of what can be a no vote at some future point. That's that doesn't change. Um, and the process in the code allows for this. It does state that it's the direction of this council that would be the the final body to allow the waiver of that process. And I think I'd heard a uh the Hensel uh vote uh was an interesting example to point to because if I recall correctly, that hearing got continued many times and there were many back and forth discussions while it was a pending application. And what resulted is a, you know, collaboration with neighbors and and funny enough that I think the irony being is that ended up being a no vote anyway. And but the collaboration happened that there was an opportunity to have those discussions and that that's what I'm asking today that the opportunity is now to have those discussions with the neighbors to approach them while an application's moving because 10 a month or a year from now uh these contracts are not contracts anymore. Yeah. this this project isn't a project and I'm sure that there's folks out here that that's the outcome they

want to see, but that's not the outcome that I'm looking to try to continue the dialogue with that. And that was precisely why I got up at the end of that meeting on October 21st and tried to insist that we have a reconsideration to continue that dialogue. Um I, you know, again, I I fully understand the facts as presented and the the developers understanding. fingers. I'm not here to dispute that. I'm just here to mention that um we have an opportunity to at least have that discussion and come back and tweak the plan based on what we heard. Uh you know, it's a very narrow situation. It's an annexation. You know, I'm not sure there's many examples, if any, except one I can think of that fits that mold. And um uh at the end of the day, the the conclusion can still be the same with the same dialogue. So um the developer is just asking from that perspective. Um again we all can have our opinions about the 22 and whether a full council is uh you know the appropriate means for having that decision-m but that you really all we're asking for.

Thank you. Thanks John. Y'all let me do my job. Okay. Thank you guys. Was there anybody was there anybody else? Amanda got everybody. Okay. So discussion uh back to council council comments. Lance, we'll start with you. I mean again, you know, I think like we say, you know, this this comes down to to trying to do the right thing and also it comes down to a set of parameters and and you know, maybe we just need to stay within the parameters here and and and let's uh let's get a little more due diligence. Sean, I have nothing to say.

Okay, read.

I got a lot to say. I'm going to take my three minutes now. Um, I appreciate everyone being here. You know, um, there are clearly it's a lot of it's a lot of neighbors. It's not a lot of voters, but that doesn't mean that we don't represent you in some capacity. Um and and didn't mean to upset you. Sorry. Um this I knew I knew this was going to be important just from a personal side. Here's how important it was to me to be here. I was working until 4:00 a.m. in Las Vegas last night, Eastern time. But either way, and I managed to still get two hours of sleep, uh get on an earlier flight and be here in time for this meeting. So that way that I could do my job and I could represent my my voters and my neighbors. Um, I understand the concern in the room. As much as, you know, we're talking about the 12-month thing. That's what we're voting on. That's really just a means to an end for people that don't want to see anything ever developed there. And I understand why. My home flooded twice. I have a 9-year-old and a 2-year-old. And when our home flooded the first time, we were walking in ankle deep water, as was said. And I did have to tell my kid, you know, this is what it is and it's okay when, you know, we're we're going to get through it, right? So, I understand that concern and I know it's like it sucks. It's not fun and I will tell you the questions go away. It takes time, but my kid doesn't ask me every time if it rains anymore if we're going to flood, but it definitely takes time. Um, you know, I I do have to give some credit to the developer in the side that when this property when they came forward and asked for us to annex this thing in, they're crystal clear about what they were going to propose. And because I'm because I wasn't here for the vote and because that's not what we're voting on, I won't say how I would have voted if I

was here. What I'm voting on, did I upset you, too?

Jeez, man. What I'm voting on today is whether or not to allow [snorts] this kind of bypass uh of this extension and um of all the people who got up and spoke. Um first off, you know, resident Adam, I appreciate you. Also, Brian White um talking about the background of the 12-month waiting period because it's funny when I was sitting here trying to think of a comparison is, you know, if if my son failed a test, would I let him come back tomorrow and take the exact same test and give me the exact same answers or would I send him back to maybe study and and learn a little more and and maybe come back with better answers so that way he gets a better grade on the test? And that's kind of where I've landed on this as I've sat here. You know, I don't know whether or not a Spruce Creek basin study is going to matter one way or another. If that study came back and it was said, "Hey, it's fine. You can build anything you want to here." I don't think that that's going to mean that this room won't be empty of people that don't want to see it. Um numbers are only what they are if you believe them. And and a lot of people don't believe facts anymore. Um, and then not just in this subject, in several subjects, but as I said earlier, the key word for me here is setting a precedent. I'm not going to be in this seat forever. None of us are. And I this rule has been in place for a long time. And in 30 years, and most governments have it, and there's a reason. I I don't know that there's not a serious consideration in the future for reducing it from six from uh 12 months to six. Um, but I'm not looking to make special exceptions um tonight. That just doesn't interest me. And so, um, while I while I appreciate where we are and I understand the gravity of everything, there's there's a lot here, uh, the key word for me is that or the key thing for me is that I'm not going to be in this seat forever.

And I have had the benefit of sitting in this seat watching uh Mayor Stilner for years with other councils before I ever sat here. And they did things a certain way because it produced results. And I found that if you ever change the way you do things, then that's the new way. And it's that way forever with everything until someone eventually gets tired of it and changes it again. And I just don't see tonight as as a time to make a change. Tracy, I'm good.

All right. All right. So, back to council. We have a motion and a second on the floor to wave the 12-month waiting period for submitting a new resoning application for the vintage acre site. Clerk, call the role. Foli, a red shirt told you, didn't it? No. Ger, no. Councilman Green. No. No. Vice Mayor. Yes.

No. 41. The the motion is denied. [applause] [applause] I'm going to take a 5m minute recess for a quick little break.

be back. Finish up our agenda.

Item 21, first reading of ordinance number 2025-29. That's an ordinance of the city of Port Orange County, Florida, amending the comprehensive plan capital improvement element providing for the fiscal year 2026 to 2030 5-year schedule capital improvements and supporting data providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances and resolutions providing for severability and effective date. I move to I I I thought everybody was going to stay to listen to what you had to say. Move to approve ordinance number 2025-29. I need a second, please. Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor. All yours. Can

I'll be cruise planning here to present the not as exciting um capital [laughter] annual updates. Basically, we do this every year. Um the council's already adopted the the budget. And so the items that are in the already adopted budget that are concurrency related items um are required to be put into the comprehensive plan capital improvement settlement every year. So that's what's before you here. There's nothing new as far as projects are concerned and everything about the budget just put into the comp plan. So, I'm just here to answer any questions you have. I do not have any questions. Anybody up here have any questions? I feel like somebody needs to ask a question.

Anybody in the public have any questions on the item? Stand. No questions. Good. Back to council. Last chance for comment. Clerk, call the role. Councilman, yes. Councilman Ger, yes. Council Green. Yes. Vice Brooks. Yes.

Yes. 50. Um to digress back for just a moment. I have a proclamation that I need to read from a earlier agenda item. Whereas the government of the city of Port Orin celebrates our local small business and contributions, businesses and contributions they make to our local economy and community. And whereas according to the United States Small Business Administration, there are currently 29.6 million small businesses in the United States. They represent 99.9% of American employer firms, create more than twothirds of the net new jobs, and generate 46% of private gross domestic product, as well as 54% of all US sales and employ over 55% of the working population [clears throat] in the United States. And whereas 89% of the consumers of the United States agree that small businesses contribute positively to the local community by supplying jobs and generating tax revenue. And whereas 93% of consumers in the United States agree that it is important for people to support the small businesses that they value in their community. And whereas the city of Port Orange recognizes the Port Orange South Dakota Chamber of Commerce supports the Saturday after Thanksgiving as small business Saturday. Now therefore, I, Scott Stilton, mayor of the city of Port Orange, Florida, do hereby proclaim November 29th, 2025 as Small Business Saturday in the city of Port Orange and Orange all residents of the community and communities across the country to support small businesses and merchants on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year. Thank you for that. I'm going to check all the percentages in the map later. Um, and one more comment from me real quick is I I wanted to to thank Councilman Gert uh for standing in last minute for me at the Veterans Day ceremony. I'm sorry the weather wasn't better. I promise it didn't have anything to do.

We brought it inside. I saw that. So, we got lucky. It was an honor. Thank you. I was like, man, I've asked him to go do something and it's going to be freezing and the wind was blowing at 25 knots. But, I do appreciate you uh being able to do that for me. Item 22, city council committee reports first step shelter.

So I want to uh we did have our meeting this month and want to share with you that so far in 2025 2,210 people have been uh utilizing the services uh for first-time visits out there. So this this uh is working. It's it's helping people navigate through their next steps and uh really thrilled uh with what's going on out there. Um also um uh residents housed 1,0950% uh well it says 93% of those housed at least 2 years ago are still in housing. So that's fantastic. Um so things are going really good at First Step Shelter and that's all I have. We have our gala coming up is actually the uh mayor's gala for the city of Daytona Beach. It's the First Step Shelter's largest fundraiser. I love, you know, we I'd love for us to support that. I will plan on being there. I get to co-m the event. It's a fun event at uh at the Hilton.

Good. That's all I have for that. How about Chamber of Commerce?

Chamber of Commerce. Just talking about small businesses. Uh we had 13 new businesses at our new member orientation today which is fantastic. Um that's what we're about. A lot of returning businesses today which is really nice. They do have a business after hours which is conveniently on my wife's birthday at Miller's A House. So maybe I'll bring her there. She's gonna kill me. Uh they also have their coffee and connections at uh uh the uh copper line. So they have plenty of opportunities for people to be involved. They do have their annual banquet coming up. So if you can attend that, that would be really nice as well. And I want to tell you that that date is My computer's too slow. I want to say it's Friday, December, let's see, it's going to be on a Wednesday night, December 3rd. [clears throat]

December annual banquet. Yep. Yep. Busy month. And that's all I have for the chamber art house. Vice Mayor Tracy Grubs. So Cameron touched on a lot of this tonight. Uh two major things to to go through is that the amount of people that go through that door, 131,000 people went through those doors this past year with an estimated total of $189,000 back into our community with foods and proceeds and things of that nature for our local businesses and restaurants. So our house is doing well. They got some struggles coming up uh with the county budgets coming out of them, but uh they're still doing and going forward. Very dynamic. So,

good jobs. Good. Fire pension police pension board, Councilman Green.

Uh police pension board met yesterday. As of yesterday, the pension fund was at $78,97,336 and some change. No pennies. Um in the last quarter it uh it netted about a little over a $4 million increase and uh in closing of the fiscal year of September the 30th uh it increased just a tad over 8 million. Uh the fund itself is doing fantastic and the uh the guys that they have working on it are doing a great job.

Nice. Good. Outstanding. Councilman Foley, fire pigeon board. Our meeting was actually rescheduled to this coming Monday. So if we can just move that to the agenda in December, I will report on it then. Outstanding. Uh I I attended the round table of elected officials uh meeting out at the airport before last. Um Votran couple of presentations. Votran gave a presentation on what they are having to do to try to amend and change some routes and services and different things like that to uh that that's a constant thing where they're evaluating.

Thought they were quitting. Well, they're cutting back on some stuff in certain areas and and and some stuff is moving more towards a like an Uber type of a service. Um a ride share option where people can call Votran and still get a ride share dispatched to them and right

but you know routes are having to be modified, times of routes are being modified um you know that I would imagine that is an every year analysis that they're looking and seeing where do we need to be, where do we need to change things like that. really nothing of significance at all for for the city of Port Orange and what the service is here. Most of it was Poninlet and the Daytona areas and areas out out west. Um Bush County Branch Jail gave a presentation, you know, they have a a program uh that's been initiated out there where they're they're trying to to to give folks that are out there for enough time to learn a trade skill so that when they get out they can kind of enter the workforce with a skill set. and hopefully that helps keep them from going back in.

Yeah. So, great program, sounds very promising. They've already had some success out of that. Um, one of the speakers tonight mentioned this and and I'll mention it. So, [clears throat] during our our round table of discussions, uh, the Edgewater mayor, Diesel Dew, had had put the idea out there about a southeast regional committee uh, for storm water and flood mitigations. Um there really wasn't any discussion on it. Um I know one person said that Port Orange would be part of that. I'm not so sure that that's the case. Um only because geographically speaking, you know, our water all flows in a different direction. What happens in Edgewater, Oakill, and New Smra completely different and independent of what happens in Port Orange. Um the other the other thing the other concern I would have with that and I'm I'm sharing this with you guys because I would never make a commitment in that meeting without you guys being on board. My my bigger concern would be that I think a lot of municipalities are in a different place. Some municipalities haven't even started a storm water master plan. Some of them are in progress. Some are trying to have maybe just concluded and trying to figure out what to do now. And we're we're we're already ahead. We're running. Right.

You don't think it would be beneficial though to be on that panel or

Yeah. Well, I don't if it comes if it comes to that then then certainly um we would do that. My my my thought would be is that in speaking with our city manager as well as uh George Rectenwald the the county manager you know there is some additional funding that that is coming out of the Milton funds and I think and Wayne you can touch on this but you know I I think what's going to be asked of the municipalities is is you know they've had the transport 386 they gave an opportunity twice maybe even three times for cities to say what do you need here's our projects you know get get those localized things going now. I think the focus is going to shift where the county is going to spearhead this. We've already got a countywide committee, by the way, but the the county is going to kind of spearhead something that's going to look more like bigger regional projects, things that are going to significantly impact multiple jurisdictionals areas at the same time, which I believe is critically needed. I mean, whether that's a Nova Canal system, B19, Reed canal, things like that, you know. So then those types of projects are going to be even way bigger scale than a lot of the things we're working towards and and those costs. So they have those

regionally though we're at the bottom of the region. So yeah yeah yeah no doubt no doubt and and and we have we have a voice on that. Um in fact our our leadership team attends that meeting. Um, it's it's interesting. You know, you have some of these committees and it's great as an elected official to go sit on some of the committees, but honestly on a lot of these committees, while we need to stay in touch and briefed with our leadership, these committees need to be led by and invol and really more so involved by our municipal leadership team, our city engineers, our city managers, our parks, you know, public works folks, things like that. Robin for sure needs to be there. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. So, those those are the what they're talking about.

Yeah, those are the folks cuz we we all know just enough to get us in trouble. So, those are the folks that really need to be attending those and they are doing that. So, and I know we [cough] we get kept [clears throat] up to speed on all that. So, that's all I have. Wayne, did you want to touch on that at all?

I think you're correct 100% that the exact concern was setting up separate subcommittees. You add layers of bureaucracy that slow the processes down. We have a countywide process based on the drainage basin. So, the basin studies are being done. That's your regional breakdown. So all the cities that are affected by Spruce Creek Basin are already part of that, you know, a separate committee. They can do that if they want to do their own little local things, but as far as there's there's only a Milton pot of money left and they are very conscious of being careful that we do a Nova Canal study and you get a $30 million project off the Nova Canal that'll stop all the flooding in the east side and there's no money to pay for it because it's all been given out on one small project at a time. So their thought process is to take these regional basin studies and come back with solutions and have some money out of that pot that can actually go in there. The worst thing you can do is have five studies that show a lot of need and no way to pay for it. In 15 years from now, we're still sitting here with all those needs identified and no projects paid for. So they were hoping we'd stay together, stay unified, and stay in the drainage basin path. And and that's I think what the mayor conveyed.

Yeah, I think that's that's a good way to go. And did you have someone you wanted to introduce tonight? I do. We have a brand new finance director who is here tonight and so Sue if you want to get up Sue Wang and just say hi. Come on up.

So she comes to us from Green Cove Springs has also worked in Gainesville and spent a lot of time in in Ohio or Illinois. I mean right and it looks like where you were in normal is like if you took a map of Illinois and put a bullseye in the dead center of it. That's about where where she's from. But extensive track record of finance experience and fact she's only been here like a week which is 2 three years or so for me. Uh but in in in the first meeting we had on capital projects. So we're sitting here going through a couple of projects and we did a Commonwealth water project. We've talked about this before where we upsized the water lines on the east side and that project's coming to a conclusion. So we've got date up on the screen and we're talking about it in the meeting. We got finance people and utilities people and everybody in the room and we're being told this project's good. It can be closed out and she's like brand new to us and stops the whole room and goes, "Well, go back to that slide." we had shown $600,000 of leftover money in that project in a week. She's smart. You can tell the background. She she was like pointed that out and went, "Wait a minute. Do we have $600,000 left in that project we can put somewhere else?" And uh so that's the kind of person you're looking for in that short period of time. She's already identified. Now we don't have it. Juno just hadn't gotten around to charging it and pulling it out of the fund. But but the idea with we've we've done like two or three meetings with her already. She's she's been to a lunch with the team. uh she's going to go out and do field trips with everybody and see the whole city. But in two or three different meetings, the insights and perspective to one of the main reasons we hired her, she'd worked when she was up in Illinois, they did a 10-year financial plan. I think I've talked to you a couple of you about that. So that's in her culture. That's a DNA thing of we will look longterm. We're not going to go budget to budget and keep showing up and going, "Well, we need this millage rate because we're reacting to what came to us." We're going to look, we know we're reaching buildout. We're running out of land. We know that we're going to see revenue growth start to slow and fade. I don't think we can control inflation. So cost, they're going to do what costs are going to do. Our revenue is not going to follow that. And and I think her background and knowledge and long range financial planning is going to be ideal for where we're trying to go. And if you

want to say anything, feel free. Well, well, first of all, first of all, welcome. We're happy to have you as part of the team and family here. Um, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, um, my name is Su Wong. I am a CPA. I'm a CPFO. That's a certified public finance officer. So, as Win said, I have been in the municipal finance and accounting for a very long time. Uh, it's hitting almost 15 years. Uh, so I worked for for cities that are bigger than Port Orange and smaller than Port Orange. Um, the gist is the same, but the culture is different and the priorities are different. So that's my goal here in the next couple of you know months to learn the city priorities and to learn the team. Uh so I'm very excited about the field trip to learn about all those you know engineering projects, the public works projects, the public utilities projects. So yeah I I'm uh excited. I think we have a great team here. Uh the finance department I know I know Mina is here or she was here. She's back there hiding here.

Oh, she's here. Yeah, she has been doing a [clears throat] fantastic job. I know you all know that you we haven't been having audit findings. That's huge. That's huge. So, yeah, it's all, you know, thanks to her, the team, and all the departments. So, yeah.

Well, we think you'll have a good team to work with as well and and and we're we're happy you're here. We think your team is going to have a lot on their plate next year because depending on what all comes out of Tallahassee and ends up well for the next couple years, but ends up uh you know for folks to vote on and how that's going to change the dynamics of of budgeting and and revenue and all that kind of stuff. Um, I know that most of us have already talked to the city manager about our concerns and that we stay really, really on top of it proactively. Um, as you guys see, you know, things that we maybe haven't thought about or may have some concerns, I encourage you and your team to to filter that through the city manager. He can bring to us so that we can be talking to our state elected representatives on what our concerns and impacts and and and things, you know, that we think is good or things we've got concerns about. So, um, again, welcome. We're happy to have you.

Um, you know, please don't be a stranger. And if any of these guys want you to give them a credit card, tell them no. Yes. We don't need any credit cards out. No credit card. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. Anything else to come before us tonight? My pleasure. Seeing none, have a good evening.