City Council - Regular Meeting

not going to be able to make the meeting. The first item on the agenda would be the public comment. Anyone wishing to make public comment, please do so. You have 30 seconds and state your name. Jerry. No, not today. Okay, see no one rise. We will close that section. Now we are on to item 1A and that'll be the recognition of one of our employees. So we'll have staff take care of that. And then we have government finance professionals week. Who would like to present that item? Copy. Happy. I'm sorry. Council member Julian, did you say that you would Yes, I would be happy to do that.

Let me move into our public hearings. We have SV012025. Any questions on that item? We have ZA012026. I know there are questions on that item. So, I've asked uh Rachel to come up. Good morning, Rachel Barry for the record. I know there's some questions about the uh the language in the bill that came out mentioned multif family zoning and so there were some questions about what needed to change um or you know what you all would like to see changed in this ordinance um and so if you would like to table it to the next agenda if if we could do that if we could table it to a date certain so we don't have to pay to readvertise that would be great

I'm good with that good y that's fine is there any input that you'd like to provide to Rachel at this time. Please do I guess I will go ahead. I think it's uh when you're looking at uh the land development regulations um underneath the the terms all the special exceptions are with group homes. This is very similar to a group home. I think we should keep it consistent. And a multif family environmentally protected does not have multif family. It's not a special exception. It should not be a special exception there. Same with single family. it it should not be a special exception and special exceptions is where you find the group homes is where you should also find the recovery homes.

Thank you. Anyone else have any comments to that?

Okay, thank you. ZA03 2026 questions CP012026. I think the only question I I wanted to make sure is I know we're looking at um making it uh dwelling units for 10. And one of my questions is that I think the purpose of this is to make sure it's going single family to duplexes only. Not that they're going to have any multi- family, you know, quads or triplexes that it was just going to be for. So, as long as this property can only have a duplex on it. So, we did the math. The GM10 is the lowest that we could go to allow the duplex on there.

Okay. It does allow the larger parcel that's budding against the already existing GM. It can have three. So, that's that's the only real big increase, but it's already a budding an existing multif family that has like four or six units on it already. Okay. Um, so, but that's the only one that really gets a bump. So my other question would be then if somebody let's say they bought that large one and then they bought the next one, could they do something even large? No, it would stay. Thank you. That's all I need to know.

One sec. So the property owner of the property right next to the three duplex foundations contacted me and he has serious concerns about the builder's ability. if we make the these changes, will he be able to complete those projects? He he has very serious concerns about his financial status. It's hard for us to look at because he's having to accept this change being made to the property he owns and then if the the builder is unable to finish those projects, he's stuck with these changes. So, he's one of the he owns the property right next to lot. Yes,

he can still put a single family home there. It's not about what he can put there. He's concerned about the builder's financial status. He has those other ghost homes up the road are his projects as well. And there's a concern. And what he was asking for is how can we make him guarantee he's going to complete these projects if if I'm I'm looking at the attorney. Okay. If we make the changes, how can we guarantee that he's going to go through with completion?

I don't know if we can guarantee he's going to go through with it. Um, but I'll certainly look into it and hopefully have an answer for you before Wednesday. And I believe the builder is going to be here Wednesday. Okay. So, so I'm so so I'm clear, Greg. There is the home or the lot that we want to redesate. He is the very next one. The very next one over. Okay. And this gentleman is concerned about what we're redesating that the builder will actually

not as much about what we're redesating. He hasn't really determined whether that's good or bad for him. But what he's concerned about is the builder for the the existing foundations and his financial status because he's got not just those three more down the street that haven't been completed. So, um I just want everybody to keep in mind this gives the property the developer and uh a way to move forward. Yes. And by doing this, it also gives code enforcement the ability to step in and once he doesn't comply to any of the codes, they can then come in and create a code case.

Right now is kind of in limbo because it's something that we had to we're looking into to move forward. Um but this opens the gateway and now he has a direction and if he doesn't proceed through that direction, code enforcement can create. That sounds good. I I really want this to move forward and get taken care of. But the property owner contacted me and expressed those concerns. I think we're opening up a can of worms. You start doing that and then there's this other property that they've been sitting there stagnant and then there's this other property and so now all of a sudden we're going to be, you know, tasking code enforcement with a lot of properties that haven't finished yet. Just my two cents. Yeah, I I got the answer I wanted from the attorney.

That's great. Thank you. We'll move on to Z01 2026. V8 2025 4A reappropriations. Kristen, I believe there's a quick question on the reappropriations. Good morning, Kristen Simeone. Hi, Kristen. It It says here for appropriations and reappropriations.

Mhm. I was trying to figure out which ones just didn't get done. So, that are reappropriated versus ones that they're asking for appropriation for. So, in this particular list, it was all reappropriations. We didn't have any appropriations. Okay. So the we always had set aside like the $5,000 for Halloween stuff, but we're just asking to reappropriate. Yes. Okay. So every single one is repropriation. That was my biggest question. Okay. And then these are reappropriations that we know will get done this year according to the departments. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions? questions on the consent agenda. The pun 6A is the PUGA Historic Mural Society sign approval. Any questions on this one? 6B is the Florida League of Cities Federal Action Strike Team flying. Any questions here?

No, I'm happy to do that. So, one of my questions I think that we were looking at was um how much money council had in their budget to be able to go. And I actually said that if council was going to approve this, if it was in our budget, that I would also be willing to go. And I think I've got it in my budget. Am I not the League of Cities representative for the council? It doesn't state League of Cities. Yes, it is. League of Cities. I I understand that, but it doesn't state for council that it has to be the League of Cities representative.

So, when I suggest that you guys get involved in the legislative committees and so forth, you all said, "Well, you're the guy." No, I've been up to League of Cities, too. Great. But you pushed back on me and said, "I'm the designated rep to the League of Cities." Greg, I've never pushed back on saying that. Yes, absolutely. I'll I'll pull up the transcript. So the question is is do we have enough funds in each one of ours? Only one can go, right? And so the person who has the funds is the person who should be able to go if we approve that this is something that we want to spend our money on. I'll pay for it myself.

Since we cannot make any decisions today, we'll have this full discussion on Wednesday. Public safety radio project, fire department apparatus replacement, local options sales tax, project updates. Well, with the project updates, um, I'd like to get an update on what are the next steps with the land development regulations. We've had one sensing session and I think we really should be working on evaluating what changes we want to make now so that when the bill gets passed that we can execute right away. Rachel, do you have an update on the path forward, please?

Good morning. I have a meeting scheduled this week with Jennifer, Rebecca, and Nasma from uh both regional planning councils. And there will be an agenda item on the 25th uh to present you all with the next steps. And I'll make sure that I give Dr. I my information that I found with my town hall was very productive. And Janine pulled for the record. Did Did that bill pass? I thought that it was I thought that it was either tabled or done away with. I'm not sure. The one that said that they were going to change Yeah, I I think it went through. They're going to change it to 2026, right? That we could

they were changing it to this year was one of them. And it also was uh changing it to only properties affected by the hurricane. Okay. So, I thought I read that that one did not pass the 2026. The one that put 2026 as Oh, you can start. I thought it went through the first one, but I didn't see the I'll look it up.

Yeah, double check on that. Thanks. And also a couple um people contacted me about the property, the waterfront hotel property and the code violations there and how long that's been going on. Nothing has been cleaned up. Could we get an update on that? Good morning, Rachel again for the record. Um so yes, Mr. Rooney has come to a couple um code enforcement board meetings to provide an update. Um they he believes the property owner is might have a path forward to for development. Um the code board did give them an order to clean the property up. I'll check to see when that deadline is. Um but otherwise they'll be going back to the code board for a penalty hearing and acrewing daily funds.

Did that include taking up the impervious structure? Yes. Thank you. Yes. And one other update. Uh the flooding study. I haven't really heard anything about that in a while. The flooding study, we will have the public meeting for that uh I believe sometime in April. Um Brian Clemens was working on getting that date scheduled, but we're looking at that for our April workshop will be that that report on the flooding study. Okay, Janice, do you have something? Yeah, Janice Denton, I think we need to give an update on the splash pad. What happened? How did it happen? Where? When will it reopen? Something went wrong. Sure. It's already reopened, but

great. That's good news. Ron Evers Public Works. Yes, it is fully functional. Opened up last Friday afternoon and worked really well all through the weekend. No issues. What happened was the original surface that was applied by the subcontractor of the contractor, uh, the application wasn't done correctly. And so shortly thereafter it started to fail once got use on it. The contractor has uh replaced the surface with another subcontractor and the product adhered very well. They ground it down to the bare concrete, started over and it's at no cost to the city.

Good to know. I was walking and saw them chipping away at the uh this epoxy. So I'm really glad that's done. Thank you. Any other specific project updates that you're looking for? Okay. Any questions on the boards and committees? Any general comments that you'd like to make, Council Member Pulk? No, thank you.

Yes. I met with uh the father of some of the kids that play on that sports court that we discussed previously and uh and I think we made a mistake in not ensuring that the property owner was notified and able to be here for for that discussion and uh I think we need to to do that when it comes up again. We need to make sure that they're notified and present. Yes, it will come back to you as an ordinance and we will reach out to the property owner and make sure they're aware of that meeting date as well. And from what I understand, they will be here tomorrow in the audience. Council member Dun.

No, I'm good. Thanks. I have nothing to add to that. We are ajour. Thank you. Thanks.