Planning and Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

We're ready whenever you guys are. We are. Good afternoon. It's May the 20th, 2025. Welcome to the city of Pakora zoning and planning board meeting. We have a roll call, please. Yes. Tony Gray, here. Harvey Goldberg, here. Patrice Petrick, here. Robert Cipher, here. James Wilton. John Rinders here. Charles Lewis here. Thank you. Thank you. Stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. 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. The only announcement I have um is um just let board members know that in the past we have had to fill out annually um a statement of financial interest. Uh this year they're doing it electronically and if you haven't already gotten it in the email, you will get it. and it's that uh instructions that go right through the form. It's pretty simple. Okay. I haven't done it yet, but I've got it to uh look through it. A matter of fact, Sarah Welch, the city clerk is supposed to be sending it out as a reminder to everybody, but we've got it until July, right? July 1st, I July 1st out, but just when you get something from the Commission on Ethics, you know,

it raises your eyebrow. So that's where it comes from. Okay. The next meeting of the zoning and planning board is on just have to check in my calendar. That's why someone remembers automatically. It's it's June the 23rd. Monday, June the 23rd. Okay. If for some reason you may not be able to make that meeting, uh, please let the city clerk know. Okay. If anyone in here representing the public would like to make comments uh to the board, uh please step forward uh introduce yourself, your name, and where you live, and you have three minutes. Seeing none, we'll move right on to the agenda. We have no legislative or quasi judicial hearings. Uh we do have a general business item of the shot county metropolitan planning organization. The safe streets and roads safe streets and roads for all grand SS 4A and the comprehensive a safety action plan CSAP. And this is our presenter. Hey, good afternoon. This is Rick Runool, uh grants coordinator for urban design. And so I'll be presenting a brief uh brief update of what this

comprehensive safety action plan is and why it's important for the city to adopt. So um this comprehensive safety action plan was while they're getting the uh that that set up. Um, we have want to approve the uh the minutes of the March 24th meeting of the planning and zoning board. Are there any additions, changes or corrections that you see? I have I have a question, Rachel. Okay. So, I want to know what the city did my suggestion. Okay, here we go. Thanks, Rachel. Can I ask you can I ask you a question? When Absolutely. No, we approved um this this change last, the land development regulations, and we had some conditions on there, but I I didn't attend that meeting, and I'd like to know how it went. Did they did they go with what we suggested or not? They did. Uh the uh the changes that were made uh that were just adopted by city council, they included all the recommendations from planning and senator. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Good to know. Anything else? No sir. Good question. In that case, all in favor of approving the minutes of the March 24th meeting of the planning and zoning board, please indicate by saying I. I.O. Oh, I I move we approve the minutes. I'll second. Okay, perfect. Thank you. You're right. All in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. The minutes are approved unanimously. All right. Now we'll move on. Now we're back. So, apologies for the uh inconvenience there. Um, so this comprehensive safety action plan is uh produced um through the safe streets for all campaign through the department of transportation in the federal

government. And so this safe streets for all um or this uh safety action plan has a target of zero fatalities and zero serious injuries by 2045. It's a lofty goal that is set by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is our transportation organization here locally. And in order for us to actually pursue Safe Streets for All grants or Department of Transportation grants, which are federal, we need to have the council duly adopt this plan and then we can pursue federal grants um in the in the uh the short term. And that's what we're doing right now. We're going after a safe streets for all grant for pedestrian crosswalks and audible signals um in the city at the uh signalized crosswalks. And I appreciate Rachel sending out that note of clarification on the purpose of today's discussion. So this is for information uh only and uh then we're going to go off and uh hopefully set up a recommendation that the city council adopt this on June 4th. So the key takeaways basically we've got the combat uh the call to action which is zero fatalities and zero serious injuries by 2045. Then we've got um crash trends in the high injury network. We've got four uh uh four little nodes of um traffic of the 14 of the 14 high injury roads in this county. We've got four of them and we'll go over that. And then we've got some counter measures uh to identify um that we'll be able to mitigate um those losses. So here's the the commitment for zero fatalities by 2045. Um between 2016 and 2020, we had 132 fatalities across

the county and um basically that amounted to about 10 here locally in this in in the city. Fatality rate exceeds the national average and so um that's due to our demographics here and due to probably the uh also the snowbird population coming in and out. So, we've our our traffic problem is actually pretty intense when it comes to pedestrians and bicyclists. So, as I mentioned earlier, the um MO received streets uh safe streets for all funding for this safety action plan. They hired a consultant. The consultant wrote the plan, and we're going to go over it real quick. So, we're going to go over the high injury network next. But when we're talking about the high injury network, what we're really interested in is the serious injuries and the fatalities. And a fatality when it comes to Department of Transportation and serious injuries is any fatality within 30 days of that um accident. So if if that fatality occurs within 30 days, it's considered um it's tied to that accident. And that those accidents are going to be called KSIS. So, Charlotte County crash trend overview over the last um basically six years between 18 and 22 on average 28 people were killed every year. And then in 2023, we had a total of 34 people killed um across across the county. What's to note here is that the injuries the serious injuries and deaths are actually increasing since 2019. And then here's another overview of crashes. When you get into the serious injury, when we get into the serious injuries and fatalities, what we'll

notice is that there's uh a higher potential, a higher percentage of a chance that people are going to die from the motorcycles or the um the bicycles and the pedestrians are going to die also. And that's what you see in this this trend right here. And what we're really interested in, like I said, was the serious injuries and the fatalities. So now we're in the high injury network corridor in the city of Panagorta. We've got four areas that we're talking about. On this graph, though, we're only showing three. Um, and that's because Tamiami Trail is northbound and southbound. And what we're interested in is West Rea to Airport Road and then also the segment from West Rea to Carmealita. So that's broke out into two different segments. And so when you look at the map, you'll see over Panaguorta a yellow area, a yellow area, and a blue area. Those are the um the high in incident um network, high injury network. Yellow is for local, blue is for the entire county. And across the county, we ended up with 14 different nodes that were high injury networks. And like I mentioned, we ended up with four in the city. So when we take a look at our capital improvement projects, scroll down on this chart. What we are trying to do to mitigate uh this high injury network. It one in particular is on Cooper Street. And so down there at the very bottom, the second to the last, it says F.WP tip. That's Cooper Street. What we're trying to do is um do something called safe streets for not safe streets for all but um we're trying to do a um a complete streets project with a bike path, a trail and uh sidewalks that are improved so that we can mitigate or that we can help the the pedestrians and the bicyclists on the side of that road. When you go to the north end of Cooper

Street, we actually end up with our high injury network between um West Olympia and um Burland. And that's the north end of Cooper Street. But that that CIP project is ongoing right now. And um I don't know when they're going to be able to complete it, but I believe it's like 2027. I think that intersection of Cooper Street and Mary uh is right right by the um the hospital. Hospital. No, by the youth center. By the youth center. Yeah, that's in that. That's in that corridor. That's Mary. And we're going to show it. Cooper Mary. Yeah. We're going to show it here in a second. Um so when we Five Corners is there too, right? Five corners. I don't I've never heard that term. That's right there where the smokehouse is. Okay. I really have not I'll write it down, but uh what was the other the intersection between that? So, it's where the where the cell tower is. The cell tower. It's in between the cell tower and the smokehouse. Okay. I'll look up the five corners. Doesn't do you know of anything called Five Corners? Is that Taylor? Taylor? Yes. I'm sorry. It's Taylor. Taylor. Taylor and Cooper. No. No. No. Taylor. Okay. Taylor and Carmelita. Maybe Taylor and Carmelita. I think so. I know what it's fine. Yeah. So, there's a couple of engineering countermeasures that we've got um that we can mit mitigate these serious injuries. Um number one is speed speed kills. And so what we're going to a we're able to do is manage speed limits and manage lane narrowing and roadway departures. So if somebody's, you know, departing the roadway, you have rumble stick strips, but you also have wider white lines that you can use. These are engineered countermeasures. Um

they're going to talk about this tomorrow at city council in something called the traffic calming um discussion. Right. I had a I had a question for you on that, sir. You know, I live right on Marian. So, I don't know how you're going to put a median in landscaping unless you take away the grass area between the sidewalk and Marion. I I don't know how I don't know how you could do that. And they talked about it from RV to uh I think to Chestine. How how how could you possibly do that? I mean, it's a two-way road. I mean, you could narrow maybe put a bike path in there, but but they talk about landscaping and a median and Yeah. that to make it narrower. Yeah. Well, yeah. They just said that's what they're going to do in Marian. They recommended that for a Marian and I just thought, I wonder how they're going to do that. My understanding on that is that the median is not down in the roadway. It's between the curb side and the sidewalk and the and the um crashed in. Right. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. It's the only way they could do it. Yeah. Because it's one way and it's two lanes and there's no there's only a white stripe in the middle, you know. Right. Anyhow, just a question. So, and we'll talk about that segment too here in in a brief second. Um, so other engineering countermeasures, there's four more. Um, the one that we're not going to talk about too much is bicycle facilities. You know, we can do stuff with bikes inside of the roads and bike lanes. Uh, the one that we're most interested in is pedestrian facilities with these rectangular uh beacons or these uh rapid flashing beacons and these pedestrian beacons. What we're uh interested in right now for this grant is called an audible pedestrian beacon and it's for visually impaired folks um and anybody. It also applies to people that are just inattentive when they're walking or biking. And so these make audible noises

and it tells you to walk or don't walk. And so what we're interested in is that in all the 20 signalized U intersections and so more intersections, more roadways. And so what we can do is engineer these roadways engineer these intersections. And once again, this grant applies to this right here. And then this grant also applies to signals and signs um that can be engineered exclusively for pedestrians and bikes. And so here's our first corridor in inside of uh Panagorta. It's from Reetta Esplanade to Carmelaita Street. Notice the uh the two crashes uh on the motorcycles coming off the bridge and then or towards the bridge and one fatality. Guess it is. And then so these um improvements are things that are attainable by 2020 uh 2030 and 2040. Moving on to the next corridor is Cooper to from Olympia to Berlin Street. What this is different though because this is more of our walkable neighborhood right here. And this is part of that complete street project that we're trying to go. This is the north end of the complete street project. And notice that two pedestrians have been killed and one bicyclist in this um segment. And then we move on to Marian Avenue, which we were talking about just a second ago between Henry and Chestine. And once again, this is that high injury network uh countywide where we had one fatality on a motorcycle and uh another serious injury in a car accident. Um I believe this might is this part of the discussion for the traffic on me? No. This

portion. All right. And then we finally wrap up with um Tamiami Trail between Rea and Airport Road. A lot more accidents here. But when we take a look at um this this corridor on Rea between Rea Esplanade and um and Carmelita, those are where the majority of the signals are downtown. We've got 10 signals in that area that we'd definitely like to address with this grant. And a soon to be roundabout. And a soontobe roundabout. Where? Right there at Carmelita. Carmelita by the Chase Bank. Yes. All right. Wasai roundabout. Any questions? That wraps it up for me. Oh, the way this will work is you to do these things, you're going to need money. And to get money, you have to adopt this plan. And so then you apply for the grant and you get you do it or do you do it and then have to apply for the grant? So we uh the the city has to adopt this plan right here. Yeah. On June 4th and then that'll become part of my grant application uh for this complete uh for this uh safe streets for all grant. And then I'll I'll present the um the grant to the uh to the DOT by June 26th. Oh, cool. So I've already started writing the grant. I'm about 85% done. This is a very this is integral to the grant that the city adopts it. Do you have to identify what you're going to do first or or anything? You just ask for the money. Just uh adopt it and then ask for the money. Okay. You have to have a plan. You know, you it has to all come together. You have to have a narrative. You have to have partnerships with FDOT. You have to have partnerships with um some of the nonprofits. You have to have a partnership with the MO. Uh and then you have to have um buyin with

the city council saying that this is something that they adopt and the the thing that they're adopting here is that zero um serious injuries and zero fatalities by 2045. Thank you. Has DOT indicated that they are planning and able to fund all this work? No, they're not able they have not identified the match and so neither has the city yet. So that's next. Charles, go ahead. I have a couple questions. Yes, sir. Um I read the document and even after this punt of order signs on to do it, there is no ability for punt of order to opt out of it if they don't get the grants. So where where's that trigger mechanism? I don't believe you opt out of it. I think you just adopt the the plan just like any other plan that you do. This doesn't really have a whole lot of legs other than or teeth other than saying that you um Okay. No, I I'm surprised I read the whole thing. I haven't read this much since I graduated college. I think most of their recommendations, aren't they? their recommendations to Yeah, but there were some triggers that were in there, but there wasn't an ability for the for Pontagora to opt out of the plant if we couldn't get grant money. So, I think that's an important consideration if we're going to recommend the city council do this that we have a way to protect ourselves. I see this as a contingency. Yes. One dependent on the other. Exactly. So, but there there's no language in our the what we're going to propose to the council. I would say that if we don't

win the grant this year, there's going to be another Safe Streets for All grant next year. This is an ongoing um grant cycle, grant program with the Department of Transportation. I understand that. So, if we don't win it this year, we go with take the same duly adopted resolution and we go for it again because this is a 8020 grant program that we have for our for our roads and our intersections here. So, I don't excuse me. I don't think there's any contractual obligation for the city to to complete these. These are the federal government saying we rec this this study that they hired this California company to do. this is what we recommend you do and if you and this the feds are saying if you want us to pay for it you have to adopt this. It doesn't say you have to do it. It's it's a recommendation by by the the third party that they hired. Oh yeah. There's no there's no requirement that the county or the write every single one of these um these um these actions and actually um perform. It's just all right ideas. Okay. I get the concept, but it doesn't say that anywhere in the 19. I'm just saying they're recommendations. They don't say you have to do it either, you know. Yeah, that's a lot of CIP. Well, they say you have to sign on if you want to get the money and get the grant. I think his plan will identify what we plan on doing with the money. Am I correct? Right. If you get the money. So then you will be obligated to complete those. If you have Yeah, we're if we get the the grant for this project right here in particular, we're obligated after we go into agreement to complete this project for audible pedestrian signals only. All right. And after we get the grant and we do the project, then there's a maintenance phase that Punt the Gord has to enter into. Who who takes care of that? That would be us with us or the city and the county. The city and the county. The city and FDOT.

We haven't fared too well with the county, have we? They got their own problems in here. I don't I I just this foes enjoy. I just think we're always left holding the bag. I don't think so. I don't I don't see it that way. I um this is going to be folded into much bigger picture with the city's strategic plans and the long range plan, both financial and and and structural. I I I see what happened to AC Freeman House. see what happened to some of the other stuff. It just didn't seem like we we're looking past the initial purchase or the initial investment and what it's going to cost us 10 years from now. I don't know anything about the I don't know anything about the technology. I mean, are there grants that that go into the that say, you know, we're um you're going to get um reconditioning efforts in five years or typically no. Typically, no. Okay. Typically, no. What you get is the um the grant for the equipment or the the one-time offer and then you're going to have to build in your maintenance cost for that. So, the free money is never exactly free, but it's close to it. 80% 80% is what this grant ask is for which is 80 pretty good. You said it's 8020. 8020. Okay. So the city has to city has to build into their financial plans and this is a capital project as well as as well as the maintenance cost. So this particular project is actually on our capital improvement plan as unfunded and so this would be the way that we pursue that unfunded project and this is the only way that I I see of uh pursuing this project at the moment.

Rick, do you see anything that that we might do under your initial under the initial grant that might cause additional cost? I think that's a I think that's a good question. I don't have a I don't have um so public works is working on the actual estimate right now for me and so I don't know what costs would be and we and anyhow after you get the estimate that's all it is is an estimate. You go into the grant agreement and grant application you win the grant then you actually have to go to procurement. when you go to procurement that's when all the details fall out. Okay. What is the grant cycle? Like what point in time is a application cut off and the decision made relative to funding? So this application is due June 26. And so that's the reason why I've got it this agenda item going before the board on June 4th so that they can adopt it and we can move forward with the application. And which would it be the 2025 or 26 fiscal budget? It'll be a 26 budget. Okay. It'll be after 26 because the results for this probably won't even come out until October. And then so we've got this, I believe, dialed in for 27 under the CIP, I believe. Um the CIP budget workshop is on the 22nd. So, we'll have a little bit more of a discussion on that there potentially. I don't know if they want to talk about the unfunded. I know that they they're going to focus in on the funded CIP first and then maybe unfunded would be relegated to a very small discussion. All right. Um questions. Oh, no. I got a couple more. Okay. So, uh, you had a, um, injury increase, uh, in those areas that you showed on the chart. Okay. And that was, um, from 19 until

until now. Correct. Right there. Yeah. So, coincidentally, what was the population increase? And that seemed I don't know what the population was in 19, but in 20 about the same. It's about the same. Mhm. Okay. So, more people, more accidents. That's what I'm saying. Right. So your point is My point is that he made a he he brought it out to say that the injury increase on a specific year was relatively high. But it's also the same year that we had populations increases that matched percentage-wise the number of increase from the injury from the previous year. on the truth. And your point is my point is I don't think that safety controls are going to help based on a number that would be three years behind and it's a California company. I mean, did they come out here? Have they spent in August in Florida? I would imagine they I mean seriously I mean I that's a rhetorical question. Not if they could help it. So they they did this last year and they completed it in December and they presented to the uh to the county in December which included um um Janine Poke who's on the um the NO board. So this has been presented. They spent close to a year on this. I don't know exactly when they they entered into agreement, but um some of this is probably COVID and season where you've

got seasonals that have stayed extra time and then also when it comes to the injuries um exceeding the national average, that's due to our our demographics. Like I think what ends up happening out west in these country roads is they're higher injuries and deaths because the hospital is further away. And so I think there's higher injuries and death here because our demographic is older. I don't know. Nothing was put in there that says that. Um, I I think you know when you when you when you want to site a specific incident with numbers, I think you should back it up with all the facts. Anything else, Charles? No, I'm done. Okay. Anyone else have any comments or questions? In that case, uh what uh is being asked of us was to uh uh recommend or not recommend um we go forward with this with this plan. So, you can use the same privilege uh that's uh in the um in the council in the committee package about whether or not you're going to based on the evidence and testimony presented. I I'll make a motion that on the evidence and testimony presented but at this public hearing for item number there isn't one there is an item. Okay. for non item number. Uh I find that the request is consistent with the city of Plumb comp plan and move that we

recommend the city council approve with no conditions. Um yeah, it's the uh CS CSAP. Yeah. Whatever it was approving CSAP, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The comprehensive safety action plan, right? Is there a second? I'll second that. Thank you, John. Um any further discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. All oppose indicate by saying nay. Nay. And the vote is um 4 to1. 4 to one in favor of um recommending adoption to the city council. Okay. Thank you very much. Um nothing else on our agenda. Any any comments from staff? No. Um, never comments. Let's talk down to Charles. Uh, I I just I just felt like there should been an out for Hunt Gorda to be able to opt out of a program or a grant because of non-funding and I think it should be in writing. Okay. Um I think the secretary has that duly noted. What was that? You have his objection duly noted please. Yes I okay great comments I think. Okay. Good. Good. Yeah I have no further comments. In that case um the meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much for attending. Thank you.