Planning and Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

Okay.

It's two o'clock and I will call this meeting of the putting go to Planning Commission to order for July 27th, 2026. If we could have a roll call, please.

Charles Lewis. Here. Tony Gray. Here. John Reinders. Here. James Wilton.

Here.

Heather Broline. Here. Thank you.

And why don't we stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Thank you.

Are there any announcements?

Staff would like to request whenever the meeting starts, if possible, if we could hear agenda item 4A first, since that should be a pretty quick discussion prior to 2A, which may have a little bit more detail to it.

Okay. Any objections from the board? No. Okay, we will do that. Thank you. Our next meeting will be August 24th of 2026, and it's likely that we will be back in city council chambers, we're hopeful. So just make a note of that if you plan on attending, that we hope to be there and just pay attention for the announcement. That's gonna be at 326 West Marion in City Hall. With regard to public comments, anyone wishing to address the Planning Commission on any subject may do so at the appropriate time during the meeting. Those who choose to speak must state their name for the record, and each person will be allowed to speak for up to a maximum of three minutes.

Before public comment, do we mind if we just go ahead and get the election done with?

Do we want to approve the minutes first? Do you want to do the election first? Yeah.

Election first? Yep, just get it out of the way.

OK, I will turn the chair over to whoever wants to run that.

Yes. So I'm not going to provide any type of formal training because you guys just received that in February regarding the chair and vice chair duties. But Mr. Seifert's term has ended. So Mr. Wilton is currently the acting chair as the vice chair. And now I'm going to open the floor for nominations for chair.

I'll nominate James Wilton for chair.

Any other? I second.

Any other nominations? I nominate James Wilton.

OK. Mr. Wilton, you are officially chair by acclamation. Just as a reminder, this is enacted for the, which one are we having today, planning commission. So it's also for the Board of Zoning Appeals as well. And now I will open the floor for nominations for vice chair.

I'd like to nominate Heather as vice chair.

Are there any other nominations?

I'd like to nominate Heather as vice chair. This feels like a coup.

OK. Heather, you are vice chair. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Congratulations. Thanks. Congratulations. Sorry. Thanks. I feel like I'm the last to the party. Don't know why I'm the first to the chair. There you go.

All right. Then the next order of business is approval of minutes, which hopefully everybody has. Our last planning commission meeting was last March. And I was absent from that so I will just allow you guys to take a look at the minutes and if there are no additions or corrections, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

Motion to approve seconded.

The motion of the second. Any discussion. All in favor say aye aye opposed nay. Minutes are approved as presented. Thank you. We have one legislative public hearing which we will table until after the general business. There are no quasi-judicial hearings today. So we'll move on to 4A as our first order of business. This is SP01-2026. The request by Robert Berenson, Esquire, is authorized agent on behalf of REFAO LLC, applicant authorized by HVCGPG Retail, LLC, property owner for an off-site parking agreement pursuant to Chapter 26, Section 10.4 of the Punta Gorda Code.

Good afternoon board members Rachel Berry zoning official for the record. So to give you a little bit of background on this request and the applicant is proposing to construct a medical facility on an out parcel located at 1, 0, 2, 0, 7, TMME trail that is located in the old muscle car city plaza.

Is that the applicant or the off-site park?

The REFAO is the applicant.

The applicant is the property owner of the parking spaces, correct?

The HVCGPG Retail is the owner of the parking spaces.

And that's the applicant?

The applicant is REFAO. So the owner's authorized REFAO to file the application.

Right. Not the construction, though. The applicant is the owner of the parking spaces.

No, the owner authorized REFAO to be the applicant.

So the applicant is the physician's office?

Correct.

Thank you.

Oh, no problem. All right. So the proposed medical facility and the property is not large enough to accommodate all of the required parking and the adjacent shopping plaza already has existing parking lot. And so the owner and the applicant have agreed to record a grant of parking easement if and when this request is approved. So just to give a visual of where the properties are located, they are located directly on Tamiami Trail that is south of the intersection with Jones Loop Road and Burnt Store Road, just south of Aikline. And here is a general depiction of the out parcel is outlined in blue and the proposed spaces are outlined in red. And again, just another visual, the offsite parking area up at the very top, the property line, they're about a third way down, the onsite parking, as much as they could fit on the property, and then the proposed medical facility. And that is all I have. If you don't have any questions for me, the agent is here as well, if you have any questions for them.

Any questions from the board? I have a question.

Is there a dispensary there?

I am not sure if there is in that plaza. Yes, part of the parking ratios we were provided, they broke out each of the individual tenants that exist within that plaza, and one of them is a Trulieve.

Trulieve, medical marijuana dispensary.

Correct.

Where is it overlapped?

I can't hear you over there, Mr. Lewis. Can you speak into the microphone?

Yeah. Thank you. Do which overlap? Let's see if I can get a better... If I am not mistaken, I believe the Trulieve store is on the southern end of the building, but I can't say for certain.

Okay.

But the reserved parking spaces would be up here in the front corner of the existing parking lot.

Further down towards the road.

Yep. Okay.

That was my question. Any other questions from the board? No.

No.

is there anyone who would like to provide public comment second call for public comment third call I'll entertain a motion to close public comment so moved second All in favor of closing public comment say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Public comment is closed. Any discussion amongst the board on this?

Are they going to come up and talk?

Does the applicant want to come up and present anything on this matter?

Good afternoon, board. For the record, Todd Riebel with Atwell Port Charlotte here on behalf of the applicant. We have received staff's comments and report. We share in their findings. And we respectfully request an approval to move forward to city council. And I'm here if you have any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions?

Did the city staff approve it?

Yeah, city staff recommended approval of this. Recommended approval? I don't think we have any questions. Thank you. So from Chuck, we have a motion to approve and a second from Tony.

May I? I'm so sorry to interrupt. May I request that it also include the condition of recording of the easement upon approval by city council?

Yes, that was a staff recommendation for condition. correct yes chuck is okay if that's that much absolutely okay without objection then that'll be added so we have a motion and a second to approve sb01-2026 all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed Motion carries. That will be sent to city council.

Do you need to read that whole thing?

Sorry.

Does he need to read that whole thing? Not necessarily, no. You guys made a motion to recommend approval to city council. And just to clarify, that included the condition? The condition, yes. Got it, thank you.

Okay.

Yay.

Then we'll move on to the legislative public hearing. Item 2A on the agenda, identified as ZA-08-2026. These are proposed amendments to chapter 26 land development regulations to update the historic preservation regulations and overlay districts, require disclosure of historic property designation, reestablish the local register of historic places, review procedures, and amend historic preservation board authority.

Good afternoon, Rachel Berry again for the record. So for some background on this item, the historic board members are appointed to focus on historic preservation and to do whatever they can to further those efforts. Following the extensive damage and flooding that happened with the hurricanes of 2024, it became very clear that we needed to refocus on historic preservation and current guidelines to help in those preservation efforts. Throughout the last fiscal year, so about the last calendar year, the City Council and Historic Board have held joint meetings. And so they have discussed these topics, they've reached consensus and agreed that they both would like to see these changes. And since they are involving the land development regulations, they come to you all for recommendation as well. So to summarize the changes to section 3.14, this is the historic district's overlay. So currently we have the National Register District, we have the Downtown Commercial District, and we have the Treyview District. This map that is on the screen now would reestablish the Downtown Historic District, which more or less lines up with the National Register. The Main Street Historic District, which is a portion of what was the Downtown Commercial, The Neighborhood Conservation District, which was the tribute and the proposed addition of Gray Street Mid-Century Modern Historic District. I will also add that all of these were adopted in the land development regulations that were approved in 2024. So they were in place and then when the code changed back in July of last year, these districts that are shown on the map reverted back to the three that I mentioned. There are also changes to section 8.1, historic districts and building. Again, readopting to align with the codes that were in effect between March of 24 and July of 25. One of those is to reestablish the local register of historic places. So in the former code, there were provisions for the local register, which was a list of properties that the staff at that time had reviewed and either identified as historic or non-historic. When the code changed in 25, that local register went away with that code. The code that's in effect now has no provisions for a local register. So what that means is that any property that is located within the National Register District boundary any property that is listed on the Florida Master Site file is designated as historic. So the Florida Master Site file doesn't necessarily evaluate historical significance. It just looks at the age of a property. So you could have properties on there that are, you know, just older properties, but don't really hold any historical significance. The Florida Master Site file also does not remove addresses because that is their archive that there used to be a building there. So that means there's vacant properties that are subject to those same historic requirements simply because they're listed on the Florida Master Site file list. So to wrap that back up, all of those that were not on the previous register, those have been filtered back out. And then also the changes to that section are just re-specifying the demolition requirements and the conditions to delay final permit issuance. There's two different categories. If a building proposes a significant safety risk, then those could be demolished much sooner. If it does not and it is just a preference to demolish, those can be delayed for up to 18 months. To summarize the changes to section 15.4, the Historic Preservation Advisory Board will change to the Historic Preservation Board. So advisory will be dropped and they will be referred to as the HPB. And those are to align with the changes that were proposed in the former two sections. Section 16.3, Application for Certificate of Appropriateness. We refer to these as a CA. A CA is required for pretty much any external work that you do for the property, changing the roof, windows. We don't regulate paint color, but if you're doing siding or railing, pretty much anything on the exterior of the home requires a certificate of appropriateness. The process is also being amended, so those will not be administrative review anymore. Once they go to the Historic Preservation Board, their recommendation will go to City Council for final determination. Section 16.5, application for demolition permits. Again, that's just being updated to reference Section 8.1, where the other regulations for demolishing historic structures are located. that is all i have unless you have any questions for me any questions from the board i thought the review was pretty comprehensive thank you actually i do also want to note after being published we noticed some discrepancies in the addresses So while we were preparing letters to go out to various property owners, it appeared that the property at 413 West Gray Street has been readdressed as 101 Desquin Lane. I'm sorry, let me get it up on the overhead here. There we go. All right, so 413 West Gray Street appears to have been readdressed as 101 Desgan Lane. And 421 West Gray Street appears to have been readdressed as 102 Desgan Lane. This computer is not cooperating with me. 410 Mary Street. That address point is showing on a vacant portion of a parcel that shows the address of 402 Mary Street. And so it appears that there were two structures on the property and one was demolished. We are also 231 Sullivan Street was readdressed as 252 West Olympia. And that is it for the change of addresses. We also mistakenly left off 137 East Marion, which is one of the properties at the Celtic property. So we are including that on the list as well.

Can you say again how you contacted the residents to update their status?

So we took this list of properties and compared it to the property appraiser's website, took the mailing address from the property appraiser's website and addressed all of them. There were multiple versions of letters that went out. We started basically with four categories. Either the property was not involved at all when there were changes made in the 2024 cycle, or there were properties that were already considered historic and maintained that designation in 24, or there were properties that were historic and then were removed in 2024, or properties that were not historic and were added in 2024. From there, some of those properties either are or are not currently listed as historic because some of the properties were not listed on the Florida Master Site file and are located outside of the National Register boundary. So those currently are not historic. Those listed on the Florida Master Site file are. And then from there, it was we either are or are not proposing to include you on this list. So we created basically a table with different codes for the different letter types of what type of letter we sent to which address. So we at least do have that for our record of what type of letter went to which of these addresses.

Did those letters go out before people went home for the summer?

no they went out mid to late last week and so it was pretty short notice to make it to this meeting but of course as you all know you make a recommendation and it will continue to go to City Council they will have to hear the ordinance for a first reading and then hear it again a second time to adopt it so if anyone received the letter and has concerns or has not received a letter yet we do still have time to make some updates um if there's any properties included or not included after the september the the second hearing there's still ways to update the list through the same process that we're doing now so this is going to be updated before it goes to city council correct the addresses that i read off yes okay and then we'll be able to pick up the supplemental corrections and and correct this for my file absolutely yeah we can email that to you also all right um lastly one other thing that was mentioned in the ordinance itself there was a recommendation to add number three into section i believe this is 3.14 so in 3.14 it talks about the historic district overlays and how they can be created or amended And then you get to the next sentence and it just starts talking about an ordinance and a public hearing. But prior to that, it didn't mention anything about an ordinance. While we know that that is the process to make it clear in the code, it was recommended to add that sentence. And so that can be part of your recommendation to include that or to not include that.

I think it adds a layer of clarity. I would add.

Any other questions for staff? Is staff recommending approval with the additions that you have mentioned?

With the changes to the ordinance, yes.

And are there any conditions attached to this?

Not that I'm aware of, no. It's not applicant specific.

Any other questions for staff?

No, I don't see any impact.

Okay, and we'll open it for public comment. Is there anybody that wishes to address the board with regard to this matter? Please come up to the microphone, state your name, and you'll have three minutes.

Swear it in, swear it in.

Not for this, we don't need to swear these. Thank you.

So good afternoon, my name is Sandra Brandt. I own a home in District One. Saturday in my mail, I received this letter from the city. front, back, side. It refers to the 33-page ordinance document that you all have probably been studying prior to me receiving this letter. The letter is dated the 14th of July. The postmark on the envelope is the 24th of July, which was Friday. The post office delivered it timely. I got it on Saturday. Unfortunately, the weekend didn't give me a lot of time to prepare for today or even read through and sort of digest the implications of the ordinance, okay? So you might be thinking like I was initially Wow, did this just get lost in the shuffle? You know, tucked in the back drawer, accidentally found, then mailed out? No, that's not the case. I checked with two neighbors that I knew would be in the same boat as myself, and they both received the letter on Saturday, dated the 14th, postmarked the 24th. I wanted you all to be aware of that. So when you're looking at the room, there's not many of the people in my situation here. That could be a big factor. If anybody works or whatever, it leaves them no time to try to be here. I want you to realize also that if you have a historic home in Punta Gorda, you were impacted by the flooding. You got at least three foot of water in your home. Most of your belongings were now gone. You tried frantically to save important papers that might have been in the wrong place, wrong time. It's been less than two years, but to everybody who was not affected, this seems like rear view mirror time, right? Just like the rest of the country, but for us, it's really not. You have to take time to wrap your head around what's best for me. Now, I happen to know some of the history of the home that I have, and previously, it, I guess, was taken off of the registry, had been on, if I have my history right, which I might not, And then of course with the new, with the abolishment of the LDRs, it all went away and I thought I wouldn't need to be even considering that again. But here we are today. I try to be a good citizen of this city. I don't know if you're aware, but I've done a lot of work in Arbor Day for the last four or five years. The reason those trees are being planted is because I keep getting people back involved and getting the city to make the application and I care about our town a lot. volunteer and participate as I can and I realize the city probably thinks it's my responsibility to check every one of the agendas out there and make sure there's nothing that I want to comment on and read through everything that is not always possible I mostly want to say I'm hugely disappointed in our city on this communication I appreciate your time and your and your volunteering on this board ma'am can I ask you a question

So can you talk how this would affect you but I mean I recognize the argument you made about it being a short time but being on or off the historic registry is impactful to you?

It's absolutely impactful to me because the home that I own is not completely repaired at this point. I'm not living in it right now. So I have two choices, I guess. If I wanna try to be on the registry, that means I can repair the home, leave it at, it's not at grade, but it's like three foot up, whatever. on a crawl space, which makes it, it's not like you just hose it out and go, you know, the water's coming up, not, you know, it's coming up and not just through the doorways, but the, you know, floor, everything. So if you're on the registry, now the 50% rule doesn't apply to you. You can leave it where it is and do as much of the repairs and the glamping up or whatever you wanna do to it, and it doesn't matter what you spend. My house was built in 1942. The value of that, the assessed value of that, doesn't leave me a lot of wiggle room for 50% to be able to repair things. Now, obviously, air conditioning, I mean, there's things that are up and running and going in the home. There's electrical, but there's a lot left to be done. That's a big decision. If you're not on the registry, you have to be under the 50%. If you are on the registry, you don't. If you go over the 50%, it doesn't mean you can't do more than 50%, okay? But if you do, you have to now meet all the FEMA codes in terms of elevated windows, everything. It's got a metal roof. Structurally, the bones were good. Obviously, it lived through a lot of hurricanes from 1942. But now we've got a whole other animal potentially with government regulation, which I'm not making comment on that, but I'm just saying it adds another layer to things. So yeah, it's a big... it's a big not necessarily my decision because I may ask for it to be on the registry or ask for it not and it may not be approved the way I want it I mean it but it's still so the biggest impact to you is the amount of time to consider these things before There's no time before seeing you. I'm sorry. I mean, I started reading it, and it's like, you know, it's a regulation document that I'm not accustomed to reading, the ordinance. And then, you know, you read through it, but then you have to go back, and it's like just sort of look at the implications of what's there. So that's my comment to you going forward. Can I ask you a question? Yes. Do you feel that it would benefit you in your recovery? I don't know, if that was clear to me, I wouldn't, you know, I don't know. I need more information about the cost of the, you know, what it would cost to repair and, you know, it's, you know, in the very beginning, let me just say this.

I'd love to encourage this discussion, but I'm afraid it's not part of the order of the business.

You're right, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But just to say in the very beginning, for at least the first six months and probably more, the cost of doing any construction was hugely inflated. And we had all kinds of contractors flooding in. Whatever you went to buy, whether it be drywall or whatever, was way more than you would have paid before that incident. personally I took a you know sit back and wait and gather my thoughts and figure it out but mostly I just wanted to comment on that you know and I don't even know that it's required of y'all to send out these letters I did notice that I had on the back a number 274 my neighbor had a 281 I don't know if that reflects what letter we got or how many people got the letters but you know it just another question Any other questions from you all?

No, I just wanted to say something that I've run across. Can I enter it in, Jim?

30 seconds. We'll be able to do that at the end of public comment. That's all right, Chuck. Can we do that?

I guess it's going to be all right. Thank you. She left.

Yes, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is John Bean, and I own the property at 413 West Ann Street. Like this woman stated, I only got the letter on Saturday, and I had a meeting in Fort Myers, which got over a little after 1, so I sped down here as fast as I could. I avoided a ticket, so yeah, I got here. few minutes late but yeah I think that letter was a little bit late impossible to be able to prepare for this but from the best I can tell we've got an overlay for this historical district to give you reprieve from the FEMA's 50% rule I would encourage you all to drive by the house that my daughter lives in it we elevated it six and a half feet we've done all the work completed it someday my daughter may want to add to the house and she might be affected by it but i kind of doubt it okay that is such a small deal to put this overlay of this historic district on it can i opt out i'd rather not be in it i know when we try to get things done to the house after the storm putting in new storm, we realized we needed to upgrade those storm windows because we couldn't get to the windows to put the plywood on. So we had to put storm windows in. Took five and a half weeks to get it through because we had to wait for this historic over day to look at it to put storm windows in. Time is money. So I had my contractor had to sit around and wait and then it took extra time because he didn't sign something. So we had to go two months trying to get storm windows in so we could finish that project on the inside. I don't see the benefit of this thing if you're just adding more government bureaucracy. So I'd love that opportunity to opt out, and I'll be reading it. Unfortunately, I'll be traveling. I won't be able to make the next meeting. So it's like, wow, just all this information and no time to look at it. But thank y'all. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is John House. I live at 429 West Ann Street, right down the street from here. And I just wanted to say that we are in the process with LLB Florida, and it's been a long navigation through this whole thing. And we're now in the decision phase of the whole process, so it's looking really good for us. About a month ago, they asked have we have any historic restrictions? Are we on the historic registry? And I emailed the city and got confirmation that we don't have, there's no certificate of appropriateness needed and all this stuff. And now I'm afraid this is gonna be a lot of red tape if we're on it. And chances are we may not even get approved if this is gonna be a big holdup for us. And so I'm thinking the same way. I'd like to come off of it if we could.

So are you asking for more information or just the ability to opt out?

What I did today was I did email and request that. I didn't know if there was anything else that I needed to do to opt out.

I think that's probably a question we'll all have for Rachel when we're done with the public hearing. Okay. The public section.

Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Good afternoon. My name is William Sturdivant. I live at 410 Gill Street. That's on the south side of West Virginia. And when I bought the house in 1978, there was nobody said anything about a historical overlay, district, society. It wasn't there. And over the years, I've never really received, this is the first notice I've ever received that they're changing the whatever you want to call it, what the clarification, what has to be done, what you have to go through to get either a building permit and or. I understand what's going on with that. I agree with the gentleman earlier. Right now, I'm not really sure. This letter says that I am in the historic overlay. Before that, I was in the historic, I mean, it said I was in the historic district. I was in the overlay, supposedly. I think so. I didn't know the difference. Nobody's ever come by and told me or sent me a letter as to that's changed. Well, the changing doesn't bother me as much as the rules. The rules bother me a bunch. and i'm at this point i would certainly rather remain in the overlay i feel like gives me a little bit more wiggle room if i want to sell the house in the future there might be a chance that someone would come along and offer gobs of money just for the property and just because it's three lots and they three lots together they just want to trash that and build a really nice new house. And my house is old. It was built in 32. There's nothing about it special. It was actually a house for two families. They were workers, either city docs or whatever. Nothing. 20 by 40, each floor. And each floor was three bedrooms, one bath, and a kitchen and a little bit of a living room. Couldn't tell which was which because they were all small. So there was no significance is what I'm saying. It's nothing special. So I don't want to keep repeating myself. I'll just say this. I do not want to change. I don't think it's right. I don't think it's fair.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

That's it. Bye.

Second call for public comment. Third call for public comment. Any motion to close public comment?

I'll make a motion to close public comment.

I'll second it.

Do we have a motion and a second? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay? Okay. Chuck, did you want to do your comment before Rachel talks to us again?

Well, Rachel, the 50% rule. Yes. When you're in the historic area, I'm trying.

Okay.

You know, I'm going to tell you something. This is funny. I am an auctioneer for a living. And it wore me out. But anyway, in the historic district with FEMA, there are ways that you can work around the 50% rule. Is that correct?

if you are designated as a historic structure then yes there are several exemptions from the florida building code okay anywhere in this document going to city council i can't find out where the owner has an opportunity to opt out so it doesn't specifically talked about individual owners but um um we can flip to where did we add that number three in the ordinance uh page four of 33 is where we added that number three uh amendments or additions to the historic overlay and any proposed change to the local register can be accomplished through the same procedure so they would consult city staff to get that done correct

So just I just want to repeat that. So to opt out, you consult city staff.

That is correct. And I have taken note of the addresses of everyone who spoke here today. And in our office, we're keeping a log of property owners who have notified us that they do not wish to be included on the list or do wish to be included on the list and making sure that we keep track of that so that by the time it gets to the adoption hearing that we have everything all sorted out.

Can we add a recommendation to city council that they add, I know somewhere in these documents it says that they have these efforts for buyers, efforts for businesses to communicate what this means, but it seems like we need some effort for our existing residences about how it constrains or provides them more opportunity, some kind of website or something.

Yeah, we can definitely try to get something, like a pop-up on our website in the meantime.

And this is just another thought or suggestion. Watching several of these changes with our registry over the past couple of years, especially in an incidence where someone might have been removed but suddenly were added again, and knowing that even the property owners may not be aware whether they're in an overlay or designated historic, if there would be something on our website that would have a current document for any potential buyer to access to know immediately whether or not you're zoned in that area or not would be very beneficial.

would think our sorry go ahead our IT department is currently working on a map it'll be an interactive map type your address in or click on a property and it'll pop up with all of the properties information it's not live on our website yet but as soon as we get through this process and make sure that we have all of the properties that are on the list showing correctly on the on the map we'll put it public facing

and then i'm concerned about the residents that are out of state right now how will they because our the turnaround time seems fast it's this fall that they're it's september right is the final correct so decisions are going to be made before people are back that seems not in their best interest

Just one more suggestion. Maybe on that updated link that we would provide on the website, if we do agree to eventually have an opt-in or an opt-out to have the property owner be able to access an opt-in option or opt-out, if that would be something that they could even do virtually, that way both ends of the spectrum would be covered as far as not only the overlay, the designation, but also the property owner, if that would... you know, eventually become an option to where they could opt in or opt out. Just a thought.

I know technology costs money.

So none of this is final today.

That is correct.

All right, so, and then the other thing is too, I mean, I think giving them an opportunity to opt out is, is something that I would want. And then once you opt out, you're out. So it's not like you begin one month and back in. And then who on the staff will be the designee for the meet with the board.

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're referring to.

You said, are you talking about city staff?

City staff, the planning director or designee.

Gotcha. So Boyd Lawrence is our planning director. If he is not available, either myself or Adriana Gerke, who is our planner one, any of us will be able to assist with those questions.

Rachel, would you describe the opt out process for us once more?

We don't exactly have an application process at the moment. It's more so get in touch with city staff, we add you to a list, and then we'll create an ordinance that goes through this process. It goes to planning committee, the Historic Preservation Board first planning commission and then city council. So you have to go through three councils if you want to opt out that we just said, any changes to a historic district overlay would require before all three, all three boards.

can i request that the minutes reflect this because those get published and i think we just need to make it get as much information out as soon as possible about who to contact on the city staff and about the process to request and opt out and i also feel like there's missing why you want to opt out or why you want to opt in because there are benefits of being both so perhaps the we can request the historic preservation board put out a flyer on this I guess the board doesn't put out flyers at city staff we can absolutely work with the historic board members to you know solidify those ideas and come up with a design

But at this point, there is no set process for either of these, correct?

Correct. It's get in contact with staff and we create the ordinance and go before the city council.

Would there be any damage done if we continued this?

I know that the historic board and the city council have expressed that they want to see the ordinance continue to move forward. There are other parts of the ordinance that are pretty important when it comes to timing. For instance, I don't think I specifically mentioned in the proposed changes would require owners or sellers of a historically designated property to disclose that designation to the person who is buying it. And so if we can adopt that into the code, then we can go ahead and start that process. If there are concerns about the local register,

we could at least move forward with a portion of the ordinance that would be yeah I mean if the ordinance had a line in there that said current residents have six months to opt out then all the rest of it push through and give our residents time because the ordinance written now is at least what I see here is very focused on that problem that we have in the last year or two of people buying and selling property without these things disclosed so that is really important and I think you all would understand that but anything we could do to you know treat our residents as the first priority

having that current list on the website would help alleviate those that confusion at time of purchase or sale in any matter and would be very important because even if it's not disclosed as a buyer I would certainly want to know you know if the property I was getting ready to purchase was under that historic designation there's you know so having that list current currently published would be really important

Well, if I understand it correctly, the onus is on a realtor to make that disclosure to buyers and sellers.

Is that correct?

That would be correct.

But I'm thinking to alleviate the confusion of someone who may have been on the list initially removed and then in her case replaced on the list, that would be you know, over time a little confusing for the homeowner to know what standard they're under.

Rachel, if I understood you correctly, the major desire of council and the historic board is to require the disclosure, is that correct? Yes. Immediately?

Yeah, that is correct. The disclosure form and as well as the processes, as far as items going to the historic board for recommendation and then to council for approval.

So what would be the process if we wanted to push that portion of it through today and hold the other ones? Is there a procedure we can do that?

We could potentially, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, Alex. But I believe you could make a motion to recommend approval with the exclusion of exhibit B. C, I'm sorry. Exhibit C is the list of the proposed local register. And so you could potentially make a recommendation to move it forward excluding exhibit C.

And what would be the ramification of that?

The properties as they are, either are or are not designated as historic, will remain as they are until this list comes back for approval. So we won't be able to update the maps online and all that until we get this list finalized.

What if we... I feel like that's just adding to this or that's prolonging the confusion about which house when because it just as I think the residents want certainty about their property. The neighbors want certainty about properties are sitting.

Absolutely. So so would we not just make a recommendation today for the historic? I mean, for the city to create a more clarified or clear process for opting in opting out and then making that recommendation for moving forward.

That could be part of the recommendation in a time period to make that decision that extends past the summer empty season. Right. Yeah, that happens during high season. So six months or something or six months from September would get us through March. any other comments from the board or questions sorry one more so since any objections come through here and i think you kind of already said it when asking about the continuance can we have a form that some kind of easy to process form so folks can push their ops out through us because it's coming through the planning commission and the zoning appeal yes we can definitely create a form something simple and easy absolutely this is rachel help help us with the motion yeah what are we really what are we really doing now any other comments from the board

all right then the next step is to craft a motion yeah that will accomplish what we've talked about for our recommendation to city council correct

you know I think a major goal is to keep these districts intact for their you know stabilizing enhancing their property values safeguarding the character and the heritage so I think that we need to talk about how this isn't you know how it benefits the residents And if it doesn't, let's figure out how it should benefit the residents.

So I added a condition in there for six months. Would you like to see that extended?

I think that's great.

Six months. I think they should be good. That should be enough.

I guess people that aren't here have plenty of time to respond, I think.

And we will be sending out additional rounds of letters as well. So we'll make sure to include that in the next letters that go out.

So how do we craft the motion?

read this according to whoever would like to make a motion if you agree with the recommended motion that is shown okay i'd like to make a motion that based on the information presented at this public hearing for item number z a zero eight dash two zero two six i find that this request is consistent with the city of puna gorda's comprehensive plan and that we move to recommend it to the city council approved with the condition that a process to opt in or opt out of the local register be made clear and available for six months following adoption of this request. If any person decides to appeal any decision made by this commission with respect to any matter considered at the meeting or hearing, he or she may need a record of the proceedings. And for such purpose, he or she may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record

which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based we have a motion is there a second second motion made and seconded all in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries Any other comments from staff? Any other comments from the board? Then I thank you all and we are adjourned.