Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Seminole County, and welcome to the BOCC May 12 meeting. As always, we are gonna start with our invocation and pledge that will be led by elder David Ball from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. And before he comes up, you can come up, pastor, but we wanna make sure that we give you a sincere note of appreciation for all that you do with Seminole Heart and their dedication to our community. You facilitating all of that work is fabulous on our behalf. So thank you from the citizens of Seminole County and from the Board of County Commissioners. And with that, if you'd all rise.

Thank you. They said I could take less than a minute to introduce myself. My wife and I are citizens of Utah. We're retired, and we've been called by our church to serve as missionaries here in Sanford for eighteen months. And we found it utterly delightful to live here. In fact, my wife says that because of the beauty and the weather here, she would prefer to stay. But the fact that we have 18 grandchildren living in Utah.

Wow. She

she says that's probably the only thing that'll take her back home. However, if a hurricane passes through this summer, I'll she might change her mind. But we also have 18 to 20 young missionaries, 18, 20 years old, that are here as proselyting missionaries. And their charge is to they they are assigned to work at least four hours a week as community service. So, if any of you need some young healthy volunteers, you can look us up by the website.

But, anyway, we'll say our opening prayer now. Our father in heaven, we're deemed grateful the opportunity this day to meet together as a county commissioners and county leaders and concerned citizens. And we're indeed grateful and express gratitude this day for the free land that we live in. We're grateful that two hundred and fifty years ago, wise men were raised up and gave us a free constitutional government that defines we, the people, as the sovereign. And we're grateful for this wonderful blessing and we pray that thou may bless our current national leaders that they may lead us in with wisdom and protection.

We're especially grateful for those men and women that serve us in the military. We pray at this dangerous time that they may be protected in their service. We're grateful for those that choose to be our state and local leaders here in the county in this county. And we pray for them that they may have wisdom and understanding and empathy for the citizens and to serve this growing population and the challenges that face us as we provide the necessary services for our community. We are particularly grateful for those that serve us, particularly in those that are assigned to protect us.

We're grateful for the sheriffs, the police officers, the firemen, and the other first responders. We pray for them and their protection, and particularly in dangerous situation, bless them and protect them with wisdom and skill and understanding, and particularly and most importantly, that they may always return home safely to their families. We pray for our teachers and our parents who have been who have been given the stewardship to raise our children, that we may raise our children to be responsible citizens, that someday they may carry on the duties of leading us and the blessings that we have that have been given to us. We pray for those in our community that are suffering through health, mental, physical, or financial burdens, that the ways and means may come to them, they may be lifted up and enjoy the prosperity that we've been blessed with. And again, bless us as we conduct the meeting in the business of this county to this day that we may act with respect to one another.

And although we may, as a community, be of many diverse cultures, religions, ethnicities, and different we have many differences. We pray that we all may rise to the level and live to the command of our savior that we may love one another. And these blessings we pray for and petition for thine divine help. In the name of Jesus Christ, 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 so much for your blessings, and welcome to Seminole County, at least for eighteen months. So we're going to move on to awards and proclamations. Some of them we're going to read fully through from the dais and some of them are going to be passed on the consent agenda. We have folks that are here to take pictures even though they're on the consent agenda. I'm going to give a call out to our EMS team who's here.

We are delighted to have you here, and we'll be doing pictures with you. The first proclamation is the proclamation for sergeant Robert Pizzurro, United States Army as Seminole County's May veteran of the month, and this will be read by commissioner Her. That's me. Commissioners, I move the following proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners recognizing United States Army sergeant Robert Pizzurro for his outstanding service to The United States and Seminole County. Whereas the brave men and women of our army, navy, marines, air force, coast guard, and space force demonstrate a resolute spirit and unmatched selflessness reminding us there are few things more American than giving of ourselves to make a difference in the lives of others.

And whereas throughout our country's history, generations of service members have answered the call to leave their families, their jobs, and put their futures and even their lives on the line to valiantly defend our nation. And whereas for many service members, the sacrifice has ended in permanent injury or death, yet their spirit remains in the continued preservation of our freedoms and the promise of liberty. And whereas there are more than 30,000 living veterans in Seminole County who served our nation in times of peace and war, through their service, they kept America strong. And whereas before entering military service, sergeant Pizzurro had already demonstrated a profound sense of duty, disciplined, and selfless commitment to others, principles instilled through his upbringing and reinforced by a distinguished family tradition of military service, including his father, brother, and uncles. This proud legacy shaped his character and prepared him to honorably answer the call to serve his country.

And whereas, drafted in 1967, sergeant Prazurro completed basic training at Fort Gordon, Georgia and subsequently graduated from Fort Bliss, Texas as a Hawk missile and launcher mechanic. He was then assigned to b battery sixth battalion, fifty ninth mobile missile battalion in Babahessun, Germany, where he played a vital role in maintaining missile defense readiness with professionalism, technical proficiency, and unwavering dedication to duty. And whereas, following his discharge from military service in 1968, sergeant Prazurro has continued a lifetime of distinguished service through his leadership in the American Legion, where he is a fourteen year member and currently serves as the first vice president of post two forty three as well as the veteran outreach coordinator. In this role, he leads sustained efforts to visit veterans in six area nursing homes, ensuring they are honored, supported, and never forgotten. Additionally, sergeant Pizzurro has devoted more than twenty four years of volunteer service to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office as a citizen on patrol and search and rescue coordinator.

His commitment to community extends fur further through his civic leadership as past president of the Oak Forest Homeowners Association, probably the most difficult assignment of all, I would guess. Whereas sergeant Pizzurro has brought great credit and distinction upon himself, The United States Of America, the United States Army, and Seminole County. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the board of county commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, express our gratitude, admiration, and respect for sergeant Prazurro for his outstanding service to the military and the United States Army. Be it further proclaimed that this proclamation is presented to sergeant Robert Prazurro along with our sincere congratulations and recognition as Seminole County's veteran of the month adopted this May 2026.

Second. All

those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, motion passes unanimously. Sergeant, if you'd like to say a few words, we would be delighted to have you here.

Thank you. Thank you. Full house. Commissioner, staff, family, and friends, I'm deeply honored and sincerely grateful to be recognized as Seminole County's May Veteran of the Month. The values instilled in me through my family upbringing combined with discipline and a sense of duty I gained through military service have shaped the person I am today.

Those lessons did not end when I left the uniform behind. They continue to guide me in my civilian life, inspiring me to serve community with the same commitment and purpose and integrity. This recognize this recognition is not just a reflection of my journey, but the many individuals who helped supported, mentored, and stood by me along the way, especially my wife, Janice. I share this honor with them and all my colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, dear charges, and welcome, hon. Our next proclamation proclaiming 05/25/2026 is Memorial Day in Seminole County will be read by commissioner DeLaury.

Thank you, madam chair. Memorial Day, it's not just a day. It's not just a day of remembrance. It's a day of honoring those who have represented us and fought the fight and paid the ultimate price. Many times, people think about Memorial Day at times as a community events, family gatherings, the start of a season of summer or holiday, but it's much more than that.

As we honored our veteran of the month here today today, it goes a lot deeper than that. It's a debt of respect that can never really be repaid. Every one of us have someone to thank that have served in the military on different levels. All of us have individuals that have somehow touched us, touched our country, paid the ultimate price. It's truly amazing when you really start thinking about it.

So this proclamation that I've been given to read only scratches the surface of the remembrance of those individuals. So it's my great honor to read this proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners affirming 05/25/2026 as Memorial Day here in Seminole County. And whereas on Memorial Day, we pay a solemn tribute to those brave Americans who served under the stars and stripes and laid down their lives to defend our freedom. Whereas more than a century, this holiday has been known as decoration day and originally honored those lost their lives in fighting the civil war. And whereas following Americans entering into World War one, Memorial Day was involved with decorate commemorating American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War two, Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

And whereas in 1915, after spotting a cluster of poppies, a brigade sergeant brigade surgeon was inspired to write the poem in Flanders in Flanders Field, giving a voice to service members who had died in battle and laid buried beneath the poppy covered ground. The poem initiated a movement to make poppies a symbol to tribute all those who died in wars and remain as an emblem of remembrance to this day. And whereas congress, a joint resolution approved 05/11/1950 providing Memorial Day was set aside as a day of prayer for permanent peace and respect, president Truman was issued a proclamation calling upon the people of The United States to observe each Memorial Day in a manner in this manner. And whereas on Monday, May 25 will mark the one hundred and fifty eighth anniversary of Memorial Day, and whereas more than 1,200,000 Americans service members have died in conflict and more than 8,000 were from Florida and over a 100 were residents of Seminole County with two medal of honor recipients. And whereas today, over 1,300,000 Americans serve in active duty, 66,000 of whom are from Florida, while nearly 750,000 Americans served in reserves in the National Guard.

And whereas on Memorial Day and every day, the citizens of Seminole County must remember the servicemen and women who sacrificed their lives to insure our own. Now, therefore, we proclaim that the board of Seminole County commissioners do hereby proclaim and recognize 05/25/2026 as Memorial Day. Be it further proclaim that the Board of County Commissioners request that at 3PM on Memorial Day, Seminole County residents voluntarily observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect and pause from whatever they're doing in honor of those heroes and their valor adopted this May 2026. Second.

Motion is second. All those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, passes unanimously. Thank you, commissioner Delore. The next proclamation will be read by commissioner Zimbauer, and it's proclaiming May 2026 as National Travel and Tourism Week in Seminole County.

Thank you, madam chair. It's with my great pleasure to enter this proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming May 2026 as National Travel and Tourism Week in Seminole County, Florida. Whereas the travel and tourism industry plays a vital role in strengthening Seminole County's economy, generating revenue, creating employment opportunities, and enhancing the overall quality of life for residents and visitors alike. And whereas tourism generated over 4,300,000,000 in economic impact for Seminole County and supports approximately 27,100 jobs for our local residents in 2024. And whereas Seminole County has emerged as a premier destination for sports tourism, welcoming athletes, teams, and spectators for tournaments, training, events that energize the local economy and showcase the region's top tier facilities and hospitality.

And whereas the county's abundant natural beauty, including its scenic rivers, lush parks, and protected wildlife areas, continues to draw nature enthusiasts, outdoor adventures, and eco tourists reinforcing Seminole County's reputation as Florida's natural choice. And whereas, tourism in Seminole County provided more than $334,000,000 in state and local taxes in 2024, which resulted in nearly $1,800 annuals tax savings for each family household. Whereas in 2025, Seminole County established the state's first countywide tourism improvement district, TID, as a public private partnership that was designed to create and dedicate funding mechanism that will enhance our regional sports tourism infrastructure and ensure that Seminole County remains highly competitive in attracting future sporting events to our community. Whereas the success of the TID was built on strong collaboration between Seminole County leaders, our sports tourism partners, and our local hoteliers that will drive economic growth, support tourism development, and strengthen our community for years to come. And whereas the continued partnerships between CFHLA, local businesses, government leaders, community stakeholders remains critical to fostering a thriving tourism economy and ensuring Seminole County remains a warm, inviting place for visitors year round.

Whereas the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association is the largest regional hospitality association in The United States, representing more than 148,000 hotel rooms throughout the Central Florida region alone, as well as nearly 500 supplier organizations that do business with hospitality and tourism industries. And whereas National Travel and Tourism Week offers a meaningful opportunity in 2026 to honor the accomplishments of Seminole County's travel and tourism community, highlight the continued efforts of c h l CFHLA and its partners, and reaffirm our dedication to growing the county's presence as a must visit destination. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby proclaim May 2026, as National Travel and Tourism Week in Seminole County, Florida, and encourage our residents to support workforce development in the hospitality and tourism industries, and participate in the local initiatives highlighting travel importance to our communities, economic growth, and the quality of life here in Seminole County, adopted this twelfth day, May 2026. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. I think this is what we may have been waiting for by the rattles of the medals in the audience. The next one will be read by commissioner Lockhart. It's a resolution recognizing the 2026 Lake Mary High School cheerleading team as the Florida High School Athletic Association state champions. Yes.

Yay.

Awesome. Glad to have our Lake Mary Rams in

the house today. Thank you

for being here. Commissioners, I'd like to move the following resolution of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners recognizing the twenty five-twenty six Lake Mary High School cheerleading team as state champions. Whereas Seminole County proudly recognizes the outstanding achievements of its student athletes and the positive representation they bring to our community through excellence in competition. And whereas the Lake Mary High School Rams cheerleading team achieved a historic milestone by winning the Florida High School Athletic Association Class two a competitive cheerleading state championship in 2026. And whereas the Rams have set an FHSAA record by winning 10 consecutive state competitive cheerleading championships from 2017 to '26, a milestone that has never been accomplished in the history of competitive cheerleading in the state of Florida.

And whereas the team's success reflects the leadership of former head coach Paige Black and current head coach Victoria Jones, whose commitment to excellence, character development, and community pride has played a pivotal role in the program's historic achievement. And whereas the Lake Mary High School cheerleading team overcame adversity and demonstrated resilience, determination, and composure under pressure, exemplifying the highest ideals of sportsmanship and competitive spirit. And whereas the championship reflects the dedication of the coaching staff, student athletes, their families, school administrators, and supporters whose collective efforts contributed to this remarkable season, and whereas this achievement has brought significant recognition to Seminole County and serves as an inspiration to youth throughout the community to pursue excellence. Now therefore be it resolved that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby congratulate the Lake Mary High School cheerleading team for winning the twenty five-twenty six FHSAA Class 2A State Championship and extends its sincere congratulations to the cheerleaders, coaches, families, and supporters for this historic accomplishment adopted this twelfth day of May twenty twenty six.

Thank you.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, it passes unanimously. And now Commissioner Lockhart and I will do our chair for you.

Coach, would you like to say a word?

While Coach Black is coming forward, think yeah, while Coach Black is coming forward, I will tell you my daughter, who is now almost 30, was just blessed to have Coach Black as her coach in middle school. And so your time here has been incredibly rewarding and valuable to our kids for many, many years. So we appreciate you.

You so She's going love

that you told her age. She's

a young 30.

And I wanted to say, yes, I've had the privilege to coach the Lake Mary High School cheer team for the last twelve years. And I wanted to say on behalf of the coaches, the cheerleaders, the parents in the school, thank you for this honor, this recognition today. I really appreciate it. I think, as she just said pretty much everything about winning the state champion, that this is definitely history being made, winning ten straight years in a row. That's ten years of excellence.

And I think a lot of people, for those of you who don't know that much about cheerleading, a lot of people say, oh, it's just cheerleading. They also say, oh, Lake Mary, they've done it year after year. They're just gonna continue to do it. But, cheerleading is truly a sport, and these girls are true athletes. And they have to dedicate have dedication, hard work.

They have they put so much into this, and the pressure every single year just builds because you're expected to win now. And so I just wanna say that they stepped up and did the job that they needed to do. For those of you who don't, again, don't know that much about cheerleading, it's not like football game where you're out there for, like, two hours. It's a one time, one chance, two minute, thirty second routine that you have to hit perfectly to win. And that's just a lot of pressure on these girls.

And this year, this team has just done amazing to work hard, sacrifice in order to step up and win. But not only that, like what you were saying earlier, Amy, is that I'm not only proud of these girls as champions on the mat, but these are amazing young ladies just in general. They're teamwork, they're role models. Most of them are involved in National Honor Society at the school and, Spanish Honor Society. They're they're academic excellence, so they definitely represent Lake Mary well. So I'm super proud of them, and I definitely believe that they're never gonna be forgot forgotten for this historic day and year. Thank you. Thank you. And go rounds.

Thank you for your leadership. All right. We have one more resolution honoring the retirement of UCF Senior Associate Vice President for Government and Community Relations, Mr. Fred Kittenger. And this will be read by Commissioner Constantine.

Fred Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I would be remiss to say to the ladies of Lake Mary Lake Mary. Need to finish it.

Lee, you need to stop all your heads.

Stop. Stop. That UCF's cheerleading squad has are in the top five every single year, so I hope some of you are going there.

All right. There we go.

Thank you very much. And also, thank you very much for the pineapples from, you know, from the guys over at the tourism. Thank you very much. I am very honored make a motion to on this resolution because this has been a friend of mine for over forty years. And sit down and relax, everybody.

I hope you have a cup of coffee or whatever because we had to cut this resolution down. It didn't fit on one page. So it's a long one, but it's worthy of everything that is said in it. And so I will move the resolution to the Summit County Board of County Commissioners recognizing the retirement of Fred Kittenger. Whereas a proud alumnus of the University of Central Florida class of '80, Fred earned a bachelor's of arts with honors and later a master's of public administration from Florida State University, reflecting his long lifelong commitment to learning and leadership.

And whereas Fred Kittenger has dedicated more than four decades to public affairs, higher education, civil engagement, serving as a steadfast advocate for collaboration among government, community organizations, and the private sector. And whereas Fred served as the chief of staff for the Orlando mayor, Glenda Hood, providing eight years of exemplary leadership in municipal government and later held roles as vice president for government affairs and executive director of the small business chamber for greater Orlando chamber of commerce after beginning his public service career as a legislative aide to state senator George Stewart junior. And whereas in 2003, he was approached by senior vice president emeritus Dan Holzenbeck and board of trustees charter member Patrick Christensen regarding an opportunity at the University of Central Florida working with local governments, an opportunity that led to his long and impactful tenure at the university. And whereas throughout his career at UCF, Fred strengthened partnerships across Orange County, the city Of Orlando, Seminole County, and the broader Central Florida region, advancing collaboration among the university, local governments, public agencies, and community stakeholders to support economic development, workforce pipelines, research initiatives, and regional innovation, and played a vital role in advancing major institutional milestones, including the College of Medicine, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, the UCF Downtown expansion of the Business Incubator Program, and key infrastructure investments.

And whereas Fred demonstrated a deep commitment to student success through the UCF Legislative Scholars Program, which he helped establish and guide alongside of Dan Holzenbeck and Allison Shultz, creating an immersive experience in which students gained firsthand exposure to the legislative process in Tallahassee. And since its inception in 2005, more than 320 students have participated. And whereas he further supported student achievement through his service as an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Florida's School of Public Administration and together with his wife of forty three years established the Fred and Sandra Kittenger scholarship fund in 2020 to support graduate students in public administration. And whereas his civic leadership extends across Central Florida through service on numerous boards and organizations, including Junior Achievement of Central Florida, Orange County Research and Development Authority, Orlando After School All Stars, and past leadership roles in Tiger Bay of Central Florida and the Coalition for the Homeless and the university's Alumni Association.

And

whereas in 04/22/2026, Fred concluded nearly twenty three years of service to the University of Central Florida as senior associate vice president for government and community relations and director of state and local government, marking the culmination of a distinguished career. And whereas he is supported by his devoted family, including his wife, Sandra B. Kittenger, their daughter, Alisa, and granddaughter, Paisley, who bring him great joy and pride. Now, therefore, be it resolved, we, the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners, hereby recognize and honor Fred Kittenger for his exceptional career in service, leadership, and dedication to the University of Central Florida and the Central Florida community, and that his legacy of collaboration, mentorship, and institutional advancement will continue to be strengthened in the region for generations to come. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, it passes unanimously. Mister Kittenger, would you like to have a word? Thank

you so much, madam chairman. Good morning, commissioners Lockhart, Delari, commissioner Zinbauer, and, of course, the original mister UCF, Lee Constantine. Thanks, commissioner Constantine. If the good lord wants to call me home today, I think we just had eulogy read, so it's probably as good time as as any. But, madam chair, just fifteen seconds of personal privilege, especially while we have the Lake Mary state champions here. We're also lucky to have in the room some coaching loyalty that comes out of Lake Mary, probably the best known coach in the state of Florida and definitely well known to Lake Mary. That's their former soccer coach state champion, Larry McCorkle, my cousin, is here today. Larry? Oh,

yeah. There you go.

I'll probably be taken off the Christmas card list for that. Commissioners, madam chair, on the way over here today, I'm almost crossing the bridge on the 417 across Lake Jessup. It reminded me of all the times I've come up here to Seminole County, meeting with you all, your predecessors, and your staff about so many different projects and partnerships. And just for the audience, I want them to realize how closely intertwined UCF and Seminole County are together. The incubator system that was talked on earlier is recognized as the best in the state and it's best in the nation.

One of the shining jewels in that crown is the Seminole County incubator Mhmm. In a soft landing program, one of the best that you'll find in Central Florida, one of the best you'll find in the country. We've also had a long term partnership with the medical school. A lot of folks don't realize Seminole County was one of the first endorsers and funders of the UCF College of Medicine because you you realized what it meant to growing that economic sector of health care and life sciences. Just recently, when it comes to economic development, you all recognize the role that modeling simulation training takes place here in Central Florida.

We have the nation's largest cluster with envy of so many other communities, but you recognize the importance that it plays here in Central Florida. Not too long ago, you'll help support the creation and launching of LegacyPoint and now we're working with your staff as we go through the next phase of growth for LegacyPoints. And when it comes to our students, you are one of the biggest supporters of our emergency management students' internships. Every year, there are lots of our students, undergraduate and graduate students that come to your emergency management program here in Seminole County, which is one of the best run-in the state. It, I think, is a large contributor to the fact that our graduate program in emerging management is ranked number one in the nation.

My point being, these partnerships are so important to UCF and I believe to Seminole County. One of my former bosses, Jacob Stewart said, we don't do collaborations because they're easy, we do them because they make us better. And I'm convinced those collaborations, those projects, those partnerships between Seminole County and UCF had made both UCF and Seminole County better. I'm honored to be here today. I'm humbled by the proclamation. I think that I should have turned the table. The proclamation should have been given to you all for your partnerships with UCF, but I so greatly appreciate the chance to be here today. And lastly, I want to recognize your tremendous staff. Forty four years of work and I've worked with a lot of staffs around the state, state level, local, cities, counties, etcetera. You'll have one of the very, very best.

I'm known for years and worked for years with Darren Gray, with Tricia Tricia Johnson, with Kate Latour both here and in Orange County, and of course with Guy who has no last name because he's like Cher, Madonna, Bono. It's just just Guy. But your staff of public administrators and professionals, they are rock solid, and I hope your constituents appreciate just what a strong team you all built here. Again, thank you and wish you both individually as well as collectively the best as you continue to lead Seminole County and Central Florida. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for your service. Commissioners, will you meet me down on the floor for pictures? Alright, gentlemen. If you want to take five minutes.

Madam chair, if I may for a moment, I don't know if Fred Kidd, you're still in the room. Fred, you still back there somewhere in the hallway?

He's saying goodbye to everybody. I

just wanna add something. You know, through the years, so many things have happened throughout Central Florida. No matter what county you are part of, either Orange, Osceola, Lake, Seminole, Volusia, even Brevard. And there's been one voice, many voices, but there's one voice many times that people don't hear but is front and center because she doesn't want the limelight. It's that quiet voice that's always getting something done, and that's Fred Kittinger.

I met Fred I met met Fred when he was with Glenda Hood a number of years ago. Sometimes it feels just like just a moment. And one thing that always impressed me about Fred Kittenger was he was always promoting other people around him. He was always promoting the issue and not himself. And Fred, I'm gonna tell you, it went very noticed, and we cannot thank you enough for all the wonderful things that you've done for this county and this region.

You are truly, truly a legend that will not be forgotten. And this is just a small thank you. We cannot even begin to say how much thank you because your fingerprint and your footsteps are on so many different places that I can remember when I was first starting out in the nineties, you were the one that actually helped me and helped make me understand what economic development was about, what partnership was about, what UCF. I mean, it just goes on and on and on and on. I cannot thank you enough for your leadership, your guidance, and your friendship. Thank you.

Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Alright, commissioners. Commissioner Lockhart stepped out for a minute. We're going to move to additions, deletions, and modifications. I'll go to the county manager first.

Thank you, madam chairman and commissioners. Just to correct changes to the consent agenda. Item number seven under the county manager's consent agenda, I'd like to move that one in our local agreements with the municipalities, move that under my report this afternoon. As you all know, there were a couple of meetings last night and we just need to update a couple of agreements, so I'll bring those back this afternoon. And then Item 12, I would like to pull and I'll be bringing that one back to the Board. And other than that, no other changes. Thank you.

Commissioner Lockhart had no nothing to pull. Commissioners, is there anything to pull?

I have nothing. No, ma'am.

With that, I'll entertain a motion.

Madam chair. No. I'm sorry.

Public comments. Public comment.

No public comment. No public comment. Thank you.

Madam chair, I'm prepared to make a motion.

Please do.

I move the approval of consent agenda for items number six, eight through eleven, thirteen through 26.

Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. That takes us to the regular agenda. The first up is Chief Kinley with Fire and Capital Improvement Plan.

Real quick, Madam Chairman and Commissioners, as Chief Kinley is getting prepared for his presentation, normally we would do this type of presentation during our budget work sessions. However, since this is going to be pretty lengthy, we thought that we would save some time and do it early for the commission and get your feedback on our plan.

Fabulous. Take it away, chief.

So good morning. For the record, Matt Kenley, fire chief, Sycamore County Fire Department, and we're here to talk about our five year capital improvement plan within the fire department. The purpose of this is to provide an update on SCFD's five year capital improvement plan for construction, demonstrate the return on a prior millage investment, present projects based on demand and cost escalation, and seek board approval of the CIP. You'll see the agenda will go through the background, the ten past ten years of return on your investment, call load trending, capital improvement plan for construction, and future capital improvements. So background, back in 2017 the board helped out the fire department and the citizens by raising the millage to invest in our infrastructure and our fleet.

At the time, coming out of a downturn, our facilities were in disrepair and we were having challenges with our fleet and their reliability. In that nearly ten years, the citizens return on investment has shown three new fire stations constructed, over 32 facility, major facility upgrades and projects for modernization, fleet expansion to meet the service demand along with achieving the ISO one rating. Result being faster response times, improved reliability, and enhanced public safety. Just to hit some of the highlights of the major projects, we've had eight stations with window replacements upgraded to hurricane rated windows. Obviously our firefighters are in those stations during hurricanes.

Nine bathroom upgrades are makeup of our firefighters has changed over time and having the communal bathrooms just no longer is an appropriate way of doing business. Six kitchen renovations, three HVAC system upgrades, two roof replacements, two floor and interior improvements, four stations with driveway replacements and we continue to do that. We've added two aerial style trucks in quince to our fleet that helps get the ladder service on scene in the appropriate time for ISO ratings. We've added another tower truck, aerial platform, an airboat, two engines for 39 and 29, two rescues for '39 and 29, and we've rotated through our entire fleet. We have a very, very reliable fleet.

So I want to go through our construction over the since 2017. As we're going through this, I want you to pay particular attention to the construction costs and the build times. Station 29, which was built in November 2017 in the Jamestown, Aloma area, took thirteen months of build time, dollars 3,600,000 in cost. The return on investment is a 35% improvement in response times in that area. It was definitely a hole within the county.

We have Station 11 in the Altamont area. This was a partnership with the city of Altamonte. They provided us $2,000,000 in the land, it was the old post office property, to be able to move the station over there. One of the biggest challenges we had with that station is it being two story, is in their administrative complex, and it worked. It just took a long time to get to the fire trucks.

This is one of the few stations we still had with poles and very long poles in some areas coming out of the bunk room. It just took a long time to get to the trucks. What we've seen there, a build time of three years and ten months, total cost of $5,300,000 as you can see this is starting to creep up, and an 18% improvement in turnout times. And a turnout time being from the time they get the call to the time that the truck is rolling. The third station, Station 39 out in the Payola area, build time of two years and three months, total cost almost $11,000,000, improved coverage in that area and response times, we experienced a 22% improvement in the response times.

That station added a tower truck, an engine, a rescue, and soon to be traffic attenuator, the blocking vehicle that was approved in this year's budget. We should be we've received delivery of that. We're just outfitting it with all the technology that will help to keep our firefighters safe on the roadways. I know in my twenty five years, the closest I've ever come to injury, the scaredest I've ever been as a company officer that my crew was hurt was on the roadways. Fires, we do we train for that all the time.

Roadways, we cannot control the public being safe. Our equipment. So cost of trucks across the board has nearly doubled or more. Back in 2018, we're just under $600,000 for a truck, now we're almost at $1,200,000 That's just the cost of the truck. That doesn't include the equipment.

This continues to escalate. As you know, we did in the past order trucks early when we were experiencing 34% increases every two to three months. We've saved a total of nearly $2,000,000 in ordering trucks early. That has stabilized. We're now experiencing across all of them about a 3% to 4% increase every year, which is normal.

That's what we've experienced in the past, but obviously it's a 3%, 4% off of a much bigger number. Rescues, an 80% increase. We will experience with our rescues, so back in 2017 when I was the EMS chief we switched to a different style of truck, the Braun truck. That box that you see where the patient compartment is at is all aluminum welded together, it's one piece. We'll experience a 20% savings.

We're looking at fiscal year twenty eight with every rescue that we get from then on because we're able to refurb. We can pull that box off of the back of that truck, re chassis it, not only saving that 20%, which is about 80,000 to $90,000 but also getting it back much quicker. We're still at two year build times on these rescues, we could get it back in six to eight months. So very, we're very much looking forward to that. Our tower trucks, which is not something we buy all the time, about every three to four years we look at replacing one instead of every year, it's doubled and then some.

Just a specialty unit that we need to have, but those costs don't stop. So what did all this get us? Outside of a great service and great response times, we've achieved every accolade that you possibly can in the fire service, and in reality, the emergency medical service. One of the goals initially was ISO one, and we have achieved that. That means to the citizen, to the businesses in Seminole County, potential of reduced insurance rates.

I know after we received an ISO one, I had one of our local citizens that comes in on a regular basis who told the story and it made my heart feel good because I was afraid he's gonna kill me, that he this ISO one and it doesn't mean anything, and then he called his insurance company and they said he was going get a reduction. And he couldn't have been more thrilled. I think his comment was the first time he's seen government do what they actually said they were going to do. So I was was very happy.

He's not here right now, that was Bill.

No, he's

not back there. So

that was great. One of our first accreditations that we got was Cass, and that's on the ambulance side of the business. And I'd like to take just a moment to announce that we have been here recently told that we have been reaccredited for the fifth time with CAS with a perfect score. That's a testament to the commitment that this board, the county manager's office, and our crews have in this organization. Without all that working together, we just can't achieve these things.

We've also and I call this getting the master's degree, the CFAI accreditation, that's the fire accreditation, one of the most difficult ones to get. It's all about continuous improvement and we continue to do that. And outside of the reaccreditation of CAST, most recently, our comm center received ACE accreditation. So CHAT GPT verified. We are the only fire department in the country that has all of those accreditation. And if you take ACE out of it, we're one of seven that have the other three. Wow. That's that's a big deal. That's a big deal. And of those seven, there's only one other county in there of our size.

It's a very difficult thing to do and it's a testament, again, to the men and women in our department and all the great things that they do. So on with the agenda, call load and trending. Obviously you know response times are one of our major drivers. Looking at the past four years, we've had a stabilization of our call load. You see we're right around 50,000 calls the last four years, our population has not stopped coming in, and we've taken some time to verify by data and also hypothesize of why this may be.

It's interesting that you look at 2022 as the year that it started to level off. That's also the same year that we instituted community paramedicine from board direction. That has been there's very few things I've seen in the fire service that are universally loved, and there's not anybody down to the ground, to the troops, that have anything negative to say. They love this program, We love this program. The citizens love this program.

What it has done is virtually, if not completely, eliminate the high utilizers of the 911 system. Our crews identify who they think needs assistance beyond just us responding to their house. And our community paramedics and crews go out there and connect them to all the phenomenal services that are within Seminole County to get them the assistance that they need, often which is not 911 or an ER. That has completely stopped our high utilizers. You get a couple of calls, they get referred, and we stop that from happening any longer and improve the quality of life for that citizen.

Other things that we, again, can use data, if you look over the span of time, we've experienced a 500 call decrease in motor vehicle accidents. We hypothesize of why that may be. We have connected vehicle technology. We have cars now that yell at you when you're about to you're getting too close to somebody I hate my wife's car and keep you within your lane. We have equipment within the trucks through a partnership with DOT, a multi million dollar project, we're utilizing the system that warns people when they're approaching an auto accident that we're at or that we're approaching behind them.

All of these different things contribute to that call load stabilizing. You start adding in the ER in every corner, telehealth, all these different ways that people can access services without calling 911, is more convenient, in the long run it's cheaper, they're utilizing that. You sprinkle in a little prevention and community outreach and that's why we believe that our call load has stabilized. So now I'm going go into our capital improvement for the next five years. This is a focus on needs, not wants.

We had a much more aggressive capital improvement plan over the years looking at call load increasing 3,000, 7,000 calls a year, that just hasn't happened. So we're resetting to go with just what we need while obviously keeping the service that we provide at the forefront. One of the biggest changes, as you saw we went through the other slides of our accomplishments, you saw those build times continuing to increase. The county has chosen to do a different way of doing construction and the construction manager at risk. Rather than hard bids, we get a relationship with the contractor with the hopes that we'll have projects on time, better cost controls, this all because we're allowing early contractor involvement.

So our first one, which we were all at the other day, Station 25 in Casselberry. We've already had the groundbreaking on that, originally built in nineteen seventy five, thirteen point nine million dollars estimated cost, estimated completion of April 2027. Partnership with the city of Casselberry, who we have the interlocal agreement that we took over fire services for them, they've donated the land, which is next to their new police headquarters, and we're putting the new fire station there. Anybody who knows this fire station, right at the end of the flyover coming onto Redbug, it's an awful spot. Old building, it's the crew is overly excited about the prospects of moving into their new building.

The next project is the fire training center living quarters. This is a two thousand two thousand five hundred square foot replacement structure. If you remember, a few years ago we had a double wide trailer that was out here. It has since was such disrepair, we had mold, there was rats, and we it has never been replaced. So we need a living quarters out there.

We have a lot of other infrastructure, we have tens of millions of dollars of apparatus and equipment out there. So one of the questions that I get asked when you start talking to 200-2500 square foot structure at 2,000,000 plus is why is this different than residential construction? So there's a lot of reasons. The one key term is an essential building. You have an essential building versus residential construction.

When you're looking at versus, residential construction has to withstand through the building code 140 mile an hour winds. That's right about the point where we stop running calls because the wind speeds have gotten so high. Commercial structure has to withstand 170 mile an hour winds. That 30 miles an hour is significant. It requires more infrastructure as far as building materials, building supplies, engineering, all of which cost more and more money.

Also with this particular project, we're having to engage with St. Johns River permitting. Again, we're early in on this, we're not even quite a 30% plan, so a lot of this is estimations of worst case scenarios. I just had a meeting here this week that we're already, okay, here's $200,000 we can knock off, here's another 150,000 But there's a lot of infrastructure that's involved with this. We may need to, again anticipating, may not have need to underground exfiltration for this particular site.

The spot where it is at is gravel, which under the previous building codes was not was considered a pervious surface, now it's not. So when we put that building there, we have to worry about stormwater. Residential doesn't have to deal with stormwater, we have to consider the stormwater. When it comes to contractors, so the contractors aren't the same. When you have residential construction versus this type of construction, it's not the same contractors.

The costing is different. The insurance requirements are different. Just working with the county, the process, paperwork, billing is all different. It adds time, it adds manpower, it just adds personnel services. And that's before we even get to design. Already talked about all the it's a much stronger building HVAC system. In your residential home, you have basically the tubing that goes in that you're able to move around. In a building like this, it has to be the the more rigid with different types of filtration. All of this drives the cost to be more. That's before design.

That's a that's after design. Because design now takes on all of those extras and even coming to a point where we can start to build the structure. On to my favorite one. Station 23 Of Howe Branch is our oldest station. It's older than I am.

If you look, I wish mister Horvath was here. This was the station when Mr. Horvath called and says he's fired back in time, this was his volunteer fire station in the Howell Branch District. If you look where the apparatus were parked, that first block parked, that was the original station, everything else we've added on. We've just recently got to a point with our fire truck design that we don't have to buy a special fire truck specifically for this station because the depth of the bay was so short.

We've, for decades, had to buy a special truck that had a shorter wheelbase. We've changed our design so we don't have to do that anymore. It floods, it's got the bathroom problem, it just doesn't meet the makeup for our workforce. So you see the wooded lock, which is directly across the street, we already have that, we've had kickoff of design of that station, we're hoping to be able to leverage bringing it right off of Howell Branch so that we can take advantage of the mast arm that is already there, that has potential to save us a half $1,000,000 in the construction of it, but we're again early in on that process. Station 36 in Heathrow, Lake Mary Boulevard, Markham Woods Road, originally built in 1985.

Small station, you see the unique design that was in collaboration with the citizens of Heathrow and that's why it looks the way that it does. I was having a very interesting conversation with Chief Kaiser the other day who oversaw the building of the station, and he just reminded me that this was designed to add a third bay, which we want to do. We also need to expand the living quarters to accommodate not only the personnel that are there today, but personnel going into the future. This one we are asking from what we currently have loaded into the budget to add $1,000,000 to the cost of renovating that. Next station is Station 24 in Winter Springs.

As you know, we have an interlocal agreement and merged with the City of Winter Springs Fire Department, built in 1975. We're looking to also add a million dollars to what's currently locked and loaded for this station. We call this one the house of doors. It's awful. It's so spread out.

This not only was their fire department, but it was also their administrative building. So going out to, if you're looking at it to the right, that was all administrative offices and there's doors absolutely everywhere. We need to gut it and reconfigure it to help not only with the living conditions but also getting them closer to the bay for their turnout times. Last, we're looking at Station 42 out in Geneva. This is currently in the current CIP as a renovation.

We've taken a long hard look at this, engaged with multiple contractors and designers trying to figure out if we can expand this to our need on the current site. And the answer is no. It's a very tight site. There's a giant retention in the back that we can't make smaller. This needs to be a rebuild and relocate.

This is what I call a specialty station that's out in the woods. This is a base of operations for everything that happens out in the rural area when we have hurricanes, flooding, brush fires, this is where everybody goes. Currently at that station we have an engine, a rescue, a tanker, a woodch truck, an airboat, and this is often where our one of our high water vehicles gets gets deployed, which ends up just pulling in on the side of on the side of the building, doesn't matter what the weather is. With all that equipment comes personnel. They're busting at the seams.

This is something that we need, we're proposing to do a relocate, rebuild rather than just renovate. There's multiple properties that are available in the area, which we're looking into, Just waiting for after this meeting to pull any triggers on those discussions. We're talking a little under $10,000,000 to add to that budget. So 5 year plan at a glance, we're looking at six projects, nearly $60,000,000, two station renovates along with relocates of three stations plus the fire training center, and a fleet investment of just under $30,000,000. So at this point, that's what we're do that's what we're proposing to do in five years.

Now looking into the future, and there's no timeline on any of this. This is just things that we anticipate as a need as our call load rises if and when it does. Land being a priority. We got to get land. So the first station, station ten out in the Altamont area.

You see out in the 434 Maitland Boulevard corridor. There used to be station ten out there back with the merger with Altamont. There was a double wide trailer, it was a rescue only that was in our local that it would go away after two years and it did. Since then, we all know the development that has gone out there. Station thirteen, what you see to the west, is the current trucks that respond into that area.

And they can get into some of that area in a reasonable amount of time. But it's not even just about that first call, it's about the second call, because once they go in there, it is completely barren on that side of the county. It takes a long time for station sixteen or twelve to respond into that area. We're often moving trucks up, which we're splitting up resources. This is a need this would be the priority need in the future as our call load rises.

Station twenty eight in Winter Springs. We currently have land at Tuskewilla and 434. Again, we all know the development that's going on around there. You drill down into Winter Springs, the call load has stabilized just like everywhere else. But as more people move into the county, again, we see that as a need going into the future.

Again, we already own that land. Station 19, unincorporated in the Longwood area at Lake Emma and Longwood Hills. We currently own land there, that's a small piece of property, it would not do our prototype three base station, we'd have to do something different. Again, looking at call load, watching the need, we're not quite there yet. Station 18 in the Rolling Hills area where our new park is going to be and that infrastructure building.

We're anticipating that with that improved infrastructure that many of those homes are going to be expanded and you're going to see newer families moving into that area, which brings more people, which brings call load. We do need land. Station 43 in Chuleoda. The other side of the other part of our rural fire stations. On a small piece of property, small station, engine, rescue, tanker, wood truck, UTV, they're all currently there.

We are at the breaking point. We start adding any additional resources there, we definitely need to expand. Again, watching the call load in the area, dependent upon just everything, all the development that's happening out there and when that happens. Station 22 in Fern Park. So if you remember, this was on a previous CIP as a much higher need.

Our intention was to replace and put a tower truck there for all the development that was looking like it was going to happen around there. And not that it's not going to, but with the movement of Station 25, which has a tower truck, and the improved road network that's happened through there, specifically on Oxford Road, Station 25 could get in there fairly quickly for a tower truck, not as a primary unit. So what we proposed and what was approved is that Station 25 in 2028 we will put an engine into service there. We can then take that tower, which is really operating as a quint right now from the merger. It's not a quint, it's a tower.

It can do what it's designed to do, which is to be a tower and the fire truck can be a fire truck. And that tower will then be available to be able to respond into that area. That keeps us from having to build a whole new fire station anytime soon. Lastly is Station 30 out in the Paola, the Northeast part or Northwest part of the county, out Yankee Lake and beyond. Again, I know in my career when I went out to 34, it was my first station, there wasn't anything.

There was a mobile gas station across the street and that was it. Wow, it's different. And as that continues to creep, more people move in, more businesses come in, we see a need in the future for station thirty. I would like to mention that we have property at Yankee Lake, would be perfect for that station. So next steps, what we're asking for is that we adopt the five year CIP as part of the fiscal year twenty seven budget process, as the county manager said, doing this now rather than doing it during that because of the length of it, provide any direction and feedback, and give us direction to continue to monitor cost escalations and needs and we'll adjust annually.

And that's all I have.

Thank you. Questions? Commissioner Zimbauer?

I move that we adopt the five year CIP with an annual update.

If we need to go to public comment.

I'll make the I'll second it for discussion and public comment.

Alright. We have a motion and a second. Any public comment? No, ma'am. So no request. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Madam chair. Yes. Thank you, madam chair. First of all, chief, I wanna say thank you to you, but I'd like to most importantly say thank you for the people behind you, not physically behind you, but actually providing all this data and analysis and all the hard work that they do, all the men and women. I think it's a good presentation.

I think the five year CIP is spot on. The only emphasis that I wanna make sure that we talk about is that, as we all know, land as we are developing does become a premium. I'd like to make sure that if there's opportunities out there that we look at that, not build them, but secure the properties so that we can make sure that we're moving forward at the appropriate time when you and your staff and the county manager staff believe that we should pull the trigger. That's just, I think, prudent because otherwise you're buying commercial property or residential property and have to take something down. I'd rather not do that. But I want to plan for the future as we've done in the past many times. And again, I commend you for the hard work and the dedication and your staff.

Further comments? Yes. Commissioner Lockhart.

Yeah. I wanted to there's two parts to this presentation, and I think that we want to make sure, at least for my purposes, the CIP that you're proposing is currently within proposed revenue estimates of the county. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct.

So there's nothing that's being proposed in that five year capital improvement plan that a board two, three, four, five years from now will get caught unawares and go, well, wait a minute, don't have in our revenue projections the ability to pay for any of this.

It keeps us at approximately actually a little bit higher, 20% reserves.

Fabulous. I think that was important to hit on the record. I do have a question about one of the pieces of property that you have identified that we already own and if this is a follow-up answer, that's perfectly fine. The one in Longwood

Lake on Emma.

Yep. That's across from the Publix. I think we have owned that for a long, long time.

Yes.

Was it originally purchased to be a fire station?

Yes.

Okay. And has our prototype changed? Is that why it's not the right size?

It was never the right size and we did not have a prototype then.

I'm going to be sorry I asked that question. So how are we going to make sure we don't buy the wrong size piece of property moving forward?

We know the size that we need, which is 2.5 acres at a minimum to, again, fit our prototype. If there's so like Station 10, that's very challenging out in that area. We're looking at partnerships potentially with SSC. We'll see how those things work out. If we have to buy a smaller piece of property, it just will not we won't be able to utilize our prototype and we'll have to design something different.

We can do it. It all depends on infrastructure, like Station 11 was in reality built on just under two acres of land, but it already had storm water. And that's the key that we have to hold our own water. Depends on what the infrastructure is in the area. If there's a retention pond that's nearby that has capacity that we could potentially utilize, the land need goes down. But assuming that we need to build the station and retain our own water, two and a half acres of land is the minimum.

Okay. And then we talked about our collaboration with the cities for whom we have agreements to to do their fire for them, like Winter Springs and Castleberry and Altamont. But for cities, like Longwood, where we're talking about doing some movement of some stations in and around their area that may affect their service and and their service delivery to to the community, Are we actively engaged in conversations with them so that we are not playing in each other's sandboxes unintentionally? Where are we with those kinds of conversations moving forward?

So the fire chiefs meet every month. And, yes, we have these conversations on what we're planning to do, what is actually happening because planning and actually happening are two different things. But 100%, if somebody is putting a station or a resource somewhere, it affects everyone else and completely changes the dynamic of what is in the best interest of the county as a whole. Again, and you know this, that we work in what is a unique first response system. We don't recognize borders.

We utilize each other's apparatus by GPS location, the closest, most appropriate unit goes. So trying to put the chess pieces all in the best spot while being separate organizations takes a lot of collaboration.

We appreciate you doing it. And I think it's really important that the county manager continue those comp not just with the fire chiefs, but that the city and county managers Mhmm. Really dive deep into these conversations as we plan moving forward.

And actually I was going to comment on that and they're, you know, they have a new city manager there that just started this past year.

Who was their fire

chief? He was Maitland's fire chief.

Maitland's fire chief. Him and I have already been in some conversations about that.

Great. Thank you. Those are all my questions.

Commissioner Zinbauer, could you have your hand up?

I would yes, thank you, Madam Chair. On Station 42, and I don't need an answer from county manager right now. I would just ask that we have a very candid conversation with Volusia County Mhmm. That since we are utilizing that station to service a significant portion of their Southeastern corridor of their county, maybe they should write a check. Okay. That's a prop share. Absolutely. For us to continue down that corridor.

Good dialogue.

Yes. Otherwise, they would need to build their own station to the tune of what we're seeing here. And they and they don't have that dense population down in that corridor, so I think that's a conversation we should be having.

Absolutely. And the conversations that we had, what, a couple years ago about them increasing their funding for the operation that was responding there, you all had asked Chief and I to go and talk Doctor. Correct. They Which we did, and they were very collaborative. Yes. They need us in that area.

Correct.

That's a good point. Yeah, so.

I'll definitely do that. Thank you.

Commissioner Constantine? Thank

you very much. I just wanted to tell you, Chief, you know, the promises made, promises delivered, and I appreciate very much the it it's it I think it it's worthy to that we point out what you indicated before about the honors and the accolades, the certificates that this fire department has received. That that is unprecedented. And to be the only one in the nation, it's, you know, it's hard to put your arms around that, but I just again wanted you and everyone as Commissioner Delorey said behind you to know how important that is and how really grateful we are that you've done that. I mean, many of us were in up here on the dais when we had to ask for an increase in ad valorem when we were talking about the fire department and I recall the angst of so many individuals in the community that, oh my god, it's not going to be worth anything, the fire department's fine, we don't need anything.

I recall one person huffing and puffing, bringing thousands and thousands of petitions down, which turned out to be less than hundreds and also form letters pretty much. And today, you know, everything that you and the department said would happen has happened, including what you indicated with the individual that said that their insurance is reduced. And we tried to sell it on that, and it worked. And I just wanted to tell you, it is important when people recognize that the government does deliver. So thank you very much.

And the boots on the ground. We we have it's humbling as a fire chief to have such a dedicated workforce. They're bar none, they are phenomenal on every aspect of this all hazards fire department. So

thank you, commissioners. I do have a couple of comments. First of all, for county manager's office, I I think the if we're the only one, we need better public relations around that. And I realize that the PIO for your operation does that. We need to be doing that as well.

We this should be on every single thing we print, every single thing we put. Like, Chief Kinley, I appreciate you explaining the 2,500 feet at $2,500,000 because I think my head came unglued while we were talking about, you gotta walk me through the math. This math doesn't math. And I do understand it's commercial and I still do think there's opportunities there. I think as we're building these facilities, what I am hearing for the people that are in residence there is that appropriate tech versus high-tech needs to be analyzed.

You and I have had that conversation. I'm just getting it on the record. Every time they move, the lights come on, etcetera. So some of the stuff that we've been engaging with recently. I do think we own land in Rolling Hills, and I did bring this up in our briefing around the idea of we need to be figuring out if we have any land that we can use and then marking it for that now. Same with Yankee Lake, like let's get that dedicated. I do have a question as to whether or not we should think about a second prototype, not a new prototype, but a second prototype that as we build in more urban areas that don't take up the acreage that needs to be taken up, if it can be? And I'm not saying we have to discuss that now, but we at least need to think about it.

So there's a plan conceptually that when we do that, that would be the prototype. Once we build a once we're going to build one, we need to build one that's different, that would be our second prototype moving forward.

So on a chicken and egg conversation, I'm not sure which comes first because that means we're buying land that may or may not fit a prototype that we haven't built and we're retrofitting. I would rather have a prototype and then source the land. So for future thought. And then the last comment that I'll make is that this is a CIP. I think anything that you need to continue to shore up the paramedicine program that's clearly saving us on this is going to be in your regular budget discussion.

Yes.

Okay. Just wanted that on the record. With that, commissioners, any further discussion? We've already clarified that there's no public comment. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing unopposed, it passes unanimously. Thank you so much, chief.

Thank you. Thank you.

The next item on our agenda is the indoor facility update with Rick Derr, Parks and Recreation Director at the helm.

And Chairman and Commissioners, we're going to have them sit at the table since this may be discussion. So there may be multiple speakers so they don't have to get up and down.

And how about while we're assimilating and getting ready, is there any public comment for this? I believe we do have So speaker forms for we may get you teed up to read the public comment notification and point they're ready. Efficient. Thank you.

Florida law provides that members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on propositions before the Board of County Commissioners except when the board is acting on emergency or ministerial matters or conducting a meeting exempt from the requirements of the Sunshine Law. Individuals shall be permitted three minutes each for public comment or six minutes when the individual is an official representative of a formal association or group. The chairman may modify the maximum time for public comment at her sole discretion when appropriate. Public comments on quasi judicial or other public hearing items will not be heard during the board's consideration of those be heard during the board's consideration of those items this afternoon. Public comments on pending procurement matters or on non agenda items shall not be permitted at this time.

Members of the public desiring to make comment must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff, and forms are available in the lobby. Madam Chair. Thank you so much. Mister Durer, we'll

turn it over to you.

Alright. I'll I'll actually start the

Mister Swanson.

Good morning, chairman and commissioners. Christian Swanson, Assistant County Manager.

Those you need to speak into.

Okay. Fair enough. I'll move it closer. Hopefully, that's better. I'm going to start with the agenda, and then I'll

kind of lay out, you

know, who all is here and who's speaking at what point. So, obviously, you've heard I'm here. I'm going be speaking about the recap of the retreat we had on March 10. Then Rick Durer, the Parks and Recreation Director, will be talking about item two, the potential land purchases, the building update and things like that. Guy Cunha, the Economic Development Director and Tim Jeks, the Budget Director will be talking about item three, project funding and return on investment update and then we'll just return to item four, the requested actions of the Board.

So with that, I will get started on the recap of March 10. So obviously it's a recap and a lot of this information is for the viewing public and things like that. So I apologize for the redundancy that may be with you all but for other folks it may be fresh. So I'll get started with just the site location of the facility that we're talking about. We're looking at a site for the indoor sports complex that is north and east of the Boomba Sports Complex on Lake Mary Boulevard.

So as you see in the lower left hand corner of this slide there is a kind of a hot pink color, that's the location we're talking about. It's just off of Moore Station Road. This is a facility that will host a variety of events or could host a variety of events. They will be potentially sports events such as basketball, volleyball, and other indoor events, as well as events such as graduations in the community and other special events. And I wanted to pause just briefly on the graduation aspect.

In the retreat there was a lot of discussion about what was presented, the size of the facility and things like that. What we're showing you today will accommodate the largest high school in the county and there's been a lot of conversations amongst a variety of staff even including County Manager Gray and Superintendent Beaman and a variety of other staff to make sure, you know, there's a potential for partnerships and things like that. So I just wanted to bring that right on out. So at the retreat, we talked about an approach that was multipurpose, flexible, expandable, could do a whole host of amenities, as well as accommodate things that were not just sporting events as I mentioned previously, and also kind of focus on community need events as well, things like post sheltering activities and things like that in the community. So we looked at the site and this is a closer aerial of the site.

The site that we own as a county is the site that has the yellow dash line around it, but we talked about the expandability of that potentially to the west and you'll see kind of a white block next to it with some 14 acres that was discussed as part of that conversation. We'll get into a bit more of that in a minute. Also at that retreat, we looked at three building options and they weren't static, they gave concepts so that conversations could be developed from that. So we presented an option one, which we called the Pizzuti drawing. It was a building that had multiple rooms in it and allowed multiple things to be going on at the same time, potentially more than just one event, but could expand to one large event.

Also in that concept we brought forward, it was construction, more energy efficient construction and that was to stimulate conversation. We also presented a second option which was the Lake Point Indoor Sports Complex and that was a drawing that you'd seen previously. It's a larger building, metal building type construction, arguably a little less durable, a little less energy efficient and things like that. And then the third option we discussed was a TID budget only option and we looked at backing into that program to say what would it buy. So those were the things that we discussed there.

The board in that meeting liked option one, the Pizzuti drawing and here's a picture of it. In that meeting there was a series of overlay drawings that showed how it convert for a bunch of different stuff. I'm not going to go through all that now, but as you see from the top of the drawing, the drawing allows for eight basketball courts at the top and then kind of a convertible championship area at the bottom in the bottom of the L area as well as some multi purpose rooms and things like that with it. In those conversations, we also presented a series of a la carte options. These were items that came about from the Pizzuti listening tour.

So as Pizzuti went through and they interviewed everyone, they come up with different comments and they made a list of them. We presented them. We felt that there was eight of them and I'll just run through these. We also presented the cost again and kind of give you an order of magnitude of what we were looking at. But we talked about a mezzanine parking garage overflow parking, the potential for additional beach volleyball or beach volleyball, an additional court to expand the area.

That was actually something that we spent a lot of time talking about in regard to graduation, which as I previously mentioned, we've got that sorted. And then also we talked about tilt wall construction and potentially maybe not quite a hardened building by the definition, but a close to hardened facility. We talked about that additional 14 acres of land, which was the white block I just showed you. And then we got to an option eight, which was we could expand the building with bleachers and things like that and kind of expand it out to make it larger. So looking at each one of these options and getting the board feedback, the mezzanine was an option the board liked and wanted us to investigate that and potentially use it for a walking track.

The parking garage was thought that would be maybe investigated as an alternate, also look at a return on investment for it. Overflow parking should be included in the base program. The beach volleyball was interested to be included into the base program. However, look at an ROI and make sure it made sense to go in there. So we've done that.

Also, looked at additional courses I referenced that plays into the graduation aspect of it and the flexibility, so include those. The tilt wall was desirous of the board. They liked the idea of the durability and also a more finished look to the building. The 14 acres of land, the direction was to move forward and look at the possibility of purchasing some of that land. And then the additional bleachers, just try to accommodate them where it made sense.

That was a comment there and we've done that. So the general feedback was the board wanted a facility that was flexible, could be used for local uses, hold multiple events at the same time, that was built out of a material that was durable, energy efficient, and took in maintenance costs as well as operation costs in it. And then finally, all of this, update our return on investments and look at them and make sure the numbers made sense. And it's those things today that's I'm I'm giving kind of the recap of it, but it's those things today that my colleagues are going to talk about and we'll go through these sequentially. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Durer and he can update you on how those were incorporated into the drawings.

So, good morning Board. Excuse me. So, to orient everyone, we're looking at an aerial of the site again. The first item that we'll go ahead and report on is the adjacent land. The five acres or 4.97 acres that you see up at the top, the upper left of the drawing, that parcel is posted for sale, staff has contacted them, they are willing sellers.

That is a parcel that we could possibly move forward with in terms of looking at future expansion of the facility and or overflow parking areas. And then staff did look take a look at the balance of the properties highlighted in yellow just to the south of that, the 9.41 acres. There's 10 different parcels within that, several different owners of each of those parcels. Those are currently not posted as for sale, they would run on a much longer timeline to be determined. But at this particular point, the ones that looked primed in terms of action items would be the upper five acres.

So, in taking the building program that Christian gave you a recap on and then taking the a lot of the a la carte options if you will, and taking a look how that affected the overall building program and projected costs. This is an updated list to show you the various amenities and the sizes of the amenities that would be included in the larger footprint of the building or the adjusted footprint of the building. Right now, we're showing approximately 161,000 to 178,000 square feet as a range and there's a reason why when I show you a graphic of that, the main two volumes of the building are somewhat static and fixed based on court sizes and visitor sizes. The rest of the facilities, all of the storage, all of the multi purpose areas, all of support areas would be things that would be really refined as the project would go forward, meaning that that's where you're going to see a lot of flex maybe in the square footage, that would all flesh out in next stage of development, a design development for the building, hence the range in overall square foot of the building. But the bottom line would be is that we would look at a minimum of 12 basketball courts, that's inclusive of the championship Court, that equates to 22 volleyball indoor courts and could accommodate up to 7,500 guests for graduation in the main volume.

So, again, the discussion about what's the largest graduation size here in Seminole County, as well as could it accommodate Seminole State. The championship Court itself or the events area could accommodate up to 2,500 guests with movable bleachers and we'll show you a picture of what that looks like in just a moment. The ability to go ahead and then obviously support the activities there with food service, cafe, restaurants, some type of food service concept, not just for main events or banquets, but to serve as for visitors at various tournament play there in the building. But lots of different multi purpose rooms that we call them flexible spaces right now. We know that through the design, especially the Boomba Sports Complex, the need for official space, tournament organizers, first aid spaces, team spaces, those are going to change based upon the use, so making sure that we're building in that flexibility into those support spaces is going to be something that will be focused in on as the project continues.

The mezzanine and walking track have been supported and we'll show you what that looks like in just a moment, as well as outdoor facilities to help support the beach volleyball location as well. So, not building a number of outbuildings, if you will, to facilitate other events out on-site, but to be able to house them all in one location. And then also look at, and a lot of discussion was had about the ability for local folks and residents to be able to use this seven days a week if necessary, so the idea of having walking paths and park amenities there on-site. Overall, we're looking at development of the total 28 acres. There was a lot of discussion obviously regarding the parking lot, parking garage concept, as well as do we have a pay parking option that should we want to charge for different events, we could do so, but it would be at our discretion.

And then obviously, it would require all development of all utilities and infrastructure would be required on the site. We've got 25 courts spelled out in the beach volleyball complex and then the building style description is located and Christian spoke about those as well and that's on the drawings moving forward. So, one thing to keep in mind as we look at a drawing of the site itself is that this is at concept level. I know it looks pretty some areas look pretty hard lined and well refined, this is still a concept drawing at this particular point. And the idea at this point is to do things fit on the site, how do they fit, and if we were to proceed forward with a detailed design of the project, what are some of the features that we'd like to see and give direction to an architect and a site developer to go ahead and look at moving forward.

So, first foremost, we put the position, the indoor sports complex building itself and putting that envelope on the northern part of the site. Part of that is with the adjacencies that we have with Sanford Masonry to the north and that gives us some real good accessory units or better yet more like activity going on at the northern portion of the site. The other thing that that does is as we look at the development of the overall site footprint, is it takes all of the amenities and it pushes it towards Lake Mary Boulevard. So, the idea that we're taking the investment and the core amenities of the site and really pushing those out for the public to see creates not just a sense of arrival, but it is very consistent with how we've developed the Buuma Sports Complex about three quarters of a mile to our south along the Lake Mary Boulevard. What we've also been able to show is the idea that as we develop the site, we don't want to just develop the required infrastructure, a standalone infrastructure, that there is a way to develop the infrastructure and use it as an amenity.

So, the idea of taking the required storm water that will be required on-site with any development and being able to maximize its use by including that in the site planning for beach volleyball creates that amenity. We're going to have to provide the infrastructure already, we might as well amenitize it while we're looking at that. The ability to also take and utilize the rest of that green space around the required storm water and create more of a park like setting out on Lake Mary Boulevard. So, again, it really begs for the public to be able to use this facility with a series of pavilions, even a playground, not just for special events and tournaments, but for public use three sixty five days a year. The other thing that allows us to do is it allows us to take the front door, if you will, of the indoor sports complex building itself and create a real indoor outdoor experience between the types of events that you'll have inside as well as what you could do outside.

So, the idea of having a dual event that has both indoor and outdoor beach volleyball would be a huge game changer in this particular market, for example. The other part of this, by moving the amenities up to the front is we can take a really good look at taking really the back of house and keeping it in the back of house. We can design the parking lot and the entrance and egress and ingress of the site, keep it efficient, bring it in off of Moore Station Boulevard, that's a sports station road, excuse me, on the south part of the diagram. Likely, we would need to put a traffic signal at that location, handle it, bring it into the site and then be able to distribute the vehicular circulation throughout. The idea however is we would look at streamlining how that circulation moves throughout the site.

By taking our cues from other venues in the area, convention centers, theme parks that bring you in one way and then minimize the amount of times that you have the ability to cross other folks and direction of travel and keep the flow efficient and keep it safe. We'll minimize queue let me try that again in English queue timing, as well as any other being able to bring folks in and out of the site efficiently and smoothly. We also include on the north end of the site the possibility of a write out, directional write out. So, very similar to the way we developed the Boomba Sports Complex of having multiple egress options depending on the use of the facility. The last portion of this to describe is on the upper left corner of the drawing, the proposed overflow parking that would be for a potential acquisition at that location.

That's already a cleared site, fairly flat, that could probably go into operation from day one and then obviously the potential expansion area on the western part of the drawing as well, should additional properties become available over time and should that be a focus of the board moving through. So that's outside the building. We'll show a series of diagrams and again, this looks fairly hard lined. It is very much still a conceptual plan that has been adapted per the latest development program. So, you saw a slightly larger main volume on the top of the drawing that is 10 basketball courts that equates to 20 volleyball courts within the same space.

We've got the, on the lower right portion of the drawing, we've got what we call the main event area or the championship court area. You see a lot of lines on that one that would have retractable bleachers, could be a center court, if you will, or center championship court for basketball. It could be handled other days of a tournament where you basically retract the bleachers in and you could handle two basketball courts in that same space. And then, all the other ancillary features that would go to support the functions within the building. So, food service, multi purpose rooms, and so forth.

We know that through design development, these spaces will change sizes and they will be rearranged based upon efficiencies, but right now this is really just to give you an idea of a bubble diagram, if you will, of the types of different spaces that would be required to exist to support all the functions that would occur there. So, this is the common theme of the sketches that follow. We've the upper volume and then the lower volume of the main event space. Now, that was the 1st Floor. If you look at this from the 2nd Floor, the highlighted orange area around the main volume would say be the walking trackmezzanine area.

We'd have other landing spaces that if we wanted to increase the viewer capacity in that particular space to have a viewing down into the main volume, we could do so. And that we'd have other functions up on the 2nd Floor, obviously restrooms and other support functions. So, if this is the main organization of the building itself, you start to overlay how can it be adaptable and that was a main function of the plan as discussed with the Board. So, if you wanted to convert that again, this is your main volley excuse me, basketball operation and then how that transitions into volleyball. So, the main volume then becomes 20 volleyball courts with two on the the event area and then that could transition itself over to a championship volleyball court, all within the same walls.

Graduation, this is what 7,500 floor seats might look like with a stage out on the right hand part of the drawing. Again, the idea that this could be configured in such a way to accommodate the largest of graduations and obviously as you get smaller functions and smaller areas that could maybe move to the smaller events area on this lower right part of the drawing, but it does show it would have that capacity with enhanced audio visuals and so forth, but that'd be something that we could work on as this as the project would continue through design development. Other types of events that could happen, this is a layout for a dual meet gymnastics that could be held down in the championship area and still have other activities going on in the main volume. You could reconfigure that to dance and cheer competitions, so we could possibly have Lake Mary High School winning their cheer championship here at this particular facility. We could host that venue along with other venues occurring in other portions of the building.

Flexibility as a banquet space, again, we've stated this as we've met with our hoteliers as well. This is larger than any of our existing hotel ballrooms could accommodate. So, it would accommodate really the kinds of venues that we do not have here in the county, we would not be looking to compete with them for the smaller spaces. So, as a part of that, a series of conceptual elevations were created. Then if you wanted to take a look at this for maybe a helicopter, if you will, taking an aerial view down at the site, Lake Murray Boulevard runs kind of across the bottom of this piece, so you're looking at an enhanced view of what that could be, again, a very overall concept of what that could be.

Putting an architectural feature there maybe on the corner is an idea that we could look at. And then, how the sand beach volleyball and the on-site retention could knit itself together to creating this cohesive front door look out on Lake Mary Boulevard and really putting most of the community assets right at there at the front door. Parking being in the back with all the vehicular circulation coming through sort of the middle of the site running north south. So, taking all of that into account, we have an updated cost estimates on the project. It too shows a range and there's another big reason why is as we look at the variance in square footage, number one, that's one feature.

Another feature is, is while we looked at running and updating cost estimates for not just the building, but the site development and all the planning that would have to go into this, we wanted to make sure that number one, we were all inclusive. So, every possible cost that we could possibly think of were included in these estimates. Number two is we had multiple estimates done. So, the Pizzuti team and their architect, Moody Nolan ran one set of estimates. We had a third party estimator also run another set of estimates and then staff took the best or the highlights of all of those based on our current experience of construction projects currently going on in Seminole County and created a blended approach to that.

The other thing we wanted to make sure that we did is that we are being very conservative with the numbers. So, did not want to give you a best case scenario and then all of a sudden we go we find ourselves in design and we're hitting our heads on the ceiling already before we've even gotten into the level of detail of planning and design that's going to be required for the project. So, we wanted to make sure that we had that conservative set, but we wanted to make sure that they still this is still based on a set of conceptual ideas. So, still at a concept level, even though we've seemed to have gone a long way with some of the drawings, they're still very much conceptual. So, this point, we wanted to make sure we established a good range for you and at this point forward, as we talk about cost estimates and return on investment, we start to use that upper level of the range that we showed you there.

And with that, I'm going to transition this over to Guy, to share, to talk about project funding. So,

Tim Jeks, Budget Director, and I, Guy Cunha, Economic Development and Tourism Director, will discuss the project funding and return on investment. The four key points that came out of that March 10 retreat was the updated cost estimates, as Rick just discussed, the meeting with SCPS to discuss graduation details that Christian has already briefed on, but also the Hunden report. Hunden strategic partners, the organization that we've been working with throughout this entire process dating all the way back to 2023. So they gave us updated projections on the indoor complex and also on the beach volleyball portion of the project. So when we look at the events, couple of things to keep in mind.

Whenever looking at youth sports complexes, in particular, rule of thumb, three to five years for stabilization. That's going to be a common theme. So, year one, we are expecting 32 events over sixty seven days, and we see that stabilize in year five at 63 events over one hundred and twenty six days. As a benchmark, our other six sports complexes that we utilize for the sports tourism side specific holds about 90 to 95 events on a given year, spit split 50% at the Boomba Sports Complex and the other 50% at the five other assets that we have. Now when we look at the beach volleyball events, we see that common theme of stabilization.

We look at that year one, ten events expected, and then that stabilization theme in year five at 30 events moving forward. Now, when we look at the indoor complex pro form a, a couple of key items to of note, understanding that the increase in tourist development tax is not included in the revenue line there for year one. We are expecting through 100 strategic partners, a 114,000 increase in tourist development tax, and then that will increase to 239,000 by year five. Another item of note, the net tour tournament parking row, that is based at $5 per per attendee or per vehicle. So, let's make sure we we key on the $5 there as we discuss parking moving forward.

Another item of note is the naming rights. That 100,000 in the naming rights row, that's based off our only naming rights deal for a youth sports facility, and that's an average of $100,000 a year. So, year one, we see a shortfall of 225,000. We see that stabilization by year five. If we were to look at the first three years and sum sum up all the shortfalls, that comes out to 475,000.

And similar concept for beach volleyball there. Year one, we're expecting a $112,000 shortfall and then stabilizing by year five. If you add up all the shortfalls there, it comes out to 283,000. The grand total for indoor and beach volleyball is 758,000. After reviewing with the budget department, that is a sum that we currently have in TDT reserves now and can hold it as we move through this process to cover any shortfalls that are being projected.

Now, when we look at the conceptual economic impact, before we go into the numbers, just some benchmarks to keep in mind, Indirect and induced from the last large scale investment in youth sports, the county increased a thousand over a thousand hotel rooms since Boomba opened ten years ago. At our current demand of 70% occupancy and a 100 an average of a $100 in average daily rate, which is both low and conservative estimates based on where we are today, For every new 100 hotel rooms to Seminole County, we are looking at an additional 64,000 collected in the tourism improvement district, a 128,000 in tourist development tax, and an additional 153,000 in sales tax solely associated with rooms. So, when we look at year one combining direct, indirect, and induced spending, we expect a $25,500,000 new spending. Because we don't have other indoor facilities, we don't see much overlap in spending there, so that's very good moving forward. Stabilization at year five of $53,000,000 with a grand total over the life of the asset of close to $2,200,000,000.

And then for the beach volleyball portion, this is an add on, so these numbers will be added into the indoor complex numbers that we discussed. Year one is 1,260,000 with a stabilization in year five of 4,240,000 and an additional $173,000,000 over the life of the asset for a rounded grand for a rounded grand economic impact of $2,400,000,000 to that East Lake Mary corridor, which of course has other county properties there and will increase the value and partnership opportunities.

Thank you, Guy. I'm Tim Jeks, budget director. The ROI of a government facility is calculated by dividing the total net benefits by the total amount invested. The estimated cost of the facility is $175,000,000 with approximately 40% paid by the hotels through the new tourist improvement district and the existing tourist development tax. At the end of the presentation, we'll show the ROI for the whole project as well as just the county's investment.

Each year, the facility is expected to bring to the county 322,000 attendees for indoor events plus 13,000 for beach volleyball. Those participants and their families will generate approximately 42,000 room nights. Additionally, the facility is projected to create 562 new jobs. All of that activity is projected to generate 2,400,000,000 in total economic benefit over thirty years, the largest slice being direct benefits, which includes spending at the facility and revenues for our hotels and restaurants. Indirect benefits includes business and supply chain spending in support of direct services.

And finally, induced benefits includes household spendings for new jobs created. The pro form a that Guy covered for the indoor facility excludes debt service, and you see that annual operating revenues and expenditures are projected to break even by year four. The beach volleyball pro form a shows a break even in year five. And if we focus on year two, the combined deficit from the previous indoor facility slide and this beach volleyball pro form a is $258,000 This is offset by projected year two tax revenue growth of 371,000 to county's existing sales tax and tourism tax collections. So on the left, we have the ROI for the facility based on a total investment of 175,000,000.

We expect $14 in return to the community for every $1 invested. On the right, we show the ROI if we focused on just the county's investment excluding the amounts paid by the hotels. In that case, we expect $22 for every $1 invested. And here we have a separate analysis for a parking garage based on a construction estimate of $33,000,000. This would add $2,000,000 per year in debt service Using Hunden projections of 126 event days, 900 spaces, 80% capacity, and $10 per space, we're looking at $900,000 in annual revenue.

So with that, we're going to come back with requested actions. I'll leave them up on the screen. We're looking for five requested actions from the board. So we're looking for the board to approve and authorize staff to, number one, proceed forward with the development program presented here today or an amended version by the BCC number two, to proceed forward with the solicitation of an architect and engineering services for the project number three, proceed forward with a solicitation for a construction manager at risk for this project. Number four, to present the almost five acre adjacent parcel for acquisition at an upcoming BCC meeting.

And then finally, number five, to direct staff to proceed with continued discussions on the remaining parcels not currently listed for sale with those owners potentially interested in selling and bring back any potentially viable parcels for consideration. So so with that, I'd like to open it up for questions for any of the team.

Thank you, commissioners. I have a series of questions, and I'm just gonna weigh in and tell you that I know I have been the cause of the generation of a lot of the letters that we've been getting because I've been very open about my concerns about the cost to the local taxpayer for this facility. And so I'm just gonna own that, that I have created a lot of this. And I'm also going to go on the record and say I support the facility. I am not 100% convinced I support the scaling facility that happened at our hands, not the hoteliers' hands, and not our sports experts' hands.

And so that's where I think we're going to have a lot of healthy discussion. But with that, I'll ask commissioners to weigh in, and then I'll go through a series of questions.

The public input?

No comments from anybody

Commissioner Zebner was asking if you wanted to do public input first.

I was gonna do public input after, but if you'd like to do public input first. Public

input? There are five speakers. Awesome. First is Kurt Esser, Melanie Anesh, and Kristen Oswald.

You guys were locked and loaded and ready to go, so that's fabulous. We appreciate that.

As a testament to the growth of volleyball and the excitement around the volleyball, I have to leave here. Go to a luncheon with the FIVB. We're talking about the world championships in '27 and the beach qualifier in '28 for the Olympics. So my name is Kurt Esser. I am executive director of the Florida region of USA volleyball.

Regarding a demonstrated need for the Florida region, we currently host six championship events annually with the seventh rotating every three to five years. I would strongly consider moving those events to the new indoor facility contingent upon reasonable rental income or economics. Those events include our gold series, which is the top 90 junior teams in the Florida region kicking off the indoor season each January with approximately 1,300 room nights. Our 18 regional qualifier, which is hosting 50 of the top 18 and under teams competing for USA volleyball national bids each February, That's approximately 350 room nights. Our boys regional championship, which is desperately needing a home, we've been moving around approximately a 120 boys teams competing for USA volleyball bids and preparing for AAU nationals in June, approximately 1,300 rooms for that event.

And our regions cup, which is the 40 regions of USA volleyball send their junior all stars to compete each July against each other and other international teams. Oh, by the way, Florida has won 11 of the last 14 of those. And we would love to host that on every four or five years as well. With respect to the beach facility, the Florida Region is actively refocusing on its beach efforts and we currently host an FIVB event, an event down in Pompano, Florida. However, there's a great need to expand our opportunities to both boys, girls, and adults, and we would love to be a part of that efforts in this community.

And one final focus is focus of mine since taking over is educational programming. We desperately need space to train our coaches, to train our club directors on the best and best ways to do things and sharing best practices. So we 100% support this facility, and we will back it as best we can. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, name for the record.

Good morning. Melanie Anish, Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, 6675 Westwood Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32821. Chair Her and members of the board, on behalf of the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, our president and CEO, Robert Agruza, and our board of directors, I'm here to refer to reaffirm our strong support for Seminole County's efforts to advance the construction of an indoor sports complex. As a partner of Seminole County for decades, we appreciate the county's collaborative leadership and forward thinking approach in pursuing a public private partnership that will deliver lasting economic and community wide benefits along with improving the quality of life for Seminole County residents. Without the support of well, excuse me.

Without the support, investment, and dedication of the county commission and county staff and the countless stakeholders involved throughout this process, this project would still remain only an idea. The hospitality industry has long recognized the limitations posed by the current lack of an indoor sports facility, which has constrained our ability to attract tournaments and related events to the area. This proposed complex is a significant opportunity to elevate Seminole County's competitiveness as a premier destination for sports tourism. In addition to the tourism benefits, this complex would also give the residents of Seminole County a central location to host community events such as graduations, youth sports competitions, recreational leagues, and so much more. By enabling year round events, the facility would also help support small businesses, local hotels, and restaurants, particularly during traditionally slower demand periods.

We also want to emphasize the importance of maintaining momentum on this project. Advancing construction in a timely manner will allow recruitment and business development efforts to begin promptly, ensuring Seminole County is well positioned to secure future events and bookings ahead of the facility's opening. Clear and reliable timelines are essential for attracting event organizers, investors, and complementary development opportunities. Lastly, we again thank Seminole County and its current and future visitors for their significant effort in getting this transformative project to where we are today. This would not be possible without the unique and coordinated partnership between the county, the tourist develop development council, and the tourist improvement district.

As other destinations across the state and the region continue to invest in similar multipurpose indoor sports complexes, the competitive landscape is only becoming more challenging. Let's keep the momentum moving forward and ensure Seminole County remains well positioned to compete for regional, national, and national sporting events. We sincerely appreciate your consideration and willingness to engage all stakeholders throughout this process, and we stand ready to assist Seminole County as this project moves forward. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Name and address for the record.

Good morning, Duncan Wall. I'm with the Hampton Inn and Suites and Top Place Suites Altamonte Springs. Good morning. It's good to be with you commissioners. I like today, like many of my colleagues here in the hospitality community, like I'd like to share my strong support for the county's initiative to move forward with the development of the indoor sports complex and the continued success of Seminole County tourism economy. I would like to thank you all for your hard work and time and energy that you've poured into this initiative over the last couple years and the continued partnership with the hospitality industry as a whole. I hope to count on your support of this literal game changing project with Seminole County and the positive impact that'll bring to the local economy. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good morning commissioners. My name is Kristen Oswald, one hundred fifty one International Parkway, Marriott Lake Mary. Again, my name is Kristen and I serve, as vice chair on the TID board. I've also had the privilege of serving on this committee for the last several years working on initiatives that support Seminole County tourism economy and helping to make this complex a reality. I have appeared before the board on behalf of the TID on prior occasions, and I want to emphasize that our message has remained consistent.

I'm here today in strong support of the Tourism Improvement District and the proposed indoor sports complex. This project directly aligns with our long standing goals of creating demand, strengthening year round business, positioning Seminole County more competitively in the sports tourism market, and establishing Seminole County as one of the top destinations for youth and amateur sports in Central Florida. I also want to acknowledge that this project has been discussed, evaluated, and debated over the last three years. During that time, there have been multiple opportunities to challenge or stop this initiative. Meanwhile, in the past year, hotels in the county have already collected the assessment dollars with the understanding that they would be used to support this project.

The hotel community has made the commitment, and we believe it's important to continue to move forward with the momentum and the trust that's already been established. As a mother of two children who participate in youth sports, this project is also personal to me. I want to continue supporting and spending in my own community instead of traveling to other counties that already have facilities like this. Seminole County has the opportunity to become that destination for other families as well. Seminole County has the opportunity to move decisively and remain competitive.

Delaying or losing momentum in this space carries real opportunity, cost both economically and strategically. On behalf of the TID, I respectfully but strongly urge support of this project. This

is

the defining opportunity for Seminole County's future, and I encourage you to move forward with it. Thank you for your time and consideration.

You're welcome.

Thank you, sir. Name and address for the record.

Kurt Wickston, Orlando Lake Mary. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I am actually speaking on behalf of Skye Buckner, so she's not bringing her enthusiasm, so I'm stepping in on her behalf.

You got big shoes, Phil. That's right.

So I'll keep it very brief. From both a professional and personal perspective, it is important to recognize that our tourism industry is beginning to plateau. Without new demand generators, we risk falling behind neighboring markets that are aggressively investing in infrastructure to attract year round visitation. The proposed indoor sports complex represents a critical and timely opportunity to reinvigorate demand, support long term economic growth, and ensure Seminole County remains competitive in an increasingly saturated market. This is not another project currently positioned to deliver this level of consistent year round impact across hotels, restaurants, and local businesses.

I strongly we encourage the Board to move forward with urgency. Advancing this project without delay will allow us to begin marketing the destination, securing future business, and positioning Seminole County as a premier sports tourism area. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Manager.

Sir? We'll report back that you did a good job, and I think Commissioner Lockhart has a question.

Commissioner Lockhart question. For you. Sorry. Tell me, what is your role?

I'm the general manager. I'm so sorry.

That's alright. Well, you said you were here for Sky, and I thought, well, how fascinating. What do you do? Okay, fantastic. We've not had the pleasure of meeting before.

Sounds like Sky is the real boss.

Sky, right?

Correct. That's right.

Don't tell her that.

Corkage in the lobby, I'll leave it at that. Corkage in the lobby bar. All right, Commissioner. He laughs.

He doesn't know how serious you are.

Yeah, am dead serious. That's good. All right. So does that conclude public comment? Yes, we do. All right. We'll close public comment. Commissioners, for discussion.

We want to take it.

Yes. So a couple of things. I appreciate so much the recognition that some individual comments that were made may have presented a perception that there is somehow a chance of this project going off the rails. As every one of us will tell you, three votes beats a good argument any day on any elected board. And if the majority of the board votes to move forward with this project, the entire board will be supportive of it in whatever fashion that occurs.

I've been on the losing end of some votes before, one or two, and that's just a part of being on a collective body where you have agreements and disagreements and you move forward. This project is not languishing. I want to be really clear that the exceptional work that has been done by our team with Guy I like prints better than Cher. I feel like that's more appropriate create an entire methodology and improvement district that has never been done to scale like this has been done in this community to gain the collaborative spirit and the consensus from all of the hoteliers for the most part in in this county and the and the support. The elected body, the just it is remarkable.

The fact that we are here in three years' time is phenomenal. We're actually at a place where we're about to vote to move forward on a project that was not even conceptualized or thought of three years ago. So I give huge kudos to everyone in this room that has had something to do with this project. I take exception to the idea that this is somehow slow rolling, so kudos to everyone who has brought us this far. I would also like to point out that Boomba, Joe Abel is here, who is a former member of our team here in Seminole County, that was absolutely a game changer for this county for so many reasons, in so many ways.

Again, a conceptual idea that seemed really, really big and really, really daunting at the time, and yet had people not done that and had the vision to move forward with Boomba, we would not have seen the success through the pandemic that we did. This county was able to stay afloat and operating in ways that no other part of this country was able to do because of our focus on sports and particularly youth tourism, thanks to the Boomba complex. So I see Boomba as the method and the model to emulate. I think it was wildly more successful than we ever thought it would be. And we had no private partnership in that project.

That was that was government moving forward on our own. Talk about scary and stupid. Right? Although, in hindsight, not so much. I just I'm As concerned as Commissioner Her is on some things, I am bullish. I think this is awesome. I'm excited about it. I think the return on investment for our community is going to be exceptional. So that's my cheerleader comment for this morning. Although fun fact, I did not make the middle school cheerleading team.

I tried out and I didn't make it. So I do have a few questions. And they pertain to at what point in these requested actions we can flip different levers. Because to proceed forward with the development program presented and or as amended by the BCC well, unless you are asking for us to sit up here right now and start throwing amendments at you, which I think could be counterproductive, How do you envision those amendments occurring if they occur?

Yeah, if I may. This is not a whole lot different than any other capital projects we're doing. The County Administration Building's a good one. So you know, we can bring these things back as a staff and do a lot of charrettes and go through and vet them and go through. Those things take time and as staff we can certainly do that.

If time is if express service is great and you want it super short and you love everything's perfect on the screen and go forth, I don't want any changes, we can do it that way. So the levers I think is the direction we're looking for. If the Board wants to give that as we go through item two and three, those are relatively just flick the switch and as we get feedback from you all, then we can tailor those conversations in there. But number one, we don't know. We've got the listening tour, we've got the briefings, we've shown some ideas, but if more input is needed, we can certainly do it.

We can do as many of those things as you want. We can do them publicly, we can do it privately. That's the feedback we need, but it's not a simple yes or no answer, it's how you like it.

Okay. So I will just quickly run through mine for you, if that's okay, and then we'll see where we go from there. Again, I may be on the losing end of any one of these and that's okay. So I would proceed forward with the development program as presented with minor things that might come back to this Board for implementation in terms of value engineering when we get to that point. Proceed forward with the architectural and engineering services.

Proceed forward with the solicitation of Centimeters at risk. I would also like to see us move forward with the purchase of the additional five acres. The part that is not on okay. Number five with the additional parcels. Yes.

But as we found with the Boomba Experience. Yeah. Well, as we started to try to pull those properties together, the last man standing felt that they had quite a chip in the game, and it made it really hard to get all of the parcels needed. So I would just proceed with some thoughtfulness about how that should occur. I don't know if one by one is necessarily the best way to do that or not, or if assembling them, you know, as a collective might be more productive.

But I'll leave that to the experts to decide what's best. Are my thoughts. Commissioner Delore?

Thank you, madam chair. I wanna talk about two people that are not here, and that would be Bruce Guolo and Frank Sicion. Two stellar individuals in their own way. I'm sorry they're not name share, they're not name friends, but they are named Bruce and Frank. I will tell you that when we started talking about what is now known as BOOMBA, they saw the writing on the wall early. Was it county staff even though we all like to take credit for it?

It's probably too heavy.

And I will tell you that they said that we need to have a full master plan of what tourism would look like, not just around the airport, throughout the whole entire county. And it was clear in conversations with them and the county staff as well they presented to us is that Bloomberg was phase one because they knew that rectangular fields, outdoor fields only serve a market that was Friday or Thursday, Friday through Sunday. But to really capitalize this market to provide a demand to provide hotels because that's where not only the hoteliers make money, but we make money because of tourism tax, tourism development tax, sales tax, it just goes on and on and on. That's where the real bread and butter comes is the hotels' heads on beds. And if you don't have heads on beds, you don't have tourism.

You don't have tourism. We now become a bedroom community in many different aspects of it. Yes, we do have International Parkway. Yes, we do have been focusing since the 80s about not being a better community to Orlando, but that is only one aspect of economic development. The other aspect is sports tourism. I was here when we talked about sports tourism. I will tell you, I know I had many conversations with mister Abel as well as our county staff about what is sports tourism. We're not competing with Walt Disney World, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, Island of Adventure, go right down the list, the convention center. That ain't us. We doubled down and tripled down on sports tourism.

And by doing that, when it came to the drive market, we owned it. We defined it. People look at us, our staff, our hoteliers, our tourism groups, because regionally, if not statewide, they come to us and they ask us, how did you do it? And that was all these different studies that we're doing. In fact, I remember commissioner Konstantin, you were pushing for volleyball back then, and you're also pushing for us to move Bumba to I four.

Remember that? Four. And as commissioner Lockhart said, three votes be a good argument any day. And what I love about this group here, even though you may be on the short end of the vote, not the stick, the vote.

Mhmm. Well

Sometimes there's a stick involved.

Once the vote is cast, all five of us get behind that vote, even if you're opposed to it. That's what I love about this board. That's what I love about this county and the seven cities. We are one organization, figuratively speaking. I will tell you that when the economy went down in o eight and again in '13, what really helped us was our sports tourism.

What really kept the hotels running and operational during the pandemic was sports tourism. We doubled down. We actually hired people that instead of going through an outside agencies like we were doing with Paradise, I don't know if people remember that. We came in house and we hired a couple of young individuals. I'm not gonna mention them by name, even though they're sitting here in the room. They knew who they are. They actually put us on the map for digital advertising. What they did with sports tourism was astronomical. What our staff has done with sports tourism is astronomical. What our hoteliers are doing is astronomical.

I fully support this project. What happens now is that when we did this 100 report and we brought in all the other consultants, they said, okay. You wanna grow tourism? You wanna put heads on beds? You wanna bring more hotels? You gotta have more demand. We're not going to survive with yeah. We could survive. It's just status quo about having what we do with EC and L, what we do with baseball, what we do with softball. We can survive just on weekends if that's what we really want.

But you wanna grow the economy, you wanna grow sports tourism, you wanna grow people to come here to actually get tourism tax, but it's also the residents helping the residents pay for that sales tax. We're getting a 30% discount or a 28% discount, plus or minus. So we have that 1¢ sales tax. We're also happy about it. We're getting a discount from our residents for our residents, from people outside the community that's paying for this. We're doubling down. Why does Orange County do so well? Because of all the hoteliers. Because they've diversified with not just theme parks, but the convention center with the airport. This goes on and on and on.

You wanna grow that sales tax where it's not on the burden of our property people? It's growing it from a tourism standpoint. I can tell you that the county manager and I were at Winter Springs last night and we're talking about the gas tax. And the first thing they asked is, well, what's in it for us? Well, you gotta grow tourism, you know, and we're gonna discuss that later. I'm sure I'm not

gonna get into Yeah.

Let's stay focused.

I know. But I mean, I'm just I'm trying to paint the picture. I'm trying to paint the picture because like when your individuals are looking for either part time jobs or trying to grow a company or trying to get a a real job either in restaurants, convenience stores, or hoteliers, this is where they this is where it's gonna happen. This is gonna grow the market from Monday through Thursday and then over the weekend. I I mean, all the reports we have, it says that this indoor sports complex is the next boomba. And, yes, when we built boomba, you know, it was like, you know, do we build it if they come? Or if they come, when they build it? You know, what's the story? What comes first? Well, now that we have history, we know how to do this.

Our staff knows how to do it, and lord knows, the hoteliers know how to do it. So I fully support this, and I know commissioner Lockhart, you did it very well going through these five different items. I'm fully supporting what you're saying on those all five different items. So if we're on the Louisiana sick, it's both of us. Okay? So I

mean Listen. Let's be clear. I'm the only one that's up here questioning this. And I'm not saying don't move forward with it.

Commissioner, I I So wherever I'm not saying Wait.

Mister George, can I finish?

Let let me just I'm not saying it's you, but there's always a lot of doubt. I want

to I'm no longer running the meeting.

Well, you can run the meeting, but I just wanted to make sure that I'm not focusing on any one individual. These are key things, and I really believe that these key things will happen because of the plan that our staff and our hoteliers have put together to move this thing forward.

So I just want to get the elephant in the room. I have never said I don't want to move this forward. What I am questioning is, and I'm going to take privilege and throw it on the table what I'm questioning. Can you pull up the a la carte document, and can somebody get it on the record what is in this 175 and what is not? Slide 10.

And now we're just crawling out.

Now it's crawling. And

so the mezzanine, 13 and a half million dollars, that's in it? The parking garage, that's in it?

No. No. It altered it.

I understand. I'm just getting it on the record, guys, because we said minor changes. So it's really important that we understand this. Eight acres?

Right now, we're I mean, bringing it forward on on the number four, whatever it is, it's number four, that's five

that's in to.

That's it. That's in the number. These numbers are all the numbers were presented to you. Maybe it's if if I may, I'll tell you what's not in it. Is that maybe a little easier?

I'm gonna go through this Okay. Fair enough. My

way. It's it's it's in it.

Because I've had this briefing three times, and I don't have this down, and I don't think we have it on the record. So that's a yes. But beach volleyball is a

yes. Yes.

Two additional, that's a yes. Tilt wise was a yes.

Yes.

Additional land, 14 acres.

That's in the number as well.

Yes. That's in the $1.75. $3,275 per seat for so this is the one we got into.

And this is the one that's assort.

I can't answer the question.

Well, this is assort. That's all I explained. So that number that we've presented on there assumed making the space larger to accommodate both the space and the actual bleachers. So the conversation, it was almost kind of an, it could be an either or, so to speak, with item, I'm getting, trying to get my eyes on it, the basketball court. So both five and eight in the discussion were making the space larger.

There are different ways of doing it. So it's a no in the sense that we're not needing to add any additional space because we added number five. However, we are carrying money in the number to accommodate the actual bleachers themselves. And when you look at $3,000 per seat, you go, well, that's an expensive seat. Well, it includes a building getting bigger. So that's why it's a yesno. Bleachers are included in the program. We have that in the in the number that we gave you. We're not looking to include the building larger than what was just discussed on these other items.

And how many seats are in the bleachers?

So we know that there's 2,500. We have some generic holder places to put in there for potentially That's

all I need. I promise that's all I need.

Is the

is the 2,500, the holder numbers, etcetera. Oh, okay. So follow-up question. Because because the way you've mentioned it, it was minor, I feel compelled to go down this path because this wouldn't be minor. What added value does the mezzanine give us in terms of sports tourism and the ability to attract tourists into this location? Because I'm hearing from folks in the community that want this, that they're not sure it adds value.

We can both take this and jump in where I'm So the problem with when you look at a big space like that, can you go back to the drawing of the big space if you would. View ability gets to be a problem. If you're a scout or a parent and your child's on a different area, and a scout's probably more important. You have these big tournaments or college bound tournaments, these kind of combine ish type things, they look at a lot of kids in there. The ability to move around the space and look at it as well as provide additional space, maybe not sitting space, but standing space has has some benefit. And that's why our opinion of this was sight lines were difficult. I can tell you as a hockey parent, I'm

a I'll call it I'm

a retired hockey parent because my kids are older now. We spent a lot of time on the mezzanine looking at the kids on a rink, that was a very valuable thing on this as far as a number of facilities these mezzanines are included in them for. The walking track aspect of it gives you double duty. It gives you the ability for local residents to have something, walking clubs, things like that. We're not talking an NCAA running track, we're talking about you can take the same space and make it convertible. So the space does a couple of things. It provides better viewing access, it provides spectator access, and then it also provides the ability

to have a

localized amenity. Is there anything to add to

that, Rick?

Yeah, add the when you talk about the tournament aspect of things, what generally with the tournament folks are, and Guy you could probably speak to this as well, are looking for is the ability to take both the scouts and those officials and separate them from the rest of the spectators. And their ability to go ahead and conduct business and conduct their views separate from having to work their way through a crowd, for example. So that has almost become the standard, if you will, of a lot of the especially the high end tournaments is making sure that there's a space at which they can conduct their business and why they're there to view the games and do so without getting sort of mixed in with everybody else on the ground floor. Is that would that be fair?

So, as a proof of concept, commissioner, we we have field hockey over at BOOMBA. The difference with field hockey being a traditional event are the college coaches that are here. So, in the start of the year, that event is actually one of our premier events that runs alongside the girls soccer event at Sylvan Lake Park. So that event, because of the coaches, comes pretty close to a buyout of the Marriott. So because of that event, they actually turned into a convention that multi year, the economic impact in there, you're looking at hundreds of thousands converting into the millions.

Alright, so that's that is a fabulous answer. So increase in the TDD in the TDT, I'm switching gears just The a little increase in the TDT, are we saying that that's going to go to pay for debt service?

It certainly could. We project that year one debt service would be paid $4,000,000 from the hotels, the TID and the TDT. That's the minimum amount we would expect. And moving forward, yes, any additional revenue generated by the facility could and should be paid towards the debt service.

Well, could and should. So when does that is that part of a minor? We're deciding that. When when does that happen?

It's part of the annual budget process.

Okay. So so on the record, I am just going to say out loud so you can hear it directly from me and not through the conduits who perhaps got us down the path of I don't support this project. I do support the project, but the revenue that's being generated into these funds has to come back to support the debt service that's nowhere near supported by the money that we put into the one fund. So when we come to budgeting time, please don't be surprised by that because that's the reality. We're paying for less than 40%.

It's 37% of it. This is covered by these funds, the one fund, and the rest of it is coming through the sales tax.

Correct. Yes.

30% of which, so now 30% of which comes from outside of the county, but the majority of that is being paid for by our residents.

Correct.

And the use of these facilities by our residents is really minimal, and we all have to acknowledge It is, yes, you're going to go there with your child to a local facility, but that is a lifespan. There's a time you're a retired hockey dad. I was smart enough not to have kids that ever played sports. I was also smart enough never to try out for cheerleading, because we all know I wouldn't have been picked. Cheer for the damn team.

So I just want to get clear on the math at a later point. We're not going to talk about that today, but there's going to be an expectation around that return. All of these additions have to come back to feed this debt service. We can't be using it for something else. We can't be double committing. So and all of the performers correct me if I'm wrong none of them include the debt service?

That's correct.

I would love to see those performers redone so they include the debt service so that we can get aligned around the idea of how much that is impacting the rest of the budget. Possible?

Yes. Can do that.

I think I have gone through a good oh, graduation AV. I'm switching gears here. I heard, I think, the word, at some other point, we'll figure out graduation AV. That may have been me dreaming that. Graduation AV is programmed into this because I don't want to get down the road and we can't host graduations there because you can't see your kid graduate sitting on the floor.

So you heard it from me during the briefing, so you didn't imagine it. You heard it from me. In the conversations with the school district, The conversations have centered around flat floor versus, you know, what they have now and there. So the AV is something that we're currently discussing what their needs are. We're holding money for those kind of things.

In other briefings, we talked a little bit more in detail about the need for sound, you know, to be able to mitigate through the space for video and things like that. The numbers we're giving you are healthy numbers to make sure we have the ability to do things and make decisions. They're good planning numbers to make sure we're at this junction. If we got into discussions and, you know, they wanted something really, you know, outlandish, which I don't envision, then I don't know that I've got the numbers in there. But we are carrying numbers to handle AV stuff. We're going to need to talk as part of the design process to AV consultants and things like that to make sure everyone's expectations are met.

And I'm continuing having conversations with the superintendent as well on the needs that they need for that. So So and there could be potential partnership opportunities too in the future. So we're everything's on the table.

Absolutely. And think from the very beginning we have promised our community that this would be a facility that 's well received for It has to be as decked out for graduations as it is for Correct. The scouts.

Correct. They

they are our residents. With that, I'm gonna go down the line.

Can I continue my question? Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. So I don't know if I'm going to ask Prince or Guy or whoever. Can we talk about the $22 return on investment?

Somebody. Tim. Tim. Tim.

Tim. Tim.

Poor Tim.

Can you describe what where is that coming from?

He looks like I feel.

It's the 2,400,000,000 impact that's paid at the facility, its revenues to the hotels and the restaurants. It's a $2,400,000,000 total positive impact to the community over thirty years divided by the cost of the facility.

Okay. Great. Thank you. The one real concern I have with all of this is time to market, time to open. I know that the county manager sent us a preliminary schedule.

What I'm concerned about is know, we've been talking about this on and off for twenty some odd years. We've gotten real serious over the last two or three years. What I'm really concerned about, you know, when we first started talking about this, other people are starting to come into the market. I wanna make sure because in the conversations that I've had with our staff as well as events, e c and l, as well as field hockey, you know, they do sign long term agreements. I wanna make sure that we have an actual hard opening date so that I know and we know and staff can actually start booking events.

Yes. Because if we're gonna go past, you know, 2028, that's a totally different issue. And I wanna make sure we're opening this thing quickly enough so that we can actually gain our true market share because that's what this is about. It's about market share. And I know there's another event that's another venue happening in Orlando. It's a smaller venue. That's who's gonna be one of our competitors as well as some other folks. And so the sooner we actually decide when we're actually having a hard opening, we can actually start selling dates, that's what we need to be doing. Because if we're going to be dragging this thing out, then I'm going to need to start rethinking this thing.

So in the for the record category, the timeline that the county manager put forward in the documents yesterday starts today with this meeting, and then the timelines that I saw in there from a purchasing process were exceptionally tight.

Yes. I know they're tight, but my question is I want to make sure that we're holding it tight, and I wanna make sure that we actually know not just what purchasing, when we're actually been able to Right. Staff is gonna be marketing this thing, so we had hard opening dates.

Correct. And then when we get the team on, when we get the designer on, I architect

mean, this could something give you that more. Correct. Devil's in the details.

Right. And we'll be bringing

I that

didn't bring up the the list. I didn't put it up on the screen because I know it's still a work in progress. Right. I know that, you know, something may slip here and there. I think it can also be condensed. Correct. I'm expecting staff to bring it back to

us so

we're active. Absolutely. That's why I didn't talk about, you know, June or July or August. I didn't bring up dates.

Yes.

As I bring up dates.

You can bring

up dates if you want.

Bringing dates. Mister Zimbauer, you've been very patient.

Is highly unusual.

Highly unusual, yes. I appreciate it.

To try to move this along, I'm totally okay with all five points. You know, the timing of this has a couple of things that are dependent, which happens to be item four and five. It's probably not lost on my fellow commissioners because I've made it very vocal. This is not big enough in my opinion. I think it's a good start.

We've been talking about phasing and doing it in phase one, phase two, phase three. What I've learned since I've arrived here, unless you do it all in one phase, phase two and phase three never come to fruition. You can't get it done. But this is really a piece of a puzzle of a bigger picture for this area as we have the Orlando Sanford International Airport, which is going to continue to grow. We have the connector that's going to be coming into Lake Mary Boulevard.

We are going to see all the economic development along Lake Mary Boulevard not related to this project, which is going to be housing, multifamily and single family housing. This is going to be the key piece for the county. And as I went back and and reviewed arguments and and minutes from Boomba before I was ever here, there was a lot of discussion about that's too big, that's too much money, we shouldn't do that. And then fast forward multiple years and decades and people are like, man, we should have made that bigger. We should have bought more property.

And so I would only say that based on what staff has presented to me, and I've had a lot of questions and I appreciate the ROI because, you know, I was very adamant about that, that I think we're in a good place. I think we've still got some work to do, but the fact that we're going to have that discussion continuing moving forward as we move the project forward, I think it's going be a benefit. As you're aware, one of the two things that I was very adamant about, I think we we still need to be taking a look at, is long term land leases with private entities on some of this to be help pushing the the dollars to the county and the taxpayer, but also looking at how we do get a parking garage. You've got a scenario where you may have this 4.9 or five acres, you got these other pieces that are 10 owners, you may not get that. If you don't get that, that's a whole different discussion on how this ultimately develops and it plays out that may force us to a parking garage.

So I appreciate that it's an add on consideration that we will continue to discuss. So I'm fully fine moving forward with all five with further reporting back to us and keeping us updated. Good work. Thank you very much.

Mr. Constantine? You. Start with beach volleyball, please. We're all waiting.

He was I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna bring that up. I mean, Lee Sure you are. I mean, Lee, you

were quite the beach volleyball player back in the day. You actually were on the pro circuit, remember. Correct?

Alright. Let's get back on

the road.

Commissioner Constantine.

First of all, the excitement that I feel is the idea of Florida that we are promoting here. You could drive into that thing. You're not gonna see the beach courts. You're gonna see a beach next to a water facility. I mean, the the idea how I can I I envision this, you know, when people are coming in for the first time, they're gonna be amazed?

They're it's gonna be a beautiful facility from just that standpoint, forgetting about what the building looks like right now, just that standpoint. Because what we're trying to do is sell the facilities. People come back again and again. And when we when we're when we're bringing tourists from around the world, they're gonna come in. They don't wanna be indoor all the time in basketball and and indoor volleyball.

They wanna go out and get a beach chair and sit out there on in the in the sand. So I I'm just telling you, I I'm excited about that. It wasn't mentioned. I'm excited about that because I think that really gives people a flavor of Florida. And, you know, to use I think that the one thing that I've always said and I many of my colleagues have said, flexibility. I mean, we've got so much flexibility in this. You know, you've talked about the number of different things we can do indoors. Outdoors, yeah, mister Durer and I were talking yesterday. We've got sand soccer. We've got sand tennis. I put an overlay. Right. There is. No. There's there's big sports company to that. Yes.

Saying tennis? Yes. How does that work?

Yes. Hit it over a net. I don't know how it works. He hit it over the net. I don't play it. But but saying saying soccer is big. But here's here's and a lot of the people locally will use that. You talked about local, you know, use. They'll use the outdoor facility. Let me talk about the the flexibility, I think. We all heard how great Orlando I mean, we just got Central Florida Sports Commission just got the six qualifiers. Correct? Okay. I went back and put an overlay of that outside Camping World into this. We could do it here.

We could do it here. I was talking to, again, mister Durer about you making sure that the parking facilities were had a flexible enough surface that we could use other sports. Give an example, BMX and other things that you could use. Even, you know, another sport that's coming really exciting and people are using and could use the sand and or the cork is paintball tournaments all over the place. Firefighter challenge.

I I I was gonna just say that. No. I would say, we can move it from SSC and put it over here and and with a much, you know, easier opportunity. The greatest thing about this is an indicator of results, future results, is past results. Mhmm. The one thing I heard from these gentlemen when I was going through it is this has a better rate of return than we were talking about with Boomba. Mhmm. I mean, think of that. And Boomba escalated by far more than any of us would imagine. I see this as doing the same thing.

We've got so many opportunities here, and that's what we've done. Flexibility. Flexibility. And we wanna continue as we go forward these five things, we wanna continue in the flexibility. I I just said, I know many of you know that I I ran for thirty five years an event one day a year at the Orlando Camping World, and we had 10,000 people there, and we had 90 teams, and we had six events. I could do it here. I could have put it on here with all the six events, the exact six events.

Sounds like our first contract.

No. No. No.

That's you know, well well, maybe we'll talk about that, and maybe we'll revise it. But that's that we've got a few years in advance to get this, but let's get it done. Let's get it done. And I think that the folks here today are excited about it. I'm excited about it. I know. He listened to and my fellow commissioners. They're excited about it. I really I I I'm so impressed with the I know it's we've got a ways to go and any anything can change, but the way we're designing it so that when you're driving up, they just the the view just makes me feel like we're we're promoting Florida.

Commissioner Lockhart? Just a quick comment about the timeline. I understand there is a great sense of urgency. I want, from my perspective, we need to do it right. And I don't want to mess something up at the expense of feeling like we are moving so urgently that we miss something or don't do something well. So that would be my only

Noted.

And with that, I would be honored to make the motion to move forward with the five items as presented. Second.

No further discussion, All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. And thank you to the team for all the work that you've done that got us here. Thank you to all of you for being patient through all of the questions. And with that, we will recess the morning session. We will be call us back to order at 01:30.

Rick.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to call this meeting to order. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Please be seated. Ma'am, please be seated. Not you. Sit down, Lockhart. Thank you. Alright. We are going to do our best to keep this train running on time, but I am gonna ask for a little bit of flexibility this afternoon. We are gonna start with public hearing legislative item number 32.

We have in house mayor Mueller and city manager Kevin Smith from Lake Mary. Laurie Bailey Brown is going to be presenting. I'm a little bit ahead of myself. I was just making the announcement that 32 is going first so that we can let them go back to running go back to work running the city of Lake Mary. So with that, we will officially convene the meeting. I'm looking for proof of publication.

So moved. Second.

Motion and seconded. All those in favor?

Aye. Hearing

none opposed, passes unanimously. Ex parte communication, mine has been submitted electronically. What I had was submitted.

Madam chair, I'll submit mine right now.

So is mine

Mine was

submitted electronically? Electronically as well, madam chair.

Alright. So on paper. So ex parte has been submitted electronically. With that, we'll go to public hearing legislative item 32, where this will be presented by Lori Bailey Brown, and this is a good news item.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Commission. Lori Bailey Brown, Administrative Services Director. The MSVU program brings this item to the board for consideration to adopt an ordinance to create the Municipal Services Benefit Unit Assessment District to provide funding for lake management services on behalf of West Crystal Lake, which is located in Commission District 4. The hearing was publicly advertised on April 10, in accordance with Florida statute.

West Crystal Lake is in the Lake Monroe Watershed and is located in the city of Lake Mary. The request for establishing the MSBU was initiated by application in November 2024 for Lake Management Services. Watershed Division of Environmental Services evaluated the overall health of the lake, and a community meeting was held in January with presentations from Seminole County staff about the plans and proposed costs of lake maintenance, followed by the petitioning process, which received 69% response in favor of creating the MSBU exceeding the required 65% threshold to move forward. The assessment boundary of the proposed MSBU consists of 51 waterfront properties located in the city of Lake Mary, 49 residential and two city owned. Each residential property is assigned one benefit unit, and two city parcels are being assigned four and a half benefit units collectively.

This MSBU will consist of only phase two services, which are ongoing indefinitely. Phase two is a variable rate assessment, subject to change annually according to site conditions and budgeted expenses. The estimated annual estimate to be levied on the annual tax bill is $675.85 per benefit unit. This is inclusive of the MSBU administrative fee of 7% and lake management start up cost of $10,000 In year two, lake management staff time is estimated at $15,000 per year, and the City Of Lake Mary included in their interlocal agreement a contribution of $5,000 towards those administrative costs. Staff requests the board approve the ordinance creating the West Crystal Lake Management MSBU.

This concludes our presentation. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Mayor Mule, yes?

Down here.

Sorry. The little table. Hi.

I couldn't tell where

it was coming from.

Announcing our deputy legal expert, deputy county attorney, Naysa Borchardt, sitting in the cheap seats.

Yes, thank you. This request is twofold. It's for the adoption of the ordinance and it's also for approval of the interlocal agreement with Lake Mary for the MSBU, which authorizes the county to create this MSBU and which also outlines our agreement that we've come to with the City of Lake Mary as far as having their city properties that are located on the lake assessed in the same manner as the other properties around the lake are

being assessed. Thank you, Ms. Borgert. Would you like to speak? Did you have your hand up? Thought it was you speaking when it was Oh, no.

I mean, would as

the district commissioner, I would love to share If you're there. Yeah. I wanna, first of all, thank the city of Lake Mary so much for your patience. And your citizens have been incredibly proactive and wanting to see the health of all of the lakes in the community be able to be managed and have a part in that. This is for those of you who are here who don't know what a lake MSBU is.

It's where a group of residents who live on a lake choose to tax themselves for the benefit of that lake and its maintenance and making sure that it is either rehabilitated or kept in some type of format that it can really be a benefit to the entire community. Because all water eventually flows somewhere in the state of Florida and water doesn't know whether it's in the city of Lake Mary or an unincorporated Seminole County. And so we are all responsible for the quality of that water, particularly when it hits water bodies like the Lockhart Smith Canal or the St. Johns River or any of those. The quality of that water is something that we are judged on, frankly, regularly.

So the fact that the community came together and initiated this and that we have been able to partner thank you to the county attorney's office and the attorneys at the city of Lake Mary for seeing past what might be conventionally something that wouldn't be able to be done. But partnerships are really good, so I'm I'm thrilled that we're here. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but thank you all for your work. Yes, commissioner.

I I would mirror that as well. I'm sorry. I I think this is what? Three years? Almost four?

It took a new county manager and a new county attorney This to do

this No.

That's not a threat, by the way.

That's No. Understood. You know, sometimes we say government works slow. This this prime example of of working slow, but I'm glad that our county attorney's office found the ability to work with the city and get this taken care of because it is the right thing to do. At the end of the day, the residents of all cities pay county taxes. So we are all in this boat, we're all in the same direction. So good to see you all here today. Thank you for your patience. Good work, commissioner Lockhart, in your district. Good work, county attorneys. This is the what these are the things we should be doing to collaborate with our cities. Good work.

In the spirit of collaboration, mayor Mueller, would you like to say anything?

Madam chair David Mueller, mayor of the city of Lake Mary. I'm gonna be very brief because I know there's a full agenda. First of all, profound thanks to all five members of this commission, especially our district commissioner, commissioner Lockhart, and our representative of this group, commissioner York, have worked for several years. They've galvanized the community, the lakefront owners. But I will tell you right now, it would not happen in isolation.

Very few things do. But the work of your county manager, the work of our city manager, both respective teams have allowed this to come together. And for that, we're forever grateful. This means so much to our community. I will have to tell you right now that I've had the opportunity to serve my community a very long time. This is something that was very, very meaningful to those residents of Lake Mary that have lived here a long time. They take this personally. Our byline is the City of Lakes. What you're doing today will allow us generationally to keep that byline active. And for that, we just simply say thank you, thank you, thank you.

Mayor Mueller, I'd be remiss if I didn't, on behalf of the BOCC, thank you for your leadership, and you're always so gracious. It is always a pleasure doing business with you, certainly on behalf of the citizens, but just generally. Miss Stryker, do we have any public comment on this? No, ma'am. We do not? Hearing none, I'll look to the district commissioner.

Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to adopt and authorize the chairman to execute the ordinance creating the West Crystal Lake MSBU, as well as approving the interlocal agreement with the city of Lake Mary.

Second.

And I see a nod from our county attorney. Any further discussion? Nope. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes unanimously. Congratulations, and thank you for your leadership.

Thank you all.

With that, we will go backwards to item number 29. This is a quasi judicial public hearing for LifePoint Christian Church special exception. This is a commissioner Lockhart's district and will be presented by Hillary Payton, Planner. Welcome. Madam Chair.

To interrupt. Before we start

the quasi judicial items, would you like to go over the rules of engagement for Absolutely. Quasi judicial Thank you. I don't just want to hear myself right. Speak. Just While the board welcomes comments from all persons with an interest in these proceedings, Florida law requires that the board's decision in quasi judicial actions be supported by competent, substantial evidence presented to the board during the hearings on the applications.

Competent, substantial evidence is such evidence as a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion. There must be a factual basis in the record to support opinion testimony from both expert and nonexpert witnesses. Persons presenting testimony may rely on factual information that they present, information presented by county staff, information the applicant presented, or on factual information included in the county staff report to support their testimony. All persons who present written materials to the board for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's record of the proceedings and the official minutes. Madam chair.

Thank you so much. Go ahead.

Good afternoon. Hillary Payton, planning and development. This item is a request for a special exception for the LifePoint Christian Church to allow an existing church to expand in the a one zoning district located on 2.44 acres located on the Northwest corner of EE Williamson Road and Myrtle Lake Hills Road. The applicant is requesting approval of a special exception to expand an existing civic assembly use known as the LifePoint Christian Church on 2.44 acres. The existing church structure is approximately 7,000 square feet in size with a seating capacity of 200 seats.

The property also includes a 1,952 square foot single family residence that's utilized as an office for the church. The applicant proposes to construct a new 6,400 square foot building with a seating capacity of 250 seats to utilize for worship service. The original 7,007 square foot structure will be utilized for children's ministry activities during the worship services. The facility operates primarily on Sundays from 8AM to 2PM. The church's office hours are Monday through Thursday from 8AM to 5PM.

The parking requirement for the assembly use is 63 parking spaces. The improvements to the site will provide 65 parking spaces meeting that requirement under the Seminole County Land Development Code. The site must also meet all other regulations under the land development code at the time of site plan. This includes drainage, setbacks, buffering, site lighting, and others. In compliance with the Seminole County Land Development Code section thirty point three point five, the applicant conducted a community meeting on 02/09/2026.

Details of that meeting have been provided in your agenda. Section thirty point three point one point five of the Seminole County Land Development Code states that certain criteria must be met for the board of county commissioners to approve a special exception request. Staff finds that the request meets the criteria of the recommend with the recommended conditions as stated in the approval development order. In addition to the typical conditions of approval for special exception, staff is also recommending there be no outdoor sound amplification without a noise permit from the county. Staff has received nine letters of opposition, one of which is a petition with 47 names listed and three letters of support, which have been provided to the board for your consideration.

Those who we received letters from, who provided their address in close proximity to this the church have been shown on the support and opposition map. The planning and zoning commission met on 04/01/2026 and voted unanimously to recommend that the board of county commissioners approve the special exception based on the conditions as stated in the staff in the development order. Staff requests that the board of county commissioners approve the special exception and associated development order as per the motion on the screen. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you very much. Commissioners, any questions so far? Is the applicant here? Name and address for the record, sir.

My name is Phil Ayers. 150SunsetDrive. I'm the pastor at Lightpoint Christian Church here representing the congregation. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you for your time and your diligence and careful consideration for this matter. We're here to request a special except exception to allow a modest expansion to our existing church facility. This is, an expansion we believe is responsible in scope. It's compatible with the surrounding area, and consistent with our longstanding presence in the community. Our proposal is to construct a 6,400 square foot sanctuary for primary use on Sunday worship services.

The space will seat approximately 250 people and will replace our current worship space, which seats about 200. It will include a foyer, restrooms, a small video room, a nursing mother's room. There are no classrooms included in this new structure. For context, our existing facility is just over 7,000 square feet. So this is not a large scale expansion, but we believe it's a practical next step to better accommodate our growing congregation.

Before I go further, I'd

like to address a concern that has been raised in the community. There's been some confusion suggesting that this project is intended to expand into a private school or a higher intensity weekday operation. I want to state clearly this is not an expansion of a school. It's a modest expansion of Sunday worship space. We do operate or excuse me, we do not operate a traditional private school.

We offer a homeschool resource program that meets only on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It provides supplemental instruction for families who are already homeschooling their children. That program is not being expanded as a part of this proposal. From a land use perspective, this project does not increase weekday intensity, which is why it was determined during the county's pre application review that a traffic study was not required. We understand that traffic is a concern in our area, especially given the nearby elementary school and the challenges at the intersection of EE Williamson and Myrtle Lake Hills Road.

That matters to us as well. As both the pastor of LifePoint and a resident of the Shadow Hill neighborhood nearby, I personally experienced those same traffic patterns, and I share in those concerns. But this project is designed to serve our congregation primarily on Sundays and does not introduce any additional weekday demand beyond what exists already today. By a brief way of background, we began in 2002 meeting at Bentley Elementary School in Sanford. From there, we moved to a theater, and then we spent several years at the YMCA as a congregation.

In 2013, we purchased our current property in order to establish a more permanent presidents permanent presence and better serve our community. And over the past few years, we have seen steady, healthy growth, particularly among young families, which led us to begin planning for additional worship space through a capital campaign we called NEXT. Our goal has simply been to continue serving the next generation well. Over the past fifteen years, our vision has been simple, focused on Christ, faithful in the community. We take both parts of that seriously.

We are committed to not only worship and teaching, but to being a good neighbor in our community. We regularly open our facility to serve others in the community. We host other church congregations weekly. We provide space for HOA meetings. We support groups like scouts, and we serve as a polling location as well.

Plus, we also provide ongoing benevolent support for both our church members and others in the community, helping with food, rent, and other needs. We've never turned away anyone who's come to us in need. At its core then, this request is modest, clearly defined expansion to serve our existing congregation primarily on Sundays without increasing weekday intensity or altering the character of our surrounding area. We are committed to transparency, we're committed to being good neighbors, and to continue serving this community well. So we respectfully ask for your approval. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Stay close. We may need you back. Not that close. You could have a seat, but stay close.