City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Let's call this meeting to order. Madam Clerk, if we could start with a roll call,

please.

Mr. Engelke. Here. Mrs. Frank. Here. Mister Howard.

Here.

Mister Smith.

Here.

Mister Wheat is absent. Vice mayor Bolt.

Here.

Mayor Pichota.

Here. Alright. We'll stand for the invocation and today's pledge will be led by vice mayor Bolt.

Father, we offer you thanks and praise for the blessings of our community, those who have led us in the past and those who have accepted the challenge to lead us on this day. Give us patience understanding as we set aside our personal interests and serve for the good of those that have been that we've been called to serve. Accept our thoughts and words for in your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance Okay. We'll get started with the fun stuff. And I just wanna give a a special recognition to miss Lori Stelzer for being in the audience today after thirty two years of great service to our city as the clerk. I could get Scotty Lynn Kelly, clerk Michaels, and Tony Gregory plus family if they'd like to come up.

We'll go all yeah. Go all the way to the center. My name is the center, and we'll stand in front of that. I'll I'll present it to you. Okay. You know? I don't know if we're doing those yet, but we'll probably do those at There some you go. Good

morning. My name is Scottie Lynn Kelly, and I serve as the city clerk for the city of Sanibel. I am also honored to be in my fourth term as the Southwest District Director for the Florida Association of City Clerks. Today, it is my great pleasure to congratulate you to congratulate your city on the outstanding accomplishment of your deputy city clerk and records manager, Tony Gregory, who has earned her master municipal clerk designation through the institute International Institute of Municipal Clerks. Sorry.

I was rushing to get here. Before recognizing Tony's achievement, I'd like to briefly share information about the two professional organizations I've referenced. The International Institute of Municipal Clerks known as IIMC and its partner organization, the Florida Association of City Clerks or FACC. Both associations are committed to advancing the profession of municipal clerks through continuing education and certification programs offered in partnership with universities and colleges. IIMC's primary goal is to promote the ongoing education and professional development and municipal clerks around the world.

It does this through extensive training programs, certification opportunities, publications, global networking, annual conferences, and research initiatives.

Sorry.

Printed it big so I could see it. The first step towards certification is earning the certified municipal clerk designation. This requires completion of the IIMC approved municipal clerk institute program conducted by the John Scott Daily Florida Institute of Government at Florida State University. This program includes a hundred and twenty hours of coursework focused on leadership, management, interpersonal skills, and the techno technical knowledge needed to navigate the rapidly changing demands of government. Additional requirements include responsible experience in local government, participation in conferences and seminars and in many cases academic coursework or degrees in public administration or related fields.

Achieving the CMC designation is a significant milestone but true professionals never stop striving for more. And you got your CMC three

years ago? Two years ago?

A little over a year ago.

Okay. So I got to come do that one too. The next step is the master municipal clerk academy designated or designed to advance the professional education of clerks and prepare them for the complex challenges of the office. To earn the MMC designation, clerks must complete a hundred sixty hours of advanced education, 80% of which must be in public administration along with 20 points of documented professional and social contributions such as conference attendance, committee participation, and special recognitions. Meeting these requirements is no small task especially considering the daily demands placed on the clerk's office.

Printed it two sided and I missed a page but that's okay, we're not going back. Recognizing the need for even more advanced professional development opportunities, FACC partnered with the John Scott Daily Florida Institute of Government to create the Florida Certified Professional Clerk Program. This twenty month program combines virtual and in person learning and culminates in a capstone project. It is open to all CMC certified FACC members in good standing and focuses on organizational leadership specific to the unique responsibilities of municipal clerks in Florida. This would be Tony's next step if she decides to move forward.

Your deputy city clerk, Tony Gregory, is now part of an elite group of highly trained and dedicated local government professionals. A distinct a distinction she I'm sorry. My eyes are burning. Trained and I'm sorry. A distinction she could not have achieved without your support and encouragement.

In an era of rapid and rapid and significant change, lifelong learning is not just beneficial but essential in meeting the evolving needs of the communities we serve. Your city should take great pride in Tony's commitment to her profession and in her achievement as a of this remarkable milestone. Since joining FACC in August '22, Tony has been an active and engaged member. She has served thank you. As a class moderator at conferences and acted as district coordinator for her third year CMC class project.

Her dedication is evident in everything that she does. Tony, on behalf of Florida Association of City Clerks and its members, the Professional Education Committee, and the South S Southwest District, we are incredibly proud of you. It is my privilege to present you with your MMC pin and encourage you to continue embracing lifelong learning. Display your plaque and wear your PIN proudly. They represent your hard work, your professionalism, and your unwavering commitment to excellence. Well done, my friend.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

I just wanted to say a few words about Tony. I started here about five years ago when Lori Stelzer retired and I wanna thank you for hiring Tony because she's a

great

hire. But about you, five years ago when I started, you told me that you had some big goals and that you wanted to learn this job. And that made my heart just warm up from inside because I believe in lifelong learning. I think it's very important. It also is great for the city as far as making sure your staff are well prepared to handle anything that comes up in the clerk's office and I've seen you grow tremendously. I congratulate you for this huge accomplishment. It wasn't easy. I saw you do it and so I'm so very proud of you Tony and congratulations.

It. Uh-oh.

Mary, you know me better The than

roast is

I wanna say thank you to city council and city management for providing opportunities to progress in your career. But I especially have to thank Kelly, Mercedes, Amanda, and Tracy, all in the clerk's office because we are a team, we're a small team but we couldn't do it without each other. So I couldn't have done this without them. And my daughter and son who is not here, Luke, my daughter Sophie, I couldn't have done it without them. They were okay with me going to conferences, they were okay with me reading and studying for parliamentary procedure, doing a distance learning class on weekends, they were supportive in every way as well.

So I wanna thank thank them for all of their contributions too. So thank you and thank you to Lori Yess for hiring me and for starting me on this path.

So I'll just say a few things. Is this still on? There's nobody, is there anybody back here that I can testing? No, it's still working. Oh, thank God.

A few things that I wanted to say, know, having been in office now seven years and having you know a lot of new clerk staff with the exception of Mercedes, it's been really neat watching the evolution of our clerk's team and I always equate being the Mayor but also just being a council member to kind of if anybody remembers the show 24, it's having Chloe in the background that gets everything done so that we can get out there. Mean, are simple things like proclamations and things that seem kind of you know basic but there's a lot to that, making sure that we have enough copies for people that are there, making sure that the wording is correct and that we don't offend anybody with certain language and that we follow all of our policies, that we maintain these the records and have all the record requests fulfilled that they can provide us as council members information historically showing us the way things worse so that if we're going to make changes to ordinances and resolutions that we do it appropriately and don't reinvent the wheel. There's so many things that go on in the clerk's office and I think it's an understatement that her kids have kind of picked up for her while she's been going away at conferences and stuff like that.

Watching her raise two children through high school and while she's been making sure that all the stuff gets done here, the teamwork that's in the clerk's office, I can't say enough about our clerk's team, it was a big, I don't want to say loss, but your retirement when you left Laurie, there was so much institutional knowledge there. So a team that had to pick up after somebody who had been doing this for thirty two years and kind of leaning on Mercedes who was the only kind of consistent one left has been a real joy to watch the evolution and it couldn't be done without every single member of the clerk's team and I thoroughly enjoyed my time and Sophie has been one of my favorite volunteers here in the Clerk's office. When things need to get done, typically you see family members come in and pick up some of the slack so it's nice to have her up here as well and yes, we are missing Luke but he's got things to do. So anyway, thank you so much. Okay.

Yes. Okay, let's get, you want everybody up or just okay. So let's get all of the clerk's team and I think my microphone is working okay so if you want to come back down too. Is Tracy here? Amanda, is Tracy still here?

Yes she is. Okay.

Don't know, Tracy if you can come down. Okay. There we go. All the records folks. I'll let you hold that.

It's amazing the technology still works when you guys aren't up

there. Alright.

And then I'm gonna let somebody hold the microphone. It's not time yet but Prompt. Little side turn, squeeze in, squeeze in. Yes. Now we're talking. Beautiful.

Keep smiling, love it. Working. I

didn't I didn't even move, I should have liked it. Okay. Whereas good records and information management practices are essential to the effective and efficient operation of government and whereas retention and disposal schedule compliance promotes government transparency and responsible management of taxpayer funded resources and whereas effective records and information management helps minimize risk by ensuring information is readily available through established policies, procedures and practices and whereas this month we encourage City of Venice departments to review their records and information management practices and demonstrate compliance and adherence to records management laws. Now therefore, I, Nick Pashoda, Mayor of the City Of Venice on behalf of the Venice City Council, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Record and Information Management Month in the City Of Venice and encourage residents and staff to appreciate the significance and importance of maintaining and organizing records and data in regulatory compliance.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to acknowledge all of the records information managers that we have in each department because it takes a whole city. There are records everywhere and we have a really strong program in which we train and work with all departments to make sure records are being retained and managed appropriately so when public makes a request, we can quickly find the record and provide it. To give you an idea of what that looks like, last year, the city provided a little over 5,600 records. In 2025, just this past twelve months, that total went to 9,249 records.

So you can see the demand for records is large. And you may be wondering what kind of records do people ask for. Well, if you've been through a hurricane, you are going to ask for your roof permit. The last time you had some roof work done and the folks in our building department, I'm glad you showed up today because when we track which departments are generating a lot of requests, I would say building and the building department it's close to 40%. So it's a huge total but it's also HR.

People want their personnel records or maybe you're looking for employment somewhere else and people want to know the history of that or someone wants minutes or they want to see an ordinance or you know there's development going on so they want to see the applications. So it's everything. Everything gets requested and we do our best to deliver that record in you know three to five days. And so all of us in the clerk's office, all five are managing records with the assistance of our partners in every department. So I applaud you. This is also for all of you, the ones that are here and not here. So thank you.

No, no, don't give me that microphone. Okay. Let's bring down Alright Bruno, I'm gonna give it a shot. And then if I could get utilities department as well. And then the vice mayor if he'd like to come join me as well.

If you want to just

stand right in front of my name and that's the center. I'm going to pre give you the microphone. I didn't say police but if you want to come down, you can. It's water conservation month, it's a great thing to celebrate.

Right.

Javier. And Alright. Whereas water is a basic and essential need of every living creature and whereas the State of Florida, Water Management Districts and the City Of Venice are working together to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation and whereas the City Of Venice in the State of Florida has designated April, typically a dry month when water demands are most acute as water conservation month to educate citizens about how they can help and help save Florida's precious water resources. And whereas, the City of Venice has always encouraged and supported water conservation through various educational programs and special events. And whereas, every business, industry, school and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water.

And whereas every business industry, school and citizen can help by saving water and thus promote a healthy economy and community. Now therefore, I, Nick Pashoda, Mayor of the City Of Venice on behalf of the Venice City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as Water Conservation Month in the City Of Venice and call upon all citizens and businesses to help protect our precious resources by practicing water saving measures and becoming more aware of the need to save water.

Hi, I'm Bruno Kapacinskas with SWEPMUD better known as Southwest Florida Water Management District. For those that don't know, we are under a severe drought. Southwest Florida Water Management District covers a 16 county area north from Ocala down to Charlotte County and currently we're facing approximately a 14 inch deficit in the area and we are hurting for water right now. There are a lot of straws in the aquifer and even though we've had some rain the past couple the past week or two, we're not refilling that water fast enough. We encourage citizens to do their best to conserve water.

Water matters. Go to watermatters.org, water one zero one to learn what you can do to conserve water in your house. 50% of all water waste is done in your yard with potable water. So please conserve water. We need to conserve water. April is going to be a rough month until we get to rainy season. So thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Javier Vargas, Utilities Director. I just want to take this opportunity to thank our citizens. We're doing great as far as water conservation and it's because of them. Thank you.

Okay. And now, if I could get, I'll give you this. Yeah. You're taking that one. And then let's get Rose Lemon Doza and Sergeant Montest and team. Everybody? You want to come up too? Okay. Pictures? Oh, we got tons of photographers in the front row. Okay. There you are. Let's scoot over to the center. There's that. There's that.

You are. Let's shift down just a little bit more so we're right in the center and squeeze in. Perfect. Sorry, was doing Brian's job, my apologies.

Good morning. A presentation here, whereas child abuse and neglect is a complex and continuing problem in our society affecting over three million children annually nationwide and whereas there is no test of a society more important than the status and treatment of children, and whereas the child protection center works to prevent child abuse and to protect and treat children affected by child abuse with the hope of creating a community in which every child is free and safe from child abuse and urge all citizens to be aware of and involved with the local and national programs which provide ongoing protection for children. Now therefore, Jim Bolt, vice mayor of the city Of Venice, on behalf of the mayor and the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 to be child abuse prevention month in the City Of Venice and encourage all to promote awareness and prevent prevention. Excuse me.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor, Mr. Mayor. I'll keep this short. According to the Youth Policy Center, approximately eighty six percent of all crimes against children go underreported.

So I think it is excellent that the City Of Venice is taking this month to make it Crimes Against Children Awareness Month and as a community, we all need to do everything we can do to keep our eye out for that. Children really don't have a voice. I would like to thank Chief Thorpe, former Chief Thorpe in the back and Chief Leissering. One thing that they have done, kind of a joint effort as Chief Thorpe transitioned out was start our community outreach team, and this has been a great resource for providing another means of law enforcement contact in a different manner with some of our younger residents and at risk youth, so I think that has been a big benefit in helping to potentially identify crimes against children that may in other manners go underreported.

On behalf of the Child Protection Center staff, board of directors and clients that we serve, we would like to thank you for proclaiming April as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Without the support of the community and the support from y'all, we could not do what we do and we're working towards building a community where children are safe from abuse and free to thrive. So thank you again. If you would like to visit cpcsarasota.org, you can gain more information on the Child Protection Center. Thank you

so much.

Thank you. Okay. And with that, we will come back at 09:45. Okay. We are back and we are on to audience participation. Madam Clerk, we have anybody signed up to speak?

Yes.

Okay. Then I'm going to read our preamble here. Now audience participation portion of the agenda, speakers are not to address council members individually. Any person making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks or who becomes disorderly may be barred from the meeting. This is an opportunity to provide the City Council with your comments. City Council will not respond to any questions or comments during this time per the City Code. A member of City staff will follow-up with you if it's appropriate. Any documents showing during audience participation or part of the meeting must be given to the clerk's office for the official record. Madam Clerk, our first speaker.

Our first speaker is Madeline Zubik.

Ms. Zubek, good morning and welcome.

Members.

Alright. Good morning mayor and city

My name is Madeline Zubik and I live full time at 1112 Pine Road, Gulf Shores. I have lived here since 1998 and was a digital media teacher at Venice High School. I recently retired and continue to serve this community as a Venice Main Street volunteer, centennial volunteer for our city's one hundredth year anniversary, and as a member of at Epiphany Cathedral Church. The reason why I'm here today addressing city council is because on 12/16/2024, there was a meeting held at Venice City Hall addressing the major flooding that happened in Golden Beach from the Flamingo Ditch during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. I wasn't at this meeting because it was a major concern for the residents of Golden Beach only.

The next meeting on this issue was held in March 2025. According to news headlines on the internet, the city contracted with a consultant to figure out a solution to the street flooding from the Flamingo Ditch. There was a proposal in the form of an option made to to run a pipeline from the Flamingo Ditch in Golden Beach Subdivision down Harbor Drive to Deer Town Gully in Gulf Shores. I didn't realize this proposal was made by the city until I attended a community meeting on January 30. Based on the number of people that attended this meeting many were there to voice their concern about the Flamingo Ditch pipeline.

Some of the concerns that residents have addressed are these, with additional water in our gully this could flood our homes. Additionally, water in our gullies could place us in a flood zone and we would have to get flood insurance. Also being in a flood zone will lower our property values according to all the information I found on the internet. I believe that it will not only affect houses directly on the gully but houses near and around this waterway. I have addressed Gulf Shores board on this issue and I'm hoping they'll take immediate action for the good of our neighborhood.

Until a decision is made, I have decided to form a committee for the Gulf Shores residents to address this very serious issue because many neighbors were unaware that the city decided to include this pipeline without any input from residents in Gulf Shores. Let me repeat that. Because many neighbors were unaware that the city decided to include this pipeline without any input from residents in Gulf Shores. I feel that any pipeline coming into Gulf Shores should be on should be put on pause, evaluated, and discussed with our residents. Many homes had flooding from Milton from our gully and with additional water this could be catastrophic.

I attended the capital improvement meeting that was held this month to discuss this matter. It was held online using an app that many people are unfamiliar with. I was very surprised that they weren't using Zoom for their meeting. Then they had the comments shut off and nobody was allowed to ask questions. The reason I heard this happen was because there are pending lawsuits against the city because of the flooding.

This meeting was such a disappointment. First, it should have been an in person meeting at City Hall and second, residents should have been allowed to voice their opinion on what the city is proposing. Lastly, if they have pending lawsuits from residents at Golden Beach, the city should have their lawyer sit in during the meeting to help answer questions. This brings me to the next meeting which is the capital improvement meeting on April 8 at City Hall here. I plan on getting the word out so many residents can show up and voice their concerns and hopefully the city will take out the pipeline option so the water will not be directed to Gulf Shores.

We already had flooding issues from Hurricane Milton. I feel there should be a better solution than the one presented from the consultants that will help Golden Beach but not impact offshores. Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.

Thank you for your comments. Madam Clerk, next speaker.

Our next speaker is Charlie Thorpe.

Good morning and welcome, sir.

Good morning everyone. Good to see you all. My name is Charlie Thorpe. I am here this morning representing the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce and the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation. I come with a message of thanks to the city staff.

Very recently, I took over leadership programs at the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce and as I was putting together courses for in days of activity for the team leadership program, I reached out to your communications people. I know that you know that they're an outstanding couple of people that do great work for the city and I asked them to put together a program that would assist me with what I call the Knowledge is Power Afternoon for the Teen Leadership Program. The Teen Leadership Program is an immersive program that we get the group out, it's 14 teens currently high school age that we take out to enjoy and learn about our business, government and civics programs throughout the area. And your communications team put together a couple hours of instruction on their expertise in communication, marketing, branding and it was very well received from the group and I just wanted to pass along a couple of certificates of appreciation, handmade special edition that I put together just to let them know that I appreciate how easy they were to work with and the outstanding program they put together for me to present to the youth. We will graduate this group on April 7 and that will be in the evening.

You're all invited to come by and check-in on that if you'd like and just meet the group and there will be pizza and cake, it starts at 05:30. But I can tell you this has been something I've enjoyed working with and it makes it so much easier when you have great people to work within our community including the business and government entities we deal with. I want to thank the City Manager's Office and City Council and all the City staff for just being there for us and the great partnerships we have as a Chamber of Commerce. So thank you. I'll leave these with the Clerk if that's okay to pass along.

Thank you for your comments. Madam Clerk, next speaker.

That was the last one for this.

Okay. Then we will move to the consent section of the agenda. All matters listed under the consent section are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless an item is removed by a council member. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired by a council member, the item or items will be considered and voted upon at the end of the consent section. With that said, is there anyone on council that would like to remove anything from the consent section? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor.

I move to approve item on the consent section.

Seconded by Mr. Howard. And then all in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Alright. Passes unanimously. Then we will move to council action discussion two six dash zero five five one. And if I could get chair McGrath and Doug Lozin from the Police Pension Board if you guys want to come up and give your report.

Miss Mayor, members of council, good morning. My name is Kevin McGrath. I'm currently the chairman of the police officers' pension board, we're here to do our sort of state of the union as it would be as to the health of the plan. I can tell you that within the last year, we've had our annual report approved which allowed us to receive the state monies and have met all our meeting, filing and all other administrative requirements which we would not have gotten approval of the plan if we had not done. And we have just, you know, we seem to be doing pretty well in that area. The actuary, Mr. Wilson, who's enrolled actuary is going to fill you in on the financial health of the plan.

Good Good to see everybody again. The plan remains in very, very good shape. It's been above 100% funded for the second consecutive year. Anticipate we're probably coming on a third year when we do the valuation coming up next year. That I'm guessing that will be a third year in a row over 100%.

And so as you've heard me before up here in the last year or so, we are working on various options with the Pension Board that might be coming to you as City Council in order to get just under that 100% funded status. And as a reminder, purpose of that is to try and maintain to keep the Chapter 185 premium tax monies flowing into the plan, which significant help to the plan, both for city funding and for the membership share plan. So that's just my update as the actuary, your plan is in very good shape. We have very reasonable assumptions, 6.75 on investment and updated mortality is required by statute under Florida laws. I'm happy to answer questions if you have any.

Any questions from counsel? Seeing none. Thank you guys. Appreciate your time. Madam Clerk, is there anybody from the audience signed up to speak?

No. Okay.

Then with that we will move on to twenty six-five fifty two and this will be Chrissy Stoker, Plan Administrator, Foster and Foster Actuaries on the Fire Pension Board.

Good morning. Can you hear me okay? My name is Chrissy Stoker. I am here as the plan administrator for the Firefighters Pension Board. I haven't seen anyone from the Board here today but I did see three ladder trucks and two rescues out and about with lights and sirens when I was on my way here.

So I think the firefighters are busy. I'm happy to be there to be here to speak about the plan. So over the last year we have also had the annual report approved. The fire plan received more state monies this past year than in 2024. The amount of state monies received was $371,293.7 So that was a big increase from the prior year.

As you can see the plan is still very, very small. It is almost all retirees only at this point, only nine active members remaining. So the Board is working with their actuary and investment consultant to just keep an eye on the pension fund and make sure everything is invested appropriately and conservatively while also trying to make money on their money. And they're doing a nice job of that. The net return for the year was 10.07 relative to the plans investment return of assumption of 6.25.

So that was great to see. And as far as an achievement and one thing that will be coming to you hopefully very soon is the establishment of the deferred retirement option plan commonly known as the DROP for the firefighters. I know that's in the works with legal so but that's something that will be coming your way in the coming weeks. And I think one of the big successes was just that the funded status for the plan while I can't say it's over 100% like the police plan on an actuarial basis it did jump up from 72.6 to 76.5% which Doug I'm sure can speak more to the actuarial aspects of this but he did mention before this meeting began that that was a high watermark for this plan. While it's you know the goal is to get to 80% or better, plan is well on its way.

Questions for me.

Any questions from counsel? Okay. Thank We have you guys. Appreciate your time. Madam Clerk, anybody signed up to speak on this item? Nope. Okay. Then with that, we will move to public hearings. Ordinances first reading. And we will start with ordinance two zero two six dash zero eight. The public hearing is now open. And, madam clerk, if you go ahead and read this ordinance by title only, please.

An ordinance of the city of Venice, Florida annexing certain lands line contiguous to the city limits pursuant to petition number twenty five dash one nine a n by iHeartMedia and Entertainment Inc. Into the corporate limits of the city of Venice, Florida and redefining the boundary lines of the city to include the said addition providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And then Madam Clerk, have we had any written communications?

We do not.

Okay then if staff would like to give their presentation?

Yes, would you like to see one?

I think so.

Okay. Brittney Smith, for the record, planner, City of Venice and I have signed a speaker's card. So here today we're going to talk about 2519an Chalets Of Venice. The applicant is P3LAF Chalets of Venice LP and the agent is Jackson Boone of Boone Law Firm. The address of the property is 282 North Auburn Road.

This is an annexation request of property that is approximately 10.12 acres in the city's, GPA boundary. The future land use of the property is currently Sarasota County moderate density residential with the proposed future land use of mixed use residential or MUR. The current zoning is Sarasota County open use estate with the proposed zoning being planned unit development. This is in the Pine Brook neighborhood and the associated petitions are 2520CP and 2521RZ. The request is for the annexation of approximately 10.12 acres within JPA Area 7.

The applicant intends to develop these as residential units, single family units on smaller lots. The pre annexation for this was approved by City Council on 02/10/2026 and Planning Commission heard this on February 17 and put forward a recommendation of yes for six to zero with one excused absence. Here is an aerial map of the project showing it off of Auburn Road so this is if you take Venice East down about two and a half miles from the Venice East Bridge and you take a left up another half mile, you'd see this property on the right there. This is just a little bit further north from word-of-mouth restaurant, just to give you a little orientation on where that project is. For existing conditions, we're gonna look at the future land use map, the zoning map, the site photo and the surrounding land uses.

So here on the left, you're gonna see the existing future land use map showing to the North low density residential, to the East moderate density residential, to the South moderate density residential, and then to the West mixed use residential that is the Sawgrass neighborhood. And for the proposed future land use, you will see the mixed use residential that is intended. Here we look at the existing zoning map. To the north, you have residential estates. That's the Sarasota County zoning.

To the east there, you have RSF. I believe it's RSF two. And then to the south, have OUE one. And to the east you have residential single family. The proposed zoning map shows that that PUD request for this property.

This is a site photo, so this is currently a largely vacant process with a parcel with a lot of vegetation in the area. Looking at those surrounding land uses to the north, there's the Venice Acres subdivision which is that RE2 zoning with the county with the future land use of county low density residential. To the South, you have the old radio station and the remainder of the subject parcel. The zoning district is OUE one with the future land use of County Moderate Density Residential. To the East, you have the subdivision of Venice Ranch, which is county residential single family with the future land use of county moderate density residential.

To the West you have Sawgrass which is residential single family and is mixed use residential. With planning analysis, we're going to look at Florida Statutes' comprehensive plan and the land development code. Chapters one hundred sixty three and one hundred seventy one of Florida Statute provides for the adoption of joint planning agreements and interlocal service boundaries. The JPA identifies lands that are illogical candidates for future annexation, define the appropriate land uses and infrastructure needs, ensure protection of natural resources and establish procedures for timely review and processing of development proposals. Consistent with these statutes, the JPA provides a procedure for annexation into the city.

So for JPA Area 7, Auburn Road neighborhood, the land use adopted in Venice comprehensive plan for this area is a maximum of five units per acre. Non residential uses shall not be permitted in this area and this application or this petitions and the subject petitions to come for you to hear later today are not proposing anything that is not residential. So for consistency with the comprehensive plan, the comprehensive plans include the JPA. JPA Area seven indicates that density limit of five units per acre. The property will be served by city water and city sewer and further analysis of consistency with the subject petitions.

Conclusions in finding a fact with the comprehensive plan analysis has been provided to determine consistency with Chapters one hundred sixty three and one hundred seventy one of Florida statutes. The JPA between the city and the county, this analysis should be taken into consideration upon determining comprehensive plan consistency. So compliance with the land development code, the city's land development code Section 80 seven-1.42 provides instruction regarding annexation of land including the order to approve the petition for annexation. The City Planning Commission and the City Council must find that an application for annexation demonstrates the following: consistency with state statute regarding annexation, continuous and compactness of the property, the annexation does not create an enclave, the property is included in the annexation area of the JPA that has been determined to be existing enclave, that a property has access to the public property right of way and that a pre annexation agreement addresses the existing uses and any other relevant matters have been executed. So in conclusions and finding a fact in compliance with the land development code, the subject petition complies with all applicable land development code requirements.

The pre annexation again was executed on 02/10/2026 by City Council. So in conclusion, upon review of the petition, Florida statutes, the comprehensive plan, the land development code staff report and analysis and testimony provided during the public hearing, there is sufficient information record for City Council to take action on petition number 2519an.

Any questions from Council? Okay. Seeing none, we'll get the presentation by the applicant.

Alright, good morning. For the record, Jackson Boone, attorney at the Boone Law Firm here in Venice, agent for the applicant. I'm joined here today, I'll introduce the project team now even though it's probably more applicable for the comprehensive plan and rezoning applications, but we have our full project team here today. We have Matt Strauss and Andy Peluso, representatives for the applicant Erin Tumolo, PE with Pave Dawson, project engineer Kerry McNutt, Monarch Ecology Becca Bond, transportation engineer with Kimley Horn and Jim Collins, planner with our firm. Brittany did a good job.

She provided a comprehensive explanation of the annexation request. I'll hit the high notes just for purposes of the record. Again, it's approximately 10.12 acre parcel. It's located there on the East Side Of Auburn Road. It's vacant, has a county future land use designation of moderate density residential and has a county zoning designation of OUE one.

I typically refer to the OUE one zoning designations in the county, certainly in instances like this to be the holdover zoning where the county placed that on the property, all of the properties around it have RSF, single family and similar zonings. This is just a property where the zoning hasn't changed and now that time has come where there's a request. It's bounded by Sarasota County to the North which is Venice Acres subdivision, to the East which is the Venice Palm subdivision, to the south the remainder of this iHeartMedia radio parcel and then to the east, it's bounded by the city where Sawgrass is on the West, where Sawgrass is on the western side of the Auburn Road right away. As Brittany stated, it's located within Area 7 of the JPA ILSBA with Sarasota County, identifying it for potential annexation into the city's boundaries. As Brittany stated, we had the pre annexation agreement and petition for annexation concerning this property in front of you all February 10 and the bundle of the applications when you file an annexation, you have to file a comprehensive plan amendment and a rezoning, so I refer to that as a bundle.

That all went to the Planning Commission on February 17. They all received recommendations of approval leading to us being in front of you here today. Area 7 of the JPA, again, just reemphasizing, it encompasses 25 acres. It establishes the agreed upon parameters for all of the properties therein, including limiting the uses to residential only, establishing a maximum density of up to five units an acre and designating the city as the jurisdiction to provide water and sewer utility services. Access to the property is provided via the Auburn Road public right of way.

The property is contiguous to the city boundaries, is reasonably compact, it does not create enclaves, pockets or finger areas consistent with the Florida statute chapter 171 requirements for annexation. The annexation is consistent with the JPA and the comprehensive plan. It's consistent with the applicable Florida Statutes concerning annexation and it's compliant with the land development code including the Section 142 annexation decision criteria. We respectfully request your approval.

Any questions for the applicant? Mr. Smith?

Excuse me, thank you. I definitely do want to see this property annexed under the joint planning agreement that envisions that. And I'm hearing you say that future land use always envisioned residential only and that's what you have in the pre annexation agreement. Will there be a stipulation with any planned unit development that it not have commercial as a portion of it since PUD status would allow it to have 5% of the property used in a commercial

way?

So Mr. Smith, that's a great question. I think when we get to the time of our rezoning, which has a binding development concept plan, the binding master plan for the PUD, you will see what the proposals are without getting too far ahead of ourselves knowing that we're at annexation right now. When that does come forward, you will see there is no proposed commercial in that plan. But in my opinion, I think that's we can make that crystal clear at the time of the rezoning presentation.

Thank you.

Any other questions from counsel? All right. Thank you very much. We will move on to public comment. Madam Clerk, has there anybody signed up to speak?

No. Okay.

And with that, I'll close the public hearing and entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Vice Mayor.

I move that ordinance number twenty twenty six dash zero eight be approved on first reading and scheduled for final. I will second.

Seconded by mister Engelke. And any council discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to an electronic vote. Madam clerk, when you, are ready, if you could make us ready for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And, madam clerk, you can tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. On to ordinance number two zero two six dash zero nine. Public hearing is now open. And madam clerk, if you will read this ordinance by title only when you are ready.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida amending the City Of Venice comprehensive plan future land use map and associated pages pursuant to petition number twenty five dash twenty CP to change the future land use designation for a portion of specific real property generally located at 282 North Auburn Road from Sarasota County moderate density residential to City Of Venice mixed use residential providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Madam Clerk do we have any written communication? No. All right we'll move to the presentation by staff.

Okay so again Britney Smith for the record planner City of Venice and I have filled out a speakers card so now we're going to look at 2520 CP Chalets Of Venice with the applicant P3 LAF Chalets of Venice LP and the agent Jackson Boone. Again, this property is located at 282 North Auburn Road. The request is to change the future land use designation from county moderate density residential to City Of Venice mixed use residential. The parcel size is approximately 10.12 acres and the associated petitions are 2519AN and 2521RC. The request is for a future land use designation of mixed use residential.

The property currently has a Sarasota County future land use of Sarasota County moderate density residential. Here is an aerial map of the property again showing the location off of Auburn Road. For existing conditions, we'll look at the future land use map, the zoning map, the site photo and the surrounding land uses. So here again is the existing future land use map showing that low density residential to the North and moderate density residential to the East and to the South and the mixed use residential to the West and the proposed future land use of mixed residential. Here's the existing zoning map again showing RE to the North, RSF to the East and OUE 1 to the South with residential single family to the West and the proposed zoning of PUD.

Surrounding the land uses, again Venice Acres is to the North with the county residential of RE2, future land use county low density residential to the South. We have the radio station and the remainder of the subject parcel, which is OUE1 with the future land use of County moderate density residential to the East via Venice Ranch which is County residential single family future land use of County moderate density residential and to the West we have Sawgrass which is single family mixed use residential. Planning analysis, we're going to look at land development code compliance, comprehensive plan consistency and Florida Statute compliance. For compliance with the land development code, we look at Section 87.5.3, which includes the following decision criteria. The city shall consider the impacts to the adopted level of service standards when considering any proposed comprehensive plan amendment.

The city shall consider the compatibility matrix in the comprehensive plan and its subject impact on possible implementing zoning designations and the application must be found in compliance with all other applicable elements in the comprehensive plan in Florida Statute Chapter 163. Here is a map of area JPA Area 7 which allows for that five dwelling units per acre with this service for water and sewer being provided by the city. So consistency with the comprehensive plan, we looked at JPA Area 7 with that density limit in five units per acre and being served by city water and sewer. We looked at strategy LU 1.2.16 for mixed use residential. I have all those requirements and staff comments listed here.

I can read through them all if you like but it is rather wordy so I'll leave this slide up for a second for you to review. For consistency with the comprehensive plan, figure LU-nine establish the compatibility review matrix between the MUR and existing future land use categories. You'll see here outlined in green in that table low density and moderate density residential, which are primarily what are surrounding this property are considered and presumed compatible. For strategy LU 1.2.17 mixed use residential open space connectivity with MUR land use designations, new development shall provide open space connectivity by means of either functional or conservation uses and open space shall be a minimum of 25 feet wide. So my staff comment here is the proposed project provides connectivity of open space for both residents and wildlife.

Florida Statute Chapter 163, small scale amendment review process contains 10 criteria types that should be used to develop the future land use map in any amendment, describes what analysis the amendment should be based on and provides nine indicators of urban spraw and the requirements of at least four indicators of spraw are being met by the proposed amendment. So in the staff report, you'll see responses on how this project is compatible with Florida Statute 163. In conclusion to finding a fact, staff has provided analysis of the proposed future land use map regarding consistency with the comprehensive plan, the land development code and other relevant city ordinances, resolutions and agreements. In addition, analysis has been provided by staff regarding compliance with the applicable requirements of Chapter 163. The analysis provided should be taken into consideration regarding determination on proposed future land use map amendment.

So in conclusion, upon review of the petition, Florida statutes, comprehensive plan, land development code, staff report analysis and testimony provided during the public hearing, there is sufficient information on the record for City Council to make a decision on future land use amendment 2520CP. Are there any questions for me?

Any questions for staff? Okay, seeing none, we'll bring up the applicant.

Good morning again for the record Jackson Boone agent for the applicant here with the project team mentioned for the annexation petition. Here we have the comprehensive plan amendment. Let me make sure I have my presentation. All right. So again, we've talked about the property information, 10.12 acres, they're on the East Side Of Auburn Road.

The property, it's located within Area 7 of the JPA IL SBA with Sarasota County. So the potential range of density is up to five units per acre. Adjacent future land use designations are county low density residential, which is no greater than 1.99 units an acre to the North county moderate density residential, two to 4.99 units an acre to the East and South and city mixed use residential future land use designation to the West, which is one to five units an acre. The current county moderate density future land use designation for the property permits a density range of two to 4.99 units per acre, which is the basis for the JPA's density range for this property and the other acreage within JPA Area 7. Here's a more what I'll call zoomed out version of the surrounding future land use map.

This is all City Of Venice that's highlighted. You can see our property is right thank you. Our property is right here outlined in red. The property is surrounded by a wide variety of housing types in the area including single family detached with sawgrass, Venice Acres, Venice Palms, Valencia Lakes. You have single family attached, Auburn Hammocks, Fountain View, Vista Del Lago, and you have garden style multifamily condominium, Auburn Lakes, Tuscany Lakes and Mirabella.

Together, these various housing types produce a future density range of one to 13 units per acre spread among these various communities. The requested city mixed use residential future land use designation provides for a density range of the one to five units per acre consistent with the JPA, and it is in harmony and compatible with the surrounding area, including the MUR future land use designation across Auburn Road to the west. Figure LU9 in the comprehensive plan identifies the MUR future land use designation as presumed to be compatible with adjacent low density residential and moderate density residential. That's low density residential, one to five units an acre and moderate density residential, five to nine units per acre. And these density ranges per the associated future land use designations whether in the city or the county down the property on all four sides.

Looking further at figure LU nine, and I made this point at Planning Commission and this is more of a personal side. I would argue that the MUR adjacent to medium density residential at minimum, medium density nine to 13 units an acre should not be presumed potentially incompatible as there are many instances of properties with PUD zoning being adjacent to residential development within the nine to 13 units per acre range or even PUD's themselves including multifamily development at that density range or higher. That's just my overall opinion on the table, how you look at how it lists presumed compatibility and presumed incompatibility, you can look at that both ways, obviously everybody is entitled to their opinion. Consistent with the requested MUR future land use designation is a proposal to rezone the property PUD. As you are aware, with the proposed PUD zoning includes a binding master plan establishing development standards for the property while requiring a minimum 50% open space to be dedicated to the city.

The request for MUR future land use in the associated PUD zoning allows for the opportunity to propose housing types tailored to the market, which helps diversify the housing stock available in the city. Concerning potential impacts, the various level of service standards which are evaluated with the comprehensive plan amendment, including water and transportation, These have been reviewed by the applicable staff departments and no issues have been raised. The proposed comprehensive plan amendment is consistent with the comprehensive plan including strategy LU1216, intent HG11, strategy HG one one one, concerning the motion and provision of a range of housing options. It is in compliance with the applicable sections of the Chapter 163 Florida statute requirements. It is consistent with the JPA, including the residential use and density, and is consistent with all applicable sections of the land development code including the Section 153 decision criteria and we respectfully request your approval.

Thank you.

Any questions for the applicant? Okay. Seeing none, then we'll move on to public comment. Madam Clerk, has anybody signed up to speak? No. With that, I'll close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Engelke.

I move that ordinance number 202,608 be approved on the first reading and scheduled for final reading. Second.

Seconded by Vice Mayor Bolt. Any council discussion? Seeing none, madam clerk.

Ordinance, I believe it's 20 six-nine, not 'eight.

20 six-nine. Any Council discussion? Okay. Madam Clerk, if you're ready for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Madam Clerk, you can tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Honda Ordinance number 20 20Six-ten. This is a quasi judicial procedure. Public hearing is now open. Madam Clerk, if you can the ordinance by title only when you're ready.

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the city of Venice, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number 25Dash21 RZ to change the zoning designation for a portion of the property generally located at 282 North Auburn Road from Sarasota County open use of State 1 to City Of Venice planned unit development providing for appeal of all ordinances in conflict here with for severability and providing an effective date.

If anyone wishes to speak, there's a kiosk in the back left of the room from where I sit. You can go to that kiosk and check-in and sign in at that location and the clerk's office is available to assist with that process. Madam attorney if you'd like to inquire as to conflicts of interest or ex parte communication.

If anyone has had any ex parte communications that are not presently part of the record please place those into the record at this time. We'll start with Mr. Engelke.

I viewed the Planning Commission minutes and watched the tape and I also did a site visit.

I have identical report as Mr. Dangleke.

Planning Commissioner.

Site visit?

Planning Commission.

Site visit. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, do we have any written communication?

No.

All right. We'll go to staff presentation.

Okay. So again, Britney Smith for the record planner, City of Venice, I have signed a speaker's card. So now we have 2521RZChaletzVenice with the applicant of P3LAF Chaletz Venice LP, the agent Jackson Boone. So this property is located at 282 North Auburn Road with a request to change the zoning district from County Open Use to State one to City of Venice Planned Unit Development. Parcel size is again 10.12 acres approximately with the future land use of Sarasota County moderate density residential and the proposed future land use of mixed use residential, the zoning of OUE one and the proposed zoning of planned unit development.

The proposed proposal is to assign a City of Venice planned unit development zoning designation on the property and the applicant intends to develop residential units. Again for your orientation, here's an aerial map of the project showing this project being off North Auburn Road. For existing conditions, we'll look at the future land use map, the zoning map, the site photo and the surrounding land uses. Here is the existing future land use map showing low density residential to the North, moderate density to the East and to the South, and mixed use residential to the West. And the proposed future land use showing the portion that we're looking to make mixed use residential.

This is the existing zoning map showing RE to the North, RSF to the East and OUE 1 to the South with residential single family to the West and the proposed zoning map showing that PUD zoning request. Here's the same site photo that we showed with the other petitions showing the current state of the property. And these are the surrounding land uses. Again to the north it's Venice Acres with RE zoning, future land use of County low density residential to the south, the radio station and the remainder of the subject parcel OUE1, moderate density residential to the East Venice Ranch with the zoning district of county residential single family and county moderate density residential. To the west we have Sawgrass which is residential single family and mixed use residential.

For planning analysis we'll look at comparison of districts, comprehensive plan consistency, land development code compliance and concurrency and mobility. So here I have a table showing the comparison of the existing and the proposed zoning. You'll see OUE one is one dwelling unit per five acres with the proposed zoning unit for PUD being five dwelling units per acre, which is consistent with JPA Area seven. You see maximum dwelling units would be two under OU one and the proposed zoning district would have 51 units, but the applicant is proposing 43. With OUE one, you have a height limit of 35 feet.

In PUD, have 35 feet by right with the possibility of a height exception at 57 feet. You'll see the setbacks here for the PUD are slightly less than they are for OUE one and the principal uses here that I have listed are not an extensive use but you'll see that OUE one includes residential single family detached, agricultural, animal boarding, family daycare, crematorium, parks. And for PUD you'll detached, single family attached, multifamily, group living and essential services. With this parcel as it's proposed in the master plan that is with it, they are again proposing 43 units, they are smaller lots with single family homes on them. Consistency with comprehensive plan looked at JPA Area 7 with that five units per acre and the development being served by City Water and Sewer.

We looked at strategy, LU 1.2.16 mixed use residential. Again, as with the last petition we heard there are staff comments that I have with each of these criteria but this proposed project does meet and is consistent with the strategy of 1.2.16. Looking at Figure LU9 with the compatibility review matrix, you'll see that these are presumed compatible and strategy LU 1.2.17 mixed use residential open space connectivity. The project does provide connectivity with open space for both residents and the wild life. So conclusions of finding a fact with consistency with the comprehensive plan analysis is provided to help planning or to help City Council determine consistency with land use element strategies applicable to the Pine Brook neighborhood.

Compliance with the land development code processed according to the procedures in Section 80 seven-1.7, no issues were identified by TRC. Decision criteria contained in Chapter eighty seven one point seven four, the applicant responses are in the agenda packet and Section eighty seven one point two point eight C, the land use compatibility analysis, responses are in the staff report and the agenda packet as well. Special considerations of Section four do apply, so you could add some extra mitigation techniques since this is near County zone land. It is important to note that the applicant is providing a more extensive buffer than is required and they do have 50% of open space. So in many ways they are meeting and exceeding some of the options that you would have for additional mitigation.

So in conclusion, finding a fact that proposed zoning map amendment is compliant and no inconsistencies have been found with the land development code. For concurrency, you'll see here that compliance has been confirmed by utilities public works and engineering. And for mobility, the proposed PM peak hour trips are 48 and traffic has been deemed compliant by the traffic consultant. No issues have been identified regarding adequate public facilities capacity to accommodate the development of the project per Section five of the land development regulations and the applicant has provided a traffic statement providing evidence the petition is de minimis with that forty eight p. M.

Peak hour trips. So in conclusion, upon review of the petition, Florida State Chiefs Comprehensive Plan Land Development Code, staff report analysis and testimony provided during the public hearing, there is sufficient information record for City Council to make a decision on zoning map amendment petition 2,541 RC.

Any questions for staff? Before Okay. We move on to the applicant presentation, we're going to take a brief break and we'll come back at forty five after. We are back and we are on to the applicant presentation as part of twenty twenty six-ten.

Alright. Again, for the record, Jackson Boone, attorney at the Boone Law Firm, agent for the applicant. So we've covered a lot of the general information, particularly about the property, where it's located, its size. Just kind of setting the table here for the rezoning. As I mentioned during the comprehensive plan amendment, the property is surrounded by a wide variety of housing types in the area, including single family detached, sawgrass, Venice Acres, Venice Palms and Valencia Lakes, single family attached, Auburn Hammocks, Fountain View and Vista Del Lago, garden style apartment garden style multifamily condominium, Auburn Lakes, Tuscany Lakes and Mirabella.

Again, looking at those various communities in total, that's a density range of about one to 13 units per acre with the future land use designation. This here, this is just kind of a general snapshot overview of the surrounding zoning designations now that we're here in the rezoning stage. Again our property is outlined here in red, you can see Sawgrass RSF 2, you can see Valencia Lakes here, that's RMF 1, you can see this is Auburn Hammocks, that's RMF 2, Mirabella, RMF three. Just here to the south, RMF two, that is Auburn Lakes, and then RMF three here, that is Fountain View. So you can kind of get a snapshot of this general area here, what I refer to as the Venice Ave Auburn Road area.

Here with our proposed PUD zoning, however, we have a binding master plan, which as I mentioned establishes development standards for the property with a requirement to provide a minimum 50% open space which is dedicated to the city. So I'll put up our PUD plan for you all. So here's our PUD plan, it proposes a 43 lot single family detached community with a private right of way with sidewalks on both sides of the street, a 25 foot landscape buffer with fence around the perimeter of the property, and a pervious walking path for residents on the north side of the property. Building height is limited to 35 feet or two stories, minimum lot size is 3,600 feet, setback standards are 20 foot front yard, five foot side yard, and 20 foot rear yard. The private right of way standards include a proposed modification to the section three twelve d standards regarding the length of a dead end street and includes a hammerhead turning movement at its terminus, that's right here I'm pointing to with my pen.

This has been reviewed by the fire department and no issues have been raised. Access, as I mentioned earlier, is provided from Auburn Road. The 43 single family units generate a proposed forty eight p. M. Peak hour trips, which qualifies as a de minimis transportation impact.

Transportation impacts have been reviewed by the city's transportation consultant and no issues have been raised. As reflected in the staff report, the minimum 50% open space for PUD's has been provided with the respective 10% functional open space and 20% conservation open space standards achieved. Stormwater is managed via two stormwater lakes. Here, I'll slide this down, here on the western side of the property, and is eventually routed to Blackburn Canal, which then travels from the East going west towards Roberts Bay. As discussed during the planning commission hearing, we talked about Blackburn Canal, which way does it flow, again it's going east to west, and for purposes of maintenance, the canal East of Auburn Road is maintained by Sarasota County and there's no proposal to change that with our applications.

Also concerning storm water, Swift Mud has reviewed the proposed development plans associated with this and we have received an ERP approval, meaning Swift Mud has reviewed it for compliance with their standards and they have issued an ERP approval. The 25 foot perimeter landscape buffer includes a six foot PVC fence near the interior of the buffer, placing landscape plantings on the outside of the fence. The 25 foot landscape buffer provides the required plantings of a Type two buffer per the Table four-three compatibility buffer type key, but it more than doubles the required width. The Type two requires 10 feet in width of landscape buffer. Here our proposed landscape buffer is 25 feet, so 2.5 the amount of the required width.

The increased perimeter buffer width in combination with the proposed setback standards helped to increase overall setback from the lots and the units themselves on the property, providing additional compatibility measures and furtherance of the Section four-4B and in compliance with the Section one-two-eight land use compatibility criteria, which evaluates building height, setbacks and site design criteria for compatibility with adjacent neighborhoods. The separation distances from the property boundaries to the nearest lots are approximately 90 feet and a 150 feet to the East, 53 feet to the North, 50 feet to the South, and 42 feet to the West before you get to the 80 plus foot Auburn right of way. While the side yard setbacks are attributable to the proposed housing product type, the 20 foot front and rear setback standards meet or exceed the setback standards for the adjacent residential neighborhoods, with the rear setback standards helping to increase the distances from the proposed units to the adjacent residential properties. The proposed maximum building height of 53 feet is consistent or 35 feet is consistent with the adjacent neighborhoods as well furthering compatibility. The 43 single family detached lots, they reflect a modern push by the market for a detached unit that doesn't share any side walls.

It's essentially an evolution of the villa or the townhome product. These narrower lots have become popular in the market in recent years both for the type of unit they provide and their market rate price point, and it can be found in neighborhoods throughout the county from Waterside At Lakewood Ranch if you're looking at the northern part of the county, to Sky Ranch, which is what I consider to be in the middle, that's right there just south of Clark Road, State Road 72, to Welland Park in the southern part of the county. In the city, you can find these narrower single family lots in the more recently built Northwestern section of Toscana Isles, as well as in Vistara, where they're currently being built. Our proposed lots are designed for two story units, providing an additional housing type to the already diverse Auburn Road, East Venice Avenue area. This new single family detached housing type furthers intent HG11 and strategy HG111 of the comprehensive plan, providing more housing options for prospective residents.

The proposed 4.25 units per acre density is within the five unit per acre maximum density as established by the JPA, and it is consistent with the proposed MUR future land use designation for the property, including furthering strategy LU1216.4 by providing a variety of residential density ranges, but not exceeding the five units per acre. Staff has reviewed this application for concurrency for all applicable facility types and no issues have been raised. The proposed PUD is consistent with the comprehensive plan, including strategy LU1216, intent HG11 and strategy HG111 concerning the promotion and provision of a range of housing options. It's consistent with the Pine Brook neighborhood standards. It's consistent with all applicable sections of the land development code, including the Section 174 decision criteria and the Section 2245A PUD standards.

And Mr. Smith, for purposes of your question about will there be nonresidential, the JPA prohibits non residential use in this area. So for there to be a proposal for non residential that the city could actually approve, you all would have to propose that the county to amend the JPA, the county would have to agree and then a proposal would have to come back in front of the city for any non residential use to be approved on the property. So while that is not impossible, there are many steps that would have to occur before any non residential use could be approved here. And as reflected in our PUD plan which is binding, there is no non residential use proposed.

So it's very clear and you see what you get with our PUD plan. Plan. With that, respectfully request your approval and I'm available for any questions you all may have.

Any questions from counsel?

Mr. Howard? Thanks Mayor. Good morning Jackson. The so these are like single family but they're townhomes, is that Whether what you're

you want to call them townhomes, they're single family detached units. But if you think of the you could call them townhomes, you could call them villas, it really would all depend on what your preference of a description would be. The key is that what the market has learned is that folks if they don't have to share sidewalls, they would prefer to have a standalone unit. And here it's two stories and so it's a narrower lot, but you don't share that sidewall like you would in a townhome or a paired villa and you're able to have the living space that you want.

Thank you. Mr. Smith?

Mr. Boone, I appreciated the additional buffers and the setbacks that you say the applicant has put forward. But I just need further assurance that there will be no commercial use and for me to be in favor of this. And I wonder if the applicant is willing to give that as a stipulation because we have seen late arriving changes to planned unit developments to introduce commercial where none was envisioned creating considerable upset in neighborhoods. So I'd like to hear that the applicant can give us an assurance there will be no commercial use made out of this planned unit development if approved as a planned unit development.

So it's a really good question and I do understand your request. And so there are a couple of ways you can look at it. First off, per the JPA and I have a copy with me, I can put it there, there's a prohibition on non residential use whether the property would be developed in the county or in the city. So we could provide a stipulation to that effect but there's no need for the stipulation. With our PUD plan as you can see, there is no Phase two area or something that is could be considered ambiguous that there could be a commercial proposal in the future.

The intent here is to hopefully obtain your approval of the PUD plan and then move forward and build this project and that is what it is. And it's a binding development, it's a binding master plan, the city has all of the additional requirements if you wanted to amend it in the future once people are living there. So I could discuss with our client if they would be willing to provide a stipulation, but really in my opinion here, and I'm saying that your request is improper, but in my opinion, I don't believe a stipulation is needed just because of all of the belt and suspender mechanisms that have no residential or no non residential for this project.

Well, obviously I can't insist on that as a stipulation, but it is a condition of my vote to approve the change in the comprehensive plan, which itself does not envision anything other than residential there. And I mean this could be approved through mixed use residential or other zonings than planned unit development. So I'm not sure why it has to be a planned unit development and then opens the door to a gas station on the corner there.

And so respectfully I do again, I understand your concern of not knowing what's gonna happen, but here with the PUD zoning, you have the safeguard of the plan. So this isn't a blanket zoning request that is just here's our zoning, we have all of these available uses and it's going to come in under site and development plan, it goes to planning commission, you all don't even get to see it. Here we're with a binding plan and you can see what we have. So I can ask our client if they'd be willing to stipulate. I will advise them just as I've said here on the record, I don't think a stipulation is necessary.

And from a legal perspective, in my opinion, providing unnecessary stipulations is something to be cautious about. But again, I understand where you're coming from.

Madam Attorney?

Just for some clarity, I did notice during staff presentation that we have not included in the ordinance the reference to the binding master plan and incorporated that into the ordinance. That was an oversight. So as part of your motion if it's a motion to approve I will make sure that you all include a revision to the ordinance incorporating the binding master plan into it so we have that assurance.

So you're saying whoever the motion maker is just make sure they include a revision to the ordinance to include the

To incorporate the binding master plan as an exhibit to the ordinance.

Binding master plan as an exhibit to the ordinance.

They call it a PUD plan in the attachments to our agenda.

Was just at City City County Planning Commission and they call it binding development concept plan. I apologize for getting my acronyms mixed up at times here.

Any other questions of the applicant? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Boone. We will move on to public comment. Madam Clerk, anybody signed up to speak?

No.

Okay. Then, really no need for any rebuttal, but, any final comments from staff? Any final comments from the applicant? Okay. Public hearing is now closed. And I'll entertain a motion including the stipulate or the amended language from the court of the attorney. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor. I'll give this a shot.

Based on the evidence in the record, I move that ordinance number twenty twenty six-ten be approved on first reading and scheduled for final reading including a revision to the ordinance to incorporate the binding master plan.

I'll second.

Seconded by Mr. Ingleke. Any council discussion? Okay, seeing none, Madam Clerk, you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote.

And Madam Clerk, can tally and display. And it passes five to one. Okay. We are on to ordinance number two zero two six dash one two. Public hearing is now open. Madam clerk, if you can read this ordinance by total title only when you're ready.

An ordinance of the city of Venice, Florida establishing the Nokomis Groves Community Development District pursuant to chapter one ninety of the Florida statutes. Providing for the district's external boundaries, providing for functions and powers of the district, providing for the initial board of supervisors for the district, addressing correction of scripner's errors, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict herewith, providing for severability and providing an

Madam Clerk, do we have any written communications?

No.

Okay. Presentation by the applicant.

Good morning. My name is Patrick Collins. I'm with the law firm Klinsky Van Wyke representing the petitioner seeking establishment of the Nokomis Groves Community Development District. And just one personal note for the council, I'm a Venice native, a graduate of Venice Elementary, Middle and High School. So it's a real pleasure to be attending and presenting in front of you all for the first time in a professional capacity in my career.

So thank you all for having me. And I'll proceed with the presentation but if there's any questions at any time, please stop me and jump in and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability. So this is a petition seeking the establishment of the Nokomis Grove Community Development District. This is going to contain approximately 13,100,000 in planned public improvements, including storm water management system for the project, utilities including water, sewer and reclaim utilities, roadway improvements, landscaping and irrigation, hardscaping and various site work elements, undergrounding of electrical conduit, common areas and community space including recreational amenities and other improvements permitted under Chapter 190 of 40 statutes. This property is approximately 60.4 acres and anticipated to house approximately three forty one residential units.

So what are some key advantages of community development districts? I believe if I recall correctly, you all have not seen a CDD application in a couple years. So maybe this is new to some council members, maybe not. But if it is, just a quick refresher. CDs are great because they result in a higher quality project while still enjoying cost savings.

Tax exempt bonds can be issued at favorable rates and costs are spread out over time, typically a thirty year maturity term on the bonds. These result in more competitive home prices and overall higher quality of project. CDDs do collect revenues on the county tax bill, so this results in a stable revenue stream with default advantages and protections for the city. This also results in higher property values at the end of the day and CDDs as a unit of government are beholden to Florida Sunshine Law and Public Records Law. So there is a higher level of transparency and accountabilities, accountability for community development districts.

CDDs are typically superior maintenance entities. Like we discussed, availability of funds, CDDs can reliably collect assessments on the county tax roll. CDDs enjoy sovereign immunity protection. CDDs are also eligible for FEMA and other emergency funding through the state and federal government. CDDs retain professional staff and vendors to operate and maintain the district's public improvements.

And this results in an enhanced level of management and upkeep, results in higher property values and less complaints directly to the city. So here's just a quick matrix of some comparisons against CDDs versus HOAs. Typically we find that any project that's not managed by a CDD is typically managed by an HOA. Infrastructure with a CDD is going to cost less upfront. You're going to enjoy future cost savings because tax exempt bonds keep the cost to refurbish improvements lower.

You do have default protections with the CDD like we discussed because the funds are professionally managed by a trustee. Like we said, the funds are collected on the county tax roll annually. We do enjoy sovereign immunity protection unlike HOAs and CDDs typically become controlled by the residents much quicker than an HOA bill out would be. Like we said, we are eligible for emergency funding. We are beholden to Florida Sunshine Law and Public Records Law and overall long term value in a CDD tends to be higher than an HOA development.

Specifically with regard to default protection, the CDD's funds are held with a certified trustee. This is typically someone like a U. S. Bank or a Regions Bank. Money can only be used through strict requisition process that's consistent with federal and state tax law.

All requisitions are required to be signed off by the district engineer and chairperson and in the event of a default, the money is held by the trustee, not the developer of the project. The money can be used to continue the project, maintain the improvements and pay foreclosure costs if any. Notably the city does retain all power over the land. The CDD has limited authority. It's you know, specifically termed as a local unit of special purpose government by chapter one ninety of Florida statutes.

The city is going to retain all of its zoning, permitting and police powers. And I think most notably for today just because I think we are a little bit ahead of the development approvals, the CDD approving the CDD does not approve zoning or entitlements. We're just approving the overlay that will eventually manage the public improvements that will be constructed if and when the project is approved by the city. The CDD does have to comply with applicable laws including all city ordinances and very important for the city, no debt of the district can become a debt of the city. This is specifically provided in chapter one ninety, section point zero one six four statutes.

And there are no administrative costs to the city. Very, minor requirements for the CDD to engage with the city. The district is required to remit its annual budget to the city and then every seven years a public facilities report required to be delivered to the city as well. And CDD debt does not impact the city's bonding capacity, it does not show up anywhere on the city's financial statements. So some overall benefits to the city, like we discussed, the district offers a stable financing source for new development and public projects.

It does allow for new on-site and off-site public infrastructure to be constructed without the use of city funds or bonding capacity as mentioned. There are no financial burden on residents outside of the districts. The project pays for itself and I think this is really the whole point of a community development district and it mirrors the state's comprehensive plan, the idea being that growth is intended to pay for itself. And this ensures the project is funded because the bond proceeds are available upfront and deposited into a managed trust account. So overall, the city enjoys an increased tax base at very, very, very if any cost to the city, very little if any cost to the city.

So overall, district residents will enjoy an enhanced project which will include recreational amenities and professional landscaping improvements, things of that nature. Access to the tax exempt bond market for new and future projects including refurbishment of existing improvements is possible in the future. Assessments are required to be disclosed in all marketing materials and sales contracts. There's very, very high level of disclosure with CDDs. This includes a notice of assessments that's recorded in the county's public records along with a notice of establishment of the district which will come out in any title report that you would run with any normal residential law purchase.

The CDD outlives the developer importantly so the improvements are perpetually maintained by the district. As discussed, the CDD is professionally managed. You will have district counsel, you will have a district engineer, you will have a dedicated district manager. So you do enjoy a higher level of care than an HOA typically would. This results in higher property values and as we've discussed a few times, this is very important to my clients.

CDDs are beholden to public records and Sunshine Law. And I think most notably for the residents, the residents determine their level of service. It's up to them whether or not they want to increase assessment, it's up to them whether or not they want to finance a new project, it's up to them the level of care that they put into the community. I think I've hit this high point quite a few times now but CD is beholden to public records law and sunshine law and all of those required recordings in the county public records are included here as well. So here's your six establishment factors to consider and this is pursuant to 190.005 statutes.

We're looking to ensure that the petition statements are true and correct. The CDD establishment is consistent with the comprehensive plan. The district is developable as one functional interrelated community based on size, compactness and contiguity. The CDD facilities will be compatible with existing community services and facilities and the area subject to the district is amenable to separate special district government. And finally that the district is the best alternative for delivery of community development services and facilities. That's it for me, I'm happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

Any questions from counsel? All right, we'll start with Mr. Engelke.

Thanks for the presentation. I am new to this on the CDD stuff and I understand what the CDDs are. Great presentation on all the selling points. Can you give me or us three reasons why a CDD may be not in the best interest of the world?

Sure. So think the answer to that question and I can only offer anecdotal evidence, but I think the answer to that question is from the residents' perspective. As we all know as participants in a democracy, sometimes you vote for one thing, you don't necessarily get it. At the end of the day, supervisors are elected officials. They're beholden to the political process although the elections are not political in nature, they're bipartisan.

But supervisors are elected officials at the end of the day, it's on them to ensure that they are delivering what the community wants and if not, they could be voted out. Now elections occur every six years, or I'm sorry, four years, so it's four year terms. So every two years on the general election ballot, you will have at least two of your CDD seats up for election. So residents can elect new supervisors to better serve their interests. But typically when a supervisor comes into office and perhaps they're not performing what they promised, you have those two year, that two year waiting period or four year waiting period depending on when they were elected to remove them.

So sometimes residents become unhappy with their elected officials and they just have to wait a little bit to get someone else in there. So that's one matter. I think another item that residents and supervisors often complain of is because a CDD is a unit of government, they are beholden to a lot of the bureaucracy that you all are familiar with. So you know an item that would seem small, something that could be approved very quickly if you were an HOA for example, say for example there's a landscaping project you'd like to undertake or a quick repair that needs to occur just because of the way a CDB functions, similar to municipality, oftentimes it does take a little longer just to get things done. I'm sure you all can appreciate that.

One more,

I mean at the end of the day,

a large

job of a CTB supervisor is to ensure that the vendors that they are retaining to service the district are performing properly and performing their service well. Vendors are vendors at the end of the day. You do a lot of due diligence upfront, You think you've got a good deal. You think you've got a good vendor. And then they do not perform up to the level of expectation that you had when you brought them on in the first place.

And then again, we're back to what we discussed with bureaucracy and things taking a little longer than they feel like maybe they should just based on the size of the community. So if you have a vendor that's not performing, oftentimes it's a little bit of a hassle to get rid of them, get someone new. That includes things like the RFP process, the RFQ process. So again, I think residents and some supervisors often just struggle to grasp that. It is a very, very small unit of government, but a unit of government nonetheless.

Vice Mayor Bolt.

Thank you for the education. I've been on for this council for a while and this is the first one of these that I've seen. But let me ask you this, since you're familiar, what other communities in the area, say Sarasota County are CDDs?

I'll be honest, I don't have a ton of familiarity with Sarasota County. Most of my client base is in the Central Florida area, sort of the I 4 Corridor. I do have quite a few I'm sorry, clients in Manatee County, The Harrison Ranch Community Development District for example. The Trevesa Community Development District is another large one right there in Manatee County. I don't want to get names wrong, right? I believe Talend Preserve or Talend Ranch was maybe the most recent one here in Venice.

So one other quick question, if I may. What's is there a typical size? I mean is this kind of in

the small range? The 60 acres doesn't seem like a whole big On the spectrum, it's certainly on the smaller end, but not the smallest I've seen. They do vary quite widely. You. Madam Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to point out that David Jackson in my office is here. He's who was working on this application on behalf of the city doing the review part of it and happens to also have a lot of CDD experience in the area. So to answer Mr. Bolt's question once you're done with the applicant, I'm sure David come down and provide some of that additional information.

Perfect, thank you. Mr. Smith?

Thank you, And thank you for that presentation. Congratulations on being here. I love it that you're a homegrown product.

Thank you very much.

Thank for the business council. And that was a very thorough presentation. I truly appreciate it. And my questions really may better be for the city attorney and her staff. So I wanted to ask about the difficulties down in North Port, which I believe are over a community development district issue. Are you familiar with that at all?

I'm not familiar with any specific situation in North Port, but

Okay. And that's fine. And then I'll reserve the question also for the city attorney staff about the two prior instances where we have done this and what has happened with them. But again, thank you for your presentation.

And just so counsel is aware, will bring up the city attorney to speak after the applicant. Mr. Howard.

Thanks, Mayor. I've been on council for three years and this is the first time, yeah, I've seen a CDD. And it's kind of interesting that of all the development that's going on that they're all HOA based if that's the right way to say it. And maybe some of the questions or the question is more subjective. And by the way, welcome home.

Thank you.

Market values to me or the market drives values of a property, not whether you're in or not in a CDD. Actually, when you look at resells, it's usually the headline, no CDD, low HOA or however they market that stuff. It almost to some degree, this isn't what would fall under the heading of affordable housing, but it kind of like adds another layer of expenses that, I guess more in the resale market where they don't typically they when the house is marketed, they don't typically call that out. You're not going to see it like you do an HOA fee in a listing. You got to go to a tax record or a property tax bill.

So, yes, I guess I'm looking for you to maybe expand a little bit more on why you feel a CDD is the right thing for a future home buyer because otherwise you would think we would see CDD requests all the time and we just have not seen them.

Sure. Well, to address the comment about, you know, the affordability and the assessments on the tax roll, you know, it would be I would submit that, that cost, if it was an HOA, would not be as visible. It would still be baked into the initial sale home price. So in this case, it's just a matter of how the money is collected. And again, I would emphasize that the residents have all the control.

The residents determine what level of service they desire. The developers choose, I don't want to put words in the developer's mouth, but from my experience, developers choose to go the CDD route because that taxes and financing allows them to deliver a cheaper project. A cheaper project while still enjoying the level of care and service that you would enjoy in a higher standard of development. So at the end of the day, the ultimate benefit is that tax exempt financing allows you to deliver a cheaper project upfront.

Thank you. Mr. Rincokey?

Okay, thanks. And thank you for your response on the first one. To me it seems like a CDD is simply well maybe oversimplifying it, a financial transaction. Like for example, have $13,100,000 I did rough math, three forty one units, that's about $38,000 per unit. You could correct me if I'm wrong, you could either raise the selling price of the house or the unit by $38,000 and you have all the mortgage and other down payment stuff and then maybe a loan from the builder and then you're paying it back with tax deductible payments, at least the interest over I think thirty years.

Correct.

So understanding the limit to another level of government for review, but for the most part it's a financial transaction as opposed to an HOA other than the getting stuff done in the future. But for currently, it's more of a way of deferring or getting someone else to pay in this case about $13,000,000 Is that Correct.

Yes, that's correct. That's a more eloquent way to respond to Mr. Howard's comment I believe than what I articulated.

Ms. Frank?

Thank you for your presentation from one local to another. Anytime I read words or hear the words Nokomis Groves, my heart sinks a little bit knowing that I can't run down there and get an ice cream.

I was gonna say, might as well call it the ice cream community

Yes.

Development district.

Yes. But I just wanted to thank you for your presentation, very thorough. Again, I've been on council for four years and to echo my colleague Mr. Howard's comments, it's the first time this is in front of us. From my vantage point and experience, government is best when it's closest to the people and so I see the CDD as a positive because their representation will be in their neighborhood, they'll be held accountable to their residents and anytime an email comes in I know they'll respond because they're closest to the issue. So thank you again for your presentation.

Thank you very much.

Congratulations, you made it. We'll go ahead and bring up the City Attorney now, Mr. Jackson, if you'd like to come up for some questions from counsel. All right. Any specific questions for Mr. Jackson? We'll start with Mr. Smith.

Good morning. Good morning. I understand there we've done this twice previously. My question is, have there been any complications, complaints, concerns about those two instances since we approved them?

I think we've done more than two. I was conferring with mister Clark back there trying to get a laundry list, but I think the most recent one we did was the Rustic Oak CDD which is still relatively new development. Toscana Isles is also a community development district and I think probably the biggest one around here is the Venetian Gulf and River Club which is a community development district. I'm not aware of any, you know, aside from the normal day to day complaints about things aren't getting done here the way I want them as fast as I want them. No.

I'm not aware of any issues with this way this proceeded. I agree with a lot of what the representative for the applicant said about, you know, being able to facilitate projects faster. One example I always have heard is about, like, you know, the internal roads. We need to get this fixed, this pothole, whatever, and, you get on a list at the city, it might take a little while before you get down to yours and they can get done. Those kind of things can get done quicker and that's sometimes an advantage that people like.

You tell me if that big brouhaha down in Welland Park about water was a community development district issue?

I'm not familiar with all the details on that. Think there was a CDD involved in that, but yes, I don't know the details of that unfortunately.

Okay. And then assuming we approve a community development district, are not approving the bonds. Am I correct in my understanding that any bonds that are proposed to go forward would have to go through the court system and get a with this state attorney acting as a devil's advocate, challenging it and making them prove that it's in the best interest of the community. Correct.

There's a whole bond validation process that goes through the courts, correct.

Alright, thank you sir.

Madam Clerk, for the record, I had asked you this question the other day how many CDDs we had and I think you had found that information. Do you want to provide that?

In 2012 or 2002, the first one was the Venetian CDD which is the Venetian Gulf and River Club. They did it an expansion in 2012. So that one is still current. In 2006, there was one that was the Bella Venetia which then dissolved in 2013. Currently we have Tuscana Isles which was created in 2013, Laurel Road CDD in 2020 and Rustic Oaks in 2021. And so this would be our sixth one for consideration.

My apologies, I forgot about Laurel Road. I remember doing that hearing during COVID virtually.

Yeah. Because a handful of those small number were while I was on council and I remember, well, I didn't have my dates. Had asked the clerk the other day to provide that information just so I had a good recollection. I wanted to share that with everyone. Any other questions for the attorney? Okay. Thank you so much for being here and being able to present. We will now move on to public comment. Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak? No. Alright. Then with that, will close the public hearing and entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Engelke. I

move that ordinance number twenty twenty six-twelve be approved on first reading and scheduled for final reading.

Seconded by vice mayor Bolt. Any council discussion? Seeing none, madam clerk, if you're ready for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And, madam clerk, you can tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Alright. We are on to ordinance new business ordinances two zero two six dash one five. Madam clerk, when you're ready, if you can read this ordinance by title only, please.

An ordinance of the city of Venice, Florida amending the code of ordinances chapter two administration article four finance division three travel by amending section two dash two four zero in general. Section two dash two four one prepaid travel expenses. Section two-two 42 expenses approved for reimbursement and section two-two 43 submission requirements providing for repeal of ordinances in conflict or with providing for severability and an effective date.

Madam Clerk do you have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

Alright then with that I will move to approve ordinance number twenty twenty six-fifteen with the proposed changes to section two-two 40 Subsection D, Numbers three and four, striking the words Finance Director and incorporating Mayor and striking the words City Clerk and incorporating Mayor and schedule it for a final reading. Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Bolt. On to council discussion. So I just had a couple edits and it was particularly on three and four on page two.

Just taking out the finance director and city clerk, I found that over time, even though this is pretty administrative process, it's really for auditing purposes to have the signature that it affords the check and balance and gives whoever sitting in that seat the opportunity to be cognizant of the transactions that are occurring above and beyond what we see in a routine annual budget review and our budgeting process. So I found that over past four years that I've been doing this, that signing some of these documents has really clued me in on some of the things going on and it's allowed me to ask a lot more questions. I know each mayor will be different but I think that this this prompts that individual to stay acutely aware of what's going on and ask the questions when they're necessary. I know I've gotten more involved in the council budget process alone just because of some of this stuff. Mr.

Engelke? I

had the same question about why not have the mayor, be the signator. And I started thinking about it and I said, you know, is this a process or is this policy in terms of the approval and that type of thing? I have a lot of confidence in our city management to control and protect the financial statements of the city. Fundamentally, I don't have any problem with the change. I do have and don't take it personally.

Having the mayor, think I prefer to have the city manager perform those duties, keeping it in line with our general philosophy where the city management handles the day to day stuff. Thanks.

Vice Mayor Volt.

Thank you. I have a couple of issues that I just like to bring forward. Number one, yes, amongst all of us probably have as much if not more confidence in our city employees than anybody. However, having said that, we are the ones who are setting policy here. We are the ones who are approving final budgets.

But yet at the end of the day, this does not allow anyone on the city council to evaluate whether these things are proper or not. And it is simply a matter of looking at it. It's not nobody's gonna go digging. At least I don't believe anybody's going to go get digging. They may ask a few questions here and there.

But it seems right to me that it should at some point pass over the mayor's desk. And I know it's almost ceremonial in nature, but since we do have the responsibility of the policy and the final budget, I just think it should. So thank you.

Mr. City Manager, you have your button pushed.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of points. First off, when we updated this policy, think it's important to note that there was some ambiguity in who would sign these forms. It really didn't specify at all who would sign them. It's a great conversation to have on how we want that process to work moving forward.

From a transparency standpoint, fully support the mayor being involved in signing these forms. Like the vice mayor pointed out, there's no issue with digging, nothing to hide here. But I do want to make sure from a governance standpoint that the rest of the members know the travel budget for charter officers and for the elected officials really needs to be approved by the entire board during the budget process. So mayor's role in signing that travel authorization form, making sure everything's accounted for and it's in the budget totally works for us as long as we all recognize that the council as a whole has the authorization to approve that overall budget for the charter officers. And then the second point I would make is on item number four.

We'd still need to clarify who's going to sign the Mayor's travel form. So we would need to designate someone either, I would recommend the City Clerk or the Finance Director who would be signing the Mayor's travel form. Thank you.

Thank you for the comments. We could amend that to say the Vice Mayor would sign for the Mayor. I don't think there's any issue with that. Madam Attorney, you could probably help clarify some of this language because we already have a policy in place that it doesn't allow the mayor to veto. So if the mayor refuses to sign something, it just gets passed down. There's already either a resolution or an ordinance in place that identifies that. So if it needs to be specified, I would have no problem letting you amend the language to either say the words vice mayor would approve the mayors or just reflect the policy that's already on the books. And if you need me to codify that in the motion, I can gladly amend if you think that's necessary.

Yeah. I mean, think it's good to state so it doesn't just look like, you know, whoever is in the mayor's seat could self serve and sign his own travel authorization. You are right. It rolls down, but that would just specify who that person is when it's your travel, the mayor's travel authorization. I think it is good to state in

the Okay. So then before I amend the motion, I just wanted to just quickly clarify for Mr. Inglekey. This isn't going after the city manager at all because it doesn't identify the city manager as the signatory, it identifies the finance director and the city clerk and the city manager is not over the city clerk, they're separate charter officers. So while I appreciate what you were saying and I have full faith in the city manager, I think they're if we change the wording from city clerk and finance director to city manager, it's a possibility, but I I think that mayor is most appropriately and then in the, know, essence of the mayor traveling and the vice mayor can approve.

So city manager, yours is a new push or is that the old push? Okay. Mr. Engelke?

With the clarifications as recommended by the city attorney, I could be okay with this.

Okay. And then Madam Clerk you've got yours pushed.

Sure. I just wanted to clarify that I have never served in the role of approving your travel. My role was to make sure the account since I do your budget was being tracked correctly and that we weren't spending money that wasn't already approved by the council. So it's more of a review before it went up to finance and I I I still think that whoever is approving it is probably gonna ask me or come to me or whoever's sitting in this chair like what the budget ary funds allocated for and that we're not overspending our budget and I'm happy to serve in that role. But I never approved your travel mayor.

You and I have spent a lot of time going over our budget as counsel and worked very hard to make sure that it was equitable for everyone who wants opportunities and I've always appreciated you for taking that time to spend with me and do that. So and if you did approve my travel, thank you. All right, so that's everybody. Then I'll just a friendly amendment to the motion would be proposed changes to Section two-240D3 and four and on four I would say mayor and in the case of the mayor traveling, the vice mayor or designee, if that helps. I can even amend both of these to just say mayor or designee if you prefer that language is cleaner.

Instead of saying mayor? Okay. All right, so then, mayor or in the case of the mayor traveling, the vice mayor. Okay, so with that, any objection to the amendment? I can't imagine. Okay. So then, council discussion is good. We'll move on to an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, you can make us ready for that vote and council members when your lights are flashing you can indicate your vote. All right.

Tally on display. And it is five to one. Okay. So we are on to thank you. Resolutions, resolution number 2026Dash06. Madam Clerk, when you are ready, you can read the resolution by title only please.

A resolution of the City Of Venice, Florida approving an amendment number two to the public transportation grant agreement for project number 438750Dash1Dash94Dash02 by and between the state of Florida Department of Transportation and the City Of Venice Florida for the design and construction of a general aviation terminal building authorizing appropriate city officials to execute it and providing an effective date.

And do you have anybody signed up to speak? No. All right. Then I'll entertain a motion. Here. Mr. Howard? Move that resolution twenty twenty six-six be approved and adopted. Seconded by Mr. Engelke. And council discussion. Okay. Then we will move forward to the vote. Madam clerk, when you're ready, if you can make us ready for an electronic vote. Council members, when your are flashing, you can indicate your vote, and you can tally and display. Passes unanimously. Okay. Now we are on to charter office reports, city attorney.

As you all know, the legislative session has more or less ended and so we are my office is beginning to prepare some summaries of the key legislation that was passed and there's a winning signature and we'll be pushing those out as the governor executes them because there are some that will need some further review and work to change our code for compliance if they're signed into law.

Madam Clerk?

No report today.

Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Just so everyone is aware, the Mayor and I are leaving tomorrow to head up to Washington DC to advance our federal priorities, which includes, of course, number one, which is Humphreys Park South Jetty reconstruction. So we will be speaking with all of our legislators on that topic. We will also be talking about Flamingo Ditch with them and our beach renourishment, which recently went out to bid and did come back successfully. So that project is on track to be fully funded by the federal government.

I do want to kind of clarify for the record based on the public comments earlier, the potential rerouting to Deer Town Gully was only a recommendation that came out of that feasibility report on Flamingo Ditch. We will have our CIP meeting on April 8, and that is not a project that's going to be proposed in that CIP meeting. So I thought it's important that we clarify that for the public. They're welcome to come attend and speak to that topic but it will not be a project for your consideration at that meeting. Thank you.

Councilmember Smith? No report today, Mayor. Councilmember Inglekey? No report. Councilmember Howard? No report. Councilmember Frank?

Nothing today.

Vice Mayor Bolt?

Nothing, thank you.

Wow. All right, I'll be pretty quick. There's obviously a lot of activity going on around town. A reminder to folks that, you know, for the duration of this week they are working on the theater building and there is some traffic pattern adjustments, so just be cognizant of that as you're traversing around town. On Friday, March 27, the annual Venice Heritage Writers Festival returns to the Venice Library and that's noon to 06:30 with the Book Fair at West Blaylock Park from 10AM 2PM on Saturday, March 28.

For the author list and more information, you can go to venicebookfair.com. Sunday, March 29, the annual Venice Antique Automobile Club of America Classic Car Show returns to Centennial Park from 8AM to 3PM. This Sunday, March 29 with over three fifty classic cars, music, raffles, food trucks and trophies and more. The event is free for spectators and I will be present to select a car on behalf of the city and present the mayor's award. You can meet Kelsey Shope, the City of Venice's new business liaison in the planning and zoning department on Tuesday, March 31 from 08:30 to 10:30 at the Venice Chamber.

In her new role, Kelsey will provide additional support and guidance to the local business community making it easier for businesses to navigate city processes and connect with the right resources in addition to her other roles in planning and zoning. The annual Venice Main Street and Venice Lions Eggstravaganza Egg Hunt steps off at 10AM on Saturday, April 4 at Centennial Park. You can enjoy free egg hunts for multiple age groups, music with DJ Nick, Not to be Confused with Yours Truly, and Meet the Easter Bunny, Beeping Egg Hunt for Visually Impaired Children ages six to 16 will follow at eleven a. M. Also April 4 there will be a sensory and social play event from 12:30 to two p.

M. In the community room Venice Library for children up to age six sponsored by the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. Venice Sharks Tooth Festival returns to Centennial Park from ten a. To eight p. M. Saturday, April 11 and ten a. M. To five p. M. On Sunday, April 12 and that's hosted by Venice Main Street.

You can enjoy two full days of live music, fossil vendors, food trucks and a kid zone with a shark tooth dig and more. And that is free admission as well. And then a really big event coming up that we put a lot of time and energy into planning as part of our centennial. You can join us as we celebrate our century of leadership at Centennial Park at 9AM, Wednesday, April 15 with a special rededication and legacy ceremony. As part of the city centennial, this special ceremony will honor the mayors and city council members past and present who have helped shape our community over the last one hundred years.

It's going to be a great event. We've got the Venice Grell is going to perform the Centennial Song. So if everybody can make it, that would fantastic. We've already gotten quite a few RSVPs from past council members and we're very excited about this. The last thing I just want to make sure everyone is aware of that's up and coming and we'll again hit it at the next council meeting, but April Venice Fire and Police Public Safety Day event will be held from 10AM to 2PM and that's at the Venice Community Center.

It's got free activities for the whole family inside and out and the free event includes first responder vehicles and big trucks that children can sit in and learn about, demonstrations every half hour, photo ID cards for kids, free food, snacks, face painting and balloon twisting, music and other activities and giveaways. And don't forget to stop by the Venice Museum open that Saturday from 11AM to 3PM in the Old Betsy Museum. It's always an awesome day. I always have a lot of fun there. Fire department occasionally lets me work the, the EMS side of their their presentation booth and I get very excited about that.

City manager Klinch talked about our trip to DC, very excited. Hopefully, we'll, make some headway on some of these very important projects that we've been talking about for a while. And other than that, I don't think there's anything else, to report. So Madam Clerk, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

Nope.

Then with that, we are adjourned.

I didn't think she'd make it. That was

luckily, we we adjusted the AC.