City Council - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good morning and let's call this meeting to order and start with a roll call Madam Clerk.

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

Here.

Mr. Smith. Here. Mr. Weed.

Here.

Vice Mayor Bolt will be joining us virtually shortly. Mayor Pachota?

Here. All right. We can stand for the invocation and today's pledge can be led by Mr. Weed.

Lord father, we pray for our mayor, city council, and all who serve community. Lord strengthen us with wisdom and grace for the work we do every day. May our duties be carried out with respect and care keeping our hearts pure as we work towards the best interest of all residents. Amen.

Alright. We will start this morning with a recognition and that's gonna be the mayor's pillar of the community award. If I can invite Mr. Campbell to join me upfront and I'll be right down. Alright.

So the mayor's pillar of the community award is a totally apolitical award. Basically, design is that those folks who are pillars of our community, that hold this community up, get recognized for that significant contribution. There's so many wonderful things I could say about mister Campbell, besides being a veteran of the US army, having a very generous and and contributing family, him being a contributor himself, but the time and energy that they put into this community and make it such a wonderful place to live through their work with Habitat for Humanity, the SCF Foundation, there's just so many I could list that they have been a part of and and what that does inside of this community to make sure that our students have the ability to go to school, become better people, that our community has the ability to participate in different programs, events. There's just so many wonderful things that they've been a part of and it's an honor and a pleasure to be up here with mister Campbell today presenting him with the Mayor's Pillar the Community Award. I'll let you speak, but I know mister Campbell, was it was actually kind of I was waiting for the fight because he doesn't like the recognition in public.

So, yeah, he was very generous to show up today to receive the award. I had to beg a little bit, not much, thank you. But anyway, you know, it's just an honor and a pleasure again to be able to present this to him. He's more than deserving, and thank you for everything that you do for us. You don't have to say much. I don't

know whether you heard his last words, but he just said politely, don't talk too long. But the truth is, it's been my pleasure to help this community in the ways we can, and my family has participated in this because, of course, when I give away money, it's less for them when I'm gone, and so in that way it's sort of a secondary participation. But the truth of the matter is, the organizations in this town that we have supported have all had really excellent CEOs, very excellent staff members, and very conscientious people who run those various organizations. The principal ones were the music department of the State College of Florida, which is now arguably one of the finest music schools in the entire state. We have students from the major colleges and universities coming down to study music in the music department of the State College of Florida.

The Venice Symphony is arguably the finest symphony orchestra in the entire state of Florida, led by a director who is nationally recognized as one of the up and coming young directors in the entire country. The Venice Theater is well known because it's been here a long time, it's the finest community theater in the entire state of Florida for sure, and it's right one or two in the entire United States. And as soon as they get back in business, it's gonna be a wonderful adjunct to the community. So there's just so many great things going on in in this community, and it's not the people like myself who give support, it's the people on the staff of these various organizations that really do the the grunt work and make them the fine organizations they are. But it's sort of like the citizens of Venice that support all of the wonderful arts in this community should be receiving this award because they are the ones who really make it work.

And I thank the mayor and the city council for this opportunity to speak to you and to receive this reward. And I appreciate it a great deal. Deal.

And with that, we'll take fifteen minutes. We'll be back at twenty after. Okay. We are back and we are having a technology challenged morning. So if anybody wants to speak, please fill out a speaker card in the back instead of using our new and fancy kiosk. With that Madam Clerk, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

We do but they will be speaking under the agenda item.

Perfect. Then we will move on 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, are there any items council members would like to remove from the consent section of the agenda? Okay, seeing no council members, I do have one item, 20 five-four zero five, that's 20 five-four zero five, I'd like to pull that item. Anyone else? Okay. Seeing none, then can I get a motion? Mr. Merrick. Mr. Howard.

I move to approve items on the consent section excluding twenty five-four zero five. Second.

Seconded by Ms. Frank. All in favor say aye. Aye. Vice Mayor?

Mr. Vice Mayor, can you hear me?

You'll need to unmute, Jim, unmute you on your side.

Just need to get your voice vote, sir.

Or you can send it to me in chat.

Madam Clerk, I'm just going go ahead and carry the vote forward with a six to zero. Okay, let's move on to 2005. There is a slight update to this agreement. I'm going to let City Manager Klinch talk about it and then we can vote to move forward with the necessary changes.

Thank you mayor. We just received notice from the Army Corps of Engineers yesterday that they have an update to the cooperation agreement. So there are really two parts to this item, the cooperation agreement between us and the core and then the certification of lands. So based on this notice that we got yesterday from the core, we're going to have to request that we bring that cooperation agreement back to you at a future meeting, but we would still like to move forward with the certification of lands. This will not hold up the project in any way, but we will have to have time to review that update from the core for the first component.

Okay, thank you for that update. So with that I'll go ahead and move that we approve twenty five-four zero five excluding the cooperation agreement portion of this item. Second. Seconded by Mr. Howard. All in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Alright. Do we have anything from the Vice Mayor yet?

Alright, then we'll move forward with a six to zero. Okay, let's move to ordinance's first reading, ordinance number twenty twenty five-thirty six. This is a quasi judicial procedure and the public hearing is now open. For quasi judicial, think we're going to need to be able to see the vice mayor's face. I'm gonna go ahead and take a five minute break so we can work on technology.

Will be back at 09:28. Okay. We are back. And so far, we have our technology resolved, so we will move forward with this quasi judicial hearing. Madam Clerk, you read the ordinance by title only please?

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the City Of Venice, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number 25Dash46RZ to change the zoning designation of the property generally located at 2001 Laurel Road from Commercial General to Laurel West providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for several building providing an effective date.

Anyone who wishes to speak must indicate the request to speak by checking in the back and submitting the paper form. Madam Attorney, if you'd like to inquire as to conflicts of interest or ex parte communication.

If anyone has conflict of interest, please indicate that now. Okay, seeing none, if you've had any ex parte communications that are not part of the record including site visits, please indicate those. We'll start Mr. Engelke.

Yes, I attended the or listened to the Planning Commission meeting online regarding this topic. Site visit and also attended a neighborhood meeting that this topic was brought up. Thank you.

Site visit. Nothing.

I attended a neighborhood meeting where they were discussing the development off of Laurel Road.

Nothing.

And Mr. Bolt do you have anything to disclose?

No nothing.

Thank you.

All right, Madam Clerk do we have any written communication?

They were provided in advance.

Okay, then we will move forward with staff presentation.

Good morning, my name is Britney Smith, I'm a planner here at City of Venice and I have filled out a speaker card. Today we're here to talk about zoning map amendment petition number 2546RZ, the car wash at Venice Crossing. The agent is Jackson Boone and the owner is two thousand and one Laurel LLC. The request is for changing from Commercial General to Laurel West for the parcel in Venice Crossings. The approximate parcel size is 1.15 acres.

The future land use is mixed use corridor and it's in the Laurel Road neighborhood. Little background on the project, again, the request is to change the zoning district from CG to Laurel West for a car wash, Planning Commission voted seven zero recommending approval to City Council. The car wash is a conditional use, Planning Commission has approved with the stipulation requiring that you all make a decision on rezoning here today. And the surrounding property would retain the CG zoning, we're just looking at this one specific parcel within the larger development. This aerial map of the project showing the parcel that we're speaking about and the area around it to the north, the west and the east are all CG and in that Venice Crossings development.

For existing conditions, we're going to look at future land use map, zoning map and surrounding land uses. So this is the future land use map showing the property itself and then the surrounding properties to the north, the west, and the east being in the mixed use corridor across the street where the Laurel Nokomis Street is, that is moderate density residential. For existing zoning map and the proposed zoning map with proposed, parcels showing Laurel West, you'll see the surrounding property is zoned CG and then across the street is government use, again where the Laurel Nokomis School is. For planning analysis, we're gonna look at comparison of the existing and proposed zoning, the comprehensive plan consistency and land development code compliance. A lot of words on this slide but these are the zoning standards.

On the left hand side we have CG, on the right hand side we have Laurel West. There are a variety of uses in both of these zoning districts. Laurel West includes stuff like family upper story residential and a few other uses that would not be permitted in CG. The density in CG is 18 dwelling units per acre, that would go down if you go to Laurel West to a density of 5.1 to 13 dwelling units per acre. The FAR is one point zero in both zoning districts so not much of a change going on there.

You will see there are some different setbacks in the zoning districts. The height in CG is 35 feet plus 10 feet for parking. Additional height could be considered with a conditional use or what would now be a height exception. In Laurel West, the height by right would be 46 feet, 75 feet through a height exception. Architectural, there are no architectural requirements in CG but in Laurel West there are some architectural requirements although they are preferred, they are not required.

For consistency with the comprehensive plan we looked at strategy LEU one point two point nine point C. This supports mixed use both horizontal and vertical and non residential uses are limited to commercial and institutional professional. For conclusions and finding effect with the comprehensive plan analysis has been provided to determine consistency with the land use element strategies applicable to the MUC land use designation, strategies found in the Laurel Road neighborhood and other plant elements. This analysis should be taken into consideration upon determining comprehensive plan consistency. For compliance with the land development code, this has been processed according to the procedural requirements of chapter 87, section 1.7 of the land development code.

It's been reviewed by the TRC, no issues were identified and responses to the compatibility analysis and the decision criteria are included in the staff report and in your agenda attachments for your review. So upon conclusions and the finding of fact here with the land development code analysis has been provided by staff to determine consistency with the standards of the land development code. The subject petition is consistent with all the applicable standards and there sufficient information on the record to reach a finding on each of the rezoning considerations contained in Chapter 87, Section 1.74. In conclusion, upon review of the petition and the associated documents, of plan, the 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 zoning map amendment petition number 2546 RZ. Are there any questions from me?

Any questions from council or staff? Ms. Frank?

Thank you. I just want to make sure I understand the way the front setbacks operate correctly. So because this is going to be potentially an anomaly compared to the surrounding development, which is currently zoned Commercial General, it looks like the front setbacks in CG are 20 whereas Laurel West is 15. And I'm just concerned a little bit that there would be something protruding farther forward compared to all the other surrounding development that's going to happen to that acreage that

is? So I would just note with Laurel West, there is a min and a max setback for the front so it could be a minimum of 15 feet or a maximum of 100 and I won't speak for the applicant, I don't have a site plan on hand but I'm sure that they would want to remain somewhat consistent with the other businesses that are going in in that area.

That's very helpful. So it's a range but potentially the council could consider making the front set backs range consistent with CG so that I know it's just five feet that we're talking about but in an effort to be consistent on what's happening there on Laurel Road. Yes, okay.

Any other questions? Mr. Smith?

Thank you, Mayor. I was thinking of this Crossing as one piece of land zoned one way. How many different parcels are there in there that can be separately zoned?

So I don't have the exact number of parcels. We have recently had the preliminary plat that has been approved that breaks it down into individual parcels. There are a significant number of parcels but all the other ones are planning to keep the CG zoning designation.

Okay. Was it our intention, the comprehensive plan, land development, the future land use designation that the entire property be one zoning classification?

So the future land use for the property is MUC and the zoning district that would be most fitting for that would be Laurel West, that would be the implementing district. However, the applicant chose to opt out of going to Laurel West and they maintained their CG zoning. So when they opted out, the entirety of the property was maintaining But if we were looking at it today, it would be Laurel West.

Right, but we're only rezoning one acre out of 80 to what we believe it all should be, is that correct?

Request.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions? Okay, thank you so much for your presentation. We will move on to the applicant's presentation.

Right, mic is All on right, good morning for the record, my name is Jackson Boone, attorney at the Boone Law Firm, agent for the applicant and property owner. 2,001 Laurel LLC. I'm joined here today by Jim Collins, planner with our firm. Brittany did a good job of hitting the high points regarding this application, which I believe is very straightforward. We have a rezoning here of this parcel, it's approximately 1.15 acres proposed to the zoning district that was envisioned by the city during the zoning map and LDR update back in 2022.

So what's key, and we had a rezoning that went in front of you all just recently on Knights Trail where the property owner had kept their zoning, was CG, they had marketed the property, they actually had plans approved, nothing came to fruition, they decided to now put their property back on the market and take the new zoning which was Knights Trail. Here we have the 83 acre commercial center property known as Venice Crossing. That first received preliminary plat approval back in February 2024. It's been amended since multiple times as more concrete vision and understanding of what that commercial center property is going to look like. So we've gone now from when it was in 2024 of okay, we have 83 acres, we may have a couple we have a large chunk here, a large chunk here, and then we know we're going to have some outparcels, but we don't know what those are going to be.

Now that has moved forward to where you're starting to look at this property on a parcel by parcel basis. And as Brittany said, the most recent amendment to that plat actually has created individual outparcels. So things are moving along in that manner, you're looking at it at okay, we have interest in this parcel, interest in this parcel. And part of what's going on here and understanding when we're at the Planning Commission too, everybody wants to know what is this all going to look like immediately. But that's not how things work in the commercial real estate industry.

You have commercial center property, you either build buildings on spec and you hope tenants come or you wait and you have interest in parcels, those interested parties move forward with applications and see if they can get approved to build those desired uses. So here, going back to the rezoning, we have a 83 acre property, we're talking about 1.15 acres. It is the comprehensive plan, as Brittany said, mixed use corridor and the not the applicant, this is key, the property owner at the time in 2022 kept the CG zoning. That property has now been sold. The owner, the new owner is the applicant.

They are making the request for this 1.15 acre to be rezoned from CG, which is where they kept the old zoning due to the uncertainty of what the new zoning in the LDRs were going to be when they were finalized and approved. They're now requesting to rezone that 1.15 acre parcel to Laurel West, West, which is what the city envisioned for this entire span of property in the city along the Laurel Road corridor West Of I-seventy 5. Ms. Frank, your question about setbacks and understanding the concern, the main thing you uniformity, right? You want things to be aesthetically pleasing.

Technically because of the way the lot standards are applied, the setback to Laurel Road is a rear setback. So it's 10 foot rear for both CG and for Laurel West. So there is no concern about one has the ability to move closer than the other. So that will be uniform. And even though a rezoning in itself is not about specific use, yes there was a conditional use application filed concurrently with this that went to the Planning Commission for car wash that was approved.

A rezoning itself is for the zoning. So we're not trying to say that look, there was no application for car wash, there was, but this is a rezoning petition in itself just about rezoning to Laurel West. Let me see if there's anything else I want to hit. You could see in the staff report Laurel West and CG are very similar zoning districts when the city was going through the process of adopting adopted the new mixed use zoning districts, you looked at what the existing zoning districts and how you could possibly bring those forward. So with the CG zoning along the major corridors, the mixed use zoning districts are along major corridors in the city, That's why there are so many similarities.

As the staff report stated and I agree, they are very similar. It confirms that the change, the requested rezone change from CG to Laurel West is very compliant, it's compatible with the area and it is the implementing zoning district per the comprehensive plan. This rezoning request, it's consistent with the comprehensive plan including strategy 129 C. It's compliant with the land development code including section 128 compatibility analysis and the Section one, seven, four decision criteria. We respectfully request your approval and I'm available for any questions you all may have. Thank you.

Any questions for the applicant? Mr. Smith?

Is there any chance we're going to rezone this whole thing to the Laurel West category that the city has envisioned?

That's a very good question and that's something I could not answer because that is the purview of the property owners that own the property there.

How many different property owners are we gonna have to deal with each of their interest in a different zone?

That sir, I cannot answer to you at this time. I know Walmart has closed on a portion of the property in there. They are not a client of ours. I cannot represent to you what their future interests are regarding the zoning of their property. It's clear that our client here, the property owner of the balance of the property is now starting to look at this on a parcel by parcel basis.

So there possibly could be another rezoning request. The key here, the only zoning district it could go to is Laurel West. So there is some understanding of we have CG because the former property owner kept that because they had the right to keep it and I think they wanted the predictability, they knew what they had. Now the new property owner has said, well I'm looking at this differently, I'm looking at this more in a micro sense piece by piece rather than the macro sense and that's why they have requested the rezoning to Laurel West for this specific piece. So long answer, but the short answer is there could be, but I don't know, I could not tell you one way or the other right now.

Can you tell me how many parcels there are that are each potentially sold to different?

So I could not tell you which parcels have been sold or what not. My understanding is none of the parcels have been sold at this time other than the tract that Walmart has bought, but I could not tell you for certain if I knew that's true or not. That's my understanding. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you for your presentation. Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak?

We do, we have one individual.

Who is the individual?

Steve Carr.

Mr. Carr, if you come up, you'll have five minutes and you know the drill.

Good morning Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Steve Carr. I'm with the Central Venice Coalition here today speaking regarding this rezoning request. I think as you're getting the feeling, you've probably heard from a lot of the community, there really is and it's too bad that it cannot be looked at as a big Venice Crossings as a big major commercial center and a master plan developed so that people could take or have some comfort in what's happening as a whole there.

Right now, my understanding, my belief is there are the whole Venice Crossing is booked up into 17 parcels at the moment. Regardless of how many owners that will end up being, it will be quite a few, I would predict. In light of the fact that, one more thought, I think there's a lot of knowledge and professionalism in the planning departments between the city and the county, and one request would be to maybe have them ask them to get together, is there any creative way to get this more toward a bigger picture, a master plan than what is happening with this with this piecemeal. That would be one request. Given that that's a long shot, we do have to look at everything piecemeal and which brings us to today.

This rezoning request is for a change. The fact of the matter is if it's left at CG in the first place, the car wash would not be allowed. It's not something that was allowed under that original zoning. So the reason for the Laurel West is to get that conditional use approved, which the planning commission did. However, my opinion is in the land comp plan, the use and approvals of conditional use should be something for something unique, something special.

In this case, there are six other car washes within five miles of this particular property. There are two full service ones and four self-service car washes, again within five miles. It's not unique. In my opinion, and what I would ask for is denial of this request because it isn't a unique special situation where conditional use, would be approved. And unfortunately, we can't look at it as a big project and fit in everything and go piecemeal, but at this point in terms of this parcel, the conditional use which would then be applied to that Laurel West category, don't think is warranted again because of the number of other car washes that are available in the area.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. With that, do we have any staff rebuttal or final comments? No, okay. How about the applicant?

All right, again for the record Jackson Boone, agent for the applicant and property owner. Just quickly addressing a couple of comments you heard. The comp plan does not establish the standards for conditional uses, that's in the land development code. And again the planning commission evaluated the conditional use request and found that it satisfied the standards and they gave it an approval. And I know that we could act as if they're not tied together.

Mean they are I will not hide the ball from you. They are together in the sense of the rezoning does allow that conditional use to move forward. But the rezoning in itself technically is a separate application. I know the staff report and the way they agenda it says rezoning car wash, but to me technically there should not have been a car wash tied with the rezoning for the report. But those that being said, and I understand Mr.

Carr at the Planning Commission he said, look, I don't think a car wash is unique, therefore I don't like it, don't approve it. Same thing today, not surprised to hear that, but that clearly is his opinion and he's entitled to his opinion. However, I think the most important element going on here that you heard from him is that people just want to know what's going to be on this 83 acre parcel or property in general. And that will materialize in time, but we do not have any control over interested parties throughout the acreage there. Like as I said, we do know there is a Walmart, there is a Home Depot that has applications in, a Panda Express has applications in.

I have heard other potential end users for these parcels that have now been created, but I'm not aware of them having any applications in. So I think we're at this it's a matter of timing right now where the concern is just I don't know what it's going to be, but that's inherent with a commercial center. That's being planned and that's moving forward to development. There has been coordination with Sarasota County. Laurel Road is a county road.

The traffic studies that were done and approved as part of the preliminary plat were reviewed by city transportation consultants and Sarasota County transportation consultants. There are transportation improvements going in, in fact there are signal improvements that are going to be constructed starting I think during the Thanksgiving break. There's coordination with Sarasota County Schools all about this project. So this is being viewed and the appropriate jurisdictions in the county including the City Of Venice are wrapping their arms around this to make sure this is done in the right way. So that's kind of an overview for the project, but here specifically on this rezoning, again it's consistent with the comprehensive plan, compliant with the land development code and we respectfully request your approval.

Thank you.

Okay. With that, I will go ahead and close the public hearing. And I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Engelke.

Based on the evidence in the record I move that ordinance number twenty twenty five-thirty six be approved on the first reading and scheduled for the final reading.

Second. Second by Mr. Howard. Any council discussion? Mr. Smith?

Mayor, I'm uncomfortable with the process here. I'm not really weighing in on whether there should be another car wash or not. I am short of having a master plan for the center, I believe the Venice Crossing has to carry one zoning classification. I think to do this is to move toward a mishmash with individual parcels with different zonings and I am uncomfortable with that, having a confused mixture is the opposite of good planning. I'm disappointed that the entire parcel is not zoned the way we envisioned it would be but splitting it up into different pieces and some having one zoning classification and others having a different one is not good planning and I think we need to develop a little backbone and say no.

We are going to treat this as one large commercial development and I am not opposed to it being developed, I am just opposed to it being developed in a haphazard fashion. Later in our agenda today, there is a discussion of an amendment to the comprehensive plan where the state commented that our plan was inadequate and this is what they said, they sent it back to us and said, your mixed use corridor, future land use category needs to establish meaningful and predictable standards. This is the mixed use corridor, this is where we need these meaningful and predictable standards, This is where we need to say no. So either are just to vote no and keep this entire crossing with one zoning category and not let it become a mishmash. Thank you.

Ms. Frank?

Thank you. You know I approach things a little bit differently. These are all individually parcels so it's hard to create a master plan when it's not under the same ownership. However, I do have some concern about the specific use and I heard very clearly the applicant say you know that's not what's before us today, what's before us today is a rezone. However, in the back of my mind I hear the consistent chatter and feedback from our residents which includes why are you approving another car wash, why are you approving another storage unit And oftentimes the parcel that's being developed as a car wash or a storage unit what have you is already zoned properly for that use and it had a vision for that in our comprehensive plan and our land development code.

However, what's before us today is specifically asking for approval of a rezone that would then permit this use that many of our residents have lamented to us that they feel that there's enough of them. So I struggle a little bit with that. However on the flip side we've heard from our staff that that was the desired zoning for that area. Laurel West was what the city would like to see in that area and so I hear that commentary from staff and so I'm just sitting a little bit torn on what's best for that parcel moving forward agreeing with the comments that we're going to have to do the best we can given this is you know some of the first development that's been approved in that area and there'll be much more to come over the following years.

Mr. Engelke.

Thank you. I just want to clarify what we're voting on here. I think we're voting on the zoning only and no anticipated use. So I think we have to be very, very careful about what are voting on here and zoning only to the best of my knowledge, we're not changing any of the anticipated uses. And then what I'd like to do is just question a little bit.

It seems like the difference between the two zoning things is really minimal and know for talk about setback which is maybe off the rear, but we're looking at the differences. To me it's almost the same. Yeah, we're adding a few uses, we're taking away a couple uses, but it's all the same. Essentially to me if you take all the ground clutter away which is very important ground clutter, we take that away then what are we doing? We're just looking at something that's almost the same type of use. Thanks.

Anyone else? Okay. Then what we'll do is Madam Clerk, you can make us ready for an electronic vote and then before we tally and display the vote, we will ask the Vice Mayor to verbalize his vote for the clerk to enter that in for the record. Council members, you may enter your vote. And then, Mr. Vice Mayor, you may verbalize your vote.

Yes.

And Madam Clerk, you may enter his yes vote. Okay. And then you can tally and display the vote. Alright, the motion passes four to three. Okay, we are on to ordinance number two zero two five dash four zero. Public hearing is now open. And Madam Clerk, when you're ready, you can go ahead and read this ordinance by title only.

An ordinance of the City of Venice, Florida submitting to the electors of Venice proposed amendment to the city charter to provide for the annual selection of the Vice Mayor providing instructions to the city clerk establishing a ballot title and question providing for complex severability and effective dates.

And do we have any written communication?

No.

Okay. Madam Attorney if you'd like to address the ordinance and we'll see if there's any questions.

Sure, so we had this discussion almost a year ago when after the prior referendum where we went changed our terms to four year terms eliminated odd year elections that caused our charter to have you select your Vice Mayor for a two year term because the Vice Mayor per our charter is selected after the certification of elections. There being no odd year elections now you'd only have even year certification results. So at that point council's discussion was that you wished to have a referendum to the voters to allow them to determine whether they wanted to go back to a one year selection term which you would still do for Vice Mayor and that is what we're bringing forward to now. The year passed because we wanted to make it clear that this was not going to be on this November's ballot but on next November's ballot. So if you all approve this, this would go on November's ballot.

If you don't move this forward then you would have to your term Vice Mayor.

Any questions for the attorney? Okay, I see no questions. Thank you Madam Attorney. Madam Clerk do you have any public comment? No. Okay. And with that I'll go ahead and close the public hearing. And I'll just go ahead and move that ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty be approved on first reading and scheduled for final reading.

Second.

Seconded by Mr. Inglekey. Any counsel discussion? Mr. Smith.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, I don't have any problem with the Vice Mayor serving a two year term. I don't have any problem with the Vice Mayor serving a one year term. It really doesn't matter to me. But I do have some concern with the council passing charter amendments and putting them directly to the voters.

Just a few months ago, we recently discussed another possible charter change regarding the hiring of the assistant city manager and we voted six to one not to do that and my memory and certainly my sentiment on that was we shouldn't be putting charter amendments on the ballot directly from the council, that we need to use a charter review board, that we need things to be well vetted before we put them on the ballot. Council voted six to one not to go forward with that. I would urge the Council not to go forward with this. If we want to, we can convene a charter board. It's a relatively simple process outlined in the charter and if we are not wanting to do that, I know there was some fear there will be a runaway charter review board, we could limit the charter review board to specific items.

If not that, maybe we could invite the Citizen Advisory Committee to weigh in on these issues, but I don't believe the council on its own should be placing charter amendments on future future election ballots. Thank you. Mr. Weed.

Thank you mayor. I've got to go on record with my colleague. I hold the Charter charter amendments to be a special thing, a thing for specific purposes and not to be taken lightly. I can support a one year, I can support a two year term. But with four year terms, I don't see where this is an issue with a lot of weight. No one has shown me that weight and as such, I would be opposed to it just to again take off Trevali hitting our charter amendments.

So I would say thank you very much. Anyone else? Mr. Ingoke.

If we vote no to keep it, what are we doing? What are we doing when we say yes and what are we doing when we say no? What we're doing now and then future please?

So as your charter stands today your Vice Mayor is selected after every even year election for a two year term. So if you elect not to pass this ordinance that's what you will keep. Your Vice Mayor wouldn't be selected. We have the same Vice Mayor this year too and then after next year's elections you'd select another Vice Mayor for a two year term. If you approve the ordinance then this issue will go to the voters in next November for them to determine whether they wish to amend the charter to switch it back to a one year term for a vice mayor.

And then it's up to the voters, they can vote yes, they can vote no, if they vote no we're where we are today, if they vote yes, you now have the ability to select your Vice Mayor for one year term.

Thanks. Assuming we vote no and it turns out that the Vice Mayor, is he appointed he or she appointed for two years or can we make any changes either mid term or mid year whatever?

It would be a two year term, your Vice Mayor could step down and then of course you're in a position of selecting someone else. But it is the way it is set up you would that person would be entitled to hold the Vice Mayor position for two years.

Ms. Frank.

Thank you not to belabor it but I see any and all opportunity to pose questions directly to the voters as a positive one and not to gatekeep with a small group of an appointed board to then decide what should go to the voters. So, just a great opportunity to hear directly from the voters on something as small as the term of the vice mayor. Secondary is I see this a potentially as a positive because it's restoring us to our historical practice of rotating the Vice Mayor every year and so it would be consistent with what the voters have seen over the last many decades and how our city government has operated and I feel obligated with the recent term change to also allow the voters to weigh in on this aspect and ramification of that change.

I was going to say some things after Ms. Frank but she kind of summarized everything I had to say. Mean, again we're putting it to the voters, you know I've seen the Charter Review Board in use, it has its purpose but I don't think when there's little one offs like this, I think that it's necessary to delay the process by convening an entire board of citizens who could just the same come to meetings like today and tell us their concerns or their support, whatever it may be. They can tell us that via email and know, cell phone and all that kind of stuff. So I think that if there was a major issue, you know, we typically would have heard that already.

I think that when I look at it from my perspective as the mayor is, we've seen in the past where there's been vice mayors that have served one and then two and then three and they've served multiple times because that's the council's desire. It gives the opportunity for the wealth to be shared amongst the council. Ultimately, what that role is doing outside of if something should happen to the mayor, they're filling in for a variety of events. There's many days where I'm scheduled for three and four events and they overlap and that individual gets to help me represent this council at those different events. So I don't wanna make a big deal out of out of something that's not that big of a deal but at the same time, this is it's in the charter, it's the voters decision in my opinion.

We gave them the opportunity to amend the charter, they chose to do that, but this was kind of an aftermath piece of that so it's something that in my opinion needs to be cleaned up. Mr. Smith, you have your hand raised.

Yes, thank you. The reason that we voted every year is because we had an election every year and the council could change. The membership of the council could change with that election so we had another election of the Vice Mayor each year. Now the council with the charter change to elections only every two years, it followed naturally that what the citizenry voted for was elections every two years and that the vice mayor could be named for two years. So what we're trying to do is stick with one piece of the old system that no longer applies because we don't have annual elections.

At any rate, I will vote against this. Thank you.

Ms. Frank? Again, trivial but you know you look to the municipality to the north of us, City Of Sarasota, you look at the municipality to the south of us, City Of Northport, the mayor, not the vice mayor, the mayor rotates every year based on the will of that commission. And so again all we're asking here is that the Vice Mayor rotate every year. I just want us to keep in perspective to what other municipalities do. Thank you.

Mr. Engelke?

Okay, so I agree with the statement that the Sarasota and so forth rotates the mayor. So really what this is giving, if we vote yes, we're giving the citizenry an opportunity to say, hey, let's keep a rotation going, there's going be fresh blood but we could still reelect the vice mayor internally. So thank you.

Alright, if nobody else I'll just make my last comments ultimately that's just it Mr. Ngoke. I don't see the downside because you're giving the you're empowering the council, the citizens would be empowering the council to make that decision. It's not an end of the world kind of a decision and if the council really likes who they have as their vice mayor, they're doing a great job, they're fulfilling all the needs of the council, you just keep it that way. We had done that with Mr.

Cotaro, I think he had served as vice mayor for three years. So I mean it's just empowering the council to do it, but it's really the citizens' decision on how they want their charter to look. So that's just my final closing. We already voted in favor of this process once, I don't see the point in changing it now that staff has put all this time into it. It should move forward and let the citizens have their voice. Alright, Madam Clerk, if we could go, we'll move to an electronic vote. Council members, you can enter your vote as soon as your light is flashing. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you want to verbalize your vote for the Clerk.

Yes.

Madam clerk, can enter the yes vote for the vice mayor and you can tally and display. Alright. It passes five to two. Okay. And now we are on to ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty three. I'll open the public hearing. Madam Clerk if you could read the ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida providing an annual update of the five year capital improvement schedule for fiscal years 2026 to 2030 including a long range schedule of capital improvement for years 2031 to 2035 contained in the appendix of the City of Venice 2017 to 2027 comprehensive plan providing for appeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And do we have any written communication?

No.

Okay. Then with that I'll just kick it over to the City Manager for a brief kind of preamble to what this is and then we can see if anybody needs a staff presentation.

Thank you Mayor. This is our annual adoption of our capital improvement schedule, the CIS and always like to clarify every year the distinction between this and our annual CIP, our capital improvement program, which will be picking up early next year. So the CIS is a state law required update every year for all of the projects within our service area and what is needed to maintain our level of service. It's important to note that this is not a funding mechanism. So even though there are dollar amounts included and years included, This is not an authorization of any funding and in fact a lot of these facilities, on the transportation side, are not even our facilities.

They'll be state, county facilities and this document really functions more as an advocacy document to let the other agencies know what our priorities are as a city and certainly it's important in that respect. But just wanted to make that distinction, our CIP process is a funding mechanism which we'll be picking up next year. And look forward to any questions you have, our staff are here and ready to answer those. Thank you. Does anyone need a presentation by staff?

Mr. Smith?

I'm not sure if you're asking for questions or about the document or just what the city manager said.

No, if you have any questions if we need to get a presentation from staff, can have them do their presentation or if you just have specific questions, we can move right to specific questions if we don't need a I full

have specific questions and I'm okay if anybody wants a full presentation.

Does anybody need a full presentation? Okay, then let's go ahead and start with questions, Ms.

Jean. If I might first.

Go ahead.

I've got some changes to the tables.

Okay, let's go ahead and hear those and then we'll move on to questions.

I don't have them in electronic form, so. There we go. There's some changes to the table eight, other capital projects. These are just minor adjustments to the funding amounts mostly. There you see a bunch of writing on there, those are just notes from public works on the project.

But you can see here there are two, number three, there is a change in the amount, number six also has a change in amount. They are both a little higher than what was listed there. And then I'm going to flip the page so you can see the other changes and again try to ignore the notes that are written on here, it's the number you're looking at. The dash by number 11, there is a change to that amount as well. It's a slight increase of 500,000.

These are all consistent with your adopted CIP?

Is that all of them?

Yes.

Any questions on the changes for staff? Okay, seeing no questions on the changes, any questions in general for staff? Mr. Smith?

Thank you, Mayor. And some of these things might just be things we talk about at our strategic planning session when we do that. But this is such an important document, has so many important things in it that seemed to me a good opportunity to ask some questions. And one of them is about level of service, particularly in transportation. The level of service that we aspire to, I guess it's aspirational, for arterial roads is D, if I have this correct, during peak hours and for other smaller roads, C during peak hours.

And it just seems to me that aspirations should be higher than a C and a D grade. We challenge ourselves to be good students or get good grades. And it's important because if you don't meet those aspirations then roads are designated as constrained or backlogged and needing attention. And so I want us to aspire to hire than C and D. Pedestrian and sidewalks, we aspire to a level of service grade D.

Bicycle bicycle paths, we aspire to a level of service of grade D and I don't understand why we would have such low hopes for our bike paths, sidewalks, arterial roads and neighborhood roads. Can you just respond to that? Why are we setting our standards so low? Sure.

For the record, Roger Clark, Planning and Zoning Director. Yeah, I can I can answer that question? It is a little confusing because all of our lives we're talked about we're encouraged to get an A, right? Or a B or something like that. In this case, you can't really relate it to that type of comparison.

We would certainly not want to be level of service a and I indicated this at planning commission as well because if you're at level of service a, you may be the only car on five lanes worth of road but that just shows that you spent money in places that you probably should not have. So so we would not want to aspire to an a level service or a b because that just means you're not spending your transportation dollars in a wise manner. We are consistent with the county's level of service. They are also their their adopted level of services D. As you indicated, our local roads level of service C, actually most of our roads, even the county facilities are a level of service C which is better than the D level of service.

So it's a little different than you would find a grading schedule in school. You don't want to aspire to that A level of service. So we're right where we need to be. I can also say that there's been some changes at the state level that actually made our put our roads at a level of service c recently. Some of the documentation and the data and analysis that is determined and used by the Florida Department of Transportation has been changed and actually it increased our level of service for the majority of our roads.

It put most of our roads at sea. So we are in good shape I would say. We're compliant with our level of service. We're consistent with the level of service of those around us and the county that contains us. So that's why it's a little confusing but it is

a little different. May I appreciate all of that and you did give us a map that shows that virtually every road is at level of service C. In the city other than Pine Brook Road which we had no information on. But why would we not aspire to keep it at a C and instead put a D as our goal? In other words, it allows us to slide into more congested roadways and still be meeting our goal.

And so I don't understand why even if what you say is true and we don't want to try to have an A or a B, why we wouldn't have an aspirational goal of maintaining the C level that we're at and why would we want three of the four categories aspiring to a D?

Well, I don't think you're There was a lot of discussion about this when we did the 2017 comp plan and that's when the level of service D was established and approved by the city. So that's why that's where we're at and I think a big part of that was because of our interaction with the county and the fact that so many of our roads, especially those roads being developed upon, our county facilities and their level of services is D and it made sense for us to be consistent with that level of service since most of our development occurs on that. As you indicated, like I said already, most of our roads, local roads, city roads are level of service C and there's been quite an increase of those roads that are level of service C. But it makes sense for us to be not in conflict with the county but to be consistent especially when their facilities are where a lot of our development is actually occurring. I don't know if that helps but I understand what you're saying but that's where we're at.

Okay. There are a few other things I did want to ask but I do want to make up a very positive comment here and I do appreciate all the work that goes into this. I love what was said about our parks and open space. Talk about level of service, it said level of service is seven acres per 1,000 people and I love the discussion of these are the functional population, that's the best number I've ever seen instead of saying how many people, people ask all the time what's our population and we give them a low number and they go, it seems like there's more people than that. And so you gave us a functional population of 38,250 when you count all the snowbirds and other things that we have.

And so you said that our parks, we should have for 38,000 people, two sixty seven acres of parks and we have five fifty six, six, so that's spectacular. Yes. Okay. And let's keep that level of service. And I love that you gave us a future population of 79,500 in a realistic number instead of this 25,000, 30,000 that we talk about all the time.

I want to talk about table number six, stormwater and I appreciated greatly the city manager's introduction to this, which he had given me privately as well, these things are in priority order and that this is not an actional budget and everything but I'm looking in there, where is the Flamingo Ditch and did I miss it? Is it Number one. And all of the things that we've talked about, is this do we not envision more than this now?

Well, it is number one on the priority list. Obviously we get these priorities from the other departments that handle these different facilities. I can certainly I can't really answer that question specifically, but I could have the city engineer speak that out if you'd like.

Okay. Whether here or again at the strategic retreat. And then do you feel like the Seaboard area is adequately represented here and when we were doing roads, I didn't know if we projected in there that Nolan Avenue we were calling it, but I didn't see that.

Well, don't think we're that far along yet. We're not at that point. We have, thanks to counsel, we've had some money in our budget that we are actually bringing our consultants back for the Seaboard area which we will be getting more into the detail of that Phase one portion of it, which is basically the property that we own and control and some of the property around it. This will be more the technical details where we will get into things such as utilities, storm water, road design, parcelization of the land in there. So we will get into that at a point in the future, we're just not there yet.

So I think we're adequate as far as what engineering sees as requirements for storm water in that area at this point.

Okay. Because you have Table nine that gives us all the way to 2034 and in the period from 2030 to February we have very little and it seems like certainly in that timeframe we should be having more seaboard things, we should be having the completion of some of these stormwater things because all that's in there in that whole period is Venice Avenue Bridge, Border Road, four Laning and some potable water wells. Right. Don't we feel like we should have a whole bunch more?

Well, don't It's possible and and we can certainly visit that but I don't, especially in the seaboard area and in other areas, it would be very speculative. It wouldn't give you a whole lot to go on. It would say, you know, study the seaboard area for storm water needs or something like that. So I don't know that it would give you a lot of substantive information but obviously we do have projects on the horizon but we don't have them in for the long term at this point. We can look in certainly we can look into adding more if you desire that.

Thank you. We're going to share something, sir.

Hi, good morning, Mayor and Counsel. For the record, John Kramer, City Engineer. I did want to mention the Flamingo Ditch storm water CIP or CIS mentioned specifically, we do have number one there, Flamingo Ditch Phase one. Phase one, I'm envisioning will be the excavation of the lot on which we are purchasing the drainage easement and the installation of the real time water level monitoring system. Then based on CPE's feasibility study, they've identified some other positive activities and projects and that those hopefully will be programmed in future years as there's funding available for those.

Great, thank you. I And again, maybe this is a topic for the future but appreciated Mr. Clark you mentioned we try to follow the county on the transportation aspect but we are not following the county on level of service for the storm water. Is there a plan for us to discuss that preparing for a twenty five, fifty, one hundred year storm and having our storm water regulations comply with what the county has already achieved?

Well, I think we I think council has already indicated a desire to discuss storm water and for staff to look into that and increasing those requirements. At this point, we have some legislation that's in place that's preventing us from doing that, Senate Bill 180 which is being revisited at this time in the legislature. What comes out of it, I don't know. But we we would we certainly took your your advice and would like to do that as well. But at this point it's it's just not something that we can do. We can certainly prepare for it if the law changes but at this point legislation is gonna keep us doing that.

Okay, thank you. And I would just like to make one more comment, Mayor, based on this. And I voted along with the council to delay the repaving of the parking lot at the jetty. For good reason, we were told if we completed that work, eventually there was going to be heavy equipment brought in and it might destroy that good work but I was concerned, I read from our local paper of the meeting of the West Coast Inland Navigation District meeting discussion that it might be five years now before they ever get to that and I have been approached by people including a consulting engineer, David Gress who was saying, we cannot wait five years to fix that parking lot and I was willing to do it and we thought it was gonna be a year, let's just delay it a year and then they come in and they'll fix it and then we can do it. And this gentleman was saying to me two things that I think the council probably cares about.

One, that we could do it in a lesser way, not the final work but in some gravel or some way to get it serviceable so that people can go there and he described to me, and I've had so many complaints, when are you gonna open the parking down there, when are you gonna get Casperson Beach and I know we don't control that. Our city is incomplete without Casperson Beach and the jetty. It's a disappointing thing to everyone that comes here for the winter. And so I'd like to have us do everything we can, I know we've tried to get some extra parking down near Sharkey's and that's good and we can only lobby the county to find a way of course to open Casperson? But we control opening access to the jetty and I'm not wanting people going on the jetty and I do understand there's a safety issue there, we need to barricade it well and we need to keep it from walking out there for liability purposes.

But this gentleman was telling me that there were only two places in the city where you could drive if you're a handicapped person or restricted to your car and watch a sunset in the city of Venice. One was some parking handicapped spaces out there, Caspersen Beach, they're gone, and the other was the jetty and I know that from my own experience which I used to go down there every single night that there are people parking there watching the sunset and that's their access to our beach, is that parking lot. And so we owe it to people to reopen it to the extent that we can, to protect ourselves from any liability of people going out on that jetty that's damaged. But I wonder if we can revisit that, it doesn't have to be that we changed this document today but if we can revisit that and get back on track for opening it and promising people that we will do it as soon as we can and not only after the whole jetty is repaired as that turns out to be such a big project.

Ms. Frank? Thank you.

Yes, I'd love to continue the conversation about the jetty. Mr. Smith, if you're planning to put it on a future agenda, I'll yield to your leadership there but if not, I would love to take that up at another time.

Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay, public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Ms. Frank.

I move that ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty three be approved on first reading and scheduled for final reading.

Second by Mr. Howard.

Before we continue can we have a motion include the changes shown by staff?

Including I move the orange number twenty twenty five-forty three including the changes presented today by staff be approved on first reading and scheduled for final reading.

Second by Mr. Howard. All right. Any council discussion? Okay. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, you're ready, ask for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote for the clerk.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, you'll enter a yes vote and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. With that, we will take a ten minute break and come back at forty five after. Okay. We are back and we are on to ordinances. Final reading, ordinance number two zero two five dash one four. Madam clerk, when you're ready, if you could read that ordinance by let me let me open the public hearing first, and then you can read that one by title only. Public hearing is now open. Madam Clerk, if you'll read the ordinance by title only.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida amending the twenty seventeen to twenty twenty seven comprehensive plan pursuant to petition number 20 four-35CP to comply with the seven year evaluation and appraisal process resulting in the update of data, maps and text as required by Florida statutes, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict herewith to the extent of such conflict exists providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And do you have any written communication since last year?

No, we don't.

Okay. Then with that, is there a staff update?

There is, if you would like one, yes. Go for it. I just want to also want to indicate to you today that we're excited to be before you today with the adoption of the company update. This has been a long process. Obviously, we have to do this every seven years. So I just wanted to say, appreciate all the departmental assistance that we got from staff to get to where we are today and I'm going to turn it over here to Amy for her to kind of go over a summation of what accomplished.

Good morning. Amy Nelson, planning manager. This is such a great day. I'm just so glad to be at this point. It's been so long going through this process and I'm just gonna give you an update here for everything that's happened since the first reading.

Start out with a brief review as Roger said, every seven years we have to go through an evaluation and appraisal process and we determined that there were very few changes to be made as far as anything really major to the document. So, we let the state know that and they said we have one year to finish making changes and get it back to them. The only substantive changes, we added a section for coastal resilience that had been in the works since Kathleen Weeden was here and she helped put all that together. It will hopefully give us an opportunity for more grant money in the future and we added floating solar facilities which was required by statute. We made updates to the dates obviously since we had to carry the document further into the future and we tried to improve clarity readability.

There were some cases where there would be a paragraph that would go on for half a page which is just wrong and it makes difficult for the reader to understand what's going on without any kind of a visual break. So typos and misspelled words, we corrected as many of those as we could find and we updated the maps. On first reading, the council approved, planning commission had made just a few minor changes which we showed you at that time and then we sent it to Florida Commerce and other state departments and the review period was longer than usual just because it was basically changes throughout the document. And then they returned their findings to us and there were some required changes and we immediately talked with them to make sure we were clear on everything that they wanted done so that we could hopefully get it right the first time. And so then we started working on their changes and the only two departments that had any changes were Florida Commerce and FDOT.

Now those changes, Florida Department of Commerce wanted additional material. Their first issue was to show the location of existing and proposed transportation system features And then their second comment was to summarize what's envisioned for potential complete streets. We have in our comp plan already an explanation. We have the first section which is what they saw in the transportation element. It's just a listing of street segments that need some complete streets work.

They did not know to go further into the document into the individual neighborhoods where we elaborate on that and that's what this person was looking for so I added some languages to guide them to that area of the document. Florida commerce wanted major and minor changes. The first was to use both a ten and twenty year planning period and they told us that the document needed to go to twenty years from the year of adoption. So that puts that twentyforty five. Now the comp plan will be reexamined in seven years and it can be just completely rewritten or just tweaked however anyone wants to do it but so don't latch on to that twentyforty five is like, oh, we can't change it now because yes, can.

We added needed to consider more data, text and analysis for some of the comprehensive plan elements which we did. Their second objection was to revise the mixed use corridor future land use to establish meaningful and predictable standards. A summary of our changes for the FDOT comments. The first comment we added new maps for the roads, sidewalks and bike lanes and a few other maps just to give them a little extra information. The second comment was what I just told you to give them a reference to check further into the document for the details they were looking for.

For Florida commerce, we added data maps and text and the future land use category for mixed use corridor was changed as they asked. It was actually a very minor change. Now looking at Florida Commerce courtesy review because when we finished this, they said send it to us and we will do a quick look through at it and make sure you're on the right track. So we did that and then we gave him some time to review and then we contacted them so that we could talk through it again and we were assured that we were on the right track and now that we've completed that process, we were able to come to you to request approval which was adoption with the changes that you see. And then the last step is to resubmit to Florida Commerce.

And then there the conclusion, upon review of the petition, associated documents, staff report and analysis and testimony provided during public hearing, there is sufficient information on the record to take action on comprehensive plan petition number 2435CP and we can answer any questions that you have.

Any questions? Mr. Smith?

Thank you for all that work and getting it to where we are going to send it back. I referenced earlier my only question which was commerce objection number two, future land use category mixed use corridor establish more meaningful and predictable standards.

Right.

And you said we did that, could you just talk a little more about that? What did we do that makes this mixed use corridor because everything seems to come before us these days is the mixed use corridor, it's down on the island, Knights Trail, Laurel Road, that's where all the action is and so I'm wondering what we did to address that.

It was extremely minor. Let's see. There's Florida Commerce. You can take a look at your monitors. This is that objection number two, restored the original text that was taken out for the the first go round that you saw and just added the words to commercial and institutional professional. So really that's all they needed. They just needed like some very broad examples of what non residential could go there?

If you look at the objection, they actually indicated what we had previously and that we had taken it out so that's what we put back in. And what they were asking for were general uses, general residential uses that would be allowed in the mixed use corridor and that is what's allowed in the mixed use corridor. Commercial uses and institutional and professional uses, we certainly wouldn't get into detailed uses like we talked about earlier, that's in the code. So what they were looking for, what type of non residential uses are you gonna allow in there? Obviously you don't see industrial in there so we're not gonna allow it industrial. They wanted to know generally what categories of uses are you gonna allow in there. So that's what they were looking for. We did discuss that with the state and they were fine with that.

Thank you for that clarification.

Mr. Howard? My

colleague, great, a lot of work went into this. I think the one part of this that was most satisfying was and thank you Kathleen Weeden. I'm sure somebody else picked up the ball when she retired but the coastal resilience and having access to grants and we all know whether it's storm water or airport or I mean pick an area, all municipalities need grants and as much access as we can get our hands on it. In terms of grants is admirable and I really appreciate the work you guys put into this. Thank you.

You. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you guys for your presentation and update. Thank you. And Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. Public hearing is now closed and I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. Move ordinance twenty twenty five-fourteen be approved and adopted. Seconded by Mr. Engelke. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. And then Vice Mayor, if you would verbalize your vote.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you'd enter his vote of yes and tally on display. Passes unanimously. We are on to number, ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty one. Public hearing is now open. And Madam Clerk, if you will read the ordinance by title only please when you're ready.

An ordinance of the City of Venice, Florida amending the code of ordinances Chapter 88 building regulations by adding Section seven milestone inspections for condominiums and cooperative buildings three stories or more in height to comply with the requirements of section 553.899 of the Florida statutes as amended in the 2025 legislative session by House Bill nine thirteen providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And do you have any written communications since the last hearing?

I don't.

Okay. Do we need an update from staff, anybody? Okay. And then do you have anybody signed up to speak? Nope. All right. Public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. I move ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty one be approved and adopted.

Second.

Seconded by Ms. Frank. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you're ready, yes for an electronic vote. Then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote please.

Yes.

And then Madam Clerk, if you'll enter his vote of yes and tally and display. Passes unanimously. We are now on to new business ordinances twenty twenty five-forty two. Madam Clerk, when you're ready if you'd read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida amending the code of ordinances, Chapter 50, Personnel Article III, Pensions and Retirement Division III, Municipal Police Officers Pension Trust Fund by amending Section fifty-one 161 Share Plan, use of Chapter 185 Premium Tax revenues to allow use of Chapter 185 premium tax revenues providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And do you have anybody signed up to speak? Nope. All right. I'll move to approve ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty two on first reading and schedule it for final reading. Second. Second by Mr. Howard. Any counsel discussion?

Yes. Mr.

Smith, go ahead.

Mayor, I want to be in favor of this. I think we asked for some indication that there was no risk to the city in this and as I was reading these documents, didn't understand a few things. I didn't understand whether we are going to be doing some of this retroactively, I mean there was dates in there '23 and '24 by beginning in October 2024, we're giving money retroactively. Did I understand that correctly? And then a couple of questions I can.

Mr. Clinch, I know we have the actuary in the room, but if you feel you can answer those questions?

I think it'd be best answered by the actuary and our finance directors here as well.

Ms. Seni, if you want to come down.

Good morning. Doug Lozin with Foster and Foster. We provide the actuarial services to the pension plan. The question regarding retroactivity, the first allocation of monies to the share plan would be for the fiscal year ending 09/30/2025. So it's retro to the standpoint that we're in November year, but the last valuation that we did for the pension plan was tenonetwenty four and so the first monies that would go into the share plan would be fiscal ninethirtytwenty five.

Okay, thank you. If I could also ask, is this provision only in place while the status of the fund is fully funded?

The trigger for any monies that go to the share plan is when the premium monies come in every year, the chapter 185, we call them the state monies. The city gets the portion necessary just to keep the city's requirement at zero for the contribution. Anything above that would go to the share plan. Okay. So the city is first in line.

I I I do understand that. Possible that the city pension plan will fall below the status of fully funded with market changes and would we still be making these awards of any excess over the required annual contribution even in such a setting?

Yes, I think I understand the question. Yes, we will measure every year the plan's experience, which being essentially a retiree only plan is most sensitive to investment performance. To the extent the plan falls slightly under 100% funded, then the requirement might go up the following year. We would just tap into the state monies to cover that, meaning less monies would go to the share plan, more would go to the city in order to keep the city at zero and to keep them as close to a 100% as possible. But, I think maybe addressing your question, the the allocation of monies between the city and the membership, that will have no impact on whether the plan's a 100% funded or not.

That will occur naturally whether the city would get all of the state monies or whether you split it with the share plan. So there's no additional risk that the plan funded status falls because you're allocating some monies to the share plan.

Okay. If we were not to allocate the money to the share plan, would it go into the general pension fund and further secure it?

It would it would stay within the trust fund and then there is an additional, there is a little bit of a risk there. There's a statutory requirement that if the plan is over 100% funded and we are very close to that right now, then the state, may start asking some questions about what are you going to do about that. You're still getting state monies, you're over a 100% funded, and there is a risk that the state monies may at some point in the future be cut off because there's a statutory requirement that you cannot be over 100% funded and continue to receive state monies. So this is actually a relief mechanism to try and avoid that.

Okay, think I understand that but I'm going count on my financial advisors here on the council to go any further.

Mr. Engelke, you're next.

Thanks. What's the downside to the city if any, should we enact this? It sounds like there's really no downside to the city, I'm not really sure.

There's there's a downside to not doing it. There's no downside to doing it. And the reason is the downside of not doing it is there is a risk that the state monies are withheld in the future by being over 100% funded. This is a way to skim off some of those extra monies to the membership in the way of a share plan in order to make sure those monies keep coming in.

So this really is win win and also for retirees.

Yes.

It's a win win for the city and also the retirees may get a few extra bucks this year because we're overfunded. Yes. Yes, Thank you.

Mr. Howard? And maybe this is new, don't think so but I'm surprised we haven't done this before now. It's the right thing to do and any way we can contribute with no cost to the city more to the pension plan, mean that's like a no brainer. It sounds like we're in good hands and based on what you just shared in terms of making sure we don't get into that slippery slope being overfunded and potentially risking cut off from the state.

My words not yours. And I like the phrase coming to the the the pension to add to the pension. I really appreciate what you're doing for our retired police officers in the pension fund. Well done, thank you.

Mr. Smith?

Okay, you've given me my reassurance that I wanted and I thank you for that. And I know you're not here to represent FIRE Pension Fund, but I want to ask a question that will help me understand that fund as well. Is this only something that can be done when you are at a fully funded status? Could we have done this when we were at 76% funded? Could have done it then.

Buyer pension has a share plan right now, a funded share plan and they're not

a 100% funded. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions? And then just for the record also is the Chair of the Police Pension Fund, Kevin McGrath. Thank you both for being here today. Appreciate your time. Okay. Then with that we'll move to an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you can make us ready for that. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote please.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you'll enter his yes vote and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. On to ordinance number twenty twenty five-forty four. Madam Clerk, when you're ready if you can read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance amending the City Of Venice ordinance number twenty twenty five- thirty two which adopted the official budget of the City Of Venice, Florida for the fiscal year beginning 10/01/2025 and ending 09/30/2026 by increasing the total revenue by 935,168 and total expenditures by 935,168 and providing an effective date.

Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak?

Nope.

All right, then I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Howard.

I move to approve Ordinance twenty twenty five-forty four on first reading scheduled for final reading.

I'll second. Seconded by Mr. Engelke. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you're ready, vote.

Mr. Vice Mayor, if you would verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

And Madam Clerk, if you'll enter that into the record and then tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Okay, we are on to resolutions, resolution number twenty twenty five-twenty eight. Madam Clerk, when you're ready if you'll read this resolution by title only please.

Resolution of the City Of Venice, Florida approving amendment number two to the public transportation grant agreement for project number 456520Nine-one-ninetyFour-one by and between and the City Of Venice, Florida for the Venice Municipal Airport Runway 5.23 Precision Approach Path Indicators Replacement authorizing appropriate city officials to execute it and providing an effective date.

Do you have anybody signed up to speak? No. I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I would move that resolution number twenty twenty five-twenty eight be approved and adopted.

Second. Seconded by Mr. Howard. Any counsel discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, you already ask for an electronic vote.

Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote please. I can't tell if he's muted or not.

He's not muted on our side.

No? Mr. Vice Mayor, can you hear me? All right, we'll move forward with just six of us then if you'll tally and display that. Okay, passes six to zero and the Vice Mayor's temporary absence. Okay, Resolution number 2020Five-twenty9. Madam Clerk, when you're ready if you'll read that resolution by title only please.

A resolution of the City Of Venice, Florida creating a technical advisory panel and a citizen advisory panel for Municipal Airport's master plan update and providing an effective date.

Do you have anybody signed up to speak?

Nope.

I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Howard.

I move the Resolution twenty twenty five-twenty nine be approved and adopted.

Second. Seconded by Mrs. Frank. And any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you're ready, yes for an electronic vote please.

Mr. Vice Mayor, can you verbalize your vote please?

He's no longer on the feed.

We've lost the Vice Mayor.

We have lost him.

With that we'll move forward with six of us. If you go ahead and tally and display the vote please. Passes unanimously six to zero. Okay, on to Resolution Number twenty twenty five-thirty. Madam Clerk, you're ready if you'll read this resolution by title only please.

Resolution of the City Of NS, Florida accepting utility and improvements installed by P3LAF Hawthorne Hollows LP and accepting a one year developers bond and bill of sale providing an effective date Hawthorne Hollows formerly known as Cray Lane Townhomes.

Anybody signed up to speak? Nope. All right. I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Howard.

I move the resolution twenty twenty five-thirty be approved and adopted.

Second. Seconded by Mr. Engelke. Any counsel discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, you'll ready us for an electronic vote.

And you can tally and display. Passes unanimously six to zero. And then on to resolution number twenty twenty five-thirty one. Madam Clerk, when you're ready you can read this resolution by total only please.

A resolution of the City Of Venice, Florida approving a revised prospectus for the Venice Municipal Mobile Home Park approving revised rules and regulations for the Venice Municipal Mobile Home Park authorizing the appropriate city staff to file the revised prospectus for the Venice Municipal Mobile Home Park with the State of Florida superseding resolution number twenty twenty five-twenty one and all resolutions in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Do you have anybody signed up to speak? Nope. I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I would move resolution number 2020Five-thirty one be approved and adopted.

Seconded by Mr. Weed. Any counsel discussion? Mr. Smith?

Mayor, I wanted to praise our staff from the airport, Mr. Sebastiao is back there, Mr. Dumas. And I do that based on comments made to me by the President of the Homeowners Association there, Jane Zimmerman, who was completely satisfied with these meetings with the residents, multiple meetings, they felt they were listened to, they felt they had input, they were happy that some changes were made, they wanted a few others, but they believe that the communication with the airport staff is much improved, they are happy with the manager that's been hired there and so I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that, they didn't manage to get here today and say that. And then if I can add that I hope when we get to our strategic planning that we can come up with some sort of a study to improve the park in significant ways and make it a point of pride for the city rather than the unpolished asset that it is now.

But congratulations to the staff and I certainly hope we'll approve this resolution. Mr. Weed?

I just echo my colleague's comments.

I am

just thrilled on, I've explained that to our City Manager, the attention that this very valuable asset of the city is finally receiving and I appreciate all the work that has been done on this. It is tremendous and I just hope that we will move forward. This is a valuable asset to the city and needs to be recognized as such. And I thank you all for the effort.

All right. Madam Clerk, if you are ready, ask for an electronic vote.

Mayor, I just wanted to alert you that Vice Mayor Bolt is back on.

Oh wonderful. Okay. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd like to verbalize your vote.

Vice Mayor, if you want to take your audio is muted, if you want to unmute your microphone.

Any luck, Vice Mayor? Can you hear us? Is he still out there, Madam Clerk?

He's there. I've sent him a request to unmute.

Mr. Vice Mayor, if you verbalize your vote please.

Yes.

Okay. Madam Clerk enter his vote and then go ahead and tally and display. Passes unanimously. All right. With that, we will go ahead and take a fifteen minute break.

And when we return we can probably power through lunch, so if anybody wants to grab a snack in that timeframe, go for it and we will get through the rest of these items. Okay. We are are back and we are on to twenty five-four twenty one. And Madam Clerk, I'm going

to share

this process with you real quick. So we're at the council liaison appointments, we do have the option to just leave everything the way it is and then reassign next year. We can also make some changes if anybody feels that there's some necessary changes. I think this would also be a great time if there's any council member that has experience with your Board and you just don't feel like it's appropriate for the council, we could have that discussion as well or at least put it on a future agenda to discuss for next year's reassignments. Madam Clerk, did you have anything to add to that?

No, this was something you discussed not too long ago. It was following the changes in the charter and you all indicated that you wanted a process whereby you could take a look at this annually and so it's by resolution and you're free to do what you wish.

Okay. And do you have anybody signed up to speak on it?

No, I don't.

Okay. And before we do the motion, is there anyone who wants to make changes to this or are we all kind of satisfied with where we're at? Push your request to speak button if there's anything you want say. Mr. Howard?

No, think the process is fine. There's some of these liaison positions do come with terms. This coming year would be my third term for coastal advisory in Sarasota County EDC and then they would have to flip over to someone else. But I think the consistency when you learn, if you're in an active role in some of these boards which these particular two boards, probably coastal advisory more than EDC is very active in working with the board in determining what grants proceed to WCI and D just for example. But as far as the process is concerned, don't have an issue with the way we're doing it.

Thank you. Mr. Weed?

The newest councilman, I'd just like to say that I appreciate this program. This was something I did not know about coming on council. These are not areas that I have experience or history in, but bring me in both on the Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Partnership and United Way of South Sarasota County Long Term Recovery Group have really been educational and have opened my eyes to different parts of our community and, I've very much enjoyed it and enjoyed the participation and I'm thankful that we have these outreach programs. So thank you.

Okay. Well, see nobody else. So then if we want to just move forward with keeping it the way it is, then I'll make the motion to approve the council liaison appointments as discussed. Second. Seconded by Mr. Smith. Any discussion on that? Okay. Then Madam Clerk, if you'll make us ready with an electronic vote, please. And then do we have the Vice Mayor on? Okay. Mr. Vice Mayor Bolt, if you'd like to verbalize your vote.

Yes.

And Madam Clerk, if you'll enter that and then tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Okay. So now we will move on to twenty five-four twenty two, which is the approval of the 2026 meeting schedule. Madam Clerk, you've put the calendar on the agenda. I do have a couple of changes if there's anything you'd like to go over first.

Nope, it's just a proposed calendar obviously you would always want to check the schedule because changes can happen when you're projecting a year out. But just looking for your changes once the council adopts whatever changes you'd like then I will get a finalized copy out to all of you so you can save those dates on your personal calendars.

Okay. The first change that I have for everyone's attention is if you look at January 2026, it is the January 27 meeting. We have Florida League of Cities legislative action days. Just so you can understand where I'm coming from, leading up to that there's a series of different policy committees that I've served on, often the city manager has served on and then we attend Florida League of Cities legislative action days in Tallahassee and talk to our legislatures about how the legislation will affect our community and what kind of impacts we don't want to see and do want to see and all that. Last year I believe we had myself and Ms.

Farrell attended with City Manager Lavalle at the time and Assistant City Manager Clinch at the time. So it was very beneficial to not have a council meeting during that event. I know there was some concern about full on cancelling it versus maybe rescheduling. I'm open to whatever we want to do as a body, but I would ask that we not have a council meeting that same day since both the City manager and I would be away.

I'll make a motion to that effect, Mayor, if you accept one.

Okay, so why don't we just look for consensus? Is there any issue from anyone on dropping that date from the calendar? Because then when we get to the motion part, we'll just move for the whole calendar. Okay, so it looks like I have consensus to go ahead and remove the meeting day on the January 27. And then keep in mind with that, that gives all of the council members the opportunity to attend as well if you guys choose you want to go.

Okay. And then the second change that I have is moving to April 2026. The CIP budget workshop council workshop, I know our finance director has a conflict on her schedule, so if we can move that to Wednesday the eighth instead of Thursday the second. I don't know if that conflicts with anybody else's calendar, but I'd like to go ahead and effect that change unless there's an objection to that. Okay, I don't see any conflict, so by consensus we'll go ahead and move the 9AM CIP Council budget workshop to the April 8.

And those were the only two that I had, so if there's anyone else that would like to suggest any changes to the calendar, now would be a great time, just go ahead and push your Request speak button. Any charter officers have anything they need? Okay, Ms. Frank?

Just looking for a refresh, the January 9 9AM budget process workshop, I believe is a new workshop that our senior manager scheduled so we can go over the process. And I assume it's scheduled that early just so we can get ahead of the whole budgeting, that's the earliest possible. Okay. That's just what I wanted to make sure I understood. Thank you.

Yes, and I will say just for the benefit for the citizens is that it may seem like we're removing a meeting here and there, but we do add meetings, we do have a lot of additional time that we put in. Rest assured you're still getting all the time and then some out of the council. Anybody else have anything? Okay, looks like those are the only two changes. So if there's a motion to accept the calendar?

Mayor, I'd make a motion to accept the calendar with those two changes, the January 27 meeting not to occur and the movement from the eighth to the April 7 for the workshop.

I'll second that.

From the second to the eighth, okay, yes. Seconded by Mr. Inglekey, Okay. Then Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak?

Nope. Okay.

I don't know if I did that already, but if you'll ready us for an electronic Mr. Howard, do you have any discussion?

Just a quick question. Kelly, will you re date or re program the calendars and resend them back out?

Yes, I will finalize it and then I'll send it to all of you. But then you'll want to put it on your personal calendar.

Well that's my favorite six hours of the day.

I'm sure it is. Mine too.

Okay. With nothing else then if you're ready for ready us for an electronic vote, we can go ahead. Mr. Smith, if you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you can verbalize your vote.

Yes.

And Madam Clerk, if you'll enter his vote and then go ahead and tally and display. Passes unanimously. Okay, we are on to 20 five-four 23 and this is consider renaming the Centennial Park Gazebo to the Robert and Susan Vetter Gazebo put on by Mr. Weed. Mr. Weed, if you'd like to introduce the topic.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have a prepared presentation, but I just believe that this is a long overdue recognition of the tremendous impact that the, both Bob and Sue Vetter have had on the city of Venice. And I mean they have been a part of the city since 1978. They have been involved in just numerous and countless issues and programs in the city of Venice.

I mean as a manager of the Gondolier newspaper, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the beginning of what is now the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, the Venice Area Beautification. And in this particular instance, since Mr. Vetter was behind the creation of the gazebo in the park. Him and Mr. Clorn many years back along with the local bank, Florida Bank, created a gazebo that I just think this is a perfect way to recognize their incredible contribution to our city, to this area, both professionally and now volunteering and leading so many precious organizations in this town.

It is really my honor to recommend that the Centennial Park Gazebo be renamed the Robert and Susan Vetter Gazebo. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. Mr. Howard, do you have your request to

speak? I think it's a great idea.

We're not there yet.

No, I'm gonna say it twice. Thanks Lloyd for bringing that forward. Think it's a great idea.

Alright. I'll entertain a motion. Carry on, Mayor. Thank you. I appreciate that. Mr. Bolt goes away and the kids will play. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor, if I can make

the motion, please. Go ahead. I move to put forth the application for the renaming of the gazebo at Centennial Park to the Robert And Susan Vetter Gazebo with appropriate signage as a city initiated request. Second.

Second. There

were a lot of seconds, but I definitely got a direct eye contact from Mr. Howard with second, so we'll go with that since he's so antsy. Okay, any counsel discussion as it relates to this?

Alright, I just wanna make sure we paint it before we put his name on it.

Paint it before we put his name on it, gotcha. Maybe we'll have and Babby paint it. Any other discussion?

No, that was just wrong.

Alright, Mr. City Manager.

Thank you Mayor. Just going to add that if this is approved today, it will still come back for an additional public hearing. We won't have to make any code adjustments for this since it's not a codified park, it's a facility. And we have taken just a preliminary look at potential for plaque and naming on the structure. So we'll be willing to bring back some more information for you on that if we get to that point. And either way, we're going to be repainting the gazebo. So thank you for that comment.

All right, Madam Clerk, you're ready, ask for an electronic vote. Mr. Vice Mayor, what say you?

Yes, yes, and more yes.

Alright, I don't know if we can put yes three times in there, but Madam Clerk, if you'll tally on display, it passes unanimously. Alright. We are on to our last item, which is two five dash zero four two four, formalized city sponsored Halloween parade. I put this on there, and basically, I'll keep it simple. I received a lot of phone calls recently when the individuals read, I think it was in the gondolier, it was advertised that there would not be a Halloween parade.

There's still a Halloween event downtown where youngsters are still able to go and trick or treat. I think over time the parade had kind of gotten so large that it was unmanageable. So what I'm looking to do with this is, I want to formalize this, this has been a fifty year going parade, the Lions Club I think initiated this, old Betsy used to be involved, there was a small, it's nothing major to the extent of a holiday parade, but I think one of the most important pieces to me is that it's a safe event for our youth, it's something we've been doing for a long time. When I grew up in this town, we had a ton of parades, there was there was a parade for every direction change of the wind, we're not like that anymore and I know parades have become a little bit more concerning as far as public safety is concerned, but I think this speaks to the heart of our community and I cannot imagine us not moving forward with keeping this parade. The cost is minimal, think that in city staff it costs us somewhere less than $5,000 But I think it's important that we note this is an expense on behalf of the city in order to properly shut down the roads and put vehicles out there and have staff on-site to make sure that everything is managed safely.

Currently, Venice Main Street has been the one partnering with the Lions to make sure that this event happens. They've still been carrying the ball to make sure this event happens, even Sands Parade. I did not intentionally tie them to this motion because I want to make sure that no matter what happens, if they decide at some point that it's just not something in their purview anymore, that we continue this event. So what I'm asking counsel and what I'm going move to do is ask counsel to make sure that we make it formal that this is a city sponsored parade. So with that, Madam Clerk, I'm going to ask if there's anyone signed up to speak?

Not for this item.

Okay. And with that I'll move to approve the Halloween parade as an annual city sponsored event. Second. Seconded by Mr. Howard. And then I'll open it up for council discussion. Okay, I see none. Then with that we'll move to electronic vote. Madam Clerk, you're ready, yes for that vote. Then Vice Mayor Bolt, if you'd verbalize your vote for the record.

Yes.

And Madam Clerk, if you'll enter his vote, and then tally and display. All right, passes unanimously. On to charter officer reports, Madam attorney.

I have nothing today.

Madam clerk.

Nothing.

Well I'll make up for the nothing here.

I didn't say it yet. I didn't say it yet. Okay, mister city manager.

Thank you, mayor. A few items today, a lot going on. First off, I just want to compliment our police department and master patrol officer Joyce. I had the privilege last week of attending their Boats and Badges event, which was a new event with all of our partner agencies, which Paul and his team do such a great job of maintaining those relationships. I was down at the Marina Park Boat Ramp and they had over 130 Haven clients who came and were able to experience all of our equipment from SITO, the Sheriff's Department, Sarasota County, Sarasota PD, WCI and D, was really fantastic and looks like it's going to become an annual partnership event.

So thank you to Venice Police for that. After twenty years of restoration, I now have a I'm happy to report an opening date for our Lord Heigl House, which will be this coming Saturday, November 22. And the owners have, I'm sure you've noticed, been working diligently and really have transformed that facility and given it life and we are just thrilled to open it to the public this coming weekend. There are some really spectacular exhibits in there that our historical resources have partnered with them to put up and there will be more coming once they open for business. I want to highlight Veterans Day last last week, we had the privilege, Cordy Crane and myself of traveling around and recognizing our city staff members who are veterans.

I just wanted to kind of highlight the fact that we have 48 of our staff members who are who have served in the armed forces, which is over 10% of our workforce. And it was great to be able to recognize them last week. The last thing I'll highlight, which I know the mayor is going to talk more about is our holiday parade. This is always a busy time of the year for our team. It's kind of crunch time, all hands on deck, but it's shaping up to be a fantastic parade over 90 units.

So get comfortable for those who are attending, it's going to be a lot of fun. I know looking forward to some of you have said you're going to attend, which is great. So at your desk in your council offices, there are some parking passes and some maps and some instructions. If you have any questions on the logistics, please let us know. It's going be a great event as always, but even more special being the kickoff of our Centennial. Thank you very much.

That's it. I was expecting a little bit more. Council Member Inglenkey?

No report.

Council Member Weed? No report. Council Member Howard?

Thanks mayor. I attended the joint Venice fire in Sarasota County with some airplane crash extrication, rescue, foaming. It was it was a great, event at the airport. The, Florida flight training was nice enough to provide their apron, also two active aircraft and one that the fire department got to tear to pieces with their various K-twelve and Charles of Lifeworth they call them nowadays. It was three days worth of training, covered all three ABC shifts and also I'd like to call out Mark Lamb.

He is our local, what they call FAST representative. So he's a liaison between the FAA and local guys and girls. He talked about how to properly extricate, where to stay away from engine fuel shutdown. It was it was very impressive and the flight school did a good job. There's tons of questions from the fire department. So I think it was probably something that should be done on an annual basis. It was very very helpful. Thank you.

Council Member Smith? Council Member Frank?

Thank you. Just a quick update, I covered due to some scheduling conflicts with the mayor and vice mayor schedule. I was had the privilege to represent the city and give a proclamation to the Veterans Day ceremony out at Patriots Park which was chilly but still well attended. And then I also had the opportunity to represent the city at the Sarasota County Delegation meeting down at the RLA Anderson Building. So, that was the meeting where all the municipalities, government agencies, organizations and most notably individual citizens had the opportunity to have three minutes to go before our delegation in Tallahassee.

So, that included Senator Gruders who had representatives there and then Representative McFarlane, Representative Buchanan and Representative Nix heard directly from us in our ask. City of Venice talked about just took a minute of their time to explain our growing needs for potable water infrastructure and a funding request for them to help with a match for an additional membrane to our system that would help the utilities department as they continue to plan ahead for future demands on our clean drinking water. So we'll look forward to the mayor going up to Tallahassee to continue those conversations but we did make our first formal in person request to them at that legislative delegation meeting. And then the only other thing I wanted to bring up was we received an email from former Vice Mayor and Council Member Mr. Cotaro regarding some questions he has about involvement in the Centennial and recognition of former City Council members and I know the mayor we've all tasked the mayor with leading the council's direction and planning Centennial activity.

So I would yield to the mayor and your leadership on that but I was curious if that was already planned aspect of it or if that was something new that planning team would consider. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Bolt.

Vice Mayor Paul? Nothing to report today, thank you.

Okay, thanks. All right, then with that I will go into what I have. Just to really quickly address Ms. Frank, statement about Mr. Cotaro, former Vice Mayor Cotaro's comments, him and I have discussed this in the past and what we have been planning is coming up in January, we're going to be having a joint dinner, we're not calling it a gala, but a joint dinner with the chamber and the city and it's going to be I think it's being labeled the past mayor's past president's dinner, but the goal is to invite all former mayors, but also all former council members that are still living and past presidents of the chamber of commerce as well.

All of you as council members will also be invited to attend and I know that the City Manager's Office is going to be sharing those details whether it's individually or however they're going to disseminate that information to everybody, know that that's part of what the plan is. So do be aware that that is something that's been planned and that it is forthcoming and you'll be hearing more on that. But there's going to be a lot of centennial events and I think one of the most important things I can emphasize to people is try to get online and check out that calendar. One of the biggest things that we decided early was doing this the central point of of all the events centennial that are city sanctioned events that necessarily, you know, they might not be a city hosted event, but it might be somebody else in the community has applied to make sure that they are following our standards and they're going to be listed on that calendar as far as their centennial event. So that this way you have one central location to go to and see every type of centennial because you're going to have a variety of events, you'll have things that might be specific to the garden club or might be more specific to a rock band, know, I mean it's be going something for everybody, you know, on this calendar.

So it'll be eighteen months of nonstop fun, exactly how this council likes it. So just take a look at the calendar, but definitely know that we we are very aware of of that request and and we are working very hard to make sure it's fulfilled properly. Let's see. Okay. So as we head into the holiday holiday season, our community is definitely coming alive, right?

The heart of Venice, it's all about volunteerism, it's all about togetherness and us being together. And I just want everybody to know there's going to be celebrations for all ages coming up. Whether you're looking for family friendly festivities, opportunities to give back, or simply chance to enjoy the season with your neighbors, there's something for everyone over the next several weeks. As far as the first one I wanna talk about real quick, if if you could just cover your ears, I don't want your head to inflate too much as we start talking about you, but anyway, VPD Blue Santa donation boxes are available at 13 locations through the city and surrounding areas now through December 17. Your support will help 150 families but in my experience, you're going to see this help a lot more people and that's more than two fifty to 400 children have a magical holiday.

So I've been very fortunate to work with Paul, Tabitha, Craig and Charlotte from SITO. It's an incredibly magical experience when all of these donations are received and then sorted and then put together for these families in our community that are that are whether they're falling on hard times or or just have a special need this year, this is a way that that is fulfilled. So definitely, obviously, make your donation, but I strongly suggest the council when these days come where we start to sort these things and pack it, you know, try to swing by the community center and see how that process works and know what Paul and his crew have been working on to make this happen every single year, it's it's just completely magical. And I know a lot of you have been there and done that and and always appreciate the support. This next one, this is the way that I I personally like to see cones and cops, so tonight, November 18, join Venice Police Department at the Venice Avenue Creamery from four to seven for the Cops and Cones event, Not to be confused with Traffic Cones, there's ice cream involved, my kind of deal.

Saturday, November 20, Venice Community Orchestra Holiday Concert at West Playlock Park beginning at 7PM. Tuba Christmas Concert at Centennial Park beginning at 2PM. Tuesday, November 25, meet the VPD community outreach team and say goodbye to retiring sergeant Sean Hammett at the Blue For You barbecue from 11AM to 01:30PM at Centennial Park. Friday, November 28, join us in Venice Main Street for the Mayor's Hometown Christmas Tree Lighting at 5PM at Centennial Park. I believe Kara and her team have even a hot cocoa truck this year, I'm very excited about that one.

A lot of new things to build upon, I think we got a taller tree. Yep, taller tree, just give me the thumbs up. Saturday, November 29, the city kicks off our eighteen month centennial celebration with the forty ninth annual Christmas holiday parade. Enjoy kids activities, fake snow and see more than 90 parade units. See the parade website for early chair setup and parade routes and more. There's definitely some maps and such. I think even council members have been distributed the maps so that you guys know where to avoid and and what to navigate. It's it's Just watching this process has been very exciting. I'm really excited for this year's parade. Thursday, December 4, shop and dine downtown for the Venice Main Street Christmas Walk begin at 5PM.

Friday, December 5, stop by the Venice Main Street movie night in the park beginning at 06:30PM at Centennial Park showing Elf. The Venice Fire Rescue Grow and Mo, Save a Bro, Movember fundraiser returns to Brewburgers back See, isn't this a ton of fun events? Brewburgers back porch beginning at 6PM. Saturday, December 6, the AACA swap meet and car corral from 8AM to 3PM at Festival Grounds, Ukrainian Christmas festival beginning at noon in Centennial Park, Venice Christmas boat parade begins at 6PM launching from Alby Road Bridge traveling south along the intercoastal to just before the Circus Bridge, and then Saturday, December 13, stop by the Venice Museum for the open house and holiday party beginning at 5PM, Babby holiday tree lighting at 5PM in West Playlock Park, and the annual glow ride will travel through the downtown area pushing off from the festival grounds at 6PM with early concert beginning at 3PM. So for all of that, just make sure that you go to venicegov.com and look for the events calendar on the bottom left, or stay up to date by following the city's Facebook page at Venice, Florida Municipal Government.

That's it for me today, so I will move on to audience participation. Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak?

Yes, we have two individuals. Jim Collins is first.

Okay. Mr. Collins welcome you have five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Jim Collins, City Of Venice resident and planner with the Boone law firm. And I wanted to address some of what was discussed this morning with respect to Venice Crossings. And there is an old expression that misinformation can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on.

And I just went back to the office and put my boots on and I'd like to share a little bit of truth with you. So on the screen what I have for you from your code are the requirements of a master plan in the city of Venice. While Venice Crossing is not any zoning district that requires a master plan, it does provide all of the elements that are required for a master plan already. All reviewed and approved publicly. And I won't go through the whole list because it's two pages.

But I would like to just highlight a few of them. Access points and transportation improvements have been established in coordination with the city, city's transportation consultant and Sarasota County. There is internal circulation within the development that has been established. Including sidewalks, there is each individual parcel has now been identified. The environmental preservation and mitigation areas have been identified.

The storm water ponds have been identified. The utility infrastructure locations have been identified. The landscape buffers have been reviewed and approved. And the landscaping plan has been approved. Building heights have been established, lot standards have been established.

Those are just a few of the elements. So what's really going on here is people want to know what the end users of the lots are. When you hear somebody say there is no master plan, there is a master plan, they just don't know who the end users of the lots are. Well that's not a lot different than if you look across the street as the Plaza Benicia shopping center which has many outparcels remaining to be developed, yet we hear nothing about a lack of a master plan for Plaza Benicia. Well Venice Crossing now has standards established as detailed or more than the Plaza Benicia shopping center.

Last thing I want to say is you all and your staff rightfully have been complimented on your recent seaboard master plan approval. But make no mistake, there are way more details approved for the Venice Crossing shopping center than for the Seaboard master plan. That's all, thank you.

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

Next speaker is Attorney Jeff Bohn.

Good afternoon Mr. Mayor and members of council. Jeff Boone, city resident, city business owner and city business property owner. First, before I talk about Venice Crossings, do wanna congratulate you on the honor for the veterans. I think that is out just phenomenal, and I can't think of, you know, I've lived here a long time, in fact I realized that 70% of the Venice's history I've lived here, almost 70%. Anyway, and our business has been in around for 70% of it. And I can't think of many people more than the veterans that have done more for the city. Mr. Mayor, before he

gets into Venice Crossings, I'm giving them some leeway. We have a number of pending applications involving that general area including one you've only heard on first reading today. So I just ask that the comments not be directed towards particular applications or I mean Venice Crossing as a whole, it's something you all are going to hear in various aspects as a quasi judicial

Right, stick to what's already happened. Nothing that's pending in the future. Thank you, Ms. Fernandez. Mr. Collins and I are here as he said, just to make it clear what the facts are. Mr. Collins said truth, I'll say facts as opposed to opinions about Venice Commons. Whether there's intentional misunderstanding or it's intentional, you know, if it's unintentional, I'd like to think it's all unintentional basically based on a lack of understanding by the general public of how things work. Now there are some members of the general public that do understand how things work, but as we all know a lot of folks don't.

And what happens is is that the general public hears things from people who they think know what's going on, and then they believe it even if it's not even if it's not true. Just one interesting fact, Venice Crossings is 83 acres. If you look at the shopping center right across the street, and you take into consideration all the development that's been approved on Currie Lane, you total that up, that's probably less than 83 acres, and it has multiple properties with multiple different zoning. Zoning's. So the idea that you could have an 83 acre piece of property with, right now there's only two different zoning's, but there can only be two different, but the fact that there are more than one is absolutely not something unusual or rare.

Venice Commons is coordinated. There's one traffic study for the entire 83 acres. One utility plan for the entire 83 acres. And everything else Mr. Collins mentioned, Individual properties that develop are coordinated as best that staff can.

Now I wanna talk about car wash conditional use, which has been approved by the planning Now, we live in a country where there's a free market. And in our world, there are two different types of economies. There are economies that are free market, and there are those that are controlled by the government. So in our country, nobody tells somebody that there are too many car washes. The market controls how many car washes there are.

There are other countries in the world, Russia, China, and a whole bunch of others, where the government says, well we can only have x number of car washes. So we have the right in our country to fail. So imagine somebody telling Bacon Brands, well you can't open that restaurant over there in the public shopping center. We have too many restaurants in town. So the zoning allows by conditional use of car wash.

And if car washes should not be allowed to be approved, then they shouldn't be in our land development regulations. It's just that simple. And you all control the land development regulations. One other important historical fact that you have to remember here is that the property owner at the time had to choose between retaining the commercial general zoning, or.

Jeff, now talking, you're getting into

No no this is in the past. This is in the past. There was a citizen

I think a lot of these comments you can make in second reading.

But this is not, this is not the current property owner. This is the property owner in the past, the Hurt family that owned the land, that owned the land, made a decision

You're still talking Jeff. Mr. Mayor I would ask that we stop this discussion. It's trending into items that are relevant to a pending application you are in the middle of hearing.

Mr. Boone I'm gonna ask that you summarize your comments and not address anything that the attorney has asked you not to address.

Okay. So with without regard to this particular project, just thinking of the city, the history of the city of Venice when it comes to your land development regulations. Remember that there was a citizen initiative at the, after five years at the very end, there was a citizen's initiative to revise the final form in the land development regulations. And changes were made at the very last minute, nothing improper, but they were made at the very last minute. And property owners were allowed as part of that process to opt out.

But at the very end of the process, there were property owners who didn't know how the final version of the land development regulations were gonna turn out. And some, we had several property owners who elected not to take the risk and just to keep the zoning that they had now. Please don't forget about that history when it comes to how property is presently zoned now. Thank you.

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

That was the last speaker but I do have one thing to add about the calendar. You all don't set this date so you can't change it, but your annual convocation of governments meeting is January 16 coming up was not on the calendar, I will add it.

Okay, thank you for that addition. And without anything further we will go ahead and adjourn.