Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd love to do that. I'd like to call to order today's meeting of the Planning Commission for 01/20/2026. Can I have a roll call please?

Chair Snyder.

I am here.

Mr. Wilson?

Here.

Ms. Scherberg? Here. Mr. McKeon. Here. Mr. Young. Here. Mr. Jasper.

Here.

And Mr. Hale is absent and his absence was excused at the last meeting.

Thank you. Alrighty. I have got a set of minutes from January 6. Do I have a motion on the minutes or any suggested revision? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Wilson.

I move that we accept the 01/06/2026 regular meeting minutes as presented.

Thank you. Do I have a second?

Second.

Mr.

Jenks. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair was aye. Do we have anyone signed up for general audience participation not associated with any petition today?

No, we do not.

Thank you. All right. So first up today is site development plan petition number 20 four-46SP, the Agape Hanger Edition. Staff is Nicole Tremblay, the agent is Leonard Anderson of J2 Solutions and the applicant owner is Alan Spear, CEO of Agape Flight Inc. This is a quasi judicial hearing.

I have a memorandum that says that this is to certify that the public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on 01/03/2026 as required by the City Of Venice Land Development Code and proof of publication is on file in the planning and zoning office. Let me open the public hearing and ask the attorney to question Board members regarding any ex parte communications or potential conflicts of interest.

If anyone has a potential conflict of interest please indicate that at this time. Seeing none, if you have any ex parte communications that are not presently part of the record, I ask that you disclose those. Start None. There at the

Site visit only.

None. Site visit only. None. Thank you.

Okay. Amanda will make sure the speakers have filled out the card and I shall turn to Nicole. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. For the record Nicole Tremblay, Senior Planner for the City Of Venice. We are looking at 2446SP, a minor site and development plan amendment for Agape Flights. So the request here is to add a new hangar to the existing site. They've got about 2.02 acres and they're in the mixed use airport future land use with the government zoning.

So their proposed plan is to add a new hangar that's gonna be about 12,000 square feet. They don't intend to change the parking or the access but they'll be adding some new dry retention areas, a new sidewalk and they had an alternative parking plan which was approved administratively because it was only a 10% reduction from the code requirement, so that's able to be handled administratively versus the 25% which would have to come to you. So here's their proposed plan. The existing hangar is to the south of this. You could see it in the full plan set but this is just a screenshot of the changes.

So the new hangar would be here, this is Airport Avenue to the north where they're showing that building setback and then the dry retention area concrete sidewalk are new as well. That parking that you see there is already existing. Here are the elevations, pretty typical for an airplane hangar, nothing different and there architectural

requirements on these properties. So here's the aerial map, they are leasing both of these sites that are hatched

airplane in turquoise here and you can see the existing hangar and parking area and access to the east and then to the west is the new proposed new hangar. So for existing conditions I'll show some site photographs of the future land use Here are some photographs of the site today. The one in the bottom right is across the street, you can see there are some condos and apartments across the street from this. Here's the future land use map. All the leased areas of the airport have mixed use airport future land use whereas the actual airport itself is government.

And then to the north is mixed use corridor. Corresponding zoning for the mixed use corridor we have Airport Avenue and then the airport itself as well as all the leased properties are zoned government. So surrounding land uses, I've already kind of mentioned but there's the Citadel apartments and Crosswind Landing condominiums to the North, across Airport Avenue, to the South is the airport and east and west are other airport uses leased by private businesses and the airport terminal itself. So for the planning analysis we'll look at the comprehensive plan and land development code. Consistency with the comprehensive plan, the strategy for this property is LU 1.2.9D Airport, mixed use airport.

So this encompasses the non aeronautical areas so that means not runways and taxiways, that's kind of a confusing term but this is not a runway or a taxiway so it fits with that. Should be consistent with the adopted airport master plan. There are no uses actually listed for this property in the airport master plan so there's nothing really to match that against. And then for intensity and density there's an intensity limit of one point zero maximum per individual property and 0.35 for the whole mixed use airport. This building is 12,000 square feet so that's well below one point zero and pretty much negligible compared to the entire MUA designation.

So analysis has been provided to determine consistency with land use element strategies with the island neighborhood and other plan elements and this should be taken into consideration upon determining consistency. And then looking at the land development code, the government zoning does have requirements for setbacks, lot coverage and height. And this plan does meet all of those. They're proposing just 30 feet of height so they're under the 35 foot limit. And then for parking, for airport uses it says it should be based on the airport master plan but again there are no actual parking numbers or standards listed.

So there's not much to compare it against but the applicant did use office and warehousing as their most similar, they used the Institute of Transportation Engineers to do their comparison and we did approve that parking plan, alternative parking plan for 21 spaces administratively. So these are your decision criteria for this site and development plan. Compliance with the comprehensive plan, compatibility consistent with section four of the code, general layout including access and mobility, general layout of parking and loading, layout of drainage, adequacy of recreation and open space, site arrangement, amenities, convenience and appearance and other standards including architectural requirements. Which as I mentioned architectural requirements are not required here, they don't exist here and there is no change to the existing parking and access for the site. And so the petition has been processed with the procedural requirements to consider a site development plan and no issues were raised by the technical review committee.

So no issues regarding compliance were identified. We do have a stipulation though that we need to include and that has to do with the lease. They're working on an amendment to the lease that has not been adopted yet and so we would propose a stipulation that reads as follows. An amendment to Agape Flights lease agreement with the city to incorporate the site plan area must be approved by city council before any construction occurs on the site. So that would be our proposal written in conjunction with the city attorney to just make sure that before this can occur they have amended the lease to include this area.

And so with nothing further upon review of the petition associated documents, conference of plan, land development code, staff report and analysis and testimony provided during the hearing, we believe there's sufficient information on the record for Planning Commission to take action on this petition and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have for me.

Thank you, Nicole. Are there any questions of Nicole? Seeing none, Okay, thank

thank you.

Mr. Anderson? Mr. Spear? Are you Leonard Anderson? Well whoever is coming. Are you Mr. Spear? I am Mr. Spear. Okay.

My name is Alan Spear and I am grateful and honored to serve as the Chief Executive Officer for Agape Flights. I have been in that role fourteen point five years. And on behalf of the entire Agape Flights team, want to first of all thank each of you for your service to the city of Venice and for your consideration in this matter concerning Agape Flights. I want to just share with you a little information about Agape Flights. Maybe some of you know about us.

Some of you don't but on 10/24/1980, Agape Flights was incorporated as an independent multi denominational Christian ministry and five zero one C three nonprofit. Our founders were committed to serving Christ by serving his missionaries in Haiti. Keith and Clara Starkey were those founders and they fell in love with the people of Haiti but specifically with the missionaries on the ground in Haiti. And three weeks after being incorporated, the inaugural flight left Sarasota Bradenton Airport bound for Capetian, Haiti. That first flight served one mission family, but it wasn't long until a small Cessna four eleven began delivering emergency supplies and mail to about 25 missionary families each week.

Stepping out in faith, Keith and Clara, who were not aviators or technicians, but actually retired pig farmers from Ohio. Chose one of the Greek words for love to name this organization Agape. The unconditional love God has for each of us to describe our mission. So forty five years later, AgapeFlights now of Venice, Florida serves over 300 mission partners, organizations and their families throughout Haiti, The Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and Cuba. We have scheduled service to our mission affiliates often twice weekly.

In fact, we left the Venice Airport this morning en route to Haiti. And to add to that service the capacity to respond urgently in times of disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, even in times of political unrest. Urgency is what Agape Flights is assigned and equipped to respond to, utilizing the tool of aviation. We listen, we respond and God delivers. For example, in the first ninety days after the twenty ten earthquake that that brought chaos to Haiti, especially in the areas around Port Au Prince, through extreme generosity of donors, volunteers, staff and pilots, we made it possible to fly 150 mission relief flights to Haiti in the first ninety days.

We borrowed every air craft. We we used our own aircraft. We we partnered with other organizations like Samaritan's Purse and and various organizations to deliver over 500,000 pounds of donated emergency humanitarian and medical supplies. We transported medical teams. We evacuated Haitian children to their adoptive parents waiting for them in The United States.

We flew missionary families to safety. In 2006, Agape volunteers from Bradenton, Sarasota and Venice all worked together to move Agape Flights operations to a new home at the Venice Municipal Airport. We purchased our current hangar to the generosity again of our donors and on 01/02/2007, Agape's first official day in its new home was celebrated in Venice. The warm reception from the Venice residents helped staff members make a smooth transition. And now, the dream for Agape, 2026 and beyond.

It has always been about expanding the reach of god's kingdom and touching more lives throughout the nations of The Caribbean. As we look toward the future, there is a a great sense of excitement, yes, even in this room because we anticipate breaking ground sometime this year on a new hangar located right next to our current facility. The expansion will increase our capacity to maintain not only our aircraft, but pave the way for fleet growth, which will allow us to process and deliver more cargo to those in need. This milestone represents more than a physical growth. It symbolizes a broader reach for AgapeFlight's mission, which has always relied on strong relationships with dedicated partners.

We are excited about expanding these partnerships as we cannot accomplish our goals without the support and the collaboration of others. Whether it is providing relief or supporting everyday operations, we know that new partnerships are essential to fulfilling the assignment that God has placed on Agape Flights. As we prepare to expand both our facilities and our relationships, we look forward with great anticipation. Our mission is clear and with the help of our financial and prayer partners, we are ready to take the next step in sharing god's love and serving The Caribbean. We're excited to see god's glory and might on display as we travel on the path he has laid out for Agape's future.

At the heart of Agape Flights, we dare to envision a world where mission partners never lack the resources to share the unconditional love of Jesus. Our purpose is grounded in second Corinthians chapter nine verse 12. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but it is also overflowing in many acts of thanksgiving to god. From this verse, our mission statement was found. Mission partners need resources to impact The Caribbean for Christ.

We listen, we respond, and god delivers. With that clear mandate, we are committed to supporting not only those missionaries, their families, but their very unique missions. The original principles that Agape Flights were founded upon in 1980. Forty five years ago, continue to work every day. Every week, our aircraft depart from our hangar right here in Venice, Florida, transporting all kinds of provisions.

Our pilots are met in airports throughout eight locations by missionaries who serve as the distribution network network on the ground ensuring that those supplies reach their intended destinations, orphanages, medical clinics, hospitals, schools, and churches. It's then the transformation begins. We call it the ripple effect. Building supplies become homes, churches, and schools. A water pump becomes and provides clean water for an entire community.

Bibles and teaching materials become resources for discipleship and medical supplies in the hands of a nurse or a surgeon save a life. Thank you for allowing me to share this information about Agape Flights and for just a few moments, I want you to watch with me a short video presentation that will further explain the ripple effect. Not that one. On the see this why I need my communications guy, Jack. Right there.

And then hit that.

Do you remember as a kid throwing a rock in a lake or a pond and creating a ripple effect? One small act spreading wider and wider. That's Agape Flights. We aren't just delivering cargo, but we're creating a ripple effect, healed bodies, transformed lives, changed communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the unconditional love of Christ being shared in that ripple effect.

At Agape Flights, our stories are our missionary partners. One of our partners, Water For Life, we recently sent them water filters that provided clean drinking water for over 500 families. Those families no longer had to worry about their children getting sick from something as simple as drink of water. Another story is we sent medical supplies such as antibiotics into a clinic in Haiti that saved dozens of lives. One was a young boy who had a serious infection, and he's now laughing, playing, living his life.

Finally, I want to mention our missionary partner Betty, who treats cancer patients in Haiti. She sends back biopsies through Agape Flights for testing in The US.

Because of you, your prayers, your generosity, your heart for the kingdom, this is all possible. We are not just sending cargo, we are sending God's love, God's agape love, and his love ripples. Every week, we fly more than just packages. We deliver hope, and every time a package lands, it creates a ripple. From one flight, one box, one gift comes education, healing,

community, and faith.

This is the multiplication of impact. This is the ripple effect. Join us in creating ripples that reach beyond borders all the way into eternity.

That will be making a presentation today and answering any of your questions. Lynn Anderson as well as one of the owners, Jess is with us from J2 Solutions, are seated right over there. Melanie Smith from Mel Haven, passionate engineering, Melanie is right to my left. She is going to do the bulk of the presentation. Fernando Ramirez with Design Group Architects, Fernando is right over here.

Annette Boone and Jim Collins with Boone, Boone and Boone. And we are also very thankful to have Nicolas Dumas, our airport director as well as David Cerwillo, the community outreach manager from the Venice Municipal Airport. They have been very, very helpful along with our former airport director, Mark Servasio. We appreciate all of these. Most of our Agape Flight staff are present and we are glad that they are here with us.

We do have a few stragglers back at the office so that we didn't shut down today, so that we will not miss any of these supplies that are coming in and I am incredibly grateful even as I mentioned in my introductory comments about your service as a volunteer. The volunteers, many of which are in this audience today of Agape Flights that live in Venice, that come and help us. Without them, we have often said we cannot do what we do without them and I am grateful for their presence here today. I I want to just turn to Melanie and say, Melanie, please take care of all these details now because she is the one that that has helped us, her and Fernando have done so much work in the design of this new hanger. Melanie, I'm going to turn to you and ask you to do your magic.

Well I'm really just here to field any questions the Planning Commission may have on the technical. Can you hear me now? I'm really just here to answer any questions regarding the civil and technical details of the site. It can be summarized just as simply as an additional 12,000 square foot hangar building with access utilities, storm water all designed to code requirements. We actually already have our swift mud permit as well to start construction. Any questions related to the detail of the site, I'm more than happy facilitate.

Very good. Are there any questions? Anybody? I guess we don't have any. Thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Well, thank you. I do want to express my thanks to our city manager James Clinch, city employees Roger Clark, Rebecca Paul, Derek Applegate, again our airport director Nick Dumas for their assistance in this process and again thank you so much for your attention and consideration in this matter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have anyone sign up for audience participation?

Yes, we have three speakers.

Okay.

First is Tom Martin and he has five minutes.

Hi, my

name is Tom Martin

and I'm a resident at 217 Airport Avenue West Number 114. I've owned the property since 2005. And my concern is that Runway 523 is the designated noise abatement runway at Venice. Yet, Agape departs Runway 13 every morning regardless of the winds, including last week departing with a light quartering tailwind. So there's no environmental reason that they have to do it.

When I talked to Mark Servascio about it, he said that they couldn't afford to use the extra fuel to taxi up to Runway 23 to depart that runway and be a good neighbor. Yet, when they taxi out, they typically do an engine warm up first, which would be accomplished by taxiing out to Runway 23 before they do their run ups. And so if Agape can afford a new hangar and expanded operations, I'm asking them to be a better neighbor and depart Runway 23 when it's operationally feasible. And that's my comment. And I'd be happy to discuss that with anybody from Agape if they have concerns.

Very good, thank you sir. Who's next?

Next speaker is Russ Groten.

Russ?

Hello and thank you for recognizing me. Russ Grootrien, property owner in Venice. I'd certainly support Agape and the mission that they support. I believe in it wholeheartedly. I also support the beautiful wildlife that we have in Florida and the Venice area.

Particularly, I've noted that there's a wooded area in the proposed site. The proposed development area has been documented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as a historical bald eagle nesting area. Source document, myfwc.maps.arcgis.com. My question is what are the considerations for the bald eagles that nest in that area historically and that pass through presently? Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Who's next?

Next speaker is Larry. He didn't provide a last name.

Okay.

Hello, My name is Larry Luber. I'm a resident of Bellagio Island. I have two dogs in this fight. The first one I live in the takeoff and landing zone of one of the runways. So I'm always here saying, nay nay nay nay. I'm here as the head landscaper of Agape. I cut the grass there. Have for five years. It 's been a eye opener for me to be part of the organization. I have friends in the area.

One friend in particular, she has a daughter who's a missionary in Haiti. We deliver packages to her daughter. She'll say, hey, where is it? I'm seeing I said, oh, saw it in the hangar. Is it close to getting shipped?

She needs it. I've had the pleasure of being on a mission with Agape in The Dominican Republic, which was life changing. An opportunity to distribute water filters, an opportunity to help with deconstruction as was our instruction at that point. And to meet some of the people there that we ship partners we ship materials and supplies to. I got to tell you, the dog is going to win on the side of Agape today.

I'll take an extra plane or two going over my house and just speak out in favor of the great work Agape has done. I have no video to present, so you're off on that. And we'll that concludes my comments. I'm very much in support of that. Very good. Thank you, sir. Anyone else?

There are no further speakers.

Melanie, would you like to address any of the comments that you heard when you get a chance?

I think the only one relevant that I can address would be the bald eagle comment.

I was hoping you would.

Yes, so consistent with the fact that we already have a swift mud permit that was already reviewed. There was documentation of a partial season that it was I guess that one of the large pine trees was used that actually that existing pine tree no longer exists and that we didn't have to mitigate nor address any bald eagle permitting as part of our swift wet permit.

The material we got said that you had done an environmental study?

Environmental studies were completed as well.

And they identified no bald eagles on

the No existing bald eagles, no.

And the material that we also got said that that historic part was done I think through 2017, so roughly nine years ago.

Yeah, any identification of a historic, I've never heard that. I haven't seen it in any reports and that was not part of the swift mud permit either. Being a non touchable able historic preservation area is not to my knowledge.

Okay, very good. Anything else? Sir, that's up to her to decide.

Sorry, regarding the flight traffic and I think that's

Annie I was sure you were gonna be up here today.

Good afternoon planning commissioners. Yes in regard to Agape's operations, They work with the city, they're not aware of any issues or any violations as far as how they're currently operating. That is something certainly if there were to be a discussion needed, they have a great relationship now with Nick Dumas and they could discuss any issues. But as far as we're concerned, have not received any notice of any violations as far as the city's requirements go.

Good. Thank you. Any other questions of anyone? No sir. Is there any additional staff comments? Thank you, Nicole. In that case, am going to close the public hearing. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chairman? Yes. Based on review of the application materials, the staff report and testimony provided during the public hearing, the Planning Commission sitting as the local planning agency finds this petition consistent with the comprehensive plan in compliance with the Land Development Code and with the affirmative findings of fact in the record, moves to approve site and development plan Petition No. 20 four-46SP with the stipulation presented by staff.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Second, sir. Thank you. Discussion?

None, could I have a vote please? And it's approved seven-zero, thank you. Or six year I should say. Yep. Yeah. That's right. We're missing Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you all for coming.

Appreciate it, sir. Yeah. Good luck on your mission. Good luck on your mission. Folks, we have other business to take care of.

If you could take the conversation outside. Saves me from yelling. We get our council member to get them all going. Yeah. That would help.

That would do it. Alright. The politicians are good. Alright. Let's move on to our next, petition for today.

It's a Thank you, Roger. It's variance petition number 25Dash76VZ, the Lord Heigl Coffee House. Staff is again Nicole Tremblay, the agent is Alyssa Williams and the leaseholder applicant is Gary Lotters II. This is a quasi judicial hearing. I have a memorandum that says this is a certified public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on 01/03/2026 as required by the City of Venice Land Development Code and proof of publication is on file in the planning and zoning office.

Let me open the public hearing and I'll ask the attorney to question Board members regarding any ex communications or potential conflicts of interest.

If anyone has a potential conflict of interest, please indicate that at this time. If you've had any ex parte communications including site visits perhaps to pick up a cup of coffee on this cold weather then please disclose those at this time.

None. Site visit. Site visit, no coffee.

Site visit, no coffee.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. And Amanda, you make sure we get speaker cards. Nicole, are you back? You are, there you are.

I'm back. Okay, again for the record, Nicole Tremblay, Senior Planner for the City of Venice. We are looking at a sign variance, $25.76 v z for Lord Heigl's Coffee House. So they are seeking a variance for a projecting sign. The maximum is four square feet and they're looking to go larger than that.

This parcel is less than half an acre on future land use and zoning of government in the island neighborhood. So as you know, this is a city owned property being leased by the applicant for use as a coffee shop. They have a projecting sign that is about 12.6 square feet in area that they would like to use on the southwest corner of the building. I'll show you some photos of the location. And as I mentioned, the limit right now is for four square feet so they're asking to exceed that.

So here's their proposed sign. You can see it's four feet across by a little over three feet tall. And here's the location. So this arrow here on this corner of the building is where they'd be putting the projecting sign. This mounted sign was compliant with the code so that's already been permitted.

And here's the aerial map just south of us here at City Hall right now. For existing conditions I'll show some photographs and the maps. So here are some site photographs, this corner right here is where they'd be putting the projecting sign so I was standing across Avenida Day Parks to take this picture. And then here's a future land use map, it is government and the zoning is government as well, it's in the historic district, it's a historic home. And so for planning analysis for a variance, as you know there's not much for us to look at, it's really the decision criteria.

So here are your decision criteria for a variance, seven of them. The particular surroundings, shape, condition of the property would be a hardship upon the owner. The conditions are unique to the parcel. The variance is not based on any conditions personal to the applicant. The hardship has not been created by anyone having an interest in the property.

The granting will not be detrimental to public welfare, it's the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the property and it cannot be put to a reasonable use which complies fully with the requirements of the code unless the variance is granted. In the case of a variance all of these must be met or it must be a staff error and I will say in this case we do not have an error to correct so you're just looking at these seven. And so upon review of the petition, the documents, the plan, the land development code, staff report and analysis and testimony, we believe there is sufficient information for you to take action on this variance petition and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have for me.

Nicole projecting signs, as I recall we looked at that four square feet because of the downtown area.

That's typically where you would see a projecting sign

I don't remember walking in seeing these anywhere else. Do we have these in other parts of the city? I couldn't think of any.

I can't think of any. I mean they may be more on the outskirts of downtown rather than just Central Venice Avenue and Miami but they're basically on the island in the walkable areas.

Okay. Very good.

Yeah, go ahead Bill. Turn your mic on. Thank you. I'm assuming the hardship we're looking at here is that the four square feet would just not be large enough to be really visible to where it made sense from that corner.

Right, I believe so. And they'll make their argument for you when they come up but that's my understanding based on their responses that they felt it just wouldn't be visible for people typically driving. You can walk there, there are sidewalks but a lot of their traffic is going to be car traffic as well.

And car traffic on Venice Avenue?

Not on Venice Avenue, on Granada or Avenue.

Where they want to project it out is so.

Yes, you might be able to see it from Venice Avenue. Well I hope that's So in the back I'm not sure.

Okay. You don't think so? Okay. Any other questions of Nicole? Thank you.

Thank you.

Is Alyssa Williams here? I thought with a logo that might be you. You can bring whoever you want, we are very. Oh, always good. You

know I had somebody First off, thank you all planning commission. Thank you so much. It's my second time in this little booth right here so it's very exciting to be here again. And I did have someone from the Venice Area Historical Society say, do you need support for this for this meeting? And I said, well thank you but I don't think so. I don't think that they actually take into account the people in the room but then I that was very nice crowd, a lot of happy sounds came from that so that was wonderful. Yes, we're happy to answer any questions that you have. You're absolutely correct. The size on being clearly and easily visible is our main focus in this. We want to make sure that it is safe for people to view the sign especially with the intersection having some alterations now, new stop signs being one of them.

For twenty years that house has been sitting there, it's been noticeably empty and now it's noticeably full of life. Our goal was to create a gathering place for the community and people gather there which is a wonderful blessing to see and we're thankful for that. But we do see a lot of people through the intersection driving kind of slamming on those brakes trying to look and figure out what has what's going on there. We feel that a sign that's clearly visible would would kind of increase the safety for our community and just make it very clear what it is.

You don't think that the Lord Heigl House by itself is a unique property?

I absolutely do. I absolutely do and I see people looking at it going, what have they done to that house?

I mean it goes back a long way, it's presented on a government lot, we had lots of things about its parking, you name Absolutely. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, no, it's it's an honor to be involved with and it's so wonderful to see people enjoying the space and the reading the museum displays throughout it and partnering with the city has been wonderful experience.

When I went to visit today, wanted to sit outside in a rocking chair and have a coffee but I didn't didn't have time so.

You know we have beer and wine if you're doing a

Oh. Oh. Yes. When we were being questioned, I I didn't bring up the fact that I did sit up at 02:00 in the morning and watch the Lord Heichel House coming down Madrid Avenue, so I actually have photos of that.

I've seen some photos.

And also I guess I should have suggested that I love seeing that there is something happening in that house and I'm I wish you all the luck in the world that it succeeds. Thank

you so much.

Mister chair.

Yes, Piet. This is I guess a little bit of humor. But when you had your soft opening, my wife and I were number two and three customers through your door. We did not have any conversation with you all which would have compromised the integrity of our

I think you were after Chuck if I remember correctly, large hot homemade vanilla latte Chuck. Decaf now, he's done.

He only lives a half a block away, it's easy to read. The one criteria says, it's the minimum variance that you could ask for. Any justification around the 12 square feet?

I want to double check that number. I thought to be honest, I was under the impression it was less than that. Oh. But I could be mistaken.

I'm going to go with Nicole's dimensions.

Absolutely. I'm to go, I'm the nerd that loves to read the code actually. So I'm definitely going to go and check my own paperwork after that.

So did you look at that as this is a size we need in order for people to see it?

Yes. And I also know that the kind of funky shape of the logo itself from what I've read in the code, it makes it into a normal shape, a square per se. So it would kind of take all of those pieces that aren't actually in existence into account and it would go from that circle all the way and make a full square around it. So that might be where that number comes from.

Trust me, you don't want to talk to me about sign code. That brings back bad memories. Other questions? Yes, Pam.

I fully support this. I think I love the style of the sign and I'm glad that that your coffee house is finally open. That's great. I do have a question though as far as given our wins here, is this a sign that will be attached completely and solid or is it going to swing?

It does swing but it will be completely sturdy in its attachment. Meets the ASCE seven-twenty two which Derek Applegate was amused that I knew what that was but I understand that it will match you know meet the American Society of Civil Engineers code for wind and in this weather snow. If it snows it should stay on the building.

What about in hurricanes? Is the intention to remove that sign?

We absolutely will be able to remove it if need be and honestly we probably would just for for our own sanity. Sure. Alright, good. Thank you. Rather not take the risk.

Other question? Very good, thank you.

Thank you all.

Do we have anyone from the audience signed up for this one?

Yes we do have one speaker, Howard Burke and he has five minutes.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Can you hear me alright?

Yes sir.

Seemed to have interrupted a love fest between the Lord Heigl House and everybody on this committee. Well, unfortunately, I live directly across the street from the Lord Heigl House. So I don't think it's that much of testament to the proper use of public lands. But then again, that's probably because I hear hear the chatter day in and day out coming from across the street. But neither here nor there.

Let's let's address the issues. First and foremost, I'm opposed to this variance. I don't think we need to sign four times the size required by the code to attract attention to the Lord Heigl House. They get plenty of attention. They are lit up like a Christmas tree, seven days a week, you know, twenty four hours a day.

I I don't understand how much more attention they are going to need than that. Secondly, you know, the amount of traffic that's generated now creates a real problem with parking, pedestrian passage back and forth across the street, if not during normal weekdays, during Saturday when the green market is there. It's a mess. You know, parking is bad, there's absolutely no way to pass avenue to parks when both sides of the street are loaded up. The last thing the Lord Heigl House needs is more You know, I and I I honestly don't understand where historical preservation has anything to do with selling coffee, but that's a personal issue.

Nevertheless, okay, the signage required by the code is more than adequate for what they are intending to do given the fact that there is no other competition on that street regarding selling coffee or any kind of commercial ware whatsoever. You know, they're the only ones that do it. They compare themselves to Miami Avenue and Venice Avenue and the signage required there and that the signage is closer to the street. You can't miss the Lord Heigl house going up and down Granada in either direction. You can't miss it going north and south on avenue to parks.

The last thing they need is a sign four times the size of the code. In fairness to them, there are other instances of signage throughout the city where monument signs on the ground are safer than hanging signs from a building. First and foremost, when you have a hanging sign, you look up looking for the hanging sign. You don't look directly ahead at oncoming traffic. You don't look at pedestrians crossing between parked cars which is what always happens especially on Saturday during Green Market and also happens during council meetings here when there is overflow parking in the street.

So there are a lot of issues why you shouldn't have a sign dangling from a building where people are going to be distracted looking up. Monument signs are probably more practical. The fact of the matter is that the ordinance regarding signage three five one b says unreasonably diverting attention of operators of moving vehicles is strictly prohibited. To me, a 12 square foot sign hanging from a building is pretty darn distracting. You know, the last thing you want to do is draw attention or people's attention away from driving and up looking at a sign.

The issue is that that is a residential neighborhood. It's not a commercial neighborhood. It should stay as close to residential as possible. The fact that I can't sit on my patio anymore without listening to chitter chatter day and night from across the street is unfair, but I don't think anybody considered that when they made this adaptive use prevalent on that corner. God help us if this lease isn't renewed and you decide to put in a hotdog stand across the street with a drive through.

You know, I mean I don't understand what the rationale is behind turning a nice quiet residential neighborhood into a commercial zone. Doesn't make any sense to me. That's it. I do oppose this variance. Variance.

Very good, thank you sir. Is there anyone else? No there's not. Elise, do you want to address any comments you heard? Or Elisa? I'll get this right eventually.

Thank you so much. I do just want to clarify for the record that we are not open twenty four seven that we close every night. On the weekends Friday and Saturday night we're closed by 9PM. The lights do turn off every single night and the chatter is one of those. Our music is very very low, it meets the code sound ordinances and the chatter of people breaking bread so to speak is just a byproduct of happy people as you could hear when all the happy people step from the space.

In 2023, the city first started conversations about the RFP process for the Lord Heigel House and it has been a public, a very well known public process that throughout multiple stages people were able to oppose. So I feel like some of those comments probably should have been made at that time. When it comes down to it, our focus for this sign is in no way to get more business. Thank you for your comments, I agree we are very thankful that we are already very very full with our business. That being said, we want to offer clarification in the way of way finding.

Anybody that's looking for the place that is not familiar with it or that is curious about what it has turned into, we feel like the sign would be easily visible. The code is absolutely perfect when you look at the examples of Miami Avenue. I use the Sarasota County property appraisal tool, their measurement tool from the corner of the building to the corner of the road at the Lord Heigl House, 45 feet. Similar frontage properties on Miami and on Venice Avenue are more in the seven to 13 foot range so I feel that that is what makes this a completely different circumstance and the fact that there are no other businesses directly next door in the way that some of those other businesses are. So I think this would just keep the community safer in the way of way finding.

Very good, thank you.

Thank

you. Nicole, anything else you want? Thank you much. There's nothing else, let me close the hearing. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chair? Yes, Kit.

Based on review of the application materials, the staff report and testimony provided during the public hearing, the Planning Commission, seen in as the local planning agency, finds this petition meets each of the variance criteria in Section 1.13.3 of the Land Development Code and therefore moves to approve variance petition number 20Five-76VZ.

Thank you. Do I have a second?

Second, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Any discussion?

Yes, I'll just make a comment that, you know, the Lord Heigl House has obviously a very long history and Bill saw it being moved down the road at night. But the city, when it was given and took ownership, you know, had volunteers trying to fix it up and little piecemeal, it got better but that's a relative term. I think what the folks have done right now, it's beautiful. And I think it is an addition to that area of the city. So I'm very much in support of this request. Very good. Anyone else?

Seeing none, could I have a vote please? Variance is approved, six-zero. Okay. Mr. Clark?

Good afternoon Mr. Chair and members of the Planning Commission. Just as you all know, annually we take a report to City Council regarding your agenda. And then we have put that report together with the help of Mr. Schneider and I thought maybe we might be able to go over that today. Mr. Schneider is planning on February 10 to present that to City Council and I would hope, you know, if you can be there, that you would be there to provide support. I know you have a fan club that's usually there so I think you'll probably have support

Protection committee, thank you.

Your protection committee, I have one too that I take wherever I go. Yeah, see them back there. Yep, yep. So I'm gonna put it on the overhead here and maybe we can just take a look at it. It's pretty simple. The most important part I think yearly and the most that you're interested in is the number of petitions that you all have looked at. We actually went up this year. We had 62 last year and you can see we've kind of gone up and down over the last four years, but this year we're up to 70 petitions. A lot of them weren't large petitions. We've had some small ones this year.

And there has been, you know, I've heard about some activity slowing down. It doesn't appear that at least in our department there's been a lot of, much of a slowdown, maybe just, maybe a reduction in the size of the applications that we've gotten. So that's where we're at this year. You all have looked at 70 applications. You also recommended approval of the comprehensive plan update this year that we did take forward with that recommendation of approval to City Council.

And on first reading, sent it off to the state. We did get back a reply from them that we needed to address. It took us a few months to address that. But we did get that back up to the state a few months ago and just I think it was a week ago were we celebrating in the department because the state found it in compliance. So we're pretty excited about that. That is a huge accomplishment that my staff has done. We did it in house. We did not use consultants. There weren't a whole lot of changes to the comp plan but they did change some rules at the state level this year. We had to project out a little further than we typically have in the past.

But every seven years as you're aware, we have to update the comp plan. So at this point, they are preparing notice of intent to find it in compliance. Obviously there's a challenge period. I don't anticipate any challenges. And then we will actually have a comp plan in place again.

So pretty excited about that and that a real big accomplishment for the year. So we're pretty excited about that one. Other than that, the upcoming year, you'll be involved in the Parks Master Plan. For the most part, we're gonna be working pretty closely with the Citizens Advisory Board in the beginnings and moving that along. We have reached out for consultant for the Parks Master Plan and I think the deadline for submittals is actually this Thursday.

So I should be hearing from procurement soon how many submittals we got and we'll put a committee together of staff to choose the consultant and then we'll work through that process to get a Parks Master Plan, probably going to take about a year to get through that. But you certainly will have discussion regarding that. And then basically the rest I think pretty much stays the same. Obviously you are the local planning agency and these are your, this is your charge. Hasn't changed, been the same, set by the state and indicated in our code.

So beyond that, I really don't have anything more to say about that. But this is Mr. Snyder will be presenting at council on February 10.

Thank you, Roger. The numbers are interesting, but they're fairly consistent. They reflect a couple of things. We didn't used to be the final approval authority on preliminary plats, now we are. So you can see that number rising over time.

We've always been the final authority in site development plans that seems to be going down. But added those two together, they equal the same as was last year. So from that standpoint, as you all know that's scheduled to be my last presentation to City Council. I may offer some comments, personal observations from I think the website says this is my sixth term, that's eighteen years if my math does correctly. So I have seen some things since I have been here and might offer some observations about that and we will respond to questions should any of the council members have any about my lessons learned or things that I think you ought to look out for.

The one thing I will say is, and when is the strategic planning session, is that the second?

That is February 2, yes.

Yes. I read in the paper that Mr. Mudge, thank you. That you're going to talk about the joint planning agreement it and whether there needs to be a new one. Without one, the characteristics of what will come before the Planning Commission and the City Council is going to change because there's not much more that we're going to annex in and rezone and do comp plan changes for related to that.

We may do some impacts on existing properties. And those rezones will be a whole different flavor than bringing something from the county into the city and rezoning it from a county designation to a city designation.

We still have about 1,200 acres left in the joint planning area that are potential annexation area. But you're

not gonna do any of those.

Well we've annexed half of what was, well I can't say originally approved but the originally approved JPA had around 3,500 acres in it and then they, it was amended within the first couple of years and it was down to about 2,200 acres and we've done about half of that at this point. So we have half left, but you're right, eventually it'll get to redevelopment and fill those kind of things.

And I just want to point out that's a different animal been used to dealing with. And without that, you have to deal with a fixed base versus an expanding base on And I know that Jerry and I we were on a CDD when it was finished that created a different mindset when it relates to budgeting and things like that. Absolutely. Those are things I can talk about when we're there. The rest of it is pretty straightforward.

I always in the past have given them the option of taking back our designation as a designated entity. None of them want to take us up on that. So but I always offered this option.

It's a lot of work to put on.

It's a lot of work, yeah.

So and I think we do a pretty good job of reviewing things prior to them having to look at them so that we can go knee deep into the woods and they don't have to. Have

been involved in a lot of heavy stuff so

to A

lot of years.

I can't believe it was that many but I looked at how many terms they say I've been here.

What we wanna know is do you mean it this time?

I had meant it the last time but they did but I got lobbied to come back. And I will, I'm sure miss it but at the same time I have a whole different endeavor going on in Maryland that is taking up my five months out of my year and I wasn't gonna be a snowbird but it looks like I am one. And while you all have been extremely forthcoming and allowing me to do that, I'm not sure it's the best way for the Planning Commission to operate particularly for the chair to be absentee in a box sitting up there. Although members have gotten used to the box and not me, so that's okay too. I think Mr.

Boone has as well gotten used to the box. That's okay. But this is has been something that has been very very educational to me and my wife just hopes that we will find something else to take up my time. I got real good at the Price is Right and she didn't think that was a wise use of my time. Be that as it may, we'll talk more about that on the second.

Sounds good. We do have an application on the next meeting as well. So we will have a meeting on whatever date that is, I can't remember.

Sometime in February.

February 3, guess.

Something like

that. Sounds good?

Yes, sounds Any other comments Roger?

That's it sir, thank you.

Any comments from the staff or from the planning commission?

What application is it? It's an application I believe a site development plan over on Nacomas Avenue. I

think we just got an email on it this afternoon.

Yeah, more than likely the notice is out, yeah.

I should point out that Bob's term ends at the January, correct? Yes, I looked at the website. I think it said January 31 of this year. And I don't know if they've made a decision on replacing it, but if not, Bob, thank you. And who's ever next may also see you here but that's out of our control. At any rate but thank you for your participation and You

all will definitely be the same

board in the first meeting in February because council doesn't have their second meeting this month. So there's no opportunity to make appointments until after your next meeting.

So does Bob stay on until an appointment is made?

Correct.

Terms Okay. Continue have time for me to.

It does. Was gonna make sure you understood that before you said Joy.

Before you said your goodbye speech.

Then again I might not be leaving but we'll see how that You

have at least one more meeting. Okay. And that's assuming they make appointments which I don't I mean I don't know if it's queued up for that first meeting in February.

Very good. Any other comments? Hearing none, we're adjourned.