Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. I'll call the meeting to order. Could I have a roll call, please?

Chair Wilson?

I am here.

Mr. Hale?

Here.

Ms. Sherberg? Here. Mr. McKeon?

Here.

Ms. Fresca? Mr. Ferlaughey?

Here.

And Mr. Jasper will be absent.

I was informed by Mr. Jasper that he had a conflict and would not be able to be here today. He did request an excused absence. Do I have a motion to that effect?

Mr. Chair, so moved.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, the same. Thank you very much. The motion passes. We have a set of minutes from September 1st, 2026, a regular meeting. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chair?

Yes. Mr. McCann?

I move to accept the September 1st, 2026 regular meeting minutes as presented.

We have a motion by Mr. McCann to approve. Do I have a second? Mr. Chairman, second. Mr. Hale? We have a second by Mr. Hale. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed the same and the motion passes. Thank you very much. Anyone signed up for general audience participation?

No, there's not.

Thank you.

And first up, we have a presentation.

Oh, maybe we don't. Or a big introduction, perhaps.

afternoon planning commission for the record roger clark planning and zoning director good to see you all today we are excited today to bring to you the consultants that are working on our parks master plan we quite a while back we did a search for some consultants and these were the top of the heap gi consultants have been awesome to work with they've been working with us probably since about april and have done a lot of work and have been awesome to work with. They practically specialize in parks master plans, so we were really excited to bring them on board to help us with this project. So today here we have Kristen Caborn and Amy Zingatita, and they are here to tell you about what they've done and what this plan is going to mean for the city. So I'm going to turn it over to them.

Thank you. Welcome ladies, we look forward to your presentation.

Thank you very much. We're very excited to be here and thank you all for having us this afternoon and really look forward to giving you an overview of the master plan process. Are you, is there a way to put the, thank you. Thank you, I appreciate that. My name is Kristin Caborn. I'm the Director of Parks and Public Spaces at GAI Consultants. I'm very fortunate that I have been able to focus my career on doing public parks and recreation projects all across the state of Florida. We're really excited to be here. Venice has some super unique characteristics to it. In fact, this morning I was just telling someone about John Nolan and how unique the green spaces are in Venice and one of the many things that makes this city really, really special for its residents. The planning process is something we take very seriously. Amy and I were really happy when we were driving around to see the yard signs. Have you all seen those yet that have gone out advertising the opportunities to participate in public input? We find those are really effective. When we're back in mid-October and we'll be at the farmer's market, to on a Saturday morning to talk to residents we will ask them how they heard about it and my guess is that we're going to hear probably between 50 and 70 percent of the people say hey I saw a yard sign at my local park or around City Hall so we appreciate that and we appreciate you all helping to get the word out as well it will there's a QR code on there and that will direct Anybody who wants to fill out a survey to our online survey, so help us get the word out. We'd really appreciate that.

Are we? I can just use that. Yeah, I'll just use the arrows. Thank you.

So today I'm going to give you an overview of the process. We haven't done any input yet. So we have a saying in our office, public input prior to professional output. We have spent time in all of the city parks. We've evaluated them, worked on an inventory of them. So we're very familiar and look forward to over the next month or so becoming more familiar with your parks. Today I'm going to give you an overview of the process and talk a little bit about the public input plan Really happy to answer a lot of questions. It's very important to us that you all understand the process and that you have questions as we go along that we can answer them for you. So we come back to you, I believe it's two more times. Each time we'll have a little bit more information. And again, it's very important to us that you all have the opportunity to engage with us throughout the process as well. So the purpose of the master plan is to understand the needs across the city. And we do that in two ways. We do that first by visiting all of the parks, becoming familiar with your park system. And when we visit the parks, we're looking for patterns of usage. Where does it look like are getting heavy used? What are the areas that are very well loved by the public? What are some of the areas that might need some improvements? We take that and we match it with the robust public input process that I'll talk about a little bit more in detail at the end of the presentation. And that forms the needs assessment. So what we see and what we hear, and then we move forward to the needs assessment. We create a blueprint for the future. So there's some political things going on in Florida right now that are, you know, certainly could be affecting city funding coming forward. And so we want to make sure that as we're creating a parks master plan, for Venice, that it is supported by the residents, that we're not overcommitting the city to anything that's not realistic towards the end of the project. We work with a specialist who helps look at grants for funding, so we'll have a grant funding plan put together for for the projects that are identified as important, and also looking for short, mid, and long-term recommendations. So we'll work closely with the city when we develop the recommendations to create lists of priorities, things that might need to be shorter term, all the way to the longer term, with the idea that the next time the plan is updated, you'll be able to celebrate the successes that you have in this plan, and then some of the things that haven't been gotten to that may have been mid or long term Are those still priorities? Check them with the public again. It's actually been quite some time since the city has gone through the parks master planning process. And the last parks master planning process that you did have in the city, towards the end, there hadn't been a lot of communication with city boards through the process. So it was never adopted by the city. We're looking to change that. When this one is done, we're spending a lot of time, again with you all, we'll be in front of you three times, that when we get to the end of the project that it's going to be able to be adopted. Part of the advantage to that, not only having the vision for the future, is adopted master plans give you higher points on grant applications because you have said, yes, this is where we're going. You're not 100 percent committing to anything, but it is adopting a vision for the city. Then ultimately, it's very focused on residents. We want to improve the quality of life for the people who call Venice home, whether they're full-time year-round or your seasonal residents. It is very much focused on residents. We're not taking a look at your tourism influx and the needs of tourists. We are very much focused on the people who live here. so the master plan process is going to take us through next summer the may to june period of time right now we're at task 2 outreach the upfront couple of months roger mentioned that we've been working with him since april i'm actually working with all city staff since april the upfront is a lot of data gathering again doing the inventory process gearing up for the public input When we do public input, we always like to target before the holidays because once you get to mid-November until early January, it becomes very difficult to get input. But on the flip side of that, here in Venice, we wanted to have the best opportunity to capture people who are coming back for the snowbirds who are coming back for the winter. So we are focusing, that's why we pushed to October to make sure that we had the most opportunity to catch people who are Venice residents. From there, we'll move into the needs assessment, and then after the first of the year, we move into analysis, which includes developing our guiding principles, recommendations, and then we wrap up with the final master plan, as well as the capital improvement plan that's part of the master plan's recommendations. So task one, data and information collection. Here's a map of the city. Really, really cool distribution of parks in Venice. We love it. Lots of different types of parks. You all have some unique relationships with Sarasota County. We actually just finished North Port's parks master plan. They adopted theirs in December. North Port had that unique relationship with Sarasota County for warm mineral springs. The city had just taken over that, so we're getting familiar with how that works in Sarasota County. We're starting to dig into that too in Venice, but regardless, you've got some really cool parks around the city. In this map, you can see the heavier dark line is the Venice city limits. the lighter green are the other parks in open space so those might be state of florida those are sarasota county parks but certainly people who live in venice don't look at crossing jurisdictional boundaries when they know they want to go to a park so we call them influencing parks or influencing amenities and we do consider them as part of the planning process it's important because when you live near a park that might not be exactly in the city limits, that's still something that you and your family can enjoy. So we consider that as part of the process. And then the dark, more Kelly Green is the actual city-owned parks. So we look at all that as part of the inventory process. We do it on our phones. We do it in GIS. All of the parks... have geographic boundaries and we inventory by dropping points in each of the containers if you call a park boundary as a container we drop the points of all of the amenities and when i say amenities playgrounds pavilions ball fields that type of thing and we look at the condition of them as well so the city will have a complete parks inventory at the end of the process We match the inventory with what we call a park's DNA, or design and ambiance, where we look again at how the park's laying out, how it's functioning for its users. How's the shade? I can almost predict that the survey results are going to come back and people are going to tell us they want more shade. So we look at those types of things. How's the shade? I mean, it seems very basic, but these things are very important. Looking at shade around playgrounds, looking at shade around exercise equipment. How is the parking arranged? How is the accessibility from parking to the amenities in the park? So we look at all of that, and that's more of a narrative, more subjective type analysis that our landscape architects do as part of the process. From there, we develop PARCC scores. You all will hear more about that next time I come back and talk with you. But the PARCC scores are a composite of the inventory condition along with our DNA assessment. And that helps us take somewhat subjective input and create PARCC scores that can help us with what parks are more loved and need to have more improvement sooner than later, and then which ones are really your newer parks that are the best example of parks in Venice. So that helps us create our prioritization matrix on the back end. So look forward to talking with you all more about that as we move forward. So public outreach. We love to talk to the public. It's something that we think we really get to know a community. Gone are the days of, as entertaining as I think I am, me standing up in front of a room of people who needed to show up at 530, because at 531, I was going to present to them and tell them all about their park system. We don't do that anymore. Thankfully, COVID kind of got away from that. That shut out a lot of people whose working families or populations who didn't want to come at 5.30 or 6 o'clock. So we, in turn, go out into the community. Like I mentioned, we'll be here in mid-October for the Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning right here at City Hall. And then... and then sun fest on sunday so we'll have a tent if y'all are there please stop by and talk with us we have interactive input exercises where we get to talk to them talk to whoever comes and talks to us we will grab them out of the crowd too and we have opportunities to fill out the survey we advertise what the process is going to be like We're also coming back the last week of October. We've got some open public workshops. Again, they are indoors, so it's a little bit of a different crowd. We're doing one during the day and then one in the evening. So all of those dates are available on the yard signs if you scan the QR codes. All of that is available now, as well as smaller stakeholder meetings. So the idea is that we're really taking an approach where we've got public workshop events. Anybody can come talk to us if they've got five minutes, if they've got an hour. We're happy to talk to them for as long as they want to hear from us in more of a one-on-one small group. We've got the survey and then we've got the stakeholder meetings where the stakeholders are much more focused, we'll be talking to Sarasota County Parks, but they're much more focused on people who have a specific user group who is using Venice Parks. So those are smaller, they're facilitated conversations. So all of that will take place the end of October. Between now and the next six weeks or so, we'll be really doing a lot of public input. The survey will stay open through all of that, and we will watch the survey results kind of ebb and flow. The city has been working, communications have been working to push out the survey, push out all the public input. When it hits social media, we'll see a lot of responses, and then it'll die down a little bit, and then we're going to come to the farmer's market and Sunfest, and we'll get more responses. So it's not an urgent thing, but if you're talking to your friends and neighbors, getting them to fill it out as soon as you mention it to them, that's better because people tend to forget. And that's the nice thing about the QR code. If they scan it, they can leave it open on their phone, and then they can just fill it out later on at night when they have a few minutes. It's not time-constrained. So again, looking at our, this is a sample of what it looks like under the tent. We create, this is a dot voting, dot voting board, excuse me, where we come up with different park amenities that people would like to see. They get to vote on them. Do you want to see more splash pads playgrounds pavilions that type of thing it's great because it gets kids to engage as well so parents grandparents we want we want kids to be engaged and kids to give us their opinion as well so we'll be doing boards like this very low tech but very fun and great way to have facilitated conversations with people when we're in the larger you know under the tent at sunfest for instance More formal workshops will be here. You can see the end of October. We've got the 530 to 7, targeting people who, you know, might work and want to come after work. And then we've got a lunchtime one for people who don't work or want to take time out of their lunch break to come talk to us. More public workshop activities. The middle Graphic is showing what we do, a live-work-play map. This helps us to understand where people live and where people work and where people hang out after work or where they recreate. Because we like to hear how far people are willing to travel from home or from work to go to a park. So what happens, and when we do this in City Hall, it'll generate maps as people are filling it out, a heat map. So we're going to be able to see what parks people are using heavily because that heat map will grow right in live time as we're in the public workshop. So that's really fun. It's really informative to us because those casual conversations about, especially in a residential community, how far people are willing to travel to get to their neighborhood park if they just want to go for a walk or they just want to go for a playground for an hour or so. Having the idea of how people get there. On the back end, if we're looking at the Nolan Greens and how they connect different areas of the city, are people utilizing those connections as pedestrians to get to different parks? That's really informative to us on the back end and the public just thinks it's really fun. Everybody loves to play with maps. That's a really fun part of it. We always have a coloring exercise for kids or adults to draw their dream park. We get lots of great pictures of illustrated crayons parks at these public meetings. And then the dot voting that I mentioned before. And then finally, we have a write-on-me map where we print a large-scale paper map of the city. And we ask people to draw things. Where would you like to see a connection? And people can draw all over. We have different color markers. Put a park here. Make this connection there. I have a concern about this particular park. so again very interactive all of these stations are facilitated so between us and city staff we'll have somebody at each one of them to help the people who are participating um give their input and then we can take notes on what they're saying so it's pretty fun we think Online survey really is looking at the current use of parks. The online survey does rely on getting the word out. So again, I've mentioned it before. Please help us get the word out about that. We want to understand what amenities are important to your household. If someone doesn't have time to come talk to us, totally understandable. This is a really good way to quickly, simply get input. It can take two minutes to take. We test it. 10 minutes would be the maximum. And if that's somebody took the other and started writing dissertations, which is fine. Every single comment we get, we read. We read. AI doesn't read. We read. So we understand what people are saying, what's on their mind. Look at park improvements. What's the communication through the city? How do people prefer to be communicated to? What are their future needs? And then we do ask some basic demographic questions. They're not mandatory. If people don't want to answer, that's fine. So task three is the needs assessment. That's where we take every piece of information that we get through the public input process. This is just a sample. It's a graphic sample. It's showing an example of as we start to get things together into themes, we take all of the pieces of information and we start to create themes out of them. So this is just a sample from another client. but all the pieces of information that we heard through the public input process really rolled into, in this case, five themes. Five themes is not required, but you can see this is looking at connected communication, which tied to how residents wanted to hear, about what was going on in this particular city, but also how they want to be able to communicate back and communicate in their parks. This particular city, people really in their neighborhood parks really wanted Wi-Fi because we heard, you know, for us as park planners, we're like, enjoy the park, enjoy nature. But the reality is in this city, a lot of parents wanted to bring their kids to the playground after work, but they still wanted to be able to work. So that tied into the connected communication as well. trails and paths were important safety and accessibility distinct user experiences which this was a residential city as well where people wanted to have their basic amenities in their parks like playgrounds and shade pavilions and all that but they also had a lot of unique things so the idea was One park would have a dog park. One park would have a splash pad. So each park would have something unique about it that people could drive throughout the city to go to have different unique experiences. And then finally, canopy and wildlife. Each one of these are completely different. I have no idea what they're going to be in Venice yet. So we look forward to that's kind of the next step. And that ultimately will form the guiding principles Oh, sorry, I hit the wrong button. And the guiding principles form the framework for the recommendations at the end of the plan. So at the end of the plan, we'll have guiding principles. Each guiding principle will have recommendations. This is, who do we have in here? Oh, we have St. Cloud in here. This is a residential community in central Florida. They're just south of the Orlando airport, but they're in Osceola County. This is what their capital improvement plan looked like. Again, a relatively small network of parks, similar to Venice, but also very, very important. This is just a sample. Again, this doesn't really have anything to do with you all, but we have a summary tab. It's in Excel. It's our Public works departments love these at the end because Excel is something that is really easy to maintain. So we have a summary tab that shows all of the parks, the short, mid, and long term, and then the totals. Then each individual park has a tab that goes into much more detail of what makes up those numbers. So this is where we get to manipulate, not manipulate, move around recommendations. So as we're working with the city, if we say short-term is going to, in this case, is one to four years, if we decide that in Venice short-term recommendations four years sounds good, it could be two, it could be five, it doesn't matter to us, and we generate a list and the short-term recommendations are you know, $5 million, and we decide that's too much, then we can, because it's all in Excel, we can shift a few of those recommendations to midterm and target having short-term recommendations at $1 million or $800,000. And that way, going back to the matrix that I showed you earlier with the PARCC scores, we can have a really good idea of what we saw and what PARCC score we generated and what we heard from the public so we can make sure that the highest priority items always stay in the earliest prioritization years, but also has a lot of flexibility. And that is, I think this is my last slide. Yep. So I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you all have any questions, if you want me to go back to something, I'm more than happy to go back. But these are some of the questions. If you don't have a lot for me, if you have time, I'd love to hear how would you describe the Venice Park system? What do you love? What do you think could be better? Amy will take notes while we're chatting. And then what features of improvements matter to you most? So I turn it all to you and to the chair.

Thank you. Do we have any questions? Questions or comments? Yes. Ms. Scherberg.

Let me know if you want me to go back to a slide. I'd be more than happy to do so.

Thank you. Thank you. Very thorough overview. I really appreciate this. And it really appears as though this is going to be data-driven. Yes. You hit on a number of key terms that I liked, in particular amenities, things, walking distance, and so forth. What I'm wondering, though, is when you look at the parks within Venice, we have quite a variety. We have Centennial Park that, for the most part, is a parking lot. It also has a gazebo and a water feature, but it's a parking lot. So when I think of that as a park, I don't necessarily put it in the same term as I would Pine Brook Park or Preserve as compared to Wellfield, which is directly next to it. So in my mind, when we were collecting data, it would perhaps be more beneficial if we collected it by category. So that when we are looking to add features or amenities to a particular type of park, I think you used the term patterns of usage, we will be able to collect it holistically for anything that is really a preserve. We have a lot of what I call pocket parks or green space here. So if we're collecting data, I would hope that we would pull those together so that we're managing their expectations, that we're not going to put, let's say, a play field in the middle of Pine Brook Preserve, for example. Otherwise, I think it's an excellent presentation. I'm glad that we're doing this. Please work as closely as possible with Sarasota County because we're really depending on them. in particular on the Wellfield Park side. So those two hopefully will marry together very well.

Absolutely. And the data-driven is very much what we do. And rest assured that we are very conscientious about the right thing in the right place. So because we visited all of your parks and our landscape architecture team designs parks for a living, they have a really good grasp of what can go places. So as we hear from the public, and again, I'm just making this up. I don't know yet, public input prior to professional output. Say that we hear that people really want playgrounds within a 10-minute walk of their house. So what we would do is we would not only look at the geographic distribution of your existing playgrounds, where you have them, and the condition of your existing playgrounds. Because if playgrounds are a high priority and some of your playgrounds are reaching the end of their useful life, that's one category of recommendation. Another category of recommendation would be adding playgrounds on other city-owned land where it makes sense by a 10-minute walk. So we are very sophisticated in mapping now. And it's not just GAI, but the GIS capabilities to be very sophisticated in mapping. When we look at a 10-minute walk from a playground specifically, we look at the entrance to that park if the park is completely fenced in. Because if it's five acres, but there's only one way to get in and out, a 10-minute walk doesn't matter if you've got to walk all the way around the corner, right? So we analyze that. We have the condition of the playground. And then we can look at, OK, we can expand your playgrounds in Venice by adding them here. A couple of parks, maybe you have enough space. A couple of them, you might have enough space, but they're preserved. So it doesn't make sense to put in a playground. However, could the preserve have some other reason to come there that helps serve the play needs? So if there's a group that wants to come in and have a picnic under the picnic pavilion, does that not conflict with the existing use of the park? So we're very, very conscientious of going park by park with recommendations. and it is all based on data and the condition on the ground. And then there is a third type, and the third type is the one that we avoid as much as we can, and that is land acquisition. If there is a, actually there's a fourth type, which is partnerships, Sarasota County. But land acquisition is the last thing that we do. However, that said, Land is never going to be cheaper than it is today. So if there is a glaring area of the city that has no HOA parks, which is something else we look at, no city parks, no Sarasota County parks, but you have a high density residential area that's unserved. And I don't think you have any right now. This is Venice. North Port did with the Wellington Park development coming in. So we had to really make sure that their park needs were covered with that large development coming in. So we look at it from all angles.

Thank you.

Any other questions for them? No? Wonderful presentation. We thank you very much. And I think we do need to entertain a motion as far as a recommendation. Do I hear a motion?

At this time, you don't need a motion to recommend. They're just going to be at the end. Once they're done with the master plan.

They don't need our blessing to move forward.

At this moment, no.

Okay.

No.

We let you do your thing. Yeah, thank you.

But as you see us over the next couple of months, ask us questions because we would like a motion at the end of the project and then a recommendation to city council to approve it. Or adopt it, excuse me.

Okay, thank you.

We have them here today.

That's right. Very informative. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having us.

We appreciate it.

And with that, that will... Bring us on to public hearings. We do have one continued from September 1st, 2026. This is a variance petition number 26-34VZ, Pam Health, Benna Signs. The staff is Nicole Tremblay. The agent is Kathy Song, Titan Sign Company. And the owner is Curry Lane, LLC. This is a quasi-judicial hearing. I do have a memorandum to read. This is to certify that the public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on August 29th, 2026, as required by the City of Venice Land Development Code. Proof of publication is on file in the Planning and Zoning Office. And I will open the public hearing. And could I have the attorney question the members, please?

Hello, board members. First and foremost, I'll ask if there's any conflict of interest?

None.

All righty, let the record show that there's no conflict of interest. And secondly, I would ask if there has been any ex parte communication, and we'll go from left to right.

Site visit only. None. None.

Site visit only.

Site visit only.

And for those that answered site visit only, you guys are able to remain fair and impartial and just face what's on the record today? Yes. Let the record show to say yes, and we may move forward.

Thank you, ma'am. And we'll confirm speaker cards have been completed. And with that, Nicole, welcome. Take it away.

Thanks. All right. Good afternoon. For the record, Nicole Chamblay, Senior Planner for the City of Venice. And we are looking at 2634VZ for PAM Health Venice. So this is located at 2639 Curry Lane. This is a variance for signage. Just straightforward asking for additional square footage on signage. Their parcel is about five acres. They've got a future land use of institutional professional and a zoning of OPI. They're in the Pinebrook neighborhood. And this site was approved through Site Plan 2063 SP. You all saw that recently. Their current wall signage includes 125 square feet for identification for the business name and then 15 square feet for an ambulance sign to let ambulances know where to go. They have 10 square feet of wall sign remaining according to the code and they are asking for a large sign on the north side of the building facing the hospital campus and that sign would be about 312 and two-thirds square feet. So here's how the sign would look. This is the north side of the building with it shown in a rendering. be large so that it can be visible from the hospital, I believe. Here's their aerial map. You can see they're on the north side of Curry Lane. And between this facility and the hospital is the FPL easement. So for existing conditions, we'll look at the future land use and zoning maps and some site photos. This is the future land use map showing neighbors to the east and west as institutional professional, mixed use corridor to the north, and then medium and moderate density residential to the south. zoning map shows the appropriate corresponding zoning's OPI on this property the properties east and west to the north is planned public hospital and then to the south is residential multifamily And here are some photos of the building as it looks today. That first photo is the area where they would be proposing the new sign. Then you can see the view from the north side of the building looking up at the hospital. And then the bottom two photos show their existing signs, so the ambulance directional sign and then the building branding. So for planning analysis, we'll just briefly look at the land development code. This is a variance request, so there are no technical requirements to meet, but they have complied with the procedural requirements in section 1.2. And then there are decision criteria in 1.13.3, which specify the planning commission should make an affirmative finding on each consideration. And they have responded to those. Those are in your agenda packet. We can bring up the criteria if you need to see them. But upon review of the petition associated documents, comprehensive plan, land development code, report and analysis, and testimony provided, we believe there will be sufficient information on the record to take action on this variance. Do I have any questions for me?

Any questions for Nicole?

Thank you.

No? Seeing none, thank you.

Do we have the agent to present their petition?

Hi, my name is Kathy Song. I'm with Titan Sign Company on behalf of PEM Health Rehabilitation Hospital for the sign variance approval. And we're requesting the sign variance approval because there's only 10 square foot left according to the city requirements. And so there's currently 125 square foot on the south side facing Curry Lane, and it's not visible from Pine Brook. And so for the main campus at 48,600 square feet, we're requesting one additional sign on the north side. So I think I have a presentation. Okay, so this is the location here. Go to the next one.

Oh, I do?

OK. Is it this one? No, you can use the mouse or the keyboard. OK, sorry. Is it this one? Oh.

It's probably better.

Okay, so if you look, the PEM Health Rehabilitation Services provides an inpatient, outpatient recovery. They have programs for stroke, brain injury, orthopedic and cardiopulmonary conditions. They have 42 private rooms and specialized rehabilitation programs and a lot more additional services. So current, again, is 140 square feet, and 10 square foot is remaining for that north side. The location, if you look at this, we're asking on the north side for that additional signage, and it's 440 feet from Curry Lane. And the hospital sits in a five-acre medical campus parcel, and if you look, it's facing the Saratosa Memorial Hospital. Okay, if you look, when patients are driving, they don't have visibility of the current PAM Health signage or the hospital, so that's why we're requesting this. If you look at the difference, the 10 square foot remaining is on the left side, and then what we're requesting is for an approval on the right side. The sign will be 44 foot 8 inches and 7 foot in height. And I want to kind of show how this works. The PEM Health, the access to the hospital is on the Curry Lane sign, which is at the bottom. And for people to, when people drive to the other hospital that's on this campus, they go through Pinebrook and they go through the periphery loop. And when they're driving on the periphery loop, there's no other identification signage for PEM Health. And so we're requesting that there would be one so that people could see where PEM Health is located. And we believe that the... Clear and visible building identification is especially important for a rehabilitation hospital. Many patients and visitors may be unfamiliar with the campus layout and may include individuals recovering from surgery, injury, illness, or other medical conditions. Adequate signage helps reduce confusion, improves wayfinding, and supports safe and efficient access to healthcare services. This is just around the area, and you can see that with additional signage, it's a lot more visible and easier to find for patients. I want to also mention why this property is different. The hospital sits inside a medical campus approximately, again, 440 feet from Curry Lane. The north approach needs the additional building identification when the patients are driving. The building orientation and relationship to Kerr Lane, periphery loop and the Sarasota Memorial Hospital campus are specific to this property. It's based on the property and not finances. The request is based on a site and submitted sign plan and so it's just because the way the site is laid out. The building and road layout already exist and no site change was made to avoid the sign code. There's no negative impact. We're just asking for one additional sign on the north side. We believe that it's reasonable because there's only 10 square foot for a 48,600 square foot hospital. So we're asking for that additional variance approval. Thank you. I can answer any questions that you might have.

Any questions for the petitioner? Yes, Mr. Hale.

Are you simultaneously trying to get permission to put a sign at the intersection of Curry Lane and Pinebrook? Because your current sign, in my opinion, is not visible from Pinebrook under any conditions. It's only visible from the hospital campus, which is nice, but I don't think that answers your real question. Someone trying to approach on Pinebrook.

has no idea where to turn yes if the city would allow it maybe we could talk to the client to add an additional signage but for currently on this variance we're requesting an additional pam health signage on the north side on the building yeah i understand that i'm not against it i'm just don't think it answers your solves your problem oh yes mr flaggy yeah just some some comments um

I think going to 312.67 is a little disproportionate size. I mean, it just seems like we went from 10 to all of a sudden over 300. My real concern here is that we're setting a precedent for these larger signs. And when you're on periphery, because you cannot get to the subject property from periphery loop, correct?

That's correct. It's on the car.

And when you're on periphery loop, if you're in a car, I don't care, you could be in a large SUV, you cannot see past the tree line or the hedge to even see the building. I mean, you can see the building, but I don't know who the audience is for the sign unless you're in an upper floor of the hospital. or the parking garage elevated to even see the sign. And then lastly, with the mapping technology we have today, this is a destination type, we'll call it a business or service. I'm sure most people are just plugging this into GPS and then we're going to come in from, I mean, I just don't see the gain from, I don't know what we're really accomplishing by having this huge sign on the back of the building because there's no, you just can't see it.

Yeah, so I can actually address that because I actually get lost a lot. And I think a lot of times, even though you have technology, when you're driving and you're hurt and you're in pain, you're looking around the area. Even though you're driving on that road, you're actually looking to see if there's a hospital, and so when you're driving, There could be someone else sitting next to you or a child sitting behind you saying, hey, this is Penn Health. When do you say go? And then locate the hospital that way. So I know that technology is happening right now, but it's not that. It's a lot of people, but I think visible actual signage on the building helps patients locate it.

I could also just see where, in this case, because it's very unique the way this property is, that it would add to some confusion as well because you can see, even if you could see the signs, see the signs there and we can see the building, it's not accessible from periphery. We still have to go out on Pine Brook and make a left and then go in. So you can see it, but I can't get to it type of thing. So I don't know. It's just...

But it's a wayfinding signage, so it shows people that that's where the campus is located. Yeah, I just worry about the precedent.

That's all.

Yes, otherwise they would just go to Curry Lane, and then if they're driving there, it would be very hard to locate. Thank you.

Mr. McCann. Yes. I'm going to sort of piggyback on the two previous comments. I happen to use doctors in the buildings off of Curry Lane right now as well as Sarasota Memorial Venice. But to me it does make sense that to have, to Mr. Hale's comment, some signage that really lets people know that your facility is right down Curry Lane as opposed to what we just discussed. I understand your comment of from the hospital looking over and they can see it, but the people who I think will be looking to find you, they want to come down Curry Lane and know where the heck you are. And I don't see that really being helped here.

So if you look, when patients take a ride on Curry Lane, they'll see the Pine Health Hospital. When they drive on Pine Brook and they take on the periphery loop, there's no access. So it's back and forth. The road is both ways. So if they're coming from the Saratoga Hospital, there's no visibility for the Pine Health Hospital. So I know that technology has changed and people can find it, but actual sign on a building makes a complete difference for patients to find the location. So the only way they can find it is, I know that you're mentioning the wayfinding signage, but the periphery loop is another road where they can actually see the visibility of a sign.

i guess also i understand what you're saying but it almost appears to me if i'm looking for the rehab hospital and i know it's off curry lane i would want to see that big sign on the wall as i'm coming down curry lanes there it is but yeah that's a comment so what it's just just to add my comment mr falagi almost

Took the words right out of my mouth, word for word. As I looked at this, I was like, who is the audience for this? If I'm over in the parking lot of the hospital, and I turned in there because I went, oh, there's the hospital. Well, wait a minute, that's not it. To see the sign over there, really, there's no way for me to get to it from when I'm in that parking lot. I'm also confused by that wouldn't have really helped me get me to where I'm going. Once you get over on the Pine Brook and you're driving down Curry Lane, then when you see a sign on the building, it accomplishes something. But I just don't see where this accomplishes anything. And like I said, Mr. Flagey said, we're kind of setting a precedent that it's okay when... I don't really see the justification. I really don't. So I don't know. Any other comments? Yes, Ms. Sherberg.

Ms. Song, thank you. Within your presentation, would you go back a few of your slides? There's one small picture that in my mind really kind of captures the situation. Go back one more. Right there. Okay. The bottom right-hand side, is that what I would see today if I were on the periphery of your drive? Is that the back of the building?

That's the back of the building, yes.

So it is visible from the SMH campus, but you don't know what that building is because there isn't a name on it at all. So even if you knew it was on Curry, you wouldn't know the approximate location i'm not opposed to additional signage there perhaps the size is a bit overstated maybe that's the biggest concern that we would have because there are other buildings on curry lane that have medical features to them medical offerings, but that bottom right hand picture is what says to me it would be nice to have a sign there.

Yes, that's correct. And if you look, this location is a 48,600 square footage hospital, and for them to just have one signage that is facing Curry Lane is really not adequate for this hospital. And so that's why we're asking for a variance. Night visibility is also a factor that they can see it. And so that's why we're asking for it. I see the reason for it.

Looking at that, as you point out that picture, looking at that picture, I think that was part of my concern. You see the edge of the building, but where this sign is where you're showing where you want it is over in the middle of the building. All you can see from here is the very edge of that building. What does the sign do?

When you say edge of the building?

What am I seeing in the corner down here, this lower right-hand picture?

That's actually the building where we would like to locate the building.

Well, that's the building, but what part of the building is it?

It's the front part on the north side. It's the front sign. It's not the edge. It's actually the front sign.

Okay. Yeah, it's the same as on the left side. So you would be seeing that sign if it were up there now, I'd be seeing it on that picture. Yes, yes. Okay. That's where my confusion was, is who's going to see it if there's no view from over in the other hospital parking lot?

And then if you look, the speed limit is very low, and so a lot of people will be turning their heads to locate PEM Health.

Okay.

Any other questions for the petitioner?

No? Thank you very much. Do we have any audience petition participation signed up for this one?

Yes, we have one speaker. First speaker is Jackson Boone, and he has five minutes.

All right. Good afternoon. For the record, Jackson Boone. I am representative for Sarasota County Public Hospital District, also known as SMH, and they have asked me to come here and speak on this variance request for the additional wall signage. SMH, first, I just want to make this clear. SMH is opposed to this variance request, and I'll go through some of the items here, but I want to emphasize that especially with me being in front of you all earlier this summer twice on variance hearings, there are decision criteria you have to meet. So there's the decision criteria. We've heard a lot of presumed logic about this. But first and foremost, the section 113.3a language specifically states, the commission shall, based upon substantial incompetent evidence, make an affirmative finding on each of the following in granting a variance application or find that a variance will correct a bona fide staff error that's led to a design. So no staff error here. They basically have to go seven for seven of the decision criteria. And per the staff report, what we've heard, the site already has a 125-foot wall sign on its southern facade, which is what faces Curry Lane, which is where the entrance is, and that's the address. And there's also a 90-plus-foot monument sign there along Curry Lane as well there on the southern side. The section 35353 limits total wall signage to 150 square feet maximum for buildings under 60,000 square feet, which applies in this instance. And as reflected by the staff report and you heard in the presentation, they only have 10 square feet remaining. So they've used 140 of their 150 square feet maximum for the site. So this request, and it wasn't explicitly stated in the staff materials, it was actually in the staff presentation, is for a 312 square foot sign to be placed on the parapet wall facing north towards the SMH campus. And Mr. Florlaghi, you beat me to it because I went out and drove Periphery Lane yesterday curious what exactly is this sign going to face? That sign where proposed on the PAM building, first of all, it's not on a facade that has any doors for entrances. So it's not going to be a sign you see and then you know that's how I get to the front door. But it's aligned with the medical office building, the parking garage, and then the southern part of a bed tower at SMH. So the requested variance for additional signage, which per my math is 302 square feet, is more than twice the maximum permitted wall signage for the site per the LDC. And it would more than double the existing wall signage on the building. This request for the 300 plus square foot additional addition of signage clearly does not satisfy the 113.386 criteria for the variance to be the minimum variance to make reasonable use of the property. and also based upon the wall signage already used on site, approximately 93% of their maximum wall signage, they've already used it, this does not satisfy the 113.3 criteria where the alleged hardship shall not be created by any person presently having an interest in the property or if it was a result of a bona fide area. Basically, you can't create your own hardship and then come back and request relief. So, looking at this, In the application materials, there's a sentence that stood out to me, and I think it cuts directly to the heart of the matter. It's that the proposed sign is intended to provide functional identification and wayfinding, not excessive advertising. We've put it on the record here from the applicant that there is no access from periphery to the site. It's on Curry Lane. Mr. Floriloghi, you beat me to the we're living in the digital navigation era, so if I need to go someplace and I don't know where it is, I haven't been there before, I enter it into my phone, I use a navigation app, and it takes me there. Well, that every single time will take you to Curry Lane. Here, meaningful wayfinding would actually be additional signage, which the applicant stated they would like to have. along Pinebrook and Curry Lane to help people know that this is where Pam is, not through this proposed signage on the northern wall. To me, that supplemental signage along Curry Lane or along Pinebrook, if they could obtain an easement, somebody would be what they're asking for. Not a 7 by 44 plus foot sign facing away from their entrance. I think this sign is designed to show people that PAM is there. It's not to help people get to PAM. And clearly, that's what the narrative and the justification was for it to be wayfinding. We don't believe it meets the criteria, and we would respectfully request you all to deny the variance.

Thank you, sir. That's it. That's it. All righty. Thank you. Any additional staff comments?

just wanted to clarify a couple things that i heard from commissioner's comments so first for off-site signs a couple of you mentioned what about having a sign you know down towards pinebrook road off-site signs were previously prohibited completely now our code does say that they can be approved by planning commissions that would be like through the site and development process but um they would also not be able to put them in the right of way so if they were to do that they would have to have some kind of easement or you know permission from the private property owners at that corner so that's just something to clarify um since you all were concerned about that and then the other um is whether this variance could set a precedent And as a general rule, variances are not meant to be a precedent, so whether you do approve or deny this, it should not have any bearing on any future variance requests going forward.

And I would just agree. I was going to wait until we close the public hearing to just say that with variances specifically, because it is very much focused on the hardship that the property is facing. You don't necessarily set a precedent, even though some people tend to use that word. And that is why, you know, I was going to wait to say all this, but that is why you are supposed to go by the criteria itself and go each one by each one. Because if it can meet all of it, then it's a hardship that that property is facing. And unless the other property also meets that criteria, but again, you're looking at specific hardship that that property is going through. So technically you can't just, somebody can't just put a hat and be like, hey, my hat also fits me as well. So just for the record.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Nicole. Any rebuttal?

Hi, I just wanted, the reason why we are asking for a variance is because the city code only limits PEM Health for the 10 square footage. And so the signage doesn't, it's just for identity. It doesn't cause any harm to the public. It's for patients who are driving on that road because there's just one additional signage that we're requesting for on the north side. It's to identify PAM Health location as a hospital at a 48, again, I just want to mention the hospital size. It's 48,600 square feet, and they only have one ID sign on Curry Lane. And so we're just asking for the additional sign. I mean, I don't want to mention other hospitals, but we're working on another hospital that have 20, 30 signs at that location to identify. And when people are sick and tired and they're trying to find places, sometimes they're just looking around, looking. And so the speed is 10 miles per hour. Sometimes they might be going slower. And so we are requesting it and that's why we're asking for a variance on the signage and so that it could be visible and it doesn't do any kind of harm for it. And then it's not for, I know that it was mentioned for advertising, it is not for advertising. It's for wayfinding and for patients to find the location and see the location, PEM help.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Nope.

OK. OK. With that, I'll close the public hearing. And do I hear a motion? Don't all jump at once. Mr. Flagey?

Yep. Based on review of application materials, the staff report and testimony and evidence provided during the public hearing, the Planning Commission, sitting as the local planning agency, finds that this petition does not meet the variance criteria in Section 1.13.1 of the Land Development Code because I'll just say broadly it doesn't satisfy all seven of the criteria and therefore moves to deny variance petition number 26-34VZ. We have a motion to deny.

Do I have a second?

Second. Also, just for the record, if we could, I know it says, you know, it doesn't satisfy some of the criteria, but if you guys as a board could just go through the criteria and just so we can have it on record which one is not satisfying for this purpose and that way just to make it clear. That would be great. Thank you.

Are you prepared to do that right now or do you need a couple of minutes to get that in order? Just give me a minute. I can take just a very brief recess if you want to speak with the attorney. I'll go for it, if we're okay.

I mean, we could probably do a few, but I think the hardship Number four, the alleged hardship has not been created by any person presently having any interest in the property where it was created as a result of a bona fide error. I think it was self-created. This is self-inflicted. They used... a majority, I think 93% of their signage allowance for the front, maybe they split those signs up at some point and have a smaller sign on the front and a smaller one on the back. To me, that was kind of self-inflicted. I'm just looking for the next page. That would be one if we just want to go with that. Is that sufficient?

It's up to you all.

I just needed on the record which criteria you're using to deny, if that's the one that you're... And number six as well, I mean, when I was there, I didn't see any inhibition of anybody using the property. The parking lot was full. I mean, it's busy over there anyway, but I don't think it's going to be detrimental to their business at all as far as the variance granted is the minimum variance that will be possible. We'll make possible the reasonable use of the property. I don't think that that sign, whether that sign's there or not, is going to affect whether there's a reasonable use of the property or not.

Okay.

I'm fine with it. I just wanted to make sure it goes on the record. Thank you.

All right. We have a motion to deny. Do I hear a second?

I already seconded it.

Oh, okay. Well, we had some more discussion. So, yes, Mr. McKeon seconded it. So, we have a motion to deny by Mr. Filagi. We have a second by Mr. McKeon. Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, could I have a vote, please?

Just so I'm clear.

Yeah, well, I meant to do that. Remember, this is a motion to deny. So a yes vote says deny it, a no vote doesn't. I would like to clarify that. I mean, that's the situation. So, okay. And... And they've all voted. And it's a yes. So the motion to die is approved. Five to nothing.

All right.

And that will then take us to... Zoning Map Amendment Petition Number 25-56RZ, Calvary Bible Church. The staff is Nicole Tremblay. The agent is the City of Venice. The owner is the Calvary Bible Church. This is a quasi-judicial hearing. I do have a memorandum to read. This is to certify that the public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on August 29th, 2026, as required by the City of Venice Land Development Code. Proof of publication is on file in the Planning and Zoning Office. And I will open the public hearing. And could I have attorney question the members, please?

And the board members, has there been any conflict of interest regarding this case?

None.

Let the record show there's no conflict of interest. Has there been any ex parte communications? And let's just start from left to right.

None. None.

None.

Side visit.

All right, thank you.

Okay, thank you. And we'll confirm the speaker cards have been completed. And I introduce Nicole, you're back again.

I am back. All right, for the record, Nicole Tremblay, Senior Planner for the City of Venice. We are looking at a city-initiated rezone for Calvary Bible Church, 2556RZ. So this church is located at 1936 East Venice Avenue. The request is to change the zoning on the parcel from County OUE 1 to City of Venice OPI. The parcel is about seven and two-thirds acres, and as I mentioned, currently has county county zoning so the reason this is city initiated is that city council directed staff to look into any properties that were within the city limits but did not have an appropriate city zoning that was in 2023 so we did compile that list we've reached out to owners and many have not really responded but the calvary bible church did want us to go ahead and proceed with this rezoning on their behalf so when they were annexed into the city many years ago typically they should have gotten a zoning and they did not so this would be to clean up the map and give them the appropriate zoning for the use that they currently have that's why opi is the proposed use that fits with the church that they are operating as today So they currently have a city future land use of institutional professional. OPI is the appropriate implementing zoning district for that as well, so there would be no future land use map change required, just the zoning map amendment. And then there are no changes to the site proposed, no other changes to be made other than assigning their appropriate zoning. So here's the aerial map. You can see this property is north on the north side of East Venice Avenue between Auburn Road and Valencia Lakes. And then to the south, there is some more residential. For existing conditions, we'll look at the future land use and zoning maps and the surrounding uses. So here's the future land use map. As I mentioned, it already has a city future land use of institutional professional, and then there is a variety of residential around it at different densities, low and medium. And then the zoning map shows RMF in the surroundings and this property with the Sarasota County open use estate. The proposed zoning would be OPI to match the institutional professional future land use. So some surrounding land uses. To the north and east is the Valencia Lakes neighborhood. That's a low density RMF1. To the south is Sanlino, medium density RMF2. And then to the west is Mirabella, also medium density RMF3. So for planning analysis, I'll show a brief comparison of the districts and look at the comprehensive plan and the land development code. So these are the standards for the current Sarasota County open use of state compared to the city of Venice OPI. Of course, church ever needed to do anything to their site they wouldn't be able to get permits or do a site plan amendment with the county designation so they would need a city district in order to expand or add an accessory building or something like that in the future they've not contacted us about any desire to do that but if they wanted to they would need their city zoning So right now, open use of state uses are things like single family, agriculture, animal boarding, stormwater, animal hospitals, daycares, utilities, barns, parking. So those are not consistent with the use they have. OPI allows any type of community care, cultural facility, lodge, place of assembly or worship, which the Calvary Bible Church is. schools, professional offices, medical offices, personal and financial services, and those sort of things, as well as veterinary and a hospital. So there's no density allowed in OPI, whereas the open use density is one unit per five acres. So there'd be no residential permitted on this property with the OPI zoning. Lot width wouldn't be changing. Setbacks are a little bit different with OUE. large 50 front side and rear they're a little bit smaller for opi 20 for the front 10 on the side and 15 in the rear but as i mentioned they're not proposing to add any buildings at this time if they did sometime in the future they would need to meet the opi setbacks the height actually remains the same 35 feet in both districts and then building coverage only allows 20 percent and open use but 40 percent and opi So looking at the comprehensive plan, there's really only one strategy that applies, and that is their future land use strategy, LU124B, institutional professional, which provides areas for professional offices, educational, health care, religious, or similar uses. So this existing church use would be consistent with that and with their implementing zoning of OPI. So conclusions related to the comprehensive plan. Analysis has been provided to determine consistency with land use element strategies, East Venice Avenue neighborhood, and other plant elements which should be taken into consideration. And then looking at compliance with the land development code, For a rezone, there are no technical development standards to meet, but we do need to respond to the land use compatibility analysis. So in your staff report and application, you'll see staff responses to those since this is city-initiated. But just to kind of summarize those, there are no changes to the existing use, no changes to the site proposed. The future land use does permit .5 FAR for any future expansion or redevelopment of the site that were to occur. Same with setbacks for OPI, as I mentioned. And we expect absolutely no impact to the surrounding neighborhood with the zoning map change because there is no change to the site proposed. So these are your six decision criteria for a zoning map amendment. I can bring those up if you need them. But in general, upon review of the petition associated documents, comprehensive plan, land development code, staff report and analysis, and testimony provided, we believe there is sufficient information to make a recommendation on this zoning map amendment petition. Do you have any questions for me?

Any questions for Nicole? Nicole, since the city is the agent, I assume there's no additional presentation?

No, that's correct. Just me.

Just a good guess. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. With that, is there then any audience? Oh, wait. I'm sorry. No, I'm fine. Okay. I thought I saw your finger go up there. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you. Do we have any audience participation signed up on this one?

No, we do not.

Okay. Thank you. And in that case, there will be no additional staff, no rebuttal, and I'll close the public hearing. And do I hear a motion?

Mr. Chair?

Yes, Mr. McCann?

Based on review of the application materials, the staff report and testimony, and evidence provided during the public hearing, Planning Commission, sitting as a local planning agency, finds this petition consistent with the comprehensive plan and in compliance with the Land Development Code, including decision criteria in Section 1.7.4, and therefore recommends to City Council approval of Zoning Map Amendment Petition Number 25-56RZ.

I have a motion by Mr. McKeon to approve. Do I hear a second?

Mr. Chair, second.

And I have a second from Ms. Shearberg. Any further comments? Seeing none, can I have a vote, please? and it passes unanimously five to zero. Okay, that will then take us to, I have a, okay. Next up is annexation petition number 26-14AN, Meehan Drive, Enclave. The staff is, again, Nicole Tremblay. The agent, again, is the City of Venice. The owner is Chelsea Lerenk. This is a legislative hearing. I do have a memorandum on this one. This is to certify that the public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on August 29, 2026, as required by the City of Venice Land Development Code. Proof of publication is on file in the Planning and Zoning Office. And I will open the public hearing. Can I have the attorney question the board members on conflict of interest?

Hi, board members. So this is a legislative matter, so at this time we don't have to, there's no legal requirement for the ex parte communications, so I'll be asking that later, but I will ask about the conflict of interest, and I will ask about the conflict of interest for this property, so this will apply for all petitions considering this property. All righty, so at this time, is there any conflict of interest regarding this property?

No.

All righty, let the record show there's no conflict of interest.

Okay, thank you, ma'am. And we'll confirm speaker cards have been completed. And Nicole, take it away.

All right. And for the record, Nicole Tremblay, senior planner for the city of Venice. Would it be possible to open all three hearings?

No.

Because one is legislative.

Yes.

Two is legislative. Two is legislative. But the legislative one is.

Yeah, the two legislative have two different standards. So it's better to have them separate. And you can't mix quasi and legislative.

Okay. But feel free to kind of speed through it. Second presentation.

Gotcha. Okay. So the annexation for Mahone Drive is an unaddressed parcel, about a quarter of an acre that will be brought into the city's jurisdiction. um this is again City initiated so it currently has no future land use um the request is to annex an Enclave so this is a property that is surrounded by City of Venice property on all sides it just is not within the jurisdiction of the city so then there will be subsequent petitions to assign future land use and a zoning this is in the golden beach neighborhood while this is city initiated we did receive permission from the owner to do this and it's similar to previous processes for annexation of enclaves which we've not had in quite a while but back in 2002 there were hundreds done via an interlocal agreement with the county and then some done in subsequent years by the clerk's office now we're handling it through planning and zoning so there are about five of these lots and we have this one that has been brought to our attention by the owner so here is the aerial map on the north side of Mahone kind of in between Harbor Drive and Golden Beach Boulevard surrounded by single-family homes so we'll look at the future land use map zoning map and surrounding land uses all around this property is low density residential the proposal as you will see is to make this property also low density residential all around this property is rsf3 for zoning and therefore we would be proposing to rezone to rsf3 as well So surrounding land uses, again, on all sides, residential, RSF3, low density residential. So for planning analysis, we'll look at the comprehensive plan and land development code. These are more relevant to the future land use. but the land use compatibility analysis does apply to annexation petitions, so you can see responses to that in your staff report and agenda packet. And these are your six annexation criteria. Consistency with state statute, contiguousness and compactness, that it does not create an enclave, which this resolves one, that it has been determined to be an existing enclave, that it has access to a public right-of-way, which it does on Mahone Drive, and that a pre-annexation agreement addresses existing uses however we did not do a pre-annexation agreement in this case as it is city initiated and there are no existing uses on the property so that's basically it for the annexation we believe there's sufficient record information on the record to make your recommendation to City Council and I'll answer any questions you may have

Any questions on this one for Nicole? Seeing none, thank you very much. Any audience participation for this one?

No, there's not.

There's not? All right. Thank you. And I assume then no additional comments and no rebuttal. So I'll close the public hearing. And do I hear a motion?

Mr. Chair?

Yes, Ms. Sherberg?

The Planning Commission, sitting as the local planning agency, finds this petition consistent with the comprehensive plan and in accordance with Florida Statute Chapter 171, and therefore recommends to City Council approval of annexation petition number 26-14AN.

We have a motion to approve by Ms. Shearberg. Do I hear a second?

Mr. Chairman?

Yes, Mr. Hale? And we have a second by Mr. Hale. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, can I have a vote, please? And the motion passes 5-0. OK. Let's see here. Now, that brings us to... Future land use map amendment petition number 26-15 CP, Mahon Drive Enclave. Again, the staff is Nicole, the agent of the City of Venice. And this is a legislative hearing. I do have a memorandum on this one as well. This is to certify that the public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on August 29th 2026 as required by the city of venice land development code proof of publication is on file in the planning and zoning office. Open the public hearing and confirm speaker cards have been completed and. One more time. Well, yet again, let's say.

Okay. So same property we just looked at for the annexation. So I'll go right into the future land use strategy. As you saw, all surrounding properties are low density residential. So this is also proposed for low density residential, which the comprehensive plan says supports single family detached and limited attached residential and establishes and maintains single family areas within the neighborhoods. So this is in the island neighborhood and we've provided brief analysis to determine consistency with the land use element, the island neighborhood and other plant elements. For a future land use map amendment, Florida statute compliance also becomes one of the requirements. So you saw kind of a detailed analysis of that in the staff report in the agenda packet. But generally, we need to respond to the data that is used to create the future land use map and whether or not Such an amendment to the map would create sprawl. This is located within an existing neighborhood rather than going beyond the boundaries of existing developments. So we chose four factors that we felt were relevant there and provided responses. This one does not have to do the land use compatibility analysis, but it does have these three decision criteria. Consider impacts to adopted level of service standards. Consider the compatibility matrix in the comprehensive plan and impact on possible implementing designations. And then it must be found in compliance with all other applicable elements in the comprehensive plan and Florida statutes. So we do believe there's enough information to make your recommendation on this future land use map amendment. But I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Nicole? No? Say no. Thank you, ma'am. Any audience participation on this one? I assume there wasn't. All right. With that, I'm going to close the public hearing. And do I hear a motion?

Mr. Chairman.

Yes, Mr. Filagi.

The Planning Commission is sitting as the local planning agency finds this petition consistent with the comprehensive plan and compliance with Florida Statutes Chapter 163, Part 2, and therefore recommends to City Council approval of future land use map amendment petition number 2615CP.

We have a move to approve by Mr. Filagi. Do I have a second? Yes, Mr. McCann.

Second, sir.

And we have a second to approve by Mr. McKeon. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, can I have a vote, please? And the vote to approve is five to nothing.

Yes.

And then that will bring us to Zoning map amendment petition number 26-16RZ, Mayon Drive Enclave. Again, the staff is Nicole Tremblay, the agents of the City of Venice. This is a quasi-judicial hearing. I do have a memorandum on this one. This is to certify that the public hearing for this petition was appropriately advertised on August 29th 2026 as required by the city of venice land development code proof of publication is on file in the planning and zoning office. Open the public hearing and can I have the attorney question the members, please have any member have any expert take communications regarding this petition.

All right, let the record show that none did. Site visit only. Site visit only.

I have a site visit only. Okay.

Thank you.

I will say I have seen it in the past. I didn't make a specific one, but I am familiar with the location.

And everybody can remain fair and impartial.

Yes. And we'll confirm speaker cards have been signed. Nicole? This time, one more time.

No, it's the last time. Okay. So as you saw, this property is proposed for residential single family three. One of the main things we would look at for the rezoning would be the land use compatibility analysis. A little more relevant here than at the annexation, so I'll just go over some of these items briefly. Land use density and intensity. So the proposed density for low density residential and RSF3 would be one to five. dwelling units per acre this property is one lot so they would get one single-family home building height in RSF 3 is 35 feet by right so they would have a height and setbacks that will match the same as what's allowed on all their neighbors properties single-family zoning is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood and they are not proposing any changes to the site at this time if they were to build a home on this site it would go through the normal building permit process for single-family homes it's not in an architectural control district so they would not have to go before historic and architectural preservation board just a straightforward building permit process And then to address some of the considerations for determining compatibility, protection of single-family neighborhoods. We know this is a single-family neighborhood. Prevention of locating commercial or industrial and incompatible areas. None could be proposed through this zoning of RSF 3. Whether it phases out non-conforming uses, there is no current use on the site. And then the density and intensity, as I already mentioned, would be 1.0 to 5.0 with one single-family home allowed per lot. Accessory structures, accessory dwelling units, of course, would be permitted in the future if they do wish to do that. So looking at your decision criteria for a zoning map amendment, you have six, whether it's compatible with existing development and zoning nearby, whether it's consistent with the comprehensive plan, whether it conflicts with existing or planned public improvements, whether public facilities are available, whether it will adversely affect health, safety, and welfare of the neighborhood, and whether it is in conformance with all applicable requirements of the LDR. And so with that, I would take any questions, but we do believe there's sufficient information for you to make your recommendation.

Any questions for Nicole? No? And once again, you're the agent, so I assume there's no further presentation. I'll skip through all that.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. And any audience participation signed up this time?

No, there's not.

I kind of figured that was the case. And we'll cut down to the chase, and I'll close the public hearing. And do I hear a motion?

Mr. McCann. Based upon review of the application materials, staff report and testimony, and evidence provided during the public hearing, the Planning Commission, sending this to the local planning agency, finds this petition consistent with the comprehensive plan and in compliance with the Land Development Code including decision criteria in Section 1.7.4, and therefore recommends to City Council approval of Zoning Map Amendment Petition No. 26-16RZ.

Thank you, sir. I have a motion to approve by Mr. McKeon.

Mr. Hale? Second to the motion.

And Mr. Hale is the second, so we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, can I have a vote, please? and that also passes five to zero. Thank you very much.

And Mr. Clark.

That was pretty quick, not too bad. For the record, Roger Clark, Planning and Zoning Director. Just want to indicate you do have a meeting next time on 10-6. We have a couple of applications. Both of them are located in the Laurel Road Venice Crossings area two projects, five applications. So that will be next meeting. And mostly what I wanted to talk about today was just to talk about the parks master plan and that was Nice to have the consultants here, and I wanted to make sure that you guys got plenty of time to hear from them. Like she said, you will hear from them a couple more times. They're also working with the Citizen Advisory Board, and they will be going to council on the 22nd to basically do the same presentation that you saw here today. Like I said, we've been working with them since April. They're excellent consultants. They've been so good to work with and we're excited about what we're gonna get as a result of this. You probably saw the signs that are out in the parks. There's a few of them on this campus as well. We have nearly 40 parks, and I was initially thinking, well, we gotta get 40 signs, but when you start looking at the parks, you look at all the access, we actually got about 120 signs. We are fortunate that Public Works put them out for us in one day, so hopefully we get a lot of response. from those we also have pushed it out on social media about the survey the survey is live it's been live I think since last weekend so it is live out there so you know tell your friends tell anybody you see to please go on there and and do that survey it's not very intensive time intensive so it's pretty simple to take We also have some small business cards, which we're putting out at different city locations and facilities that just have the QR code on. If somebody wants to do the survey but they don't want to do it right now, they can take that card, scan the QR code, and do the survey. So that's going well. We have it on our website as well. There is an intro page on our website, and it also talks about the opportunities for public input, which are coming up, as they mentioned, that they're going to be at the Sun Fiesta on that Friday. Sun Fiesta, from 5 to 8, they're going to have a table there where they can talk with folks. The next day, they will be at the Farmer's Market here on City Hall campus from 8 to 1. And then the two workshops that they indicated on October 27th, which is the evening one, 530 to 7, here in Community Hall. And then on the 29th, we'll be having one during the day from 1130 to 1230. So all that information is available on our website. We also were very fortunate that Channel 7 reached out to us last week and we were able to go up there and do an interview for their noon show and also their web show. So that gave us some more opportunity to get the word out that we're doing this plan. Hopefully we get a lot of public input from this to give them a better idea of what folks are looking for in our parks. So we're pretty excited about that. So tell your friends, tell your neighbors, fill out the survey. Other than that, that's all I have today.

I saw you on TV. I wondered, is this a new career that's budding now?

Yeah, I guess. We'll see. I haven't had any offers yet to do anything else.

Very good job. It came across very well. You did a nice job.

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm glad it did.

Thank you, sir.

Any comments from the members? If not, I'm going to let you off early today.

We are adjourned.