Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Uh, so we are bringing before you tonight the purchase of four police vehicles to be purchased via Coco Ford, Inc. As you may recall, we brought before you um previous in the year, the purchase of 33 police vehicles. Those were all within the budget um and were scheduled for funded replacement. Um this purchase would be to replace a vehicle that has been totaled. Um one of those were totaled and we need to replace that as a marked unit. Um there is another Impala that is ready for replacement. It's no longer serviceable. And so we would be replacing that with a new unmarked vehicle. Um and then we would be adding two additional units to the fleet. And those would go to captains um who at this time do not have vehicles assigned to them. Those positions historically had utilized leased vehicles. Um so we can kind of move those around. But due to some shortages within the fleet, um due to some accidents, we've had to kind of shuffle things around. Um when we purchased those initial 33 vehicles from Coco, one additional marked unit was ordered for city of Winter Haven and has been badged for us. And so they called and said, "Hey, we have an additional." That was our first right of refusal. Um so that is what we are bringing before you this evening is the purchase of four units. One of them will be marked. Um three will be unmarked, two are replacements, and two would be new additions to the fleet.

Thank you. Any questions on that? Right. Thank you. We've got the summer camp bus lease. Julie, we'll present this item for parks and good evening mayor, commissioners.

So staff is proposing to lease four school buses from the school board of pole county for the parks, recreation, and culture department summer youth program. That's for our transportation. This is an annual lease that we come to you with. These vehicles will transport all of our summer campers, which is an estimated total of 340 students, for activity trips both inside and outside of the county. We pay per mile, $150 per mile for the use of these buses. And we lease these from June 1st to August 7th. And so we bring before you tonight the lease that will uh contain all of the information for those buses as we do each year. Okay.

Thank you. Any questions on the bus lease? Seeing none. Thank you, Julie. You might as well stay up there.

Got the uh FOT temporary road closure for uh 5K. I'll go ahead and speak to the item as we're getting ready to put the slide up on the the screen. So this is the Department of Transportation the temporary road closure request through for our our annual Winter Haven Police Department 5K that will be held on March 14th. And this is again just a temp a regular item that we bring forward to you each year for any of our temporary road closures. This 5K will be staged the start and finish line in Virginia Miller Park. We have a map here before you for the route of the race. Once the race begins, runners will head north on the trail until they reach South Lake Silver Drive and will continue on First Street Northeast until they reach Avenue M by using the lane that is closest to the lake. So, they'll continue north on the trail on Unity Way. At this point, they will use the Tiko building as the turnaround and will return back to their origin at Virginia Miller Park. Is that all in one trip or is that multiple?

So one once they're through it's done. They're not coming back around for another correct. Any questions on this item? Seeing none. I think you got one more library carpet.

Yes. So this next one. [snorts] So again, this is an operations element here. Uh within our aging facility of the library, we do have recommended replacement of carpet and various sections. And this is coming before you as a budgeted replacement uh with the installer already being set to go in the main area of the library. This work would begin later this spring and installation should be able to be accomplished over a weekend with minimal disruption if any to library services.

Any questions on this item? Seeing none. Thank you. All [clears throat] right. So, we've got authorization for travel and training.

I'll take this one, Mr. Mayor. So, this is a routine item. As you know, travel and training for our elected officials requires approval by the uh city commission. This is pertaining to uh Commissioner Birdong's uh participation in the Central Florida Regional Planning Council. Their 2026 board meetings have been set for May in Arcadia, June in Hardy County, August will be in Highlands County, October in Okchobee. The December date uh has been set, but the meeting location has yet to be set. And those costs for the current fiscal year will be budgeted into the um the travel expenses for the city commission cost center. And then we'll also budget accordingly for fiscal year 26 27 items that are noted there.

Thank you. All right. Replacement of pumps for lift stations. Gary Huard will present items 10F, 10 G, 10H, and 10 I. This is his area. [snorts]

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Uh this item will come to you uh Monday evening for replacement pumps for a number of lift stations in our system. Uh these are uh part of u the process of maintaining our list stations to make sure they're up to date and operational. and of course limit uh potential uh overflows from our sewer system. So this is a regular budgeted item for FY26 and I'd be happy to have Dalton answer any questions about these lift stations. All right, any questions about a lift station?

I just have one question. Garrett, how long what's the lifpan of a generally? Generally speaking, you can get 15, maybe 20 years out of a palm. We have some very large ones. For example, you can see Harmony Masters on this one. So, that's a very big palm. Any other questions? I think we can move to the next item. Okay.

All right. So, this is the uh Interotal Logistics Center regional storm water pond. Um if if you're uh coming from the south of Logistics Parkway, uh you go past Ball Manufacturing, the city owns the property on both sides of what will be the new roadway. And there is a plan for a regional pond, storm water pond here that will meet the needs of all of our facilities in this area, including the new Pardro water treatment plant, the new water resource center, um industri any industrial customer that we may sell property to on the eastern side of Logistics Parkway. and we may be able to um take some flow from the residential development that is to the west. So this uh will meet the needs of all the development that's occurring in this area. So this is for the additional design effort for this uh project.

So that essentially makes those partials all more more. So any like if if we sell the property that's labeled Winter Haven there to an industry, we've already met their their storm water needs. So it makes that property that much more valuable. Or if somebody wants to relocate something, then they don't have to worry about that issue. It's already taken care of.

That is correct. Mayor, commissioner, this is kind of in [clears throat] line with what Trat has done with the ILC. They've gone in and put in significant amount of the storm water infrastructure there so that as those pads become developed over time they're not having to carve out additional space to manage the storm water retention for that you know that particular footprint. This does the same thing. So it as Gary said it becomes very attractive that that's one less piece of my construction that I have to deal with and based upon capacities already accounted for I can do more on the partial land in terms of my building footprint. Right. Additionally, on the eastern side of Logistics Parkway with the structures that are planned there, we've estimated that for our average rainfall, 50 inches a year, the amount of rain that would come off just the eastern side of Logistics Parkway is 600,000 gallons per day. Our future plans are to capture that water before it enters Peace Creek Canal and pump it back up to our water resource uh facility in the future to reuse that water. So, it's a very good project cooperation between the city and the developer in this case.

And the the west portion [clears throat] of that land that's still developable or is that low? Uh we had what you're seeing there is a uh settling pond. Um, our discharge currently goes through that pond. I think you saw Gary about what's on the on the west side of the regional pond. Is that what you're speaking to? Yeah, I'm just curious. So, due north of the ball manufacturing. So, so due north uh that is the the city's property and that outline of the regional pond. I expect that to get a little bit larger uh more towards the west with a flow going down the western boundary uh down to the the trap property storm water facilities.

Okay. Any other questions on this? I do. Um the the pond that is I guess at the south end of this is a north deal south end of the anticipated storm water pond. Is that part of the storm water system also? So that also flows through a ditch that flows through the trap property. So all that water is going to be captured in the future before it enters the Peace Creek Canal.

Commissioner Mercer, that or Mayor Prom Mercer, forgive me. the um that pond that you see just north of Ball Manufacturing is the storm water component that went in for their development specifically because they the tra properties to the south hadn't been developed to accommodate for that. So,

next item. Okay, this is um the Poke Regional Water Cooperative U easements for their AWS transmission system. Um this is the easements are basically north of what is the proposed water um the new Pard water treatment facility. And you can see up on this slide approximate location of where these easements are located. They're just south of the property lines. Um, and the plan is is to uh use not only the these easements, but to establish a right away through here so that Fourth Street and Wanita will connect to the new logistics parkway u with the the construction of the new water treatment facility. So, this will all occur by October of 2028. This should all be up and operational with that new roadway included. The area where this exists, mayor, commissioners, you may recall, we refer to it as the Bennett property the city acquired over the past few years. We've been working on that and closed not too awful long ago. Um, so there's there's two permanent easements that will go in there for that transmission line and then two temporary construction easements basically where that yellow line exists. So this will provide another access to the the interotal logistics center uh by extending fourth street through and should be a real benefit for the community.

Okay, one more item. So this one is um the uh recommendation of award for the construction manager at risk for the new water production facilities, Pard Road and and Cypresswood. Um we've been working on these projects for some times now. Uh drilling of the wells for these two new water plants is underway. We've already drilled two for Pard Road, two for Cypresswood. Uh we put this out for uh request for proposals. Uh Wharton Smith was the selected contractor for these two projects. So this is asking for your approval to begin negotiations for the Seamar contract with Smith. Mayor, [clears throat] commissioners, if I could add just I'm gonna ask the clerk to to hand you all [clears throat] a document. I think this is a a good opportunity this evening to we've had some conversations as of late about project delivery methods. So, you heard Mr. Hubard speak that this is a Semar delivery. Um, the document I'm giving you, we actually created this in 2017 as we were starting to venture more into alternative delivery styles of projects. And it it's intended to show you the difference between the three most common project deliveries that we have. The first at the top is the traditional low bid or what we refer to as a hard bid process. If you've been involved in construction projects with the city at any time, you may be familiar with where we go out and we get a project designed by an engineer or an architect. They give us those documents, the construction documents and such. They give us an engineers's

estimate of probable cost. We then take those documents and we issue out a bid for construction. And we hope and pray and keep our fingers crossed that the bids come in close to what the engineers's estimate of probable cost is. If it doesn't, we end up rebidding. Um, in some cases, those costs come back and we have to shove a project because we just don't have the funds available. It's very um it's a it's a challenging approach on large projects, but it is not necessarily something we've abandoned entirely. Uh an example of where this may be an appropriate project is if you have a standard, let's say park restroom building that you're going to replicate time and time again or lift stations are a pretty good example of a an approach where you would do a hard bid. There's not a lot of variation in those. We started going to design build projects which is the middle group you see there. And under those types of projects, you are awarding your contract based upon the qualifications, not on price, but based on the qualifications of a team that is going to deliver your project. And that team includes the engineer, maybe an architect, a landscape architect, and certainly a general contractor. And they work together as a team to design a product for you and then to ultimately build it. So you are engaged in design build projects right now. Um fire station 5 which is presently under construction is a design build. Fire station 4, fire station 3 were design builds. A number of our park improvements over the years have been design build projects. And Gary, if I'm not mistaken, the the Winter Haven Water campus that we're building on Dundy Road off of Buckeye Loop Road was a design build process. In those projects, typically what you're

going to see is we have a good understanding of what our total cost should be and we budget for that. The um the project is awarded to a team. That team goes out and does their design work. we they know how much money we have to work with throughout and they design and then bring forward a GMP a guaranteed maximum price to deliver that project. That is typically the fastest way to get a project delivered. But the challenge within it that you can face if you have perhaps a less scrupulous contractor, which knock on wood, our contractors have been very good with us and we feel very honest and straightforward with us. If a contractor comes back and says, um, we can build that $20 million budgeted project for $19 million, and we accept that, that's how much we're going to pay for it. But if the project comes in at $17 million on their side, we still pay $19 million. If they are able to achieve savings within that, those savings stay with them. The Seymar project is something that we, I'd say, first really ventured into when we built the fieldhouse in 2017. Under that approach, you hire a [clears throat] contra you hire a an engineer or architect through one contract and then almost immediately thereafter, you hire a contractor. And those two entities work side by side through the design phase. The architect and engineer designing your project. The contractor is watching that design. They're giving feedback on methods, on materials, on means on how they would deliver that project. They may say, "Hey, you're talking about doing this as block construction. We think it'd be cheaper to do it as tilt wall construction. You're talking about using uh wood flooring. we think that

you'll get a better value if you use LVT and it'll last longer or a variety of different things that they can weigh in on in the design phase that helps value engineer the project but they work as two separate entities. The beauty of the Seymar is that when it goes to generating a guaranteed maximum price, that Seymar contractor is actually bidding out that project through a sealed bid process and bringing back those bids to determine what the true cost is. If the cost comes in less than what that guaranteed maximum price is, the contracts will identify what is the cost share ratio on savings that are achieved within that. So again, if it they come back and say it's $19 million, but through the process of value engineering and finding ways to save money, they share in some of those savings, but the city is the primary recipient of those saved dollars. in projects like the fieldhouse that allowed us to do additional uh add amenities or features to the project at the end of the day at the Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center. That's allowed us to make additional improvements in the aquatics arena. So, there's a there's a value in doing that. Um I often tell people that the Seymar approach is probably most similar to how the private industry would approach a project. I'm going to hire an architect. I'm going to hire a contractor. And I'm going to be the boss that's going to tell them, "Y'all work together to give me this project that I want, and this is how much money I have to deal with." And so that's how they go about the process. We've done that, as I mentioned, on the um on the fieldhouse. We did that on the Channel Lakes Park phase 2 improvements on Winter Haven

Recreation and Cultural Center, and now we're doing it on these water treatment plants that we're we're building now. So, the other thing that that I think is good with this chart is that it shows you, you know, the traditional low bid, um, it's very methodical and it's probably, you know, more traditional, but it can also end up being the longest and it can be the most subject to cost overruns through change orders, through things that come about because the time of when a project is designed to when it's actually built can be significant. I refer often back to the South Park project, South Central Park project we did uh many years ago now. We had originally bid that project when Dale Smith was city manager. So that would have been what prior to 2013 and the bids came back and they were far beyond what we could afford and we sheld the project and it wasn't until five or six years later when we could acquire enough money, you know, through other means to go ahead and advance that project. So it tends to draw things out. Design build can be the fastest, but again if there's if there's opportunities through efficiencies and delivery uh value engineering, we don't always see or realize all those savings ourselves. There's a potential risk there. The Semar is kind of like the Goldilocks approach. We don't want to go too fast. We don't want to go too slow. We want to go just right and get it right and have all the players at the table through the process. So for very large complex projects that has been our preferred approach on that. So this is just kind of like I wanted to give this to you. Um it's kind of a primer in the process of how different projects are delivered. Once we negotiate with uh Wharton Smith if the commission so chooses to award this contract to them.

Their contract will include really two things. Um, in terms of the financial aspects, it should include what we call preconstruction services, which is a payment to them for their time at the table during the design and the review of all that work. And then it will have a construction management fee, which is going to be a percentage of the total cost of the project. So, for them to do all the bidding and oversee all the work that's getting done out there, that's usually a low percent. It's going to be the more expensive a project is, the lower that percentage is going to be. When we built the fieldhouse, I think from what I looked at earlier today, um, in 2019 20 or 2017, 2018, our preconstruction services were about $185,000 from the contractor and our project management fee was about 4 and a.5%. Um, I don't recall exactly what it was on Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center, but similar process. So, again, that's what I would expect to see in a in a contractual arrangement with uh the firm if they're awarded here. So, I just wanted to give that as kind of a little background. Um, something our team works in pretty much daily, but wanted you all to have the benefit of that insight as well.

Thank you, city manager. If I could expand just a little bit further. For example, [clears throat] PRWC, their Southeast Wellfield project, that's a Seamar project. Also, that management fee was 8%. So, I don't want you to think that we're going to be down in that 4% range. We think it probably will be a little bit higher. Um, some other things that are unique about these these two new water plants. All of our current water plants pull water from the upper floor. This these two new plants will pull water from the upper zone of the lower Florida. And what why does that make a difference and why are we doing that? So the uh the water management district is going to limit our pumping capabilities from the upper Florida to the 2025 demand. So that's going to set our our maximum limit of pump pumping from the upper flooring without about recharging the aquifer. These two new plants are going to be pulling from the upper zone of the lower flooring. So, they are subject to different rules and regulations. So, we're not limited by the amount of water that we pull from this aquifer. So, that's a real benefit for the city. We think that um permitting of these two facilities will probably be likely in the range of about 5 to 5 and half million gallons per day eventually. So that will help set the city up for a long-term water supply along with the additional water that we receive from the Pulk Regional Water Cooperative which is about 1.5 million gallons. Um so this these two projects have uh you know they're a little bit different than what what we're used to. They do

require additional treatment other than upper Florida and water but uh much less expensive than going deep like uh PRWC. Any questions on [clears throat] the water project or what city manager presented? Okay, it's a quick question on the on your presentation. You're good, Carrie. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um I can never remember the official name for it but I was just curious where so school board did their project and public private partnerships.

Yeah. So where would that fall in? Would that be like a design build or would that be a category is going to be even different? Yeah. So P3s are statutoily guided in the state of Florida. Um Drew, you wanna you're kind of my P3 expert.

Yeah, P P3s are really they're they're sort of experimental in a way. U they're they're a they're a different type of procurement altogether. Uh it's a project that's proposed by the private indust by private industry. Uh it can either be solicited or unsolicited. Um usually P3s are unsolicited proposals meaning that the government did not ask for proposals. Um when those when you move forward with that you can have public competition. Um, but the key element about a P3 is you negotiate a comprehensive agreement that defines how things are supposed to happen with the with the project, right? Um, you don't have to provide for the same level of competition uh if you if you've gone out and procured this correctly and followed the mechanisms. In fact, the legislature just sped up the process and we are maybe the 11th city in the in the state to take advantage of that with our current P3 negotiations. Um, so that's more like a design build and it's it's just a more of a black box instead of the the typical steps that help explain.

So you have two P3 projects, one that's underway and one that's we're we're working on the comprehensive agreement for now. Parking garage. So, that's an unsolicited proposal that came to the city to build a new parking garage. Um, under that scenario, that private entity designs, pays for, builds that item, and then it becomes the city's asset through us paying for it all at once. Um, there's a number of different structures that happen with that that can happen with that. We're doing a P3 Bradco Farms. That whole project is a P3. Um certainly the school board and you know, Commissioner Davis probably has more intel on this than certainly I do, but P3s have um come into the fold within schools. Yes.

You know, it's there's there's certainly benefits to it. um the ability to get a project delivered without having to allocate your own resources of managing a project and overseeing that. Someone else is doing all that leg work. You're going to pay the price tag at the end of the day for it. Um but you're not necessarily having to to reassign all of the technical resources you have within staff to oversee that. Um in in some cases it may also such as with the parking garage, it ties back with the availability of land. Right. Right. And and with the P3 though,

you say it's normally an unsolicited bid, but if you wanted to tie it to just picking examples, fire stations or water facilities or anything like that,

how does that unwind an unsolicited to become a solicited? Yeah, the it's a it's a conscious choice by the government to solicit the the P3 partnership. You know, the normal procurement and I say normal, but the typical procurement method we see for those types of utility projects, public safety projects, you you would see a design build concept in that the industry is very familiar with that that procurement model for those types of facilities. Semar here for larger water type projects. So you would essentially put a bid request out for a P3

if you were to do a solicited partnership. Yes. And and a solicited partnership might be you know we we were very lucky to receive the res unsolicited partnership for our project uh north of town right north of Dundy Road. that but that's the kind of project that you might solicit a P3 partnership for something that's unique, different, special where uh folks in the industry that are specialized can respond in a manner that allows them to leverage their expertise and bring what their connections can bring to the table. Um that would be the instance where I might see a solicited uh P3 or you might receive advice from us that the solicitation solicited P3 is worth moving through the process. I think I'm [clears throat] I'm trying to come up with an ide what a good example of a solicited P3 might be. And again, I I'm not as familiar with the school district, but if you had if you had a need for a specific type of facility that maybe geographically was somewhat known, but not a specific piece of land that you were ready to do that on. Um, you might put that out of, hey, we need a we need a new public safety complex in Southeast Winter Haven and solicit for P3 proposals in that where somebody's going to come forward and say, "I've got the land. I'll build it. I'll design it, take all the risks with that, and then turn it over to you all, you know, at the cost at the end of the day." Um, you know exactly what you need and you carry that forward. Chad, I don't know if you have thoughts on how the the county district has done.

Yeah, I think um solicitations.

So when when you think of P3s, you think of uh I mean there's going to be a mutual benefit. The the private industry is going to benefit from that. So um and in the for the sake of the the school district, you have groups that specialize in building schools. So uh they they may want to build those for public schools, charter schools, private school, but they know how to build schools. They know how to do it efficiently. and they've identified a place where they want to build a school and where we need one. So, they they make that proposal. In this case with the, you know, when we get to the garage, same thing. You've got something that you're good at building that you're going to offer. What makes I think solicited P3s a little different is we are asking for something that we need that,

right, no one else is really going to need. So, finding someone who specializes in building fire stations or lift stations, you know, that's that's a little bit unique. Um, you're more likely to get unsolicited proposals and it's going to be from maybe a developer who identifies a need, but they're going to want from us, but they have a location they prefer it to be for serving their own private needs. So, they propose it to us. Um, and if it meets what we need as well, there's that mutual benefit. So, then they go forward and they can deliver the efficiencies to us.

Yeah, Trisha Davis, I think that's exactly right on point. You know, that and and a good a good comment on this well too. We had the parking study done in 22 that identified certain areas that could be a potential spot for a parking garage. One of them was identified that is the site of the unsolicited P3. Just because we have procured a study that says these are our interested places and you know maybe we designate those as yes, we're city manager follow up. Maybe we'll find something that doesn't necessarily turn this proposal into a solicited proposal. A solicited proposal is an actual advertised proposal request for bring us proposals to build us and give us this project. And it could be specific to a unique piece of land. It could be bring us the land and the project. It's really however you want to develop it.

So I I'm I'm recalling, you know, several years back we had an architect give us a rendering of what a new city hall annex could look like. So that that's out there, right? But we never moved forward with it. So if a develop that as a P3 or it it's out there and I'm not advocating for that at this point or a desire to do that, but it's out there. So if a developer were to see that and want to go ahead and put everything together for us, they could then here you go. Here's an unsolicited bid. Um I think it's a great way to look at it. brought about the render

strategic planning, long term, long range planning, and really looking at everything from gosh, that that plan included renovation of this space, a new city hall across the street, complete renovation or raising of the annex to the north of us to create additional housing and a parking structure. Kind of a master plan.

It was Yeah, it was a it was a long range master plan. Um, you know, we we're doing small bits and pieces of that in Bites. The roadway project on Third Street is a a component of that. Um, I had I did have at one point someone inquire about, you know, considering a P3 for a parking structure, but the numbers just don't make, you know, they got to make sense at the end of the day. If somebody else is going to build it for you, you're not going to they're not just going to turn around and give it to you. You know, you're going to you're going to carry a lot of the costs and you know, borrowing money to do that, the interest rates, of course, they want to make a profit on that at the same time. So, it it may be an easier way to get it done, a faster way to get it done, but it's not necessarily a cheaper way always to get it done. So, you got to got to weigh all that out.

Okay. Any other discussion on that? All right. We'll move on to We've got one ordinance first reading.

Yeah. I'm going to take this one uh for you this evening because it's pretty But um you know we bring back forward to you amending ordinances regarding budget adjustments that need to be made. So we have three things that came up after the fiscal year commenced um that require us to do a budget amendment for. So one is the rail spur project out of the ILC. One is the renovation of the city hall annex uh for the building division. And then just recently we brought to the emergency purchase of the alarm system at at the police department. Um the rail spur project is estimated to cost 3.3 million and that's transferred from $1.5 million that comes from the state and there's a $100,000 commitment from us. The balance of all that cost will come from um the funds from tra industries or traies and supply properties to LLC. uh per the cooperation agreement we just recently executed. So, we need to move that money uh to be able to advance that project. The renovation of the city hall annex is has a GMP that was recently approved of $4.021 million. Funds are available within the construction fund as a result of prior year transfers from the building division. Um however, the fiscal year 26 budget includes 2 million for this project. So we we're going to require an amendment from the fund balance within the construction fund of the additional two. So it's all there. Just got to get it into the right fund. And in order to move money from one fund to another, we have to do a budget uh ordinance to amend that. And then the last one is that fire alarm improvements that was just shy of $58,000. Uh and that expenditure is going to be funded from uh anticipated excess within the general fund to account available to account for that. So this is just a amending ordinance specific to the budget.

Any questions on the first reading? Seeing none, I don't see any other items on the agenda. So, does anyone have any comments or questions regarding the upcoming meeting? Seeing none, motion for adjournment. Have a great Ash Wednesday. We are ajourned. That was