Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

So Monday night we'll have the invocation, we'll have a pledge, and then we've got three presentations. Let's see, are any of them tonight? Yep, one of them is tonight. So we'll go ahead. You want to tackle that one now?

We can do that at the end because I think it's a good highlight to end the meeting on.

All right. Did you want to speak to the other?

Just 5B, that is a presentation that you typically receive from Hartford Winter Haven during the summer months that gives you updates on what they're doing in their housing initiatives. So Mr. Apiti will be here to do that as well as present a new project that they're working on.

Okay. Will we have Q&A with him on that project? As much as you want. Okay. All right. No developments of note. Minutes. And we'll do all the normal stuff there. Looks like we've got one second reading.

Correct. That is the industrial pretreatment that we've had before you at the last meeting. Again, this is addressing the caught high-test wastewater that comes to us from our industrial... The industrial agencies that are permitted under IPP certainly answer any questions. We've had quite a bit of dialogue on that one. Commissioners, any questions?

I think we're good. We'll move forward to consent agenda.

So item 10A, this is a complete street project, not too dissimilar to what we've done in other parts of the community. This one is over on 8th Street Northwest and Avenue L Northwest. Brittany Hart, our public works director, will speak on this. Just as a point of reference, this is coming from Lake Howard, just past Beamer Church, up towards the backside of the Northgate Public Shopping Center, and then also the east-west corridor of Avenue L that goes back towards US 17.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. So in January of 2023, the Commission adopted multiple resolutions taking grant applications to the Polk County TPO and the FDOT. one of which was 8th Street Northwest and Avenue L Northwest, which will be from, as T. Michael said, Lake Howard all the way up to Avenue L and then from Avenue L towards 6th Street and US 17. These projects will include adding pedestrian infrastructure where none exist today. filling in some sidewalk gaps within those city limits, one of our goals, as well as doing intersection improvements at 8th Street Northwest and Howard Terrace and 8th Street Northwest and Avenue L. We'll also be exploring traffic calming. There's currently speed bumps installed on that runway, so we'll be exploring traffic calming methods in that area and making minor drainage improvements as required by the design. FDOT awarded a grant to us for the construction of the project in the amount of $1,256,720 that we can use again for the construction of the project. And they anticipate us being ready for construction in their fiscal year 2028. the city would be required to fund any additional cost for construction over that amount. So in order to get this project to construction, staff reached out to Kimley Horn & Associates, which is a firm under the city's professional services contract, and requested that they prepare a scope for the design. they will during that process also prepare a estimate for the construction so their design will include survey work geotechnical work progress meetings permitting and then the preparation of multiple phases of designs 30 60 90 and 100 and they anticipate to have final plans in our hands by fall of 2027. kimley horn's lump sum fee for their design service will be 390 584 dollars There is $285,000 that is budgeted and detailed within the fiscal year 25 and 26 transportation fund budget, and the remaining $105,584 would be funded through available cost savings that we've had within other projects throughout the few years. And so we are going to be recommending that the commission authorize the approval of this scope of work and allow the issuance of a purchase order so that we can move forward with the design and be ready for construction by FDOT's fiscal year 2028.

Are we trying to do anything crazy on this, like roundabouts or anything like that?

I'm not going to say no, that we don't anticipate a roundabout. That was thrown into the scope when we submitted the grant application. However, I don't believe that's going to be the result of this project.

Or any changes to that south entrance and exit off of Lake Howard? to reconfigure that at all?

They're going to look and see if there needs to be any changes there, but we don't anticipate there being any intersection improvements at that intersection specifically.

Okay. Is it Howard Terrace, the next road? Howard Terrace is the next road. That's probably the more tricky of those. It's a pretty... wide intersection and kind of a wide intersection. Just probably need some geometric reconfiguring in there, but that's what the design professionals are expert in, let them come back with the best solutions at the best cost for us.

What's the speed limit on that road?

Do not have the speed limit off the top of my head.

Legal or average? You indicated there's, are there currently speed bumps on that road?

There are.

There are?

Yes, sir, there are.

How many are there?

Not from actual record, but from memory, I believe there are three.

So you are proposing to put more?

So when we go through the design to reconstruct the roadway, they're going to evaluate traffic calming mechanisms. And so that might be chicane where we jog the roadway a little bit and then jog it back. So we naturally can calm the traffic without those speed bumps. And so we would be looking to remove them if we can input some other traffic calming methods.

Okay. I think we're good.

Thank you.

Next item for your consideration on Monday is some additional work at the Bradco Aquifer Recharge and Wetland Restoration Project site. These are consulting design services. City entered into an agreement with res for this project in 2025 and most of that was for site reconnaissance and site assessment evaluation. We have issued out six different task orders which are listed in your fact sheet between February of 2025 and June of this year. Additional work under previously approved task orders three, four, and six is now required to continue environmental permitting engineering and property acquisition activities. So more specifically, you may recall in task order three we were doing some environmental assessments. One of the things that needs to be done is an acoustic survey for bonneted bats. That is tied to task order three at a cost of $25,000. Task Order 4, this is the aquifer recharge well installation support, so wellhead design of the interim system at $150,583, and electrical design for the interim system at $15,000. And then task order six, the additional work is for boundary surveys and phase one environmental assessments for land acquisition. It's part of the Northern Lobe. I mentioned we're trying to add more land to that project. So we've been in negotiations on two parcels. One is with the Muncie property. Another is for an easement on the King property. And those are $5,800 and $4,300 respectively. Total cost for these additional items associated with all those task orders is $200,683. We do have a number of grants associated with this project to include 1.8 million in pre-construction activities, grants of 5.58 million for wetland construction, and 1.5 million for future land acquisitions. So the Water Department, in proceeding with these, Tasks will seek reimbursement from DEP for the qualifying activities that are in those grant work programs. Okay. That's it. I think we're good. Yep. Next item is the scope of work with Raftelis Financial Consultants and the tag team this evening with the city attorney. So in July, during a budget presentation, not a budget presentation, but a workshop that we did specific to Amendment 3 and the potential for property tax reform, the commission had requested for us to bring back a scope of work for consideration tied to a fire assessment. So we have reached out to Raftelis Consultants to prepare the requested scope of work that is in your packet. Their scope of work consists of two phases. The first phase is to do a methodology development, preliminary assessment calculations, and prepare a draft report for the city's commission's consideration. And then the second phase would be to update that analysis. This would likely happen in the May-June timeframe of 2027. Prepare an ordinance, if necessary, or any resolutions in concert with special counsel that we've also secured, and then supporting notices to residents if you choose to proceed the adoption hearings and the final assessment rolls. The cost associated with the first phase is $27,035. And if you choose to move forward with implementing your fire assessment fee based upon what their report shows, $32,500 at that time for a total cost of $59,535. I'm going to talk a little bit more about this separate from the fact sheet just to give a little clarification. So Citi in 2015 looked at a fire assessment and got all the way to up to the point of holding the public hearings to actually implement a fire assessment. The intent at that time was not in response so much to property tax reform, but the impacts that were felt throughout most of the communities dating back to the Great Recession. You still hadn't recovered at that time. We had a number of needs within the fire department tied to equipment replacements and the permanent construction of a station three. So we worked with Raftelis at that time to do the study. They brought it back, and it got to meetings were scheduled for those hearings, and then subsequently the commission voted to go ahead and cancel that and not move forward with it. But there were certain things that were done at that time that laid the groundwork for where you are today. For example, the city's code was updated or amended at that time to include section 17-171 through 17, let's see what the final number is here, 189. uh... to put into play the guidance for the city commission uh... then or in future commissions to implement a fire assessment if you so choose so all of the PROCEDURAL ELEMENTS ARE ALREADY CODIFIED. WHAT YOU WOULD NEED TO DO TO PURSUE A FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE, THE FIRST THING IS YOU DO A STUDY THAT SHOWS, REALLY LOOKS AT WHAT ARE YOUR RECOVERABLE COSTS, WHAT ARE THE ALLOWABLE EXPENSES THAT CAN BE ACCOUNTED FOR THROUGH A FIRE ASSESSMENT FEE, AND IN A NUTSHELL THAT IS THOSE THINGS THAT ARE NOT TIED TO ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT. We estimate that they're, preliminarily, that's probably about $16 million of the proposed 18 plus million dollar budget for fire for 28 is recoverable through fire assessment fees. The other thing that happens in that initial phase beyond identifying what is recoverable is what is the kind of the parcel makeup of your community? What's the methodology to be used that is allowable? And how would that be apportioned out based upon calls for service, costs of operations, and parcel identifications to establish kind of a baseline? Here's what you could recover. Here's what those rates would look like. And here's your study. prior to moving forward with an implementation, once the fiscal year 28 budget is preliminarily established and presented to you in June of 28, that study would be kind of, I'm sorry, of 27, the 28 budget in 27, you would with the assistance of the consultant, use that budget, any changes in properties that occurred between when the initial study was done and the tax rules that come out from the property appraiser in June of 27 to determine what your amount you're seeking to recover, establish what those rates would be. And then there's a series of steps that happen after that to establish public hearings, notice to the tax collector and property appraiser, because that's how these are collected at the end of the day. A lot of the work has been done in Winter Haven's case back from 2015 to establish the guidance and procedures. It's now a matter of what do the numbers show? What's recoverable? What would that look like? What's the maximum amount you could recover? And then based upon where you land, what would you want to do if amendment three were to pass or if you wanted to pursue a fire assessment fee to account for other changes whether that's a future millage reduction or something else to be accounted for within the general fund mr murphy would you like to add anything to that

I think you've been very complete at this level. For that, I would mention that in conjunction with the Raftelis study or what's being proposed, we would be engaging an attorney, Susan Shetley-Gumm, who worked with us in 2015 as well. She's an attorney in the Sarasota area and specializes in assessment matters, special assessment matters. She's worked with Winter Haven before, is familiar with that, has often worked with Raftelis on the legal side of things and facilitates the city attorney's working the legal side and preparing the appropriate legal documents. And so she has also provided an engagement letter, which we have a total of about $10,700 for her services. So I think that's part of what it is we would be proceeding with. And that's helpful. She worked with us, as I said, back in 2015. So she's essentially the one who drafted the code that's in our city manager reference right now, section 17 within article Roman numeral 5 of our code. So I think that's going to be helpful. The other thing that we will do or will probably need to do is we did this in 2014, at the very end of 2014, in December. We adopted a resolution that provided the, or demonstrated the notice of intent to use the non-evaluable assessment rule process. section one ninety seven point three six three two of the foreign statutes requires certain things to be done governmental entity like the city wants to use the money assessment role process to collect a fire special assessment in this case if i protection and so we did that and it requires advertising a notice for once a week for four weeks with a map of the city and then a legal description for the city. And then you do that either before the end of the calendar year, prior to the year that you wish to use the role. Or if you can get the property appraiser and the tax collector to agree, you can do it no later than March 1st of 27 in this case. And I understand that the city of Lakeland has already requested and I think likely will get agreement with Joe Tedder and with Neil Comby and the Lakeland City Commission to allow it to be March 1 rather than December 31st of 26. So we may want to look at that ourselves. We did it in 2014, but the city has grown since then. We've annexed properties and we've had the whole new subdivisions come on board. So probably as an appropriate and making sure that our process is as legally defensible as possible and as accurate as possible, we would probably want to do another notice of intent again to make sure that we include, so as to have included all of the properties that have come into the city since 2014. But yeah, I think it's suggested here to be a two-phase process. And I think it's appropriate to start now so that you all understand there are off ramps by doing a notice of intent resolution, by even having adopted this into our code. And even adopting an initial rate assessment doesn't mean that you can't as a political body decide, you know what, we're not going to do this. But at least you have the options and there's flexibility there. And as the manager noted, even depending on what happens in November, even if property tax reform doesn't take effect, you may still want the option to address these matters and couple it with a reduction in millage. So who knows? But it gives you options. And I think that's probably something that's worthwhile.

I would note that when we did Resolution 1446 in December of 2014, that established the legal description of the city and factored in all the annexations that had happened leading up to that point. One of the key points within that resolution, it states that adoption of this resolution does not require that the city commission approve or impose special assessments. It simply establishes what that legal description is and gives notice of intent. But it doesn't say, yes, you have to do this. And so much so that when the commission went through it in 2015, it had gotten to a point ultimately agreed or voted in favor of not moving forward with a special assessment. I think it is a complicated process. There's a lot of moving parts to it, but I think that the fact that Raftelis and Ms. Shelty have done this process with us in the past and have done this with a number of other cities, it's a very clear path with specific steps that we know what needs to be done, when they need to be done. You just can't miss any of those steps along the way.

Did you say what the intent was, the reason they actually engaged in the process in the first place?

Yeah, in 2015, 2014?

Yes, what was the reason?

is i recall commissioner it was we're coming we're coming out of a time when you're still feeling the effects of the great recession your ad valorem revenues had not recovered your total taxable value still had not gotten back to where they were pre-recession there was a number of needs within the fire department specifically tied to the replacement of engines and at that time we were operating fire station three was a a double-wide mobile home that had been set up initially in one location then moved to another location and was not in the best of shape. And to be able to plan for what that replacement would be was a means to accomplish some of those long-term strategies. Since that time, certainly within fire, we've put into play more realistic capital replacement programs for our engines, and we've been able to build those stations off of bonds and debts that have been issued over that, you know, since that time. But that was the intent then.

And also getting... How long was that process then?

It's the same. We started, so we did the initial notice resolution in December of 2014, and then the commission.

We adopted the ordinance in May of 2015.

Yeah, so it was about the same time. When it was finally decided to not move forward would have been. July 27th. Yeah, I'm looking at meeting minutes, and it would have been, was it July 27th? No, it was on August 24th. They ultimately decided to not move forward with it. But it was around the July time frame that they voted in favor of setting a date for public hearing and everything. And before that public hearing ever came to be, they came back under a motion from one of the commissioners to not move forward.

Commissioners, any comments?

I'll take a stab at it. The level two, or phase two, excuse me, I just want to be sure that we're not going to be handed a box and say, here's your box, here's the numbers. I want to make sure that the information and data that they collect and give back to us can be... is is nimble and can be adjusted like well if you if you do this then it can raise this and if you don't do that much then you can you know is this so is this a workable equation once we get this data back so the methodology is pretty much set of how you're gonna you know what is assigned to

in the case of how we did it in 2015, the parcel type. So residential properties, there were two tiers based upon square footage. And that was a flat kind of residential rate, total amount. Industrial and commercial square footage was how the rate was calculated. Vacant land or agricultural land was based upon acreage. So based upon what your recoverable costs are and what the methodology is, this is what your rates would be based upon, and at that time was calls for service over the past five years to figure out what is that benefit that was made available to those properties. That gave you the total maximum amount that you could recover based upon the rates of that methodology. If you chose to, okay, we're not going to charge an assessment on nonprofits, you don't get to take that nonprofit collection revenue that you would have gotten and assign it to somebody else. It just goes away. They're just not factored in. Okay? It's a benefit. It's a benefit specific to that group. So if you're not charging them for it, somebody else doesn't pick up the cost for it. You move that piece of pie, that slice out of the overall pot. What you'll end up with... My understanding of it is here is the maximum that you could recover, and then you have the ability to establish how much do you actually want to recover based upon percentage. And you set your rates to that. Because you may not want to, if it's a $16 million maximum recovery, that you could recover. You may not want to recover $16 million. You may want to recover $8 million, $10 million, $4 million, whatever. And that would be what sets those rates for you.

Because I think, and I've said this in the past, I really feel like you certainly wouldn't want to go after $16 million. And the only way that I would be supportive of this at all being put into place is if it was alongside a combination of other things that we're looking at, i.e., cuts, reducing expenditures, reducing these things. Because I don't think, again, this isn't a one solution, one tool to fix everything. It's an equation where it's going to take two or three or possibly even four different metrics that we can kind of move and play with. And so when I say that I want to be able to play with this data to determine what is the best course to move forward and what is the most fair course to move forward in this discussion. And if Amendment 3 doesn't pass, I still think that this is good information, good data to have And hopefully, we can then start to get to work from maybe we can figure out, OK, well, if we do this and cut here and change that, we can reduce our millage rate to x. And those are much later discussions. But I think that's where I envision having this information. And I just want to be sure that we're able to move it Well, what is the number? Is it 10 million that we're trying? When do we decide that number to give to them?

In November, not November, in the late spring of 2027.

I mean Raftillas.

Yeah. I think what you're looking to.

We wouldn't give that to them now?

No. You're going to see what the maximum allowable recovery is. That's a baseline. That basically sets your ceiling, and then you work backwards from that.

And then are we giving them the information that we would want to include nonprofits? We would want to include, you know, one example is the nursing homes, right? So the nursing homes are some of the highest utilizers of our fire services on a daily basis. but many of them are non-profits. And so therefore, they're not paying property taxes, and they're not paying, and so I want to be sure that we're including those in the discussion, because if you're utilizing the service, it's only fair for everybody that everybody pays their fair share, in my mind. Right?

I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying.

I'm just trying to get clarity on what we're giving them, when we're giving it to them, so that we don't get back this box that we can't use.

Right, right. So I want to go back to one point. The catalyst for this discussion is Amendment 3. But it is not the only lion to be slayed through some alternative revenue producing endeavors such as a fire assessment. I mentioned earlier, we could come out of a future legislative session with the inability to transfer anything into a general fund from the utility fund. So that's a $6 million hit. So that comes back to the same question. Do you do less with less or do you try and find an alternative revenue source? And that may be the means by which you go about slaying that dragon, right? It could be that you want to see some future reduction in a military. and you use this as the offset for that. It could be that you want to expand your fire services beyond what you have today, but can't do that based upon revenues you realize today. There's a number of reasons that you may want to look at implementing a fire assessment fee. It just happens to be that the catalyst for this discussion is Amendment 3 knocking at the door. But I think you have, when it comes to get through the baseline study and then when it comes back to you in the spring, once you know what your fiscal year 28 budget is and what your tax rolls look like at that time and how much you seek to recover through a fire assessment fee, you start plugging all that in at that time. And Joe Williams will be here Monday evening and certainly is much more expert in this than I think we are at this point that can weigh in and answer a lot of those questions for you.

So, Commissioners, this is in the consent agenda. Would you like this out of the consent agenda and have it as a specific item to have discussed, or do you want to have the opportunity for this individual to speak and keep it in the consent. We would have to call it out.

So I guess what would... We can move it to new business if you like.

What would the commission's desire be?

I would prefer that.

Put it in new business? Yeah. I concur with that. I think this is... Because other cities are having the same conversation, this is going to maybe draw some interest and possibly some public comment. And the ability to ask some questions I think would be good. And then we can... have an opportunity to speak to this item alone instead of just talking about it in general after the consent agenda has been passed.

I agree with that, because I doubt anyone's going to stumble upon this conversation we're having tonight. And I just want to say, in case they do, this is not... in any way shape or form intended to be a gotcha hey voters you pass this this is what we're going to do no this is a this is an educational tool that we're going to utilize to go forward to try to make the best decisions we can for the whole of city of one entirety of city of winter haven so if you don't have the information how can you make any decisions and that's what we're seeking here so

I'll just add, in case anyone is listening, that whether or not the way it's been portrayed, the Amendment 3 and how property taxes have become such a burden, whether or not that's been portrayed accurately, that we are now at a position where we are having this conversation. There is a discussion about just the general philosophy of should we be taxing homeowners to be paying for services that they may not even be using and moving to this where it's more of a pay to play or those who are actually using the services would also now have to pay some to cover the services. I think that is a discussion that the voters will want us to go to, whether or not they past amendment three I've had conversations with constituents in the last week that have asked me about it as well and They actually are very open to this. I think that it's not I wouldn't I wouldn't call this a popular thing But I think it's a matter of we'd rather it be this way than the property tax structure We currently have and this is the conversation we were asking for from the beginning like this should be something we're doing that we are discussing and hearing from our own constituents our own residents and and making a decision that's going to work for us rather than having it imposed upon us by Tallahassee.

Anybody else?

All right, so we'll move this under new business.

We'll move it to new business and republish the agenda accordingly.

Okay. All right, we've got one first reading for Monday night.

Eric, would you present this item, please?

Yes, sir. Mayor, commissioners, this is an applicant-initiated request to rezone property from C4, heavy commercial, to planned unit development. It's about a little over four acres. This is commonly known as the Marine Supply Boating Center in the marina on Lake May, as you see on your screen. The petitioner is proposing to renovate the existing full-service marina and redevelop the property with additional uses, including parking, a boat club, food trucks, outdoor entertainment, and a restaurant. So this PUD is designed to facilitate the... Republishing of the existing marina and to allow for redevelopment of other areas of the property into Additional uses it provides standards for permitted uses development standards marine structure standards and parking requirements This was heard by the Planning Commission they unanimously recommended approval of It's important to note that this request is also consistent with the comp plan and consistent with elements, concept elements contained in a 2003 study we did called the 2003 urban lakefront study. And it's also consistent with the 2022 downtown CRA plan. Staff would certainly recommend approval of this beauty request. Any questions?

This is within the CRA?

It is. Yes, sir.

So it would no longer, they're changing the use of it from what it is currently.

So the existing use as a marina will remain? Yes, it will. It will. There are additional standards in the PUD to allow for them to refurbish those buildings. They would be considered legal conforming buildings. They could refurbish, basically establish a new six-foot-wide boardwalk along the entirety of the property, as well as new docks and pier structures out into Lake May. But then the portions that are not utilized for the marina operations would then be repurposed, specifically some of the buildings to the south side of that property, into restaurant space, boating club space, those kind of things. Yes, sir? Okay.

All right, new business.

This is the annual SHIP report. So Eric, if you would provide an update on this, please.

Yes, sir. Annually, we have to submit our SHIP program annual report. to the state and so this and your report is for fiscal year twenty three it is also the interim report fiscal years twenty four twenty five and twenty five twenty six the city received states uh... annual distribution about twenty three twenty four of uh... six hundred twenty six thousand two hundred and thirty six dollars In addition, we had some other program income, which would be interest and payments received and carryover funds in that year. We served 18 Winter Haven residents within that fiscal year with assistance. There was 13 that we assisted with owner-occupied rehabilitations, basically helping them to fix up their homes. and five down payment assistance applicants that we helped. The total expended funds for 23-24 was $714,879.91. This program is, it's kind of neat to note that this program is eligible citywide. However, 18 of the households assisted within this fiscal year. There were 18 assisted. There were 14 that were located in the northeast quadrant of the city. One was located in the northwest quadrant and three were located in the southeast quadrant. 15 of those households were in the Florence Villa Community Redevelopment area. I think that speaks to our marketing for this program and how we really ramped up this program right about this time, the fiscal year 23-24 time. We had Diane Durham on board. We brought Guardian on board as our consultants. And then subsequently we've hired Nancy Hurley and Cedric Cox, who have been involved in this program. We really went from kind of struggling to spend this money to having a waiting list. We currently have a waiting list of about 20 applicants waiting to receive funds. So I'm proud of the work that they've done in this area. Just one note, for fiscal year 25-26, you may recall, which was this state fiscal year that just ended, they go July 1 to June 30. We received $417,085 for this previous fiscal year. We are projected next fiscal year to receive a little bit more, $422,449. And we've already, like I said, we've got a waiting list. Those funds are being encumbered as we speak.

Do you know of that 20, how many are rehabs and how many are potential purchases? that I don't know.

That's an email.

Let's see here. So I have nine rebates, or nine BPAs. You read them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Looks like about eight or nine down payment assistance and the rest would be rehabs. It's about 50%.

Yeah.

I like the down payment assistance because we're providing home ownership. I get the purpose of rehab as well, but the more people we can help with home ownership, I think that should be the ultimate goal in my opinion. I think we're good.

Okay. The only other thing I have for you this evening, we mentioned this mobile bench scale direct potable reuse treatment unit. That's the trailer, the fancy trailer that is used for education and kind of testing out DPR efforts. So we're looking for a community liaison or commission liaison to sit on that RFP.

Okay.

Everybody looks and, yeah.

Commissioner Mercer, thank you very much. And that is everything from the agenda. We do have a short presentation for you on a pillar update on some pretty impressive projects, if you're willing to entertain us for that. So this is your infrastructure pillar update. This is the last one of these for fiscal year, last one for infrastructure for fiscal year 26. We talked a lot about water tonight, where all those dollars go, but I also mentioned that what people often think about when we mention infrastructure is roads, roads, roads. So this does include roads, bridges, and public transportation. It's all of our sidewalks and multimodal. It is water, sewer, it's buildings, it's broadband fiber, it's community lighting, all those things. We have done some, we... I'm not going to include myself in this. I'm going to say staff has done some pretty amazing work, and we wanted to provide you some updates on four projects in particular. Some of them are complete. One is in progress, and one is about to begin. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Todd Gooding, our Assistant Director of Public Works, to talk about life on the railroad.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Tonight, I've got the privilege of presenting you a newly completed project. It's pretty unique. And in front of you, you'll see just a map snip to kind of get your bearings of where we're talking about. This is the CSX Rail Project, and it was constructed south of Wastewater Plant 3. And it goes from the east ILC area along the CSX rail west over to near Logistics Parkway. Ties in right there at the new Chick-fil-A distribution center. So this will kind of give you a bearing of where we're talking about. What we're going to present tonight is a video flyover of that project. and we're traveling east to west heading towards the Logistics Parkway. Behind you would be the ILC. So some of the project details from this was it was a partnership project with Trapp Properties and Chick-fil-A as well. It's a very unique project as far as I know, and to the best of my knowledge, is the first railroad that Winter Haven has constructed. It's approximately one mile of rail. And it also has a sidetrack portion. You'll see that here in a minute. But one of the most challenging aspects of this project, and we're coming up on it as we make this turn to the right, we had to cross a canal. That canal serves our wastewater three treatment plant. That's our discharge canal for our water. So we had to basically build across this canal by putting pipe culverts in there, putting the bedding, the bedrock, and the rail on top while maintaining that flow. So we worked closely with the wastewater treatment plant team and we pumped the water around while construction went on and did not disrupt any service. So there in front of you, you can kind of see some of the stormwater management systems there. That was not part of this project. It was existing, but there you can see the four pipe culverts that were put across the area. Just past those culverts, you'll see kind of an interesting piece of equipment there. I call that the rail shaker. So after they skeletize the rail, which means they put the rail in with no rock around it, they come through with train cars and they dump that rock in. This piece of equipment then comes behind that and picks the rail up and actually shakes it up to the proper elevation. So they can make adjustments as they're constructing the rail and putting the rock underneath. The construction of the project began in February 2nd of 2026, and it was completed by June 30th of June 2026. That was a five-month time window to get this project complete. The crews that worked on this, they actually worked 10- and 12-hour days and even some weekends to complete this in the time schedule, and that was with our contractor, R.W. Summers, and also with Carter Kaye, who worked alongside R. Kaye and Kaye for our CEI and inspection. Some of the investment aspects of this project is it was a $3.3 million overall project cost. $1.5 million of those dollars were tied to a Department of Commerce grant, and that was the constraint to actually get this project by those terms done by June 30th. We met that expectation, and those dollars have been reimbursed to us. The city had a $100,000 expense to the project, And then the remainder of that $3.3 million is in escrow with TRAP and Chick-fil-A, which $1.2 million we have already been reimbursed through our first reimbursement request. And then we're going to have one more final pay application request to recuperate the last of those funds. Again, some of the challenges here. Where the canal I spoke of, this area that you see on your screen is actually the side track. That's a secondary portion of this project that will allow for future connection, and it also allows for them to divert train cars in and out as they need to pull those off the rail to get the ones that they need to select. The grant timeline, that was definitely a challenge, a constraint on the construction schedule. Scheduling CSX inspections, as simple as that sounds, became a pretty tough challenge there. Also coordination with multiple stakeholders and teams. Our city attorney, Mr. Murphy, and his team were on board for that. Also Bruce Lyons and Eric Lobby provided a lot of support with the stakeholders and the other teams that we work with. And as we come to the end here, you'll see the end of the bedrock. That's the delineation point. at where the city's project stops and Chick-fil-A's private portion continues. Our portion is now complete. But the portion going past that that was just rail, that's the private portion that Chick-fil-A will add on with the same contractor to go up to their distribution system that will open soon. It also allows for the future use. You can see they have a secondary sidetrack for that. And with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Just a comment on this. This is a pretty amazing project. Mr. Gooding and the team that worked on this deserve a tremendous amount of appreciation. To get this done, working with the partners has its own challenges. When you've got a major corporation, you've got a major industrial park owner, And then the city and the state all kind of trying to get this thing advanced. And it's not like going and building a road. Not many cities build a section of rail. And none of us had ever done that. Todd took this project on. We had to get this done by June 30th. And I think we got our final inspections and clearances June 29th in order to get one point. So if you remember, the governor came to the vacant spec building to present a check for $1.5 million to the city of Winter Haven. This is that project. And to the best of our knowledge, this is the only one of these that has been completed on time per Florida Commerce of this type of project. So just tremendous work by the team on this.

My understanding of that from the Department of Commerce was they had five attempts from different agencies that failed or different municipalities. And ours was the only one that succeeded. Great job. Job well done for the team. Great job. Any questions?

When's the next one?

Starting tomorrow. With that, I'll turn it over to Tyler Williams, who's our capital projects and special initiatives manager with the public works team, and he's going to give you some updates on additional projects.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Happy to be here tonight to share with you some updates on a few road projects that we have going on around the city of Winter Haven. To begin, we have Motor Pool Road. Earlier this year, I was here to share with you the status of the improvements to this corridor that were taking place in conjunction with Whitehead Construction, who was the prime contractor for the project. As you can see here on your map, this is the road that extends from the intersection of First Street and Avenue Y northeast outwards towards US 17 and goes by the Lakeside Memorial Cemetery, the Public Works Campus, and the Wastewater Treatment Plant 2 facilities. The project includes a newly paved road with striping, signage, and drainage enhancements, underground utility upgrades, as well as landscaping improvements and a pedestrian trail that provides for a direct connection from the Chain of Lakes Trail to the Lake Conine Nature Park. That way, visitors to each amenity are able to safely traverse between each one. This road was formerly a private alleyway, but since it has been opened up for public use, there was a need to bring it up to modern standards. Earlier this summer, this project was completed, and despite the heat and also a lot of the rain that we're experiencing recently, we are seeing a lot of pedestrian activity along the trail between Lake Conine Nature Park and the Chain of Lakes Trail. As you can see, pedestrians are able to safely traverse between each two. The landscaping along this corridor is also complete and looks absolutely beautiful. We all love coming into work and seeing how green this area looks with all the new trees and shrubs that they've planted. And it just looks so vibrant and alive compared to what it used to look like. Katrina, if you could fast forward to the end of this video, there's one thing I'd like to point out.

A little bit more, please.

Right there, you can pause it. In the top left-hand corner, that's the connection right there from the Chain of Lakes Trail to the Lake Conine Nature Park. There's a raised crosswalk right there with some rapid flashing beacons, so that's how visitors are able to traverse between each amenity. Moving on is the Third Street Northwest project. As I'm sure we're all aware, this is in full swing with Tucker Paving as the prime contractor. This project is being done as well with some funds distributed from the FDOT's local agency or LAP program with about $1.7 million in grant funds available for reimbursement to the city. Up to this point, much of the project's concrete curbing has been completed, which helps for you to get an idea as to what the project is going to look like when it is fully complete. Additionally, I'm happy to say that as of yesterday and early this morning, the red concrete pouring in the roundabouts has been completed. So there in that southern roundabout between City Hall and the Annex building, they did that concrete pour yesterday. And very early this morning at 4 a.m., there was a crew out there to do the red concrete pour in the roundabout that is a little bit closer to Trailhead Park right there. Some of the next steps include forming the proposed sidewalk system, which is going to commence later this month, along with the first lift of asphalt, which is currently slated for the last week of August. The lighting and landscaping work is slated to begin on October. So with this current trajectory, we're anticipating for Third Street to be open by early 2027. We're really excited about what this finished project is going to look like. Between this, the splash pad right there, Trailhead Park, the garden center, the tennis courts, the annex remodel that's going on. This corridor is going to look really beautiful. It's going to make such a great first impression on visitors to the area, and we're just very excited about it. Now even though construction is proceeding and access to the road is currently closed off, all facilities in this corridor do remain open for public use and hosting events, including the Florida Citrus Building, which is going to be hosting the Ridge League of Cities dinner next month. Ahead of any events such as this one, we always make sure to provide guests with maps on how to access the facility, along with parking information ahead of time to ensure that no disruptions to the events occur. Additionally, for this dinner, we are planning to create a temporary pedestrian bridge between the west side of the road, between the parking lots here at the City Hall and the Annex Building, over to the Florida Citrus Building so that guests are able to safely access the building. That should be made significantly easier with the first lift of asphalt that is slated for the end of this month.

comment on this if i can picture if you just pause for me there i don't know the exact date this video footage was taken but i can tell you this project looks completely different as of today they're probably where you see there's no curb they're probably at ninety percent curving throughout the entire project as tyler said the roundabouts are fully uh... curbed in in all of the The intermediary red-dyed concrete is in there. It is looking like a true roadway system today, much even more so than it did at this point. This is going to be a phenomenal corridor for everything that happens in here, from City Hall all the way down through the skate park and the trail system that connects there. Really, I think, a centerpiece for Winter Haven when it's said and done. it's two questions did we lose any parking from this uh... at the tennis facility not at the tennis facility but some in front of city hall here because of how the road narrows so you can see where jobs uh... right there you're gonna have some parking from that point four two avenue d to the south and then army on the eastern side from avenue d up towards the front of the uh... current building division There is a loss of some parking directly in front of Normale Hall, and there is a reconfiguration of parking up by Trailhead where we had a small divider lane there. But in terms of the tennis courts themselves, there should be no impact whatsoever.

I'm guessing it was just probably potentially maybe some spaces were closed off from construction or something. I got a phone call on that.

The only thing that would be closed off at tennis would be the spaces that were across the street more adjacent to Trailhead Park. But you can see where the red are the orange construction fences That is the parking that is designated, you know as part of the facility. It was unchanged There were some interruptions along Avenue F to the south when construction was going on but I think that the availability of parking within the the lot between the annex and trailhead Park and with the new pedestrian crosswalks that are designed to accommodate the roundabouts will make that very attractive for folks as well.

And for the roundabouts, are those just going to be flat red surfaces?

The landscape in the centers?

There's going to be landscaping in the centers. For that red concrete, that will be concrete. We had early discussions on whether or not that should be red concrete or brick. We decided to go with red concrete. It's a little bit easier to maintain.

has to be a mountable curb there so as you have buses or large vehicles that come through there if they go up over that curb it doesn't damage the vehicle or the infrastructure i was just i guess i was kind of channeling my inner brad vansler and thinking maybe uh... some flat murals

something there to depict that you're in the city of Winter Haven would be kind of cool.

It's awful liberal of you, sir.

I miss old Brad sometimes.

It is kind of a pinkish hue to the red concrete right now.

Chain of Lakes map would be kind of cool. Just a thought.

We move on to one last project here, which is the South Lake Howard West project This is currently in design with Kim Lee horn and will connect to last year's completed project that extended from the Lake May Canal Down to 15th Street Southwest right there Which is where this project is going to be beginning and is going to reach out towards Avenue C Southwest This project is going to tie into the newly established pedestrian walkways that are part of the Lake Howard Nature Park expansion, and is also going to feature a refigured road with narrow lanes, a lakeside pedestrian trail, raised intersections at 15th Street Southwest, and a gravity sewer replacement. This project has $750,000 in federal appropriations through Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant Program, or CDBG program, thanks to Congressman Soto's efforts, which were distributed to Winter Haven in 2023. Those CDBG dollars have an eight-year life cycle, which means that we have to extend those funds by 2031. We plan to have design complete for this project by spring of next year, and we'll look to bid the project for construction shortly after, with a start date of late summer 2027. Just to give you a little snapshot of what this area could look like here at the end, you can see those raised intersections there at 15th Street Southwest, some of the road configurations, and that eight-foot asphalt trail that is on the lakeside right there. With that, that concludes the infrastructure agenda for tonight. We looked at the rail spur project, Motor Pool Road, Third Street Northwest, and Southwest Lake Howard. With that, we're open to a discussion on any of these topics.

I think we're good.

It looks good. Thank you very much.

We thank you for that, and we will do our next update to you in early September with Mr. Labbe and his team on economic sustainability. Thank you.

All right. With that, we will adjourn.