Regular Meeting @ 5 p.m. - Feb 10, 2026

Good evening. It is 5 o'clock, and I'd like to reconvene our county commission meeting and call this meeting to order. Before we get started tonight, first of all, I'd like to welcome everyone. And if you are here for the first time, could you just give me a hand raise? Okay. All right. So since you're here for the first time, I want to say thank you for being here. I'd like to just spend five minutes and kind of go through the process of kind of what we're going to do tonight, and then we'll get started. So first of all, the attorney is going to give an overview of what's going to happen tonight. That's the first thing that's going to happen. Then we're going to do a determination of parties, who is an affected party. That's a special status. From there, the clerk will then inquire of each of us if we've had any ex parte communication since the application was filed, which was November of last year. Once we're done with that, we're going to ask those that are going to be testifying tonight to stand, and the clerk is going to swear at you. We ask that you not swear at us, okay? He's going to swear you in for the hearing because evidence is going to be presented. All right. From there, we're then going to start the hearing. What we've estimated we're going to probably go into the night, obviously. So we've asked that the staff take about 30 minutes and give their presentation. We've then asked the applicant to give his presentation or their presentation for about 30 minutes, at which point after that, we're going to then open it up to the parties. As of right now, commissioners, we've had 10 parties apply for party status. We'll make that determination before we get started. Each of the parties, when they speak, will have up to 15 minutes to make their presentation and or provide any cross-examination of the applicant. So that's how we're going to try to do that part of the hearing. So if there's 10, 15 minutes doing the math, that could be two to three hours, okay? When you're making your presentations or you're speaking for public comment, we're asking that, first of all, that you try not to be repetitive. So if you've heard it in the past, let's try not to repeat the facts. Obviously, don't be slanderous. And for tonight's hearing, we need everything to be relevant to the application at hand. So we don't want to talk about things that may happen five years from now. We want to talk about the applicant and what they have applied for. From there, once the parties are done and the cross-examination is done, we're then going to bring it back to the commission, and the commission will deliberate from what they heard. I'll then ask for a motion to be put on the floor. Once we have a motion on the floor, that's the time that we will then ask for those that have not already presented evidence to give us public comment to the motion. If you are planning to speak at public comment, we ask that you sign in. And based on how many people want to speak, we'll determine if we have one minute, two minute, or three minutes, because we're going to try to finish tonight. So that's going to be when we make that determination. And this board will make that determination together. Once we're done with public comment, and we want to hear from all of you tonight that are here, we'll then come back to the board for final deliberation, and we'll think of a few other things as far as the quorum. So there's a lot of people in here, and everyone's going to get an opportunity to speak. What we ask is that we don't jeer, we don't sigh, we don't know, you know, scream out. We don't clap. What we like to do is if you like what you heard and you want to show us that you like that, just go like this. If you don't, just go like this. No voice. Here or here. If we get into clapping and jeering and cheering, then we've got beautiful people that wear green shirts, they'll ask you to leave, and we don't want you to leave. We want you to be here for the whole hearing. So that's how we're going to handle the quorum. If you've got a phone, I've got a watch, it's ringing. If you'll turn it off, or at least silence it, that'd be great. We don't do signs. We don't allow people to hold up signs. We don't allow people to do outbursts if they're not being recognized. I will recognize people when they speak, and if you'll just speak through the chair, so not speaking directly to each of the commissioners, but through the chair. And then we've got a little light system. It's pretty complicated, but I like it. Green means go. If you're a party, you'll have 15 minutes. If you're speaking at public comment and we've allocated two minutes, you'll have two minutes. The yellow says 30 seconds, so that means wrap up your comments. And then the red light means time for the next person to speak. We've got a lot of people that want to speak tonight, so I'm really going to have to try to keep to the time, if that's okay. Commissioners, did I miss anything? Oh, we have to be done at midnight. Yeah, so our rules don't allow us to continue past midnight, so we can make an exception to that. I don't want to do that. I want to wrap this up today. We have allocated next Tuesday night, if we can't finish tonight. But I think if we kind of follow that process, I think we should be able to get through it tonight. That is certainly this board's intention. I think I have to cover it. Anything else? Okay. All right, so with that, oh, one other thing. If you have a presentation, applicant or parties, and you want us to have a copy of it, now would be a great time to get that to the clerk so that when we get started, we have that. Okay, Mr. Attorney, you're recognized. Anyone wishing to testify or present evidence during this hearing will be sworn in prior to speaking. Through the chair, all speakers may ask questions, seek clarification, and respond to comments or presentations of staff or other speakers. Anyone presenting written materials to commissioners for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's official record of the proceedings. Florida law requires that the county commission's decision in a quasi-judicial action be supported by competent substantial evidence presented during this hearing. Competent substantial evidence means that the board's decision is based on evidence, enough credible evidence that a reasonable person could agree. Persons presenting opinion or factual testimony may rely on any factual information in the record to support their testimony. Opinion testimony may be given by people qualified to give such an opinion. In a moment, the clerk will ask for persons other than staff and the applicant who wish to participate as parties to identify themselves and explain to the board why they believe that they are parties. Parties are people who would be more directly or more substantially impacted by the board's decision today than the public at large. If the board grants you party status, you will be permitted a reasonable opportunity to present testimony and evidence and to ask questions. Otherwise, you will be permitted to testify as a member of the public. Okay. Mr. Turner, I have a list of 10 folks that have requested party status. Mr. Chair, we have a list that Mr. Dawson is going to present. Mr. Dawson, you recognize me. Mr. Chair, Chris Dawson, Principal Planner for Development Services. We have 10, we actually have 13 people who have requested party status. Up on the monitor, you'll see 10 that staff is recommending the commission grant party status to. The names are listed there. The number has no meaning. It's just keeping track. There are three additional parties who requested or three additional people who requested party status. They're substantially further away and live in Melrose and staff right now is not recommending those three for party status. Obviously, the board can make a different decision however they want. There may also be additional people in the room who are requesting party status. Okay. Is there anyone else other than those 13 that have been listed that are requesting party status? Okay. Seeing none, board, is there a motion to grant party status? I'm going to stop. I'm going to second. I'm going to motion and second to accept one through 10 up on the screen as parties. Any further discussion? Any public discussion? Come forward, introduce yourself, and give us your thoughts. Mr. Chairman, my name is Mark Goldstein. I mean, I requested as a farmer representative and someone who is affected to be on the list, but I was not included. I can share some time with somebody else if you prefer. I don't want to occupy more time than I'm worth. And now is the time, Mr. Goldstein, so if you could let us know where you live on that map right there or where your farm is. Where I live? I'm up the road from this place. I'll hear it, but I don't know that I'm not next door. Let's see. I'm over on 1469. I'm over on 1469. You know where I am, Mr. Chairman. So you're up on 1469? 1469, and I don't know that you've included that because it wasn't unclear to me when this all happened. Okay, if you'll – Just north, Groven. I'm right up from Groven. It's the citrus plantation up there. All right, thank you. Yes, sir. I'd like to request party status. My wife and I, Curt and Jan Merritt, we live on the southwest corner with a 35th and 255 split. So we have about 600 feet of frontage right across the street from their day parking, and we live right there on kind of the pie-shaped piece. Okay, and Mr. Merritt, why were you not able to get with staff before the hearing? I'm in an overflow room, and I stood up when they asked if there was anybody else. No, I mean prior to the hearing. No, I just overlooked it. Okay, all right. I didn't read the email for content. I just kind of scanned it like I tend to do. My bad. Okay, all right. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I'm Ann Rudig. I'm requesting party status because I will demonstrate that at least half of the traffic drawn to Melrose for the festival is not accounted for in the MOT. I live 1.6 miles from the center of Melrose and drive it daily, and I believe that all residents of Melrose will be a party to the inadequate traffic plan. And could you tell me where you live, ma'am? Yes, I live on 439 Southeast 1st Street in Melrose. It is off of 21, just as soon as you get out of town to the left. Is that in Bradford County? That's Bradford County. Okay, thank you. Thank you. All right, next speaker, please. My name is Danielle Jolly. I'm number eight on the list. I can give up my party status so that one of my partners can talk because I just want to do a general speak that's only two minutes long. I'm sorry. She was giving up her party status, number eight. So I can just do a two-minute. Okay, so you want to give up? I'll give up my spot so that one of my fans can have it. That's not how it works. Yeah, that's not at work, but that's okay. But thank you. Yeah, thank you. So I just was informed by communications that if anyone has, needs sign language, Mark, to the microphone if you could. We had a request come in for American Sign Language. We're trying to find out where that person is, if they're in here or in Grace Knight. If they are, we have a signer here. So no one in this room? All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, thank you. Can you make sure that they're visible on the screen in case it was somebody? Yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, is there anyone else requesting party status? Okay, Commissioners. So we've got a motion for the 10. We've had Ms. Danielle Jolly say she doesn't need to be a party. And we had one gentleman who actually lives on the street. I would propose Mr. Merritt, I believe it's Mr. Merritt, Mr. Merritt be added. Does the staff concur with that? Wouldn't be opposed to that, Mr. Chair. I'm fine with it, but I just want people to understand this is quasi-judicial, and there's a process laid out. We were very clear about the process, and from my perspective, like, I didn't read the email. The email isn't exactly, like, a quality reason why you didn't timely request party status. I'm willing to grant it, but just, you know, typically we don't grant party status just because you didn't bother to read the email. Right. It's usually because you, in fact, like, have a, you had some kind of extenuating circumstance by which you couldn't get to us in time, because otherwise it's sort of like everyone, it's sort of a free-for-all for people who want party status. I just feel like coming up the day of. So I hear you because he's close by, and I want to hear his testimony, so I'll add it to the motion. But for the future, please be timely about it and read the emails we send. All right. So we're going to replace, we've got a motion to replace Jan with, Danielle with Jan. Is the seconder okay with that? Yes. Okay. So we've got a motion to grant those ten, ten parties, replacing Danielle with Jan. Any discussion? Okay. I have a quick question with Dr. Goldstein, who was asking for party status. Is there a reason not to include him? What was the reason not to include him other than? I didn't hear a reason why he wasn't able to timely request it, nor did I hear a reason why he should be included. So, Commissioner, he's actually the same distance, or probably a little bit farther from the three that staff did not recommend, because they're on the other side of 26. I think staff has recommended, essentially, the folks that are on Northwest 35th Avenue and Quail Street, as well as Ms. Arlene Barber, who's up on 219A. Okay. All right. I just wanted it to be clearly stated as to why. Yeah, I understand. Okay. So we've got a motion and a second. Everybody understand the motion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So we have ten parties. So you parties, after the applicant, will have an opportunity to do cross-examination and make your presentations, and we're asking that you take up the 15 minutes to do that. And if what you have heard that you were going to present as evidence you've already heard, you can just say they said it, or you can just, you know, quickly repeat what you want us to hear. Okay. Mr. Clerk, now that we've got parties, I guess we do ex parte? Yes, sir. If you've received any ex parte communications involving the Wildflowers Music Festival temporary use permit, please disclose those. Commissioner Alford? No. Well, besides all the many, many emails that I've received. Commissioner Prisci. Yes, I had, I did a tour with the folks out on the site. Gosh, it was probably almost a year ago at this point, or nine months ago. That was part of the application, right? He said last November. March. November of 25. Which you did have. So anyway, I did, either way, I don't care if it was before or after. I went on a tour of the property to see the overall property and their plans for the property, and had dialogue with Hutch Hutchinson about the plans for the property and the music festival. And if we're going to go back that far, I did have some text communications with former Commissioner Hutchinson, and I had a couple of conversations with folks in Melrose. Commissioner Chesnick? Yes, I did. I had the opportunity to meet with the applicant, who is Mr. Hutchinson, former Commissioner Hutchinson, and to view the property, to get an idea of what the festival would look like and all of that stuff in the property. I had an opportunity to do that. And, of course, the emails that come in, I was reading those and stuff like that. So other than that, that's the extent of my ex-parte communication. Commissioner Wheeler? Yes, sir. I also had a tour of the property back in March, and then a couple of text messages with Commissioner Hutchinson regarding questions about the property in October, and then, of course, the emails that we've received from everybody. Chair Cornell. Okay, yes. So I've had a number of conversations with Dr. Goldstein and some folks in his group about their concerns. I've had conversations with three of my neighbors, Dr. Antonelli, Amy and Harry Siren, Mark Avera, about their concerns. I had a conversation with Adam Briscoe. I got a message today from a Katie Davis who I know. There's a gentleman who has a farmer's market stand on Highway 26, had a conversation with he and his wife and a number of other folks during the forward focus process. I spoke to Brandy McKinney, who's the party, and we had a conversation about it. I, too, had a tour with Hutch. We went through the property. I then took my wife. He wasn't there and showed her the property, had a conversation with my wife, had a conversation with Ruth Berkelman about she's in favor of it, had some conversations with Meg Niederhofer, who's in favor of it, had a text yesterday from John Mills, who's in favor of it, a number of folks at the winter solstice I spoke to who were in favor of it, Mr. Easton, who's also a party. We had a 30-minute conversation, and he expressed his desire for it to happen. And then I also spoke to Scott Camille and Sherry Steiner. And I believe, from my calendar, that's all of the folks that I have heard and spoke to, as well as a number of emails that have all been submitted into the public record. Mr. Chair, may I? And also that I also spoke with Dr. Goldstein and also spoke with folks at the Santa Fe Lake Dwellers meeting at this last meeting that we had when questions were brought up in public about it, and I corrected the misinformation that that park was bought with Wild Faces Public Places money. Okay. All right. So that's ex parte. I think it's time now, if you're planning to speak tonight, and if you can stand and be sworn in. Please raise your right hand. Anybody who's wishing to speak to the side of this evening? And if you are in the overflow room, if you'll also stand and raise your hand, that would be great. If you swear or for any testimony you're about to give, it will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I do. So what about people in? They're getting that. Okay. Are we ready to start the hearing? All right. Staff is going to start. Mr. Dawson, you're recognized. Mr. Chair, again, Chris Dawson, principal planner. I did just want to note for the record, I'm a certified planner. My resume is on file with the clerk. This item was properly advertised, both by mail out and in our public notices. I'm going to call it an economic analysis without any judgment on it that was provided as part of the public comment. And there was some other comments that were provided by Melrose Forever. And then there was also a letter provided to you by the Rural Concerns Advisory Committee. So all of those were on the agenda that was published. In addition, Mr. Chair, on the dais tonight, I've included a packet that includes additional public comments, including some that were sent in that were just additional documents that were provided to you. And then there's also a packet that includes the resumes for professionals who will be testifying for wildflowers tonight for the applicant. Okay. So I just wanted to let you all know that that's what was there. And that's what that stack of papers is that's there in front of you. So, Mr. Chair, the application that's before you tonight is TU25-000020. This is a temporary use permit, a request for a temporary use permit for Wildflowers Music Festival. The reason that we're here, Mr. Chair, is that we have some different levels of temporary use permits. For certain things, temporary use permits can be approved simply as an administrative approval. And for other types of uses that trigger certain thresholds, it does require board approval. And so I've listed really three items, Mr. Chair, that sort of trigger that reason that we're here. And that's with attendance up to 5,000, with overnight camping, and for greater than three days. So those are sort of the limitations that exist within our code. Any one of those would require this item to come to you for consideration. But they are requesting all three of those. Mr. Chair, the project site is located in extreme eastern Alachua County. It's south of Melrose, approximately a mile. It's located about three miles east of U.S. 301, and it's situated immediately adjacent to the Putnam County border. There's an aerial of the proposed site on the overhead now. This is a historic agricultural land. It's not currently in active agricultural operation, but it certainly still demonstrates the history of that. And the area surrounding it is also largely agricultural or in rural residential uses. The site does have agricultural zoning, just like all of the property around it, as well as the rural agriculture future land use designation. So, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to sort of put this in perspective of where it is, if I can. And so the map that's on the board now shows sort of Melrose, the downtown area. That's the intersection of State Road 21 and State Road 26. And you can see the approximately 210 acres proposed for the temporary use permit and then, again, zoomed in. Before I go too much further on that, I did just want to talk a little bit about how we evaluate temporary use permits. Our conference plan acknowledges them, and it says that they can be allowed almost anywhere in Alachua County. We don't really provide location restrictions based on zoning or land use in our land development regulations for temporary use permits. But they are a decision of the board. So, except for those very limited cases where it's an administrative permit, and you can think Christmas tree sales is an example of those administrative permits, except in those very limited uses, we do go through an evaluation of these other categories. So, we do require a statement of what the use is, and I've already told you a little bit about what they're proposing. We require the applicant for one of these temporary use permits to include a development plan, and the applicant has done that. That was included with the agenda item, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. The applicant's required to provide a sanitation and public health plan, and the applicant has done that as part of their application. They're required to provide a little bit of a property description and what's around there. Again, the analysis here is pretty simple, that this property is in an agricultural area and an agricultural setting. The applicant also provided a pretty substantial environmental analysis of the property that included location of things like wetlands and gopher tortoise burrows, as well as identification of any other listed species that might be in the area or any other natural resources that might be on the site. And then, in addition, the applicant is required to look at emergency management. So, that can include a multitude of things. It can include access management, that is, how people are getting to the site on the local roadways, as well as how emergency management response is being handled on the site itself. On that point, I want to make note that the county has two separate permits that would be required for that. So, in addition to the temporary use permit, which includes a lot of that information, there is also the requirement for a special event permit. That's actually issued through our fire rescue department, and that includes more of the very specific details of that emergency response plan. I did want to just let you know, on that point, that we do have representatives from Alachua County Fire Rescue in the room tonight who would be able to provide answers to questions about specifics. What was the other one, Chris? You said there were two. The temporary use permit and the special event permit. Those two work together in that emergency management. Mr. Chair, I wanted to talk just a little bit, before I ask Mark Brown to come up and talk about the environmental situation of the property, I wanted to talk a little bit about the site plan that was provided and some of the activities that will occur on site. So, I've kind of pulled that in on top of the aerial, just so that you can see some perspective about the size of that. And I wanted to zoom in specifically on sort of the main part of where the property use will happen, which is really in the central portion of the property. And the applicant has proposed, in addition to camping on the site, both in RVs and potentially sort of adjacent to cars or in tents, and the parking for it, the majority of the activities on the site would occur in the central area. And that includes the main stage, which is where the music festival will occur, most of the music will happen. It includes craft vendors. And, Mr. Chair, I'm going to be honest and just say that for some of these things, you may need to ask the applicant exactly what that involves, because I may not be able to answer those questions specifically. But craft vendors does seem to be pretty self-explicit or self-explanatory. Food trucks for people that are at the site. Workshops, a dance tent, a community fire circle, as well as an area sort of specifically for younger folks to participate in activities. There are also a couple of generators proposed within this general area that will provide power for some of those items. I did want to talk a little bit about sort of the, if you will, the adjacency to the properties that are around, especially as it relates to the main stage and distances to adjacent property lines. So these are rough numbers because I didn't have a very scaled drawing to go with. But just looking, I've sort of dropped in the distances to the closest property lines in all these directions. Distance doesn't mean everything, but it certainly gives you an idea of the scale of the property. So, you know, 1,260 feet is about a quarter of a mile. So these are all in that area range of about a quarter of a mile from that main stage to the adjacent property line. And then other uses on the site obviously are closer. So there's camping areas that are located closer to the southern of the site, as well as parking on the western end where there's access to the roadways, some parking in the southeast, and then as I showed in that zoomed-in view, the RV parking that's sort of east of the central portion of the site. So, Chris, I'm going to ask that you pause. One of the things I didn't talk about is that every meeting we have general public comment for things not on the agenda right at 530. It's time certain. So I'm going to ask that you pause. And if anyone is here not for wildflowers or not for what we're talking about tonight, we want to give you an opportunity to speak to this board about something that's not on the agenda. Going once, going twice. Mr. Carey, you do have someone in the other room. Okay, we'll give them one second, have them make their way in. I meant to tell you all we were going to have a 530 pause, but we all forgot it. Yeah, I missed it in my list. I missed everything else. Mr. Connish, come forward. Mr. Chair, Jim Connish. I've had a timber farm for 32 years, and I'm under full-scale attack on my agricultural building one on 18 acres, and my agricultural support structure, I'm under attack. The Rush Law Firm will do justice. I received a complaint about an illegal septic pit on my farm that is false. I'm going to allow, but my attorney will be present, and we will videotape this. So this is what it's going to look like, 18 acres. Maybe they want to bring a canine. Like Jan Bo Lee, illegally paved an impervious slime rock driveway adjacent to my land, that's actually been flooding for everyone in their neighborhood. The county docked a post that was removed by your contractors because it was eight feet above the river. And he took it to his house and installed it without a permit. When you first raided my agricultural support structure with seven county officials, seven, you brought two water management district officials that permitted my structure. So are you going to do anything about this? This is criminal, in my opinion. Now, I'd like to talk to you about the agricultural classification. You haven't mentioned it, but to be classified as agricultural land, and incidentally, my classification was attacked, like everything else I'm doing out there, attacked. There has to be production. Zoning is not enough. Let's be production. If there's no agricultural production, we are not talking about agricultural land, number one. Number two, wildflowers do not grow where the land is being trampled by thousands of people. So it's a farce. It's a farce, sir. There's no agricultural production going on. This sort of activity needs to be complementary and consistent with agricultural production, or it is a sham, like the biomass plant, like forest landfill, like the GRU litigation, like the buying up the land from palm creeks when certain people get rich. It's in the same vein. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Connish. Is there, again, I just want to repeat, we're asking you, if you're not speaking about wildflowers, come forward and let us hear from you. If you're speaking about wildflowers, I will, I'm asked that you follow our process. If you pull that microphone down and introduce yourself. Thank you for being here. My name is Lena Soy, resident of Alachua County. I'm here on behalf of many residents who utilize the dog park at Squirrel Ridge. To date, I've gathered 80 signatures from all of our neighbors who are asking for a simple but vital improvement. It's just the installation of time lighting at the park. While I have 80 signatures, there's more of us that support this initiative. The core of our request is accessibility for working citizens. For those of us who work traditional nine to five hours, especially during shorter time of the year, Squirrel Ridge is often pitch black by the time we get there. We aren't asking for lights to stay on all night. A reasonable cutoff hours would be like 9 p.m. This isn't just about playtime. For us, this park is a primary source of mental health and decompression after a long day of work. For our dogs, it's their only opportunity to be off-leash, to exercise, and to socialize with their dog companions. Without lights, the park effectively closes to a massive portion of us' working population for half of the year. So that's daylight savings time. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, this is a matter of public safety. Navigating a dark park is very dangerous. As the sun sets, it basically is impossible to see. And if you have dogs, you know that if they want to play and they don't want to go home, they're going to have you chase them all around the park. My dog is the same. A lot of the dogs does it too because they like each other so much and they like to cause a ruckus. But it is dangerous at night because there are like sand pits at the dog park and also like rocks. So I guess for me as a younger person, like I'm fine. But like for our older citizens, like they can trip and fall very easily, especially if they can't catch their dog in time for the sun to, you know, still be up. And so, yes, scroll rich is beloved by all of us. It's where our community gathers to connect and stay active. By installing time lights, you're ensuring that this public utility remains safe and inclusive for everyone, regardless of their work schedule. So I do have the list of signatures to submit. Do you want to give that to the clerk? Then we'll get a copy of that. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for joining us. Anyone else from the public? About anything? Okay. We're going to go ahead and close public comment and get back to our hearing. So now you all have us for the rest of the night. So, okay. Chris, if you'll continue. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I did just want to point out a few items. You wouldn't necessarily. Oh, I'm done. Go ahead. Not that easy. Good try. I did just want to point out, Mr. Chair, a few other items that I didn't create fancy animations for. Specifically, with relation to sanitation and public health, obviously, as an agricultural property, this doesn't have huge bathrooms or water distribution systems. There are existing potable water wells on site, and their use for this kind of an activity is permitted by the health department. And the applicant has stated that they are able to provide potable water from those wells for participants on the site. In addition, as I mentioned, there's no existing wastewater systems that would handle this. One thing I didn't really mention is that as a temporary use permit, Mr. Chair, an applicant cannot install permanent facilities. So there's no permanent construction of stages or any other buildings allowed as part of this. So wastewater will be handled through on-site porta-potties and their disposal that way. And then for solid waste, obviously, they'll have dumpsters and trash cans throughout the site with staff designated to pick that up and put it into dumpsters and then have it picked up at reasonable times. And that's not an unusual arrangement for temporary uses. Certainly for things like the Medieval Fair or other large events, there are similar kinds of arrangements with potable water, sanitary sewer, and solid waste. There are two existing access points on the site, Mr. Chair. One is located just north of the intersection of 255th and 35th. I'm going to try and use a mouse up there so people can see. There's 35th Avenue that goes east-west. 255th goes north from the site up to Melrose to State Road 26, and that's Quail Street. The applicant is proposing an additional access point on northeast 35th Avenue, just east of where it separates from 255th. That provides reasonable circulation onto the on-site parking areas, and that would be a temporary access point permitted through a right-of-way use or a driveway connection permit by our public works department. So it would have to meet any regular standards that we would have for connection to a public. Access to the site would be from 35th Avenue, Mr. Chair, as proposed by the applicant. I have a couple slides that I want to talk about a little bit later after EPD has a chance to talk, but I did just want to say that access would come from 35th Avenue from County Road 219A for the festival, for its festival-goers, not from the north, which is State Road 26 directly down 255th. Quail Street and 255th get pretty narrow north of the site. So that would be a route available for local access, so people who live along 255th, or for emergency access to the site. Again, I just wanted to point out a few areas on the site. You can see there's tent camping, RV camping, car park located on the site. Those would be pretty standard with any sort of temporary use permit of size. And with that, Mr. Chair, I'm going to ask Mark Brown from our Environmental Protection Department to come up and talk a little bit about the environmental situation. Thank you, Mr. Dawson. Mr. Brown, thank you. You're recognized. I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening. You can speak right into that microphone. Sorry, thank you. That's okay. We received a report, environmental report, on the project site, mostly related to the wetlands back in December. Our staff did an evaluation with the applicant, kind of evaluating where the wetlands. We did actually agree with the wetland boundaries and also the 75-foot buffers that were proposed for no activities within those areas. And in the first part of January, we received a second report from the applicant, the Gulf of Corris Borough investigation, where they actually went out and conducted evaluation of burrows for the whole site, as well as when we went out there to look at what you can see on the, they actually did some prescribed burns to get the pay bill down to where you could actually visually see where the burrows were. It also helps to regenerate the grass. And then they did count. They did these transects, you know, across the property, so they have 100% coverage. Each person that walked in those transects can look back side to side and make sure they got coverage. We also have, was pleasantly surprised at the amount of camphor trees that they were able to, since the preliminary review, since December, this is actually the festival area, the core area, where most of the trees in there are actually camphor trees. And so they actually were able to harvest those, and it opens up both for ground cover as well as for the festival that makes it easier for people to come in there and congregate without problems as well as the vendors. So when, I said two weeks ago, the number of burrows, what's happened over the years of eight decades of hay field activities, most of the tortoises were either lost, you know, because of, or basically transferred over towards the western side of the property and congregated right in the north gate here. So that, with the applicant, went over areas, instead of having 25-foot radius barrier around each borough, just looked at areas to basically barricade a whole area. So like this is along the fence line, and it would exclude all the tortoises up here from actually crossing into the travel lane. So the tortoises, they have poor hearing, but they have a middle ear that's very sensitive to vibrations. So not only for vehicles coming by, they know how to go to the borough, but people just walking around, they can feel those vibrations. So it's not like they're going to be active during that period. So we looked at that area, and then obviously some of these isolated ones, these are going to be the 25-foot radius barricade fencing, like you see on tree barricades, to make sure they're tied in so that the tortoises can't burrow underneath. And then there's a second barricade long fence here to keep these tortoises down here, as well as all the way down the south, the east-western portion here. So that contains the tortoises here as well. So they don't feel as excluded. They actually have to roam around, and it actually makes it easier to roam into a normal foraging area. So with that, I'd be glad to answer any specific questions related to what they proposed. Commissioner, any questions for Mr. Brown? Thank you. Yeah, if you'll just use your lights. Commissioner Wheeler, you recognize? Yes, yes. Sorry. Mr. Brown, you said that the tortoises, they've been sequestered away in a different area now. They haven't even moved, or they have just been cordoned off? That's a good question. Historically, there were tortoises here, but like I said, decades of hay cutting and everything that basically, they're gone. So some of them that probably escaped from there and maybe traveled up to this northern area to congregate. But that's the only area that they're pretty much highly densely located right now. So the 100% survey was critical to give us that information because we really didn't know. We knew there were a lot of tortoises there. We didn't know how many. There's twice as many armadillo burrows as there are tortoise burrows. So a lot of these burrows you see here, I mean, they're false imagery. It's with armadillo. So they were actually able to, and they had several volunteers that have experts in go-for-tortis identification. And that makes it critical also in the identification of the burrows itself to make sure that they're looking at a go-for-tortis burrow and whether it's active or inactive and making that determination. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Commissioner Alford, do you have your light on? No, it's not. Mark, so the three wetlands that are identified on the previous slide, right there, so there's the three in the middle of the wetlands, 1.14 acres, 1.55 acres, and then 0.66 acres? Right. You said there's a 75-foot buffer. How is that going to be protected from 5,000 people? That's a great question. We originally, back in December, were looking at, say, we had actually silt streams along the perimeter of the 75-foot, and when I met with the applicant and saw just how dense that vegetation is, you could walk right by that little wet, you won't even know it's in there. Got it. So there's a lot, the buffer is really dense, but somebody would have to really, you know, want to go in there and take a look at it to actually go see it. It's not like it's going to be easily seen. And the pond areas is, you know, what the conditions are, basically not bone dry, but it's pretty dry now, and that would help carry prescribed fire across it. But they actually have locations where it actually will allow, you know, this basically, one of the other issues with that was not allowing any vehicles to park too close to the pond just because we didn't want, you know, issues there with problems, people getting stuck. And so they'll have, they basically remove that, you know, area from the parking and concentrate more to the south. Okay. And the car, and that was the other question, the car parking from the slide that Chris presented in the, I guess it would be the southwest corner and the southeast corner. Right. There's no conflict with the parking as it relates to the wetlands or the gopher tortoises? Correct. And I went with the applicant. There's a small parking area for staff, performers, and handicapped, but it is south of that fence. So the fencing actually here, there's a pasture here that it was not. They'll have to actually, for this one borough here, they would have to put the, but the rest of it is clear. So the gopher tortoises are on the northern part of the property and there won't be any parking up there. Right. Okay. Thank you. Can I actually download a question? Yeah, go ahead, Mary. So with respect to parking and parking of RVs, are there trees in any of those areas? Are we protecting the tree drip lines? Yes. They actually were able to basically stay out of the canopy where RVs and the vehicles are only where vendors underneath the festival area would actually come in there, and then that's where the stages are. But at the same time, they have the people that have done the transects are going to volunteer there as well. So they basically all day long are making sure that there's not any problems with tortoises getting anywhere that may come about, you know, that it's not enclosed as part of their evaluation for the whole site. And it obviously would be available to assist if there need to be. But the fact that they have that many volunteers willing to actually track and make sure that the tortoises are, there's nothing, you know, any issues with them really is helpful. Okay. Yeah. I'm not talking about tortoises. I'm talking about trees. Oh, the trees itself. The only trees you can see right in this one, this is the festival area. So there's, with the taking down of the camper trees, there's enough room in here to get vendors in there, the back of trailer up, drop off of, you know, where's a cart or whatever to do. And at the same time, not leave the vehicles there so that people could come in but then move their vehicles out of the way. I'm asking this because if this was a construction site and we were going to be charging for, you know, for the tree, we'd be protecting the trees for digging and from heavy equipment. So I was thinking that the same process would be in place in this situation. And I appreciate that because that was our biggest concern there, not knowing what that center area looked like. I mean, you look at the area and you just think it's all live oaks or war oaks, whatever. And that if you had a lot of vehicles in there, then that would open up to more parking on route systems. Right. So that's one of the things we wanted to make sure by actually going in there. And that was a big assistance to get those camper trees down because they're just so thick in there. You can't discern between the camper and the oak trees. So once they got that down, it really made it easier. Well, yeah. Thank you. I'm glad they got rid of the invasive stuff. Very good. All right. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, your light is on. Is that a mistake? I, yeah. You don't want to speak or testify right now? No. Okay. Very good. All right. Okay. Mr. Brown, you conclude? Yep. Okay. Mr. Dawson, back to you. Mr. Chair, I wanted to just follow up on that last question if I could before I move on in regards to the trees. So there's a couple parts to that. One is that sort of the duration of the festival is pretty short. The impacts are pretty limited. So even if there are things like food trucks or whatnot going in, they're going to be parked there. They're not going to be moving around a whole lot. I think the other part is that, you know, our tree protection code as it relates to development is substantially about permanent impacts within the drip line of those trees. And we actually allow up to 50% impacts to trees. So, and when we say an impact, that means you can pave underneath 50% of the canopy. So we certainly don't expect that kind of impact here. And you're right, Mr. Chair, if it were a development site, and this was the protected tree canopy that we identify on a development plan, that absolutely would be fenced to ensure that we don't have things like grading that happens or trucks running into trees or those kinds of things. I don't think that's going to happen in this site, but we also typically don't impose those kinds of criteria. And I think certainly the idea of having that kind of activity underneath the shade of those trees is appropriate. Mr. Chair, I did want to talk a little bit, if I can, about the roadways now. I'm going to move down through some slides here. So, Mr. Chair, I mocked this up a little bit from some exhibits that were provided by the applicant. And this really shows sort of the location of the project site, Northeast 35th Avenue, Northeast 255th Drive, which turns into Quail Street up by State Road 26. 35th Avenue, 255th Drive, Quail Street, whatever you call any of those, those are unimproved county roads. They are county maintained. We grade them. But they're dirt roads or lime rock. The applicant has provided a plan that will allow for maintenance, ongoing maintenance, and restoration, both. That requires public works to go out and look at the roads before the festival happens, as well as after the festival happens, identify any required restoration, and then the applicant is required to carry that out. We're actually requiring a maintenance bond to be filed by the applicant. That's one of the conditions that I'll go through in a little bit. And that bond is, part of that bond is to ensure that if the applicant just decided to bail on their obligations to bring those roads back into order, that the county has the money to go out and do that. So that is one of our conditions. County Road 219 is a county-maintained rural collector. It operates at level of service A. It has around maybe 2,500 daily trips. That's a weekday kind of count. I looked through traffic count data for this, and it's maybe around 250 or 300 trips in peak hours. That varies a little bit by day, but even on the weekend, that's about how many trips during an hour. There are no turn lanes at 35th Avenue on County Road 219A. And so one of the requirements is that there be traffic control provided there. That would be by off-duty sheriff's deputies. I mean, it's actually a good intersection in that it's pretty flat, and there aren't curves for a pretty good distance, so you can see a good ways into the distance. We realize that traffic is not slow on County Road 219A. That's true of most of our rural roadways. But we think that with signage and as well with deputies out doing traffic control, that it's likely that that can mitigate any additional volume that's on County Road 219A. The applicant has also indicated that during the festival, I will say that I went out on this road a while back before the application was submitted, and I think my car left about 35 pounds heavier, and that was mostly lime rock that was just on it from having been kicked up, and I was going about five miles an hour. So it's clear that this road can get pretty dusty. The applicant has a water tender available, and they can spread water on the road during the festival to ensure that if those conditions occur where it gets pretty dusty, that they can water down the road. That will happen in coordination with our County Public Works Department. Make sure I covered everything there. I think so, Mr. Chair, so I'll move on. I did want to talk a little bit about traffic control sort of in Melrose. I know that that's been a concern, which is how are we going to keep people from being on these sort of Melrose-type streets and the narrower Quail Street or north end of northeast 255th? The applicant, along with our Public Works Department, is proposing basically a partial road closure of 255th, just south of South Street. That would be a movable barricade, so not like, you know, Jersey berries dropped in the middle of the road or a fence or anything like that. This is a sort of manned movable barrier. Local traffic, it would be open to, but festival traffic would be redirected back out to State Road 26 and then to County Road 219. And again, traffic signs on State Road 26 will help to mitigate people trying to go that direction. And we think that that's a reasonable approach to traffic control. Public Works can talk a little bit more about that if they want, but that includes additional signage on those streets. And that will be required as part of the applicant's right-of-way use permit. They are also required to get a general permit from the Florida Department of Transportation for signage that's placed on State Road 26. We can't condition our permit on that. The state prohibits us from doing that. But I can tell you that the applicant has been in contact with FDOT on that. And the last item that I want to talk about, that I want to talk about specifically, is about noise control. The county does have a noise ordinance. That's Chapter 110 of the Alachua County Code. There's a couple different standards that are in there. If the temporary use permit is to be approved, that would be a permitted use in this area. And therefore, the standards that would be enforceable would be 60 DBA during the daytime. That's between 7 and 9 p.m. And 55 DBA measured at the property line in the nighttime. So the opposite of those hours. That is enforced by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. And they would have sole enforcement responsibility for that. As I mentioned earlier, the main stage where music will be happening is 1,100 feet from the closest property line. Again, that's not a determining factor to say that there would be no noise. But we have a belief that the applicant can maintain those low noise standards that would be applicable. I did just want to point out that the applicant is required to get a special event permit from the Alachua County Fire Rescue Department. That includes emergency response from stations that are in the area, as well as emergency medical treatment directly on site. My understanding is that they will have an ambulance on site the entire time. I'm sure that somebody from fire rescue will correct me on that. But that's my understanding. In addition, any tents that they have on site that are over 900 square feet will require a permit through Alachua County. That's standard for tents of that size. So even when there's fireworks, tents, or that kind of thing, we require that. That's where we look at them to make sure that they have the appropriate fire retardant, those kinds of things. That exits are there and that there are fire extinguishers. Those are all part of our special event permit from Alachua County Fire Rescue. And if you have questions, I'm sure that the fire marshal will be happy to get up and talk about that. And then the last thing I did just want to point out is that the applicant has provided an ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, accessibility plan. There aren't specific requirements for that in our land development code, but I think the applicant has gone sort of the extra to provide a plan for how they're going to accommodate people with disabilities on the site. And I'd let the applicant sort of answer questions about that at the time. So, Mr. Chair, I do... It will be very boring for everybody, but I do want to go through these conditions specifically because I want to make sure that they're in the record. They are in the staff report as well. And for anybody who wanted one, there were staff reports over there if you want to go through the conditions yourself. The temporary use permit is issued to Wildflowers Music Park, and gates may open to the general public no earlier than 9 a.m. on March 12th, and all attendees shall have left the property no later than 2 p.m. on March 16th. Setup on the site may begin no earlier than 10 a.m. on February 27th and shall be complete no later than March 26th. Setup and takedown activities include anything related to locating vendors, temporary potable water, electricity, temporary stages, performance venues, delivery of cemetery sewer and solid waste services. Amplified music or sound on the site is allowed beginning 10 a.m. and ending no later than 9 p.m. on Thursday, 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 7 p.m. on Sunday. Sound levels at the property line shall not exceed. I mentioned these, 60 DBA during the hours of 7 to 9, or 55 during the hours of 9 to 7. Consistent with Chapter 120, 110, the Sheriff's Office is responsible for enforcement. The maximum numbers of attendees, including vendors, performers, and staff, shall not exceed 5,000 at any one time. Pedestrian trails and paths shall be located no closer than 100 feet from the property boundary. Trails and paths along the perimeter shall be signed for use only during daylight hours. The Olen Homestead in the southwest corner of the site, which I didn't discuss but wasn't really, it's not part of the festival, so, shall be fenced and signed to prohibit access by festival attendees. No later than March 6, 2026, the applicant shall provide the county a surety in the amount of 15,950. That's our public works maintenance bond. A right-of-way use permit from Alachua County Public Works is required. They've started coordination on that, but it shall include these things. Prohibition of festival access from Quail Street, traffic control at the intersection of the county road 219A and Northeast 35th Avenue, directional messaging locations, hours of off-duty, law enforcement support. Driveway connection permit is required for connection to Northeast 35th Avenue. Is there another slide, Chris? Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Thank you. I was going to put it all in one, but Mark would have gotten mad at how small the text would be. He may already be mad. The following fencing or silt barriers required to be installed and inspected no later than one week prior to the opening of the site to the public. Potentially occupied barriers shall be protected during the event with a 26-foot radius barrier enclosure. If trenting is necessary, installations will be set so that trenching and post-installation occur outside the 25-foot radius. Uncertain origin boroughs. I don't know what that means. Mark will have to tell you. Within active festival areas will be protected prior to the event with the 26-foot radius. High visibility exclusion perimeter using stakes and rope. Boroughs located outside aerial active festival areas will be protected through area-wide access exclusion using perimeter barriers. And signage establishing no entry, no camping, no vehicles. To the maximum extent possible, stormwater will be retained close to the proposed festival facilities to minimize runoff and erosion into wetlands. Please contact EPD. Permits for all tents over 900 square feet and any applicable permits demonstrating compliance with the Florida Building Code must be approved no less than one week prior to the event beginning. Mr. Chair, our recommendation is for approval with those conditions. I'm happy to answer any questions that the commission might have. Okay, commissioners. Questions for staff. Thank you. As with regard to the barriers, the location of the silt barriers required for the wetlands, is that like actual silt fencing that's going to be required? Or is that just barriers to like block the public, like to say, don't come in here? Right. There will be areas that they've built some signage, but we don't require barriers along the buffers, particularly in the site like this where it's so thick with vegetation. Yeah. So it's more just like, just to indicate don't come in here. Okay. Anyone else have questions? Okay, I've got a list. Okay, so what I heard, Chris, was a special event permit, potable water is permitted by the health department. Is that permit in hand, or is that part of the event? Mr. Chair, that would be a great question for the applicant. Again, state permits were not required to, were not allowed by statute to condition our temporary use permit on them. I can tell you that it's required, and my understanding is the applicant has had some discussions with the health department, but they'd probably be the best to answer that. All right, so I'll ask you questions. If you say applicant, then maybe they can address what they're in there. Okay. Okay. Driveway permit for Public Works. So has that, what's the process for issuing that? Because I presume they're going to need to show how they can turn around at the south end of 30 Fifth Avenue? Yeah, Mr. Chair, that is an administrative permit. My understanding, well, I know, not my understanding, I know that the applicant has already had substantial coordination through the temporary use permit review with Public Works on that. There's just a few things left. I know that the county engineer is here as well and can answer some of those questions if you have them. I don't know about the specifics of a turnaround at the end of 35th. I have the same concern for turnaround on Quail Street. I don't know if you've ever been on Quail Street. But if you're, yeah, if you're coming down there and the people are at the barricade and they say, no entrance, turn around, I'm just wondering how that happens. Yeah, I don't think it'll be back into the ditch. I don't think it'll be a turnaround. I think it's a go down the other streets and come out. Well, if you're going down Quail Street and you get to that barricade, what streets would they, how would they turn around? So hold on, guys. Everybody's going to get a chance to speak. Let me just talk to staff. How would they turn around? They won't turn around. They'll go down south and be directed back out. Back out to 26th, down these existing streets. Okay, maybe we can put that slide back up. Okay, so that slide right there. So if they hit, so they'll be directed to go east? They'll be directed to go east, Mr. Chair, yes. Will there be signage out on 26th? Yes. Okay. So they'll know they're going to have to turn around with it. Yeah, so. Yeah, so Mr. Chair, thanks for that. There are additional variable message boards proposed on State Road 26th. That's here. So the only reason someone would go down Quail Street is they were coming from the east. That would be, you know, their Google Maps saying this is the way you go. And so there will be variable message boards before you get to Quail Street from the east saying no festival access from Quail Street continued to County Road 28th. Okay, so PCMS is message boards. Yeah, those are message boards. So the applicant is providing those message boards? That's correct. And then DOT is signing off on those on State Road 26th? They have to get a general permit that basically just says they're not going to put them in the mode, those kinds of things. But yes, DOT will require them to get a permit to put those up. And then we're going to be checking the one message board number six and message board number seven. Those are on the county road, yes, Mr. Chair. Okay, with regards to noise compatibility. So I guess the applicant will explain to us with their music, it'll be less than 60 decibels, 1,100 feet away. Has staff done any evaluation of that? So, Mr. Chair, I spent a solid day looking for a good way to do that without, you know, employing a noise consultant who goes out and does that. And there are estimations that you can use, but they're not reliable. And the things that vary, noise dissipation, are things like trees or tree lines. So sound carries differently just depending on what kind of terrain it's going over. But even having said that, the way that humans experience noise, it's not like, you know, there's a sound wall and you won't hear it. Sound goes over and it comes back down. So those sound walls that you see along, you know, I-75 and Atlanta, they're great for the homeowners who are right there next to them. But that sound can continue on. So that's the short of saying, I don't have a great way to do that. The estimations that I've seen, yeah, they seem pretty, pretty, you know, on the sort of guest surface that, yes, the applicant can control that. Applicant's going to have a sound board. Sound boards have sound meters. So they're going to be monitoring their sound levels anyway. Not because of us, but because they're monitoring it for their festival goers. But that doesn't mean they can't also monitor sound levels for potential impact on their neighbors. I do think that the applicant is going to be able to talk to you a little bit more about what they're going to, what they're proposing and how they feel like that's working. Okay. On the 900 square foot requirement for a permit for a tent, is there a plan to have a 900 square foot tent? Yes. Let me see if I can find a graphic. So, Mr. Chair, my understanding is that both the dance tent and the workshop tent will be over 900 square feet. There may be other smaller tents that are located in this area, craft vendors. You know, you can think about sort of the downtown arts festival, those kinds of things. Those are smaller, 10 by 10, 12 by 12 tents. But the workshop tent and the dance tent will both be larger. And so who provides that permit, Public Works? The permit? That actually comes through our building department, but it's signed off on by the fire marshal. Okay. All right. That's why we can have a condition about that kind of permit. All right. One more question, then I'll ask the fire marshal to come up. The surety bond of $15,950, how much does that bond cover? And I presume that's for if the road isn't repaired or if the road needs repairs, there's a certain amount of dollars that the bond covers. How much does it cover? So $15,950 is what it covers. And let me just tell you. So this is an engineer's cost. This is based on an engineer's cost estimate. So the Florida Department of Transportation has a whole list of what things cost to do. And so the – and my – Oh, that's the total amount to repair the road. The bond is going to be a couple hundred bucks for that amount. I don't – yeah, I don't know how much the bond is, but that's the amount that would be required. Okay. So if the road needs to be repaired, that's the amount that's covered? Public Works says they can handle it for that amount. Yes. Okay. Is Public Works here? Yes. The county engineer is here. Can they explain that number to me? Because that's a – We could prepare all our roads for that. I was about to say, if that's all it takes to prepare a road, then that seems like a low number, but maybe I'm wrong. Ramon Gavarrete, Public Works Director, Commissioners. This bond actually will pay for additional lime rock that has to be put in. Keep in mind, this is a lime rock road, not a pay road. So it's additional lime rock to put it in, in the preparation and in the rolling to be able to be compacted. And, yes, $14,000, this bond would cover that repair. Keep in mind, this is posted for every event. So it's not just one-time bond for all six events if they come back. This is for one event. This is how much they have to post. Yeah, I mean, we're only talking about tonight a four-day event. And whether it's approved or not approved, it's got nothing to do with the future. And in addition to this, like Chris said before, I keep in mind, the applicant has also said that they're going to be having a water truck there to keep the dust down and everything. So we feel comfortable with this bond that was estimated by their engineer. Okay. Very good. So, okay, could I have the fire marshal to talk to us about the special event permit? Billy, if you could just talk to me about safety, about how that's being monitored, how that's being paid for. You know, I've got Chris's kind of overview, but I'd like to understand the permit. Yes, sir. Jeff Taylor, Deputy Fire Chief. We do have a special event permit, a series of boxes that the applicant has to check as far as safety, fire prevention, first aid goes. So we've talked about Quail Street as an access point for our fire rescue vehicles. We have driven those roads. We've had our fire trucks and our ambulances go out to ensure that the roadway will support the weight. We've driven on the property, fed no concerns with that. We also have asked them to have first aid on site. But in addition to first aid, because they don't work under medical director protocols and could only administer first aid type of care, we have asked that they hire a staff ambulance with a paramedic and EMT who can provide ALS care immediately while we wait on additional emergency response vehicles to come and transport patients. So that has been done. They have addressed fire concerns. They have a tanker with plenty of water as well as a brush truck on site. And we also are ready to respond to those with crews from Melrose. And so we also have a number of fire extinguishers that will be posted throughout the area so that if any incendiary fires begin, say from a fire pit, obviously they won't be happening if there's still a burn ban at the time. But if there is a lifting of the burn ban and we do have some campfires, there is a means of controlling those very quickly. The circular community fire circle that you see at the bottom of this, it's a six-foot radius with a 20-foot barrier around it, which is more than enough to try to contain that. We believe that will also help to control the number of individual fires. So there will be buckets of water surrounding that. They're going to have water available. They'll have the brush truck nearby. How many gallons is the brush truck? I think 300 is what we've been told. Okay. So now if we're still under a burn ban. We've let the applicant know that if we are still under a burn ban, they will not be permitted to burn any fires on the property, and they understood that. Okay. In addition to that, we talked about the workshop tent and the dance tent. Those are the only two tents that would need to be permitted or inspected by the fire marshal's office. We have a plan to do that a week out. They also will look at the various food trucks a week out to ensure that they are safe and properly set up, because a lot of them use propane, and make sure that their hood systems are clean, and that there's no chance of any fire there. So that will also be done at least one week out. Okay. Thank you. All right. The only other question I have is for Mark Brown on the RV parking. So talk to me about how the RV waste is handled, or does it stay on, stays? I'm going to usurp Mark, if that's okay, Mr. Chair. Yeah, please. So this is all dry camping, Mr. Chair. Okay. So any of the RVs will need to contain their waste, or if they have a pump-out mechanism or like a tank, they may be able to take those to a centralized site, drain their waste into a tank, and then roll it around on the site. But it's dry camping, Mr. Chair, so there's no – you can't dump your waste on the ground. There's no hookups that are going to be installed or anything like that. And is all this camping in a vehicle? The camping that you see in green that's up on the screen would be RV spaces, Mr. Chair. The ones that are located – let's see if I can go to my – there is also, Mr. Chair, tent camping on the site, and you can see that down here on this sort of south end in this light blue color. Okay, and how is that monitored for public safety? For public safety, Mr. Chair? Like police or – Police. I would let the applicant talk about their plans for that. I don't know. I just know we had a – we have issues with public tents out like Dignity Village. We had issues, and I just want to know what's the plan for monitoring tents. So that's – in the applicant, that's not something that's happening. So these aren't – this isn't a public – people have to pay to camp here. So this is not public camping in that sense, Mr. Chair. This is a private event. Okay. So it's different from that, I guess is what I would say. If Billy gets in an argument with Jamie, who prevents Billy and Jamie from having an argument and then causing chaos? That – I would let the applicant speak to that, Mr. Chair. That could happen with RVs too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's the question. I just wanted to know what's the – so the – yeah, the – what's the security plan? Sure. Yeah. So that's not addressed by staff. That's a – okay, that's an applicant. Okay. Commissioner, those were my questions. Is there any – Commissioner Prizia? And then we'll move to the applicant. Related to fire, and they were answered. My job. Thank you. Okay. All right. Any other questions from this board? All right. Staff report's done. Thank you. A little bit more than 30 minutes, but that's okay. Thank you. That's okay. You did great. Let's go ahead. And now the applicant is up. And Hutch, if you want, you can use both podiums or, you know, whichever – you know, how this works here. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, commissioners, those attending. My name is Guy Fortune. I'm the president of the Wildflowers Music Park, Inc. I am a Hawthorne resident, homeowner, Hawthorne business owner. And reside roughly six, seven miles from this location. I want to encourage you to vote today to approve our application, Temporary Use Program. This event is a signature invitation to the community to come and see the property, 270 acres that will be a natural public space for the region, Hawthorne, Melrose, Waldo, other locations. This is a signature property, an amazing property, was private and not open to the public. It's now a private property, but we want to invite the community. This event has a great history of individuals in the team that have experience in putting on public festivals of this type. Personally, I was the director of the historic Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami. I was introduced to this type of festival, and for a dozen years, we were the winter home of an organization, the Grassroots Festival. You may have heard of it in Chicory Hills, North Carolina, for over 20 years, and its origination in Trumansburg, New York, Finger Lakes District, for over 30 years. So the team that has been able to be assembled here is, I'm very proud of, I'm very proud of the volunteers that have come forward to make this place something that the public can enjoy. The festival that is being spoken about today, yes, music, culture, healing arts, there's always food, which is wonderful. But local, local, local talents, local vendors, and we are doing all that we can to follow your process. All involved have had varying years of following these types of processes, making safe events, fun events, and introducing the community to potentially something that's new. But as I see the culture and what is a core element of Melrose, I imagine that this will fit right in with public use, but also in expressing culture, art, dance, music. There will be something for everyone at this event. It's family-focused, so there will be a kids' area and things that are safe and fun for families to come around and do. So I'm going to keep my comments. I have multitudes I can say, and I hope that those of you who have gone to the property and seen it, we are preparing it for this festival, but this is, and one of my mottos is, you know, this is about the other 360 days of the year and what we deliver to the community for other uses, public uses, picnics, weddings, other things that the community may want to use this space for and enjoy. Anyway, it is not just a festival, but we are asking you today to approve this temporary use permit so that we can introduce it to you. With that, I'm going to keep my comments short. I'm sure there will be many questions. Many members of the team are here. Board members are here. It's a massive project, and so we're working on different elements, festival of land, operations, and so all those folks who are involved, I'm sure, can answer some of these questions. But thank you for your time, your attention today. I want to introduce to you Jordan Pierre. He is one of the founders of the grassroots festival that I mentioned over 30 years ago. Someone that brought great energy and light to Virginia Key Beach in Miami when many people thought this type of festival could not thrive there, but it is about unity, engagement, fellowship, very successful in pulling out those folks, those creative folks that find this kind of festival, their thing. So, with that, I just want to introduce Jordan. Yes, hello, honorable chairman and commissioners. Yeah, my name is Charles Jordan Pereer. I'm kind of known as Jordan. It's kind of a southern way of saying Jordan. My family's from Tennessee. Also been called Jordan, my people that speak Spanish. So, welcome to call me what you like. I suppose I may be the festival expert in the room. I started working on festivals in 1991, and I've spent that most, a good portion of my life, I would say more than half of my life, working on these music festivals. So, I'm happy to answer questions, especially things like, as it pertains to safety. One of the things that, you know, behind the scenes, behind the curtains of an event like this, is an incredible amount of attention to detail to make sure it's a safe and healthy event. So, in the TUP application, there's a health and safety manual that we've written specifically to address those types of things. This festival, too, is something that happens really all over the country in other similar communities. You know, I don't know where people are of the other type of, you know, folk music festivals and not-for-profit festivals, but like the Florida Folk Festival here in Florida and the Will McLean Festival, you know, southwest of here, as well as the Lake Eden Arts Festival in North Carolina, the Merle Festival in North Carolina, the Shakurie Hills Festival in North Carolina. You know, there's the Grassroots Festival, the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival in New York, there's the Blue Heron Festival in Western New York, there's the Wheatlands Festival in Michigan, all those festivals I've attended myself. And they're all, you know, rich cultural experiences. They're really the essence of all those festivals, and they really are similar. They have the same sort of thing. They have multiple stages, camping, they have, you know, tents, and they have kids' areas, and they have arts and crafts, and they have also often nature walks and good food. What they really do to me, you know, when people have asked me, like, what does the festival really do? To me, it's a catalyst, and it's a catalyst for community building and for people to learn to get along and to appreciate each other. It's amazing when you're watching a band from, let's say, West Africa with a bunch of people, and you look at your neighbors. Your neighbor, you're not watching it with a bunch of West Africans. There might be a few, but it's something about that joint appreciation of arts and music and culture that really is a very, very healthy thing. You know, I've spent my life doing this. I'm certainly not in it for the money. I'm a volunteer at this point. I'm pretty much retired from my professional life as a festival organizer and a festival director. Somewhere in there is my resume with various different experiences, various different things. It was interesting reviewing that to me. I was kind of like, wow, what am I doing going around starting all these things everywhere? But it is just from my heart. I believe in humanity. I believe in people. I believe that we can make friends with all these guys with the wildflower shirts, whether you have a blue or white wildflower shirt. I don't think there's going to be a negative that will happen. I'm not going to say that people won't hear it from their front porches if they live nearby, but they will not hear it from their bedrooms. They won't hear it drowning out their televisions. It's not that type of – just not that type of festival. It's not a Bonnaroo. It's not a Woodstock. It's not one of those types of festivals. It's basically a folk roots festival, which means what we tend to call culturally rooted music and dance and also gets people up and dancing. Anyway, if you have the time, I'm sure you don't at this point, but to look into those different communities that have similar festivals, you'll find that they are much loved and much cherished by those communities. And they are just like a nugget, a golden nugget of an asset for a county. They – everywhere I've been that has one of these festivals, they love it. The Suwannee, the Spear of the Suwannee Music Park out by Live Oak, you know, there's an interstate exit there. You know, it's not – somebody put money into making it, you know, a cherished and supported by the government and by the community efforts. But anyway, I want to thank you for considering this. I'm here to answer any questions you may have. So I've been in charge of probably close to 80 of these festivals over those years. It's hard for me to even believe that. But I'm very much happy to answer any kind of detailed questions about how we protect people, how we take care of children, manage their properties, make sure – you know, people leave these properties cleaner than they found them. You know, they don't trash them. They love them. Anyway. Commissioner Alpert? Thank you for being here. One of the festivals that I've attended many times is the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs. And that's about 800-acre site maybe. And they have anywhere from, I don't know, 10 to 15 stages where they have different types of music playing. And I've always found it super interesting that as I walked from stage to stage in that venue, how the music doesn't interfere with each other. Like, you can hear all these different stages independently, and they're not – it's not just a big cacophony of sound. And this site is about a third of what that site is. And I actually don't think that the Folk Festival even uses the bulk of the park. It's mostly just in the center around the bell tower. But how many stages are we thinking about on the wildflower site? Is it just the main stage right now, or are there looking to be multiple stages? And that might be a question for someone else. No, no. I can answer that question. There's a main stage, which is the center there. And then there's two tents that will have also music. And then we're having a small little – we're called the microbus stage. This is going to be an old Volkswagen microbus, a little platform, smaller act sort of that fit in between main stage acts, which will be much quieter than the main stage, but they won't go together. So there's really essentially three stages that it could go along together, as well as hopefully some acoustic music around the community fire circle, given that we get – Well, that always happens at the Folk Festival. Yeah, and we don't – you know, some of our festivals go late. And the one in Trumansburg, New York is notorious for going very late at night. Something about when you live through the cold winter of upstate New York winter, and then the long summer days, people just want to stay up all night. So – but here, we really want to inspire acoustic music and people doing their – creating their own things around the campfire. So we don't mind ending early. We appreciate – I very much appreciate Chris's very thorough understanding of our – what we're doing and the questions they've asked. And I think they've done an excellent job. And I don't see any of his – With the emphasis on acoustic music, that lowers your power needs quite a bit, right? So I understand that you're – you know, you're only looking at a couple of generators. You would need a significant generator to generate a lot of sound. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to use a couple rental generators and then a power distribution system. I assume, you know, inspected and permitted by the county folks. Would the food trucks have their own generators, or would they be connected into a system? We want to connect them because, honestly, the larger professional generators are safer. Quiet. They're also quieter. And the food truck generators can be loud. Loud and slowly. Yes. It can be annoying. And the same thing with the RVs. I know there's some questions about generators. You know, we like to set an area specifically where generators are loud and not allowed site. Usually at these festivals, people bring the smaller RVs. A lot of people now have solar panels. We'll generally not have a lot of generators running, just to answer that question, too. Thank you very much. Oh, yes. The question about the campgrounds and how people get along. We have a team called the camp rangers, which are specifically tasked with being the first level of security. We actually have three, well, it's really four kind of levels of security. One is that the general staff knows that there's their responsibility to watch out for discord or something, seeing stuff evolve. The camp ranger staff, which are specifically in the campgrounds, they are not like the heavy, whatever you want to call it, the response, the security response team. They get to know all the campers, and they know how to mitigate trouble, and we really don't have those kind of issues. We have sometimes had to move a family away from excited campers that make noise all night or stuff like that, but they kind of know how to recognize that in advance. We also have a professional security service called Arise Event Services. They're out of Asheville, North Carolina, and they do our Chicory Hills Festival, or the grassroots Chicory Hills Festival. I am no longer employed by grassroots. I've retired from that position. We have our own not-for-profit here, volunteers and large staff. Anyway, that event services, they do a great job. They're also both EMTs, and they're both medical and security. So unfortunately, a lot of what comes up sometimes in festival party-type situations is that people have been imbibing alcohol a little too much or whatever. And sometimes it's almost more of a medical issue than it is a security issue, you know, getting people away from just away from what's bothering them and talking to them. The other thing is we'll have off-duty security deputies, electoral county deputies. Our event services are not armed security people, so when things get serious, we rely on the deputies as the case. And knock on wood, this never happened. There has been no gunplay in any of our, all the 80-some-odd. I don't expect that to happen, but you never know, and that's why we really like to have deputies there for that purpose, and as well as an ambulance service. We, unfortunately, very sadly, had a volunteer at, I should say we, I can't stop saying we, but at Shakurie Hills. I just kind of want to pay homage to those of a volunteer that was doing wood clearing and had a massive heart attack and didn't make it to the medical thing. In contrast to that, in the New York Festival, we're credit, the festival itself has been credited with saving two lives. We've never lost any lives there, and that's during the festival, people having massive heart attacks, and the fact that the EMTs and ambulances are right there makes it, you know, they've told us that this person never would have made it if they were home. So, we expect it to be a safer place to be than at home, where, you know, because you have security there, you have deputies there, you have multiple levels of people that know how to manage. Is that the presentation? So, I've got Commissioner Wheeler and Commissioner Prizia. Do you want to wait until we're done, or do you want to handle that now? I can wait. Yeah, we're going to wait until you're done. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, and staff. My name is Larry Hagan. I'm a graduate of the University of Florida. I got my bachelor's and master's degree in civil engineering. My master's work was all in transportation engineering and transportation planning, and I've been doing traffic work throughout the state of Florida for nearly four decades, extensive work doing maintenance traffic plans and lots of other type of traffic work. You have my resume in your file. I've done a lot of work in Alachua County. For Wildflowers, I prepared the traffic impact study and the traffic control and maintenance of traffic plan for the proposed event. You have the documents in your backup materials. Let me start with the core conclusion of the whole thing. The festival is not going to create a traffic apocalypse. Again, it's not going to be a woodstock. It's not going to be, you know, anything of that scale for sure. We measured the existing traffic conditions. We started with what the existing traffic is. We collected 72 hours of traffic data at a couple locations that will be impacted by the festival. And as mentioned by staff, you know, County Road 219A is operating at level of service A presently. And, you know, both the counts were done, you know, when UF was in session during a normal expected kind of traffic time when you get, you know, reasonable traffic numbers. We applied conservative numbers because when the festival occurs, it's going to be in March, and that is more of the peak season. So we bumped the numbers up to represent the March numbers to, you know, analyze what it's going to be on March with and without the festival traffic. And so that's what you see in the traffic report there. You see, the traffic report contained that information, contained the traffic count in there. And as you can see, as you can see, County Road 219A, like I said, operating at level of service A can really accommodate a lot of traffic. Even State Road 26 operating at a very good level of service currently. The addition of the festival traffic will, you know, not put it over capacity at all. It will not have a capacity failure. We talked about in the report what we're doing at Quail Street. We had some already discussion about that. We're going to do everything we possibly can to prohibit traffic entering via Quail Street, leaving that open to local users and emergency access so that we can move the barriers out of the way so emergency vehicles can get in quickly and get out quickly to do the work they need to do. So that's part of the plan. That's in your packet that's been submitted. For an event like this, there's not a big early morning surge. People arrive at different times throughout the day. There's many different things going on. And so the traffic arrivals is spread out, and that's what you're going to expect. And I believe that's what you're going to see on the days of the event. We used a lot of really conservative assumptions in the analysis. We analyzed both a 2,000-attendee scenario and a 5,000-attendee scenario. And, you know, we assume that your typical vehicle is going to have two people in it. Most of the time, people come with their friends. I think that's still a pretty conservative estimate. You know, you'll probably have more people in, too, in many of the vehicles, certainly in the RVs and those kind of things. We already had discussion about they will be controlling the dust and maintaining the road, and the bond will be there in case there is any damage to the road. But we certainly don't want to cause any damage to the road. So in closing, we measured the existing traffic conditions that are out there. Again, applied conservative factors to bump it up to what the March traffic should be, and then added festival traffic on top of that. And still, we're not going to be overcapacity. We're not going to be failing level of service. It will operate well. Yes, there's going to be more traffic than a normal day, but it's not going to fail. It's not going to be level of service F. It's not going to be like Miami traffic or anything like that. And so I'll be around to answer any questions you have. Do I have a question now? Yeah, yeah, if I could ask a question now. So if we're getting 5,000 people, and if 1% of them want to show up early to get the best camping spot or whatever, that's 50 people, 1%. Is there room for 50 people to wait for that 10 o'clock opening time? And where would they go? Where would they go? Well, I mean, we have 50 people. Again, worst case scenario, I think that's 25 cars. That's still, you know, on a roadway, 25 cars stopped waiting to get somewhere. I just didn't know if there's a place for them to pull over and wait. Staging area. Yeah, staging area for that. I just, I mean, it's something I would do, right? Show up early to get the best camping spot. Yeah, exactly, and I mean, I guess the, you're going to address that later, Greg? Yes, yeah. Okay. That will be addressed later. Okay, great. All right, thank you. I mean, that is something you have to worry about. Yeah. Okay. Okay, let's keep going, and then we'll do all our questions at the end, if we could. Pete. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Peter Theock-Tisto. I have lived in Gainesville and Alachua County since 1972. I have been in the sound reinforcement business for 50 years, beginning in 1976 when I was a student sound tech at UF, setting up shows at Florida Gym, Florida Field, and Lake Alice Field. In 1984, I started my own business, Everyman Sound Company, which over the years provided sound for events for the city of Gainesville, UF, and many out-of-town venues. And by the way, I did the Florida Folk Festival for 14 years. I provided sound for fanfers and fireworks for 30 years. I sold the business in January of 2020, and after 36 years, had been retired. Putch has been a customer, a neighbor of mine, for most of that time, and when he asked for my help, I volunteered my expertise. We have discussed ideal sound system design and placement to minimize transmission off property. I wanted to explain the term decibel in sound level measurement. It is a logarithmic scale that describes the ratio between two values. For sound, the ratio is between the threshold of a human hearing, which is zero decibels, and the measured value. A 3 dB increase is noticeable, while a 10 dB increase is perceived as twice as loud. When making a sound level measurement, there are two scales. C scale is flat, and A scale represents the way humans hear. The A scale is used in the Lachua County Ordinance. The value is expressed in DBA. So last week, Hutch and I set up a small but loud sound system at the location of the stage. We elevated some speakers in a tractor bucket and placed a subwoofer on the ground. We played music at a sound level exceeding what would be reasonable volume for an event. Using a calibrated sound level meter, I metered the sound level 20 feet from the stage at 92 DBA. Then we drove around to various points on or near the property line, as well as the property lines of several neighbors, for a total of 11 measurements. At no time did those average sound levels exceed 37 DBA. In some locations, highs and bass were barely audible, and in some, only bass. I also took measurements in C scale to determine the 9-mile-per-hour wind component and the A scale readings. So it tends to create a little bit of bass interference in the mic. One of the factors that reduce sound levels is distance from the source. However, the terrain and vegetation also play a part. The stage is set in a slight depression, so there is a natural earthen barrier. In addition, there are large stands of trees that help block and disperse the sound. Once an audience is in place, there is a natural sound absorption factor from that. All of those help to reduce the sound levels in the field. I have recommended that sound levels be constantly monitored at both the stage and mixed positions, and that the level at the mixed position not exceed 80 DBA. This is a very comfortable level, both in terms of hearing fatigue as well as feel. I also recommend monitoring levels at the property line. As the property line measurements were all well below the daytime limits of 60 DBA and the nighttime limits of 55 DBA, I conclude that wildflowers can stay well within prescribed limits. In fact, if the volume at this stage doubled, the levels at the property lines would still be below the code. So I have any questions I'll have to answer. Let's keep moving, and we'll do questions at the end. Thank you for your testimony. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Lee Cook, and I'm a senior level ecologist at a company called Quest Ecology. My work focuses on wetland permitting and environmental assessments, especially wetland alienations. I also want to thank you all for the opportunity to serve for the last two years on the county's land conservation board. I've really enjoyed that experience. I'm a volunteer at Wildflowers. I have been sworn in, and my resume has been provided to all of you. In August of last year, I conducted a field review across the entire 267 acres of the Wildflower Project area. I identified and flagged in the field the boundaries of the wetlands and the surface waters in accordance with Florida rules. I followed up with a detailed report that was previously submitted and included a preliminary effect determination for endangered species. So let me briefly explain wetland delineation to you. Under Florida rules, wetlands are identified using a combination of indicators of hydric soils, hydrophytic vegetation, and the evidence of hydrology. Then the wetland boundary is established using the state wetland methodology that ties the three parameters together. These boundaries are now flagged in the field and mapped so that landowners and festival organizers can avoid them and protect them. In the field, I delineated nine different wetlands and surface water features. These included the freshwater marsh wetlands, including the littoral zone around the pond, also several isolated marshes, forested wetlands, and there are two small sinkholes out there that are full of trash and debris that have used over the years, unfortunately, for dumping. We also looked at some linear ditches and swales, and while they mostly don't hold water, they are considered other surface waters by the state of Florida, and so they are quantified in our review. In total, these wetlands and surface waters are about 59.4 acres of the total property, which accounts to about 22% of the site. Wetlands protect water quality, reduce flooding, support wildlife, and provide habitat diversity. Alachua County's protection approach includes a 75-foot buffer, which is clearly shown on the maps in my report. Except for the two sinkholes that show past dumping the wetlands on site are in a really good condition. From an environmental standpoint, the most important commitment is simple, avoid all wetland impacts, which the applicant intends to do. The wildflowers project approach is described to me as consistent with avoidance, no construction in the wetlands, and invasive plant species removal in the buffer areas. Invasive plant species occurring in the upland areas include camphor trees, as you've already heard about today, coconut grass, and coral artesia. These are all listed as Category 1 invasive plants. The removal of invasive plants that wildflowers has already started to initiate reduces ecological pressures on wetlands and the adjacent uplands. My fieldwork, mapping, and the written report have all been provided to the regulatory agencies. The wetland boundaries on the wildflower site have been mapped using Florida's wetland delineation methodology, and they were verified in the field by the St. Johns River Water Management District on January the 8th. Additionally, the county's 75-foot buffer provides strong protection when it's treated as a no-disturbance zone. With avoidance and buffer compliance, the festival and the park restoration work is compatible with wetland protection. On a personal note, usually when a landowner has someone like me to come on their property, the usual next step is permitted wetland impacts roads and rooftops. As such, I am very happy to have this wonderful opportunity to help save and restore a beautiful part of the Florida landscape, and I'm happy to be part of this worthwhile effort. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Cook. Okay, next speaker. How many more do you have? Jack, okay. Good evening, commissioners. I'm Jack Putz. I'm a professor at the University of Florida. I teach ecosystems of Florida, among other courses, and do research on restoration and have been a volunteer at wildflowers whenever I'm here, participating in controlled burns that are starting to rejuvenate the abused hayfields, designating and opening nature trails, and throwing a lot of brush into chippers while, you know, some tires into dumpsters. I'm duly sworn, and my resume is on file. I'm here to talk about just one aspect of this wonderful property, and that's the live oak trees, which are easy to love and also easy to lose. It's surprising that a tree that can live 500 years, if not protected from the encroaching of taller growing trees by grazing, fire, mowing, they can quickly disappear from the landscape. And as you know, live oaks are part of our heritage. They open-grown live oaks that grace savannas and pastures, and they're more than trees. They're landmarks, the shade in which we recreate and the places where we meet, and they were the meeting places in the south before there were buildings. And this is where people gather. And when I first went to wildflowers more than a year ago, I was just dismayed at the deplorable state of the whole property. The previous environmental abuses were just awful, but I was particularly alarmed by the condition of the live oak trees. There are hundreds of them, and they spent the early part of their lives, a couple hundred years, growing in the open. But about 20 years ago, something happened, and camphor trees and others in native species, camphor is exotic, of course, from Asia, but there are also water oaks and laurel oaks and sweet gums that are growing up and grow through the crowns of the live oaks. And many of the live oaks were on the verge of being killed by those other trees. So we haven't treated them all yet, and the treatment is laborious. We spent a lot of time throwing brush into chippers. But a new technique has been developed at wildflowers that is now going to be the subject of a research project on restoring or maintaining live oaks. There are many, several options that you have if you want to keep your live oaks alive. You need to get rid of the trees that are growing up around them. You can do that by cutting and dragging things out, but then they re-sprout. So then you have to use herbicides, which is worrisome when you're treating under a live oak tree. But people associated with wildflowers developed a technique for using a modified excavator with a grapple head that could grab trees, small ones that are, you know, a hand span in width, and pluck them out of the ground, sometimes four or five at a time. Give them a shake and pile them, and then that has to be moved out, and that's what we've been throwing into the chippers. It leaves terrain that's rough, but we figured out ways of smoothing that out. So now you've seen in the pictures some beautiful live oaks with now a grassy understory. The native species will come back. It'll be a better habitat for gopher tortoises. We hope pocket gophers will come back. All the wildflowers that we're going to be propagating as well. Dealing with the camper trees and the coral ardizia are high priorities, but I'll continue to focus on saving those live oaks, which are such a big part of our heritage. And it's not just for sentimental reasons or ecological reasons. It's cultural as well. And I think a carefully managed and time-limited festival with the rest of the year, with the area open for nature exploration, is exactly what this community will benefit from in a great many different ways. And thank you for your time, and I'll be happy to answer any questions that come up. Thank you, Dr. Butts. Ecological state. Yeah, we may have some in a minute. Thank you so much. So we heard from the – we heard a lot about the tortoises. I think we'll just have our tortoise expert be available. And we just have one more speaker, and that's Andy Kane, who's one of our board members. He's going to speak about the public aspects. Okay. You're welcome. Evening, Mr. Chair, commissioners, and staff. Less than two months ago, I retired from the University of Florida as emeritus professor of environmental and public health. Dr. Kane, welcome. Thank you. Thirty-three years ago, as a graduate of Cornell University in Upper New York State, I actually partnered with the very first grassroots festival in Trimmonsburg, New York, and actually found myself on the main stage, interacting with audiences to help people understand the AIDS epidemic. I may have actually been one of the very first people using a microphone to discuss safer sex to such a large audience. Since then, I've actually spent a career thinking about how we reduce risk. Without losing what makes life worth living. And along the way, I've become a dance caller as well. And I've participated in dance and music events for decades, including in Melrose. I'm also a volunteer board member with Wildflowers. I've been sworn in and my resume is on file. I'd like to address some of the primary concerns from some of our friends in the community. When people hear 5,000 attendees, it's really not unreasonable to picture chaos. Public health looks at this differently. Safety is not about wishing people would behave differently. Safety is about designating and implementing systems so that people can have a good time while minimizing risk. There are several practical ways that we are doing this at Wildflowers. First, we're operating under a clear capacity cap. Maximum number of people on site at any one time, including staff, vendors, and performers, is 5,000. We actually anticipate less in this first festival. But this cap, nevertheless, is the backbone of all of the safety planning because it determines staffing levels, medical coverage, and response capacity. Second, we're building layered supervision and rapid response into the event. We'll have professional event medical and safety support on site through Arise, the festival event company that we've contracted with. We'll also have trained camp rangers and operations staff in the park at all times. In addition, we expect Alactua County deputies and County EMS resources to be present for significant portions of the event. Third, we're finalizing our operational agreement with the Sheriff's Office to cover security and traffic management details. Third, we're strengthening crowd management beyond what most first events might do. We will staff at least one certified crowd manager for every 250 attendees on site at all times. And their job is not really security, as Jordan mentioned earlier, it's prevention. It's monitoring density, keeping lanes and emergency access open, spotting problems early, and coordinating fast, calm interactions and interventions before small issues can mushroom. Fourth, we are coordinating directly with the county's fire and life safety requirements. Our special event plan with Fire Marshal John Adler has been received, and we will meet all permit requirements for tents, egress, emergency access, and inspections on the timeline set forth by the county. Finally, I'd like to say one thing as a public health professional, because it's really easy to forget after the last few years with COVID. Public health has recently been associated with keeping people away from one another, and that was sometimes necessary. But it also proved disastrous for many people's mental health and well-being. Loneliness and disconnection are real public health problems. People are yearning for safe, positive ways to reconnect with their neighbors, friends, and their community. Wildflowers is designed to be exactly that. A place where families can come together for music, dance, nature, restoration, with clear rules, trained professionals, and thoughtful planning. We take fears and concerns very seriously. We will address them with staffing, training, oversight, and enforceable limits. Then we do what communities do best. We come together. Thank you so much for your attention. Thank you, Dr. Cain. So my name is Robert Hutchinson. I've been sworn at, and my resume has stuff on it I can't remember. And that concludes the applicant's presentation. And what we'll do is during the party's presentations, we'll gather all of our folks over here at this podium, so that anybody who's asking us a question. Okay, that'll be next. Before we get to that, Hutch, if we could just answer a couple of questions. I've got some lights on. So I've got Commissioner Alford, Commissioner Wheeler, Commissioner Prezio. And then I've got a couple of quick questions. Question. Okay. Commissioner Wheeler. Yes, I would just like to know about the orientation of the main stage. Which direction are you going to be? It's aimed southeast, which is the direction that is away from most of the – it's away from all of the neighbors. I mean, the closest house going southeast is like 2,600 feet away. And our southern neighbors are Florida Power and Light, which is the solar farm, and Groven, which is a sod farm. And so the other thing, by aiming that direction, we're not aiming it back towards Melrose or back towards Santa Fe Lake because we know there's roosting birds and other reasons to do that. Right, and is – I'm not sure I'm right, but does water amplify or carry sound? How close is it to the lake that's there? Well, it's aimed away from the lake. Okay. Okay. That's why I'm trying to orient myself to that. Sound does travel across water better. Right, better. Okay. Thank you. That's the only one I have. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Christie. Hellman, who was just speaking, but could you just quickly talk about sanitation, health, like the bath, like you're going to have porta-potties on the site? Port-a-potties, portable showers, and that's sanitation. And they're all contained? Everything's contained. They'll be scattered throughout the park. So they typically are in clusters of four with a handicap and then a hand-wash station, and then they'll be four another 250 feet away and so forth. So we put them where they can be serviced frequently. As a matter of fact, the porta-potty companies usually just put somebody on site so that they're constantly cleaned. Okay, great. Thank you. Conclude? Yeah. Okay. So Dr. Putz's presentation was superb as it relates to saving the live oaks. Not relevant for this, but I would like to have an additional conversation with our EPD about what you all are doing because it's very interesting with regards to what has happened and what is happening. I've got a couple of questions. How many volunteers do you have staffing for this event? Well, I can tell you what we have right now, and that's the thing out every day I'm working with is we have between 10 and 20 people on site at some portion of every day just getting things ready. Festivals like this, let's take the Shakurri Hills Festival. They'll have 4,000 to 5,000 paid attendees and as many as 1,000 volunteers. The volunteers get a ticket. The ticket typically work 8 or 12 hours. Now, like I sat in on the garbage crew for Shakurri Hills. There were 30 people just involved with the garbage detail. Is that the plan for this event? Yeah. We're going to have about a 1 to 5 ratio between volunteers. And what percentage of the, how many are you expecting? I know your limit is 5,000, but how many are you expecting? If I had to make a wild guess right now, I'd say 2,000. 2,000. And what percentage of those would you say are actually campers versus attendees? Typically, half of the attendees at these festivals are campers. We think being a first-time festival, it may be less than that, but we're planning on being able to handle however many show up. Yeah, so I didn't count the little green square, but how many, like how many can you handle overnight? How many, what was the final count on the two sites? 172 RV or trailer sites, and then the tent sites, easily 200 or 300. Okay, and so tent sites, a couple, so 200 or 300, so say 500 people in tents, RVs, you typically have two to three? Two people to an RV. Okay, so about that. Okay, and then, can I jump in? Is car camping considered tent camping? Not in the sense that they can park their car where the tent campers are, because tent campers are in amongst the trees and so forth. But if people, I mean, people sleep in vans, sometimes they sleep in the back of their Subaru or whatever. But they're going to be with the RVs? Exactly. Okay. Hutch, how are you dealing with alcohol? What's the alcohol situation? And my understanding, and Jordan will tell me if I'm wrong, is that Blue Water Bay will be handling the alcohol concession. They will handle it the same way they would at their restaurant. They will card people. They will cut people off if they don't look what they should have anymore. Okay, last question, then we'll get to the parties. Talk to me about traffic control on Quail Street. You heard my question about if it's possible to turn around. So, as you're approaching Quail Street from either direction, the signs say, you can't go down Quail Street to the big signs. If somebody makes that turn, there's no way you can tell them to go right back. They go down to South Street. There's a barricade there with two people at it. And at that barricade, they're sent to the left, left, and back out on 26. For people that are local, we will tell them the secret code word, and they'll just wave them on through. The locals get a code word. I'm looking for suggestions for code words. All right, so let's not jeer and talk. You know, the parties will have a chance, but parties, if you have a suggestion for a code word, that would be your time. And then, could you address Mary's question about backing up traffic on 35th from early people, people coming? There's a lot of neighbors, when you drive down that road, that have expressed concerns about that. If you look at the way that our parking lot is arranged, there's a long, skinny road that goes into it. You can easily put 50 to 75 cars on that before they get to the stopping place. Because where the ticket booth is, is up and around. So, our whole notion of using 35th to start with, which gets people off a paved road, and then getting them onto that road off 35th, is so that any queuing that happens, happens on our site. In the parking lot area? Yeah. Okay. All right, those are my questions. Thank you. Okay, so where we are, for those of you that first time, is we're now going to have parties. So, I've got a list of 10 parties, and we'll call you in order. You'll have, we'll have 15 minutes. Each party has up to 15 minutes. You don't have to take the full 15 minutes. I would ask, again, that you, if you have questions that you want to ask the applicant or staff or do any cross-examination, that's a great time to do that. I would also say that if anything you, well, a party that comes before you, anything that they say that that is in your presentation, you know, you can just refer to that. Let's try not to be repetitive, if at all possible, and things relevant to what you heard by our staff and the applicant, the applicant's experts are over there, and they can answer questions as you present. And we're going to go in the order, if it's okay, that we had up on the screen. So, what I'm going to do is announce who's first. If you'll come up to this podium, introduce yourself. The clerk will put the timer on 15 minutes. Again, green means go. So, you've got 14 and a half minutes. Yellow is 30 seconds. Red is wrapping up, and then I'll announce who the two are on deck so that the next party can be ready. So, we're going to start with Ms. Sandra, and if I pronounce your name wrong, please, I'm apologizing on the front end. I'm not good with that. But Sandra Gottschalk will be first, followed by Michelle Baer, and then Arlene, Barbara, and Ants Hanson. And Ms. Gottschalk, you're recognized. Welcome. No? Okay. My name is Sandra Gottschalk, and I live immediately adjacent to the Wildflower Music Park. I own 40 acres, and my property abuts the project on two sides, not one. And so, my family has lived there for 23 years, and my family also has multi-generations in Melrose. My grandparents lived on Quail Street. My aunt owned a Vogue Interior Plans, and my sister owned one of the first art museums and tea room in Melrose. So, I share that because I have a lot of history with Melrose, and I have a lot at stake with my property being on two sides. I also want to make note for the record that my home does not appear on the applicant's project map. That's not because it doesn't exist, but it's because the wildflower image has been placed blatantly over it. That omission matters because it obscures immediately adjacent properties that this proposal is that exists where the existing homes are at. I have submitted a written analysis and record detailing how the temporary use permit conflicts with the Alachua County Comprehensive Plan and the ULDC codes. What I want to do today is walk you through that same comprehensive plan and ULDC analysis in plain language, neighbor to neighbor, so you can hear how the standards you enforce translate into real-world impacts in this specific location. The proposal is not a small community gathering spot like Shipini's or like the Heritage Park downtown. This is a large commercial festival venue that will require thousands of attendees, amplified music, lighting, generators, traffic control, and extended setup and teardown. The operational reality is inconsistent with how this land was planned to function, how it has functioned in the past and what Alachua County has stated the future of the land ought to be. The application proposed shows weeks of setup followed by the festival and weeks of teardown with extended tent camping for the volunteers that are tearing up and putting down. So all total, it's a month. It's not just four days. For neighbors, this presents nearly a month of continued disruption, delaying daily commutes to work and school, and tearing already federal infrastructure to our roads. Even if the venue only holds one event per year, the scale of that event matters. Overnight camping, amplified nighttime activity, lighting, and thousands of people represent an intensity to rural areas were never planned to absorb. Couple this with the lack of planning for how to address these impacts and what you have is a community that has been completely overwhelmed by this one event. Large festivals such as this one increase the likelihood of emergency, requiring law enforcement and fire rescue personnel, which the local area cannot handle. Law enforcement and fire rescue services in Melrose have operated at or around minimal requirement capacity for years. Adding another event would require extra manpower that would prevent resources being used in the community. And instead, they would all be focused on festival. Those include little to no fencing or buffering. So in my house, there's no fencing. It buffers their property on two sides. 5,000 people. How are you going to stop them from coming on my property? It causes fear and anxiety about what will happen if the festival doesn't go as planned. Without containment, communication, or truthfully any meaningful, safe measures, adjacent landowners are exposed to trespassers, safety risks, and disruption to a daily lifestyle that costs us so much to obtain. Agricultural zoning exists to protect bona fide agricultural production. Food cultivation, soil dependence, operations, and long-term land stewardship. While environmental stewardship is required of all land uses, conservation practices do not transform a commercial entertainment venue into agricultural property. Agricultural land supports food production for people or animals, such as hay, which this property was farmed for before being sold. This food production is done through soil-dependent practices, long-term stewardship, and compatibility uses. The principles are not advanced by high-intensity commercial activities, mostly unrelated to agriculture. A temporary use permit is intended for small, short durations and using incidents in zone districts. Using it to authorize a high-intensity commercial venue sets precedence that rural land use protections can effectively be bypassed through proper labeling rather than compliance. I feel compelled to end this speech with a personal note. Just research and work for this argument has been a strain on my life and the people that are here with me. I would not be standing before you today if I did not see this development as not just a threat to the life that I have been blessed to enjoy in this community for decades, but this development is also a failure to the young generations in Melrose to preserve the lifestyle and culture that this small town offers for our future. We are not here to oppose music or put down on those involved in this development as individuals. Ultimately, difference in opinions means that some people will feel differently about this part than me or my peers. But this decision is not about who is more right or who is more wrong morally. It is about zoning and ensuring a round peg such as this development cannot be put into a square hole like this community. I appreciate your consideration and attention, and I do have some comments. One is, it's not 210, it's four. The 172 RVs are on one side of my property. If you've ever been boondocking, those RVs have generators, so maybe some of them do have solar, but that's a lot of noise. That festival that they have set up sitting there, that's in front of mine. So even though it's not directly on my property, I'm going to hear all of that. And there are nature trails, so like I said, no fencing, no barriers, no signs, right onto my property you go. So it does cause me a bunch of risk. And as far as Quail Street goes and blocking off Quail Street, you can also come down 21 and turn right by the cemetery and go straight down there and bypass all the way. There are many ways to get onto that property. People come across the back of my property and come onto my property that live on the other side of the lake. So containment's going to be an issue. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Okay, we've got Michelle Baer, and on deck is Arlene Barbara Hanson, and then after Arlene would be Brandy McKinney. Welcome. Michelle Baer, and I'm a resident of Alachua County and Melrose. I'm a native Floridian. I live directly adjacent to the Wildflowers property. So I think I more than qualify as an expert on the topic of Melrose. You commissioners, for your time. I've come before you previously in person. I've submitted numerous emails, all expressing my desire for you to oppose the Wildflowers temporary use permit. For some, this is a today event or an agenda item. For me, my neighbors, and Melrose at large, the Wildflowers Music Park has been a point of discussion for over a year. Wildflowers is the first thing that has made me consider leaving Melrose since I moved to my home in 2017, nine years ago. There is something a real estate listing can never really capture, and that no amount of research before investing in a property can predict. And that is who your neighbors are. Shortly after I had moved in and was traveling for work, I got a call from my husband. You'll never believe it, he told me. Our neighbors brought us a cake, a cake she made. I didn't believe it. I felt like I'd moved on to the set of the Andy Griffith Show. The cake was delicious. But it wasn't just a one-time welcome to the neighborhood thing. Sandra and Lee have invited us for holidays, and we've invited them. They attended our wedding. As recently as the freeze this month, Lee sprang into action and assisted with some frozen water equipment. They're the epitome of neighbors. And this culture of neighborliness permeates beyond my little corner of town. This neighborly old Florida village culture is diminished by hosting 5,000 guests without a stake here. While to my south, I have Sandra and Lee, to my west, I now have new neighbors. I never anticipated my new neighbors would be a music festival. Melrose doesn't ask for much. Melrose is a town that takes care of itself. Although we have no town government, we have a self-curated and self-sustaining culture. And I'm asking our board to protect it by denying the temporary use permit. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. All right. Next speaker, Arlene Barbara Anshanson. We've got Brady McKinney on deck. And then after that, we'll be Christina and Teddy Goings. Is Arlene here? She's coming. Okay. Michelle left you plenty of time. You take your time. I thank you for letting me come and speak to you today. I'm Arlene Barbara Anshanson. And I've lived in Melrose off of 219A on Northeast 240th Terrace since 1989. My husband has lived in that area since he was 22 years old. And his family, an extended family, moved into that area back in about 1975. So we have a long history of living right off of 219A and on Northeast 240th Terrace. I've raised, my husband and I have raised five children at that home. We have a daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren who live right off of Northeast 35th Avenue, about 50 to 75 acres away from the Wildflowers Festival. It had been our desire to build onto their home, have that be our last home, and retire there, helping to raise our grandchildren and have the help of our daughter and their family in our old age. We're not going to do that if a music festival is going to be right down the road. It's caused a lot of discomfort and anguish with our family because we have experienced for over 40 years the country life of Melrose, the peace, the quiet, the stars. We live, you know, about one mile away from the festival site. I live two miles from 21, say we're 21, and 26. That corner there is kind of like a music hub where sometimes they have music playing. I can hear them two miles away, and it's just a small little group. I live five miles away from the railroad tracks. I can hear the train at night, and especially if the whistle blows. We can hear it. That's five miles away. So talking about sound, what our concern is, and my concern for my neighbors and my family, is how is this music noise and the sound, the noise of the people going to be buffered by the trees? No, I can hear the train five miles away, and it's going to come. I don't know how they think that they're going to buffer it and stop it unless there's no amplification at all. But still, just imagine 5,000 people emerging into one small area, and you live within half a mile. I've looked at the parcels from the county, and within one mile in that area, there's at least 100 buildings that I could see. So let's imagine in 100 homes in that one mile radius is maybe two people. So that's 200 people. But then if sound carries two miles, as we go closer to Lake Santa Fe, the density of population increases. There's more homes. There's at least 200 to 300 people. And, you know, so the amount of people tells you that there are residents there. There are lives there. We matter. Our lifestyle, the way we have chosen to live, it matters. I matter. My being able to sleep at night, being able to go outside and hear the wind and the trees. And, you know, I love music. I'm a musician. I write songs. I'm a poet. But I want to do it on my terms, and I want to listen to others on my terms, not in my home, because I have no choice. This festival sounds wonderful, but it's in the wrong area. It's been immersed and put on us without us, you know, it's just a business decision that was made. And is the county going to go against the planning that you've had, the future planning of how our area is going to be? Are you going to go against that and allow this big entertainment venue to come in and destroy these people's way of life? So I did present party status request evidence. So I'm going to go ahead and go over that. I just wanted to give a little personal stuff. I'm very passionate about this. My husband, I mean, it's caused some strife. My husband right now is in Homosassa because he's not happy about this whole thing. Anyways, what's proposed for the Wildflowers Music Park is not short-term. It's not an incidental rural event. It's a large-scale, multi-day commercial festival with extensive site preparation, thousands of attendees, overnight camping, amplified sound, temporary power, and lighting infrastructure. Alcohol service and weeks of operational activity when set up and teardown are included. This matters because rural areas are planned. They're staffed and service based on low-intensity residential and agricultural uses, not high-intensity commercial entertainment operations. Introducing a festival of this scale fundamentally alters the assumptions that underpin public service planning in rural Alachua County. This festival would require sustained deployment of law enforcement, fire rescue, emergency medical service, traffic control, and roadway maintenance over an extended period. Emergency response capacity in rural areas is inherently limited by staffing levels, response times, and reliance on mutual aid. Concentrating thousands of people in a remote location, particularly with nighttime activity, alcohol consumption, dispersed camping, and temporary electrical systems significantly increases likelihood of medical emergencies, fire incidences, and law enforcement calls requiring immediate response. At the same time, rural roadways in this area are unpaved and not designed for sustained high-volume traffic, heavy service vehicles, or repeated degradation. Traffic control, road monitoring, dust suppression, and post-event repairs create predictable fiscal and operational burden for the county and partner agencies. These costs are not offset by permanent infrastructure investment or proportional public benefit. They are borne by taxpayers. Temporary use permits are not intended to authorize uses that require prolonged intensive public service deployment or that create recurring fiscal impacts. They are meant for short-term incidental activities that remain compatible with surrounding land uses. Here, the application itself describes weeks of site preparation, multiple days of public attendance, an extended teardown, an operational footprint approaching a full month, and that's possibly six times a year. So, that's six months of what's supposed to be temporary. It's not temporary in any meaningful sense. These are sustained land use impacts, not isolated events. Beyond duration, the operational characteristics of this proposal, large-scale attendance, overnight camping, amplified sound, temporary utilities, lighting towers, traffic control plans, and continuous staffing reflected intensity of use consistent with a permanent or institutional facility. These impacts are not accessory to agriculture or rural residential use. I'm going to repeat that. These impacts are not accessory to agriculture or rural residential use. They temporarily, but completely, transform the function of the property. The permit process is not intended to serve as a workaround for introducing high-intensity commercial uses into a rural area where those uses would otherwise be incompatible. Using a TUP in this way bypasses the comprehensive planning and zoning safeguards that exist to evaluate long-term compatibility, infrastructure adequacy, public safety impacts, and cumulative effects. Finally, the application contemplates future events six times a year. And like the gentleman said, oh, we'll have other events on the weekends like weddings and, you know, and continued monetization of the property. This is not an isolated occurrence. It is part of a broader operational model. Approving this permit sets a precedent that similar rural properties can host large-scale commercial events without undergoing the appropriate zoning and special exception review by the county's code and comprehensive plan. I'm going to remind you that principle three of the comprehensive area plan recognizes residential neighborhoods as a collective asset for all residents of the county. You know, they presented a lot of stuff. They've done a lot of work on this. I can see there's a lot of investment, and I know that this commission has been a part of this before I think even the residents knew about this. And I'm just overwhelmed because this was my home. This is where I wanted to stay to die. I've bought plots over at the Melrose Cemetery, but I don't want to be next to a music festival. I'd love to go to one. I have a stepdaughter who's been to the North Carolina Festival numerous times and has sent me videos, and I know what goes on there. I have a lot of videos of her dancing around and the music, and she has told me every time she leaves there, the place is trashed. There is garbage everywhere. It's fun to go to, but don't live around one, you know. And I've got the videos on my phone, and I've talked to my stuff. Anyways, these reasons, based on the scale, the duration, the service impact, the fiscal exposure, and the incompatibility with the temporary used permit framework of that permit, I respectfully and we respectfully ask that this application be denied, denied, not because we hate a festival. It's in the wrong place. It's in our home. It's in our backyard. And it's going to affect not just those right around, you know, surrounding it. It's going to go where I am a mile away. It's going to go over to Lake Santa Fe. It's going to change Melrose. And if that's what you want, I guess that's what it's going to be. I don't know. I don't know how to go to fight this other than to plead with you, don't let it be. I know they've invested a lot of money, and there's a lot on the line, but so is there on our side. And I matter. My husband matters. My granddaughter matters. I have great-grandchildren that want to come visit and surveys, but if this happens, we're going to leave. So at the minimum, required to pursue, I ask that minimally, you know, if you do not deny this application. You want to go ahead and wrap up, Ms. Harley? Okay. You can finish your thought. Go ahead and finish your thought. I'm sorry. I thought it was 10 minutes. But anyways, I appreciate you listening to me, and please consider, reconsider this whole thing. Thank you, Ms. Harley. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up, we've got Ms. Brandy McKinney. Then we've got Christina and Teddy Goings, followed by Brittany Waston. Hello, commissioners. Good evening. Thank you for hearing our concerns and thoughts this evening. My name is Brandy McKinney, and I've met many of you before, at least seen you, if I have not spoken to you directly. My family has actually lived in this area and farmed in Alachua County and around Alachua County, Fort Wise, Trenton, since the 1800s. My great-great-great-grandfather founded the First Baptist Church in Trenton, and we've been farming land here for over a century. And currently, the place we're in, my grandmother, who is here tonight, she is 94 years old. Wow. She's sitting right back there next to my mother. Welcome, Grandma. And she has farmed that land since the 70s. She actually used to own the store in Orange Heights as well, the fish and bait-and-tackle gold gas station that used to be there. So I'm going to make a short presentation and share some of the time allotted with Mark Goldstein. He's going to assist me, who's been working tirelessly to reestablish our once-thriving, highly-regarded regional citrus belt. Well, commissioners, U.N. County staff spent countless hours and many months to create a sensible plan that clearly identifies actual urban service boundaries, beyond which, in our well-defined rural agricultural region, the cost of providing urban government services increases sharply. We understand that is an essential fact of good government, and we understand that even though the interests of a private promoter may pressure our county commission and staff to repurpose land and reinterpret the meaning of our zoning codes, or by misinterpreting the clear set limits imposed by the plan, we depend on you to stand with the plain meaning that took so much time and pressure to create. Despite the pressures, corporate promoters and their influencers are not what make counties work, but they can make them fail. No loophole, no unintended scrivener's error in a document or misunderstanding is sufficient to dissolve the plan's clear intentions and limits preventing high-impact surges of urban activity into well-defined rural agricultural zones for the benefit of a few promoters and definitely not sufficient to force county residents and taxpayers to underwrite any of the costs because they are already shouldering more than they can handle in taxes, cost of living, and farm expenses. Improving a temporary use permit for a commercial entertainment venue and agricultural zoning establishes a precedent for similar requests. Improving a temporary use, undermines agricultural preservation goals, and encourages incremental commercialization of rural areas. Once agricultural zoning protections are weakened, they are difficult to defend against future incompatible uses and enforce consistently countywide. And I'd like to ask Mark to come up now and present. Thank you, Brandi. Dr. Goldstein, welcome. Mark Goldstein, following Brandi is impossible, but I'll give it a two-minute try. It looks like a husband's and wife, I mean, bride and groom's side, doesn't it? But nobody's getting married tonight. It's just divided down the middle like the rest of our country. I'm a musician, but I'm not going to play at this time. Nobody would let me play out of my house anyhow. I'm a keyboard musician, but when I put an amplifier on, everybody runs. There are some problems with the staff's interpretation of what happened, even though they tried hard. And there's a second problem. When somebody comes in for a quasi-judicial hearing and brings experts, like when they wanted to put the biggest landfill in Florida along State Road 24, 26, they got identified that not just that they're an expert and they're a professor, they got to tell you whether they're on the payroll, whether or not they are part of the organization, contractor, future promises, payroll goodies. When I write a scientific article, the first thing I say is my conflict of interest is that you take this drug because my buddy made it and I get money. So it was unclear in each of the great testimonies from these well-respected people when they stated their credentials, and I never do mine because I'm not sure I'm competent enough to do it. But the competence and the brilliance is there. The question is, who's paying them? And it was unclear. There was some kind of mealy words. Well, I'm a volunteer. I'm working with him. And I like this thing. Now, there are problems. There was no definition of level of service that I heard on a country road that the Florida Department of Transportation has certified. Was it C? Was it D? And what's the impact on the level of service from the person who is the expert but is on the company side telling us about the impact of traffic? You've got to have a level of service. I've been dealing with that all of my life. When I was mayor of Gainesville, level of service was the first thing that happened. When I sat with you all, your predecessors, as the transportation group, we always ask, what's the level of service? We don't know. We don't know. Sound is a problem. Now, I'm a scientist, and I know a little bit about sound. The fellow that spoke before knows more than me. But he never mentioned the frequency. He mentioned the intensity of the sound. But it has two things. It's got intensity up here in this field, but it's got frequency down here. When in my neighborhood, someone plays a drum after 10 o'clock or 9 o'clock, and that drum runs out at 40, 50, 60, 125 hertz, that's cycles per second, and that wave hits my wooden wall, my wife says, time to get up. Go see him. Take the plug out. And I've done it. Sometimes there were big football there. They didn't like me taking the plug out. But I did it because you couldn't sleep, not because the sound at the high lows you couldn't hear, but that low, brown, boom comes through the window and the wall. The window shakes. The walls go. We didn't hear about the frequency. That's the science. We heard about the intensity at the property line, and people have spoken. The reason the lady hears the railroad is because the frequency is so damn low. When a giant piece of metal hits a giant track, it's low. The other problems our staff failed to tell us when this thing begins and ends. They told us two different places. On page three, they told us this is a three-day deal, coming and going. No, no, no, no, no. When you start to look at it, coming and going is undefined, and it begins on one day, and it ends somewhere around March 26th. But nothing about people packing up and leaving at that time. Hey, I got my tent. I got my deal. I got my van, and I'm staying two weeks, three weeks. Now, that changes the laws because in the state of Florida, you can't have a thing in which you go to the bathroom without connecting to a regulated dump underneath it. You can't stay that long. You get so many days, or you're out of there with your van. So you got that. Now we're talking about how you're going to enforce this. Tonight, in this peaceful room with two sides, you're paying overtime to a policeman or two. This ain't going to be a peaceful place out here. But you're paying a bill for us. Let's talk to you. We're not here to have a music festival or have 5,000 people or have 400 cars sitting out there. Yet you need policemen here. Who's going to pay them out there? Well, the answer for staff is you're going to trust them. The answer here is trust. They're going to take care of these things, and they're going to look after them, and they're going to do good, not good enough. In four places, the staff has shifted the burden of control to the vendor, to the operator. That happens to be a problem because we're going to pay when the vendor don't work. We're going to pay plenty. Right now, the taxes in this county are going up faster than the population, partly because things cost more. You've done your best. First, I've read everything you've done, but we can't afford it. People are moving to other counties, and you know it because the price here is too great. Every nurse I ask when I go to the hospital, every staff, how long do I take you to drive here? Well, I can't afford to live here. This is not a time to shift private income. Two million dollars last year by the same group in New York State. Two million bucks. And I sent that to you, and I have a document. They made two million bucks, these folks, or they grossed two million bucks. What they make is how much they pay and who they pay. I got a document. They made two million bucks. We ain't getting any of that. We have a park system that cost us millions of dollars. We're not selling tickets. We're not putting them there. We're letting somebody who had somehow a deal with somebody contingent upon this and that, $2.7 million piece of property to run his buddies out there and have a music camp because the fellow from South Florida, Virginia Key was closed, by the way, because they had a mess there they couldn't handle. And have a chain of these operations around the country, and we're next if you don't say no. Our trust is in you, in this great county, and looking at hard data, not good intentions, and pretty flowers. I could give you all kinds of biological beauty, not just in this piece of property, but all the surrounding area. There's been a hard week for farmers. Half our citrus was not dead, but really hurt. So this year, I can't bring oranges to y'all, which is a nice way of sucking up. I used to do it, but I'm trying to regrow them so I can suck up again. So I won't have any. So it's been a hard week for me and all the other farmers. And this is a farming region, which is so important to feed our area so we don't have to buy foods in plastic containers at all these out-of-town places. And I want you to keep it that way, and I appreciate your time, and listen to me and to Brandy and these wonderful people whose lives have sunk into the ground here, and they know more than the vendor from out-of-town and the local former county commissioner. Thank you so much. Thank you, Brandy. Thank you, Dr. Goldstein. Okay, next up, we've got Christina and Teddy Goings, followed by Brittany Waston, and then Peggy Bonner. Christina and Teddy Goings, are they here? Okay, we'll move on to Brittany Waston, followed by Peggy Bonner, and then Jan Merritt. Jan, we're going to move you in to the eighth spot. Welcome. Hi. Hi. Can we restart this time, please? Okay, go ahead, Brittany. Chair and commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to speak. For the record, my name is Brittany Waston, and I live directly across the street from the proposed event site. And my veterinary practice is located within approximately two miles of the property. I want to start by saying that I have friends on both sides of this event. And I do want Wildflowers to know that I appreciate many of the steps they've taken, saving the live oaks, doing safe prescribed burns. As a surrounding property, I appreciate that. However, I am requesting that the board carefully consider the real-world impacts of this proposed temporary use on surrounding properties and infrastructure. While the application is framed as a short-term event, the scale and intensity proposed create impacts that are neither temporary nor minor for us adjacent residents and nearby businesses. First, zoning compatibility is a fundamental concern. The subject property is zoned agricultural, which is intended to support farming, livestock, and other low-intensity rural uses. A large-scale concert or music festival, even if described as temporary, is not agricultural use, and it is not inherently compatible with the purpose or character of agricultural zoning districts. Approving this application would introduce a high-intensity commercial entertainment use into an area designated for rural and agricultural activities, setting a precedent, like many others have said, that undermines the intent of the zoning classification. Second, access and roadway conditions present significant safety concerns, and I will have a few questions at the end. The road serving this property is narrow, unpaved dirt road for substantial portions, and it does not safely allow two vehicles to pass. Increased traffic volume associated with a multi-day event, including attendees, vendors, deliveries, and emergency vehicles, raises concerns related to emergency access, dust generation, limited sight distance, and the absence of adequate shoulders or pull-offs, which is one of my main questions for them. Third, noise impacts over a three-day period are not insignificant. Extended amplified sound, crowd noise, and associated activity from early morning through late evening will directly affect neighboring residences and nearby businesses. As a veterinarian, I am particularly concerned about the effects of prolonged noise on animals, both domestic and livestock, which are present in the immediate area, including our family farm right across the street. Even if the sound levels don't exceed the 55 DBA that they're proposing, we will still hear this. We will still hear this for days on end. We go out, like others have said, we look up at the sky, we see the stars, and we don't hear anything most of the time. Sometimes if the neighbors are having a scuffle, you might hear something. Sometimes if farms are operating, you're going to hear their machinery and equipment. You will hear things, but for the most part, it's pretty quiet, and we do hear things miles away. We hear the train from our house. We hear a lot, especially at night. Fourth, the secondary impacts such as dust, lighting, parking overflow, and enforcement limitations must be considered collectively rather than in isolation. Dust from increased traffic has implications not only for the residents, but also for animal and livestock health. Temporary lighting and nighttime activity alter the established rural character of the area and the existing livestock operations that currently live there. Finally, I ask the board to evaluate whether the proposed conditions adequately mitigate these impacts and whether approval would be consistent with how similar agricultural properties and temporary use applications are treated countywide. The proximity of this site to existing residences and small businesses distinguishes it from more remote locations typically suited better for events of this nature. For these reasons, I respectfully request that the board either deny the application or require substantially more restrictive conditions to protect public safety, neighboring properties, and the intended purpose of agricultural zoning. Thank you for your time and consideration. Am I allowed to ask questions? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So on some of the displays, and I may not understand it correctly, there's a barricade that's going to be at South Street. And so when you, I don't have a map to point to. I don't know if anybody. Yes, that can pull up the map. Okay, that'll be awesome. We pull up the map for the map, Chris, with the barricades. I think it's this one, right before. So this, that'll work. I mean, so this is a very small portion of the streets. So, I mean, you can see State Road 26 right there. Yes, that's Quail Street. You go a little, you know, block, there's Pearl, and then there's South. Is that the first barricade that when people leave my house, they're going to get to? Well, yes, but we're also going to direct people who are leaving the festival, which is, they leave on 35th, to stay on 35th and go out to 219. So essentially going to tell them they can't turn right and get the Melrose. What about the second entrance, where your sign currently is? That is an entrance that's only for staff, performers, and vendors. And they will all be directed to go coming out. Okay, so just for the logistics, if you haven't driven down Quail Street, and this was, I loved your point, Chair, because it is very valid. We helped pull a car out of a ditch between that barricade on South Street. If you go down the other side of that road, there is a very long portion that two cars cannot pass each other. One has to see the other one coming. We have to pull off. I wave. I don't know if everybody else doesn't always wave. You know, some people wave, some people don't. That's okay. We're waivers. But there is, that is a very long stretch from that barricade on South Street, where two cars, I promise you, cannot safely pass. Yes, there's a portion from where he's talking about when you leave the park from their exit that only vendors are going to be using. There's a portion there that's pretty good. That's in front of my place. But then you kind of go through this pretty little ravine, and it becomes a one-lane road. And so the other part of that, what if a person hauling an RV, what if they're inexperienced? They're going to get down there. They're going to get stuck. We have people that have been using the road that gets stuck. We have to help pull them out in our trucks and our tractors. I think it's going to be an issue, and so I would like that addressed. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions for the applicant? I did also, with one of the, about the gophers, and this is just kind of more at a... You can also ask staff a question if you'd like to ask staff a question. Okay. On one of the... Just direct it to me and tell me who you want the question to go to. One of the pictures they showed where the gophers are barricaded off, and one of those barriers was off of the 35th Street entrance, but that also, in a prior picture, was, and I may not be understanding correctly, but it was depicted as a road where that 35th Street entrance was going to take place. So I'm assuming the barrier is on the outside of that road. They just, the two maps weren't overlapped. So, okay. How'd you want to, so you want to address that? That's this map? I'm just, yeah, I was just assuming. I just was curious, because to me, looking at the two separate maps, it looked like the barricade for the gophers was in the exact same location as the roadway, as their 35th entrance. I can explain what happened. We had an earlier barricade for identified gophers that was farther east, but after we burned the property, some other gophers, and the maps were all turned in, some other gophed tortoise burrows were found a little bit farther west. So, we're actually going to move our barricade out to encompass those other, another 30 feet or so. Okay. I think that's all I have. They said my daughter could speak. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Thank you for being here. Hello, commissioners. Thank you for letting me speak today. My name is Bristol, and I live across the street from the place where this concert is planned. Our neighborhood is a quiet, rural area where people have farms, animals, and families. The land around us is owned for agriculture, which means it is meant for farming and caring for animals, not for loud concerts or big crowds. I am worried about how loud music for several days would affect our home and the animals nearby. Loud noise can scare animals and make it hard for people to sleep or feel safe at home. I am also worried about the road. It is a small, dirt road, and it is not wide enough for a lot of cars. I am concerned about safety if many people are driving on it at the same time. I like living where it is quiet and peaceful, and I hope it can stay that way. I respectfully ask you to think about the families, animals, and farms that already live here when you make your decision. Thank you for listening to me. So can we make an exception and give Ms. Bristol a round of applause? Thank you. Okay, thank you all. Okay, so the next party, is Christina and Teddy going? Is that you all in the back? Nope. All right, so next up we've got Peggy Bonner and then Jan Merritt. Okay. And then followed by that will be Michael Hines and Cameron Hines. And then we'll finish with Larry Easton. We've got four more. And then after that, we're going to take a ten-minute break, and then we're going to come back. Okay. Can you hear me okay? Sure can. Great. Ms. Bonner, welcome. My name is Peggy Bonner. I'm a Melrose resident for about 38 years. I love my little town. When I read this application, what jumped out at me was not one little issue. It was the pattern. This isn't a simple, temporary event. This is a full-scale music festival with camping, thousands of people, amplified sound, vehicles, lighting, infrastructure, placed in the middle of a residential agricultural area that was never meant to handle this kind of use. And I want to be clear. This isn't about whether music is good or bad. People live here. It's about whether this location makes any sense at all. This land is zoned rural and agricultural for a reason. It's surrounded by people who live there full-time, farms that depend on quiet, predictability, wildlife habitat, and unpaved roads that barely handle everyday use. What's being proposed here is an urban-level intensity dropped into a rural area held together with temporary promises. That's the core problem. This isn't really temporary. The application keeps using the word temporary, but nothing about this feels temporary. They have cleared land. They're building trails, drilling wells, setting up festivals, camping areas, bringing in thousands of people. That's not a pop-up farmer's market. That's the beginning of a permanent venue. And the applicant actually admits that. In their own FAQ, they said that after the temporary use permit, they would come back for a rural event center. So let's be honest, what's happening here is this tuff is being used as a foot in the door. If this event happens, the argument later will be, well, this event has already happened. It worked. You've seen it. And that completely changes the playing field for neighbors who are supposed to have a fair chance to weigh in before permanent use is established. That's not how this is supposed to work. My next thing was about the roads. That's been worked over pretty good. They're not built for this, and it's going to cost a lot of money to keep it maintained. And it's going to be an issue during the festivals coming and going, coming and going. There's another problem that matters just as much, and it's personal for the people who live there. There's been talk about closing or restricting Quail Street in Northeast 255th Drive during the event. We live there. People live there. We don't actually live on Quail Street. We have five acres, and we may come and go three or four times during one day. How is our access going to be granted, which that makes me choke, granted? That's just not right. But anyway, people live on these roads. We need to get to work, get kids to school, get medical appointments, receive deliveries, have emergency access. Closing off these roads traps residents in their own homes and forces long, impractical detours that don't exist in rural areas. And the application does not explain in any clear, enforceable way how residents will get in and out. A password, really? That's not a minor inconvenience. That's a basic quality of life and safety insurance. Public safety is not a hope for the best situation. This is a mass gathering with camping, cooking, alcohol, electrical hookups, and open land in a rural area with limited emergency response capacity. That alone should give everyone pause. There's no clear, enforceable public safety staffing plan. No guaranteed emergency access if roads degrade or are restricted. Instead, the application relies heavily on self-policing concepts and volunteer camp rangers. I read in one of their publications that their camp rangers were actually teenagers. I don't know if that's going to happen here. I would hope not. But anyway, that's not a safety plan. That's crossing your fingers if something goes wrong. A medical emergency, a fire, an evacuation, the consequences are real. And they fall on public agencies and nearby residents who had no say in creating this risk. I thank you for letting me talk. Ms. Bonner, thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Okay, next up we've got Jan Merritt, then we'll be followed by Michael Hines and Cameron Hines, and then we will finish with Larry Easton. Welcome. Good evening, Chair. This is my wife, Jan Merritt. My name is Kurt Merritt. This is my son, Nathan Merritt. We live at 4310 Northeast 35th Avenue. So we're across the street from the day parking area where 35th and 255th split off into that large curve. That's our frontage on the north side of the road right there. We have almost 1,000 feet of frontage along the roads. I have a couple of questions. Oh, I've lived in Blatcher County for 53 years, I think, of my 59th, so most of my life. New resident to Melrose, but obviously I get caught up in this across the street from me. I have a question first for staff. Perhaps Public Works is parking allowed on any of the wide, grassy right-of-ways along 35th or 255th. Okay, do we have someone from Public Works? Yep, Lillette, do you want to go to the other? Yeah. And, sir, can I ask you to move the microphone a little closer? I'm sorry. Thank you. I didn't want the sound of my breathing to come through. Tell me again. It's Kurt. Kurt. And Jan and? Nathan. Nathan, right on. I'm sorry. Thank you. Go ahead. Good evening, Commissioner. It's Larry Talwani, Alachua County Public Works, civil engineer. They won't be allowed to park on Northeast 35th Avenue or Northeast 255th Drive. The connection that's going to be there from 35th Avenue, we have spoken with, I know a lot of comments came, that 35th Avenue east of 255th Drive is only one way. And we've spoken with the applicant that that needs to be two ways. Currently, the Lime Rock is not sufficient for two-way traffic. So that will have to be widened, especially on the north side, because on the south side, there's a ditch there. And so that will be evaluated during the drive-way connection permit. One of the other things that was mentioned was the queuing inside the property, all of the parking, et cetera, would be on the property. And what we have suggested to the applicant, and the applicant has agreed, is that the queuing should be in a circular manner in such a way. I think of the Disneyland, when you go there, or Disney Parks, you have the drives, you know, infused. So all that traffic internal is there. There's a lot of queuing. And all the traffic is on their property and not backs up to the county road. So that's one of the other things that we have mentioned, and we've spoken with the traffic engineers. Okay, Chair, my main question regarding this has to do more, I guess, with human nature. You're driving to the festival. The line of cars is long. There's a huge median, not median, there's a huge right-of-way right there to park. So they're not allowed to. Is that, does the sheriff's office enforce that? Are the homeowners expected to call? Is there somebody on the board that will enforce that? You know, once one car starts, it moves quickly. Question for the applicant? Yeah, typically what happens is that no parking signs get put up, like, temporary. In our town, the county actually does that. We'd be happy to post it with no parking. It would be a tow-away zone, but it would be up to the sheriff's, basically, to take it and then request a tow. So you're offering to post no parking along the right-of-way of 30? Sure. Yeah, I was thinking that we would have to do that if the county didn't offer to do it, of course. Okay. It would just be temporary signs. And then my other question would be for the board, the daytime parking in the 1100 space area in my front yard, sort of. So what if people park? Can they park in? Can they sleep in their cars overnight? Can they, what's to prevent that? Well, they really shouldn't, and they're not allowed to. I would prefer if they were too inebriated in the drive, if they did. We acknowledge that you would prefer that they don't. They may. Like, I could say there's a, I've seen it happen, but it's not a, I mean, it's not something that. So, yes, it'll happen. My primary concern, sir, is. If people, you know, want to go search all the, you know, we can send the deputies through and knock on all the windows. My primary concern is, is, is that after hours is the people moving around and roaming around on and off the site into neighboring properties that, that may or may not be friendly to trespassers. Yeah. Well, in my 30 years and 75, more than 75 years experience, I've never had, we've never had people wander onto a neighbor's property. Guys. Okay. Okay. Hey, I'm, I'm, so I'm, and I haven't had to do that at all tonight and I appreciate y'all, you know, but we really don't want to jeer or comment or let's keep, keep it to the core. Yeah. Continue, Kurt. My, my, my last concern has to do with both the president of the, of the White Flowers Music Board who started out this evening and a few other people on the board have referred to this as a public space. Um, I don't think they're implying this as a public park, but is it open to the public? Can anybody at any time, um, with, with reasonable intent, just go and walk around out there? At any time, excuse me, Guy Fortune, president of Wildflowers Music Park, entering the park at any time? No. Um, it is private property. But our intention is to turn this into a public space. We would have hours of use. Um, in, in my, in my former experience, sundown, because after you get into sundown, you can get into security issues. But parks, at sundown, we will potentially not have access to the park. But this is an idea of opening a space to the community for use. For organized use. But it's not, it's not a public, I just want to be clear because I'm confused between a public park and a park over to the public. For families who want to go and enjoy a park space at any time, not at all. We would create hours for the property. Right now, there are not no trespassing signs on the property. Or fences. Or fences, which are required for this event. So, you will see fencing go up. Thank you for clearing that up. You will see fencing go up. Thank you, Chair. That's, I think my son may have something to say. Okay, Nathan. My questions have been answered. Yeah, Kurt, thank you for being here tonight. Hi, my name is Nathan Merritt. First of all, I want to appreciate all of your time here today and listening to everybody. I know it's a difficult decision for, you know, you guys to listen to everybody. It can get tricky. I was born and raised in Alachua County for the past 24 years. This proposal is close to home for me, and I stand before you today to raise my concerns and to deny both the sea-level TUP and the development of my native land. The largest concern of mine is the environment. No happy-go-lucky, feel-good. We're saving the environment by developing it. Meritless statement is enough. The Melrose region supports incredible biodiversity, but to keep the list concise, I have four species whose rights must be considered before developing their home and polluting the air with noise and vibration. Gophers polyphemus, the gopher tortoise, which is state-threatened. Ursus americanus floridonus, which is the Florida-backed black bear, which is state-threatened. Dryabetes borealis, which is the red-cockaded woodpecker, which is federally endangered. A phelicoma, or a phelicoma coralescence, it's a tricky one, a Florida scrub jay, which is federally threatened. And I do have a question for your tortoise expert. He's right behind you. Go ahead and just ask it. Oh, sorry. Hello. Hi, I'm just curious about the effect of the level of noise on the autoliths of the gopher tortoises. Yeah, they're going to be mainly staying in their burrows during the event. Is this like a besieged sort of situation, or? Or a besiege? Besiege? Like when a castle's surrounded and nobody can leave because there's enemies outside? Is it kind of like that? No, it's going to be more that they're not interested in leaving the burrows because of the amount of sound. That's exactly what I said. I just wanted to check. Okay, yeah. Okay. Right. Okay, thank you. That's all I have. Yeah. Thank you, Nathan. I would like to talk about the associated, in 2024, the associated Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance publicly distanced itself from this development, which to me reeks of guilt and ill intent and reminds me of shell companies and offshore accounts that poorly attempt to obfuscate who is really behind it. Dissolving controversial corporations and opening new ones does not fool me. Finally, Melrose is a one-light, unincorporated community of less than 7,000 people. Plans display parking for over 2,000 cars. The turmoil brought into a rural community by New York fat cats is a point I don't need to belabor. It will bring in people from many walks of life, more than you can fathom. Trust me, I've been to music festivals before. I expect to hear nothing except five nays. I promise you, you don't want me to take the podium more than necessary. And I beg you to vote wisely and not ruin Melrose and affect its inhabitants' lives that are otherwise unimpeded. To quote Abraham Lincoln, if destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide. Thank you for your time, and good luck. Thank you, Nathan. Okay, Kurt, thank you. Okay, you're welcome. All right, next up we've got Michael Hines and Cameron Hines, and then we will end, just real quick, Christina and Petty Goings, are they here? Yeah. Because we missed them. Okay, we missed them. Okay, all right, so Michael Hines and Cameron Hines, you're recognized. Hello, I'm Michael Hines. This is my son, Cameron Hines, and I wanted to thank the board for us being able to talk, and I also wanted to take this opportunity to document the concerns we've had with this TUP and document it to both you and the general public around. As an introduction, I own the parcel on the eastern end of 35th Avenue. I share about 3,000 feet of property lined with wildfires, and it's on the north and east side of my property. I've owned this property for about 15 years. Throughout my time of owning this property, I've noticed there's a low spot that typically floods during heavy rains just north of 35th Avenue. It's right there. This is from the Alachua County GIS portal. After looking at the wetlands report submitted by wildfires and in looking at the Alachua County GIS, I noticed there was a discrepancy. And I wanted to ask the organizers, what about this discrepancy? How do you account for that? The way wetlands are initially scouted is by looking at LIDAR, which looks at the terrain. And then the pro goes out there, digs in the soil, and sees if there's wetlands characteristics in the soil. Now, wetlands are different than floodplains. And in this case, we went out there in the middle of the field. She dug the soil, sliced it with a knife that does the magic with squirting water on it and so forth. And those were not soils that have wetland characteristics or vegetation. Cameron Hines. Hutch, did you look at the LIDAR? I'm not a pro at looking at LIDAR. I've got it on my phone. Well, if we pull open the county GIS model, they're as low as possible. Yeah, I agree it's low. You can see that it's low, but it's not a wetland. This is taken from Google Earth in February of 2018, and it holds water. From my experience, any moderate rain event, it holds water. In a heavy rain event, the water stays there for a week or two. Next question is, do you plan? This area is shown as parking on your site with an emergency lane. Will there be parking in this area? No, there's no parking there. I mean, it's going to be farther north. In your plan, there's parking there. Yeah, again, that was when we – there's actually goat reports out there, too, and we didn't know that until we burned it, and that's why we're moving that barricade line. Is this wetland delineated out there? No, because it's not a wetland. County GIS says it is. Well, the county GIS – is a really good guess. Ms. Cook, I'm sorry. Could you just drop that right so we can hear you? Yeah, we just want to hear you. Thank you. So we went out in August, as I said previously, and looked at all of the wet spots as indicated by LIDAR. And just because it shows up as a wet spot on LIDAR, you have to have indicators of hydrophilism. You have to have a predominance of hydrophytic vegetation. You have to have indicators of hydrology. On this particular day, whenever that picture was, yes, there was an indicator of hydrology. We also took experts from the Water Management District out there. We looked over the whole entire site. They completely agreed with the call that we made. Our next issue we have is that I have questions on the location of the south entrance and exit. This is not an existing driveway onto your property. Northeast 35th Avenue is not 25 feet wide after this split. The road is about 12 to 13 feet wide. You can see on the next slide, this shows the narrow width of 35th at the 255 intersection. You can see that the roadway is not 25 feet, but half that width. This next picture is looking west at the intersection, and it shows that it's not wide enough for cars, RVs, or camper trailers. This picture is looking east. What I want to know is for the people who live on the south side of 35th Avenue, how would they access the property, and how would emergency vehicles get to them if there's a long line of cars here? We talked to Lalit, who's the public works engineer that's working on this, and we are going to address this issue in that driveway permit that the county is requiring us to do. It may mean having to move the entrance back up to 255th, which we at one point had considered. We don't like that turn on 255th because the dirt stays loose there. We've already got sight distances and so forth, and that's one of the reasons why we moved it down to 35th. So we're still working with public works on that issue and also the turning radius of going in. I mean, we do have property, obviously, on the north side of that, but we don't want to – we're not going to do any earth moving out there. So the commissioners are going to approve a plan without a main entrance? Here you can see the drainage route. We'll go into that. My last issue and my greatest concern is how Wildflowers will manage the property boundaries and keep visitors off neighboring properties. This site is currently functioning as a public park, and they're requesting a temporary use permit for a four-day festival, including 5,000 guests and 400 campers. I've included a handful of pictures that have taken on my property from when Wildflowers was under contract on the property in October of 2024 until January of 2026. During this time span, I've had 26 people, 26 people on camera trespassing on my property, both day and night. Over the last 10 years, I haven't seen a single trespasser caught on my camera. The majority of these pictures, the wildfire property line is 40 yards behind the camera. All 26 trespassers came from the wildfire property. This is a picture of a golf cart in April of 2025. Here you can see the golf cart again on a different area of my property. Does this golf cart belong to Wildflowers? Yeah, that's our golf cart. I'm trying to figure out who's driving it. Okay. Maybe we can help that. This is the woman driving the car. Is she part of the organization? Yes, and what I'll say about that is you know that that is a lane between the two properties that has been there forever. And when we got around to blocking it off, we bought the property in August, and now there's no way anybody can drive through there because it's all been brushed in with a pretty large amount of brush. Do you know what her role is with Wildflower? She's our marketing director. Can I ask her questions? Is she here? Can I ask her questions? Yeah. Is she here? Well, what I wanted to ask her, if she's not, was that... You can ask Hodge. Did she know the limits of the property of the Wildflower Park? Well, she wouldn't have trespassed on purpose. And the fact that I asked you all to put up a sign the first time I heard that there was trespassing going on and took you guys months to just put up one sign is part of the problem. I don't think that's our responsibility. I don't think that's our responsibility. We're not asking. We're not buying a piece of property and asking 5,000 people to come on. We're not asking 400 campers to come there. We're not asking 172 RVs to come there. Okay? It's not our responsibility. Anyway, let's move on. And we're not making it a public park. Yes. It's a public park. Hodge, do you believe that 5,000 festival attendees and 400 campers will know the property limits of the park? They will when they're all marked. How will they be marked? They're going to be marked with, depending on where they are, either with fencing and signs or they'll be brushed in so that people can't get through them. We've been working our way around, basically dropping trees over trails just like yours that led on and off the property. Well, that's not going to work because there's trails there, but they're also decades-old deer trails. It's easy to wander off the property. Anyway, let's move on. I first met Hodge in September of 2025 at the Santa Fe boat ramp. We discussed with him the concern we had of all the people trespassing on our property from their property. I requested him to put no trespassing signs along the property boundary. He said that wouldn't be an issue. He was quite enthusiastic about doing it. However, he did not follow through or reach out to us. These pictures are all pictures following the wildflower acquisition and ownership of the 270 acres. This is a picture of a truck of the crew that was clearing the land, helping wildflowers. This is a picture taking October 7, 2025. These next slides were sent to Hodge on October 7. I was wondering who this man on the right side of the screen is and is affiliated with wildfires. It's me. Okay, I'd like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind. Did you know the boundaries of the wildfire park? At that tour, I did not. And that's why I walked into that space. So you expect 5,000 people, 400 campers, to know where their property boundaries are. As Hodge said, that area will be marked at the time of the festival. You're going to see a lot of fencing go on that property. What kind of fencing? It'll vary depending on the area. Will it be enough to keep people out? There will be... Again, I mean, what kind? There will be warnings. There will be signs. Some no trespassing. And at other areas where we need to have, I know, fencing along 255th Street, that will have to be done. So you believe the whole property and perimeter of wildfire should be fenced in? I think ultimately. Ultimately, we have a festival that's going to start in four weeks. And vendors are coming. This picture is the president 250 yards onto my properties along the southern line. Again, I never gave permission for any of these people to come on my property, okay? On October 7th, almost a full month after our initial meeting with Hutch, my son made Hutch aware of these trespassers. We requested wildfires build a fence to keep his visitors on his property. This is a picture of dirt bikes on my property, October 17th, 2025. This happens to be the day before the neighborhood meeting in Melrose. Did someone give permission to be on the... Did these dirt bikers have permission to be on the wildfire property? These bikers have been coming to that property for years. Before we purchased it, every Sunday they were out there. And they had permission from the owner. And you're the owner, correct? No, they didn't have permission from me. This was not too long after... They had not heard that it had closed. They showed up, and we ran them off. They were out there all day. I don't understand why they weren't told not to trespass on adjacent property. Anyway, on October 18th, we attended the neighborhood workshop. We showed these pictures to Hutch. We showed the videos of the bikers. We let him know that we were very frustrated that no steps had been taken to secure the wildfire property. Again, we requested they build a barbed wire fence. His response was that he would look into it and would reach out to us to work something out. Again, we did not hear back from him. On November 9th, while my son was making a no music park sign at our gate, my son saw Hutch out there and asked him how the fence was coming. Hutch said he was working on it. That same day, we put up a no trespassing sign at the trail, he referenced, between our two properties where the trespassers were entering property. New Year's Day, we were going on a family hike, and we noticed two separate wads of toilet paper. Some had feces on it. Mr. Hines, you've got a yellow light. Can you confirm this is the toilet paper on our property? All right. Anyway, in conclusion, I want to ask the commission to deny the temporary use permit for the music festival in March. It is clear that the wildfire organizers, volunteers, visitors do not respect property boundaries. The wildfire visitor's guide even tells guests to walk anywhere within the park boundaries. However, there is not any physical boundaries to the park. I request the commission include conditions that the wildfire organization fence the entire perimeter of the park with five-strand bar bar fence with no trashing fines meeting Florida statute. I also ask gates be installed with locks at all entrances, that the park can't be accessed during non-operational hours. I ask this be done before any festival is even considered. Thank you, Mr. Hines. Thank you very much. Cameron, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you both for your testimony. All right. Next up and last up is going to be Mr. Easton. So, and then after that, we'll take a short break, and then we'll reconvene. Mr. Easton, you're recognized. Mr. Chair, commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Larry Easton. I live in Melrose. I've lived in Melrose for more than 40 years, and for 33 of those years, I've lived directly across the street from the property proposed as the Wildflowers music park. I'm here tonight in support of this temporary use permit. I want to be clear from the outset. My support is grounded in my proximity to the property under discussion and my due diligence, not abstraction. I was, like others, mildly alarmed when I first learned of this project. I'm a neighbor who will live with the outcome of this decision. Again, I live directly across the street from the property. That's precisely why I took the initiative to reach out directly to the principals behind the festival and later to the mayors of those host communities where their sister festivals, the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival and the Shikori Hills Grassroots Festival, have been held for decades, and to law enforcement officials who have overseen these events also for decades. I should also note that both of those communities have smaller populations than Melrose and are serviced by similar roadways. When I contacted the principals of the Wildflowers music park, they responded quickly and openly. I answered my questions directly about noise, traffic, conservation, emergency access, and community impact. There was never any hint of evasion, no defensiveness, and no delay. That willingness to engage mattered to me. It spoke of professionalism, accountability, and good faith. What also stood out was their longstanding commitment to conservation, careful land use, and respectful partnership with local communities. It became obvious that this is not a speculative venture or a first-time experiment. It's an event they've refined over decades with established systems for traffic management, safety coordination, environmental protection, and neighbor communication and relations. I spoke personally with the mayor of Trumansburg, New York, home to the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival, a festival now in its 33rd year. The mayor did not encounter this festival for the first time as an elected official. He attended it as a child. Today, he brings his own children. That detail matters. This is a multi-generational, family-oriented event that communities grow up with and trust. That mayor, Mayor Rourke, stated, and I quote, The festival is now an institution in our small town. In Trumansburg, it has also served as a catalyst for entrepreneurship, supporting local vendors, artisans, food operators, and small businesses, while also directly infusing the local economy. From an economic standpoint, the benefits are both direct and indirect. And importantly, they are distributed. Festival attendees stay in local lodging, eat in nearby restaurants, buy groceries and supplies, purchase fuel, and often return later as tourists, and sometimes as new residents. For small towns, this kind of periodic but reliable economic activity matters. It supports existing businesses rather than displacing them, and it does so without permanent commercial build-out. I also spoke with the mayor of Pittsburgh, North Carolina, home to the Shikori Hills Grassroots Festival, a festival now in its 23rd year. The mayor lived approximately 1,500 feet from the festival grounds. He told me plainly that he never heard festival noise inside his home. He also spoke enthusiastically of the festival and its numerous benefits of the community. He also noted that it has become an event the entire community eagerly looks forward to. My conversations with law enforcement were equally important. Police and sheriff's deputies explained that traffic is professionally managed, emergency vehicles have never been impeded, crime is not an issue, and drug use has not defined these events. To be precise, a deputy read to me directly from the sheriff's blotter for the Shikori Hills Festival last October. Over the entire event, there were only four policing incidents. One broken windshield, a fire in a vendor's food truck that caused no injuries to attendees, and two minor fender benders at the entrance. That is the full record. I also want to address conservation. I've walked this property. I've hiked this property. I've jogged along this property for years. The land remains largely intact now for most of the year. Habitat is being preserved, not replaced. The presence of the park has led to better land management practices, environmental monitoring, and long-term stewardship. This is not growth at the expense of the land. It is careful use that keeps the land viable. The mayors I spoke with are real. The sheriff's records are real. The conservation practices are real. The economic benefits are real. These are not projections. They are documented outcomes from communities that have lived with and enjoyed these festivals for decades. These facts, these conversations with community leaders, journalists, and law enforcement officials, and the leaders of this project have formed the basis for my opinion regarding the festival. Let me be candid. I care deeply for my community. As a longtime resident, I've been, let's see, I first began traveling to Melrose in 1967 as a small child. Moved there in 74, except for several years in California and Boston. We've lived in Melrose, raised our four children there. I care deeply for my community. I've grown deeply concerned by the decline I've witnessed in Melrose over the last 10 to 12 years. Decline which becomes obvious when measured against the metric of its own observed history. While I look forward to the festival and the sense of community and pure fun it will afford, I'm most enthused about what this project brings to Melrose. It offers a long-term plan for creating a true conservation part that will preserve and enrich the land for our lives, and our lives, rather, for generations. It promises to enrich our social capital, to strengthen and deepen our sense of community. It has the capacity to catalyze economic growth and to provide a cultural anchor to Melrose, cementing our identity as an arts and music community, which in turn promises to attract young families and make their home here. For these reasons, even if I had no interest in the festival itself, I would be perfectly willing to accommodate several days of increased traffic and noise. Though, as I've noted, these concerns are highly manageable, for the simple reason that it brings such benefit to our town for the entire year. This temporary use permit is conditional, accountable, and revocable. It is an ideal evaluative tool, allowing the county to evaluate performance based on reality, not conjecture. It provides an opportunity for both proponents and opponents to allow their claims to be tested. Thank you for your time, your service, and your careful consideration in the matter before you. Thank you, Mr. Eason. Okay, so we have concluded the area of the parties. Let me just kind of reset everyone as to where we are. I'm going to call for a 10-minute break. We'll get back and start here a little bit before 9. We will deliberate as a commission. I'll then look for a motion. I've got a couple of questions for some of the parties and the applicants. That will be the time that we can ask the questions. I'd like to get public comments started by 9.30. Here's the reason why. We have 69 individuals that have signed up for public comment. With the permission of the commission, I'm going to limit the public comment to two minutes. That will give us two hours and 15 minutes. If we start at 9.30, we will end at 11.45. We will then bring it back to the commission for deliberation and a vote by midnight under our rules. If we have to extend it for 10 or 15 minutes, we can do that by motion. And so we are going to – does that sound like a good plan, Commissioner? Yes. Everybody agree? Okay, so we are going to stand in recess until, let's say, 9 o'clock. Okay? And then we'll reconvene at 9 o'clock. Reconvene. Process, again, a reminder, we're going to have some deliberations. We've got some questions for perhaps the applicant and the parties. Okay, if we could go ahead and – okay, we're going to go ahead and reconvene. And, commissioners, I've got Commissioner Wheeler. Did you push your light? No, they're coming on. All of the stuff. Yeah, mine did that today. Oh, they're just all coming on. I just pushed mine. Okay, all right. So we're going to start with Commissioner Alford. Commissioner Alford, you're recognized. And, again, we're going to try to start – get some deliberations going between the board. And then we will try to start public comment by 9.15, 9.30. June will be the first public speaker because she has to go home and go to sleep. Our youngin' here. And then we're going to go in the order that you signed up. We're going to do public comment, two minutes for public comment. And we will try to get to everybody tonight by 11.30. Commissioner Alford and then Commissioner Prizio. So I can only draw knowledge of what I've experienced, which some of that has been at, like, the folk festival, the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs. But also I'm thinking of here locally a couple of experiences I've had going to the Wild Game Feast. And, you know, that's about 1,500 people in a very small place. But my concern there isn't about traffic because there was a lot or a single-track road that goes in and out. It was about the fact that there was a huge, huge rain event one time just about a week before the festival. And it turned into a giant mud pit. So I want to know, since we're in the middle of kind of a – I don't want to – it may even be a historic drought, but we're in the middle of a pretty serious drought right now. Do we have historic information about water on this property and what is likely to happen if there is serious water? I mean, I haven't – I've been out there, but I don't know about the history of the property at all. There's two kinds of soils there. There's sort of the soils on the east and soils on the west. And the soils on the west are where we're driving in. And they tend to be very well-drained. There's a lot of gopher tortoises there and stuff. And so where they mentioned the standing water is kind of an anomaly out there in that area. But there's good drainage there. In the upper parts of the property, there's a little more clay. And you don't have a problem with standing water. You have a problem of things getting a little slippery sometimes. But the historical road that goes through about 80 percent of the property that we're just adopting and reusing was improved really well sometime in the past. And so it's actually drained. And it's very firm. We've been driving our – when it's full, a 40,000-gallon tanker truck through there. We've probably done it 20 or 30 times because we're not only using it for fires and pile fires, but we're also watering grass right now. And we see no indentation or anything like that. So it's – and the fire trucks come and inspect it, and they don't think they're going to have it. I just – we haven't had a hurricane this year. You know, hopefully – I don't want to – I hate saying that out loud. But I just – you know, it just was a concern after the – Our little lake is just about bone dry. And I've looked at the aerial photos back in 1938, and it's only been this low twice. Yeah, it is a pretty historic drought. My second question is a lot of people brought up lighting. Do you have a lighting plan, and do you have, like, a cutoff time for large lights? Is it going to be mostly flashlights? What is your – do you have a lighting plan yet? At the entrance, we're going to have two lights just to help people get in and out of the entrance. And we have a giant stack of solar string lights. Basically, they're going to help pedestrians in the Festival Village. Camping is pretty much – you're on your own with flashlights. And nowadays, everybody carries a flashlight on their phone. Right. And we will have somebody there vending extra cheap flashlights just for people who forgot them. These stages are not going to be overly lit. We're not going to have laser light shows or any of that sort of stuff. These are fairly subtly lighted stages. I would expect that part of your campers' experience there would be the night sky so that there would be, you know, not lighting happening all night long except for whatever is minimally needed for safety. Correct. And actually, one night we're planning a planetarium-like event where people are going to be laying down in the field looking up as stories of the night sky are told and, you know, dispersed with acoustic music. That's cool. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Parizia. And then Commissioner Wheeler. And then I've got some questions. All right. I have a couple of questions. I think most of them – well, a couple of them. I guess, first of all, all of the people that presented tonight as experts for you, are they paid contractors or volunteers for your organization? See, Larry Hagan, the transportation engineer, is paid. And that was the only paid expert. Thank you. And he was hired to do the evaluation in particular. He's not being paid, like, subsequently by the festival. No. His job is to do – the maintenance to traffic plan is a sealed engineering plan. And so he was hired to do that. Okay. Great. Thank you. They talked about the length of the festival. You know, it's a three-day festival with the attendees, but there will be the prep and then the post-breakdown. Can you talk about how many people will be on site outside of those, you know, that weekend, the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Well, first of all, they're not really people staying on the site. They'll be the same volunteers that are out there now, which are mostly Melrose residents. So they'll come out, and they'll help us take down the tents, and they'll help us – you know, the contractors will come in, pick up their porta-potties, and the art and food and other vendors will come and pick up their tents. So generally speaking, most stuff is out of there the next day or two. Sometimes it takes a few days to get the tents down because you can only take them down in dry weather. So the only camping will happen during those four days. Well, we're not attending for our workers. I mean, the people that came to the festival, they're leaving. The people that are here setting up and tearing it down, they're all locals. Thank you. And then there was a question about the security and the sort of safety personnel. I didn't see that – this is more of a question for staff. I didn't see that as a condition. Are we assuming that everything that's in the plan that we're – that when we're approving this temporary support, that everything they've outlined in the plan is – these conditions are in addition, that things that weren't necessarily addressed in the plan that we're adding, but that everything in the plan would be done according to how it was written? Mr. Chair, yeah, I mean, I think just like with any application that gets made to the county, if they're including something as a justification that, you know, their solid waste plan or their – whatever that plan is, those are – we consider those to be part of the application and that we would rely on them as how they're going to operate, yes. Okay, great. I just wanted to make sure that that was the case because there was some question about how the safety and security would happen, but I think the plan that I've read had all that addressed with both the paid security and the off-duty Elantra County sheriffs. I heard the parking was addressed, sound was addressed, wetlands were addressed, roads were addressed, security, fire, sanitary, and health safety, staffing. The only other question I heard the community asked was about camping in cars and things like that. Is it possible for you all to have a – one of the camp hosts or a security professional in that parking area to ensure that there is a rowdy, you know, after-hours folks decided they're going to camp in their cars because they weren't able to book a campsite during your festival? The – well, first of all, if you're going to camp, you have to – we're segregating the day-use tickets who are not campers in one parking area and the campers who were only selling a three-day camping ticket, so there's not one-day camping tickets. So if you pay to camp, then you're parked somewhere else, and then you're under the jurisdiction of the camp rangers, basically. Camp rangers' job is to keep people the proper distance for fire lanes and so forth. The fire lanes all get marked out. And to separate – what happens at these festivals is – I wish I had some of the signs. They have sort of the quiet family camping area over here, and here's the rowdy boys over here, and here's the college students over here. So they tend to cluster anyway. No, I actually – I've attended the Pittsburgh Festival, and I've attended the Lake Eden's Art Festival in Black Mountain, North Carolina. So I'm pretty familiar with kind of how they lay out the camping situation. I guess it was just for the concern of the neighbors about people camping in the cars in the day-use campings – or the day-use parking areas that you have. So no one would be allowed to have their cars there after hours? It's a little bit complicated because if – we wouldn't want them to be driving them if they shouldn't be driving, and we would sort of deal with that situation. Okay, I get that. So it would be a one-off. Yeah. Any questions? Okay, Commissioner Wheeler and then Commissioner Chesney. Yes, thank you. Hutch, do you know how many people are actually farming around those areas? I mean, people are talking about – and maybe I should be asking, you know, hands from the group – who are doing actual farming? You know, we've talked about having farmed land and having a history of farming, but is there any real active farming going on now? All farming is active farming. I mean, it's – I'm not going to characterize what they're doing or not doing. Where do you draw the line between, you know, gardening and farming? It's complicated. People out there have a real connection to their land. I think all Florida people do. Yeah, and so do we. I mean, we're going to – we have multiple tractors and every implement there is, we're going to do substantial wildflower propagation gardening, and we've talked about doing, based on the – sort of where the water is right now, we may put in a patch of watermelons this year because it looks like it would be a good year to do it. Well, I'm just – I'm interested because everybody talks about this being ag land, and we're seeing a decline in farming, and I'm just – was curious as to how much farming is really going on in our area because lands are coming up for sale. Obviously, that's how you bought this land. You and your group bought this land that was farmland, but it hasn't been farmed in a while. Well, is that true? Well, they cut hay either two or three years ago. Well, that's grass. You know, right? Yeah. I mean – no, no, excuse me, just a minute. No, I'm trying to understand because we are really looking – I mean, we're trying to help protect farmland, but at the same time, we realize there are a lot of farmers who are selling their land because they don't want to farm anymore. And so they're either selling to developers or they're selling to solar farms, and this is what I'm trying to understand what – Well, a few properties to our south, for instance. One is a big sod farm. Okay. That's right. I remember the sod farm. And it's usually the last thing – We were trying really hard to buy that from the county. Yeah, the county was. And then the other big property owner is a solar farm. And so both of those were other kinds of farms prior to those uses. Well, I just remember when I came on this board, I remember a commissioner saying from this dais, you know, if you're willing to buy the land, then you have a right to talk about, you know, how you want it used. And, you know, I don't know who else was out there trying to buy this property, but from what I've seen of the property, you know, it's a beautiful piece of land that I would rather see preserved than go into a housing development out there, which is what we're seeing up in High Springs and we're seeing up in Newberry – I mean, the western sort of the county, you know, that's it. But that being said, I want to also say that the White Springs Folk Festival, I've been to many times, it's a very small community that lives for that time, that weekend. And the Swanee River music folks, the wildlife around the Swanee River seems to manage to survive through that. And there are a lot of folks that go up there to that festival. The one – there's a BMX park in High Springs. I don't know if any of you all have ever been up there to see it, but hundreds and hundreds of people go into that BMX park and camp and park right there off this little dirt road right in the middle of High Springs. And it really – it invigorates the community. The Poe and Jenny Springs, you know, there are thousands of people that go up in there. And in those areas up there, too, there are a lot of communities that are affected by large numbers of people coming in, you know, for certain periods of time. I've had quite a bit of experience with folk festivals in Kentucky, Tennessee, in Ohio. The Berea Folk Festival is one that's lasted for years and years and years up there, if any of you all have ever been to Kentucky. I played in a lot of those, you know, good old – you can't get out of Kentucky without playing something, even if it's spoons. But the Celtic and bluegrass and country music that comes out of Kentucky is the kind of music that I'm used to hearing in these festivals. And so to hear the loud music coming out of these things for me, that's pretty foreign. But I am concerned about the way sound travels, and I am concerned about how sounds change in a rural area, too. So – but I just – I just want you to know, too, that, you know, there are a lot of communities, even in Alachua County, that open up their – open up their communities from time to time in order to get the economic impact that it brings to these communities to keep them. But I would say, Hutch, the right to roam, you know, may not work in Florida anymore like it used to. So I am in sympathy with the landowners who are concerned about trespassers coming onto their land inadvertently. I think that needs to be addressed. And it bothers me a little bit about the barbed wire because I don't want the bears to get tangled up in it. But at the same time, yeah, they'll go over. I get it. I'm good with that. I'm good with the barbed wire. Yeah. But I do know that the wildlife needs to be able to roam, but maybe not so much people. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Coach Wheeler. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a few questions which kind of came to my attention is – I wanted to know how many sheriff officers and how many emergency medical services folks will be there and are the – I think you said something about camp rangers. Is that your security too on site or will the police – I mean the sheriff department be security or will it be working with someone or not? So there's four levels of the security part of it and then I'll talk about the medical part. So at the top you've got sheriff's deputies and we're getting off-duty deputies that we're paying for and they will be out there at whatever level the sheriff says we need. And so far it looks like two during some peak hours and then maybe one the rest of the time. There's a second group of deputies and they're involved in traffic management. And again, they will be doing the traffic management during peak traffic times and during the departure times when it's night and all that sort of stuff. So – and again, we're hiring those as well. So that's the top tier, Latcher County deputies. Second tier is Arise Event Services and that's a company that specializes in events and they have a team of security people who – they manage the gates and stuff like that. You still have volunteers working it but they're the ones going through bags or doing that level of security. The third level of security is the camp rangers and these guys are trained. Many of them are former police or military and stuff like that. But their job is just to keep the campgrounds and the festival grounds, keep any blockages from fire lanes from happening. If groups are getting a little too rowdy or there's complaints, they try to de-escalate to separate people. So they're negotiators. And then the fourth level is the entire staff that is not part of the security teams or medical teams is going to go through crowd management training. It's a two-hour course that the fire marshal recommends. And once you get that certification, it allows you to be part of the required crowd management team, he's got a ratio of one to 250 people that are there. We're going to do much better than that because it's really good training and we want as many of our people to get it as possible. That's the security side of things, the four tiers. On the medical side, the fire marshal is going to – requires to have an ambulance there. I think last I heard it was 17 hours. Okay. Don't hold me that number, but I think that's it. And the reason is not because he feels that this festival is that dangerous, but because it's right at the very extremity of the Alachua County – I mean, we're on the county line. And so wherever they would otherwise be, whether that's Orange Heights or wherever, is kind of a long trip, so he doesn't want to strain the resources there. So we're going to have an ambulance there. And as Jordan mentioned, at the – I saw them at the other festivals parked in the command center, and that it's a good thing to have ambulances there. It just makes people feel confident. So we don't mind paying for that. And then Arise also provides a first aid tent. And in the tent, there's usually a paramedic and EMT, sometimes a nurse. They've got a staff of people. They're 24-7. And they're not only good at the physical first aid. These guys also are good with the mental stuff. If people are having a bad drug experience or they get in a domestic dispute or whatever, I've seen these guys, and they're really good at confronting problems before they get too extreme. So that's kind of on the medical side. Okay. I was just concerned about the safety and, I guess, the security part of it. That's why I wanted to ask that question. Good. And I guess the other thing, what is the economic impact, would it be, for Alachua County and Melrose? Have you all did those analyses? We've done some of them. We will be collecting the 5% tourist development tax on the campers. So there's that. There will be, of course, sales tax from the sale of all our T-shirts. And the vendors will be collecting the sales tax. And then there's the effect on purchasing gasoline, Airbnbs, going to the restaurants, all that sort of stuff. So I haven't done the math, and we, frankly, have no idea how many people are going to show up. I can tell you the math for us is that if the average ticket buyer spends $100 there on ticket and camping fees and stuff, and another $50 with the vendors and so forth, so we've gotten $150 out of their pocket for those three days. And that's very cheap by entertainment and festival experience. And that generates for us enough money to make an annual mortgage payment. And so that's the reason why we size it the way we have and the reason we're only having one, because we think we can achieve that. When you have two festivals, like they do at Shikori, each one ends up being smaller. And so you end up doing the same amount of work, except twice a year. And we'd rather do all the work once a year. And the best time to do it in Florida is in February or March. Okay. Okay. Those are all of my questions. Okay. Great. I've got two questions for staff, and then, Hutch, I've got a bunch for you, if that's okay. So, for Chris, staff has recommended approval with conditions, again, for a four-day event. Have you contemplated future events and how does staff look at kind of setting a precedent and what an approval would do for this hearing? I know with the medieval fair, it was a one-time event, and we approved it, and we didn't approve it after that. You know, they didn't come back. So how is staff looking at that? So, Mr. Chair, the land development regulations are pretty explicit, that approval of a temporary use permit doesn't grant any sort of special future-looking approvals. And, of course, you know, there's always going to be a bias and a decision-maker about looking at what's happened in the past. But I think the intent of the code is to say just because something is granted a temporary use permit one time doesn't automatically mean that it's going to be granted that approval a second time or any future times. We don't look at it that way with our administrative temporary use permits. You still have to have all the same kinds of things. You have to have all your plans. You have to have all your permits, all those same kinds of things. And in this particular instance, if you were to do another event similar to this with either, you know, attendance larger than 2,000, camping, you know, longer than that, three days, that's got to come back to the board. We're not looking at this as a long-term, repeatable kind of thing. It doesn't mean that they can't apply. They could have this event. They could come back and apply for a similar event in the fall. We can't stop them from that. But we would analyze that event on its own at that time. Okay, thank you. Level of service came up with Brandy and Dr. Goldstein. Level of service on 219A and State Road 26. Do you know what those are? Not off the top of my head, Mr. Chair. I did have a comment from Ramon Gaberete, the county engineer, that 219A operates at a level of service A. I don't remember what those number values on the roads are, but I'm pretty sure that Mr. Hagen would know. Okay, Mr. Hagen. All right, so why don't we get started with that? Mr. Hagen, do you know what the level of service is on 219A? Can you confirm it's A? And then on State Road 26, I think it's C. Yeah, that's correct. I mean, that's what we measured out there is level of service A and level of service C. Level of service A basically means uninterrupted flow conditions that, you know, you're able to set your own speed, basically what you're comfortable with. When you start getting into B, well, there's a little more traffic there. You know, it's still a very good level of service. C is, you know, an acceptable level of service as well. When you start getting in D, E, and F, that's where you're unable to reach the posted speed. You're unable to go to the speed you want to go, and you feel a lot of friction. F can stand for friction. I mean, and so it would be a real – you're starting to break down and have capacity. Thank you for taking – okay, Hutch, average cost of the – you said $100. What's the day pass cost, and what's the – Day pass is $39, but there's some discounts. The three-day pass is $99 or $100. Okay. And then there's a camping fee, and I'm going to say that's $50 or $49. Okay. Okay, for Mr. Diokisto, the noise – yeah, noise expert. Thank you for your testimony. The Diokisto. The Diokisto. Hutch has it wrong. The – okay. Peter. It's Peter, right? Yes. So thank you for your testimony. Dr. Goldstein talked about sound intensity and frequency. Do you have any comments to his testimony about frequency? Well, the DBA levels include all the frequencies. The low frequencies, because we don't hear them as well, are lower in that level. If I do the C – I mean, we'll just do a – show you here. I don't know if Hutch sent this chart out, but – You can put that on the overhead, right? Yeah. Overhead, please. You can see the differences between – where do you see this? Between the A levels and the C levels. The C levels include a lot more of the bass. But that's not the way you hear it. So I just included those. I just took those so I could see how much was bass. And then there was just so much wind noise that I wanted to see how much of that was the wind noise. Okay. So when he's talking about, you know, including all the frequencies, I understand his concern, because the bass does not follow the inverse square law, the highs do. It does not drop off as fast over distance, because it tends to roll over the ground, and the ground itself becomes a barrier to it spreading out 360 degrees. So it really only spreads out 180 degrees. So its drop-off isn't as fast. So in every one of these locations where I did measurements, the bass is there, and in some of the locations, no highs and some bass. But it's such a low level that it's not – I mean, it's well within your ordinance. The problem is that you still hear it. And I get that. Yeah. Okay. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Hutch, can you talk to me about the history of Virginia Keys? So we got some testimony that it was great, and then we got some other testimony that it was closed because it wasn't great. Well, I'm not the person, but Guy is around. Guy Fortune, it was great. I'm sorry, everyone. I'm sorry. Mr. Chairman, a question? No, so we got testimony that the history of Virginia Keys was shut down. The community shut it down. Is that – It was not shut down. It went for 12 years. I was – I'm no longer the director there. I moved and went into new – you know, early retirement. The City of Miami Commission removed the entire board. Now, this has more to do about development in Miami than – but the park operates now. But the Grassroots Festival, no longer there. The festival itself, it moved on. The circumstances changed. So any of the issues that you've heard tonight from the parties or any of those associated with the Virginia Key Festival? None with Grassroots. We had a venue that did all kinds of events, and I know there were news stories on a lot of garbage. Well, we hosted what's called the Nine Mile Festival, reggae festival, the Marley family, and can no longer use Bob Marley's name, but it is the Nine Mile Festival. And their initial event had enormous amount of garbage. Their cleanup vendor did not do a very good job, and so we did not allow them to come back next year on that event. They changed their vendors, and we tried them again. That is a venue. That historic beach park is a venue for events, very different than when the organization, the trust itself, was applying to the city for events. We did an annual fair, Ferris wheels and, you know, kids fair. We did about five of our own events. Otherwise, we had a Renaissance Festival that used the location. They pay a lease fee, and they go before the city of Miami and go through whatever policies are necessary to do their event. If they cannot do it, the city shuts them down, or if it's completely out of hand, we would shut them down. But we had, I don't know, maybe 30 events a year, from very small to very large. Okay. Thank you. Hutch, tell me again the parking capacity for the day passes on the campus. The parking capacity, it's on our maps, and it's going to be about 1,000 in the day parking, 1,000 in the three-day parking, and then a couple hundred RVs. Okay. And as far as I have. There have been a few spaces for the vendors. Yep. Okay. And I heard you say that the parking enforcement on 35th Avenue would be okay to add as a condition? The no parking side? Oh, yeah. There won't be any parking off-site. Okay. How can you address Mr. Hines, Cameron, and Michael's concerns about folks leaving the property after hours? Have you thought about making that a condition? Or has staff thought about making that a condition? There's a no driving within the park after hours with the exception of that day parking. And that's why it's so near the exits, because you can't have people driving around inside the festival at night as soon as it gets dark, the vehicles. And if somebody really, really has to go, then they're escorted out, and they don't get to come back in to the festival grounds. They have to park in the day parking. So there's a penalty for them, essentially, not being able to come back in. Yeah, I heard Guy say that you would be okay with fencing that off. Is that a possibility? Well, we're doing a lot of thousands of feet of fencing, because both the Public Works and the Water Management District want us to fence the entire length of 250 feet. So that's a mile. And then 35th is another 2,000 feet, and then we're fencing off gopher tortoises. And so basically all we're going to be doing starting tomorrow is fencing. Okay. All right. Those are my questions. Thank you. All right. So we've got – Chuck, you've already talked. Yes. All right. So we're going to need a motion on the floor, and then once we get a motion on the floor, we'll open it up for public comment. We're going to limit public comment to two minutes. What I would ask, again, is as folks are speaking and when they're done, if we could please do this, this, or this. No jeering, no talking, no screaming, no hoot and hollering. We've got a lot of folks to get through, and I want everyone to feel like they have an opportunity to say what they want to say. So do I – Mr. President. I'll go ahead and make the motion for staff's recommendation with the addition of no parking signs being posted along 35th and no trespassing signs being posted along the boundary of the property. Second. Okay. We've got a motion and a second on the floor, and it is 937. So we're going to go ahead and open it up now for public comment. The way public comment is going to work is everybody has signed in. So I'm just going to go in the order that you signed with the exception of June Mitchell because June Mitchell has a 10 o'clock bedtime, and June has been asked to go first. So if that's okay, June, you come on up. After June – and what I'm going to do is call your name out, and if you can make it to one of the two podiums and kind of queue up, that will help us get through it. So after June is going to be Sandra Lyons and then Ann Ruddick. June, you are recognized. Welcome. My name is June Mitchell. Thank you for letting me speak. I live off 35th Avenue in Melrose. I do not want the wildflower festival. The noise from the music, people, and cars will interrupt my quiet home. This can affect my ability to rest and sleep. The noise from the festival may also frighten away wildlife. I love to watch deer in my pasture. My grandparents will not move in with us because of the festival. Having a horse or raising cattle will not happen at my home if the festival occurs. The festival being just down our dirt road is in the wrong place. It is too close to my home and many other homes. It is in the wrong place. Please do not allow the wild festival to occur. Thank you. Thank you, June. Okay. Next up, we're going to have – I'm going to actually call out five or six names because the folks are in the back. That way, they can make their way. Next up, we have Sandra Lyons. Then we'll have Ann Rudig, Ann Marie Sickmeyer, Sandra Gottschalk, and Michael – I'm sorry. You're right. Pam Connolly will follow Ann Marie. Okay. Sandra, you're welcome. Okay. Yeah. My name is Sandra Lyons, and I am a 50-plus-year resident of Melrose. I moved to Melrose to get away from the city and the urban life. And I certainly didn't expect a music festival to be showing up in my backyard. So I do have some familiarity with national festivals and worldwide festivals. And I happen to know that they are prime targets for crime and for terrorism. And I want to point out to the board that there are serious public safety and legal risks associated with this proposed music park. History gives us a clear warning. Festivals such as the Fry Festival, Woodstock 99, Astroworld, and the Ball Island Festival, which I might add, was only for a few thousand people. And 300,000 people showed up. You can imagine the mess. They all came hoping to crash the gate and get in free. Our environment in this country right now shows very little respect for authority. And I suspect that there will be people who will try to crash this party. They all followed the same examples, the same pattern as this one. Ambitious promises, inadequate infrastructure, overwhelmed emergency services, and ultimately injury, loss of life, and that's where you come at. These are not unforeseen accidents. They were failures of planning, oversight, and scale. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. We're told we get a park, but the price is a large entertainment venue in a rural neighborhood. Mr. Perrier was fined for holding a festival without a permit in 2022. A year later, he had permit issues again with the health department who have those documents. The grassroots organization has since cut ties with him. This would be Mr. Hutchinson's first festival and the first without grassroots backup and support for Mr. Perrier. To clarify a few things that have been said here, they rely heavily on volunteers. There will be very few, if any, jobs. Shakori Hills, after 39 years, boasts 500 volunteers and has no data on employees. Tumansburg, after 34 years, has 102 jobs. Food, drink, including alcohol and lodging will be provided on site. You get there, you set up camp, or you're going to really battle traffic and leave and go into town. It is designed to keep people on site and spending there. Melrose will not enjoy enormous economic benefit from this festival. We've already heard that the traffic plan does not. It states all festival traffic will arrive via Route 26, turning right onto 219A. We all know that's not true. Traffic will also come from the north on State Route 21 from Keystone, Stark, and Jacksonville. There is nothing in the traffic plan that accounts for this, and that's why we're going to have a big mess at Quail Road. I'll just close by saying 1,025 of us opposed this and signed a petition, and there's one reason. We share it all, whether we're farmers or any other kind of worker. It's in the wrong place. I'm an artist. My husband's a musician. My son is a composer. My daughter is an artist. We don't want this, not because we don't love art and culture. Everybody needs more art and culture. We don't want it because it's in the wrong place. Thank you. Next up, we've got Anne-Marie Sickmeyer, followed by Pam Connolly, Annie Rennie, Mickey Dickerson, Sammy Dickerson, Scott Dickerson, and Steve Robitelli. My neighbor, Jane, she's in a wheelchair, and she's very concerned about the camphor being cut down. She says it produces toxic smoke when burned, volatile resin, powders, dust, shavings, borings, turnings, cuttings may explode or burn with explosive violence. She's worried about a festival-goer dropping a cigarette where there may be flammable resin from the trees that they've cut down. I'd like to say I live at the corner of 26, 219A, and West Boulevard. It's already a dangerous intersection. It goes from 55 to 45, and then immediately you're going to be turning right onto 219A without a deacceleration lane. It's going to bottleneck because 75% of the cars are turning there according to their paperwork. And I don't see Melrose as a through town, pretty much people just drive through. And so when there's so many people turning on to 219A, it's going to be stopping everybody. And then when they're heading west, turning left, for one thing, we're not going to be able to get out of our neighborhood because it's already offset. It's already unsignalized, and like I said, there's not a right turn lane. So I don't know how with tour buses and vans and food trucks and everybody, 75% of the 5,000 or so cars, whatever it is, turning there, I don't see how it's going to work out without bottlenecking, without people trying to drive in the ditches, road rage for sure, and there's already accidents and fatalities all over our town. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next up we've got Pam Connelly. Okay, next up we've got Annie Rennie and then Mickey Dickerson. Hi. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm an anomaly. I am not a resident of Melrose, but I do live close by, down in Blueberry Bay, only for three years. So I'm definitely an anomaly, but it's a small neighborhood located off County Road 1469, about 10 minutes from Melrose. As a retired nurse practitioner who has always been passionate about public safety and public health, I'm limiting my comments to these concerns and issues. As I know you are acutely aware, this site is located in a rural residential area. We've heard a lot about that, that it's a wrong place, et cetera, et cetera, with limited fire protection and very narrow roads. First, the staffing for emergency response in Melrose is volunteer. Five counties or four other counties help service this area. I've driven to the side of the park on numerous occasions. Each time I've had to pull off the side of the road to another small, mid-sized vehicle to pass, coming in the opposite direction. And I know that that's the direction up Poyle Road that the closest volunteer EMS would reply to. The quarter mile of the road leading directly into Melrose, as you have heard, has drainage culverts, woods, driveways, mailboxes, which about the road, leaving little room to pull over. I cannot envision anybody else trying to navigate that area, residents going out that way, since it'll be one way for them. Hosting a large-scale music event, the first schedule one month from now, with anticipated attendance of 3,000 to 5,000 attendees, would significantly increase the risk of delayed emergency response, not only for festival attendees, but for nearby residents, me, and the broader community at large. Fire and rescue units could potentially be pulled away. Could you just introduce yourself for us? Pardon? Could you introduce yourself for us? Oh, sorry. Yes, Annie Reney, R-A-N-I. Okay. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. That's okay. That's okay. Thank you for your coming. All right. Next up, we've got Mickey Dickerson, Sammy Dickerson, Scott Dickerson, Steve Brabitelli. After that, we've got David Ballou and Regina Kane. For the record, my husband, Scott Dickerson, and daughter, Sammy Dickerson, had to leave. I'll explain. Good evening. My name is Mickey Dickerson. I am a registered nurse and a community advocate for Melrose for Clarity. My husband is mobility impaired and physically unable to remain present tonight. We share an 11-year-old daughter who attends Melrose Elementary. We live a mere nine-tenths of a mile from Wildflowers Music Park on Northeast 255th Drive. This is our homestead where star-filled skies, abundant wildlife, and a cricket's chirp is a reward. Out here, we escape the chaos of neighboring urban commotion in exchange for this peace. We walk our property nightly and give God praise for this space and nighttime stillness. I'm greatly concerned our zoning laws are being wrongfully targeted for commercial-style activities. The undue hardship that Wildflowers Music Park will invoke on the immediate families is too costly to ignore. According to salary.com, the average Melrose citizen is 50 years of age. The cost of living is 1% higher than the national average, and the median income is $52,000 annually, which is $46,000, 46% lower than the state average. Combined with the increased housing costs, elevated transportation expenses, and rising food prices, these families simply cannot afford to start over elsewhere. Yet this has been suggested if they are forced to accept the music venue, despite it being completely incompatible with agricultural zoning and existing comprehensive plan. This is the wrong location. On behalf of my family and Melroseans who could not attend tonight, we ask the board to please deny this permit. With sincerity, I thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dickerson. Thank you for your comments. Okay, Steve Robitelli here. Okay, we'll move on to David Ballou. Regina Kane. Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. Following David, we'll have Jack... No, Jack, or he's part of the party. Colleen Hodge, Danielle Jolly, Diane McKinney, Doris Herndon. Okay. Hello, commissioners. Welcome. I should say, first of all, that I worked for the city of Gainesville, where I did, until a few years ago. And I did take care of the different community outlets, including the Free Fridays concert series. I did that for about 14 years. I lived out in the city of Alachua for about now in the 90s. I lived there for a long time. And, you know, when I would be asked to do something at a festival, I would go and I'd look it up and I'd search it and I'd do all that sort of stuff, what these guys have already done. And in 14 years, I never really had a problem with that. So what I want to ask you is, why don't we just do it? I mean, it's inconvenient, perhaps, or it's, you know, it's something that can be done in a small time. But let's have the festival. Let's give us permission to do it and see how that affects everybody else. Thank you. Thank you, David. Okay. Next up, Regina Kane. Okay, thank you. Colleen Hodge and then Danielle Jolly. Following Danielle, we'll have Diane McKinney, Doris Herndon, Harriet Hughes. Hey, Ken. How you doing? Okay. Good evening. My name is Colleen Hodge, and I have lived in Alachua County since 1967. I'm here to speak regarding the TUP requested by the Wild Stars Music Park. I want to be very clear, events open to the public must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title III, regardless of whether the event is permanent or temporary. This proposed use is clearly ADA non-compliant, and approving it exposes Alachua County to direct legal liability. The site consists of grass fields and dirt roads with no hardened ADA-accessible routes connecting parking, camping, handicapped toilets, or event areas. Grass fields and dirt roads are not compliant services, and once it rains, accessibility is lost entirely. Only two handicapped toilets are proposed with no stabilized paths to reach them. And without a method to keep those paths firm, level, and slip-resistant throughout the event, this is a predictable failure, not an unforeseen condition. ADA violations do not require intent, only denial of access. If a person using a wheelchair, walker, or mobility aid cannot safely reach restrooms, campsites, or emergency services, Alachua County is exposed to complaints, federal enforcement, and civil litigation. Insurance does not shield Alachua County from ADA claims. Ms. Hodge. For this reason, I respectfully request the TUP be known. Thank you, Ms. Hodge. Okay, Danielle Jolly. Hi, my name is Danielle Jolly, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My husband and I moved from Melrose about 30 years ago from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We wanted something a little different, a little quieter. We bought into our community, and we love it. We love the sense of small-town America with values. We raised our daughters here. We live in this small, quiet community. We love art. We love festivals. We love music. We love progress and parades. We just don't want it across the street from our home. We came for the solitude, not for the festivals. In addition, we have concerns for the infrastructure. Melrose is a town of 5,000 residents, maybe a little more. It has traffic already backed up at 530 on any given day for people coming home just from a regular day of work. On our little dirt road where this park is located, it can be difficult on a good day, let alone after a significant weather event or the lack of rain. I can only imagine how impassable it will be with the additional several hundreds of vehicles. Plus, this festival will come with injuries, accidents, and crimes of all sorts. How is EMS going to get in and out with all of these 5,000-plus festival-goers, which is doubling the population of Melrose on this little dirt road? We also have concerns of safety. We rely on the local counties because Melrose sits in the outskirts of four different counties. The music park itself is in two. Melrose doesn't have an actual police department that will be right there. We don't believe that the festival backers, when they say the noise, the lights, the garbage, the traffic, the people, and all the waste will not be a problem for those who live in proximity to this park. What recourse will we have when these promises fail? We moved here to stay here because of the peaceful solitude. We didn't sign up for port-a-potties after dark noise and thousands of strangers partying in our front yard. Thank you again. Thank you. I'm going to call out the next 10 names because I think some of them might be in the other room. Diane McKinney, Doris Herndon, Harriet Hughes, Diane Lyons, Mahada Ferry, Jeff Davis, Michael Blatchley, Megan Hernandez, Gina Coley, Chris Breen, and Eric Abenson. If any of those folks are here, make your way to the podium and introduce yourself to us. Okay. Come on. Yeah, come on. Introduce yourself, and that would be great. All right. My name is Megan Hernandez. I am a resident of Keystone Heights just down the road from where the park is proposed, right over the Melrose, right by the Melrose line. What makes this feel especially personal to me is that my great-grandparents, my parents, and I have all called Quail Street home, the very street where the festival will take place down. My parents still live right next door to the property. You heard from her earlier. My brothers and my father hunt the land just across the property line. That's where their food pot is, actually. It will be right by the RV campsite, so I wanted to point that out. My mom tends to her garden, looks after her chickens, and enjoys her coffee peacefully on the porch every day. This land and this quiet community have been part of my family for generations, so when I think about what a big music event here could mean, it hits close to home in a way that's hard to put into words. I appreciate the applicant's dream of bringing music and gatherings to the area. It's not that I want to stand in the way of something positive, but picturing thousands of people overnight camping, loud music, carrying across the fields, and heavy traffic on our narrow country roads, it just doesn't sit right with the peaceful life we've known here for so long. The land is zoned for agriculture and rural living. It's where families like mine have raised kids, kept animals, grown things, and simply enjoyed the calm that comes from being away from crowds and constant noise. A large-scale festival, even if it's labeled temporary, feels like it would shift the whole character of our neighborhood in ways that are tough to reverse. Our environment matters deeply, too. So many of us here rely on private wells for our water, and we're surrounded by sensitive wetlands and aquifers. With all the extra vehicles, people, portable restrooms, and runoff from the park and camping, there's a genuine risk to our groundwater and wildlife. These natural features are fragile. Once they are harmed, it's hard to bring them back. I just want to protect them for my kids, my parents, the generations after us, rather than take chances on one event. The noise part feels especially real when I think about my parents living next door in rural places like ours sound travel so far, and I imagine my mom trying to enjoy her morning coffee on the porch or my dad and brothers coming back from a hunt only to have deep bass and music glaring. Thank you, Ms. Hernandez. Okay, next speaker. Come on up. I'm Harriet Huss, and I am a 45-year resident of Melrose, and my land adjoins the park. When my husband and I first heard about it, we weren't exactly thrilled until we found out more about it. But, you know, our first thought was, well, it's just a few days. We can put up with it or leave town if we don't like the noise. I feel like my feeling is that now I'm very enthusiastic. I very much want it to happen. I feel like the festival is needed because the park is needed. And without the festival to fundraise it, I don't know how they can meet the mortgage. Then, you know, Hutch has even said they might have to foreclose. I feel like the neighbors aren't thinking it through of what the repercussions can be. If they don't have a way to fund this very valuable piece of land, and you know what will happen, it's not going to be a farmer. No farmer can buy expensive land anymore. It's going to be subdivided. So I just feel like for three days we can put up in Melrose with this festival. And I know everybody's saying it's going to be longer than three days. But I feel like we can put up with it with the long-term goal of preserving this piece of land. It's just a treasure. That land is beautiful. I would be heartbroken if it's sold. I'm already so attached to it. So, you know, and the other quick thing to say is that I started Melrose Bay Art Gallery in 1997. I do feel like this could, you know, this had, I'm very invested in Melrose. I feel like this could be, you know, definitely have repercussions. Even beyond the festival, if the park is there and people are just going to walk the trails, they will come to Melrose and they will discover their galleries. And I do think it will have economic benefits. So I really am super wanting you to not break my heart and vote no. Thank you, Harriet. Next speaker, please. I did want to let you know that everybody that's signed up that's remaining here is in the room now. So if you want to just put an order in. Oh, I don't need to go through names. So all the other. Yeah, Mr. Chair, if you want to just have them line up, everybody's in here right now. Okay. So if you are planning to speak, line up. Got two podiums. If you could introduce yourself. Well, they're all, he said they're all here. They're all in here. All of the folks. You got a podium over there, too. Okay, so if you are planning to speak or you lined up, I just want to take a count here before we get going. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Okay. I think we've got everybody, we've got about 20 folks, 20 or 30, 25 folks. So you've got two minutes. If you'll introduce yourself, we'll just go back and forth. You just introduce yourself and get started. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Eric Amundsen. I'm a board member of the Alachua Audubon Society, and I would like to express the Audubon Society's support for the temporary use permit. Some of our main reasons are because of the responsible actions taken out at Wildflowers as far as the restoration of the environment goes, the attention, the details that's been played. We've been out there assisting with controlled burns. We've done wildlife surveys out there. We've placed bird boxes out there, and we fully intend to place a kestrel nest box out there. I'm also the director of the Bob Simon Southeast American Kestrel Nest Box Program, and I know, having worked with Bob for eight years on this program, that he would be in strong support of this. He died last year. Another thing that's notable is that our festival committee would be looking forward and is looking forward during the festival to have our kiosk and information center there and guide birders through the natural trails that are being set up by Jack Putts and others at the site. Another thing I'd like to compare it to is about the same size as the Sweetwater Wetlands stormwater treatment area. That is significant in that that area has become one of the nation's top hotspots. It's recognized internationally, and there's no reason that this Wildflowers Park, with the number of habitats it has and the species that we're seeing there, couldn't become a very important birding destination. As far as the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail goes, there isn't a site within, well, thanks a lot. Eric, thank you. All right. Hey, my name is Josh Mitchell. I live about 600 yards from the property. There are so many things to go over that we can't fit in in two minutes. My biggest concern is noise, traffic, a lot of the safety stuff that we've already gone over tonight. You're going to have people leaving the festival that's probably going to be intoxicated. You're going to have people using drugs. Anybody that is familiar with any kind of music festival that seems to be along these lines, you have psychedelics, hallucinogenic, other than just marijuana and things along those lines, those people do have a tendency to wander. You have people who drink who wander and then get into other illegal activities because they're intoxicated and not making proper decisions. We don't want this in our area. It's a rural residential area. We've already put off development. We were going to add on to our house. We've put that off for over a year. We want to move if this goes in because we don't want that. I didn't move to the country from Gainesville where I heard all the noise every night. At night, we can hear dogs barking for 200, 300 yards out there. So we are going to hear this festival at our house. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about that. It's going to disturb us with traffic patterns, me having to wait, give a password to get through my property, things along those lines. I find it absolutely ridiculous. If this is supposed to be 5,000, if 7,000 show up, is there a cap and we turn around those remainder people? Are there the fine because they were only expecting to have 5,000? How does that work? It's going to tie up the resources. If they have people who dance and are not hydrated enough, EMS services are going to have to come. One ambulance is going to transport it, most two people. If you see Gator football games with people passing out left and right and drinking too much, dancing, things along those lines, we tie up a lot of resources for that. That's what kind of things can happen. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Josh. Y'all have a good night. Mr. Chair, Jim Connish, I realize that you think you're a semi-autonomous region like the city of Gainesville and you don't answer to the Florida legislature, but that's not the case, sir. When you look at the statutory definition of farm and all the framework under the right and under 163, agricultural production is required for classification as agricultural land for the purposes of ad valorem taxation. These people need to go over to the property appraiser and question the fact that this is not a farm. There's nothing in the presentation that speaks to production of anything within the realm of an agricultural product. So it's a sham. So the first thing that should happen to these people is they should lose their agricultural classification and get hammered with the same taxes they pay over at Gator National or any other commercial venue, and that'll kill it because this body is in Kutch's pocket, and it's obvious. So instead of spending money on attorneys, go to the property appraiser. The new property appraiser has really scrutinized my agricultural classification. Probably you asked them to, and I kept buying it because I actually have production. This is not agritourism. This is not complementary to agricultural production. This is diametrically opposed to the production of any agricultural products, especially wildflowers. I actually have wildflowers mixed in with my longleaf. They don't grow where there's 1,000 cars parked. Thank you, Mr. Kosh. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. Members of the commission, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I've heard a parade of horribles tonight, and I've heard a lot of speculation, all the terrible things that could or might happen. That is just speculation. What I do know for a fact is what I've seen the applicants do. They have gone out and spent hours and hours and hours and a lot of money in restoring a piece of property, one that is going to be a showpiece for lack of a camera, one that can only be continued through investment and some sort of economic return to pay for this. I have been involved in a lot of music productions over the years. I've attended a lot of concerts. I don't see all these terrible things happening. I haven't done these terrible things. I commend the applicant for all the things they've done, and I think it would be wonderful to see this go forward. It would benefit the county, the applicant, and everybody in this room. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Russ. Next speaker. Hello. My name is Mahadev Ferry. I've been a resident of Gainesville, Florida for the last 26 years. I'm 31 years old. And I've actually gotten five of my music festivals at Depot Park that I've spearheaded, endorsed by Mayor Lauren Poe, the ex-mayor of Gainesville. And we have never had any issues with any sound ordinance or anything that goes against any policy or permit that I got for anything at my events that actually were conservation-oriented. I'm a board director member of the Million Acre Conservation founded by Dr. Ron Chandler, a professor over here at the University of Florida. I've been doing PR for him for a while, and I only see the same exact qualities that he has exemplified over the last 25 years founding that conservation in India and these people leading this beautiful park. And I can only not just vouch for them, but I can vouch for myself and my history of everything I've put on here in your beautiful city to be able to do anything I can to influence the outcome of integrity and conservation efforts that this park is going to do. Thank you. Next speaker. My name is Brent Boldy. I'm a Hawthorne resident and small business owner. I live just a few miles down from the park. And the main point that I want to make is to reiterate a point that Larry made earlier, his closing remark, and I thought it was very logical, and it's that we are not asking for full use right now. This is a temporary permit. It sounds like the applicant has done their due diligence in making sure that this is a safe event. They have a lot of expertise. And the thought of giving it a trial and a safe one at that to prove or disprove a lot of really good points on either side seems not unreasonable. In addition to that, I believe that there's a lot to be said about community gathering inspiration. And what they're doing there is really beautiful, man. The conservation efforts are remarkable. Bringing people together for food, music, dance, everything to show the younger generation, show the older generation, show our generation what's going on. It's a really beautiful thing. And, man, you don't know that beauty exists until you see it. And the event gives opportunity to show that to people that maybe didn't know. And I've had my life changed by things like this. So I hope that other people will. Brent, thanks for being here. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker. Hello, my name is Jeff Davis. I'm a resident of Gainesville, but I spend a lot of time in Melrose. I used to live over by a long time. I'm a retired hydrogeologist. And one of the things I wanted to speak, I saw some misinformation, some maps with all this, you know, water flow going to the St. Johns River. And I just wanted to clarify that at this music park, you know, there's probably 155 feet of material over the floor of an aquifer. 90 feet of that is clay. So even – and the fact that they're having all the toilets, you know, carry everything away, that's not going to be an issue anyway. But the floor is pretty well protected from whatever impacts that could possibly arise. But I also wanted to make sure that you address folks' concerns that they brought up some valid things with the trespassers, the noise, and this temporary use permit would give you a chance to see what it is. I think the managers are more than willing to try to address them, the issues that come up. And I see it as a real benefit for Melrose as time goes on. But you're just talking about this one time. Thank you, John. Thank you. Thank you very much. My name is Janice Gary, and I've been an Alachua County resident since 2003. And there is absolutely no place else in Florida that I would care to live. And part of it is because of the culture, nature meeting culture here in Alachua County. And this project absolutely exemplifies it. This property is already better off because of the volunteer work that has been done. The hundred live oak trees are already healthier because of the invasives that have been removed so they can get enough sunlight for photosynthesis. The vision of creating this park and the vision of creating this community event is not by some outside corporation trying to make a fast buck. It is made by the vision of the people, the talented people in this community for the talented people in this community and for all of our benefit. And I thank you so much to the visionaries. I also thank the people who have come and made their comments because the comments allow us to do better planning. It allows for us to appreciate the effects of the park more. We're talking about one weekend, folks. The world will not stop turning with one weekend. And then if we want to do it again, we'll go through this again. So I thank you, commissioners, for supporting this permit. It's a good thing for Alachua County. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Carey. Okay, next speaker. Welcome. Hi, my name is Connor Hogan. And I've heard a lot of talking about the conservation efforts of this, and that is a wonderful thing. Personally, I would like to speak more to the unity that music creates. So I have some notes. So I myself am a musician, and I've just seen in my experiences playing shows, going to shows, going to bigger festivals like the Fest, just music has this profound ability to bring people together. It was said earlier that the current issue that our country is facing is a disrespect of authority, but I think the true issue that we are facing is division of the people due to arbitrary factors. And so I think that this permission of this festival would provide a huge sort of like, what's a good word for it, opportunity for people to come together under one common thing, which is the love of music. Also, I heard it mentioned the sort of like crime and stuff that happens at music festivals. One example I heard was Woodstock 99. Woodstock 99, at Woodstock 99, there were bands like Limp Bizkit singing songs like Break Stuff, which it's been mentioned that this is more of an acoustic, quieter, calmer venue. So that sort of band-incited mayhem will not exist with the sort of folk and bluegrass and all of that sort. I just think that music is truly a beautiful thing. It's one of the purest forms of human expression. And I love music. I don't know many people who don't love music. And I think that in addition to the other benefits of conservation, it will be wonderful to have wildflowers be a new festival. Thank you, Connor. Thank you for your comment. This is Laura Berkelman. And I'm a Melrose resident, Alachua County resident, and supporter of the music park. I think it would be good economically for Melrose. And one word about the noise. I live in an area where I hear the noise coming from the music venues now at 21 and 26. I also hear music coming from a man who has a private dance studio around the way. And I have neighbors who like the party, including a former football coach. And all of it gets diminished, and all of it shuts off at 10. All amplified music gets cut off at 10. And with that, I can live with it. Now, other people might not be able to, but it goes down. It's not loud at where I am. I just can hear it in the background, and I know it's going off. So I hope you will approve this temporary use permit. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Thanks, Peter. Welcome. Hello, everyone. My name is Rebecca Mattson. Thank you, Board of Commissioners and fellow community members. I live nine miles outside of Wildflowers Music Park with many supporting friends who live in Melrose. I have volunteered for this park, and I support the permit. I have previously worked in security operations and ADA at the Horn Museum of Art, and I have watched how defunded the arts has become. With Florida cutting its largest arts and cultural grant in 2024, Wildflowers is able to provide community to rural neighborhoods and people with disabilities in ways that the currently defunded outreach programs are no longer providing, and location is imperative to accessibility. The three-day festival hosted by Wildflowers Music Park will have a significantly lower environmental impact than potential alternative developments on this land. I hear concerns about roads and traffic and noise, but how many cars, sidewalks, septic tanks would be put there if other purchasers subdivided it into rural housing? Agricultural equipment is extremely loud. If it was continued at the hay field, how many more gopher tortoises will continue to be displaced and invasives continue to crowd onto this land? At my time there, we found co-twhips, gopher tortoises, water moccasins, ribbon snakes, coyote dents. They are not here to speak for their autonomy that they deserve, and this is protecting the land from development that is devastating to the environment, and I just want to support them, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Hi, my name is Aaron Crouch. I live directly across the street from the proposed Wildflower Music Park. I'm not here today to oppose events or economic activity, but to raise very serious concerns about the roadway safety, access, and emergency response related to this project. From a construction infrastructure standpoint, the existing roads serving the site are my primary concerns. I know this has been thought for that a lot, but I think it's a very real, valid concern. The Vessel proposed directing attendees to use the 219A entrance as a primary access point. However, in practice, even the festival's own volunteers do not consistently use 219A because it's not as convenient as accessing the road from Quail Street. This highlights a real-world issue. Traffic naturally gravitates to the easiest access point, regardless of the plan on paper. Even though the event itself hasn't taken place yet, the presence of just a small number of volunteers assisting with the setup and coordination has already resulted in a noticeable increase in traffic. It is no longer just the homeowners who live on this road. This alone demonstrates how sensitive and limited the roadway is, even under minimal added use. When the roads are dry, they become extremely dusty, so dusty that you often cannot see the car in front of you. There are deep ditches on both sides, and I firmly believe that on event days, the vehicles will end up in those ditches and become stuck. Currently, the county grazes this road roughly every one to two months. I haven't kept track on a calendar, but it is not frequent. With the traffic volumes associated with an event this size, the road service will deteriorate rapidly, making conditions worse as the weekend goes on. The proposed attendance of 5,000 people over three days is simply not compatible with the existing road infrastructure. In its current state, these roads cannot safely handle that volume of traffic. I just want you all to please consider the road condition, traffic capacity, emergency access, and public safety implications before allowing the event of this scale to proceed. These concerns are real. They're ongoing. Aaron, if you could wrap up. If everyone involved attend these residents. Thank you, Aaron. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Michael Buchanan. I've resided in Gainesville since 1981. I've had the privilege of attending numerous, probably 80 to 100 music festivals in the last few decades. I want to focus on two different festival sites. One was in Trumansburg, New York, Grassroots Festival, and the other was in Virginia Key. I mention those two because Jordan Currier was involved in founding and producing those. Those festivals were wonderful experiences for my wife and I. They incorporated the community within them. They were not just an economic boom, but a cultural boom for the communities. They were very different because the culture of the Finger Lakes is very different from the culture of Virginia Beach in Miami. I enjoyed Finger Lakes more than Miami, but they were great, and they came from the heart of the community that surround them. That's what we have an opportunity to do here in Ochoa County is to have a really, really special event that comes from our grassroots here. And so I urge the commission to approve this temporary permit because I think it's going to be great for the people of this community. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Riley Crouch, and I live directly across the street from the proposed Wildflowers Music Park. My family owns cows, and the surrounding land is used for farming and livestock. The roads in this area were not designed for large crowds or heavy traffic. The road is narrow and difficult to pass even on normal days. With an event that could bring 5,000 people, traffic would increase significantly. Many drivers would not be familiar with the royal roads, which creates real safe concerns for the people who live and work here. I am also concerned about the wildlife on the property. There are many gopher tortoises living on the Wildflowers site. With that many attendees of vehicles and activities, there is a real risk that these animals could be harmed or run over. I understand that events like this may be exciting for visitors, but the families, animals, and wildlife who already live here, the impact would be lasting. I respectfully ask you to consider whether this type of event is appropriate for this area. Thank you for listening and taking my concerns seriously. Thank you, Riley. Nice job. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Ellen Reeb, and I live in Melrose. And I have been truly impressed. I have wandered, I have gone on a tour of the park, and the conservation has been fabulous. And, you know, they've spoken of so many concerns, and it seems like they've addressed most of these concerns, the traffic, the crowds, and trying to address them. And I believe, I trust them, because they have done a fabulous job with the land. And I'm a musician myself. This is a wonderful way of building community and helping community to grow and bringing people together, which is something we do desperately need. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Ellen. Thank you, Chris. Next speaker, please. Hi. I have two documents that I was directed to, I guess, hand. You can give them to the clerk. One is an economic supply and demand analysis. The other one are additional comments on the traffic plan. My name is Steve LaBelle. Good evening. I am one of the community organizers opposing the Wildflowers development. I am a former amphitheater operator in downtown Washington, D.C. I did the amphitheater, held 3,700 seats. I'm also the perm – I wrote the permits and administered the permits for the Legg Mason Tennis Tournaments at the Rock Creek Tennis Center, which has 7,500 seats. I'm going to talk a little bit about traffic, the economics, and Melrose culture. The traffic analysis is inherently flawed. This is a startup operation. There is no historic event-related traffic data. All the data that was supplied was from the organizer. Questionable data in, questionable data out. How much error is in the maintenance of traffic plan? Nobody knows. Based on 2,500 vehicles, a 5% error is 125 cars. A 20% error is 500 cars. Well, 125 cars might not be a problem. 500 additional cars will be catastrophic. There's error there. Economics. The discussion concerning economics has been less than informative. The Wildflowers Music Park and the economic promise of rural music venues, described in the administrative record you've received, is going to go fast. Yeah, if you could wrap up, Mr. LaBelle. Sure. The economic promise documents, a simple supply and demand analysis. Melrose has 67 storefront businesses. Only eight of those businesses supply food service and retail sales, which are what the attendees buy. Thank you, Mr. LaBelle. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is Ruth Berkelman. I'm a long-term resident of Melrose with my home, Alachua County, about two blocks west of Quail Street. And I'm here, standing here, to offer my support for the Wildflowers Music Park and for the temporary use permit. I care strongly about this Melrose community. I've had relatives there since the 1800s. My mother was an Alachua County public health nurse. I've spent four decades or more than that in community and public health as my career. And a lot of what I can say has been said, so I just want to stress again, I hear the concerns, but the request is for a temporary permit, not a permanent one. And if issues arise, they should be addressed before issuing future permits. To shut the door on this very real opportunity for our community in Melrose, which does need help, it has had its issues. And it would be a poor choice for the eastern part of our county. And it is a part I have anticipated going forward. Thank you. Thank you, Ruth. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Catherine Booth. I'm part of Wildflowers Music Park. I wanted to give a little bit of clarity to a few things that were asked today. One thing is about ticket pricing. Day tickets are $39 for adults. However, we've been taking community feedback this entire time. We had a few senior citizens reach out, say that was a little bit too high for them living on Social Security. So we did a local seniors discount. So we do have a 25% off discount for day passes and weekends that they're already taking advantage of. I know for a fact we have people as old as 87 who have already bought tickets. Teens are discounted to $19 a day, and kids 12 and under are free. So I just wanted to – it's going to be very affordable, just like the other grassroots festivals. And a quick note on grassroots. Although Jordan is no longer involved with the grassroots organizations, we still have a lot of support from both the New York and North Carolina sister properties. We have team members in town right now that are helping us set up. It's a very good combination of grassroots people and locals coming together. Again, we've been told, you know, that we're strangers or outsiders putting this on. I grew up right here in North Florida. Most of our volunteers, we have over 100, nearing about 150 volunteers so far, 60 on our leadership team. Most all are from Alachua, Clay, Putnam County. We have over 40 Melroseans that are volunteers, including leading the Kids and Teens area. We have an artist, Amy Mueller, and then Amy Stanley, who's the president of Mossman Hall. As far as local involvement in businesses, we have Blue Water Bay, Gator Bates, and Melrose Center, our top three food vendors. So I just wanted to bring up that this is a very, very local mission where we have local musicians, local vendors, local nonprofits. We have 38 workshops scheduled throughout the weekend that encompass dance, conservation, nature, art classes for kids. So, again, it's a very local project, not a group of New Yorkers that are outsiders. So I request that you do give us approval that we can show this community what we're bringing. Thank you, Catherine. Thank you so much. Hello from the New Yorker outsider. I'm not like any of you in this room. I actually came to Gainesville a little more than two years ago. My name's Albert Cleary, and I drove to Gainesville chasing my daughter in a helicopter to Shands. She received a heart transplant March 12th of 2004, and she was six months old at the time. She will, on March 12th this year, will be the two-year anniversary of her receiving that heart, and she has overcome many, many obstacles that I won't go over in this time frame. It's been my dream to have Irie dance at this festival to celebrate her two years of having a new heart. My wife has given me special permission to be here and not take care of my kids, even though I have two herniated discs in my back from a car accident, and I'm in a lot of pain right now. I have also been in the position of Melrose people. As a former Brooklynite, I don't like my people anymore. I had a litigation go against my personal business in New York, and it's what brought us down to Florida. We've decided to make Gainesville our home, and the only drug that Irie can actually ingest the rest of her life is music, and due to her heart transplant, she can't go very far from the transplant center. So this would be her only chance to really have a really celebratory moment after spending 333 days in the PICU at Shands. Thank you very much for your time. Albert, thank you for being here. Welcome. Speaker. Hello, my name is Luke Hawes, and I just wanted to clarify some things around the gopher tortoises and the siege. So if you watch, there's a film, really good film called Gopher Games, and that will tell you a lot about the current state of gopher tortoises, but they are under siege in the state. And recently, from development, we've had 1,400 gopher tortoise entombments, and most of the relocations are going to very poor habitat with not very good ground cover that actually supports their diverse diet. So in the park, we're actually going to be planting and already have been starting planting native endemic ground cover around the gopher tortoise enclosures, and then in the exclusion zones where the gopher tortoises are going to be. And I care very deeply for these animals, and I'll personally be supervising their well-being at the event, and I will fiercely protect them if need be. So with that, I also wanted to share an observation within the survey that we had the backfield where most of the event is going to be taking place in the main stage. There was many gopher tortoise burrows that were abandoned and taken by armadillos, and so that backfield was very neglected, and fire ants and armadillos moved in, and so those are going to be being managed and actually supporting the gopher tortoises. But I wanted to clarify that if this land was not being managed in the way that it was now, these gopher tortoises would continue to be pushed out and killed eventually. So thank you. Luke, thank you. Next speaker, please. Good morning, commissioners. I'm Doug Hornbeck. You have different hours than us, Doug. Good morning. You're way past my bed, John. I'm impressed with the creation of this means, this creative way to fund land management and conservation and with a relatively low-impact thing, a music event. And I've worked for 35 years to improve our personal land and land government. I've helped prescribe burns in the county and the city and so on, and I can appreciate how labor-intensive and costly land management is. The land owned and managed by wildflowers had no previous land management done to it. Acres and acres of exotic plants, meadows mostly consisting of non-native pasture grasses, and no previous way to encourage pollinators, plants or pollinators. Now, the current owners have acres of beautiful live oaks that have been released from camphor trees. Coral artesia removal has begun, which is going to take a long time, but we've heard a lot about gopher tortoises, and about 100 acres of grassy meadows have gotten their first prescribed burn, and a very unbelievably successful burn, very good burn. I'm not aware of any realistic proposal to protect land and nearby neighbors from a much worse outcome, intrusive outcome. In other words, this is a really great way to conserve land and have money to pay for it. So, please give them the support they need. Thanks. Okay. Is there anyone that has not had an opportunity to speak that would like to speak tonight? Come once, come twice. Okay, we're going to go ahead and close public comment on the motion, and we will now, at the last stage of our process, oh, please come forward. Yes. My name is Summer. I've been attending festivals like this since before I was born. My parents are well-known folk musicians here in Florida, and this kind of community has always been part of my life. When I became deaf at the age of three, I could no longer hear the music. But what I've learned is that festivals like this are about so much more than sound. They are about community. They are about belonging. They are about inclusion. Some of my most cherished childhood memories are from these gatherings. Now, as an adult, after moving back home and becoming a resident of Melrose, I want to give back and support the very community that has helped shape me. My job is as a nature therapy guide, and that is connecting people to nature. Seeing the division around this breaks my heart. I invite anyone who feels uncertain to come over the fence and experience it for just one time, for just one weekend. Come see the inclusion, the kindness, and the community for yourself. Please support this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, is there anyone else that would like to speak to us during public comment? No, we don't do questions. I'm sorry. That's not how this works. Is there anyone else that wants to speak to the motion? Okay, we're going to close public comment, open up deliberations for the commission, if we could use our rights. Mary, you want to go first? I can. This has been an interesting evening. I've heard a lot of what I interpret to be fear, and I have heard a lot that has to do with trust. And, you know, we make decisions up here every other week that are about really similar things that have much larger and bigger impacts. Most of the time, when somebody brings to us a hayfield, they're bringing it to us for development. And this 240-something acres could have a minimum of, if you took out the 40 acres or so of wetlands, you could have 45-acre lots by right, by right, by Florida law. And I'm afraid of that kind of development in Melrose. And y'all are shaking your heads, but that is, we see that up here every single month. We have development. If you watch our meetings, you will see it happen. And it has, I was born and raised in this county, and I have watched it change. And that breaks my heart. That breaks my heart so much. I live in Archer. I live right next to a park with a stage where they have events, where they show movies, where they have concerts, where they have festivals almost every weekend. And you know what? It really doesn't affect me that much. It doesn't affect my chickens, and it doesn't affect my ducks, and it doesn't scare my dogs, even though they bark sometimes. And my cats really don't care. But I, you know, I was a little worried when I moved there about that. And so I, you know, I spent a little time while people were talking, looking up some information about other places in Florida, like Fort White. Fort White is smaller than Melrose. And the Stephen Foster Park is right smack in the middle of their town. And that folk festival brings in 7,500 people for their three-day event. The economic impact, according to Google, of that festival is just under a million dollars for that three-day event. And when I think about the impact to Melrose and to the folks out there, and I heard what the average salary was, and I've heard, you know, that, you know, it's a struggling community sometimes, and I think that will be good for Melrose. When I think about my friends at Blue Water Bay and being able to help provide food to something like that, I think they're going to be very excited about that. So I, you know, I came to this with a pretty open mind. I tried to ask hard questions, but after listening to all of this, I feel like I have the support option. So thank you all for being concerned and for worrying about your community. I think it's really important to do that. But this is a one-time permit. And if you know what? If they fail, we won't do it again. We won't do it again. And so please give it a chance and see how it goes. I can't, you know, I can't, I guess I grew up, you know, just a few blocks from the University of Florida and had thousands of people coming through, you know, our neighborhood for football games, which I absolutely hated growing up. But, you know, I don't think that a one three-day festival is going to change the community that much. And I hope it doesn't, because I think that the Melrose community is a really wonderful place. It's one of my favorite places in Alachua County. So thank you for coming, and thank you for caring. Thank you, Commissioner Alpert. Commissioner Wheeler, and then Commissioner Pris. Yes, thank you. You know, my husband and I have had a place out in Melrose since 1998. And I've watched, been good friends with the Chief Peonies. They're having a hard time. They can't sell their place. They want to retire. The grocery store is gone. The art shop, who's represented here tonight, I saw had an online auction trying to make ends meet. So, you know, people are struggling in these communities like this. We've heard about Cross Creek, Get Island Grove, and Hawthorne, and some of these local communities that are having a hard time keeping their young people there because the businesses are not there. And hopefully, we'll be able to encourage some of these young business people. So, High Springs is dealing with some of that right now. They've got new folks coming into the area, new young people with energy who are starting businesses, reclaiming the old community that's there, and rebuilding it. You know, Melrose has a whole lot to offer. There's a lot of charm there. That's old Florida, you know. And there's nothing more old Florida than good banjo fiddle music and clogging, yes, and even clogging. We'll get that little one clogging, or at least tiptoeing. But the thing is, someone was worried about what it was going to take away from their young people. What it will give their young people is a fiddle in their hand, you know, or someone who will sit down with them and teach them an old song, tell stories that, you know, that will enrich their lives and distract them from the everyday workings of a world that we no longer recognize. So, why not give it a shot and see? I play auto harp. I've got a Ledford dulcimer that the folks who were in Melrose that play dulcimers now are dying to see. I played upright bass, and I sing a lot of Celtic music. So, I'm telling you all that it's a healing thing, and if we can try it, and we believed in Hutch when he was on this dais. You know, I gave Ken the magazine that had you on the front cover, Hutch, you know, when you came off the board about what a hero you are in this community. And I think you deserve a shot. I deserve the people that have gathered around you deserve a shot. And I'll be glad to come out. I know what Ardija looks like, and I can pull it up. I can do it. So, what I'm saying is that I just feel like that it would be a gift to the Melrose community to have this there and the opportunity to enrich the lives of the young people at the same time supporting the economics that will keep business thriving there. I mean, we've got four counties right there, right, that all come together. We haven't even talked about how Hawthorne has been excited about this and how Keystone has been excited. And that's stark, you know, all of us right there. And there's such a strong culture that is being lost to technology that we really need to reclaim. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Prizia. I guess my colleagues have said a lot of beautiful things really well that I don't need to repeat. But I guess what I want to say is I think that, one, I have been presented plenty of evidence that shows me that the people who have applied for this temporary use permit are prepared for this event and are going to be able to handle it well and with respect for the property that they're stewarding as well as for respect for the community that's surrounding them. And that if there are any hiccups, that they will be ready to respond quickly to those hiccups. They've even expressed a real intent to try to develop a neighborhood advisory committee that would give the surrounding members of the community, even the ones who had vocal opposition, the opportunity to weigh in on issues and management of the property. So I see through the application that there's plenty of evidence to approve this temporary use permit. But I think what I want to say to the community, most of whom have left and asked us to respect their time, but couldn't stick around for us to speak, that this is a test ground. You know, this could have been a rezoning application. And this could have been permanent, a permanent decision being made today. But instead, it's a temporary use permit. And it is a test. It's a test for you all and to the folks that are doing this project. This is it. This is an address rehearsal, folks. This is it. This is what you got to prove to this community and the people who love this community and who were born and raised there and whose families for generations have been born and raised there, that this is an opportunity to build something meaningful for them, their community, and for all of us instead of, you know, it being the sort of apocalypse that's been, you know, sort of baked in people's minds. And I get why they're scared. I get it. You know, a lot of people, a lot of potential noise. But I see through the application that you all really addressed all those issues. And I believe based on the evidence that it will be done well. And I think that the possibilities for the opportunity of this becoming more permanent, if it is done well and you all decide to move forward with that and the community supports that and we support that of economic development for Melrose mentioned, low impact, high reward, right, because it is at 54 houses and all of the stuff that comes with those. It's a one weekend festival and otherwise it's a nature park. I think that it also has an opportunity to protect our agricultural lands because having nature parks and having these rural activity centers in the midst of rural areas brings tourism. It brings people that want to go to agritourism events, that want to eat local food, that want to have authentic experiences in rural communities, not the kind of people that want to go to a big city and listen to loud, crazy music and party all night long. Like, those aren't the kind of people that are going to come to a festival like this. Believe me, because I go to these festivals and I'm in bed by night. So I just want to say thank you to the people who came out tonight and who, for and against this, who expressed their opinions. We have to base our decisions based on the facts that are presented and the evidence is presented in this hearing. And for me, the evidence is clear that they've done and checked all the boxes in terms of making the best effort they can to make sure that this event goes off well. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner, what were the two conditions you added to the staff's recommendation? They were to post no trespassing signs across the entire boundary of the property and to post no parking signs along the right of way on 35th. Okay. Would that include along the roads or just along the boundaries that aren't roads? Along private property boundaries. I think the intent of that is that the applicant has expressed the desire to keep folks on property during the event, knowing that, you know, them coming off property is when the issues start to be done. Right. And I mean, obviously, I'm hoping that they'll take all reasonable efforts to keep people from crossing off property. So if there are trails that used to be there, the trees, the brush, fencing when it's appropriate. But at the minimum, making sure that no trespassing is posted in areas where you're adjacent to private property to ensure that people understand clearly that if they try to leave that they can be prosecuted for trespassing. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you want to say anything? No, I think it meets staff criteria. So, I mean, I have no comments. I know how I'm going to vote. All right. Let me give you some comments from the chair. So, I'm really sorry that the majority of the folks that were parties and that were against have left. But I need to tell my community that I'm looking at that I came in tonight and I was a no. I mean, I was a hard no. I had concerns about trespassing. I had concerns about security. I have concerns about the road. My biggest concern is that those neighbors that are on that road that are going to experience this, I had concern about setting a precedence because I don't want to set a precedence for something that doesn't work for the entire community. And when I say the entire community, I'm talking about Alachua County, all of Alachua County. Those concerns have been eliminated largely by staff's presentation. And I know all those concerns are concerns of staff. Our staff has done a lot of work to see if this has met the standard of a four-day temporary use permit. I will tell you that we approved the Medieval Fair on Archer Road. We had a lot of concerns. It was a huge success by all standards of Medieval Fair. There were some traffic issues on Archer Road, but we ended up, you know, telling them that go find another site. Right. And so that was approved, and it's never been approved since. So there's a real risk of that. I will tell you, before Hutch even applied, you know, my conversation with him was get the community on board, and you got me on board. And what I'm hearing is a real mix. Many of the folks out of Melrose, many of the businesses, I heard Gator Bait tonight, and I eat there a lot, you know, they want to see if this can work. They want to give it a try. I had that conversation with Ruth Berkelman that I talked about in my ex parte, just keeps ringing, like, let's give it a try. I didn't want to give it a try when I came in. I was a no. But Albert and Summer, that was good. So I'm not a no anymore. I'm a yes. And I am hopeful that you all can get everyone that is a no tonight to become a yes, because I think it's what the community is looking for. And so with that, commissioners, is there any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. We stand adjourned.