And welcome to the January 8th, 2026 City Commission meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order. We're going to start with Invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, and I will turn to our City Attorney, Jen. In this new year, let us begin this meeting by taking a brief moment of silence and reflection, and keep the family of Fred Marquise in our thoughts. Amen. I would like to add about former County Administrator Fred Marquise that he was, it was close, okay. But, you know, he was County Administrator for a long time, made a big difference in the county, none the least of which was the mover and shaker for the Pinellas Trail. And, of course, the Pinellas Trail is named after him. And as fate would have it, our military committee, advisory committee, what, one month ago, I think, pretty much to the day, recognized him by our Dunedin Museum. We had a plaque that the county did put up right by the museum. You should look at it as his full military outfit picture. Mr. Marquise was there. He was in a wheelchair. He was there with his family, but he was doing pretty good, and he spoke. And so, very timely that we honored him before he passed on. But he made a big difference in Pinellas County, so we didn't want that to go unchecked. Okay, we'll go to our presentations. And our first one is Dunedin Celtic Festival and Highland Games Updates. And we have our very own special, Eric McNeil. And, Eric, you're going to, from the Dunedin Scottish Arts Foundation, Eric, you got all kind of good information for us? I'll do my best here. Good evening. My name is Eric McNeil. I'm the president of the Dunedin Scottish Arts Foundation. If you don't know, the Dunedin Scottish Arts Foundation is basically an organization that brings together the middle school pipe band, the high school pipe band, and the city of Dunedin pipe band to work together, pool resources, and present some world-class Celtic events in the community and fundraise through those events. We had our Celtic music festival on Saturday, November 22nd, I think it was, right before Thanksgiving. And we had a great day. We had, crowds were strong. The weather was beautiful. And as a result, we, I'm very pleased to share that the board of the Dunedin Scottish Arts Foundation has made donations in the amount of $5,500 to each band program, the middle school band program, high school band program, and the city of Dunedin pipe band, in addition to some other contributions to the New World Celts, the high school Navy Junior ROTC program, as well as contributing towards our instructional and scholarship programs within the DSAF. So it was a very successful day. We also just learned recently, and I'll share, that we're pretty pleased to learn that about one-third of the people who attended the Celtic music festival traveled to Dunedin from over 20 miles away, which we thought was a pretty significant percentage for that event, and we're pretty pleased with that information. Next up is our Dunedin Highland Games and Festival, which is, I guess you could say, is definitely the flagship event for our organization. With the Easter holiday, the first weekend of April, we have pushed back by one week this year, so we will be on Saturday, April 11th, with the kickoff in downtown Dunedin on Friday evening, April 10th, as we have the last several years, which is always a lot of fun. We're pretty excited about that. That event has really become a total community-wide event with volunteers coming from businesses and multiple organizations throughout the community. We work with a lot of different vendors, all of whom are local, and we're pretty pleased with that. We started our marketing campaign right now for the Highland Games, and over the course of a year right now, the Dunedin Scottish Arts Foundation is investing just over $100,000 in marketing our events and the city of Dunedin all over North America. Ticket sales are already starting and rolling in, and so the majority of that money is going to be spent over the next three months here gearing up for the game, so we're pretty excited about that. I'm very pleased to share with you tonight that the board of the Scottish Arts Foundation has nominated Mr. Mark Brandmeier to be the Honorary Chieftain of the Day at this year's Highland Games. The Honorary Chieftain of the Day is someone that we try to recognize for their ongoing and continuous support of our community and the programs and the Scottish Arts in our community, and so we're very pleased to... I'm very pleased to share that this year's Honorary Chieftain is Mark Brandmeier. Last thing, just shifting gears slightly and sharing some information and news about the City of Dunedin Pipe Band. We are busy gearing up for the 2026 season. The Grade 4 Band, along with the school band programs, is traveling next Saturday to the Orlando Highland Games to kick off the 2026 season, and all the bands will be having a pub crawl fundraiser in downtown Dunedin on Saturday evening, February 7th, so I wanted to let you know that if you're out and about and would like to join us that evening, please do so. The Grade 2 Band is hard at work. We're gearing up to travel back over to Glasgow again this summer, and we are hoping to do our very best to improve on our second-place finish last year, so if you want to come out and support us that night, I'm sure we'll have a tune, and you can hear how things are coming along, and that's all I got. Thank you very much. Eric, I have to tell you a funny story. I got asked to officiate a wedding at the Fenway in April, and they picked their date around my schedule, and I said, whatever you do, just don't go with the first weekend of April. So they went with the second weekend of April, and then we realized that, luckily they're getting married on Friday night, so I'll miss the parade, but anyway, and a good choice, I think, on the master, or the, what do you call the? Honorary Chieftain. Honorary Chieftain. And do, as the Scottish liaison, do you have anything to say? Always have something. I knew you did about Scottish stuff. We appreciate all you do. You know that, Eric. Yeah, just real quickly, also Eric is very humble, and just want to let you know that not only is he president of the Scottish R Us Foundation, but he's also the drumming director for all of our pipe bands in the city of Dunedin, and the middle school, high school, and the city pipe band, so he works very hard, and so when, it is always the band as a group that wins these, but within those bands, you have individuals, right, it's made up of individuals, and so a large part of that is our drumming core, so thank you, Eric, for everything you do for the drummers in our community. Traveling to Central Florida, who was going? The school bands are going, and the grade four, the city grade four band. Middle school and high school? Yes, sir. Fabulous. Thank you so much. Good. And lastly, Mark Brandmeier. I cannot speak any more highly of your choice. I don't know how many of you all might know Mark, but he is just a huge supporter for our Scottish arts. He raised two daughters in the Scottish arts community. Both of them were pipers, and he was a drummer, so it's always cool when you get to see families participating in the same band. So it's wonderful. So thank you. It's well-deserved from Mark. So congratulations, Mark. Well done. And I've also talked with Mark, and, you know, he's one of those people that he's very humble, but he is more proud to wear that title, that that is, he is expecting a key to the city, and he just thinks he's hot spit. But, so thank you, Eric, for everything you do. Well done. Thank you. And we'll have our kilts on again for the event. Count on it, now that we all have them. So thank you very much. Thank you very much, guys. Okay, our next item is Dunedin Celebrates Diversity 2026, I'm going to have Commissioner Gow, he'll be reading and presenting proclamation, and I think Emily Hoban and Shiloh Baptist Church. I'll turn it over to Jeff. You know, sorry. Dunedin is so proud about so many things, and deservedly so. But I think one of the best characters or attributes of the city of Dunedin really is our diversity. And we are so accepting of everybody. We're always glad you're just here. And so welcome to Dunedin. And so the idea that we are celebrating diversity is just a really proud proclamation. So if I may, I'll read this. Dunedin celebrates diversity 2026, a community united, many paths, one destination. Whereas we live in a world comprised of individuals from many different cultures and backgrounds, and believe that all people are equal and each person unique and valuable. And whereas we respect, accept, appreciate, celebrate, and embrace diversity. And whereas we share an individual and collective, moral and ethical responsibility to create a community free from discrimination and prejudice. And whereas our community will celebrate diversity 2026 with a kickoff event to commemorate the birthday and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday, January 17th, 2026, followed by many ethnic and cultural events conducted in Dunedin throughout the year in alignment with Unite Dunedin, an initiative to unite neighbors in thoughtfulness and empathy. And whereas this initiative strives to cultivate and sustain a collective and diversified community that values social justice, unity, shared responsibility, mutual respect, and environmental justice by putting into action positive changes in the City of Dunedin workforce and our community to achieve equality of outcomes and collaboration between employees and residents to accept and create a harmonious environment. Now therefore, I, Jeff Gow, by the virtue of the authority vested in me by the Mayor of the City of Dunedin and on behalf of this entire City Commission, do hereby proclaim Dunedin Celebrates Diversity 2026, a year-long celebration to acknowledge that we are a community united and with many paths, but one destination, and encourage all residents to participate in our year-long ethnic events, starting with the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, the Highland Games, Cinco de Mayo, Dunedin Pride, Our Lady of Lords Fall Festival, Diades Lomertes, Celtic Festival, Hanukkah, Piper in the Park, and the United Faith Walk of Peace. Thank you very much. We've got a lot going on. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Again, coming up next Saturday, January 17th, the Dunedin Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with the Library and Shiloh Baptist Church will host the kickoff event of Dunedin's 2026 Celebration of Diversity. The Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast in March will be held at the MLK Recreation Center with breakfast beginning at 8.30 a.m. The event will feature keynote speaker Christina Garcia, Executive Director of Dunedin Cares, along with entertainment and readings of winning student essays on the subject, How Can I Help the World Be More Unified? This year, in the spirit of community and support of Dunedin Cares, attendees are encouraged to bring donations of canned food items to the event for the food pantry. After we've enjoyed breakfast, we'll march to Pioneer Park where we will enjoy entertainment from the Shiloh Baptist Church. And as a reminder, this event is free and all are welcome to attend. I hope to see a spectacular turnout as we continue to honor and celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I'd also like to recognize the work of Reverend Climbell, who could not be here this evening, but is such a huge part in making this event so successful. It is my pleasure tonight to accept the proclamation with Regina Lawrence from the Shiloh Baptist Church. Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity and it is an honor and a proud. I'm proudly staying here tonight because I was one of the original members of the establishment of this one committee and it's still going on. And thank you for your dedication and for your support that you have given us on behalf of our pastor, Reverend Climbell, and the Shiloh Baptist Church. Thank you and we appreciate all that you do. Thank you, Regina. Okay. Our next item is presentation of the 2025 Operation Twinkle winners. This is very, very important stuff here. Trevor Davis, come on down. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk. My name is Trevor Davis. I'm with the Economic Development and Housing Department for the City of Dunedin, which we know is the Pearl of Pinellas and the pride of the State of Florida. I'm here tonight to talk about a Dunedin tradition that is near and dear to all of our hearts. And that tradition is You got me a little scared, Trevor. This is awesome. Operation Twinkle. Nice. And to present the 2025 Operation Twinkle first place awards tonight. For those who are unaware of Operation Twinkle, it's a holiday lamppost decorating contest and it's held every year in Dunedin. Dozens of lampposts are adopted. Decorated by local merchants and organizations. The decorated polls are judged in a fair and competitive manner. This was a great year for carrying on Operation Twinkle tradition of 20 plus years. We had 39 participants who put forth the time and effort to make our downtown glow and put the holiday spirit in the hearts of many. Our thanks goes out to all those who participated and we look forward to their participation next year. I'd like to tell you a little story that happened just about a year ago now. I was downtown and I saw a lady photographing all of our decorative posts. And I went up to her and I said I guess you like the decorations and she said oh they're beautiful and they're colorful and there's so many of them. And I explained Operation Twinkle to her. So she said to me would you mind if I take Operation Twinkle back to my hometown in Ohio? I said go ahead. So hopefully this year Operation Twinkle is alive and well in Ohio. Once again Dunedin sets the standard for others to follow. Hats off to the judges who judge and does diligent work. They take notes they take photographs and then what they do is they compare. Choosing the winners is not an easy job but they do it. With that said let's begin the awards for 2025. Our first category is the business category and the business category winners and yes I said winners there is a tie. Commissioner Dugart would you please present business category two drip tide wellness and the root agency. Come on up. On behalf of the root agency thank you for hosting this tradition every year we're happy to be part of the tradition for the second time and on behalf of my team just want to say thank you for the recognition and my neighbors who chipped in and got in the holiday spirit as well and so just happy to be part of the business community in Dunedin and to help philanthropy continue to take root and grow wasn't prepared we're nurses so for us we don't usually speak in front of people we like to heal people but um yeah no emergencies tonight we're off duty but my name is Kristen I'm the owner of Drip Tide Wellness this is Megan she's the manager of our Dunedin location we're just so blessed to be here we're blessed to be in all these beautiful towns we're in Safety Harbor as well and we just we call these places home so this is a huge honor to us and a huge award that we can't wait to take back to all the hard you know hardworking individuals that make everything tick for us so do you have anything that you want to say I want to thank Terry Rodemire she's the one who decorated the pole for us and she put so much heart and soul into it she actually has a pole at home that is the perfect measurement she decorates it at home first and then brings it and redecorates so that it's perfect so big thank you to her for making it perfect for us yes thank you thank you thank you so much for the honor my pleasure thank you applause the next category to be awarded is youth group category commissioner sandburgen I know that the first place winner will be near and dear to your heart would you present the 2025 youth group award to the greater Dunedin Little Lake well Megan I knew you I didn't want you to go too far you know I look around this room three old Dunedin Little League presidents Rory, Megan and myself we know the hours we know the time we know the commitment and that looked really good done by Victoria Place you guys did a nice job so congratulations for winning and everything you do for those youth of Dunedin thank you Megan I got the ribbon so this is I'm pretty sure that this is the fourth year that we've won first place and I have them hanging in the board room at the Little League and it really it means so much we plan it we're planning next year's already because other people want to get involved but I have a really hard time letting go of things so I'm going to try to let others help me next year she's helped along and we love doing it and we love the way the city looks so again thank you the next category to be honored is the church category once again there was a tie Commissioner Gao would you be so kind to present the 2025 church award to Dunedin Assembly of God and First United Methodist Church of Dunedin come on down hi my name is Leslie Goodell I'm actually the youth pastor at First United Methodist Church but I also have a small group who is called Creative Spirit and we designed and made the little angels that are flying on our posts so and Linda is part of that group so I begged her to come up here with me but we love doing it and we're going to start thinking about next year so we can change it up we've done angels for two years so we'll get something new up there next year so we really like it but thank you our next category to receive an award is the restaurant category and this was very difficult everybody did a great job Vice Mayor Walker would you please award the 2025 restaurant winner first place to Pisces Global Bistro okay I was not expecting to speak but I saw everybody speaking so I'm going to it took me eight years to win this eight years so I have a lot of like you know first and second no I'm sorry not first second and third okay you know but oh my god I worked so hard and my husband always says that I'm gonna die putting the poll together because I reached all the way to the top and it's only me because I don't want to be responsible for any of my employees getting hurt so but I do look forward to it I am I mean this is probably one of the best things that I do throughout the year is so much fun and it's a lot you know so much you know enjoyable in my heart to just put it together in my house where glitter is flying everywhere so thank you thank you so much and definitely let's keep this going and I look forward to doing it next year thank you next category to be honored is civic organization and this is always a tough one so many wonderful decorations vice mayor walker please award the 2025 civic organization category two windlasses this is this is deb snedler and I am one of the many members of the windlasses can you speak in the microphone please if you could speak into the mic everybody out watching television can see you and streaming so you really need to speak into the mic because they can't hear you then speak into the mic so we are very honored to be able to participate in this annual tradition it is so much fun not only to do this but then go down and see all of the other lamp holes that are decorated and of course scope out our competition so I think this is we're kind of the newest group that's been taken over this chore for the windlasses and I we've been working four years to get there but so we are honored and you know what we're already planning next year that's awesome all right oh and this will also this will go and hang in the Dunedin Community Sailing Center that's awesome aka the Pram Shed thank you thank you this year the judges wanted to put forth a new category called holiday spirit they wanted to see a poll that emblemized the Dunedin holiday spirit and Mayor Freeney would you be so kind as to present this new holiday spirit award to the Dunedin chamber of commerce thank you I wanted to bring my volunteers I'm missing two of them but these ladies are so committed and they start this months and months and months ahead of time literally piecing everything together the elves were literally made from paper mache to painted I mean they were just amazing and couldn't have done it without them so thank you and thank you all for doing this great tradition and we really appreciate it thank you so much we're gonna get a group picture when it's all done okay we have one more right okay and now the overall trophy winner Mayor Freeney would you please present the overall trophy beautiful trophy and the beautiful trophy overall 2025 goes to Windlasses this will come with us to every general meeting that we have throughout the year we have about we have four of them so this will be there and every other function awards ceremony will this will be our main decoration for those who don't know Windlasses is a sailing organization for women by women we meet every Thursday over at the Dunedin Sailing Center at the marina if you know how to sail and you're a woman you're welcome to come down we have our new member of coffee in August so if you're interested in joining us keep an eye out we have a lot of world class sailors but you don't need to be one of those you just need to know how to swim and right your boat when you capsize thank you so much to all the judges we're going to get everybody up here for a picture everybody up for a picture all the winners all the winners come on up that was brilliant that's great that's great all right we can tell that's awesome all right wow ladies what's going on here all right I'm going to make sure we get started if we do okay big smiles everybody okay great yes thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you we we we we we we we getting up okay getting up right I know you want us up or down we're down okay keep us out of it we'll talk can can I ask Trevor a question yeah sure Trevor Trevor I got a question for you a couple questions are there any light posts downtown that go undecorated are there any light posts that go undecorated so so a call out to all of our non profits and organizations and church communities faith communities schools come on down wonderful I love to talk to you the beauty of that of course is that we pay for the ones we pay per poll if they're not decorated and it's so much more fun if they are decorated than just a green garland and light so it's not just a great spirit thing to do saves the city money and we need that so that's good and it is a tight budget year so and here's the trivia does anybody know who called it who named it Operation Twinkle Vince Peg Cummings Peg no yes she did thank you Peg anyway little history thank you thank you everyone this was exciting okay we are going to go to you know what's so nice about that as they leave I mean look at the joy that brings I mean that is so Dunedin I love it and and our downtown was amazing this year I thought downtown the causeway Edgewater the tree in front of City Hall I mean it's exciting it's important and we get a lot a lot of great feedback on it and big thanks to Trevor so citizen input does anyone in the audience wish to speak on a topic that is not on the agenda and this would be your time to come forward come on down name and address for the record that's okay my name is Jim Calger I live at 2092 Valley Drive Dunedin and congratulations to all the winners I think that's fantastic great job my situation has not improved as a matter of fact it's getting a little bit worse Cedar Creek runs behind my house we're all familiar with it I understand that the city got a grant for for the that project I'm just wondering how much of a grant that the city got and when when is the work going to proceed and where that's my only questions yeah I mean when you're done and we'll answer it after we've gotten all citizen input okay I appreciate it thank you very much thank you Jim is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to speak on an item that is not on the agenda tonight okay seeing none city manager I'll turn to you I think Jim's question was about the grant that had to do with that area how much it was for and when it might start are you able to answer those questions or I have Clay come up I can speak again Clayton Watkins utilities and engineering I can speak a little bit on it I don't have all the justification since public works is handling most of that but if it's referring to the item in which we brought in forward of you for the grant where we were able to get debris removal that has started in the they have started at like in Curlew Creek and started at least from the golf course and worked their way upstream they're sort of cross county road one then they went back and started on like around 580 and started working north along through Stevens Creek so that is still still ongoing I'm not sure I think we probably got another month or so to go and the total award in the grant was for 4.2 million dollars that included some gabion repair on Stevenson's Creek around the Solon Park area that that one included on Solon Street so that's the update I can tell you about for okay is there are people being kept informed as this project moves along if it affects property by them it is my understanding that they were supposed to go the contract would be doing at least door hangers when they would know they would be in their neighborhood okay got it anything else you want to add nothing further okay yeah we can't go back and forth Jim but if somebody could get a hold with Jim if there's any follow-ups that'd be great I'm sure I know we have your information so thank you thank you very much appreciate it okay we're going to go to the consent agenda so we're going to start with I'll just read through them approval of the minutes for the 11-20-25 regular meeting 2-B is board and committee appointments we have architecture review committee I guess this is a correction from something that we did on the 18th so it's just reappointing Christopher to an alternate term rather than regular term ending in 12-31-2028 and then we have board of finance appointments and then we go to 2-C award a piggyback agreement for the rehabilitation of 24 sanitary sewer manholes to Rolland LLC in the amount of 79,880 2-D award the refurbishment of the wastewater treatment facility coarse and fine bar screens to Hydrodyne Engineering Inc. in the amount of 144,079.71 are there any of those items that anyone wishes to pull I'd like to pull 2-C Mayor 2-C okay that's sanitary sewer okay so anything else to be pulled okay could I have a motion for the rest of the so moved second okay would anyone in the public wish to speak on any of those issues that we're about ready to approve seeing no one coming forward I'll close public input and I'll all in favor aye any opposed motion passes unanimously okay we'll go back to item 2-C award of piggyback agreement for the rehabilitation of 24 sanitary sewer manholes do you have some questions or you want a full no I just had just a few clarifications okay great unless you want to spend the night talking about manholes we said I'm sure everybody else does yeah lost my train replacements or rehabs are they what are we doing with those this is rehabilitation so some of our manholes are pretty old and they're actually brick structures so as our crews go through and TV the crew they also inspect the manholes they look for as there's infiltration and most of these what are we looking for so you know the groundwater infiltration so this is sort of a liner that will encapsulate that and keep that from infiltration from coming in we also look at the manhole rooms and covers to make sure they're structurally sound sort of as we go through the process and then this company comes in and they do the repairs for us did we pick up the potential damage correct me if I'm wrong but do we have some of our vehicles that have cameras that were designed to notice if there was damage is that where this was picked up that's a separate program and that's the pavement management program trying to remember if it's cameras or just we have we have a CCTV truck also this is separate this is picked up by our collections crews that are out there running the TV truck and cleaning and inspecting and they cover the entire collection area and as they go in to do the collection areas they inspect the manholes that they get access to and then each year we prioritize the most needing to be rehabilitated manholes and do this on an ongoing program good that's all I had thank you anyone else have any questions about it I mean since we started I'll ask one they all seem to be kind of around the water along the coastline is there a reason for that just a fluke or are they just do they get damaged quicker well after last year's hurricanes we're really focusing on those areas so we don't have the inflow and infiltration that gets into the sanitary sewer system during you know either tidal events or flooding or whatever so we are focusing in those areas after the previous year's hurricanes which makes sense that's what I wondered I wanted to clarify okay thank you so I need a motion so moved second okay motion in a second and I need to ask is there anyone in the public that wishes to speak on this issue so it would be your time to come forward and talk about manholes come on okay okay seeing none no one's rushing to talk about manholes I'll ask all in favor any opposed okay motion passes unanimously okay thank you okay now we go to our action items this is first reading of ordinance 25-11 regarding Dunedin's sustainability matrix and sustainable development scorecard ordinance amending chapter 105 section 28.4 of the land development code something I know the FAST group doesn't care at all about it's good to see y'all here tonight Jen could you please read ordinance 25-11 by title only ordinance 25-11 an ordinance of the city of Dunedin Florida amending the city of Dunedin land development code to amend each subsection of section 105-28.4 sustainability to provide for a sustainable development scorecard and exemptions there too as an alternate to the existing sustainability matrix and correcting grammatical errors providing for applicability and severability providing for conflict providing for an effective date that was ordinance 25-11 read by title only great can I have a motion so moved second okay vice mayor and commissioners regard and we'll go to staff presentation Natalie thank you good evening mayor vice mayor and commissioners Natalie Gass sustainability program manager for the city of Dunedin I'm having trouble getting my presentation to show up on the screen I don't know if we can see it on ours it looks like it's coming up I just want to make sure everyone can see it okay great so again this is the sustainability matrix update where we are looking at this is a requirement of design review for all design review developments and the background of this is really started in 2016 it was amended in 2019 looking at improving the points and then we have more recently come forward with city commission in October to provide a informational workshop on what we were planning to do and now we are in that official hearing stage so it was approved by the local planning agency last month on December 10th and is now before you at first reading the purpose of updating the sustainability matrix is really to weigh the points correctly to clarify strategies add new sustainability strategies for developers to utilize in their projects and then also to outline the phases of the process and provide information on how you correctly submit all of the documentation and then finally we wanted to provide for an exemption and that is spelled out a little bit more thoroughly in the next slides so the original intention when we were working on updating this was to provide one consolidated sustainability matrix update the regulations with senate bill 180 don't really allow us to do that so our solution is to keep the existing sustainability matrix and then provide for a second and alternative sustainable development scorecard that developers can choose from looking at those two different paths so project can pick the current and existing sustainability matrix it stays the same the points the minimums and then or they can pick the sustainable development scorecard that has a lot more new strategies there's great incentives in doing that it has a higher point range and then it also has that higher point minimum so it's showcasing a lot of the different strategies that they're incorporating into their projects we've added 20 new strategies into the new scorecard and those are showcased in each category and really highlight a lot of the new ways that you can incorporate sustainability and a great update from the 2019 version of the document we also wanted to provide for an exemption and that is any project that is going for a third party certification such as LEED Florida Green Building Coalition Fitwell FGBC or Green Globes they can submit all of their work that they're doing through that and then it will be reviewed and approved through city staff our sustainability team and we would ensure that it complies and then they would not have to do a sustainability matrix or a scorecard because they are already going above and beyond what we would be requiring of them the new proposed scorecard has been reviewed by many internally and externally so internally we had teams reviewing it from our sustainability team as well as public works community development engineering and parks and recreation externally we've had the committee on environmental quality and sustainability review it faith and action for strength together or fast the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority as well as local developers and builders in our area I did provide the feedback that we received from the three developers and builders in our area I'm not going to read this word for word but this developer just basically said thank you for allowing us to provide feedback and they were appreciative that the 500 point minimum is something that is achievable they ran one of their current projects through this new scorecard as an exercise and they were able to achieve over 800 points so they thought they were just saying how it's a very feasible scorecard the next feedback we received again appreciative of the opportunity to provide feedback and then saying that the 500 point minimum is achievable and also providing recommendations that it may be helpful to see different examples of different sizes of development and what some of those strategies would look like the final feedback we received really was kind of just mentioning that they didn't have enough information about their own project to look at the new scorecard through that lens and they were looking at meeting with their team and then getting back with me the two additional programs that we would like to consider as additions to the new proposed scorecard is to develop different levels of certification so we're really wanting to encourage developers and projects to go above the minimum and by doing that we can recognize and provide awards and you know whether that's through social media or a city commission meeting and then the other item is looking at long-term sustainability of these strategies instead of just focusing on a checklist being completed at the time of construction how can we educate property managers and property owners how to maintain and upkeep all of these different environmental sustainability strategies on their property for the long term so they get the life out of these different strategies and that would be an additional program that would come alongside this next steps would be pending the discussion this evening a second reading scheduled for February 5th happy to answer any questions okay questions for staff start with vice mayor thank you mayor so really you know we've really gone through this and really in depth and but I do have the so how those additional programs how do those get implemented exactly so I haven't started working on either of them because it would be dependent on this new proposed scorecard moving forward and getting approved do you have specific questions around either one or I'm just kind of curious as to who does it apply to does it apply to the developer does it how does that work okay so that first program that I mentioned of the certification that would be really more for the project team and the building and site itself could be awarded a sustainability matrix gold star or whatever we decide that we want our our awards to look like but basically if you're going above and beyond the minimum how can we incentivize that as a community and then the second piece would focus on the property manager or the property owner whoever's looking care taking care of the property long term and so that might look like staff going out and visiting the property once a year providing education about the specific solutions that they have on their site what they are how they work how you maintain them we would just need to build that out and I don't have all the details yet but that's kind of the vision for those two programs yeah I get that basically it's objective focused for both the developer and the property owner yeah it's incentivizing and educational okay perfect thank you no further questions Commissioner Sandberg questions is this mandatory to all new developments so any developments that trigger design review have a list of things that they are required to do the sustainability piece is one of those requirements this is so sustainability is a requirement of I would say larger scale development there's there's triggers once you get to a large scale it is a requirement but they'll have the option to choose the existing sustainability matrix or the new scorecard so although it is a requirement they have options and then within the path that they choose there's I call it like a menu of strategies that they can select from okay yes so there would be two we'd have two in place is that correct so there's there's two pathways and they'll have to pick one and follow it through thank you so it was originally drafted with one pathway it was a land development code amendment drafted with one pathway and I certainly will not speak for the city attorney but the city attorney was concerned that we would run a file senate bill 180 which mandates that we can't be any more restrictive and so Natalie and our city attorney came up with having two options so you're not more restrictive and is this for new construction only so it's new construction or redevelopment anything that's triggering design review okay okay that's all I had mayor okay um commissioner gow thank you uh you know I actually only have one question Natalie uh it's referenced to senate bill 180 or just before that was passed if we had how many of our developers were having a hard time meeting those standards I mean they're not having a hard time it's a requirement so they have to submit their their matrix and their documentation um I don't know how to describe or define like a hard time yeah for developers achieving that I'm just trying to understand senate bill 180 okay and it just it it sounds like the developers were finding it a hindrance and so if we wanted to change and I find people who have a problem with trying to give us a better world I have a hard time with that so senate bill 180 focuses it's it's not just to be clear for everyone it's not saying that the sustainability matrix is challenging it's saying that they were basically looking at communities impacted by hurricanes and wanting communities to be able to build back quickly um you run into the challenge of building back quickly versus building back more resilient stronger so there is a senate bill 840 and that is looking at clarifying senate bill 180 but it does not have a house companion and so we're just going to have to see what moves forward in this legislative season our legislative breakfast senator de sigley said it's going to change like he he's the one that pushed it to begin with and he understands it went a little too far is that a good description for you guys understood to commissioner regard was there as well and I'll reserve anything else for comments but thank you for the clarifying the intent of 180 city city manager did you want to add something yes so just on the subject we do understand there's a clarifying bill we anticipate that that bill will in some way address some of the issues that we have with senate bill 180 we're not sure how we're not sure how long we'll take so we're recommending that you adopt this at first reading get it in the books and then we come back can address that later good clarification thank you city manager okay commissioner questions yeah first of all we had the matrix and now we got a score card we got both of them they're going to be sustained for a period of time how much time do we expect to have a dual system as long as until there would be a clarification about senate bill 180 that would allow us to have one unified updated is that our hope that is the goal yes which would be the score card away from the matrix sounds like a movie title okay I'm going to pass from this point on I'll get into comments thank you mayor I don't really have any questions I mean obviously the trigger is above four units so for residential it's five or more units and commercial it's 6,000 square feet or larger I don't have them memorized it's anything requiring design review okay okay all right I'll leave that one alone for now first things first okay so now I will go to opening up for public input does anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue name and address for the record in three minutes and welcome getting up here twice tonight good evening I'm Linda Mifsud I'm with First United Methodist Church of Dunedin at 410 FAST Faith and Action and Strength Together and we have a few of our friends with us tonight our issue started with house meetings where water quality issues were identified and over a period of a few years we had developed an approach and worked with the city of Dunedin to come up with a sustainability matrix to include green stormwater infrastructure measures in your development reviews and we are so appreciative and we commend you all for taking a leadership role within Pinellas County with this thoughtful update to the sustainability matrix now sustainability scorecard we hope that other cities will take note and introduce similar approaches we thank the commission for honoring your commitment Mayor Freeney Commissioner Walker we really appreciate your following through because it would have been easy to say well let's not do it right now but I am glad that you are proceeding with this a lot of work went into this we really are hoping that this two-pronged approach gets straightened out once the legislation moves forward and sanity returns and you are restored your home rule constitutional rights once again so we appreciate Natalie Gass and all the hard work that she put in to this update and all of the other departments within the city of Dunedin the proposed education program that she's suggesting with the follow-up actions is very thorough and I think it will be very effective to ensure the success of projects that go forward with some of these measures we look forward to moving forward with you all to finish the job by going to a single scorecard as soon as possible and hopefully it will happen this session it looks somewhat promising but all the pieces are not there yet but we are very very glad that this is moving forward we think that you have a wonderful approach in working with your developer reviews and we understand that February 5th will be the second reading and final vote I believe and we will see you then and in the meantime we look forward to having this state issue resolved and we'll be back again once we go back to get the one scorecard approved thank you all thank you for your hard work and support we really appreciate all of you guys thank you and I'm so proud that the churches are taking this kind of an issue on it's so important because there's so many people involved in the churches and you get that kind of support people realize the importance of something that a lot of people just don't think is important but it's very important so okay anyone else wish to come forward and speak on this issue nobody from environmental quality okay okay do you like to come forward and say anything on the issue okay name and address for the record in three minutes thought you might good evening Mary Schoonover 35 Edgewater Drive Dunedan I I was a member of the CES that's good enough for me good enough for me and I will not be here for the last reading and so I wanted to come to the first reading to make sure that you understand that I think that the process that you have followed both you know getting the input from the internal and external folks is very important having additionally sought the input from fast from the developers it seems like all the bases are covered and we really appreciate that as being residents of Dunedin Dunedin is a wonderful place to live and because it enjoys such a good reputation it's incumbent upon us to stand for home rule and if we feel that it's necessary to adjust certain things in order for us to keep our environment beautiful and livable and everything going the way it should I thank you very much for what you're doing we appreciate it thank you and I wish I had the courage to do my hair like that go for it all right anyone else wish to come forward and speak on this issue okay seeing no one I will close public input and I will go to commission comments starting with the maker of the motion vice mayor walker thank you mayor you know this it really is remarkable in how much feedback and input went into this plan and you know in terms of developing you know something like this that's a very important thing I mean you know the committee on environmental quality FAST Vanilla Suncoast Transit Authority and you know a very important piece to this is obviously feedback from the developers and I like how the plan has evolved and yes we need to get to a single scorecard but I know we will get there but you know in the beginning I didn't see the need for that but now you know it's an effective way to transition this and so I think that there's goodness in that you know with that said I proclaim my support at the FAST conference sticking by it and you know the thing is it's an easy decision because this is absolutely the right thing to do so anyway I'm obviously very in favor of this and you know I'm in favor also proving this in the first reading okay commissioner well sorry I think I have commissioner de guard as the seconder of the motion thank you mayor this is one of those situations where it looks like we're doing legislative gymnastics and to a given extent we are and Natalie's been expertise her expertise at kind of navigating this is laudable and I think this is a correct direction to go let us hope that our good friends in Tallahassee are able to help sort this out and that we are able to get to the score card and put the matrix aside so congratulations Natalie for getting us to this point I'll look forward to seeing you after 180 gets through okay final comments Commissioner Gao thank you Mayor Natalie thank you you constantly consistently work incredibly hard to move Dunedin forward in what you do to improve the quality of life we talk all the time about how Dunedin is a leader and this is just another wonderful opportunity to really show our hand and this is where we want to go when we just we're kind of handcuffed a little bit by our legislature but we do what we can within that framework and so thank you and if anybody aside from this sustainability matrix doesn't know Natalie call her up and have a meeting with her and invite her out to coffee she can talk to you hours about all kinds and it's just wonderful wonderful so proud to have you on our staff and in our community thank you for everything that you do I love the additional new items you know and gone are the days of if you just had I don't even remember what it's called now smart energy whatever on your microwave or whatever that we talk about bioswales we talk about blue roofs and green roofs and just the steps where we're going is just amazing so thank you for everything you do appreciate it okay final comments Commissioner Sandberg you know as usual Natalie you did a very comprehensive job you know going to the internal and the that external review you dug deep you did the right thing and you know I'm fully supportive you're looking out for the the betterment of the whole city of Dunedin and like you did a great job and 100% behind you thank you so best governments local I'll say it a million times and Natalie it's because you got people right here in our community that care they want to make our community better but in this case it's an issue of our community but it's a far reaching issue to our whole universe and our future of our children and generations to come and I'm proud that we are a leader here I am very thankful to the groups that gave fast etc that gave input both externally and internally but Natalie you're the person that has the passion that brings it all together I still I couldn't help when Commissioner Gow was talking that I remember back when you first started and at one of the first coastal cleanups you were there you were there with your husband and I learned right off the bat you two were passionate you lived it it wasn't just a job you lived it and it shows it shows in what you do and so it shows in this work here and you worked hard to get here I love the additional items as well I can't stand the overreach that happens coming from Tallahassee but in this case they seem to realize it was overreach and they're trying to fix it so hopefully we'll get that fixed and we'll get back to a single scorecard as soon as that's humanly possible I want to do that so I'm absolutely in favor of it so I guess we'll go to a roll call vote Commissioner Gow aye Commissioner Sam Bergen aye Commissioner Dugard aye Vice Mayor Walker aye and Mayor Franey aye and that motion passes unanimously and we'll go to second reading and our second reading is February 5th February 5th thank you great thank you okay thank you everyone okay we're going to go to resolution 26-01 adopting certain rules of procedure for the commission and Jen can you please read resolution 26-01 by title only resolution 26-01 a resolution of the city commission of the city of Dunedin Florida adopting certain rules of procedure for the commission repealing resolution 25-11 in its entirety and all resolutions in conflict herewith and providing for an effective date that was resolution 260-01 read by title only okay I need a motion for resolution 260-01 so moved second okay I got Sandbergen and I got Walker Vice Mayor okay staff presentation Michelle thank you mayor so annually you all the commission reviews their rules of procedure at the first meeting in December which you all did on December 4th what you have before you is the resolution reflecting those revisions those revisions include vice mayor serving in absence of the chair for CRA vice mayor being able to sign in absence of mayor nomination process for vice mayor workshop items able to be added if no objections and then there is an area in parentheses under special meetings that was questioned that is actually in the charter and in order to get the two members of the city commission that that is what the reason that states as chair not as chair but as elected is to meet the two requirements for example CRA the mayor is the chair so therefore she would not she would need to be considered as an elected official to be one of the two because it states mayor city manager or any two members of the city commission chair is not would need to be considered as one of those two is that correct Jen do you understand did I get that right that was what I understood from our conversation earlier that you that you all had found out from the former mayor I believe as to why that was in there so does that in essence mean I alone can call a special meeting in general but when it comes to CRA I cannot correct okay so I have less power on the CRA wow how disappointing yeah that's okay okay that's fine okay but that's really the only applicability right I mean I think it was just to to clarify clarify it yeah sounds good okay anything else no ma'am that was everything okay so on that note then do we have questions for staff starting with commissioner Gow no questions mayor commissioner to garden I have one question mayor thank you if it takes two commissioners to call a meeting how do you avoid sunshine for those two commissioners to become aware that they're wanting to call a meeting would have to be during a meeting wouldn't it yes yeah so the only time that a meeting could be called by two commissioners would be during a meeting correct okay thank you that clarifies that so if you and commissioner Gow get mad decide that you want to call a meeting but you don't know the other one's mad but the meeting you might get mad together Gow gets mad you know Gow's mad yeah that's true and I'm sure it's about the environment or multimodal but they can't tell each other they're mad because that would be a violation of sunshine before the meeting oh I think you're mad thank you I'm glad we clarified that I better stop this yeah okay sorry or our developers might think we're crazy up here so all right okay any other questions vice mayor you don't dare after that right no additional questions commissioner Zandberg any questions no questions mayor yeah I don't have any questions either so I want to open it to public input if anyone in the audience wishes to come forward and speak on the rules and procedures of the city commission I guarantee it's pretty dull this would be your time okay seeing no one I'll close public input and so I will go to commission comments starting with the maker of the motion commissioner Zandberg nothing else to add mayor okay and vice mayor nothing else commissioner Gow no no comments commissioner DeGuard no comments thank you mayor okay I have no other comments and so we'll go to roll call vote commissioner DeGuard aye commissioner Gow aye vice mayor Walker aye commissioner Zandberg aye and mayor Franey aye and that motion passes unanimously okay we're going to go to 3C award of bid 25-2540 marina fishing pier replacement to on point contracting company LLC in the amount of 1,742,991.46 one penny more than the posted notice amount of 1,742,991.45 okay and then so I'll go to staff presentation Clay yes good evening mayor vice mayor and commissioners Clayton Watkins utilities and engineering with me today is also Laurie Ferguson the harbormaster we are here for item 3C which is the award of bid 25-2540 of the marina fishing pier replacement to on point contracting company LLC of Spring Hill Florida in the amount of 1,742,991.46 cents as the mayor just noted there was a scripner's error in the title that was posted so that is noted of the 46 cents not the 45 cents the project was competitively bid with 11 11 bids received by the December 16th 2025 bidding deadline the bids ranged from 945,261.58 cents to $3,561,607.25 staff reviewed all bids and determined the lowest responsible bidder as the lowest bidder noted on here was not responsive their application did not include signature items and a few things that is required for the bid therefore on point contracting company LLC of Spring Hill met the minimum requirements specified in the bid documents staff subsequently checked the company's references and received satisfactory feedback the project was bid out in two phases one for demo and one for construction as we were still waiting on the Army Corps permit for the construction but the demo phase is anticipated to start shortly after the NTP and through some communications that we had through purchasing we're expecting an NTP start date of early March with 60 days of completion the construction phase will follow as soon as thereafter it'll be 120 days for construction and with that staff hereby recommends approval of award of bid 25 2540 marina fishing pier replacement to on point contracting company LLC of Spring Hill Florida in the amount of $1,742,991.46 as detailed herein and we are here to answer any questions before we have we I go to questions can you go a little slower with the timeline yes 60 days the demolition yeah 120 days so can you just walk through that yeah so wait for what we're we've had we we didn't do some communication through purchasing because we're not allowed to reach out until after tonight we are trying to get it to do the demo first get it early early yes early March 60 days 60 days and then once this Army Corps appointment is received we'll start construction and they have 120 days to complete from there okay sorry I know that's okay so I'm going to go with questions and I'll start over here on this side vice mayor thank you very I'm assuming it because I believe this is a practice with all the contracts that we award that those timelines 60 days for demo 120 days for construction those will carry with them liquidated damages if exceeded is that correct that is correct okay excellent and what is your feeling how have things been going you know I've heard in several times that permitting through the Army Corps of Engineers has been been somewhat problematic can you confirm or deny or I wouldn't say it's been problematic we've had very good communication with our reviewer where we've had some hiccups is Army Corps has other other federal agencies that review and those agencies were furloughed for several months during this during the fall and that has this affect some of our time frame our Army Corps reviewer was working and she provided feedback and we've actually met with her but that is where the concern lies okay so the representative the who you're working with the Army Corps of Engineers is not feeling positive that we can get this done in a timely manner yes she has she what she maintains in control she feels but she's she's been very conversous with us and very you know we've been working together with her great no further questions okay mr Sandberg questions I would assume that this will have an effect on the Clearwater ferry will service have to discontinue no we should we win as we will have our pre-construction meeting that will be one of the topics that that will still maintain service okay and how about any communication with the two restaurants down there with Old Bay or Bon Appetit it's going to be really busy time of their of their season there will need to be conversations once we get the person under contract and moving forward generally most of the work from when we had our pre-bid meeting the the the companies that showed up for that spoke that a lot of them will be working seaward they will not be doing too much on the landward side maybe they might have like a roll-off dumpster that's sitting inside there that is already fenced off today I was down there today it's kind of like I enjoy watching the crane especially when it's working you see any any possibility interference between the the pier and what's going on down there now we will have there will need to be communication between the two contractors but like with like we mentioned as we start the demo and most people most of our conversations prior to bidding most of the demo would take place seaward so they would be coming in and out off of the boat ramp and probably staying out of the area where our contractors working currently okay and do you anticipate having to close the marina to the slip renters while this construction is going on nothing no unless there's an indication we you know there may be a scenario where we're bringing something in that we might need to close the channel for a little while but other than that the marina should operate my last question and it kind of jumps on what the mayor said substantial completion or something of that effect in 60 days you have a is substantial in demo substantial means it's just gone it's that's that's a lot of terms more for us but during construction but it's it's as long as it's demoted gone we're that that's substantial completion for demo that's all I had thank you mayor Commissioner Gow questions yeah thank you mayor to kind of piggyback vice mayor a little bit on the Corps of Engineers you've got 60 days for demo and 120 for construction and how confident are we that that construction will start on day 61 or 62 so I would actually probably to answer that we're not that confident it'll start on day 61 the main intention is that we want to make sure we're up and going by time before December 1st so we can have the boat parade very good I just thought it in my head and you just said it I love it that's the goal that's the end goal is to make sure I love you're boy you're going for the big award of the year I can't follow that at all all right so yeah but with the timeline we have now we are looking at early September I would I would tell you our goal is to make sure we're done by December 1st yes because there may be there may be a gap in between it's gone and well what I'm what I'm saying is is that's why there's two there's two two phases they could complete phase two there may be a time that there's nothing going on until they get the permit and then they're back instructing again which kind of that was the my purpose of the first question was what kind of gap might there be between demo and construction there you could see a couple month gap between the two okay and the 1.7 almost 1.8 where's that money coming from the most of that is reimbursable through FEMA okay thank you very much I think that's always important to let the residents know that you know especially for anybody who thinks that the pier should have been done six months ago you know if if you're working to make this is as cheap as possible working with FEMA sometimes you got to play by their rules as well so all right so thank you that's all that I have thank you Commissioner Dugard thank you mayor questions in this particular case we did not go with the lowest bidder explain the criteria around making the decision not to go with the lowest bidder this one was the lowest bidder did not provide all the documentation that was required for the bid I see so they failed to provide it was not they were not responsive they're non-responsive okay so that moved us up to this provider is that correct that moves us to the second one yes all right thank you that's all I have mayor thank you so a couple things so we're replacing the pier as it was yes basically like for like yes you better structurally but like for like the framework of what you see I don't want you to rebuild it with its flaws that it has and you know they'll be we'll be looking at concrete floating docks instead of the aluminum ones that were out there before great okay and you're confident we're confident we're confident we're gonna get this FEMA money with everything going on so the FEMA money we haven't heard that we're not going to get the FEMA money certainly but we have heard that it's slower and coming and the reason for that is that they are still paying out for the COVID funding so so we haven't heard as I said that that FEMA is reneging on anything it's just it's what we have heard is that it's going to be slower much slower than we had anticipated but we are we have an eye on that through our finance department and because I get asked constantly and all I can ever say is I'm always told it's on time the east wall timeline for that to be completed is when and it and it's on time so the time at the time the previous timeline had us ending in sorry I'm thinking end of April there will be additional days added because of the the additional work that's happening on the north wall where we have to redo the wall and the water main break that's probably going to add about another 75 to 80 days so that'll put us into July okay okay and I think vice mayor had a follow-up yeah I think this might be for the city manager I just I believe in hoping you can confirm this that we've received or we will be receiving one and a half million dollars specifically for the pier that what we did submit for a grant appropriation it was awarded for the pier okay so you know that's that that's a great new story because the 1.7 with 1.5 from the state you know that's that's good so thank you that's a great point anybody else have a quick follow-up or everybody good okay so I'm going to open it up for public input anyone in the audience wish to come and speak on this issue seeing no one I will close public comment and I will ask for a motion so moved second and Walker and gal I'll go to final comments starting with vice mayor I think you mayor yeah so this is a this is a day that's been long coming and I think we're all very happy to get this going because this you know we need to complete the bulkheads but that we really once the pier is done that we will have done all the stuff up to the master plan and then we can start talking about floating docks and that sort of thing so I'm I am very much looking forward to that the one thing that yeah I think was Commissioner Sandberg and touched on and this is just you know I it's going to be very important through the this process that we're talking to the businesses down there and making sure that they're getting current status and you know and basically probably the biggest thing is just ensuring that they know what the heavy traffic times are going to be and look like so that they don't have any problems getting your their supply chain trucks and all the stuff associated with that so I you know just please please keep them in the loop so those are all my comments thank you okay and seconder of the motion Commissioner Gow thank you mayor and again just to piggyback on on the vice mayor we've talked a lot for those businesses on the West End how important the Clearwater Ferry was to their businesses and so we finally have that up and running and and I hear that passengers on that ferry are already where they were almost pre-COVID and so it is it is nice that those levels are high again so hopefully the our our businesses down there are feeling that positive impact and so hopefully this can get going just as soon as possible because that pier is also a revenue generator as well and so yeah the quicker you can get done the better I know that the residents all of us you all or you bet everybody's been waiting for this and so it's nice to be that that much closer to shovels in the ground so or shovels in water dirt I don't know something but anyway thank you very much Mr. DeGuard final comments congratulations getting us here thank you very much for getting us here this quick it appears to me this is going to be like two projects and that we're going to have to react to it like it's really two projects because we've got demo demolition and then construction and there could be a lot of time between those two from my standpoint I think we would welcome any acceleration of that gap that we could possibly see we're all eager to see a new pier thank you very much okay Commissioner Zandberg and final comments yeah really nothing more to add you know I spent so much time down there I've been out I recognize I recognize those guys and I spent hours with you today and it's just it's a long time coming and that you know we've all agreed that's that's the west end that you know there's no not many pictures floating around of Dunedin it doesn't include that and I'm excited I'm glad this day's finally here and I'll be glad the day we can walk back out there so thank you both of you December 1st I mean we might want to shoot for November 15th at least just so we have two weeks to not you know worry that it's going to come in for a close landing but yes boat parade boat parade boat parade but no seriously I'm you know obviously that is the jewel of Dunedin the marina and the pier and it is sorely missed by everyone and it's chaos down there now so it makes it hard on everything and you know including the playground and parking and everything else so so this is great we're we're moving we're making progress we can see some light at the end of the tunnel we can see the lights of the boat parade headed our way so let's keep it going okay so all in favor aye all right any opposed motion passed unanimously okay bring the meeting back to order the next item is 3d application dr 2025 0004 first hearing a design review approval for the development of a two-story 21 unit residential vacation home project called azule Avenue vacation homes located at 1380 pinehurst road and application dr 2025 004 is quasi-judicial you want to kind of guide us through this swear I'm sorry the clerk needs to swear in any witnesses who are wishing to provide testimony today okay then does anyone up here have any ex parte communications to disclose for the record nope okay and we'll go to staff presentation by Francis and George okay thank you mayor vice mayor commissioners mayor nice to see you Thursday I was a little worried about you on Tuesday great today though they didn't want me hovering over them again over on the screen so George kitty on behalf of the community development department so the lead on this project is actually Francis sharp our planner too so I'm going to turn it over to her she's going to provide you with a brief brief presentation and then we'll be happy to answer any questions the applicant and basically his full team are here also behind us and I know they want to present some of the renderings after we're done so I'm sure you'll enjoy some of that as well so with that I'm going to turn it over to Francis yes thank you George once again good evening commissioner mayor vice mayor staff Francis Leong chefs planner two for the city of Dunedin I'm here to present the application DR-2025-0004 also known as Azul Avenue as you can see in the first slide the presentation and the public hearing dates that we are on our first hearing with the city commission the project has been heard by the local planning agency on November 12th and should the first hearing goes through the second hearing is scheduled for February 5th 2026 and just to give everybody a general information about the site in itself it is located near the southwest corner of Pinehurst Road and San Christopher Drive there as you can see in aerial the site is approximately an acre big in size the land use in the zoning district is retail and services for the land use and FXM form-based medium for the zoning what the project is being proposed is a 21 unit of vacation homes that is going to be situated at the site and based on the land use and the zoning it does permit vacation rental use on the property although that the zoning does permit residential uses as well the underlying land use does indicate that residential uses are only permitted as a secondary use and per our city code we view vacation rentals or vacation homes as a commercial non-residential use so based on the land use plan evaluation as you can see on the slide the property does have a maximum density of up to 24 dwelling units per acre and how we arrive at the density for vacation rentals for this is that we would use the residential equivalency of the 24 dwelling units per acre and what the project is proposing is 21 units which is by far less than what they are utilizing for for the site and going again with the zoning district once again it is form-based medium this is by far the first catalyst project as you will that will be utilizing the the the performance standards of this particular zoning so as you can see here the setbacks are set a little bit closer than typical because of the zoning in itself as well as the heights that they are proposing is two stories which is 27 feet and staff did evaluate based on the compatibility objective of the comprehensive code of comprehensive plan excuse me and based upon the evaluation that we see here it the surrounding area consists of a mixture of land uses primarily residential office use as well as a little bit of like the neighborhood retail uses which in fact based on the proposal that they are requesting is compatible in terms of uses as well as the scale which you will see in your backup where you have heights of variations between the between 13 to 20 feet of the existing building heights and then as we continue on we have a table that provide the spark notes version as you will of what's being met based on the design standards evaluation here which would include the parking the buffering landscape buffering the requirement of meeting public art as an example there and then also of course the traffic impact analysis would be the is done so so far that this project has been brought forward in front of the development review committee which is our internal staff committee as well as the architectural review committee and the local planning agency all of which have been reviewed and have recommended approval and as you can see there's a little bit more of a narrative within the architectural review committee they were brought in front of them multiple times based on the concern of an existing grant tree and fortunately as you can see in the last paragraph in that section the arc based on the presentation they have reduced another unit on the project and was able to save that grant tree as a result of the proposal that they had resubmitted so based upon all of those evaluation staff does find that the application is consistent with the applicable review criteria criteria of the design review subject to the listed conditions that you see on this slide and now we'll turn it over to our applicants presentation unless you want yes so we're going to get a presentation from the applicant but any questions to staff only right now starting with commissioner gal mayor a lot of my questions i don't know whether they'll go to staff or to the developers so can i hold my questions yeah till the end i think i a lot of a lot of questions happen during the after the applicant happened was up there lpa so that's good mission to guard questions for staff vice mayor uh just can you move to slide eight real quick yes so it looks like um we use the sustainability matrix the old one right yes okay all right just making sure i actually they wouldn't have a choice at this point vice mayor because that's we don't have that scorecard good point yeah yeah it's coming all right no no further questions i will add that natalie made a comment to me before she left that they probably wouldn't have any trouble with the new one either okay um commissioner zembergen my questions will be for the developer okay uh my question um parkland impact fee what is it yes so based on the rough calculations that i have um we are estimated approximately 103 000 257 um without and this is considering without any pending credits um that is still under review with our parks department what's the most credit they could get i mean how much could that go down because of credit i wouldn't anticipate a lot mayor you know that's we'd have to probably get that answer from parks for you yeah i typically they're just looking at it conceptually at this point and then they're going to do that that final pif you know as it gets okay but the number without credit is like did you say 157 000 yeah 103 000 103 000 what was under and i thought you said 150 something uh no 103 357 gotcha okay all right i jumped to conclusions i maybe wishful thinking okay um okay applicant presentation yeah wish to come forward hello my name is uh jonathan pool and i'm with sdg architecture i'm a project manager for this and uh we'd like to give you a little presentation a quick uh synopsis of our project here great so this is the existing site now it is in disarray shambles and we're going to be improving that is our hope again more colored pictures of the existing site in the condition it sits now and here's our proposed site here's our development we have some solar shown here we have some art um and you see the big grand tree right over there that is what we're saving we reduced a unit to be able to save that uh actually two units excuse me to be able to save that and uh you can see the pathways along the side and the walkways and then this is a quick little uh video of through our proposed site to show all the architectural intent that we're trying to do the density as well as some of the amenities that we have as we come in here we have right over to our left there that was the the office the leasing office and then we have a little charging charging station for ev vehicles and as we continue down the drive you'll see uh all the units in the front doors and then uh we're going to take a quick right here our left first and then you'll see the walking paths that we're proposing all the way around the perimeter of this uh they have it's a walking path and we have some seating bench some sitting areas with benches we have some garbage cans provided um it just provides a nice green space for everybody to walk through and enjoy and these will lead you back into our pool area the recreation area for our for our community where they'll be able to hang out and congregate and maybe even barbecue there then as we come around this next corner here um it leads us over to our golf cart area where we have a golf cart charging station and parking and uh just gives you a feel for all of our amenities and then as we come down this final stretch here it's going to bring us back to the front where you'll see the big grand tree that we're going to save and it shows the bike racks some more seating areas for these common for all this common area that's a representation of the tree it's obviously not as large it's larger in real life and then this this slide talks about the coastal vernacular which is uh from the the pallet uh from the city of dunedin we have the board and batten we have low slope roofs we have shutters siding we have uh lots of symmetry going on through here and uh it's just a quick slide to display that we're meeting that criteria and then for this we we have a great location on the pinehurst corridor very close to the downtown we're proposing 21 units of medium density um it's going to revitalize this abandoned gray lot um right now it's got native landscaping and we'll be improving that um with i believe we're going to be adding 15 trees to the existing site um or excuse me 36 trees total um we're required 21 so we'll be going above and beyond with that um and then for the infrastructure we'll be having a new road and we're going to have storm water mitigation we're going to have a vault system underneath the the central road to obtain all that and push it back out where it needs to be and thank you guys for your time gentlemen and ladies i appreciate it very much okay um i want to stay there i'm going to have some questions um so uh i guess we'll start with uh i forget where i went started before i'll start over here commissioner gout questions thank you mayor can you go to the slide that shows what will be the oak tree you know it kind of shows part of pinehurst there as well there we go thank you uh i believe i read in the staff report that the the setback is two feet and so i'm of a heart to am i reading this wrong because it looks to me that what is shown in the picture the front appears to be yeah appears to be um we we're meeting that front setback with our art wall and as well as our um leasing office there is right up against that front setback and how do you measure the setback from the edge of right away yeah just staff how yeah how are we measuring the setback from the edge of right away from the edge of the roadway right away edge of the right away edge of the right away yes okay which is to the west of the sidewalk right where the light post is yes yes sir right okay and so to me like between the the distance between the sidewalk and the wall rendering appears much wider than two feet am i is it just my perception or so like that building that building that you see on the right hand side is is in essence right on the right of way you know it's probably two it's two feet from the right away i think it's it's we're we're right on the property it's a minimum of two uh commissioner so it's not it's not two set in stone it's a minimum of two up to 17 feet so it can there's a window where that setback can occur it doesn't have to be exactly at two it can be anywhere between two and so do we know what that setback is going to be the site plan uh i'm sure because i thought the site plan said two or two point oh three or something right so that's the closest oh oh three feet is not a whole lot in in my world so it's are you are you asking for it to come farther forward or no but no i'm afraid it's going to be too close to the road oh okay i got you yep and two feet isn't a whole lot versus you know i'm thinking eight feet so the minimum setback is two and i you know they they obviously comply with that provision but but there is some wiggle room in that front setback yes okay okay um and uh it's what 21 units how do you how do you measure the units and how many rooms are there per unit there's two rooms per unit two you two rooms per per unit can i rent out one room no no i have to i have to rent the unit townhome each individual townhome will be rented individually okay and what platform will you be using to rent um i'm gonna have to defer to walter on that what platform are we going to be using to rent these as far as like you have a property man you have to if you're going to talk you have to come to the microphone thank you very much everybody for all you do and everybody's hard work so far it's been a year-long process um so we have beaches usa lined up as our property management company they um they're 20 employees out of largo with a property inspector that lives right on davis road in dunedin um and they're a 24-hour accountable property management they manage uh 200 plus uh vacation rentals specifically they don't do hotels they only do this style rental where it's a residential style home so we're planning to work with them um i spoke with uh nick jillian the owner and i have him lined up i tried to get him here today so he could talk on behalf he's really professional organization 20 years in business um so that's that's what we're planning to have uh if that's what you're asking on the property well that's management but if i live in kansas how do i know you're here i mean they have platforms the property management they do the bookings as well so uh i'm sure they're going to put us on different websites so you're you're talking about more on the business plan of how we plan to attract people to come to the site well just yeah where is it uh airbnb uh verbo i'm sure you know airbnb the national websites for sure um national websites do uh come at a cost so but i'm i'm leaving all the booking up to the professionals at the at beaches usa that's that's my game plan i'm sure they're going to use vrbo airbnb they have algorithms for booking nights and all that that which i i'm not really i'm a real estate broker but i'm not real familiar with how that whole industry works okay okay and certainly through your video i saw uh bike racks and if i hadn't the mayor was kind enough to point those out to me so thank you very much and you also have charging stations for golf carts so are you gonna are there going to be golf carts there if i rent one of these units can i rent a golf cart from you or can i rent a bicycle you know that that that rolls right into beaches usa has uh connections with companies that have the liability insurance and everything they bring the golf cart drop it off on a trailer if they want and they can come and rent a golf cart that way we are not going to have on-site golf carts for the vacationers if they but inside the unit um i've seen this before i didn't have this long conversation with uh nick but he told me that they do have like cards that they leave inside the units that somebody can call and get a golf cart um so and we'll keep it local if we can if there are i don't even know if there's golf cart rental companies in dunedin i mean i i own a home in dunedin but i i'm not sure if there's a somebody renting out golf carts here but we'll keep it local if that's something uh we can do i think it would be very valuable for the community to have golf carts um we're in the golf cart area and uh it's it's appropriate for the for the community to have them so i'd like to have that you won't get an argument from me so yeah okay uh george i'm going to get the acronym wrong xfm right is that fxm fxm form-based media oh okay what what could go there on this property so form-based medium is one of our more robust um zoning designations pretty much uh it's there's a lot of things that could go there so i think you kind of the thing is though when you're looking at this thing you have to look at the land use and the zoning combined so as francis mentioned the land use rns the primary uses for rns are commercial uses so when you go up to the fxm though you have to look for fxm commercial uses first and then that rns has as a secondary use can allow residential so that's when you would go up to the fxm and see if there's what residential types are allowed and then you can make that work so it's a combination of the two but fxm does provide a pretty large litany of permissible uses okay okay and so you could have mixed use development there absolutely and that and that's certainly the intent commissioner because um you know form base as as you might think is meant it's meant to be about the form not so much about the use so the use is really to follow the form of the of the development but okay but yeah certainly it's it encourages a mix of uses okay mixed use it could also be an apartment complex well it can only be a apartment complex if the commercial commercial aspect aspect was there first okay probably mixed use then right retail on the bottom and and vertical or horizontal so gentlemen so why did you choose short-term rentals i think it's excellent that you asked that question because from a congestion standpoint uh and i think if we were to talk about parking and you start talking about apartments and you start talking about retail space and what kind of retail or uh restaurants or uh this site lends itself to what it is um we didn't end up with this beautiful residential neighborhood by accident i mean we went through some extensive drc arc lpa to land it was dunedin it was you it was the it was your staff it was your advisory boards not so much what that's what how we ended up where we are today so i um i want to congratulate everybody because what we see in front of us really is a result of uh what your fxm zoning has done it's created a scenario where you get these beautiful projects that don't create massive amount of congestion in the street i mean against what it was before is uh that was not only congestion but unpredictable what could happen out on pinehurst road from when it was da vinci academy so um that's that's how we ended up where we are it's it's sort of that's what fits into a one acre lot uh with low intensity at the site okay and what is thank you and so refresh my memory what is the trip count for this project it was i think it was 11 trips at the it was very low pmp car right and to the parking commissioner if i might just add on to that this is our most aggressive parking requirement because it requires one space per room so not like one space per dwelling unit or one or what have you so it it does tend to require more parking than a traditional residential subdivision would require okay and 11 and the trip count was 11 at peak hour is that 14 city attorney says 14 14 peak hour total total trips was uh 15 for entry 11 exit 11 exit right so there's a difference between entrance and exit on trip counts we're keeping four cars is that yeah that's a and peak and then p and peak so p and peak then is is uh 14 total trips nine entry five exit 14 entry was it nine entry and then five exit five exit okay how do you just generally how do you come up with trip counts and what does a trip count mean for the residents and the public i think they have their traffic folks here so i don't know i did not oh you did not so can i we've had a we've had this uh oh come on up hello uh council thank you my name is kyle benda i'm an i'm an attorney uh for benda law representing the applicant i'm not a traffic engineer but i can kind of play one um if you will so you've got um your count your trip counts are cars right so um if you've got a certain amount of trips per day right that's individual car trips going to or from right but then that's always broken down into a.m peak hour and then p.m peak hour so in in in the busiest hour of the morning how many trips are you having and then same for the the p.m and then that's also distributed among the roadways around so if you look through the report itself it's going to break down i think from my memory it's like 35 from the north and then 65 coming from the south but then all of that comes in your there there are all those diagrams of the turning in and turning out right those are all of your trips and then that's distributed so each trip is one car so if you've got 14 trips in the p.m peak hour and you've got nine coming in and five leaving right conceptually you can just think of those as individual cars during that hour may i mayor so the vehicle trip count is the generation is rated upon is based upon the institute of traffic engineers and when i was a city planner it was the third edition now it's probably the eighth edition but anyway ite they will look at the trips generated across a whole number of multi-family uses based upon density and intensity and those types of things and then they'll average them out and they'll say that for example in this type of development two bedrooms would generate eight trips per day and then they'll divide that up into a.m and p.m peak hour because really the only thing that's important is how much it contributes it at the busy time and not how much it contributes all day long so then um the the applicant did their own traffic study and we had a peer review of that traffic study to say you know are these the did they use the right counts did they use the right you know because it's based upon gravity you will go to you have more trips going to a kmart than a 7-eleven and that type of a thing so it's all very um scientific if you will but it's based upon ite institute of traffic engineers okay okay and an imaginary question that you won't be able to answer but if it were something else if it were a mixed use uh right without labeling what that means or how many you eat but the same number of units i how could something like that i'm trying to get an idea of trip counts for different projects that might be on that one piece of property and how this would compare to if it were mixed use so is that are you able to answer you might not even be able to answer so so going back to jennifer's comments on ite that ite has a bunch of cat land use categories basically embedded into it and then the studies show what those land uses will drive from an ingress and egress standpoint during the p a m p and p so each use would have to be looked at so in this case they only had to look at 21 short-term residential units so they went to one piece of that ite manual where that use is located and they get those trip counts and they can generate that that math that that jennifer was talking about if there's multiple uses you've got to do that you've got to engage that whatever those trip counts are for each use so multi so mixed use excuse me george a mixed use would generate more because commercial always generates more than residential yeah and you know a perfect example is so as part of what ice did uh for the peer review they also looked at the the use that was there previously the charter school and the trip rates coming out of the charter school you don't need to tell us we're all well aware we're much yeah we're much larger so just as an example but but but you get how the it will look at a different use so in that right and actually the visual of the school thank you that was actually a good example may i say one thing yes uh sorry please stay uh there's there's also the these are uh not full-time residents so our occupancy so even though the trip counts are the trip counts and they take the total amount of trip counts if we are blessed with 100 occupancy all year round well thank you very much and then we can use that trip count but our our that's a worst case our calculations to for a successful project like this runs in a 70 occupancy rate so it's 30 less than what the current traffic study has i just wanted to add that because i think it's important to that they are as vacation rentals that way okay um mayor i think that's it that's all the question i have thank you very much uh thank you yes i just need to understand particularly the peak hour uh traffic along this particular road uh because as the way i'm reading it on the a.m. uh peak hour this site will not contribute any traffic is that what i'm reading on the figure 5.0 so according to uh their traffic impact analysis their total trips for the a.m. peak hour will be 15 so you'll have 15 vehicles in and out of that site during a.m. peak and that's that full occupancy as was mentioned that must be probably 15 percent of what was there during peak hour because of the school being there yeah previously it was a 185 okay all right um all right i i'm going to be about safety on this what safety security measures will this facility have um we have a bunch of people coming in and out from various locations presumably throughout the country um how are we handling security so we when i spoke with nick who's the we'll do he'll do all the he's a 24 hour seven day a week uh emergency contact that'll be posted throughout the project so that uh and and from a security standpoint we haven't thought this through but i i would be open to cameras on site for that kind of security if you're talking about uh can you elaborate on what you mean by security are you talking like safety are you well i'm talking about the safety of both the residents and the community around the residents and what they're going to have next door those kind of things now uh to the north you have a retail uh shopping center um but to your uh south and i think it's pretty much i don't think you've got a lot of residents around that particular location uh but i am more concerned about the people there the safety of those people in there we don't know yeah there is going to be he had he creates a manual and a in a book for every resident who stays there with procedures okay uh there's a resident uh uh guest procedures manual okay and we will have a 24-hour contact for emergency services a background check uh he run he does run a i don't know that he runs a i don't know if it's how he does the tenant checks but there's a tenant check there's a tenant check process i'm sure it's i'm sure it's background i don't think he's checking on their income levels or anything like that because it's short-term rental it's probably just the background check um i mean when we have uh short-term rentals throughout uh dunedin i don't know if it's a standard that all airbnb uh owners are required to run a background check on short-term tenants airbnb does yeah so they have referrals as well yeah it may be that they they validate the license through the booking and all that's that's going to be up to the property management company and i'll will security is important it's important for us um to have safety in the community that's the people who visit do you anticipate a minimum stay uh and i don't think that we'll rent any less than three days just because of the cleaning fee okay i don't think it may it'll make financial sense for somebody to come and stay at the unit and pay hundreds of dollars for a cleaning fee um and then it's going to be equivalent to one night stay just to pay a cleaning fee so i think that eliminates it um we haven't nailed down a minimum stay uh it'll i think the market will tell us my guess is on this size of a unit it's going to be longer than three days do you have a maximum uh i we don't really want to get into anything that's a 30 day okay because it it changes the uh amount but we would i'd be open under the right circumstances you might get six-week requests in my briefly in my real estate world i did some uh management of this and it's that's why i don't want to do it um but but i can tell you that um under the right tenant if they wanted to stay for six weeks eight weeks and it wasn't a hindrance to our business plan then uh we would i wouldn't bark at that it's it's simpler and it's less fees and it's uh so um that's the thought process behind it but the financial side of this has been something that we look at on on a regular basis to determine what makes sense i share my colleagues concern regarding setback two feet is not a lot of setback that's the width of a lawnmower so um as i as i understood it i was i was under the impression that that uh our our community in the fxm zoning so that's what the foreign base zone actually encourages is to is to move the building close to the street to create that to create that uh more urban space okay for walkability and so forth so the zoning does kind of require them to pull closer now again there is a window you know it doesn't two is the minimum it can it can move within that window but uh you know they have been encouraged to keep the building closer to the street through the you know to through this process okay and that's just the product of the zoning commissioner all right and the one other thing i just wanted to really quickly add to on on the uh responsible party aspect of it so the the city of dunedin as you may know also has uh transit use provisions for short-term vacation rentals they're fairly aggressive they require responsible parties required there's their suspension and revocation provisions in here so we do feel pretty comfortable with the fact that if there's an issue out there it'll be very quickly handled okay um what are impact fees on something like this uh impact fees um so i don't know if they would get any credit for they would get credit for the school um but i couldn't tell you what they are yet because they're not due until a building permit is actually filed and a certificate of occupancy is due um but you would be looking at a fire impact fee a police impact fee uh the public art impact fee water sewer um i think that's the five of them right yeah but there would there would be credit for anything that that they are that you currently have on site or that they were using in the past i know that natalie's not here or is she here is natalie still she left that's fine i noticed that she scored a 125 on the matrix on this relative to sustainability do we have any idea if they'd had to use the other code what that would have been i think natalie did a quick peek at that and it was it was close but not quite there but she thought that it would be pretty simple to to score well on the scorecard get above the 300 minimum threshold all right that was impression that's all i have yeah and just so you know natalie did ask me before she left and and i said no i don't think you need to go but she did say she was pretty sure they'd be fine under the new system okay great questions um vice mayor thank you mayor um so i wouldn't during the the presentation um talked about stormwater treatment it that so that's a vault underneath the property right there's a stormwater vault underneath the the pavers in the main drive and it'll collect all the water from the site and then it'll take it all out to the road okay and when you say take it out to the road what does that mean exactly well let's let's let the civil engineering answer this question she handled it at lpa so here she comes pat montecchi i'm the civil engineer um it's actually an exfiltration system and um it anything that doesn't perk into the ground it's basically what that is is a perforated pipe a pipe with holes in it surrounded by rock the water goes into the system and perks into the ground and then anything that's over what we're required to hold by law discharges through the outfall structure and goes to a pipe we're piping the ditch in the back of the property that's caused significant erosion so we're just completing the piping of that um appurtenance and it'll go into that culvert and out to the city system okay um and then the uh the rain barrels what i'm um interested in is okay so the water in the rain barrels which i understand would i don't know anything about any rain barrels oh you know what i'm sorry there's no scoring on that sorry sorry and there was a lot of faces that were like what is he talking about well i you know i was looking at item five six and the sustainability matrix and then i realized there's nothing there um that that um i had one more question and i completely lost my train of thought um no okay all right yeah that's good thank you uh commissioner zandberg questions is this a concrete block or is it frame a block just block it's blocked it's it's blocked all the way up port solid okay you know i wanted to come back to something where i think this commissioner dugard talked about minimum and maximum stays don't you know keep an open mind on on the maximum because you know the last couple years with those hurricanes i'm a vacation rental owner nothing to this extent but i mean that was that was a game changer when people needed you know probably even know some of them that needed temporary housing like that so don't don't take that off the table we we won't take anything off the table when it comes to uh it making sense for the for this community our community don't eat in um so yeah it's definitely we they have the these management companies have ways of knowing what we should and should not be doing that uh that's why i don't do it because it's a whole science in and of itself to do proper property management george isn't there or jennifer i thought we had that you know that they're like a criteria for short-term rentals i thought i was on a committee one time where we wrote um there had to be a 24-hour contact some very some very strict rules we did that's still in play yes because i think it was brought up about safety right that's that's what i was referring to when okay before so it's it's section 103 14.7 uh and there are the standards uh range from the registration process you you all remember you uh modified the registration process to apply per unit versus per parcel we did a short time ago so all that registration information is in there in there the responsible party that's required has to be within a certain distance in a two hour right two hour response time all of that so all of this would be subject to those those i mean a new complex like this you know i know we talked about parking on the streets leaving the trash i mean this a little bit different where this is self-contained like that uh i saw there was uh decks like upstairs roof decks are not on the front on this on this picture but were there also yeah on this picture like on the top right is that uh is that just for looks or will that be accessible from the inside that that's flat roof there's you i got to get to it okay okay uh and then we we used it for light mainly because you can see above the flat roof there that you can see uh there's three windows to let natural light into the unit and then on the back side uh the air conditioning condensers sit okay i got you commissioner we've been a little more critical on hiding mechanicals because we've had a couple designer reviews where they kind of slipped out front and weren't as attractive so they've done a nice job of kind of decorating them and move them out of out of so these would be two bedroom correct in a two-bedroom is there a maximum sleep load of four people or six do you know do you know off the top of your head two beds yeah two beds so that's four people i mean fold-out beds or two two and or one bed for two yes okay i just i because i know we've run into that one that i own uh and is that management 24 hour on site or am i yeah it's it's it's 24 7 accountability accountability around the clock for that's what i'm um i was looking for and uh what was interesting is when i found out one of his inspectors actually lives on off of san christopher road yeah that was great i was like perfect so um yeah it's 24 it's 24 7 365 days and uh they manage the booking they manage the property they manage the maintenance they manage the emergencies now you're very fortunate to have that and i i can't imagine what that's costing you but that's none of my business oh yeah that's that that's a big service how about have we uh calculated approximately what the dunedin portion of his property taxes are or is it a little too early i have i have yeah my i i created uh an physical impact but let's see what's good in here um we estimate 137 000 in that sales tax uh your property taxes 93 000 is it not so it's approximately 93 000 that's right total i would assume it depends on it'll depend on the actual value yeah i had 93 000 560 based on a 5.4 million dollar valuation by the tax appraiser yeah i think uh city manager do you want to add to that may i because commissioner dugard whispered in my ear the same question so um and actually the um we'll get uh the new construction value as well once it's constructed and the co's are issued and also the charter school was exempt so it's a it's a positive yeah it's a tax rule and the last thing i you know when we come back to comments i'll have a couple of each unit will have its own kitchen facility the idea is to get the people in and then correct each unit they're they're they're built like a residential home okay that's all i had thank you you're welcome um a couple things um first of all someone's not on site 24 7. no right how much on-site time will there anybody be there uh we we're not planning to have a full time on site uh like a hotel we are we are a short term so the bookings are online and correct and then and so so the exact requirement and i only say this because i know it came up at lpa and i thought you guys were saying that it was somebody had to be available to to be able to get a hold of them within 15 minutes so what's the exact rule on that if i remember it was like you have to be on site within two hours two hours following notification from the city code enforcement of issues related to the vacation rental is what the code well what about what if a citizen calls i mean a citizen calls to complain well i'm trying to think how that would work i guess that could happen they call the sheriff or what i was going to say either sheriff's officer code enforcement if we're if we're available we can go out as well so chances are if it's a nighttime issue party in or whatever it would be it would be more i think cameras would be really good for you guys with 21 units honestly yeah we're going to need cameras i just i it'll tell you what you need to know if there's things going on you know 100 i mean make it easy on your company and please and it's you know it's a valuable piece of uh property that we want to make sure that no damage is done so both from a public safety standpoint and from protecting our own property um yeah there needs to be cameras and there's a pool there so right i definitely want to have cameras by the pool um the um the building that's to the left as you go in what is that again that's an office that could be that can be so there might be some usage of that yeah that we we put it there because uh we may need it in high season and uh it gave a little volume to the community um and it went in line again when i was earlier saying that what you see in front of you is a result really of uh the future land use and and what you guys have uh in your in your in your master planning in the form-based fxm zoning this is what it produces and um that it was part of that we had a structure uh towards the front i the the being up against two foot against the road when we have no real usable use is a result of fxm zoning so we made it an office which we can use in high season will it be used all the time probably not um so but but that's the you know the fxm zoning is is creating beautiful uh urban medium density projects um and that's what you're seeing there and so we and as a vacation rental if if we go in the future and we get into managing it ourselves uh then we could have an office and we would need an outside property manager gives you flexibility um so is that going to be the artwork on the front no i mean this is a these are renderings uh there i i think they're cute uh and they're but they're from sdg to show that we we have places to put the artwork um but we plan to fully fund the to pay into the art fund and uh let the city of dunedan decide what has to happen will that be the kind of fence that goes there that is the type of wall we're planning to put along the front i only ask this george knows why um what we see is what we get right because i think that we've been through down this road where what we saw wasn't what we got and then we held the we couldn't hold the developer accountable um so i guess i want to understand what what is it that we see here that we're going to get yep that's that's a great question mayor and we have tried to ratchet that up a little bit so what we have uh in play now is so when they do come forward for infrastructure review we're going to pull their site plan off of infrastructure review and we're going to sit back down as a drc and make sure it's hitting on everybody's notes including public art and including sustainability matrix so before we get to a permitting stage we're going to be sure that you are getting what is being shown to you yeah because we wanted to look look nice and i think the fxm i mean again coming from the urbanized look it's like in the old days you'd build a building in the back and have all the cars in the front and it would look like heck so now you build the buildings frontwards and it's got a way better look on the street side great point mayor and you know the other thing i would mention uh francis kind of hit on it you you'll see that rns and an fxm zoning in that in that corner around that intersection so it's really intended to turn that intersection into a more urban form-based walkable kind of community and that's when she said catalyst this is really the first one right and it's not necessarily looking at use as the catalyst but it is the form and it's the architecture it's the mass it's the density this is kind of setting that standard out there i would think like dominoes and pie pizza and all them are exactly you know finehurst pub they're probably very happy about this project on the walkability that was part of walkability yeah that on the walkability that was the idea and that with the sustainability for the paths around the community um that you saw on the 3d so i just want to ask you something because i was i did watch the lpa i got completely confused about the fact that you're going to have homeowner association documents hoa documents well i'm misunderstanding that whole leg of the conversation i'm planning to have rules and regulations within the community which is will really be turned into a according to after speaking with nick it'll probably it's going to turn into a resident guide for uh operation of the unit and rules and regulations within the community right that makes sense that's what you're talking about i have an hoa attorney who does that but you guys are continuing to own it and this this got talked about at lpa too whether there be just one owner or each unit would be owned and i want to make sure i understand those how that could so from our group the intention is to continue to own it at the investors one we have here today his full intention is and they made it clear that uh they want to keep it they want to keep it what i my past as a developer has been to uh i like fee simple ownership under each unit and it gives you flexibility for the future um it creates more revenue for the municipalities uh having them individually owned because divided they're worth more than they are individually so from my investment group they want to keep it as one uh as a developer i believe there's flexibility for the few in the future to have individual units um so but there is no intention at this stage at all to sell any of them because uh the idea is to get the project stabilized so bear with me though because i want to understand what that would look like if it ever turned to that i mean what would that look like how long could an owner or anyone else stay in that unit yeah so the code doesn't contemplate ownership necessarily for short-term rentals it's going to just assure that it has to remain as a short-term rental because if it turns residential mayor then we've got an issue where they might be able to make it work because you could have residential as a secondary use to a non-commercial base which is the short-term rentals but you've got to go back through that exercise and you've got to assure that the density is there and or the floor area ratio is there so for any change in use would would basically in essence bring them back now if they individually sell a unit and they are still operating as a short-term vacation rental our land development code is silent to that it doesn't it doesn't take into account the ownership perspective yeah because you just have 21 owners operating as their short-term rental units right and that that is exactly how they would be sold and that's the intent so it's not that people are trying we would want people moving into them the idea would be that if you live out of state which happens a lot in my business and my residential sales side a lot of times people will call and there are no units in Dunedin that you can buy and come down for three months and then go back home and get your taxes paid and get some of your return on on an investment so that's why i like to individually divide them up but at this stage we haven't engaged anybody to talk about plat or condoing or anything like that as far as ownership but they will always be short-term rental if that's what's up for discussion but from an ownership standpoint i think it makes sense to have them individually my group doesn't so um we're going to keep it as 121 unit community as it stands but they'll always be short-term rental and i think there's a need actually uh individually i think there's a lot of people who live in other states who would love to own a home that they could come down twice a year stay three months go home rent at the other six months yeah you know split we have limited areas they can have them so it uh you know it's uh it makes sense um okay i'm going to go to uh i think there was a follow-up commissioner gal you had a follow-up i did actually i have two questions um how are the mentors going to get access to the units if there's really no management on site we have different i mean we can do lock boxes but we'll probably use today's technology and have some type of keypad entry um they'll they'll they'll get an email with full instructions and going back to that'll tie into safety that they're going to sign an agreement on their way in that they're going to behave in a certain way they're going to get their code to their unit and they're going to get their rules and regulations along with the code to get inside the unit today's doorknobs you can expire your listing you can say you know open that up at 4 p.m let's make that code work at 4 p.m today three days from now at 11 a.m i want you to shut that code off and it's no longer working and they can't get back into their unit um so that's how uh entry would work okay with instructions and an email and the rest all right so the next renter coming in would get their own code it's a totally separate so there'd be no way that a previous renter could gain access correct okay and in uh uh the the the front and i'm sorry mayor this is a a no another question i just want to know that the entrance in the fence kind of stops there's no gate there is that ever going to be gated or will that entrance always yeah we have no we're not planning to put a gate there okay it would it would change our uh traffic uh study and so for the ingress egress we're just going to leave it open okay and this is probably more for george because i think you said it i haven't heard it tonight but i did hear it at lpa uh the word catalyst and so what what what is meant by that word and what do we envision happening what's the future of that area look like or we anticipate yes thank you commissioner um so i think when we're using the term catalyst in this situation you've got your existing development pattern out right out there right now circa 1970 peach i think you mentioned it pizza hut there's the building that we used to sit in before we moved to city hall all of those have been contemplated to move to a more form-based kind of uh development pattern so what this is really doing is kind of it's that it's really the first one in the door so it's kind of setting the standard for how we will start looking at compatibility particularly with respect to mass height and architecture as those surrounding properties come into play as they redevelop their sites as well so it's kind of a catalyst being the kind of like the first one out of the box and what we're looking at is a maximum of two stories we're looking at nice architecture we're going to make sure that that precedent then takes place throughout the throughout that particular area we're not looking at use so much though so it's more about the the form of the structure versus the actual use because as you mentioned before fxm offers a myriad of uses so the whole idea is to is to make sure that the architecture fits and that we're creating a corridor in there that's walkable and and and friendly you know and basically an inviting area okay thank you that's all okay anyone else or just one more quick question did i hear a commitment for video cameras you did thank you good i like that way to go i think it's a great idea for you guys anyway uh anyone on this side okay all right so uh let's see so we've done that and i'm going to ask if anyone in the public wishes to come forward to speak on this issue it will be name address and three minutes time the whole gang my name is thomas michaels 1370 pinehurst road dunnyden florida right next door if you look up there on which you can see in front of you where this proposal is to the left where all the trees are that's where my law office is i'm the invisible attorney in dunnyden for 30 to 35 years i don't think i've met any of you so far but this gets me out naturally i'm objecting to this proposal the way it is what we're doing is we're shoehorning in a large proposal into one acre that's going to transform or change the neighborhood right now we have single family homes duplexes some businesses my business right next door it's quiet i've been here my whole life so i've seen not dunnyden but pinellas county i've seen the county change and grow i know that's going to happen but this is not the appropriate site for as to the development short-term rentals that just means more and more people coming and going in and out putting aside whatever your facts and figures say we have 21 units two bedrooms per unit so i'm figuring at least four people in there maybe more in the family room how many cars parking is hopeful insufficient i've heard that there's maybe three or four five max guest spots besides what's allotted in there i have three minutes so i'm going to move right along from my office it's set back 40 feet from the road you are bringing to everyone's attention how close to the road it is when you leave my office you can't see north cars coming down i have elderly clients they're going to get hit trying to leave my office i asked for a reduction in the fence and that was mentioned as a possibility when i went to the architectural review meeting they brought it up that's the last i heard of it i don't know how many of you have actually been out here or seen this but there's been really no impact look from my building looking north everything looks really beautiful this way and looking south okay and so i would suggest you come out and take a look at it i don't want to violate your sunshine law or anything and you all are you know welcome to come with me but i gave a laundry list of the garbage is up front not in the back they have an oak tree that's 90 percent of it is over my building with this construction that's going to possibly topple and i could go on and on and on for another two minutes which you're not going to allow me so we do object to it okay thank you any questions from anybody appreciate your input sir yeah thank you take care okay anyone else in the audience wish to come forward to speak on this issue okay seeing none i will close um the public hearing close public uh comment um so on a couple of those issues um i just want to say very quickly did you want to reference the fact that any e-comments we received on the i meant to do that yes yes we did i know that um both last time and i think this time but definitely last time we got an e-comment or two on this michelle do you know exactly what we got it's the best of my knowledge we received one e-comment one okay and i think it was from mr reynolds so correct okay so i just wanted to put note i think everybody got that and so okay put that on the record okay um so um a couple of things the line of sight issue from mr michael's place have you looked at that do you have any concerns about that uh we have um uh mayor and uh we've confirmed the site visibility triangle is is appropriate uh and i do believe the applicants that have even offered to even move that wall back a little bit if that would be helpful so i you know i don't want to speak for the applicants but i think that was part of something that they articulated that that site distance triangle is shown in the civil drawings too yes yeah say that again the site distance triangle is shown on the civil drawings as well all right i think we're good walter um okay and how about um the garbage and i know there was a lot of discussion about where the garbage should go and uh so i walter it is walter right if you want to come up and either one staff or you okay jonathan hi um so the garbage that was an area of contention we originally had it uh further closer to mr michael's property originally and we have moved it away from his property as far as we possibly could while still trying to meet the the city's request that they weren't going to drive their truck down into the site it just wasn't going to happen we couldn't get them enough turnaround to do so and so per meeting with everybody that was the suggested location and they didn't want it any further closer to the intersection because that would have jammed up the intersection so that's that's where it landed unfortunately i'm trying to figure out how they're going to do it are they going to be on the street doing it where's it going to get pushed to and where's the garbage truck going to be so i i think that that door that so you see the little door gate in front and the wall there so we would they would just pull up and then uh i don't know if they walk them to the curb i i got they usually push them out they open the gate and they push them they do but if you push it out aren't you then the garbage trucks in the road they push it out the front end loader and they just pick it up yeah they're not oh i got you right yeah okay i got you okay yeah so solid waste did say mayor in their comments that they they would not be able to get into the development site that the city's automated collection system or retrieve individual refuge containers to be able to do it safely and within the site so they need it towards the perimeter of the site so that was bill's i think bill's recommendation for the location and there it will not cause an impediment to the roadway that's my understanding yes mayor from from solid waste okay all right well um i i wasn't really clear on the tree issue but did you understand the comments that mr michaels had about the tree close contact with mr michaels for sure quite a while i really do enjoy his company um so we've done what we could to accommodate uh on multiple levels from the traffic we would we didn't talk about moving the the wall back what we talked about is lowering the wall which i which is what we would love to do we'd love to make it a four foot wall that's what uh so we it's it it it gives uh more breadth to the community but um the form you know the the form based code is a little unclear on what it means in the front uh to be that two foot from there i think if we could get uh clarity from the city that we could lower the wall it would then satisfy mr you were hoping to come up to say that weren't you i was yeah i'll let george do we're not going to get in the middle of that george george is giving me the look that this is just so the commission knows so the reason for the wall basically is the fxm requires an 80 percent frontage build out so that's why they have to have something it's akin to the j hotel if you will that we had to have remember how they did that little wall to complete that 80 percent build out so that's the reason for the wall 265 causeway was the same fxm does say minimum of six right um so um you know if we want to do something different than that we'll have to we'll talk to them yeah i just wanted to look good so i mean obviously we have to follow our own code though i've been trying we've been trying to accommodate uh mr michaels every way we can on the you were asking about the tree yeah uh there's a tree that's this is a different tree than the tree that was saved or yes okay yes this is a uh less protected tree uh although uh we didn't really have to survey it because i don't believe from my arborist that was not on our property the tree that was on the line the property line that overhangs his building the base is on our property correct but we're talking about uh the tree on the property line if it's an off-site tree so um our we brought the arborist today maybe he can help us but if the tree need he mr michaels would really like that tree removed um well yeah it's not that easy if it's not if it's not on our property then uh then we won't be removing it if it is on our property we plan to remove it the tree we're saving is this grand oak so um well that's fine if it's not a clear issue i'm gonna trust staff's gonna handle that absolutely our city arborist will be involved with i think we've covered the big issues that mr michaels brought up i mean understanding that you don't agree with the the size of it so um okay so i will um yeah i'm gonna close the public hearing unless anybody up here has anything and i'm gonna ask for a motion so moved second okay i have a motion i have a second and we'll go to commission comments and i will start with uh the maker of the motion commissioner sandburgen you know uh walter about three or four weeks ago a guy just let me have it about how much he disliked this project and i'm i'm not not gonna salt and pepper it but he told me it was just the worst possible scenario and today when i was walking up those stairs in city hall another resident called me and told me how great you were and how proud they were of what you're bringing to dunedin uh i tell you you were smooth sailing with me but you really is i'm concerned about this being sold off and becoming a condo i uh when you talked about in you know you owning it 21 units but now all of a sudden we started talking about investors buying and i'm in one of those i and and we're all investors in it it went from one association to 14 units 14 individual unit owners and to me that becomes a condo it's no longer a airbnb rental program and uh as much as i i i i love what what you're bringing to dunedin i'm a firm believer in small business in dunedin and i know that those merchants up there you know you're bringing a lot to town and i i i wish i hadn't heard and i cannot unhear what i heard and uh i'm not sure that's uh you know i i i appreciate it and uh i appreciate everything you're doing to town here and but man that really it really changed my uh no it's no no or it's just this is just my this is just my comment so i'll just leave it at that yeah well let's clarify this right now thank you mayor uh you're welcome and uh george can this become a condo so it without any intervention from us can this become a condo not without coming back through the process and if they came back to us what would be involved so they would be looking at it would depend on what they came back to us with it would obviously go back all the way back to the design review process so if it was a mix of non-residential and residential we'd have to see what that mix was whether it meets the density we'd still be looking at the same height and architectural requirements but it's just it's a tough question to answer america it just depends what they bring it back as they could certainly no i'm saying they built it i guess they could make a change before they built no they can't make a change before they build it right no this is what they're getting approval for right right this is what they need to build if there's any change in the future they have to come back and modify this this this design review and it would still needed to be a mixed use so how would they even do that i it would depend on the develop i mean we'd have to see what they came up with and see if it was even possible so you know again there has to be a non-commercial base first which short-term rentals are but as soon as you inject residential that's a secondary use so it has to be less than 50 percent of whatever that project whatever that project site is so they could come back in 10 years and say i want to do half short-term rentals and half condos but we would have to go back through the design review process to and bring that back to you to show you that this is something that they can or can't do within the provisions of the code and if we just didn't like it could we say no legally um i mean i would probably defer the city attorney on that just because if you're meeting code jen so if you're if you've come in and there's um applicable criteria within the code and you meet the code then and you demonstrate proper evidence of that then it's approval or approval with conditions so the answer is if they meet this 50 condo 50 i know we're going down a rabbit hole here but right i've been around 40 years i've seen every rabbit hole known if hold on uh so if they could do the half condo half mixed use somehow and meet all the code criteria then it could be approved it might not would it have to be approved if they meet the criteria of the code yeah probably yes yeah if there's a concern it may be approved with conditions but um to address that concern but if generally when an application comes in if they can meet all of the criteria and they can adequately demonstrate that to you um through evidence then um then it's approved i mean let me ask a question could we say put something in documents right now that say this can never be a condominium that's a form of ownership i'm just asking so i well but it's i was trying to make everybody comfortable right so let me put it to you let me say it this way um you could certainly have a condition and i don't think you need it but you could have a condition that if it was to be used as residential obviously it has to come back before you which it already is true i just right but as a a condo a condo is only a form of ownership it doesn't necessarily mean that the use is going to be residential oh okay that's that's fair that's fair i would agree with that statement kyle benda for bend alone i just to try and put it simply what you're approving is is what's been presented you're approving one ownership with 21 units as a vacation rental if that changes like any property can always be rezoned but that still would have to come back to to this commission so you would have that control it can't just be turned into a condo and when i think you say condo i think you mean a residential use and as staff was saying if you're changing the use of the property to residential you've got to either meet the requirements of the code through the design review process or you would have to essentially rezone the property to be residential and then that follows the same procedures that we're here today where they've got a the application has to be made there has to be shown consistency with the comprehensive plan through the use of evidence and then if it doesn't meet those requirements or there's evidence that residential use is inappropriate or incompatible then this commission could theoretically in the future deny that right but it would still be this same use that you're approving so i i think that speculation maybe is yeah and i hate to speculate but you know what you you you know what i picked up on you it was i heard it i can't unhear it but i'm just saying legally at least in my opinion and and i i hope the city attorney would agree they that can't happen without your approval no one no one can you know kind of backdoor this in i think it would still have to go through the design review process or a formal rezoning okay um and i think rob had a quick follow-up and then we'll get back to comments um just related to that i i just need to be clear of the lines of communication um so if i understand correctly what you were saying and i'll just paraphrase that is okay 21 units the owner could sell off let's just say 10 of those units and still be within and let's just say that all let's just say all 10 are essentially intended to be residential that to me if i understand this correctly that does not require the owner to come back and re zone the no they would have to come they would because you're changing the use you're now going to residential but it's less than 50 percent it doesn't matter okay what what they've what they've shown to you today and what they're asking for is approval for 21 non-commercial short-term rentals any deviation from that would require them to come back any deviation even if it's one even if it's one residential unit okay all right that okay that that answers my question yeah it's the deviation in use that triggers to come back so going from commercial to residential yeah yeah gotcha good i think it was good to get that aired out i do i really do i appreciate it so anyway so you're done with your comments commissioner sandbergen or yes i'm done it okay and so the seconder of the motion was commissioner dugard today we have an empty lot vacant lot um i look at the use of this lot in the world of possibilities and i see this among the better possibilities of course it'd be nice for the community around there to be looking at maybe only a density of much less than this but we're into a zoning situation that really doesn't allow residential right now so we don't have residential opportunities for this lot as far as i'm concerned this looks like a very good direction to go in and i'm in support okay uh commissioner gow no comments thank you mayor um we just recently had a conversation up here about housing and affordable housing and the flats on maine and how our affordable housing situation is in crisis not just in dunedin not just in pinellas county or florida but throughout the the the nation or many parts of it um and it's not going to take projects like the flats on maine to fix that we have to consider all types of housing uh adus uh mixed use duplexes quadplexes um apartments uh a true crisis in affordable housing and we have an opportunity with this lot and we are choosing the developers are choosing not to do that if we had mixed use development and apartments on top we we could do that if we had transit oriented development we could do that i look at this property and they have to put up a fence in order to get the project done the only reason that fence is there is to max out 80 percent or it doesn't work so now it's just kind of cosmetic they're checking a box is is what they're doing uh the and i'm going to get it wrong again george and my apologies fxm right did i get it right look at me look at me go uh two feet set back right we talked about the purpose of that right and and and it's because it it belongs in urban areas to where you have welcoming access right and and like a mixed use would be perfect right you have a storefront that is right there off the sidewalk would invite people in there's nothing about this project that invites people in you're coming you're coming to this place as a destination from iowa kansas new york canada wherever you're coming from to this location but if you look at the community around this project where are they coming to it's not our downtown from from a visitor standpoint it's almost the middle of nowhere oh i can go i can order pizza domino's i can go to pinehurst pub i can go to the convenience store across the street and get my hair cut at the hair salon that's right next door but other than that zero zip zilch nada there's nothing to do in that area nothing to do other than get back in your car and go downtown and we just had a conversation about a business survey and the amount of traffic and parking and issues we just got all kinds of problems because we insist on car oriented projects and we don't do anything to solve a a parking situation other than build a parking garage and so i have strong issues i think that this is a good project absolutely the wrong location it's a bad location it does not add any value to our community in this location foldable housing we got a high school just down the street we got teachers that are looking for a place to live can't live there what an opportunity lost there the number of kids that can't they move out of their homes but they can't afford an apartment done even can't afford to live here so they have to go somewhere else what an opportunity um so i'm on the real struggle bus with this location and this is my only opportunity because right it checks all the boxing boxes so honestly i have to vote yes on this but i do not like this and it does not add positive value to this um so those are my comments thank you thank you mayor so i've driven over there several times to look at the lot as it is right now and look at the just kind of the the the amenities in that area and uh there was a couple things that really kind of uh kind of resonated with me and it was the the definition of catalyst and the fact that george's presentation with regards to the um you know the the form fit function of the surrounding properties and maintaining those in a in a consistent type style you know and this this may be just my opinion but and there was another word that was used to uh revitalization and the the fact that what this property is doing is is it's revitalizing a vacant lot that essentially is in desperate need of revitalization and then you know i start thinking and you know i probably have a little bit more of a positive perspective on this but i start looking at the surrounding area and i you know i i think okay this is the thought so you catalyst and revitalization now i see a potential here where this property with providing lodging for tourists people out of town people that are going to spend money i view this is a potential economic engine for that area i really do think that the the that area there is in also in desperate need of revitalization so i see an opportunity and i see also the fact that we are this allows us to bring more visitors into the needed which is also our economic engine so um i yeah that my viewpoint i'm i'm looking at this more positively on the impact uh i am in favor of it and uh those are my comments well i am excuse me um so um i'm in favor of it as well i think that um you know i i understand i'm sure got what you're saying you know we need housing every place we can get it um but i also know that we are one of the lucky communities that can really restrict vacation rental um and this is a place where it's allowed i think it's a well done uh 21 units um i think it clearly could be a catalyst i mean swear if i have to look one more time at that you know what would it be to the north of it that plaza that could use some big time revitalization um i think that you know again this can be a catalyst so um and we've got somebody willing to invest in it try to make something of it um um so i'm in favor of it um other than that let's see i guess that's all my comments so let's go to roll call vote vice mayor walker aye commissioner gow aye commissioner dugard aye commissioner sandbergen aye and mayor franey aye and that motion passes unanimous and i believe the the second reading is february 5th february 5th february 5th okay good february 5th okay thank you all appreciate your assistance on that okay we're going to go to the proposed agenda for the january 22nd 2026 commission meeting i've got one tonight i'm i'm back under control now i struggled the most second control i almost lost it but anyway okay uh proposed agenda for january 22nd 2026 commission meeting um michelle what are the changes here you want to go over them sure no problem mayor just minor title changes for the proposed agenda for january 22nd action item 3b now reads fiscal year 2026 city of dunedin vehicle replacement plan vehicle and equipment purchases of 23 assets for a total expenditure of 1 million 788 2225.53 also title change of action item 3d now reads award a multi-year continuing services contract of bid number 25 2542 stormwater and sanitary sewer cured in place pipelining contract to vortex services llc of riverview florida okay um with those changes being made are there any other additions or changes or anything from the commission or anyone else okay um and i have a motion to approve the january 22nd agenda so moved second all right garden down um okay all in favor all right all right all right uh any opposed motion passed unanimously okay we're going to go to informational items commission discussion discussion and comments i will start with vice mayor no comments mayor oh vice mayor oh vice mayor vice mayor isn't that funny isn't that funny i love it that is you know and my we can start with him so he doesn't change his mind though you know but here's the deal are you speaking for rob i didn't even i didn't even react it was like my apologies that's all right vice mayor no it's okay jeff um we're doing the info items right now informational yeah information discussion and comments um yeah okay so uh earlier today i sent out a uh summary report from um from the psta state lobbyist uh with regards to the current status of the property tax bills um and you know for the most part i i think we're pretty well up to date based on our discussion at the i think was the workshop um however uh i do believe this this is this is such a dynamic and moving uh moving uh moving environment would the good news is is that i have a relationship with the lobbyists so the plan will be to continue getting those summer reports but i i put nicole on that email in the hopes that maybe the southern group can provide that same sort of report to us um yes because i thought it was a pretty good synopsis of where things stood with the house bills so that that part um the second thing so this all came out of the psta legislative committee uh meeting that i'm a member of that committee um the second thing which was a little more concerning was the fact that the federal lobbyist uh was talking about the transportation infrastructure appropriation and impact to discussions and the good news is they're just discussions right now now but it relates to fema and how the fema reimbursement structure works because right now my understanding is uh 75 percent paid by fema 25 paid by the municipalities right apparently the the least the discussions and the possible rhetoric here is basically flip-flopping that 25 fema 75 percent municipalities now the only and i i don't think there's any reason at this point to be concerned with the exception of the fact that this discussion is happening um however this is uh kind of underscoring that i think you know there are instances where we're you know we could use federal lobbying support and you know maybe it's and maybe it's not just to need it but maybe it's a collaboration of multiple municipalities so that you know dunedin's not bearing the brunt of that bill directly but i you know i bring that up because you know representation on this is also very critical to to our budget so those just uh and really the point here is it's just to provide situational awareness on you know various aspects of this so that's that's my input commissioner gau no no comments other than to comment on your comments and it's the the irony of discussing taking away property taxes but then also want to increase our expenses by taking on the fema role is is insanity is it was good it was good so i just so um so you know i sit on the legislative committee for psta and uh we had our meeting yesterday and uh got reports from our their state lobbyist and federal lobbyist and the one thing that's associated with the transportation infrastructure appropriation is that you know and i i think we we've always kind of talked a little bit about our concern with regards to how fema might potentially get restructured under this current administration and uh apparently and again this is not really to the point where we need to be terribly alarmed but we really do need to be aware of this and the fact is is that you know right now fema pays 75 percent of storm damage municipality pays 25 percent there is discussions and this came from the federal lobbyists that basically that is that there has been suggestion of flip-flopping that oh no rob that flip-flopping is that i know that from the federal level they want to push they want to push a lot of that federal money down to the state the state should be dealing with it is it flip-flopping at the municipality or is it between the federal government and the state government well and then and there was no mention of the state involvement of the all so again there's there's a gray area here and i just i but i what what i want to do is just relay this this discussion because to me it was like wow i mean that's something well if i'm if i may the state is involved in a portion of of that reimbursement so um and yeah 12.5 percent uh 12.5 percent state 12.5 percent municipality and and 75 percent fema so um i we can certainly look into it i hadn't heard anything about it um and i would think that any lobbying would be the league of cities for sure yeah well that's just physically impossible oh i just couldn't do it no no no no municent probably could no i know that's why i you know and this is why i'm suggesting we maybe we figure out a way to get federal representation and it just and i'm not sure that there it probably falls in the category of uh you know we don't have enough issues of that to make this a real thing but uh i you know i think it's we i think it's worth keeping our eye on that's all sure that would be my jennifer is there any way that we can get any data on the amount of money that fema has spent in our community the past number of years is that sure yeah we can so that we have an idea of what kind of dollar amount sure and and maybe also and this may be a future update for workshop or yeah works we'll just call it workshop um if we could get essentially an accounting of what we have received from fema up to this point and match it to the the actual reimbursable right well we what we have received but also as a community yeah one of the residents received because that's that's what it is yeah if there if the thought is that our residents would then come to us yeah it might be harder with the residents i mean we can we would be fairly easy the city of dunedin would be fairly easy but i'd have to look at what information we have as far as the residents go and it would be really it would be the county through their their uh cdbg and we didn't get any of that so i would really have to and you know the residents that would be good to have but i think for our purposes i think i'm i'm i'm looking just at the the impacts to our budget we did have a conference call with fema and they did talk about um under the disaster recovery who had been awarded grants in dunedin i can dig that up and we can we can find out what we can for you so have we gone any further with comments final comments or just well i turned yours was enough commissioner yeah so commissioner gal then i'll go back to commissioner under vice mayor i didn't have any comments but as a commissioner now i can i got heaps uh no ma'am all right okay commissioner sandbergen nothing other than uh a really productive meeting today with uh tampa bay regional i'm i actually i'm very excited to have the opportunity to represent dunedin uh great organization great people and uh i keep i really can't wait to learn what all's available and uh really enjoyed the meeting and looking forward to uh becoming part of that that's all thank you you're gonna enjoy it good for you you'll enjoy it and you'll enjoy the people you meet too so it's great i mean i'm not really going to miss them but that's why i'll be excited to see him in may at the yeah it was it was fun um and and productive uh commissioner degard um would like to praise the staff for the presentation on uh workshop tuesday relative to the uh property tax issue um i have a feeling we're going to need one of those a month for a while um because this thing is such a fluid set of circumstances but i thought the staff took a tough dynamic and put it out there in front of us pretty well um and we're going to lean on that as well as our lobbyists and uh it's going to drive what we do in tallahassee uh toward the end of the month um but i was unsettled after that um and the reason i was unsettled was i suddenly came to the conclusion that to air is human but to really foul up you need a state legislature um they are proposing reduction of revenue without a corresponding plan there is just no corresponding plan if they pass that um it's kind of the mo curly we'll come back next year to fix what's the use of mo and curly though but you know it's just it's been unsettling for the last two days just thinking about that kind of walking off a pier and not knowing if there's water below you or not thank you mayor it's funny i thought a little bit about okay like what would the need be like if we just had the community center we didn't have the hail center we didn't have mlk center you know we didn't have whether they're uh i don't know um minimal minimal special events you know i mean you know let alone just supporting you know our public safety stuff but i mean uh yeah it's um i i can't even go there so we'll we'll wait and see and hopefully rational minds will um will be in the senate and that is my hope obviously that is my hope um so a couple things um appreciate again commissioner sandberg and stepping up to take tampa bay regional planning council and i know he's going to do an amazing job i did say there was one thing i never did while i was there and it was get us to do a resolution for the it's the rap result regional resiliency action plan and so um i hope you'll and no pressure because i didn't do it but um but natalie's right there to help you do it so it would and it would be an easy win but i didn't do it so no pressure at all but you can do it you'll be my hero um and then obviously we're back in the stride of the year i don't think i ever really got to tell you all you know as the end of last year the beginning of this year um you know how much i value our our comradeship our colleagueship um we have a huge year of a lot of work to do and um i i'm just glad i'm going to be doing it with you guys i really am and uh we've got great staff as well so i think that um we do we'll have some big challenges but we'll do it together um and we're a good team um also just want to say it was so nice to be back in my home for the holidays um because of course we were out of it for like our house for 10 10 months and we still have it decorated for the holidays because my brother's coming and i want him to see not just the house but you know decorated for the holidays um so that's pretty exciting but i also when i as i say that there's a lot of people on my street that are still rebuilding haven't even started to rebuild haven't sold still have the house you know a house that they've lifted but nothing else done do it so there's a lot of people in our community still um on that part of town that got flooded that that are still struggling and still getting back to some normalcy so just like a marina you know it takes time it'll get there but um it feels really good for me but still aware that some people aren't there yet so um and i will the other thing i was going to say uh because i did listen to lpa this afternoon that wow it would be nice to deal with our microphones still because i can't tell you how many times during lpa if anybody else watched the lpa meeting on this project how many times people started talking without a microphone on and you hit you when you're watching it on tv you hear nothing you cannot hear what they say so i don't know what we need to do because the whole thing of hey your mic's off is just not in a technological world a good solution um because there's just gaps so um so i ask you to figure out what we can do with that um okay i guess we go to city clerk's update nothing new to report mayor great uh city excuse me sorry city manager's update you know i was fine with my throat until this one started talking about the affordable housing again i think i did a big gulp and then that was it did it okay uh city manager update uh thank you very much for allowing me some time with my family i have i actually missed the december 18th meeting and then the meeting on tuesday so it's very very nice to be back and i'm very grateful jorge quintas for acting city manager he did a great job he didn't sell the city so apparently i came back and all of staff is still here which is good um but no i i'm very grateful for that time with my family thank you great city attorney update no update i do want to thank um the vice mayor um because he stood in my stead because i was literally out of the country for well on a cruise but so he still was out of the country and so for four days he stood in my stead and i know you did a great job and nothing bad happened everything good happened right and didn't sell the city didn't sell the city and i have to say it was expertly run well stated and on that note the meeting is adjourned and we're going to celebrate uh commissioner gow's birthday in the back anybody's willing to who wants to can come join us meeting adjourned