23 Board of County Commissioners meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order and start with an invocation by Air Force Chaplain Jonathan Dobbs, who then will also be leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. For the first time, we have the invocation and the pledge from the same person. We're very appreciative of that. Sir, if you would come forward, if you would all please rise. Good morning and welcome. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Commissioners. Thanks for letting me be here. Let's pray together. Almighty God, Lord Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for all the families that are represented here. Thank you for the heartbeats last night as we were sleeping and for the breath in our lungs, for the food on the table, the clothes on our shoulders, and for our homes and our families, our spouses, our marriages, and the gift of life. I thank you for our city commissioners and our county commissioners and our state representatives. I thank you for Martin County. What a great place to live. I pray that it would continue to be for years to come. Lord, I just want to pray right now for each commissioner. I just want to pray for Mr. Doug Smith. I pray for Ms. Stacey Hetherington. I pray for Mr. Harold Jenkins, Ms. Sarah Hurd, Mr. Edward Campy. Just pray your blessing on their lives, their families, their marriages if they're married. I just pray you give them wisdom. I pray you give them help from every side. I pray for resources. I pray for protection in their personal lives. I pray you'd help them in any way because we all go through things. I just pray you lead them, you guide them, you direct them. I pray also for our first responders. I pray for Chief Tuminelli over at the Stewart Police Department. I pray for Chief Vince Felicione over at Stewart Fire. I pray for Chief Chad Chinchilli. I pray for Sheriff Snyder. I pray you'd lead, guide, and direct them in their efforts. Please help them to keep us safe. I pray your blessing on all the families involved. I pray for our President, Joe Biden. I pray for our Congress and our Senate. And I just pray you'd lead, guide, and direct us in this season in America. There's a lot of brokenness. Please heal it, Lord. And please use our leaders to make wise and good decisions. I pray your blessing on all that is going on today, all of the plans, everything that we are going to see before this commission. I just pray your favor, your help, your mercy, and grace. And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sir, if you would stay, what we normally would like to do is if you could share with us a little bit of your military background and your history so we get a little better understanding of who you are. And I'd like to thank you. That was a beautiful invocation. Thank you. My pleasure. Good morning. Hope you're doing well. I'm going to have to stick to the microphone, but that's all right. So I'm a Georgia boy. I grew up in Augusta, Georgia. Went to the University of Georgia. I will apologize for those who are Gators and Seminoles and all that other stuff. I've been married to my wife Lauren for 22 years. Four kids in the house, six kids total. Got two who have launched. I joined the military in 97 and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So I joined the Air National Guard. I became a weekend warrior. I became an aircraft mechanic. I worked on F-16 fighter airplanes in the Carolina Air National Guard. Loved it. Had a great experience. Got an opportunity to become an aircraft maintenance officer through ROTC. So in 2002, I graduated from Georgia after marrying my wife, which was a wiser choice. And we went off into the active duty Air Force. I served in air combat command for about six and a half years. Thought I was going to do that for the rest of my career. And God has a sense of humor. He gave me an opportunity to go into seminary. I surrendered my career, which I was going to be a commander probably the next three years, to missionary service and went overseas to Asia. Served in Asia for about three years. I was a missions pastor for two. And then I got an opportunity to come down here to Stewart, Florida of all places, to get trained and to engage a lot of people in the streets, in homes, in bars, in tattoo parlors, and just bring hope to a lot of people. And in that season, they recruited me to be a chaplain up at Patrick Air Force Base. And so I became a reserve chaplain. I did that for about two and a half, three years. We had a helicopter go down in Iraq while I was the chaplain up there. And we were able to, I had to pull out of work here in Martin County, serve a lot of the families, lay them to rest, do the memorial services. And then I got pulled back on active duty. Normally, you don't get to do that. And 2019 started back on regular Air Force, served for the last two and a half, almost three years. I was my last job, I was the installation chaplain up at Pope Army Airfield up at Fort Bragg. And I thought I was going to finish my career again. But the vaccine mandates stopped me from being able to finish my career. But even though that happened, we wanted to serve warriors. We had a chance to come alongside warriors. I serve with a group called Walking with Warriors with first responders and military. We love the military. And we love Martin County. And we're thankful. And so I just want you to know we're grateful for this opportunity. And I love serving in the military. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. That's quite a story. Thank you very much for sharing. Okay, the agenda. It's always anticlimactic when we go from that. Now let me tell you about the agenda. We have an additional item, a consent number 16, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board appointment. We have one consent agenda poll, consent number 10, request for approval of an interlocal agreement between Martin County and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, pulled by Commissioner Hurd. We have two items that we have a request to withdraw. Public hearing number three and public hearing number four. They are withdrawn and will return on June 6th. And I believe that is everything at this time. Can you tell me those two again, please? The last two? I'm sorry? Public hearing one and? Public hearing three and four. Great. Want a motion? Yes, please. Move approval of the agenda, the consent agenda with the additional item of consent number 16 and the poll of number 10 and the withdrawal of item, public hearing item three and four. Thank you very much. Thank you. We have a motion to accept the agenda as presented by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We have some proclamations this morning. A lot of things to be happy and thankful for in our community. The first proclamation, actually, before we have one that we need to have a motion for, proclamation number two, adopt and present a proclamation declaring Travel and Tourism Week in Martin County. I'd entertain a motion for that. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Jenkins for proclamation number two, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Now we can present that one. Ms. Beaupre is here. She does an excellent job every time in presenting these and then takes the photographs. So she's still in double duty. Our first one is Stamp Out Hunger Day in Martin County. Good morning, Commissioners. Every year on the second Saturday in May, letter carriers across the country collect non-perishable food as part of the nation's largest one-day food drive, distributing the donations to local food banks. It is important to note that all food collected in our community stays in our community, and we support carriers' efforts to help those in need. Further, the board recognizes all letter carriers and local pantry services for their hard work and commitment to their communities. And here to accept, we have Jenny Carson with House of Hope. Excellent, Jen. So I am the Outreach and Development Coordinator at House of Hope Martin County. We, I'm the same age as House of Hope, which is, I won't tell you, but we'll call it almost 30 years, no, just kidding, almost 40, I don't know how old I am. We celebrate 40 years next year, and we are specialists in empowering and equipping Martin County residents. About 44% of our county, of our neighbors, of our community, are food insecure. So someone you know might not know where their next meal comes from. And House of Hope works with our residents to equip and empower them to overcome that hunger and those hardships. Stamp out hunger. Everything received. It's one of the rare places in the country. It's a national movement with the national letter carriers. But we receive all of the food and items collected. We have 30-plus partners of food pantries and services that actually extend even outside of Martin County that we provide to different pantries. We, ourselves, provide client choice pantries, client services, workforce development. We have thrift stores. We have enrichment centers. We have gardens. We have a produce farm that we also, I believe it's 6,000 packages of produce, some even better than we could get in Publix, goes to the health and the benefit of our community. And the summer is a time that a lot of our incoming donations tend to drop a little. So Stamp out hunger comes at the perfect time for us to be able to provide for our community over the summer. So we are so appreciative and we are so excited. So please, you'll see yellow bags if you haven't already. I carried and touched almost every one, so thank you. So, Philem, we have tried to bless and tried to equip our national carriers because they do this out of service. So, we got them some ibuprofen and some muscle cream and some coffee and some Propel because we know this is going to be a lot of work on the day of. So, just in time for Mother's Day, we want to care for our county. So, thank you all. Thank you. Our next proclamation is recognizing human trafficking awareness in Martin County, Florida. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world behind drug dealing and is a form of modern-day slavery in which human beings are controlled, abused, and exploited for profit through labor and sex. In recognition of May as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the board calls upon our residents to help local organizations eliminate human trafficking through empowering people to see something and say something. Together, we can stop this travesty through awareness, education, restoration, and legislation. And here to accept, we have Sarah Henry, who's with Catch the Wave of Hope and the Florida Faith Alliance, and Lynn Barletta with Visionary School of the Arts, Visionary Centers International, and founder of Catch the Wave of Hope. Hello. Good morning. My name is Sarah Henry, and I'm the executive director at Catch the Wave of Hope. I first heard about human trafficking as a freshman in college, and it was honestly beyond my comprehension. In fact, today, it is still something that is hard to comprehend that a human being can do such a heinous crime to an adult or child. I worked in a safe house for domestic minor girls who had verified cases of human trafficking, and working there changed my life. It is why I'm here today to be a voice for them. They each have stories, names, faces, and are not just a number. The issue of human trafficking, sex torsion, and child exploitation has continued to rise, and it is not a new problem. It is our responsibility as a community to take action because we have an important role to play. There has been a massive increase to the number of cases occurring online with our children. Children no longer have to leave their home to be exploited, trafficked, or taken advantage of. According to the data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the number of reports involving sex torsion more than doubled between 2019 and 2021. Catch the Wave of Hope exists to be a part of the solution in eradicating this issue. The mission and vision of our organization is to be an advocate in our community. We focus on prevention by offering awareness trainings to the community. We equip our audiences with the tools and resources not only to identify what trafficking looks like, but how to safeguard themselves and their children. According to Polaris, who operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the Internet is the top recruiting location for all forms of human trafficking. We also offer therapy for survivors who have been exploited or trafficked. Our organization believes in walking with survivors side by side and supporting them every step of their journey. As an individual who has worked directly with survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation for several years, the trauma a survivor goes through has a lasting, lifelong impact. Survivors are incredibly resilient but are often stigmatized. Their voices are the most important voice to listen to in this fight against trafficking. Today, this proclamation unites our community in a way that has us link arms saying, not here on our watch in Martin County. Thank you. Thank you so much, commissioners, for helping our community to become aware of the fastest growing crime in the world, child trafficking. Florida Faith Alliance and Florida Educators Alliance is bringing awareness in the Treasure and Gold Coast, also Central Florida, with a goal to cover the state. We offer restorative art programs for child and adult survivors that has been shown to help with PTSD and healing. We've also been working with legislation and Bill SB 1690 just passed in the Florida State House to make hotels and safe houses accountable, and there's more to come. FFA has established liaisons with our Sheriff's Department, also Homeland Security, who has an office right here in Stewart. As we are bringing awareness to principals, teachers, churches, and synagogues, we recently turned in a tip that contributed to the arrest of one of the men who were trying to pick up children at bus stops right here in Martin County. That was one of three child predator arrests since December of 2022. Martin County is a wonderful community, but traffickers don't honor county lines, and they transport their victims from county to county as part of their slave trade. My team turned in a tip before the pandemic that led to a bust in Golden Gate that was connected to Lake Worth that was connected to Indiantown. Women and children were rescued right here in our community. It was a large ring servicing hundreds of men, but awareness is a powerful force, and it's for us to unite and fight with as we collaborate with organizations, with law enforcement, with educators, and with leaders, government leaders like yourselves. So that is the call to action. We will be back for more, and we thank you so much. And I want to thank my presenter team. I want to thank Sarah and catch the wave of hope because collaboration is the key. Thank you. I have a second proclamation. Our next proclamation is declaring Memorial Day in Martin County, Florida. Since our nation's earliest days, America has been blessed with an unbroken chain of patriots who have served our country with honor and distinction. From Concord to Kandahar, generations of brave warriors have fought for freedom across the sand and snow, over mud and mountains, into lonely deserts, and through crowded streets. The board recognizes May 29, 2023, as Memorial Day and calls upon all citizens to take the time to remember those who served and sacrificed to be sure this nation remains the bastion of freedom we all have been privileged to enjoy. And here to accept, we have Dan McHenry, who is our veteran service officer. Yes, thank you very much. I don't have anything prepared. I never want to miss an opportunity to thank the board of our 67 counties. We have the best board of county commissioners, the best administrator, and, of course, Michelle Miller, our boss. You guys provide such great support for our 14,000 veterans and families here in Martin County, and we're just so proud and thankful for your support. Indeed, Memorial Day on the 29th, we will be hosting yet another parade and ceremony that kicks off at 10 o'clock at Memorial Park. Hope you can be there and anyone tuned in can be there. It is a celebration and an honor for those who pay the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you once again for your wonderful support. Ready for another one, Laura? I am. Our next proclamation is declaring Historic Preservation Month in Martin County, Florida, in honor of Alice Luckhart. Historic preservation is an effective tool for revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride, and maintaining community character. The Martin County Historic Preservation Board has planned events throughout Martin County during the month of May to increase awareness and the need for public participation in historic preservation in order to save our local treasures. This year's Historic Preservation Month honors Alice Luckhart, a local historian and author who is remembered for her lifelong historic preservation work. And here to accept, we have Sherry Lee, who is the chair of our Martin County Historic Preservation Board. Hi. Good morning, everyone. My name is Sherry Lee. I'm the chair of the Historic Preservation Board, Martin County. Thank you for declaring May Preservation Month. This month, we have a lot of events scheduled. I'd like to invite everyone to attend. We have tours and events scheduled at All Saints Episcopal Church, the Captain Sewell House, Historic Mansion at Tuckahoe, the Historic Log Cabin. We have an 80th anniversary celebration at the Historic Flagler Center. We have the Archaeological Society is doing an event on shipwrecks at the Hope Sound Library. We have events at the Apollo School. And we also have a very important reception at the Elliott Museum honoring our Preservationist of the Year, who is Lloyd Jones, founding chair of Martin County Black Heritage Initiatives. That is on Thursday, May 18th. We hope everyone will be able to be there at the Elliott Museum to celebrate from 5 to 6.30. Thank you very much. And our last one this morning is the one we just voted on earlier, declaring Travel and Tourism Week in Martin County, Florida. Travel and Tourism play a vital role in Martin County's economic prosperity and quality of life of all Martin County residents. National Travel and Tourism Week provides an opportunity to recognize the important contributions of the tourism industry to our community and to encourage residents and visitors alike to explore and enjoy all that Martin County has to offer. The board recognizes May 7th through the 13th as Travel and Tourism Week in Martin County and urges all residents and visitors to celebrate this occasion by patronizing our local businesses and attractions and by experiencing the many wonderful sights and sounds of our community. And here to accept, along with a lot of other folks, we have Nerissa Okie, who is our tourism director. Got a posse. Good morning, Commissioners. I couldn't do it without the ABCDs of tourism. So we have Anna Grace Agnini, Sally Bynon, Ian Centrone, and Emily Dark with us to accept this proclamation. Normally we don't do a proclamation for National Tourism Week, but this is the 40th anniversary. This is a U.S. recognized holiday. And as the 40th anniversary, we really wanted to make sure we were going above and beyond. So as being here with part of National Travel and Tourism Week, we have several programs that are taking place throughout the week. The first is a digital marketing acceleration program that the Martin County Office of Tourism in conjunction with the Tourism Development Council are rolling out this week. This is a free training program to any tourism business, local business here. This will give you a score on your website and lead you through everything you need to make sure that you are doing the best to put your best foot forward as you market your own business here in Martin County. So that kicks off today. And again, that's the Martin County Digital Acceleration Program. And we're also kicking out the start of our ecotourism program. And we're extremely, extremely excited about this. So events will take place. You can go to explorenaturalmartin.com. And the ecotourism program is very unique, and we need to thank Public Works and John Mayle because it's a split between ecosystems and tourism. And it's programming available on all of our public lands for visitors and residents. To make sure that we're doing this properly, we have partnered with Leave No Trace, which is a national organization. Again, we're making sure we have stewardship and sustainability as we move through this program. So thank you so much for recognizing us this week, and we're very excited to be here. Okay, thank you very much for that. We'll now take our public comments. If you're interested in making a public comment, a couple of points for you. If you speak this morning during general public comment on a specific agenda item, and then later the agenda item comes back, you don't get to speak twice on the same topic. So if you can't speak at the item, you can speak this morning, or you can speak to us on any other topic. You'll have three minutes. At the two-minute and 45-second point, you'll hear a tone. That doesn't mean to stop. It just means you have 15 seconds to wrap up your comments. And that's how we do it. I will, if you would like to and you have yet to fill out one of these forms, you can speak first. Just state your name for the record, and then our bailiff can give you one of these forms to fill out afterwards for our clerk. Our first request to speak for him this morning is Mr. Tom Pine. Mr. Pine, good morning and welcome. Good morning. My name is Tom Pine. I'm a resident of Jensen Beach. I've lived in Martin County for 50 years. On February 13, 2023, I did a public record request regarding our newly renovated golf course. I asked for the original cost estimate of the county golf course master design plan and the original cost estimate of construction. Now that some time has passed, I would like the final cost of the county golf course master design plan and the final cost of construction. I would also like the building that houses the bar, restaurant, and high-end hitting bays separated out. For this request, I was charged $40, and it took two months. The answer I got was reminiscent of the days during the illegal expansion of runway 1230 at the Stewart Airport. A first-class dog and pony show. I got about 60 pages of information, but nothing relative to my question. In the real world, these people that came up with this scheme would have been fired, but not in Martin County government. They are patted on the back for keeping the public in the dark as to where our tax dollars are going. As I wait with bated breath to hear our county's definition of the consent agenda, I have read the definition on Google and on Robert's Rules and Order, and it clearly states routine expenditures is what belongs in the consent agenda. That means things like the cost overruns at the county golf course don't belong hidden in the consent agenda. Special rental deals of county buildings with your buddies in the Chamber of Commerce don't belong hidden in the consent agenda. Hidden in the consent agenda today that don't belong there, $2.3 million in contracts for drainage, infrastructure, renovation. Send $750,000 to help the county obtain grants, $667,430 for restroom and laundry room replacement. These are not routine expenditures, and therefore they do not belong in the consent agenda. If the county changes the use of the consent agenda to suit them, they will also have to change the meaning of morals and integrity, because the consent agenda, morals and integrity are all closely intertwined. What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. We want our sidewalks back in downtown Jensen Beach. We don't care how much the Chamber of Commerce helped the four of you get elected. We want our sidewalks back. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Our next request to speak for Ms. Andrew Weber. Good morning. Good to see you. Good morning. My name is Andrew Weber. My husband and I own 7505 Canter Highway, and it's up for a proposed for final site plan for the golf course next door. We just want to make sure, we were told that a residential property would be going next to this, we own 20 acres of agricultural land. The golf course, and next to it would be a residential property. We want to make sure that there is a buffer between that residential property that does not seem to have an entrance to it, as there are only two entrances granted on this site plan. And we just want to make sure that there is something between what would be our agricultural land and this proposed site plan for the golf course. Thank you. Thank you. Our next request to speak for Ms. Jay Orford. What is his name? Bill Flynn is our next request to speak for him. Good morning to everybody on the council. I'm here to talk about a recent beef that I have with the Sailfish Sands golf course. I have in front of me a policy that's been in effect that just started, and as of now, in order to play at the course and to obtain the residential rate, I think the idea, by the way, I'd like to make it clear, residential rate and non-residential rate, I personally think for a lot of reasons, I won't take up your time, they should take a second look at the non-residential rate, have one rate only. But in any event, now the county is requiring that anybody who plays at the course in order to obtain a favorable residential rate, which is about par with every, no puns intended on the word par, but is about the same as every other golf course in the area that I've seen. In order to obtain that to play at Martin County, you have to have a Martin County driver's license, Florida driver's license. This is new. I think it's horrible. We have many people in our group. We live in Conquistador, but there are many other groups around, no doubt, that play there where the people own property. They've owned it for years. They may live in Chicago, but they can't play at the residential rate. As a result, they won't play, especially if it's a husband and wife and that kind of thing, they won't play at the course, they'll go someplace else. The course is advertising constantly for business. Nothing wrong with that, but they're driving away a lot of business at the same time. I think we should be in line with what I have seen from our adjacent counties up in Fort Pierce. There's no resident requirement. Down in Pompano Beach, a copy of your lease agreement and a few other things is all that's required. In the library here, for example, to get a library card, all you need is a copy of your lease. And in adjacent Palm County, Palm Beach County, I think they have the same policy in effect to play as they do in Pompano. Basically, copy of your lease agreement and you can play. I haven't verified this. I don't have a research board or anything like this, but I'm saying this in good faith. I think that you should, I have a copy of the lease, of the current policy if anybody would like it. Is it proper to hand it out here or not? You can hand it to our attorney or bailiff. She's the attorney. Oh, yeah. Bailiff is the one that would tase you. Okay, listen, I think you get the point. I thank you very much for your time and I hope you'll review the situation and I would hope that there'll be a change forthcoming in the county policy and in those who can play on the course as residents. Thanks very much. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye-bye. Don't leave. No, I mean you can sit down, but don't leave the room. That's not an order. That's just a recommendation that I plan on discussing what you mentioned soon. Mr. Warford, would you like to go now? I live in the same – my name is Jay. I've been here about four or five years full-time now, and I have a home right next door to the golf course, so very vested interest in its success. And I also want to say it's marvelous what you guys have done out there. The course is in absolutely great shape. People are doing a really good job of maintaining it, and the services is great. The only thing that I would really like to add to what he said is it would be nice to have a way to have some sort of feedback, a suggestion program, so those of us that play out there can have a little bit of input as to some suggestions. And we think that it might also add in the profitability and the efficiency of it as well. So that's really all I have to say. Thanks for your time. Thank you very much, sir. Appreciate that. Our next request to speak for him is Mr. Richard McDonald. And those of you that are waiting for the CARES graduation and fire prevention, they're coming up next. Sir, good morning and welcome. Welcome back. Most people up here know who I am, met me before. So this was somebody that I met probably around 2007. His name is Leon Charlie Green, and he was working. Well, not working, but he was going to the jail for like 18 years, and he wasn't getting paid to do it. And when I did the public defender, private detective thing, we became friends. And he would tell me how he taught people how to read, how he advocated for them in the jail, and he got them jobs and everything. And one day his car had smoke coming out. And, you know, I've been pretty lucky. I always sell something or do something. So I had money on me. I gave him $500. And then the next time I seen him, he was wearing this chaplain shirt. And I said, what's up? You know, the car had smoke. And he said, well, Richard, I always wanted to own, you know, get this chaplain shirt, and the rest he bought Bibles for the people at the jail. Now, I always said in the past I really couldn't come up here and talk and stuff, so I'm getting better. And I wanted to make sure, because God doesn't promise you tomorrow, that he had a plaque or something at the jail that, you know, if the sheriff and you guys would allow that, that he would be in there. Because people don't, you know, people pass away or your dog pass away or something, and, you know, people like him are not remembered. So I thought that would be a good idea that, you know, he's remembered. People do. I had gone to the jail one time. Not I was in jail. You know, everybody sees me. It's like, Richard, you know, where were you for a few days at the gym? Don't tell us you were at the jail. I'm like, no, I'm not at the jail. Now, I might go to the jail or do the private detective thing at the jail again, but, no, I'm not going to jail. Okay. But, so, yeah, so if that could be done and, you know, I would pay for it and, you know, so people could see that and then, you know, you know, I don't know what to say. You know, I'm not as good a speaker as mostly the other people that come up here, but I give it my best shot. Thank you. You did an excellent job speaking. I appreciate your compassion for this gentleman. If you email any one of the five of us, you can keep the photos. Okay. But if you email any one of the five of us with that information, I'm sure we can take care of it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our last request to speak form, and if anyone else would like to do that, please let me know, is Mr. J. Spicer. Mr. Spicer, I hope you're having a fair day. It's always a good day before you guys. Commissioner, welcome back from what looked like a great trip. Happy day. Just want to take a minute to report on how the fair went this year for everybody. The fair, 501c3 nonprofit, continues its 88 years of service to our community, providing entertainment and agricultural education, as well as facility use to 40 local nonprofits in support and an extension of their program space. We started this year with a Christmas event called the Carnival of Lights, where we had about 15,000 people attend. It featured a winner of the Great American Christmas Light Fight TV show, which is a fabulous Christmas display. We had welcomed over 70 nonprofits to put Christmas displays at the event, and we paid for signs that had QR codes where people could find more awareness of what those groups did and make donations. So we love our nonprofit partners. The fair was in February, and we had about 53,000 paid visitors. We had 132 child 4-H livestock exhibitors, 69 market animals, which were down due to rising costs for food and other production expenses. We had 119 livestock buyers, an auction sales that grossed almost $400,000. With the add-ons, the kids benefited and split a pot of $430,000 for their education. We had 60 sponsoring companies, arts and crafts premiums, 500 individual art exhibits on display, with six elementary schools also participating in group activity. We continued to do ag education. A quick sample, we had given a free chocolate chip cookies, and we had bought an oven to give a cookout cookies, but we had a poster there that showed how many farms does it take to make a chocolate chip cookie. Ten. Ten different farms need to exist for you to have the ingredients to make cookies. We had an award-winning science activity zone again this year. We put in, working with our partners from the Hope Center for Autism, an autism sensory safe room with quiet activities for kids to decompress out of all the lights and noise. We did provide two sensory safe nights, running our carnival for two hours or two different nights with no lights or music in the midway so they could have an experience for themselves. We delivered the finest in entertainment. We included a America's Got Talent Golden Buzzer winner this year, the Fearless Florist, which was welcomed and received very well. This year we had moved our Miss Martin County Fair pageant out of the dust and the dirt and the wind of the fair opening night to the Lyric Theater. We appreciate their support in helping us pull that off. We doubled the entries from recent years in participants, gave out over $6,000 in prize money. We gave out $20,000 in general scholarships. The posse spent parking revenues and bought hogs from the kids and gave it to six food banks. Market animals from U.S. Sugar went to four nutrition programs, and we included Corotery Club, Kiwanis Club, Daughters of America Revolution, Police Explorers, Fire Explorers, Philanthropic Education, the Orchid Society, and more. So it was a good year. Our revenues, we stayed on budget, and will sustain us and support our community for the rest of the year. Thank you. Thank you, sir, very much. Very active and successful year. Thanks. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Joe Flanagan. I'm here as an unofficial and unappointed champion of the Marty system. For those of you that I have on Facebook as friends, you see that I post every chance I get. It's a great system. It is so underutilized. And I hear so many people in the public saying, oh, my gosh, it's a waste of taxpayers' money because nobody ever rides it. So when I was the director of transportation for the school district, it took me about 10 days to change a route and to change a stop. It's a lot more complicated because it's a lot more complicated because you're talking about county and federal and state dollars. And it's very difficult. And it's very difficult. I've had several meetings with Ash. Love him. He's doing a very good job as well as with Beth at the MPO. But my challenge to you as commissioners and everyone else on your staff, ride it. Ride it at least one time and see. It's a very pleasant experience. All the drivers that I had the opportunity to meet are now on my Christmas card list. They're very good people. But it is a great system, and we need to put a little bit more effort into making sure it works better. The one mission that I'm working on right now is bus lanes to be able to pull off. The worst one is on US 1 and Indian Street right there by the Wells Fargo. And if you've ever been northbound on that and the bus doesn't have the ability to pull completely over, there's like 60 feet between there and the Wells Fargo property. We've got to figure out some way to get that bus off of that road. And a couple other things. And the stops, the routes, again, we've got to tweak them a little bit. The one that I pick on the most is when it gets down to Bridge Road in Hope Sound, it turns east and goes through the Zeus Park area. Why not turn right and go through Banner Lake, an underserved community? So, anyway, I'm going to be that guy that meddles in everybody's business, but I'm going to be working on that and support anything you guys can give us. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Joe, I think you just volunteered for a new job. You're done. Hey. In my retirement. No, but like I say, I have a skill set. I have a knowledge of that one, and I will do whatever I need to do to help them to do it. It's just a hard boulder to push up that hill. Joe did an awesome job with the school system and in a whole bunch of different areas in the school system. The bus thing, I thought, was one of the more interesting tasks that he took on. So, I appreciate all your insight. Thank you. Yes, sir. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, let me add to that the need for bus shelters. There are only a couple of them. It breaks my heart to see people standing out on US 1 in the heat and in the rain and in the sun, and there's absolutely no shelter. It's disgraceful. It's graceful. We need to make sure that every stop has a shelter. Agreed. That was one of my questions to the group when I met with them was, how do we determine which stops get a bench and how many of them get a shelter? Love to have them there, but if you also, some of the ones, I want the data that shows how many people get on at whatever stop, and if I could add one more little part to it. When I rode the bus, my first thought as a logistics person was, how many people get on this stop? If only one person a week gets on that stop, why do we even have that stop? When we made a stop, there was a disabled veteran, and the guy says, he gets on here one day a week, he goes and has breakfast, and he comes back. Well, my logic says, well, we've got to do away with that stop, and the answer is no way. That would change that person's life. He gave a lot for his country. We can at least leave a stop there so he can go have breakfast once a week. So, yeah, we'll look at it. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Smith. Joe. Joe. You can't just come up and throw out that guy. Yeah. The shelter thing, from what I recall, we got a grant early on to do the shelters that we got or that we have. So the ones that you see today, I think, that are out there were a prescribed amount. And those federal dollars and state dollars are, at best, not consistent in terms of what you can get. But I would agree, and, Sarah, I agree, I also, if we are to pay attention to something like that out front of the library here, in terms of that stop with what goes on with Monterey, is another spot that, you know, we had some challenges with relative to where we could and where we couldn't put stops. But that whole pullout idea, I think, is an excellent idea that we should work on. One of the things I was told that I was not aware of is where that stop is. Because ADA requires it to be within 50 feet of a major intersection. And I'm like, boy, who came up with that idea? Well, and we could go on forever on this. I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry. My three minutes is, like, way up. I'll chat with you later. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else? I was wondering. I didn't see your. There it is. Our next. Anyone after Mr. Gaza that would like to address us, please request us. Mr. Gaza, good morning and welcome. Good morning. Nice to see everybody. My name is Zach Gaza, and today I'm going to use my three-minute public comment opportunity to talk about Palmar. Your board of county commissioners has not spoke much about Palmar at public meetings. I realize and respect the enormous workloads each of you have, and I appreciate what you all do for this county, staff included. But somehow, meeting after meeting, Palmar just keeps missing these agendas. So I'm here to talk about it. I'm a Martin County taxpayer, business owner, and property owner of over 2,500 acres in Palmar. For five years now, I've been trying to work with the county in order to preserve parts of Palmar. I've pitched many different ideas to both staff and individual commission members. However, there's been no initiative by the county to work with private landowners to make any large-scale preservation efforts. Propositions I've made have included preserving two-thirds of the property and creating a private ranch out of the remaining one-third, or trading out unused and unmanaged Martin County-owned Palmar properties for more environmentally sensitive private properties within Palmar that abut the Hungryland Wildlife Management Area. Other propositions have included programs where the county would be able to purchase thousands of remaining privately-owned acres within Palmar over the next 20 years. However, this board has not shown the initiative to work with me. 2,500 acres of pristine Martin County property just keeps missing these agendas. Due to your unwillingness to work with me on preservation over the years, I've sold close to 300 acres to local recreational users, many of whom are also Martin County residents. If your board continues to avoid working with me, I'll be selling off over 2,000 more acres to individuals and families looking to own a piece of Martin County. Today, for the first time, I'm announcing to my buyers from the east side of Palmar the opportunity to trade their land out for properties on the west side, closer to Payson Park, due to unlawful access obstacles the government is attempting to carry out. I think you'll see more and more that infringing on private property rights is not the answer to your Palmar woes, but instead, it'll compound them. Although I won't have time to finish my presentation today, I'll return for as many meetings as I have to and speak for three minutes at a time. So let's get started. What is Palmar? Palmar is a water control district. Florida Statutes Chapter 298 designates water control districts around the state of Florida for purposes of managing water and drainage within a certain area or district. Palmar is one of 66 designated Chapter 298 districts across the state shown on this map. Would anyone like to copy? I brought extras. Thank you. Zach, your time is up. Thank you, sir. We'll see you. Thank you. Anyone else like to address us this morning before we continue? Seeing none, I'd like to take up a proclamation presentation, presentation of the preservation of Martin County, excuse me, presentation of Martin County Fire Rescue's fire prevention with a special recognition award from Safety Council of Palm Beach County. It'll be presented by not the names that are on my sheet, but these three fine-looking gentlemen. Again, the one on the crutches has stood in the back of the room the entire time. Gentlemen, good morning, and thank you for what you do. Good morning. For the record, my name is Division Chief of Admin Christian Montoya, Martin County Fire Rescue. I'm joined alongside Deputy Fire Marshal Chris Hansen, as well as Josh Jenkins, Community Risk Reduction Specialist. Recently, the fine gentleman of fire prevention were recognized for some awards. As you may know, Martin County Fire Rescue, not only do we provide life safety to the residents of Martin County, one of the most underlooked things that we do is fire prevention. So with these awards, we were, through the Safety Council of the Palm Beaches, they were recognized for a couple programs, and I'll speak a little bit about those. Community Connect is the first one. Community Connect is a program that we have through First Due that was recently brought through the first couple, two years ago. I have someone here to help with. Community Connect, you look in the front, there is that flyer there. It's got a QR code. You can sign up for it. What Community Connect essentially does is allows everybody the ability to provide essential information as the first responders and emergency personnel is responding to the incident, where pets are located, special needs, people on oxygen, any type of those things. We're able to secure those locations, and we know where they're at. One of the other things that they were recognized for was the residential readiness. Residential readiness is a program that we offer to the residents of Martin County to keep them safe, to the underserved communities, as well as people who need other assistance. Some of that does include fire alarms, excuse me, smoke detectors. So the smoke detector program that we offer, in 2022, we offered over 110 smoke detectors that were installed to the residents of Martin County. And then finally, the last one I'll speak about is the Martin Cares program, which you're going to be recognized as a graduate of that recently. So the Martin Cares program is one of the integral parts that we do with that is through fire prevention, is to show the side-by-side smoke burn simulator, as it has some stuff inside of it, as well. And we also do fire extinguishers, that we do a program that Josh Jenkins does. That's very well with that. So that's it. We just wanted to talk to you a little bit about fire prevention and what we do on a day-to-day basis. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Okay. Since it is the season of graduations, not just in college and high schools, we are having our own graduation ceremony this morning. I look forward to seeing your parents post pictures on Facebook of you spraying champagne or standing in a fountain or swimming in a football field, like waving your diploma in the air or throwing your cap in the air. Mr. Stokas will be making the presentation. He's sort of the principal of the Cares High School. And so the Cares program, if you're not familiar with it, is a program that the county runs free of charge for residents. We do how many a year? Two a year. The season is over. But they pick back up in the fall of next year, January, in the winter of next year. There's two different seasons. They are six Thursday mornings. And you go to different locations in the county. You speak to and are presented by nearly all of the departments, fire rescue, as you heard, the sheriff's office, all of our departments. And I have never run into a graduate that said it was a waste of time. I think the program is enlightening. It's interesting. It's entertaining. I'd like to thank our staff that works very hard behind the scenes to make it look easy, because it's not. And with that, Mr. Stokas, would you please announce our most recent graduates? Good morning, commissioners, members of the public. Today, I'm pleased to welcome some representatives of our 62nd CARES class. Through our CARES class, Martin County provides our residents an opportunity to meet people who plan and build projects, carefully manage tax dollars, and are stewards of our land. They learn about our county's history, tour county facilities, and gain a strong understanding of how our local government works. Additionally, we are always excited to have a few employees in the class. It provides perspective, strengthens connections, and gives them the opportunity to see some of the projects and places, as well as people they work with, but have never had the opportunity to meet face-to-face or see the project through completion. These folks have spent six days with us, learning more about how we use taxpayer funds to manage programs and projects benefiting the residents, visitors, and the environment. Upon completion of the program, they have now joined nearly 3,000 other residents who have first-hand knowledge of the structure and function of county government. I'd like to read the names of the entire class in alphabetical order, and I invite those representatives to present, to come up, as their name is called, and join us for a photo here entering the well on my left. And commissioners, if you could please come down for the photo opportunity. I also want to take an opportunity to thank Martha Ann Kness and Dana Stonebreaker, especially for their assistance in this program. And I am, for sure, and without a doubt, going to mess up at least one or two of these names. But Anna Grace Agnini, I'll probably mess that one up, actually. So, Lee Baggett, Shelby Baker, Jody Borecki, Katie Carroll, Carrie Casper, Emily Dark, Sandra Ellingson, Stephanie Enos, Mark Fecto, Barbara Faye Dorr-Cheek, Samuel Grimm, Patty Higginbotham, Karen Higara, Tracy Hurt, Lorisha and Jerry Yacomino, Dana Carroll, John Lang, Kelly Lehman, Linald and David McGee, Carol and John McDonough, we'll go with that. I apologize, Carol and John. Lisa Medina, Diane Meyer, Jackie Ng, Sandra and Don Page, Sarah and Don Page, Nisha Parker, Martha Perriman, Melissa P, Tony Puerta, Valerie Rutter, Susan and Frank Salo, Maria Sims, John and Louis Slim, Lori Slonim, Tripp and Lynn Strauss, Tim and Tracy Swords, Martha V. Horn, Sonia Warren, and Candy Wright. We'll do a photo and then we'll go out there. And then I'll lead you out and I'll give you a smile. Okay, scoot in. Everybody scoot in. Scoot in, act like you like each other. Everybody scoot in this way. Handful right here. I need everybody to smile. Don't close your eyes. I'm going to take a few. One, two, three. It's like trying to find everybody's face. Guys, can you come this way? We can go this way? Yeah, grab it. We're just meeting out in the lobby. We'll get to the people in the lobby. You want some music next? I'll slow it down a little. Yeah. George, how many? George. George. How many people were in that class? Which is why there'd be a no. 43, I think? 43, that's what I was going to say. Okay. Thank you for hanging in there, all of the inner workings of the meeting. Time's up. We've used up all our time for the day, so the rest of the agenda will be, no. If only it were that easy. We have now commissioner comments and we will start with you, Commissioner Hurd. I'm set. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins. I'm good, thank you. How about that, Commissioner Hetherington? Oh, well, speaking of graduates, because our meeting is, our next meeting is June 6th, so our high school graduates will have graduated, my son including. He's graduating from Martin County High School next week. Today is their very last day of school, actually, and the seniors. So, congratulations to all of the graduates in Martin County, and we're very proud of you, and wishing all the fabulous mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day this weekend. That's fantastic. Well done. Boom, boom. Commissioner Smith. I'm all set and ditto. Wow. I'll see you in 16 years for that same time. Yes. Just 16 short years for you, Commissioner Smith, and you'll be up here saying congratulations to my daughter. A couple of things. One, since we are congratulating, I'll take a moment of personal privilege. This coming week, I will be going to Annapolis, where my son will be graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. And thank you. Thank you. I will share that. That's his. I don't mean to sound braggy. He did all the work, and then he'll be going on to Pensacola to become a naval aviator pilot. So, very exciting. After spending a month in Indonesia, which that's what everyone does when you graduate, right? Of course. I did not pay for that. The other point that I wanted to make for Parks and Rec is the comment that we heard this morning about the golf course. I appreciate all of the fine accolades of the course, but I agree with our two speakers that a residency issue versus a non-residency issue, I get that. I think they have that everywhere in the country on all sorts of different things. We've had issues with boat ramps where our residents have asked that there be a residency benefit for Martin County residents, for Martin County boat ramps, but we can't do that because we have taken grant money from the state and federal government to do those, so we couldn't. However, I do believe that the concept of having a residency versus non-residency benefit for residents at the course makes sense. However, being in Florida with so many snowbirds and so many folks that live in two different locations, if you live in Ohio or Michigan or New Jersey or California, it doesn't mean that you also don't officially live here. Now, I know that there's homestead issues and those kind of taxation issues, but getting onto your local golf course shouldn't require a driver's license because many people don't want to switch their driver's license from their state where they spend some of their time. But ours is better looking. I would make a suggestion to my colleagues that hopefully will resonate in Parks and Rec that a lease for a rental property or a title for a property that you own should be enough of an ID for proving that you have some, you know, you're paying taxes here, you're living here, you didn't just stop by to play golf. So I would ask that that be taken care of. The second suggestion, which is that there be a suggestion box or some type of feedback, most, and I think we do it in plenty of other departments, and maybe they do it here and you haven't seen it, I'm not aware, but I agree with you that taking feedback, especially during a brand new unveiling of a process, is the perfect thing to do because the folks that are using our systems, our parks and rec in this particular case, are the perfect ones to offer that feedback. They come from a multitude of different perspectives and experiences and history, and why wouldn't we want to hear their feedback, good or bad? So I think that that's an important, if it's there, they need to promote it and let the folks that are there understand what it is, and if it's not there, it needs to be. So I appreciate that very much. In terms of the woman that had a question about the residential property and buffering ag land, we can bring that up during the agenda item, and Commissioner Hurd, you had a consent poll. Before we do that, Mr. Donaldson, do you have anything this morning? Ms. Woods, thank you. Commissioner Hurd, you had a consent poll. It was consent agenda number 10, request for approval of an interlocal agreement between Martin County and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. Why don't we take that now? I see some members of the Planning Council are here, and since you pulled it, why don't you tell us your feedback, please? I have a number of questions and concerns about this. This regards the evaluation and appraisal report, which is, to my understanding, is in order to reconcile Florida statutes with our comprehensive plan, but it looks like it's morphed into something much, much, much more than that, including amending the shoreline protection zones, shared infrastructure by different future land use designations, reconsider density transition provisions for infill development, and change the methodology for calculating population and future development capacity. Why are those things being added? Why are those things being targeted? What's wrong with those things? Are you talking about decreasing shoreline protections? Are you talking about decreasing density transitions, increasing them? For the record, Clyde Doolin, Comprehensive Planning Administrator. Commissioner, this is part of the evaluation and appraisal report process. Part of that involves, you're absolutely correct, making sure our plan is consistent with Florida statutes, but in the process, what also happens is there's a need for public comment and public input and for local issues that rise to the surface. Those are just possible examples that could be considered, and there may be others, in fact, that the community may wish to consider. The primary purpose of this interlocal agreement is for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council to hold a series of public meetings so the public can provide input on the evaluation and appraisal that we're doing and on changes that they would like to see in the plan, if they have any. I will continue. Part of the outreach is going to, the team will, not the county, the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, will conduct up to 30 stakeholder interviews, either at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council offices or virtually, and county staff will recommend those 30 people. Based upon what? Commissioner. So 30 people are going to get to participate in this. Paul Schilling, Growth Management Director. That provision, as I understand it, would involve folks that have reached out to the department that are, and those could be homeowners, those could be developers, those could be people in the environmental arena that are requesting changes potentially as a result of the evaluation and appraisal report. So it's not necessarily limited to those folks. The way that this will work, as we understand it and our wish is, is that it would involve public participation and, in fact, collaboration and getting all that information in one place so that we can digest it and make representations and recommendations to this board. That's not what the language says. The language says that staff will identify up to 30 stakeholders to interview. I don't have any idea what those interviews are going to be about. I don't have any idea who those stakeholders are going to be, but it seems like way too little to contemplate changing the comprehensive plan by talking to 30 targeted people that county staff is going to recommend. Furthermore, there are going to be two public workshops. None here, two public workshops before the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council makes recommendations about big, big, big changes to the comprehensive plan. And the public is going to have two opportunities to hear what those proposed changes are before recommendations are made by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council on December 1st of 2023. And the public outreach is going to occur, according to the calendar in the packet, in July, August, and September, when half of our residents are gone. This is, this is, there is no, there's, there's so little public involvement in this extremely important proposal to amend, to completely change our comprehensive plan. When the purpose of the year is to make it compliant with Florida statutes, to make it compliant with all the changes that have occurred in the state government that have happened since the last time that we did this year. I remember the last time we did it, we had, pardon me, dozens of public meetings. And now we're contemplating two. And none of them are here. Mr. Donaldson. I was just going to state that, you know, we've had a number of presentations over the last year, one in particular on resiliency. And there were some suggestions at that time that you consider how we would deal with some of the provisions of road elevations and how people's properties interface with the river, how we were going to address that. So that's part of the issue related to shoreline protection, dealing with existing properties. And your Economic Council also had several provisions that asked us to consider. And then, of course, more recently we've had the legislature make a number of changes this year that we have to adopt. And, in fact, there are some deadlines that will be added to this list just in terms of to meet state requirements. And so the purpose of engaging the Regional Planning Council was that our staff, one, needs assistance in the public participation process and to help facilitate a better product. And that's essentially what we're asking the Regional Planning Council assistance on is that public outreach and assistance. Commissioner. Staff's table. Yes, sir. If I may, I'd like to add, in addition to the two presentations, there's a public input survey that the RPC staff proposes to use. And following the presentations to the public meetings that the RPC would hold, there would be a public presentation to the local planning agency, as you see on the screen, followed by a public presentation to the Board of County Commissioners, showing what has been received in terms of public comment and public input. Also, if it's the pleasure of the Board to add additional to this interlocal, there could be additional public meetings, discussions, as you see fit. I'd also like to add that the public survey is going to be done via the county's website. This is just, it's disgraceful that this is how we are planning to engage our public in the wholesale changing of our comprehensive plan. Thank you. If I might offer some counterbalance. I believe that this process that's just beginning is the framework for moving forward in a mandated process. It's just a framework, and I think that, you know, and look, with all due respect to my colleague, Commissioner Hurd, many of her comments are not surprising. She is very concerned about any changes at all to the comprehensive plan and to different codes and regulations. I get that, but some, and I know that it's dramatic, but the wholesale change or complete destruction or, and I'm just paraphrasing, of our comprehensive plan is not what this is about. I don't believe it will end up being that. I get that you are upset by this process, suggestion of this process, but I don't think it will be as dramatic as you're making it sound. I was involved last time when we did it. You know, the process can get tumultuous, and differences of opinion is the foundation of debate for as passionate as you are, Commissioner Hurd, and a lot of your constituents, including some of us, depending on the item, that we do not want to see changed or weakened, if you will. There are as many people that live day-to-day with some level that a regulation might be adversely affecting them, and their opportunity to express their opinion, even if it disagrees with your opinion, is their right. And so it's not like this is, you know, and I don't believe it will be, and time will bear witness. Sir, everything okay? Can I help you? Okay. Thank you. We can give you an agenda. All of our names and the agenda are printed on it, sir. Sure. If you take a seat, we're going to get you a copy of the agenda. Thank you. I was just saying that this is an opportunity for the public, whether they are for changes or against changes, to be heard. They'll be heard from a, you know, I believe an unbiased organization. Some will say no. Again, differences of opinion. But in the United States, and especially here, I would hope that every side will have an ample opportunity to express whether they want it to stay exactly the same or see changes. If there is concern with the process today and the days leading forward could be the time that any one of the five of us can ask for whatever we feel fit. If there's only two general large public meetings, I'll have my own in Palm City or in District 5, if you will, so that District 5 residents can stay local and come to the Cummings Library or New Hope Fellowship, whatever. So no one, the only thing I will guarantee is that everyone has the opportunity to present their opinions, whether they want it to be left the same or made more stringent or if they want to see certain aspects eased. I'm all about public opinion. Commissioner Hurd and I will agree that the more public opinion, the better the process. Now, I understand that the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council can't just be having weekly meetings, and even though I remember when we did the CRA, they are up to the challenge of hearing what everyone wants to say. At the end of the day, all of that feedback will come back to the five of us, and we will decide if there will be changes or not, and if there are changes, what will they look like? But I will commit with, I believe, Commissioner Hurd, that as many meetings are necessary for the public to be able to present. Now, that being said, quite often, if you have the meetings during the day, people at work can't come. If you have the meetings at night, parents and people that are coming home from work have children and homework and bedtime and bath time to take care of, so we'll have to have a mix of meetings. We'll have to have a mix of locations. I think the concept of doing things virtually is the new norm. You know, in the beginning of the pandemic, when people were Zooming and Skyping and everyone was like, wow, this is sort of odd, it's not odd anymore. It's the way it is. So I think having some of those meetings done virtually, the 30 people, it said up to 30, you know, short of people flooding the list to try to prove a point that they can bring, you know, 100 people that are going to demand an individual meeting. It also didn't, you didn't mention that it could be a group, an association, an organization that would be one meeting representing hundreds of people. So I don't know if we're going to take the first 30 people that sign up and that would be the end of it. But I do agree that at some point that you have analysis paralysis or that you just overwhelm a system designed to let people participate purely for the idea of overwhelming the system. And with that, we'll start with Commissioner Smith and then back to you, Commissioner Hurd. Mr. Chair, I think one of the more important, I think, things you touched on, the work that I've been able to do with the Regional Planning Council over the last 20-plus years, there is or are no one better in the industry of doing public outreach. We are by far the most skilled, most talented, most inclusive, just by DNA, organization that exists, period. I, I, we've hired consultants before on different types of structures that we are involved in. And the thoroughness and the, and the, the ability to outreach and get people to put on paper what they're thinking and to document what they're thinking and to take all of that stuff and, and, and mash it into a response to us, I, there is no better. And, um, uh, we are incredibly fortunate that they are right here in our community. They're not in Fort Lauderdale, they're not in Miami, they're not in Orlando, they're right in Stewart. And so, the ability to understand our local community, understand the footprint which we operate in, uh, but also understand the requirements of the state and understand, um, the expectations that there will be things that we will not like, um, that the state is mandating on us that we will have to incorporate. Uh, this year was an unprecedented year with that energy, um, and, uh, the years to come are only going to get harder, I think. And so, um, explaining and, and getting and helping our public understand those nuances of what is our role and what is the state's role and, and, and what are they telling us we are going to do, uh, or they have decided we are going to do, um, is, I think, one of the more important segments of this conversation that, in this requirement, it will give us the opportunity to share that with the public and get them to better understand that relationship between state and local government and where we have say and where we don't have say. But, um, I agree with your comments, Commissioner, and, and I have no doubt that if, if the RPC sees moving into this that we need, uh, more, uh, engagement, uh, I have no doubt that they will let us know and they will facilitate that, uh, very, very well. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, it's Martin County's comprehensive plan, not the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council's comprehensive plan. If we're going to be contemplating revisions, we should be the ones doing that outreach, figuring out, you know, focusing on what revisions are going to be made. We are five elected representatives. They are not. Furthermore, we are going to be paying $83,000 in order to have someone else do our job. Um, and the recommendations are going to be presented to us to adopt in December 1st of 2023 after two public meetings. This is a dangerous precedent to set. I feel that the, uh, comprehensive plan will be weakened on December 1st of 2023. Again, I appreciate your opinion. Uh, I would disagree with some of that. I think it's not uncommon that, uh, organizations hire professionals to consult and participate. We have requested that our staff, uh, that is staffed at a level that I believe is appropriate, but sometimes people come and go. And when you have a smaller staff, a single, uh, um, person to depart can change the requirements that our staff is absolutely responsible for reviewing and planning. So when I looked at the, uh, I'm not a tremendous fan of outside consultants. However, when appropriate, it's appropriate. And when we select, as Commissioner Smith said, an organization that is, I'm sure, uh, award-winning and prized, if you like what they come up with, you think they're geniuses. If you do not like what they come up with, then they're, they're complete hacks. Uh, I think that they have done a remarkable job of understanding and navigating. And to Commissioner Smith's point, they're locals. They understand exactly the ebb and flow of Martin County. They're not from Tampa or Miami where they'd have to come up here and understand who the, the players are and what the, the vibe of Martin County is. They already get that. So for $83,000, um, which I think is a reasonable dollar amount in a world where everything is much more expensive than it used to be. I thought that that was an appropriate number. Uh, there's going to be a lot of work. I do take, um, issue with you saying that we are somehow giving up our responsibilities. The skill set and the resumes and the history and experience that the folks at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council have and our growth management experts have, I don't have that skill set. I have other skill sets, but I wouldn't say that the five of us, which have an eclectic background of experience, would be able to take on this very technical. And important job. It's mandated by the state of Florida. So it's not like we just decided to do that. And the sky is falling strategy, or this is a disgrace, in my opinion, is a little over the top. Uh, the process hasn't even begun yet. We might get to December 1st and everyone might be very comfortable with the fact that it is what it is, that it stayed very close to the same, or there were a couple minor changes that, that changed. What the most important thing that I've heard this morning was from Commissioner Smith, who said, we have not seen anything yet. The live local law, not the legislation anymore, the law. I have been spending time trying to educate groups of people, and Mr. Schilling and I had an opportunity to speak to 60 or 70 people in Palm City recently. I don't believe our general public has any idea what took place in Tallahassee. It is so complex that our professionals and professionals that do this out of the county are still wading through the 94 pages of the legislation when most, and we're going to talk about it this afternoon during our legislative wrap-up, it passed the Senate on the first day of session unanimously. All of the Republicans and all of the Democrats agreed on the live local law. We had a press conference right in this very room where we explained very cautiously to Mr. Donaldson's very big concerns that this statewide one-size-fits-all change in developmental rules and regulations might be terrific in Tampa or Jacksonville or Orlando, but might not work well in Stewart. And word came down from Tallahassee to me, and I don't know about my colleagues, but to me, because I was the one speaking at the press conference, to be quiet and to not rock the boat. And it passed, and it quickly got to the governor's desk and it signed. It will dramatically change what's going to happen here. And so this timing with this ear, I think, is appropriate because Commissioner Hurd and Commissioner Smith have been up here for a long time. They've seen all sorts of comings and goings. And both of them, I think, as our historians on the board would tell you, it's historic. The changes that were made this year will dramatically change. And I'm not going to start to get into all of them, but for what we already know, our residents will be very surprised. And if we don't take proactive steps to show that we get it next year or the year after, Tallahassee will tell us what we need to get. So I think it's important that we sort of take a mild, middle-of-the-road approach to this so that we at least look like we understand what we're being told to do. Because if we're going to be one of those counties that don't, someone else upstate in Tallahassee will tell us how it's going to look. And Commissioner Hurd, you'll have no voice in that conversation. None of us will. We'll hear from a new voice right now. Commissioner Hetherington. All right, I'll echo some of those comments, and I'll just summarize that I think the opportunity to have Treasure Coast Regional Planning do public outreach, that's the most important thing. So you're going to facilitate the outreach. If we need more than, you know, some meetings and, you know, stakeholder groups, I take those as, you know, up to 30-some-odd stakeholder groups with different input. And I like the idea of putting it on our website and have people being able to take a survey. And they may not attend a meeting, but they might be able to provide some comments. And then the Regional Planning Council, I assume, will take all that input and data and wrap it up. And then at the end of the day, staff will get that feedback and staff will present it to us five. And we'll get to make the ultimate determination. So I think it's necessary. I think the public outreach is good. Treasure Coast Regional Planning did a good job at the CRA. The outreach was phenomenal. And I've used them just to do some traffic calming, you know, community meetings in my district. And the facilitation of gathering that input and putting it together was most certainly helpful. And it was most certainly helpful to the residents. So I like the public interaction. And I think I will certainly do something in my district. And if we need more, then I think we can probably add that in. Thank you. Commissioner Smith. Two last points. Paul, I assume that you'll be working with the Regional Planning Council throughout the process. Yes, of course. Well, I understand that. But maybe the way it was sort of talked about was that here, Regional Planning Council, you go away, you do all this, and we'll see you in six months in December. It will be not quite constant communication, but it will be regularly scheduled communication as to updates and progress and pain points, so forth and so on. Right. I assume that. I just want the public to hear you all say that you're not walking away from this effort. We haven't hired the Regional Planning Council to be the sole purpose of doing this. So you will have engagement throughout the entire process. Yes, sir. Second part of that that I think probably most of the public probably doesn't know or maybe doesn't understand is the relationship between the Regional Planning Council and the four counties that they serve or that they are. We are quasi-governmental partners. We, all four counties, pay into the Regional Planning Council. We have a contribution level that we participate in by population base, and we have, I think we have three board members from the county on the Regional Planning Council, two or one at large and two full-time, plus, well, yeah, county for this purpose, but we also have city representation, and we also have gubernatorial appointees. So we are fully engaged as board members of the Regional Planning Council and have ownership in the Regional Planning Council. So it's not as if the Regional Planning Council is an outside agency that has absolutely no connection to Martin County whatsoever. They very much are welded to the hip with us and have been for 30-plus years or so, right? So they are our partners. They are as much, I view them as much of our staff as the two gentlemen sitting at our table, and they treat us and work with us as such. So I would expect and have no doubt that they will produce for us a very well thought through, very well organized, and very well produced program that we will then decide whether we like that or not. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And with that, do you want to motion or do you want to ask for public? I'll ask for public, since we're talking about public participation. If any members of the public would like to address us on this topic before we take a vote, remember this is the beginning of the process. Seeing none, back to the board. Mr. Chair, I would move approval of the recommendation. Thank you. One point, I'd like to have, I think all of us would, maybe a monthly update through the process from our staff just to give us an idea of what's going on while it's in real time instead of waiting until the later portion when you've already done a tremendous amount of the work and we're hearing about it. I would also like to say that the difference of opinions of the five of us is what makes this a sort of a very highly functioning board. I know that, and today is just another example of it, that Commissioner Hurd will hold our staff's feet to the fire, will stay on top of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. Whether she votes for this today or not, I don't know if she will. But even if she votes no, she's not going to remove herself from the process, nor would we want her to. She has a long history of making sure people are being held accountable. I have no problem with that. I agree with her that this is an important process, and decisions that are made, if they are made, can change people's, you know, lifestyles or life circumstances. So I appreciate that, and I think that's what makes, you know, the board sort of whole-bodied. And with that, I have a motion for staff's recommendation from Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? All those opposed? Opposed. The motion carries four to one with Commissioner Hurd dissenting. I have one question. Is the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council acting as our agent? Are they responsible for public records? Do they have to produce public records the same way that we do? Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney, yes. They will have to keep any records, and if we ask for them. Any draft will be available? They will have to buy by all public record laws, and I believe it's in the contract. But they are subject to public records just like we are. Okay, thanks. Thank you. With that, let's take our closed captioning mid-morning break, and we'll return at 11 o'clock. Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. Okay, we are back from our mid-morning closed captioning break. It is still May 9th, 2023, and we're continuing our Board of County Commissioners meeting. We are now going to take agenda item B and C, number one, Boards and Committees, number appointments number one, Neighborhood Advisory Committee appointments. Ms. Gordon will be presenting this item, and the voting sheets have been submitted, I believe. Yes. Ms. Gordon, good morning. You are recognized. Thank you, Donna Gordon, for administration. Golden Gate Neighborhood Advisory Committee, Mr. Brad Tanzer received three votes. Ms. Winesom-Hatton-Weiss received two votes. Hopesound Neighborhood Advisory Committee, Mr. Mitchell Miller received three votes. Dr. Nicole Townsley received two votes. And I'm also asking that you appoint Mr. Chris Pinkston to the Old Palm City Neighborhood Advisory Committee and Ms. Wendy Clayton to the Port Salerno Neighborhood Advisory Committee. Thank you very much. Oh, okay. I'll make a motion to approve Brad Tanzer, Mitchell Miller, Chris Pinkston, and Wendy Clayton. Second. Thank you. We have a motion to accept staff's information as presented by Commissioner Hetherington, seconded by Commissioner Hurd. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Those carry unanimously. Thank you very much. Our next agenda item is public hearing number one, a public hearing for the Federal Transit Administration, FTA, Fiscal Year 20, Section 5307, Urbanized Formula Funding. It'll be presented by Ashman Beecher. Good. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Ash Beecher. I'm transit administrator, and I'm here to speak to you about the FTA Section 5307 formula funding. So, Martin County's public transit system is partially funded by a federal transit administration grant that must be applied for each year. The grant application requires Martin County Board of County Commissioners to conduct a public hearing that encourages public participation and opportunities for the community to comment on the program of projects for the filing of the FY 2020 Section 5307 grant application. This application is to keep the MARTI system running. Do you have any questions? Thank you. Nice presentation. Short and sweet and to the point. We appreciate that. Ash. questions for Mr. Beecher? Not anyone from the... Okay, comment. There's a comment. I just want to thank Mr. Beecher for actually getting some stops that were desperately needed in my district. What? Put in the correct spot for people to actually be able to use it. So, he did a great, and his staff did a great job pulling that off. Why do you got to rub that in my face? How many stops do we have in Palm City so far, Mr. Beecher? It's not your fault. We have no stops in Palm City at this time. Zero stops. Biggest community in Martin County, 23,000 residents. We'd love to get a stop. I don't know who I have to ask. Beg? How many stops are there in Hopestown? Probably 15, 20. Well, we recently had six additional stops installed in District 3. So, we've probably got nine. Yeah. Nine, and Palm City has zero. And it's such a perfect loop. Come over the Veterans Bridge. Stop at the post office. Go down by the turnpike onto Martin Downs Boulevard. Stop. Go up to the next corner. Stop. Go over the Palm City Bridge. You did it. Or head back out to Indiantown. We need a loop. You want to drive up ridership. Come to Palm City. I think it's a generational issue. I think you have to start having high school kids realize that there is a different form of transportation than the parents giving them a car. Because I grew up with a bus. Your parents, you know, cars are expensive. There's a lot of cars on the road. Insurance is expensive. Gas is expensive. Kids could get around to the beaches, to the Walmart, to the mall, out to Indiantown, out to wherever they need to go on public transportation. We said if we build it, they will come. You've built it. I think you've done a great job. We did have some conversation. I don't know if you were following along this morning about bus stops and shelters. Commissioner Smith educated us that there was funding that came for the amount of shelters that were necessary. Many of us here and that are listening have traveled. I've been to some cities that have gorgeous bus shelters that are, like, architecturally sort of appropriate to the communities that they're in. I'd love to see that, especially in Palm City. And then the other suggestion this morning was that the buses have to have the complete sort of the cut into the sidewalk or the curb, if you will, so that the bus can completely come out of the travel lane and so that people can use it more. There was a suggestion at heading north on US 1, just north of Indian Street, about where the Wells Fargo and the Kia is, that it's a little dangerous for folks to get off there. You also received accolades this morning from Joe Flanagan, who volunteered his full and complete time and support for anything that you would need. You know, and he was rebuffing that there is some comments about that it would be easier to get rid of the system. You know, I remember a long time ago before the system was really as robust as it was that I used to say it would be less expensive to just go around and pick up the people that needed to be picked up in a cab or now Uber. But I disagree with that. I think we need to double down on the process because Indian River County, which we consider our sister county in population and geographic kind of size, how many riders do they have compared to us? Ten times as many riders? We have 90,000 and they have over a million, right? So it's not like the system can't work or that folks in Florida don't want to ride. And you've invented and created a perfect system. We just need to have more people ride it, and you can start that process by putting some stops in Palm City. We are working on a plan of action for a Palm City route. I also have a meeting with the Florida Department of Transportation regarding that U.S. one and Indian recommendation from Mr. Flanagan. I believe his assessment of the system was fair. And shelters, you know, we have, of course, we have to look at the capital costs of installing additional shelters, and there's also a right-of-way to consider. But, yeah, all in all, I think we are doing a fairly decent job of keeping the system running. You're doing a good job. Thank you. Yeah, you're doing. Mine were compliments, not criticism. If you were to be able to get a station in Palm City, we'll get you the right-of-way, and we'll pay for our own shelters. I'm putting that out there. We'll pay for the shelters. I don't mean I will pay for the shelters. Collectively, Palm City will figure out a way to pay for those shelters. So there's nuance words you have to listen to. No, I think, are you allowed to have the shelters be sponsored, privately sponsored? Yes, we are. Okay. Yeah. How much does the shelter cost? Between $9,000 to $10,000. Oh, come on. I thought you were going to say $100,000. A $10,000 shelter? I'll get you two shelters today. Well, thank you for your support, Commissioner. Oh, you have it? Well, no, mine is future support. It's future support because I don't have anything to support you with except the overall system. Does every other district have a bus station except for Palm City? Correct. Bus stop. Yeah. Every other, I mean, I'm half kidding, but I'm really serious. I cannot imagine that Palm City doesn't have a bus stop. So we are also working with the MPO on an efficiency study to see how we can improve the system, make it more efficient, and identify those underserved areas in Martin County. And Palm City, thus far during our efficiency study open house, was identified as one of those areas that could definitely benefit from more of a community transportation. using smaller types of vehicles, more like a medium-sized light-duty bus, to see how that would work first. And, yeah, I think it's a great direction to head where improving access to transportation for residents of Palm City is concerned. I'm not sure what your thoughts are on smaller vehicles versus the larger. I'll share them with you. Not a fan. Just purely because if we're talking about trying to create a public perception, we had a conversation with Mr. Gordon a couple weeks ago about that same issue, and Commissioner Smith is morse-coding his light-to-speak button to me. I think if you're going to create that kind of a vibe, the bus itself is the right concept. If you come around with what I call the rental car van that you see at the airport, it's not the same thing. It will be sort of a solution to the issue, but I don't think it creates the branding, marketing, public relations that the actual bus does. I remember being out of office when you switched to that much larger official bus and being very pleased and happy when I saw them because my joke used to be that mass transportation in Martin County meant carpooling to church, and now we have a legitimate system. We're going to build a depot, and we have the routes. We heard that the drivers are super friendly and that it's not expensive, so I think you need to double down on really doing it, and I get that maybe you don't see the need in Palm City as much as it is in other areas, but you won't know if it will work until you actually try it. Even if you said, look, Commissioner, we'll do it for six months, we'll take the big bus, we'll come over the bridges, and we'll loop around and come back, let me take the challenge of giving you at least a comparable ridership that you get from anyone else's district except, you know, downtown Hope Sound. Commissioner Smith. I just think it might be a good idea because we can shorten this conversation. It would be probably really good to come by and see us and get our input. I agree. I just gave it to you. You don't need to see me. I want a bus. We need a bus stop. You know, I have four other appointments perhaps to make for our input because we all probably have light conversations, and I think if we're doing that study, it would be important to hear from us before you get too far with it. Agreed. Mr. Gordon. Jim Gordon, Public Works Director. Ash already touched on what I was going to talk about really is the transit efficiency study does give us the ability to look at new areas that should be visited. We're also looking at development as it occurs and like the large multifamily that the City of Stewart have approved, some of those we're going to try to see how we can incorporate some transit into those communities as well, and as they're being built, if we can get some bus stops and shelters built on their property and get easements and all of those things in place, those are other pieces that we're working on to try to grow the system. But Palm City is definitely one thing that we're looking at. The reason Palm City doesn't have one currently is because the main trunk line of Marty is US-1, and US-1 doesn't intersect Palm City. But the next phase, I think you will see some of that happening, especially because one of the communities in the city that would like some transit service is right on the corner of Indian Street and Cantor Highway on the northeast corner or northwest corner. We can see the buses from Palm City. Yeah. So if we end up adding a stop there, it would be awfully easy to make that right and go over the bridge. Nobody else cares because they have bus stops. So I'm on my own. It's like I'm standing on the corner in Palm City waiting for the bus that's not going to come. Go ahead. I was just going to say, I don't think he cares that you can't see it from US-1. Well, we're working on it. Yeah, that sounds like government talk to me. No, it's not. I pressed my button by mistake. That was probably your big mistake. Mr. Beecher, anything else? No. Looking for a motion. Any public comment, I will make a motion for staff's approval. Second. I'm going to go along with it this time, but I will commit to voting no on everything that looks mass transit until we get a station in, not a station, a stop. A route. A route and stop in Palm City. Anyone from the public looking to address us, anyone from Palm City out there can back me. That doesn't count a thumbs up. Come on up. It's not over yet, Mr. Beecher. You're a rub. Please state your name and where you live. Absolutely. Good afternoon, Rick Creech. 6856 Southwest Woodbine Way, Palm City, Florida. There you go. So, I concur with Commissioner Campy's statements that Palm City needs mass transit and a bus stop somewhere in town. So, it would be helpful. I appreciate that. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Anyone else? Christy Brotherton down here somewhere? Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Hetherington, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Next time. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you. Our next agenda item is public hearing number two. A public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending portions of Article 12, of Community Redevelopment Code, Land Development Regulations, Martin County Code, related to the Special Parking Alternatives for Redevelopment Centers Program. It'll be presented by a whole bunch of people, including leading the charge, Ms. Susan Corris. The item title was almost as long as the item. You are welcome. Please introduce the people that you're with. I did receive a note from Mr. Mike Redling, the head of Habitat for Humanity, that was not able to stay any longer, saying he supported it. Ms. Corris, you are recognized. Thank you, Commissioner. And good morning, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Susan Corris, Office of Community Development. And this morning we're going to talk about SPARK, which is Special Parking Alternatives for Redevelopment Centers. The program was established here in 2007 and was brought forward into Article 12 in 2021. It was developed in recognition of the compact and integrated form of development that we encourage in our six CRA areas. SPARK provides a mechanism for property owners and businesses to satisfy a portion of their parking requirements by making a payment into a specified SPARK fund with the resulting revenue to be used to build parking and fund enhancements to the transportation and mobility network within that community redevelopment area. So I think it was placed perfectly on the agenda to come after Mr. Beecher's item. We should bring him back. It is currently authorized to be used in all CRA areas through Article 12. However, in its present form, the SPARK program does not adequately address the needs of present and future redevelopment in the CRA areas. County staff from the CRA, growth management, public works, and legal have been working with the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council on this proposed update of the program. We have discussed it with all neighborhood advisory committees, the CRA board, all of whom, with input, recommended that the program be approved. And the LPA last Thursday unanimously agreed. Here to present the updated SPARK program is Dana Little and Jessica Seymour of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. Good morning. Thank you, Susan. And good morning, Mr. Chairman and board. My name is Dana Little with the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, and Jessica Seymour is here with me from our staff. We've got a brief presentation to go over with you this morning about the SPARK program. You'll recall we spent 2019 and 2020, and I think even into 2021, working on the CRA plan code updates. And we developed a consistent framework for all of the codes for the different CRA areas, but then tailored the content of each one of those for each CRA. And we've done the same here. We are updating the SPARK program, as Susan mentioned, and we've been to each of the NACs to get their input. This has been our schedule so far. You can see back in October we were visiting the NACs. We went to the CRA board in the beginning of the process to let them know what was happening and what we were up to. And then we went back to the CRA board again to ask for their support and a recommendation to move forward. And as Susan mentioned, we were with the LPA last Thursday. The program exists. It's rarely used. It's only been used once in 2017, and that was at the foot of the causeway in Jensen Beach. There's been interest in utilizing the program again, and we've spent a lot of time with staff, growth management, CRA, legal staff, discussing some of the nuances of it and how we wanted to modernize and update the program, not the least of which is to update the fee for each of the spaces. I'm going to read this to you. It's a payment-in-lieu-of program, which essentially provides a mechanism for property owners and or applicants to satisfy part of their parking requirement on site by paying in lieu for some of the spaces that are required. The program revenue, as Susan said, shall fund enhancements to the existing public parking areas as well as transportation and mobility network items, including wayfinding signage, crosswalks, those elements that are missing that make an area more walkable so that we don't need necessarily to provide a parking space for every car at every location, that in the CRAs you have what we call a park-once environment where you can park your car, and assuming that the pedestrian facilities are there and well-maintained and kept, you can walk from place to place. There are use limits to this program. Residential uses are not permitted to utilize the program. There are quantity limits, geographic limits, how the monies can be spent, and what that fee would be. So I'm going to go through each one of these quickly. We were in consensus from the beginning, and we wanted to make it clear going forward that residential uses are not eligible for the SPARK program. It is only for non-residential uses. And the reason being is that if you are building residential, you do need to provide on-site parking. And we didn't want this at all to appear as if it was some, you know, density increase type of situation. So if I'm building a mixed-use building, say, in Hobes Sound, the non-residential square footage could be utilized or could be eligible for the SPARK program. But if I've got residential uses on the second and third floor, say, those uses would not be eligible. We spent a lot of time discussing how many spaces one could pay in lieu of. And it's important, I think, to think of this program not so much as a parking creation program, but really it's an economic development benefit for smaller businesses. And what we have found, and in my personal experience, where these programs have been used most effectively, have been for smaller businesses, say, that come in and want to, say, open or a change of use. Say I want to change this residential cottage into a professional office. But what's keeping me from doing that is that I'm missing the one or two extra spaces required. And sometimes that can mean the difference between, you know, a hopeful business owner not being able to open their business or actually relocating to another location. And so usually when you've got larger developers, they provide all the parking they need on site. So this is typically beneficial to the smaller users. To that extent, though, we want to be careful and not allow for this program to get out of balance. And so we're recommending that up to 30 percent of the required on-site parking spaces could be paid in lieu of or up to three of those spaces, whichever is greater. We were actually in Port Salerno at the NAC, and we had some comments from the public, which were actually very astute. One gentleman pointed out that, you know, if I am only allowed to pay in lieu of up to 30 percent of my spaces and I only need to provide two, this program doesn't really help me. So based upon that input, we revised it to say that you could pay in lieu of up to three spaces or 30 percent, whichever is greater. In addition, you'll notice here that there's a 5 percent bonus based on those businesses or those uses that are within 100 feet proximity to a Marty stop with a shelter. And that wasn't designed to follow the previous discussion. But the point is that having a bus stop and a shelter is important. The shelter is important. It legitimizes and it civilizes the use of mass transit. There are geographic limits to the utilization of the program. As we went to each of the NACs, we discussed the different sub-districts that exist where we felt it was appropriate. And frankly, we were surprised, particularly in Port Salerno, they wanted even more eligible areas than we were sort of conservatively expecting in the beginning. So there's a table that goes through and identifies each of the sub-districts and where the program is eligible. I'm going to quickly go through this in a map message way. In Jensen Beach, all of the sub-districts, there's only three sub-districts in Jensen, but all of Jensen would be eligible for this program. In Ryo, only the core, which is the red area and the Ryo Town Center area, and the corridor, which is the pink areas along 707, those would be eligible for the program. But the vast majority of Ryo would not be. In Old Palm City, it's limited to the core sub-district. But the core sub-district in Old Palm City is the largest of all of the core areas in the CRAs because it's Martin Downs to Map Road all the way down to Martin Highway. And so the newly minted and beautifully rebuilt Map Road would be eligible for the SPARK program, that sub-district. In Hope Sound, the districts are limited to the core corridor in general. You'll recall Hope Sound is the only CRA in Martin County that has Old Dixie and US-1 frontage. And there are some of these corridor and general sub-districts which benefit from both of those commercial frontages. So we felt that the general sub-district, unlike most of the other CRAs, was appropriate for the SPARK program in Hope Sound. And then in Port Salerno, as I mentioned, it's the core, corridor, general, and waterfront sub-districts. We were a little reluctant about the waterfront, but in fact, there was, I think, strong emphasis that the waterfront needed to be included in this. But again, all of the areas that are residential, be they mobile homes, detached, single-family, or multi-family, are not eligible for the program. And then finally, in Golden Gate, the program would be limited to the core, which is the red area, and the corridor, which is the pink. We didn't include it in the orange, which is the general, because we were concerned about parking intrusion into the neighborhoods. That's something that we want to be very careful about. And so that's why in Golden Gate, that sub-district is not included. In 2017, when the program was utilized in Jensen Beach, it cost $7,900 per space, the payment in lieu of fee. We've researched other local governments within the region that have these type of programs, and their programs are administered in many different ways. But the fees range anywhere from $9,500 to $28,000 per space. We worked with Public Works and with engineering here in Martin County to try to come up with what is the core construction cost of building a parking space, as well as the land that would be attached to it. And after going back and forth quite a bit, we've landed on a number that would be $24,600 per space. Now, keep in mind, this is a voluntary program. And for those that can afford it, we think it will be utilized. And, in fact, the CRA has seen interest in this program already. We discussed quite a bit should there be ranges of fee amounts, you know, depending upon which CRA you're in. And we felt that, at least initially, it's very important to keep this as clean and as simple and as equitable across the board as possible. You'll see in a moment that we are proposing through recommendations from the CRA boards to reevaluate this program in its first year and then every three years after that, or it could be evaluated whenever this board, you know, felt it needed to be, but to see if it's being utilized, if there's any measure of success. The money, as we discussed, would be held in a distinct escrow account for each of the CRAs. They could build new spaces. There could be streetscape and mobility improvements, which would lead to the general mobility of the area. And by that, we mean biking and walking as well. Wayfinding signage is important because I think in Jensen Beach, as an example, along Panepa Way, you've got spaces that are up north, on-street spaces, that a visitor might not ever even know were there. And so directing folks to where there are concentrations of spaces or where new surface lots might be built is an important piece of the expenditures. And there will be a spending plan tailored for each of the CRAs, dependent upon what their needs are. The needs in Port Salerno are different than Jensen Beach and Hope Sound and Old Palm City as well. It's important we believe that there is tracking of this, that there is a public record of these, of this exchange. We are recommending that the spaces that are paid for in lieu of track with the land. So if I am leasing a building from Jessica here and I want to pay for spaces, I could do that and it would benefit my business. However, if I leave that site, those spaces are tracked with the land and they get sold with the land as well. Fees would be paid at the time of a development order or, say, a building permit or a business tax receipt. Like I said, we have in the past seen this type of program utilized, again, in my experience, most often for changes of use of an existing building or the expansion of an existing business, both of which we want to see happen in the CRAs. The transactions would be recorded with the public records of Martin County and documented by the CRA office. And as I said, the idea is to reevaluate this program in the first year and then every few years after that, not only to keep it modern but also to monitor its success and whether or not that fee arrangement or that fee amount is the correct amount. So the CRA board had a couple of key recommendations. This was interesting. Let's say my calculations for my business expansion say that I need to provide 2.3 extra parking spaces on the site. What we're recommending is that the rounding of that, because obviously I'm not going to build 0.3 of a space, be to the nearest whole number. So what that means is if I have to provide 2.3 additional spaces, that means I round to 2. If I have to provide 2.7, that means I round to 3. And this is already within the language of the program. The first year evaluation and then up to the three spaces was something that the board, the CRA board felt good about. So finally. Mr. Little, let me stop you. Go back a slide, please. I'm sorry. Just a quick, year one evaluation, if for whatever reason the evaluation shows that it didn't work, are they reimbursed the money and we say it didn't work? No, no. The idea isn't that folks would be reimbursed money. It's just reevaluating the program itself. Has there been interest in the program? What are some things that we inevitably missed, you know, in terms of the details? Maybe. More of an internal evaluation than in the parking space evaluation. Correct, with the boards, with you and the CRA. Thank you. There's one piece that's missing. Escape. We updated this just, there's one more update that we want to provide you that came out of, actually a very good discussion with the LPA last Thursday evening, which was clarity or clarification that required accessible spaces, ADA spaces, shall not be satisfied, shall not be eligible for this program. And that's an important clarification that we discussed at the LPA. So, with that, we would offer to try to answer any questions that you may have. And thank you for your time, and hopefully you can support this new update. Thank you, sir, very much. Professional presentation. Appreciate it. And we will begin with Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, why are we reconsidering this since it's only been used once? Commissioner, the language in the program that we have now says that anybody can satisfy all or some of their parking. And we thought, first of all, that didn't really work for development that's happening now and redevelopment. That would mean that any development that comes in, any business owner or property owner, could go ahead and pay in lieu of all their parking requirement. So, that was one of the bigger things. The second thing is that we knew that the price was old and was not going to be an effective piece of the puzzle. So, those were the two big things. The third thing is that, in fact, it has only been used once, and we thought that because of the way the program was constructed, that that was probably a problem and that we needed to look at how to make it a little bit more accessible, a little bit easier, a little bit cleaner, and a little bit more equal throughout all of the CRAs. And if I may add, I believe there's also been a rekindled interest in the program as well. Is it county-wide? Is it CRA-wide? It's CRA-wide. So, in every one of the CRAs, there have been requests? Oh, no, no, no. The program, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. No, we've had requests from Salerno, some interest in Hobesound, and some interest early on in Jensen. Okay. So, on-street parking that exists now was paid for by taxpayers for the benefit of the public. It's an asset for the public. But now we're proposing to sell those spaces that we taxpayers paid for for public benefit for the benefit of a private business because they can't provide the required parking on their own site. Yes. So, we're taking away a public benefit, and I need to understand why that is a good idea. Thank you for that. I should clarify, if you are utilizing the program, you are not purchasing physical spaces. There will be no reservation of spaces. The public asset of on-street parking will not be going away or be diminished or be reserved for private investors. Those that are utilizing this program are simply, as I said, paying in lieu of providing parking. There is no guarantee that that business would have any on-street spaces or any spaces anywhere. They're just buying out of having to provide up to three spaces on their site. But we're making competition for those spots tougher. That's true. Why is that a good idea? Because you're enhancing the business environment, because you're providing more investment in the area. And as I mentioned earlier... We're enhancing the business environment at the expense of the public taxpayer. I respectfully disagree with that assessment. Well, you just said that the purpose was to enhance the business environment. Not at the expense of anyone. Well, you're taking away... Except for the owner. Commissioner, we're also kind of following through on the mission of the CRA, which is to make it a more walkable, easily pedestrian and bicycled area and increasing business. Infill development is tough, as you know. And we feel that this is a way to increase the possibility of successful businesses relocating or opening. I think that we're soon going to have a parking crisis in Port Salerno. And this, I think, just exacerbates that problem. I think it makes it more critical. Is there an inventory of public parking spots? So, yes. We did look at what public parking is available in the CRAs in those particular areas. And we did look at that. But since we're not assigning any parking to those areas, it's really just a number. And I can give you the number if that's important. Well, how do you know how many you can sell if you don't know how many you have? Again, we're not selling parking spaces. So, the number of public parking spaces that are now, as you call them, a public asset are not going to be diminished. And hopefully, as in your district, for example, your NAC and community has very, very strongly suggested that any of the revenue that is provided by the SPARC program be used to pay for surface lots, FEC leases, parking spaces to be built on the street. Those are their priorities. So, that's what we'll follow through with. But that's not the language. The language includes alley improvements, sidewalks, crosswalks, wayfinding, signage, curb management. All these things are eligible. You're exactly correct. And as Dana mentioned early on, Commissioner, that each NAC and each CRA area is going to look at what their plan is going to be. And we've already done that. That was included in your packet. It tells you what the folks in Port Salerno are thinking. It tells you what the folks in Golden Gate find important. Great example, Palm City. Map Road has 142 new spaces. They might not need additional spaces. Maybe they need something else, and we would like to be able to provide those other enhancements. Like transit shelters is on our list. And if I may add to that a little bit, I mean, we had, at some point, Susan had a decision to make. You know, there's this program that's been around for a while. It's only been utilized once, 2017. You know, we just finished doing all the CRA codes. What do we do with this program? Do you retire it? Do you sunset it? Maybe modernize it was what we were thinking, especially since there was interest at the time in possibly utilizing it. And this is really meant to be just an additional tool to help, you know, all our businesses and investors. You know, it's, again, it's completely voluntary, and it's an option for those that, you know, as I said, may not be able to open their business or expand their business because of that one or two spaces that are missing on site. Say you're a restaurant and you're required to have 30 spaces. Can you purchase 10 of them? Up to 30%. 30% if you're in the correct zone, sub-district. So there's no limit on the number of spaces that you can provide as long as it's no more than 30%? That's correct. That's the way it's written now, yes. So in Port Salerno, it's all of the zoning uses are eligible or general, waterfront, core, and corridor. Port Salerno is big, really big. So can I purchase, so if I'm, say, I'm on Dixie and Salerno, and I need to purchase three spots, where can they be? Where are the geographic limits of where those spots can be? The physical spaces? You are not purchasing physical spaces. You are paying in lieu of. And I know that may seem a little bit confusing, and we talked about this quite a bit. If there aren't spaces that are available within that geographic area, then what are you purchasing? You're purchasing the ability to open your business without providing. With no parking spaces. That's a business decision. Right. And this is an option for business owners. And the cost per space is $24,000. I've been looking into spaces in Port Salerno, and as near as I can tell, there is one lot that's currently for sale, and it's an acre. Half of it's wet, and it's a million dollars. So that figure doesn't seem to be realistic, at least in Port Salerno. It seems too low, do you think? Seems too low, yeah. Way too low. It's probably not realistic to buy that piece. There's no other piece that's available. But there are areas that we can put on street parking. So your $24,600 could go towards that as well. It doesn't limit just to parking lots. Okay, those are the comments that I have. Thank you. Commissioner Smith. I think part of what's missing in the conversation is that it's not, and I'm going to have to go back a little bit, but it's not the idea that you're purchasing an existing parking space. So if you have on-street parking, and I'll use Pineapple Avenue as an example, there is on-street parking that we built 15 years ago or 20 years ago that exists on Pineapple. This would go to Church Street. If we were to build 17 parking spaces on Church Street, you would be buying, in Commissioner Hurd's example, three spaces on Church Street that would be paid for by the project and built by maybe the project or maybe built by the county if the county were to come in and do the entire project. Is that sort of accurate? In that the payment in lieu of funds would go for those improvements. Right, but I mean, and so, and I know Stacey had her light on before I did. I just, that piece seemed to be missing in the conversation that it's not, the payment in lieu is not to go buy three spaces on Pineapple, correct? It might be. Well, that they're already built. If there's. Oh, that they're already built. There's existing infrastructure sitting there adjacent to your piece of property, which there is, this idea is not to go pay for those spaces because they're already built, they're already paid for. The idea is to go somewhere else within a reasonable proximity to that lot and spend $24,000 on a space that's not yet built. Or other types of improvements that we discussed. That's another debate, but for the parking purpose, right? It's not to go buy the million dollar. It could be, to go buy the million dollar piece of property, if you had 20 projects in the district and they were all buying three lots or three parking spaces. So now you've got 60 parking spaces. That 60 times 24,000 might get you to a number to buy that half an acre of lot to build the parking lot if it's in the appropriate place and it makes sense to do it there. It may not be appropriate to make sense, but in that example, is that accurate? That is correct. Absolutely. I didn't mean to go in front of you, so I'll... Yes, you did. I have a lot more to add, but I'll let you go first. Commissioner Hetherington. All over the place, but... So the existing plan is applicable countywide, not just CRAs? Only CRAs? It's just in CRAs, this SPARC program. Okay, but it's $7,900, and if you meet certain criteria, like you're going to develop on-street parking, and you had to be within 1,320 feet or a quarter of a mile of the development site. So those were specific regulations to the Jensen Beach LDRs. Now, the other CRAs did not have that level of specificity, which is part of what we are addressing with this update, is that there were not parameters or limitations clearly spelled out to... or guidelines on how to implement the program in the other CRAs. So this was not applied in all CRAs? Those... Perking standards, page 5? Page 5, yes, correct. That was just for the Jensen Beach program. So how was the other... If I was going to buy something in Golden Gate, pay in loot, or $7,900, I would have to construct off-site parking within a quarter of a mile? Again, there wasn't really a parameter or a lot of procedure laid out in the code on how that would happen in Golden Gate, and that's what we're addressing with these LDRs. I think the concept works better, too, and I'll just speak for Golden Gate. We... I don't know if Fort Salerno has much on-street parking, but Golden Gate has no on-street parking. So if you were to open a small business and to pay in lieu of and not have the parking, then that is going to be very difficult for us to create because there is no on-site parking or street-side parking, and at... Well, I can't imagine a small business if they're going to pay, you know, $75,000 for three spots. That's a pretty big lift for a small business to start off with, and then we're going to put it in creation of parking lots, the Spark Revenue. It's going to take some time to even be able to create anything worthwhile at $75,000 a pop. So I'm concerned that if it wasn't used at the $7,900, and with some of these, how we're anticipating that it's going to be more prevalent at the $25,000, and then... I'm not sure I agree with all these Spark revenues I see in Golden Gate. We have streetlights, sidewalks, enhanced crosswalks, and on-street parking, but on-street parking is kind of realistic, unrealistic, I think, using Spark Revenue. If I could address that, Commissioner. If you'll look at the first few streets in Golden Gate up to Del Mar, those streets were redone as complete streets, and they do have parking spaces on them. That is certainly where the rest of Golden Gate is headed, and we're certainly still the CRA there, and we certainly have other monies that we can utilize in conjunction to build those things. So there's always that possibility, and it's already happened in Golden Gate. So I would just offer that to you, that, yes, you do have some street-side parking, and that it's certainly a priority there. Your community also are the ones that chose those particular things in their plan to spend their revenue on, should they get any. But that doesn't mean that they also can't choose, at the time, to spend the revenue on any of those other things. So that's not anything that is set in stone. And, Commissioner, you're right. This program may not be utilized in Golden Gate. We don't know, which is why we want to come back and assess it after the first year to see if it's working or not and address some of the issues that, as I said, maybe we weren't aware of or, you know. But to have that option available, and as I said earlier, that is a business decision that a business owner would make or a property owner would make. They would make that assessment that I can open this store or this business with a limited number of spaces that I have. I feel comfortable about that, and I feel comfortable spending that amount of money to enable me to open my business and not have to provide a couple of additional spaces. Well, and I take that as a valid point because I live in downtown Stewart, and where we have a lot of on-street parking, you know, can walk to downtown. I have friends that will absolutely not meet me in downtown Stewart. I can walk there because they don't want to find parking, you know. Really, they don't want to find parking. We've got the tram, but I think that is a business risk, you know. If patrons can't find parking, then they're going to go somewhere else. I rather like the way it's constructed in downtown Stewart, but you hear all kinds of feedback that residents want the city, right, to build more parking. So I'm cautious that if this is very successful, that residents are going to want the county to build more parking. Right. So one other offering for Golden Gate is the way Golden Gate is configured. You have industrial on one whole side of Dixie, on the west side of Dixie. And on the east side, you have a lot of larger businesses, somewhat industrial. They all have their own parking. We haven't had any request for something like this in Golden Gate, but it would be nice, as Dana said, that in that core and corridor areas that we do give people the option to do that because there already is some parking available for those businesses because they've provided their own. And not to belabor the issue, but, you know, some of those other elements were added, like street lighting is important. There may be spaces at the end of your block or a block and a half away, but if they're not well lit at night, your visitors, your friends, may not feel comfortable parking there. And so the spaces have to be safe. They have to be easily accessible. If there aren't sidewalks, you know, that makes it even more challenging. So that's why some of those other elements were added as we, quote, unquote, updated or modernized the program. Commissioner Smith. So I was involved way back when with the Jensen Beach LDRs that we created for them, and there was a tremendous amount of thought and energy that went into those LDRs. One thing we did that would be helpful for all of the CRAs, we did a cut sheet for every single street in downtown Jensen. So we know that given the right-of-way, what the on-street parking capacity is for downtown Jensen, if it were to all be built out. Indian River Drive, the cut-through streets, Pineapple, we know what that number is. I think part of what's missing a little bit in helping in the thought process of all this is not knowing where all that would go. I just quickly went through Golden Gate. There is plenty of right-of-way in Golden Gate for on-street parking. We already own the right-of-way, but we don't have parking. I mean, in some of the streets you have parking. In the commercial, the one block back east of A1A and the streets that have the on-street parking that have been built, there is plenty of right-of-way to build it. It's a question of who pays for it and when does it get done or how does it get done. And in downtown Jensen, what we did, and I use Church Street, and you've all heard me say this 100 times before, and I'll say it again because I'm not sure we're 100% who I want to be with this yet, is that we had the perfect scenario on Church, Pineapple, and Indian River Drive with the property owner and the right-of-way and the developed parking spots. As I explained before, when we did Pineapple, we built the parking spaces, on-street parking spaces, as part of Pineapple. So they got constructed along the boundary line of a 2B, maybe in the future, project, right? Church Street has probably 20 feet of asphalt with no on-street parking. One side, there's a little bit of right-of-way, and on the other, there's none. Indian River Drive, we built sidewalks on the east side of Indian River Drive, not on the west side, and we don't have enough right-of-way for all of the parking that is in the cut sheet or in the thing. So the idea was that you had three examples of what could be a project's use to get us to where those cut sheets said we would have on-street parking. You have county-owned parking spaces, you have no parking spaces, and you have no right-of-way. And how do you get there? And how do you get there? And so the idea was that if you had a SPARC program, the project could contribute in a series of different ways to creating those on-street parking spaces. He or she could build them on their property and create an easement or a right-of-way or donate that right-of-way to the county, and it wouldn't be $24,000 a space. It would be whatever it costs the developer to build those spaces on his property or her property. But with the full understanding that in that agreement, those parking spaces become public parking spaces. But they go against the capacity of that piece of property. So if that piece of property needed 100 parking spaces, and you can get 40 of those parking spaces from Church, Indian River Drive, and Pineapple, 30 of them may be Pineapple and Indian River Drive. And it's who builds them, who pays for them, and when do they get done, right? The other eight spaces or nine spaces along that property edge are already on Pineapple. They're already built. But he would get or he or she would get credit for those eight lots. And even looking in Golden Gate and how you would apply it in Golden Gate to some of the commercial properties here, it's the same thing. You know, it's interesting, Dan, when you were going through the explanation of all this, I was looking at the two houses that are across the street from the office. There are parking spaces that line Camden on the street that I don't know when they were built. I don't know if that was in the last 20 years or if that was 100 years ago. Our office. Your office. There is an alleyway that is in back of those two houses, and there appear on the aerial that there are some parking spaces in back of the house, but there's nothing in front of the house. Those two are parking less in the front on their main street, which is another debate I'd like to have relative to the residential capacity, because I think residential should absolutely be included. If you want residential in your downtown, you're not going to have necessarily three parking spaces on a residential site. Those don't, other than the alley on the back side of the house. There are, there is access that appear to be a couple parking spaces one way or the other. So I would absolutely include residential. I don't know that that's bad because I look at a site and if I've got a four acre site and there's X amount of square feet of dwelling units or of commercial that are going to go on that site, and this is what we did in Jensen. We did the calculation to say X amount of square feet was going to need X amount of parking. And if that X amount of parking was to be 100 parking spaces and 40 of those could be accommodated in the public right-of-way, which is where we wanted them to be, we didn't want to see a parking on that, on that lot. That was a trade-off. Do you want large surface parking areas on a given lot, or do you want to try to put as many out on the street for the public use and venue as possible, and then only what would be required left over from the capacity would you have interior lot? And I don't know if we've encompassed that thought process into this. I'm a little wishy-washy on the accessory uses. I completely get the debate or the discussion on lighting and sidewalks and all that kind of stuff. I just think that ought to maybe not come from the SPARK personally. It ought to come from the CRA funding and the TIF. If I'm going to pay $24,000 into a parking lot, which is the requirement for me, and I need three parking spaces, I want there to be those three parking spaces. I don't want it just to go into a fund and some other street that doesn't benefit me to get some streetlights or a bench or something that didn't accomplish the goal of the three parking spaces that I was buying for the purpose of the need of those parking spaces. The CRA, if there's a need for lighting, that should be in their plan, and we should be funding, I think, the lighting and those accessory uses out of the CRA. That's just a philosophical difference of a thought process because, in fact, if somebody builds a new project, they're going to be adding to the TIF revenue from that project in the first place, and I think that's where that TIF ought to be going to do those enhancements. If I may, just a couple of quick things. Very quick. We could spend a lot of time on this. No, we can't. Okay, I'm sorry. Currently in the code, as you know, Commissioner, any on-street spaces that are in front of your parcel, your lot, count towards your on-site parking needs, whether it's residential or not. And that's always been the case, and that continues to be the case. The other thing that I was going to do, whether or not to include or make residential eligible for this, that is, I don't, that's a debate that needs to happen. I mean, I think a Key West, I think of how many streets in Key West are purely residential in the middle of the historic downtown of Key West, and they even go one step further. Their residential parking capacity in there is residential only. You have to have a Key West parking pass, and you can be right across the street from the Eden House and residential, and the Eden House can't park in those residential parking spaces because somebody needs them for the residential house. Right. Because they don't, they only have one spot or one space per household. The, I forgot what my last thing was going to be. Can we, can we? No, we need to. No, can we continue this? No, you want to vote on this, okay. We can vote on this portion of it. This sounds like a conversation that's very, very exciting and excellent could be happening in your office. Yes, I know, and that's why I would rather not finalize this decision today. Well, but a lot of what you're discussing, let's see if you even have enough traction to do, because I have a difference of opinion. I'm pretty sure Commissioner Hurd's opinion is diametrically opposed to yours, shocking as that might be. Commissioner Jenkins is saying his is different. I'd just like to have an opportunity. I mean, this is a very, you hit the word, it's philosophical. For a lot of people, it's wonky policy that people love. But let's just cut right to the chase for the rest of us for the meeting. This is my very brief comment. I'm glad you all took another look at this and added a fresh perspective to this program. It's an available option. If it's used, great. If it's not, that's also okay. But it's an option that's out there if it's needed. It's almost self-regulating. To Commissioner Hetherington's point, if it's too expensive for a prospective business owner, they can't do it. If they can't afford to pay their way out of a couple of mandated number of spots, they'll have to pick another location. Or they'll come up with the money, or they'll open something else. I'm not interested in residential because the Pandora's box has been opened in Palm City. When you start to buy your way out of a spot, if I'm an apartment developer and I want to build, let's just use a round number, 90 apartments. But I only have 123 parking spaces. I think that system needs to figure out itself. I can't allow, I can't be the developer and buy my way out of that required parking. Because even if it costs me $26,000 or $25,000, I'm going to make the future tenants pay that. And then the people that live around that area are going to be forced to deal with it. So I'm not interested in residential, whether we're having that conversation today or next meeting. I think we're, and I get it, this is, there's some people that really love this kind of stuff. But representing the folks that don't understand that it's necessary, you've just put another option in for business owners. You've only used it one time. I was here when it happened last time in Jensen. It was up by the roundabout, by the bridge. One person did it one time, and it was only $7,000. And there's a reason why it hasn't happened yet. I get it. That's why I like the fresh perspective. Maybe it didn't happen because it needed to be revamped. Commissioner Hurd said, well, if it's never been used, why do it? Well, maybe you need to reinvent it so that someone will use it. I don't think if you make it a $50,000 spot based on the location of where you are. I like the one price for the full CRA. Your whole job with Ms. Corris is to make the CRAs easier, not more complex, with now a pricing schedule based on where you are. So let's add it. If someone wants to use it, they will. And if they can't or they don't want to, they won't. I'll entertain a motion for staff's presentation because I don't personally have anywhere to go, but I know some of you do. And I want to honor that time. So, Commissioner Jenkins. So, in our Hope Sound community, anyway, that was platted in the teens. If that Hope Sound came before this commission in modern days, it wouldn't look anything like it does. So, obviously, we've got to come up with some way that we're able to develop and redevelop areas like Hope Sound. I've spent two hours at least with Susan and staff talking about this. We talked about the residential. I am not at all for the same reasons Commissioner Campy brought up in for that. But we have some buildings that were built in the 20s in Hope Sound that, you know, in the 20s, they showed up on a horse, right? So we didn't have adequate parking when it was platted to begin with. So if that building, if we're going to encourage redevelopment, we've got to do something. And this is, at least for the next year, right, a test bed to see what we can get out of it. So I am in full support of it and will make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. I'll second it. Well, it's coming back in a year. Is that right? This is coming back in a year? Yes. The idea is that it would be. To reevaluate? Precisely. Okay. So I'll second it with the fact that it's coming back in a year to reevaluate. And when you do bring it back, I would like to just a brief history on how parking is calculated in general. This is a public hearing. I'd like to ask if there's any members of the public that would like to address us on this topic. I see that there is. Something else? Yes. Just as a point of clarification that the motion to approve includes the change that was mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. I agree, yes. Seconder also agree? Thank you. Sir, welcome. Thank you. I'm Corey Crowley. And I met last month with George Tokas on a different issue. But he asked us to create an organization similar to the downtown Main Street. And so we now have a nonprofit organization that represents the business owners and the investors of Salerno. And the name of it is the Salerno Downtown Authority. And I am their representative. And I represent about 14 acres of property in the general and core and waterfront areas. And we're having some more meetings with the staff and the investors later this month. The reason this is important is I'll give you a little history about how this whole thing started. Coalier and Herring is working on a project in Hope Sound. They're building a brewery next to Taverly, I think is the name of the restaurant. And so, you know, they lobby pretty effectively. And they mention it a few times casually that there has been some interest. But the whole reason that we're here today is just like the neck. You guys are the head. You guys are making the decisions. But the neck is putting this in front of you as a topic. And regardless if I support the Spark or not, I'm a business owner. You would think I would support it. But the reason that I don't and the reason I don't like the way that the process is even being discussed is because we in Port Salerno don't just have a parking problem. Port Salerno is going to go one of two ways. Because the investors are going to build more apartment complexes, four-story density, because of the parking requirements. Or we're going to be incentivized because there's real parking, not because we can just pay in lieu of parking to build businesses. Because we're not going to build mixed-use projects unless our mixed-use projects are going to lease very well and, you know, and be successful. And so the real work that needs to be done isn't about incentivizing the businesses in Port Salerno. I'm not certain what happens in other areas. I understand the point and hope to sound very clearly where if somebody wants to move into an existing structure, then yes. But this is not what it's going to be used for. They're building a new brewery to get rid of parking, and all those extra people are going to interfere with the current parking situation. It's exasperating a problem that's not taking care of an older building. But it's so critical in order to maintain – their philosophy is to incentivize the businesses. In Port Salerno, we're trying to do this wholesale. And when you look at this wholesale, you need wholesale parking. And one of the meetings Commissioner Hurd presented that we lease the FEC parking, and I'm very thankful that you guys approved that, and thank you so much. And she's also looking into buying one-acre piece of property. But there's already several projects in the way. Those projects are going to go the way of residential apartment buildings unless we get on a war footing with creating real parking. And so I can go to the investors and say, the commission is really interested in you developing this mixed-use, not simply apartments. And they're willing to talk to the staff to get some RFPs out there to build this on-street parking now. Not because there's a need, but because if you don't, the future is going to be very bleak. SB 102 is only going to make it worse. And so what I'm protesting, I may use this program if it gets passed. What I'm protesting is that we're having the conversation at all. It's like we're, it wasn't started because of an interest in revising a plan. It was started because there's a use. And Collier and Herring came and lobbied well. I can't lobby at all. I've had zero success lobbying. And I represent 14 acres in my own district. But Collier and Herring can come in here, and all of a sudden we're talking about something. And the $24,000 is a silly number. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your perspective, sir. Okay, anyone else from the public looking to address us on this topic? Excuse me, seeing none. We have a motion by Commissioner Jenkins. Second of, oh, sorry, Commissioner Smith, I didn't see your light. Last quick comment, if you will, is that the reason why nobody ever used the SPARK program in the past is because the old antiquated code was a complete disincentive for anybody using anything and doing anything in our redevelopment areas. Since we have revised our codes and since we have revised the plan, there is a lot more interest and there is a lot more want to do projects. And so the reason we're having this conversation is because we have pipe, as the gentleman just said, there are projects in the pipeline that are trying to figure out how we get from A to B. And in Jensen, at least, our plan was we had a street plan, we had a parking plan, and we still have it, and it was just how to fund it and how to build it to accommodate what we knew would come at some point if we ever had a plan to accommodate it. So I'm not going to support this today. I don't think it's cooked. I don't think it's fully where it needs to be, and I don't think we should rush something like this for the fact that it's in front of us and it's an agenda item. I just, I, I, there's too much at stake, as the gentleman just said, on these decisions, and, and I want to make sure, from my perspective, at least for Jensen anyway, that we make the right decision, and I'm not there on this one yet. So, thanks. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's why there's five of us, and everyone represents the county as a whole, but we also sort of focus our attention on our specific districts. Commissioner Jenkins made a very good point about Hope Sound. Commissioner Hurd's got issues in her district. Commissioner Smith, this is, it was born in, in Jensen originally. In Palm City, I'm trying to use, you know, the real-life examples of what's happening along Map Road and Martin Highway to do it, and I think, like I mentioned, I think it's just an option. The nice part is that it's got a backstop. It's got a one-year backstop, so it's not like we'll never hear about this again. The last time we discussed it, it must have been a decade ago, and, and so I'm okay with it as well. We have a motion by Commissioner Jenkins, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Opposed. The motion carries three to two, with Commissioners Hurd and Smith dissenting. We're going to take our lunch break now, and we will return at two o'clock. Thank you. Okay, we are back from our lunch break. It is two o'clock on May 9th, 2023. We'll be continuing our Board of County Commissioners meeting. Public hearing number three and four have been withdrawn to be heard on, in June 9th? Sixth. June 6th, June 6th. So now we're going to take public hearing quasi-judicial number one. Request by Florida Power and Light Company for a major final site plan approval for the Monarch Solar Facility Project F117-002, presented by Mr. Brian Elam. And since it's quasi-judicial, I have a series of questions I need to ask. Commissioner Smith, do you have any ex parte communication? I do. They're filed. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins? If any, they've been filed. Commissioner Hurd? Same with me. Thank you. And also with me, I don't believe I have any, but if I did, they've been filed. If anyone's going to offer any testimony other than an attorney, please stand. The whole room stood up. Raise your right hands. Do you swear? You're swearing in everybody. Except for Tyson Waters. It's just Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney. Just for the Florida Power and Light one. We're going to do this again in each public hearing. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay. Are there any return receipts, notifications that are necessary? There are none required. Thank you. Mr. Elam. I'm sorry. They were turned in at the OPA. They were turned in at the OPA. Oh, there we go. Misled. Mr. Elam, do you have a copy of your work history and a copy of the agenda item? Let the record show that it's been submitted. Are there any interveners? No interveners. No interveners against FPL. Who would have thunk it? I don't even know who they would be. What's the other one? Who else is the other power company? There's some other one. Duke? Yeah. Yeah, Duke. Never mind, though. Blue Devils. Is that it? Please. Yes. I know we were trying not to say it out loud, so I'll just make it all about FPL today. Guess what? You're recognized. Thank you, Chairman. Commissioners? You're welcome. This is a request by Florida Power and Light Company for approval of a major development final site plan. The proposed development consists of construction of an unmanned 74.5-megawatt solar farm with required infrastructure on approximately 507 acres. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. Here's an aerial view of the project location. The site is located approximately six miles east of Lake Okeechobee on the north side of southwest Kenner. Properties are accessed from southwest Farm Road. The subject site has a land use designation of agricultural and a zoning district designation of A2. The surrounding properties are also designated agricultural and zoned A2. The property is bordered to the west by land owned by the applicant with a future land use of power generation, and there are no residential uses adjacent to the development site. The acreage consists of six contiguous parcels south of southwest Farm Road and one parcel to the north, including 40 feet of the parcel abutting to the west. The site plan is outside the urban services boundary, and no water or sewer services is planned for the development. The site has approximately 18.36 acres of existing wetlands that are required to be protected. These wetlands and their buffers are shown on the final site plan. A preserve area management plan has been written and applies to the continued protection of the wetland areas and is part of this agenda item. Development review staff has found the application to be in compliance with all the applicable regulations and comprehensive growth management plan as detailed in the staff report. This application was heard before the local planning agency on May 4, 2023, and it was unanimously voted for approval. Staff recommends approval of the major development final site plan and preserve area management plan as detailed in the staff report for the FPL Monarch Solar Facility, and we move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1, and move that the board approve the final site plan and preserve area management plan for the FPL Monarch Solar Facility Project. And that concludes the presentation. Thank you, sir, very much. Questions for staff? Seeing none, applicants turn. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission and staff. My name is Marshall Critchfield with Florida Power and Light. I'm here to turn it over to Scott and his development team to talk about Monarch Solar. There were some questions about how these names come about earlier, and it's a very lengthy process, and I'll save you the details. But for the record, I proposed the Burt Reynolds Clean Energy Solar Site, but I guess I'm the only one that saw Smoking the Bandit 2 and knows the connection to the area. Yeah, so at this time, I'll just turn it over to Scott and his team, and if you have any questions, they can all be here to answer that. That was a really good idea, though. Well, Mr. Critchfield, we could base our approval on that name. They won't go for it. Unfortunately, I tried. But thank you. I meant our approval could be based on that. If the county wants to make a sign that says Burt Reynolds Solar Energy Center, I don't see what we could do about that. Thank you. Scott. And you could always apply to work here. Hello, sir. I'll do anything for approval. Oh, there you go. You've heard that before. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. My name is Scott Scull. I'm a project director with Florida Power and Light. My business address is 700 Universe Boulevard, June Beach, Florida, and I am also a resident of Martin County, so it's nice to be working in my, literally almost in my backyard. So thank you for seeing us tonight. Real quick, can we go to the next slide? Oh, Florida Power and Light currently operates 65 solar energy centers throughout Florida in 24 counties, and Martin County has been an integral part of our success in our program. So thank you for, like I said, having us. You'll see here on the map, we did our first project here in Martin County. It's called the Sweet Bay Solar Energy Center. That was developed in 2019, went in operations in January of 2020. We currently have another one that was before you a couple months back. I've lost track of time, but Whitetail was a – you approved Whitetail a few months ago. We are currently talking about Monarch solar, and then we will have another one coming before you. Staff is reviewing the application for a fawn energy center. So we will be very active here in the county for the foreseeable future. Both Monarch and Whitetail are scheduled to go to construction. Monarch probably this week, and I'm sorry, fawn – Whitetail. Whitetail will go to construction this week. And Monarch, as soon as we receive all of our final approvals that we are seeking today. So thank you. Like I said, FPL serves approximately 83,000 customers here in the county. And in 2022, we provided over $39 million in taxes to the county as a company. Thank you. Next slide. With all of our solar energy centers, we believe they are a compatible use of the surrounding ag land. And they are a good investment in the community. We're virtually silent, can't see us. There is a construction period, but when we're done, we're a passive investment. We'll sit out – we'll sit there with no demands on the county for infrastructure, schools, nothing like that. So it's a good long-term investment for the county. This is just a typical picture, for those who haven't seen it, of one of our sites that has been post-construction stabilized, minimal impacts to the surrounding environment. These photos here are of our tracking systems. So you can – when we're done, the grass is back and the ground is stabilized, and we have no impact to the surrounding – it's the project site, minimal impact. This is just a photo of some of the components of our site. The center there is the one that is an inverter box that takes the DC voltage and converts it to 34,500 volts that then goes to our transformer that injects the energy into our bulk transmission system. I like – I just put the photo in the lower left. That is one of my colleagues. He is really 6'5", and he is as tall as the panel. So you can see that once we're built with natural landscape, they're barely visible from the surrounding neighborhoods or areas. And fortunately here, there are no neighborhoods. We're in the middle of – deep in the egg sections. Ready? Next. This project, all of them, is set like, as Brian said, 74.5 megawatts. We have received our DEP approval back in March. We're seeking your approval today, and our construction crews are standing by, and I like chomping at the bit to go. So they're ready to go. And we will have this in service by January of next year, next January 2024. Fantastic. Thank you for having us today. As always, thanks, Brian, and the rest of the staff for getting us here today. Questions for the applicant? Seeing none. Any members of the public looking to address us on this topic? Also seeing none. Comes back to the board. I guess that's a no. Thanks for stopping by. Comes back to the board. Don't – Oh, I didn't see these lights. I apologize. I'm having a heart attack. Commissioner Hetherington. Commissioner Smith has laid it. But I just wanted to say, and I said it the last time you were here for a different project, but you neighbor my childhood home. I think the Whitetail – no, Sweet Bay. Sweet Bay project was the first one you did in Martin County, which was literally in the back yard, which used to be Alpata Ranch. Office 609 of my family home. And I think you satisfied every question, every concern of all the neighbors of Little Ranch Estates and have been a very, very good neighbor. So with that, unless you wanted to make a motion, I will make a motion for approval. I appreciate hearing that. That's always the – you know, with what we do with the community engagement and involvement, thank you for the feedback. Commissioner Smith. Second discussion. Just a quick thing. Did the state or has the state ever moved forward at all on any of the construction of any of the parts that go into these things? Have we ever – from the steel manufacturing, from all your frames to the solar panels themselves, is there anything that's ever happened at the state level relative to manufacturing? Because you're – how many hundreds of thousands of these things are you building? We've built 65 to date, and it's a global – we look for – But it's like a million panels or more than that? Each – oh, we're well over a million panels. Each project has about 200,000 to 300,000 panels as a technology. We started off probably – Whitetail and Sweet Bay may have had 275 to 300,000 panels. Each year, we're now – with the technology increases, we're down to 200 per site. So, yes, we are well into the millions of panels. We look worldwide and globally for – to supply wherever we – I just always thought it was – it was too bad that there wasn't a way to capture, like, the steel manufacturing for all the upright supports of them, you know, to do – Indiantown used to have a steel plant years and years and years ago, and I just thought it would have been a cool thing with as many as you are producing. Like, I would have thought for an order as large as you would place for millions and millions of panels, somebody could have built a plant in Florida that would have produced them all. That's all. I'm actually not sure where the steel comes from. I should probably know that, but I don't. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Probably not. Probably. Yeah, I mean, we look – obviously, we look local first for all of our – I was just curious if that had ever matured in anything. We did have – there was a – we were, a couple years ago, had a solar manufacturer in Jacksonville that was supplying panels that started, and I guess we've just grown so much, we just continue looking – there's such a demand in the country and the world now for solar. Cool stuff. Thank you. Did you second it? We have a motion by Commissioner Hetherington for staff's recommendation as listed here and seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously with our thanks. Thank you so much. It'll be ever known as Burt's. Burt Reynolds. Burt Reynolds Park. Burt Reynolds Solar Farm. Burt Reynolds. Burt Reynolds Clean Energy Center. Our next item is also quasi-judicial, public hearing quasi-judicial. Number two, request for a final site plan approval for Rolling Sands Golf Course B076-003, also presented by Mr. Brian Elam. And now is when your group will get to stand up and be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Commissioner Hurd, do you have any ex parte communication? I do, and they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins? I do, and they've been filed. Commissioner Hetherington? I do, and they've been filed. Commissioner Smith? I do, and they're filed. I, as well, have been filed. Mr. Elam, do you have another copy of your work history and a copy of the agenda? I do. Are there any requirements for notification of return receipts? They've been turned into the LPA, I believe. Thank you. Anyone looking to intervene? No interveners. Thank you very much. So at this point, we will begin the presentation with staff's presentation. Mr. Elam, you are recognized. Thank you again. You're welcome. This is a request by SS Ranch LLC for approval of a major development final site plan. Proposed development consists of constructing a private 18-hole golf course with accessory uses and associated infrastructure on 12 parcels that are approximately 239.1 acres. The project site is located between the St. Lucie Canal and southwest Kenner Highway, approximately 6 1⁄2 miles west of Interstate 95 in Indiantown. The site plan includes one 20-acre residential lot included as a waiver request for the proposed on-site sewage treatment and disposal system and a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. Future land use on the site is agricultural. The zoning district is A2, agricultural district. As mentioned, the site totals approximately 239 acres, includes one private golf course, driving range, clubhouse, pro shop, maintenance facility, comfort stations, range building, two cottages, and one 20-acre tract reconfigured as a residential lot. The site is located in lots 7 through 17 of the Box Ranch, Groves Platte, and the site proposes 96 percent open space and is devoid of native habitat and wetlands. This is the site located between Okeechobee Waterway and southwest Kenner Highway. To the east and west of the site are residential agricultural uses, and to the south, land uses are currently agricultural. This is an aerial of the site. A rolling hill vegetative berm along Kenner Highway is proposed. The proposed stormwater management uses dry detention systems throughout the golf course. The proposed water source for irrigation is an existing consumptive use permit from the south Florida Water Management to draw from the canal. A well is proposed to serve the fire protection needs of the site and potable wells for water service, meeting the Florida Department of Environmental Protection standards are proposed for the basic potable water. This is a site plan. The project proposes two access points along Kenner Highway with the main entrance serving the clubhouse and further west for the maintenance facility. The sheet of the site plan shows the maintenance facility entrance and the residential lot, close-up of the clubhouse, pro shop, cottages, helicopter pad, another close-up of the clubhouse and the maintenance facility. The proposed development lies outside the urban services district. The septic tanks and drain fields are proposed for the wastewater service. Comp plan policy 10.28.8.1 sets the limit for on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems. Total site build-out flow to 2,000 gallons per day. The applicant has submitted a waiver with justification in accordance with comp plan policies, requesting the board waive the 2,000-gallon-per-day limitation and approve the proposed 4,230-gallon-per-day flow. Growth management staff has reviewed the location of all septic drain fields in relation to applicable setback requirements from water bodies, surface waters, and well fields and determined the placement exceeds the requirements. The waiver application has written concurrence from the Florida Department of Health for the proposed 4,230-gallon-per-day flow. Development review staff has found the application in compliance with our comp plan, and staff recommends approval for the major site plan application and requested waiver for the on-site sewage disposal system. This application was heard before the local planning agency on April 6, and the LPA voted 4 to 1 in favor of approving the final site plan and the requested waiver. So staff recommends approval of this site plan and the waiver. We move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. I move that the board approve the final site plan for the Rolling Sands golf course project with requested waiver for the on-site sewage disposal system. That concludes the presentation. Mr. Illum, thank you very much. Let's jump right into it with Commissioner Hurd. Just a couple things to start us out. The application must contain a concise statement by the applicant that justifies a waiver of the 2,000-gallon-per-day flow limitation. Where is that in the packet? That was... And also, the LPA heard this. There was a recommendation. Where is the LPA summary and recommendation in our packet? I didn't place the summary. Why not? Why bother having a committee, a recommending committee, if you're not going to include the summary in the recommendation as part of our packet? If I may, Commissioner Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney, the LPA meeting was just last week, which was outside the requirements for the agenda packet. So our agenda packet is due well before these board meetings. And with the LPA meeting last Thursday and this appearing before the LPA last Thursday, today's the day. No? Actually, this meeting was postponed a month, but it hasn't been our practice to put any additional information from the LPA into the packet. We used to get a summary. We do. Get the recommendation. Okay. Let me state your name for the record, please. Sorry. Pete Walden, Deputy Growth Management Director. It hasn't been our practice of the last few years to put any summary from the LPA into the packet. We forward their recommendation and their vote. So we can do that in the future if the board so desires. Certainly is of value to me. Okay. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Paul Schilling, Growth Management Director. To answer your question, Commissioner, I'm not aware of a summary. However, previous over the years, there were an attachment of the minutes of the meeting, which due to the timeframe involved here, we struggle at times to get those minutes done, especially if they're back-to-back. In other words, last week or the week before. It generally takes us a couple weeks to get those meetings, minutes turned around. However, the recommendation was for approval. There was some discussion on the stormwater that I believe the applicant took as far as that discussion and some discussion as far as the irrigation, I believe. But the applicant's more than capable to answer those questions. But the recommendation was for approval, and that was the— It's not a unanimous decision. So I was curious to find out from the minutes what the discussion was about. Understood. It helps to inform my decision. Plus, we don't get the minutes approved by the LPA until their next meeting, so that makes it even more problematic to forward those in a timely manner. So there can be a couple-month lead time to actual approved minutes. Well, then that should be a consideration for timing to make sure that we get all the information that we need in order to make an informed decision. Thank you. Is that it? Right now it is. Thank you. Any other questions for my colleagues, for staff? Seeing none, it's the applicant's opportunity to present. Good afternoon, sir, and welcome. Please state your name for the record. For the record, Michael Houston with HCA Design Studio. Mr. Chair, members of the commission, thank you. You are recognized. Thank you. So we're here today. First off, I wanted to thank staff for working with us and doing a very good project review of the project and allowing us to move forward into today's agenda. This project is, as we've just talked about, staff recommended approval, as well as the LPA and the 401 vote. Today with us, our team, our client here, Chris Shimway, is here, whose vision was for this project, and this is a very unique golf course. My personal experiences, I did the Hammock Creek course. I helped create the Martin County course that just recently opened. I worked at the Loxahatchee Club. I've worked on courses all over the state. This is going to be one of the most unique courses that Martin County has seen. And the reason that it is is because he selected this property, and he selected a golf course architect who's probably one of the most renowned golf course architects, not just in the country, but in the world, Tom Doak. And the two of them are working together on quite a vision. But before I do that, let me just introduce our team. Tyson Waters is here, our attorney. You all know Tyson, Donald Barnes, project. Raise your hand. Raise your hand. I wanted to make sure it's clear. Yeah. Donald Barnes has 30 years of development experience, is project manager with the team. Rick Reach, who's here. Rick has worked for the county before as a consulting engineer for many, many projects. And both his survey and his engineering experience were invaluable on this. Jonathan Ricketts, who's here. Jonathan actually understands this drainage, along with Rick, and the discussion that we just started to have about stormwater in an amazing way. And we'll touch on that. We're going to be brief because we know you've had a long day already. Susan O'Rourke is our traffic engineer. Go Navy. Go Navy. Yeah. Yeah. LSU. Environmental consultant is Drew Gaywood. And Todd Troxell from my office has worked on this. So Tom Doak is the golf course architect. Tom is out of Michigan. He has written books on golf course architecture. I'm very aware of him because he's a landscape architect. He came out of a great program, except for it was in LSU. His courses include Pinehurst. He's doing the Pinehurst course number 10 right now. Now, if you're Ed, your family knows golf very well, the Bandon Dunes community in Oregon, he did Pacific Dunes there. And he did Streamsong, which is over toward Tampa. And it's an amazing redevelopment of sand mine pits. So we've got a great team. And Chris helped put that together. So left side. We'll get to the site. So the site is about six and a half miles. I had in a staff report about six and a half miles west of I-95. The way that I look at it is that it's right across the street from Cliffburg's Sunlight Ranch. And this is Cliffburg's property. It was acquired by Mr. Shumway. And as you probably know, Cliff had an objection at the BCC meeting because of the design of the canal that bisects this site, goes into his property, goes into the Box Ranch. In the preceding few weeks, which Paul and Pete both talked about, we straightened that back up again. And I think Cliff has given you a letter of no objection, which is great. Here's the property. One of the things that's so unique about it is, like a lot of ag, is it used to have citrus, I think. It has cattle. Cliff has cattle out there for a long time. And there are no wetlands. And there are no uplands. There are some native trees. And we'll talk about those a little bit. 240 acres, slightly less. And you can see that this property has a very substantial amount of frontage along the canal, along St. Lucie Canal and the Okeechobee Waterway, 6,900 square millennial feet to be exact. And along State Road 76, 5,800 and 66 feet. So it's got over a mile of frontage on both the canal and along 76, which is a unique attribute for creating a golf course. The lack of wetlands is a significant issue. There are 428 existing native trees on site. And we'll touch base on those. And we're proposing to preserve 393 of those. A good chunk of those, 92,000, a good chunk of those are along 76. So here are the 11 lots that make up the property. The average lot pays $90 a year because of the ag exemption. When those 11 lots become a golf course, that number will change substantially. Each lot, as you all know, because this is a project or a discussion that's come up for many years, each one of these is allowed 2,000 gallons for a total of 22,000. We're asking for less than 5,000. That is the request that we're asking for, that waiver, which Brian has in his staff report. And that health department waiver has been received. So here's the – it's a master plan, but because there's no housing on it, it really is a golf course plan. So it does have a 10,000-square-foot clubhouse. And I don't know – can you see that? Can you see where I'm pointing? Yes. Is that showing up? So 10,000-square-foot clubhouse. These are the two access points that Brian mentioned. One is to the club, the most easterly portion of the community or of the golf course. And the theme of this project, this golf course, is that you won't know that it's there. This is going to be kind of like Seminole or kind of like MacArthur, where you really don't know MacArthur is back there because they've got a little tiny sign, and if you don't know to turn in, you go right on by it. You're not even supposed to mention it. I'm just saying. I'm not saying where it is. It could be in another county. But it's not. It's right across. Oh, never mind. The buffer along there is a lot of existing pines, and we're keeping most of those. The golf course will have some substantial berms because the course will be designed with a lot of rolling topography on it, and that's part of the reason why this property was selected. So you really won't see the golf course. The golf course entrances will be screened, and the maintenance area, which is over here, will also be screened. And I'll show you in a minute kind of the concept of keeping most of the trees along that area. The other group of trees is up here along the canal, up in the northeast corner, and that's the area where we have the practice range and practice facility. You'll be able to come into the clubhouse, park here, and go out and use the range as well as some practice holes that will probably be there for chipping and putting. And then the 18 holes begins from the clubhouse and, as you all know, goes out and then returns back. And you can see one of the other things that's a characteristic of the site is how deep it is. It's about 1,800 feet deep. So one question that was asked at the LPA meeting was, isn't it kind of narrow? And it's not because it's narrow. It's because the piece is so big. As you all know, a typical golf course is about 120 acres. This is 240 acres. Now, the western end of it does have one residential single family, as Brian mentioned, and that is shown in this graphic down here. There's only one pond on the whole project. That's here. This is an irrigation pond, and that will be part of the design. Mr. Houston, this morning there was a public comment about, I guess, a neighbor, an agricultural neighbor, that wanted to know about the buffer. What do you want to say about the buffer? We fully expect that that, and that would be right there, Commissioner, that they will not be able to see any part of the golf course and probably won't even be able to see the single-family house. That is a 20-acre property there. I'm guessing, and Mr. Shumway, who probably will have a home there, will be closer to the golf course, so there may be a 500-foot separation. So, comfortable that that should be very easily buffered. So, the site is 96 percent open space. Commissioner Peart, I know you know the code very well. Ag allows 50 percent, requires 50 percent open space. So, this site, if it was developed at ag to its fullest, would be 9 million square feet of coverage. We are proposing about 40,000. So, 50 percent versus 4 percent. That's the amount of coverage. This property will stay green generationally. This will end up being an amazing golf course that a lot of us may not get a chance to play it, but it will be on the golf course map for sure. Part of Chris's and Mr. Tom Doak's theme is that a lot of native grasses, shrubs, will be handled. And we're not saying it's a Scottish theme, but it will have a much more natural feel. One of the really neat things about this, and we've learned this about on another property, is that when the irrigation for the golf course is removed from the St. Lucie Canal, the water that is removed has a higher phosphorus and nitrogen content than the water when it goes back in. Some of it will go into the aquifer. Some of it will go back into the St. Lucie Canal. But it is clear. It is definitely clear. And if you have any questions on that, we have our great experts with Rick. Let me stop you there, then. We are having an agenda item in the future. And we've had some folks that have spoken, I personally believe inaccurately, that golf courses will have an adverse effect on the environment. Maybe it is a good opportunity to hear from your experts to discuss best management practices and how that's not the case anymore. I think a lot of people might think about old school golf courses and the practices of fertilization and herbicides, but it's not that way. And so maybe it's a good opportunity to take a moment to explain that, especially considering your proximity to the St. Lucie. That's fantastic. Rick or Patrick. I mean, Don. Mr. Chairman. Yes. I just recall one of the discussion items for the local planning agency was errant golf balls, so errant golf shots, and how those would be minimized. And there was quite a lively exchange on that. So maybe the applicant can talk about that a little bit as to the play and targets and things. Okay. Yeah, we've got a detail, Paul, that we'll show you after Jonathan walks through that key issue, and you'll see that we are very far from 76. Part, again, of answering the question about creating a buffer along 76. So we'll do the environmental portion, then we'll talk about hooking and slicing. Yes, ma'am. Most of those people don't hook and slice, do they? No. Good afternoon. My name is Jonathan Ricketts. I'm a registered engineer here in Florida, and I have the privilege of working on this project. Thanks for your time today. I'll just give you a quick overview of the project. Project meets Martin County requirements for one-inch runoff. So we know that 60% of all rainfall is one-inch or less, theory being behind that, that the majority of rainfall is captured than the majority of pollutants are captured. The project meets that criteria. Second object that we get to at a higher level is a tool we call BMP trains. And BMP stands for best management practices. And, of course, the term trains means that we line up those filtration devices in series or in sequence so that we get cleaner and cleaner water as the project goes through its system. Project meets those boundaries. And the interesting thing about BMP trains is that where our county criteria looks at a total volume, BMP trains looks further and looks to the specific land use. So we get to look at what nutrients may be generated by different land uses and then how they're most reasonably treated. And the project passes on that point. But the really interesting thing, so we've met the county criteria, we've met the state criteria, but Mr. Shumway is also interested in even going further. So the use of water from the C-44 will provide, in addition to meeting all state quality and quantity requirements, will provide an extra layer of nutrient removal. So in that case, this project is fairly unique in that not only does it exceed the minimum requirements, but has mechanisms in place to go far beyond that. Second thing I would point out is, and I'll pull out the reference here, Florida Department of Environmental Protection has a best management practices specifically for golf courses. And this was done in conjunction with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Mr. Shumway is employing a Rutgers college graduate who is versed in agronomy. He is a member of this organization. He and I have discussed what his anticipated fertilization needs are for this project. They are well within the guidelines of the DEP standards for best management practices. So we look at how the system will be operated. We're comfortable that that will meet and exceed the standards. We look at our county requirements. We're comfortable that the county requirements have been met and exceeded. And we look at the state requirements. And we're comfortable with those requirements that have been met. And with the addition of the water being withdrawn from the C-44, we have that as an extra bonus. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, given that those are recommendations, they're voluntary, how are they going to be enforced? Well, those records are voluntary, but there will be sampling done. The golf course superintendent is very cognizant of every time he has to place anything on the golf course, there's a cost associated with that. And so they will do nutrient assays. They will actually take samples of the grass materials that they are targeting for nutrient enrichment. And so before they make that application, they will test and verify what those are. So it's going to be self-monitoring? That's correct. Thank you. Commissioner Smith. So I think when Ed, and I missed the very first few seconds, I apologize, but I think when Ed asked the question, and I think an interesting thing that should be pulled together at some point in time with both your project and others that both have been built recently and are being proposed to be built, did you say or did you share with the board how many gallons a day the course will be extracting out of the C-44? Yes. The existing permit now is a little over 700,000 gallons per day. That's the existing water use permit for the ag. So what would be interesting is your drawdown, if you will, out of the C-44, the others drawing down out of the C-44, and returning cleaner water, if there is any to be returned, than what was sucked out of the C-44, the cumulative number of those projects, I'm not asking you to do, I'm just the other folks in the room that are working on these things, thinking about it. But they started discharging out of the C-44 a couple months ago, and I don't know how many billions of gallons a day that they're doing, but there was a time in the county when we were really having explosive algae outbreaks, and there was the cry from, rightfully so, from everybody, we didn't want another drop coming out of the canal, period. And so I always find the debate interesting or the discussion interesting about whether or not this should happen or shouldn't happen relative if you just purely wanted to look at it for saying, look, if we don't want another drop of fresh water coming out of the lake, yet we have projects that are sucking X amount of million gallons a month or a day or a week out of the canal that would otherwise go to tide, and we're putting back, you're putting back, someone's putting back cleaner water than what we took out, and we have Calkins Water Farm on the north side of the canal that can take, I forget how many acre feet it can take, but it's just an interesting equation that I see these things as incredible opportunities to do a lot of cleanup of water that we would otherwise have to spend a lot of money ourselves to do, that we're not doing, that the private sector is doing, and sure, there's a golf course, I appreciate that, but the private sector is spending millions to build these facilities, to take water out of the canal that we would otherwise not want, period, using it for the benefit of the course, but also treating it in such a way that you're putting it back cleaner than it came out. So I just think for all the experts in the room when you're talking to each other and you're working on each other's projects or however all that happens, it would be great to cumulatively take all of that analysis someday and say, look, there's five projects, these five projects are taking six million gallons a day out of the canal, and that equates to 5%, 3% of the discharges that occur over the course of a month, whatever those numbers may look like. I think that would help people understand somehow what the benefit is, at least just on that single water issue, what that benefit is to our community and to the river as a whole. But thank you for your other info. Thank you very much. You're not the golf ball expert, are you? Definitely not. Okay. Mr. Houston, there was a question about errant golf balls. I'm going to jump to that one, then I'll come back to this one in a second. This is our summary. There it is. So when you do a golf course, you lay out circles, and essentially these circles are protection zones. In some cases, there are some courses that use very small ones, and that's when people's houses get hit. 200 foot at the drive, at the T area, you can see where the drive is. This is about a 250-yard drive, 350 feet wide. We're about 160, 180 feet from 76, and that was already a huge area. And then the next shot, this is a par 5, is also 300 feet. So these are used by all the golf course architects, and we have a lot of room. Between us, us and there. So let me just go back real quick. Jonathan, thank you for that. One of the projects that we've talked to you about in years past had an allocation out of the canal of 3 billion gallons a year. And the district said to them, this is a farm, and they said, we'd really like you to look at that because we think you're taking too much water out. So they ended up doing a Kilroy monitor at both ends of the intake and the outtake, and the outfall was so much cleaner, they said, keep the 3 billion gallons and use as much as you can. So golf courses are allowed under the current zoning district, as you know. The proposed development exceeds the open space by 46%, 50,000 square feet of clubhouse, by the way, maintenance, two little cottages, 1,000 square feet, a little halfway house out on the course. Ad valorem taxes will go up substantially with very little impact on the facilities. This is not a residential community. It has just the one house at the far end, which is a 20-acre lot. The irrigation wells will not be used. It will be help on the aquifer recharge for the golf course. Proposed private golf course will generate minimal traffic, and staff and LPA have found the application to be applicable and meets or exceeds all the standards. That is all for us. If you guys have any questions, we appreciate your time and look forward to a positive vote. My little box is lighting up like a switchboard. We're going to start with Commissioner Hetherington. You mentioned a lot of the native plants that you're going to leave along Canter Highway, and I know we met with the applicant, and I expressed that. To me, it's important that Canter Highway maintain that cultural, agricultural heritage look, even though there's a golf course. Of course, you relayed that they really don't want you to know the golf course. You mentioned a new berm and the native trees, but along the berm, the plantings, are they going to be something that's more native-looking and compatible to? And is that called out in the landscape plan somewhere? Yeah, the graphic I have here, which was the detail on the shots, that shows you about the density of the trees. Those are all native trees. There might be a few flowering trees in there, Commissioner, but mostly this is a native look. The shrubs will be native. The grasses will be native. The berm itself will be probably planted in native grasses, so very much a native feel. Good. To me, that's very important, I think, keeping that Canter Highway a rural-looking highway. And then I just had a quick question. On your site plan rendering, and I'm curious, there's one, there's a little pier. What are those other bump-out sections? Those are areas that Cliff excavated out of the canal. Oh, they're existing. Yeah, they exist. And they're just like little docking areas, but they'll also make some interesting golf shots in there. Okay. Just curious what they were. Yeah, I'm not quite sure. I've never asked them what they were. Done. Commissioner Hart. Yeah. Chapter 4 of the comprehensive plan is the future land use element. And when talking about ag, there are lots of restrictions about retaining ag, about viable ag, and how important it is to us. Its development options shall be restricted to low-intensity uses, including agricultural lands not exceeding one unit per 20 acres. It talks about the value of preserving agriculture for production, and it talks about the minimum requirement for 20 gross acres per house. And I look on your site plan, and it looks like the cottages that you're proposed are very close together. In other words, nowhere near 20 units. I'm sorry, 20 acres. Well, as you know, in the ag district, you can build a primary house, and then you can build secondary barns. You can build secondary houses. As long as it doesn't exceed 50 percent of the primary house, you can put a second house on there. I don't know if that falls in the cottage area. Cottages are also proposed to be four bedrooms? A thousand square feet each. They're pretty small. You know, someplace else in your narrative, it said four bedrooms. I don't think you're going to have a thousand square foot houses with four bedrooms. Oh, that's the size of it. Commissioner, Paul Schilling, growth management director for the record. So the cottages are ancillary to the golf course use. They're not to be conveyed. They're not lots of record. They're not being platted. They are simply residential. And where is that language? Guest houses are permitted in the A2 and have been since 1967. It's under the specific uses in the LDRs for the golf course cottages. In what chapter? It's not in the chapter four. LDRs, tell me what chapter. Tell me where to find it. Three points. Yeah. All the exceptions that are created for golf courses, according to you, tell me where those exceptions exist in the LDRs or where they exist in the comprehensive plan. It's Section 3.73 on the golf course for specific uses. It lists all the accessory uses for golf courses, which cottages are included in that. What else is included? Pro shops. Yep. So accessory uses may include but are not limited to pro shops, administrative offices, food and beverage service, maintenance and utility facilities, storage areas, restrooms, driving ranges, and golf cottages. When I looked up the LDRs for the zoning districts, I found exceptions. I found that in this land use, golf driving ranges are not permitted. Limited retail sales and services are not permitted. Parking lots are not permitted. Restaurants are not permitted. A golf range like Golf World had would not be permitted. That's considered an outdoor amusement. This is a private golf course, any golf courses with the driving ranges. That distinction wasn't made in the zoning districts. It is made in the LDRs. But it's not. I looked it up. And those uses are not permitted in this future land use. But golf courses and the. Golf courses are not arguing with that. But those other uses clearly are not permitted uses. As standalone uses. All the other uses that P just went through are accessories. These are not commercially open. And all the uses you're suggesting are commercial uses. Speak into the mic, Mr. Houston. Okay. So. The private club. In your justification for the waiver for the 2,000 gallons per day, it says restricting the maximum flow rate of 2,000 gallons per day for the golf course would reduce the maximum number of golf course members to only 72 members. This restriction will make the golf course financially unfeasible. And in effect, prohibitive use that would otherwise be permitted. So applying the waiver provision to the property will allow reasonable use of the property as a private golf course. When this was broached to me, it was, it was told, I was told that it was going to be a private use for family members and friends. And now it's a, it has to be, it has to, in order to be financially feasible, it has to have more than 72 members. There are 79 parking spots. There are six drain fields. That's, oh, I mean, how does, how does that have any, any relation to agriculture? How does that protect agriculture? How does that have any relation to agriculture? Those uses are extremely urban, extremely incompatible with agriculture. Well, as you know, Commissioner, there's 79 numbers based on 2,000 gallons. This property has 11 lots, which would be 22,000. And you, you could conceivably start moving your bathrooms around, but it's in one place. And it's not a big number of people. That number of parking spaces is very low. 72 memberships. I assume those are family memberships. That's a lot of people. That's potentially, you know, hundreds of people. How is, how is that at all compatible with agriculture? Which is a requirement. As an allowed use, it is compatible. A golf course isn't allowed use. All these other things that are enhancements in order to make it profitable are not. Well, no, to not make it profitable, make it function. It says in your, in your own justification prepared by Creech Engineering that it's the reason that you needed to have the waiver was to make it financially feasible. Yeah. So the words, whether or not it's to make the golf course function for a regular golf course. So 79 members, yeah, it's a low, it's a very, very low number. Twice that is the very low number, quite frankly. And we're only asking for, you know, 25 to 42. We're not even doubling it. So, and as you know, Commissioner, there are many ag uses that have much greater septic impacts than this. This is a very minor impact. But it's not. It's an enormous impact. There are cottages proposed. There are six drain fields proposed. There's an 11,000 square foot golf clubhouse proposed. There's a pro shop proposed. There's a maintenance building proposed. There's a driving range, which is also not a permitted use. That's proposed. There's a helipad. You know, those are, you know, maybe those things are compatible and allowed uses inside the urban service boundary. But they are not on ag. I understand. Anything else? That's it for right now. Commissioner Smith. I don't have any other questions. If there's public comment, I'll move approval. Thank you. I'll second the motion. Thank you. There are a lot of topics that each of us are pretty familiar with. Landscaping experts, all sorts of experts, you know, that at least have a history or life experience. This one's mine. Father is a professional golfer. Grew up on a golf course. My grandfather was a greenskeeper. We're 72 members on a very large acreage, twice what most golf courses would be, is a minuscule number of members. Some clubs have 500 members. We've all driven past this piece of property. Not much going on in between Canter and the canal. I personally think that golf courses is an excellent use to transfer from sort of fallow ag or very, very low capacity output ag. The next best thing you could potentially do is golf because, as Mr. Houston said, you go from $90 in tax base per 20-acre parcel to a multiplier. We don't know specifically, but a multiplier much higher than that. The goal of most of us, and definitely of a majority or a good portion of our public, is to protect green spaces. This could have been purchased by a consortium of people that are raising money and taken off the tax rolls and put into some kind of conservation never to be used again, or it can stay on the tax rolls. We've heard from an expert, whom none of us are hopefully going to disagree with. His credentials, that the water coming out of the canal will either stay on the property or leave the property being cleaner than when it got there. That sounds like a positive. A 10,000-square-foot clubhouse, 72 parking spaces, a driving range which is 100% necessary and appropriate for a golf course. Golf course, driving range. It's just, if you know golf, that's exactly the way it is. Now, it's not a miniature golf course with a driving range like 76 Golf World was. That's more of an arcade. This is 100% an appropriate use of a golf course. Now, we can get into one person's opinion of what the code looks like and says versus someone else's opinion of what the code is defined by. I like the concept, and in the last several years, we've done well to sort of be collegial up here and, you know, make our differences of opinions known at a very reasonable and fair level. But to beat this project up concerns me simply because here is a gentleman and a company that has decided to invest in Martin County in a piece of property that was basically, had no real, you know, grand future plans. They've done everything they can to buffer it from people even seeing it. It's not houses. A 1,000-foot cottage, even though there's two of them, is a blip on, is a drop of water in the ocean compared to what this potentially could have been. And I just think it's a good project, and I'm concerned, you know, I get it, we all have an opinion, but I don't think it's as damaging and as catastrophic as it might have been painted here. And I'm fearful that folks might be like, well, what are we even doing? There's so many counties that would welcome us. There's so many pieces of property that are beautiful in Florida that would welcome us. I'm nervous that we send a message from the board that's like, don't come here. And if, you know, and there are certain projects, I'll be honest, that, glad to say, don't come here. This is not one. They've checked every box. There was some concern at the previous time it was on the agenda with some long-time residents, and you took a couple of weeks and solved them. And the gentleman that had the most concern, who's a pillar of our community, Mr. Berg, he wrote us and said, we worked it out, which is exactly what we would want you to do so that we don't have to work it out. We've had professionals that are, you know, based here and others from outside the community that are saying, it works, it works, it works. I do believe it works. Now, I appreciate and value our differences of perspective. But in this particular case, this is other than keeping it in booming ag, which is also difficult to do. And then there would also be the concern of ag potentially harming the environment and potentially using practices that are not sustainable for our water quality. And they wouldn't necessarily take in the same amount of water because you can't overwater vegetables and crops. But the golf course is thirsty. And there's a tremendous water supply right next to it that the more water we can draw out of it, the better. So if I wasn't the chair, I would second Commissioner Smith's motion. I don't think it requires me to pass the gavel to do that. But I'm... Thanks, Stacey. Do it. You were a second already? Thank you so much. I was already focusing on what I was about to say. This is a good project. And I'm thankful, at least personally, thankful to Mr. Shumway and his group. And, you know, to make it, it can't be a family golf course. You know, there are some individuals that have that level of money that they could have their own private, personal, private family golf course. But 72 potential memberships is nearly about as private as you could have. And for us to be critical of the fact that they are thinking about a business plan that would make this financially feasible and sustainable is just good business. Because the last thing we would need this to do is be built and then go belly up. That's not... None of us want that. And Mr. Shumway obviously didn't get as successful as he is by investing millions, tens of millions of dollars. We didn't talk about how many people will be employed here. We didn't talk about the additional economic impact of heads and beds and restaurants and gasoline and all the other benefits that this single facility will have. So I'm... If you couldn't tell, I'm a huge supporter of this project. Commissioner Hurd, you have the final word. Thank you. Yeah. This project does not comply with the comprehensive plan policies. And it does not comply with some of the uses that are in... It's in violation of the zoning district allowed uses permits. That's why I oppose it. If it doesn't comply with our laws and it doesn't comply with our LDRs, then we shouldn't... We can't allow it. Commissioner Smith. I know you said that was the last word. I'm just curious. Paul, as growth management director, does it comply with the comprehensive plan and the LDRs and all the rules of Martin County? Yes, it does. Or we wouldn't be here today. I understand. I just wanted to hear you say that as our comprehensive plan. Growth management director. Growth management director. Thank you. Thank you. That being said, we have a motion by Commissioner Smith for staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor... Excuse me, Commissioner Campion. We have to ask for public comment. I thought we did. Any public comment. And I apologize. I was going to, but I figured I was beat, just dragging it out. Is there any member of the public that would look to address us on this topic? Seeing none. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith for staff's recommendation of approval, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Opposed. The motion carries four to one with Commissioner Hurd dissenting. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Let's take a 10-minute break, please. Thank you. Okay, we are back from our mid-afternoon closed-captioning break. It is May 9th, 2023. We're going to take our next agenda item, which is Departmental Quasi-Judicial No. 1. Request Platt approval for the West Jensen PUD Phase 1B Parcels 6.0, 6.4 through 6.8 W038-099. It will be presented this afternoon by Elizabeth Noggle. Ms. Noggle, let me ask some questions, and then we'll have you begin. Commissioner Hurd, do you have any ex parte communication? If I have any, they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Smith, do you have any ex parte communication? Same if I have them, they're filed. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins, do you have any ex parte communication? If I have them, they've been filed. Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. I don't have any, and so I would have filed that I had none. If there is anyone that's going to offer up any testimony, please stand to be sworn in. Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I'll help you go. Okay. Do you have a copy of your work history and a copy of the agenda item? I do. Thank you. Are there any return receipts that are necessary? No notice is required. That's correct. No notice. And will there be anybody intervening? No interveners. Okay. With that, I think we have checked all the boxes. Ms. Noggle, you are recognized. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. As stated, this is the plot for West Jensen PUD Phase 1B Parcel 6.0, 6.4 to 6.8. I'm Elizabeth Noggle, Principal Planner. The revised infrastructure final site plan for West Jensen Parcel 6.0, 6.5 to 6.8, and the residential final site plan for Parcel 6.4 was approved on November 22, 2022 through the 14th Amendment to the PUD. I did mistype, 14th Amendment is accurately reflected in the agenda item. The approved revised infrastructure final site plan includes four commercial parcels, 6.5 to 6.8, and an access road, which is identified as Parcel 6.0. The access to the commercial parcels are from this access road. The access road connects to Northwest Goldenrod Road and U.S. Highway 1. Parcel 6.4 was approved for 105 townhomes and 64 duplex-style villas. Total of 169 units on approximately 30.31 acres, mostly undeveloped. There was an existing lake on this parcel. Access to this property is from Northwest Goldenrod Road, which is being reviewed through a separate right-of-way opening permit. There are some minor technical changes with this plot application before you today. Before you is the revised infrastructure final site plan with U.S. Highway 1 to the west at the bottom of the sheet here and Goldenrod Road. You can see Parcel 6.5 through 6.8 on U.S. Highway 1 are the commercial parcels and the access track that connects to those parcels. This is blurry. I have a better image on the next screen, but this is Parcel 6.4 revised final site plan with some minor technical changes, which are just some bearings and distances and some acreage rounding that were cleaned up through the plot review. So zoomed in here for your viewing pleasure, and we get into the plot. There's eight pages, so I will go through it quickly. Residential here. Residential. Commercial parcels shown. Commercial and more residential. And with that, we move that the board receive and file the agenda item, including the staff report, as Exhibit 1. I move that the board approve the West Jensen PUD Parcel 6.0, 6.4 to 6.8 plat, including contract for construction of required improvements in infrastructure, and move that the board approve the minor technical changes to the Parcel 6.4 final site plan. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for that. Questions for Ms. Noggle from the Commission? Hearing none. Sir, you are recognized as the applicant's representative. Thank you. Good afternoon. For the record, my name is Morris Crady. I'm senior partner with the Cedar and Associates. I have been sworn in. And I'm here on behalf of the property owners, which is Gensha Beach and Company, who's going to retain and develop, or it's under development now, the commercial tracks or parcels on US-1. And also here on behalf of Mattamy Homes, who is developing the residential project in the back of the commercial site. We're in agreement with staff's recommendation of approval. I'll be glad to answer any questions, but we support the project. Thank you. Are there any questions for the applicant's representative? Seeing none. Any members of the public looking to address us on this topic? There's no one here, so that would be none. It'll come back to the board for questions or action. Mr. Chair, I will move approval. Staff recommendations of approval. Thank you very much. We have a motion by Commissioner Hetherington to accept staff's recommendation of approval. It's seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Ms. Noggle, thank you so much. You with the coffin. Our next agenda item is departmental quasi-judicial number two. It's a request revised final site plan approval for the three-place project B-115-007. It's got a supplemental memo. The applicant is requesting this item be continued to June 6th, and so we're going to open it and close it. Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney. I don't believe we need to open it and close it since they will just have to comply with any notice requirements and any, so we just need a motion from the board to postpone or continue it. To June 6th. To June 6th. I'll move that we continue the departmental quasi-judicial number two to June 6th. Second for discussion. Commissioner Smith. So do we know if that legislation was passed to correct all that, and does it go into effect? It was passed. It was not signed by the governor yet, so we do not have a change in that statute yet. Thank you. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Heddington, seconded by Commissioner Smith, to postpone until June 6th. Any further comments? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Let me cough in with your crazy cough. That's Scottish cough you brought back. I have to come back with the plexiglass. Departmental quasi-judicial number three. Request approval of a replat for a portion of the recorded South Florida Gateway Plat sea lots. Project number S265-013. It will be presented by Ms. Allison Rosick. Rosick. Rosick. Rosick. Good afternoon. Hiring a lot of very interesting names in the growth management department. Not terribly challenging, but interesting. It's quasi-judicial again, so let me ask some questions. Commissioner Smith, do you have any ex parte communication? I have them. They're filed. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins? If any, they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Hurd? If I have any, they've been filed. If I have any, they've been filed as well. Anyone that will be testifying, please stand to be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? You do have a copy of your resume and the agenda item. This time. Thank you. Thank you. Two in a row. We've got to roll one right out. Are there any return receipts that are necessary? No. None required. Thank you. And is anybody intervening? No. Thank you so much. Ms. Rosick, you are recognized to begin. Thank you. Speak into the microphone, please. Good afternoon, Chairman Campy and County Commissioners. Thank you for your time today to hear this presentation on the agenda item before us. I'm Allison Rosick, Principal Planner in the Growth Management Department. I'm here today to talk about the replat of a portion of the South Florida Gateway Platt, specifically Lot C's. A copy of the agenda item in my work history has been submitted for the file. The applicant for the replat is KL Waterside, LLC, and Canter Highway, LLC. And the agent for the project is Lucido and Associates, whose representative, Morris Crady, is here today. The location of the portion of the property within the South Florida Gateway PUD subject to the replat is approximately one mile south of 96th Street and two miles west of I-95. The South Florida Gateway PUD was adopted on February 1st, 2022. The Infrastructure Final Site Plan was adopted on May 17th, 2022. And the South Florida Gateway Platt was adopted on August 16th, 2022. On February 21st of this year in 2023, the Board adopted the first amendment to the South Florida Gateway PUD. Along with the PUD amendment was an accompanying revised Infrastructure Final Site Plan. The PUD's first amendment added 7.9 acres to Lot C of the PUD and then split the lot into Lot C-1 and Lot C-2. The Infrastructure Final Site Plan was revised to accommodate these changes. Plats are required to be consistent with the Final Site Plan. Therefore, before you today is the required replat, which is consistent with the revised Infrastructure Final Site Plan. Staff found that the proposed replat is in compliance with the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and all relevant land development regulations. According to Article 10 Development Review Procedures, a local planning agency meeting and public hearing was not required for a plat or replat application. And therefore, this file did not go before the LPA and does not come with an LPA recommendation. Staff is recommending that the Board move to receive the file, move to receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. Move to approve the replat for a portion of the South Florida Gateway PUD, specifically Lot C's. Move to approve the First Amendment to the contract for construction of required improvements. That concludes my presentation today. I want to thank you for listening, and I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Very well done. Questions for Ms. Rosek? Seeing none. Mr. Crady, you are representing this applicant? Yes. Again, for the record, my name is Morris Crady, senior partner with OCDO and Associates. I have been sworn in. I think Allison did a great job of giving you the background. We were here a few months ago adding on this eight-acre parcel in the back, which is actually adjacent to the county's 30-acre site. And this will allow the approval of the plat and the recordation of the plat will allow Karis Cole to actually close on the property and obtain their final site plan approval, which is pending now. So it will allow them to commence construction as soon as the plat's recorded. So we do appreciate your support and be glad to answer any questions in agreement with staff recommendation of approval. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Crady? Seeing none. Anyone from the public looking to address us on this? Also seeing none. Back to the board. Commissioner Smith? Second. Thank you very much. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith to move staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Yes, the motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. You did an excellent job. Mr. Crady, thank you. Our next agenda item is Departmental No. 1, Office of Management and Budget Items, which require board approval. There are eight items, and they'll be presented this afternoon by Ms. Jennifer Manning. Ms. Manning, good afternoon. Welcome. You are recognized. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Jennifer Manning, OMB Director. The first item on the agenda is permission to apply for the Florida Inland Navigation District Waterway Assistant Grant, and this is for the 96th Street Artificial Reef Project. The grant request is for $400,000. It requires a $600,000 match, which is programmed in the Artificial Reef CIP sheet. Excuse me one moment, Ms. Commissioner Hurd. Do we have a CIP sheet? Mm-hmm. For 24. It wasn't included in the package? Well, no, because it's programming that's at 24 CIP, because we're requesting permission to apply, so. Okay, so it's for the county, presumably, since I don't see a CIP sheet, so I don't know what the other source, what the $400,000 is. Okay, the $400,000, if we get the grant, it'll be for $400,000, and then it would require $600,000 to complete the project. So that $600,000 is programmed in our CIP for 2024. Well, in the application, it says that the FIND is paying 60%, which is, who's paying 60%? The 400, well, your answer. Jessica Garland, Coastal Program Manager. So Martin County is paying 60%, FIND is paying 40%, and the CIP sheet was created in 2019 when this project was first started. It's the 96th Street bulkhead CIP sheet. The application says that FIND is... I'm sorry, 60. I had that backwards, 60. You have it then, you have it reversed then, yes. Okay, so what's the source of funding for the $400,000? An artificial reef CIP sheet, so... It's the 96th Street CIP sheet, bulkhead. What's the funding? What's the funding source? Ad valorem. Ad valorem. So this is for, in order to provide Martin County and Palm Beach County with waterfront access for loading and unloading barges. Why should we build a place for Palm Beach County to load and unload barges? So they have a use agreement with us, but it's for, the majority of the work is Martin County's artificial reef program. But we have an agreement with them for them to use it to load their barges for their artificial reef program as well. There is no loading areas for any of the coastal programs for their artificial reefs with, between Indian River, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, or Martin. And this right-of-way is the best area. Well, it also says the secondary use of this bulkhead will be to provide commercial contractors with an area to load and unload equipment. Why should Martin County taxpayers pay for commercial contractors to load and unload their barges? They're not allowed to use the public parks, so this is a beneficial use to allow them in an area that is not blocking the boat ramps, so this is an area out of the way, outside of parks, and FIND is, that's a beneficial use that FIND is willing to pay for. Mr. Donaldson, would you like to opine? Yeah, so as you go up and down the waterway, the available sites to, for any of our, especially our small commercial vendors to get access to the water is dwindled, and so part of the grant that FIND is provided is to encourage and provide funding to supplement so that you can build facilities that would be, to allow the private sector to unload and load their barges. As we become more urbanized in our waterfront and we lose our commercial waterfront to more residential, these facilities are becoming more and more important. As stated, you know, the port of Fort Pierce, which had a site for their artificial reef, is disappearing, and Palm Beach County has simply asked permission to use ours. This is principally for Martin County. However, we have developed a relationship with Palm Beach County to use, for them to use our site, and they assist in its maintenance of it, too. But I think in the end, this is really a perfect spot for these activities, and also to help our local vendors get access to the water where they otherwise wouldn't, and we have a funding partner who is willing to not only pay for it, but pay for the upgrade so that a barge can pull up to it without damaging it. So what's our plan if FINE doesn't give us $600,000? The plan would be to continue to use the shoreline as is until we can accumulate or get, wait for FINE to come up with another grant. I don't think there's a, I think the, if we were not to get it this year, I'm pretty sure we would get it the following year. Know anybody? Okay. Thanks. I'd be happy. I think FINE did a really good job of presenting this to, they have a whole program that they've looked at the entire waterway and how much has disappeared. It might be a good idea if you, sometime when we're to have a presentation on the lack of access to our commercial, which greatly drives up the price for our residents and getting access to their docks and other things repaired. So having these facilities actually does have a direct public benefit in lowering the cost for construction of our waterfront properties. Thank you. Okay. The second item is the Sheriff Department E911 Division is requesting to apply for the FY23 E911 grant for a login recorder upgrade. And if they're successful, the funding would be $516,433. The third item is also a request from the E911 Division to apply for the FY24, sorry, for the FY23 E911 Regional GIS Repository Grant. And the funding will provide the Florida E911 Region 6 with GIS data sharing in support for the following counties, which includes Charlotte County, Collier, Highlands, Lee, Martin, Monroe, St. Lucie, DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, and Okeechobee County. If they're successful, the grant award is $125,978.89. Item number four is permission to apply for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 2024 Artificial Construction Grant. That grant, sorry, let me move on. Okay. Artificial Construction Grant for construction of three artificial reef in the Donaldson, is that yours, Mr. Donaldson? The Donaldson permitted area, recycle concrete, to use recycled concrete to enhance the marine habitat and provide structural complexity. The grant funding is $60,000. It requires a $30,000 match, which is programming the CIP. Item number five is permission to apply, to accept, actually, to accept the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Agreement through FDOT, which is Florida Department of Transportation. And it's for the State Road 710 from Warfield Boulevard to Southwest Fox Brown Road. And it'll be utilized for construction and for resurfacing and construction engineering and inspection. The grant award is not to exceed $2,002,006. It requires a match of $803,376, which is also programming the road CIP. Item number six is permission to accept the Department of State of Historic Resources Special Category Grant. The grant award is for $115,669 to replace the roof of the House of Refuge. It requires a $115,699 match, and those funds are programmed in the Historic Facility Fixed Asset Replacement Funds Program. Item number seven is permission to accept the Urban Search and Rescue Grant. It is for $12,000, which will be used to buy equipment and supplies for the Fire Rescue Special Response Team. And it does not require a match. Item number eight is allocation of funds for fiscal year 2023 salary adjustments. The funds are adopted for our adopted 2023 budget, and those funds are placed in reserves. We are following the Teamsters contract, which allows for $1 an hour or a wage of 2% in October and 2% in April, whichever is greater. The remaining non-bargaining employees are also granted that what the contract has, and because those funds are placed in reserves, we have to get board's permission to remove those funds to allocate them respectively. And also, the IAFF salary adjustments are also placed in reserves. So, we're also asking for additional reserve for contingency for overtime in the Fire Rescue's budget, and that is due to up-staffing as a result of increased calls. As you may remember from the last presentation with Fire Rescue, they explained all the increases. And that's to maintain the level of service, which also requires permission of acceptance. Okay. Commissioner Hurd, do you have a question? Yep. What's the amount of the funds that are being requested for the Teamsters contract? It's roughly about 2.6. When Teamsters and non-bargaining together, it's around 2.6. That's 2% or $1 an hour? Yes. What's the amount for IAFF? Okay, we budgeted roughly around $3 million, and we set aside funds in reserve because of the up-staffing, because of the calls. So, it's probably around $6 million. And this is through September? Yes. This is going to be through September. And remember, we also had, we added staff, you know, 20 firefighters. So, you know, that's also going to use some of that funding. Right. Thank you. Please continue. Or is that the end? Okay. So, that is the end of my presentation, and I'll wait for the board's approval. Thank you. Any other questions from colleagues for Ms. Manning? Commissioner Smith? Second. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith, who accepts staff's recommendation. Seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Manning. Next up is agenda item departmental number two, contracts that meet the threshold for board approval $1 million or greater. There's two items. It'll be presented by Mrs. Christy Brotherton. Ms. Brotherton, your name came up earlier this morning. Um, you're Palm City resident, what is your opinion of a bus stop in Palm City? Fully support it. Thank you very much. You are allowed to continue. Christy Brotherton, Chief Procurement Officer. Uh, we have two contracts for your consideration. The first one is our old boot camp gym and Sheriff's Grounds Maintenance Building Remodel and Sheriff's Canine Operations Building Construction Project. Um, this project was divided into three parts, and staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, which is Paul Joaquin and Sons, in the amount of $2,508,299 for Section A, B, and C. Move that the board approve the revised CIP sheet for the Share of Canine and Gym Facility Project that reflects the bid award and corresponding funding sources. Uh, move that the board approve a budget transfer from law enforcement impact fee reserves, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. Um, next we have the Continuing Services Contract for the Rehabilitation of Single-Family Homes for the State Housing Initiative Partnership, also known as SHIP Program. This contract has a maximum not-to-exceed value of $7 million over a maximum not-to-exceed term of five years, and staff is recommending that the board award the contract to A. Thomas Construction, A2B Development, Cibb Construction, and Patriot Finance Group, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. And that concludes this item. Thank you. Excellent job. Questions for Ms. Brotherton? Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, I'm looking at CIP sheets, and it looks to me like if I'm looking at the right thing that the, um, old boot camp, the, the boot camp gym and sheriff's ground maintenance building, that stuff, was, uh, funded at $450,000, and now the proposal is to fund it at $3.95 million? Yes. And Sean? That's correct. It was, uh, it was approved many years ago. Um, quite, uh, quite a few changes have been made to the project, uh, to basically set the stage for the future logistics building construction. So you could consider this a part of the, uh, the first phase of that project, in a sense, by moving some of the uses out of that old farm facility, uh, it was built when, before we even bought the property, uh, move some of those facilities that are operations out of that and into the new facility, uh, as well as it, uh, back, um, when the project was first contemplated, uh, chilled water and the chilled water plant, that connection of the, these two facilities to that chilled water, uh, plant, um, wasn't contemplated then, it is now. So we're kind of bringing a whole bunch of little projects together to make this one larger project. That on top of, obviously, construction costs and, and everything else going up, uh, brought us in about- Sure, but it went from $450 to $4 million. How can it grow by 10 times? You know, I, I understand there's inflation, but I don't understand that kind of inflation. Can you state your name and title for the record, please? My apologies. Sean Donahue, General Services Director. Thank you, sir. Mr. Donaldson. Uh, Commissioner, so, uh, we had quite a bit of communication with the Sheriff's, uh, uh, department regarding this project. Um, as Mr. Donahue pointed out, it did, um, the Logistics Center is a really important part of their program. And if you look in this particular item, we're actually using some funds from that along with the shooting range to actually make this happen. Um, and I think, uh, what it is doing, it is bringing a lot of the project, which is part of the Logistics Center forward. So it's really not a, I realize it has gone up in cost, but a big portion of that is actually bringing other elements that are required for the Logistics Center. So the Logistics Center, um, the magnitude of it will go down as we go move forward to that. That is one of the Sheriff's priorities, um, in getting moving forward is that Logistics Center. And even though we've had to move some money out of it, they're, they're very anxious to see that that project move forward. Um, we did discuss options of delaying or doing other things or breaking this project up into pieces, um, and, uh, it was determined in the department, uh, Sheriff's Department supported. Let's move forward with this, um, uh, in this current format, um, which will help again with the overall Logistics Center, um, and, and support their staff. So their recommendation was to, um, for us to move forward with this as it was, because we had looked at either redesigning it, wait until we get the rest of the Logistics Center and build it with that. Um, yeah, but again, the, uh, the, the preference, um, from the Sheriff and staff was all of these critical elements within this project, uh, were important and we weren't sure that the actual costs would go down given the current pricing of construction and, um, and some of the, um, materials. Thank you. So what projects are being put on the back burner in order to afford this one? So if you look at this particular item, the money comes out of the Logistics Center. So basically money we were saving up for the Logistics and the, uh, and, uh, and the shooting range with the idea that we'd be looking for fund balance and stuff. Uh, so it came out of our other, um, Sheriff's projects, um, uh, which they, um, we had a lot of discussion about my recommendation of doing that. Um, but I did ultimately get their support with the concept that we would be still trying to meet the overall goal, which is those facilities, uh, in the next two years. So it didn't, it didn't hurt us next year, but if, but the idea would be next year, we'd be looking for ways to, um, to, to fund those other two projects so they could be on schedule, I think within the three-year period. Is that correct, Sean? As I recall, there, we're also going ahead with improvements to the shooting range to the tune of about 10 million bucks. So we are. So there are jail pods that we've just funded and we've all been visiting and we're going to be asked to fund those. The sheriff needs to prioritize his projects. We can't afford, we can't afford to have one department. These, these are prioritized and, and the shooting range was purposely, um, moved out some so that this could be funded. So this specifically was discussed with the sheriff's, um, uh, staff and prioritizing. Um, and it did not impact any other county projects. I did, uh, it does affect, uh, future, um, sheriff's projects, uh, with the fact that I did commit to him that, um, uh, we would do fund balance and other savings. We'd be looking to make that up. So, um, it, it, the sheriff has prioritized it and is reflected in today's recommendation to issue the, um, uh, contract. And what is he, what has he agreed to delay? The shooting range. Commissioner Smith. So the idea or the conversation raises, I think a good question about our long-term capital needs. We talked about some capital issues a couple of weeks ago that are on our horizon. And we will have a, and Sarah just raised the, the question about the new jail pod that is, um, sorely needed. Um, but those are all well out of our normal funding strategy. And so I assume during budget, we're going to have some kind of conversation. How do we get there? How do we start planning for multiple million dollar projects that are not in our normal scope? Uh, I, I guess what I'm asking, can we be prepared to have that conversation in budget? Yeah, yes, we can. I mean, we know that the sheriff is going to make a presentation on the jail pod, which, uh, isn't, uh, insignificant. Uh, one of the board's priorities and, and, uh, which you all listed, uh, earlier this year included a, um, uh, uh, a potential facility for, um, special need shelter, uh, and, uh, pet friendly shelter that's independent of the schools so that we can be more resilient in those regards. So there are some, uh, uh, and the sheriff has some other needs as well. So I think, um, um, um, along with other county operations. So I think that, that discussion in terms of capital is, um, um, uh, we can be prepared to talk about it during the budget, but I think it would be an, it will be an ongoing discussion for the next year. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions for Ms. Brotherton? Seeing none. Approval of, um, recommendation. Second. Thank you. We have a, a motion by Commissioner Smith to accept staff's recommendation. Seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor. Aye. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Ms. Brotherton, thank you. I'll see you on the bus. Just remember, Christy, you're just the messenger. And a rider. She has daughters. They should ride the bus as well. Our next agenda item is departmental number three. The 2023 legislative program update will be presented by Ms. Sarah Powers. Ms. Powers, welcome. Good afternoon. You are recognized. Thank you. Um, so, go ahead with a brief summary. So, um, session ended, um, last Friday. There were 1,873 bills filed. 356 of those passed both chambers. And, um, as of this afternoon, there were 32 bills that have been signed by the governor. Some budget highlights. Um, the, uh, legislature passed a historic budget coming in at $117 billion. $46.5 billion towards the general revenue fund. And $10.9 billion in reserves. Some notable highlights include a $1.5 billion tax relief package. Um, $574 million for Everglades restoration. A billion dollars towards Florida forever. $80 million to visit Florida. Um, historic funding for the ship and sail housing programs. And historic funding for a lot of grant opportunities. Some of our Martin County, um, budget accomplishments include, uh, $3 million for the South County line bridge replacement. Um, that was one of our priorities. Uh, $1 million for the fire safety training tower, which is also a priority. Uh, some of our community partners received funding. Uh, Martin Arts, Boys and Girls Club, Council on Aging, and the Fair Association received appropriations. And the Sheriff's Office received funds, um, with a few other sheriff's departments in the state to create a rapid DNA testing pilot program. Can I stop you? Last year, some people got funding and then the governor pulled it back. Has this passed the governor's desk yet? No. So there's a possibility he could keep some of this? Yes. We've been working, uh, with his office to send support letters and, um, additional information so that that does not happen. But we'll continue to monitor that. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Uh, so the tax package, like I said, $1.5 billion in savings. Um, some of the short-term, uh, holidays that were established in this, uh, session were two back-to-school sales tax holidays, uh, July, in July to August. And, uh, in January for clothes, shoes, backpacks, school supplies, uh, computers, accessories, and software. Um, it establishes two two-week disaster preparedness sales tax holidays, uh, from May 27th to June 9th and August 26th to September 8th for disaster preparedness supplies. Some examples of tax-free items are flashlights, lanterns, reusable ice, radios, tarps, um, all the things that you would need in an emergency pretty much. Um, it also includes a number of items for, uh, in the case of an evacuation, um, and cleanup as well. Um, it expands the Freedom Week, the Freedom Week to Freedom Summer, which is three months, um, and that includes, um, purchases to, uh, music, sporting and cultural events, tickets to museums, single admission or season tickets, um, to performances, state park admissions, and annual passes, and use of fitness facilities will all be tax-free. Um, the Freedom Summer also applies to the sales of certain boating and water activity equipment, camping and fishing equipment, general outdoor supplies, and residential pool chemicals, supplies, and athletic equipment. Um, we also have the Skilled Worker Tools Sales Tax Holiday, um, that is from September 2nd to the 8th, um, that's for, um, tools needed for trades, power tools, hand tools, toolboxes, things like that. Um, there's also an appliance, um, uh, sales tax that's just on the retail sale of gas, ranges, and stoves, and freezers and refrigerators, uh, water heaters, washers, and dryers. Um, there's a, um, in the tax tax, it includes a local communications service tax rate pause, so the rate that was on January 1st, 2023 will not be increased for three years. Permanent sales tax, um, baby and toddler products will be, uh, sales tax-free, um, that's, like, wipes, clothes, shoes, strollers, cribs, things like that, um, hygiene products, um, agricultural fencing was included in a permanent, um, sales tax. Exemption, and fire safety devices as well. Firearms. Firearms safety. Um, some funding, um, for natural resources and water quality accomplishments. Um, like I said, the Everglades restoration received a historic five, um, $574.6 million for funding. $104.9 million will go for, um, towards Indian River Lagoon improvements. $206 million for beach re-nourishment programs. And $37 million for state maintenance, state park maintenance and repairs. And some of our highlighted legislation, um, so as was discussed earlier, um, and in previous meetings, SB 102, the Live Local Act, was passed and signed by the governor earlier this year. Um, HB 1, an education bill that expands school choice, uh, to all Florida families, also been passed and signed by the governor. Um, HB 485, this is a bill that would remove the wartime service from the hiring requirement for veteran services staff that has been passed. Uh, SB 106, this expands access to the wildlife corridor and the shared use non-motorized, uh, or sun trail network. Uh, HB 109 allows Florida residents to book state park campsites, uh, a month before they open to any non-Florida residents. HB 724 establishes the Seagrass Restoration Technical Development Initiative to develop cost-effective, innovative, and environmentally sustainable technologies needed to restore coastal seagrass ecosystems. HB 49, this bill creates the Historic Cemeteries Program. The Historic Cemeteries Program provides grants to local governments for the purpose of repairing, storing, and maintaining abandoned African-American cemeteries. Ms. Powers, please hold for a moment. Okay. Can we stop there? Mm-hmm. So, I didn't hear about this or know about that. So, it's all historic cemeteries, or? From what I understand in the bill, it's just African-American cemeteries. And so, I wonder, because if, do they have to be public cemeteries, or are they private cemeteries? I think it's any. Um, I'm not, I'm not 100% sure, but I can definitely. Can you? Because we have a historic black neighborhood, uh, cemetery up in my district. Okay. Um, but I think it went into, I don't know how the right word to say this is, um, it went into, it went into private versus somewhat quasi-public ownership. Anyway, I think there's a national or statewide cemetery firm that now owns it. Okay. I'm just curious if it, if, if it's applicable to that, and if we can apply for that. Yeah, I'll, I'll look into it for sure. I'm not, I thought I had it saved here, but it's not on my, my tabs. But I will, um, look into that for you for sure. Any other questions? Please continue. Okay. Um, we have HB 379, uh, which was an environmental protection bill passed by Rep Overdorf. Um, the biosolids bill by Rep Tuck, um, that just establishes a grant program within DEP. Um, a big one was eight that did pass was HB 5, the elimination of Enterprise Florida. Um, that, it provides that all duties, functions, records, existing contracts, administrative authority, and unexpended, unexpended balances of appropriations and allocations relating to programs in EFI are transferred by a type two transfer to the Department of Commerce, which is now, um, known as, uh, or was, was previously known as the Department of Economic Opportunity. Um, was re, DEO was renamed to Department of Commerce. Um, HB 477 passed, which was, uh, the term limits for school board, and that was signed today. Um, it did not include county commissioners, um, so it was one that failed, but it was signed by the governor today that school boards will now have eight-year term limits. Um, some bills that failed, like I said, uh, the term limits for county commissioners, um, piece of that term limits bill did not pass. Um, we were monitoring mobility fees that did not pass, um, those two bad water bills we were concerned with at the beginning, they didn't even move, so that was good. And, um, there was a vacation rental preemption bill that died at the last second, so we do see that coming back next year, but we're ahead of it, hopefully, and we'll have, um, input on that when it comes about. And that was, as you probably know, just a little bit of what went on this session. Um, like you mentioned earlier, the governor hasn't signed the budget, and some of these bills haven't been signed yet. They've just passed, um, so we'll keep an eye on anything that's been and will be signed by the governor in the upcoming weeks and days. Any questions? Questions for Ms. Powers? Nice summary. Seeing none, thank you very much for a lot of travel back and forth. I know John Mayle was, uh, mentoring you through this process. We appreciate both of your efforts. Congratulations to your sister Meg for graduating from the Florida State University. It's not UF, but it'll do, uh, and you've, yeah, you've come out of the starting gate to do a very good job, and we appreciate your efforts. Thank you. I will say that I'm disappointed with Enterprise Florida. That's been an organization that I think has done remarkable work. It was very well, uh, regarded globally, and, uh, it's a big disappointment for smaller businesses that don't have the wherewithal to do those projects on their own. For Enterprise Florida, go away is terrible. Thank you. Our next and final agenda item for the day is departmental number four. It's Martin County Board of County Commissioner's review of the consent agenda expenditure process. It's one that I had asked Mr. Donaldson to present. We've had a consistent, uh, public comment in regards to how somehow that the system of the consent agenda and the items that are financial on it are somehow put on there to be secretive or lack transparency, and we feel, those of us that are on this side, that it is, it is not the case, that we're not trying to be, um, have a lack of transparency, and so I just wanted to hopefully get, uh, give us an opportunity for Mr. Donaldson to present so that everyone can hear it, because if you hear something repeatedly, you might start to believe that it could be true, and I don't feel that it is true. So, Mr. Donaldson, why don't you enlighten us on how the process genuinely works? Thank you, commissioners. Again, Don Donaldson, your county administrator. Um, I'm going to give you a highly abbreviated, uh, overview of just one particular piece of the process, um, we do have a, uh, complicated bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy is the term that applies here, uh, but I think it's important to know how, um, your dollar is, uh, appropriated and how it's spent, and I'm going to, again, just focus in on, on, on one area, and, uh, and how it shows up in, in the, um, consent agenda. Uh, and so, just highlighting the, the Board of County commissioners has a, uh, an administrative directed policy. It was last updated, uh, February 1st of 2023, and it's, it's been in existence for some time, but in there, there's the definition of, uh, of a consent, uh, and, uh, uh, what's in our consent agenda, and we have expenditures or, uh, commitments, uh, of funding, which was previously included, identified, and approved in the adopted, uh, budget or capital improvement plan, and that meets the threshold for the Board approval as identified, uh, in the Board approved purchasing manual. There's a number of other bulleted items that, uh, that qualify for what can go on the consent, but I specifically highlighted this one since it pertains to, sort of, the expenditure side of things. Uh, so, I, this, uh, I'll come back to this later, but this is an example of, uh, back in, uh, uh, April 18th of, of a consent item, and it talks about the warrant list of disbursements, and there's certainly a large number of expenditures that are highlighted in there, and, uh, that warrant list, um, is, uh, or disbursements, uh, that the clerk, uh, puts together, um, it's sort of a, it's an old, uh, term in government finance, a warrant is a written order to pay that instructs a federal, state, or county government treasurer, in this case, the Martin County Clerk of Court, to pay the warrant holder on demand or after a specific date. So, um, uh, again, a great bureaucratic term for, uh, or an archaic term for about, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's about an invoice and getting paid. So, um, uh, so how do you get that? And so, first, I'm going to talk about two different, uh, processes. One, we'll talk about capital projects first. Um, you know, we, we, we talked about the CIP. It came up some today on some of, uh, our, your other items. Um, we have, uh, uh, and again, all of these, uh, are, are approved in your budget at, in your September, uh, hearing. We talk about them preliminarily. We, in March, we had a preliminary CIP. In July, we'll have a discussion on your operational budget, and maybe some CIP will come up again. Uh, and ultimately, you will advertise a, uh, proposed budget. And then, in September, you'll have several hearings of which you actually adopt the final budget. And within all those adopting resolutions, you will have formally, uh, approved, um, the CIP. And you'll approve the expenditures that are expected to be, um, paid, uh, or, or authorized to be spent, uh, uh, next fiscal year. In this particular case, we're talking about the September of this past year of 2022, uh, which gave us authorization to spend. So then we go through a bidding and award process. And that bidding and award process, uh, if it's over a million dollars, it will come back to you, again, for approval, just as, um, uh, Christie's item, uh, earlier. Now, once we have a contract, whether it was approved, uh, by you, in this case, twice, or those smaller approvals that you allow your county administrator to execute, it'll still, you get a purchase order, uh, approved by, uh, purchasing in OMB, uh, with oversight by our county attorney. Then, uh, uh, we certainly notice proceed. The contractor is certainly underway, and they submit payments, uh, to us for requests. It goes through, uh, several processes in terms to determine that they actually built what we asked them to. Uh, and then we, um, um, um, we, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, funds for payment. That authorization payment goes to the clerk, who actually sends out the check. And sometimes this is by check, and sometimes it is by wire transfer. As we transition to a more modern financial department, not everybody has to get a check these days. Some things are wire transferred, and you'll see that in the warrant list. Then it comes back to you as the check register information required by state statutes comes back to you on these consent items showing what you have spent. We also have detailed check information that was contained in that warrant list that's on the county's website. So this is just an example of a CIP sheet that was approved in the past, Salerno Road resurfacing. This happened to show up in this check register or this warrant list back in April, your last agenda meeting that I took as an example. And here you can see that the vendor was FG Construction, LLC, and they had payments that over time had accumulated to $441,000 that were directly related to this project that you approved for construction, totaling over $1.6 million. I don't expect you to read this, but the point was just that the CIP sheet, which was probably attached to the original contract or to the award, again, shows up in this check register. I'm also going to talk about now is your operating budget. So the county's budget is almost $560 million, of which 38% includes operating and capital. So that's over $210 million. So you're on any given week or month, you're going to be spending over $10 million just on your normal projects that you've approved. And, of course, in our operations, that includes everything from electricity to cleaning supplies, et cetera, which, again, once you've approved the budget and our line items have different operational components, we would bid that out, oftentimes you'll see most of those contracts are bid out where you combine lots of departments. So cleaning supplies, instead of just buying each purchase over each department, we aggregate them into one large purchase where the various departments utilize that. So just as an example, I'll pick on Sean Donahue, because he's new, and our building general services. Anyway, here there's a, and, again, I don't expect you to read it, but there's a line item in here that shows building repair and maintenance, and it's that you approved a $532,000 budget. And here's an example where, obviously, you know, TRAIN, and we use them for energy and other services and repairs, that they had $15,000 worth of checks paid to them. Again, they went through that whole procurement process. And it, too, showed up. Both of these are examples that actually showed up on this consent item of April 18th. And this would have been a part of the backup of that consent item, which shows the clerk of court's warrant list. And within there, it has just certainly large aggregate numbers of check disbursements for payroll for different vendors. And if you go to the clerk center, you can ultimately find all of the individual disbursements, which originally wind their way back, all the way back to that September hearing where you approve the overall budget. And then by virtue of your adopted policies and procedures, most of those come to you for the awards of contracts. And then we follow up with those partial payment approvals, which get done. And then ultimately they find up back being in the agenda again at the very end of their life as a warrant list of the duties of the clerk. So the various, just to understand, there are lots of checks and balances along the way. Some most important are our contracts, which our legal team works with, our procurement officers. Christy Brotherton has a really critical role in that. And, of course, Jennifer Manning in the budget office, ensuring that people are, we are spending out of the line items that you gave us the approval to do. And then finally, the clerk is our, another backstop to make sure they also do a comparative analysis that are you spending these out of the right funds? Are you, did you actually get the approvals for this? And then ultimately we have a final check, which is an audit that we get done every, every year that, multiple audits, whether it's the clerk's audit or DOT audit, all these various people to kind of come in and look over our shoulders to see how money is being spent. So, again, this was highly abbreviated anywhere along the way I could have drilled down to an innumerable number of policies or how that example, those two projects, what the actual bid documents looked like, how many times you actually came to approve it. But I think ultimately the story is that the dollar that gets appropriated gets touched many times and goes through a whole bunch of iterative procedures and approvals before it actually winds up being spent into a vendor's hand and then finally gets recorded in this warrant list. And with that, I'll ask, answer any questions you might have. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I think obviously the five of us understand how the process works, but it was a good exercise for our staff to, excuse me, for our public to hear so that if, just because somebody says that the process is somehow corrupted or flawed is not genuinely the case. And from my perspective, the most important information you gave is that if someone is genuinely interested in really doing that drill down, Taxpayers Association or anybody else, that they would have the opportunity to find that information available to them on our website. Commissioner Smith. And I guess I would tag on to what your thoughts were about the most important thing. I think from my perspective, there are three public hearings that this board goes through, both CIP public hearing and then two adoption hearings for the budget, one in September and one in October, right? They're both in September. They're both in September, I thought, one in September, early October. Anyway, you're right, because October 1, it takes effect. But there are three public hearings with this board that we approve all the money that gets spent. And all that that process that you just walked us through was a step-by-step of what happens after those funds are approved by the board that go into a plan that over the course of the year, yes, we probably spend $10 million a week in the course of that entire budget. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments for Mr. Donaldson? Seeing none, it is the end of our agenda. I'll take 505 public comment. Seeing that there's no one here, there won't be public comment. So we'll go to Commissioner Comments, and we will start with you, Commissioner Smith. Did we need to do anything with this proxy thing today? When we get to Mrs. Woods, we'll discuss that. Thank you. Anything further? No, I'm all set. Commissioner Hetherington? I'm all set. Thanks. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins? I'm good. Thank you. I'm all set. I wanted to bring up the conversation that two of our public speakers this morning had mentioned about the residency policy for, in this particular case, the golf course. I had made some comments. And from Mr. Stokas, I did receive an email that had a departmental policy that was dated April 14, 2023. Establish proof of residency, and then it says the policy. Martin County Parks and Recreation Department provides services that may include discounted opportunities, programs, and membership for Martin County residents. When allowed, no other discounts can be combined. Minors must be accompanied by a legal guardian and provide the same documentation stated below. Facility managers will validate residency based on the requirements below. Each Martin County resident must provide at least one of the following below. A Florida State issued driver's license or government-issued ID that displays the resident's full name and current Martin County address. Or county staff to validate property tax bill or property appraiser's website on the property appraiser's website using a valid ID. Declaration of ID, declaration of ID, declaration of ID, declaration of ID, declaration of ID, declaration of ID, which can be obtained from the Martin County Clerk of Court. Current notarized lease or rental agreement. Current Martin County voter registration card. Current vehicle registration. So I think this does explain that there are several opportunities or options that are available to residents for the ability of proving that they live here. So that being said, I appreciate this from you, Mr. Stokas, and from Mr. Abate and his team. I think then the issue is not so much that we have a limited issue, but that the residents that are going here don't realize that they can show other documentation to prove it. So that being said, and Mr. Abate, I tried to reach out to him. He's out of the office. He has responded to me that that is the case. Let me see if there's any updates. Florida State driver's license issued or government-issued ID that displays the resident's full name and current thing. And then he lists the same things that we discussed. So I appreciate that. I think, you know, if two, in this case two residents, come all the way to our meeting to discuss that, it was obviously important to them. And it's a proactive approach that our staff worked on it. And hopefully they will know from watching this or our golf course personnel will know to broaden the scope of what they can and cannot see. We're heading to you, Ms. Woods. Mr. Donaldson. Just one thing, during the week of May 21st to 27th is a celebration of National Public Works Week. And I just want to thank our public works professionals, engineers, managers, employees, and having come from there, just want to make sure I know we won't have another meeting to recognize Public Works Professional Week of May 21st through 27th. Fantastic. Will there be a party? Absolutely. Okay. Ms. Woods, you had something that you needed to discuss with us. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sarah Woods, county attorney. I've provided each of you with copies of proposed proxies, which we would use at the annual landowners meeting for the Palmar Water Control District. The inconsistent with board policy, we have had the – this is in order to give our Martin County Board of County Commissioners representative, Commissioner Hurd, the ability to vote both the pieces of property that we own solely as the county, as well as those that we own with the South Florida Water Management District at the annual meeting. And so, with that, I ask for permission to execute these proxies and to file them with the Palmar Water Control District for the – I believe it's June 1st landowners meeting. Move to approve. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Jenkins, seconded by Commissioner Smith, to approve the request that was made by our attorney, Mrs. Woods. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Now, at that point, I would also like to say that we will not be having an additional meeting for the month of May. We discussed it and voted at our last meeting that it would not be necessary, as well as the fact that that Tuesday immediately follows the Memorial Day Monday holiday. So, our next commission meeting will be Tuesday, June 6th. With that, I wish everyone, including mine, a happy Mother's Day. And to your son for graduating high school, and all those that are graduating high school, I know that project graduation is being handled at each of the three high schools individually. Please be careful during the graduation nights that there are people, young people, that are out on the roads. Please be careful. And with that, we will see you on June 6th. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.