Board of County Commissioners on 2024-02-20 9:00 AM - Feb 20, 2024

Good morning, everyone. We will be convening our February 20th Board of County Commissioner of Meeting, and I'm Commissioner Hetherington. I'll be sitting in for Chair Commissioner Jenkins today. Unfortunately, I know he would have wanted to be here, but he can't be here, so I'll be filling in. I'll do my best. So we're going to start the meeting with our invocation by Reverend Christian Anderson from St. Mary's Episcopal Church, if you'll please join us at the front, and that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by Don Klein, U.S. Air Force veteran, serving from 1987 to 1992. Don, if you'll stand and you'll follow Reverend Anderson. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that we have the ability to manage and steward resources, that we have this beautiful land to be stewards of in this county. So we pray for your wisdom. May we become the lesser so you become the greater and come and serve all the good people of this county. This morning, we pray for Sarah and for Don, for Sarah and Edward, for Stacey, for Harold, Doug, and Layla. Move through them, God, with the great responsibility they've been commissioned with, to hear your voice, a voice of love, mercy, justice, and compassion, and goodness to this community and beyond. Amen. Please join me in the pledge. Pledge of Allegiance. Okay. I'm not really sure exactly what I'm supposed to tell you, but my name's Don, and I think the reason I've done everything I've done is because as soon as somebody tells me I'm too small or too female to do something, I go do it, and I do it better than they do it. So that's my revenge, is success. And I think the best revenge is success, no matter what you're doing. Instead of doing something derogatory, do it better. So that's what I do. And so from roofing to commercial diving, in the Air Force, I was military police. We called it security police on our side. And I was the first female 81 millimeter mortars, fire in the hole for all those that do mortar. And I thought that was fantastic that I got to do that. The round was half my size. So when you throw that in the tube, you know it's going. I got to do 50 cow. I got to do like every weapon. I grew up with a father. It was a master carpenter. He got us a couple months a year. And we're either camping and doing it survival with a tent when we went out there, a fishing pole and a gun, and that's it. Or we went and stayed on sailboats, a very old sailboat for three months at sea and learn how to survive that way. So he got crazy later, but he was good when he was good. And so he told me that there's nothing you can't do. I would have a twin brother. We were the same size. So we all had to do everything. We all had to clean the dishes. We all had to take care of the yard, the animals, the house, the fishing, the cooking, everything. So to me, I think that I think having a hard life made me better. It made me stubborn. It made me dedicated and it made me want to do everything that I could, especially when they tell you not to get it. And so I went to non-commissioned officer school and I said, well, I don't care what y'all say about us. I'm getting the levito. And I did. I got it in non-commissioned officer school. It was the best thing that I ever did besides sinking the Vandenberg. So I just want to say that it's the Air Force was a way for me to get out of Dodge and start my life as an adult to get away from everything. And so I went to another country. I got out. Of course, I'm from Florida. So they sent me to North Dakota to, you know, put me in my place. And then after I froze my butt off, I begged for the Philippines and there I was for three years. And I got greeted by a coup tump, an earthquake, and then a volcano. Yay! That was my send off back home. So I saved my car though. Came back with me. But the Air Force was really important because I met so many people from so many places around the world and each one had a different flavor. And it's like going to different restaurants and learning the cuisine. But this time you get to meet the people who cooked the cuisine and who developed it. And Okinawa was beautiful. The water under now Okinawa, Kadena Marina, all those places and all those people that I got to meet. I would have never met them. I met somebody from Palm City, Florida in the Philippines. And I'd like to say what we called it, but it was Plum Something. I'm sure people that live there have heard it before. But that was a nickname for teenagers. But somebody's laughing, so somebody must have heard it before. But it was a one-way bridge both ways. And now it's Tulane Highway. Two of them, I think. I don't even think I've been on the second big one. But I don't want to keep you long. But the Air Force is important to me. The environment's important to me. The ocean's important to me. I spent 12 years under it after I got a service to hide because that's what we kind of do sometimes. It's just to readjust. If you want to readjust, go down to the bottom of the ocean and get in touch with yourself. Nothing else will matter after that. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you being here this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. On our agenda this morning, we have a public comment. We have a preset. Actually, we're going to do our legislative session update with Ms. Sarah Powers because she is going to need to book it back to Tallahassee. We have a 10.30 a.m. preset discussion on the half-cent sales tax for conservation lands. Departmental number five. Additional items. Consent 15. Approve the State Housing Initiative Partnership. And Consent 16. Adopt a proclamation designating March 4th through 10th as Flood Awareness Week in Martin County. And there are no consent polls. Madam Chair. Yes. Move approval of the agenda. With the presets, additional items of C. Consent Item 15 and 16. And the rest of the agenda. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith to approve the agenda. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. Can't be. All those in favor. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Four to zero with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Okay. So we're going to start then with our legislative. We're going to do proclamations, Laura, or legislative update first? Okay. Let's go ahead. Sarah will do legislative session update. Good morning. Good morning. A lot happening in Tallahassee. It's been busy. It was nice to have a little reset this week. And I'm headed back right after this. As we said, the car is running. So we're right now at day 42, leaving us with 18 days left of a regular session ending on March 8th. There's nine weeks from week 7. So far there's been 1,900 general bills filed and 22 of those have been enrolled and placed on the governor's desk. None that we've been tracking so far. Budget conferencing will begin next week. And speaking of the budget, the House budget is sitting at 115. The Senate budget is the same. And the governor's budget coming in a little below that at 114 billion. And so they're about three, the Senate and the House are about 391 million dollars off from each other, which is pretty good, but leaves a little bit of wiggle room for conferencing next week. So we do expect any of these, all of these numbers below for our appropriations to change. Hopefully they all go up, but they might go down, but hopefully not. Um, so in the budget currently we have our Bessie Creek project, um, and Rep Overdorf and Rep Harrell's office for a million dollars. Our County Road 710 made it in both budgets. Um, the Sheriff's Office housing pod at a million dollars and our, uh, Gomez Petway Potable Water Project also made it in the budget. Uh, so this is a little update on something that we went up to, um, Don and, uh, Commissioner, uh, Smith were up last two weeks ago in Tallahassee to discuss a little blip we found in the fund and the SERP funding. Um, so basically it just limits the scope of, um, the projects that can be funded, uh, in SERP. Uh, so we were up advocating it's, it's not that these are bad projects. We support them all, but, um, some of the problems that, um, some implications that we've discovered, um, would be, you know, messing with the cost share. The feds are close to us in the cost share. So, um, you know, if anything goes sideways, those projects, I mean, the money needs to be shifted somewhere else. Um, that would not be a possibility. So, um, we've heard positive. It's the same language in the governor's budget as it is in the house budget. So we'll find out next week. Hopefully they can come to some number agreement and some language agreement that works for everybody. Uh, some highlighted legislation just to go through, uh, term limits is moving. Uh, I have a slide after this, so we'll go over that. Um, sampling of beach waters and public spaces, um, that pretty much just gives the DOH more, uh, leeway with, um, beach sampling when it comes to, um, bacteria and health and safety of our, of our waterways. Uh, there are, um, some preemptions, but I, I think that they're good and it's no more strenuous than we already do, um, at the county level. Um, a building, there's some building regular, a few building regulation bills, um, that, that would be in effect. Uh, bill, uh, HB 267 would change the timeframe of when building, the building department must approve permits, um, you know, from 30 days, from 120 days to 30 days for certain permits. Um, so that would, could, could potentially, uh, have a big cost to our county. Um, HB 1537 about vacation rentals. Um, I've spoken with Narissa about this bill. We do support it. There are a few preemptions, but it also does give some power back to local governments with regulating Airbnbs and, um, the, the hotels and all of that. Um, but mainly Airbnbs, um, and, and VRBOs. Um, there is, there is an affordable housing fix bill in there, uh, HB, uh, 1239 and SB 328. Uh, it fixes a few issues, major issues, especially for us, um, from the Live Local Act. It does clarify, um, density and height restrictions so that, you know, they, they cannot, in any circumstances, be higher than are already allowed. Um, it does require us to publish a policy and procedures, um, for the administrative approval. So that'll obviously come, uh, once this bill is passed. And there's also, um, something that I, it was, I don't know that it was a big concern to us, but in other counties, there's a, like a neighborhood continuance clause in there. So you can't go into a historic neighborhood and add a four story apartment complex in a, in a neighborhood that's historic or is like, uh, I don't know, like a community that's look, all looks the same basically. Um, that was big down south. I know some of the historic. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah. Commissioner Hurd. House Bill 665 is expedited, uh, residential building permits. Is that the one that you said is moving from 120 days to? That's, uh, to, to 67. Right. So there, there's a few and I can, I can get you that language, um, of what it changes, but, um, it just, there's just certain, um. And eight, and House Bill 791 now has a companion bill in the Senate. And is that the one that allows the developer to, uh, write their own permits? Yes. It's moving? Yes. It does have a companion, um, and the sponsors are Perry and Overdorf. Residents beware. Um, so we will continue to, to monitor that one as well. Um, HB, uh, 1557, a little, it's, you know, exciting for our state. It will designate, um, the Kristen, Kristen Jacobs Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Areas Aquatic Preserve right off our coast. I know that that was important to Commissioner Smith. So it does a few other things. Um, the departments, they're the Department of Environmental Protection package that they pass every year. But I thought that little, that little piece was important. Uh, and lastly, I mean, there's a few others, but lastly that we're monitoring is the ratification of the statewide stormwater rules. So this was, uh, the legislator, legislature passed a clean water act to address a number of environmental issues relating to water quality, uh, importantly, stormwater management. So that's just moving that forward. And, uh, so the term limits update. So it was agreed upon that we would, um, it would be 12 years and last week they changed it back to eight years. Uh, and it will be heard tomorrow in the Senate and it seems like eight years will be this, the standard for, for term limits. And that is all I have. If you have any questions, let me know. Uh, I can get any bills that you heard today. I can get you the specifics on those. I just wanted to keep it brief and, um, and light, not anything. Anyone have questions? Thank you. Just one question. Can you, can you, also keep us apprised about the progress on the, um, gambling pack? Yeah. I, I understand that that's going to be used to fund a lot of worthy environmental, uh, projects, which is welcome. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. Thank you. Sarah, one more. Commissioner Smith. Sarah, when we were up two weeks ago, um, talking about the Everglades funding, um, it, it seemed like there was a significant understanding, uh, from our delegation on the importance of it, but it really was targeting specific projects to pull from the funding. Yes. Um, do you think it's, it, at this point, it's much more of a leverage on something else than it is specifically to do that? I do. I just, for the public that may not follow or completely understand, um, there was proviso language in the budget that would have stripped basically all the funding from Everglades restoration. Right. Yeah. So it will, and it designates them to specific projects. And like we said, you can't like the ability to be able to shift if those projects, those, you know, four projects go sideways or something happens in the pre phases that that wouldn't be able to shift anywhere else. And it would be significant. And I think one of the things we shared with everybody that, um, either completely understood or didn't understand, um, I guess there's a lot of conversation going on between the core, not between the core and the water management district, but in the legislature between what the core does and what the legislature or what the water management district does. And what we've seen through the years, at least watching it, there'll be a project that will start out and it'll head in one direction. And it looks like the core is going to do that project. And then for whatever reason, bidding wise, project wise, scale wise, they'll shift it over the water management district and the water management will take on something that the core was going to do. And it was that flexibility that has worked incredibly well for the last time. I don't know, five, six years or so. And, and I think explaining that to some of our legislators that may not have completely understood that nuance was important, but anyway, thank you for the update. Thank you, Sarah. Safe travels. Okay. Now we're going to move on with our proclamations. Laura, the first, I'm going to go ahead and announce the proclamation. The first proclamation is the employee recognition, peer to peer recognition and safety on the spot. Yes. I'll, I'll, yes, I'm going to do that one. So we have two employees that we're recognizing today and they, I think both of them represent the best of our staff. Uh, and, uh, they both span both ends of the spectrums in terms of times of service. We have one that's been here a few years and one who's been here over 20 years. So, um, uh, anyway, we're going to start with, uh, Terry Williams. And, and again, these are recognition programs that were initiated from their coworkers. Um, and we celebrated, uh, during the year, various times of the year to talk about, uh, both the spot on program and the safety on the spot. And then at the end of the year, we also had employees vote to see who out of all of those who had run, uh, those other boards who were the, the best of the best. And, uh, to me, I'm very proud of the two that were selected. Um, uh, uh, my participation was very minor other than who, uh, once I saw the recipients to just be very glad of, uh, how it all worked out. And again, they're most, most representative of, uh, of your staff. So the first one we're going to talk about is Terry Williams. He was selected as employee of the year for our spot on program. Terry is the trade superintendent and general service to department, our countywide building repair and maintenance division. His coworker wrote the following. Terry has, Terry has one of the most complex jobs in the department. He is responsible for every piece of HVAC, heating, ventilation, air conditioning equipment at parks and recreation and utilities and solid waste facilities. That amounts to thousands and thousands of pumps, sensors, motors, water heaters, pipes, et cetera. Terry also manages all of our trade staff and is responsible for weekend and after hour services. Terry provides excellent customer service and always has a positive attitude. He provides continuous updates on repairs and services to building users and department heads where appropriate. When people see Terry in a building, it's usually because they are uncomfortable, but I can tell you that Terry and his operation always make you feel comfortable and his, uh, expertise and knowing that he'll get it done. He also manages to make them feel comfortable and I don't think he and his staff can be thanked enough for their work and positive attitude. Terry, come on up. Employee of the year, spot on, presented to Terry Williams in recognition of your outstanding performance and dedication this year. Thanks, Terry. And then you can, you're all dressed up, but we don't see you dressed up. We want to recognize you. Congratulations, Terry. Congratulations, Terry. Would you like to say a couple words? Thank you. It's very comfortable in here, by the way. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for selecting me as the Employee of the Year. I am honored and grateful. Mount County is a great place to work. I started working here in February 12, 2018, as a HVAC technician at the Holt Correctional Site with Joe, Carl, Rick, Mark, and Bill as my supervisor at the time. I had a blast and enjoyed a lot of cake. This recognition means that I have a lot of work to do, and I am up to the challenge. I am looking forward to see how excited the next Employee of the Year will be. Thank you to all the departments. As I close, I would like to share this moment with my wife, Charlene, my children, Alicia and Isaiah, but also with General Services Department, Sean, Kevin, Kristen, Sonny, Bill, all the building supervisors, vehicle maintenance staff, life safety staff, accounting staff, the Holt Correctional Maintenance staff, the trades workers, and maintenance staff. I am sharing this moment with you all, but I will keep the hours of PTO that I receive. Thank you. Don, you're going to do the safety on the spot. Yeah, so the next one is Jeff Hunter, who is also an Employee of the Year, because it was a tie, obviously. We had the two excellent employees, and so Jeff is a project manager in the Public Works Department Field Operations Division, and Jeff has recognized he had recognized multiple accidents that occurred with dump truck tailgates, so he took initiative to develop and facilitate a training class for employees operating heavy equipment. Jeff has extensive knowledge with heavy equipment and takes time to share information and educate his fellow employees. Thanks to Jeff identifying safety concerns and training his coworkers together, everyone can prevent future accidents with heavy equipment. And so I've also had the pleasure of working with Jeff for a number of years, and he's always been one to show up at storms and helping us solve flooding problems or helping with our beaches and anywhere we need him. And he's always there. So with that, Jeff, come on up. The year safety on the spot presented to Jeff Hunter in recognition of your outstanding performance and dedication. So come on over. Now, I'm not sure if Jeff had known that he might have to say a word. We would have got him to show up. So if you want to say anything, where's Terry? You're killing me, man. No, I just want to say thanks to all the employees that try to make it safe. It's hard out there working in the roads and the streets and ditches and swales. So everybody that I work with deserves this. Thank you. All right, congratulations to you both. And, Laura, you want to present the proclamation for the House of Hope commemorating their 40th anniversary. Absolutely. Good morning, Commissioners. House of Hope is a community service agency founded in 1984 that empowers Martin County residents to overcome hunger and hardship. The agency provides support for basic needs, including food, clothing, and financial assistance, as well as life skills through programs and classes in education, health and nutrition, job readiness, the arts, and more. Throughout 2024, House of Hope is celebrating its 40th anniversary of empowering our community. And in celebration of this occasion, the board commends House of Hope for the services they provide to those most in need. And here to accept, we have Rob Bernieri, CEO of the House of Hope. Good morning, Commissioners and staff. Thank you very much for acknowledging this milestone for House of Hope. We certainly appreciate that. A lot of great things happening still in our organization. We are putting the finishing touches on another greenhouse out at our production farm. That will put us over 92,000 cubic feet of hydroponic growing space. All of that food is coming back out into the community through our pantries and through our partners. There's still a lot of need and a lot of challenges that our neighbors are facing. House of Hope will continue to try to lead the charge in problem-solving and creative solutions to deal with those issues. I also want to take a moment to thank the commissioners and certainly the county staff for all of your support through CARES, through ARPA, not just to House of Hope, but to many nonprofit organizations. Those efforts and that support certainly made a difference for us to be able to meet the expanded needs that we've been facing for the last several years. So we certainly couldn't have done it without you. I'd like to invite each of you to come out and take a look at the farm when you have some time. I know some have been and some have not. Thank you, Commissioner Campy, for your support as the farm is in the Palm City community. And we've been able to tap into you for some resources over the years, so we certainly appreciate that. And, again, I just want to give you – I'll end with our pledge at House of Hope. Our staff, our board, our partners, we're going to continue to do the best we can to help our neighbors that are most vulnerable in the community, and we're looking forward to the next 40 years. Chair, if I might, House of Hope, we are so fortunate in our community for 40 years to have the House of Hope. I think what is most remarkable is that people that are suffering in our community don't have to feel embarrassed for the services that they receive. Rob and his team have created a pantry that's more like a supermarket so that families and their children can go in there with respect. They have also taken the pantry idea of food banks and things like that and realized that it can't all be food that comes in a can or a box or a jar. Very few food pantries that I have seen and heard about have gone to the level of farm-to-table, if you will, or the natural and nutritious items that not only did Rob and his team, you know, get as donations from grocery stores, they took that level to the next level and started growing their own and now also have a packing house and gleam in other farms in the area. What they are doing quietly throughout the community is absolutely remarkable and a huge benefit for all. And if you're not familiar with House of Hope, it's definitely a worthwhile organization to support either with your finances or with your time. So thank you very much. Prom picture. Now Laura is going to introduce the Declaring 2-1-1 Awareness Month in Martin County. Tens of thousands of people reach out to 2-1-1 Helpline every year. During these challenging times that seem increasingly uncertain, 2-1-1's highly trained and accredited staff continue to be frontline responders available 24-7. And 2-1-1 is that central access number where individuals and families, people of all ages and walks of life, can find life-saving crisis support, guidance, and hope. 2-1-1's caring staff listen to each and every person to provide available resource options and help them strategize and problem solve. In recognition of February as 2-1-1 Awareness Month, the board encourages all citizens to be aware that if they are overwhelmed and in crisis or just need to talk, 2-1-1 is available any time of the day or night. And here to accept, we have Chad Adcock, who is our 2-1-1 Community Outreach Representative. Yes, good morning. Thank you, commission and staff, for recognizing 2-1-1 Awareness Month. Anytime I'm given the opportunity to speak publicly about the life-saving work that 2-1-1 does, I have this internal struggle of I'm saying the same thing over and over again and also knowing that there are people out there who still don't know and that there is hope out there and that there are these resources that are available. So for those that may not know, 2-1-1 has been the helpline and crisis line in this area for more than 50 years. So answering those calls for anyone who doesn't know where to turn to to face whatever storm they might be facing, literal or metaphorical storms, we're here. We're doing that life-saving work and advocacy every single day. In fact, we're in the process of totaling up our 2023 calls, but somewhere just north of 15,000 calls every year come from Martin County residents alone. And we know that the mental health struggle is real. We know that that process is ongoing and will be going on for a long time. Somewhere around 30% of our calls involve some type of mental health component. And then about 10% of those calls involve even a suicidal aspect as well, persons feeling suicidal. So we know that those calls are there. And also other issues that we're starting to see, just like with the House of Hope, food shortages are starting to become more and more of a common occurrence for our residents and housing, affordable housing issues, which we always talk about. So nothing that I'm saying here today is any different than what you all know. And I just want to encourage anyone who's struggling at any point to, and it may be anyone. It could be me. It could be you. It could be anybody that you know, your neighbor, your friend. If they don't know where to turn to, they can reach out for free. It's confidential. We're there 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And we're able to have the highly trained staff that are there to listen, to make assessment and make referrals to whatever resources that are available. So, again, I encourage everyone to reach out, and I appreciate you making the recognition today. I almost had his head on the TV. Laura, do you have something for Engineers Week that you want to add? I do. Do you want me to go ahead? Go ahead and present Engineers Week. Engineers design, construct, and maintain the infrastructure and facilities that contribute to a high quality of life for all Martin County residents. The Florida Engineering Society's purpose is to advance the public welfare, promote the professional, social, and economic interests of engineering professions, and stimulate and develop engineering professional concepts through education and excellence in practice. In recognition of Engineers Week, which is February 18th through the 24th, 2024, the board expresses appreciation to all members of this important industry for their contributions. And we did find out this morning that Brian Arnold, who was supposed to be here, is unable to come. So we will get this sent to him. Okay. Well, thank you for that, and congratulations to Brian Arnold. So with that, we're going to move into the public comment portion of our meeting. And many of you I see in the gallery have made public comments before, but our rules are we have three minutes for public comment, and you will hear a short tone just as your time is wrapping up. It means that you have a few more moments prior to the time, and then you will hear an ear tone, end tone. So if you hear something that somebody has already said and you don't wish to repeat it, then you're welcome to use our three minutes or just reference a prior comment. And I believe Don has a statement that he would like to read. Yes, thank you, Chair. Since we are in election season, politicking is prohibited, which is defined as advocating the election or defeat of a candidate for public office, either partisan or nonpartisan. This includes the use of words, dates, signs, props, and or wearing apparel that conveys a message of support for a person or group of persons. Thank you. Okay. I have about four that I've set aside that have indicated they want to speak during an agenda item. If I call your name and you don't wish to speak during public comment and would rather defer to the agenda item, please just say so. Our first speaker of this morning will be Casey Darling-Niffin. And on deck we will have Macy June Doerr. I hope I pronounced that correct. Agenda item. Which agenda item? Ballot referendum. Okay. So we will have Macy June Doerr. Morning, Macy. Good morning. You can... Hello, everyone. My name is Macy. I'm in third grade and I'm a river kid. I'm here today because I'm worried about the river. When polluted water from Lake Okeechobee reaches our river, it can be very harmful to the animals that live there. The murky water makes it hard for the animals to survive. Water entering the ocean can harm the animals living there, too. It also means that we can't swim in the water. It's time to send the water south. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Our next speaker is Finley Doerr. Following Finley, we will have Mark Perry. He's going for PH or departmental number five. Okay. Mark Perry. I think the previous speaker said it all, basically, what I was going to address. But you know why I'm here. And that is because just Saturday they started the major discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the northern estuaries. Particularly about 5,800 CFS over the next 14 days and probably over the next six weeks until April 1st is bringing 3.7 billion gallons of unneeded water from Lake Okeechobee into the estuaries. As soon as that started happening, within two days, the salinities at Roosevelt Bridge dropped from about 20 to 25 parts per thousand down to 5 parts per thousand. Almost fresh water, which is zero. And it's going to stay that way. And if it stays that way longer than 20 days or so, the oysters start to expire. So we're going to lose a lot of oyster reefs. We're going to lose a lot of seagrass beds. And we've been trying to advocate to have the Corps put this water south, even back in October last year when it jumped up past 16 feet. And we knew we were in an El Nino season. We were trying to get the Corps and the district to put this water south. We're having them come at the Rivers Coalition meeting on Thursday to kind of go over this. I did meet out on Saturday morning. Actually, Colonel Booth was out there at the site when they started the discharges, and he was answering questions and was available. So I present that. But I think this body goes way back, and I wanted to kind of give you a handout. This is from the official records of Martin County. This is like December 15th of 1930. This is when this Board of County Commissioners took an action and passed a resolution to basically write to the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to close the gates of the lake discharges that are coming into the St. Lucie Canal for the reason is that the discharges large volume and dirty water into the St. Lucie River, killed all of the shellfish, driven all the saltwater fish from the river, filled the river with hyacinths, and so polluted the St. Lucie River as to completely take away its attractive features and ruin its commercial value. This is in 1930, and this commission, along with all the residents of Martin County, have been trying to fight this and stop these discharges soon. I encourage maybe we need to write to the commanders-in-chief, both for the Corps and also our governor to the district, to encourage them to got to stop these releases to these estuaries and put the water south. I know there are future plans. We've all been working on trying to plan to stop this for years, but now is the time. Thank you. I think Mr. Perry makes, as usual, perfect common sense, and I would make a motion that we craft a letter. Look, a letter is not going to necessarily stop it, but I don't think, when we all read that information, for us as a board and as a community to sit silently and just say, okay, I guess that's what's going to happen. At the very least, we should write a letter to all of the parties that have some say in this, because, as Mark said, 20 days, once you start getting north of 20 days, we're going to be in a big, big problem. And it's only been 100 years, I think. Maybe we can continue to at least not sit silently and just take it. We could at least yell back. Thank you. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Campy. Don, are you clear on the motion to write a letter to all the parties? I am clear on that motion. And a second by Commissioner Hurd. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries four to zero with Commissioner Jenkins absent. It carries 150 to zero. Everybody in the room. So our next speaker is going to be Emily Pryor. And Emily will be followed by Tom Campenny. Hello. Good morning. Good morning. I'm speaking about the referendum to include the half-tax ballot in November. I'm a resident of Hope Sound. Thank you for considering the referendum to give Martin County voters a chance to decide whether to allocate funds to protect critical natural habitats in our beautiful county. Since the 1960s, I've spent time in Martin County on Jupiter Island with my family. And I'm blessed now to live in the town of Hope Sound because I care deeply about the natural resources and open space of this special county. I attended the public meeting on January 18th when the updates to the comprehensive plan were presented. I was amazed by the public support for conservation. The number one community concern the EAR discovered was the desire to protect the county's western lands from development. Number two was the concern for next generation in terms of climate change to look at future and protect natural and agricultural lands. Number three was to thoughtfully determine where growth and development should go. We're fortunate that Martin County Forever, the initiative, has carefully planned an effective approach to generating and allocating funds to purchase some of the most vulnerable and important natural land in our county. I hope the commission will decide to allow this future thinking and practical referendum on our ballot in November. Thank you. We have Tom Campini and Tom will be followed by Darlene Van Riper. Good morning, Madam Vice Chair, Commissioners, Don, Sarah. I'm here to speak on behalf of the referendum. I'm not taking sides whether you should vote for or against it, but I think it needs to go on the ballot. I think the Martin County residents and voters should be the ones that decide if they are going to have their tax money pay for this initiative. At some point, I would be glad to say that I will vote for it, but this is not the day. The day today is for you to allow the taxpayers and voters of Martin County to do so. The referendum was crafted by staff. Thank you, Sarah and Don. They worked very hard on it. Martin forever worked very hard on getting it this far. So I'm going to say it deserves to be heard, and it deserves that the taxpayers and voters will once again decide whether they're going to just complain or they're going to tax themselves to save these environmentally sensitive lands. Thank you. The next speaker is Darlene Van Riper, and Darlene will be followed by Michael Serkis. Good morning. Darlene Van Riper, representing the 73-year-old Martin County Taxpayers Association for the citizens. The Martin County Taxpayers Association has decided to support having a referendum for a half-cent sales tax to buy specific conservation land in Martin County. Martin County Taxpayers Association is not endorsing the proposal, but believes the voters of Martin County should decide whether they want to tax themselves a half-cent for 10 years to acquire sensitive environmental lands. The reasons are as follows. The areas to purchase are clearly enumerated in the ordinance, and they have already been declared environmentally sensitive lands by the federal government, the state government, or other professional agencies charged with assessing which properties to be included in that category. One of the largest complaints we've heard about the last sales tax was that the commission used the money for things that were not intended. In an effort to minimize such a problem, the sponsoring group, Martin County Forever, has also written in the documents about the creation of a citizen's review board. Martin County Taxpayers Association will have a dedicated seat on that board. We will not hesitate to make the taxpayer aware of any attempt to circumvent the intention of the referendum. Martin County Taxpayers Association believes that this is a well-written referendum and that the resolution is tightly crafted to leave little wiggle room for either staff or the commission. That will ensure that they will adhere to the intent. We are not encouraging a vote either in support or against. What we are saying is that the voters should decide. That's up to them. We also would caution the commission not to tinker with the language or introduce other areas or reasons to spend the dedicated sales tax during deliberations. If we see that they have changed the text to include other needs, then we may take a different position on any changed proposal. If the voters believe that buying the land is in the best interest of Martin County, then they can cast an affirmative vote. This referendum was the product of a group of citizens who considered that this is the best way of protecting ecologically sensitive lands. In our view, the commission should allow the people to decide whether to tax themselves or not for this purpose. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael Serkis and Michael will be followed by Joette Lorian Rice. Good morning. Mike Serkis from Palm City. Excuse me while I'm reading for a second. The first airplane seen in Stewart were a pair of U.S. Navy amphibious landed in the St. Lucie River during World War I. For almost a decade after that, the only place in the area, which is Martin County, is where an airplane can land was on the water. The two Navy biplanes were assigned to patrol the southeast coast of Florida each day looking for submarines. Starting in Miami, they would arrive in Stewart about noon and land in the river for refueling at the Gulf Oil Company docks near the railroad bridge. Miss Anita Parks Morrison, whose father, George W. Parks, was Gulf Oil Company agent, recounts an incident that occurred on one of those landings. You can find the rest of that story, page 442 of this book, History of Martin County. It's a really cool book. It's over 500 pages thick. I've used this in research at Florida A&M University. I've used this in my master's program at Liberty University. I've used it in research with the Martin County Farm Bureau, and I probably have to take my shoes off to think about how many other organizations I've used this book in. Which is quite impressive for a book that's been out of print for 50 years. 1975, this was printed. We've got a lot of history that we've left off the table. And as we approach the centennial celebration, I know there's discussion later today for a book, 144-page estimated coffee table book, cost about $8,000 to do the design work. I'd highly suggest before we marry to this idea, and I love coffee table books. Pictures are awesome, but Google gives us a lot of pictures. We have an opportunity that we can actually put some real history into a real book. So before marrying to that, I would suggest you kick this idea over your Historic Preservation Board. Give them an opportunity to put together some ideas. We can put together a formative plan so we can have an actual quote, an actual idea of what we want to do for the centennial before we get married into something just because the centennial is coming up. Thank you. Okay. Our next speaker is Mrs. Rice. And, Mrs. Rice, you'll be followed by Harry MacArthur. Good morning, Commissioners. Joette, Laurie, and Rice, Martin County Historic Preservation Board. In 2003, you created our Historic Preservation Ordinance and created the board that I serve on, and I thank you for that. One of the most important things that I think we have done as a board is Historic Preservation Month because one of our duties under your ordinance was to promote the awareness of historic preservation. So it became bigger and bigger every year until COVID hit. I think we had 40 events the year before COVID hit. It's back up to 22 again, so we're doing good. But I'm not here today to talk about that. I'm here today to talk about the centennial. We have a very important birthday celebration coming up, as you know, in 1925. And I mean in 2025, and it's our 100th birthday. And as you know some of the dates, it was on May 28th that Martin County was – the bill was passed by the Senate, 26 to 4, and then it was going for the governor's signature. And this was an actual newspaper that Sandy Thurlow gave me, Martin County Wins. And I just found it very exciting to see that newspaper. And in the past, they've had celebrations of the centennial, done whole newspaper sections. This was the 50th anniversary when newspapers were really big newspapers, but T.C. Palm did. But what – we talked about the centennial yesterday at our board meeting, and we wanted to tell you that next year, we – for Historic Preservation Month, the month of May, when the bill was signed and the governor signed it into law and we became a county, that the board is willing to do Historic Preservation Month totally about the centennial and get all our partners in preservation, the city of Stewart, all of the organizations, and try to make each event about the centennial. But I also wanted to – we wanted to offer some other ideas. There are things that we've done in past years or that I've seen done in Miami for the centennial that you – and you're probably already planning to do this, but that you declare 2005 the centennial year in Martin County and brand all events with an impressive centennial logo so that we have something to remember. I still have my plate from Miami with the Art Deco logo that they created for the centennial there. We could ask TC Palm to do – now, we know they're not going to do a whole giant section like that, but they can do some kind of insert or help us to advertise the events, and they've been very happy to do that in the past, and I think just meeting with the editor there and trying to see that it's good for them too because they'll get a lot of advertising. This whole issue here from 1950 is full of advertising. Do something special on August 5th, which is the day we were actually incorporated. Have a Founders' Day party or picnic where people can dress up as their favorite historic character, which we've done in the past here. Have a parade with flows from Martin County. In 1950, they did it on Veterans Day, so, you know, maybe we could work together with the veterans and organize the parade. In any event, in closing, a centennial celebration is an acknowledgment of Martin County's place in history. It can be used to promote Martin County's achievements, history, and cultural heritage. Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you, yes. It sounds like you've just signed up to volunteer for a lot. Well, I don't think I signed up for that. It would be nice if the county designated or hired a consultant or had somebody to work on. Thank you for all those thoughts. So, our next speaker is going to be Harry McCarthy, and Harry is going to be followed by Tom Pine. Good morning. Hello. Thank you, Mr. President, for me to speak today, for your service, and thank you for doing such a great job for Martin County. We are the best county in the country, and it's all because of your work and everything else, and we thank you. You know what, everybody comes up here to complain. I'm not going to come up here to thank you because I'll tell you what, it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of biting your tongue to sit back there, so I thank you for that. But I'd like to say just I'd like to put my two cents worth in for Martin County forever. I think it's needed. I think we are in that point that we don't want to be like the other counties, and if we could get the half-cent tax and we could buy this land and possibly have trails in it and maybe mountain bike trails, I think it would help people. And we wouldn't have the problems that other counties have because of mental illness and everything else. I think getting outside and all that stuff is so good for us, and so that's one of my two cents worth for it. I think it is. Another thing I'd like to say is on another thing is employee housing. Vail is doing things with employee housing for people if they're willing to let their guest house or people, employees stay in guest houses or places on their property, they give a tax break. It's another thing we need to look into. They shuttle people in and out of there from an hour away, in and out for housing. Now, they say it's not working great, but we've got to look at something. So if we could even do something in Indiantown or whatever, I don't know what it is, but thank you so much. Now, one more thing. Am I up? I don't even got time. With Nathaniel Reed, we were working on a plan to run pipes underneath the Jupiter Island and Hutchison Island to let more salt water in before he passed away, and that's another thing we should look into, possibly something like that, to try to get some more fresh salt water in there for our seagrass beds and for our oyster beds and that stuff, and it's just other things to think about. I'm just a burger flipper, but anything we can do, I mean, something off a reef off of a bathtub beach, something like that, I don't know. But thank you for your time. You folks are wonderful. Thank you for all you do. Appreciate it. Thank you, Harry. And for Sarah Woods. If you want to walk the streets of gold, roll, tie, roll. Love you. And you have a special place in my heart. Thank you, Harry. Our next speaker will be Tom Pine, and Tom will be followed by Lorraine Kaiser. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Tom Pine. I presently live in the Jensen Beach area. Once again, this county commission will use the Consent Agenda to approve $13,728,317 in expenditures from taxpayers between January 22nd and February 4th, 2024, without identifying the pays or the purpose of the payment. Using the Consent Agenda to hide where our tax dollars are being spent is how taxes have gone up 144% in seven years without any accountability to the taxpayers. I speak for those of us that make around the median wage and down, those of us that have almost no representation on our county government. Today, a proposed ordinance would improve an additional half-cent sales tax, raising the state and local sales tax in Martin County to 7% to be used primarily for acquisition of land for preservation and conversation. During the budget meetings, the people that spoke representing various HOAs spoke about a high percentage of their long-term residents were having trouble making ends meet. With that said, I am speaking against the proposed half-cent sales tax increase until our county government can show that they have the ability to govern within a firm budget, which has been elusive for decades. At present, we are nearly $10 million in debt. CRAs seem to be played by different rules than the average taxpayer in Martin County does. At the last county commission meeting, I spoke about the Community Redevelopment Investment Program, which is just another con job on the taxpayers of Martin County. This past week, I checked with the building department, and guess what? No permits have been pulled for either of the buildings in downtown Jensen Beach that got grants totaling $37,740. According to the building department, permits are required to replace windows, doors, and shutters. So do any of the businesses that got grants from Martin County totaling $84,221,57 pull permits where they are needed, or are permits just for the average guy? Headlines in the Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach wants to drill baby drill, not for oil, but for water. The city of West Palm Beach wants to tap the brackish Florida aquifer with 30 wells to subsidize the vulnerable surface water supply, and a move that would require building an expensive desalination plant. I have a rhetorical question for our county attorney. Is it moral for a sitting commissioner to have firefighters collect signatures to get on the ballot for your election at the county fair? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Tom. Our next speaker is Lorraine Kaiser, and Lorraine will be followed by Butch Olson. Good morning. Good morning, and thank you for having me, county commissioners. I really appreciate everything that you do. I'm a resident of Stewart, and I'm also one of the architects of the Martin County Forever Initiative. I'm really hoping that you all will give us an opportunity to let the voters decide. I thank you for the opportunity to address you today, to advocate for this cause, not only that it's vital for the community, but for the entire state of Florida and beyond. I'm here to propose the inclusion of a crucial proposition on the 2024 ballot, one that calls for the acquisition of 46,000 acres of wetlands and natural habitats in the largest estuary in North America, which we are all so blessed to live in and to protect. As we all know, Florida is home to some of the most unique and diverse ecosystems in the world. Our state's beauty lies not only in sandy beaches and vibrant cities, but also in the richness of its natural habitats. The estuary we're discussing today is a treasure trove of biodiversity, housing countless species of flora, fauna, many of which are endangered or threatened. And I think the little young girl who got up here said it for all of us. I know we all care, and we care about the birds, and they have, all these animals have no voice. We have to be the voice for them. We have to be the voice for the ocean. We have to be the voice for these amazing wetlands. By acquiring these 46,000 acres, we have an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the preservation of our environment. This proposition is not just about protecting land. It's about safeguarding the delicate balance of our ecosystem. Wetlands play a crucial role in maintaining water quality, preventing flooding, and habitat for countless species. They act as the kidneys. They help clean our environment, our landscape. They filter pollutants, and they ensure substantial environment for both wildlife and human communities. Preserving this vast expanse of wetlands is not only investment in our environment, but also for the well-beings of our citizen. These wetlands act as a natural barrier against storm surges and floods, offering a level of protection that no man-made infrastructure can really replicate. I hope for future generations that we can all be the good stewards that I think we are. I really encourage you to vote not only with your heart, but with your mind, and with this community in mind. I think you all are very aware how many wonderful organizations like Rivers Coalition, like Mark and Ocean Graphics Society, we all really do care. Please let the citizens vote, and I thank you very much for your time and your consideration. Thank you. Our next chair is Butch Olson, and Butch will be followed by Bill Flynn. Butch Olson, thank you. Good morning, Commissioner. So Butch Olson representing the Port Center Dock Authority. I'm here today to express our support for the proposed upland facility for the Port Center Manatee Pocket Mooring Field. Sorry, that was long-winded. So, you know, we've supported the mooring field since the beginning. You know, our organization exists to support the commercial fishermen of Martin County. However, we also support working waterfronts, the marine industries, public access, and boating as a whole. So we understand the importance of this facility for the mooring field. Although I'm sure it's been done in good faith, this upland property has been referred to as a park. With all due respect, I mean, it's two benches and a table on a grassy patch and behind extremely dense mangroves with no waterfront view. So we understand the benefit that this land will give to the mooring field. So I also want to take a moment to compliment your staff. We've been working with Martin County staff on a couple items recently, and Martin County staff has been extremely, just extremely professional and has really listened to us. And, you know, we always hear about when things are going wrong, and we pointed out, organizations pointed out things that we felt were going wrong in the past, too. But when people are doing their job and really listening to the citizens and just doing things right, that deserves recognition as well. So I just want to give you folks that feedback. Thank you. Thank you, Bush. Our next speaker is Bill Flynn, and Bill will be followed by Jackie Thurlow-Lippish. Good morning. Good morning. Commissioners, good morning. This meeting, my purpose to you today is to speak about myself and Sailfish Sands Golf Course. And I want to thank you almost a year late because I appeared before you last year asking you regarding Sailfish Sands to change the status that tenants who live here could also get the favorable rate to play at Sailfish Sands or the resident rate. And you okayed that. Now, this year, my concern here or my reason for being here in front of you is that yours truly, Bill Flynn, has been booted off the Sailfish Sands Golf Course. I was riding a bike on the cart path, not on the golf course, but on the cart path, and I was told not to do it again. I did not do it again. And just the same, they booted me off. I had a sheriff come to the house last in January to my condo, and they, of course, maintained after I checked with them that I was still on the course even though I was riding my bicycle in the parking lot because I was on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. I think you all know where that restaurant is. And on the sidewalk, they maintained, correctly or incorrectly, that was part of the golf course, and therefore I was riding my bike again on the golf course, and I was a trespasser. And for this reason, I'm asking you to overlook that or override that booting me off and allow me to play golf there at Sailfish Sands again for the foreseeable future. It would be a nice birthday present for me. I'm about to turn 84. Happy birthday. Thank you. We'll have someone from staff look into it. Sounds very good. Thank you a lot. Thanks for your time. And our next speaker is Jackie Thurlow-Lippish, and that will be all of the cards I have for public comment. Jim, did you want a departmental number five? Okay. One moment, and I'll address all the other cards. Go ahead, Jackie. Good morning, honorable commissioners and staff. I'm Jackie Thurlow-Lippish. Today, I'm here as a lifetime resident of Martin County, Florida. You might not be able to tell from where you're standing, but I am wearing earrings that are on the catch and release pin made in 1941 by the Sailfish Club of Martin County. That, indeed, is what inspired the logo behind your desk. And I'm bringing that up today because the land and the water are connected. Martin County has a great legacy of conservation. Martin County was the first to catch and release sailfish. My mother has a story in her, one of her books, I think the Stewart one, about how 5,000 sailfish were caught. And it was over a three-month period of time, but it was the most ever caught, and it was right before they created this conservation pin. And about half of them were killed and thrown back into the ocean. And that terrible experience was what inspired Kurt Whitaker and others to draw the pin for conservation of these waters. I feel like we're at that same point today with our lands, and I want to thank you, all of you. I know those of you who've been here for a long time especially have done a lot for lands already, and you've just done more for lands already. Please give Martin County residents an opportunity to do more. It is our legacy. Thank you. Okay, let's—I have a couple items. So, Rob, I have your card to speak on an agenda item, Three Lakes. Would you like to speak now? Okay, come forward. Carol, I have two cards for you. I have one for PH1. And do you want to do the public comment now? So, I will take you after Rob, Carol. Thank you, Commissioners. For the record, Rob Ranieri. I noticed on the agenda today you'll be talking about Three Lakes Golf Course. And I just wanted to add something that probably is not in all of the applications and reports that you read. For a while now, the team at Three Lakes has been working to learn about the community through the eyes of several of our leading nonprofits, including House of Hope. And basically has supported all of us very generously in our missions. And I just wanted to kind of make that aware of you. They've done all that without any expectations from us, not looking to get their names on things or, you know, have us wave the flag for them or anything like that. They just did it because they learned about the community, they learned about our work, and they're trying to be good partners. I think that says a lot about the character of their leadership and their approach to community. And I just wanted to bring that to your attention for your consideration today. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak and have a great day. Thank you. Okay, Carol, I have two comment cards for you for Departmental No. 5 and PH1. Okay, perfect. Ellen, if you would like to speak during public comment, I'll take you next. Good morning. Good morning. PH1, Agenda Item 24-0608, CPA 22-09, Exhibit A, Chapter 18, Community Redevelopment Element, has changes to the CRAs, which are community redevelopment areas. This is the main part that should be revised and some reversals made. I live near Port Salerno, which is a CRA. It has some good changes, many are not. In too many instances, a cash payment can be made in lieu of moving something somewhere else, allowing something else to be built in place of what was there, or not doing anything at all. I think there's a bit too much in field development and redevelopment planned. Now accessory dwellings can't be placed behind a single-family home or townhome. This denies the homeowner a place for an aging family member to live, no extra income from rentals to pay for a mortgage or outrageous home insurance. It decreases some affordable rentals and encourages more building, along with more expensive rentals. Please keep residential and commercial development separated properly. The goal is to achieve a compact, walkable, small-town urban form. Why would a green building or other infrastructure practices be allowed to replace designated community gathering spaces? We need them, some of them. 18.48.32, number three, is struck out. It was to provide community open space located to achieve a network of small open spaces connected by sidewalks, bicycle trails, or walking paths. That would have protected the small shops and the small spaces along the Port Salerno boardwalk. Very harmful deletions are in Objective 18.4B. It's to facilitate compact, walkable, urban development while advancing the preservation of no less than 25% of native upland habitat. Just about all the policy numbers and wording, and if you have been eliminated, it's a prime example of the pay cash in lieu of. It doesn't seem to me you want to preserve much. Objective 18.4C. This good part says encourage public access to the waterfront, preserve shoreline mangroves, protect shoreline stability, and reduce non-point source water pollution. Exhibit B, Objective 2.2B, preserves the native upland habitat used by threatened and endangered plant and animal species. It seems there's a greater effort to ensure that a minimum of 25% of this type of upland native habitat is protected. So thank you for listening. Thank you. Ellen, I'm going to take you as our next speaker. And Jim, did you want to speak during public comment or during the item? Jim Moyer. Okay. Very good. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners, and I thank you for hearing me. I am a resident of Port Salerno. I was here in the 70s, but we came back in 85, so I'm not a native. But I strongly support everything that Port Salerno is doing. As a member of the NAC, I feel I have the right to state strongly to object to the plans of the Manatee Park along our waterway to build a 20 by 40 building for the mooring field. This is not in keeping with our plans to keep our waterfront free for residents and tourists to enjoy. A place, a bike, in a rack, sit at a table, even enjoy a meal while having full view of the water, watching the boats, birds, fish jumping, and even dolphins. I have been told by residents the history of this park was given in a will to always remain as a park. We've heard a lot this morning about preservation of parks, of preservation of our lands. And so, if you take away this park, there is no other place around the Manatee Pocket in order to look at the water, unless you're in a busy restaurant. It needs some help? Yes. We strongly believe that there's a lot that could be done to enhance it. This is keeping in the best interest of Salerno and our quaint fishing village to keep the Manatee Park and look for another spot for this facility. We don't say that we shouldn't have a facility, but using our park is not in our best interest. Thank you very much for hearing me. Thank you, Ellen. Kim Singleton, would you like to speak on the item or during public comment? Okay. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Kim Singleton. I live in Port Salerno on Park Drive, about 200 feet from a proposed upland facility. I am caught between my Port Salerno friends, surprised when Butch Olsen was so enthusiastic about it and share Ellen's concerns. Here's the thing. As near as I can tell, out of concern for boats that were anchored, and not safely so, it was deemed appropriate, and everyone would agree that mooring field was a preferable way to have boats out in the harbor. What we in the neighborhood didn't know was that the state grant required an upland facility, and on some particular terms. First, we really began to pay attention to it that I know of was back in an NAC meeting in June when we heard the words, we're in the cone of silence with negotiations. Can't tell you anything, but we're working on an upland facility. That was about the same time that we were told the negotiations had failed. Still weren't able to be told what the negotiations were, but in the context of failure, gee, we're going to have to build one ourselves. It's six months later. You are asking later today to rezone some land in order to make this facility possible, but you're not telling us, staff's not telling us, park department's not telling us the whole picture. Can't see a picture of the proposed building. Can't see an aerial view of where it will go. Can't see anything about the plans for what remains of the park. Haven't had responses to can the fishermen use the facility. Can park visitors use the facility? No. We're being asked to say yes to one narrow thing with no answers to all the rest. That's not fair. That's just not fair to the residents of Port Salerno. You've got a trailer. It meets the temporary requirement. It can be towed away if it's the wrong thing to do. Stop rushing to build a building. Stop rushing to fix a failed negotiation with a permanent building at the same time that the neighborhood can't even figure out what's going on. If your staff can't give us a picture of the building, if your staff can't tell us what remains of the park, what the rules are going to be, why should we agree to go down this road without an end point in view? Please, leave the trailer where it is. Go back to the drawing board. At least come to us with a total plan before you ask our consent. Thank you. Paul Owens, do you want to speak during Departmental No. 5, Paul Owens, or would you like to speak during public comment? Okay. And then I have Linda Fithian. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Linda Fithian from Palm City. It's nice to see you all. I just have a couple of general comments that I'd like to say, and one of them is I've mentioned this to you before. When it comes to zoning, people who purchase lands, when they purchase it, they know what zoning they have purchased, and then they come and they apply, and they ask you to change the zoning. And I ask you to please keep in mind that people buy properties, have properties, because they know around them it's zoned a certain way. So when you vote to change the zoning on people who already owned property, and it's not very good for the neighbors that are surrounding that, I ask that you really consider that before you approve zoning because a developer or someone who bought the property wants it rezoned for them. And then I know there's items on the comp plan as far as changing things on the comp plan. Again, I know that many of you have lived here in Martin County for a long time, and I know that you all want Martin County to stay the way it has been. And so when you go and you make changes to the comp plan, please consider that agricultural lands cannot come back once they get developed. We just don't have that. And I understand that there's a lot of agricultural lands that can't really anything be done at this point, but maybe in a number of years there will be something that will come up that it could be used for agricultural. So I ask that you really consider what you're doing when you change the comp plan. And the third thing I wanted to say is with the tax increase, I'm not advocating for or against, but what I want to say is that when the state requires you to report lands that are owned by Martin County, I don't remember if it's on a yearly basis, I think it's every other year. So when the county purchases land, then you have to tell the state what lands you have purchased because they may want you to put affordable housing on those lands. And I understand that this tax increase is for conservative land to conserve lands, but people, you must understand that those things can change. So please, if you're writing something in to have this, make sure that the state can't take these lands and say you have to put affordable housing on that. And then always remember that when you accept grants, any grant, strings are attached to it, and there's things that you have to do that maybe the citizens of Martin County didn't really want to happen. So I really thank you for your time, and I thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Tiffany Perry, did you want to wait to the item, or do you want to speak during public comment? Wait for the item. Okay. Okay, I have some new cards here. I have Melissa. It's hard to make out the handwriting. Burke? Burke? Buncee. Buncee? Wait for the item. And then we have Pam Brinelli, who has public comment. Commissioners, how are you today? Good morning. Everybody loving this weather? Yes. No? All right. My name's Pam Brinelli, and I live in Rio. I have a few things I want to point on. We have lots of lands that's being built on Arch Street and 22nd Avenue. There's three homes up by the road, and there's one being built behind there, and that's where the peacocks used to roost back there. I don't know when the developers are developing these lands. Okay. You're allowed to put three houses down. How does it come from three houses to four to five houses? Another one, Arch Street and Dixie. Palma Homes is going to be building there. How many homes are going to go on that piece of land? Dixie and Sylvia, there's six homes there. And then we have an empty lot, an empty plaza on Dixie. What's going on with that? That's a footprint right there, and it's just sitting empty. So that means more fertilized lawns. We need more oak trees and pine trees, less palm trees. Our birds of prey cannot sit in a palm tree. Then we have Dixie and Amy. Studio One, I think there's a sign there. We have many gopher tortoise dens there. And our developments, why are they being built sidewalk to sidewalk? There's no tree buffers. Let's see. Oh, I've emailed the commissioners twice about having gopher tortoises sign on Dixie Highway. I was shot down twice. Apparently, I didn't know the gopher tortoises knew how to read speed limit signs. And then the other one was because we don't know where they're crossing. Well, we don't know where the peacocks cross, too. They cross everywhere. But we got peacock crossing signs. And I love our peacocks. Don't get me wrong. And I think the last thing I want to touch on is Bathtub Beach. Why do we keep trying to dredge for Bathtub Beach? Is that like, just let Mother Nature have that beach. We love that beach. It's one of our favorite beaches. But why do we keep dumping sand there? The next year it goes away. We dump more sand there. Or just let Bathtub Beach. Mother have it. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tom Haas. During public comment. H-A-A-S. Haas. Tom Haas. Gil Smart. Would you like to speak during the agenda item? And Ken Parks. Would you like to speak during the agenda item? Good morning. Good morning. Tom Haas from Jensen Beach. A couple things you're talking about a mooring field in Port Salerno. The one thing I'd like to ask, if anybody even has a figure, several years ago we built a mooring field in Jensen Beach with a big building similar to the one they're probably going to build in Port Salerno. Has that even come close to breaking even with the cost of the maintenance and everything else? It's another cost for the county that maybe we shouldn't be looking at a mooring field at this time. The one in Jensen Beach is being utilized. I don't know to what cost. I don't believe we're even coming close to breaking even on it. And I know that was millions of dollars. And the first time it was built, the dock was wrong. The company had to come in and redo the whole docking system. And the other thing is with Bathtub Beach. I've been up to Bathtub Beach several times walking. And has anybody noticed the pictures that have been online? There's a lot of big tree stumps that are now visible. Well, I viewed a couple of them pretty close. A lot of those trees were cut with a chainsaw. The roots are still in the sand, but the trees were cut down. Probably if they'd have been left, we might not be having that problem with the beach that we're having now. Somebody had to remove those trees a long time ago. Now we got a big washout. And it's an absolute disgrace. I've been around since 62. It's absolute disgrace of what's happened up there with Bathtub. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. If there's anybody else that would like to speak during public comment, now's your opportunity. I have used up all of our cards. I have a handful for departmental number five. And then I have Ms. Perry during the mooring field discussion. So with that, we're going to end the public comment. And I know everybody's excited to get to departmental number five, but we need to take a 10-minute closed captioning break for our resources. So it is 10-31. We will see you back at 10-40. You're on. Good morning. We are back. I ask everybody to please kindly take their seats. We're back from our closed captioning break. If you could please take your seat. And we are going to begin with the next agenda item. Actually, I'm going to take real briefly Commissioner comments. We didn't do that on the agenda yet this morning. So I'll start with you, Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick follow-up to some very early comments this morning, early in the morning anyway. For the last couple, four or five years or so, we at the Association of Counties have been working on legislation to get passed for a term that I've used for the entire time, all things water. And I think from Mark Perry's comments, from the folks, the kids this morning that we're in from... Bridges Montessori. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. The discharge conversation always leads us into a conversation that more has to be done. And the board approved authoring, you know, a letter this morning. There's much more than a letter that needs to be done relative to all things water in Florida. And passing some legislation that would allow the creation of a strategy similar to what FDOT has with their five-year work plan and their 20-year horizon work plan is something that water absolutely deserves. Because the spikes and valleys that we go through with both our legislators and governors, there's always an uncertainty as to what happens next. And we're absolutely seeing it this year with the language, the proviso language, relative to Everglades restoration and where those dollars should go and how the water management district should do its business. If we had a more comprehensive strategy statewide in terms of how we deal with that and how we plan for the future, it would blend over or it would certainly override the ups and downs of the legislature and of the governor's office. So we don't believe that we are going to get that legislation passed this year, but we will go back at it next year and try to make sure that it gets done. Because the uncertainties of where things go and how they go, water deserves exactly, if not more so, the sort of intensity and the funding and the committed funding, the roads and bridges and streets and all that kind of get in Florida. So anyway, we'll be working on that. There's a lot of other things that we'll comment on during the agenda items as they come forward. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Campy. I'm fine. Ready to move on. Commissioner Hearn. And I'm eager to hear from our residents. Thank you all for showing up this morning. It's very, very important to hear from you. And also there's been an outpouring of support for the ballot initiative via emails for the last two weeks. So we thank all you citizen groups and citizens for making your position known. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm all set. And Dawn. Sarah. Okay. All right. So we are going to move on to departmental number five, discussion regarding half-cent sales tax for conservation lands. And that is initially going to be presented, I believe, by Sarah Woods. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chairman. So this agenda item was brought forth at the request of the board back in September of last year. The board directed staff to work with a conservation initiative entitled Martin County Forever. What you have attached to this agenda item is draft proposed ballot language and an ordinance calling for a referendum on the question of whether to levy a half-cent local government infrastructure sales tax for a period of 10 years for the acquisition of conservation lands within Martin County. And if Donna could bring up the, back in the background, the ballot language, and I'm not going to read all of this aloud, blessedly, but I'm going to say that the title currently is lands to protect water quality, natural areas, and wildlife habitat, one-half percent sales surtax. And the ballot question, shall Martin County protect its water quality and unique character by acquiring critical lands in Martin County within the Indian River Lagoon South, Palmar, Loxahatchee, and St. Lucie Headwaters, Blue Ways areas, and to provide municipal infrastructure allowed by law by loving a one-half percent county sales tax for 10 years starting January 1st of 2025 with an annual audit and citizen oversight. Just briefly dropping down into the ordinance, the ordinance allows the acquisition by, this is in Section 6 of the draft ordinance, it allows the acquisition by fee simple interest, which means by purchasing the property, environmentally significant land for the purposes of preserving, conserving, and restoring. And again, the same language is used regarding Indian River Lagoon South, Palmar, the Loxahatchee, and St. Lucie Headwaters, and Blue Ways areas, thereby protecting water sources, preserving natural areas and beaches, providing open space, providing wildlife habitat, and water storage recharge areas. It expressly limits the use of the sales tax proceeds to those enumerated areas within Martin County. The second part of Section 6 of the ordinance allows for the acquisition of perpetual interest in land through a conservation easement, and again, with the same requirements. And again, the conservation easements would preserve the land while allowing current lands in the most common use of using conservation easements would be on ag land. So we would acquire a conservation easement, which would keep it from becoming developed in any way, but would also allow the agricultural interest to continue on that piece of property. There's also a provision in the ordinance that requires the, and it shall, shall establish by resolution an Environmental Land Oversight Committee, which I think was referred to in public comment. And their charged duty is to provide citizen oversight to coordinate any necessary studies that we need to determine what land should be acquired, and they would make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners. Martin County forever had requested, and I put it in this draft, that certain enumerated organizations be represented on this oversight committee. Um, including the Martin County Taxpayers Association, um, including the Martin County Taxpayers Association, the Realtors, the Tourist Development Council, Conservation, Environmental, and Martin County forever. Um, one thing that I do want to mention is the language that talks about the municipal uses are part of the, uh, sales tax will be restricted to these conservation, uh, interests. The cities, the cities, the municipalities will be able to use their portion of the sales tax proceeds in accordance with, um, state law, so they will not, they will not necessarily be restricted. Um, there's a number of issues to be brought before you, and again, I want to make this clear. This is just a, uh, conversation about the ordinance. If the Board decides to go forward, we'll advertise it, and we'll have a full public hearing, um, on the ordinance. This is a discussion, um, which, about the draft that we've come up with, with the, um, Martin County forever folks. Um, the duration of the tax currently, as I said before, is 10 years, the amount of the tax, half cent. There's a limitation in the proposed, proposed ordinance that places a limit of 5% of the purchase price of any of the acquired land to be used for exotic remover or restoration. Um, and I, I, I will say that the environmental lands oversight committee, the, the, um, delineation of specific organizations is problematic, in my opinion, from a legal standpoint. Because what we know from past conservation, uh, sales tax initiatives, it may take 20 or 30 years for us to be able to use all of those by, with all, with all respect to our organizations. Sometimes organizations, sometimes organizations dissolve and reincorporate it. So my recommendation would be, instead of listing specific organizations to try to use descriptive terms as to who should be contained on the, um, on the, the advisory committee, the other, the other option is to just mandate the formation of it and put forth the specifics in a resolution. You can amend a resolution far easier than you can amend this ordinance, just to make it, make it clear to all the folks in the audience. Once this, if this ordinance is validated by the referendum, it can't be changed without going back to referendum. So that's why we have to be really precise about what we have in this ordinance, because there's no changing it. Um, it, it, unless it goes back to referendum, which I don't think anybody really would like to do. Um, and the last, um, thing that I want to mention is that we need to go ahead. And if the board wants to, to, um, put this on the ballot, we need to move fairly quickly because the, um, law, the state law requires us once an ordinance is passed, to submit it to the state of Florida, and they do a, um, impact, fiscal impact analysis by a CPA, and there's timelines for that. To the agenda item, I've, I've attached all the timelines. I don't think we need to go over all of those, but your legal department will make sure that we're complying with that. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. And then I believe Martin County Forever would like to make a presentation. Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Ms. Woods? And I'd like to invite up the representatives from Martin County Forever for a presentation. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. Uh, Merritt Matheson will address more formally the specifics of our initiative. But I'd like to first thank each of you for your time over the past year. It's been very much appreciated and very helpful. Also to commend you for retaining and supporting your outstanding staff, especially John Mayle, Mike Yuston, Attorney Sarah Woods, and Don Donaldson. Well, I confess that I have most assuredly given Sarah and Don a few gray hairs that they didn't have before, but we're deeply appreciative of their patience as we've worked with them over the past year. And it's been truly an honor to work with you folks and John and Mike. So thank you. So with that introduction, and with that introduction, and thanks to you, our very important members of the Martin County community, I'd like Merritt Matheson to step up. Morning, Merritt. Thank you, Jim. Good morning. Mr. Snedeker, I appreciate it. And I truly, from the bottom of my heart, appreciate you leading this charge for Martin County Forever. Madam Chair, Vice Chair, Commissioners, Administrative Staff, I'm Merritt Matheson, and I'm speaking on behalf of Martin County Forever. I want to thank you guys and gals for having us. And I want to thank you because over the past more than a year now, we've worked with each one of you and with your staff under your direction to come before you with this draft that we have today. That being said, Martin County Forever as a committee did not come up with this draft. What we did was act as a liaison between the BOCC and its staff and the community. And it's important to know, and as you'll see here today and have already seen, that this is a community-driven effort. The language before you came from meeting with various stakeholders throughout the community. We've met and received input from members of the Taxpayers Association to the Rivers Coalition, from members of the ag community to the various chambers of commerce, and many, many organizations in between. And what Martin County Forever did was take that feedback, work with your staff, and work with the commissioners to come up with a community-driven initiative that I like to call an overall quality of life initiative. This initiative goes well beyond just an environmental initiative, which you all know me, I could go on and on about the benefits environmentally for this initiative. But overall, it is a quality of life initiative. This initiative has the potential for beneficial impacts from everything from traffic, school demand, the local economy, water supply, water quality, the marine industries, and just overall quality of life for the residents we serve. The referendum and draft before you proposes a half-cent sales tax for 10 years. All of the funding that goes to Martin County generated from that sales tax is restricted to four key areas in Martin County. As Attorney Woods already went over the ordinance and draft, very important, though, those key areas in New River Lagoon South, Palmar, the Loxalusi Headwaters Region, and one of my favorites is the Blue Ways Program. All of the funding besides 5% for maintenance and light-duty infrastructure such as a trailhead or a parking lot or potential future boat ramp is restricted to acquisition and preservation within those key areas. The reason for that is to build public trust behind this initiative. All of the language in this ordinance, again, has come from working with the community because this is only Phase 1. I stand here before you asking you to put this on the ballot so we can move on to Phase 2. I and the Martin County Forever team pledge to continue this charge into Phase 2 of educating the rest of the community, gathering their support, so that this not only passes today with a 4-0 vote to put it on the ballot, but it passes overwhelmingly on November 5th at the ballot box. I'd be happy to entertain any questions from the commissioners at this point, and if you'd like, I can go into further detail. But we've worked with each and every one of you during this process. I or members of my team have. We welcome your feedback and your support that you've given throughout this initiative that's well over a year and underway now, and we intend to continue the charge. We'll open up for any questions. Anybody have any questions at this point? Okay, we're going to take public comment, and then we reserve in case commissioners have questions after public comment. Madam Chair, if the topic does come up and we've foreseen it in speaking with Attorney Woods, we have some proposed alternative language that describes the board seats of the advisory board, and I'd be happy to give that to Attorney Woods, and if she so chooses, to read it into the record. Great. After commissioner comment, I'll go back for any questions. Okay, we have a stack of comments on here. If you would like to speak, please fill out a form. Same rules apply as public comment this morning. My first commenter is Paul Owens, and Paul will be followed by Jim Moyer. They brought out the heavy hitters. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, commissioners. Good morning, everyone. I'm Paul Owens, president of 1,000 Friends of Florida, and I'm here this morning to declare our strong support for putting the Martin County Forever Conservation Initiative on the ballot this fall. As a statewide organization, we've worked together with partners in counties across Florida to launch and maintain local conservation programs. We endorsed five conservation programs in the 2022 cycle and three in the 2020 cycle. Together, we batted 1,000 on those proposals. Every single one of them was approved by voters in their counties, whether red or blue. So what explains this clean sweep for conservation? Most Floridians, regardless of party registration, recognize that protecting the environment is essential to maintaining a healthy economy and a high quality of life. Under the Martin County Forever proposal, the investment in land conservation from taxpayers would be modest, but the returns would be considerable for water, wildlife, working farms, tourism, and property values. And funding through a sales tax means that visitors, like me, would cover more than a third of the program's costs. Martin County Forever includes the same kind of accountability features that have given voters in other counties the confidence to approve local conservation programs, including a short, worthy list of eligible properties, a citizen oversight committee, and an annual audit. Funds raised at the county level could leverage at least as much, if not more, in private, federal, and state funds. This would be a buy one, get one free deal for county taxpayers. Certainly, I don't need to convince anyone in this room that development pressure is building in Martin County. While we strongly believe in good planning to steer development away from natural and agricultural areas, we also see land conservation as another critical strategy to protect this county's environment, quality of life, and future. Today, we're not seeking a commitment from any of you to declare your support for Martin County forever. At this stage, regardless of your personal inclination on the proposal, we want you to give your constituents the opportunity to make the call. Leaders in other counties have done so. Those counties, I'll conclude, those counties are now at the head of the line for matching funding from other sources. If Martin County doesn't follow suit, it'll be at the back of the line. Commissioners, a vote from you to place this issue on the ballot is a vote of confidence in your constituents. Please trust them to make the right call. Thank you. All right. Our next speaker is Jim Moyer, and Jim will be followed by Finley Doerr. Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you very much for this meeting today, and thank you for, I hope, putting this on the ballot next year or this November. My name is Jim Moyer. I'm a resident of Martin County. I'm also the Indian Riverkeeper, and I sit on several environmental boards. I highly endorse this. This is an incredibly wise and smart move for Martin County to make. The leverage that it provides is incredible, but also the natural services that these lands provide us are invaluable. They are the treasurer of the Treasure Coast. It is what makes this place unique. It's what makes the Martin County difference so different and so wonderful to live within. We've done this before. We've got beaches that wouldn't be beaches if it wasn't for Martin County residents taxing themselves to buy those properties. We've got properties that aren't being developed, that aren't, you know, recreational amenities for people. They are natural habitat for wildlife because Martin County has set them aside as conservation areas. We have serious pressures pushing on those developers to make those properties no longer available. We need to act soon, and we need to act with smart clarity to do the right thing. We have to move forward to protect what is most valuable to us, and that is the natural systems that make Florida a wonderful place to live. We have incredible pressures from both legislative and natural that are going to make these choices much more critical in the very near future, and if we don't act now to do this, we won't have another chance at it. I urge you to please put this on the ballot. Let the citizens do the right thing, because I know they will, and they will vote this to be the very best chance that these conservation lands have to be preserved forever. Thank you very much for making Martin County an important place to live forever. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Finley Dorre. Finley will be followed by Casey Darling-Niffin. Good morning, Finley. My name is Finley Dorre. I'm 12 years old, and I'm part of River Kids. I'm here because I care about the future of Martin County. We have a chance to preserve something really important, the beautiful land that is an extension of our own backyards, full of cool bugs, animals, and plants. By preserving these lands, we can ensure clean water, protect natural habitats, and create more opportunities for outdoor adventure and play. By protecting our land, we can also raise our property values and might invite more visitors to explore and protect the jobs of those who depend on our diverse ecosystem. I hope you'll vote to let everyone decide in November. It's important to protect our home and all the amazing things in it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. We have Casey Darling-Niffin, and Casey will be followed by Carol Ann Leonard. How do I follow that up? That's a tough one. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. My name is Casey Darling-Niffin, and I'm the Conservation Policy Director at Florida Wildlife Federation. I am also the co-lead of the River Kids with Kelly Dorre, who raised such a wonderful young person to come and speak to you. And I'm a Martin County voter, and I am a parent. And I want to, again, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about the proposed ballot referendum for conservation lands. The Florida Wildlife Federation's mission is to conserve Florida's wildlife, habitats, and natural resources through education, advocacy, and science-based stewardship. My background is science, so I am proud to be with this organization. Each year, your legislative priorities ask the state to provide funding to buy these lands, to acquire these environmentally sensitive lands. I love to see it every year, and so I know this board supports acquiring conservation lands. This initiative would help fund that. It would help bring that to a reality for Martin County. I also know that this board values our estuaries and water quality to support habitats for our aquatic species, and I thank you for all that you've said and committed to even just today to make that known to your constituents. Conservation lands are a vital component to the recovery of the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Lucie Estuary. I also know that this board values community and our voices. And, again, as a voter and as a parent in Martin County, I want the opportunity to vote for conservation lands for my future and my children's future. I have a quick story. I went on a hike in Palm Beach Gardens with my parents who have lived there for over 40 years. This was a couple years ago with me and my kids, my parents. And they said, why didn't we bring you here when you guys were kids? And I responded that, well, you didn't really need to because we had pine flatwoods at the end of our street and we would just make our own trails and we would go exploring and adventuring. And I looked up how that little chunk of land, 150 acres in the middle of Palm Beach Gardens, was saved from the development that is all around it. And it was through a citizen-led ballot referendum coupled with state funding to save that land and protect it in perpetuity. And that's the opportunity that I want. I want in 30 years when I go on a hike with my kids for them to know that they were a part of this process. I want to recognize all of the young people, the future of Martin County, the people that we are going to be saving these lands. Martin County forever is for them. So I just want to recognize them if they could stand or raise their hands. Thank you again for listening to your constituents and allowing us to decide. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Carol Ann Leonard, and then we'll have Mark Perry. Follow Carol Ann. I support the 10-year half-cent sales tax to be placed on the ballot. I can relate to the hardship of daily living expenses. However, the sales taxes are not collected on prescriptions and food that is not already prepared, such as from the deli, to name two. The snowbirds and other tourists will contribute to this sales tax. It's a fair tax. It is necessary to buy and conserve our Martin County land. Please keep the wording intact as best as can be in its entirety and keep the funds properly in place. I like having a citizen oversight committee to be formed, and I agree with all the other comments. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mark Perry, and Mark will be followed by Melissa Buncey. Thank you, Commissioners. This is truly a good opportunity for the county, but it's not the first time. I mean, these lands that you know are sensitive lands, environmentally sensitive, but they're also set aside for conservation, and that's what it's all about. And, you know, the Blue Ways, IRL South, the Indian River Lagoon Watershed, Loxalusi, and Palmar are all in that category, which we actually initially started back in 2006. If you recall, we did a sales tax back then for a land buy initiative of $27 million was raised, and I remember taking the check with then Commissioner Di Trilisi to the state, and they matched it up with $30 million. So it was a good buy at that time and a good initiative then, and even prior to that, I remember Healthy Rivers Initiative with Elmira Ganey prior to that, too. So this is not new to the county to take on an initiative to buy these really valuable lands for the county for our watershed and to protect our watershed from destruction. I want to hand out a letter to you that we did as Florida Oceanographic back then. This was when the initiative first was presented to us back in December of 2022, December 22, is when we first learned about it, and we, as an organization, felt behind it to put out a letter of support, again, for this initiative. So I ask you to follow the guidelines as you've committed to, listen to your constituents. Obviously, all of the constituents are here to, I think, help support this initiative and get it on the ballot so that the voters can decide in November. Thank you. Mark? Okay, we have Melissa Buncey still in the room. Burke? Burke, sorry. And followed by Gil Smart. It was either an N or an R and a K. All right, good morning. Thank you for your time. As a parent, citizen, and business owner in the community, I support moving the referendum forward and allowing your voters to make the decision. I've read the language, listened to a few presentations by Merritt, and we are 100% behind him in moving this forward. Thank you. Thank you. We have Gil Smart, and Gil will be followed by Ken Parks. Smart looks like Peter Walton. Morning, Commissioners. My name is Gil Smart. I'm here on behalf of Vote Water, where I'm Executive Director. We work for clean water and political accountability for clean water. We fully support placing this referendum on the ballot and letting Martin County voters decide if they want to save these sensitive lands. You all have often heard the term the Martin County difference, which is to say there's a reason a lot of people live here as opposed to Boca, Fort Lauderdale, Naples, or wherever it is. You also hear from your constituents when they perceive that Martin County difference is being eroded. I have little doubt that the people of this community will vote yes on this if given the chance. Given development pressures, it almost seems that sometimes that if it was permitted, every square inch of this county would be developed. That's an overstatement, obviously, but not by much. To preserve these lands is to preserve wildlife habitat. To preserve these lands is to preserve water quality and water quantity. To preserve these lands is to preserve the Martin County difference. I believe people want that difference to be preserved. I believe they should have the chance to vote on that. If you place this referendum on the ballot, they will. So please support this. Thank you. Thank you. We have Ken Parks. Ken will be followed by Eve Samples. And if you'd like to speak and you haven't already filled out one, go ahead and do so because I'm getting down to the very end. Good morning. I'm Ken Parks with Marine Resources Council. And we're here today to lend our support to presenting the Martin County Forever Referendum Initiative to the voters of Martin County. Marine Resources Council is a group of people. We're headquartered in Palm Bay, but we work all across east central Florida to protect, restore, unite, and promote the Indian River Lagoon coastal community of east central Florida. Marine Resources Council is a charitable nonprofit organization that has about 550 annual members today, 12,500 supporters, hundreds of volunteers, and many strategic partners with diverse interests all across east central Florida. Martin County Forever offers your citizens the opportunity to grow your legacy of investing in protecting the very essence of what makes Florida special, its natural beauty, and its natural resiliency. Martin County can protect your Indian River Lagoon watershed, but it can protect something even more important, the future of east central Florida. In Brevard County, the Environmental Endangered Lands Program, for example, was just renewed with a landslide of voter support. And all around the lagoon, investments are being made in protecting endangered lands, converting septic to sewer, replacing antiquated wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, implementing resiliency strategies such as low-impact development, reducing lawn fertilizers and pesticide and herbicide use, and more. The Indian River Lagoon coastal community supports the most biodiverse habitat in North America, and it will continue to do so with bold and sensible investments such as the half-cent public investment proposed by Martin County Forever, an investment that can go a long way in protecting the Indian River Lagoon and its coastal community today and forever. Thank you. The next speaker is Eve Samples. Eve will be followed by Greg Braun. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Eve Samples, Executive Director at Friends of the Everglades. We were founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969, relocated to Martin County in 2019 because of the environmentally sensitive legacy of this community. So you all in your capacities as commissioners face a lot of really difficult decisions. This is not one of them. Everyone who has spoken on this proposed amendment has encouraged you to pass it. You've received much communication and support of it. This is an easy, easy yes. Yes to letting voters decide if they want to reach into their own pockets to conserve some of the last remaining green spaces in Martin County, and many of those green spaces are under assault. Let's not fool ourselves. The development pressure in this community is intense. So this is a yes to letting voters decide. Voters here have said yes to similar conservation amendments in the past, multiple times. As a result, Martin County has gotten a jump start on Everglades restoration. Allapattah Flats, the C44 lands. There's a reason we're ahead of the game in terms of Everglades restoration. Some people, when they hear about Everglades restoration, think about a national park down at the southern end of the peninsula. No, actually, we are all sitting in the greater Everglades today. If you walk outside and you see an ibis in the parking lot, that's part of the greater Everglades. And it is dwindling. We've already lost more than half of it. Please let voters decide if they're willing to pay to protect what remains. I just want to mention, too, that I am also a mom and a Martin County resident. I live here in Stewart. And the comments about protecting these lands for our next generation really resonates with me and many others. So please put Martin County forever on the ballot. Thank you. Our next speaker is Greg Braun. And then the final speaker form I have is for Michael Serkis. Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you. And it's good to hear so many people supporting something. No differences of opinion on this one today. I'm Greg Braun, Executive Director of the Guardians of Martin County. I've been a property owner here in Martin County for over 35 years. And I'd like to just have you think for a couple minutes. Think about the beach access strips on Hutchinson Island. Think about Hal Patioke Regional Park. Think about the Kiplinger Preserve. Think about Jimmy Graham Park in Gomez down in Hobe Sound. And out west, think about Timer Powers Park in the C-44 Reservoir. Yeah, these are all over the county. But the common thread to all of them is we were able to acquire them because of locally approved voter referenda. It was back in the 1970s this went back to from the Save Our Rivers Initiative. Lands for you in the 1980s and 90s. Lands for healthy rivers. The county staff has shown a proficiency for being able to use our taxpayer-generated monies very, very well in the very competitive Florida Forever program. And we all know that there are properties that we want to acquire in Martin County that have been on that list for decades. And this will allow us to move forward with those. So I will close by echoing what the others have said. The Guardians very definitely are asking that you indeed let the voters decide in November. Thank you. Our final speaker is Michael Serkis. Good morning. Once again, Mike Serkis, Palm City. I have an internal struggle over this item because I do believe that Martin County Forever is on the track to doing something very good. We need to preserve lands before they're gone. At the same time, I also recognize that forced philanthropy, in my mind, is morally wrong. Even if 80% of the community says they want to support this, that's 20% of our taxpayers that will be forced into doing something they may not be able to fiscally afford. And I did the numbers on this. It came out about $100 or so per resident per year that will end up in increased taxation. $100 isn't a whole lot of money. So if somebody feels like they have the cash to donate, then I would highly encourage them to do so. But if they don't feel like they have the cash to do this, then obviously, or I would assume, they'd recognize if they can't afford to do it, then forcing somebody else to do so would be wrong. As I sit here today, I kind of think there might even be a solution to this. Not that many years ago, several half-cent sales tax increases failed in the referendum. And after that, the county commission decided to put a 6% sales tax onto our unincorporated FPL bills. So I'd like to hear a discussion. If we're going to go forward with a half-cent sales tax increase, can there be a correlating decrease in the franchise fee? As one came after the other, because of failed referendum, when we tried to make some extra money to get these infrastructure projects in place, that was something that was done 100% in-house without the taxpayers having an opportunity to say whether they want 6% on their FPL. So if we're going to have a sales tax, can we reduce the FPL franchise fee? Thank you. Thank you. Now, that is my final public comment for this item, departmental number 5. And I will bring it back to the board. I have a light on it for Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I'm going to, hopefully I won't go all over the place, but I'm going to go back a little bit in history. A lot of speakers have spoke this morning relative to the historical acquisitions that we have done here in the county. I have been very proud to be part in a significant way of two of those. And two of those that led to the acquisition of Allapattah led to the acquisition of C44, some of the parks that were just mentioned. I remember a phone call I got from a resident after I was first elected relative to what was important to her acquisition list. Good friend, known her for years. And she said, Doug, I don't care what you do and how you do it, but buy every single piece of Hutchinson Island there is left to buy. That led to about 120 acres of acquisition out on Hutchinson Island. It was fantastic. One of the speakers spoke this morning and said our public beach access, it is special here. I was with some commissioners from St. Augustine, or in St. Augustine a couple weeks ago, talking about Ponte Vedra Beach. There is one public beach access on Ponte Vedra Beach at the very southern end of the island. We have something like 27 access points, I think, here, something like that. And they're all free. During the pandemic, it was abundantly clear that they were free and that everybody else in the rest of the state wanted to come here and use our beach. And if there was one coolest thing this board ever did in all the years I've been doing this, it was shut it down just to Martin County residents. That was the most fun thing to watch. Of course, all the staff that had to deal with it, they hated us forever because it was really ugly out there. But it is special. The C44 acquisition, I can't tell you how many times Sarah and I and others have been in D.C. talking to anybody that would listen to us about getting C44 done out towards Indiantown. And almost every single time we led with the opening statement, our Martin County taxpayers put their mouths and their money first. That's why C44 is built first, because we stepped up, you stepped up and did it. You know, an interesting thing about the conversation and what it will turn into over the next six months politically, if this board approves it today to move it forward, it will turn into mail pieces that will say something like, this person supports a tax increase. It won't explain why. It won't justify why. It'll just say, this person supports tax increase. It doesn't matter. The job we have up here is to do what we think is the right thing to do for Martin County. Over the last 24 years, I have done what I thought was the right thing to do on these issues. And when we passed them, it led to some pretty incredible legacy acquisitions. If the beach wasn't probably the most important to me personally, the beach acquisitions, C44 and Allapata came right in after that. And about that time, we also used a fair amount of money when we hired Dan Dehan. We probably shouldn't name people by name, but I will, to go out and acquire our Palmar lots. And we spent a couple of years going and acquiring every single Palmar lot we could go and acquire. And just about a month ago, we had an item up to buy another 250 acres out there. An interesting debate that's going on in Tallahassee right now, term limits. Should or should we not have term limits? I think what's amazing about everything that was said here this morning, the most common thread of everything said here this morning was let the voters decide. I didn't hear anybody say anything differently other than give us the chance to put it on a referendum in November and let the voters decide. Tallahassee should not decide for you and Martin County what happens. That's my opinion. Maybe it's shared by some, maybe it's not. But there will be a debate or discussion on term limits. We heard our update this morning from Sarah Powers that they have now gone from 12 years down to 8 years. Fair enough. That's their choice to do that. But it's interesting that as important it is to our community to give you all a chance and have this board of five, four today give you that chance, it's the same thing. We'll see where that all ends up. Politically, I will take the hit wherever I need to take the hit. I've taken them before and I will continue to take them in the future. I think one of the important things all of us have to think about when the community comes forward like this in unison, and this isn't the entire community, I understand that, but there are people in the room that have spoken that represent large groups of folks. We had this with an issue with Commissioner Campy out in Palm City. I've been grilled multiple times over why did I vote and support Ed to acquire that land out in Palm City? Because the room was filled with folks like you from Palm City that said that's what they wanted to do. It didn't matter what I thought about it. It didn't matter what I thought Ed's strategy was. It really didn't matter. What mattered is we responded in large part to a very large response from people who lived there and didn't want it. I'll wrap up. Hopefully we'll hear from others. Somebody I would really like to single out in this effort is Jim Snedeker. Jim started off the conversation. You know, in the referendums I've worked on, they're not easy. You get a lot of people pushing back on stuff, especially when it comes to attacks. But you've got to have courage and you've got to stand up and you've got to believe or stand up for what you think is right. Jim and I have known each other now maybe for seven, eight years, I don't know, maybe longer, Jim, something like that. Jim has always been very upstanding, very forthright. He and I have debated this thing a hundred times. There are two or three things I would love to see part of this referendum that are not. And I think it's unfortunately maybe for all of us, I missed opportunity to do some really incredible things. I mean, one of the things that was brought up by, I believe it was the gentleman from Brevard about the septic to sewer conversion stuff up there going on. We are struggling getting enough money for septic to sewer. As important as it is acquiring every piece of land in Martin County you could acquire, so is it cleaning up all of our discharges at every different level, whether it's C44, our septic tanks, our basin runoff, you name it. When I said this morning, all things water, that's what I meant by that. It's everything that affects water. And if we don't get it right in Florida, we are going to screw up the goose that laid the golden egg. No matter how many millions of people want to move here, there's still the opportunity. We talk about this at the Regional Planning Council all the time. Doug Bernick, really good friend of mine on our council with us, talks about 60 or 70 years of being a Floridian and watching things change. And the urgency that is in front of us, wherever county or whatever county we are in, to go out and acquire as much as possible, as quickly as possible, because the pressure is real. It's incredibly difficult. So I am going to vote today to support putting in on the referendum. I have gone back and forth and back and forth on this one for a couple of reasons. One, there are, like I said, there are some things I would love to see in this that are not. But at the end of the day, there has been a consensus that has come around, the language that we have in front of us today, with some minor changes, whether it's the makeup of the Oversight Board or not. I'm not even really a big fan of the Oversight Board. But in listening to experts and talk about other referendums in the state of Florida that have done it, it helps. Fair enough. If that's what it takes, fair enough. I will catch, I'm sure, a lot of political grief for doing this. It's an election year, not hiding it, and it'll be a great target. But you know what? If that's what gets me thrown out of office, and I stood up for you all today, in my vote anyway, out of the four of us, to make it happen, I can go out with a clear conscience. And so it's a big deal. And it's a big deal for all of us to make that decision. But it's worth it. And if I, you know, again, if that's my swan song out, fair enough. Let it be. Anyway, thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you, Doug. Appreciate that. You know, the interesting part of having five people here is that you're going to get five unique opinions. Sometimes we agree in varying percentages and not. I feel bad that Commissioner Jenkins is not here today because, obviously, as a lifelong resident, I'm sure he has a passion for these issues. I think Mr. Donaldson has a couple of comments from Commissioner Jenkins. But that being said, I want to be very brief. I want to first congratulate and thank the Martin Forever group. The individuals that came together, some of them, their names are well known, others not as much. But the people, the three that I dealt with most of all, that really did a majority of the heavy lifting for researching and educating our citizens. And also, as you've heard even from some of Commissioner Smith's comments, masterfully negotiated through different opinions and different people that were looking for things. And then Merritt Matheson, who obviously everyone knows was a City of Stewart commissioner. And even as he was no longer in office, he did not go somewhere and, you know, just, you know, feel upset and angry with how things – he doubled down. He put his time and his energy and his education to the benefit of all. I know he has a young family. I've seen him at 100 events all the time. So all for free, all for the betterment of our community, his community, his children. And so I really wanted to thank Merritt Matheson. Thank you, sir. Jim and I didn't know each other in the beginning, but what a consummate gentleman and professional. And, you know, the only thing I would say to knock him is he's so humble and modest to the point where it shouldn't be that much because you did a remarkable job with this, taking people that were really in the beginning. The last time this conversation had come up, now the economic ebb and flow of our community has changed sometimes in my mind when these things were appropriate or not. And when I say the heavy lifting, no one wants to be additionally taxed. They just don't. And for as important as these initiatives and endeavors are, for especially all of you that took time out this morning or wrote us or called us or listened to the presentations, there's plenty of people that could care less about this. And these two gentlemen and my friend, Stacey Ranieri, through her Firefly group, but I know Stacey personally was working hard to push on this, and she is a behind-the-scenes type of person. But Merit and Jim, you know, I watched it, need sometimes that kind of that guidance and pushing and, you know, this is too much, this is not enough. And so Stacey, again, has done a very good job. It's made our lives so much easier. Eve Samples sort of read my mind when she said, this is an easy vote. I was sitting up here thinking, and every day when I would get dozens of e-mails, one after the other, come onto my phone, we support this, we support this, we support this. I appreciate the Taxpayers Association and the other groups that said, wait a second, you know, we're normally not interested in additional taxes. But to me, the easy decision is let the voters decide in this particular case. And, you know, when Paul from Thousand Friends of Florida says they're batting 1,000, I certainly don't want to be part of disrupting that percentage. But it just goes to show you that everywhere else in the state of Florida, these are important issues, not just here. And when he said, you know, if we don't do the right thing in this particular situation and the voters don't find their way to this decision, we would sort of be pushed to the back of the line. And that's just a Tallahassee fact. You know, if you don't show the folks that have the checkbook that your local residents are willing to tax themselves and participate, then it's very disingenuous to show up in Tallahassee with your handout. The first question they ask is, well, what did you give? And so I think that that will be important. And for us, especially in Martin County, we don't follow. When it comes to environmental issues and protection and sensitive lands, we lead. We lead. And so we certainly can't fall behind with the two dozen other communities that have done this already. And now for the fiscal wonks of this and the fiscal conservative, which I would consider myself one of those people as well. I think personally in my decision-making process, which won't have to happen today in terms of how would I vote, even though the things that benefit my decision-making process are the four things we discussed. It's four very specific environmentally sensitive and beneficial land areas. It is also the ability to use conservation easements, which is an important tool when purchasing can't not happen, especially as you head out into agricultural areas. And I think by negotiating that into this deal, into this proposal, you brought on a lot of folks that might have steered clear of supporting this. You brought them into this side of the ledger. The third is the annual audit. When you're doing the right thing and you are following all the rules and making smart financial decisions, an audit or a check should not be a problem at all, and for me it certainly is not. And finally and fourth, most importantly, I welcome a citizen's oversight committee. It's not so much as to me that it's like an oversight as it is input. This is an important decision that requires decisions to be made by every resident. Some will be completely in support of this decision and others won't. So it's important that it's not the five of us in this particular case that an oversight panel to review, to create those studies, to review the purchases, this, again, makes the decision from my perspective that much easier. It's an important decision that affects everyone in the community, especially our children and grandchildren, into the future. And to have a unified voice of people to participate. I remember the land selection committee that was here when I just came into office for the first time with the 2006 referendum dollars. They came forward with a lot of interesting suggestions that maybe I or others wouldn't have thought of. So to our staff, who's worked behind the scenes for this, to the Martin County Forever group, and for all of you, it's my pleasure to make the motion today to let the voters decide. Commissioner Hearn. Yeah, well, we need to buy land. We need to buy land to provide biodiversity and food production and habitat restoration, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, and clean water. Land is shockingly expensive. We can't afford to do it on our own. And fortunately, part of the Indian River Lagoon South now includes natural lands, which means that we have state and federal partners, which means that we can leverage the investments that we make with state and federal monies in order to acquire more land. And that's really important. As we've traveled to Tallahassee and to Washington, as I have over the last 22 years, it's been extremely compelling to our lawmakers that we reach into our own pockets first before we pick theirs. It makes a difference. It's made a difference. That's why IRL South is so much more advanced than many of the SERP components. I attended the Everglades Conference last month, and there were a number of panels. One stuck out in my memory as an illustration of why it's so necessary to buy land, and that is Hurricane Ian dropped 10 to 20 inches of rain in Osceola County, threatening to flood 12,000 homes. Southwater Water Management took control of the stormwater structures and turned the direction of the flow around and instead flooded a rancher's ranch with two feet of water for two months. And instead of 12,000 homes being flooded, 1,200 homes were being flooded. Ironically, that rancher's ranch has an approved development order on it, but he's a willing seller. These are the kinds of lands that we need to acquire in order to make sure that we protect our habitat, that we restore our habitat, and that we clean up our water. So I will second your motion. Commissioner Smith. It's always a risk whether you go first or you go last so you can listen to everybody and hear what everybody else said that you didn't say. The one thing I would encourage all of you that do support this and are going to work towards this passage, don't let outsiders from Martin County distract your vote. There will be a lot of attention paid on this referendum. And really stick to Martin County and worry about Martin County and not about people outside of the state nationally or whatever. Because the impact is us. We will be the ones paying it. But the impact and the success of the acquisitions will also impact us for many generations to come. So don't let it dissuade you. Don't let it get you down. Jim and his team certainly haven't let it get him down. He's still here, and he's still smiling, and that's a good thing. And, again, Jim and Merritt and the rest of the team, thank you. And Don. So I can only relay Commissioner Jenkins. I did have the opportunity to speak to him last night briefly, and he certainly regrets being here. This was an important subject for him. And he did – it was important that he saw this as a grassroots organization, and he saw that Jim and Martin County forever have done an excellent job, and he just wanted to pass on that he does support putting this on the ballot. And he looks forward to hopefully it coming back as an ordinance and being able to vote at that time. And the chair goes last, so I will – can you do – I'm going to – okay. Oh, is that a new light? Yes. Okay. Go ahead. It's just regarding the Oversight Committee, and I would make a recommendation that we not name the members of the Oversight Committee. It's a bad precedent. I don't – it took us until last month to spend 2006 proceeds. So I would suggest instead that C, just say the county shall establish by resolution an Environmental Lands Oversight Committee, which shall provide citizen oversight and conduct and coordinate any necessary studies to determine appropriate lands to acquire from the funding provided by the surtax. The ELOC shall make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners. Stop. How many are they asking for? It doesn't say. Motion maker agree with that. Question to that. How many – what's the recommendation? I didn't see it in my notes on how many would be on that panel. They had asked one, two, three, four, six categories. Some were general. Some were not. I will tell you that Martin County Forever provided me – Merit provided me with some descriptives of some representations of organizations without naming specifics. But, again, the committee would be established by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners, and if we do it that way, as Commissioner Hurd suggests, or with general, you can be as specific as you want in the resolution, and that can be changed easily as long as it complies with the ordinance. So it's up to the pleasure of the Board. Commissioners, thank you all for the kind comments. And, you know, a lot of what we have done is threading the needle, Martin County, forever. I can tell you that the community absolutely demands an oversight committee. And those that are knowledgeable about this process prefer the protection of the ordinance as opposed to adjustments in a resolution. I fully understand, as you all know, the limitations of putting language in the ordinance. That's why at the last minute we kind of came up with generic definitions, and I apologize for it being at the last minute, that describe these positions without naming them. It does leave the flexibility, and Attorney Woods has had a chance to read them. But, again, it's threading the needle for giving confidence to the public, and I've had this conversation many, many times over the past year, that if they approve the referendum and ordinance, it is done. The county commission is not coming to change it. It's not, there's no behind-the-scenes actions. But they really want to see these safeguards and protections in the ordinance. And so I'm trying to work, Martin County forever is, trying to work and thread that needle with definitions because the structure of the advisory board is designed to be a wide representation of the community. And from now until November, I'm honored to have the job to go out and spread this message and lead the charge because this is only phase one. But we need as much of these safeguards, including me, to be able to go in front of people and say, yes, there's going to be someone on this board that represents the best interest of ecotourism because that is how this brings a financial benefit. Preserving this land goes beyond the environment. Yes, there is going to be someone that represents the best interest of taxpayers. Yes, there's going to be someone that represents the best interest of realtors. And that's why we propose defining these without defining them, you know, without being specific on any individual board, but describing as it would, and perhaps Attorney Woods could read some of the definitions into the record. I'm happy to read them. I just want you to know I just was given these. So I, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I haven't had an opportunity to analyze them legally, but I am confident if the board would like to have descriptors in there, we could work something out that's generic enough that it wouldn't trigger an ordinance issue 20 years from now. Included in the proposed language is a nonprofit organization with a mission to acquire and preserve important natural lands in Martin County for the benefit of present and future generations through a voter approved sales tax referendum, a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to preserving and restoring natural areas and open space, um, an entity devoted to improving efforts to attract tourism to Martin County. Um, I'm not going to read all of them. The last one is a nonprofit organization with a mission to attract, grow and retain business in Martin County. So I, I'm, I'm whatever the, the board would like to direct me to do. I'm happy to, to do what you direct, but that would come back in a separate resolution. It would, there wouldn't have to decide the descriptors today. No, ma'am. The, the, so what I will, the, the, um, the, the board agenda item. And I think that what the motion was based on was to direct me to advertise the ordinance and bring it back to a, for a public hearing to decide whether to, to implement it. So you'd be approving that language. I can amend the current draft that sits before you right now to try to craft language. I think what, what, um, Merritt saying is he would like some descriptors for what the citizens oversight committee would be. Commissioner Hurd's, um, motion was to require the, the committee. And again, there's, it, it's really the will of the board. There's not a, what you would like to do while I'm speaking. And I will, then I won't need to speak again. There is a Scrivener's error in the draft ordinance. The, the, uh, tax is for 10 years. I have night, um, 2025 to 2035, and it should be 2034 because that would be 11 years. So it's, I will correct that number. It's just a Scrivener's error in the one, if, if the board votes to bring this to public hearing. But again, you can discuss the, you will have another opportunity to look at the language again. Vice chair on behalf of Martin County forever would prefer working with your staff to craft their opinion of the descriptors to be, to be placed in the ordinance, knowing that we look forward to leading the charge and educating the rest of the community about this and about the specific details of the ordinance. Commissioner Smith. Yeah. I just, and I, and I hesitate even in all the positiveness that have come out of this entire conversation. And I, having been part of, and a significant part of the last two referendums, uh, and also sitting on this board and voting for what those refer, what the referendum's intent was. I have talked to both of our County attorneys, both Sarah Woods and Steve Fry for a very, very long time. Did we follow the law? Did we do what we were supposed to do? And did we buy or build or whatever was in the language to the law, regardless of what anybody says and this veiled, you know, kind of lack of confidence conversation is unfortunate because it's been a perpetuated conversation to either kill or support other referendums as if the County didn't do by law exactly what we're doing today with the language and will come back to us. And so, you know, I'm very hesitant on this. I, I'm, I'm discouraged that it's coming up like this, that we're pushing on this that hard because I have the confidence in this board, in our staff, that we follow the law and we do what our County attorney says. And to say anything else otherwise is false. And, and it discourages me because so many people in the room talked about the amazing things we did with the sales tax reference and what we acquired. Yes, we did. And to the law, to what we passed, what we told the voters we were going to do. And now the conversation shifting is if, well, you really didn't. And that's why we need this. And that's why we need the descriptors. And this is why, because there's no trust. The reason there's no trust merit is because people keep saying it, regardless of how many times we've had it as a discussion on this board, there's a, we, we, at public record, we have a printout of everything we acquire and everything we spent money on. And I, I just, I, I caution everybody. If you want this to pass, we don't get so hung up on some of this detail because people will use it. As you have stated in the conversation, people don't trust. Well, if they don't trust, they're not going to vote for it. And so I, I just, I, I'm, I'm supportive of Sarah's motion. If it gets changed, I'll, I'll consider it. But I just, I, I think our attorney has given us good advice and, and I hope, I think you've gotten 99% of what you've asked for and then some, which is great. I just hope it doesn't falter at the last minute for a detail that is, is. Commissioner, I agree with you a hundred percent. I can't count the number of conversations I have trying to stress that the other initiatives that have been done were done in full accordance with the law and the language they've had. And in those conversations, I think one-on-one I've swayed individuals, but whether it's at a national level, all the way down to a local level, there is this lack of trust. And I am trying to, to stop that. What's interesting on that comment at the national level, in every process I'm part of and been part of, the highest level of trust is at the local level. The worst is at the federal level. The second worst is at the state level. So if, again, if there's a trust issue at the local level, it's as strong as it, as it gets. It may not be strong enough, but it's as strong as it gets. Well, the final thing I'll say, and I'll let Mr. Snedeker say, is Martin County Forever looks at its job in this initiative as trying to build and strengthen that trust and moving this language with the ultimate goal over the finish line. And to do that throughout the community till November 5th, our goal is to build trust in this board. Because this board had the trust in Martin County Forever for allowing us to work directly with your staff to get where we are today. So we will be working on continuing that trust, whether it's individual conversation to individual conversation or presenting in front of a large group of people. So thank you. I would merely say we have utmost confidence in you, the commissioners, and Attorney Woods, County Administrator Donaldson coming up with the right solution to this. So we defer to you folks, bearing in mind that we do have a sales job to do between now and November. So whatever ammunition you can give us as it relates to that will be most helpful and greatly appreciated. So thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Canty. Thank you. I see it a little bit differently. In the past, some of the referendums were wide open. One of the nicest concepts that I had mentioned originally is this is specific to four key geographic areas and sensitive projects. For me personally, I have no problem with the oversight. I think it takes some of the pressure off of the commissioners. I think what I heard Commissioner Smith said, I don't disagree, but I also live and read and watch things that are happening in the news media at all three levels, local, state, and federal. If it gives our residents more comfort that there would be a citizens oversight committee, I welcome it. I personally don't do anything that I feel is unscrupulous or immoral or illegal, God forbid. But if people feel that way about me or us or elected officials in general, I welcome the panel. I welcome the audits. My suggestion is twofold. One, we're just deciding today, as we've heard many times, just whether or not we're going to even put it on the ballot. I hope that we can easily get past that decision today. The next one would be come back where we get a little more into the details. My recommendation would be, and as the motion maker, I would add it to my motion, that the Martin County Forever group work, as they have been with our staff, to finalize what those members should be. I agree with Attorney Woods that if you specifically name a group that four years from now no longer exists, what do you do? My second suggestion would be that there be representation, some, it would be a nine-panel board. Five members would represent one person geographically from each district, could be appointed by the commissioner. If the staff puts that together, it could be, so five of the positions would be one geographic from all the areas. That works in almost every panel we put together. Someone comes from each of the areas. Since it's very important as an environmental aspect, the next two positions would be non-for-profit environmental groups. Maybe it's a larger group that has a footprint larger than Martin County. Maybe it's a specific to Martin County group, but I don't want to say it should be the river keeper and it shouldn't be, you know, guardians to not-for-profit. There'll always be some. This is still Martin County. If some of them fade in, others will fade, you know, if some fade out, some will fade in. One person from the tourist development board or tourist industry, I heard that mentioned. I think that lends a little kind of a different focus on what things could, those purchases could be made and then enhanced in such a way that would also continue to develop tourism. And finally, someone from the financial sector. Now, we talked and heard this morning that the Taxpayers Association potentially had a seat at the table. I think they're a 62-year-old organization. There's a real possibility that they have enough longevity and momentum to keep going. However, if not, something in the financial sector, a not-for-profit organization, if it has to be, again, a Martin County home-based one would be best. If it's something for the Treasure Coast, I just think that, and I want the language, not the titles of the groups, but the language in the ordinance so that it can't be magically faded away six, seven, eight years later. But if need be, the titles should be in a resolution so that we don't create some kind of, you know, eight years from now, people would say, what were they thinking, that they made this so complicated that it can't be altered or corrected? So that would be my recommendation. And none of it's going to be approved today. It would come back when the language comes forward. But I want to leave, the room took a whole, the emotion in the room totally turned. It went from celebratory to all of a sudden, I'm sensing already, if it's happening in this room, multiply it by the whole entire county. I want the people to feel comfortable that this is going to be as legitimate an enterprise as could possibly be, whether that's perceived or real. Thank you, Commissioner. That proposal makes an enormous amount of sense, so thank you. Commissioner Hearn. No, it doesn't. I don't want to tie our hands. I don't want to do this on the fly. That's just poor policy. I want to establish that there's going to be an oversight committee and that Martin Forever and our staff will work together to iron those things out so that when it comes before us next time, it will be after much reflection, after much contemplation, after much thoughtfulness, after much wisdom. That's exactly what I said. No, you didn't. You wanted to make it nine people, and you already said what those nine people were going to be. Those are my personal suggestions. I said I want Martin County Forever to work as they have been with our staff. Then my suggestions are those. If they come back and say we didn't care for those suggestions, I'd be more than happy to hear what it is. Those were just suggestions. So the motion is to approve the sales tax and to come back with a resolution about the selection committee. And that the committee itself be built into the ordinance so that it's there. That part should not have the ability to fall out. I don't want to tie our hands once again. I think this won't pass if you don't have that. It won't pass in November if you don't have that. I agree with what our friends from Martin Forever said. I hear that from people. I agree with what Doug said. I was involved in some of those decisions. But if the perception in the public is that they don't want it to be exclusively our decision, now remember, for 10 years, it's not going to be us. You have no idea who the next group of faces are going to be here. That part, I don't think it passes in November if you don't legitimize the oversight committee. That's what I've heard from the public. Mr. Donaldson. Commissioner, I think you're both saying similar things but in different contexts. So I think the idea is that we will work with Mr. Snedeker and the group, and we will craft language that can address, I think, both things. One, the committee, and then the types of individuals that will be in the committee without specifically referencing an individual group. Right, exactly. That's what I believe we can achieve that, and we'll bring that back in with the ordinance. Okay. Commissioner Smith. I want to add on to what Ed said with his number. A group that has not been mentioned and has not been discussed, but it is clearly the target, I would imagine, of most of the acquisition is rural ag Martin County. If you don't have somebody on there from ag, somebody from ranching, some of us, I don't know if all of us toured a couple of ranches a couple of weeks ago, I would venture to guess that 90%, 99% of the people in this room have no idea agriculturally what's going on out west. Agreed. I agree. And it is spectacular what they're doing. District 3 and District 5 representatives could represent the ag communities as well. But when we're talking about interests as to making sure that the money that's going to be spent is spent with the confidence factor, if we don't make sure that it's abundantly clear to the largest group of landowners or land that we're going to go acquire in the first place, you'll never have willing sellers if they don't believe in it. And so as you are mulling this through your ideas, to me, that was the most glaringly large thing left out that we absolutely have to figure out a way. And that means we go to 11 members, Ed. I don't know, but whatever. No, I think you're right. The last time we had it, the committee was 15, or it was a big group, right? It doesn't have to be 15. No, I'm just saying I completely agree with you. Let's leave it at that. Okay. I'm going to chime in very briefly because I think we've probably covered all the bases here, and I agree with many of your thoughts. I do think that there has to be a transparency oversight committee. I think those devils in the details, we have time to work some of those out. I also believe that folks in the rural ag land should be involved. I was up in Tallahassee, and, oh, Wilton Simpson was telling me a little bit, knowing I'm from Martin County, about the rural and family lands programs. And the way I'm reading this language is that it is fee simple and or conservation, the way the motion that's on the floor. So, I mean, I think that that's important, too, if there's other monies available throughout the state of Florida, for us to be able to use some of our money to leverage, whether it's that program or others that they may come up with in the next several years. And I think that this is certainly going to be – there's many people supporting it here. There are also those that are skeptical, so it's going to be a bit of a heavy lift. You know, you're going to have to get out there and educate it. We can't do that. Everybody is very tax-sensitive right now with insurance and all the things they're dealing with economically. So, it's going to come down – do people realize that Martin County – and, you know, have to give credit to our predecessors who has preserved or acquired about 40 percent of Martin County already, making – when you look at the map and when I show residents that come into my office that are concerned that we're going to look like Broward County in the next couple years, when I show them the map, when I show them the map, it gives them a little bit of comfort that there is – there has been efforts to conserve and acquire some of this, and Martin County has done the right thing. So, I think that certainly giving the voters the opportunity to provide their input and to vote for this is the way that I would like to go. And, again, it's not – I believe it's going to be a hefty dialogue between all of the residents, but I would support having the initiative on the ballot, certainly. And with seeing no other lights, we did have a motion on the floor by Commissioner Campy. Yes, the last thing I'd want to say is we're not raising your taxes today. We're voting to let the people decide what they want to do. And the motion was seconded by Commissioner Hurd. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? So, the motion carries four to zero, with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Now – Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you, Merrick. Okay. So, we're still in session. But, unfortunately, there was some – there's some public that was here for an agenda item that I thought we would have time before lunch. We were going to take a break. Is everybody okay with reconvening at 1.30? Or do you need more time? 1.30? Okay. We will reconvene at 1.30. All right. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome back to our February 20th Board of County Commission meeting. I will be sitting in today for Commissioner Jenkins, and I know he wishes he could be here. I am going to take a few things out of order because there are some residents that were waiting patiently all morning long prior to our last agenda item to do some public commenting. So, I'm going to take public hearing number three, legislative public hearing to consider adoption of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment CPA 23-18, Manatee Pocket Mooring Field Upland Facility, which then we'll follow that with PHQJ2 and then jump back up to PH2. Okay. So, we have Carolyn and Clyde here to present. Take it away. Good afternoon. My name is Carolyn Grunwald. I'm with you. Pull the mic in a little bit. Yeah. Sorry. Good afternoon. My name is Carolyn Grunwald. I'm a planner with the Growth Management Department. I'm here to discuss the Manatee Pocket Mooring Field Upland Facility with you today. This is a small-scale amendment to the future land use map for 0.02 acres of an abandoned right-of-way. And this is to assign a future land use of marine waterfront commercial to that abandoned right-of-way at the intersection of Southeast Bayview Street and Southeast Park Drive. The abandoned right-of-way will adjoin the county-owned parcel to the east for a total of 0.47 acres. The site has public water and sewer available to it. This is proposed for mandatory access to the sports facilities and to better facilitate redevelopment at the waterfront and the Port Salerno CRA. The proposed marine waterfront commercial land use allows for water-dependent uses. The comp plan requires that one of the four criteria to have been met for staff to recommend approval. All four criteria have been met. The proposed change does not cause a proliferation of sprawl based upon the criteria found in state statutes. And it is consistent with the marine waterfront commercial future land uses to the north and south. To the north, you have Pirates Cove Marina. And to the south, you have the commercial fishing docks. The comp plan requires that the marine waterfront commercial land use designation be implemented through the waterfront sub-district for each CRA. And this will be discussed in our next public hearing. Staff recommends approval. Do you have any questions? Any questions for staff? I'm going to take public comment. Tiffany? Tiffany Perry. If anybody else would like to make public comment, please fill out a form. If you did speak this morning, then you are not eligible to speak again on the same topic. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you today. As someone who calls Port Salerno home, and as a representative of Save Our Salerno, I'm here to voice my concerns about the plans for the Manatee Pocket Mooring Field Upland Facility. Manatee Park has always been a peaceful haven for our community. Reflecting our dedication to preserving the natural beauty around us. However, this new proposal threatens to disrupt that harmony, favoring temporary benefits over the enduring values we hold dear. A major concern is parking. The competition for parking spaces is already intense among Pirates Cove, fishermen, and tourists. Introducing a new facility without expanding parking capacity is not just thoughtless. It directly impacts our daily life. Boats might be out at sea, but their owners' cars fill our streets. The proposal was originally presented as a way to keep derelict boats off our waterways, promising collaboration and input from our community without clear communication about how it will serve Port Salerno's needs. Manatee Park's significance can't be understated. It is more than just a patch of green. It is a connection to the water for many of us. A place for relaxation, recreation, and natural beauty. In summary, I ask that you listen to the collective voice of Port Salerno. We're asking for thoughtful solutions that will improve our quality of life, protect our environment, and honor our community's heritage. Thank you for considering our concerns and for taking the time to hear from the people of Port Salerno. Thank you. One more? Ma'am, just state your name for the record, and then we'll take it. Nicole Watson. At the microphone. Hey, as a Florida native, as well as a longtime Port Salerno resident, Butch was here earlier saying that, you know, they don't consider that a park. It has a sign that says Manatee Park. How is it not considered a park? Also, after hearing the Jensen Beach gentleman, I forget his name, Haas, Tom, Bob Haas, saying that we have a mooring field in Jensen and put up a facility much like that, does the cost outweigh, or even will it pay for itself, or is that just going to be a way to waste more money right there and alter that park for future generations to come? My kids were raised on those docks. I mean, I still have family that fish, and I don't know. It just seems if it's not going to make enough money to cover the cost of building this facility, it seems like a no-win for everybody, you know? So, anyway, my thoughts, something to consider, and there could be a better spot over there. You know, there's many other little places that could be looked at, so maybe let's look at some other places, possibly. Thank you. Seeing no other comment, then did that complete your presentation? I'll go back to the board for any questions or comments. Commissioner Campy. Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple of questions for staff, and I'm not sure if you are the right staff to hear these questions. I did get some resident feedback in the last couple of days about this. Obviously, each of the commissioners represents everyone in the county, but we try to focus the majority of our attention in our districts. That being said, I had several people reach out to me on this, some opposed, some that I had heard would have been opposed, and then when I spoke to them, they said they weren't, which then forces me into a situation where I have to verify all of the comments that I'm hearing. This morning, it was interesting to have Mr. Olson here because, in my mind, the Port Salerno Dock Authority is a major player in this area. There was also a couple of business owners that didn't give me permission and necessarily mention their names, but they're right in that category right there that said that they didn't necessarily have a problem with this. But then we hear from residents that say they do and NAC members that say they do. So I'm just wondering, with the feedback that we're hearing, the oppositional feedback that we're hearing, have some of these concerns, can you, you two or someone else, did you look at other potential sites? Is that park, I tried to pull it up. By the time I got off work last night, it would have been dark to go over there before I realized what I tell the people that call me, especially when they call me within 24 hours of an agenda item, that we only know what we know. If there is an undercurrent of opposition, until I hear from those people, I don't know that there is. I read an agenda item. I see the information. I see staff's recommendation. That's what I'm basing my decision on, unless I'm intimately familiar with the situation. And, to be honest, in this particular case, I wasn't. This morning we're hearing from comments about, well, maybe we shouldn't have a mooring field. And if I'm not mistaken, we already have a mooring field there. And part of the deal with that was to create certain inland or on-land services. So the concept that we don't need them or we shouldn't do them, no pun intended, that ship has sailed. So I'm stuck now to try to make a decision based on public feedback that I've heard, staff's recommendation, the recommendation from the representative of the Port Salerno Dock Authority. So all I can do, representing all of the constituents, is ask the same questions. I have heard from sources that I asked during the lunch break that a sketch of the potential facility was shown at an NAC meeting. Is that correct? Head shaking doesn't work. Commissioner, first of all, Clyde Doolin, for the record. And before Mr. Zama has a chance to speak, I'll be happy to turn it over to him. This is a future land use map amendment, public hearing. You can choose to assign or not assign this land use designation. It's a legislative public hearing. Even if you assign this future land use designation and add it to the acreage or the half acre of property that you see in blue along there, that won't have any effect on necessarily what plans are for designing a facility and what that facility may be. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Zama so that he can potentially answer any questions about the facility that's planned for the property. Well, let me just preface or explain why I'm asking. And I appreciate what you're saying. And for those of us on the inside, we get that. But the public, this is the first thing. They hear it coming to us. They're not getting into the land uses and stuff like that. If they hear we say yes to the land use, they think it's a yes. I know that there's two steps today, but I just need, you know, I could vote on the land use and just leave it there and then vote on something down, vote no on something down the road to stop it. I just want so that I'm making an educated decision myself, but also to let the public hear. The thing, and I have tremendous respect and have had unbelievable success with our staff. You know how I feel about the staff, but what I can sometimes find frustrating, and I'm assuming for my colleagues as well, is that all of the interested stakeholders need to be informed and included in the process. Now, you could tell me that they have been, and you could say this is when it happened. But when I hear from stakeholder groups that are legitimate stakeholder groups, not individuals necessarily, groups, and they say we're not familiar or we don't know or we weren't, no one offered us our ability to put our feedback in, then some of us that are not as intimately familiar with this specific issue, which in the course of the entire agenda, to me, looked relatively small. But if you live right next to it or if it's something that's your, you know, so what is it? Is it at a quaint little park where you can sit and watch the sunrise from a park bench looking at the water? Or is it what we heard this morning where it's a couple of benches and a picnic table or so, and it's completely blocked by mangroves? What are we talking about here? And if this facility, I guess the biggest question is, is it open to the general public to use? Is it open to just customers of the mooring field and fishermen? Is it open for some hours of the day to become at least a benefit to all residents as a restroom? Is there a way to position the building on the property that there's still benches that look at the water? Maybe it could become an enhancement. Mr. Zama. Mr. Zama, are you going to answer all that? I'd be glad to answer. George Zama, Public Works Deputy Director. Yeah, there's quite a bit to this facility. First and foremost, the board approved a project for the mooring field. They also approved a grant to construct the mooring field and facilities that are required by the management plan. So with that, there was an investment made for a dinghy dock that's now constructed, upwards of $1.5 million, for the moorers to utilize their dinghies and carry goods to and from their vessels to the upland. So part of the management plan is we have to provide facilities for restrooms and a utility for a washer, dryer, for their clothing and whatnot. So we can provide it through a public and private partnership, or the county has to physically house the facility. We've tried both options. We tried the public-private partnership first, and unfortunately, we did go out to bid, and unfortunately, we couldn't reach an agreement with the private property owner. So now we went with the option to construct a facility. And with that, we identified this area because we've already made a great investment in the dinghy dock. It makes sense to have a facility directly adjacent to the dock because of all the goods. I mean, you have to think about these folks are carrying baskets of laundry. They're going to get groceries. You don't really want them to transport these types of goods very far, and in the elements, mind you. So we want to provide a facility that's directly adjacent to the dock. So the facility that we programmed was as efficient as possible. For example, we communicated with several departments and parks, much like Jensen Beach, agreed to manage the facility. They requested an office to manage the facility, so we were able to accommodate four unisex restrooms, two of which have a shower, which is a requirement in the management plan, and an office and a utility room. And it's 800 square feet. It's scheduled to be 20 by 40. So we feel it's a very efficient building for this proximity to serve its purpose. And the area itself is really just a green space adjacent to the boardwalk with mangrove buffer between the waterway. It has a few picnic and park benches, two of which are located within the building footprint that will be moved to other areas adjacent to new walkways that will be constructed. Thank you. With the restrooms, I know that the concept of leaving restrooms open, we have some in Palm City as well. I see a tremendous amount of, you know, people coming and going to use the restrooms, which obviously if you're building restrooms and people need to use them, then that's a good thing. With that in mind, with the ones at the mooring field facility, is it possible? Well, I see in the city of Stewart, by their city hall, they have restrooms that have a timed magnetic locking system on them. Is it possible that one of the four unisex restrooms without the showers could be used for the general public, for operating hours during the day, and then the others? I know that there was some concern from residents about if you build all these restrooms, but you're going to exclude the general public, and just originally it was just mooring field customers, and then it was mooring field customers, and the fishermen, I guess, were always looking for restrooms. So we've checked off that a long-time issue for them. But the concern that I had heard as an outsider from the area is that there was no restrooms for the rest of the general public. Could one of them, if they're all individual like that, be somehow structured through technology to be available to residents in the appropriate hours and not open 24 hours a day, because sadly there's always vandalism and other issues that happen? I'm just, my goal, as my final comment, would be, this sounds like a terrific opportunity that we're doing here. It's an enhancement to the area, but some of our closest residents don't see it that way. Now, I know we're not going to make everybody happy, but it seems like with a couple of pivots we could make a majority of our residents happy. And if we can't, at least let's educate them, which I think we've gone a long way today to do, on why we're doing what we're doing. Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe it was Commissioner Smith and then Commissioner Hurd. Sort of along the same lines of Ed's comments or thoughts, I asked Don if Kevin Abate was here, because there's been some criticism about whether Jensen's financially stable or not. I know what the answer is, but I want to hear a staff person tell us that. We don't have the benefit of having, apparently, that presentation today. We've got our CRA director sitting over here. We should hear from her as to how did we get here, what has been done, what is the NAC's position, because one of our speakers this morning was an NAC member, and so there's like a whole bunch of conversation that's just kind of like out there that we're not getting any answers for or commentary, and some of Ed's questions are legitimate. You meant all of them. Huh? You meant all of them, yeah. So, you know, I'm at a quandary, too. I mean, I think I know what the answers are, but I think our staff should be presenting, here's the background, here's how we got here, here's how long it took with the private sector to negotiate. We did the same thing in Jensen. We went out to RFP two times, maybe, in Jensen for the Mooring Field Upland facilities. We thought we had a deal constructed with one of the marina operators, and that fell through at the last minute, or not the last minute, but at some part of the conversation. There was a lot of criticism about building the facility in the park at Jensen Beach Causeway. It's turned out fantastic. People come and they go. They have access to the gate. They have a special code system that only they have access to it. I'm pretty sure, again, I think I know the answer, but I think only the voters have access to the restrooms. But if this hasn't been hashed out to the point, and maybe it has been, but we haven't heard that. There he is. There's one of them. If we haven't heard, if the public hasn't heard or we haven't heard that this conversation has been fully vetted and hashed out, then you could see where the public would think there's confusion as to what's happening. So I would ask if Mr. Abate, if one of you can switch or he can come over. Let me get Commissioner Hurd's comments out on the table. Then I have a question. And then staff, I think, could hopefully address them all at the same time. And Don has his light on. Well, first of all, the reason why the mooring field was proposed in the beginning was because the anchorage was unsafe, because there were lots of derelict, unattended boats, they were dragging anchor during storms and crashing into people's docks, and this was a fine solution, and we got a grant in order to achieve this. This proposal is for changing the land use on an abandoned right-of-way two hundredths of an acre. Move approval. Okay, so I have one question, and then I'm going to give Don and Kevin an opportunity. And my question would go to George, is that when you said it was bid unsuccessfully, does that mean no one bid on the mooring field? Or when you say the bid was unsuccessful and you tried to put together a private partnership, was no one interested in participating in that? We had one bidder that was through an RFP that we procured, and we entered negotiations, and it lasted nine to ten months, and we had constraints with our grants to open the facility, and we had to terminate the negotiation. What are the current constraints with the grant? Well, with teamwork with our parks department, we have the facility open with a restroom trailer, so we're meeting minimum obligations for now, but we do need the utility. We've informed the granting agency that we have planned improvements for a full site or a full facility, so they're allowing us to use a temporary facility. Okay. And then I'm going to give Don the floor, and then Kevin, you. So, Commissioner, in regards to the negotiations, because I entered them a little bit, too, it really came down to the fact that, you know, working with a government entity, there are certain disclosure and audit requirements that we had and how you'd negotiate either the leasing of the space or the operation, and we just simply weren't able to come down to an agreement where we could meet our audit requirements, and the business owner didn't feel that they could be successful in operating it, so it ended. We ended the, in that particular case, we left the door open to perhaps work with them again in the future, you know, or any other business in the area, so it was, I would say we left amicably, you know, and certainly weren't able to come to a resolution. So, in the meantime, you know, the number of points of access to this project are very limited, where you can achieve this, and then, of course, the investment in where you actually land the individual. So, staff worked with, you know, developing this site as potential, which hasn't been approved yet, other than a temporary use, much like we did with Jensen Beach, and Kevin can answer the financial questions. I could as well, but we'll let Kevin talk about the operation of the Jensen Field, which has been very successful, even in spite of some startup modifications they had to do. So, Kevin? Both facilities, Jensen Beach, Mournfield, and Port Salerno are doing really well. I just had some numbers this morning on Port Salerno. We're about, we've collected about $38,000 in revenue, and we don't have many expenses. We have one harbor master that manages both mooring fields at Jensen and Port Salerno, and Kevin Abate, for the record, Parks Director. Sorry about that. So, the goal of the program is, and Port Salerno was very difficult to start with because there's been a lot of history of boats being there for many, many years. So, we worked with the Sheriff's Office Marine Unit, the County Attorney's Office. We currently have a CTO contract out for bid. It closes tomorrow. Or, not CTO, a towing service contract out to help manage these facilities that have a long, rich history and with our ultimate goal of protecting the seagrass beds and also to collect fees from all these 42 mooring balls over at Port Salerno. So, they're doing well financially. Our goals have been, since we've been asked to manage both properties, is to have them be a revenue offset at best. But both facilities, you'll find next month we come forward with Fund Balance. We'll show you that they've been highly successful financially, and it don't cost the county any operating tax dollars. So, we're looking forward to the same model at the end of the year for Port Salerno. So, I'm completely comfortable with the team that we have in place to manage them at the point. But the number one complaint right now at Port Salerno is that there are no facilities, meaning washer-dryer facilities. I know that we repurposed a restroom trailer that we had at the golf course when we were under construction. We cleaned it up. It's decent, but it's certainly not a hard structure and certainly not the facilities that Jensen Beach customers have had. So, that's currently our operation up there. So, Jensen Beach exceeded operation costs by $43,000 last year and is currently on track to do better this year. Yeah. And I might add, we did a market analysis before we started the project, and our revenue projection over 10 years was $1.3 million. And we used conservative estimates based off of rental rates the first few years, which we projected to be 50%, which we've, I think Kevin can attest, has exceeded that. Both facilities are very low cost. So, you don't have much, many expenses at all. You know, right now, Port Salerno, we don't have hardly any. So, we're really just paying for a one employee salary to manage the, and then, of course, cost of fuel for the boats that we have. So, it's a very low cost facility, much like our campground. So, I'm very confident. We've been operating this one for a while and Jensen Beach for two years, and the staff does a very good job. Commissioner Smith? Yeah, I would just follow on that, and then I'd like to ask Susan Kores to come up, too. I knew the answer relative to the revenue side of this because Kevin and I talk about this all the time in our updates. The other issue that seemingly gets glazed over, at least in Jensen, a lot, the amount of environmental damage that was happening every year related to storms and boats tearing up that part of the waterway in Jensen was enormous. Every storm, we would lose one to two boats. They would lose all their fluids, presumably. Any human waste that they had on board was getting disposed of if it was going under. They were ending up on our shoreline. It was a mess, and the only way we could regulate it was to get a mooring field. Actually, we had to get legislation to even allow a mooring field to get built, and that took five years to do. So on the cleanup on the environmental side, at least in Jensen, it's a huge issue. If it's okay with the chair, I don't have any other questions for Kevin. I'd like Susan Kores to come up and at least give us an overview of what the conversation has been relative to the NAC so that this wasn't, and if it was done in a vacuum, then there's a complete pause that needs to be put on. But if it wasn't, we need to at least understand for the public what occurred. To your one point, to your comment, I have heard from our park administrator and our harbor master that the Port Salerno community of those folks that frequent the area are very pleased with the cleanup efforts to remove all these derelict boats, and we have many, many out there, and it's just a lot cleaner now. The boats are able-bodied boats. They're not leaking sewage, and they're serviceable. And so I think they've enjoyed it in the last four or five months. So thank you. Thank you, Kevin. Ms. Kores. Good afternoon. Susan Kores, Office of Community Development. Since I have been employed here starting in 2017, we've been bringing information about the mooring field to the Port Salerno community or referring them to those that might have more information, which would be the Coastal Department or Public Works or wherever the project was being planned at the time. Just in the past year, we've spoken about the mooring field many times. I believe it was April. Commissioner Hurd came out, spoke to those on Park Drive. Public Works was there as well to talk about what the Upland facility would look like and where it would be placed. Just a recent meeting, and actually there were two meetings last April. There was also another meeting that we held in the Salerno Civic Center where we invited Park Drive residents to come in and talk about projects happening in that area, mooring field being one of them. At our last NAC meeting, which the date is now escaping me, early February, we again brought information about the mooring field. The community did have questions that we could not answer because there is not yet a completed site plan or design for the building. There was just a conceptual type plan that we had, and we did discuss it again at that meeting. We have discussed it in past meetings probably three or four times just in the past year. As far as the NAC, it's not a CRA project. So there is not, I guess, a part for the NAC to play in terms of making a motion to approve or not approve. Some people like the idea. Some people don't. But we don't have any particular motion that was ever being requested or made in terms of approval of the project. I will say as well, building a little bit on what Kevin said, that all of the community that live on the waterfront there seem very pleased with the fact that the derelict boat situation has been taken care of because that's been the conversation since 2017. Susan, is it my understanding then, even if the land use has changed, you still have some meetings and or public outreach to come to a final site plan and or building design? So again, it's not a CRA project, Commissioner, but we will bring back that information to the community, and we have every intention of providing benches and possibly the picnic tables. We're cleaning up the signage down there. We're getting rid of the port-a-potty. We're moving the dumpster to the north or keeping the dumpster on the north end and enclosing it. So we're really doing everything possible, I think, to make the area quite livable and quite nice for the folks that live there. Does it come back to the board, the final design site plan? I don't believe it does. Where would the concerned public have an opportunity to participate in the next phase if the land use is changed? So much like a lot of public works projects, at least the major CIP projects, public works performs outreach, and the outreach extends from social media to boots on the ground, having a public involvement meeting. For this type of facility, being in a CRA and a lot of other public works projects and CRAs, we use that as an avenue to reach a vast member of the community and the local community to discuss the project. In this particular case, we've done multiple updates regarding the project over the past few years as things have progressed. As far as the facility itself, we even took it a step further, and we wanted to meet with the residents of Park Drive where this facility will be located. And we had an individual meeting with those Park Drive residents to discuss the building proximity. We went over elevations, what the building would look like. We gathered feedback on what they would like to see in a facility because we knew that this facility, we would be their neighbors. So we wanted to gather their input on this type of facility. So we've done extensive outreach, and we've worked. We've also shared the site and the elevations with the district commissioner, who represents the community, the local community. And we also, as we progress to the final 100% plans, we're looking to go back for one more meeting just to discuss what the building will look like. And if it's the will of the board, I'd be glad to share what, you know, the building elevations and the site plan. Don, you have your light on? Yeah, just in terms of answering your question from the procedural element, which is this is a minor site plan, so it doesn't come to the board. So the project is approved in your CIP, and then it goes through the minor site plan approval process, and we work with the district commissioner on projects that affect parks or other things like that is how the practice has been. So that, in terms of public input, it is, as George described it, in terms of the approval process, it has to be approved in the CIP, it has to, in terms of the budgeting process, and then in this particular case, obviously you have to do a land use change and then a zoning change before it can even go through the site planning process. So that's kind of the basic high-level view. Okay. Well, I'm just going to bring it back to the board then, and we do have a motion on the table by Commissioner Hurd. Does anybody have any comments or direction? I do have one more. So in all that said, George, post these two decisions, will you be going back to the community with anything? Yes, we have one more scheduled meeting to discuss the final plans of the building, and we were going to meet with the Park Drive residents and obviously give another update at the next NAC meeting. I think it would be super important to do all that so that everybody understands, and my guess is with the, assuming all of us know who commented this morning, who's in the room today with us right now, I would assume if we hear back from those people that they're not happy with what we're doing, there'll be an opportunity for us to raise it here on the dais and say, look, we've got to pause, we've got to stop, we've got to do something different than what we're doing. But no matter what we did, if it were to be on that site, you'd still have to have the land use and zoning change to be able to accommodate it. And at the end of the day, if it turns out that the community says, no, we don't want it, and everybody hates it, we don't have to do anything, but we still have to facilitate an upland facility somewhere and in some reasonable time frame. Correct. Understanding that the opportunity for the residents to opine at least one more time and with an effort to reach all concerned stakeholders, what we're deciding today is not the finalized plan of this and the look and feel. It's just the land use changes. I will second the motion. Okay. Very good. Any other comments? We have a motion for staff's recommendation by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Campy. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0 with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Okay. We will move on then to public hearing quasi-judicial number 2. And with that, oh, do we have any paperwork that had to be filed or? So, we obviously don't have any interveners. We don't have any interveners. Ex parte communications. Okay. Commissioner Smith, any ex parte communications? Commissioner Campy. If I do, they've been filed. If I do, they've been filed. If I have any, they've been filed. So, okay, can we have the witnesses or those provide testimonies 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? That completes our quasi-judicial presentation. Good afternoon. This is Carolyn Grunwald, Growth Management Department. Oh, yeah. Speaking about the... Thank you. We're seeking to... I'm sorry. We're just making sure she got all... She's, you know, she's a temporary. She's a temporary. You had to check to make sure I'm doing my job. She is. She's doing fabulous. Now, this is a request to assign the waterfront subdistrict to the recently abandoned right-of-way, of which we just spoke on in the previous public hearing. This is a request to amend the figure four... I'm sorry, figure PS-2, the regulating plan of the Port Salerno Community Redevelopment Area. The site has public water and sewer. And the waterfront subdistrict is the most appropriate subdistrict to implement the marine waterfront commercial land use. This is to provide restrooms, a laundry facility, and an office space. Let's see here. So, to the north is the waterfront subdistrict, as well as the south. Across the street is the general subdistrict, of which the waterfront is compatible with, due to some commercial uses and such. The waterfront subdistrict allows for marina, lodging, and office space, most of which is being sought. The maximum building coverage is 50%, with a minimum open space of 20%. The staff recommends approval. That concludes my... Clyde Doolin, for the record, I'd like to add a couple of more things. The notices of the public hearings have been turned in to the clerk, fulfilling the requirement for notice of surrounding property owners. And with that, we'll end staff presentation and be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Anyone have questions for staff? Comes to the board, then, for some direction. Excuse me, public comment, Commissioner. Oh, public comment. Okay. Anybody have public comment on this item? This one on the right name. Good afternoon. You still talked about the mooring field facility. Yes, yes. My name is Margaret Rhodes. We live on Overlook Terrace. We've come to Port... I wasn't prepared to speak today. We came to Port Salerno in 2000, but my father-in-law owned that property since the 1970s. We are directly across from Pirate's Loft, Pirate's Cove, and we thank you for getting that mooring field, because every time there was a nor'easter, we had boats to deal with. Not necessarily always us, but neighbors. But we have tied countless boats to docks against everybody's recommendation so they don't do more damage. We say, well, what are we supposed to do? You're supposed to push them out in the water. How stupid is that? That's a maritime law, but that's a stupid law. So I really thank you for getting this. As to the upland facility, I don't know. I know you need it. We don't live on Park Drive. We did not go to that meeting. We live on Overlook Terrace. So maybe it was just the Park Drive people that were notified. I think that's all I have to say. But the mooring field, absolutely. It has accountability is what I feel. Now we have somebody. If a boat does damage, we know. We know they have insurance. The boats that are out there, for many, many years, no accountability. So thank you for listening to me. Thank you for your comments. I don't think we would have started the timer anyway. For years, I went to those NAC meetings asking about the mooring field, and I always got the same answer from Susan Corey's. That's not our problem. That's not our NAC. I said, but we live in the CRA, and it affects us. Well, that's not ours. When they were going to do Park Drive, I raised my hand, and I said, aren't you going to put a facility? I heard that there was a facility going there. How are you going to redo Park Drive if you're already talking about there's plans for a facility there? Don't you have to coordinate that? Well, that's not our thing. She was right. She did always say it's not an NAC. I could never understand that. If it's a county, it's a county. Thanks. Thank you. Okay, we have a light on now. Any more public comment, for the record? Commissioner Campy. In regards to the mooring field, I remember early in my career, it was a Jensen Beach issue, and when people were frustrated that Commissioner Smith was looking to have a mooring field up there, everyone said the more logical place was in the manatee pocket, that it shouldn't be in Jensen. But it came to Jensen first, and then afterwards it came to the manatee pocket. I don't have a boat. Never did. Never put a – I don't have a dinghy. I've never moored to one of those mooring balls. I've never brought supplies to a boat. I have no idea this next topic I could talk about, but this one with the boating. But I appreciate from someone who lives directly right there that there was an advantage to doing these things. And what I do remember as a land person is the fact that we could not even supervise or police, if you will, the derelict boats or the near-derelict boats that were just camping out, you know, for lack of a – whatever the word is when you dock your – anchor your boat wherever you feel like it, the state did not give us the authority to police those areas because we did not have a mooring field. So beyond the folks like the last speaker just said that do show up and have some accountability to the people that live in that area, it also allows our law enforcement and state law enforcement to police the area to – am I wrong? Is that a situation where you can – you can't just dock your boat wherever you feel like it now? They could in the past because we didn't have mooring fields. And now that we do, we can police that specific area. Again, not a maritime law expert, Mr. Pine. I know you're getting upset. I'm just giving you my history of the issue. So move staff's recommendation. Thank you. Second. Okay. We have a motion for staff's recommendation by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries four to zero with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Thank you. Okay. We are moving on now a little bit out of order still, but we're going to take public hearing number two, legislative public hearing, to consider adoption of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment, CPA 22-11, Three Lakes Golf Club, presented by Clyde Doolin. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Clyde Doolin. This is CPA number 22-11, Three Lakes Golf Club, LLC. This is a proposed future land use map amendment on 1,200 acres. The proposed change is from agricultural to rural lifestyle. The agricultural future land use designation is shown on the map in green. The property is outlined in red on the map. It's on both sides of Canter Highway, and it's north of Bridge Road. It's south of the intersection of Canter Highway and Pratt-Whitney. The next slide or the next photo on the screen shows the proposed future land use designation, rural lifestyle. This is the third of three public hearings. The local planning agency considered this on November 2. The Board of County Commissioners considered this on November 7 and approved transmittal of it to the state. The state came back with no comments or objections, and this is the adoption public hearing scheduled for February 20. Notices have been published in the newspaper. When the applicant comes up to do his presentation, he'll bring an affidavit showing that the letters have been sent out to all the surrounding property owners within 2,500 feet. As I said, this is a proposed change from agricultural allowing one unit per 20 acres to rural lifestyle, also allowing one unit per 20 acres. There's no change in density. Both this land use designation proposed and the existing land use designation allow for golf courses. The staff finds that it meets compatibility considerations with surrounding property because they both allow some of the same uses. The proposed land use will require more open space, 70 percent, as opposed to the 50 percent allowed by the agricultural future land use designation. The staff finds that two of the four criteria the staff must consider whenever reviewing future land use map amendments have been met. Sprawl criteria have also been considered and met, and staff recommends approval of the proposed change. There have been changes in development in the area. There have been changes in future land use designations in the area. And before I end the staff presentation, I wanted to cover a few things that perhaps some folks don't know when we're doing future land use map amendments. We consider the worst-case scenario of the proposed land use and the worst-case scenario of the existing land use. We don't look at a minimal use of the existing future land use designation. So if, for instance, there's only a few cows on a property or a few trees on the property, it's very lightly used within its existing land use. We're not looking at that. We're looking at the most intense use that the agricultural future land use could have on it. We're looking at golf courses, golf cottages, et cetera, and compare that to the proposed use for a side-by-side comparison to some extent. And as I said, golf courses are permitted in both. Also, one of the things that we consider when we were looking at the rural lifestyle future land use designation is that the existing agricultural future land use designation allows for 20-acre lots, large lots, subdivisions that are very large, where the individual lots can obtain an ag tax classification and reduce their tax burden while still demanding public services to be provided. The rural lifestyle future land use designation will make that very difficult to obtain agricultural tax classification on properties, on the individual lots that would be developed and the individual houses that would be there. So we could expect a better tax return for the services provided and not put a burden on the residents in the rest of Martin County. Also, I wanted to point out that, as you heard from your legislative presentation this morning, the state is working at additional changes in legislation that affect local governments. One of the changes that affected local government is the agritourism that was adopted a few years ago and then allows for expanded uses in the agricultural areas than have been allowed in the past. Palm Beach County recently had a bit of a dust-up where people in the acreage were setting up wedding venues and using the agritourism as their means of doing so. When Palm Beach County tried to stop those wedding venues from being used in those agricultural lands, they lost before the code enforcement magistrate because the state law superseded the local regulations. One of the advantages of the Rural Lifestyle Future Land Use designation provides is a planned unit development, which makes an agreement between the Board of County commissioners and the community that's being developed. And in so doing, it gives some predictability for how thousands of acres will be developed over many years into the future. So with that, I will end the staff presentation and recommend staff approval. Go ahead. Questions for staff? Commissioner Heard. Yeah. Do you know where the Indian River Lagoon South Natural Lands footprint is? I believe it's south of Bridge Road, but I can't give you the exact location. Have you asked anyone to provide us with that information? I have seen the data in the past, but I can't recall it at this moment. Did you recall if the Colusa Creek Ranch project was inside the IRL South Natural Lands component? I believe it is. You didn't bring that up at the hearing. I believe I asked that question. I don't remember that hearing. This is the Three Lakes on the north side of Bridge Road. I'm aware of that. I'm just aware of what makes you so certain that this is not in the IRL South Natural Lands footprint, because it certainly is next to it, if not included in it. It may be next to it, Commissioner. I believe it is north. Also, how many – what was the maximum allowable number of bedrooms for the golf cottages when it was originally proposed? I believe it's six. I believe it was four. When did that change? I'm sorry, Commissioner. I was speaking of the adopted language. I was speaking of the language also. It was a transmittal language. It was four. Would you go to page 166, Carolyn? There you go. Actually, beyond that, we'll bring it up. 168, bottom of the page. It's limited to six bedrooms, Commissioner. Was this the transmitted language or the adopted language or something in between? This is the adopted language. Okay. I recall that it was four. Those are the questions I have right now. It would have been unsatisfactory answered. Morris, you're going to do the presentation? Yes. For the record, my name is Morris Crady, senior partner with Lacedo & Associates, and I'm here on behalf of the property owner, Three Lakes Golf Club, LLC. I do have the affidavit regarding the notice to surrounding property owners within 2,500 feet of the subject property. I did give a lengthy presentation regarding compliance with rural lifestyle, and as one of the persons that drafted the language, it's always been six bedrooms from day one, and I think the criteria that Clyde went over applies to this property. It was transmitted for approval in November. Really, the major change to the existing project, we currently have two golf courses approved on site, and septic tank allowance for up to 5,000 gallons per day under the existing agricultural land use and zoning. The major change here is it allows connection to the water and sewer lines that are adjacent to the project, and it also allows us to submit this PUD master plan, which I'll go over in more detail on the next item, assuming this moves forward for adoption today. So with that understanding, I'll be glad to answer any questions, but if I can just reserve my presentation for the next item, I think that would save some time. Anybody have questions for the applicant? I don't. No? Okay. Going back to the board for some direction. Clyde, do you have a... Commissioner, if I may interrupt for just a moment, I was given a graphic that I believe answers the question that was asked about the SIRP boundary. You see on the screen a map of lands that have been acquired and that are proposed for acquisition. There's a green dashed outline that shows the SIRP boundary, and I'll get up and show you. Here's the SIRP boundary shown on the legend of the map. Carolyn, would you zoom in just a little bit? The property in question is north of Bridge Road, north of my finger. The SIRP boundary is this dashed, this green line running right along Bridge Road here. This is Cantor Highway for your reference. So the property in question is on the north of the SIRP boundary shown on this 2011 map. Do you know if that's been modified since 2011? Because then natural lands weren't part of SIRP. At this moment, Commissioners, that's the data I have to show you. Thank you. Mr. Campy. Thank you. This morning we talked about allowing the public to decide about a half a cent sales tax to purchase environmental lands that will be held in protective conservation and used for very passive, potentially very passive recreation, if at all. A lot of the property that's been purchased in the past has sat nearly untouched from anything. And we're talking about taxing. The residents are going to have to vote on taxing themselves to maintain large areas of green open space. It will come off the tax rolls, and we have to utilize our funds and try to hope for grant funds. Projects such as this allow thousands of acres to be utilized in a more, not as passive as nothing, but in my particular opinion, it is a nice marriage and creates another green buffer for us. Yes, it will have golf cottages, and it will have the associated amenities that golf courses will bring, but it will also have hundreds and hundreds of acres of natural land and revitalized lands, and I've had the opportunity in the past to tour this. Yes, if you're not interested in golf courses and things like that, then you're annoyed by this project, but I think not only from an environmental point of view is this sort of a balance of having something happen on people's property that still has a relatively minor effect, not zero, but a minor effect compared to the dozens of options that could have been used on this property. That being said, there is also an economic benefit to the residents, and I know some people say, well, you know, that doesn't really matter, and it shouldn't be taken into the consideration, but it is. It is, in my mind, taken into the consideration. It will bring a tremendous amount of tax revenue that will ease some of the burden that others would have to pay, if not these kind of projects. It's also a group that is in the process of building what will become a world-renowned facility. It's already been shown and published in magazines, both golf industry magazines and other magazines, talking about this particular project and several others that are coming to our area, and I have said in the past that, you know, Martin County is known for a lot of things, you know, acclaimed things. I don't think it's a bad idea at all if Martin County would continue to enhance our reputation as the premier location for golf. The folks that come to these facilities will either stay in these cottages, they will frequent restaurants, they will shop in retail stores, the course itself will hire hundreds and hundreds of employees at every level, from the greens maintenance folks and hospitality folks to management and engineers and the like. So I see this as a terrific benefit. The group that has gotten together to bring this project, having known something about golf and the industry itself, as my dad is a pro, is the top of the list, is top of the industry. The individuals that are owning the facility and the individuals that will run it and have planned it and organized it are as big as they get in the industry. And I'm thrilled that they've decided to pick a portion of Martin County to be here, and I'm honored to make the motion to accept staff's recommendation. Thank you. Commissioner Smith? One other component I would add to what I just had to say, and it's knowing that this was coming up this afternoon, the conversation this morning at public about the discharges to this C44 canal. We have talked, we have presentations we have done relative to this course, but even to the amendment as a whole as to how many millions of gallons a day it will remove from the C44, which if you listen to folks this morning, and rightfully so, they're crazed about the idea that there's going to be water heading out of the locks. And these projects will take a fair amount of water off that system. It won't take it all, but it will certainly take a whole bunch of water out of the system that would otherwise go to the Indian River Lagoon and out to the ocean and eventually out to the coral reefs. So to what all Ed just said, the incredible benefits to the water piece of this in terms of how much water we're taking out of that canal, I think make it a perfectly good opportunity for us. I'll second your motion. Commissioner Hearn. Yeah, I'm not going to support the motion. There are four criteria for analysis for an amendment to the future land use amendment. They are past changes in land use designations in the general area make the proposed use logical and consistent with these uses, and adequate public facilities are available. It has not met that. Growth in the area in terms of development of vacant land, redevelopment, and availability of public services has altered the character of the area such that the proposed request is now reasonable and consistent with area land use characteristics. It hasn't met that criteria. The proposed change would correct what would otherwise appear to be an inappropriately assigned land use designation. It hasn't met that criteria. And lastly, the proposed change would fulfill a public service need that enhances the health, safety, or general welfare of county residents. So it hasn't met that criteria either. Furthermore, it's classic urban sprawl. It's incompatible with the land uses completely surrounding it, and there are no capital facilities available to be extended here. Furthermore, the comprehensive plan states that extension of water and sewer inside the primary urban service boundary is to be prioritized. This is wholly outside of any urban service boundary. Commissioner Campy. With all due respect to my colleague, Mr. Doolin, Ms. Gronwald, you heard what my colleague had to say. You've had the opportunity to review this, as did several other members of our organization, including legal. Do you feel that you are breaking any of those covenants or rules that you've just heard? No, Commissioner. Staff did not find that the criteria in three and four had been met. Staff found that the first two criteria had been met, which Commissioner heard correctly itemized. As to the sprawl issue, it's not urban sprawl. It couldn't possibly be considered urban sprawl at one unit per 20 acres. However, if sprawl is a, it's like art. You know, you can, people, different people have different opinions on it. It can be rather subjective. Likewise, you could consider the 20-acre lots and the large lot subdivisions to also be sprawl, and that type of sprawl is possible all over western Martin County. And we have some maps, for instance, that show large lot subdivisions that are out by the lake, up by the north, by the county line in St. Lucie County, that are requiring services for residential lots, residential units on 20-acre lots stretched far out. The rural lifestyle future land use designation must be located in proximity to the urban service districts. So, unlike the large lot 20-acre subdivisions, it has to be close to the urban area. And so, respectfully, staff recommends approval of this proposed land use change. I'm just going to add my comments. I think that, you know, Commissioner Smith and Commissioner Campy has reflected some of my comments. But just to tag on to what you just said, and I believe you said it in your earlier presentation, that you're basing this property on what the most intense use could be. So, and I've had a chance to tour this property, and I grew up in the corridor, so I spent much of my life going back and forth down Canter Highway. And, quite honestly, I think there are many of us that would love to see Canter Highway never change, but it's obviously not realistic. And two things. There's one thing I would hate to see on this property is 20-acre ranchettes everywhere with ditches and dikes and manicured lawns and berms that does not have the environmental benefit that Commissioner described of, Commissioner Smith, of taking the water from the C-44. And I have to say that one of the biggest concerns that I had when this project was originally proposed is I didn't want to change the character of Canter Highway. It's always been a rural highway, and it's beautiful, and it has a lot of history. And they have done just what they said they were going to do. They've kept it rural. They've kept it, and you can't even tell that the entrance is back there. And when you go inside the property, and I appreciate the tour, it has the most beautiful oak trees. They kept every oak tree, moved them around the property. It's probably the best environmental condition that property has seen in decades. And I love to see it, so I appreciate it. And, again, I would hate to see 20-acre ranchettes all over this county. So I rather like this particular proposal and what they've done and the fact that you've done what you said you were going to do and keeping it rural in nature. So with that, we had a motion. Excuse me, Commissioner Hetherington. We need to ask for public comment. Oh, okay. I thought we had done that. Any public comment on this item? Remember, I'm just a temporary. I'm a temp. That's why I'm here. Temp. Here's a public comment. Public comment. Thank you, Lynn. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I am Lynn Soucy, and I have been in Martin County 19 years now, and I've spent my life in economic development, and I've done over 2 million square feet of space. And I like this proposal very much. When I look at Martin County, I look at what is the growth actors in Martin County now, and I see health care being primary. I see, I'm sorry, health care, manufacturing, especially in the marina area. I see transition, recreation and tourism and life sciences. When I look at the sector of tourism, I see a significant increase in the activity in the golf area. And I look at the fact that this particular project is creating a critical mass of the concentration of golf activities here. And because of the critical mass and the way this project is structured, it has brought together more investment into this area, and we can see that already happening. I must say this is a very unique project. This is without houses. This is pure golf. As the commissioner said before, this is absolutely unique in the history of how golf courses are developed. It's only happened because one of the principals has done this very successfully before without making golf an ancillary activity of a project. And this is not ancillary. This is the project. And this will go down as critical. I would say that because this project came forward, we have seen an additional $100 million in land purchases come in, which are supporting it. This year, these are Martin County assets receiving these monies. I think that we should want our industries and our growing industries to be successful. And we want all Martin County projects to be successful. And I would encourage you to do whatever is necessary to help this project be successful. If it is successful, we are successful collectively. Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. Seeing none, Commissioner Smith, do you have a comment? Just one final thought. As people are thinking this through and listening to the various comments and the various opinions, this is Martin County taking control of its future and deciding what we want, what we don't want, versus some other entity in the state doing it for us. And I think with what our staff has helped us create with what this is and what the property owners have created as a result of what that looks like, it is a much better future for that piece of property and the other properties that are involved with this land use category than I'm afraid or concerned, very much so, with what might be dictated to us later on as time moves on. So I think for all of us, I think it's as good as it gets. Thank you, Commissioner Smith. Okay, with that, we do have a motion on the floor by Commissioner Campy, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. Motion carries 3-1 with Commissioner Hurd dissenting and Commissioner Jenkins absent. Okay, so we will move on now. Thank you, members of the board. Thank you, Klein. To public hearing quasi-traditional number 1, request for rezoning approval to plan unit development through a PUD zoning agreement for the Three Lakes Golf Club project, including a master and phasing plan and a phase 1 final site plan, presented by Brian Elam. Good afternoon. Oh, quasi-judicial. Okay. Do we, do you have return receipts, paperwork, and your resume? I do. You have your resume? Receipts were returned at the LPA. And receipts were returned at the LPA. And Commissioner Smith, do you have any quasi-judicial? I do. They're filed. Commissioner Campy? I do. They've been filed. Commissioner Hurd? I don't think I have any, but if I do, they've been filed. And if I have any, they have been filed. And will all of those providing testimony please stand up 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? No interveners. All right, with that, Brian, you may proceed. Thank you, Commissioners. For the record, Brian Elam, Principal Planner with the Growth Management Department. I've submitted my, a copy of the agenda item and my work history is Exhibit 1. And the applicant's work history is an attachment to this agenda item and has been identified as Exhibit 2. This is a request by Three Lakes Golf Club, LLC, also known as Apogee, for a zoning district change from the current AG-20A General Agricultural District to the Planned Unit Development or PUD District through a PUD zoning agreement including a master plan, phasing plan, and phase one final site plan. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. The development is located west and east of southwest Canter Highway, approximately 2.4 miles southwest of I-95 at 10980 Southwest Apogee Drive in Stewart. The Comprehensive Plan Amendment 22-11 heard before this board today approved the requested change to the future land use on the property from agricultural, allowing one unit per 20 acres, to rural lifestyle, allowing one unit per 20 acres, on approximately 1,217 acres. This application is a request for a planned unit development zoning district, which is an alternative zoning district in which the landowner and the Board of County Commissioners negotiate standards that will apply to a specific parcel of land such that the resulting development will be of superior quality and design while protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the general public. The purpose of a planned unit development is to provide flexibility and design with respect to applying the land development regulations in a manner which mutually benefits the county and the developer but must adhere to all comprehensive growth management plan goals and policies. The master site plan is designed for three 18-hole golf courses, two nine-hole short courses, two driving ranges, 54 golf cottages, east and west clubhouses, the 70-bed employee housing unit, and ancillary buildings in support of the golf club members and operations. Approximately 722 acres is east of southwest Canter Highway, and this is the area where the north and south 18-hole golf courses are located. The remaining approximate 494 acres lies west of southwest Canter Highway, and this is where the west 18-hole golf course is located, as well as the required upland preserve of pine flatlands that is to be preserved and maintained by a PAMP Preserve Area Management Plan by Three Lakes Golf Club PUD. An amendment to the approved PAMP is part of this agenda item. The PAMP amendment has been completed to document the reconfiguration of native upland preserve areas on the subject property. The reconfiguration replaces areas of native upland habitat where development is proposed with preservation of equivalent areas of existing native upland habitat. The master site plan includes over 170 acres of constructed lakes, 57 acres of wetland preserve, over 48 acres of wetland buffer preserve, and 97% open space. The master site plan incorporates the previously approved Three Lakes Golf Club revised final site plan passed by the board on June 6, 2023. A resolution has been made part of this agenda item to rename the Three Lakes Golf Club revised final site plan as the Three Lakes Golf Club PUD Phase 1 final site plan. Access to the site will remain consistent with the previously approved revised final site plan with the main entrance off Southwest Bridge Road for the area east of Southwest Canter Highway and secondary access points on Southwest Canter Highway. If I can zoom in. So this was previously approved, the main access here. And secondary access is here along Canter Highway. The master site plan shows the proposed development will be completed in three phases as detailed on the master site plan and phasing plan. Phase 1 is currently under construction, and that's the site plan for which the construction is going off of right now, and it will be renamed as the PUD Phase 1 final site plan. Phase 2 is in review, and Phase 3 is off into the future. As previously stated, the purpose of a planned unit development is to provide flexibility and design with respect to applying the land development regulations in a manner which mutually benefits the county and the developer. As the applicant's primary, let's see, aside from meeting the minimum PUD agreement and public benefits required for the rural lifestyle future land use, the applicant has also proposed the following. The owner shall partner with the county and the Martin County Orchid Society by contributing $30,000 towards the protection and relocation of a state-listed terrestrial orchid. The funds will also be used to establish an orchid seed bank to propagate orchids that are native to the county, where they will be used to enhance local orchid populations on county-owned property. I believe there's a potential that where they have to do a turn lane on the main entrance that... Bridge Road? Thank you. On Bridge Road, that the orchid may be there. So I don't even think that it's proven to be there, but... What orchid is it? It is the Secola Lanciolata. It's very pretty. It's in the vicinity, but it's... I'm sure I've probably butchered that. The Three Lakes PUD provides private recreational uses. The second public benefit is upon completion of the North Golf Course and Permanent Golf Clubhouse, these events shall include a minimum of three charity golf outages each year during the peak golf season, October through May, including the use of golf course and clubhouse facilities at no cost, and the donation of food and non-alcoholic beverages during the event. Each golf outing shall be limited to a maximum of 72 golfers. There are other benefits, which the applicant, I'm sure, will explain, which are part of the rural lifestyle requirement. This application was heard before the local planning agency on February 15, 2024, and the LPA's recommendation will be forwarded. It was passed 3-1. 3-1. Development review staff have found the PUD zoning agreement and master site plan to comply with all applicable regulations, and the comprehensive growth management plan is detailed in the attached staff report. Staff recommends approval of the Three Lakes Golf Club PUD zoning agreement application. We recommend the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1, move the board receive and file the applicant's work history as Exhibit 2, and move the board adopt the resolution approving the rezoning from AG-28 General Agricultural District to planned unit development and approve the Three Lakes Golf Club PUD zoning agreement, including the master site plan, phasing plan, phase 1 final site plan, and revised preserve area management plan. And that concludes the presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Anyone have questions for staff? Okay. Would the applicant like to make a presentation? Good afternoon, commissioners. For the record, Bob Raines. I'm a land use attorney with the Gunster Law Firm, and I'm here this afternoon on behalf of the applicant. I'm very pleased to be here on what we believe is a really wonderful project for Martin County. We're pleased to state for the record, first of all, that we did turn in the return receipts or proof of notices to the surrounding property owners at the LPA meeting for this item. So I'd like the record to reflect that. Also, I'd like for the record to reflect that we have received and reviewed the staff report. We agree with the staff comments, conclusions, and recommendations in that staff report and are pleased to be here today to provide further evidence as to why this project should be approved. As we stated earlier, this is a quasi-judicial hearing, so I'm going to have Mr. Crady come up in just a moment as a witness. We also have other members of our development team here and members of the Three Lake project here as well. So at the conclusion of our presentation, we'll be glad to answer any questions you might have with respect to the project. At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Crady to come up. I have a few quick questions for him, then I'll turn it over to him, and then I'll have a few quick questions for him again. Mr. Crady, could you please state your name for the record? Yes, Morris Crady. And you've been sworn in? I have been sworn in. And can you give us just a quick summary of your work history? Sure. Education? Yep. I moved here in 1978. Went to school at FIT in Jensen Beach. Graduated in 1982. Went to work for Martin County as their first environmental planner. And then I've been with, I resigned in 1990. Been with Lucido and Associates doing land planning in Martin County for now 42 years. Okay. And can you identify the document that I'm handing you? Yes, that's my resume. Okay. And I'd like for the record to reflect that Mr. Crady has identified his resume that I turned in as part of our applicant's exhibit work history that Mr. Helam referred to earlier. So that's already part of the packet. And Mr. Crady, can you just describe your role in this project? Yes, I coordinated the development application submittal to Martin County and also coordinated the development team in responding to comments through the development review process. Okay. And did you prepare the presentation you're about to show? Yes, I did. All right. Thank you. Go right ahead. And before I get into that, I just want to thank you guys for pushing the referendum this morning. I got here, like I said, in 1982, and there was a Save Our Beaches referendum during that time, and we ended up buying more than 25% of the frontage on Hudson Island, which went very well, and I'm sure we'll continue to do that. But I calculated there was more than 10,000 units removed from the primary and secondary urban service units by acquiring public lands over the years, environmentally sensitive lands. So we're rezoning from AG-20A to PUD, and, again, the rural lifestyle allows us to do that and also allows us to connect to water and sewer. But let me give you a brief timeline. In October 2022, we obtained the initial final site plant approval, and I can say even a year before that, Tommy Fazio and some of the development team were root pruning the trees that were planted by Mr. Kenna years ago to anticipate approval and start moving those trees around. But we commenced construction in November of 2022, and then we came back and modified the site plan a little bit in June of 2023, revised the site plan, moved some lakes around in an attempt to save some trees, and I'll go over that in a moment. As mentioned, the rural lifestyle was approved for TransMill in November. Thank you for adopting it today. And we actually have completed the first golf course, which is on the west side. So you know where the project's located. The South Florida Gateway Industrial Park is right here. That's where we're accessing the urban service district. Water and sewer lines are built along Kenner Highway, so we're directly adjacent to those water and sewer lines, and that will allow us to not build the septic tanks that were approved under the current application. This is a more recent aerial photograph that shows that when we started construction, this was, I think, early 2023. This is the west core center of development. You can also see the South Florida Gateway project, the center of development, and it has now been completed. At least several of the buildings have been completed, and I'll go into exactly how that affects our property. But the approved projects are the two 18-0 golf courses on 1,216 acres. We renovated an existing home, the Kenner House, and I'll go more into that in a moment, that is being used as a founder's residence and temporary event center. The access on Kenner Highway and Bridge Road was approved, and we also had approval of the west golf course maintenance building and golf shelters. And then we came in with a revised final site plan, and we got the permanent clubhouse and parking on the west course approved. There's 14 cottage buildings that have been approved and are under construction, and that's when the utility waiver was approved for up to 5,000 gallons. And we do have an approved preserve area management plan for the entire project area. So this is the existing approved golf club. And, again, this is the cottages, the clubhouse, more cottages. This is the Kenner House and temporary parking that was approved. And on the east side of the road, we have the second, what we call the south golf course. The first golf course was designed by Gil Hans, and Fazio Davis designed the south course, and that's under construction. But the west course now and the maintenance building are all nearing completion. We're utilizing the Kenner House as a temporary facility, and the clubhouse is under construction as well as the cottages on both sides. What the rural lifestyle allows us to do is connect to Martin County Utilities. And under that provision, the developers have to pay for not only extending the lines from their existing location to the site but also maintaining those lines in perpetuity. So there's no cost to existing taxpayers. And our use is rather minimal because we have no homes. There's no homes on this site, so we're only trying to provide service to the existing clubhouse facilities and the future facilities. The Marshall Plan also allows us to propose additional recreation amenities, private facilities, pool, fitness, and spa facilities on the west side, golf training center on the west side, tennis and pickleball courts on the west side, and up to 54 golf cottages that will be located on both sides of Kenner Highway. And this also allows the construction of the third 18-hole golf course, which we're calling the north course, and employee housing for up to 70 beds on the east side, which is directly across from the industrial park. The east also allows us to construct an east golf clubhouse and performance center and facilities on the east side of Kenner Highway to service the north and the south course. So this, again, is the approved plan. I'll just gently bleed into the proposed plan. You'll see that this area here is now consumed by the third golf course. We have a maintenance facility and additional cottages to it. This is the master plan rendering showing the additional facilities. If I just focus in on the west side of the road, you can see we're still maintaining this existing right-of-way. It's 250 foot of land that is controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. We've been working with them to remove exotic vegetation in that area and also restore that area, which is one of our public benefits that I'll go into in a minute in a moment. But you can see the golf cottages that we're adding. We're trying to situate those within the existing vegetation so that they're low-profile, low-key. This is the tennis and pickleball courts. We're adding a swim and spa club in this location. Clubhouse is not changing. Cottages on either side of the clubhouse is not changing. Down on the south end of the property, the maintenance facility was approved with the initial project. It's nearing completion. And we have also this practice area is what they call a wee course for children to learn and practice. And there's also a future short course along Canter Highway in this location, additional golf cottages. And then on the other side of the road, this is the third golf course. The employee housing is proposed across the street from the industrial park. We're building an additional 40 acres of lakes and an additional maintenance facility on the east side of Canter Highway and additional cottages around the clubhouse. And this is the 360 practice range that was approved with the original application. And the performance center that will add to that facility is part of the master plan that's being added. And really, we were restricted before because we could only do stuff or build facilities that were limited by the 5,000-gallon-per-day septic tank allowance. This allows the existing clubhouse and the existing cottages to be utilized at maximum potential by connection to water and sewer. Again, this is the approved plan. And just so it's clear, everything that's been approved is now called phase one. And this is a condition in the PUD that all the elements in phase one remain the same in full force and effect, except as changed by the PUD master plan. And the major change to those facilities is allowing connection to water and sewer and allowing them to be utilized to their full potential. The project features, though, remain the same. We're still taking nutrient-laden water from the St. Lucie Canal. That would normally be discharged into the South Fork of the St. Lucie River. We're pumping that and storing it on the 170 acres of lakes on site to irrigate the golf course and other landscape areas. We're recycling and reusing approximately 4.5 million gallons of water today that would normally be discharged into the South Fork. And because we have that water, we don't have to dig irrigation wells, and we're providing enhanced water quality treatment with the golf course lakes and the stormwater treatment areas on site that protects the aquifer that we use for potable water and also protects our wetlands that we're preserving on site. We're committed to the native landscape buffers along Bridge Road and Canter Highway to maintain the rural character along the frontage of these roads. That's part of the rural lifestyle intent, and I'm sure if you've been by there, you won't even know there's a golf course behind all that vegetation. But we've been locating thousands of native trees and vegetation on site, not just trees either. We're locating saw palm meadow, wax myrtles, native grasses. Everything that could not be worked around has been moved in between the golf course fairways or along the perimeter of the site and also within the Army Corps right-of-way to enhance wildlife utilization and habitat value. And, you know, I'll talk about the Kenne House in a moment, but one of the things they were doing was managing this as a hunting preserve. And that did protect the environment, even though they were hunting, but we are going to discontinue hunting as part of this application. So the enhanced wildlife habitat will continue exponentially, actually, because of the additional public benefits that we're providing. We're creating wildlife corridor along the St. Lucie Canal by the removal of exotic plants and relocation of native trees within this 250-foot-wide corridor. So we have a corridor along the St. Lucie Canal that is adjacent to our golf course that provides critical habitat for wildlife. We're exceeding the minimum open space required by Rural Lifestyle by over 330 acres. The minimum requirement is 70%. We're providing 97% open space, which is 1,180 acres out of our total 1,216 acres is going to be open space in the form of upland and wetland preserve areas, in the form of the golf course areas, the areas between the golf course, which you'll see in a moment is being restored to native habitat, and also the perimeter buffers that we're providing in lakes. We may have a commitment, a PUD special condition, committing to comply with the International Dark Sky Program, which is intended to minimize the light pollution coming from the site. So there are going to be activities where the members and their children can enjoy viewing the sky, which is much more possible by controlling the light pollution. We also are committing to utilizing electric vehicles for maintenance equipment, shuttle services, electric pumps that's pumping the water out of the canal, and we're, again, our on-site stormwater management system, over 170 acres of lakes is designed to reduce the harmful discharges to the estuary. We're also proposing or allowing the use of the golf course and club facilities at no cost to local charities for up to three golf outings during the peak golf season, and that's critical because most of the charity events that we have occur during the summer when there's no members on the course. So the owners believe that this is a tremendous benefit that could generate a lot of contribution to local charities and community foundations. We're also donating the 30,000 square foot to Martin County to work with the Martin County Orchid Society to relocate and provide a seating program for the Orchid that occurs along the Bridge Road public right-of-way, and that will be done in the county parks. This is the Kenna house that has been renovated and is being used as an event center, and at this point I've got to give credit to the owners because they're preserving this house in perpetuity, and it's not exactly the architecture that we're proposing. This is the classical Meisner Mediterranean revival architecture, but Mr. Kenna built this house with quality materials in 2010, and it's a tribute to him and his family for maintaining this land and their stewardship of this land. Again, this land could have easily, under the agricultural land use and zoning, been clear-cut, and it could have been citrus, it could have been crops, it could have been pasture. But we were able to preserve and, well, through the Kenna stewardship, and before them it was the Phipps family, we're able to work around the designers, the golf course designers, work around some of the mature pine trees and oaks, every gnarly pine that was out there because we were working with 500 acres on this side of the road and no homes, the designer was able to work around the iconic trees and not just the pine trees but several oaks that are between 50 and 100 years old. You know, all of these areas between the golf fairways have trees, and they didn't qualify as preserved because the understory was removed as part of the hunting management, but we're going to allow that to the native plants to recruit themselves, and we also have located tons of material within and between the fairways to create these native areas. Again, every stand of palm trees, cabbage palm trees, oaks, again, were either worked around or if they were able to move them, they were relocated to areas along the perimeter of the site or between the golf fairways. This is an example of the edge of our golf course, and then there's 250 feet of land between the golf course and the St. Lucie Canal, and there is a berm along here that contains all of our water. Nothing can get to the St. Lucie Canal from the golf course. It's all funneled through our lake system with very little discharge. Even after all the rains that we've had over the past El Nino winter, no water has been discharged off this site at all, and it's all been retained on site, allowed to settle in the lakes, to filter into the ground water table after going through our lake system. This is an example of a perimeter berm that had nothing in it before, but it's hard to see in this photo, but as I said before, palmettos have been relocated, wax myrtles, the small pine trees, just about every cabbage palm. There was not one cabbage palm destroyed during the construction of this project. Every palm that couldn't be saved, and these palms out here are up to 60, 70 feet tall. A lot of this land has never been harvested. The Kennas and the Phipps kept it in its natural condition as much as they could, and the glory of rural lifestyle is this is exactly what it was intended to do. As I mentioned, all of this could be clear-cut under the existing agricultural land use, and the ag zoning, and they could put citrus, they could do whatever they want out here under the agricultural land use, but now it's controlled by rural lifestyle and further controlled by the PUD. And the owners and the designers and our engineers have done everything possible to carve a golf course around these sensitive areas, and even our lakes. When we came in here with the revised final site plan in 2023, one of the changes that we made was redesigning the lakes to work around a lot of these native areas and relocate as many palms and as many oak trees. These are all trees that have been relocated. The Kennas planted thousands of pine trees and oak trees that just fit perfectly within the design parameters of the owners. And you can see these are all relocated oak trees. This is on the east side of Canter Highway, and the south golf course is about 50 percent complete. But they're constantly moving plant material on a daily basis. The owners appreciated and respected the value of the trees and the native habitat. They hired their own equipment, tree spades. They hired their own employees. They did not leave this delicate relocation of plant material up to subcontractors. They did it all themselves, and Tommy Fazio, I believe, was there at every step of the way and making sure that it was done correctly and appropriately. We even worked hard with the engineering department. We had some issues at the beginning about leaving some of these trees on these ditches. There was a lot of agricultural ditches on site, and the ditches didn't meet current standards as far as slopes. So we worked with the engineering department to let us leave some of these ditches in their existing conditions because of the oak trees and other vegetation that was growing on the slope. And you can see, again, where there was a stand of oak trees or palm trees, we carved the lakes around those areas to save those trees. And this is just an example that you can see all throughout the west course where the designers and the golf course architect worked hard to save as much of the existing vegetation on site as possible. And what couldn't be saved was relocated on site, either on this side or relocated on the east side of Canna Highway. And we ended again with the Canna residents because without them, the property would not have been in a condition that allowed a design of this nature. Like I said before, they could have developed a site. It could be 20-acre ranches with none of this, or it could have been citrus, or it could have been row crops, or even pasture. And all of these trees that we saved and worked around and relocated would not have been possible without the stewardship of the Canna family and before them, the Phipps family. So I think it's a great sequence that now we have the current owners respecting the land as much as the former owners. And with that, I'll be glad to answer any questions. So just a couple of quick questions for Mr. Crady before he answers any other questions you all might have. Mr. Crady, you're familiar with the Martin County Land Development Regulations and the Martin County Comprehensive Plan? Yes. And in your professional opinion, does this project meet both those land development regulations and the Comprehensive Plan of Martin County? Yes, it does. Okay, thank you. So, Commissioner, that concludes our presentation. As I mentioned earlier, we have consultants from the rest of the development team here, representatives of Three Lakes slash Apogee are also here, and we would respectfully request that you accept staff's recommendation and approve the PUD and Master Site Plan final before you today. Commissioner Campy. Thank you very much, Mr. Raines and Mr. Crady. I appreciate that. I think it gives people an opportunity to sort of look behind the perimeter of the property along Cantor. I think what Commissioner Hetherington said earlier about everyone's hope that the corridor that is Cantor Highway can start to maintain and just keep some of its initial look. If you weren't paying attention as you drove past your site, you wouldn't notice, other than a very small marquee sign. I've had the opportunity to hear about this. Our staff has. I appreciate staff's work on this. You know, this is new for us, these kind of projects that are, someone said it was, it's all golf, no houses. And most projects throughout the history of Florida is it's the houses and then it's the golf as an amenity. And so I think this is unique for us. One of the things that when I had an opportunity to speak to very, very early on when this was still completely conceptual, one of the owners who happens to be just a delight of a person said to me, he goes, I think what we're going to do is we're going to open up the property a couple times a year for not-for-profits to be able to bring their golfers, their people to play. And having been involved, all of us have, and so many not-for-profits, so many golf outings, that is a remarkably generous offer. Because especially on something like this, no one will, not no one, but the average person on a daily basis won't have the opportunity to play on a facility that is designed in such a way and cared for in such a way that it will be a golfing dream come true for golfers. So imagine the not-for-profits that will get to have an opportunity to say that they're going, the Children's Museum is sitting behind you, and they are chomping at the bit to be one of the first people to sign up. But that being said, one of the things that was mentioned by staff, and then I was waiting to hear if the applicant in their presentation was going to say it again, most often, when a not-for-profit is fortunate enough to have the ability to cite a golf tournament or a golf outing on a golf course, they still pay for the food, they still pay for the beverages, and sometimes they have to pay for staffing or whatever else. The offer that I had heard, at least mentioned two times, was food and beverage. That is the biggest benefit for a not-for-profit, because most of the time, by the time you pay for the outing, there's not a tremendous amount of profit left. So that is remarkable. And so with that, I would say that I think that this project brings a huge environmental benefit to us, an economic benefit to us, and a philanthropic benefit to us, that I, on behalf of myself, would tell you, thank you very much. It is, I could continue to gush on about it, but I won't. This is the type of project that even folks that are nervous and disappointed and potentially angry of development happening in Martin County, there should be, and I'm sure one of my colleagues will find something to say about it, but I personally think it's, we're fortunate to have you, and so I will make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. Commissioner Smith. Yeah, I'll say it again. And again, I'm seemingly following Ed on all these agenda items today, which is actually good, because he says a lot, and I don't have that much to say. I push the button on purpose. So much of this is about choice, and it's about the future of Martin County, and what was this land, what could it have been, what is it, and what is it going to be, how is it managed, how is it taken care of, if I were presenting this to an organization that wanted to know what is Martin County doing about the environment, we could never, we as a county, we talked about sales stocks this morning, we might be able to raise enough money to acquire a piece of land like this, but we would never, ever be able to conceivably spend the amount of money restoring it, rebuilding it, tying in the hydrology to the canal, it would never happen this way. And so again, from a choice of how does 1,278, right, 12, no, 1217, how do 1,217 acres in the grand scheme of the environmental strategy of Martin County turn out, I don't know that you could get anything better than what this offers us as a community, as a long-range plan for the land. And it's not that the Kennes didn't take care of the land, they did. I was out there a long, long time ago with the owners. But the opportunity to significantly enhance the environmental prospects of this land is really something, and you guys have done an amazing job doing it. And again, thank you, and I will second Ed's motion. Great. And with that, I will, I'm going to take public comment, but I'm going to just chime in my thoughts that I actually will just summarize, because you both said precisely what I was thinking. And I like the economic, environmental, philanthropic. I'm here for you. It's the EEP. And I'll just echo what I said at the previous hearing. I think the environmental benefit of this being constructed the way it is, and I appreciate you showing some of those trees to give people the vantage point that have not been able to see it. It's pretty amazing. So with that, I'm going to take public comment. Anybody in the gallery wishing to make a public comment? Seeing none, I have a motion on the floor by Commissioner Campy, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Opposed. Motion carries 3 to 1 with Commissioner Hurd dissenting and Commissioner Jenkins absent. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now we are going to take a very brief 10-minute break at 324, and we'll be back at 335. You're on. Okay. Welcome back to our February 20th Board of County Commissioner meeting, and I am Commissioner Hetherington sitting in for Commissioner Jenkins today, and I know he wished he could join us today. We are going to continue with public hearing number one, public hearing to consider adoption of the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, CPA 22-09, Chapter 18, Community Redevelopment Element, Chapter 4, and Chapter 2, text presented by Pete Walden and Susan Kors. Thank you, Commissioner. Good afternoon. I'm Peter Walden, Deputy Growth Management Director, and I appreciate the Board's time this afternoon. You've already seen this agenda item on December 12th. We had a hiccup in our process and didn't get to the state in time, so I have to bring it back and ask you to take a quick look at it again. Well, we made minor changes to Chapter 18 regarding density language. We clarified it, so one of the main things was that you can exceed 15 units per acre on your land. We did some open space changes to create more specificity in how you apply open space, and we also tightened preserve area requirements and lessened the amount of area that you can mitigate. I'll be glad to go back through the Chapter 18 changes if anybody needs to. Other than that, staff recommends approval. And the Article 12 sister component to this is already on its way, and that's already been facilitated. It's effective. It's effective, yeah. Thank you. Anybody have any questions of staff? Public comment. Anybody have any public comment on this item? Commissioner Smith. No staff's recommendation. Second. Okay. Seeing no public comment, Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, I'm not going to support the motion, in part because a development within a CRA may meet its obligation to provide open space by utilizing green building and infrastructure practices. That's not a good practice. Development within a CRA may also meet its obligation to preserve native upland habitat on the development site by making a cash payment in lieu of preserving. In addition, the buffers and transitions between different development intensities provided by policies 2 and 4, chapters 2, 4, and 9, shall not apply in any CRA land use designations. We should be making those requirements stricter inside the CRAs, not less strict. Okay. Thank you. Seeing no other lights or comments, Commissioner Smith had a motion for staff's recommendation, and Commissioner Campy seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Opposed. Motion carries 3 to 1 with Commissioner Hurd dissenting and Commissioner Jenkins absent. Thank you very much. That went so fast. Okay. So we're moving on to departmental quasi-judicial number 1, request phase 2 plat approval for the high point planned unit development, and that will be presented by Brian Elam. And Mr. Elam, do you have your resume? Yes. Submit that for the record. Have all the required return receipts been turned in? None required. Unrequired, and there's no intervenors. Yes. And quasi-judicial. Commissioner Smith. If I have them, they're filed. Commissioner Campy. If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Hurd. I don't have any. They've been filed. If any, mine have been filed. And will anybody provide testimony? Please stand up. 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? Go ahead and proceed with your presentation. Thank you. For the record, Brian Elam, principal planner with growth management. This is an application by the Pulte Home Company, LLC, for approval of the high point PUD phase 2 plat, which includes 190 residential lots on approximately 145 acres. The high point project is located on the east side of southwest Pratt-Whitney Road, north of southwest Bulldog Way at 10205 southwest Pratt-Whitney Road in Stewart. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities exemption. During review of the plat, staff and the applicant found inconsistencies between the proposed plat and the approved phase 2 final site plan for Article 10 minor technical adjustments to an approved final site plan that are consistent with all applicable regulations may be processed with the plat application. As such, this agenda item has a resolution to approve a revised phase 2 final site plan for the high point PUD. The plat is consistent with the revised phase 2 final site plan. The agenda item includes the approval and release of drainage, access, and utility easements, partial release of a corrective utility easement, and an escrow agreement and utility easement from Christ Fellowship Church Incorporated and Pulte Home Company, LLC, that the county will hold as a condition of approval of the high point PUD phase 2 plat. For Article 10 of the LDR's review of plat's is not required by the LPA. Development review staff have found the plat application complies with all applicable regulations in the comp plan as detailed in the staff report, and staff recommends approval of the high point PUD phase 2 plat application. Staff recommends the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. Move the board approve the high point PUD phase 2 plat and revised phase 2 final site plan, including the contract for construction of required improvements in infrastructure. Move that the board adopt a resolution accepting and approving a non-exclusive flow-through drainage and access easement and a utility easement from the High Point Property Owners Association Incorporated, a Florida not-for-profit corporation, as a condition of approval of the high point PUD phase 2 plat, and an escrow agreement and utility easement from Christ Fellowship Church Incorporated, a Florida not-for-profit corporation, and Pulte Home Company, LLC, a Michigan limited liability company, as a condition of approval of the high point PUD phase 2 plat, and release of a corrective non-exclusive flow-through drainage and access easement and a non-exclusive flow-through drainage easement and access easement rescinding Resolution 15-5.9, and partial release of a corrective utility easement and authorize the Chairman to sign any and all documents necessary to complete the transaction. And that concludes the presentation. Take any questions. Thank you. I don't see any questions. Does the applicant have a presentation? Yes. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the Commission. Mr. Elam did a great job presenting the material. Really nothing new to add to it. Be happy to answer any questions you may have. We're in favor of staff's recommendation of approval. Thank you very much. And just state your name for the record. Daniel Sorrow with the land planning firm of Kotler and Hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody wish to make public comment on this item? Seeing none. Comes back to the board. Commissioner Camping? We've had lots of opportunities to review this project, and I've had the chance to see it as it's been progressing, and it's very pretty. It's well done. It's tucked in behind Christ Fellowship Church. I appreciate all of the benefits that Operation 300 has worked out in their relationship with Christ Fellowship and Pulte. I think it's a nice project that had a tremendous public benefit in regards to assisting with a permanent home for Operation 300 and Camp Valor, so I would accept and make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. Commissioner Smith? Second. Once again, following Ed's comment, there's a lot we could talk about this project, even from the inception when the original environmental clearing was done and how much care and work went into that when we did the church originally. It was really, really something. And from what I recall, it was kind of a, this had nothing to do with Christ Fellowship, but it was really kind of a mess out there relative to the environmental issues, and they did a remarkable job. Their consultants did a great job on highlighting and fixing and a lot of handwork, and that has continued on through the process. And as Ed said, with Operation 300, for those of us who went to the event this year, it was nothing short of a miracle, what they have been able to do as part of the, as their entire existence, and to put on an event that they did on the site that you all helped carve out and create the opportunity for them to be able to do that. Actually, no, sorry, that was last year, this year, there was it, at, anyway. Huh? Keep going, you're fine. Yeah, right, I'm sorry. I got confused with the year before, but the event itself really did show how much support and how much commitment the two organizations have put together to allow Operation 300 to really flourish in the way that they are. So, great stuff, great work, and we appreciate it. Is that also acting as a second? Yes. We have a motion on the floor by Commissioner Campy, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries four to zero, with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Thank you, Commissioners. Okay. Okay. We are moving on to requests and presentations. We have a presentation and discussion with the request for the board direction regarding proposed plans for addition to the lease area with the Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast, presented by Carla Segura. Good afternoon. Oh, sorry. Yeah, let me do mine in there. Good afternoon, Carla Segura, real property manager. The Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast has requested to present a proposed future use of a portion of the property north of and adjacent to the property they currently lease from the county at Indian Riverside Park. Just as a little background, the Children's Museum has leased the building since 2005, and their lease term extends until August 9th, 2060. Should the board agree with the proposal is sufficient use of the added county property and doesn't interfere with any other county plans at the park, the Children's Museum will start working on raising funds and working with staff on an amendment to the lease. Today, we have Richard Barron, who is the board president, and I think Tammy Calabria is here, too. Good afternoon. In the last 15 years of the Children's Museum's existence, over three-quarters of a million people have come through the doors. We're pretty much maxed out in terms of our space for exhibits, and for future use expansions, we would like to extend our lease line to include this property north of the current building so that we may in the future build an addition that would include, I think, a great venue of a new planetarium as part of that operation. We would also free up space within the... Carla, can you put that picture on the dock cam, please? Oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was. We don't see it. How do I do... Oh, here we go. Yeah, come on. There we go. So you can see our existing building is currently 12,000 square feet. The new building we're proposing will be approximately 6,000 on the second floor and 8,000 on the first floor, so a little more than doubling the size of what we have now. But this is the area that's outlined in red that we would like to have in our lease extension for future use to build this new building. And we look for the commission's direction on going about and amending that lease so that we may proceed to do that. Anybody else wishing to make a presentation? I'm sorry? All right. Commissioner Smith. 26 years ago, give or take, there were a group of us who got together really with the leadership of John Whitaker that decided that the former FIT campus ought to become a park. I and others on the committee had no idea really where that would take us in the future. For those of you who can go back that far, this site housed classrooms, two-story building. It was kind of a 1970s architecture. By the time we got to it and by the time we got the referendum passed to, or the bond referendum passed to acquire the land, that building had gone completely into disarray. Vandals had taken every piece of copper, aluminum, anything that was in that building that had the slightest bit of value out of it. The old library, which sits right, would have sat where the old, where the retention pond is now, due west of the site, was also stripped clean. And we worked for years with the community to create a vision for the park that would ensure that it would be publicly accessible and publicly usable. We went and talked to everybody and anybody that would listen to us, and thankfully the Children's Museum came along and said, after a lot of conversation, we want to take on that site and we want to take on the old chapel building, which is the existing museum. A lot of time has passed. A lot of great things have happened. This is probably the most exciting idea that has come forward in the last 25 years relative to the enhancements to the park. The restoration of the mansion was certainly an enormous component, but that's looking sort of at a bird's eye view from the east looking northwest, if you will, through the property. The parking lot existing that you see that's hashed out there with the Children's Museum to the south, the existing site. So it's incredibly exciting to be able to add this feature to the park. I think it's something that none of us dreamed was even possible. It just wasn't like, if you'd said to me 25 years ago, guess what, we're going to have a planetarium, but in the next 25 years, I'd go, I don't know. But I think the success and the vision that the Children's Museum has had is nothing short of amazing. And I would like to move that we, do you need us to direct you to move into... Yeah, to start working with them. To start working with them on putting an expansion to their lease together. Yeah, an amendment. An amendment. Then I would ask the board for that support to be able to allow our staff to start working with the Children's Museum to facilitate this. A happy second. Commissioner Hearn. Yeah, I think that the Children's Museum has proved that they are one of our best partners. So I'm very happy to support this. And also, I want to say that I absolutely love the mid-century modern renderings, artistic renderings. Don't you just feel like George Jetson should be in this rendering? Who's George Jetson? I'm too young for that. George isn't here, but Brett Ward, the architect, is. It's great. I really look forward to it. And I think that putting a science museum in a planetarium is inspired. We will attract new kids, older kids, so a whole new group of kids will become patrons of this terrific museum. And congratulations, and I'm sure that you'll do well. We look forward to it. $10 million makes it the Herd Planetarium. Pretty sure. Is 10? Is that the magic number? Would 10 do it? Not the whole thing, but you could get your name on it for 10. I would just like to echo that. I think what you're, the additions, and I've taken my kids to the Children's Museum since they were, you know, toddlers on up. And I think the additions that you're adding, you know, just has no age limit. It's just, it's really amazing. I think it'll be an addition, and you have been a very good partner. So we appreciate what you're doing. And we have a motion on the floor by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Campy. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries four to zero with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful afternoon. Good luck. Okay. We are moving on to departmental number one. How did you know that? Office of Management and Budget items which require board approval. Stephanie Murley. How do I get this? I don't know what item's here. We already did that. Oh, yeah, there you go. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Stephanie Murley, Director of OMB, here to present the OMB item for today. There are 11 items. The first three are for the FY26 through FY30 FDOT SCOP program, permission to apply. Item number one is for permission to apply for the Small County Outreach Program from FDOT for the Southeast Commerce Avenue Roadway Reconstruction and Improvement Project. This project will include roadway leveling, deep mill leveling, resurfacing, shoulder widening, drainage improvements, and safety improvements. We are requesting about $3.8 million, which requires a match of 1.2 to be programmed in the future CIP in the roads department. The next item is a permission to apply for the FDOT SCOP program for County Road A1A resurfacing and Complete Streets Improvements projects. These improvements will include median lighting, landscaping, raised lighting, colored crosswalks with pedestrian refuge, and shared lane markings. The grant is being requested for $3.5 million, and the local match will be programmed with the road CIP for approximately 1.1 in those out years. Stephanie, just a moment. Commissioner Hearn. I have to say, I will support this application for this grant, but I've looked at the plans, and I don't like them, so it's going to require some tweaking. Thank you. Our third item is a permission to apply for the SCOP grant for the County Road 726 Southwest Citrus Boulevard Resurfing and Safety Improvements Project. The safety improvements will include bicycle lanes, center line, and edge line audibles, and drainage improvements. The county is requesting about $3.3 million with approximately 1.1 match fee program within the road CIP in those out years. Item number four is a permission to accept the Florida Department of Environmental Protection FDEP amendment number one for the Bathtub Beach Sailfish Point Beach Renourishment Project. DEP is increasing the funding by approximately $1.4 million for the construction and monitoring of Bathtub Beach. It requires an additional $2.3 million, which is budgeted in the Bathtub Beach Sailfish Point CIP. Item number five is a permission to accept the supplemental agreement number two for construction, engineering, and inspection CEI services for the Southeast Indian Street Resurfacing and Drainage Project. This amendment increases the funding by $53,464 and extends the term of the agreement from June 30th, 2024 to June 30th, 2025. Item number six is a permission to accept the Florida Statewide Response for Opioid Abatement Funds. We are receiving a state allocation of approximately $1 million to support opioid abatement, which supports direct client services and diversion courts to implement opioid abatement efforts. I said opioid a lot there. No cash matches required and just requires staff time to administer the program. Item number seven is a permission to accept the FY24 mosquito control agreement from the state of Florida. This is to provide state funding in the amount of $61,116 to the Public Works Mosquito Control Division for the purchase of chemicals to be used for arthropod control. It requires no match. Number eight is a permission to accept the Florida Department of Transportation Public Transportation Grant Hold Bay Extension at Witham Field. This is a grant award of $7,500 for the cost of designing the Hold Bay Extension at the runway 12 end of Taxiway Alpha. It requires a 50% match of $7,500 to come from the airport CIP. Number nine is permission to accept the FDOT Public Transportation Grant Agreement for the rehabilitation of Taxi Lane B design. This is a grant award of $67,140 for the design of the rehabilitation of Taxi Lane Bravo. Local share in the amount of $19,260 is required, and that is budgeted within the airport CIP. Item number 10 is a permission to accept the FDOT Public Transportation Grant Agreement for the Witham Field Business Plan. This is a grant award of $200,000 for the planning of the airport business plan, which is an essential document for managing the general aviation airport. It requires a $50,000 match, which is budgeted in the airport CIP. And our last item is a permission to accept the Substance Abuse Prevention Funding. In the amount of $30,000 to support substance abuse prevention efforts in Martin County, there is no cash match required and just staff time to administer the grant program. And that is the end of my presentation. Good one. Commissioner Smith. Stephanie, I'm just going to take advantage of the opportunity that's on the agenda. Item four, bathtub. Don, I think I asked maybe a meeting or two ago, we absolutely need to have an agenda item that shows the historical nature of bathtub, what has occurred over the last 50 years out there. I think I shared with this survey last time, I think Kathy Fitzpatrick had put together a presentation that had a lot of photos from maybe the 70s on or so. But I think we need to take the opportunity to show the public where we are today, but where we have come from, because I think there's a lot of misconception as to what exists out there and what existed in the past. Yeah, staff's putting that together, and we were also looking to see if we had any of our consultants who might be able to come and participate with that. So we'll coordinate with you if they are also under construction. We thought we could get some photos of what's happening out there, too. And with that, I would move Stephanie's recommendations. Second. With that, we have a motion by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Hurd. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries four to zero, with Commissioner Jenkins absent. Now we have departmental number four, Martin County Centennial Celebration Status Update by George Stokas. Good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair. George Stokas, Assistant County Administrator for the record. Today, I'm here to talk to you about the centennial celebration and the status. And coming back from the last time we had item, there's a couple of things I would like to highlight just to refresh the board's memory. We've been talking about the centennial actually since 2023 for the one that should be celebrated in 2025. We were before you on November 7th and presented you, staff presented a number of items before the board at that time, staff, some understanding of where the board wanted to move forward was with a, we still need to do a logo conversion at a cost of $2,100. A plaque on the historic courthouse, we estimate that to be about $5,000. And that will match the plaque that is currently on the historic courthouse. And the verbiage for that plaque is found as an attachment to this board item. And then there was discussion about homing down the cost for the book, a proposed book. That book cost and the quote from Ms. Campbell, I believe is the person, is attached to this board item at a cost of $8,332 and then the rest going towards production costs. But staff has made quite a bit of steps forward and accomplishments with the centennial. And I wanted to just kind of highlight on your screen, you'll see we have created a web page called www.martincounty100.com. Taking the spirit and direction from the board, we've kind of thrown some things in here. The seal is just kind of temporary until a logo, and the logo is created by a local high school student, our various departments are donating numerous items to go into a bag that will be used as a contest. And I do need to talk to you about a possible selection committee for picking the logo. But that logo would then be placed right here on the front part of the web page. As we scroll down, we talk about celebrating 100 years. We have a photo gallery. Some of these photos have come from Ms. Thurlow's collection, the Martin County Historical Society's collection, as well as one of the reasons why Richard's sitting here is from the library digitization collection. I'll also note that if you hover or you click on the photo, it actually tells you where you got it from. I'm sorry. Yes, it is Palm City. And just to placate everyone, there is, just to point it out there, all the commissioners, we try and have an equal number of photos for each district. However, District 2 wins. And her friend at her prom. That is not the opinion of staff. However, there is the football team from Stewart. And then, obviously, we hit Marine. There's Governor George Martin. And this one was definitely for Commissioner Campy, just to let you know, Palm City did exist. I like that now. Talk to firemen. And then my favorite, of course, is of an airplane. So, but there are plenty of pictures in here. How old is the airplane picture? You know? Yes, I do know. And there is nothing built. The airport was built. The inlet. And the inlet. It is from 1933, Commissioner. So, and that's one of the great things that staff has done is we've taken people's personal collections. We've taken collections from the Elliott and from the Historical Society and other folks. And we're, I hate to, we're categorizing them, we're cataloging them, and they're available for the public. And then, Richard will also talk about what our friends at the library have planned and so forth. But Dixie Highway and Salerno, Commissioner for District 2. And, of course, what I'm looking for, that is Francis Langford before Commissioner Campy says something. And then, there's one in Jensen Beach. There we go. I think. So. See a Smith for Commissioner sign. And I'm trying. Don't make fun of his age. I used to, when Patrick, Commissioner Hayes was here, I would use him for everything. Anything that looked, anything old. I'd be like, hey, look, there's your friends from my school. So, before this goes off the rails, Madam Vice Chair, we do have sections for history that we're working on for every neighborhood. We are working with some folks on that. You've seen the part of the gallery. And then, taking kind of direction from the board, the last time, we're inviting the not-for-profit and other governments to celebrate with events. And you would click on the events category. It will take you to a calendar. A calendar that would be similar to what you see our Tourism and Development Council have. And we're working with Ms. Nerissa on that. We also went into the social media world. We're creating a hashtag, hashtag MartinCounty100, so people could start tagging their photos. This will all go live probably January 1st or the end of this year. More photos. Talk about how you can get involved in celebrating with not-for-profits and other governmental and quasi-governmental entities. We also have created an emblem request form. I apologize. It's not a logo. It's an emblem. I apologize. And then, our staff will make sure that the emblem is being used appropriately by not-for-profits and government agencies. The phase two of the website, which will launch in January 2025, will include community history, event listings, and more. This website is fully responsive. It's ADA compliant, which is very important. And this project was funded by our ongoing web support retainer contract. So, we were able to find money within, which were not spent by other projects, and cobble that all together to create this. And it will, Ms. Hagedorn and others have done a lot of work to make this as good of a project as it is. A couple decisions I need the board to opine on is for the emblem contest, my staff did remind me that I forgot to put in the board item that we, the board needs to opine on whether for a selection committee. Staff was recommending one member from the Historic Preservation Board, one county commissioner, which we made the assumption that it would be Commissioner Smith, since this body had assigned him to lead this effort, one supervisor of elections or representative, the clerk comptroller, because she's also our county historian, and then I had one other, and I apologize. I think there was one, anyway, there would be four people. So, we would need to know if you guys want to expand that, shrink that down. We'd like to keep it within five to seven people, because it gets hard to manage those. But we would like to launch that emblem contest. We've talked to the school district probably within March, depending on the direction from today. The only other thing that I have on this item is really just a decision on the book, if you're okay with the plaque language, and then any other further direction you want to provide me. Before I hand it over, I just want to give Richard an opportunity to showcase what the library is doing as a part of your 100th annual celebration. Good evening. I'm Richard Riley, the Deputy Library Director. So, thanks to Commissioner Smith and Sandy Thurlow, we met in October of 2022 to start planning a digitization project where we borrow collections from local custodians, the Stuart Heritage Museum, Black Heritage Initiatives, as well as curators like Sandy Thurlow, Heidi McNabb, David Murray, Willie J. Thompson. So, we just borrow those. We scan everything, we put it in our Martin Digital History site, and then we give everything back. We give everything back to the person. So, it's a preservation, it's a cataloging, and then a presentation on the website. And we hired an archivist using ARPA funds, American Rescue Plan Act money to do that. And then we got additional monies from Impact Martin 100, the Southeast Florida Library Information Network and our Library Foundation of Martin County to fund it. So, how do we get there? From the Centennial site or even from the Martin County webpage, you can just search for Martin Digital History to find the site. And then right on the cover is Edith Coventry with her alligator walking it. There are 3,199 items currently in here. And when we scan them, we run optical character recognition. So, you can search for words. I searched for Jenkins earlier and found that his dad had a little article in the fair's pamphlet from 1968. When I was sitting in the back of the room and Commissioner Smith mentioned bathtub beach photos, I searched for bathtub to see if we had scanned anything. We might not want to see that. So, we've got a... People in the bathtub. Right. This is a postcard from 2000. So, as we scan those archival items, they'll be discoverable in here. And what's really great is the Digital Public Library of America is a huge nationwide platform. We've linked with them. So, starting next month, all of these materials will be discoverable through their platform as well. So, if anyone wants to participate, they can contact us through this website. It goes directly to our archivist, Georgian. And she can meet with them and review what collections they have, how they can be added. And then, again, we receive, scan, and then return everything to the custodian. And this part of the project was paid through one of your ARPA grant dollars. And I think you're almost, you know, you're almost through. You have about $300,000 more dollars left. Correct. And I apologize, Madam Vice Chair. The fifth person we were thinking as a staff for the book work, the look, excuse me, the emblem work committee or selection committee would be some rep from the Arts Council of Martin County. And I will definitely be hearing from Nancy here later for forgetting her. So, that is pretty much where I'm at with our presentation, Madam Commission. The digitizing is amazing. It's really phenomenal. I have a lot of family members that will probably provide you some pictures. Commissioner Smith. Yeah, two really cool things that came out of this, and they were sort of highlighted and mentioned. First and foremost is Sandy Thurlow. She came to me, I don't know, a year and a half ago and said, I need to talk to you about this, and we've got to get this done, and you've got to figure out how to do it. And I said, okay. Because when Sandy tells you to do something, you do it. We held that first meeting over the library, I don't know, back, you said it was October 22? 22. It's hard to imagine. That's already gone by that much time. But there was a lot of interesting conversation. We broke out into work groups. And one thing that had not crossed my mind, which I guess we have landed on, is all the digital platform styles that you could archive something under. And there's this whole idea of if there's written text in a letter, and there's names, and there's places, and there's dates, you want to be able to, if you're looking for a certain date and a certain something, you want to be able to put that in search, and it should pull up everything that touched that date or that period of time. And there was a couple different ways to get there. And I was like, you know, how do you, and Todd Thurlow does a lot of this for his mom and with his mom, and really, both of them were incredibly instrumental in getting us to where we are today. And so, just, it's a fantastic project, and it'll just keep growing. I mean, it'll keep, at some point, I assume it'll start self-populating. Do you know that? I don't know about that, because we do want high quality. Yeah, no, I understand. But I mean, I think there was conversation about once you start putting stuff in, it's almost like the Mormon church site that when you, Ancestry.com, you know, when you do that, and you start populating, you start putting information while other stuff starts attaching itself to it, and it starts finding it. Yeah, once people start linking to it, it does branch out quite. And so, we will likely find stuff that no one even knew existed before, which is really the exciting part of this whole thing long term. You're right. The discovery aspect is great, because people start identifying things in photos that we didn't know about. So, they're sending us feedback. Like, I think Sandy Thurlow's son noticed that. He was like, somebody found a picture of me as a kid in a photo. And we were able to identify. And the real piece of all this, Sandy and I got, I don't know, 30 years ago, did an exhibit out at the Elliott when I was working out there a long, long time ago. And we did this huge photo pictorial history section. And it was amazing how many people would come into the museum, walk through the museum and go, that's me, when I was like three years old. You know, it was great. It was fantastic. And it just opened up an entirely new conversation that people didn't even know that that photo existed. And there they are sitting on the wall on the photo. And so, this will expand that whole thing a lot. People will find stuff about their family and their stories that will be fantastic. And a whole other section, Commissioner, that I really haven't brought up is we're working with the clerk's office intensively, because she's also digitizing and categorizing all of her records. I don't know how far back it goes. I think it goes back to the beginning at this point. So, I think at some point, we'll have both of those merge through the, what's the one you said higher? The Digital Public Library of America. So, you'll be able to go back and see, you know, if you, you know, however far, who is the first fireman and so on and so forth. It's remarkable technology. Anyway, thank you. Commissioner Hearn. I love what you've done. This is a great beginning. And, and I also love the selection committee, but I was going to add also, if we should ask, we should ask Mrs. Thurlow if she would be an honorary member of our selection committee, because she, she understands our history. Sure. I agree. Commissioner Camping. In regards to the coffee table book, you said it has an $8,000 cost to put it together and then printing? Yeah, I put, if you look at the, again, the, this came from, and I always say it wrong, it's not, it's. Heidi Rich. What was it? Heidi Rich. Heidi Rich. It's from Heidi Rich and it's from October of 2023. So, it probably needs to be updated, but she's, for her to design and, you know, for the book, it's $8,332. And then I estimate, I threw in $5,000 and some odd dollars in change for production. You don't have to go that high. I mean, you could limit me down to $10,000 and we just print, I mean, the, the, the whole publication of books has changed because now you can order as little, you know, as little as you want. You can order $10,000, right? Or you can order $200,000. You get more money, you get more value the more you order. But ultimately, your, your true hard cost is going to be the $8,332 plus, you know, the first run of books. And like you said, this is an older quote already, so you probably have to refresh it. However, with that in mind, I was thinking there's probably a dozen companies or organizations that would love to have the ability to sponsor the beginning cost of that, to have the first, you know, inside page of it or something, or a couple of different people. Well, $10,000 is not a tremendously high bar to get to one person or organization entity might want to have that. You know, I could think of a couple of names right off the top of my head. I won't share, but anybody that would want, because this is going to be obviously a collector's item and a keepsake. So, I mean, if you wanted to, instead of just putting it to our budgets, if you wanted, you know, whether it's Commissioner Smith, who's our lead on the centennial celebration, or any one of us could reach out to someone and give you a sponsor for that book. And I think staff under, we agree with you, Commissioner. I think my concern is, is as a government entity, I don't know if we can really accept sponsorships. We'd probably be better off doing a grant through one of our not-for-profit entities, like the Arts Council or the Martin County Historical Society, which I did have a meeting with them after our last meeting. They are willing to tackle that project. But both entities have kind of said to me, look, we need that seed money to put this together, and then, you know, we can either reimburse or however. But I do need to work out those functions. I haven't figured that fully, completely out. And, George, the book is going to be for sale to the general public, correct? Yes. Yes, board directed. Commissioner Smith. And just, for those of you who don't know who Heidi Rich is, Heidi has done all of Sandy Thurlow's prior books. And so the idea of using Heidi and having Sandy involved is that the continuity of design, layout, the entire theme strategy that they have used all these years for the Sewell's Point book, the Jensen Beach book, the Palm City book, will be very consistent both in size and format. It just will be much more of a – there was some conversation this morning about that. It will be much more pictorial than it will be a luminous explanation of the 100 years' history of Martin County. To do that and to go back and add to all of that documentation is a lot of work. And in soliciting photos and artwork ideas for each part of our community having a representation in the book, at least in my mind, is a lot simpler than it is putting in thousands and thousands and thousands of words of history and documentation. Because then it gets down to, is it right? Is it accurate? Who's giving you the information? Are you checking it? Are you making sure it's documented? Just like somebody asked what year was the photo of the airplane flying over the airport. So – and you've got to get it right. And if there was one thing I learned from Sandy a long, long time ago, when you're writing history, you've got to get it right. Well, I think if you're having the photo descriptives, you'd need that. Otherwise, you're just looking at pictures that have no reference. There would be a description of the photo, but not the – Correct. Well, Sandy writes those books. This is meant to truly be a coffee table book where you were just looking through these great pictures. The historical book that was presented this morning, The History of Martin County, that's an entirely different exercise. That's texture. Versus what this is. Yes. Great. Commissioner Hearn. Yeah. Mr. Riley, didn't you say that there's $300,000 remaining in the ARPA grant? No. What did you say? Madam Commissioner, there is – there's ARPA – the book would not be an eligible ARPA expense because the book is – the ARPA is supposed to allow access – digitization access of records from government and pictorials and all that so that you could access it from home. But he does have – he is whittling down his ARPA money. So – and what I'd like to have the time to do, and I'm vice chair, and I apologize, I just – because I have to put my fingerprint and sign on all the ARPA stuff, and I don't want to go to the Martin Motel this year. What I'd like to do is at least work with legalists to find a way to make this as cost-neutral as possible. I can't promise that. But what I'd like for the board to do is at least authorize us to have some money to at least begin to look at the process and then work with the not-for-profits and see if we can make it a cost-neutral. Don. So we are talking about our centennial, and as Commissioner Smith referenced earlier, a conversation in October, and now we're in February, and pretty soon we'll be in the 25th year. So ultimately, it doesn't have to be today, but we are going to need direction from you, is what is the goal of an upper limit of local funds that can be contributed to this, or do you want zero? And we have to just hand it off to somebody else and support it. So I think we've done a lot internally, as you can see so far, but there will be some events and other things, and you just need to ultimately be clear for us on what it is that we can spend. And there will be a time in the next few months where we will be at that kind of time where we need to know, because the time will be put on us fairly quickly when we'll be in the year of celebration. And it'll be too late to go back and create books or other things. Mr. Hurton. For the book, we have MSTU funds, and every district is going to be featured in it, if you need Seed Bunny. Me too. Yeah, $5,000 each district. Yeah. $2,000 from each. Can you do that? Yeah, we can do that. About the meat cake. Because I'm nervous about sponsorships. I don't want there to be sponsors. You know, this book was sponsored by... Right. That's exactly right. Wow. Okay. George, you have enough direction to proceed? Yes, $5,000 from each district. No, no. $2,000 from each district. $2,000 only gets you to $10,000. It's $2,100. $21,000 to do all of that. He said you needed Seed Money. Five each. Okay, thank you. Five. Four. Oh, please. I'll negotiate with this with you behind closed doors then. Thank you very much, ma'am. I'm sure. Appreciate it. You know that that'll be one of those conversations, Don, six months from now. What did they really agree to? That's right. We're moving on to departmental number six, community transportation. Coordinator Transportation Disadvantage Program and Funding Update. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Beth Beltran. I'm the MPO Administrator of the Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization. And we are here today because we have a presentation about the county's transportation disadvantage system or TD system, TD program. TD is a state program to provide transit to those people in the county that cannot provide transportation themselves because they are disabled or because they're low income or because there is an age qualification as well. Well, 65 and over. The coordinator of the TD program in Martin County is the Senior Resource Association or SRA. We are fortunate today to have Karen Deagle, who is the president and CEO of SRA, as well as the director of transportation, Chris Stevenson. He is here as well. And they are here to update you all about the county's TD program. And through your support, they're going to be telling you about all the successes they've had so far this year. So with that, I'll turn it over to Karen. Thank you. Are you? Where's the? There you go. Actually, the, whoops, whoop, there we go. We titled this Innovative Service Development Grant, or Development Grant Update, and I actually have to say that it's more of a community transportation coordinator update. Thank you for allowing us to come before you today and giving you an update. So in 2023-24, we were provided great funding. We were very, very appreciative for your support. We did get from the Trip and Equipment Grant, which is a state, $300,000. We did receive the $750,000 for the Innovative Service Development Grant for Transportation Disadvantaged Trips, totaling the $1,050,000. And you provided a local match. That needed a 10% local match. You did provide that, but you over-provided it, which we'll talk a little bit about. So these are the, what we have accomplished so far. Again, this is six months into it. On the left-hand side, you'll see our goals, and to provide 15,854 dialysis trips. We are on track to, on pace to achieve that. Currently, we're at just over 9,600. We are also to provide 3,100 or just short of 3,200 non-dialysis trips to dialysis clients. And we are on pace also. Right now, we're at the almost 2,800 persons or trips. Our travel times were not to exceed 20 minutes outside of the Indiantown, and that, we're at 95% of that goal. Travel times were not to exceed 45 minutes to and from Indiantown, we're at 90%, 98% of that. And we're to provide 28,000 total TD trips in Martin County using this funding. Currently, we are at over 15,000, and we will definitely meet that goal. 90% of the passengers have reported a favorable evaluation of the service. We have hit 92% in our surveys. So this is kind of a great graph I really like. We see back in 2021 the number of trips we were doing. And as you can see, with the increased funding and promoting the program marketing last year, we did over almost 25,000 trips. We are on schedule to do the trip of over 28,000, which is amazing. So the nice thing about these trips is that when we first came on board to manage this program, it was very limited, and most of the trips were for dialysis. Because of the increased funding, as you can see, 60% are medical appointments. Of those medical appointments, 41% are dialysis, but there's 59% now that are getting their trips to other medical appointments, which is really important. Again, also, we are doing 30% of the trips are work, and then other trips, 10%, which would be more of the shopping and other places for individuals to go to. So with this additional funding, there are no trip limits. Previously, we had to limit them. What was the limit? It was three round trips a week. Right. So we have not had to limit anyone from as many trips as they want. This is a really great slide as well. As you can see, in 2021-22, we had 389 unduplicated passengers. We are now at 808 unduplicated passengers. This number is growing by 55 passengers per month who are calling us and wanting to be eligible for ridership. So that's been a great increase as well. The demand is there. We're providing the trips. This is really working well. So this is the one slide that I like to – I always – I'm going to preface this in saying this is something that we are really working on in the financial scenario in the future. Obviously, every year is going to be different. This past year, as I explained earlier, we received $300,000, the $750,000, and through the local match, you provided $166,000 of the local match, and then $12,500 came from both Stewart and Indian Towns. So we had a match dollar of $191,000. If you remember, way back, we were looking at increasing that local match so that you would be over the 10% mark, and that's happened. And you can see what the impact is with the ridership numbers. Our challenge in the coming year – and this is one of the things I wanted to kind of let you know what's going on. Right now, as we all know, because some of us were up in Tallahassee, the budget is being proposed right now. With the TD, they are – they have two different funding pots. One is for the transportation – or the trip and equipment grant, and currently it's at about $59 million that they're looking at wanting to approve. The ISD grant, they wanted $4 million for that grant. What has been recommended by the House is that we – they would agree to $59 million, $3 million for the trip and equipment. They could – you could take $1 million out of the trip and equipment grant. So what that does is it limits all of the counties from the funding for that $1 million. We're really working closely with the state legislators. Of course, it's got to go to the state and the – what do you call it, House and the Senate. And if they do that limit, if they removed $1 million, like they're proposing, from the trip and equipment grant to give it to the innovative service development grant to keep it whole to $4 million, that would reduce everyone's funding, and the Commission for Transportation Disadvantage came out with a table and it would reduce the funding for Martin County to $261,000 from the $300,000 that we received last year. Really, as I say, we are really working on advocating that not to happen because it hurts all counties. If – our first proposal is for them to give us an additional $1 million to keep the trip and equipment grant whole and allow us the $4 million. The other one would be to limit the innovative service development grant to the $3 million and keep the trip and equipment grant whole. So, sorry if that's a little confusing, but I really wanted to speak to you about that. The innovative service development grant, again, we are going to be applying for it. We are able to apply for it one more time. Being that it's an innovative service development grant, there is a limitation on the number of times you can apply for it. This is the third year we'll be doing it, and this will be the last year we're able to apply for this particular program. So, we are putting a grant in this year for the $750,000. Again, up in the air. It's one of those emojis. Don't know. We, you know, we're not quite sure. Again, thank you so much for the local match. We hope that you will continue to support this program because you see how it's working as well as steward in Indiantown. And hopefully, I put a little, like, greater than because I'd love to have it even increased. We are also going, we are also, have been invited. We put into, for the Impact 100 Martin County, and Chris is going to talk a little bit about that program as well. Always searching for new funding to help us out, get the program going. So, we have been invited. We spoke to them, and we have been invited to write for the grant. So, that's going to take place as well. Again, we don't know if we would be one, be privileged enough to be awarded for what we're asking for. All said and done, if all those funding came in as listed, it would look like we would be around the 27,262 ridership. So, it might be, it might be less, and it might be more. It all depends, and we all know how all of that works. But, wanted to give you that update. So, I'm going to pass it over to Chris to talk about what we're going to ask and propose, and what we're doing with the Impact 100. Hi, everyone. My name is Chris Stephenson. I'm the Director of Transportation at the Senior Resource Association, or the CTC. Like Karen said, we are looking to apply for an Impact 100 grant this year, and we're very excited about that because it's really going to take us to another level for mobility that our TD passengers here in Martin County can go to book their trips. So, currently, if someone wants to book a trip, they have to do it through the way that we call it the traditional method. They have to pick up their phone a few days in advance, call our call center, and book a trip with one of our customer care agents. But, what we're proposing and what we've sort of started already through a pilot program is having an app that people can use their smart phone to use, and they can book their trips online at any time of the day, and they can cancel their trips, they can modify their trips, and they won't have to pick up the phone and call our call center. If someone still wants to use those traditional methods of booking, they'll still be able to do that because there are certain people that have cognitive or physical reasons why they can't use a smart phone. But the nature of public transportation is moving this direction where people can use their mobile device to book these trips, and so it's something that we've already implemented on a very small scale that we're hoping, if we get that Impact 100 grant, we'll be able to roll out at a much bigger scale. So, you can see on there, people would be able to do all their booking online. They could do same-day trip requests rather than having to do it days in advance. They could modify or cancel or change their trips on there, and they could do it at any time of the day, not just when our call center is open. And so, we've already started this. We started a pilot program over the last year. It's been offered to 20 individuals that we identified as TD passengers who were able to grasp the concept and thought they could use it, and it's gone extremely well. It's been offered to 20 people, and they've used it to book over 1,300 trips in the last six months. And so, we are very excited about the potential of, if this gets funded by Impact 100, to roll this out to a larger group of the Martin County clients so that we can continue to offer this so people can book their trips that way. And if we get that Impact 100 grant, we project we'll be able to do about 3,000 trips to passengers using that app, and it would remove the barriers that some of them are currently facing. The example that Karen likes to give that I really like is if someone gets sick, they don't know they're going to get sick, right? They don't plan on that three days in advance. So, they couldn't have called us and booked a trip to the doctor today if they didn't know they were going to be getting sick. So, with the app and the way it works is if someone wakes up and they're sick, they can pull out their phone and use the app to get a ride to the doctor, to the pharmacy, things like that. And under our current traditional method, people are not able to book those trips because of the way it's currently set up for people to book trips. So, that's the type of thing that we're looking to help improve here in Martin County with the TD program. It's going to definitely promote independence and social interaction, things like that. So, we're very excited about it. And obviously, without the Impact 100 grant, there would be less trips provided that way, and we would roll it out slower. We're still hoping to go this way in the future, but it'll be rolled out slower without that grant. So, we're very hopeful that we will get it here in the coming months. And Karen, I don't know if you wanted to talk about what we've done. Yeah, so, because of what I talked about earlier with the funding, we are really in close contact with the Florida Commission for Transportation Disadvantage about, you know, future funding outlook, especially for the Innovative Service Development Grant. So, again, as I said earlier, it is a three-year term limit, and this next go-around will end as of June 2025. So, we're hoping to get, you know, the full 750, at least, you know, some part of that. The other, we're advocating and exploring other potential opportunities. We've had meetings with the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, the Florida Commission for Transportation Disadvantage, of course, FPTA, Florida Public Transportation Association. Chris and I, the last time we were up in Tallahassee, we were invited to go to the governor's office and speak to the budget office about the programs that we're doing here, especially the Advantage Program in tripping the disadvantaged or the developmentally disabled. And Florida Department of Transportation is understanding of everything that's going on. And then, again, the aging for persons with disabilities. So, we're hoping to bring all of them together at some point to really try and understand how we can, and not just ourselves, but other systems in the state of Florida, to sustain the programs that we're coming up with and knowing that they're so well used. And that's the presentation. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Commissioner Smith. A lot. It's getting late. First of all, fantastic. Thank you. So, first question, if the funding doesn't happen the way you anticipate it happening or hoping it'll happen, then that's one question, what do we do? That's right. That is a question, what do we do? And that's probably the biggest looming question. That is my biggest concern because I don't want to turn anybody that's been getting trips and the quality of life has improved. And now they're starting to rely on it, and now we pull the rug under, that won't be a happy conversation probably. Do you know, I mean, I assume you know with all those numbers, do we have an average cost per ride? Do you know what it is? So, our current average cost per ride is less than, it's less than $34. I want to say it's. That's fine. That's good. That's a good number. I've just, because we had a conversation last MPO meeting, maybe two MPO meetings ago, and the consultant that's doing our work for us on transportation as a whole, has the busing world reached its point? Like, well, you have Uber, you have Lyft, you have freebie, which I'd never heard of and still talking to him about. You start to wonder with the money that we do either hobble together or that we are getting, does there come a time where the overhead of operating buses and managing buses and buying buses and all that kind of stuff, do we reach a point with what else is available now that if you had a freebie system or you had a Uber system, it's directly to the house, directly to the destination. If it's $34, a person that's riding a bus, and we can get, you know, a $12 ahead or $10 or $15 or $25 ahead with a different type of completely different kind of structure, would we not be servicing the public in an entirely different, better way? That's a really big question. And so, no, and Karen, so don't, it's not worth answering? Yeah, I know, because there's many answers to that, and just a few different things that I'm going to hit on. So the persons that we're talking about using our transportation disadvantage program, a lot of them would not be able to use an Uber, right? Of a standard Uber. Of a standard Uber. But if you were to contract, if we were to go out to bid, all things transportation, full spectrum, from a perfectly capable individual to one who's fully challenged with how they themselves are mobile and everything in between that you have to be able to provide that kind of ridership for. So that's where you have your mixed use of different transportations, public transportation. Obviously, your mass transit is a lot less. For example, well, if it's running efficiently and you've got a lot of ridership, like Indian River County, we have our cost per rider on mass transit is $4.53 at this time. Compared to the transportation disadvantage, which is obviously one-on-one, you know, and so that's where you're looking at the $30 trip. It's just something to start thinking about. And then the other thought I had at the transportation committee subcommittee that I sit on, it would be great, I think, to have this as a conversation. Both the funding, you know, where is the funding going? Where should it be going? How do we go as the state continues to grow like we are? Because I don't know. We have disadvantaged transportation conversations at those meetings, but I don't know that we've ever gotten into what does the funding formula look like and how does it move forward. Once you start building it, what if one year the legislature says we're not going to fund that program the way it is? Well, what do you do? And so, I mean, I'll talk to those folks and see if you guys are interested. Absolutely. Always. I think it would be a great, healthy conversation to have with them. And as long as if you're, when you're doing it, if you're talking about the transportation disadvantaged riders versus the mass transit, because that's two different, you know, but they have to be coordinated. So, yeah. Because the question that came up with the consultant was the federal dollars that we receive, are they convertible to another type of program? And there seems to be a little bit of ambiguity whether or not you can do that or not. Can those federal dollars flow through to an Uber, to a freebie, to a, you know, a whatever? I don't know. He didn't have the answer at that point, but there seems to be some question. I'm done. Sorry. There we go. I've got lots to talk about that one. Okay, good. Sounds like you're going to be welcomed back. Thank you for the presentation. Anybody else have any? Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here. Appreciate it. Great work, you guys. Thank you. That, I believe, brings us to the end of our agenda today. And do we have any, oh, it's 451. Do we have any public that wishes to comment? Seeing none in the gallery. Commissioner, comments. Commissioner Smith. I have a comment, and I didn't pick it up this morning on my commissioner comments earlier this morning. One was the bathtub reef presentation, Don. The other, last week at the Regional Planning Council, we talked about last year's successes and priorities, and this year I've asked our Regional Planning Council, as their chair, to take on three. One is this wildlife corridor discussion, and I think listening to the presentations from Three Lakes today on how much open space and how much habitat they've created on a grander scale, on a regional scale, there's, I think, a really interesting opportunity for us to do our own wildlife corridors. So we're going to take on that. A whole transit conversation with South Florida Regional Planning Council was the other. And then the third one, what was the third one? That's escaping me right this second. Anyway, as we go down the line, it'll pop back. But the wildlife corridor, I think, should be a pretty healthy, interesting conversation. There's always March 5th. There's always more time. Commissioner Campy. I would just wish my colleague, Commissioner Jenkins, a speedy recovery, and we missed you today. I'm set. Mr. Donaldson. Just, we do have a, we're experimenting with a county picnic Saturday, I think it's March the 10th, or the 9th, yes. So, anyway, just, we'll have more at the next meeting, but something to put on your calendar. I'm all set as well, and our next meeting will be March 5th, and with that, we are adjourned for the day.