all right welcome to our may 21st 2024 board of county commissioner meeting uh please stand for invocation by pastor blaine albrighton of christ fellowship in stewart followed by the pledge of allegiance led by stanley ohope jr retired navy morning let's pray together father thank you for this day thank you for the blessings in all of our lives we recognize that there are many in this world who don't enjoy the same blessings that we do of freedom and safety and community and so we praise you for what we do have but we also seek you and ask you for your will knowing that our blessings aren't meant to be kept to ourselves and so i pray for wisdom for our leaders both here locally and beyond so that they can make decisions that will promote righteousness and reflect your love for all people god i'm thankful for the patience that you've had with me so i ask that you'd give us all patience and grace to work together to see how we can best serve those around us i pray for your comfort for the families and individuals in our community who are hurting bring your peace to their lives bring that through your presence through your people in a time when most of our headlines are pointing to a lack of peace and a lack of trust god we want to be different we want to shine your light we want to be a beacon of hope and so i pray that you'd increase our hearts for generosity for compassion give us vision to see and to do your will all around us we know you're pleased when we seek you we seek you first and we submit to your authority so let us be mindful of that for every moment and i ask all of this in the name of jesus amen amen morning and over your heart i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all if you'd like to uh tell us a little bit about yourself certainly uh how much time do i have all that you want i served 22 years in the submarine service now i'm going to go backtrack 1959 graduated from high school decided to go to college i lasted one year came back to new jersey and worked for my father for six months that did not work i was walking down the street in asbury park new jersey past a recruiting station i saw a photo of a submarine and a mock-up staring in the window and the recruiter came running out of the door just drooling said do you think you can do that i said i don't know he said follow me so i took some tests next thing i know he invited me for a nice trip to new york city to fill out some paperwork take some tests see a doctor and a psychiatrist i said wow this is too much for me all i wanted to do was go to a rodeo so i passed all that next thing i knew i had a ticket to great lakes illinois for a wonderful winter it was horrible after that i graduated they sent me to key west florida to torpedo school which another story after i was there for two weeks they woke me up in the middle of night and said this is not good this is the bay of pigs this is this is real so they gave me a loaded m1 rifle and i said i want my mother i didn't join for this so i survived that graduated from torpedo school and the navy and its system they sent me to scotland to a submarine tender before they sent me to submarines i graduated from submarine school and fortunately i had the honor of having lunch aboard the nautilus in 1961 in the torpedo room that's where i lived for many years i served on two diesel submarines two nuclear fast attack submarines and my last years i recruited nuclear engineers from the various universities in california after that i retired and uh well you don't want to hear all about that but it was a wonderful life and i love the navy um so if i were 18 i would do it again thank you go navy okay you want to do we want to do what you want to do okay let's let's go through the agenda um presets 905 public comment um 10 o'clock uh the live local act presentation 505 public comment additional items uh consent number nine confirmation of erica uh sinclair as chief financial information officer of martin county consent huh chief information information did i what did i say financial did i well you threw it in there okay i gave her permission anyway uh consent 10 adoption of proclamation declaring world oceans month in martin county florida consent 11 uh acceptance and approval of the first amendment to the lease between martin county and florida community health centers incorporated located at the martin county health department on willoughby boulevard in stewart consent poll consent number nine confirmation of erica sinclair as chief information officer of martin county pulled by commissioner hurd um sure yes i would move approval of the agenda uh with the additional items of consent number nine consent number 10 consent uh item 11 with polling consent item number nine with commissioner hurt second okay we have a motion by commissioner smith seconded by commissioner uh heatherington all in favor aye all right okay um motion passes unanimously um and now we have proclamations um martha ann will be handling that and we're going to begin with mr hopi uh accepting the memorial day um proclamation and i will step down there and martha will hand up for me okay um yep you guys can come up i'll read the proclamation and okay since our nation's earliest days america has been blessed with an unbroken chain of patriots who have served our country with honor and distinction from concord to kandahar generations of brave warriors have fought for freedom across sand and snow over mud and mountains into lonely deserts and through crowded streets the board recognizes may 27 2024 as memorial day and calls upon all citizens to take the time to remember those who served and sacrificed to be sure this nation remains the bastion of freedom we all have been privileged to enjoy do you want to speak or either one of you uh sure i just want to say thank you very much for this opportunity uh commissions uh and i just want to reiterate that memorial day is not veterans day memorial day is a time for memory memorizing these these fallen soldiers sailors airmen marines that didn't make it home i know when i went to afghanistan i did not come home with my entire company so again it's not veterans day we're not thanking veterans for their service we're just remembering the ones that fallen in the line of duty thank you martha ann who wrote that one that proclamation i i will find out i don't know it was excellent i did yeah it was perfect it was very well done you knew that was going to happen thank you okay ready yep our way okay next up we have a we're presenting a proclamation honoring miss ruth grand on her 102nd birthday in martin county florida ruth grand was born on may 11 1922 in framingham massachusetts she married her husband ray the day before he was deployed to india in world war ii serving in the army air corps and they were married for over 60 years ruth worked for the army paymasters during the war and then worked for the national park service in saint augustine and later after retirement in georgia ruth has one son three grandchildren three great-grandchildren and one great great grandchild the board congratulates ruth grant upon the occasion of her 102nd birthday and extends their best wishes for her many more happy and healthy years happy birthday miss grant i just want to add that mrs grand's father was in world war one her husband served in world war ii her brother served in korea her son served in vietnam and mrs grant also was an army paymaster in world war ii so a family of uh veterans thank you and miss grant if you can hear me um i grew up in westboro which is just a town and a half away from framingham and used to spend a lot of time in framingham because ken's steakhouse was there and for those of you who go to public's and see ken's original salad dressing that's where it's from not that that's the most famous thing from framingham but nonetheless it was a great town she spent more time in florida than she did in massachusetts that's okay we won't hold it against her happy birthday happy birthday there you go thank you thank you how about gardeners oh what do you want to do okay oh never i lied not gardeners safe boating week yep are they coming oh no okay flotilla 59 of the united states coast guard auxiliary based in martin county's sans brit park participates in the annual national safe boating week campaign to promote boating safety and encourages the boating public to wear life jackets when enjoying the region's waterways the board commends the auxiliary for their efforts in furthering the goals of the national safe boating week observed may 18 through the 24 of this year and their year-round efforts to promote safe boating miss o'neill yep commander morning i'm cheryl o'neill i am the commander there we go i'm cheryl o'neill i'm the commander of flotilla 59 in stuart we are located at sans brit park and on behalf of our 71 members auxiliarists thank you very much for supporting us for 50 no i'm sorry 82 years within martin county and that is consecutive 82 years of servicing the community boating uh the boating community sorry um one of the things that we are excited about this year is i'm not sure if many of you know of the austin blue foundation and it is the two young men who were lost at sea out of um jupiter we have been awarded a grant that provides the um fees and covers the costs of children and students and young adults from 12 to 21 for all their boating education and this has to do with the boat america course it is a required course by the state of new of new jersey you can tell i'm formerly new jersey that was a long time ago um also it is required by new jersey but in florida anybody born after january 1st 1988 is required to have a boating safety id card in florida a couple things that other than that that are coming up one is um don't vote while you are impaired in december or january no i'm sorry june uh 7th or 4th i'm sorry i'm bubbling july 4th thank you everybody july 4th through the 6th is uh operation dry water and it is actually a full year program but focused in that weekend the july 4th weekend you're going to see a lot of um law enforcement out checking boaters because one of our largest uh problems that we have in this area is boating while in um impaired and that is not just alcohol it is other products also so the um thing more closely is june 8th and that is everybody is being invited to station fort pierce the coast guard station up there and that they are having an open house from 10 a.m to 2 in the afternoon and we would encourage everybody to be there on that note just take care boat safely get home that is our biggest thing get home wear your life jackets and get home thank you and i think we have a whole bunch of people that are going to be putting on some life jackets so it's going to be a little bit of levity down here yes you want us down there come on down step into the alcove while they will they get dressed so bad there's any chance you could zip them up there's no bystanders looks like it's yours to put on sir oh i have to read i think maybe the birthday girl should do it i'm in trouble now and um suit up oh no you guys don't want to all get in it too you guys don't want to all get in it you should get in it hey gentlemen yeah i think all of you in we want everybody i'm fine right here no you're not that's an order remember i'm the commander okay oh i crossed her off yeah one two three boy we got a big group here today thank you awesome and i do have to commend you because the city commissioners did not all know how to put their jackets on oh come on two arms thank you and um you you sort of sort of breezed over the reading of the don't edit that out i ordered a large but i guess you can come back in and we'll do a voiceover next we're going to present a proclamation declaring national garden week hey gardeners add beauty fragrance and nutrition to our lives by growing herbs vegetables foliage and flowers gardeners work to preserve our country's traditional spirit of independence and initiative through innovation and hard work during national garden week june 2nd through the 8th the board acknowledges the importance of gardening and the numerous contributions of gardeners um miss rosita aristoff good morning as president of the garden club of a store i am honored to receive the national garden week proclamation on behalf of the garden club of a stewards the garden club of a store is among as many as 5 000 garden clubs across america affiliated with the national garden clubs all of which will soon be celebrating national garden week on june 2nd to june 8th it is an opportunity for us to work with other like-minded minded groups involved in the areas of florida friendly plantings native plantings floral design and in sharing knowledge about gardening for garden week we will again place floral arrangements at martin county's public libraries other activities leading up to the week include an extensive cleanup of the old all courthouse gardens as well as at least 60 new plantings at the chairman school of seamanship and the refreshing refreshing of our blue star memorial marker at memorial park so on behalf of the garden club of a store i thank the board of county commissioners for recognizing our efforts to beautify the community in closing i would like to say that gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it and chairman jenkins knows all about that because he's the garden next up we're presenting a proclamation declaring public works week in martin county florida jim gorton public works director is here to receive the proclamation public works professionals focus on infrastructure facilities and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health quality of life and well-being of the people of martin county this year marks the 64th annual national public works week sponsored by the american public works association the board recognizes may 19 through 25th as public works week jim i'm jim gorton the public works director i just wanted to take a moment to thank the board for the support that you give to the public works department as we celebrate this national public works week our department consists of 12 divisions with 170 employees and i want to thank the hard-working public works staff for their dedication towards planning building managing and operating to help improve the quality of life for martin county residents if you're not familiar with uh public works we do a lot of things from transit to managing traffic flow to building bridges transportation planning to improving water quality restoring ecosystems and controlling mosquitoes we are public works at work thank you bring the team up into the well for picture into the well we'll stay here you'll go down there harold you're a big shot you know how much you love this spotlight come on everybody let's go in the picture yeah it is elka's here we got the heavy hitters 170 folks it's all in the back george sama we got that powerhouse violin sorry you can't be tall in the back not as tall in the front i think he's taller than i am pushing even standing down there with heels yeah tall yeah get some of this a little bit more on the side all right ready one perfect wow one look i need some no parking signs do you have any with you in your car hi george okay and saving the best for the last we're presenting a proclamation declaring travel and tourism week in martin county florida narissa okia bocc tourism director is here to accept along with her uh staff uh national travel and tourism week provides an opportunity to celebrate distinctive character of our area promote the benefits of exploring our own backyard and recognize the hard-working individuals who make our local tourism industry thrive the board recognizes may 19 through 25th as travel and tourism week in martin county and urges all residents to explore the wonders of our community support our local businesses and share the warmth and hospitality that make our area truly unique narissa good uh good morning commissioners sarah woods don donelson thank you for having us here we're very excited to accept this award uh national travel and tourism week is an annual celebration it was established in 1983 and it recognizes the essential role in stimulating the economic growth cultivating vibrant communities and creating quality of job quality of life and job opportunities for americans every day national travel and tourism week celebrates the industry's critical role in empowering our nation's economy and connections the travel and tourism week or travel and tourism industry as you may not be aware is a 2.8 billion dollar industry it supports nearly 15 million jobs and generates 89 million dollars in generated state and local tax revenue it supports essential services like education emergency response public safety and more here in martin county our numbers aren't quite that large but they're still very impressive tourism spending is about 730 million it supports over 10 000 jobs and it generates 85.2 million in state and local taxes for every dollar spent by a martin county visitor 69 cent stays local so it really does support our local economy this year to celebrate national travel and tourism week we try to do something a little different every year but we're very excited to announce our first destination distinction awards brought to you by the martin county tourist development council these awards aim to honor individuals teams businesses and organizations that surpass expectations to serve tourism and serve as tourism ambassadors by exceeding their typical duties through their outstanding performance and actions these individuals create experiences that leave visitors delighted and eager to return to martin county these nominees go above and beyond in their typical duties to make our tourism related businesses more efficient friendly and enjoyable so we're hoping that everybody will nominate their favorite hospitality worker we have five categories uh guest happiness ambassador is for our hotel staff attraction and venue superstar is for any of our attractions and venues or performing venues dining experience guru so if there's any waiter or wait staff that really make your experience truly exceptional please nominate them and then we have a destination expert for those individuals who just really know everything there is to know about martin county and finally we're very excited because of our sustainability initiative we have a leave no trace champion award that we are awarding to either a business or an individual and leave no trace organization is going to actually help judge that award so i would like to thank you again for having us i have ian and sally here with me i could not do anything without them not quite as big as public works but we're mighty uh emily is on vacation and anna grace is actually on a program so thank you so much for having us thank you and while they're taking photos um i would encourage all of you to tune into when narissa does her update on what she does for tourism and what her team does it is absolutely amazing what that mighty little team pulls off the numbers are staggering of what they accomplish and if you could just listen to the last 10 minutes of our meeting when we do our tdc meeting it is a whirlwind tour of what's going on out there and so thank you all very much for what you do it's incredible thanks okay with that we will move into um our public comment portion of the meeting and mr donelson i'm sure has something to say yes uh since we are in in an election season politicking is prohibited which is defined as advocating the election or defeat of a candidate or public for public office either partisan or non-partisan this includes the use of words dates signs props and or wearing apparel that convey a message of support for a person or group of persons okay and as usual you have three minutes you'll hear a tone at two minutes and 45 seconds that means uh wrap your comments up and we're going to start with mr tom pine followed by william ball good morning commissioners my name is tom pine i've been a resident of martin county for over 50 years today in the consent agenda seven million ten thousand eight hundred and twenty eight dollars and 73 cents was spent between april 29th and may 5th of 2024 without identifying the payees or the purpose of the payments congratulations on moving forward with the use of micro transit plan for the martin county to use instead of buses or maybe with buses but at least we're moving towards the 21st century there is of course challenges to any new system but there are several communities in and around florida that use various types of micro micro transit systems for some time now it was exciting to watch when the vote was approved to move forward to start buying defibrillators as soon as possible for our county parks the five or so people from palm city from palm city that spoke before this commission this past september pleading for help getting defibrillators at pickleball courts after one of their own had a heart attack because the park department had told them no three times even after they bought defibrillators with their own money so thanks again i'm going to talk about a shopping experience i had recently a couple of weeks ago i had a price for a leather chair recovered it was higher than expected but after a couple of weeks i gave in and brought the chair to the shop the owner was busy with another customer so i waited my turn came and the owner gushing over the previous customer she's telling me how beautiful the boat they live on full-time is just goes on about it and then she turns to me she gets her paperwork out calculator and tells me the sales tax will be 113 dollars and 75 cents if i pay with a credit card she goes on to then tell me that if i pay with a check made out to her i wouldn't have to pay the sales tax i can only guess but my the expression on my face must have told her this the scheme wasn't for me so she came up with a better one you can write a check to our christmas decoration fund i called her a thief her answer no no i have this form from the county that the christmas decoration fund is legal my answer was loud and clear you're a thief you're a thief i left with my chair one has to wonder how many good martin county residents take advantage of this scheme many i suspect thank you thank you uh mr ball will be followed by dr john hips good morning morning did you all receive the beach bucket foundation packet yes appreciate it good morning commissioners my name is william ball and i'm a volunteer with the beach bucket foundation i'm here today to talk about a very crucial issue that affects all of us the cleanliness of our beaches and parks in martin county as well as we know our beautiful coastline is a treasured resource that brings joy to residences and visitors alike however the increasing amount of trash and debris is not only an eyesore but a serious threat to our environment and wildlife beach bucket foundation is a simple yet effective solution it provides public cleanup stations throughout our parks and beaches by doing so we can empower our community to take ownership and to make a positive impact presently there are 75 stations throughout palm beach county and brevard which is coco beach area and they've had exceptional exceptional results i'm submitting to you support letters from our local agencies that i contacted along with support letters from palm beach county town of jupiter parks and recreation town of palm beach boynton beach and cocoa beach these stations will cost nothing to the county but an additional trash can next to the station for them for parks and recreation or whomever is emptying it by working together we can make a significant difference one protect marine marine wildlife and their habitats number two enhance the beauty and safety of our public areas and spaces three foster a sense of community and responsibility among residents and visitors we can get quite a few communities uh martin county schools for community service i mean it's endless the barn county sheriff it just goes local churches it goes on and on it's just a win-win situation for all it promotes environmental education and awareness like i said so on behalf of the initiative initiative aligned with values of martin county as we all are trying to provide everyone i urge you all to consider in supporting this proposal let's work together to keep our beaches and parks clean and ensure healthier and more beautiful environmental generations to come thank you very much thank you sir i think hold on just a minute commissioner question for you mr ball when you said no cost do you give the plan i saw in your photographs do you give the plans and groups like us or individuals make them no sir these these these stations have are patented okay and they are all going to be the same on every location depending on a single double quadruple buckets okay for people obviously uh location will be assessed accordingly that's through our assistance with your help as you approve this okay the buckets and stations will be are all coming from donations people can sponsor a bucket if they like but and get their groups to come out we are involved with surf rider foundations uh surfing for autism the endless summer a license plate through coco beach and quite a few more foundations that we're involved with that are all in conjunction of cleaning our environment here thank you i appreciate it i'll get in contact with you thank you dr john hips and that is my last speaker form if anybody else would like to speak good morning commissioners i want to thank you for your service to our community i'm here to ask for a withdrawal of consent item number six today from the consent agenda and that's the cove of hopestown i'd like to have it suggested we resubmitted for further study so we can have questions and maybe have the public be able to to have this more fully vetted i i just received this agenda last night and i reviewed the packet it looks on the surface to be a routine request but when i look in this carefully i see some number of questions that i think i'd like to have answered and it may require even answers from the wildlife biologists that did the study so that is my request and just respectfully requesting that we um just resubmit it maybe at the next meeting for public discussion thank you that chip unfortunately has already sailed we've already accepted the consent agenda so um commissioners yes it has been approved this also uh and staff can uh verify this allows the amendment to the preserve area management plan but does not give final approval to the project right if i understand it it is still moving through the process so it simply allowed the uh adjustment to the preserve area management plan that was approved prior actually made it larger so um there will be opportunities for the public to talk about the actual project itself this simply allowed them to move forward with a a modified project that increased the preserve area management so it will be coming back under a different form okay and with that uh commissioner commissioner smith uh yes mr chair um uh don donaldson through the chair about a week and a half ago if we could break today early uh for a service for one of our probably uh more wonderful community uh leaders community involvement persons um miss evelyn degler passed away about a week and a half ago the degler family has been a mainstay of martin county for generations um and have provided a level of entertainment and participation in our fair uh that has been really something very very special and quite honestly the the degler name is known all up and down the east coast of the united states because they traveled with their carnival um to all points of the southeast portion of our country or you know of our of our country and so her service today is at 11 and so i'll be leaving to go uh to that service but a very special lady uh incredible uh family uh and just a really great storyline for a business that's been here in martin county for a very very long time and a family that has been very much involved in in participating in our community so with that i appreciate your time so what our plan is is we're going to break uh we're going to extend our closed captioning to 10 45 and at that point we're going to break until one and then uh and try to get we have a pretty short manageable agenda today so um that shouldn't be an issue commissioner hetherington i will just wish all the uh the kids that will be out for school for summer uh most of them are getting out this week and congratulations to all the graduates i think we had the last graduation maybe yesterday at jensen beach high school so congratulations to the graduate and i wish everybody a safe summer and just on the note of the agenda i have a pre-op appointment for my son in royal palm so i probably will not be back after one so we'll i'll just we'll just work however we can from there do the best we can okay mr campy thank you very much um i'm happy to announce uh after quite a while of working on the project uh for those excuse me for those folks in palm city or individuals that have been driving by on map road we've had a fence up between our station 21 firehouse and rex centels veterinary clinic for quite some time while we worked behind the fence on something that we're calling the patio at palm city place uh i'd like to uh thank and compliment miss susan chorus and jordan pastorius they worked tirelessly uh and really gave their heart and souls to helping us create this it is in green open space uh it is attached uh or adjacent to a stormwater retention pond that was really very attractive and did not need to be fenced off and kept from the public in the back we have we have a tea fishing pier where even as recently as this weekend kids were pulling you know bass out of that water as big as your arm we did a walking path around the whole entire uh area and then in the front close to map road we added a band stand uh concrete ping pong concrete cornhole and concrete uh table and benches that have the checkerboard motif so you could just sit there we're going to do a concert uh series of concerts throughout the year at that location and um it's just there's a beautiful fountain in the lake and i think it's just a highlight and a compliment to palm city but obviously welcome to all and we're going to kick it off with the ribbon cutting and sort of a day's worth of festivities on june 1st it starts at 11 goes till the afternoon there'll be food trucks and vendors um and i know they have a tremendously great following in martin county the first musical act to ever perform at the patio at palm city place will be the nouveau hunkies so please come out and uh and join us and uh again for our staff that has worked tirelessly on this there was a lot of complications uh we kept it really environmentally sensitive and it's another and parks and rec will take it over and maintain it so i just wanted to say thank you for the folks that were involved in doing it and uh it's just another uh addition to map roads renaissance and so thank you and i look forward to seeing you all there on june 1st between 11 and into the afternoon thank you so much i'm set and i'm set we're all set how about we do um our consent poll uh commissioner hurt um confirmation of erica sinclair as chief information officer of martin county i put i pulled it because it's this is an important promotion and erica has been a staff member for a very long time for martin county she's had a number of positions she has a wonderful resume and i just wanted the public to get an opportunity to be introduced to know erica congratulations if i could just take a moment to say thank you so much uh as i did have done some reflecting myself being with the county for 18 years i stand here really filled with humility and gratitude for this opportunity to continue to serve the taxpayers and all the staff of martin county as an it department we serve everyone um so we're thankful for that opportunity and i also want to thank administration for entrusting me with this responsibility it is a huge responsibility and i don't take it lightly and um i also want to thank i have an amazing it staff that support you all on a daily basis some you don't see or hear about but they're working so hard and they have really stepped up during this transition and i am very thankful for them and i hope we continue to um tackle any obstacles and celebrate successes with all of you so thank you for your support all right thank you thank you commissioner smith uh old light but new light okay congratulations thank you it's been fun to watch you all these years and and see where you started and where you are today uh really remarkable thank you fantastic thank you commissioner campy it is a tremendously large job and we gave it to the absolute perfect person to do it i agree thank you so much thanks erica all right i would make a motion i make a motion to accept uh staff's uh recommendation to uh promote miss erica sinclair to our chief information officer of martin county everybody wants to say okay motion by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner smith all in favor aye all opposed motion carries unanimously commissioner smith i did have one other thing i apologize for not doing it in my update but i was going through my notes of things i was going to share with you all last week we had an individual come before us with a code enforcement discussion i've had a lot of conversations with miss woods over the last couple days about our code enforcement policy or lack thereof uh or are not even a policy it's more of a an ordinance right um i would like to just check with the board to see if we can bring that back and firm up some things that may not be crystal clear or that we never did adopt maybe way back when when we thought we did um just so that there's a better understanding for us as well as what really happens with code enforcement what the fines are how that is done who does what in what part of that process um just so the public is a lot clearer on that okay completely supportive of that yeah so don if you could bring back or don is there if you bring back an agenda outlines all that though yeah we'll update the ordinance on code enforcement thank you okay well if we're going to go by the agenda the next in line is uh public hearing number one public hearing to consider changes to article 10 development review procedures land development regulations martin county code regarding the threshold for review of solar energy facilities and mr peter walden will be thank you sir good morning members of the board um i'm peter walden i'm the deputy growth management director just a second um this is a request for an amendment to article 10 development review procedures regarding solar energy facilities it's requested by lucido and associates on the behalf of florida power and light a little background article 10 development procedures was created in 1996 it was totally restructured in 2019 there was an ordinance 1067 adopted in 2018 that made the development standards and guidelines for solar facilities the request today is pretty simple it's to change the threshold for review for solar facilities or solar farms from a major to a minor application uh this is in line with targeted industries uh staff feels that the uh solar farms are a green energy source they add to the resilience of the infrastructure for the county there's no noise or environmental issues with the uh solar farms and there's no traffic associated with them so the impacts to the community are very minimal and uh this the review process for staff stays exactly the same all the wetland protections and environmental review and uh public work staff everybody still does the same review it just gives them an opportunity to move through the process a little bit quicker by not having to do the public hearing process uh there have been four solar farms already approved there has been no opposition whatsoever to any of them uh fpl seems to be a good steward of the land and uh for the staff to work with so with that um oh it did go to the lpa the vote was 2-2 there was no real recommendation from the lpa on the matter but uh staff recommends approval and move that the board adopt the proposed ordinance amending article 10 development review procedures land development regulations martin county code glad to answer any questions mr campbell thank you mr walden um the solar fields as owned by a private entity stay on the tax rolls correct yes so based on no there are certain statutory exemptions for um solar fields in terms of your um tpp um um exemptions well tpp i get it's a solar field yes but it's another opportunity for large uh acreage of land to be utilized in such a way that has a very low impact at all on the residents and the environment and traffic like you mentioned uh but then also taking hundreds if not thousands of acres and turning them into solar fields we've done in a partnership well fpl has done it with a partnership with us uh very successfully in the past and i think by creating this uh streamlined version even though it will still meet all of the requirements it has to meet all of the requirements and review but i think if if you're in fpl and have the opportunity to place these anywhere in the state or in their area i think it sends the right message to fpl that we want to do business with them uh and then it also takes you know hundreds to thousands of acres uh that could have been purchased to do something you know that it would have a much greater impact on the nearby residents or all residents i make a motion to accept your recommendation i want to say i think fpl has done an exceptional job i think they're the only ones that have done solar fields so far in martin county but i think one of the very first votes i took up here was to put a solar field directly behind my family home fpl has done what they have said they're going to do i think the public hearing process gives them an opportunity to highlight all the great things they're doing so i i'd prefer to streamline it but still have the public hearing process because i think it gives a wonderful opportunity for fpl to let the public know what they're doing and they're doing some magnificent things i sure heard yeah i agree with commissioner hetherington i think that they should be proud to spotlight these worthy projects and they do enjoy popular support uh so i don't don't uh and i also don't like the expansion of administrative approvals uh we are going away from giving this board the opportunity to have public hearings and instead allowing the administration to make uh those determinations and i don't think that's good public policy so i'm not going to support a motion to uh uh change the the approval to an administrative one okay so move to deny commissioner smith i'll second ed's motion and and here's why i you know if if in the planning process or in the the idea of how something is gone from a to b to c um there's a lot of time there's a lot of energy and there's a lot of money spent on doing that these solar fields and and from the first one that we did with fpl which was the hybrid version out at the plant uh to the subsequent uh more current technology of what they're moving forward to um is really remarkable the investment that they're making in our community is remarkable i would even go much further to say not only their commitment to martin county but their commitment to the state of florida to be a much more resilient direct energy producing company is again nothing short of remarkable and i think anything we can do to encourage them to do more of it uh is a good thing and i think if streamlining that process to something that we would vote for and that we would gladly want to have here in martin county i think is something that we can absolutely be proud of to do and and i support the idea a hundred percent commissioner camp i just wanted to respond to my colleagues i don't disagree with what commissioner hetherington or commissioner heard said i think that yes the concept of just allowing staff to make administration administrative approvals is something we need to be leery of and when i hear commissioner hetherington say that she's really you know in favor of these projects and i remember that it was the one being built behind her family home but that being said did we come up with this idea or was this a suggestion or a request from uh fpl this is a request from the applicant fpl yes now i'm not sure how many i know they're not in every county but they're in many and um if it's if it's something that we are very happy about and you had mentioned that we've done four of these in the past and i've been here for those four i believe or at least three no one comes to make a public comment or to participate and if we're going to say that they should go through a long expensive process just so that we could congratulate them here in the chambers i bet there'll be fewer projects that they'll be coming forward with there's no specific rationale that it would need to be in martin county versus okeechobee county indian river county saint lucie county just right here in our region and if those other counties say look we're going to help you streamline a process that you've asked us to help you with if i'm at fpl why would i do it here instead of in the other counties that have made it easier for us if it was something you know very few projects in my mind would i give up the ability to have a say in not just to say for myself personally but a say for a county commissioner to review this this is one of those in my opinion one of those types of projects that if we can you know enhance our our opportunity to have fpl look favorably upon the county to bring this here and i don't know if there's an fpl uh representative here that would be interested in sharing some of this with us i'm not interested in giving away my authority as a as commissioner to review projects and the concept that we would have them go through the entire process so that we could congratulate them as we went along i think will backfire on us that's the only reason i would be interested in participating in this commissioner it's my understanding the way you described it it's basically a public hearing so i don't know if it's an lpa and uh and it i feel like you we could expedite that and have the public hearing and and still be able to get fpl in and out of here well it would take a public hearing process which is the lpa and the board of county commissioners and it it is a by right uh application so it's it's not like a pud where there's a lot of uh there's an agreement or anything like that so they are straightforward in their application uh and um um like i said the review process stays the same okay with that we have a motion public public comment we have no i have no public comment form so yeah yes sir thank you commissioner my name is gary earler i'm a resident of port salerno as far as i'm concerned we need to leave the process the way it is and allow for public comment streamlining only takes care of transparency i'm one all for being as transparent as possible it posted everywhere possible yellow signs we already know yellow signs go up the process has already been started before that so anything to to increase transparency i'm all about so i would only hope that the process stays the way it is thank you okay with that do we have any other public comment we have a motion by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner smith all in favor aye all opposed opposed motion carries three to two commissioner hetherington and heard dissenting okay um next item public hearing quasi-judicial uh to consider adoption of an amendment to the martin county zoning atlas to change the zoning classifications for mr and mrs brian oksana reeves um and this will be by john senate commissioner elise elder deputy county attorney this is a this is a quasi-judicial so do we have any exporte commissioner smith if i do they're filed if any might have been filed i don't think i do but if they i do they've been filed commissioner i don't have any it's been filed i don't have any and they've been filed all right could everybody stand and be sworn in that are going to be 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 are there any intervenors there are no intervenors and the proof of public notice was turned in at the lpa hearing okay work history that covers it thank you sir copy of my work history it's being turned in as exhibit one thank you mr chairman good morning commissioners i'm john senate senior planner with growth management i'm presenting the rezoning application on behalf of mr and mrs brian and oksana reeves they are proposing to rezone from the current a1a agricultural district to the re1a residential estate district their property is located northwest of salerno road and southwest of highland avenue in stewart it's currently undeveloped it has approximately 2.4 acres they wish to develop a single-family residence with customary accessory structures the future land use designation of the property and the surrounding properties to the north west and south is the estate density two units per acre designation the rural density future land use designation is present to the east of the property the property and the surrounding properties to the west south and east are currently zoned a1a agricultural district the a1a district is a category c zoning district to the north of the property is the uh the south wood pud which consists of single family residences because the a1a zoning district is a category c zoning district this application is being processed as a mandatory rezoning to a category a district which implements the policies of the estate density to upa future land use designation there is one standard category a zoning district which implements that land use and that is the re1 half a residential estate district new pud zoning is also an additional option for applicants these are the development standards for the re1 half a zoning district minimum 50 open space maximum 30 feet of height front setback of 25 feet side and rear setback of 15 feet these are the conditions supporting the applicant's request the existing future land use designation of a state density to upa for the property and surrounding areas is compatible with the re1 half a district the existing single-family residential and institutional uses in the area of the property is compatible with re1 half a district and the existing southwood single family residential pud to the north of the property has an overall density and lot sizes which are compatible with the re1 half a zoning district this matter was heard before the lpa on may 16th they approved the application four to zero with one absence development review staff have found the reeves rezoning application to comply with all applicable regulations and the comprehensive growth management plan as detailed in the staff report we recommend move to the board receive and file the agenda and its attachments including the staff report as exhibit one then move to the board adopt a resolution amending the martin county zoning atlas to change the zoning district designation on the subject site from a1a agricultural district to re1 half a residential estate district i'm here for any questions commissioner smith thank you uh and not that i don't want to ask you the question but i'll ask paul um just for the historical piece of all this back when we we as a state adopted comprehensive planning and land use um every piece of land in the state of florida was given a future land use correct uh good morning commissioners paul schilling growth management director yes uh the comprehensive plan yes sir and in theory what was supposed to have happened back then is not only was there a land use assigned but there was to be an accompanying zoning that would have bundled with that that's my understanding yes we never did that no we did not and so for the public that wonders why we would do a rezoning like this and to bring it into compliance it's because we have a land use that wasn't matched up with a zoning when we should have and now an applicant has to come forward to do what they're doing today to make it right with what the comp plan asked for that's correct so the a1a is a category c district established in 1967 in the county's original zoning code so then further along the comprehensive plan was adopted and the two are not consistent so that necessitates rezoning at the applicant's request uh of individual parcels from time to time which you see us here today and so you know part of this is sort of an apology to the applicants that i wished that this had been done decades ago um so that you wouldn't have to be here today doing this and going through the expense of doing it but just for the general public's knowledge or understanding of why we're having a hearing like this and why would we doing this because historically we didn't and should have but here we are today and with that pending public comment i would move staff's recommendation second okay with that do we have any public comment do we have any comment from the applicant please state your name and tell us that you've been sworn in good morning commissioners my name is uh brian reese i'm the property owner for the uh uh application in question here thank you mr smith for uh i couldn't have said that better myself it's been quite a challenge horrible and i apologize but but thank you i believe john and his staff have done a wonderful job in explaining the situation and as we proceed forward with this thank you well if it passes we wish you the best great thank you thank you all all right we have a motion by commissioner smith seconded by commissioner hetherington all in favor aye all opposed motion carries unanimously thank you commissioners now we will move on to our 10 o'clock preset live local act presentation by mr tom lanahan good morning commissioners uh again tom lanahan executive director of the treasury coast regional planning council um thank you for uh inviting me to come and speak with you about this item today um as uh i said last time i was here uh regional planning council didn't write this uh well we're here to help uh help you try and interpret uh what it means um this is uh um uh the the recent uh the focus of today will be the recent changes uh from uh this past session uh which were adopted through um senate bill 328 uh and uh in the presentation here some of this will look similar to last time uh but um uh focus your eyes on the red text uh in there that's the uh either additions or changes um that have been made um so uh i like like last time i like to start off with the statement of legislative intent which they did not make any changes to um and uh basically the the purpose of all this is to um articulate a state housing strategy that will carry the state towards the goal of ensuring that each floridian has safe decent and affordable housing uh and then they're looking to involve state and local governments working in partnership with communities and the private sector uh on uh regarding financial regulatory uh and commitment uh aspects of that that goal so let me see if this will advance for me yes perfect okay um so uh starting off with um everyone's favorite topic which is preemptions of local government authority um there uh the existing provision um which has been in the books for a few years now uh is an optional program uh whereby um the county could approve affordable um housing on existing commercial or industrial zoned lands uh if at least 10 percent of those units are affordable and you do not need to change the land use or zoning in order to do that um the next uh area is um this is an actual uh preemption uh you must authorize multi-family and mixed-use residential in commercial industrial or mixed-use zoning if at least 40 percent of the units are affordable um and of interest here a adjustment that they made is that the affordable units must be rentals but the rest of the units uh residential units can be rental or ownership um the previous version last year's version of the law required that everything be um rental the way that it was written so this actually provides a little bit more flexibility for um a a project um and then uh we'll talk about some exemptions uh mention um rent control uh and those sorts of things as we go through here so um again on that um uh optional program um here's the uh the stipulations there um and also give you an idea of some of the dollar amounts that we're talking about and i did update these uh from last year's numbers so um for martin county uh our 2024 ami is eighty seven thousand eight hundred dollars uh that's a um uh area median income uh uh and uh so that the range of affordability um runs from the annual income of thirty one thousand two hundred to one hundred and five thousand three hundred sixty for a family of four um eighty percent of that ami is seventy three thousand three hundred fifty for a family of four just to give you some of the uh parameters that we're working with um so again that affordability is uh uh thirty percent to 120 percent of ami those are those numbers that i just gave you and again like i said before this is not a preemption it's a flexibility program uh for local governments um and you don't need to change zoning or uh uh comprehensive plan uh kind of like you just had to do here for this that little project um so uh the next uh moving into the preemption category um this is where you must act um the county must authorize multi-family mixed-use residential in commercial industrial or mixed-use zoning uh if at least 40 percent of those units are affordable and again that's in that 30 percent to 120 percent of ami range that's rent plus utilities plus taxes at 30 percent of the income maximum so again that range is thirty one thousand two hundred dollars a year uh to one hundred five thousand three hundred sixty uh dollars a year for an income for a family of four um like i said the affordable units have to be rentals but the rest of the units can be um any type of ownership um so a couple of different features here so um the you would not be allowed to require land use or zoning change uh or comprehensive plan amendments uh or uh special exceptions uh variances there's a whole list of uh processes that you're not allowed to um require for this kind of development um you're also not allowed to restrict the density below the highest allowed density on any unincorporated land in the county where residential development is allowed um and so there's some some confusion uh about um what that term actually meant uh some communities have uh optional programs where uh if you meet certain stipulations you can get additional density uh so there were disputes happening as to whether uh what the actual uh you know what what is highest allowed density mean is it the by right density is it the density with all of the options laid in so legislature clarified that it is um and these are my words they didn't actually use these these words but the by right density so it's your basic density your basic highest allowable density in the county um doesn't include bonus programs um but interestingly enough if the project qualifies under the terms of that program then you have to grant the bonus so some of those programs are affordable housing uh bonus programs and so there is a way to get higher than um what that um that basic highest allowed density is um you also may not restrict the height below the highest currently allowed height for commercial or residential development within the unincorporated area of the county within one mile of the proposed development or three stories whichever is higher now this area got a lot of extra clarification you can see i've got an almost entire paragraph of red text there um and uh there's there's there's some uh what you might say are are good or good clarifying provisions uh uh in inside this thing um the first is that that one mile radius does not reset when a um uh live local act project gets approved so um it's not a process which was a concern of some folks that um you basically set a uh set a live local act project you know 0.9 miles from uh the uh a pretty tall building uh allowed in the county and then you go another mile from that and then another mile and another mile and so on and next thing you know um everything is like that it's basically what was uh that highest um allowed height at the time of um this all starting so um that's a kind of a um a scaling back if you will um and then we get into something um that's a little bit complicated um but this basically brings context to bear uh on what is the highest um allowable height on a project so um if you have a um a site that is adjacent on two or more sides to parcels that are zoned for single family residential and developed as single family residential two keys there um and they have at least 25 lots so it's not like one single house that basically needs a 25 lot subdivision um the height may be restricted to 150 of the tallest building on any property adjacent to the site uh that's one one potential height the highest by right height for the site based on its existing zoning or three stories whichever of those three things is higher um and then adjacent also does not mean across the street so you're basically looking at um uh those those three sides for a typical site that fronts on um on a road uh so that really does bring context um to bear on um what you would allow for a maximum height and i think it's a recognition by the legislature that um maybe there are good things that happen in an approval process uh where you actually look at those different factors um and then this is a uh this next one item four here this is a a provision to address something that um some clever or tricky depending on your perspective uh communities came up with which is um oh they didn't say anything about floor area ratio so we'll put floor area ratio limits in as a way to um restrict this well okay legislature says uh now no i don't think so um so you can't restrict the floor area ratio below 150 of the highest currently allowed far within your um unincorporated county so um that um that basically took that um that restriction out uh so on to the next um area uh this got longer as they made all these changes so apologies um the uh we're familiar with the administrative approval requirement that they imposed um last year uh and now um there's a requirement that you um uh have a policy uh with procedures and expectations on how you will manage these um uh approvals and that you post it on the website um when i was last in front of you um uh i shared that there were some communities that had um already done that um and i think i probably indicated that that was a a recommended practice um to have some uh some guidelines on how you're going to process these now you have to have them um and then uh the reducing parking requirements um they adjusted the distance from uh and what you um are near uh for you where you have to consider it doesn't say must approve but consider reducing parking parking that's a quarter of a mile to a transit stop so that's basically within a quarter mile of a bus stop and you can get there um it has to be accessible to the development uh and if you meet those stipulations then you're supposed to consider reducing the parking requirements then they got more serious about the parking requirement uh stuff and so now you have some new requirements of what you must do you must reduce parking by 20 percent if it's developments within a half mile of a major transit hub um and then you might remember last time i said oh here's the thing that you get to define yourself well not anymore um they're telling you what a major transit hub is and we'll get to that in a second um that hub has to be accessible to the to the development and there's parking available in the area uh within 600 feet of the site you must eliminate parking requirements for proposed mixed use development in an area designated as a transit oriented development uh by the county so if you've already designated a particular area for tod uh then these live local act projects um the parking is to be waived for them um they define major transit hub as transit station bus train light rail served by public transit uh and a mix of other transportation options so interesting to see the word public in there um development using live local act provisions located within a um recognized transit oriented development must be mixed use it can't be pure residential and use these um provisions uh and then i added all the new um citations down there at the bottom um continuing on in the preemptions uh category but there's some exemptions so recreational commercial waterfront working waterfront zoned industrial we mentioned that last time airport impact areas um which i'll get into that um in the next slide here but hold that thought uh and then um there is a provision for um counties to be able to opt out of the um 75 tax exemption if the shimberg center at the university florida if their study data shows no need for housing in um the range uh the 30 to 120 120 percent range uh or actually i think it's 80 to 120 range that's out there um you can call that the pasco county exemption they um fought uh tooth and nail to get that put in um because their studies showed that they already had enough of that um and so why are we um uh encouraging it with a tax exemption if you already have enough so um you would have to um i did and i did not look and see what shimberg data is for martin county on that but you'd have to check that out uh and see um what's in there and so and we have all the uh property tax exemption requirements which did not change at all um you're still not allowed to do um rent control now airport impact areas this whole page is in red look at that um so any development proposed within a quarter mile laterally from the runway edge uh and oh i have a typo there sorry uh within not within within within an area a quarter mile wide extending 10 000 feet from either end of any existing or planned airport runway uh does not get to use the live local act provisions to get out of the height uh requirements and those sorts of things and the density requirements so basically your existing planning in that sort of cloud around the airport runways stays in effect and the exemptions can't be used also within an airport noise zone identified and federal land use compatibility table or local land use and zoning about airport regulations uh and um you also can't uh exceed the maximum height uh identified in the local airport zoning restrictions if they've been adopted pursuant to florida statutes uh and then i direct you right to where those provisions are because they're a little bit even more detailed than i've summarized here um but i think that does have impact here in your community certainly with um uh with them field uh in the areas around that and basically this is an airport safety provision uh there's a cone of um height and uh sometimes use restrictions but a cone of height restrictions that surround an airport so that planes can take off and land safely and have enough room to recover from any sort of uh whatever might be happening uh and not um uh impact a building um now this is one of these uh you know uh next up the conforming use part uh something that the authors of the uh bill last year probably did not think about because they don't operate in local government but um something that i'm sure your county attorney was uh pondering uh when this got approved okay so it gets approved is it a conforming use or not um that's an interesting question right uh well they answered the question for us uh it is to be considered a conforming use meaning um if it's destroyed it can be replaced um you can also get uh uh loans on that basis etc um the if they don't meet the affordability requirements then they um have to be treated as a non-conforming use which from my reading of the these amendments is the only enforcement provision that they've added in there um which is unfortunate uh it's something that i know the local governments were looking for i've heard it all over the region um anyway that's all that they gave you so far um and then the roll into the new provision so this this law is interesting last year's became effective july 1st uh when typically the statutes become effective this one becomes effective upon signature by the governor um i've been out of town for a couple days but when i checked on friday had it not been signed yet i don't know if it's been signed um but when that happens um it's in effect but if you've already got a development in for approval uh you get to choose do you want to be under the previous ones or do you want to be under the new ones and even if i want to be under the new ones uh local government you can't make me withdraw and reapply uh i'd basically just provide you a letter and say i want to be under the new provisions so um this is again the state housing strategy um do take a look at it it's um it's actually pretty um uh innovative and um uh last uh amendment in there or change in their funding uh they did provide another 100 million dollars to the hometown hero program which is a down payment assistance program for um uh any full-time employee of a florida-based company um with particular uh income provisions but basically it can um provide that down payment assistance um which can be a real challenge for folks moving from pretty expensive rental market we have now into trying to buy a house um being able to uh you know come up with that down payment so it's been very successful um the reason why they're putting more money in is because all the money they put in last year has already been put out on the street and the year before that's been put out on the street so um it's been a really good uptake um so is it being used uh my understanding is uh there's at least one project here in uh unincorporated martin county that's using that um and then uh uh none yet to my knowledge in in stewart or indiantown um but there's been um you know some applicants will say well if you give me you know what i want or i'm going to use this thing that's happening um around the region um and then the last uh you know feedback to legislature so last time i was in front of you and then at some other different meetings we've had um we were we the regional planning council uh were um supporting the idea that the industrial um piece of the preemption would be taken out that basically your industrial would be allowed to stay industrial or that you would have control over your industrial turning into residential um for um some shining moments uh that was in in place in the in the legislation as it moved through the committee process and then when it went to um amalgamation or whatever you call that when the two versions get smashed together uh it came out so um you can still do a live local act residential project in an industrial zoned area with all of the um potential uh workforce uh impacts and um property compatibility impacts that come with that uh it's very unfortunate um i was actually happy for a moment but then there it went so uh typical um so uh this is the income summary uh limits page if you're interested this is more for me if you ask me questions um anyway that's um uh that's the status of what they um what the legislature did with the amendments uh this year and i'm happy to uh answer any questions to the extent that i can thank you very good job thank you sir thank you very confusing um do we have any questions or clarifications all right thank you when you don't have any questions you know you did a good job sure or i thoroughly dazzled you all right since we have the fdot folks here um we're going to move on to florida turnpike and i-95 direct connect interchange pd and e study for martin county and neither one of y'all are ricardo so take it away jim gordon public works director at the april 8th mpo meeting the turnpike enterprise staff updated the mpo board on the turnpike and i-95 direct connect interchange pd and e-study at the end of the presentation the mpo board requested that the turnpike staff also provide a similar presentation to the board of county commissioners for their input and this is jazlyn with the turnpike good morning board commissioners uh thank you so much for this opportunity to present on this project and my name is jazlyn haywood and i have a few members of the team if we get into questions that i can't answer that they will assist me through so the presentation outline we're going to explain why we're even looking at doing this direct connect interchange we've developed two project alternatives um and as was mentioned we were asked to present the bridge road concept so we'll present those three um two alternatives on a sketch level and then where we are in the project schedule off to the right you'll see that this is where we are in the transportation planning process we're in pd and e study so the next phases are design right-of-way acquisition which we do need on this project and eventually construction so the project is in martin county about two miles south of southeast bridge road and it ends the study area ends about a mile north and we're looking at this project because we're trying to improve system linkage improve safety enhance safety and enhance emergency response and evacuation so right now there are no direct connections between florida's turnpike and i-95 so we have uh in the blue are the 95 interchanges we got four in martin county and and we're showing some palm beach and then we got one in in in long story short in order to make this connection between florida's turnpike and i-95 the drivers have to use the local roadway network in martin county and palm beach county in order to do that today so a system to system connection is needed and that would enhance safety the area that we're looking at southeast bridge road we're looking to provide uh high speed ramp connections so the the the turnpike and i-95 or space that far enough so that we can provide those high speed ramps and it happens to be just about midway between where drivers do that today between martin highway and and and indian town road to the south we have some safety issues that we're looking that this would help um address along the florida's turnpike and i-95 and lastly as i've already mentioned enhancing emergency response and evacuation by making these improvements especially that ability to switch between the two expressways would enhance that emergency response and evacuation so let's get into the alternatives before we do though this is how we got to where we are today so we started with sketch levels we put them on the table we took out those that had fatal flaws we made some um refinements to those and we just kept going and going until we got to the point where we have two feasible what we call feasible and reasonable alternatives before we go to the public uh we were it was june we pushed it to july we always come to the local our local agency partners to get to present the information and get feedback before we take it to the local sorry the public um for public feedback so this is alternative one i did have some some animations but i see that they're not here on this one i think this is a pdf version of my presentation all right so um so this is all layered here but the arrows show that we were provided proposing four direct connections northbound to northbound southbound to southbound so four movements between the two the orange shows the right away that would be needed um to make this happen and in this alternative this impact so we would have the the i-95 access we're not taking away that access we're not taking away that access in any of our alternatives but in this alternative we have to modify the ramps um and there's a bridge going over one of them so it's just some modifications the it stays there and this is estimated to cost 231 million alternative one does alternative two the ramps are in a different location same movements northbound to northbound southbound to southbound this one alternative two does not require modifications to the i-95 ramps and um it's about about 100 million less 156 million dollars estimated cost overall both of these alternatives provide emergency access we've spoken to the martin county emergency responders we are tweaking this a little bit to better suit their needs but at the end of the day both alternatives will provide the same access and we are coordinating that with martin county emergency responders so looking at alternatives one and two what are the traffic benefits um the new direct connect interchange those those four movements they're expected to carry in 20 in the year 2050 which we're forecasting out to 26 400 vehicles per day so what this means for palm beach county at west indian town road is that 15 600 cars will be removed from that crossover traffic uh 37 37 percent decrease at the turnpike interchange and 16 percent decrease at i-95 and up in martin county um three thousand two hundred vehicles removed that crossover traffic which means an eight percent decrease at the turnpike interchange now we also looked at the local roads so on martin highway we're removing about a five percent decrease in traffic there and a nine percent decrease at high meadows avenue so those are the two alternatives that we would like to take for public feedback let's get into now southeast bridge road so it was a concept that was analyzed as we went through that tear process but it was eliminated the spacing between i-95 and turnpike it's just it's so close it's about uh 1 900 feet from the gore to the to the turnpike mainline even less than a half a mile so it's too close for safe operations of two separate full interchanges so we deadway engineers we we try to make it work we looked at what what it would take to make it work and we so we combined the interchanges so what that resulted in is three interchanges in one resulting in a complex interchange which i'll go through so again this doesn't have my animations but i'm going to go through it you know so the existing i-95 access that remains but we do have to modify the ramps so the southbound um off which is it's a diamond configuration now in order to make this work and turn into a loop ramp so that's lower speed and a higher potential for lane departure crashes so so that southbound off at 95 becomes a a loop ramp now we have new turnpike and i-95 connections which is the same the same four movements as alternatives one and two that you just saw northbound to northbound southbound to southbound now the um bridge access road is not going to be all four it's going to be only two so let me see if i could find them now they should be in green so you go from turnpike head south and then you switch over to to i-95 and then you take that loop ramp and then you get off at bridge road so that would be the one movement and then the northbound on so you would be on southeast bridge road and then you would get on to i-95 and then take a left exit which is not ideal um but you see it on some express ways especially turnpike when you're getting under service plaza but um so you would do i-95 take that left exit and get onto the turnpike so those are the two movements that would happen so in order to make this happen you have local access being mixed with high speed um access so we had to in the southbound direction it would require a collected distributor road and um that would create additional conflict points and again that loop ramp that low speed loop ramp that would would have to for the southbound off and then um i already mentioned it's also mixing of traffic in this direction additional conflict points that aren't in the other alternatives and it's a left exit so those are that that is the southeast bridge road concept okay that's not feasible yeah so what we found is it is not so why was it eliminated we have safety and operational concerns we have that three interchanges in one is complex it introduces additional conflict points in i-95 it mixes that lower and high speed traffic and that loop ramp it does have the most right-of-way impacts it has three times more right-of-way impacts then alternatives one and two so that's more impactful to the surrounding parcel owners property owners and at the end of the day we started with a slide that showed purpose and need system linkage enhancing safety and enhancing emergency response and evacuation it does not meet the project purpose of need there are no benefits to additional um adjacent interchanges in martin county there's like the the martin highway it's not so congested that it needs to be relieved such that this would provide that benefit um the the local access here would provide the benefit and alternatives one and two do meet the project purpose and needs so that's why we continued with alternatives one and two so my last slide was this but i know we're going to have questions depending on the outcome of this meeting we do would like could take alternatives one and two for public input and right now the the anticipated dates are july 17th and july 18th but i know there are questions so i'll go back to whatever slide so i just want to make it clear i'm gonna since i'm there i can do that um you're the hope i was actually um talking to a a press person the other day i actually um have to apologize i missed the mpo meeting that this was um presented the last time the previous ones is the bridge road interconnect with the turnpike was not on the table um there is people um in south county that are passionate actually on both sides of that issue yes um but it's always been completely impractical we're not going to put any more traffic on bridge road i just want to make that clear that we're not going there right so yes the alternatives that we would like to move forward with do not provide additional access to bridge road thank you i just wanted to reiterate that one more time commissioner campy miss haywood thank you for your presentation but i just want i'm not on the mpo board some of my colleagues all of my other colleagues are so i'm going to be but i haven't been yet for these you just spent some time showing us a version that you are not going to use yes because we were asked to yeah i appreciate that but that made it much more confusing because you spend time explaining an option that we're not going to use so for folks that are watching at home this is not the option the two that you are potentially going to use we didn't get into that level of detail as much as you did here i don't believe because it's that's much simpler interchange oh these yes i get it was a much simpler they are much simpler um configurations northbound to northbound northbound to north southbound to southbound here's my question and actually i heard this being discussed on the radio this morning on my way to work uh that we were going to have this meeting right now and so with that in mind the the obvious question is if one is 231 million dollars yes and one is what's the other 100 152 156 and they're both work and there's no upside or downside why is there two options why would we ever spend an additional hundred million dollars like we could what's the value of an extra hundred million we could have gone to public meeting with one alternative you are correct um i think it's apparent which one pending public feedback and local agency feedback which one is going to be the preferred alternative it's likely going to be alternative to correct unless there's you know money raining down into the cars on the expensive version if we are looking for uh any kind of activity i would make a motion to accept the 156 million dollar version thank you commissioner smith so it was me who pushed for the discussion to make sure that we explore all the options what was glazed over very quickly and the impacts were very slight were that ed you are going to get some impacts in palm city and if we ever do redesign the turnpike interchange up there it's going to change um i i am on 95 a fair amount these days for whatever reason this sec can we stop whoa stop stop sorry go back to the one you just had up okay no or the one before i don't care just stop moving it please we will get one shot at this for the next 50 years whatever decision is made good or bad or indifferent we're not going to go back and rebuild this thing 10 years from now because we made a mistake in the decision this section and and harold you probably know it as well as anybody but i've been down here probably 20 times in the last couple months for whatever reason the accidents and the traffic between the county line and the way station is like out of control i don't know what happens on the turnpike the firefighters call it the twilight zone but it is the twilight zone and so the other day when i was going down there was six seven miles of traffic on the turnpike dead still stop not going anywhere there were people on the 95 side that were slowing down because the uh the turnpike side was stopped and they were looking to find out what was going on in that component when you are in that mess there is no alternative to get out of that mess and do something different and so the options are if you know how to get around it if you're local you'll go out bridge road underneath 95 underneath the turnpike and you go out west which i've done before when there was something going on out there and all of that was congested and tied up i just i i understand the concern of not wanting to open up bridge road to any more traffic i don't believe that that's what would happen i believe that you're giving the most options possible to both people in hope sound to get on or off if that's the direction you're going i appreciate your con your criticism of the the third option i don't agree with it i think it's overkill on the on the the concerns i travel all over the state and i see the crazy things you all do with interchanges all over the state the worst one in the world and it's the most confusing i said this at the npo meeting is down uh where the turnpike blends into the sawgrass and it's you don't know if you're going to naples or if you're going north it's and then there's a another one that goes to the east and you never know which one you're on and now you find yourself going to the airport when you had no intentions that you really wanted to get on the the sawgrass right i think of what you're doing in orlando with all the interchanges up there and you have done crazy remarkable things up there but the idea that it's too congested it's too tight it's too this it's too that i completely reject all of that given what you're doing around the state um so look if this isn't to move forward i i would have just liked to have seen if we're going to be completely transparent to the public and give them options show them the options this one says no we've already made a decision why even have the public hearing we're selecting item number two because the cheapest and why bother going further so by not giving anybody the option not understanding the dynamics of what will really happen with all this and i don't know that we absolutely know i think we're shorting the public and i always think that and the funny thing is you know when one of these projects is is delivered to us there's also the no build option and that's not here right well because presented to yeah because of timing and nothing about no build and so i just the the you know and i said this at the mpo as well and this is the last thing i'll say about this we were presented years ago with a plan from engineers on the four leaf clover that was going to get built at 95 and 714 or 76 sorry i always get those two mixed up at 76 and if you didn't look at the drawings and you didn't pay the slightest bit of attention to what was on the drawing the mpo didn't say much until i said look you understand that there's going to be a hotel a restaurant and a fast food torn down because the way this thing is designed and we were told what got built wasn't practical wouldn't fit we couldn't do it i said i don't know go up to daytona and look at uh ponds inlet or port orange exit there's a tight diamond up there how is it you could build it up there and we couldn't build it here well guess what the mpo voted we wanted nothing to do with what was proposed and they built a tight diamond like they are down south and like what was up in port orange i just sometimes when these things get presented because whoever and for whatever reason doesn't want an option it gets presented in such a way that it just can't work it's too expensive and it's too tight we don't have enough distance between a and b end of story and then a motion gets made and we choose number two because that's what we're going to present because it's the cheapest and i don't know that it's the best honestly and so i appreciate you allowing us to see this because that's what we asked you to do i just wish that the public would get to see in the public hearing process all of the options so they know what other options could be considered and with that i gotta go i thank you commissioner hurt yeah um actually could you pull on do you mind if we finish these two last items within your absence sure okay okay yeah i i certainly uh can understand the need for uh examining these alternatives um in the last several months let's call it six months each time that i have traveled uh south and have come north on i-95 there has been a terrible accident at indiantown road every single time not 80 of the time 100 of the time so i understand the need to reduce the traffic on the indiantown interchange and also i have absolutely no interest in having in creating new exits in martin county no interest whatsoever so i think that this alternative the alternative to that just allows a fast exchange between the turnpike and um i-95 is is a brilliant solution to a problem that exists today so i i i like both uh one and two but obviously i prefer two because it's it's less expensive and i think that it will function just as well as as not as alternative one i personally concur with you um we have such an issue on bridge road right now when there's a backup on 95 literally the traffic will back up to 95 to us one um and it's just we have no you know i'll get a shot in if willoughby would have come to bridge road and we had another means of that maybe that would be different but the way it's configured right now um we can't take it anyway commissioner hetherington i don't disagree with all that i'm just curious how much right away is because it's significantly cheaper i'd imagine construction but how much right away is required in alternative one or two because it looks like there's one section that you could acquire that right away in alternative two where you're gonna either buy from a willing seller or condemn this section but then you've got this other parcel in alternative one no i'm sorry alternative two so i i think i'm gonna ask bill if he remembers but between the two one is 67 acres and the other one is about 70 something so the the right away between alternatives one and two aren't that much of a difference but it is it is over 60 acres needed for both yeah it is it is but it's elevated right what's that anyway never mind commissioner campy i'm gonna follow on that okay a couple of questions that we didn't hear timing wise i know that a lot of times we're thinking when we have this conversation that hey you guys are going to be out there starting this in the next six months give us the time frame of what you're talking about most of us might not even be around to ever get a chance to do this correct when is this going to be built so let me go back to my um so that's the transportation planning process this is a this is because we're dealing with i-95 it's a federal project so design has to be funded before this pdney study concludes depending on public feedback and what's that as we get so design will be funded other things other besides that we don't know but as as everyone knows fdot goes through that annual work program process and and and part and and funds project based on priority so it's just a yearly process of when when this will actually be done so two years for each phase if if you were just supposed to keep going and going it would be two years for each phase two years for design two years for right away and then you get into construction so not holding you responsible yes i guess the first cars driving over this what year will it be it is not funded okay so but it won't happen within the next decade that i don't know how would i answer that henry well i just want to make sure that people don't start to have like a crazy sense of urgency this is if i were to guess yes i'm not the expert you all are 10 15 years out correct yeah we're looking at like jasmine said uh if everything is lining up it could be uh five or more years to start construction so that's five years fast to start construction that's again if all the funding is in place and all that but again oh that little if all the funding is in place yes yeah there's a lot of priorities would you state your name for the record please yeah my name is henry pinson i am the environment turnpike environmental management engineer thank you thank you yeah i'm not i'm not criticizing you i think having the flyover option now without the uh the requirement of going through turnpike tollboots the ability to do sunpass or toll by plate allows a lot of this and i travel all over the country for my regular job and i see this all the time where you can get from one and and and as far as i'm concerned hearing most of it having read the agenda item and now hearing about it from you all it's a great idea it uh you know it gives people the ability that if there is an accident on 95 or the turnpike to be able to find somewhere to switch over even if you're crawling along a mile or so before the switch over you know that at least you will at some point and then also to to alleviate anybody getting off at bridge road is a plus the other question if you do have to require uh potentially 60 acres and this is an elevated roadway would the current owners of that property still have the ability to use underneath or do you guys block it and own it we block it and so it's not like because currently what's out there now is is very rural in nature yes there's no opportunity for it to be continue to exist underneath your project no there's cows on there now no they a fence would go up where the limited access right away line is but i would like to clarify that this is not elevated um or the only things that elevate is when you have to cross over and um i-95 or but every other than that is that grade okay yeah so you're gonna have those the rise and falls but for most part it's at grade no i understand yeah good good what it's amazing we all assumed it was well she you're not saying it's some sections will be elevated to get you over the tops of things exactly and if you're having a i'm not an engineer but if you're having a natural pitch at high speeds it's not you're not coming up the hill and it's going to elevate up and over that's what i'm i'm speaking of that so it's not like at the at the canal closer to martin highway and high meadows where it's 60 feet elevated you're not doing that it's going to be gradual just like you said commissioner heatherton i was just going to suggest it's complex enough that two i think you need more public involvement meetings you've got two days in the middle of the summer that if someone misses them they're done if you could spread those out probably throughout the timeline and have more than two meetings back to back in the middle of the summer i think that probably would be beneficial to the public thank you we usually we used to only have one but because of the pandemic we we are now um providing the virtual options so no matter way anyone is in the world as long as they have that internet connection they can join that virtual meeting and then we have the in person but we'll take that under consideration yeah in addition uh the virtual meeting is is recorded on the website so they can go to the website and see the meeting as present and all the materials exciting opportunities and projects thank you yes one last thing though please if i make um commissioner smith asked about that no build because of the timing and we were trying to compress the presentation we did not present the no build but that is an option that remains on the table throughout the pdme study the no build or do nothing alternative and we'll get more into that in our public meeting presentation okay do we need a motion or commissioner like i feel he made a motion but do you need a motion i withdraw my motion all right thank you thank you thank you all right we are going to change up once again um since we are all the way to uh only having two items left we are going to take a 10 minute um we don't even need time that we're going to take a five minute you got the i don't need that you can take my word for it okay we're going to take a 10 minute break and we'll be back um close captioning break for our two items which actually have a total of five and i like being defiant welcome back we will now take up department number one office of management and budgets items which require board approval we have three of them and stephanie murley will take us away good morning commissioners stephanie murley with the office of management and budget here to present to you the omb item for today our first item is a permission to apply for the cops or the community oriented policing services technology equipment program grant a partnership between the general services and department and the sheriff's office office is requesting a 750 000 grant for replacement of obsolete equipment and support systems with effective equipment technologies and interoperable communications to assist in responding to and preventing crime at the e911 dispatch center there is no match required for this grant our second item is a permission to accept the fdot supplemental agreement for the northeast jensen beach boulevard resurfacing project this is just a grant amendment that is increasing the grant project by 153 093 we have the match already budgeted in the fy 24 roads capital improvement plan which is available currently in the cip and the last item is just a request for funds for development review engineering services if you recall back in december of 2023 we requested funding in order to get the backlog of development review uh engineering plan reviews this additional request in the amount of 77 thousand eight hundred and eighty dollars from development review fees in the unincorporated mstu will allow development review to continue this pace through the end of fiscal year 24 and that is all i have today move approval second we have a motion by commissioner heard seconded by commissioner campy all in favor aye all opposed motion carries four to zero commissioner smith is not here okay department number two thank you for being so quick uh department number two contracts that will meet the threshold of the board contracts that meet the threshold for board approval one million dollars greater christie brotherton good after no good morning christie brotherton chief procurement officer we have two items for your consideration today the first is a continuing services agreement for fertilizers and pesticides this contract has a maximum not to exceed value of three million dollars and a maximum not to exceed term of five years and staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidders which are gulf ventures and site one landscape supply and staff is requesting that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request the next contract we have is a continuing services agreement for environmentally sensitive lands vegetation management this contract has a maximum not to exceed value of five million dollars with a maximum not to exceed term of five years this particular contract the bidders were not required to bid on all line items that's why we have the contract award broken down by line items and there is a change we are rescinding the contract award to ground level this was due to some contract exceptions that were submitted that we could not agree to so the contractor and the county agreed to rescind the contract award so with that being said staff is recommending that the board award the contract the lowest responsive and responsible bidders by line item for items one through eight we have earth balance corporation kerner llc wetlands management for items nine through 14 we have john brown and sons kerner llc and salgado tree trimming and for items 15 through 19 we have bright view landscaping services salgado tree trimming and wetlands management and that move that the board authorized the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request and that concludes this item move approval we have a motion by commissioner heard seconded by commissioner hetherington all in favor aye all opposed motion carries four to zero commissioner smith not here thank you with that we have reached the end of our exciting uh agenda today and uh do we have any public comment 505 at 4 11 15 seeing none commissioner comments commissioner hetherington i'm all set thanks i'm all set commissioner campy all set i'm set mr dollison yeah i think i just wanted to um uh stay a few words on uh this last thursday evening there was a fire at the florida power and light plant um and our fire rescue staff uh responded uh as quickly and expeditiously to the scene um obviously there were some uh some incidents that occurred there um i i just wanted to point out a couple of things that i thought the staff did a really outstanding job with um um in in in working with florida power and light at the plant uh with those that had injured it was a it was a significant scene in that regard um yeah chief deputy uh john budenseek uh remained in close communication with administration and um and fire rescue team and assisting them and recording off the area but i think what's most significant is that the uh one the staff uh firemen went in to rescue those that had been injured due to uh uh an explosion um that did cause a temporary uh delay in the action of them fighting the fire uh talking to the uh our chief working closely with the plant managers and the i think it's a very important to note that our hazard hazmat team was very involved with defining what the conditions are and what could be done and then uh knowing uh chad and truly our chief uh was not one for in action after receiving uh really valuable information um from his team made a decision to act decisively to and put the fire out and no further um hazards were were encountered after they took that action and so uh i just think it's really important they took uh there'll be certainly more after action review of it but um they really did an outstanding uh job in both um uh rescuing and helping to save the lives of two injured fpnl including their own engineer injured firefighter and then um to assess afterwards um the risks involved and working closely to assess a safe means of continuing to put out the fire there was a quite a lot went into that and they did really an outstanding job so that uh uh um and our prayers go to those uh injured fpnl agents uh for their for their recovery and our injured firefighter thank you thank you thank you sir nothing all right with that we are adjourned thank you