Singh, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which is going to be led by Lieutenant Micah Skoronsky. Well, good morning. Thank you for inviting me, and let's join together in mind, heart, and spirit. Creator of the universe, author of all life, and source of all that is good, thank you for the life we have and the life we share in Martin County. As we approach the 24th anniversary of the tragic, terrifying attacks that wounded our nation on September 11, 2001, may we remember the valiant efforts of the first responders who courageously risked and gave their lives to save others. Many of them still suffer the after effects of that day. We therefore offer our thanks to all who gave of themselves so selflessly on that day, and we give thanks to the first responders in our cities, our counties, our state, and across our great nation who on this day place their lives and safety and well-being, place our lives safety and well-being ahead of their own. May we always appreciate the sacrifices they make on our behalf. Grant, O loving one, that we may finally learn to give ourselves for others and foster a nation united in peace and freedom. Amen. Would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, Lieutenant, and then tell us all about your service. Thanks. 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. I'm Lieutenant Skoransky, Martin County Sheriff's Office. I joined the United States Army in 1992. I got out of active service in the year 2000 and came to Florida. When 9-11 happened, I signed up in the Army Reserves. I've been overseas multiple times. I held every position from team leader to first sergeant. My final assignment was as the Force Protection NCIC for a two-star command, 412 Theater Engineer Command out of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Excellent. Thank you. And you're still protecting us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let's see. First, we will have public comment. The first request to speak form I have is from Dr. Julie Bjornsson, followed by Derek Powell. Good morning, Commissioners. Julie Bjornsson, Stewart, Florida. I will be, I just came to let you know that I'll be setting up my 9-11 display this Thursday from 8 to 6 at the designated corner at the skate park in Palm City. Thank you very much, Commissioner Campy for that. And Sarah, congratulations for being chair. I haven't been here for a while, so that was a real surprise. Okay. So thank you for that designated corner. I have banners, a beautiful display, but I also put up signs, almost 50 signs of terrorist attacks that have happened after 9-11. People come and they cry. They've been there. And I cry with them. The many signs I put up remind people terrorist attacks continue after 9-11. And many say they've forgotten. We must not forget the World Trade Center 9-11 terrorist attacks lasting a total of two hours, four terrorist flights, and a thousand died. There were 343 brave firefighters that died that day. In two hours, over 370 firefighters have died from the toxic dust-related illnesses, and they continue to die as well as people that were there. We just have to, just to make sure that we keep them in our prayers. My son has asked that you might request, like, just police observance during that time so that they're just worried. I don't even know what to say. There were four flights, and I can tell you when the North Tower went down. I can tell you when Flight 2 hit the South Tower, but you don't need to know that. This year, we've had, 225, we've had seven domestic terrorist attacks. We need to realize they're increasing. And in 2004, we only had two, one in the United States, in Butler, with President Trump's attempted assassination. But we also had an attack at a U.S. embassy in Beirut. And what I've been reading on and on, that we just have to know that there's not just one lone person. There's groups, and there's still, we're under extreme surveillance right now in our country to protect us. So we just need the prayers. We need to be vigilant. We need to be observant. So thank you very much for my space. I've done this for 20 years, so I'm grateful for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Derek Powell is next, followed by Patty Marchessi. Morning, Commissioner. Morning. Bear with me. The literature is small, and my eyes are getting worse. Good morning. My name is Derek Powell. I live at 1155 Southeast Cove Road. I'm here today because the development going on around me has hit my home, my property, and my quality of life. First, the sidewalk. I'm referring to the Pepperwood development that's going on right now. First, the sidewalk. I understand we need safe places for people to walk and bike. I'm not against sidewalks, but putting a 10-foot wide path right in front of my house is too much. Gives people a straight view in my front door, and there's no buffer at all between my driveway and sidewalk. I've already spent over $15,000 trying to keep my family's privacy and safety from Cove Road. Now I'm told it's on me to spend even more. Other parts of Cove Road don't have a 10-foot path. Why does mine have to? And if plants are really a safety issue, as stated in an email I received, why do we see them along sidewalks all over Martin County? Done right, landscaping helps. It doesn't hurt. Trees were taken from my property. Whether it was an accident or not, they're gone. The county says the developer will deal with me at the end of the project. Well, that doesn't help me now, and my property's been left bare. By the time the project's done, the developer's gone, and there's no accountability. The county approved this work. The county should be making sure it's fixed while the job is happening, not after. The drainage. There used to be a ditch that carried water away. The developer filled it in and raised the grade, and now water has nowhere to go. I brought this up, and I was told it'd be handled, but nothing's been done. Now I'm being told it's my fault that I cut off my own drainage. That doesn't add up. I know what my property looked like before, and I know what it looks like now, and it's getting worse. It didn't start until they started moving dirt, and that's the truth. At the end of the day, I'm not here to stop progress. I just want it to be fair. Right now, I'm carrying the costs and the problems while the developer moves forward and the county passes the book. All I'm asking is that somebody in this room step up and make sure homeowners like me aren't left holding the bag. Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Powell, we are very attentive to your concerns, and we will make sure that they're resolved. Ms. Marchese. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Patty Marchese. I am a resident of Martin County. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I am strongly opposed to overdevelopment here in Martin County and across Florida and the country. I also recognize that property owners have rights, and if a project is planned responsible, it deserves fair review. For me, the heart of the project comes down to two things, fiscal return and preservation of open space. The ranch preserves more than 92 percent of nearly 4,000 acres with private dollars, not taxpayer expense. It is projected to contribute over $25 million a year to Martin County, boosting the tax base while placing very little burden on services. I also appreciate that the developers have made and fulfilled commitments to our schools and our environment. That kind of follow-through is important to me. That is why I am supporting the ranch, and I encourage you to weigh both the fiscal return and the open space commitment carefully. Those are the factors that matter most to me, and I believe they are critical to Martin County's future. Thank you. Thank you. Tom Pine is next, and Mr. Pine's request is the last request. I have to speak a public comment. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Tom Pine. I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years. Today, I will start with a public plea for help from the Martin County Bar Association. I am asking for legal interpretation of the consent agenda agenda in reference to use in public meetings, because I believe our county government is using the consent agenda in an illegal manner to hide from the public where our tax dollars, where our spending are tax dollars and special deals for their friends in the business community, also known as the Martin Chamber of Commerce. Today, in the consent agenda, this commission will approve $18,707,762.54, which was spent between August 11th and August 24th of 2025, without identifying the payees or the raising of the payments. Democracy dies in darkness. Welcome to Martin County. The definition of the consent agenda, according to Google, for when you can and cannot use the consent agenda, the consent agenda is a tool used to streamline meeting procedures by collecting routine, non-controversial items in to a group. All are passed with a single motion and vote. Topics that have not been discussed by the board of the past shall not be in the consent agenda, plain and to the point. The first hearing of our new budget will start at 5 p.m. today. That's the easy part of the taxpayers of Martin. That's the easy part for the taxpayers of Martin County, because we can see where our tax dollars are going. The hard part is the millions of our tax dollars tax dollars that are hidden and spent in the consent agenda every meeting without any information so whatsoever to the taxpayers of Martin County. Our Jensen Beach Community Center was open November of 2011 at a cost of $1.5 million to the taxpayers of Martin County. The Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce has had an empty lot next to our community center on Jensen Beach Boulevard. I don't remember when, but I do remember very clearly that they had a small billboard showing that they were fundraising to build their own, very own building. Then lo and behold, their fundraising billboard came down and the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce moves into our community center. This is the kind of slime that happens behind closed doors. In Martin County, it's called the consent agenda. Not a word to the public, of course, just a nice bump for their friends at the Martin County Chamber of Commerce on the backs of the Martin County taxpayers. Will it ever end? Thank you for your time. Thank you. That's the last request to speak form I have. Commissioners, can I have a motion to approve the agenda, including the consent agenda? I'll move approval of the agenda, including the consent agenda. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Now we'll hear proclamations. The proclamation, only proclamation today is to present a proclamation declaring Hunger Action Month. Good morning, Commissioners. Hunger and poverty remain issues of grave concern in the United States, the state of Florida, and on the Treasure Coast, with 250,000 children, adults, seniors, and veterans experiencing food insecurity on a weekly basis. Martin County is committed to taking steps to raise awareness about the need to combat hunger in every part of our county and to provide additional resources that our residents need. To that end, the board is recognizing September as Hunger Action Month in Martin County. And here to accept, we have Andrea Santos and Jennifer Mahone with the Treasure Coast Food Bank. Good morning. My name is Andrea Santos. This is Jennifer Mahone. On behalf of the Treasure Coast Food Bank, President and CEO Judith Cruz, our dedicated staff, volunteers, partners, and board of directors, I would like to thank you for proclaiming September as Hunger Action Month. Treasure Coast Food Bank provides millions of meals to our neighbors facing food insecurity each year through partnerships with 300-plus agencies, strong collaborations, and a full roster of direct service programs in Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, and Okeechobee counties. Together with our community, we are not only working to solve the immediate problem of hunger, but we are building solutions to create stronger and more resilient Treasure Coast for generations to come. Throughout the entire month of September, Treasure Coast Food Bank will be joining Feeding America and food banks across the country in raising awareness for food security and hunger in our communities. We are encouraging everyone in our community to join the movement and take action. As part of the month-long campaign, Treasure Coast Food Bank will be hosting our fifth annual Outrun Hunger on September 20th and Light Up Orange event on September 9th. We invite our entire community to go orange with us for Hunger Action Day. Orange is the color of hunger relief, which represents encouragement and determination. For more information on these events and ways to get involved, please visit our website, stophunger.org. Thank you again for your continued support. Hunger doesn't stand a chance when our communities come together. I already submitted quite a few voting sheets. A lot of resumes. Now we'll hear from commissioners. Commissioner Vargas. I just want to say that I understood what one of the citizens has said about the consent agenda, and I did ask a couple of questions that are on there. For instance, the alteration of an existing preserve area, an amendment, and my understanding is that, and I do have the director here, and maybe he can help me out here a bit about this, and I understand that the property owner is going to be providing, offering, submitting, setting aside additional area that does have gopher tortoise on there. So I did look into that. I was really concerned about that. I almost pulled it. Could you address that, please? Yes. Good morning, commissioners. Paul Schilling, growth management director. So as you indicated, commissioner, the PAMP modification is to capture, in essence, better habitat, and also as a byproduct of that, encompass additional gopher tortoise burrow. So there is no net loss to the preserve area. The amendment will provide for maintenance of the fence line and some other matters. So that's the approval. Yeah, because my understanding is that the setbacks, if you have a pool, is five feet. Is that right? There are construction setbacks from the preserve area of five for an accessory and ten for a primary. Right, the property itself, and that does meet the qualifications. I was very concerned about that. This is west-west Palm City area. Doesn't matter where it is, it's Martin County. So I do read this, and I do do a lot of questions, and I speak with our departments about this. So I just want to let you know that I'm very cognizant and very careful, and I had the maps, and I looked at them, and I had questions. Anything else that I missed? No, there were exhibits as part of the agenda item that reflect the new preserve area. My department has reviewed it. I've reviewed it and approved it. So it's a good project. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything further? Mr. Capps. I'm good today. Mr. Campy. Madam Chair, thank you. As was mentioned in our invocation, this Thursday is September 11th. I'm still very appreciative of many residents in Martin County that take the time and effort and quite often expense to continue to commemorate what happened on September 11th in 2001. In Palm City, in the morning, we're having a fire rescue, and our Sheriff's Office will be having a ceremony in Jock Layton Park by the skateboard park there at the corner of Map and Martin Highway. The ceremony begins at 8.30 a.m. with a walk over the Veterans Memorial Bridge beginning at 9. The road single lane of the eastbound will be blocked off. Last year, they had a tremendous turnout, which was great. If you have school-age students, they can have an approved absence for the first couple of hours of the school day so as to participate in that event. It'll go over the Veterans Memorial Bridge to Canter and then walk back to Palm City. In years past, they walked all the way to US-1, which I think was a lot for some of the walkers. So this year it's over and back. At 7 p.m., once again, my friend Dennis McKenna, who has definitely a heart for this, 24 years later, we're having our memorial ceremony in the parking lot where we have a large piece of steel from the World Trade Center. It's been on display there for many years that Dennis was able to get for us in Martin County. That will be at 7 p.m. They will be singing and stories from folks that were there. Our fire rescue and sheriff's office, again, will be represented as well as a couple of beautiful ceremonies. We've also, and it'll come up later in the budget. I use some district funds to bring in two very large Klieg lights, which are those lights that shine up into the sky, similar to what they do in New York City, that will represent and signify the Twin Towers. That will be lit all evening. It can be seen from well out of Palm City, but certainly in Palm City. And I'd like to thank our Martin County staff, many different departments, the library, Parks and Rec, and many others that year after year help us to not forget because the worst thing that we can do is to forget that this ever happened. There is an expression that says you die twice if people stop remembering you. So as long as I have the privilege of sitting up here, we'll continue to do that. I invite all of you to come. I believe there's probably some other ceremonies taking place. I know the city of Stewart is having their police and fire walk over the Roosevelt Bridge in the morning. So if you prefer to do that, you can. And then that's what I would have to say about that. So thank you so much, Madam Chair. Thanks. Commissioner Hetherington. Thank you for that. And we'll see you. Thank you for organizing that. We'll see you at the Bridgewalk on Thursday. And I think Mr. Powell has left, but I ran into him at an Indian Town Chamber of Commerce event on Saturday and said to him that I would come see his property. And I completely understand his concerns. I know staff is working with him on addressing some of the drainage issues. And I think that if any of us had stood at his property when that PUD was approved, that the mobility path that we would have thought that it probably needs some kind of barrier, landscaping, fence, wall. I don't know what could be done now at this point, but I would certainly encourage us to look into seeing what could be done. And I do believe he was respectful and can understand his concerns. May I also add that if there were trees that were removed by accident, I wouldn't want to wait until the project was over either. They took them out. They're a big company that's done that project. We approved it. They need to be neighborly and he should not have to wait months, if not a year to have his trees put back, especially if they were taken out and they were not supposed to be. So I would also echo what Commissioner Hetherington just said. It is if not the if the developer does not want to be neighborly, then it's our responsibility to make them be neighborly. So if you needed some head nods, I'm giving you a head nod that he could not have been more respectful considering the imposition he's facing. We're on it. Good. Commissioner Cash. I have clear direction. Thank you. Mr. Powell referred to a 10-foot wide sidewalk. When I heard that, the first thing that came to mind was the Sun Trail. Is that why it's 10 feet wide? Because it's part of that thing, you know, that sidewalk that goes from Florida to Maine? That particular location is not part of the Sun Trail. That's a north-south corridor. Okay. So it would be a separate requirement. Okay. But I suppose the purpose of the wide sidewalk would be for similar purposes so that it's a multi-use? Shared use. That's correct. Shared use. Okay. So that it's suitable for rollerbladers and bicyclists and walkers and all that. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Donaldson. I just have one item just really giving you a quick update on the county attorney recruitment and selection committee, which is made up of Carolyn Timmons, Denise Marie Neiman, and myself and John Budenseek. We did review all of the applicants and did come up with a ranked order based upon written submission. And with your concurrence, we will continue with interviews of our top candidates and bring you back a ranked list of that's based upon both the written and interviews. Is that good? Is that everybody? Yep. Sure. Thank you. Ms. Elder. Thank you. And we will proceed with our board and committee appointments, starting with health facilities authority appointment. We have one vacancy. Donna Gordon for the record under administration. Health facilities authority, one person is being asked to be appointed and Charles Cleaver received five votes. Their motion to approve Mr. Cleaver. So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Next appointment is affordable housing advisory committee appointments. We're asking you to appoint up to two Martin County citizens, but one for the category of a banking mortgage person connected with affordable housing. She is Jody Dupuis. And then the other two that received the most votes is Dr. Reverend Deborah Allen and Mrs. Diane Owens. Is there a motion to approve Dr. Allen and Ms. Owens? Move approval. And Mrs. Dupuis, right? And Mrs. Dupuis. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. The next appointment is a business development board appointment. Business development board, I'm asking you to appoint one person. The person with the most votes is Mr. Giuseppe Pistone. Is there a motion to appoint Giuseppe Joey Pistone? I'll move approval of Mr. Pistone. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. And last but not least is our usual wonderful slate of appointees for the library board of trustees. Three people. It went better than I thought it would go. Mrs. Joy Banks received four votes. Mrs. Susan Heyer received three votes. And Mrs. Catherine Spurgeon received five votes. That's the most. Motion to accept those names. Second. There's a motion and a second. Commissioner Capps? No, I'm good. Motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you all for volunteering to participate on our committees. Those are wonderful applications. Thank you. We will now move to a department quasi-judicial number one, which is a request for approval of the phase one final site plan for the ranch planned unit development. This is quasi-judicial. Any ex parte disclosures? Commissioner Vargas? If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Capps? If I have any, they have been filed. If I have any, they have been filed. If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? I have some, and they've been filed. And Commissioner Hetherington? I do, and those have been filed. Excellent. Mr. Sinnott, this is quasi-judicial. Have you turned in your information to the clerk? I'm turning in a copy of my work history in the agenda item to be filed as easy. Anyone who's going to be providing testimony, please stand and be sworn in. Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm John Sinnott, Principal Planner with Growth Management. This is a request by Urban Design Studio and Tyson Waters on behalf of JWA Ranch for approval of the Ranch PUD phase one final site plan. The development of phase one includes agricultural activities, two 18-hole golf courses, a short course, clubhouse, cart barns, operations and maintenance facility, range building, training facility, seven golf cottages, and associated infrastructure. Phase one consists of approximately 1,842 acres located on the south side of Southwest Canter Highway and Southwest Bridge Road and Stewart. Included is a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. You can see the overall boundaries of the Ranch PUD here in red. It's approximately 3,900 acres in size. The ranch was formerly known as Colusa Creek Ranch. It's been used for cattle ranching as well as a nursery for commercial landscape materials. The property to the east of the ranch is zone Ag 20A. The properties to the south and west are zoned A2, agricultural. To the northeast at the intersection of Bridge Road and Canter Highway, you can see the Three Lakes PUD, otherwise known as Apogee. And to the west of the site on the north side of Canter, the Rolling Sands golf course development. The future land use designation of the property is rural lifestyle. The nearby Apogee golf course is also a rural lifestyle development. The other surrounding properties are within the agricultural future land use designation. This is an excerpt from the approved phasing plan. As you can see, phase one is entirely on the south side of Canter Highway and Bridge Road. The other grayed out areas on the south side are within phase two, and the grayed out area on the north side of Canter Highway is phase three. The ranch PUD was approved in April 2024. First PUD amendment with a revised master site plan and revised phasing plan was approved in October 2024. Overall, the ranch PUD includes bona fide agriculture, 175 single-family lots, two 18-hole golf courses, short course, range house and training center with associated amenities, clubhouse, golf course, golf cottages, recreational accessory uses, residential multi-slip docking facility, maintenance facilities, and associated infrastructure. The application before you today is the phase one final site plan, again consisting of 1,842 acres on the south side of Bridge Road and Canter Highway. Phase one includes two 18-hole golf courses, a short course, clubhouse, cart barns, operations and maintenance facility, range building, training facility, seven golf cottages, and associated infrastructure. Phase one also includes roughly 500 acres of bona fide agriculture, 196 acres of wetland preserve, and 121 acres of wetland buffers and upland preserve. Phase one includes one internal roadway connection to southwest Canter Highway and one internal roadway connection to southwest Bridge Road with accompanying turn lanes. Phase one also includes the construction of an equestrian trail in the Bridge Road right-of-way. This is the proposed phase one final site plan sheet two. On the right side of the plan you can see the connection to Bridge Road along with a gatehouse. Towards the center you can see the ranch operations and golf course maintenance facility. There's an associated entrance off of Canter Highway. And in the southwest portion of phase one you can see the two golf courses as well as the clubhouse and training facilities. Pursuant to Article 10, Table 10.5 F9, Martin County Land Development Regulations, review of this application is not required by the local planning agency. Development review staff have found the JWA Ranch application to comply with all applicable regulations and the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan as detailed in the staff report. Staff recommendation is to move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments including the staff report as exhibit one and move that the board adopt the resolution approving the phase one final site plan for the ranch PUD including the preserve area management plan. That concludes my presentation. Questions for staff. Seeing non-applicant would you like to make a presentation? Good morning. Tyson Waters from the law firm of Foxwood-Klesky. Excited to be here in front of you today for this phase one final site plan approval. We greatly appreciate staff's time and effort and working with us to get to this point today and we agree with staff's recommendation and ask that you would do the same thing. Again just as a little bit of background staff did a great job giving an overview of what's in front of you today. This is the ranch PUD just over 3,900 acres at the intersection of Bridge Road and Canter Highway and Hope Sound. Phase one consists of about just over 1,800 acres so a little bit less than half of the overall site. This is the site plan and what you see kind of in the in the the non-hashed out colors is phase one. It can is comprised of a staff went over two golf courses plus some golf course amenities such as a clubhouse a range house and a maintenance facility. We're also asking for seven cottages as part of this phase one final site plan approval and I think most notably too is where there's over 200 acres of wetlands that will be covered under a PAMP so will be restored and enhanced as part of this final site plan approval. Over 500 acres of agricultural lands will be maintained. 600 acres of landscapes and landscape buffers and 30 acres of upland preserves. So of these 1,800 acres over 83 percent are part of that wetlands uplands landscape agricultural land. So a vast majority of of this this site plan of this piece of property. I think as we continue to talk about this site plan too there's a lot of unique components that were part of the PUD many of which are environmental of nature and with that we have Toby Overdorf here to speak on those environmental components. Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give it will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Commissioners this is one of those projects that I get to. In other words I get to deal with a great applicant some great professionals that work through the process and I get to do some things that I don't normally get to do as an environmental professional. I get to work on this project that the owner has said I want to restore this place so it looks like it's always been here. What we've seen over the last several years on this particular piece of property is that the wetlands have been degraded. They have been used in an agricultural fashion so that the cattle on the place and nothing has been illegal whatsoever. There's been no violations and that type of thing but this is an area that has been degraded just because of agricultural use across our county. It's a normal thing however this applicant has said I want to restore this area to a place that I'm going to be really proud of and be able to really show off the environment that is around us. So I get to be a part of that and it's really been a neat process now of creating two really separate habitats if you will and looking at two courses that we're putting in out there. The cottages intermixed with that. The east side course being more of an open prairie and wet prairie area on the west side more of a forested wetlands and even integrated within that is a heron rookery that has been we discovered it kind of in our first initial review of the place and our owner said I really want to emphasize that I want to make sure that stays there forever and as a result he has voluntarily put a large buffer around that area and made sure that that is something that he can assure that it's going to be there for a long time. As we look at the the processes in front of you in this particular slide and we're looking at water quality issues on the site. Number one he's taking waters from the C44 it's coming into the property when it goes back out that property that water is a heck of a lot cleaner than it was when it came into that property. The rest the restoration of the littoral shelves looking at areas that we're actually going to be cleaning waters as it comes in and goes back out is a truly an added benefit. When we look at the restoration of the hydrological levels within the wetlands themselves this is an area that we're going to be able to restore groundwater. We're having large open areas that are going to allow for that groundwater to go back down in to our to our overall Florida Aquifer and therefore recharge these areas as well. That's enhanced of course by bringing additional waters into the property. As we look overall in the restoration of the hydrology again we're not taking water out of the property constantly in order to enhance the agriculture. What we're doing is actually bringing it in enhancing the wetlands instead enhancing those areas around it and we're restoring some areas in between those wetlands as well which is not required by any regulation within Martin County but it is required by our owner who said I want to make this place really look natural really look in a way that we're going to be able to intermingle with the native environment. So we're also overall preserving over 39 percent of the upland habitat which 25 percent of course is required but 39 percent of overall is going to be preserved on this site and so this again is one of those projects it's not a have to it's a get to and I'm really excited to be able to be a part of this project to be a part of something that I think is going to leave the land a lot better than it was when when we started and excited to work on this for a long time so I would appreciate your support thank you so much I'll bring Tyson back up. So as you know as part of the rural lifestyle land use designation there is a laundry list of PUD additional conditions that everyone's required to do but I think you've seen as you heard Toby speak this project gone above and beyond those standard public benefits and in addition to that environmental component another unique thing that this project does are those off-site public benefits that touch so much more than just the surrounding area but a greater vast of the entire county and to go over some of those off-site public improvements I'd like to have Tom McNicholas come up here to speak to those points. Good morning commissioners good morning staff Tom McNicholas for the record I did swear in outside the glass doors out there some of the a lot of the off-site projects and first I do want to uh exemplify what Toby said we represented this property and the landowners on this property for the last 26 years with the Barney family the Barney family set us out on a task to find somebody who is compatible for Martin County and what they wanted to do at that time was not only sell the property for for business and personal family reasons but they wanted to find somebody who would be a good fit for Martin County and conserve a lot of the land and I think we've done that with uh Ken and Suzanne Bass who are over my right shoulder who are sitting in the second row behind Tyson um this wasn't when you get look at PUDs some people can think PUDs are transactional you must do them as an application of the of the agreement with the county but I'm going to talk to you about some other things that have nothing to do with the PUDs and just good people coming to our community and becoming a part of the community but first under the PUD the Pine School the Pine School actually owns Banner Lake a lot of people don't realize that that that wetland and that habitat there is actually part of the 172 acre private campus known as the Pine School and when Ken Bax toured that facility a year and a half ago he looked at some of the needs that they had and that was one of the initial needs because Banner Lake has been needed to be cleaned up for decades uh the county with you in partnership I believe you all are still doing a water study now on Banner Lake where it can be recharged but that fifty thousand dollars in-kind restoration was started last spring and already completed in May of June of this year so that project is done and we have a lot more coming we're in planning right now with the volunteers at South Fork it's a big volunteer body what we found there was a need that they had flooding and they had a par three golf course that was severely overgrown uh the the ranch in the Bax family uh contributed is contributing 750 000 in-kind to renovate the South Fork golf course but they're also going in a mentor program with the greens keeping students who are on that property so those kids those students at South Fork will actually be helping to design some of this golf course and they'll be watching as this project comes for to fruition to be very specific you have world-class designers who are designing the golf courses that you saw on the on the plan that Tyson showed you so they'll be working with those students to design a par three golf course at South Fork High School that planning is in the process right now the third leg of this stool is University of Florida at IFAS I think we all know in the community that uh IFAS and University of Florida has been designated to a small spot at the existing grounds where they are uh they approached us we approached them I can't remember which nonetheless what we came up with was we're going to donate at least 20 acres to them on the site of the ranch so they'll be part of a living active agricultural site now it probably will be one of the best locations in the state of Florida for University of Florida and IFAS that is in the planning process now and you'll see that in phase two when we bring that back forward with the county uh that also is going to result in about 50,000 of in-kind services to plan out uh their site we don't want to just give them the land and let them struggle we want to actually help them activate it and put them on that site above and beyond these PUDs um what Ken Bax has done is he's gone out and look at other needs I think many of you are familiar with our foundation Ken asked me what I was doing in the community so the the reconstruction of the high school fields at Martin County for the baseball fields doesn't really happen without the Bax family what they did was there was a lot of flooding at that facility for years so in December we redid those fields it was Ken Bax who came up and stood forward and brought in $75,000 worth of fresh sand so that those fields no longer flood those the Martin County High School baseball team kicks off their first fall game tonight as an aside above and beyond that you're also familiar with the work that's been done at Hidden Oaks to restore those fields those trees didn't get there by themselves it was the Bax family who came forward exclusive of this PUD and brought in 120 trees all of them are living and maintained and now that site too is fantastic so we appreciate your support with this we ask for your support and uh so we can continue to do good work in the community thank you so just quickly to um to to oops we just quickly to wrap this up again staffs has complete complies across the board confirmed we comply with the comprehensive plan land development regulations our plan unit development agreement and we're in compliance with the master site plan so again we'd ask for um you would agree with staff's recommendation and for your approval and and just in conclusion when i started my presentation i said how excited i was that we were here as part of this phase one final site plan i think toby actually said it best that we get to be here that we get to be part of this project because truly you have local people on this project team and we're truly excited and proud to be a part of the team and to be able to put our name on this project for generations to come and we're excited for you to see what we've anticipated what we've seen behind the scenes finally with this final site plan everyone's going to be able to see what this project is going to look like so again we'd ask for your support and your um approval of the project and we've got our entire project team here in case you have any questions thank you questions for the applicant commissioner campy thank you very much this is um another opportunity for us to hear a little bit more about the project i know that when i had first had the opportunity to hear about it a couple of years ago you know that's the way it works here uh someone have an idea it goes through an idea phase for a while before it is then sort of formalized into an application to the county and then that process really kicks off quite an extensive uh as should be and that's what makes martin county special we obviously don't uh just rail projects through uh despite what some minority might think this is a perfect example and some of the comments that i had written down to highlight were mentioned by some of the consultants but some of them do bear repeating um the overall project for the ranch is nearly 4 000 acres and and i remember thinking about the size of the city of stewart if you take out the 1400 approximately 1400 acres of water within the city of stewart you're left with 3 000 acres of actual land in the entire city of stewart this project is nearly 4 000 acres um with very few homes majority of it 92 percent i think about 92 percent being left in some natural state or an enhanced natural state because we all understand that if you just leave a beautiful pristine property to just do its own thing the evasives come in and strangle everything so it's very expensive to leave something in its quote-unquote natural state um and they're obviously going to do that you heard about the bird habitat the bird habitat and it reminds me when you look at a size of property at this level that a year ago our residents voted nearly 65 percent to tax themselves to raise money to buy environmentally sensitive lands so that we can protect them that's what we like to do here well we're spending that money to do that and we have a whole organization in place to do it but what can you imagine that the thousands of acres of this property that will be also maintained and remember even when we own it and we purchase it as a community additional money is spent to keep it maintained all of this is being handled privately by a family and then i have this expression that i've used quite often it's people give where they live the backs family and in an effort to bring this project to martin county which i agree when you hear folks say we get to work on this project that's the consultants well as a county we get this project and as far as i'm concerned it is the magnitude of benefits i could go on and on and on tom mcnicholas mentioned them briefly but they bear 20 acres for ifas and i see our ifas representative is here that's tremendous they're on a postage stamp in stewart at the fairgrounds forever and they've been able to do remarkable work on a postage stamp imagine what they'll be able to do and i don't think it's it's really exaggerating that this will have to be and having a uf graduate in the family this will have to be the premier ifas location in the state of florida and that's saying something considering martin county is a relatively small county compared to what some of the others can be the reconstruction of the golf course at south fork high school is remarkable and then what tom had mentioned as an aside is oh by the way these kids will get an opportunity to come over and work on design and work on seeing the construction i think very very few people have ever seen a golf course that wasn't already a golf course and the engineering and the and the dynamic construction process to shape especially in florida where everything is billiard table flat to create a world-class golf course the kids that have thought about going into turf management from south fork high school will be an opportunity that they will never get anywhere else and most courses at this level would not allow students on their project but this family is going to do that so needless to say and i know that this is um quasi-judicial but needless to say i am also very appreciative of the basque family they started with their own money and their own efforts to show what a project like this can do for the community and i don't know if you could tell i'm pretty happy about it i know i'm sort of i sound like i'm on the fence but um but i think this is a historic opportunity for us and we have a couple others that create this synergy uh that we are so fortunate to have in martin county and i think part of it the reason that they would have selected martin county because they could have gone anywhere they have one of the best and nicest golf courses uh in the country out in eastern long island which is world renowned so we don't have to worry about this family can they pull this off they have and we will be very fortunate i am very pleased uh to have them decide to do this in martin county and when it's time i would love to put a motion in to accept staff's recommendation for the first phase of what's going to be a remarkable project thank you commissioner vargas questions for the applicant yes i do thank you so much for your presentation very nice um this is outside the urban service boundary is that correct is that correct okay so one of the big concerns we've had and considerations is uh fire is the developer paying for a fire station and to staff that out there from martin county it seems it falls on us all the time to try and scramble for money are there switches should the need be would somebody like to address that from the developer or the representative so the fire department was not a part of the public benefits package from this particular project however they have a lot of their own um facilities and they have very little demand on the fire department we are constructing cottages aren't you barns for the golf course tyson would you like to speak to i don't want to keep talking for i appreciate that and working with the fire district as part of the site plan approval there was never a need expressed for one i believe there is one in relative proximity to the site and so all the on-site infrastructure for water and sewer and all that will be on the developers um the the property owners burden to to pay for all that infrastructure but what about the fire station because this will come up again to us as you know i wasn't sitting here when this was approved originally we have a lot of golf courses um in this county um and i come from a very populous county also miami-dade county um so if nobody's talking about it what happens when it comes up then later on i don't think it was ignored i think during the review process it was deemed that that another fire station or any additional services to serve this piece of property were necessary so it we did go through that typical normal review to make sure our evaluation that we met capacity we met concurrency all of those items were checked off that we've we've met the concurrency we meet those those the level of service required to make sure this property is adequately served with with uh fire protection well so we we just don't address this then until until it comes up and we need a fire station and it and fire trucks and personnel we were we were told um at a meeting within the last two months that yes there was it was going to be necessary to replace the tropical farms fire station which is the fire station that you're referring to that's in close proximity to this so is there a need to replace tropical farms or is there not so the the tropical farms uh fire station which is needed rehabilitation uh and looking long term that the fire department recommended that it be moved from its current location within the uh residential community and find a location that would uh provide better response times especially for part of their i-95 and and uh and servicing the urban boundary uh to the east that has been our discussion in terms of a land development or regulation the fire station is currently meeting the level service so it is uh an objective to meet long term that when we look at that fire station rehabilitation or replacement the recommendation was that rather than rehabbing the existing fire station within the neighborhood that for the long term level of service it would be better to to move it in terms of priority for level service western palm city was the highest priority this was not failing or predicted to fail level service at this time so that is why in terms of the land development process this was not identified as a immediate need for a new station when it came through that presentation to you on the fire station which was just uh a few months ago is certainly looking long term that the recommendation again is that we um consider uh finding a spot uh in the future for uh relocating that station so how are we resolving this then it's not part of the benefits package i understand that but for the benefit of the citizens of martin county and and that's that's who we have to consider everyone so in terms of the actual process we are today the pud uh which was negotiated a couple of years ago um uh and and approved uh at that time um is uh outlines uh all that is when all of the public benefits were uh enumerated uh that where the process we are in today um and uh miss elder and others can more eloquently um uh present it but it is really um following the pud and the master plan that was uh previously approved and the job of the developer today is to prove that they are meeting the requirements of the previously approved pud and and master plan elise elder acting county attorney so with every final site plan that's brought before the board that um proposes construction the developer or the applicant has to reserve capacity for our level of service so you'll see in there there's a certificate of reservation of capacity so what that means is that the level of service is evaluated for everything for libraries for fire rescue for roads and the this staff could not recommend approval of a project if there wasn't capacity for our levels of service so right now there is a capacity for a fire rescue level of service and you'll see there's a certificate that they're requesting to reserve capacity for their development for this final site plan as the next final site plan comes forward they'll have to do another certificate requesting to reserve capacity and a new analysis will be done at that time so we look at it every step of the way and right now for fire rescue the level of service is okay and they're reserving capacity under our current level of service so that's how it's addressed right now and again just to kind of take the one step further we do in the staff review process again um the fire prevention there is that fire prevention review and as you can see on this slide that they did determine this was to comply we've got certain conditions in our pud to make sure that the commercial structures have a fire suppression system in it and then finally this is what we're here for today is the approval of a final site plan which simply is intended to implement your master site plan in conjunction with your pud so we have worked throughout this process to make certain that we've addressed all of those fire safety needs we believe we have as your staff and county attorney have pointed out you know we've got those compliance we've got capacity we've got concurrency so we believe that we've met the county's requirements to ensure that this property has all necessary fire safety implementations and we believe that your staff has agreed with that okay good good to know we don't have to build another station right um so in your uh benefits you uh claim that your this project will enhance water quality of the runoff into the c44 canal it will reduce nutrient loading to the c44 it will reduce the quantity of stormwater discharge so right now the property is agriculture uh pasture uh pasture pretty much not row crops um so you're going to add two 18 hole golf courses a short course um those are have the reputation of being nutrient very hungry tell me how you're going to achieve these goals and what kind of monitoring will be done to ensure that the pre versus post conditions are better and not worse i'll have jason weber from kimley horn come up here he's the project engineer good morning chair and commissioners jason weber with kimley horn for the record civil engineer on the project do have some numbers in front of you if you'd like to hear any of those they're all in our stormwater management calculations that have been reviewed and approved by county engineering staff as a part of this process and we're at the finish line with south florida water management district as well from a provided standpoint of the water quality treatment volumes that are required we went above and beyond what the requirement is of both martin county as well as the south florida water management district by 52 percent so providing significantly more volumetric ability of our lakes detention areas swales and other stormwater management features to treat that water as tom mentioned we're bringing water in from the c44 canal to use for irrigation purposes and to rehydrate wetlands as toby mentioned so bringing that water quality in treating it through our lakes and other features that are part of the stormwater management system and then discharging it out through an updated control structure from the water quality treatment perspective of phase one it's actually higher it's that 52 percent that i mentioned for the overall project because we have to look at this project as an entire project at first so we're not doing too many stepwise fashions the overall project is providing over 42 percent more water quality treatment volume than is required by either the county or south florida the discharge rate is also being reduced so not only are we treating the water we're letting the water out slower than is in the pre-existing condition that's about 50 percent of a reduction there which is significantly below the typical allowable rate that is allowed by south florida water management district as well from a nutrient loading perspective as well the water quality treatment methods that we've got on the site the lakes vegetative filter strips which i'll get into in a moment and other other factors the dry detention areas we only need to meet a net reduction so basically either meet exactly what it is today with a significantly high nutrient loading that comes as a part of agricultural use just as a nature of that use we're reducing those by 23 percent of the nutrient nitrogen loading that is required and 42 percent of the phosphorus loading so significantly more treatment of that water provided by that method of analysis and then the volume metric as i mentioned we're we're bringing the water out slower than is required as well but we're also holding more of that water so in the design storms we have a reduction of about 24 percent of the volume of water that leaves our site so when it rains we are actually letting less water out we're holding more of that water within the site so all benefits to the county south ford water management district the canal and the residents so what kind of nutrients are being added to the land now free and then tell me what kind of nutrients are going to be added to the project when the 218 hole golf courses and the short course are added great question um and i appreciate appreciate the question the the course itself um obviously will need some uh some added nutrients to it however when you look at there is there was uh current agriculture that is on the property that was associated with the tree farms um as well as the uh the cattle operations that did have nutrients associated with it what you heard from jason was uh regardless of what is being utilized to grow turf or the other things that are on the site we've done a couple of different items that fertilizer um that may be utilized to grow grasses on the horse is actually being contained on the property through the use of number one bioswales which actually take that nutrient out and the property is actually then treating those so in other words that material is then being taken out of the system entirely when you look at the water coming into the process right now it is filled with nutrients as you're well aware from c44 and the upstream that comes into the property as well being stored in the property less of it going back out but what is going back out has gone through the treatment process you have to if you will um in looking at the site plan itself the courses are on the southern portion of the property the outfalls are on the northern portion of the property as you transverse and go through the waterways that nutrients those nutrients if there are any are being taken out as we go through that process so it's a stair step process in other words that vegetation which is the best the best way you can remove vegetation or excuse me remove nutrients is through a stair step marsh system which is exactly what we have within our littoral shelves within the areas that are actually cleansing that water so the materials that you're going to get at the outfall which by the way we still have to monitor and we're required to monitor as part of our water management district permit that is going to be less than what is coming into the property so you're getting a net benefit associated with water quality regardless of what happens on the interior of that property i hope that helps so the nutrients that you're adding in order to fertilize the golf courses is not going to be discharged into the c44 it's going to remain on site to be treated there and reused the the nutrients that we're putting onto the property are going to stay on the property that is correct ma'am and then the material that you're seeing coming into the property which has a high nutrient value the net going out is going to have a lower nutrient value if it goes out at all like you heard from our engineer the majority of that water is staying on site and we're rehydrating as much as we possibly can we realize the value of that water thank you certainly and the size of the cottages that are are proposed on phase one can somebody address that and also tell me about the size of the clubhouse that's proposed in phase one so the cottages there's seven of them i believe two have are four bedroom and the others are eight um okay the the four bedroom cottages are roughly 4 400 square feet the eight bedroom cottages are roughly 8 000 square feet and the the clubhouse is about 87 000 square feet okay thank you uh commissioner campy just a quick follow-up question for the gentleman from kimley horn please thank you as i've been up here a bit as you were reading off those statistics um 52 decrease 42 percent 25 percent you've had this is not the first project you've ever worked on correct correct have you ever seen numbers like that before no in all honesty the vast majority of projects we designed to just barely meet the minimum requirements to get permits and don't go above and beyond the the level that this project does correct so you're another person and organization that's happy to be working on something it's it's career it's interesting for you in your career correct absolutely uh one of a kind one of a kind thank you very much commissioner heatherington yes so i was going to we had a really interesting presentation it was before i think some of our new colleagues joined us on golf courses and the new evolving best practices of how they maintain their land and and i was amazed and very um informed to find out that there are so many great new best practices that utilize environmental tactics and it allayed any of my concerns of adding nutrients particularly in this location where you're taking already um nutrient-rich water out of the c44 and cleansing it and i think that's a benefit and i just wrote some other notes um on this project it's um i wrote 4 000 acres and and that's a phenomenal we're preserving 92 percent almost open space on this 4 000 acres and if you think about that as commissioner campy said as the size of city of stewart i think that to our um residents who are interested in preserving and conserving land i think it's a benefit and many many years ago and i probably don't have the number right this property i believe was entitled to 600 or some odd units and um and adequate fire and that kind of um services were attributed to that so the fact that now fast forward and thank you to the landowners for their commitment um in martin county the barney family and i will say thank you to the backs family because the vision that you started with when you came to meet with us you have really um you have been true to that vision and i think it'll be an asset for martin county the pud benefits the benefit that south work high school and some of our trades will get out of this project i think are numerable and something that our residents appreciate and as as ifas we know that's near and dear to our heart too so we appreciate you working with them and we're proud to have you as a member of our community i think the benefits and the open space and the vision and i know you're going to keep that rural corridor rule which was very important to us you committed to do that in the pud and i appreciate that so i'll be proud to support when the time comes uh we'll take public comment now the first request to speak form i have is from david hafner followed by brandon tucker good morning morning commissioners david hafner of palm city um you know a proud supporter of agriculture uh here in martin county across the state and beyond a proud farm bureau member and uh i'm proud to support this project um as mr overdorf was speaking and we've heard the word excitement and his report that made me excited to hear all the benefits that this project brings to our environment as an agriculturalist our environment is number one without the without the environment you don't have agriculture and to know how much this is going to benefit and preserve green space and ag land and minimize that that residential footprint really excites me um you know that that land is developable as it stands so you can have a house on every 20 acres uh this compacts all that so you can preserve wide open spaces and you're not sectioning that off you can actually make use of it um it benefits our community as we've heard through the tax base that's going to be a huge boost i'm sure and then the other benefits we've seen that they've dedicated to our community improving our schools and and ifis and i think that's a really awesome benefit um you know i i've also heard today that this is a one-of-a-kind project and i believe that but i hope it doesn't remain a one-of-a-kind project um i'm hoping that this will become the trend that we see a merging of preserving our ag land through development we're we're making smart growth we're taking small chunks of land that we can then preserve the rest of that land as a member of the e-lock committee if this was before us i would rank this very high in and send it to you guys hoping that you would make this purchase so it's a really great benefit that we don't have to that it's already being preserved without using our tax base so thank you very much brandon tucker is next followed by jennifer pelham good morning madam chair members of the commission county staff my name is brandon tucker i'm the executive director of the florida landowners association it's always a privilege to be here at home in martin county with you to talk about this incredible project here this morning the ranch project truly exemplifies the martin county difference that we've heard about for so long in this county it demonstrates responsible private property stewardship that ensures land is cared for with long-term community and environmental interest in mind this project is proactive with its environmental protections and management setting a strong example for future developments not only in martin county but across the entire state of florida and as executive director of fla you have the opportunity to see all types of projects throughout the state of florida and involved in issues in tallahassee as well and it makes me very proud to be in martin county to see what we've accomplished here uh you as the county commission as a county staff the applicant uh what has been accomplished here when i look at the staff report i'll reference page 11 of 21 and what jumped out to me is we've heard about 1842 acres that this phase consists of and in most counties with a vested right of one to 20 as you just heard from mr hafner we could have potentially 90 residential units spread out on 20 acre tracks but in martin county and probably only in martin county alone in the state of florida would you read that approximately 500 acres will remain as bona fide agricultural land that an additional 117 acres of former agricultural lands will remain and be enhanced by establishment of native grasses shrubs and pollinator species 2 758 existing trees will be relocated and 15 522 new tree plantings will be installed to restore native vegetation throughout the property all i can say to that when i read that kind of staff report is wow and how impressive that is so i congratulate not only you as the county commissioners here in martin county our county staff for the fine work that they've done but also the the taxpayers and the general public that throughout this process that have been either for or against parts of this project it's always great to see the public involvement that you really only see in martin county to be so engaged but it's because of that martin county difference and because of that input that has brought us to this point here today so i congratulate all of you i congratulate the applicant for their hard work and fla fully support seeing this phase one site plan be approved and move forward thank you thank you jennifer pelham is next followed by john boyer good morning i'm jennifer pelham i'm the county extension director and urban horticulture agent with the university of florida ifas extension here in martin county and i'm here to ask for your continued support of extension in martin county as you know the land for extension and a new building for ifas extension has been generously donated to the county by the ranch project specifically for the purpose of building a new building we were fortunate to meet the mcnicholas team that built this connection with the ranch project that get that gift represents a strong vote of confidence in the value of ifas extension and the services that we provide to martin county ufi extension in martin county is a vital resource we serve thousands of residents every year including our farmers our families youth research businesses homeowner associations and also local governments through research-based education and outreach from helping homeowners manage landscapes and conserve water to supporting agriculture and the 23 000 ag related jobs we have here in martin county which make up about 23 percent of the jobs in martin county to working with water quality issues and preparing our youth for leadership through 4h and also our other programs we reach nearly everyone in the county in martin county as you know our current facilities are quite small that was mentioned already today we're located on the north end of the fairground and they do limit our ability to grow and serve martin county residents a new building would allow us to expand our programming engage in applied research host more community events and provide better access and resources for our residents it would also reflect the professionalism and innovation that extension ifas extension brings to martin county a new extension building is not just a building it's a hub for of education sustainability and community resilience your support will ensure that martin county continues to survive through science-based solutions and strong partnerships so thank you for your continued support of ifas extension thank you john boyer is next followed by terry gibson good morning uh for the record my name is john boyer and i serve as the director of development at the pine school in hobe sound i'm here on behalf of our head of school benny caffrey who is hosting an honors ceremony for our students this morning uh commissioners and staff we're grateful to um to be here today to thank ken backs and the leadership of the ranch for their extraordinary commitment to the pine school uh community their gift of 50 000 of in-kind work made possible the cleaning of invasive growth from banner lake which is a major part of our 172 acre campus this work began last spring and finished uh this summer the first phase of exotic removal is a critical step in restoring banner lake something i know that uh martin county has envisioned for decades the restoration not only preserves an important natural resource but it creates a unique educational opportunities for our students uh at the pine school who will now be able to study science ecology and conservation in a hands-on setting right on their own campus um so our hope is that banner lake will not only be uh an environmental gem for the county but also as a living outdoor classroom uh that inspires uh current and future generations of students at the pine school so on behalf of pine uh thank you commissioners and a big thank you to ken baxt thank you terry gibson is next followed by harry mcarthur good morning good morning commissioners staff old friends um my name is terry gibson i live in jensen beach florida i work for a national organization though i'm representing myself today called deploy us and my job is to make sure that private landowners mesh with public land managers and we get uh um the the new energy infrastructure in place without disturbing wildlife making sure things are compatible i work on a national level i just got back from paradise valley in montana and if if i and you would not believe the sprawl along the allstone river what's going on if they saw a project like this out there they would salivate salivate not kidding um we we absolutely have if we want wildlife corridors we want contiguous habitats we've got to approve projects like this so please please approve it i mean i've dedicated my life to trying to make things as good as you can in constraining circumstances and this is uh this is an exceptional project i want to commend the staff i mean the the rigor of review of this project has been absolutely amazing absolutely amazing i've never seen this in any other place i've ever worked martin county has a chance here to make a national example out of a project like this so anyway i i strongly support this i'm very proud of you guys for for your hard work proud of the people that brought it to you and in the in the uh the sense of pride that this brings to our community thank you thank you harry mcarthur is next and mr mcarthur is the last request to speak for him i have i don't see any cookies i know i didn't i was bad darn it darn it shucks i was a little busier than usual this morning and i was just bad i didn't think about it you got a bad neck i apologize neck yeah fractured c1 just a broken neck you know nothing for a burger flipper you know but uh harry mcarthur i just want to thank the commissioners and staff for for all the time you do and everything you do and and um keeping this county great and i just appreciate you and what you go through and thank you so much um i spoke on this project on rural density since we started this and i mean this is the thing we were looking for when we started it and we got atlantic fields and we have apogee and we have this and if you look at just the the tax revenue we're getting off of uh atlantic fields in one year i mean if it's not saving this county and it's saving our roads and everything else and this is exactly what we were looking for and you you know what you would have to worry about um a lot more than uh fire stations if you would have had some of the other things come through so thank goodness for rural density thank goodness for projects like this because i mean this was a dream i've known tom for years mcnichols but i didn't know of him with this i read about this project about a year ago or so year and a half and i kept seeing and when i saw it come up on the thing i went how can anybody say no to this i was just crazy about it and just thought it was the best thing going i mean i'm excited to have it the only thing i would say is if we when we do the the marina in there if we could go into the the c44 and blow off the top like three foot of that sludge there and then dredge out of there and so some of that stuff starts sliding down and see how that approves that area and the water quality around there right there you you might get a boost in water quality right there about 15 20 years ago i was working nathaniel reed we had a whole project going for the south fork of the st lucy river we were going to go three spots we were going to go in there and take the top three feet out and go down 60 to 80 feet and let all of it slide down in it and unfortunately um jack james rode the industrial park in there what happened prices fell everybody bought we couldn't afford to dredge onto that property and so we lost the project but you know this is a thing that maybe you can work with them on and it's it's a special deal but thank you hope for approval for this this is very special thank you to them for doing it and bringing this up because this is what we need and we love martin county thank you thank you so i'm closing the public hearing portion commissioner campy to wrap it up i think that um hopefully all my colleagues would agree that this is one of these remarkable projects that we're fortunate to have and i make a motion to accept staff's recommendation second mr camps you know when i think of this project uh there are some folks who might say why do we have so many golf courses and martin county and particularly new ones being built in the western area of martin county and what you might call the agricultural lands of martin county and i think it's good to have a little refresher about the comprehensive plan and what's in it and what's allowed and what has always been allowed and it is my understanding that golf courses have always been allowed anywhere in martin county in the ag lands in the urban area it doesn't matter that's something i think we need to really clarify to people from the very beginning of the comprehensive plan when it was implemented in 1982 one of the approved uses of agricultural land was a golf course whether we like it or not it's always been in the rules is that correct miss elder yes it is you can have a golf course under um from our under our comp plan in agricultural land and there are some out there under ag right i think it's just good to remember that and to refresh our memories on it and speaking of other basic thoughts about the comp plan i think this is a a good time to refresh our memories about the different kinds of land use decisions that become before the county commission and some of them have broader discretion built into them for commissioners like say the comprehensive plan amendment when there's a comp plan amendment uh the legal standard is fairly debatable as long as it's fairly debatable commissioners can say yes or no it's a broad policy decision and that's called a comprehensive plan amendment and then there's the zoning change and that's when you start getting into judicial decisions you know when judicial decisions are happening when the witnesses are sworn in at the public meeting and examples of judicial decisions would be a zoning change or a site plan approval like the one here today or a plat approval those are all zoning or uh uh those are all judicial decisions and the the legal standard is different it's not fairly debatable like the comp plan amendment it's competent substantial evidence in the record so you have a higher standard it's sort of like the commissioners are sitting here like judges rather than legislators so we have to uh we have to have good reasons to say no when when it's a judicial decision and um so the decision here today is a final site plan decision it's a judicial decision the standard is competent substantial evidence in the record the issue here is are the rules being met for the final site plan and if they are there's not a lot of discretion in the decision is that correct ms elder that is a good summary that is correct okay well uh you're a lawyer oh but i think it's really good to continually educate ourselves about those differences um um i would just like to say that i really appreciate uh some of the off-site public benefits that this applicant is offering particularly the cleaning up of banner lake in hobe sound uh that lake who would even know there's a lake there it's just thick with willow exotics and pepper trees it's it's a mess and it always has been it doesn't look like like a lake people call that community banner lake it's like where's the lake you know and if you look at it from an aerial view there's just one little round circle in the middle and it's just thick with messy jungle of vegetation so it's a wonderful thing seeing that cleaned up we we deeply appreciate that as hope sound residents where i live and there are many other public benefits that are being offered as well that we're deeply appreciative of um i have one little trivia issue associated with this project i would like to ask and that is will the residents there have a hope sound address or will it be a steward address think about it for a minute the people who live in foxwood about a mile away they live in steward and the people who live in high point by christ fellowship church there they're steward they're steward people um and it seems like most of the areas around there are part of steward and would have a steward address but will these folks have a hope sound address i think that will that'll be interesting to figure out well i didn't want to mention it today but we're in the process of annexing in all of those areas it's going to be palm city south it's going to be very classy well anyway we'll figure that out later i guess but uh in light of of what this hearing is all about it's a final site plan approval um and uh um you know uh i will gladly support the project any further comments there's a motion and a second on the floor all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you thank you we're going to take a 10 minute break 10 minute break you're on all right we will take up department one which is office of management and budget items which require board approval is murley good morning commissioner stephanie murley director of omb here to present to you seven items on omb our first item is uh permission to apply for the surfing's evolution and preservation foundation grant our um fire rescue ocean rescue division is requesting um to apply for a grant award of three thousand one hundred and eighty dollars to expand training resources by incorporating advanced medical mannequins to deliver high quality ems care at our beaches and there is no grant match required can i ask a question about that sure uh can we speak to the uh he's dressed up he's in his class a he's got to ask him a question can you tell us a little bit about what you're looking to what these would do yeah good morning commissioners uh ian mojula ocean rescue chief for martin county fire rescue so the just a little bit of history on the on the foundation so they are out of coco beach and they help to preserve beaches keep beaches clean they help with certain events on beaches by the last few years they've been helping ocean rescue agencies get some grant money to mostly help with trainings training supplies and other improvements to their operation so last this earlier this year i was approved for grants for our mobile pa systems for our side-by-side vehicles so that we could effectively notify people of shark closures lightning closures things of that nature to kind of keep the beaches safe so this year i'd like to apply for the training mannequins specifically a full body training mannequin which would help with our new hire trainings getting an actual lifeless victim in the water and also the airway mannequin which can help with any kind of drowning victims that we may need to assist these mannequins will certainly help us in our training scenarios just become a little you know just a little more um you know just up to speed on what we need to be doing on a day-to-day basis when it comes to dealing with these trying these drowning victims so obviously we don't have a lot of drowning victims in martin county but we need to be ready when that time comes so these mannequins will certainly help in those cases great idea and i like the fact that it's smart for you to continue to look for those sort of obscure grant opportunities so good for you yeah certainly not a lot of money but obviously it's going to help with our operation just just kind of get some equipment that will really help us uh just be at the peak of our training abilities thank you very much thank you item number two is a permission to apply for funding from the florida inland navigation or the find um grant for derelict vessel removal funds our building department is requesting a grant award in the the amount of eighty eight thousand four hundred ninety two dollars and fifty cents for removal and disposal costs related to our derelict vessel removal program there is a 25 match which is already budgeted and expended in our derelict vessel removal program budget item number three is a permission to apply for an amendment to the fdep resilient florida planning grant for the martin county adaptation plan our public works department is requesting a grant award of 120 000 to continue developing an adaptation plan to address the county's vulnerable vulnerable areas for resilient planning and there is no grant match required for that item number four is a permission to accept the florida statewide response for opioid abatement funds amendment number two our human services division is requesting the acceptance of an amendment to the contract for renewed state allocation adding 763 637 dollars to our opioid abatement funding um this brings the total agreement value to 2.9 million dollars and these funds are used to support direct client services and diversion courts to implement opioid abatement efforts and there is no cash match required for this grant item number five is permission to accept the federal aviation administration or the faa grant for the rehab of taxi lane bravo construction our airport is requesting the grant award of 865 949 for the cost of rehabilitating taxi lane bravo at the witham field there is a grant match that will be provided by the florida department of transportation at that 45 which is around 920 000 and our airport enterprise fund will will cover the remaining share of 12 which is about 247 000 which is already budgeted within our airport pavement rehab cip sheet item number six is just a budget resolution to accept the state fy25 transportation disadvantage planning grant for our martin metropolitan planning or our mpo we are requesting a budget resolution in the amount of 26 488 dollars to accept the financial assistance from fdot for the transportation disadvantage program and there's no grant match required with this acceptance and item number seven um is adjustments to the fiscal year 2025 budget um omb is requesting a budget resolution to allocate the unanticipated contribution that we have received from the u.s sailing center for um a contribution towards the overflow parking lot project at indian riverside park um we have accepted sixty thousand nine hundred and eighty one dollars that's going to assist with um including a gopher tortoise survey site clearing and installation of sod to create um a functional parking area indian riverside park and a budget resolution is required to accept these funds into the budget questions for miss murley mr donelson um commissioners uh after conclusion of this item i have one other additional item that is related to office of management budget i'll come back to you thank you mr caps i'd like to highlight a couple of things about number two permission to apply for funding from the florida inland navigation district for derelict vessel removal funds um this last week i went to a social event where the find people came to martin county and and it was really interesting learning more about their organization and i thought i'd bring out a few things about fine it's the florida inland navigation district and it's it's a state wide or a state organization that's put together by the state government is that right and the appointees are like county representatives of various counties along the eastern coast of florida am i right mr donelson and by the way our uh county administrator don donelson used to be the fine representative for martin or fine commissioner from uh martin county so tell us a little bit about the basics so um it it is the local sponsor of the intercoastal waterway it is a state agency uh the appointees are appointed by the governor um and they serve for your terms uh they're unpaid uh and the district's responsibility do pay uh everybody pays a tax on the the the counties funding the east coast towards findy and they use those funds for um maintaining the waterway with the corps of engineers and they also have a grants program that the state of florida legislature uh put into to for um providing um various projects for local governments to cost share with and one of their projects is derelict vessel removal of which martin county is um well noted in uh by the inland navigation district as being the one of the best examples of how to do um derelict vessel removal in the state and if you notice that many of the commissioners there have taken the martin county example home to their jurisdictions to get their local governments to participate in much similar way and i think a big part of that goes to jeff as his team and also the close relationship with our sheriff's department on how that works there's a complex uh environment how you treat um vessels as uh they're not like cars that are abandoned they're they're more treated like somebody's home or like a mobile home that's uh uh fallen into disrepair so it is um uh due to those property rights issue you have to um follow a very uh legal path to ensure that you're taking possession of those uh properties uh properly but anyway you you got me going further than i needed to but that's uh that uh that's uh that's it's very interesting work and um as i understand it the counties along the eastern side of florida are the ones that are in fine yes so it's from nassau county uh to uh miami-dade county there's uh one representative for each county right right yes and anyway there's a there's a ranking system where all of the fined commissioners get together and evaluate the projects in each county so there's some discretion involved and i'd just like to say that we are we appreciate uh the grant that we're getting for this and uh and all the other good work that fine has done for us over the years and uh mr doherty maybe you could uh tell us a little bit more about some of the other things that fine has done just briefly well the derelict vessel program is uh actually a law enforcement in terms of determining if something is derelict vessel and as mr donaldson mentioned there's a uh uh adjudication process so to speak it's 21 days before you can actually move on to removal the sheriff or uh fish and wildlife or any law enforcement agency has the legal authority to determine derelict vessels but after 21 days and they go through the process we get a letter from their attorney saying it has run the process it is derelict that can be removed at that point in time the county takes the removal of the uh vessel and destroys it uh in derelict vessel it's a little bit different than law enforcement in terms of seizing property we can only either use it for an artificial reef or destroy it we have no option to sell or anything like that generally our vessels we take our average 30 foot of fiberglass which are fiberglass you couldn't use for a artificial reef so all of them are effectively destroyed and many are beyond you know any recognition of some boats um after a storm event it's actually 45 days before they can be determined derelict we average about 30 of them a year uh the last two years have been high uh 24 fiscal year we did 60 and that was because of the mooring fields where we had to move some and work with that this past year we've done 38 generally 50 percent are brought into compliance and 50 percent are destroyed we had 38 last year 17 were compliant 17 were destroyed and there's four that are still in the final process of the determination fine is typically limited uh the last couple years of seventy five thousand dollars this year however they've increased that grant to 150 so we're able to increase ours to 88 and a thousand and change so that's 13 more than uh we got last year so we take advantage of that the key is the as mr donaldson mentioned the interface and working together with law enforcement so we actually find that somebody has been tagged uh as derelict early on bring our vendor in and when that 21 day letter comes then we can immediately move and get it out of the water as soon as possible i think it's interesting that the building department is involved with this and you know when i think of the building department i think of permits and the monitoring of permits is that the rationale for putting this under your department instead of some other department like why is the building department involved with derelict vessels my understanding is and and i'll defer to mr donaldson if you'd like to answer that but at one time uh code enforcement was in growth management this is years ago uh 15 or so uh and part of code enforcement was derelict vessel and it was moved over to the building department at 12 years ago or whatever that was and derelict vessel came with it and it was separated kind of from code enforcement because it did involve great interaction with law enforcement and dave holcomb who runs it for us does a great job is a retired sheriff's deputy so it works hand in hand with a great relationship so that's that's the key good staff is the key to it and uh we're very fortunate to have the good staff to operate it it's there because it works oh he made you look good there uh mr donaldson don gave the short answer any further questions comment uh it's i remember when i first heard you think you gotta tow the boat away getting rid of it it's not that expensive it's expensive right how much does it cost to get rid of a derelict boat depending on the size of the vessel and what's in it um generally they're probably in the neighborhood of three to five thousand on average you know or their boat boat are their batteries in the boat or is it fuel in the boat and and those types of things um we're uh our contracts up uh very soon we're going back out the bid and uh you know is it sunk and needs to be raised is it just derelict so those all factor into it but if you take our average 30-foot boat it's in that range before we uh make a motion to approve uh this item mr donaldson so i have one other item for uh regarding the 9-11 um commissioner campi's district um has uh routinely funded about twenty five hundred dollars a year for that uh memorial service it includes the high beam lights and some other activities um some other activities unfortunately um uh his district uh has um uh still waiting for the closure on uh the property and a few other reasons so um we would have to ask that the board allow a temporary um um loan if you will from general fund reserves to be properly accounted for uh which would be reimbursed uh upon the beginning of the fiscal year so for a couple weeks so if you could indulge so that we could maintain that commitment um that way we could be compliant with our um our all of our auditor requirements and and fulfill our obligations thank you so if you could include that as uh authorization for miss murley to take from the general fund reserves two thousand five hundred dollars uh and then we will ensure that that is reimbursed uh upon the uh um approval of the budget for fiscal year 26 commissioner caps i'll i'll move approval of that additional item as well as all the other items under uh department one there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you we will now take up our final item which is department two consisting of contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of a million dollars or greater good morning madam chair um i have five uh seth mcconaughey senior purchasing agent for the record i have five items for your consideration today however i am going to request that we vote on item a1 separately due to a commission conflict and may i um yes i was going to ask that we we separate a1 commissioners out for the vote um because of my employment with ferrera um i will be recusing myself i've filed my proper paperwork and with the clerk form 88 a 8b and um i will recuse myself and i would add to you because i i did speak to a constituent and the the state statute allows for any elected or appointed member um they add this this statute provision so that if there is a conflict and many people have had them that there is a way to recuse yourself and i've always done so proud and it's unfortunate that there was some email that misled some residents of martin county to believe so we we have a state statute provision our county attorney's office watches that very very closely and we have always recused ourselves on this commissioner um so to continue with item a1 is a continuing service agreement for the shoreline stabilization and restoration services this has a maximum not to exceed contract value of two million dollars with a maximum not to exceed term of five years staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidders dickerson infrastructure incorporated doing business as dickerson florida eastman aggregate enterprises llc and ferrera construction company and staff is also recommending that the board authorize a county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request okay let's take them take this one by itself second there's a motion and a second to approve item number one all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes for one with commissioner hetherington abstaining thank you very much commissioners i'm going to continue with a2 this is another continuing service agreement for painting services this has a maximum not to exceed contract value of 1.5 million dollars with a maximum not to exceed term of five years staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder id painting corporation and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request my next item for your consideration is another continuing service agreement for continuing service agreement for utility infrastructure painting this has a maximum not to exceed contract value of 1.5 million dollars with a maximum not to exceed term of five years staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the two highest scoring firms a to z paint contracting incorporated and sun art painting corporation staff is also recommending that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request item number four for you is another continuing service agreement for electrical services this has a maximum not to exceed contract value of 5 million dollars in a maximum not to exceed contract term of five years staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the two lowest responsive and responsible bidders arlington electric incorporated and wd cook electrical services llc and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request request my fifth and final item for your consideration today is again a continuing service agreement for the hope sound drawbridge repair and maintenance this has a maximum not to exceed value of 2 million dollars with a maximum not to exceed term of five years staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the sole responsive and responsible bidder florida drawbridges incorporated and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request and that concludes my item and that presentation was perfect thank you thank you i'll move approval of the remaining items um staff's recommendation for approval second there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you that brings us to the end of the meeting any further commissioner comments commissioner vargas no i'm fine thank you commissioner caps i'm good i'm fine commissioner campy i have something i'm looking for miss susan chorus appears to be absent oh there she is we have some exciting news to share good morning commissioner susan corris community development director um we wanted to share the news that the florida chapter of the american planning association has announced finalists for the 2025 great places in florida it's a people's choice award and it's an honor that celebrates public spaces where people feel a true sense of connection care and community identity this year's theme great places that ground us recognizes spaces that reflect deep ties between people in place where culture is honored stories are told and community belonging thrives and i'm not going to let you guess any longer what i'm talking about uh we're proud to share that palm city place and patio has been named one of three finalists in the state of florida so often called palm city central park this 20 acre community hub is the heart of the neighborhood with lush green space trails a fishing pier game tables picnic areas a colorful fountain and a welcoming pavilion palm city place and patio showcases the power of community driven redevelopment and environmental stewardship it's a place that brings people together celebrates local identity and offers something for everyone the message here is voting is open and it's open until the 26th what do i do put that on the doc cam just slide it onto that piece of paper i think the other way yes that's kind of too big he's gonna zoom out he's got it okay so you can use this anybody at home you can use this qr code to cast your vote and help ensure that we are florida's next great place again voting is open through september 26th and at that point we will find out who the winner is we're also going to have a banner at the park itself so if you haven't been to palm city place and patio this would be a great time to go visit and then you can use the banner for your qr code and vote so send to all friends and family have them vote let's beat pinellas county and port st lucie there were no the river walk or something and i don't even know it was probably something um it's called pioneer park i don't want to discuss court st lucie and mayor's park in pinellas yeah um there was hundreds of applicants i read through excuse me i read through the last several years worth of winners and maybe a decade ago downtown stewart won but it hasn't been in our neck of the woods in over a decade uh and you're competing against every project in the state yes but uh which i do like about this you know sometimes when you have voting people can like you know put robots involved and and vote like thousands of votes from one computer this is one vote per phone or one vote per computer so you really need to have people yes so we really need to get the word out um which is why i was invited here yes to help get the word out and it's a one million dollar prize right what is it no oh i thought it was i thought it might be something like that but well i appreciate that there was a lot of effort that went into it um and so we're excited and it would be a benefit obviously a feather in the cap for the whole county so if you could share this on your social media platforms uh you go in there's three choices you pick one you say you're not a robot and then you submit and you submit yep we would appreciate it well congratulations and good luck thank you thank you very much commissioner hetherington i'm all set thank you mr donaldson and miss elder all right we are adjourned