Board of County Commissioners on 2025-11-04 9:00 AM - Nov 04, 2025

Happy to have you here this morning. Would you please join us with for an invocation with Pastor Jim Harp, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which is going to be led by Michael Drost. Good morning, Pastor. Good morning. Good morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day. And Lord, your word says, David said in Psalm 100, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name for the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Lord, it was a long time ago that those words were written. And Lord, we can still say today, thank you for your faithfulness and your goodness. And so we come before you this morning and we do give you thanks and praise. This is the month that we have a special day just for that Thanksgiving. But every day should be a day, Lord, where we look to you. We acknowledge you as we're doing now. We recognize your presence and your power and your wisdom and your goodness, Lord. And we just pray. I pray especially for this meeting today, Lord, that you will be here in all your glory and your goodness, that you'd be with every decision that's made, every proclamation that's put forth, every person that speaks. God, I pray that you would guide and direct their steps and their words. And we thank you, Lord, for these folks that you have brought into leadership for our county. And we just pray your blessing to be upon them and their families. Protect them, watch over them, give them wisdom, direction, and guidance, Lord, that they might serve you first and serve us as those that are over us. And we give you thanks for that, too. Bless this day. Bless this meeting in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. You've got the boss today. 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. Are you familiar with the process? Would you like to tell us a bit about being a Marine? Absolutely. I have the honor and privilege to serve in the United States Marine Corps from 1994 to 1998. I was stationed in 29 Palms, California, Okinawa, Japan, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. I am now honored and privileged to serve veterans of Martin County and as the veteran service manager. Thank you very much. There is one additional item today, and that's Department 6, Americans with Disabilities Act, Title 2, Digital Accessibility Compliance Update and Unfunded Mandate Budget Request. Is there a motion to approve the agenda with the additional item? So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. There's one proclamation this morning, and that's a proclamation to present the Martin County Fire Rescues Female Combat Challenge Team Award, awarded the 2025 Fire Department Female Relay National Champions. Aye. And here to accept the award is Joseph Lobosko. Joseph Lobosko. Go Navy. Thank you. Go Navy. Good morning, Commissioners. Joseph Lobosko, District Chief with Fire Rescue. It is once again my honor to stand before you on behalf of Martin County Fire Rescue to recognize a remarkable group of employees who continue to elevate the standard of excellence for our department and for our community. This is now the second time we have come before the board to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of our Female Firefighter Combat Challenge Team. Each time they return, having reached an even higher level of success. This year, they did not just win. They became world champions. At the 2025 Firefighter Combat Challenge World Championships, competing against elite teams from across the United States, Canada, Europe, and beyond, they earned not just one but two separate world titles. To become a world champion requires extraordinary physical conditioning, technical skill, discipline, teamwork, and mental toughness. These firefighters have demonstrated all of that and more. They have shown what it means to perform under pressure, to support one another, and to represent Martin County with professionalism and pride on the national and international stage. Their success reflects the values of our entire fire rescue organization. Excellence, preparedness, teamwork, and selfless service. Commissioners, on behalf of fire rescue and the Combat Challenge Team, thank you for your continued support. Achievements like this are possible because Martin County truly invests in its people. To the members of our world championship team, your department is proud of you, your county is proud of you, and we're all proud of you. You inspire your peers, you motivate the next generation of firefighters, and you show our community what dedication truly looks like. Congratulations, and thank you for representing Martin County Fire Rescue with honor. Can we get a picture for you? I'd like to bring up Lieutenant Melissa Riley. She's the captain of the team. Say a few words. Hi, good morning. I'm just going to take a second to introduce everybody behind me. I have Firefighter Paramedic Hannah Abel, Firefighter Paramedic Samantha Grimm, Firefighter Paramedic Jessica Rosenberg, Firefighter Paramedic Hannah Helton, and we have another Firefighter Paramedic, Carol Gufrido, who was unable to be here today, but she was part of our national team. So I'm just going to take a moment to give some background on us as a team and highlight some of our successes from this past year. Three years ago, Martin County held the very first Firefighter Combat Challenge event here in Stewart, Florida. That was also the very first time that many of us ran on the course as a team. Since then, we've come such a long way. We've grown stronger, faster, and even expanded recruiting more people to join us at competitions, ranging from new recruits to 30-year veterans of the fire service. In that time, we've hit so many personal goals as well as team goals. Our team currently holds the Florida State record and the Southeast Regional record for Fire Department female relay as well as a Fire Department female tandem. And two weeks ago, we accomplished what we set out to do that very first competition three years ago. We went on to win nationals and then continued to win the world championships. I can't say enough about how proud I am of this group. I'm not only lucky enough to work alongside this group of incredible women, but I'm even luckier to compete against them. We push one another, hold each other accountable. Even when we can't train together, we know that everybody's putting in the work individually. Whether it's hours of cardio and strength training at the gym, time on the actual course, running towers at Station 24, or doing a fun partner workout at Station 30 that incorporates dragging the dummy around the station. We can always trust one another that we're going to give 100%. At nationals, we competed against three other fire department teams from across the country, and at Worlds, five. That may not sound like a big number, but it's a huge accomplishment when you consider what it takes to even qualify to run in this division. For years, the Firefighter Challenge did not have a fire department category. Now, in order to compete in this division, every single person from your team has to come from the same department. No more having to compete against super teams made up of the fastest people from all over the world. It's just personnel out there representing their departments, and that's what makes our wins even more meaningful. In addition, Hannah Helton and Hannah Abel took first place in the Municipal Fire Department female tandem category at the World Championships. Their win is another great example of the talent, dedication, and teamwork that we have in our department. When we won these titles, it wasn't just as individual athletes. It was as Martin County Fire Rescue. So these wins didn't just bring home trophies. They brought home pride, energy, and motivation back to the men and women in the street in our department. We're honored to represent the department and our county on such a high level, and I just want to say thank you to everyone for always backing us. Your support means more than you could ever imagine. Melissa, may I take a quick moment? Three years ago, I remember when we hosted the event, seeing all of you compete right here, and previous to that, it was held in Fort Pierce a few times. I think it's almost understated how phenomenal that this event is and how much work and energy goes into it, watching you all climb up that tower. And that dummy is no joke. I think Ed and I had to, for an exercise, had to pull it out of a burning building. It's a phenomenal achievement, and you have put a lot of work and energy, and we're so very proud of you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the well? Yeah. It's a big deal. Yeah. In unison. This proclamation is a proclamation declaring Veterans Day in Martin County. For more than 200 years, individuals from all walks of life have taken up arms and sworn an oath to support and defend the principles upon which our country was founded. The contributions and sacrifices of the men and women who served in the armed forces have been vital in maintaining our freedom and the way of life enjoyed by the people of the United States. In recognition of Veterans Day, which is observed on November 11th, the board calls upon all citizens to honor the contributions of current and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces, and here we have to accept, you've already seen him today, Michael Drost, Veterans Service Manager. He's willing to double-triple duty today. Tell us about yourself. First of all, I want to say thank you, commissioners, for recognizing this proclamation, for recognizing Veterans Day. I'm honored to accept this proclamation on behalf of all veterans, and thank you for your continued support. Veterans Day is a reminder on why we serve, to protect, for honor, and commitment to this great nation. We just want to say thank you and appreciate your continued support, and have a great rest of your meeting. Thank you. I have public comment. The first request to speak form I have is from Julie Priest. Would you like to speak on? Got it. Next one is Nancy Turrell, followed by Douglas Ashley. Nope, you don't want to speak then. Good morning, commissioners. I'm Nancy Turrell, Executive Director of Martin Arts and a resident of this community. I was here to, I'm here this morning just to share the good news of Sunday night, which is our Martin Arts Awards. Beloved nickname is the Martys. I have a few extra program books here. If anybody that didn't attend would like one, I want to thank commissioners Hetherington and Campy for attending the event on Sunday night at the Lyric Theater. We were very proud to announce the Literary, Performing, and Visual Artists and Student Artists Awards that night. So receiving the Literary Artist Award is Suzanne Mogavaro. Performing artist was Lindsay Gerritsen. Visual artist was Sean McGraw. Student literary artist, Mark D'Alessio. Student performing artist, Natalia Caraballo. And student visual artist, Katherine Johnson. All the students are seniors in our local Martin County schools. They are, they've been interviewed, resumes reviewed, both a combination of civic and artistic excellence considered by a local panel of judges when they were selected to receive this award. But I have to say that all of the students are just so exceptional. It really gives me great hope for future generations of, the world will be in their hands. The literary artists, the students all write a piece, and that's read by professional actors during the performance. The performing artists have a mashup. So they're paired up with other nominees and do performances. And I know some of them made, you know, me have goosebumps. They were so incredible. And the visual artists obviously had their work in the program book. But I just wanted to bring that to your attention. It was a great celebration. This is kind of like our Emmys, Grammys. It's our Martys. And so I encourage you to be a part of it next year. And thank you. Mr. Hetherington. I just want to say that it was really an amazing event. Just all of that talent in one place and all the nominees. Congratulations to the winners. But everybody, all of the nominees were fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. I think for the residents that think, well, you know, the Martys, I don't need to go and see it. It's really like an evening in the theater between, you know, very eclectic. As Nancy said, there were these, the theme was roses or the rose. So the kids or young adults had to write with that theme. And then they were read, as Nancy mentioned, by people that were really good at it. Christian Anderson read it. The quality of the performances. And then the young people that are performing. I didn't even realize that they were mashed up like that. It makes perfect sense because they performed so well together. You didn't realize that they were just put together based on how you wanted it to be. So for a very nominal fee, you can have an evening at the theater. It's funny and fun. And I've gone several times, even though quite often, like this year, I think I knew one or two of the nominees. So I wasn't there necessarily rooting on someone that I knew. I just went because it's just a great evening out. It was very well attended, but there were still plenty of seats left over. So we can squeeze you in next year. So I would highly recommend attending, even if you're not necessarily the parent of a student. We're all the parent of those students. Thank you. Thank you. Jesse Griffin is next. Hi, my name is Jesse Griffin. I live in the Stewart West community. First of all, thank you guys for your service. I'm very, very happy. I've had some interaction with Elise Elder. I'm very, very happy about her being announced as appointed as the county attorney. The reason I'm here today is there has recently been submitted to your growth management a putt amendment to try to change some wording in Stewart West. And the vast majority of residents have no issues with trying to define equine and those various offsets. But there has been a using of the word domesticated animals that has been slipped in that is basically a lightning rod issue for our community. And I can tell you unequivocally that the vast majority of residents do not support this. I know a number of them have already emailed the county commission. So, you know, number one, we don't want it as a community. I'm speaking for myself, but I know I'm speaking in the majority. The second thing is our board of directors has been hijacked recently. We have multiple recalls. We have an attorney that supposedly represents the community that is filing lawsuits, totally refusing. We have board members that vote today, resign tomorrow for their replacements. I don't know how this is. I know it's a state law issue, but I don't know how this is allowed to stand. And I would ask the county, get involved, please, to the extent that you can, and stop this. You know, it's basically totalitarian rule by a small faction. And I've lived in Martin County for almost 18 years. I love it here. Okay? I refer to myself as a Palm Beach County refugee from 18 years ago. I appreciate your work. I also would ask on that other issue, these issues relating to recall should have went to the DPPR, but instead it's becoming extremely expensive for our community on both sides to fight this legally in the courts, and it's being dragged out. So anything you guys can do on that end, I would greatly appreciate. The last thing is relating to the fire station out west in 2031. We need one sooner. So to the extent, I just got my property tax bill yesterday. So to the extent that you guys can move that along, that would be greatly appreciated. And again, I appreciate everything you guys do for Martin County. Thank you. Thank you. Douglas Ashley, would you like to speak on the Ryo Marine Village or now? Okay. Thanks. Christopher Corey, followed by Frank McChrystal. Morning, Commissioners. How are you guys? So my name is Christopher Corey. I was here a couple weeks ago with the gate issue on Layton Farm, and I kind of pride myself on listening more than talking up here at a podium. And I certainly don't like to bring problems. I do my best to avoid them at all costs. But I also realize that I love the term he used. I'm a Miami refugee from many years ago. Moved here to, you know, have a better childhood for my kids who are now 15. So moved here before they were 10. And the other thing I heard the other day that I absolutely loved was the old Martin County, right? Well, I can tell you as a refugee that that is very much still the case here, being somebody from a different place. I've never met so many great people, so many great neighbors. I know all my neighbors. I didn't know any in Miami, and I lived there my whole life. So the other thing is I didn't really introduce myself at all. So I'm a community engagement consultant. I have been for 15 years. I currently serve as liaison to World Cup 2026 for the city of Miami. I do other various things where I try and bring in big events that make people happy and give families, you know, really give families an opportunity to be families. And that's really my mission over there on Leighton Farm. I'm there to combat what's called pay-for-play. If you guys are familiar, pay-for-play is how expensive it is to participate in youth sports now. It can be $3,000 to $10,000 to $30,000 a year. So nine of 12 hours at that facility are free to family. I'm still trying to combat the other three hours. I have a model. I own a lower division football club in London, and we have 1,300 kids that pay $200 a year for the entire year, and that includes the uniform. So I'm working my way down on that. The other thing I wanted to do was give families time to be families. On average, our families spend 15 hours a week there. I call that place more of a church than anything else. And in doing that in the last three years, I've recognized some things. One, this right here is enemy number one for our children. They all, it seems like we have an epidemic of confidence issues with our children. Sports is a great way to combat that, but we kind of need to do better. The other thing that we combat there is what I believe is rampant use of ADHD medication, and we track the kids that drop off ADHD medication that are involved in our programs. I would say that beyond those two issues, there really is nothing more important for our children. I'll close with saying I've extended this program. I now have one in Indiantown. I have one in Port St. Lucie. And looking to open more that are free to families and combat these issues. Thank you guys so much for your time. Frank McChrystal is next, followed by Tom Pine. Good morning. Good morning, Frank McChrystal. Good morning. That's hard to follow, I guess. For the record, my name is not Bill Summers, although I'll do my best. Seriously, good morning. Long time no see. I'd like to thank publicly the Stewart City Commission majority. Chris Collins, Sean Reed, and Laura Giobie earned their seats by going out and personally speaking to the public. Their hard work paid off with long-shot wins against the donor class favorites. They erode the citizens' outrage over the high-density, high-traffic policies of the previous commission. Surely you remember these previous city commissions that annexed everything in sight and then changed long-standing codes to approve the high-density, high-traffic development that you yourselves were outraged over. And all of this was done under the guise of affordable housing. And we all know how that worked out. I don't quite understand the public vitriol towards Collins and Reed. Oh, that's right. I really do. This spewed hatred comes directly from the mouths of the donor class puppets. And the donor class is pissed. They do not own our Stewart majority. So thank you, Dr. Collins, Mr. Reed, Mrs. Giobie. Thank you for saving the city $30 to $45 million on a last-minute, bright-line, bad deal with the county. Thank you for the zoning in progress that paused the insanity in order to restore sensible density codes. The donor class hates our majority. They hate not having control because, you know, that is the natural order of the swamp. Thank you. Thank you. Tom Pine is next, followed by David Gunner. And Mr. Gunner is the last request to speak for him that I have. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Tom Pine. I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years. Today in the consent agenda, this commission will approve $25,228,350.01, which was spent between October 6th and October 19th of 2025, without identifying the payees or the purpose of the payments. Why do we even hold county commission meetings anymore, since most of the money spent is hidden in the consent agenda? There is no accountability if the majority of our tax dollars are being spent behind closed doors. Why all the secrets? This is the reason our taxes keep going up. Who is really benefiting on our backs? Not the average taxpayer, that's for sure. We just get stuck with the bill. I don't know who watches county commission meetings, but if you do, I would encourage you to check the definition of the consent agenda and what should and shouldn't be in the consent in it. I use Google. It's very clear and to the point. Baths up beaches washed away one more time. And of course, we can't move fast enough to apply for more grants to dump even more of our hard-earned money into the ocean to save Sailfish Point from being an island of its own. One of our sitting county commissioners has often said if the county government spent tax dollars on low-income housing, the taxpayers in Martin County would be up and armed. Just how much money has been dumped in the Atlantic Ocean to save Sailfish Point, Bathtub Beach, over the last 30 years? Has it broke into the billion-dollar club yet? Probably. We spend whatever it takes to save the wealthiest among us and complain because we have homeless people in Martin County. The Community Redevelopment Agency, the largest county department that's leading the charge to bring Martin County into the new gilded age. The $20,000 grants to some of Martin County's most lucrative properties was just the beginning. Art in public places on the backs of Martin County taxpayers is the next page of their quest to add even more Martin County residents to stand in line at the local food banks. House of Hope, Stewart, demand has jumped 30% over the past year. Treasure Coast Food Bank, the largest in the area, demand has jumped about 20% from last year. How many of our county employees are now using the local food banks to get by? Our county government, hard at work. Thank you for your time. Thank you. David Gunner is next. Morning. I'm a resident of Jensen Beach, Rio specifically, and I'm just here real quick. First off, congratulations to the Civic Club for their proclamation of 75 years, but also to the three items on the agenda for the Rio Marine Village. I'm sure you've been up there. Rio is a very depressed, derelict area where it's run down and really could use this development. So I would be in favor of proving all three agenda items. We just had a restaurant close there. There's just the blight has gotten to where it's a shame, and so I hope that you will prove that. Thank you. Thank you. And we have another request to speak for. Morning. Mike Redling, Rio resident, member of the Rio NAC, member of the Rio member of the CRA board. Here to request your support again for the Rio items on the agenda today. As you can see, we've got a pretty boisterous crowd behind us. Not often you get a lot of matching shirts for development in Martin County, but they're excited about this, as is the entire Rio area. We've been talking about this project for a long time. We're excited about the opportunity for it to kind of activate the waterfront and just bring a lot more visibility and viability to Rio as a whole. So any support you guys can give for that item would be great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to address us? In that case, we will close out public comment and do commissioner comments. Commissioner Hetherington. I'm all set this morning. Commissioner Campy. I have two items that I'd like to share, two events, actually. The first one celebrating Veterans Day is this Saturday, November 8th. The Palm City Chamber of Commerce will have their annual Veterans Memorial Day, excuse me, Veterans Memorial Bridge 5K run. I like to call it a 5K walk or maybe a little running, but mostly walking. So if you're not a runner but would still like to participate, it's a beautiful day over the Veterans Memorial Bridge. It starts at 7 p.m., excuse me, 7 a.m. Don't come 12 hours later. I will still, I'll just be coming in, so you'll see me finish. But it's at Jock Layton Park, which is right at the corner of Martin Highway and Map Road, caddy corner to the Palm City Post Office. It's a great event. Lots of people come out. A lot of people are dressed in red, white, and blue. There's a lot of veterans. If you happen to be a veteran, your entrance fee is free, so you can come for free and walk and spend time with other veterans. It's early in the morning, so it's a great way to start the day. Also, which is very exciting, and we appreciate it very much that the Stewart Air Show, which is also this weekend, if you register to participate in the 5K over the Memorial, Veterans Memorial Bridge, you receive a free ticket to the Air Show. So the price of the entrance for the run washes out based on a free ticket to the Air Show. So you can make it a whole, literally, celebration for veterans. For those people that are much more serious about running, I know that this is a big deal for them. It's an officially timed and measured out course. And Mike Melton, who lots of 5K runners know, his company is the one that is organizing the run itself. Some people won't run in runs that are not officially timed. And all finishers will receive a beautiful keepsake medal. That's the first. That's this Saturday at 7 a.m. in Palm City on the 8th. The next one is the second in our series of music in the park. We had it last month in October. The biggest crowd we've ever had, so I really appreciate the people that came out. The weather was perfect, so waiting until a little later in the season was a smart decision. We have food trucks and ice cream trucks, and you can bring kids. We prefer them not to run up onto the band, but it's definitely a family-friendly event. We're having it again in November, on November 15th. It's at the patio at Palm City Place. The music starts at 6.30, and it goes until 8.30. You can bring takeout. You can bring a picnic lunch. You can walk. We have a beautiful path that goes around the lake, so you can come and do a walk or sunset walk around the lake first. It's a great time to meet your neighbors or make new friends. We have seen a lot of multi-generational, where the grandparents are with their kids who are adults, and the grandchildren. I can't speak more highly about it. It's just what we hope for. You know, nowadays, as we heard about the cell phones, most people just stay home. They don't go out. They don't go to the movies. They don't do anything. They don't know their neighbors. So we're trying to have these events, so to just bring people out and have a nice time. So I invite you to both Palm City events. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Capps. Just in the last week or so, District 3 has lost a couple of community giants that I would like to acknowledge this morning. The first one is Scott Parsons, who was a former president of the Hobsound Chamber of Commerce. Great guy. And we lost him way too soon. And I think he was probably in his 50s. Sad story. And then my brother-in-law, Rick Huff, who was the CFO of STS, an aviation company in Jensen Beach, died suddenly while working out at the gym of a massive heart attack. And 55 years old, four adult children, devoted wife, remain. And we would appreciate your prayers for our family and also Scott Parsons' family. And then I wanted to mention that I attended an on-site visit yesterday down in South County where someone's building a house. And during that super heavy rain we had a week or so ago, they had some serious washout problems there with drainage problems. It's kind of a lower lot in a larger community that collects a lot of water. And the people there were very, very distressed. There was a very impressive group of contractors and consultants and neighbors, and they were really quite uptight. And I was there along with three members of our public works staff who I would like to acknowledge this morning. The first one was County Engineer Michael Griselka, and then Environmental Resource Engineer Amy Eason, and Engineering Inspector Mauro Matanti. And they just did an excellent job with those folks. I couldn't believe their recall and the way they put their nerves at ease very quickly, answered all their questions, and just really professional, super competent. So I'd like to give them a shout-out this morning. Thank you. Commissioner Vargas. No comments. And I just have one message this morning, and that is use sun protection. Commissioner Campy. I apologize. I did not want to mix my promotional events in Palm City with what I'm going to share. And to Commissioner Capps, I'm sorry about the losses that you've had. But Martin County universally had also suffered a major loss with former Sheriff Robert Crowder had passed away. And I didn't think – I don't want to be the person who's up here doing eulogies all the time. But this is one of our organized opportunities to thank and celebrate folks in our community. So I think Sheriff Crowder absolutely had to have that. Longest-serving sheriff in Martin County history. I have terms. Yeah. Has been a member of the community in a hundred other ways beyond sheriff. He took the sheriff's office. I remember during some of his campaigns, he really took it from what most people would have known as, like, a rural county sheriff's office and really brought it into the modern age. And I used to say that he was not only the sheriff but more like a CEO of a law enforcement organization. And I think that a lot of the folks that, you know, you'll hear from our current sheriff, Boot and Seek and Will Snyder, Sheriff Crowder hired them, you know, and was originally appointed to fill a term and then ran. And then when he lost, you know, Will Snyder ran against him. And then when he beat Will Snyder, he hired Will back in to the organization. And I think most of us, when you think about Martin County, how safe it is, Will Snyder inherited that safe community and that remarkable law enforcement organization from Robert Crowder and then passed it on even better to John Boot and Seek. And I know that Bob Crowder, he had an interesting career, ran for Congress. His wife, Debbie, who we send our regards, she did a remarkable feat. And she walked or hiked the Appalachian Trail, which is 2,000 miles through the mountains, I think from like somewhere in Georgia, if I'm not mistaken, or the Carolinas, up to Maine. And she did it in port and like sort of in pieces. And they had a remarkable love story because whatever she, wherever she would walk, Sheriff Crowder would drop her off at the start. And then whatever it took, he would then wait or around. And when she was done, he would drive further north and pick her back up. And I know that they did that repeatedly until she was able to accomplish that. So I think he's a pillar of our community, obviously, if you think, like if you had to name the top 10 people you know in Martin County, Robert Crowder's name would be in that top 10. And so I wish his family our condolences. And on behalf of the commission and the community, we thank him for his service. Thank you. Mr. Donaldson. Just a couple of things. We, United Way, gave out some awards recently. And Martin County came in number four as our place funder for United Way. But really importantly, Jen Salas and Moe Curley with our Library One Game Changers of the Year. So we congratulate them for their efforts and volunteerism. Thank you. Ms. Elder. Let's see. Now it's time to approve our consent agenda. I'll move approval of the consent agenda. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Commissioners, have you voted for Library Board of Trustees and Board of Zoning Adjustment appointments? Yes. So let's move over those before our preset. May I put out a suggestion, Madam Chair? Sure. Once again, and I think it's, in my opinion at least, most of the time trying to select someone for the Library Board, we had added, we can't continue to add, what is it up to now, Ms. Gordon? Is it? 17. 17 people, because so many people want to be on the Library Board, and this time we're filling one position, but we got eight applications for one position. And I'm sure, like my colleagues, I read through all of them trying to figure out, how do you differentiate one excellent person from another, how do you differentiate one excellent person from another? It's impossible. I'm using all sorts of criteria. That being said, I'm wondering, since a lot of those names, beyond just reading what they can write on their application or include in a resume, I'm wondering if there was a way we could work out that the Library Board itself nominate the people that we can just authorize or appoint to the position versus us spinning the wheel of applicants hoping to pick one. Because I use a very interesting technique that I won't share. But one for eight is another example of, and now some of these people will be disappointed. They have unique sets of criteria, I mean, benefits that they could bring. And I'm like, wow, that's an excellent person that should be on the board. And then the next one's a lifelong educator. And then someone's in finance. And then someone was a leader, like a corporate leader. I want them all. So I'm thinking, since we don't know a lot, you know, I only knew one of the names. She was a teacher at Palm City Elementary School. So I, not my kid's teacher, but I recognized her name. And her resume said that she was a Palm City or an educator for many years. How are we supposed to guess? So I'm wondering if legal or whatever can find out if they can either narrow the selection amongst themselves, because they know these people. We don't. And I feel terrible for the seven that are not going to get selected today, because quite often they feel that it was a slight. And then they never apply to do anything again. We can look into the process. A lot of times it's set by ordinance, but we can amend it if the board wants to. Even if it's just the library one. Also, it's, I was exaggerating. There are only nine members. So, and that's not unwieldy, particularly for library people. They're congenial folks to begin with. So they'll be, they'll be cooperative. If we want to make it bigger, we could make it bigger. Something. I just feel like seven people that are absolutely qualified will not get selected today. Every single time we fill this, these vacancies. Every time. Mr. Capps. Those must be some really fun board meetings or a very fun place to hang out. Maybe I'm missing out on something. The only thing, the only thing I would suggest, Commissioner Campy, about your suggestion, which is a good suggestion, except for the fact, I guess, I was thinking about how that might be an awkward thing for the sitting board members to have to make those exclusions of people that they also find attractive as potential board members. It put them in an awkward spot, I think, to have to vote against their friends and these other very qualified people. Make it bigger. Well, why don't we do this? Why don't we have the folks that are like whoever's heading that organization? I'm sure it's Jen Salas, and then maybe the chairman or a couple of their board members come and share with us how they think that maybe we can incorporate. The easy answer, which is to increase the size of the group, it's helpful. So then we're not disappointing as many people, but it's great that so many people want to be involved in their library system. And when you read what they write, it's passion. It's very passionate. So maybe we can have them come back, Jen and the chair, to discuss how would they like us to participate in helping them, just as a suggestion. Thank you so much. Any results? Yes. The person with two votes is Roxanne Johnson, but also received votes. Kathleen Bossinger received one vote. Catherine Gunther received one vote. And Lisa Lott received one vote. Okay. I make a motion to appoint Ms. Roxanne Johnson to the Library Board of Trustees. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Next is the Board of Zoning Adjustment Appointments. And Mr. Bradley Falco received four votes. Mr. Brian McHale, the incumbent, received one vote. I make a motion to appoint Mr. Bradley M. Falco to the Board of Zoning Adjustment. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. We will now move on to, well, we have time to do public hearing quasi-judicial one before our preset at 10. And so let's take that up. It's quasi-judicial. Commissioner Vargas, any ex parte disclosures? If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Capps? If I have any, they have been filed. If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? I have none, and that's been filed. And Commissioner Hetherington? I don't have any, and that's been filed. So, Mr. Griselka, have all the necessary records been given to the clerk? I believe so. If anyone is going to be providing sworn testimony during this hearing, please stand up. Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Proceed. Good morning. For the record, I'm Michael Griselka, the county engineer. This is an abandonment petition for Rio North Dixie, LLC. Requesting the board to consider abandonment of approximately 9,763 square feet of an open platted right-of-way, as shown on Exhibit A, lying within the Rio St. Lucie Terrace, which is the far western end of Charlotte Street. All parcels of the subject right-of-way are owned by Rio South Dixie, LLC. And upon approval, the abandonment right-of-way will be incorporated into the Rio Preserve at Rio Marine Village project and will be privately owned and privately maintained in perpetuity. Along with this, the privilege fee that they will be paying for this abandonment is $70,000, which was done by appraisal. Other than that, the recommendation is to move that the board receive and file the agenda item summary and all of the attachments for the record as Exhibit 1. Move that the board adopt the resolution abandoning portion of platted rights-of-way lying within the Rio St. Lucie Terrace platt, as described in Exhibit A, subject with the following conditions. President, proper publication of a notice of adoption of this resolution, which isn't within the package and receipt by Martin County of the $70,000 privilege fee. Questions for Mr. Grzelka? That was $70,000. Correct. Yes. And there's a full appraisal in the package. Mr. Capps? Can you define privilege fee? Or what is that, actually? That, I don't... Maybe Ms. Elder. It's the fee that they provide to abandon it, because then they receive the property back in fee simple. It gets split between the two sides. On this particular case, they own both sides of the road. And it's part of this project that you'll see coming up here a little bit later at 10 o'clock for the... It's a multifamily rental community. Commissioners, essentially, the county has the right to the right-of-way. Sometimes we own a fee simple, sometimes not. But the privilege fee is a way to account for the public's interest in its ownership value. And it has been a longstanding practice of Martin County to collect this fee. Not all communities do. Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, any further comments, questions? Motion to accept staff's recommendation. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We will now move on to... Well, should we move on? We have time to do three lakes? Or you want to take up... We'll take up... We'll take up... Six minutes, though. She's not sad to do it. We'll take up DPQJ2, which is... Rio South Dixie LLC requests final site plan approval for Phase 1 for the Rio Marine Village Project. Which we have been... Has been under development review for six years? That's correct. Wow. Look at my faces. Yeah. It's impressive. It's... It must be a record. So this is quasi-judicial. Commissioner Vargas, any ex parte disclosures? I have any. They've been filed. If I have any, they have been filed. I do have some, and they have been filed. Commissioner Campy? I do have some, and they've been filed. Mr. Hetherington? I have them, and they've been filed. Mr. Elam, have you submitted your materials to the clerk? Copy of my work history in this agenda item. It's been turned in as Exhibit 1. Anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony in this item, please stand, including the applicant. Raise your right hand this morning. 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, Commissioners. For the record, I'm Brian Elam, a principal planner with the Growth Management Department. This is a request by Kotler and Hearing on behalf of Ryo South Dixie LLC for approval of the Ryo Marine Village Phase 1 East Major Final Site Plan. The final site plan contains two live-work buildings, eight multifamily buildings, one townhome building, a marina clubhouse, and includes public access to the beach and waterfront, included as a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. Phase 1 is generally located south of Northeast Dixie Highway, north of the St. Lucie River, and east of Northeast Martin Avenue. Ryo is one of six redevelopment zoning districts in Martin County, defined in Article 12 of the Martin County Land Development Regulations. The Community Redevelopment Code provides opportunities for traditional neighborhood design and mixed residential and commercial uses in redeveloping areas. The property north of Northeast Dixie Highway, colored red and identified as Ryo North in this slide, received master site plan approval on September 13, 2022, and is known as the preserve at Ryo Marine Village. The property south of Northeast Dixie Highway received revised master site plan approval on February 1, 2022, and will be constructed by way of two final site plans, which are the Ryo Marine Village Phase 1 East Final Site Plan, which is the subject of this agenda item in colored orange, and the Ryo Marine Village Phase 2 West Final Site Plan, colored purple. Here's an aerial of the Ryo Marine Village Phase 1 East location with the orange outlined area, within the orange outlined area. The Phase 1 East area, outlined in black, consists of commercial waterfront and CRA center future land uses. The Ryo Redevelopment Zoning District is the zoning district for the property, and there are two sub-districts that correspond with the respective land uses, which are waterfront sub-district and core sub-district. The core sub-district is assigned to the CRA center future land use, and is intended to be a pedestrian-oriented center for surrounding neighborhoods with a broad mix of uses. The waterfront sub-district is assigned to the commercial waterfront future land use, which promotes a mixed-use waterfront environment with restaurants, entertainment, residential uses, and access to the waterfront. The core sub-district allows 15 residential units per acre, and the waterfront sub-district allows 10 residential units per acre. Both sub-districts require 20% minimum open space and a 40-foot maximum building height. Development within the Phase 1 East Final Site Plan area consists of 178 apartments in eight three-story buildings, four townhome units, and eight live-work units for a total of 190 residential units. Density and open space for the Raya Marine Village project are calculated at the master site plan level. The total proposed density is less than 12 units per acre by way of the density blending and the use of 0.43 acres of adjacent waterfront sub-district right-of-way. Open space is approximately 46%. The site plan includes a marina clubhouse, east boat basin, and docks, and a public path along the water, including access to the beach. The maximum building height is three stories, or 40 feet. Aerial images of this property show development, including the boat basins, present since before 1958. Much of what we now consider to be the shoreline protection zone has been impacted or altered over the years. Here's an aerial image from this January showing the recently improved hardened shoreline of these boat basins. Here's a screenshot of the final site plan. I could have done better. Dixie Highway is to the left, which is north, and the St. Lucie River to the south is on the right. There is one three-unit and one five-unit, two-story live-work buildings that front Dixie Highway here, with commercial frontage on the ground floor and apartments on the second floor. The improved northeast riverfront drive is fronted by, which is running through here, is fronted by five apartment buildings, and two more are at the end here, and then one more on the east side of the east boat basin. There's one four-unit, two-story townhome, which fronts the east boat basin here, and on the western side of the east boat basin is approximately 5,497-square-feet-foot marina clubhouse and amenities. The site plan includes public access that incorporates pervious walkways along the St. Lucie River through the required 25-foot shoreline protection zone. Impervious surfaces in the SPZ do not exceed 40%, and protection of the existing mangroves and the living shoreline element are incorporated into this plan. This is a front elevation facing northeast Dixie Highway of the five-unit live-work building and a front elevation facing northeast riverfront drive of an apartment building. It's the front elevation of the marina clubhouse and one of the townhome building. I believe the applicant will have some renderings that may show truer details of these buildings. This aerial image identifies all the easements and dedications related to the Rio Marine Village projects. A request for board approval of all easements and dedications is included in this agenda item and will be identified in detail at the end of this presentation. Per Article 10 of the Martin County Land Development Regulations, minor technical changes to an approved master site plan may be processed with a final site plan application. Minor technical changes were required to the previously approved revised master site plan to ensure consistency with the Rio Marine Village Phase 1 East and Rio Marine Village Phase 2 West final site plans. Attached to this agenda item is a resolution to approve the revised master site plan associated with these site plans that incorporates the minor technical changes. Development review staff have found the Rio South Dixie LLC application to comply with all applicable regulations and the comprehensive growth management plan is detailed in our staff report. Review of this application by the local planning agency is not required. Staff recommends approval of the Rio Marine Village Phase 1 East final site plan, including the revised master site plan. We move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. We move that the board adopt the resolution approving the minor technical adjustments to the revised master site plan. Move that the board adopt the resolution approving the Rio Marine Village Phase 1 East final site plan. Move that the board adopt a resolution accepting and approving as required for the approval of the preserve at Rio final site plan and Rio Marine Village East Phase 1 final site plan and Rio Marine Village Phase 2 West final site plan. Three warranty deeds for right-of-way on the north side and south side of northeast Dixie Highway, along with a quick-claim deed for a right-of-way hiatus along the north side of northeast Dixie Highway. We move that the board adopt a resolution accepting and approving a 70-foot drainage easement and a 10-foot public access easement and a flow-through drainage easement and a drainage access and maintenance easement and a public transit stop easement. We move that the board approve a release of easement and move that the board authorize the chair to sign all documents necessary to complete the transaction. And before I finish, I just wanted to say that in item four where it says preserve at Rio, that is related to the preserve at Rio Marine Village site plan just to make sure that everyone understands that's the same thing. And that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. So your recommendation looks like it also includes Department DPQJ 3 and 4. We're not going to be wrapping these all up into one. I'm looking at number four, and I just am asking my board not to approve number four because I think that's moving approval of DPQJ 3 and DPQJ 4. Good morning, Peter Walden, Deputy Growth Management Director. This is taking care of all the easements and right-of-way dedications for the entire project in one, but it is not approving the other two site plans that are accompanying the project. Okay. Questions for Mr. Elam? I have one. Mr. Capps? You know, you mentioned the concept of shoreline protection zone, and, you know, that's really important that our shorelines remain as natural as possible because all the living organisms kind of emanate from the edges of the river. And can you just take a cursor and go around a picture and tell us more about the shoreline of this phase of the project and what has been done to keep it intact and also to preserve as much of it in a natural state as possible? Okay. This? Yes. Go ahead. For the record, George Missimer with Kotler and Hearing. It's a great question. For this particular development, there's a requirement for a 25-foot shoreline protection zone, so that spans the entire almost 3,000 linear feet of water frontage along the southern side of the property. Within that 25 feet, we have our 10-foot pervious public walkway, and then a majority of the existing shoreline is hardened with those existing boat basins as Brian went over. So those seawalls have been redone recently. Within the last couple of years, they were restored, brand-new seawalls put in. There is a section of open beach currently along a section of the frontage of the property in that kind of half-moon bay shape. And in that location, we've actually designed a new living shoreline. There's a few small pockets of mangroves, but really not much. And so what we've done is we've designed additional mangrove locations as well as riprap, native grasses, and even oyster bags, again, trying to protect that shoreline, provide some additional habitat as much as we can. And, again, it's a smaller section of the overall shoreline because of the existing hardened seawalls, but we have enhanced that portion, and, again, nothing within that first 25 feet except for the public path, which is more than 2,000 of that overall, 2,000 linear feet of the overall length. So really providing, you know, the only public access to the water within the area of Rio. Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Elam, I'm looking at the development standards for calculating density, and there's a note that there is submerged underwater land. Was that used in order to calculate densities? No, that's excluded. Okay. And also there's alternative compliance. Can you describe that and describe staff's recommendation for approval? Yes, staff, there has been about 12 items of alternative compliance that have been approved for, I believe, the phase east, probably a similar amount for the west, and then I believe a smaller amount on the northern one. Alternative compliance was approved for all of these. Okay, so I'm specifically saying, looking, 374 trees are proposed, a 66-tree deviation from the 440 required by the site area's square footage. So why the deviation of 66 fewer trees? Want me to answer that? Peter Walden again. The CRAs require one tree per 1,500 square feet of the overall site, which, if you do the calculations, adds up to hundreds of trees. Given the density, what we do for alternative compliance is increase the size of the trees proposed in order to give the proper spacing so we're not just consolidating a large amount of trees that aren't going to mature properly because we're squeezing them into code. So we look at the site overall and increase the sizes of the trees where we can to accommodate for the caliber inches that are required per tree. So those sizes are noted somewhere? Yes. Okay. Also, the applicant is requesting that 46% of the total trees planted on site are palms, which is a 16% deviation from the required 30%? That's correct. Why? Again, there's spacing requirements, and there's also a lot of waterfront areas where the palms are more conducive to public access. Are they native palms? Mostly. Everything's native here. Yeah. No. Very large majority. There's some coconut palms as well, which we wouldn't really consider native, but a large majority native palms. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Because we have native trees for a reason. Thank you. Applicant, would you like to make a presentation? Absolutely. Thank you again for the time. For the record, George Missimer with Kotler & Hearing on behalf of the owner and applicant, and I have been sworn in. I don't think I said that before, but I'd like to just start by bringing up Josh Simon and Charlie Modica, the partners in this project and development. They have a long history and track record of being wonderful development partners and going into infill development sites and working with the community in the existing framework and really doing first-class projects. So they wanted to say a few words, so I'll bring them up first, and then I'll go through the PowerPoint. Hello, Josh, Simon, and then I have my partner, Charlie Modica and Charlie Jr. We've been working on this project for a really long time, as you know. So they're both long-time Martin County residents and business owners. We spent a lot of time designing. I'm going to let George get into all the details, but we spent a lot of time designing the project to do something that's really, really nice in Martin County. It was really important to both of them to provide something that was nice. We focused on providing pedestrian amenities and access to the waterfront for the Rio community and the Martin County community in general. We created an area that has the river, but you don't really know the river's there unless you're looking on your GPS. We provide some nice views of the river from Dixie. George will get into it, but three really nice openings to the river, extending all the way over to the north side so that people see it and feel it and, you know, smell the fresh air, pedestrian amenities, walkways, riverfront parks for the entire community to enjoy. And we really did spend a lot of attention to detail and will be spending a lot of money on architectural and landscaping, doing like a really, really special community. If we get approved, we do have construction documents complete. They've already been submitted for permitting a while back just so we can get our design consultants to make modifications to them as we went through the process. So, you know, if we do get approved, we should be in a position to start during the first quarter of 2026. As, you know, as was stated when we started, it's been an ongoing process for a long time for us. And we have – we did hire a general contractor for it that's also a Martin County general contractor. They just need to freshen up some pricing for us, and then we'll be ready to start real soon. I wanted to let both of them talk for a moment. Okay. I'm Charlie Sr., in case you couldn't tell the difference. Yeah. You look like brothers. And I wanted to start really quickly with just introducing Charlie Jr. Sometimes we get involved with all the technical aspects and things that I don't even all understand fully because we have professionals doing it. But I just wanted to let Charlie Jr. say a few things because we are residents here. We've been lifelong residents. He has. I came in a little late from New York, like half the population here. But I wanted him to just say a few things about his connection with Martin County. Yeah. So I'm a lifelong resident of Martin County. I went to Martin County High School. We brought Martin County High School to the National Sailing Championships. That was the first time that a public high school went to those championships. Also a business owner here in Martin County. Ocean Master boats out off 95 and Canter Highway. And, yeah, about it. That's all I got. Thanks. I appreciate the opportunity. And I want to say that Martin County is special to us. I live a little on the island down south, but part of Martin County. We have had good experiences with the county. I've had other developments, smaller ones here. This one is a long time in coming, as you know, but sometimes good things come to those who wait. I guess that's an old expression. The thing I'm most proud of with this particular project is I've met a lot of nice people that live near the project. I kind of waved at a few coming in. I came to support you. They all have residences near and around the project. Instead of a gated or potential gated community with just condominiums, we've opened it up. That's why I think they're happy with it, and they should be, because this project is going to allow people who live in the area to have their property values go up. God bless them. Nothing wrong with that. Provide a rental community that is needed, we believe, here in Martin County. Hopefully it'll make money. I think it will. But this is the time and the place to do it, and the county commission that I believe has worked with us through the staff in developing something good for the county and the people. So we're especially proud of that, and I mean it from my heart. It's kind of like one of my last projects, I think, down here. Oh, you've got a couple more. Yeah, thanks. All right, I'll do my best to avoid it. How do you follow that? Well, I'll go through, I'll try to avoid the topics that Brian already covered because he did such a great job. So a lot of the general information, our project team has been consistent from the start, a great team of professionals with a lot of experience. So I think we've come up with a wonderful final product for the community. As Brian said, the overall, there's two master plans for the Rio Marine Village, the preserve, and then the Rio Marine Village. We're just going to, first item, we're just talking about the first phase one site plan. I'll skip over the zoning and land use. We are consistent with all the requirements of the land development code, but for the minor alternative compliance items, which we've accounted for. Again, the two approved master plans. So here's our overall site plan between the two master plans and final site plans so you can see the relationship. Something that we're really proud of and what we first started designing in this community was opening up those vistas to the water. It wasn't just enough to have access. We wanted to invite you in, be able to see it from Dixie, as you really can't see the water from Dixie. So we have these view corridors that actually go all the way into the preserve site plan. So from those apartment buildings within the preserve, you see all the way across Dixie down to the water. And, you know, the distance is something you might think about, but there's an elevation change from Dixie down to the waterfront. It ranges from about five to eight feet from Dixie down to the elevation of the water. So there is a nice elevation view. It's like a ski slope. Yeah, it's a lot. For Florida. For Florida, yeah. For Florida. But on each of these entry roads, really maintaining that vista down to the waterfront was an important design feature. As part of that design, we are including two roundabouts. There is an existing roundabout at the intersection of Dixie and Martin Avenue, which is going to be removed. And then the two new roundabouts, that was something that was approved as part of the master plans. We have additional design documents ready to go for the construction. In terms of phasing, that would be the first work that's done to make sure that the right-of-ways are finished for the community, and then development would begin interior. As part of those roundabouts, there are entry feature monuments. As part of little pedestrian plazas at the apexes of those roundabouts at each corner, really nice public space. There's benches, bike racks, trash cans at the entrance to make it a nice open space, not crowding the street. Additional landscape, really well designed. In terms of our street orientation, as we talked about, this is an infill development. So working with the existing pattern of the street network for access, both for sidewalks and vehicles, it's really important to make a cohesive project. Again, not a gated community, so all the accesses are public. The pedestrian network, again, providing wider sidewalks, again, a 10-foot pervious path along the riverfront with over 2,000 linear feet, and connecting into that existing network of sidewalks to maintain connectivity with the community. We talked about that riverfront total density, 192 proposed units, maximum density of 198 is permitted. All right, so specifically the Phase 1 site plan is about 10 acres. We have a majority of our residential units within Phase 1, as well as our marina clubhouse. But we've incorporated these public amenity spaces along the riverfront. We could have very easily monopolized the riverfront views with additional residential and moved the amenity spaces further up in the water. We wanted to maintain that public access feel and really provide that additional open space. You know, lawn areas with trees for shade and hammocks, really nice gathering spaces out along the water to really focus on amenitizing that space. As part of Phase 1, there is that existing boat basin. Those seawalls, again, as we said, have been recently redone. There are 30 boat slips. These are wet boat slips associated with Phase 1, and those are within that boat basin, as well as that pier that extends from the marina club. Brian already went over the architecture. These buildings have been extremely thoughtfully designed with a lot of architectural detail and style, variation in materials and colors to provide visual interest, even variation in roof materials. So, again, very high quality in terms of construction and additional cost as well. This is a close-up of that boat basin. And then from a landscape perspective, we talked about a couple of those alternative compliance items. But we've really done, I think, an excellent job in designing this landscape to fit within the community, primarily native species, as we're required to do, but even above and beyond that. Our buffer on that eastern side is one of our alternative compliance items, and there's power lines in that location. So we've had to use species that don't impact those power lines. Again, that's FPL, right-to-right-place guidelines. We've increased the number of trees in that location to maintain that buffer. We've upsized a lot of the material. I think about 75% of the proposed canopy trees are at double or triple the minimum size requirements within the county, so much larger material going in on day one. And here we have just some nice rendering showing some of that landscaping. This water tower feature we've talked about before in the past, there was an existing water tower on the property that we were hoping that we'd be able to relocate, and it was just in too bad of a condition to be able to do that. So we constructed a brand-new one that we're going to put out at that peninsula in one of those public open spaces, provide a really nice feature there. So that will conclude our presentation for Phase 1. There's a lot of detail, a lot of information, but we can certainly answer any questions. Commissioner Hetherington. George, go back to that last slide. The docks on there, are they deeded, or are those public docks? So these would be for rent. So they're not going to be specific to the community. They'll be available. All the boat dockage and the dry dock slips as well would be available for rent. So there won't be restricted access for the community. They'll be open to the public. There are going to be some day dockage on that pier that extends from the clubhouse. Nice. And on Phase 1, buildings L and K, those are also rentals, or are those fee simple? Those are also rentals. Yeah, the building K is the townhome building, four-unit townhome building, and L is another apartment building. Those are rentals, yep. Thank you. Any further questions? I have several requests to speak forms. The first, oh, sorry. Commissioner Vargas. Okay. Maybe a little premature, but I understood that you had concern because we have three requests. My understanding from what was said is that we are just approving on DPQJ-4. Just talking, not the whole final site plan, but actually just one component. Is that correct? So, yeah, so this first item is the Phase 1 East major final site plan. DPQJ-2. Right. And so as part of that, there's included a bunch of easements and dedications that are associated with the entire development, and that's really a result. So, as you know, this development, there's a large quantity of properties that were assembled in the one piece, so there's a lot of cleanup in terms of that respect. So there's a fair number of items included with this first vote. This is Phase 1 East final site plan. This is what you're requesting now? Yes, ma'am. However, I have listed DPQJ-3 and 4, so you're requesting for the total development? We will have motions after this, requests after this vote for the additional site plan, so Phase 2 site plan as well as preserved site plan. I think staff's recommendation also includes the easements and dedications that are necessary for the entire development. So you're requesting the total development today? Yes. Yeah. I mean, that's really the answer. Yes. It's part of following motions. Right now with this vote, it's for the final site plan, Phase 1 East, but immediately after we're requesting approval for the others. So the whole thing, we're here today for all of it. Sorry. Excuse me, Madam Chair, Elise Elder, County Attorney. Just to be clear, we have three public hearings. This is the first public hearing, so you'll have two more for the other two site plans. This is just for the east one. It includes all the easements, so the wording in here might seem confusing, but it just says that these dedications are required for all three site plans, but this particular hearing is only for the first site plan, just to clarify. And when will the other hearings? They're going to be following. We'll have three and four right after this one. That's what I'm reading. That's what I understood. Julie Priest is the first request to speak, a form I have, followed by Douglas Ashley. Good morning, honorable members of the board and administrators. I am Julie Priest, a 47-year resident in District 1 and a 30-year resident of RIO. The Community Redevelopment Agency was created in 1997, and the first meeting of the RIO Neighborhood Advisory Committee was held in 1999. I was elected chairperson and served on the NAC for eight years and have attended most of the meetings for 26 years. Our master plan was adopted in April of 2001 and contained the RIO Town Center concept that is reflected in the RIO Marine Village Site Plan. Through these years, in addition to connecting sidewalks, fixing drainage, building RIO's Western Gateway, and installing municipal water and sewers, significant community improvements include the Pat Mark RIO Jensen Skate Park of 2003, the Vince Bacchino Community Center of 2004, the 2007 restoration of the Stewart Welcome Arch to its original design that was constructed in 1926 to celebrate the creation of Martin County, the Warner Creek Water Quality Retrofit Project at Beacon 21 in 2011, the RIO Town Center Road Project completed in 2012, followed by the Western Dixie Highway Road Improvement and Sidewalk Connection Project. The 2012 purchase and clearing of the 2.5-acre deteriorated RIO Village Mobile Home Park by Martin County, the 2015 request for master site plan approval for Stewart Harbor by the I-Star Investor Group that foreclosed on the first developer group that had assembled the RIO Town Center parcels, removed multiple existing neglected commercial and residential structures, followed by our neighborhood's strong rejection of their two one-acre boat barns proposal. Between 2011 and 2014, Ed and I purchased and cleared the deteriorated Rainbow Cottages west of Mrs. Peter's Smokehouse and what we called the Meth Lab Apartments because a meth fire had resulted. We constructed the RIO Porches Cottages, and the purchaser of the adjacent land built six homes on Orange Avenue. Numerous deteriorated residential structures, mobile homes, Jack Baker's lobster shanty, and the butterfly roof art mart have been removed, and about 25 new homes and one office building have been built throughout RIO since our CRA was created. There are seven vacant commercial sites on Dixie Highway that include the 55,000-square-foot former SPS site. RIO Marine Village and the Preserve will revive RIO's economy and provide public waterfront access visible from Dixie Highway. My husband, Ed, and I thank Mr. Modica and Mr. Simon for designing projects that are in character with our neighborhood. Most importantly, we thank Martin County staff for their years of diligent review for compliance and urge you to approve these long-awaited RIO Town Center projects as presented. Thank you. I made it. You had 15 seconds. Douglas Ashley is next, followed by Joe Lynn Jensen. Thank you, everybody. This is a hard one to follow. I haven't been in front of the board in a while, and I apologize. I've been having different situations happen, but some of you know me. Thank you for all the support you've given me in the past. The new people, I don't want to lecture. That's not my point. Just to give you a brief background, I've been coming down to Martin County. My parents have been involved with this area since the late 1960s. I was little. I can say it in public. I guess I look a little older, but it's been a long time. I remember the beaches. Why, Dad, do we have public beaches? Nobody's here in the 70s because they will come. Well, we're here now, and my other background, I used to be involved with international hotel corporations and also probably the largest apartment group builder in the United States, so I'm on both sides of the table. I'm not coming in front of you today to say not in my neighborhood. I've lived in Rio at the River Club for the last 20 years, and I've also been participating in the Rio NAC. I was on their group for about 10 years. I've been coming to a lot of these public meetings. The historian, Julie, explained all the different projects I was involved up until about this last one. The last one, I got involved with health issues, so I couldn't participate as much as I wanted to. When I came back, I was a little disturbed when I found out, is this project going to have traffic counts? And they said, no, it doesn't. I go, why is that? They said, well, it's a CRA. It's a plighted area. I kept it simple. But what I'm talking about today, I'm all for this. But what I want to bring up is currently there are a current project right now concerning the traffic on Dixie Highway from the railroad tracks to the arch, and it hasn't been resolved. It's been ongoing for several years. There's this introduction of this project, and it looks eloquent, and I can see there's been a lot of involvement from professionals, also the reputation of the man who's doing it. But when you have a project, and I used to be involved with apartments. I got involved with 10,000 units in the state of Florida for several years with this large company. I see that you have on phase one, you're talking about 178 apartments, four townhomes, and eight live-ins. Well, that's 190 units. I haven't gotten involved with this project, but if I remember the old ratios, one and a half parking spots. Well, let's talk about people. Let's say one and a half persons. There's no such thing. So I'm going to round it up to two. So you're going to have 380 people. Keep in mind the traffic, please, whatever proceeds in the future. And then one quick comment, the roundabouts. I like roundabouts, but this time I was involved with the streetscape the first time around. Please have public art in those roundabouts, please. Mr. Ashley, your time is up. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. JoLynn Jensen is next, and Ms. Jensen is the last request to speak for him I have. Good morning, commissioners and staff. My name is JoLynn Jensen. Turn the mic down a little bit. There you go. Is that better? Perfect. And I am speaking as the president of the Rio Civic Club with all of our board members behind me and other volunteers. The Rio Civic Club, as you may recall, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. We were created in 1950 with our first project to pave Dixie Highway. That has been completed, and we have gone on to do many other projects since then as Julie Priest, our historian, enumerated. And every year, hundreds of volunteers work to keep Rio clean. We have a Rio Nature Park cleanup this Saturday at 8.30 a.m. if anybody wants to join us. We provide college scholarships to Rio students. We partner with crime prevention, support business development, and many other projects that come to our attention. We are thrilled to be able to partner with the Rio NAC, providing benches and bike racks throughout the community. We are also partnering with the county and consultants to design the new Rio Civic Center, which is about 75 years old, almost as old as we are. And so it's time to have it renovated or redeveloped. We have also been very involved with this wonderful group of developers who have come forward before you all for approval of the Rio Marine Village and the preserve at Rio Marine Village. We have been working with them for years and developers before that. But these developers are very respectful of Rio's history and the requests of Rio's citizens and residents to offer things like pedestrian walkways and a view to the river and public access to the water. It is not a new development, if you will, this is a redevelopment. The hurricanes came in 20 years ago and destroyed the waterfront restaurant, Jack's Lobster Shanty, as many of you remember, destroyed the motel that was there, the marina that was there. We are just now getting to redevelop that area into the vision that all of us have seen for 20 years. So we strongly recommend that these commissioners will approve all three of these developments that are before you today. We are thrilled with everything that has been designed and has been changed at our request. These developers have really listened to us and been respectful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hannah Martell is next. And Ms. Martell is the last request to speak for him I have. Hannah Martell. I'm a 35-year resident of Rio. I was on the first NAC. I've been there almost the whole time. I took a short break. But since 1999 with Julie. And I'm on now. I just wanted to let you know I do want to have a comment about traffic count. We did redo Dixie Highway, put the medians in. We also right now are doing that with Susan Coors is doing with Dover, Seoul, and Merlin. I think that's correct. And they are doing traffic counts. They've been running those for a while. We have that in front of the Rio NAC where we're looking at redoing the road to handle the traffic count. So I just wanted to make sure you're aware of that on that, on the other person's comment. Thank you. Would anyone else like to address us? Commissioner Campy. Well, it's been a long day coming for some of us that have been up here for a bit. First off, I'd like to thank the applicant. When I first heard about this project, it came up several years ago. And we heard about the people that were bringing it forward. They did not need to be introduced to a majority of Martin County residents, as Mr. Mordecai had said. He is a resident. His son is a lifelong resident and a separate business owner. And Mr. Simon, I had first heard about the projects that they worked on. Most people would maybe not be familiar that Love Street down in Jupiter is one of their projects. And I think it's a remarkably great project. What's nice about this is, and you heard it, you know, normally when you see a big group of people show up wearing matching shirts, it's not to support a project. Traditionally, it would be to oppose a project. And I think very similarly to what Knight Kiplinger did when he brought his project forward to Palm City, he spent a lot of time listening, listening to the folks, whether it was for or against, they liked the project or didn't. When you listen and you incorporate your existing neighbors, not only do you come up with a much better product for everyone, you then get the support of the neighbors, which from our perspective is vitally important. And you've done that. You've also created an open space because quite often, especially in areas where it's waterfront, the instinct would be to gate it off, to close it off and not allow the existing residents, not just the neighbors, but citizens in Martin County to have another opportunity to access the waterfront. You know, even in Palm City, we are so fortunate to have so much waterfront like they do in Rio, but so few people have the ability or the pleasure of accessing it. In terms of the CRA, our CRA department has done a remarkable job of enhancing and doing exactly what their job is in Hobe Sound on Bridge Road, in Palm City on Map Road, downtown Jensen, in Golden Gate, out in Indiantown. And I think that Rio, you know, they had a secret weapon, not so secret, but they had a special weapon, which was the Rio Civic Club. In particular, Julie and Ed Priest, who have come many, many times to support. Some of the things that she just rambled off very quickly, those are years-long battles and projects. Some of them I had the opportunity to participate in. And so I would say that I think it's Rio's turn to have a project like this. The open spaces is really remarkable because, as Mr. Messimer had said, there's more money in building and putting things, amenities closer to the water versus leaving them open and allowing everyone the opportunity to come and see it. I wrote down, the first thing I wrote down when I was thinking about the project, as the original speaker spoke during public comment, was to say, and I don't know if I would agree that it's a derelict area, but I have some friends that live back in there, and some of the areas do require, you know, look, it's an older neighborhood, it's hard to keep it up, and I think neighborhoods have a tendency, everywhere, have a tendency to fade. If your neighbor's not keeping their project, you know, if the neighborhood is slipping down, which nature will just make that happen, if you then have something like this come in, it's a real shot in the arm. And I wrote down, a rising tide lifts all boats, which I tried to, you know, the marine thing, I tried to do it for you. But I believe the fact that when this project, when and now, hopefully with my colleagues, when, not if, I think that will help the entire area, the entire community, well beyond the footprint of your project. The last thing I wanted to say is the fact that this project, we got a chance just to see a couple of the visuals. I've had the opportunity to be up in northwest Florida to Seaside and Alice Beach and Rosemary Beach. I'm getting that exact same vibe off of the Ryo Marine Village. It's going to have that level of, you know, really thoughtful architecture, really thoughtful public amenities in a beautiful location. So the only thing I think the project is missing is probably an NFL legend, you know, and I don't know if that can be worked out. You know, I'm also from New York, although I moved here a long time ago, smart enough to get out of New York. But what I'm talking about is Love Street, one of the partners with the Mordecai family is Joe Namath. So, I mean, maybe an NFL legend, somebody, somebody would be nice. And that being said, for this first of three, it's my pleasure to make the motion to accept staff's recommendation. Mr. Hetherington. I'll be brief because you pretty much just said it all. But I wanted a couple things that I wrote down is the public amenities and the public open space on the waterfront, it's such a value to our community. I have the, you know, privilege of being able to walk every morning my dog along Stewart's waterfront and appreciate that. And I think Ryo will have that same opportunity if you live in the neighborhood. And I want to thank Mr. Mordecai, Mr. Simon, and your entire team for working so well over, and it's been many, many years that you've been working on this, but working so well with the community to have a neighborhood that the entire community can be proud of. So I think that the open space, the access to water, and a neighborhood that the entire community can be proud of is going to be an asset to the community for years to come. So thank you. I'll second it. I am looking at the development standards for the blended densities, and it says the applicant is permitted to utilize adjacent right-of-way to calculate the permitted residential density to determine the overall density permitted within the Ryo Marine Village. .43 acres of adjacent right-of-way were utilized in calculating the permitted residential density. Is this being litigated in Martin County right now? We do have a lawsuit on that issue, but it's not the validity of the provision in our code. So it's a different set of circumstances. Not right-of-way for calculating density? There is a lawsuit about right-of-way of calculating density, but it's specific to a site. So the issue isn't applicable to all the right-of-way in all the CRAs. It's applicable to one site and how it was being calculated on the one site. So it doesn't have any bearing on this proceeding. So just to further talk about that, the core land use has 15 units per acre already allocated to it. That's why we didn't allow any additional right-of-way in that area to be calculated. So the area that's being used is only in the waterfront subdistrict where it's only 10 units per acre. So we can't exceed the existing 15 units per acre on any land in the county. So this is why it was done the way it was. There was additional right-of-way available that we did not count in the core. Mr. Capps. Later we're going to have a discussion about the residential capacity analysis in Martin County. Our comp plan requires us to look at the available land and housing units that are available for the growth rates that will be coming in the coming years. And we have to look at like a 10-year window and a 20-year window. And I was wondering if anyone here could tell us a little bit about how a project like this, which is an infill project, a redevelopment project, how it bears on the residential capacity analysis? Sure. As a master plan already approved it, it was incorporated in those densities and available units were calculated into the residential capacity analysis. So, well, these are more like, I don't know if you would call them townhouses or condo units or apartment units. But are those treated any differently in the calculations than, like, single-family houses? I don't believe so. It goes by the land uses and density. The overall density on the Rhyo Marine East area is 11.7 units per acre. So with the blended density, it's actually below what was available. So I don't think the capacity analysis takes into account the type of residential units. It's just the densities that are available either that have been site planned or with land use. And I haven't been a commissioner long enough to know a lot about the history of this project. I served on the CRA board for a couple of years, and I remember it coming up a good bit then. But I know this is a much longer history than that. But I would just note that it's heartening to see the community support from people really close to the project. I think that's very noteworthy. So thank you all for coming out. Any further comments? There's a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. We will now take a 10-minute break to give our closed-captioning person a break. Up a bit. We've got an 11 o'clock preset that we're late for. So let's continue with DPQJ3, which is quasi-judicial, a Rio South Dixie LLC requests final site plan approval for phase 2 west of the Rio Marine Village project. This is quasi-judicial public hearing. Commissioner Vargas, any ex parte disclosures? If I have any, they have been filed. Commissioner Capps? If I have any, they have been filed. I have some, and they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? I also have some, and they have been filed. Commissioner Hetherington? I have them, and they've been filed. Mr. Elam, would you present your materials to the clerk? Copy my work history, and the agenda item has been turned in as Exhibit 1. Anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony, please stand, raise your right hand, and be sworn in. 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. Commissioners, good morning. Again, for the record, I'm Brian Elam, principal planner with the Growth Management Department. This is a request by Kotler and Hearing on behalf of Rio South Dixie LLC for approval of the Rio Marine Village Phase 2 West Major Final Site Plan. The Phase 2 West Final Site Plan contains one retail building, two restaurant buildings, and one mixed-use building. Dock slips, outside boat storage, and public access to the waterfront and beach, including the associated infrastructure, included as a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. This is an area of the Rio Project area, lined between Northeast Dixie Highway to the north and the St. Lucie River to the south, and approximately 1.3 miles east of the Roosevelt Bridge and west of Northeast Martin Avenue. The Phase 2 West Final Site Plan is the second site plan related to the Rio Marine Village Revised Master Site Plan approved on February 1, 2022. The total site area of Phase 2, after right-of-way dedications, is approximately 6.029 acres, with 1.09 acres in the core sub-district and 4.93 acres in the waterfront sub-district. Phase 2 West property consists of commercial waterfront and CRA center future land uses. The Rio Redevelopment Zoning District is the zoning district for the property, and the two sub-districts that correspond with the respective land uses are waterfront sub-district and core sub-district. Both sub-districts require 20% minimum open space and 40-foot maximum building height. Development within the Phase 2 West Final Site Plan area consists of two existing single-family homes that are to remain in a mix of commercial uses, including restaurants, mixed-use, and marine service. So this is an excerpt of Sheet 1 of the Final Site Plan. One fronting northeast Dixie Highway is an approximate 9,681-square-foot marine services building. There's a public access path from the traffic circle, which runs down along on the east side of the West Boat Basin, all the way down to the waterfront, where there is public access to the beach here through stairs, and then it continues on up to the east final site plan area and all the way around the east boat basin. This area here has a living shoreline element, and then, as you noticed, further on the east final site plan, they kept intact the existing mangroves. The two existing single-family homes are located here, and then along here, I believe, there are boat docks. And then, I'm sorry to cut off the site plan here, but there is outdoor boat storage here. And then also, I believe, what's called a day dock, which will allow people on boats to pull in there more up to that and then walk around and use the internal walkways to visit the restaurants and the different amenities there. Fronting the St. Lucie River is an approximate 12,411-foot mixed-use building that also fronts northeast St. Lucie Terrace and includes 3,200 square feet of covered patio up here. Two restaurant buildings front the St. Lucie River. The first restaurant is here is approximately 10,433 square feet and includes 5,000-square-foot interior seating area and 2,520-square-foot covered patio seating area. The restaurant is approximately 2,520-square-foot open-air accessory structure. Here's an elevation of the Marine Services Building, which is fronting Dixie. This is an elevation that you would see from Northeast Preserve Drive and an elevation of the larger restaurant as it faces northeast St. Lucie Terrace. This is an elevation of the mixed-use building fronting the St. Lucie River and northeast St. Lucie Terrace. I'm going to skip over this one. I think the applicant will have the latest renderings for the smaller restaurant building in his presentation. Development review staff have found the Rio South Dixie LLC application to comply with all applicable regulations, and the comprehensive growth management plan is detailed in the staff report. Review of this application is not required by the local planning agency. The staff recommends approval of the Rio Marine Village Phase 2 West Final Site Plan, including... No, that's it. Questions for staff. We move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1, and move that the board adopt the resolution approving the Rio Marine Village Phase 2 West Final Site Plan. That concludes the presentation. Any questions for Mr. Elam? Applicant, would you like to give us a presentation? Absolutely. We'll try to keep it brief since we've already gone over a majority of the details, but just a few nice images that I wanted to go over. Brian did a great job with his presentation. This is a majority of the commercial aspect of the Rio Marine Village Site Plan, so we have our mixed-use building, Building P, our restaurant, Building N, and then Building O is kind of a thatched-roof, open-air concept, and then Building A is our marine-industrial-type building. So, again, majority commercial aspect of the overall development. There are the two existing single-family residential houses, which will be refurbished and operated as rental properties, as well as a majority of our boat slips, both wet and dry boat storage. So, Brian went over the architecture, and then, again, from a landscape perspective, very consistent palette with phase one. It all blends together, primarily native species. Again, increases in tree size and, again, inclusion of these public open spaces. A majority of our public boardwalk is in phase two, so you can see it running along the frontage of the restaurants in the river there, which is where our living shoreline is located, highlighted on the screen. And here I've got a cross-section of what that looks like. So you have the boardwalk at the start of the 25-foot shoreline, followed by the native grasses, riprap, mangroves, and then we've got some oyster bags proposed on the frontage of that that provide a little bit more stabilization. And here's a close-up rendering of what we envisioned that to look like. So from the water, again, we are proposing this to be a Lucky Shark restaurant, so we can announce that. So consistent with the Love Street development down in Jupiter, as well as an event. Palm City as well, please. We'll start working on that one next. And here you can see on the left side of the rendering the open-air thatch roof concept for that restaurant. Just a couple more graphics, what that public open space and that boardwalk looks like, as you would ramp down towards the water, providing access to that section of beach that's there, and then a little further to the east. That building on the far right is that marina club, which is part of the Phase 1 site plan area. And this would be the long pier that comes out, which would have the day dockage as well. We'll be happy to answer any questions on that, but that will conclude our presentation for now on Phase 2. Questions for Mr. Missomer. Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, back to the board. Commissioner Campy. I'm looking for a trifecta. I have a lot of comments. No, I'm only kidding. I think this is obviously the only thing I would say is these renderings done by computer look like photographs, which is remarkable. Looking forward to it, I make a motion to accept staff's recommendation of approval. Second. I missed a request to speak form from Richard Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy, would you like to address us? Sorry. Hi, Rich Kennedy. I live on Dixie Highway in Rio at 1010, just west of the property we're discussing right now. I've sat on the NAC for a number of years and just left the CRA in January, full disclosure. I've been supporting this project all along. I think it's great. It impacts me positively and negatively, but it influences the neighborhood very positively. And you've seen the support, and I'm behind it. That's it. Thank you, neighbor. Commissioner Capps. You know, I remember in the past there were a lot of discussions about working waterfront in Martin County and how it's sort of evaporating. It's kind of like the scrub habitat where, you know, there's a lot of shrinkage in working waterfront. And in South Florida, it kind of turns into condos and things. Would this be considered working waterfront in light of the boat slips and the outside boat storage? And is there a way of construing this as working waterfront? That's certainly the intent and part of the one, as much as possible, to preserve that commercial waterfrontage that we have as part of the zoning designation for the property. So the same thing with that marine industrial building, again, trying to bring in that marine-centric use from a commercial perspective to preserve that along our shoreline. Right. I know, like, the Marine Industries Association, that's one of their big things, right? To preserve the working waterfront properties in Martin County. Thank you. Is there a motion and a second? I have a motion. I don't know if there was a second. Any further questions, comments? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. We will move on to Department Quasi-Judicial No. 4, Rio South Dixie LLC. Request final site plan approval for the preserve at Rio Marine Village Project. This is quasi-judicial. Any ex-parte disclosures? Commissioner Vargas? I have any. They've been filed. Commissioner Kapps? If I have any, they have been filed. I do have them, and they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? I have some, and they've been filed. And Commissioner Hetherington? I have them, and they've been filed. Mr. Elam, have you filed all of your materials with the clerk? Turning in a copy of my work history and the agenda item. Anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony, please stand, raise your right hand, and be sworn. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Please proceed with your presentation, Mr. Elam. Thank you, Madam Chair and Commissioners. Again, for the record, Brian Elam, Principal Planner with the Growth Management Department. This is a request by Kotler and Hearing on behalf of Rio South Dixie LLC for approval of a major final site plan to develop 145 residential units, consisting of multifamily townhome and live-work units and the associated infrastructure on approximately 14.34 acres of undeveloped land located in the Rio Community Redevelopment Agency area. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. This is an aerial image of the project site located between the Florida East Coast Railroad right-of-way to the north and the northeast Dixie Highway right-of-way to the south and west of northeast Martin Avenue. This is an overview of the Preserve at Rio Marine Village final site plan area in red in relation to the Rio Development south of Dixie Highway. The Preserve at Rio Marine Village area has the CRA Center future land use. The Rio Redevelopment Zoning District is the zoning district for the property, and there are two sub-districts that correspond with the respective land use, which are core sub-district and general sub-district. The core sub-district is assigned to the CRA Center future land use, which is intended to be a pedestrian-oriented center for surrounding neighborhoods with a broad mix of uses. The general sub-district is also assigned to the CRA Center future land use, which offers a wide variety of housing, civic spaces, and pedestrian-orientated businesses. The general sub-district allows a mix of uses, but is more residential in scale and character. The core and general sub-districts allow 15 residential units per acre. Both sub-districts require a 20% minimum open space. The core sub-district allows a maximum of three stories and 40 feet, and the general sub-district offers three stories and 35 feet. Development within the Preserve at Rio Marine Village Funnel site plan area consists of 145 residential units on approximately 14.34 acres of undeveloped land, resulting in an approximate density of 10 units per acre. The 145 residential units are made up of 96 multifamily apartments in four buildings, 44 townhomes in six buildings, and five liftwork units. The project includes a preserve area management plan that protects and maintains 3.16 acres of upland preserve, and native landscaping is proposed throughout the project site. This is an excerpt of the final site plan, sheet one. You can see some of the amenities on the northwest area of the development next to the preserve area. The live-work buildings are fronting Dixie Highway, or is fronting Dixie Highway, and two townhome buildings are fronting Northeast Preserve Drive, Northeast Charlotte Street, and Northeast Olive Street right-of-way provide cross-access through the development and alleys in the rear of the townhomes. There are some elevations of the apartment and townhome buildings. All buildings in this development are less than 35 feet, which is the maximum building height in the general sub-district. And here is a front and rear elevations of the live-work building that is fronting Dixie Highway. Development review staff have found the Rio South Dixie LLC application to comply with all applicable regulations in the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan as detailed in our staff report. A review of this application by the local planning agency is not required, and staff recommends approval of the Preserve at Rio Marine Village final site plan. We move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. We move that the board adopt a resolution approving the final site plan for the Preserve at Rio Marine Village project. And that concludes the presentation. Questions for Mr. Elam. Mr. Elam, there in the Preserve at Rio, there are a total of 145 units? Yes. And there are 88 garage parking spaces? I don't believe that's... That's what it says on page... Is it? ...1011. The townhome are two-car garages. So there are 44 townhomes and they're all two-car garages. Okay. So the 44 townhomes have two-car garages. Okay. So tell me... I'm looking at page 1011 and it says there are a total of 145 units and there are a total of 88 garage parking spaces. Where am I wrong? Right. That's the townhome parking, but the total parking is 283, I believe, for all the apartments and the townhomes combined. Is that just the Preserve? Correct. Are the parking standards in the CRA different than they are outside the CRAs? Yes, they are. There are fewer parking spaces required? Yeah, required, yes. How many spaces are provided in the Preserve? There's 283 provided and only 159 required. And only 88 of those are garaged? So the rest of it is on street? No, there's parking lots behind the apartment buildings. Well, those parking lots also serve the commercial property that's on the waterfront, right? No, those are separately parked on the west site plan. There's a large parking area around the boat basin on the west. Mr. Missimer, would you like to make a presentation? Absolutely. And just to follow up on your question, each of these site plans is standalone, so we meet the requirements associated with the development in each site plan within that area. So as you can see in this colored site plan, we do have the surface parking on the western side of the site for the apartments, as well as on-street spaces and some of the internal streets. And then each townhome building has a two-car garage and a driveway, so they park themselves. And then we have additional parking adjacent to the live-work building. So we've really tried to distribute that parking. We think we've done a really good job with that. Another facet of the site design, as we talked about before, is its relationship to Ryle Marine and its views all the way to the water. But you'll notice there's no back-to-back lot configuration. All of these units are amenitized in that perspective. They front the street. They're adjacent to open spaces. There's a lot of landscaping, wide sidewalks. These townhome units are an alley-loaded product, so the front door is opposite the garage. So it provides a really nice streetscape frontage and walkable environment for the development. The density we talked about, we're permitted a maximum of 219 units. We're proposing 145 in a mixed unit types. Again, this is a rental community that's proposed. From an access perspective, we are still tying in to the adjacent street network, so making sure that we're consistent with the existing block pattern and streetscape. Charlotte Street is that portion of right-of-way that we abandoned. So you can see that kind of going down the center from Martin Avenue, and it extends pretty much even with Building J currently. So that was the portion of right-of-way that we abandoned. Multiple access points, again, were not gated. Extensive sidewalk network connecting to the existing perimeter sidewalks. A lot of pedestrian open space, again, far exceeding the minimum requirements. And also a large upland preserve area, which has a preserve area management plan associated with it. There is a smaller amenity for this development on the northwestern corner, as Brian went over. It is envisioned that this would also utilize the amenities of Ryo Marine Village, so that's not all this community gets. It's just a more local spot for them for convenience, and they'd also be able to go to the other amenity area. We talked about the density. And then from a landscape perspective, again, consistent landscape palette and design as Ryo Marine Village. So it looks like a very unified development, a lot of larger trees, canopy trees associated with it. Our linear retention areas were designed. They are dry retention areas so that in the drier months they could be utilized for activities by the residents. Obviously, after a rainstorm it wouldn't be very fun, but in those drier months they would be usable. And then some of our renderings. This is a view from that western roundabout looking north at that first townhome building. So you can see it fronts along the street. Very walkable. There's one of our entry features there at the corner. There's that dry retention in the middle, as I noted. All of these units have great views. I mean, even if you're not looking directly at the water, you're looking out at open landscape area. You're not looking at someone's backyard or someone's front door. So we've really been able to utilize the space effectively and distribute those retention areas throughout the development as well as those open spaces. So a little bit further north along that same access road, here's a view at that first apartment building from Dixie and another internal shot. So the architecture is consistent with what was designed in Ryan Marine Village, very high quality, lots of articulation in the design with the balconies and additional window treatments and materials, colors. It's a very beautifully designed project. We're very proud of it. So we'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Do you have any public comment? Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, Commissioner Campy. I'm sensing a theme. I wanted to thank our staff. You know, when we talk almost jokingly about, oh, this has been a long process, that means a lot of professional people on our side of the county worked tirelessly and probably know this project intimately inside and out. And that's their job because they know that when it arrives in this room that there's a lot of eagle-eyed commissioners that will review every detail, whether it's parking space calculations or height or tree types, so they know that that's what needs to be done. And that only works with a professional staff on your side, consultants and experts and professionals, and then also the public. So it's basically a triangle of our staff, the public and the applicant and his and their staff, to create a project such as this. And I know that in Martin County, we all know, people are leery of development, don't want projects, don't want change. But having recently, knowing that this was coming, driven through a lot of these little side streets on both sides of Dixie, this will be a beautiful improvement for many people have gorgeous homes. Don't get me wrong. I'm not disparaging the area. But when we fought and purchased, with the priest's help, that mobile home park, we literally had to tear them all down. And it was very expensive to tear them all down because it was a horrible, blighted area. So I think this is an excellent example of when Martin County does embrace projects, we hope to embrace projects like this. It's my final pleasure to make a motion to accept the third of three for staff's recommendation. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Nice job, Mr. Thank you, Commissioner. I'm waiting to hear. The neighbors shaking hands with the app. It should have been late refreshments. I don't remember the last time it happened. I don't think it's one time. Newfield had a lot of support. There you go. They did. They had a lot of support. They had a lot of detractors, too. More. This doesn't have any. No, there really wasn't. Bye, Julie. Thank you. Okay. Let's take up our 11 o'clock preset, which is Department 3, which is a request for adoption of the 2025 Martin County Residential Capacity Analysis. Good morning, Mr. Doolin. Mr. Farmer. Welcome. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Clyde Doolin. I'm the Comprehensive Planning Administrator, and I'll just provide a few introductory comments before Mr. Farmer gives you all the details of the residential capacity analysis. As you know, the residential capacity analysis is required every five years. We produced one in 2018, again in 2023. This one is being produced now in 2025 because coming before you later this month will be a proposal to expand the primary urban service district. And the plan policy requires that this residential capacity analysis be updated and adopted by the board before considering an expansion to the primary urban service district. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Farmer and let him go into the details of the residential capacity analysis. Thank you. Good morning, Commissioners. Again, my name is David Farmer with Metro Forecasting. Just to remind you quickly, our firm only works for governments like yours. When we tell you something or we come to some conclusion, we want you to know that the finding behind it is based on what we think is really best and what is true for you. So, I'm standing on the shoulders of my partner, Dr. Paul Van Busker, who invented the models that we use for our forecasting and analysis purposes. We're both licensed professional engineers and certified planners. And I'd like to make a quick correction. So, because I like you, I'm not going to share all the details. You can read that in the report. This is trying to keep this more on the entertaining side and very short to respect your time today. So, as Mr. Dillon just said, the county is required to collect and monitor development population data for this purpose. And the analysis that we're about to present to you considers the population projections, the future housing demand, the future supply. And we'll get into that in probably more detail than you want to hear. And then demonstrate how the supply compares to the demand that's been estimated. So, first part about the methodology, we use population projections. And later on today, I believe you're going to hear about the Population Technical Bulletin. This study that we worked on draws heavily from that. And so, when you hear talking about that later, some of this might make a little bit more sense. But we use that population projection. And then we use that to determine the future demand for housing. And then we analyze the supply of housing. And, again, I need to credit your fine staff. There was a lot of work because the main goal of this study was accuracy. We wanted to make sure that we had the goods that we weren't just estimating. We were actually going out and counting units if we had to to make sure that we had an accurate count to make sure this study stands up to scrutiny. There was a major change last year in the comp plan that changed. The original horizon was 10 and 15 years, and now it's 10 and 20 years. So, because we're adding five years on to the second time horizon, the demand is higher because it's a longer period of time. And we're also moving from last time we presented to you as 2023. This is now 2025. So, we're moving into a 2035 and 2045 time frame. So, some of the numbers are going to get bigger than what you've seen in the past. So, this slide is basically an explanation of how we look at the housing units and how we define each kind of them. So, we have all the housing units in the world, right, or all the ones in Martin County. And then we look at only those that are within the Urban Services District. And then we take those and start classifying those. We have all the housing units. Then we have all the occupied housing units. Then we have the seasonally occupied housing units. And what that leaves in the background is vacant housing units. And I'm going to be talking more about that in a little bit of detail here in a slide or two. Actually, the slide right here. So, here again, we show the formula where we take the occupied housing units plus the seasonal is HU, which is those are the housing units we're using to both project and then also classify when we have the permitted housing units as well. So, the number down the far lower right, the 60,232, that's the one to be watching. However, in the report, I used this table twice. And towards the end, I want to bring this up now so I don't know if the board was showing you the same table twice. And it has to do with vacant housing units. And so, if we take the difference between the big number and then the occupied gives us the vacant number of housing units. And we're going to do some math of that in a few minutes because one of the things we can count towards capacity are your excess vacant. And this is not your excess. This is your total vacant. So, moving on with some more math. Any questions so far? I don't want to bore you guys. All right. So, these slides or these images are reproductions from essentially the population technical bulletin. And you'll notice that the headers, that's why they're called PTV, the population technical bulletin. So, these come from that. And what we see then is then our demand for 2035 from 2020 is 12.41 percent. And in 2045, it's 16.83 percent. So, we use those percentages against, remember, that magic 60,232 that we talked about just a minute ago. We use that to say, okay, that's what our future demand is going to be for these two horizons. So, about 7,500 units and a little more than 10,000, again, for the 10-year and 20-year time frame. Yes. Just a quick question. Just for clarification, when you look at 158,000 in 2020 and 178 with a 12.41 percent increase over 15 years, just for the folks that pay attention, that's a 1 percent increase per year, less than 1. Yeah, right, less than 1. When people say we have explosive growth, over the next 15 years, we're projecting 1 percent per year. I'm sure that's actually a pretty good point. You said 12.4, that's a big number, right? But over 15 years, it is less than 1 percent. And 16.8 is less than 1 percent because it's over a 20-year period, right? Yeah, these are not, you know, aggressive growths. In fact, these are state numbers, I believe. But, again, that will come out in the population technical bulletin. So, it's not just a matter of how much housing, but the methodology requires, hey, well, where are these things, where is the demand? And so, what we do is we look backwards five years, and we look at where the housing is showing up, and we then calculate those percentages. And then on the table on the bottom, we then say, okay, here are the percentages, and we have the 35 and 45 demand. So, now we start distributing where that supply needs to be in place to meet the theoretical demand based on population growth. It's fairly academic at this point. Okay, so now the residential supply. Everything I just showed you now, that looked like a lot of work. That's the child's play. This is where the real work begins, and that is trying to determine what is our supply. And as of what date? And while I don't state it in the slides here, the cutoff that we basically came up with was the end of July, because we had, you know, every day you're creating more housing units, or more housing units are being absorbed. And so, we had to draw a bright line, and the bright line that we decided was the end of July. And so, at that point in time, that's where we counted up the vacant lots. All vacant lands were analyzed, as well as, most importantly, your approved projects, because that bright line was more about, okay, I've got a project, let's say, new field. Okay, it was assigned or given an entitlement of X number of units, and today, Y number of units exist, except that that number keeps changing every day. And so, we went out, and staff helped us count those units, and so we're only showing you the supply is only that, which is actually left. So, we're not using the whole entitlement if part of it has already been developed. So, basically, the undeveloped part of the entitlement is what we're counting, and there's a whole lot of projects you can read in the report. And if you need more detail, I'm happy to answer at a later time, because I'll need my spreadsheets to answer those questions. So, here's our excess vacant units. I said we'd be talking about this again. So, we started with that 3,551 number of units, and there's a rationale that says 3% is the normal amount of vacant units that should exist in a healthy market. Anything more than that are excess vacant units. And so, we calculate the excess vacant units. Well, 3% is the 1,807, and so we then subtract the 3,551, and we get 1,700. So, we have this adds to our capacity. We have 1,744 vacant units that are in excess and, therefore, could be occupied. To give you a quick example, let's just say that I have a house here in Martin County, and I put it for sale, and I moved away because I got transferred by my company. So, the house is vacant today, but as soon as I sell it, that house will then become occupied again. That could be an example of what the excess vacant might be. And then, getting back to then the allocation, just like we allocated where the demand is, we also allocated then where these excess vacant units are located, and so far, these are going to be used in a calculation that's coming up. All right, so here's where we took the units on vacant land, and there are about four or five tables that lead to this top table, especially this 1890. There's about 100 calculations that go into that, maybe even more than that, and so we didn't present it here in this. And then we have the 5,621 available units from your entitlements, basically approved projects, and that does include what was approved, again, prior to today for Ryle Marine Village and so forth. We also then look at your vacant lots. So, the vacant lots platted before 1982 and after 1982. We calculated those, and I will tell you because, again, we get down to the parcel level, you have a fair number of lots that have been subdivided and created from existing parcels. Someone had five acres, and so they cut it into two or three parcels, and so that's all accounted for in here, so that we're using, again, all the best data and, again, striving for the highest amount of accuracy. Okay, so all this slide is is I'm taking these three tables, and I'm putting them on the left to show you what's happening on the right, because this table is very, very important. And if you don't mind, I created this, and I hope you like it. I know there's a lot of arrows there, but now you can see how that table is fed, the sources of all these numbers and how they've all flowed to this major table that shows us then where the supply needs to be allocated, both in the primary and the secondary. I know it's a lot. A lot's going on there. And then so that then feeds to these two final tables. So we have, if I back up just a slide, so the 11,537, you see that's in this column right here. This is the number we're using, and we'll be using also the 856 and going down. So, again, so here is the 11,000. Here's the 856. There's the 11,000. There's the 856. Totals to 12,393. And so now what we do is we start comparing against, okay, well, we've allocated where the demand will be, and then we've also allocated the supply. And so we see that in the eastern primary for the 10-year horizon, we're at over 200%. As we drop down now to the eastern secondary, we can see that we're only 92%. And if we look in the aggregate, we're well over 100%. We're at 186. And something about that eastern secondary, something that's driving that, at least from my perspective, are projects like Canopy Creek. That's in the secondary, correct? And that was recently finished. That was a slow project, a slow burn for a long time, and it really got going between 2022 and 2024. And so since those units showed up in that time frame, and I'm counting all these COs, it spiked the demand for that secondary. I'm not saying there's not a high demand in the secondary. I'm just saying that it's sort of a looking backwards sort of thing. We've had some recent development in that secondary that sort of has elevated that demand. So I'm not saying that you have enough. Clearly, the calculation says it's only 92%. But just as a math person, if we went out two or three or four more years, you might see that number then decline because now there's less new growth in the secondary. Hopefully that was clearer than mud. Okay, good, good. Very clear. All right. And then the second table at the bottom, this is now our 20-year time horizon. As you see here, again, we're well over 100, at least for the eastern, but we're only at 148%. And if you go back and look at the study we did in 2023, you're going to find a huge difference. Again, two reasons. One, we've jumped five years in the future, and we've added five years onto the demand. So that's why these numbers have grown so large, meaning that now it's harder to meet the demand, right? So we're now at 148. And then for the eastern secondary, we're at 68. Again, in aggregate, for the 20-year demand, we're still above 100% at 137. But, again, that number now has come down from where we were a couple years ago. And the conclusion is basically just reiterating that for the 10-year, for the eastern primary, we're over 200. For the secondary, we're just under 100 at 92. For the 20-year time horizon, far out from now, less than 1% growth rate, we're still saying that we're at 148% of the demand in the primary, but the secondary, we're at 68%. I hope that, I guess it wasn't intended to be entertaining, but I hope that was informative to you. And that wraps up the presentation in terms of the housing capacity analysis. Do you have any questions, members of the board? No. No. Claire. Yeah, I do. A couple questions. One is that the last time, every other time that we've done a residential capacity analysis, we haven't had to calculate any density in live local. And now we do. And I don't believe that this one has taken into consideration that there's now residential capacity in commercial and industrial. So, and we've got lots of vacant industrial, and we've got some vacant commercial, too, that is now eligible for units, residential units. How are we, what are we doing to make sure that we're making our counts accurate? Yeah. We're following the methodology specified in the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. And it doesn't take into consideration live local because it was created before live local ever came along. So, to change the methodology and to try and make some speculative count of what live local could add to our residential capacity, it would be, would require an amendment to the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. So, just one example is AgTech, which is no longer called AgTech, I forget what it's called, but it's 1,600 acres. And it's a freestanding urban service boundary. And it is presumably eligible for 15 units per acre. Okay, that's, you know, all of a sudden we have a situation here, right? The AgTech policy doesn't provide for residential, but I understand the point you're making. About live local. Again, Commissioner, that would require some speculation on our part. And it would also require amending the Comprehensive Plan to change this methodology and factor that in. Because everything you see in these slides is based on specific plan policy. Ms. Elder. Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Donaldson. Commissioner, in terms of how we would look at this, my suggestion would be is that as there is experience in the amount of industrial and different communities that are taking up, including our own, since our requirement is to do these updates on a reoccurring basis or when there are requests to expand the urban boundary, as we get more experience, we can factor in statistically what we're seeing as a fraction that's being converted. And if we build some experience on that, then we might be able to build into an actual comp plan amendment that would have a formula, if you will, that could estimate it based upon some historical statistical analysis. That would be my recommendation is how we could proceed. But until we actually have numbers from either locally or from elsewhere in the state, it's hard to project what that number is. But obviously, it becomes more meaningful when you start having more of these projects come forward. This is also the first time that we've done a residential capacity analysis and found that we lacked capacity for the 10-year or 20-year planning horizon. So I certainly am more familiar with the requirement to expand or to begin planning for the expansion of the primary. Are we required to create additional secondary? The plan policy requires us to go in and start planning for additional capacity. If you drop below 100% or below what I think the plan policy simply refers to as capacity. We can come back to you at a later date if that's board direction to consider that. Yeah. I think that that's an extremely important, critical next step that we're going to need to take is to determine if it's necessary to create additional capacity in the secondary, and if so, how to do it and where to do it. I don't want to be forced into a decision. I want this to be a decision that Martin County makes. I don't want it to be a decision that's forced upon us. Mr. Donaldson. Just in terms of I think it would be good to have a presentation on the history of the secondary and how it evolves simply because I think it might play into the policy on how you want to treat the secondary. I think there are opportunities where it does not need to play into an expansion role because of how it was created. So I think it's an important subject, but I'm not sure that the board will be required to expand the secondary, but we may need some plan revisions to address that because it was created at a time when the state was slow growth and it was created when the state felt we had too much residential. Obviously, the state is now a very pro-growth oriented, and that is an artifact of how it was created. I think so staff has explained it much better than I have, but I know enough to be dangerous. But I do think there are opportunities because of how it was created and in its future that we might be able to create some policies that deal with it in a way that does not commingle it with the rest of the discussion on urban boundary growth. I have one request to speak for him, and that's from Tyson Waters. Good morning. Tyson Waters from the law firm of Fox McCluskey here today on behalf of Canter 96th Street Investment Partners. The purpose of the residential capacity analysis is to provide a realistic, data-supported projection of future population, housing supply, and future housing needs. We believe the current residential capacity analysis fails to meet that goal. We believe there are a number of flaws and issues with the current formula. Given my limited time, I'm just going to touch on a few. First, the data sources required by the comprehensive plan and data sources that are actually used in the analysis are different. By way of example, the comprehensive plan requires that in non-census years, the updates to the estimates and projections of population growth are to come from the Office of Economic and Demographic Research. This data is then used for the annual update in the Population Technical Bulletin, which you're going to hear later today. The update, however, you'll see is that instead of EDR, what's used is the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research, better known as BEBER. Now, I don't necessarily believe that this information is different, but when your comp plan says use this source and you're using a different source, even if related, that creates a problem for the public to monitor and see what's going on. Similarly, under your comp plan, in non-census years, the source for determining existing housing in Martin County is supposed to be based on data from the American Community Survey data. The sources, however, for the 2025 residential capacity analysis appears to be based on the 2020 census and information from the Martin County Property Appraisal's Office. Again, I'm not saying they're wrong or inconsistent or different, but when your comp plan says use this data source and you're using a different data source, that creates the potential for error and confusion. You know, your comp plan talks about that the analysis and the methodology must be clear and available for the public review. I think based on what's being presented today and the supporting information, that's not accurate and not being complied with. As it relates to projecting future housing availability, the current formula provides inaccurate and unrealistic projection of future supply. Again, by way of example, the comprehensive plan requires that any vacant housing in excess of 3% of the overall housing supply be counted as available for future housing needs. This percentage is an arbitrary number and is not an accurate or appropriate mechanism in determining future need. The percentage was adopted back in 2013, not based on scientific information, but based on a conversation with a developer that estimated healthy vacancy between 2% and 5%, and 3% was used instead. I think if you ask realtors, a healthy market, it can range drastically, including up to 8% and beyond. This is a lot of variables in the analysis and not something that should be used as you're trying to rely on for future housing needs. Finally, and perhaps the most glaring, when determining housing supply on vacant land, 15 seconds, the comp plan requires that you use maximum density both from the uplands and then 50% from the wetlands. As I've been doing this for 20 years, that does not happen in Martin County. If you analyze the historic number of units. All right. Well, thank you very much. Your mic is off. Any further questions or comments? Commissioner Campy. Gentlemen, can you respond to what you just heard, please? Yes. I'll take a couple of those and let David respond. The economic development research, EDR versus Bieber. Bieber is the source for EDR. So while the names are different, the data is the same. Regarding his comment on census versus American Community Survey, plan policy allows for either to be used. An American Community Survey doesn't address some of the data that is needed. Census does. So we are following comp plan policy on those issues. Regarding the vacant land max density, that's been a subject to debate since the beginning of time. Lots of people have made the point that we don't develop it as maximum densities. And that was probably more true in the past, probably less true today, because the product that you see happening a lot more often is townhomes and multifamily and the product that you just looked at, the final site plans that you saw today this morning. So we are getting closer to max density on our actual development activity. So that's been a complaint since beginning, and we've done maximum density in all residential capacity analysis going back at least to the 90s. So I will let David take up one other point. And then regarding the excess vacancy, I wasn't around here in 2013, but I do know that it was based on a planning study done by a notable planner that found anything more than 3%. Now, you can attack the rest of that study, but it was a study. It wasn't hearsay that that 3% comes from. Ms. Elder. And I just wanted to remind the board that when the residential capacity analysis formula was adopted, it was challenged, and it did go through an administrative appeal, fully litigated. So that did happen, and I think we didn't implement it until 2016 or 18? That's correct. That's when the final settlement was done. Commissioner Vargas. Okay, so we're here today to decide whether or not we need to expand the primary urban service district. No, ma'am. Do not do that because we do have capacity within it. Is that what I'm understanding? We are only asking you today to adopt this capacity analysis that's being presented to you. No decision on expanding or changing the urban service district is necessary at this time. Okay, fine. Any further questions, comments? I make a motion to adopt the analysis. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further comment? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Mr. Farmer, are you finished for the day? He turned around. I'm finished when you say I'm finished. No, I just wonder if we need to take up another item before we go to lunch. Because I don't want you to have to stay here unnecessarily. My work is complete, I believe. Okay, thanks. Kind of hinges. Okay, we'll take up Department 4? Yeah, sure. Thank you. Members of the board, again, for the record, my name is Clyde Doolin, Comprehensive Planning Administrator. With me is Samantha Lovelady, Principal Planner. We worked on the Population Technical Bulletin. We don't have a whole lot here to go into. I would note that on 1250, can you go ahead and give us that page, please, Sam? This is our historic growth table, and I just thought I'd bring this up for everybody's discussion. It kind of feeds in from the discussion we were just having about our growth over the years. If you look at the bottom of the table between 2020 and 2024, from 2020, that asterisk next to the 2020 number there tells us that that's the United States Census Bureau is our source of 158,431. As you can see, between 2019 and 2020, it actually went down in our growth by 11 percent. And then we've been up and down since then, 0.39, 1.64, 0.74, 1.23. But all of it has been below 2 percent. So we do not have a drastic growth increase going on in terms of population. And if you averaged it over those years, it's inconsequential. Right. And for the record, Samantha Lovelady, for the record, in terms of the Bieber versus EDR, the Department of Economic and Business Research with the University of Florida, they provide the data for the state legislature, state legislature through the State of Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research, EDR. So Bieber provides that data to the Florida legislature. They approve it through the EDR. And so it is the same numbers. I think what Bieber did were the only difference right now in this past update was that they rounded the numbers up to a full hundred. A full hundred. So I did want you to understand that, that in Florida statute, statute 163.3177, it requires local government comprehensive plans to be based on permanent and seasonal estimations and projections. This goes into our capital facility planning. It goes into land use planning, housing, as well as the residential capacity analysis. We can go into the tables and give you more detail, but that's basically the high spots. We would ask that the board approve this population technical bulletin. One other thing I'd like to point out is the permanent population that you see in this document for 2024, I presented at the joint meeting with the city and the school board in the village. Those are the same numbers. Bieber did not produce those until August. They normally come out between January and May, but they didn't come out with them until August. And when they come out again, I'll be bringing you forward that update. Okay. Thank you. Any questions, comments? I'll move approval of the technical population bulletin. And I will second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. Thank you. And Murley, is that? Want to take that up? Sure. Department 1, morning, afternoon. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Stephanie Murley here to give you three items on OMB today. Our first item is the permission to accept the Florida Division of Emergency Management, or the FDEM. Modification number two for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for Southwest Mockingbird Lane Drainage. Our Public Works Department is requesting a modification that will allow the BOCC to request reimbursement of $36,349 for pre-award expenses that were incurred in fiscal year 2021 for the Mockingbird Lane Drainage Project, Phase 1. There's no additional cash match required to accept this modification. Item number two is a permission to accept the 2025 Waterways Assistance Program Grant for the renovation of the Jensen Beach Causeway North Boat Ramp and Pier Improvement Grant. Our Parks and Recreation Department is requesting the acceptance of $450,000 of construction costs to replace the existing Jensen Beach Causeway Boat Ramp and Lodge Piers and Docks. There is a grant match of $450,000, which is budgeted within the fiscal year 2026 Parks Boat Ramp Program CIP sheet. Item number three is a permission to accept the Emergency Management Performance, or EMPG, grant. This is an annual grant that our Emergency Management Division receives. They are requesting the acceptance of $68,319.84 to enable the county to enhance planning projects, provide for technology, equipment, and supplies for the Emergency Management Division. And there is no cash match required for this grant. That's all I have for you today. Questions for Ms. Murley? Motion to accept Ms. Murley's report. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. I see Ms. Brotherton is just coming into the room. Let's take up Department 2 contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of a million dollars or greater. Give her a moment to catch. Good morning. Sorry about that. Afternoon. Good afternoon, Christy Brotherton, Chief Procurement Officer. I have four items for your consideration today. And the first one is a contract for sludge dewatering polymer. This contract has a contract not to exceed value of $2 million and a maximum not to exceed term of five years. And staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the highest scoring firm, Cedar Chem, which is a Salinas company, and move that the board authorize the county, excuse me, administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. Next, we have a contract for Waterside Way signalization improvements. Oh, I am out of breath. Sorry, guys. Move that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, J.W. Cheatham, in the amount of $1,263,541.22. And move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to that request. Next, we have North Jensen Floridian Well, NRO5, raw water main addition. Move that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, accurate drilling systems, in the amount of $1,651,861.90. And move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. And last but not least, we have the building 17 renovation for the REACH Center. This is in change order in the amount of $49,351.31. Move that the board authorize change order 6 to all site construction in the amount of $49,351.31. And move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. Whew. That is it. Commissioner Heatherington. Two questions. One, the signalization on Waterside Way. Who is paying for that? Go ahead. Good morning. Jim Gordon. Good afternoon. Public Works Director. The project is being paid for with the Waterside Way CIP sheet that's associated with the operations facility. So, Waterside Way is the roadway that will lead into the 30-acre site that the operations facility is on. Is the development that's currently on there contributing? No, it's not. This serves the south side of that or southwest side of that complex. And it really is for this facility. There's a secondary one, the refrigerated storage facility that's in front of it, could also use this driveway. But the only way to get to the 30-acre parcel is this driveway. So, we're paying for it. We're paying for it, yep. And second question, 49, the change order, what is that $49,000 change order for? George Stokas here. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. George Stokas, Assistant County Administrator for the record. The $49,000 is coming out of the Airport Enterprise Fund. It has to retain soil and separate soil from the parking lot and the building because of the elevation and the displacement. We need a, I think it's an 18-inch retaining wall, cement retaining wall. And in order to meet the ADA transition requirements to a potentially future bus stop as well as to the parking lot, there had to be some site changes that were done. And that's primarily what that's for. Thank you. And back to the REACH Center, man, I've seen this building and it's, I don't see $3.5 million worth of improvement. It's a very small building and it looks to me like the improvements have been primarily cosmetic. I understand that there are some drainage problems that had to be solved in the parking lot, but golly, this is an expensive project. Well, Madam Chair, I'm more than happy to work with you on your schedule and take you for a tour. Sure, we will be moving it through. But, yes, it's substantial in there. There's a lot of stuff in the building. There better be for $3.5 million. Wonderful building, Madam Chair. Commissioner Capps. So what are the criteria for deciding whether a change order is legitimate or whether it should have been anticipated in the original scope? Are we talking specifically to the REACH Center? Just more in general, do you just apply kind of like a reasonableness standard? Would it be reasonable to assume that you should have anticipated the problem in the original scope? It depends on the type of project. Buildings are generally more complex. There's a lot of unknowns. I know we had asbestos issues at one time with this one that was not known until we got in there. More of our horizontal projects, you do design, you do environmental, you'll do geotechnical testing to try to mitigate any of those issues up front. But once you start digging in the ground, sometimes there's unknowns that you can't perceive. There's no such thing as a perfect set of plans. And to add to the complexity of the REACH Center, it wasn't just a vertical from new. So it was a complete gut and rehabilitation where we found environmental issues on a building that, quite frankly, the surrounding environment was from 1950. So when they dug into the ground, they found water lines that had never – well, quite frankly, I don't think any of that stuff was really permitted. I don't want to put down Mr. Doherty or his – just in 1950, they put stuff in. And we opened up the ground and we thought what was the hydrant line was not the hydrant line. It was another type of line. The anticipation from the actual change order, the plans actually call for a greater, larger wall. We downsized that. But when you start opening walls and looking at electrical, this is a building that has sat vacant or abandoned for – it's got to be at least 20, 25 years. I mean, it used to be a bank in a commercial kitchen. So we tried to do the best we can to anticipate what was going to be needed to be changed. The nice thing is it was American Rescue Plan dollars and it's airport enterprise dollars. So it's not ad valorem taxpayer. It's not there coming out of your property tax. It wasn't coming out of the general fund. And there is a difference between owner requested, so the county can request changes if something comes up during construction or the contractor initiated changes, whereas maybe they found something during construction. And at that point, to try to answer your question, the project manager, the department of the county would review it and negotiate a cost if it's not something that's already in there. So they don't just submit something and then we are obligated to pay it. Correct. Right. I just thought of a word that I think applies to change orders. It's discovery. Like we discovered something that was not anticipated in the original contract, like hidden things. And especially as it relates to old buildings that you're rehabbing and that kind of thing, we discovered something that we did not anticipate. And, Commissioner, just to add a little bit, I know we're all bumping up to lunch here, is we also worked very well with this contractor. They found ways for us to improve what we thought were the design. We've worked hand-in-hand with the general contractor on this project on places where we had cost savings or we changed in total values and so forth. So some change orders are deductive. Some change orders are increased. But in some cases, it's having a good relationship, which we do with this general contractor. Who was it? All site construction. All site construction. I know it's Demarius. That's how I know his first name. Any further questions? Mr. Donaldson. I just thought it was an important question in terms of when we're looking at contracts for construction, there's always the element of the design. And was there a design flaw is something when you look at a change order. We often get contractors that are asking for change orders, and sometimes it's an attempt to revise the design of it. And we have had some projects recently where there's been submittals for certain materials, and they were costing them more. They're trying to get a change order, but the material spec was smaller, and we've made the contractor go back. So there's always a lot of issues regarding our – we put a lot of effort to keep our change orders to a minimum. And then one of the other techniques that we're looking to use is construction management risk, where you get a cost not to exceed. Essentially, it's a fixed cost, which we're seeing more of in more complicated projects as a better tool for us, where you engage the contractor during the process so that you have a guaranteed fixed cost. But in renovation projects, those are usually the ones that are the most difficult to predict the change order, as Mr. Stokas pointed out, where you have an existing building, and when you open it up, you find conditions weren't – that were in the public record or in our original design. They just simply were wrong. A can of worms. Yes, and we appreciate your working with us on those more complicated projects. Thank you. But I would also like to say that if you had torn down the building and built a new building from scratch, it would be way more than that. It would cost you a lot of money to tear it down and then have to reset the site with everything new and also then to build a building from scratch. So you're basically getting a brand-new building for $3.6 million, which we know you're not building a brand-new building with what's inside of that one for $3.6 million. And that cost also includes furniture, fixtures, equipment, not all the equipment, not everything, but quite a bit of it, Commissioner. Any further questions or comments? Is there a motion to approve agenda item of Department 2? I would make such a motion. I'll second it. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye, opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Commissioners, you want to keep on? Let's keep going. All right. Let's go on to – well, let's take up Department Quasi-Judicial 1, which is Three Lakes Golf Club LLC requesting revised final site plan approval for Phase 3 of the Three Lakes Golf Club plan unit development. This is quasi-judicial. Any ex parte disclosures, Commissioner Vargas? I have any. They have been filed. Commissioner Capps? If I have any, they have been filed. I don't have any, and they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? If I have any, they've been filed. And Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. Excellent. Mr. Elam, once again, have you provided the information necessary to the clerk? Copy my work history, and the agenda items have been turned in as Exhibit 1. Anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony, please stand up, raise your right hand, and be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioners, for the record, Brian Elam, Principal Planner with the Growth Management Department. This is a request by Lucido and Associates on behalf of Three Lakes Golf Club LLC for approval of the revised Phase 3 final site plan to relocate unbuilt golf cottages and recreational amenities within the Phase 3 development area and expand Lake 13 near the East Clubhouse parking field. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. The approximately 1,219-acre site is located west and east of Canter Highway, approximately 2.4 miles southwest of Interstate 95. The main entrance is on the north side of Southwest Bridge Road, approximately 3.4 miles east of Southwest Canter Highway intersection at 11655 Southwest Club Court in Stewart. The current zoning on the property is the Three Lakes Golf Club Planned Unit Development Zoning Agreement, and the future land use is rural lifestyle. The Three Lakes Golf Club PUD and master site plan were approved on February 20, 2024, and included a maximum of 54 golf cottages and 324 rooms. The existing approved revised Phase 3 final site plan has 54 cottages and 280 rooms. This proposed revised Phase 3 final site plan has 51 cottages and 281 rooms, or 280 rooms, so no change in the rooms, a reduction in the cottages, and all of it less than what is allowed. This proposal consists of relocating unbuilt cottages on the property. For example, Forest Cottage Pod A currently is approved for one cottage, and in this proposal, 10 cottages are located in Forest Cottage Pod A. Forest Cottage Pod B is approved for 10 cottages, and in this proposal has been reduced to three cottages, while the cottage located at the Pool Spa Cottage Pod C has been removed. The net result of this redistribution in this proposal is a reduction of three cottages from the maximum allowed, and the room count remains the same. Another change in this proposal is the racket club amenities that were located down here in the south. Most of them have been moved up here in this area. I think the pool remains, and that area has been renamed as the south amenity. Also, there were some cottages that are over here near where this lake expansion is. That has been removed to allow about a 1.34, 1.58-acre expansion of that lake, I believe. So the development review staff have found the Three Lakes Golf Club LLC application to comply with all applicable regulations, and the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan is detailed in our staff report. A review by the local planning agency is not required, and staff recommends approval of the Three Lakes Golf Club Phase 3 Revised Final Site Plan. We move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. I move that the board adopt the resolution approving the Three Lakes Golf Club PUD Phase 3 Revised Final Site Plan. And that concludes the presentation. Questions for Mr. Elam. Mr. Crady. Good afternoon. Yes, for the record, my name is Morris Crady, senior partner with Aceto and Associates. It's an agreement with everything Brian has said. It is just a minor tweak moving things around on behalf of the owners and the memberships, just trying to make things fit where they would like them and expanding some amenities and reducing some of the cottage bedroom units. So with that, we're glad to answer any questions. We are, just so you know where we are in the process, we've completed now the third golf course and finishing up on a 12-hole golf course, which should be completed by the end of the year. And moving forward with the clubhouse, hopefully we'll have a CO by the end of this year for the clubhouse facilities and the first set of cottages by the end of this year. So we're moving right along. Questions for Mr. Crady. Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, back to Commissioner Campy. Thank you. I think this is more just a technical kind of thing. As Mr. Crady said, as you start to develop the project and it comes out of the ground, you start to realize, hey, let's move some things around. There's still a process. It still needs to be reviewed, which is what we've done here today. I just wanted to speak briefly about the project overall, that when they came here and discussed what they would and would not be doing and the scope of the project, they recently won their practice and training facility, which is obviously brand new because the whole project is brand new, just won the best practice and training facility in the United States of America, competing against the most premier golf courses everywhere in the country, which is a remarkable feat happening right here in Martin County. I think that speaks to the level of the overall level of the project. They've also, I've spoken to a couple of not-for-profits. They had mentioned when they were originally seeking their approvals that they would be excellent corporate citizens and great neighbors, and part of that was going to be a couple of times throughout the year opening up their facility to some of our premier not-for-profits, and they've started to do that. So I wanted to commend them on that because I think the folks that have ever participated in a golf outing for a not-for-profit to have a golf outing there will be remarkable. So I wanted to thank them, and I make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll now take up Department 5, which is Martin County Public Transit, Marty, System Update. Mr. Beecher. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Ash Beecher, Transit Administrator. Today we have a presentation for you all from Martin County Transit, LLC, a division of Senior Resource Association. And just to provide a little background, on April 1, 2025, Martin County Transit, LLC, a division of Senior Resource Association, SRA, was awarded the contract for RFP 2025-3644, on-road transit and support services, Marty bus system operation. As part of this contract, SRA staff will provide regular updates to the Board of County Commissioners on Marty system performance, challenges, and needs. So this would be the first of many to come. I'll turn things over to this one. Thank you. Afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Karen Deagle. I am the CEO of Senior Resource Association, and Martin County Transit is a division of Senior Resource Associations. So today we want to talk to you about the Marty system. And our objectives today, as we have discussed previously, we want to talk about where we currently are, strategies for enhanced public transportation, and then, of course, next steps. So today's transportation system, we have five fixed routes. We operate Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. We have 14 buses, 67 bus stops throughout the county. We do do regional service into St. Lucie County and West Palm Beach, and also Martin County Transit, LLC. We have 30 employees that include operators, dispatchers, mechanics, and supervisors. So currently, we just wanted to point out about the ridership. You can see on this chart that the ridership has been increasing. And that, of course, is one of the main concerns we have. The idea is, when you have transit, the main thing is, get the ridership up. Who is going to ride, and how are we going to do that? And that's what we'd like to talk about today. So in doing so, we have three different areas that we would like to discuss. We have the route optimization, funding, and then community awareness. Hi, I'm Chris Stevenson. I'm the director of transportation at Martin County Transit. And some of you will probably remember that in October of 2024, Martin County adopted a transportation development plan. That is something that's required by every transit system that receives state block grant funding. And so that is really the guiding document that we use when we look at how do we want to grow the system. But the only thing is, the TDPs, they don't always, they don't always, they have very aspirational goals, but they don't always have cost-feasible goals. So what Martin County Transit has done is we've said, okay, we've been running the system for the last three months now. It's like, how can we line up what the system needs with that TDP and try and do it in a way that's cost-feasible? And so Karen mentioned those three pillars, the route optimization, the funding, and the community awareness. What we're going to talk about today is ways we can line up our thoughts on the system with the TDP. We're going to talk about a route optimization study, purchasing smaller vehicles, multiple hubs, if we go to a hub-based system, adding bus stops. And then also we're going to look at existing funding structures that are already in place in the state and the federal level that could be used to implement some of those changes. And we want to look at the existing funding that Martin County Transit already gets and how we could use that to provide more service. And then obviously the branding of the system and how it's marketed to the community and what we can do to build rider confidence in the system so that people know that they can ride with us, they can get where they need to go, and that it's going to be a safe and customer-friendly trip. So with route optimization, a few of the things that we would like to take a look at is adding and changing routes that we currently have. We also want to look at design the microtransit zones, which we'll talk a little bit more about, possibly extending hours of service, and also adding bus stops. So this slide shows trip generators. And these are areas of interest, usual interest from riders. These are places people want to go. So this is an important thing to consider when you're developing your new transit routes, making sure that you're providing trips to certain generators. Obviously, we're also looking at where they're coming from. So two different areas, where they're coming from, where can we bring people in from where they live, and where are they wanting to go? So we mentioned the fleet. We want the fleet to adapt to serve the needs of Martin County. So Ash and his team have developed a transportation asset management plan. And as the vehicles are coming up to be replaced, we want to make sure we are replacing them with the types of vehicles that are going to best serve the people of Martin County. So you can see on there right now, the entire fleet are these heavy-duty buses. But when they come up to be retired, are we going to replace them with another heavy-duty bus, or are we going to move to a smaller cutaway that could be used to go back further into neighborhoods? Are we going to go to a microtransit vehicle, which is a lot cheaper for the vehicle, and it's for a different type of service? So those are all the types of things we're going to explore in the very near future with the system of the Marty. And then also talking about hubs. Right now, there's not currently a set designated hub in Martin County, but it's something that we've seen be very, very successful other places with public transportation. The idea is that you can cover a bigger geographic area without having commutes that take hours and hours for citizens. You can have areas where buses can meet, people can transfer. That way, they can cover a longer geographic area without having to be on one bus that takes a very long, extended amount of time. And we have a picture here of the hub in Indian River County, which you can see on there, there's the six buses that all meet at the same time every hour, and passengers can transfer, and then they can continue on their way. It works very successful up there. I think that's one of the key things is that how are we going to move people around Martin County? You know, currently right now, you have the few routes that you have. Are they meeting each other? How are people moving in the hub, I call it spoken hub system, whereas you can take someone from the North County or from, say, St. Lucie County down to the Palm Beaches if we're going to continue with regionalism. And throughout that county have a few different hubs, whereas buses come in, they all, a certain amount stop at one location. People get off. They get on to another route to move them east or west, and then they maybe have, you know, change again and go south or whatever direction. And it's just a very, for a smaller system and for a county that's building the transit system, it's a very, it gives a lot of opportunity for ridership growth. And then also looking at microtransit. So microtransit is a very popular thing in public transportation right now. What happens is you can find areas that are transit deserts that don't currently have any public transportation. Those people aren't being served by any public transportation. And you can create a microtransit zone there. And then you, I'm sorry, say that again? Like Palm City. That's correct. And so you could, you could create a microtransit zone there and then you use microtransit vehicles to provide service there. And then what happens is over time, as it becomes more successful, you can use the data there of where people are getting picked up and dropped off to create a fixed route so that it becomes cost feasible once it becomes successful. And then also we are looking at the hours of service that the Marty is running. Right now it runs pretty late into the day. It runs till 8 p.m. But also it doesn't run on the weekends. And what we always say is that, you know, people's lives don't stop on Friday at 8 p.m. So the clientele that's being tripped in Martin County, we hear it all the time because we also operate the Indiantown shuttle on Saturdays and Sundays. People want the Marty on the weekends. And so we're going to be looking at that. We're going to be looking at holiday service because right now the Marty doesn't run on very many holidays. And those are all things that we think would be beneficial to the people who are using the system. So customer service and safety is really big in our books. And there's a few safety improvements that I'd like to see happen. One is the voice annunciators. Currently now the drivers, they are having to announce the stops as they approach them so that the riders know where the stop is. And I find this a distraction for the drivers, I think, to have to continually keep in your mind about enunciating a stop and, you know, pulling the microphone down. You're taking your hands off the wheel. It's just an unsafe situation. And so I'd like to see that happen when there's funding available. Automated counters. Right now the drivers are using their finger to tap the iPad to count the number of riders that are getting on. We're all talking about ridership, increasing the ridership. We want accuracy. And we also want to have it so that it's not a distraction also for the drivers. So that would be another. And then additional cameras. Right now there are cameras on the buses and on three sides of the buses. I'd like to see the cameras on completely around the bus for safety of pedestrians as well as safety of our riders and driver. When looking at the funding of the system, you can see the current funding for the public transportation system is listed there. The top three line items there are federal funding sources, and then you've got the state block grant, and then you've got the two local fundings from Martin County and then from the fair. We will point out that with the fair, the amount that we received last year on the fair was $156,000. That comes off of the federal amount. So it says that the feds gave $2 million, but it was actually $2 million minus $156,000. And so in speaking about that, we have seen Fair Free be very successful on the Treasure Coast. It's very successful in Indian River County and in St. Lucie County. And one of the reasons for that is because the funding for the state block grant is tied to ridership. So the more riders you get, the more funding you get from the state block grant. And so what we've seen on the Treasure Coast is when you have a system that have high ridership, they make enough money in their state block grant that they don't have to rely as much on local dollars. And so that's something that we would like to look at for consideration. We also have the fact that when you have fair free, boarding the, when people are getting on the bus, they're taking time to get their money, put the money in, and then they have to take their seat. The bus cannot leave until that person is in the seat. And so even if it's just a few seconds, five seconds, five seconds every time adds up. And when you're on a timeline to get from one end of your route to another, every second counts. And so by having them not be putting dollars or figuring out when they get on the bus, it does add more time. We can then add more stops to the bus or to the route. Or we could actually extend the route as well. So we've talked a lot about changes and things that we'd like to see in the future. And one of the questions we always get is, how are we going to pay for it? One of the things that we're already looking at is the existing way that the funding is getting used. For example, the 5307 grant that is being received. Right now it's only being used to fund capital improvements. But there are things in place through the FTA that you can do to use those funds for operating costs. And so that's one of the things that we're going to explore is, can we start using some 5307 capital money for operating? And then community awareness. We really want to make sure that the community understands that our system is safe and is secure to ride. We want to highlight, be able to highlight a number of different things on our bus, such as, you know, audio visual. One of the things in Indian River County is we have a very good relationship with the sheriff's office. So if there's any challenges with any of the riders or anyone on the bus, we have that relationship when we can contact them and they come out right away. Building community partnerships, doing outreach, meeting with the community leaders, finding out what the people are needing. Good example is meeting with Joe at, you know, Chamber of Commerce. What a great resource we would have to find out where the workers want to go. And just a lot of civic organizations, too. I know I've said to all of you, you can have as many programs, community programs offered in your community, but if you can't get the people to them, they're not going to be helpful. So that's what we're here to do. And then, of course, face-to-face feedback with the community and the members is very important. And, of course, we want to talk about stronger branding with the system as we make improvements, making sure we're out there talking about it so that people are recognizing that MARTI is a good, efficient system. So what is our next steps? Obviously, we want to talk about that today, but we want to be able to do the route optimization, looking at what is our next steps, studying it and getting a good roadmap for this transit system. Again, the safety improvements, if funding's available to improve, and then, of course, definitely the grant exploration. And we are always looking at opportunities for grants that are coming available. Chris and I have a very good relationship with Florida Department of Transportation. When grants do become available or if we have a really good plan in place, a lot of times they tend to find us dollars. And we've already been talking to the state about MARTI and Martin County and transit, and they're quite aware that we're coming for some dollars. So is there any questions? Any questions? Commissioner Capps. I think if we're going to have a system like this, like MARTI, the goal is to continually be improving ridership. You know, that's one of the criticisms of MARTI. And I'm encouraged to see that ridership is coming up a good bit already in discussing things with you all prior to this meeting. I think I remember hearing that St. Lucie County, when they did away with the fare, fare-free as it's called, they had like a spike of like 60% in ridership. Yes, they did. So Indian River County, we have been fare-free since inception. We've been providing the service for 45 years, and there has never been a fare on that system. A few years ago, St. Lucie County wanted to do a, what do you call it, pilot program. And they did receive some funding for it, and what they experienced was a 60% increase in their overall ridership. From that, they have decided to stay fare-free. You know, I was talking to someone about the energy and time spent in counting small amounts of money, coins and dollar bills, and the process involved with that from the drivers. And then the drivers have to give it to a group of people after they end their routes, and they have to account for things and fill out reports. And, you know, if you've ever been involved in helping to count the collection at church, I have been involved with that, and we go to a sizable church. And, wow, it's a big process. It involves a lot of volunteers, a lot of time. It's surprising how much time it takes to account for those small amounts of money. And, you know, when I look at the dollar figure that we get from the fares, it's only $156,000. And from what I'm hearing, if we were to get rid of the fare that we charge, that the block grant would go up and probably capture the loss in a very short period of time. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah, so two things happen, actually. As you saw from the Fed level, they do take the dollar off the top. So if you're making $156,000, say it's $2 million that Feds give you, you bring in $156,000 of fares, they remove that from the top. And so you still get $2 million, but part of it is your fare. The second thing that happens is that your ridership does go up, and the block grant at the state level, that's what drives the increases. Your ridership is what drives the increases. So it would take a couple years for that to happen. It doesn't happen immediately because, of course, counting those numbers happen over a couple years. But, yes, that's exactly why Indian River County, we receive... So in Indian River County, which is a similarly sized county, a very similar population, we get about $1 million a year in our block grant. And in Martin County, we get about $400,000 right now. And it's all because of the ridership. You know, I know this is an information item, but, man, this just jumps off the page to me as far as how to improve ridership in Martin County. And is it appropriate to go ahead and just make a motion about something? I'm into this. I think this will dramatically improve ridership, just like it has in a couple of counties to the north. And is it appropriate to make a motion at this time? Based on the presentation, yes, you can make the motion. I would like to make a motion. We go fare free. I think that's the way to do it. Second. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah, I did meet with you, both of you, and I was also told by him that I can't see into buses. There's nobody on the bus, and I drive all hours of the day and night. There's nobody. These are huge buses. I come from Dade County. Mind me, Dade County. They have big buses, too. People love their cars here. Okay? Maybe you'll waive the fare. Who audits these numbers about ridership? So, go ahead. So, we, the Federal Transit Administration, they do a triennial review, as well as the Florida Department of Transportation does a triennial review. So, we are reviewed by the FDOT and FTA, and during our last triennial review, we had no findings from the FTA, which was 2023. What do you mean, no findings? There were zero deficiencies found in our books, so to speak. Okay. Oh, all right. I haven't examined that. But we did talk about the cost to Martin County, a million dollars, and was it plus $89 per revenue hour? There was a figure thrown out, and I want to get clarification on that. Yeah, so we pay the vendor by vehicle revenue hour, and I believe that rate is, I don't have the number in front of me at the moment, but I believe it's roughly $86 per revenue hour. So, what does that mean? So, it's $1 million plus, $86 per revenue hour? No, it's just the $86 per hour. So, every hour that we are operating, and that's each bus, every hour we're operating, you are paying us $86 an hour to transport. So, multiple people use the bus, of course, but it is, that's what it is, to max out at a certain amount. At what amount? I think it's just over $2 million. So, it's $2 million per year? Mm-hmm. Annual. And just so you're aware, these pictures on the slide, those are from Marty buses. So, those are examples, real-life examples from Martin County. I understand, but there's never anybody on the, I look at the buses. I was told I couldn't see the buses. I see the buses. Other people see the buses. I've talked with quite a few people. So, it's not just me. $2 million is a lot of money for us to spend on this type of transit. I mean, you're talking about microtransit. That's like a Uber. Really? Can we afford that just to send Ubers around? That doesn't make sense. Miami-Dade County had more like your cutaway vehicle. These are expensive, $200,000 for that. Microtransit vehicle, $80,000. The buses are $550,000. My understanding that we have to hold on to them for 12 years. For the large buses, yes. Well, that's correct, but that's costing us money if we take those off. I understand that it takes a little bit of time, maybe a year or so, to get the cutaway vehicle. I mean, you say you have experience many years doing this. I really do. And, you know, the whole idea here is, again, ridership can improve. The system can improve. What I take a look at is that, and I understand what you said, people like their cars here, but there's a lot of people that don't have cars. There's a lot of students that can use the system. I'll just go back to Indian River County. We're doing over 1.5 million trips a year, and it's the same. We are sister counties. I see the same. The people we're increasing last year, we increased by 20%. We're still growing. And, you know, I'm here for the people. Transportation is a barrier, is a barrier to quality of life. And what a shame if we have the opportunity to try and improve it and try to give something to individuals who don't have, who don't have cars, or even if they do have a car. Maybe they want the choice. Maybe they want the choice of only having one car in their family instead of two or not having any. Let's, you know, let's do something for the people. And $2 million is not a lot of money if we can get those numbers up. It's not. Not for the well-being and the quality of care for individuals in this community. Okay, I deal with facts and figures. You're talking about emotion right now. Yes, I am. Yes, you are. And the thing is that I'm talking about what is costing Martin County. I mean, $2 million is a lot of money. We do not have the population that Indian River County has, nor Miami-Dade, nor St. No, we don't. We're 160,000 maybe. We have 168,000. 166,000 Martin County residents, 172 Indian River. They're comparable. But they also have an airport, too. Here's the thing. You know, you talk about how you're going to cover certain costs because I did read the contract. I did do that. I also thank you for your 990 form that you sent. So, you know, you're depending on a lot of grant dollars here. And so what happens when those dry up? Is Martin County then going to have to pick up the slack? Keep in mind that this is the county service. They are our operators. I understand that. So we're, you know... A non-profit operating. Yeah, and before we had a for-profit. So I think the issue is that we're trying to improve the service. The direction from the board was to, you know, and we've got a new vendor here. They have had a very successful track record. And the idea is to take... Most of the funds are from federal and state funds and trying to keep the county's match to a reasonable level and make some changes to improve the ridership. I think that's our goal. It needs to be tightened up. This is a lot of money that we're going to be spending if we're going to be changing out vehicles. And we still have to hold on to the heavy-duty buses. We can't turn them in. Otherwise, we'll be penalized by federal dollars. So when do you provide reports? You've ever pointed, what, four months ago? Yes. July 1st, we took over. How often do you provide reports? I was looking at this and it seems like we do a report, aren't we? We do a report on a monthly basis. We actually do... Well, in Indy River County, we do quarterly reports with our MPO. We haven't set something up here yet as to how we're... and what we're going to be. But they get... Actually, Ash, you are the ones that are getting all the information, though, so... Correct. So we provide a monthly report to the FTA via a national transit database site. We provide ridership data, revenue miles, et cetera. Yeah, we cannot cover everybody in every circumstance. We cannot do that. I understand. I took the bus when I was in high school and I transferred over and I gave my money and I had a paper transfer. I was fine. It worked out well. However, things have changed dramatically and I think more people, as I said before, are holding on to their cars. They like that convenience. I don't find this to be a feasible option. I mean, you know, you earn well. You have a good salary because I looked at your 990. I mean, you're going to have to give and take here. You can't come to Martin County and say, okay, give us more money because we don't have the grant money that you laid out here for us or it hasn't worked out well. We have a three-year contract with you. And again, there are outs on here. I looked at that too. Plus an additional one, one year. It's five years. Where are we going to be? You can, well, you can shrug your shoulders, but my responsibility is to the, no, my responsibility is the taxpayers of Martin County. Those are the ones that are paying. They're paying your salary and they're paying your company and they're paying these hourly fees and the $2 million. And we have to get the vehicles. Mr. Campy. Thank you very much. Having had the opportunity to be here for a bit, I remember the days prior to any transit. So right off the bat, I'd like to thank Mr. Gordon, which is interesting that in the scope of being the head of public works, we also throw transit in there for you as well, just so that we can maximize our staff's time and talents. So I appreciate that for Mr. Gordon. Mr. Beecher is an expert. I remember before you were here, how we were still trying in the program's infancies, trying to work things out. But since your arrival, so I have the advantage of before you and during you. You're an expert and a professional. So I think bringing Mr. Beecher on board was a huge step in the right direction. The size of the buses is interesting. I think, yes, and when we looked at the cutaways and the things like that. Remember, most of what we're talking about within the system and its history has nothing to do with the two individuals that are standing in front of us today. I have, you know, like my colleagues, heard the Martin County residents that say, no one's on the buses and we shouldn't have it. I bet you those are people that drive their own personal cars and I get that, you know, there is a mindset and a lifestyle choice of having vehicles, but they're becoming more and more expensive for people to have and as everything becomes more expensive, you have to start to look at where can I shave things off. You can't get rid of your rent. You most likely can't hopefully get rid of your health insurance. You have to eat. You have to pay certain bills. One of the largest items that families that are struggling or individuals that are struggling can eliminate if there is a system in place is their vehicles. Gas prices, the purchase of the car, the maintenance of the car and insurance makes it very cost prohibitive. That's assuming that people already have them and would choose to get rid of it. There are thousands, tens of thousands of Martin County residents that dream of a car. It's not in their, it's not an option. I did in an effort to research this and I recommend it to my colleagues, went to Indian River County with some of our staff and we spent the entire day riding their bus system. I could not comprehend how our sister county, and I agree with you, a couple of thousand population difference is not enough. I don't, I wouldn't have felt the same way if you said St. Lucie County because it's a huge difference or Palm Beach County. It's a massive difference. But Indian River and St. Lucie, not, excuse me, Indian River and Martin, not only in the population calculations, but in landscape, geographical landscape is the same. The statistics of who their residents are, their average cost, you know, their household income, similar. They, it's not like, well, they got, you know, 50, 100, 150,000 more rides annually than we do. We used to say that they were at a million. I used to use that statistic that they had broken the million rider mark when we were like at 110,000. Now they're at 1.5 million riders. And you know who did that? Those two folks right there. I met their drivers. I saw their facilities. I saw their hub. We are very fortunate to have Miss Deagle and Mr. Stevenson because they are, have a proven track record of success. They've only been doing this here for four months. So kudos to our staff for seeing the advantage of having senior resource associates come to us, then negotiating a legitimate contract. And if anything, I want to say thank you because you didn't need to come here. It's not like you two just started this enterprise and you know, you're down here with your hat in your hand. They're doing, as far as I see it, they're doing us a favor, taking a very, very successful, proven process from just up the road and bringing it here. Because, you know, you can look and say, well, we don't owe this to our residents. But as my colleague said, almost every community has some form of transportation. And so for me, some of the things that were said, I appreciate what Commissioner Capps had said about the no fee or the no fare. And Mr. Spicer is here. He's our former fare manager of the county fare. So I'm sure he's, when he keeps saying, no fare, no fare, we're talking about F-A-R-E. So don't get nervous, Jay. That being said, I think it bears repeating that people would, why would you give up the income? If we get a $2 million federal grant, they deduct whatever you bring in in the fare. So it's, you're doing all of the effort. The driver, if you were talking about seconds count. Making the announcement, I agree with you. I like the annunciation portion because most legitimate transportation, that's what they have. You can also do it bilingual. And so I like that concept. And the more we can allow the driver to focus, but the biggest responsibility other than driving the bus for the driver is to become the fare collector. I don't have proper change. I got a thing. My card's not working. It's not five seconds. It's got to be way more than that. Then it's also, now they have money on board, as Commissioner Capps said. Now that money has to be kept secure. Then it's got to go back and be counted. And then someone, as you had mentioned to me, from the police department or the sheriff's office has to come and collect the money. As I see a city of Stewart police officer come and collect our money every day for $156,000. Besides the fact that it's not $156,000, it's taken right off the top of the grant. And then in regards to what happens if the grant money runs out, I mean, from what studies I have done, the federal government really takes public transportation as one of their core missions. I don't ever see, unless we're in, like, the Great Depression, which then would make public transportation even more important, I don't see until the government goes bankrupt, God forbid, that they were going to stop. There is a big push for transportation. The biggest issue that I hear from our constituents, the biggest complaint recently, there's too much traffic. Martin County has too much traffic. It takes three times to get through a light cycle. There's too many cars on the road. It's as busy in the summer as it is in the winter. But we are bristling at any option other than let's not build any more houses and let's stop anyone else from coming here and let's hope that the children that were raised here will go off to college or the military or somewhere else and never come back. That's our population strategy. The biggest and easiest way, in my mind, to take down some of our traffic is to offer a legitimate public transportation system. We have no choice but to give these two experts a super successful, award-winning, I'm sure the system up in Indian River is award-winning if I remember correctly. Yeah, you win the award. I knew that was a thing. How do we not give you a chance? I get that I see the buses sometimes and they look like there's not a lot of people in them. Well, because 118,000 on all of the routes through all of the stops on every day for a year, you spread that out and it doesn't look like there's a lot of people. But I bet if you ask those people that the 118 that are using it if we just said we're not going to do it anymore. I think that when people pay their taxes in whatever form that is, public transportation should be part of it and that's why there's five of us because maybe a couple of us will disagree with each other. That's how it works. But I am all in on giving you two the opportunity to work with our professional staff to offer this service to residents. Thank you. Commissioners, we are either going to take an hour break for lunch or we're going to wrap up. I can wrap up. Your choice. Wrap. We got a motion and a second on a no-fair and the rest of this was informational. Commissioner Hetherington. I'll be brief. So, it's always interesting hearing the different viewpoints. I think transit is absolutely necessary but it has to be efficient. So, thank you for the thorough presentation and I enjoyed hearing it the other day when we met as well. So, I'll leave you with my thoughts that I wrote down is that I think that again, it's necessary but it has to be efficient. I think that and that's certainly what you're trying to do. I think the larger buses are going to probably need to be phased out and retired and they don't seem to be working and obviously you have presented some other options and in my opinion some of those other options are probably going to be the future and I think as far as new routes and adding things you have to demonstrate the demand so you have to be able to and even some of the non-profits have their various rider carriers lift you know if we can demonstrate the demand for that route then that's what I think is going to make us successful and then finally on the fair free and the block grant and I express this in our meeting the block grant is provided by the state is that correct and that's where we recoup our fair revenue no no that is where you recoup the fair okay the state block is based on funding is tied to ridership okay so my concern is that the state is an ever evolving particularly this year in legislative sessions I think we're going to see a lot of changes in funding and what I would hate to have is that we start a fair free service and then find out that we're not getting the block grants that we've gotten in the past because the state's reducing funding because of different limitations property tax changes things of that nature and then now we either have to go back to charging residents or take it out of our general funds so that's my concern with jumping hastily into fair free and no one has a crystal ball I know that the funding has traditionally been there but I'm reluctant to just rely on that state funding so I'll just I mentioned that in our meeting and I mention that now because that's my concern but I think you've done a good job and I think that we can increase ridership and we can do it efficiently Mr. Gordon is that your light yes it is I just wanted to clarify some numbers are thrown around the county contribution for the program is one million dollars a year the contract is for two plus but the county contribution the local funds is only one million thank you and the proposal on the floor would be that it would be cost neutral this year as the matching the federal grant would not be reduced because we would not be collecting the fare so I think that for this option the fiscal impact would be no impact and any reduction in block grant would happen regardless of the fare reduction so just letting you know I think you are all right in considering that without impacting our budget for the year Ms. Elder Commissioner Vargas okay so I understood what you said Mr. Gordon one million I said two million she said yes so I'm confused we're talking about a million dollars there yeah so so the local contribution is one million the service is two million plus so those are what the two but that service is paid for by federal funds state funds and local funds I have those breakdowns here which I saw the other day you know I have to agree with Commissioner Hetherington we can't we can't backpedal on this we're all making assumptions and emotions about what is out there and what is always going to be things are changing very rapidly and to depend on state and federal grants for this which is just clawing back our tax dollars we get it or somebody else does I don't think that's a really wise business decision and I I do not agree about eliminating fares at all not now and I think that if you have the experience you say 20 years then would you have a better plan for a county this size as to how this could work more efficiently fiscally that's that's my job at least that's my job I would hope be the rest of my commissioners also Mr. Capps regarding Commissioner Hetherington's reservations about state funding unless I misunderstood you if we got rid of our fares and we lost the $156,000 a year we would get it back from the federal government right because the federal government would make up the difference it's not a state government thing we need to be worried about I mean there is this separate thing of the block grant going up with ridership but that's that's sort of separate we would get the 156 back from the federal government and in this say from the feds then and they approve $2,000,000 that's what you would receive if you are there's no fair if there was a fair they take a look at you report how much fair you're receiving and that is what's reduced off of that $2,000,000 right losing any money they deduct it from the top right so right but we we would get we would get it right back you know from the federal government so the state thing is something different but you know I think the biggest criticism for Marty is people don't feel like there are enough people on the buses we've got the evidence right in front of us about how ridership would spike exponentially if we would just get rid of these little fairs you know it may not I mean to people on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale a few dollars is a big inhibitor you know I I think of and I thought about a couple of other analogies that kind of go into people's psychology when they have to just pay a few dollars for something like at Hope Sound Beach Hope Sound Beach is free but we have North Beach on the north end of Jupiter Island and you have to pay a little bit to go there and hardly anybody wants to go there because there's a fee involved and you know if it's free you dive on that you know and another analogy I thought about with fees is for years I would have we would have to pay a fee to go into J.D. Park now so I go a lot so I think those it's more than just what we think might work out we have concrete evidence in front of us about what other counties have experienced when they get rid of the fare and I think we ought to give it a whirl and see what happens would anyone from the public like to address us on the buses yeah we've got three minutes James Crowley my comment about buses is I feel like we're buying a blockbuster here in 1998 and it's going to be gone you know like Elon Musk is creating self driving I use chat GTP and crock on a regular basis it's like what's what's going on here like we've been doing this for 50 years and we haven't solved the problem and right now on the verge of this technological marvel we think that another million dollars is going to solve the problem like we can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and think we're going to get a better result like this isn't working let's just quit it and try something entirely new and just totally invest in self driving cars and call up Elon and say send us down some robo taxis and call Waymo and say they can practice here and Martin County will be the first county to do it like that's the only possible way we can serve all the people we need to serve we're talking about poor people I agree with all your points but you're talking about it's kind of like we have a housing problem and we passed a million dollars towards like we'll give people $10,000 grants and we helped 100 people it's a good political message but it's not helping the people let's help the people the only way to help the people is the war in Ukraine the only way to help the Ukrainians is to change technology they came up with drones and now they're winning or my point is we need to do new things better not old things as well as my two cents on that thank you there's a motion in a second all those in favor that motion passes 3-2 with commissioners vargas and hetherington opposing thank you let's take up our last item which is department six that would be me commissioners okay so just to let you know that you know there a law passed in department of justice issued new rules on April 24 2024 for ADA compliance for web content for governments and we had two years from that date which is April 24 2026 Mr. Stokas is helping with us and he'll jump in and correct me if anything needs to happen but the issue is that content on our web needs to be in compliance with the ADA requirements this agenda item is for funding our building department for the if you could move that to the recommendation Donna thank you for the amount of $28,000 for software that will assist them in the documents Mr. Doherty's department is required to have online fillable documents and those documents need to be ADA accessible this system we're going to be purchasing will help with that it'll also assist us with knowledge on how other fillable documents that we use in other departments in addition there's an additional 50,000 that is to help the other departments with these types of activities I can tell you that if we were trying to be best practices in terms of complying with this not only complying but doing the best in the industry this request would be three times that amount with a full time person so the purpose of this meeting is to give you heads up on it and also let you know that our goals in that is to do the minimum necessary to comply with this requirement if the board's direction is to do better than the minimum then your expenses from general fund reserves will need to be considered to be more than that so things that must be considered are that these requirements apply unless local governments can demonstrate that compliance will result in a fundamental alteration in a service a program or an activity or create an undue financial and administrative burden I would expect that in the coming months that we'll have additional guidance and additional experiences from other counties we will be reviewing there are a lot of different programs that get used on site that are maybe difficult or impossible to make ADA and I'll use GIS as an example you can log on and find out if you have an open road all these other different materials there may be a way that we can comply with the law but it essentially won't be ADA accessible because it would take at this point it's our interpretation that we would have to remove that service and I believe that may qualify as an undue burden those are the things that we are going to continue to explore and we will bring these back to you with an update probably in January on where we are with this but today's request is to at least keep up with the minimum requirements required by the Department of Justice and it is a request to fund $78,000 $50,000 for general fund reserve a contingency and the building department at $28,000 and that I will answer any questions and if I don't know the answer Mr. Stokas will save me Mr. Vargas yes okay so this is the minimum and this will carry us forward to what point then so it will get us through this first phase I would expect in January we'll have an idea of whether this will be all that is necessary to comply or I'll have to come back and ask for either one of two things the removal of certain documents and services from use of the public or investment in other software and systems so that we can comply that's but this this will allow us to get to that answer I don't have the answer today whether this is enough to make all of our systems ADA compliant but it will make certainly one that's critical that has to be on there and that's our building department services that are required by law to be online and a few others beyond that I'll be able to report back Mr. Stokas and I and probably around January one of two things whether we need additional funds to bring other software services to make documents available or to advise you of what systems or what information that we have available currently on the web that we will have to take off because they don't meet the ADA requirements okay and I also recollect that our aides had to attend training to comply with this and there may have been other departments also but yes my aide sure told me about it yes is this part of the is it called orange system am I getting that right no oh I thought you were using that for your department you know what I'm talking about this orange data is a separate contract that came to the board and that was for research of our data for title companies and this is unrelated to that oh okay so this would fall under this also right with the American disabilities orange data is a separate company this would be for our ADA compliance with our documents oh just your documents not theirs okay no okay all right move approval second any other questions comments there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously we've now remarkably come to the end of our meeting would anyone from the public like to address us so I this whole pro I've been doing this for three years I think I've gotten to know you pretty well I'm a mathematician if you don't know who I am I was I taught mathematics at the University of Florida at Flagler College in St. Augustine and at the University of Pittsburgh I became an engineer then I was in finance et cetera et cetera and I ended up here so my point of that is I'm very logical and very straightforward I just read the rules and I got into real estate and I realized that the statutes don't matter as much as case law so then you have to start reading case law I've bought a lot of properties at tax auctions foreclosure auctions and so you have to really dive into the statutes but the interpretation matters more than the wording and of course we the developers want to interpret things our way and the government or the alternate party wants to interpret something else I want to emphasize what happened with SP-102 so the way that it used to happen in the past and this is earlier you guys mentioned the case by Mr. LaCour who's suing the county for density and what happened in that case was he found a way to get more density you realize that the the wording wasn't exactly right and so December 23 you guys changed the rules and made it more clear that it was illegal and that's the process that normally happens is you have this web and this net and you realize oh there's a hole let me fix it and then we can't do anything again but you don't know there's a hole until something escapes through it and SB-180 has eliminated your ability to repair this net and I want you to let that sink in for a second is that we the public can find loopholes in your rules which are very good for a county the size of 160 thousand people you guys have spent an enormous amount of time on growth management and it shows Martin County is a fabulous place and I love it and I learned to understand the conflicts between the two parties even the staff and the commissioners we have different opinions the legal I get all that and I don't take any of it personally it's part of the game but I want to emphasize the fact that there's a big problem with your system now and what's happening is because there's no way to repair the net you guys are pushing the envelope of legality and it's popular legality the people are like we don't want growth and development we want to stop things so there's a lot of people behind it but the law is still the law and the state is now on the side of the developers unfortunately for home rule SB 102 started it co-case and then I can prove it at the magistrate and he's in cahoots with everybody else but then I can have it be appealed so I have a cheap way of pushing against this net and if you don't know me by now I'm going to push against this net but I've been begging and pleading to cooperate I think the way forward with SB 102 and 180 is to just say hey we have problems we can't fix them anymore recognize that and cooperate sir your time is up any further comments commissioners just one I'd like to thank my wish my colleague and our board chair a belated happy birthday her birthday was yesterday commissioner heard happy birthday to you we are adjourned