We are delighted that you've joined us this morning. Please join us for the invocation led by Reverend Singh, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which is going to be led by Deputy Andrew Ross. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me. Let's unite in heart, mind, and spirit. Creator of our glorious universe, author of all life, giver of every good and gracious gift, thank you for the life we have together. Thank you for our great nation, our home state of Florida, and our beloved Martin County. Gracious one, as we celebrate the holidays in all of our unique and wonderful ways, we pray that you will grant us your peace. Give us eyes to see your goodness and mercy in one another, whatever our faith, social station, or background. Lead us to welcome and greet one another as neighbors, and grant us the compassion, courage, and inner strength to care for one another, especially in our disagreements. May your loving spirit inspire us to strive not only for our own good, not only for the good of our friends or allies or supporters, but for the good of all. In this holy time, may your justice, mercy, and steadfast love rain down on this entire planet and bless us all with life, liberty, and peace. Amen. Deputy Ross, would you lead us in the pledge and then tell us about your army career? Yes, ma'am. 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 for all. Good morning. Good morning. Yes, I joined the military in 2000 with the 724th MP Battalion out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and then I was deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan in 2007 to 2008. Upon returning, I joined the 2nd to 108th MP Battalion out of Fort Jackson, where I currently am an MP instructor, non-commissioned officer in charge at the Debt by Gun Club Road, and that's it. I've got 25 years. Thank you very much. Yeah, we have a special treat this morning. We have the children from the Gertrude Walden Child Care Center, and they're going to sing Christmas carols to us. So please join us as we enjoy the children. I bring you greetings from Gertrude Walden Child Care Center. This is our BPK class. BPK is voluntary pre-kindergarten. So these are the kids that will be entering kindergarten in the fall. But this year, Gertrude Walden Child Care Center is one of seven rated excellent at the state level on the Treasure Coast. ELC serves Martin Indian River and Okeechobee County. So out of all the BPK programs in those three counties, there were only seven that rated excellent, and Gertrude Walden is one of those seven. So we are going to know as a former fifth-grade teacher, it's very important that children enter kindergarten ready. And that's what we strive to do every day. This past week, we had the pleasure of going to ICE at the Gaylord Palms. The kids had a great time. They sung at the City Commission meeting yesterday, and we are happy to be here today. Boys and girls, are you ready? Yes. Okay, good morning. So we're going to do jingle bells first. Ready? One, two, three. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all up and say. Jingle. That's true. Madam Chair, I make a motion to end the meeting. We're going to go downhill from now, I can promise you. We begin our meeting with public comment. We have a preset at 10.30 of Parks and Recreation Master Plan. At 5.05 or at the end of the meeting, we will have public comment. There's an additional item, which is Department 4, which is discussion on the Stewart West Planned Unit Development, which we will move up to the beginning of the meeting in order to accommodate our guests. And there are no consent items that are pulled. So is there a motion? Oh, and also another preset is at 9.15, we're all going to say happy birthday to Commissioner Vargas. Oh, thank you so much. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. I'll move approval of the agenda. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Request to speak. We will, you'll each have three minutes to address us. The first request to speak form I have is from Deborah Vygotsky, followed by Constantine Alexenko, maybe? Good morning. Good morning, commissioners and county officials, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Deb Vygotsky. My husband and I built our home in Stewart West in 2017, drawn to its equestrian nature and to the long-established character of this community. I actually come from a family of community service. My father was a town councilman. My mother was a planning commissioner in Fairfax County, Virginia, a county that also experienced tremendous growth, especially during their tenure. Through them, I learned two things very early. First, while growth is inevitable, well-planned growth is essential. And second, that navigating community dynamics is one of the most challenging and often the most rewarding parts of public service. Your roles are incredibly important, and the work you do for the county is truly appreciated. There are two items on today's agenda that affect Stewart West and Cobblestone. The first is the Martin Commerce Park Project across Martin Highway, and the second is the Stewart West PUD, which is currently in the pre-application status. I'm not here to speak for or against the Commerce Park Project itself, but I do want to emphasize the importance of ensuring public safety infrastructure keeps pace with planned growth. This Thursday, two days from today, marks one year since a devastating fire destroyed our home, our car, and its contents, and it took first responders 20 minutes to reach our home. My husband, Golden Retriever Champ, and I were thankfully unharmed, and we expect to be back in our home by June, 18 months after the fire. Having a fire station with emergency medical personnel across the highway would dramatically improve response times and protect both lives and property. Whatever decisions are ultimately made regarding the Commerce Park, I respectfully urge that the county prioritize establishing a fire rescue presence in this rapidly growing corridor. I also want to thank Commissioner Campy and County Attorney Elise Elder for putting an agenda item on to clear up some information that has been shared in our community. Our association president, as well as some others, have said that the county is requiring that our PUD be changed, that Commissioner Campy offered a discount to do that, and that animals that have resided safely in our community for decades would be removed. I want to clearly state my opposition to the proposed amendment to the Stuart West PUD. By adding the undefined and broadened term of domesticated animals, it would authorize barnyard species such as chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, a major shift in our residential zoning. Thank you again for your service and for your thoughtful attention to the needs of Stuart West Cobblestone, as well as the entire county. Thank you. Thank you. Konstantin Aleksenko is next, followed by Rob Ranieri. The agenda item. Sure, sure. Rob Ranieri is next, followed by Sherry Wilson. Morning, Commissioners. Rob Ranieri, CEO for House of Hope. A couple things on your agenda today that I just wanted to touch base on. One is the discussion and hopefully approval to transmit the changes around accessory dwelling units. House of Hope has a housing committee that's had the opportunity to work closely with county staff on a lot of that. I just want to say that this will be a great tool to add to our toolbox. We have a serious lack of affordable housing. Creating some accessory dwelling units will definitely help young people starting out in their careers, help seniors that are struggling to find affordable housing, help women that are sort of moving on out of some of our local shelters. So it'll serve a great purpose in helping people to transition to safe housing and to get their footing back in the community. I also wanted to thank the staff for all of their hard work on this. Every time we have the opportunity to work with your staff, it's always a pleasure. I also learn a lot. You have a great team of experts and I appreciate everything that they do. I wanted to also talk about Martin Commerce Park. To me, the most exciting thing about that is going to be the addition of more living wage and beyond jobs. For our work at House of Hope, it's one of the biggest challenges is trying to help our clients find employment that will allow them the opportunity to be able to pay all their bills and to be able to live, work, and play in Martin County. So we never have enough of those kinds of jobs. Anything that will safely and efficiently bring more of those opportunities to the community is a win. So I appreciate your consideration on that as well. Thank you to all of you for all you do. Thanks for another great year in Martin County. We appreciate your service and everything that you do for our community. Sherry Wilson is next, followed by Kathy Jensen. Good morning, Commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Sherry Wilson and my husband, Kermit, and I moved to Stewart West just last year. I would also like to congratulate Elise Elder on her Martin County attorney. We appreciate the clarity and professionalism you've brought to recent discussions. When we retired, we chose Martin County very intentionally. We were seeking an equestrian community, not a farm, one where we could enjoy our retirement with our animals, our two miniature horses, Oreo and Cinnabon, and our beautiful Morgan horse, Livia. Livia and our two puppies, Laney and Lucy, all lived there. Stewart West is home and it's where we plan to spend the rest of our lives. Before retirement, I spent decades as the top real estate agent in Loudoun County, Virginia, the most affluent county in the country. Loudoun is very similar to Martin County, a blend of farms, equestrian properties, rural estates, and suburban neighborhoods. As a seasoned real estate professional, I have a deep respect for county authority, zoning ordinances, land use protections, and the governing documents of homeowner associations and property associations. I'm very familiar with PUDs and why they exist, why they were created, and they were created thoughtfully and intentionally. Throughout my career, I have worked with people who absolutely did not want a homeowner association and others who very much did. When Kermit and I chose Stewart West, we did so because it's a deed-restricted equestrian community with stable animals permitted but not barnyard animals. That distinction mattered to us and it still does. Unfortunately, a small but vocal group within our community is now attempting to change the very nature of our 40-year-old equestrian neighborhood. They are trying to turn a residential equestrian community into a farm, including barnyard animals such as chickens, ducks, goats, and pigs, and more. Kermit and I love our horses, but we purposely chose not to live on a farm. We do not want Stewart West to become something it was never intended to be. As someone who has spent a lifetime in real estate, I am well aware of the impact such as changes that changes can have on property values. It can lower property values and not only it can hurt homeowners and it can reduce the tax base that supports Martin County. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you. Kathy Jensen is next, followed by Christopher Corey. Good morning. I would like to reserve my time at a later agenda time. Okay. For Stewart West, Meadow Run. Got it. And Mr. Alex Senko, are you Meadow Run or Stewart West? Okay. Christopher Corey is next, followed by Rick Hartman. Morning, Commissioners. Good morning. So I apologize a bit if I look tired, I got in on the red eye Fort Lauderdale at 1 a.m. Welcome. Yeah, listen, I've been before you guys a few times now regarding this. Today it looks like, you know, there's a lot of people here for Meadow Run. And honestly, I'm standing here and I didn't want to pack all 1,600 of our members here. Yeah, I don't think you had seating for it. You know, we had 130 so declarations, individual declarations. And honestly, you know, in the last two months, you know, I've received a lot of pressure regarding this issue. I guess that just kind of comes with how things go. But to me, it was disappointing that it was unrelated to the issue. And then late last night, I got a message from, sorry, it was pretty emotional, but got a message that another one of our kids received their academic and athletic scholarship to Flagler College. That puts us well over 50 for the year. Spoke to another parent who their child reached a year off of ADHD medication. And I've been here before talking to you about our mission for that. So it kind of reinvigorated me on a few hours of sleep to come in here and basically say that, you know, I know that there's going to be a lot of, you know, redundant messaging about this gate. And it would have been really easy for me to stand in front of you and go, I received a lot of pressure, guys. You know, I'm going to remove my objection and our 1,600 members objecting to this gate. But I really can't do that because ultimately all of these great things that our mission has done that has made us very popular, which you're aware they're going to tell you, you know, that we have a lot of members and we're managing that the best we can. But none of it really matters if they get hit by a construction truck. It just doesn't. So thank you for your time and, yeah, good luck today. And, you know, I know your job is very difficult. So thank you for your service. Bye. Thank you. Rick Hartman is next, followed by Cornelius Boy, Pamager? Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Rick Hartman. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. I want to speak to you on Martin Commerce Park. And I wasn't going to come this morning. I've lived in Stewart West for, I don't know, 20 years. But I had to meet a tractor driver this morning further west. So I'm coming back on 714. And one of my fellow residents came out of the neighborhood and it was really kind of scary. So what I'm really in favor with the Martin Commerce Park is the fire station out there that would save us $5,000, $6,000 on our home insurance and a stoplight, at least a caution light. I don't know how many people get out on 714 early in the morning or late in the evening. It's horrible. So a stoplight there that Ashley Capelo or Martin Commerce Park is going to pay for would be a really benefit to us. So thank you for your time. I hope you approve them. Have a good day. Thank you. Cornelis Pamiger followed by Benjamin Sharfie. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Cornelis Pamiger. I'm the president of Stuart West PUA. I thank you for the opportunity to respond to statements you have recently heard from four Stuart West residents. I've previously addressed the misinformation that was disseminated by Ms. Trouba. First, all four speakers have not provided you with a shred of evidence. I have six copies here that provide solid evidence of everything I'm going to say. Ms. Zoltan continues to assert that this board wants to allow chickens in Stuart West. This is false. A message from the president to the community clearly stated that chickens and other barnyard animals are prohibited under our government documents. It has been clearly communicated with Stuart West residents that aligning the PUD with the county is necessary. Despite these written notices, Ms. Zoltan continues to circulate misinformation. You have been told that the president has been recalled. I'm standing here before you as president of Stuart West PUA. Mr. Griffin and others challenged the board through three separate recall efforts. All three were dismissed by legal counsel for failing to meet statutory and procedural requirements. The court will decide on this next year. Mr. Griffin filed a complaint with the Florida Bar Association against counsel. That complaint was dismissed. He then filed a second complaint with higher-ups. That was dismissed. And if that was not enough, he filed another one against an associate of Block and Scarpa that was also dismissed. Mr. Haynes has raised objections to the PUD. The documents I have provided to the commission clearly explain the reason for the PUD alignment. Furthermore, the allegations that the board was never offered a fee reduction is false. This claim is directly contradicted by the written communication from Planner Peter Walden, a copy of which I have included in this review for you. Relevant portions have been highlighted. The county would surely have refused the preliminary PUD application if it was not necessary. It was in the meantime approved. John Sinnott would not have sent us an invitation to submit a final PUD as a next step. Lastly, something is very wrong with many individuals in our community if I feel compelled to wear a body cam for security reasons. I thank you for your attention. I wish you happy holidays. I appreciate all you do for Martin County and your services. and a happy new year. Thank you. Can I leave this here? Sure. Benjamin Sharfee is next followed by Joshua Miron. Good morning everybody. I'm Ben Sharfee. I'm here to speak on behalf of not necessarily myself or Jacob Community Center. Jacob Community Center is just to the east of Layton Farm. Layton Farm is between, I mean, Meadow Run. We are between Citrus and Layton Farm. Eight years ago I started this program called JCC, Jacob Community Center. Jacob was my father on his behalf. And the purpose of Jacob Community Center is to have people like Chris and kids that come out of all ages and we have soccer program, full school programs for people and kids, equestrian centers, soccer, indoor soccer soon, and school for all ages. In fact, my fiancé's nephew goes to school there. It's a great school and Chris, Corey, and Vicky did a great job and we are just to south of them. Currently in Meadow Runs there's something 50 to 70 homes over there. I don't know the exact count. And all these homes were built with the idea that that gate was closed. There was no traffic. The traffic that is proposed to go there, it's not a good idea and I'll explain the reasons for that. I opened up the road with the aid of Mr. Krishna and Donaldson to open up the road where it ended all the way to the end of Layton Farm at the cost of over $327,000 adding drainage and whatever necessary to open that road for safe use. Layton Farm Road is not a safe road. It's 18 foot wide at the best and right now FPNL if you guys have been there lately they're adding additional they're moving their telephone power lines from the east side from the west side of the road to the east side making the road even narrower by another 18 to 20 inches. Two cars cannot go side by side without one pulling over and when you pull over especially during rainy season there's a very good chance to go into the ditch. I was one of them I would end up in a ditch and I had to be called to be pulled out because that trailer tractor passed by me I had no option except go to the side and fortunately I slid over. From 714 coming in there is no traffic light there is no street light there is no divider line it's a single lane road essentially. There is at night time it's pitch dark like if you tried to go there at 5 o'clock when I go pick up my son-in-law my stepson when I go pick him up there it is dark it's a very dangerous road the idea of having tractor trailers to go through that road to get to the back side to Meadow Ron is just not a good idea. You need to wrap it up. Okay. So there is again no traffic light if a trailer tractor comes in accidentally to our street he has to back all the way up because the original place for them to turn. Your time is now up. Again there was a lot that I'd say the last thing I want to say is safety safety over convenience and profit. This is about profit making money so that tractor trailers can bring additional load. Your time is up I'm sorry I must catch you off. Joshua Miron is next followed by Carol Zoltan. Good morning Commissioners. Good morning Ms. Elder. My name is Joshua Miron I'm general counsel on behalf of the Jacob Community Center and Mr. Sharpie. Obviously I'm here relative to the Meadow Run's application to revise its site plan. I just wanted to be clear of our position as you well know because I believe you've received a letter from me is that we believe this is a situation of convenience over safety and that's okay. The Meadow Run residents would like to have the convenience of having another entrance. Again that's okay but not at the expense of what we consider to be safety. The safety is the fact that Mr. Sharpie mentioned the streets of Layton Farms Avenue are not meant for heavy traffic and they were never intended to be so. In fact the original site plan of which they're trying to amend from 20 years ago that was approved by this particular county and presumably approved by the county staff at that time specifically delineated that there would be no traffic excuse me no entrance from that community onto Southwest Layton Farms Avenue. That was done for a reason except for emergency access vehicles and as you think you well know there already have an emergency access gate. It's what we call the North Gate. Interestingly enough it doesn't come up no one discusses it. I think it's as a result of the fact that the POA's president lives next door and they just don't want to use it. Notwithstanding that because this is about safety and not to be because this is about safety we want to make it clear from the JCC's perspective we have absolutely no objection whatsoever to allowing that gate to exist for the benefit of first emergency responders and emergency access use. When the applicant was here the first time before the rehearing was granted they carried on about emergency access time and safety. I agree. It would reduce the safety. Notwithstanding the fact that they have a gate already that they choose not to use to the extent that this board made the appropriate decision to allow them to open this gate I would at least ask that it be allowed to open only for emergency access use only. I also wanted to discuss that Mr. Sharfie indicated we submitted a video to the board that helped try to visualize it was a random video taken by Mr. Sharfie trying to visualize the amount of traffic and the people that come and go on those streets on a day-to-day basis. Obviously Mr. Corey mentioned there's a school and there's also soccer clubs during the afternoon. There's an incredible amount of traffic and Mr. Sharfie had an opportunity to take a picture of a child walking through the street and unfortunately or fortunately because he was going slow enough the child obviously wasn't injured but it also it also illustrated the fact that it was not enough for two-way traffic. 30 seconds if I may. This came up for a rehearing. It was already unanimously denied once. I don't know why it came up for a rehearing but it was championed by Commissioner Vargas and Mr. Campy on a first of your career Mr. Campy you said that had never been done before. It's now coming back up again. I'd ask you to please deny it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Carol Zolton is next followed by Jesse Fulton. Good morning Commissioners and thank you again for the opportunity to speak. My name is Carol Zolton and I'm a resident of Stewart West a deed restricted PUD residential community here in Martin County. Last week I addressed two topics the request to deny the proposed PUD amendment to add domesticated animals and the ongoing issue of barnyard animals specifically chickens and ducks being kept in residential zoning despite the county's clear prohibition. You were gracious with your time and today I'm here to focus on one essential follow-up code enforcement. We currently have a resident in Stewart West who is claiming to keep emotional support chickens. As an animal lover I want to be clear this is not about penalizing innocent animals. It is about protecting the integrity of our zoning laws and ensuring they cannot be bypassed through improper or non-validated ESA claims. Under the Fair Housing Act HUD guidance and Florida law emotional support animals are limited to traditional household companion species dogs, cats, rabbits and similar animals. Poultry, livestock and barnyard animals including chickens and ducks are not recognized ESAs. ESA status requires documentation from a licensed medical or mental health professional with a legitimate therapeutic relationship with the individual. What does not qualify includes a certificate purchased online a form letter from a website without a clinical relationship a self-declared emotional support chicken any attempt to use ESA language to circumvent the zoning laws. If code enforcement accepts documentation that fails to meet HUD, FHA or Florida statutory requirements then any resident in any residential zone neighborhood could keep goats, pigs, roosters, duck or other livestock simply by downloading a document from the internet that would undermine Martin County's carefully structured zoning framework and place code enforcement in an unattainable position. Additionally, if someone did have a legitimate ESA that is a species not permitted under zoning that situation would require formal county approval and HOA approval. In Stewart West, to our knowledge, neither has been requested nor granted. So my two respectful questions today are these. How does Martin County enforcement evaluate ESA claims when the animal in question is a prohibited barnyard species? And once code enforcement responds to a complaint, what ensures follow-through including removal of non-compliant structures such as coops and fines until prohibited animals are removed. Our community is simply asking for clarity, consistency, and confidence that Martin County zoning ordinances which protect not only neighborhood character but also property values and public health cannot be circumvented through improper ESA claims or documentation that does not meet legal standards. Thank you, commissioners, for your time and for your continued dedication to preserving the integrity and quality of life in Martin County's residential communities. I've given you facts unlike our recalled president. Jesse Fulton is next followed by Darlene Van Riper. Good morning, commissioners. So my name is Jesse Fulton and I too am speaking today on behalf of Jacob Community Center and the surrounding community. Now, my role is not going to re-argue the site plan amendment itself or the safety issues that were raised by my colleagues Mr. Sharpey and Mr. Myron. My purpose is to address how we arrived here today and the concerning procedural history that has put us all back in this room. Now, on October 7th, this board held a fully noticed, properly conducted public hearing. Meadow Run, their HOA president and even their former HOA president were all present. The evidence was presented, the testimony was taken, county staff spoke and the public spoke and after that hearing, everything this board, after hearing everything, this board unanimously voted to deny the application. It wasn't split, it wasn't uncertain, it was unanimous and if you recall Commissioner Tetherington and Hurd, each of you had voiced legitimate concerns regarding Meadow Run's repeated and purposeful violations of the master site plan and the notices of violations that had been issued at that time. Two weeks later, without notice to the public, without any communication to the surrounding community and without any factual change in circumstances, Meadow Run suddenly appeared at this meeting on October 27th, fully organized, coordinated, and prepared to lobby for a rehearing. This was not a casual question that they raised at the podium. They arrived with talking points, members in attendance, and a strategy to undo the denial. Meanwhile, aside from myself and Mr. Corey of the soccer facility, not a single resident from the surrounding community was present because none of us had any reason to believe that the October 7th decision, which was unanimously rendered, would be up for reversal, and it was only by luck that we were notified the day before the meeting that Meadow Run would be appearing before this commission. And yet, somehow, despite the absence of new evidence and despite the absence of the applicant's disclosure of their own HOA's leadership's prior participation, the board voted to grant this re-hearing. As Mr. Myron stated, Mr. Campy, you stated this was a first in your career. And Commissioner Vargas, you were... Keep your comments to the board as a whole, please. Yes, will do. And Commissioner Vargas, who did not attend the October 7th hearing, did not hear the testimony and did not participate in the original vote. This process, frankly, has left the surrounding community feeling blindsided, unheard, and wondering why a unanimously denied application gets a second opportunity when nothing material changed. And let me be absolutely clear on one point. Meadow Run's claim that they were unaware of the October 7th meeting is simply not credible. The HOA president was there. Their former HOA president was there. Their legal representatives were involved for months to now rely on we didn't know is not only accurate, it is the misrepresentation of the board and to this public. At the end of the day, procedural fairness matters. Public trust matters and the integrity of this board's decision matters. A unanimously decided matter should not be undone simply because one applicant is persistent and organized enough to lobby for a second. Sir, your time is up. Thank you, and we urge... Darlene Van Riper is next, followed by Michael Holman. Good morning. I'm going to give you a break. A completely different subject matter. I'm Darlene Van Riper speaking on behalf of your 75-year-old taxpayer watchdog organization, the Martin County Taxpayers Association. The MCTA would respectfully like to make four suggestions for your priority lists for the upcoming year. First, the sheriff and the sheriff prior have reported that due to legislative mandates, they need more room to house mentally challenged inmates. A mental health facility costing at minimum $60 million must be a regional project. The surrounding counties should be approached with a plan for them to share the responsibility. This is certainly not unheard of. For example, we share the medical examiner regionally. Second, the wild success of the golf course and cafes has been touted time and again. An indirect cost study of various parks and rec amenities, such as these, should be performed to determine if they should become enterprise funds. Third, the CRA program should be retooled toward completion of major infrastructure projects instead of dealing with the minutiae of private businesses and properties. The department has been successful with the big rejuvenation projects in Rio, Hobes Sound, and Map Road, but we must be wary of mission creep. And finally, my favorite, the MARTI should be phased out, and the commission should enlist proven successful programs such as United Ways and others to facilitate transportation for those in need. In the meantime, limits should be put on the number of trips a rider can take in a day. We don't want this to become a mobile homeless shelter. Also, there should be a sunset date for this free fare experiment. Otherwise, it will continue to be the boondoggle it has proven to be. These are conversations to be had in 2026. The Martin County Taxpayers Association looks forward to its ongoing relationship with the commissioners in the new year. Thank you, and Merry Christmas. Michael Holman is next, followed by Vincent D'Aquino. Good morning. My name is Michael Holman. I own a business in Martin County. We do a lot of business in Martin County. I also am a resident in Meadows Run, so I figured I'd come in and give my two cents here. I'm going to come at you from a little bit of common sense. They have 1,600 members in a soccer field that's almost right behind my house. I hear the noise all the time. It's okay. It's a good thing for the community. I approve of what they're doing. I think it's great. We have 91 homes, 40, maybe 50, are built out. We do an average of 10 a year. So 91 homes times 2, 182. 182 cars coming down that road is somehow going to change everything, and half of those people are still going to use the front gate. Half of the construction vehicles are still going to use the front gate. So this is going to be a very, very minuscule amount of people going down that road, and the kickback that we're getting for opening up that gate is just beyond me. So it forced me to come out. You know, I'm a long-time resident in Martin County, paying my taxes, and I just think it's wrong that we're being subjected to that kind of, you know, thing. So that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Vincent D'Aquino is next, followed by Matthew Haidt. Good morning. So I am here to speak in favor of the rear gate as well. Sharfee, Team Sharfee, JWCC addresses, talks about security often. I, as a builder, I'm a business owner. I live in Meadow Run. I am more than happy to work with JWCC and come up with sincere, common sense, logical safety options that we can do. We can put speed bumps. We can have barriers put up so the kids walking out of the soccer stadium or the school are forced to walk off the road. There's quite a bit of measures that we could take to address safety if safety is truly the issue and not trying to be steamrolled by JWCC because they want to own that end of the street. They want to own Martin County. They want to own Layton Farms Road. We could work together. They're either with us or against us. We want to work together to make sure it's safe for everybody. Meadow Run has a handful of traffic coming out from the back. Whether it was construction trucks or resident traffic, again, it's minuscule to the amount of traffic that they bring in. If they were so concerned about safety, how come they didn't mention, how come they weren't so concerned when they were doing all their construction? I didn't see any cops in the street directing traffic. I didn't see anybody out there helping escort kids. They plowed their trucks in and out of development all day long. So where were they concerned about safety then? So I want to work with JWCC, and just because someone has a lot of money, that doesn't give them the right to steamroll the county, the residents of Meadow Run, and that's it. Thank you. Matthew Height is next, followed by Carol Huard-Dietz. Thank you. I'm here to speak on the Meadow Run issue yet again. I apologize for you having to endure this process and the misinformation that gets thrown around here. For us, yes, it's a convenience issue, but it's also a safety issue. It's both. It's a small community. It's a public road, and this is flexing. This is, I paved the road, so I own the road, and you're going to listen to me. That's what this is. You're going to get some more information, so I don't have to get into the details of it, but, I mean, we did a traffic study for this purpose. I mean, 2,000 cars go up and down that road. How many are we offering to add to that number? And the zoning, I heard some zoning terms today. This is AR AR5. AR5. I know you guys all know what that is. So, in an AR5 zoned area, we have approximately 1,500 cars coming to a soccer stadium. AR5. So, where are the 1,600 people? They don't live there. There are 13 houses, 13 residents, legitimate residents, on Layton Farms Road. So, how many are we going to add to this? It's a second gate, not a first. We have young drivers, we have elderly. It's a convenience issue for them. I'd much rather have the kids learn to turn out into traffic onto Layton Farms Road than I would Southwest Citrus. It's dangerous, it's a racetrack, the sight lines aren't great, it's dark. So, why are we here? I mean, this seems to be a whole lot to do about nothing. We have lawyers, money, time spent, letters sent. I mean, we're a small community, we've gone through all the steps that are required, we follow the rules, and it's a public road that we want to share. We don't own the road, we don't claim to own the road, we've gone through the steps, we have approvals, we've done everything we need to do, we don't build things that aren't permitted, we don't skirt the rules, we don't pay fines in lieu of permits, so I just ask that you take that into consideration and grant the request for the PUD Master Site Plan revision. Thank you very much, appreciate your time. Thank you. Carol Howard-Dietz is next, followed by Bobby Moran. So I'm here for a happy thing. Okay, thank you, commissioners, for the record, I'm Carol Howard-Dietz, and I'm wearing two hats this morning. One is the local staff coordinator for Toys for Tots, and the other is the president and CEO of the United Way of Martin County. I'm here to share a couple really great updates on things that are happening in our community. First, I'd like to invite each of you to stop by the United Way holiday project that's happening at the Martin County Fairgrounds. We're in full setup mode right now, getting ready for more than 900 families that are registered to receive toys, stocking stuffers, food, books, balls, and a holiday meal. And yes, you heard, excuse me, yes, you heard me correctly, registered. That's very important to us. We work with Salvation Army and House of Hope to make sure that we're not helping the same families. That way, we can stretch the limited resources that we have in this community even further and help more families in need. We can't do this project without supporters and sponsors, and I want to take a moment to speak about one of those sponsors, Ashley Capital. They don't just write a check, they help us and they volunteer and they show up. And this year, we're starting a new literacy initiative right at the Holiday Project. It's something we're really excited about because it opens doors for children and families in a whole new way. When companies like Ashley Capital invest locally, they're not only supporting programs, they're investing in stronger families, brighter futures, and a more educated community. With partners like them, United Way is able to help more families and people in our community with the tools that they need to succeed. We're grateful for all of our supporters, but today we just wanted to give a special thank you to Ashley Capital for their leadership and their continued support of Martin County nonprofits. Thank you, happy holidays, and hope to see at the fairgrounds to give you a tour. Bobbi Moran is next, followed by Thomas Ellender. Good morning. I loved her dress. Did you notice? Anyway, please allow our neighborhood Meadow Run to use the public county road, Layton Farm Road, which we had been using for 20 years. Just recently, JCC decided we should not use it. I strongly believe that every subdivision should have two entrants and exits, especially with the growth in our area is experiencing. Growth equals more traffic. More traffic equals more accidents that shut down roadways. Also, storms are becoming more severe, increasing the possibility of fallen trees and debris blocking the road. In fact, the last hurricane, a tornado went through our neighborhood, damaging several homes near our front entrance. What if our entrance had been hit? Also, with the drought conditions that are becoming more of the norm, fires are afeard. The residents of the subdivision on 714 and I-95 recently experienced the scare of one way in and out as a huge fire was advancing towards them. An alternate route in and out is imperative. Just like a house, you must have an in and an out. Two ways in, two ways out. Granting us permission to use our back gate does not add excessive amount of traffic on Layton Farm Road. For the many years that we were using the back gate, the traffic that we created must have been very light, unnoticeable, since JCC didn't notice we were using the road since they keep saying we just begun using it. Most of our residents choose to use the front gate as the main entrance exit. As for these reasons, I stated, I feel two entrance exits are important. P.S., if JCC and the soccer facility are so concerned about the children's safety, why isn't there a safe parking lot provided for them? Thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you. Thomas Ellender is next, followed by Clive Campbell. Hello. My name is Tom E. Lander. I'm a native Minnesotan. Can you get it in my slang there? And bought a piece of property and met a run two years ago with the idea of moving down first as a vacation home and then settling permanently down here. We did our research on the property and basically the reason that we were interested in the property is we're avid RVers. Okay, so I had a long discussion with the former HOA president about access on that back gate because currently we cannot get our motor home in the front gate without taking down trees and everything else. Had an attorney research it too with the former HOA president. It was basically explained to me that as long as it wasn't used on a daily basis we could have access back there and that would be maybe three, four times a year in and out. Okay. Our house was finished in August. We went through some additional expense adding a big RV garage on the house and then I come to find out that I might not be able to get my RV in the property. so this is obviously a big concern of mine because of the additional expense that I put into the property and as well as some of the safety issues too that some of my neighbors are talking about. So I would just add that if that gate could be kept open for the benefit of using that back gate for those purposes and emergency purposes certainly I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Clive Campbell is next followed by Tom Pine. Good morning. My name is Clive Campbell. I actually live in the back part of Meadow Run and I built my house in 2021 through to 2023 and during this construction time it was the same time the park across the street from Layton Park was building theirs and as the back gate was open at that time they were also building heavy machine bringing in heavy machinery to date they are still big bringing in heavy machinery because it's right in front of me and I see it right there so yet they're complaining about heavy machinery coming down the road Layton Farms but yet they're bringing in heavy machinery so there's a little contradiction of a glass house here in addition to that I agree in reference to the children everybody wants safety for the children but put in a parking lot if you're going to be zoned for agricultural and have soccer field and have 1600 people come in there you've got to accommodate it with a parking lot so if it's a true safety issue put it in a parking lot they do that with schools they have school zones you could actually have we could actually discuss additional safety terms as Vincent mentioned earlier we're open to that in addition to that there was something mentioned from a typical homeowner that I cannot have a guest into my house unless they go down Layton Farm because all the GPS takes them back to that back gate so every new guest that I have to my house has to drive to after they go to Layton Farm entrance because all the GPS is taken back there because my house is towards the back of the development they have to drive another four miles to get to my house so it's not only convenience if it's a safety issue let's address the safety issue is there only one entrance I agree with the young lady that spoke earlier you do need a second emergency entrance and also from a residential homeowner standpoint it will be nice to have guests come to my house and be able to come the way they normally are supposed to come all right thank you thank you Tom Pine is next followed by Robert Burfield Burfield good morning commissioners my name is Tom Pine I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years if my photos could stay up while I speak I would appreciate that greatly in the spring of 2020 the coronavirus hit the United States and in just a short time sitting in seating in restaurants was turned upside down so in order to keep their doors open towns and cities across the country allowed restaurants to use public sidewalks as their own and put tables and chairs outside this was accepted practice across the treasure coast as the virus waned along the Crescia coast from Halb Sound to Sebastian the owners of restaurants pulled their chairs and tables off the public sidewalks and business returned to normal except for one community the downtown Jensen Beach area where local business community still has to this day totally control of the public sidewalks with their chairs and tables this can only happen because our county government had decided that the American with Disabilities Act doesn't apply to downtown Jensen Beach area so whether you use a cane or a walker or even a wheelchair you are not welcome in downtown Jensen Beach there are no open sidewalks for you to use but wait that's not enough to satisfy all the restaurant owners in downtown Jensen Beach these photos show one restaurant owner using cones to close off one parking space so his front entrance is more visible from the road with a reader board advertising beer wine and liquor to go these cones closing parking spaces on downtown area are quite common on Thursday starting around 2 to 3 p.m. that's when some of the vendors for jam and jency claim their spaces it might be nice to have that kind of power to control parking spaces on a public road with absolute immunity from code enforcement is today going to be that day when our county commissioners discuss the slimy use of the consent agenda in Martin County for the past 20 years this is why our county taxes go up almost every year it's not the budget it's the slime that gets approved behind closed so if we could get copies of those pictures we'll scan them and give them to the board sorry Mr. Pine Robert Barfield is next followed by Carrie Clements morning commissioners appreciate all you do for our community protecting our way of life my name is Robert Barfield long-term resident more than 40 years here in Martin County current resident of Palm City I'm here in support of the Martin County Commerce Park for businesses as I am in the financial industry many of the companies that come to my office are looking for expansion and places to go and currently there's no industrial space in Martin County for them to go and expand we know that companies that want to expand are vital to the success of our community long-term both industrial business owners and office without places for them to go potentially for them to leave therefore losing taxpayer revenue Martin County Commerce Park will provide up to 1.1 million square feet of class A industrial space which is needed here in the community the park is ideally located in western Martin County easy access to I-95 and the turn park and therefore does not need to come through the main part of Martin County and others the park will not only spark economic growth in the region but is expected to generate millions of dollars in annual revenue to Martin County through ad valorem property tax and tangible personal property tax additionally I think it's vitally important for us when we're looking at developers to pick the right developers there's merchant builders those builders typically will develop sell the properties off there's also long term developers that will develop properties and hold them they typically will provide a better product construction cost materials they will want better quality because their long term view is a longer term horizon and a better return for them if you look at Ashley Capital they have had significant experience in building long term projects long term whole projects do they generally do not sell their projects so they have tremendous amount of investment in that I would say Ashley Capital Rick I've met Rick many times he knows what he's doing in these developments has a long term view he will have significant dollars millions of dollars invested before he generates dollar one of revenue this type of developer ones that we want here in Martin County Carol talked about Ashley Capital Jill Morasso Ryan and Rick being involved in the community I would tell you I'm at numerous community events both here in Martin County and on the Treasure Coast there never been a time that I haven't been there that one of these individuals is there not only in person but investing dollars so those are the type of developers that we want here in Martin County so I think the park is built going to be built in the right place I think it helps us with continuity involve businesses that want to grow and stay here in Martin County and so I think this is a great project for us to have here in Martin County appreciate your time thank you Carrie Clements is next followed by Craig Clements I'm here on Meadow Run for Meadow Run JCC Community Center like my other neighbors said they have construction equipment coming into their back gate area if they were so concerned about safety for the children they would build a parking lot there is no parking lot there is nothing for the kids they just come out all the cars for the parents are parking everywhere I just wanted to say that most communities do have a front and rear gate for safety and that's all I need to say thank you thank you Craig Clements is next followed by Henry Bush my time to the president of the association so she has a little more time I agree with my wife we definitely need a back gate the back gate was there when we bought the property we thought the back gate went with the association it's been there for 20 years it's been open for 20 years there's heavy trucks going in and out that road every day even though our gates closed our house is under construction we've had a lot of trouble with the trucks trying to come in the front gate tearing up the trees getting trusses in was almost impossible as a safety issue I agree it's wonderful that those kids get to play soccer out there but there's no parking lot for them the cars are parked in the street the kids are walking in the street in between the cars somebody is going to get hurt there by us or somebody else they need to do something about it thank you your time thank you gerald kiefel is next followed by ken haynes gerald kiefel oh i'm sorry henry okay henry bush okay please come forward followed by gerald kiefel my name is henry bush my wife and i early in 2025 discovered this wonderful community that a lot of you have caught home for a long time and we ended up purchasing a home in stuart west on May the first of 25 we sort of escaped out of Miami Beach where i have a general construction company i've done that my entire life developed a lot of properties in miami miami-dade county over the last 30 years and just wanted to kind of give a slightly fresher perspective of what we've discovered moving in the community the discourse about this item before you all for the PUD is seems to be very motivated by slight minority group of people that unfortunately I think may have been less than truthful when someone was standing here just a while ago declaring themselves president there's been a recall three actually and as a developer I've created a lot of associations I've sat on a lot of boards I've seen all the documentation for this recall it is it is it's clear that this recall will stand it's just they've it gets heard in January so I guess the request is if possibly not to move on this issue one way or the other I think it will come very clear in early 2026 of the fact of what I'm saying that the people representing themselves as the decision makers are not actually decision makers very very clear thank you thank you Gerald Kiefel is next followed by Ken Haynes good morning everyone thank you for time my name is Gerald Kiefel and I'm speaking today regarding Stewart West I've lived in Stewart West since 2003 and recently written all of you and met with a few of you personally regarding the PUD change I'm compelled today to speak because there's a lot of information regarding the PUD change within our community and all the misinformation around it the change is not desired by a majority of the community members the board members pushing it are misleading the community on the reasons for the change the board members pushing it have been recalled or illegitimately appointed the law firm representing the HOA on the PUD change has been fired by the true board in preparing for this meeting I thought long and hard about how I could convey what has happened in our community over the last nine months in three minutes since there's not enough county attorney have seen a majority of these false claims and they know the truth I encourage you all to reach out to them for additional information so how did we get here as I mentioned I've lived in this community since 2003 and it is a wonderful place to live and raise a family as with all HOA's there have been disagreements here and there but I've never witnessed what has happened in our community since a small group representing a tiny fraction of our community gained control of the board with a 4-3 majority this group has been pushing to expand the animals currently allowed in the neighborhood from equestrian animals to farm animals such as chicken goats cows pigs and etc almost immediately found the election the newly elected majority of the board fired the legal council and replaced it with one that while they will deny this I have a plethora of written information shortly thereafter they decided to allow chickens in the neighborhood based on an informal petition which is not allowed per our governing documents or our PUD that upset a number of residents who reached out to the county and it was determined that chickens and other barnyard animals are not allowed according to our PUD in addition to our government documents that is when the false narrative began stating we need to change the PUD or the horses donkeys or other equine animals could be ordered to remove by the county those statements were supposedly made by county attorney Elise elders I reached out to her directly those statements are untrue there were other false statements claiming that we were informed by the county that our PUD needed to change to align with recall effort was initiated to recall these board members while enough votes were collected to certify the recall it wasn't certified by the board majority or the HOA attorney the outcome of the recall is now in a nutshell our community has been seized by a small group of the hidden agenda working for a small group of residents have continued to break the rules while they claim this is to bring clarity and protect next followed by Ted Johnson and Mr. Johnson is the last request to speak for my that I have if you would like to address us please fill out one of these forms get it to the bailiff good morning commissioners I hope I do this properly the I just got out of the hospital so I'm not at my best two things one I want to praise Ashley capital for the public benefit portion of their proposed change here today of a new traffic light which we desperately need and also the land donated for a future firehouse which we also desperately need I think most companies would never go to that extent to help the surrounding community with public benefit the other reason I'm here today and I hate to do both because I can't really speak enough to each the steward west this pre-application for a PUD change to allow domesticated animals which I spoke last week that is the Trojan horse the board that has been hijacked as many have spoken the other members that hijacked the board they refuse to take that out so that's definitely their avenue their vehicle to down the road allow other animals going into chickens barnyard animals turning our community into a farm community and that's what most of us did not move here for that we have over 27 people my count may be off here today that do not support this PUD change I think that's strong I don't think you often get that many people they had one person Cornelius Pamager who used my name and others with misinformation again some other members that spoke a couple weeks ago they slandered them on Facebook with misinformation as well as basically slandering our county attorney with saying that the ruling about that currently our zoning our PUD does not allow chickens was I don't remember the exact words but poorly conceded and poorly ruled upon I can get those believe me I'll have those exact words the next time I speak they also made mention for sure that Mr. Ed Campy had offered them a discount since because of this unfortunate situation inferring that it was the county's fault that this all came about there's no fault by the county here and I think if I was in the county's position I would be really upset that they're using twisting the words to fit their narrative this has gone on and on it is going to go into the court Mr. Pamajira has been recalled we had tried to cure it their rogue attorney just acts for four people of the board not the whole board so it's a big mess and it's our problem but really speak here today I would hope that you defend the position on what you have already told us your time is up thank you thank you for letting me speak thank you Ted John sick is next and Mr. John sick is the last request to speak for my half morning good morning commissioners my name is Ted John Zach I live in Hope Sound I've been a resident of Hope Sound since 1986 and I'm here to talk about the comprehensive planning staff report regarding the OASIS site remediation rehabilitation project about two months ago we were notified unexpectedly by a formal notification with a sign that the property which was once owned by the Carnation Nursery Farms was being looked at as a brownfield cleanup site now a couple things come to mind the nursery sold originally probably several years ago why wasn't that site looked at and tested at that time and why weren't we notified there was possible contamination now in this report there's several things that are concerning to the residents my property backs up to the site okay and as I mentioned what was the date the site contamination first was first detected and reported by the FTP DEP to Martin County why were the surrounding neighborhoods not notified of this contamination the report referenced three contaminants on page two Deldrin alpha BHC and arsenic two of these are known carcinogens I looked them up myself and you know so there's first of all they're looking to clean up the site as a brownfield site we've met with the attorneys representing the developer and we're all for that site being cleaned up and developed as long as it conforms obviously to the standards that we have off Gomez Avenue for the residential communities but I'm looking beyond that okay there are several people on our street that have had cancer me being one of them okay and who knows you know how long that site's been contaminated now I did send a notification in November of last year and I asked the question of one of the people in the environmental planning department you know how long have you known well we don't have that information and I'm thinking here you are in an environmental planning group that should be totally on top of something like this and there's no information that you can provide you know a resident and you know somebody that's living right adjacent to that site so I think the development is a good idea definitely want to see what the plans are as far as sir your time is up recently with the information sent out one of the concerns is there can be multiple elevations sir your time is up thank you okay I appreciate you looking into this especially the contamination and what can be done and why weren't we notified thank you okay let's take up department four shall we we have a lot of people here would you like to approve the consent agenda sure is there a motion to approve the consent agenda there's a motion in a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously now let's take up department four which is a discussion on Stuart West planned unit development Ms. Elder yes good morning commissioners so on December 2nd the board asked to bring an agenda item up to talk about Stuart West there's been a lot of written public comment and verbal public comment at the commission meetings so we are here today at the board's request just to give you a little bit of background the Stuart West plan unit development was approved in 1978 and the first final site plan was approved in 1980 so in the summer of 2025 a group of residents reached out to the county to determine whether or not chickens were permitted in Stuart West and in an effort to prevent code enforcement proceedings we looked into that issue and it was determined based on our land development regulations and the Stuart West plan unit development agreement that chickens were not permitted in Stuart West the only animals besides household pets that were permitted were stabled animals horses and things like that equine animals so we told Stuart West that provided that information to a number of residents so since that time there's been a lot of back and forth a lot of public comments from different fashions of the community so that's kind of where we are today I'm happy to provide more information if you want but that's where we are there has been a pre-application meeting submitted by the board of the Stuart West properties owners association to change the PUD agreement to amend the type of animals that are permitted and I think you heard that they're providing that they allow domesticated animals I think staff staff had some feedback on that term because it's not defined in our code and it would create ambiguity but as of today there has been no application for a PUD amendment so there's nothing pending in growth management right now to amend the PUD agreement so that's where we stand Mr. Campy thank you very much it seems like it's Palm City Day at the commission meeting I was one of the folks that asked this item be brought up today simply because of the strife that it's caused in the neighborhood I think all five of us have received a tremendous amount of emails and the fracture in the community is disappointing not surprising because plenty of HOA neighborhoods have have serious issues that they're battling back and forth in this particular one I wanted to ask Paul Schilling who's the head of our growth management department in regards to I did receive emails and and heard people saying that I personally had offered up a discount which obviously I don't have the authority or the power to offer up discounts but that doesn't mean that there's not a discount structure in place and if Mr. Schilling who I did ask when I first heard about that if you could explain how the possibility of a discount is even a thing sure the well first of all the word discount is not mentioned in the fee schedule staff's position on this application should it come forward would be an administrative amendment to the PUD so that fee is three thousand eight hundred and fifty for the application fee an application fee for a PUD revised site plan would be thirteen thousand eight hundred so my position on it was because of what what is involved namely the growth management department and the county attorney's office it doesn't involve twelve to fifteen divisions construction plans traffic impact landscaping camps all of the other things that would be facilitated or reviewed within an actual application it's text in a PUD okay so I guess that's an important distinction it could have been the high level review of every department in the county which would have been had a price tag of approximately thirteen thousand dollars but our growth management director's opinion was that it was a much smaller scale thus making it about thirty eight hundred dollars that's not a discount that's just the fee structure based on how the situation was going to work I read all of your emails I know my colleagues do as well they were articulate they were passionate there were some for the idea of changing I would tell you from my calculations a majority a vast majority of them were for not changing it I think and my colleagues I would assume would agree we don't get involved in HOA private HOA decision making and things like that that's I know it seems the logical choice like hey if we can't make our decision within the neighborhood let's go to the county and let them make the decision our legal department can offer sometimes suggestions or clarifications but they work for the taxpayers and the commission and the staff they do not represent individuals on one side of an issue either in an HOA or just in a neighborhood without an HOA so with that being said I thought the most logical I don't know especially since what you just heard Miss Elder say there is no application submitted to the county at this time today's agenda item is not to discuss the fact that there is no application or to discuss what the application might be it's purely so that we can hopefully knock down the desire and the need the sense of need that the residents have to drive out from your lives in Stuart West and Cobblestone to come out here every commission meeting to make public comment it's perfectly your prerogative but I think it was starting to boil up to a point where the misinformation or the flood of information was starting to create more of a problem not only for the residents of the neighborhood but for the staff because we have a lot of things that do have applications and for my colleagues we receive tremendous amounts of emails and information which is our job but it felt to me personally as your district commissioner that it was getting out of hand that it was like getting so far away from what's happening so the point here today is there is no application so there is nothing for us and correct me if I'm wrong Miss Elder there's nothing for the five of us to even vote on if there was an application it would have to go through the process so it wouldn't be something that would come up until probably the middle of next year anyway I thought the most not the most but one of the important points that I heard was the gentleman that spoke right at the end if the neighborhood is going through the expense on both sides of the issue of hiring legal professionals to to debate this in a court of law and it's going to potentially come up in January then my recommendation as a lay person not a lawyer would be let that let that happen I was the president of my HOA for eight years I get it it's a tough it's tough to be on the HOA it's tough we've had the same kind of situations where certain people ran for positions because they had a certain point of view and and others didn't it's a neighborhood that's divided and I'm sad that that's the case because I know a lot of wonderful people live in that neighborhood and it's a beautiful neighborhood and I think none of you are interested in having this constantly progress so the person that can make the decision on if it is a legitimate board the positions are filled legitimately is a judge and from what we've heard today and what I've heard in the past is you're on your way to doing that the expense of doing that on both sides has already been born so my my opinion would be see what January or February takes place maybe this point is moot where the board is reconfigured in a way that is to the wishes of a majority of the neighbors which is what every board is supposed to be and that would be my sake as the district commissioner I'm sure my colleagues can opine but as of today we're not in any type of position to be offering up yes we will do it or no we won't because it has not even officially happened and I think if it's this is the issue about barnyard animals if the board is is put together in such a way that there's a lot of strife and ill will it won't just be this issue it there'll be the next issue and the next issue so I think as we do everywhere let the voters of your neighborhood decide who should and should not be representing you that would be my suggestion okay well I think that we've made our position clear so we are going to take a break and we're going to come back at 1030 for our 1030 preset which is the parks and recreation master plan following that presentation we will immediately take up the meadow run agenda item okay how long is the break thing and we're going to briefly take up commissioner comments before we do the parks and recreation and master plan commissioner Vargas so there were parades parades and parades last week and other activities too but last Tuesday Jensen Beach Chamber hosted a taste of Jensen and it was an overwhelming success it was a sold-out event with over 600 enjoying the evening before lighting the 38 foot Christmas tree our Jensen Beach high school award-winning chorus you bay latte which is Greek for sing for joy sing with joy set the tone for the holiday celebration we heard stories about how Christmas trees were originally developed as symbols for this time of year beginning in the 1800s overseas and here in the US where today they're decorated and shown off around the world everyone enjoyed live bands the restaurant showed off their food samplings and new friendships were made and familiar faces reacquainted so next year we welcome many more to share in this wonderful evening the other thing I'd like to request is to look into a comment that was made by one of our citizens about downtown Jensen Beach and the sidewalks that are difficult to walk past some of these restaurants they have tables they have chairs they have cheeky umbrellas and I would like to have this looked into Mr. Donaldson would this be building and zoning or how can we look into this because it seems to be one restaurateur in particular that is you know taking up this this particular activity so and we want we want it to be accessible for ADA also that's critical so I'll review this with our CRA staff and and code enforcement on issues related to the use of you know there is the generous use of sidewalks for businesses to use so long as they don't infringe upon the public's ability to ingress and egress so we'll we will review that with staff and report back to you on the the rules that that are in place to deal with these issues I appreciate that thank you thanks well it was a busy weekend and lots of fun three parades steward hope sound and indiantown I went to all of them you know the tradition in hope sound is to walk the parade for the commissioners anyway and and then we rode the old fire truck for the other two yeah it was lots of fun one thing that really struck me about the parades was the attendance was fantastic but also looking in the faces of all those little kids it made me think about their their dreams and their potential and I was quite moved by that lastly Sunday evening we went to the hope sound singing christmas tree which is always an amazing production for our community hosted by hope sound ministries it was just fantastic and if you've never been try to make it next year it was very good I went to another holiday event that happened on Sunday was the annual women's club holiday home tour and there are six or seven homes that are featured each year and it's just extraordinary that that residents open up their houses to allow 500 people to traipse through them and touch all their stuff and admire all their things and it's it's wonderful that people that they can con people into opening their houses each year to do this so it's it's not just a way to snoop around your neighbor's houses they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year and they're given to scholarships so it's a really really worthy event and we thank always our hosts the people who open up their houses it's a wonderfully generous thing to do commissioner campy thank you I thought it was parks and rec director kevin abate opened up his home was beautiful really well done you're welcome there's another county um thank you uh continuing on with the festive time of year that we're in palm city we're having a another uh music in the park it is this saturday december 13th from six to eight on map road which is uh at patio at palm city place it is just north of the station 21 fire station um it's starting to really uh turn into a remarkably great event it's uh we're having this time we're having dueling pianos with a holiday sing-along there'll be food trucks beverage trucks ice cream trucks uh this one truck comes they make fresh donuts if you haven't had a donut right out of the right out of the oil and so it's a great time for uh anyone that lives anywhere in the county or wants to come it's not exclusively obviously a palm city event uh there's grandchildren and grandparents and we've got a lot of positive feedback that it's really what we were hoping that that park um in palm city would become and so i invite you all to come this saturday uh the 13th from six to eight for dueling pianos at the patio thank you so much thank you commissioner hetherington following on the festivities we had a great weekend of all of the um mentioned uh events parades and i always say that martin county is the best place to live in the country because of its people its residents um both long-term residents and short-term residents and i think that was really evident this weekend and all the parades and festivities the volunteerism for the toys for tots and all these events the the magnitude of the the women's club putting together um that with all the volunteers and mr kiplinger matching some of the scholarship funds so again that's that's why we love martin county that's certainly why i love martin county because we have the best people in all of 67 counties so merry christmas everyone mr donaldson and uh just following up on that there's nothing like the gertrude walden school to come in this morning and and purge the remaining grinch in me out so i can so i really appreciate that thank you and uh merry christmas mr elder excellent mr abate good morning uh i'm kevin abate parks and recreation director martin county and to my right is mr art thatcher from the firm barry dunn he will be presenting our update for our parks our parks and recreation master plan um chapter seven of the recreation element of the comprehensive plan requires that we update our plan every 10 years we are right on time our plan was adopted by this uh by the board in 2016 and will technically expire uh at the end of this year and then if the plan is adopted today we will um move to the next 10-year plan the overview that will be presented today is a very high level overview of the 78 page plan um our focus um in direction to barry dunn was to make um focus groups stakeholder input input as our top priority and that's what we did the parks and recreation master plan is also a requirement of our accreditation process through the national recreation and parks association right now we're one of 27 agencies in florida um that are accredited by the nrpa on national recreation and parks association and um one of one of the few of the 10 000 publicly funded agencies in the u.s there's probably 200 that are accredited and this is a very important part of the process um before i get started with mr thatcher i want to just kind of tell you the groups that we that participated in the plan uh we did have a lot of focus uh groups uh specifically we had a dedicated meetings with our parks and recreation advisory board our dedicated focus group meeting with them all of our 12 youth sports provider groups had focus group meetings that's your soccer football lacrosse baseball etc our selfish splash water park user groups synchronized swimming and the various groups and some groups that are there children's service council representatives uf extension and 4-h coordinator palm city chamber of commerce representatives play treasure coasts the sports commission representatives children's museums of the treasure coast representatives u.s sailing center friends of mount elizabeth the historic new monrovia schoolhouse royal civic club parents of all three after school programs in the county the log cabin senior program indian riverside indian riverside park um approved vendor representatives and 106 other residents who responded to email invites uh focus groups were conducted with each uh commission district and of course um our leadership and you all the elected officials so i'm going to turn over to mr thatcher to go over these short presentation of our 78 page plan and then of course we can ask you have any questions you may ask i'll be here i'd like him to read it page one i think you just could thank you um thank you um thank you kevin um chair vice chair um commissioners county administrator thank you for the opportunity to come and um and address you today and give you uh an update on the um on the progress on the master plan and so um you can see this is our kind of the we we do a five phase approach to the master planning process uh we do data collection where and um and then we do extensive engagement analysis of of the data and the and that um and the engagement and then we develop an action plan and then um develop the draft and the and the final plan and then we're here today for this final step of um of adoption of the master plan and so this is our mixed method approach to um to public engagement and uh we we look to engage as many members of the community as kevin noted um you know we we did an extensive um approach to it we use a mixed method we don't just do focus groups we don't just do surveys um we do a variety of of those activities we did a statistically valid mailed survey that i'll talk a little bit about later we did an online um engagement using social pinpoint we did do focus groups and public workshops and meetings held stakeholder interviews as well as leadership interviews and then we used a lot of the social media and um and and other forms to engage the community so our in-person public um participation we had 31 staff members 156 community members were engaged in our focus groups did leadership interviews and then our public workshops we had another 186 people that um that participated in those we did the we did um at least one meeting in every one of the the commission districts as well as um at some of the the larger attractions so we our online um platform that we use is social pinpoint which is a um it's an engagement tool that we that we use it translates into multiple languages and provides an opportunity for citizens to be involved in the process to have an active engagement as well as to see what other members of the community are um are saying with um over 3 700 site visits we had a little over 1800 individuals that participated in the in the site that were users we have a we had an ideas wall on there where um citizens could put up ideas and then similar to facebook other users could thumb up or thumb down add comments to them we did a budget priority page on there where we had a list of projects and we gave the the users 200 and they could devote that money to any of those projects breaking it up in five dollar increments so it's a it's another way of prioritizing without necessarily ranking one two three um and then we had an open forum where people could um could drop a pin on a map and make comments about um you know i use this park on a regular basis we could use um you know restroom you know cleaning here on a on a little bit more regular basis some of the those type things so and again you could the other users could thumb up and thumb down that so very very active um site we also use um another tool called placer ai which uses um cell phone pings to um to look at visitation data visitors and frequency of visitors this is just a sample of um of the sites we did uh we did five sites as as part of the project um and so you can see as you look at um at visits you know um jensen beach has the highest in a in annual of um five five thousand eight hundred and thirty visits we also look at individual visitors so um we can we can ping those um those cell phone numbers and then hold them out and then also we look at um visitation frequency so of those 245 individual visitors they each come a little almost two and a half times um during the during the process those are 245 thousand thousand yes and so the other thing that it does is it it allows us to look at where visitor orient where their origination is and so as you look at this heat map you can see that um that for um how patioke and for sailfish you can see you are a statewide attraction that um that you do have individuals coming from up and down the coast to um to visit the park on a on a regular basis so then we also did um a mailed statistically valid survey we mailed three thousand surveys out randomly to the community our goal was to get 400 surveys back we got 425 and so our confidence rate was um was 95 percent so plus or minus five percent in the in the confidence rate a couple of the things that we do with the survey um as we asked a series of questions as we developed the survey we used all the information that we gathered from our in-person engagement so the themes that came out of that we validated those through this survey and um and so two of the things that we do we do what we call our top priority investment rating and what that does is one of the questions that we ask is um what is your top priority from this list of facilities and then are those are those needs being met and so as you look at the priority rating the the top highest priority are those things that were a high priority with a low need being met and so the low priority are not necessarily things that the community doesn't want but it is a high priority rating and a high need being met so it's not as critical as those that the need is not being met so these are um these are for facilities and amenities and um you can see trails um small neighborhood parks um accessibility to beaches beach parks and dog parks you know being in in some of the the top high priorities we also did the same thing for programs and activities and um same thing with the high priority low need being met special events um being the top one you guys do a ton of special events but i can tell you every community that i work in special events are the number one thing especially since since covid because it's a it's an activity that the community can can go to it doesn't necessarily have to be a scheduled program they can drop in and drop out a lot of the series um you know really speak to that your you know your music series your concert series and those things and so um we also did a park assessment when we did the original master plan we went to every one of your parks your trail heads we we did an assessment we did an inventory of those we developed a gis mapping forum and we provided those to um to the department um the department has done a fabulous job of keeping that current as you've made um as you made improvements to those facilities as you've added components to those facilities they've updated that inventory and that assessment and so what we decided to do is to take a sample of 14 of your facilities and go and look at those out of the out of your 73 and so they're being very well maintained and um and they're great features as you saw from placer ai they're great attractors not only for the for the county but for the the state of florida and um your beaches are um are well used they're um unlike many communities that i work in they're free to the public and um and so they uh the number of visitors is uh is very high and so from there we um we held the findings and a visioning session with the with the staff and then with um with the project team and we developed four goals out of the out of the data that we collected and um we did goals and objectives and then also we developed an action plan for each of those actions for each of the objectives i don't have the the actions on here they are in the full master plan and so the first goal was to maintain and invest in existing and new facilities and um the department has done a very good job of maintaining your existing facilities investing in upgrades investing in new facilities as as they need to be so maintaining your existing facilities parks trails beaches open space adding new facilities based on community input expanding your open space and parks continuing to preserve the the open space that's available within the county exploring opportunities to add trails for walking and for biking developing additional outdoor recreation facilities and amenities and then addressing your current future needs for athletic courts and fields oops and so our second goal was to improve and enhance your programming and your service delivery and so enhancing your special event programming was uh was the number one objective again not something that the department has to do all on its own but working with um community groups and those things to uh to increase uh special events utilizing technology to improve customer service and efficiency continuing to grow your your programs and services accessible to all citizens um continuing to address recreation programs and activities based on the needs of the community and then exploring opportunities for those non-traditional recreation um non-traditional recreation as well as um serving as a primary gateway to um to citizens and visitors to to accept to act to have access to those and so the third goal was to continue to improve your organizational efficiency through maintaining your existing level of service goals maintaining your existing quality standards continuing to be good stewards of the natural environment staffing appropriately to meet the current demand and to maintain your established quality of service maintaining and keeping current with your standards of operations and your policies and then increasing your appropriate partnerships within the community and then finally was to reduce your operating your operational subsidies and to expand on your capital funding the department has done a fabulous job with its um cost recovery programs its revenues and um and reducing your the subsidies and so um really looking at exploring additional funding opportunities through the pursuit of grants and other means continuing your current projects will be able to provide the standards of the programs to provide the program to provide the program for the service providers of all of the services and so um um it was kind of a quick run through of um of the top pieces of the of the master plan and i'm happy to answer any questions that you may have one of the things to mention is that we we started we issued the purchase order on this process two years ago and so we're here so about it was about a two-year process all in so um it's been a big undertaking by the entire team over the last two years and it's been a lot of work that was uh And so it's been a big undertaking by the entire team over the last two years and all the stakeholders to develop the plan. And Art worked with me on the last master plan, and the current master plan has done a great job. And so any questions that you have going forward specific to the plan that we can answer for you, we're here. Questions? Commissioner Capps. I would just like to say how much I appreciate the effort that you made to reach out to our community. And to get the pulse and the input of the community, that was incredibly impressive to hear all that you did to hear from our residents. Thank you. Very, very good. And then another thing that kind of struck me is on page 811, goal number four, reduce operational subsidy and expand capital funding. And I thought I'd give Mr. Abate an opportunity to explain to us how that is a priority in our parks department. I've always been very impressed at how much revenue some of our operations bring in to help neutralize the cost of operation. Yeah. So each, for the last three years, the parks department spends about $17.5 million for everything that we do, all 74 parks and beaches. So you have your, you know, things that are free, the beaches, the causeways, all the other open space that we have, senior programs, afterscrew programs. Those are all things that we, boat ramps that we don't collect revenue on necessarily, but we maintain every day with all the restrooms. So what we've focused on over really the last 10 years is to create this offset, if you will, to reduce the overall tax burden. So right now, over the last three years, we generate about 53% of our revenue on its overall budget. So the tax subsidy is about 47% right now over the last three years on average. So when you look at that across the entire country, most of the parks departments, actually the average, their subsidies for their programs similar are around 75% tax funded. So we're at about 47% now. But our goal has been to provide those services for the community based on everything that is in the current plan, but also to try to lower our operating costs and charge fees where it's appropriate. As Art said, we have free beaches and free boat ramps and all those things that are very, very expensive. So we do a really nice job, the team does, on cost recovery goals. And so it's a very brave cost recovery goal, having 53% of the revenue cover most of your facilities. So if you had a $20 million park system, you can argue that you're paying $7 million for it, right, or your cost recovery, whatever the math is. So, but we've, that's probably the wrong math. But anyway, so. But it's okay. 53% would be like $10 million. Yeah. So more than half. So for us, it's been a big focus. And the other thing, these are where the revenue comes in. It comes in a lot of different places other than the obvious golf course, water park, cafes, beaches. It comes in recreation program, pavilion fees, across the gamut of services, right? And so all those little nickels equal dollars over time. And as we invest in a, like the golf course, for example, like this year, we had a $415,000 increase over last year. So we're, you know, and that's a nice kind of accomplishment over the years. So every, but we have the investment part of goal one is to maintain and invest in these new facilities, but also your existing ones are more importantly. And we primarily do that through our program because if you keep them looking good, people continue to come. So it's kind of a broad look at what we do. But in terms of the, as we benchmark ourselves against light counties, we're light years ahead of them in terms of these, this subsidies program. And it's really, the team has done all the, all the, the hard work to make this happen. But it is, it is, it's an impressive number when you really dive down and look at it in terms of all that we offer for the entire park system. Great. Thank you. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah. I have toured a number of the parks and they're great. I'm a Florida native, so I know what parks are here in Florida. Um, and I appreciate everything that you and your team do, um, and everybody else who's not in the room right now. Um, so I know that there's expansion on other ideas to present and to have and be embraced, uh, by the community. Um, and there's no shortage of that to tap other communities, uh, similar to ours. Um, my question is, um, can you be an enterprise fund as we have our airport? The golf course is the enterprise fund. It's actually, that's how it's designated by the clerk's office as an enterprise fund. The other, the other, um, assets are not just by how it's set up. But one of the things that we do, for example, um, the golf course, the, the cafe, uh, at Stewart beach, the mooring fields at the campground, those facilities use what I call budget, their budget reservations. So this year, um, we have, uh, uh, about $1.6 million that we collected in excess of our expenses. So that money gets set aside, uh, for example, the, the hitting bays restaurant and golf course was just a hair over 500 and something thousand dollars. That will be set aside and a budget reservation to help, um, help address things for that, but that facility in the future. The cafe at, at Stewart beach in the last three years has a budget reservation, well over a million dollars, but we've already tapped into that. For example, in the last year by replacing, because it's a coastal cafe, we've replaced the air conditioned systems. We've done some improvements to kitchen equipment. Um, so the goal there on those facilities is to retain those net revenues in a budget reservation, not ask for tax dollars and then make the necessary improvements to provide the program. And that's what we've been doing pretty successfully. Right. And we've had that discussion before at, at length. Um, I just don't want creep to go back to the taxpayers. Um, to me, this looks like a wishlist. And I did review what you had presented a couple of months ago. I think it was a very nice bound notebook that you gave me about all similar to this that we have today. This is more abbreviated. Um, and so are you thinking of ways, because it says here pursuit of grants, you know, how grants are drying up and other means. What are the other means? I think we're wherever we have opportunity. For example, the boat ramp program has been most successful in the last three years. Um, specifically Charlie Layton, which is under construction right now and Sanskrit Park. We've derived well over a million dollars in grants for boat ramps. Um, we've done grants through the Florida Boater Improvements Program. Um, so where we have opportunity to, um, to match our dollars, to create, um, less, less tax burden. We do that as much as we can, where, when we can. And we might have to pull back on some of, you know, these initiatives that you want to put forth, depending on how the dollars are allocated. Correct? One of the, you know, with this master plan, it's mainly predicated, most of it, for the board through the capital improvement program. So everything that we, that is in the plan will come through that formal process, uh, as it relates to either, whether, for example, one of the, when Art talked about, what would you do for $200? Um, you know, most of the folks said, we want an indoor space, uh, no recreation center. So one of the things that we're doing right now is we're preparing a request for a proposal to hire a few firms, uh, or have available a few firms to have, um, create feasibility studies. One, to see what size of, for example, a facility should be based on the size of the county, conceptual plan ideas, or, you know, those types of things, and civil engineering services for all that we do going forward, so that we hire the right firm and make the right decisions. But that's all part of the CIP planning, um, uh, going forward. You know, right now in the current queue, you know, you have Layton Park, Charlie Layton Park under full construction. Um, then you have, in designing and permitting right now, the, uh, Sea Turtle Beach Cafe and the Wiljasek Park small-sided soccer complex. And then you have the future planning projects, which the board approved, which were Pineapple Park Pickleball Complex for, at this point, it's, um, design, uh, and, um, Heritage Ridge Master Plan, which is conceptual, like, what do we want to do? But a lot of this is based on the feasibility of now looking at the plan and looking at what the community wants relative to new facilities. And so, as we move along, this process will take its form and shape through the CIP process. Commissioner Hetherington. Yes. On your, um, thank you for the presentation. Very nicely done. And I always like to see, um, how much public participation. Those focus groups had a lot of participation. So, on the, um, the earlier comment on the cost recovery system, it sounds like the county is doing well. But when, when we are gaining this revenue, I know you mentioned that the golf course is an enterprise fund. So, that revenue would stay, the revenue earned in the golf course would stay in the golf course? Correct. For that? And then the other departments, if they're earning revenue, say, a Phipps Park or that, is, is that restricted? Because we could probably, um, if there are not needs for those particular parks, use that as, to help maintain our parks across the board. Is that the goal of this cost recovery system, to help the programs as a whole? I think it's a great question. So, I don't have the perfect answer for you, but the one I'll give you off the top of my head is that we, you know, we have recently created opportunities for budget reservations based on recent success of, like, forget the campground. But in the campground, there are still a lot of other capital needs that we still need to do. You know, we're, we're still paving sites that are very, very expensive, things that we cut out of budgets many, many years ago. So, so, but yeah, so I think where it makes sense, you know, we, the goal is that we want to keep these specific sites at a really, really high level. But I would imagine that if, you know, we were so successful, you know, we're generating millions of dollars over the years, and we needed to plug some hole somewhere for some emergencies, then, you know, I'm a big saver. So then we should do that as much as we can. We're not there yet. One of the, in the CIP project for, for the Sea Turtle Beach Cafe, we program, we program in some revenue there from the other cafe to help fund its capital construction costs to not, you know, to lower that burden again. And so I think that's a great way to do it. So, so it can be moved around, I suppose, if, if we feel at that, at that time we need to do it. Would it be great for the entire park system to be an enterprise fund? Yes, but I don't think we'll ever get there. But I don't, I think that for now we're just evaluating how well we're doing, and that what we're also finding is that, you know, things break very, very quickly on the beach, you know, and public high-use facilities require lots, lots of dollars. And I, and I'd like to use the revenue when possible to do that. My fear is, what I don't want to do is, we haven't asked for any additional, for example, fixed asset replacement dollars, is to reduce those because it takes care of the county-wide system as much as we can, is to kind of keep those dollars steady moving forward. Granted, we're not in a crisis, and just, and move in that direction, so. Okay. And then I'll have a separate, unrelated. If I could just add to that, the, each, we do track the funds related to each one of those individual projects, but we do, the board does have the authority to use those funds on other items within, since it's not an enterprise, you do have the authority to use those funds on other projects within the parks department, as Mr. Batte has stated. And it's typically would be directed towards your capital improvement program to lower the burden of taxes on those types of projects. So, absolutely, the, the, the ability for the parks to generate money does strongly have the ability to reduce the burden on other facilities unrelated to the revenue generating ones. It's just, as they started up, we have tracked all the money that comes into them by fund. It is, and then it has been, to make sure that all of those facilities are not costing anything on the county's taxes. And, and, and then to make the improvements to keep them at that level. And then as funds have become available, as Mr. Batte stated, to use in the capital investment on new programs, such as the Sand Dune Cafe. Thank you. Would anyone from the public like to address this? Commissioner Hetherington. I just, yeah, I have one more comment. I, I personally believe, and I, I think that it showed in the focus groups, the youth recreation are some of the, to me, the most important assets of a Martin County, or a parks department in general. Because it keeps young, young people off these and allows them to, you know, leadership and abilities and team camaraderie. So, I see that, and I hear often that we, we have some amazing fields, whether they be baseball or soccer, and, but sometimes we have to let them, I guess, seed them or let them grow in. So, probably not just me, my colleagues here from residents, why can't we use that? It's just sitting there empty. Why can't we use this? How often do we have to do something like that? And what percentage of time are fields down doing that? And at what percentage of that would you then consider that we need more facilities? I would say that I'm going to let Mr. Kerwin, the deputy director, answer because he'll be over the maintenance. But there are, every year we're bringing the fields down, but Kevin can get specifically into that. Kevin Kerwin, deputy director of Martin County Parks and Recreation. So, we have a, a robust plan where we invest in our fields, just like we do in our facilities. So, the, why it looks like the grass is always growing, it needs to be fed and maintained, and that's for several reasons. First of all, each field, if you look at a soccer field or a baseball field, that's just the turf alone is probably a $60,000, $70,000 investment. So, it needs to be maintained for safety reasons, aesthetic and playability. And what we try to do, working with the youth sports providers and the other rentals, is to schedule that out so that we can go and then do our scheduled maintenance, and that's the downtime, which is very limited. And we do that off-season, so that then we're able, when the seasons start up, that the kids and the adults can go back to playing again. And our emphasis is always on our youth sports providers, because they're doing all the activities and running the programs that you have a myriad of kids. And Kev mentioned, there's 12 different user groups all throughout the county that they're running all these athletic programs to keep the kids off the phones. So, I would say the downtime is minimal. I don't want to give you an exact number, but it's in weeks, not months. And it's only when necessary, not an arbitrary, we're going to close them and they're going to rest. It is, there's science behind it. Mr. Pine. Good morning, Commissioners. My name's Tom Pine. I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years. When the county sells property, we're told we're not supposed to make profits because we're not supposed to be operating businesses. We've heard that multiple times over the years. Yet, our parks department operates multiple businesses that all the counties around us and cities work in a business-government partnership. So, where does the hypocrisy end? We're not supposed to make money selling property because we're in a government. We're not supposed to be making profit. But when the parks department operates multiple businesses, that's okay. I find that questionable at Vest. The city of Stewart operates a mooring field as a business venture with a local marina. We own our, we operate our own mooring field. Our rates are extremely low compared to the county, the city operated mooring field. Yet, our RV park that we operate, the rates are considerably higher than the RV parks that the counties operate in the area. Because the hypocrisy of picking winners and losers when you operate a business, that's where we are in Martin County. We can't make money when we're selling property because we're not supposed to be operating businesses. But the parks department, that's okay if you operate multiple businesses. I can understand the logic. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Any further comments? I just have one, and that's not regarding the plan. The plan is a fine plan, but it's rather the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. It's a board that's been in use for decades. And at one time, it was making advisory decisions about spending a half-cent sales tax, and that sales tax no longer exists. So the members of the advisory board tell me that they feel that their meetings are rather perfunctory, and they're also not well attended. And one of the reasons may be because they're scheduled to meet monthly, which is a huge obligation for our volunteer members. So while I still think that it's important to have a Parks and Rec Advisory Board, I think that maybe we should consider reducing the number of meetings so that we get better participation, more meaningful participation. Maybe we should meet quarterly? Second. I agree with that. That sound good? Yeah. There's a... That's fine. Wait, is there statutes or anything for that? Commissioner Hurd would have to pass the gavel to make a motion, so... I'll make a motion. Yeah. That's all. That the Parks and Rec Advisory Board meet quarterly. Okay. Because I have heard from my representatives on the board similarly. Okay. Good. There's a motion and a second. Commissioner Capps. I'm probably going to be for that, but I'd like to hear Mr. Robote's opinion on it. I would say that between summers and holidays and not meeting quorum, they're meeting quarterly anyway on average. I think that our presentations to them on the capital budget and the operating budget will be much more meaningful in an annual operating update when that gets us to three. And we would work closely with whoever the chair is, you know, and maybe go over our master plan goals. So, I think that we, you know, I think the board chair and the previous board chairs and members were just kind of struggling with really what to do. It had a lot of purpose when I first got here 15 years ago. They were really into the sales tax. They were actually required to be on that referendum as a part of the decision making. And then once that money has dried up, it just kind of... We had a 21-member board. It was reduced down to nine. And so, we had trouble making quorums. So, I think that quarterly makes a lot of sense for them and for us. Ms. Petrick, is this your light? That is mine. Melissa Petrick for Assistant County Attorney. Just so that you're aware, the last resolution we had was in 2019. I'll be working with Kevin, if it's all right, with the board to come back with an amended resolution and just changing that one matter. Okay. Okay. Okay. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Now, we need a motion to move that the board adopt the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. We will now, as I promised, take up agenda item, Department DPQJ1, which is metal run. This is quasi-judicial commissioners. Commissioner Vargas, any ex parte disclosures? If I have any, they've been filed. Mr. Camps? If I have any, they have been filed. I certainly have them, and they've been filed. Mr. Campy? I have them, and they've been filed. And Commissioner Heathering? If any, they've been filed. Anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony in this matter, please stand up, raise your right hand, and be sworn in. Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Mr. Elam, have you presented all the required materials to the clerk? It's a copy of my work history and the agenda item. Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioners, for the record, I'm Brian Elam, Principal Planner with the Growth Management Department. I've turned in a copy of the agenda item in my work history as Exhibit 1 on December 4th, 2025, changes to the Meadowrun Property Owners Association Corporation. We're filed with the state, changing some of the officers of the corporation, so I've provided an updated disclosure of interest with my submittal for the record. And I've printed copies to be provided to the board if you'd like. This is a request by McKenzie Engineering and Planning, Inc. on behalf of Meadowrun Property Owners Association Incorporated for approval of a revised final site plan to add a rear entry gate at the cul-de-sac of Southwest Briarbrook Way for the purpose of accessing Southwest Layton Farm Avenue. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of public facilities reservation. The master site plan for the Fox Grove subdivision was approved on June 8th, 2004, and included a 91-lot subdivision on approximately 544 acres, with minimum lot sizes of 5 acres, consistent with the Agricultural Ranchette Future Land Use and AR-5A Zoning District. The Fox Grove subdivision received final site plan approval on September 14th, 2004, and the subdivision was platted on April 15th, 2005. This application was previously heard on October 7th, 2025, and the board voted to deny the request. The board voted to reconsider the decision to deny the request on October 21st, 2025. The property is east of Southwest Citrus Boulevard, north of I-95, and west of Southwest Layton Farms Avenue at 4350 Southwest Stony Brook Way in Palm City. The current zoning on the property is AR-5A Agricultural Ranchette District. The future land use is Agricultural Ranchette. This is sheet one of the revised final site plan showing the proposed rear entry gate at the cul-de-sac of Southwest Briarbrook Way, which is right over here. Just note that, I don't know how clearly you can see it, not very clearly at all. There was one note that was updated. Very little has changed from the original site plan that was approved other than updating the notes that were no longer valid and changing the note that covers the access. This is sheet three of the revised final site plan showing a detail of the gated access. This shows that you have a fence here that goes around the cul-de-sac area, and then it's gated here, allowing vehicles the necessary queuing area and also the ability to turn around as required. And this is just an aerial image of the property there. So development review staff have found the Meta Run Property Owners Association, Inc. application to comply with all applicable regulations in the comprehensive growth management plan is detailed in the staff report. Review of this application by the local planning agency is not required. And staff recommends approval of the Meta Run Property Owners Association application. 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 revised final site plan for the Meta Run at Fox Grove subdivision project. That concludes my presentation. Questions for staff? Seeing none. One applicant, would you like to make a presentation? Good morning, Ms. Story. Good morning. For the record, I am Krista Story, and I'm an attorney with Polymath Law out of Pembroke Pines, along with McKenzie Engineering and Planning. I'm pleased to be representing the Meta Run Property Owners Association in regard to their request for approval of a revised final site plan. First and foremost, we would like to thank the board for your willingness to reconsider the request. Just laying out about how we plan to proceed on our portion, my role today will be to provide a bit of legal context to this quasi-judicial proceeding. Then, representatives from McKenzie Engineering and Planning will make the technical portion of the presentation regarding the revised final site plan. With us today are Ann Marie Height, who's president, and Jeff Cable, who's treasurer of the Meta Run Property Owners Association. They also may have some comments, and they're also here to answer any questions, and they have been sworn in. The request before you is a very straightforward request to add a rear entry gate at the cul-de-sac of Southwest Briar Book Way to provide access to Layton Farm Avenue. Pursuant to Section 10.5 F9 of the Land Development Regulations, it is a type of application which is considered at a public meeting by the Board of County Commissioners. Due to the limited changes proposed to the existing site plan, review by the local planning agency was not required, nor notice to surrounding property owners. Quasi-judicial matters, as the consideration of this application is, are proceedings that involve the application of policy to a specific development application. As such, more formality is required, such things as witnesses provide testimony under oath, evidence is presented, and a record is being created. Public comment is certainly a part of the proceeding, but the decision in a quasi-judicial matter must be rendered based on correct application of the law and competent, substantial evidence within the record. The expertise of the speaker and the relevancy of comments to the issue, whether the proposed final site plan complies with the code, that must be evaluated. In that regard, the applicant bears the initial burden of presenting competent, substantial evidence to support the development application. The criteria for approval of a revised final site plan is whether it complies with the applicable codes. Accordingly, professional engineers Sean McKenzie and Chris Menninger will be providing testimony to demonstrate that the Meadow Run revised final site plan is in compliance with the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and the Land Development Regulations, as required by sections 10.1 and 10.2.B.2 of the Land Development Regulations. We appreciate that staff has found the application to be in compliance, but it is the applicant's responsibility and burden to demonstrate that compliance through the presentation of competent, substantial evidence. At this point in compliance. At this point in time, I'm going to refer to three documents, which I provided to staff to be filed with the clerk in reference to some exhibits by the applicant. The first document is a printed copy of the PowerPoint presentation that you're going to see. The second document is a printed copy of Mr. McKenzie's resume. And the third document is a copy of Mr. Menninger's resume. Before turning the presentation over to these gentlemen, I have a few questions for each of them. First, Mr. McKenzie. I know we're going to, how we want to share Mike, or I'll move on, if we can do that, or I'll step over. Have you been, Mr. McKenzie, have you been sworn in? Yes, I have. Please give your full name for the record. Sean Gregory McKenzie, a professional engineer with McKenzie Engineering and Planning. As to the exhibit that I just mentioned, your resume, does it accurately reflect your professional credentials and your work history? Yes, it does. Are you a professional engineer licensed in the state of Florida? Yes, I am. For how many years have you held that professional credential, or an estimate? Approximately 21 years. Okay. For how many years have you been working as an engineering professional in Martin County? Just over 20 years, I believe. Okay. Are you familiar with the Martin County Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and the Land Development Regulations? Yes, I am. Did you participate in the development of the Meadow Run Revised Final Site Plan that is being considered today? Yes, I did. And in your professional opinion, is the Revised Final Site Plan in compliance with the Martin County Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Regulations? Yes, it is. Okay, thank you. Now, Mr. Menninger, very similar questions, but it's important. Have you been sworn in? Yes, I have. Please give your full name for the record. Christopher Joseph Menninger. As to Exhibit 3, your resume, does it accurately reflect your professional credentials and your work history? Yes, it does. Are you a professional engineer licensed in the state of Florida? Yes, I am. For how many years have you held that professional credential? Less than one year. Okay. However, for how many years have you been working as an engineering professional in Martin County? Four and a half years. Are you familiar with the Martin County Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and the Land Development Regulations? Yes, I am. Did you participate in the development of the Meadow Run Revised Final Site Plan that is being considered today? Yes, I did. In your professional opinion, is the Revised Final Site Plan in compliance with the Martin County Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Regulations? Yes, it is. After the public comment portion of the hearing, we would like the opportunity to provide rebuttal and our final comments. Ms. Height and Mr. Cabell may have some additional comments afterwards, but at this point, I would like to turn our presentation over to McKenzie Engineering. Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for having us here today. I do appreciate your time. Staff has been great to work with. My name is Sean McKenzie. As you heard before, I'm a professional engineer at McKenzie Engineering and Planning. I have over 25 years of experience. Our office is located at 1172 Southwest 30th Street, Palm City, Florida. The property we're talking about here today is Meadow Run. It's 91 approved lots located just north of I-95. On the west side is Citrus Boulevard. It's just south of Moore Street and on the west side of Layton Farm Avenue. It has one full access location right on Citrus Boulevard and one emergency access located on Layton Farm Avenue, about 1,900 feet south of Moore Street. And so the community is here today seeking a full access location, secondary rear access on Layton Farm Avenue, which is now fully paved all the way from Martin Highway all the way south down to Meadow Run and essentially their cul-de-sac off of, I think, Briarbrook Way. A little bit of history. I think we already went through this, so I'll go quick. The project was originally approved for master site plan in June 2004, a final site plan in September 2004. There was an administrative amendment back in 2006 to allow a manned guardhouse up at the front gate. Right now the community has, as I understand it, 33 homes currently occupied, nine are under construction. Historically there's been about three or four homes under construction each year. So it'll be about another 10 or 15 years under that pace of projection before this community becomes fully built out at the 91 homes. So this is a site plan amendment being requested to add a rear gate entry to southwest Briarbrook Way. That would provide an access to, a secondary access to Layton Farm Avenue. Here is just the site plan itself. You can see on the left side of your screen, which acts as Citrus Boulevard, that's where the existing access or an existing gate is located. There up at the top of your screen, that's the existing 20-foot easement, of which 10 feet of that 20-foot easement is paved. So that is really just an emergency access for the community. And then what's being requested is the bottom part of your screen on the right side, the proposed gate and the cul-de-sac there on Briarbrook Way, which would have full access to Layton Farm Avenue. Next slide. And really the quest before you is really what you see here. That is the cul-de-sac at the end of Briarbrook Way. On the right side of your screen is southwest Layton Farm Avenue, and this would provide an access out to Layton Farm Avenue. There would be a gate interior to the community that would provide access via a gated call box within that cul-de-sac circle. This access point meets all of the county standards for access. We'll have adequate lighting, provides for adequate queuing and circulation for any vehicles that want to come in, around, and through. And it meets all of the emergency access standards that we have here in Martin County to make sure that, you know, vehicles can safely enter and exit through the community. A little bit of what was discussed earlier today. This shows an aerial from 2008, and again, you're looking at Briarbrook Way and the cul-de-sac at the bottom of your screen, southwest Layton Farm Avenue running through the middle of the screen, and you can see that up until starting about 2008, you can see that fresh asphalt on Layton Farm Avenue. That's when it was paved all the way down through past most of Meadow Run, but it did stop about 1,200 feet short of Briarbrook Way, so it did not fully reach that back access, so if the developer at that time had wanted to have an access at Briarbrook Way, they would have had to have paved this section of road. They clearly chose not to. Next slide. In 2023, that last 1,200 feet of road was paved, and you can see that before you. So this is a relatively new pavement there for the community to access this county road. Briefly, from an application history perspective, this originated in 2021. A pre-application was originally held in March 2022. The community attempted to move this project forward, realized it might be a little bit more than they're willing to take on. They paused, essentially, for a couple of years. Then earlier this year engaged us, McKenzie Engineering and Planning, to put together a formal site plan application, as well as engineering documents, which we did. That went through staff review and ultimately approval, and that's why we're here before you today to request this gate opening. So, again, it's a rear access operation gate. It will be fully open to the community. It's an alternative access point and provides a lot of benefits, really, for the community. First of all, and probably most importantly, it will reduce emergency response time to the community and those 91 future homes, 33 existing homeowners. It does also provide an alternative community access, which in our industry is really best practice to have multiple points of access and entry to any community. So, in the event the front entrance is blocked for any reason, traffic is detoured from 995 or the turnpike coming all the way up Citrus, making entry and exit to their community difficult, this would give them an alternative access point. In addition, as was noted, Citrus Boulevard is a high-speed arterial roadway, so for anybody wanting to have a little bit of a safer entry and exit from the community, this would give them an alternative access point. And lastly, this would give the community the ability to maintain their lake directly from their back entrance, which they cannot do today. Today, they would be required to have their maintenance vehicles traverse out of the existing entrance gate, up Citrus Boulevard, over on Moore Street, south on Leighton Farm Avenue, and then maintain that lake, which prevents flooding not only in their community, but the surrounding communities. Because if their community floods, that's also going to flood their neighbors as well. Don't want that to happen. So then that same vehicle would have to return back up Leighton Farm Avenue, down Moore Street, and back Citrus Boulevard. And so by having access to that rear gate, that keeps that, you know, those heavy maintenance vehicles off of those roads. Next slide. Southwest Leighton Farm Avenue is an existing county-owned and maintained road. It is a rural local road outside the urban service boundary, and it's paved all the way from Martin Highway down to Meadow Run. The roadway width meets all state and national standards for a local road. There's adequate capacity, you know, even with the additional Meadow Run traffic. This is a local road, and based on the volumes that are out there, no striping is required based on, again, state and national standards. So the infrastructure for Meadow Runs Gate is currently in place. We did a traffic evaluation. The traffic from this project, you know, from Meadow Runs Back Gate, is really a minimal increase on Leighton Farm Avenue. Residential uses generally have a very low traffic usage after 6 p.m., which is coincidentally about the same time that road really gets busiest. The busiest time on Leighton Farm Avenue is from 7 to 8 p.m. That is different than the peak of a typical residential community. So really, Meadow Run and its residents can operate safely and harmoniously with all of the uses up and down Leighton Farm Avenue. Meadow Runs considered their alternative access point. That's about 1,900 feet south of Moore Street. Again, that's a 20-foot-wide easement with 10 feet of asphalt. It does flood during heavy rainfalls, so it's really, and would not, doesn't currently have an area for an adequate turnaround. So this really is not a viable location for a full-access secondary location where they have their emergency access today. Again, there is adequate infrastructure in place for the southwest Briarbrook Way gated access and entry. Essentially, we agree with staff. We comply with all the standards of the county code. So we're here before you seeking approval for this gated entry, and we're here to answer any questions you may have. We'd also like to reserve any time needed after public comment to come back forward and answer any questions or discuss any points that are brought up. Questions? I do have two requests to speak forms from the public. The first is Kathy Jensen, followed by Constantine Alexenko. Afternoon. Hi. Thank you. Sorry. I'm short. I am not going to speak in hypotheticals or in self-serving statements. I just want to let the board know two incidents that happened to me personally and why this gate is so important to us. This past summer, I had two instances where I needed emergency services. The first one occurred, and the sheriff's department came by GPS to that back gate. They could not get in. Not everybody's as lucky as me. My son is a Martin County Sheriff's Deputy, and they called him. And so they knew I was his mom. They called him, and he told them, go to the front, go to Citrus. So it took all that time for them to get turned around, and there were five cars to get turned around and come back and come through the gate and then get to me. The second time was a follow-up medical emergency that the police came, and on that day, GPS took them to the back gate again, and luckily for me, our president was at the gate, and she was able to unlock that gate and let them get to me. So had it not been for my son being a police officer and Anne-Marie being there at the gate, it would have taken them so much longer to get to me, and I needed them. I needed them both times, and it was a very bad situation that I encountered those two times. I just want to let you all know that that is why that gate is so important to us. It's not for anything to be self-serving or political. It's just to help us. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Alexenko. Thank you for holding the hearing. Again, I want to speak in favor of the matter on rear gate. I'm one of the residents there. I'm also a local physician, and I can tell you, as was just stated, that minutes, seconds do count in terms of favorable and unfavorable outcomes. The other thing is just, again, to sum the contradictory arguments that have been made by the opposition where the road's not safe. Well, if the road's not safe, it's not safe for any use, period, and therefore it should be made safe before it's being used. But the fact that, self-admittedly, they said 1,600 members are using that road continuously. They're not arriving there in bicycles, all right? They're arriving there in cars, which are passing side-by-side with no problems. We want to have the ability to use that road the same way. Furthermore, again, we spoke multiple times about the GPS rerouting everybody. As far as traffic, 1,600 members using that road. An additional 200 cars, if that, is not going to significantly impact. As was demonstrated, when 714 was being expended, detours were being rerouted from Citrus and 714 through Moore and Leighton Farms. There were no incidents that occurred at that time, so I believe that road is safe to use and can be done that way. Regarding heavy equipment use, JCC continues to have heavy equipment being directed to their property. So, again, we just request their use of that road, and if we need construction vehicle sensor that way or residential people to use that gate, we'd like to have the ability to do so. Insurance costs. Currently, if the fire department goes through the front gate, we are more than five miles outside for them to get there. Our insurance rates were significantly higher because we had no fire department within five miles. If they were allowed to go through the back gate, that would reduce our insurance costs. And when I was looking for insurance, it was astronomically higher because they said, you do not have a fire department within five miles. So, all of these things do reduce the ability for us to grow our community, which will further reduce people building there for various reasons, and therefore, it will reduce some taxpayers' money. So, we just ask that you allow us to have access through the rear gate. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Sharfie, we only allow people to speak once on an agenda item, and you spoke this morning during public comment, so that was your one bite at the apple. Would anyone else from the public like to address us? Seeing none, back to the board. I have a question. What is the right-of-way on Layton Farms Road? It's a county-maintained road. What's the right-of-way? Classification. How much right-of-way is available? One speaker said that it was 18 feet. Is that an acceptable right-of-way standard for a Martin County? Madam Chair. I didn't see on that. I looked on the plans, and it's not disclosed on the plans for some strange reason. That would be in the construction. Mr. Griselka. Good morning. This is Michael Griselka, the county engineer. I have not been sworn in, so. Okay. Please be sworn in. 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? Yeah. Currently, the right-of-way width is meeting county-standard right-of-way width, and the pavement is a 20-foot pavement, which is county-standard local road pavement. Okay. Okay. Further questions for staff? Commissioner Hetherington. So the, this might be for Michael, the, oh, I think McKenzie said that Layton was a rural classification. The road is classified as a rural road? It's classified as a local road. A local road. And then Citrus is an arterial? I believe it's an arterial, yes. And then 7, 714 must be an arterial, if Citrus is, right? So I, I don't have a problem with residents using the back gate. Where I would take a little bit issue is having contractors and where, when they have an arterial entrance and exit point from the neighborhood. So I think that traffic would be a minimal increase with residents using the gate, which is, to me, acceptable. But I, could we put a condition in to the PUD that the association can, cannot prohibit contractors from using the front gate, or when possible, they should be using the arterial roads? It's not a PUD, it's just going to be a development order, so we can restrict the access. It's going to be hard to monitor that, but you can restrict the access in the back if the board wants to do that in the resolution. So you do that by resolution? Right, this isn't a PUD, I don't believe it is. So it's by resolution of approval of the site plan. So, okay, to, to, you can limit it to residents and emergency vehicles or in the resolution. Thank you. Commissioner Vargas. You know, in my real estate career, started in Miami many years ago, and it was go-go years. We saw a lot of developments spring up, and they went from tiny to huge. And this is what we've seen here, actually, in Martin County, unfortunately. I lived in a development where it was still under construction with an active contractor. And the trucks were coming in, and the residents were using the same gate. There was never a collision. There was never a fatality. People walking in the sidewalks as the trucks had to pass through partially constructed or another section. This is a tiny development. The one that I lived in had 1,100 living units. We were able to coexist side by side. And the thing is that we're talking about safety, public safety. We're talking about saving lives at the back entrance. We're talking also about the community to have more convenience. Citrus is a speedway. I have driven that myself, and I'm a safe driver, so I'm a license. But here's the other thing. I always do site visits, and I go at different times. I went during the day, but then I went in the evening. It was after 7 p.m. It was very hard for me to get down the road. There were cars straddling the side of the road, haphazardly parked. I guess my big question is, why hasn't this been mandated, that there has to be dedicated parking? But then more than that, my understanding is that this soccer stadium field does not have regulatory approval. Why would that be allowed to continue? That is a big question, and nobody is addressing that on this board at all. That, to me, is an acute danger. And again, I had to turn around because I couldn't go through Meadow Run to get back to citrus if I wished to do so. And there was a sufficient turnaround. I have the maps here. I've studied them. I think that needs to be looked into, absolutely, because we all have to comply with regulations, and nobody is going to be exempt from that. So I am requesting that that be handled and looked into. And my understanding is that within the next couple of weeks, although I don't know how it's gone on for so long, I'm just newly on the board within the last year, that this must be addressed, and they must comply, and they must have parking or cease operations. Because to me, this is a danger to the residents or folks like myself that want to drive down that road. There is nothing further beyond that's going to be developed. Is this correct? It is not possible. Yes, exactly. It has this turnaround. Okay. And I know there's a small little maintenance area that they use. I was instructed that this is what we do. We use this area right here. So I've looked at the maps, and I have all my maps here. I've got all of them here. I've studied them. But here's the thing. You can put up speed bumps. Not a good idea. You'll have a very good relationship with your mechanic, and a mechanic will tell you that's not good. You can put up some guardrails. You can have certain areas that are paved for folks to walk on one side or the other. You can do all of that. But I don't see that this request by an individual who lives in the area saying that, no, they cannot open the gate at all. That should not hold water. However, this is a community that has two, three, maybe four homes under construction at a time. Now, I lived in one, 1,100 living units, and the trucks came in. They can't make a safe turn coming off citrus. In addition to that, they will damage the property of Meadow Run. Their job is to get the property built, the home built for the homeowner in a timely fashion, and to comply with Martin County regulations also. Citrus Boulevard is not a street that you want to slow down on. You want to get onto it and off of it as soon as possible. However, Layton Farms, I think, is far safer and it's more beneficial to this community, and that's why I will support this gate being opened again. My own personal experience, what I experienced coming down that road in the evening, and believe me, I was very, very careful. I didn't want to, you know, go to the left, to the right at all. They were straddling the road. There was disorganization. So I am going to approve, and I request my fellow commissioners to look at this and be reasonable and see that this makes a lot of sense for these homeowners. Is that a motion? Yes, I'm making a motion for that. Yeah, this, obviously, the situation has changed a lot in this neighborhood since 2004. What was practical, maybe in 2004, is no longer practical. And as I tried to make the emergency access work, and it doesn't. It's not big enough. It would have to be reconfigured. The land would have to, right-of-way would have to be acquired, which would make it noncompliant with the minimum five acres. So that's not a practical solution, even though that sounded like the best solution. And I also traveled to the site, and Citrus Boulevard is really fast. There's a lot of truck traffic. There's a lot of fast traffic. So I can certainly understand that residents need to have an alternative. So I'm also going to be supporting the motion to approve the back gate. I'd like to make one other comment, please. And this is to the community. I don't know if I'm speaking with the attorney, the president, the maintenance fellow, and certainly the engineering firm. I did question whether or not this turnaround would have proper lighting and also landscape, so it's an attractive entrance. Right now it's a construction area. Signage also giving direction, clear direction for traffic flow. Are we pointing to Mr. McKenzie? Okay. Thank you. Yes, we designed it to meet all county codes. We did provide additional landscaping, and we will make sure that there's adequate lighting. And as with any sort of gated entrance, it will have adequate signage pointing, you know, what vehicles that enter, how they need to proceed. Okay. And this will be by a call box or the code on the windshield entry? I believe there's going to be a call box so that as you enter the circular area kind of roundabout, you'll have that signage telling the entrance, you know, how to proceed and what to do. Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. Any further questions or comments? Commissioner Hetherington. I just wanted to reiterate, can we put a condition in there that trucks, when possible, should be using the major arterial roads, not the local roads? I don't know how you enforce. Commissioner, Madam Chair, may I? Paul Schilling, Growth Management Director. So that has come up before in a variety of circumstances, and as one of the board members indicated, it is very, very, very difficult to enforce that. I would suggest that the community could put certain controls on how they approach their contractors and their wishes as to that, but from a regulatory standpoint, short of having someone posted on that site collecting evidence, that would be very, very difficult to prosecute. Commissioner Vargas. It's not feasible, I'll repeat myself again, for these trucks, these huge trucks to come in, concrete trucks, companies that specialize. Somebody had mentioned about trusses. They're huge. It's not possible. To do that on citrus. Please, I urge my fellow commissioners, take a drive there and try and pull in safely. Look front, side, and the back. Make sure nobody comes into the back of you. Again, we used a backed entrance, and it flowed very nicely. It flowed very nicely. People follow traffic laws. They're going to do it on an arterial road. They're going to do it on a side road. They're going to do it on a country road. They're going to do it wherever it may be. And that's it. We have to have common sense about this without having a ticket taker in the back there, and we're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. And, again, that's up to Metta Run. They can certainly police themselves and make the decisions how they want to proceed with this. But I think this needs to move past the county commission and pass our departments also. Mr. Fox, is this your light? Yes, ma'am. Sebastian Fox, senior assistant county attorney. With respect to the commissioner's comment about the lighting at the roundabout and the gate area, if the board would like to direct staff by their motion to evaluate that lighting, whether it's a light study or otherwise during post-approval, that is an option. Okay. Commissioner Capps. I was quite moved by the attorney for the applicants' arguments about what a quasi-judicial decision is, and I would like to bring our attention back to that, a quasi-judicial decision has a different legal standard. It's competent, substantial evidence, and the record. And quasi-judicial decisions are things like zoning decisions and final site plans and plat approvals. And then there are legislative decisions that are things like comp plan amendments and ordinances, and the legal standard for those is different. It's fairly debatable. As long as it's fairly debatable, then you can go either way on the issue. But this is one of those judicial decisions, and we've had testimony that the proposal before us meets the comp plan amendment provisions and our land development regulations. So I'm putting a lot of weight on that, and so I will support the rear gate proposal before us. Any further questions or comments? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Commissioners, I see the applicant for the Martin Commerce Park Project. Do you want to motor through here, or do you want to take a break? Want to motor through? Sure. Okay. Let's take up agenda item, public hearing quasi-judicial number two, which is a request for rezoning approval to the planned unit development through a PUD zoning agreement for the Martin Commerce Park Project. This is quasi-judicial. Any ex-parte disclosures? Commissioner Vargas? If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Capps? If I have any, they have been filed. If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? I have some. They've been filed. And Commissioner Hetherington? I have some, and they've been filed. Excellent. Anybody who's going to be providing sworn testimony in this agenda item, 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? Have you provided all of your materials to the clerk of courts? I've turned in a copy of the agenda item in my work history for Exhibit 1. Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners. Again, for the record, I'm Brian Neelam, Principal Planner with the Growth Management Department. Included with the submittal I just turned in is an updated PUD zoning agreement, Exhibit F1, which is the legal description for the proposed public benefit to donate to the county approximately 5.7 acres of land for a proposed fire station in western Palm City. This is a request by Lucido and Associates on behalf of Martin Commerce Park, LLC, for rezoning approval to planned unit development through a PUD zoning agreement for the Martin Commerce Park project, including a master site plan, phasing plan, and amended preserve area management plan. Included with this application is an affidavit deferring adequate public facilities reservation. The property is approximately 167 acres and is located east and adjacent to I-95 and south of Southwest Martin Highway, approximately a tenth of a mile south of the intersection of Southwest Martin Highway and Southwest Martingale Drive. Future land use on the property is industrial. The zoning is LI, Limited Industrial District. The Limited Industrial Zoning District includes limited impact industries, such as research and development, light assembly, and manufacturing. This property was formerly known as the Martingale Estate Subdivision, which was a 21-lot single-family residential subdivision platted in 2014 and included a preserve area management plan. Two comprehensive plan amendments for this property were approved in 2024. Ordinance 1233 created a freestanding urban services district authorizing the extension of water and sewer services to the property and placed restrictions on the property that include no residential units, a maximum non-residential building square footage of 1.1 million square feet, and future development approval for the property shall be processed as a planned unit development. Ordinance 1234 changed the future land use on the 167-acre property from agricultural and agricultural ranchette to industrial and included a concurrent resolution rezoning the property to LI, Limited Industrial District. As required by Ordinance 1233, the owner has submitted an application requesting to rezone by way of the Martin Commerce Park PUD zoning agreement that includes a master site plan, phasing plan, and the amended preserve area management plan. The master site plan includes five phases with a maximum proposed building floor area of 1.1 million square feet and includes areas for trailer parking and outdoor storage. The only developer benefit and only deviation from the standard LI zoning district development standards proposed in the PUD zoning agreement application is a request to increase the maximum building height from 30 feet to 40 feet. All other LI development standards are either met or exceeded. The LI zoning district allows a maximum building height of 40 feet for commercial and business uses. The owner proposes the following public benefits. The owner shall donate to the county land for a proposed fire station in western Palm City within 120 days of approval of the PUD agreement. And upon approval of the master site plan, the owner shall restore and preserve an additional two and three-quarters acres of upland habitat as shown on the master site plan in accordance with the amended preserve area management plan. So here's a view of the master site plan. Maximum building coverage is 40 percent in this zoning district, in the PUD zoning agreement, and the proposed building coverage is 15.11 percent. Minimum open space required is 20 percent, and the proposed master site plan is proposing 54.2 percent. And then up here along the east side of the property is where the preserve area, existing preserve area is, in addition to the two and three-quarters acres that have been added. Here's the proposed phasing plan. Phase one includes lot one buildings, including required access, parking utilities and landscaping for the proposed buildings and designated outdoor storage areas. Phase one includes construction of all roads, utilities, and drainage infrastructure for the entire project site, as well as the preserve area management plan requirements. Except for phase one, phases in individual buildings may be approved and constructed in non-sequential order and or concurrently, provided that the sporting site infrastructure for a particular phase or building shall be completed in advance or constructed concurrently with improvements in the subject phase or building. This application was heard before the local planning agency on November 20, 2025. The LPA voted unanimously, supporting staff's recommendation to approve. Three to zero was the vote. Development review staff have found the Martin Commerce Park LLC application to comply with all applicable regulations, and the comprehensive growth management plan is detailed in our staff report. The staff recommends approval of this application. 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 a resolution approving the rezoning from LI Limited Industrial District to planned unit development and approve the Martin Commerce Park PUD zoning agreement, including the master site plan, phasing plan, and the amended preserve area management plan. That concludes my presentation. Questions for Mr. E. Lamb. Applicant, would you like to make a presentation? Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, Bob Raines with the Gunster Law Firm here on behalf of the applicant, and thank you, Madam Chair, for getting us this morning. We appreciate that. I would like, with your permission, Madam Chair, if I could ask Mr. Elam a few questions before we proceed with the rest of our presentation. Mr. Elam, I'm sorry, did you turn your professional, your resume in, your professional for the record, is that correct? Yes. And you have been sworn in, sir? Yes. And you're responsible for putting a portion of the staff report together, is that correct? That's correct. And are you responsible, sir, for Section F, determination of compliance with the comprehensive growth management plan requirements? Yes. And in that, in the staff report, it says that staffs reviewed this application and finds that it complies with the LDRs, as detailed within the staff report, and staff recommends approval of this development application as consistent with the guidelines and standards of the applicable comprehensive plan goals, objectives, and policies as implemented in the LDRs. Is that correct? Yes. And you wrote that? Yes. And in your professional opinion, does this project comply with the comprehensive growth management plan requirements? It does. And then also, are you responsible for Section G, determination of compliance with the land use, site design, standards, zoning, and procedural requirements? Yes. And under findings of compliance in the staff report, it says staff has reviewed this application and finds that it complies with the LDRs, as detailed within this report. Staff recommends approval of this development application as consistent with the guidelines and standards of the applicable comprehensive plan goals, objectives, policies as implemented in the LDRs. Did you write that, sir? Yes. And in your professional opinion, does this project comply with the land use, site design, standards, and zoning, and procedural requirements? It does. Okay. Thank you, sir. Commissioners, in a moment, I'm going to have Mr. Crady come up and make a short presentation. There is one cleanup detail that I want to, and hopefully Ms. Elder can confirm, I do have with me on the PUD, we needed to update the sketch and legal for the proposed fire station site. So I would like to submit that updated as exhibit to be amended to the PUD should you approve it today. And what does that contain? Because we didn't receive this. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just an updated legal description for the 5.7-acre site that we're proposing to send. We sent one in with an original PUD, and one was revised. It's a technical change. Okay. When the applicant comes up, whoever can show us exactly where this site is, what's on the site, how much upland is on the site, what the access to the site is, those kinds of things, because they were not included. Okay. We can try to answer those questions for you, surely. So with that, let me ask Mr. Crady to come up. And, Morris, I believe you, first of all, if you can introduce yourself for the record. Yes, for the record. My name is Morris Crady. I'm senior partner with the Cedar & Associates. And you need to be sworn in. I do. Yes. Anybody else need to be sworn in? Mr. Weinberg, are you providing testimony? 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? Could you please give us a summary of your professional experience and educational background, please? Sure. I graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1982 as an environmental science. I began working for Martin County on April 1, 1982, until about 1990. I've been a certified member of the American Institute of Certified Planners for the past 40 years and have been doing professional land planning almost exclusively in Martin County for the past 43 years. Okay. And can you identify the document that I'm handing you, sir? Yes, that's my resume. And is that an accurate and current resume? Thank you. I'd like to submit that as applicant's exhibit, I guess, two or two numbers or two. All right. Please proceed. Sure. I do want to acknowledge that we did turn in the proof of notice to surrounding property owners for this meeting at the local planning agency meeting on November 20th. So that's been done. If I can use your mouse, I have a very brief presentation just to go over the site plan in a little more detail. But I guess you are aware of the project site. I'll just show you this to show you the proximity to the turnpike to the right of the screen. And we are at 95 and just south of 95. And here's a closer view that shows our entrance across from Stewart West Boulevard. And this is the property that includes the PUD. There's a significant amount of right-of-way, DOT right-of-way at this location. That's why it doesn't go all the way up there. And just to give you – well, let me get back. The other thing I wanted to point out here is that the property is currently platted. You can see the lot lines on the screen. These are five-acre and 20-acre agricultural parcels. They will get replatted to conform to the master plan that we're proposing today. And the road is constructed in these – the spine road here. And then there's two side roads in this location. As was mentioned, this was approved as a change from agricultural to industrial under certain strict conditions. These are the development restrictions. There's no residential uses allowed on the property. There's the maximum 1.1 million square feet of industrial building area that's allowed. We have to proceed as a PUD. That's why we're here today to talk about the PUD agreement and the public benefits and the text as required that we install at the developer's expanse a traffic signal at the intersection of Southwest Martin Highway and Stewart West Boulevard. And we are paying the full development of – or the full cost of all the capital facilities needed to address the impacts of this project, including water and sewer extensions. The developer paid a significant amount of money to bring that service to the property in front, which is the Martin Gill Commons PUD. This is a transient-oriented commercial project that's been approved for decades. And this is the DOT right-of-way that I was speaking of. We are working with DOT now to finalize the design for the intersection improvements. This is the location of the fire station site. I'll show you that in a little more detail. And this is the actual PUD property. We're separated from the fire station site by a conservation easement that is also maintained by Ashley Capital. And this is a closer view looking from the top of the – just turning it sideways so you can see how the site plan was developed. But, again, we're at the intersection of Martin Highway to the – we're looking east as to the north or to the top of the screen. The fire station site – we've been working with the county on the fire station site, but they have been taking the lead on the actual site plan. So we just got the legal description and sketch of the proposed site. And it's in this location, and there's going to be separate access for the fire station site. But we are not actually doing the site plan. And I don't know if the county has a site plan to show you, but we can put at least the legal description. But it encumbers about six acres of property right on this corner of the site. This is a 19-acre site. It's all usable uplands. There's no wetlands on it and no upland habitat that needs to be preserved. It's a clean piece of property. And, again, we'll be separated from the PUD site by then. And here's just a rendition of the plan that we gave you, the master plan. We're not showing all the buildings. We're trying to maintain flexibility so we don't have to come in with a PUD amendment every time we modify a parking space or a building. But that master plan that's before you today was derived from this concept plan. And it's very close to what we'll build. But, again, we're trying to avoid the need for a PUD amendment. So you're just seeing the spine road that's being retained. These are access tracks and the lakes. But, again, we're maintaining the existing lakes that have already been constructed along I-95. We're expanding this lake somewhat. We're modifying this lake a little bit. We're removing the paved roads that occur in this location and retaining the spine road that's currently constructed. And that's where the water and sewer will be constructed on the spine road all the way out to 714. So we're adding additional retention areas. These are dry retention areas that will be vegetated with native landscaping. We're also maintaining a 50-foot buffer that exists along I-95 corridor. So that will be planted with native vegetation. In fact, all of the vegetation that we're doing will be native plant material. So there are significant economic benefits provided by the developer in constructing this property. We're trying to build a current void in the community by providing industrial space for high-value employment opportunities. At the end of the project, we will have paid up to $3 million in impact fees, $1.2 million in projected annual ad valorem real property taxes, $600,000 per year in projected annual tangible personal property taxes. That's just an estimate. It could go way up. Phase one includes all of the infrastructure, as Brian mentioned, all of the PAMP requirements. And we're also going to be constructing seven of the 16 buildings as part of phase one, which will be about 500,000 square feet of building area. So right away, you will be seeing a significant impact in revenue production in terms of the impact fees and ad valorem property taxes. And it's specifically designed, I think, you know, Ashley Capital has specifically designed this to attract new small business industries and allow the retention and expansion of existing businesses. This is not South Florida Gateway. It's not distribution in large warehouse facilities. All of these buildings are from 20,000, I think, from 20,000 up to 200,000 square feet. There aren't a million square foot or 500,000 square foot buildings in this project. The additional benefits, as was mentioned, includes the donation of a fire station site on Southwest Martin Highway. Again, we have given the county ultimate flexibility in providing that space to them in their preferred location and the site plan that they prefer to have. It will include the retention areas and everything needed to accommodate the construction of a fire station site on that property. The other thing I wanted to mention is that when I showed you those preserve areas on the lots, there were easements on the lots, they weren't separate tracks. And one of the things we're doing when we replat this property is that all the preserve areas will be on separate common area tracks instead of easements on the individual lots. There will still be a conservation easement over it, but there will be separate preserve area tracks, not easements, which makes it easier for the Property Owners Association to maintain those areas. And I have to mention that Ashley Capital has spent significant sums of money cleaning up this site. It laid fallow for about 15 years, and they had to come in and remove lots of exotic vegetation and restore the native habitat that existed on site. And we're also adding to the preserve areas by connecting the upland and wetland preserve areas so that they're linked by native habitat. So we're actually restoring about 2.75 acres of habitat between the wetlands and the preserve areas so that there's a contiguous preserve wetlands and native upland habitat that would maximize utilization by wildlife. And this is one of the few industrial projects that we're actually maintaining the same amount of open space as agricultural would allow. So instead of the minimum 20 percent open space, we're providing 54 percent open space overall. And as I mentioned, we're using 100 percent native plant species. We're preparing the Phase I drawings now. We hope we actually have submitted them, and we're still working on them, but we hope to have Phase I approved early next year and be under construction sometime next year with the first seven buildings. The only PUD benefit the developer is requesting is the increase in height from 30 feet to 40 feet. This is important. It's an industry standard to have at least 36 of clear ceiling height in the interior of the building for stacking and operation of their equipment. It also allows maximum flexibility to address individual needs of the tenants. And it's not an impact to the surrounding property owners. We have a significant buffer along I-95 that will screen the impact of those buildings from the view. And the buildings that are closest to I-95 will also have to meet the commercial design requirements in Martin County. So there will be architectural enhancements on those buildings that are fronting I-95 in addition to the native landscaping. There are no adjacent neighborhoods or homes in the area, so there really aren't any impacts created by the additional height. And we meet or exceed all of the other limited industrial zoning requirements, development criteria, storm water management requirements, open space, and landscape requirements. So this is the plan that you see before you today. Again, it was derived from this concept plan. These are the preserve areas and everything there that is shown on that plan. So the most significant part of this application is our client, Ashley Capitable. They have made the commitment to do this project. They came in a couple years ago and has been actively working in the community to enhance the quality of life throughout Martin County. But they do have a proven track record. They have done this elsewhere throughout the nation. And they do intend to operate this industrial park on the long term that's not speculative. They're not selling lots to future developers. They are building the project. And they embrace the opportunity to do this in Martin County, to invest in public infrastructure, to provide the opportunity for highways, jobs, and capital investment in Martin County, and to enhance and maintain Martin County's green infrastructure by maintaining a significant amount of native habitat on the property. And with that understanding, I'll be glad to answer any questions. We do have representatives from Ashley Capital here as well. So before we get to that point, Morris, if I could ask you just a couple of questions to finish up. You're familiar with the Martin County Comprehensive Plan? I am. And you're familiar with the Martin County Land Development Regulations? Yes. And you prepared these plans? Yes. And in your professional opinion, do these plans and a project that's before the commission today, does it meet all the rules and regulations of the Martin County Land Development Regulations? Yes. And is it consistent with the Martin County Comprehensive Plan? It is. Thank you. So, yeah. So, Commissioners, just a couple of quick points to finish up. I think we've shown through testimony, through your staff, through Mr. Crady, competent and substantial evidence that we meet the rules and the requirements with this project of the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Regulations. I would like to add, in addition to the competent and substantial evidence, I want to just point out a couple other things that I think add to this. And, number one, you know, you notice that there are not very many people here today that we heard some positive comments about this project. We had a lot of meetings with the Stuart West and the Cobblestone folks, and I think it's a testament to what Ashley Capital tried to do and work with them, that they aren't here in opposition to the project. I think that's important. And I think, just to add a little bit, too, about what Moore said, you know, Ashley Capital, we want these kind of people in Martin County. I'm a Martin County resident. Jill Marasa, who works on this project, is a Martin County resident with Ashley Capital. Ryan Bloss is a Martin County resident. You know, we understand the importance of what occurs here in Martin County, and they have been phenomenal corporate citizens in this county, and I think it's true an asset to have them. So, with that, we'll be glad to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Commissioner Campy. Do you have a public comment or no? Yeah, there is a public comment. There's one? I'll go after the public comment. Troy McDonald, would anyone else like to address this? Please fill out a request to speak form and get it to the bailiff. Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners. I'm here on behalf of the Business Development Board. William couldn't make it today, so he asked me to come by and step in. We have a need for this type of industrial, especially the smaller spaces here in Martin County. There are businesses that are here looking to expand and grow, as well as being in a transitioning economy of transitioning to more manufacturing. So, I think this would be a benefit to our industrial base and to our business economy and to our tax base. So, respectfully request you all approve this. So, thank you very much, and have a happy Christmas. Thank you. Anyone else? Commissioner Campy, back to you. Back to me. Thank you. There's a lot of reasons, I think, that the concept of this project would benefit Martin County. I mentioned it the other, at our last meeting when we were talking about the toolbox, the value of commercial and industrial development in the county. I originally came up with the idea of its value when I was thinking about this project, and it also related to the toolbox. But the point I wanted to make, and I think each of us, if you've been following any of the news lately, the governor is well on his way to trying to get a referendum on next year's ballot to eliminate, to be the first state in the United States to eliminate property taxes for non-homesteaded residents. Excuse me, for homesteaded residents. And that, for most people, sounds like a terrific idea. But remember, we're also one of seven states that doesn't have personal income tax. And the state does not derive any of its income. I've listened to Governor DeSantis has been on making the circuit on a lot of the news channels, and I've been very interested listening to his philosophy on how this would work. The state's finances come from different sources than property taxes. That really weighs heavy on the local. Now, I think most people that have been paying attention realize that for decades, Martin County has been very heavily weighted in our tax collection on residential. That's because an average healthy economic balance in any community would be roughly 10 percent industrial commercial, wherefore? So certain counties, and I would believe that if it does become a referendum question, it does have to have 60 percent. I think most people, if you ask, would you like to pay property taxes, yes or no, most people are going to say no. So I don't have a crystal ball, but I would guess that it will probably pass. So then it gets pushed back to the counties individually. Now, I also agree with the concept of looking back at counties' finances and taking a hard look, whether it's DOGE or anything like that, to look and see where do you streamline, where do you make up this money. Certain counties, if you don't have to look far, if you think about St. Lucie County, Palm Beach County, and others, they have a real strong, healthy mix of the different tax generation opportunities, commercial, industrial, residential. So an elimination of homesteaded property taxes might not hit them as hard as it might hit us. So now you think about a project like this that Ashley Capital would bring forward, and you'd say, how much more important now, knowing what I just explained to you, is a project like this? The good news for us as residents and taxpayers is that Ashley Capital and Rick Morton and his team have been at this, as Mr. Raines had said, for several years already. This is not something that they came up with in the spring, and here they are less than six, seven, eight months later. This has been a very, very long process, partly by design. I remember when Knight Kiplinger came talking about this idea that he had of building basically a town out in western Martin County, originally called Pineland Prairie. Now everyone knows it as Newfield. He did what Ashley Capital has been doing. He went around and spoke to every group that would listen, associations, homeowners associations, business associations, taxpayers, individuals. I followed him around and watched him do that presentation that turned into a once-in-a-multi-generational project. The last time I think something like Newfield had taken place was Martin Downs, so every 50 years. And I don't want to oversell this specific portion of a larger plan that Ashley has for Martin, but I think this is so timely and so needed for us. Knight Kiplinger, I call that the Kiplinger process. And I think that Rick Morton and Ashley Capital have followed that same kind of a vibe. As Mr. Raines had said, the room's not filled with people that live directly across the street from the project, hear screaming and yelling. And in the early stages of the project, there were many people that were opposed. It's in my district. They reached out to me and said, over my dead body, they wanted none of it. They literally wanted none of it. And then through this process of community engagement, hey, everyone's been talking about a Western fire station. It's just we couldn't figure out how to pull it off because you need someone's going to step in and generate some very, very valuable property. Donate it. And then the traffic signal, anyone that, you know, I heard it this morning, Rick Hartman had talked about, you know, early mornings on 714 or late nights on 714, and he's not wrong. It's dark and it's tricky over there. It's rural, but it's still got an exit and entrance to 95. So for the rural vibe that it is, you still have the same entrance and exit to one of the busiest roads in the United States, just like in Boca and Fort Lauderdale and everywhere else. It just happens to be in rural Martin. And those traffic signals, we've all had communities asking. I know that Commissioner Hetherington's been looking for a South River traffic signal for a long time. They're very expensive. And people say, well, why are they so expensive? Because there's a tremendous amount of engineering and technology that's involved that you don't see when you're just waiting for the red or the green. But they're very expensive. And to also offer that up, I think, really gave the folks that lived across the street there in Stewart, Weston, Cobblestone, and everyone else that rides, you know, east to west on Martin Highway, those are things that would have been way into the future for Martin County residents if it wasn't for what this project is bringing. So let me just recap. From the point of view of we'll need it for our economic development countywide, the timing could not be better. From the level of quality of the project they're bringing, you know, as Mr. Crady said, it's going to be a Class A facility. It's not going to be something that Ashley Capital puts together and then puts on the auction block to immediately sell off. He has a long history. The company has a long history of maintaining and managing what they build. That's very important for people to hear, because when we decide on this applicant, it's going to be this applicant versus, hey, we fall in love with an applicant, and then 18 months later it's someone brand new. So I think that's an excellent advantage. And then finally, more on a personal note, when I had the opportunity to meet Rick Morton for the first time, and it's been several years, he said what everyone says. We're going to get very involved in the community. We're going to be great community partners. We're going to really, you know, support this new area that we have found. And I think everybody means that when they say it. But no one, literally no one, has done it to the degree that Rick Morton and his wife and Ashley Capital has done. Now, we had a couple of people come this morning and sort of whisper around about it, because they get nervous about, you know, how do they support and not support House of Hope, United Way. But, I mean, all of us, the commissioners, we go to lots of events. And there's five of us, and we go to a lot of different types of events. Because I think, you know, and I'm only speaking of Martin County, because I know they do the same thing in St. Lucie. This is one of the most generous corporate entities that has ever existed in Martin County. And I thought about it before I said it, like, is that really true? And I genuinely believe that that's true. I don't think I have ever come across a family and a company that has done more for more organizations within the county. We could fill the room with the people that would sing the praises of this company. And that's before they built anything. That's just laying out the money up front just to be a remarkable partner for us. And I am thrilled, as well as the fact that the only thing they're asking for is a difference of 10 feet in height from 30 to 40. Anyone that's stepped in any kind of a commercial or industrial facility understands you need that forklift height, that racking height, that clear ceiling height. And 40 is probably still an industry low compared to what some places have done. I know they have technology that allows you to stack 50, 60, 70 feet tall now. So, if you couldn't tell, I'm very much in favor of this project. I'm thrilled that it's in my district. I'm thrilled that Ashley is going to be part of our community for a long term, hopefully. And it's my pleasure to make the motion to accept this recommendation. Commissioner Hetherington. Well, I think you said it all. So, I'm just going to hit the highlights of my comments. I think this project has just an unlimited potential economic benefits. I had an opportunity to go on a NAOP tour, which stands for National Association of Industry, and I think office something, Martin, Martin, and St. Lucie. And that bus tour was some of the most enlightening educational experience that I've had. And looking at the demand, the pure demand that is out there for this type of facility coming from all over, and we don't have enough to supply that demand, and I believe this is going to be a really good fit for that demand. So, I put in here where there are economic benefits and the public benefits as well. I mean, the public benefits are tremendous. The traffic signal, as Commissioner Campy mentioned, this is one of the very few places that I've actually seen DOT warrant a traffic signal with a snap of a finger because it is absolutely necessary. And if you travel down that road, you know what a benefit it is to have that traffic signal that will go in there, as well as the land for the fire station. We heard some of the public commenters earlier talking about the need for faster service in Western Martin County. And then I would also say, as Campy mentioned, Ashley Capital has a very, very good reputation, not just here, but throughout the country, of building high-quality projects. And you've proven yourself to be an excellent corporate citizen and a supporter of the community. So, I thank you for that, and I will gladly support this project and second the motion. Commissioner Capps. For the benefit of people who don't follow land use decisions in all of their spare time, as exciting as it is to do so, I would like to remind us what this hearing is and what it's not. This is not a comprehensive plan amendment or a zoning change that allows Martin Commerce Park to exist. Those decisions have already been made. And so, this is just a request to change the type of zoning from limited industrial to PUD zoning. And by going to PUD zoning, we have the opportunity to negotiate for public benefits. And so, I view that as a positive thing in this particular case to look at the public benefits and to assess whether they're adequate and generous. And it would seem to me that they are very generous. I started to call the fire station property that is being offered a golden egg, but I think it's probably a basket of golden eggs. When you think about the value of, I think it's 5.7 acres of land right on Martin Highway, I can't imagine what that is worth. But, you know, when looking at public benefits that are offered by developers and other sites around the county, they don't really compare to the value of that. So, I think it's an extremely generous gesture to help remedy a very pressing public need that's going to be coming in the future with the development of Newfield and with all the problems the people over at Stewart West and Cobblestone have had with fires and with the insurance problems that all those people have now and are going to have with the fact that so many of them are more than five miles away from a fire station. And that will all get fixed with this new fire station on that site. There are other public benefits. There's more land going into upland habitat, which is very noteworthy as well. I really appreciate the fact that you're going to be planting native trees. I'm really into that. I think that's noteworthy as well. So, I'm glad to support this. And so, that's what I'll be doing. Thank you. Would anyone else from the public like to address us on this matter? Seeing none. I'm looking at the PUD agreement and about the traffic improvements. Has the FDOT warranted a stoplight at this parcel? Excuse me. Deputy Growth Management Director P. Walden. Not at this time, but I guess. Okay, you got it. Answer your question. Okay. Can you go ahead and introduce yourself for the record, please? My name is Stephanie Alexis Garrow. I'm a transportation engineer with Kimley Horn & Associates. Have you been sworn in? I have. And can you state your... So, I'm a licensed civil engineer with the state of Florida. I've been practicing as an engineering professional since 2013, so a little over 12 and a half years. And I've been a licensed professional for eight of those years. And can you identify the document that I'm showing you? Yes, it's my resume. And is it current? Yes. All right. I'd like to submit that as an applicant's attribute. So, as part of the application process, both with Martin County and going through county staff, and as part of our approval process with FDOT, we have submitted a signal warrant analysis and have shown that we anticipate that, you know, that the signal will be warranted at this location. We are currently in the process of working out the timing and everything with FDOT. Our condition of approval from the text amendment indicates that the signal will be installed prior to first CO. It may need to be flashing for a little bit while the volumes are, you know, while the individual buildings are being occupied in order for those volumes to be there to meet signal warrant criteria. And the reason for that is that FDOT typically looks at what we call warrant one, which considers traffic volumes for eight hours of a given day. And that's the reason why the signal is not considered warranted today, why we can't necessarily put that signal in at this moment based on the Stewart West volumes. It's because they do have traffic volumes that are utilizing that intersection on the minor street throughout the day, but the volumes are not quite high enough to warrant the signal today, but they will warrant the signal in the future. Okay, so I'm looking at the PUD language, and I know that you just said that that is that the warrant will be met and that it will be installed before the first CO, but I don't see that language in the PUD. And the reason that I don't see it is because it doesn't exist. No, it's required by the comp plan, so it will be required because you have to, it's strict compliance with our comp plan, but it is required with the comp plan. So the PUD agreement just provides that from the beginning till the time that that signal is transferred to FDOT, that the applicant will pay the whole thing. But the comp plan requires it to be installed by the first CO, so that's a requirement regardless of anything. So the requirement's there. So the PUD is just addressing who's going to pay for the entire process of the traffic signal from beginning to end before it goes to FDOT. So the comprehensive plan amendment that created this is where the requirement is that before the first certificate of occupancy is issued that the light will be installed. Correct. Even if it doesn't meet warrant. And to clarify a little bit, the signal could be installed under flashing mode. It could be under flashing for five years if you don't meet the warrant. We would anticipate it to be warranted prior to that, but we understand the concern there. However, the reason for that is that there are, you know, if you install a signal prior to those volumes being there, then you are stopping volumes on Martin Highway, and that can lead to safety concerns if people are not anticipating, if drivers are not anticipating to stop at that signal. I'm just concerned that the people in Stewart West and Cobblestone think that there's going to be a stoplight that's going to be installed within the next year, and that's just not the case. It won't be installed until it's warranted, and it may not be warranted until phase five. Let me just ask, let me ask, Daphne, I understand your question, Commissioner. So I think the intent, and I'm going to ask her questions if she can confirm it. So my understanding is that it could be the traffic signal itself will be installed. We'll pay for the installation of it, and it will be a flashing until it is warranted. But we will meet the requirement of installing the light, the signal, the mast arms, and that stuff. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. So then the Stewart West people will come back and say, why is it not functioning properly? We still have the same problem. Yes, they will. Well, it won't be functioning improperly. It will be a flashing light until that time, which is still better than anything it has because it will be a caution light, and then it would be operational. Is that correct? Yeah, but if it's in place for five years, people are just going to blow through it and ignore it. Mr. Donaldson. Only to add that the DOT had some, when I-95 was put in, to anticipate this light. So that requirement was put in based upon prior documents that DOT has anticipated it. We believe that there's, the DOT is looking at a PD&E study on the I-95, and this added some confusion with their staff. We plan to clarify with them and see about ensuring that the light gets fully operational as soon as possible. How are you going to do that? You have to meet warrants for traffic. How are you going to guarantee that there's enough traffic to warrant a light? We have worked on traffic signals in this county, oftentimes with differences of opinion with DOT, and there are numerous times that you all have been successful at getting those lights installed. And I would expect the same to occur in this situation because the DOT promised Stewart West a signal. They existed prior to 95. There's been a signal anticipated here for, what, 30 years? So at least, or 40 years. Any event, it is staff's intent that should this be approved today, or even if it's not approved, to continue to work with DOT and get that signal installed and operational as they promised 40 years ago. I'm going to call the question. There is a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. I thought we were heading down a different path. No, but this is. It's a little damp for it. Ask her about traffic signals. No one's going to pay for it. Chairperson, would you mind if I said something in just one minute? Sure. By all means. First of all, happy holidays to everybody. I hope everybody has a safe holiday. Get in a little closer. Excuse me. Thank you, Commissioner. And first of all, identify yourself for the record. Thank you. Richard Morton, I work with Ashley Capital. It's been long, several years, and I appreciate everybody on the dais and everybody on the staff for what they've done. I appreciate the kind words. And Chairperson Erd, I know this is probably not your favorite project, but at the conclusion, I'm going to do my best to make sure you're proud of what's there and that you will hopefully at least soften your view on how it is. I think it's a fine project. I just don't want to overpromise because then you're going to underdeliver. And I don't think the DOT is predictable. Oh, I'm concerned about that as well. I couldn't agree with you more. So thank you all. Thank you. Good luck. Congratulations. Appreciate it. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Any further comments? We will take a lunch break and return at 2.30, I think. Thanks for power. Thanks.