Board of County Commissioners on 2025-12-09 9:00 AM - Dec 09, 2025

public hearing number one, which is a public hearing and final assessment resolution for the Coral Gardens Wastewater Municipal Service Benefit Unit. Mr. Repetti. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. We've got a little PowerPoint presentation. Are you ready? Might not say good morning, but good afternoon. For the record, Leo Repetti with Martin County Utilities on their tech services administrator. I'm here today to talk about the Coral Gardens Wastewater Assessment final public hearing. This is a vacuum-based septica sewer program to serve 631 single-family residences in the Coral Gardens community. Coral Gardens community is bounded by US-1 in Willoughby, just south of Pomeroy. In addition to the MSBU that's going to be part of the assessment to fund the project, the remaining funds come from an $8 million Protecting Florida Together water quality grant, about a million dollars in state revenue sharing funds, about a million and a half of FPNL franchise fees, and just over $400,000 in contributions from utilities. Touch your mouse. Here we go. The cost associated with this, just over $14 million. When we bid this project out, our engineer's cost estimate was $18.5 million. So the fact that this came in under the engineering cost estimate was encouraging, that prices are stabilizing, and it gives us some hope for the future projects, and that we're not continuing this great escalation of construction prices. The total project, roughly $18.1 million. When you take out the grant and the other contributions, the total assessment for this project is about $7.2 million. You take the 631 properties, divide it into that $7.2 million, and each resident would pay $11,438.46, which is under the $12,000 cap that the board has asked us to provide. We have state revolving fund financing at 1.83 percent, and for those who don't do their prepayment, they would be put on their tax bill for 20 years. So the 1.83 percent helps keep that number down low. Typical Martin County utility resident, we have about 40,000 water customers. They average about 6,000 gallons. So if a customer currently connected to water, which I think all but maybe one or two in Cole Gardens is connected to water, they would have an increased water bill of about $51. That's better. A little bit about schedule. We last met with the board back on October 21st. Since then, in the past six weeks or so, we've had two public hearings, one at the community workshop, one to discuss specifically the assessment process. We answered questions. We passed out frequently asked questions flyers, and generally the mood was upbeat and positive about having this come into their neighborhood. Today, December 9th, should this be approved by the Board of County Commissioners. Our next step would be to award the construction contract, which is a later item on the departmental, and we would then start the process of getting shop drawings and approvals and things like that, bonds, whatnot, with the contractor, with an anticipated construction start of February of next year. And the duration is about 18 months, which puts it early summer of 2027. The lump sum payments, the assessment would be due, that prepayment due is either August 1st or 15th, I've got two numbers, of 2027. And if they choose to spread out over the 20 years, it would be on their November 2027 tax bill. So in closing, staff recommends that the Board adopt a final assessment resolution to create the Coral Gardens Wastewater Municipal Service Benefit Unit, and that the Board authorize the County Administrator or designee to execute any documents related to the request. And if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Questions? I have two request to speak forms from the public. The first is Mary Gavin. Do you want to speak on this item? Yes. Okay. What item is it on? Okay. Then Dustin Bishop. My name is Dustin Bishop, and I do reside in Coral Gardens. They did a wonderful job with their presentation. Sorry, I'm a little taller than I think the last person that was here. They did a wonderful job coming and presenting to us. I did attend the workshop. They answered all of the questions that we had. We live at the very end of Coral Gardens. So the footbridge that comes over Willoughby ends in my driveway. So one of our main concerns was with the children, because that's why we bought the house 20 plus years ago. And he cleared that up for us. You know, there will still be gates all along there, so the children will still be safe. I am for this, 100%. I could be paying the full amount of it without the grant. It wouldn't bother me. I would still be for it. But I don't understand why anybody would be against this, knowing that right now, there is a grant that offsets a large portion of that amount of money. House bill, I think it was 1378, specifies we've got to convert anyway by 2030. So we can either pay for it now at a reduced rate, or in five years, we've got to do the same thing at a higher rate. It doesn't make any sense. I'm 100% for this. Thank you guys for your time. I hope this gets approved. Thank you for the effort that you put into it. He had a few naysayers, but a lot of that was communication that I think the real estate agents didn't give to him when they moved into the community less than a year ago. We all know this is coming. I've got plenty of documentation stating this. I've got plenty of documentation saying when this meeting was, when the meeting was at the college. So I hope you guys will approve this. It means a lot to us. And also, we do care about the Indian River Lagoon as well. We're kayakers. Ed knows us. We're scouters, so we've done this for many years. We took many scouts out. So looking forward to clean waterways as well so that we can have a safe time with our friends and family and scouters. So thank you all. You're a model resident, Mr. Bishop. Come back often. Go to other neighborhoods, too. Commissioner Hetherington. I was just going to say this is a long-awaited project, and I want to thank staff for, as you just heard Dustin just say, you did a phenomenal job in educating and communicating all the different aspects of this project to the community. You made my job really easy, and the community is, I think, by and large, very much in support and look forward to the project being under construction and completed, and then our road paving to be done. So I would gladly motion staff's recommendation for approval. Second. Mr. Camp, anything else? Just briefly to say, job well done from staff. I'm very happy for the folks in Coral Gardens. Looking forward to having this exact same conversation about Palm City. And Rocky Point. And Palm City. And Port Slano. And Palm City. That's great that prices are modulating somewhat. Yeah, it really surprises. You put out your best foot forward as county staff. We don't want to be the lowest bidder. So this worked out that we got some good pricing. And the pricing between the first and the second lowest bidder were within a few percent of each other. So we got some good tight bids. It wasn't an anomaly. And the bidder, Felix Civil Construction, I believe, is the same entity that did the North River Shores vacuum project. So they have experience, and they're a solid, qualified contractor to do this work. Fantastic. That means that we'll get good bids for the next project. And I don't mean to discount the folks that financially this is – I mean, we're happy, and I know that most people are happy. And I get that not everyone can just easily afford this. But I think in the big picture for the neighborhood, the value of the neighborhood and the individual homes, it's important to do. I know it can be a financial hardship for some, but you have to continue to bring these projects forward, both environmentally and, I think, just for the betterment of the community. So we get that not everyone is in love with the idea, but I think universally it's the right strategy. And the $754 a year in the assessment is about $2 a day. Yeah. Yes. Commissioner Capps. I also want to thank staff. I know you guys have been working on this for probably several years, and a great job. And I also want to thank the more senior members of this board for making septic to sewer a priority in Martin County. You know, I've only been here a year. But this was set as a priority by some of my predecessors, and I think it's a very laudable goal, and it's going to do a lot to help our waterways. So thank you to the rest of you. Any other questions or comments? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. We will backtrack to board and committee appointments, shall we, to community redevelopment agency chair and vice chair designations? Well, we'll take that up when she gets here. We'll take up something else. Are you okay doing it on your own? Sure. Oh, you don't want that. Code states that you. Do you want to pull the microphone? You, the board of county commissioners, will designate a member of the CRA as the chair and a member as the vice chair. Okay. Current vice chair is Michael Redling, and chairman is Robert Krebs. I would make a motion that we elevate the vice chair, Michael Redling, to become the chair. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. And vice chair, how do we go about this? I think we'd have to hear from Susan on, like, I've always felt that this, in particular, this group should advance a recommendation to us, because otherwise we're just, I see she's coming. Clyde's playing D. You're a long way. You know, he's blocking her. So we'll give her another minute. Jim's holding the handle. May I just write to the front, please? We've already elected a chair. We've elevated Michael Redling to chair, and we don't know what to do about vice chair. So I have a recommendation. Susan Cora's Office of Community Development. I motion that Susan Cora's become vice chair. Oh, I'm sorry. Please. So I would recommend Cynthia Hall. She has not been a vice chair or a chair for years, and she does, her term does go out to 29. Some of them only go to 27, which might make it a little bit dicey next year. I would make a motion that Cindy Hall become vice chair. I know her a long time. She's very involved in the community. She's very professional, smart person, and it would be an excellent elevation. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. We saw Clyde Doolin trying to, like, check you out of the position in the lobby. And we noticed. We'll now go to public hearing number two, which is a public hearing to adopt notice of intent resolution required by Section 197.3632 Florida Statutes for special assessments. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Afternoon, Mr. Duncan. For the record, David Duncan, Senior Project Manager with the Utilities and Solid Waste Department. This is a public hearing to adopt a nonbinding resolution declaring the board's intent to use the uniform method of collection for non-ad valorem assessments for a proposed series of special assessments that may be imposed within certain municipal service benefit units to be established for road paving, ancillary drainage, dredging services, stormwater services, facilities, and water and wastewater projects. Section 197.3632 Florida Statute requires that the county holds a public hearing and adopt the resolution of intent to use the uniform method of collection for any assessment program in the calendar year prior to any such collection. The resolution, which does not obligate the county either to use the uniform method of collection or to impose any one special assessment, must be adopted by January 1, 2026 and sent to the tax collector, the property appraiser, and the Department of Revenue by January 10, 2026. Additionally, Section 197.3632 requires that the notice of public hearing to adopt the resolution of intent be published for four consecutive weeks immediately preceding the date of the hearing. The notice of intent was properly advertised and the affidavit of publication of the notice of intent will be part of this resolution. The notice of intent allows the county to meet its statutory notice requirements necessary to use the uniform collection method. The resolution to be adopted today is a non-binding and the board may reduce the geographic area covered by any future assessment or decide not to impose any special assessment at a later date. By adopting the resolution, the board is simply preserving the right to use the uniform collection method beginning in November of 2026 for projects implemented prior to such date. Staff's recommendation is for the board to accept the public comment and adopt the resolution of intent to use the uniform method of collection for non-ad valorem assessments. That concludes my presentation. Questions for Mr. Duncan. Commissioner Capps. So what would be the other option? Not that I am inclined to think that it would be the best. I just want to know about it. Like you have to apparently express your intent to use the uniform method of collection. Is there another way we could go on this that would be based, that's not uniform? Perhaps it would be based upon the value of the homes and the community or something like that. How would that work? We use. Right. Is there, is there, it appears that, that there might be other options besides this? Or not really? I'm not aware of that, Commissioner. Okay. For the record, Sam Amerson Utilities and Employees Department Director. We typically use a uniform method because it goes on the tax roll. Right. It serves all the benefiting properties equally. Right. And they do the same rate, if you will. Right. Or the same fee. It allows us to do it over time, say even a 10-year, 15-year, 20-year assessment. But that's the typical method that we've used historically. If there's other methods, I'm not quite familiar with it, but this is the most common for local government. Right. It would seem to me that maybe if there is an alternative method, that it perhaps would be based on the value of the houses or something. Like, say you have a couple of McMansions on the street and then a couple of modest homes on the street. And a uniform would mean they're all paying the same. And not uniform would probably mean that they're paying a different assessment based upon the value of the property, perhaps? Yeah. So, Commissioner, this is for municipal services benefit units, which is the, when we're looking at the project, the property itself is calculated as the benefit, you know, whether it's a sewer line or pavement and then there's some, or drainage, there's a calculation that the size of the lot might play into it or the amount of front footage or, you know, we have, we develop what's called a standard unit that you would apply. And in order to use, to put it on the tax roll, this advertisement and this list of projects in order to go on next year's tax roll has to be advertised this way. So, for instance, Coral Gardens, which you just heard a few minutes ago, had, was included in our list at this hearing last year in December so that it could be considered to be an MSBU project. And so these are all individual where we're assessing the property based upon the benefit derived. There are MSTUs, which we have in our budget, which are derived, a taxable unit, which is based upon appraised value, and it has different rules on how you can spend the funds, if that's what you're looking at. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm getting at, the difference between the MSTU and the MSBU. Okay, that's interesting. Thank you. Any further questions? Would anyone from the public like to address us? I'll move staff's recommendation for approval. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Duncan. Thank you. We will now move on to public hearing number three, which is adoption of a resolution approving the surplus disposition of county-owned property located at the northwest corner of southwest Martin Highway and southwest Palm City School Avenue in Palm City. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Sebastian Fox, senior assistant county attorney for the record. This is a public hearing to consider adoption of a resolution approving the surplus disposition of county-owned property located at 3500 Southwest Palm City School Avenue. A bit of history on this parcel. Back in March of 24, the board directed staff to prepare a request for a proposal for the sale of this property. In January of 25, the board approved a preliminary RFP to designate the property as surplus and to pursue the sale and redevelopment of the property pursuant to CRA guidelines. And on July of 2025, the board accepted a proposal from the Medalist Building Group for the sale and development of the property. The property is currently under contract with an anticipated closing date at the end of January. This item has been properly advertised per Florida statutes, and staff would request that the board adopt a resolution approving the surplus disposition of this county-owned property and authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to the request, including but not limited to, the county deed and other closing documents. And I'm happy to answer any questions that commissioners may have. Mr. Campy. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fox, for that recap. To remind the residents, this was a piece of property that was going to have a development on it that was really a lot of people felt out of character for that specific portion of Palm City. Our staff, along with a handful of others, got together and were able to work out, I think, a real strong opportunity for the residents. The county held on to some of it that gave us access to Danforth Creek, which we were sorely lacking for maintenance, egress, and now we were able to create a deal for the property that's in the works, again, thanks to real property and legal for putting that together. And this is just the next logical step in the process. I would make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. Second. Would anyone from the public like to address this? Is this a different size than the parcel that we approved on July 8th? No. And can somebody describe to me the map, the parcel boundary on page 243? Explain presumably the part that's in green is the county's parcel? Yeah. There's a portion to the west of southwest Newbury Court that's going to be conveyed back to the county at closing by quick claim deed. There's some easements that are going to be running over that property for the benefit of the property east of Newbury Court. And that sliver right there is what will allow for the maintenance of the creek, as Commissioner referenced. Okay. Madam Chair, I just had one other question while we're here. Some residents of the neighborhood behind it had mentioned that they had heard that Newbury Court, the southwest Newbury Court, there's a possibility that it would be closed. That's not a thing, right? Jim Gordon, public works director. No, there is no intent to close southeast Newbury Court. There is likely to be a connection from Newbury over to Palm City School Ave, which will allow the neighbors on Newbury to exit at a signalized intersection, which will make it a lot easier for them to go east on County Road 714. But there is no intent to close that road. And the future owner of the property won't have the ability to close that road separate from us, correct? No, they won't have the ability. Thank you very much. Any further questions? Is there a motion and a second? I think there is. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll now move on to public hearing number four, which is a legislative public hearing to consider transmittal of comprehensive plan amendment 25-04, accessory dwelling units, a text amendment. Good afternoon, Ms. Offenbach. Hello, again. My name is Amy Offenbach, planner with the growth management department. This is comprehensive plan amendment 25-04, proposed text amendments for accessory dwelling units, otherwise known as ADUs. This was initiated by the Board of Accounting Commissioners in the furtherance of providing affordable housing, and proof of public notice was turned in at the local planning agency on December 4th. So the request is to change Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 of the comprehensive growth management plan, and this is just a brief overview of the proposed changes, and staff would be happy to go into further detail after the presentation if needed. So on Chapter 2 of the comprehensive plan, the term accessory dwelling units will be updated, and this represents living quarters on single-family lots, and a new term, employee dwelling units, will be added to describe living quarters on non-residential properties. And this term will be replacing an outdated term further in the plan that describes living quarters on for night watchman's quarters or custodian's quarters. So in Chapter 4 of the comp plan, and under Goal 4.9, a policy will be added for accessory dwelling units containing the criteria for accessory dwelling units, and this will replace multiple instances of ADU criteria elsewhere in the plan. And also, a policy will be added for employee dwelling units to represent non-residential properties. Under Goal 4.13, a line of text will be added to allow ADUs in each future land use designation that allows single-family dwellings, excluding the mobile home future land use, and these are all the future land use designations that will allow them. Also under Goal 4.13, EDUs will be permitted on non-residential future land use designations that have historically permitted night watchman's quarters or custodian's quarters. And this is a legislative hearing that requires three public hearings. The first was on December 4, 2025, at the local planning agency, and they voted 4 to 0 in recommendation of approval. And this is the second public hearing, December 9, 2025, to consider transmittal to the state and local planning agencies. And the third will be sometime in January 2026 for approval. And so staff recommends approval of CPA 25-04 accessory dwelling units on the basis that the proposed amendments are consistent with the comprehensive plan and Florida state statutes, and more restrictive or burdensome requirements are not imposed prior to October 1, 2027. And lastly, the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, or AHAC, has supported staff's recommendation. And this concludes the presentation. We'd be happy to answer any additional questions. Mr. Capps. I spoke to the county attorney about this issue, but I thought perhaps it might be good to mention it publicly. You know, there are a lot of people in the county who already have a guest house. And a guest house can be half the size of the main house, and it's not supposed to be rented. It's supposed to be used for temporary living quarters for family and guests. It's a guest house, and it doesn't have a separate address or a separate mailbox or a separate water meter or a separate electric bill. It's all kind of part of the main house. And that's the way the guest house works. And there are quite a few of them in the county now. If this were to pass, would those people be able to come in and convert theirs to an accessory dwelling unit, which is different, where you get to rent it out to someone. You can get a second mailbox, a second water bill, a separate electric bill, and legally rent the place out. And so what happens to the guest houses that perhaps someone might want to turn into an ADU? So essentially, staff will be bringing forward some proposed tax amendments to the land development regulations. And the accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, will replace the term guest house. And so these are the criteria that will be included in that land development regulations, which is already in the comp plan right now, with some additions, like compatible with Florida building codes. But essentially, we're not taking away any rights. Right. And they will be able to be rented out. Right. And I suppose there will be some procedural, some process they would have to come in and fill out papers and maybe pay some fees or something. No. They would just call FPL and say, hey, I would like a separate electric bill. And call their water utility and say, hey, I would like the water bill separated. Now, you know, and they just deal directly with those. Commissioner? Clyde Doolin for the Record Comprehensive Planning Administrator. So currently, neither guest houses nor the proposed regulations for ADUs deal with the issues of a separate address or separate electrical or separate utilities. Currently, if you have a guest house, you can have a separate address. If you have a guest house, you could have a separate utility feed from FPL. These regulations have not in the past, nor are we planning to get into regulating those specifics. Okay. So there's nothing really they have to do procedurally to basically treat it as an ADU. Correct. Right. And then I was thinking there are some other limitations on how ADUs would apply. You know, they don't apply in homeowner associations, right? The homeowner association has its own regulations and rules regarding that. What we're working on here are the county's comprehensive plan policies, and at a future public hearing, we'll be bringing you the regulations for the land development regulations that are applicable. But HOA rules are separate and unrelated. Okay. And then if someone wanted to build an ADU, they would have to honor all of our setback rules and lot size rules and that kind of thing? Yes. All land development regulations will have to comply through the building department at permitting. On the screen, Amy has up some specific requirements for ADUs that are being put into the comp plan with this proposed change. Uh, only one permitted ADU for each single family dwelling, uh, it shall not exceed one half the square footage of the primary dwelling, which is the same kind of language as we've required for guest houses all along. Um, an ADU shall not count as a separate unit for purposes of density, and neither the ADU nor the land it occupies shall be sold or conveyed separately from the primary dwelling. Since it is an accessory to and it must be a part of, uh, it can't be separated from, uh, the primary dwelling. Thank you. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah, um, I'm familiar with these, um, accessory dwelling units. Uh, I just have a couple of questions if the primary property is on well and septic, how do you handle that? Is that a health department thing? Yes. The health department would do the permitting for well and septic. Okay. And what about driveways? You know, people have cars, they have to park them somewhere. How does that work in a neighborhood that's not deed restricted? In the same way that it would be dealt with on the single family dwelling, because this is really just an extension of and a part of the single family dwelling. So then they would, um, they have to ask for a permit to pave, take out grass, put, you know, put it in a driveway. If a driveway is needed, if additional driveway is needed, then yes, they would. And they make application through the county to do that? Okay. Um, you know, because that can change the character of a neighborhood tremendously. Yeah. It can. Um, the other thing is, um, is there a limitation or regulation, the number of people in a home? I mean, you could have a two-bedroom, I understand, half the size of the principal residence. I understand there's six people living there. How does that work? Uh, the definition of family is found in our land development regulations. Um, and at a future public hearing, we'll be discussing a, a internal consistency or, or making the definition the same in all of our zoning districts. But typically, it's the definition is, um, any number of people related, uh, by blood or marriage and five unrelated persons is the definition of family. Well, that's my, my paraphrase of the definition, of course. I'm not reading it verbatim. Okay. On a single property? Right. So today, we're, we're not addressing that issue. We're going to have another hearing. Is that what I'm understanding? Yes. The land development regulations will need to be amended to, uh, implement these particular comp plan, comp plan policies. And additional specificity and detail will be found in the land development regulations. Okay. So this is just a preliminary, do we want to allow them in the county? This is correct. A proposed amendments to the comprehensive plan, which the land development regulations implement. So these are just broad, um, rules basically for land development regulation. And then once we get to the, uh, LDR changes, we'll go into more specific, um, standards for development. I understand the board will then have a presentation. Is that correct? Mm-hmm. That's what the board would say. All right. And this will come back, too. This is just for a transmittal to the state to review. And then we'll come back with this one also. Commissioner Campy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm very pleased that we're here today. Um, I'd like to thank Rob Ranieri, who's sitting out there, who I know he and a group of citizens, professionals, and, and stakeholders that I've had the advantage to participate in, have been working on, on, on, and I'm fearful when we say affordable housing. It has a connotation that people think it's like public projects or government-owned. I'm thinking more of housing that is affordable instead of affordable housing. Uh, we have had issues for many, many years, uh, of, specifically in Martin County, the way that we have structured our overall sort of residential philosophy had made it difficult for people to build, you know, housing that's affordable. We call it essential housing. Or there's also the concept that the only way you can really make those business decisions work is with density, increased density. And that's not really something that universally Martin County residents are super interested in. To do that, you would have to create these large-scale projects. Not that there are not some that are very well done, and hopefully in the future we'll be discussing small-scale versions of something beyond one at a time. But when this had originally come up at a joint meeting, and I was giving us a, sort of a, an analogy of the person that was throwing starfish back into the water, if you remember. There's an old story about this guy who's walking on the beach, and he sees a kid throwing starfish into the ocean, and the beach is littered with starfish. And he says, what are you doing? He's like, well, I'm trying to save these starfish. And the man says, well, you know, it's not going to make a difference. There's thousands of starfish on the beach. And the boy throws another one into the ocean. He goes, well, I made a bit, I made a difference for that one. And so I look at what we're doing here incrementally. This ADU is just another opportunity. We're not going to solve the housing issue, affordability issue in Martin County. But for us to look at the issue so large that we say we're paralyzed to do anything, and I know that it started as a grassroots, but the staff, and quite often the meetings that we had, some I participated in, some I didn't, the staff really embraced it. And, you know, community members can have an idea, but staff has to do all the heavy lifting, and you did. And I know, and you'll continue to do it, so I really appreciate it. The advantage is twofold. Not only are you creating another opportunity for someone that either is working here to live here, who grew up here to stay here and work and live here, but it's also an excellent opportunity for homeowners to create an additional income stream by creating this. Now, some people, as Commissioner Capps said, some people have guest houses. All of us know someone that was renting something to somebody else above the garage or a back room or something and having to be sort of under the table with that, allegedly. This gives those folks the opportunity to bring those projects forward and legitimize them with FPL, with this health department for sanitation, with the water, with the IRS, and whoever else might be wondering how does these things work. It creates opportunities for folks that are seeing their expenses get bigger and bigger, especially people on fixed income or retirees, which we have a tremendous amount of. And if in your mind you're thinking, well, they're going to build something in the backyard, there's dozens of different variations that an accessory dwelling unit could be. And so it's not so much that I know that when I was talking to some people that live in Hilton Head, and it's an island, and so where do their staff, where does the staff, do they leave the island every single night that work on the island? And they said, no, we live in frogs. And I was like, what's a frog? And a frog is a furnished room over garage. And in Hilton Head, frogs have been a thing forever because that's just how they've solved that issue. Now, for those of us that are leery of development and runaway development, imagine if this was an opportunity that went through all of the LDR requirements and got you to the finish line. And let's say it's a couple of thousand people in the whole entire county. That's a couple of thousand units that no one will ever see. You'll never drive down the street and be like, oh, my God, look at this project. It'll just sort of filter in, and 2,000 people or a couple of thousand people will have the opportunity to live and work reasonably right here. I make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. So these accessory dwelling units don't count as any portion of a unit? No. And they can be – they are separate living spaces. They are equipped with kitchen and bathroom and bedroom facilities. It can be attached or detached. So let's say your land use is one unit per acre, and you have a 3,000-square-foot house on your acre, and you build an accessory dwelling unit of 1,500 square feet. I mean, it has – you know, it's a separate unit with two bedrooms, two baths, and you're allowed one unit per acre on that acre, but you've got one-and-a-half houses. You've got two houses. You've got two houses. Yes, that's correct. Actually, we're defining this as one house. One house. But it's not. Part of the same house. But it's not. They're detached. And we know that they have separate facilities. It's in the definition. It says that they are equipped with kitchen and bathroom and bedroom facilities. And it also depends on the development standards, if they can fit it within the setbacks and all the open space. And if they have septic, they have certain limits on that as well. So – and it doesn't include any garages or porches. So it's just air-conditioned area. So look at the – they're allowed in core, and the maximum building coverage shall be 40 percent. Minimum net lot size permitted shall be 10,000 square feet. What if you're at that? What if you're at the max? You mean if the existing residence is at the max? Yes. Then it wouldn't be permitted. Can't do it. Okay. So say if you're a marine waterfront commercial and you are at 20 units per gross acre, it says that one ADU may be permitted as an accessory structure. It depends on what the property is developed with. So marine waterfront – 20 units per acre. Say you're at the max. It says that you're allowed an ADU. Yes, that's correct. If it's developed with a single family, you can have one ADU per single family. Even though you're already at the max. However, allow me to back up just a second. The marine waterfront commercial future land use designation that's implemented by the appropriate zoning district allows 10 residential units per acre, 20 hotel units per acre, not to be confused with each other. Okay. So if you're doing 10 units per acre, you're probably doing multifamily. You're not doing a bunch of single family because you're not going to fit them, all single family units on there. And this is only permitted as an accessory to a single family. So – and if you're – if by some stretch you could get, say, eight units per acre and they're all single family, then, yes, you would be able to do an accessory to each of those single families because it is part of the single family dwelling. Say you're on – your setback is 20 feet. You're within the – you're right at the – your setback. Are you allowed an accessory dwelling unit? You would not be able to violate the setbacks in order to make this possible. Okay. If I might jump in, I would say more people that would want this probably will not qualify for one of the reasons that Commissioner Hurd is mentioning or not than will. It's not going to be a floodgate – like I think some people would like this, but they won't be able to, whether it's parking, setbacks, 2,000 gallons per day, using up more of the property than they're allowed. So I think it's an idea that people would be interested in, but I think we'll be saying no to as many people as – more so than we would be saying yes. You'd have to have a very unique set of property circumstances for this to work. And also, this provision shall not prohibit employee dwelling units on properties developed for non-residential uses like industrial. So let's – let's talk about the employee dwelling unit. Commissioner, thank you for bringing that up. We have certain land use designations like marine waterfront commercial that are currently permitting night watchman's quarters, and we have land development regulations that implement that. We haven't had real good – you know, the language hasn't been really consistent between the LDR and the comp plan on that, and so we're cleaning up that language to use the EDU in both cases, and we're keeping the same standards for those night watchman's quarters as we had previously. In many respects, both on the night watchman's quarter or EDU issue and on the guest house or ADU issue, we are following very much the same standards, the same provisions that the comp plan and the LDRs have had previously. The major differences are in the ADU that Commissioner Capps talked about, and that is it can be rented. I accept that we're not, except that in a case like one unit per acre, we're allowing two units per acre, even though the land use clearly specifies that one unit is allowable. But we're now saying, eh, you can put two on there. And the definition of family is any group of up to six persons occupying a single dwelling unit as a single housekeeping unit and sharing common facilities. Those people don't have to be related. It just, it turns, it allows for a flop house. So that has been permitted historically for many years, and we can't do anything that's more restrictive or burdensome. So we kept that language the same. Oof. Yeah, I'm uncomfortable with this, with these changes in policy. And I know that you're going to have to come back to revise the LDRs in order to make them legal, I suppose. But, man, there are just way too many loopholes in here for me. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah, I was looking here on page 282, and this is under Development and Commercial Office Residential Future Land Use. Second to last paragraph, a bed and breakfast or other facilities for transient lodging. Catering to seasonal residents shall be permitted. Kitchen facilities to be permitted to accommodate occupants for visiting for periods exceeding the general motel trip duration of one to four nights. So what does that mean? This is existing text in the comprehensive plan, and we also have language in the LDRs that have specific standards for development of bed and breakfasts, and so we're not making any changes here. But I see what you're saying, Chairwoman Hurd, about this. It has a lot of loopholes. I saw this in another county. A lot of residents did not appreciate the fact that there were quite a few individuals living in one unit, and it wasn't regulated. I mean, you know, when I lease a property, I put a regulation how many people could live there. And I don't see this here unless you can point it out to us or you're going to modify or, you know, make a mandate on this. It's all fine. Everybody wants to live in town, but we have to think of our neighborhoods. And as I say, it's going to change the character unless this is definitely delineated. It's not prohibited now, and so if we did prohibit it, we would be more restrictive or burdensome. Or the SB 180. Yeah, I'm familiar with that. I don't know. Would anyone from the public like to address us? Back to the board. Sure. Hi, Mary Gavin. I was formerly a member of the Affordable Housing Committee. I did not plan on speaking on this topic today, but you all know I can't keep my mouth shut. I'm also a landlord in Martin County. We have, my husband and I, have about 20 tenants. And I actually have a guest house in my home, and I have another property with a guest house. And I guess a couple things. It's not a separate parcel, so it's not necessarily two properties. That's the one point. You can't sell them separately. And it would be very advantageous, of course, to have separate water and separate electric. But the real point is, every day, every day, I get calls from somebody looking for an affordable rental. And as an owner living next to a guest or whatever the term is, I'm not going to have 10 people living there. And I can't imagine the majority of people that are renting these or giving them to their mother-in-law, or in my case, I have a disabled son, and that's who happens to live in my guest house. But I do have another one that is rented. I limit it to one or two people. And I would think that the majority of people that are going to invest in building this or doing this are going to be extremely considerate about who's in their property. They're not going to put 10 people in there to trash it. There is such a need in this county. I'm afraid to raise my rents. I haven't raised them in five years because these people have absolutely nowhere to go. And if we don't have working people in this county, we're really going to be at a loss. So I thank you for your time. Commissioner Vargas. Okay, so, and I understand what you're saying about the math on this. I understand about the math because I have rentals also. But what happens if, you know, they can't make, I'm trying to talk to you, if they can't make their expenses. I mean, we're talking about a huge change that potentially is coming down the line next year. Wherein, how does that work then? You know, it's your homestead property, one of them, with your son living there. That's a family, but the other one is not. So your taxes are probably going to increase. This is what I've heard, and everybody I've spoken with in other counties, and certainly what's proposed in Tallahassee. So what happens then? I mean, you haven't raised your rent. I mean, if you can make it work, that's fine. But I don't know. I just... Can you homestead an ADU? I don't know the answer to that. I think that's an issue for the property appraiser and the state statute. It's true. I mean, you know, it's fine. It's an emotional issue, but you've got to look at the facts. Facts always dictate. It's not, you know, fluff and, you know, style. It's not like that. I mean, you're a businesswoman, based on what you told us, so... I know there's a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed? That motion carries three to two, with Commissioners Vargas and Hurd dissenting. Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. We'll now take up Brownfield. This is a quasi-judicial proceeding. It sure is. Commissioner Vargas, any ex parte disclosures? If I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Capps? If I have any, they have been filed. I also, I went to the Brownfield hearing in Hobesound. I'm not sure Colleen noted that. I think she probably did. Okay, so I think I'm good. If I have any, they've been filed. I have some, and they've been filed. Commissioner Campy? I don't have any, and I've been filed. Yeah, you got emails. I got emails. Everybody got the emails. That's right. Then I filed that. Commissioner Hetherington. Any, they've been filed. Excellent. Anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony in this hearing, please stand up. Raise your right hand and be sworn. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Ms. Nabi, have you provided your information to the clerk? Yes, Madam Chair. A copy of my work history and the agenda item has been turned into the clerk. Terrific. Please proceed. Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Jenna Nabi, Senior Planner with the Growth Management Department, and before you today is a request by the Palms of Hope Sound, LLC, and Oasis Development, LLC to designate a brownfield at 9450 Southeast Gomez Avenue. This is the first of two public hearings for this designation request, and the second public hearing for the adoption of the resolution that would designate this property as a brownfield is scheduled to be heard on January 6, 2026. Section 376.80 of Florida Statutes outlines the brownfield program administration process and states that the jurisdictional local government shall adopt a resolution designating the property as a brownfield if the requesting party establishes that all of the necessary criteria in statute have been met during these public hearings. Section 376.79 of Florida Statutes defines brownfields as real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of, which may be complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination. And this property is located at 9450 Southeast Gomez Avenue in Hope Sound. The site has a feature land use designation of residential estate density, which allows a maximum of two units per acre, and there are two different zoning designations over this property, the R2 and R2B zoning districts. And I'll go to the aerial. So this is an aerial of the subject property. And on the next page, this is the feature land use map and the zoning district. So the light blue district is the R2, and then the yellow is the R2B district. There is currently a minor site plan application that's in review with the growth management department for 38 single-family residential units and associated amenities and infrastructure. So that's currently in review with our county staff. The brownfields program is administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, or the FDEP, and they're the state agency that oversees this whole process. And once a property is designated as a brownfield, formally by the local government, then it's entered into the brownfields program. And there are state-based incentives, financial incentives, to promote the voluntary cleanup and remediation of these sites. And so if this property were to be designated as a brownfield, then it would be eligible to become part of that program. The way that the statute is written for these two required public hearings states that at least one of the hearings shall be held after 5 p.m. on a weekday unless the Board of County Commissioners, by a majority plus one vote, elects to conduct that hearing at another time of day. So with that, our staff recommendation for this meeting is to 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 hold the second public hearing on the request to designate the property as a brownfield on January 6, 2026 at 9 a.m. or as soon after as the matter may be heard and prior to 5 o'clock p.m. And I know that the applicant is here to give a presentation and they will go over how this request meets the criteria. So that concludes our presentation and we're available for any questions. Questions for staff. Applicant, please present. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Commissioners. My name is Michael Schnapps-Taylor. I'm an environmental attorney with the law firm of Cobb Coal in Daytona Beach, Florida. Here today with my colleague Jessica Gao on behalf of the applicants, Oasis Development and the Palms at Herb Sound. I want to thank Jenna and the staff for their assistance in getting this matter before you. They've been fantastic to work with. The brownfield statute has some very nuanced notice and hearing procedures, such as the item that Ms. Navi just mentioned about having one of the hearings after 5 p.m. and voting by supermajority to move it. So it's complicated, but it looks like we're all working well and moving through it. Ms. Navi hit on some of the key terms about brownfields, but I am going to just talk a little bit about it because there was a change in the statutes since you last considered a brownfield area designation earlier this year. I'll talk specifically about the property and how it meets that 5 criteria that Ms. Navi mentioned. And then we'll talk about the next steps because I do know at our community meeting there was a lot of discussion and a lot of input on how the brownfield process works and how we'll move this forward if the final adoption does occur on January 6th. Again, Ms. Navi did a great job hitting the change in how the brownfield program is defined. Before, there was only brownfield sites and brownfield areas, but effective July 1st, we now have the term brownfield, which is the old definition of brownfield site. It's just a property that's having trouble being redeveloped because of an environmental contamination issue. A brownfield area is one of more brownfields that have been designated by a local government like you all by resolution. And then a brownfield site, which is the old definition of brownfield, is now the property that has moved into the brownfield program by signing a voluntary cleanup agreement. So just some nuances there on how the terms and the program has changed a little bit since earlier this year when you all considered a brownfield. This is the property, as staff had mentioned. It's a little under 19 and a half acres. It's a former flower nursery, as was mentioned during public comment, with chemical storage areas and packaging areas. And as Ms. Navi mentioned, the proposed redevelopment is for residential uses. This is a figure that we found from one of our environmental consultants that just kind of shows how the site was laid out. There were flower plant packaging and chemical storage areas over here, and then areas for growing of the flowers and plants on this side, a small pond and a small office. Our environmental investigations to date by our client have really done a good job of defining where the extent of the issues are so that you have an understanding of where the contamination starts and stops. This slide just kind of shows an example of how they did some of the assessment. There's a little grid here that shows where the buildings were overlaid, how they tested the green in the legend are sample locations that previously occurred. The orange locations were sample locations at the time of this report, and then the yellow were proposed additional sampling locations based on the results from that figure at that time, because we have provided staff with some of the environmental reports and information about the progress. But in a nutshell, the primary constituents of concern at this site are pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers, arsenic and dialdrin, as was mentioned earlier this morning. We've done a really good job of defining where it is in the soil so that we can have an understanding of what needs to be removed to accommodate redevelopment and cleanup of the site. We do need to do some additional groundwater sampling to determine where the contamination starts and stops, and that's really where the Brownfield program comes in. It provides a regulatory framework for allowing someone to follow Florida's cleanup rules just like they were the responsible party that caused the issue. It's a very robust program, very specific policies, procedures, rules, and regulations. A very, very dense part of the Florida Administrative Code is dedicated to assessment and cleanup of contaminated sites. There was some comments earlier about neighboring properties and all that, and I will say the depth to groundwater ranges from about 17 feet on the western side of the property to six feet on the eastern side of the property, and the groundwater, as you would expect, moves towards the intracoastal from west to east. So we don't think there is too big of a concern about contamination reaching to the north and to the south because the groundwater is moving in a different direction. But the Florida statutes do require notice when there is off-site contamination issues. And so the comment was made earlier that the residents weren't notified. That's because the assessment done to date has not demonstrated a need to go off-site onto someone's property and test. I'm not saying that that's out of the realm of possibility. We're still at the very beginning of the cleanup process. But the regulations and process don't require off-site notice until you have evidence of off-site contamination. And that applies whether it's a corner gas station cleanup or something like this. But where the brownfield program does come in, and as we get into the criteria of how you designate a brownfield, you do have to provide public notice. And that's how all the folks found out about this issue and what we're working through, is because you are required to post the property, you are required to publish notice, you are required to put a post on bulletins. And the brownfield program does require an advisory board to get established to provide frequent updates on how the cleanup proceeds. So there is a lot of public involvement. There is a lot of transparency in the brownfield process. But first, you have to get into the program for that to start happening and moving forward. And that's why we're here today. As far as the redevelopment is concerned, here's a layout from that minor site plan application that Ms. Nabi mentioned. Gomez is here again on the east side of the property, an entrance. It is 38 units, which is consistent with the land use and zoning. Some open space preserve up here, stormwater to the south, and the rest of the residential lots there. And a large community center for the neighborhood with fitness, activities, and the like. Here's just some renderings of what the residences may look like. Single-family residences, one-story, two-story. And again, everything is going to be done consistent with your land development regulations and all that there's no proposed rezoning. I did want to touch base on the brownfield area designation criteria. I know the final hearing isn't going to be until the 6th of January, but I think it is important just to show how this application does meet the criteria. And the first is, does the person who owns or controls access to the property agrees to redevelop and rehabilitate the site? The applicant is the owner of the property, and they have every intention to enter into the brownfield program by signing that cleanup agreement with DEP after the area is designated. So that's how that criteria is met. The cleanup and redevelopment will result in economic productivity in the area and the creation of at least five new jobs. Redevelopment for these single-family uses from this vacant use is going to generate jobs. It's going to create increased ad valorem taxes. It's going to employ both construction workers and people associated with the community. It is designed to be a luxury community with security, full-time maintenance, full-time staff on site to help residents and things. And again, there is a large amenity center that will have fitness classes and the like. So very excited and attractive community as well. Is the redevelopment consistent with your comp plan and land development regulations? As Ms. Nabi mentioned and as I did, the future land use is residential estate, which has a density of two units an acre, and we have that split R2-R2B zoning, which does allow single-family use at the density that's been proposed for this site. The designation has to be properly noticed and provide opportunity for suggestions on cleanup. And so that is done three ways, newspaper advertisement, posting of the property, and community bulletin notices. And so we've complied with all three of those requirements, both for the community meeting that was held on November 4th that Commissioner Capps had referenced attending, and for this meeting as well, all three notice procedures have been followed, and we will move forward with those notice procedures as well for that January 6th meeting. And then finally, the last criteria, have you provided reasonable assurance that you have the financial ability to complete the cleanup? We have provided a memo that outlines both the redevelopment cost and the cleanup cost for the site, how the applicant intends to meet that by using traditional lending. The applicant does have a presence in the community already. They do have a couple units within Hobes Sound, which is where we hosted our community meeting. It's set up as an office and a design center for the neighborhoods. They already kind of are invested in the community already. They are the owner of the property as well. So I think, you know, they're committed to this project. They're all in, and they're excited to move forward with the brownfield program itself. I did just want to touch base a little bit. I do a lot of brownfield work across the state, so I love to kind of cheerlead for the program. So I did provide a couple of statistics here from the State Department of Environmental Protection's annual report on how the brownfield program is operating. Since 97, there's been over 613 brownfield areas designated by local governments. 532 voluntary cleanup agreements have been signed. Over $3.1 billion in capital investment have occurred in brownfield since the program started in 1997, and 88,000 confirmed and projected jobs since the brownfield program was enacted. And then I just wanted to provide another example of a similarly situated property that has gone through the brownfield program that we worked on. My colleague Jessica and I represented the city of Oviedo, which is a community in Central Florida near the University of Central Florida. They had a downtown with a major stormwater problem. None of the properties around the downtown could be redeveloped because there was nowhere for the water to drain. There was a nursery right on the outside, an abandoned nursery right on the outside of that pond. They wanted to redevelop it and incorporate it into a larger community park. And so they asked us, you know, can we use brownfields to do that? And we said, let's find out if there are environmental issues out there. There was a very significant arsenic-impacted soil issue there from the former nursery operations. It took them about three years to complete the cleanup. They were mainly waiting for some grants from the Water Management District to help fund the project. So that's why there was a three-year delay. If they would have been fully funded when we entered the program in 98, we probably could have moved a little faster. But they were able to address the arsenic, the dialdrin, all of those issues very effectively. And it's an incredible community park and resource. Now, all those developments in the downtown, if they want to redevelop, they can just pay for credits into the pond instead of taking their smaller properties and having to put vaults and things like that in there. So a good example of brownfield redevelopment by a local government, about 30% of the brownfield redevelopments that occur statewide are by local governments and nonprofits. About 70% are done by private developers like our client, the applicant, here today. And just to talk about the next steps, because I think the cleanup of what happens from here is really important. Again, there's a final hearing that's scheduled for January 6th. Assuming that goes well and you all approve the brownfield area designation, in 2026, we will execute what's called a brownfield site rehabilitation agreement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. That is the voluntary cleanup agreement that says, treat me like I am the responsible party that needs to clean up this site. I am agreeing to comply with your regulations in 62780 of the Florida Administrative Code. It has a very specific schedule that needs to be followed. Requirements that all reports and all work be done by licensed professional engineers and geologists. A requirement that you lose only certified laboratories to do all the testing that needs to be done for the sites. And that all submittals get reviewed, in this case, by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Because in Martin County, you don't have a delegated local environmental agency like Miami-Dade County, Broward, and Hillsborough County. If you're doing brownfields in those counties, you would deal with their county environmental agencies, which have their own jurisdiction. So here, we've got the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. They'll oversee and assign a project manager to review every single submittal that happens under the brownfield cleanup agreement. And that process has four general steps. It's really hard to take something as iterative and as big and technical as a brownfield cleanup and summarize it in four steps. But the first is identify where the contamination starts and stops, both horizontally and vertically in all media. Soil, groundwater, surface water, marine water, if any of that applies. Here, it'll be soil and groundwater. So we have to determine where the contamination started and where it stopped, if it emanated from our specific property, which, you know, based on the historic use, that seems to be the case because everything around it is residential. Once you've gone through that process and that's been approved by DEP, you can then move to designing a remedial action plan to address those issues. Because this site's going to be redeveloped for residential uses, the most likely remedial action is going to be source removal. Digging up all that contaminated soil, taking it to an appropriate facility that can accept that material, and replacing it with clean fill until you've met those clean points that you've identified. Once that's done, you submit a report documenting how you've done that. That gets approved by DEP. And then you move into post-remedial groundwater monitoring. You set up a network of groundwater wells, and you watch the groundwater contamination drop because that source has now been removed. And after each of those groundwater monitoring events, you submit a report back to the DEP that says, we went out to the property on this date, we tested the groundwater, and these are the results. And then that last step is applying for regulatory closure. Once you've demonstrated, you have met all that criteria for closure in Florida, meaning you've addressed the soil and groundwater issues to the extent of your regulatory obligations, and then that gets approved and reviewed by the state as well. And for groundwater monitoring, it's at least one year of quarterly groundwater monitoring because you're looking for trends, right? As the water table fluctuates, things can change. So the state does require you to do at least four quarterly monitoring events at a minimum. Those four views, is that pre-construction, during construction? So the requirements don't take into account when construction occurs. What they're focusing on is when the source removal occurs. But you can't do anything in the construction of the site to make the situation worse. And so where that typically happens is in the context of dewatering, right? If you're drawing down that groundwater for your stormwater improvements or something like that, you could be sending the contamination in all different directions if proper precautions aren't taken. So you're typically going to do those groundwater monitorings before construction does occur. But oftentimes, in the context of commercial or industrial development, you might do that groundwater monitoring after because there's not as much of a risk of exposure as you might have with residential development. So unfortunately, the answer is it depends. Well, I'm only speaking of the residential portion. Yeah. Just wondering if you started that and you're third quarter in, you realize, wait a second, we are sensing something, but you've already started to build the neighborhood. You're going to look at us like, well, we've already started. I mean, this is a slippery slope. Yeah. And so, again, that's why that assessment is really important, right? We're looking for points of compliance before because you're going to have to do that assessment before you do the removal action, right? So we're going to know where that groundwater network exists before you remove the source and go back after. So you're not just monitoring for groundwater for the first time after construction. You're doing it as part of the assessment as well at the initial step. Follow-up. If you guys start doing that where you're doing the borings, the check, and you decide to go beyond that grid that you showed and start, because there was a gentleman here this morning who's obviously a close neighbor, and you start to realize that the plume or whatever you're calling it is further out than you might have originally expected your clients, what if it becomes financially not feasible to continue the project because the remediation is massive? You guys have the ability to just say we're out? No, because you are entering into this agreement with the state that says you're going to address the issue. You can terminate the agreement, but then you're likely to see DEP's enforcement side come in as a result, and that's why the brownfield financial incentives are really important, because they kind of provide a recurring source of, I don't want to say revenue, but an ability to fund the cleanup because the tax credits are based on what you spend to do the cleanup. You can only get the tax credits for doing the actual cleanup work. So if you do $100,000 of source removal, just to say, you will get a 50% tax credit back that then you can choose to elect to use those funds to help facilitate your cleanup. And so that's where this program becomes really important. You know, there are people who decide to take on a brownfield cleanup without understanding their obligations. You know, as have you seen from the submittals we've made, our client has done significant testing on the front end to try and get a handle on what these issues are. We're not done, but we know enough to know that we have a good handle on what that. And they already own the property. And they own that property. Last question. If you didn't do it, if you don't get an approval today and you don't move forward, the project just sits there as it is contaminated with the possibility of leaching into the very close neighbors anyway. There certainly is a risk. It's been there for a long time. I will say with agricultural uses and contamination, the rules and regulations are a little different than this type of scenario. By moving into the brownfield program, you're agreeing to use the regulatory framework that says you've got to do the full cleanup. You've got to address the issues to the satisfaction of the DEP. Whereas with most agricultural operations, the pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, you know, were designed to be applied, right, so that the contamination is there as the result of normal agricultural operations. There's a separate set of statutes that say when you've got ag, it's a little different. Here, now, with brownfields, you're going to go into this complete regulatory framework that says, you know, it doesn't matter that it was an ag site. You're agreeing to these regulations that say you have to do the more stringent cleanup. And it's completely surrounded very closely by tons of neighbors. Yep. I mean, if you look at the aerial, I mean, you could not be more in the neighborhood than you guys are. It's the hole in the donut, so to speak. Absolutely. Thank you. Mr. Walden. Yes. To add a little level of comfort to starting construction, the development order is contingent on two dedications of right-of-way for this project. And part of that process is having a clean title and phase one environmentals that are also clean. So I think that's where this whole process started is in that phase one environmental assessment that was done for the right-of-way dedications. So we wouldn't issue a development order until those were provided as clean and with no contaminants. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah. I think this is the second, at least since I've been here, this type of brownfield cleanup that I think that we've talked about, as I recollect in our conversation. And I know that it is a state program through EPA, the brownfields cleanup grant, and I think it's half a million dollars, isn't it? So the EPA has a separate brownfields program that provides grants to local governments and nonprofits to do assessment and cleanup, and those can be upwards of half a million dollars. But this is a state program, so it's administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and they don't issue grants. They issue tax credits. So there's no free money. You've got to actually go out and spend the money on the cleanup, and there's a very specific agreed-upon procedures process that CPAs do with the application to verify that you've actually spent the money. You don't just give them copies of checks. You actually give them the bank statements. They review the bank statements, the proposals, the invoices. They sign a certification. And then your environmental professional has to sign and seal a certification as well that swears and affirms that the work has been completed. And then that goes up to Tallahassee for a second review by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. So there's a very kind of robust procedure. Actually, the deadline for 2025 work is the end of January 2026. So my colleagues and I get very busy in January taking the whole history of our, I think it's like 20-something sites we're working on right now, to submit these applications up to the state so that they can review the tax credit applications. Right. I think one of our commissioners, one of my commissioner colleagues said, I was kind of wondering, okay, if you start to open it, it's like buying a house that needs work, a really good deal, Pandora's box, which I'm always leery of. But, I mean, it would take a lot of money to clean up. I noticed here in the study arsenic was on the property. And I don't know. I mean, you can tell us, well, they've got deep pockets and they're just going to continue forward. But we've, in our application materials, you know, we've established a budget of around a million dollars for this. I can't guarantee that it's going to be more or less until we really get out there. But, yeah, I mean, this is a significant environmental matter. You know, it's something we take very seriously. But it's a huge investment just, you know, on the front end also, just to get the tax credits. Yes. Yeah. By the applicant. Yeah. Absolutely. But, again, you know, from the materials, you know, we provided, there's been over 613 brownfield areas designated, you know, throughout the state of Florida. And I believe we're, you know, in excess of 530 of these brownfield cleanup agreements that have been executed. And parties are doing these environmental cleanups from, you know, the Keys all the way through the panhandle. It is actually Florida's second biggest environmental cleanup program in terms of dollars spent per year behind the gas station cleanup program, the petroleum program, right? So if you go to any gas station that's been around since the 80s, you'll see those little monitoring wells all around, or you might see some remedial equipment. You know, that program is funded in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. In the last couple of years, the legislature increased brownfield funding to $35 million a year, making it the second biggest cleanup program that our state has. Let me ask you a question. I know you're going to build residential here. Do you have to make a disclosure to prospective buyers that this one time was a brownfield? Sort of? Maybe? Not? Really? I mean, I will tell you that I always advise my clients to do that, especially on brownfield redevelopments, and that would certainly be the case here as well. I mean, I don't see any reason why not. So for that, I sure would like to know if I put my hard cash down. I actually, you know, earned part of my living writing disclosures for environmental issues on sites. And again, with this being a single-family residential neighborhood, you know, they're going to make sure that it's, you know, done well, correctly, and appropriately. It's examined. I mean, it's not as, well, yeah, it's all cleaned up, like there are no gopher tortoises or, you know. Yeah, I mean, again, you know, you have to hire a licensed engineer and geologist to do it. But the labs have to, we provide the certification of the laboratories to the Department of Environmental Protection, and it's not, you know, the applicant who's signing these reports that go in. It's their hired professional team. So they're putting their professional licenses on the line when they're submitting these reports as well. I have one request to speak form, and that is from Mary Gavin. If you would like to address us, please fill out a request to speak form and get it to the bailiff. This is what I did come for. First of all, to staff and to the commissioners, I hope you have the best holiday season. I know I'm going to. I'd like to start off with a little bit of history. I've lived in Hobesound and Martin County 30 years, and I happen to live right down east of this property. So I'm the end of the line. I'm in the intercoastal, and I don't want to use the S word, but that's what rolls towards me. So I get a little emotional about this, I will say. And I get emotional also because back in 1993, I was working in a building in Atlanta, Georgia, that was poisoned with arsenic. And I had a son that was born with tremendous health issues because of it. So I just, that's why I get a little shaky about this. So I want to start with the owners. There's two applicants here, so I'm not sure what, but it's the same managing partner, it looks like, on Florida SunBiz. And I'll refer to the documents I gave you in just a moment to clarify that. But the property was bought from the original farm family for around $3 million plus. They've had it on the market for $16 million. They took it off right after we inquired why they said they're developing it when it was for sale, so I do want to point that out. I also want to point out that they have to clean this property up whether there's a brownfield designation or not. To develop this property, it's got to be cleaned up. And if somebody spent $3 million on 19 acres, which was the deal of the century, they certainly had to know why and did their due diligence as far as the environmental issue, especially knowing that this was a farm for 1,000 years. You know, I'm being a little facetious there. So, anyway, with all that said, now I want you to get to some of the documents I sent. The front page is an unfortunately close-up picture of the property, but there's two parcels on this property. One was a residential or a storage home, and the other was all the farm. When it was sold to the current owners, they literally buried the house into the ground where the majority of this contamination is. And you can see it hasn't been mowed, and when they drop signs, the development signs literally have been dropped in the three-foot grass for about six months. So, Michael told us that the owners are concerned about the health and the welfare of this property. We should have been notified if they really were concerned, in my humble opinion. And when I see how this property has been maintained, it tells me they could give a you-know-what about what the community feels. The homes around this area run half a million to $10 million. Just to put it in perspective, it's an extremely beautiful, high-end part of Hope Sound. With all that said, yes, they have every right in the world to apply for the brownfield status. The only real benefit, like I said, they have to develop this. I mean, they have to. I have one important point that really has to be made. I hope I can continue. They have to clean it up to develop it. It doesn't matter. But if you look at the ownership, and this is a moral issue, it doesn't necessarily preclude somebody from getting a brownfield status or from getting the tax credits for it. But the owner that's listed there also spent 13 months in prison in Florida for Medicare fraud through sober homes. It was recently released. So we're going to – and it frosts my you-know-what to think that as a Florida taxpayer, which I have been because of businesses, that we are going to give somebody tax credits that stole millions of dollars from the state of Florida. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to address us? I see in the DEP information that this was, as far as I can tell, the soil borings as early as 2018 detected all kinds of contamination. Once again, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, there were all these poisons, contaminants that were detected. Was the owner required to make this information public at any time? Does anybody know? I believe Mr. Schnapp-Steiler had said if there was off-site contamination, then there are specific notice requirements for that. All right. Also, the requirements for qualifying for a Brownfield designation, one of them is that at least five new permanent jobs are created. They're full-time jobs not associated with the implementation of the Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreement. I don't think that's been met. There aren't going to be any jobs, full-time jobs created with this. This is true. You also have to, the person proposing the area for designation has provided reasonable assurance that he or she has sufficient financial resources to implement and complete the rehabilitation agreement and redevelopment of the Brownfield Site. Well, the owner wrote a letter to us saying, oh, yeah, I have, you know, a million dollars for rehabilitation and another $45 million and signed it. What did we do to proof that claim? We, it's a personal letter. We, as staff, review the application materials that we receive from the applicant. So, the applicant is the one that was sent to prison for Medicare fraud? Wasserstein, Bay Harbor Islands? I know that area well. Very well. So, we're going to take his word for it. Is that somebody else? Madam Chair, I'd like to hear some of the feedback from the applicant's representative. Okay. Madam Chair, Commissioners, again, for the record, Michael Schnapps-Steiler with Cobb-Cole. Madam Chair, to address your question about the job creation component and the financial information with respect to jobs, I had full-time security on site, full-time maintenance, full-time operations, you know, 24 hours a day, seven days a week at that site. It's going to be at least five full-time equivalent jobs out there at the site. Forever? That's the plan for the redevelopment of the site. And with respect to financial assurances, again, we provided a letter. The applicant does own and operate a design center facility very close to this site that shows their commitment to the project and the area. If there are additional financial information, we can work on it. We can provide it in advance of the January 6th second reading to show you that the financial resources are available. Again, they've completed assessment work. They've continued to complete assessment work to this point, dating back to 2024. I believe our client was an original investor in the first version of this project. He bought out his partner to avoid foreclosure in 2024 and is moving forward with the project as was originally intended. I can't speak to when the property was for sale previously. I do know that there was a rogue listing out there that the speaker identified it was taken down. The property was not listed for sale when we had the community meeting in November out at the site. It was not listed for sale. Again, it was just a rogue. Sometimes on the Internet, it's out there. It wasn't on the MLS. You couldn't find it. To Commissioner Vargas' comment, we represent an LLC. There is a managing member who did accept a plea deal associated with an investment he made. He did not operate the facility. He did spend some time in a federal facility paying his debt to society. He still is trying to work and earn a living and provide for his family. Again, our client is an LLC. There are other people associated with the business and the investment here. I don't know of any brownfield area designation criteria that are impacted by what happened previously. Again, the point of the brownfield program is to focus on the cleanup and the redevelopment. There's no indication that any of the appropriate rules and regulations or anything like that are not going to be followed here. Everything still has to be done by the book. And that's what we intend to do with this cleanup and redevelopment. So there are five requirements in order to advance. Two of them have not been met. And another one says that notice of the proposed rehabilitation of the brownfield area has been provided to neighbors and nearby residents. Do we know that that's been done? And how do we know that that's been done? The applicant provided their affidavit for posting to the community bulletins. They provided us photos of the signs that were posted at the property for their community meeting and for this public hearing and the upcoming one on January 6th. And the other notice requirement, the community meeting affording neighbors the opportunity to comment, that was held on November 4th. And then those meetings also had to be announced at a regularly scheduled meeting of the board. So in October and at the November 18th board hearing that you all had, Administrator Don Donaldson had announced the community meeting and the public hearings. So the notice requirements that are outlined in the statute have been met in those respects. Commissioner Camps. Yes. To Commissioner Hurd's concern about number five and this letter that was sent, reasonable assurance that he or she has sufficient financial resources to implement and complete the rehabilitation agreement and redevelopment of the brownfield site. You do a lot of these proceedings and the type of reasonable assurance that we have been given. Is this common and is it consistent with what is normally done? The record again, Michael Schnapps, Tyler, with Cobb, Cole. It is, it's consistent with what you all received for your brownfield area designation that happened earlier in the year, I believe in February. But again, if there are additional information, if that's the request you want us to take back to our client in advance of the January 6th brownfield area designation hearing, we can do that. We can work with your staff and provide some additional documentation. That's, I don't see that being an issue. Okay. It would appear to me then that we've met sufficient thresholds to meet these five criteria. And this is kind of strictly regulated by Florida statute. I mean, some of the other things that have been talked about are, really can't be considered. And it's just these five things, right, that we can look at when designating a brownfield. Right. These are objective criteria. It's either yes or no. It's not subjective. Right. And if you meet the five subjective criteria, the statute says shall. Right. In light of that, I would make a motion to approve the designation, but can you phrase that for me one more time about the additional information that we could ask for on the fifth, number five? Maybe phrase that for me again. We're asking for additional information for the next hearing. If I may, we're not designating the brownfield today. We are just moving to have a second public hearing prior to 5 o'clock on January, I think it's 6th, and moving the staff report into evidence. You can add the contingency to bring additional financial information if you want, but we're not designating today, just to clarify that. Okay. It sounds like we can just take this up at the next hearing then. Okay. Well, I would move approval then. Commissioner Campy. Thank you. This has gone into a gray area for me. I'm interested to hear from our district commissioner, which we just did. If I might ask Commissioner Capps a question, you went to that November 4th meeting. It was a residential meeting. Was it well attended? Very well attended. I would guess maybe 30 or 40 people. Does that sound about right, based on your memory? And a lot of participation, a lot of questions that was handled very well by these attorneys from Daytona, who seem to be to know. The overall mood of the meeting, before and after? There were just a lot of questions and a lot of clarification given as to what the purposes of the Brownfield designation is. I think there's a lot of misperception out there about what it is and what it is not and what the county's role is in the matter. You know, there are a lot of folks that initially think that the county is involved with monitoring the actual cleanup and soil testing and that kind of thing. And that's all done by the DEP. And this really is just about these five criteria and whether the applicant gets a tax advantage for engaging in the work to get it cleaned up. And it's a program to encourage the cleanup of these sites around the state. So it has a good and noble purpose, and it apparently is achieving a lot of environmental cleanup around the state, as it was previously mentioned. But it seems to me like these hearings are all about those five bullet points, and that's kind of all you can really look at. And in light of that, I think we are satisfied that those requirements are fulfilled. Thank you. To our staff, I remember this property came up several years ago, and there was a huge uproar of residents that came forward. I remember because they gave us a stack of petitions, individual to each of us. It was like 500 pages to each of us. It was like 3,000 pages. It was like a printer's box of paper, copy paper. I cut them in half, and I've been using the back of them for notepads since, and I still have probably this many to go. It was a big deal, that project. It was really controversial, and if I remember correctly, we voted it down. Correct. That's why I'm getting to that point. That was looking to do something different. But when I look at the picture here, I can't imagine how you could shoehorn in a single extra house onto that property, which I get is probably legally permissible. Fits into we're not even approving yes or no on that. You never will. That's what I mean. It looks major to me, but I get it's minor, and I'm not going to go down that, but it looks like a full project. So it's not a matter. So for me, I have to take out of my thought process, are we going to be approving this development of a neighborhood right there or not? Because it's not going to come to us. It's going to be handled at the administrative level. Am I correct? Okay. So it's not like my decision today will, you know, make a determination for the neighborhood. So now I go back to the cleanup, a carnation farm or a flower farm. We had one in Palm City on Berry, and it was bigger. Maybe it was about the same. It's a neighborhood now. I don't remember. I have a very good memory, but I don't remember that it being as – it really wasn't a contamination issue there. It was certainly not a brownfield. I don't remember, and some of you were here then too, I don't remember if it was a big contamination situation like this one seems to be. It also feels like it was a little more spread out than this one seems to be. And so the bottom line for my decision-making today, which with all due respect to my colleague, is he's the local. He was at that meeting, and he's the one who made the motion. That's first. Secondly, from a financial point of view, a letter saying I can afford to do this doesn't really jump the bar for me. That's – of course someone's going to write that. I don't know what the legal responsibilities or ramifications would be if we found out that that letter wasn't as accurate. Who's the arbiter of deciding if someone – and I don't know the applicant, so I have – I'm not trying to disparage any person. I see the names. I don't know those names. I don't know these people. So speaking generally, if I wanted to do a project and all I had to do was type a letter that says I have enough money to do it and here's my signature, we don't have a financial arm that's reviewing that. Your growth management, we literally – we're not sending it to the clerk of the court. It's not being reviewed for any kind of accuracy or verifying that that money exists. So if we are going to move from today to the 6th of January, I would need some more of a financial kind of proof because, like you said, it's big money. I mean, remediation and taking that soil off that property, I don't even think there's any remediation sites left in Martin County where you could truck it to, correct? Actually, we don't have that anymore. Never did. But then wherever it was going locally, that's – it's not even local anymore, right, even if it's out of the county. Well, it's just that depending on the contamination, you know, it either would have to be landfill, but typically something like this has to go to, like, an incineration. Yeah, and be burned. Or in the worst-case scenario, it used to get trucked out of the state to a special hazardous waste facility. Some other state where – I don't know what the level is, but anyway, there's various designations of which we've never had a facility that could accept anything other than very minor. Okay, so you're talking about, you know, remediating soil, which, look, it's not a secret. It's obviously contaminated. They've found some already. And to Commissioner Vargas' point, arsenic, which even those of us that are not chemists would say, well, it sounds like the scary one. I'm torn. The reason that I would potentially vote today in favor is because if you don't do something, it's just going to continue to just leech in and just get worse. This seems to me to be the most realistic and reasonable approach to remediation for the existing neighbors that are there. In this particular case of doing nothing, I just think every rainstorm, every wash is just going your way, or, you know, I get that it's going, you know, west to east, but it's also going north and south. It's not, unless it's like a swale, which it's not, it's going north and south, and the houses are literally on the property line. So I'm not opposed to having at least bringing this to January 6th. The other thing, which is more of a personal thing based on, and I appreciate the photograph, I did not get an opportunity. I've driven past here many times because I have friends that live down in this neck of the woods. I probably drove past it on my way to the singing Christmas tree. But that being said, I wasn't looking at the property with that eye. If this is even an indication of how the property is being maintained, how long has your client owned it? 2021. 20, so four years, four, coming up on five potentially? Mine's been the sole owner since 2024. Okay. I was an investor in 2024. Okay, so at least a year. I will drive by before January 6th. Shouldn't look like that. If you're trying to, like, you know, put your best foot forward, I'd straighten it up. I mean, that sounds like a weird kind of personal request, but five of us are making a determination. I'll tell you, I'm close to, I was a no until I heard my colleagues say that he, you know, we meet, he's a lawyer. We have plenty of them, but he's also one of them. And so I'm willing to give you guys the benefit of the doubt based on, I need to see financials that are, I don't know who will eventually verify them, but more than a letter from the guy that says, I got enough money. And I would like, from the neighbor's point of view, that it's, you know, it's just neighborly to keep this up, then look like some just, you know, wasteland. And then I guess we'll take it from there on January 6th. So I will second my colleagues, district commissioner colleagues' motion, reluctantly. Commissioner Hetherington. I would just go back to the five criteria. And as far as the jobs, I would imagine that based on all of the reporting documentation, that that's verified by some entity, whether it be the DEP, in order for you to get the tax credits. Is that correct? I mean, you can't, if you don't create five jobs, who's monitoring that? The DEP is focused on the incentives and on the cleanup. They don't, I don't know off the top of my head if they actually go out and count the jobs and verify it, but they do report it. And that's, but again, that's focused on the redevelopment after the cleanup is complete. And then as far as the proof of funds, I think you could, this would be like a real estate transaction that you could require either to show a particular percentage or a financial institution would verify that you would, you have the proof of funds, whatever that amount is. So I would be willing to move it to January 6th. I think that you have a little work to do before January 6th, but I would be willing to move it to January 6th. Can I ask one more question? Sure. To Commissioner Hetherington's point, even if they brought bank statements that says we got $8 million in the bank, there's no verification that they're going to spend the $8 million on this. Is there, I remember projects that we've done in the past where people have to put money into escrow or into something. I don't know if we're getting out of our realm, but. So we don't have any legal authority to require escrow. For escrow, we can ask for a certified bank letter or accounting from a CPA if the board would like. So for this meeting, they're entitled to two hearings. So they're moving forward on January 6th, just to clarify, either way. What the board is voting on today is to have it before 5. So if there's a no vote today, then we're having the hearing after 5. The board can certainly vote no at the next hearing to not designate the Brownfield, but they do have two hearings under the law. So the board can give them direction that, you know, it looks like a no and they should bring some additional financial. But I just wanted to clarify that there's going to be two hearings and the next one will be after 5 if there's a no vote today on the motion. So everybody understands. You're voting on whether to have the hearing after 5 or before 5 for the next meeting. So but on the 6th, we can vote no. Certainly. Yes, absolutely. If you feel like they didn't meet the criteria, but they are entitled to two hearings under the law. I would prefer that the meeting is after 5 o'clock. Really? Yeah. Why? What if the meeting gets over at 1230? Then I have to come back at 5 o'clock and have the meeting because I think when you – this is just my suggestion, and I know that this goes to daytime meetings versus nighttime meetings. This is a contaminated site in the heart of a very specific neighborhood where the houses are very close together. And, I mean, I don't – I wouldn't want any kind of inference that we created an opportunity where it was harder for people to come. This is different than, you know, hey, we're building something next to you. This is contamination. This is medical issues. This is pretty serious. And, you know, we have budget hearings that start at 5 o'clock. That's just my personal opinion. If we have it during the day, the other thing I didn't hear anyone say is that you put it on a board or you put some signs up. Do they have to send out certified letters to the surrounding property owners? There's not a mailing notice requirement in the statute. Okay. Can we ask them to do that in terms of winning favor? They'll just say that they do. Well, they have to still – they still have to certify them like everybody else does, right? Yeah. We don't have any authority to do that under our – Well, I'm one of five, and so I'm just giving you a suggestion. And I'm going to ask people that show up at this meeting on the 6th and say, how did you hear about it? If you genuinely want a favorable – I'm willing to be very objective. If your client wants, you know, to me to give him all of, you know, the potential thoughtfulness in my decision making, you have to prove to me that the local residents were notified, not just putting a sign up. Because some people don't drive by that way, and if you put it on some website, some people don't see that website. We require everybody else in the world to mail out within a couple hundred feet or yards of a project to say that they got a notification. I get that we can't make you do that, but if you came back on the 6th and said, look, here, we sent certified letters to our surrounding neighborhood ring, that's going to go a longer way for me to be favorable in my decision making for you all with your request. Just to remind everybody, we're following a state statute for a tax credit for this cleanup, and the board will be required to evaluate the criteria by which – each of those five criteria. And so it'll have to be an objective reasoning that you determine. So I think that's important to remember. Ms. Gavin, before or after five? What do you think about your neighbors? Then she has to – Ma'am, can you come up – can you come to the speaker, please? I'm sorry. The majority of neighbors that I have spoken to thought that that sign was for development. And we know that it's not. This is very, very different. So there are a lot of people that aren't here today just because of the time. I don't know that it matters if we're going back to the criteria, but I would like to add, since I'm here, if there's five permanent jobs created, I think we need to know what they are so somebody can follow up that they really happened. That's the least of it. Yeah. Commissioner Capps? So in order – if we went with Commissioner Campy's logic of making it after five, then it would be more logically consistent for me to withdraw my motion. Correct. Right. Because your motion had the hearing before five. We would still need for the board to receive the agenda item and the attachments, but you wouldn't have to talk about the timing because the statute requires us to have one after five o'clock, and that would be the next one. Right. I would rather err on the side of making sure that anyone who might want to be at this hearing has that opportunity after five o'clock. So I will withdraw that motion. Withdrawing? Yes. I would tell you I don't mind the meetings before five if there was some way for you to notify the affected parties. And I'm not trying to give you guys grief. I'm trying to give you, like, an answer to the test. This is the kind of things that – and I get what Mr. Donaldson's saying, that we're just talking about giving you the opportunity to get a reimbursement of expenses. But to me, the advantage for the neighbors is you're going to clean up a site that's been really terrible for a long, long time. That's for me. And if you're legally allowed to build a neighborhood, it looked pretty. What you were showing was pretty. The five jobs, I get it. You know, I get that you could do that. It's a small – how many houses? Thirty-eight. Thirty-eight. You didn't have a full-time guard in front of the neighborhood for 38 houses? You're talking about the five employees, but who's paying for those five employees? It costs a fortune to have a gate guard in front of a neighborhood. Even if you have 600 homes, never mind 38. And I get they're going to be beautiful. So I'm willing to say just do these things that I'm – that are important to me for me to give you the benefit of the doubt in January. So do we need a motion to move that the – hold our second public hearing after 5 o'clock? No, we just need a motion for the board to receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. Okay. I'll make that motion. Ms. Navi. Can I clarify if there was a motion for more financial documents or something in that respect for the January 6th meeting? The applicant has heard us. Yeah, it's up to the applicant to produce evidence. I think you have a real clear idea of what's expected on January 6th. Okay. Thank you. I will second the motion to receive and file the agenda item and its attachments. Any further inquiries? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. Yeah. We are going to take a five-minute break. All right. The president will make it up to me. Don't you worry. We're on. Okay. We are taking up Department 1, which is Office of Management and Budget Items, which require board approval. Ms. Murley. Good afternoon. Stephanie Murley, Director of OMB, here to present four items today. Our first item is permission to apply for the FY26 Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside Program through FDOT for the Palm Lake Park Sidewalk Connectivity Project. Our Public Works Department is requesting a grant application of $769,125 for the construction of a proposed six-foot-wide sidewalk on the perimeter of green space on Northwest Palm Lake Drive. There is a local match of $19,500 that will be funded with the FY30 CIP program. Item number two is a permission to apply for the FY26 Florida Safe Routes to School Infrastructure Grant through FDOT for the Northeast Rose Tree Drive Sidewalk Project. Public Works is requesting a grant application of $987,000 for the construction of a six-foot sidewalk on Northeast Rose Tree Drive to connect the neighborhood to Jensen Beach Elementary School, and there is no cash match required for that one. Item number three is a permission to accept the FY2526 State-Funded Emergency Management Accreditation Program, or the EMAP grant. Our Emergency Management Division is requesting the acceptance of $45,280 for the purposes of funding an accreditation program for our Martin County Emergency Management Program. There is no cash match required for that either. And last but not least, we have the permission to accept the State of Florida Department of Health FY26 Emergency Medical Services, or EMS Trust Fund grant. This is an annual grant we receive. This is for $25,219 to fund equipment and training to enhance emergency medical services at the local level, and there's no cash match required for that either. That's it. Questions? Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, back to the board. Move approval. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next up is Department 2, which is contracts that meet the threshold for a board approval of a million dollars or greater. This should look familiar. Good evening. Christy Brotherton, Chief Procurement Officer. So I have one item for your consideration, which is the Construction Contract Award for the Coral Gardens Vacuum Sewer System Project. You approved an item earlier in today's agenda for the same project. And staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, which is Felix Civil Construction, in the amount of $14,086,089. And move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. And that concludes this item. Questions for Ms. Brotherton? I will gladly make approval. I will move approval for this item. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Yep. Let's see. That brings us to the end of our last meeting of 2025. Should we see an old Lang Syne or something? Not yet. Commissioner Vargas? Yes. You were going to model for us how I, as a citizen, could go and find information on the links. So with the chair's permission, I can demonstrate how you can get to the check register. Oh, good. Yeah, that'd be great. Hey, this is ordinary citizen, Mr. Donaldson, muddling his way through all this information. Can't work the dot cam, but. Okay. So, you know, we've had questions regarding, you know, the warrant list in the past. And this is the agenda item today that shows the warrant list of money spent in the last couple of weeks. And on there, there is a highlighted blue area, which you can hit check registry, which takes you to the clerk's office. And once that comes up, you can see that here is, and if we want to look at the exact dates that were in the agenda item. I'm sorry, back to the agenda item, this was from November 17th to the 23rd. You can go back here and you can click the 17th to the 23rd. No, it's December. No, it's December. And if you hit submit, it's going to come up with a list of all of the checks that were issued during that period. Now, you can see that it's just a constant list of vendor name, accurate systems. And I'll just scroll through. You can see there's just an ongoing list of all the checks that were issued in the preceding weeks before this agenda item. And Boundtree Medical is an example of one. It's medical supplies for fire rescue. And, for instance, you can, you know, take information. Just hit view on the right. So the view will just, I'm just going to bring back. So before we do that, I'll show that this is like the check number. And so you can see there's lots of different individual items for which one check was issued. So if you hit copy, you can go back to. So this information can be sorted in different ways. So if we put the check number in there and hit submit, you'll see the total amount that was issued to Boundtree Medical Services, which was $4,000 for them. If you, you know, so the point, and, of course, Boundtree is medical supplies for fire rescue. So when you approve the budget, there is a line item that has medical supplies and fire rescue that the board had to approve at your budget hearing. Then fire rescue at some point in time had to do a bid proposal for medical supplies with Ms. Brotherington, who was here earlier, would have issued an RFP or a bid proposal for. That bid award would have been awarded either, depending upon the amount, at a board meeting like today. Then, at which point, it becomes, you authorize a contract to be executed. That contract gets executed, and then staff can actually purchase materials from Boundtree Medical. They then submit us an invoice saying, okay, you've bought these services. Then it goes back to here. The other piece of this, this is on the clerk's website, part of the clerk's job, Ms. Carolyn Timmons, as our chief financial officer, also verifies that all of these processes were actually done in the proper order and that we expended them properly. And then, of course, at the end of the year, we have an audit. So I just wanted to say that the check registry is a summary of checks that were issued in total amounts in the last preceding two weeks. But you can also see, actually, in any date range you want, those types of registries. Now, the information under view, I can, so you go back to a boundary just to hit view. You're not, it's, the information here just, again, just gives you the total of what I showed you before. But you can put in, if you knew the vendor's name, you can put it in here, the vendor invoice number, the minimum amount, or if you don't know any of that, as you scroll through the list, you can copy that information and put it back in and sort. You can also sort it by different dates if you so desire. So there is a lot of information there. But, again, the consent item that has the list of checked registry, in order for that to be expended, it got approved many times before they get there. So you've already actually approved the budget, you've approved the contracts, and then this is just a way to provide the public with a summary of what was expended. And you would expect that, given the size of our budget, that we're going to be spending anywhere from about $1.5 million or to $3 million every agenda item on contracted services or more. So that's just the nature of the size of our business is that this is a week, basically, showing the difference from – so every time you see these summaries, you could expect that your county in check disbursements is going to be exceeding several million dollars every time you see one of these. But it's all based upon – for instance, you can see all the FP&L bills. And each building has a different meter, and sometimes we have streetlights. And so you could see how much we spend on electricity if you wanted to summarize these every week or through the year. So the information is there. It's not – it is in disparate pieces, but it's – we did try to make it a little bit easier for you to find it. And, again, you can find the – each vendor that you can – or you can scroll through the entire list of the thousands of invoices that we receive. Question. And that's it. Yeah. You have a question. If someone saw – like you used Bountree as an example. If someone went and saw there was $4,000 worth of checks, if you don't know what Bountree Medical is, you wouldn't know what Bountree Medical is. Is there a way that someone could then either dig down, or if they had a question, then they could contact specifically? There is. I just don't have it – again, my – and perhaps that's the next exercise in educating the public when we come down here would be, you know, how do you track Bountree back to their original purchase order and original bid. There is a way to do that. I just can't tell you exactly off the top of my head. I know how it gets to this point. Going in reverse, I would have to – I would have to – I'd like to practice it at least once before I come back to the – So for our next episode of Don Explains It All, we're going to need you to show – I will have Ms. Murley here and – Just simply because I get that you can see the name of the vendor and the dollar amount, but certain vendor names, some of them are obvious, FPL, AT&T, but some of them are not as obvious. That's very helpful. Thank you. Yes, it is. Thank you. We have had in the past – I know there's one person who's very specific about this. We have every six months or nine months had a review of that the information is there. It's not flashing on the homepage, but it is available for anybody that is interested in going to that level to see exactly what we have. But Don's – I think the most important point you made is, first, it showed up in – if it's depending on what is a CIP sheet or a line item in someone's annual budget, then the reason it got there is an employee decided, then the department head decided, then Don looked at it, and then financial looked at it, and then Carolyn Timmons and her team looked at it, so it's not like someone can necessarily just start writing checks. Not that there's – that the system is 1,000 percent foolproof, because there's always something. But I think overall our system is pretty tight, and they're award-winning. Carolyn Timmons and her team wins awards on making this very foolproof. Yes. They watch us closely, which is what their job is to do. Yeah, she's also the comptroller. Anything else, Commissioner Vargas? No, just my comment earlier, I would like to follow up with the CRA, building and zoning, about the street-side tables and chairs. So I do have a note here, and I appreciate if you could please follow that up, Mr. Donaldson. Yes. And certainly if legal needs to be consulted about that. I mean, during COVID, lots of different things happen. We are long past that. And other businesses, they want to put tables and chairs outside, and where does someone walk in ADA? And all of that. So that's critical, I think. That's important. That's public safety, too. Thank you. No. No further comments. Mr. Kamps. Well, I'll just mention that on the brownfield matter that we just took up, there was – this is not a subject matter that we've taken up a lot in the past. And even before I became a commissioner and I was watching a lot of the YouTube videos of these meetings. And brownfield doesn't come up very much. I think this is the second time in Martin County history. So it was a learning experience for all of us. And with regard to the technical requirements and the five things that we have to look at, we'll be looking at those a lot closer at the next hearing. Because I think some of our commissioners here have brought us some really valid points about whether those elements are really being satisfied. So we'll look at that closely at the next meeting. Mr. Kampy. Thank you. Two things. One, I wanted to remind everyone. Some people watch the morning and don't watch the afternoon on Saturday – this coming Saturday, December 13th, 6 to 8, we're having music in the park, which is this time dueling pianos with a holiday sing-along. It's on Map Road. It's at the patio at Palm City Place, which, if you're not familiar, is immediately next door to the Palm City Station 21 fire station. It'll be a lot of fun. There'll be food trucks. You can bring your own food. You can order in, or there'll be food and beverage trucks there. It's a full family neighborhood kind of event. We'd love to have you come. And then, knowing that this is our last meeting of the year, I'd like to wish my colleagues a healthy and happy holiday season, all of our staff, our residents. The most important gift that I could wish for you is health. I wish you all a very happy, healthy holiday season, but wish you all a happy, healthy 2026. Thank you so much. Thank you. Commissioner Hatherington? I just say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and we'll see you back on the 6th. And to our colleague, happy birthday. Well, thank you so much. My husband will make it up to you very well. And with that, Madam Chair. Mr. Donaldson? I just thank you all for a great year. Martin County's the finest of the 67. We have a lot to be thankful for. We also have a lot of great nonprofits who also ask my staff and everybody to remember those less fortunate and do what we can to help those in our community in need. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Elder? All set. Thank you. And best wishes for a happy and healthy Christmas and a very, very happy and healthy New Year. See everybody next year. Bye-bye. Thanks. Thanks, Layla. Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas to you.