Board of County Commissioners on 2026-01-27 9:00 AM - Jan 27, 2026

Thank you. I'm going to call this meeting of January 27th of Board of County Commissioners to order. Please join us for a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which is going to be led by Ashley Western, who is from the U.S. Marine and Veterans Services Office. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wait, you have to tell us a little bit about your military career. Good morning, everyone. My name is Ashley Western. Come closer to the... Oh, good morning, everyone. My name is Ashley Western. I served in the Marine Corps for four years, and now I have the pleasure of working as a veteran service officer for Martin County. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's see. Our agenda this morning consists of there are no pulled items from the consent agenda. First of all, we will have public comment, followed by proclamations. Our first public comment is from Tom Hans, us, followed by Brian Duggan. Yeah, Tom Haas, Jensen Beach. This is mainly targeted towards District 1. This weekend in Jensen, we had a heck of an art show. Absolutely fabulous. There's got to be something done for parking. I mean, years and years ago, I mentioned to Doug Smith about that lot that's for sale that the builder's going to build on between Pineapple and Mango and Indian River Drive to do something with that. However, it's been purchased, but I do see there's a for rent sign on it. There was parking there. But from the circle at the end of Jensen Beach Boulevard and the circle across the bridge on Ocean Boulevard, 33 minutes to get there. Now, think of an emergency. Granted, you're going to yield right away, I hope, but 33 minutes. There's got to be an answer to the parking for those type of issues. The other thing is on Linda Drive, where I live, there's a traffic calming area with a tree in the middle of the road that's really nice. It does work. There was another one that was going to be put in the road on Indian River Drive about 180 yards south of Zelda, which there's pieces of the temporary still in the road, but just pieces. The rest of it's all broken off. That was supposed to be done as a traffic calming area with a tree. However, at the time, the commission didn't have the money to do that. So that's still pieces of it in the road, not working, because there's really nothing there. The other thing is I attended a meeting in Rio with, I believe it's called the CRC, last week. Absolutely fabulous meeting. Everything went very well, and I see him here today, but I'm not saying this because he's here today, but Deputy Adams is our community policing officer for over there. He did a fabulous job presenting what goes on. And the meeting was very, very good. They answered the questions. The presentation was good. I give kudos where kudos are earned, but I also can be there when I need to be. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioners, can we have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll move approval of the agenda. I second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Mr. Duggan is next, followed by Frank McChrystal. Good morning. I wrote a couple of things down here. My name is Brian Duggan. I'm here today to talk about the adult sports leagues in Martin County. Most of the surrounding counties have adult softball programs like Port St. Lucie and Jupiter. We'd like to get one for Martin County. We used to have one. I've been playing here in the Treasure Coast area for about eight years. The last few seasons have been privately run. And have failed due to insurance issues and the cost of field rentals being so much higher than the surrounding counties, making it not affordable to play here. We'd appreciate it if the county would take it over again, like it used to be, to ensure that there's structure. We've got a lot of good people that like to play softball here in Martin County. They work here. They live here. Martin County Fire Rescue has a team. Martin County Sheriff. The deputies, they have teams. We've got chiropractors, business owners, teachers, accountants, and realtors like myself. We also think that the softball program here could generate revenue for the county. I mean, PSL and Jupiter, they charge like $500 per team. You know, if you get 16 teams, that's about $8,000 per season. You know, we play four seasons a year. That's $32,000. We used to play Mondays, Tuesdays, kickball Wednesdays. Men's League, Church League was Thursday. Co-ed was Friday. I mean, if we got back to those five days, that's, you know, $160,000 that the county could be bringing in money. Hopefully, the county will take this into consideration. Hopefully, we can get adult softball back. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair. Sir, we're working on it. Yeah, we're working on it. Mr. McChrystal is the last request to speak for him. If you'd like to address us, please fill out a request to speak for him and get it to our bailiff. Good morning. Shout out to Doug Smith. Go Patriots. Thanks again for Doug Smith Highway. Keeps me off of US 1 all the way to Fort Pierce. 1998, Runway 1230 at Witham Field was illegally extended using faulty documentation sent to the FAA by Martin County. In 2002, the noise contour study, the Part 150 noise abatement study, was fatally flawed. It was the weekend, Thanksgiving weekend of 2002, I believe. I was there at the golf course all four days. And instead of the jets taking off at their normal 45-degree angle balls to the walls, okay, they did all weekend long during that noise abatement study, they did what's called a short field takeoff where they take off straight into the sky and then limp out of town. So by the time they got to the noise abatement monitors on the outskirts of the field, that whole study was totally flawed. So you can add right out of the gate another 30 to 40 percent of territory affected by Witham Field. That's not shown on the original noise contour studies. Previous studies after that are done, are computer generated using that original information, which is flawed. When I use the word scumbag, it's not a nice term, but it's just if the shoe fits. In 2011, the FAA demanded that we install EMAS, admitting that illegal extension of Runway 1230 did indeed extend runway protection zones into existing neighborhoods. So here we are. Fast forward. All I'm asking is this. Throw us a bone. It's gone from 37 percent down to like 32 percent of the airport proper that does not put jets in the sky in the last four or five years. Please stop this slow, steady grind towards removing businesses, job creators, county operations off of Witham Field in order to make space for the insatiable market for hangar space and jets at Witham Field. Remember, our town in 1998 was instantly turned into a dirty, filthy pit stop for these globalist people. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to address us? Seeing none, we'll now have a proclamation recognizing January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Martin County, Florida. Florida Faith Alliance is working to alert Martin County to the immediate crisis of human trafficking and the need for all to become educated through a January awareness presentation. In observance of January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the board calls upon all residents to attend the awareness presentation and become educated to help eliminate human trafficking. Ms. Coretta? And Leanne Barletta is accepting the proclamation. Chair Herd, fellow commissioners, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Rob Gluckman. My beautiful wife, Dr. Michelle Libman, and I own Treasure Coast Urgent Care and most recently Treasure Coast Psychiatry. We're blessed to meet this woman, Lynn Barletta, when she started the Florida Faith Alliance, which in the coming months is going to be changed to an acronym UACT, United Against Child Trafficking. And both of us are excited to be sitting on their advisory task force, you know, to help with the medical and psychiatric needs of these victims. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce the 2024 Florida Attorney General Community Advocate of the Year Award, Lynn Barletta. Thank you. Thank you. So, I want to personally thank the Martin County Commissioners and Mr. Donaldson for considering training all county employees in the Florida Attorney General's 100% Club to recognize the signs and how to turn in trafficking, human trafficking tips. I also want to thank you, Commissioner Campy, for your past support. And we invite all commissioners to take part in the awareness events that we will be announcing in our community this year. I also want to thank Captain Gavin Werner, who's come from the Sheriff's Department, to stand with us, and he can answer questions if you have some at the end. UACT is becoming known as a prominent nonprofit, not just making a difference, but providing solutions to human trafficking, especially child trafficking, with a growing boots-on-the-ground force of leaders, survivors, and task forces. We bring awareness of child trafficking in five counties with plans to go statewide. We work with local law enforcement to turn in tips, the new AI technology that predators and traffickers are bombarding children with thousands of times per second on trending gaming platforms like Roblox, through apps like Snapchat, Wiz, Discord, Yupo, Perp, and many more that have to be constantly updated. As bots are programmed to seek children, to be constantly moving them into disappearing chat rooms from relationships, and talking them into sexting, sextortion, meeting them, and even suicide. We must inform parents, and we must engage our entire community to end this horrific crime. We work with Indian River and Martin County school districts, churches, organizations, and more to save children. Liz? Good morning, everyone. Hi, I'm Liz Murto. I am the county coordinator for U-ACT. I thank those who came to stand with us today. I thank for joining the army of educated people who are leading the way to save our children. You can join us at U-ACT.org and become part of our task forces. Thank you all. Have a blessed day. Good morning. St. Joe's Old School. Hello, I'm James Billig, chief compliance officer for the lead retired law enforcement U-ACT Blue Task Force. Our mission is to train law enforcement through 90-minute in-service blocks, followed by monthly real-time intel updates on the latest trends, online threats, case studies, and the rapidly growing reach of the 764 cult on our youth throughout the globe. Our intelligence is obtained through our nationwide partnerships with current and retired law enforcement professionals, local homeland security, and traffic survivors who are subject matter experts that provide invaluable life experience information to identify victims and predators. During the week of February 9th, we will kick off our program in the 19th, training all sworn personnel at the Stewart Police Department. Our goal is to apply our training and technology program to the 19th Judicial and the rest of the nation to create a single silo of real-time information to take this fight to the Predators' front door. We have documented over 60 arrests on the Trojan Coast over the past 18 months, assisting local law enforcement agencies. We look forward to increase that number tenfold and make the 19th the proactive standard throughout the United States. We are committed to ending this travesty and protecting our children. We thank you for your commitment to do the same. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Barletta. I know most of you, and thank you for having us today. It's greatly appreciated. This young man next to me is Joel Bailey. Joel is filming us for, obviously, the support that we want to have and share with people. Joel is a survivor against human trafficking, and I'm leading the men's task force to help that. So, together, we want to say to everyone we'd like to have everyone unite with us to fight human trafficking. Thank you today for being so gracious to us to come here. So, we only have one thing to say when it comes to child exploitation and child trafficking, and that is not on our watch. Thank you so much. Do you have any questions? I just have a comment, Madam Chair. Lynn and Tony Barletta have been at this very difficult job for a long, long time. Started with Catch the Wave of Hope. We're so fortunate in our community to have them and the folks that they have rallied to a horrible cause. It's a scourge, and I'm very frustrated when we hear people say, well, it doesn't happen on the Treasure Coast, or it doesn't happen in Martin. And you just heard the gentleman say they've had 60 arrests in 18 months. So, it definitely is happening here. And I know it's a tough fight, but thank God we have you guys, literally thank God we have you guys doing it. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's moving. I appreciate it. Jan. You're shadowing. Thank you so much. Commissioners, while they're breaking up, just as Ms. Barbella stated, that we have included the training for all our employees in our annual training for this program. So, just to give you a heads up that we just started that. Train all your employees in the county? Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. You're leading the way. Thank you. It's now time for Commissioner comments. Commissioner Vargas. Yes. All of us were in Tallahassee this week, which was a miracle. And, of course, we met with legislatures, had meetings with department heads. And, of course, constituents' concerns were raised, myself also. And so, I wish I'd been able to be at some of the other events here on the Treasure Coast, but was working hard up in Tallahassee for you. To the gentleman that talked about the parking situation, I'm already working on it. I started right out of the box last year when I first came aboard, and I already have plans for parking, lighting, and sidewalks. We've identified that as to be a problem. It's been continuing since before I got here, and hopefully we'll have a resolution imminently for this. So, I just want to assure those that enjoy going to Johnson Beach that you'll have proper parking, lighting, sidewalks, and it would be a great time for everyone. Thank you. Commissioner Kamps. On Saturday afternoon, I went to the Martin County Heritage Festival at Timer Powers Park. And I want to thank the Village of Indiantown and Terralago for their vision and major sponsorship for this family-friendly event. And I also want to thank the Degler family, a local family that runs fair events all over the country, for their key role in launching the festival. Martin County residents enjoy the rodeo at Timer Powers Park annually, and the Heritage Festival will be another great reason to enjoy the village each year. With the event stretching from Thursday to Sunday, I understand the attendance improved each day. And we wish the Martin County Heritage Festival much success as a major entertainment event in Martin County in the future. I thought I would mention a few things also about our trip to Tallahassee last week. And we joined all of our colleagues up here with other elected officials on the Treasure Coast and major business or key business leaders in our community in Tallahassee for the Treasure Coast Legislative Conference. It was great to hear from our state elected officials from the Treasure Coast, who I believe are good people with good hearts and who I have supported over the years. I would like to thank the Stewart Martin County Chamber for doing an excellent job organizing this experience for us. I left the conference on Thursday rather disturbed at some of the proposed bills in this legislative session regarding state control over local land use and local property taxes. Some of these bills go way too far and would be very damaging to Florida communities. I hope and pray that cooler heads will prevail in the end and that the bills that actually get passed are reasonable and do not put us in the awful situation where we can't solve pressing local problems. And I encourage our residents to pay attention to what's coming out of the legislature and to let your voices be heard. Thank you. Mr. Campy. Thank you. What I'm about to say is not a secret. Yesterday, her daughter at the City of Stewart Commission meeting shared with us some real sad news that our friend who had been to countless City of Stewart Commission meetings at Martin County Commission meetings, Helen McBride, had fallen down stairs last Thursday, suffered a stroke. She is still alive, but her prognosis is dim. They had transported her to hospice. She is not expected to live, but as far as last night was concerned, she was still alive. Her daughter did a beautiful tribute to her. I was shocked as I was watching the meeting live because Helen McBride, as her famous, I quote her all the time. She's from the City of Stewart, which is in Martin County. She has been around, raised her children here, and they're grown adults. After her husband passed away, she got very, very involved in lots of community groups, activities. She attends meetings. If you see the City of Stewart meets at night, sometimes their meetings go well after midnight. Most people have gone home. And if you look in the audience, Helen McBride, who's not a young woman, would still be sitting there from the beginning till the end. She was always, whether she agreed with an issue or not, she was always very courteous and loving and friendly, and I would count her as a pillar of our community. And it's a tragedy that she has gotten hurt in the way that she did and that most likely, you know, barring a miracle, most likely this will be the end of her life. And while I did hear something remarkable, that Commissioner Eula Clark went to visit her in hospice, and although I guess she is fading, she was still able to communicate, which is a beautiful blessing and a tribute to Helen McBride, that even as her days are ending, she was still able to communicate, because that's what she did so well. And I just wanted to send my thanks to her for elevating our community in such a way, and that to her family and those of us that care about her and her friends, that we're praying for her, and that if the only thing we're praying for is her peaceful transition to heaven where she has obviously earned her space, and the happy part is that she'll get to be with her husband again, who she obviously loved. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Camrington. I'm sorry to hear that, and I will give my condolences or prayers to her family. And I want to thank Angela Hoffman, who coordinated this year's Treasure Coast Legislative Days, because that is no easy task. It includes Martin County, St. Lucie County, and Indian River County. And as legislative session kicks off, it's really difficult to get your legislators in and out of there on time and speaking to a group of, I think we had 100 and some odd participants. So thank you for the job you did and representing Martin County this year in Treasure Coast Legislative Days and encourage all of our residents to watch and pay attention. And thanks to Sarah Powers and John Mayle, because if you were up there and you actually watched some of the bills on the floors in the committees, I watched Dana Tribalzi present a bill, and there must have been 10 amendments during that committee hearing. So if you think of all the bills, and as Commissioner Cavs just said, and the changing, it's a tough job to watch all those amendments go through with how many bills do we have? 1,000? 3,000? 3,000? 3,000? 3,000? 1,000? 3,000? So good work to our legislative team, and thank you for all you do during this fast-paced legislative session. Mr. Donaldson. Ms. Thomas today, thank you. Ms. Elder. And I just want to say that our annual integrated delivery schedule was released on Friday. That's the schedule for the Everglades restoration projects. It includes both the state and the federal and other contributions to Everglades' progress. And I am concerned that some of the Martin County Indian River Lagoon South projects slipped this year. That's of enormous concern to me. Indian River Lagoon South was one of the first CERP projects that was authorized into law. It was authorized early because it was urgent. There was an ecosystem, our local ecosystem was in imminent threat of collapse. So all of the water quality improvements that are contained in Indian River Lagoon South are contained in all the follow-on projects and are modeled and promised to be completed. So until and unless all of Indian River Lagoon South is completed, the modeling and the promises that were made in the rest of the projects will not be achieved. So we need to be vigilant about making sure that the state and the federal ledgers continue to include and complete Indian River Lagoon South. And also, the state has an incomparable opportunity with Martin County. We have a half-cent sales tax, conservation sales tax, and one of the projects that is included in that is Indian River Lagoon South, our natural lands. And the monies that Martin County potentially contributes toward the purchase of these lands gets put on the state's leisure as theirs. So we're promising to make a huge contribution to Everglades, continue making a huge contribution to Everglades restoration. So we need to make sure that those projects stay calendared for completion. Anything else? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Next, we'll take up board and committee appointments. The first is to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board appointments. Do you have voting sheets? Yes. No, no, no. I didn't do something right. Why don't you take up the public hearings first? Okay. We're going to take up public hearing number one, which is a legislative public hearing to consider approval of Comprehensive Plan Amendment CPA 25-04 Accessory Dwelling Units, a text amendment. Good morning. My name is Amy Offenbach, planner with the Martin County Growth Management Department. Ms. Offenbach, do you have your, do you have your, can you hear me? No. Can you press your, is your green light on? Hello? Okay. Yes. Okay. Better. So again, my name is Amy Offenbach, planner with the Martin County 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 County Commissioners, and this is the final adoption hearing. Proof of public notice was included in the work file. And by the way, today is January 27th, 2026. Yes, it is. So the request is to change Chapter 2 and 4 of the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, and this amendment is concurrent with proposed amendments to the land development regulations, which implement the Comprehensive Plan, which will be presented in a separate hearing next. So an accessory dwelling unit is essentially a guest house that has been permitted for a very long time in the Comprehensive Plan and the LDRs. And the existing term accessory dwelling unit will be updated, which will represent living quarters, additional living quarters on single-family lots. And the new term employee dwelling units will be added to describe living quarters on non-residential lots, which has also been permitted for a very long time as workman's or custodian's quarters. In Chapter 4, under Goal 4.9, a policy will be added for accessory dwelling units to contain the criteria for ADUs on residential properties. And another policy will be added for employee dwelling units to include direction for EDUs on non-residential properties. Under Goal 4.13, a line of text will be added to permit ADUs and future land use designations that permit single-family dwellings, excluding the mobile home future land use. Also under 4.13, a line of text will be added to permit ADUs and future land use designations that permit living quarters on non-residential properties. And so this was considered on December 4, 2025, by the local planning agency, which voted 4-0 to recommend approval. And the BCC voted 3-2 to transmit to the state and local agencies on December 9, 2025. And today is the final approval for this amendment. 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. More restrictive or burdensome requirements are not imposed. And the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, as well as the local planning agency, supports staff's recommendation. And this concludes the presentation. State agencies? Yes. The state agencies have not objected or provided any comments for staff. Any questions or comments for staff? I believe we have a request to speak from the public. Mr. Ranieri, would you like to address us? Good timing. Yeah, it is. Morning, Commissioners. For the record, Rob Ranieri, Stuart resident and CEO for House of Hope. So we've had the opportunity at House of Hope, our housing committee, to work closely with the staff through this process about ADUs. As I'm sure many of you are aware, the state legislator, there's actually a bill moving through Tallahassee that covers a lot of these same issues. So Martin County will be ahead of the curve on this, which is a good spot to be. As far as the need goes, housing is really one of the biggest challenges that our community is facing, especially our lower-income community. There's just no place for people to be that's affordable. You know, the financial recommendations are that 30% of your income should be spent on housing. I can tell you at House of Hope, we don't have any clients that are there. It's 50% to 80%, and that puts people in that cycle that they just can't break free from, that pushes people and keeps people in poverty. Several years ago, there was a joint meeting, and Commissioner Campy then spoke. He gave the starfish story analogy, and I think that really still rings true. We need as many tools in the toolkit as we can to make an impact on the housing crisis in our community. This will give you one of those tools for sure. This will help us to be able to have places to put seniors that are struggling to make ends meet on fixed income, young people that want to stay in the community, single moms that are trying to rebuild and come out of, you know, places like Safe Spaces Shelter. We don't have a place to put those folks safely and to help them, you know, live in decent conditions. So this is a great tool for that. The last time this came to you all, I think from the dais there was a concern that this would change how communities look. It can't. You guys have built-in things in your code that prevent that. We still have to abide with this by all the rules and regulations around setbacks, around well and septic, parking. None of that changes, so it won't change the face of communities. If we're lucky over years, maybe we'll have a few hundred of these. But to the starfish analogy, that's a few hundred people that are living safely and properly and are a valuable and functioning part of our community. So I think this is a good step towards all of that. The staff has done fantastic work on it. I want to tip my hat to everyone that's been involved in that, and hopefully this continues to move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Capps. Yes, I had a question or two for staff. Can you refresh our memories of what the rules have been regarding ADUs up to this point, before we take a vote on this issue, in the CRAs and also in the non-CRA areas of the county? What are the basic rules? Clyde Doolin, for the record. Commissioner, there's been kind of differences between the CRA and the rest of the unincorporated areas. The CRA regulations have allowed ADUs explicitly and allowed them to be used as rentals ever since the CRAs came into place. Going back to 1967, guest houses were the term used for all the other single-family dwellings throughout unincorporated Martin County. You could have a guest house, but you couldn't rent the guest house. And in both the CRA and in the case of guest houses, it's capped at a maximum of half of the primary dwelling. So that's basically what's been allowed for decades is both guest houses and CRAs, ADUs. And they've always been allowed. And what we're doing here is we're cleaning up the terminology and making the permitted uses pretty much the same. You know, all single-family zoning districts, agricultural zoning districts that allow single-family dwellings are going to be allowed to have an ADU that can be rented. And just as the CRAs, allow ADUs that can be rented. So really, the biggest thing about this new amendment that we're getting ready to vote on is that the guest house, what used to be called a guest house, or what has been called a guest house, half the size of the main house, technically is not supposed to have been rented out to other people up to this point. Probably a lot of people violate those rules, but the main thing is that those people will be able to rent those out now, and they don't have to, you know, have a bad conscience for violating the rules anymore. And I think that's a good thing, because I don't like laws that penalize honest people. You know, every now and then you run up against a law like that, where the sincere individual who says, oh, I guess I'll let my guest house just sit in the backyard and no one will be in it for like five years because I'm really not supposed to rent it. And I think that's kind of unfortunate, you know, whereas most everyone else just rents them out and doesn't worry about it. But anyway, so with that, I would move approval. Second. Commissioner Hetherington. Rob mentioned some of the legislation in Tallahassee, and since we just came back from Tallahassee last week, one conversation that is very consistent up in Tallahassee from the governor's office down to each legislative delegation and across party lines is that Florida needs to address, and not just Florida, but the nation needs to address affordable housing and workforce housing. So regardless of the areas that people represent, that was a very consistent conversation. If you watch some of the gubernatorial candidates, they're talking about how they're going to do this. And if local governments don't, like us, look at ways that we can do it that fits the character of our community, then you are going to have the top-down approach where Tallahassee is going to tell us how we're doing it. So I think this is a step in the right direction. It's a small step, but it's a step in the right direction to prevent some of the mandated types of affordable housing and to show to Tallahassee that we are trying to solve some of the problems. So if you just let local work on solving the problems locally, then we will do it. So I would do you second it? So I will gladly support this. Commissioner Campy. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy that we're here today. I remember when we started discussing this several years ago, and I want to, you know, Rob Ranieri is very generous with his appreciation and thanks of our staff, which I completely agree with. And the committee, there's an internal committee of affordable housing that operates within the government structure, but there's also a grassroots committee made up of professionals in the industry, other elected officials, not-for-profits, even builders that were working on a whole bunch of different opportunities and options for us. But Rob doesn't take the credit himself, which I would like to give him, because as the CEO of the House of Hope, he's on the front lines with people that are coming in, that are struggling with housing issues, that are struggling with feeding their families or commuting to a job if they have it, because they don't have the proper housing. I think one area, when people think of housing, they might not correlate the two together, but there is a frustration about the traffic that people are experiencing in Martin County, and research has shown us that a lot of that traffic is people commuting in and out of the county. If you can't afford to live close to where you work, you're on the roads longer, and by distance and time, nearly 50,000 people that live outside the county commute in every morning to jobs here. A lot of them would love to live here in Martin County, can't. 25,000 or so people that live here in the county commute out. That's a job issue. So I think this also, although, as Commissioner Hetherington said, it's a small step, but just because it's a small step doesn't mean we shouldn't be taking them. And all of my colleagues and I, as you heard when we were in Tallahassee, the universal message, bipartisan message, is housing, housing, housing. And, you know, Martin County is not known, obviously, for rolling out the red carpet for development at any type. But if we don't address these housing issues here with a, you know, local rule and local input, Tallahassee has no problem doing it for us. We had a gentleman speak to us from the housing committee's department, and he was saying, as Mr. Ranieri said, is the state is already addressing this, and I felt comfortable that we were at least three or four meetings or steps ahead of what will definitely come to Tallahassee. And I think when we're nervous about the heavy-handedness of a statewide thing, if we don't address some of these issues and show that we are at least addressing the easiest of the issues, not that putting this together was easy, but the least impact, we have a reputation of not wanting to really participate, not so much at the county level, but maybe more at a municipal level. But that being said, they will. So I think this at least gives us some credibility to say we are addressing these issues here at home, and I appreciate that Commissioner Capps made the motion, stole it from me, but at least I got in on the second. But I think it will send a nice message to the folks that would be involved, and Commissioner Capps mentioned it. It legitimizes this process that some people had been doing anyway, which then protects the landlord and the tenant, but also the neighbors. So if there was concern from my colleagues at the last meeting that how would this disrupt neighborhoods, I don't think it does. You know, I think, if anything, it allows for a more regulated process. It allows for the county's departments to come in and legitimize this process, and it will add, as Mr. Ranieri said, hundreds, if not hopefully over the course of a decade, a thousand units that won't really be noticeable. It won't be the same thing as building four-story, big rectangles projects that maybe at some point will be a conversation, but this will give Martin County, you know, they always talk about supply and demand. It will give us some supply, which maybe will ease some of the burdens of how high rents are getting, because if you don't have them, then people can charge whatever they want. And finally, that people don't think about is if you are the landlord in a situation, it eases your financial burden of trying to pay everything that just keeps going up and up and up. So I think it's a win-win-win, and I look forward to a unanimous decision, if possible. Thank you. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah. I'm having an extensive real estate background, I think more than anybody here on this commission, not just here but across the state, I'm very well aware of the housing, lack of affordable housing. I think my concern is that, and I was in Tallahassee, and we talked about ad valorem taxes, and we talked about housing, we talked about a number of issues also. Martin County will not be stepping in to dictate what a landlord will be able to charge or not charge. Is that my understanding? That's correct. Okay. Because that then I could not agree to. And a landlord will make it, or a landlady will make a decision what they feel is feasible, and they will make the transaction directly with the tenant. I just wanted to be sure about that. Correct. Because that's extremely important. I was concerned about the character and the culture of the different neighborhoods to have these accessory dwelling units. Now starting to possibly take shape in our county. Everybody would like to live next door to where they work. That's fine. But that's not always possible. And we see the line of cars going into Palm Beach County in the morning and coming back in the afternoon or the other way also, depending on where you desire to work and live. So, again, I just wanted to make that statement that we are not aiding, we are not changing, we are not encumbering anybody insofar as the financial ramifications. And if somebody decides they want to rent a property behind their home, falls in lines with what your department has dictated and told us here, then that's fine. Just wanted to clarify that one point, though. Yeah, I certainly understand that there is an affordable housing problem in Martin County and that we need to address it, but this is not the way that I would do it. It goes way too far. It creates, there aren't enough protections. There are no setback protections. There are no parking requirements. There's no limit on the number of bedrooms. You can have six unrelated people living in the rental unit. You can have six unrelated people living in the main unit. These don't count toward the density. There are no requirements for septic system capacities. This will pass, I'm confident. And when you start getting complaints from your neighbors that there are 12 unrelated people living in the house and guest house next to you, you're going to be required to say, yeah, that's okay. Yeah, we approved that. We made that possible. So there are a lot of potential for abuse here, for landlord abuse, and I think it is going to change our neighborhoods. We used to not allow the main house to be, the owner had to live in that house and couldn't rent, and now you're going to have the ability to rent both the main house and the rental house, and that is going to change the character. And I don't know how you go about dealing with septic tank capacities when you've got an unknown, kind of unlimited number of people living in those two units. So I'm unfortunately not going to be able to support this. I look forward to better solutions. Commissioner Vargas. You know, I was one of those, I think at the last meeting, check my voting record, that was very concerned about this because I did see this. I started my career in Miami-Dade County, and it just mushroomed with folks that were unrelated. They all worked together, but they're all in one house, and they could create a nuisance. Where's our teeth after this? I mean, it's all fine, and everybody has very prosaic speeches here, but it needs to be tightened up insofar as what the restrictions are and how they're going to be accommodated because a landlord is very happy to take the rent that they can get. If that means four, five, six people living in two bedrooms, so be it. And I've seen this with my own eyes. So I think that we need to do more work on this. I know everybody's, you know, enthused about just getting this through, but I think we need to go back and strike and add whatever is necessary. Believe me, my heart goes out to people who don't have housing, but the government must be very careful because I would say myself, I want to know what's happening to my neighborhood. That's my investment. That's my investment. And it's going to be an objection when I try and sell the property down the line if we don't tackle these issues right now. Any further comment? Mr. Brown, did you want to speak on this item? Okay. Any further comment? There's a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. That motion passes 3-2 with Commissioners Hurd and Vargas dissenting. Ms. Gordon, would you like to take up the board appointments now or would you like to wait? Continue. Then we'll take up public hearing number two, which is a legislative public hearing to consider an ordinance amending Article 3, Zoning Districts, Land Development Regulations, Martin County Code regarding accessory dwelling units. Ms. Offenbach. Hello. My name is Amy Offenbach, planner with the Martin County Growth Management Department. This is LDR 25-03, Proposed Text Amendments for Accessory Dwelling Units. This was initiated by the Board of County Commissioners, and proof of public notice is included in the work file. So this request is to amend Article 3, Divisions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 of the Land Development Regulations. And this is a brief overview of the proposed changes. And there is another public hearing required by state statutes. This is not for approval today. So Section 3.3, the Glossary of Terms, the term Accessory Dwelling Units from the Comp Plan will be replacing the term Guest House. And the new term Employee Dwelling Units will be added to the existing definitions of living quarters on non-residential properties. In Section 3.11, the permitted use tables will be updated to allow ADUs in all zoning districts that permit single-family dwellings, excluding the mobile home districts. And the term Employee Dwelling Units will be added to the tables to represent the already permitted living quarters on non-residential properties. In Section 3.51, the standards for specific uses will be updated to include the criteria from the Comp Plan for ADUs on residential properties and use the existing criteria for ADUs on non-residential properties. And in Section 3.201C, the text-permitting guest houses will be replaced with text-permitting ADUs. And in Section 3.403, the terms defined for 1967 zoning districts, the term Accessory Dwelling Units will replace the term Guest House, the term Employee Dwelling Units will be added, and the definition of family will be updated from four to five unrelated persons to be consistent with Section 3.3. And this was considered on December 4, 2025, by the local planning agency, which voted four to zero to recommend approval. Again, this is the first consideration of this amendment, and another public hearing is required. And so this is not to approve today. The staff recommends holding the second hearing on February 24, 2026, at a time prior to 5 p.m. This concludes the presentation. Questions for staff. Commissioner Capps. Just for the public's benefit, can you explain why we have a second public hearing here, and this one's about the ordinance, whereas the prior one we just dealt with was a comp plan amendment, text amendment. Why do we have two hearings on the subject? So the first hearing was for the comprehensive plan amendment, and we had already held the first meeting, and today was the adoption of the comprehensive plan amendment. This is the first hearing for the land development regulations plan or amendment. So state requires a second public hearing for any actions that update the permitted uses of the land development regulations. Commissioner, I think to add a little bit to that, make a distinction, the comp plan is the policy document that outlines what's permitted and what's allowed, and it's the Bible, if you will, for development in Martin County. But the land development regulations go into the details. They get into the nitty-gritty of setbacks and building heights and open space and building coverage and a lot more detail than the comp plan goes into. And so this is your opportunity to delve into the finer points. For instance, the comp plan didn't talk about the number of persons per household, but the LDR deals with the definition of family, and currently we have two glossaries, one for our older code requirements and one for our newer code requirements. It's five persons is a family, is a five unmarried and not unrelated by blood or marriage is the definition for your regular Category A zoning districts. Your old Category C zoning districts, the definition is four persons who are unrelated by blood or marriage. And so what we're doing here with this is making consistent in both portions of Article III of the land development regulations that it's five persons in either the older or the newer zoning districts. That's an example of the nitty-gritty that the LDRs go into that the comp plan does not go into. Thank you. Can I make one more comment about the ADU issue in general? And perhaps this will calm the concerns of some people. I think the cost of construction is so prohibitive these days that I would be surprised if a lot of people build ADUs in their backyards. I heard a story recently about a guy who built a very small one in a CRA area. I think it was just like 900 or 1,000 square feet. And the guy had $240,000 into the construction of this little place in the backyard. And, you know, with the rule that we can go up to half the size of the main house, like say somebody had a 3,500-square-foot house, they could build a 750-square-foot house in the backyard. That would probably cost $1,750 square feet. That would probably cost $400,000 or $500,000 to build. I don't think they're going to be popping up all over the place. Probably the main thing that will happen from this is that perhaps a few people who already have guest houses will rent them out, ones that have just been sitting there dormant and not being used. I think that will be the main effect of this ordinance. Employee dwelling units shall be permitted only as part of a non-residential development, such as but not limited to a marina, residential storage facility, or manufacturing use. So these are only for land uses where residences are not permitted. Yes, ma'am, the EDU. So how can you permit up to three units on a lot that prohibits residential development at all? Well, the comp plan has for many years allowed what we've called night watchman's quarters or watchman's quarters, two different terms have actually been used in two different land use designations, have permitted that in the industrial land use designations, for instance, for many years. And then the zoning code, the land development regulations, went into the detail of allowing the two units within, say, an industrial or a commercial site. And so we are just formalizing that and re-identifying it as EDU instead of watchman's quarters. We're not changing it, making it expanding the use or contracting the use. We're just really just giving it a more consistent name between both the comp plan and the LDR. Okay. So if we're allowing in non-residential land uses and zoning districts, we're allowing residential units, how are we counting the densities? Well, if there's a density, such as the commercial office residential or the marine waterfront commercial, there is a density provision already in that land use designation. If there's no density, the maximum is going to be the two units. So we're going to count two units, even though we allow three? No. If in, say, industrial, where there is no density provision, you're going to be only two units. It says that in no case shall there be more than three? I'm sorry. You're right. Three, Commissioner. That's been provided in the LDR. Okay, so if we have a manufacturing use and we allow three units to be built there for three families, how do we count the density? There is no density. It's just those three units that are permitted. Okay. If they conform to the development standards of the zoning district, they would have to conform to the setbacks and what have you. We have to count density, and we're not. We're just saying, okay, there's no density on that lot, even though there are three units on it, and there could potentially be, there's no limit on how many people could be dwelling in those three units. There is a definition of family, which has five persons. Okay, so we can put 15 people on a non-residential lot? That is conceivably possible right now, Commissioner. Commissioner Vargas. I think it was the second quarter of last year, but certainly can be verified. Whoever wants to do that is that we approved in Hope Sound a golf club that had housing for its employees, did we not? So that's different than what we're talking about here. Absolutely. They're all unrelated, and they put in the number of employees that they agreed to house on the property for convenience or, you know, for fiscal soundness for that particular organization. So I understand Chairwoman Hurd's concerns, and, again, this goes to my previous comments. I saw this happen in another county and many more. I think it really needs to be tightened up. Otherwise, we're going to have a lot of people just, hate to use the word, crammed into housing, and that's just the way it is. I mean, people try and economize as best as they can. And if the county has no regulation, no stipulation, then you can't go out and say anything. And it could be something that could be affecting other property owners there. I know that you can put up to three units commercial, but what's the regulation? Do you have any thoughts about this? If this is on, good morning, Commissioner. It's Paul Schilling, Growth Management Director, for the record. I think we, in my time here, which is approaching two decades, we've had one instance, I believe, with quarters, which are on top of a storage facility. I believe it's located south of Cove Road. That's the only one I'm aware of. I think this is an envision to have, if you can envision maybe a larger industrial building or a corporate headquarters that is constructed with all the requirements of Article 10 and all of our land development regulations, goes through the site planning process, and happens to have a couple units. And those units could either be freestanding or they could be within the building. So they may have on the second story, if you can imagine, three units that are fully functional. You can envision a hotel or apartment. But the primary use of that site is not residential. It's either industrial or commercial. It may happen to be a doctor who comes from out of town, who has a practice at the hospital. And as part of his corporate headquarters there practice, he constructs a residential unit within that building. That's how it's envisioned. That's my understanding. I'm not aware of any other instances. I could stand corrected. But not that we actually have residential units within an industrial park or a commercial office, with the exception, of course, of mixed-use approvals. So if that helps. Commissioner Campy. Thank you. I think, obviously, from the last agenda item in this one, there is a difference of opinion of the five of us. You can look and say, well, you know, this terrible thing could happen or this terrible thing could happen. Or you could look at it like this is just an opportunity and an option that we're adding to the county. I trust, and this has been universal, I have complete trust in the fact that our staff has reviewed this up and down through multiple different professionals. It's gone through legal with more than one person in our legal department getting an opportunity to review it. It was then sent up to Tallahassee to be reviewed by a different group of professionals, the last. So it's just a difference of opinion, and I don't think that those that are opposed will change the minds of those that are for it, and I don't think those that are for it will change the minds of those that are opposed. I feel comfortable that the process worked. I look to this as an advantage. As we were saying, it's just another small benefit and opportunity for Martin County, and so I would make the motion to accept staff's recommendation and send it on. I don't believe, do you need to have a supermajority to have it before 5? Yes. So I don't think we'll be having it before 5, but we'll have it after 5 when it comes back in February. Okay. Well, staff is portraying this as, you know, in a rosy way. You know, your example of a doctor building living quarters on top of his office is a pretty rosy outlook. But what I see each day as I go home along Commerce Boulevard, there's a warehouse that doesn't look like a very safe place to live, but there are children's playthings outside in the yard parking lot, and I suspect that those are needy people who have been forced into substandard housing. And this, unfortunately, I don't want to direct needy people into substandard housing, and this gives permission and also doesn't count them. So I won't be supporting this. Any further comments? Is there a motion and a second? I have a motion. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Opposed? That motion passes 3 to 2 with Commissioners Hurd and Vargas dissenting. Thank you, members of the board. Thank you. Can I clarify for the record what the motion is? Are we motioning to have it after 5? Yes. Okay. I thought that it was at the next meeting. So, yeah, for the next meeting, the public hearing will have to be held after 5 o'clock per the Florida statute. So you guys, the motion did not pass, so it will be after 5 o'clock. Well, it passed. It didn't pass with the supermajority. Right. According to the statute, it has to be supermajority. Okay. It will be after 5 o'clock. But it didn't pass. It passed. It will be. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. I'm trying to get clarification here. I'm speaking with the county attorney. Relax. The motion was to hold the second public hearing before 5 o'clock because the statute requires the second public hearing to be after 5 o'clock. That motion did not pass. There will be a second public hearing. It will just be held after 5 o'clock on February 24th, I believe. So the board will have to. Okay. So it didn't pass. All right. Correct. That's all I need to clarify. No, it passed. But we're going to. Supermajority. Right. Is this the way all the ordinances work as far as the after 5 o'clock thing? No. So when you amend your land development regulations, normally you only have to have one public hearing at any time. But there is a statutory provision that if you change the permitted uses, if there's a rezoning of a certain size and a couple other things that require two public hearings and one has to be after 5 o'clock. This falls within that limited exception. So we would have to hold the second public hearing after 5 o'clock. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We will now. Should we take up board appointments now? The first is a board and committee appointments for the park and recreation advisory board appointments. And we need to appoint two at-large members. And from your voting sheets, Mr. Fred Bowen-Smith received four votes. Mr. Gary Clough received four votes. Is there a motion to approve? I'll move approval of Gary Clough and Fred Bowen-Smith. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. And we need to do Commissioner Hurd's representative, Larry Sofield. And did somebody move that? I'll move approval of Larry Sofield. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. I don't have all the sheets for the next one. Okay. Whoever hasn't turned in their historic preservation board appointments sheets, please do. Whose are you missing? Commissioner Capps. Commissioner Capps. Go to the back of the box. He's holding out. Okay. Two members, two positions did not require you all to vote on because there was one position per, one applicant per category. That's Joette Lauren Rice and Sherry Lee and then your four applicants, four at-large. Mr. Duet Price received four votes and Mrs. Terry Dooley received three votes. Okay. Is there a motion to appoint? I make a motion to accept, appoint Terry Dooley and reappoint Duet Price to the at-large members of the historic preservation. And to reappoint Sherry A. Lee and Joette Price. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Ms. Gordon. Let's see. Shall we take up Department 1 before the break? Sure. Good morning, Ms. Murley. Good morning. Stephanie Murley, Director of OMB, here to present four items on OMB today. Our first item is a permission to sign a maintenance agreement required for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program or the HMGP through FDEM for the Bessie Creek Retrofit Project. Our Public Works Department is requesting authorization for $5,625,000 to sign a maintenance agreement to accept responsibility for the routine maintenance of four drainage crossings in the Palm City Farms watershed. There would be a required county match of $1,875,000, which is budgeted within our Stormwater Capital Improvement Plan. Item number two is a permission to apply for the U.S. Department of Transportation, better utilizing investments to leverage development or the BUILD grant program for the Golden Gate Multimodal Corridor and Drainage Resilience Project. Our Office of Community Development is requesting a grant funding in the amount of $3,860,000 to fund the final design and permitting of the Golden Gate Multimodal Corridor and Drainage Resilience Project. This project will integrate complete street elements and also strengthen connectivity toward the Golden Gate Stormwater Treatment Area. There is a grant match of $964,876, which is a combination of in-kind match through staff salaries and fringe benefits. And the remainder of $476,376 is a partnership between the Golden Gate Tax Increment Financing, or TIF funds, and our Ecosystem Management Capital Improvement Plan. Before we go on, this is such an ambitious and comprehensive project. It's an example of really fine forward thinking. This is going to improve quality of life in Golden Gate so much. So great job. Item number three is a permission to apply for the Drug-Free Communities Support Program Grant for year six. Our Human Services Department is requesting funding to support year six through ten continuation for the goals and efforts of the Martin County Community Action Coalition. They're requesting $125,000 per year for the next five years. There are grant match that are corresponding to the grant awards that are met through in-kind match and opioid settlement funds that are programmed within our Human Services Division. These funds establish and strengthen community collaboration in support of local efforts to prevent youth substance use. And lastly, we have our permission to accept the Florida Department of Transportation Public Transportation Grant for the Vehicle Gate and Security Improvements at the Martin County Airport. Our airport is requesting the grant award of $120,000 to install additional airport perimeter access controls, security gate, and security equipment to prevent direct access to the airport movement area. There is a local match of 20% or $30,000 that would be required, and it is programmed within the Airport Capital Improvement Plan. And that's all I have for you today. Questions for Ms. Murley? Commissioner Camps. I'd like to take you back to the first one. Sure. And I'd like to learn a little more about the relationship between the federal government and the state government and how they fund these grants. I think this is interesting. There's a reference to the Florida Department of Emergency Management, FDEM, but it appears that the money is actually coming from the federal government. And it's interesting how so many local things are actually paid for by the federal government. It's probably why we're like sinking as a country, but we don't make the rules, right? And it's our job to apply for the grants. But if you could comment a little bit about the federal role in some of these grants. Sure. Jim Gorton, Public Works Director. The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is a federal program where if you are impacted by a disaster, 10% of the cost of that disaster is put in a fund to be used only for mitigation purposes. So if you're a Tier 1 community, if you're impacted directly by a hurricane, you get first shot at those funds, and it filters down to a Tier 2 if you're not directly impacted but slightly impacted. Or if you weren't impacted at all, you turn into a Tier 3, and you can go after any funding that is available in the state of Florida. Florida Department of Emergency Management is the one that administers that federal program. So we actually apply to the state to get that HMGB funding. And for this particular project, the reason it's available for mitigation funds is because of flooding that occurs. And especially when you have periods of king tides or storm surge related to a storm, the area in Palm City Farms can't drain because the water levels are too high in the downstream areas. So this specific project will allow us to install increased capacity underneath some of the roads. Yeah, that was going to be my next question about maybe talking just a little bit more about some of the problems that have resulted from Bessie Creek. Is it mainly because of vegetation in the water channels or the creeks or the ditches? No, it's not vegetation. It's capacity. So there's pipes that are downstream that are too small for the current land use. When it was undeveloped and it was just completely, truly agged and not farmed as heavily as it is now, that area would flood. It's part of a special flood hazard area. And the pastures would flood for a period of time, and then it would drain down. The current land use with five-acre tracks, with homes on each one, and people have cattle and horses and things like that, they're really sensitive to that cyclical flooding that occurs because you can't let your horses or livestock have wet hooves for any period of time. So the sense that it is always flooded in the past, but the sensitivity to that is higher now. And those crossings that are downstream create a restriction that causes staging of water upstream. So if we can increase, we're going to change out some pipes and turn them into bridges, and it's going to allow that water to pass through much faster. And it will greatly benefit the areas upstream. Great. Thank you. Any further questions? Motion to accept Ms. Merle's presentation. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. I think we can take up Department 2 before our break. Contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of a million dollars or greater. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. Tasha Sapp, Procurement Supervisor. I do have three items for your consideration today. The first one is State Road 714 Southeast Monterey Road and County Road A1A Multimodal Pathway. The recommended action is move that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, JW Cheatham LLC, in the amount of $1,493,276.20, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. The second one is the Holt Correctional Security Fencing Replacement. Recommended action is move that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, Phoenix Fence Corp., in the amount of $1,199,336.60. Move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. And the last one is a continuing services contract for Parks Landscape Maintenance Services. The maximum not to exceed value is $4 million for a maximum not to exceed term of five years. Recommended action is move that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, Turfscape Enterprises LLC, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. Questions? Commissioner Katz. Yes, on the second one, which is the Holt Correctional Security Fencing Replacement, it looks like we're paying for that one completely, $1.2 million. I'm curious as to why we couldn't find a grant for part of that. Is there any particular, just nothing available probably? This project, Sean Donahue, General Services Director, this project started back in 2018. I don't know if we did grant research for it back then. It was funded, you know, at a $2.4 million project. And we've eaten into that a little bit with fence projects along the way. This is the final component of it. Since we've hit this budget several times over the years, I don't think we'd be eligible to get grants, you know, in midstream, mid-project. So I don't know exactly what happened before that, but for right now, this is where we are. Commissioner, typically the only grants that are available for jails is for expansions. Operations and maintenance rehabilitations are typically not covered. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? Do we have a motion for approval? I'll move approval. And just a comment, I'd like that we're seeing a lot more competition. So there are six, seven, five, six bidders on each project. So I think that gives a competitive advantage for taxpayers when people are bidding. So, good. Second. There's a motion and a second to all those in favor. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll now take a break. We'll be back in 10 minutes to take up a presentation of Martin County Western Land. She doesn't mess around. Western Land Studies. Looks like Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and Growth Management are going to take us through this. Tag team. Good morning, members of the board. Clyde Doolin, for the record. As you know, the board initiated a study of sorts. And we engaged the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council to go back and do a review of the past studies that have been done in Martin County, focusing on Western lands and on the future, potential conservation and protection and management relative to our urban service districts. And so the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council has completed their analysis, and they have it here for presentation. And with me is Tom Lanahan, from the Executive Director of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. So I'll let him take it away. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Again, Tom Lanahan, Executive Director of Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. So, yes, the county did commission us to study, basically study of studies, study the previous Western lands. Studies have been done here in the county, and there are many of them. Look at the goals and strategies that were identified in those. What's the status of those different strategies? Have they been started? Have they been accomplished? Have they not? Map the preserve areas across the county of all different flavors, and there's many different types. Look at some other ideas from other places that maybe have similar circumstances or have effective strategies. Look at the strategies not undertaken. Kind of list those out for you. And then identify some potential next steps. So we're going to go through that in the presentation here. You all have in your agenda packet the report and the voluminous attachment of the list of all the different goals and strategies, and so how do I, I can use the key, oh, look, oh, the mouse over here. Okay, I'll use the keys. So the past studies that we looked at, the 2020 vision for a sustainable Martin County, that was done in 1999. The comprehensive Everglades restoration plan has some effects here in the county. That's from 2000s. That's 25 years now. The Martin St. Lucie Regional Land Use Study from 2002. Rural and Agricultural Lands Inventory of 2003. Rural Land Symposium of 2003. Sustainable Treasure Coast 2005. Development Patterns Study of 2007. Land Protection Incentives Amendment of 2008. St. Lucie Basin Management Action Plan 2013. Rural Lifestyle Land Use Presentation that Treasure Coast did, so we looked at our own thing, 2022. And then the Martin 2040, the Western Land Study of 2024 that 1,000 Friends and the Guardians of Martin County worked on. This is just an example. I don't expect you to be able to read this, but this is just an example of the spreadsheet of identifying all the different goals and recommendations, what is the status, what are some of the circumstances with it, et cetera. So each of the various studies had numerous pages of these things, these goals in them. So just highlighting some of the things relative to some of the different studies. And the green is progress has happened, and the orange is either not implemented or maybe limited progress, or you chose not to do it. So looking at the 2020 vision for a sustainable Martin County, there's been meaningful progress through land acquisition, establishment of the CRAs, and design standards towards the goals that were in there. Some of the key sustainability indicators that were identified in there have not been fully implemented. There were challenges with gathering some of the data. Some of the data was initially being monitored and just hasn't been since then. And some of the data just isn't obtainable. It was private information, for example. You know, how many properties have property insurance on them? The government can't obtain that readily. It's private information. Comprehensive Everglades restoration plan. Significant progress on important projects. Allapatta Flats, the C44. Other projects are partially complete or in planning or, you know, maybe need some prioritization, like was mentioned this morning. Martin St. Lucie Regional Land Use Study, enhanced multimodal infrastructure and redevelopment is underway, plus new mixed-use communities like Newfield were realized. So both of those concepts are things that were called out in that study. There's currently minimal connectivity requirements among parcels and a lack of financial incentives for infill. Those were things that were called for in this study that maybe aren't being fully accomplished. Rural and agricultural lands inventory. Land inventory and agriculture economic analysis were completed, plus the wetland and upland protection policies are in place. The county does not, however, have a TDR, Transfer Development Rights Program, and no comprehensive agricultural zoning framework and limited agricultural incentives. So, you know, one of the ideas for western land preservation is facilitating agricultural activity to continue supporting that, having a good framework to make them welcome and make them continue to be productive. Rural Land Symposium, there's been progress in preserving agricultural lands. We've seen that. However, there's lacking in early engagement for farmers in different processes, limited, again, local financial incentives, and need to integrate agricultural activity more effectively into planning. Sustainable Treasure Coast. Clustering tools were established. The rural lifestyle designation implements some of the ideas from that 2005 study. Wetland buffers were advanced. 71,000 acres have been preserved in the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which is something that was called for back in 2005. Again, the TDRs are not in place. There's no rural preservation acreage target. So the 2005 study said there should be targets. You all don't have any. There's no payment for ecosystem services. No comprehensive agricultural viability strategy. So that was something that, in evaluating these different goals, I didn't mention this, but I should, we met with numerous people. We met multiple times with growth management. We met with Business Development Board. We met with your environmental services folks, and, you know, just trying to evaluate, okay, there's all these different goals. Who is working on them, and what is the progress on them? And so the agriculture as an economic engine in the county, something we identified in talking with Business Development Board, doesn't have as much effort behind it as some of the other more industrial-type economic engines in the county. And so that's something to think about as you move forward. Development Patterns Study had a lot of concern about the 20-acre and 5-acre ranchette pattern, which can be considered sprawl, and effectiveness of incentives for clustering. Land Protection Incentives Amendment, the Valley Area Amendment from 2008, it was adopted, encouraging permanent preservation. It had clustering tools in it. However, it hasn't ever been implemented. In talking with staff, they feel it has a lot of procedural complexity, and the incentives are not compelling, and so that's why no one has taken it up. St. Lucie Basin Management Action Plan, there's been substantial progress on nutrient reduction and water storage goals, tens of thousands of acres of water storage. However, agricultural nutrient loading remains a challenge. Rural Lifestyle Land Use Presentation. So this is a presentation that Treasure Coast was asked to do while the county was considering the Rural Lifestyle Land Use Amendments. Those amendments did get adopted in 2022. They were changed in 2024, yielding Atlantic Fields, which has 1,500 acres of development, with 70 percent of that preserved as open space, and Calusa Creek Ranch, 3,900 acres, with 91 percent preserved as open space. So that has been taken up by the market. And one of the challenges there is any additional strengthening of those provisions, adding restrictions in there, your hands are tied by Senate Bill 180 from last year that you can't do anything more restrictive. We'll see how that goes this session. And then last, Martin 2040, this is the most recent, this is 2024, Thousand Friends of Florida and the Guardians of Martin County and University of Florida worked on this. They identified progress using sales tax revenue through Martin Forever to preserve land, discouraging development without infrastructure. You have good policies for that. And investing in septic sewer conversions, which the county has put a lot of money into and a lot of effort. There is, however, an unclear ability to accommodate all growth within the existing urbanized area in light of the existing policies for infill. So sometimes it's a little more challenging to do infill than the density provisions on the land would otherwise lead you to think. So that was looking at the status of all those different policies and recommendations from those different studies. We also mapped the preserve areas across the county. We think that collecting all this information in one place, maintaining that information, continuing to color in the blocks as you acquire them through different means or through, you know, different projects that happen and preserve areas is a very good thing to do. It identifies what your progress has been. It also identifies maybe some areas where maybe we should have some focus in here. We should be particularly careful. One of the things that is important with preserve areas, especially from a wildlife and plant life perspective, is linkage among them. A whole series of little islands separated by development are not as effective as those areas clustered together or adjacent to each other so that the animals can flow from one place to the other. And so that's a challenge in your more eastern area. The large tracks in the western area lend themselves to those linkages a little better. And we encourage as much input as possible into this map and validating what we have found and making sure we've got everything in there that should be shown on there. And then we also were asked to look at ideas from other places. So these fall into a few different buckets. So strong agricultural zoning and transfer development rights programs which shift development away from foreign land and direct growth towards areas with urban services. So Montgomery County, Maryland, Sonoma County, California, King County, Washington, and Loudoun County, Virginia all have good programs that are effective in getting good results there. And I think if you know anything about the geography of those different areas, all four of those are counties that have significant growth pressure on them. I know Loudoun County very well myself. And it's on the edge of the Washington, D.C. metroplex. It has tremendous growth pressure. But they have preserved their, you know, horse country still looks like horse country in Loudoun County. So their tools are working there and might be of interest to you. So major public acquisition tools. So this is securing large blocks of open space, safeguarding watersheds, reinforcing the urban-rural boundary. Boulder County, Colorado, Marin County, California, right? Do those names sound familiar? Those are some pretty hot areas. And so how are they managing that edge there, right? Big, big money counties. Yes, yes. Effective purchase of development rights programs. So this is long-term stability created when landowners are compensated for keeping land in agriculture. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Dane County, Wisconsin both have good programs for that. So one of the things that I think we learned from looking at these are the most effective approaches are those that use multiple tools and are also targeted to your local circumstances. You have some different circumstances in some of these places, but you also have some similarities. So looking at, you know, how those things align is very useful. So challenges and gaps in implementation. This is kind of scooping up some of the different commonalities among the goals and strategies. One of the things that we found in looking at those is there was a lot of similar things found in those different studies over the last 25 years. A lot of the ideas repeat and some of the challenges repeat. So tracking and metrics. The sustainability indicators were really interesting in the Vision 2020 report, but they're not codified. There's no countywide monitoring in effect, and some of the metrics, like I said, are not obtainable. So looking at what is doable from those and then keeping those up might be useful for you all. Agricultural preservation, again, no TDR program, a really comprehensive approach on incentives for agriculture. Smart growth implementation. Many of the recommendations from the development pattern study and the regional land use study, like form-based codes and infill incentives, have not been fully implemented. You've done a lot of work on them. And, you know, don't take these things in orange as criticism or a, you know, a really sad story. Some of it is just you've gone to a certain level and maybe you could go to the next level. And I would say certainly on this one, the work that's being done in the CRA areas in the county is tremendous. It's really important. You did a lot of the code work that needed to be done on really helping facilitate the infill that you said that you wanted to see happen, getting some of the processes out of the way to make that go better. So there is progress there. Planning integration. Several of the studies were never formally adopted or integrated into regulation. So they're just policy recommendations kind of floating around out there. So you might think about that. And then water policy gaps. BMT adoption is incomplete. BMP. Did I say that right? Adoption is incomplete. Septic to sewer conversions are slow. They are happening, but they're slow because of the expense. So your next steps, implementation priorities. I think this is a big takeaway. The county does not need another western land study. You don't need it now. Instead, look at the strategies that have already been identified and the numerous studies that have been done and see if you want to take up and move any of those further. You could codify and unify your planning vision and enforceable policies. Sustainability indicators would be valuable. Have a transfer of development rights framework. Look at a conservation land database of all types. Again, this is that mapping exercise with some priorities, some agriculture goals, recreation, those kinds of things. I think that would be really valuable for you, keeping that up. And I'm sure that the team working on the sales tax land acquisition has some of this already, but it would be useful for them to see that whole full picture. Because there will be, you're going to find some key little hinge points or linkage points that are going to start to appear as you lay in this mosaic. Formalize and enhance your agriculture sustainability tools. Look at your agriculture land retention incentives. Make sure those are predictable and appealing to landowners. So that would be, you know, convening some folks in that business, some farmers, some ranchers, get them together, say, you know, what would help keep you in this business? What are we doing that is harming you from staying in this business? Kind of identify those things. Like you've done with some of the other commercial activity through the pulse and through some of those other different things. Take the pulse of the agriculture community. Enhance implementation capacity. This is something you could do, dedicated staff to shepherd policy into action, cross-departmental collaboration. I'm sure everybody's talking to each other about their different efforts. Prioritize some smart growth mechanism. Continue to encourage and fill development. Look at structuring your impact fees to reflect the true cost of development. The fees should be higher in areas where there are not existing infrastructure things in place. And you're allowed to do that. And it would be worth your while to consider doing that. That's a recommendation that's been made for a long time. Improve public engagement and accountability. A dashboard to track performance. This could be where you could show that map. You could show those different sustainability indicators. This is just some ideas for you. That concludes the work that we've done for you. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have today or engage in some conversation about what happens next. And I think you do have someone from the public that wants to talk to you also. Thank you. Mr. Kapps. You know, we talk a lot about the Martin County difference. And we are different than surrounding counties. And I think you'd be a great guy to tell us a little bit about how our comp plan and our rules are different from neighboring counties and the region. And within the purview of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, like St. Lucie County and Palm Beach County and Indian River County. Sure. Just a little comparison. Yeah. Sure. Thank you. So, you know, I'll start with take off on an airplane from Palm Beach International and fly north. You can see the county border. You can certainly see the northern border of Martin County where it butts up to St. Lucie. So you have a very different development pattern. You have taken steps here that other places have not taken on managing growth and concentrating growth in an urbanized area and preserving a rural area. And you've done it in two ways. So you have an urban growth boundary that you have defended repeatedly. Even just recently was a month ago or something like that, right? So you're very mindful and careful about that boundary and expansions to that boundary, number one. But I think even more significantly, number two, is you have put your money where your mouth is on land acquisition, which is very effective. And I would say is long term the most effective tool for, you know, preserving that boundary because the communities that are simply relying on establishing an urban service boundary, an urban growth boundary as a line on a map and thinking that, okay, now I'm done. I'm all protected. A legislature that can tell you where you're going to put housing and where you're not going to put housing is a legislature that can tell you that urban growth boundary doesn't mean anything. They could just take it away. So owning the land or having the land owned by preservation groups or those different things is a whole other level beyond that. So I think looking at those two things together is really important. And you can see it. I love that this map is up here on the screen. You can kind of see it, right? We can see the urban service boundary with those preserve areas. And as you go further with that, I think that would be, you know, that would help support that. Those are the, those are two really strong things. You also have, you've developed a culture here where changes to the comprehensive plan are treated very seriously and they are an extraordinary event. There's other communities where the agendas are filled every two weeks with changes to the comp plan, which has the effect of really kind of diluting the long-term perspective that really should be there in that document. It's supposed to be a big picture, high level, long-term document. Yeah, incremental adjustments. Things happen. Things change. I'm not saying no changes. They're not, you know, tablets that came down off the mountain that we can never change. But it should have a seriousness to it. And not every one of your neighbors does that. And it just, and it becomes kind of a habit. And so you have to be a little careful there. And I think, you know, having your land acquisition and your preserve easement program, treating it very seriously and treating those preservations very seriously is important. And there's a sacredness to it that, you know, you take it seriously and you, you know, you've achieved results that way. If you look at just growth trends, this is the slowest growing area in our region. And I think that's intentional. I don't think that's a secret, right? And there's other places that make different choices. And it's their choice to do that. But it comes with, you know, it comes with some challenges also. Either way, it comes with challenges. So hopefully that answered your question. Very good. Thank you. You bet. Greg Braun, would you like to speak to us? I would. Thank you. Greg Braun, Guardians of Martin County. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on this one. I know it's a department hearing rather than a public hearing. But I appreciate the opportunity and I'll take my three minutes. We appreciate the county moving forward with this a couple years ago. Unfortunately, in the last several years, while this study was going on, we've lost several thousand acres of lands outside the urban services district to development. So we agree with the Regional Planning Council that the time for study is passed. We'd like to move forward with some implementation. I think several of you, maybe all of you, have received copies of the report that we put out from our study with the Thousand Friends of Florida and the University of Florida back a couple years ago. And on the back page of this, I'll just refresh your memory, that we have a series of recommendations there. And we would like to see this meeting not be the end of this. You know, you've got a bunch of studies that have been done and they sit on the wall in the library. And we'd like to see you move forward with developing recommendations for strategies to implement these things. We've got several of them on the back of here, on the back page of what I've just distributed. But I expect that the Regional Planning Council has a bunch of other ones that we didn't have time to get into during their presentation today. A couple examples of some of those that we think you can all certainly do without a whole lot of time, effort, and money. We need to get back to the state of Florida and express our support for better funding for Florida Forever, the Florida Communities Trust Program, rural and family lands. There are a bunch of things like that that we would like to see you move forward with. Mr. Lanahan also mentioned the lack of the implementation of the payment for environmental services. That's what the Loxalusi is trying to do. We're trying to acquire those lands and raise the water table on those to help out our hydrologic situation. I'm sure that there are other incentives. You know, push back on the preemptions from the state, taking things out of decision-making by you. We'd just like to see today being a step, a transition to the next step. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I just read this morning that the governor proposes to add additional money into Florida Forever, which is encouraging. That's good. And also has given additional funding to Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. FDACS is really becoming active in purchasing ag easements, including 6,000 acres in Bull Hammock in 2025. Ivan and Martin, pardon me? Sorry. Oh. Sorry. I can hear just fine. So FDACS has become, so I originally started saying that the governor is proposing adding additional funds into Florida Forever in the budget this year. And also putting additional funding in Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which funds the rural and family lands ag easements. Last year, FDACS purchased 6,000 acres of ag easement in Bull Hammock. And Barbie Ranch was another 1,670 acres of an ag easement. I've toured both properties. Both properties are absolutely excellent. And we know that farming and ranching is a gamble, and we really value good stewards. And when good stewards see market shifts in demand and prices, they frequently, although they're cash-rich, they frequently are forced to sell their land. And we don't want those good stewards to sell their land. We want them to keep it in bona fide agriculture production. So we will continue to encourage Florida Forever, robust funding, and also FDACS, robust funding for ag easements. Those two are invaluable tools for us to maintain what this map looks like, which is, you know, this is the only county in South Florida that looks like this. So we need to continue those protections. We've done a really good job so far. And I also really love the summary of the Western studies. We've done a lot of studies, and they still contain a lot of relevant information for us. We just need to – you showed this morning that there's still things that are included in those studies. Some of them are 26 years old that still contain information that's just as relevant as it was 26 years ago. And I don't think in Martin County our goals have changed. We still want to conserve lands, and we still want to improve water quality. Mr. Katz. On the history of Florida Forever funding, I think I heard that it's been a trend to do about $100 million a year for the whole state. But that last year, I think it was only $19 million or something. So one thing to watch out for is what actually happens in the legislature this session to see if we go back up to, like, $100 million or if it's going to be bare bones again. Is that what happened last year? That's what I heard, that it was $19 million. I don't know the answer to that. And I think John might know. Right. You walked in the door, so I'm calling it. Good morning, John Mayle, Environmental Resource Administrator. That's perfectly correct memory, so it makes my job easy. But I think a nuance of that is that they're still spending those kinds of dollars on conservation or land acquisition. It's just been diverted from Florida Forever over to FDACs for their rural and family lands. And so that's the program that's kind of the favorite child right now. And I would expect this session probably not to be an exception. You know, I don't think Florida Forever is going away, but for this current political makeup, it's probably going to be more focused on preserving agricultural through easements. Thank you. Any further questions or comments? This doesn't require any action. Appreciate your work. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate the opportunity to do this. It was really interesting to dig back through all those different things. Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. We'll now take up our last item, which is Department 4, which is adopting a resolution approving acquisition of a one-acre parcel along MacArthur Boulevard, which is called the Perry Beach Edition, as recommended by the Environmental Lands Oversight Committee and approved by the board. Ms. Segura. Good morning. This is a request for adoption of a resolution approving the acquisition of this one-plus-acre parcel, which, as indicated, was at 220 Southeast MacArthur Boulevard and owned by Goose 220 MacArthur LLC. The property is located on both the river and the ocean side and is adjacent to other county-owned properties known as Perry Beach. The vacant parcel was listed for sale at $2.2 million and had an average appraised value of $1,987,500. And staff worked with the owner and negotiated an agreed purchase price of $1,980,000. And the funding for this acquisition will be coming from the Conservation Lands Sales Tax Fund. We have a beneficial interest disclosure form and an affidavit of no conflict that has been signed by the owner. Title work was completed. There's no encumbrances on the property. Upon approval by legal and all of the documents, we should be able to do the closing by March 16th, on or before, March 16th, 2026. We ask that the board adopt a resolution approving and accepting the purchase of the 1.019-acre parcel and authorize the chair to execute the vacant land contract in the amount of $1,980,000 and authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all necessary closing documents to complete this transaction. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Questions? Ms. Segura, on the esterine side, are there any uplands there? Are those mangroves? Mike. Can I ask that? Hi. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Michael Houston, Senior Project Manager in the Environmental Resource Division. The west side of the road is almost entirely mangroves. There's a little bit of uplands, but it's 20 to 30 feet wide, and then it's all mangroves from there. I would assume that that's the same sort of habitat that's both above it and below it. It's all mangroves? Correct. Yes. Okay. Commissioner Capps. So this is an example of a blue way, right? That is correct. Right. There are four categories of land that we're pursuing with the half-cent sales tax, the blue ways, Indian River Lagoon South, Palmar, and Laxalusie. And if you could explain a little bit about blue ways. Absolutely. So the primary purpose of blue ways is to protect shoreline areas and provide access to the public. It also is meant to provide beach access areas. So a big part of it is to protect beachfront property, of which it's very, very limited. There's very few of those parcels left. And among the properties that have been nominated and considered, this is actually the only one that is looking to protect more beachfront property that we have on our list so far. If more become available, we'll evaluate them and then get them approved. Great find here. You know, I can't imagine anything better to buy than a big strip of mangroves and a nice little beach on the other side of the road. So I'm glad you found it. Commissioner Campy. Yes, thank you. I know that our staff and the committee have been looking all over. What I like about this is that a majority of the other portions, Palmar and Laxalusie and the rest of it are all in South County. And I think that by still looking in Northern Martin, it makes everyone feel that it's more of a universal program than everything just happening, you know, far away from where they live. And I think for a lot of people that don't even know what Palmar is or some of those other more specific projects, when you hear about, hey, we're purchasing beachfront to protect, I think that really energizes and motivates the folks that might have been a little leery about doing this in the first place. That's just purely dollars and cents folks. So I'm happy about it. I would happily make a motion that we have you continue to go to the purchase. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Can I mention one thing? about our environmental lands program and our staff. I thought I would brag on our staff a little bit. You know, I was struck by this yesterday when I got an update from staff about all of the parcels they're looking at buying with half-cent sales tax money. I was really taken by the thought that we have really competent people searching out these deals for us, and I have a great level of confidence in the things that I hear from them. And I just want to brag on all of you very much and thank you for your longevity and your competence in this field. Because, you know, we could be in a situation where we've passed this amendment and we have all of these resources coming in and we had maybe new people or incompetent people, you know, where it could be controversial and where there's infighting about things. And it just seems like this is going really, really well. So thank you very much. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah, I think that the voters spoke, and I think that the committee has done a wonderful job about bringing forth properties that are going to be invaluable and precious as time goes forward. John Mayle's department has brought forth a lot of interesting parcels, and I know that some are, you know, in the offing, still working through them, and there'll be more to come. And as we receive more monies, then we will look at them, you know, with a sharp pencil and see what we can do to extend the dollars that the taxpayers have given to us and that we must be very careful with. And I love it that it's in my district also. So this is fantastic. We're all about the beach and the sun here. So thank you very much, all of you. I'm also grateful that we're spending money because even though the taxes for 10 years, in 10 years, these parcels are going to be way more expensive. So it's good to be aggressive about looking for properties that qualify for purchase or easements. So any further comment? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. This is the end of the meeting. Would anyone from the public like to address us? I don't see anybody. Commissioner Hetherington, any lasting comments? I'm all set for today. Commissioner Campy? I'm all set. Commissioner Capps? I'm good. Commissioner Vargas? Yeah. One thing that I would like to propose, this was a short meeting today, short agenda. However, sometimes we have agendas that do stretch a little further. And I want to respect the public, those that are viewing and those that show up. And I've had comments. Why does it take so long to go through a meeting? And some people have said some people on this commission talk too long. I would like to propose, commissioners, that we limit our comments just as the public does to three minutes. We don't need to wax and wane about a lot of, you know, ponderings about other ideas that have nothing to do with this. And it's really, we want to have substance. Okay? We don't want fluff. So I would like our commission to be respectful to our taxpayers and to our constituents that put us here and limit our comments to three minutes. You know what the agenda is at least a week and a half before it's provided for you. Jot down notes. And then you can go ahead and ask questions of those that come forward. But I think this is the advent of doing this now. This is ridiculous to have meetings that go on and on and on. And we need more participation. Again, folks may be listening, viewing, or they may be sitting in our audience. And we appreciate everyone who takes the effort and takes their precious time. But there's no need to continue on about pontificating. And, again, I think that we can get the job done a lot quicker. Commissioner Capps. I don't think that's needed. Well, then we'll sit here all day. This is the problem. Well, this is a short meeting, Commissioner Hetherington. But other times we have some commissioners here that like to go on and on and on. And people become tone deaf. And I've had people approach me about this. So if you're giggling, then this is not the job for you. So I think that you must be more respectful of people's time. Very simple. Thank you. Mr. Donaldson, any further comments? No comments, thank you. Ms. Elder, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thanks.