we see ourselves we can start right oh are we we're good then okay take two we're formally calling the meeting to order good morning and welcome to the june 3rd 2026 pinellas county board of adjustment and appeals hearing we received your cases in advance we have studied them and in some cases visited the site members should announce the sites that were visited during discussion please understand we do not bring these cases we are citizens tasked with weighing the evidence submitted in order to make the most informed decision possible we have no personal interest or stake in these cases except for the overall good of the community staff has made a recommendation on each case and that recommendation is input only and may not necessarily be the opinion of this board if you are planning to speak for or against any application you must be sworn in prior to testifying if you have not been sworn in please do so now with the clerk at the front right table when your case is called by staff the applicant should come to the podium and give us your name and address the applicant will then present their case including comments from any supporters in attendance comments by supporters should be new information not just an expression of support the applicant may display the volume of support by a show of hands speakers will have three minutes opponents will then be given an opportunity to state their objection if there are numerous opponents it is preferable for them to select one or two spokespersons speakers will have three minutes any subsequent objectors should add new information not just rehash prior stated objections opponents also may display the volume of objectors by a show of hands this will be the only opportunity for opponents to state their side the applicant will then return to the podium solely to rebut the comments of any opponents and may not bring any new information or testimony at that time finally we will close the public hearing and the board will discuss the case make a motion and vote our attorney will now provide additional information on our procedures good morning assistant county attorney kirby krider the matters heard by the board of adjustment and appeals are quasi-judicial in nature please note only competent substantial fact-based testimony or evidence may be considered by the board in deciding the matters before it peer speculation or opinion not based on competent fact cannot be considered by the board lay testimony with fact-based support including but not limited to meeting minutes surveys engineering reports etc may be considered competent and substantial evidence thank you staff please call the first case our first case is var-26-06 this is a variance request to allow for the construction of a 2372 square foot detached accessory dwelling unit where 750 square feet is the maximum size allowed within the coastal storm area or flood hazard area for the property located at 2850 sunstream lane in unincorporated clearwater staff's recommendation is conditional approval so the subject property is a little under six acres it's 5.8 acres in size it's currently developed with a detached single family home and accessory garage the applicant plans to demolish the current structures on the property and construct a new 13 000 square foot single family residence along with the 2372 square foot detached accessory dwelling unit and a 3 000 square foot accessory building the property is in flood zone a it borders lake chautauqua on the west which is part of the alligator creek 100 year floodplain the property is not in a hurricane evacuation zone or the coastal storm area so in in residential districts you're allowed to have an an accessory dwelling unit uh an accessory dwelling unit uh is is permitted uh to be an accessory to a single family uh dwelling uh we have in the code that if it's in a flood zone or in the coastal high hazard area it's not to exceed 750 feet in size this does uh exceed the size limit uh however you know going through the the criteria we determined that um we staff didn't have an issue with it uh the property is a is a lot of record it's almost three times the minimum lot size required for the ra zoning district which is a minimum of two acres so we find that due to this property size you know larger structures can be accommodated while still minimizing impacts to required open space requirements drainage requirements setbacks buffering we also for hardship you know the code talks about proportion of development potential commonly enjoyed by other properties in the same zoning district again limiting the the adu to 750 square feet deprives the applicant the same proportion development potential that is allowed on on smaller properties uh with again the size of the property uh larger than the ra zoning district uh that this again this property can can handle the proportionately larger buildings footprints uh again minimizing the impacts to the surrounding uh it's it's consistent to the the land development code um it's it is larger than the uh you know maximum size in in a flood zone uh however this the flood zone a and it's it's not a very they're not talking about feed of flood zone so input from staff on the flood zone didn't see that issues would arise from this larger size we did have some discussion with staff at our development review committee meeting regarding alternatives to the variance you know based on the property size it could be split and build a second home on another lot also that if they modified and integrated the adu into the main house that could be your your there's instances where you could have two kitchens in a main home so it could be attached and considered part of the main property or the main structure both of these options were not options that were viable to the applicant so discussion on that so again staff recommends conditional approval we have conditions requiring for permits and applicable fees meet the rest of the standards other than size for our adu requirements and that the adu has to be architecturally compatible with the primary house we received it's it's you got it on in front of you today an email from the city of clearwater this property is in an enclave it's surrounded by city of clearwater they will be the utility provider water and sewer they have some concerns that if it was annexed into the city this property that this adu would become non-conforming due to its size so that's uh wanted to make that available to you all right and then would the applicant like to come forward and present their case and then uh just for the record do we have any opposition here to this currently it looks like we don't okay and don't forget to um state your name and address of course good morning mr chairman my name is mark weintraub i'm with the law firm of stinson at 100 south ashley drive in tampa um and i'm here representing um must be nice trust uh and the trustee james cuomo and his wife and with me are sean mccardell and james walls the contractors on this so if there are questions of a technical nature they're here to respond to those as you need um i'll try not to take very much of your time with this presentation um i also mr chairman will try not to do anything to make you use your gavel since it's your first time um uh this case is really about scale at the end of the day um the the county's ordinance on adus limits them to 750 feet that makes perfect sense for the typical lots in pinellas county this is an atypical lot an atypical house so we're really attempting to build an adu that fits the scale of the property and the house as well um the way that the ordinance is structured that deprives uh mr cuomo of the ability to do that and that's why we're here asking for this variance um i think the other a couple of other just quick and and key points are um the neighbors are all in favor we have 14 15 letters that we submitted with our packet um mr cuomo's worked hard to make sure that his neighbors are are not going to be impacted by this at all um and um the conditions that staff has put on the staff approval are entirely acceptable to the applicant um and finally this board has um granted variances of this nature time and time again uh in in this situation um we uh we are seeking a um a variance that allows us to utilize less than one percent of the entire lot for adu prior cases have allowed um an adu of four percent of the lot um 9.7 of the lot and just under one percent of the lot so i think this also falls in line with other variances that have been issued and with that i'll say if there are questions or any information we could provide we're happy to do that any questions do we have any additional comment seeing none do we have a motion a motion to approve second all right make sure to um include according to the findings of that a motion to approve according to the findings of fact the recommendations of the of the staff the staff report all right all in favor aye aye aye unanimous show the motion approved and now we will move to approve the minutes do we have a motion oh awesome yes they they're awesome they do really great work and they make it easy for us up here to uh see all of the facts and make decisions i make a motion to approve that five-star review all done all right so um do we did we approve the minutes did we get to that or did we get okay here we go second anybody second all right all in favor aye the motion passes and uh any any other business yes uh i a couple things that i bring up i wanted we do have cases so we will have a meeting next month um and also uh we we're looking at this year so in our department we have looking for always continual improvements how can we prove flexibilities make things faster easier save saving money staff time so this year we looked at switching from paper agendas to electronic agendas so we did analysis of that breakdown that's going in as part of uh our budget request uh this year if approved starting later this year your agendas will still be emailed to you you'll get those by pdf but we're hoping then to have tablets up here so you won't get mailed paper agendas anymore it would just be uh you'd come in and you'd have that uh available for you on on tablets to go through what about the parking pass parking pass will still be mailed to you yes that question came up at lpa as well so no we we will still make sure that you you do get the parking pass but you won't get a whole packet that's also get it electronic ahead of time um and but then yeah we'll have tablets ready indexed everything to go for the cases so perfect any questions on those concerns about it all right well with that we will adjourn the meeting thank you factor in late start it might it might be on the podium yeah maybe it might be on the top ten or something you know definitely