Do you got us? Sorry, was that to me? Yeah, this is Andy in the control room. Do you got us? Hey, Andy, I hear you loud and clear. Great, thank you. Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the March meeting of the Local Planning Agency for Pinellas County, Florida. Today's public hearing by the Local Planning Agency is being held to review a proposed amendment to the Pinellas County Zoning Atlas and other items relative to the county's planning and growth management plan. The Local Planning Agency, or LPA, is an independent advisory board charged with reviewing and making a recommendation to the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners on the case to be heard today. The Board of County Commissioners will make the final decision on the item at a separate public hearing currently scheduled to be held on April 21, 2026, at 6 p.m. The Board of County Commissioners' meeting will be held at 333 Chestnut Street in the Palm Room. The procedure for today will be as follows. Staff will make a brief presentation, not to exceed 20 minutes. The applicant will then present their case, again, not to exceed 20 minutes. We will then hear from proponents who will be given three minutes each, unless representing a group of five or more, in which case they'll be given 10 minutes. Nonspeakers must be present and waive their time in order to get the 10 minutes. And then the applicant will be given an opportunity to close, answer questions, or respond to any concerns raised by the opponents or proponents for a period of time not to exceed five minutes. Before your presentation, please give your name and address for the record. All testimony needs to be under oath, so if you have not been sworn in already and you plan to testify, please rise now and be sworn. Madam Clerk, do we? Perfect. Also, please fill out the slip on the table and present it to the clerk before you speak. There will not be any continuing rebuttal, so please present all information and concerns while you are at the podium. If you plan to provide letters, written comments, studies, or other documents in response to the LPA's findings and recommendations, those must be received by the zoning section seven days prior to the Board of County Commissioners meeting in order to be included with the record that will be transmitted to the Board of County Commissioners. Now we'll move into the agenda. Council White, would you please make the quasi-judicial statement? Thank you, Madam Chair. The matters heard by the Board of the Local Planning Agency are quasi-judicial in nature. Please note that only competent, substantial, fact-based testimony or evidence may be considered by the Board in deciding the matters before it. Pure 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, et cetera, may be considered competent and substantial evidence. Thank you. Thank you, Council. We'll now move to item three, approval of the minutes of the February 11th LPA meeting. Do I have any discussion on the minutes? Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion. I move to a motion to approve the minutes as submitted. Second. Motion by Hoyt. Second by Larry Johnson. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, like sign. The motion passes unanimously. We will now move to item 4A1, ZON26-01. Staff, you may proceed when you are ready. Thank you. Molly Cord, principal planner, on behalf of Pinellas County's Building and Development Review Services. Members of the LPA, this is case number ZON-26-01. Looks like it's not working. There we go. All right. This is a request for a zoning Alice Amendment from RR Rural Residential to R412 and 3 Family Residential for approximately .45 acres located at 5301 55th Street North in Lealman. The intended use is for the construction of one additional single-family home. This subject property is a single-family residential lot that is approximately .45 acres with frontage along 55th Street North. The property also features an unimproved alley that runs along the northern boundary of this property. And the site is currently developed with one detached single-family home. Some of the surrounding uses include detached single-family residential to the north, the south, the east, and the west. And separately, the property is also located within the Lealman Community Redevelopment Area. This is the future land use map. The property is designated as residential low on the Pinellas County Comprehensive Plan's future land use map. And this allows five residential units per acre. A maximum of two residential units is permitted under the current property acreage. The slide on the left, this is the zoning district map, reflects the property's current zoning district designation of rural residential, which is highlighted in a light green shading. The slide on the right presents the proposed zoning change to R4, which is represented in a boulder yellow. The subject property is situated in a predominantly low-density single-family residential area with similar land use and zoning classifications. And as you can see on the slides before you, the neighboring area features a combination of zoning districts, such as the R3 single-family residential zoning district, which is shaded in a yellow. Rural residential areas, which again is shown in a light green. And residential agriculture in brown, which is along 52nd Street North, which is the Memorial Park Cemetery. Additionally, the C2 general commercial and services zoning district is shown in a red, and that is located along 54th Avenue North. This is a survey of the property, which is important for this piece with the zoning atlas amendment request that we're hearing today. It's the staff's understanding that the requested zoning change to R4 is intended to allow the property to be split along that northern line of lot 7, which is shown on the survey before you, in order to permit the construction of an additional single-family home. Currently, this property does not meet the minimum lot area requirement for a lot split, as the lot totals approximately 19,602 square feet in area. The current rural residential zoning district requires a minimum of 16,000 square feet per lot. A rezone would be necessary to meet the minimum development standards of building an additional single-family home. And further details of these development requirements will be provided in the upcoming slides. This is an aerial view of the subject property, which features, again, the existing single-family home. As previously mentioned in the prior slides, the surrounding uses include detached single-family to the north, south, east, and west. The slide on the left presents a southern view of the subject property from 55th Street North. The slide on the right shows existing vegetation on the western side across 55th Street North, which extends roughly the same width as the property's frontage. While there is an existing single-family home on the western lot, it really isn't visible from this portion of 55th Street North. And this slide features a southeastern view of the subject property from 55th Street North. For reference, just the outlined area in red on the slide indicates where the future single-family home would be constructed. This slide presents a view to the north of the subject property from 55th Street North, which offers a clearer view of the natural vegetation that exists along that western side of your screen. And then in the background, way further north, is 54th Avenue North, which is classified as a major arterial roadway. As stated, the property's current zoning district designation is rural residential. This is a zoning district that is primarily categorized by medium to large lots, low-density residential communities. It's more of a transitional area, which provides more of the county's more rural and suburban footprint. The zoning district also provides for single-family residential lots with a minimum of 16,000 square feet in area, a maximum building height of 35 feet, and a maximum impervious surface ratio of 60% for residential uses. The proposed R4 zoning district is one that is intended for more urbanized areas of the county. This zoning district allows for detached single-family residential, duplex, and triplex development when appropriate. It also allows single-family attached development as well, again, when appropriate. Specifically for single-family detached lots, the minimum lot area requirement is 5,000 square feet. You have a maximum building height of 35 feet and a maximum impervious surface ratio of 75%. This proposed change to R4 would permit the construction of an additional single-family home on the property and would further ensure compliance with all minimum development requirements. Just some additional information here. The subject property has a low flood risk. It is not within the coastal high hazard area or the coastal storm area. The subject property is specifically within flood zone X. And as previously stated, regarding the future land use map amendment, there is no request for an amendment to the land use designation as it, again, allows for two residential units. So it's allowed under the site's existing land use designation and within the current property acreage. And just regarding the public notification, we did notify property owners within 300 feet of the subject property. We did not receive any correspondence regarding this case. And staff believe that the proposed zoning atlas amendment is generally compatible with the neighboring residential density and development pattern. The requested change is appropriate given the consistency with the neighboring zoning designations. It's also consistent with the Penelope's county comprehensive plan. And therefore, staff is recommending approval of this request. And this request would be heard by the Board of County Commissioners on April 21st at 6 p.m. And I'd be happy to take any questions. All right. Board members, do you have any questions for staff? I have one question, Madam Chair. This lot, the lot due east of it, is that, like, part of this existing ownership or is it separate ownership? Because what does development on this lot do as far as ingress or egress to that lot? Because out the other half of the lot or the other porch of the lot to the east has no direct access to a roadway that I can see. Directly to the east? I'm going to just pull the survey here if we could just reflect this. I don't know if you guys can see this on your screen. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So, are you referring the property directly to the east here? East here? I guess. I'm looking at where you've got the red box around the, perhaps the proposed zoning map would assist. Okay. Thank you. So, yeah, unless that is a small alleyway to the, directly to the north. When I had introduced the case, there is an alley that exists. It is unimproved, but there are properties that utilize that unimproved alley for access to their properties. So, that would be the only ingress and egress. Yes. That is correct. All right. And that's currently, that's properties. And that currently? Is there? Yes. Okay. Their house faces that. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions for staff? All right. Okay. Thank you for your presentation. We will now hear from the applicant. Thank you. Please state your name and address for the record. You'll have 20 minutes. Hello, staff. My name is Louis Quaidan, but I go by Louis. I currently live. One moment. Are you all able to hear? Oh, hello. Hi. Hello. Can you hear me? Yeah. Louder. Okay. Hi. My full name is Louis Quaidan. I go by Louis Dan, or Louis. I currently live at 5225 55th Street North, which is the adjacent property south of the subject property. We purchased that property maybe about three years ago, and we built a new house there, or my parents did, and currently living with my parents at the current moment. We have purchased the property last year. Oh, sorry. We purchased the property last quarter, and we were looking to build another house there just for me and my wife and kid. And I think Molly kind of explained exactly what was going on, that we were just, with the residential world, we weren't able to build a new house. And so having this opportunity to have a R4 residential would be able for us to build a house there and continue to grow some more kids, or have some more kids. But I think Molly kind of said everything that needed to be said. We appreciate the staff and board for hearing this case out. Thank you. Board members, do you have any questions for the applicant? All right. Good. At this time, we'll hear from any members of the public who wish to speak in support of case ZON, I lost my number, my apologies, 2601. I see none in the room. Is there anyone online? Good morning, Madam Chair. There's nobody attending online. All right. At this time, we will hear from anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to case ZON 2601, and we have a person coming up to the lecturing. Hi. Please state your name and address before proceeding. My name is Linda Mesa. My address is 5520 54th Avenue North, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33709. My property is the property that runs from 54th Avenue and south along 55th Street. So it spans from 54th Avenue all the way down 55th Street, except for about 199 feet of the south end of 55th Street, which is a dead end dirt road. Or part dirt, part paved. There's a story to that. I don't have any objection to Lewis doing what he wants to do with his property. My family code is your opinion ends where your property line ends. My concern is about the kind of like construction erosion control plan because it's a fragile system on that road. It's a dirt road that really was a driveway in the beginning for one house, and then houses were moved in over decades. And currently, the ditch that runs down the length of 55th Street north is very fragile. There's some question about whether it's actually on my property line or not. On the survey, it looks like it's on my line. And it's become very massive. And I'm concerned about big construction vehicles coming in and out and about the prevention plan for further erosion and what we can do about that. So I don't know if that's appropriate for this hearing, but I want to state that and see what we can do to try to prevent that from getting worse or to try to shore it up so that there isn't further destruction to the street, the road, and also the ditch that's adjacent to this property that the zoning is being explored. Any questions for me? It would appear that we have none. All right. Thank you. I can just provide some additional information on that is when any property comes in for development. Can you please speak up? We're having a hard time with the mics this morning. Any property that comes in for development will have to go through permit review. That also includes reviewing by our environmental staff, our engineering staff. All properties, when they're developed, have to maintain their drainage on the property. They can't create drainage issues onto adjacent properties. In addition, utilities and public works staff will look at it for access and any improvements to the public right away out there that may need to happen. It's a county road. Even though it is, it's not fully improved. It is a county roadway. So our staff would be looking at that when permits come in. And I would assume, or I would believe, any degradation created by the construction equipment and process, they would be responsible for correcting any degradation that they've created. That's correct. Yes. Board members, any other questions for staff? All right. Would it be possible for us to have staff stay in touch with our citizen neighbor? So, okay. All right. Well, do we have anyone who's popped in online to speak opposition to case 0N2601? No changes online. All right. In which case, it comes back to the applicant. Do you have anything you wish to add at this time? I'm seeing a no. All right. Board members, do you have any other questions or comments before we proceed into voting? All right. Seeing none. Unless there's any additional discussion, I will entertain a motion on case 0N26-01. Motion to approve 0N26-01. Motion to approve by Brito. Second. Second by Larry Johnson. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, like, sign. The motion passes unanimously. All right. Before we adjourn, staff, do you have any final remarks to us? I don't have anything other than to say we do have items on the agenda for next month, so we'll have a meeting next month as of right now. Marvelous. See you next month. All right. And I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion beckon. Okay. Motion by Oliveri. Second by Hamilton. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, like, sign. The motion passes unanimously. There we go. If not, just say it.