Good morning, and welcome to the April 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 program. 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 cases 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 May the 19th, 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. Non-speakers must be present and waive their time in order to receive the 10 minutes. We will then hear from opponents who likewise will be given three minutes each unless representing a group of five or more, in which case they likewise will also be given 10 minutes to speak. Again, non-speakers must be present and waive their time. Finally, we will hear from the applicant who 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. All right. Also, please fill out the slip on the table and present it to the clerk before you speak. There will not be continuing rebuttal, so please try to 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 in the record that will be transmitted to the Board of County Commissioners. With that, we will move into our agenda. At this time, we will hear the quasi-judicial statement from Counsel White.
Good morning, Maria White, Assistant County Attorney. The matters heard by 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, etc., may be considered competent and substantial evidence. Thanks.
Thank you, Counsel. We will now move on to item three, approval of the minutes for the March 11, 2026 LPA hearing. Do we have any discussion on the proposed minutes? All right. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion on the minutes.
I move we approve the minutes of the March 11, 2026 meeting.
Motion by Larry Johnson. Second. Second by Hoyt. All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye. Opposed like sign. Aye. The motion passes unanimously. We will now move to item 4A1, ZON26-02. Staff, you may proceed when ready. Now, Sir Ryan Brinson will come up and present the staff report to you.
Good morning. Ryan Brinson, principal planner, zoning department. This morning we'll be presenting. Can everyone hear? Can you hear me?
No.
I'll try to speak up. So today we have ZON2602. It's a pretty straightforward request. It's very similar to the request you had heard last month where the applicant rezoned the property for the purposes of splitting their lot. So to jump right on in, our subject property is two and a half acres in size located at 2941 Abbey Lake Road in unincorporated Clearwater.
Ryan.
Yes, ma'am. Sorry.
Yeah. Could you just speak a little bit louder for my benefit? Absolutely.
Sure. 100%. Maybe if, am I in the middle? Is that better for everyone? Okay. Great. So just to kind of recap our request for the subject property, can everybody hear me now? Good. Wonderful. All right. Approximately two and a half acres located at 2941 Abbey Lake Road in unincorporated Clearwater. It's a zoning atlas amendment, as I mentioned, from residential agriculture to RR. The current use on the property is a single family home, and the proposed use is to split the line. And to create an additional single family home. Here is an aerial depicting our subject site. To the north is McMullen Booth Elementary. Just slightly off to our west is Sylvan Abbey Cemetery. And it's surrounded with some estate lots. And you'll see here in just a moment the zoning map that we have here. It's residential agriculture, as I mentioned, with some surrounding zoning categories of residential estate and residential rule off to our east. And then the picture that we have on the right here is the proposed zoning going to residential rule. The area that is white is the city of Clearwater's jurisdiction. Here's another aerial of the subject property. As you can see, the southwest corner of the property has a lake on it. And the area to the north, we have McMullen Booth Elementary. Here's a picture that we took when we went out and posted the notice of the proposed change. Here's looking directly south from Abbey Lake Drive of the subject property. Behind the trees, there is a home. And in our next image, we have a panoramic view of the subject site to our right, which to our left is a single-family home with a detached garage. So here is kind of like a panoramic view of both the property to the east and the subject property to our west. And here are two views looking west from Abbey Lake Road and looking east.
May I ask a quick question?
Yes.
On the previous photo, there was pictures over that garage. Is that just storage or some type of ADU?
It could be an ADU. Thank you. I'm not 100% sure. And then the current zoning on the property, as mentioned, RA, and it does allow for single-family residential lots. Two-acre minimum is the lot size for RA parcels. It does allow for agricultural activities along with some commercial agricultural activities that are subject to a special approval by the Board of Adjustment, typically done by a type 2. It also allows for, like I mentioned, ancillary agricultural activities. The maximum building height allowed in RA is 35 feet with a maximum ISR and pervious surface ratio of 60%. The proposed zoning change, RR, it allows for medium to large lots, generally in a low-density residential area such as this, provides for a transition between more rural and suburban neighborhoods. And it also, as the RA, allows for single-family residential lots. But the only difference here, really, for the most part, is the lot size minimum. Where RA was two acres, residential rural allows for 16,000 square feet. Building heights are the same, 35, with ISR of 60. The subject property has a low flood risk. It's neither in a coastal storm area or in the coastal high hazard area, and the subject property lies within a flood zone X. The future land use is not going to change. It's going to remain residential suburban at 2.5 units an acre. So the request demonstrates general compatibility with both the neighboring residential density and the established development pattern in the area, appropriate in this particular location. It's consistent with the adjacent zoning designation that we have off to our east, and it's consistent with the comprehensive plan and the future land use designation. So staff is recommending approval of this case, and our Board of County Commissioners' next meeting will be at May 19th at 6 p.m. Do you guys have any questions?
Thank you for that presentation. Board members, do you have any questions for staff? All right. Seeing none, we'll hear from the applicant. Please, if you step forward, please state your name and address for the record before you proceed.
I'm Sandra Smith. My address is 1233 Lake Whitney Drive in Windermere, Florida. I'm the applicant's daughter. Her name is Shirley Bragdon, and our sole purpose is to maintain our home. My family's owned this since 1965, built her house in 1969, and my mom is the only remaining one now on the property, and so we would like to keep the property, but make it a little smaller so that it's a little more manageable. That's all I have.
Board members, do you have any questions for the applicant?
I have a question. Yes. Good morning. Thank you for being here. Sure. Have you spoken to any of the neighbors, or have any of them come to you with any concerns or questions about what's happening to the property?
So we've actually spoken to both the neighbors on either side of us, and both of them were wanting us to keep it in the county. That's why we proposed doing the zone change. They don't have any problems. You know, we've said we would like to keep it residential, so we haven't heard any complaints. They've been backing us this whole time. Thank you. Sir?
All right. Board members, any other questions for the applicant? All right. Seeing none, thank you.
Thank you.
At this time, we'll hear from anyone who wishes to speak in support of Case ZON 26-02. Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of ZON 26-02? All right. So with that, we'll now hear from anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to Case ZON 26-02. Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to Case ZON 26-02? All right. Seeing none. Applicant, you do have five minutes if you wish to make any final remarks. And the applicant is waving their head, shaking their head no.
Also, I assume that there's no one online.
I was informed that we do not have online presence today. We do have online presence, but nobody is online today. Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Council White. Okay. With that, it comes back to the board. Any final questions or remarks for staff or the applicants? All right. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion on Case ZON 26-02.
I make a motion to approve ZON-26-02.
Motion by Cataldo.
Second.
Second by Larry Johnson. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed like sign. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Does staff have any final remarks for us before we adjourn? You are good. So the next applicant, the next hearing for you will be the Board of County Commissioners. We have recommended approval. But staff, do you have any remarks before we adjourn? No. Just to see you next month. All right. See you next month. With that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion by Hoyt.
Second.
Second by Larry Johnson. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed like sign. Motion passes unanimously. Aye.