City Council — Oct 11, 2023

Good evening and welcome again. The City of Plantation Council meeting for Wednesday, October 11, 2023 is now called to order. City Clerk, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fadgen. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sordle. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to read a message from Mayor Sordle and the City Council. We are shocked and saddened by the barbaric assault on Israel that began on the Jewish holiday of Zimchat Torah. Plantation stands with Israel and we unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks. We know many of us have friends and family in Israel and we are desperately following the news to determine if they are safe. It is heartbreaking to see the faces on the news of those desperately searching for answers regarding their missing loved ones. We have directed our police department to remain on full alert and provide all the necessary support to our Jewish schools and synagogues in the City of Plantation. Please support Israel in this time of tragedy and pray for a quick end to the hostilities in this war. Thank you. Tonight's opening remarks will be provided by Council Member Fadgen. Thank you. To continue on that note, I'd like to start by just having a moment of silence for the people of Israel and the victims and this horrible atrocity. So, thank you. If we could stand to pray, I'm going to read the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. If you know it, feel free to say it with me. St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and the snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. I've also invited Troop 817 to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. So, if you guys want to come on up, I just want to make sure that button's pressed. Is the light on? Okay, very good. Take it away. 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. Hold on, guys. So, why don't you each introduce yourselves with your rank. My name is Justin Sorrell. I'm a life scout. All right. My name is Noah Casbar. I'm a star scout. My name is Andrew Hall. I'm an eagle scout. My name is Dylan Barface. I'm a second class scout. Great. Thanks for coming. Do anybody need any questions for a merit badge or have any questions for the council as a concerned resident plantation? I do. If a street or sidewalk is damaged in road work or something of that sort, how long would it take to repair? Well, it kind of depends. Was that a loaded question? What's that? Was that a loaded question? Well, not a loaded question. Public works takes care of, like, doing road improvements when there's damage to the road. So, they go out there and they do an assessment of what the damage is. And then we're a 23-square-mile city with 200 miles of roads. That's pretty good, huh? I remember that number. They prioritize what needs to be fixed, and that includes sidewalks and two. So, they go out there. I called them last week about a sidewalk, and I was told there was a barricade up there. So, they assess it. If it's critical, they fix it immediately. Otherwise, they kind of prioritize and get it on the list, and then every day they're working on improving a pothole or some sort of damage on the road or the sidewalks and stuff. So, it's a big endeavor. All right. Thank you. Very good. Don't forget that sometimes they're not all city sidewalks either. Some of them aren't our roads or sidewalks, correct? They're in an HOA deed-restricted area. They might belong to the HOA. And we just had an analysis done, and we got a solid B on our streets in the city. So, we're working towards an A, but our streets are in pretty good condition. But they're better than most. Yes, we are. Yeah. But we got work to do. Go ahead. Okay. So, I'm looking for my Eagle Scout project. Okay. And I just wanted to ask if there was any projects that you would like me to do. Well, I'm an Eagle Scout, and I was talking to your assistant scout master, and we were thinking maybe give me a call, and we could sit down sometime and maybe brainstorm and figure out if there's something that you can do that project on. So, how about that? Any other questions? Hey, guys, thanks for coming out. Thank you. Thank you. So, at this time, we have items submitted by the mayor, and the first one is our Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation. Thank you very much, and thank you, Chief, for all the time you put in this, and you guys follow it in the training that you put in on everybody. It does make a difference. Whereas October is annually recognized as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and whereas although progress has been made toward preventing and ending domestic violence, and whereas domestic violence affects people of all genders, sexual orientation, ages, ethnicity, social, and economic groups in the U.S., and whereas crimes relating to intimate partner violence violates an individual's privacy, dignity, security, and humanity, and whereas National Domestic Violence Month brings attention to the significant impact this crime has on the individual. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor, and the City of Plantation, Florida, do hereby proclaim the month of October 2023 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Thank you. Appreciate that, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate it. Very good. Our next proclamation is for Florida City Government Week, and Council Member Horland will be overseeing that proclamation. Thank you. All right. One of my favorite weeks of the year. Whereas city government is the government closest to most citizens and the one with the most direct daily impact upon its residents, and whereas municipal government provides services and programs that enhance the quality of life for residents, making their city their home. And whereas city government is administered for and by its citizens and is dependent upon public commitment to and understanding of its many responsibilities. And whereas city government officials and employees share the responsibility to pass along their understanding of public services and their benefits. And whereas Florida City Government Week is a very important time to recognize the important role played by city government in our lives. And whereas this week offers an important opportunity to spread the word to all the citizens of Florida that they can shape and influence this branch of government, which is closest to the people. And whereas the Florida League of Cities and its member cities have joined together to teach students and other citizens about municipal government through a variety of different projects and information. And whereas Florida City Government Week offers an important opportunity to convey all the citizens of Florida that they can shape and influence government through their civic involvement. Now, therefore, Nick Sortel-Mayor and the City Council of Plantation, Florida, do hereby proclaim the week of October 16th to 22nd, 2023 is Florida City Government Week in the City of Plantation and call upon the residents of Plantation to join us in this important observance. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, we'll be celebrating and acknowledging city government week at Peters Elementary School this year. And I know I'm not able to attend, but I sent Dr. Miller, the principal, the stickers for all of the students from the Florida League of Cities. So hopefully he has those, and I know that several people will be there, including the mayor and several council members. Next is our National Friends of Libraries Week, and that proclamation will be read by Council Member Reinstein. Come on up. All of you, please. We do love the library. This is a fun one because I still have my Helen B. Hoffman Plantation Library card from when I was a kid, so come all around. Whereas Friends of the Helen B. Hoffman Plantation Library raise money that enables our library to move from good to great, providing the resources for additional programming, much-needed equipment, support for children's summer reading, and special events throughout the year. And whereas the work of the Friends highlights an ongoing basis, the fact that our library is the cornerstone of the community, providing opportunities for all to engage in the joy of lifelong learning and connect with the thoughts and ideas of others from ages past to the present. And whereas the Friends understand the critical importance of well-funded libraries and advocate to ensure that our library gets the resources it needs to provide a wide variety of services to all ages, including access to print and electronic materials, along with expert assistance in research, readers' advisory and children's services. And whereas the Friends' gift of their time and commitment to the library sets an example for all in how volunteerism leads to positive civic engagement and the betterment of our community. Now, therefore, I, Nick Sortel, Mayor, and the City Council of Plantation, Florida, do hereby proclaim the week of October 15th through the 21st, 2023, as National Friends of Libraries Week in the City of Plantation, and call upon the residents of Plantation to join us in this important observance. Here you go. Congratulations. We're going to give this to Connie Proch, who is the current president of the Friends of the Library, and she has a few words. Please. The Friends of the Helen B. Hoffman gifted a total of $24,082 this past year to the library. These funds are raised through the hard work of our volunteers, devoting their time for all of the fundraising efforts of the Friends. We are all pleased that we can support our wonderful city resource, our city library. Come on together. Hold the programmation. Hold the programmation. Okay. And I know, yeah, a lot of, you're all members, so get it right in there. Yeah, we are. I'm good. Card-carrying members. That's right. We are. All right, look right at me and give me your best smile. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Our next proclamation is by Councilmember Fajan for Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Everyone wants to come on down. So the mayor and I attended a ribbon-cutting recently for the Broward Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization. They're located right across the street from City Hall, and I thought it would be great to bring them into the meeting and put a big spotlight on them and talk about the good things that they're doing. And so, here, let me read the proclamation. Whereas the Broward Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization was founded in 1989, and in April of 2023, the organization moved to 7301 Northwest 4th Street in the city of Plantation. And whereas in the early days of the organization, it was run from the executive director's home, raising funds through yard sales, car washes, bake sales, and anything else the group could think of. And whereas today the organization is led from its plantation office by executive director Bach Todaro and a dedicated board of directors and numerous volunteers that are making lives better. And whereas the mission of the BGCDSO is to improve the lives of people with Down Syndrome and their families, providing support, information, education, and advocacy, enabling each individual to reach his or her full potential. And whereas the organization strives to educate the community to recognize individuals with Down Syndrome as people with unique personalities, to know their families love them, to be treated like their brothers and sisters, and to be seen as a person first, rather than as a person with special needs, and have access to education and leisure activities. Now, therefore, I, Nick Sordo, Mayor, and the City Council members of the City of Plantation, Florida, do hereby proclaim the month of October as Down Syndrome Awareness Month in the City of Plantation, and ask the community to join us in recognizing this outstanding organization, and commend them on their service to our city and surrounding communities. You two talk. Hi. Good evening. Thank you for having us. We are the Broward Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization, the local support group in Broward County for over 30 years. We support families and their loved ones with Down Syndrome. We are excited to be a part of the City of Plantation. We need to expand our office space to meet the needs for our community and to be more central to our members. We are now able to hold a small meeting and training courses in our location. We look forward to become a part of this city and community as we continue to provide support to our members and the Down Syndrome community, and fulfill our mission to enable each individual with Down Syndrome to reach his or her potential. Thank you for having us tonight. Thank you. Quick question. If someone wants to volunteer, how can they volunteer? Why don't you give your number out? Contact my office. Do you want to tell the number of the office? Yeah. Or the website. Or the website. Yes. We have websites. Go ahead. Just remember, I'm off at right across from the City Hall. But the website address? The website is browardgoldcoast.org. Yeah, on the website. Thank you. Thank you. And the man stopped by visiting us the other day. It was a nice surprise. It's great to have an office right across from the City Hall. Thank you. Let's get up. Are we going to do a good picture? Good photo? If you have an office near an MRI shop, I'll be by their lot. Just put our mouths to it. Yeah. You guys good? You got it? You got it, Michelle? I know. He's going to block you. All right. Tim, move to your left. You go left. Left. Left. Everybody go left. Left is all right. Look at me. Yeah. We'll go to the right. I got everybody now. Thank you. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent job, Council Member Fajon. Thank you all for coming. Anytime. I'll say hey all the time. It's okay. If you have a team. I do, I do. So our lens proclamation is E-Waste Day? Yes. Yes. Before I get started, I have a quick comment to make. If you look at your screens from the chambers, you will see a pink sign out here. Our Public Works Department, Matt Thompson. Is Matt here or not? Yeah. Hold your hand. The idea was it's Breast Cancer Month. Put the logo up here to give everybody else one more reminder. Council Member Andrea, I can't read it from here. Can you read it? What's it say? I don't even know. If you don't mind. Faith, belief, warrior, prevention, fight for a cure. Oh, and love survivor. Yes. Hope, we stand by you. I think this is an Instagrammable moment, but it's on you, but there we go. Okay. It's E-Waste Day, Anya Gupta. Here or not here? Yay. Come on up. I've got to read this thing instead of you, even if you want to. I got it. Okay. I got it. Okay. Whereas plantation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving our natural resources and working to make the world a better place by adopting conscientious living habits, and whereas the plantation has undertaken many positive and successful waste reduction programs that have helped make plantation one of Florida's recycling leaders, whereas although there has been a significant increase in the amount of recycling and plantation today, we must continue to focus on other electronic waste initiatives, such as electronic waste reduction, electronic waste collection events, electronic waste educational materials for our community, and whereas by encouraging businesses, state agencies, non-profit organizations, schools, and individuals to celebrate Plantation E-Waste Day, we can further promote electronic recycling, and whereas local community leaders can help encourage recycling by informing citizens about the importance of buying recycled electronic products, and whereas it's important that all plantation residents become involved in E-Waste recycling activities and learn more about the many recycling products and packaging available to them as consumers, it is also fitting for plantation to celebrate National E-Waste Day to help ensure a safe and healthy environment and an improved quality of life for present and future generations. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor, and the City Council of Plantation do hereby proclaim Sunday, October 14th as E-Waste Day in the City of Plantation, and call upon the residents of Plantation to join us in this important observance. Thank you. We have it here Saturday, oh, I misread it, Saturday the 14th? Saturday's the 14th. I misread it, I said Sunday? Saturday. Saturday the 14th, that's my bad. Anything you want to say? I'd appreciate it. Hi, my name is Anya Gupta, and I'm a 13-year-old living in Boca Raton, Florida, and I want to thank everybody here for helping me with this proclamation because it really means a lot that I get to spread awareness about this issue because not many people know about it, but it still makes a really big impact, and so thank you to everybody who helps me make my dream come true. Well, thank you. She also has a book here. Tell us about this book real quick. So, I'm a three-time children's author. This is my third book, and it's about E-Waste. So, this is for ages maybe three to eight, and it's a pretty good book. Where can we buy it? Amazon? Amazon and my website. My website, you can get a signed copy. Thank you. My website is penniesforpenguins.com. Pennies for penguins. So, can you autograph a copy, and maybe we can have that in our library as well since we have the friends of the library here. Yes. So, that would be a great addition to our library. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll purchase that one. All right. You got us here? Let's take a picture here. I just wanted to make a comment. There's an organization called ARCA Broward, and they recycle like computers and stuff like that. And I think if it's personal residential stuff, they take it in for free. If it's a business, they charge you like a fee, but it's nominal, and it's a good, you know, they recycle all that stuff. So, it's a really good organization. I usually take all my old electronics there. Good call. Yeah, good call. Thank you so much for coming. All right, you can have this one. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we'll have Mr. Goodrich with our Parks and Recreation upcoming events. Good evening, Mayor, Council, Attorney Ezra. In keeping in the theme of recycling, we do have our community garage sale also Saturday the 14th. So, it's a good way to get some recycled electronics. That'll be at Volunteer Park from 7 a.m. to noon. Sunday the 15th, Plantation Goes Pink 5K Run and Walk. I believe Mayor Shortell will be there in pink, ready to go. That's at Central Park start time is 7.30 a.m. Saturday the 21st, we have our Family Fall Festival. As you guys remember last year, very well received, very well attended. So, we're looking for another big year. Thanks again so much to police, fire, public works, and everybody else who supports us in putting these events on. That's at Volunteer Park, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is $5 for two years and older. Monday the 23rd, we're having a Breast Cancer Awareness Lunch and Learn at the Jim Ward Community Center from 12.30 to 2.30. Those pre-registration is recommended. It is a free program for everybody. But we look to see some people out there, get a free lunch, and learn about Breast Cancer Awareness. Tuesday the 24th, we have our Kids Day Laugh Camp at Jim Ward Community Center, 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, if anybody has any questions, call us at 954-585-2344. Thursday the 26th, we'll have Senior Spooktacular Game Show for 55 and older, also at the Jim Ward Community Center, 2 to 4. Registration opens on October 12th. It is another free program for seniors. Thursday the 26th, we're having a Spooky Skating Party. Central Park Skate Rink, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., also free. And then last on my list is Tuesday the 31st, Trunk or Treat. New location, Pine Island Park this year. That is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., rain or shine. Anybody who has any questions, they can reach 797-2180. As far as athletics goes, we'll have registrations open for Rec Soccer and Fall Baseball at this time. And all of our adult programs are up and running, but we can also always squeeze somebody in if they need to get in. So thank you. Thank you. Mr. Goodrich, can I ask you a question about Saturday the 14th? Is there also a garden club happening at Jim Ward? I don't. Like a presentation, a ribbon? Believe that got pushed. Okay. I think I got a note for that to be on November 4th at 10 a.m. at Jim Ward. Correct. A few things haven't come together. It was going to. That was our target date. Okay. But it has been pushed back. Thank you. You're very welcome. At this time, we're going to have our public request of counsel regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak should have completed a request form. If you have not done so already, please do. They are located here at the front of the chamber, also in the back of the chamber as well. I do have one. Please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the president and not to the mayor or individual members of the council. And please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. I have Jessica Frazier. You owe me 20 bucks for the book. I'm just supposed to come up here? Yes, ma'am. Please. So I am here this evening to ask you all how can we get... I'm sorry. Can you repeat your name and address? My name is Jessica Frazier. Sorry about that. Jessica Frazier, and my address is 5801 Southwest 18th Street Plantation. I am here this evening to ask you all how can we get handicap accessible parking at Plantation Walk? Okay. Close to the restaurants, not in the covered parking. Okay. We have your concern, and Mr. Holmes is noting it. They'll probably have to do a site visit and go over, and they will look into it. You can share your contact information with Mr. Holmes as well, and then he can get back to you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Did you want to add something, Mayor? Yeah. I mean, if I can give you the answer now, I'll give you the answer now, and he'll back it up. The builder built, according to spec, they meet all the requirements we checked with building, right, Mr. Gale? Right. They comply with everything legally. Now, is it good business the way there's stuff set up? No, it's not. So we've talked to them about good business, but legally they're within the parameters because they argue that the other parking is in the garage, but other people wouldn't use. That said, Mr. Holmes might have some ideas and techniques that we as a city could deploy to get them to go a little one step above and beyond. So that's what we're looking to do, and I agree with you. You're not the first person to have said this, obviously. Yeah. We've talked. Yeah, we've talked about this. Yeah. But Mr. Holmes is pretty darn good. Okay. I appreciate you. Thank you. Council Member Fadgen would also like to make a comment. Ms. Frazier, there's a parking is the bane. They have a bunch of parking, reserved parking that they didn't request, and they got rid of a feature in there saying they needed more parking, and they have these signs that could tip over for pickup parking. The last time I was there, they actually had signs on the main street to go pick up stuff, so I really would like to see them clean that up. There's about eight signs by Pepe's for temporary parking, and to be honest with you, what I do when I go, I park there. So I think they need to clean that up, and when you're looking on the east side of that parking lot, the smell test doesn't seem right for the handicapped spots. It might be okay, but it just doesn't seem like they have enough for them to want to attract more customers, in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. I do not have any other public requests of the council regarding municipal. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Conklin. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Six Court. Heavenly hosts protect you and your families. It's day 1307 of martial law, which includes shutdown of our churches, mask and shop mandates, loss of our individual God-given rights. It's day 430 since the illegal FBI invasion of a Trump family home, violating his Fourth and Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. It's day 71 since the arraignment of President Trump, which violated his First Amendment rights to first speech. And it's day 16 since New York State has violated President Trump's Seventh Amendment rights to trial by jury. It's already been commented on the grievous situation in Israel. And heavenly hosts protect them and eternal rest grant unto the victims, O Lord, and perpetual light shine upon them. Sort of as an aside, with my first comments about what's been going on, I've continually asked that the city start to take actions because of the fraud that was committed. And to protect the city against medical and whatnot claims because the federal government has had us under martial law and has been lying to us. You can still see now they're promoting to take the shot. The European countries have withdrawn all of the shots. And I urge you to not follow any further mandates by that. And also encourage you under the city's medical plan to look at the nanokinesis and cocktail for treatment to remove the spike protein from the virus and from the shot. So I'll yield back my time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Any other comments for public requests of the Council regarding municipal affairs? Ms. Gelfand? Hmm? That's okay. Ms. Gelfand, please go ahead. Thank you. Vicki Gelfand, 9381 Northwest 18th Place. Day five of the problem in Israel. And I'd like to say a little prayer for all of us. May all the people that are being held against their will and all the fighting and all the people that are fighting for Israel come home safely. Period. That's my religious problem. Remember how plantation used to be? And I'm not talking about when the Broward Mall was a cow pasture or if you were living here then and you dare to speed through State Road 84 and 441, you'd be sure to get a ticket from the mayor slash police chief slash fire chief slash magistrate of Hacienda Village. Red cries. Plantation has changed. During the last election, we heard from those running for office saying that they would be, quote, pumping the brakes on apartment rentals. The whisper campaign amongst the residents thought that there would be a moratorium on building. Those whispers were based on the campaign promises. It doesn't look as if any of those promises were kept. We used to be what was known as a bedroom community, comparatively speaking to Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Now we're becoming another cement city with high rise apartments in every space available to put them up. Even where the space does not call for or is warranted for, they're getting them. We're bound to the developer's dollars. Our streets are overcrowded with vehicles. University Drive and Broward Boulevard, most times of the day, it's as if you're in a parking lot. If you're in a parking lot, the traffic moves faster. Coming here down Cleary Boulevard, all that new construction, the entire lane going east on the south side of the road, the first lane was flooded. It's a one lane street. And now in front of the city are plans for another hotel, which is just another type of apartment building, but with daily turnover. Peters Road will now be another place for traffic to be sitting for two or three signals. There are also plans in the works for more apartments and buildings up to ten stories high, and parking for thousands of more vehicles. Here we are creating sidewalks and bike paths. That is a belief that people are going to bike and walk to work. If you are believers in global warming, do you think that people will be walking and biking in 100 plus degrees? And think about it. Would you ride your bike down University Drive at any time, day or night? We see developers tearing down existing structures and they're building apartments for people to work close to home. Where are they going to work? Are they building more retail, light manufacturing, or office space? A perfect example is Ceratage, which is now a shell with a tree growing on its empty space. As the song said a long time ago, we paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gelfand. Any additional public requests of the council regarding municipal affairs? Hearing none, public comments are now closed. The consent agenda this evening consists of 13 items. Is there anyone of the chamber of the council who would like to pull an item? I'd like to pull number 4. Thank you, Councilmember Anderson. Anyone else? We do have two requests from the public for items 1 and 10. Are there any other requests? Hearing none. Motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of 4, 1, and 10. Second. Any additional questions or comments? Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Councilmember Fadgen. Yes. Councilmember Horland. Yes. Councilmember Reinstein. Yes. Councilmember Anderson. Yes. Councilmember Andreu. Yes. Thank you. Item number 1 is the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan update. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. When I pulled up the backup for this material, if you can go to page 3 and 4, I don't know if you can project it, but from item or section 3.1.2, it appears that the park at the Jim Moore Community Center, which used to be Plantation Elementary Park, excuse me, Plantation Elementary School, was omitted from the list. And I'm thinking that if the school opened around 1965, that's probably when the park at that site was developed. It used to be a ballpark for baseball. And we used to have our water tower there, 100 foot, if I'm not mistaken. So I would like that included in this Phase 3. Also, it's been years, but I've been requesting that since the site was redeveloped for the Jim Moore Community Center, I've been requesting that the park there be named the Dr. Charles R. Cannon Senior Park at Jim Moore Community Center. One of our, I guess he was the first doctor along State Road 7 for Plantation, chiropractor. He's one of our founders of our Plantation Park East Homeowners Association. I noticed that the 6th Court Park, it was developed in 1963 and for years, Sandy Gracie, one of our board members of Plantation Homeowners Association, Park East, has requested that Stan Johnson be named for that park. In other words, the Stan Johnson Park at 46th Court. And it's already been mentioned, eternal arrest grant, unto him alert, I just found out just before the meeting, that Kingsley Smith died yesterday. And I want to thank the President for mentioning that. He was, I don't know anybody that was more important than developing the Trailhead Park at the old abandoned and polluted site of the Texaco Gas Station at the 47th Avenue Bridge across the C10 Canal. I think that that park should be named the Kingsley Smith Park East Trailhead Park. So, number one, please include the park at Jim Ward Community Center in the list, which I did not see. I've looked at it over and over and over again. And kindly pick up my suggestions for naming those parks. I'll yield back my time. Thank you. I believe Ms. Morris would like to address some of your concerns. Just so everyone is aware, Jim Ward is not included in Phase 3 as it was already completed. So, we do have results for Jim Ward. We pulled two parks out of order and accelerated them, actually three now. One being Jim Ward, one being volunteer, and the third being Central Park. So, we're just finishing up. This should complete all of our building and facility reviews. And again, Phase 3 will then start to move into website programmatic access policies and things of that nature. Thank you. And also, I know that I have been working with the CRA director to, we weren't going to name the park, Trailhead Park, after Kingsley. But I had been working with the CRA director to do a tribute for Kingsley. And it was, we were just waiting on the equipment to arrive. And it's in route. Originally, it just took too long. I wanted to thank the city for taking care of Plantation Park East Park at Jim Ward Community Center first. And for your initiation to have a tribute. Thank you. I still keep my, in place, my request for naming of the parks. Thank you, Mayor Sartle. I kind of feel like the CRA director could have told me about that, that we're working on it. So, can you tell me what's going on or what you all are thinking? I'm in support. Well, obviously, I couldn't talk to my colleagues, you know, because of Sunshine. So, I had been speaking to him about doing some type of tribute, whether it be a ribbon cutting. He hadn't, you know, discussed the details of it. That's why he probably hadn't brought it to you yet. But he was waiting on, I believe they're getting new playground equipment. Mr. Goodrich should probably verify that or some type of covering or new equipment. And he said it had already been ordered. It was in route. So, once that came, we were going to move forward with some type of tribute. I wouldn't object to a plaque. I don't know how you guys feel. I'd like to put a plaque in the ground with his name and what he did. We don't have to name it after him, but a plaque is. Correct. I think that's where we were headed. Either a bench, a park bench, or a plaque. And, yeah. Very happy to comply. Okay. Thank you. May I have a motion for item number one? So moved. Second. Any further questions or comments? Ms. Begler, please call the room. Councilmember Fajan? Yes. Councilmember Horland? Yes. Councilmember Reinstein? Yes. Councilmember Andrew? Yes. Item number four is the agreement for storage tank interior recoding. Councilmember Anderson? Hi. I read it all, but I'd just rather hear from Public Works. Is this? Danny. It's utilities. I don't know why I said Public Works. I'm looking right at him. I meant to say Danny, actually. Hi, Danny. Good evening. Danny, I read the thing. You attempted multiple repairs. Maybe I missed it. I know it's a 30-year-old tank, but a replacement costs 3.1 million. With this repair, what's a guess of how much longer we're going to get out of it? I know it's only a guess, but... We're actually doing a site plan analysis of both water treatment plants right now. I would hope to try and get somewhere between 40 to 60 years out of a tank. Total or more? Total. No. From this repair, it could get us another 10 to 20 years. The main component that's starting to fail on the base of this tank is a diaphragm that the tank actually sits on. So they've got to go in and they've got to chip it out. It's a 3.5 million gallon tank. At 30 years, it's premature to replace it. We can get a lot more time out of this. And with all the rest, you're very confident that it absolutely needs it. It's definitely worth it. We're not chasing good money after that. A lot of work went into this to make sure. And we were looking at whether we were going to do, potentially start budgeting a new tank. We even got an extended warranty on a repair. The company that won the award to do the... These have to be done every five years. So every five years, we're mandated by the state to inspect these tanks. They're drained. You go in. Some need recoding. We did the inspection in 2020. We're able to do a majority of the repairs from that inspection in-house with our plant maintenance team. It was determined that we needed to do a new coating on the interior, and that was slated for 2022. Right before it went out to bid, we discovered a leak. Staff discovered a leak. Once they did that, there were attempts made during the draining by the company. South Florida won the bid, but it's a CROM tank. CROM builds these tanks all over the world, and they hired CROM to come in and do the coating and the repairs. So we've done a lot of research on this. This is the best possible way to do it, and any delays are just going to cost additional monies. Yep. It's just a lot of money. I wanted to, you know, also for the public just to hear that. So I'm good. Thank you. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Question, Councilmember. Did you say 3.1? A replacement. Okay. It started from scratch. I said the amount we're approving tonight, though, is for 303. Well, it's almost 304. Do we have a typo? Maybe there should have been more zeros. No, I'm kidding. He warned me when I heard that. No, we're sorry. An unbudgeted 30-year-old tank would be premature, which is around 3.1 million. Okay. Okay. Alrighty. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions or comments regarding item number 4? Motion to approve. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Councilmember Fajan? Yes. Councilmember Horland? Yes. Councilmember Einstein? Yes. Councilmember Anderson? Yes. Councilmember Andrew? Yes. Thank you. I'm going to file expenditures for the weekly expenditure report for the Gateway from September 15th to October 4th. Mr. Conklin? Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwestist Court. I noticed in week two the expense of the plantation utility seemed really high from what I remember past histories, 3,678. It almost sounded like there was a faucet left running or the toilet didn't stop filling the tank or something like that. But I also wanted to sort of piggyback because I can't speak to the administrative item that's coming up next. The Gateway and the CRA eventually wound up with the same boundary lines. Originally they weren't coincidental. When they did the bridge across the C-12 canal, I think I said C-10 mistakenly when I spoke before, they took a three-lane bridge into Plantation Park East community, knocked that down and put six-lane bridge that it was just incredibly harmful for our neighborhood. And in the next administrative item, you're going to mention 65th Avenue Bridge over the same canal. Right now that's a small neighborhood bridge. I want to urge you to not make that a six-lane or extended bridge to ruin that neighborhood as well. So, I was curious about the expense of the utilities. And I just wanted to pop in there because I won't be able to speak in the administrative. Protect that neighborhood. We were left defenseless in Park East. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crocklin. Any additional comments or questions? Hearing none. Can I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Ms. Biggerow, please call the roll. Councilmember Fadgen? Yes. Councilmember Horland? Yes. Councilmember Anderson? Yes. Councilmember Andrew? Yes. Item number 14 is the administrative item dealing with our legislative appropriation requests for the 2024 session, which is right upon us. Ms. Morris? Madam President, if I can, just before they begin. I'd just like to disclose before we do anything regarding legislative items that I'm legal counsel for the Broward Legislative Delegation. And so, while there's no conflict, I'd just like to put it out there on the record. Thank you. Councilmember Reinstein. As you noted correctly, session is upon us again. Session starts early this year. Lorne Jackson, one of our lobbyists, is with us today. We just wanted to share with you. Oops. Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. We just wanted to share with you sort of what our thinking is going into session in terms of appropriations requests and in terms of a legislative action plan. In terms of legislative appropriations requests, we are looking at phase E of Breeswept, which is a project that I know you're all familiar with. We are looking at seeking funding to help defray the costs of the relocation of the water and sewer lines that are on the 65th Avenue bridge. I don't know. Dan, do you know what the FDOT is proposing in terms of that bridge replacement? I do not know the details of that, but I suspect you'll have a question. It's not necessarily a bridge replacement. They're doing a new paving project, and it's going from University Drive to, I believe, 56th. Sunrise Boulevard, just similar to what they did on Broward Boulevard, there's an old water main and force main that is in the guardrail on that bridge, and we're looking at our options right now with our consultants. We may drill underneath Sunrise Boulevard and the canal. The bridge won't be widened or anything. They're redoing the ADA, the guardrail, and a few other things there. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So they will not be widening that bridge. We are looking at resubmitting the request for improvements to the Regional Utility Operation Center. Those are hardening requests so that we would have a storm-hardened building. We were looking at resubmitting the special needs park, but instead of submitting it as one park, one location, we were looking at changing it to provide inclusive playground amenities at a variety of parks, and we were thinking that we've made the request a couple of times before. Maybe it's time to tweak it and make it a little bit different. So those are the pieces that we are looking at. We are a little bit under the gun in that committee weeks have already started, so we do need to get these appropriations requests in as soon as possible. We are open to other ideas, if anybody's got any suggestions, because we could make additional requests. But again, committee weeks have already begun, so they're anxious for us to get these items submitted, so that Lauren and Candace can secure our sponsors and we can start into the drafting process and move this along. On the legislative platform side, we really only made two changes. One was we added some language about sovereign immunity. As you know, the past few years we've had a lot of discussion in the legislature about increasing sovereign immunity limits, or in fact doing away with them. And that is a thought that keeps me awake at night. And the other item that we added was some language in support of stormwater projects and specifically supporting projects that old plantation water control or plantation acres improvement district might submit. Did I leave anything out? You want to? No, I think that covers it. We kept it pretty simple in this, so thank you. Can you share with us the Brower days in 2024? I'm sorry, I didn't want to put you on the spot. Do you remember? If I can look at my phone real quick, I can share it. The 15th through the 17th, thank you. There you go. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Horland. Mayor Sartle? A couple things. Brower days is Tuesday, Wednesday, Monday is Martin Luther King Day. So when you're booking your travel, be aware of that. And I think they switched main hotels. Somebody was on the phone with Pam today. Was it you? Okay. That first hotel sold out, so we're trying to figure that out. Second, I want to point out to Council, Paid has become more active in trying to find money. We had a good talk with Paid, and they are going to ask money through the state. They've been talking to Gottlieb and everything, which is if their money is our money. So we're supportive, and Lauren has popped aboard. I didn't mean to put words in my mouth. Is that correct? Is that close enough? Agree, disagree? Yes. Happy to help support a state appropriation request. They also discussed a little bit of pursuing grants. That's going to be something we have to dive into. Madam President Mayer, I just want to clarify what you said, and I'm glad that we're supporting whatever old plantation or Paid wants to do. But our paid lobbyists can't be working for Paid, whether they're applying for grants or they've got to do that on their own. Correct? Carol's been on this, I think. I just want to make sure that that's clear. What we can, if the city directs us to support, yes, the city can direct us to support their request. We're not going to be writing grants. No. Mr. President, we've done it before with Old Plantation when they were doing their pump upgrades. Unfortunately, they didn't get funded. But what we told our lobbyists. Mr. I'm sorry, Mr. Hu. Can you please speak into the microphone? It would be a win for us, recognizing that the ability to push water out of the city, it's good for the entire city. So that's what we do is they, Old Plantation actually had another lobbyist engaged. But we communicated to our folks to help them along, because a win's a win. And I think we should just clarify about our money's their money. Yeah. Yeah. I take that back. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a misstatement by me. And just to underscore, though, I think their budget, if I recall correctly, is maybe $1.5, $1.7 million. So they just don't have a lot of juice in that regard. I was not able to listen to their meeting that they had the same day as our council meeting. But I was seeing a lot of, I guess, social media posts about maybe some type of special assessment. Or is there any update on that in the acres? I'd be happy to look into that. I believe they did raise their assessment. Okay. Thank you. I do have any other, one more question. I'm not sure if anybody attended any of the, well, one was held yesterday. One is forthcoming, I believe, November 2nd, the advocacy workshops. So I know that Rep Campbell had one yesterday. And Senator Osgood is hosting a session November 2nd from 6th to 8th at the Urban League. So have any staff members been able to attend those appropriation workshops? Oh, go ahead. I actually went last night. And it's really just essentially they're just kind of introducing people to the appropriations process and how that works and what they need to be thinking about. Okay. I just want to make sure we have some presence. So thank you. And anybody planning on attending the November 2nd one? We can add it to the calendar. Thank you. Any additional questions? No, I just wanted to say, again, I appreciate you doing this. I mean, I think that you've covered it. We're just going to take another swing at a couple of these items. And, you know, we were lucky that we got into the budget last time, but the veto pen came out. So we'll keep our fingers crossed. Thank you, LJ and Carol, for everything that you're doing. Yes. I think the approach, too, for the inclusive parks is a great one. So hopefully we get some more traction on that. But I think spreading that out a little more makes sense. So hopefully you can bring back some dollars for our inclusive parks as well. And just to give it a little plug, Reswept was a project for which we received an $800,000 appropriation. You've been seeing the updates on your council agenda, a little bit of coming attractions. You will see an update on your next council agenda. Utilities has been successful with a major milestone there, specifically getting the DEP permit for the project issued. So we are on schedule and moving ahead. And can I also thank and congratulate you for the grant we received? I don't know if everyone is aware. Who was that? Who should get the grant? Jan Coffendorfer. Help me with the last name. Jan Coffendorfer. Where's Chief? I don't know. But we received... He snuck out of the room, right? He snuck out right when we called him. Jan's last name. Coffendorfer? We did receive a $400,000 grant for the body cameras. Jan from PD wrote that grant application. Well done. Mm-hmm. 400,000. Yep. So thank you. Thank you all for your great work. That takes us to our quasi-judicial items. I am going to ask Attorney Ezra to go over the proceedings and for Ms. Bigrow to swear anyone who wishes to speak or testify. Attorney Ezra? Yes. Thank you, Council President. The quasi-judicial proceedings. The City Clerk will swear in all witnesses before speaking. Please state your name and whether you have been administered an oath. Any speaker may be cross-examined. If you refuse to be cross-examined, your testimony may not be considered. Cross-examination shall be conducted in a courteous manner. The material on the City Clerk's agenda packet will be made a part of the record. The City staff will make the first presentation followed by presentations from the applicant, any affected parties, and the public. The elected officials may set reasonable time limits for speakers. The hearing will then be closed and the matter decided. The City Council's decision will be delineated in its motion and rendered in writing by way of a development order resolution or ordinance evidencing its decision. The City Council may also decide to continue the matter to a designated time to allow for the additional research or review. Thank you. And let me further state for the record item number 15 that has been deferred. So we will be addressing items 16 and 17 this evening. Ms. Beggaro? Point of order, Madam President. Do we need a motion to table or defer that? You should do a motion to table. The request is to a time uncertain, so you could just do a motion to table. They will have to re-notice the meeting. So I'll go ahead and make that motion to table to a time uncertain. Second. Councilmember Horland can second it. Any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Beggaro, please call the roll. Councilmember Fajan? Yes. Councilmember Horland? Yes. Councilmember Reinstein? Yes. Councilmember Anderson? Yes. Councilmember Andreu? Yes. Thank you. All right. So those of you participating in the quasi-judicial, please stand and raise your right hand. Okay. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence that you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Mr. Holmes, this is item number 16, which is the Home 2 Suites Plantation. The property is located at 7676 Peters Road. Okay. All right. Excuse me, Council President. These, both 16 and 17, pertain to the same property simultaneous application, so it would be appropriate for there to be one presentation with two separate votes. Thank you, yes. Okay. Yes. And Mr. Holmes will be doing that presentation for both items, and then we will vote on them separately. Thank you for the clarification, Attorney Ezra. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Council for the Record. Dan Holmes, Planning, Zoning, Economic Development Director. This is application number PP22-0031. This is a site plan elevation, landscape plan approval for a 74,000-square-foot, seven-story hotel and a 17,000-square-foot retail space. As part of this request, there are six zoning waivers and five landscape waivers. The applicant representing the application is C. William Leystrom, and the location is 7676 Peters Road, and the underlying zoning for this site is the city's MPM zoning district, which is the Plantation Midtown Mixed Use District. This is general location map of the city, and you can see the property is located along South University Drive, just kind of west of South University Drive, I should say, and just west of South University Drive and south of Peters Road. The parcel size is 2.9 acres. It is currently a vacant building, the location that they're proposing to develop here. There's a shopping center with active uses in it, but this portion of the shopping center is vacant. The underlying land use is commercial, and adjacent to the property is to the north, south, and east. It's also zoned Plantation Midtown, and the property to the west is zoned OPP, which is the city's Office Park Plantation Zoning District. This is just an aerial map, kind of showing you the surrounding areas. North of the site is commercial retail within the Plantation Commons Shopping Center. East of the property is the Bank of America Building, and south of the property is the Shops at One Plantation South, and west of the property is the Executive Court Office Park. And you can see here just a closer aerial photo of the property itself, so the area that's highlighted there is the area that's proposed for redevelopment and development into the hotel and the retail space. This is the proposed site plan. Again, the retail space that we indicated, the 17,000 square foot retail, would be located here, and the hotel would be located to the south of the parcel along southwest 13th place. In terms of the site circulation and connectivity, much of the circulation would pretty much remain in place from southwest 13th Street. You'll have ingress and egress at two locations here. And along southwest 78th, there would be two points of ingress, egress, one located here. And then there's an existing space. If we go back to the aerial photo, you can see that there's an existing ingress, egress, pointing to the shopping center. And so that's pretty much the access point that you're seeing located here. The floor plan, the typical floor plan of the hotel above the first floor, you see located here. And you can see that there are both king and also a couple of queen studios that are proposed for the various floors. And for the retail space, there are actually five bays, and you can see the square footage for each of those bays listed here. In terms of the elevations, this is elevation of the hotel. So this is the south elevation. So if you were looking at the hotel from southwest 13th Street, this would be the elevation that you'd be looking at. And then this is elevation also of the retail building from the south as well, which is the actual front of the retail building. This is the east elevation. So you can see from, if you were at the Bank of America parcel looking west, this is what you would see. So to the left would be the hotel and then the retail space to the right. And then the north elevation of the hotel you see here, and the west elevation you see here, the hotels here, and the retail space here. And then this would provide you some actual renderings so you can kind of see based upon the proposed details and materials that are proposed for the site. This is kind of what you'd be looking at here. And these are some more views showing you some renderings of the site here. And this is the material board that's proposed for the hotel, the color palette, and the material board proposed for the retail building. I think I have that twice there. In terms of the parking, the overall proposed development would require 179 spaces. The applicant is providing 134 spaces, which as you see there's a 45 space difference. As part of the waivers that we'll get into a little later, you'll notice that there's a request for a parking waiver. The breakdown of the spaces here, 90 regular standard spaces, five ADA spaces. And as you recall, some time ago we did put in place some EV parking requirements. And there would be 36 future EV capable spaces that would be proposed here and three EV spaces. This is overall trip generation for the site. So the net increase based upon the proposed traffic study in terms of daily trips would be 899 trips. I know that the engineering director and also I think the traffic engineer for the applicant is present here, if you have any questions with regard to the number of trips. One of the things that did come out of the trip study was some traffic mitigation things that we're proposing. So the first thing that's proposed is a crosswalk at the intersection of Southwest 78th Avenue and Southwest 13th Place. This is the crosswalk that you see here. Secondly, they're proposing to replace the sidewalk within the limits of the site along Southwest 13th Place, which would be here. Mid-block pedestrian crossing to be established near the proposed Home 2 Suites Hotel entrance in Southwest 13th Street, and that's the crosswalk that you see here. And then signage and markings for the proposed crosswalks, including rectangular rapid flashing beacons, would be proposed as well to pedestrian safety. So waivers. As we indicated, there are a couple of zoning waivers. The first waiver with regard to zoning deals with the parking spaces. As indicated, 179 parking spaces are required. The applicant is proposing 134 spaces, and so they're requesting a waiver for that difference. Second waiver, zoning waiver, pursuant to Section 2786A, requires a building with a one-story to have a maximum floor area ratio of 0.3 and a maximum lot ground coverage of 0.3. The applicant is requesting to allow a one-story building to have a maximum far of 0.71 and a lot ground coverage of 0.71. The third zoning waiver requires buildings that have their primary orientation towards the highest classified street, which in this case is the B Street. So under the MPM zoning district, the streets within the midtown district are labeled either A, B, C streets, depending on their classification. And so basically the code requires that buildings that are being developed, that they orient or that they're located toward the higher order street. In this case, Southwest 78th Avenue is a higher order street, and this is a D Street, which is a lower order street, which would technically under the code require the hotel to be located along this, along Southwest 78th Street. It is proposed here, and so they're requesting a waiver from that requirement. Waiver number 4 from Section 2786A requires a minimum of 50% of the lot width to be placed within the specified Build 2 Zone. So again, along this street here, there is a Build 2 Zone, 50% of the entire width of the lot. It would require the building to be located within at least 50% of the length of the lot there. And so because the building is located here, they would not meet that requirement as well. And then finally, a final requirement also located to the orientation of the building under Section 2786 requires a B Street to have a Build 2 Zone of between 10 feet and 20 feet. So basically, again, within Midtown, we're proposing to kind of push the buildings closer to the street. In this case, it would be between 10 and 20 feet. Again, because the building is located here, the actual setback to these buildings is about 80 feet, and so they're requesting a variance from that requirement as well. And then there are four landscape waivers. The first landscape waiver is from Section 2755D1, which requires landscape pedestrian zone along the full length of each building facade. They're requesting to weigh the requirement for the east and south LPZ for the retail buildings. So that's what you see highlighted there in red. Waiver number two is from Section 27255B1, which requires a 15-foot wide perimeter buffer yard along the south frontage. They're requesting to reduce the buffer yard to 10 feet 7 inches between the right-of-way and parking. And that's what you see located there. Waiver number three, again, is from Section 27255D5, and it requires one shade tree for every 30 lineal feet within the LPZ. Again, because we are requesting waivers from the LPZs. They're requesting to have three shade trees where five are required along the retail south LPZ. That would be here. And zero shade trees where four are required in the hotel south LPZ, which would be there. And finally, waiver number four is from Section 27255D2, which requires the LPZ to be 50% of the building height, minimum width of 10 feet, a maximum width of 30 feet. Again, because the waivers that they're requesting here, they're requesting to waive this requirement along the north and east hotel. So that would be the north and east of the hotel and the east and south of the retail building, which would be here and here. There was a community meeting held on February 7, 2023 at Central Park. The applicant indicates that there were no members from the public that were in attendance at the meeting. In terms of citizen comments, staff has not received any written comments or phone calls with regard to this application. And then finally, there are no violations issued for the subject site at this time. So based upon that, we look at approvals based upon several criteria in the code. The first is compatibility with the surrounding development pattern and zoning designations. The Development Review Committee has determined that the site plan is consistent with those requirements and meets that requirement. Secondly, they'll be compliant with the comprehensive plan. Again, we've determined that it is in compliance with the goals, objectives, and policies of the comprehensive plan. And finally, it's required that there be consistency with the zoning code. Section 2750, in terms of the site development plan, we've found that it is sufficient and meets those requirements. Section 2741, in terms of notice for zoning measures, we've met that criteria. And then also, in terms of the practical difficulty waivers that are proposed as part of this application, it's been determined that they meet the criteria associated with that as well. So in conclusion, staff recommends approval of the proposed site plan. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you, Mr. Holmes. Councilmember Fadgen? Thank you. A couple maybe comments and some questions. On that east elevation, there's a sign at the top. They're going to come back later for signage. Yes. I would have concerns having a sign at the top of the building. And then that east elevation is facing the neighborhood, so that's pretty high up. So I don't necessarily think it would be a great idea for that sign. And I think there was, on the north elevation, a signage at the top of the building. When that comes back, I would hope that possibly the applicant will reconsider putting a sign at the top of the building. The other thing is, was this PowerPoint in our agenda package? No, it was not. Okay. It doesn't seem like we get these PowerPoint displays in our packages. I think they would be helpful. They're kind of like cliff notes, and then we can get into the detail of the other package. So if we can start getting this as part of the package. Because sometimes, if you're reading these packages, you know, those designs go all over the place, and you've got to slide over the place and stuff like that. So I just think that would be helpful. Is there going to be, and it's not, these are just questions I have. I'm thinking about 13th Street, and it seems like it's a dark street. And I don't know if it's because the neighbor across the south where, you know, Legends is and Magneto's, et cetera. Is there going to be an analysis of the street lighting? Because what I would sort of think that if this gets approved, you're going to have guests crossing the street to go to the restaurants across the way. Right. It's just a dark street in my opinion. So maybe the lighting's not working. Maybe it's not proper. Is that something that's going to be assessed at some point? In terms of street lighting itself? What? In terms of the street lights itself? Street lighting. So there's no street lighting there. Okay. That's a very good point. There's no street lighting. Okay. I think that's something we need to consider. And then also the plaza itself across the street, their lighting might not be effective. Actually, there's a lot of plazas in the city that I don't think the parking lighting, and I've mentioned one to you out west, it's pitch dark out there. I think it's dangerous. So I would hope that we assess the lighting for the parking and then assess whether we should put street lights on there because it is turning into something that people who are staying at that hotel are just going to walk across the street. And Legends is open at midnight, so they'll be walking back when it's late at night. So it'd probably be safer if we take an assessment of that. The next several questions I have are probably for the applicant, and it's really about the hotel itself that I just have questions with. I guess my first question is, is this going to be a corporately owned hotel or is it going to be a franchise? Come on, you're not a rookie. Please come to the microphone so that everyone can hear the answer. My name is Bill Laestrom. I'm here tonight on behalf of Home 2 Suites, the Patel family, which is owner of five Home 2 Suites products, and they will be the owner. It is a Hilton brand, yes. So the applicant owns five other local, so it's a franchise? Correct. Okay. Who's the target client guest for Home 2 Suites? Typically, it's families. There tend to be suites, a little bit larger, price point $115 to $130 a night. Obviously, depending on between winter, you know, summer rates. I was just kind of walking through the rates that are going right now. Well, good anticipation because that was my next question. What was the price point? How long can someone stay when they stay there indefinitely? No. And I have concerns about that, and I'll get to that. No. If you, you know, I don't know what the, I'm sure your code has a limitation as well on how long. I never had that question asked to me before. Well, we're in a new world, so that's why I'm asking. That's okay. So is there a limit by code, like how someone could be a guest at the hotel? I don't think so. I thought the hotel. I'd have to look at that. It doesn't come, I'm not sure there is. And I'll get back to why I'm asking those questions. Method of payment, will they accept cash? Let me take a look at my, I'm not seeing a, the answer is I would assume that they will take cash, yes. Okay. What about cryptocurrency? I, we don't know. The answer is, the answer is I do not know that. Okay. What kind of security is it going to have like a guard? Is it going to have a, a passive camera system? Is it going to have some sort of active monitoring system? Well, typically we have the, the monitoring system, plus of course we'll have staff. So passive, meaning review if there's a problem? Correct. Okay. Um, so is there a policy on long-term guest? You've, you've got me on that one. Okay. Why don't you just put a, put a cap on it and then I'll come back if I've got some issue. Whatever would be reasonable, that would be good. Six months, three months, two months, a week. That would be bad. Okay. I'm back. Um, I, I, I'm going with this. The price point sounds reasonable for the, one of my questions. I'm concerned about human trafficking. Um, don't, I want to, is the, is the franchisee have training, training in identifying those red flags? You got something to give us. All right. You guys came prepared. Good. And, and I, I feel good that it's a Hilton brand because I think they do have high standards. And I just want to make sure that, um, if there's policies that require them to go into the rooms, because some people just say do not clean, do not disturb, that, that they can't do that, like indefinitely. They, someone has to go in the room to see what's going on at, at period. If someone's staying there for long terms and stuff like that. And, and I wanted to address just in a, in a broader sense. So one of the, this is the Hilton, uh, you know, statement on human trafficking and all the training. That they do provide to our employees, um, along the way. But, you know, there's a higher standard, which to me, what I'd like to do is just have, work with the chief of police here. And have him take a look at our procedures. Take a look at our, our property and the way it's designed. And, and, and, and, and I, I don't want it to turn into a problem. I invite him to, um, to provide any suggestions he may want to as to how to, uh, improve ours. I did, I didn't have a chance to have the owner here. He was traveling, but I did talk to him. Um, he's been in the business for about 30 years. Where, where are there other, um, hotels? Um. They had four or five others. Yeah, I did. I just got it by email. So I didn't ask what those locations were. I could get those. But so, so what we, what I said to him is, well, look, the chief of police, I've known him forever in plantation. And, and the best, the best advice I could give you is to take the advice of the police chief. And he said, absolutely fine. Okay, so they're going to be willing to work with the chief to make sure that they're identifying all the proper things. Absolutely. And, and if we have a. So this place never turns into a problem. And I understand the problem. And yes, that's, it won't turn into that problem. Okay. I appreciate, um, your responses. Thank you. Thank you. I think we have Mayor Sordo. I was, I was just going to suggest that, um, we're asking about is, is there a law on maximum stays? And I would consult our city attorney who goes to other cities to see if any other cities or if we, he's ever heard of something like that. I, I have not heard of a cap on the duration of stays at hotels. I mean, they're heavily regulated by the state, but there are laws dealing with training requirements for hotels to identify, um, sex trafficking. And there are penalties imposed for violating that law. Thank you. Council member. Council member. Council member. Council member. Council member. Thank you, Madame President. Um, that's what I was going to refer to. That's what I was going to refer to state statute. 109.096. Um, Jennings disclosure, I did call Mr. pace from today. And ask specifically, um. uh. Council member, whether for his 59'm. Council member. Council member. Lord. Which at least on that issue is why I had the handle. Human trafficking has been an issue of mine for a while as, as everyone, um, is well aware. And it's always a concern when any hotel comes in. But I'm comfortable that the Patel family has been in the hospitality industry for a while, and they do have several hotels. They are mandated by state statute, as the city attorney said. And what I had asked Mr. Leystrom is if Mr. Patel would just be willing to, you know, work with the police chief, develop a relationship to ensure, you know, that we're trying to prevent some of these people from coming. Absolutely. And just so you know, Mr. Patel lives in Davie. Yeah, which is a good thing. He is local. I'd like to, and thank you for that, and thank you for bringing this tonight, Mr. Leystrom. I'd just like to talk a little bit. I don't know if anyone is really familiar with the Home 2 Suites. I've stayed at the one in Gainesville and the one in Tallahassee, and it is a, I believe it's a good brand. Moving kids from college, I think it was, I think it's a good product. What I've noticed in my travels is it tends to enhance whatever shopping center it's in and starts to attract. I'm glad they're opening up some other retail bays. As I said to Mr. Leystrom on the phone today, I moved here 30 years ago in September, and I remember when that shopping center had sound advice on the corner, I bought my stereo system there for my new house. And that cupola thing up on the roof. Right, and bread of life, which became Whole Foods. And really, end to end, that was really the last time period where that entire shopping center was vibrant, and it's been a very long time. And the police chief knows we, unfortunately, have a lot of homeless individuals that are in there, and I do believe that the hotel will enhance the surrounding retail. Council Member Fadgie made a great point about the lights, because I do believe that having the hotel will support Legends and some of the other restaurants, but crossing that street, and you go right into Legends parking lot, and it is dark there. You want it to be inviting. That's what I was trying to say. Absolutely. So we're doing the crosswalk, so we'll take a look at the lighting as we do the crosswalk. I can't promise you what I can do across the street with Legends, but if Stiles may still own that shopping center, we may be able to work with them. And I think that's something that will just enhance the area. And obviously, we're redoing our parking lot, so you will see, I think, the light volume go up, not too much for the neighbors to the east, but up significantly within the parking lot. Because I drive that parking lot. I cut through that parking lot all the time to go east on Peters after I've gone to either Vignettos, Legends, or one of the other. And it's dark. So those are great points. And as to, and I know they're going to come back for the sign approval, but that is typically the brand, Homeshoe Suites, is they have that sign up high. So I don't know what we'll be able to work out. I think that your point was. I'll take a look. I'm looking, thinking south. Right. Maybe it goes in the other direction. Because that's kind of the direction if you were trying to advertise. I mean, I haven't talked to them about signage, but I will certainly relay your concerns. Okay. All right. Again, thank you, Mr. Lasterner, for that. Thanks. And Council Member Fadgen, good points. Thank you, Council Member Horland. Council Member Weinstein? Yes, thank you. I'll add that I appreciate the discussion regarding human trafficking and slavery. So thank you for bringing that up. You know, I'm looking at the, I'm looking at where it's located, and I know this area very well as well, and it's been empty for way too long. You know, when you describe it as being on Peters Road, although we know that Peters Road is right there, I don't really think of this as on Peters Road. But it's on University. It's on University. Correct. Except that in the discussion, it's at Peters Road. Oh, because of the address. Because of the address, correct. And so we've had other, you know, other potential development on Peters Road that we've had different discussions on that I don't think apply to this in terms of its location. My concern is more the exit where the, to enter to 595. So when you exit out here right next to McDonald's, I find that to be an extremely dangerous exit there. And I'm looking and thinking that even now while the, while this entire shopping center has been fairly vacant for a long time, it's still a very dangerous exit, right? People line up there, and the traffic coming across, and then the traffic coming this way, it's like how hard can you hit on your acceleration to cross because university is so busy? You know, I saw the traffic study. I'm not troubled by the way the traffic study is presented, but I am troubled by the reality of that section there. So I don't know what the, what the fix is for it. And it's a bigger fix than just where you're, where you're located because of University Drive. But I have some concerns about the, the effects of the, the traffic there. Well, I, I'm going to describe the traffic a little differently than the, the traffic study because it's a traffic study. We follow the methodology that the city provides us. And since this project is vacant, then the city counts you as, as vacant. So I could have leased it up a week ago, and then we'd be having a different study, which is, the reality is we have 35,000 square feet of retail there today. We're basically cutting it in half down to 17,000 square feet. If it were full today, the traffic is, is no different than what we're generating from the project that we're putting in. Now in an absolute sense, because we've talked about that before, the absolute sense is, it's kind of like Plantation Walk. When Fasha Mall was, was bankrupt, there's zero trips coming from it other than the Sheridan suites and the, even the office building was, was closed at one point. So what happens here is the, the traffic from a standpoint of the planning and everything that FDOT does with that roadway is approximately the same as it was. What improvements, long-term, you've got the adaptive traffic lights coming in in the next year and a half along University Drive, and that will, that will assist it. I, I do that right turn there all the time. We did look at an interrupt light back when I did the apartment project at the corner. FDOT would not, at that time, approve what's called an interrupt light, which means basically a left, if you're going northbound on University at that, at that turn, you would have a light that would kind of trigger about the same time as the light at Peters Road and would give you an interrupt so that the left turn could be made to go westbound on 13th. And at the same time, those that are on 13th could go right bound, right and go out. That would be the ultimate solution. I know FDOT looked at it probably five or six years ago to do that. Did they say that? Huh? Do you recall what they said? Yeah, they didn't approve it. I just, you know, just to that point is that maybe it's time we put in another request. And because I think regardless of whether it's vacant, I mean, while it's been vacant, it's still difficult. It's still, I think, dangerous. And so obviously when there's going to be more traffic, I think it would just be that much more. So, you know, whether it's the city making the request is probably more appropriate, which is fine. And maybe that's something we need to look at again. I mean, to me, that's the solution there at the end of the day. No, and I appreciate it, and that's the request to the administration is that maybe we can reach out to FDOT again based on the fact that we're now going to see a, you know, if this passes a more active, you know, development there. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Weinstein. Do we have any data? Because I agree with you on terms of that being a very dangerous turn, but I also have to say I can't tell you I've ever necessarily seen an accident there. I think because it is so dangerous, maybe people are very extra cautious, and so I don't know if we have any data in terms of any actual accidents that have taken place there. If I may just, you probably are right. I can't recall any accidents there either, although I hate when we look at something that everybody recognizes is dangerous, and we say, oh, well, there's not been an accident, so let's not do anything more to make it safer. We absolutely should. Yeah, so I'm always afraid that, you know, we try and rely on the data that has been favorable to date, but it doesn't mean it will remain that way. Agreed. Thanks. Agreed. Council Member Anderson? I got lost track where you were saying the light. The upper left or the lower right? But to do what? The northbound traffic. I kind of don't need that. It's always stopped. Would be, would basically have an arrow. Well, I think it's also. Because, like, when you have a red light at 84 heading south, then you have everybody dumping off 595 turning right, so I don't know. I guess you can ask them, but I think there'll still be no, and I've never, I've never recalled, I think it needs a longer queue, you know, that left turn, but I've never recalled seeing an accident there, but we don't know. I mean, maybe there are accidents there, but, but I don't know. I don't, I don't think there's much room because you start to double, the double lanes on going south, so there's not room to make the queue longer. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not looking for more traffic, that's for sure, although I just am concerned about the safety there with the increased traffic. So that's right where, that's right where I am, I'm, to me, this is ground zero, University Drive, it's rated an F, and it's projected F grade all the way through to what, I don't remember, 2050 or further. It's basically entire tables F. We need a bridge now. All right now, before we put more, more things come online, the bridge, not just to the southwest, won't be enough, and that's, isn't the bridge, is the bridge going to be one way? I don't remember, is it? The Midtown Bridge, it's both ways. To, from 84 to come in, or else to exit onto? And exit onto. I did, I have to admit, I read a lot, but I did not see, I know I'm ash at lunch today, the, the hotel occupancy study. I didn't, I just didn't catch it, I didn't see it. We had talked about it at DRC, and. I could have missed it, I don't know if it was there, I know. I know you said a study was done, but I didn't catch the details. We, we discussed it at DRC. Now, because this is not a conditional use, they were not necessarily required to do the marketing study, usually for our conditional use request. A marketing study is required. So, I know it was discussed, and I'm trying to remember if you guys did submit it. I think, I don't believe we submitted it. I think we just discussed what our, what our feasibility study had shown, and I did not bring that with me. So, I don't, I don't know if how, that scenario, I don't know. Do we, does the county, does our county tourism rate thing keep our occupancy rates? I assume we have data on that. Do we have data specifically? For, for a hotel, the, yes, the county, yeah, tourism, you can get that information from. All the way down into our city, to our certain hotels that are in our city? I'm not sure how specific it is. I know it's, it's literally, as soon as you're on 595 to the airport, it's 10 minutes. So, we, we could create, you know, build it and they will come, but a lot of residents don't want us to build it because they don't want them to come. Right. And this is ground zero for traffic. I'm just very concerned. The, the turning right, exiting the lower right corner to get onto university is difficult. Going north to go left is difficult. They have fixed, the medians and things have cleaned it up over time because I've taken this, I took this every day for 20 some odd years. Right. For my whole life, it's, I'm very, very concerned adding density right at, right here. I, I'd like to know, Danny, I don't know if it's you or Ms. Shailon, the, we had a presentation by, and I don't remember if it's MPO or FDOT, but the, the fly, the proposed fly, if you want to call them flyovers or fast access, we already have one going south on university to go up, to go east on 595, but to add, to go west on 595, and then to build one up Pine Island and so on and so on, to alleviate our choke points coming down because we're a pass through. Right. And just a day as it passed through to come north, they were going to build, their, the proposal was to build them both directions, marching all the way out, I think, to 136th, if I recall, to, so, university, Pine Island, Flamingo, 136th. That, I don't know if, but I don't know if that, but I don't know if those were just dreams or those were reality in a pipeline. I, I know that there, there is a, they're doing a 595 study. I don't know if that, if it includes that or, or not. Good evening. That's absolutely correct. It is the 595 arterial study, and that's a long range study. I think it's more than 10 years. We don't hear about the implementation of it. They haven't moved into the beginning of it. Yes. So maybe our Midtown Bridge going to be in advance of them. So that's 10 plus years. It's just a conceptual plan at this point of the flyover, but not, nothing solid yet. Okay. So what did you, do you remember what the feasibility study was, Bill? We do it through, we do it through Hilton, and we show that this, this thing will fill up right away. I mean, you know. Oh, it would be great for Legends and IHOP. It's going to be IHOP and Legends and even Vignettos. But not for our traffic. Well, again, I want to go back to the traffic because this is, I have 34,000 square feet there. Yes. That's what will happen. That's the other choice tonight is it just, it stays the way it is. I have to break it up into, you know, bays probably, two or three more bays, and you end up with, you know, whatever's allowed in MPN. And I don't mean that as a threat, but we're taking the landscaping and the pervious area on this property and doubling or, I mean, I didn't do the presentation. We're doubling or tripling where it is today to try to bring it up to code. The landscaping will be lush compared to what's out there today, and we want to do this site. And the reality of the traffic, again, the traffic analysis, if you count me as a zero, then, yes, that's the case. But it will get leased. It'll just get leased to something lesser than what this corridor deserves. And that's a challenge for me. I live closest to it of all of us, I think. And I drive by, I'm at Legends off it as well, and Vignettos too. I hop as much. And I just, the area needs it. That particular turn is not going to be dramatically affected at all by this project. In fact, it has a slight reduction compared to the commercial in PM peak hour trips, which would be the afternoon trips that you look at the most. It's small. It's like eight or nine trips that it's a reduction. But it's to try to tell you that it's a tradeoff for something new and modern, for something that's old. And I understand the concerns on traffic. I actually, I'm a big believer in the Midtown Bridge, to be honest with you. It'll be two years before we actually get this thing open anyway. And I do believe this is a perfect project where you talk about the Midtown Bridge, you go out the back, you go about a block and a half, and that'll be the opening for the Midtown Bridge so that you can either come into the site and go out of the site. Now, most likely, people are going to use it to go out of the site because we won't have any signage at the Midtown Bridge to say, come in this way. But to go out, even the people who are staying there will figure that out, and the employees will all use the back way, as will I. Council Member Anderson, you're welcome. Thank you. Council Member Fadgen? I actually think that this usage is going to reduce the traffic because, think about it, in a hotel, you have to check out by 10, and then you can't check in until 3. And if you're here for business, you're going to leave in the morning, you're going to come back at the end of the day. So it's going to be very much like a residential building. So I actually think compared to putting a new sound advice in there or breaking it out with bays and stuff, there's going to be less traffic coming in and out of there, or it's going to be more in the early morning or in the evening and stuff. So I don't have a concern about it. And then when the Midtown Bridge gets built, that's going to relieve pressure point. And those people who do those maps, they figure out the best way, and they'll probably push them to go to that bridge to come in the back way. Instead of making that left-hand turn. Yeah, probably Google will. I don't know how to use that, but. Council Member Weinstein? Yeah, you know, in the discussion of what else could be there or what has been there before and how this will change, I'm hearing that it probably won't change the traffic or the number of visits and the number of cars that are coming and going from there. You know, I was focused on thinking of the part exiting to university. Although, you know, as you were talking about vignettos and legends and those, we're usually at IHOP with the kids, and especially as the Halloween pancakes come up, you know, so we're going to be there soon. But it's when you exit off of going to Peter's that, again, you're trying to cross that road. And in the morning when traffic is coming, it's also very difficult. And I'm looking at both of those. And so while I think both of those are very difficult for drivers, it probably is not going to, the addition of this building space is not going to change that makeup. It's a makeup of the way that the roads exist there. And we'll still cooperate with the request for the interrupt light. I believe it's more about the distance between Peter's light and where the interrupt light would be that was the challenge when we looked at it before. I think it was a hobby shop before. It was a hobby shop. I remember the hobby shop. I still have two Bose speakers from Sound Advice. That's your Sound Advice. That's why they went out of business. Yeah. We still got them. Yeah, that's right. Council, were you finished, Council Member Einstein? Thank you. Council Member Fadgen? So I was just reading the first statement on this slavery and human trafficking, and this statement in compliance came about because of the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015. So is this something that they've implemented internationally, this policy? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Now, again, subject to whatever the local laws and regulations are with each country that they would be in. I will say I'm a loyal Hilton Honors member. Card carry. And I will say that, yeah, that that training does go throughout the brand. And so that gave me some level of comfort. But I think all the comments that were made were great. And knowing that the owners have committed to having that relationship with chief and plantation PD is very important. Absolutely. Any further discussion on the item? Motion to approve. Second. We have some additional community members that would like to speak as well. I'm not sure if Sarah Clark was sworn in. Please, if you can, Ms. Beggerel, can you please swear her in? Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you were about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Thank you. Joe Nguyen? I came in my Sunday best. Joe Nguyen, 944 Northwest 92nd Terrace. Excuse me. I'm going to go off of a bit of a straight-up list on this one to make the best use of the time. First off, as far as the waivers go, we obviously want to approve the parking reduction request. Anytime we can reduce the number of spaces, we're increasing the value of a place. Approving the orientation request waiver if it helps it face the nearby restaurants and businesses because that will stimulate more exchange and use. We want to require a setback compliance because buildings far from roadways become not walkable and not shading. It sets a bad precedent also for future midtown construction if they can say, well, you did that there. We want to create a denser area where things are nice and close together. As far as the landscape pedestrian zone waiver, we kind of want to deny that as well. Essentially, we want shaded, comfortable use of open spaces. We know it gets hot here. We know it gets icky. The best way to be outside is if you're under some sort of nice cover. And same thing on the shade tree waiver. Cooling, appearance, urban heating. Essentially, trees in one area can actually decrease the temperature in another area nearby just because you don't have all that radiative heating from all the concrete, cement, asphalt, and all of that. So, essentially, the goal of Midtown is to create a welcoming, connected urban space. Those waivers don't help us achieve that. All efforts within our zoning regime here should be working towards a future goal of prosperous, world-class, small-town, urban space. Unfortunately, university is a really good, effective pedestrian wall for now. For cars that left turn into wide, high-speed roadways is a serious cause of injury-causing crashes. So, I don't know if it's even possible to just block that median entirely and prevent left turns completely and solve that problem. To that point, does a hotel achieve our goals of reducing housing costs in Midtown? Being so well-connected to office and retail, we need to focus on enhancing those local businesses. We need to make a place that you can enjoy, even without a car. And that raises the character of the city. A place that is vibrant is where things are close together and active with people interacting with other people. Like in here, if we were all sitting in our cars, this would be a really, really, really awful place to be. And any conversation about bringing more people into a place than when discussing traffic needs to be coordinating with Primo and their plan, especially along the University Corridor, where things like BRT are being considered. So, our goal is to slowly build a wonderful little city core, and let's ensure that we only make it better from here. If that happens to include this hotel, let's build it right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nguyen. Vicki Gelfand. Vicki Gelfand, 9381 Northwest 18th Place. For the last 40 years, I have been a travel advisor, and $105 a night is probably less expensive than some of the places over in Dania Beach. It's not an upscale property. It's the low end of Hilton. I, too, am a Hilton member. I'm also a Marriott member, and they have four seasons under their properties. I mean, there's 30 or 40 different brands under the Hilton brand. The people that you'll be getting, if they're going to be staying there long term, then, yeah, it's something that Council Member Horland said. You have to be very careful with trafficking. The traffic is going to be exponentially more if you're going to have 300 rooms. I don't know how many rooms there are. 120. So, you have 120 cars there. It's one block south. Am I correct? It's one block south of Peters Road, which is 12th. This is 13th. Leaving there off of, getting onto university to go south on university, excuse me, north on university would be insane because you're not going to get another light one block in. And if you want to go south because you want to get onto 595, you're going to have to really be doing some major good driving. I'm sorry to put it that way. I just, I feel that it's a little too much for what we have there. Maybe a smaller building, something like that, but that's just my personal feeling. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gufflin. Sarah Clark. I'm in my Sunday best, too, because I didn't think I was going to be speaking today. I thought I was going to be listening. Sarah Clark, 10451 West Broward Boulevard. My understanding is that this developer has offered to upgrade the sewers in some way, which would save the city a lot of money. So, I didn't really hear any talk about that. I just wanted to point that out. That's like a big money saver. Another thing is that this development brings in a lot of people who are going to spend their money here, and their kids don't go to the schools here. They're probably not using the public amenities here, and all of that is still going to get taxed. That's a lot of revenue for the city, another thing to be taken into account. Nobody likes traffic, myself included. Yeah, we have a lot of parking there. If you provide car amenities, people are going to use their cars. So, anytime you can approve something like that for there to be less parking, that's great. It's more walkable. People have an opportunity to maybe knock it in their car. I understand that development can be scary in some cases when you're used to North American development patterns. It's understandable that some people are uncomfortable about the term density, and I understand, like, it sounds really threatening. But density is the only way that we get away from that traffic, which sounds counterintuitive, right? But you can't have walkability without density. If your developments are sprawled out, you're going to need cars to get around, and that's bad for everyone, pretty much. So, even people who like cars, actually worth noting, if you like cars, it's better for you to have fewer people on the road. So, you know, please just don't be afraid of that. I understand that there are bad associations, but cities aren't loud. Cars are loud. Cities aren't noisy. That's the cars. And I understand that, like, if you're used to car-dependent, sprawling, parking lot-centric developments, you're going to think that more development means more traffic. But that's really not the case. That's not good development. If you have traveled elsewhere, if you've traveled to the Amsterdam's and Copenhagen's of the world, you understand that it doesn't need to be done that way. I yield my time. Thank you. Thank you. Any further comments from the public, questions, discussion? I will entertain a motion. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, you did. Thank you, Council Member Orland. Ms. Beggerel, please call the roll. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Council Member Orland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. No. Council Member Andreu. No. Thank you. That was for item number 16. That was for item number 16. We have item number 17, which is the request for the amendment for the elevation and landscape plan for a home two suites plantation. Mr. Ezra, do you need to read it? The presentation has been concluded. You had your public hearing. It would be appropriate to take a motion. Thank you. Second. Any further questions or comments? Hearing none, Ms. Beggerel, please call the roll. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Council Member Orland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. No. Council Member Andreu. No. Thank you. Thank you. What's your timeline? What's your timeline? Two years? Year and a half? Two years from now. All right. That takes us to our administrative update. Mayor Sorrell. Thank you very much, Council President Andreu. The long-awaited opening of Ford's Garage is Monday. Two to four is kind of a small opening event. You all should have invitations. Okay. Yeah, I'll link those to that. Their big event is going to be on Saturday the 11th of Veterans Day. We have our Veterans Day in Venezuela on a Saturday this year. And then about 11 o'clock they start a car show. We're going to shut down the roads in between and have an antique car show between them. Read for the record, October 26th. It would really help us if people declared their schools so we could deploy accordingly. Can we just do it now? Is that all right? Or do you want to go through Laura? Whatever you all want. Well, I think there's conflicting requests because Children's Service Council had sent out an email asking when to declare, and Broward County Schools was assigning, so I'm not quite sure if there's been other. I have a tiny bit of information on that, if I may, just because that's my boss that coordinates it. Dr. Canning. Yep. So she, it's a joint effort, and she is the one who's actually scheduling. So you can make a request right to a school and do that. You can go through Children's Services Council, which will still get around to her. So it doesn't really matter. They just want a lot of people out. Yes. Oh, so you can do it through Children's Services Council. You can go right directly to the principal. The principal doesn't have to report it or not, you know. So. More? That's right. So, so the other part of that is, like we did for first day of school, we would like to show that we're out and about, and we're going to have other public officials in the city. So if you all could send a photo of yourselves doing Read for the Record to Michelle at Social, and we'll do a organized push from there. We'd really appreciate that. Okay. So you want to know where we're, I think I'm signed up for Kitty Ridge Academy, and I believe Tropical Elementary. I think you are. Okay. She already told me you're a trolley. I'm CP, and Peter's just asked today as well. Okay. Lewis, do you know? Yeah, I know Mirror Lake Elementary was one, and I think Central Park was my second option. And Tim, I don't know if you have one. It's okay if you do or don't. I have more. Okay. I would like to do Plantation Park, so that works out really well. And I was probably going to do Mirror Lake, and it doesn't matter that it's duplicated. Absolutely not. No, it's everybody out and about. It's great. It's great to see us involved in schools and being involved, and I think the schools really notice that we're there for them, and it makes a difference. So I really, really appreciate the activity you all put in on that. Mr. Goodrich did mention there is a cancer run, Sunday, 7.30. They give everybody a 2-2. That's not why I entered, but that is a good bonus. The big race, Saturday, the 21st, at BB&T, we'll draw about 18,000, the taking strides against breast cancer. I think some of you know about that. The reason I'm bringing all this up is last year we had a successful city employee involvement in the corporate run, and that was in April. This year, it is March 20th at Esplanade Park, so it's going to be downtown, but in the same breath, it's kind of nice to finish downtown, and some people might have a cocktail or two. I've heard that to happen. So the question is, are we going to take a bus or not? And the other comment to that is employee-wise, there's a 5K at Central Park in January and another one in February at Central Park. So we're going to, through HR, they're going to ask employees, they're going to give them health points and everything, show up. We might have a table or two to kind of build spirit and camaraderie among the employees and help them gear up for the corporate run. It would be great if you all played along, but that's what's going on. It would be great if you could send us that information as well, because I don't think we received it the last time, so that would be great. On the corporate run? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Or maybe. No, we'll do better. Yeah, okay, and we'll do better about January, February, March, leading up to corporate run. One, two, three, four. That's all I've got. Thank you. Thank you. Let's continue with Council Member Horley. Put my sash on. Please, put your sash on. Talking about being involved in schools. No, it's not Miss Italy. It's so good. I was invited to near Lake Elementary for International Day of the Girl today, and Captain Ryan from the Police Department was there as well. I haven't posted photos, but again, it is wonderful that this administration and this council, so involved in the schools, they do notice. I was able to go first because we had the Solid Waste meeting today, the first governing authority meeting, and the girls were phenomenal. They asked great questions, and it was really about empowering them to be anything that they can be, and of course, I encouraged them to get involved in their community. It was great, but I promised them that I would wear the sash tonight. I thought you'd look at me crazy. I thought about it, but I knew I'd get a little judgment. But anyway, that's all I have. It's good to see everybody. I'm tired. Okay, that's enough. Yeah. It's about 2 in the morning right now for me, but we made it through. So anyway, good to see everyone, and that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Anderson? Mayor Sortle, could you tell me, did you say, I know the soft opening for Forbes received the email, but did you say the grand opening is November 11th? November 11th, their big event, and the ribbon cutting, the public ribbon cutting. They might cut a ribbon Monday anyway. They are, at the end of it. But it'll be a bigger ribbon they cut on the 11th. Okay. Do you know what time that is on the 11th? Well, yeah, because we will first go to Veterans Day, and then at about 11, I think they want to have a band and everything, and I think somewhere around noon. They're flexible with their time because we want to make sure it works out with Veterans Day ceremony. Also, I got League of Mayors this weekend. There's League of Cities, and there's also League of Mayors. So if you have questions you think should be shared with other mayors, let me know. I'm going to ask them about some initiatives we have about installation of AI, about permitting and water billing. I want to see how everybody else does it, and maybe we can get ideas that help our city. Yeah. Ms. Shalon, could you please, you don't need to come up, just what I mentioned before. Are you able to, just to clarify, because we saw that probably a year ago, the presentation of the 590, back to what I was saying, when was that time frame? When were they guesstimating? That's all just to refresh that. That's it. Thanks. Thank you. Council Member Fajan. Thank you. I'd like to get a consensus on us doing a resolution in support of Israel for our next meeting. Have copies of Broward County's resolution. I'm assuming everybody would be on board with having something to support Israel with a resolution. Yeah, I would be. My thoughts are, I saw something in here. The last whereas, I would like to see that it gets in there. The board strongly supports the sovereignty of the state of Israel and recognizes the right to self-defense and to protect its citizens. So, is it something the administration could put together for us? And if anybody has any other comments regarding what they would like to see in the resolution? Hell yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I think we could use this as a draft. We could write it off of this. This is Commissioner Yavin's resolution. Yeah. Carol, you were nodding. Did you have an extra thought on that or just? Okay. Yeah. I'd appreciate that. I'd be wise. I'd be happy to. All right. Appreciate that. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reinstein? Yeah, I was going to first thank the mayor for his statement on the support of Israel. And I will now add Council Member Fajan for proposing the resolution. Some of you know I have family there. And so, aside from everybody's general feelings of support that I appreciate, it's also very, very personal. So, thank you for that. I wanted to also share that just last week and I attended the Institute for Elected Municipal Officials that was put on by the Florida League of Cities. Thank you for the city encouraging that. And it's an amazing way to see what other cities are doing, small and large, and to get a good basic education of some things that maybe we haven't seen yet or I haven't seen yet since being on Council. So, I wanted to share that with the public. I also wanted to, you know, really thank the school board for these great community conversations that the new superintendent has been having. And our District 5 school board member, Dr. Holness, has been very involved with them. I want to add for those that have been following some of the things that we've talked about over the past number of months at Peters Elementary. They have a lot of needs at Peters Elementary. It's our oldest school and when you go there, you can see it. And I've been having some regular conversations with Dr. Holness who is trying very hard to follow up. You know, there's a number of things from the need for awnings, for the need for more landscaping, things that especially because the mitigation that took place, we've talked about all of the soil issues where they took out a lot of landscaping and they haven't put it back. And so, there's a lot going on there and just stay tuned because we're pushing hard. This entire council is involved with the school board in one way or another. And so, we're all trying to make sure that our schools are the best. And I just lastly was today was the Chamber of Commerce luncheon that was sponsored by the Plantation Fire Department and they recognize their some businesses, a business and a firefighter. And it's really a great partnership between the Chamber and our fire department. So, thank you for the fire department for all that you do. It was a nice event today. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Reinstein. So, I will just kind of piggyback on some of your statements and those that were mentioned earlier. So, coming up on Thursday, October 19th at 6 p.m., Parkway Middle School, Dr. Holness, one of our school board representatives, will be hosting a town hall meeting empowering our schools' transformative strategies for student success. And we'll be discussing some of what you mentioned, the status of our schools, both academically and the physical plan. So, I invite our residents to attend that. And just keeping along the same lines because we are so involved, Mirror Lake Family Fun Day is Saturday, October 14th. Nobody better outbid me. I love that silent auction. That's Plantation Community Center. That will be on the 14th and I know the same day as the community garage sale. So, we'll be out and about. Well, I'm surprised that Council Member did not mention, Council Member Reinstein did not mention it because he told me before he was looking forward to meeting Miss Universe at Island Space Thursday, October 14th. I do want Miss Florida to feel bad. She's been here, you know, we gave her a day. That's going to be a very busy day because, as I mentioned, that's also the town hall. So, I don't know, we'll have to all just kind of jump around and cover everything. But Island Space, who has been a wonderful partner, too, at the Broward Mall, will have Miss Universe to make up. The Garden Club Tee, that was not mentioned also on Sunday, October 22nd at 2 p.m. And then I just wanted to ask about a concern. Maybe everybody received an email from a resident asking about the crossing guard situation at South Plantation. And I know that we normally do not have crossing guards at our high schools. I'm very familiar with that situation, having my son go there. I've seen the concerns that the resident addressed firsthand. But, and she's spoken to the principal. I don't know if we have any solution or can brainstorm anything else to help that solution with Kids Crossing. They're at that age where they're not going to wait for the light and follow all of the necessary guidelines when crossing. So, I know it gets a little dicey. Yeah. That, as you know, both of those schools have been there forever. We have never had a school guard, a school crossing guard there. However, some of the signage is being revisited and the school zones. So, that's in play. Not 100% sure on the crossing guard, though. I agree. Yeah. Yeah, the signage is definitely being looked at by the school board. So, hopefully we'll get some relief there. Thank you. What do you mean by the school board? Well, it's not only the, well, the school board, I'm sorry, it's not the school board. The county? The county, not the school board. Because I know that when they've redone things, I don't know if the signs have changed with the changing of the way people, they used to park at the church. Remember how that used to be a road that cut through right by the, now it's the park. Right. So, they might not have changed the signs over time and it might warrant backing them up or putting more in, more quantity. And I'm sorry, and I forget the specific gentleman's name that we've been working with. Captain Fowler has been working on that particular assignment. But I do know that they're going to be looking at the signage out there. Thank you. And that will be at least some feedback that we can give to that particular resident. Mayor Soto, you wanted to add to that? I didn't get the email. Can you forward it to me? Somehow. Sure. It never came to me. Was I copied on it? I think the resident sent to all of us, but we can't respond to everybody. Sure, I understand. Maybe I missed it or whatever. Yeah, there was a response to that. Okay. And also, you all know that we are still working on speed cameras in school zones. We're waiting it to come through procurement. When it's approved, it'll be a $100 fine, automatic, auto-generated, and hopefully that slows people down. It will also be tied into the LPRs. Yeah. Which is another great future. I'm really excited for that. Yes, you are. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Thank you. One thing I forgot. I know we mentioned about the Family Fall Festival, and I had spoken to JoJo about a city council table that if any of the city council members are going to be there and wants to be at the table to meet residents, he'll give us a place under the shade to be able to meet residents. And he said no problem, that they would take care of it. So I want to thank Parks and Rec for that. Thank you. Yes, that's great. And lastly, I just want to say happy belated birthday to Council Member Anderson because he had another trip around the sun on Monday. So happy birthday. Thank you. That concludes all of my announcements. It is now 8.20 p.m. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all.