Planning & Zoning Board — May 6, 2025

It is 6 o'clock. We are starting the planning and zoning meeting. I am the underchair to the underchair, so you're stuck with me tonight, so I apologize. It's also, before we start, it is Jay Stahl's birthday, so wish him a happy birthday. Happy birthday. So, we are going to start and call this meeting to order, and we're going to try and beat the record and get out of here at a reasonable time. And everyone, I think, is it two minutes, comments, or three minutes? That's probably not going to happen, but let's do a roll call, and then we'll get into it. Okay. All right. Ms. Gelfand? Here. Mr. Stahl? Here. Ms. Demby Berger? Here. Mr. O'Brien? Here. Ms. Peacock? Here. Mr. Della Grange? Here. Thank you. Is there a motion for last meeting's minutes? I wasn't here, so I can't. I'll make the, oh, I wasn't here. You can make the motion, and you have to vote, even if you weren't there, because you're here today. I'll make the motion. Second. Call? Okay. Ms. Gelfand? Here. Mr. Stahl? Yes. Here. Ms. Demby Berger? Yes. Mr. O'Brien? Yes. Ms. Peacock? Yes. Mr. Della Grange? Yes. Thank you. Okay. This meeting, we have one item today, and City, if you'd like to start us out. Oh, we have to swear. No, this is not quasi-judicial, so we don't need to swear on the witnesses. I thought you made me judge, man. Okay. No. Next time. Okay. Thank you. We can start. Thank you so much. Chairwoman Berger, members of the Planning and Zoning Board, Assistant City Clerk, and Assistant City Attorney. For the record, Sean LeMay with the City of Plantation Division of Planning and Zoning. The staff report is numbered PP23-0061 and is dated May 6, 2025. At this time, I would like to incorporate this report as part of the record. The applicant requests the following. Site plan, elevation, and landscape plan approval to construct a 24-hour, 7-day gasoline filling station with an 8,772-square-foot canopy having 8 fuel pumps, 16 fueling positions, a 1,440-square-foot canopy for four EV charging stations with a 6,008-square-foot accessory convenience store. Also requested, the conditional use approval to allow a gasoline station and accessory convenience store in the B-7Q zoning district. And lastly, five zoning waivers and two landscape waivers from Chapter 27 of the City Code. Staff has identified an area of the plan which will require an additional landscape waiver and an additional zoning waiver. The site is located at 1790 North Pond Island Road and it is in the center northern part of the city. The agent is Joseph Acres and with legal representation from Jana Loda. The size of the property is 1.89 acres. The current and former use was the Wells Fargo Bank. The land use designation is commercial. The adjacent zoning districts are B-7Q to the north and south. And then to the east, across Pine Island, sorry, to the east, directly to the east is residential PRD-16Q. And then across Pond Island to the west is PRD-3Q. I'm going to talk a little bit about the B-7Q zoning district. So actually it was introduced to the City of Plantation Zoning Code back in 1975. And this is different than the conventional zoning districts in the city like B-1P and 2P and 3P and the mixed use MPM. We have 15 of these B-7Q districts in the city and in no case do we find a gasoline filling station. The uses in these B-7Q districts are quite limiting. They impose restrictions on the development. So we can go back in history in 1977. And when I look at the record and look at the history of this rezoning, I can see where actually the folks at Lauderdale West were quite involved in the list of approval of the uses and intensity. So back in 1977, the uses were quite low intensity. We had banking, general and medical office. There was further restrictions in terms of setbacks and architectural standards. The list of uses ensures the development of this B-7Q zone property would be compatible with the surrounding area. And it would not intrude into nearby zoned properties that are zoned residential. And they would maintain an architectural compatibility. I'm not going to repeat the notations and sentences that are in the staff report. But this is considered a change of plans in this B-7Q. And with the change of plans, staff finds that a gasoline filling station is one of the most intensive uses in the commercial zoning districts based on the hours of operation and the level of activity. The requested use in proposed site plan would allow for the introduction of a substantially higher intensity adjacent to residentially zoned parcels. And we deem it to be inconsistent with the existing and plan uses in the surrounding area. Therefore, the use is not compatible at the subject location. And staff finds that because of the proposed site plan and the proposed use, it is not demonstrated compliance with the standards found for the PCD in section 27-92 of the zoning code. And here I've noted where the PCD is no longer maintaining its standards for compliance with the initial B-7Q ordinance. So as shown on the aerial, the area is fully urbanized and developed. The site is bound by commercial uses to the north, which we have to the northwest, we have the Jacaranda Square where the Walmart is. Directly to the north of Sunrise, we have the TD Bank and then to the northeast of the property, we have the newly approved mixed use plantation city center. To the south is the Bank of America Plaza. And then to the west, we have Jacaranda Lake, single family residential. And then directly to the east, we find the assisted living, the five star premium residence, along with the condo community known as Jacaranda Lake. On the map here, we do see in purple the public notification boundary. It's 500 feet when a site plan is requested with waivers and for conditional use. And all in total, 90 notices were mailed to surrounding properties. The applicant requests the following site plan elevation and landscape plan approval to construct a 24-7 gasoline filling station with 16 fueling stations and an accessory convenience store. So the site plan proposes a southerly located building along with the detached fuel canopy orientated parallel with Sunrise Boulevard on the northern portion of the property. Parking is found along the north and side of the convenience store. And then we have an EV canopy right here with four with four EV charging stations, which is located on the western portion of the site. Also proposed is a six foot high vinyl fence on the eastern property line and the southern property line. Also noted is a newly proposed turn in right lane here off of Sunrise. These plans have been included with the staff report for your review. The engineer for the project is here to discuss this plan. The elevations show the proposed building along with material types and color palettes. The exterior facades are composed of wood and stone and stucco and metal canopies. The rear elevations facing the south and then the side elevation facing east. The canopy design continues to match color and materials of the principal structure. And we do have the material board here with us this evening right here. And then the the stone that's being used is on the floor here. Staff finds the colors to be quite dark. And with the red, we do not find it harmonious and balanced with the surrounding buildings. We do have some renderings here of the proposed. Now the colors on the renderings are quite light, but according to the elevation plan and the material board that was provided, they're actually darker than this. So just take note of that. The building actually is set back so far from the road and with the large canopies, both the EV canopy and the principal canopy, you probably wouldn't even see this building from Sunrise or Pine Island actually. Here's some other. So also requested is a landscape plan. So the plan shows buffer locations, landscape pedestrian zones, tree, sod, and shrub locations. And then here at the corner, there actually is a retention pond. The landscape architect for the project is also here this evening. Here we have the floor plan depicting the sales area. Here's the sales area. And then we have the cashier back of the house where the office is located. We have some storage areas and coolers. And then we have the restrooms. Parking requirements are based on a convenience store size of 607 square feet. The parking standard is one space for 300 square feet, which therefore requires 21 parking spaces with 30 provided. The site is over parked. Also included are four EV charging stations. So we have some traffic slides to demonstrate traffic generation. A traffic analysis was provided by the applicant. Based on the study, the trip generation table indicates 1,889 daily new trips or 132 a.m. peak hour trips and 118 p.m. peak hour trips. We have a traffic management site plan here. And what it shows is here at the lower part of the site plan is a modified turn in, right in only. Currently there is a right in and right out, but it will be modified to be a right in only on Pine Island. And then on Sunrise, we also have a right in and right out. And then we have, of course, the new turn lane off Sunrise. Please note that both of these roads are county roads and they're under their review. We have a site circulation plan showing the traffic and pedestrian walkway connections. So the site maintains existing access points on Pine Island and Sunrise. The site circulation shows the bike and pedestrian walkway connectivity. So the applicant provided a pedestrian network in red and then the bike lane is in blue. The second request is conditional use approval to allow a gas station and accessory convenience store in the B-7Q Plan Commercial Development Zoning District. Responses to the criteria by the applicant have been addressed in the staff report. And staff does not concur with the applicant's findings and statements. The conditional use is not consistent with the general plan nor compatible with adjacent uses, thereby adversely affecting the general welfare of residents in the neighborhood. Proposal for the site plan cannot protect the surrounding properties, therefore does not meet criteria one. The proposal is not consistent with the general plan and zoning, therefore does not meet criteria two. The proposal is not in harmony with the surrounding properties, therefore does not meet criteria three. The proposal shall not be detrimental to surrounding properties, therefore does not meet criteria four. The proposal shall not adversely affect the neighborhood, therefore does not meet criteria five. It does meet criteria six, which is public infrastructure. The proposal is not consistent with the code of ordinances, therefore does not meet criteria seven. It does meet criteria eight by disclosing the square footage. And the last and third item are the five zoning waivers and two landscape waivers from Chapter 27 of the City Code. The first zoning waiver requires a building setback of 38 feet with 21.63 feet provided at the southern property line. The second zoning waiver requires the EV charging station setback of 36 feet with 26.29 feet provided at the western property line. The third zoning waiver would allow for outdoor seating accessory to a service station. The fourth waiver would allow colors of building exteriors and trim that are not compatible with surrounding buildings. This architectural restriction is violated with the proposed color scheme under the current B7Q ordinance restrictions. The fifth zoning waiver would allow more than 15 foot candles at any point in the parking area. The fifth zoning waiver has not been requested. But it would require a six foot high concrete wall along the eastern property line adjacent to the residentially zoned property. And they are proposing a six foot high final fence. Now on to the landscape waivers. The north facade for the pedestrian zone is required to have a 12.67 foot landscape pedestrian zone where 6.5 is proposed. And the western facade is required to have 12.67 with 7.25 proposed. And staff has identified an additional right of way landscape buffer on sunrise, which requires a 20 foot buffer. And we can see there's a little bit of an area within the buffer on sunrise, which goes down to 10.6 feet. So there was a community meeting held on May 1st, 2024 at the Central Park multipurpose building. And the applicant indicates 24 people attended the meeting. The city of plantation posts signage on properties for site plan approvals. And sends out notices to surrounding property owners from planning and zoning actions that requested. This provides an opportunity for citizens to participate in the zoning process. Notification was sent to surrounding properties within 500 feet. And staff has received numerous phone calls and emails from citizens objecting to this application. Also, we do find there is one violation on the property for offense without a permit. Staff analysis. Staff evaluated the proposed site plan and landscape plan. Elevations, conditional use request, and waivers with justification in the context of the applicant's written narrative in the letter of intent, proposal, and impacts on the surrounding development pattern and zoning designation. Staff, after conducting a complete review and analysis of the proposed case, now must ensure the request in fact qualifies for compliance with the comprehensive plan and the regulations of the plantation zoning code. Staff has conducted three levels of analysis to address this request. The first issue is compatibility. Compatibility with the surrounding development pattern and zoning designation. Staff believes the proposal is not compatible with existing neighborhood development. The development of the site would not be compatible with existing commercial development and zoning designations. The second level of analysis addresses compliance with the comprehensive plan. You can refer to exhibit L in the staff report, which has detailed information on the comprehensive plan policies. We find it inconsistent with the goal one and several policies of the future land use element. We find it inconsistent with goal one and several policies of the conservation element. We find it inconsistent with policy 1.4.3 of the open space element. The last part of our analysis addresses consistency with the zoning code. The development has found to be inconsistent with the following requirements of the zoning code. It does not meet section 2750, site development plan sufficiency. It does not meet section 2792, development plans for PCD. It does meet section 2741, notice for zoning measures. It does not meet section 2745D, the conditional use criteria. It does not meet section 2752G2, the practical difficulty waiver standards. And lastly, it does not meet section 2792, 8F4, the PCD waiver standards. In conclusion, staff, based on the findings and conclusions outlined in the staff report, staff recommends denial of the requested site plan, elevation, landscape plan, conditional use and waivers. The request is found to be inconsistent with the plantation comprehensive plan and inconsistent with the plantation land development regulations. Thank you, Matt. Matt, you want to come up? Okay. For the record, he's present at 620. Just so, this meeting is a lot larger than we normally have. I'm just going to go over really briefly how we'll handle this. So, first what we'll do is, after the presentation, we'll open it up to the dais. If anyone has questions, then we will have the applicant and the applicant's attorney come, and then we'll open it up to the dais, and then we're going to open it up to the public. And again, we really appreciate you coming out here. We ask that you limit it to three minutes. If you agree with your neighbor or there's ten of you, you can say we waive in support. You know, say the five of us over here, that can be noted too. As I speak fast, please speak clearly and enunciate so Madam Court Reporter can take down your name and your information. And when you come up, you state your address. And again, we're going to be courteous and I appreciate everyone being out here today. And also keep in mind that we are a recommendation board, so it doesn't end with us. It will have to go to City Council as well. So we make a recommendation, but we're not. We're just the first stop on the road. Okay? And I think that's it. Oh, we're going to break it up into three sections for three separate motions under the request. So under project number, we have B requests. Number one, the site plan is going to be one to discuss and make a recommendation on. Number two, the conditional use approval will be the second one. And number three, the zoning waivers and landscape waivers will be the third portion. Am I correct? You can discuss them all at once, but when you take the vote, just take them separately so the votes are clear on what they've requested, just for the record. Maybe we'll discuss it all at once in that way. Yes. Okay. And before we open up to the dais, Mr. Stahl, no? Questions for the city since they just finished their presentation and go down. Okay. So I'm opening it up to questions if we have for the city. Anyone on the dais? I just want to make one declaration that I was contacted by attorney Bill Astrum on this. And he was asking me what my opinion was, and I didn't give him one. So I just want that on the record. I believe it's because you're in the zone. Is he one of the notified people? No, I don't believe so. And this is not quasi judicial. So the genuine disclosure is not necessarily correct, but it's appreciated for purposes of clarity to the record. Thank you. Anyone? Questions for the city? Yeah. Just one. Whatever we do tonight, when will it be coming before the council for a final vote? Do you know? The next step would be to address staff comments, and then it would be scheduled to the next city council meeting. We're probably thinking July. Good evening. For the record, Dan Holmes, Planning, Zoning, Economic Development Director. Yeah, it would probably be sometime in July, but it would also depend upon the applicant's submittal to us for a council. So there could be some delays there. So I can't give you an exact date. If everything flows pretty smoothly, then I could change it around a little bit, too. There's a possibility, you know, as a result of this hearing, that there could be some changes as well. So that's correct. That's correct. Thank you. Anything else? If we can hear from the applicant. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. My name is Jana Loda. I'm an attorney with the law firm of Holland and Knight, with offices at 515 East La Solis, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'm also a 35-year proud resident of the City of Plantation. I'm here tonight, obviously, on behalf of Racetrack, the owner and applicant of the Racetrack Plantation Market. Real quickly, before I move on, I want to introduce a few members of our team that are with us here tonight. We have several representatives from Racetrack, including Samantha Jones, the Director of Engineering for Racetrack, as well as Mercedes Gregorio, project manager, as well as Kelly Harrington, who is the Director of Asset Protection for Racetrack. And, of course, we have Max Kaplan, who's probably familiar to you with Thomas Engineering. I will try not to repeat any items that staff may have brought up. However, I do have a number of things in my presentation that I do want to bring forth to you, so I appreciate your patience with me, but I will try to get through as quickly as possible. Once again, we have several applications that's before you tonight, as mentioned by staff. It includes a site plan elevation approval to accommodate the Plantation Racetrack Market and Gas Station, the conditional use approval to amend the B7Q, zoning associated with the property to allow the service station use and the accessory Racetrack Market use, and then a number of zoning and landscape waivers that I know the staff has gone over with you. Again, the property is located on the southeast corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Pine Island Road. As you are familiar, this is one of the few major intersections in the city of Plantation, as we really just have Broward Boulevard and Sunrise as the major arteries that transverse the city, with Pine Island University 441 as some of the major north-south, going north and south through the city. Again, bounded to the north by Sunrise Boulevard and across the street is a newer TD bank, and I'm just going to plant this. That property is zoned B7Q, and for over 30 years there was a gas station at that corner. To the east is, of course, a 100-foot wide canal right-of-way, and then the five-star residences. Caddy Corner to the northeast is similar property, zoned B7Q, which has recently, I refer to it as the 8601 project. To the south is the other property in our V7Q zoning, and that is the Bank of America building. To the west is Pine Island and, of course, the walled Jacaranda Lakes community. And then to the northwest is the Jacaranda Square, which has as its anchor the Walmart neighborhood market. Again, just some basic information is that address, the acreage, the land use, which is vitally important, is commercial for this site. Zoning B7Q, and it is presently improved with the Wells Fargo Bank that has been vacant for a number of years. If you're familiar with this corner, I believe it's going on at least five years that it's been vacant, as banks are slowly consolidating their operations and moving, in some respects, to online type of operation. Access presently to the property is a right-in, right-out off of Pine Island, as well as a right-in, right-out off of Sunrise. Before I get to the meat of our application, I just wanted to give you a little bit of information on who exactly is Racetrack, because I do think that's important to your consideration. Racetrack is a third-generation-led and family-owned company that currently owns and operates approximately 570 Racetrack stations and convenience markets across eight states. Almost half of those are located in the state of Florida, with 249 locations in the state and 30 additional projects in development. At this location, Racetrack proposes to redevelop the site with one of its new, more modern Racetrack markets that will offer more than 4,000 retail and grocery items to address guests' needs, include premium food offerings and endless beverage options. This is consistent with that kind of newer line of convenience market that you're seeing, similar to the Wawa and other uses. Later on in the presentation, I'm going to walk you through the interior design a bit more, show you some of the fresh food offerings, as well as outline the market study that we've included in the application, and that I know is in your backup, that shows how this area of the city is dramatically underserved for this particular use. So turning now to the site plan, and I'm using our colored, rendered landscape plan, because I think it gives you a better view of exactly what's happening on the site in terms of circulation. Again, we're still going to have our main access is from West Sunrise Boulevard. The traffic study that was included in the backup makes it very clear, although there's clearly an increase in trips associated with this use, it is understood that 75% of the traffic associated with this use is going to be passed by traffic. What does that mean? That means those are trips that are already on the road. That's people that may live out in Jacaranda Lakes, Fox Run, Fountain Springs that are heading east on Sunrise Boulevard, going to the Turnpike, going to 95, or even downtown Fort Lauderdale, pulling in and pulling out on their way to work to get gas, because that's how most of us experience this use, is it's, I need to get gas, and you pull in and out at the closest station for you typically. The orientation is specifically and intentionally done with respect to the fuel canopy, the main fuel canopy that runs parallel to Sunrise Boulevard. It was done to orient that use towards the commercial uses to the north, rather than flipping it similar to what you saw at the Wawa down at Pine Island and Broward, which would actually draw that use closer to the Jacaranda Lakes community, to the west, and most assuredly to the Waterdale West community that is further to our southeast. As it's presently oriented, we've got our stormwater retention, the landscaping associated with that, and the building itself that helps to provide that buffer for the uses to the west. The other thing that this will also highlight is the landscaping that's being proposed. We are retaining a significant amount of the mature canopy on site. I'll get into that in more detail when I get to the landscape plans. The other change that you see here that's kind of unique for a gas station is that we are actually providing four EV-capable spaces. And when I say that, they are EV-ready at point zero. The equipment will be there. Many of the projects that's been coming before you, they are just EV-capable, which means the underground conduit may be there, but there's no physical facilities. These will be ready on day one with this use, which I think is a benefit to the larger community. The other thing that's important to know is that based on recent legislative changes, EVs no longer can be required by the city. So this is something they're doing to be a good community partner and to bring that added value to the site. Two other items. The staff mentioned the fact that we are building a right turn lane. That's what's directly mitigating the one landscape waiver that we have for that buffer because it obviously is eating into the buffer along Sunrise Boulevard. That is something that's being required by Broward County. It is an improvement that's going to be required regardless of any development on this site. But it's important because it does take the traffic out of the travel lanes that are de-selling to turn right into the property. So it is an important feature. The other change is the access point off of Pine Island. It is a right in, right out presently, and that is going to turn into just a right in. And that again is a Broward County standard because of the proximity of that entrance to the intersection to the north. All right, I'm going to turn now quickly to our elevations. And I know there's been a lot of talk by staff with respect to the architectural design for the building. What you see here is very different from what was originally proposed by our client. We've incorporated a number of finishes and materials that were directly the result of our conversations with staff through the DRC process. That includes the hardy board siding, the stacked stone, which you'll see carried through with the fuel canopies. Our initial proposal had our red and blue banding on the building. That was all removed. We added the standing seam metal roof, which is, again, carried out through our elevations on the canopy. When we start to talk about the colors, and I have some architectural statements from our project architect, which I can submit to you, where they've looked at all of the architectural elements in the various buildings that surround this property. And again, your plantation residents, you're familiar with this corner. We've got Jacaranda Square to the northeast, which is a more modern flat roof. It's got a host of different designs. We've got the modern TD bank to the north, green elements in it, very light coloring stucco. We have the 8601, which actually has a lot of the same type of finishes. They have an aluminum wood look on their buildings. They use limestone or using stacked stone. They also have a lot of relief and articulation in their buildings that incorporates darker brown colors. The only dark brown that's being proposed as part of ours, and I will turn you to the materials board, is our hardy siding and our roof. The stucco paint colors you can see are in the upper top line of the materials board, which are actually fairly light. It's all intended to go on more of a gray scale. So I believe that our renderings that you're going to see are actually a little bit more depictive of what we're providing. But I will put this out there. If the color is an issue that staff feels is what makes this not compatible, that is certainly something we, as a company, can work with them to ensure that they are comfortable with that the color scheme is compatible. Notwithstanding the fact that we have yellow to our east, whatever colors we have in Jacaranda Lakes to the west, white to the north, neutral beige in dark browns to the northeast. I could go on and on. Here's the rear and the east elevation on the bottom. Here you can see that stacked stone. While I'm on this image, I just want to highlight one thing to you. You can see a very faint dashed lines on the top of that building. That is all of the basically mechanical equipment associated with this site, the air conditioning and whatnot that are located on the roof behind a concrete parapet. That is important because not only are we shielding it from view, we are also that concrete parapet does an effective job in terms of screening for purposes of any sound. All right, here's our renderings that we prepared. And I do have a statement from our architect who indicates the program that they ran these renderings through. The inscape software, which is known for its high level accuracy in terms of rendering. So we dispute staff's representation that these are not accurate. Any rendering takes into account how light may cast upon the building. Is it overcast? Is it nighttime? Is it in the bright sky of the day? What type of materials is the paint going on? That affects it as well. But this certainly gives you a flavor of the lighter stucco color versus the darker stucco color coupled with the darker hardy board. Unfortunately, you can't see the stacked stone because we're providing so much in our LPZ in front of the building. But it gives you a little bit more of a flavor as well as the standing seam metal roof at the top. Now this next rendering is going to fold in something that staff is aware of. And that is that we have changed the canopy colors to marry the colors of the canopy with what you see in the building. So we are now showing the canopy is basically with a beige tan instead of the red stripe that you saw in the staff's presentation. So you can see this with the main fueling canopy north of the building. Here you can see the landscaping that's being proposed, including the LPZ on the west side of the building. This is a view from basically if you're standing in the middle of the intersection. This gives you a very good view of both the EV as well as the main fueling canopy, the change in the colors. It also shows the single monument sign that will be part of the development. It's going to be placed on the corner so we won't be having one on Pine Island and one on Broward. This also starts to show you kind of the layered landscaping that we're providing the new trees along Sunrise, since we are unfortunately having to remove the trees for the turn lane. But you can also start to see, which we have an exhibit I'm going to show in a moment, the significant mature tree canopy that we are retaining along Pine Island, which is significant in that that is obviously the view that faces towards Jacaranda Lakes. So here I'm going to go back now to our landscape plan, just so you can see the darker circles in green and you can see a whole bunch of them along Pine Island. Those are the trees that we are retaining on site, specifically in our buffers that you see both on the west, mature trees on the south. If you're familiar with this site, unfortunately, the landscaping on the east side of the site is fairly sparse. There's intermittent hedge material, open gaps and very few gumbo limbo trees that are in poor health. We're able to retain that large tree that you see in the northeast corner, as well as several trees along the south property line. And I remind you, we are proposing a six foot tall vinyl fence that will go up the east property line as well as the southern property line. That was in part, at least at the south was one of the requests of the owner to the south, the Bank of America building. And you can also see just the introduction of a ton of different landscaping to really augment that east buffer, as well as to create kind of an entrance off of Sunrise Boulevard. So real quick, just some of the statistics I wanted to point out. You all are aware of the pervious and impervious requirements are relatively new. I think it was adopted around 2014 by the city of Plantation. A lot of projects have issues trying to meet that. Our site actually exceeds the pervious requirement. We are providing 37.7% pervious on this site. We're exceeding the open space requirements on this site. We are meeting the buffer requirements for the east, including the width, as well as the number of trees along the east and the south. It's only the north buffer that faces the commercial uses to the north that we are asking for a waiver to reduce a portion of that from the required 20 feet to 10.6 feet. A large portion of that is actually meeting the 20-foot width. With respect to the trees on site, because again, I know this is something that's important to Plantation, trust me. I've had to go in and get my own tree removal permit. I know how difficult that is. The present site, just so you're aware, has, and I'm trying to find my notes here, forgive me. The present site right now, as it exists today, has 59 trees. This project is proposing a total of 87 trees, which means we are actually increasing the overall tree count on this site when all is said and done by 28 trees. Of the trees that are being removed, over half of them are being removed because they are in poor condition. Also, I know that a lot of the trees would have to be removed no matter the development that's going on on this site, because it most assuredly is not going to continue as a bank. That's going to get scraped, and whatever new project goes in there is going to need to remove trees to accommodate that, regardless of the use. Of the live oaks, which again, I know live oaks are something that's very important to the city. Of, I believe, the seven existing live oaks, we are saving six of those, and the one that's being removed is, again, being removed due to poor health. All this is included in our landscape plans, including the arborist report, independent licensed arborist report, all of which was reviewed by the city staff. Okay, here's just some of the architectural elevations showing the landscaping. I think it's important to note that we are providing a landscape pedestrian zone on all four sides of this building. I don't know how many gas stations in the city of Plantation provide the extent of landscaping immediately surrounding the building that we're providing. You can see here the layered landscaping that's being provided on the north, albeit it is not wide as the code requires, but we are providing a significant LPZ along the north. We're asking for a waiver for the west LPZ, but that's due to the tapering of the lot, kind of the unusual shape of our lot due to Pine Island. And if you average out the LPZ that we're providing on the west, we actually are meeting these square footages required by the code because it's so wide at the bottom and then just narrows as you go to the north. And here is, again, on the top, that's the western LPZ that I'm showing you, and then on the bottom, that is the eastern LPZ. This is, I think, a very important exhibit because this shows with a photo rendering. That is an actual photo with the rendered improvements imposed behind the trees that we are saving on site along Pine Island. And that shows that the trees that are there today that we are saving along Pine Island do an excellent job of hiding that fuel canopy almost completely. The only thing you see is a little bit of the racetrack building kind of through the one opening. And just to give you a perspective, what exactly is there today? I went down to Google Earth and tried to get exactly at the same vantage point to show the trees so you know that we weren't plopping in any trees that weren't there. This is a rendering from the east. Again, we are proposing a six-foot vinyl fence. We're proposing a vinyl fence, and we understand that that is something that the city council can waive from a concrete fence, in large part so that we can, in particular as it relates to the southern boundary, that it doesn't impact any of those mature trees that we are preserving on site. But this also gives you a flavor for the host of new trees. I mean, presently, I think we're only removing a total of four, and they're very sparse trees on the east property line. But we are adding a significant number of live oak, silver button wood, and bald cypress along that elevation there, the east elevation. And those, of course, will grow in time and slowly provide more canopy as they mature. All right, here's the proposed building layout. This just gives you a little bit better perspective. I know staff showed you a black and white one that showed the various kind of uses on the floor plan, but this kind of helps break it out in color. I find that's easier for me. In pink, you see the retail space. And again, this is a new modern concept. It's not your typical 7-Eleven convenience store where you have these close together aisles. Instead, things are spread out. They provide a very positive customer experience and really allows for kind of that open-air light. That's also a very important thing and was something that was specifically discussed with police and something that they applauded because of the surveillance that it offers within the store. The green areas, of course, are the restrooms, and then the blue wall represents the back of the house, which is the beverage coolers behind the coolers for the drinks that you may purchase, the back of the counter, and the food prep area. Because again, we do offer, which is again this new modern concept of a convenience market, fresh food offerings. Here's a picture that kind of shows you that open concept inside. One of the big things with stores like this, while it doesn't matter, is the coffee. People like to pull in, get their coffee, and go. And you can see there we have a very expanded offering of our crazy good coffee, as the sign indicated. You also can see some of our fresh food offering, fresh fruit, bananas, and whatnot, salads, and then, of course, the fresh served frozen treats. I'm going to turn now to our market study. Again, this was included in the application as well as in the backup. This provides an overview of a two mile radius of the site of the gas stations. And understand, we did include the Wawa, even though the Wawa is actually outside of the two mile radius from our particular location. It's located 2.18 miles from our site. But this gives you an idea that shows that in this particular corridor of the city, that this area of the city is significantly underserved. And I know you may get some people that are coming up, because I just heard someone from the crowd, that there is a host of other gas stations that aren't represented. But this is not as the crow flies. This is as you would drive. So presently, there are 11 gas stations two miles north, south, east, west of the site. Again, not as the bird flies. The Sunrise Boulevard currently experiences 30,000 vehicle trips a day, with Pine Island totaling 23,500 vehicle trips per day. Presently on Sunrise Boulevard from the western part of the city to the eastern part of the city, eastbound, there is one gas station. And that is the mobile at University and Sunrise, which is a much smaller compact gas station. There is no other eastbound gas station on Sunrise Boulevard. There is westbound, that smaller Chevron station that's located at the northeast corner of Broward and University, as well as a Shell gas station that's actually located a little bit further north on Knob Hill, north of Sunrise. But other than that, that's it. Unlike Broward, which is two miles to the south, where you have at least eight gas stations on that major corridor. So again, that point alone shows how this corridor, for those residents that live in that eastern area, are grossly underserved, aside from any market study that we may show you. Now I'm going to run through a few slides that talk about neighborhood compatibility. This is going to become important with respect to the evaluation of the conditional use. Excuse me. I'm doing a lot of talking. The first is the location. And that is that this project is located at one of the few major intersections in the city. And there really are very few major intersections in the city where the city has master plan for commercial uses. Again, staff indicated, and they're correct. Three of the four corners here have a land use of commercial. The property to the north of us is also Zone B7Q, as is our property. And I would like to say that the location is consistent with most every other gas station that's been approved by the city. I will turn you to the Shell station that's located on Cleary just east of Knob Hill, which is located across from the Plantation Palms, and which, as you know, has residential north of that shopping center and east of that shopping center, as well as condos and apartments to the west. I can turn you to the mobile gas station on Brard Boulevard that's across the street from Hawke's Landing. That also has a host of residential to the east, to the west, and that property actually abuts zoning that is identical to our ALF. The Shell station on Knob Hill, north of Sunrise, immediately abuts a multifamily development. No buffer whatsoever, and is 150 feet across Knob Hill from Fox Run. Those are just a few examples, and I can cite more to show you that if the location next to residential, even if across the street or abutting, renders a gas station incompatible, then almost every other gas station in the city of Plantation is arguably incompatible. I would also cite the Wawa that was just approved, again, right across the street from the access apartment community. Design. Again, the layout was done purposely to orient that, the fuel canopy, towards Sunrise Boulevard, so that it is oriented towards those commercial uses to the north, which is also consistent with the city code. When Wawa flipped their building, they had to come in and get a waiver to allow them to do that. The code requires that the building face the highest classified street. Next, the architectural design elements, we believe are consistent, given the myriad of architectural finishes that we have around our property. And if you're familiar with the Wells Fargo, you know that it has a lighter stucco, a brown roof, dark brown roof, and a dark brown band that runs along the bottom of it. So, to a certain extent, we're marrying it with the architectural colors that are already there on the property. And then I pointed out, again, as far as the design, it has been purposely done to mount the equipment on the roof and screened by that concrete parapet, which directly impacts and mitigates any sound on the property related to that particular equipment. Operations. While it is a 24-7, the bulk of our sales are daytime, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Delivery and fuel drops, again, occur immediately south of Sunrise Boulevard, where no noise is already generated by the existing traffic. And we don't have fuel trucks that just come in and there's no need to drop fuel. It is an automated fueling system that only dispatches trucks when fuel levels are low. And it's a very quick process. It usually takes 30 minutes or less. With respect to sound, again, we showed you where the building and the mechanical equipment is all mounted on the roof and screened by that concrete structural parapet and consistent with any commercial use in the city. We are going to be required to meet the city's noise ordinance throughout the construction as well as the operation of the project. And then we are committed to have signage added that which is on many commercial sites that will allow the city of plantation police department to remove anyone that's in violation of the city's code or the city's noise ordinance and to also work with our team members to address any situations that may arise. Lighting. And this is something I know is important because I think in the staff report they refer to light pollution on the surrounding properties. And I would submit to you that our photometric plans do not show anything to that effect. Rather, the interior and exterior lighting is all LED. It's recessed directed downward to eliminate any spillover of light from the property. The site is dark sky compliant. The project complies with all of the city's lighting standards at all property lines and even within the site with the exception of the one whenever that we're seeking for under the fuel canopy. And even though we are seeking that waiver under the fuel canopy, which is seeking to ensure that the lighting is consistent with industry standards for that use. And I add consistent with canopies fuel canopies around the city and which were recently approved by the city. Some of which have foot candles higher than what we're proposing. No light outside of these areas will cause the areas outside of the canopy to not comply with code. The fuel canopy lighting is facing downward, does not emanate outward, does not create a glow or a glare effect. So the photometric plans demonstrate that there's no spillage of light or negative impacts on the surrounding properties. Landscaping, I already talked about the efforts that we've taken to preserve the existing mature tree canopy where possible, particularly along that west buffer that faces the Jacaranda Lakes and to the south. Additional buffering is proposed along the east. We're actually going to have a much better buffering to the east than what presently exists. I talked about the trees, I won't repeat that. We actually are increasing the overall tree count on the property. And of the two landscape waivers that are requested, all of which are only seeking reductions in the width of the buffers. We are not wholesale trying to eliminate them, which I will say has been recently done with similar projects approved by the city. In fact, the project exceeds the city's open space and pervious requirements. Environmental, these are things, and just so you know, that is in our narrative with respect to this is the underground fuel tanks, which all of which have to meet not only city requires, but most importantly the broad county requirements for the licensing of those. Now I'll turn briefly to the traffic study in connection with our application. A traffic study was provided, it was reviewed and approved by the city's staff and specifically their traffic engineering consultant. And this is the thing I can't highlight enough because I know you saw a number there of the number of daily trips. But understand 75% is vehicular traffic that is passed by that is always on the road. And that's actually on the exhibit that staff showed you. Therefore, the new traffic generated by the racetrack, and this is again the findings in the report, will consume less than 1% of the adopted level of service. And in fact, this is one of the things that staff indicated that we complied with, and that was that we were not going to unduly burden public facilities. One thing I'd like to highlight about the traffic study is that it did not include any vested trips associated with the Wells Fargo. It was treating it as if that site was vacant. So just something I wanted to put out there. And we talked about the eastbound right turn lane, which actually is a benefit for traffic entering the sites. It takes it off of the traffic ways as it's slowing down to turn into the site. And the last item to know is that in connection with the development, we will be paying road impact fees. But most notably, you're probably aware the city has adopted a multimodal master transportation plan. It's a mouthful. It does not include this roadway, Sunrise or Pine Island in this area. But we are, I believe, within two miles of those improvements. And as such, we will be contributing 107,000 towards that plan and improvements that that plan seeks to deploy in the area. Safety, I know this is something that people brought up at the community meeting. These are just some of the items that will be incorporated throughout the site. High definition cameras that record 24-7. Obviously, the lighting that we're requesting under the canopies as well as all lighting otherwise meeting city code. Open landscape designs, CPEP, CPTED designs incorporated throughout. Clear view in the store. This is something that was specifically discussed with the City of Plantation Police and the other items that you see here. Now I'm going to, this is part, I'm going to quickly try to go through the conditional use justification. I have a few points here I'd like to make, and then I'm happy to answer any questions. And then if I can, of course, our team is here as well. The first is the first criteria that was noted by staff. And you can see it and read what it says. That criteria essentially just asks that you present a site plan that correctly refers to ingress, egress, parking, buffering, all of that, and provides accurate information on the materials to be utilized of which we have our materials board so that they can then assess if it's going to be architecturally in harmony with the surrounding property. We believe that the proposed building is an update over what is presently there and is harmonious with what was there previously as well as the surrounding newer building construction. And at the conclusion of this, I will provide you with our architectural statement where they go through and provide their opinion on the matter. Again, if you're familiar with this area, you know that there's no single theme or architectural style, both within the PCD. In fact, the Bank of America building is glass, and our building was stucco. We have the Jacaranda Lakes, which has a mired different stucco designs there, as well as the Mediterranean design that I would say is incorporated into the ALF, and then the very more modern design that was incorporated into the 8601 development. If you look at the recent approvals, and the other item that staff raises in this particular, and they raised it elsewhere, is that the zoning associated with the B7Q, that we are not meeting the architectural standards of Ordinance 1329, which is the B7Q ordinance associated with this particular property. The only item that that ordnance states really with respect to architectural design is that it has to be compatible with the materials, colors, and finishes that exist in existing structures, or in the nearby, in the adjacent neighborhoods, which I would submit then, again, based on the myriad of uses, finishes, and paint colors, that we are certainly compatible with that, considering that we are incorporated a more natural, muted tone for the colors on our building, and particularly since we no longer have the red stripe on the fuel canopies. Next is condition two, criteria two, the proposed conditional use shall be consistent with the general plan for physical development of the district, including the master land use plan or portion thereof. This criteria is essentially asking if the proposed use is consistent with the general plan for the physical development of the district. First and foremost, the property is designated commercial on the city's future land use map. Properties on three of the four other corners are similarly designated commercial, as Pine Island sunrise is one of the few major intersections in the city. The general plan for physical development of this corner is for commercial uses, as shown by the current and the historical development here. And I refer to you to the 30-year gas station that was located across the street on the northeast corner. Next, staff cites to a number of goals, policies, and objectives in the comprehensive plan, and arguing that the use is not consistent with the comprehensive plan. Again, I highlight that the master plan for the comprehensive plan is the future land use map, which designates this property as commercial. And the broader definition of commercial in the comprehensive plan would allow this use. They also cite to a number of policies, and I want to cite to two that they mentioned. They cite were inconsistent with policy 1.8.1. That policy, and again, this is all in your backup, that policy states the following. Neighborhoods serving commercial uses and service areas should be scaled in land and floor area to the specific needs of the residential neighborhood, and shall be located at or near intersections of collector and arterial roads, streets, which act as neighborhood boundaries, which is what we're doing in the present application. Policy 1.8.2, which again staff said that we are inconsistent with, states, and I quote, Neighborhood commercial areas, primarily convenient shopping and services, should be located to minimize the travel time and distance between the centers and the houses they serve, buffered by landscaping and open space, including retention areas, to preserve the environment of adjoining residential areas. Again, this is placing the use in close proximity for those individuals that live and reside west, traveling east through the city, rather than having to drive two miles south to Bard Boulevard. Next, staff is stating that it's inconsistent with the existing B7Q zoning approvals associated with the property. We all know, and I did a little research myself, this district was created basically to add flexibility, to basically give the city, specifically the city council, flexibility, and not to handcuff the owner of the property with the uses that were originally approved. Indeed, the BOA bank building came through just last year to amend the zoning to expand the medical uses provided by that ordinance within the building, while not adding additional parking. They got a zoning waiver for that. So the fact that you are zoned B7Q does not mean that you are locked into those uses. And I will give you a few examples. The 8601 property is a B7Q. It was approved, as you know, with the AT&T campus. That was wholesale revised as part of the 8601 development to allow mixed-use retail and residential. Another example is the Cornerstone development. And I know because I did the Baptist building down there. That was originally planned just as an office development, Cornerstone 1234. That has morphed over the years, as you know, to add residential, to add a hotel, and to add the Baptist Health building. And I cite that again just so that you know that the fact that that's what the zoning provides does not mean that that's necessarily the only thing that's allowed. Rather, the council had built in when they created this district the ability for uses to come forth as a conditional use for consideration based on the changing conditions and times. Staff also indicated that there's no other gas station in the B7Q in the city. The mobile gas station at Knob Hill and Broward is Zone B7Q, the one that's located across from Hawke's Landing, and which also has the Simon S car wash, CVS gas store, and other retail uses, and I believe self-storage as well. Regarding the conservation element that staff cites, element 1.3.4 and policy 1.4.3 of the recreation open space, these basically just talk about maintaining the existing, maintaining the street trees along the right of way, maintaining open space and pervious areas. I will again point out to you that we are maintaining, we are not asking for any waivers to eliminate street trees. In fact, we are preserving the trees along Pine Island. We are also exceeding the pervious requirement as well as the open space requirements of the city. I hope I went forward too fast, but I'll stay here. Condition criteria three, which is three and four are very similar. It talks about that the conditional use shall be in harmony with the general character of the neighborhood, considering population density scale, bulk, new structures. Criteria four talks about not detrimental to the use, peaceful environment, economic value. All of them basically are talking about compatibility and looking at different factors. Real quickly, again, I turn you to the market study that makes it very clear that this area is underserved. I also want to highlight again when it relates to traffic impact, the fact that 75% of the trips associated with the site are traffic that's already on the road. It's already somebody going somewhere else that is pulling in and out. And most notably, it's likely going to be the sunrise corridor where somebody is pulling in and out as they're traveling east through the city. Also, I pointed out in my neighborhood compatibility the myriad of elements that have been folded in the project to assure the harmony with the general character of the surrounding areas. Our landscaping, the landscaping we're maintaining, the landscaping that we're adding. Staff had indicated that we are decreasing buffers as one of the reasons for denying the application. Again, the only buffer that we are decreasing is the north buffer facing commercial Boulevard where we are putting in a right turn lane. And I will remind you that as part of the 8601 project, this city and board approved a waiver of the right of way Sunrise Boulevard right of way buffer from I believe 20. I want to say they reduced it by I believe 5 feet along Sunrise Boulevard, which is directly across the street. I also would turn to the Wawa down on Broward and University where the buffer facing the residential to the west was reduced from 15 feet to 5. We are buffers that face our residential. We are providing the full buffer all the trees and even augmenting it beyond that staff. Also, I think one of the big arguments is that just placing it next to residential is incompatible. And that's one of the main arguments they have for both criteria three and four. And again, I will highlight to you and they even stated that we are meeting the code for distance separation between gas stations. We're meeting the code for the placement of fuel pumps to residential property lines, but we should exceed it. And I will tell you we are exceeding it. But I also would point that all of the other gas stations, the shell on Nob Hill, the mobile on Broward, the shell on Cleary, the marathon on Broward, all of those are comparable distance from residential as our project is. Staff also talked that we have not demonstrated how we plan to keep the potential adverse effects of light and traffic to the area to a minimum. I've already talked about traffic and the pass by traffic associated with the project with respect to lighting. I think I went into detail on that with respect to the photometric plans and showing that at the property lines and whatnot, we are fully compliant with the code. And with respect to noise, I pointed out to you how our mechanical equipment is all located behind a concrete parapet. I'm trying to see what I can skip over for you also, because I'm sure you're ready to move along. I know, and I apologize. I appreciate you all's patience. I truly do. We believe that the approval of the project will result in a positive economic impact to the neighborhood, including new city revenues, additional direct jobs and store direct jobs for construction vendors and otherwise. We do not believe that there's going to be any negative economic impact. And you can just turn to the gas stations that already exist next to some of the most affluent neighborhoods that we have here in the city. With respect to condition five, which is that the conditional use will not adversely affect the health, safety, security, morals and general welfare. Again, I refer to the security measures that racetrack has put into place. Again, we have Kelly Harrington, who's our director of asset management here that's available to answer any questions that you may have. And then I would also ask that you look at this in the same lens of the other gas stations that are located near residential with respect to that statement and how we don't believe that it will be adversely affect any of those. Because that would then be true of every other gas station in the city of plantation. Staff has indicated that we meet criteria six. And then criteria seven is that the proposed conditional use show me all the other specific standards, which may be set forth elsewhere. And this gets into our waivers. And staff has went through them. And again, I just wanted to point out, I pointed out on the west LPZ waiver, you can see how we are actually exceeding the width at the south end. And then it just tapers and narrows as you go to the north. When taken in its totality, we are actually providing the overall square footage for the LPZ on the west if you average it out. Again, you see the very, again, I believe significant LPZ to the north. Albeit it's not as wide, but it does have all the plant material that's required. Again, I would point out that the Wawa that was approved by the city actually eliminated the western LPZ in lieu of planters. And that's the side that faces the residential. Here are the two setback waivers that we're asking. One is from the internal property line between the Bank of America building and the racetrack. And I will tell you that with pretty much any development on the site, setbacks are a product of the height of the building. So if you are adding a lot more density like some sort of mid-rise or taller office building, no one's going to be able to meet the setback requirements there. And you all have seen, I don't think there's one project that has come through the City of Plantation, not certainly one that I've been involved in, that has not had to ask for some sort of waiver, whether it be for landscaping, because of the onerous landscape requirements that we have and some of the other, the product of the code requirements. The other waiver, that setback waiver that we're asking for is on the west, that's for the EV canopy. I've got to emphasize, this is not a building per se, it is an open, open structure. It's just the canopy. And that canopy is fully obscured by the tree canopy, as referenced by my earlier exhibit. The two additional waivers here is the outdoor seating. And here I'd just like to point out, staff I know kept going back to our zoning approval. The zoning approval actually allows accessory restaurant use, our existing zoning approval. But this is something that's very common with this kind of more higher level, expanded convenience store. You saw this with the Wawa when it came through. It's the same exact situation. With respect to the lighting, I've already talked about that. Again, it is, the 15 foot candles is not sufficient for any gas station canopy anywhere. And I submit that the gas station canopies throughout the city all exceed 15 foot candles. I believe the gas station that was approved at 441 in Broward actually goes up to 40 foot candles. Also, in meeting with the police department, they also wanted to make sure that the lighting under the canopy was at least 20 foot candles, if not more. That concludes my presentation. Do I get a pause for that? But before I conclude, I would like to reserve time to come back for any rebuttal. Also, I would like to ask that the application, the backup, any materials that I submit tonight as well as our presentation are included in the record. And with that, I thank you for your patience. There was a number of items that we needed to cover and I thank you for allowing me to do so. And I stand ready to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, counselor. That was very, very thorough. We greatly appreciate it. And we do have, as you said, all the materials here and that will be entered into the record. So again, so everyone's clear, we're going to state our names. If it's unusual spelling, spell it so the court reporter can take it down. First, we're going to open to the dais. Then we're going to open to the general public. We're going to try and keep it to three minutes or less. If you agree with all your neighbors, you can say, you know, I'm here with 10 neighbors, whatnot. Okay. So do we have any questions for the applicant? I do. Okay. I'm over here. Hi. Okay. Several things I made notes. The Shell Station on Knob Hill north of Sunrise was there before the townhomes. Sorry, Vicki, if you can spell your last name because I don't know. She has the name tag in front of her. Can she see it? I didn't know. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I'm new here. She wanted to know how to spell my name. I live right off Sunrise Boulevard, one block off. I do not go to Wawa to get gas. I drive to Costco. And it's less money. I can go there at 7.30 in the morning. I can go there at 9.30 at night. The traffic on Sunrise Boulevard, which I am exposed to on a daily basis, you're telling me now it's going to, it's 30,000 cars a day. Now I know why it's so difficult for me to make a left turn to go east on Sunrise Boulevard. Gas stations, I grew up in a big city. There used to be this door, it was either a bank on every corner or a gas station on every corner. I don't know in our area of a bedroom community who's going to go at one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning in our area to get gas, to get a sandwich, to have dinner, to charge their car. I just can't see that being a valid point for people in our area. Comparing to the 8601 and Crossroads, it's not a way to compare it. These are just notes that I made. The economic impact for the city is great. However, there's other ways that the city can make money besides that. You said that the gas trucks that will be filling in for the gasoline, quiet, 30 minutes, it's all computerized, they know when there's gas needed. What about your fresh food, your groceries, your beautiful bananas that you showed, and your fruit and your vegetables and your sandwiches and your meats and your canned goods? Those trucks are not quiet. I know from the people that live behind the Publix on Cleary that complained when they redid that Publix that they had to have a specific parking and driving area for that. And I'm wondering, how are you going to fix that? And also, you're talking about the Wells Fargo colors. It doesn't matter. The place is going to be torn down, so it's not going to be brown and ugly anymore. It's going to be empty. Whether or not there will be a gas station, there is another story. And the other thing, where the TD Bank is, I remember that gas station. I've lived in South Florida for over 50 years. I've lived in my house for 33 or 34 years. That's been going quite a while. And I'm sure you did a lot of research. Why a gas station on the corner where there are gas stations close by? Okay, if you go east, you're going to hit one. But nobody, nobody, I just can't picture going, just going to get gas. I have to go east. Like I said, I drive to Costco. So that's just my feelings, and that's all I have to say. Would you like me to respond? I'm happy to. Just real quickly, one of the things we did point out in our presentation with respect to the bulk of our sales occurs daytime, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. So we agree with you. There's not going to be a rush of people probably at 1 in the morning. We recognize that the bulk of our operations is during the day, but as is traditional with gas stations, because that is something that when you need it at 1 in the morning, you've got to get gas at 1 in the morning. We are open 24-7. With respect to the delivery trucks for food, I know you compared it to the Publix. The Publix obviously has a much different operation with respect to the sales of groceries and other items. My understanding, and I can ask our client to come up if needed, is that those delivery trucks would be occurring kind of on the off hours to minimize any disruption, and typically aren't the big, necessarily big tractor-trailer type trucks, but I can have them come and speak to that if need be. With respect to the gas station across the street, one neat thing about the Broad County Property Appraisers Office is it has aerials that go back over 20 years. So I was able to go back, and I believe the gas station was removed in 2012, and then the TD Bank came in on 2014. But it was there dating all the way back to 1998, and you can look at the plat and other things to see when it was originally constructed that it was there for approximately 30 years. With respect to gas behaviors on how people purchase gas, I mean, I hear you. I mean, Costco has very low-priced gas, if you're a member, and there are some people that will go out of their way to get Costco gas. But there's a lot of people, because of the way their day is, and this is something that's known in the industry, is that when you need gas or you're on your way to work, you're pulling in and out at the closest gas station to you. And that's the type of individuals that I was talking about. But there certainly is the exception to the rule. Okay. So I don't know if there was anything else. I have one other question. They call them unhomed, unhoused, homeless people. They seem to be around areas, you know, I mean, they're right at the shopping center on the corner of Sunrise and University, where Japan Inn is located. What is Racetrack going to do to make sure that they're not sleeping on the benches and things like that, without having to call the police every day? Well, one is that's something that we can police ourselves. Obviously, they are trespassing. That's not something that's welcome on the property. And again, we have Kelly Harrington that can speak to that as well. But one of the things that plantation does allow, we're doing it for the west bar project that I got approved with the new publics that's going there, is that you can install signage that will allow without even having to call the police, the plantation police to see something that they can remove those trespassers from the property. So we typically maintain very close relationships with our local community, our local law enforcement community, and all of our sites. And so that's something that I know, but it's just not something that we want on our property. I understand. Thank you. Anyone else? I saw you taking notes and calculations, so. Hi. Kristen Peacock. I'm ready for the calculations. No, no, no. I figured out my own calculations. It's fine. Now, just as a follow-up to the 24 hours, is it just for the gas service that's 24 hours, or the convenience is also open up 24 hours? I believe, and the client can correct me if I'm wrong, but generally the whole operation is open 24-7. The outdoor seating will likely not, is not open, obviously, in the overnight. But depending upon personnel on the inside, they can actually, I believe, close the store. Is that right? Where it's just kind of. Well, yeah, and I guess, is there any thought that went into, like, how those operations at night? Oh, I see someone getting up. I don't want to misspeak here. The fuel is definitely 24-7. I'm going to ask Kelly Harrington, and please just state your name and your address. Good evening. Thanks, and Director of Asset Protection for Racetrack from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you, Council, for all the great questions and feedback. I'm sorry. Thank you. Excuse me. I understand. Thank you to the members of the board for their comments and questions. In addressing Ms. Jelfin's comment about the unhoused, I just want to echo, we take that very seriously. That's one reason why we establish relationships with local law enforcement early, and we maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with those partners. We do rely on the city and their resources to keep that problem out of the community. But when it does converge on our property, we do a variety of things to mitigate that. It starts with the sub-TED principles that were mentioned earlier, which includes lighting, sight lines, making sure our landscaping is not conducive to dwelling and comfortability, for lack of better terms. And then I want to kind of parlay that into Ms. Peacock's question regarding the seating area. Seating area is part of the plan. We actually talked with Plantation Police this morning, and it is of my belief that I think not having a seating area is a potential path forward. I would obviously have to defer to our engineering and construction partners to make sure that we can actually approve that. But I don't think that a seating area is necessary to operate a successful business. And we would take those measures in an agile manner, whether we close it down, remove the seating. Our council also mentioned closing the store. Should staff levels plummet below two people on duty, we will lock the doors and operate through a secure box in the front of the building. Any other questions? Not with regards to the operations. I think that covered it. And then I guess if you did remove the seating, that would kind of also solve the buffer. Well, it would eliminate one of the waivers. One of the waivers, right? And potentially, yes, possibly the LPZ. You're correct. Yeah, yeah. So, okay. Just something to consider. The other question I did have was regards to the right turn lane on Sunrise Boulevard. I know staff had mentioned that was still in review with the county. I wasn't sure what the status was of that and if you've had feedback from the county to proceed with that. I'm going to ask Max Kaplan. He's our engineer with Thomas Engineering and he can probably speak to that. Yeah. Thank you. Good evening. Max Kaplan with Thomas Engineering, civil engineer for the project. We had a preliminary meeting with Broward County in, I believe it was December of 2023. We have not submitted for any permit approvals but we had some preliminary coordination with them which helped us determine that a right turn lane was required. Okay. Thank you. And so, and just to clarify my right turn lane, because of that, that's why you're also asking for another waiver for the landscape on Sunrise was to include that because now your property line reduces. Correct. Correct. Allow for the additional right away. Correct. Hold on, that was going to lead me to something else but now I forgot where it is. Okay. Yeah. So then I guess that has to do with the turn lane but then as far as the traffic statement and the analysis that was done, did it also take into account the new development that's going in to the northeast? Yes. I see your engineer approaching. Good evening. Samira Shalan, city engineer. Yes. To answer your question, yes. Okay. There is a standards we deploy in every traffic study. We perform what we call a traffic methodology, a traffic methodology meeting with the applicant early on. And we identify the proposed development or the approved development, the radius of impact and all of that was discussed during the traffic study. So yes, 8601, all the approved site plans are included in this traffic study. I just want to make one more comment about the turn lane. The turn lane is a requirement of Broward County and at this point the length and what we call the taper, which is 185 feet long, was established with Broward County. So the dimension of the turn lane is established conceptually. Once the site plan is approved or will be approved or if approved, then they will proceed to provide permits. Okay. Thank you. I got a couple. One of them has to do with this right turn in. If somebody comes into the station, they're coming up Pine Island Road, right, and they want to continue on Pine Island Road after they get gas. How do they do that? Continuing north? You only have one outlet, right? No, sir. We actually have two. As part of the PCD development, there is a cross-access easement in front of the Bank of America property to the southern, right in, right out, for lack of a better word, at the southwest corner of the Bank of America building property. There is a cross-access easement that serves our property, which would allow people, if they want to continue north on Pine Island, they would simply go out that exit point and make a right. And make a U-turn? Huh? Well, you said they were going points north. Yeah, you're going to continue on Pine Island. Yeah, so if they're continuing north on Pine Island, they could go out that access point, turn right onto Pine Island, and they're heading north. Or, on the other hand, if they go to the gas station, and they want to go back home, and they live south of Pine Island, south of Sunrise, that right turn is going to be Lord of Dale West Drive. And are you talking about 17th Street? No, not 17th. Not 17th. I'll keep it simple. If you are coming up Pine Island, and you want to go back south down Pine Island, there's two options. One, you can go right out of the Sunrise entrance and then make a U-turn, which many, believe it or not, the DOT actually believes a U-turn at a light is a very safe movement. That's why you see them all over the place. You can go out and make a U-turn and then make the left at the light at Pine Island and Sunrise to go south. Or, you can, what I think is probably the safer movement, is if you're, for example, living in the Lauderdale West community, I would be making a right out into Sunrise and making a right back into their community. So I'm not making any left-hand turns. That's what all those people over there are afraid of. Which, this is what I'm saying for the people that are living in the Lauderdale West community. But there's going to be other people that are going to do the same thing. They're going to take the shortcut down to Cleary, right through Florida Dale West. The other thing I have is... The other option is to leave the southwest entrance off of the Bank of America and you basically cross over and make a U-turn at the Pine Island heading south again. So you're just making that U-turn movement. Well, Bank of America is not going to be there much longer. But also, the delivery trucks, especially the fuel tankers, how are they going to get in and out of this property? Included in our site plan, and I don't know if staff can bring it up, we do have the circulation plan for the trucks. I believe they are coming in Sunrise, doing basically kind of a loop within the property, and then going back out Sunrise. So there's actually a diagram that shows the turning movement with the radius that's appropriate to those types of trucks. That is going to be one heck of a tight turn for a tanker. It's actually much wider than you think, and the movement passes all of the turning radiuses and requirements of the code. Okay. The other thing I'm concerned with is the safety and security of the site. Because service stations that are open 24 hours have a tendency to attract the wrong people. I've seen it at the 7-Eleven on University and Sunrise. How do you propose, if you're going to close down the seating area at night, how are you going to keep these people out of those seating areas? Or sleeping areas in some cases? Okay. I believe Mr. Harrington already talked a little bit about some of the different methodologies they have to kind of keep people from loitering on the site. It's certainly not something that we want. I appreciate member Peacock's suggestion with respect to the outdoor seating. That is certainly something I'm sure our client will be considering moving forward. But I will also say that, you know, again, there are gas stations adjacent to a number of communities. Plantation Palms, Hawk Landing, all of them. We want to say that they in part take on that character of that neighborhood. And we know that it's a nice neighborhood around us. I don't, I mean, so it's, I believe that you're going to see the operation of this consistent with what you see at the Shell and on Cleary Boulevard. Or the mobile that's down on Knob Hill and Broward. Sorry, I've got a lot of cross streets. But it's, it's, it's, it's comparable to all of those where I don't believe that you see that happening. Except you're in a larger scale, a much larger scale on those gas stations. Well, the Wawa down at Broward and Pine Island. Oh, I agree with that. That's, uh, is another example. Or the Chevron that's directly catty corner across the street. The other two gas stations you said, the one across from Hawks Landing, Hawks Landing is a gated community. And it's a much smaller gas station that does not have a, they have the, the locked in gate for the attendant. It's not a, as large as a Wawa. Same as the other one by Cleary. That one is just gas. I don't even think you can, I think there's maybe a few sodas. So I think if you're going to compare. Cleary has a full convenience market on the inside. The one in front of the public's there at Cleary and Knob Hill. Um, and admittedly there's, I believe they have maybe six or four pumps or, um, you know, 10 pumps. Cause you know, each pump services both sides. And they also, I believe have a car wash at the one, the mobile as well on Broward. And admittedly it's a, Hawks Landing is a gated community, a walled community. Jacaranda Lakes is a walled community. Not gated, but there's a wall along Jacaranda Lakes along, on the opposite side of Pine Island and on the north, south side of Sunrise. I didn't say that ma'am. I didn't say that. I said it is walled. It is walled. Excuse me. There shouldn't be any interruption from the audience. We need to take some turns. And I will clarify again. I understand the passion, but we need to be taking turns there. It is, it is a walled community and I've consistently said it's walled, admittedly not gated, but it is walled, um, uh, across the street from our property. And I appreciate, I know you're, like I said, you have a Herculean effort. Obviously most of the people here are opposed. I understand. Um, so we appreciate it and we'll give you as much courtesy as we can. Thank you. I've got one more. I've got a question for staff. That shell station that used to be where the TD Bank is now, 30 years ago, did we have B7Q of, uh, zoning? Yes. Staff indicator was introduced in 1974. Five. Five. Sorry. Trying to remember. In their staff report. I'm sure. Just a quick question, uh, for Jana. Um, was there any part of your study that Racetrack did, um, that just kind of looked at the effect on, um, nearby property values? And how, how this project would affect that? Um, no, but I will again, refer to the existing gas stations that are next to many of the affluent communities here in the city of plantation. Um, the gas station that stood for 30 years, catty cornered to Jacaranda lakes. And I would submit that it didn't negatively impact cause we've all see home values just skyrocket, um, over, over the last, you know, 15 years or so. And even before that, before the lull in 2008. And then just curious, have you garnered any support from any of the residents in the community for, for the project? I know you held a, um, a public workshop with the community. So was there anybody there that was really supporting the project? I would say it was probably a lot of questions and obviously people very concerned at the community meeting. Um, if anybody here was at that, they can probably echo that. Um, we tried to put as comprehensive of a community meeting report of all the items that were raised by the residents. It went on for two hours, um, that's in your backup. I do know that, um, this project has been discussed online next door neighbor Facebook. Um, and if you look at the comments, um, they're mixed. There's obviously a lot of opposition. I'm not going to discount cause I know I've got folks behind me that are to the, probably the single person's going to come and oppose the project. But there were a number of people that would support because it is a gas station is needed in this area of the city of plantation. And as we approach city council, um, I'm sure we will have some individuals also coming to speak in favor as well. I got one more thing. You just mentioned that it was a mixed reaction to the station. I've got about 40 letters here. It was sent by residents of those 40 letters is one. One says, go for it. And I would also ask you to look at the dates of those letters. Um, a lot of them were before we even modified our plan. All of them were before we removed the red stripe. Um, but I understand that there is, is some strong reactions to this gas station. And we've tried to adapt and, uh, revise the plan as we've gone along. Um, eliminating colors, changing. Um, there's a number of things that we've removed from this site, adding additional screening, taking pains to, to retain that mature landscaping facing, uh, particularly facing the Jacaranda lakes, as well as, um, the well, which was, I think, I believe an express thing. It's someone at the Lauderdale West respect asked for, um, and landscaping to, again, to screen it as best we can and enhance over what's there now. Um, were there people there supporting? I, I don't know if I heard. It's, it wasn't that type of, of meeting in the sense where people were all standing up. I object, I object, I support. It was a meeting that was filled with questions and comments regarding the project. Um, specifically, I mean, there were people obviously that were expressing concerns. I'm not gonna discount that. Were there people jumping up and down cheerleading? Uh, no. But, but there were a lot of people that were just asking questions and not necessarily objecting, I guess is my point. Again, it, it was a community meeting to provide information on the project and to hear from the residents what their questions were and what any of their concerns were. And they were all listed in that community report that we prepared. Hi, um, this person is when I thank everybody for coming out. Um, I know it's a lot to take the time like this, uh, to come out on an evening on a, uh, work day. Um, so thank you. Uh, one question I had just came up to me, uh, because it seemed like there was a lot of concern about the homelessness, uh, both at gas stations and the country at large. What's the median wage for the workers at this race, race track that's being proposed? Um, I would have to defer to, um, the client on that. Um, don't have that express information right now, but I know they're trying to get it. And if we have it before the end of the meeting, we'll be sure to provide that for you. Yeah. And I guess kind of like while they're looking into that, just kind of like where do these workers normally live? Like how much are they commuting? Uh, because in a kind of 21, like it's kind of known for anyone that takes a look at the issue. Homeless doesn't necessarily mean unemployed. It means that they are without home. As you mentioned just now, property values are going up. If the wages aren't also going up, what you're doing, you're tracking the jobs for people who can't afford to live in plantation. And where are those people going to sleep that work and provide services to us? They're, they might not be sleeping in the, the resting area at the gas station, but they'll, they need us somewhere to sleep. So it's like if the jobs that are coming aren't going to be paying enough for plantation, are these the jobs that we would want in plantation? Okay. Let's try to get that, endeavor to get that information for you, um, before the end of the meeting. Yes. Thank you. Um, on a different topic, uh, sunrise is actually where there's the Broward primo plan. Yes. I'm kind of like skeptical of how a gas station is really fitting the predicted character that we would want there. Uh, with kind of rapid transit, we want people to be riding buses. So if there's a deficit for gas consumption, that'd be a point in its favor, but if you add a gas station there, to me that seems like it's going to be taken away from 10 people and buses. And, um, the, the primo plan actually has two initiatives that's proposed. Um, one is the bus rapid transit. And to the point there is a bus stop in front of our site that is going to be maintained. It'll be relocated. Um, but it actually are used for people that may be waiting for a bus and need some respite or go get something to drink or anybody that may be working. That's, um, taking a bus, that bus stop is located directly in front of our property. Um, the other improvement that is proposed, which people may not be aware, is a light rail down Sunrise Boulevard, um, all the way to the western parts of the city and the western parts of the county. That's probably much further out. As we know, light rail has been a pipe dream for a lot of different initiatives for many years, but the bus rapid transit is definitely something that's proposed. And as much as, as people try to move people over into, um, mass transportation, like bus, the car is still king. Um, people still want their cars to take their cars to work. Um, some people subscribe to the mass transportation and bikes and whatnot, but it is, it is not a use that is going away. And we're looking to place that critical need, that service in close proximity to the neighbors that it's going to serve. Yeah. And I just want to point out for like the other projects like 8601 for B7Q. The reason why the board and like the council gave those exemptions was because those purposes was to move away from cars. Asking for the exemption sale would be making it easier for someone to use a car. So I just want to point out that difference. And if I may point out the, the Wawa that was fairly recently approved by this board actually asked for many more zoning and landscape waivers than what we're asking for on this project. And, and actually exceeded some of the waivers that we're requesting outdoor seating, elimination of a actual right away buffer elimination or reduction of that elimination of an LPZ, um, a host of them, um, and was a gas station. If I can ask, uh, a good point was brought up in terms of people being their crimes and employees. So you met with the police, is there going to be money for extra policing? This is going to bring traffic to the area that wasn't necessarily where people are stopping at different times of the night. So what did the plantation police department say? Well, as part of any project that's, uh, approved new development project, we will be paying whatever impact fees that the city has, uh, with respect to those public facilities, as well as, um, impact fees that Briar County may capture. I pointed out that, um, 107,000, I believe my recollections right of the, the total amount of money that will be donated towards improvements as part of the city's multimodal plan that it has adopted. Um, and as far as any other information, I will again, turn it over to Mr. Harrington. And, uh, with that as well, just so you know, um, as a local prosecutor, one of the frustrations is when people are trying to prosecute a case and we need witnesses and witnesses at gas stations. A lot of crime happens at gas stations. We had two homicides on the corner of Pine Island and that, um, yes, there are two violent murders right there, uh, within a few miles of here. Now, one of the issues with prosecution is getting people who are witnesses to come testify. Someone made a very good point in their emails. I don't know if he's here, Mr. Daniel Levitin. He talked about, um, how employees have an average of less than two years. And as Mr. McIntosh was saying, it's not a high level employee. You're paying them probably minimum wage or close to minimum wage. And so you have this influx of employees. So is there anything that you're going to do in addition to video camera? Is there something you can do with loss prevention in terms of having those people be willing to testify, be willing to work with police and be willing to show up? Because we know that gas stations do incur more crime. Good evening, members of the board again. Uh, Kelly Harrington, director of asset protection. Um, so to respond to a couple of the comments that you had. Number one, I'll start with the last thing that you said, just because it's fresh in my mind. Um, we certainly encourage our team members to participate in prosecution. And we also advise them that if you're calling the police to report a crime happened, you can expect that you will have to potentially be a witness in court, provide a statement, work with law enforcement, et cetera. I will say that my team, which is based out of Atlanta, is growing. We actually just hired someone who's based out of Fort Lauderdale to support the entire South, South Florida region. And whether it be an internal investigation, a violent crime, something of that nature. We either from the Atlanta team or my local person who's starting on May 19th will be, um, not only a custodian of record, but they can do a business record certification. We can review evidence. We can work directly with, um, ASAs and law enforcement to make sure that the right witness is in the room to help prosecute those cases. Um, our goal would be to be able to support prosecution in any crime, whether or not racetrack is the victim. If a bystander is the victim, a community member, um, we want to be able to be a driving force to capture that evidence and help with prosecution. Um, in regards to the other comment about policing, um, I just want to call out. We encourage, um, law enforcement to visit our stores. We actually offer free beverages, fountain frozen and coffee to all first responders, whether it's a firefighter, an EMT, paramedic, law enforcement. We want them in our stores and we give them that benefit. We also participate in different community events. Um, we're doing a coffee with a cop this upcoming, um, October. And so do we directly provide funding for policing? No, but we do everything else to make that relationship mutually beneficial. Thank you. Thanks. Before we open it up, is there any more from the dais? I wanted to follow back up if there was any update on the medium wages. We actually have some information for you. Thank you. Hi everyone. Uh, Mercedes Gregorio for the record, um, project manager with racetrack. Um, so we have the update on the hourly wages. So I do want to preface this that it'll depend on the level, but the levels start at 14 to 1550 at the entry level. Um, there's entry, um, there's 16 to 1750. And for the GMs, it can start from 61,000 and can range up up to a hundred thousand. It'll really depend based on location and, uh, obviously like the sizing of the store and, um, the profitability of the store. Uh, I do want to also say that they, aside from monetary benefits, there are also other benefits that racetrack offers for their employees, including continuing education and tuition reimbursement. Um, some of the, they also receive healthcare, dental vision and, um, dental vision and, um, I guess regular medical care. Um, that is the same healthcare program that our corporate employees gets extended to the retail employees. So, um, in that sense, they have all the same benefits that the corporate employees have. Um, with the health plan, so they're, it's like a health insurance where you're paid, like it's taking a bit of out of the paycheck. Correct. Yeah. As it would be in most employees. So, I mean, like, yeah, I guess this is more of a statement, but if you're like, like talking to like entry level person, 14 or $15, if they even decided to pursue the health insurance option, has anyone here looked at the housing prices in Broward County? I think we're missing a piece of the puzzle where the workers will be living with those wages. I understand. I am also from the area, so I completely understand. I'm 27 years old. I'm a young, young person starting my career and seeing the pricing of the housing. I understand. I understand everything you're saying. Yeah. And this is not a knock on anybody. It's just with the project. I just want to bring up these points for awareness. For the testimony for the, if there was a crime and there's a, the employee is being encouraged to provide testimony, are they being paid the wages that they would be missing that day because they couldn't work because they're providing testimony? Yes. Uh, we would consider any testimony or court appearances required as part of something that was witnessed in the course of doing business paid hours for them. Jury duty is a different policy all in itself, but if we're saying, Hey, on behalf of racetrack, you're going to go represent us as a witness, that would be paid work that we would pay them the same wage. The same wage. Okay. Thank you. And that was Kelly Harrington for the record. Thank you. Do you have any questions before we open it? Okay. So we're going to open it up to public comment question. Again, thank you all for being so patient. Um, and I know this is a very heated, passionate debate. Um, so again, we're going to limit it. We're going to time to three minutes. Please state your name, your address as clearly as you can for the court reporter. And if you have the same statements, you can just say my name and I agree. And with that, please step up. Thank you. My own timer. Steven Rose, 1062 Northwest 88th Avenue plantation Lauderdale West. President of the board of directors for Lauderdale West, a community of 1,359 owners. I understand what Racetrack is saying in a very, very comprehensive presentation. That said, as we have heard, what is the real answer here? Do we need a gas station at the corner? I understand what they're saying with regards to gas and people coming in. However, as a resident and a driver, I have no problem finding gas on Sunrise or Wawa or Broward Boulevard. I think one of the things, if you go to page 25 of 32, Lauderdale West is within the public notification boundary. The thing that I hear is that all of the units will be on the roof and therefore there is a concrete barrier to noise. I would like to know if any studies were done on the decibel levels of those units with respect to how it is coming out into the community. Because while we are not exactly next door, we are in fact within very short distance to Lauderdale West to the 17th place and beyond. We are an over 55 community. We are not out there at 10 o'clock at night jumping around and doing stuff that some younger individuals might be doing. Sleep is important. So I would say, number one, I'm not sure that the noise, whether it be from the individuals or the equipment, has been properly looked at or at least reported on by Racetrack, number one. Number two, I also would have to say that the gas stations that were talked about, as Chairwoman Demby Berger said, are very different from what you're looking at here with Racetrack. It's a very large organization, a large property that has a lot of different things going on in it. Just even from an economic point of view, I am quite sure there are other facilities that could be used in order to actually make the area better for the residents, whether it be Lauderdale West, Jacaranda Lakes or others in the area. It is not an all or nothing proposition for Racetrack. And thank you. Thank you so much. Jenny Lapari, 8911 Northwest 12th Street, Plantation. I, too, am a resident of Lauderdale West, and there were two things that I was concerned about listening to the presentations. One about an environment impact, now that we have a gas station the size of Wawa and we're proposing another gas station of the size, about how that's going to impact the community, particularly Lauderdale West with gas fumes and everything of the vehicles coming in and out. Has there been an environmental study on that? No? Well, if you want to finish it so you don't have to run out of your time and then I'll answer. Right. And the next thing is that Lauderdale West has five exits. Three of those exits are on Pine Island. One of those exits has a traffic light. In order to go north, in order to exit any one of those three exits, we have to make a right turn. That right lane is going to be congested with vehicles that are going to be looking to go into the right lane into the gas station. Already it's very difficult to come out of 17th Street or 10th Street, 10th Court. Myself, I only come out on 12th Street now because traffic has been so bad on Pine Island that it's not safe. And in order for me to be able to go north on Pine Island and make a right turn on sunrise, I have to go stop at the traffic light. So this is going to impact our community tremendously in terms of safety. You're talking about elderly people with different levels of reflexes and that we travel a lot slower. Everyone knows we drive slow. But it's going to really impact us from a safety perspective and I'd like you to think about that. Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know if you have a quick response if there was any environmental studies done or we didn't get that far in the process. Sure, that would be great. Thank you. Anyone else? This is Michael Rabinovich. I live at 1700 Northwest 93rd Avenue in Jacaranda Lakes. I want to say I was at the meeting a year ago. And if I ever wanted an attorney, I would want you representing me because you do an excellent job then and now. One of my concerns back then as now has to do with crime. I don't know the answer to it, but hey, we have AI now. So I just did a search and I asked if a 24 hour gas station convenience store would lead to more crime. The answer AI said was yes. It said that 3% of violent crimes occur at gas stations and 2% or 3% violent crimes at gas station and there's a higher percentage of convenience stores. My concern is not necessarily for a witness working at this store. It's the fact that there wouldn't be a witness because they were killed. I have to say. Thank you very much. And another fabulous attorney in the room who just advised me that if you'd like to just state your name for the record and that you're opposed to it so that way because we have a court reporter here, it will be documented for the record that will go to city council. So if you don't want to speak and you just want to say your name for the records, please feel free to do so as well. And if you do want to speak, just let us know and we'll let you speak after that. Thank you. Linda Chaska, 1400 Campanelli Drive, Lauderdale West. I'm concerned with increased traffic from leaving the gas station, going to the next light and making a right. The next light on Sunrise Boulevard, as my good friend Jay here said, it's 85th Avenue, but it's also Lauderdale West Drive. And we are having problems already with 17th Court and University and the former American Express property because I've seen trucks come out of that property, go up 85th Avenue and out Sunrise Boulevard. So now you're asking us to accept more traffic that's coming down Sunrise Boulevard trying to get to Cleary because they just got gasoline at the other corner. Thank you. How many? 30? There's about 30 of us here. If you'll all stand and you can tell we're all from Lauderdale West and none of us are agreeing that we may write their names down. Hi, I'm Linda Owen from Lauderdale West and I don't want this to happen. Esther Ellen Braunstein opposed. I live in Lauderdale West. Janina Heinrich, Lauderdale West and definitely opposed. Marlena Castaldi opposed, Lauderdale West. Alice Purdy, Lauderdale West, I'm opposed. Michelle Sanders, Lauderdale West and I also opposed. Diane Middlestad, Lauderdale West, I oppose. Bernadette Broadbarkle, Lauderdale West, I oppose. Rosemarie Richmond, Lauderdale West, I oppose. Christine Woods, Lauderdale West, I oppose. Dolce E. Banks, Lauderdale West, I oppose. Lilith Satterthwaite, Lauderdale West, I oppose. Can you say your name again? You're very soft. You can't spell that. Lilith Satterthwaite. Thank you. Dominic Kasha, Lauderdale West, I oppose. My name is Efraza Ruin from Lauderdale West and in listening to the different people, I know they mentioned, the lawyer did mention the fact that there were some other gasoline stations adherent to other residencies, but they don't have, it's not a 55 and over. Some of these others are in a different situation. This is a 55 and over. I moved here in 2019 and I lived here for 30 years and never even knew about Lauderdale West. That's how close-knit and that's how protective it was. We're losing our protection and we don't want that. Thank you. I oppose. Percy Ransom, R-E-N-S-O-M, 8632 Northwest, 10th place, Lauderdale West. I moved, I lived in the area of 207th Street and 27th Avenue. Everybody know that's where the Dolphin Stadium is. And believe me, been there, done that. For 30 years, you're virtually a prisoner. You're paying mortgage to be a prisoner in your own house, any event. God help you if you have an emergency. How are the ambulance or the first responders going to get to you through all the traffic? So it's these kind of things, I don't think, from a human perspective, have been taken into account and I oppose the project. Thank you, sir, for your service. Thank you. Toby Scudney, Lauderdale West, and I oppose the project. McRyton, Lauderdale West, and I oppose that. We have plenty of homeless around. We don't need to attract more of them. Plus, it's a water canal in that area. So all the water could be affected by that. Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you all for your patience. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? Come on up, please. Thank you. Okay, so at 1621 Northwest 82nd Avenue. I've got two things. Number one, I think they can answer for me. I can't quite often use that bus stop. I'd like to know where they plan to relocate the bus stop. The bus stop in San Luis. It's okay. Sorry. She's going to answer all of them afterwards, that one. So she'll answer the bus stop question if she knows. All right. And the other thing I'd like to ask is, why do none of these people show up when we were against that condos that were going to be built on 17th Court? Think about that. 300 condos. Okay. We're going to talk one at a time. It's okay. We're going to talk one at a time. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else who'd like to make a statement? I'm Jan Heinrich, Lauderdale West. I live on 85th Avenue. I just want to say that traffic now is people going 90 miles an hour down that street, and it is a cutoff, and it's just horrible. But also, reading up on gas stations, quite a few sources said that 80% of gas stations are on track to be unprofitable by 2035 and allowing new gas stations to be built as simply a bad investment for any city or country. And while in operation, gas stations pose serious health risks, as we've discussed before, and the property values of people in nearby homes, businesses, and schools. They emit dangerous levels of the known carcinogen benzene and ozone, which causes respiratory problems and asthma. Vagrants and crime, which we've discussed, the lights, the noise, the smells. It was said that 75% of the traffic is existing, the noise is from existing traffic. That means 25% is new stuff that's going to come from this gas station. The east end of the property, according to the diagrams that were shown, they want a low vinyl fence right by our senior community instead of a 10-foot, what is it, a 20-foot wall? Cement and a vinyl fence, I could throw a ball over it, you know? And the focus on the buildings and colors are not nearly as important as the fact that this gas station is being proposed to be built. I don't care about the color. I care about the fact that it's going to be there and destroy our property values. And the retention pond and the dumpster also is going to be right on top of Lauderdale West's east end, from what I could see on that diagram. And there are plenty of empty parcels along University Drive that this beautiful racetrack could go to without being right in our backyard. There's tons of property that are vacant, etc. I'm sure you're an armed 570 gas stations for racetrack enough in the racetrack family. Do they really need one more here? Thank you. Please come up. My name is Misty Rabinovich. My husband already spoke. But considering we're the only ones who are here from Jacaranda Lakes, I wanted to be the second person. I'm not sure. I know that because Lauderdale West is much closer, they probably all got letters and we didn't. Okay. Well, I just knew this was happening and I was at the meeting a year and a half ago and there was a lot more people from Jacaranda Lakes at the time. And I have spoken to a lot of people. Some couldn't make it because they're working. It's dinner hour. Other people had emergencies. So I want to stand up and, you know, count for 20 more people. I know tons of people who are very against a gas station right across the street. It doesn't belong in our neighborhood. It's going to bring our property value down. It's going to be a dangerous element at 2, 3, 4, 5 in the morning for there to be a gas station, for there to be an open store, and for the smells and the sights and the sounds and everything that other people have already spoken about. Just wanted to represent our community. Thank you. Is there anyone else before we hear from the applicant one more time? And I guess if the city has anything to add, but I think we've talked about mostly everything. So is there anything else before we hear from the applicant? Nope. Okay. Thank you so much. We do appreciate all the work and effort you've put in and the informational meetings. And your organization is very detailed, and we appreciate that. And whatever happens, you know, you guys did an excellent job of presenting it. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Jan Aloda for the applicant. I'd just like to, I guess, respond to some of the questions that were raised during the public comment just briefly. So if you can give me a moment. I tried to make notes here on the side. During my presentation, I think the first question came up from the second speaker that asked about the environmental impact. One was not requested, but I will submit, and I also presented it in the presentation when I talked about a number of the environmental aspects and how we were basically meeting and exceeding the state and federal regulations. Any of the items as it relates to the underground storage tanks and otherwise are highly regulated, and this site will meet or exceed the local, state, and federal regulations with respect to that. Some items I'll just highlight again from the presentation is that the fuel tanks are double wall, monitored with sensors and other measures to prevent leaks, overflows, and again, exceeding the state and federal environmental safety requirements. The nozzles, this is the actual gas novels, have cut off to prevent overflow of any vehicular gas, like people gassing up their cars. The dispenser piping has also shut off valves to prevent leaks if a car, God forbid, ever hits a dispenser. Vitor roots, can't tell you, I do not know what that is. Cuts off flow if a loss of pressure is detected in either of the inner or outer wall of the product, piping, or tanks. And that a shut off valve also prevents the tanker from overflowing when actually refueling at the site. So all I can tell you is, again, as far as anything else that they might have talked about with respect to fumes, again, I just turn you back to the other gas stations that exist that are actually older. This is a new gas station which will have all of those modern advancements as far as how to control those things incorporated into it. I believe that was the first question. The second question, and I'm quickly seeing if there was something else here, oh, the bus stop. And the bus stop is basically staying in essentially the same location, just being moved further south due to the turn lane that's being constructed. So that stop will remain and, again, be located. And that's similar to where you see bus stops kind of throughout the county where they either have the bus pull out or they use those turn lanes because they like to have them located in many respects at corners. And I believe that is the response to all the questions. If I missed any, please let me know. Again, we believe that we have shown how this project is consistent with the other gas stations. And I understand a lot of them are different sizes and have different uses. Some have still, like, the very small convenience center in the middle of the store. But you are seeing this kind of new, modern, upgraded, fast, casual convenience market. This would be at least a third of its kind in the city of Plantation. And we do believe, as documented by the market study that was included in the application, that there is a need in this portion of the city and particularly along Sunrise Boulevard. I stand available to answer any other questions that you may have from the dais. And, again, I thank you for your time. I thank you for the patience. I thank everyone in the audience for their patience. And we just respectfully request your favorable consideration of the applications that are before you tonight. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anything from the city in response? Or we can move to vote? Move to vote. Okay. So... Close the public. Okay. I'm closing comments at this point. And anything from the dais? Yeah, I just have a thought. It has no relation to whether or not we vote for or against it. These gas nozzles, it's all right that they shut off automatically. But I've seen so many times that once it shuts off, the individual is pumping the gas, grabs that nozzle and starts topping off his tank. And that's where you have the fuel spillage. Wow. I wish there was some way of having that nozzle shut off and stay off. Once it's off, you can't turn it back on. That's my only observation. Anything else? We were talking earlier about making three separate votes. Okay. So, I'm just going off the request here. So, in looking at this, shouldn't number two on this document really be number one? Because number two is asking us conditional use for approval for the gas station to be on that property, where the other two are conditions of the building. So, if we deny the second one, there's no need to move on. Correct? This is going to go forward. So, you're going to have to vote on all three so that the council can get you all's recommendation. I understand your question, and you're not wrong, but they're still going to want to know what your recommendation was for all three of the requests. Because this doesn't stop here tonight. No, I know that. But, you know, again, I would think that if number two is denied, let's say, amongst the board, then… The others probably should be denied based on that vote. So, it would be denied or, again, it would have to basically come back for conditions if, let's say, city council re-zones that property, correct? They… I don't think the zoning is the issue on this one. I'm not sure if you're speaking just plain. I want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding you. I would assume that if we deny it, that the only way for this to eventually proceed would be that the council would have to re-zone that property, correct? No. They're asking for a site plan. So, they've got the zoning needed for the use, but because of the nature of the use, it's a conditional use. And they're asking to have their site plan approved. So, they've passed the zoning stage. They're in a stage of whether or not the site plan elevation landscape is appropriate for what the city determines. And because it requires a special condition to get approved because of it being a gas station, that's just the extra process. And then the waivers are because their site plan doesn't meet code. So, it goes hand to hand. I understand what you're saying, but they're past the zoning stage. It's just a matter of whether or not the city believes the application should go forward and get conditional use approval for having a gas station at that corner. Okay. Yes, that's it. Okay. And again, I just want to say, on behalf of all of us, we really thank you, Racetrack, for all the work you've done and for being interested in our city. We greatly appreciate that. Plantation is a wonderful city and we appreciate you and all the work you've done and the informational meetings. I know it's a ton of work. So, we just want to let everyone know. And we also thank all of our residents for coming out as well and voicing their opinion and being active in this process. So, with that, I'm going to close the meeting and we're going to vote. Chair, if I could just. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just wanted to say a couple of things. I just wanted to thank Jana and the applicant for, you know, their thoughtful application. And Jana, you're very good at your job. And there was, you know, a lot of concessions made and mitigation efforts made and really appreciate that. But I think, you know, I just feel there's too many conflicts. I don't think that the proposed use has a demonstrated need. And most importantly, you've got, you know, a lot of residents in the area that have been engaged for many years now on this issue and, you know, have valid concerns about traffic, safety and quality of life. So, I think, you know, that needs to be part of our decision-making process as long as well as the fact that this is, you know, as staff has said, inconsistent with the comprehensive plan. So, you know, I'll be voting to recommend denial. Okay. I'm going to call for a motion on project summary, project number, racetrack, PP23-0061B, Subsection 1 Site Plan Elevation and Landscape Plan approval to construct a 24-7 gasoline filling station with an 8,772-square-foot canopy, having eight fuel pumps, 16 fueling positions, a 1440,000-square-foot canopy for four EV charging stations with a 6,008-plus-square-foot accessory convenience store. Do I have a motion on Subsection 1? I make a motion to deny per the staff report. Is there a second? I second it. The motion is to vote, or is it a motion to vote? Oh, I'm sorry. It was a motion to vote on, like, we closed it. Yeah. Okay. Then I second the motion to vote on it. It's a motion to deny. It was a motion to deny. And I seconded it. Yeah. Then, yeah, second that. Sorry. Sorry. Ms. Gelfand had already seconded the motion to deny. He withdrew his second. Yeah. He's a third. Ms. Gelfand. No. Wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. This is to deny. To deny. Oh, I'm denying it. You said no. A yes is a affirmative for the requested motion, which is to deny. So if you vote no, that means you want the project. So I vote yes. You sure? I'm positive. You calling anybody else? I'm just making sure that we know what we're voting for. So the motion was to deny the request for site plan approval. Mm-hmm. So if you vote yes, you're voting to deny the site plan approval. So I said I vote yes. Okay. Mr. Stahl. Yes. Ms. Denby Berger. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Peacock. I'm sorry. Ms. Peacock. Yes. Mr. Della Grange. Yes. Thank you. Next. So the motion to deny. Wait. I don't think I was called, but yes. Mr. Della Grange. You're here. Yeah. Hello. Mr. McIntosh. Mr. McIntosh. Yes. Thank you. I think it's a full wound. So the motion has failed. It's been denied, number one. The motion has passed. I understand. The motion passed. The motion was to deny. So the application request is denied. I didn't want to interrupt the motion, but typically we make motions in the affirmative, and that's why you're confused. But I understand. I didn't want to create further confusion, but you didn't need me for that. You too. I will be getting another Robert's Rule of Order book rereading. Okay. The second part, the second, number two, conditional use approval to allow a gasoline station and accessory convenience store in the B7Q Plan Commercial Development Zoning District. Move to deny per staff report. Second it. So yes is no, Vicki. I'm reminding myself too. Well, thank you. She has to call the roll first. All right. I think mine last. Ms. Gelfand. Yes. Mr. Stahl. Yes. Ms. Denby Berger. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Ms. Peacock. Yes. Mr. McIntosh. Yes. Mr. Della Grange. Yes. Thank you. The motion passes to deny B of the project summary. You got it. You got it. And finally, number three, five zoning waivers and two landscape waivers from chapter 27 of the city code. Staff has identified an area of the plan which require one additional landscape waiver. See exhibit B. Is there a motion? Motion to deny as per staff report. I second. We have a motion to deny. All right. Ms. Gelfand. Yes. Mr. Stahl. Yes. Ms. Denby Berger. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Ms. Peacock. Yes. Mr. McIntosh. Yes. Mr. Della Grange. Yes. Thank you. The motion passes to deny number three of the project summary. And thank you very much. And with that, if there's nothing else, is there anything else? With that, I close the meeting.