morning ladies and gentlemen august 22nd 2023 regular meeting of the border good morning please pray with me heavenly father we come to you today asking for wisdom and guidance as we engage in meaningful discussion and as we make decisions today that will affect the citizens of this county fill us with your grace and may all that we accomplish here today bring you honor and glory and i ask these things in jesus name amen at this time on our agenda we invite the public to come forward to bring any matter they wish to bring to the attention of the board we have a request from mr hercules betts is mr betts here well perhaps he'll come in a little later i have other requests mr jeff mann jeff you come forward give your name and address for the record we afforded three minutes adjust the mic to your height thank you jeff mann 4257 old eagle lake road bartow florida commissioners we're here again i'm coming to talk to you about septage disposal this has been a 20 year ongoing situation we've been in ever since senator constantine passed his bill 550 almost 20 years ago we've been discussing this issue and now it's back to the forefront unfortunately bs ranch well fortunately or unfortunately is ceasing to end assisting on october 20 which leaves us absolutely nowhere to dispose of septage the last inventory we had on septics in set poke county was about 15 years ago and it was 160 000 then now you can extrapolate that out to probably close to 300 000 businesses and homes on septics today we have been kicking this can down the road for almost 20 years i came to y'all two years ago with a proposition to spend 10 million dollars in poke county to build a private plant that could handle all the septage in an environmentally safe way double a standards reclaim quality water in the end we were turned down last meeting we had was about two years ago commissioner lindsey you remember that one well at the stewart building you asked me then why would even private people want to get into this this is why bill gates is now involved in building these same plants on the west coast he's seen a need he's now funding them we still have the offer on the table from the investors from gbi to build one in poke county either privately or public private partnership which is the utmost if we could pull that off the reason we couldn't do it before the board after bs ranch passed the ordinance call it solid waste ordinance mr bode just said flat you can't do it poke county anymore we need to relook at that ordinance that ordinance shut the door on everything high-tech low-tech everything we can build this and have it up and run in the six months now october 20 we have nowhere to go to my executive director for file roxanne gruber called me at 6 30 this morning said her phones are blowing up my phones are blowing up the haulers and the business owners have nowhere to go we have nowhere to go majority of the commissioners are on on-site systems at their homes we have nowhere to dispose as in six weeks or less than that now what are we going to do so we need some kind of help with the county we need an emergency declaration we need something so we can get a facility built mr beasley just told me it's probably going to be two more years before the county's ready i can have a plan up and running in seven months with help from the county these are all prefab plants you bring them in you get the land do the management of the land put them together we can be working in seven months we need help and we need an alternative in the interim where are we going to dispose we can't tell the poor people in poe county you can't have your tanks pumped i mean maintenance sanitary nuisances we have to be able to service the residents of poe county and this is more than a three-minute conversation this has been a 20-year conversation but now it's come to a head i mean with them shutting bs down none of us ever wanted bs nobody in the industry wanted it we cringe every time we have to go out there my guys complain to me and they pump for a living that's what they do and they complain about going out there i've been out there myself several times and i'm just it i almost want to cry when i see the animals the birds everything just playing out there so them getting shut down i have no heartburn with that that's fine where i have heartburn is we've been rebuffed every time to build something that is what we need for poe county thank you mr man i do recall that meeting two years ago i i called the industry together we did meet the steward we started working on an opportunity where septage could be hauled to at least two wastewater plants associated with the county i i had no idea it would take that long to get where we are now uh it's it as you know it's not just a matter of opening the valve and dumping that material into the plant it has to be diluted and bled into the system so it's not to upset the you know the biology of the of the plant itself so there's been work in that regard if mr bees they told you this morning it takes another two years that is news to me i thought we were on the verge of of having a solution so um well that's where our plants come in our plants are specially designed just for this and you're right you can't just run anaerobic sewage or septage into an aerobic plant right it just can't be done everything you have to go through ahead of time is so extraordinary it takes a long time but that's why we have these systems and it was 23 we have the technology now to handle just this product and make it you know under the dep codes steve thompson fortunately just retired from dep for the second time as lead wastewater engineer i spoke to him last week he said he'd be more than happy to come on as consulting engineer on this project if we can work it through the you know the logistics of the board to oversee this you know our plant we don't want to build another fort mead and god knows we don't want another bs we want to do it right that's why we're this board is committed to finding a solution correct and and i will tell you that uh we'll do what we can to expedite a remedy as quickly as possible and if if your alternative is a viable alternative we'll we'll put that on the table for staff discussion to pursue so we got your contact information and uh assured that this is a priority mr chairman yes uh thank you uh you know jeff and i've been talking about this for years uh and i said and i hate to even say it again but you know 20 30 years ago i was trying to get the county to do it because i thought it was something we had an obligation a responsibility to do because of the number of tanks here and tried to work with daryl gunn and they didn't have any interest in it so we can't handle this right so you know years go by we still have the problem but every member of this board commissioner santiago chairman lindsey uh vice chairman braswell commissioner wilson we all sat around and said we want to get this done and we want to get it done sooner rather than later because we knew what was going on with bs ranch but the idea that it's going to take another two years is probably it's unacceptable and if we can't accomplish it in two years then maybe we need to look at a standalone facility somewhere in the county uh you know which would be i wouldn't say turnkey but obviously it's uh i guess something that rolls in it's pretty much a package system right and and you know whether it's on property that we own or we acquire property but maybe we need to know where where what kind of progress we've made toward developing our own rather than saying it might be another two years uh bill uh yes sir mr chair members of the board uh let me put this in context a little bit about 10 years ago we had a meeting with the haulers and they really didn't want the county into the septage receiving business they felt like they could manage that as a private business entity didn't need the county about two years ago um i think the septage haulers tended to gravitate toward maybe the county is a good business partner and maybe we should uh find balance with having the county uh be involved with construction of some some facility we know a lot we the county staff knows a lot more about septage today than we've ever known as a result of the board giving us that direction to find balance with creating a septage receiving facility and the federal government uh providing american rescue plan funds to build such a facility what i would say is in the next couple of weeks and i mentioned this for maybe a week ago um it's not as easy given the location of our big plants uh given the residential communities that surround those plants uh truck access through those residential communities to that those plants um the we we do have some strategies we think may have merit and i'd like to brief the board on those so uh there may be a more short-term solution that lends itself down the road to a longer term solution uh but we do have some ideas that we want to share with the board and i think it's taken about the last 12 months or 18 months to learn those options and so the utilities division director is prepared to do that within the next two or three weeks at an upcoming agenda review so we're ready to talk about it in some some level of detail well let's um expedite that process and at that orientation let's invite the industry to be there at the same time yes sir i appreciate your time uh again october 20 is not long you know that's just weeks away and we're gonna the whole county is gonna be in a major quandary if we don't come up with at least an emergency solution to uh stop gap this until we can come up with a permanent solution thank you thank you sir uh next i have a request from stacy campbell dominique to address the board good morning morning good morning commissioners good morning county manager and attorney um i want to say i'm here to say thank you so much to commissioner lindsey uh career source poke is one of 24 workforce boards in the state of florida over the last several legislative sessions there was discussion about merging workforce boards we would either merge with career source tampa bay career source central florida career source pasco hernando or career source heartland polk county is large in land mass and population and we have been serving this community uh as a workforce board singly since 1996 but prior to that before my time it was private it was heartland private industry council which was a five county region that split to better serve communities um in a manner that was acceptable and effective commissioner lindsey over the last year has engaged at with state leaders and other commissioners across the board to speak on behalf of the workforce system here in the uniqueness of polk county not only um his his engagement um but his commitment to serving the members of this community um and ensuring that our workforce system works for what we need in this county so career source on behalf of the board of directors we recognize commissioner lindsey as the work career source poke workforce champion by presenting at our annual meeting and i wanted to come here and just say thank you again so much for your leadership and your passion and compassion for the workforce system but really the workforce in polk county thank you ma'am my privilege i didn't know she was going to do that it was my privilege and thank you for your service and your team you got a great board it does a great job for polk county anyone else wish to address the board on any non-agenda items that you want to bring to the board's attention seeing none we'll move on to the agenda and entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda approval second motion a second any discussion on that motion all those in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries miss butterfield morning we have for you to approve and ratify payroll check numbers zero two two six one through zero two two eight eight and the amount of thirty seven thousand ninety two dollars and seventy seven cents two thousand five hundred seventy five direct deposits and the amount of three million eight hundred forty three thousand three hundred twenty dollars and sixty three cents and those are dated august 11th 2023 wire and electronic fund transfers and the amount of ten million one hundred thirty four thousand six hundred eighty one dollars and one cent and those are dated august 9th 2023 through august 21st 2023 invoice checks numbered 442769 through 443597 totaling nine million seven hundred seventy two thousand three hundred thirty four dollars and forty four cents and those are dated august 9th 2023 through august 21st 2023 move approval the disbursements second motion the second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries i'm sorry i didn't look up to see miss butterfield wasn't even here today we also request approval of your minutes of the regular board meeting held on august 8th 2023 motion and a second any discussion on that motion all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries to make you have anything for the board this morning mr beasley mr chair members of the board the office will have five items for consideration this morning item number h1 is to request the board to approve an amendment to the existing partnership contract between polk county and the united way of central florida for continued public solicitation and program administration in connection with significant community wellness initiatives polk county through the indigent health care program is proposing to continue a pilot collaboration with united way of central florida to increase community access to health care for polk county's medically poor and low-income residents in an effort to improve health outcomes and health disparities among residents this collaboration is a multi-level initiative intended to remove barriers reduce fragmentation and leverage partnerships in 2022 on behalf of polk county the united way of central florida solicited program applications and identified programs for behavioral health and prevention and early intervention services united way of central florida then managed and administered grants to accepted applicants this proposed amendment to the current agreement will increase the total not to exceed annual funding from 6 million to 10 million 440 000 in the first year and 10 million 160 000 for the second year and any subsequent renewal periods the annual increase of four million dollars will be reserved for competitive solicitations which will allow for new proposals and resubmittals of prior proposals that were not selected during the first round of solicitations additionally the united way of central florida's community health navigators will continue to work to enhance local health care navigation and connect residents to the polk polk health care plan other indigent health care funded safety net programs and provide linkage and support to other social services and programs navigators will continue to play a key role broadening the reach as connectors mediators and messengers to vulnerable and marginalized residents who need to be linked to health resources and information so they can achieve optimal physical and emotional health this amendment will become effective july 1 2023 through september 30th of 2024 with options for renewal on three one-year renewal terms this funding request was presented to and is recommended for approval by the citizens health care oversight committee at their june 23rd 2023 meeting funds are budgeted and available in the indigent health care fund for this designated purpose so mr chair members of the board in the interest of expanding the county's commitment towards improved health care services i would recommend approval of the proposed amendment to the existing agreement with the united way of central florida intended to provide expanded solicitations and required administration of those community wellness initiatives any questions of staff entertain a motion if a motion is second any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye opposed like sign motion carries mr chair members of the board item number h2 is to request the board to approve a construction contract with trius construction llc out of lutes florida for construction of the proposed moore road fire rescue station this would be a total contract not to exceed six million one hundred and twenty four thousand three hundred and twenty six dollars to include a community investment program amendment and a budget transfer in the amount of one million four hundred and ninety one thousand four hundred and thirteen dollars polk county has completed the public solicitation process seeking qualified contractors who have expressed interest in a in construction in a construction contract with polk county for the construction of a new fire rescue station to be located at 8525 moore road located in the area just northeast of lakeland the project will consist of providing all required labor materials supervision coordination and facility permitting to deliver a complete and usable facility consistent with the approved construction plans and specifications bid number 23-411 was issued and two contractors submitted bids the lowest bid submitted by trius in the amount of five million eight hundred and seventy four thousand three hundred twenty six dollars a recommendation of award was issued and no protests were received in accordance with resolution 13-066 250 000 has been added to the proposed contract award to address allowance and contingency needs inclusive of the required budget transfer from the emergency medical millage fund reserves and the community investment program amendment available project funds will be sufficient to cover proposed contract expenses so mr chair members of the board in the interest of advancing a board public safety priority i would request the board approve a construction contract with trius construction in the amount not to exceed six million one hundred and twenty four thousand three hundred and twenty six dollars in connection with bid numbers 20 number 23-411 today's board action will include the requisite community investment program amendments and budget transfers from the emergency medical millage fund reserves any questions of staff second we have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye opposed like sign motion carries mr chair members of the board item number h3 similar song second verse this is to request the board approve a construction contract with whitehead construction out of winter haven for construction of the proposed masterpiece road fire rescue station this would be a total contract cost not to exceed five million seven thousand six hundred sixty four dollars to include the requisite community investment program amendment and the budget transferring the amount of 128 thousand five hundred eighty five dollars polk county has completed the public solicitation process seeking qualified contractors who have expressed interest in a construction contract for the county's new fire rescue station to be located at 1695 masterpiece road in an area just north of lake wales the project will consist of providing all required labor materials supervision coordination and facility permitting to deliver a complete and usable facility consistent with the approved construction plans and specifications bid number 23 415 was issued and three contractors submitted bids the lowest being submitted by whitehead in the amount of four million seven hundred and sixty nine thousand two hundred and four dollars a recommendation of award was issued and no protests were received and consistent with resolution 13 066 238 460 dollars has been added to the proposed contract award to address allowance and contingency needs inclusive of the required budget transfer from the emergency medical millage fund reserves and the requisite community investment program amendment available project funds will be sufficient to cover the proposed contract costs so mr chair members of the board yet again in the interest of advancing a another board priority public safety project i would request the board to approve a construction contract with whitehead construction in the amount of five million seven thousand six hundred and sixty four dollars in connection with bid 23 415. any questions of staff i'll entertain a motion second if motion and a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye opposed like sign motion carries mr chair members of the board item number four i want to say same song third verse this is to request the board to approve a construction contract with hinkleman construction incorporated out of lakeland for the construction of the proposed eaton park fire rescue station this would be a contract total not to exceed four million two hundred one thousand seven hundred twelve dollars polk county has completed the public solicitation process seeking qualified contractors who expressed interest in construction of the county's new fire rescue station to be located at 3409 winter lake road in the southeast area of lakeland the project will consist of providing all required labor materials supervision coordination and facility permitting to deliver a complete and usable facility consistent with the approved construction plans and specifications bid number 23410 was issued three contractors submitted bids the apparent low bidder by hinkleman in the amount of four million one thousand six hundred thirty one dollars a recommendation of award was issued and no protests were received in accordance with resolution 13066 200 000 81 has been included in the proposed contract award amount to address uh allowance and contingency needs funds are available in the ems millage fund and general capital improvement fund approved for the completion of this construction project so mr chair third time's a charm i would recommend again in keeping with the board's public safety priority i would recommend the board request the board to approve the proposed construction contract with hinkleman construction in the amount not to exceed four million two hundred one thousand seven hundred twelve dollars i have a motion a second any discussion on that motion a question mr chair yes ma'am we've committed to 12 fire stations what 12 or 13 yes ma'am 12 or 13 one number are we at up to right now this will be four uh this will be i think the uh the eighth eight seven or eight okay so we're making a lot of oh yes ma'am in four three three years we've made a lot of progress thank you any further discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye those like sign motion carries mr chair members of the board the fifth and final item for my office is uh item number h5 is to request the board to approve a right-of-way agreement between polk county and landon jones the third in conjunction with phase one segment two of the proposed thompson nursery road major roadway improvements project polk county is developing plans for major road major improvements and realignments along thompson nursery road phase one of the project is being developed in four segments due to overall size of the project limited property availability along the envision realigned portions of the corridor and related environmental and regulatory concerns the county has hired an engineering firm to evaluate and if necessary redesign designated segments of the planned roadway based upon previously engineered based upon previously engineered plans due to the new residential developments along uh the previously a lot previous alignment um uh portion of the earlier and due to those existing planned uh the existing developments along that line way um earlier envisioned alignment along rifle range road near its intersection with eloise loop road to the planned railroad overpass will need to be realigned for which alternatives are currently being evaluated ongoing development along with natural impediments in this area leave few alternatives for the alignment which is anticipated to utilize the existing rifle range corridor until until up to a point at or just south of eagle lake loop road and then transition east with a new realignment the county has been contacted by the owner of a track of land containing approximately 40 acres located to the northwest of the intersection of rifle range road and eagle lake loop road who has offered the county the county the opportunity to purchase the entire property track the county has reviewed the property and has confirmed a portion of the property would be needed for the project the purchase of the entire parcel could be utilized for mainline right-of-way stormwater retention wetlands mitigation floodplain compensation and any related combination of those requirements the acquisition of the entire parent parcel is anticipated to result in a remainder portion which may be considered surplus and sold once the project has been constructed the county hired an independent appraiser to establish the value of the property subsequent negotiations have resulted in a proposed purchase price of three million five hundred thousand dollars the owner has not incurred any attorney's fees or expert cost in conjunction with this acquisition the county attorney's office and the real estate services administrator have reviewed the agreement and recommend approval the alternative of acquiring the property or any portion thereof in the future through condemnation litigation would result in substantially higher additional costs funds are designated for this acquisition and available within the transportation trust fund so mr chair members of the board consistent with advancing a major board roadway priority project i would recommend that the board approve the proposed right-of-way agreement and authorize the issuance of funds in the amount of three million five hundred thousand dollars for the outright purchase i'd also request the board approve the hiring of the american government services corporation to close the acquisition of the property and approve paying estimated closing costs of twenty thousand dollars for a total property acquisition of three million five hundred and twenty thousand dollars any questions of staff entertain a motion have a motion a second a discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye opposed like sign motion carries anything else chair no sir mr wilson mr braswell yes um last week there was a resource recycling conference in orlando for three days and uh i went over there and attended that and i can say without a doubt our move to discontinue recycling in october of 24 is the right move um it was maybe 500 people maybe a few more from pretty much all over the world and uh i went over there hoping to find out is there something on the horizon to fix the recycling situation and the bottom line is no what i heard was the people who manufacture the equipment had a lot of great ideas the people who do the hauling had a lot of great ideas but the end result was the bulk of it if not in some cases 90 just went back to the landfill i talked with some of the counties around us right now they are sending um they're paying up to 150 a ton to haul the recycling to another county to find out that again 90 of it's getting rejected and the bottom line is there's no solution to this i mean um what we've heard in here at least a dozen times from monowood you know you can't just melt all the plastic together it doesn't play play well together uh what was interesting the the the only two things in the recycling stream that anybody really wants right now is metal for the obvious reasons and cardboard and paper uh i was really surprised there's been a big drop in the amount of available cardboard and paper i would have thought with amazon and all the shipping and everything there was more out there but when uh people went to working uh from home instead of the office they tend not to just print reams of nonsense all day long uh on the company's dime so there's been a big reduction in paper availability but uh it was really interesting the the the issue of why we got into this jam was basically china quit accepting uh everybody's garbage uh they've actually found a work around that they send it to indonesia they repackage it and send it to china and they'll take that all day but uh but the bottom line is most uh the majority of everything recycles going to end up in a landfill uh it may be driven around all day or a couple of days but it's going to wind up in a landfill uh soon enough what we have and it's certainly unique or land excuse me uh orange county has 10 to 15 years left in their landfill maybe 20 uh we've got a unique situation where we have such a huge landfill we've got over 100 years left uh the concept and there was a lot of talk about the concept of mining the landfill in another 80 years or something like that and that that is certainly uh the way a lot of these counties that have large landfills are leaning and the technology is is there um and and that's kind of like the plan for a lot of these uh places but then you've got the like i said the orange counties they don't know what to do uh they're going to wind up uh trying to recycle trying to get rid of it one way or the other because they just don't have a landfill for it to go to but we do so we're sitting in the catbird seat on that and i think we're in a good position that's all i have thank you may i make a comment on that yes ma'am that's good information that you bring commissioner brasswell and it's it's probably the reality of the story that we've been talking about for the last couple of of years really however the the information that's that's shared with the public is is totally different so so we're going to have to think about our message if that's the way that this commission is going to go because what the the citizens are hearing is that why aren't we um doing this and and everybody else especially out in the west side of west part of the country is doing it so why can't we do it so we're going to have to craft that message really well and you bring some good information that we can use for that there was a seminar specifically to talk about communication and i sat in on that and the bottom line is good luck uh it people i can see that people hear what they want to hear they've been brought up for 40 years thinking everything magically gets recycled when the fact of the matter hardly any of it gets recycled well it's just it's food for thought so as we move forward if that's the route we're going to go we're just going to have to really think about that you're still on deck anything else you want to add that's it mr cumby uh yes mr chairman uh i just don't want to leave uh the room today without again talking about the need to do something for the septage i don't want to wait another two weeks because it'll be two weeks before we come back here and two weeks turns into a month turns into months and we're right back where we started from and i understand all those issues bill i'm not i'm not yelling at you i get it but there comes a point when we have to face reality whether it's with recycling or whether it's with you know treatment of septage in this county so i'm wondering if we ought not you know consider throwing in the towel and coming up with a different plan i know these facilities uh you said they're in residential areas obviously we're aware of where they are but this creates some i guess some new challenges but i don't think we've made much progress in the uh since i've been back here and we talked about this early on the need for it knowing that we were trying to push back on bs ranch thinking that uh you know that thing was okay when it first uh got started but uh obviously they weren't able to do what uh the claims uh that they were making just just didn't come true so we we need to do something and i don't think we're doing anybody any favor by you know as jeff said kicking the can down the road again we've got to find a way to deal with this and and we need to do it now because of the huge number of septic tanks that exist in polk county so well i you know i that i thought jeff's point was uh interesting what i'd be real curious is where one of these um package stations or whatever you want to call it is believe it or not they actually had a site that somebody was trying to acquire but they needed to you know make sure they could get the land use on it that came up a couple of years ago and i think john pointed out because of the way that our ordinance is written that it just wasn't going to happen without i guess changes the ordinance i see john's in the back of the room so i don't know if you want to call him up but it's just basically it's foreclosed unless we do something uh no john doesn't need to come up i'm not it's not our side that that uh i don't understand it's it's i'd like to see one of these working you know we need to get with jeff and say show me one because i want to see one yes uh you know i know a little bit about this you know you all know that when i first came here this was a big issue and uh i've been down that road a little bit and i think we we're probably at the point where you know getting you know taking a little longer with the county has created a little bit of a problem but you know i wouldn't just uh because of what people say jump out there and say okay we need to let somebody build a plant and uh that uh yeah we can do that it's been done before uh most of them some of them had problems and uh at the end of the day it's just something that we really need to look at hard before we you know kind of open up the spigot on this uh you know bs ranch isn't the only the only facility in central florida don't get me wrong it it takes it takes diesel fuel and stuff to get to these plants but i understand where you know pope county is a big county at the end of the day it comes down to uh where they can dump this they still they still have an avenue to do it uh i can't remember where the where they're i mean they still have where they can uh treat their own septic and they can put it on sites that have been approved they haven't all we haven't stopped that 100 percent in poquette and i do know that is a fact uh and yes these plants right here uh i just think we need to look at it very hard because at the end of the day it boils down about money uh because these plants bs ranch they make a lot of money especially bs ranch they bring it in get paid for it and they don't ever do anything with it so that's a good way to do things and uh so but i just think we we need to like i said talk about this see what we can do and and have an open mind on this because there's more to it than i think a lot of people but let's let's get the item on the work work study with all the options at the earliest opportunity and i'm i'm a little disappointed myself that we had this conversation two years ago when we were going to adjust and modify some existing plants and i thought we were moving in that direction to expedite that process and then the last minute learned that while we can accommodate the physical uh elements of it there are some social elements we have to overcome and took us two years to figure that out so let's put all the options on the table and expedite a solution i think it's i think it's basically the you know the water that comes you know what's there the cake that's another thing but the water and there's avenues to do that but we have certain guidelines that we have to go by okay i think staff that's all mr i think the staff has got the message uh we're now going to move into the public hearing process the first set of hearings expedited hearing county attorney has some opening comments thank you mr mr chair i will go over the public hearing general procedures at this time we ask that you please turn off your cell phones or other devices that may distract from the public hearings please adjust the microphone and state your full name and address for the hot for the record before you begin speaking on a topic individuals speaking during the public comments section of a matter will be strictly limited to three minutes the board is experiencing these matters and is able to discern what is legally relevant to an issue and what is not information is relevant or repetitive repetitive only serves to frustrate and necessarily prolong the day's business the commission expects civility at all times during all public hearings speaking out of terms shouting out from the audience disrespectful sounds or utterances while another is speaking or unacceptable and you will be asked to leave the chambers for the remainder of the day if any person decides to appeal any decision made by the board with respect to any matter considered here today you will need a record of the proceedings and that for such purpose you may need to ensure that verbatim record of the proceedings is made which record includes the testimony evidence upon which the appeal is to be based which you must gather at your own expense anyone in the audience who wishes to speak and present testimony today must be sworn in all testimony given during public hearings shall be deemed to be sworn at this time if you're going to address the commission or speak on any case today please stand raise your right hand and answer out loud the following question do you swear or affirm that the testimony or evidence you provide to the commission today is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you at this time we will be due to the expedited hearings i will go over the expedited hearing procedures at this time expedited hearings are held pursuant to resolution number 2022-089 expedited hearings are used when no opposition was present at the planning commission hearing the applicant agrees to the expedited hearings and recommendation of the development review committee is for approval expedited procedures are the following after staff briefly introduces the case the hearing will be open for public comment if anyone speaks during public comment the applicant will be given the opportunity to respond at the public comment the board will consider the land use case at any time a full presentation of staff can be requested from the commissioner from a commissioner the applicant or members of the public all documents attached to the agenda item are deemed part of the record of the land use case unless removed from the list of experts by motion of the board all the individuals on the list of experts attached to the agenda item are deemed experts for the purpose of the land use case at this time i'll turn over mr cisco to present the expedited hearings before we do that i want to back up on the agenda i'm told that mr betts is has arrived uh understand it was probably a traffic issue well i would invite you to the podium uh please come forward give your name and address for the record and you'll be given three minutes good morning to the board uh my name is hercules betts i'm from laughlin uh district four and have a few issues here that as you all know that little area is blowing up so fast we can't even keep up with what's going on around there um three concerns i have is old tampa highway the speed is on old tampa high we have school kids getting on buses there the polk county side is only one mile long but it goes into ossola county on the same road which is another mile so when they come through also the county 50 60 70 miles an hour on that one strip it might have been a highway 40 50 years ago it's a little thorough way through the neighborhood now we need some control out there and a lot of people are cutting trees and trash they're using our cemetery for a dump yard we have no control over that the tree cutters are leaving trees we've called the county and they came out put signs up they threw trash on the signs so we need help with that because when so much is going on around there we just can't have no control and we don't have the resources to to take care of anything and the most important issue is along 1792 and parker road some owner businessman cleared that area to start parking semi trucks through there the area is so small we can't have semi and commercial trucks parking along the roadways or parking in the neighborhood we need some help with that because the town is as you all know has blown up it's walking up it was asleep it ain't sleep no more and these issues are just driving the people there because we can't even uh we can't even control it they parking in the neighborhood with semi trucks uh anywhere there's a green grass spot they park the truck there and now if they allow to build this road and park them along 1792 and parker road the traffic is so backed up there now it's going to be major accidents there because there's no control and i hate to say it but we're the last little outlet in polk county before you get to ossola county and it seems like when everybody flush it comes to our area and that's what we're dealing with so i thank you all for hearing me and uh if i can get some help or understanding uh to talk to anyone after the meeting to try to see what we can come up with uh i appreciate the helping time so thank you mr betts i think we have one of the uh ag deputies in the back that may want to speak to the debris issue yes sir is that correct ask them come forward you want to come forward and share the thoughts with uh the staff or you want to meet with mr betts after okay i appreciate that yes sir these gentlemen in the back you recognize the uniform uh they can also uh direct those uniforms yeah me too yeah um i think they can also put you in contact with the uh traffic control issues and uh truck parking truck parking i don't see staff out there they're good that could turn out to be a major major issue there you see the fellow standing in the back with the gray suit right there yes sir he's the man to see mr bode okay start with the deputies and then see mr bode across yes sir i got you thank you start with the ones with a gun you got it thank you sir yes sir mr betts nice seeing you again thank you nice to see you okay we're back on schedule and um we'll go to expedited hearings expedited hearing item 01. thank you mr chair for the record ben zisco land development director there are four items on the expedited public hearing portion of today's agenda item number 01 is a expedited public hearing for case ldcu 2023-13 reunion self-storage to consider a conditional use approval for a self-storage facility in the community activity center of the ronald reagan selected area plan the subject site is approximately 1.75 acres located on osceola pokeline road staff finds that this use is a transitional area from existing commercial to the eastern portion of the property uh to residential currently under construction to the south and west of the subject site the planning commission has recommended approval and following any public comment today staff recommends approval of this item any questions of staff ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on the matter described if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward at this time seeing them we will close the public hearing and entertain a motion the option second motion is second any discussion on that motion all those in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries item number 02 is an expedited public hearing for case ldcu 2023-17 gerties road duplex to consider conditional use approval and recognition of formal legal non-conforming property as to extended rights to locate two blue duplexes on the subject site subject site is located on gerties road just to the west of the bartow airport the property has historically had two duplexes on the lot existing back to 1966 duplexes were demolished and our land development code requires the non-conforming used to be established within a two-year time period the property owner missed the two-year window by about two months so this request is to extend those non-conforming rights again the planning commission has recommended approval and following any public comment today staff also recommends approval any questions of staff ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on the matter described if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward at this time saying that we will close the public hearing entertain a motion motion to second any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries item number 03 is an expedited public hearing for case ldpd 2023-10 swiss valley mobile home park modification to consider approval of a modification to ldpd 2020-29 to add 11 lots to an existing mobile home park the subject site is located on the west side of us 98 just to the north of duff road to the south of banana road the subject site contains 42 existing mobile home units on 15 acres the request is to add 11 units to the south east of the existing mobile home on five acres bringing the total count to 53 mobile home lots planning commission has recommended approval and following any public comment staff also recommends approval of this item any questions of staff yeah i guess did they acquire another piece is that what happened here because i remember this thing came up a couple of years ago okay anything else ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on the matter described if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward at this time saying none we will close the public hearing entertain a motion motion for approval second we have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries item number 04 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2023-10 ecx car wash to consider the adoption of a land development code text amendment to allow incidental car washes in the com the community activity center of the northridge selected area plan the northridge selected area plan is shown in green on your slide the request is a text amendment to allow incidental car washes which must be located in conjunction with fuel sales this is the first reading of this ordinance so following any public comment today no action is required by the board any questions of staff ladies and gentlemen this is the public hearing on the matter described if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward at this time saying no we will close the public hearing and as this first reading no action required by the board mr chairman that concludes the expedited portion of today's public hearings mr chair at this time we'll move to the uh public hearings unexpedited public hearings and miss howard deputy county attorney sandy howard will present the first item thank you good morning this is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance granting an economic development ad valorem tax exemption for an expansion of an existing polk county business public supermarkets inc and to approve a performance agreement with the company the company plans to construct a new 450 000 square foot cold storage facility along with the 36 000 square foot product return facility at 5300 allen k breed highway in lakeland in addition to its purchase of the land the company will invest approximately 218 million dollars in construction costs and equipment purchasing the company plans to create 10 new full-time jobs as a result of this expansion with the new jobs paying an average annual wage of fifty five thousand five hundred and seventy four dollars which is 115 percent of the county's current average annual wage both the lakeland economic development council and the central florida economic development council have provided a letter to the county in support of this project and we have representation from both edcs as well as the company here today based on the board's approved guidelines the project qualifies for a 60 reduction in applicable ad valorem taxes for an eight-year period running from 2027 through 2034. the property appraisers report estimates that if the exemption is granted approximately seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in ad valorem taxes would be lost each year of the eight-year exemption period the county in turn would recognize new ad valorem tax revenue just under five hundred thousand dollars annually during that time which represents the remaining forty percent of value additionally mstu school board and swift mud new tax revenues gained are estimated to be 1.2 million each year collectively thank you i'll stand for any questions any questions of staff ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on the matter described if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward at this time say no we'll close the public hearing entertain motion move approval we have two motions and two seconds any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye opposed like sign motion carries thank you i have the next item as well this item does not require a public hearing but is being discussed at this point in the board's agenda as it relates to the same project in public's planned expansion in the county the county's impact fee ordinance and resolution 19-129 provides for the mitigation of impact fees for qualified targeted industry businesses creating new jobs in polk county the program authorizes a certain percentage reduction off the total cost of county impact fees based on the creation of new high-wage jobs and capital investment because public's is adding 10 qualifying jobs and making a 218 million dollar capital investment the company qualifies for a 25 percent impact fee reduction on the 450 000 square foot cold storage facility the return center is not part of the impact fee mitigation without approval of this impact fee mitigation agreement before you today the estimated county impact fees for the storage facility would be 261 450 the 25 mitigation is valued just over 65 000 dollars for a reduced impact fee amount from the company due of 196 000 87.50 the county's interest will be secured by a lien on the property to ensure the company maintains the required number of jobs for a seven-year period so staff is recommending the board's approval of the impact fee mitigation agreement thank you i'll stand for any questions approval we have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye that's not a public hearing right you're correct no public hearing still need a vote oh no okay public hearing but it wasn't a public hearing i didn't think okay i'm just getting it right i confused you this one doesn't require a public hearing still requires a vote but not a public hearing that's right okay all those in favor say aye aye opposed like signed motion carries thank you ma'am thank you thank you mr chair next two items p3 and p4 de novo hearings i will go over the day nova hearing procedures at this time falling falling is a summary of the procedures governing day nova hearings pursuant to polk county resolution 2022-090 procedure procedures first staff will present the staff report and recommendation after staff presents the staff report and recommendation the applicant will have 30 minutes to present the applicant's case after the applicant's presentation any organized opposite opposition will have 30 minutes total to present their case if more than one person or entity qualifies as organized opposition the 30 minutes is split split equally amongst them for example if three individuals qualify as organized opposition then each will have 10 minutes present their case organized opposite opposition shall consist of any entity or an individual that filed an application for de novo hearing or which has received written authorization from at least five entities or individuals speak on their behalf or those entities or individuals have and those entities and individuals have agreed to waive the ability to speak during the public comment portion of the pub public hearing after the organized opposition presents the public comment portion of the public hearing will be open each speaker during the public comment will be a lot of three minutes individuals whom are represented by the organized opposition will not be a lot of three minutes during the public comment one public once public comment has been closed the applicant applicant will have five minutes any time reserved from the applicant's case presentation to respond to the organized opposition and public comment after the applicant's response the chair will close the public hearing and the board will discuss and vote on the matter the record of the novo hearing all documents attached to the agenda and presentations given which shall be deemed part of the record unless removed from the record by motion of the board county staff submitting the staff report shall be deemed experts in the land planning unless disqualified by motion of the board applicants organize opposition the public may request documents to be entered into the record during the during their presentation applicants organize opposition the public may request a witness to be recognized as an expert during their presentation applicant applicants organize opposition and their witnesses are subject to cross-examination by the other party ex parte communications the board members receive numerous communications from the public unless otherwise stated it should be presumed that the expert that ex parte communications have been made to the members of the board regarding the matter during the hearing the applicant organize opposition and the public may request the board disclosing the experts are ex parte communications or site visits they have had regarding the matter and question the board regarding the communications or site visits unless a board member accuses himself they have determined that he or she is able to hear the case and fairly and impartially make a decision on the matter based on the substantial competent evidence in the record the decorum just a reminder the commission expects civility at all times the commission commission's review is limited to determine whether the applicant application is consistent with the polk county comprehensive plan and land development code and determine whether the application is compatible with the surrounding area therefore the evidence and testimony you must give must be relevant to whether the application is consistent with the polk county comprehensive plan and land development code and whether the application is app compatible with the surrounding areas information that is irrelevant or repetitive only serves to frustrate and necessarily prolong the hearing at this time i will turn over to the planned division to present the case good morning amy little with land development this is the de novo hearing for ldcu-2023-7 which is a conditional use request for a bed and breakfast within an agricultural residential rural land use district subject site is located at 1097 drew street west of morningstar drive south of paddy lane north of swindale road east of country oaks lane north of the city of lake lakeland and section seven township 28 range 23 for the purposes of notification 35 mailers were sent on july 20th 2023 one board was posted on august 6th 2023 and a legal ad was published on august 3rd 2023 staff has received a petition with 35 signatures in support and one email in support the planning commission voted in june seven to zero for approval and staff is recommending approval items on this slide have been entered into the record here's a site located north of the city of lakeland north of i4 just east of the hillsborough county line here are two aerials on the site one on the left was taken may 25th of this year and on the right is a google earth image from 2022 you can see the structure at the front of the property the applicant indicates they placed the grain silo on the property in conjunction with their farm that they have the property does have agricultural exception according to property appraisers website at some point in time they began the conversion of the silo into a rental unit short-term rental is not a use allowed in table 2.1 of the land development code within an agricultural residential rural land use district so a code enforcement violation was generated for building without a permit and hosting short-term rentals the applicants then indicated they wish to use the converted silo as a bed and breakfast bed and breakfast required conditional use approval by the planning commission which they voted seven to zero in june to approve subsequently the appellants filed the de novo hearing to appeal the site is within agricultural residential rural land use district with similar uses around it including pasture land and large lots with residential uses here's the provided site plan you can see the structure to the right of the screen and it meets all the required setbacks including maintaining 60 feet from the ingress egress easement and 25 feet from the western property line the structure is approximately 87 feet from the single family residence to the west staff is recommending a six-foot opaque fence along the western boundary where the bed and breakfast silo is proposed to buffer it from that neighboring property and here's a closer look from an aerial taken may 25th of this year you can see the silo location here and here's from the ground this is where their drive begins staff finds the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan in the land development code the provided site plan meets all the standards of section 303 for bed and breakfast facilities including the property owners reside on site this distinguishes the request from a short-term rental which the owners are often not on site should any issues arise the owners are immediately available the land development code states bed and breakfast facilities are generally historical or unique in nature the structure itself is makes the property unique and the applicant has indicated they will provide animal feed for cattle and chickens that are on site to give visitors a farm experience there's no locational criteria in section 303 of the land development code for bed and breakfasts and the structure meets all setbacks for primary structures on the site if approved the applicant will be required to pull all relevant building permits for the structure and meet all building and fire codes staff is recommending with approval and with that i thank you and i will stand for questions any questions of staff with the yes sir can you go through the code enforcement again it was it was purposed originally as a short-term rental was cited and then became a bed and breakfast so from their impact assessment statement that they provided they initially bought it as an office to use for their agricultural use and then it converted to the bed and breakfast the original code case was from december 2022 and the most recent action on it was that the special magistrate continued that to september of this year to allow this process to play out and then it it didn't they didn't get a building permit or anything no no sir and that's one of the conditions of approval that they will be required to get all building permits meet all the codes ada compliance all of those things but it was totally unpermitted and then they began to receive income from renting it out correct any other questions yeah the question came up from the neighbors who are appealing uh regarding bed and breakfast and i heard you say that uh the the owners had to reside on site correct the conventional definition or most understood is that somebody rents out you know a portion of their house and they bring scrambled eggs to you in the morning and the section of the code just says it has to be a unit on site it doesn't actually say it has to be in the primary structure for where the owner requirement for attachment then there's no requirement for attachment in that portion of the code correct any any requirement for scrambled eggs no actually they can just do uh pre-packaged foods and fresh fruit it's a bed it isn't a bed and breakfast well if they do the the the department of um business regulation for the state of florida they can actually just do pre-packaged foods and a basket of fruit and that okay allows them to do that if they do something that's actually prepared they have to have a further food um serving license which i don't think that's their intention thank you but you mr chair could you go back and and elaborate a little bit more on the historical and nature area that it's a bed and breakfast is allowed the bed and breakfast uh definition in our code says it's usually it's usually historical in nature it does not have to be um it can be unique and we would we would say that this is unique based upon the structure itself and the experience that they're providing with the farm but it does not have to be historical and that's all the the information it gives you about unique and correct there's no real parameters and historical in nature correct any other questions of staff does the original applicant wish to make any comments just come forward to give your name and address for the record my name is richard kitty address is 1097 drew street lakeland florida um like she like the lady just mentioned it was originally built as an ag office which under an ag exemption is no permit needed um at that time we decided to convert it over to a short-term rental bed and breakfast um my wife myself live on site we run it there's no outside help we uh we live on site therefore if there's any issues everything's solved immediately there is no uh no withstanding issues you mentioned about the building ferment everything's over at the office it's all pending year approval um the visitors uh love the rule setting animals in the silo concept we received over 30 uh neighbors within a reasonable distance their signatures and support we have uh over 55 positive reviews online they uh the land development uh suggested a fence so within two weeks of that suggestion a 160 foot privacy fence was put up we have eucalyptus trees planted next to it that have been there for a year eucalyptus trees grow seven to ten seven to nine foot a year so within two more years it'll be a very good solid privacy hedge we've been featured in the uh the lakelander magazine for our uniqueness i'll stand for any other questions that you might have any questions now or later mr chair yes ma'am just how you said you start you built it as an ag office and then it went from an ag office to short rental how long did you do the short rental before you applied for this what what was the time span um three or four months there was uh okay we we weren't necessarily aware of the county violations you look on airbnb or any other vbro websites or anything like that there's short-term rentals scattered all throughout the county that have not gone through this process and a lot of them don't even meet these criterias thank you thank you just may be lucky you want to say something sure pull the mic pull the mic down to you i'm laura kitty um 1097 drew street lakeland florida 33810 um we had a family stay um probably been about a month now and this is just going more in depth and the experiences and why we're doing what we're doing um this one has just really stuck out to me but recently we had a family originally from france stay with us that had never had a country living experience so they booked with us the couple had a nine-year-old little boy who had never had interaction with a cow something we take for granted at the time of their stay we had a baby calf we were bottle feeding so we offered them to feed this experience touched the family for their son and over the moon excited this is why we do what we do a country living experience without breaking the bank we have over 50 reviews now sharing sharing experiences and a five-star rating we've been running for a year in september and nothing has happened like we said if it does we will handle it we also have children on site um we've had the most wonderful people stay with us um i could go on and on about experiences but like i said this one just stuck out to me um it's just been very heartwarming overall experiences for all and even us and i just want to thank you for your time thank you this week at time we invite the de novo petitioner to come forward for any comments good morning ladies and gentlemen i am here on behalf of james and angie gap at gaffney they are the actual the owners adjacent on drew street the nine acre parcel right next door to the uh property in question here did you introduce yourself oh i'm sorry my name is dan pilka and i'm with law firm of pilka adams and reed and lakeland now i do have some handouts for you all to consider evidence i have for the board uh for mr mink and for mr mink easy i believe i have enough for everybody and these are some additional photographs and the impact the property has on my clients and their uh farm area as well as you all know this is rural arr property it is designed for agricultural use and is designed designed for very low density residential development now in the photographs as you can see the uh owner's property their homes are located way back on their lot but the silo the housing is located in the very front of their house and we're talking about serving the property they're about 300 feet away from the silo and in contrast my clients are about 70 feet from the property now originally this was designed and was said it was going to be for uh and you have it in there in my package you have their advertisements on facebook for airbnb short-term rentals you also have in there the article that was in the lakelander magazine it was suggested that this building was originally claimed to be an exempt building because it was going to be an ag office which would be exempt under county guidelines and standards but if you read the article this was designed to be rental property short-term rental property from the outset of its creation the package was bought and it was built it was built out to be short-term rental and that's all it has ever been used for now originally it was short-term rental and it could and in this case pursuant to car county guidelines it could not be located its current location because according to local ordinances guest house which is what this is is a guest house must be located behind the main structure and this clearly is not as located 300 feet in front of the main the kiddies main structure their house now they're suggesting that it's actually they're asking for an exemption or variance to become a bed and breakfast now i forgot who it may have been mr combi or mr lindsey who asked what is the guidelines for an airbnb and nobody cited florida statue section 509.242 subsection f what defines what a bread and bed and breakfast can be and that says a bed and breakfast inn is a family home structure with no more than 15 sleeping rooms which has been modified to serve as transient public lodging establishment which provides accommodation and meal services what tab is that i'm trying to find it actually i do apologize i did not include the statute i couldn't find it but yeah that wasn't i apologize uh mr combi but it is again florida statute section 509.242 subsection f that defines what a bed and breakfast service of food is part of a bed and breakfast it is like a hotel and that this does not provide any of that yes chairman i hate to interrupt you all right can we get uh maybe somebody to copy that and give us you know what the law is on it here's a copy of the statute i probably they'll get it wrong okay thank you very much i appreciate it go ahead we'll have staff bring that back here shortly okay so we have that issue and then let's look at the structure itself and we do have photographs and i would refer you to uh photograph number uh two tab two that is the entrance between both my client's property and you can see my client's house to the right and the silo to the left the extreme close proximity between the two buildings and they go to tab three that's the aerial similar to what you have tab four if you look at that that's a photograph from inside my client's house that gives a very clear view of the silo and by the way when people are staying at the silo it's not one car and we have a photograph in here i believe which shows yes tab five there are five cars parked out by the silo when this is used it is high traffic a lot of people stay there can sleep up to five that's what it's supposed to be limited to i don't know what actually i may stay there and again this is 70 feet of my client's home that's tab five and that's from the front porch of my client's property so keep in mind this is agricultural property people who live there my clients have nine and a half acres they're out there for a reason they want peacefulness they want tranquility and that's what the standards provide for and then they have this structure right there with people staying there at whether they call it an airbnb which it really isn't or airbnb is what it is not bed and breakfast and we know we've heard and you're all familiar with the problems that go with airbnb the parties that occur the damage that occurs the crimes that occur now i have a lot of articles i could present you but that's pretty common knowledge and given the amount of airbnbs that are occurring over in the ridge now you guys i'm sure are all very very familiar with that but that's photo six photo seven when they sat there and they said this was going to be a bed and breakfast these are their facebook the kiddies facebook posts showing what it is this was not an office this has always been designed to be short-term rental for people to stay and you have the lakelander article i guess when you want to look at real history and a description now you're hearing a different version of how the building was constructed and what it was used for that was presented to the public when the lakelander article was published talking about it was being built out miss kitty was buying items for it as the the silos being constructed to build it out as a short-term rental facility now i also want to talk about this six-foot fence which the plan the proposal from the planning committee was we approve a six-foot fence if you look at tab number eight that is a six-foot fence now we'll start with the proposition it doesn't match any other fence in the community in that area but that's from my client's house that shows you exactly where you know you have the window over the six-foot fence no privacy is afforded or created by the placement of that six-foot fence on the property ladies and gentlemen so when you know any type of approval is given a six-foot fence is not adequate it must be at least 10 foot to provide protection because it has to be so from the windows they can't look over into my client's property and this by the way photograph tab number nine is a photograph of the type of fencing that's typically it is being used on those properties and uh just for better history of what went on i did include the case field report case number cec 2022 3812. ladies and gentlemen just to be short and i know my time is just about up well actually whatever but i'm just gonna be short about this what the kiddies are doing is saying we violate the law we know we did this building should have been permitted it can't be there as a short-term rental because it's not located properly and it really can't be there as a bed and breakfast because they do have to provide food services to the guest and they flaunted the law and they put this instead of putting it close to their house where it might create a nuisance for them they put it immediately adjacent to my client's property where it does create a nuisance to my clients we are requesting on behalf of the gaffneys you ladies and gentlemen we are requesting that if you are going to approve this plan that you require the kiddies to move the silo from its current location since it is built edifice can be removed to a position closer to their house and away from my client's property line as you can see in the photograph there is plenty of land between the kiddies house and where the silo is right now where that property can be relocated so that they can provide the food service for this bed and breakfast easily and they can provide the services that you are supposed to provide for a bed and breakfast more easily than over 300 feet away as it currently exists and if that is not something that require greater protections for my client's privacy a six-foot fence as noted in photograph number eight doesn't work at least a 10-foot fence and other sound barriers and buffers need to be included if they're going to be allowed to keep the silo at its current location this should never been approved should never be permitted if you want to build something you go and pull the permits and you go through the proper channels and it gets addressed accordingly coming after the fact you know it's sometimes you say you know it's it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission this is perfect proof of that ladies and gentlemen so we would ask that it be denied and that if the kiddies wanted to relocate it pull the permits to rebuild it and put it closer to their property where they can operate it properly as a bed and breakfast facility any questions any questions to mr pilkham thank you sir thank you all very much mr mr chair if i may since we brought up the the statute just as the board's probably familiar with the definition that will govern this case will be the definition of the land development code the statute of course deals with regulations of the state and so forth so as you look review this make sure we we stay with the definition of the land development code as far as what is a bed and breakfast well mr chairman i and i appreciate you pointing that out randy but then should we stick with the land development code that says a guest house has to be behind the the main residence i was going to ask staff to address that as if it's difference what's the difference between this guest house and a bed and breakfast and why both those are bumps in the road i think for the board my plan was to have staff to address that so a guest home is considered an accessory use on a property such as this that has a primary structure primary single family residence and accessory uses do have to be behind the front of the home unless it's for parking this however is considered a second primary use so they meet everything in section 303 they have to come through the conditional use to get this based off of table 2.1 so we would not consider this an accessory use or a guest home it would be fully functioning as a bed and breakfast and the development of business and public regulation or professional regulation notes that pre-packaged foods can be used in a bed and breakfast so pre-packaged cereals bulk milk bulk juice those things can be done and still be considered a bed and breakfast if they go further and they want to do scrambled eggs or you know something that's prepared on site they actually have to have an additional license for food services so they fall under bed and breakfast based off of those pre-packaged foods that they are going to provide any of the questions or comments on the board well yeah just going back to the accessory uh the guest houses i mean these people are guests uh paying nevertheless but guests uh so it's not an it's not an accessory structure but if you look at that under a it says a guest house shall be located in the rear yard of the principal dwelling unit and if this were a guest house they would be able to put that on there without even coming through this process but this is this is a gift primary use this is a guest what this is a bed and breakfast it meets the standards under bed and breakfast in chapter 10 so it doesn't have to meet the accessory behind the front of the structure there's no locational criteria in section 303 for a bed and breakfast thank you but i would just mention commissioner company that's something you can take into i think as far as determine compatibility whether or not the placement of it is compatible with the surrounding areas and it may be something we need to address to clarify in the land development code going forward thank you thank you when i when i read the staff report i was under the impression that this silo was a historical element on the property and i thought that was a appropriate unique out of the ordinary conversion and i was surprised that there was a de novo filed against it i learned later that there's nothing historical about it the structure was acquired in kansas i think this mantle moved here and erected for this purpose without the benefit of permits um it seems to me with you know statute definition versus local definition we seem to land on the one that is most comfortable to our prejudice but i would i would rely on my experience as to what a bed and breakfast is which is pretty much in concert with the statutory definition um and the um the location the failure to get the necessary permits the total disregard for the neighbors uh in position in this um i'm inclined to um mr chair we still have not opened here and i'm not okay i'm sorry we've heard from the two parties is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak on this matter we open the public hearing other than the two parties y'all speaking mr shira you want to speak on this matter sworn at or in raise your right hand and mr mink will give you swear or affirm that the evidence or testimony you give today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth absolutely thank you payment address sir my name is ricky shara i live at 4310 rolling oaks drive lakeland florida 33810 i have known the kiddies for many years ever since they were in diapers they're good people they wouldn't do anything that they wasn't supposed to do uh what they won't tell you is my son works for fwc as a nuisance alligator trapper he's also on the committee for adaptive hunters and when from all over the united states they come to florida uh where do they stay they stay there for free those people are they have a heart as big as texas and i guarantee as far as character goes when there's five cars they're talking about that's probably when they go in there to pick them up because they take them there to spend a night and uh i just i think it's a good thing and i just wanted to say as far as their character goes it's 100 thank you sir so much anyone else wish to speak on this matter we're now closing the public hearing and we'll continue the board discussion and if this were a matter of you all want to speak i thought that you said you were because you're getting their spokesman was mr pilka okay okay and we do gotta give the um applicant a chance to respond to the appellant before we close the public hearing as we all know the articles can be written however the article writer wants to proceed it so a lot of that was miswritten on his part um the florida statute states generally breakfast is offered it's not required so it's generally um the five cars like mr shire said it's either that or it could just be from our family too we meet and gather there too um didn't know there was a land development code on how many cars i could have on my 12 acres um we have a noise monitor on site so there's no uh no noise complaints we met like uh miss little stated we meet all their requirements all the land use requirements um setbacks out of the out of the wetlands everything like that um it might not be historical but it is unique um we didn't mean to step on anybody's toes bypassing the building apartment i deal with the building apartment every day um the fence they met they mentioned the six foot privacy fence it doesn't match anything in the neighborhood on the other side of their house they have a county uh water treatment plant that has a six foot wood fence around it they mentioned uh a 10 foot they were requesting a 10 foot fence there's no 10 foot fences anywhere in this area so that would be way out of character uh that's basically everything that i have for right now thank you okay now the public hearing is closed and it's back to the board for discussion mr chairman yes sir uh in the package that was uh was handed out by mr pilka there's some information relative to the codes case in a the case comments from thomas graziano who is a code enforcement officer and uh there was a time i talked to mr kitty he called about uh ag structure talked about florida statute 604.5 which i absolutely uh love i think it's great for ag folks but there wasn't any discussion about any kind of short-term rental or bed and breakfast what richard told me is he wanted to build an office a farm office but also do some of his engineering stuff from that office it doesn't say you can't do engineering stuff along with farm stuff so i didn't think it was a problem never never did i know that uh what we were actually talking about was uh bringing in a silo and and turn it into a short-term rental or a motel room or what whatever you want to call it bed and breakfast or airbnb and you know i know the kiddies are great people but if i was uh the folks sitting there i would be jumping nine ax handles high every time i come in and i'm looking over there through the window people that come from somewhere parts unknown whereabouts unknown weight unknown anything about them looking out my bedroom window or looking for my pool uh i would uh i would not be happy about it and i don't think any member of this board uh probably would be happy about it either i uh i'm not really opposed to even permitting the silo on the property but again take it down by your house take it down put it behind your house take it and put it on the other side wherever but don't put it uh right at the the front yard of these folks who who deserve better than this and again i think the kitty are wonderful people but somebody made a a bad uh a bad judgment uh decision here i think to locate this here if it's located at all and i would i would move that we deny the well actually that we uphold the appeal i guess because we have some more discussion we'll have a craft a motion based on that all right mr wilson you know i'm gonna have to mr comey said exactly what i was gonna say you know i'm fortunate enough to live out in the country and uh i've got some great neighbors and and uh one of my neighbors had a son that built a house i mean they got 200 acres and they built a house close to my house which is great don't get me wrong uh they're not it's not close to me but just by doing that you know you think about it but uh saying that you know putting that right there uh at the entrance to their house and which their house is sitting there and the entrance to the people that have the airbnb's house but their house is another 300 feet 400 feet down the way you know my question is why didn't you put it there why didn't you put it by your house even if i had an office i want it unless you're wanting pub public people i mean trying to draw the public off the road or have a meeting out there where you don't want them around your house i get it you didn't want i mean most people wouldn't want this by their house and i got a feeling that's probably why it was put up on the corner of the of the land and uh okay but now you got a neighbor that's just wanting to live in the country and and do his thing and yeah i know a lot of them gator hunters ricky and a lot of them are they'll they'll when they get done hunting they have a good time and uh but yeah that's not the i'm not this is not the right thing right here so i am totally against it surprise well yeah as a founding member of the florida agritourism association as a person who worked crafting the original agritourism law uh with the assistance of uh commissioner cumby back in the day to fine tune some of that this was not the intent of the uh agritourism bill uh this is just an end around uh a way to take advantage of it and i certainly will not support it miss antieago thank you mr chair um in looking at this i agree with the the fact where it's located it's 12 acres of property and where they put it is just not to me it's just not acceptable but i also questioned the intent of this it started out supposedly as an office then it went into a short rental and now a bnb and looking at the article or looking at the uh tab seven where it says the lake lander i'm trying to find a date on that but it it's pretty obvious when you look at the inside picture so just a picture itself advertising this but when you look at the inside pictures that the intent of this uh was to move forward with some kind of a short rental and didn't follow the the protocol for that and now uh want to convert it to a bnb and i'm i'm opposed to this i think that uh pretty well wraps up the sentiment of the board and unanimous the support of the um de novo request so i'm turning to um mr mink to give us the proper motion to basically as i see it just dismantle that structure move it in compliance with the uh guest house location criteria and um permit it accordingly with plumbing electrical foundation all the things that everybody else has to conform to so what's the i believe the motion will be denied the application and then if they want to look to move it to a certain area of the property as a bed and breakfast they would submit a new application well i want this i want this action to be affirmative to direct that that structure as it sits there today be removed well once that happens they will have to remove it because they're not in compliance and if not they will have a code enforcement case that has been an abatement so then the code enforcement case will kick in and if they don't move it that's when it will be removed does this then lead itself lend itself i know these people are nice people if ricky says so i believe it and this is not a motion about the character of the applicant or how good neighbors they are or not it's it's a matter of the procedure could in in its current location then be converted to grains silo storage or or an office for the residents um business enterprise being used part of the ag operations and so forth then the statute would take it out of our authority and we would it would um we wouldn't be able to take any action for it so i don't think we can make them take it down that they would have that option to use it for grain and and if it's being used for i don't know what grain you'd put in there but i understand what the chairman's getting at uh and if it was going to be used for ag purposes going to be used for an office uh ranch farm uh and when i talked to mr kitty we talked about uh the work he does working out of there as well that that was not a concern or issue for me the problem under 604.5 is it has to be non-residential so you know you're inviting people in there to come stay without the benefit of having uh inspections by proper uh inspectors who are familiar with the trades in so that that was a problem but the real problem for me is the location of to the neighbors like say if i live there i wouldn't i would not be happy at all especially knowing uh that there was plenty of other room that uh it could be put on if that's what you want to do so i i'm with you i don't i don't know what the you know if you say you can't use it for residential purposes but they i think they probably could use it for uh some other thing is is there still no whatever rights are allowed under 604 is there still no site location requirements to build a a home office although it's ag related anywhere on that property if it falls under 604.50 our codes then don't apply based on it we're pretty that's far as is use but all the other codes location yeah if it's exempt from all permitting county state city right it's everything electrical plumbing uh yes but to energize a building the policy here at least for the last 25 years since 604.5 was passed is that the power companies required uh an electrical inspector but to uh certify a green tag before they would energize a building now that's not what happened here they ran power from their house uh down to the silo as i understand it so there never was a need for power they just took off from their house and and run power down there so that's not really applicable here but but yes they're exempt from electrical but the power companies wouldn't give you power without having a county or city inspector saying it's good to go well our our limits of authority are the request to use and if they choose to in spite or whatever to make use of it in a conforming use that's beyond our it won't be i'll move to deny ldcu 2023-7 second motion to second any further discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye aye those like sign motion carries thank you mr chair we'll now move to p4 that'll be presented by mr ian nance all right good morning ian nance land development staff recommends approval of ld spd 2023-1 request for 147 single family lots with reduced lot sizes and setbacks subject site is located west of kathleen road east of the hillsborough county line and northwest lakeland in section 20 township 27 range 23. on august 4th for five boards posted on site 98 mailers were sent to area property owners on july 20th and a legal ad was published in the ledger on august 3rd staff has received 54 emails and one phone call in opposition and one email in support of this application on june 7th the planning commission voted five to two to approve this project and that decision was appealed on june 8th this the listed items here have been submitted into the record including a complete application and the drc's recommendation the site is located a residential suburban land use district the base density here is one unit per five acres through a maximum though a maximum density of three units per acre acre can be approved the suburban plan development process and this property was changed to residential suburban in april of 2022 just to pursue this process it is approximately 118 acres with 97 acres of uplands it is located a drainage basin in association with blackwater creek and there's a floodway on the the eastern corner of the site which cannot be developed the site was once approved for 256 mobile home lots in the late 1980s but this approval has since expired and last year an application for 242 lots was denied by the planning commission and board this is back before the board today because the applicant has demonstrated significant material changes to the site plan the lot count was reduced by 95 units with the corresponding reduction in density by almost one dwelling unit per acre the lot sizes were increased and the proposed side yard setbacks were increased from five feet to seven and a half feet site plan also calls out 25 foot wide landscaping buffers along the western and southern property lines up from the recommended 10 feet from the previous application there's now look at the old site plan with lots shown to the west of the floodway and this is the new site plan 147 units with a mixture of 50 and 60 foot wide lots one major change here is the increased open space on the northern side of the property which is just about 20 acres and is intended to buffer the the proposed lots from larger parcels off robbins road the applicant has worked with staff throughout the year in an effort to incorporate new subdivision design policies that have been desired by the board open space will consist of contoured and landscape stormwater ponds upland pastures recreation areas and a 25 foot wide compatibility buffers located along to western and southern property lines i just mentioned with those buffers and the standard rear yard setback of 15 feet there will be a minimum of 40 feet of relief from the proposed homes and the western property lines all wetlands will have undisturbed 25 foot wide buffers the site plan also features internal sidewalks on both sides of the road two trees per lot and 25 foot garage setbacks from the rights of way internal roads ingress and egress will be from solely from decent road this is a look at existing development surrounding the property though this is in a residential suburban land use district urban level services with the exceptions of reclaimed water and mass transit routes are available to the site kathleen elementary and middle schools are close to the northeast and a new fire station recently opened up the road the intersection of decent and kathleen will be improved in coming months and the county is extending wastewater services to the west down decent road to the briarwood mobile home park all this leads to demand for increased densities and smaller lot sizes most of the parcels surrounding the site were developed prior to the adoption of the comprehensive plan and land development code and are not conforming to today's standards especially in terms of minimum lot sizes and stormwater management jason parcels range from 0.12 acres up to nearly 10 acres and are developed with a mixture of mobile homes and site built homes here's another overlay of the site plan on the property which shows the lots clustered to the southwest corner of the site shown here are some highlighted compatibility measures the 28 20 acre pasture to the north and the landscaping buffers to the east and south which exceed standard ldc requirements the wider 60 foot wide lots are located on the perimeter of the site where lot width ratios between proposed and existing lots are approximately two to one which staff considers compatible no access is planned off robins north it's a brief impact assessment and in short utilities and schools have capacity as do the local roadways even still if approved for the requested entitlements these items will still need to be reviewed by staff during a level two phase sidewalks will be required along the front edge of the site and roadway improvements right-of-way dedication and a major traffic study will be necessary this is an aerial of the uh of the property from last spring and again staff recommends approval the comprehensive plan specifically mandates cluster designs for spds to protect natural features as this site plan accomplishes and directs development to be located where public services are available such as in this location comp plan and ldc require compatibility between uses which the applicant has addressed through the use of enhanced buffering comparable lot widths and the use of open space the site plan meets or exceeds all standards for open space recreation internal infrastructure staff finds this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and land development code and made compatible with the surrounding area through the details previously described with that i thank you you will stand for questions would you clarify for the record this was previously turned down with prejudice which required a one-year hiatus before the next application what what was the determination from staff land development code section 933 and it's listed in your findings of fact on page three of my staff report allows a uh a new application when there's been proven material changes to the application and staff has deemed that you know what's listed here in the blue box constitutes material changes thank you did the staff uh recommend approval when it was 242 units yes sir mr chairman what is the uh square footage of the larger lots uh let's see point one six acres they're 60 by 115 square footage i do my math here on that that says minimum square footage 5750. that's i'm sorry did you ask for the largest slots or the smallest the the perimeter lots the larger yes those would be the 60 foot wide those are 60 by 115. what's the square footage i do not 6900 square feet i say it again i'm sorry sorry 6900 square 6900 and then you got the uh interior lots are 5750. 5750. i'm just trying to do what the real density is of it is up there uh go ahead somebody else and well let me ask one other question while i'll do the math on this but the uh you mentioned mass transit how close is mass transit to this property now last bus stop that i found was down to the south by the salvation army on kathleen and that was i just don't know if i know when we were looking at first street in kathleen and trying to add sidewalk it there really was no practical mass transit there and folks were the last one i had charged was for the blue line route for citrus connection about three miles southeast of the site at kathleen road and galloway road jim galloway road well that's a six mile round trip just to walk down and catch a bus so i wouldn't necessarily consider that available i wouldn't now maybe somebody this younger might consider huh i'm barefoot in sand spurs and snow okay uh i'll just undo this math that's all i wanted to get that yes ma'am make sure in reference to the open space um that you have can you show kind of a you point that so that's the area okay yes ma'am this is part of it this is what's different from the last application they had homes up here now they're going to be able to count open space also as in these contoured and landscape stormwater ponds and they're 25 foot wide buffers which typically you can't with landscaping but they've gone above and beyond the requirements and then whatever's wetland does not count towards open space so you're going to have another i think it's about 20 acres of wetlands that how much of that open space is accessible to the to the residents i believe the plan is for most of it to be i i think this is the 20 acre pasture up here i'm not sure what their plans are if there's going to be connectivity for trails but i know that they've intended to have an amenity center about right here and then have a couple other parts all connected by sidewalk maybe we'll hear some more about that later on okay any other comments from staff who'll hear from the applicant and for the record real fast too um if you don't mind uh what i said that urban level services are available to site i said without mass transit and reclaimed water okay yes sir as a without part i missed yes sir and i really was interested because of the first street and trying to figure out is there any way to get bus service up there to those people that rather than spending lots and lots of money on sidewalk but it's not the answer to your question is 6.3 i got 6.3 and 7.5 on the smaller ones that's assuming that there's no allocation for a road or a sidewalk or park and everything so it's actually probably more like six or seven no it's probably more like one yes sir good morning commission for the record before my time starts i'd like just a second i would like a housekeeping measure just to i got a handful of experts that if i could just go ahead and do them all at one time it might be easier than getting them up and down but for the purposes of the record my name is bart allen i'm a land use attorney with the peterson meyers law firm my address is 225 east lemon street lakeland florida i'm happy to be here this morning on behalf of the applicants swan capital partners uh for purposes of testimony and experts this morning i have mr eric swanson uh mr swanson is a uf graduate has done graduate studies in urban planning and has a decade of work in urban planning site planning and working for different kinds of development projects in both the public and private sectors i'd like to introduce him and have him admitted as an expert in land use and planning also from the otero engineering firm i have mr charlie otero and mr nick beliga i think i'm pronouncing that name right i apologize if i'm not mr otero is a 50-year professional engineer with a tremendous amount of experience in civil civil site planning civil site design stormwater stormwater modeling and drainage and then mr beliga is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of florida worked on this project um hoping to put together our stormwater management and drainage design that has been put into this project and i would like to have them admitted as experts in civil design permit drainage design and i have copies of their resumes i have a couple extra copies if anybody move approval of request second any discussion on the motion to recognize these individuals as cited all those in favor of the motion say aye opposed like sign motion carried thank you i will jump into this presentation um again for the record bart allen here on behalf of swan capital i also have with me this morning mr ryan menendez on behalf of swan capital one of the principals and eric swanson who you will hear from this morning is a member of this group this is simply put mr nance done a wonderful job giving you the overview of the case as it relates to what the request is we are asking for 147 single-family dwelling units on 97.3 acres of uplands this is only the uplands the entire site is about 118 acres which is a 1.51 dwelling unit per acre when you evaluate it under the comprehensive plan and land development code requirements that we have in place one one a little bit to commissioner santiago's question i'm going to have mr swanson talk about it more but there are in the site there will be 68 acres of uplands that will be preserved and reserved as open space and that's part of the binding site plan that will be available for the residents in the community but i'll let mr swanson talk a little bit more about that given we only have 30 minutes i cannot go into all of the details of everything that has gone into this site this is the second time around this was previously denied and we've talked about the material changes that have been made but this project there's been more work that's gone into this project than most that are at this stage of the game but i want to talk a little bit about the history of this area because the history is important when you see the development and the development patterns occurring what you see on the left of the screen is the 1952 aerial in the upper right corner you see kathleen village center that's where that's where the train stopped that's where all of the activity was at that time you can see there was not a tremendous amount of development in surrounding the site but right in that area there was a little bit as you move forward in the 1971 you start seeing more homes more development starting to pop up scattered on all three sides of the site as you as you kind of move through that 20-year period moving further into 1984 one of the first true single-family subdivisions in this area kathleen heights was developed to the southeast off of decent you also have a mobile home park here on the south side of decent that was developed during the during the mid 80s that's also when this site was approved for the pd that would have allowed 257 manufactured or 256 manufactured homes that was done by circle r developers incorporated and they had acquired the property from the prior property owner miss maddox and mr and miss maddox at the time that project obviously had never moved forward and then expired but the reason behind that is is that circle r went into bankruptcy and they when they went into bankruptcy they turned the property back over to then miss miss maddox mr maddox had passed away at that time so she was the widow and it was in 1993 that miss maddox sold the property um to mr flanders who is um and we i'm happy to say have uh judge flanders mr flanders is um wife widow here with us this this morning um on behalf of and still the property owner today so it's been in that ownership since since the early 90s that's why this property is never developed as you move forward into 1999 you start seeing more and more projects country view to the northwest the first phase of that project started developing that's a multi-phase uh project that started developing at two units an acre and then to the west of the site you started seeing more development pop up but you can see it scattered all throughout around the site homes and and residences popping up 2010 a little better image here now you're really starting to see the development occur moving west off of off of kathleen uh along decent to the west into the site you can see there's there we are immediately adjacent and abutting the development as it is at as as it has moved to the site and skipped over the site and moved to the west into the north and then in 2019 again substantial development here's a here's a slide the current slide kind of what it looks like today a couple things that are really important to point out this site is a half mile to kathleen road it's a four lane collector urban collector road that's that was improved by this county several years ago approximately two miles to the to the east hunt regional hunt fountain regional park is in the area you got three minute response time for all of your fire and emergency services approximately 11 minutes for a sheriff eight minutes to the i-4 corridor where you'll find a brand new lakeland regional facility under construction today right at i-4 and kathleen you are within four miles to two public shopping centers one to the north that was recently approved at kathleen and duff as well as the one just to the south and if you really want to go across us 98 you can get out there pretty easily too it's about six miles away there's a public's there so you are in an area where there is a tremendous amount of services available along with the infrastructure that mr nance talked about another couple things that are worth pointing out recent developments along just to the east of kathleen road is the infamous ross creek project i know y'all are familiar with that one that one is moving forward and under construction for approximately 100 homes there and right off of decent in 2020 and 2021 the corner of decent there was a small-scale land use change through this board to change that corner to a commercial enclave to allow some additional commercial services right at the corner of decent and kathleen as well as the knights landing subdivision that is developing to the south of decent with that with that approval there will be a total of 129 lots with the smallest slots being 6750 square feet so very similar to what is being proposed in the project that's before you this morning so this area when you look at the map is right for development this property is immediately adjacent to development on multiple sides and we believe the request is appropriate a little bit more just kind of mr nance touched on this as well but in 2022 this board unanimously approved the conference of plan amendments to our residential suburban and to change the development area from rda to sda that was done intentionally with these projects in mind and that those are the rules and the regulations that we are operating under now as mr nance also pointed out and i'll just reiterate the residential suburban land use classification encourages and requires clustering to avoid impacts to make sure that we are developing property that is and it is done in a thoughtful way and when you look at the site and you're going to hear from our drainage experts we recognize that there are some drainage issues on the site today as they exist today without an ounce of development on it there's a there's some drainage issues on this on the site today but we have clustered the site to make sure that we have as little impact on those and not only as little impact but the ability to make some incremental improvements as well and i'll let the otero engineering talk about that so with that these are just a couple of the slides related to the development ratio tests that we have to meet as part of the residential suburban to even get an application moving forward and we meet all of the criteria for the chapter three of the lane development code related to suburban development and suburban spds in the last six months since the denial there's been a host of work done by swan capital there's been several meetings with county commissioners there's been meetings with the resident opposition including some of the leadership like miss crawford there's been a host of site plans contemplated with a variety of lot sizes from 55s to 85s development all the way to the north development all the way without on the north which is what's proposed today more clustered higher unit counts and swan capital has have taken all of those meetings all of those conversations into into account and come before you with what we have today which is 147 units that's a substantial and material change from what was before you previously and i think that's reflected by the 5-2 planning commission approval on june 7th of this year so with that i'm going to step aside and let ask mr swanson to speak to the site plan and give you a few details on how the site plan good morning eric swanson with swan capital so before you on the screen this is our proposed site plan that was reduced by a little over 100 home sites from our original spd proposal where we reduced it down to 242 as bart mentioned with all the iterations of site plans that we had the one you see in front of you is the most conservative with the fewest home sites and the greatest amount of open space that we came up with and we didn't just shoot the dart in the dark we took a collaborative approach we we requested input from all of you the elected leaders of this county we reached out to the opposition leaders from last year we held a neighborhood meeting that wasn't required and we we've held ongoing communication with staff over the last year and that's how we came up at this site plan from design features and what we changed we updated the main entry to a grand entrance a grand boulevard entrance that's divided the lot types are are larger we have 50s and 60s but we have greater side setbacks and they're deeper lots there's no wetland impacts we've incorporated 25 foot buffering techniques that was recently addressed over the last year through the actions you guys took with updating the land development code we've incorporated those standards the buffer type that we've utilized is the buffer it's the type c landscape buffer which is the most most intensive uh for landscaping to be utilized in buffering which also adds a pvc fencing along the perimeter and most likely uh ornamental walls along decent road there's a total of 54 acres of conservation so you have the area to the north which could hold between 90 and 100 home sites i mean that's what we had depicted uh last year but with the input from everyone we reached out to um we felt this was um the best alternative to take um there will be this will be maintained as open space with access available access from the neighbors and it's really a great compatibility technique for some of the larger home sites to the north um we're conserving um the 27 acres uh to the east that smaller uh square shaped parcel now there's seven a little over seven and a half acres of upland on that parcel in total we're looking at over 28 acres of upland developable upland area that we won't build a home on we're we're leaving it open we're preserve conserving this area's open space um and on decent road there's a couple of um improvements as well um there it doesn't meet the 80 foot uh width requirements so we're going to be improving decent road the community will also have a turn lane into the community and portable water which is not available at the site currently will be extended which offers a public benefit to the neighbors around the property with fire hydrant capability out there um so here's another slide where we show distance separation from the closest occupied home site uh structures along pain and decent uh on pain road it's a distance separation of 125 feet um and in between that you have um the buffering the intensive landscaping the fencing they won't know that these home sites will be there uh and on to the south um it's a distance of about 145 feet uh this is uh an illustration that that um what the entrance could look like um textured um entryway helps and it's been proven to slow traffic coming into the community we're gonna have sidewalks on both sides of the street which equates out to over two miles of sidewalks internal to this project two miles in total i would say the design features that we've incorporated from the compatibility techniques the buffering tools the most conservative buffering tools that are available and set by this board are included here we're preserving 70 percent of open space on the site and all these incorporated design features really equate to a healthy community and a overall a conservation development which is real consistent with the surrounding area and having said that in my professional experience as a planner updating comp plans in a previous life this project is compliant with the goals objectives and policies of the comprehensive plan as well as all the standards of the land development code as well as all the changes you have made over the last year to specifically address compatibility to address the spd process and how we calculate open space and with that i pass it over to the engineer thank you thank you and i'm gonna this was just an exhibit of the uh amenity center so we're gonna ask otero to talk about drainage my name is nicholas beliga i'm a professional engineer at otero engineering uh 13902 northdale mabry tampa florida i'm going to start with the historical drainage patterns of the site the site has three natural discharge points which is the blackwater creek the southwest corner and the adjacent wetland to the west during stormwater events the blackwater creek stages up and sheet flows over to the western properties and downstream of the of the site water is currently conveyed through unmaintained ditches and just overland flow over the property in the proposed development the project will drain to on-site stormwater ponds and it will be held and discharged at a limited rate to the blackwater creek and the adjacent wetland the compensation pond on the north part of the site will be used primarily to expand the capacity of the creek to provide compensation for the for the floodwaters the remaining ponds are sized to over attenuate in the proposed development the channels will be designed and properly designed to convey the water and also be properly maintained through the swift mud permit a regional model will be submitted to multiple agencies to ensure there's no adverse impacts of the surrounding properties in summary the water quality will be handled through wet detention ponds with deep permanent pool volumes this will treat the first one half inch runoff to allow the sediment to settle and nutrients to settle within the deep permanent pool the water quantity and attenuation will be handled by discharging less flow in the proposed development than the pre for the mean annual the 10-year 25-year and 100-year storm events as stated before the flood study is the hillsborough river watershed study the site is located within the blackwater creek sub basin of that it'll be used to show that there's no adverse impacts to the surrounding properties this model was recently updated and published by swift mud um as recently as 2022 mr chairman yes question for the the engineer i guess both y'all are engineers i don't know but you're talking about blackwater creek and my uh question is do you know the distance from the western boundary of the subject property to actual blackwater creek where the drainage ditch will uh tee into the creek the the part from the southern corner to the the well the western boundary the subject property to where the where the drainage ditch that serves that property tees into the creek itself the distance i don't have the information on the top of my head the actual distance do you know what the elevation is at the western boundary and the elevation where the creek will where the ditch will tee into the creek yeah the the elevations vary on site from about 116 to 120 120 120 being the high part of the site 116 being the low so the creek and the adjacent wetlands are around 116 and the higher parts of the site are at 120. i'm not talking about where this ditch will meet blackwater creek so it's going to be a couple of miles to the west to where it tees into the creek the elevation where it meets there and the elevation at the western boundary how much fall exists between the western boundary and where this will actually get into blackwater creek um so the creek is shown in the middle part of the the i guess the left part of the scene where those arrows are going from top point yeah i'm not talking about that creek right there i'm talking about it where it leaves at the western boundary but where where it'll actually get into blackwater creek the blackwater creek itself not some side stream leaves the west how does it eventually get back to the blackwater creek you know the elevation at the western boundary and the elevation in the creek is it is it uh 10 feet of fall or is it 10 inches of fall over that distance whatever that distance so as it goes off property it'll be more fall before it comes back into the creek not just a couple inches okay thank you thank you i'm charlie otero principal with otero engineering 13902 north del mayry suite 230 tampa 33618 i just want to emphasize that we are very well aware of the concerns with the storm water and everybody's uh issues and i just want to say on the record that in the 50 years that i've been practicing engineering we've never expended this amount of time and resources and storm water analysis at this level of a project this is usually reserved for the final design so again i just want to emphasize we are well aware of everybody's concern and we have gone the extra mile to to address it at this stage um they'll obviously be here available for any additional questions i've asked mr belega to see if he can look on his map to see if he can find a better specific answer for your question uh commissioner cumby but i think due to how far that is away from the property we've been focused on the property i'll have to go find that data for you um one point before we leave drainage and this was you know you can see it there in red at the bottom uh commissioner beltrane at the hearing basically said that you know recognize that the efforts that this developer and these engineers have gone to is is far and above and beyond what is required of them um and that he believed that this app that this request would function and and be in and be a a good thing for the area so he was extremely complimentary of the applicant in their efforts looking at a few switching gears and kind of looking at a drainage is really a level two issue right you know we're asking for the bigger level entitlement but because of the concern we've spent a lot of time on it a couple other level two type issues environmental there's already been four environmental walkers of this site they will continue to occur as assuming up favorable votes and moving through the process but we're well aware of the existing wildlife and will maintain those issues roads decent road is operating at a level c there is plenty of capacity to um to accommodate this project um mr nance mentioned it as well but the the light that is going to be installed in the next couple months at decent and kathleen another public investment and infrastructure in this area um so again where it makes sense to put more development there was a traffic study that was completed by ms libby rodriguez and mr uh swancing indicated what those conclusions were but we will have a right turn lane into the site so they'll have its own dedicated turn into the site we will be bringing decent road up to standard and widening the the right of way as well as in increasing the pavement with the urban collector standards adding sidewalks along decent as well as internal to the site with the project and this study was done before the unit count was reduced to 147. this was done at a unit count of 275 which was the max if you had maxed it out all of the transportation facilities within the network operate at acceptable levels with the project traffic so no failing issues as it relates to traffic again mr swanson talked about a couple of these the road widening and the sidewalks the potable water extension the county just approved adding the sewer extension into their cip using arp funds recently to bring on the briarwood mobile home park to the west which is a environmental concern so again utilizing the investment and maximizing the use of the infrastructure that's being invested by the public there is school capacity for the site this is out of your staff report talk about compatibility a little bit this is a this is a little bit of a different slide this is a larger zoom out so i'm going to start at a bigger level and kind of zoom in as we call it mac kind of the macro level here these are what you see on the screen in the green are all the erp permits that have been issued by the southwest florida water management district and you can see this site this is the subject site here it has a permit now because the wetlands have been formally delineated so that is a recognition that the water management district has accepted the jurisdictional determination but you can see just to the just to the west and to the east all the end of the north the amount of development that is occurring and has occurred and is planned to occur this is country view you can see the first phase occurred without a erp permit but then as the later phases came in there was erp permits in place as you move north you got the fox branch ranch project that was previously metro may still be metro i haven't tracked it that closely these have rl1 rl4 designations on it and then you can just see the amount of homes and residential development in the immediate area a different and and you heard from staff's report lot sizes from 0.1 acres to half acre to 10 acre lots this is a different aerial again laying overlaying the site plan as it relates to the project recognizing the preserved area and just how it will fit in with the character of the overall development pattern of this section of kathleen looking zooming in a little bit closer to some examples right along decent road decent works its way to the west and goes across the county line you've got florida light and life developed between two and six dwelling units an acre depending on the parcels that you look at there is an assisted living facility just to the east of that that is permitted and in place again in hillsborough county but nonetheless utilizing decent road as the primary point of access the subject site country view two dwelling units an acre and what's interesting about country view i went and looked at the plat of that and to your point commissioner lindsay those platted lots are substantially larger when you look at the dimensions but the majority of those platted lots can't be used because they incorporate flood area drainage areas and all of that nature so while the lots bigger the stormwater ponds are on those people's lots so it's not an apples to apples comparison to say that you take just the development footprint and compare it and divide it into the total acreage you have that is why we look at everything on the gross that's why we do it that way is to make it apples to apples mr chairman bar do you say that the country view is more intense than what's proposed here i'm saying the country view is more intense than what's proposed here when you look at it on the gross acreage yes because when you if if i cut out all the drainage and i cut out all the wetlands and i cut out all the flood plains like we did here the density would be in excess of two dwelling units an acre what's the total units on country view i don't have that i didn't go and do the math what's the total acre to country view again didn't do the math i just find it hard to believe like you might convince me but you're not going to do it without giving me a lot more information to say that the density is greater there okay looking to the east knight's landing on decent road again up to three dwelling units an acre done via urban infill and an spd um similar process here and then ross creek to the east so existing development on decent road with a higher density than what we're proposing today again zooming in even further adjacent properties mr nance talked about this too lot ratio of two to one when we were reviewing our buffering and landscaping requirements that was a key criteria related to the landscaping and buffering requirements along the outer boundaries even down in this area you got a one acre lot with four different units on it four different ownerships four different residences immediately adjacent to it so that's on one acre and then you got smaller lots as you move to the east on the east side separated by the 20 acres of conservation and then as you look north we have again preserved this 20 plus acres on the north end and then you can see all the yellow or lots that are one acre or less as they exist today so in conclusion right wrapping up here on our time as well we needed to have a 20 open space this project is kicked is providing 70 open space that open space will be set aside and and held for the residents and we're half the density of what we could otherwise be asking for we're at one and a half units per acre we can under the spd rules you can go to three we have demonstrated that there are densities and intensities of similar if not more intense nature around us we will be improving pedestrian safety we will be expanding on the investment and the utilities and the community investment through extensions of water impact fees all of the different things that go into developing a subdivision and with that there was four or five pages of recitation within your staff report where the staff went through every provision of the comprehensive plan and the land development code i pulled out just a handful we meet all of the comprehensive plan provisions for a suburban plan development whether it is in the comprehensive plan and the land development code the timing is right for this we've demonstrated that with the spd map and with that we have met all the criteria for getting to this point as it relates to chapter nine and the approval process and we would request a favorable vote by the board of county commissioner and upholding the planning commission's five to two vote approving ld spd 2023-1 and we'll stand for any questions any questions of mr allen yes sir and this is more of an engineering question um i'd like to go way back on the slides to where you had a great aerial view like a google earth yes maybe a little wider if you have one can what what i'm trying to find out is when water comes off of this property so the you've designed all this retention to keep it on there uh but when the hurricane comes which how does the water get i'm assuming all of it goes to blackwater creek that comes off of this property is that correct um three points so majority goes the blackwater creek right here in the southeast corner some gets trapped essentially in the southwest corner and then the adjacent wetland to the west so where is blackwater creek on that um this right here so this green space no the where it go oh it goes down here and that's the actual curls back up there all right any other questions of the applicant uh i guess uh it's it's i'm trying to find it and i can't find it so maybe you can tell me bart what the distance is from the subject property to florida light and life because you're using that as an example of higher density two miles two miles so two miles it's i guess you can look at compatibility with something that's two miles miles is within our development radius that we have to look at for okay and that's too much and that's two miles two miles to the edge or two miles to the the far boundary it doesn't really matter the uh he's either here nor there well here's the but florida light and life uh it's a i know it is i'll ask you anyway uh it's a retirement mobile home park that's about 40 years old uh it's not single family right i don't know that that disqualifies it from being single family i think it's i'm sure it's age restricted but uh yeah it's still not single family it's old folks that live there i happen to know that i'm i'm not gonna i'm not gonna pass judgment on the people's age it is what it is given this board i would i would say that when when we do a single family subdivision and we make it age restricted we still call it a single family subdivision yeah on the erp map what were those yellow blocks oh those are exemptions so those are those are where somebody's gone back in and asked for an exemption where the development or some sort of impervious or was done prior to the district regulation rules and that's where they've come back back in after the fact and asked the district to recognize that exemption any other questions i will invite the um we have an organized opposition the spokesman or individuals have you have okay yes ma'am all right identify those who are the for the record and the four of you will represent the organized opposition yes okay each of you go ahead and identify yourself first and then speak as you see fit my name is michelle crawford at 6170 robbins road lindsay hobner 5130 greenfield road caroline gay 4940 maple drive terry crawford 6210 robbins right thank you ma'am good morning i'd like to thank our commissioners for allowing us to speak on behalf of our neighbors this morning we don't want to take up too much of your time but we'll we'll try to be brief while being thorough we're here today to represent not only our community and kathleen but also echo sentiments from throughout polk county i speak on behalf of my beloved community to request that you vote to support our appeal and deny with prejudice this proposed development can those who are here to do to oppose this development please rise thank you this proposed development is incompatible with rural kathleen and it's far too dense it's located on flood plains alterations of which would place at risk the homes of current residents based on the current real estate market there isn't even demand for this many net new homes decent road cannot handle any more traffic and certainly not the amount that this development would bring our area is struggling to catch up in terms of public services with the recent growth and there's a total lack of community support for the development we'll elaborate briefly on these points on the following slides with citations to the land use code and comprehensive plan am i qualified to speak on these matters well i've lived in polk county my entire life over 37 years and my family's called this incredible place home for many generations robbins road is named after my great grandparents and i'm blessed to live on land that has been in my family for over 100 years my ancestors first settled in kathleen in 1882 and started farming the land in the early 1900s i grew up picking peas in my grandfather's field and now farm my own land in kathleen where we have fruit trees berry bushes a vegetable garden and we raise dwarf goats these are some of my babies i have a strong desire to give back to this community i'm a non-profit founder and community health advocate passionate about the overall well-being of our area's population and the relationships we have with one another and the land and resources that sustain us i'm a health care provider an organization leader at the same hospital where my my grandmother gave birth to my father where my mother gave birth to me and where i gave birth to my son right here in lakeland many of my generation have chosen to leave this area but i choose to make my life and do my work right here and i don't ever intend to leave our primary issue with this proposal is incompatibility this development is surrounded by agricultural residential rural land on three sides the land itself was classified as arr until just last year and the only reason you didn't hear from us then was because when we looked up the code it still showed one home per five acres that's what it should be to fit in with the surrounding area most of which has large tracts of land and very few homes on less than one acre kathleen is one of the few remaining rural areas of lakeland we live a way of life that's characterized by respect for national natural resources i love the land and caring for planet animal life we value our freedom and enjoy spending time outdoors we don't live in neighborhoods with grand entrances or designated community centers but we're no less a community we lend a hand to our neighbors to capture loose livestock help fix fences clean up storm debris and even band together to fight incompatible development we're defending our way of life by making sure that any new neighbors share our values and respect our rights and resources we appreciate that you're on our side commissioners last year commissioner wilson said of this development this is nothing like what is in the area commissioner brazilwell commented it is not compatible and commissioner santiago remarked it is not compatible with the surrounding area since the new plan is no different in terms of last year's from last year's in terms of compatibility we agree and we thank you for your support the density of the development is a major problem for the neighborhood the ecosystem and the maintenance of our way of life the land is currently zoned one home per five acres but the developers are asking for about 1.5 homes on one acre so when you but when you look at just one single developed a uh acre and i think this might answer your question you had commissioner cumby it's about eight homes there so that's 40 homes on five developed acres that's not about eight that is eight yeah yeah um so it's it's really 40 times the the current density when we just look at the developed land which really is is um speaking to the way of life there's nowhere for these folks to grow their own food or to raise their own livestock this development would make a a lovely home for some people i i'm sure of that but it just doesn't belong in rural kathleen now i'll turn it over to my neighbor lindsay good morning commissioners thank you very much for your patience consideration and your service on this board my name is lindsay hobner and i live at 5130 greenfield road my home is located southwest and downstream of the proposed development with blackwater blackwater creek running directly through my property i'm a fourth generation lakeland native and my family has owned our property for 28 years we have built a beautiful homestead in our rural neighborhood and we are passionate about protecting what we consider the gold standard of living these are photos of my property and now right there you can see blackwater creek runs along the northern perimeter of my land alongside my house my outbuildings and where i raise my livestock in addition to being a proud citizen of kathleen i'm a member of the lakeland realtors and practice real estate full time as a realtor i have extensive knowledge of the local market and current conditions in our immediate area if you haven't been shopping for a mortgage recently you may not be aware that interest rates have just exceeded seven percent the highest they have been in over two decades when you combine that seven percent interest with the median sales price of a single family home in lakeland for the month of june of 2023 it was 326 500 your principal and interest payment would be around eighteen hundred dollars a month and anybody that owns property understands that doesn't include taxes and insurance at this point which again if you own property you know have drastically increased over the last few years i can attest to the fact that the number of buyers who have now been priced out of the market has increased substantially the data shows that year over year for the month of june the total number of closed sales are down almost 20 percent and just to clarify i pulled these statistics directly from single-family homes in lakeland this does not attribute any data to manufactured or mobile homes like what's mentioned at the end of decent road in hillsborough county that has a higher density this is just apples to apples single-family homes in lakeland the median sales price is also slipping however there is more inventory available than there was one year ago with much fewer new listings and pending sales over the last seven days there were 100 price reductions on single-family homes in lakeland 28 of those were new construction homes they are reducing the price on new construction homes due to the demand with all of the building taking place now and approved developments that haven't started building yet are these homes even needed from the description of attainable housing and the lot sizes that the developers provided to us it makes sense that these will likely be the same lackluster homes of questionable quality on undersized lots indicative of the well-known national builders we have seen pop up all over central florida from a real estate outlook the next concern this raises is will this development ultimately ultimately have a negative or positive impact on our current property values will the homes be primarily income properties with absentee owners that maintain their properties minimally at best what happens to the beautiful amenities when there's not enough people paying their HOAs to keep those up another major concern of the current residents is obviously the flooding we don't have as many fancy tools but we tried to show on these slides that the current property proposed development is largely made up of floodplains wetlands in the kathleen drainage basin also known as blackwater creek we added the site plan over top of it so you can see how closely they plan to build homes to the mapped wetlands this will undoubtedly require them to build the land up higher than the surrounding area as well as eliminate a lot of the open ground that would normally retain and absorb some of the excess water their plan shows wet retention ponds as a solution to the potential flooding and the developers are assuring us that they have it figured out but as a lifelong resident of polk county specifically north lakeland i have seen these models fail in real life application numerous times over the last 10 years in fact commissioner braswell stated in the july 2022 de novo hearing that they have had a lot of developments approved that look good on paper but now they are dealing with flooding issues while commissioner cumby commented that the excavation of wet ponds will not increase capacity which we completely agree with because we understand where the water table sits in kathleen kathleen if you are familiar with this area at all then you know this entire pasture is prone to flooding as commissioner wilson pointed last year it is a very wet piece of property that pasture serves as a flood plain and mitigates the water displaced on the surrounding properties on pain road and properties downstream take a look at the photos we've collected with evidence of the drain issues associated with this flood basin these are post hurricane irma this is my property um as you can see you cannot tell where the creek starts and where it stops this is my outbuilding this is not my actual home we knew when we put this outbuilding on our property that it did sit in a very wet area so we were not shocked as you can see most everything in this area has been picked up off the ground because we knew it was coming you got the boat in there in case it gets any higher that's right as though we can get out um this again is post hurricane irma this is on vincent road um in kathleen and this also sits downstream of the current proposed development um this is more shots of blackwater creek coming under greenfield road which is the road i live on and running through the back of my property this particular photo is actually the cow pasture this was taken from across decent road looking directly at the property that they want to build on um just after hurricane irma as you can pretty much see it's basically completely underwater that was the day after and anybody that knows knows that wasn't as high as it got so this actually is interesting because this was not necessarily after a major weather event and this is the same property um somebody one of our neighbors was driving down decent road december 24th we had a very wet season apparently and that's when that photo was taken as you can see what we're trying to demonstrate here is it's not just a major weather event that we get concerned with out there if we have a typical rainy season it's problematic commissioner combi you stated it very well in the previous hearing there's a reason this property has not been developed it is flat low and drains poorly you said it's not suitable for intense development and the drainage drainage issues will always be a problem to remedy this would require extensive off-site work which i haven't seen demonstrated in their plans the reduction of 100 homes doesn't change any of these facts and certainly doesn't make this high density development in a flood basin any more compatible with the surrounding area i'd like to introduce caroline and hand it off to her good morning my name is caroline gay and i live at 4940 maple drive located southwest of the proposed development we travel decent road daily and must drive past the property to get everywhere we need to go my husband is a kathleen native and after he served in the marine corps we moved back to the area where he grew up we have a family a house on a large two acre lot and several businesses we live a minute away from grandparents and cousins i homeschool our three children and we are grateful to be able to raise our kids in our quiet rural community i'd like to highlight a few more supporting supporting topics that factor into our opposition residents who travel and live on decent are concerned about the impact this development will have on roads and traffic decent is a substandard two-lane road with no room for widening without taking land from existing homeowners the plan calls for sidewalks along decent running only the length of the development since there is not room to connect them to kathleen road this creates a sidewalk to nowhere the intersection of kathleen indecent is already a dangerous one with only a stop sign accidents occur regularly the work to improve the safety and signaling of the intersection has not even begun meanwhile we watched two other approved developments being built directly around the crossing the traffic study performed shows a c rating and does not even account for these developments already in progress the effects of which we have yet to understand the level two study requirement will certainly indicate that this area cannot support additional traffic the second area i want to highlight is safety and services unfortunately the headlines of staffing shortages from last year continue to be the story for polk fire and ems and we hear about the difficult environment directly from our friends and neighbors who work there response times are already inadequate and this development could be the could mean the difference between life and death for our residents waiting on overworked and stretched thin first responders our hospital census remains high and physicians are in short supply our garbage collection is frequently delayed we must prioritize supporting our current residents over the development of unsuitable land to bring in new ones the people of kathleen and many throughout polk county did not support this type of development our organized opposition regrouping just 10 months after the previous plan was denied with prejudice is even stronger this time residents have taken a stand once again our facebook group has 188 active members our online petition received 600 965 signatures over 400 more than last year's petition residents have dedicated their time to attend community meetings they've donated their money to file this de novo appeal they took time off of work and made the trek down here to bartow for the planning commission meeting in june and they are now here again today to make it known with their presence that they love their community and do not want it compromised by this over development i am proud to represent the kathleen's community and applaud our residents for being willing to take a stand we are grateful to the commissioners for allowing our voices to be heard now i'd like to invite terry cropper to the podium to share a little bit about how this development would negatively impact our area and residents i'm very short compared to the rest of them um my name is terry crawford i've been a lakeland resident for over 53 years um i already told you my address so i've lived in lakeland nearly my entire life i've been married for 40 years to my high school sweetheart and we live on robbins road where he grew up in a home next door to his grandparents earl and leona robbins we have a home on five acres where we've raised our children and where they developed an appreciation for the land learned about ranching and farming and grew up with all sorts of farm animals we absolutely love raising our kids this way you heard from my daughter michelle earlier and i think you'd agree that this has made a positive impact on her i'm a retired information technology executive the last 10 years of my career i had the privilege to serve polk county citizens as the chief information officer for our county's tax collector joe g tedder where i developed a deep appreciation for those that serve the citizens of polk county thank you all for your service today i'd like to take a couple of minutes to talk about property rights we feel this is important because at the recent planning commission it was a resounding theme from the chairperson we were told that the commission needed to respect the property rights of the owners of this parcel of land and that they had the right to improve and develop the property ultimately voting five to two in favor of the proposal i didn't switch did i um in 2002 you heard earlier the landowners sought to rezone the property from agricultural to residential one dwelling per five acres we received notice in the mail and we saw the signs we didn't fight it why didn't we fight it quite simply because it fit the surrounding area it was compatible with homesteads in the area and we felt it was completely within the property owner's right to request this zoning change so yes they have property rights and we honored them we've now learned that the real intention was never to build one per five acre it was to put a densely developed subdivision on the property a plan that includes maximum lot sizes of 0.16 acres and many less than that they are asking for reduced lot sizes and reduced setbacks and a design that simply does not fit in the rural area an area mostly comprised of much larger home sites and pastures with barbed wire fencing doesn't fit with the grand entrance improvement rights are subject to local zoning and building regulations what is being proposed exceeds their property rights because they are asking for exceptions to the zoning guidelines the surrounding landowners have rights also rights that include the right to occupy use and transfer and enjoy the land this proposed change encroaches on our enjoyment of our land it permanently alters the landscape and negatively affects and permanently alters the way of life that we enjoy in our rural area i find it interesting that development justifies more development like the whole 62 percent that's just because other developments have been approved so eventually you always get to over 60 percent if you keep moving in that direction that's a whole nother point we also have rights to lateral and subjacent support which refers to our legal right to have our land supported by the adjacent and underlying soil this means that neighboring land order owners cannot excavate and build structures in a way that undermines the stability of the land which another property rest you already heard concerns about the wetlands and flooding in the areas neighbors are very concerned that this development will negatively affect their property and we have the legal right to be free from public or private nuisances these nuisances can include noise pollution and other forms of environmental pollution and honestly this does work both ways if this development moves forward as proposed the new homeowners might not enjoy the sights and sounds of our rural way of life farm animals gunfire and tractors are some of the things that immediately come to mind that i don't think they would expect to hear after going into their grand entrance to their development in the words of thomas jefferson in the environment every victory is temporary and every defeat is permanent so we won last year but it was temporary if we lose it's going to be permanent we are very concerned about the permanent loss of precious agricultural land um we're we're concerned about the light noise pollution that developers will inevitably produce and the destruction of wildlife habitat that could displace even threaten species like sandhill cranes please deny this development and claim a victory today for our environment michelle's going to come wrap it up we're representing a group of proud locals whether generations strong or newcomers seeking country living we value our rural homes and unique community we're self-sufficient folks who grow our own food raise livestock hunt and fish and we teach our children and grandchildren these dying arts we're naturalists who love the outdoors whether that's on our front porch in a tree stand or on the water we value conservation of resources because we understand that clean water and air viable land and diverse wildlife can never be replaced we are active in our community we love our homes and care for our neighbors we're willing to fight for what is good and right and we know that you are too commissioners we respectfully request that you support our appeal and deny this inappropriate proposal you made the right choice last year and we look to to your support again this development is no different than what we looked at last year it's just more of the same still incompatible still too dense still not a fit please deny with prejudice we're happy to answer any questions any questions did you say you had a tree stand on your front porch is that a code violation additional use thank you ladies mr allen you want to respond now or after a public hearing okay ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on the matter described if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward give us your name and address you'll be afforded three minutes i would encourage you to yes ma'am and others who follow line up behind her in the in the aisle and we'll be ready to go yes ma'am you swear affirm that the testimony and evidence you give today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you my name is lisa kleiss i live at 4408 decent road when i drive out of my driveway i'm looking at that where they're wanting to put these homes buildings my husband's family has owned four and a half acres at this property since 1960 our family has lived there on that property and we are we know how the flooding is we know we've lived it we've seen it and putting these homes on wetland especially in that corner the southwest corner where they're talking about putting the properties it's going to flood everybody out we've seen it we live it it's flooded it's wet it's wetland and we are definitely against this proposal we hope that you vote no thank you very much thank you ma'am next person wish to speak anyone else yes sir good morning and i will not take up much of your time my name is peter hobner i live at 5130 greenfield road i don't really want to talk about all everything that's been addressed today what i really want to point out is they come and they say they've made these changes that's given them the chance to come back here today before their one year's up the only changes they tuck an eraser and erased houses off of about 20 acres in the northwest quadrant they're saying they're going to preserve this they have no plan of preservation or any detail in their plans because this is just level one it seems that maybe they want to propose to get through this so that later on they can come back with a phase two and then they can really cite compatibility the 28 acres that they're leaving aside for preservation i really feel like is another second or maybe third phase to the project we should keep those things in mind when we are looking at the overall picture as level one just gets them to get their foot through the door and start the development process i highly hope the outcome today is to die with prejudice as it was last year as i personally don't see any great changes to material or the size of the development thank you and have a great day people thank you anyone else wish to speak if others wish to speak please line up in the in the hallway there in the aisle my name is kevin zarnsdorf i live at 4228 decent road i live right across the street from the plan development and the pictures you've seen of the flooded property it was flooded my backyard was flooded decent road acts like a dam right there it just backs that water up and it kept getting deeper and deeper and you can ask the people who live down the road further from the creek how it was running across the roads behind us the creek got so high uh the lots behind us were flooded it was like it was like a river running through there my yard had water running through it trying to get to the creek and i just hope that you consider i mean yeah they took care of the property they're going to build on but water runs downhill and it's got to go somewhere and i just hope you guys take that into consideration when you make your judgment thank you thank you sir anyone else david morris i live at uh 5260 william clark road lived there for 42 years i've seen the flooding uh y'all referred to the picture uh dated december 24th that is the proposed site plan it's flooded there's uh and to speak to the guy that was just speaking uh he you know talking about the water running over the road that's the road i live on uh there's there's no nothing else to do with it you build it up it's got to go somewhere so it's going to continue to go downstream i urge y'all to deny this prejudice uh also you know previous case y'all heard was somebody using agriculture for profit that's our way of life that's what we do out there i raise cows i got eight acres here a little while back i had to go through jump through a lot of hoops just to give my daughter one acre of my eight for her to have two houses on that eight acres and now we're talking about eight houses per acre don't fit thank you anyone else please line up if you plan to speak hi my name is carrie flanders bayhand 3605 jim kim lane lakeland i represent the flanders family and my mother who is the current owner of the decent road property at a previous meeting i shared that my late father had tried to farm the land with cows and a watermelon crop and found it difficult due to the area being highly populated cows would get out on the road and into the neighborhoods which created a liability for him and he eventually moved his cattle to a less populated area in the green swamp ironically the problem that made farming this land difficult was the development in the area from what i understand the county has invested money to support growth in the kathleen area eric swanson's group has taken great effort and made sacrifices to try to ensure that this development is an asset to the community rather than a hindrance there's a lot of dedicated green space to support wildlife as well as a park and miles of sidewalks will be accessible to the greater community for use i've never met a developer who wanted to work with the community and shown as much care and concern for the surrounding community as they have they've met with neighbors and commissioners and incorporated shared concerns into the revised plan they've decreased the number of homes of around 100 which ultimately cuts into their bottom line they've made changes that will improve water drainage for the community in an attempt to make it better than what it currently is we found mr swanson and his colleagues to be men of integrity who seek to improve the area as part of the job that they do to make their living i'm also not a huge fan of development and growth in polk county but it's here i understand neighbors are concerned that new development will significantly affect their traffic and way of life in my own neighborhood there was a 300 plus unit apartment complex that was built a few years ago i was really concerned that it was going to create traffic area issues in the area but surprisingly i've not noticed much of a change it was was not as bad as i anticipated or worried about as i watched those apartments go up the county determined zoning rights for parcels of property and mr swanson's development is well within the parameters what is zoned for this property again the developer has worked with the community and the commission to attempt to find a plan amenable amenable to all i know some of the community members will never be open to development regardless of the hoops that the developer jumps through i asked the commission to support this project rather than to not deny it out of emotions or fear this property maintains the rights to development will eventually be sold and eventually developed by someone i believe this project is the best shot for a nice community that will enhance the property values and provide needed home inventory in an area that has been improved and prepared for growth that is upon us this property is more compatible for a neighborhood than it is for farming as there's neighborhoods all around our family supports mr swanson's development and we believe that he truly seeks to improve the area and make the development to be a positive addition to the decent road community thank you thank you ma'am anyone else wish to speak on this matter i am closing the public hearing invite the applicant to respond thank you commission thank you for all of your input um i'm going to ask uh nick to come up and just talk about the drainage issues and touch on those first and then i'll get into a couple other things this one should be fine okay yeah so there's a lot of concerns about the flooding in the southwest corner and as i previously stated what currently happens with this creek is that even for lower storm events just not the hundred year there's a modeled weir from this creek to this to the pain road subdivision so currently this water will over land flow and like the picture show and flood the southwest corner there is only about i believe a 12 inch pipe under decent road which is not enough to drain that isolate isolated flooding so the intent is to remove that discharge point to no longer send water to that pain road subdivision thus reducing the flooding in the southwest corner um i guess the summary of that is that we're aware of that issue we we this is something that is an existing condition it's something that the residents have pointed out that our own investigations have pointed out and that has been dealt with in the stormwater model which i have at least a portion of it's a 500 page document i did not bring all 500 pages to put into mr mink's public record but i do have some excerpts from it um that i'll enter into my conclusion but this is the result this is the drainage result 61 borings nine additional tests were put in place to identify how the stormwater model would function the outcome and this is what mr belego was just indicating at the end the way the drainage will be configured with the design will put off less water faster than in its existing condition due to the additional stormwater ponds and the additional ability with all the additional land that's being set aside to handle runoff so it will create a benefit at the end of the day a couple other things that we want to that i want to talk about this is the night station device night's landing development that was referenced earlier the intersection at decent and kathleen is according to staff and according to your cip set for that intersection and that signal to be installed in the coming months so that will be an overall improvement to the network our transportation study even when done at 275 dwelling units showed and this is again from libby rodriguez's traffic study all facilities all county facilities all transportation facilities operate continue to operate at acceptable levels those are the improvements that are going to be made made getting to robbins road the crawfords we have again robbins road this is the north up is on the left side of the page and i meant to add a meant to add that as a slide here all of this is being set aside in open space and preservation we're not developing up against those folks we are developing to the south we've clustered it to the south we've clustered it to the south of the drainage features that exist on the site today again getting back to your comprehensive plan related to clustering and protecting the sensitive areas that's exactly what this this site plan does it does exactly what your comprehensive plan and land development code encourage move it away from the wetlands which have been flagged and delineated and as indicated in our report we are maintaining a 25-foot buffer from all of the wetlands and cluster it away from those maintain these areas for drainage we aren't we will have no impact on the robbins road folks in the crawfords um miss hobner's pictures and she even said they put some stuff in floodplain areas we they are substantially far away from this site they are down the road aways to the extent that residents speak to general concerns about traffic to general concerns about those kinds of issues that is not confident substantial evidence for the purpose of a quasi-judicial hearing um that's clear in the florida law and that's clear with the instructions that are given before planning commission hearings general general concerns are not competent substantial evidence to support a denial and to the extent that those kinds of statements are in the record i would respectfully object to them being used as such that goes to the same as petitions general petitions of any nature that are um out on the public are not competent substantial evidence and with that i'm sure there's some other things that i could touch on particularly related to property rights um site and what is entitled under the residential suburban and our processes that they have gone through but i will leave it at that we would respectfully request you uphold this approval and we'll stand for any questions our team's here um one last point to mr hobner um the intent is for those conservation areas those areas that are identified the 28 20 some odd acres to the east and the 20 some odd acres to the north are to be in perpetuity open space um that would that would add is absolutely what the intent of the developer is and if that were to become a condition of approval that those have to be put into conservation for perpetuity we would be agreeable to that kind of a condition thank you mr chairman yes sir that was one question i had because i know we defined somewhere preservation or conservation and it is perpetual once you you know put it in that you're you're done for you know you can't come back and have a phase two so i was wondering if that was something that we were talking about with that definition that it is perpetual so you answer that but you talked about flood in the southwest corner and the pipe being too small under decent road and putting in bigger pipe where that water will get away faster but then we talk about not getting away faster and we're holding it up so that seems to be a bit of a conflict between those two and uh i don't know you're what said it's like 12 inch pipe that goes under the decent road there i think that's right it's not big enough and i don't think what he was saying is that we were going to put in a bigger pipe i think we were designing the system so that the flow in that area would be accommodated by the existing pipe and that water would be held on our site into our ponds and then allowed to disperse in different directions right now it's just sheet flowing there's no control there's no it's just it's just another question we're talking about going out of the southwest corner but over on the west side there's also an area where there's a discharge that goes to the west so there but there's really no channel there at all it just sheet flows or is there a discernible uh channel either man-made or natural i'll ask nick what he stated was accurate um the current design actually only has it discharging to the creek that's what on the when he showed the um slides of the zero discharge to this western and to the southwestern and to this this uh to the creek so the current design has it only discharging to the creek and holding back the water that should have been going to this western wetland in the southwestern um corner and that is he stated correctly that we're not upsizing the pipe we're just not going to send the water that used to go to the southwest corner okay okay so the the discharge point that shows up on the left on the bottom and the discharge point in the southwest corner on the right in the bottom that will not discharge there correct but it does in pre-development but not in proposed are you going to ensure that with a berm or a levee or or how do you keep it from going across there so the proposed discharge points are set by where we have a control structure within the ponds and then it'll have a pipe so there will still be will be a natural discharge or whatever it was flowing through that channel in pre-development but in terms of the area that we're touching we're not going to put a pipe pipe discharge to the west i think what he's asking is how are you going to prevent water from going in that corner oh the subdivision will act as as the berm between the creek and that southwest corner so the water couldn't go through the subdivision so you're going to have to build it up pretty much the whole subdivision on the west where the development is proposed to hold more water back up to the east correct so the subdivision will be built up above the hundred years of the olmstone flood thank you mr when all is said and done the water going out post development will not exceed what it is pre-development correct any other questions of staff or applicant yes ma'am i'll check and see originally there were 256 homes being built on the whole area and it's reduced to 250 was the original manufactured home community back in 87. no i'm talking about your first proposal 250 and now it's 147. how many of the how of those 250 how many were in that north area the one that now you're looking at um doing conservation on that about 100. about 100. okay that's all my questions thank you any other comments and questions from the board thank you comments yes sir uh sure thank you mr chairman um first of all let me say that it's good to see judge judy here and carrie and they're great people neighbors uh for a long long time so anything i say please don't take it personal uh and i know that's hard to do uh but you know somebody that's lived out in the in the flatwoods for most of my life and wasn't living there i was there uh at some point uh during most every day of my life so i've got a lot of experience with it live there now and uh but i think what i hear the uh neighbors saying uh michelle and her mother and uh the other two speakers is that you know it's the ecology situation uh the ecology being the the relationship between the people that live there now and the environment that exists there and how this can change and i get that and that's a concern of mine but my bigger concern is just great experience i have as a member of this board trying to solve drainage problems where there are no good solutions where you have a lot of flat land that is poorly drained and a lot of multiple owners along the way uh that can do anything and you can put a small bucket full of dirt in a in a low area and you can back up water on a lot of people you can actually cause flooding with just a little bit of dirt when you have a relatively flat property where there's not a significant change in elevation over a great distance it can really be quite a problem and it can cause water to get in people's homes and in their garages and float their boats and uh but the uh we don't have the county does not have any easement from this property to blackwater creek it doesn't have any we don't have an easement uh going out to the west and trying to reach the creek directly to the west it just has to sheet flow and bart's uh pointed that out a couple of times that there's cheap flow that's how most of it gets away from there now and that's not a a very good thing but the the point is we won't have a channel a defined man-made channel that we can maintain that would really help to improve even if everything the engineer said mr utero may be perfectly right there are issues beyond this development that can't be solved and can't be fixed that uh i think will cause developments internally but also problems uh uh with some of the closer neighbors around there may be some that aren't so close and uh so for that reason i still uh am not supportive of the application even in its reduced form and would offer you a motion to deny the application uh you know we don't have motion yet so let's continue discussion miss santiago um i want to say that i i really appreciate the the efforts of the swanson group to to do all the changes that they have made um reducing it from 250 to the homes to one 147 um basically what you did was just you took the conservation area out and just put the houses in the other area uh still high in density and i i still find this incompatible to the surrounding area so i agree with mr combi i don't i don't think i'm gonna support this wilson yeah you know a year and a little over a year since we talked about this and everything went down and i appreciate well you know we you know uh the size lots i mean going on talk about the lot size the houses uh taking the houses out which they have which great job i mean that's something that's you know sometimes as a looking at the county and how this building's going on you want less houses and everything but there's one thing that hadn't changed and that is the ground the ground has not changed it still has the same problems uh and you know we can sit here and talk about all kind of stuff uh you know sheep and water sheeping flowing same problems and it's not compatible and uh so i'm not going to get into it i can talk about it a long time because like i say the only thing that's changed is nothing's changed because the land's the same so i'm gonna hush so i will not be for this as well that's three to the nine i'll make it four all right i can count uh board entertain a motion uh do we want to have any discussion any interest about the prejudice or not prejudices uh let's assume let's assume this with unless it's stated otherwise right no it's assuming it's without assumed without unless stated otherwise you're a man making the motion well then uh uh it seemed like uh less than a year than we were here before and so i will offer you the motion then with prejudice to deny the application motion and second any discussion on the motion all those in favor of the motion of denial say aye aye those like sign nay any other business come for the board no sir mr chair any other board member have any comments we're adjourned