Board of County Commissioners on 2026-05-19 9:00 AM

Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I call this meeting to order, May 19th, 2026, regular BOCC meeting, and we will start with Captain Hanley to come and give us the invocation, and please remain standing for the pledge. We ask that you would open our ears to hear your voice, open our minds to receive your eternal wisdom, open our spirits to know your guidance, and open our hearts so that we may receive your wonderful love, and I ask this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go to the dais behind us. We'll take a group photo at the end. Caprice has worked for the Colt County Roads and Drainage Division for 20 years. In 2006, he joined the division as a Service Worker Equipment Operator 2 and now serves as a Service Worker Equipment Operator 3 with the division. Ken is a Plant City High School graduate. In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, fishing, attending his grandkids' ball games, and spending time with his wife, Sandy, his son, Kyle, his daughter, Dana, and his six beautiful grandchildren. In the future, he looks forward to continuing to spend as much time as he can with his grandchildren. Dale Mollis has worked for Polk County Roads and Drainage Division for 30 years. He joined the Roads and Drainage Division as a service worker service worker in 1996 and has held a number of positions throughout his career, including Service Worker Operator 2, Service Worker Operator 3, Herbicide Technician, and Road Foreman 2 before being promoted to his current position as a Road Foreman 3. Dale has also obtained his pesticide applicator license and herbicide specialist certification. In his spare time, Dale enjoys camping, fishing, horseback riding, and spending time with his friends and his family, including his wife, Jennifer, his daughter, Dana, his son, Trent, and his five grandchildren. In the future, he looks forward to retiring and moving to the mountains with his family. Madam Chair, members of the audience, 50 years of collective service between two gentlemen, 50 years. At this time, we'll move on to the public comments concerning agenda items. Ms. Amber, do we have any? We do not, ma'am. Thank you. Ms. Stacey Butterfield, County Comptroller. Good morning. Today, we have for you to approve and ratify payroll checks number 04608 through 04632, totaling $36,528.31. We have... It's on. It is on. I'm sorry. I can try to move it a little bit closer. How's that? All right. And then we have 3,067 direct deposits in the amount of $4,609,186.03. Those are dated May 15, 2026. We have wire and electronic fund transfers of $131,322,089.49, dated May 5th through May 18th of 2026. And then lastly, we have invoice checks numbered 504635 through 505452, totaling $17,616,755.22, dated May the 5th through May the 18th, 2026, for you to approve and ratify, please. Madam Chair, a motion for approval. I have a motion and a second. Any questions? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Anything else, Ms. Butterfield? Just wish everybody a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend as we enter it. Our officials start to the summer, which is already here. So, but that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll move to the approved consent agenda. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions? Discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. County Attorney, Mr. Mink? Thank you. County Manager, Mr. Bill Beasley? Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, members of the viewing audience. The manager's office will have one single item this morning for board consideration, and it's a pretty heavy lift. It's consistent with the board's philosophy and policy on environmental preservation. So, item number G1, Madam Chair, is to request the board to approve a land purchase agreement between La Cala, LLC, and Polk County in connection with Polk's Environmental Lands Program, specifically project site number EL-127-24, as recommended by the Conservation Land Acquisition Selection Advisory Committee. This will be a property acquisition cost not to exceed $2,996,250. In February of 2023, the board adopted resolution number 2023-009, which created the Polk County Conservation Land Acquisition Selection Advisory Committee, or the CLASSIC. Creation of the CLASSIC was in response to a bond referendum approved by Polk voters in November of 2022 to finance capital projects related to the acquisition, preservation, protection, management, operation, and restoration of environmental lands, water resources, and important fish and wildlife habitat. The CLASSIC reviews and evaluates properties nominated by property owners and provides a recommendation to the board as to whether or not staff should pursue the acquisition of properties connected to the program. One such nomination was made by La Cala, LLC, a Florida limited liability company for land located along the south side of Camp Mack Road, which includes Lakefront along the shores of Lake Rosalie. The property was evaluated by the CLASSIC, which recommended approval, and in November of 2024, the board approved staff to pursue acquisition of this property. The county hired two independent appraisers to establish a value of the property, which is comprised of two contiguous irregular shaped parcels containing a total of approximately 305 acres. As a result of discussion between the owner and the county, the owner is retaining at least 80 acres on the western portion of the overall property. The owner has agreed to accept the county's offer, which is based upon an average per acre price from the appraisals of $13,250 per acre, totaling $2,981,250 for the remaining 225 acres, and the owner has executed an agreement and sale purchase for that amount. A survey is being prepared for the property, and the agreement contains a provision that in the event the remaining acreage totals less than 225 acres, the price will be adjusted accordingly at closing to reflect the per acre unit price of $13,250. The county attorney's office and the real estate services director have reviewed the agreement and recommend approval, approving of the agreement, authorizing the issuance of funds for the purchase and the hiring of the American Government Services Corporation to close the transaction will allow the county to take ownership of the property for its intended use. Funds for this property acquisition will be provided from the Polk's Municipal Stormwater Taxing Unit Funds specific to the Kissimmee Watershed Project account. As this property is located within the Avon Park Air Force Range Encroachment Buffer Zone, Polk County will receive $1,300,000 grant reimbursement funding towards the purchase of this property from the United States Air Force's readiness and environmental protection integration grant program. So Madam Chair, members of the board, I think in keeping with the board's priority commitments to environmental preservation, water quality, improvements as well as habitat restorations, I would request that the board approve the proposed land purchase agreement and authorize the issuance of funds not to exceed $2,981,250 for the identified property purchase. I'd also request the board to approve the hiring of the American Government Services Corporation to close the transaction and to approve the paying of closing costs in the estimated amount of $15,000. The total transaction being approved by the board today is not to exceed $2,996,250. Madam Chair, motion for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Mr. Beasley, can I have Tabitha share with us the value that this brings to Polk County? Absolutely. Not just the here and now, but for decades to come. Tabitha, please. Good morning, everyone. Tabitha Beal, Parks and Natural Resources Director. I think this slide just really depicts best why this property is important for multiple reasons for this project area. The subject parcel we're discussing is highlighted in the yellow boundary. The areas in green are existing conservation, and so one of the goals for this referendum was to build those corridors. And you can see the blue are projects that have been nominated the county through this program and that we're working on pursuing acquisition with partners as well. So this piece is a really critical piece in completing that corridor. From the water quality perspective, the large water body, the black mob, is Lake Rosalie there on the screen. And unfortunately, Lake Rosalie has seen a decline in water quality over the last several years. And so what this project is enabling us to do on the northeast line here, there's actually a canal system that just takes water straight out into Lake Rosalie. We'll be working on developing a water treatment, natural system water treatment with gravity flow that comes through the property, treats that water before it enters into Lake Rosalie. So it really brings a lot of value to the area. And the wildlife corridor, I just want to report, we've had one of the local landowners in this area just this morning send over another panther video of panthers moving through this particular corridor. So just exciting to see it all coming together. Appreciate your support. And I want to say this doesn't happen in a bubble. It takes lots of partnerships and lots of people volunteering on classic, those kind of things. And also, I want to recognize Wade Allen. Every time I get a chance for the next couple months, at least, him and Scott Lowry and their support to make these real estate deals come to for tuition. So thank you. Madam Chair, we're leveraging 45% of this through the federal government. Great. Tabitha. Yes, sir. Looking at what's in conservation easements and what's probably going to come, do you, I mean, this parcel, I would think is too small. You wouldn't open it up to the public. But at some point in time, if you can assemble the right grouping out there, would that open up? I think there's some land on the other side of 60 that's already open. It would make kind of a nice trail system to continue. Most definitely. And we will explore those through the management planning process as we assemble the properties. This is a 215 acre piece. So it may have a short trail. But our primary goal is that water quality. So that'll be the first goal is achieving that water quality treatment. And then we'll reevaluate for recreation access. I think somebody else mentioned it Friday, but all those trailers probably are on septic tanks. Yes, sir. We confirmed it. There's a package plant. Package plant. Oh, really? Oh, okay. I think it's in the corner up here. But yes. All right. Thanks. Madam Chair. Yes. You know, it amazes me. I've had the honor of being part of this since, you know, it got voted in by our great people in this county. And some of the properties that we've been able to acquire through the county or other entities, you know, southwest Florida, I mean, the swift mud, Florida wildlife. It's just amazing what, you know, what's going on. We're going to, it amazes me the people that are coming forward that's wanting to, you know, put their land in these conservation. And, you know, there's, it's a good thing for this county and a good thing for this state because we're tying a lot of stuff together here and, uh, it just makes it where it's going to be that way a long time. And that's what I like. Yes, sir. And thank you for everything that you do because you work hard on these projects. Thank you. It's a team effort. So I appreciate it. Any other questions or comments? Okay. We have a motion and we have a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Well, moving on to commissioners comments. Yeah. Um, I just wanted to say last week I had the opportunity to, um, attend the Florida Economic Development Council meeting, um, that was held in Orlando. And, um, I am proud to say that our Winter Haven EDC was awarded the project of the year. So from all the projects around the state, there was recognition, um, for the deal of the year that involved the Chick-fil-A that went out at the, um, Winter Haven Logistics Complex. And so I see Mr. Bruce Lyons here in the audience. So, um, chair, if you don't mind, I'd like him to come up and just give us a short synopsis of what this deal involved. Yes. Sorry. Sorry. They were attending to a buzzing phone. Actually, I'll have to ask for forgiveness afterwards. It was a group effort too, to get Bruce here, not knowing this was going on. He doesn't know what's, what's taking place right now. In fact, here's your award. So I can actually give it to you. He was not there when it was presented because he had to attend his son's, um, cap and gown ceremonies. Um, but, um, Bruce, take it away. Well, thank you, commissioner and chair. Um, appreciate the late night text. Sorry. Not at all. Not at all. Um, you know, this was a really interesting project for, for Winter Haven and for the County and really for the state. Um, um, we first met with, uh, with Chick-fil-A supply folks, um, during COVID. So five, six years ago, we were wearing masks and standing around at arm's length, talking about what could be, um, and fast forward a couple of years. Um, the, the project started to materialize, um, trap properties was engaged and willing to sell some, some of their, their property to the Chick-fil-A supply. Um, the rail, uh, component. This was, this will be the first direct rail service that we have at the Intermodal Park. Um, that was, um, negotiated with, uh, Evansville Western railroad and CSX and the governor's office and a myriad of attorneys to provide the easements that we needed. The governor provided a million and a half dollar grant out of the job growth grant fund to extend rail that covered about 30%, maybe 40% of the cost of extending rail to this project. Um, it's also available for public use now. So we can take off of this rail and access other parcels within the park. So we will have additional direct rail service available if we need to. Um, and ultimately as this came together, we realized that not only is this a cold storage facility, it's $150 million capex plus or minus. Um, but it's a facility that will serve the entire state of Florida. And so Chick-fil-A will use Winter Haven as a hub and Polk County is a hub, uh, to distribute to their stores around the state. And if you've been to any of their restaurants around the state, you know, they have 75 or 50, 150 employees at some of them. Um, so this enables them to continue to grow and expand around the periphery of the state and the different locations that they want to add by having great efficiency in their logistics and supply chain system through Winter Haven. Um, and obviously your, your, uh, out of alarm tax exemption was a key component to this. So every, every layer of government played a role in securing their investment in Winter Haven for this one. And then the number of jobs expected out at this facility once it opens in 2027? About 160 jobs, uh, average wage is about $80,000 is what we're predicting at this point. So it will have long-term economic impact for the county, but really for the entire state because it enables retail expansion of their stores around the state. Awesome. Thank you. Well, I'm going to walk down and give him the award actually, because he hasn't had it in his hands. And Amber, we can have someone take a picture. Oh, she's ready. She's always ready. Well done, Bruce. Thank you, Bruce. And again, we'll, uh, my apologies. Okay. Thank you. Next, we'll go to Commissioner Wilson. Uh, don't have a thing, Madam Chair. Commissioner Braswell. Don't have anything. Commissioner Scott. And I'm the last commissioner here. So I'm just going to go along with what you're saying, Ms. Butterfield, is have a fun and safe Memorial weekend. Make sure that it is safe. And now we will move on to the expedited hearing. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before we go through the expedited hearings, I will go through the public hearing general procedures. I'll remind everyone, if you wish to speak on any of the public hearing items, you need to fill out a speaker card in the back and give the card to a member of the communication staff. We ask that you please turn off your cell phones or other devices from that may distract from the public hearings. Please adjust the microphone and state your full name and address for the record before you begin speaking on a topic. Individual speaking during public comment section of a matter will be strictly limited three minutes. The board is experiencing these matters and is able to discern what discern what is legally relevant to an issue and what is not information that is relevant or 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 turn, shouting out from the audience, discrepanable sounds or utterances while another is speaking are unacceptable and you will be asked to leave the chamber's 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 would need a record of proceedings and that for such purposes, you may need to ensure that verbatim record of proceedings is made, which record includes a testimony and 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, answer out loud to the following questions. These are for the land use cases. 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. Now, Chair, 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 the 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 an opportunity to respond. After public comment, the board will consider the land use case. At any time, full presentation for staff can be requested for commissioner, the applicant, or a member of the public. All documents attached to the denied or deemed part of the record of the land use case, unless removed from the list of experts by motion of the board, all individuals on the list of experts attached to the denied or deemed experts for the purpose of the land use case. At this time, I will turn it over to Mr. Ziskell to present the expedited hearings. Thank you, Mr. Bink. Good morning, Madam Chair, Commissioners. My name is Ben Ziskell. I'm the land development director for Polk County. This morning, we have five items on the expedited public hearing portion of the agenda. Items number N3 and N4 are companion items, so I will present those together. We'll have one public hearing and then ask for two separate motions on those items. Item number N1 is an expedited public hearing for case LDC-PAS 2025-39, Braddock Road CPA, to consider a future land use designation change on approximately 36 acres of a 54.74 acre parcel located at the southwest corner of Braddock Road and the Polk Parkway. Requested change is from mixed use and preservation to Business Park Center. You can see the subject site located here on the screen. It is just to the southwest, as I mentioned, of the interchange of Braddock Road and the Polk Parkway. As you can see, Braddock Road crosses the Polk Parkway and then does not continue. So it is the terminus of Braddock Road just to the southwest of the SunTracks facility. This parcel was changed from BPC to mixed use in 2022. There was a proposal for a potential apartment complex, hotel site, and retail space on the parcel. That project is not moving forward, and the owners now request to reverse course and go back to the BPC that was previously on the site. As you can see in the screen, the subject property does have a preservation area, a large preservation area in the center of it that is not proposed for change. There is a small heart-shaped preservation piece that is a wetland. The designation of the preservation does not match the delineation of the wetland line, so the proposal is to include that in the request to change to BPC, and then through development, a formal delineation of the wetland will be conducted. You can also see on the north side of Braddock Road, BPC does exist and has existed for some time. This item did appear before the Planning Commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval. This is an adoption hearing of a small-scale amendment, and following any questions or comments from the public or the board, staff recommends adoption. Any questions for staff? Ben, just one. On the other side of the road, on the south side of SunTracks, did I just hear that Auburn, that's in the city, right, or is that in the county? In the city? Did they just change, is there a plan there? Have you heard anything? My understanding is that the Florida Department of Transportation is either looking at or has possibly purchased these sites. I know that the DOT did purchase the sites to the north, and my understanding is they are also interested in purchasing those sites that you're discussing. All right, thanks. Any other questions for staff? Okay, Amber, do we have anyone? I'll open it for public hearing. Do we have anyone for this one? Okay, I have Mr. Abercrombie. Good morning, James Abercrombie, 2737. We continue to go through this a whole lot, folks, and I just get so confused with all this stuff. I bought my home with one house per acre. Within nine years, they come in and wanted to change it to five. The county wanted to change it to five per acre because of the water and the sewer and all that stuff. Anyway, I don't know why we have planners anymore. As a matter of fact, DeSantis just changed all that as well to where you don't even have anything to do with the plot plans anymore. So, therefore, you won't be seeing a lot of these projects anyway. I don't know why you even want to have anything to say about it. We don't. We have nothing to say about it. These meetings, we just stand here and look at you pretty people sitting up there doing nothing. So, not even listening. Same thing with the next two coming up, so I'll be back. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie. Having no one else, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Motion. Second. I have a motion and I have a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N2 is an expedited public hearing for case LDC-PAS 2026-1, US27, and Deer Creek Institutional CPA to consider a future land use designation change from leisure recreation to institutional on approximately one acre. The subject site, as I mentioned, is at the intersection of US27 and Deer Creek Road. It's the northeast corner. The property was owned by Polk County and was designated for a fire station, but it was sold in 2024. It is too small to fit a fire station, so the county made the decision to sell the property. The current owner of the property is seeking to establish a medical clinic, which is not permitted in the leisure recreation land use designation, so the request is to change it to an institutional designation to facilitate that project. The item did appear before the Planning Commission and received unanimous recommendation of approval and following any questions or comments from the public or the board today, staff recommends approval and adoption of this amendment. Any questions for staff? Okay. I open it up for public hearing, and I have one person signed up, Mr. Abercrombie. James Abercrombie, 2737, Givet-Sony, Galloway Road. Same principle, folks. It's been going on for so long, and you can never depend on what you really, when you buy a piece of property, you can't depend on what the zoning really is. You just don't have it. You spend a lot of money. We have spent tons of money over the years trying to lay out a plan of what our county is supposed to look like, what we want it to look like, but this stuff can be changed on a daily basis. I mean, it doesn't take nothing to get it changed, especially if you've got the money. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie, and I close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Motion for me. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Madam Chair, this one to confirm, and this is the entirety of the parcel that's changing, correct? Yes, sir. This parcel is a one-acre parcel. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. As I mentioned, before I start N3, I will present N3 and N4 together, open it for one public hearing, and then we'll ask for separate motions. Item number N3 is an expedited public hearing for case LDC-PAS 2025-40, Poinciana Commercial NAC-CPA, to consider a future land use designation from pre-development of regional impact to neighborhood activity center. As you can see the subject site on the screen, it is approximately a 12-and-a-half acre site, bounded by Laurel Avenue, Pine Street, and Mackerel Road. It has not been developed and has never received a land use designation as part of our comprehensive plan and still carries the pre-DRI designation. As we've seen substantial growth in the residential sector in Poinciana, we're starting to see more interest in commercial development, and there is a lack of commercial development in that area. The subject parcel is slated for commercial development and is seeking the neighborhood activity center designation. This, again, is a small-scale comprehensive plan amendment that received unanimous recommendation from your planning commission, so staff is also recommending adoption of this amendment. And in tandem with that, item number N-4 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCT-2026-4, Poinciana Commercial Activity Center Plan. And the intent of an activity center plan is to provide cohesive and unified development of a site. As I mentioned, this site is 12.6 acres. It actually contains two parcels, as you see on the screen here. The activity center plan is designed to ensure connectivity between the two parcels. You can see a cross-access between the two parcels here, as well as access points on the three roads that I mentioned. To the left, you see Mackerel Road. To the south is Pine Street. And off to the right or east is Laurel Avenue. The activity center plan also provides specific provisions requiring the improvement of Laurel Avenue at such time that the site is developed. So these two items working in tandem will allow for the land use change to facilitate the commercial development and will bind the development by these standards within the activity center plan. This also received unanimous recommendation of approval, and staff is recommending adoption of the text amendment. So again, following any questions or comments from the public or the board, staff recommends approval of both N-3 and N-4, and they do require separate motions. Any questions for staff? Well, one thing I'm going to say is that I'm glad to see that some commercial development is going to be taking place. One of the things or one of the issues with Poinciana that I've heard forever is that they don't have enough, and they have to cross into Osceola to go shopping, to do most of their commercial visits. So it's good that we're bringing commercial to the Davenport side. So with that being said, we're going to open it up for public hearing, and I do have one. Mr. Abercrombie? James Abercrombie, 2737. It's only Galloway Road. Folks, I really don't know what to say anymore. I mean, you're not listening anyway, so I guess I'll just bide my time and talk to you later about it, maybe. Oh, I do want to let you know that I've been banned from your emails, by the way. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie, and having none other, I close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Madam Chair, a motion for approval for LDC-PAS 2025-40. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Opposed? Motion carries for N3. Now we go to N4. Madam Chair, a motion for approval for LDCT-2026-4. I have a motion and a second. Any further questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Opposed? Motion carries for N4. Thank you, Madam Chair. Item number N5 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCT-2026-1, Juanita Main Street Overlay Land Development Code Text Amendment, to establish the Main Street Corridor Overlay and reinstate Table 3, known as the Juanita Neighborhood Plan. This is an item that has been worked on with staff over the last couple of years to establish an overlay and redevelopment incentives within the Juanita Neighborhood, specifically on Rifle Range Road. This particular text amendment will establish the design standards that will be unique to this overlay district and will also, again, establish the allowable uses and design standards for those uses. This is the second reading of this amendment. Your Planning Commission recommended this item unanimously. And following any questions or comments, staff recommends adoption of this text amendment. Any questions for staff? Hearing none, I open it up for public hearing, but we have none signed up, so I close public hearing and bring it back to the board. Madam Chair, a motion for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion or questions? Hearing none, all in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Madam Chair, that concludes the expedited portion of today's agenda. There is one regular public hearing. Okay, let's move on to the public hearings. Good morning, Madam Chair, Commissioners, for the record, my name is Shonda Bennett, excuse me, with Land Development Division. This is a request for the board to consider a small-scale comprehensive plan amendment on 5.14 acres from Business Park Center to Residential Low on a parcel near the Lakeland Linder Airport. In terms of notice, 12 mailers were sent to area property owners on May 1st. Two signs were posted on April 17th. A legal ad was published in the Polk Sun on May 6th, and staff did receive a letter from the City of Lakeland, and Mr. Ziscoll also has a letter that Nancy Morgan, who owns the parcel to the West, asked to be passed out to you. It's the letter that the Planning Commission received. She sent me an email late yesterday asking, but it's the same letter the Planning Commission received. Also submitted to the record includes a staff report, an ordinance, impact assessment statement, narrative and demonstration of need, emails between county staff and the applicant, and the City of Lakeland letter, which is attached to the staff report toward the back of the report. A few facts that you'll hear in this presentation this morning is the residential categories to the south of Medela Road account for 70% of the unincorporated area below Medela Road. Five of the 12 parcels designated business park center south of Medela Road have residential structures since before 1991. There are currently no residential uses south of Medela Road except for the cemetery on the southeast corner of Medela and County Line Road. The property was denied for residential low in 2020. The applicant did purchase the property knowing it was Business Park Center, but the property did display as residential low for a few years, and the applicant received a road frontage waiver and applied for a residential building permit based on that communication from staff. The Grisham Farms Village is a 78-unit subdivision that has been constructed since 2020. That's south of Medela Road, and it's closer to County Line Road. This is a location map showing the parcel outlined in orange. You can see how the City of Lakeland in that green color does surround that enclave of an incorporated area. This is the 2023 aerial photograph. The parcel is outlined in orange. You can see the city in the greenish color. The Grisham Farms subdivision has that language on top of it toward County Line Road. And then, of course, in the city limits is the Morgan Creek developments. This is a close-up aerial of the property. You can see a little bit of the floodplain that surrounds this area south of Medela Road. This is the current future land use designation map. The purple is the Business Park Center, and the parcel, again, is outlined in orange. And this would be the current or the future land use map if the board approved the request this morning. A few site photos for your consideration. This is looking due east on Medela Road. The site is on the right. There is a house to the left, and you see some RVs out there. This was the first Friday of Sun and Fun that I visited the property, which I've never been to Sun and Fun, so that was kind of interesting to be there in that way. This is looking south into the site. You can see a small parcel, acre parcel, that was shown on the aerial just adjacent to the subject site. You can see on Medela Road its pavement width is standard, but there's no paved shoulders or sidewalks on Medela Road. This is looking west on Medela. You can see the site on the left and a house to the north on the right. Again, what you see here would be technically designated Business Park Center. In terms of impact assessment, there is adequate capacity in the elementary, middle, and high school with a potential of 10 students if the property would develop at maximum at five dwelling units of the acre. There are parks within seven miles. The command center for sheriff is the South Lakeland facility on US-98 with a variety of different response times depending on the severity of the call. Fire and EMS has a response time of about 10 to 12 minutes from their station on Yule Road. Lakeland Utilities is the service area for both water and sewer. This would be a reduction in water and sewer going to residential low even at the maximum capacity of five dwelling units of the acre from Business Park Center. The transportation, there is sufficient capacity in the surrounding roadway networks. There is a reduction in the average annual daily trips, but a slight increase in p.m. peak hour trips. There is a small flood zone at the southwest corner. There are no wetlands. It is in a potential connection within the Polk Green map. There is a conservation easement, but that's south in the city of Lakeland, and the property is not within the wildlife corridor. One of the concerns going from Business Park Center to Residential Low on this parcel has to do with the bifurcation of the Business Park Center and its ability to develop as a cohesive development in a development pattern. The other is the compatibility section out of 220. Of course, there are residential units throughout this Business Park Center designation, so that bifurcation has sort of already happened just by the nature of there being residential structures versus it being all vacant. But the compatibility section is relevant for the board to know. The compatibility section has a 50-foot compatibility zone that certain uses are prohibited in or certain fencing requirement or certain landscaping is required, and that's within 50 feet of either a house from a non-residential use, and that would be the small parcel that's 1.04 acres, and I tried to block out what that 50-foot compatibility zone would be. That's from the house, but once the property gets designated residential, the compatibility zone starts from the property line rather than a structure. The setback, site setback in Business Park Center is 20 feet, so that's what the red line is that you see here. And then so changing this to residential low means the setback for this property becomes 50 feet for buildings, not for parking or stormwater or things like that, just for the building itself. And you will notice that on the other side of the parcel to the west, there is a home on that parcel, so there would, although that's probably well beyond 50 feet at the property line, but there are some considerations and compatibility there. Some of the history of the parcel, the applicant did submit for a request for commercial vehicle parking, which is a very common use in Business Park Center, and our best guess is some of these long parcels that would be a very common potential use on the parcels is commercial vehicle parking, since they are very long and narrow rather than wide. The applicant, once she was aware that the property was residential, decided to move forward with a residential home and got the waiver approved and has a building permit for a home currently on hold pending this hearing. Some of the facts of the land uses in the area, and this is focused on the south side of Medela Road, 66% of the parcels have residential structures, 23% of the parcels are vacant or have pasture or cropland, 9.4% of the parcels have agriculture with residential, 65% of the area has a residential suburban category, which is the area west of the Business Park Center block. There's a bit of the residential low that you can see peppered here within the Business Park Center and on the east. 29% of the area south of Medela Road in unincorporated Polk County is Business Park Center. 12 parcels exist in the Business Park Center, and five of those parcels, which is 41%, have a residential home on the property. In terms of the future land use designation, history changes in this area started really on the very east side, on the northeast corner of Aaron Morgan and Medela Road. That started with a land use change. Then it started sweeping toward the west and then ended with this oddly shaped residential low parcel here with a home toward the bottom, and that was due to banking financing issues that they needed that split. In terms of the airport runway and the zones that you sometimes hear about for airport planning, the parcel's outlined in black here. It's the best I could do since it's kind of under this legend. And you can see that runways don't technically pass over this parcel. They do pass over subdivisions within the city of Lakeland. Here's another view of the area that gives you some of the, if you extended the flight patterns off of that runway, just gives you a different way to see it in terms of its impact. This is a table that we normally put in our staff reports for conference plan amendments to what the allowable land uses are in the current designation, which is on the left side, and then what could be allowed in the proposed land uses, which is on the right side. And residential low's default district is residential low one. You can see there's a longer list of uses that are permitted by right in Business Park Center than in residential low. That includes, obviously, warehouse distribution. That's the most common. Commercial vehicle parking is very common. Flex spaces are very common. Commercial is a subordinate use or a tag-along use, and it can be permitted as an isolated use in Business Park Center if it's at a lighted intersection, which doesn't occur in this particular site. The city of Lakeland's letter requested a denial. However, the city did state that if the board does wish to approve it, that the city requests the board to require an navigation easement agreement between the city and the applicant. That's not something staff feels that we can require, but I told the city staff that I would relay their letter to you. Staff does recommend approval for this request as thinking about this area since 2020. The area hasn't shifted to non-residential uses, and in fact, the Grisham Farms development, which is 78 units, got developed in the city of Lakeland, not too far to the west. No non-residential uses have been constructed in the Business Park Center south of Medela Road. There is a solar farm on the north side of Medela Road, but that's in the city of Lakeland. Again, five of the lots in the Business Park Center are developed with homes that have been there for a very long time, and the request is compatible with the current adjacent units' uses on the subject property, and I'll stand for any questions. Any questions for staff? Yes, Commissioner. Going back to the, excuse me, the five of the 12 lots that are BPC now that have homes on them, can you explain how that situation has come to be? Yes, and those are this parcel here that the mouse is circling, this block up here, this block, this parcel, and this home, and they've existed prior to the adoption of the conference plan. All right, thank you. Wait, say that, I didn't catch that. Say that again. Those homes were there since before the adoption of the conference plan. Before, okay. In the Business Park Center. These homes in the residential low, those were developed after they got the land use change. When did the Business Park Center designation overlay begin in that area right there? 1991. 91, okay. Just to converse on, from that being in 1991, the RL1 that you said was needed for bank financing, that was as it's seen here in 1991 as well? The one to the west or that was more recent? This oddly. Right, that one. There stepped, that was Business Park Center from 91 and the property owner asked for it to be changed because the bank needed the home to be mostly in the residential category. What year was that in, do we know, on the change? That would have been in 2019, I believe. Okay, it's one of those. I just want to make sure it is one of those. Okay. And then from going back, we're kind of rewinding in time to 1991. Obviously, the west side of County Line was all strawberry fields and cow pastures. It wasn't all warehousing then. So I'm assuming back in 91, this area probably looked like it would make sense to be warehouse land, if you will, based on airport access and all, but then now County Line is kind of seeing that explosion. We're not, currently there's no applications in for these parcels that we're looking at that are BPC to be warehouse. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And then I'm looking just to address Lakeland's concerns. They're talking about the navigation easement or that request. Am I correct in understanding that their concern is where the runway flight path is basically and adjacent to this property or are they talking about physical access to the land at some point to use it for airport expansion? I guess what, I've not seen that navigation request before. My understanding of their concerns is more of future residents are future complainers of the activities at the airport and threaten, could threaten the expansion of the airport in long term. This part of Lakeland did, I'm sorry, the staff at the city of Lakeland maybe 15 years ago did a sector plan and they've done that over seven different sections of their city and incorporated part of unincorporated county. They did designate this area as low density or office type uses, not warehouse necessarily. But, and this would technically be consistent with low density, although residential low one can go to five dwelling units of the acre but that would have to be through a planned development. Right, and just to be clear too, obviously Lakeland was okay in approving the subdivision that developed to the southeast with its relevant location to the airport. So I'm assuming when I look at this, you know, the adjacency to the airport to me for this being a single family home versus the subdivision that was developed to the southeast within the city limits of Lakeland would be compatible or consistent as well, right? We're talking about single family residential as far as complaints to an airport one and the same. I just, I guess I don't understand why Lakeland would put it out unless all those homes maybe in that subdivision have this navigation agreement but I don't see why it would be in particular this property would be an issue when those others are not. Yes, and certainly I can't speak directly for them just my instinct or thoughts that yeah, I think the residents in these subdivisions that you see under the green color have navigation easements but I don't know for sure, I don't know the legalities of how they can do that or how that's been worked through and you can see the runway here how it crosses kind of, it does cross sort of in the middle between those two and maybe that's part of it but I know when I pointed out this area here when we did these land use changes here the zoning or feature land use designation in the city on this gray block was residential so that's one of the reasons why staff recommended approval of those because they were adjacent to residential designations in the city. Right, and we would see that, presumably you'd see that movement continue as far as that conversion to RL then away from BPC since we're only three lots away now from that BPC and kind of sandwiching no different than you see high density development encroaching into AR you kind of see that movement happening over time right ideally it would have been preferable for it to occur out in but this isn't a very unfortunate situation that I apologize given a few dominoes would still have a domino change yeah thank you yeah but to Michael's point or question this was overlaid in 91 big airport or hopefully a big airport someday in the future a lot of business a lot of stuff going on it just hasn't panned out I mean there's stuff going on but it has moved over to County Line Road that's where the warehouses are that's where the activity is that's where the growth is and the bottom line is as a hindrance to airport expansion they can always buy this property and redesignate it whatever they want to designate it right that's correct yeah and there's certainly a micro and a macro view of this certainly the macro is I think more of what staff's presentation is focused on rather than the micro the micro is the 50 foot compatibility zone but the macro is Commissioner you pointed out that the warehouses and you can see this on the aerial photograph but the other macro is the Grisham Farms development that's developed within a stone's throw of County Line Road as well and the public's south of it at Pipkin and County Line okay just the comment and it appears to be obviously as they've stated I think the thought was that it would develop more as business park center but we're actually seeing the trend of residential in that area since it was last came before us yeah and I think that that Grisham Farms development is the I think the big kicker yes okay all right thank you any other questions okay thank you if we have the applicant here good morning I'm Anili Salgado I'm requesting approval to change the lending use from business residential my intention is to build single family home on the property I believe the area already includes residential properties and residential character I am not proposing high density or intensive development I believe that as a residential use would create less traffic less noise less impact than any commercial business activities would I also believe the request is consistent with the surrounding community and beneficiary to the area I have worked in good faith throughout the process I have complied with all county requirements my goal is to responsibly use my property while respecting neighboring properties and the community I have livestock on the property so my family already comes to the property on a daily basis to care for them so getting this approved today will not only make things easier but will make the lending use more practical I also want to mention about the airport concern I took the initiative to check both the county property appraiser and the county clerk of court and none of the properties that are around the area have been asked to be signed this document before and that included at least 12 properties that I look on the website nobody has ever signed this document before from the airport so I'm just wondering what's the unique concern about it thank you for your consideration any question for the applicant yes yes so it seems like you did the research would I be fair in saying then you would not want to execute that waiver or easement I will consider but I will only ask that all my neighboring properties the same thank you thank you thank you anybody else okay thank you we'll open it now for public comments Amber do we have anybody yes ma'am we do you just spoke Ms. Salgado you just spoke so I'm just going to go ahead and you just spoke so okay that will take care of your public comment we have Jamie Collins if you state your name and your address you have three minutes Jamie Collins bring the mic down to your thank you Jamie Collins 444 Medela Road I'm one of the first residents out there it was given to me and my husband as our wedding gift in 1984 all of this land has been agricultural farmland animals everybody that has ever built out there and come out there is animal they have animals all over their property we don't understand why we asked back in 2020 why if y'all are going to rezone it not make it residential agricultural because if y'all make it low residential we can't keep our animals we can't have our chickens and our animals and that's what feeds our family and we don't have a problem with it being rezoned to residential but do it as agricultural residential because all the properties out there they're going to put five and ten houses on properties on top of us and they're not going to let us keep our cows and our goats and our pigs which my daughter eats to survive because she's got so many allergies and that's our concern we would rather have agricultural than business y'all changed it after we were married and y'all changed it without notifying us and then y'all sent a letter out at Thanksgiving in 2020 y'all gave us a letter on Saturday that we had until the Friday after Thanksgiving which is a county holiday so we only had three days to find all the relatives to vote no against y'all doing this to us in 2020 just keep it agricultural out there because no one has property out there that doesn't have an animal on it we don't have to put buildings on every square inch of the county we need to be able to provide food for our families thank you thank you Ms. Collins having no one else I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for discussion just comment on the last comment will this put any restrictions on anybody else out there no it we allow farm animals and farming in every land use classification in the county thank you and just to be clear it's not zoned agricultural currently it doesn't it doesn't have a future land use designation category of agriculture residential rule correct but our comprehensive plan again does allow farming and raising of livestock in every designation in the county unincorporated so just to be clear residential low if this is the way we go the person can still have animals on their property am I correct yes including the business park center land use category can have livestock as well just to further clarify on the animals is there any buffer or separation distance requirements that are different from say ARR to RL1 or if in the future somebody sold off 50 acres and they put you know 10 homes on a square acre and have open space does that then trigger anything else that would impact the resident that was just speaking as far as separation or buffering for her farm no other than on the changes that you considered I think it was a year or so ago with farm animals but those apply to pretty small parcels in this area they're pretty large parcels so they'd have to just meet the average the setbacks for the side setbacks for the land use designation they're in speaking of the chicken the chicken rule I guess right yeah and that would be a roosters and that would be an accessory setback rather than the primary 20 feet that I had mentioned earlier in the presentation I think speaking to what you just mentioned the side setbacks when we're looking at business park center to residential it is my understanding that a variance is not allowed in that area currently is that correct right section 220 does not have a variance to guess because it applies everywhere in the county could we going forward could I ask staff to let's look at that and see if there are conditions that we do want to make open to for variances so that we can consider it on a case-by-case basis rather than it being a whole section and situation where we're not able to look at a variance do you have any guidance in terms of things to think about or just just we'll just get back to you in a general sense yeah I think in a general sense to look at so this may not be the only area where we want to look at where currently our code says no variances are permissible to see if that's really what we're looking at as we continue to see this transition across Polk County manager I'd make a motion for approval as presented second I have a motion for approval and a second any further questions or discussion just to clarify this would not be requiring the resident to sign any type of easement or anything else related to the airport it'd be exactly as we presented here that's what I understand yes ma'am yeah just one comment on that I do agree with that but I do believe that the city requires those to be signed now as a condition for their approval in Platt so I think it may be a situation where some of these older homes obviously it did not apply to so I would just ask her to you know work with the city on that I think they're trying to protect themselves as you said from those complainers she obviously Miss Salgado I'm assuming you're aware that that is a very busy airport and that the planes come and go including large Amazon planes all hours of the day and that you will hear airplanes flying overhead okay all right that's my only comment any other questions discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed the motion carries thank you moving on we'll go into the general public hearing you have any Amber ma'am we have 10 okay first one up is Kay Borg and just remind everyone you have state your name your address and you have three minutes make sure the mic is right down to your level thank you good morning madam chair and commissioners my name is Kay Borg 1133 Brook Road in Fort Meade I wanted to take a moment today to talk about something a little different than I've been talking about I want to talk about the voices that shape our animal advocacy movement people come from different cultures and ways of life there are teachers business people engineers retirees and those who are still having to work a former shelter manager and many others each perspective adds something valuable to our shared belief that Polk County can and must do better when it comes to animal welfare differences are not a weakness they are part of what helps communities grow adapt and become more thoughtful over time and they can create opportunities for learning empathy and cooperation when people approach one another with respect that said anytime there's conflict or controversy people respond in different ways the majority of the advocates prefer dialogue compromise and working together to find practical solutions minority are more confrontational choosing to attack rather than finding common ground this is true for any group in a healthy society disagreement is inevitable but words can cause real harm when they're careless cruel or meant to divide I want to encourage us all to take our commentary seriously we need to speak with firmness accuracy and conviction lasting progress is more likely when people express strong convictions without abandoning respect restraint and a willingness to engage with those who see things differently onto a different topic the other thing I'd like to mention today is what may be a missed opportunity to manage pet sales in Polk County presently Polk County has no mention in the animal control ordinance of licensing requirements for sellers anyone can sell pets with no permit or county oversight there are no county requirements for sellers such as checking animal abuse registry vaccinations spay neuter or even where they can sell animals by filling this gap with an addition to the animal control ordinance we put in place some guardrails for backyard breeders as well as retail pet stores this can serve to protect consumers and add revenue from permit sales now you may be saying well the governor just signed SB 104 which will provide consumer protections at state level it does not apply to those sellers who sell less than three litters or 30 animals a year as a result it will not address the unregulated small volume breeding that is allowed in most jurisdictions this backyard breeding is generally considered a low-risk activity and one that does not warrant the resources required for enforcement or of any ordinances which would address these small volume breeders however much of the stray population in Polk County can be traced back to unwanted litters from these small volume breeders and it is something that must be addressed if we're to successfully reduce intake and animal control a lot more to be said about backyard breeding but no time left thank you so much for your time hold on I got a question yes sir did I understand so if someone sells an animal to another person yeah however they came up with the animal I thought a health certificate was required to sell an animal is that not true it's a state requirement so so if if if I sell my dog to somebody else do I have to give them a health certificate or not or am I supposed to but nobody enforces it is that what I'm hearing that is my understanding okay thanks and then also you know locks and laws keep the honest people out yeah and when I came on board and and heard some of the information that you were sharing I did look at the number of people that are licensed so the honest people already are pulling those licenses even though it's a very small number in Polk County Mr. Tedder did provide that information to me so you know I do think you're hitting on a point that in order to curb some of this that would require us you know watching people's backyards and front doors as far as are they selling an animal so it'd be very hard to enforce it we do have licensed breeders in our county and they have applied for the appropriate paperwork and you know and it's listed there so it is true there'd be something very hard to enforce but we do have those people in the county that have pulled their appropriate business licenses for operating as a dog breeder yes ma'am thank you Ms. Bork next we have James Lloyd Thomas James Lloyd Thomas 1057 Clearpoint Way Eagle here to talk about e-bike safety in memory of Maddox Moore a young teenager of Polk County who died in a car accident or accident with the e-bike sorry I'm a little nervous I guess the outcome I did a lot of research to get here and I know about the bicycle safety action plan that's in place and I have a meeting with Mr. Cordek after this my experience with e-bike was with is with a class one e-bike through my recovery as a disabled veteran and also being part of Celebrate Recovery I take a non-throttle e-bike to celebrate recovery at Lake Collingsworth First Presbyterian and other churches I also attend AA meetings with this bike and I've done that since I've been in recovery for the last 10 years I drive a car I have a car but I want to thank you for the Fort Fraser Trail which connects me to many of these resources and also I advocate for veterans in the behavioral health court to get these type of bikes if they don't have a driver's license with that being said one of the things that I have been pushing for is a safety program and we have some best practices with Florida State having a recycle bike program which includes an online cycle safety course I guess the questions we might want to ask as I look for a volunteer position within this with with Mr. Kordak it should schools register e-bikes on their campus and offer online safety courses should helmets and vest be worn by all throttle e-bike pass operators not just under 16 and should parent and park education including collateral along the trail be allocated funds for and lastly should bike shops be required to offer safety courses when selling these type of bikes there's many things that I just offered as potential solutions that would be groundbreaking for the United States of America in general and would also allow some of these bikes to help veterans before they go down this so-called rabbit's hole you know to stay employed and continue building their family or whatever they need to do can we imagine somebody riding along the Fort Fraser trail to get to the VA clinic to get process therapy or any mental health recovery they need thanks for your support and we'll keep you updated I got a question is it e-bike and those little scooters that you stand on that's not an e-bike is it that's just an e-scooter that would be in the micro mobility category and you're talking with two wheels you sit on it and but it's got a battery powered correct a little bit right you do pedal a little bit but it just yeah I mean you can pedal three classes of e-bikes and that's the type of knowledge you know some parents are buying just an e-bike or some people are totally against e-bikes but not all of them have throttles they just give you a pedal assist in case of physical injuries like myself so I can go farther but most of the accidents are happening because rules aren't being followed as far as biking you know normal bikers are always wearing helmets non like regular bike groups that you see on the road professional bikers they wear helmets so the rationale for wearing a helmet is that a bike can't go faster than a car so a car has to yield to the bike or and so what if somebody doesn't yield you have to have a helmet on so and and you want to as far as be invisible a vest is as what so in California they did a e-bike voucher program for low income and it was a requirement that they took a CHP safety online safety course to get that so anyway sorry thanks appreciate it more that more to it than I know about I can assure you of that you know I I run the trail a lot where he's talking about and there's you know quite a few of those e-bikes on there and you know and like he said there's a lot of people there that wear helmets and you know they're for recreational or just riding but I can tell you one thing there's some of them e-bikes that will flat fly and they are unhelmets you know really running fast and so yeah it needs to be looked at because you know on the trail I mean a limb could fall down there around the corner there's a limb and you know it could it gets it could get rough but I know exactly what he's talking about thank you sir Commissioner Madam Chair if I could just just bring the board may not have seen it during the legislative session but there was a bill that was passed Senate Bill 382 that is to address some of the e-bike issues part of it being when they ride on a sidewalk shared by pedestrians or they're required to slow down of course that would be enforced as a Florida statute violation in addition they did create a task force that's supposed to be looking at a lot of the safety issues and stuff and I'm assuming that will come back with more legislation so the state seems to be taking the lead on this as far as e-bikes and the scooters and so forth so just so the board's aware of that and that bill was enrolled it hasn't been sent to the governor for signature yet but it was enrolled and thank you Commissioner again just as he mentioned there are different classifications and I think it's very possible that parents are buying their children bikes not realizing they're buying them something that needs to have a license and a tag and be registered because the amount yeah and and so I've definitely seen some some children in the Lakeland area that I think it'll be short-lived before that there is a very serious injury from some of the children and the behaviors that I've seen so safety is is paramount yes I was able to say just to that point it's almost like an electrically powered motorcycle when you look at some of the speeds that they're able to achieve you know on these but the regulation has been lacked so yeah certainly and I'm glad to hear about the pedal assist and didn't really know about the you know the recovery aspect of it but it really doesn't make a lot of sense I appreciate your time today well I'm just gonna say you're meeting with the right person Mr. Cordell so that he could assist with this area and also bring it when we meet with the FDOT because we always look at bicycle safety and now e-bike safety and I'm glad to hear about the bill 382 that is brought about so yeah safety is paramount to this situation so hopefully we will be able to put some things in gear of course we're dealing with human behavior as you all know so education is real important in this area but thank you for bringing that attention okay moving on we have David Butler David Butler my address is exempt last meeting there was a dollar figure that was put out that was extremely wrong but I'll get to that in a few minutes there was another thing that was D.R. Horton was given an extension on a tax exemption I'm going to plead ignorance I know I don't know anything about the tax exemptions and getting businesses here but I understand to Mr. Scott's point we need those businesses here for jobs you gave them a tax exemption because they didn't perform or you gave them extension to the tax exemption because they didn't perform what they were supposed to in the first tax exemption is what I understood why not give them those tax exemptions on the back end after they perform wouldn't that make a little bit of better sense for us for the for the regular tax citizens D.R. Horton's worth 40 billion dollars Polk County's tax our budget is 3 billion dollars and again I'm ignorant but that's 12 times 13 times the budget that Polk County has just something that caught my my attention the 70 million dollars that Miss Beal brought back y'all very proud of that now I am to go buy some flood structures provide flood relief and such as that did she get to fly on the airplane go get that 70 million dollars I'm gonna bring that up until the deputies get paid their overtime mr. Wilson speaking of the airplane that goes to my dollar amount that I said was wrong last time I said that a Cessna cost nine million dollars that was a slip of the tongue the Cessna 182t brand new is $900,000 that's why I said you could buy three of those for the price of one Kodiak the sheriff had a Cessna 182t that was very very nice bird I flew in it the only thing it couldn't do is carry y'all to Tallahassee and Washington $200,000 you could completely from prop to tail rudder overhaul that plane of your brand-new plane $200,000 you could have done at 14 times for the price of the Kodiak so imagine how many deputies you could pay overtime so I apologize for saying nine million dollars for the cost of the Cessna there's only 900,000 for cost of a Cessna and I do appreciate the the conservation purchases that we're making with these lands of property however I heard I think mr. Braswell asked for the public access did you very good question I in my opinion every single one of these purchases need to be public access and there's a bunch of Swift mud that has limited access for hunting and stuff like that I think it's pretty much theft from taxpayers to buy this property with taxpayer money not have some public access so I appreciate that and thank you for your time thank you yes Commissioner Braswell on the tax breaks they are after the fact so they have to perform they have to do what they say they're going to do they have to hire the people then it's a look back we don't give anything in advance it's always a look back yeah we don't we don't give any tax breaks before they show the metrics we have metrics in place so we monitor this whole process throughout so yeah yeah just clear what occurred at last meeting was basically they moved the tax exemption when it could begin because of they had not had the opportunity to meet the requirements due to unseen for circumstances and so forth so yeah and I would say just if you want to write this down ad valorem tax exemption look up that program specifically and that'll give you some information as far as what the companies must do in order to qualify for those exemptions and then how it's monitored and audited each year to show compliance okay moving forward we have Eve Selambini good morning Eve Selambini 4230 Live Oak Road in Lakeland on April 21 Commissioner Braswell made a number of statements about local animal advocates TNVR and the history of the voucher program we've asked for because many of those statements are inaccurate I want to clarify the record on April 22nd the bully project presented a formal voucher proposal to this board in February 25 the bully project came back and presented to Commissioner Braswell a voucher proposal involving three participating clinics there were no responses a second email was sent we're ready to move forward no responses November 25th Commissioner Braswell stated the advocates had walked away and never got back to him Polk bully project sent another email attaching the previous ones and still no response so the record is important here advocates did not disappear or walk away they followed up over a period of years without response over the last year advocates have spoken publicly about this voucher program backyard breeding laws tethering etc we've offered to help run programs we've requested meetings we've sent emails we've proposed solutions and all of them have gone unanswered I also personally sent a stale mail to the sheriff and asked him to sit down with me no response Commissioner Braswell stated TNVR is illegal in Florida under statute 379.231 that's inaccurate the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who is responsible for that statute states on their website it is their policy does not outlaw trap neuter vaccinate and return FWC further distinguishes between owned cats and unowned feral cats equally concerning where the repeated claims the TNVR programs dump animals back into the county that isn't true either we don't dump any animals and injured animals are never returned outside never if you are a formal TNVR group animals that are suffering are euthanized and finally advocates were accused of simply wanting television attention ironically the two advocates that he quoted by name have never been here and have never been on PGTV so TV time was nothing to do with it we are here and because Polk continues to struggle with animal overpopulation high euthanasia and preventative resources are lacking we are asking for assistance that continues to be ignored and they are left to pick up the pieces of a broken animal welfare system we're still asking for the same things we have all along communication transparency clarification of the law and meaningful investment in prevention programs thank you thank you next we have Cynthia Dorman hello good morning my name is Cindy Dorman and my address is exempt today I'd like to speak about community cats and the caregivers who care for them I became involved in trapping community cats through a local nonprofit in 2019 to date I have trapped and sterilized approximately a thousand cats community cats are often unsocialized to humans and are usually the result of irresponsible ownership and abandonment these cats did not create this crisis people did the most effective and humane way to reduce outdoor cat population is through a strong tnvr program trap neuter vaccinate in return and to clarify mr bradwell these cats are not thrown back to fend for themselves community cats have caregivers who feed them monitor their health and care for them deeply with sustained tnvr poke county with sustained tnvr poke county will see fewer cats over time lower tax costs more rabies vaccinated cats and it will be a less of a burden on rescues fosters and citizens the work is emotionally exhausting financially draining and labor intensive yet people continue doing it because they care about the outcome not the income over the past several years this board has heard from veterinarians animal welfare experts rescue organizations they've explained why tnvr is the most effective and humane solution two years ago you received a proposed ordinance revision drafted by a veterinarian with more than 40 years of shelter medicine experience with input from animal welfare experts these recommendations were practical humane and supported by data mr bradwell on april 21st 2026 you stated that advocates just want to be on tv have gone about this the wrong way and have offered no solutions respectfully that's simply not true solutions have been presented at meeting after meeting studies proposals and expert recommendations have repeatedly been brought before this board so i have to ask are you listening you have the power to improve animal welfare in pope county it's unacceptable that meaningful progress continues to be blocked because of personal opinions about cats you all know who i'm speaking about the overpopulation crisis is already here the question is whether this board will help address it humanely and responsibly we want to work with you we want to all work together we don't want to fight we don't want to argue we don't we don't like the back and forth you know we're just people that we want to help animals we see a problem we want to help them so today i'm asking you to take immediate action by removing ownership and tag requirements for feral cats protecting healthy eartip community cats from impoundment and awarding 150 000 to street cat project of pope county so they continue this critical work an eartip is a universal sign that a community cat has been sterilized and vaccinated against rabies ma'am your time is up thank you we're asking you to work with us not against us thank you thank you next we have um lee awesome is that okay great um i'm major lee awesome and i'm here today because people have reached out to me and it seems that folks here in polk county have forgotten that they work for the people and they're not being as receptive to the citizens as they should be now there could be a whole host of reasons for that could be beliefs or ideals or maybe you know money in the pocket of developers or or like someone just mentioned maybe personal preferences against cats uh but the people of polk county are the employers of the people that sit on that those seats up there and at any time if we forget that it's very easy for the citizens to then go and have those people removed through the election process now i know a lot of folks we're old timers right we're 40s 50s 60s so we don't realize the power of social media but it can be strong it can be very strong and i am here today because of that power of social media i've seen some of the stuff that's been said about the citizens of polk county by some of you folks i've seen some of the meetings that have gone on here and i seen the level of respect the eye rolling the uh you know disinterested look when citizens come up to the podium to talk but these people that approach on the podium these are your employers right just like if you own your own company you expect your employees to listen to you when you talk correctly you don't want them rolling their eyes and looking disinterested oh it's me what am i going to do today you guys have what hours and hours every day where you don't have to interact with the public you can go to your office you can do all that you have what an hour maybe two hours for this meeting what once twice a month and you can't sit there and give the citizens the respect that they deserve right so just know that when when i show up to a city council meeting and i do them all over the country you can find me all over the country at these meetings and when you see me at your city or county meeting stuff's going to have to be changed okay thank you folks mr awesome would you give your address please you said your name but you didn't do yeah i did give my address legally required on the piece of paper that's legally required by your rules but it's not legally required for me to give my address to the world is it on the form yep thank you wait the form is seem make sure you can just read that into the record mr mink no i don't know what you mean is it exempt is it exempt from public records is it exempt under florida public records law is that what he's telling us what i'm asking is his address is your address exempt from public records okay so it doesn't it can be read out okay so it's 515 east south carpenter avenue and bartow thank you um miss debbie hicks debbie hicks 236 alderman road lakeland florida so much to say in so little time animal control facility is my main source here 1988 it was built you can't keep paint on the walls the rats run all over the place i volunteered there for four years it has been described as adequate adequate means satisfactory but if all these productive people in this county quit being productive you would have over 10 000 more animals in animal control would it be adequate then probably not and when and i found out that in the capital plan for this county for the next five years there's nothing in there about animal control no improvements no new facility nothing and when you look at the 25 the 2025 and 2026 budget that the sheriff gives out there's only like 460 000 in that budget that looks like it actually goes to the animals welfare now of course the insurance and all the stuff for people you have to have people to run the facility no doubt about it but there's not there now when i was volunteering walmart donates all kinds of things publics donate so there's a lot of corporations that donate food litter that kind of stuff which saves the county a lot but out of a 5.5 million dollar budget when you only come up with 460 000 and then when it comes to repair and maintenance the county maintains it they're maintained workers of the county is who i saw come out that did the maintenance but there's nothing in there for improvement and when i volunteered there i asked for those yards in the back to be improved so we could use them because we didn't have anything else to take those animals in if adopters were there i met with the sheriff i met with major floyd and they did it but it came out of their money why did this county you just handed over the whole facility and act like he owns it he doesn't own the facility we own the facility why are we not making a new facility this is the most ridiculous thing i've ever seen he is only there there are only there to run it but you can't run something that's not they didn't have a washer and dryer when i went there there was no washer and dryer except in the medical department but you've handed everything over to them i'm not talking about them i'm talking about us it's a county facility we own it we are responsible for providing what the county needs to take care of their animals thank you thank you miss six um commissioner got a question miss six they have a question you lost me on uh the the thousands of productive becoming not productive i'm lost if the people that donate that volunteer at humane society spca me that took in animals to take care of if those people quit being productive you would have an additional it's even been estimated at 13 000 but you would have more animals coming in the they can't take care of what's going on now any thank you okay thanks commissioner hold hold on miss six says miss six there's probably one more question no questions we're good oh you give me ideas so i appreciate it um amber can we pull up that image please so on two weeks ago may 5th i made another visit to our animal control facility because again um and i will say i appreciate miss six insight you know just to kind of remind me of you know how can we continuously improve uh we're not going to see eye to eye on a brand new facility but improving is definitely one of my things as an engineer and as a former uh master of a lot of things you can't generate a whole new facility and have everything perfect no matter what business you're in this is a photo that i took when i was there on may 5th this is the most recently i think improved area when we look at outdoor play area for the dogs there's some pools added there's uh tires for them to go in kind of an obstacle course it's a work in progress this isn't finalized but it's continuous improvement that we as a county continue to make and through the sheriff's department make to animal control and going through that facility what's interesting we've made a new intake receiving area for drop-offs and i say 15 minutes it was probably closer to 10 minutes that i was in that particular area there were three drop-offs two dogs and a litter kittens all within a matter of 15 minutes and my point there is that the amount of need that's there is definitely incredible and i think the staff there certainly do a tremendous job in receiving those animals because honestly one of the three that i saw dropped off it was evident that the person dropping it off i don't know if they found it or what but the animal hadn't had a great life and that's one of those things that we can't do anything but kind of be reactive not proactive in that particular setting but shelter improvement wise we do continue uh you know i think for for lack of credit the sheriff's department does hear the concerns of some of the shelter improvements that are needed um this dog player is one of them with the shelters there's also kind of hard to see but in the back part of the photo those other pavilions are fenced in with gates so you can have you know four or five different families working with a dog and seeing you know with how they interact with the kids or they will also allow other pets to be brought in so if you want to see how the dog or other you know animals are acting um with one another you can do that the food is no longer stored on wood pellets so they've gone through and operationally i think done a phenomenal job of updating the facility uh so to miss six point as far as past uh rodent issues i'm sure that was an issue because you had wood pallets that food was stored on top of as far as in containers but all those containers are sealed now they've moved the majority of the food out to a dedicated uh shed area and then even the cat litter storage uh comparative to when i was there before has improved all those are in sealed containers again all the wood pallets are gone the only thing really wood left that i saw was on the particular cat um i guess they're crates it's the ones where in the adoption area they sanitize them every day but there is wood that's used to separate those crates the way they're manufactured like the manufacturer had wood in them we just went through and replaced that wood and they now have it operationally to sanitize that every day to minimize i guess the little german cockroaches like wood wherever it's at no matter what so they're they're working on that and then uh sanitization on a daily basis there is a washer and dryer that's dedicated for the main shelter area now um that's from my observation staffs routinely so they're washing the bedding and blankets and towels and then uh the adoption room for cats specifically when you walk into the shelter now they've got music playing in there different toys and other apparatus for cats to play and there's cats that are continuously present in there they do cycle them out i don't know if it's i don't recall it's not daily it's it's less frequent than that but it does give you a nice um you know area to go in and if you are looking at at adopting a cat you want to see how they're interacting with other cats there's already other cats in there that are friendly it's not a cat you know it's hanging on the wall not wanting anything to do with other cats they are mindful of that but i think again operational updates are very evident still looking for a second vet and we are in the process of working with a veterinary college i don't recall the name of the college but to recruit a vet for that and we've also increased the salary that's allowable for that position to fill the second vet and also discussions of expanding to add on to the current medical facilities at animal control and then move some other staff around to some other offices that are being renovated and then from a just other operational the grates where they wash out the kennels those grates were plastic at one point in time that's not really a great thing when you have dogs that can chew plastic so they're looking for a solution to replace those grates because you have the trench drains and a grading over top of them but again they're continually looking at how to improve and how to make animal control better and uh the what will be forthcoming i've spoken with sheriff grady judd and and other staff i will be doing a pg tv segment on animal control and it will be shot on scene at at the animal control because for me i've talked to their counties i am next month i will be visiting those animal shelters that i mentioned i was waiting for data to come back from them and get the schedule uh coordinated but what's really important is that in talking with the other shelters even those that have built brand new shelters relative to the age of ours there's been issues with the grade of stainless steel and they can't use certain chemicals that are needed to kill the you know the viruses or other stuff that they're from the animals because the stainless degrades or corrodes on these brand new facilities that they spent tens of millions of dollars on so it's not necessarily to say that a new facility solves all the problems that are expressed during these meetings what solves them is us working together which i will strive to continue to do but also being mindful that we're all human and as i've told this audience before and mistakes has always been great about it you know the delivery of your concerns and if you have possible solutions are always welcomed but anything aggressive or abrasive i'll still receive it i've been in retail for 25 years at this point so i'm not going to ignore what you're stating this thing overall perception is probably less by some than if you were to present it in a very professional way so again i appreciate uh i think the feedback i appreciate the patience and for those that you know will always hate how we try to do it i i don't have a solution for you but i can stand up here and say that we'll continue to strive to do our best with the resources that we have and i would really appreciate um for those that spent a lot of time and energy energy to uh you know really downplay how great of work is done on social media and how horrible animal control is animal control is not that horrible i don't think it's horrible at all and quite honestly the staff that work there would appreciate seeing some posts online that say thank you for doing what you do and for improving the facility and for making stuff like this happen that used to be non-existent uh six months to a year ago that's all thank you commissioner madam chair may i follow up with that and and i believe miss salambini just met um last week or the week before with uh captain barnador out there um and i did see some complimentary words on social media um that they had shared about the meeting and some changes that had happened there and just to to second your point i do think it's very important that you know we remember we are all human and that we're you know we may view things differently but we're working towards you know progress um i do want to state for the record um on december 3rd and september 30th of last year i too reached out to the two women involved in the bully project after meeting with them in person they were to get me the past information regarding the voucher program to this day i've yet to get a return email from either of them i know they're very busy but you know there is communication that doesn't get returned to us as well obviously you can ask for a public record and you can see that that is um the facts but the conversation still goes on they're not the only one involved in spay neuter so to second what you know commissioner scott said there are things that are happening the delivery does matter um you know i don't respect goes both ways and so we continue to see you here we hear you we may not be doing the things exactly the way that you want it done but i think as eve stated um in the social media post there's been changes that have been made out there um and so thank you for recognizing that thank you commissioner moving along we have christina vasquez i'm a little small make sure that reaches me christina vasquez 14 100 bonnet creek resort lane um good morning commissioners madam chairwoman um i'm an orange county resident here on behalf of over 600 residents 660 residents who signed the five point plan for animal control and almost 13 000 central floridians who engage with our posts across social media this past month i'm here to offer a community-backed plan to solve a regional crisis we know running an overcrowded shelter is a very heavy burden and we want to speak up for the staff who are on the front lines every day we ask this board to support those workers by modernizing the facility please fund competitive wages to keep quality staff and install full air conditioning to keep the working environment safe and humane during our brutal summers here in florida to fund these upgrades and stop the overcrowding we have to look at the root cause and the biggest driver filling our kennels is unregulated backyard breeding where animals are treated as a quick payday and unsold litters are dumped on our streets we can break this cycle by directing a portion of our recurring annual budget surpluses into three proven cost saving solutions first let's establish a mandatory breeder licensing ordinance alongside a funded low-cost spay and neuter voucher program this gives code enforcement the authority to shut down illegal operations and gives residents affordable medical access so these accidental litters stop happening in the first place secondly let's ease the burden on staff by opening up a structured volunteer and foster network we understand the safety concerns around inmate labor the solution is simple clear physical zoning by creating dedicated public adoption areas separate from inmate janitorial shifts we eliminate liability keep everyone safe and let community volunteers handle the foster coordination that staff simply does not have the time for we also ask that you lift the bans on cell phones and cameras so that the public can actually help promote these animals and thirdly we ask this board to partner with the sheriff to transition existing inmate labor into an inmate dog training program modeled directly after brevard county's paws and stripes this utilizes vetted inmate labor under rescue guidance to fix behavioral issues and drastically increases adoption rates we hope you see our presence here as a resource and taxpayers are ready to help you implement these positive reforms thank you for your time thank you madam chair yes just a few points that she reminded me of so some of the other updates that have have come in our future on animal control facility as well so there are port of cool type fans they use basically water cooling but it's evaporative cooling those are present now in all kennels both on cats and dogs ceiling fans that's a big ass fan brand are installed in those kennels as well and additional fans are located throughout the facility as needed when it gets hotter in the summer i was there last summer and actually they had the port of cool then and we're installing the ceiling fans and it was manageable but i'll be back there again this summer there is a full-time staff member that's in charge of adopting as far as working with the different rescue organizations as well as you know outside and then future coming they are putting it may already be installed but if not within the next month or so there's temperature monitors that are remote monitored it's tied into the same system the sheriff uses to monitor the rest of the facilities that they have so they'll actually be real-time feedback for temperature so in the event i mean it's unlikely but in the event you have a port of cool that goes down it's middle of summer and there happen to not be staff in there they will get an alert so they can provide a response to that so again when i tell you there's operational updates like i was almost to the point of blowing away how strategic we've been and as far as putting money into staff i mentioned they increase the salary range available for the second veterinarian but they also are putting money into renovating some of the office space so there'll be staff that goes into brand new office space that's renovated you know as a part of the existing budget that's there so some of the comments that are made and again i appreciate all feedback but i think it's just not knowing which is totally okay i'm here to let you know again if i know i can educate you if i don't know i'm going to go educate myself and so we'll continue to do that but do realize that all those are already in place or forthcoming soon thank you we have johanna allende good morning commissioners my name is joanna mukai allende 109 sandberg lane winter haven when i learned that i live in a county known for being the highest skill shelter in florida i was deeply troubled um offended even so you know this is more than just an emotional issue it is a community issue what started out for me as a good deed where i adopted and foster dogs through um the shelter and rescues even volunteering my time um has now turned into a mission for positive change in animal welfare so thank you for listening um and then i also learned that unlike our nearby counties we still do not promote that fund and spay neuter program um however it's it's nice to see that we're talking about it again the talk of providing a spay neuter vouchers is being revisited so that would be awesome um but i did also learn that we don't offer accessible local low-cost veterinary care um no low-cost pet food banks um and this is a big one there's no tnvr trap neuter vaccinate and return um program for cat colonies this is a widely known effective um solution in controlling the cat population which is a big problem here um i've seen it stabilize my own colony so i know that it works uh we also lack you know the strict regulation on pet sales the no backyard breeding ordinances there's still so many notes on the preventative side um i do appreciate the improvements in animal control i continuously comment and applaud them on their social media posts however we still need to look at the preventative side um in contrast our nearby counties like hillsborough and brevard counties has implemented effective ordinances and provide pet care support for their community resulting in lower animal intake lower animal intake and higher live release rate and that is the goal um while correlation this doesn't always mean causation in this case i think it does we just cannot adopt foster or euthanize our way out of this mess we do need to modernize our approach we need some yeses um and thank god for the rescues that pull dogs and cats from animal control and to those that takes an animal straight from the streets to find them homes combined these local rescues have over 150 000 followers and this just highlights how important this issue is to the public now the blame is never on the animal control staff i cannot imagine the emotional strain the ethical dilemmas they deal with and the workload that they face daily but by lowering animal intake we help them out too because their welfare matters as well i know there are many necessary requests being made out from you asking from you guys um how about establishing an advisory board of experts in animal welfare they can help organize and prioritize these issues this board could assist in compiling information and collaborating with leaderships to make informed decisions this would be progress this would be a yes um so as an educator i am committed to raising public awareness about the realities of animal welfare so um you'll be seeing me here more and more and hopefully more voices for the voiceless thank you thank you and the last one that i have is mr abercrombie good morning james abercrombie 27 37 gives only galloway road i didn't get an opportunity to speak at that last public hearing because you don't have a sign-on ticket for public hearings um nonetheless that property is considered is surrounded by city city limits are all around it if anybody builds on that they're going to have to do the the infrastructure the water the sewer the electric why are you making decisions for the city of lakeland there should be a perimeter around the city of lake any any municipality that it goes to that city to make the to be part of the decision anyway be here and help out with the decision you're making decisions for them that's the point now public records um miss desiré happened to reply to one of my public records telling me the same thing mr county mooc told me i don't understand folks there's paper trail to that fence they either took it to the trash or they took it to recycle i want that public record i don't know what the problem can be it's only been six months mr scott you're really good at follow-up please do it's about time i mean i'm getting tired of bringing it up every time i come up i'm gonna see it before i'm done i'm gonna see where that metal went and who took the money all right uh once again the city the city is not you shouldn't be making decisions for the city you did this morning you that's not your business it's their business um they're the ones gonna have to put up with the complaints and everything else to go along with that public records again folks i don't you started another park out there on um in polk city it's about half done a good place to pick up find out where it's going what's going on with it why we're not getting that money back into our coffer we could be paying for some of the stuff with the dog pen kennels and all that stuff i mean it's just ridiculous not to not to have that money back in our coffer because once again we continue to give away so much of it thank you madam i was just going to ask you did you not provide all the public records that mr abracombi requested i saw a stack like this but it's around specific to the the fence so in that contract it was for removal disposal and installation of the fence there's not a chain of custody for hang on one second there's there's not a chain of custody it says it right on i read it on the front page it's it's removal and disposal of it we don't require a chain of custody for removal of of old product whether it's lights fence now there are certain things like if we do lab samples on contaminated site there's a chain of custody that absolutely you can see every step of where that gets pulled out of the hole where it goes to the lab where it gets sampled and where it comes back to and where it's disposed of that's required by certain regulations on us as a county to tell a contractor well if you take a shovel full of dirt or a piece of fence off of a property and dispose of it as long as they're not illegally or illicitly disposing of that that's the obligation of the contractor so in that contract that's for the fence for the hunt fountain park specifically i read it myself you have a physical copy that's when i provided to you in there it is for the disposal of that fences in that contract there's not a requirement for them to show us whether they kept it they reused it they got scrap metal for it they took it to the fort of tampa i have no idea it doesn't matter you're a business you're a businessman all right you uh you're having this done well that's not my point yeah so my point being this is contract that you you read the contract that contract and you specifically said so that that contract was for the money or for the purchase of the of the product and the and the labor for the job and the disposal no there was a separate there was a separate agreement i read on the top the agreement and it says get rid of this uh take take it take the trash off that's all it said it doesn't say anything about yeah so again i don't it's not a q a for me but i just want to provide that information it was all right well i guess judge gonna have to take care of that right yes sir mr beasley i just want to make sure that we've provided all the record public records has been requested yes ma'am i believe so i mean what we have many things get requested of us that we simply don't have but what records have been requested we provided what we believe is the spirit and the intent of the request okay commissioner um troutman also i just wanted to address two comments that were made um number one being removed from the county email um i do not believe that that is the case as we do not remove citizens from email and then also regarding the decisions for the city um in that you there was obviously involvement with the city as they sent a letter about something that they would like to see done at no time were they you know asserting that we were making decisions for them in all areas whether it's the city of lakeland the city of winterhaven the city of davenport we're going to touch boundaries and um we're not making decisions for the city if they want the land then they'll annex it in and then they can make the decisions as they see fit otherwise it's a county land and a county decision i've been serving for eight years and i've never had to have make a decision for the cities any of our cities in the county that's not our jurisdiction but i'm glad you made you brought that up you made that comment okay anything else okay um do we have anybody else that has signed a sheet for this okay so then i close the public hearing and uh we are adjourned thank you