this project um so i think that's important and i and i'll come back and i'll revisit that on rebuttal if um but i do think we would we would propose to include that as a as a condition if this board were to consider approving this project future land use map um i want to talk just a couple minutes this you can see the site it as mr mr the chair pointed out there is just a sliver that's in the industrial the balance is in arr um pursuant to section uh 2.10 literally the introduction to the comprehensive plan the first section of the comprehensive plan it defines a series of specialized uses um that are encouraged in multiple land use classifications it's specifically identified which is fairly unusual non-phosphate mines are specifically identified as a specialized use that are to be considered or permitted in any or all future land use classifications throughout this county so we are not in any way shape or form relying on the the industrial and as you can see those other mines which if i had a little bit of an aerial uh seeing through this future land use map you would see that the most of those mines are also within the agricultural rural residential we have industrial immediately to our west and to our south uh we have uh the the saddleback community um that residential community that's in leisure rec um that's been there for for many many decades uh so you can see the future land use map um also within section 1.25 and policy 1.25 a2 um that specifically calls out where this specializes uses can go and it i specifically identifies that non-phosphate mines sand mines can go in any any and all future land use designations this is a little bit more detail of the surrounding area again ph citrus and the proposed site on the east the yellow is this uh is the yellow is the uh cemec sand mine um you can see this uh there is active mining going both on the north side of highway 60 and the south side of highway 60. you can the the again the slurry is pumped under highway 60. we actually uh had a had the pleasure of working on that project um a little bit we actually reconstructed boy scout road at one point um for uh as part of that project you've got standard sand and silica you've got the vulcan sand mine just to the north off of this site um the the vulcan the vulcan also has a sand mine in the city of lake wales that extends out of around mammoth grove um in in those areas so this area has a long history of sand mining both history and future in this area what have we done um kind of talking about some of the process again this is just to show that we've satisfied section 906 of your lane development code we had a pre-app regarding this project in july of this year we filed our application uh in september of this year we had um we've gone through reviews with staff through your drc process and at the end of the day based on what our request is for this sand mine staff has concluded and those are your experts they're not my experts that your experts have concluded that this request is compatible with the the surrounding area and that's directly out of your staff report these are the primary components of a non-phosphate mine approval i've already talked about these a little bit operation plan reclamation plan post closure plan i'm just going to touch on a few of these things very quickly just for purposes of the record and then when you come back at level two and you do your full engineered site plans you also obtain an operating permit this is the mine plan again highway 60 running east west mammoth grove running north south this blue arrow is pointing to a gray area that is the processing plant that's the only place on this project where the processing can occur it's immediately adjacent to the industrial site intentionally um it is uh and closest to the existing sand mining activities intentionally it is moved as far away from the saddlebag community as possible but you can see there's basically a series of different mine areas and commissioner beltran you you asked the question about the numbers the numbers were more just to label them on the site plan the operator will ultimately decide how in what order they go but um i'll show i have a different exhibit on that but yes those are just kind of you gotta you gotta pick an order of some sort and that's what it was zooming in on the um on the the processing plant the the other places i think we kind of understand what we're doing with the wet dredging and the creation of lakes this is the uh processing area here in the gray zoomed in you got a you've got a access off of mammoth grove road you've got a significant amount of stacking and queuing so we've intentionally moved the facility so that you can get trucks in and off the republic rights away onto the private property um without creating any adverse impacts on mammoth grove road so we've intentionally designed the site to accommodate uh any trucks on site that might show up before our we're open to uh load materials you have an office you have um the the scales and then just kind of the wash plant where the stacking will occur again this is the only permanent point of commercial access there are no other access points um on the site any other access points that are shown in the project or on the mine plans are either underground where we're talking about potentially putting the pipes underground or there might be some sort of a temporary access point if we needed to get in there for a specific issue and again where this is from the easternmost side of the mine location to the westernmost side of saddle the saddleback community that's 3 000 feet significant separation that's six tenths of a mile say again 3 000 feet from where from the eastern the easternmost point of the processing plant to the westernmost point of the saddleback community which is not shown on the screen obviously this is part of our mine plan this just kind of talks about how the how the the mine during the my life of the mine again the setback with the proposed berm um showing the uh mining activity this is not going to go below the confining layer so it's only going to stay it will stay above the the uh confining layer so therefore it's not impacting the aquifer um it's only going to be in that upper level um that's a condition and again kind of just showing the the details of the berm again six foot tall you got a 10 foot wide top so you've got a 50 foot wide berm that will be along every inch of the boundary of this of this property and where we are adjacent to residential that will be 200 200 foot setback this is just an example that just happened to be off of a road right away all in all consistent there's not one not one variance or deviation from your land development code requirements in chapter three this is the reclamation plan again now showing those mined areas basically with blue with water um not you know again just to kind of show that we are complying with your land development code and your requirements these are the setbacks again showing the that same 100 foot setback with a four to one slope uh from the edge of the the setback into the uh mind area and the pool if you will of the lake um once you get below five feet of the water you can go to a steeper um slope and that's all consistent with your lane development code and then this is the post closure plan again showing showing our former uh processing site as some sort of a green space open space for whatever use and then obviously the lakes remaining behind some of the other concerns outside of just what i would consider some um misunderstanding of what this request is uh there were a lot of concerns regarding ground and surface surface waters um transportation and environmental impacts those are my experts that i have here today um i will just run through a few of these issues real quickly um this project at the end of the day will result in a significant reduction in groundwater withdrawals from the upper aquifer i mean from the florida aquifer apologize i'm getting my technical terms mixed up um with this project will have no adverse impacts on the upper florida aquifer and these are conclusions out of mark stephen's report which was submitted as part of our application um our transportation 556 trips per day at max that's at max production which is what we have to analyze that is not the typical um and 556 trips let's just make sure we understand a trip is one time in and one time out is just so really you need to divide that number in two so it's 200 uh it is 268 trucks per day at max production um and it is 20 uh 20 automobile trips which would be our employees or 10 cars a day from an employee perspective um that is really at the end of the day a de minimis uh de minimis amount of traffic uh when we were talking uh earlier uh this week as we were preparing that's like 40 or 50 homes when you think about it at like an eight trip per day home so it's really at the end of the day a very low impact issue and i got a couple more exhibits on that and then we've also completed an environmental analysis of the site uh that's what mr walton did with rodantis he's evaluated the site there is some potential species that need to be addressed gopher tortoises sand skinks things like that um those all really get addressed at level two but we have identified those things and based on what this is potential habitat for uh there are no adverse impacts impact uh identified or anticipated from an environmental species protection type perspective and that's also part of a report that was submitted a little more detail on why this is actually a reduction in in groundwater and surface water use and why it's an improvement today under permit 1232-12392 ph citrus has the ability on average to withdraw a million gallons per day from the florida aquifer for purposes of their agricultural use five million on a on a on a peak month when we convert to mining this will drop from one million gallons per day to 40 000 gallons per day and it will no longer be out of the aquifer it will be out of the superficial aquifer so we are completely will completely eliminate the withdrawal from the florida aquifer which as you know i know mr belt mr beltran knows this probably better than anybody in the state but is you know we are in the swelka we are in the cfwi all of these issues the upper florida aquifer is is of great concern and we are you know this would remove a million gallons per day withdrawal from from that from that use and then move it to the superficial and go down to 40 000 gallons per day so significant reduction in water consumption so the saddlebag community and i read a lot of concerns about us impacting their their potable water well for their community valid concern totally understand they're under permit 6174 they would draw 117 000 gallons per day so significantly less than what ph citrus is doing from the florida aquifer today both of those wells have been operating within the florida aquifer for 25 years at this point and there's been no adverse impacts and now we're talking about removing a million gallons per day from the aquifer that they would draw from that's a net benefit to the to the to the saddlebag community and and what we are now doing or what we will do if this is approved is we won't even be withdrawing from the florida aquifer it will be from this official aquifer so what i what i'm getting at is there's been no adverse impacts we're eliminating a withdrawal from the aquifer that they withdraw from which is a net benefit to the saddlebag community this is just a couple exhibits this is straight off the water management district this shows the historical use of the site from ph citrus so again you can kind of see these are the actual withdrawals going back to 2003 over time this is saddlebags and there's one aberration i have no idea why that data point is off the chart i didn't want to either manipulate the data or nor did i have the time to try and figure that out but you can see they've been operating likely within their permit well at levels well below um what what uh ph citrus was and again they've been fine they have not had any adverse impacts and we're removing that withdrawal to prove the point that what we are doing i went and found the adjacent sand mines water withdrawals this is immediately adjacent to the site this is what the the adjacent sand mine activity is withdrawing and again 35 to 40 000 gallons per day um this is also out of the surficial aquifer not out of floridian aquifer when you go and you look at the details of the permit so this is empirical data that shows that we will not have any adverse impacts on groundwater or surface water now on top of all of that we have to put bizometers all all around our boundary as we go through the mining we're constantly monitoring what groundwater levels are whether they're going up or going down or even test them for um chemicals or you know any pollutants potential pollutants that is a constant requirement that's part of our our erps and our water permits through dep to operate the mine so on top of all just this empirical data we will be as the project if the project's approved and it moves forward we will be monitoring um all around our boundary transportation i've already kind of talked a little bit about this again um 268 trucks uh most of our trucks occur in the morning that's when you're going to see the sand being shipped out so that's why you have 77 a.m peak hour trips and again that's in so if you think about it that's really 38 because it's kind of an in and out sort of thing and this is done at the maximum production it's not done to skew the data in our favor we do this at the highest anticipated output from this site this is just a trip trip generation or tip just trip distribution map again prohibited on mammoth grove road to the north 60 percent going west 40 percent going east um on highway 60 which we already know has a tremendous amount of truck traffic on it today there's been some concerns in the in the uh emails and correspondence that i read regarding uh ability of folks to get in and out of the residential communities um looking specifically at where mammoth grove road is uh accessing highway 60 to our west we are a thousand feet from the access point of the scene and shrine folks they have their own full median access as well so there would be no reason for them to have to come in and get into a conflict uh conflict with the trucks to turn they have they already have full access on highway 60 both east and west um and then you also have 2500 feet to our east the saddlebag community so two and a half times greater uh half a mile away you have their access point that uh again they have their own dedicated full access median cut there so they would not need to come down and use this access point for um to get ingress and egress these both both of those spacings greatly exceed any requirements of polk county or fdot and you can see just this is just happenstance there's already intervening industrial access onto highway 60 between the two projects so this the the this is not an introduction of a new type of vehicle onto highway 60 as a whole or even specifically as it relates to this general vicinity trucks are already out there uh life of the mine uh this is kind of getting to your a little bit more to your question commissioner voltran the life of this mine can if if hypothetically the mine were approved and the processing plant would build in all likelihood you would move immediately to the north that's the closest resource right makes sense just mining that area at the peak production would be 10 years at average what we anticipate as average is 20 years and then as you kind of add up all the time frames between all the different areas of the mine you're looking at anywhere from 30 to 50 years to mine this site this isn't something that happens overnight we we don't go out and we don't disturb the entire area at one time when we're in mine area one we will establish mine area one and we will put the berms and buffers in for that entire section at one time it won't be a constant movement around the site likewise once if mine one is completed and we move to mine two you're looking at going over to mine area two and doing that all at one time and again we've already uh acknowledged and want to include the condition where we will not disturb that tree line so that tree line would stay in place on that side and that's kind of what this mining area uh shows but you are looking at somewhere between 20 uh where's my notes i did the math this potentially taking to 2050 at the earliest to 2076 you know kind of if you're looking depending on how the markets run as the life of this mine so i probably won't be standing here uh at you know at the end of this project maybe shelton will be uh or ryan who's with me this morning but uh not not me so again these are long um burns that's why you see the the the mine immediately to our west with a 1991 original conditional use approval actually goes back further than that looking specifically at the saddleback community leaving this tree line in and this is just a google image um just to kind of demonstrate if you leave all of this tree line in you are going to establish a screening that's as far as 1400 feet away and all of that natural vegetation is fully mature that's the best kind of screening and buffering that you can use as the fully mature buffering leaving that in place um the folks won't be able to see anything on the other side they can't today they can't see across that tree line today um and i think that's a significant um consideration that i think should be included this is an image we took this about three weeks ago um this is standing from at our northeast corner basically saddleback community's northwest corner looking back across directly west into the project and you can see that tree line off in the distance this is a ground level shot this was taken by mr rice um specifically um again to show anything on the other side of that tree line will be completely invisible from the community wrong way so with that i i know i've taken up probably more time i appreciate your patience mr bishop and the rest of the commission uh but i feel like given given what's going on and the number of folks here today i feel like it's important that we uh go through some of that we'll stand for any questions i've got my experts to to the extent there are technical questions that we need to address but otherwise i know there's some folks that want to speak we would request some time at the end to try to be concise and address comments as as possible at one time thank you any questions i have a couple questions um you made it clear that this is not a borrow pit site and showed the scar that that leaves but here in the request it says the applicant is requesting conditional use approval for non-phosphate borrow pit that's in the request why is that in there in the request where i'm looking here page one it says request the very top the very first thing we're looking at are you talking about the staff report yeah staff report sorry it's it's an oversight in terminology the the body of the staff report still accurately describes what mr allen has okay so that will be taken out because i can use where that would would you if the commission would please we can strike any reference to borrow pit out of the staff report for the record yeah especially that's something that came up in some of the emails um as the property stands now um being designated agricultural residential rural what could go there without any approval i could do one to five one one unit per five acre across the entire 825 acres i could do continue to do agriculture uh there's probably some other things that i'm think that i'm forgetting off the top of my head as a permitted by right through the rmd process because of the size of the project uh theoretically i could come in and ask for a pd if there was if i could find a water source um uh i could come in with a pd to get two dwelling units an acre on the gross and cluster it and set aside 50 percent in residential that would require public hearing i'm fully just to be clear i get accused of not saying that all the time that would require a public hearing but that is a possibility as well okay and then my last question one of my concerns having driven highway 60 many times and um boy that's taking your life in your hands just as it stands and the gullies that there are from the tires and the weight of these vehicles at 24 tons i divided the daily trips by two and got 278 and at 24 tons going um daily that 6.675 million tons a day going on highway 60 am i wrong i'm not that great at math but that sounds like a lot of weight going on that road i had it at 6400 tons a day based on my math okay um in as a daily production and one of the things that's a requirement of of these non-phosphate mines is we have to put in a bond and as part of the requirements so we have to put in a bond for maintenance for road improvements as it relates to road frontages and access points and things like that so that if there is damage from the road there is a bond for somebody to go back and draw down on to make any improvements or that are required we also have basically um requirements to go out and make sure that we're not spilling or leaving dust and sand as the trucks come out of the as the trucks come out of the mine make sure that the roadways are clean as well so those those kinds of requirements are built into the conditional use and taken into account okay thank you and bart that bond is exclusive to their access point and the perimeter of the property so it doesn't it's not we we can't bond out the world correct commissioner i got you okay just to clarify yeah yeah yeah i have a question a follow-up question i guess you you're saying that you have to go where the resource is and i understand that so you're here because there's i guess quality sand here but is it fair to say there's quality sand in most places along the lake wells ridge i mean you you're here because your client has made a proposition to purchase this land i can assume it's under contract or whatever and i'm well i'm just saying are there other places that mines could go because the resource is there as well along the lake wells ridge there are limited resources that quality dot quality sand and within our region um you can't just because we're on the ridge doesn't mean that everything in the ridge is uh dot quality sand so you have to go out and you have to prospect and you have to do all of those sorts of things to determine where that material is um my client owns this land ph centers has owned this land for some time they are historically agricultural in nature but as we've all seen with citrus and greening and the secondary uses of what agricultural land can be start having start coming into more into play and um you're looking at kind of what is the next use of what was previously an orange grove into uh these types of uses so there is obviously sand all along this ridge but you can't say just because it's in the ridge that it's got a good resource on it sorry i was i was lost i would say that all agricultural owners are looking at secondary use of their land and all options are on the table understood thank you all right um in your plan it states that no trucks to or from north on mammoth grove road how are you going to implement that so that they don't go north on mammoth grove out to masterpiece and then down timberlane to get to wherever they want to be it would be through signage and then obviously you know to the extent that somebody does not comply it would effectively become a code enforcement slash sheriff issue for you know any sort of um enforcement significantly off the site but it would be through signage and direction from from the operators within the plant no further questions i've got a couple of questions so bart you spoke about the existing wells that were on site so those wells are not going to be transferred to another use or any sorts of type you are permanently retiring that would be yes we have not had any we have not intended to transfer anything is that a condition on our approval or i know we normally wouldn't do something like that but i'm just asking i don't see any reason that's typically what we do with sand mines typically the only time i get in a transfer of wells uh is more on a residential project where the local water provider is trying to uh increase their permit so no okay thank you and then can you describe a little bit so i'm just kind of looking at the elevations on the mining plan and i do appreciate the fact that you guys are willing to maintain that tree line i think that'll be a huge buffer and a benefit overall so does that mean that this plan gets revised or does it get revised during level two or how does that process work i would ask for a condition that basically says that the hardwood tree stand if and there might be a better natural existing natural buffer remain in place along the eastern boundary of the property and then when we come in with level two our level two plans with the detailed engineering analysis would have to comply with that condition and your and your staff would enforce it you're okay i got a couple other ones sorry roadway and i'm sorry mr smith go ahead roadway improvements in and out of the processing plant based on the trip generation there's really not any anticipated one thing that i didn't note in my comments just kind of skipped over it when you look at highway 60 there's actually an existing right diesel lane off of highway 60 into mammoth grove road so that improvement's already in place that would probably be the biggest area but the traffic study would ultimately identify those but none are anticipated in and out of the processing plan itself you guys don't see driveway aprons and things like that but no turn lanes and things of that and part of that consideration is we're providing for all that stacking on site so we're going to let them you know we don't need to worry too much historically this was an agricultural facility about the same amount of trucks less more i'd hate to speculate commissioner beltran but certainly with the you know grove operations you're going to have grove trucks in and out of there you're going to have the the those folks and then there's been watermelons uh since as as the groves have been pushed for the most part um so yes there's definitely trucks in and out of here whether or not it's comparable or not i'd hate the specific areas um i guess one final thing is when you guys are prepping the land for a mining area obviously the first five ten feet whatever need to be dug out the berms need to be done that's all going to be operated but you know trucks and things like that and then you go to this mechanical process i think you mentioned it was electric yes so very quiet very low scribe is that it's a mechanical dredging or it it's a it's a it's a hydraulic dredging so it'll be the dredging actually occurs underwater um and where the you know once you create the once you do that initial layer and you create the berms and that overburden is used to create the the perimeter berming that we discussed right and then that's landscaped and fenced for security for everybody and then um and then the dredging actually occurs in the water underground and it is hydraulically piped back to the plant so they're so once that land is prepped and the dredging begins all those heavy vehicles are gone are gone right so it's a temporary thing temporary thing thank you one more question um looking at the northeast corner behind the tree line is it safe to assume that that would never be mined that's still up for debate it would be a financial decision at that point that's a small little area whether or not it would make sense to to move the dredge and take do that expense i don't know that would be an operator decision but we have not taken that my my condition wouldn't take that off the table okay we would just leave the the buffer the the berming and all would go on the outside of that area so you'd still have the berm out there to for the visual screen but yes mr chairman if mr chairman over here sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry um if if i may um add a comment even i were chatting about um uh miss sim's comment about state road 60 state road 60 is part of this strategic intermodal system for state for dot and it's um relative to the state's economy and mobility it's on the on the website so um it's certainly part of um the movement of goods and services throughout the state of florida it does state road 60 does connect east coast and the west coast of the state of florida um it's also certainly on the um forefront of the polk transportation planning organizations thought about how its capacity is going to be maintained going forward it's within their current plan that's going to get adopted by the tpo next tuesday and will continue to be in their updates to their plans that they have every five years so the capacity of state road 60 is always going to be um something that's important to um the county thank you mr smith did you have a question earlier seem like a half question oh i'd go in there i'll um just decide whether this is compatibility in general so i'll just okay with that i will open the um meeting for public comment but before we hear from anybody i want to ask our attorney if she would remind us all about the uh testimony that you would give and uh about it needing to be competent substantial evidence sure thank you mr chair and um commissioner smith actually led me right into it um we're here today to focus on consistency and compatibility um and substantial competent evidence as i mentioned in my opening comments um can be citizen testimony as long as it's fact-based um and it may include testimony regarding subjective matters that do not require expertise such as aesthetic and compatibility of a project with the surrounding neighborhood um it does not include fear or um speculation about um increased traffic crime um and the engineering drainage those things that um do require expert testimony um and then also um the commission um is going to hear all of the comments but we want to make sure um we're not being redundant um so if you could please um limit your comments to anything new that hasn't been said that would be greatly appreciated thank you are there anyone is there anyone here that would speak in favor of this application seeing no one um i have a request uh from the saddlebag lake owners association that they be allowed to give their presentation uh by virtue of i think i counted 13 different people who want to speak on specific topics and i would remind everybody that we have a three-minute limitation and i would ask the board uh their preference if they would like to honor that request and hear from those uh people with a association in order or do we just open it up mr chairman yes sir i do believe this is probably polk county governance is its finest um where this many people show up for a meeting whatever the subject um i for one welcome your presence and i would be more than pleased to hear your comments i don't live in your area i don't drive your roads i don't i i'm not in that area i live plumb on the other side of the county but um for those reasons i am always interested in hearing what the citizenry has to say um not i don't think any of us are up here to just solely and and only address the interests of um commercial uh but the citizenry as well and so i would like to hear whatever they have to say so i will give my time to well i i guess what i'm saying is that the request is that the association representatives come first and then we open then anybody else can come uh after following them and i have this request from them and i i am inclined to accept that i don't know how the board i want to be sure that the board is agreeable with that you need a motion to that effect yeah it would help i still moved clarification if i could mr yes yes is the request that they are combining their time to do a presentation or are they individually coming up and speaking they're individually coming up and speaking and and they're prioritizing the order i'm fine with that too i mean it's it's as if we open it up and they came up but they they're giving us you're going to call them out they're giving us an order of presentation and they have the same three minutes that they would have other individually yeah right okay i have a motion in a second to uh in agreement with that now all in favor signify by saying aye aye okay so that being said and with the uh comments from our uh attorney uh please uh do not try to not repeat what's been already uh offered in the way of testimony and the first presentation we have is terry and if anyone has not been sworn in um and wishes to speak if you'd please just let us know before you start speaking we can get that taken care of and it it would be helpful too in terms of timing if those who are speaking uh if you know the order that you've been asked to speak in if you would line up on the the wall over here so that we wouldn't take time for people to uh to come and and back and forth i mean i'm trying to save us time here so if you would just line up there and you can come forward as uh in order if you if you know your order good morning my name is bruce liberty i am the chairman of the technology committee for saddlebag and i'm also a resident if i may i'd like to introduce a really brief video that provides an overview of our community as well as highlighting some of the concerns that uh that we have so that's with that okay are you terry i'm terry okay so is the time being reset that wasn't part of my time right that is part of that will be part of your time pardon me that will be part of your time right well no i'm so sorry i'm so sorry that was it my apologies yeah yes okay now we're now we're ready to go were you sworn in yes okay and name and address thank you okay good morning my name is terry ruff uh 13 ginger quill circle in saddlebag i am the secretary of the board of directors of the saddlebag like owners association and a second generation owner in the saddlebag community my wife's parents purchased our property 50 years ago and my wife and i have witnessed the evolution of saddlebag into the vibrant community it is today one of the oldest and most established 55 plus communities in polk county all 787 saddlebag owners individuals and families own their land and pay polk county residential taxes they do not however take advantage of all polk county services as we maintain our own water and sewer systems and it is rare that we send a student to polk county schools our community is dismayed by the lack of consideration and respect that was shown to our owners with the short notice that we received for this hearing the letter we received was issued on november the 14th 2025 as indicated on it but was not postmarked by the the county internal postage meter until friday november the 21st less than the two weeks required for the mailing of the notice of this hearing owners began to receive their letters on wednesday november the 26th this one was received on december the 1st the day before the shutdown for the thanksgiving celebration it left little time for an in-depth study of the 113 page polk county development review committee staff report and the preparation of a detailed response to it this lack of consideration left many saddlebag owners skeptical about the openness of the polk county planning commission to receiving meaningful feedback from its residents many of whom are voters you will notice however that our saddlebag community has come out in force to have its voice heard and there's been lots of input we have hundreds of signatures on the petition the one thing that um i would have to point out is that i think that the planning commission should be concerned about what was called an uh oversight uh the letter clearly said uh borrow pit and a lot of our research in a very short time of uh amount of time uh was on borrow pits uh we will now proceed with the official presentation of the saddlebag lake owners association after the conclusion of my introduction a succession of 12 saddlebag board members owners and management members will detail the many aspects of the rationale of our strong opposition to the conditional use approval for a borrower or the mining operation abutting our community this presentation will also highlight errors and emissions in the staff report and the incompatibility of the borrow pit of the proposed um mining all right and then i'm finished okay thank you and uh dan claus is our president he's speaking you can come to this to this put him right there thank you my name is daniel claus i'm the president of saddlebag lake association owners association and i live at 109 saddlebag trail inside saddlebag lake resort uh so good morning i thank you for allowing me to speak i'd like to take up the subject of uh our water table while this land is being used as a grove an average daily approximately was 186 000 gallons of water drawn out per day that's based on their maximum usage per month that was listed at 5 million they're saying now that they're going to lose 30 000 gallons of water a day so if we're losing this how do we make it up because that's a total of 10 million 950 000 gallons of water a year we can't simply say that it's going to be made up from lakes and retention ponds on on the on the property because that's a true fallacy all water that falls through rainfall goes towards our aquifer and our water table our community relies solely on two shallow wells this application in this application we did not see any reports or studies that address this our wells are approximately 4 000 feet from their proposed property our other neighboring community south shore well is less than 800 feet from the mining operation this community received zero notice because they are over 500 foot away if either of these communities loses our drinking water we are done the one thing i would like to point out is that not only do we have the possibility of losing our drinking water supply but if we're getting ground sediment from the depletion of the water table then we are also in danger of losing our septic system of which is over 50 years old it does have some failures in it we do have some problems with it and we are in the process of starting a multi-million dollar project to rejuvenate our sewer system so again i want to thank you and i would like to ask you to help us protect saddlebag thank you very much thank you for hearing us um my name is chuck vonderharm at 18 gray fox saddlebag lake there at lake wales florida i'm the president of the saddlebag lake fishing club and for years we've maintained all of our residents have worked relentlessly to to protect and maintain our lake we stopped unnecessary broad herbicidal spraying we targeted in only invasive weeds and we stocked thousands of fish to rebuild the natural ecosystem of our lake lake the university of florida's lake watch program has selected saddlebag lake for its outstanding water clarity they were the model lake that they had at their thing right here in bartow a month ago well in september a few months back we have done the right things we've done them consistently now all that work is in uh under a direct threat the proposed sand pit would drain water from every every single day from the uh water table that sustains our lake that is a daily extraction capable of lowering the water table enough to break our lake into two separate pieces it if that happens our years of environmental recovery will be erased overnight the lake is only 330 feet from the edge of their their pit and uh their sand pit and that's considering that it would be 60 feet out from our fence row um once they once they reach the level they got to dig down and then suck water out of there okay as soon as they dig as deep as the level of our lake is our our natural water table is going to reverse direction and start pouring it into their pit away from our lake ask any plumber things run downhill and uh water runs downhill it's going to run towards that burrow i've gone to the two mines and visited them in our local area there that are operating and those mines the water level in those mines are probably 30 feet 25 to 30 feet below the surface of the surface of the dirt surrounding them and our lake is only feet you know maybe 10 feet lower than where they're going to be operating and that'll be that out that our water table will be shifting towards those burrow pits and uh so those those that's something we're just tremendously concerned about uh also once that water level drops we can't get into our boat canals we can't get into our docks we can't get into our uh our new brand new boat ramp we just put in it'll be lowered so thank you for your times please consider this you're affecting a lot of people's lives thank you thank you sir good morning commissioners my name is janet edwards i live at seven gray hackle in saddlebag lake resort i'm here today to speak for the wildlife that has no voice in this chamber the land surrounding saddlebag lake is home to federally threatened and florida endangered species wood stark wood wood stork little blue heron bald eagles great horned owls the list goes on and on species that depend on this land for essential feeding breeding and nesting habitat residents have documented all of these species along this property line the florida endangered scrub pigeon wing has also been identified within the project area yet the applicant has submitted no species survey no habitat map no avoidance plan and no mitigation strategy a 65 year mine would bring continuous traffic lighting and habitat fragmentation all conditions incompatible with stable breeding and foraging environments under state and federal guidance projects near threatened species must include a thorough biological assessment precisely because wildlife habitats are not dirt they're not empty spaces on a map they are living breathing ecosystems in this case protected and regulated on this hat if this habitat is destroyed the wildlife that has existed for generations and that we have enjoyed and lived with will disappear on behalf of all these species from the majestic bald eagle to the lowly purple flowered scrub pigeon wing i ask you to follow state and the federal guidance and respectfully deny this petition thank you good morning commissioners bruce brookshire 14 gray hackle street today i want to highlight an important fact that has been missing from the discussion saddlebag lake is not just a residential community we are also a reliable economical contributor to the pope county every single year saddlebag resort generates 1.7 million dollars in direct economic activity that flows into pope county workers services are all concluded this is not projected impact or future potential this is money already flowing into the local economy here's how it looks 750 thousand dollars a year goes into payroll supporting lake local employees and employees and their families in fact we have more employees than the proposed mine two hundred and forty three thousand dollars spent on parts and supplies purchased directly from pope county businesses two hundred and thirty one thousand dollars in utilities supporting essential county and regional infrastructure a hundred and seventy nine thousand paid to local service providers from contractors to maintenance companies these contributors these contributors add stability and strength to pope county's economy year after year and there's more saddlebag lake has been contributing to pope county's tax base for more than 50 years and we do so without asking for special incentive or taxpayer funded support when you add all this together saddlebag lake contributes nearly 2.7 million every year to pope county's economy and public services and that does not include the money that saddlebag resort residents spends on groceries restaurants gas entertainment utilities medical services and supplies all these purchases made by 1267 residents saddlebag lake residents is a stable sustainable multi-million dollar partner we ask that you protect our value and deny constitutional use of application ldcu 2025-29 the conditional loose use approval is consistent with comp prevent is approval because conditional plan policy 2.125 g2 where non-phosphate mining is allowed only for compatible and existing law land uses and where adverse impacts to adjacent land uses are minimal that's untrue thank you good morning commissioners my name is tanisha schroeder my address is 7471 red grange boulevard and indian lake estates and i have been a licensed real estate agent in the state of florida since 2009 i am also a licensed community community association manager for the saddlebag community since 2010 although my main focus for saddlebag is the management aspects of the community i am here to present the facts of the negative real estate value effects that a sand mine would have on the community now that this mine proposal is public it qualifies as external obsolescence that means it is a material fact that must be disclosed to every future buyer florida law does not allow us to hide it failing to disclose exposes sellers agents and brokers to liability under florida statute chapter 193 and established appraisal standards homes adjacent to industrial activity are recognized as having external depreciation appraisers must reduce valuations accordingly and the data is very clear on that in comparable florida communities located next to sand mines adjacent homes experienced five to thirty percent reduction in value buyers cited noise dust trucks and visual impacts homes took longer to sell and attracted fewer barriers and boundary homes were formally classified as affected by external obsolescence saddlebag community is not one mile away many of the homes are just hundreds of feet from this mine saddlebag would be among the most heavily affected neighborhoods in this proposed site plan local real estate professionals agree saddlebag homeowners will face immediate and long-term value loss and this disclosure obligation will depress sales the moment the mine is approved as an example for homeowners with 150 000 property a 15 loss is 22 500 and 30 loss which is common next to mines is 45 000 that is financial harm to the sellers the application includes no property value analysis no economic impact study and no acknowledgement of the financial damage to the saddlebag retirement community commissioners saddlebag homeowners deserves economic protection this is not about real estate commissions these are facts of a real estate impact being communicated by a real estate agent for the support of the community florida law recognizes these impacts real estate agents recognize them these the market recognizes them for these reasons i respectfully ask that you deny this application thank you hello commissioners i'm scott siller 37 ginger column the vice president of the association i'm also a retired police officer in my career as a police officer i filed for several search warrants part of those search warrants it's important to be factual if you're not and they find misleading information you can lose your entire case under the fruits of the poisonous tree doctrine i think that you've seen some smoke and mirrors already just at the start of this hearing but i want to discuss a couple of things that i found in the report one thing is in their site plan they reference three streets mammoth grove saint anne catherine and uh rattlesnake they indicate in their report that mammoth grove is 24 feet wide we went out and measured that road as 20 it's 19 feet 8 inches 100 yards from from 60 rattlesnake and saint anne catherine they reference those at 22 feet we measure them at 19 9 and 20 feet um and as miss commissioner sims indicated um highway 60 and i understand that's a major thoroughfare but this location specifically is incompatible with this mining operation you have a blind curve on westbound traffic or eastbound traffic and westbound traffic are coming up a hill the reaction time from both those locations at mammoth grove is seconds um another thing that was mentioned in the uh staff report they assert that uh we are compatible with the surrounding area because the residential density is very sparse and therefore the intensity of the non-phosphate mine is not anticipated to adversely affect nearby citizens i find this assertion uh concerning the reality of saddlebag lake is 1267 people there's 38 cities in polk county we're bigger than six of them we have 787 homes that puts our uh population density at 5.6 which according to polk county standards i believe is medium density definitely not very sparse the inaccurate misleading information in their report that matters the decision must be based on accurate honest data not outdated descriptions that fail to recognize the true density of the community that will be mostly affected thank you we replace the screen oh i'm sorry i'm speaking it was referred to staff to uh bring the place the uh aerial back up thank you sir uh good morning commissioners my name is larry prickett and i reside at eight queen of waters um saddlebag lake resort um i am one of the ones that got the the the notice of the barrel pit and i am not behind the tree line on the map but um anyways uh our community is comprised of entirely of seniors for us rapid response time is not an option it is a matter of life and death according to the applicant's impact study or in impact assessment the proposed operation will generate 500 plus truck trips per day traveling to the mine site these trucks will use mammoth road road a narrow road while never designed for industrial traffic of the scale measurements are less than 21 feet while deity guidelines state industrial roads should be 12 feet or wide a lane and 24 total this already substantial substandard road is located just a short distance from the only entrance or exit to saddlebag lake our older residents often drive more cautiously and at slower speeds and may have reduced reaction times and limited visibility according to 100 introduce hundreds of fully loaded trucks adjacent to our soil access point creates significant unacceptable safety hazards the applicant also states on page 15 at 25 that no roadway improvements are planned for the next five years that means no mitigation for known safety deficiency on mammoth grove road the absence of analysis does not mean the risk is low it just means that they're unmeasured or unmitigated i also want to speak from some of my personal experience i spent part of my career as a heavy truck driver with a cdl and based on that i can give first-hand knowledge and confidently say that is an extremely hazardous location for a mine entrance the combination of limited limited visibility high-speed traffic in a narrow roadway and a senior population makes this proposal uh incompatible with the existing road conditions additionally i'd like to refer reference specific deficiencies related to ldc 30803 which requires mitigation of traffic impacts the mine generates 500 plus truck trips per day this the traffic study is deficient that there is no analyst analyst analyst of truck breaking and acceleration noise near the resident address no analyst of early morning noise between 5 and 7 a.m no analyst of roadway deterioration on mammoth road which directly fronts our community and no turning movement or site distance analysis to our entrance because of these initial emissions uh the conditional use per permit fails to meet ldc 303 traffic mitigation requirements in closing i'd like to thank everyone and on behalf of the residents i respect you that you deny this thank you thank you sir good morning commissioners my name is chad lancaster my address is 152 north anoka avenue amon park florida 33825 i am the facilities manager for the wonderful community of saddlebag i want to address the comparison being made between this application and the story road mine approved in 1991 with respect that comparison simply does not hope what are not we are not the same as story road in 1991 story road was truly rural area homes were scattered population was sparse and the county's own documents described it exactly that way a very few residents lived anywhere near that proposed mine saddlebag lake resort today is the exact opposite we are truly a thriving senior active community but the most important point here is that the story road mine did not remain what was in 1999 1991 since its approval story road mine has been expanded and modified repeatedly in 2000 2004 2006 and 2012 and the most recent modification cu 91-09m expanded it all the way to mammoth grove road what began as a relatively small operation has grown into more than 2200 acres that history matters because it shows that a mine approval is not the end it's just the beginning and if story road grew from a modest pit to over 2200 acres what do you think can happen with an application that already starts at 855 once a mine is approved expansions become easier because the justification becomes it's already an existing mine allowing this mine beside a dense senior community opens the door to decades of expansion exactly what happens at story road we cannot absorb that we are not vacant land we are not sparse population we are not story road president cannot override two things being so different in nature the commissioners in 1991 made a decision based on the conditions of their time you must make a decision based on today's conditions and the long-term consequences that will follow for these reasons i ask you respectfully deny the application for this wonderful community thank you reset my time yes i'm gonna run out oh there we go all right danny 45 beaver kill saddlebag i've been in the explosive industry for 20 years i've been around mining operations i've been on on the other side unfortunately i'm on the other side now but they they didn't say anything about sediment ponds what they're going to do with their wastewater any contaminated water are they going to put it back in the ground you know where's it going to go are they going to dump it in the creek somewhere you know pump it out into a creek i mean that's one of the one of the big questions i have um where the sediment where the sediment ponds are going to be located for their source of water then another question they say there's not going to be any heavy equipment but they're going to build berms they're going to be fixing berms loaders have backup alarms they're allowed so heavy get it up there i can see it heavy loaders run 85 to 95 decibels backup alarms are 97 to 100 decibels the watering pumps where if they have to pump out one of the sludge ponds or sediment ponds that's 80 to 90 continuous decibels m shaw requires hearing uh protection 85 uh decibels that means much of the equipment used at this mine will operate above m shaw's level where hearing protection becomes required but what does that leave us if they're if they're getting up there and it's all flat ground and you got a you got a backup alarm and you can you can hear a trash truck backup alarm okay i've heard one it was actually wasn't even in our saddlebag so just consider how loud that is and what we're going to be dealing with on a day-to-day basis so i want to thank you for your time good morning commissioners my name is pamela larson and my husband and i are permanent residents of saddlebag lake resort in lake wales before i do my presentation i need to share two important notes that have came out from this morning's presentation first our tree line that they're referencing is supposed to somehow help us is not dense i can shake your hand through many portions of that that is completely false secondly please also keep in mind in that presentation nowhere is it said that there is no dust from this my family has been here for three generations since saddlebag lake resort was established this staff report assesses that story road as said is comparable we have 800 homes and it also not only is that a false uh part of it but it's a blatant omission that there are no health risks associated at all in their report it's completely left out the health impacts this request will cause is undeniable respirable crystalline silica dust a substance that the cdc and the niosh classify as a human carcinogen will be continuously released according to the american lung association silica exposure is responsible for lung cancer heart disease stroke copd tb asthma chronic bronchitis oxygen reliance and heat sensitivity and most especially silicosis which is an irreversible lung disease caused by silica dust entering the lungs that cannot be removed there is no cure and the only solution is for us and anyone else to not breathe it the world health organization confirms silica exposure increases mortality risk even at levels below osha limits the up to 20 employees that will be working at this sand mine will have to wear ppe equipment yet our 1267 residents have nothing to protect us but each of you that we are here to speak with today the florida department of health confirms that silica particles can stay suspended for hours and travel well beyond property lines no matter how long the feet are and silica dust travels through hvac systems this conditional use application has no no health impact assessment no air quality modeling no particulate dispersion study no silica dust analysis no diesel emissions calculations no lake crossing pollutant modeling and no evaluation of silica concentrations polk county's land development code requires that applicants demonstrate protection of public health and without that air quality analysis their application is incomplete the the serious health risk of this are grounded in medical science cdc niosh world health organization osha american lung association and the florida department of health i implore each of you to reject this if this was backing up to your own backyard where your parents live where your kids and grandkids would play we are your most valuable resource we are thank you all hello my name is tony latham i live at seven saddlebag trail north lake wales florida i have the privilege of pastoring the church at saddlebag there it is a non-denominational church i've been there for over six years we have over 200 active members i want to start with a question all of you probably at one time or another have had to lift a bulky heavy couch it's not easy to do it by yourself but when somebody grabs the other side it makes it a lot easier that's what community partnership is it's strengthen your community and that's exactly what saddlebag lake community and our saddle saddlebag lake community churches is we're partners in your community to help strengthen it in saddlebag lake community we have residents and members of our church that have been teachers nurses business owners construction workers engineers men and women who have faithfully and proudly served in the military they have brought their skills their wisdom and experience and their wealth of knowledge with them as they've moved here and they now freely give that back to our community right here in the city of lake wales as partners those that help lift the burdens they help strengthen our city's support system at no cost to taxpayers every year our church donates thousands of dollars and contributes hundreds of volunteer hours and organizes ongoing food collections and works alongside of organizations such as the lake wales care center hillcrest elementary school polk avenue elementary school hurricane relief efforts and many many more as partners in our community our church helps create a safer more connected community where people look out for each other this is a year-round weekly worship service grief counseling fellowship events support groups mental health services and simple acts of kindness this is our home this is where we live this is where we worship and most importantly this is where we serve we respectfully uh ask today that if you choose uh if you choose in favor of the sand mine uh we want to let you know that you potentially could be hurting um that's that hand that that helps strengthen the community um you're voting to eliminate one of the longest standing hardest working and most supportive partners in building this beautiful community that we all love this decision affects far more than land it affects people i remember as the gentleman said just a few minutes ago that when this mine closes in 20 years he probably still wouldn't be here and i thought that's probably true when 20 years from now probably most of the people sitting here in suits won't be here but guess what will be there still will be hurting children and starving kids in the community of lake wales those that we've already been helping from the resources that come from the saddlebag lake community and the saddlebag lake community church uh christmas is coming up several of them are going to be opening presents that were gifted by people in our community and those kids 20 years from now there will still be another generation of kids that have need for food and need for presents on christmas morning those people won't be here but guess who will be it'll be the saddlebag lake community so thank you for your support today we hope that you look and see it our way god bless you good morning before i start i have a question um we tried really really hard to get a lawyer here today and she couldn't make it but she has sent some notes and i'm asking your indulgence that i could read what she has sent that's that's fine you want to read those in addition to your comments yes okay miss please can i ask yes just a clarification from the attorney maybe um i'm hearing a lot of different factual things being presented here are have we been provided expert testimony resumes or anything along those lines from from any of these witnesses we've been listening to i really appreciate the comments i just want to understand yeah yeah no um unless anyone wants to tender themselves as a witness right now we're considering this um lay person testimony um so not unless anyone has a resume or request to be qualified as an expert witness and they could certainly tender themselves to the board um i have been hearing substantial competent evidence from realtors from police officer from truck drivers people that are have experience and expertise in their field well and they're just standing to speak mr schmidt i appreciate your comment that's my exact question yes sir is it sounds like i'm hearing stuff from real estate professionals i'm hearing about hydrology i'm hearing about species my real question is what is the source of that information are they right and florida law is clear um that in order to be considered a substantial competent as evidence on technical matters that i've read previously we have to be tendered as an expert witness um and things like property values florida law has clear case laws clearly stated is not substantial competent evidence to determine compatibility and consistency i know um of course we're indulging um and we appreciate everyone being here today but um my comments stand for what the board can consider um under current florida law yeah my whole discussion is just to be sure that we're getting the right facts and we're protecting their rights and if they have that i'd love to see it i have spoken with my personal attorney and she told me that experiential evidence the best evidence eyewitness experiential evidence is the best wit is the best evidence you'll ever present in any court of law okay it carries more weight more strength when when people that are eyewitnesses or have experience with whatever the circumstance is they speak they speak from their own experience and that carries more weight than than any expert to other expert testimony so and i don't disagree with you mr schmidt um as i said in my opening comments and repeated again um personal experience is considered competent substantial evidence i think um the question was about technical matters such as um drainage hydrology hydrology that right that's not stopping distances i'm hearing but i agree with the personal experience i agree with you too i just want to i mean well that's i mean the whole reason we're here is to hear from eyewitnesses and people that are actually being uh potentially impacted or affected by this uh i i not hate to interrupt and it's unusual for me to stand up during public comment and i don't think i ever have done it before in 18 years of practicing but i do think for purposes of the record i'm i have to strenuously object to what mr commissioner schmidt was just talking about he is now going outside the bounds of the guidance of the board that he was appointed to getting counsel and advice and i believe he should be recused from any any consideration on this hearing for purposes for purposes for purposes of for purposes of for purposes of him going outside the bounds and considering things that are not being presented at this hearing i think it's completely um outside the bounds and i would i am going on record he it will obviously be a decision of this board but i believe he should recuse himself i will not thank you sir and my comments with my own attorney are mine okay i can ask them anything i want and i asked them about it a year and a half ago it has nothing to do with this okay okay do you disagree no thank you for the clarification if it's not specific um to this case um and and again to clarify that i agree um with the general notion that um eyewitness experience can be considered competent substantial evidence but my my objection remains and i agree and i agree with your position on the actual conclusion of law i don't have an issue with that what i do have an issue with is very clearly mr schmidt going on the record saying he's been considering outside material and evidence that was not presented here today and guidance on the law is the comment from the attorney is it lengthy or is it short um i'll try to make it as short as i can please but you know lawyers and it does i'm sorry it does no i'm not offended but it does need to be limited to three minutes can you can you submit that to us yes we'd be more than happy to submit it in writing to you if you would prefer it that way if you can have copies we just need to make sure we furnish the applicant um as well as the board yeah i think we can give it yeah go ahead and briefly let me just give you the the titles tell us what the attorney said okay let's go first of all i'm judy crawford i'm the treasurer of saddlebag lake lake lake owners association and i live at 16 beaver kill in saddlebag her this is quote oh let me just tell you her name is lisa reeves she's senior attorney at becker and polyakov but where are they what's is you have an address for them oh shoot is it a city it would actually be better just because she's not here um if you want to submit anything i don't know if she's an affected party or she's speaking on behalf of the homeowners but if you could if we could just get copies and we'll submit that and then if you just give your personal um we retained her yesterday that's how fast we got this can you imagine that's why she's not here okay okay let me just give you her high points okay due process objections not all residents within 400 feet association owns three parcels you know what i'm going to skip that part comprehensive plan objection she is objecting to the conditional use approval is inconsistent with comprehensive plan policy 2.125-g2 approval violates policy 4.400 definition of compatibility the approval fails comprehensive plan policy 2.125-g2 failure to minimize external impacts noise dust and visual the approval fails the approval fails comprehensive plan policy 2.125-g2 mining cannot make property impractical for future use land development code objections land development code ldc 303 criteria for conditional use requires a finding of compatibility which is not met ldc 303 requires mitigation of traffic impacts not met ldc 906 point d point seven level three review requires planning commission consideration of intensity noise and traffic ldc 620 wetlands insufficient evidence of wetland protection special objections based on adjacency to saddlebag lake owners association failure to analyze residential health and safety the hall route and seven access points create a cumulative noise and safety risk visual impacts were ignored hydrological impacts to saddlebag lake are not evaluated procedural objections record lack substantial competent evidence required for conditional use approval and then she has conclusions that's just her high points now you can start with my three minutes okay the conditional use approval for the mammoth grove fit mine fails to comply with the polk county comprehensive plan and land development code particularly cp policies 2.125-g2 4.400 ldc 303 620 and 906.d.7 because the mine is immediately adjacent to a 790 unit residential pud the applicant has the heightened burden to demonstrate compatibility and the record clearly does not support such a finding therefore the board of directors met and have unanimously approved appealing the approval of this application should you take that action today we hope that won't be necessary as we strongly believe that a denial is warranted for previously mentioned reasons specifically to the comprehensive plan policies of the county we also feel it is important to outline possible contingencies that we are open to discuss so long as they properly mitigate the effects to the community our number one contingency would be to remove the parcel immediately adjacent to the saddlebag property this would mitigate immediate harm to the community and would alleviate the infrastructure concerns of the community leaving traffic and health concerns remaining to be addressed if removing the parcel is not agreed upon at the following items to protect the infrastructure would be discussed in order to protect our infrastructure we request the following move the setback from saddlebag property line to approximately 600 feet west or even push the entire project further to the west towards cmex we are asking for well monitoring groundwater monitoring water quality testing which would need to include checkpoints around the perimeter which i think was mentioned this morning monthly reporting being sent to regulatory agencies and a copy sent to the saddlebag office the applicant must follow all stipulations of the new permit we're asking for a surety bond of a minimum of a hundred million dollars to cover water sewer sinkhole roads etc we're concerned about the noise levels and are requesting the following limit hours of operation to 7 a.m from 7 a.m to 5 p.m Monday to Friday instead of Monday to Saturday make hours of operations binding noise monitors on the property line not to exceed 60 decibels noise buffering barrier not made of dirt but something more substantial plus using a new tree line the full length of the saddlebag saddlebag fence we are concerned about light pollution and we are requesting minimal lighting that is not invasive minimal lighting to protect the protected and endangered species that we know are on the land in this area because we have witnessed it traffic is a serious concern and we ask the following and i'm almost finished build an interior private road behind citrus process plant exit exit and enter at story road add a stoplight at story road if the above is not agreed to but decide to use mammoth road then add a stoplight at mammoth road due to the poor sight line and curve in the road that will create dangerous conditions in order to protect the air quality request silica monitoring along the property line next to saddlebag property with monthly reporting this monitoring needs to be done by an independent source okay i'm my last line commissioners and mr crockett we are prepared to sit down and discuss all of the above thank you thank you for indulging my extra time hi i'm sorry i'm back um you had asked for us to come forward to be sworn in as experts oh yeah were you not sworn in before i was sworn here but you asked for them for us to stand up and be sworn in as experts and i had the real estate uh license and community association manager license so i don't know how that works do you have a resume i'm not physically here but and is there anything in your testimony other than property values um because that is florida law is clear that property values aren't considered competent substantial evidence no ma'am okay i'm sorry i think that we're good thank you though thank you for coming back up i um are you sworn in yes okay um my name is hillary grondon i am a lifelong resident of st and shrine road i've lived there for 16 years my family owns multiple properties at st and shrine for more than 50 years our roots in this community run deep and we are profoundly about preserving the safety and history and integrity of this place we originally told there were going to be borough pits there is no way to access our homes without driving through those borough pits or whatever they are going to be now um just to give you a little bit of history saint and shrine is a cherished pilgrim site built in the 1920s by french canadian settlers the visitors come miles away to experience the quiet grotto and the healing spring waters these remnants are maintained by us the neighbors who value the history and the spirit of the sacred place i have many concerns about the boroughs being at the end of our road our water supply and spring fred lake is at risk there's only one narrow dead end road leading to the shrine and it ends directly at a lake any disruption contamination or lowering of the water table caused by excavation could permanently damage our drinking water and the health of our spring fed ecosystem our homes are nearly a hundred years old my personal home was built in 1927 many of our homes were out there were built in the early 1920s continuous heavy vibrations and truck truck traffic threaten the foundations their structural integrity and ultimately their safety along with the physical damage we face inevitable decreases to our property values air quality is a major concern as a parent of an immunocompromised child i am deeply worried about the dust exposure and pollution generated by the mining activity even short-term exposure can be harmful and long-term exposure could be devastating um the traffic safety cannot be ignored i am also the parent of young drivers and we already know that the height that part of highway 60 is dangerous we've seen the multiple fatalities that have happened at story road and i can only think that that will be replicated at mammoth grove road um and we have no other routes around that and so us that are forced to drive that route daily face an increase in danger environmental and visual damage is irreversible once digging begins you cannot undo the harm to the wildlife land stability natural springs and the tranquility of this historic area this mine would sit directly beside homes not a mile away not buffered but directly next to family homes only feet away where people live sleep and raise their children we've heard many very few reassurances from the company seeking approval we have not been shown meaningful plans to protect our water quality our water levels our water levels air health or home foundations we have not been shown solutions to prevent the depreciation of our properties to our families this community is not against progress but we cannot and should not sacrifice our safety our homes our history or our health or for a bare borrow pit to be placed in the middle of a residential neighborhood saint and shrine has stood for centuries and it deserves protection not destruction saint and shrine is more than a piece of land it is a legacy of faith a community of generations of families who have built their lives here and saw that in these grounds a place of peace healing and unity if we allow a borrow pit to be placed here we are not just risking our water tables property values or air quality we are risking the loss of our home the place where our children laugh and grow where memories are made where neighbors lean on each other where history persists beyond bricks and mortar i asked you want your grandchildren to inherit a dusty pit or a sacred place where we can walk remember and belong for the health of our safety our community's future please protect saint and shrine these impacts are not temporary they are permanent and once the damage is done they cannot be done okay i'm gonna have to ask you to are you through yes okay thank you may i ask is this saint and shrine saint and shrine so we are real we are located directly across from schitzer suco the orchard juice plant so when you come down our road there will be a borrow pit on each side of our road so there's no way to access our homes there is a one-way street in and it dead ends into a lake and that we live around that lake there's like 30 homes around that lake and so there's no way to access our homes without going through that um without going through the two borough pits or borrow pits yeah and i do have a i did we did not even though there's no way to access our homes without going through these borough pits we did not get letters because we are over 500 feet away but i did bring letters for you and i do have attached um research with documentation if you would like those thank you ma'am thank you yes sir good well you need to be sworn in okay thank you for letting us know if you'll raise your right hand do you swear affirm that the testimony and evidence you present to the planning commission today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you my name is richard boyette i live at 1702 parks lake road that's just north of the proposed mine area i've lived there since august first i'm a lifelong floridian but uh just moved to this area i have other relatives here and i just want to make y'all aware that there's 30 to 40 houses around parks lake and cypress lake that i haven't heard mentioned yet and every time we go to lake wales we go down mammoth grove road and we have to deal with that intersection that y'all have been hearing so much about and it is a dangerous intersection and i can't imagine what it's going to be like with up to 556 more heavy trucks using that intersection it's uh it's scary it is i don't drive like i did when i was 20s in my 20s and my 30s so i approach that intersection with a lot of caution but uh y'all shouldn't be aware of that there's i guarantee you my neighbors go the same way i do the the access lake wales they go to public's walmart or whatever and if that's the way we go if we went the back way it would take twice the distance and three times a time and that doesn't make any sense yeah that's that's our life lifeline the lake wales and we won't have any choice but have to deal with with that uh 556 more vehicles but that's it i just wanted to make you aware that there were other people involved uh in the area thank you thank you where these homes are you please sir thank you that's cypress lake and then the one right of that is parks lake the label's over yeah i see yes yeah and there's some more new construction being built right behind it and gum lake right behind it there's more construction going on but anyway we're out there too and we just want to make you aware of it thank you appreciate your time good afternoon were you sworn in yes i was okay my name is stephanie lavoy i live at 1108 saint anne shrine road and please indulge me i'm going to repeat a couple of statements that the lady ahead of us said i live in a small community that was established in the early 1900s our community is in no way the size of saddlebag but are just as important this community consists of homes that surround a small 15 acre lake in this community there lies a historical landmark named saint anne shrine that has been there since 1920. saint anne shrine road is the only road into our community under the current proposal our entrance road will be surrounded on both sides of the entrance road with large berms hills and bulldozers that will run 14 hours a day the gentleman's statement that there was no blasting is just not true i've lived there we have mines just a little bit west of us and we our community has experienced blasting that have shook our houses and ground numerous times there's nothing else out there that would do that except the mining honestly a site visit should be done and to view all the landis company is and has mind additionally just as stated by the gentleman they are nothing like phosphate mines at least mosaic reclaims the land with trees and grass etc once the area is mined by this company it is left with dirt hills with weeds and just strip land you can go down buckmore road and travel to burns road and if you look to the right to the corner you can see the leftover wreckage of the land sitting with pits and burns found on that corner that are ugly and not visually improved by reclamation when entering our county from the east it looks like an area that was dug up and left they in no way care or consider what the land coming into our county looks like or the communities and people involving this land proposal this is basically all about the money plain and simple thank you good morning before i start my comments i have a overhead map but i'd like to enter into evidence or for reference if that's possible this is a map showing the uh lake surrounding the area of saddlebag and on the owner's property for the mine sites and also shows how they're interconnected by a series of swales or call or culverts i want to enter that into evidence or for reference my name is dennis heredigan i'm a resident of saddlebag i live at 58 water street i'm a retired engineer and a professional uh project manager for a large construction company that builds sewer treatment plants and puts it put big infrastructure uh projects i'm going to be talking to you today about the sewer uh specifically the collection and the conveyance system which services the 787 home sites and various communal buildings at saddlebag it consists of 120 concrete structures three lift stations and over 24 000 lineal feet of sewer main primarily running down the middle of our paved streets the system was installed during the early 1970s and remains in the as-built condition and is extremely tired over the period as early as 2014 we began to experience backup and flowing drains into many of our home sites we've hired several engineering firms to help us understand the causes of the problems and plan for the necessary repairs to include excel engineering and cph both of orlando florida i was hired by the association as a contract project manager for the design and the development of the our project the results of both flow studies and video documentation confirmed that most of our original system was not installed using the recommended slopes on many of to many of our manholes which have now become cracked or broken seals around many of the pipes that lead into our manholes separated pipes all are present in our existing system cph has produced a 717 page engineering report to saddlebag in which they say and i quote the current current conditions of the sanitary sewer lines within the resort are at the end of their useful life and overall in very poor conditions if the sewer lines are not replaced and upgraded to the new systems there's a high probability of failure which was result in sewage spills contaminating the lake and the matter of utmost priority to considering the load entirely currently placed on the result resort wastewater system they further conclude that the only thing keeping the system flowing especially around the beaver kill royal coachman streets which affects about 250 homes is the constant flow of groundwater continually flushing the accumulated solid down the sewer pipes history has shown that the groundwater levels when they drop even a small amount see we see an increased number of blockages in our sewer system i request that you disapprove this based on the fact that our those lakes are interconnected they're going to build new lakes water is going to flow into you know reduce our groundwater levels and cause harm to our sewer system within the resort thank you i need to be sworn in please raise your right hand do you swear affirm that the testimony and evidence you present to the planning commission today will be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth thank you i don't know if i can be an expert um 33 years in uh trucking uh i have msha card it's expired in june sorry so no longer msha card but experience here in polk county with uh with mining and uh i drive mammoth grove to 60 down 60 past story road every day i'm not retired i'm not with saddleback but i stand with them did you give your name and address i'm sorry i'm eric gable uh 1556 parks lake road and i haven't met my new neighbor yet but welcome so i drive 60 every day um monday through friday and those folks and i'm in the trucking industry 33 years those folks come out of that road are reckless going across the road going across 60 so i appreciate industry i i work for huge industry here and appreciate that what what i've heard i'm not sure the numbers like jive from the truck side right we hear 256 236 536 so i'm not quite sure what the number is but i can tell you that road at mammoth grove thanks for saddleback to go measure it but there is that road i don't think can handle that kind of traffic number one number two i'm leaving there at 7 a.m 6 a.m uh those folks are going to be the same drivers the same folks that are running off the story road are going to be the same folks there i'm not too sure these contractors because they're from various companies they may be full-blown companies with assets or they could be contractors that's them who vets those drivers right if you're aware of dot regulations and things that are happening on the world right now with the dot and drivers that are running down the road with bad credentials right and they they can't read stop signs they can't do different things those are big concerns for me um and my family right my my kids come out and visit my wife and i drive that road someone mentioned we that's our road to get to publix and lake wales uh so i would say that is concerning uh two prior to you know them growing watermelons we had citrus and unfortunate uh what what's happening with that uh but when all the citrus went away my front yard now i can see all the bright lights from citrus suco which is fine but sometimes the brighter light and i understand they're going to be running a dredge i understand what the dredge is um dredges but there's light pollution there's also noise pollution from that when those trees disappeared the trucks on 60 i can stick out sit on my patio on the lake on the back side of my patio with the house right to my back or you need he did wrap it up and here the trucks so this is a bigger concern than just dredging an industry okay thank you hello my name is tommy blackburn i'm my address is 21 woodruff way in saddlebank lake resort were you sworn in yes i was and mr bishop i want to thank you for putting us number eight because i've learned quite a bit in the time that i set out in the audience i've learned the importance of a comprehensive land use and i've learned the importance of compatibility and in fact one of your staff today said today is about compatibility and i couldn't agree more today is about compatibility so i asked the planning commission to deny this application in its present form for the reason stated that mammoth grove mine is not compatible with the neighboring property saddlebag lake resort which is a long established 55 plus community of nearly 800 homes compatibility is mentioned repeatedly in all the cases presented today and so i say that for no other reason you should vote no on this and deny deny this request in its current form because it's simply not compatible with the residential area that's been established there and is more than just sparse thank you i've been sworn in my name is bill kertz uh 7352 midway lane in uh south shore resort which is just a touch south and east of saddlebag um i'd also like to say thanks saddlebag for notifying us because apparently we're outside of the area that gets notified but we're affected every bit as much by this whole construction proposal um our water the lake uh it's all concerned us and i'm not gonna keep going over things that have been gone over but we're in full agreement with what people from saddlebag have brought up and we support hopefully you guys proving this uh that people are more important and voting no for this we're just a small community we're only 94 units we also pay taxes we own everything uh we have 140 ish residents so uh we're not as big but we're affected every bit as much so um i do have a um paper with a petition with names i don't know if anybody wants it if it's viable or anything but you can you can submit that okay so thank you for your time and i hope you make a good decision thank you good afternoon uh my name is nancy crider i live at 2270 tiger creek trail which is in the tiger creek nature preserve uh part of our preserve is along rattlesnake road which is where one of the the proposed mines is the preserve is known for being habitat of the gopher tortoise the gopher tortoise is protected under florida state law as a threatened species uh the fwc on their website clearly says that uh their burrows are protected by state law and any gopher tortoise relocation permit must be obtained from fwc before disturbing burrows and conducting construction activities chapter 68 27.003 florida administrative code a disturbance includes any type of work within 25 feet of a gopher tortoise burrow um i feel pretty certain there are gopher tortoise burrows on that land where they're proposing to mine off of rattlesnake road so that would be something i would request a little more study be done on um also there's been mention of the truck traffic and the truck weight and i did look it up according to truckersreport.com a hopper truck can be up to and this is the weight of the cargo as well as the truck 68 000 pounds which is 34 tons another consideration where we access our property in the preserve is off of dude ranch road which is bordered by an active dredging sand company across the street the cmex company and um they have expanded that you know they own the land but for i guess many many years it hadn't been uh opened up deeper and just recently they did open it up deeper taking down a whole line of trees so you know it's not like it's gonna that tree line is is guaranteed they they took down very large trees very recently um the only other two things i'd like to mention are um a request for a study of the number of accidents at story road which involves sand trucks because they do happen frequently and i would like clarification on the well water it was mentioned uh that the um mines would be at this cervical aquifer but um didn't really explain if that is where the well water is also drawn from so that's a concern as to clarification on that thank you very much i've already been sworn in my name is kenneth dowdy 22 royal coachman saddlebag lake also born bred and raised right there in lake wells uh the gentleman early today in his presentation mentioned the lake well sand mines on stokes road right up the road there there's also many sand mines as teenagers that's where we went to drink and build bonfires police didn't bother us there so i'm very familiar with them not only that i've worked in the mines i also carry a osha 40 certification and so today i want to bring up the sand mines they're talking about is actually silica sand mines at work right now today when i drill a 3 16 hole i got to have a vacuum attachment on my drill that's osha standard that's so the dust doesn't get across to me or people working around me that hard timber tree line that they're speaking of ain't gonna stop that dust from getting in saddlebag lake and the residents the reclamation they speak of 65 years from now ain't none of you gonna be there ain't none of them gonna be there so we'll never see that their traffic up by c-mix they've been deaths right there from sand mine trucks multiple wrecks i myself have had to dodge two of them pulling out in front of me so yes there is dangerous there is more than fears there's bona fide unargumented detrimental causes that will come from this sand mine and i hope that the decisions that you make today will be ones that are right ones that are righteous and ones you can live with that's all i got to say commissioners my name is ken baker 15 queen of waters um in saddlebag um several things um getting to our lake they're in the 30 000 gallons of water that the mine will use i just kind of find that hard to believe that it's not going to lower the water table to the lake um you know people pay a premium to live on the lake and we enjoy the lake and to be able to to enjoy the lake um the other thing is uh getting to the um to the mines the uh one sand plant that's currently operating getting to the trucks you watch those guys they don't stop at the stop signs they shoot right across highway 60 there's been numerous wrecks there's been fatalities i can only imagine what's going to happen if we put another mine in at mammoth grove it's the same thing going to go on i think it probably is um and the last thing i want to say is um think about the love that you guys have for your parents and someday you know they're going to be old like us and um i don't think you all would want them going through what saddlebag may go through so um i strongly oppose um that's all i got to say thank you very much good afternoon i haven't been sworn in oh right huh rotator she can go next can you switch rotate oh okay can you yeah just hold on a minute and um get back in line yeah oh hi scott siller again uh i just have something i really think no you've already had i'm sorry you've already had your chance mr bishop if you would allow me this is very important for you commissioners i promise how long 30 seconds all right first of all uh the expert testimony was a great question i'm curious is the attorney an expert that he can testify to everything he testified to this morning that's one question he qualified his expert witnesses that he that he bases it presentation on yes okay more importantly mr bishop i thought it was an interesting question that mr beltran had brought up about the expert testimony i found it more interesting that their attorney stood up shortly thereafter and tried to get you to recuse yourself and i noticed as a police officer who's done numerous investigations i don't have probable cause but i have reasonable suspicion to believe that their attorney and mr beltran are communicating well you don't that's not appropriate here so i'm gonna rule that out of order we're not going to consider that so you i don't you don't need to respond i don't think i have a quick question um i found it unclear what with miss howard said about petitions um but we were here at eight o'clock on monday morning to find out the expectations of the hearing and at no time were we told that petitions weren't accepted and since you accepted the we will accept your petition you can submit that okay thank you very much okay where'd she go who was sworn in that we can go ahead they can come forward hello i'm chris bauer 31 saddlebag trail um the saddlebag lake i'm an american veteran with post-traumatic stress and saddlebag lake has uh several veterans uh we have several veterans with disability and uh and you know army air force marines and navy and um i'm not an expert but i know what stress disorder is and the last two days i've watched 700 people that are hurting you know i hope everyone's had a good thanksgiving because i can tell you what there are 700 people out there whose thanksgiving was ruined but these people are hurting my point my point is it's traumatic stress and i i i went we had two meetings and i watched women break down crying so hard they couldn't even talk you know these are human beings you know what we are american that is our home that's all thank you thank you no she needs to be sworn oh yes i'm so sorry yes if okay thank you if you'll please raise your right hand i apologize for stepping out okay oh i can i can do it all at the same time yep if everyone wants to okay raise your hand if you need to be sworn in do you swear affirm that the testimony and evidence you present to the planning commission today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you hi my name is dietra simpson and i live at 5594 charlie harris road and i just have a question maybe it's been uh talked about but i didn't hear it um i got a letter from charlie harris road and my forefathers have been there since the 1920s and i also have family that live on church road so i wanted to know what's the does that have anything to do with what's going on i know they're talking about saddlebag but i look at the map and i think it's talking there there's some issues with church road as well and like i said charlie harris road is right adjacent or on the other side of the road from charlie harris road which is right down from the saddlebag resort sign you're on the south side of 60 across from saddlebag okay that's it thank you okay hello my name is diane perkins and my husband is charles perkins he is a disabled veteran of the u.s army for 22 years unfortunately we live on saint anne shrine road at 1049 all the studies and everything that's been proposed and that we have looked at in the agenda does not address saint anne shrine road it addresses mammoth grove and saddle brook we are just as important as the other roads we live in a quiet and peaceful community that sets around a beautiful mineral and spring fed lake many of our homes were built in the early 1920s in a historic area we have concerns that has been addressed today but i'd like to reiterate some of those concerns that we still have and i expressly have with our homes being built on small hills which consists of the sand and some flat lands the natural springs around us and our homes are going to be affected there will be mining we have researched this greatly there will be mining there will be construction vibrations that will affect these homes that are either on these hills or that on the flat lands that are made of wood structural we are on a structural land of being built up on stilts and pilers and if our home has a lot of vibration studies have shown that these homes will continue to deteriorate and our homes have a chance of falling down that is something that i cannot express that we do not want to see there's no studies in any of these reports that have stated the weakening of the structures of our homes being less than the 1.1 miles away we are concerned about all the health risk the amount of the cilia dust and sediments that will be traveling in the homes will be there even with these berms it travels we see that from the cimex plant that has crossed the direction four miles down the road from us we understand that the sediment barriers consisting of the silt fencing in the perimeter will be there to protect us from these harmful particulates but nowhere in the report state how much of those particulate to participants will come to our direction with my husband being in the military and in the war i have such a great concern for his health we moved from hillsborough county to polk county to a rural setting so we could get away from the pollution that was affecting his health during my husband's military career he has served numerous times in war zones which includes iraq he was there for that first tour of iraq for 18 months he was brought back home with what the military calls a black lung disease he does not have full capacity of his lungs i'm trying not to cry i'm so sorry with the consistent particulates and the dust that's going to be coming from that direction it really worries me from my husband's life we're in our 60s we have children we want to watch grow and grandchildren we want to watch grow and with all of these particulates i'm so fearful what his lungs will become i hate to cut you off but we appreciate you coming in your comments but we need to hear from everybody thank you good afternoon my name is bob speedo i live at 21 royal coachman street in saddlebag lake resort i think we all know how busy route 60 is what i want to address right now is we've been told that these trucks when they pull on the 60 60 is going to go west and 40 will go east i want to talk about the 60 percent after they drop off their load they will return to the mines to get more loads okay where they pull down onto mammoth grove road that's a two-lane highway going east there is a pull off for them to cross traffic onto on crossed 60 you can get probably about three trucks in the pull off and what's going to happen to anybody else that's coming behind them i live in saddlebag so if there's three trucks in the pull off lane where am i supposed to park i'm going to stop on the highway on the passing lane in 60 won't that be fun so that's going to give you one lane on the right hand side for the traffic to go through if these trucks start backing up so i hope you see just how important this is to turn this uh mine down that's all good afternoon my name is matthew michaud i live at 6449 camp mack road lake wells florida we're a citrus operators that own property to the south north and to the uh east of the proposed project site and my main concerns are the hydrologic impacts negative impacts on property values and traffic impacts most of these been hit on but i think staff significantly overlooked one factor in 2023 reports from usgs in the southwest florida water management district found that evaporative water loss from open water bodies is five to six feet per year this mine is going to open up 649 acres of water that is in the uh surficial floridan aquifer and when you do the math on that the uh it equates to 3.4 million gallons per day and 1.26 billion gallons per year that's three and a half times the amount that was utilized for the citrus operation as a citrus grow i want to remind everyone when you utilize irrigation and groundwater it's left on site and it percolates through the soil and the only water you lose is from evaporation and transpiration of the citrus trees the rest of it percolates back down and and recharges the aquifer so you can use it again it's not shipped off site if it's evaporated it goes into the atmosphere and it it goes off site and it's probably not going to rain down right where it goes up staff is also utilizing a 35 year old evaluation metrics from the mine that was permitted in 1991 mining techniques at that time were at depths of 30 to 50 feet this the applicants are mining at depths of 110 feet that 110 foot depth increases the interface with that surficial aquifer and there is no confining layer to these sand mine lakes natural lakes have clay lenses they have organic mucks they have silt layers that confine the water into the lakes we don't see that with this so every time that water is drawn down from evaporation it'll immediately be recharged from that superficial aquifer which is also recharging the the upper floridan aquifer so to say there's not going to be any impact and there's going to be savings from shutting down the pumpage from the property is inaccurate i don't i understand the struggles of the applicant on not being able to make it in citrus but i have to be able to make it in citrus and i need the water to do it and if they can show that they there's not going to be an impact then i don't know if i would oppose it the traffic side there needs to be an acceleration lane the stuff on six on highway 60 right now going out of the story road my wife and three kids go to travel that way every day and they have to go around trucks every day it's dangerous and so i think that can be mitigated by having direct access not utilizing mammoth grove but going directly to 60 with a properly linked acceleration lane so trucks can get up to speed so it's not a hazard to other drivers and the other stuff is uh been hit on but those are my concerns thank you my name is deborah moody i live at two blue cool circle in saddlebag lake resort i have a question uh you've turned down many people uh because they don't have their resumes so they cannot be called experts are they allowed to bring in their resumes or fax the resumes in uh if they want to be considered experts but just so to be clear if anyone who's here to speak can certainly speak and as we said before any if you live there and affected any um observable evidence you see or um perspective about compatibility and consistency but if there's someone that wants to speak about technical specifications like um engineering drainage um hydraulic impacts that's where we would need and if you want to be recognized as an expert um we would need the resume thank you i also would like us to turn down this proposal many of the people in our communities have health issues i myself am battling cancer this is a place i want to stay living and if this happens i will not be able to because i do not have the lung capacity so please consider health reasons for all of these people thank you hi there my name is steve berringer i live at 1648 parks lake road i'm one of the drivers that go down mammoth grove and turn to go west on 60 just about every day hundreds of trucks coming from a sand mine do not compare at all to the amount of traffic from orange groves being there i did that was laughable when he said that right like what you get one or two trucks a month from orange groves 500 trucks a day can't compare apples and oranges my other concerns are about the water quality of the lake that i live on and the community well that we have that pulls the water out that the 15 homes around our lake i'll share so those are the things that i'd like to be considered with this i don't necessarily think we should stomp our feet and say no but i'd like to know that we are being protected as the people who live around this as it's happening thank you all hi my name is nancy carlson i live at five silverside i came down mammoth road the other day and i was very very shocked to see that there's heavy equipment already on that road and that there were also pipes bigger than this lying on the side of the road just waiting to be put in it doesn't seem to me as though his company that he's representing is going to take no for an answer i think that that should be looked at that they're already moving forward to put this in and i agree with the people from saddlebag and my neighbors that live on the other roads that this is something that should not be put in and i thank you very much nancy kabosinski 81 beaver kill beaver kill is a strange name for a street it's because they are fishing lures that's why it was established they wanted fishing good fishing and i wasn't there at the time 50 years ago and but we want to keep this community safe safe and when i drove down highway 60 a couple of years ago two cups trucks one crossed blocked one lane one came out went that way i had to swivel and swerve i really thought i was going to die and i did call the sheriff department i did shaking like more than i am now but it was hazard it's a hazard now please don't take our lives for granted they're experts but they don't live there we're experts because we live there thank you and please oppose it good afternoon can you hear me my name is michael romeo i live at 10 saddlebag i'm sorry 10 stonefly circle lake wales saddlebag lake resort this is on yes um i want to i want to god this is so so important this this whole thing and the left side of the dais there's a term that i learned as a child as a boy as an adolescent undivided attention and there you go robert there's some of it and mike if you want to join us there you go his undivided attention if you can split it between his palm violet and and the man speaking there you go mike thank you for your undivided attention this is ridiculous i appreciate if you could just limit your comments to the subject matter that would be appreciated that is the subject matter it's called undivided attention okay i i just got hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat because this gentleman i think he's an attorney all the paperwork i have in front of me talks about a borrow pit he duped he duped the review board that's your letterhead polk county you say you want me to come and all these people to come to express concerns about a borrow pit he just said it's not a borrow pit well sir staff has already addressed that they've already addressed that as being no no one has addressed it it from a legal perspective i'm not an attorney he has well he has the the rubber stamp that allows him to make an objection where's where is our attorney to make an objection about something as important as the face of the document your review your findings of fact they all speak of borrow pits that sir we've already addressed that so i don't know how let's move on to something that hasn't been addressed page 46 on my my paperwork i've read this document end to end page 46 and page 147 has a highlighted yellow section i call it a cya paragraph it talks about what so frustrating the ldc which is your code compatibility is defined as follows and it goes into the explanation it appears three times in these documents but not once did i notice by its conspicuous absence anything in the conditions that put the teeth in the document in the event compatibility is found not to exist that is in the land development code sir your time i'm sorry but your time is up okay i don't see it okay thank you for your attention is there anyone else that wishes to be heard yes sir and i i want to reemphasize i mean we've started hearing a lot of repeats so we've i think we've exhausted about everything so unless you have something new i mean we want to hear from you but i would like to hear something new my name is andrew beck i live at 2342 county road 664 in bowling green florida however my family owns the property directly adjoining this mine my statement is it's a very simple one y'all are talking about the citrus industry versus the mine we have a total of 150 trucks to harvest that amount of acreage per year and you're talking about how many per day and that's that 150 trucks is scattered over six months so how does this affect the traffic and that's my only statement thank you my name is molly title i live at 65 silversides in saddlebag our area of east polk county is fortunate to have multiple recreational areas and conservation land the creek bluffs loop and the tiger creek preserve owned by the nature conservative conservancy is immediately to the south of the mine on the south side of 60. as mentioned the lake aurora christian camp and retreat center is to the immediate east the broussard catfish lake preserve on lake pierce is to the north and of course our area is the gateway to the kissimi lane of chain of lakes which is a world-class recreational boating and fishing destination i ask polk county is this recreational uh gem worth compromising with an ugly sand pit on either side of route 60 is that the welcome that we want to have for people who want to take advantage of our recreational activities and this would be for generations thank you hello my name is adela casey i live at 13 pink lady and saddlebag lake this is just a comment about our commission leaders who have upon taking their oath of office and sworn to many um i'm sorry i lost my little train of thought um their pledges for um their aims and goals for our focuses on for our community and when they took those um sworn there i have it written here from their bios that they have and i won't mention the which ones their goals and their aims were to preserve the county's rural area providing residents with more transparency regarding upcoming developments and optimizing county operations to provide value to all residents preserving the county's natural resources and environmental lands preserve land and natural resources for future generations i hate to interrupt you but that is the county commission that is not this commission and so i don't know how that's relevant to but this is our decision today our leaders of our commission and this is the goal of the persons who are we but we're here to uh enforce and abide by the comprehensive plan and the land development code that were approved by the county commission so that's our charge i understand okay but i just the concern is still our community safety and well-being for the community not just saddlebag lake and that's all expressed in the comprehensive plan and the land development code that the county commission adopted i understand and i appreciate that but i just wanted to let you know that leaders in our community as you guys are and i appreciate your dedication to our community but you know we are public we are polk county thank you anyone else no repeats okay and have you been sworn in okay if you'll raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony and evidence you present to the planning commission today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you yes my name is mark right i'm at uh 40 beaver kill and i just want to thank you to all you people sitting there today i know it's taking a lot of your time and all the saddlebaggers that came out here and i don't know it's just it's emotional emotional and my big concerns is with the community 780 homes in there and the lake i just i can't see the water levels of the lake not going down pulling all that water out of there and you know it's in the traffic and everybody's got a point about the traffic it's terrible you know and that's something that hopefully you're going to look at and look at it strongly because there have been some fatalities out there quite a few and i don't know i wasn't even going to speak but i i had to come up here and bring this up you know there everybody's come to saddlebag to retire and that's their home and for a mine to go in there and start messing things up you know you got a beautiful lake and you know i've got properties on the other side of the lake i fish a lot and i just don't want to see the levels going down then and if they do start going down or a well start drying up who's going to be responsible for that is that going to be poke county or is it going to be the homeowner or the property owner and the mines because i don't know i i can see that coming it's hard to see that pulling all that water out you know not coming back we don't get enough rain you know you might get hurt hurricane rains you may gain a foot two foot but eventually with the sunshine we have here in florida that water level is going back down so what's going to replenish it that's all i got to say thanks everybody thanks saddlebaggers and thank every one of y'all yes ma'am i my name is ronnie schmilski i'm from saddlebag lake resort i can't remember my address i want to thank you all for listening to all of our concerns we have a lot of them and we are very concerned about our community and i just strongly oppose giving uh approval to this application right now because there's just not enough information that we can go on to prove that they're not going to ruin our community so thank you very much okay i'm going to ask the applicant if he would come forward and respond to anything that he feels that he needs to address thank you mr chair um a couple things uh let's see here a couple things i want to touch on initially um you know there was a lot of a lot of discussion about the whole borrow pit sand pit sand mine conversation i i'm not belaboring that point but i just want to be clear that the application is for a sand mine whether or not the words borrow pit which is inclusive in a non-phosphate mine are used in the staff report does not mean we are asking for a borrow pit our mine plan the conditional use is limited to sand mining and wet dredging i was i didn't draft that staff report i had zero input in the staff report so that so i just want to make sure that for the record that that is clear um um second of all there was an allegation that we've already moved pipe and are starting construction the pipes that were referenced that are out there have nothing to do with this project that is the prwc water cooperative pipes for purposes of the regional water cooperative and moving water around the county that has nothing to do with ph citrus so let's be clear that that's there's no anything going on there i think that's i think that's extremely important to get off the table um as well um there were some references to an attorney uh who couldn't be here uh she made a couple comments regarding the comprehensive plan i couldn't disagree with her more um the comprehensive plan very specifically says as i indicated in my case in chief that non-phosphate mines are specialized uses that are encouraged throughout the county in that section 2.101 of your comprehensive plan and then further in section 2.125 specifically states that non-phosphate mines are allowed in all land use classification subject to county approval which in your land development code and arr requires a conditional use which is exactly what we're here doing today um so we are fully in compliance with your comprehensive plan consistent with your comprehensive plan and any assertions to the to the contrary are um just mistaken i'll leave it at that um erroneous maybe um talking a little bit about i'm trying to find my exhibit that i want to show this is it let's talk about the area and then i'm going to just talk about existing mines then i'm going to ask miss garter partner to come up and talk to you about some of the transportation issues that we heard and then i'm going to conclude with some final discussions on water and whatnot this is the existing area you can see the subject site the ph citrus site in red again outlined here yellow is existing approved sand mines those are already active those are permitted those are those are are ongoing um those activities have been ongoing both on the north side and the south side for over well at least on the north side for over 50 years i i don't know exactly how long on the south side with the standard sand stuff but i know some x has moved to the south side in the in the not too distant past those activities are ongoing right now and there's been no adverse impacts to any of the lake levels any of the any of the groundwater tables any of the concerns with saint anne shrine the the their lakes drying up mr machada and his concern over agricultural wells drying up and evaporation um any concerns with saddlebag lake and the residential community over there those activities are all going on right now and there's no adverse impacts to any of the water levels anybody's wells and anybody's ability to live today yes we are asking for new sand mine and it is expanding into a new area but it's the same thing doing it the same way many of the consultants that work on those projects are the same ones that we have here today that's why we know exactly what's going on in those other areas allegations that they're blasting at cemex are false my team works on that project not happening whatever they heard was not a was not blasting in the cemex sand mine um kalinas is on their water use permit i mean that which is here today so i just want to take some of so that's that's the issue it's it's getting back to that confident substantial evidence uh conversation there's a lot of fear baked into the things that you heard from the residents there's a lot of half truths and inaccuracies and impartial accuracies and that doesn't count as confident substantial evidence your staff reports based on the documentation that was provided by my experts who have been admitted as experts those written documents were provided with the application they're provided as part of your package and are public documents and anybody is welcome to ask for and i'm going to reintroduce them into the end of the record today just to make sure it's clear um so to get back to what i'm what i'm talking about here you've got sand mining that is in closer proximity to saint and shrine than what we're asking for it's already permitted over here saint and shrine is is this is around this lake right here and you can see the yellow that's the permitted cemex mine is substantially closer than what we're asking for so you've already got mining in the area and it will not be borrow pits along saint and shrine road we did not do a traffic analysis on saint and shrine road because we don't have trucks on saint and shrine road we don't have an access there except for when we go in to establish the berms and that's a temporary uh use or a temporary activity as as was discussed during our case in chief so that's why we didn't and that's why we did not do an analysis of saint and shrine road because there's no impacts by our project on saint and shrine road um i'm going to ask miss gardner come on up talk a little bit about some of the uh traffic issues and and different things that that were discussed and if there's any specific exhibits you want shown please let me know yeah hello good afternoon amber gartner with kimley horn 1700 southeast 17th street ocala florida 34471 one thing i want to point out is the study that we did the traffic impact analysis that meets and exceeds the requirements of the land development code for the level of traffic that is being generated by this site the study was performed as was previously mentioned for the maximum anticipated extraction rate of the site which is approximately double what we think is going to happen on an average basis so with that maximum extraction rate it's estimated to generate 268 truck trucks a day which is the 536 truck trips so the trucks will come in empty and then they will leave full the distribution as was already discussed is going to go south to state road 60 with 60 to the west and 40 to the east just to talk a little bit about the traffic that's already on state road 60 i just want to mention again that state road 60 is a principal arterial roadway the definition of that is a road that is relatively continuous relatively high traffic volume long average trip length high operating speed and high mobility importance as was also mentioned it is part of the strategic intermittent system which is a statewide network of high priority transportation facilities that is intended to provide the highest degree of mobility for people and goods traveling throughout florida so this section of state road 60 directly fronting the site operates with approximately 34 percent of its capacity today during the the peak hour the pm peak hour which is traditionally what we study because that is the highest hour of the road um today west of mammoth road it's approximately 21 500 vehicles per day 21 trucks looking um into 2026 with some background growth and adding in the maximum anticipated traffic from this site that increases to approximately 22 700 vehicles per day with approximately 22 trucks so we are at maximum operating condition increasing the percentage of trucks by approximately one percent which is not significant and i do want to say that these volumes fluctuate year to year so historic volumes on this road have fluctuated up to 24 trucks um as it fluctuates depending on when the count is taken and and what is going on in that season similarly state road 60 east of mammoth grove approximately 19 400 vehicles per day 22 percent trucks looking into 2026 with some background growth and adding in this project at maximum operating condition going up to approximately 20 400 vehicles 23 percent trucks again less than one percent increase which is really insignificant as you look at the volumes along this road and what they've been historically there is sufficient capacity on stairway 60 in front of the site i know there's been some reference to some congestion stairway 60 being involved in the in the long range transportation plan this particular segment is not identified as a need for improvement in the long range plan it has sufficient capacity today in fact at maximum operating capacity with the traffic from this mine 64 capacity remaining so there's sufficient capacity on this road studies are typically done during the pm peak hour because that is the highest hour of the traffic on the roadways so we've been talking a lot about daily volumes but during that pm peak hour which is the highest traffic volume and just to put in perspective the am peak hour is approximately a thousand vehicles both directions and the pm it's about 1400 both directions so it is a higher volume the maximum impact of this site is expected to be 17 vehicles during the pm peak hour and that is a less than one percent impact which is considered de minimis as a definition impact to the roadway system along state road 60. Talking specifically about the impact to the adjacent developments the maximum time period impact is expected to be in the am that's when you know the majority of the the traffic is going to come in and go out to wherever the material is being hauled to that translates during that maximum hour of the truck traffic at maximum operations about one vehicle every two minutes east of the site so going in front of saddlebag lake road so that having one vehicle every two minutes that should not have a significant impact on anyone trying to get in or out of that development because they're not waiting two minutes to enter and exit so it really should have an insignificant impact on that i heard some comments about trucks coming in and out of mammoth grove road and it was mentioned before but i want to reiterate that there are deceleration lanes on state road 60 at mammoth grove road so coming from the west the trucks have a left turn lane that they can enter into i heard some comments about the possibility of trucks stacking causing other traffic on state road 60 to not be able to utilize those through lanes or to be backed up with the amount of traffic that we're looking from the west again at the maximum operations the maximum hour it's really going to be one entering the vehicle about every two and a half minutes so that means you will have at most a one vehicle stack there in that left turn lane so it is not going to back out onto state road 60. coming from the east you're entering off of a right turn lane there's no opposing movement for a right turn movement those trucks will be able to decelerate in that lane and enter right onto mammoth grove road so they should not impact any traffic on state road 60. related to mammoth grove road itself there is very low number of traffic volumes on that road today during the pm peak hour the counts that we took were less than 30 cars in each direction the counts that the county publishes were 40 cars in each direction and there's an allowable service volume of 640 cars so even with this site during its peak operations the peak operating hour we're going to be about 10 of the capacity of that road and that's also the reason why there's not a need for turn lanes because there's so little opposing traffic that we don't anticipate any queuing for trucks coming in and out of the site and was previously mentioned as the site is designed they'll be able to get in and there should not be any stacking of trucks that lead out to the public right of way last thing i want to mention is we did pull crash data at least for this immediate section of state road 60 um there were within the last five years more than five years from january 2020 to the most recently published data there were um four crashes reported at mammoth grove road in state road 60 two in 2020 two in 2025 and there was only one crash reported at saddlebag lake road in state road 60 none of those crashes were fatal crashes between that stretch of road between the two intersections there were 12 crashes since january 2020 again none of them resulting in in a fatality so i do just want to provide those facts on the record as well if there's any questions i'm happy to answer those as well any questions yes can you um speak to the width of mammoth grove road there was some question as to the actual width of the road out there and it may be not being exactly what it's supposed to be so i just wanted to get some clarification if you have it i do not have the details of the width of the road other than what is in the staff report when it's been provided thank you and typical and commissioner beltran to your point that those are really more level two issues we do the traffic analysis to to evaluate where traps trips are going and how those intersections may may function the the actual improvements that may or may not be needed in to the extent they are um certainly that's a level two issue um and something that will be further evaluated during an engineering exercise because this is as you know an entitlement conversation um so i'm going to kind of talk i'm going to be brief i promise i i know i say that a lot um and oftentimes i'm not but i'm going to do my best i want to talk again just to kind of come back to the sand mining operation again this is a wet mining operation this is a dredge so this is this is there are no vibrations there's no trucks digging up this up the sand there are no excavators there's no loaders within the mine footprint there that material is hydraulically conveyed through pipes underground and if on the south side of 60 under 60 which is why there's no trucks on saint anne shrine road is because we will be piping the sand under highway 60 just like is in the example on the top of the screen with through a permit with fdot that will go back to the processing plant it will be sorted and stacked the opportunity for dust creation does not exist because the actual mining operation is occurring underwater where the material is being extracted is underwater so silica i i understand those residents concerned especially with health issues and i and i and i can empathize with them with having health issues however in this instance concerns over silica over particulate i read one of the documents that was provided by the residents and it specifically talked about hauling and crushing we are not crushing we are we are not hauling next to saddlebag this is all occurring underwater through pipes being hydraulically conveyed to the processing plant which is over 3 000 feet away so i just want to make sure that we're clear on kind of what that operation is and talking about the operation it's a recirculating system so as water is as material is delivered to the processing plant and there's excess water it is pumped back to the lakes that are created and it's a self-circulating system that's why there is little water consumption at the end of the day um so i think that's important there's no de-watering as part of this process i heard concerns about us lowering the lake levels of of uh saddlebag or even some of the other or even some of the other lakes in the general area there's no de-watering of the area we're not pumping water out of it and sending it somewhere else all the water is staying within the footprint of the mine they are excavating into this official table not going beyond the confining layer and then that water is saying staying and it's being recirculated through the site so yeah there's going to be some loss sure and that's why we have a water use permit for up to about 40 000 gallons per day on average which is gets to my next conversation point significantly less than the one million gallons a day that on average peak of five and even higher in an emergency that we're allowed to withdraw from the floridan aquifer today and that will be going away and the floridan aquifer is the bigger of the concerns as it relates to water quality swaka and all of those different issues and and higher kind of other other items that are going on in in the world so at the end of the day the things that i talked about no dust off the site from the mining activity because it's underwater i'd say less dust i use those kinds of things because there could be a little dust when we build the berms so i don't want to stand up here and say no nothing and and have that i know that i'm going to have some earthwork to build a berm it will be grassed it will be landscaped and all of those sorts of things but the mining activity that will exist in time will be all underwater um again here's references to the permit this will be going away will be down to 40 000 gallons per day out of the surficial aquifer a substantial improvement not just for saddlebag lake but for the entire community um there's no sediment ponds i heard some questions about sediment ponds and sludge ponds and things like that that's none of that is included within a non-phosphate sand mine there is water testing we talked about that up front there are piezometers that are in place as part of our permit that are required they're required for regular testing they're required for regular reporting to the water management district all of which are public records and available on the water management district website that's how i got a lot of the information i presented this morning relative to to water use permits directly from the water management district website this information for instance um again miss gardner did a better job than i ever could on the transportation analysis but again you see significant separation you have turn lanes transportation um ingress and egress to the site is safe yes we will address uh existing conditions of the roads um things of that nature but that's a level two issue and coming back to this i just really want to reiterate that adding the condition that requires this this hardwood tree stand to be remain in place not be disturbed as part of the mining activity i think adds an additional layer to the buffering we will still be doing our berms we will still be implementing those uh requirements are part of the code um uh but just i really feel like this is an important consideration to ensure that the residents are uh protected you heard some comments about some you know one uh one one one lady and i'm sorry i don't have everybody's name or a number of people um she talked about additional setbacks and that's it's essentially what you're getting with with this um by establishing some of those uh requirements on on that on that buffer so i think that i just want to make sure i'm not missing anything guys oh uh there was a comment about uh silica and i beat that drum and i get it our employees on site who are working wear hard hats and use steel toed boots they don't have to wear respirators they don't have they don't have to worry about those kinds of issues and that's evidence that there's not a silicate issue on site and that's all and those are on the existing sand mines today um so i wanted to point that out as well so with that um commission you've got a staff recommendation we've submitted a number of documents into the record as part of that application process for purposes of today i would like to just provide another copy this is a copy of the transportation study that was uh presented oh goodness this isn't the right package i'm sorry guys my bad um this is a copy of the application documents as well as a copy of the transportation study and the environmental study all of which were identified now that i mentioned the word environmental we did ignore we do acknowledge that there are protected species that have to be addressed we do acknowledge that gopher tortoises exist you don't remove the gopher tortoises today but those those kinds of habitat will be addressed and through the ordinary permitting process which comes to the level two i know i have been um uh we've been a long time here today with no breaks and i appreciate everybody's time and attention um to to this case you've got a staff recommendation of approval finding from your staff that this request is consistent with your comprehensive plan and a finding from your staff that this request is compatible with the surrounding area so with that i will stand for any additional questions and otherwise we'll sit down and would request a favorable approval of this conditional use thank you gotta move forward i'm sorry yes thank you process of mining the sand and then turn it into a shippable product where it leaves the site it is mined hydraulically i understand that i owned a process engineering company um but the sand that is being produced how is it being shipped off the site in a truck in a truck um your own picture up there you showed a a um it being hydraulically pumped across route 60 i think under yes under route 60 and right below that you showed a a conveyor belt going up and piling in a angle of repose not on the south side of 60 i didn't well that was what your picture was right there i'm i'm just i'm a little more concerned about the silica and the wind as the product dries this picture that one yes sir those pictures are completely unrelated to each other those are examples of what a sand mining activity looks like that is a dredge pond area and that is the example of a stacking and that will occur in the processing facility which as i indicated is 3 000 feet away from settle settle back those that these two pictures are not of the same facility or the same site they are merely examples i'm sorry if that is misleading i i understand that but the process is utilizing something other than hydraulics to move to move product to stack it yes the stacking and the drying we don't have a dryer product loaded into trucks wet it will have some moisture in it dripping as it leaves the facility it will have some moisture in it okay so it's not completely dry correct and so it will be taken down the roads up and down all of the the roads wherever those trucks are driving there will be some some semblance of some sand which is leaving the truck dripping out of the trucks is is that i'm just i don't know i don't uh possibly that's why we have bonds in place that's why we have conditions in place to um monitor and and clean up and i believe we've discussed that at length i'm more concerned about the the dusting the silica that is going to be leaving the site you're saying there's virtually nothing i i have visited as as owning a process engineering company we have designed these very plants before and i have been to them many times and there is a ton of sand everywhere you can't get away from it it's on the entrance roads it's on the exit roads it's on the delivery in and out of the site and it's blowing every time the wind blows so i i'm sorry sir i have a little bit of a problem with your claim that there's not going to be some dust and sand blowing and but did i say that there wouldn't be any dust and sand from this what i said was there'd be no dust and sand from the mining because the mining operates underwater that was specifically what i said commissioner schmidt i rest my case uh i have a i have a quick question um was there any um discussion or dialogue or attempt by the landowners to communicate with the residents before this meeting this has been looks like you guys have done a lot of research and a lot of background and one of the things i've been surprised by being on the commission is how frequently there's dialogue between landowners and developers and the surrounding communities especially when there's contention like this um considering no the we did we're not aware of any opposition until friday basically of last week thank you thank you close the uh public comment portion and bring this back to the uh commission for comment can i get a i have a question yes yes go ahead um you guys earlier it was mentioned that lake wales was contacted did they have any comments or objections to this they did not have any contact um comments on this um and i just wanted to clarify about the roadway widths um that was the best information staff had from roads and drainage division and and i think the comment that was made was that it'd be evaluated during the engineering during the level two side of this process i guess my other question was it was some questions by some of the audience and our members here are public about noticing requirements and i guess was there any issues with our noticing requirements there were some concerns that were brought up about the timing or when it was postmarked and i was just curious if if we are good on that front same question same uh that see the mailers i think we just stated that they went out on i guess there was some issue about the date that they went out and when they were received um any okay so for the purpose of um today's hearing if you're here you have notice um so the board is free to proceed right i mean there's there can always be challenges um no matter which way this goes um as we said before you can appeal um the decision of the planning commission directly to the board of county commissioners so if there are any concerns that can be done within seven days but um we've determined for purposes of today that we can proceed thank you and while i have the floor um i would just say based on um the discussion today if there is a motion made um based on the staff report that was presented that we clarify um that that staff report would just be the final version would be modified to remove the term borrow pit as the applicant agreed that was an oversight um and then also adding the new condition about um the existing hardwood tree stand must remain as an additional buffer beyond what's required on under the ldc and that this would be included in any level two site plan application i agree with that okay thank you thank you i appreciate that and i also just wanted to add for roadways um there's a condition on number two of the staff report that the applicant shall be responsible to inspect roadway conditions for material spillage so the county also has an interest in maintaining the roadway conditions and preserving those conditions any further comments discussion motion i want to make sure i understand there's not a minimum amount of time that the residents needed to be notified by there's not is it i thought it was a two week it is it's pursuant to um our land development code it is two weeks um however if there was an issue with it not being received over the holidays um so by virtue of notice i'm just explaining by virtue of note that due process requires that you have the opportunity to be heard so by being here today you've shown that you have notice um if there's anyone that hasn't had notice that is a matter that can be raised certainly anyone's free to make that um um objection however by florida law is clear that by virtue of being here today you have received notice um you've had the opportunity to speak and the ldc requires notice be given when it's mailed it has to be mailed a certain time where the staff has no control over what may happen once the mailers are sent i mean there could be delays in in the mail it's not but the postmark was november 21st they were saying which well would be two weeks on friday so for the board's purpose today uh or i'm sorry the planning commission's purpose today you are considering the application and um we've determined that you have that there's been um sufficient notice for who's spoken today if there's an appeal that can be raised okay um but for today the planning commission is focused on the conditional use compatibility consistency and then anything that comes after this would be addressed in turn okay do i hear a motion i will make a motion to approve ldcu 2025-29 i have a motion to approve do i hear a second i just want some clarification it's as amended and stated by our attorney yes um as i'm asking i clarify my motion uh as amended by the attorney so including the buffer and all the other stuff that we've talked about that's correct i will second that motion motion a second roll call please robert beltran i'm for the motion cindy jenna masso i am not for the motion merle bishop against the motion brooke agnini against the motion mike hickman for the motion mike schmidt against the motion angel sims against the motion the motion does not carry okay you could please okay okay so we need we don't we currently don't have a motion if everyone could please be quiet we do have to conduct business today and we have other cases to hear so we'd like to get through this there's currently no motion that's been approved on the table so we need another motion do i hear another motion i make a motion to deny the application i've lost the case number and paperwork here hang on so many ldspd dash 2025-7 that one i second oh no i'm sorry that is the wrong one i apologize oh wait trying to help ldcu dash 2025-29 that's it second we have a motion and a second second robert beltran for the motion cindy jenna masso all right i need to ask the so to clarify this is the motion on the table is to deny the application so if you're for the motion you're um denying the application if you're against the motion you are not denying the application okay so we already voted on that we did we did we already voted but we did not approve a motion we need to approve a motion to deny to deny it yes so if i approve to deny that means i deny you are for if you're for the motion for the motion then you're saying you deny you want it to be denied okay i'm for the motion okay merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman yes the motion angel sims for the motion mike schmidt for the motion motion passes okay case is denied the um there is a seven-day appeal period that can be appealed to the board of county commissioners okay we got two more cases thank you all um we do have to proceed so if everyone could clear out quickly thank you for your participation we do have two other cases to hear hopefully these will be quick right i'll do my best if everyone could please be quiet while we try to proceed today thank you you could exit quickly we would appreciate it i don't understand well if only not understand at one time now you'll be yeah it was really confusing i'm sorry you've been there done there no everybody has to go through it one time it doesn't happen to add that to the training there's nothing no one approved the motions we need another motion so since it's a motion you decline the first motion now we need to try a motion to deny this so by approving the motion if you say four of them it's easier if you say four again 24 next we're ready proceed i'll try to keep this quick good morning cowl rogues with land development presenting ldct 2025-24 the power line landscaping buffer ldc text amendment this is a county initiated ldc text amendment to chapter 3 section 303 solar electric power generation facility to modify landscaping requirements and amending chapter 7 section 720 landscaping and buffering to include a utility buffer a legal ad was published in the lakeland and winter haven sun news on november 19th we have received no response from the public staff recommends approval this amendment reflects a practical and necessary update to the county's land development code by updating the ldc the county aligns its landscaping requirements with both the operational needs of modern solar facilities and the essential safety standards governing public utility infrastructure this amendment will support continued responsible growth while preserving the reliability and integrity of the power systems upon which residents and businesses depend move to expedite promotion and second anybody in the audience see none uh all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye aye aye all right uh just to finalize this amendment updates the county's landscaping standards to better address conditions along roadway frontages that contain overhead power lines and solar electric power generation facilities the amendment introduces a new utility compatible buffer that improves safety reduces administrative waivers and aligns the code with real real world site conditions and responsible development practices and with that i will stand for questions i have one has the any of the utility providers been contacted with this tico duke no we have not reached out to any of the utility providers okay they've requested in the past but we have not reached out so so they're on board with us okay new construction buffer or maintenance this is just to keep the landscaping for a lot of these utility power lines and the solar generation facilities our landscape buffer requires canopy trees and a lot of the times they waive that canopy tree requirement and so this is just keeping some sort of landscaping screening for those developments while maintaining a separation distance that's already in our land development code under appendix b thank you okay do i hear a motion let me get the number sorry the motion do i hear a second ldct 2025-24 second which is a second all in favor signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed same sign okay your thunder sorry okay it's fine so good afternoon um andrew grahowski for the record presenting um agenda item number 10 ldct 2025-23 this is a county initiated proposal to adjust section 224 alcohol sales of the land development code so there's three main umbrella terms in this section which staff has examined on our proposing to change this includes one the amount of distance separation from a religious institution in k-12 school for from commercial uses with an alcohol sales license the second would be how we measure this separation distance currently the county measures from property line to property line and lastly looking at the hours of sale for these businesses so staff found it worth re-examining these three items for the following reasons an audit of prior variances dating back to 2012 found that all have been approved to reduce separation distances regardless of the type of alcohol beverage license therefore rendering the variance almost like a customary standard if all of these variances are being approved at once you know over 13 years the second item is there are different instances staff has encountered which i will show in this presentation where measuring via property lines is not always a one-size-fits-all and can be less effective based on different property characteristics and circumstances such as size or proximity and lastly another big item that staff found is the inconsistent sales hours so package businesses within most city jurisdictions within the county are actually allowed to conduct package sales on sundays while if that business was located in the unincorporated portions of the county they would not be permitted to sell on sundays so locating in the county can essentially be almost an economic disadvantage for package sales business owners if they were in the unincorporated regions so as part of the analysis staff survey counties along the i-4 corridor similar counties in all cities totaling to 26 jurisdictions the first table just shows all of the specific distance separation measurements if there were any from a land use and planning standpoint it is important to maintain a separation from alcohol businesses to religious institutions or schools however when compared to other nearby counties polk is the most restrictive for package sales and liquor consumption distances which is 2500 feet some counties have no restrictions at all which includes alachua lake manatee osceola and volusia again this is the similar table but just for the cities within the county some of different separation distances for churches and schools again there are a few cities where there's no restrictions in distance separation at all so to put both of those previous slides together summarize together this table illustrates where polk lies in terms of the distance separation for cities and other counties polk is 1000 feet for beer and wine consumption on premise licenses so that's a cop license as you see on the slide 2500 feet for liquor package sales and beer and wine and liquor consumption on premises and based on staff's analysis polk has the highest distance separation for three ps and four cop licenses it's also important to note here that one city and five counties have no distance separations in place whatsoever haynes city and brevard are two exceptions where different types of licenses have no distances at all so including the jurisdictions with no distance up restrictions when looking at counties eight out of the 13 have cop and ps distances less than 1000 feet regardless of the type of alcohol being served so to dive further as i mentioned a little bit earlier staff has conducted an audit of prior variances presented before the board of adjustment or land use hearing officer dating back to 2012. these variances grant relief to separation requirements between a proposed business trying to conduct alcohol sales and a religious institution or school and based on this audit all 16 variances identified have been approved which means that all variances to reduce separation requirements have been approved within the past 13 years and also this doesn't include one variance that was recently approved this past september the case number was ldl var 2025-48 so if many variance cases are approved over a long period of time then the reduction in distance may begin to take precedent and become customary rather than the current setback requirements themselves this would essentially defeat the purpose of the variance process as the existing separation requirements do not serve their general intent and purpose in the ldc the average distance approved based on the audit was 424 feet for consumption licenses and 568 feet for liquor package sales these proposed distance reductions in green would still be greater than the average distances approved from the prior variances examined your average does that include the zeros the ones where there is no distance so the average approved was for um so was for the approved so the five out of the five approved the average distance was 424 feet 11 approved was 568 um so this leads into the second item um for section 224 which is measurement currently the county measures alcohol distance separation from property lines or as the crow flies and based on staff's analysis one city and five counties have no do not have any method of measuring distances since there are no distance requirements um for the other jurisdictions that do only one county and two cities measure separation from property line to property line which is brevard eagle lake and polk city um the rest measure from pedestrian travel um this amendment proposes measuring distance separation using um the shortest route of legal pedestrian travel from the main entrance of such place of business to the main entrance of a religious institution or school the current methodology for measuring is not always the most accurate depiction of real world phenomenon property sizes vary greatly also the business may be located in a large scale retail plaza with other uses pedestrians and vehicles typically travel much further than the property line measurements including crossing major highways intersections and other crossings in order to enter the buildings themselves um the actual distance between an entrance and a property boundary is much greater and there there are typically existing physical barriers between these uses um so staff believes this amendment will more effectively demonstrate the primary objectives for separation which is to protect the consumer from the use and prohibit public access where it's easily accessible and here's just a quick example i'll run through this quickly but these are just two variances um on the left of your screen you see in the blue lines it's measured by the property line to property line so it's less than a thousand feet so they had to come in for a variance but if you measure with the orange line so that's legal route of pedestrian travel it's much greater than 1 000 feet from these different uses on the right of your screen is another example of a business trying to come in and had to apply for a variance because of the distance but if you take this large highway you go way north go east it's well over a mile just to walk to that um um church or religious institution if there's multiple ways to get there you take in shortest correct doesn't this make it awful difficult for you guys to determine straight distance is just you know gotcha you the man glad everybody left yeah apologies for trying to make this more brief it's a little bit dense oh i could go somewhere with that one so the third and final proposal or hours of operation so staff found in its analysis that polka is the only county that doesn't permit package sales on sundays and looking at every city all but two permit package sunday sales um and just wanted to give an example so on the left you can see um this is within the county um and it has a four cop license so it can open at noon um this is package sales within the unincorporated portions of the county and they are not allowed to sell but this one um also has package sales but they're located within the city of lakeland which permits package package sales starting as early as 7 00 a.m so you could just see based on this graphic that how close these are together just based on a few couple miles or even feet can determine whether or not you're um operating on sundays so that staff just found that discrepancy inconsistent with regulations across other counties um and cities and within the county um and maybe losing those potential um business sales so this is just the um jargon um in the um ordinance just what the proposed um requests are for section 224 and this is just what it would look like um in table 2.4 of section 224 um as well as including the operating hours as well so based on the changes outlined previously staff is recommending approval um public perception can change over time and many times these um uses can coexist in proximity but still have an established distance without any extra burden on one another per ldc section 121 c3 if a school or religious institution arrives after a business is already serving alcohol and it's been established the discontinuance of either entity isn't necessary um the impact of residential uses is unlikely as these commercial uses are still required to locate in non-residential land use districts there are many intensive uses that can be located much closer to a school so these new distances proposed are more consistent with the majority of other counties and cities especially for package sales and consumption on premise licenses while helping reduce staff's burden on variances that regularly regularly receive approval the method of measurement for pedestrian travel better reflects real world phenomena and the purpose of section 224 and lastly the expanded hours of operation allows the county um the competitive advantage for business owners who may find higher revenues in the city or another county that allows sunday package sales um these amendments can help further draw economic development and potential tax revenue and i know that was a lot so i thank you and i stand for questions any questions of staff any none do i hear a motion do it i have a motion to approve very second we have a motion do i hear a second we're just second all in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed like sign aye motion passes hey chris so so what are you going to do to me next yell that and we have a moment so moved second all right