meeting of the pope county planning commission to order normally we have a work session uh at 8 50 10 minutes before our regular meeting but we're having some technical difficulties this morning and i believe we're pretty much set right now so we're going to go and take a few minutes before the actual meeting starts to ask our staff to go over any agenda items that we need to be aware of any changes to the agenda that we need to be aware of okay good morning no changes to the published agenda just a few notes two cases they're highlighted in blue up there have been advertised but were continued to july 8th this is ldcu 2026 3 the agricola firearm range and ldpd 2026 4 the berkeley crossing pd again these were advertised but they were continued prior to going on to the agenda there are cases highlighted in yellow up there that will be presented together those are the gray line cases agenda items number one and two agenda items number seven and eight the shimmering drive cases and 18 and 19 regarding any lake estates and that's the only notes on the agenda okay thank you um could i get a roll call please merle bishop here cindy jenna masso here brooke agnini here mike hickman here angel sims here julie jackson here linda schultz here kevin updike i'm here we have a quorum thank you so with that i'll ask that we stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag next on our agenda is approval of the minutes from the may 6 2026 meeting uh hopefully you've had a chance to look these over any move to approve motion second second to approve all in favor signify by saying aye aye thank you and now ask our uh attorney to read our procedures and instructions to the audience thank you mr chair the office of land development will introduce the case and disclose any responses to the notification which were not already provided to the planning commission in their packets the land development case planner will then present their staff report and recommendation anyone in the audience who wishes to speak and present testimony on a case will be sworn in the applicant and others in support or opposition of the case will be given the opportunity to speak the applicant will be given the opportunity to respond to any opposition testimony the planning commission will then discuss the case and vote on the matter expedited hearing procedures may be used by the planning commission under the following circumstances one there is no opposition to the case present at the hearing two the recommendation of the office of land development is for approval and three all of the commission members present wish to use this procedure with regard to level three reviews pursuant to section 906 of the polk county land development code the planning commission may approve the applicant's request deny the applicant's request or approve the request with additional conditions pursuant to section 921 of the land development code the applicant or any substantially affected interest may appeal the final decision of the planning commission to the board of county commissioners by filing a formal application with the land development division and paying the application fee the appeal must be filed with the land development division within seven calendar days of the planning commission hearing the board of county commissioners shall set a date and time for a de novo hearing if a party decides to appeal a decision made by the planning commission with respect to any level three review he or she will need a record and may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made the record includes all testimony and evidence given at the hearing each person or party that qualifies to file such an appeal must independently exercise their right to appeal in order to preserve that right a party cannot and should not rely on their right to appeal being preserved by someone else filing an appeal on the same matter please be advised that a party may withdraw their appeal to the board of county commissioners prior to that de novo hearing if one party withdraws their appeal and another party failed to file an appeal there will be no appeal or hearing on the matter before the board of county commissioners the application fee will not necessarily be refunded for such a withdrawal please further be advised that if a de novo application is filed with the board to be recognized during the de novo hearing as organized opposition you must either file the application for de novo hearing or receive written authorization from at least five entities or individuals to speak on their behalf against the application and they must waive their right to speak during the public comment portion of the public hearing regarding level four reviews pursuant to section 907 of the land development code the planning commission's decision is a recommendation to the board of county commissioners the board of county commissioners will ultimately decide the matter at a later date regarding ex parte communication the planning commission receives numerous communications from the public unless otherwise stated it should be presumed that ex parte communications have been made to the members of the commission regarding the matter during the hearing the applicant organized opposition and the public may request the commission to disclose any ex parte communication or site visits they have had regarding the matter and question the members regarding their communications or site visits unless the commission member recuses themselves he or she has determined that they are able to hear the case and fairly and impartially make a decision on the matter based on the substantial competent evidence in the record mr chair would you like me to swear in the witnesses for today's cases yes please thank you if you intend to address the planning commission on any case today please stand up raise your right hand and answer out loud to the following question this applies to all cases so if you believe you may speak today please be sworn in do you swear or affirm that the testimony and evidence you provide to the planning commission today is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you you may be seated i'll now go over some housekeeping items before we get started first we need to admit the county's land planners as expert witnesses they have all been accepted as experts in the past however if you would like to voir dire any of them as to their background or expertise then you may do so at this time without any opposition to their admission can we please have a motion to accept staff as experts in their field of land planning so moved second i should second to approve all in favor signify by saying aye aye thank you secondly if we have any experts of applicants then you may tender them at this time or you may wait until your case is called finally the planning commission must review quasi-judicial land use cases quasi-judicial means action entails applying land development policies to a specific land development application in a fair and impartial manner the commission's review is limited to two areas consistency and compatibility regarding consistency the commission must determine whether the application is consistent with both the comprehensive plan and the land development code the staff report and presentation will provide expert analysis and opinion regarding the applicable criteria as well as a recommendation as to whether the application is consistent with those criteria regarding compatibility the commission must determine whether the application is compatible with the surrounding area the commission will be presented with testimony and evidence at the hearing both written and oral by law the only evidence the commission may consider is competent substantial evidence which means evidence that is sufficiently relevant and material that a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion the following items are competent substantial evidence evidence that is fact-based and relevant to the applicable criteria staff reports and staff presentations citizen testimony may be competent substantial evidence so long as it is fact-based and may include testimony regarding subjective matters that do not require expertise such as aesthetic and compatibility of a project with the surrounding neighborhood however popularity polls petitions testimony that is hypothetical speculative based on fear or consists of generalized statements that do not address the land development criteria are not competent substantial evidence for example fear that the project will cause increased traffic or crime is not competent substantial evidence lastly when expertise is required for technical issues like traffic engineering drainage wetland impacts school and utility capacity light and noise pollution or the application's impact on property values citizen testimony is not competent substantial evidence unless the witness is qualified as an expert in that area that concludes my comments thank you thank you i should have uh in the beginning reminded everybody please uh be sure that your uh smartphone cell phone is uh turned off turned to silence with that i will ask staff if you'll present the first case please first case is ldcpas 2026-10 it's a comprehensive plan amendment it's also related to the next case ldct 2026-7 which is a text amendment to the land development code mark bennett is the case planner and the staff report application and other items submitted are submitted into the record and are included in the software that you use to review the agenda thank you good morning for the record mark bennett with land development presenting the green line x project as shonda just mentioned there'll be two items related with uh this project and we'll need i'll present them as one but we will need separate actions for both the comp plan amendment and the land development code text uh the requests here are to change 3.181 acres from residential suburban to industrial and then a text amendment to the land development code to provide for additional stipulations and provisions regarding the intensity of the proposed industrial activity at the site as far as notice requirements go 14 mailers were sent to area property owners on may 15th um one board was posted on may 18th and legal ad was published in the lake limerian center may 20th no response from the public staff does recommend approval the location of the site is on state road 60 you can see on the map on the left north of the city of mulberry you can also see the hillsborough county line as a reference point and then the aerial on the right shows a more specific location uh basically just south of uh polly creek and the bridge there if you're familiar with that area excuse me this is more uh close-up detailed uh view of the site outlined in black um i'm showing going to show three or four aerials of the site to uh provide some perspective uh this is a view looking northwest um at the site shown in red i highlighted the south lakeland air park park excuse me and i'll explain why further in the presentation here's another view of the site and this view in particular shows the tico easement that runs through the site there as i mentioned earlier the requested changes from residential suburban to industrial you can see the surrounding land uses there a linear commercial industrial to north residential to the behind the property basically also as part of the comprehensive plan amendment we do have text this text basically is an um is put in the comprehensive plan to make reference to the fact that there's additional text that's in the land development code that deals with regulating this site the next set of slides is in regards to the proposed land development text this slide here shows a summary of the proposed text it covers permitted and prohibited uses outdoor activities signage landscaping and some additional site development standards the proposal here is that any structure would be limited in height to 50 feet our industrial land use does not have a height limitation but the applicant proposed that and staff definitely um concurs with that provisions also on uh location of loading unloading areas restrictions on the bays loading bays and outdoor lighting with um some examples of fully sheeted uh excuse me fully shielded lights um which minimizes glare and and uh visual pollution there some of the reasons oh i'm sorry uh yeah also included is a site plan uh the key parts of this site plan is that it shows wetland areas and also um it's not shown here but there are significant floodplain areas related to polly creek it also shows the potential buildable areas um and uh the access point which i'll discuss briefly further three main components that were um related to or involved with coming up with the additional restrictions and stipulations uh prohibited uses the there's a list of prohibited uses here um generally as you're familiar some of these uses can be very intensive in nature in terms of impacts and activities these would be prohibited um also included was general manufacturing um that that means by implication light manufacturing would be allowed basically a difference between light manufacturing and general manufacturing is that light manufacturing is conducted inside um and that any activities um don't happen or occur or like it says here detectable beyond the property line in contrast general manufacturing has potential potential for greater nuisance to significant properties and can be conducted outside and enclosed or partially enclosed structures um i also included um an excerpt from the applicant's narrative and a chart here out of our minor traffic study that lists uh the manufacturing category and i put that in there because one of the restrictions that we also are proposing here is a limitation on the amount of vehicle trips and and let me explain a little further here the big square here is an email that staff received from dot dot dot expressed concerns about access as of now the site has a structure a house on it it's accessed via an easement here dot has concerns about using the full median here because there are space spacing standards that would not be met so to try and address dot's concerns our proposal was to limit any activity on the site to uses that had a lower trip count daily and peak and that's shown in in here um the the layout layout of the site is such that it sort of makes sense to have the access point here at a full median opening but nevertheless the ut expressed concerns about spacing standards so to address their concerns still allowing development of the site um we're proposing that there be limitations on the amount of daily and the peak hour trips while you're there i hate to interrupt you but i want to leave on a roll before i ask my question so what is the spacing concern is it that easement why what is this what is it related to in terms of their spacing concern i'm zooming in because here's the spacing standards basically half mile full median opening directional quarter mile and i don't think that meets it right now by how much i i don't i don't know but i'm i'm missing something and you're probably explaining it right i'm just missing it so it's a gotta it's a spacing problem from the access point to what the median opening i don't understand what this what is the distance from the access point to what yeah and bear in mind you asked me to try and explain the rules here but um you know they regulate the distance between access you know median opening okay and the gist of it is that they're saying that this area doesn't meet those standards so it's their median openings right okay right so this applicant didn't have anything to do with that exactly the dot's got a problem with their medians okay i'm with you now okay and if i may shonda bennett with london division i think part of the other issue is that the current access of from and the use of the property is residential right it's already not meeting spacing i got you so if we change it to industrial increases this the trip's coming on and off so we're making a problem more problematic to me um and i know this isn't really a discussion part but it's just popping in my head it wouldn't to me it wouldn't matter so much the timing it's the type of vehicle that's going in and out if we're talking about spacing you know a prius is going to take up much less space than you know a giant dump truck that's coming in and out if it's spacing it's not really about the time of day it's the type of vehicle that's coming and going no okay i think they're both relevant because if a site has higher trip rates you could have extension of turning queues that make the lengths problematic regardless of the type of vehicle so it depends on i'm sorry i should open this up but i didn't you got 19 cases today i know i just i was just not understanding the spacing i just want to do that before you left this area so let's let mark finish yeah and and on one hand i get what dot saying on the other hand gee whiz there's a full median opening right in front of the site so right and and one of the criteria in our comp plan for industrial is access and median openings so nevertheless dot raised the concern we felt the best way to address it is try and limit the potential amount of traffic coming in and out and we're suggesting doing that by addressing trip rates so um so the last item and the reason why i mentioned the south lakeland air park earlier and you can see it on the aerial there is that this site um although it's not in the approach zone south lakeland air park and you can see that drawn here it is in what's known as a height notification in-flight visual interference zone the reason why this was added is that it's our understanding that there may be manufacturing of drones at this site and i'll defer to the applicant later to to clarify and explain that further our concern was that okay if there's going to be drones if there's going to be testing if it's going to be near the air park how's this going to be addressed for those of you not aware i used to work in the cell tower industry and i do know that faa regulates only at 200 feet and above which is why there's a bunch of 199 foot towers around but nevertheless we recognize that may be a potential issue so our proposed solution is that if in fact they do conduct you know manufactured drones and do wish to do testing there we're asking that they create a testing operations plan for staff to review and approve as part of a level two so impacts we don't foresee any impacts on the site there are some environmental concerns that was shown earlier as part of the site plan wetlands floodplains with pulley creek there but the site plan which would be binding conceptual but binding in nature will will address those environmental concerns so to summarize our justification for approval we have location criteria for industrial there are industrial uses in the general area with properties east and southeast of the site like i mentioned earlier one of our criteria is in direct access to a full median opening for those reasons we consider it compatible with surrounding area and consistent with the comprehensive plan and with that i'll stand for any questions thank you any questions of staff okay if not i'll ask the applicant if you'd come forward please okay yep good morning for the record tom woodch tdw land planning i have a presentation it's very short but just provides a little bit better photos of what we're talking about to help guide the commission i'm not sure where uh it's located there's a lot of these it is yeah it's here somewhere uploaded earlier this morning appears that it may not have made it hang on just a moment please there it is thank you for your patience okay again tom woodch tdw land planning consultant for the property owner applicant here mark's done a great job outlining what we are intending to do we've been negotiating with staff and understanding what is the key needs for the site we've gone through numerous initial site plan renditions to deal with a lot of the things you've heard we've also held a pre-app with fdot something you don't usually hear from a comprehensive plan amendment applicant i'm sure so we were going down all the different avenues to make sure that we've covered all the issues mark's got a great list of conditions that we provided and he revised and through the sets of revisions we've come up with a great solution they found that it is consistent with the comp plan and land available code i just want to address a couple of things we have a mixture of industrial manufacturing warehouse salvage and commercial in around the site so while this is lcc around us the closest development and i'll show you a picture here soon but this is a welding shop next to us some light industrial almost warehousing across directly across the roads if you take what's directly adjacent to us uh in within the lcc it's actually quite compatible just because it's linear commercial corridor i want to explain those uses directly to have you understand what's actually who our neighbors are and of course some of the salvage up across to the north or northeast of us or northwest of us we have sufficient infrastructure we've worked through dot back and forth uh there's been no permit issue there's been no final determination this is all in ongoing discussions the information that you have here today is illuminating to a lot of the things that we've been going through but it's in no way restricting us it is correct that we have a full median opening at this time with deceleration lanes it's very safe to get in and out of the site and that is the reason why you see the location on our site where it's currently proposed we have wetlands on site we have access challenges that we're working through we have a power line easement cutting straight through the property so for this property to be usable for really anyone besides the single family home that's currently on it it's very challenging and so we would have to go through all these discussions and have to bring this forward to any commission to say hey we've addressed these one by one and have a conditional cpa that was the best route to say what's the best fit for a reuse a development of the site next to the uses that i've outlined to you all so we've buffered and designed it to be appropriate to get the staff's approval i want to show you quickly this is that medium open a little bit closer this is on the ground this is looking on the right looking west within the desal lane and then imagine yourself turning to the left across the median so that's what put the pictures in this order now you're looking straight kind of west uh northwest into the site within the meeting open so you're standing here and you turn to the left and that's the view of our site we tried as best we can to avoid wetland impacts some of the challenges were that there's mention of an easement uh there is uh no desire excuse me of the property owner who currently owns that driveway to allow us access so that was our first step to check with dot and they asked us to request that from that property owner uh being declined that of course dot will issue us a permit somewhere here the best most logical place right now is located right in front of this median opening whether it is directionalized which means they take it from being wide open as it is to um westbound left in and eastbound you know left and across so it looks kind of like a uh you know passing cars but there's a raised bit of concrete that's what a directionalized median is they might do that they might close it we don't know there's nothing different they might leave it it might be 10 years it might be five years it might we don't have any idea so i think it's just best to keep that in mind when we talk about the access to say okay we are in front of it now we have the most ideal access with existing turn lanes and uh it's the safest location to put a driveway at some point if something changes in the future we will adapt and the second way that we address that is like mark said through a trip count to say well just keep it you know lower trip count that keeps it safe as possible that fully meets our use again this is a conditional cpa so we've taken an industrial category and we've really trimmed it down down down down to a very specific set of uses that's allowed and even further so with what mark has presented as a limited limitation on the trip count so it says you can have those types of industrial uses minus the list that he showed you in the appendix that's provided as the text amendment as well also conditioned with that trip count so we're going to be fine with being compatible with the infrastructure that's available both now and in the future i just want to make that clear um one of the thing that we have i wanted to show you with some of the adjacent uses to give you an idea of what it actually looks like around here so you can say well this is residential it's it's not it's clear we are the last parcel at the end between pulley creeks wetlands and the across the street the size more storage to our immediate south is the welding shop that i mentioned and this is that access drive that they wanted us to utilize obviously there's you know there's be better to space us further away but also this is for residential use back and behind as you go down that access area this is what it looks like so in terms of compatibility we're going to be right next to something that's part of the welding shop so there's not a residence even as you go back behind the welding shop this is the back of that building so this is the building their outdoor storage that they have an old wall that's kind of screening some of the outdoor storage but that'll show you what's right across from what our building is going to be so it is compatible there's only just space for that little driveway in between us so you can't build a residential house for example um anyway it's linear commercial corridor within that driveway within that welding shop and then this is a ground shot of the power line easement running through our property our access will come from the right there is a small wetland impact that is allowed through the comprehensive plan for access that's clearly stated in the comprehensive plan we've tried to avoid everything else we can by trying to utilize the existing driveway we were not granted that and frankly for the use that we have we think our separation of our driveway further to the west is probably safer more ideal and of course we'll mitigate for those impacts and make sure that's the least amount possible we must have gone through 10 more i don't know i've lost count of how many rendition official renditions of this generalized layout uh to get it just right so we stay out of the wetlands as much as possible as you notice it's just for the access drive and i want to point out even the curved axis is because you know i had said let's keep it let's curve it as soon as we can get that drive and not straight into the site coming straight through here we even you know are staying out of this little triangle of wetlands to try and keep it the tightest we can and preserve as much of that existing uh vegetation and wetland area uh the what the power line easement is shown in the middle that big cut through the center and then our building envelope essentially is what you see outlined in black the reason why it might be a little interesting with this notch the section 220 compatibility for setbacks from residential we can show you that we're going to meet that requirement and we've gone through all those in our site plan proposals and renditions review those with staff and show that we can meet all those even land development code standards down the line so this is a very well planned out uh product that you have in front of you and the process that we've gone through to work with staff has been extensive and very detailed to make sure that we are mitigating or staying away from the issues we need to stay away from dealing with the ones that are most important and then conditioning to make sure it's going to be a good fit for what's around us the only last thing i would say is that we had some discussions with staff relating to general manufacturing we are an enclosed building we're proposing you know a metal building we've conditioned ourselves to be only 50 feet in height whereas industrial normally like mark said can go as high as you want we've done a lot of things to condition the overall look and feel of the site to be a great fit and our doors will remain closed we're going to be doing the manufacturing inside we spoke with mark about general manufacturing and thought well with all the conditions that we have in place we are light manufacturing what we what we develop is high-tech manufacturing we don't anticipate anything right now on the radar screen but we just after speaking with them we said that it might be good to allow us to go ahead and have general manufacturing provided it can meet all the other conditions the trip count everything else and the fact that we have to keep our doors shut and the building low and so it's going to put us in a small box if there is something that comes available that is ancillary to our light manufacturing that kind of bumps into general manufacturing i would hate that to be a snag for my client and his process his manufacturing process clearly he is well within light manufacturing but in discussing with all the conditions that we have in place we just thought can we remove that because we feel the protections are there we're not going to be doing outdoor things we're not going to be creating smoke dust noise vibrations this is high-tech electronics you won't be able to hear it so we said can you please consider removing the general manufacturing prohibition from that list of conditional uses that's just the one thing i would i think ask perhaps to be covered and i'll thank you for listening i'll stand for any questions any questions of the applicant i curious why industrial if there's welding in lcc right next door is that not does that not non-conforming not conforming right i mean welding to me seems industrial yes and there are a lot of uses uh especially in woolen all throughout the county uh within lcc it almost functioned as a flex fix all in some cases because it was what is the best use we don't want to necessarily want to you know put this land use into that land use in this land use this is kind of all kind of a commercial corridor and back a long time ago they referenced as commercial as everything that wasn't residential i think the mindset was different and so it was kind of a fix for everything that shops clearly been around for a while so it would be if it's legal non-conforming not legally non-conforming it's not from my decision to make but that's likely how that came about and there's probably others and other lccs nearby that aren't a great aren't a perfect fit but have just been there for very long if i may offer an expanded answer that there are clusters of lcc that are meant to be industrial and those can be have infill uses new uses but lcc can't be expanded linearly so in this case lcc is not an option for us to recommend approval of based on the location criteria for lcc if it was further up on 60 that we can do infill of lcc but that's not an option for us so they had to pick something else that could be located and but there is significant residential nearby which is why you have the recommendation before you to make it more like business park center than industrial well that that's concerns me being industrial being in an environmentally sensitive parcel there um and with the residential immediately on the other side of the the wetlands um future of what industrial could open it up if we change this to industrial now with just light manufacturing doesn't that make it an easy gateway to expand that and ask for removal of those restrictions in the future um i'm not sure if that's for me but i can um which is partly why we're requesting that general manufacturing be prohibited um but how easy is it to remove that like they'd have to come through once you change that zone well certainly we do we do think about that but we also think about um it's got a um power line easement through it um and the residence has been vacant for some time now so i'm not sure how viable the residence is either there's really no other land use that we can think of that could fit on this site to allow some non-residential use so this was our best option but certainly if they wanted to um add if the board approves the text amendment as proposed and they wanted to add general manufacturing back they have to come through a level four review go back to the planning commission and the board of county commissioners to have it added or have it amended yes exactly and these conditions they go into the land development code it's not it's like shauna said that's why it's a it's a level four review they go into these documents so you can't just come through and scrape it away or quietly talk to somebody or whatever that that's not going to happen it'd have to come through the full process get the full review and then with these exact questions and concerns people would say well now you're allowing this this and this where we thought you weren't going to do that um and again through the text that we've proposed we said hey these are things you can't do you know we can't do all the uses that uh mark has shown you on this on the um uh list of uh text that he's provided and there's also lighting limitations and so many things that you know keeping the doors closed and so many things that keep this as like you like point out as the size more across the street is the the bpc look and feel we should be something that looks and feels kind of like this and um you know that's that's basically what you should be expecting is something like that it's all indoors it's a metal shelf from the outside we're going to be behind the wetland there'll be some they'll be able to see and we'll have some buffering up front which they don't that was built a while ago and doesn't have a type a buffer across the front which will require to put buffering in there uh so but you know everything you see in the bottom left will stay so the building will be tucked back in there and on the on the left of uh of where you see this bottom site so somewhere over in this side of the site so who with the dot concerns with the access who monitors or manages those trip restrictions we're going to be required to issue a full permit for our driveway and um at that time we'll be providing dot with additional data to show what we do and what we are before they issue us a driveway permit so we won't we won't be able to do really anything you see here until we get those permits in place so it's very important that they we get that full review we've initiated that process now so that we can be aware of what's you know what we'll have to be considering and staff has been coordinating with the ot we've all been coordinating together on this uh so the three uh three parties the us the applicant county staff and fdot have been working together to make sure it's a good fit and we have the calculations presented to you all that is the result of that so it's your request that we you know if we approve this that we remove remove item well item 3h which is general manufacturing from the prohibited uses under section one appendix e yes and and with regards to the drone usage and that there aren't any this is an unrestricted faa zone according to my client who works extensively in this field and uh so we're we're confident that we're not going to have any conflicts or issues with the airport that was presented to you because that's not a an airport that has the type of restrictions of your typical airport where you'd have those sorts of drone restrictions how about the neighborhood next door are they going to have drones tested above their homes no and you know speaking with the client this isn't we're not flying at 300 feet and you know that's that's everywhere else you go nowadays drones are all over the place we're going to be keeping it i mean our building is 50 feet high are we even going to be higher than 50 feet so there's yeah we'll need them to come up for it but yeah so we're going to stay over our property we won't be flying over i'll just reiterate what he said won't be flying over the neighboring properties mainly in our discussions we're going to be staying below that 50 feet there's a chance that we will go higher but it's going to stay over our building footprint and it's going to be very infrequent if that occurs and i just want to emphasize the point that um to address those concerns that's why we're asking for a testing operations plan for review and approval to understand what may occur make sure the impacts are addressed so that was the rationale behind that but while you're up there mark what is your thought or opinion i know you're recommending that general manufacturing be included as approved at use uh i guess elaborate a little bit on his request to remove that briefly sure um i guess the best way well two points one general manufacturing allows for activities and partially enclosed structures as per the definition secondly the intent here was to minimize any potential impacts so we thought the best way of doing that was to just not allow it the definitions between light industrial and general industrial um you know focus on the structures focus on impacts doesn't really address uses in other words um there's there's really not a difference between what's allowed in light in general it's more how it's done that being in the structures and the off-site impacts so best answer i can give you as to why we felt even with the additional restrictions and requirements it was just best to limit it to light and not allow general to offer there are some homes adjacent to this property so general manufacturing could have noise and vibration and odors off-site and we didn't think that's appropriate is the size of the proposed building is that going to require any um infill being have that building built up significantly with it being so close to that flood plain and wetland area that it could potentially push water into the neighborhood on the other side of the creek and i'll let the applicant speak further but my understanding is that the site is not is outside the flood plain area so um and even if it were the building would have to be i think one foot of base flood but um my recollection is that the flood plain is more over here so they're in other words they're staying out of the flood plain all together tom if you want thank you and as part of that um as part of the multiple iterations that we've done on the site we've kept everything out and away and above and we've also been designing storm water to accommodate the footprint and the parking footprint of the building and the parking uh that we have that would be considered the impervious areas of the site so we've we were neck deep in all those calculations and feel confident that we've got more than enough the orange area that you see is that's not we're not developing all that that's kind of like a building envelope um or an area that would that could fit some things including drainage but we're not even you know anticipating to use uh all that for building area of course we'd have retention to accommodate so um we feel that we've got plenty in in place and plan to accommodate what we're proposing um and in terms of the the general manufacturing that was that was our request you know we have a lot of conditions in place uh to safeguard against the noises and lights and vibrations and things of that nature we also understand staff's concern it was our intention to just have a window open in case that came open we didn't want to have a hard door slammed so if as conditioned it can be accepted that's great um you know we would we would prefer that but it's not you know we're we've been working with staff for a long time to come to where we are and that was one of the things we discussed during our meetings and so this uh we're still kind of requesting that is i guess i wouldn't bring it up so um are there any other questions for myself or any other questions seeing none i'll ask i'll open the uh meeting up to uh any public comments and ask is there anyone present that would like to speak in support of this application seeing none is there anyone present who would like to speak in opposition to this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for any discussions further questions are a motion i'll present a motion for ldcpas second motion second to approve and just for clarification that does include the staff recommendation that keeps the general manufacturing as a prohibited use subsequent ldc oh okay you're right you're right you're right i'm sorry okay motion uh and a second to approve the um the application all in our roll call please cindy jenna masso approved merle bishop approved brooke agnini approved mike hickman for the motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson against the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes okay the next case uh i don't believe we need to i mean you've already presented the information so the next case is ld ct 2026-7 um any discussions on this do i have a motion we do still need to have a public hearing oh yeah you're right anyone present who would like to speak for or against the text amendment for this case which is ldct 2026-7 seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for a motion chair i move to approve ldct 2026-7 second and that does include keeping the uh restriction on general manufacturing yes okay roll call please cindy jenna masso for the motion merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman for the motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case thank you next case is ldc pal 2026-4 it's a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment mark bennett is the case planner and also i need to note that the staff report ordinance and applications submitted have been submitted into the record and are attached in the agenda software you use to review the cases thank you good morning again for the record mark bennett with land development presenting ldc pal 2026-4 known as the organic matters comprehensive plan amendment the request is to change 71.26 acres from business park center to industrial for property located in the rural development area regarding notice requirements 13 mailers were sent to area property owners on may 15th seven boards were posted on may 18th legal ad published in the lakeland winter haven sun on may 20th no response from the public and staff recommends approval a site is located generally south of the city of bartow on us 17 the aerial on the right shows the general location of it between us 17 98 old homeland road homeland is located here and this white area here is the mentremont facility if you're familiar with that this is the current land use map as you can see there's industrial to the north and south of the site also within the city of bartow the property is designated as clear springs industrial property to the west is within the city is clear springs agricultural and does have a solar farm here so as as i showed earlier there are industrial uses to north and south and this is the proposed change to the land use map and that the site would be changed to industrial for approved aerial photo site is currently vacant and here's some aerial photos showing the site it does have a i'll call it an access strip to austin phillips lane which then leads out to a full median opening to us 1798 and just like the previous case one of the things we look at when designating land for industrial is access points view of the site looking to the south east and west as far as um impacts on infrastructure um we do not anticipate any adverse impacts and uh our justification for approval surrounded by industrial uses and property designated industrial has direct access to an arterial road access to a full median opening um compatible with surrounding uses and therefore is consistent with the comprehensive plan and i'll stand for any questions thank you any questions staff just curious did you get any comment from city of bartow um yeah i reached out to them got a copy of the land use map um i their only comment was that even though it's in their water sewer and electric service area they do not have sewer um yeah email sent to bartow playing staff Wednesday april 15th site is in the city of bartow water sewer electric service area but only electrical services are available mark is there a user at this point um i that's i don't believe so my understanding is they have the property for sale and that's this is the purpose of the action to facilitate the future sale there's no further questions i'll ask the applicant if he's present to come forward please you need to come forward but if you're if you're here for public comment i'm going to open that up just a minute i'm asking the applicant if he's present to come forward and if he has anything to add to staff report state your name and address please this one's fine ronnie baron organic matters i'm the general manager and i've been general manager for the past 28 years and organic matters been in business and for 28 years and we didn't just put lipstick on this thing to sell it it's been for sale for many many years and we happened to buy it uh two or three years ago as an investment and we wanted to be able to pick out who our neighbors were going to be because we have 21 acres adjacent to this property with a manufacturing plant on it and we're not going anywhere and we're family owned and uh again it gives us an opportunity to sell it and pick our neighbors and i think that's good for the county okay thank you sir yes now is there anyone present who would like to uh speak in favor of this application anyone in opposition yes ma'am would you come forward please state your name and address and were you sworn in i don't know were you here did you go ahead and raise your right hand do you swear from that the testimony and evidence you present to the board today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i believe so this is my first time ever in front of a board i just need a yes or no that's where i tell the truth yes okay thank you i just want to know you state your name and address please uh diana seyfried 239 first street homeland florida okay i just want to promise from the people buying the land they're not going to put a data center there i was just in fort meade uh last month or whenever they had the meetings over there and we don't need no data centers in our neighborhood they may be good for computer stuff but they're not good for the groundwater recently with the um little drought we had well the big drought we had the big uh uh drought we had i noticed uh my toilet taking uh 10 to 15 minutes to fill back up with the groundwater not replenishing and everything with the zephyrs and everything so if they're thinking about selling to put a data center in the future i would pray you did not think about that and not do that and my objection to putting it to industrial is that they will not sell to make a data center okay thank you and i would like a promise from what's the name of your company sir organic matter sounds real good organic does matter and if i could get promise from you ma'am would you not sell for a data center i would not object okay thank you any others like to speak in opposition to this application dav would you address the uh concern for data center briefly we don't have uh criteria for data centers in polk county so they're de facto and unapproved use for any land use district at this time so they wouldn't be able to do a day this i'm not sure there's even enough property here to do it i can't speculate at that right i know okay i was just gonna ian is correct we don't have we have language in the land development code that says if it's not a specifically prescribed use it's not permitted and we do not currently have uh definition of data centers or land use for data centers so with that i'll bring the uh close the public comment portion of the uh item and bring it back to the board for further discussion uh and a motion motion to approve ldc pal 2026 for second motion second to approve roll call please cindy jenna masso approve merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman for the motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case please next case is ldcd 2026-3 i'm sorry ldct 2026-14 it's a land development code text amendment specifically within the polk city special protection area of the green swamp area of critical state concern robert bolton is the case planner and the staff report ordinance and application have been included in the agenda software you use to review the case and submit it into the record thank you motion to expedite we have a motion to expedite and a second um is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak in favor or opposition to this request seeing none then i had a question on it that i just wanted to clarify if this is going to make it easier or harder to allow development here well i mean is this tightening restrictions or is this loose let me uh let me take the motion first to expedite if we're going to expedite or not then we'll have opportunity for questions so all in favor of expediting this case signify by saying aye aye okay now you can ask your question do would you like me to do a presentation first yes okay presentation all righty great thank you good morning robert bolton with land development presenting the ldct 2026-14 the polk city spa lccx land development uh amendment in addition to what uh shonda said i had we also have uh submitted the former staff report and formal ordinance that implemented this the footnote that the text amendment is uh looking to eliminate the text amendment or the footnote uh states comprehensive plan amendments to change the parcels future land use district to linear commercial corridor within the polk city special protection area are prohibited by policy 2.32-c3 of the polk county comprehensive plan only parcels within the existing lccx future land use district are allowed within the polk city special protection area the reason we're looking to eliminate this is that it is contract it contradicts actually the uh it says it's basing that the existing lcc cannot be expanded in section 2.111 of the comprehensive plan which has all of the land uses linear commercial corridors existing and it goes on in here to explain that we aren't going to create new lccs the polk city spa is the only spa between the ridge and the rural spa that has this restriction this is a map of the of the spas and the green swamp the orange is the polk city the rural spa and the ridge spa does not have the this footnote does not apply this footnote does not apply to them it applies nowhere else in the county for lcc whether it's an x or not the same policy or the within the rural there's lcc in this area right here that could be expanded into the rural spa the footnote does not apply to the rural one of the other main things is this dictates the ldc to the comp plan the comp plan by state law is to dictate or uh show give the path for the land development code so by removing this footnote footnote it brings the land development code and the comp plan into uh compatibility with each other along with state law and that there's two different ones that uh i had cited the statute 163.3194 and 133.320 as to the specifics on would it make it easier it would make it the same as expanding the lccx within the green swamp uh area of critical state concern it would level the playing field so does that answer your question so it allows more development in the polk city spa area it at this point in time right here again this blue it's the the polk city spa is sort of scattered this area here is the where the location of the only lcc is this is an overlay excuse me of polk city spa right here this is the lcc parcel our mapping system maps it to the center of the road so there's really not two parcels there this is actually uh us highway 98 right in this area it could potentially apply to this one parcel that is here that is currently a church or to this parcel right here part of the uh location criteria the criteria for expansion is a depth criteria to the area activity centers so this is the deepest the activity centers go so it really applies to this one or a portion of this parcel once you go north of this church parcel you're into the rural that footnote would not apply to the so you're saying it could be um become lcc could be applied to the rural special protection area correct these these lccs up here yes could be expected they could they could apply to take those parcels here so if the footnote prohibits it and it's just a footnote other other than the footnote it's allowed so i'm just wondering how staff would respond to a application that came in uh and and i guess the companion question of that is are there have there been any applications that caused this that caused staff to become aware of this conflict lcc is not allowed in the rural special protection area so if anyone wants to do okay a land use change to lcc in the rural special protection area they've got to do a text amendment to the comp plan okay in addition to a map amendment that could happen no matter where you were in the green swamp second this is only in this polk city special protection area and the polk city special protection area was meant to have some development opportunity this change allows someone to ask for a land use change it doesn't allow the development automatically they have to go through you the board of county commissioners they have to abide by 30 open space and all the other rules that's required in the green swamp um but yes there was the parcel that robert pointed out that's due east of this site you will see i think next month for a land use change to lcc but we were processing it with thinking it's meeting the expansion criteria for lcc and then we found this section in the code and needed to clean that up but honestly i had not even realized it was there for as long as i've worked here so it was a surprise to staff okay any other questions uh i've already asked if there's any um comment but i'll open the public hearing uh just to be sure if there's anyone to speak for or against this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for a motion move to approve ldct 2026-14 second motion second to approve roll call please cindy jenna masso approved merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case please next case is ldct 2026-3 it is a land development code district text district change sorry from rl1 to rl4 point sienna robert bolton is the case planner and uh just the staff report ordinance and application are submitted into the record they're in the software for the agenda that you review also there have been no responses to the advertisement in case you wanted to consider an expedited hearing motion to expedite motion second and a second to expedite is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak in favor or against this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for a decision on the motion all in favor of the motion to expedite signify by saying aye aye okay we'll expedite good morning robert bolton with land development presenting ldcd cd 2026-3 the goldenrod lane land development code uh sub-district change map from residential low 1x to residential low uh 4x on approximately 17.1 acres for the record 166 mailers were sent on may 15 2026 one sign was posted on may 18 2026 a legal ad was published in the lakeland winter haven sun on may 20th 2026 no responses from the public have been received as shonda mentioned the staff ordinance demonstration need impact assessment were submitted for the record this is a level four uh review and will be heard by the board of county commissioners on july 21st the request uh as you can see this is the existing land use this is the rl4 what this will allow is the the surrounding development here has densities depending on which side you're looking at of from approximately 3.75 units dwelling acre upwards of about 4.17 dwelling units the acre rl4 will give them the ability to develop this site at some similar densities it is consistent with the land use with the land development code and the comprehensive plan with that i'll submit this presentation and stand for any questions any questions staff seeing done and i'll i'll open into public hearing anyone speak in favor of opposition seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for a uh motion and a second make a motion to approve ldc d2026-3 second motion and second to approve roll call please cindy janem also for the motion merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case please next case is ldcpas 2025-36 it's a small scale comprehensive plan amendment robert bolton is the case planner staff report and application are submitted into the record in your agenda software and in case you wanted to consider expedited there have been no responses to the advertisement motion to expedite second motion second thanks expedite is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak uh against or in favor or against this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board and ask for a presentation by staff good morning robert bolton oh wait we got a vote on the motion yes all in favor of the motion to expedite signify by saying aye aye okay now you can good morning robert bolton with land development presenting ldcpas 2025-36 a future land use map amendment from residential suburban x to office center x in the suburban growth area and the us 98 sap for the record 73 mailers were sent to area property owners on may 15 2026 one board was posted on april 16 2026 a legal ad was published in the lakeland wonder haven sun on may 20th 2026 no responses from the public have been received uh this is a level review for review and will be heard by the board of county commissioners on june 16th for adoption uh this will take uh the parcel that's about 1.3 sit 35 acres from a residential suburban which has a use of one dwelling unit per five acres so it's going to be very difficult to develop residentially uh puts it to an office the office center which is allowed through the uh some new changes to the comprehensive plan because it is by a legally established non-residential use uh all the uh infrastructure and uh amenities uh public services are available and it's consistent with land development code and comprehensive plan with this i'll uh submit the presentation for the record and stand for any questions any questions of staff seeing none i'll open up the public uh portion of the item and ask that anyone in speak in favor of opposition c9 bring back to the board for discussion and a motion mr chair move to approve ldcpas 2025-36 second motion second to approve roll call please cindy jenam also for the motion merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case please next case is actually tied with the case after that as well ldcpas 2025-24 it's a comprehensive plan amendment that's also has text amendment to the conference of plan is and associated with the text amendment ceiling development code ldct 2026-5 robert bolton is the case planner have the staff report ordinance and applications submitted into the record in the agenda software we didn't have any response to the advertisement however the applicant did have did host a community meeting with some concerned citizens that did come thank you thank you okay all right good morning robert bolton with land development presenting two related requests ldcpas 2025-24 a future land use map and text amendment on approximately 3.87 acres from residential load to community activity center with the comprehensive plan text amendment uh to section 2.135 uh parcel specific mac uh future land use map amendment um that's uh ldcd c ldct 2026-5 to appendix e adding uh condition to ensure interconnectivity with the activity ex uh center expansion these will be presented together but need separate actions for the record 43 mailers were sent to area property owners on may 15th 2026 two signs were posted on may 19th 2026 a legal ad was published in the lakeland and winter haven sun on may 20th 2026 these are level four reviews uh the ldcpas 2025-24 will be heard by the board of commissioners on uh july 21st ldct 2026-5 the text amendment will have a first reading by the board of county commissioners on july 7th an adoption hearing is scheduled for july 21st the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and land development code staff does recommend approval for both of these the subject site is located on the south side of shimmering drive approximately 300 feet east of state road 37 or south florida avenue west of clark lake north of west carter road and north of the city limits of mulberry this is 2023 context aerial the site is located adjacent and to the south of the imperial christina plaza and set back from the intersection of state road 37 and the shimmering drive shepherd road intersection this intersection uh includes the imperial christina plaza here there was an our used to be an out parcel for a bank there you have walgreens you've got in the city of mulberry shopping center here um down here you have a tire store all along 37 on both sides is basically fully built out this section we have current uh level twos in for different uh properties so from yule road all the the way down is quite well uh built out this is a 2023 image of the site showing a better context of the site's location within the plaza with burger king uh at the hard corner this is the former bank uh location out parcel the shimmering drive was originally the southern entrance and built as a boulevard entrance for the imperial christina plaza it now acts as still the southern entrance but also the entrance to the twin lakes at christina subdivision uh adjacent to the property right here is a dental office the subject parcel has uh historically operated as plant nursery there are wetlands uh on the southern part of the parcel and that at a level two review that would require a wetland delineation to make sure there weren't any impacts to those wetlands this is a current land use districts in the area the this is the city of mulberry this city of lakeland for reference this is shepherd road here this is the site yule road you can see this is the community activity center that is being expanded community activity centers are uh by our code more than 20 acres but less than 60 this is roughly 93 and a half acres currently um you can see how 37 has built out that we have quite a bit of activity here also for context this is the city of mulberry the red here is commercial highway it is a still an extension this parcel creates a good extension with that this is a closer look at the uh specific area with the rl1 land use this is what it would look like with the rl uh with the cac excuse me this is the imperial christina plaza this is the twin lakes at christina subdivision they the entrance is a gated entrance right there ldcd the ldc text amendment ldct 2025 provides for an activity center plan that provides interconnectivity for the expansion of the activity center my apologies for the quality of this plan we are still working with the applicant to get a better quality plan that shows the interconnectivity uh and we will get that worked into the ordinance i apologize that we were not able to get that at this point in time this is the site on the left looking east along shimmering drive excuse me west along shimmering drive toward uh state road 37 south florida avenue and shepherd road the imperial uh christina plaza would be over to the right this is shimmering drive looking west uh with the twin lakes at christina uh in the rear background with the plaza on the left the subject site is on the right this is from the subject site looking at the plaza and this is what the current uh the way the subject site currently looks the site has a service by a full array of public services and is not in anticipated to have any negative impact as non-residential land use it is not anticipated to have any negative impact impacts on the school system the subject to requests are a future land use map and text amendment ldcpas 2025-24 from residential low to community activity center with a comprehensive plan text amendment uh to the land development code ldct 2026-5 this site is approximately 3.87 expansion of an approximately 93 and a half acre cac district site location is approximately 300 feet east of the intersection 30 state road 37 and shepherd road the request would provide the site with the same development abilities as the properties to the north and the west on a road that is one of two primary access points for the shopping center the text amendment will ensure proper interconnectivity with the activity center and shimmering drive the request is consistent and compatible with the comprehensive plan and land development code again this they require two separate actions i submit the presentation in for the record and stand for questions any questions robert that um that was a commercial uh nursery there before is that correct yes it was was that just non-conforming i believe the best i could tell it was non-conforming okay that was one of the questions i was gonna ask in fact i bought some plants from there before um it's a strange place yeah it was um how did the dentist office get there best i've been able to find is it looks like it was included in somehow through the pud of christina even though our maps do not show it as christ as the within the pud it appears that's the way it was permitted hmm okay and i i don't have i don't have definitive absolutely and is there a specific use planned at this time uh the applicant is the owner and he is looking to uh this point in time develop it with some uh like retail office any comments from the city mulberry no okay uh any other questions i'll ask the applicant if he'll come forward please that'll be fine yes good morning everybody good morning were you sworn in yes sir okay name and address please my name is dario cardona i'm internal medicine physician and i live in a 990 ashton oaks circle just in the carter road close to the property we are talking about it and thank you robert for the presentation i think he described everything that we need to know about the property uh i think i love this property because has a big potential to improve the value of the residential and the commercial properties that are surround the the location then um if the board allow me we will we have good plans to have a small um street retail storage and there may be restaurants medical offices we'll see what we can do okay any questions of the applicant okay seeing none uh i'll ask is there anyone thank you sir is anyone in the audience that wishes to speak in favor of this application anyone to speak in opposition to this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for discussion uh and the motion uh mr chair i move to approve ldct-2026 or 2025-2024 second motion second approved roll call please cindy janem also approve merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman for the motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes okay in the next case um point introduced case ldct or yes ct 2026-6-5 that's five okay and this is a companion text amendment to the previous case so uh i'll open you've already presented the information for this i'll open the public hearing is anyone to speak in favor of the application or the application for a text amendment associated with this uh matter saying none any opposition saying none i'll close the public portion bring it back to the board for discussion and the motion mr chair move to approve ldct-2026-5 second motion second approved roll call please cindy janem also for the motion moral bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman for the motion angel sims julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes okay next case please all right next up at number nine on the agenda is ldcu 2026-9 the waffle house highland city tcx case for the record the staff report and slide shows and application materials have all been submitted to the agenda and andrew grohowski is your planner good morning uh andrew grohowski with land development presenting ldcu 2026-9 the applicant is requesting conditional use approval for a sit-down restaurant within a town center land use district in the us 98 selected area plan the request calls for deviations from the ldc standards shown on your screen the request would allow the construction for a 1900 square foot sit-down restaurant on approximately 0.75 acres of a larger 2.27 acre parent parcel on may 15 15 15 mailers were sent to area property owners one board was posted on may 15th and a legal ad was published in the lakeland and winter haven sun on may 20th with no public response staff is recommending approval the subject site is located in the northeast intersection of clubhouse road and wallace court on the east side of us highway 98 south of lakeland and northwest of the city of bartow the entire site is approximately 2.27 acres within the tcx land use district in the us 98 selected area plan per section 401.04 of the ldc the tcx district has particular standards that development must adhere to this includes bill two lines and parcel frontage requirements a conditional use allows flexibility to deviate from these standards should hardship be demonstrated so long as the remaining tcx items in the section are being met it is not uncommon to uncommon to find deviations from these standards in this tcx district as shown on your screen four requests to the west of the subject site were approved due to the circulation requirements drive-throughs and gas stations typically present the uses fronting us highway 98 received level 3 approval within the past decade decade or so to deviate from tcx standards the subject parcel will be split for re for a retail store and a sit-down restaurant as shown with the red lines the retail store will be about 1.22 acres while the conditional use request for the restaurant will be approximately 0.75 acres the retail store to the north is not part of this request as it meets tcx standards here's the site plan submitted into the record the request is 0.75 acres of a larger 2.27 acre parent parcel the sit-down restaurant will have access to wallace court through a cross-access easement agreement with the retail store to the north in short the tcx requires bill to design bill to design with maximum 15 foot setbacks from the road rights of way this requirement however is too restrictive for the sit-down restaurant as there is a 50 foot wide utility easement on the southern portion of the property outlined in red on your screen additionally being a corner lot with an irregular shape it is impractical for a restaurant of this size to meet the parcel frontage requirements without having to go through level three review process despite all of this the remaining tcx criteria are being met by the applicant which includes pedestrian interconnectivity a pedestrian amenity area and preliminary architectural designs thanks to county surveying here's how the request will fit in with the surrounding area should it be approved a handful of non-residential developments have received level two approval but are not reflected on the base map this includes a daycare facility as well as a retail and sit-down restaurant to the north as you can see you can see where the building footprint for the sit-down restaurant will be located in relation to the other structures facing wallace court here's an aerial and greater detail as mentioned earlier the proposed retail to the north is not part of this request as it meets tcx criteria for the bill two lines consistency and design is a critical feature in the tcx land use district per ldc section 4 1.04 development shall have a consistent streetscape and architectural style while not strictly defined staff encourages the street skate designs such as terraces awnings and roof overhangs as well as pedestrian oriented features the applicant has provided preliminary designs which have been incorporated into the record and are shown in exhibit a in the staff report as part of the conditions the project shall closely adhere to these renderings to the greatest extent possible during subsequent reviews and here's some photos from staff site visit you can currently see this is the retail and restaurant directly to the north of the site that is under construction and just another angle of the site facing west so staff is recommending approval the request is consistent with the relevant sections of the land development code and comprehensive plan staff finds adequate hardship on the property to recommend approval of the stated deviations to the tcx criteria in the us 98 sap the use is compatible with the surrounding area remaining tcx items will be met which includes architectural standards monument signage and pedestrian oriented design emergency services are nearby and utilities have available capacity according to the city of lakeland with that i thank you and stand for any questions any questions any questions staff i'll ask the applicant if he's present to come forward please you were sworn in and name and address name is robert alley uh waffles inc five nine eight six financial drive north cross georgia three zero zero seven one i think andrew did a fantastic job presenting it so i'm not going to take up any more of your time i'm here to answer any questions you might have thank you any questions of the applicant see none i'll open up the public hearing portion and ask is is there anyone present to speak in favor of this application anyone to speak in opposition to this application seeing none i'll close the public portion of the item and bring it back to the board for discussion and the motion motion to approve ldcu 2026 nine second motion second to prove roll call please cindy jana masso for the motion moral bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike kickman angel simms for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case please all right number 10 on the agenda is ldcu 2026-2 the toho water authority case for the record the staff report and exhibits and application have been submitted to the agenda kyle rogas is your planner morning kyle rogas for land development presenting ldcu 2026-2 the toho water authority the applicant is requesting a conditional use approval for two new production wells and associated infrastructure improvements which are a utility class three for the expansion on the huron water treatment plant capacity on may 15th 115 mailers were sent to area property owners two boards were posted on the property may 15th the legal ad was published in the lakeland and winterhaven sun on may 20th staff has received no response from the public staff finds this request compatible with the surrounding area and consistent with the comprehensive plan and land development code staff recommends approval the subject site is located at the intersection of marigold avenue and hemlock avenue north of lake hash and hall road south of pine street east of lake marion creek drive west of laurel avenue in section 2 township 28 range 28 the subject site is located in the institutional future land use district in the utility enclave area chapter 2 table 2.1 of the land development code indicates the placement of class 3 utilities within institutional land use districts require conditional use approval via level 3 review the property is at the intersection of hemlock avenue and marigold avenue surrounded by single-family residential and commercial uses the existing toho treatment plant is in close proximity to the south and southwest which makes this an ideal location for the new well production sites toho's water treatment plant requires expansion based on the latest portable water master plan demand projections due to growth in the area water demands in the point siena service area are projected to exceed the treatment capacity of the existing water treatment plant by 2031. the existing water treatment plants permitted capacity is 4.81 million gallons per day the projected capacity required to meet the future water demands is 7.5 this use represents a low intensity use with only traffic to and from the site for occasional monitoring of the well the site will adhere to the development standards of the land development code the northern or rear side is separated by residential development by a 60 foot wide open space which is part of the point siena master drainage system the northern side is also where the location of the proposed utilities class 3 are exceeding any required buffer from the residential and provides proper landscaping screening the proposed utility improvements are not expected to have any impact on school concurrency as the use will not generate the need for children to attend school water and wastewater is serviced by toho utilities and are reported to have capacity within area for future development through site design and conditions of approval staff finds the request is compatible with the surrounding area and consistent with the land development code and comprehensive plan staff recommends approval of this application and i requested the presentation be submitted to the record and with that i will stand for questions any questions staff so now is the applicant present you are sworn in yes sir good morning my name is uh maca smart for the record i'm the engineer from total water authority address is 951 mok boulevard and i can answer any questions you may have kyle did a good job presenting our case any questions of the outcome is is there no concern of adding wells during an extreme drought period not in this case because we did our uh modeling and our modeling takes into account you know um high stress um high uh volume considerations so droughts as well so we're not we don't have any concerns of this well in this location is your area that you service currently under water restrictions no not that i know of okay any other questions if not thank you if not i'll ask the um i'll open up the public portion of the uh item and ask is there anyone present to speak in favor of this application anyone to speak in opposition to this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for discussion and the motion mr chair move to approve ldcu dash 2026 dash two second motion second to approve roll call please cindy gianna masso for the motion merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman oh mike's not here julie jackson against the motion linda schultz for the motion can if we don't mike's not abstaining is he okay can we just pause for a minute yeah okay okay i haven't voted yet i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry if you have i didn't realize did you i finished we're just waiting oh angel didn't oh angel for the motion so we'll just pause for one moment i can get the full vote unless he wants to we're waiting okay motion passes thank you next case please all right number 11 on the agenda is ldcu 2026 8 the reynolds road event facility for the record of staff report and slideshows and application materials have been submitted into the agenda for the record kyle roguess is your planner good morning again kyle roguess with land development presenting ldcu 2026-8 the reynolds road event facility the applicant is requesting conditional use approval for a 10 584 square foot event facility on approximately 7.17 acres within an agricultural residential rural land use district on may 15th 18 mailers were sent to area property owners three boards were posted on the property may 19th a legal ad was published in the lake linden winter haven sun on may 20th staff has received two two emails in support one email in opposition and then we also have 150 um signatures from a petition as well we don't have copies so is that in opposition yes in opposition staff finds this request compatible with the surrounding area and consistent with the comprehensive plan and land development code staff recommends approval the subject site is located at 3115 reynolds road north of volturas babson park cutoff road south of county road 655a east of wallace road west of perch lake road in section 19 township 30 range 26 the subject property is located in an agricultural residential rural land use district in the rural development area pursuant to chapter 2 section 205 table 2.1 event facility is allowed in two land use designations agricultural residential rural and residential suburban in both land uses an event facility requires a public hearing before the planning commission prior to any two level review the properties at the intersection of reynolds road and waida road surrounded by large tracks of vacant pastures and single-family residential reynolds road is a county maintained paved rural minor collector roadway and waida road is a local commercial roadway this classification as well as the intersection location is suitable for development this location will not have any outdoor gathering or amplified sound as such this facility will not be utilized as an outdoor concert venue if the applicant wishes to introduce outdoor sound in the future a modification to this conditional use will be required the structure will be fully enclosed in the near structures to the event facility are approximately 500 feet away within this radius so you have one property just about outside here one to the north and then another structure here to the south the proposed event facility will be approximately 10 584 square feet and fully enclosed the events are often held outside the peak travel hours and most events are held during the evenings and weekends according to the event management plan hours of operation will be from 12 p.m to 11 p.m friday through sunday again this is a request for an event facility not an outdoor concert venue there will be no outdoor amplified voice music or live entertainment as conditioned within the staff report and section 303 of the land development code the venue will provide spaces for up to 125 attendees while exceeding the 71 space requirement and then the following are going to be photos provided by staff during our site visit on may 19th here is reynolds road looking north and then south and that was that structure that you saw to the south that was around that 500 square foot radius or foot radius here is waida looking northwest southeast and the subject site to the rear with the approximate event location and again here's reynolds road looking or wider road looking southeast towards the site event facility will be to the rear and then waida road looking west with the site to the left the parcels directly surrounding the subject property are residential land uses the acreage of the site and a required roadway landscaping will buffer the events from off-site making this request compatible through site design and conditions of approval staff finds this request is compatible with the surrounding area and consistent with the land development code and comprehensive plan staff recommends approval of this application our request that the presentation be submitted to the record and with that i will stand for questions any questions of the staff if the applicant's present i'll ask the applicant to come forward please good morning everyone for the record tom woodridge ttw land planning here to present on behalf of the property owner our request for this conditional use application for an event venue we wanted to first uh clarify what our request is what we look like how we operate i think our events management plan provide a lot of details of what we won't be doing which is making we won't be making a lot of outdoor noise we won't be having those things outside we're an enclosed building we have limited hours of operation we have limited days of the week that we're in operation uh but we do have sufficient infrastructure to support this i'm going to show you some of the roads in the area uh weed a road nonwithstanding which is a local commercial road as you saw in your staff report though not paid for this time it is well maintained uh and it is well maintained and i would uh suggest that you know the surrounding roadways do provide a good network for people to get to and from the property we don't have any environmental limitations there's no floodplain or wetlands on our site uh the drainage that we've provided on site is more than adequate and we have even more space to provide that so we have plenty of room to put the amount of things to make this a great functioning and useful use in the area we have two access points and we have uh enough space that we put the barn venue in the center it's going to look like a barn from the outside which fits the character of this area staff said this is a residential district it's technically agricultural residential rural so it is both agricultural residential a barn structure fits well within that as compatible and look and function and if in 10 years this ever changes you'll have a functional barn on property that can be utilized by the next owner of the property so this is not something we're designing that's going to be functionally obsolete it fits in well with both the character the function the look uh of of the overall area and we're here today to talk about how this can be a fit within the community and conditioned as such that it's a good neighbor to everyone around uh we understand that there's a lot of people in the audience we heard about the uh letters uh the signatures in opposition although we know that's not competent you know substantial evidence it's just a list of signatures we are anxious to hear what the people have because we're here today to try and mitigate those concerns and to deal with this from a design perspective from a limitations standpoint understanding that we have already limited our use our hours of operation our daily occupancy of the properties to a point where it's uh very calm and fits in well but let's talk about why we're even here today barn venues are huge uh it's gonna it even shocked me when my client came to me and talked about it i had no idea that over the last 17 18 20 years how much this has grown we're talking about nearly one in five weddings are held at barn venues so while the people in this room and the people that you know and the people you might have talked about barn venues you know have their particular perspective on it you might have also talked to somebody who said oh yeah i actually had my wedding or their wedding at a venue type thing so they're very common they're very much in demand and it's a way to make them work so that they fit in obviously that's why we're here at the hearing today how can we talk about conditioning and how can we put place it on the property so it functions well and this is not just for weddings i think that's the the use that everybody sees is you know where is there going to be a problem with that okay there's a lot of assumptions along with that you know how some people hold their or conduct their weddings or how they might have experienced at other venues that's how they operate we're not interested in creating an impact to the community with this venue the property owner is well aware of how they need to be good neighbors from the onset of our application process i said talk to the neighbors this is going to be something we need to discuss with them to be prepared to make this a good fit this is not we're going to ask it and we get it no problems from the very onset we knew we'd have to talk to the neighbors we'd have to come to a hearing where we address these concerns so we're fully ready to have that conversation and to be responsive to what the what the people here today bring and we look forward to giving that chance to respond and provide that but aside from weddings we're talking about birthday parties family reunions other get-togethers that are you know people coming together but they don't have space especially in this area to do it and this is a great venue to allow people to gather together as you see from the pictures i've tried to provide examples these are not architectural drawings obviously from our building the barn is not there on site this is meant to provide the scale and size as you see i didn't put anything you know 50 000 square feet in size here i didn't prove anything very tall the architectural character is probably somewhat similar but um we're not being held to this but this is probably what it would look like a barn a metal barn on the property with walls to keep everything inside when we uh submitted our application and staff reviewed it staff compared us to our the impacts that we have similar to a church and if you think about it openly you say okay what that kind of makes sense you know it's not 24 7 that's happening there are certain events that a church has there are of course church activities that happen on the weekends typically and maybe sometimes during the week we're not even going to have our activities during the week only on the weekends but churches also have weddings churches have funerals churches have potlucks churches have fundraiser churches have you know all sorts of things that are get togethers churches have amplified music and sound uh that can be heard off property churches have a lot of those things so uh we we're not saying we are church but i can understand why staff compared us to that and our traffic impacts it's the category that they use for traffic impacts so we're similar to a church you know it's once in a while there's a few days of the week where you have the main activities and the rest it's pretty quiet and i just want to keep that in mind that the evaluation the staff gave i feel like it was fair to consider us similar to a church and our location we feel you know if a church came requested here or if there was something in this location that was a similar use um you know this is a location that at least it's at an intersection on a rural collector roadway staff provided this aerial photo but again this just shows uh this the sparse population of the area around this you know while you have a hundred or a hundred and something signatures you can see from this aerial uh there's there's not a hundred home sites on this photo so with numerous people living in the house it's possible it's some there's some magnitude of people from that signature page that are close by but you're looking at about a half mile to three quarters to a mile in this picture around the site and we still don't have 100 150 people this is a very sparsely area there's grove trees pasture more agriculture that still is very vibrant in this part of the county our nearest residential of this the site formerly was consisted of five homes we're still the current owner purchased this property and is removing some of the remaining development that was there when he purchased it so that's something that is ongoing but you can see that at one point there was five homes of impact on here and now it's down to just the one home that's going to be the caretaker's cottage which i'll point out because it's part of our discussion on the site planned here this home is being renovated and will remain part of it but your other homes that have been removed uh lead way for the space that we would be using for um the buffer zones actually for the facility that we're proposing we are about 500 feet from the barn to the nearest home and that nearest home is actually at this corner but it's well buffered by existing vegetation and trees and pretty far away the the barn facility is somewhere around this location i'll show you in the site plan a moment but i wanted to show you that's really our closest home the other homes that we have on the site um if you look to the bottom of the screen uh we have the three where the three stars are the uh property owner did reach out and try to talk to the neighbors that were at least adjacent to his property and we do have signed support from those neighbors i will say with a caveat that one of them then sent in an email saying oh wait a minute now i i actually am concerned because it's an open pole barn and there was some miscommunication there it's not an open pole barn so that was one of the concerns and then the other one was that there's going to be flooding but there's not flooding because we're going to have retention ponds we have plenty of room to provide for more than adequate drainage that is needed for this use and we're not in a floodplain wetland or have any other issues that that would make it so that's going to be a problem in this area so but i want to point out that the applicant no the the my client he did reach out to neighbors neighbor property say here's what's coming and we're quite a distance away from the other property owners in the area some of the roads in the area this is 80 foot road as you come down from state road 60 i just want to show the actual services and the traffic on them this is just you know what you see as you drive down the road this is cox road runs east west and this runs parallel to wita now wita does come up on a google maps search when you put the address in for the venue that's something that you know potentially we can work on but yeah wita is an unpaved clay road right now and cox road would be the preferable or abc which i'll show you in a moment um cut off which is another great collector rule and collector road uh with excellent pavement that runs east west as well and here's reynolds road this is south of our site when you come up to the corner of wita and reynolds you have to the northeast uh the reynolds uh business there that there's semi trucks and storage buildings things like that uh two or directly to our east to the bottom left is pasture and there's a home in the back seeing the far distance north of us there's a mobile home in the top left and you can see home behind the oak trees that i mentioned there's plenty of trees and buffering from that home to the property line and then again to our actual uh barn venue and then to the northwest of that is the pasture that i mentioned earlier so quite rural quite open quite distanced from actual homes in the area i'm trying to point out everything that is right next to us and in the previous slides showing you where the other homes are right next to us but we spoke to those homes to the southwest west and uh south so this is the site plan that we came up with our initial uh intent was to put this so that the building itself was far from residences where on the site can we put it so it's kind of equidistant from residential uh while still allowing for the parking that's necessary the structure is uh has grass parking with uh gravel drive aisles so it keeps it kind of a rural low impact look and not a paved parking lot type thing you do have uh parking areas adjacent to the building for ada accessibility which of course is required and for safety but overall it's going to be a barn with a gravel drive and two points of access on reynolds road to make flow of traffic coming and going from the site um both easy and manageable uh we also know that you know people will disperse in multiple directions uh you've been to other venues say it is church say it is another venue you go to and at the onset of people leaving it there is you know there's several cars that are waiting to leave on reynolds road but as i showed you earlier the amount of traffic currently on those roads as you see in your staff report there's plenty of capacity on these roads and it's not something that we're dropping a use into a busy area that's going to cause congestion and problems just like a church there will be peak hours where people leave when they're done with the event and they will get on the roads and get back to the multiple places where they go to and they can do that turning right or turning left on reynolds going up to cox going to abc cutoff depending on which way you're going north or south you can get to all over the county from this venue again it is enclosed and we are on a rural minor collector road i guess my the main point is that we've conditioned ourselves we've designed the site and we have prepared to make this so it's a good fit for the area the concerns for noise and outdoor impacts we've mitigated with both distance buffering enclosed building limited hours of operation we're going to be open limited days of the week this is a once in a while venue this is not a daily venue this is something that would be open the property owner is open to sharing the venue for even if there was a community service that need to be done or a funeral service that people would rather have in a bar and venue i mean the viewing not the actual no preparation obviously but things of those nature it's meant to be something that community can get around and to utilize the demand is there for some of the things i mentioned like weddings and family reunions other events but we are still going to be limited on what we can do when we can use it and how often we can use it and staff has showed that we are consistent with the construct the infrastructure that's already constructed the comprehensive plan and the land development code with that i'll answer any questions that the planning question has at this time thank you any questions that mr chair i don't have any questions but i am recusing myself from this case and i will not be voting or commenting on it okay thank you um you say you're restricting the days of the week to weekends only fridays through sundays yes and times uh we put noon to 11 pm that's somewhat flexible we were providing something we thought would be not too early in the morning there are typically preparations for weddings that sometimes happen around noon to one if the wedding's a four o'clock wedding so we didn't want to cut it too short but we're still open to that as discussion if there's concerns that you'll what what is that area on the site plan that has the the polka dot pattern this is the retention pond that we've provided the site generally slopes from this corner to the reynolds weida corner and it's only four feet of fall so it's relatively flat but we have plenty of room for swales and other drainage features to make sure that everything is maintained in this location what's the expected occupancy we had put um like kyle mentioned on his slight maximum of two 300 at the most plus or minus 300 but we anticipate much of what we'll be doing would be in a range around there but if you want to cap it at 300 that's why we put that number out there we don't have a limitation on that higher end at this point and that we would be concerned with if you wanted to put something on there we just like to talk about it so tom with 300 people out there would the owner have some type of security or anything happening out there great question thank you for asking that because we had talked about that previously uh and said if necessary we're prepared to provide a sheriff deputy or some police off-duty police officer to ensure for those activities that you know people would think would warrant it if they're concerned with a wet wedding and there may be alcohol consumption that's fine all right i want to say also this is enclosed fenced and gated property will remain as such the security residence that's located here will remain a security residence to maintain order and to make sure that things are happening and flowing well and locked up at night but in terms of the actual activities if there's a desire we'd be more than happy to provide that police presence for those particular events i just don't want to paint this as oh it's always going to be needing that sort of thing but if there was some um condition that you wanted to place for example if alcohol is to be served then the sheriff you know they should hire an off-duty deputy or police official or private security for that purpose we're how close is the fire department and ems uh please please don't respond from the audience we'll have a public hearing momentarily thank you they're quite far uh the sheriff deputy you know 14 miles i'm correct from our memory so we've got some distance we're obviously in a rural area um i think that alturas has an ems station is that correct it's on page seven of the staff report under nearest sheriff fire and ems stations the nearest fire and ems station is going to be for station 10 located at 1235 9th street and for me that travel distance is about 13.1 miles where where is this in proximity to i'm just curious to leland young's barn oh it's a ways away is it please don't respond from the audience i'm not familiar with the distance of how this is so i don't answer i'm sure that we have responses yeah it's a ways away is that um i assume that's a county road and meets county standards and and they maintain it rails road is is narrow but it has paved and it is a rural minor collector road all the other roads i believe up to standards the other okay any other questions i was able to pass freely with other oncoming traffic while visiting the site so that can you bring the reynolds road photo back up please is it the one that there were thank you just be patient all right so no no line gallery there we are i feel hanging 10 a second hang on okay so that's wrong and it's the grass is a bit overgrown in places on it but uh so what is the width of that pavement do we know that's it's that information is also available in the staff report it is on page i just lost it apologies it is page nine um number c under roadway conditions reynolds road is that rural minor collector roadway with an 18 foot wide pavement uh surface and then county road 655a is a county maintained 25 foot wide rural major collector roadway thank you and i'll say i mean you can you can hear some of the the noise and coming from the audience and concerns and that's fair but i think it's imperative to remember the frequency of the use that we're proposing they may illuminate some frustrations that they had from the venue that you mentioned commissioner bishop i'm not familiar with that in this neighborhood so being compassionate to that they may have some uh concerns or objections based upon the experiences of other operations in the area for a i don't even know if it's similar to what we're doing but it's important to consider us independent of other parties that we're not associated with nor do we operate their business we are proposing what we are today we are an enclosed barn we are a rural looking use in a rural area we're center of the site plenty of parking circulation we're built to new code um we are going to be providing the buffering we have the streets and and roads in the areas that will support the intermittent use that we're having this is not an all-day-long facility this is a once-in-a-while events facility thank you a technical question for county past cases we've been required to have a 25 foot easement for ems buyer and did you say this was 18 feet this width of this road reynolds road is 18 feet wide pavement so it doesn't meet what we require a typical easement at 25 feet the pavement is 18 feet but the right-of-way width is 30 okay that's where you get that okay that's okay and just for clarity that's for access v easement for residential building permits we require a minimum 20 foot easement width and usually minimum 12 foot of compressed um surface but that's not okay that's relative to this thank you okay i'm going to open the uh agenda item to public comment and ask is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor of this application seeing none i'll ask then if there's anyone to speak in opposition to this application and i would suggest that you line up along the wall here just in the interest of saving time i don't know who's going to go first and i would also like to emphasize please do not repeat uh what has been said you can just say i agree with this rather than taking time to give us repetitive testimony that would be helpful i think for everybody and you have three minutes to um to give us what you would like for us to know yes and and i assume you're all i have when you read it to yourself i'm under three minutes okay so you were sworn in yes sir okay sir so that you're fully aware and the board's aware i actually have um i'm speaking on behalf and i have alphadavits of other families i'm speaking on behalf i would like to have an exception to speak beyond the three minutes and i have lists of families as well as a usb drive which i'll be presenting as i'll give you a little leeway thank you okay now you're not with him though okay we're all together i understand that i understand that but she came up and i just wanted to clarify that okay um hello my name is chad holmes and i live on weta road two houses down from this proposed facility um i don't know who was running the transit when they said this property flows to the road because it doesn't it flows to my property and my neighbor's property and i've got ten thousand dollars invested in my bought in my pond the last two years to try to control the flooding because of the rainy season part of living in the country it's totally fine um i've lived in this community for almost 50 years four generations of my family live on three properties one of them where the star was the other two are behind me this is a quiet peaceful community and we don't want things like this the last thing that we need are people leaving this event and thinking they're bowing luke dude on our dirt roads i drag these dirt roads probably once a week to maintain them because the county can't keep up with it this is very passionate to me my family and everybody that's in here this should not be allowed this is agricultural residential property agricultural if you want to make money off the property you invested in buy cows roll hay sell sod whatever else supports it you don't build a facility and put everybody else out the the hours are limited to the reduced hours to the weekends when we're trying to unwind enjoy ourselves on our property that we've lived on for 50 years be thoughtful of everybody else that lives around here thank you thank you next please good morning my name is nick salisbury 2540 wallace road um i just want to start by saying hats off to the county people whoever takes these pictures i've watched so many of these pictures that are so inaccurate they make you guys just take pictures of whatever looks good go by the right now right now they're building illegally onto a mobile home putting a front porch on putting windows in they're saying that they're destroying or doing this they're constantly over there partying drinking it's a mess they've put uh culverts in the ditch store uh unpermitted the county's had to remove uh as my neighbor said the roads are terrible i have to go out there every single day i did it this morning because it rained last night the county can't keep up with the roads our wives get stuck so we have to go out there we have to maintain the road i drive a dually when somebody comes down the road i have to put my duels down in the ditch to pass oncoming traffic and the last thing i'll say is i brought my two kids here today um the emergency services out in alturas suck my kids were involved um i don't know if anybody knows two years ago there was side-by-side accident where a 10 year old girl got killed my kids were on that buggy with them kids with their girlfriend that died 10 years old we waited 15 18 minutes for the first ems to respond out there to try and save a 10 year old girl that was trapped under the side by side but luckily i had the time to drive back to my barn with my tractor get my personal truck and go over there and try and perform life-saving measures on that girl but we don't worry about that we don't worry about the cops let's just keep trying to make money more money more money more money right it's all about the dollar um the second accident my wife got the phone call because the first responders couldn't get there on abc road where he's talking about his proposed entrance right there two adults got killed on a go or excuse me a go-kart we waited there for 17 minutes for ems with people's brains laying on the curve so but and then we're going to attract the venue with drinking driving something happens to my kids on those roads i'm going to come and i'm gonna look each one of you in the eyes and we're going to talk about what we talked about today that's all i appreciate your time please use that for consideration thank you well well sir we no we're going to we'll give you a chance to comment i'm sorry yes sir well wait i'm i'm sorry um i'm gonna give the applicant a chance to uh to comment pardon the interruption i think uh and i'm pardon in the interruption to the respondees but it sounds like the applicant is request to rescind this application so that would stop people from being needing to if you want to still test away we're not trying to take your voice away but the point is he's you can sir could you could you come up please i'm sorry we need you we just need your comments for the record i'm fifth generation floridian as well i got sixth generation kids i don't want to run y'all's community so i rescind it it's fine i understand that's good okay okay we i'm sorry we need to stop we need to stop comments directly from the audience i mean if you still want to speak but you need to come up but he's he's rescinding this application so we we will not proceed any further if that's that means he's withdrawing he's withdrawing the application we're being so hateful mr badcock if you want to come and build a house and be part of our community you're welcome with open arms sir and we look forward to it and we look forward to being neighbors we just don't want something like this coming into our community and all i took all i took sir and we it's only two people that say it okay all right okay thank you thanks tom and he did a great job all right the case the case is withdrawn that's a first there's nothing to vote on no i didn't all right next case all right next case on the agenda is number 12 ldcu 2026-7 uh this is the west cannon heights duplex um for the record the staff report and slideshows have been uh introduced into the record and alia and gleema is your planner sorry good morning alia and gleema with land development presenting number 12 on the agenda ldcu 2026-7 the west cannon heights duplex the applicant is requesting a conditional use approval for a single family home to be converted to a duplex on point four zero acres within a residential low three future lane use district the subject site is located at 1210 northwest 33rd street north of avenue k northwest south of avenue m northwest and west of the city of winter haven in section 24 township 28 range 25 on may 15th 70 mailers were sent to area property owners one sign was posted on may 18th a legal ad was published in lakeland and winter haven sun on may 20th with no response from the public the surrounding homes were built between 1960 and 1970 while no duplexes are located along the street multiple can be located just south approximately 300 feet away the duplexes are located off wood hill core and have been there since 1988 the subject site is designated as lot 118 and 119 of the west cannon heights subdivision west cannon heights subdivision was recorded in september 10th 1925 prior to the adoption of the conference plan and land development code the subject property is also part of the inward redevelopment district so here's a picture of the site plan the existing single family home will be converted into a duplex the existing home will remain it's just the inside of the structure is changing and here's a picture from the site so this is not a matter of density as this is a parcel comprised of two lots of record this is about housing type and this project will utilize an existing house just the inside of the structure is changing to convert it to a duplex the site is compatible with surrounding uses and is consistent with the comprehensive plan and land development code and i'll stand for any questions any questions staff see none i'll open the uh public hearing for any public comment anyone speak in favor of this application anyone to speak in opposition to this application yes ma'am would you come forward please good morning my name is mildred smith i'm the um president of the inward association um i'm speaking against this um our community is primarily older people um when people come in our community and they want to put these duplexes up they raise the property taxes for the people that has been in our community for years and wood is built on people that has been there for 70 80 years and when people want to come in and they want to revamp our community they raise our property tax they raise the property tax where the low income people that are on a set income can't afford them they're not there to help our community they're not coming in our community to do better for our community they're coming in there for sole purpose of money they come in they spend a little bit of money on something then that almost doubles our property taxes i'm here speaking for the elderly people so we don't want that we don't even we don't want no more and i will be at more of these hearings since i've stayed here and listened today when it comes to my community and that's all i got to say thank you i failed to ask the applicant if he's present is the applicant present yeah well she while she's coming up did you say there did you comment about other if there were other duplexes in the area i thought i heard you say that but i've forgotten already there is just to the south off wood hill court right here okay are those all duplexes or just yes those are all duplexes okay do you know are they duplexes or are they single family attached i'm just okay duplexes okay yes ma'am hi i'm angela williamson i'm just here on behalf of the owners that are trying to to convert this single family residence into a duplex they're just going to demo the um existing wall and put in a firewall they already have two septic um existing septics on the property and um i've got approval for the health department i'm just needing approval from you folks to in order to get the permit through the building department that's what i was here for thank you anyone else to speak um in opposition to this so this would have two separate entrances then yeah correct and it currently has that now they just want to just put the firewall yes i don't know why they just didn't do it okay i'll bring it back to the uh to the board for discussion and a motion i move to approve ldcu 2026-5 motion no no oh seven sorry i'm on the wrong looking at the wrong one i second that i have a motion and a second for ldc ldcu 2026-7 roll call please cindy janem also motion to approve merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman for the motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case all right good morning ian ass land development staff recommends approval of ldcu 2026-5 a request for short-term rental on an unplatted residential lot north of davenport for the record 17 mailers were sent on may 15th and one sign was posted on the same date legal ad was post legal ad was published on the 20th we've received no public responses the site is located at 3119 north highway 555 47 south vernie caldwell boulevard west of us 1792 and section 22 township 26 range 27 in northeast polk county this site is close to attractions in orlando and elsewhere which makes an attractive spot as such short-term rentals are common in the area just last year ldpd 2025 was approved to the west with approximately 1600 units designated for short-term rental the subject property is approximately 2.63 acres within a residential medium future land use district approval here does still require a level 3 review and unlike unlike an approval within a platted subdivision this approval would just be for the subject property the property is shown to the right and the house is to the bottom left as i mentioned is a large property and the 3 600 square foot home on site is just about the size you could get for a lot in residential medium this part of the the county there's a privacy fence and gate the home is set back 60 feet from the home to the north and type b landscaping will be required and existing vegetation can be utilized there's ample room for parking which we really analyzed with short-term rental because on smaller lots where you have these approved there's often parking into the rights away that prohibit travel and emergency vehicles this site has has plenty room for guests and one final note no other construction is being planned they're just using the existing home according to the application during the rental periods guests will not receive meals or additional services the typical duration of stays ranges from three to seven nights most bookings are vacation oriented and do not exceed 14 days the ldc has ongoing standards required for short-term rentals to provide enforcement of behavior on site to avoid disturbing neighbors this request is compatible with surrounded uses consistent with the land development code and comprehensive plan and i think you'll stand for questions any questions on staff so there's no other short-term rental uses in the immediate vicinity of this you said they're pretty common in the area i understand but an immediate vicinity like those residences around north and south of this and across the street or no sir okay i believe this is bpc across the street with a couple homes and is this this is part of ridgewood lakes and all this came in was approved for short-term rental options uh this is estonia it was not but right across the street here uh north estonia was approved for short-term rental okay or the north solar veto was approved for it too when did that regulation go into effect no went back quite a few years look that up i know it precedes the state rules on it because most municipalities are uh it was back when i was here so that's quite back in the stone age yes uh let's see the uh our short-term rental code was last revised in 2009 and um the state preemption took place in 2011 so if we change so these new product these projects were after that that have been approved for short-term rental yes these aren't grandfathered in correct yes sir and so anytime yet you want short-term rental you have to come before the yes most often we see it as part of a planned development approval it's pretty rare we get these individual lots we get a lot of requests for uh existing subdivisions with lots within them but our code states that if you approve one lot within an existing subdivision it applies to the entirety of the subdivision and certain places don't aren't interested in that option if this is approved would would they be able to do any expansion to increase the level of use for this you mean expansion of the home of the home or additional home or additional residence on the property there's no prohibition on it this time okay but they would have to come before they yeah it's conditional use so we we've presented a site plan and that's what would be binding right any other questions is the applicant present i'll open up the uh public hearing portion of the agenda item and ask is there anyone here to speak in favor of this application anyone to speak in opposition of this application seeing none i'll bring it back to the board for further discussion and a motion i move to approve ldcu 2026-5 second motion second to approve roll call please cindy janamoso for the motion merle bishop for the motion brooke agnini for the motion mike hickman for the motion angel sims for the motion julie jackson for the motion linda schultz for the motion motion passes thank you next case please all right for the record ian nance presenting on behalf of eric peterson for ldcu 2026-7 a request for a plan development to modify assigned plan specifications for an existing conditional use approval a large retail center with gas stations in the employment center future land use district for the record 55 mailers were sent to area property owners on may 15th uh eight signs were posted on may 18th and a legal ad was published in the lakeland winter haven polk suns on may 20th staff has logged no response here's a subject site north and west of ridgewood lakes entrance the site was approved for a large retail development in october 24 without parcels including gasoline sales within this approval was a signed plan that deviated from the ecx standards that sign plan approved i'm sorry the approved site plan sign plan included five plaza signs and two freestanding signs for the major retailers in exchange for pole or monument signs on the nine out parcels essentially they reduced the number of signs but gave the existing signs they could have larger copy area the previous conditional use was very specific and does require this hearing to make a slight change and these are the two basic changes that have been proposed uh the first is adjusting the copy area from one sign to the other i got the right side up they're changing reducing this sign and moving some of the square footage to this sign and they're adding the digital gas prices signage to one of their monument signs and that's the effect of the request here it's it's very minor uh with this application though we are suggesting suggesting conditions of approval to allow further changes to um the area and height of signs up to five percent through the building permit approval in case you have different vendors come in or different technology changes we don't have to keep dragging this back through but in case we do this is also being changed from a conditional use to a plan development so we can track the changes that might come uh with that uh request is compatible with surrounding uses and consistent with relevant sections of the code and comprehensive plan that i thank you will stand for questions any questions staff does the applicant present yes sir come forward please were you sworn in you were not please raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony and evidence you present to the board today will be the truth the whole truth