you you you you you you Good evening. The regular meeting of the City Commission for Tuesday, April 22, 2025 will come to order. Please join me in silencing your cell phones please. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner Perine here, Commissioner McGurk, here vice mayor Martin, here mayor Cleveland, here and Commissioner Ashley has an excuse to ask. Mr. Ashley is very good. Police Department Senior Chop, and Tom Personal here Mayor Cleveland here and Commissioner Ashley hasn't excused absence. Commissioner Ashley is excused very good. Police Department senior chaplain Tom personal will give the invocation please rise and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Father, you are holy. We humbly thank you for all that you give us Lord all the blessings you bestowed upon us. We're grateful for this wonderful community we live in, Lord, and we ask you to continue to bless us. Lord, we ask you to protect all of our officials here today and give them that wisdom and knowledge and discernment that we ask for every month, that they would have that ability to make the hard decisions, Lord, for our community and we thank them for that, Lord. We pray to solemn your name, amen. And now, Navea Kendrick, daughter of Haley Yock and Travis Kendrick, our city employee, will help us deliver the pledge of allegiance. She She's 12-year-old and a sixth grader at Newsomernobiche Middle School. She's an honor student. Navea Joyce listening to music and painting and being with her family and friends she plans to pursue a career in art. Navea, we're right behind you. Go right ahead, my dear. A bunch of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God and the visible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, please be seated. to have Nvea here tonight and her mom and dad and grandparents, Travis Kendrick and Cheryl Kendrick. Grandma and Grandpa, great job. I want to wish everyone a happy Earth Day. Today is Earth Day. It started this day, 22nd of April, 1970, with a focus on environmental awareness, advocacy and action and global unity, 193 countries around the globe participate in Earth Day. Mr. Copper, any changes to the public's agenda, sir? Yes, sir, just a couple of items. Would like to pull item 12a from the agenda this evening. That pertains to a appointment of housing authority members. And we will bring that back to you at a date to be determined later. Also, I would like to move item 7c to administrative items new business. That item 7c is the North Causeway Marina and Amenadese Project. And I'll be prepared for presentation on that. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Okay. Under announcements and presentations and recognitions, we have several. At this time, I'd like to invite the News Sumernaibi, representative from the News of Mernibi, Board of Realtors to the podium to receive a proclamation declaring April as Fair Housing Month. Please join the Commission and I at the podium. the fair housing month, whereas fair Housing Act enacted on April 11, 1968 enshrined into federal law the goal of eliminating racial segregation and ending housing discrimination in the United States, and whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, family status, national origin, or disability, and commits recipients of federal funding to affirm further fair housing in their communities. And whereas the city of New Sumerna Beach is committed to the mission and intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities for all, and for the social fabric of our society, economy, health, and environment, we are all strengthened through the development of diverse and inclusive communities, and whereas more than 50 years after the Passive to the Fair Housing Act, housing discrimination still persists. And many communities remain segregated. And acts of housing discrimination in barriers to equal housing opportunity are repugnant to our shared values of decency, fairness, and justice. Now therefore, I, Fred E. Cleveland Mayor, on behalf of the City of New Sumerna Beach to hereby proclaim the month of April 2025 as fair housing month in the City of New Sumerna Beach. And reaffirm its commitment to fair housing practices, promoting equal housing opportunity to all residents, and encouraging both public and private entities to uphold the principles of equality, inclusion, and fairness in housing. And, witness where I have herein to set my hand and cause the seal of the City of New Summoner and Abiche to be affixed this 22nd day of April 2025. Congratulations, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you want us or do you want to talk? Five, I told you. Okay. Actually, April is National Pickleball Month, but I'm not here for a proclamation. It's been about two and a half years since the News Murrumb Beach Pickleball Club came to you all and let you know that we've got needs for courts, we've got many many players and we need to do something. In that time, Burian, Leisure Services has done a remarkable job of rehabbing our existing facilities. It's really spectacular. I now receive written compliments regularly from visitors who are coming in to save for a month, players from other communities close by, and even our own players talking about how much they enjoy the courts and how friendly our pickleball players are when they walk in as strangers. It was also noted at that time that we don't have recreation on the west side, is that me? We don't have recreation on the west side of Newsom or in a beach. So we got looking around and we found that there is city and property in Page Park that that would accommodate six pickleball courts. Little did I know that it was not as easy as I thought. So two and a half years later we are now ready to go with that. The Newsburner Beach Pickleball Club made a commitment two and a half years ago to share in the effort with the city One of the things it's going to be needed at the New Courts is a shade per volume for the players So that being said the pickleball club has raised some money and we'd like to make a $15,000 contribution To the City of Newsman of Beach to help with that shade area Commission please go on me at the podium We, we, yep. Yep. Good. We're a big check. Thank you so much. We were. Thank you. Well, that's nice. So, to have money coming from the people who love doing their thing and pickleball be in the largest growing sport in our community. So thank you very much to the pickle ball club. And now I'd like to invite the Executive Director of our Housing Authority Teresa Pope, give us a presentation on the Housing Authority board. Teresa welcome, glad to have you. Thank you. Good evening. I don't have $15,000. But thank you for the fair housing. I'd like to bring the commission up to date on the housing authority what we're doing. So as of now we have 501 housing choice vouchers which used to be called Section 8. We still have 91 public housing units. We are working with two developers for West Side Phase 2, which is to the south of our new green lawn manner. It will be called Green lawn gardens. Located on Brook Screen on Oli-Andral Street. We do have approval from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for the demolition and disposition of that property. We will be rebuilding with a attainable workforce housing of up to 92 units in that area. We also are working on the property now called Landings at Live Oak, which is the 40 units that were flooded during Hurricane Ian. As you know, there on Millford Street, there are 40 units that are boarded up right now. We do have permission. Well, we've sent the application to the special application center in Chicago for the demolition and disposition of that property We're waiting for the approval from the US Department of HUD We are working with a developer on that property Right now to rebuild 60 to 80 units of family housing Demolition will start once the approval from the SAC Chicago Center comes back. That Demolition will cost about $600,000. We do have capital fund programs and some CRA commitments from the city to help us do that demolition until we get the full funding for rebuilding. At this point in time we have a commitment of a 4% tax credit of $16.5 million and we just were awarded a county of Volusia CDBG disaster recovery for Hurricane Ian and the amount of $3.6 million. So we have $20 million towards that property right now. We do have a gap of about $4 million, and we're working with some other grant funds and sale through the state of Florida to try to fill that gap so that we can start rebuilding. Along with these developments, we have an instrumentatality called the Newsmer to Beech Housing Development Corporation. We manage 22 market rate units. And I wanted to show you what we're doing, but before we do that, I would like to let the DS know that in 2021, housing authority of the City of New Smurna Beach was awarded a move to work agency. We were the second agency in the state of Florida to receive this designation. The first one was the Orlando 20 years ago. What HUD did was 20 years ago, they gave some 36 large agencies the opportunity to try different scenarios and allow waivers of the HUD policies and programs. So what they did is they figured out in 20 years what worked, what didn't work, and they opened it up to other agencies in the country. We were the first agency after that opened that up in the state of Florida as a small agency to be awarded that designation. So what we have done with that designation in the last four years is we no longer send tenants utility reimbursements as you may know or may not know when you're on a subsidized program. If you have no income, we're required to give a utility allowance that helps to subsidize the utilities the tenants are paying. So if they have no income and the rent is zero, we're actually sending them a check every month. That has been eliminated. There are no payments to anyone in subsidized housing through our agency. There is a minimum rent requirement now of $130. And this programs for those that are able-bodied working adults. This is not for elderly or disabled. We have this year did a working requirement of 15 or more hours a week for anyone with a child six years or up and also the requirement of joining our family self-sufficiency program. Those two work together. We have a family self-sufficiency coordinator who works with our families to meet the barriers that they're facing in their lives. So at this point in time, we have over 90% of our clients that are either working in college certificate programs or in college. So this program is working and they're excited because once they join the FSS program, anytime their rent increases, a portion of that increase in their rent is put in a scroll account for five years, which is their contract. At the end of five years, that money is theirs to do what they need to do with. At this time, we've had about a half a dozen families that have graduated the program, some of them with $14,000 in S-gro and they have become homeowners. So the program's working and we're happy to find that. One of the other implementations that we are working on, we may get there and find out it, don't work, we'll drop it. But there will be a time limit on affordable housing. So we're going to be implementing a nine year time limit, give some nine years to help work with the family self-sufficiency coordinator to overcome their barriers, get to working, raise their income, come off of the program so that we can help other families. So we're excited about that and our Chairman of the Board, Ms. Judy Reiker, is here with me tonight. So let's go over what we're doing right now. These are some before and after pictures of the work that we're doing in our historic West Side community. This building was purchased with CityCRA of Lucia County funding in 2014 This is a before and after pictures. These are four town homes that now are attainable workforce housing These are six units that were built in 2016 as single-family homes. They're all three-bedroom two-bathroomroom homes that we're also finding. It's with city, CRA funding, and Volucia County funding. Any of these fundings, we also match with some of our own funding. We also have partnership with Southeast Volucia, Habitat for Humanity, where there are some times that they will sell some of their properties to us depending on the circumstances. So these two properties were bought in 2018. They're three bedroom, two baths, single family homes, and these are our habitat homes. This was an old bar that was on the corner of Johia and Demick Street. So this was approved by the city for, these are the two bedroom, two bath, senior housing. So these senior housing that we've built duplexes with are 100% ADA age-in-place housing. So they will never have to leave. They're rolling showers. They have the pool cars with the the red lights out front. So that's phase one that was done in 2019. 2021 was phase two and this is the same thing. our agent place senior housing. These are on Demick Street, and these are one bedroom, one bath units. This was also a city of New Smurna Beach, the RA, Volusia County, and development corporation funding. We have approved sites to be developed. We have one more if you looked to the east which would be the blue building to the right. That is scheduled as a another senior duplex. And the pink buildings to the north is scheduled for four units of family town houses, three bedroom, two bath. This is a small cottage that I've been working with a local architect one. We have a small piece of land on the corner of Washington and Inwood. That would be a perfect fit for this. It is a one bedroom, one bath, a smaller unit. So we would probably have to get a variance from the city to go below the 600 feet. This is a home that we purchased from our development corporation, 900 Rooper Street. This we use as transitional supportive housing. Where we take families out of the local motels with the partnership of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of and we help them to get back on their feet so that they can move out into the community again without being homeless with their children. This is our baby. So we had 34 units of public housing on this site which were deemed by HUD as obsolete. They were no longer livable or workable. Workable dish. You know, they have to meet an obsolescent test and they were obsolete. So we got approval in 2021 and received a 9% tax credit from Florida Housing Finance. And in 2024, we received the CEO on 80 units of senior affordable housing in New Smurnabeech. And this is the first tax credit property in New Smurnabeech for seniors. So we're really proud of that. So it's been open for a year now. And this is Green Lawn Manor. Hurricane Ian live oak homes. This was September 2022, 48 hours after the storm. I still could not get into my property. And this is after the flood waters went down. So we all remember what happened then Hurricane Ian. So we do plan on a redevelopment of that property. The three green red areas are retention areas. The green areas will be housing 60 to 80 units of family housing on that site. That's the one we already have $20 million towards. We're just waiting for some approvals from HUD and to get that gap funding. And this is Enterprise Homes, which is to the south of Greenland Manor, West Side Phase 2. This was what we were going to be calling Greenland Gardens, and this is scheduled for 72 to 92 units of family housing. There are still 28 families living in this site. As they move out, we do not rent them again because, as I said, we do have the approval from HUD to demolish those units. So they will not allow us to put people back into them once they move out. And this is the plan for Green Long Gardens. To the left you have Green Long Manor and to the right. We're working with the city on the plans. These are preliminary. They are not set in stone. We have three buildings, two retention ponds in a clubhouse. and 1203 Enterprise Avenue is to be determined. This was a lot that was donated from the city to us last year. And I wanna thank you for all your help and support and everything that you do for the Housing Authority. Any questions? Any questions from my colleagues, comments? Commissioner McGurk? Let's see what's your estimated time for the second for the Green Line or Gardens? Green Line Gardens. This year will be our fourth year applying for tax credits for that property and unfortunately with a 9% tax credit it's a lottery draw. Last year we came in 50 out of 63. So hopefully this year our lottery draw is a little bit better. Last year there were 63 applications in the state of Florida and six were awarded. So as you can tell, Green Law and Manor, we hit the lucky ball in the second try. So we were in good shape then. So we'll keep applying every year until we get that tax credit. Well, great. Thank you for all you do and the leadership that you and your board have and commit to the community. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Terese, absolutely. Terese, have you comment on the remediation for the previously flooded properties that you've rebuilt on and Give me some assurance that the the flooding has been You've done something about that with elevation or whatever so that doesn't happen again The buildings will be elevated two feet We are working working on a grant right now through the county for it's also a disaster recovery for mitigation and infrastructure. And we'll be working with the city and our developers. That's a million dollar grant to help with the flooding and the infrastructure in the whole neighborhood, not just our property, but that has to be incorporated for the neighborhood. So yes, there will be mitigation and infrastructure. Wonderful. Thank you very much for all you continue to do for our city and for the statement that you make every time when you come up to help those that are less fortunate and the elderly who are trying to find their way and you have made such a great difference here. We're grateful to you and for your board. Thank you very very much. Thank you. I'd like to introduce now no stranger to District 3 which is Newsamerna Beach. I'd like to introduce Felicia County Councilman Danny Robbins. He's brought a special guest with him tonight to enlighten us on some stormwater efforts by the County Councilman Robbins. Welcome sir. Good evening city council city manager mayor thank you and I'd like to congratulate to Chief Kirk on his promotion I tell you you got one heck of a leader there and we're very proud of him at the county and the community but just like take a moment real quick to introduce a member of our team here at Blucia County director Ben Bartlett he's a tremendous asset to us in the county as well as all the cities throughout the county not just in southeast pollution. He's director who oversees public work so anything to do with stormwater maintenance some road stuff and whatnot he is our go-to guy. Tonight Ben will be going over a multitude of things that we're just not doing at the county level but also where we're partnering with the cities and some of the initiatives within Southeast Valucia. But today in honor of Earth Day, I think it would only be fitting before I turn it over to Ben to hit on a couple of key items that we've been doing here in Valucia County. And one thing that just hot off the press, it's not really out yet, but I know we've been all dealing with some issues in and around Venetian Bay and it looks like today we received notice from the USDA for funding for a significant cleaning of the portion of Samsoohl Canal from State Road 44 to Pioneer Trail, which is part of the major storm water system that borders your city. So that's huge. And hopefully that'll offer some relief to your residents there in Venetian Bay. Lastly, a couple quick statistics that we should all be proud of. We know growth is inevitable in many cases, but with that said, the county council and all 16 of our cities realize the importance of conservation, environmental protection and what not. The need to protect some of these key assets and what makes Volucia County what it is in our home. So, just a quick update here, we own approximately now close to 40% of all lands in unincorporated of Valuesa, 40% hundreds of thousands of acres that is not buildable, But this is over the hard work and the leadership over the last 20 to 25 years. The leaders, whether it's at the city or in the county, have recognized the need for this. And ultimately, it's ingrained in our charter when it comes to land preservation, environmental protection. But of those 40% of those lands, 60% of those are our precious watershed areas and also within our wildlife corridor, which has been a topic of discussion here lately. But that ranks as ladies and gentlemen. Number two in the state, only behind Hillsboro County at 67 counties. We are a leader in the state of Florida, and we are on that state map when it comes to taking care of our wetlands and our precious areas. But I can go on and on, but once again, thank you guys for your leadership and your always steadfast partnership in making this machine run as well as we can. I know it's difficult at times. We get a lot of curve balls, especially around hurricane season and storm water season, but just for me, from my office and my team, thank you and whatever we can do for you. Please let us know. But we love you. Thank you Commissioners, I appreciate the opportunity to come speak to you all today about the county's efforts in mitigating and protecting our citizens and their property from future flood events, storms, large rain events in that nature. So real quick, before I start getting to my presentation, I just want to extend my appreciation to your public work staff, David Ray and Kyle Fagley. You have a great team over there. I know I can always pick up the phone and call those guys and get some help if we need it or work together and collaborate on something that'll benefit not just assistance, New Smirno, but also all of the Wrech County, so appreciate their efforts. I want to start off looking at an interesting statistic that came to me through our Integrated Flood Plane Management Plan, a report that was recently done. And I really want to give a shout out to the City of New Smirno Beach in what they do to protect the floodplain. Because one of the most important things you can do to prevent flooding is to protect the floodplain from being filled in. And the city has actually, since I think around 2020, an ordinance in place for stormwater, that if something were to be developed in the flood plain, the federal government rules for developing the flood plain is you're supposed to do the cup for cup. So if you add a cubic yard of dirt here, you got to take it out. It's called compensating storage. But the city is kind of ahead of the curve in that and they actually require 50% additional flood plain compensation. So it's one and a half cups to one. It's 150%. And so I think the leadership that the city has shown and taking you know taking the initiative to protect the floodplain is something that we at the county are looking to when we look at some of our flood and stormwater ordinances but I'm gonna tell you why it's important so Vluch County is about 1200 miles, more than half of the counties within the floodplain. So that means if what the floodplain is telling you, if you get an 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 storm, give or take an inch, depending on where you are in the county, if you get that amount of rain in 24 hours, if you're in the floodplain, you're gonna flood. And if you fill in that floodplain, to make it worse for people not only in the floodplain, but those on the periphery of it. And as you can see going back to 2007, that number really hasn't changed that much. It's gone up, it's gone down, FEMA will add areas to the flood plain as they do additional studies. Some areas will come out based on some of those studies. But by and large, it's relatively the same. So half the counties in the flood plain. So when we get a storm like Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Milton, you're looking at a large portion of this county is gonna go underwater. And there's about 75,000 individual parcels of land within the county that are somehow in the floodplain. Now that's not area somewhere large or somewhere small. But 58% of those individual parcels are within the incorporated city limits. So there's a lot of parcels that are in the city limits that could be impacted when we get these large rain events. And then just looking at the tax roll, 26% of the county's total taxable value is in the floodplain. So these are the areas that are at risk when we get these large flooding events. And Mr. Mayor, I've heard you say many times, you know, to tackle this problem, we got to go at a evidence base, science base, fact base. And so that's what we're focusing on the county. And one of the things that we look at is, you know, these types of storm events that are larger than that 11 and a half inch rain event. Those are the storms that really want to get above that number. We start seeing a tremendous amount of flooding. And if you looked at the last century, we had one storm event that exceeded that amount. We had a couple that got close, but we had one. And the first quarter of this century, we've had four. And we've had two in the last few years. So you can see how that would be devastating. After each of these storms, the National Hurricane Center puts out a basically a report that covers all the effects of the storm, the tracking, the rain, the wind, the tornadoes, all it's like a summary of what happened in that storm. And you can see the one for Hurricane Milton just recently released in the end of March in 2025. And I was reading these reports and there's lots of good information about the rain and how much rain falls. Because if you ask any engineer when it floods, the first question to ask is how much did it rain? And that's one of the most or the important factor in and why we flood. So this is some rain data from both Ian and Milton from documented weather stations throughout Valucia County. Ian is in green, Milton is in blue and what it shows you is a county as large as Valucia, you can have a storm that comes through and some areas get impacted worse than others. And what we saw in the rain data for Ian is the southeast portion of Valuesa County, New Sumerna, Port Orange, Edgewater, received anywhere from 15 to 20 inches of rain. That is a big number. That is considerably more than that 11 1,5 inches, which is that red line that I described. Now Milton was slightly less for the southeast portions of the county. Still a devastating amount of rain, but other portions of the county specifically the southwest portion in Orman Beach saw a dramatic increase in the amounts of rain over from Milton versus Ian. And then something I hear a lot when I talk to folks who flooded and they'll say, we've been here for X amount of years, we've been through hurricanes, and we've never flooded. And now we flooded twice. And I say, you're 100% right. What your eyes are telling you is true. Because this graph shows the amount of rain that we have in the city is not that much. I just want to say that I think that the amount of rain that we have in the city is not that much. I just want to say that I think that the amount of rain that we have in the city is not that much. instance, the amount of debris that we removed from County Roads was 1.2 million cubic yards of debris, but Milton, it was 300,000. So you can have wind in one storm and rain in the other. You might have both, and they're all different. And so, you know, part of this process is educating folks and having them understand the different storms have different effects and the last two storms unfortunately were tremendous rain makers. So as I've talked about the rain, the rain being the primary cause of flooding in terms of the more rain you get, the more flooding and once you trip that 11 1,5 inch you're going to start seeing some flooding 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 immediately after Ian and they talked about that to a certain extent and what they said in there is seven feet of elevation that the Halifax River essentially and all the tributaries that flow inland is what we ended up with. So if you're at an elevation four or an elevation five and you're near a turntable creek without even a drop of rain you're already underwater, strictly just from the tide. And so that has a big effect, not just on folks who are low-lying, but also has effect on the rain. The drainage systems don't work as well. The canals don't flow as well. And so this is an issue that we saw primarily in Ian. That's why the flood waters stayed for as long as they did. It took about 48 hours for everything to cycle through the tides and everything to flush out. In Milton, we had a less of a tide. You didn't have the full moon, the king tide, all those things, the wind direction, all those things that contributed to the tide and in. We didn't have it as bad in Milton. And therefore, you saw the water kind of get out a little quicker, actually considerably quicker. So, one of the, there's a two-pronged approach to dealing with flooding that we're looking at. And one is our regulations. What can we do to strengthen our regulations to ensure that new development doesn't cause an impact, additional impact during flood situations? So you've got your federal and your state rules, but I want everybody to focus on the local rules, which is at the county level, we have chapter 72, which is the county's land development code, which applies to construction, development, in the unincorporated areas. And then we have chapter 50, which is the minimum environmental standards, which once passed apply to both the county and the cities. And then obviously at the city level, you all have your own regulations. You can choose, and as you have done, to have certain parts of your stormwater management code stronger, other cities may have them less. But at the minimum, they have to meet the minimum environmental standards at the county sets and then obviously the state and federal standards have to be met as well. I also have up there the Environmental Natural Resource Advisory Committee. That's the committee that the county council is commissioned to evaluate a lot of these ideas and to take a look at these things and bring recommendations. It's comprised of folks from all different backgrounds, engineering, planning, environmental, construction, development to really try to get a comprehensive view and to evaluate some of these ideas and then eventually bring those ideas forward to the council. So what does the county council done to look at our rules, specifically the chapter 72 rules that apply in the unincorporated areas? Well, it's based on some of the things that we saw during these recent storm events. So you've had, as evidenced by this photo, this is a retention pond at a publics in the city of the land. The entire wall of the pond collapsed and failed and all the water came rushing out and flooded orange camp road. This is something that we saw multiple times throughout the county. Primarily as the water level got high, the pond was located on the periphery of the development, the wall for whatever reason either seep it through the berm or went over the top and eroded and eventually failed. This is a catastrophic failure and it can have impacts to surrounding properties. Another item that we noticed is what we call the seasonal high groundwater elevation. This is an engineering term, but basically whenever you go out to develop a property and you're looking at your at your stormwater system, the seasonal high groundwater elevation sets that level, and you stack your stormwater from there. So if you assume an elevation to low, that water level can be higher during these events. It eats into the volume that the pond will hold. It also causes your roads to maybe be slightly lower than this should be, and it can lead to some flooding. We've seen that be an issue. Tailwater, I talked about your stormwater system eventually discharges to an offsite. If you assume a tailwater condition where that tailwater can flow, and it's not, because it's too high, it can impact and cause flooding. And then obviously I talked about all these events being tremendously higher than the 11 and a half inches. There's not a stormwater system in Volusia County that was designed to handle the type of rain we saw in the Inamilian. At most closed basin, we design them for an 11-and-a-half inch rain event. Sometimes in an open basin, they're less. So the storm events that we're seeing exceed the design storms, soils conditions, if you assume a soil that percolates well or doesn't percolate well, can affect how your storm water system functions and then obviously the structure design of how that storm water especially if the pond were to fill up and we see some failures where the water leaves in an uncontrolled way so the the structure at which you design that water to leave is important. So these items were discussed and recommendations were made by the NRAC committee brought forth to council to strengthen some of our stormwater ordinances, specifically to these items in the county council pass those. County council is also directed NRAC to look at wetlands and the impacts of wetland mitigation has directed NRAC to look at that and then also to look at rules modifying chapter 50 that would apply to the cities. Now if the council decides to move forward with changes to those environmental minimum standards, the storm water standards in there, we would go to the cities, we would have that discussion as the charter requires and to get input from the cities. Obviously, it would be a form of the county imposing rules on the city and we would want to make sure that the cities had their had a say in how those rules were made and whether or not they agreed with them. Another initiative that was brought forth to the Council on Proof was low impact development. This is a voluntary system designed to encourage certain features that are beneficial and have a lower impact than traditional development. It basically provides a way if you incorporate a certain amount of these features into your project, you get certain incentives and benefits. And so the council passed that. It's strictly voluntary, you can still go the old route, but it encourages development to go with some of these more modern, lower impact type designs. And there is a guidance manual, the kind of details, everything. If you're more interested in all of those rules, go to our website and download the manual. And it just got implemented. We do, we have seen some development that has expressed interest in doing that. And so we'll see how that goes. So, talked about the regulations. Next step is, what do you do to fix the problems that occur? I mean, if changing the regulations only is going to affect future development, but we obviously have an issue with flooding throughout the county and areas that were impacted, you saw it in the presentation from the housing authority. So, first step as we've talked about is improve city and county coordination on our maintenance. You know, stormwater, nose, nose jurisdiction, our assets, the county assets intermingle with the city assets throughout, you know, throughout all the different 16 cities. So we got to make sure that we're coordinating. Part of that is having a centralized repository where we can have a centralized GIS system that shows all of our assets, not just county, not just city. Who's the maintenance responsibility? So there's not the the finger pointing of who's maintaining what you know we want to be clear Hey, this is ours. This is the cities, you know And to make sure that a resident doesn't get caught in the middle of that it happens Which is why I'm always appreciative to your staff as we talk and and work those things out And we obviously the goal is to make sure that whatever the issue is gets resolved so that people aren't impacted Standardization so through transform 336. We're doing a lot of watershed basin studies for the different cities. So we're going to standardize that. We're going to standardize the data collection, the survey, the GIS data, and the modeling and to make it all uniform throughout the county. And then obviously we're going to take all those watersheds and create a library that developers could access if they want to look for tailwater information, soils, conditions, all these kinds of things. And it's going to create a more uniform design for our stormwater system. And then capital projects. We're looking to do regional projects, partnering with cities, partnering with multiple cities to try to tackle some of these issues because they're larger than our jurisdictional boundaries. And so we're going to have to work together on that. Obviously funding is going to be a big issue and we want to make sure that we maximize the amount of money that we can get because these projects aren't cheap. We're gonna do all these studies and they're gonna recommend a series of projects and you're gonna probably be in the neighborhood of hundreds of millions of dollars. And if you do regional projects where there's multiple partners, you're more likely to get grant funding for those types of projects. And then I touched on a little bit but a web-based information portal for citizens where they can go up and look to see who maintains what on the interactive map. And then also, if they see capital projects in the area that they might want to get some information on. And so, touched on a little bit, resources. Transform 386 is the big one right now, the CDBG disaster recovery funding. You still have your FEMA, HMGP, elevate Florida funding for individual homeowners. We've got state grants that have always been available for resiliency. You know, we've got echo and forever to acquire land, which is always a possibility in local funds and stormwater utility. Some of the requirements, typically they require matching funds and then some of those funding sources have their own requirements. Vulnerability assessment might need to be done for resiliency grants. CBGDR has federal strings attached that we all have to meet and then as the talked about during the rebuilding of the structures for that affordable housing, two feet above the base flood elevation is required if you're using CDGDR money. So transform 386, that's the big funding source. So right now we have 33 city watersheds, master plan studies approved for funding, four county studies approved for funding. A lot of times I hear why do we need to study? A lot of it is about gathering the data and modeling the storm events that we just had. We don't, you know, the technology now is such with the LIDAR and the elevation data. We can simulate these types of storm events And we're not just modeling the 100 year, the 11 and a half inch rainstorm, we're modeling Milton and Ian, because we wanna see how these areas react. And sometimes the answer is, look, we can protect you in this 11 and a half inch rain event, but a 20 inch rain event, it gets a little difficult. So, you know, that's part of the understanding of how things are reacting. We have 18 capital projects approved, 16 of them are with the cities. There's a second window opening for the applications for the cities that did not receive funding the first round. And then specifically in New Samaritan Beach, the city's been approved for their phase two of their stormwater master plan, which is going through procurement as we speak. We're hoping to start selection in May and then the Corbin Park Stormwater Improvements awarded $6 million. This project is, Kyle just told me that y'all got your permits from the Army Corps. It's basically shovel ready. The conditions of the CDBG, the RM money require that they do a environmental study to make sure it complies with all federal standards. It's a little more intense than normal environmental studies. So that's in progress right now. And as soon as that's done, we can start the procurement and go out to bid because that project was one of the few that was approved for funding that was essentially shovel ready. So we're looking for that's probably going to be one of the first projects, capital projects out of the gate and from a county perspective we're really pleased with that one because it not only serves new smurner residents but it also serves unincorporated residents as well. So with that I'm happy to answer any questions you all may have regarding the presentation or anything else. Public works at the county level. Then thank you so much for coming. It's been a long time in the making. I've seen you give this presentation time and again around. So thank you for taking the time for our residents and our citizens because we do get affected regularly. And this science driven explanation may help. We may have to play this tape over and over again to get it to sink in, but it really appreciate it. I may have some follow-up questions about deferred of my colleagues. Anybody? I only think about, you know, we tend to talk about number of inches in a day, but when you have a whole series of days of rain, how we cope with modeling the cumulative effect. Yeah, that's an excellent point. So Ian was really a 24 hour event. You, you had, within the five days previous, you had three to four or five inches of rain in some areas. And then in that month prior to Milton, in some areas you had 12 inches of rain. It was a fairly wet month prior to Milton. So that can be modeled. You can basically, what we saw is the ponds were full when Milton hit and there was no capacity. That's why you saw a lot of the pond failures and things like that. So the way they would model that is they would just start your pond elevation at a higher number. And you can, you know, in a short 24 hour event, percolation isn't something that you factor in because it's so fast. So even though the ground saturated, when you model that type of event, but you can set the elevation in the ponds and those kinds of things at a higher level, assuming there hadn't been the recovery because of the previous round. Okay, and how do you cope with their factory and sea level rise? Well, that's a good point. And that's something that we're looking at in these areas. So, you know, as the Jones Edmund study pointed out is the tailwater elevation wasn't 1 or 0, like it would be in a normal day or title, it was 7. So again, you, you know, sea level rise, storm surge, those kinds of things. Ty. You're looking specifically at the tailwater elevation of where you're discharging, canals, those kinds of things. You also have to factor in, the canals only hold so much water. So when there's not a lot of water, those canals fill up too. So that's something that they can all incorporate in the model. Technology today is pretty amazing with these things. And they do verification. They verify the model. So they'll simulate an EN or a Milton, and then they'll match it to what was actually observed. Because we can go out and see there's plenty of photos of what happened and things like that. So they want to verify that their model is accurate. Do we ever do, let's say you check out, I'll call it 100 data points. Do we ever go out and physically see, this is what the system is telling us, this is what's really there. Yeah. So we do great. Oh yeah, they look at gate, you know, idle gauge information, they look at stain lines. There's all kinds of modeling that they do, or data collection is why some of these studies take a while. The data collection is, you wanna get it right, because you know the garbage in, garbage out type situation. You wanna make sure that the data you're feeding the models is accurate as well. So you do go out and have a human being checked to make sure that the data perfect. Thank you. Mr. McGurk. Ben, thank you very much for coming and giving us this presentation. You know, this data, these graphs that show the amount of rainfall within a certain amount of time in the history of it. This is fantastic because there's many times when I've been explaining to people in the community who have flooded the history of rainfall, but nothing beats being able to look at it. I really appreciate the county taking the time to get into the details and provide these kinds of reports. They're worth their weight in gold. Are these on a website? Is this attainable through the county's website in some way? Actually, we just put out or initiated a storm water specific, storm water flooding specific section on the county's website. I can definitely post this report. We do have some rain information. Some of the focus we've been focusing on is the average annual rainfall. And we see the, you know, for about the previous decade, we were in a little bit of a drought. Now we're seeing a little bit of a wet situation, but I can definitely put this information on the wet. Well, these historical data rainfalls are great because everyone I've been here 20 years, I've been here 35 years. This has never happened before. My grandparents have been here 80 years. And we know 1924 was the closest that we got to something like Ian. So this date is just fantastic. Yeah, if you can post any of this making any of this available on the county website, so not only I can give handouts to people but also reference them to this particular data would be great. Really appreciate it. One last question. Where do you measure the rainfall for New Samaritan? Where are those points actually located? So there's weather stations that are referenced in those reports. And there's actually a website where you can go and click on it. It's really an interactive website. And that's where I got a lot of the information. But I don't have them here. And I don't know what is up to top my head, but they have the coordinates for each of the locations. So you can actually take the coordinates and plug it into Google Maps and it'll pop you to right where the web site is. And that's on the county website? It is not. It is on the website for where I got the data, but I could definitely get that information. If you look at the graph, those numbers and parentheses are the weather, it's the specific weather station. Okay. That's referenced as part of that data. Great. Why may I shoot you an email just to follow up? I'd be happy to shoot you the link or get to the information. Perfect. Thanks so much. Mr. Breene. Thank you so much. We really appreciate this information. You mentioned in your presentation that there's an interactive map that a resident could go and distinguish if it's actually a city or a county issue. We've had in the last probably two weeks, couple of residents that are unincorporated, they're not in the city, but they've fallen through this gap. And we discussed that two weeks ago about what can these people do and we got a we received another letter a couple of days ago that she still hasn't had any help. What do you recommend for someone that has gone and fallen in that gap? And they go look on the interactive map and see why and who's their first point of contact you? Or? I can always be the first point of contact. I've actually received some emails from some folks. I think they showed up to your workshop on the master plan. Obviously, it was focused on the incorporated area of News and Murder Beach. They have a Newserna Beach address. They may or may not have been aware that they weren't in the incorporated area. So what I would say to those folks is we do have a map online now that really speaks to road maintenance and we'll show you whether where you are. We do have our canals mapped. What I was talking about in the slide is the goal is to get to an interactive map that incorporates all the data from the cities and we're in the process of getting that and gathering that information from the cities. It's going to be, it's not as quick a process. You got to take the GIS data from the city and this city and then kind of put it in there. But if there's folks that have specific questions there in the unincorporated area, you can definitely send them my way and I can get those questions answered. Thank you. Ben, scope folks' expectations for when we will see dirt move, structures bill, things happening around. It says you've talked about lots of money and lots of time. Talk for a minute or two about a timeline to where residents can see something changing because they count like we all do storm seasons here. Am I going to see anything this storm season compared to what I saw last season different about what county and the city have done together? Sure. So in the short term, one of the major goals has been maintenance, making sure that all those canals, which we do on a regular basis, but making sure all those canals are clean and flowing and free of obstruction. Mr. Robbins mentioned the grant from the USDA. So we've already been active in trying to get additional funding to do additional cleanings and those kinds of things. So that's first step is making sure what we have in the ground now functions as well as it possibly can. The next step is twofold. New Sumerna was very fortunate that they had a project that was shovel ready. Essentially now with that last permit it's ready to go. We're just waiting on this federal environmental. So I'm hoping that you know month or two. I don't this is a new process for me in doing these types of this transform 386 stuff. So I'm interested to see how it shouldn't be that long because it's in a fairly urbanized built out area. I don't anticipate there being you know go for tortoises and bald eagles in the middle of the road and things like that but you never know. So that project I would anticipate turning dirt fairly soon possibly before the end of this year with all once we get through procurement and things like that, you guys most likely be one of the first ones out of the gate. Now, some of the projects that are in design, design permitting, stormwater flood mitigation projects takes time. You've got to go through the St. John's Water Management District, you've got to go through the DEP and you've got to potentially go through the Army Corps engineers. So my experience has been with those kinds of projects, I'll just give you the timeline. We did a major project that was in response to the May of 09 storm where we had a significant rain event. We purchased, the county purchased 20 homes that were repetitively flooded in one area, knocked them down, turned them into a large regional storm water pond. Flooding occurred in 2009. The construction of the pond occurred 2018-2019. So that's a long time. go faster, some go slower, depends on if you have to acquire property. I'm trying my best to temper expectations on these types of projects because they can take time. You know, if you're from conceptual all the way to completion, construction, it's a slow process. It's akin to building roads and things like that. The stormwater studies, once those kick off, I mentioned the data gathering, depending on the size of the basin, where we just kicked off a fairly large one in the Spruce Creek area. We're probably looking at eight to ten months until that study is complete from all the data gathering all the way through. Some smaller studies can go quicker. I would imagine, I don't know what the timeframe on y'all's phase one of your master plan has been, but I imagine it's probably been 10 to 12 months, maybe. Just do this month. Yeah, there's one out brief. Just do this month. And so the phase two, I think we'll build on that. But to answer your question, it takes time to do these projects. And so there's no good answer other than that's what it takes. So one more, and I'm sorry for making it so long. We hear a lot, what took you so long? What woke you up? So then on behalf of the county, we're delighted with all the work you're doing on it. And I know that you and Danny and the whole team is on it but what was the wake up call that said hey we gotta get we gotta get moving on this thing and it doesn't seem like we've always been doing this but we've always had this issue. Why now different? Well, I'll take a look at this The PowerPoint off but the chart the rain events. So the last major flooding event we had in Volusia County of significance was 0809, 0808 Bay, Southwest, and then 09 on Named Storm. And we did some projects related to the flooding that occurred in those storms. So typically what you see in flooding is there's a lag. The storm happens, it floods here, here, here, and here. We go address those problems and then you wait for the next storm. The uniqueness of Ian and Milton is the flooding was very widespread. What I will say at the county level at about 20 after the know after the 09 storm about 2014 and primary storm water focus became Water quality the county hosted a water quality summit the state was very focused on water quality through the TM the total maximum daily lows the impaired water bodies the springs You know and and of your funding, grant funding for stormwater projects focused on water quality for 10 years. And I don't have the graph with me of the annual range storm, but for that 10 years, the average annual range for both West Side East Side County was lower than average considerably, from about 07 through 2017, and then it started ticking up. So the wake up call was the rain and the storms. You know, there was a focus on water quality for about 10 years, the mosquito-legon, reasonable assurance plan, and all those things. And then the rain came again, and the focus is back on flux. So the chart I've seen from your chief engineer, Tad showed us that this trough is about a 10-year trough. But there was a rise decades ago, a trough for 10 years, and then a rise for four or five or six years. We're on the front edge of that rise. We can expect higher rainfall in storms and regularly for a few years, and then a trough again. Maybe I don't want to get into the nature of predicting the rain that's the I would probably have a better shot at you know predicting who's going to win the Super Bowl next year but I mean it could fall off like it did and it or it could stay above average we could go another 50 years without getting a storm like Milton or or Ian, and we could get one this year. Well, thank you for coming and seeing us. Thank you for working so hard, you and Ted. And thank you for responding to Councilman Robbins request to come out and make all this information public. So I appreciate Danny, thank you for coming. And Ben, we certainly appreciate your expertise. Give him a best of George Wreck-A of George Walsh. Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Without further delay Mr. Manager your report sir. Yes sir Mr. Mayor thank you just a few items I wanted to follow up today, tonight with, we had a number of citizen comments during the last meeting, comments about the swimming pool and Tiki Bar at Venetian Bay. I've had some further discussions about that and following up and trying to do everything we can to assist in that area. We had some comments also about the use of e-bikes and we'll report that our police department has done some excellent research on that topic. I'm speaking with both police and legal about any potential changes that we can make to ordinances to make that activity safer. I had a lot of comments, emails, and public comments about the Oak Waller development and the site grading that occurred on that property. We are followed up on that. We've had a number of staff visiting the site to make sure that they are continuing to be in compliance. I believe that the D2R plan for the sidewalks has been completed. I've asked our folks the monitor, the site. We have been completed. I have asked the monitor the traffic in the area and particularly the speeds and to see if we need to make any adjustments there. We will continue to monitor that site. We also had Mr. Marrable. You brought this up about some of our protocols during emergency bridge closures and walked to tune the event that we have one or more bridges closed and we did have a couple of instances where the bridges were impacted. So the staff is following up on that from public safety, both police and fire and our traffic folks are following up to make sure that we've got the proper procedures in place to minimize impacts there. So just a few things that I wanted to note that we are following up on had the opportunity to attend an outstanding state of the city last night. very well done and just highlighted a Lot of the great work that you as the commission they're doing and that the city staff is doing So it was proud to be a part of that. Thank you, sir Thank you, sir. Appreciate the report and your thoroughness there It's time for public participation. If there are any citizens who have a topic they'd like to address, the commission on a concern, a well done to any member of the staff, or a view about something pertaining to city business, we'd like you to approach the podium, offer your name, and your address for the record, you'll be given three minutes. We won't be answering questions. This is your monologue, not a dialogue between us. If there's need to follow up, the city manager, the city clerk will reach out to you directly. We're anxious to hear what you have to say. Please come forward and be heard. Good afternoon, evening, city council. My name is Jessie Wales, 824 Evergreen Street. I'm here to discuss the proposed rezoning of 577 acres of designated conservation land to plan unit development for the Deering Park project, of which I am opposed. US Fish and Wildlife Maps show that this land is designated as freshwater wetlands scrub habitat, which compromises only 18% of Florida's freshwater wetlands. These lands serve as critical ecological assets that support wildlife corridors, maintain water quality, and offer natural stormwater management. Resoning them for development threatens to fragment one of this region's increasingly rare and irreplaceable ecosystems. Habitat fragmentation not only disrupts plant and animal populations, many of which are already in decline, as we know. It also undermines long-term biodiversity and ecological resilience of our county. Conservation forestry land resources are designed as such for a reason. They provide long-term public benefit through ecosystem services, habitat preservation, and climate resilience, none of which can be fully replaced once paved over, although they can be restored as we learned last night with the Marine Discovery Center parking lot. So I respectfully urge decision-makers to reject this rezoning application and instead prioritize smart growth strategies that preserve our county's natural heritage and protect our shared environment. So when I came last week I spoke very heavily on low impact development and I just want to mention that replacing forests and conservation lands with impervious surfaces such as roads, rooftops, and parking lots will drastically increase stormwater runoff no matter what anyone else tells you. This can lead to flooding as we learned, erosion and degradation of downstream water bodies. Looking on the map that the county member just posted, all of the water from Deering Park will flow into Spruce Creek and we already know that we are having issues with that when it comes to flooding. So our region already faces significant challenges with water quality and we cannot afford to intensify those by eliminating the very habitats that help to absorb and filter rainfall naturally. Low impact developments should be required in the Deering Park to mitigate those issues if this proposal goes through. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time and thank you for your comments, ma'am. Thank you. Hello. Aaron Wilkes, 1421 Beacon Street, New Smyrne Beach on the North Beach side very close to we're Fred Cleveland lives Around the block basically My concern is actually based on a lot of rumors that we've been hearing but it seems to be that this happens over and over again So I don't know whether we're getting rumors and then eventually this is really going to happen or what. But I want to discuss the sandy roads that possibly you're going to get paved. And that's what we keep hearing. There were a lot more people that showed up earlier because of the concerns, actually. And it just takes just my husband talking to some men that were very official looking walking down the street saying that they're looking at streets to pave and that starts of another rumor but that has happened before. So I don't know whether they're officials from here, our new Smirno Beach City, or somewhere else, or what's happening. But the overall feeling for all of us, of those more people, yeah, is that we don't, we love our sandy roads. That's what we want, sandy roads, help with percolating of the storm. Any of the storms, I mean, people that are on paved roads, where does the water go? It doesn't go anywhere because it can't soak into the pavement. We don't want this road to be paved ever. So we're just letting ourselves be known now so it never does happen because it's important. I mean, things can get passed in the summer and we don't know a lot of people are out of town. So we want these things to be known now. What else is also the fact that, you know, walking on pavement as compared to sandy roads, it's much more pleasant. You don't burn your feet or your dog's feet or go for totuses, go across there all the time. I can't say enough. Speed limit is a big, huge thing too. Of course, people will race down payroads. They race down. But Sandy Rhodes, they try to avoid those because they see it sandy. Who wants to do that? I mean, what's their pleasure writers? But that's one thing. And anybody else wants to say something quickly? That's what I want to say about it. I love living in New Smyrna, and I love the fact that we have these sandy roads and Barbara has something to say too. Hi, I'm Barbara Ogden at 1408 Beacon Street, and I just want to reiterate what Erin shared with you that really we love the street the way it it is and there's so many benefits of the road and just the history of that area, the environmental issues, you know we're right on the footsteps of the park as well so we help support the wildlife and the drainage issues that you spoke of. As well as just adding to the charm of the town, you know, we're a tourism destination as well. So we want to preserve that charm and we don't want to turn us into an asphalt jungle. And we were concerned because again, as Erin mentioned, there's a lot of, we see a lot of workers on the streets and there's chatter. So we wanted to express that to you this evening. You have done such. Thank you very, very much. We'll be following up. Appreciate all your comments. Thank you very much. Could I just say one more thing? Dale Patternoster, 1404 Beacon Street. Is there any truth to this to these so-called rumors? So as I mentioned in my opening remarks, ma'am, this is not a dialogue. This is your monologue. We'll be following up with your group. Okay, thank you. Thank you. You bet. Hello, John. Good evening. Good evening. My name is John Joaquin and my address is 4617 South Atlantic Avenue, New Sumerna Beach. I'm here tonight in support of the Deering Park Innovation Center project. I think it's 11B on tonight's agenda. I'm the current chair of the city's economic development task force. And last week as a body, we voted unanimously in support of the project and vision that has been detailed many times at workshops and many times in this forum. I believe the city has the best opportunity and a generation to advance the goals of its strategic plan to diversify our economy and our tax base and to bring higher paying jobs to our community. With DPEC during Park Innovation Center we have the opportunity for a future with light manufacturing, technology focus companies and corporate headquarters that will help keep the taxes residents pay lower as the demand for services continues to grow. With Deering Park, we will have a prime location to bring the space industry to New Sumerna Beach. Without Deering Park, our wonderful historic town will continue to gentrify and price younger residents and workers out of town and push high-paying jobs to surrounding areas. As an active member of the Southeast Volusia County Chamber of Commerce, I have had the pleasure of working with the development partnership of Miami Corporation representing the Dearing family and Coller Group. I have had the opportunity to travel to the cities of Abakoa and Alton and see the vision of a planned community that Dearing Park will model off of. I share the same enthusiasm that Commissioner Ashley expressed of the project last week. What the Commission has been asked to do is trust our development partners, that they will deliver the vision that has been shared and continue to advance in the future. I've come to know these people and I trust that they are the best opportunity for the bright future that Newsom Ernest seeks. While there will always be issues to overcome traffic, flooding, I believe they are uniquely positioned to partner with us to do that. The During family has a longstanding 100 year roots in our city and region, and they want an award-winning development that their legacy can rest upon. Unlike the norm, the family is not selling the land to the highest bidder and letting happen what would happen. The design elements and concessions provided and the investments they are making are unprecedented in the real estate development industry and the testament to how committed they are to the success of this project and our city's growth. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your comments, John. Appreciate your service on the committee. Hi, my name is Allison Kates. I'm a resident at 819 South Cooper Street and I have a front-row view on the wonderful sidewalk we have on my part of South Cooper Street. But unfortunately, once you get to Ocean Avenue, trying to get to Flagler Avenue, you have to walk in the street or roll or push your stroller. So I am very interested in getting a sidewalk between Ocean Avenue and Flagler Avenue so that those of us who live on the other side and guests and tourists can access all the wonderful businesses on Flagler Avenue. And I look forward to working with you on this going forward. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comments, ma'am. Appreciate it. Sure. Good evening. I am here representing the Newsborne of each tennis center, but since everybody else gave their address. much for your comments, ma'am. Appreciate it. Sir. Good evening. I am here representing the News Mournabeech Tenant Center, but since everybody else gave their address, my address is 607 North Peninsula Avenue. I've nothing to talk about with beach side or anything else, News Mournabeech other than the News Mournabeech Tenant Center. So I want to thank you guys for your time. Ron, I want to thank you specifically because we had a meeting a couple of ago as well as Rob Salazar and entertaining us for an extension on our lease for the land that we're barring from you guys to have a tennis facility. So I'll start off saying that we've done a really bad job with expressing to the city how successful our program has been. We bring in, we have several hundred members, but we also bring in thousands of people through different counties out of state, out of town people that come in, that play at our facility. We have a youth program as well. And we're extremely, extremely competitive. Again, we don't brag about this. We need to do better job of this, but we're in greater Volusia tennis league where we've brought in four championships, 55 and older. We have a lot of members that are here right now that play on those that we had 55 and older. We have two singles champions. We had men and women we have two singles champions We had men and women's four O champions and I got the privilege to captain a team for a USDA tournament a couple weeks ago in Daytona That we won and now we're going to play in Regions and Las Vegas And this is something that I think should be celebrated and bragged upon in New Cermurna Beach with the rest of the residents because because we're in an area off Glenco that doesn't really get a lot of exposure and we need to do a better job of that. So we've asked the city to help us and help us get involved a little bit more on some of you guys' ideas to extend and expand. And again, Ron and Rob have had some really great suggestions. They've given us an extension until next year, but we're going to do some things. Hopefully put some KPIs in order to allow us to get a longer extension so we can put some money in for the return on investment that we're looking for. So I did want to say. hopefully put some KPIs in order to allow us to get a longer extension so we can put some money in for the return on investment that we're looking for. So I did want to say also that although pickle balls are archnimicists, I do appreciate what they've done with their sport and what they've done with their growth and their expansion. And so even though they're my enemies, I'll be happy to sit down with them and find out what they're doing to expand and get better because we need to do that as a silly because we are A E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E to Land all the way to Palm Coast and we're extremely successful. And those teams need us and they rely on us to bring another competition level to them. So we're looking forward to talking with you guys for the extension down the road. So thank you very much. Appreciate your comments. Thank you very much for the pre-picture. Or with all the tennis team fans, please stand. We just want to see you. Very good. OK, we've got the message. We've got the message. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Mr. England, welcome. Good evening. My name is Richard England. And I live at 259 Manurka Beachway now. I'm here tonight representing the group that's gotten together over the last couple of years trying to get an arts district established. It includes representatives of all the arts organizations in the city, plus a bunch of other citizens as well. It's taken longer than I thought it was going to, but we're here. The arts district now is the exact same boundaries as the so-called arts overlay district. And I'm here because we're finally starting to get things happening and the purpose of me being here tonight is to thank specifically David Ray, Director of Maintenance and Operations and by extension City Manager Cowper for making the getting going with some tangible evidence of things a lot easier. Hopefully some of you have noticed that over the last two Sundays, we have started to paint two of the crosswalks along Canal Street, one of them crossing Magnolia and the other one crossing Orange. It's a multi-stage process to get that done. So what you see there now is not the finished product, but we're not too far away from it. And we believe the establishment of the arts district is an economic benefit to all of the Canal Street area. We've dubbed the name of this area, the downtown arts district, and one of the other things that we've done and is probably next closest to being visible to everybody is Create a logo and we have banners that are in production and this is the logo for the downtown It's a downtown arts district and so all along canal and all along Magnolia We'll have the Canal St Strait Historic District logo on one side, the art district logo on another. And this is just the tease for all of the other things that are coming, but we're very happy that we've gotten to this point. And I wanted to call David's contribution for helping us get going. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate your comments and your leadership in the R-Stift. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Good evening. Hi there. I'm Stephen Reese, 2569, Selik Avenue, here in New Smyrna Beach. I appreciate your guys this time and the opportunity to speak about the current foundation that I run. I'm the executive director for the Oceans of Hope Foundation. I don't know if you guys have heard of it, but we're an adaptive surfing and kayak program here locally. We started in 2014, and we have grown exponentially. Started with just six guest athletes with spinal cord injuries on the beach in 2014. One event. Now we do five surf events, including a wounded warriors event every year with upwards of 50 guest athletes per event and over 100 volunteers on the beach. I come to you, humbly requesting, partial either them with the gas money, reduce parking, just to help them with their participation. Take a little bit less stress off of getting here, trying to pay for the parking. We do have a permit with the's why we're looking at the city of New York. We're looking at the city of New York, and we're looking at the city of New York, and we're looking at the city of New York, and we're looking at the city of New York, and we're looking at the city of New York, and we're looking at the city of New York, meeting some other place. We're not doing that here, okay? So please refrain. It's not for cheering and for jeering. We're just going to listen to this stuff as quickly as we can. Thank you for your cooperation. I appreciate it. Good evening. The steam board members on this beautiful Earth Day. How apropos, ordinance number 5124 for Deering Park is about destroying conservation land for urban development. The city provides itself and dedicates funds to protecting the environment from the negative effects of development and this proposal completely goes against what we stand for in New Smirno Beach. Mayor Cleveland, you said yesterday in your state of the city address that we are proud of the tougher strictest we have to protect our environment. So this proposal should not be considered. The development requires landscaping maintenance that introduces more fertilizers to our water and requires more water consumption. So they say it's not going to have a complete negative effect, but it will. New Sprint of Beach has over 750 homes right now for sale and rent. Why do we need 2,000 more generic, densely packed homes plus hotels? Their promises to look out for our community seem like lip service. Anything they say that they will change in their proposals should be put into writing. They say they want you to sign a master development agreement before conducting environmental impact research. Absolutely not. That's on them to do before they want to play ball in our city. Based on what Bartlett just said, we can probably assume that these changes will have a strong negative effect on flooding. They say they only need 3 million square feet to develop on, but are planning to develop 6 million square feet. They say that their square footage of housing does not include porches, patios, and decks. Then what's stopping them from claiming portions of their development fall under those categories so that they could build more. Everything they described needs to be defined with clear criteria and definitions so that it's laid out very clearly. They say that their accessory dwelling units would not count against your parking innovations cumulative total density and each will require one additional parking space. So that means that they can build as many 80 uses they'd like and request further amendments to alter additional land zoning. If they get approval, the genie will not go back in the bottle. The majority of the Deary Park and its innovation center will parallel on 95 with what they say is 25 feet of buffered vegetation They don't specify the type and height of this vegetation and they want to create a bunch of five story buildings along with corporate headquarters, hotels, apartments. Is that what we want people to see when they come to New Smirno Beach? We are not a tech hub and that is completely fine. We are a beach and outdoor community. I think the efforts in place to support local businesses is commendable that you guys have done. So please do what your voters have chosen you to do and protect our way of life. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your comments. Even Joe. Good evening, all. Let me start off with a little bit of humor. I'd like to thank the Pickleball people for naming their facility for the staff from the University of Connecticut, who is the number one draft choice. Her name is Kate Beckers. On a serious note, what I'd like to talk about is Daring Park. There are a lot of discussions going on both socially and in meetings. That suggests that we might have a referendum for what goes on Western 95. I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to talk about affordability or wages or cost to the city or more traffic studies. I just want to concentrate on a really significant part of the issue in that stormwater management. You've heard a lot from the county today. We're developing models. They're developing models. We assume that all of that is consistent. We almost need to have another hurricane to verify what we're doing. But we keep adding things on until when we haven't solved the old problem yet. As an example, what I'd like to suggest is that until the city signs any agreement be the PUDMDA for during park that you first approve the updated section 604.01 of the LDR, which are the totally rewritten soft water maintenance requirements. Lastly, I'd like to talk about the contract. Venetian Bay has one that's 100 pages long. Almost 100 pages long, and we have been criticized throughout our development that it was not detailed enough. The document that I see for during park is only 35 pages and that seems like a little mismatch and just like this it just of guests such. And we continue to offer to present you the lessons learned from Venetian Bay Development, and we're waiting for a response. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate your comments. Hi, bless. Good evening. Good evening. Bliss Jamison. Southeast pollution manufacturing and technology coalition. I'm here all about jobs. It's all about jobs. It's about jobs for our children in the future so that they have a place to come back to, place to work instead of having all of our talent leave. It's a place for businesses to land. And Deering Park represents an opportunity to have a class A business park. Our whole region lacks business parks and the ones that we have are full or are quickly filling up. We have a demand for pad readdysites. The city has a desire for pad readdysites. they have a demand for pad ready sites. The city has a desire for pad ready sites. They have a desire for a place for corporations to have their headquarters. This is an excellent opportunity. And one that I support, I took the tour to Abacoa and to Alton. And I encourage anybody in this room or listening to take the tour. It answers a lot of the questions, and then you have visible examples of how your concerns have been addressed and incorporated into the community in a very beautiful and pleasing way. So I fully support it and hope you will too. Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate your comments. Mr. Hodges, good evening. Turtles Hodges, 620 South Riverside Drive. I wish I had a sit down and see the little bit longer wave that lady got up and made all those good statements. I was like other people that were at the meeting yesterday, the state of the city. And I was so touched by how much that our young people have put into school, to academics, to sports. And I, as a grandparent, as a father, and as a citizen of New Sumerna Beach and also I've set on the the board here of the planning and zoning and I have never seen a project like the Daring Park project that answers all of the questions has nothing to hide they're just a first class operation but I really am'm very proud of that, and I'm so happy that we're looking at moving this project to the front, and also I'm just thinking about all those kids that at that meeting, and looking at about them for jobs when they come back to New Sumerna Beach. The smart generation, the people that love Newsom Urna Beach to grow up here. I feel like that I would love for you to support this. And because we owe that to our generation, thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your comments. Be an answer. Good, man. My name is Jacob Koch-Bow. I live over at 66 U.P. on Avenue here in New Summoner Beach. During park, there are emphasizing jobs. I actually left New Summoner for work to work over in Africa. I don't know if anybody here can relate, but the jobs here don't pay as high as other jobs out there. So if they're talking,'re going to bring jobs here. What kind? Tech jobs. He says space x, space industry. I don't see why they would move here to travel there. They're already doing that down in Oak Hill. They're already doing that in natural water. Be better for them to live down there than here. If they're going to talk about jobs, bringing jobs here, there has to be a strong path for kids who want to work here and not have to maybe make a sacrifice to travel or seize, such as myself. I would love the work here. I would, but there's only so many jobs that can pay decently. So I would think about that if you're going to accept that offer. Otherwise, we're just going to have kids leave and go work other places. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Appreciate your comments, sir. Cindy, welcome. Blessings for Easter and Passover. Cindy, CZAC 512, youupon. I sent a Stephanie Dostor, who was the project leader for the 604 and six sections for landscaping and tree provisions. But there's a couple points I want to make publicly because it is first reading. So that's the sweet spot for getting some information in front of you and the public as well. So I think the developer, no, I'm sorry, no, too much during park at my mind, I think that the consultant who did the revisions of the LDR did a really great job, but they didn't do a great job on the tree cost slides. I think there was confusion even at the presentation last week. And I hope that for second reading or at least between now and second reading that the staff will clarify that the penalties for not following the provisions of the city are simply that. They're really incentives to make developers or homeowners do the right thing, but you'd never get that out of that slide and it's very confusing. And they really need to make the point that there are consequences for not following the regulations, which the developers now, frankly, find it cheaper to cut down historic trees, pay the 750 and walk away. And that's what they're doing. This tries to fix that. I also think that the $750 cost for destroying historic tree is too low. I think the penalty should be twice that. It fits more the size of the violation and the fact that no matter what you plant in your lifetime, you will never see that kind of tree canopy come back. And I also am opposed to allowing people to buy their way out of doing anything with the trees. If I understand it right, people can pay into the medication fund and not add to the canopy. And that's not really the point of what those LDRs are trying to do for us. There's also on page 10 a requirement that a new subdivision allocate 15% of their land for this kind of canopy. But to think about coast-to-wood woods and Venetian Bay and the horrible things that happen there, particularly in coastal woods. That requirement is better written to say that that 15% cannot occur on one parcel. Split it up. One 5%, 5% 5% to get to the 15. Because the stuff at the back of coastal woods does absolutely nothing to improve the look of that middle class thing. Also we have current requirement to have the trees in place before CO is issued. We don't enforce it. So I'd like to see us enforce that. And if you want an example of that please look at 606 U-Pon. Thank you Thank you ma'am appreciate the comments Even Jess Question is just from our seven-day South Campus Creek. I want to talk about the agenda's item 7D Which is the Turnbull Creek Committee for 2027. After all the job that Donna has done on Turnbull Creek, why would you do another two years? Why would I make another 10 years? Quit doing this two years, four years, whatever, just making another 10 years. Let it go on through that she's done a great job, raising money, cleaner degree, amazing job. In regards to the ordinance for the tree canopy, live a little math and I wanna know if a COS is doing part part of the COCOS on that? Because they'll exempt if it is. It says that they exempt under the overlay, COA overlay, it's like that, it's exempt on that. Okay, now that being said, let's play what if. All right. In the old days, Hillary Paco was a great company and it had a commercial saying, what if we do this? So I'm a developer. I got 100 acres out west. I come to you and want to build it up there. I say, hey, I only got 20 trees here. You go, no, you got 30. Who's going to verify that? Is somebody going to go out there before the but then question starts to verify how many trees are there. All right, so you send me a letter and say no, Jesse, you got actually 30. Who's going to verify that? Is somebody going to go out there before the concussion starts to verify how many trees are there? All right, so you send me a letter and say, no, Jesse, you got actually 30 trees out there. So I go, you know what? I don't. So we argue back and forth. We get a lawyer and you know how that goes. And then in that time, I caught them all down. You can't tell what they are. So now the max is 24 inches on the BOH or DOH is called, which I don't know what it means by the way, on that. So now I only is 24 inches on the BOH or DOH is called, which I don't know what it means, by the way, on that. So now I only got to pay $17,000 per tree. Now I got a multi-million dollar project going on here. I got 10 trees, kind of down, I gave you $17,000. Now the mitigation fund, this is a good one. The mitigation fund says the money will go into the tree fund. It's that tree fund going to stick to this tree fund. It's going to be robbed later on, or borrowed like we do for the parking fund, or the general fund for this, or for that there. Well, that being eye and clad that when somebody pays the money into their fund is going to be for trees. And that being the perpetuity, for example, as long as the city is alive here, and we have a three farm and a three mitigation that my name is following the three trees. Thank you. Thank you, Jess, appreciate your comments. Anyway. for example, as ever as long as the city is alive here and we have a tree farm and a tree mitigation that money is following for the trees. Thank you Thank you. I appreciate your comments. Anyone else for public participation? Seeing none public participation is now closed. Thank you very much to all the citizens. We'll get we'll get feedback as appropriate So move on to the consent agenda. Does it do any of my colleagues wish to comment on any of the items? Sixteen of them. Anybody for a comment? I have two, one for seven golf and the other for seven M. That seven golf is the piggyback for a top line for replacement of the shades on 27th Avenue Park and Manady Playground. Just wanted to make it clear to those listening that when we had the moms come in and talk about, we want different equipment than what you've already purchased, that accommodation has been granted. And so the equipment that was purchased, additional equipment was purchased on behalf of the moms that came in. They met with our maintenance operations director and we've accommodated that for sure. Seven M is the approval of an agreement, considered an addendum to agreement with the Edgewater Animal Control Shelter in the city. Madam City Attorney, can you enlighten us on why the addendum was required and what the logic was behind leaving the Humane Society and going to the Edgewater Animal Control Shelter? So back in December, we tried to negotiate with the Humane, the Southeast Felicia Humane Society. We reached an impasse, the Animal Control Officer reached out to the Edgewater Humane Society. Who agreed to accept dogs that were brought by community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community and the community today and looked at what was an amazing, beautifully, wonderfully kept facility and I look forward to seeing great things out of that group as they realign and get a little more entrepreneurial, put some capital improvements back in there so I look forward to seeing that extension be approved. Any of my colleagues wish to pull any of the items off the consent agenda. Then I would entertain a motion to approve item Alfa Bravo Delta X-ray, Echo, Foxtrot, Gulf, Hotel, India, Julia, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, and PAPA. So moved. Second. And a second, Madam City Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner Bering. Yes. Commissioner McGurk. Yes. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes. Mayor Cleveland. Yes. Thank you. OK. Let's get on to administrative and new business. Item 7C was pulled. It was the consideration of adoptive or a solution which is approved with a pli for a fine grant. That's the Florida Inland Navigation District grant for design of phase 3 of the North Causeway Marina Anomenities. I believe Mr. Managingy wants to set this up, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Excuse me. I thought it would be helpful to have a Capitol project director Jesse Coby go over this project and some of the history of things that have already been approved and that were that are currently in the works and then some information about what this grant application is actually about. So Mr. Coby, thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Director Coby for coming up and educating us. Sure. All right. So we're going to walk through a number of slides to go over the different things that are currently happening at the North Causeway site. We currently have three projects in motion and then we're looking to add this Phase 3 as a continuation of some other stuff So just kind of want to give a high level overview a recap of what's going on So we're caught up to speed and then kind of what we're thinking long term a little bit So this first slide is just a picture of the aob site kind of as it currently is You can see there's on the left lower part is the marine discovery center dock that they use for their boat tours It's owned by the city. We lease or we have an agreement with them where they can use it that docs 25 years old It's also a need of repair and so but they continue to use it The floating or the fixed docs on the actual boat ramp So up at the top right corner, those are the ones that are all destroyed during the last couple hurricanes have been destroyed for several years now. So that brings us to phase one for North Coswave Boat Ramp Improvements phase one. That is the demo and removal of those existing docs, which we, you guys just awarded this construction on the 25th of March. So we're going to start construction here in the next probably month, month and a half. We're doing all the paperwork for contracts, stuff like that right now. So they'll go in, demo those broken docs, remove them, and then they'll start replacing that with our new floating docs system. So it's concrete pile, so it'll last like, double the lifespan, it'll raise and lower with the tide, so that enhances boaters safety, it enhances the longevity of the docs themselves. And so it'll be a huge improvement for our voters and for our community. So that project is on its way into construction. It's scheduled to be finished before the end of this year. So that's a good improvement. So that's phase one. Phase two, we had multiple things in phase two, but what find actually approved for construction is the shoreline revetment, so 480 feet of shoreline revetment. If we go back to the first page, it's in this area right here where the rabble and the rock has just kind of faded away over time. So we're improving the short line revetment that was funded by FIND. It's a matching grant 5050 with the city. Estimated cost is about $560,000. This is also ready, shovel ready for construction. We're currently working on our solicitation documents and that's almost ready and we're hoping to bid this portion of the job out in the next within the next three three weeks to a month to have it advertised for construction. So that's good headway on that portion of face two that was approved by Find. Also at the site we have the police boat house so as you know, the police was awarded a marine vessel last year which they purchased. We were awarded a fine grant for design. We are currently in the design phase working with dredging marine consultants and on May 1st we're expecting our 60% design package. So designs moving along quite quickly. Our goal is to be done with designed by the end of July with 100% a few comments and ready for the design package completely finished in August. We also applied for a fine grant for construction, which you guys approved for us to apply for for the construction of the boat house, which is at the North Causeway site. That would include that fixed dock and the boat house itself. If that's awarded in October, then we would start construction on that early 2026. So we'd advertise right after we get the funds. Time it goes out for advertisement. We'd be able to start construction for that, the police boat house early 2026. So then phase three, this is a concept drunk. I'm gonna reiterate that. This is a concept drunk. Nothing is set in stone. Some things that were primarily focused on in applying for is water facing water front stuff. So all the up and stuff that you see is just for aesthetics. It's for the possible ideas to get the wheels turning, the pump as you will. But all the stuff we're currently applying for and focusing on is the water front. So some of what you're going to see that we're applying for, as you can see, here's the docs. They're going to start construction this summer. This is the police boat house, which we're currently designing, and we'll start construction in early 2026. Some of the extra things we're applying for in the design for this next phase is two pavilions. So you'd have a pavilion here and a pavilion over here with some sidewalking between. And a boat slip. This has the potential to have 52 boat slips. With that, it would have water, sewer, electrical, and a pump out. If we decide we want to make a part of like an extension of the marina, if we want to charge for overnight transient slips, whatever we want to do, we want to have it fully set up so we have versatility of how we want to use it once it's built. We're just currently pursuing design so this application is for design, not for construction. If we get awarded construction, my recommendation is going to be that we build a portion of this. Maybe like 10 slips, see how it goes, see how people use it, see what the response from the community is. See if we like, you know, are getting good use out of it and then we can extend it from that but we'll have the designs fully ready and all the amenities there so we can continue to build it at a quick pace. In this, you'll notice this is where the Marine Discovery Center dock was. A part of that is we've included them in several conversations. We've included them in some of our planning and design discussions because we want to make sure we continue a good partnership with them, the good work they do in our city. So we would dedicate a specific space that's larger than all the other spaces for their boat where they could have a space for their boat. They could easily get their people and the tours that they take through on and off and it has quick access so it's not a long walk from one of the sidewalks in parking spaces in Pavilion where they can rest before they go on their boat tour. So that's the primary stuff we're looking at along with this timber board walk that walks around this corner. This one, there's one currently right here. It's also old. It needs to be replaced. So this would just be a replacement and an extension so people can walk from one side up the board walk and over to the restroom area without having to walk clear around all the parking and up this way. So it's safer for them. So we're focused on doing design for water facing the water front side. For the up one side, what we want to do, we don't have solid ideas. We want to make sure we engage with the public. We get good public involvement. We have good discussions with different people because as you all know, there's been a lot of discussion about what to do. There was talk of putting a publics up there. There was talk of putting a restaurant up there. There was talk of making it a giant parking lot. Everybody has an idea, but we want to make sure we're slowing down, getting good public engagement, that we're having discussions on how to best utilize that space. City Manager and I have talked some. We've also had Rob from Leaser Services. We've talked about different possibilities. We've talked about hiring a design consultant that specializes and will help us think through how to maximize that space. It could be a great connection point between Flagler and Canal. Our two most popular streets with most things happening, it's right in the middle. How can we kind of merge that together, create another space for people to go to, people to park, as we all know there's lots of parking problems. So how do we improve our parking and still create a walkable space for people. So some of that in the future is just future thinking. We haven't decided. We're just focusing on the water front. With that being said, Mr. Manager, City Manager, anything you want to add for the space and how we're kind of what we're considering. Yeah, I, this side think is one of the best opportunities that we currently have in, in the city for future planning. And as Jesse said, you know, this whole area of the North calls way in the connection between our two downtowns has just an incredible amount of potential to be a major pedestrian corridor and a place where we can easily move people from one area to the other. Don't forget that the Marine Discovery Resource Center is in that same area and I think there's a lot of potential connections there. You know, I'm kind of focused on what we can do for this property in terms of accessibility and getting people down to the waterfront and having some facilities for people to enjoy the water, whether they actually get out on the water or not. But I think it goes beyond that. I think there's definitely more opportunities to use this as a real gathering space that will enhance the community. So as we move forward, we'll be looking at doing some design sharets and bringing people together to get their ideas and thoughts and develops and long-term plans for it. Really good. thank you for the presentation. Commissioner McGurk. Thank you, Mayor. The reason that this site has been underdeveloped is because the community has never been able to agree. I mean, even come close to it. What should be here? We have extended the boat parking into the facility. And of course, that was because people said, well, if you're not using it, let us park our boats there. And of course, as soon as we do anything and we remove any of the boat parking spaces, people are gonna lose their mind and say, why are you taking our boats parking? So I'm really, I welcome very much to have a vision and get something started on this site. I'm not sure how much more money I want to spend on any kind of studies for the site, because they've been endless. We spend lots and lots of money over the last 30 years about what to do and it's not about the study. It's about no one can ever agree no matter what the study says. So I think that the city should come up with a vision and we should move in that direction be be I'm just not hot on paying for another study because we've done so many of them and spent so much money and that doesn't help the decision. So. And as a reminder, this current thing is not about a study. Yeah, this is about continuing design for the water facing, but I hear that here. Yeah, no, I get that. And no, no, I get that. Anything that has to do with tonight has nothing to do with the uploads. I got it. Although we're going to get a lot of questions, we've got a panic. Where people see this, but I got that. Thank you. Anybody else? Just a couple of just on phase two, the revetment. Can have you had any Consideration or counsel from the marine discovery guys about what what material you might use to use oyster beds to Do increase purification of water? What what what is your vision what that structure? We worked with, we met with marine discovery center on a call, teams call, walk through what we were thinking of doing, heard what their vision was. We also had DMC meet them on site and walk through and part of what we're looking at is how can we do natural restoration versus also what needs to be done in a high traffic area because if you do natural restoration in a high traffic area it will actually not hold up and sustain or it'll grow so tall you can't people can't get out and do the things that you want to do at a site like that so both agreed that a much discussion that what we're currently doing with the rabble is the correct spot for the consistent traffic that comes through there on the water side. But we did walk the site to see if there's any areas within that site that could have some natural oyster beds and other restoration. And then on the next commission meeting, you're gonna see something come before you guys at Collealysa Park, which is just kind of kitty corner on the waterway in this similar area. We're doing a joint project. We're going to bring before you guys a small joint project with a company called the ZIP project, the Marine Discovery Center for a natural shoreline restoration along Collealysa Park. Really good boy,vo, I'm delighted to hear that. Can you comment on your design for the water sign, those docs? What size, what provisions for what size boats or yachts have you got in mind? Sure. I'm going to be completely transparent. I can't remember off the top of my head, but what you do see for most of it, it's regular boats high slips. At the very ends right here, you're going to see a couple large spots for like 60 foot boats. So there's a couple of spots for some very large boats to come in. Most of it's your kind of mid-sized regular boats, and then of course this dedicated spot for the Marine Discovery Center's tour boat. Yeah. Good. And so when we vote on this, the design is not complete. It's just to get the grant to get fine to any and some money. I would encourage us to get, there are professionals in our town who have built marinos and Florida as a whole has a positive boat slips in general. This can be a great boon for our town to do new harm, do no damage, but attract the right type of destination boaters that want. And so, size of the slips important, you've already said, I'm going to do power, I'm going to do water, and that's all great. Eventually, amenities will be asked for. But in the meantime, I would encourage just to find up. There are many professionals who've done it all over Florida already. And maybe you are already a professional harbor designer. But there are people who know how to do this stuff. They know what the demand signal is around the around the state to determine what the size and how many and how many big ones and how many small ones to do. Just before we jump in and try to say well let's see what the demand is we can tell that way ahead of time. People scream in for boat lips all over the place. Yeah, that's an excellent point. Thank you. You bet you. Okay, thank you so very much for your presentation. I appreciate that. Is there a motion to approve the funding application for this item? So moved. Second. A motion and second to approve item 7c. As written Madam City Clerk please call the roll. Commissioner McGurk. Yes. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes. Commissioner Perine. Yes. Mayor Cleopman. Yes. Thank you. We're going to move on to public hearings. This is a public ordinance number 1525. It's a second reading for an ordinance which adopted would replace section 604.04 in the landscaping requirements. And 604.051 in the tree preservation land development regulations. Madam City Attorney, if you don't mind Ordinance 1525 for the second time by title only please. Ordinance number 1525 in ordinance of the City of New Smyrne Beach and many of the land development regulations repealing and replacing article six development design and improvement standards section 60404 landscaping requirements and section 604.51 tree preservation to update enhanced landscaping and tree preservation requirements. Writing for codification, providing for public hearings, providing for collecting ordinances, providing for service and providing an effective day. Thank you. I the city. He brought VHB consulting on board with this project who is here with me today Through staff changes in hurricanes this project has had a slow go Our department is now fully staffed. We picked it up. We're ready to take it over the finish line The original direction for this was from a former commission and it was to bring this code up to date since it had not been fully updated since 1992. And that was on the backs of the Volusia County former code. So it really was needing these updates. Staff was asked to bring in Florida friendly landscaping, more tree protection and sustainable practices. I think we've achieved that with a lot of the amendments that are in here. A version of this was presented to this commission in July 2024 in a workshop. We got many comments back. We've incorporated them into this code. We also took it to the Planning and Zoning Board for our workshop. Got lots of feedback, incorporated. Those comments were very helpful. We then took this to P&Z in March. We got a approval or a recommendation of approval for City Commission and we brought it to you for first reading April 8th. So I'm gonna touch on Just a few of the concerns from April 8th and that was the 20% increase of canopy the tree mitigation and In one of the public participation on that meeting and today Was talked about the exemptions and I'll explain the exemptions just a little bit as well So I will pull it up now. So I've just pulled a couple slides from our consultants presentation, and I'm going to touch on those first. They're still in her presentation, but she'll, there we are. So one of the first things I wanted to talk about was the 20% increase in tree canopy. This was something that really leans towards that tree protection, tree preservation. And in this graph you can see on that first section it says a 5,000 square foot lot. would be required to have two trees. It would be one tree per 2,500 square feet. We're proposing to increase this regulation from one tree per 2,500 square feet to one tree per 2,000 square feet. So on a typical 50 by 100 lot, that would be one additional tree. Those trees can be planted in your setbacks, in your front yard, your backyard, obviously not in your utilities and staff is always available. It's a residence to help plan where the right plan for the right place is. Just a few more examples here, you can increase, you know, if we've got 100 by 100 thought, that would be currently four trees. It's an additional one tree. And that's a good size lot. That's, you know, over a quarter of an acre. So, or just under a quarter of an acre, I should say. So this part, we're not seeing that it would be extremely hard on residents or new builds. This is maybe an addition of one extra tree, trees typically run to 250 a piece. So it doesn't seem to be a hardship in our eyes for an individual new build for a house. The other thing that was of interest was our violations and penalties. We wanted to talk about just explain it, show you what our current code reflects and then what we're proposing. So this is right here in City Hall's yard area. We took a tree and made an example of it. We have a 14-inch oak tree. If this tree was removed without a permit, this is a violation for not following our code. This would not be for someone who applies for a permit and asks for a tree to be removed. This is someone who's taking down a tree not consulting with staff and not applying for a permit. That tree currently would be calculated into cross-sectional inches. And here you can see the cross-sectional inches of a 14-inch diameter at breast height tree is 153.86 cross-sectional inches. We take the calculation of our minimum requirement for replacement tree, which is two and a half inches. The cross-sectional inches of a two and a half inch tree is 4.91 cross-sectional inches. So we take the 153.86. We divide it by however many two and a half trees that would equal and the the current violation mitigation would require 31 trees to be replaced either on site or donated to the city as part of our mitigation bank where we would then plant these trees in city parks, city right of ways other city properties where we would find space for them. The approximate value of that 31 trees, as I said before, a two and a half inch tree is about $250. Would come out to $7,750 worth of trees that would either be donated to the city or planted on site. Typically, a site couldn't hold 31 additional trees, so it would be donated to the city. So that's our current violation section. And I will add, our current violations require that we first put you through the code enforcement process. A property that has been found in violation has to be code enforced and seen by special magistrate in order to start the process for mitigation. That's something that we feel is a bit overreaching for not only staff in the Code Compliance Department, but for residents to go through that process when we could work out something a little easier and more amicable. So this is that same tree with our proposed regulations for for mitigation. You've got that 14-inch oak tree that's removed without a permit. That 14-inch oak tree would, in our current, on our proposed section, would be replaced at 100% of diameter at breast sites. So that would be 14 inches of trees at a minimum of 3 inches replaced. Either on site or the trees could be donated to the city, but now we've also worked in a price factor per diameter at breast height inch so that violations can be deposited into our tree mitigation fund. So for a typical tree that is not specimen or historic, it's $135 per inch at diameter breast height. So if a property removed this tree, they currently meet their minimum requirements for one tree per 2,500 or if we do the proposed one tree per 2,000, they could pay this amount into a tree bank. They could donate the trees to the city or they can plant on site so that they, if they still choose. So that's three options rather than the option of just planting on site or donating to the city. So I just wanted to lay this out so that it a little more clear and I would answer any questions if you have. So this before your consultant comes up to talks, you want, we want to open a debate. Is there any? It's up to you. I, I, I, I, I, clearly, but if you want to, if you want to, I want us to give us the opportunity to start asking we can do that. Commissioner Perine. I have a lot to say, so I don't know if you want to have your person talk first, but I'll go for it. I agree with something needing to be changed based on the way we have it now. But here's something I want to read to the public that we're in the weeds up here, and I didn't know this, and everybody I've talked to did not know this as well. And it says it is unlawful for any person to cut down, move, remove, or destroy any tree without for sustaining a tree removal permit as required by the standards of this landscaping code. So the problem I have is if I have a dead tree in my yard right now and I go cut it down myself and I don't get a permit from the city or and or if I don't get a permit from an arborist then I'm committing an unlawful act. And how many of us have a dead tree in our yard that we just cut down or we call a tree service and have them cut down right Now if you do that, it's unlawful to do that. Any tree, even a palm tree. So. call a tree service and have them cut down. Right now if you do that, it's unlawful to do that. Any tree, even a palm tree. So that is something that I feel that we need to educate our residents and our citizens because I've been up here. I was in the meeting when rest Owen was mayor and heard the new trees that were based on the old historic trees were changed to add more species of trees. And that was modeled, I believe, and I'm going by memory, which has been a few years that that happened was we based it on Port Orange. And there were a lot of people that had a lot of things to say that night about it. There's people in the audience tonight that had a lot of things to say about that. But with that from what I recall, that was just to include what historic is because the fines are more with historic than just any tree. So that's what you guys define then from what I learned. And I had an hour and 30 minutes with Ms. Dostor here and our manager trying to absorb all this myself. And I have been in the weeds for the last probably eight or nine years working with clients on these issues with Problems when somebody buys a home and needs to cut a tree down and it's dead and and They don't realize they have to get a permit even if it's dead and if it's even a palm tree does not matter You have to get a permit with the city. Now here's the part that scared me the most when I heard this. I considered that government overreach. If I planted that tree on my property five years ago and it died and I have to go to the city and say I'm sorry city the tree I planted died now I have to apply for permit or pay an arborist 250 whatever the cost is to tell me I can cut that tree down I can't go cut it down myself. It's no longer my tree. It's the thority of the cities even though I planted that tree People have a problem with that. We love trees, but that is a huge issue of educating people. You plant that tree. You're going to be responsible for getting a permit and asking the city to cut it down. It's not your tree. And then you're basing it on square footage that I don't have enough trees in my yard. I have a 50 by 60 lot. I'm just going to say this and I need a dead tree cut down. And you come out and you see that I don't have enough trees in that square footage. A lot. Are you going to tell me I can't cut a tree down? So there are so many things here that I'm willing to listen to your person, your consultant, but I'm not willing to vote tonight on that. We're gonna have to have a workshop on this and include the entire public to speak on how they feel that they can't be told they can cut any tree down even a palm tree. And then what describes as a tree, is it a big plant that's got more than four inches as diameter, because right now that's your rules, a tree of any kind that a homeowner cuts down, it's unlawful if it's four inches in diameter. So this is huge. It's not just protecting the ground from it. And if we have something that's uprooting a foundation, and we still have to call the city to say, hey, this tree is uprooting the foundation. If I don't, you're going to find me. So I need the citizens to tell us what they want. There's a nice balance here. We all want to protect trees, but we also want to know why Volusia County has a rule right now that, and I think that was the only question that I sent to you is why, let me read it real quick, Voluscia County tree regulations allow for owner occupied homestead exempt property to do what they want without permits. Why don't we follow that C and why are we penalizing our homeowners if we can't, if we hold the developers accountable and the homeowners different, that's a discrimination situation that I've been told. So we have to be all the same, but the Lucia County has that. So here's another question. Why is that for a homeowner, if we have an opportunity to do what we want, if that the Lucia counties will why are we different? Let me give that a stab. So I think over time New Sumerna Beach has made choices for what the community wants to be, what it wants to look like. Your attitude toward tree preservation is a large part of the heritage of this community and goes a long way in the appearance of the community. So it's a community choice. The what you do with tree preservation is a community choice. And today your community choice is that if you have a tree that's of a certain size and you want to remove it then you need to get a permit for it. If it is diseased or dead you get that confirmed by an arborist and you can remove it without a permit. That exists today in the city code. We're not proposing any changes to that at all. That is a community choice. Now, if this commission is interested in going a different direction, then we would like to hear that, so we can incorporate that in the proposed changes. But that would be a pretty significant shift in the direction that the community has gone historically. But again, it's a community choice. We will do what you so desire. Back to the Volusia County, Volusia County is a community and we're part of that. So I get home rule but again I think the community is 32,000 people. They need to speak out on this. Right now after having having one meeting in that last meeting, we had two weeks ago, none of it made sense to most of us up here. It was very confusing. And we left scratching our heads, and I've gotten so many emails from the same people saying they didn't understand where we were and why we're doing what we do. I understand we need to make a difference and we need to make a change. But that confused us all two weeks ago. Narrow and second reading and you guys are wanting a vote. I'm going to not do that. I'm going to continue. I think, you know, certainly you don't have to vote on this this evening. I think that it's important that we at least hear the presentations and hear from the public that are here to speak on it. If at the end of all of that you're not comfortable with the direction that we have this then we'll regroup and do as you desire. If you wanna have more workshops, we can certainly accommodate that, whatever you would like to do. Thanks for your better city attorney. Yes, before the consultant comes up, Ms. Dahlster spoke to the county today regarding, that provision in the code, and I think it's a bit more nuanced than it's being presented by citizens. So I don't know, Stephanie, could you explain that a little further with the agriculture and? Sure, yet so there are single family, multi family, and mobile homes do not require. If they're home-stated, do not require to have a permit. Agriculture, they can clear there are a lot for agriculture use, but three years no development, no other use can be done on that property. This is just for uncorporated areas which for Volusia County, or majority, Ag use is unincorporated. I know we have our sprinkling here in this within the city. So I think that is geared towards more of an agricultural role. You can use this for agricultural purposes and for three years after, you cannot develop a house. You cannot have any other type of use on the property than that agricultural use. But- That's quick. Can you say it again on the, is this only in the county if you're a homesteaded, mobile home, single family home, multi family home? Multi family. This rule of getting the mother-made does not apply. That what I heard you say. They do not apply. That county only or do we follow that as well? The county only. County only. And that is for unincorporated properties that the county has jurisdiction over. Okay. That's it. And if that's your desire, we can certainly make that. That's the direction you want us to go, and we can certainly write that into this ordinance. Yeah. Very good. Did you want to, how did Mr. Calper do? We did great. Okay, very good. Excellent. Smart lady. And any, Commissioner Prin, just the tree section or other sections you've got concerned about as well? Just the education of our citizens not even realizing they cannot cut down a dead tree that is on their own property without a permit, even if it's dead as it's written right now. So somewhere we've got to make compromises on both sides here. And that's the whole thing is what's our compromise here, and what's right for 32,000 people, not for a few people from last week to now. I realize you had this meeting last summer, but I didn't have an opportunity to absorb everything, and just got thrown at me yesterday in an hour and a half briefing. And it was overwhelming. And if I'm overwhelmed and I'm up here all the time reading this stuff and dealing with it, what's the average citizen's going to be when they get fine for cutting the dead, drinking down in their own yard. Stephanie for clarity, is the rewrite still include the permission for removal of dead trees? Is that still in the rewrite? It is. And typically staff really wants to look at these trees. They want to make sure that if it is a specimen tree, there are criteria for evaluating removal. We want to make sure it's dead. We really do try to protect our canopy. Now, if you do have infrastructure damage, if you are experiencing damage, staff is not staying. You have to keep that and go fix your plumbing in a different route. We'll say, take that tree out. Let's make sure that you still have your canopy on site to meet that minimum requirement. And we'll help you figure out the right place to put it where it's not going to interfere with your infrastructure. Thanks for the clarity. Commissioner Martin, new questions. Yeah, just to clarify, the question I have is who decides it's dead. And so to me, if somebody from the city came out and said, yeah, that's really dead. That's a different story. And for trees that threaten property, if you had an insurance letter saying, hey, your insurance, if that tree falls on your house, your insurance is not going to work, it used to be that we said, fine, cut down the tree. I don't know if those things are still true or not. Absolutely. We've had people come in and say my insurance company has issued me this letter. I have to remove this tree. We're not fighting anyone on saying you can't remove the tree. If it's historic size obviously there are regulations for historic trees for removal and Commissioner McGurk knows this. It came before you. It does require city commission approval if it's historic. Now, if you were to get an arbor report saying this tree is in danger of Falling on infrastructure, a home, your home, your neighbor's home, the utilities, then an Arbor report would preempt needing to get any permission from the city okay so what I need is state exemption that exists you can't just say I don't want to break the leaves take it down we try to avoid that's why we want to help evaluate yes thank you McGurk, any history lesson here? It's a lot like the AOV site. Every time we try to do something for the better, it gets timid. You know, there's no silver bullet. There's always gonna be an interpretation that is you can always conjure up a creative circumstance or a situation. In any legislation that we create, that's not going to be ideal, but that's not going to be the vast majority of the situations. So trying to find the perfect ordinance is probably going to impossible. And I think I brought up a couple things last time. This does not necessarily pertain to this. I spoke to Stephanie about that. We have a tree lot commercial, small, not big developers, individual person wanting to put a small business up. And tree mitigation requires over 100 it's a hundred twenty five hundred fifty thousand dollars just for tree mitigation And that's happened, you know, I've got five or six people over the last ten years, but that's not what we're talking about tonight and And this community is very aggressive. I want to preserve its trees. I love trees. So the historical data that I can give you is we have worked very hard at trying to get people to maintain trees on their property. And we're trying to avoid people from just coming in and saying, will you know, I don't like that that. I don't like these trees. We're just gonna cut them all down. That actually happened on Riverside, North Riverside. Beautiful little home. They came in and basically clear cut a lot. And when they were asked why they said, we don't like trees. Yet why would they buy between US one and Riverside Drive then that's traditionally one of our okay and a piece so I'm not I get I get Valley's concern you plan a tree it dies you cut it down it seems like common sense but in this case all you got to do is, it's on a home, that's homesteaded, right? All you're gonna do is get an, you gotta get an arborist report to say, the tree is dead. What do you have to get an arborist report for the state exemption? You need an arborist report stating that it's a danger. Well, a dead tree is a danger. Tree would be a danger. Right. But they do have criteria that they have to evaluate on to. Sure. And which a dead tree would meet that criteria. So you know the biggest inconveniences you have to get an arborist you know I don't they're not expensive. A hundred bucks maybe 150 bucks or something. But um that's my wisdom. I appreciate that. No it helps to know where we've come from. So for the back of the city managers report or advice, I absolutely would want to hear from our board of the committee who's here tonight. I too am concerned that this is a lot for our citizenry to absorb to change directions. You rightly point out that the community has put us where we are today by consensus over time. For us to say we're going to change direction, I'd like some more, that the grassroots folks to come in and say we're going to change change direction. I've already had inputs from the University of Florida, the botanist department, if you will. There's a gentleman named Pierce Jones, who's just retiring as a professor there. Dr. Jones would be interested in consulting with us with no fees. There's another gentleman from Daland who has done work at U of F. His name is David Griffiths. He and Dr. Jones have conspired and they've helped other cities get to where they want to go. They don't have a bias, they don't want any money, they just want to offer their assistance to a town that they don't live in, but they don't know a whole lot about us. So with that said, I'm not afraid to slow it down and make it work, but I'm excited to hear what Roberta has to say to my clear the way, and she might have all the answers and have a better outlook than what we got from the last presenter from their company who did not make us aware there was any botany work going on, any arborist available, any input from that community. He may have been ill informed, but I wasn't ready to vote on what he had to say. My confidence was shaken in his presentation. It may have been a great firm. They may do great work all over. That presentation, if we had to move forward, it would have been a misstep on our part. So that said, if you're finished, great. If you got more, we're anxious to hear it, but then I'd like to hear from you. Just one more I did mention, I was going to talk about the exemption since it came up twice in public participation. So we do have exemptions in the code. One of them is for the corridor overlay zone, which is the COZ district. This is exempt because it has its own regulations for landscaping. This is our area along state road 44. We have landscaping requirements within our code for planting in this area and that was done maybe in 2018 or 19 that was updated for the corridor overlay zone. Other areas where you're exempt is if you're doing an interior remodel or renovation on your home, we're not going to also say, now bring your yard into compliance. If you're just doing work in your home, we're not reaching beyond your permit. And then obviously plant nurseries, if Lynleys is not going to be held to these standards. And then removal of underbrush that's four inches or smaller. We have many properties that want to maintain their vacant land. We're not holding them to bring us a survey of every tree that's on their property or to get a permit to underbrush and maintain their property in good standing. So I just wanted to touch on those few things since it was brought up at both of these meetings and we felt like those were reasonable exemptions that weren't stretching beyond the scope. So with that, I have Roberta Fennancy with VHB consulting to give a presentation on our progress. Perfect. Welcome, Ms. Fennancy. Delighted to see you. Thank you. Well, thank you guys for having me here tonight, commission. I think Mr. Calper and Mr. Dost are actually did a wonderful job covering some of those issues that we really wanted to clarify with you guys and highlights. So they've made my presentation easy today, but still want to kind of talk through the impetus behind this where we started. I actually did work on the Parks Master Plan back in the day, which sort of was a precursor to this. And as Stephanie mentioned, we kicked off this project along the side of the city a few years ago. You know, with a couple of goals in mind, one to establish a unified sort of standards, one of the things that staff was concerned with was that there were landscape standards in the code that were in disparate parts and pieces of the code. So we really started out as like an organizational exercise to kind of unify it, making sure it's one stop shop, they're all consolidated, they may be cross-reference to other areas, but that was really important to just have things collectively unified into one place. With the goal of improving the aesthetic and the environment and quality of the city. So consistent with some of the parks, master plan, goals and imperatives, the idea of sustainability and promoting environmental awareness and aesthetic was important. With that specifying the requirements of landscape plans across different types of developments was also important, again, ensuring that consistency and compliance of city standards require Florida friendly landscape. We looked at some part of our due diligence included looking at some peer plans. We shared recently a tech memo that we issued where we looked at three communities, floor to friendly landscaping of something that is very top of mind to a lot of our coastal communities as we know the benefits of erosion control, flood protection, and just maintaining the healthy floor of fauna in our communities. And lastly, updating the requirements of some of those unique areas that we have stipulated in the code, landscape buffers, current special zoning districts, as Mastoster has just mentioned, and compatibility between different land uses. So in short, the effort was part reorganizing the code, adding and cleaning up language, and adding some new language to improve clarity and consistency with the intent of our roles. The intent and applicability sections, both of these sections, are entirely new text that provide general basis for the application of this code, meaning clearly identifying who it does apply to, who it does not apply to, and again, those unique areas, those exceptions to certain, you know, the COZ, district being one of them, interior construction, license nurseries, and removal of underbrushes. So clearly stipulating who is required to meet these requirements, who has these special exemptions and why. The code starts with our general requirements. I'll go through them briefly, but kind of trying to shed some light on the specifics of each, as I do go along along with regards to the landscape plan. So this is kind of where we start when you know a new development or whether it's a homeowner or a developer brings in a landscape plan, right? So this new section details as part of this plan to either new or existing single lots, subdivisions, multifamily, commercial, and dust roll uses, how it's reviewed. Originally the phrase was used landscape professional and that's been changed again to be more specific to a licensed landscape architect or landscape designer for a single lot. So a little bit more procedural in nature, but to speak of a botanist, we want someone who kind of has a little bit more qualification to review this planting plan at when presented with a development application or any kind of application for a permit. With regards to landscape materials, this is what can you plant? The existing standards were expanded. We maintained a lot of it. The new parts describe in more detail the quality of landscape materials. For shrubs, ground cover, specifically some of these things because they are effective in erosion control, we're added. And again, a focus on the Florida friendly landscape stand requirements. There's also language in there clarifying what types of grasses are approved and any synthetic materials that may be approved. So turf is something I think that you guys are dealing with more and more so we have reference to that as well. And lastly maintenance was very important. So again, a combination of existing standards and clarification to standards, additional requirements added to include general requirements to maintain landscaping in a healthy condition and directions for tree pruning. So again, an effort to preserve the tree canopy and maintain the attractive and healthy conditions, this is the language that was in the code that we maintained. Additional requirements regarding sorting, these are existing requirements for common spaces, minimal changes. Again, the main goal with the sorting section is erosion control, so as they apply to common spaces gravel dirt all of those have different effects on erosion and runoff. Our section on non-vegetative materials is a fully new section to provide guidance for use of stone gravel additional language and artificial turf as part of a landscaping plan. That was changed from referencing impervious surface ratio to limiting it based on a maximum impervious area. Utilities, this is also a fully new section in the general requirements to provide guidance for landscaping near utility easements. Generally, the direction is to avoid utility areas, but allows for reductions to other sections in this code if avoidance is not possible or desirable. Some of the minimum landscape standards that are outlined in this section, it's also a a mix of again existing code and new requirements. Minimal changes have been proposed with regards to planting requirements for new subdivisions and for single family residents where there's an increase in requirement for the minimal plantings for single family lots as misduster showed in that bar graph. Again this is in that effort to increase the tree canopy coverage throughout the city, which helps reduce heat island effect, promotes erosion control, flood prevention. I'm not an arborist, but I know there's some literature out there that even says that it helps mitigate wind damage through kind of dispersion of wind gusts and things like that. Parking area requirements. This is also mostly new text. This new section has been added to define where the landscape islands are required. They're size, planting requirements. And there's an overlap with safety concerns too, so how to make sure the curbing provides better protection for both those in the parking areas but for the landscape areas and cells. And lastly, special uses, this is a section that consolidated a couple of language that was again in two disparate places in this existing or in this new ordinance. And it has reference to existing language that where standard is needed to be made uniform for specific things like hedges near daycare centers and other scenarios. This is the slide that Ms. Doster shared. So again, I won't spend too much time, but it just is outlining the increase to the minimum requirements for single family, residential. And as you can see, you know, you really, for the typical lot sizes that we see throughout New Spirner Beach, it takes getting to kind of the larger lot size at half an acre for it to be more than a one additional tree requirement to be placed. And again, just reiterating the goals and the intent that one tree was seen as sort of, you know, in conforming with the goals of that increase of the tree canopy throughout the city. This is a little illustration on the buffers, the language to the buffers that was added as well describing what these buffer areas are, who's responsible for them and who's responsible for them, who can access them. It also includes a matrix of zoning district that describes the minimum with and planting requirements per 100 linear feet. So again, more clarity in the language here and as well as in the calculations and math provided. And then we move into the tree preservation section. So most of this language was requirements that were maintained. So again, the section was expanded applicability in the applicability of it and added allowance for removal of invasives with just administrative approval. And minor edits for organization and consistency were made. Tree removal replacements specifically, those changes to the applicability section were made for consistency with the minimum planting requirements and minimal changes for agricultural classifications, which Mr. Oster also touched on. And then replacement trees, you saw already the biggest change was the calculation, the method of the calculation adding a new section to allow credit for the tree preservation that tree mitigation fund being a third option presented to folks. And again single family lot replacement trees are not required if the lot is already meeting that minimum tree replacement. So if you apply for a permit to remove a tree, you already have three, you don't have to add any more, right? You just have to essentially deal with the permitting procedures. This is a little bit more of the breakdown on the cost for the violations. So again, the goal, this is already in place, right? So the goal was to, the goal was to promote obtaining a permit rather than taking a tree down. And I will just add to it, it's not solely about educating our residents. I think Commissioner Farine, I don't know if you yourself would go and trim a tree that might be dead or decayed in your property, you'd probably hire someone. So it's really educating our business owners as well on the best practices because they should be informed of the city's processes and that permit or an arborist letter, something may be required before that work can be done. So, just wanted to highlight that as well. But this just gives the, again, moving from the cross-sectional inch calculation, which is very confusing. You know, to multiply by pi, the diameter of breast height method is a little more clear and easier for staff and for everyone to deal with, but assigns the cost of the violation, precise for type of tree, and you know, gives you kind of the range of how that can escalate. These are the slides that Mr. Starr also walked you guys through already, kind of visualizing what that the current violation and penalties would be for 14 inch diameter breast height southern live oak versus what the proposed changes would yield. So you know, lessening that burden on a homeowner. And here these next two slides are the same scenarios just at two different sizes, a 20 inch DBH live oak and similarly at a 41 inch DBH live oak. Entry preservation permitting, again this is what we want to really enforce that we start with permitting removal guidelines of class two and class three site plans to have been expanded upon with the majority of the permitting section really comprising of existing or only slightly modified text again not a big change actually you know Lessening those those violations and penalties for residents, but still promoting That we start with a permit and a conversation with the city so that the goals of preserving tree canopy and promoting the greenery may be preserved. And the appeal section also minorly changed, edited for consistency and language coordination, but nothing major, no major changes there either. That's it for me. Again, I think Ms. Dostor handled the tougher of the questions, so I kind of was able to go quickly through it, but happy to answer any additional further questions you all may have. And I'll turn it back to the question. Thank you very much. I appreciate your presentation, Ms. Fenesee. Anybody, any of my colleagues have questions about the presentation. I think we have a couple things going on here. We've got information coming in that are technical in nature and we have a procedural question about how we want to move forward. So we have the technical questions. We'll get Ms. Tennessee on it. Then we'll discuss what procedural things we want to do. Go ahead and commission her. Parin. One of the things I appreciate you bringing up because I was confused about it before. And let's say I have a 6,000 square foot lot, which we would require three trees. I buy this home and the house only has one tree. And my luck, the tree dies. I don't make a lot of money. Let's say I make 18,000 a year. And now I have to cut down a big camper tree that's an invasive species and pay a tree person $1,500 to cut this tree down because it's dead. So now I also find out my lots so small and I don't have enough trees. So my $1,500 expense to cut this tree down now jump because I have to hire an arborist to cut down an invasive species and I have to plant two more trees on my property. three trees actually and grind up the stump because then I have room with this dead tree that is huge and this is a real-case scenario in my property. So there's just a lot of things like this. I think this is a hardship to low-income people. And property on a ride so aren't being considered. I love tree canopy just like everybody else, but there's gotta be a happy meeting on the air because I see problems with this all over the place. Thank you for coming, ma'am. Anybody else? Commissioner Martin. I was gonna say, if it's reassuring, the Utilities Commission gives away trees every year and the Arbor Day Foundation also gives away trees. My concern is the sod. I love our trees for their, they keep things cooler, the roots help control flooding, the wind mitigation, but I really hate sod. And so I'm just stating that it makes it really difficult to avoid sod with the current layout as poor Stephanie knows I've wind about. Any other questions or comments? Okay, thank you so much for your presentation. I appreciate your time. What is the will of my colleagues here? How would you like to proceed? If we can take a vote and vote it up or down, we can vote to defer and do something different. Where do you want to start? Based on the input that I've gotten from many people. I think maybe we better defer it to another day before we do a final vote on it. It's a motion in there somewhere. I'll make a motion to continue this. A motion to continue. Second. And the second. Any discussion about that? Just date. We need time to have workshops to the community and advertisements Do we need is I don't want to get hung up on the words council is it defer or continued does if I if we defer Must we continue or can we defer for a not not date certain or must we continue to a date certain so it was advertised for today so we need to continue to a date certain to keep that ad. for a not date certain or must we continue to a date certain so it was advertised for today so we need to continue to a date certain to keep that ad valid after we reconvene So motion to defer till we reconvene in July takes that so month of April's next week next meeting May as as two, as three meetings, and we're off in June. So that sounds like a lot of time, but it's not. So the motion again is to continue to date certain, which is our first meeting in July. So the second remains. Yeah, but I do think we should express how much we appreciate staff and everybody's work on this. You've worked long and hard and we thank you. Good. Any other discussion on the motion? I've got just a few words. I'm torn between, you move to this town knowing something about it that attracts you to it. And you may not have done due diligence and research to all the ordinances and what have you, but it has a personality and it has a feel. And so if that feel is that We are canopy friendly, tree friendly, and you're not going to be allowed to cut down your trees, you need to know that coming in. I too have had to get permission slips to cut down six dead coastal bay disease trees when I moved here. So I get that. It goes counter to overreach and right of a homeowner to do what a homeowner wants to do on their own property. And so this conundrum is something that we'll need to study and hopefully come to common ground rather than two camps and have to have a winner and a loser My my thoughts are that the middle ground could be achieved if we do it right and Get some input from Places that we admire that have walked where we're trying to walk right now. We rarely like to compare ourselves to any other city because we are New Sumerna, but there are other people, other towns that have already been through this. And so we might take staff to get a lesson there as well. I think it's wise to not call a shot tonight. There's a lot in this as I announce, when we first heard this coming up down the road, I said all of us need to read every bit of this to make sure we understand it, and awaken our residents to hear them, to hear what they have to say. Many will have opinions and they will be as diverse as we are on this dayas. So with that said, we have a motion and the second motion to defer to the first meeting in July. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner McGurk. Yes. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes. Commissioner Perine. Yes. Mayor Cleveland. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And thank you, staff. Stephanie Roberta. All the efforts are not for waste. This is a process. And we're talking about a process. Not the technical merit of your of your arguments. So it will be a process for us to go through. You know the personality of this city, Stephanie, you know it well. So you're going to have to work with us here. We'll get there. Okay. Now we're on to annexations ordinance 15 25 has been deferred. A public hearing will be held conducted to consider the adoption of the following ordinances regard to annexation the property at 2061 page Avenue. Madam City attorney if if you'll read 1725, 1825 and 1925 by title only please. Ordnance number 1725. In ordinance of the City of Nismerna, BHNX, 9.1 plus Hermione Sakers of Property, generally located east of Corbin Park Road, north of Page Avenue and Triffy Hunter Trial, just as 2061 Page Avenue, providing for redefining boundaries of the city designated in the, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of New York, the city of Nusmerna Beach and many in the Comprehensive Plan, changing the future land use designation of 9.1 plus or minus acres of property generally located east of Corbin Park Road, North of Page Avenue and Tripley Hunter Trail addressed as 2061 Page Avenue from Blush County Urban Medium in Tensady. To City, Medium, Density, Residential providing for a member of the associated Comprehensive Plan maps to show the area incorporated into the city, providing for public hearing, providing for conflicting ordinances, and providing an effective date. Ordnance number 1925 in ordinance of the city of Nysmerna Beach, rezoning 9.1 plus for minus acres of property generally located east of Corvon Park Road, north of Page Avenue and trophy Hunter Trail, addressed as 2061 Page Avenue. From Volusia County R4A, urban single-family residential airport overlay to city R2 a single-family residential airport overlay district. Zoning district. Providing for conflicting ordinances, providing for severability, and providing an effective date. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate that. Ms. Stoster, we're ready. Give us your presentation, presentation place. All righty so the property owner has requested a voluntary annexation and comprehensive plan amendment to rezone from county, Volusia County future land use designation as urban medium intensity and Volusia County zoning designation as are four urban single- family residential with an A attached for the airport height notification. The City of Future Land use designation of medium density and city zoning designation of R2 single family residential with an A attached for airport height overlay is requested. Okay, sorry. I'm touching it too much. I apologize. The site contains approximately a 9.13 acres and is located on the north side of Page Avenue across from Trophy Hunt Trail. It's regularly scheduled meeting in March 3, 2025, planning and zoning board voted five to zero for a positive recommendation to the City Commission to approve the requested overall annexation application. And I am available for any questions you may have. Any questions or comments from my colleagues? Just a quick question. I think how many houses would fit on that? How many single family? I think the intent by speaking with the property owner is they are looking to put two. I'm not sure what the maximum density is for this property. Thank you. But their intent is for two. Any other questions? Thank you, Stephanie. Appreciate that. The public hearing is now open. If there are any citizens who wish to speak on this topic please come forward and you'll be heard Seeing none public participation is now closed Is there a motion to adopt ordinance 1725 make that motion? Second and second Madam City clerk please call her all vice mayor Martin. Yes Commissioner for Ian. Yes, Commissioner McGurk. Yes Mayor Cleveland. Yes 1725 is adopted. Can I have a motion please for ordinance 1825? So moved. So motion as a second and Madam City Clerk please call the roll. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes Commissioner Perine. Yes Commissioner McGurk. Yes Mayor Cleveland. Yes Yes. Ordinance, number 1925 is their motion. Some moved. There's a motion in a second. Second. Commissioner Perine. Yes. Commissioner McGurk. Yes. Mayor Cleveland. Yes. Ordnance number 1925 is there a motion? Some moved. There's a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk please call the roll. Commissioner McGurk. Yes. Commissioner Perine. Yes. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes. Mayor Cleveland. Yes. Thank you very much. All three of those carry. I'm seeing attorney if you'll read ordinance 21-25 for the second time only this is about a ordinance 21-25 for the second time only, this is about Ordinance 21-25, first public hearing for land development regulations, Section 504.02, to remove the homestead requirement for a writing venue and add fire safety requirements. ordinance number 21 25 2125 in ordinance of the City of New Smirnebeach amending the land development regulations. Amending Article 5 zoning districts section 50402 specific regulations by district to revise the conditions for wedding venues in the A2 agriculture zoning district. Providing for codification, providing for public hearing, providing for conflicting ordinances, providing for severability, and providing an effective date. Planning manager Duster, we're ready for you. Thank you. All right, we have a property at 1711 Martin Sterry Road, which is currently operating and was purchased as a wedding venue. This wedding venue is this property is not the primary residence of the property owner and one of the criteria to have this business operating is that it is home-set exempt, but they cannot move forward with their business tax and their special exception approval by staff until either we remove the home-set requirement that they have requested or they home-set the property. We're located here off of Martin Sterey Road just to give you some background. In 2017, the property owner of this land petitioned the City Commission to add a conditional use for wetting venues on their property. And part of that conditional use was they voluntarily asked to help pad their approval that they add homestead exemption as part of the conditions for approval because it did not exist in the A2 zoning district prior The current property owner which these are now I think third from the original property owner who had this use put in place as a conditional use does not live on the site. And once they did purchase it and they realized this was one of the conditions, they had a bit of an issue. And we've been working with them, even though they are currently operating there, we've been working with them to become compliant with becoming home, either homes that exempt or changing this use and to get their site plan approved. So one of the conditions when we looked at this, A2 zoning is there's about 16 other properties, and I know this was something that was brought up after PNC, there's 16 other properties that are A2 zZoned in the city of Nusomarna Beach that 15 of those have five or more acres which would qualify them to have a business for wetting venue as well. This slide just shows where those current properties are. They're mostly on Turnbull Bay Road and Page Avenue. This one is located on Martin Sterry Road. It is the only one on Martin Sterry Road. So here we have the conditions for operating a wedding venue in the A2 district. The very first condition was for is the homestead, the residents by the operator in the A2 district. The very first condition was, or is, the home said, the residents, by the operator of the wedding venue. They're asking to strike this. And when we took this through review with our full TRS staff, one issue arose from our fire marshal and he said, you know, if we're not gonna have this home said it anyed any longer, I'd like to have it implemented to have fire safety per the fire safety code put in this so that if there is if anything in the future approved with the site plan fire safety is taken into consideration. So we would request that you allow the homestead to be removed and fire safety codes per the fire marshal's wording inserted. I don't know where it went. Sorry. So the planning department does recommend that and the planning and zoning board recommended approval for the City Commission to have a positive recommendation on these text amendments for this property owner to relieve them of the home set exemption requirement and then also add fire protection regulations as part of their conditional use. And I'm available for any questions. Thank you, ma'am. Any questions or comments from my colleagues? Stephanie, what was the logic in the beginning on the homesteading and why did that make it a sweeter deal? And what was the thinking back then, if you can imagine? I slightly remember, and I'm not sure if Kerry was here at that time. But the property owner was just trying to sweeten the pot and say, I live on this property, I'm going to have this as my home. I'm going to just have some events here at the time they just had a tent. It was kind of a special project for the property owner and one of their children that was living there with them and so Previously there was no allowability for her to have a wedding venue on her beautiful property So she was like how do I get this on my property? How do I get this as a use? So staff came up with you know, you could use you could do a conditional use But we have to create those conditions to have in place. And so we worked with our legal department, we worked with the property owner and came up with criteria which included, you know, time limits, you know, lighting, make sure we have a site plan. You have proper parking, ADA accessibility. And she threw in the homestead. I will living here, so I would be happy this is my homesteaded property. I guess not. Without the foresight of she would sell the property and it could be an issue for a future property owner. I think we had a property owner that purchased it after her who also lived on the property. So it wasn't an issue and now it turned over one more time and we've got a pretty diligent business there that with property owners who have made it quite successful, we just need to get them into compliance and this is one step closer to getting us there. Got it? Are there any second order effects to the other properties that you showed us that are similar that would get a MeToo clause? Are they close to other people now that you've got a venue? Is there noise issues, stuff like all the second order effects that come with allowing a venue? Well, they're currently allowed, They would be allowed to do the same thing now. They could apply for the conditional use to have a wedding venue on their property. This isn't going to change their allowability. This would just change whether or not they have to live on the property. So it could happen now. I don't believe in on any of these other properties, we have this in place and any other wedding venues on these A2 properties within the city. And this was put in place in 2017. So we haven't had any inquiries either. I visited this property. It is in a very rural area and it's a beautiful wedding venue for sure, but the space is wide open and they can't bother anybody out there. Okay, well thank you for your presentation. I appreciate that. Public hearing is open to any citizens who wish to speak on this topic. Please come forward and you'll be heard. I believe we also have the applicant's representative here in case. Very good. It's okay, Ms. Mills. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Colleen Miles, Land Development Resource Group representing the Bending Branch Ranch. It's very hard to say that. The property owners are delightful, which really isn't pertinent, but the homestead provision does cause them an issue. They don't live there, but it is a gorgeous site. Nobody's onsite until they arrive many hours before a wedding and stay many hours after. I can answer any questions you may have. Any questions for Miss Miles? Thank you, Colleen. Appreciate your participation. Public hearing is now closed as our motion to adopt ordinance 21-25. So moved, motion. Second. And a second, any other discussion? Madam City Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner McGurk. Yes. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes. Commissioner Perine. Yes. Mayor Cleveland. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you very much. On to first reading the City Attorney will please read ordinance 2025 for the first time by title only please. Ordinance number 2025 in ordinance of the City of Anice Mernibi granting a non-excexclusive franchise to wall rosing to provide construction and demolition debris removal services within the City of Nismerna Beach outlining franchise these duties providing terms and conditions under which such franchise shall operate providing for severability providing for conflicting ordinances and providing an effective date. Second reading and public hearing will be May 13, 2025. Thank you, ma'am. Director Corbin, anxious for your report. This is the first reading. Okay, good enough. No, no, no report. In fact, I even told him so sorry, Shane. Very good. You're just keeping him on his. Just keep going to sorry to keep you so late as well. All right, let will move on to the board and commission. We still have 11B. Yes. Ordinance number 5124. Ordinance of the city of New Smyrna Beach. Resonant 1618. Ordinance number south of state road 44 in west of I 95 from A1 prime agriculture forestry resource and conservation to plan unit development. Approving the Deering Park Innovation Center at Newsomernabeech Plan Unit Development Master Development Agreement. Authorizing the mayor to execute the Deering Park Innovation Center at News Mournabeech Plan Unit Development, Master Development Agreement. Providing for public hearing, providing for conflicting ordinances, providing for severability, and 13th May. Okay, and now, the city clerk, your report, ma'am. Yes, at this time, we are going to have our co-compliance board appointments. The city clerk's office received two applications for a co-compliance board member. This particular member will be serving in the role as a general contractor. I have provided the applications for your city commission approval. Okay, very good. Is there a nomination for each of us can nominate one? Is there a nomination? I'll nominate Keith McWilliams. One for Keith McWilliams. OK. Very good. I don't know that you need to just treat the balance of their other nominations. Excellent. I am assuming everyone's familiar with all of the resumes, both the resumes that came in. Any, I don't think we need ballots. I think we'll just have a straight vote. All those in favor of McWilliams will call the roll and Madam City Clerk please do so. Vice Mayor Martin. Yes. Commissioner Perine. Yes. Commissioner McGurk. Yes Mayor Cleveland. Yes Congratulations, Mr. McWilliams. The City Clerk's office will be sending you official notification out to you soon. Thank you for your willingness to stir up the city and stepping up. Very good. All right, on to commission reports. Vice Mayor Mark. Let's see. So I just really wanted to say that I would dearly appreciate it if when the deep during Park Innovation Center information came to us, it was in its final form. It has been so changed since the original agenda was published and it continues to evolve. So Either we have an interim meeting of some sort or we Make a final determination on what this is going to look like so that the community has a chance to look at what this really is now. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate that. Mr. Porene. I just want to thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your emphasis on our youth last night. I honestly couldn't be more proud to live in a community after sitting through that state of the city. And I've sat through a lot of those by different mayors. And last night, it was my by far favorite because of the emphasis. And it's true. The reason why I'm sitting up here is I've volunteered for years on economic development and just to have a future for our youth like that and to see them speak up and be so I guess fortunate and recognize that they're fortunate to live in such a community that came out over and over for such young people just to love it so much. It really was touching. Thank you. Thank you, man. Appreciate that. Mr. McGurk. Yeah. I'd like also to reiterate that state of the city last night was great. Really hit it out of the park. I wanna thank staff, all the people who made it happen. Mary, you did a great job. So proud to be part of the city and last night reflected that and look forward to next year. You got to beat night night. Now you got out to yourself. The bars raised. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Also, Commissioner Perrine. The staff is what made that happen and the story telling was easy when you live in a town like us, like we have here. The youth is our future. We're doing a good job. We have givers and mentors out in our community. The overwhelming support for our new chief was palatable last night, just a great, great shout out to Chief Kirk for arriving on the scene at the right time, the right place. The diversity of our commission is a strength. It's not always pretty and it doesn't always happen in it. Instantly, but we hash through and represent a diverse citizenry, and so that's part of what makes this place special as well. We hope to continue to cite the power of one person, speaking of one person saying something, which is often saved us from many a misstep. At the same time, the many people that have stood up in support of things, representing more than just their own personal views, but representing many people in our city is also important for us to listen to and be able to distinguish between the two. Between one that would come up and say, here's why I feel versus one that can come up and say, here's what our large crowd feels like. So that is up to us. going're going to continue to do that. It's an honor to serve with the interview. Mr. Madame City Clerk, your report anymore. You're reporting this to me. Madame City Attorney, has some legislative updates? Yeah, I'm just going to hit three. By the time the agenda publishes, it's already a week old. But the three I would highlight that the CRA bill that we talked about previously, it has been amended, it removes the, there was a provision in there that said all of them have to end by 2045 that has been removed. There was a ban on new CRAs that has been removed. It still prohibits boundary changes. So when ours sunsets, I think we'd have to choose a new area to establish a CRA. And it prohibits funding for hotels, banquet facilities, concerts, festivals, special events, parades, et cetera. Which is, that's not something we have used in the past, so but wouldn't really affect us. Another amendment was made to the utility location bill. I think the last time I told you that if utilities had to be relocated, instead of the utility company paying for it, they were putting that burn it on the city. It has been amended. It shifts that burden back to the utility provider, and and established a grant fund for the private company to apply for reimbursement after they move the utilities. And the last one, sovereign immunity. At the beginning of the session, our current standard is $200,000 per claimant, $300,000 per incident. And the proposal was to go to $1,000,000,000, which would be a huge increase. It's been amended down to, I mean, it's still a large increase for $500,000 per claimant, max of $1,000 the years, 2025 and 2030. Post 2030, it would go to $600,000 per claimant, 1.1 million per incident. So. Any feedback on the House Rule 1209 on the home rule? I've been told by a few representatives that it was that it had died in committee. I don't have an update on that. I know that there this last update I read still was talking about the live local which I believe is that 12 that's it. So as far as I know it was still alive, but I know you had some better information, so not real sure. All right, very good. Thank you for that. Mr. City Manager, you sir. Nothing further sir. Thank you so much. We're adjourned at 9.54. you