Welcome, residents, neighbors, and guests. I think you guys are so well
trained. I didn't even have to start talking and it just went quiet.
so, as is the norm here in chambers, we'll start first with a prayer and a pledge and
then we'll move to the agenda.
great god in heaven, we come together as a commission of the city of
atlantic beach representing citizens. And the best interests
of our city and our citizens. Give us wisdom tonight to do those things that are most appropriate
for all the best interest of the majority of our citizens.
we ask this in your holy name. Amen. If you'll join me,
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
this meeting of the city commission of the city of atlantic beach, dated march 23, 2026, will now come
to order. Donna, can we do a roll call, please?
commissioner bohl? Present. Commissioner grant?
present. Commissioner kelly? Present. Commissioner ring?
she's absent. Mayor ford? Present.
thank you, donna. Before we actually get into the agenda,
with the permission of the commissioners, I would like to make two adjustments
in timing on the agenda. One, I would like to insert a short presentation
from both judith larue and lisa goodrich into the courtesy of the floor segment item 2a,
right behind doug conkey, the presentation to him. Would that be okay? Okay, we're good.
and then I would like to move
up resolution number 26-53, item 8f
on your agenda currently. I'd like to move that to item 8a, proceeding or beginning the action
on resolutions before the
current resolution that's number 26-45. So this would be inserting
26-53 ahead of 26-45. We're good? Okay.
thank you. Let's see.
so do I have a motion for approval of the minutes?
make a motion to approve the minutes. Okay.
we have a motion and second. All in favor, signify with aye. Aye.
okay. Minutes are approved. We'll move to courtesy of the florida visitors,
and we'll start with mr. Conkey. Mr.
conkey, would you come up to the podium, please?
and if you just stand by, I'm going to read this, but then I'm going to join you down below and we'll do a quick
photo. But mr. Conkey is with st.
john's river water management district. He has a lot to say often about water use,
water conservation. We're currently in a water conservation period, and this is water conservation
month, so it's kind of timely on that. But this is a proclamation of the city of atlantic beach
in recognition of water conservation month. Whereas water is a basic and essential need
of every living creature, and whereas the state of florida water management districts and the city of
atlantic beach are working together to increase awareness about the importance
of water conservation, and whereas the city of atlantic beach and the state
of florida annually designate april typically a dry month when water demands are most acute as florida's water
conservation month to educate citizens about how they can help save florida's precious water
resources, and whereas every business, industry, school, and citizen can make a difference
when it comes to conserving water, and whereas because efficient
irrigation design, programming, and maintenance can conserve water, the city of atlantic
beach encourages citizens and businesses to evaluate their irrigation systems for
potential efficiency enhancements.
now, therefore, I, curtis ford, mayor of the city of atlantic beach, florida, do hereby proclaim the month of
april as water conservation month. In atlantic beach and encourage
each citizen and business to help protect our precious resource by practicing water saving measures and becoming
more aware of the need to save water for this the twenty eighth year of water conservation month
there will be a special focus on ensuring that outdoor irrigation systems operate efficiency efficiently by using
properly functioning rain shutoff devices by making sure these devices are installed
connected and working as intended community can prevent unnecessary watering, reduce
waste, and better use of the rainfall we receive. In witness whereof, I have set
my hand and caused the official seal of the city of atlantic beach to be affixed this 23rd day
of march 2026. Can we give him a hand? Doug?
we don't need to face the audience chambers. It's an honor to celebrate the
engagement this week.
this is the year
of the mission chambers on a regular basis, representing the history, but really representing what is
important to us as a mission. We need to celebrate this. So thanks to all of you.
this is a point of time. Good night. Good night. Mayor, fellow commissioners, thank you so much for squeezing
me in. I made a late ask. I'm going to be out of the country for a bit,
so I wanted to get a lot of these done because right now it's obviously very important. Water conservation is the 28th
year, so the state takes it very seriously. But one small, you know, we always have a theme, and
this year's theme is rain shutoff devices.
most people don't know that since may of 1991, they are mandated to be
on the installation of all automatic irrigation. Systems.
and I would take the over under at 30% or less of if they're still operating,
because if they're either installed correctly or incorrectly, and if nobody's
doing the maintenance on them, they aren't working. So I'll take the under
on that one. That's probably a good bet. So we really want
to get that word out on something that saves water just by being there and working correctly.
but I also wanted to talk about, obviously, the more important part is we're in a modified phase two
severe water shortage. Which is no joke. And you can see it in all your ponds.
and obviously your utility is probably giving you regular reports. We don't go there just
on a whim. It's based on two critical criteria, lack of rain, lack
of a lot of rain. And then we actually have groundwater monitoring wells that are
at the 10th percentile or less, which means the aquifer is getting pretty low. So we have to take steps
to ask people to really step up the game. Obviously, we ask all classes of water users to reduce their
water use and conserve water to the maximum extent possible, because the weather service doesn't paint a good picture
until this summer, hopefully, as we transition la nina to el nino.
all public supply water consumptive use permittees, which would be like the cups,
which would be the utilities, should institute or accelerate system-level water conservation measures that can help manage
demand. All commercial, industrial, and institutional water use should
be voluntarily reduced. Here's the big one, because as you drive around,
it's pretty easy to see the harsh results of a winter. Landscapes have been crushed.
we're asking people to hold off on major projects like replanting grass, replanting the big water-using
plants or trees, just because that takes a 30-day exemption, and that's an awful lot
of water. Also, when we fast forwarded the clock. A couple weeks ago,
you get an extra day for watering. We're holding everybody still at one day
for the foreseeable future until things get better. So only one day a week. All recreational area water use
should be voluntarily reduced. So obviously you've got a lot of kids now. Springtime is out.
they want to play on the ball fields. The grass is kind of brittle.
we understand that. Just try to be as respectful of the use of water. Here's one biggie
for the hoas, and I'm sure you've got a lot of hoas because you have a lot
of wonderful neighborhoods. Washing or cleaning of buildings or structures and outdoor impervious surfaces.
this is the time hoas say, all right, time
to pressure wash your house, pressure wash your driveway. Let's make everything look
pretty. With this order, we are preempting all hoa covenants and restrictions
on the aesthetic use of pressure washing. So they cannot force you to do that or write you up
for that. Now, obviously, if you're doing it for construction or a paint job or something,
that's obviously an exemption. So no person or entity like a homeowners association or property manager shall enforce
any deed restrictions or other community standards that would cause a violation of this order.
one misnomer also is I'm on a well, so it doesn't apply to me. This applies to all wells,
whether it's an hoa's irrigation or your well that you have on your irrigation. The wells must comply as well.
so that's basically a basic outline. But I want to thank you so much for allowing me
to come here. Thanks so much for the proclamation squeezing me in.
and obviously, if you have any questions, then I can be of any assistance. And tonight's a winning night
anyhow because I have commissioner bowl and I have my classmate, pete mccauley, class of 84, in the back.
so tonight's a great night. Pete army. Thank you so much thank you our next um presenter it's actually
a duo uh I'd like to invite judith larue to the
front and uh lisa goodrich judith larue is a long-term judith is a long-term resident of the city
of atlantic beach involved in so many things was
on the first um esc committee. But judith happens
to have a nonprofit by the name of nature connect florida. Did I get that right, judith?
yes, you did. And nature connect with judith's decisioning and
influence is kindly going to speak to us today
about a gift in kind of a of a community garden at our new facility,
which is now known as marsh oaks community center. Assisting in this endeavor is lisa goodrich.
she'll speak second, if that's okay. And judith, take it away. Okay.
yeah, it's my pleasure to be able to do this. But first of all, I want to thank you all for having the
foresight and the courage to buy this building, because I
know it was not always something that people thought was going to be good idea having toured the building.
which I'm just going to call mock. It's a lot easier. It's going
to be such a great asset for the community. It's amazing, the space inside.
and it's my hope that the garden, which is going to be essentially in the front yard
of the center, should you choose to accept this, will be, well, it's going to add to the center
as a gathering place, possibly a teaching forum. The most important thing that community gardens grow is
connection and community. So to add to that gathering space and also, you know, to have the ability to.
to use it as a classroom is a great thing.
it's the kind of thing that I want to do with nature connect florida, because it's my belief that, and the reason
that I named it that is that when you connect people to nature, they're much more likely
to appreciate it and take care of it. So there's that, but it's kind of like an oscar speech.
I have a couple of other people I want to thank you.
thank you, mayor ford, because
at my request, he helped me through the process, this and really of this and brought it together.
I know you're a gardener yourself. So help. Helping me move this idea
through the city system. And also lisa goodrich
of the late of the arts recreation and culture community. I wanted to bring this
to you as a package of peace in which essentially the work was already done, that there would be an element
to it that was aesthetic because it is sort of the front yard. We want it to be beautiful and
lift the space. And lisa, I was delighted to learn from her that arc had already in 2024 identified a community
garden as something that... Was one of their priorities. So it all seems to be coming together
in a really nice way. So she's been terrific in helping me pull the concept together. I think she might have visited
every community garden within 50 square miles, and she's got a lot of great information. So she's going
to tell you how it all can work in the city system. Thank you, ms. Larue. Hi.
thank you. I am pleased to stand before you today and what it's most likely my last official
kind of talk as a member of arc. Next week is my last week, and the reins will be turned
over, and the entire committee is thriving, and there's lots
of great people there. But I'm pleased to end on this high note. Like judith said,
and first I really want to thank her for this super generous gift.
I mean, this is a tremendous gift. To the community, and we're all going to be better for it.
in march, like she said, march
2024, we identified a community garden as a way to activate the marsh oaks community center.
having it right in the front yard, it will be a beautiful and welcoming space for everybody that visits.
we envision 32 plots. Six of those plots will be handicap wheelchair accessible.
six of the plots will be part of a community, a true community garden.
they'll be managed by several people who will, I'm sure, organically identify.
and then the other, excuse me, the other plots, the other 26
plots will be allotment plots for the, excuse me, allotment plots for the community to lease.
on a yearly basis where they can come in with their families and grow food.
let's see. She's already contracted with a...
gardening gardener. His name is garrett lopez and he specializes in native
plantings and gardens and his heart is in community gardens.
he's done several in this city alone, several yards in a native and
florida friendly landscape. He will come in after the parking lot is done and the
power line is buried and all the water is run to the to the front yard there. He's going to,
and the swale is dug, and there'll be a little bridge that goes over the swale and a pergola and a fence that
surrounds the property with honeysuckle vines growing on it.
and then when you walk in through the center aisle, it has been designed to have a
small pond and native plants and flowers there for pollinators, and then all
the garden beds will be along the side. They're made out
of corrugated you steel to stand up to all the elements and have a long life.
he will provide all the plant plantings for the six community focused beds and put all the soil in all the other beds so
that when the community hopefully at the grand opening of the center can get excited about it and they can sign up
for a plot there and this would
ideally work through the recreation department through civic rec.
and since I understand that they'll be moving their offices
over to that building, it'll be a good idea
for people to sign up face-to-face so we can make sure that they understand the agreement of what it takes
to manage one of these plots. Along with this, our new city arborist has applied you for a grant through aarp to
supplement the garden and everything that judith is so graciously donating and
garrett is building to seed some programming around the garden for the
community and a shed and some
tools and things like that that everybody can share and use
together. Does anyone have any questions about the garden at all?
very cool. It's going to be a great thing. First of all, I've known
judith for quite some time and I'm so delighted that this donation is being made, but I'm equally as delighted that
you're involved in it because I know your pedigree for success.
so thank you for doing that. Thank you for serving so long on the arc. I do recall that there was a
concern, and I'm not sure we can address it when we get to the actual resolution, but about making sure the power
line was varied. Not just to the garden, but from the power pole
at the street to the building and then to the garden. So I want to make sure we
address that when we get to that, when we get
to the resolution. And for the people in attendance,
what really struck me about this, I love to garden and I can kill more herbs and
spices and tomatoes than anybody.
but what was particularly interesting about this is the concept that it's not,
maybe it's not even as much about you the vegetables and the herbs that we grow, but it's about community and
bringing people together and having a place of exchange.
and in this case, the icing on the cake is the handicap accessibility, which you've built
into the plan. So we'll have a little more conversation when we get to the resolution,
but thank you both for being engaged. We so appreciate it. Thank you.
thank you. Okay. At this time.
we're going to go ahead and start courtesy of the floor. And I'm going to apologize if
it looks different. Sometimes we have a couple of presentations
like this and it's okay to applaud. But I want to remind everybody
during courtesy of the floor, the direction is only to the commission from the speaker.
and there is no applause or boos or other indications of preference. How many do we have?
thirteen. Oh, wow.
we have 13. It's like everybody in the audience. Okay.
I'm going to allow for five minutes per person. Usually I cut it off when we go to 10, but I
think we've got some important things to be said. So let's call our first person. Jim wheatley.
and I know you did.
hi.
good evening. Talking about the development of 500 atlantic, I've borne witness to overdevelopment
to the rape of florida over 55 years. We just came up from winter
park last night. What a mess down there. I knew central florida when
there was hardly anybody down there. Look at it now.
what a disaster. It's been my experience that developers will make sure that the right folks are in place that serve their purpose.
I've seen it over and over. I have no knowledge, I have no direct knowledge of jack's beach nor neptune beach
inside going on. Seems like the realtor mayor of jack's beach can't get enough overdevelopment.
the appearance is the attorney slash mayor of neptune beach is determined to follow suit. Demonstrably, this has not been
the case at atlantic beach. After observing the apparent very cozy relationship between the 500 atlantic
developer and ms. Byland at the joint neptune atlantic beach commission
meeting, it seems very much that this kmart center is a done deal as far as neptune beach is
concerned. Few facts. I emailed a freedom of
information request to the city clerk at neptune beach a few weeks back.
I asked about this development. She replied,
for the last three years. She replied, there are no official records in neptune beach
of any discussion about this development. I can only speculate how or why the city commission in
neptune beach would be on board. Of course, there could not be any non-official communication
on the subject, and this would violate sunshine laws. Perhaps the mayor of neptune beach has some sort
of independent authority to grant the developer clark launch. I did inquire of the mayor of
neptune beach how many years were anticipated.
this was unknown to her a few months back. What is guaranteed are higher
taxes, more congestion, more crowded classrooms, more pollution, and more people into the beaches.
florida house bill 337, act of 2021, puts all the associated infrastructure and
extra costs regarding these developments squarely on existing taxpayers. Developers ain't paying it.
taxpayers are paying it. We don't have to meet taxpayers.
although a recent inquiry about how many units went unanswered.
I seem to recall number 330 to 335 packed condos, apartments, or so.
figure a thousand more cars packed into atlantic and 3rd street.
I believe a low-income housing component is part of this project. Last I checked,
the vast majority of f&b citizens were vehemently opposed to this transgression
into their community. I've come across a few exceptions that have been enriched one way or the other
from this looming degradation of our lifestyle. Now, if you can't trust an attorney who's bought and paid
for by an unwanted developer, who can you trust? Last commission meeting, the developer's attorney
stated, property owner will figure out how to tie into existing
tank or seek a permit of their own. There are two other options.
in other words, they don't have to have a nice beach water. You can say no comfortably.
the homily of one neighbor helping another just isn't so. The only entity that should be helped here is the unwanted
developer. This argument is akin to the russians helping ukraine
in their efforts for urban redevelopment. It is not a matter of cost.
thirty pieces of silver cannot make up for the degradation
of our lifestyle. Let's be clear here.
this is not about supplying water to neptune beach in general. I've heard some arguments that,
oh, the poor people in neptune beach need more water. No.
this simply goes to that development. That is the sole purpose of
this proposed water line. I know every perp.
I've been here enough that I know every. Everybody here is here
for the right reason. They've always been in the best interest
of a bank beach. I may agree, I may disagree, but it's always ethically.
honestly, it's a fire line, so tribe bridge can further degrade our lifestyle as being
in our best interest, nor the interest of neptune beach. Here's the question I hope the
commissioners are considering. Whose best interests are being served here, the developer or the citizens?
thank you. I may excuse myself early because my wife is a little bit under the weather. Yes, sir.
thank you. Carolyn zisser.
hello and good evening, commissioners, city attorney,
commissioner, mayor. My name is carolyn zisser, a long-term resident of
atlantic beach and also a long-time attorney. My address is
of record. I submitted a letter to each one of you this morning in which I
carefully detailed my legal analysis of this resolution and
supposedly, supposed agreement. And I stated my opposition
to that. And what I'd like to do is summarize that for you. My theme, it's harder
to say. No for the right reasons than to say yes
for the wrong reasons.
and I'd like to tell you the seven right reasons. To say no tonight and to deny this resolution and
in a local agreement. First, most atlantic beach citizens who you represent have
already spoken mainly
against this resolution. And I have been here at many of those meetings, not all of them, but most of them.
when I have heard that cry in the audience. Two, this is not
about being neighborly. This benefits the developer.
it doesn't benefit the citizens
of neptune beach, but the developer only. Third, if you read the
agreement. Closely, it's not limited to fire suppression, as many
of you or a few of you may have been led to believe. You have
to read the fine print. There's 13 pages of fine print, single space. And it gives the developer the
opportunity to ask for more water for other reasons other than for fire protection.
four. If we consider, if you all consider it or any of you consider it a neighborly
development, you don't know who the developer is going to be because the developer has the
right to sell and the water being
able to get the water suppression will enable it to be sold. There's a big difference
between a big box development or a mall of boutiques. Or housing development, which
will cause even more traffic onto the main arteries, which we share with neptune beach, namely atlantic
boulevard. Five, the developer has told
you in a previous meeting that they have other options for
fire protection suppression if this council denies the
request. So deny the request.
don't get yourself into the problems that can come from this agreement. Let them solve their own
problems. Six, I'm so glad the first speaker talked about water
conservation because last but not least, this proposed resolution and the interim
agreement is against water conservation. And against the judiciary's use
of water in the event that there is a drought, in the event that there's a fire.
we have to look at the worst case scenarios.
we have to prepare for the best, prepare for the worst, and hope
for the best.
that's what we lawyers do. And the worst case scenario would be a drought, a fire in
neptune beach, and the need for fire suppressant in beach.
what happens if we can't do both? Therefore, and this 13-page
single-space agreement adds risk and complexity that we don't need with everything else we're trying to accomplish in
atlantic beach. The city of atlantic beach, in summary,
does not need this agreement. It does not benefit us. It has real and potential harm
in both the enforcement and in its interpretation. I would like to put on the record, I know I sound
like a lawyer because I am, I'd like to put on the record my letter that I wrote this
morning so that it's upon the record as well as dr. Nancy stats' letter that she provided as well.
thank you.
thank you. Thank you, ms. Disser.
oh, sorry. Holly waters.
good evening, commissioners. My name is holly waters.
I live at 374 4th street. And as you know from previous letters that I've written,
I started a non-profit to protect trees in atlantic beach. I'm here because as you discuss
the priorities of the environmental stewardship committee next week, month,
I urge you to strongly consider strengthening the city's tree protections. The current system of codes and
enforcement clearly are not really working and we're losing far too many trees, especially the heritage trees,
to development. These trees provide shade, air quality, and stormwater protection.
more and more cities around the state are working within the florida rules to tighten their own city
enforcement
of tree protection. Just recently, fernandina
beach increased fines for removing heritage trees up to $20,000 per tree. In 2023, a tree service in
tampa was required to pay over $234,000 for illegally removing trees, even
after many appeals it still had to pay. We need to incentivize tree
preservation. Cities like tampa and st. Petersburg offer stormwater fee
credits for tree canopy maintenance. Orange county has tightened tree protections
for heritage trees. Replacement trees must add up to five times the size
of the original tree. Specimen trees replacement are three times.
the cost to remove a heritage tree starts at $21,000. Planning boards are looking
at increasing setbacks. And finally, ramesh bush from the north florida land
trust has offered to do a workshop.
on land conservation for local governments. I spoke to him today.
as you know from previous correspondence,
the charity now has been awarded 501c3 status, so we can start raising money and get federal and state tax-exempt
status. So I look forward to working with the city, the constituents, and up.
raising money and going forward. Thank you, ms.
waters. Julie lagoy.
good evening, mayor ford and commissioners, mr. Hogenkamp.
I wrote a letter, and I'll just kind of summarize the letter. I was at a meeting
in this room thinking like two years ago, it was in summer, and it was standing
room only jam-packed and not one single person was, it was about giving water the same.
not one person was in favor of giving our water to city
of neptune beach or the
developer. So, and it was discussed and it still is a problem that water is a dwindling and precious
resource. So it's just very frustrating that it's,
we're discussing this again. And so in my email, I just asked. You two commissioners to write
to me is how did this come again?
because the commissioners that night all said that they would not vote to do that or support it because there was such
strong opposition to doing that, to giving our water to a developer or to the city
of neptune beach. And we are also just,
I'm going to address the neighborly, we are a city of neighbors and we need
to take care of each other. Something could happen. Water is dwindling. We need to watch out.
for our residents to make sure if there is a drought or if we
need our water we have access to it thank you so much thank
you miss lagoy sarah bourne hi
good evening sarah bourne I
live on on 8th street in north atlantic beach I have a couple
comments mostly just questions on some resolutions that are on your plate tonight.
so for resolution 2649, the commercial beach access and vehicle operation policy, I
noticed that you explicitly mentioned ahern, but not 7th street or 19th street that also
has kind of vehicle access. So I'm wondering if you would
be willing to add that, since you explicitly mentioned
ahern. And then I had a question about what, you know, our current vendors,
like our beach trash pickup, are they affected by this policy?
moving on to resolution number 2650 of the establishment of residential turf block
cost-sharing program. I guess I'm seeking a bit more clarity on what problem or
problems the city is trying to solve. And is the problem occurring everywhere or only in a few
places? I know we have very narrow
streets. I know that people are parking in the right-of-way. That the solution is more
structured parking needed, but is that all over the place?
and then, you know, are we trying to solve flooding and erosion?
so I think my most biggest ask about this is can we somehow determine and require that what
is installed has a better infiltration rate and lower
heat island effect than the current situation? It would be awful,
in my opinion, if this initiative caused more flooding and heat island issues than
that was there before. And are we, is it only open
cell turf block allowed or other permanent? Permeable options allowed,
several of which have higher infiltration rates than cell turf black.
don't get me wrong. I'm not against cell turf
black. I'm just asking some questions. Will artificial turf and plastic blocks be allowed
regarding maintenance? Who is in charge of the recommended kind of deep cleaning vacuum cleaning that's
recommended by the manufacturer? Because that's kind of unclear
in the responsibilities. Will herbicides be allowed, potentially increasing our non-point source pollution
to our waterways? Will only grass be allowed or can native ground cover be
encouraged? Are these new kind of structured parking spots
allowed in areas that are already flooding or will it be a specific installation be required maybe
with more percolation volume? So there's my question
for that. On resolution 2653, I just want to say a ginormous thank you
to nature connect florida and judith larue. She was not only the founding
member of esc, but it's like the pre-committee that even got it in as an ordinance and exceptional inaugural chair
of the esc. And thank you to arc and lisa
goodrich for its time and expertise. And I know that ese.
also wanted to do a community garden, and then we were kind of
steered towards edible orchard. So if the community garden is there, if there's spots for
edible trees that doesn't cause shade or anything, then I think esc, we'd have
to go to esc, but I think it would be amenable in proving that.
and then I noticed that in the schematic. That it looks
like it's all raised beds but if there is a need to uh
test the soil which is what we were going to do because there was concerns um I would be
happy to donate that soil testing the cost of that um just so we're all we all know
because a couple trees have died over there and we never knew why.
on the ordinance 9026259 I
understand the triggering of the code and the landscape buffer.
again, just questions. I'm not trying to wreak any havoc,
but it seems like by my reading, it's a one-time payment when a landscape buffer
would keep on giving after installation. And then just wondering if
there's any chance that that $162k payment could be spent on the ab side, you know.
and then as far as the...
neptune beach water tie-in. I have a lot of questions, but I'll just kind
of name one. Do we know the timeline for neptune's beach for improving
its pressure situation? And are you all open
to maybe, I mean, resolutions are kind of temporary in nature, like
just putting maybe a revisit date in the resolution so that if something happens
to develop, or I'm not saying that they'll go bankrupt, you
know, just. We can't ever anticipate. So just a consideration. So thank you for the time.
thank you, ms. Boren. Lisa harrell. Lisa harold, my address is
on record. I'd like to speak about the neptune beach water tri agreement, interlocal tri
persons entity agreement. One of the previous speakers, mrs. Zisser, two words stuck out
to me when she spoke, and it's risk and complexity. So I really, really...
fail to understand the need for us to enter into an agreement,
a three-party. It's not like we're entering into an agreement with citizens of neptune beach
who have low water pressure and don't have enough water for their daily needs. We're, you know, helping
someone develop property. And does the city really want to get into that position?
I mean, we're having a hard enough time dealing with neptune beach with the paid parking.
that we just went through you know however many months ago when they raised the do you
know what I'm saying so I urge you just to sit back and especially since the developer has other
options there's this is not like oh my goodness we can't get insurance we can't develop the property unless you so as
the water. Thanks. Thank you, ms.
harold. Mitch reeds.
thanks. Good evening, everyone. First of all, I just want
to take a short message to say many of you that watch the media platforms, facebook
and all of them, you're drawing a little heat on the bicycles, the police
department enforcement right now. And I think that's totally
unfair because people have complained and complained that something's happening.
you asked the police department to do something.
they actually have done something. It was great to see the
officers starting friday to be on bicycles driving around in the city.
and yes, they wrote a 60-year-old lady a ticket, and everybody says they're getting
a citation. The truth is, is when I looked into it, they're not getting a
real violation. They're getting a warning. And therefore, if they get a second warning,
they probably get a violation. So I want to commend the police department for doing it.
you can't have both. And by the way, if a 60... Year old lady doesn't
understand you can't run a stop sign then how do you expect a 10 year old to understand it not
to run a stop sign but thank you atlantic beach police
department for doing this I'm probably going to be the only one up here to speak differently
about the fire suppression water but I think there's some more facts there's a lot of things being said tonight that
are misleading number one atlantic beach and neptune beach we're not they're not taking our water stealing our
water. They draw the same water we draw, same location. The water is only going
to be used for suppression system, not fire hydrants. Fire hydrants are free.
there's no charge. And if you look at this, let's say, let's pray that they don't
have a fire, that they need a suppression system.
that's a pretty good investment for a city to put $0 to have a water line put in and get revenues of $72,000
a year. Whether it's used or not used. And I think that's interesting
if that's a true number, the rumor I've heard. It's $6,000 a month is what I
heard, but I can't confirm it. And then, so anyway,
real quick with that, I would think if you're uncomfortable tonight with it, jessica, commissioner ring is
on spring break with her family overseas. Or either stuck in the tsa line.
I don't know where she is. But she had a lot of pros and con questions
in this topic. And I think later on that maybe somebody would make a
resolution to postpone it to
another meeting so she could have the opportunity. I think we did it for
commissioner kelly one time to have an opportunity to give her opinion
on that too. And I think that would be the right thing because she did ask
a couple of things. Real quick, downtown. I understand. I understand what you're asking
in ragtime.
it's more complex than you really know.
the town center is a beautiful thing. We are so lucky to have a town center that looks
like it is. And yes, amanda's writing a report that we have zero
setback. The problem is one day we need to do an overlay with us and neptune beach in case we have a
hurricane or a big major fire that we can build town center back just like it is. Because we don't want to be
like the other cities do. So that's the real elephant in the room, or those that
don't think it's an elephant, the donkey in the room, whichever one you prefer to use.
but so I support that. The only thing that I have a question about is this,
is the hundred and something thousand, I don't have the exact number in front of me, but the hundred
and something thousand. I'm a little concerned who came up with the idea that it would go
to town center, not against town center. But I think the better idea
that there should be some discussion with that. And what I would like to see is the same thing that you did
for 42 east coast when they needed something. They paid a fee and they and that money they paid up front,
which still hasn't been fixed on sturgis, still going on a year ago. Almost they paid for it,
but not that long. And what I suggest that that
money do is collect the... $100,000, whatever it is, and have it put in an escrow account with the
city attorney's office. Therefore, that money is there. Whether they build or don't
build, they've already paid up front for them. And thank you so much
for tonight. And I'm under five minutes. Thank you, mayor reeves. Bruce andrews.
good evening. Bruce andrews, 11th street in atlantic beach.
so I came tonight, but I had another thought. Sorry.
first of all, I just was thinking as I was looking at the city manager's report,
how refreshing it is to have proactive communication to the public
about what's going on in our city. And I appreciate that.
that he's proactively doing that. He's also very responsive when asked to engage
on community issues by citizens.
so thank you, kevin. But my main reason for coming was to talk about
something that I was excited about seeing in the agenda when I looked at it last week.
I had an email come through about the ragtime property and giving them the exception for
landscaping. Requirements because
of space limitations, et cetera, and the fact that they're going to give us a payment instead.
I saw that and that got me to look at the agenda. And I saw another item that was close to my heart because, and
it's the resolution 26-50 concerning the turf block, which I come
to wholeheartedly support. Although I did hear some issues from my good friend, sarah
boren, earlier about questions and things. But just in general, the
concept, I think, particularly in old atlantic beach, where I live, I know that it would be a
great thing because I walk my dog and there are all kinds of similar turf block, right
of way, paved areas all over the place that are, I guess, technically illegal.
I also know people that have asked over the past couple of years to have them put
in so that they don't have
to park their vehicle on the street. And they've been denied. So, again, it's been kind
of a you know, I don't I don't park on the street and I don't need a turf block.
I have a grandfathered in circular driveway. Thank you very much. But other people
on my street do. And when I first moved onto 11th street 25 years ago, nobody ever parked
on the street. They're always in their driveway. Then, you know, the little
homes get knocked down. The big homes get built. There's not enough room for cars and they've got a golf
cart and they don't want to have to. Back out one car to get the other one
in and out. And so people now are parking on the street.
good. And we have the little kids on our street.
and our good friends, katie across the street have four little boys.
and she told me about coming down to seminole one day and they were getting ready to turn, go to seminole
westbound on 11th street. And there was two cars parked in the road on the left-hand side.
and a car at the same time they were
in their proper lane on their bicycles, a car came around off seminole, avoiding the two parked cars
on the street, came over into the wrong lane. The little boy literally head on the car, fortunately,
at extremely low speed. Nobody was hurt. But, you know,
it freaked the mother out who was a half a block behind the little boy.
so getting cars off the street would be a great thing.
I sent you all a picture. A couple hours ago, you may not have seen it of my next door neighbor and who I was telling
him he's going to be excited about this if y'all pass it because he is one of those people that asked
to put a little pull off and was denied. So he's he's hoping it will be
passed and he can move his car off the street onto the right away onto this nice new turf block that, you know, is built
in a way that, you know, hopefully is permeable and doesn't require herbicides and all of those good things.
speaking from the environmental stewardship committee.
anyway, so I think safety, aesthetics, getting cars off the street is a great thing.
and I encourage you to do it. I also think that the little. Test areas that we've done
on some of the access streets between beach avenue and ocean boulevard could be
expanded. I think the mayor's talked about that in the past.
and so doing more, instead of parking, you know,
and making sand, dirt areas, have actual proper parking. And let's see, I've got 35
seconds, so I might as well use it. The landscape thing that I
mentioned a minute ago, I'm not sure what... Mayor ease was referring to,
but I think that any money that they pay in lieu of doing landscaping should be spent
on landscaping. And we could jazz up the four corners at atlantic boulevard
and ocean boulevard there in front of where ragtime was or embellish ahern and do a better job back there.
so I hope we'll reinvest that money into the beechstown center.
thank you very much. Thank you, mr.
andrews. Brinkley harrell.
your time is up.
good evening. I'm brinkley harrell. Good evening, mr.
mayor, commissioners, city clerk, city attorney, city manager. I'm brinkley harrell, 266th
street. Never afraid to tell people my address.
most of y'all know where I live. If you see my garage door open, just slow down, wave, beat the
horn, or dodge me, depending on if I'm trimming trees up in the street. There are a number
of hot button issues for us right now.
oh, but also, I've only lived here 53 and a half years now. I don't know it all,
but I see a lot over time. I've seen a lot of change.
I've seen the city grow from 06,000 residents to 13,500. We're all built out.
but we still have hot button issues, one of which is beech's town center parking. We're still hassling back and
forth with the city of neptune beach because they're not trying to be a good neighbor to us
on beech's town center parking. They're, in many people's opinion,
trying to take advantage of us. You know, I'm not so sure, but it's an unresolved issue.
you know, we only have... About 25% of the inventory in paid parking slots. So there's a mathematical
formula that could be brought up as far as splitting operating costs, splitting revenue, or with the age
of computers, they can tell exactly how much revenue our
parking spots are generating versus their parking spots generating. What's fair is fair,
but it's an unresolved issue with the city of neptune
beach. The fire water, fire water resolution 26-48,
there's a lot of issues that have been pointed out. On the one hand,
there's no sunset in it. It's open-ended.
there's no incentive for neptune beach to fix their problem.
and I think it's just a veiled attempt for us to solve one
of their problems. We probably shouldn't be doing that.
I certainly hope that... Well, and there's other options that the developers already stated that they have.
but ironically, as I skimmed through it, it actually had listed rates if they start
using water. Well, that means that it's contemplated that they might
use water for something besides fire suppression. Sounds kind of crazy to me.
there's no development plan that we can look at. So in the absence of
commissioner ring, who's attending a wedding in venice.
in her absence here, I certainly would like for y'all to at least defer resolution 26-48 until there's a full
commission, because she's been quite vocal on a number of key points on that.
another hot-button issue is this interlocal agreement contract that we're
contemplating, that we're doing with the city of jacksonville.
what I didn't see was the list of all the bidders and the
bidding amounts,
which was kind of ironic because I think it's kind of crazy that we're going
to a west palm beach-based law firm to do this. And what does west palm beach
know about our little enclave of atlantic beach?
that just seems kind of crazy to me. There certainly could have been
a duval county, northeast florida bidder. Might have been a couple
of thousand dollars more, but... They probably really know the issues a lot better.
so beech's town center parking, the linkage on that with neptune beach, along
with the fire water resolution, the interlocal agreement. Contract, which, you know, I
think the city manager is going to discuss that a little bit
more. And I would be remiss if I did not say something
about the intersection of ahern street and east coast drive that needs a four-way stop.
yes, there's lots of studies that say that all the crashes that have been there have been mere fender benders.
but with all the jaywalking that new 42 east coast building, the grand, is generating.
it doesn't take but a bump by a car to a pedestrian or a
bicyclist. That pedestrian or bicyclist falls down, hits their head,
has a concussion, and dies. That's not a fender bender. That is real liability that the
city's got because
of all the jaywalking at that intersection. And to end all this,
I think that we could save a lot of money on housing allowance if we end the city
manager recruitment. And just stay with the status quo, we could, you know, already in atlantic
beach resident than 1 for 810 years. You know I'm all for that.
so thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Good evening.
thank you, mr. Harold for being on time.
david, you.
david view, 381 3rd street. I've only been a resident around here for about 60 years.
but I already mentioned to the mayor about this turtle crawl.
it's a lot harder than it looks.
I've been hunting submarines for 24 years in the ocean.
I could always find a submarine, but I can't find these sea turtles.
they're pretty well hidden. But anyway, about water and trees.
I've been watering my tree,
my heritage tree, with my rain barrel water. I can water it whenever I want.
I can water my yard a little bit and my driveway.
and then the neighbors started complaining, hey,
what is that water? It's coming from my roof. And I said, oh,
how's that happen? Because I got a rain barrel. It'd be nice if we had rain barrels.
anybody that wanted them and about trees uh speeches and poems are made like fools
like me but only god can make a
tree thank you thank you mr bugh laura conahan I'm sorry
laura conahan conahan am I saying that right okay good
evening, mayor ford. Good to see you and council.
I'm just here. My name is laura conahan and I work at the dune house hotel
and spa, formerly known as one ocean.
I have been serving there as the assistant general manager for the past eight years.
I'm here tonight to,
I know that there are a lot of important topics. But to talk about resolution
2649. In asking where the dune house has been
under renovation. I'm just here to answer some
questions maybe that council had originally, simply just to say that we will continue
to be 193 rooms. We are not expanding the
structure itself. We will continue to have... A new restaurant called
coastal farmer that will be even better than azarea, but it'll be a restaurant that has been open to the public prior
to the renovation and going forward. Open to the public means that
that would be for the restaurant only.
it would not grant any additional beach access or allow non-guests to filtrate into more space
in the public beach area. We would be serving only our
193 guests with beach chairs and umbrellas, which we have done consistently year over year.
again, we are going to have a wonderful ice cream shop that will be open to the public, a
wonderful coffee shop that will
be open to the public. And we hope to be good stewards
and neighbors to the community going forward. We just held a jax chamber
event, which was fantastic. And we can hope to continue to do all of these things to benefit our wonderful
community. And I look forward to speaking more, hopefully, about...
a resolution 2649 later this evening. Thank you so much for your
time. Thank you, ms. Cunahan. Charles dewitt.
good evening, counsel. My name is charles dewitt. I am formerly at 425 atlantic boulevard, now in neptune
beach. I just moved recently as we sold our hotel.
but I am a business owner in neptune beach, atlantic beach, and jacksonville beach.
I'm also talking about the resolution 2649. I've been working with the dune house before when it was
one ocean. And I believe that the topic
came up as we were trying to figure out a safer way for equipment to be transported.
as laura said just a moment ago, there is no...
no desire to change the current plan. It was just
to really touch base on how we've been able to do our essentially driving
in different local municipalities.
the neighboring municipalities have ordinances and the
permission for us to be able to, if the need occurs, not necessarily
for anybody to do whatever they want.
it's if the need occurs to um have access to drive on the same accesses that may
be or specific ones. You know, you can limit them. They're not every single beach
access, as stated earlier, where there are different places that can be driven on.
I believe the current idea is for atlantic boulevard to be the restricted one
for this specific purpose, allowing it to be a much smaller area where the vehicles
will be driving. Obviously, like I said, if things stay the same.
the amount of vehicles on the sand. We want to limit it as much as
possible. We don't necessarily want to encourage more tires
on the sand, but with the training and the proof of concept that we've had and
the experience that we have, that's why we were kind of in this conversation to show
that it can be done if desired, and it can be beneficial on the times that the there's a need to quickly help and assist,
get things on and off the sand. If there's a need for a vehicle to be required,
it's possible to be done because that in the moment
of an emergency, the lifeguards shouldn't necessarily need to worry about those items that
necessarily aren't for human safety, but necessarily are
for the ecosystem where like if equipment or if anybody's. Belongings get left
behind because they're having to leave in an emergency. Sometimes if they're left
behind, they end up in an area
that isn't necessarily good for the community. So that's really the main thing
that I would like to say is that necessarily the, sorry, it's not really
recommended that every single day there's more vehicles
on the beach is what I'm trying to say. But that being said, if there are questions
in the future that need to be answered, I have a lot of experience driving
on the beach and a lot of experience in 70 miles of different coastline. I mean, we have been doing it
from jacksonville beach all the way down to crescent beach area.
so I think that's all. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Dewitt.
jackie beckenbaum. Good evening, commission, city
staff, city attorney, city manager, city clerk.
first of all, I do want to comment on resolution 8b,
but I also wanted to take a moment to thank whoever it is that handles the russell park tennis courts,
because after the recent storm, a number of those windshields
that are attached to the fencing around the
tennis courts had ripped off and was were laying around on the courts themselves.
and within a day or two, those were all replaced and back up on the side.
so who's ever doing that? Appreciate the quickness in getting that repaired. Also appreciate your report.
kevin, it's very helpful to have yours. Summary overview
of what's happening in the city but I did want to comment as a number
of other people have on the resolution 8 26 48 that
and I have a couple of questions I feel
like I'm supportive of smart growth and regional cooperation
but I feel like it's important that whenever there's an agreement that's being made
between neighboring cities that the agreement should actually be necessary and that it should
fully protect the residents of atlantic beach first and foremost.
a few of the questions I have, if the developer sells the property or the property
changes ownership, do those obligations and agreement transfer fully and how would
that be reinforced?
and is there any scenario when the city of atlantic beach would inherit? This responsibility back?
and who's responsible for repairs, upgrades, failures of the water pipe over the next 10, 20, 30 years?
I think these are all questions that need to be addressed.
if the agreement is approved, how will the city handle future developers requesting similar arrangements?
are we setting a precedent to be a supplier of water, which I think after some of the
discussion this evening. I don't think we want to be in
that business. I think we want
to be protecting our water. What is the tangible benefit
to residents of atlantic beach in exchange for entering into this agreement? Is there anybody who benefits
besides the developer? Because I don't see any benefit to the citizens of neptune
beach, and I really don't see any benefit to the city of atlantic beach either.
at the last commission meeting, stephen devenow, the attorney for the developer,
stated that tri-bridge would move forward with the project regardless of whether atlantic beach
entered into an agreement with them, that they had other options like putting up a holding tank
specifically for this project or tapping into the tank that already
exists to protect publics from fire suppression. So why not consider those
options? That to me seems... Way less disruptive to our community.
it doesn't put ab at risk for whatever is in this 14-page agreement.
and I feel like we are also enabling the city of neptune beach
by providing fire suppression.
they have not gotten their infrastructure up to speed since the early discussions about this property started 10
years ago. And they're still
in the same place. So are we not enabling them by offering to take care
of this water issue? So I would just ask two things. One, to delay this decision.
I think also jessica ring, commissioner ring, should have
an opportunity to weigh in on this because it is a very significant decision. And secondly, I would like
for this commission to explain to me, like I'm five years old,
why this is beneficial. For us to get involved with a city that is not run very well,
that hasn't taken care of its infrastructure, and why should we be the ones
to bail them out? So I would ask for that, and I would also ask that we don't
vote on this this evening, and if we do vote, that you all vote no
to supply them with fire suppression water. All right,
thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, ms.
beckenbaugh. That's all I have, mayor. That was only 12.
13. Oh okay I missed one uh thank
you and with that we'll close courtesy of the floor and we'll move on
to city manager reports mr hogan thank you mayor ford to the city commission and to
the community the report that I provided these meetings is published on the city website and is available at the door
these meetings I'll start with the first thing on the agenda and go down the list on the agenda and
then add a couple others first the neptune beach city council has indeed voted unanimously to maintain the paid parking rate
at 2.50 an hour through
december 31st this enables both the cities of the landing beach and neptune beach
to evaluate full year of data before considering rate adjustments, and it sets the stage for us to
extend our interlocal agreement in the meantime. City manager pike continues to
maintain excellent communication with me on this and other mutual concerns, and
our staff is now reviewing two months of reports. Financial reports revenue
reports that the city manager has provided and he is going to provide the march report in advance of an april meeting
that we have
to further our discussions on this topic um may I comment on this um thank you for that update it occurs
to me that one of the main reasons for delaying the change to any
number different than what we're charging today which is the team. $2.50 per hour is to give time
for data to actually be analyzed to make better, more sound
decisions that hopefully won't have to be adjusted again, or at least not relatively
quickly. In light of that, I think the same thing should apply
to our agreement on the which is expired.
it's more than a year expired with neptune beach, but I would ask
with this commission's consensus on it that we respond back that we agree and we could actually take a vote now and or
get consensus to to have you ratify their decision on the 250 but also to gain their
agreement that we would delay any restructuring of our agreement until the
december I think you said december 31st I did yes you
know so the december 31st date that would be eligible for reconsideration of the parking fee thank you.
would also be the date eligible for reconsideration of our partnership agreement.
and right now, that partnership agreement for simplicity is 70 percent of the growth
of the growth income on the parking spaces in atlantic beach.
and it is not it doesn't get in the weeds on costs to administer and so on.
it's simply 70 percent of the gross, allowing 30 percent
to cover administrative costs. So... Commission, can I gain your
consensus to send the city manager back to discuss that with city of
neptune beach? Mayor, I support that,
but I would like to say, and I know kevin is engaged over there, we all went through the last year of the
parking. I think transparency and up front with us, and again, part
of this is on people that made that original agreement, right, or in this room, I'm one
of them, and we didn't ask for those updates. And I think we're getting some updates.
I think that's... Part of the discussion as we go back. So I'm with it if that's
along the deal. Mayor? Yes.
I'm also with having kevin do that. I do think it needs to be shared, though.
it's important to understand who we're negotiating with,
right? As in business, it's good business to understand the
people you're talking to. Trying to negotiate a fair deal with.
as some of you know, I'm the representative
for the beech's town center agency. And the last meeting,
which I was not able to attend to a work commitment, but in getting the report, the behavior
from the representative from neptune beach prompted the
president of the merchants
association down in atlantic beach and the town center, including neptune beach, was so upset and so flustered and just
really unnecessary behavior directed towards her prompted her resignation.
so she's no longer president
of the merchant association and she's no longer on the beach's town center agency.
so this is who we're dealing with. This type of this rudeness and unprofessionalism.
and I just want it to be known. That that's who you're dealing
with and to act and be cognizant
of that type of potential response. Thank you, commissioner.
just clarify. They've already agreed to wait till 31 december. So what are you asking kevin
to do? Two things. They've only agreed to the 250 per hour charge to be extended
through december 31st. They have not agreed. To not come back to atlantic beach, let's say in 30, 60, 90
days with a new agreement for the split. And I want the split.
I want the agreement we have with neptune beach on what is paid to atlantic
beach to be coinciding with the december 31st date, because it's on the same basis
that I want the data. And I want to know things like if they, for example, they recommend that we take a net
split, a net of revenue, net of expenses. Is and then split it.
I need to know what those expenses are and why, and do we agree with them, so that's one thing.
anyways, that's but the second thing is he to get this formalized to where
we're not failing as well on the communication. The agreement is they will
notify us of changes. We will discuss them and ratify them.
and it doesn't have to be a regular formal vote with a resolution or a an ordinance,
obviously. But we will give our city manager the authority to go back and say we agree.
and that way it's all in the open.
it's in the sunshine. Well, it sounds like you have a good working relationship
with ricky. I do. Is that the only one that
counts? I mean, is that the most
important relationship? Just to give you some perspective as
to where we are, we are negotiating, and I'm maintaining that we
want to keep the 70-30 split through the end of the year. He countered
with something differently
before this neptune beach city council decision.
so in our next meeting. We'll see how that goes and I'll report back to you. Okay.
so at this time, do we have consensus to send the city manager back
to ratify the 250 through the end of the year, december 31st? Yes. Okay.
you have that. Is that reflected on our 18th and 19th as well?
no. 18th and 19th are separately administered by us. Same prices?
yes, we do have the same price at 18th and 19th. Okay. Thank you.
thank you. We have received notice of the approval of our $300,000 fema funding request for our stormwater master plan
update. This grant, which requires our already budgeted $100,000 city match, enables us
to move forward with the long-awaited update to our 2018 master plan.
we will share a proposed timeline and scope on this project very shortly.
congratulations. Thank you.
city engineer swan, who is with us tonight, is continuing to coordinate with the florida department of
environmental protection to advance a forward-thinking senate bill 64 compliance
strategy for the city. Last week, the city received dep's recognition of the project's ecological benefits,
as touted by mr. Swan, and this marks a significant milestone in our pursuit of of senate
bill 64 compliance as there are no identified project killers at the moment. And by pursuing freshwater
salinity barriers rather than deep well injections. The city aims to protect the
local tree canopy and ensure the long-term environmental stewardship while remaining
fiscally responsible as there are tens of millions of dollars at stake here. I did this last time, but I
don't know if this city knows how valuable that city engineer is back there. If you look at some of these
projects that we're going through I know I did last time but he's actually here tonight okay uh but he's invaluable to
this program I'm sure you feel the same way I just had to point that out as you go through these initiatives
thanks thank you indeed I concur uh in terms of the marshall's community center while we remain on schedule
for a july 26 soft opening and are moving forward with our july 11th centennial event at beaches veterans memorial
park. We're now planning to hold the community center and community garden ribbon cutting
in september. An update on the aquatic gardens hopkins creek stormwater improvements.
the major components of the project affecting flood control have now been successfully
completed.
while the coordination
of fema funding often moves at a glacial pace, we're pleased
to report that the project is in its final stages, and we expect all work
to be finalized by the end of april.
good. The rfp for the farmers market operator, it's hit the street
on friday and responses are due.
it hit the street last friday. Responses are due april 15th. Staff will bring a
recommendation for an operator for you all to consider us doing business with either your april 27th or
may. 11th meeting. We're going to try
to do it sooner, although the timeline may not enable us to get here until
may 11th with a recommendation. A reminder that our
centennial americana celebration is from 10 to 2 this saturday at jack russell park.
highlights include vintage baseball, car show, and 100th birthday themed family
activities. And that is the end of my report.
I'll gladly answer questions yes, commissioner. Yes. Kevin, you and I had some
texted earlier. I would like, if chief vick wouldn't mind, just talk to us
about the blitz that happened on saturday in terms
of ticketing and whatnot, because there is a bunch
of hubbub on facebook. But, you know, I know that we've been very aggressive with the ticketing and management.
of the e-bike activity.
hadn't really talked about, you know, pedal power, strictly pedal power.
but if, you know, someone's doing 15 going down, going south, going down selva
marina drive and goes to a stop sign, that could be a problem, too.
so I'd love to hear from chief vic if we can. Thank you.
vic galila, chief police. Good evening, commissioner,
mayor. So...
in particular, this past week, we did a directed enforcement patrol because of spring break
at the behest of some of the commission members, letting us know that there were
plenty of e-bikes and bicycles in the town center area that weren't complying with regulations,
typically running stop signs. And moreover, I think I'd ask you to look back over the past
three or four years where this discussion on bicycles not complying with traffic regulations originated
on beach avenue. You know certainly agree with the last 35 years I've been here,
that has been a complaint for 35 years. But before e-bikes became an issue, the hot topic,
we were directed and asked specifically, go do something on beach avenue for all the people who ran stop signs and
didn't obey traffic regulations, going the wrong way. That, of course, filtered
into the town center area. You remember the signage and the debate we had about putting signs up on
beach avenue, trying to get people to work together. Bikes were allowed to go the
wrong way because we wanted as a city to be able to do that. So e-bikes, the latest topic.
bicycles have been on the radar screen for a long, long time, and more particularly
during your tenure here in the last three or four years. I've been before you many times answering questions about
bicycle regulations not being obeyed. And I ask you to please bear with us.
we are going through education campaigns. We're talking to people, warning people,
doing direct enforcement to educate folks, which we've done multiple times. And I.
believe the direction from the commission has been in the last six months or a year that, thanks, we appreciate
that, but we want more enforcement. So this particular week,
because again, it was spring break and we've had so many recent complaints about bicycles, any bikes
in town center, we asked our officers to direct enforcement in that town center area.
I'll share with you that over those... Those days last week, we did
about 100 bicycle stops, bicycles and e-bikes. We happened to do 30 or 29 vehicle stops also for about
133 contacts in that week related to this directed enforcement.
we did issue some uniform traffic citations, which are state tickets.
but remember, we did vehicle stops as part of that also.
so not all those uniform traffic citations, the state tickets were issued to bikes.
some of them were. More specifically, I draw your attention to the
municipal ordinance citations, the municipal ordinance we passed about a year, year and a half ago about
specific things bikes can and can't do, shouldn't, shouldn't
do, because it gave us a way to write a $50 ticket, a local state, a local municipal ordinance
citation, not a state ticket to someone who violated that. So he wrote 61 municipal
ordinance violations. We also issued 25 warnings.
so now that 61 number isn't exact because we had to, we would have to factor
in a few more things, but I'll tell you that was 41% of the people that we stopped on bikes and e-bikes got
warnings. So a little less than half, I think, if we did look at the true numbers
by the time we factored in some of the utcs, that's not a bad average.
so not everybody who got stopped got a ticket and missed the ordnance citation. Plenty of people did.
we had some emails we responded to over the weekend. I will tell you, I responded to one that was a complaint on
an officer and how they conduct themselves.
I watched the body cam video. That officer did nothing wrong. He was professional. He was polite.
he was informative. He didn't throw anybody under the bus, meaning the commission.
he accepted the responsibility and said, look, it is the city of atlantic beaches initiative to create a safer environment.
we are responding to complaints of bicycle violations. We're responding to complaints
of accidents and injuries on bikes. This is what the city is doing, and the police department is
enforcing these. Laws because of these complaints. I will tell you that while he
was there talking to one person, two more adults rode through a stop sign.
they slowed down pretty well, but didn't stop completely. He did talk to them and give them a warning politely, again,
explained why he was there. It was a city's initiative for safety and sent them on their way
without a ticket, just a verbal warning. I'll tell you that one of my sergeants today talked
to a citizen in the lobby for about 20 or 25 minutes. Explained to her that what she got was a citation
for one citation. She thought she got two for running a stop sign and going the wrong way.
said, no, this is just one ticket. It was a ticket, but you were going the wrong way and you ran
the stop sign. You didn't get two tickets. You got one. And it took about 20 or 25
minutes for him to explain to her, look, this is a safety initiative. It's not about us picking
on e-bikes or picking on bikes. It's the fact that what we are seeing out there is unsafe.
and so in order to try and get people's attention, we did this directed enforcement for a week.
by the time she left, she understood. She thanked him.
she said, look, I understand. I get it. I did the wrong thing. I got one ticket.
no problem. I'll take care of it. So I get there's plenty of concern
about what people saw over the weekend. There were a lot of warnings given.
I think it was an appropriate thing to do. I'm not aware of any negative
interactions that the officers had that were justified. I don't think any
of our officers were rude, overbearing, unprofessional. We will continue to do this
into this summer, obviously, maybe not as as directed as we did on on the last week. But we'll continue this
into the end of the summer. We'll continue to give warnings and educate. But I think it was the
appropriate action at the right time. I'm sorry that some folks got tickets.
they are more than welcome to contest those citations that they got them. That option is open to them
to contest this citation in court and talk to the traffic officer about it.
but again, I think what we did was a positive thing and hope that sends a message to the community.
and I will tell you, there were also also two. We talked about e-bikes that ran
from the officers. The officers tried to stop them. They said, no, we're not stopping.
and I'll tell you that they were not kids. They were adults in their 30s or 40s.
ok, so there is some of that going on also out there. But it's sort of
across the board. We focused a lot on the kids in a lot of our discussions in the past six months or year.
there are plenty of adults out
there who are doing the wrong thing also. So thanks for that. Let me start by saying kudos to you and your staff,
the officers participating in this. It's a long time coming. It's welcome.
I got quite a few compliments of our police officers in doing that from residents who are tired
of seeing this recklessness. But I want to caution and temper it because you. You've heard through the city
manager that I was displeased that several people told me that they were advised that this was a directive
of the mayor. Okay.
now, while I appreciate the promotion to a level of being your boss, I am not your boss.
and so I'm not making any direct directives. You will make those directives to your staff and you will
answer to the city manager. But if these are untruths,
then they're kind of spreading. So I'm going to validate with a
few people whether they heard it and if they know the officer and whether they were the actual one being pulled.
but I... I would like for the mayor not to be invoked as the reason for application of our laws.
now, that being said, when we had our last conversation in my mind, and I thought I articulated it pretty well,
I was very concerned about what I referred to as hooligans. Now, these hooligans could have
been my sons 10 years ago. So don't for our residents do not misunderstand. These are youngsters that
haven't yet gotten a dose of reality, and that is compliance with the law is mandated.
and my specific examples were these e-bikes that were literally popping wheelies on ocean boulevard
into oncoming traffic,
playing chicken with them. These were children that were
weaving in and out of cars on atlantic boulevard in beechestown center. These were children that were
giving the inappropriate use of a certain finger to people who called them out.
so that was. My concern because that to me is the risk of a major injury, not the
beach cruiser that cruises through a stop sign. Now, let me be clear. I am not asking you to, and
remember, I'm not your boss. I'm not asking you
to not enforce our laws on that. Somehow our society has gotten
to the point we're jaywalking anywhere across the street is okay. Not even looking up from your
cell phone when you step into the crosswalk is okay. I literally see bicycles go through a red light at
beech's town center at atlantic and burst or ocean. And so I'm concerned along with you,
and I know you and I can agree on this, chief. I'm okay with applying the law equally.
I do appreciate your comments about the level of.
of warnings. I do think we're still early enough. My sense is this, the 40 to 50
to 60 year old men and women, they're getting pulled over now, didn't quite realize this was going to be a big
deal. I think they know that now. So we'll see. But I hope that your officers
are saying, are we dealing with somebody we've seen as a repeat offender or somebody who is
really dangerous or somebody who is intoxicated and at risk. In that way.
so I just want to finish by saying you are doing a great job on this. Thanks.
keep doing it. Just try not to use the mayor's name.
thank you. I will remind everybody, though, if anybody has a question
about that, all our officer body cams, all our interactions are recorded. They are a public record.
they are welcome to get a copy. Ask us. We will give you one.
yep. Understood. Thank you. If I may say, I did follow up on a complaint.
today, reviewed body cam footage, and indeed, in the one case I looked at where it was alleged that the commission or the mayor was
blamed, that did not happen at all.
thank you. Yeah, you can blame me. I'd like the mayor to be blamed.
thank you, mr. Bull. Okay, are you still? I'm done.
what I haven't done is asked
you to accept the 90-day calendar. Will you please?
any objections? Isn't that the new town hall date? If I'm through the mayor.
so you received correspondence from me suggesting we change
the april 18th town hall date to april 25th because we regrettably scheduled it the
same time and day as arts in the park. Um so love to hear from you uh
this week as you check your
calendars and let us know if that's acceptable okay so are we do we have consensus on the 90-day calendar you have your
calendar thanks okay I'm going to move now to reports from city commissioners
starting with uh mr boll donald could you put up the calendar
yeah, it's the attachment. I'm sorry. It's in the agenda packet. I'm sorry.
I'll just talk for a second. Obviously, I put my cell phone here
for city manager report update, and I apologize. I was asked last time to take a look
at a timeline. So I kind of took the timeline that I think matched up with the city commission meetings
and the rfp release, the citizens committee, et cetera, et cetera.
it's still notional. Take any input. We'd like you, if you have
input, to go right to bob blanco and hr as far as we go. And when you see it,
I think most of you saw it in the packet. I do. Yeah.
it's aggressive. I guess what I'm saying is if we're not aggressive, we fall short and it keeps pushing it
down the road. So we can change this. But I just want to put it up
here because we were I was asked this last time. The rp, as you all know, is out.
and that's one of the dates that I had up there. And I apologize.
all right. You want to come back to that? Sure.
okay. Then we'll move to
commissioner kelly. We're doing a commission report? Yeah.
I want to thank both kevin, because I nagged him, and the response by the boys
and girls club to have camp during this spring break. It's important that families
can send their kids someplace safe and enjoyable. So we made that happen, and I appreciate that greatly.
well, darlings, go back to school tomorrow, so be out, be ready, chief.
thank you, commissioner. We don't have the calendar yet? Okay, commissioner gray.
yes, thanks, mayor. Just real quick, I want to thank I know it's
out here. I want to thank judith and for that donation.
I had heard, I don't know, months ago about potential
similar something falling
through, which I was very upset about.
and so I appreciate that now that we will have that garden.
and lisa, thank you for your involvement.
I mean, I think it's just a really solid thing to do. And I might have
to look into, I'm
in a condo now, so I may have to look into getting one of those plots
to grow some tomatoes. And so, in any case, I can't wait to hear all the
details.
I think that's just a really cool thing. I guess I had it pictured
in my mind something else, but the fact that anybody can go in there and lease a plot,
that's even better. So, thank you all for that. The rest of the stuff I want to talk about is, you know, we talked about some of that
in the manager's report. And wait for the other resolutions and conversations. Thank you, mayor.
thank you, commissioner grant. So back to you, commissioner bold.
yes, you can see up on the screen, that's an anticipated, like I said, notional timeline.
so as we go through, I just wanted to be transparent. And some of these dates could
slide, but I tried to sync them up with commission meetings so that we can go back
and take a look at that where we are. So, like I said, you see the first dates up
there, the rp questions, march 30th. So as we move through, you can see, again, as I mentioned, it's aggressive.
any inputs, please send to hr directly or me. Thanks.
okay. Thank you. Okay. My turn. Thanks.
absolutely delighted with the presentation from judith larue and lisa goodrich.
and like, as was already said, and especially by commissioner grant, you guys are solid.
we're in good shape starting out. Good news is we're going to vote on the driveway.
and parking tonight. And so I think we're going to button that up and that'll keep us on track for what,
september?
we're talking now september on the actual dedication
of that. But thank you again. And I want to share just a short story and I'll be brief.
I know we're going long here, but this is important because we focus
on the e-bike issue. And I say e-bike, it's bad manners on regular bicycles too, but
it's... E-bikes predominantly, especially with young people.
and thank you, chief, for mentioning they were adults this past weekend. But so we very seldom have a
positive story. And I'm going to give you a positive story. And it transgresses or goes
between both cities of atlantic beach and neptune beach. A couple of weeks ago, my wife,
leah, was driving back from lemon street. She turned northbound on
first street and neptune beach, heading past pete's bar and through the up.
the traffic light at atlantic and first, and she was being followed by a youngster
on his e-scooter. Wearing his helmet and he stopped behind her at every stop sign and
at the traffic light. And he was he was being he was proper.
and I don't think we see that often enough. And we think they're all hooligans.
that's my term. Right. So she got to the end
of the paid parking just past
salumaria. And she pulled over, rolled down her window and waved the youngster
to the side. And he stopped at her window and she said. Would you talk to me?
and he said, yes, ma'am. And he went and put his scooter down in the grass and took his helmet off.
and she got out of the car and spoke to him. And she said, I just can't believe how appropriate you are
and deliberate and stopping. And you're wearing a helmet and you just seem like you've got great manners.
I think your mother would be very proud of you. And I guess I'm an old person now.
I just think that it endears me to my wife, obviously. But that is the messaging. We need to have more
of that. And she went the extra mile. She said, hold on a second. And she went back
to the car and got one of my business cards. It says mayor curtis ford. And she wrote on the back
of it. Your son is a wonderful, well-mannered child or whatever.
and this is like a 13 or 14 maybe a 15 year old and she handed the card to him and she says uh rowden and that's his
name rowden if anybody knows rowden uh go home and tell your mother that you met the wife of the mayor, and I'm giving
you this business card to give to your mayor. Let her know that she can reach out to the mayor anytime.
and so my encouragement to all of us is let's find what is good in our community and celebrate that as well as
dealing what is not so good. And so that's my report, and we'll move to our consent agenda.
one of my favorite pieces. It'll be quick. So the consent agenda is all matters listed under the
consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city commission and will be enacted by one motion
in the form listed below. There will be no separate
discussion of these items. If discussion is desired,
that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately
supporting supporting documentation and staff recommendations have been
previously submitted to the city commission on these items.
item 6a, approve resolution number 26-51. 6b, approve resolution number
26-43. And 6c, approve resolution number 26-47.
do I have a motion? Oh, and at first, do we have anybody that wants to pull one of these
from the consent agenda? Okay, hearing none, do I have a motion?
I make a motion to approve consent agenda item 6a through 6c as written. Second.
we have a motion in second all in favor signify with aye aye aye opposed motion carries thank you commissioner uh let's
see now we're moving to the inserted uh resolution number
this is item eight now 8a uh resolution number 26-53 the
community garden and I'll read that if I can find it here it is.
okay. A resolution of the city of
atlantic beach, florida, authorizing the acceptance
of a charitable in kind donation from nature connect florida,
inc. For landscape design and installation services at the community garden
at marsh oaks community center, authorizing the city manager to
execute the donation agreement and providing an effective date.
mr. Hogan can thank you. Mr. Mayor our staff is extremely
excited about this project. We did hear some.
questions earlier, particularly from ms. Boren, that we will be prepared to answer along with
on some other resolutions.
but we wholeheartedly recommend you accept this donation. Recommend we adopt resolution
2653. Okay, so we can have discussion.
I'd like to call up either judith or lisa or both. I just want to address one
thing that was brought to my attention earlier and make sure we're clear on this. In the agreement, the last
iteration, okay, we may or may not need that. Okay.
the last iteration says all power lines shall be placed underground and then
in brackets, including but not limited to the main power line.
so that would be the line coming off the pole. So it would have to be run
down the pole underground to the service at the building.
and then from that service, we would run the conduit underground back
to the outlets in the garden.
is that what you mean? I just wanted to make that clear in spite of mr. Gabriel's multiple back
and forth with me. I just wanted to make sure
that. That regular people would understand it because this is
an additional expense. When lisa and I think alike about aesthetics, and one of the first things we noticed
out there was this huge, ugly power line that goes from the pole to the building. And so I've offered in this an
additional amount that there was staff had provided, because this has been going on for some time, an estimate
from, I think it's limbaugh. That would be about $6,500 to bury that main power line.
I just think it could be an interpreted like main power line to the garden, but this is
from the pole to the building. And so I'm providing an additional amount if it's not
in the city budget. And it sounds to me like the parking lot is going
to be more expensive than you thought. So you're welcome.
but this won't be, I heard from staff also that you were possibly looking at the building as a back up
city hall in case there is some sort of disaster or whatever. So it certainly seems
like it's a great idea to bury the power line now while the parking lot is being torn up. So I just wanted to make sure
that we were all clear on that. That isn't limbaugh. It's not my choice and I'm not
supervising that in any way, but I'm willing to include that as part of the grant.
I just want to make that clear. So thank you so much for that clarification. So does this indicate that
we're accepting that as part of the gift? Yes. This entity,
this nonprofit will actually pay for that. Yes.
and do we need to put a limitation on that? It may have been up to that amount because that that was in september that that was
gotten. So up to the amount of that, I think it's sixty five. Sixty is what I'm willing to.
so not to exceed. Can we insert that in here? Why don't we just move an amendment that says that that
portion of it will be not to exceed whatever the amount is in that. Are there some copies there?
yeah. So I'll entertain a motion to amend the document to include a limitation not to exceed six.
how much? Six thousand. You have it.
it's sixty five. Six thousand five hundred and sixty dollars. I mean, the estimate could have
changed by now. So, yeah, but for that amount, I'm fine to do that. I propose an amendment
to limit the amount to sixty five, sixty dollars to include others. Make this as an attachment.
to include that amount.
okay, you're going
to include the attachment. Is that good? Do you want to do it that way? Yeah, that's in addition
to the other value of the gift. In addition, I think this is more... The garden structure itself.
this is separate. This is more comprehensive, I think. Yeah, maybe just for
clarification, what we'll do is we'll just attach that limbaugh estimate as an exhibit. So, we second that?
we don't have a second. Would would you like to second it? Yeah, second. Yeah.
okay. So we have a motion in second and we'll vote on the amendment only. All in favor signify
with aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
now back to the main motion as amended. We already had a motion to end a second, so any further discussion
on that? All in favor signify with aye. Aye.
opposed? Motion carries. Thank you again. We're so excited. Can't wait.
thank you all. Thank you. Okay.
put that aside. Now back to what previously was 8a,
which is now going to be next, 8b, resolution number 26-45,
a resolution of the city of atlantic beach, florida, awarding bid 2526-07 sturdivant avenue sidewalk
improvements project to mclean site solutions, authorizing the city manager to
execute the contract and purchase orders in accordance with and is necessary to...
effectuate the provisions of this resolution in providing
an effective date mr hogan camp thank you this project focuses
on what we all know as a critical east-west corridor stretching from seminole road
to east coast drive along sturdivant and ahearn it includes a sidewalk expansion
the existing five-foot sidewalk will be replaced with a new eight-foot wide multi-use path the path will be reinforced
with fiber mesh to increase durability and will be five
inches thick. There will be a french drain system
to manage stormwater runoff. It includes replacement of existing storm drainage structures, relocation
of three fire hydrants, and reconstruction of residential and commercial driveways
to match the new grade. This project is more than a sidewalk replacement.
it's a an application of some of our long-term planning goals, including our connectivity plan adopted in
2021. It's worth noting that this
project promotes e-bike safety. The extra width is crucial for the city's ongoing safety efforts as it reduces conflicts
between pedestrians and the growing number of e-bike users. This project includes upgraded
ada compliant ramps at all intersections. And we recommend, I'm available
to answer any questions, but we recommend adoption of resolution 2645. I'll entertain a motion.
make a motion to adopt resolution 2645. Second we have a motion in the second discussion hearing none
um all in favor signify with aye aye opposed motion carries moving to resolution number 26-4 26-48 formerly 8b now 8c a
resolution of the city of atlantic beach florida authorizing the city manager. To execute on behalf of the
city of atlantic beach an interlocal agreement between the city of atlantic
beach and the city of neptune beach and tbr, neptune owner llc, for the provisions, the provision of potable water
fire protection services and
providing an effective date. Mr. Hogan camp. Yes. I move we table this resolution
until the next commission meeting. Second okay we have a motion in the second discussion yes if I make um yeah I think it would
be important to have all all
of us here um to discuss this
important subject it's a it's a very sensitive matter to a lot of people and so I'd hate to um not have jessica here I also
think you know one of my points has always been you know you know look I mean,
we had a line established with the navy and the mayport base, you know, not because
of fire suppression, but because of having a line in case we need
to help each other, you know, and we didn't have people protest that.
this, I think a lot
of our objection is coming from the fact that we're, you
know, people don't want development over there. And we're somehow going
to influence that. Not sure that what we will or we won't.
but in any case, one of my other things is, you know, when you talk
about fire suppression, you know, I have a lot of firefighters who are aware
of this. And they, you know,
if they're fighting a fire, you know, they want all the help they can get.
this gives it to them. Jessica's married to captain, right, who's at 55.
I just think it'd be behoove us to wait for her to come back and um before we move forward on this
thank you further discussion so before we vote on this is the motion to simply
table this or is the motion
to move this to the next uh meeting agenda table it to the next agenda okay and I think that technically that's a
continuance to the next agenda which would be I think april
13th. You know the magic words. Yeah. Okay.
so the motion,
let's change that. Is correct that to continue to the next official city commission meeting dated what day?
13 april. April 13th. Second. Okay. Motion second.
any further discussion? All in favor, signify with aye. Aye.
opposed? Nay. Okay. Three ayes, one nay.
motion carries. Thank you. Um, let's see where we at here.
okay. Now on to resolution number 26-49, which was 8c, now 8d, 8d. Resolution of the city
commission of the city of atlantic beach, florida, establishing a policy for commercial beach access and vehicle operations pursuant
to city code sections 5-16 and 5-30, providing for operational limits, safety standards, and enforcement and
providing an effective date mr hogan thank you if you go with me just a moment I got the amended agenda I can get a lot
of tabs over here to the public out the public scene is scrambling we're working with two different agendas and I'm slower than
everyone else here please
forgive me what uh resolution
number we are 26-49 thank you 49 beach driving. Thanks so much.
so the city identifies as beach accesses as many parks for nature and recreation and our two sections of our code.
grant the city manager the authority
to permit motorized vehicles on the beach and business activities
in public facilities. However, the city lacks a
formalized comprehensive policy governing commercial vehicle
operations and equipment standards on the beachfront. And as you all know,
it is our mo lately to be a policy-driven organization and that it seemed as though I need
to be informed by a policy as I consider the request that has
come to us. So the request highlights the need for standardized policy and
by formalizing these rules, the city ensures that commercial activities.
don't displace non paying beach goers or create safety hazards. This policy highlights a few
things access control. It mandates the use of the atlantic boulevard. It prohibits a her and access
and other accesses. So it mandates the use of the atlantic boulevard.
it. There's a capacity cap where it limits the number
of concurrent commercial permits to two. Frankly, we can't envision a
scenario where requests would come from more than this particular property.
although you never know, and we have a policy in place to inform us and guide us,
indeed, if you all approve this resolution. In terms of safety standards,
there's requirements for anchored umbrellas and pre-approved vehicle types.
there will be operational hours restricting setup and tear
down to off-peak morning and evening hours. The city manager does have
authority to work within this policy and otherwise to work
with a permit applicant in terms to their particular operation.
for example, this particular operation really doesn't want to set up or break down so much
as when there's high tide or... Storms are imminent to be able to activate and get a vehicle
on the beach from time to time. And, of course, your vote
tonight does not grant that. It grants me, it provides a guiding document for me to follow,
frankly. I'll still be working with any applicants in terms of
making sure all the boxes are checked before issuing a permit. So this.
this has no immediate budget impact, and I recommend that you approve resolution no. 2649 and the attachment, which
is a commercial beach access and vehicle operation policy. Thanks.
thank you. Recommend we approve
resolution 2649. Second. We have a motion and a second.
I'd like to call laura conahan to the microphone if you would join us. And I want to start
by saying congratulations on what you're accomplishing and
the progress at dune house. It's appropriate. I mean, I go way back to
before the sea turtle. Okay, so I've been
around a long time. But anyways, so I'm
in favor. I'm going to vote yes.
but I want to challenge you and see if I know what's going on in my city. So in the past.
beach chairs and umbrellas were stored inside the toe of the dune.
that is incorrect, mayor ford. Thank you. Please help me understand where
we are today. Okay. Where we are today and where we've been historically storing beach chairs have been
at the base of the stairs on the boardwalk, and we would have chairs either
to the north or the south of that. That would be stacked neatly.
would be secured at the end of each evening. No, we had stored beach umbrellas in the pool house
of the pool area, and we would bring those umbrellas down the boardwalk every morning and
return them back every evening. But by no means was anything ever stored in or behind the dunes
at the property. Thank you.
and if you'll humor me on this, I may pay a visit. Let's go. Look at it so that I can defend
my position because I'm being told by people that are watching our beach that we are not as tight on this as
jacksonville beach, that they require the storage to be
in a facility. So this, what it does is it expands that opening
at the base of atlantic boulevard because that's being used as opposed
to allowing the dune to to grow in that area.
yes, yes, absolutely. I hear what you're saying. So I don't want to go
overboard. I love what your concept is and your corporate responsibility.
so let's have a conversation if appropriate. I'll reach out to you.
absolutely. And I encourage anyone from the council to come and join you or separately.
we're happy to walk the property, walk the area and be able to be fully aligned with.
how we've done things historically.
and we have been stewards of our dune. We love the dune.
we are quite honest with people that want to come for oceanfront dining.
and we have to be transparent in saying, well, we would be oceanfront. However, we haven't had a storm
in quite some time. So the dunes do cover the ocean view, but we would love
to have you anyways. Yeah, that is so true. Yes, commissioner. I'm a huge supporter.
I know we talked to the new management. I think all of us, when it made a vision,
this is going to be huge for our area. But one just technical point
here. This just establishes a policy. The policy is this guy right
here. Let me just finish.
and by doing this, this is important. As one of the authors
of the parks resolution, I can tell you it's important that we give the city manager the
ability. To follow the policy, report on the policy,
and enforce the policy. And we agree 100%.
this was totally separate from this resolution that we're discussing. Yes, sir.
thank you for your comments. It is my pleasure. Yeah. All right.
any further discussion? All in favor signify with aye.
aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
thank you. And let's see. Okay.
okay. Um okay we're gonna I'm sorry but we're gonna take a five
minute recess five minutes I'll stand by okay this meeting will now reconvene thank you all um but I think we're
over just past agency 2650.
yep. Yes. Okay.
so now we move to which is resolution number oh, no, it isn't. Yeah.
I think we're at 2654, aren't we? Well, yeah.
2650. So we are at resolution number 2650, resolution of the bank
for authorizing establishment. So, perfect. Cost-sharing, public rights
employees, operating in the city, and executing the necessary contracts, agreements, and
providers that we can develop. Thank you.
you're muted. Sorry. Okay, let me read that again.
my mic was off, sorry. Okay, resolution number 26-50,
a resolution of the city of atlantic beach, florida, authorizing the establishment of residential turf.
block cost sharing program for public rights of way authorizing the city manager to
execute necessary contracts and agreements and providing an effective date. Mr.
hogan-kamp. Thank you, mayor ford. We introduced this concept
to y'all at the last meeting and
in advance of presenting it as a resolution for consideration
of adopting a policy at this meeting.
so this would establish a residential turf block cost sharing program. The idea is
to balance the growing need for structured public parking with the preservation of permeable surfaces and
neighborhood aesthetics. At the moment, many residents
utilize unpaid city rights away for parking, which can lead to soil compaction, erosion,
and drainage issues. So to address this, the staff has developed
for your you consideration or green parking initiative, a cost sharing program that
enables residents to partner with the city to install turplock, a.k.a.
permeable pavers in the right away directly adjacent to their property line.
this proposed this policy along as ratified as codified by the resolution establishes
the following framework in terms of cost sharing costs for materials and professional
installation or. Split 50-50 between the
requesting resident and the city. As the installation occurs
on city-owned land, the parking remains open to the general public and cannot be
reserved or gated. The use of open cell turf block supports stormwater management
by enabling water to soak into
the ground rather than contribute to runoff. And property owners would
manage the routine vegetation, a.k.a.
mowing, while the city maintains responsibility for long-term structural repairs
and maintenance. Funding for this 50% share would be drawn from the city
budget as appropriated by the city commission. Individual project costs will
vary, of course, based on square footage. We did hear some really
valuable public input earlier. Certainly, by all means,
contemplate that. And if we don't answer questions satisfactory
to your being comfortable with approving this, we certainly aren't
in a rush. We're glad it's in the public domain for public input.
and, of course, we also concede, as you and I discussed
recently, that this policy, because it's new ground for us,
we don't know what it might look like ultimately. It could evolve as we get input
and learn about what we're dealing with. At the moment, our
recommendation is that you consider adopting resolution no.
2650. Make a motion to adopt resolution no. 2650.
second. We have a motion a second discussion yes commission I kind of interested in the cost
of I mean like what's the typical a typical party spot
what would it cost so what would it be our share and where in the budget is this money going to come from um thanks we
don't know the cost yet until we until we get a request and follow up we'll have some examples as we prepare the
upcoming budget and that would come from your uh fiscal year
26-27 budget. And so you'll hear more during
the budget process because we'll have a line item proposed
for your consideration in the budget. I mean, it's not a bad thing.
it's just that the price is pretty open right now. So for the last two years
running, you've had $50,000 in your budget for turf
block. And we spent $30,000 this year on turf block.
yes, I think on a single project, yes. So I'm going to just advocate
for it. I think we're all in agreement. It's certainly worthy of
testing out. I'm most interested to see if some of the citizens
that have raised their hand and said, I'd be happy to pay for it or pay for half
of it or something. We're going to test that.
ok, and we heard from one of our citizens tonight, and I don't want this
to be assumed to be a beachfront rich people get, you know, a boat, you know,
bogey for, you know, 50 percent of the time. The citizen spoke earlier is
not beachfront. In fact.
I believe he lives west of east coast. But I think what this is part
of, at least in my mind, what a atlantic beach, florida in 2026 looks like. We have an upscale community
today, nothing like 50 years ago. I know we want to keep it mayberry, but we have an
upscale community. And I've said it for three years. Our beachfront parking in
particular is a weed patch here and a dirt patch there. I'm tired of it. People don't know where they
can park, where they can't. Sometimes they nose in and they don't even parallel park
off the pavement. They just nose in and get as far
off the pavement as they can. And what this does for the city and for our police
chief is it designates where parking, ultimately, when we get a lot of it, assuming that we pursued this
over the years, it will really designate the parking. And one of the things that I'm passionate about,
I don't know I heard from the citizen earlier
about other forms of permeable pavers. Right now, all I know is turf block is my girl.
so turf, I've actually used it in a property I just completed
building. It's my lake house. But turf block, the reason why like it is we already have it
in the city of atlantic beach on city parking. We have it over by beaches diner.
we have it on some of our numbered streets. We have it over next to,
we have it at the new or near the new community center, don't we?
I don't know if that's actual turf block. It's, amanda, will you
describe? It is? Yes. Yeah.
so we've already started with that. Here's where I'm going. Whatever it is,
I think it should be turf block for now. But if we're consistent. Then we start training people
who are coming to our city, look for the turf block. That's public parking. We approved an exception.
to a denial that had been
denied by the cdb a few months ago for a citizen on 6th street
to put in pavers right away to
replace what was previously rock in front of his house. And I agreed
with the approval, but I made the comment then, and we didn't push it.
I wanted it to be turf block to match to the city parking, but we didn't make it so.
and so he went out and got something pretty. And if you let every citizen
in the city put in something pretty, you'll have 15 different shades
of permeable pavers and the citizens will be confused. I would love, and I'm going
to finish on this note, I would love to start this program without putting
in additional signage. But if we had to in the future, we could always
put up city signs saying public parking, right?
but the caveats are the language that the citizens participating per this legislation would be specific
that they do not have ownership of that parking space. It's open to the public.
it's city public parking. So anyways, I thank you if you all support it. Commissioner?
I'm going to support it, too. I just have some questions. I mean, I would, you know, let's say someone.
pays for half a spot and is across the street neighbor is the one who continues to use it
because maybe he gets home before the other guy does. All of a sudden you've got neighbor parking, you know,
so I just. Of course, why not? Yeah, no, I get it.
but I'm like, but and that part I'm ok with. But the the the property owner
who's putting up half to put the papers in, you know, he needs to understand that that could be a possibility and
that, you know, he has no recourse. That's exactly right. So I just want
to make sure that, you know, the verbiage says, you know,
says those things. Unless we want the homeowner to pay for all of it, and then he gets some sort of
preference certain times a day. I don't know.
yeah, and thank you for bringing that up.
I'm not in support of that as the pilot program.
okay. We always, look, in the next few years, we're going to be talking about changes in
our parking policy because we're getting more and more
visitors, right? That could be something
down the road. But for right now I think this is a great start.
okay. And so I think we should move forward. So we have a motion and a second.
any further discussion? All in favor signify with aye. Aye. Opposed?
motion carries. Resolution number 26-52, a resolution of the city of atlantic beach, florida, awarding bid 2526-10, marsh
oaks community center parking improvements project to j. Howard construction, authorizing the city manager to
execute the contract and purchase orders in accordance with and is necessary to effectuate the provisions of
this resolution and providing an effective date mr hogan cam thank you so much so the
purpose of this project is to select a contractor to perform the parking area improvements at marshall's
community center we received seven bids and are recommending going with the low bidder this
project is primarily funded and that's 196 750.72 cents by a
federal housing and development
or the community community development block grant another seventy seven thousand three
hundred and forty four dollars and fifty three cents is being
allocated from uh our our denton island road francis
avenue to mayport road connectivity project that's slated to be initiated this
fiscal year and is now slated to be completed
in fiscal year 26-27 we
recommend that you adopt 26 resolution number 2652.
make a motion to adopt resolution 2652. Second. We have a motion and second
discussion. I only have one thing to say.
you used to be able to build a whole house for the cost of this parking. Isn't that something?
but I did look at the other bids or I looked at the range. So I think, I guess we're...
the best we can be on that and we're lucky to have
that much parking available there and it is going to be the most significant parking that we have at a facility so that's
good all right if there's no further discussion all in favor signify with aye aye opposed motion carries uh let's
see resolution number 26-53
of resolution of the city of atlantic beach florida authorizing the acceptance of a charitable yeah we only did
that okay I knew we hadn't got to that okay, resolution number 26-54, resolution of the city of atlantic beach, florida,
authorizing the city manager to execute a consulting services agreement with civic consulting group, llc,
for the review and development of the interlocal agreement. In parentheses rfp 26-01 authorizing a cost-sharing
arrangement with the sigma of
jacksonville providing conflicts and providing an effective date mr hogan thank
you as we all know very well the city has long operated under an interlocal agreement with the consolidated city of
jacksonville regarding the delivery of municipal services
and the allocation of tax revenues to ensure fiscal transparency and equity
for residents, staff identified a need for
professional independent review of the current ila structure.
following the issuance of an rfp, civic consulting group was selected, and indeed,
civic consulting group was the only bidder. So the idea is for this firm to
perform a comprehensive forensic fiscal analysis. And recognizing the mutual
benefit of establishing an independent source of truth
for future negotiations, the city of atlantic beach and the city of jacksonville have
agreed to equally share the professional fees associated with this study.
the study has an eight-month timeline, and staff recommends the city
commission approve this agreement via resolution no. 2654.
I make a motion to approve resolution no. 2654. Second.
we have a motion and a second discussion. Yes, sir. I spoke
with my ex-fellow commissioner, brittany norris, about this very topic.
and I think, again, I think she's pretty plugged
in, but the city of jacksonville is on board with this. Yes.
I think it's about time. And I think when she was on our city commission, she was the go-to person.
for the interlocal agreement that done the history. So it's good that we have a
connection with the city of jacksonville, and it's good that we are kind of holding our feet
to the fire. Yes, thank you, commissioner.
I'll comment. Go ahead, commissioner. Yeah, I just had a question. You said this was the only
company that bid on this? Yes, sir.
is this the group down in? Kissimmee. Homestead, I think. Homestead.
homestead, okay. And there's nobody else in town or nobody wants
to touch this because of potential conflict or, you know. I'm going to answer that
since I've been part of these discussions from the beginning and through several discussions.
in addition, discussions with our partners at city of jacksonville. I was very disappointed that we
only got one bid. I was delighted that we got one bid. So let me tell you, that was a.
a mixed feeling on that because that bid came in the day of, I believe it came in the day
of or the day
before the deadline. And so immediately I thought, oh my goodness.
okay. And I'm so glad, thank you, city manager, for being
transparent that we only got the one bid because it's important to acknowledge that
we got one bid, but that's why it became real important to interview them properly. And we did that.
with our partners at coj, I believe, counsel, you were on that, two of those calls. So anyways, we interviewed
them, found them to be extraordinarily professional with a lot of credentials for doing similar studies
for other cities. And then finally, it occurred to me that, you know, maybe sometimes things happen
for a reason. I know that's a cliche, but having, you know, we had thought.
previously, maybe local universities like a unf or a ju or somebody would handle that through one of their
departments and that would be good.
but then what if there's a bias there because they know people at coj or they're doing other
work or other studies for coj? So I think for full transparency, I am delighted
with the firm and I'm delighted with the fact that they have no allegiances to atlantic beach or the city of jacksonville.
and I think. Reform a very similar problem on this, but that's just my take.
thank you. Okay. Further discussion? Okay.
all in favor signify
with aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
so what is the cost? $89,000. And that's $40-something is our half.
oh, okay. So that's the question. Mary, you probably know this answer. How does neptune beach you
enter into that agreement. They don't.
well, and to be clear,
and we all know bits and pieces of this, but there are three separate interlocal agreements. Jax beach has theirs.
neptune beach has theirs. And we have ours. And I'll give you a quick delineation.
difference between us, one critical difference between us and neptune beach, and this is outside of the main
interlocal agreement, but they pay nothing for fire service. We do.
that's right. And then we provide our fire engine to service neptune beach.
but city of jacksonville. Pardon me, the city of
jacksonville beach, they pay for fire service, but they don't pay any tipping fees for garbage.
and that's a bigger number. It's a huge number. So it's not the same. And we had asked previously if
neptune beach wanted to partner on this initiative, and their answer was no.
and I also asked mayor hoffman in jacksonville beach whether they intended to pursue a reconsideration
of their interlocal, and the answer was no. So at this time, I do not know what neptune
beach is doing.
they may not be using an outside firm. They may be just having
discussions. So I'm not saying they're not. I'm just saying they did not choose.
the fire was where I was going with that. Yeah, well, and to be clear, this is part
of our expectation in this review. We would like to do two things, in my
opinion. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but we would like to roll the fire agreement into
our main agreement as opposed to keeping it separate as it's always been. And secondly, is we want fire
to be designated as a county service at no charge to the city of atlantic
beach. So that's a significant budgetary number. And to put it,
I'll give you the number. Two years ago, that was $1.5 million. We negotiated that
down this year to $750,000. And did we get affirmative
affirmation on the extension? We have, yes. And that's through when?
through.
may the 1st of 2027. So we now have extended the 750 through that period, which
it depends upon how you look at it. Some citizens think it should be zero, but it's 750,000 less
than it was two years ago. So that's where we stand. All right.
we voted.
thank you. Okay. Let's see. All right, 9a, which is
ordinance number 90-26-259. This is introduction and first reading,
so we'll have a second reading, and this is open to public comment. An ordinance of the city of
atlantic beach, county of duval, state of florida, approving the development agreement between the city of
atlantic beach and south coast capital partnership limited and authorizing the city manager to execute same
to provide for a development contract to govern the redevelopment of 299 atlantic boulevard,
providing landscaping compensation allowing for the redevelopment of a portion of the existing
building providing for conflict providing for codification providing for severability and providing an
effective date mr hogan camp thank you in advance of uh recommending for the
commission that you adopt ordinance number 90-26 that's 259 on first read uh and this will require a second read
on passage I'd like to get our neighborhood department director.
amanda askew has worked with our city attorney on this agreement to come and give an overview.
hi, good evening, amanda askew. This would be our first
development agreement that we've done here. It's kind of exciting. The state authorizes
development agreements through the florida local government development act and it's codified in state statute.
a development agreement is a contract entered into between a city and a developer that
expressly defines the rules, regulations, and commitments and policies governing a
specific development project for a defined period of time. And as the city manager
mentioned, we have been working with the developer and their attorney
and our attorney to negotiate a development agreement for 299 atlantic boulevard and 0 ahern, which is the portion of
the building that the former rag time was located on. They are going under significant renovations,
and as part of those renovations, they triggered some landscaping
requirements in the code 24-176-3 that indicates if you exceed more than 25%
of the assessed value, then you have to come into compliance with our
required landscaping requirements. The required landscaping
requirements would require a buffer, a landscape buffer between the building and the
street and in the rear parking lot. Of course,
we know the building has been there, its existing conditions, so that would be impossible
really to come into compliance with.
if you do come into compliance with the landscaping requirements in the rear
of the property, you'd be losing a significant amount of the parking spaces. And so it's a balancing act
between providing parking in the beaches town center and
landscaping. It would be in excess of 10 parking spaces that would be lost if they came
into compliance. This particular location, the existing building, and matches the comprehensive
plan future land use designation of central business district and the zoning district regulations.
this would serve a public purpose.
the proposed landscaping would be paid in lieu. And so they have provided and
we have concurred that it would
cost $162,595 to come into compliance with our required landscaping code.
so this proposed development agreement would authorize the developer to make that payment
to the city. There are stipulations with that payment.
outlined in the code. One stipulation is that they would need to commence construction
within 12 months and then be finished upon 36 months, although I know they are ready
to start construction relatively soon. They are also in the proposed ordinance tied
to the money is where the money
would go.
we wanted to make sure that the money just did not go into the general fund and the money
would be allocated to be used for the beaches town center or the tree fund, or specifically
in the beaches town center area. This is a proposed ordinance.
so as the city manager mentioned,
we will have second read on it. And I'll answer any questions you might have.
I do. Thanks for the last part. I know. I wish bruce andrews was still
here to hear that. The other thing, and I spoke to kevin about this. Kind of interesting, and
kevin, you correct me, but the parking fees that we collect on our portion at beech's town center agency, I know
you're looking at the ceiling, kevin, probably didn't hear this one, theoretically should go back
to that area in general. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm glad
to hear that the money's tied to that.
I'm sure thomas will be happy to tell the our friends at beech's town center agency
about that. And I'm sure they have all
kinds of ideas of what to do with that. But thanks, amanda. I have a question, though.
when you say that by our code, it has to stay in beech's town center, does it have to stay in beech's town
center on the atlantic beach
side because it's an atlantic beach property or potentially usable by the neptune beach side?
I think that's up for discussion. The way we've gotten the agreement written,
it is 5h and it's found on, let's see, I don't think I have a page
number, but it's 5h in the contract.
it says south coast shall make a payment of $162,995 to the city in lieu
of planting the landscape on the property by which shall be deposited into the city's beaches town
center fund. It's tree fund or designated
account and used exclusively for off-site landscaping or environmental enhancements within the beaches town center
part of the city.
okay. Yeah, okay. And thank you. So I heard it enhanced.
and what was the enhancements? Environmental enhancements.
so environmental usually denotes something that's growing. We're thinking perhaps some
bioswales. We are doing some. Improvements and because that's I guess after looking
at the cost of the parking lot at the community center that's not much money but I don't know that you have much dirt that
you could re-landscape within our side
of beechestown center and I want to go on record this money better not go to neptune beach I I love neptune beach's side
of beechestown center but they need to fund that and we need to focus on the atlantic beach
side the part you stopped reading can you can you go back and read that last full
sentence? Because it says something about... Okay.
it says, which shall be deposited into the city's
beaches town center fund, its tree fund or designated account to be used exclusively for
off-site landscaping or environmental enhancements within the beaches town center
part of the city. We could amend that to say
atlantic beach. Let me be clear. It says part
of the city is defined as atlantic beach. That's the only place it can be utilized.
if you want it to be utilized for neptune beach, you should say so.
but right now, it's only in atlantic beach. Yes, I thought that little phrase tacked
in there would be. All right, so that answers that. However,
since this has come up, which fund are we depositing it into? Because where are you going to put $150,000 with the trees
in beech's town center? Yes, sir. It's not just trees. Well, do we have different
accounts, though? I think we do have different accounts. But I'll give you an example.
I know kevin knows this. We clean the sidewalks with the gum. Not a lot of money, but there's also
around that and the merchants. Thomas knows this, are excited that we, and we only do it a couple times a
year, the trees, but I think, you know, that whole area, hey, you know what, it's kind
of a trust fund for that area.
I agree, but I'm just trying to be clear. If we have different accounts,
once it's deposited, let's say we have an account that's just the tree fund for beechestown
center. Once it's in there, it can't be moved without action
of this commission. So how are we structured
accounting wise to deposit this money? Yeah. To be clear, we'll go through
our accounting procedures. This will be a standalone fund as described. So you'll simply take all of
that verbiage so that we can go any of the directions permitted under code unless we are
willing to change our own code. And
of course, we're not spending any money that you don't
appropriate through the budget process. Well, that would be
appropriate. Thank you. Okay, I guess I beat that up enough. Yes, sir. Can I ask amanda a question? And I bet everybody
up here has got this question. What's going in? What's the deal? Is this public information? They have
submitted plans for interior remodel. It's a restaurant, and they are adding
a second floor covered deck seating area, not
over the entire footprint of the roof, but a portion. I
saw the diagram. Is there a name? I don't know the name, but I can see if rafton and
fleck got it. Thank you. You heard it here. I just. Yes, sir. Thanks, merritt. So it's
not going to be mexican. It's just I'm in support of this.
but I do have to say this feels and I'm happy
about the money. I mean. Lord knows we can, you know,
we'll put it to good use. It just feels a little bit, you know, like a gotcha moment in
our code that here we are having a developer coming in that's going
to renovate a space that was in bad need of renovation. That building had some issues.
so we're going to come in here, put something brand new. And
it's like, oh, by the way, you know, once you go past a certain percentage of improvement, you now have to
do all this stuff that's really not doable. And so, you know, 162,000, gotcha. Not real crazy about that. I'm all for being
fair and doing the right thing. But this feels very penal. But, you know, we'll move on.
welcome to this dais. Yep. Okay, thank you. We need to open up public comment. Do
we have anybody signed up? We
don't have public hearing
for this. Oh, I thought we did it on the first one. I apologize.
okay. Okay, then I won't even close what I couldn't open. Okay, further discussion?
okay. All in favor signify with aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion
carries, and that was unanimous. Thank
you. I did. Okay. We'll go directly to city attorney
comments. I have nothing to comment on. Okay. City clerk? Donna? Nothing? No.
okay, commissioner bull. Yeah, I wish bruce was still
here. Thomas brought this up. I was at the beach and stone
center agency for five years. Kendra robertson was a treasure for this community. Yes.
for both neptune, atlantic beach. She held the glue together. A lot
of these events that you see around here. She was one
of the driving forces. She was a volunteer out here, you know, dancing and all the things that
go on here. It's sad to hear that because she put her heart and soul into that. And I'm
personally, I'm taking this for- it's not kendra. I don't think it's
kendra. Oh, it's not kendra? No. Okay. I'm sorry. Kendra's still there. Okay. Kendra's
still there. Sorry. I was going down the wrong- I noted a lack of naming,
so we might leave it at that. Anyway, they do a great job and full support of kendra. I'm
done. All right commissioner kelly oh sorry about hacking up
alone oh it's okay I'm almost better right is that your report that's it man thank you
but he knows a good doctor commissioner grant I'm good thanks and I have nothing
further to give tonight this meeting is
adjourned.