Well, it's 1800 hours. I'm going to call this workshop to order.
we're going to start this meeting with a pledge of allegiance. And I'm going to have master chief batton lead us in the pledge.
master chief. This is.
united states of america. Sora tolley which it stands one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice For all.
hurrah! That was really encouraging, ladies and gentlemen.
we all said that in unison and it was just echoing and. And it touches my heart.
patriotism is alive here in palm bay.
roll call, miss. Jones. Mayor. Medina president.
deputy mayor. Felix here. Councilman johnson here. Councilman foster is absent.
miss sherman here. Miss smith. Here. Thank you. Our first item on the agenda is discussion of an area we call the compound.
so, madam sherman, I'm going to defer to you. And as you move forward with staff.
thank you, mayor. Appreciate it. Appreciate everyone who's come out tonight. So what we're going to start off with is a presentation.
it's going to be two of our team members taking the lead on providing an overview of the Compound.
we'll give you some history, some statistics just to sort of frame the conversation.
we'll also talk about some potential options for things that we could do to develop the Compound.
and then obviously, part of the the idea of having a workshop is that we will take input From the public and listen to you all.
so we're going to start tonight with john young brown, who is one of our deputy city Managers.
she's going to kick us off and she'll be joined in a little bit by our police chief, mario Ajello.
so, john, I'll turn it over to you.
good evening, mayor. Council members. Thank you for entertaining me tonight.
so we have a presentation, kind of covers an overview of the compound data, statistics, Ownership, things like that.
so I'll give the overview. And then of course, if you have any specific questions, we can call up those relevant Department heads or mrs sherman so going forward, the history of
the compound, so palm bay was developed historically by general development corporation.
there are other former gdc communities like port saint lucie.
the compound is an area which is comprised of approximately 2942 acres, which includes Rights of way within port malabar units 51,
52 and 53. The compound consists of thousands of quarter acre single family residential lots Pre-plotted by gdc and sold to individuals across the world in the 70 seconds, 80 seconds
and 90 seconds through what they call mail order land sales.
gdc paved approximately 200 miles of road and installed basic stormwater infrastructure That includes outfalls, ditches, canals and head walls.
uh, gdc, the company went through a series of indictments which ultimately led to their Bankruptcy, and that's following.
shortly after that, the city became incorporated. So some compound stats again.
units 51 5253. They contain approximately 4978 parcels and it breaks it out by unit there.
if you're interested. There are 2755 unique owners of land or property in the compound.
sara land, llc is the largest single land owner. They own 775 parcels.
the city of palm bay owns 129 parcels, mostly rights of way.
and brevard county school board owns several large tracts for future school sites.
one item of note that's not on this slide is that the average market value for a quarter Acre single family lot in the compound is 2000
$2,000. So city ownership on the screen, you'll see the parcels in red.
those are parcels owned by the city. And so of that 4978 parcels, the city owns 129 parcels or 2.6% of the parcels within the Compound.
in terms of acreage, the city owns 278.4 acres or 9.5% of the total acreage.
several parcels appear to be future rights of way stormwater and future parks.
it's kind of small, but here is a map of the existing zoning in the compound.
you can see that nine 99.4% of the parcels within the compound are zoned single family.
and I want to just draw your attention to the difference between acreage and parcels, Because we're going to be going back and forth within the slides.
on the differences between ownership control when it comes to parcels and acreage.
so in the box you'll see single family residential of the total acreage is 72.3%.
so 72.3% of all of the acreage in the compound is single family residential.
the second highest number that's actually a zoning district is the institutional use, and That's 7%.
but if you go down excuse me, to the very bottom, it says all other zoning categories.
that makes up 16%.
so ownership and control. The compound, again contains 4978 parcels.
the city owns 2.6% of those parcels. David mccallum owns 16%, 796 acres or sorry, parcels.
and again mccallum is and these are parcels, not acreage.
mccallum actually owns properties within the within the compound under several different Entity names.
so you'll see sarah land, you'll see david mccallum, trustee kogan wingham partnerships, Those are all additional entities owned by mr.
mccallum. The remaining 81.4% of those properties within the compound is all individually And privately owned.
and it's important to note that there are 2755 unique landowners in the compound.
so just to draw your attention to this slide, this is a map that shows where the units 51, 52 and 53 are within the compound.
it also identifies the roadways. It identifies water and sewer.
I'm sorry. Water. Yes, water, sewer, roads. And the the key thing to note, let's see if I can make this work.
there we go. There is there are three key points of access to the compound.
there's there's a bombardier, which I unfortunately don't think I can get up that high.
I'll just stay on the mic, ma'am. Bombardier at the top.
osmosis there. And then we have saint andre boulevard. So those are the three key points of access to the compound.
and that's going to be important as we start to talk about how we develop the compound, Because you're going to have to target those specific corridors to really start
to to bring development to the area and then kind of build out from there.
so this is just, again, the three the three access points to the compound.
so challenges. Limited access. As we talked about, there are only three key access roads.
aging roads. Lack of water and sewer, no electricity, varied ownership and several.
types of undesirable activity.
some steps that staff has already taken to address the issues of the compound and try to Move development towards the compound.
I will say that I've talked to three specific departments, all of which who have recently Made strides or tried to take steps to address issues in the compound.
but we've also had other departments that are doing their part as well. So police, the palm bay police department performs security checks.
the the police department performed an average of 381 annually.
public works goes out and performs clearing of overgrowth. And that's really at specific key intersections of the compound community and economic Development.
in 2020, staff reached out to 24 property owners owning 32 lots at the intersection of Bombardier and they received four
responses. All of those responses were interested in selling whether or not we decide we Want to go into land ownership and acquisition.
we'll have to talk about later in this in this discussion. And the the final thing to note is the city.
several departments met with fpl to talk about bringing power out to the area. That is a key component in order to bring development to the area.
part of the challenge is the infrastructure needed in order to bring power out to the Compound.
an area as large as as the compound is and their need for a substation.
so we can talk about what that looks like. So I'll do a quick overview of the public safety statistics and then I'll turn it over to Chief ajello.
this shows a response from police and fire going from 2017 to 2023.
so you'll see it's kind of gone down and then it picks back up around covid and then it Has declined again over time.
so approximately 283 of those responses between these five years were for fire response Emergency medical services to include 32 brush fires like
the one that we just had yesterday and 241 ems and fire responses.
it's important to note that this does not include the security checks that pd does, 300 On an average of 381 times annually.
and with that, I'll turn it over to chief ajello.
welcome, chief.
good evening, mayor. Council staff. So with regards to our police response, in terms of public safety for the area of the Compound, what we we know as the compound.
so from 2023, from year to date, what we see on the screen here in terms of the types of Calls for service we received and or
self initiated by our officers. So anywhere from vehicle burglaries, traffic stops, self initiated off road vehicle type Complaints and or self-initiated activity by the officers,
suspicious vehicles, shootings in terms of individuals going out to the compound where It's secluded on certain roadways out there and using it as target practice to fire the
weapons all the way down to animal complaints and abandoned vehicles and fires.
and the list goes on. So that's 20, 20, 23 to date on 2022.
here we go a little bit more in terms of number of responses we have for those Categories.
so just to go back to 2020. 2020 is when we saw an increase in activity in that area of the compound.
not sure if it's due to it was during the height of covid or whatever the case may be or During the covid times.
but we saw an increase in calls for service for the year previous to 2019.
so in 2020, we had an increase, total calls for service for the compound of 964 or 800 Plus calls for service leading into 2021, which was
964 calls for service. All those calls for service encompassed and covered all of those that were listed here on This slide.
and on the last slide, we had a problem. The biggest problem at that time was we had an increase in off road vehicle crashes and Fatalities for those doing the atvs and side by sides and things of
that nature and dirt bikes. So we had to come up with some type of strategy to ensure we had we can enforce and Incorporate some type of public safety out there.
so with a collaborative effort with us, palm bay police department, city of palm bay, Saint johns water management district, fwc, melbourne, tillman waterways,
we were able to get trespass signs erected as long as as well as we were working with the State attorney's office to find a state statute that fit
the bill in terms of what we can use to enforce with regards to the shootings that was Happening out there in terms of target practice, which we were able to get one, we had our
sign shop from the city traffic design shop, make some signs for us.
we posted them out there on several locations out close over to the canal where it's the Right across the canal where the three forks marsh conservation area put signs
up there. The city even went out. Don't know how many streets we have out there, but it's quite a few and painted crosswalk Stripes strips on the roadways to also enhance our ability to conduct traffic
enforcement because don't really have signs out there or to do traffic enforcement on Stop signs and things of that nature.
on top of that, as deputy city manager mentioned, our off duty securities that we've been Doing, details that we've been doing out there monthly for the weekends and also during
the day, during the weekdays. We're out there doing security details separate from our patrol activities and our Enforcement zone activities on our regular patrol calls.
so. Our numbers have decreased since 2020 from 900 plus to 5 to 600.
but nonetheless, there's still activity that's taking place out there. To me, my biggest concern or I think the biggest contribution to that that's contributing To it is it's in the middle of nowhere and there's a lot of vegetation
that's overgrown, a lot of concealment. People feel safe that are going out there looking to do criminal activity.
not everybody that goes out there is engaging in criminal activity. You know, whether we can interpret it, whether you are trespassing so that it's criminal.
but I'm talking about violent crime type of criminal activity. Some folks are going out there just to hang out, teaching their kids how to drive, Whatever the case may be.
but a large percentage of them are going out there, are operating their atvs and off road Vehicles illegally.
we are having target practice happening out there. Fortunately, we this past, as everybody knows, on christmas, this past christmas, we had A double homicide of two young boys.
so there is criminal activity that's happening in this area. In terms of our public safety strategy, we're going to continue to do what we're doing And what we've been doing.
we believe that we are making somewhat of an impact. But again, it's a over 2700 acres, which is about 12.2mi².
it's part of our zones of enforcement and our zones of patrolling. And we're out there as much as we can be.
in between calls for the southeast and southwest corridor, which encompasses about 50 to 60,000 people in the city of palm bay.
so with that being said, if you guys have any questions.
we're good. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes your presentation. Yes, sir. All right.
so I guess our. Deputy city managers coming up.
thank you. Yes, I'll finish out the rest of the presentation.
so I wanted to talk a little bit about opportunities and things that could be done to Address and some of the things that are being done to address the
compound. So we talk about wanting to bring growth and development to the compound, which Will deter some of the undesirable activity.
so strategic growth and development looks like commercial industrial entertainment type Of uses and it brings private capital investment.
it's going to bring jobs. And there are already companies that are doing this.
like, for example, you have brp, bombardier recreational products that's out there and They recently expanded.
so there are opportunities to leverage that and try to bring more growth and development To the area.
and we'll talk about a key parcel that the city owns in the compound as well ecotourism, Outdoor recreation, entertainment, amenities to support the recreation that already occurs
out in the compound. So that's been thrown out there as well. Um, other types of activities that have been taking place in the compound that are on the More productive side are things like we've got folks that utilize the range which is not
far from there. Hurricane paintball park generally within that area, drone races by Florida tech engine testing by larson motorsports and in the city's
more recent history, the tough mudder.
so other next steps, other things that we could do to start to really try to bring growth And development out to the compound are things like doing an addendum to our recently
passed, recently adopted economic development strategic plan that looks strictly at the Compound opportunities to leverage the compound and what types of activities and
commercial industrial growth could occur out there. Re designating the future land use and administratively rezoning sections along key Corridors.
so we talked about those three access points bombardier osmosis and saint andre.
the ace corridor study for saint john's heritage parkway. We have a map that will probably bring up later.
I believe the mayor has it on on cue. It will show you where the saint john's heritage parkway originally was intended to go Through the compound.
and so that's another opportunity in the future, bringing an fpl substation, as fpl Shared with the city part of their challenge with meeting our needs as they would need to
install an fpl substation. This requires large tracts of land. It requires capital investment.
we could look at something like utilizing a city parcel to help them meet that need.
future city utilities plant expansion would also be needed. We can continue to do letters to the property owners, reach out to them, or we can engage A land assembly specialist.
working with outside consultants to help with studies land assemblage.
for example, the city recently received an unsolicited proposal from the euclid group.
public private partnerships, special special assessments, special districts, and of Course, the last two words, eminent domain.
so last resort. And with that I would ask if you have any questions.
I'm happy to try and answer them. If I can't answer them, we can call up the appropriate directors.
thank you, mayor. The main thing I wanted to touch on, you spoke about opportunities and A few years ago we mentioned you and I had spoken as well as suzanne spoke about
opportunity zones. Currently the opportunity zone for palm bay and the saint sebastian river preserve state Park.
but I see this as a better location for an opportunity zone.
can you talk me through the process of what it would take to make it where the compound Area is, the opportunity zone, as opposed to the saint sebastian river preserve state
park, which can't even be utilized for it? So I remember we had this discussion before.
unfortunately, that is the area designated as the opportunity zone for palm bay.
the and we looked at how we can designate a different area of the city as an opportunity Zone.
that is something that has to be done through the governor. So we could work with our lobbyists.
we could as a council body make a decision to send a letter. So whatever that looks like, we can certainly look at that.
staff would be happy to do that. And also for the public. Can you speak on what an opportunity zone is?
so I'm a little rusty in opportunity zones since I haven't had to use the one we have Here. But essentially it's a zone that allows favorable tax credits and things for developers, Essentially, you know.
um, financial organizations. Things can pump money into this trust fund, if you will.
and those funds could be used by developers to bring certain types of development and They receive tax credits.
the, the, the financiers, if you will, receive tax credits over time.
and along that same vein, councilman johnson we can actually create something like that Ourselves as well.
but those empowerment zones, they worked out very well for the county. If you remember up in the north, commissioner robin fisher did an outstanding job with That.
so that I like those ideas, sir, that I think we're on the same page with that.
so thank you. Was that it? Yeah. I would just like for us to look into that. Even if the compound is in the area, saint sebastian river preserve state park cannot be.
it can't be utilized. So we need to get it changed one way or another. But I see the compound being as the best fit for it.
so I would like for us to look into that. Mayor absolutely. And if it takes letters, I think we have consensus here to start moving in that Direction.
but creating our own empowerment zones is, is the way we should we have direct access for That, right, sir?
but yes, sir, I love that idea. So any other questions?
deputy mayor? Mayor, my question would be I don't know if you'll be able to answer that Or we can bring miss bernard.
it's regarding the update of our comp plan.
was there any specific recommendation for that particular area? I know that was a big part, even from the community.
we have quite a bit of feedback as to what they would like to see and so on.
so I'd like to get an update as to what were, if any, recommendations in terms of all.
yes. So the visioning study, the visioning process, a lot of the public that came out and Including staff all identified the compound as an area for commercial
industrial growth. So I think that that's probably the number one thing that we heard in the visioning Study.
but of course, if if I'm incorrect, then alex can come up.
okay. And that's fine.
I think it might be an opportunity there as well. Certainly looking at the current, if we looked at the pie shape chart,
72.70 2.3% is strictly residential.
so it might be an opportunity there as well, because what would happen is as soon as we Have one development there, but you'll see naturally it'll bring
more people would be willing to sell. And that's sparked some some movement out there.
so I think as far as the land use and zoning will play a big part of of some movement out There.
I wanted to highlight this parcel. See if I can get there. Okay.
so that triangular parcel underneath the purple, it's a shaded gray.
it's zoned general use. That's a city parcel. That's a 30 acre parcel.
it does have I mean it dead ends where bombardier dead ends where water and sewer, I Believe dead ends.
so that's an area that we've really been looking at to try and bring development to the City or to the compound specifically because we own it.
so we control it. It's got general use holding zoning, which allows a variety of Different things.
we've talked internally about rezoning that to light industrial, heavy industrial, Depending on what the, you know, what types of industry the city is seeing interest out
here. I know that nancy bunch, our community and economic development director, can talk About the stuff that she's worked on when it comes to collaborating with our economic
development commission to bring to bring end users and employers out to this area.
and this is one parcel that has been of interest to a few confidential projects.
okay. Well, thank. Thank you, ma'am. And right along that same vein, this is this fits right in with what the discussion is.
right. Is getting part of that investing into our community in this regard.
that means this council making that type of effort because we do have a unique Opportunity this we can control and that can create and
spur future growth in regards to commercial.
and it is one of the entrance ways. But I don't have a question for you.
I may have some as we continue to discuss.
but right now, if you're. Are you done, deputy mayor, sir. Thank you. Okay. So right now, what I'd like to do is is commend the audience for their Participation here today.
and thank you for attending this workshop. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an issue that's been plaguing our city for for decades.
and in that your participation is critical for everyone up on this dais.
so any idea, any input that you have is welcomed?
I do have two individuals that are going to lead us off with speaking, and the first one Is going to be mister tom gomm.
he has a presentation to share with us.
thank you, mr. Mayor. May I approach? Yes, sir. Come on.
but good evening, mr. Mayor. I think when we talk about this, the first thing we need to do is establish one fact.
any recreational activity on the mic or bring. Can you bring it up some more?
bring up the lectern. Any recreational activity that goes on in the compound starts with an intent, an intent To break the law, whether it be
trespassing. Disregarding traffic signs. Speeding. A property damage, damage to our canals that keep our houses safe during the Hurricanes.
so I'd prepared tonight. But some other things happened during the day that I'd like to speak about.
but when we talk about the compound, the main thing we know is we lose people out there, Not just people predominantly black young
men by a vast majority.
having a long range plan to develop the compound has been the goal for the last 20 years.
so it's a great long range plan. We can plan all day.
but we need a solution to stop from stacking up two bodies a year to the compound.
two bodies a year. Councilman. Johnson. You've been up there six years.
I think you'd agree that you've seen too many of these.
they talked about getting trespassing signs and signs for the ordinance for shooting.
they did. They got shot up.
these are the canals we rely on to keep our homes safe during a hurricane.
people own that property that is damaged.
there's a note there. There's a small child on the front of that four wheeler with no helmet on.
things go on out there that are dangerous. Yesterday afternoon, I was talking with our past city manager, lee feldman.
when I said, lee, I don't have the numbers to back it up, but I don't think we know about 10% of the stuff that goes on in the compound.
he said that's probably an accurate statement.
the residents that live around the compound obviously don't want these things going on Out there.
so one of the things I looked at was in the email I sent the console.
was drones to patrol the compound. The new skydio drones.
they contract people, infrared, all kinds of sensors.
there's also spot technology. That. It's a letter I sent you.
but yesterday, governor desantis signed sb 102.
that has to do with affordable housing. And one of the things the most important to me at least.
is the governor, under the florida job growth grant fund, can approve state and local Public infrastructure projects to facilitate the development and construction
of affordable housing. Thank you. Found that same 33 acres. Thank you. Thank you.
our next presentation will be mr. Jordan. You bring that down, mr.
jordan? On jordan 2141 madden avenue.
we live about two blocks from the compound. Just to the east.
these pictures I took sunday afternoon at 130.
you can see a pickup truck doing spin outs on the property that's owned by the city.
right at the corner of madden avenue and osmosis.
there goes a dirt bike or buy on his way to the compound.
is followed by three more. Two more and then three more after that.
this goes on. Every friday, saturday and sunday.
I mean, we have so much noise. And look at all that dust. It's coming right at our house.
I have made probably 100 phone calls reporting activity there.
and sometimes they can come out. But most of the time, you know, we're short handed and the police department, so they Can't always do anything.
but it's very noisy on weekends. It's awfully it's it's really you don't want to sit outside because there's so much noise And that dust flying around, it's really a
nuisance. Now, this is city property that the city would be responsible if anybody got Hurt on.
there goes the truck again.
so it's really a problem that has gone on in the five years that we've lived at that Property, and we sure like to see something done
to calm it down. Thank you very much. Thank you. I have a question, sir.
what is it? Unit 53. Where you live in what unit?
we're in 49. 49. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. The dividing line is the canal.
it's about a block to the east or to the west of madden avenue.
all right. Thank you, mr. Jordan. Thank you. At this time.
I want to ask any individual that wants to speak. You're up first, ma'am.
you raise your hand up quickly. Then you're number two.
yes, sir. Butch, you're number two. Take it two at a time.
and then your three, sir.
negative. Come on up, ma'am. Hello, ma'am. Medina. Ma'am, can you hear me?
closer. Okay. Hello, ma'am. Medina. Thank you guys for having us this evening. Related to the compound.
I run the angels bridging gaps autism support group here in brevard, and I'm having an Event coming up on april 29th, helping hands family festival to help deal with some of the
issues that we have in brevard. We know that it isn't just palm bay. It's brevard county.
and we have issues going on in our schools. We have issues going on in our homes.
we have issues going on with our police department in terms of being able to manage our Youth.
I really feel that one of the things that we, if any, possibility there is to be able to Put together something like a community center.
I know donnie and I worked together years ago, and one of the things that we feel that we Need in brevard county, we don't have a boys and girls club for our palm bay youth.
we need some place for them to meet, some place for them to feel a part of their Community.
one of my suggestions is creating that community center that could also house both teens And young adults with disabilities.
I run a small program here at malabar baptist church right now because we have so many Young people sitting at home not doing anything and not feeling a part of the community
around them. If they could be part of something like that and actually run that community Center, give them jobs to run the community center, and then staff it with mental
health counselors and social workers so we can work with families to help keep these Children at home.
this would be something that would be useful for our community. The reason that we have so many issues at the compound is because young people go there To gather.
they go there to do their bonfires. They go there for activities because they don't have someplace else to go.
so my desire would be to see us develop something that could benefit all of the youth in Our community.
our young adults with disabilities. Because I've had a close relationship with the police department, sheriff's department And circles of care.
we need those spaces. I've been working closely with betsy farmer and some of the other ways for life Organizations.
we have no housing for young adults with disabilities or our young adults that are having More problems at home.
there's no place for them to go. Crosswinds has 12 vacancies and fell 12 spaces.
they have no vacancies at all. We have no place for our young adults and our teens to go to when they're causing all These issues.
and we see this bubbling into our schools and into a lot of our homes. And again, dealing with the police department and the circle that keeps going around.
so I would love to see something like that. Thank you, ma'am. And I just put.
you're up. I'd like staff to duly note this young lady's comments because I think we Could definitely
this is an opportunity for partnership. Carry on, sir, which ran to 19 trenton avenue here in palm bay, florida.
I have several pictures of different things at the compound, but due to my inability to Manage the data, I couldn't get it sent to you.
suzanne. I tried three times and it kept coming back. Anyhow, you had a map picture up there just a few seconds ago.
can you zoom to madden avenue north up there?
right. The thing is, they've put brand new, sparkling, shiny stop signs and street signs With names on them.
and there's the street. There's no street there. There's woods.
okay. And like I said, I've got the pictures in the locations that I'll get them to. Susan suzanne. I can figure out how.
so if you go north on madden, it's a dirt grass road combined and both streets east and West side, there's new stop
signs, new street signs. And you can look down the street and see nothing but bushes.
so you follow that on around and you end up on madden.
they're building a new house on madden avenue. There's no street.
there's no nothing there. I don't know. I don't know how fire would respond to it. But they've got to permit.
they've started working on it. And that's on the.
south end of madden. Along the canal there.
the other issue if you go. All the way to the end.
where? San filippo and. The compound. Meet saint andrews.
I think it is boulevard. Okay. Okay.
there is a portable concrete factory out there. Just parked. I don't know if it's on city property, private property or what.
I've got a good picture of it that I can share with you when it comes to.
other than that, it's, you know, I don't know what to have to tell you to do with the Compound.
that's something you guys are going to have to work out. But you drive around the city and you see a stop sign that's turned white.
it's not red anymore. There's no stop sign to it. It's just the octagon. But yet we got new ones in the compound.
just kind of confusing to this old boy. Okay. And go for you.
thank you. All right. Y'all have a good night. Thanks. Thank you. You were number three, sir.
sir. In the orange.
my name is victor carrasco, and I grew up out here.
my thing is. What are you going to do when you guys start building and take away everything?
and we got nowhere to ride. No more. We're going to look just like miami.
they have these rides in the streets. Everybody knows them. Epic old town.
is that what we want? You're going to take away our safe haven where we're able to ride.
and now they're pretty much just going to take to the streets. They have law enforcement chasing them.
but look at how many people show up at the rides. It's severely outnumbered.
and I'm just saying that's always been a place for us to go and ride.
and I've been going out there since I was a kid in diapers with my family having a good Time.
but it seems like if we get rid of that area, we're just going to look like miami, Orlando, daytona when all these rides happen.
and people can say that's not going on, but it really is. Martin luther king ride just happened, what, a couple of months ago.
look how many people were on the news for it riding atvs, dirt bikes, street bikes, side By sides.
all vehicles were in that ride. And is that what we really want to happen around here?
this has always been an area for us to escape after a hard day's work.
go enjoy ourselves. To a certain extent.
some of us own property out there. And I've even had incidents where we're on a property we're allowed to be on.
police show up and tell us to leave even though we have permission to be there.
it happened not even a month ago. I pulled up with a truck and trailer on private property, have permission from the owner, And was told to leave.
I'm just saying there's a lot more to this that needs to be looked into.
but I feel like if you getrillionid of that area. It's going to get worse.
then better. So that's just my input on that situation.
just speaking up for the people we hang out with and we ride with all the time.
and believe it or not, there's multiple of us on facebook groups.
you know, we've got groups of people that do meetups just to go ride around in a jeep all Day in the back trails, four wheelers.
people say we're ruining the property. We're following the same trails that have been out there for over 20 years.
some of us have been out there so long, like, you know, my family members that have been Going out there since the 80 seconds.
when it was just only woods before the grounds were put down.
but that's just my input. Thanks for having me. Thank you.
who else wishes to speak? This. Got lots.
one at a time. Your first. Um, this young lady.
everyone's going to get an opportunity to speak. Ma'am, you're next.
and, mr. Batten, you're your third. Hi. My name is thomas mcewen.
I live at 120 holleran street, southeast palm bay. I'm here to represent spaceport rocketry association.
we are national association of rocketry club and tripoli rocketry club.
we have a permit out there in the compound to fly our rockets, and we support a multitude Of university students
flying their rockets for competition with nasa and out at the spaceport in new mexico.
we're certifying those flights for them. We support cub scouts.
we support church groups. We support high schools in the team america rocketry challenge, which is they can win Scholarships.
700 teams throughout the united states compete and they have to select down to 50.
we support those events. We've been out there since approximately 73.
but in this area where we have our permit, we've only been there since about 1998 because We moved
it away from the. The barge canal.
um, we would still like to be able to be out there someplace.
the problem is, is that with our rockets, we need a large amount of unoccupied area.
and if we have the need you to really speak on the mic, if we really have the parkway, we Can't fly
our rockets because there will be more than 15 cars per hour driving past us and we Cannot find any farmland or anything else in the
area that can because the farmers or ranchers say, oh, rockets, no, you can't come out Here.
you can't walk across my. My grass. You scare the cows and everything else.
and we support from all the way from titusville up in the northern famu, all the way down To
miami universities and high schools all on the west coast.
we're the only group that they can come to.
we would still like to be able to be out there and.
it would be great if there was a park out there that would have a large enough area that We could share with other peoples and other groups.
that's what I'm asking for. Have you have you had a dialog with nasa?
we have. We're supporting the college students and high school students with in a competition with Nasa.
they'll be up in alabama in two weeks competing for scholarships and bragging rights.
this is an event that they have to turn in to nasa.
six documents throughout the year, proposals and things like that.
and that looks great on a resume even if they don't win the competition.
and we still want to support these groups.
we're the space coast. Let us be able to fly rockets.
thank you. Thank you. Ma'am. You were.
mr. Robinson, would you assist her in? Thank you. Yeah.
okay. Ooh.
feels better. That's good. And my name is oliver nieves.
I have 33 years living mostly in palm bay.
I am familiar with the compound land or area.
I visited few times. I even went go car with one of my kids.
unbelievable. Unforgettable.
beautiful area. The way these kids had.
there are things going in there and it's a shame.
it's sad that the people today use it to commit crime.
we just had one dump garbage or junk things rather than have
fun like we did. And my suggestion is.
time to develop that area, especially we should build.
in downtown palm bay.
this city don't have downtown.
we need to go melbourne, downtown or a lot of stuff.
bieri. I think we should have our own downtown.
another thing that I suggest will be in a most amusement park.
okay. Rather than go so far this gnage or whatever we can just minutes to one of these Attractions.
also, we should have a similar to a wet and wild.
remember those that could be very nice in that area or am so
am. Like a big flea market for the community will be nice and.
we need to build for the community because this has been for many years a community Thing.
a teenager child's stuff, you know.
and I think we should keep it that way or try to keep it safe and better.
monitor that area. Somehow to keep it going because it's a beautiful, nice area and it's good for the Community.
it's very good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Master chief.
okay. Master chief. Okay. Bill batten, 586 ocean spray street southwest.
I've got six items to address on this one. Number one, we just had the meeting on.
infrastructure and in the compound area. So remember, unit 49 is the gateway to that area.
so let's don't let that depreciate because it's one more time where if you have your First impression looking, okay, this is part of the city, then that kind of slows
things down just a little bit. So let's don't let that one fail.
item number two. Under the building initiatives.
and when I say this, you're going to look at me strange because I'm a big I'm against tax Abatement because that's what keeps the city running.
we won't have any funds if we give tax abatement for everything. But there is like I was just brought up.
governor desantis had just proposed for the homeless incentive. That's something we might be able to work because that will help people start building in That area.
which leads to some of my other topics. I was glad to see that you're already talking with florida power and light on getting a Substation out there now.
I'm going on 36 years living here. Those are the people that know me. They I am at the compound area also unit.
I mean canal 13. That's where I live.
but when I moved here, there was no power out there either. I had to pay.
I had to pay to get florida and power to bring power out to my house.
that might be what people have to do. It might not be that the city covers it or florida power is footing the bill.
part of that, that could be part of your incentive. The city will help you get power here to build your house just for possibility.
item number four. If we start getting people to start building out there close to at least coming in and Out.
remember, people don't like to do bad things in the light of day.
they have a tendency to do them where nobody can see it. So if you have people that are starting to move into that area or live out in that area Or businesses, that means more eyes, which means more supervision.
more supervision means less hell raising.
and that lowers the bad behavior. Item number five.
it. Remember that this area, though, is right next to the saint johns heritage.
it's right next to the saint johns floodplain. So we have to be real careful about what we're trying to build in that area.
and that's a detriment for trying to get massive developments just because of the Elevation.
so just remember that where the location is. Item number six.
you're not breaking a law if you own the property out there.
I know many people that build stuff after they have their own atv camps.
some of them have their own private ranges. Right. But I can also speak for the people that come out there that don't have their own Land.
we have loss of livestock. That's what happens when people don't follow the rules and regulations.
thank you very much. I know you have a hard decision on how you're going to get there. Thank you. I want to go on this end.
I'll have. Let me let me start the gentleman way back and then you, ma'am.
and then your third. No. Come on up.
you're number two. You're number three. She's number two.
now the one behind you. You, ma'am. All right.
well, good evening and thank you for holding this meeting. I have been long awaiting to have this opportunity to present my concern about the Compound on.
quite a bit of property in that area for a while. And one of the men concerned that I have of course, you've heard it, you know, the all The crimes that are happening out there.
that's a very that's a great concern and a lot of damage even to my property has been Done.
so that's also a concern. And one of the main thing that I wanted to address today is the fact that.
I am paying for stormwater in an area that is not receiving.
hardly any services and it's extremely expensive. I'm paying right now.
I've been paying for many years over $2,000 a year for a property that's not receiving Any services.
actually, as we speak right now, it's unbuildable.
so I just want to bring it to your attention. If you could make a special consideration to the best that I know, this is the only area In palm bay that is not buildable right now.
so if you would consider to at least lessen the amount that we're paying for the Stormwater, I personally I'm paying over
$2,000 every year, which is that for one property, one property, how many properties do You have?
it's one, it's a it's a fairly large parcel, you know, parcel.
yeah. I'm paying over $2,000. How many acres? It's 11 acres. 11 acres. Okay.
thank you. Yeah. Which is unusable. Of course. We are working hard and it is my hard earning investment.
it's an investment. And right now I already paid more in stormwater than what I paid for The property.
so there should be a special consideration and you should be looking into it that the Fact that it's not buildable, you're not providing any services at all.
we're paying taxes and I do understand the stormwater is important and I do support it.
but the fact that it's not buildable, it's an investment in right now it's sitting there, People trying to keep it open to
do all kind of activities over my property and there I am. I'm paying for an investment that I've my hard earned working money and then that is not Buildable and.
I've already paid more in stormwater than the property is worth and right now it's Absolutely, you know, the value is extremely, you know, with
all the things that are going around the compound, we cannot build. Nobody wants to be out there.
people want to keep it open to for recreation. And there I am. I'm paying all this money when I'm not getting no services.
so please, please, if you would reconsider, I can understand.
I am a resident here. I'm more than happy you're giving me services.
although many times, by the way, the service is finally. Once in the last two years, they finally come and do my back.
you know the area, the general area behind my backyard for the. Thank you, ma'am. Water.
I do have a question for you. Yes. How long have you had the. The property? Um, a long time ago.
up since 2003. Okay. And since that time, you knew it was on.
you couldn't build on it. Is that correct? Yes.
and so my my question is as an investment.
right. You mentioned investment. Would you be willing to have go through a special assessment to develop that area?
would you be one of those that that would say yes to something like that?
I would love to, but I cannot afford it right now. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. So please do consider and see what can be done, at least in that particular area, If we could pay, you know, a lesser rate.
thank you, ma'am. You know, some order. Thank you. Thank you. Um, you were number two, ma'am.
come on up. Is that kay mirage? Yes, it is. I'm sorry, ma'am.
good evening, council and mayor staff. I am happy that you're actually holding this workshop and this has to be one of those two Pronged approaches mr mentioned.
the first one is how do we protect it now? And I think he had some good points in terms of looking at surveillance and these using Technology to solve the problem now.
and I think that's something that you shouldn't just look over. Just make sure that it's something we consider because there is a need at this point.
secondly is our future plan. And when I look at the compound, what, over 12 acres of property there and what can we do With it?
now I see the city has, what, 30 plus acres there and 99% of the surrounding lots are Zoned single family
residential. I want us to consider looking at rezoning that area, not only just changing It to to accommodate
the the big companies. There are small people who want to have their businesses there and no opportunity because It's zoned single family.
we need to start looking at multifamily homes as well. Zoning as well, not only for condos, townhomes, but for duplexes, quads.
there are smart people who actually want to actually have an investment property right Beside them.
we are not even looking at that. So to me, changing one of the zonings to multifamily zoning.
secondly, I would of course look at the giving people opportunities since they are Multiple owners there if they
choose to rezone. I don't know. The whole process is that making it simpler and easier, giving people raise Their hand if they would be interested in rezoning theirs to multi use.
so if you have multi use zoning, it gives you again that opportunity to do anything There.
the 30 acres that the city have, I say there are people right now who are interested in Having riding their atvs.
why not look to shop there a portion of that property to those companies that are Actually doing it already, bringing the people here,
that's bringing people into the city of palm bay. So imagine this.
there's a portion that does the outdoor activities, the ecotourism.
there are people do that shop that to them, let them do those activities.
then imagine having an amphitheater nearby. Now we're doing festival concerts and so that makes us the entertainment hub for the County.
nobody has all of that. So bring those people in. And then surrounding zoning, that will allow businesses to pop up so bars, restaurants Will pop up with individuals owning them.
not only big businesses, of course, if like the lady with her 11 acres, if that was that Opportunity to be rezoned to light industrial, of course that would be a good
idea. So I think we should look into that kind of concept. Rezoning has to be a priority and of course, shopping it.
thank you. Yes, ma'am.
being mayor. And everybody here close to the mic, please. Sorry, I talk softly anyway.
okay. Good evening, mayor. And everybody that's here. I'm listening. I live at on gancedo street, not far from the compound.
I've been there. 22 years. So I've seen a lot of development over the last 20 years, 22 years that I've been here.
I was listening to one of the representatives, I think it was the first lady about the Development of the heritage parkway into 95
and everything. Do anybody have an idea of when that's going to take place?
it's going to be a while. It's going to be a while. It's down range right now, man.
the only reason why I'm asking is because I spoke to moe allen, the real estate, one of His people, and I spoke to danielle that's
upstairs in the city department. And I'm looking to well, not myself.
not only myself. My son and I are looking to build a business out there.
and it's covered some of the.
some of the things that you all talked about, about building out there right now. I don't want to announce it to everybody, but if you take me to the site later, I'll tell You what what we're trying to do and we would like at
least 50 to 100 acres for it.
so we already have investors. We already have.
money to buy the land. We know who's going to do everything for us.
so that's why I was wondering how long the parkways were open.
so it would be beneficial for everybody because I know the road over there by on Bombardier is not
wide enough to handle any kind of busy traffic especially coming from 95.
it's it's not feasible. You know, people will get cut off and say, nah, I don't want to go there after we spent All this money to do something out there to benefit the community.
it will help everybody out in the long run as far as jobs and everything else.
so that's why I was asking. But like I said, later on, if anybody wants if you want to know, I'll tell you what we're Doing and hopefully you can give me some ideas.
some of the programs that you mentioned that we can go ahead and see if we can get Started.
or look for something somewhere else. But we want to stay in palm bay because that's our home.
so I thank you all very much and have a blessed day. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
here, mayor. Carry on. Can we, ma'am?
come on, ma'am. Would you. Would you give your information to. To staff, please, so we can follow up with you?
thank you. I'm sorry. Who was it? You. Sir. Yes, sir.
and then you're next.
I wish I knew everyone's name. I don't like pointing at people, but.
yes, sir. Yeah. My name is jeff harkin, 883 vance circle, northeast.
and back in 2010, I was in here and we had the same problems about the compound,
people not knowing what to do, you know, recreational. We want it commercial.
and I would just like to say that.
see also. Is that the.
local people. Should be able to go out to the compound and open up a business like this.
one gentleman said that he had, as you know, motorcycles and trucks and all this.
why not have local people, local organizations go out to the compound and open up, you Know, motorcycles and trucks
and recreational for the people?
and that's it. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. You're next, sir.
please everyone that's coming to speak. State your name and your address.
okay? Yes, sir. I know you've been waiting a while, so you'll go after. All right, sir. In blue.
hello, my name is ryan foster 935 quaker street, southeast palm bay didn't really prepare Because I didn't know that we were going to be able to talk tonight, but I'm glad you're
here. Well, thank you. Um, I want to say, talking about all development and building the area up more out there, All you got to do is drive around this town to see that the over development that's
happening right now is taxing our infrastructure. Y'all want to put more houses, more people, more everything out there.
there's two roads to get in and out. There's no way it can handle it. First off, on that note, I want to say I've been here living in this area for almost 30 Years.
one of the reasons I moved here with my realtor told me about the compound and that sold Me.
I moved here because that place to me, it's a paradise. It's pristine. It's just a wonderful place.
if you ask me where I want to go any given day to have fun, to do something, it's going to Be the compound.
I'm a member of a bunch of different groups that meet out there. We do birthdays, we do holidays, we meet up, we police the area.
we're not the trash. The trouble that everybody wants to talk about, we go out there and We, you know, take care of the place.
we tell people we see them dumping, we get on them. I guess my point is it's not all bad what happens out there.
the only thing that people are seeing is what they see in the news, like what just Happened. I think all this has sparked off from the tragedy that happened in december.
december. We also had a shooting in one of our parks, an attempted murder, a shooting on The interstate.
this stuff happens all over the place. It's not the location, it's the people.
and that's the problem. So dumping it all in the compound, I just don't I don't get it.
and I think the people who are property owners out there, they have a you know, they can Argue it and they have a stand, but people don't even come out there and don't know
anything about the place that all they hear is something on the news and they want to, You know, come and speak their mind and what should happen out there and put the place
down. That's not everything that happens out there. There's hundreds of us who go out there and we enjoy the place now, regardless if we're Supposed to be out there or not.
that's not what I'm here to talk about. It's been out there for almost 40 years or whatever, and, well, we could discuss that Too.
I mean that things has to be some posting from property owners in order to keep you off The property. There's nothing out there that it's not.
I'm not going to get into that aspect of it because my point is I think the place is Beautiful as it is.
if I had my way, I'd say, leave it alone. And there's more development in this area. We've got enough going on right now.
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, sir.
my name is john crowley. I've probably lived in the palm bay since 1986, so I'm probably one of the oldest Residents here.
I did not come here for traffic. I hate traffic. So I think development is fine.
but we really need to think about two laning and getting the roads more clear than we are And maybe planning for future development, but also maybe partnering with some of their
industries that are in this area like someone was talking about. Fpnl well, why not build a solar farm out there?
make money and let's make money. Let's develop future technology.
partner with florida tech. Partner with university. Partner with the industries that are in this area.
rocket technology. We have it here. There's no reason for us to not make money on this land.
I mean, maybe I'm stupid, but I think we should make money. We should rent that land, and we should also look for the low income people.
I mean, we have homeless everywhere in palm bay. We need to put 1% of that land, at least for low income and homeless people.
I mean, no one likes them in their neighborhood. I understand that. I deal with them all the time.
I don't like them in my neighborhood either. But I'm a man of the gospel. I believe you should treat your other man like you treat other people.
so I think they're our brothers and sisters. We need to treat them right.
feed them. You know, maybe partner with daily bread.
why not have a daily bread in palm bay? I went there two weeks ago, so at least 30, 40 people sleeping on the streets.
if that doesn't make you sad, mr. Mayor. Seeing that's possible.
living on the street. It makes me sad. My eyes tear up the idea of one homeless person in this great country.
sleeping on the street should make everyone in this room mad. When we develop malls and places like that, less than 10% of them occupied.
why not? Look for homeless opportunities. There are places like the dignity bus.
teaching people skills, you know, hospitality skills, other skills.
there's a ton of technology that is out there, and we have the places to do it.
eastern florida, florida tech, nassau, right down the street. Disney. Now we have it, so why not look into it?
thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you two to be patient with me.
the first thing I want you to express is I want everyone's input.
if you're willing to speak, I want to hear from you. But I'm going to try to do this by section.
I had gone to my left, and so I want to I want to work on my left and then go right Across.
so I'm going to go to my left and I'm going to ask there was a gentleman that raised his Hand on this on my left side.
yes, sir. You come on up and then I'm going to work in that section.
and then after I'm completed, I'm going to just go across.
good evening. My name is chris jones. I currently live 2524 haverhill road northeast.
my parents moved here from orlando when my mom was pregnant with me because orlando in The 80s wasn't the place they wanted to raise a kid.
they moved, bought a house, krome avenue, over in the port malabar country club area.
when I was three years old, my neighbor, four doors down, was a man named william cruz.
some people might remember him. One day he decided he was going to shoot his wife.
shots went to a shopping center down the street, shot another woman, some police officers.
that was the 80 seconds. That was in the nice part of palm bay. This has been happening granted on a larger scale currently these days.
but there's been problems all over.
when that happened, they decided they were going to move to southwest palm bay bought a House on white cloud, off garvey, garvey and malabar road was a dirt
road. There was nothing where madeline landing is now but cow farm all the way to the Shopping center at malabar and minton.
it was a kmart. A couple other things. You know, there was nothing.
so I've seen this city explode over my lifetime.
um, I'm sure a lot of y'all remember early to early to mid 2000 when bayside lakes Started really experiencing a boom in the population.
it was a large influx of property crime there. People getting houses broken into middle of the day.
it wasn't in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't in the middle of the night. It was in neighborhoods in the middle of the day.
the only two ways that that really people solved it. People installed cameras and the police started making a larger presence out there and The crimes dwindled off.
more recently, 2017, 18 ish, I believe, as trail park over in northeast, I fished there a Lot.
there's some hiking trails through the woods. There was a lot of problems with.
people going in there committing inappropriate acts with each other in the woods.
the only way that that problem solved itself, the city went out there, cleaned it up a Little bit, spent some money on it, started monitoring the area, more police presence.
now, I like the ideas of building something to benefit the community out at the compound.
but be it commercial or industrial or residential crime follows people.
there has been more crime the more people have moved in here over the years.
it's just going to happen when a city increases in size.
the only way that you're going to combat it I've seen multiple times in my life the city Has tried to shut the compound down.
they put speed bumps out there that have been chiseled and ripped out of the road. They put posts in the road trying to stop people from going out that had just been cut Off.
it's not going to work, but.
you can help it. By just. Keeping the police out there.
you know, keep the bad people out. Thank you. Anyone.
yes, sir. Step right up.
and sir, back there, you're next.
yes, sir. You. Uh, james kennedy.
five years ago, I moved to 746 derby avenue.
currently just sold the house because my father in law had to go to assisted living Facility.
um. I've watched my kids and my friends kids grow up in the compound, learn how to Actually become
young men and young women learn how to ride four wheelers, fish, shoot bows and arrows With their dads.
like, we don't want to get rid of that. Like I met some of my best friends, like people I call family that are more family than My real family that I hang out with every day that we go riding with.
I mean, I have to agree with what my friend chris said.
the more you build up, the more crime is going to follow. I know this. I spent a long time behind.
I spent a few years locked up. All right. So people are going to do it regardless.
I mean, we got to try to slow it down. But my point is, like, you got to keep a recreational area around because they're Starting to ban all recreational areas from south florida.
atvs are completely banned in south florida. And since that happened, crime went up a lot.
I moved from west palm five years ago after I told I wasn't going to walk again.
work at accident work. Moved up here, got a job, learned to walk, bought a truck and had a kid.
and that's. Is. I mean, the the garbage is, you know, the dumping, the crime.
that needs to stop. Something needs to be figured out. I agree that we need to build a little bit of everything for somebody.
people need their rockets. I mean, we all work together. Like when we ride and they're out there shooting, we slow down for them.
we pass them with some distance. Safety like that just rules need to be integrated.
and it's. I ain't got much more to say about that.
thank you. Thank you. So are you next? Good evening.
thank you. My name is terry johnston. I'm a 23 year resident here in palm bay.
I live in 1497 beach street southeast.
so my kids grew up out in the compound, you know, taking the dogs out there, walking, Riding four
wheelers at one time. While it wasn't promoted, it was allowed, I guess, by the department police department at One point when it wasn't quite as bad as it has gotten
over the years. Polk county had a very similar problem to what we're experiencing now, Where residents were speak speak on the
mic, sir. We're residents had issues with people riding four wheelers and whatnot.
polk county took a parcel of their land and turned it into an atv park that was Completely funded by grants as well as
private personal citizens. So no, no money out of the county budget in their case.
and then after they opened it, they have a day use fee, which is very minor for residents In polk county that
then funds the operation of it yearly. And they're in a net net mode now where it doesn't cost any money to the county budget at All.
they have a very beautiful place that people can go and ride their atvs and whatnot, and It's a very
managed and safe environment.
that's all. Something we may want to look into as a city.
thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in this section wish to speak?
anyone else in this section wish to speak. Seeing none, I'm going to move into this section.
anyone wish to speak at this point. Come on up. Anyone else in this section.
good evening, mr. Mayor. Good evening, council. My name is randall olszewski. I live at 348 brook street, northeast.
I'm a palm bay boy. Boy. Not born, but raised. As I talk to you guys about all the time, I was a palm bay high kid, so palm bay high Kids hung out in the woods in the town of malabar.
we called it the flat tracks. All the bayside high kids hung out at the compound. Kids fine woods.
when woods exist and they're accessible, they find them and they go to them.
you know, when mufasa took simba and he put him on the rock and he said, out there is the Shadows at the end of the pridelands don't go there.
what did it take? The next scene, uncle scar said, well, there's nothing cool there.
so you have young men and women that are, you know, here living the florida lifestyle.
I've got hair like me, maybe got tan skin like me, whatever it is. And we like to tinker with motors, like do things, and you go, there's a forbidden Territory at the end of the pride lands don't go to it.
what's there? Streets. Really, really straight streets where you can test if you want to be a drag Racer.
really curvy streets. If you want to be a drifter, it is literally a trap for the activity that you're trying To prevent.
you have to take this weakness that we have within our city and this threat to our Community, and you have to turn it into our community's biggest strength.
now, what's been understated this evening thus far is this map right here has a checkered Line down the middle of it that checkered lines to indicate where the saint johns heritage
parkway is supposed to go. Okay. And will it happen a while from now?
soon, who knows? But it's supposed to go along that checkered line, which is going to bifurcate the Compound, establish the fact that it's going to get cut into two pieces and figure out
what you want to do on this side. That would be the. East, right?
that probably does need houses and development. You could actually pave the roads of 49 and you could just continue the community.
if you're on the west side of saint johns heritage parkway, that is not going to be Anything.
it should be recreational facilities where all these young folks can grow up learning how To ride dirt bikes.
I just bought my first mini bike if I go out to mr bill batton's property, which is rural Residential and he lets me, I can go tear it up on there.
no problem. We could talk about that. We need more rural residential property.
mr batten I'll be talking to you. But the point is, if we have a facility that folks can pay their right, you know it's Going to cost a nominal fee.
you're going to be a member very similar to the port malabar fire.
you know, the gun club. The point is, we need to get recreation out there where everybody Can do everything they're doing, the jeeps, they run.
you know what's better than a jeep? A bronco? The broncos let the broncos run, let the dirt bikes run.
let it all happen. But we need to embrace the fact that we can't simply just put up barriers.
we need to draw lines just like that checkered line and say, we're going to do something Here and over here.
we're going to put it together and we are going to embrace what it is the the beautiful, The edge of the shadow land, the nice scenes, everything that it is mr batten's previous
point, the floodplain edge that it is. We need to determine the two sides.
address both. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak from this section?
anyone else wish to speak on this section?
ma'am. Did you just raise your hand? Okay. You would just.
you're just waving at me. Okay, so now we're going to the dead center.
so you're first. And then you're next, sir, with the cover in the shades on the cover.
my name is fred coffer. I live on osmosis drive. My property is adjacent to the compound.
I've lived there for 22 years. And it's been a nightmare.
uh, it's, you know, I'm not so much concerned. Our problem is not what's going on in the compound.
it's the people getting to the compound. There's off road vehicles going up and down ozmosis drive right now.
it's dozens a day. And I have to commend the palm bay police for their efforts in the last couple of years.
it has. Uh, gone down drastically.
whereas a weekend day before, up to a couple of years ago, I'd have 2 to 300 illegal Vehicles by my home in one
day. Uh, and I'm not exaggerating. And the videos that don showed you, that's the soundtrack of my life.
that's what's going on every day in front of my home. And these people that talk about, well, I own property in the in the compound.
they might own a quarter acre out there. They just use that to unload their vehicles and then ride for miles.
you know, just because you own a quarter acre and a half an acre out there doesn't Doesn't give you free rein to run through the compound.
but my biggest issue is the traffic up and down, osmosis of illegal vehicles, no Licenses, no insurance, no tags.
some people think that they can avoid the law by staying on the shoulder of the road, Which means they come through my front yard.
uh, we've dealt with this for 22 years, and, you know, we finally started getting some Response from the palm bay police.
but it used to be a joke. You know, so it has gotten better.
but my biggest issue is the illegal traffic on our city streets.
hold on. The gentleman has the mic and I hear so many folks, you know, speaking.
I'm not sure what you're saying, but I'm giving everyone an opportunity to share your Thoughts.
let's be mindful and respectful for everyone that's speaking on the mic.
carry on, sir. But like I say, I've dealt with it for a long time and it's it's constant Noise.
it was it went on last night. We had had off road vehicles by my home up until 2 a.m.
last night. And this is this is not unusual. This is this is daily.
you know, so it's I do like I say, I would like to commend palm bay police for what They've done here recently.
they've actually started ticketing people where they used to just ignore it.
but thank you for your time. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak.
from the middle. Sir, you were next. So come on up.
anyone else after him. That's in the middle.
hello, mayor. Council. My name is rick. The mike close.
my name is rick campbell. Thank you so much. I'm a newbie here from pennsylvania.
a year and a half ago, I didn't know there was such thing as a compound.
it is beautiful. I go there almost every day.
I'm a model airplane. It would be a shame.
right. He stopped.
add the king orange goes on there every year. Do you know what that is? Say again, sir.
the king orange. You notorious? Free flight model airplane.
we want, sir. Free flight model airplanes. Okay. They fly there every year to a thing called the king orange.
it's been going on for ever. And to shut them people down would be a shame.
I've been doing this since I was six years old. I'm 79.
and it's an amazing place to me.
thank you. Well, thank you. Anyone else.
wish to speak. Okay. So I've got. Yes, ma'am.
come on up and then you're next, ma'am.
good evening. My concern, and I'm sure is with everybody's concern is we all have an Emotional tie out here.
a lot of us have grown up here. Most of us have moved from other areas for the serenity that southwest palm bay had to Offer.
we go ahead and make that just industrialized out there.
we need to think hard about how we are going to build it and what we're going to present Out there.
because if you look at our industrial areas and what type of infrastructure we have Presented to palm bay over the years.
it's not what we want out there. It's going to create additional traffic, which you all know.
and anybody that lives here knows that the traffic is horrible.
I moved from orlando to get away from that traffic and it has followed me.
it takes me 45 minutes to get to eau gallie boulevard to go to work because you have to Work in melbourne if you're
not retail or a small doctor's office, the hospital which is palm bay or you're you're Moving and or
harris or grumman, you're working in melbourne. So it's 45 minutes to work and 45 minutes home from work.
that's at 615 in the morning. That's how bad the traffic is here.
so when you're looking at three routes in to one designated area and you're talking about Industrializing this, what number
one, what is that going to do to everybody's property value out there?
and the serenity and people talk about the noise now from the atvs or the people riding Their their dirt bikes.
think about dump trucks and cars going by your home every day, all day.
that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm phoebe cooper. I live at eight, nine, seven. Osmosis drive.
sorry, I can't. I've had a stroke. I walk every day and I have yet to see.
and I've driven out there in the so-called compound.
there are no street signs. The signs that there are are shot up and there are no no trespassing signs.
you can't tell what's private property, what is owned there.
I haven't seen a no trespassing sign ever.
and and I've lived there almost a year.
there. The police can't tell the other people who come out there and ride their atvs.
can't tell. They can't they can't tell what property they're supposed to be on and what They're not.
and there used to be street signs. Once you pass our house, which is the last house in the compound.
there are once you get a block away, there are no street signs.
there are occasionally there are strip bars which at least had the dot put up.
put down. A but, you know, there are no stop signs to go with a stop bars.
if somebody had an accident there, they could sue the city of palm bay.
and anybody with a mutcd on their desk would win.
you'd be writing a big check. So. That.
that. That's my $0.02 worth. Well, I appreciate you coming, ma'am, and.
and sharing your $0.02 worth. That was more like a nickel, ma'am.
thank you so much. Anyone else center.
center. Anyone in this area. Okay, I'm shifting over to my right.
I see this young lady back there and then ms.. You're next. That's right.
you're after her. You're next.
hello, my name is robin gallo. I moved here from new york a year and a half ago.
I was actually at the last meeting in regards to jeremiah brown and trayvon, who were Killed at the compound.
so I felt that the last time I was at my microphone, I didn't have any questions answered.
so now that we have a 44 year old woman whose body was found, burned and cut up and Thankfully we did catch the killer.
where is the safety? And I just walked in, so I've only heard some comments for like the last lady said, There's no trespassing signs.
and if rvs or whatever those bikes are is more important than the safety of people in Weeds getting killed and not being found,
what? Do you want me to suggest that we have, like, the last meeting that surveillance Has to be put up or patrolmen have to be over
there? That's a question. No, ma'am. This this this exchange is you provide the feedback, you get an opportunity to Speak.
we did cover some of that that you were speaking of regarding and I'll probably have Staff recap, but you go ahead and with your comments, you have two minutes.
so it would be the last thing I said, the last meeting that somebody or more police Should be patrolling the area.
and if there is no trespassing signs, I mean, am I allowed to ask if there was any if There's any updates on the jeremiah and trayvon case?
I mean, there's a guy or a girl, older man, younger kid, we don't know who killed two Kids and they're just roaming around.
and it's funny, but it's not. I went to petco the other day and I met a woman and she said she will never walk her dog Over there again.
so now it's turning into a fear, whereas other kids want to drive their little bikes over There.
so I would just like to see. It either cut down and more police activity or surveillance.
so therefore, there is safety, because if you don't have answers on trayvon and jeremiah, It's been since december, december, january, february.
so we're going on for months now. And that murderer is just out there roaming the streets to do it again.
do we have to wait for another one?
and since you have no answers, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
mr. Right. She felt, I'm going to have you come up and give us a status update on on the Case if if you're able
to. Good evening, madam sherman. Thank you for the opportunity.
my name is isabel wright. I am the president of the florida hispanic chamber of commerce. I'm a little late because I was at the compound and I went there specifically to look at Some of the things that people were talking about.
for the past three weeks, I've been researching the 20 parks that we have in the state of Florida that are atv parks.
the majority of them are either county, state or city owned.
the gentleman was mentioning the polk park, which is a is a beautiful combination of Privately owned land and city owned like what we have right
now. So the people that own the land, they're getting a usage fee or a deduction in taxes In order for them to allow the park to happen.
we as a community need this park. We need an atv park so that we can ride it.
my husband and I, my daughter, my six year old grandson, we all have our own atvs and we Do go to the compound and it'll be very hurtful to our community not to have that.
I think it would be a very good combination between the the water park that melbourne is Putting up and us having this atv park.
we are going to get an influx of of tourists that are going to want to have the park to Go to the pool and all that and then come over here and
ride. So the majority of the parks that we researched were parks are open on fridays, Saturdays, sundays.
some of them are open every day. They have partnered with outside companies to provide atvs.
they do have yearly fees. If you want to become members, they have a $10 fee per person, $40 per vehicle.
then you rent. They have showers. They have everything in different parks, have different things.
I think if we invest our time into looking at the the way that the other cities have the The parks put together, it would be an amazing income producing
situation for the city of palm bay. I understand that there's people that live around there and they're complaining about the Traffic and all that.
but if we have this contained fenced in with paying customers that want to use it, I Don't believe that they're going to have people riding up.
and if you take that away from us, what else are we supposed to do to entertain our Families when we don't have nothing in palm bay?
I understand crime has been committed there, but I'm originally from los angeles.
in miami. Crime is committed everywhere and unfortunately, unfortunately things happen And we respect what happens.
but we can't close down a whole situation because of things that have happened with with Crime.
we really need to look at the bigger picture. This community needs that park in order to enjoy.
we barbecue out there, we have fun and it can be a clean environment.
it doesn't necessarily have to be a criminal activity for everything that happens at that Compound.
and I really hope that we continue to evolve and to look into this possibility and look At the patterns from other cities and other counties and
make the compound something like what they have. And I do have the information available.
people sign waivers so the city will not be charged for anything. Thank you, sir.
you raise your hand. Yes, sir. Come on up.
my name is carlos mccauley and I live at 1964 brookside street northeast, and I'm a Rocketeer with the spaceport rocketry association.
in 1999, I was working for melbourne airport shuttle and most of our clients were living In vero beach.
and I came to the conclusion that palm bay is laid out like a labyrinth, like a maze.
and there are only like several routes that will take you south to vero beach, where most Of our clients were, and I'd have
to take them to orlando. And so several times during my engagement at melbourne airport shuttle, I had to drive Through mount palm bay
traffic at rush hour. And I couldn't believe how impossible it was that I spent like an hour on between palm Bay road and emerson trying to go north or trying
to go south, and it was impossible. There ought to be more ways to get traffic moving north and south and connect to one Another.
kind of like vero beach is laid out like a like a grid and palm bay is laid out like a Labyrinth, like it's just a bottleneck here and there and
everywhere. It's impossible. But anyway, as as a spaceport rocketeer, I spent a lot of time looking for rockets.
and I'm always going through the off road areas and looking for rockets that like to hide In the tall grass.
there they lay down and the grass is like four feet high. They're impossible to find.
but recently.
I've noticed that I've been coming across.
atv trails, I suppose, or whatever, through these.
non-road areas. But that's you know, I understand atvs go wherever they want.
and it's, you know, it's not a problem. Nobody lives there. There's nobody to complain.
and they should you know, they should do what they they have to do.
but I think what needs to I think what is needed is designated areas where.
these people can be. You know, and, you know, we have a lot of cooperation with the atvers and us finding our Rockets and whatever and doing our
thing, and they should be able to do their thing. But I just think that we just need a little more communication operation, cooperation, And I think everything would be good.
thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in this section?
this young lady, is it? Okay. I've got two right here.
ma'am, you want to go first? And the young lady in the hat.
that's. With you as well, I believe.
man with the hat. You're next. Okay. Thank you for coming.
thank you for having me. Get the mic close to you. I have set here.
and I have listened to the ones that have come to this panel and they have talked about How beautiful the compound
is, how wonderful it is, and they've also spoke of things to be done and
changed with the compound, meaning building something, you know, having so many houses, Then having maybe some
commercial buildings and all of that nature. I'm here.
because several said once or several said about, you know, wherever you go, crime is Going to follow you.
more people come in, crime is going to follow. I'm here to say that it was my grandson, my grandson, jeremiah brown, that was
killed with his friend.
on christmas night. Now, I know people are talking about riding their atvs and their dirt bikes and going out There fishing and all of that
stuff. I can't help but say it's nothing but evil.
and I say evil because there has been so many deaths that has taken place out there.
and I'm willing to bet and I don't have the money to pay, but I'm willing to bet there's A corpse that is out there today.
as the gentleman just said, there are some areas where the grass is high up, some is low, And people have drove over those, you know, with their dirt bikes and all of
that. That's fine that people have to find an outlet to have fun.
okay. But what it boils down to that compound is being nothing other than a death Sentence for many, many
people. And even if what everybody is talking about that should be happening or should be Done about this compound, that's not going to be solved
like tomorrow, noah's ark wasn't built in a day.
okay. So that's not going to be solved. And at the same time, you got to remember, as long as that compound is open and as long as There is nothing that's being done
to secure from anybody getting in until there has a plan has come up, there has been an Accurate plan
to come up with something to start happening. I don't think it's right for it to still be open for people to just go in there and do This, that and the other.
the lady talked about she has land. She's had land since 2003.
okay. For for for for whatever the reason is.
there's nothing built there though. It's grass. So yes, you do have people that have land there, but there's nothing being done.
and I feel like it should be closed down until ones decide what they're going to do about That land.
thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Speak.
hello, my name is crystal brown. I live at 1624 javier street in palm bay, florida.
I am the mother of jeremiah brown, and I'm so happy y'all had this meeting tonight.
I've been waiting to get in front of you all.
I hear what everyone is saying and it's fine on what y'all want to do. But like my mom said, it's a problem now.
okay? It's going to take some time for y'all to put all of this in motion.
so in the meantime, what do we do? I visited the compound in the last couple of weeks.
someone told me that the city is supposed to be cutting the grass so many feet from the Roadway.
that isn't happening. The grass is so high out there.
in the meantime, maybe y'all should cut the grass, make it all even.
so you can see straight through with that grass being high on, you know, basically all All out there, you can't see what's going on.
you can't properly monitor it. Syndromes out there.
occasionally, you know, to monitor the area. But like my mom said, it's probably quartz out there.
we just heard of a lady being buried, burnt up. You know, like, come on, that's fine.
I don't care what y'all do. I know. Like, I really do not. But I feel like it's a problem.
now, put lights out there. Put poles out there with lights. Light it up.
it's dark out there, you know, and it's just unfortunate that people have lost their Lives.
just a second, ma'am. I'm gonna ask for you all to please honor this young lady and pay close attention to what She's saying.
we owe her that much. We owe that much respect.
carry on, ma'am. Please. Carry on, man.
so, yeah, so like I was saying, you know, maybe put poles up there, you know, like just Light it up, you know?
and like I said, it's not a bad idea to kind of cut that grass. What is it going to hurt in the meantime?
you know, just to have an open field so you can see clearly what's going on and someone Is not going to commit a crime because it doesn't matter if it's day or night.
if a person wants to commit a crime, they're going to do it, you know? But with that grass being so high, it hides a lot of stuff, you know, and you can't Really see.
so that's all I wanted to say. You know, again, I'm, you know, I don't care what y'all do with it out there, you know, But I feel like in the meantime, yes, more patrol, more policemen, you
know, cut the grass, put lights out there, you know, and just try to make it a little Safer for the ones that are trying to go out there to enjoy, I
guess, the serenity of, you know, as they see it. But, you know, I appreciate you letting me come up here and talk.
well, we appreciate you coming, ma'am. And even moreover, just know that our prayers have been of peace for your family.
I appreciate we we are truly sorry for the loss of life that we had out there, the two The two lives that were taken and there were young
lives. So we we really appreciate you showing up and sharing your input.
thank you so much. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it.
madam sherman. I think it would be.
is it okay to have police chief come up and perhaps provide a status update?
yes, I'll have them come up. There's not a whole lot we can share, but. Yes, ma'am. Whatever can be shared.
I know that there's sensitivity, but there was a young lady that brought it up.
and so we have family members here. Good evening. So correct city manager's is correct on that.
as the rest of you guys are aware as well. There's not much I'm going to provide this evening with regards to certain questions that Were asked or demands that were asked by individuals outside of the family as recently as
in the beginning of the meeting, I spoke with the family and we are updating as much as We can in terms of what we have to provide and can provide because it is an open
investigation. What I can guarantee and tell everyone, which I've been telling the family And speaking with the family is that.
the case for jeremiah and trayvon is and will continue to be until it is has a positive Resolution and outcome for jeremiah and trayvon and the family.
a priority for us. We haven't stopped working it. So we are continuing to collaborate with the state attorney's office and with other Organizations to ensure that we get what we want in terms of that.
and that's justice for both of them. That's all I can add at this point. Thank you, chief, in that.
thank you, sir. I appreciate your comments. Thank you. We did have another young lady that wished to speak.
come on up, ma'am.
good evening. My name is taekwondo gibson. Born and raised right here.
palm bay 1386. Port malabar boulevard was my residence for about 30 years.
that's where my mom continues to reside. My cousin just came up.
her son was jeremiah, who lost his life out there in the compound.
my biggest thing is I feel like it's a lot of selfishness that goes on.
I'm sorry. I was kind of toying with myself about even coming up here to speak.
so I'm a little my nerves are on end and I'm not always like that, but can relax.
yes, sir. But a lot of selfishness.
when I sit in this meeting tonight, I think the bigger picture is our children, our Future.
when we came here for our initial meeting, I forgot.
earlier this year I made a comment about our kids, our future.
when I look in this room, we're all working people.
we got kids, some of us got kids, grandkids, great grandkids.
okay, so what are we doing with that generation? Because as we can see, they're perishing.
they're losing their life to gun violence, drugs, the streets and whatever else can Swallow them whole.
we got the compound eye. Like I said, born and raised right here.
I've had several visits to the compound. Did I do anything illegal out there?
no. I went out there with friends growing up. We rode our dirt bikes, atvs, whatever.
we had a good time. Okay. But at the end of the day, these generations and times have changed.
something needs to happen. Of course it's not going to happen overnight.
we get it. But what's going to happen, like expeditiously, you know, like before the year Ends
type of thing. An older gentleman got up here and he said, we've had these meetings before.
20 years ago we spoke about the same thing. There's no reason why this issue should be going on 20 years later where this land is Just sitting there.
nothing happening but sin death.
it's not the same. It's just not the same.
I have to agree with the gentleman that came up here and said one half of it where the Where it floods that area, make it into an
atv area, keep something for them to do because god forbid, we don't need it like west Palm.
we don't need it like miami because they will ride and we know that the cops can't catch Them.
the other half do something other than put houses. We got enough of that, enough traffic.
so, you know, just my thing is, you know, I appreciate your time and I respect it.
so thank you all. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak?
yes, ma'am. Thank you, mr.
mayor. Eileen sepp from 1234 rail road northeast.
and I've been listening to what everybody has been dreaming about for this and every Problem, you know, you always look for the
solutions. But the one thing I didn't hear was how we're going to get these things done.
nothing's going to happen without a huge infusion of cash.
and I believe that what we need to do is find someone who's willing to develop that to Put the parks in.
I would love to see like a botanical garden or places where people could walk or a small Town where there were shops where you could just.
you know, hang out and meet people.
it's possible to do it, but it takes work and it takes doing research and finding people, Companies,
whatever. Who would be willing to do that? I would like to see the compound be a landmark where people would come to palm bay just To see what we've done with
it. And that's pretty much all I can say other than I think the notion that crime follows You is a horrible
notion. I lived in neighborhoods where nothing ever happened.
everybody knew everyone. And. No life can can be put down to just a crime where someone steals a candy
bar. It's so much more serious. No life, young, old or whatever is worth risking by leaving it as it is.
something needs to be done, and I certainly would like to help make that happen.
thank you. Anyone else wish to speak.
seeing none. At this time, I'm going to end the public comments section of our workshop And want to entertain the
discussion of council. Madam sherman, I'd like to just ask, you know, the some of some of the questions that came Up regarding drone and who's better
qualified to answer those questions. With? Is it in particular with the faa and.
yes, ma'am. I'll defer to the city attorney to start. Well, thank you, ma'am.
well, as far as the use of drones, florida statute is pretty comprehensive as far as the Use of drones by law enforcement.
generally speaking, law enforcement agency is not permitted to use a drone to gather Evidence or other information.
there are some exceptions, but there are very specific and limited.
and as far as using a drone to monitor traffic, to see traffic violations, they can, but They then can't ticket anybody based upon that.
but it's really government really did not want, especially here in florida, to Essentially have police be able
to monitor and surveil people from a place where they would normally not be seen.
so there there is a lot of restrictions and it's not something that's going to be legally Permissible in most cases.
in other words, it's not like the nsa that they can actually look down on us pretty much.
is that what I'm understanding? Yes, sir. I just wanted to make sure we we understood the difference.
thank you, ma'am. I wanted to. Yes, yes.
okay. Follow up, madam attorney, considering the the compound as its current state.
would that apply? Would those rule would apply? Not having any current, you know, housing out there not having how would would that would You give us a little more detail on that?
a person is presumed to have a reasonable expectation of privacy on his or her privately Owned real property.
if he or she is not observable by persons located at ground level in a place where they Have a legal right to be, regardless of whether she is observable from the air or with the
use of a drone, you have to realize all of those lots are privately owned property. It doesn't matter whether there is a house or a structure, you have a right to be.
under florida law, to be on your property without somebody surveilling police, Surveilling you without cause.
certainly there are instances where we believe that somebody is a terrorist.
you know, fire has the ability and there are others. But generally speaking, you're not going to be able to use anything from a surveillance Using a drone out there.
you have to be able to see people normally at the level. So it really is not an effective method as far as being able to get evidence and be able To use it in any type of prosecution.
thank you, ma'am. I wanted to just cover the drone aspect to that.
so thank you, madam attorney. Council, what are your thoughts?
I'll start with you. Councilman johnson. Thank you, mayor. So another thing I know our police department and other police Departments have looked into it and it was mentioned by mr.
gorm shotspotter technology. We're seeing an increase in that. That's something I would like for us to, you know, look into because, you know, shots Fired regardless out there is illegal and shouldn't be happening.
we have we have the port malabar gun range, we have frog bones.
we have the gun range down in indian river. So there's plenty of spaces in regards to the shooting aspect.
so I think shotspotter technology is a quick look that we can do.
other than that. And this is more long term.
I know I myself have spoken with and you all have too spoken to the gentleman from in Regards to emerald lakes.
but I spoke to them about the compound as well as other applicants that are looking at Developing in the city of palm bay in regards to land assemblage, buying up multiple lots
and developing it. That's why I think possibly looking at opportunity zone or to your point, mayor, rezoning This area can be a benefit.
so I think that's something we need to take into consideration, too, whether we, you Know, direct staff or our economic development team to look into companies that operate
atv parks or companies that operate what we're looking for.
we have other industries that are looking from the space industry, looking at the Compound.
so there's no reason why two mr olshevsky's point why we it can't be a multiple pronged Approach in regards to addressing this area.
yes, it's going to be lengthy, but that can be the long term approach. In regards to the short term, um, our police have, you know, so much more to cover with The city.
but what we can do is look at technology and utilize it to our, you know, our advantage.
so those are my comments right now. Mayor, I appreciate all the dialog that we've had here.
I know it's been a long few months, especially mrs mrs brown I'm looking directly at you, Ma'am.
I know I can never be be able to fathom what you and your family are going through, but We're here with you and I know it's been multiple months since december 25th, but we're
still here for you. So we're really trying to work towards getting this resolved. And the chief told you and I know he talks to you out, you know, outside of this, like This is their top priority and it's ours as well.
and to everybody else, this is our top priority, too. So we appreciate the dialog that you're having and continue to keep keep the contact and Keep the dialog going.
reaching out to the mayor, myself, anybody else. But in the meantime, this is what I see as the main thing is the shooting's out there.
so I think shotspotter technology is something of a quick thing we can look at.
mayor, have you researched some of the costs for that? Well well, that's where through procurement we can have a competitive bid to drive to Drive down the cost.
so. Yes, sir. Thank you. Does that conclude your comments? Yes, sir. That concludes my comments. Thank you. Councilman johnson deputy mayor.
thank you, mayor. Yeah. Let me start to speak to the family that lost the young man or the two gentlemen last December.
certainly our hearts goes out to you. And I want to specifically speak to the fact some of the comments that that were made.
and I truly sorry, I know it's easy to say, you know, keep it as is.
you know, it's a great place and this and that. All the comments that were made and I truly apologize.
and I know for one, that lost a family member that didn't that must have hurt to hear That the the notion of
diminishing a lost life, especially a young one.
I couldn't imagine being in your position. And certainly I didn't take that lightly.
and I want you to know, I heard you and everything is being done. We're doing the best we can and we're going to continue to work at it.
but but certainly councilman johnson mentioned quite a bit of of possible solution, which I would echo the same, I think land
use, the zoning aspect of it, those are within our purview that we may be able to act Right away and certainly looking
at possible private partner, private public partnership in some of the the the, you know, Aspect,
bringing something out there on some of the land that we use. I mean, we currently own, those are some possible quick, quicker move we can make.
but certainly it's going to take a long time. It's going to take a long time. I want the public to know that, yeah, we can certainly secure that area and also keep the Aspect of a great, great outdoor in terms of
to to have the ability to do some of these activities. I think we need to do both.
we need to secure both. But for the time being, I think it's important that we start looking into zoning, zoning And land use possibilities.
what we can do right now to to to move forward. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, deputy mayor.
and I'm going to begin my my comments. Listen to the family.
god bless you. You have a praying mayor. Ever since that horrible day of the news, I've been locking arms with you and I'm Declaring angels over your family to bring you peace and comfort.
the loss of life is a difficult process for anyone to endure, in particular when it's a Child.
and so know that I was grateful that the police chief came up and it is still the number One priority.
of his law enforcement officials. It is still heavy on each and every one of their minds and their souls.
and they've worked really hard on this investigation. It is an open investigation.
and I'm sorry that he can't share much more. But the assurance that it is a priority not only for the police department here in palm Bay, but for each and every one of us that sit up
here. Our hearts and prayers are with you of comfort when it comes to the issues at hand.
when you look at our next steps, I'm all across the board.
uh, the discussion of an fpl substation is critical to the growth of that area.
right, ma'am. And and so part of that.
I even want to expound it, not only to talk about the possibility of something like a Mesa park or an atv park.
mesa park. I think they have one down in I believe it's fellsmere or sebastian, but that That possibility does exist.
at the same time, we have to keep in mind that we have a corridor that we're responsible For.
and in that court, if we're talking about the compound, we're looking at what we can do With our own property, right?
and that is the future land use that is talking about what corridor we can control.
and right now, there's over 2900 acres. There's so many other owners.
but let's start looking within ourselves to see where we can go and fix part of and Provide a solution to this.
so there is. When it comes to our next steps, as we you've outlined, madam sherman, I'm truly Believing in all of these.
I believe that an economic development plan is going to be critical to that corridor.
I also believe that we have to re designate the future land use.
and part of that I love the fpl, like I like I mentioned. But here's something else.
will the citizens that own all these properties out there?
are they willing to invest in their own property like for decades now?
the properties have been valued at 1000 or $2000.
and and they're paying taxes of, I don't know, maybe less than less than $100.
right. What what are they willing to do? Most of them did that as an investment.
are they willing to do a special assessment so that they can create property values out There as well?
so those are thoughts that looking and like you said, councilman johnson, this is not a Next day fix.
this is a long range planning. Um, one of the individuals that spoke, she she hit the nail on the head.
she said 20 years. And what has happened within those 20 years.
so what are we prepared to do that 20 years from now when my great grandchildren are Here?
what what can be said that we did here collectively to make a change, a positive change In our community?
certainly an atv park is is part of that we're giving and even more so.
I love kamaraj mentioned an amphitheater. The use that we can have here with an amphitheater is huge.
so those are my thoughts and I'd love to go down that range of these next steps.
none of that amphitheater park cannot be done without dealing with a strategic plan and So on.
so madam sherman, you got kind of like a consensus here on with the three members.
what are your thoughts? What would you like for us to to tackle next?
uh, thank you, mayor, and I appreciate council's feedback and all the residents and Members of the community who spoke tonight.
I think we have a clearer sense of where you'd like us to go. I think a number of the options that we'll need to look at and do some more homework on Relate to the the big heavy lift, which relates to all the
individual leone properties and what are the financial mechanisms we can use to actually See some of that change.
so some of the things we mentioned that you actually just referenced, you know, whether We're looking at special assessments, whether we're going down a path of eminent domain,
you know, there's all these things that we can consider. And if you want us to just keep all those options on the table, then what we'll do is go Forward and start really digging into those and seeing what those costs are for some of
those things. And then bring back to you some strategies that we can offer for your Consideration and actual voting at a regular meeting.
ma'am, just to be clear, I'm good with special assessments in that in that process before We go down an eminent domain path.
eminent domain. And I don't want to I don't want to belabor this, but I from from what I understand and Let me let me get the city attorney's
feedback on this, madam smith.
um. When it comes to eminent domain, would that be more of for a park?
is a park for the greater good?
of this community. Is that is that part of the criteria for something like that?
yes, it can be a park. You can someone mentioned a community center.
those type of things. There is a number of things, as we discussed at the last workshop as far as what the Statute allows.
there certainly right of way additional road land for the roads, whether it land
for to expand upon utilities. All of those would be appropriate uses.
thank you, ma'am. Thank you for clarifying that. So it's on the table.
and I think all these next steps is something that we can all collectively agree on that We need to move forward in order to make a change.
but I love the idea of an atv park. The idea of having that type of community output recreation, if you will.
and that concludes my comments. Madam sherman you do have enough to move forward.
good. Okay. Well, outstanding. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in our workshop.
truly appreciate everyone's input. This meeting is adjourned.