City Council

Welcome to the city of St Petersburg City Council meeting. You are elected. Officials are Mayor Ken Welch. District one. Copley Curtis, District two and Council Vice-Chair Randy Gabbard. District three. Ed Montgomery. District four. Jack Hanna Whigs. District five. Deborah Sanders District six and Council Chair Gina Driscoll, District seven. John Mohammed and District eight. Richie Floyd. Morning everyone and happy New Year. We will call to order the first City Council meeting of 2023 and we will start with a roll call. Curtis here. Gathered here on. To Mary Hannah. Which Sanders? Driscoll. You're Muhammad. You're Floyd. You're in queue. We will have our invocation today given by Associate Minister Lee out hero from Pinellas Community Church. This will be followed by a moment of silence for to honor our fallen officers. That will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Well, everyone, please join me in standing. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me. Please bear hands. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning with hearts of gratitude and joyous expectation. Father, this is a new year. This is a new season for our city, for our people. God and I thank you for all the blessings that you have brought on this city. God, I pray that you continue to keep your hand upon this council and a very special blessing for those that you have anointed and appointed to come and join the fold today. God, I thank you for them. I pray that you continue to give all those on this council guidance, wisdom, strength, conviction, and open hearts and minds to receive the people of our city. Father, I thank you for all that you've done and all that you will do. For this council. For this city, and with hearts of gratitude and love and joy. We thank you. In this holy name, we say amen and. Please join me in a moment of silence as we are, as we honor Sergeant Tom and Spade, injure. End of watch. January 24th, 2011. Canine TAC Team Officers. Jeffrey A Yes awaits. End of Watch January 24th, 2011. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag. Of the United States of America. And to the Republic. For. Which it stands. One Nation under God, indivisible, with. Liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Minister, here for the beautiful invocation to begin. Our work for the city today. Council members, we have an agenda before us for today's meeting. There's one change. We are adding items. CB 20 and with that change, I'll entertain a motion for approval of approval. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the agenda with changes saying that there is no request for discussion. Will the clerk please open the machine for voting? Council members please enter your votes saying that all council members have voted with the clerk. Please tally and announce the votes. Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously. Thank you. Next, we have the Declaration of the election of City Council Chair and vice chair. In order to ratify this election, we do need to do a roll call vote. And if the clerk will please conduct that vote. Machine or a physical roll call, just want to confirm. I was asked. We do a roll call vote. We need to have the motion, Madam Chair, to approve the Slate. No move approval. Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second to approve this item saying that there is no request for discussion. Could we conduct a roll call vote, please? Vertis. Yes. Yes. Mt. Airy. Yes. Hannah. Yes. Sanders Yes. Bristol Yes. MUHAMMAD Yes. Lloyd Yes. Passes unanimously. Thank you. And with that passage, we will now go to the administration of the oath of office to our new city council chair and vice chair by the Honorable Steve de Berlin. Sir, I will give you the floor. I just. Come on. You move out of the way. Come on, family authority. Come on, come on. Come on. There's not much you can do. Now, let's see how you do this. Maybe six points. And there's a lot of people here. And then. And then I'm already. About that, too. And I. Walked in. You want to do this for me? Okay. Take my time. Okay. So maybe even coming in here. Let them love it. The game is perfect. Now please raise your right hand. I state your name and yes, please do I say Jenny. I, Deborah Sanders. Do solemnly swear or affirm. Do solemnly swear or affirm. That I am a citizen of the city of St. Petersburg, that I am a citizen of the City of St Petersburg. The state of Florida. The State of Florida and. The United States of America. And the United States of America. That is an officer of the city of St Petersburg. That as an officer of the City of St Petersburg. And a. Recipient of public. Funds and a recipient of public funds. I will support, protect and defend. Our support. Protect and defend. The Constitution and the government. Of the United States, of. The United States. And the State of. Florida and the state of Florida. That I am duly qualified to hold office. Under the Charter of the. City, under the Charter of the city and the. Constitution of the. State and the Constitution of the state. And that I will faithfully perform the. Duties and I will faithfully perform the duties. Of the Office of Vice. Chair of the Office of Vice. Chair of City Council. Of City Council. Of the City of Saint Petersburg. The City of St Petersburg, on. Which I am now about to. Enter. On which I am now about to enter. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. When you came to history so when we signed all these here, I don't know, Mr. Clark, I think you're making. Some the reasons that you're looking. Thank you. I want to make sure I bring together. Do you solemnly swear or affirm? Do solemnly swear or. Affirm that I'm a citizen of the city of St Petersburg. That I'm a citizen of the city of St Petersburg. The State of Florida. The State of Florida. The United States of America. And the United States of America. That is an officer of the city of St Petersburg. And the recipient of public. Funds and the recipient of public funds. I will support, protect and defend. The Constitution and government. Of the United States and the State of. Florida. Of the United States. In the State of Florida. That I am duly qualified. To hold office. That I am duly qualified to hold. Office. Under the Charter of the city. Under the Charter of the City and. Constitution of the State. And Constitution of the state. And that I will. Faithfully perform the duties. I will faithfully perform the duties. The Office of Chair of City. Council, the office of Chair of the Council. Of the City of. St. Petersburg of the City of St Petersburg. On which I am now about to enter. Congratulations. Yeah, right. Thank you again. Thank you. At this time, city council will take a ten minute recess. We'll take some pictures and make want to get across to. Mrs.. City Council. We'll come back to order. At this time, we will take up our consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? Move approval. Document. And, Madam Chair. Council member Mt. Airy. Yes. Before we take that up, I just wanted to congratulate you and, uh, on your chairmanship, and I just want to congratulate Councilmember Fig Sanders. Um, thank you all for your willingness to, to lead. And I also want to thank Judge Berlin for performing the swearing in ceremony for us today. Um, and before we move on, I did want to recognize former chair Driscoll for her leadership this past year on city council. This year has been this past year has been a difficult year a lot of contentious issues. And you handled them handled them very, very well. Um, leadership is, is tough. Leadership can be lonely at times. And when things are going well, people just kind of expect that everything's going well and just expect that. But when things go wrong, people look to blame somebody. And fortunately, unfortunately for us, things did not go wrong because you thought ahead. You had a you had a strategy in mind and you led with vision, integrity, clarity and purpose. And that's exactly what this council needs. So thank you first for serving. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And thank you for your kind words. Councilmember Curtis. Thank you, Chair. I also wanted to quickly thank former Chair Driscoll for her service being my first year. I'm very thankful for your leadership and for your service and your ability to really take a whole bunch of complex issues and help us through a first year. I'll say us, but certainly me through a first year. And so it's very appreciative and thank you for your service. And then very excited for Vice Sheriff Sanders and Chair Gabbard for for 2023 and what comes next. And I'm very excited and I would echo what Councilmember Molinari said about thank you for your willingness to serve and your willingness to lead. And from, from my standpoint, um, that's something I very much appreciate and just wanted to say thank you and I'm very excited for 2023. So thank you both. All three. Thank you. Thank you. Chair Councilmember Hannah us. And I also want to take the opportunity. First of all, congratulation, Chair Gabbard, Vice Chair Figg Sanders. And you know, last year was a first year for me and a lot of us actually on city council. And when you're a new person on city council, there is really a big learning curve and is so helpful. When we've had people that have been on city council for a while to kind of lead us and we learn through them, whether it's in city council meetings or in committee meetings. I think it's important for us new council members to kind of learn through, I guess through what you all go through. And it was challenging that times last year. And I will tell you, Council member Driscoll, I thought you did a great job handling some really tough meetings we had last year. I think people underestimate sometimes how hard it can be sitting up here dealing with all the issues, whether it's coming from people in the audience or even other city council members or whatever other issue is coming up at us at that at the same time, and it really takes a lot of skill to kind of go through sometimes a whole day meeting and keep focus on the issues because we tackle so many things at the same time. So we were sitting here, a city council members that as a chair, vice chair, and sometimes we don't have to think about those things. So I commend those that sit in that chair and do that. And I thought you did a wonderful job and I'm looking forward to your service. Vice Chair Figg Sanders. Thank you so much. First of all, let me say Happy New Year to everyone that's here. This is the first time that we've met. And of course, I am truly going to thank our past chair, Driscoll, for all that she had to deal with in 2022. But I'm looking so forward to the future. I'm looking so forward to what we're going to encounter in 2023. And I want to thank Chair Gavel and I look forward to working with you this year as my other colleagues in Mayor Welch and the administration and staff and I could not start the first council meeting of the year without saying we're here, we're going to serve. We hear you to our constituents. But more importantly, I want to thank Council member Curtis. Thank Council member Martin Mary. member Hannah wins thank council member Floyd, thank council member Muhammad for putting up with all of us in 2024. But more importantly, Council Member Driscoll you did it. Nice have you to sit back and enjoy what we as is Councilmember Hanwood said there's a lot that goes with that chair position and I know that council member Gavin is ready, but I just wanted to thank everyone for what we're about to embark on and I want to thank everyone for the outcomes that we had in 2022. We are Saint Pete and we got this. Thank you. And not seeing any other speakers. I was going to hold these comments until after we voted on consent. But since everybody else went ahead, I just wanted to say thank you all so much. The unanimous vote that happened during the committee meeting really was very humbling to me. I was very surprised because it hasn't gone that way the last few years and very taken aback and very honored. I want to thank every single one of you for your vote of confidence in me. Looking forward to working with Vice Chair Fig Sanders. I think we're going to make a fantastic team in leading this council into what's really a fresh start. No one is new anymore, even our mayor. We've all been here for a while now and we have a lot of issues coming forward, a lot of tough things to tackle ahead of us. But I know that we have the right people at the table. We have the right experience. We have the right diversity of thought that it takes to lead our constituents. So I'm really excited for this new year. One of the first responsibilities for those who don't know of a chair is to appoint the committees and to work with the mayor to appoint the inter-governmental committees and the city committees. And we do have a resolution that's about to be voted on for those inter-governmental committees. But the committees for city council, we actually don't have to vote on that, is at the discretion of the chair. And I want to thank all of you for putting in your request and the overwhelming desire to serve that I saw on those requests sheets. It was very challenging to juggle it and put it together like a puzzle and to make sure that all of the committees, you know, I think sometimes we have these really high level committees that get a lot of, you know, kind of spotlight, if you will. And then we have some others that maybe not so much that doesn't make them any less important. And all of you are willing to serve in all of your capacities, however you are asked, and I just want to thank you for that. I was incredibly impressed whenever I saw the depth of desire to serve. So thank you all for everything that you do. I would be remiss if I didn't think Judge Berlin, longtime friend of mine, constituent of district two who came and Suarez and today fantastic to see him. I want to thank my husband and my son. They weren't able to be here today, but I know that my husband especially was watching. So thank them for everything. Thank my legislative aide, Kim Amos, who was gracious enough to hold my Bible and holds a lot of things for me, figuratively and literally. So I want to thank her and then thank you, former Chair Driscoll, for your service to our city, for the year that you gave us of your time and your dedication, and looking forward to seeing what you do in the future as well with our council. So thank you all so much. And with that we have a motion on the floor to approve our consent agenda. Clerk Can you open the vote, please? Council Members Cast your vote. Madam Chair, the motion to. Approve the consent agenda. Passes unanimously. Okay. We will now move on to open forum. Please read the rules. If you wish to address City Council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individuals wishing to speak may sign the open form sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open form must be limited to issues related to the city of Saint Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. And in order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given 3 minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address City Council through the Zoom meeting, you must use a raise hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter Star nine on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed when it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address at the conclusion of your comments or when you have reached the three minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item, regardless of the method of participation use. Normal rules apply including the three minute time limit on comments, the requirement that any presentation material must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of decorum. If live public comments is disrupted by violations of the rules and decorum, the chair is authorized except public comments by alternate means, including by email only. And Madam Chair, we do have some speakers. Okay, if you're called to at a time, please. And when they call your name, please come to either podium. Fred Sherman and Frank Pure. You'll have 3 minutes to address. Counsel, please state your name and address. Good morning, Counsel. Thank you for seeing me. My name is Fred Sherman. I live at the one building downtown Saint Petersburg, 101st Avenue North Unit 3105 City Noise. You know, we all know that cities have noise and I love the city noise. So I want to be clear that I got no problem with city noise. I have a big problem with a school bell. So approximately three years ago, I embarked on an endeavor to rid downtown S.P. of a antique garage alarm at the ovation. This alarm is a school bell that is excessively loud and can be heard inside of my residence, inside other residences and places of business for blocks every direction on the streets of downtown, the audible signal from an exit garage should only be heard by the potential for detriment bikes directly in front of the garage. This school bell is in violation of current city noise ordinances. There is no city code or ordinance that requires a parking garage exit system, as evidenced by the city owned sundial garage directly across the street from the ovation in 2021, I filed a nuisance lawsuit against the ovation. The judge remained remanded us to mediation. In mediation, I offered to personally replace their noise polluting school bell with the same madness system that the one higher place signature McNulty placed just to name a few buildings utilize. I also added that if they agreed to change their bill immediately, I would donate $5,000 to any local charity of their choice and drop my lawsuit just to show what a good neighbor should be. Their offer was to have their school bell ring only one time instead of two times. Each time a car exits their garage. This was unacceptable to me. As the mediation was unsuccessful, I continued my lawsuit, but I amended the suit. It is now a class action suit with 25 residences and businesses that are now suing the ovation building. I have done extensive research into this school parking garage alone. It seems I'm not the first person to ask the city for help in this matter. I have letters from dozens of other downtown residences and businesses who are impacted by the school bells. Jarring noise hundreds of times a day. We are asking you to have the appropriate agencies begin immediately to enforce the following city noise ordinances and if not, follow the fines as outlined in code should be levied. I don't have the time to read you the noise codes, but the city environmental codes for noise pollution are clear. If you read these codes, they are in plain and simple language and are not subject to interpretation. We ask our mayor, our city attorneys and the police to immediately enforce these codes and if they're not obey to begin levying fines, the city has a clear obligation to enforce all codes. Thank you for your time. Yes, hi. My name is Frank Pau and I live at 101st Avenue North and I'm here today with a simple request, and that is to compel the city to enforce the law applying to the continuous noise ordinance violations that occur every single day at the ovation garage building. The specific ordinance that is clearly being violated hundreds and hundreds of times per day is Section 1153 loud and raucous noises, subsection ten, which specifically reads stationary, non-emergency signaling devices, sounding or permitting the sounding of any signal from any stationary bell chime, siren whistle or similar device intended primarily for non-emergency purposes from any place for more than ten consecutive seconds or for more than six such instances with any hourly period or before 7:30 a.m. or 6 p.m., it couldn't be any more clear. I've reached out to a number of people on the City Council, including yesterday, reaching out to the mayor's office, seeking a meeting. When I shared the ordinance with Lora Rowe, she responded to me in writing that it was being looked into and was very cordial, but said in her correspondence that quote, Our interpretation has been that the code, including this section, was not drafted with the intent to regulate an alarm warning pedestrians to oncoming vehicular traffic. Respectfully, attorneys know very well that something written in plain language means the intent is not relevant. According to the plain meeting rule. Absent a contrary definition within a statute, words must be given their plain, ordinary and literal meaning. If the words are clear, they must be applied, even though the intention of the legislator may have been different or the result is harsh or undesirable. Additionally, it's clear the city has spent considerable time contemplating the ordinance in great detail as it enumerates 16 specific exceptions, none of which even remotely apply to the bill. So I ask the simple question Why is the city refusing to enforce the law? Mr. Sherman made every neighborly attempt he offered to pay for the bill or pay for the new system. He offered to pay for the installation of the new system. He offered $5,000 in charity on behalf of the ovation, and they told him to go pound sand right when all diplomatic differences he filed a lawsuit and the mediator told Mr. Sherman the ovation will never replace the bell unless a judge orders it after he had spoken to the board of the ovation. The city has acknowledged this to me that this is not an emergency bell and that the ovation never obtained any special permits or waivers which are required by law in order to permit that sound. I simply wish for the city to do the right thing and enforce the law, given they've been aware of this since 2017 and we have evidence of that. I'm asking as citizens that they enforce the law on the books immediately, like today. This could easily be solved by sending a violation. Notice to the ovation. I was the founder and CEO of a company that started with 1200 dollars and I sold it for $2 billion a year ago. Know that I have the time, the creativity and resources to work with the city to solve real problems like homelessness or other issues that plague our city. In the absence, though, of the enforcement, this law, I'll be forced to leverage the full extent of my capabilities to file a writ of mandamus lawsuit against the city to compel it to act. Thank you, Madam Chair. Numerous speakers that will close open forum and we will go on to reports item F1. We are joined today by Michele Detwiler, the President and CEO of PARC Center for Disabilities, for an update. Good morning. Good morning. I'm going to let Brian introduce Chelsea and then I'll be up at the end. Thank you and good morning, council members. My name is Brian Rosi with PARC Center for Disabilities and I have the honor today to introduce you to one of my friends and one of our long term participants, Chelsea. Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. Council Member Brandy. Good morning. City of St Petersburg Council Members. My name is Chelsea Brown from Park and I am so excited to share our video of our inspired choir with you along with all of the programs and services that Park has provided for the last 70 years. A clerk is going to roll that for you. Hold on 1/2. I'm having been here this summer. I am, boy. I've be. I am going. I am. And I'm happy. And I'm excited to be. In The Lion. King. You know, am find it on my face. Oh, I am ready. Cause my and. This is a track. Listen, listen. It's your money. That you earn somebody for your. Painting. $850. It's you have your. Thank you so much for your continued support. Now you're going to hear from Whitney Stout about our caregiver relief program. Thank you. You're welcome. Good morning, everyone. My name is Whitney Stout. I am the manager of caregiver relief services at Park Center for Disabilities. Caregiver Relief Services as one of our programs at Park Center for Disabilities. And I'm going to share a little bit of information about that. Thank you, Kelly. Between having a disabled child that required my help for everything and a teenager starting to one run my own, I felt like I couldn't take any more. I actually considered ending my life. I made the call to a caregiver relief services. I was so nervous about someone else taking care of my child. The program has exceeded my expectations. Tracy Roberts, a parent, caregiver of one of our families here in Saint Pete. These are some of our children and caregivers. This is Tiny and Kai. This is Leland. Kai. Leland are four times more likely to be abuse. Victims of abuse and neglect than their typically developing peers. And the caregivers of Kai and Leland are 70% more likely to experience signs of clinical depression. And they go and helped Caregiver Relief Services steps into these homes to provide short breaks for these families that need it so much. Our families are 300% below the federal poverty level. So this is a service that they cannot afford to pay for themselves. That's where Parker Center for Disabilities steps in. Not only do we provide these vital, short scheduled breaks for these families, which allows the families to take a break and reset for caregiving, we also place an emphasis on crisis prevention rather than crisis intervention. We want to step in and intervene before a crisis happens. For example, we have paid for tires. We have families that didn't have access to services, so we pay for tires. We've gotten kids glasses. We have most recently had a family escape, a domestic violence situation. The daughter is a total care child and they did not have a handicap handicap accessible shower in their new home. You made a couple calls and now they have a full handicap accessible shower in their home. We're empowering these families to empower themselves. We are unique as well. Not only do we step in to help these families with their short breaks, we provide any kind of food, any kind of resources they might need. We partner with Feeding Tampa Bay and we do food drops off for these food drop offs for these families. We are unique. We match our providers with our families. We want to make sure we build that relationship goes along with the crisis prevention. We want to build the relationship with those staff in the home. So if something were to happen in the home, they're more likely to come to us. And the matching process is very important because. It's unique. Nobody else really does this. We are unique not only to St Petersburg, to the state of Florida, but nationally as well. We are very proud of this. In 2022, we were one of five programs selected in the whole country to their practices innovative and exemplary respite services. So we are very proud of that, which came at a great timing because in September of last year we lost our funding. We were a fully funded program that went to no funding at all. But with the amazing support of our executive leadership and our board of directors, they thought they saw how vital this program was to the community and are supporting us through it. So I speak to you today for your support. Our families live in St Pete. We are located in Saint Pete and we are very proud of this. We have a 98%, 98% prevention of I'm sorry, a 98% rate of prevention of abuse and neglect and out of home placements for foster care children. And if anybody is aware, with the child welfare system and Florida, it's a hot mess. So we want to keep these children in their homes safely. We also have a 99% satisfaction rating among our families in our program. We have a 40% retention rate with our families in our program. They love our service. They need our service. Not only do our staff step in as caregivers for their children, their friends, their family, they they become members of their families. And that's what we want. We want them to build that relationship. Caregiver really services provides us the opportunity for parent bonding time. This time is crucial to keep the family unit strong so that we can be fully present and not burnout with the demands of full time care of medical and developmental needs. On top of just being a good mom and dad. And that was Kelly Olive, one of our families, also located in Saint Pete. So thank you for your time. Thank you. So as the president and CEO of PARC Center for Disabilities and on behalf of our board of directors, many who are here today and our 350 employees, we have a $20 million budget. We are a presence in the city of Saint Petersburg. If you have not visited us, please come see us. We would love to show you what we do. We could stand up here and give you a little snapshot and show you videos all day long. But you've got to see it. And I think Councilmember Copley and Lenny, I think they can they can attest to that. They've been out. They've they've supported us. They've been great ambassadors for our our organization. And in 1966, in this very room, I believe the city council of Saint Petersburg gave us the six acre plot in Tyrone. And that is where our main campuses and we would not be where we are today. We would not have the facilities, we would not be able to serve the 500 plus children and adults that we serve every day without the support of the city. And we are super grateful for everything you do for us. Every area of the city has helped us and has collaborated and been a partner with us. So thank you. And I hope that you learned something here today, and I hope that you will walk away and tell somebody what you heard, because it's very important for us to be a part of this city and be a critical part in a partnership with the city and everybody else. We're right across the street from Walter Fuller. And you can see our friend Dr. Ed here is Pickle Power. One of our programs that we're starting is Pickleball at at the park next door. And he's been really great to help us do that, too. So we're in the city. We're here. Please, partner with us. Please be a part of what we do. And I want to thank you, thank you for everything that you've done for us over the last 70 years. And we will keep going. And we have lots of plans. Our CDB, the City CDBG Project. You all have supported us the last three years. Huge project. We have lots of things going on on our campus, so come see us. And thank you so much for the time today. Thank you. And thank you. Councilmember Copley and Lenny, super appreciative of both of you. Thank you. Councilmember Curtis. Thank you, Madam Chair. And everybody that's here from Park, including I'm some residents, some some day people, everybody board of directors, employees. I can't say thank you enough. I was able to visit Park a couple of months ago and I was absolutely blown away. Don't tell my wife. I'm pretty sure I walked away from that visit with a girlfriend. There may or may not be photo evidence of that. And so I. I walked away hearing music, seeing are buying art. You walk in, you see assembly lines that you would think should not be in the middle of a of a center like park but just working away, amazingly, having fun. And then you get to see people, you know, employees walk away with a paycheck and they're going and, you know, some people save their money, some people buy Jordans, some, you know, it it was just so cool. It was so cool. You get to see I got to see karaoke. Thankfully, I didn't sing any karaoke, you know. But then I got to visit the caregiver services wing and the residential wing. And let me tell you, I am so blessed that this is in District one. I'm very frankly, I'm very selfish of that. But I'm so glad we have something like this in the city of Saint Petersburg. And I would implore all of my colleagues to take a visit because I was absolutely blown away. I was able to attend their their gala in November and just what they're accomplishing and the joy that they are creating is something that I hope every one of our citizens gets to see the type they get to experience that type of joy somehow, someway, because that it was the purest joy I may have ever seen other than, you know, you see that type of joy in your children. But but I had never seen it like that outside of, selfishly, my kids. And so I'm just very thankful for you and for everybody over there. Michel, I can't say it enough, but you certainly have my support. I think I'll speak for Lenny, too. I think hers too, certainly for the rest of the time, we're we're here in Saint Petersburg. And that's not on council. That's here in Saint Pete. I've already made the promise. I'm not going anywhere. So thank you. Thank you. Thank. Sure. Thank you. Vice Chair Sanders. Thank you. When I saw this on the agenda, I want to thank Councilmember Girgis for this. I was appointed sitting on the Pinellas County Council of Persons with Disabilities and I have been on there for a while and I've had the opportunity to have those conversations and to see a lot of the struggles that you all are helping to overcome. So many of those things that we take for granted, we take them for granted. So I was excited that you were going to do this presentation. It has been a long time since I've done a tour in six. Yeah, a long time. And now that I hear Councilmember Curtis is still pledging even after he's not on council, I have a few bills that I think I may have for a little while myself. So I want to get in line for that. But I do want to thank you for what you're doing at Park again. I've had the opportunity to participate many years ago and it hasn't been recent. I must admit it had not been. But when I saw that it was going to be a report, I knew that I was going to have to speak on his behalf and thank you because of some of the people that you've and those that I know and the community and the opportunity and the doors and the smiles. He was not kidding when he said, you know, he always smiles. So I appreciate you for that. And again, Councilmember Gerges, thank you for presenting this. And thank you, Miss Chelsea, you did a great job. Thank you so much. And I want to thank you for coming out. And you're welcome, Councilmember. Miss Deborah and. For everyone that's here with you, thank you so much. We appreciate you. I appreciate very, very more. May God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you again. And you know, one of our goals is to make visible those that many people don't see. Okay? A lot of people don't see people with disabilities. And that's our job to advocate and to be an ambassador. And we appreciate all of your support. So thank you very much. Thank you. Councilmember Mt. Airy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chelsea, I wanted to say thank you for coming to the podium and speaking on behalf of Park. I know it takes courage to get up here in front of city council and all these people to speak. And you did a wonderful job representing a wonderful organization. So thank you for doing that. Well, I most definitely bless and pleased to have you guys. And let me speak for all the city of council members, including you, Miss Brandi. Thank you. I also wanted to thank excuse me, Whitney for kind of walking through the caregiver relief services issues and kind of explaining where that program is and what you do and some of the problems that you have. And then, Michel, I wanted to thank you for for leading, and I'll take you up on your offer to visit. Also, I've been there before, but it's been a while and I want to go back, see what's changed since the last time I went out. Out there and see where the city of St Petersburg can help a great organization. So thank thank you all for being here. Thank you, Councilmember Curtis, for bringing this and putting this on the agenda. We need to keep keep this great organization thriving here in the city of St Petersburg. There's a there's a need that needs to be filled. And we need we need that work to continue. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Yeah. Councilmember Hanna with. That. Thank you all for being here. It really touched my heart. Everything that you all do for our community, which is so important. I do want to mention you have an event coming up February 2nd. So we do thank you for. Why I want to make sure you have an audience here, so. I don't share that. Yes. Okay. So our 70th anniversary, we have a celebration. February 2nd, it will be at the James Museum. Everybody's invited. You can go on our website and register and RSVP. Please come. You know, it's us celebrating you. It's us celebrating. 70 years in the city. It will be at the James Museum. And we'd love to see you all. We will most definitely would love to see. You guys as. Well. I'll be there. Thank you. That's it. Yeah. Well, thank you all so much for coming to join us. Everyone who's here with Park, will you please stand up for a moment so that we can see all of you on behalf of myself and the entire Council, thank every single one of you for what you do for this organization, for our city, as a whole, the city of Saint Pete is a place that celebrates diversity and uniqueness, and that is what your organization does every single day. Miss Chelsea, thank you so much for coming here today and speaking with us. You've made my day. I made your. Day. Very good, Miss Brandy. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. And I am blessed for it. So thank you. Would you all come forward here in front and take a picture with us? Made your day. Real. I'm taking that blue eyed thinking that. We're in contact. That's about it. I'm going to go to the that be our. De dash be in orange approving the vacation of a of the southernmost 8043 square feet of driftwood road south between 2680 and 2700 Driftwood Road south to big bayou in the second addition to Driftwood subdivision setting forth conditions for the vacation to become effective and providing for an effective date. The public hearing for this item is January the 19th and we do have a couple of the speaker parts. Okay. Good morning. We are joined today by Cheryl Bigelow, who is our planner, too, with our development and review services. Good morning, Sheryl. Good morning. For the record, Cheryl Bigelow with development reviews services. So I have a short presentation for you on this matter. So the request you have before you is for the first reading of vacation ordinance. The request is to vacate the southernmost 8043 square feet of Driftwood Road south to the water between 2680 and 2700. Driftwood Road, south. According to the application narrative, the purpose of the vacation is to discourage vagrants from congregating in the right of way, eliminate corresponding crime, drug use and littering, promote neighborhood safety, and protect big bayou from further litter. In preparation of the staff report, the police department indicated that since September 15th, 2021, no events including trespassing littering or drug use, had been recorded in the area. So this is the sketch of the area to be vacated. Here are some photos of the area to be vacated. So the photo on the left is taken looking southward and the to the middle and the one on the right are looking northward along the area to be vacated. This photo is at the where the pavement ends, in the area to be vacated and the vegetated area begins. And you can see the water in the background. This is a panoramic shot. This is a historic view of the street and circa 1950 showing the area was formerly used as a public boat. Access. The case was heard by the Development Review Commission on September 7th, 2020 to the request for approval, failed by a unanimous vote of 0 to 6, thereby recommending a denial. The application was routed to the standard list of city departments and private utility providers. Stormwater infrastructure has been identified in the right of way and surface stormwater drains through the area to the water. Engineering has no objection to the vacation, however, request that a public utility easement be placed back over the right of way after it's vacated, and that a site plan be submitted showing how the abutting landowners propose to use the right of way in terms of landscaping. Fencing, etc. because fencing will not be allowed to be installed directly over the public storm pipes. Engineering's comments are a recommended condition of approval from the Engineering Review Memo, dated August 11th, 2022. Should the ordinance be approved? Also, as part of those comments, the fire marshal has indicated they do not support the vacation of the paved portion of the right of way because it could be a potential staging area for fire equipment in this area with narrow streets, private utilities have been identified in the right of way. The applicant would be required to obtain a letter of no objection from Duke Energy before a vacation ordinance were to be recorded at the public hearing. No comments from the big Bayou Neighborhood Association co-owner or Fight Go were received two people spoke in support of the application at the hearing, 11 neighbors spoke in opposition. At the hearing, 18 additional neighbors objected to the application written via telephone and email before the hearing. The objections were related to removing public access to the waterfront and removing the paved portion of the right of way, which is used as a turnaround point in an area of narrow streets. Neighbors also reported that crime has been decreasing in the neighborhood. So in terms of whether this request meets the criteria for the vacation of public rights of way in terms of the main points, the right of way is needed for present or future public vehicular and pedestrian access and for public utilities. I spoke about the fire wanting to keep the right of way as a potential staging area. Neighbors also reported that they use the paved portion of the right of way as a turnaround area because of the very narrow streets in the neighborhood. Their stormwater infrastructure in the right of way and surface water drains through the area and the right of way provides access to the waterfront regardless of whether it's currently physically accessible. Additionally, the request is inconsistent with a number of policies and objectives in the comprehensive plan. The one I want to highlight on this slide is that the city shall require the retention of public right of way adjacent to the waterfront in the planning and replanning of land unless comparable waterfront access is provided. So the application is inconsistent with the policies. This slide and the policies on this slide as part of the land use element and the transportation element. And so staff recommends denial of the right of way vacation the application does not meet the criteria for the vacation of public right of way as outlined in this presentation and in the staff report at the end of my presentation. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go now to public comment. Sandy Wiseman and David Phillips, please approach the podium. You'll have 3 minutes to address counsel. State your name and address for the record. Good morning and happy new year. I'm Sandy Wiseman and I'm also here on behalf of my wife, Suzanne. Suzanne and I have lived in our home at 2764 Bayside Drive South for the last 24 years. I'm here to voice our opposition to this proposed ordinance. First and foremost, we object to the ceding of any public property, especially waterfront property, to a private citizen or entity, without there being a corresponding overwhelming benefit to the public. In our opinion, this vacation request represents no valid argument of any public benefit. Nonetheless, an argument of overwhelming public benefit of equal importance for denying this request is the continued protection of the vegetation and mangroves on this parcel. This vegetation, particularly the mangroves, are vital and necessary to the city. The driftwood neighborhood surrounding neighborhoods as well as Big Bayou in Lower Tampa Bay. This public property provides necessary protected animal habitat. The mangroves support fish nurseries, improve water quality, reduce erosion, store carbon and protect against storm surge. The only way to assure the protection of these mangroves is for the city to maintain ownership and control under private ownership. Production cannot be guaranteed. Additionally, this property may be more urgently needed by the city in the future to help mitigate currently unknown consequences of global climate change and rising sea levels. Furthermore, and for all of the other valid reasons stated in the report, we support City Administration's recommendation and the DRC's unanimous vote of 0 to 6 to deny this, I ask that you to support these recommendations and deny this request. Additionally, I would like to request your consideration of not moving this ordinance forward to a public hearing, as the City Administration's recommendation to deny will not change, and the D'Arcy's unanimous vote to deny, not change, and the overwhelming neighborhood opposition, as documented in the administration's report, will not likely change. An additional public hearing for this matter, is not necessary. Pursuant to city code, you have the authority, quote, to deny a request. At the time, the first reading of the ordinances conducted and if denied. Not be required to hold a second reading or a public hearing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, good morning. Members of city council. And thank you for your service to your city. My name is David Phillips. I'm here on behalf of the applicant Jana and Tim Ranney, who are owners of the property at 2700 Drift Road, Driftwood Road South. As you've heard, they're seeking approval of their application regarding this request to vacate the unimproved public right of way adjacent to their property where Drifter Driftwood Road South terminates into dense shrubbery and mangroves and ultimately Big Bayou. Christopher Keller I will add the owner of the adjacent property across the right of way has signed in support of the application and I have limited time this morning. So I'll just focus on three things that we learned during the DRC meeting previously. First of all, I would remind the Council that the Keller's and the Ranches have become the de facto cleanup crew for this portion of Driftwood Road South. And what I mean by that is over the years that they have owned their properties respectively, they've been responsible for cleaning up any debris, trash, litter dumping, illegal dumping that's been made on this property. They've done so at their own at their own time, expense, cost. And they are not seeking to gain any property for turning a profit. I will also point out this is simply to property owners who have concerns over the use of the property currently and have sought the assistance of their city for for cleaning up the property and allowing it to be used for better purposes. The second point I would make is that we at the time of the application, were not aware of any utilities and the right of way. We pointed out during the DRC meeting that if the request were granted, we would certainly back an easement for any public or private utilities that are required. For instance, the stormwater facilities, any Duke Energy Power facilities that need to be placed in the right of way if it were vacated. So that concern should not be considered as a grave concern for the council today. The third thing I'll point out is the staff report mentioning that there were no incidents of trespassing or littering observed in the police summary for the time period that was recited in the staff report. That might be true, but there were also significant crimes that were reported. For instance, man with a gun, prostitution, burglary to to a vehicle, significant crimes that have been repeatedly occurring in this area for years. And many of the neighbor neighbors in the neighborhood would reiterate that. I would also say that since the time of the DRC hearing another attempted burglary on a vehicle was attempted in this right of way. So for all those reasons, we would ask your support. Thank you. Maureen Sheedy, please state your name and address. For the record, you have 3 minutes to address council. My name is Maureen Sheedy. I live at 2515 Oakdale Street South. I have lived there since 2006. I'm here objecting to their request for vacancy. For number one, the property is public property. The property in question. The land, the land and the street. Number two, the land portion is covered with mangroves. Three, if you vote and allow these people to take the space, they will be back with something else. Now, you may say, how do I know the future? I Don't know. But this is a problem. You you're going to set precedent. Already they have stated that they want to go into driftwood and cut down a sweet little tree that's in the middle of the road. They want the neighborhood to become like them, as opposed to living in the neighborhood. Since when does the city give away property because of trash, vagrancy or car break ins? If you start doing this, then I want some. I've picked up condoms, trash. My access car has been broken into. Everybody in the neighborhood had some issues. It's a changing neighborhood. So giving away land to stop these problems, I think we all should get some properties throughout the neighborhood, take care of their median. The median belongs to the city. This little piece of land between, these two properties, is like a median. That's all they have to do. I have to pick up dog poop on my median from somebody else's dog. Okay. I do it. I don't make note of it. We take care of pieces in our neighborhood to make our neighborhood nicer. It's a small thing between the two. The one neighbor wants to store his kayaks on it. It's public property. He didn't mind doing that. Now, since they can't, they want the land. And some say no. They want to say, Well, it's so much work. It's not so much work. If the rains are given this land, they will cut down the mangroves at the end because they did it on their property because I don't have the pictures here to show you. But they bought they bought the Gandy property. They cut down the pieces on their property because they want open view and they're going to cut more mangroves down even though you're not supposed to. If they want a pristine neighborhood where all residents are the same, where there's no vagrancy, crime, anything, then I don't know why they moved to Driftwood. They could see how close it was forth. They could look around and see some transition. They want a gated community. They don't want an eclectic neighborhood like. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair. No more cards. Okay. We will go on to our for council comments. Council Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. This question is for legal since this was denied by DRC, administration and DRC recommend denial. Can you review with us? This is a little different because are being asked to approve something. But if we want to take that recommendation to deny, I think we have a couple of different options, including having this fail for lack of emotion or taking or taking a vote and then voting no. Could you let us know if we choose to take the recommendation? What is our process for just whoever wins? Clear. Well, like any ordinance, if there isn't a motion to send it to, you know, set it for public hearing, then can fail for lack of a motion. If there is a motion in the affirmative and it fails to get the five votes it needs to move on. That would also be another thing. Additionally, it could get the votes it needs to move on to public hearing and fail at that point or pass. All right. Yeah. Thank you. So I am I'm supportive of the recommendation for denial of this. And when look at the backup, this property is already has a code enforcement case because they installed a six foot fence in the right of way. So it's kind of like start doing this now and then ask for permission later. It's not how we do things here. I really appreciate the police reporting that there are actually no events, including trespassing, littering or drug use recorded in the area. Another question I have is, as far as cleaning up the area, can you tell us who who is responsible for maintaining the right of way in a space like this that abuts a private property? I think, Ms.. McGill, I was prepared to pay. I don't have the exact code citation, but the abutting property owners maintain the right of way in front of their property. Okay, thanks. So nothing unusual going on there. I appreciate the neighbors coming forward to express their their views on this and, you know, given that Driftwood is such an incredibly unique neighborhood, I can certainly appreciate the sentiments there. And I have great concerns over what's already happened to the mangroves. I'll be following up on that. And we certainly would not want to have any more of that kind of activity happening in something that is so important. Like mangroves, I also want to express my appreciation for the fire department, which stated that this is not something that they support and that is would create an incredible challenge regarding public safety and in the event of an emergency, if this did move forward. So I will not be making a motion to move this forward and will if it does move forward, I will be voting no. Thank you. Thank you. Chair. Vice Chair Sanders. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Driscoll, for that. And I am currently dealing with something similar to this and I also was not and will not be supporting this moving forward because of giving city land for private use with something else that I am currently working with the administration on and I agree with the resident that if this were to move forward, which it would not with my vote, but then we would be setting a precedent because we were here with a similar issue last year. So I just wanted to for the record, state that I was going to not support this and I was going to uphold the recommendation of administration and DRC. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Any further comments by administration council members does, for lack of emotion, legal? Do we need to do anything else? This this issues? We're done with this one. Move on. Didn't get a motion. All right. So that's the end of this item. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you, Cheryl. Okay. At this time, we were recess a city council and convene as the C.R.A. and take up C.R.A. to a proposed seven storey building located at 6/34 Avenue South, consistent with the intown redevelopment plan. Good morning, Cary. Cary M.S. is with us from zoning. He's a zoning official manager with Development Review Services. Thank thanks very much. Good morning to all the property before you today is located at 6/34 Avenue South and is currently vacant. The proposing to develop the vacant lot with a seven storey building with 33 dwelling units and a 16 space parking garage. The project's construction cost is valued $6 million. Subject property is located within town redevelopment plan area. The redevelopment area was established in March of 1982 and the Community Redevelopment Agency was established to implement the plan. This is the first floor plan and site plan of the proposed building. The proposed seven story building will occupy a majority of the subject property, the ground floor of the proposed tower will consist of residential lobby, which will be accessible off the front sidewalk here along Fourth Avenue. And here's the lobby entrance here. And we do have back to house facilities here as well as trash pickup. Access to the parking will occur from the alleyway as well and come into the property. Open. Greenspace will be located on the east and west sides of the building. Floors two through six will consist of six residential units per floor. The seventh floor will consist of three residential units, an indoor and outdoor amenity space, pedestrian access, like I said, to the lobby from Fourth Avenue, this is the front elevation visible from Fourth Avenue as described by the project architect. The building will be of a contemporary self architecture. The exterior of the building will be finished with stucco and have multiple accent finishes. The ground level parking will be screened to shield builders vehicles from view from the surrounding properties in fourth avenue south east residential unit will have a balcony with aluminum picket style handrail and the roof will be finished with a contemporary parapet element. This is just one of the side elevations along the west. Another rear elevation there will face to the south side elevation facing to the east. And this is just a better visual with the 3D rendering on the screen, the IRP require that the Sierra evaluate the plan for consistency. The IRP does include design and development guidelines to ensure compatibility between the types of development that are desired within the downtown. The proposal has been reviewed and found complying with the following. It complies with the land development regulations. Development should provide design elements that do include trees, canopies, tree furniture and trees, etc. that are in human scale to the building. Development shall provide appropriate architectural variety to the area. Parking structure shall provide for a decorative facade. Open space should be directly linked to the pedestrian system. Open space travel relate to activities and buildings within the block. Infill development should create a sense of place and identity, and all new development shall relate to in building scale and mass with the surrounding areas. Development shall be consistent with permitted uses within. The downtown and the development intensity shall be governed by the underlying zoning district. With respect to the Land Development Code, property is located within the DC two downtown core two zoning district. Multi-family and commercial uses are permitted with a floor area ratio up to 7.0. The applicants provide a proposal and a floor area ratio of 4.08. Staff determined that the proposed development is a compliance with the zoning district regulations proposed building will fit in with both older and newer developments in the area. The building is urban in scale, with pedestrian oriented features, including ground level lobby entrance, large windows, balconies and the screening of the parking garage. Pros building height, placement and massing are consistent with other buildings within the immediate area. Site improvements do include an eight and ten foot wide sidewalk, street trees, landscaping, large open space, bicycle parking and a new drainage system. Existing development pattern within downtown does include a variety of building types styles, heights and masses. Nearby buildings of similar mass and scale include three, six, five, six feet south, known as Campbell Landings, which is catty corner across the street. This is a five story building. There is 357 fifth Street, South which is another five story building and 518 Third Avenue South, which is 11 story building. The building designed to take into consideration the relationship of this building with the adjacent buildings and how this building will create a continuous street edge along Fourth Avenue, as well as the integration of open space along. The sides of the building in the front of the building staff has recommended approval of the attached Resolution five that the proposed seven storey building with 33 dwelling units and a 16 space garage consistent with the redevelopment