The City Commission convened to discuss a wide range of municipal issues including zoning procedures, urban forestry goals, traffic congestion due to increased cruise ship activity, and updates on major development projects. A significant portion of the meeting focused on the "Fortify Lauderdale" stormwater infrastructure program and negotiations regarding the International Swimming Hall of Fame project. The Commission also addressed public concerns regarding the renaming of Broward County and received updates from various advisory boards and commissioners regarding community events.
Okay, folks. Good afternoon. Welcome to the City Commission meeting this uh 18th day of November 2025. Wow, where has the month gone? Uh let me get to the right agenda. Okay, so it's a beautiful day. I wish we could have had this party outs outside. City manager next time, could you please arrange to sit on the lawn? Okay, thank you. Um getting close to holiday time, so uh hope everyone is uh excited about the holidays coming up. Uh but tonight or this afternoon we're gonna talk about our agenda items. And the first um is the uh are the communications, one from planning and zoning. And uh I see where Patrick and uh uh Jackie is Patrick Pat you're both here, and I think that's permissible, right? They can both speak, Dwayne. Yes, it was that's right. Oh, they can they can you can sing in harmony? Okay. All right. So uh why don't you come up and talk tell us a little bit about what this communication is to the city commission? Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. Uh so I can read the communication if you like to clarify it, or Ms. Scott also has some she made the motion, so we can just jump right into however you want to. This has to do with the townhouses, right? Yes, sir. So it was uh a rezoning application for a good sized piece of property about five acres, and uh going throughout the process um towards the end of it, as we were approving it, uh it was made clear that we would not see this project in the future, that they you know could possibly put as many as sixty-seven townhomes on the property, and it's also a heavily landscaped property with native vegetation and mature trees. And um so the board was a little taken aback that uh albeit they support the application to rezone, but that it would not come before us again for future uh review, uh not only for the board for uh for the citizens as well that we felt would most likely like a voice uh on an application of this magnitude. Ms. Scott. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. This is not the first time we've had to vote on an item for a rezoning where we had no input other than rezoning. And a lot of times it's very frustrat frustrating, not only to us but to the neighborhoods and to the people that are there that want to talk about it, which we really can't, because it's only a rezoning. So I'm hoping that we have the opportunity to look at the ULDR and see if there's something we can do to provide an opportunity for the neighborhoods and for the board to see what's coming before us other than just the rezoning. Well, uh, how does this how does this um complicate your your responsibility as the planning and zoning board? I mean, you're saying it only comes to you be uh just to do rezoning. I mean, is this something that you are obligated to rezone or not? Uh, don't you have criteria and well we have criteria to whether or not but if they meet the criteria, Mayor, for the rezoning, we really have very little, it's very difficult not to support it. However, you have an audience full of neighborhood and people that are very concerned as to what's gonna go there, and people get up and try to speak about it, and staff tells us, well, this is only for the rezoning, so we find it very frustrating. Well, we're gonna have that time and again with Live Local and you know, a lot of these processes that that you know a developer has the right, I guess, to say, why do I have to go through the um the headache of getting neighborhood um uh buy-in to a project when the law already allows me to do it? How do we respond to that? I think that there's it's the ULDR. This is townhouse projects do not go to planning and zoning when many other projects have to come before us. So we were just thinking that it would be good to provide the opportunity for the board and especially the neighborhoods and the residents to have a place to come and speak about it and learn about the project and get input. So at your meetings, when it comes to the question of a uh petition or an application to rezone, the neighbors do not have a right to uh to speak at those meetings with regard to rezoning. They can only talk about the rezoning. They can't talk about we're gonna rezoning. Site plan, they can't talk about the none of that stuff comes up. Do they come back for that? No, that's the problem.