Good morning, everyone.

I'm gonna call to order this Monday, October sixth, twenty twenty-five regular city commission meeting.

Um, remind you to turn off your phones if you or turn them on silent if you haven't, and I will call on our city auditor and clerk to do the invocation.

Heavenly Father, we affirm our faith in thee.

We seek your divine strength, wisdom, and guidance in the deliberations that affect the lives of each of the citizens of our community.

In that name we pray, amen.

I pledge.

Oh, it does, yes.

All right.

Yes, so everybody can be aware of um it's gonna have to be hands today.

Our machine is not computing today for her to be able to see who it wants to speak, so everybody will need to raise their hand today in the old fashioned way.

Okay.

Here on a minute.

All right.

Whereas Domestic Violence Awareness Month was established to create a community dialogue about violence, to advocate for legislation and law enforcement to protect victims and encourage public awareness awareness and action against abuse.

And whereas domestic violence is a serious crime that affects people of all ages, income levels, and gender, but most often women and children.

And once started, the campaign of physical, psychological, economic, and domestic violence only gets worse, resulting in a heavy burden on society and families.

Whereas 106,515 domestic violence offenses were reported in the state of Florida in 2020, including 217 deaths, and in Sarasota County, there were 1,399 incidents, including two deaths.

And whereas Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center provides free service to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and their children in Sarasota and DeSoto counties.

It seeks to stop the crime of domestic violence through awareness and education.

Now therefore the City Commission of the City of Sarasota, Florida, and on behalf of the citizens of our community takes great pride in recognizing October twenty fifth as domestic violence awareness month.

And let me let you introduce yourself.

Thank you.

Good morning, everybody.

At Spark, we work hard to eradicate the cycles of domestic violence in the community.

Thank you so much for your support on behalf of survivors and their children.

You're very welcome.

Thank you for everything that you are doing.

Thank you for supporting.

Thank you so much.

All right, let's get a picture.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for what you do.

Jake Brown.

Congratulations, Jake.

It is with great pride that we recognize Jake Brown, our ADA coordinator, for his outstanding service and commitment to accessibility within our community.

Jake has served with the city for four and a half years, the last three of which he has dedicated to ADA coordinator position.

His work has a direct and lasting impact on citizens, staff and the community at large.

Recently, Jake received a citizen nomination for his exceptional customer service while assisting with the Eco Rover Beach Wheelchair Program.

The citizen wrote, Jake was excellent.

He responded quickly, was respectful, found solutions, and was willing to do whatever it took to get us the wheelchair.

It's difficult to get around, and Jake made it all look easy.

Jake deserves accolades for a kind heart.

This heartfelt praise speaks to the integrity and compassion Jake brings to his work each day.

The Eco Rover program, which had been years in the making, yes it was, was successfully launched under Jake's purview.

His persistence and dedication brought this initiative to life, and the program has since been widely used, enthusiastically received by the community.

Jake's impact extends far beyond a single project.

A graduate of the University of South Florida with a bachelor's degree in public administration, Jake holds six ADA certifications, including expertise in web and document accessibility.

He actively supports our I team in ensuring ADA compliance.

He oversees the Citizens with Disabilities Board.

He diligently monitors the city's ADA transition plan, following up with departments to ensure progress and compliance.

His leadership and collaboration have earned him ongoing praise from citizens and city leadership alike.

Jake embodies the city's values of integrity, accountability, teamwork, and respect.

His work continues to remove barriers, foster inclusion, and elevate the quality of life for countless individuals.

For his professionalism and heart for service, we proudly commend Jake for his dedication and accomplishments.

His efforts not only ensure compliance with ADA initiatives, but also reflect the city's mission to serve all citizens with excellence and pride.

Thank you, Jake.

Thank you, everyone.

I'm honored to be here, and uh, you know, I I love where I live and I'm committed to making sure Sarasota is wonderful and accessible for everyone, regardless of ability level.

Um thank you.

Oh, sorry.

That's okay.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm Stacy Mason.

Um I work with Jake.

He's in our HR department.

You have been with us a little over three years in the HR department as the ADA coordinator, and it's a joy to work with Jake.

You can give him any project, and he works on it very well.

Um, gets it done and helps us always with compliance and a heart for, as it was mentioned in the write-up, a heart for what he does.

And I think the biggest thing is you always have a passion to work with everybody, whether it's internal or the community.

And since that actual nomination, we've gotten another one from a community member about the Eco Rover.

So you have done a wonderful job with our community and making it more accessible for everyone.

So thank you, Jake.

You're a joy to work with.

Do you want to invite your family member up?

We have a special guest.

Jake's father would like to come up.

Okay.

I forgot to tell him that he could be up here so it is it's up to you, but uh I believe good.

I believe you always want to.

So you've also worked in uh local government for a number of years.

So this is Jake's father.

But congratulations, Jake.

Well deserved.

Thank you so much.

Congratulations and congratulations on raising that son.

Citizens and disabilities with the first board.

Good idea.

And you too.

All right.

All right, there we go.

Thank you.

All right.

And last, but I hate this cliché, but not least.

But you know, in this in case this uh case it does apply.

Um, we have our team of the month, um, which in some circles are known as the dynamic duo.

We have Alvy Marie Corrales, um Quadrado just go by Corales, so uh Corinne Ariaga, and I'll let you know.

How do you say your last name?

Corralis Quadrado.

Quadrato.

Oh, I was I was right.

I was right.

Yeah, okay.

Good.

All right.

It's great, it's with great pride that we recognize Alvi Marie Corrales Quadrado, Chief Transportation Officer, and Corinne Ariaga, Senior Transportation Planner as the city's team of the month.

Both are highly accomplished professionals holding master's degree from Florida Universities and certifications as professional planners through the American Planning Association.

Their expertise is demonstrated through their daily work.

Nominated by senior leadership, Alvy Marie and Corinne consistently deliver thorough and insightful presentations to the City Commission, showcasing their ability to translate complex concepts into clear strategies.

Additionally, their work was recently recognized beyond City Hall.

Corinne was named a young leader to follow by the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

This prestigious honor highlights excellence among young professionals in the transportation field.

Together, Alvy Marie and Corinne were also invited to appear on Suncoast View to share their thoughts on this recognition and discuss the city's transportation efforts.

Transportation planning is challenging, and this team embodies the spirit of turning ideas into action.

They're dedicated to community-driven outcomes, always beginning each project with public input, whether through workshops, surveys, or direct communication, they ensure that community voices shape the city's future.

A shining example of their continued work and project to follow is the 10th Street and Boulevard of the Arts Complete Streets Project, for which the city was recently awarded a 12 million dollar grant.

This project demonstrates how Alvy Marie and Corinne's vision, hard work, and collaboration are helping to build a safer and more accessible Sarasota for all.

Congratulations to Alvy Marie and Corinne, and thank you for serving with this serving the city with excellence and pride.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

We really appreciate this recognition.

It has been an amazing almost four years for Curran and myself, so we really appreciate it, and we love working for the City of Sarasota.

Good morning.

I guess I say it's a pleasure working with both of them.

A few things I want to highlight specifically.

I'm Nick Patel, Public Works Director, and I work with Alvin Corinne.

They're an important part of the public works team.

A few things I want to highlight is that they turn vision into real projects.

And what I mean by that is that they not only come up with a plan, but they also secure the funding and then help build the project.

The other thing that I want to highlight is that they built collaboration, so they work with planners, they work with engineers and the community to solve complex transportation projects to meet the needs for everybody.

And finally that they plan for Sarasota's future for resiliency as well as safety and multimodal opportunities.

So great job and congratulations on this.

Congratulations, both of you.

I guess because we want to look here.

Thank you.

We may disagree, but we will be respectful to one another.

We will direct all comments to issues.

We will not engage in personal attacks.

All right.

And we've got four people signed up, uh, three minutes each.

Uh Dave Rayner, Celine O'Connor, John Simon, and Harmony Cruising.

And um, when you get ready to speak, if you will just uh state your name for the record and whether you're a city resident.

So Dave Rayner.

Yes, hi.

Good morning.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Uh David Rayner, I am a city resident.

Um I've come today uh to support what I believe is an ongoing effort uh regarding uh Ted Sperling Park.

Uh the county and the city, I understand are working on uh creating language to um uh deal with uh uh boat anchoring and jet skis and um uh which uh we feel are the uh key problems underlying many, many other problems at the park.

Um I'm here to support that.

And to the extent that you're involved in it, uh I ask you to do all that you can to help the residents there.

Um I uh checked uh I had uh created a um a petition page on change.org uh regarding uh the park.

And uh when I checked it this week, there were 200 signatures for people that are concerned about problems at the park.

Um a more geeky level.

Um a more geeky level, um I reached out to the Sarasota City Police Department, and uh they gave me some uh statistics uh regarding the park.

In uh 2023 there were 121 substantive uh police incident reports.

Um I say substantive, I mean that this is not a call to see where the car is, um, uh which um you know happens quite frequently, they're keeping in touch.

So these are things like suspicious person, noise disturbances, lewd and lascivious acts, civil disturbances, water rescues, fight backup, uh reckless boats, another looting lascivious act, uh boat crashes, uh and and the like.

Uh so when you add them all up just from 2023, uh there were 121 of those uh reports at the park.

Uh in 2025, um I didn't get the 2024, sorry.

It takes time.

I get a PDF.

I don't get a Excel spreadsheet, so uh this is all pencil and paper.

Uh Reckless Boat, Reckless Boat, uh fires, water rescues again.

So and this, by the way, I want to emphasize is not in any way a criticism of the police department.

Police Department of the City has been outstanding.

But we have to solve work with the county to solve the underlying problems, um, which really stem from this becoming a party park for boaters and jet skiers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Celina O'Connor.

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Celine O'Connor.

I'm a full-time resident living near Sarasota County-owned Ted Sperling Park at South Leda Beach.

A unique situation being a county park situated in city limits.

That alone has brought many, many complications over the years.

At the Sarasota County Commissioners Board meeting dated March 26, County staff requested were requested to return suggested amendments to current ordinance governing waterways, including boating water safety at South Leda Park.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each of you commissioners and encourage continued dialogue with Commissioner, County Commissioner Smith in this regard.

Also thank City Attorney and his collaboration for keeping one eye on future amendments and impacting current Sarasota City ordinances.

The county assignment 24-023 is due to come back before the County Commission Board on October 21st.

There is a huge opportunity here to address complaints and spiraling out of control jet ski behavior through all our waterways.

Please continue to work with the county and help ensure meaningful, actionable change is brought forward before Sarasota appears again in the headlines with another tragic waterway death, not to mention the ecological destruction taking part in what is meant to be a nature park.

Residents respectfully also ask you, the Sarasota City Commissioners, to review, expand, and extend and it strengthened the Sarasota Police Department interlocal agreement with the county.

It needs to encompass all infringements, not the restricted element that it is now.

It needs to cover all boundaries and the waterfront.

Sarasota Police Department and the Marine Patrol are to be applauded, and we thank them for their current vigilance when they're called upon.

I myself actually had to call them again last night.

The park was so bad.

Two city police officers came in a cruiser because the actual assigned officer was so busy at other parks.

And really, as commissioners, I can't emphasize how much you the county needs to pay attention to this park so much more than it is already.

On another subject and for change, I'd like to encourage to keep moving forward with FPL and discussions to underground power lines on our barrier island.

South Benjamin Park and sorry, South Benjamin Franklin Drive continues to have major power surges and lack stability.

Only in the past week I've had to replace my personal air conditioner motor because of a powerful surge into our building, all because of the unstable network we have on the barrier island.

A lot of it stems from the hurricanes, but this goes well before the hurricanes.

The sooner you can underground and strengthen those wires that that infrastructure, the better.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Ron Simon.

Yes, my name is John Simon.

I am a resident at 1350 Maine.

I just wanted to highlight to the Commission how much noise is is being produced by special events just this month.

So last Friday we had a fresh Fridays event right on Main Street, pretty much in front of our building, a hundred decibel concert.

I think it's the 17th, 18th, and 19th or the 18th, 19th, and 20th.

There's a live music festival at J.D.

Hamill Park, which will affect our building and many of the other units with in in the area with live music.

Then uh in October, at the end of October for Halloween, Classico is planning another hundred decibel concert, which will be right in front of our building.

I I urge the Commission to direct the special events people to take the cumulative effect of these noises into account when uh determining when to have special events.

Fresh Fridays moves around and could have been somewhere different.

I don't I don't have a problem with Fresh Fridays.

They're a good neighbor, they end at 10.

Um but the cumulative effect of these noises is problematic and frankly will be problematic on some of the condominium sales that are contemplated going forward.

Um one other quick issue.

I walk Golden Gate Point often early in the morning, and I note that some percentage of construction workers are smoking weed before going to work.

It's a it's a relatively constant and pervasive issue, and the commission ought to look into that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um Harmony Cruising.

Harmony Cruising.

Um our Lotus Boutique, 1464, 1462, and currently 1466 did board member.

I'm here today because unfortunately I was not able to be at the meeting about the streetscape.

I have been extremely vocal about the streetscape.

I am completely um against this for the reason that they are deleting a lot of parking, which is completely valuable to all the merchants.

And um the merch all of the merchants are very much against this.

And I have been uh on this for a very long time.

Um I want to say that I am very much into um updating our infrastructure.

I know that that is something that needs to be done, but the removal of a lot of parking with no subsidies of parking will be um difficult for the merchants.

And not only is the construction terrifying, but then you're removing over a hundred spaces and there will be casualties.

And I think something that's really important about our downtown is that we are a lot of small businesses.

And I don't know if anybody here has ever put their life savings into something and believed in something.

And for that to be wiped away because there's no parking, it's it's difficult to think about that.

And um I also want to say that we are more of a business district instead of a retail district.

And that means that we don't have just retail, we have banks, we have dog groomers, hairdressers, real estate offices, um, churches.

It's a big dynamic area with retail in certain pockets.

So we need to think about um our locals as well.

Um I have a very strong local clientele.

If they can't park and find it easy to park, they will shop online and they will not come.

So we have a high local customer in downtown.

They go to Whole Foods, they come to my store, they s go to other stores, but I just want this commission to be very thoughtful about this streetscape because it would be very sad to lose a lot of retailers due to having no parking.

And in my opinion, we need another parking garage before we rip up the street and delete a hundred spaces.

And um, as I was listening to some of the comments from the last meeting, I was kind of, you know, beside myself to hear that, you know, some don't think that there's, you know, great quality retail when I have, you know, have my blood sweat and tears on the 1400 block for the last 17 years.

And um, you know, I think we have amazing retail.

I mean, these are people's livelihoods, they're their dreams.

I just I have so much to say about this subject, and I've said it at the DID meetings, I've said it publicly, I've said it in every analysis.

So I will continue to come and get the merchants to get involved, but I'm telling you, none of them want this, and they're very, very scared.

And I would encourage you to come to our merchant meeting this Thursday at 6 o'clock at PCR.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

We move on to the approval of minutes.

And we will start with the uh minutes of the special Sarasota City Commission meeting of August 26, 2025.

Were there any changes to Mayor?

I had some non substantive changes, one small change for those minutes.

Okay.

With that change, and we'll move approval.

Second.

All right.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

Can we?

Um, it is not working or it is.

No, it is working.

I just need to announce who makes the motions and seconds.

But go ahead.

All right.

Um Commissioner Bett.

Okay.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

All right.

The motion passes unanimously.

And that was a motion by Commissioner Ulrich and seconded by leave.

Yeah.

That was what I was going to say.

Thank you.

All right.

Um we move on to approval of the minutes of the regular Sarasota City Commission meeting of September 2nd, 2025.

Any corrections or Commissioner Ulrich moved approval of the minutes of the regular Sarasota City Commission meeting of September 2nd, 2025.

Commissioner Kach seconded.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Passes unanimously.

All right.

And finally, the minutes of the special Sarasota City Commission meeting of September 3rd, 2025.

Move approval.

Second.

All right.

Commissioner Aher and Kotch moved approval of the special Sarasota City Commission meeting.

Minutes of September 3, 2025.

Commissioner Albrecht seconded.

Commissioners, if you will vote.

Is that your vote?

Yes.

Passes unanimously.

All right.

We have one presentation this morning.

The Board of Adjustments annual update.

And let's see who we have here.

Okay.

Yeah, it was just going off the agenda and not my notes.

All right.

Or I guess Ms.

Panica.

Good morning.

Yes, I am substituting for General Manager Christie, who is also the Secretary to the Board.

She wasn't able to be here today.

I am Lucia Panica, Director of Development Services.

And with me is Mr.

Cherry.

He is the chair of the Board of Adjustment.

Pursuant to direction from the July 21st City Commission meeting, we are here to provide you the first annual update for the Board of Adjustment.

And I will go ahead and turn it over to Mr.

Cherry to do the presentation.

Well, thank you for the opportunity to address you all.

I know I met with many of you two years ago when I first applied for the position.

Just being newly elected, I am the first time guest for this for this group.

The Board of Adjustments, as you know, looks into working with people who need a mitigation to the zoning in an effort to try and improve their property and also make sure that the city's needs and wants are respected.

We had three such uh meetings this past uh year.

Um all three were approved.

Um the only other thing is that the uh the group there is a very synergistic, open-minded, uh helpful, dutiful uh group, and I feel very honored to be able to work with such a team that you all have assembled and uh wanted opportunity to thank you for that opportunity.

All right.

Uh Commissioners, if you have the board's not working, uh Vice Mayor.

Thank you very much for that report.

I'm I'm curious, and I suspect others are.

Could you give us an example of one of the zoning change requests that you approved that the board approved?

Yeah, one of the more interesting ones was a property that was purchased prior to the uh events of last summer with the hurricanes and the duly wanted to improve the original property, but with the flooding at the lower end of Whitaker Bayou, uh the structure was compromised beyond 50 percent, which required demolition, and they wanted to utilize the footprint of the original property line in order to do that.

And they wanted to utilize the footprint of the original property line in order to do that.

And uh with the close determination and the building plans to raise the the height of the building to mitigate those types of things in the future it made sense to uh incorporate that so that the person wouldn't be compromised negatively by um by the by the results of that flooding.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh Commissioner Aaron Koch.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for um serving on the Board of Adjustment.

You know, it's your your work is really appreciated.

Uh I was wondering if um you all have had any uh in the past we've sometimes had the Board of Adjustment bring forward suggestions for zoning text uh changes because of repeated uh incidents of requests coming before the board.

And they felt that uh and you know they would have a request and it would be granted, a request and it would be granted.

And they felt that what they could do to better serve the public would be just suggest some changes.

Um I was what curious if your board had any such um thoughts or discussions about keeping an eye out for those kinds of items so that you know we can fix things that we just don't know are there.

Well, I have not had those uh personally on on the two years that I have been there.

Uh we do have excellent legal representation and when issues and comments come up.

Um those issues use routinely addressed at the point of that question being put forward.

Um the um and then when we do have other questions or issues, usually there's a second backup that would um address a lot of those that came up in the last meeting where well this is great and it's interesting we have concerns, but there's a federal alternate uh when you're talking about navigation and bulkheads and stock heights and things like that.

Um there are that's an instance where I think those things are being addressed uh through other resources within the city and the and the and the Federal Government.

I think the one I am referencing Ms.

Panica, maybe you can correct me as having to do with lot splits, right?

Right.

So that's the one that came to mind too.

And we are as staff um always kind of looking for those reoccurring kind of, you know, the ones I'd always come and get approved um to the Board of Adjustment.

And right now there aren't any, but that was the last one that I recall to.

Let's hope it was the last one.

Um at your board level, um, is anybody on the board uh coming forward with uh potential other ideas that could aid the city and you know those are discussions that you all can have.

Well, I uh we have a very diverse group.

Um we have some engineering types.

We have uh we have people who are immediate two that are in the uh real estate business, and so they're key of what's going on within the community, and uh the things like some of the concerns that were brought up today are being recognized and and brought forward.

Um they work we work well together, I think it's a very diverse group.

Uh not only are we fully staffed now, but we even have an alternate, which was not the case when I first came on.

Um was difficult even getting the forum um quorum and uh right now we are in uh excellent shape with some great dedicated people with brilliant minds.

So I'm so that's so that's working out well having the alternate.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, it just guarantees that we're always going to have a quorum and that we have a a plug-in if something were to occur or then we had uh someone to change right now.

But right now I think the uh the uh position of the the the group is very strong and very cohesive.

Um Ms.

Pennica, are the Board of Adjustment meetings always quasi-judicial or just does it depend?

Quasi-judicial.

All of them, right?

Okay.

Um I was just curious about site visits and if that was something that the Board did, would want to do, or if they are not allowed to do those kinds of things.

Well, actually, no, we work hand-in-glove with the with the administrators for for the group.

Um they we request uh the site visits, they coordinate that, and as you know, they all have to be done individually.

So it takes a lot of uh support and time to get those things scheduled and done, and I think for the most part, everyone wants to do them uh whenever they have the availability to fit it into a tight window.

Okay.

Okay, so they they are being done.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much, and I uh please extend um my gratitude, our gratitude to the entire board uh at your next meeting, and thank you for for putting in the valuable time to the city and to the citizens.

We do appreciate it.

Well, thank you.

I will certainly do that.

Commissioner Betty.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, sir, for your service and really appreciate it and taking the initiative to be on this board because it is extremely valuable and uh um imperative that you know our zoning is what it should be, particularly applicable to where we are today, and this is the piggyback off of uh the commissioner's point.

Ms.

Manick, I wanted to ask you, you know, because one thing that always kind of bothered me is the zoning in the city is kind of antiquated, and I just wanted to know what efforts you all have been making to sort of bring that up to SNUF, if you will, you know, um to make it more applicable to where we are today and particularly you know where this board is is uh concerned.

Um, we work really closely with the planning department to suggest zoning tax amendments or cleanups of the zoning code.

Um, but they are the ones that are in charge of doing you know zoning tax amendments and changing the zoning code.

Um I would say that with the boards, both the planning board and the board of adjustment, we do work with them to see if there's any of those situations like Commissioner Ahern Koch mentioned that are kind of reoccurring applications that we see that are always get approved.

That might mean that you know the zoning code needs to be looked at for a change.

Um so we do look at it in that way regarding the board um specifically.

Um but I would say that as far as looking at the zoning code, um we are actively working with the planning department to look at improvements or um zoning tax amendments.

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, I asked that question mainly because, you know, you're talking about, you know, uh, you know, streetscape and and uh um you know the downtown master plan and what's going on there um and particularly out on St.

Armand's Circle because you know that's going to be coming before us at some point.

And uh I think a lot of those codes, you know, out in the Barrie Islands need to be, you know, cleaned up or what have you.

So thank you, Mayor.

I you anyone else?

I have my button.

Oh, yes, yes.

My hand is raised, Mayor.

Sorry about that.

Um, my question has been asked, and it was regarding zoning text amendments that might come through this committee, mentioned twice and answered.

Uh please keep that in mind if anything does surface.

And I also wanted to thank you for your service and ask that you please convey that to other members of your committee.

It would be an honor.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for being here today.

And um good luck in your new chairmanship.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Yes.

Everybody's good with us.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's see.

Why do we have more approval of minutes?

Did I Oh, okay, that's why.

Okay.

I thought we did the All right.

So now, Commissioners, we are going to recess as the City Commission and reconvene as they a special session of the community redevelopment agency.

And as the community redevelopment agency, we need to uh approve the minutes of the special Sarasota Community Redevelopment Agency meeting of August 18th.

Second.

All right.

Commissioner Batti uh moved approval of the minutes for August 18th.

Commissioner Ulrich seconded.

Commissioners, if you will vote.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Now we have our next item is the uh appointment regarding a new town community redevelopment agency advisory board members.

And I'm going to call on um our CRA Secretary Griggs and Economic Development Manager Appleby to make the presentation.

I'm going to pass it to you.

Good morning, Commissioners and Mayor.

Uh Wayne Appleby Economic Development Manager and staff to the newtown CRA.

I just wanted to make aware you have one vacancy as a result of Richard Harris's recognition resignation when he left town.

Um you have two applicants this morning.

They both are qualified.

They both live in in the CRA area.

Um so you certainly can appoint either one at your selection.

I just wanted to point out that uh we have an additional vacancy that will be coming up in December and in two months.

Alexander Chow's term will be up and is not eligible for reappointment.

So uh if the board so chose, you you could appoint both today, one with being a delayed appointment till December.

Otherwise, uh if you appoint just one, staff will hold the application of the person not selected and will be back in a couple of months.

All right.

Commissioner Ulrich.

So I read the information about both candidates.

I think they're both qualified.

Um I nominate Danny Preston for immediate appointment.

Uh well man, I'm gonna be second that would be discussion of that.

I was thank you.

Um I uh read both applications as well and um uh am you know pleased to have people to uh apply for this position.

I had the opportunity to to have a discussion with Mr.

Preston.

And um I did not have an opportunity to speak to Ms.

Johnson, although I did give her a call.

I um there was no answer, so I did not have was unable.

And um as you all know, I really much prefer to appoint people I've met and spoken with.

Um so I am okay to go forward, um, please to go forward with Mr.

Preston's application.

And um would love to be able to make a motion to uh to nominate Ms.

Johnson, but I I I have not met with her, so I'm not comfortable doing that at this juncture.

Um is if we could um impress on her if the motion goes that way um to carry her application forward but impress on her to maybe reach out to the commissioners who want to um uh meet with her um expressly.

I would be one of the commissioners that would want uh either a phone call or an in-person meeting.

Okay.

All right.

Vice Mayor.

Uh yeah, actually I agree with Commissioner Ahern Koch.

While I believe both of the candidates are well qualified, uh I would like to go ahead and uh support the nomination on the floor for now and hold the second one, hoping we are going to get additional candidates to choose from.

Um, but know that at least we've got one standing by and and encourage her to talk to us.

Yes, please.

Uh Commissioner Batti.

Uh yes, uh thank you, Mayor.

And uh I concur.

I know Mrs.

Uh Johnson personally, she lives right around the corner from me, and we went to school together.

So I know that she would be highly qualified, but again, I have you know to the Commissioner and the Vice Mayor's point, I haven't spoken to her um in any capacity uh and didn't even have a conversation with her in regards to her interest in uh you know being on the CRA just seeing her application but not having smoke with the book.

Mr.

Uh Preston is a longstanding um member of the community of Newtown and a very valuable, you know, um component to what's happening in Newtown um today.

So again, you know, I concur in and welcome you know him to the board of uh the CRA, you know.

My man.

Um I agree.

And as far as the second appointment, my concern was that that has a you know a specific qualification, and the second applicant really didn't meet those qualifications.

I would like to see um, you know, because I think it was to have some architecture.

I'm trying to look it up, but the you know, my my thing doesn't, but it was you know, some experience in architecture or building or something, and um so I I would you know like to see uh at least somebody you know some other people apply, or if not, I'd like to be able to talk to Ms.

Johnson too before.

And I have talked to Mr.

Preston before.

Um so I guess there's I think there's consensus for appointing Mr.

Preston right now.

Well we did have a motion, so let's just vote because we did have a motion and say, All right.

Thank you.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

All right, passes unanimously.

And then I think we go out of and we adjourn as the um community redevelopment agency board.

And we are in session again as the city commission for the for the regular meeting for October 6th.

And our next item is consent agenda number one.

Are there any items to be pulled?

Yes, Mayor.

I am aware of agenda consent number 6.1 has been pulled by Commissioner Ulrich.

6.2 is being pulled by Vice Mayor Trice and Commissioner Ulrich.

6.6 is being pulled by Commissioner Ulrich, and that is all I have.

Okay.

So 6.12 and 6.

Correct.

Okay.

And I get a motion to approve to approve the balance.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

Commissioner Baptine moved to approve the balance of consent agenda number one.

And that was without six items 6.1, 6.2, and 6.6.

Commissioner Ulrich seconded.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Yes.

The motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Commissioner Ulrich, item 6.1.

Thank you, Mayor.

I did want a brief presentation on this item, and I have a few questions.

All right.

Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

Jennifer Jorgensen, Director of Governmental Affairs.

And I put together a really quick presentation to go through the federal lobbying services and then also answer any questions on the specific agreement.

So kind of a brief overview of how we use our federal lobbying services here at the city.

We do secure through a procurement a lobbying team that does our federal lobbying services, and we use that team to help secure federal funding.

And we do that in a couple different ways.

They have really strong committee relationships up in Washington, D.C.

We use them extensively when we do federal appropriations.

They work very closely with our the budget committees.

Additionally, they'll work with committee members when we have questions on changes when the administration changes things, such as FEMA.

They work very closely with those organizations and keep us in the loop.

Again, Army Corps of Engineers, another one they work very closely with.

They also help us advocate for any federal legislative and policy changes.

So they let us create those narratives and then they take our needs and our in our wants and they bring those to the federal level and again work with the appropriate departments up in Washington DC.

If they do have any bills, um changes that are happening in Washington, D.C.

that do affect the city, they make sure they communicate those very closely.

We do that a lot with the FEMA.

Again, we had a lot of changes in FEMA this year, so we worked very closely with our federal lobbyists to determine, okay, how does that affect um the city?

What do we need to change with any of the policy changes that are going on up in Washington DC?

So we do keep in close contact with them for the for situations like that.

They communicate um all federal issues with us that affect the city.

Um they communicate with us, if not on a weekly basis, a monthly basis.

They're very quick to um respond to any questions that we have.

I know our public works team, um, our director of public works works very closely with our federal lobbyists as well on any issues and a lot of issues that affect our public works team.

Um and when we do travel up to Washington, D.C., which we do for different Florida League of Cities events, National League of Cities events, um, they help us to schedule um relationships and and meetings with our federal elected officials and some um policy and committee um representatives as well when we're there.

So those are the main federal lobbying services that we use with our with our team.

When we do hire or procure our lobbying services, we go through a procurement just like we do with our city lobbying services.

We did a procurement this year, which is resulting in the new contract that's on consent today.

We had a contract with our Federal Lobbying Services that will expire on November 7th.

Therefore, we did a new federal competitive solicitation.

Two bids were received, and we did a full evaluation with an evaluation committee, and the color nine group was selected for this new contract.

With the competitive solicitation we did this year, like I said, there were two federal lobbying groups that submitted.

The Color Nine group was the organization that we picked, and they were the incumbent vendor as well.

And this just shows some differences between the two organizations that had submitted bids.

The Color Nine group, like I said, is the organization that we are under contract currently and also the one that the evaluation committee selected that we are have in front of the Commission today to approve their contract.

Just a little bit on what the Color Nine group has done for the city since they have been the federal lobbyist.

They have helped us secure approximately 51.7 million in federal funding, and I listed some of the um ways that that funding has come through to the city, the Leto Beach Shore Protection Project, the American Rescue Plan and CARES Act, the raise grant, now our raise grant, the city transportation team did all of the heavy lifting on that.

However, because again of the administration change that happened this year, we were a little bit nervous that that um funding would get held up, and so we utilized our federal um lobbying team to make sure that they were working with the um committees in Washington, D.C.

to help push that through as much as possible.

We've gotten the appropriations as part of that federal funding as well, including the Bay Bay Park.

We've gotten um almost five million dollars for the Bay Park and Federal appropriations and a new town sidewalk project.

We currently have a project with the Buddha Kerbayou of a $3 million that is pending, and of course, with the federal government shutdown, we are waiting to see what happens with that.

Um we did utilize our federal lobbyists obviously to leverage that appropriation to push it through.

Um they also help us with committee and policy advocacy, like I talked about before.

They have very strong relationships with the committees up in Washington, D.C.

Um, and they're amazing at communication and making those connections for us when we do our visits up to Washington, D.C.

So just in in um summary, we use our federal lobbying services.

They're integral to what we do as far as helping us submit our federal policies, ask for our federal appropriations, and specifically the Color Nine group has had a strong history of doing those things for us in the past.

And with that, I'll answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for that presentation.

I think it's good for us and the public to see what lobbyists do for us, the money they bring to the city.

I think you answered my first question uh during your presentation.

Is this the same company we use last year?

It is.

Uh-huh.

And I noticed an $11,000 increase in their service in their contract.

Why is that?

Do you know?

Um truthfully, I think the the um cost increase just comes with everything else that's happening in in the world today as everything's increasing.

Um they were still less than the other um respondent that um put in a bid.

Um and they have I think helped us a lot more in our um uh we've been requesting a lot more as far as support in our federal appropriations.

Um they have worked very closely with us on submitting those federal appropriations, and they've gotten quite a bit more complicated as we complete the forums.

Um so that may be part of that as well.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Um I did have uh questions about exhibit B and exhibit A, but they're a little bit complicated, and I sort of worked them out in my head before we came to the table today.

So no more questions.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right, seeing nine, can we get a motion, please?

Move to approve.

Thank you.

All right.

Umric move to approve agenda consent agenda item number one regarding our federal lobbyist, Commissioner Backties seconded if you'll vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Oh wait a minute.

Okay.

All right, try again.

Is that your vote?

All right.

Passes unanimously.

All right.

Consent number two.

I'll go to the Vice Mayor since Mr.

Ulrich has three of them.

Okay.

This is the only one the Vice Mayor has.

Okay.

The concern there was a concern expressed by a couple of residents about defunct FPL polls.

And I learned that the other communications vendors are not required to move from the defunct poll to the new poll.

So we're ending up with two side-by-side polls where we really only need one.

So the question was can we should we require Comcast to move their connection to the defunct poll before we sign this contract or as part of this contract?

Good morning.

My name is Emilio Rodriguez, I'm the IT director for the record.

This is not really my area of expertise, but I did reach out to Comcast, and I did get a response back.

They were on PTO this morning, so they were not able to be here.

Now I've included our public works department, and we have a meeting with them tomorrow that I may be able to get some more solid answers.

The director of public works is coming down.

Thank you.

And he is part of the that meeting.

Good morning, Nick Patel, Public Works Director.

So the way it works is that FPNL would relocate the poll and then move their line and then internally they'll notify all the franchisees to remove their line and move it to the new poll.

Typically they're not as motivated to to to move their lines across because that's at their uh expense.

So what we have done internally is we've opened up that permit again with FP ⁇ L so you'll trigger them to push the other franchisees to move their line out uh uh to the new poll.

So it's not just Comcast, there are other you know, Verizon and all those other aspects of we're going to be working closely with them to to see if they can move uh if they can get the other franchisees to move the lines to the new poll.

Well, it it sounds like the other franchisees are don't have the motivation.

So even if we are opening the permit for FPL, does FPL have any way to mo you know to further motivate the franchisees?

Unfortunately, no other than us opening the permit.

And the reason because it's up to the franchisees at their expense to relocate.

So really they're not.

Well we can do is we can reach out to their um to the key franchisees and see if they would they would relocate that.

It looks like somebody from Comcast wants to speak up here.

If you want to come forward, you can come forward and identify for interrupting uh you've got to come, you gotta sit and and speak in the uh speak in the microphone and introduce yourself.

Thank you.

Um my name is Tom Colby.

I am with Comcast Business and with a government group here.

Um a new Floridian.

I'm sure there's I'm sure there's others, right?

I mean, you know, I'm not the only one for sure.

Um we are motivated because it's uh Herminio has a big project down here uh in Bay Park, which we're really enthusiastic about.

But it goes beyond that.

I'm trying to put two million dollars in the into the greater um Sarasota County or you know, Sarasota Metro.

So that would include county, city, county schools, uh county sheriffs, the whole bunch of stuff.

So yes, ordinarily maybe that's true.

Uh surely it's true, right?

But uh but yes, we're we're we're trying to we're we're we're gonna put uh a large multimillion dollar investment over time over as short a period of time as I can.

Uh I want to flood the city and get to all the nooks and uh all the nooks and crannies of the city.

My strategy is the lateral two step, right?

So that's that's my nickname for it.

So we use local government building portfolios as sort of a general framework.

We cut you know so we we cut construction routes and then as you know you know lateral opportunities along those routes appear, right, we can later all off and get to all the residential and commercial opportunities along the way.

So this is a fairly mature market here for us in Sarasota County, but I want it I just want to be everywhere.

So in Bay Park the idea would be you get a family down there, they're they're visiting around, they're having a good time having fast internet in order to be able to, you know, transmit those pictures that's the kind of stuff that makes the modern person really happy.

So we're we're we're highly motivated.

So whatever we need to do is that moving the lines from the old polls to the new parts.

I'm not an expert in that area.

At root I'm a salesman okay so all right guys so I'm I'm not a lawyer or anything like that but I will get it to the right people and we'll figure it out.

And I'm meeting with Carrie tomorrow so we'll probably have this as an agenda item.

All right thank you.

Commissioner Ulrich Thank you.

So that's the reason I pulled this item as well.

I think I read someplace that Florida Power and Light is allowed to remove the wires from the renters the people who rent the polls and move them to the new poll at cost and then charge the people.

Of course it's easy to spend your own money to do something and difficult to get paid for doing that from the people who owe you money.

Is that is that true that they can do that?

I'm not specifically aware of that but we can certainly have discussions with FPL on that see if that's a possibility.

And I also heard that sometimes after they remove their lines and put them on the new poll they cut the poll off just below or above where their lines were and then the remaining lines are there.

Excuse me and um you know it doesn't look so good, right?

It looks worse than it did before.

Right.

Um question there, just another eyesore Yeah sometimes we come back in uh cities and and this sort of thing they sometimes they have to motivate us.

It's okay, right?

Just sort of push it along.

I mean so so in a lot of cases we will but yeah sometimes stuff gets missed.

There are our labor shortages especially in the technical and engineering fields right so uh forgive us if we're a little you know a little late on these things.

All right Mr.

Bullock you wanted to say something?

Madam Mayor it just occurs to me that we have 206,000 reasons to motivate your team to remove those wires that are that are still there.

And it causes me to wonder I know we've gone through this procurement but there are other vendors who could offer us the same service in the parks and while we love Comcast we also love Verizon and other vendors.

So I realize as a salesperson you can't make commitments on the part of engineering or field or whatever you call the folks who move the wires but I'm not sure we can send a strong enough message about the connection between making sales to the city and then responsibly handling the uh obsolete uh attachment to polls when you have a good alternative a new poll so I I'm not sure how strong how much stronger we can make the message but that's as strong as I can go un unless we would recommend not approving the contract.

Message strongly heard and and and before we vote on this I I did want to communicate if Comcast becomes a you know good player in this incident I think you will serve as an example to the other franchisees and I'm hoping that public works and IT will also send that message when other contracts come up Mayor one more point.

I'm sure this happens around the city but the two citizens we heard from lived in IBSSA and Alta Vista.

So those neighborhoods in particular that we know of are aware of this problem just a quick note.

I'm about a million and a half in com uh budgeted commitments right now.

That's kind of part of it, right?

Uh the whole idea is okay, it's time to reinvest and and modernize all these networks and and and reset the relationship between Comcast and the city, and all of this could certainly be part of it.

Uh I I I don't, I mean, it's it's a rounding error, I'm sure, in a two million dollar investment.

I mean, I'm I'm guessing, but uh I'm pretty good at math.

So how do you, Mr.

Bullock, I'm gonna go to you since you talked about uh the 206,000 reasons how do you suggest that we uh approve this or not approve this?

I think at this point, because the service is important to our citizens, I think at this point I can recommend uh approval of it.

There will be other contracts coming up in the future, and I think that understanding the relationship between the performance of the vendor uh on behalf of our citizens and and a new contract is something that we can look to in the future.

But uh I'll recommend approval of this.

Thank you.

All right, any other questions?

No, I was going to move, move.

Okay.

I I I move approval of the Comcast Master Service Agreement.

Second.

All right.

Uh Commissioner or Vice Mayor Trice moved approval of the uh item uh 62, the Comcast agreement.

Uh Commissioner Allah seconded.

Do any anyone make want to make a comment?

All right.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

All right.

It passes unanimously.

Thank you all very much.

Yeah, thank you.

Commissioner Ulrich, item 66.

Right.

Um if we could have staff come down, I thought a very brief presentation in light of the fact this is almost $4 million worth spending.

And then I did have one question about the contract.

Morning, Madam Mayor.

Good morning.

Commissioners, Vern Hall, Utilities Director, and with me is Scott Woodard, our general manager, and he is prepared to answer any and all questions you may have.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Um I can just go ahead and ask my question.

It was a little confusing to me that we're using a contract for another city, Zephyrillis.

Right.

And I didn't see anything except a purchase order for Sarasota.

To me, that's a little unusual.

Okay.

So the process that we're using is piggyback.

Um piggybacking is commonly utilized in the State of Florida.

Um, and it's a process where one public entity can utilize a competitive awarded contract of another public entity for the same goods and services, provided that it meets the City of Sarasota purchasing code.

So what we do in in this situation is uh we evaluate this contract for our needs, and we see that, you know, all the line items in that contract meet the same needs that we have when installing these 16,000 AMI meters that we're looking to install.

So there are no changes to this contract other than substituting the city of Sarasota for the city that's currently in the contract.

That is correct.

That's or you just add it to the bottom.

And here comes procurement.

Hi, Renee Hayes, uh procurement official.

And the piggyback, th this looks a little different because previously we were doing our own contracts even when we did a piggyback.

And so this is a piggyback where the PO in essence is the contract.

This is like the first I think this might be the first one we're bringing to commission since we made that change.

Don't use acremans.

What is purchase order?

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Bullock.

I just want to uh piggybacking is very common throughout the state.

And the basic guidelines are your your needs have to meet the specs of the other city or county or public agency that that uh did the procurement.

And it's really for efficiency purposes.

If a vendor can respond to a set of specifications for one jurisdiction and another one has the exact same requirements and specifications, then rather than put that vendor through multiple bidding processes, uh any city and county when the specs match can uh piggyback onto that and as uh Renee said, execute the contract through a purchase order.

So it's pretty common.

This is a big one, but it's especially in utilities, it isn't that uncommon to have pretty large contracts done through piggybacking.

So it's it's it is normal.

I'm not sure the city's history I can tell you in the places I've worked with piggyback you know pretty routinely on others as long as the specs line up.

Yeah, we we have done it before.

So anybody else?

Thank you.

All right.

Uh can I get a motion?

Move approval.

Second.

All right.

Commissioner Aherncotch moved approval of consent uh item 66 regarding the contract, the purchase order for the utilities department for the water meters and um Commissioner Ulrich, you seconded it, right?

Okay.

And anybody you want to speak to the motion?

If not, if you'll vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Does anybody need a break before we move on?

Okay.

Maybe move past these and then take a break.

Okay.

All right.

So we will move to um consent agenda number two.

Or did we just do I just say because we had we didn't do number two because you didn't read them.

All right.

Any items being pulled?

Um I believe actually both items are to be pulled by Commissioner Ahern Cotch 7.1 and 7.2.

All right.

If you will read them then for the record.

Thank you.

Ordinance number 25-5575, an ordinance of the City of Sarasota, Florida providing for the designation of the House Castilla, accessory dwelling unit, garage, and street wall located at 1874 Wisterio Street, historically known as the Stickney Kimbrough residence, as a structure of historic significance pursuant to historic designation, regulations of the city found in Article 4, Division 8 of the Zonic Code.

All more particularly described here and provide for reading by title only and providing for an effective date.

Ordinance number 25-5578, an ordinance of the City of Sarasota, Florida adopting a table of organization for city government for fiscal year 2025-2026 as required by charter, providing for for the server of the parts here of provided for reading by title only and providing for an effective date.

Okay.

Commissioner Aaron Coch, you pulled these item 71.

Just for an express vote.

And with that I would move approval of ordinance number 25-5575 unless anybody has any questions or comments.

Second.

All right.

Commissioner Ahern Cotch moved approval of item 7-1, which is the second reading of uh uh historic designation or for the home at 1874 Wisteria.

Uh Commissioner or Vice Mayor Trice seconded.

And we'll call as well.

Aaron Kotch.

Yes.

Albert?

Yes.

Betty?

Yes.

Yes.

Price.

Yes.

Um Is that your vote?

Commissioners?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Item 72.

Um again, I pulled up for the same reason as for an express vote.

So if unless anybody has any questions or comments, I would move approval of ordinance number 25-5578.

Second.

Okay.

Any uh any questions or comments?

Okay.

Commissioner Ahern Cosh moved approval of item 72, ordinance number 255578.

Commissioner Ulrich Second.

What?

I do have a comment.

Oh, Mr.

Aller, second.

All right.

Go ahead.

Just speaking to the motion.

Um while I do support the motion, I would like to reiterate it again that I think the table of organization.

Um there are some departments under the city manager that used to be their own department and not under departments.

And I would encourage um the future city manager to re-uh evaluate that.

Specifically the historic preservation and sustainability, which often have to push against and stand their own ground.

And I I I feel it serves the citizens better and the community better when they uh are independent.

All right.

Vice Mayor Trice.

But the new city manager will probably make some changes anyway.

All right.

It's ten thirty, so we are back in session for the regular city commission meeting for October sixth, twenty twenty-five.

And we are now at item nine one on our agenda.

It's the second reading of proposed ordinance number twenty-five-five five six zero.

And I'm going to call upon the city auditing clerk to read the title.

Thank you, Mayor.

Ordinance number twenty-five dash five five six zero.

An ordinance of the City of Sarasota, Florida, providing that chapter thirty-four point five of the city code entitled vacation rentals shall be admitted as more fully described herein, including but not limited to providing that the city may request supplemental information to complete processing a request for change in designated responsible party.

No, but I do have one question.

Okay.

Toward the bottom of the top paragraph, it says at the direction of the city commission, city staff will bring back the discussion of expanding the vacation rental ordinance to include properties in the other zone districts, such as downtown neighborhood and downtown edge zone districts by the end of 2025.

What are your plans for that?

Yes, hello, I'm Hannah Tabika, Supervisor of Vacation Rental Compliance Development Services.

So we do have we are compiling research at this time, just gathering different pieces of information to present, and we are hoping to be able to present that to you at the beginning of December.

Excellent.

Thank you.

My one question.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Yeah, my question was are you on target to meet that date?

And it sounds like you are.

Same.

All right.

If there are no more questions, then if we could get a motion.

Move to approve.

Ordinance number 25-5560.

Second.

Okay.

Commissioner Ulrich move to approve ordinance number 25.5560.

I'll call, I'll say Vice Mayor Trice seconded.

She was louder.

Anyone want to speak to the motion?

All right.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

Also, too.

This is going to be a roll call.

Betty.

Yes.

Ulrich, yes.

Yes.

Aaron Kotch?

Yes.

Albert.

Yes.

All right, is that your vote, Commissioners?

It passes unanimously.

All right.

Our second item of unfinished business is item 92, and that is a continued discussion regarding the capital improvement program, school avenue greenway feasibility, and I'm going to call upon Senior Transportation Planner Ariaga and Chief Transportation Planner Karales to make the presentation.

And I'm sure we want a presentation on this one.

Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Corinne Ariaga, Senior Transportation Planner.

Good morning, Albion Kralis, Chief Transportation Planner.

We are here for a continuation of the School Avenue Greenway project.

Last uh meeting, the commission moved to hear more about different projects the funds could be eligible for to see if they wanted to move the funds or not.

So that is exactly what we're here to do today.

We are here to explain what the multimodal transportation impact fees are, and also to familiarize the city city commission with other projects eligible for those monies.

So I am going to hand it over to Alvy Marie to talk about the funding source and projects that have multimodal transportation impact fees already on them.

So the multimodal transportation impact fees can be used on transportation infra infrastructure that adds new capacity for people walking, biking, driving, or riding transit.

So to reiterate, new capacity.

Funds can be spent on the transportation network as long as the project is in the adopted thoroughfare plan.

So that could be anywhere from collectors and above and arterials.

And then identified in the multimodal connections plan that you can see right there, picture in the corner, or in the transportation master plan.

Funds cannot be used for operations such as for the Bay Runner Trolley operations, maintenance of our infrastructure, or any existing facilities.

You can see on the screen this is a project list of currently funded with multimodal transportation impact fees.

Those are in your backup materials as well.

We will go through the projects in the upcoming slides as well.

The first one is the Main Street Complete Street.

You saw this in a previous commission meeting.

The funding that you can that multimodal transportation impact fees applies for here are the transit shelters specifically in the multi-use path connection that you can see also on the lower bottom of the screen, which is very tiny, to connect Ringling Boulevard to School Avenue.

The funding eligibility is for this project is local, federal, state, and discretionary grants.

So this project has sufficient funding to be able to do sufficient funding eligibility to be able to get some funding to complete the project in a in different matter.

connection that you can see also on the lower bottom of the screen which is very tiny to connect ringling boulevard to school avenue the funding eligibility is for this project is local federal state and discretionary grants so this project has sufficient funding to be able to do um sufficient funding eligibility to be able to uh get some funding to complete the project in a in different matter uh the it's not funded through construction but it you can get additional funding in other ways alderman merck and US 301 as you may know the Alderman Mert connection south of Payne Park has already been completed we just have a small portion to be done to connect to Brother Geen funding applied here is for that multi-use path on the north side of Alderman Street south of Pain Parkway to US 301 the funding eligibility for this one would be completely local dollars and this is funded through construction the next one is expansion of the city multimodal trail network and this is where circus trail is this program is a bucket it is a large bucket this is where you find different projects within it the funding is applied to extending circus trail which is a 12 foot path through Bobby Jones golf club to connect to 17th Street Park the funding eligibility it has multiple so it could be from local dollars federal state and discretionary grants it is funded through construction but very partially so there are funding gaps for this project the other one again this is a continuation of that bucket as well it is a rail to trails from Fruitville through North Sarasota we have been in communications with our partners at Trust for Public Land that there might be a potential of doing a feasibility study we could use the money from this bucket to be able to do that feasibility study there is a potential to use the money and do the feasibility you have multiple opportunities to fund this program this project with local federal state or discretionary grants so again it is eligible for other funding and no it is not funded through construction you also have a different CIP project called the bicycle route improvements funding is applied to installation of missing gaps and the bicycle network everything related to that multimodal connections plan that you see on the screen and this is mostly funded through local dollars you see here Sarasota in motion transit circulation this is mostly focused on anything related to either the water transit or transit shelters so exclusively for the capital of this it funds planning design and construction of said transit shelters or the docks for the water transit funding eligibility could be local federal state discretionary and it is not funded through construction another multimodal transportation impact fee project could be ATMS advanced traffic management systems this is for traffic controller the cabinets and signal systems funding eligibility is again multiple local federal state discretionary grants and it's funded through construction very partially this project list is potential multimodal transportation impact fee projects these do not have multimodal transportation impact fees you have this list again in your backup materials and just gonna go through those as well so the uh this bucket is a sidewalk construction program it's to fund any uh new sidewalks so the multimodal transportation transportation impact fees could go into this and construct new sidewalks uh again we could leverage this for any type of funding in the future uh the next is for water transit specifically so this funding could be applied for new docks we have a water transit feasibility study uh that's going to have some concepts for docks so this could be used to construct them we do not have funding through construction uh the Shade Avenue complete street phase one we have designed up to 60% we don't have funding for construction however if we found additional funds multimodal transportation impact fees could be used for the sidewalk gaps uh new town sidewalks could this could be applied to sidewalk gaps it's not for retrofits which we did get that discretionary grant from from the federal appropriation this would not be you that this could not be used for that it has to be used for the gaps for new sidewalks um again something we could do is leverage it uh for maybe a safe route to school uh grant I mean we could leverage it for other grants as well next is our 12th street complete street it's our number one of it's included in our number two priority in Sarasota and motion for streetscapes for east west corridors it's also uh part of the Ed Smith Stadium study with the Metropolitan Planning Organization that's currently on

It has to be used for the gaps for new sidewalks.

Again, something we could do is leverage it for maybe a safe route to school grant.

I mean, we can leverage it for other grants as well.

Next is our 12th Street Complete Street.

It's our number one of it's included in our number two priority in Sarasota and Motion for streetscapes for east-west corridors.

It's also part of the Ed Smith Stadium study with the Metropolitan Planning Organization that's currently ongoing right now.

We could use this for we could use these funds for bicycle lanes and sidewalk gaps.

Again, there this is eligible for multiple funding sources, and there is partial funding because it is a it is on the Metropolitan Planning Organization study.

17th Street, complete street.

Uh this is again grouped into that number two priority in Sarasota in motion for those east-west corridors.

It can be applied similarly to the bicycle lanes and sidewalk gaps.

This is not included on an MPO priority, so this would be using local dollars to fund.

And it's not funded through construction.

So that concludes uh the projects that have multimodal transportation impact fees already on them and what it could be located on in the future.

So as a reminder, this is a continuation from the School Avenue Greenway project.

Uh that project is on the multimodal connections plan that was adopted in 2019.

So you can still move the project to the next phase, which is planning and design.

Or if you do decide to move the funds, we recommend uh moving it to the expansion of the city multimodal trail network.

Like Alvy Murray said, that is a bucket program and can be used for multiple projects.

So we anticipate if the funding does get moved that we would use it to fill any potential funding gaps for the circus trail extension, as well as any uh future feasibility study for that North Sarasota Legacy Trail Connector.

And if there's any additional funds after that, they would be used to actualize the adopted multimodal connections plan all through that one bucket.

And with that, we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Okay, before questions, we've got uh I think three people signed up to speak.

I just haven't gotten the third card yet.

All right.

Umtler, Alex Gurley, and Rob Grant.

I know there were supposed to be other people here speaking.

A lot of us work.

I've literally just ran from home because this got here, so unfortunately there are other people that we're gonna speak that aren't here.

Okay.

Um give you a minute because I know you just yes.

Rob, do you want to go first?

Good morning, Commissioners.

Uh, my name is Rob Grant, and I live in the Arlington Park neighborhood.

Um nothing has changed in the past month.

Residents living near the project largely don't want this nearby and in their backyards for multiple reasons as we've heard previously.

Since then, one of the neighbors that might have been here today.

One of the neighbors put up signs along the stormwater ditch in the project area with a QR code for a simple five-questioned survey about the project.

Thirty-three of forty-four, just the one, please.

Okay, that answered said no to the question.

Do you want the new extension built in our quiet neighborhood?

75% said no.

Other than the fact that the school avenue MERT exists in long-term plans, I struggle to understand how and why this continues to have such a high priority on this project.

It seems staff is simply asking for your stamp of approval on a decision they've already made.

Excuse me.

One question you might want to look at is what projects in the additional backup materials had funding that was part of the nearly 10 million dollars in reallocations necessary as a result of the storm damage last year.

Why was that funding shifted, but not the support for the school avenue MERT?

Is that MERT really more important than say the sidewalk gaps that exist in many places or the circus trail extension that will serve more of the public and contribute to existing regional assets like the legacy trail and Bobby Jones?

And as a neighborhood resident familiar with the streets and sidewalks, I want to share an observation from page nine of the backup materials.

Did blow this up a little to make it a little easier to see.

Um here's the proposed extension in green.

Right here.

As you can see, it would lead folks to streets such as Hyde Park that are marked as potential shared lane markings.

This means that the people would be on an off-road MERT and funneled onto roads where they would have to share the road, not with a bike lane, but the road with cars.

So there is no off-street connectivity for the extension to get anywhere.

Many of these streets are narrow, and Hyde Park just qualified for traffic calming treatments.

Proof of existing dangerous traffic.

Please move on from this proposed extension and put the funds to use on a project that is community focused and currently supported by residents.

Thank you.

All right.

Ms.

Adler.

Hello, Commissioners.

My name is Flo Entler, 36-year city resident and president of the Arlington Park neighborhood.

I'm here today representing the neighborhood.

At our June APA meeting, we discussed and voted on the School Avenue Greenway MERT.

In a unanimous vote, we supported our neighbors who live adjacent to the storm drainage.

They do not want the MERT.

They don't want it for many reasons, but mostly drainage and flooding issues.

I understand their fear of flooding.

If you haven't experienced flooding, it's not fun.

My home flooded twice last year.

Even a few inches create a lot of damage.

The Murray is in a flood zone, making pervious impervious isn't smart to do in a flood zone.

The alternative concept is mostly pervious, but will cost taxpayers almost six million dollars.

And the boardwork is not ADA compliant.

Actually, um one of my neighbors sent an email to you guys, and I guess city staff said that they should get off the boardwork and onto the streets if you're going to be biking or um in a wheelchair.

That's a lot of money, six million dollars, but it's a lot of money for a.44 mile MERT that directs walkers and bikers onto our busy streets.

I've lived in Arlington Park for 26 years.

I know my neighborhood.

We are a cut-through neighborhood.

Our streets are busy.

Most drivers speed and many are looking down at their phones.

The streets are narrow, and some do not have sidewalks.

This MERT ends at Da Tour Street, and according to staff will direct people to Hyde Park Street.

Hyde Park Street already has traffic calming, islands and neckouts.

It really recently passed the original warrant system, the more difficult system, to get more speed mitigation.

It's a busy road with speeders.

That doesn't sound very safe to direct everyone from the MERT on to.

Trees help with drainage.

The tree canopy considers how close trees can exist will be planted near the surface without negatively affecting the surface.

Sounds like we might not get many trees replanted.

We will not know how many trees will be lost until the design phase.

This 0.44 mile MERT doesn't give connectivity, and six million dollars is a lot of money for a little bit.

Plus maintenance costs.

I see Shade Avenue Complete Street is on the list of potential projects.

That would connect our entire neighborhood.

This MERT isn't fully funded.

The money would be better spent elsewhere, such as Circus Trail Mirror.

That would connect the Legacy Trail to Bobby Jones.

That's connectivity and will be used by the entire community.

This may have made sense years ago, but it doesn't make sense today.

And just because staff says we need this, most neighbors do not support it.

Please deny this project and reallocate the funds to the circus trail uh extension or any other MERT project that would be more utilize widely used by the citizens.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alex Gurley.

Yes.

Good morning.

My name is Alex Gurley.

I live at 2190 Sunnyside Place, right on the drainage easement where the proposed project would be constructed and installed.

My concerns primarily concern privacy.

Me and my wife and our child live on uh uh on the MERT and if there were to be a public uh bike path, we have concerns about the safety and privacy of our family.

Uh we currently have plans or are making plans to rebuild on our lot, and those plans have been put on hold to determine how this is going to play out, whether we want to rebuild on that current lot or move out of the neighborhood or somewhere else in the neighborhood.

We would prefer to stay in the neighborhood and prefer to rebuild on our current lot.

Uh also uh, as my neighbors have mentioned, uh I have not seen um uh uh uh a sufficient cost breakdown to uh to make me comfortable that the taxpayer dollars are going to be well spent and that the maintenance cost have been fully thought thought out.

And um finally the location.

It's not close to any um uh for my purposes it I would be looking for any type of playground or something like that that we could utilize and use the pathway to get there.

Um but I think the uh the place that it would take us would be south down towards um Sarasota Square Mall or sorry Southgate Mall.

Um so I don't really see this uh pathway being um uh sufficient to move the neighborhood and the residents around to places that we would actually want to go.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you for listening to the neighborhood's input and our opposition and uh taking that into consideration for your decision.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right Commissioner questions yeah I know.

Commissioner Aaron got it yes thank you.

Um thank you for the um uh alternate uh uses here of those dollars uh I uh I think w what we can all uh agree on is that the need is greater than the number of dollars.

Um so um this really underscores that one of the projects that you have here is the um Newtown sidewalk connectivity.

Can you explain to me the difference uh you mentioned you referenced with the federal dollars that we received uh and these dollars how that would work together so the the appropriation that we received was for retrofit so the current sidewalks and making sure that they are uh consistent with uh ADA compliance so making sure there are five feet and though and those things so because the multimodal transportation impact fees are only used for new capacity we couldn't use them on retrofits but we can use them on gaps.

So where there is no sidewalk that exists.

So that was my question was how are we going to how would we connect those two dots?

Because the need is really great.

It's um it's very difficult um the sidewalk connectivity situation and and and with Robert L with Booker with the neighborhood there the the connectivity is is difficult at best.

And and so I understand the retrofit versus the new how do you mesh those how do we make those combine will it be impactful um so we did uh a gap analysis similar to our sidewalk retrofit uh prioritization we did the same thing for gaps and on the slide you can you can see where those gaps are so we would do we would focus on the ones that are higher priority and see where our funding stretches and then um move down the priority list.

Okay.

I mean because some of the the issues there are that you'll have um you know a sidewalk short stretch of sidewalk that is walkable and then you'll have a curb that's like this.

And so if you are in a wheelchair or you have a stroller or or any of those situations, it's not ADA.

And then you cross the street and there's nothing.

And then you go another block and then there's a sidewalk but it's cracked and it's buckling.

And you know each block has its challenges and sometimes it goes from one side of the street to the other side of the street and nobody's cross nobody's doing that.

So I just want to know the this is an area that um this commission has been trying to focus on for since I'm elected eight years now.

And so I would like to see something impactful as I'm sure many of the commissioners here would like to see something really impactful happen in the neighborhood.

You know we have the the the district designation we've got a lot of things going on and this is a big piece of that puzzle to show that we really care.

We you know are s say what we mean and I think those all those things are correct.

I want to make sure that if this body chooses to reallocate the dollars there, it will be something that will be impactful.

Am I making is that is that a good enough way of shaping that question.

Yeah.

It's understandable.

We have so as Corin mentioned before we had the new town appropriation which is already a million dollars going into Newtown for those sidewalks for retrofit.

And we recently found out that we got the safe routes to school grant for Booker High School.

So that goes another about six hundred thousand dollars that that's going into the sidewalks for Newtown.

So that is a total of $1.6 million going into the sidewalk.

So that that will be very impactful for the sidewalks and the new town community.

And then this could could work well with that effort as well.

Everything could talk to each other and work together.

This is only for that, and this is only for that.

That these could all mesh together and it would have a an impact.

Yes.

If that were the case.

Yes.

So if this funds was moved into the the new town sidewalks versus the sidewalk construction program, then it would focus solely on the new town area sidewalk gaps.

Got it.

Okay.

Sure.

My second um question has to do with the um the legacy trail connection uh that we're talking about.

So that requires going north into Sarasota.

So that piece of it.

Um that require there so there are two routes.

What kind of a uh um a dent would this make in that effort?

This would help support a feasibility study that would be um it would be in collaboration with the partners for the North the North Trail segment.

So the feasibility study would help to identify which route would be the best, which leg of the the rail would be the best.

And all the funds would be used for a feasibility study.

Just for the feasible or the feasibility.

Okay.

And then the next one was the circus trail.

Um how impactful will this be in that?

Let me let me go back to that.

The one the million and ninety-nine thousand will not go t exclusively towards the feasibility study.

You can split the money, you can split the money towards the different projects.

The feasibility study is not going to cost a million dollars.

I mean it's a big route there, so I don't know what you know.

Yeah, look to Albi's point, it wouldn't cost a million dollars and there would be a cost share with the partners.

Okay.

So there would be funds left over to actually do something with it?

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you for that clarification.

And then uh basically the same question for circus trail.

So circus trail right now, um, we're looking at it costing about four point the cost estimates are coming between 3.5 to 5 million.

We have funding through the Sarasota Manatee NPO, which is a partial funding, and then um through FDOT.

So there is some funding for the project, but there is still that gap that needs to be filled.

Unfortunately, we did receive we received SUNDRO funding, but it got reallocated to a different project thanks to reappropriations.

So the MPO was able to provide us with that additional fund, um, but there's still that gap to be filled in order to get the project through construction.

Okay, thank you.

And one more question.

These funds, could these funds be split to two projects, or are we to use all the funds for only one project to today?

So the commission can split the funds however they like.

I will just reiterate that that expansion of the city multimodal trail network is a bucket that can be used for circus trail and that north trail.

It wouldn't need to be split between those two projects.

Okay.

Okay.

Um those are my questions for the moment.

All right, Commissioner Ulrich.

Thank you.

Um I'm referring to pages four and twelve of your PowerPoint.

One page four uh is a project list currently funded with the multimodal transportation funds, and page twelve is potential multi-modal.

What's the difference between those two pages?

So the ones that are currently have multimodal transportation impact funds on them is the is number four.

Okay.

That's the list of projects in your capital improvement program that have multimodal transportation impact fees already allocated to them.

The one on page 12 is that these are projects in your capital improvement program that do not have that funding source on them, but that could depending on those certain um contextual elements.

And they may have other funding available.

Okay, let's go back to page four, please, which is right up there on our screen.

Um are they listed in any particular order?

No, they're not.

All right.

And so if you look at School Avenue Mert and the Alderman MERT, why don't those two projects fit into the category of expansion of the city multimodal trail network?

To explain, um it was because of the eligibility for grants.

So in order for them to be eligible for either um discretionary grants or through the MPO cycle, uh project priority cycle, they need it to be identified separately in the capital improvement program.

So in order for them to be applied for, they need it to be their own line item in the capital improvement program.

And then you submit the CIP separately.

So that the it was more uh strategy.

Technical strategy thing.

Correct.

Gotcha.

Um and then um why don't those two projects fit into the bicycle route improvements category?

They they could.

It's the same thing.

It's the it's the strategy.

So um but once they're completed, they they will be they will be removed.

But now that um if we don't apply for discretionary grants or anything like that, then there's no reason why they should be their own line item.

I got it.

Commissioner Ulrich, can you speak into my Oh sure?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I have no more questions, but I would like to say thank you for your good work and comprehensive work that helps us in discussion and decision making.

I greatly appreciate that.

Thank you.

All right.

Nice mayor.

Thank you.

Um I'm going to confess my confusion on this agenda item.

I think you've sort of answered my first question, which was what the purpose of this discussion was.

I was confused whether it was allocation of funding or to say, okay, this is the next project for you guys to work on.

So it sounds to me that you're juggling all these projects and the question is really money, right?

That's correct.

This is a discussion of where to reappropriate funds if if that's the Commission's direction, and these projects, some of which we've discussed, are already in motion.

Okay.

So I'm going back to uh slide number four again.

Um it again seems like we've got a whole lot of projects that are being juggled with partial funding and whatever we do today, is it another dribs and drabs of money or would it actually be able to complete one of these projects?

I guess it depends on where the funds go.

Um yes, depending on where the funds are allocated, it would complete projects.

What which give us an example of what project could we complete?

So if it was administered or if it was reappropriated to the multi or the multimodal, yeah, the expansion of the city multimodal trail network, it would help potenti it would help fill those potential funding gaps with the circus trail, and then there would potentially be money left over to help with the feasibility study of the North Trail.

If there's extra funds from that, then yes, it could be used for actualizing the the city multimodal uh multimodal trail uh plan.

However, it wouldn't be enough funds to actualize any project after those other two.

Okay.

But but we could in fact decide we're gonna finish circus trail today.

So there's a pro so circus trail is in the development process.

So we've currently finished up a certain percentage of design, and then the next phase we're working with FDOT to get into our local agency program to complete the other phases, and then it goes into construction.

So no, it would not be completed tomorrow, but we would have the funds to complete it to construction once it gets to that phase.

Okay.

That's a significant piece of information for me.

Now I did want to ask about the uh thing at the very bottom, 2163 advanced traffic management system.

Again, I am not a transportation person as you all are.

But in the back of my mind, I see that as helping with traffic flow.

I mean, I I have made a couple of suggestions.

Oh, gee, if you re-time those lights at that intersection, would that help you know people get in or out of their neighborhood?

So I'm wondering, could you tell us a little bit more about advanced traffic management system?

And here we have the director of public works coming.

Good morning.

Um Nick Patel Public Works Director.

It's essentially to upgrade the intersection to provide multimodal opportunities.

So if you wanted bicyclist or pedestrians to kind of go through that intersection is to is to assist with upgrades with the traffic signal to allow those other modes of transportation to go through there.

Would that potentially be something like all motor vehicles have to stop in all directions to allow pedestrians and bicyclists for a particular period of time to get through?

Is that something like that?

Yes, it could.

So um so where are we on that?

So um we pick intersections based on safety channel challenges at different locations.

And currently um we have three three grants from FEMA to replace the mast arms, I mean, from span wire to mastarms, and that's where some of the funding is getting used at.

We do have sufficient funding due to uh those grants, and we will be using some of these funds, um, 25 percent of that to match those those projects.

So so I don't really hear advanced technology in that answer.

No, as as we upgrade the mast arms, we will be upgrading the the signals as well as the um the signal timings and the the pedestrian movements at these three intersections.

Like the electronics involved?

Absolutely, yes.

Okay.

Um and and I guess this is just uh uh obviously it will depend on what the other commissioners say, but if we were to say your your first two items on your secondary recommendation, if we said the um circus trail and the North Sarasota legacy trail instead of the third bucket being whatever is left over spend on the expanding the multimodal trail network.

Could we say whatever is left over put on advanced traffic management system?

So the cost share of those two items hasn't been identified.

We don't know the exact potential gap of the circus trail, the funding gap.

Um and then we would assume that whatever the leftover of that would go into the feasibility study for for that north trail.

Um I don't anticipate any additional funding after those two.

However, it's unclear if there would be.

That's why we just said leave it in the bucket, because it it is a it is a bucket program.

Yeah, it might just be $5,000.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Those were my questions.

Mr.

Mattine, nothing.

Um my question for you is you seem to um be recommending that the money go towards the school avenue MERT.

And so I wanted to hear what your rationale is for that.

Like why does that it you know, where does that where is that going to connect?

Because I keep hearing that um it connects to nowhere.

Is there a plan then for it to be expanded past that eventually?

So tell me what the reasoning is on this.

So the School Avenue Greenway is identified on the 2019 Multimodal Connections Plan, and that was adopted by Commission in 2019.

That plan lays out our multimodal connections for the entire s for the entire city.

So yes, it connects to Hyde Park Street, which if you look in the capital improvement program, it does have undetermined funding, but there is a Hyde Park redesign in the works.

So we're looking at creating that connection there as well as connecting to Shade Avenue, which also has a complete street project in the works, and then that would connect South Sarasota to the North Side and the Legacy Trail.

And it would also help people connect to East-West connectors so they're able to get to downtown as well.

So that is the impetus behind the School Avenue Greenway.

It's important for us to authorize this.

And that wouldn't stop the other items on page four from moving forward.

No.

It would not it would not prevent the other items from moving forward.

Because you said there's potential funding for those items.

Correct.

There is additional funds in different in different buckets.

And there's also funding opportunities through the Federal Government and the State Government.

So we we always strive to look for funding and leverage our funds.

So if we if we didn't approve this going forward, then that would interrupt the connectivity that's trying to be established between North and South Sarasota.

It would steer people into the neighborhood to use those connections in the city grid to get to their locations versus an off-road shared use path that provides a safer environment for people.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Okay.

Thank you.

With this the School Avenue project, um trying to understand what the time frame of that is.

I'm going to uh relate one of the items later on our agenda, which is talking about making something happen by 2055.

So I think in terms of transportation things take a while.

So I'm wondering if we put the funding toward school avenue now.

What kind of time frame are we looking at before the neighborhood would even see anything?

And contrast that with if we don't put the money to it now, when might it come to fruition?

So a traditional roadway transportation project can take anywhere from 15 to 20 years from paper to construction.

A trail project can take less time, but depend because there's so many considerations for this project, I don't anticipate it being constructed until at least 10 years from now.

So and then one of the concerns that was expressed by the neighbors was drainage and things like that.

Those I imagine are things that you would be addressing during the next phases of the study, the project?

That's correct.

A lot of the concerns from the residents will be taken into the next planning and design phases and looked at and taken into consideration and have answers developed to that.

Right now, this current stage was a feasibility study.

All we were looking at is is it feasible?

Is it cost feasible?

Can it even be built?

And the answer is yes, it can.

So now we would go into the next phases to determine how is it going to be built, what materials are going to be used, what considerations do we need to include, and then also what drainage and stormwater treatments need to be coupled with that.

And at the end of the next phase, there would be another decision point as to whether or not to allocate funds for the steps after that or to delay.

That's possible.

Yes.

Obviously that sounds, but I don't want that to happen.

That's definitely something that can happen that we could move to the next phase, do the planning and design, get it designed, and then come back and have another decision point.

I will just remind the commission that this phase had already been designed in the previous with the previous phase one that's already constructed and was never constructed because it was not cost feasible.

So that's why we entered into this feasibility study to see if there was a different way that we could get phase two that was more cost feasible.

Okay.

So in your opinion, it's cost feasible at this point.

And you're also suggesting that maybe 10 years from now it would be completed.

I would I would say that it's feasible to build to build the pathway without having to pipe 84 feet of of the ditch.

So that significantly reduces the cost to build the trail.

And the time frame again?

Again, we'd have to go through planning and design.

We'd have to do public engagement throughout all of that.

It seems like we would have to come back for approval again, and then we would need to through that time find construction funding to construct the project.

And that can take time as well.

Okay.

I was trying to nail you down at a time frame for the public to hear this is not going to be in my backyard a year from now.

It's definitely not going to be in their backyard a year from now.

Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner, gotcha.

Thank you.

Could you show the um Newtown Sidewalk slide, please?

Nope.

Sorry.

Yeah, there you go.

Can you explain what the green, the blue, the orange, and the yellow lines mean?

So the it is the priority ranking.

So let me see.

The yellow and the orange are the ones that are the highest priorities, and then the blues are kind of in the middle priority.

So I would say yellow and orange are 20 something in the ranking out of 30.

Those mean that means that they're high priority.

Why would they be high priority?

What makes them a high priority?

So we did a scoring system.

And that scoring system means that they were either in a high crash in a proximity to a high crash location, either vehicular or pedestrian involved or bicycle involved.

Proximity to a school, proximity to a bus stop, that was that influenced as well.

Proximity to essential services as well.

There were a lot of criteria that we included, whether it was feasible to construct it and whether the community wanted it or not.

So there were a lot of criteria that was included in order to score the sidewalks.

Yes.

But again, this is the sidewalk gaps.

So would how much of these funds would use to get rid of those orange and yellow lines?

So we recently received a safe routes to school program.

So the that includes a new sidewalk for on Lemon.

So from Dr.

Martin Luther King Junior Way to 32nd Street, and from on Central from 32nd to Myrtle.

So those would be excluded.

And then we would look at doing as many orange and yellow segments in addition to probably closer to the retrofit area to help support that.

And then we would see what what money we have left over and where we can tackle next.

And what would the timeline of something like that be?

Well, we would have to start with surveying and then design and then construction.

I would say it was still it would still take us between that amount of time about three to five years to get everything everything completed, and also with the fact that we are we have a couple of projects also in that general vicinity.

Yeah.

I would I would say five to seven.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

I have a couple last questions now.

I just wanted to reiterate.

If we move the group you know, the school avenue ahead today during the uh planning and design phase, then there will be a lot of public input for for that.

And that you've taken into consideration will be taking a nursery into consideration the flooding issue, so that it doesn't contribute to flooding in the neighborhood.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay.

Would it delay um the circus trail extension by moving this forward?

No, it would not.

Okay.

Those are my questions.

All right.

Anyone else?

Okay.

Make a motion.

All right.

I I I thank you so much.

I um very much in support of using these funds for the the new town sidewalk connectivity on I don't have a page number.

Page 16.

But would also entertain the conversation of the funds being allocated for this and and potentially the circus trail or yeah I guess circus trail would be the other one project.

But I'm interested in you know what the the the other commissioners have to say.

But at this time I would make a motion that we would reallocate the funds to the new town sidewalk program.

Okay.

I guess the motion fails for lack of a second mayor I have a motion move the funds to the expansion of the city multimodal trail network.

Second you want to speak to your motion.

Sure.

This is a bucket of money or the money will go into the bucket and it will be used for not just the circus trail extension but other multimodal projects that are included in this bucket connecting Bobby Jones and the legacy trail Venice can ride their bikes to the legacy trail through the legacy trail up to Bobby Jones.

And it will begin design work of the North Connector I strongly support this.

Yeah.

Yeah out of respect for staff who were the professionals and have provided recommendations.

So they have given us a choice excuse me of two alternative recommendations.

It's green space and the neighborhood says no we don't want it.

So you know you you don't give amenities and then say here the response no we don't want it.

So I I don't think it's we can say yes to your number one recommendation at this point.

But it we're not killing it maybe next year there will be more enthusiasm.

But the fact that the circus trail is near completion or I mean financially it can be done I am really interested in the North Sarasota legacy trail connector.

So having that as part of the project for you know expansion of multimodal net trail network.

So with the neighborhood being opposed to school avenue I do see your second alternative is being the right one for right now.

So that's why I'm supporting that.

All right I guess I'll I'll speak um I'm I'm going to support it because it sounds like that's what you know the Commission would like to do and certainly that's a that's a worthy project but I don't think we should kill this connector I think it still needs to be looked at for for future because it is one of the key connections for that piece of the trail and so you know and and you know I know we've had some people speak against it but I've also gotten emails from people who are for this for this project and I you know and I noted on the survey that came back that you know I know I recognize one of the names and that person doesn't live in the neighborhood.

Excuse me.

Um so anyway, but I will uh support this motion because that's also something that we're interested to make sure that we have connectivity throughout the county, but I don't want staff to totally uh not consider the school avenue greenway.

I would like to speak the motion.

Uh Commissioner Bat to you listen.

Oh no, I was just gonna say that I you know concur with your sentiments, um Mayor.

Um, because the there were a number of people in the neighborhood that were in support, you know, you know, of that project as well, as well as those that that are not, but there were a number of people that were, you know.

So um but I could see this connectivity on the North, you know, part of Sarasota and the connectivity to, you know, Circus Trail and and um and Venice as well, and when on how important that is, you know.

So um it seems like that's pretty much the consensus of the of the Commission.

So I'll uh respect that.

Uh Commissioner Ahencoch.

Yeah, I I um I I support the motion as well, um, because overall, like you know, we we see here there are many needs throughout the city where this money could could could go and and support a lot of really good projects.

And it's the direction that um the city commission wants to go in and the cities and the citizens want us to go in.

So I think there are a lot of holes that this money could plug.

Um from my point of view, I just saw, you know, we've been working on trying to get these this the connectivity in Newtown, especially the sidewalks and the curving moving that forward, and I saw this as an opportunity to sort of really push that and accomplish that and get that forward.

Um we don't come across this this opportunity often.

And um I think it's a missed opportunity to not have tried to accomplish in getting some of these orange and yellow and green lines gone.

Um these are you know these are this is this is a neighborhood.

These are single family homes, a lot of them in here with services and with the school with Robert L.

is not too far away there.

And um for me that was sort of uh a really good use of the those dollars to get this project accomplished because we we are doing it in dribs and drabs.

And I was kind of seeing that as a um an opportunity to complete that.

But um the Commission uh the the motion was to make this money go into a bucket that speaks to the whole the whole pro the whole idea of multimodal and you know I support that as well.

Well, I mean I I I do understand your your sentiment about the the sidewalks, but it looks like already they've got a couple of buckets of that they are working on.

Um and that's gonna, you know, that's gonna take time, so in the interim we might as well apply it to something else that you know isn't doesn't have have the bucket.

So I think that's that's why I felt like it should go somewhere else.

Exactly.

I think there's like a like a million dollars or so that's that's going up there, you know, along with uh the works that is being done with the um connection of the legacy trail, you know, up in Newtown as well, you know.

So that would help them too.

So if there are no other comments, Commissioners, we can vote.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you all.

All right.

Um we've got the next item is item 9-3, the discussion of the city manager search.

I don't think there's any updates.

No, just um just so everyone can be aware that you all have your scheduled um interviews one-on-one with the consultant firm on the 13th.

Um then once we get some the feedback from there, we'll move forward with the advertisement.

Um we would like to hopefully get everything ready and um you might have a late addition and adding some of that material to the 20th meeting, but we'll see how this goes with the interviews with you all first.

But that's only up the air.

Yeah, that would really be your next action item is just approving that final version of the advertisement.

Okay.

Excellent.

Anything else?

Our one-on-ones are in our offices.

I believe so.

I have to look at the calendar.

I believe so, because he is coming in person, so I I would I think so.

The check that double check or says conference room.

So, oh nine for the Okay, great.

Thank you.

All right.

And if there is nothing else on that, let's move on to I think we have time to start this legislative public hearing on ordinance number 25-5577.

It is item 101 on the agenda.

And I'm going to call on the city auditor and clerk to read the title.

Actually, um I'll read the title, but also let me do the oath.

Anyone who plans to speak at this public hearing today, please stand and take a note.

Oh, David, just you.

And Kelly.

Okay.

Do you swear or affirm that evidence or factual representations which you are about to give or present to this commission during any public hearing held the sixth day of October 2025 are truthful?

Yes.

Thank you.

All right.

And I am going to open the public hearing.

All right.

And I'll go ahead and read the read it.

Thank you.

Ordinance number 25-5577, an ordinance of the City of Sarasota, Florida amending the comprehensive plan of the City of Sarasota, aka the Sarasota City Plan to revise the text of Action Strategy 4.15 of the future land use chapter to provide that the zoning code rather than the downtown master plan is a document that contains the official map of the primary grid streets, and to relocate the modified text of said action strategy from objective 4 downtown master plan to objective 2 land development regulations, repealing ordinances and conflict, providing for the several of the parts hereof, providing for reading by title only, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you.

All right.

Mr.

Smith.

Good morning.

David Smith, Manager of Long Range Planning for the record.

This is a city initiated comprehensive plan amendment amending the text of the future land use chapter.

The City Commission authorized staff to submit this plan amendment on February 18th of 2025.

And that was based on a recommendation from City Attorney Forney 8.

This is actually the second time the City Commission has heard this petition.

City did receive three responses, all with no adverse comments.

Therefore, the city can move forward with adopting this particular amendment.

The text amendment proposes to amend the future land use chapter to clarify that the text in Action Strategy 4.15 will state that the zoning code rather than the downtown master plan identifies certain streets as primary grid streets.

Additionally, the proposed amendment relocates the modified text from Action Strategy 415, currently under Objective 4, Downtown Master Plan, and moving it to Objective 2, land development regulations, and renumbers it to Action Strategy 2.17.

It is more important more appropriate for the Action Strategy to be placed under Objective 2 relating to land development regulations in the comprehensive plan, as primary grid streets are regulated by the zoning code and not by the downtown master plan.

Actually, the downtown master plan is not a regulatory document like the zoning code or the comprehensive plan.

This change will clarify that the zoning code contains the official primary grid streets map, and that the downtown master plan, which was never incorporated into the comprehensive plan, should not be used to identify primary grid streets.

The primary grid street map was originally adopted into the comprehensive plan back in the early 2000s.

So this text amendment follows up on the primary grid street map removal from the comprehensive plan by identifying the zoning code as the regulating document for primary grid streets.

This amendment did not does not revise any primary grid streets, does not change the primary grid streets map.

That is located in the zoning code.

On page uh 19 of your backup material, uh we do have the analysis for uh section four.

It provides guidelines for review of amendments to the Sarasota City Plan.

Uh in reviewing the guidelines, staff has determined that no consistency issue exists between the proposed text revisions and other chapters of the comprehensive plan.

The other chapters should not have any goals, objectives, or action strategies that conflict with the proposed text revisions.

In fact, the text amendment addresses an existing inconsistency between the comprehensive plan and the zoning code.

Therefore, internal consistency within the comprehensive plan will be maintained and improved if the proposed text revisions are adopted.

Second, the planning staff's opinion is that the adoption of the proposed text revisions will not establish a precedent that would be inconsistent with the comprehensive plan.

The zoning code contains the official primary grid streets map, and a downtown master plan should not be used to identify the existing streets that are currently designated as primary grid streets.

The text amendment would sure ensure consistency in the comprehensive plan and zoning code by clarifying that the zoning code contains the official primary grid streets map.

On May 14th, 2025, the planning board I did hold a public hearing, and uh at that time uh recommended to the City Commission both to transmit and to adopt the particular amendment.

That was a five to zero vote.

Uh URA transmitted a few months ago.

And so today's action as a recommendation is to adopt this particular amendment.

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

All right.

Uh we don't have anybody signed up to speak correct.

All right.

Uh Commissioners, any questions?

I don't have any questions either.

All right.

I've learned a couple of questions there.

Oh, go ahead, Commissioner Warren.

Um is it easier or more difficult to change the primary grid street map if it's in the zoning code rather than in the downtown master plan?

Yes, that well, first of all, the downtown master plan primary grid street map has never been revised.

It's been 25 years, it's out of date.

Uh so the regulating document that does have it is the zoning code.

We took it out of the comprehensive plan because it was a duplicate and it is a lot more of a process to change the primary grid streets.

But to change the primary grid streets in the zoning code had to go through basically a zoning text amendment for the through the whole process.

So it's easier to change it if it's in the zoning code.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

And um, do you want it to be easy?

To change the primary grid streets map?

Uh I wouldn't say it's easy.

It's easier than being in the comprehensive plan, because you had to go through that long transmittable process to the state.

And with in the zoning code, it's only the public hearing in front of the planning board and and then city commission.

Um it's just really the process is easier, I'd say than process is easier.

And I don't get the rationale for it other than the process is easier.

Well, can I give you a little bit of history?

Please.

Yeah.

Back in the early 2000s, when Mr.

Dewani provided the city with the downtown master plan, staff knew that it would take a number of years before we were able to update the zoning code.

And so with that original comprehensive plan amendment that began and was adopted first in 2001, we included the primary grid streets that was presented in the downtown master plan.

It was took till 2004 to get it into the zoning code because of the challenge that we had and uh going through the process of dealing with that.

Um for a number of years we did have it in both the comp plan and the zoning code, and we when we did make changes, we had to do a comp plan amendment first, followed by a zoning code change.

So it was decided that perhaps we should remove it from the comprehensive plan and just allow the one time of zoning code amendments, that one process to go forward.

So, Mr.

Smith, I feel like you and I have had this discussion before when I was on the planning board, and something about moving the primary grid street map came to the planning board.

Yeah, one time there was, yes.

All right.

I have no more questions, Mayor.

Vice Mayor.

Yeah, this this is just for clarification because I know that we have changed the primary grid, some primary grid streets we've added, deleted, whatever.

Um is the issue right now that there's an inconsistency between what's in the zoning for primary grid streets and what's in the ancient downtown master plan.

To some degree, yes.

Yeah.

And we just want to make sure that the comprehensive plan points to the zoning code as the correct regulation.

Thank you.

All right.

If there are no other uh questions, I'm gonna close the public hearing and ask for a motion.

Move approval of ordinance number 25-557.

Second.

Okay.

Um to approval of ordinance number 25-557.

Commissioner Batties seconded.

Um so are there any did anybody want to speak to the motion?

All right, if you'll vote, Commissioners.

Also it will be roll call.

Betty.

Yes.

Ulrich.

Yes.

Price.

Yes.

Aim Kotch?

Yes.

Alpert.

Yes.

Is that your vote?

Yes.

All right.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

And then under new business, uh I think we have time to do it.

What do you think?

Yeah, this is the best.

I don't know.

Yeah, it's the last item, so I don't think this should take that long, uh, unless you've got a million questions.

But um call on um this is item number 121, our traffic calming plan, and again our uh uh senior transportation planner Ariaga and our transportation planner Corales.

Okay, good morning again, Alvy Marie Carralis, Chief Transportation Planner.

Corinne Ariaga Senior Transportation Planner.

Okay.

Hello again, Commissioners.

Uh we're here today to present an update on the traffic calming plan as well as to present some ideas that we heard from the community and to get some direction from the commission.

So to start, we're going to have Alvi Marie explain what the traffic calming plan is.

All right, so we're gonna talk about the traffic calming plan, but first uh what is traffic calming?

Uh traffic calming is a set of roadway treatments that can help alter driver behavior and reduce the negative impacts motors can have on pedestrians and cyclists.

Traffic calming can help reduce speed, vehicle crashes and increase pedestrian and bicyclist usage.

A little bit of the project background um in terms of uh traffic calming and the program inception.

After hearing feedback from residents and the coalition of city neighborhoods association, CCNA for short.

Um we worked with them and heard a lot with about the program.

And we updated the traffic calming program itself and created this neighborhood traffic calming manual.

Uh the traffic calming program had in its inception had started since the 1990s.

Some say it started really early on.

Um, but there has been a lot of documentations regarding that.

We rolled out this traffic calming manual at the very beginning of this year, as you can see January 31st.

Uh this program provides options for neighborhoods depending on a score and solutions matrix.

So it's a revamp of what we had before.

The traffic calming plan, um, we started developing this.

We had a lot of community engagement.

We did public meetings, so we did a town hall, an online survey.

We did we have a community think tank composed of members from um the C CNA's traffic calming uh group.

We also have a leadership task force composed of city leadership directors, our chief, and also our fire department, our health department, our Sarasota County Area Transit, and other members as well.

We also conducted a lot of uh research regarding traffic calming and have done a speed study and a lot of analysis, which Kern will cover that.

This is the project schedule.

Like I mentioned, we did a town hall.

The project started uh back in spring.

We have done an online survey, have done the neighborhood think tank, a leadership task force in the summer of 2025 this year.

Data collection did some arterial collector evaluation, which I'll show you in the next slide, and then a lot of uh community engagement.

Right now we are at the city commission uh meeting, which we will cover uh a lot of the work that we have done, a lot of the analysis, and more to come with the hope that this plan will be adopted in spring of next year.

With that community engagement, um we will show you a lot of the work and a lot of the progress that we have done so far, starting with that arterial and collector criteria before the traffic calming program solely focused on those local roadways.

We only had a criteria that uh evaluated the local roadways, which we worked with our community members with a community think tank to create the arterial and collector criteria and develop this new one.

Um so we hope that from here we can evaluate all those roadways and create that citywide um evaluation.

So for arterials, think about um Fruitville Road from US 41 to US 301.

Um for collectors, think about um coconut, Orange Avenue.

Um those are a few of the examples.

We also have the education campaign that we worked very closely with that community think tank to create.

The message is neighbors requesting neighbors to slow down for each other.

As you can see, we have static clings that you can attach to your car windows and yard signs that the residents can put in at their discretion in their yards.

The community survey, we had about 500, over 500 participants.

Uh we rolled it out during the spring.

Uh the survey covered information from demographics to perceived safety to project prioritization.

From that survey, we had over 75% of respondents in favor of implementing any form of traffic calming.

On your screen, you're gonna see a couple of project prioritization factors.

This is going to be used in order to analyze the projects that come out of the traffic calming plan.

Um, we know that a lot of our funding has been reallocated, and there's not enough funding to go around to, as you can see, and what we have experienced even today.

Um so this is to prioritize a lot of those projects.

Um, and then you can go to his next.

We see the one of the questions that we have was perceived residential safety.

A lot of our residents felt bad.

Um, they feel unsafe, so with a 57% of them feeling unsafe.

The perceived residential speed, 73% feel speeds are too fast in the city.

Uh 78%, like I mentioned, support any form of traffic calming.

I'm gonna hand it off to Karen to continue the presentation.

Okay, thank you, Alvi Marie.

Um, so like Alvi uh mentioned earlier, we completed a citywide traffic speed study.

Um, and I want to just mention that through the community engagement efforts that we had through the survey, that interactive map, as well as discussions and the town hall rant people emailing us.

There were some ideas that we could implement quickly, and then there were larger ideas that we felt needed to come and be presented here to you.

Uh, one of those ideas that was presented to us through several different community members was reducing speed limits on local roadways from 25 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour.

So through this speed study, we did do a test model to evaluate what that would look like.

But for the speed study, we compared existing posted speed limits along local collector and arterial roads to the 85th percentile speed data.

So it was the goal with the goal to identify roadways where there was a recorded excess of speed from the current speed limit with those 85th percentiles that we are going to refer to as a speed differential.

So if we found an excess, we're gonna refer to that as a speed differential.

And like I said, we also included that test model to see what that would look like if we reduce the local roadways to 20 miles per hour.

The parameters we set were January 21st to December 31st, 2024.

We looked at the typical weekdays from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as weekends at different time periods, including peak AM and peak PM and different time segments in between.

The results of those speed studies are in your backup materials.

One that include all the roadways with the current speed limits, and then the test model where it's just local roadways that were reduced to 20 miles per hour.

And in the interest of time, I'm just gonna share the key takeaways from those maps.

Uh we found also through the crash data that a significant portion of our crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists are on our collectors and arterial roadways.

We also found that a significant number of roads experience 85th percentiles over 10 miles per hour over the speed uh over the posted speed limit and off peak hours, which makes a lot of sense because during peak time there's a lot more cars on the road.

That prevents people from going faster.

Uh we also in our test model found that many local roads experience no change in the 85th when the speed is reduced to 20 miles per hour.

So, like I said, we were presented with this big idea and we did a lot of research beyond just the test model.

So we want to share some of that research with you to help just inform you.

So we started off this uh this research effort with understanding the legal components of it.

So is it legal to reduce speed limits on our local roadways to 20 miles per hour?

And the Florida Statute 316.183 does allow speed limits to go as low as 20 miles per hour.

So right off the bat, we found that certain areas, certain roadways in the city do not are non-compliant with this law.

So, regardless of the decision that is made today, we will be coming back in a public hearing to make sure that our road, our speed limits on those roadways are compliant with the Florida Statute 316.183.

We also found that the city code authorizes the city engineer to designate speed limits on local roadways to either 20 miles per hour or 25 miles per hour.

So within the state law and our city code, it is allowable.

So what would need to be changed is the section in the code with is section 33-248, which is our Schedule 1 speed limits.

So if the next, we we wanted to see if other places in the state were doing this.

We found it was allowable by the state statute, so are other people doing it.

Well, we did find that City of Port St.

Port Lucy and Temple Terrace have adopted similar policies in their city code, and the town of Malabar implemented this 20 mile per hour maximum speed in 2012.

So we would not be the first ones to implement this type of policy in our city.

There's also a movement or a campaign in the city of Jacksonville.

It's called 20 is plenty, and through their study and their recommendations, they are identifying draft language for a citywide residential standard speed limit.

So some of the research we found that supports this effort is that higher speeds are more likely to result in crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries.

And even a 10% reduction in the average speed resulted in 34% fewer fatal crashes.

So we found and research shows that local roads are the most vulnerable.

You'll see numbers on the ends of each of those statements.

Those are those are related to sources at the end of this presentation.

So they have sources associated with them.

We also found that speed-related crashes involving a bicycle and pedestrian occurs most often on local roads.

And you can see that that nice graphic, it's pretty commonplace out there, but if you haven't seen it before, it just shows you how likely a pedestrian will survive a crash with a vehicle depending on the speed.

And you can see one out of 10 per uh people with uh with cars going 20 miles per hour is likely to die, whereas that increases greatly the higher the speed is.

Next, we found that higher speeds cause drivers to have less time to identify and react to their surroundings, and they need more time and distance to come to a stop when traveling at higher speeds.

So you can see in the graphic if people are going 20 mile per hour, their site distance is less and they're able to stop quicker for people, whereas if they're going faster, that stopping distance is further, and uh their site distance is further as well.

Speaking of site distance, you can see your field of vision also narrows as your speed increases.

I put the red circles because it was kind of tough with the shading, but you can see it reduces dramatically the faster that you're going.

So your field of vision is much wider at a lower speed.

And lastly, we found that lower speeds create safer environments for pedestrians and cyclists, which uh which can increase not non-motorized travel, right?

The goal of this plan is to make sure that people are safe walking and biking in their neighborhoods, and that lower speeds can help accomplish that.

Uh the traffic calming measures like speed humps, narrow lanes, and other measures can be combined to help achieve that goal.

And then streets with safe pedestrian and cyclist designs are more likely to increase uh experience economic benefit and increased foot traffic.

Um you can see here San Francisco saw significantly increased spending and sales after implementing narrower lanes, which um correlates to slower speeds.

So we have some policy options that we're presenting today.

Uh we are we like I said, we were exploring that 20 mile per hour speed limit on local roadways.

Uh the research shows that lowering the speed limits to 20 miles per hour saves lives, promotes safer roadways, encourages walking and biking, and reduces the chance of severe and severity of crashes.

And as you can see here is almost immediately effective.

Uh you can see in the map that that is actually a test model.

That's the test model of all the local roads that are already observing the 20 mile per hour speed limit.

So that could be implemented right away.

So we have a staff recommendation that we're gonna walk you through.

So the first is reducing the speed limits on local roadways to 20 miles per hour.

That includes commercial areas adjacent to recreation facilities as well as anything designated as a local road.

Uh the local roads that meet the 20 mile per hour 85th percentile can be addressed with signage right away.

So when we bring that what we have to bring to you already in that public hearing, we can also bring these ones that already meet that 85th right away and just change the signage.

So the local roads that exceed an 85th percentile of 20 mile per hour will have the speed mitigation treatments proposed in the traffic calming plan.

And as these project, as these projects are prioritized for funding and as part of the implement implementation plan, as they get funded, planned, and implemented, that is when the 20 mile per hour speed limit would go into effect.

Okay, the second part of this would be to restrict speed limits to no greater than 35 miles per hour on streets within the city limits.

This would exclude interstate connectors and US 301 from 17th to the northern city limits.

I just want to point out that the city-maintained roadways already meet this criteria.

Any city-owned street that is a collector or arterial is 35 miles per hour or less.

So really what we would be doing with this is requesting that roads within the city limits be designed, targeted, and posted at 35 miles per hour less to other agencies moving forward.

So the speed mitigation strategies would be proposed in the traffic calming plan.

And as those projects come forward from either FDOT or Sarasota County, we would say, hey, we want these speed limits 35 miles per hour or less.

These are speed mitigation strategies that we've identified that we'd like you to consider.

However, we're open to other options to meet those speed limits.

So the policy implementation plan, uh we done we have conducted the speed study, we have performed analysis and identified case studies as we presented to presented to you today.

So we're here in phase three where we present this to you.

Uh we would, depending on your direction, um, well, we come to the come forward with the public hearing based off of those noncompliant roadways that we already talked about.

But if for some but if you determine to do to bring the local roadways down to 20 miles per hour, we would also bring the ones that already meet the 20 miles per hour with that at that first public hearing.

Okay.

Um the project schedule, just for free reference, uh this decision is a critical path for the evaluations.

And to kind of put that into perspective, we can't perform the evaluations on the local roadways because we need to determine if they're going to stay at 25 miles per hour or if they're going to be reduced to 20 miles per hour, because that speed differential would change.

And those those roadway, there might be there are probably more roadways that have a speed differential if we reduce it to 20 miles per hour than if we keep it to 25, then if we keep it 25.

So with that, these are the sources, and we are open to any questions that the Commission may have.

Right.

I've got two people signed up to speak.

You guys can stay because there are only two people, so they can go to these seats.

Um Kelly Brown and David Lowe.

I don't know what time it is, so we'll go with good afternoon.

Okay.

All right, Kelly, why don't you go ahead?

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, City Staff.

My name is Kelly Brown.

I am a citizen of Gillespie Park Neighborhood Association here in Sarasota.

I'm speaking to you today on behalf of CCNA.

I am the president of CCNA.

And um our stated mission is to protect and enhance city neighborhoods.

At our city's C C ⁇ A summits in 2016, 2019, and again in 2023, our members reviewed our priorities to set the stage for committee work with City Commission and City staff.

Traffic speeds, pedestrian and bicycle safety came up as a priority for all neighborhoods at every summit.

With respect to CCNA's focus on neighborhood safety, we are here today to ask the Commission to s to support staff's request to change the speed limit to 20 miles an hour on all local roads.

This change will alleviate any confusion when traveling from one neighborhood to the next and provide consistency across all of our local roads.

We believe Commissioner's support of recommended staff speed limit changes is also a positive step in the right direction to strive for increased use of other forms of mobility as residents feel safer walking and biking throughout the city.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

David Lowe.

Hi, I'm David Lowe.

Speaking as a resident today, I am in a chance to go to my board.

Alvin, may I ask you to put this up?

First of all, um I I'd like to thank Alvy and Corinne and uh Nick and all those involved in this.

I think this 20 mile an hour kind of thing makes a lot of sense.

Think of the quantity discount we're going to get on ordering a lot more 20 mile an hour signs.

Um I wanted to, you know, the um responsibility, for example, on 41 were FDOTs involved.

Here is a picture taken about 6 a.m.

this morning with a bus stop right uh north of Boulevard of the Arts on 41, and with the truck going by, I would say 40 miles an hour or something like that.

So we've got the county putting a bus stop there, we've got FDOT's responsibility, the MPOs involved, and city staff.

I'm just trying to figure out uh who's responsible if we have a serious incident.

I can see a lot of point finger pointing.

I do know that the Bay Park Conservancy, this from a conversation with A.

G.

Lafley had recommended adjacent to the park 25 miles an hour.

I think there's a precedent for lower speed limits uh adjacent to parks, and I think we would all agree the the uh attractiveness of the park by almost the day is getting better.

So uh as we consider all these good things, which I totally support.

Um, and again, hats off to Nick on how proactive he has been.

I've seen some of his communications with FDOT, and they've been very thoughtful and technical and all this stuff.

Um it's it's not a criticism of staff, but it is one simple change as long as we're talking about speed limits.

Can we talk or should we talk to FDOT about implementing a lower speed limit, say from 10th to Fruitville, right, to slow and try and calm that traffic down.

To slow and try and calm that traffic down.

I also talked to Nick about the possibility of a red light camera at the Boulevard Arts and 41 as much as a deterrent, if you will, uh and a um as a enforcement tool.

So I think we've got a situation where the FDOT bases a lot of their decisions on historical information.

And the historical information shows we don't have a lot of tremendous number of crashes.

But predictively, I think you could reasonably assume we're going to have more and more people crossing and more and more uh vulnerability.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh Commissioner questions.

Questions?

Um that's a lot of data.

Um I have several questions.

Uh first regarding the spot speed data which um you collected on May 1st.

Why did you choose three locations?

So those locations were chosen because the data analytics system that we had, the data that we were getting didn't seem it didn't seem right.

So we were we wanted to get spot speed studies to validate.

Okay.

And um so I looked through that and I saw that one of the streets that was chosen was Laurent Place.

Yeah.

So the ones that were not consistent with the data that we were getting for the other streets, it was Bird Key uh drive, as well as right around that one roundabout in the hospital.

Oh that streets like two blocks long.

Very small.

Yeah.

Um I wondered about that.

Um the crash data was for a five-year period between January 19 and December 23.

That was during the COVID period.

Did you take that into consideration when you analyze the crash data?

So the data that we it's pretty typical to just go back five years.

Um it what we found what the trends were showing um during COVID was that there were less crashes, however, they were more severe, and they resulted in more fatalities.

So we that's why we take a five-year, a five-year look at everything.

We don't just take one year because of those anomalies that occur.

We look at we look at it from uh from a trends perspective.

And so um I highly support uh your recommendation of 20.

I'll just say it right here and right now, probably probably be the first person to get a speeding ticket.

Or maybe Pat will.

I do agree with you.

You put that you put that on the record.

Uh no more questions from me, Mayor.

Ice Mayor.

Well, okay.

Um I have some questions.

First of all, regarding the 85th percentile, I'm assuming that means that 15 percent of the cars exceeded the speed limit in that area.

So I'm wondering the implications of 85th percentile.

I know there are some other geographies, uh governmental places, not in Florida, which say, okay, you cannot enforce a speed limit with more than a certain percentage of cars exceeding it.

You know, you have to adjust the speed limit.

There it was only so only 5 percent of the drivers succeeded it.

So I'm just wondering what are the implications of 85th percentile, and is that one of the reasons why we you're saying, well, in some of those neighborhoods, all we have to do is put up a new sign, but others we have to do to traffic calming measures.

So just to clarify, the 85th percentile, you're right in correct that those 15 percent are going faster, but it's not from the posted speed limit.

It's they're going faster than that 85th percentile.

So the what that 85th percentile does is it basically plots, let's say 100 cars and what speed they're going, and then it's saying 85 cars are going this speed or less.

And what that 15 percent is they were going this speed or higher.

And what that tells us is that if 85 cars out of 100 are going higher than the posted speed limit, then there that is a that can be addressed with an engineering solution.

So if the 85th percentile is at or below the posted speed limit, an engineering solution isn't going to resolve that 15 percent or that those extra 15 cars.

So how we're using the 85th percentile is to see if there is a excess speed uh from the posted speed limit.

So are 85 out of 100 cars going faster than the posted speed limit?

And if they are, what engineering solution can we use to address that and reduce those speeds?

And that's all done through the scoring through those evaluations, the scoring, and then depending on their score, there's a solutions matrix that we identify what that appropriate solution is based off of the score they receive.

Okay.

So your backup material had several hundred pages.

Umere places where you identified these places have really excessive speeds.

Yeah.

So if you look at the maps that were provided, you'll see that those were in different time periods, but they were color-coded to show that excess speed.

And you can see that the ones that were 10 miles per hour over were really re really dark red.

And then if they were between five and 10, they were a little less red.

And if they were between one and five, they showed like orange, and if there was no speed differential, they were green.

Well, yeah, that was miles per hour over what?

The posted speed limit.

So I mean, but yeah.

So I was just wondering if if we're seeing places where, oh, they're going 55 miles an hour there, um, you know, or things like that.

Aaron Ross Powell We are seeing some areas that have an excess of 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

Okay.

And um the police department is addressing those areas already in their enforcement strategy.

Uh but that doesn't mean we can't provide them with these for them to be more strategic as well.

And and it along those lines with SPD with the suggestion to reduce the speed limit to 20 miles per hour in the local streets as SPD um what has been SPD's response to the idea of enforcing the 25 20 miles per hour in I'm thinking primarily neighborhood areas.

So SPD is a part of that leadership task force, and this idea was presented to the leadership task force.

They didn't see an issue with it.

Okay.

Yeah, and uh and I was just even wondering okay, those those were really my questions.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Aaron Koch.

Thank you.

Um tremendous amount of valuable information um not only for this but for other things.

Um and I do have to say that eight years on the commission, uh the over by and large, the largest complaint I have heard is speeding in the neighborhood, speeding in the neighborhood, speeding in the neighborhood.

Speeding, speeding, speeding, speeding, speeding.

We have other people asking about all kinds of other issues.

If I had to say hands down, what's the biggest thing in in numbers of complaints speeding in neighborhoods?

So this is um a great step towards addressing what I I hear as uh a number one concern in um in our city.

My question is um we do have some 15 mile an hour speed signs up, and I was told a long time ago by Mr.

Fournier that they are grandfathered in.

Uh and so that statute you listed, yes, I acknowledge it, but I was told that they're allowed to stay.

So I'm gonna pull up uh public works director, Nick.

Um from my understanding, they're noncompliant and they'll need to be brought up to the Florida statute regulation.

And I mean that that is something that maybe the city attorney can review as well.

Absolutely.

But go ahead, Nick.

Yes, so Nick Patel Public Works Director.

So since we've done a citywide study and the 85th percentile shows that in those study areas that it's 15 miles an hour is not achievable.

So it contradicts the Florida statues at this point.

What do you mean not achievable?

Of course it's achievable.

You take your foot off the gas.

Yeah, but I guess based on the study, we have to post the speed limit based on the 85th percentile.

And right now the studies are showing that that's not happening in those locations.

I think Nick, because that's what you and I talked about previously that these lower limits have to be based in engineering studies.

And if we don't have that study, that can be a problem.

So if they're heavily pedestrian areas.

Um we have had incidences in the past.

Shouldn't it be based on that as well?

According to the speed zoning manual, this is the Florida statues.

It's it's a handbook that's uh adopted by Florida statues.

We couldn't we couldn't post it the fifteen miles an hour.

And we have to comply with they're not grandfathered in?

It's pretty strictly tied to the engineering study by statute.

Mr.

Polzack, could you just answer the question?

I mean that's the answer.

It has to be not grandfathered in, correct?

Correct.

Thank you.

Yep.

Huh.

Okay.

Because that's what Mr.

Fournier had told me in the past that was that it was grandfathered, those certain areas were grandfathered in.

So I think, Commissioner, historically, there was conversations that there was one area that had been uh designated as a pedestrian high pedestrian area, which was in the Southside village.

So happy to look into that.

Um however, since I've been in this position, I know we have not dusted that off.

So maybe that's something that we could look at if historically that location had been designated as a high pedestrian area in that Hillview corridor right between I think it's SMH and um Southside elementary school.

And so we can take a look at that, but I think based on the new ruling and and the uh city attorney's direction as well as the engineers, I don't think it's grandfather.

Any of them are grandfathered in it would warrant additional.

I think so what I was saying was if grandfathered in the sense of there was a previous study that supported the setting of that limit, then that was the case.

Well, I uh it's all whether there was an engineering study supporting the lower limit.

Okay.

And then uh there are several areas in the city.

Another one is off of mound um on orange going north between mound and let's say, you know, the the exchange, right?

I think we did this um under Mr.

Brown, and the only one that was actually officially taken care of in my recollection was the one at Southside Vintage Village.

The Orange Avenue was arbitrarily put up as was the main street speed, because we did look into that, and that was an administrative decision that was made years ago.

And I believe um obviously no one from the police department is here, but it was deemed that those were non-enforceable.

Okay.

Um I I would encourage to turn over every stern stone to find out.

Um because you know a road can be designated a road, but if it's pedestrian heavy uh and it's a question of safety, maybe we need to, you know, figure that out too.

I mean, 20 is 20 is enough is what's the saying, 20 is enough or 20 is plenty.

20 is plenty.

Uh sometimes 20 is too much.

And uh I know plenty of streets where they there are no sidewalks, there are no curbs, and it's heavily pedestrian, and and 20 can be, especially in some of the neighborhoods that don't want sidewalks, which is fine.

But the speed limit is 20, and that can really be too much.

So um uh this is a huge step in the in a the right direction of where we need to be going as a city.

I just would encourage us to before we remove any 15 mile an hour signs, just to make sure that we can't keep them.

Um because I saw that in one of the recommendations was to change it from 15 to 20, which does not you know thrill me very much.

The the rest of it does.

But that one um I'm can I'm concerned about safety.

That's my only concern.

Um other question is um on North Tam Miami Trail, uh the conversation when the installation of the 14th 10th uh fruitful roundabout series was going in.

Um conversation was had five years ago, six four years ago to lower the speed from 40.

It's 40 now, right?

40 to 35.

Uh and FDOT did entertain that.

Um have you had although it is 40.

Have you had any further discussions with FDOT about potentially lowering it not only to 35, but also in front of park areas even lower?

So there has been conversations with FDOT, especially with the conversation of changing the intersection at US 41 and Boulevard of the Arts.

That that section.

The segment that you spoke about is 35 miles per hour.

On your speed study here, it has it identified as 40 miles an hour on this first page here.

Did it go?

Do you want to see it?

Oh the speed limit.

Speed limit.

Okay.

We can take a look at that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good.

And then this was particularly valuable information in going forward.

If you could just show this one.

I just wanted to bring to the attention of the commissioners if you just move that down.

All those in the red that I've circled and starred, and you notice the time is 12 a.m.

to 6 a.m.

on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

A lot of the areas in the north per the discussion we had previously.

Like you can go through your 20 pages here and just pick any random one and they're red.

The Central Avenue, uh up north, uh that section of Tam Yami Trail that is from um MLK down to I think that's what 10th.

Um consistently red.

The ringling bridge.

Um this little funny section up there on the east side uh near Bobby Jones up there on Beneva, I believe it is.

I don't understand that.

The people on Bird Key.

Um but these are so if we if if we had to take like a lot of them and put them together, you know, this is sort of consistently read those spots.

And this is 12 a.m.

to six a.m.

during the week.

So um for me this speaks to some other issues that we um as a city need to be talking about how are we going to control that, you know, speeding in those areas um bigger picture wise.

But what your study has done and what your recommendations are are uh supported and I think community-wide supported.

If I hear, you know, the first step of anything is changing that speed limit to 20.

Thank you so much for this putting all of this together and helping us dig through this um, you know, all the information you've provided us.

Okay.

My question is same as we had.

Yeah.

Um the recommended motion here is to discuss and make a decision to move forward on reducing speed limits to 20 miles per hour on local streets by 2055.

It's gonna take us that long to change the uh size.

What what does that mean?

So it gives us a long-term uh a long-term endpoint.

It's also consistent with the comprehensive plan, and it's not to change signs, it's to basically implement the traffic calming plan.

So this the ones that meet that 20 mile per hour can get changed right away.

That can happen in once the code gets changed and we have that funding source available to do that, we can do that in one in one go.

It's the ones that have that speed differential and show that excess speed, where we have to do the stuff we have to get them into the implementation plan.

We have to get funding, we have to get that design, we have to get it implemented and then change the speed limit.

Those projects aren't going to get funded and implemented right away and all at once.

So it just gives us time to have a plan and a and an implementation plan for all of those projects.

And then when you start to add into the 35 mile per hour uh maximum speed limit for city streets and having FDOT projects come online and having full roadway redesigns come online, those aren't like I said, they can take 15 to 20 years for one project.

So it just gives us time to accomplish the whole idea, like the whole picture and not just the ones that can be implemented right away.

The low-hanging fruit can happen really quickly.

I guess my next question though is even though you have to do traffic calming on some streets to, you know, to slow them down by design.

What's the impediment to just going ahead and putting up uh a new sign saying the traffic is lowered automatically and you know, then subsequently do the traffic calming.

The liability It also increases ri risk for the driver and the people driving.

So when a roadway is designed for a higher speed and you lower the speed limit, people still feel comfortable going at higher speed.

So yes, signs work to a degree, but it also doesn't prevent people who are walking and biking have this false sense of safety that everybody's going to comply with that.

So we have to really ensure that the target speed, the design speed, and the posted speed limit are all consistent.

So that way it drivers are going to feel less comfortable speeding.

You also have to think about that we have a lot of projects in our capital improvement program that as we get these projects prioritized as well.

We can implement a lot of the projects in the traffic calming plan as part of the capital improvement program as resurfacing happens.

We can also implement a couple of these projects as the complete streets happen, we can also implement the project.

So yes, we say 2055.

Yeah, we can also implement some of these as projects move along in the cabo improvement program as well.

Um I guess my my other question or comment, I guess, is for the rest of the commissioners or for you as well.

Or uh anybody who wants to weigh in here at the at the DIAs.

Um, I'm on the committee for the Florida League of Cities that deals with transportation.

And um, you know, we've had pretty good luck with the school um speed cameras.

And and I'm wondering if it would be useful to propose that the Florida League of Cities advocate for speed cameras throughout the state.

Or if that's just like a losing losing battle.

And I'm looking at Mr.

Robinson.

I know everybody looked over at me.

I would I'm not the speed camera guy.

I'm clearly the bathroom guy.

Um, just your experience in law enforcement and whether you know it it makes sense to even ask the Florida League of Cities to advocate for it.

So as I'm sure you're aware, the state um preempts the usage of the speed cameras on general roadways.

Currently um it's only allowable in uh school zones.

Um my professional opinion on this is that this was sort of a test case, and if it's not misused by um different governments, that it could be a model for areas and this has come up at C CNA where we've talked about areas around parks.

I think that's how you're gonna see this progress is around specific safety zones.

And then potentially, like it is in the Midwest and uh uh far west, a lot of those are just unilaterally put out.

They have trailers they put on the highway out in California and some of the the um uh the drive-thru states that are you don't even know they're there, or there is a van that is outfitted with this equipment.

However, until that state preemption is removed, it will be utilized in those uh designated areas, and like I said, right now it's school zones.

I think it would be something um that it is a force multiplier for the police department that allows, you know, um you don't have to staff it with people so you can have the officers actually um focus on more neighborhood uh related speeding where you have areas, let's say um I think all of you saw the 88 miles an hour over the ringling bridge uh story.

You know, that would be a perfect place for uh speed cameras on the bridge on the downruns.

That way you don't have to put someone out there for 12 hours a day with a rotating shift with calls for service they have to handle, which will pull them away from those uh enforcement activities.

So it is a static uh a static location that's designated through engineering studies with the help of um our traffic engineers.

So uh you know I can't say that it would hurt.

Um I don't know if it's politically popular at the moment.

Um, but anything to take the burden off of having an officer just sit, not that they'll replace them, but it would definitely enhance the ability of the agencies to maintain a constant presence in those locations.

So I think it would be helpful.

It can't it's not gonna make them speed faster.

Right, right.

But um yeah, I I had I had sort of I brought it up at our our last meeting at the Florida League of Cities for the Transportation, and so the lobbyist asked if I wanted to then you know bring that forward as an item in our next meeting.

So if there's no objection from the commission, I'll do that.

Okay.

So you know, because that's just another speeding um tool since we're talking about speeding.

I was going to bring it up in the Commissioner comments, but I figured since we're talking about speeding now, I might as well just bring it up now.

Okay.

What you may want to do, Mayor, some other states have provided for it beyond school zones and work zones or safety corridors where there is data demonstrating a higher risk or ratio of accidents.

So that might be a more limited ask.

Okay.

Matthew.

All right.

So back to this.

I, you know, I I'm like Commissioner Kotch.

The all the time I've been on the commission, the biggest complaint is speeding, speeding, speeding, which is why I brought it up at the Florida League of Cities, you know, using the same comment.

That's you know what I hear all the time.

So this is definitely uh a positive step toward trying to deal with that with the statutes that we have in place right now and what we can do.

So one more one more question?

Yeah.

Okay, go ahead.

Okay.

Since you brought up low-hanging fruit.

Um and I had uh you know that 2055 thing is you know really daunting, and I'm hoping that you will look for low-hanging fruit where you can do a quick and dirty, cheap engineering improvement before you have to get to the capital improvement project thing.

So like, you know, plastic bollards before you build, you know, bulb outs or whatever, things like that.

And I had heard something different about the 15 mile per hour speed limit signs.

I had heard, yeah, they're up there, but they're not enforceable.

So I'm wondering about non-enforceable signs, uh maybe suggested speed limit.

And I have seen places where it's a weird number like nine miles an hour and makes people stop, huh?

What are they talking about?

But I don't know if a suggested thing, you know, school park, whatever, such out for children suggested nine miles an hour or something like that.

So I mean, I'm just hoping that you can find some low-hanging fruit, some creative inexpensive changes that can be made quickly, like within the next 10 years instead of within the next 30 years.

So uh I mean, do you have thoughts at this point of quick and dirty things that can be done?

Yeah.

So in the solutions matrix, depending on the score, there are different um solutions that will be presented.

Some of them include laneering, which are just edge lines, and then others could be quick builds, which involves striping in those flexible posts or those ballers that you were talking about.

Um all of that will be presented in the implementation plan as the projects get identified.

Thank you.

All right.

If we have no other questions, um can somebody make a motion, please.

Well, mayor, I would make a motion, but I don't know exactly how to word the motion.

I'm looking at Oh, you have it in writing.

We need to separate the three items out.

What three items?

Um changing the speed limit from 1520, change the speed limit unwrangling those three.

How do you all need it?

How do you all need it then?

The 15 miles per hour is not not here.

It's not part of the motion yet.

So is the motion to recommend moving forward on reducing speed limits to 20 miles per hour on local streets no later than 2025?

22.

Oh, darn.

Trying to sneak that in.

2055.

Is that acceptable?

Yes, because as we present it to the as we come to the public hearing, I think that policy language and the schedule will get presented.

And what about the items one through three on page two of our agenda sheet?

The ring-ling speed limit and the osprey speed limit changes.

So those are going to be presented in the public hearing.

Those are the things that we in our research we flagged as would need to come regardless of if you decided to change not necessary in this motion.

Thank you.

Not necessary in this motion.

Not necessary.

It's going to be in the public hearing.

Okay.

So then my motion is to move forward on reducing speed limits to 20 miles per hour on local streets by 2055.

Second.

All right.

Any discussion for that?

We've had the discussion.

Okay.

Can I get my maps back?

If we could vote, please.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Yes, yes.

All right.

Passes unanimously.

All right.

Do we have we don't have anybody else signed up to speak?

All right.

So Commissioners.

Commissioner Ulrich.

Speaking of the Florida L League of Cities, I'm on the taxation and finance committee.

I think I forwarded to you handouts from my committee meeting as well as my notes.

If I didn't, I'm in the process of doing that.

Second thing is citizens tax oversight committee.

Each commissioner appoints two citizens to that committee.

I've been notified somebody.

Pardon me?

I'm still looking for somebody.

I've been notified that the two people who my predecessor appointed, their terms are expiring.

I've tried to reach them.

One I have not been able to reach.

Nobody has her contact information.

And the other is moving and said, and good luck with finding a replacement.

I did learn a little bit about this committee that it is mandatory.

And so I will proceed and try to find two people.

Mm-hmm.

And I am working on it too.

Me too.

There are a lot of those.

Can I just add that I have been told that the advantage on this one is it only meets once a year and frequently only for 30 minutes?

Yes.

So it's an easy job to fill it, or be on if you if you want to be a little bit involved.

So you know we're we're we're putting it out there.

If you'd like to be on the tax oversight committee, contact one of us.

Okay.

Um anything else?

No.

Commissioner Ehrencock.

Um I have a couple of things.

Uh one is uh U.S.

recycling.

Um I'm sure you all have been seeing the you know the information put out there about that.

And uh I um do encourage uh the citizens um in the area to continue to call in if they uh see a violation of either noise or speeding or hours of operation or any of those items that the city um has the authority uh to to um regulate along with contacting your county commissioners as well for the air quality violations if those should happen.

So I would just encourage everyone to continue to be involved.

Um hopefully uh we can get that resolved uh in the next before 2055.

Um the uh Minnesota League of Cities uh meeting I attended and the topic of discussion for us all while we're talking about Florida League of Cities and our policies, uh SB 180, uh property tax and home rule uh preservation.

So I know you are on the taxation, that's the property tax.

Um Commissioner Ulrich and um which uh uh Commission um Mayor Albert, are you all uh your policy committee handling SP 180?

Um No, I don't think so.

If it is, I don't remember what we didn't talk about that I remember.

Okay.

It might have been.

But is anybody else?

Not mine.

Because that's the biggest that's the biggest one.

So well it's somebody, it's not my committee.

Anyway, um I received from um Lois Piritsky uh a their leagues addressing not only of SB 180, but you know, they took this ginormous very impactful bill and they've broken it down into all the different categories of how it impacts and preempts municipalities and what they're suggesting.

So um I was going to ask uh Christina or Brianna to forward those suggestions that they've already taken it down and hand it to whomever, whoever's committee is handling it.

So I guess we'll figure that out an another time.

And we have six suggested items, and so I'll come back with more of them once we've narrowed that down.

On MPO, uh we had an MPO meeting on Monday, last Monday, a week ago.

Uh the mayor and I were both there.

Um we've been hearing a lot about Boulevard of the Arts and 41 and the difficulty crossing there only getting worse, pedestrian safety uh and the like.

Um so I did bring it to the attention of the uh FDOT new district secretary.

He was sitting next to me, shared some information and brought it to the attention of the entire board.

So hopefully we can get some conversation around that.

I did want to share that um some of the information that they talked about.

Uh I also brought up MLK and Myrtle roundabouts again.

Uh hopefully we can get some movement on that at some point in time, as you saw by those speed studies, right?

It starts right there at Myrtle.

Um, if not further up at MLK.

That's where the speeding happens in the city.

It's this chunk of area, so um if we could get that to slow down, it would be very helpful.

But um they did share that Route 99, which goes down North Trail from Braden from North Sarasota all the way down to right over here at the bus depot.

Um they had an increase in ridership.

I shared this a while ago because they had these automatic counters go in instead of sort of the bus driver doing it.

It's like a beam that people would cross.

And they saw the ridership go up drastically, which meant that you know the the counts that they were having before were not very accurate.

Then they made 99 free, and it increased by 44 percent the ridership.

So this you can't I mean I can't say the ridership is increased because the the counters are more accurate.

That was already done.

This is because they made it free.

So I thought that was a really important number to share.

Um then uh I attended the um Central Coconut Neighborhood Association meeting, and I wanted to thank um interim city manager Mr.

Bullock for attending.

Uh there was much discussion, of course, about U.S.

recycling.

There was a great presentation from CCNA.

And also um Diane Kennedy made a presentation about code compliance, so to keep people understanding the lanes that the city is in, that the county's in, who's in what lane, and what their power is as a resident um to to be involved in that situation.

Um the Arlington Park Neighborhood Association, I wanted to share that um Nancy Kelly uh made a great presentation.

Uh she was thanked because she um made grants available and those slowdown signs that we saw earlier.

Um the Arlington Park has actually gone forward and made their own, little tiny yellow slowdown signs that residents can put you know in their um yards to get people to slow down.

And they're really quite um attractive, and so they really do catch your eye.

Uh so maybe the ones that the city is doing on top of those neighborhood ones will will help um those situations.

And um at the um 10th Street roundabout, uh Mr.

Robinson, um we've had these discussions for well over a year now about the confusing signage from FDOT uh about stop when the blinking lights for the hawk signals, but stop for pedestrians.

So which one is it?

Is it for the blinking lights or is it when you see a human present?

Because those are conflicting messages, they're still up.

Um and I would it was my understanding that FDOT was going to pick one or the other.

Also, the light that gets the cars to stop when the pedestrian pushes the button, those are still missing well after a year.

I'm not um upset with either one of you two, but I was gonna say I don't have them in my house.

Right.

Start sharing those, please.

Um I think you know, whatever channels we have, because a pedestrian pushes the button to cross the street, the signal says to walk, but the the signal to tell the car to stop is not there.

So people step out into the roadway and the car goes whizzing by.

Um again, with the activity at the Bay Park, especially this month, since they're going to be having their celebration.

Let's see if we can't get something done at all, something, some signage to say, don't cross here, say you're not safe.

Whatever we can do.

Um because it could happen to the best of us that you see the walk sign and the car doesn't stop.

Um I'm happy to share photos of that that situation.

I see it as a uh a safety hazard.

And that's all I have for the moment.

Hey, Commissioner Batti.

Vice Mayor.

Okay.

I just want to give a brief recap from Florida League of Cities.

I'm on the development code compliance and redevelopment policy committee.

The three top items to be aware of is the CRAs.

There's an effort to phase them out or eliminate them.

And the staff suggested that that's because some of the legislators disapprove of how CRAs are spending some of the money.

So that's why they want to eliminate them altogether.

Similar kind of thing, eliminating impact fees.

The builders are lobbying legislators who were basically anti-tax and convincing them that impact fees are taxes and therefore get rid of those.

And then the other issue is to make accessory dwelling units by right and eliminating the restriction for affordable housing, et cetera.

So those are probably the three items to watch out for.

And then also they probably won't do any short-term rental fixes because they failed to get past the governor last year.

So they're probably not going to bother.

But then the other item which might be positive is using the Sadowski fund.

That will come up in the budget.

So with luck, we can get that taken, you know.

Implemented.

But other than that, that's all I have.

All right.

And I'm just going to quickly say the only other thing that we discussed at or that I presented at the Florida League of Cities was to allow for artwork on sidewalks to try to allow for artwork on sidewalks to lobby the legislature to say that's not going to be, you know, that's not dangerous.

I don't know whether the entire committee I think we'll be voting on it next month at our meeting.

I don't know whether people will vote on it or not, but I my sense was there was support.

Support for it.

So that is all I have.

Mr.

Bullock.

No, ma'am.

Okay.

Mr.

Robinson.

Uh we'll follow up on the 15 mile an hour enforce uh whether or not those three locations are enforceable.

Um I will follow up with Nick on the uh Myrtle and Olbring and roundabout as well as the um as well as a 10th street uh signage issue, Commissioner.

So I'll get you a hard timeline on when we're gonna do something or whether or not the State is going to do anything.

So follow up on those items and nothing else, ma'am.

And or if they can't put in a signal to stop the cars, something that we can let people know.

Don't just look left.

I mean look left before you put your foot in the road.

Ignore the the walk sign.

Ignore the walk sign, put a put a garbage bag over it, or I I mean I don't know what, but that's very technical.

Put a garbage bag over it.

I'm not sure we could it'll take an act of the state legislator to get that done.

We'll we'll look into it, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Polzak.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Uh so just a quick update.

We are finalizing our draft procurement code, targeting November hearing for that.

Um that corresponds with new updated contract templates.

That'll be a part of that hole for solicitation and purchase.

Um, then also targeting November to bring you back a sound code, revised framework.

What I was thinking was bring you forward the framework that the former city attorney like halfway completed, you complete that if you want to change any thresholds in it, then that's when we would require an expert or I'd recommend an expert for you to do a sound study.

But more to follow on that.

Um as mentioned in public comment, I have spoken with county representatives several times about their efforts at revising the county marine regulations.

It was great discussions.

They're looking at many of the same options uh I have been, um, including revised park rules and a substantive regulation of vessels and near shore waters off of LEDO.

So um as was brought up, I think October 21st is their target presentation before their board.

We'll see what they do or don't do, and then we can fill in with local city regulations if we need to.

Okay.

Thank you.

Ms.

Griggs.

I have a quick just quick um just a reminder: you have your Roberts Rules of Order training on October the 14th at 10 a.m.

Um and then also just a reminder about your interviews on Monday the 13th.

That's it.

Okay.

All right.

Um if there is nothing else, then we are adjourned.