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Amended Agenda Item 1C- 7-22-17 Draft Minutes Town Hall MeetingIN ATTENDANCE: CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH TOWN HALL MEETING July 22,2017 at 10:00 AM STAFF: Mayor Mitch Reeves Mayor Pro Tern John Stinson (Absent) Commissioner Jimmy Hill Interim City Manager Kevin Hogencamp City Attorney Brenna Durden City Planner Derek Reeves Commissioner Mitch Harding (Arrived@ 10:07 am) Commissioner Blythe Waters (Arrived@ 10:34 am) Recording Secretary, Joanie Bowman ABSENT: Mayor Pro Tern John Stinson CALL TO ORDER Mayor Reeves called the meeting to order at 10:00 am. WELCOME Mayor Reeves explained the purpose of this Town Hall Meeting and thanked staff and the citizens for taking time out of their Saturday to attend the meeting. Mayor Reeves explained the process for public comments. Mayor Reeves introduced Interim City Manager Hogencamp to open the meeting. Interim City Manager Hogencamp briefed everyone on the City Manager position. He stated they are very close to hiring a City Manager and explained the finalists will be invited to town for a public meet and greet on August 3rct, followed by interviews on August 4th with the City Commission and a final decision will be made within a couple of weeks. Mayor Reeves explained they have added Item 3A. City Manager selection process to the Commission Agenda. He stated they will narrow the candidate pool to the three top candidates. HR Director Cathy Berry and Interim City Manager Kevin Hogencamp will then skype interview the top three candidates. A reception will then take place Thursday, August 3rd so the public can have an opportunity to meet the top three candidates and they will interview them on Friday, August 4th and the Commission will make a final decision at the next City Commission on August 14th. Interim City Manager Hogencamp explained this meeting's topics for discussion are the Resolution creating a Parking Advisory Resource Committee as he referred to his handout (which is attached and made part of this Official Record as Attachment A), and notice requirements for Town Hall Meeting Page 1 of 7 July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 the Land Development Regulation Modifications. He spoke about the parking issue and Commissioner Stinson's proposal that the City Commission establish the official Parking Advisory Committee. He explained that its scope and purpose would be to review and collect parking data, conduct related field inspections, evaluate the data and make recommendations to the Mayor and Commissioners. Under this proposal there would be eleven (11) members of the Committee, two (2) each appointed by the Mayor and the four Commissioners and the eleventh (11th) member would be one of the City Commissioners or the Mayor. The Committee would be supported by staff as delegated by the City Manager. Mayor Reeves inquired about the upcoming Safe Routes to School public meeting that would take place. Interim City Manager Hogencamp informed everyone that the Safe Routes to School meeting would take place Tuesday, July 25th at 5:00pm. in the Commission Chamber and would give an overview of the latest design and update on the status of that project. Mayor Reeves asked the citizens if they had anything they would like to share. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Dennis Winkelman, 1977 Seminole Rd., spoke about the parking issue on 19th Street and expressed that it needs some attention. Mayor Reeves explained the Parking Committee will cover parking issues city wide. Nancy Whittington, 1861 Beachside Ct., spoke about the parking committee and suggested tackling the parking issue in phases rather than city wide. Commissioner Hill explained that the parking problem in Atlantic Beach is based on the population of Jacksonville, which predominantly uses Atlantic Beach as the beach to visit and the bulk of Jacksonville will go to Hugenot Park on the Northside. The parking problem is compounded every time the City of Jacksonville does something environmentally to limit their residents from being able to go to their beach. The other reason parking is a problem internally within our own city is that residents utilize parking for their visitors. He suggested coming up with a plan where we still meet our responsibilities to our County visitors but do it in a park way. He suggested one of the ways our residents can better access our beach is by using bikes or low speed vehicles (LSV). A Resident, suggested charging a fee for parking to alleviate some of the parking problems. Mayor Reeves spoke about parking solutions for non-residents and residents. He explained that parking meters are a viable option and suggested that residents may be issued a parking permit that gives residents privileges to park at a discounted rate. Dale Wappes, 1885 Beach Ave., spoke about the parking problems concerning traffic and safety issues on 18th Street and suggested having a shuttle service to the beach to alleviate the parking problems. Town Hall Meeting Page 2 of7 July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 Commissioner Hill spoke against shuttling people into a residential neighborhood and explained that there is a direct correlation between crime and transient people and would be of concern to him in that respect. Pamela McCrary, 226 pt St., spoke about concerns regarding parking and safety issues with cars parking on sidewalks. She suggested taking back the sidewalks and making it standard that wherever there is a sidewalk, there is no parking. Lisa Herrold, 659 Sherry Dr., spoke about concerns with Safe Routes to School on her street, and stated they are going to lose the green space and poses safety issues for the children. Chris Thomassy, 176 Ocean Blvd., spoke about the parking situation leading to friction within the community that could potentially lead to violence. He suggested that the parking committee write down their ideas and present them as well as having representatives to be the advocates from the affected areas, such as the 19th & 20th Street area but also look at 1-4 or Ahem-4th Street and 5th -9th Street. He suggested some ideas from other beaches, where residents buy stickers for your car for a low fee as well as building a parking garage or setting up parking meters. He mentioned that we might ask Neptune Beach, as a good neighbor, to remove their center island at Orange Street and stated that there needs to be a sharing of the traffic coming into our area. Mayor Reeves explained that strict enforcement of parking and littering fines would act as a deterrent and could eliminate the parking problems as well as address visitors trashing up our beach. Commissioner Hill stated our parking areas do not look like a park or recreational area. He explained that he would like to adopt signage at our end zones designating our beach as a park and have public works personnel collecting the trash, dress like park rangers. He spoke about sidewalks and the need to make it safe for kids so that they are not forced into the street. Commissioner Waters stated signage is a concern as it trashes up our City and is not pretty. She explained part of the solution is street-scaping and suggested using landscaping and impervious spaces to designate parking in a beautifying way. Commissioner Hill agreed there is a signage problem and needs to be addressed. Rick Moyer, 1238 Beach Ave., suggested offsetting the signage by planting trees and beautifying the environment, particularly around the Town Center area and by encouraging residents to ride their bikes or walk thereby, creating more parking. Mayor Reeves inquired about the bike racks at the Town Center. City Planner Derek Reeves explained they have talked about contracts and have not moved forward yet. Town Hall Meeting Page 3 of7 July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 Mayor Reeves explained there is an Ordinance in place now requiring new businesses in Atlantic Beach to provide a bicycle rack. Dale Wappes, 1885 Beach Ave., inquired about hiring a part-time meter maid to monitor parking accesses. Mayor Reeves suggested that our new Police Chief Michelle Cook make a proposal to have the people who volunteer for the COPS program write those tickets. Commissioner Waters stated, historically, that is something the Town Center area has proposed and have been willing to chip in with funding. They have proposed a number of systems. Commissioner Hill voiced concern about using the COPS program, because COPS level training is not sufficient for interacting with non-residents and could pose a danger. Commissioner Harding spoke about non-sworn citizens who can take a course to issue parking tickets, but can also take a verbal judo class that teaches them how to talk to people that become irate. He spoke about the parking committee and diversity, and would like to see representatives from all over the city establish priorities. Commissioner Hill spoke in favor of having someone like Scott Shine, a School Board Representative, be on the Parking Committee. He explained he is also our beaches district school board representative and has been involved in Ponte Vedra's reclaiming of access and could put a voice of knowledge and experience on the subject matter relating to the Parking Committee. He inquired whether non-residents could sit on the Parking Committee in an advisory mode. The citizens were in agreement that non-residents could serve on the board in an advisory capacity but should not be permitted to vote. A resident spoke about solutions to right of way issues that might be resolved by carefully looking at traffic patterns and creating one way streets. Commissioner Waters stated she liked Commissioner Hill's idea about having representatives on the Committee from outside the community that can provide an outside perspective of what is reasonable. Commissioner Hill stated Mayor Reeves is in communication with the Duval County representatives regarding parking issues. He continued stating that Hanna Park is completely empty and could provide a partial solution. Some citizens suggested making a sign on Mayport Road that directs people into Hanna Park and voiced that they do not want one-way streets, but also do not want their streets blocked by illegal parking. Interim City Manager Hogencamp introduced City Planner Derek Reeves and Brenna Durden, matter experts on the notice requirements for the Land Development Regulation Modifications. Town Hall Meeting Page 4of7 July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 City Planner Derek Reeves explained they have already started advertising for the Mayport Road Business Proposal, notifications go out thirty days in advance and then it goes to the Community Development Board (CDB) in August. He stated they mailed out seven hundred thirteen (713) letters, it took six staff personnel and thirteen hours to complete at $16.00 per hour equaling $208.00 and .046 cents postage per envelope equaling $322.00 in postage, another $23.00 in envelopes and labels, plus printing costs. The mailers total cost was $553.00 in staff time and materials. We are looking at estimates of three-hundred (300) signs under our current code to be posted. It will take about four (4) staff people about twenty five (25) hours to produce and post all of those signs. The costs are higher because of who has driving privileges and estimating $500.00 in staff time in addition to the twenty-five (25) hours. He stated they did find cheaper signs at $5.50 per sign including the stake, and another $1,600.00 when you have to add in the cost of materials for tape, markers and gas. The estimate comes up to $2,100.00 for signs on this project. Add in the required newspaper ads, those are $313.00 a piece to run in the Beaches Leader. This Ordinance affects somewhere between two hundred to two hundred fifteen (200-215) parcels and there are approximately fifty seven hundred (5,700) parcels in the City. City Planner Reeves explained that if we were to do an ordinance affecting every parcel like Land Development Regulation (LDR) rewrite, or something as minor as allowable projections into a side yard, you are talking about multiplying those costs by seven (7), for what could be potentially a major code rewrite. City Attorney Durden explained that there are two ways State Statutes are required: 1) Text amendment and 2) Re-zoning a piece of property. She stated that the conversation that they are having today is simply about text amendments and under the State law for text amendments, it only requires publication in the newspaper for each public hearing. Two public hearings are required at a minimum under the State law and you have to publish in the larger font, two columns wide and not in the legal advertisement section of the newspaper. Our Code also requires us to comply with the statutory requirements, a map change such as; change of permitted uses, change of zoning. A sign will be placed in the yard and everybody within three hundred (300) feet will get noticed of that. Our Code, for a text change to our LDR, requires the same thing. She stated for our Mayport Corridor Business Overly District we need to follow those rules. Notice is one of those things that is a due process issue, so if our code says we have to comply with this, we must comply. It is a very sensitive topic, because people want to know what is going on in their community. She stated there may be a middle road where we do not need a thousand signs scattered all over our City for the exact same ordinance that is being proposed. She suggested maybe the City consider keeping the requirement for the letters to go out to every single person but not the signs. This would only be for text amendments. Those are the minimum requirements and we are only talking about text changes to the LDR's or to the comprehensive plan. A resident spoke about a concern with public notices for the Town Hall Meeting and stated that the notice came out on Thursday and there was no other notice of addendum on Facebook. She is in favor of the letters going out to citizens whatever the cost because not everyone is on social media. She stated that the citizens of Atlantic Beach deserve to know there is going to be a significant change. Town Hall Meeting Page 5 of7 July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 Interim City Manager Hogencamp explained that the overlay district changes are being noticed; they were sent out and the signs are going up. Commissioner Harding explained how communication has improved since Hurricane Matthew through the Agenda, City Manager's Report, Calendar, Newsletter, and City's website. He stated staff is doing their job and making appropriate notifications. We take great strides to keep the community involved. Commissioner Waters stated that we hold quarterly Town Hall meetings and bi-monthly City Commission meetings. If the Land Development Regulation affects fifty two hundred (5,200) homes, we have to stick a sign in every yard. We are going to have to change the Land Development Code because it is literally what the requirement states. She explained the City's desire to notice appropriately and offered suggestions. She stated we are trying to gamer from the citizens what is appropriate notification for these big items that affect the citizens' of Atlantic Beach. Commissioner Hill stated that notification is not the issue, communication is the issue. He stated that the Interim City Manager Kevin Hogencamp is a communication expert and will be freed up to communicate more effectively as soon as a City Manager is in place. A resident stated that communication is not the problem in the City and has received excellent communication. She believes noticing is extremely important, the Safe Routes to School project was delayed because of a lack of noticing, but we do not need five thousand (5,000) signs. We need leader road signs at high traffic intersections in the City. She wants to make sure that whatever we do, we do not take away the noticing requirements in terms of snail mail or signs for affected areas. Commissioner Hill spoke about two distinct citizen groups; engaged and not engaged. We have to notice both equally. We have to focus on the non-engaged citizens. Mayor Reeves agreed with Commissioner Hill that communication is going to get better. A resident suggested using the water bill as a way for citizen's to go online to voice their opinion or poll on a particular subject matter. Closing Comments Commissioner Waters stated it is good to hear input from everyone about the issues that the City is tackling. At times citizens get frustrated when government takes longer or seems to be slow moving. It seems to inspire the fiery rhetoric of, "if you do not do something now", "somebody's going to get hurt." She explained that long term planning is what they, as a Commission, are there to do. Commissioner Hill thanked everyone for taking time to attend the meeting on a Saturday and stated that community involvement makes this place the livable City that it is. The community groups Town Hall Meeting Page 6 of7 July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 that are formed around certain issues are critically important. These are the groups that find out "Vhat is ~?Oing on and the Commission is involved in these groups. Commissioner Harding thanked everyone for attending this meeting on a Saturday. He stated the Town Hall meetings are held quarterly and the next one will be in October. These meetings are good to get information out and to receive input from our residents creating an open line of communication with our citizens. Everything that they do as a Commission is representative ot our residents. Interim City Manager Hogencamp thanked the citizens for coming out on their Saturday. Recently on Facebook our local government has been accused of doing things in secret. He clarified that nothing is done in secret and the City government of Atlantic Beach is transparent. Interim City Manager Hogencamp addressed parking, beach access and pedestrian safety, explaining that the Commission is taking action regarding this issue. He has a list of potential committee members and stated please contact a Commissioner or the Mayor directly if you ar~ interested in that topic. The pedestrian safety issue at 18th Street is an emergency and does not need to wait for this committee, as it is unsafe and is a priority. He asked that the citizens please stay in touch as we continue to do our jobs and strive for opportunities to improve our community. Mayor Reeves thanked everyone for attending the meeting and for the important questions and input. He explained that this Commission is in unison whether they agree or disagree on topics. He mentioned that there will be a meeting regarding Safe Routes to School on Tuesday, July 25th and hoped everyone would come out. Mayor Reeves adjourned the meeting at 12:30 p.m. ATTEST: Donna L. Bartle, CMC City Clerk Town Hall Meeting Page 7 of7 Mitchell E. Reeves Mayor/Presiding Officer July 22, 2017 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 AITACHMENT A RESOLUTION NO. 17-08 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH, FLORIDA CREATING A PARKING ADVISORY RESOURCE COMMITTEE; PROVIDING FOR PURPOSE, MEMBERS AND SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES OF SAID COMMITTEE; AND PROVIDING FOR SUNSET OF COMMITTEE AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, the Boards and Committees established by the Mayor and Commission of the City of Atlantic Beach provide many valuable services to the community by enlisting City staff and citizen volunteers to provide input and consideration upon several important issues that affect the daily lives of citizens in the community; and WHEREAS, the City Commission deems it to be in the best interests of the citizens of Atlantic Beach to create an advisory committee to review parking and collect parking data, conduct field inspections and make recommendations to the Commission regarding parking issues in the City. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH: SECTION 1. Creation. There is hereby created and established the PARKING ADVISORY RESOURCE COMMITTEE. SECTION 2. Purpose. The purpose of the Parking Advisory Resource Committee is to review and collect parking data, conduct related field inspections, evaluate the data and make recommendations to the Mayor and Commission as to changes and revisions to the current parking system which will eliminate confusion and safety issues. SECTION 3. Membership and Staff Support (a) There will be a total of eleven (11) members on the Committee. The Mayor and Commissioners shall each propose two (2) persons who are residents of the City of Atlantic Beach to serve on the Committee. The eleventh member shall be an elected official whose responsibility will be to chair all meetings of the Committee but not to direct the work of the Committee, and to 00833613-2 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 vote only in the event of a tie between the ten other members. All members shall be appointed by the City Commission. (b) The Committee shall be supported by the following persons: 1. One senior staff member from the Public Works Department, to be selected by the City Manager; 2. One senior staff member from the Public Safety Department, to be selected by the City Manager; 3. One member (past or present) of the Community Development Board, to be selected by the City Commission; and 4. One recording/noticing clerk from the City Clerk's Office, to be selected by the City Clerk. SECTION 4. Scope of Activities. The Committee shall undertake the following activities: (a) Utilize traffic counters to dete1mine demand loads on available parking placed at locations with the City to be determined by the Committee for a period of two (2) months, beginning in August, 2017; (b) Collect data from the counters weekly to fully understand traffic loading and any increases experienced; (c) Collect data twice daily for a one-week period at a midpoint in each time frame to better understand peak periods of traffic loading; (d) Evaluate the data and prepare a written report containing recommendations to modify and improve the safety and efficiency of the cunent beach access parking system and design no later than October 1, 2017, or as soon thereafter as practical; 00833613-2 2 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017 (e) Make a presentation of the written report to the City Commission in October, 2017, or as soon thereafter as practical; and (f) Undertake such additional work as requested by the City Manager or City Commission. SECTION 5. Meetings and Notice. The meetings of the Parking Advisory Resource Committee shall be set at regular times and will be open to the public and notice of meetings shall be provided in accordance with state law. SECTION 6. Sunset. The Parking Advisory Resource Committee shall exist and be in place for a six month period beginning on the date of the first meeting of the Committee and, unless extended by the City Commission by further enactment, shall automatically sunset, expire and cease to exist after said six month period. SECTION 7. Effective Date. This Resolution shall take effective immediately upon its final passage and adoption. PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Commission of the City of Atlantic Beach, Florida, this 24th day of July, 2017. Mitchell E. Reeves, Mayor Attest: Donna L. Bartle, City Clerk Approved as to form and correctness: Brenna M. Durden, City Attorney 00833613-2 3 Amended Agenda Item 1C August 28, 2017