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11-15-17 Joint Workshop CC and CDBCITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH MINUTES OF THE JOINT WORKSHOP MEETING WITH THE CITY COMMISSION AND THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BOARD NOVEMBER 15, 2017 5:30 PM CITY HALL, 800 SEMINOLE RD. IN ATTENDANCE Mayor Ellen Glasser Commissioner Candice Kelly Commissioner Brittany Norris Commissioner John Stinson Commissioner Blythe Waters City Manager Joe Gerrity City Attorney Brenna Durden Recording Secretary Nancy Pyatte Community Development Board Kelly Elmore Rich Reichler Sylvia Simmons BreaPaul Linda Lanier Northeast Florida Regional Council Brian Teeple Call to Order Mayor Glasser called the meeting to order at 5:37PM. Introductions were made around the table. Courtesy of the Floor will follow Item No. 1. 1. Land Development Regulations (LDR) Rewrite City Manager Gerrity explained that the City has budgeted for the LDR Rewrite and there are two options to consider either issue an RFP to look for a consultant or contract with a government entity. Having had experience in both options, City Manager Gerrity expressed his preference of working with a government entity. He stated he has many years of experience working with Brian Teeple, from Northeast Florida Regional Council (NFRC), and believes this would be a logical choice. Brian Teeple stated he has been a professional planner for thirty-seven years, and thirty-one years have been with NFRC. In 1977 the NFRC was created by an inter-local agreement between seven counties in Northeast Florida, as a unit of local government, to provide technical assistance to the seven counties and twenty-seven municipalities. The NFRC works for a Board of Directors which consists of local government elected officials, Governor appointments, members from the Florida DOT, DEP, DEO, and the St. Johns River Water Management District. 1 Mr. Teeple explained the rewrite of the LDR for the City of Atlantic Beach will be a three step process as follows: The first step is a desk top audit, looking at the Comprehensive Plan (COMP Plan) and LDR documents. From this audit we will create a matrix determining gaps, inconsistencies, and overlaps. The second step is a listening audit through three or four public workshops for Staff, Citizens, the Commission, and the Community Development Board. Also a Project Webpage with an input portal will be created for following via public access. At the completion of this audit a summary will be compiled. The third step will be the walking or driving audit of the entire City to document locations, examples of issues, and any comments/discussion. At the completion of this audit a summary will be compiled. When the audit process is complete, there will be a thorough assessment of the data collected to determine what to change in the code and create a generalized concept. This will be presented to the City via workshops to provide guidance, receive direction, and review line by line in order to put everything into code form. The City Attorney will review the final product. It will go before the Community Development Board to begin the adoption process and they may recommend additional changes and have more workshops. When completed it will then go before the Commission for consideration and final adoption of the LDR. Discussion ensued about an estimated timeline, workshops including non-resident business owners, historical preservation, environmental preservation, best practices for development, the use of form based code, and the benefit of utilizing strike through and re-write in the final document. Mr. Teeple stated the LDR re-write should be completed early in 2019. In this process there may be instances to recommend modifications to the Comprehensive Plan (COMP Plan). The LDR and the COMP Plan need to be consistent with each other. Discussion continued about Town Center, shared with the City of Neptune Beach, and an overlay written by the Town Center Agency several years ago, submitted to and pending approval by the City of Atlantic Beach. There was a suggestion to look at this while doing the re-write. Also noted during discussion about Town Center was the paid parking project, in conjunction with the City ofNeptune Beach, that is in development and moving forward. There was discussion about the Community Redevelopment Area on Mayport Road, determining when to implement a 10-Year Community Vision Planning effort, and renewing the COMP Plan simultaneously with the LDR re-write. City Attorney Durden stated there will be some minor revisions to the COMP Plan in the spring of2018. These will be minimum and those that are required by statute. Mayor Glasser inquired about the working schedule and the budget for the LDR re-write. City Manager Gerrity stated the cost was budgeted over the next two years, $75,000 for each year. Mr. Teeple explained the City provides office space for their personnel so they can be available for staff and citizens. They will provide a schedule of office hours. 2 There was a lengthy discussion about the use of form-based code and communities that have incorporated this into their code. Mr. Teeple stated that during the audit process there may be areas identified where elements of form-based code can work to address specific issues. The next topic discussed was how the process is implemented in the community to get people involved throughout the entire process. Mr. Teeple explained they use social media and reach out to the community through churches, clubs and civic groups, etc. He said they have professionals to provide renderings/snapshots for public viewing at the various meetings and workshops during the process. Discussion ended and the consensus of the group was to contract with a government entity for the LDR re-write and move forward with Nmih Florida Regional Council. City Manager Gerrity stated he will put this item on the November 27, 2017 agenda for consideration by the Commission. Mayor Glasser thanked Brian Teeple for his presentation. 2. Courtesy of the Floor to Visitors Mayor Glasser opened the Courtesy of the Floor to visitors. There were no speakers; Courtesy of the Floor was closed. Mayor Glasser called for a recess at 6:38PM and reconvened the meeting at 6:45PM. 3. Medical Marijuana Ordinance Mayor Glasser stated the objective here is to provide direction to staff about how we are going to move forward with this Ordinance. Jacksonville Beach has a clinic but is banning dispensaries. Neptune Beach is working on their ordinance. It is different throughout the state. City Attorney Durden stated this past June the State Legislature adopted new provisions providing direction, parameters, and restrictions for Medical Marijuana. The Commission approved a second moratorium on November 13, 2017 for six months, which gives us more time to examine this and reach a final ordinance. If a clinic or a dispensary is allowed in Atlantic Beach they will be treated like a pharmacy. In our Land Development Code (LDC), under Commercial Districts, it lists/permits the retail sales of food and drugs. City Attorney Durden explained the goal tonight is to receive direction from the Community Development Board (CDB) and the Commission to determine whether to allow or to ban the clinics and dispensaries. Being a land use matter, it is part of Chaper 24 in the LDC. Based on the direction received, City Attorney Durden explained that a draft ordinance will be presented to the CDB for a vote and recommendation to the Commission. There will be a series of public hearings held prior to the final vote by the Commission. Examples of ordinances from several communities throughout Florida were provided showing how this is banned and how this is allowed. It was noted Jacksonville Beach is considering an outright ban of dispensaries, although there is one clinic where a prescription can be obtained. Jacksonville and Orange Park allow clinics and dispensaries. City Attorney Durden stated this industry has a standard for how many dispensaries are necessary based on population. City Planner Derek Reeves stated drug stores and pharmacies are a permitted use in the Commercial Limited (CL) zoning districts, which are in select areas on the east side of 3 Mayport Rd. Also, all permitted uses are allowed in Commercial General (CG) zomng districts, which is along Atlantic Blvd. (except Town Center), and along Mayport Rd. A lengthy discussion ensued about language limiting the number of dispensaries, zoning restrictions in relation to schools/daycare facilities/other retail pharmacies, forms of medical marijuana being ingestible/oils/drops/non-smokable, and probability of Walgreens and CVS taking over medical marijuana. A comment was made that we might not even need this in Atlantic Beach because of the close proximity of available clinics and dispensaries in Jacksonville. Discussion continued, suggesting this should be a referendum for the citizens to vote on the issue of clinics and dispensaries. In response it was noted that 79% of the voters in Atlantic Beach already voted in favor of medical marijuana use at the last general election. It was noted that access to clinics and dispensaries came with that vote and this is not for recreational use. There was discussion about both the medical and non-medical business operations that are located in other areas of the country. It was noted these are legitimate businesses, operating by very strict regulations, and they require very expensive licensing to operate. Discussion continued about these facilities being just like having access to the pharmacy at Publix, Walgreens, CVS, or any other pharmacy. If restrictions are imposed on medical marijuana facilities then the same is applicable to any phmmacy. City Attorney Durden stated that all pharmacies would have to be treated the same. The definitions need to be clear for permitted uses in CL and CG zoning districts. The question is do we allow them or ban them. Discussion ensued about the consequences of not having an ordinance in place. City Attorney Durden explained the City waited for the state legislation that was adopted in June and that is a legitimate reason for this second moratorium. Now we have six more months to examine all the pros and cons and move forward expeditiously. City Attorney Durden addressed the comments made about having this as a referendum for voters. This would require a special election, including additional administrative work, extra costs to the City, notices, and coordinating with the Duval County Supervisor of Elections. The other option would be to wait for the next General Election in November 2018 and put a referendum on that ballot. Discussion ensued and a suggestion was offered to have this at the January 20, 2018 Town Hall meeting to gather citizen input. This will bring the community into this process to help with making the decision to allow or to ban. At this time the consensus of the group was to not ban this, to gather community input at the January 2018 Town Hall meeting for further consideration in moving forward with a draft ordinance. City Attorney Durden reviewed for clarification there will be a December and a January CDB meeting to discuss and obtain input to produce a draft ordinance to present for community discussion and comment at the January 2018 Town Hall meeting. Then after that phase is completed it will go to the CDB for action at their February meeting. Discussion ensued noting a draft ordinance was not necessary for presentation at the January 2018 Town Hall meeting. In relation to medical marijuana facilities already in operation, it 4 was suggested to obtain public safety statistics, business data describing the appearance and customer base, and daily operations from those cities to present at the Town Hall meeting. City Attorney Durden spoke about using caution when considering distance requirements with restrictions. This can prevent other uses from finding locations. There was a brief discussion about providing the CDB with 500 ft. and 1000 ft. distance scenarios in CL and CG zoning districts, and identifying locations of churches and daycare facilities. Discussion concluded on this item. 4. Automotive Service Station Ordinance Mayor Glasser stated City Planner Derek Reeves will give a presentation. City Planner Reeves stated this will address the moratorium on automotive service stations, auto repair shops, car washes, and convenience stores. He referred to the Powerpoint, stating it shows where we were, where we're going and what to look for as we go forward. He provided handouts of the draft ordinance along with copies of related email correspondence, and referred to the displayed zoning map. City Planner Reeves reviewed all the proposed changes made in the draft ordinance as shown by strike through and re-write. This draft updates the outdated terminology. He covered Definitions, CL and CG zoning districts, uses-by-exception and permitted uses, and Gas Stations. Mayor Glasser requested staff to email the Commission and the CDB copies of this Powerpoint presentation along with the one from Brian Teeple, Northeast Florida Regional Council, for reference. A lengthy discussion ensued about who should approve these uses, banning gas stations from CL zoning districts, limiting size of gas stations, walk-up and pedestrian friendly businesses, and having state rights-of-ways (Atlantic Blvd. and Mayport Rd.) on the peripheral of the city. City Planner Reeves stated that Section 24-165 addresses the number of gas pumps, lot size requirements, curb cut widths, property frontage, etc. Discussion continued about banning future gas stations in the City or requiring them to be approved by uses-by-exception (UBEX). City Attorney Durden stated all decisions are based on the code and the criteria set by code. UBEX does allow for greater review for the approval process (by CDB and Commission). City Attorney Durden stated there is also the presumption that UBEX, under case law, is permissible providing it meets the criteria set by code. A lengthy discussion continued about the UBEX, the zoning code, the land development code, and the everchanging definitions of businesses and uses that comes with economic development. Everyone agreed that gas stations are a necessity but there were conflicting opinions about allowing them in a CL zoning district. There was continued discussion about the proximity to residential areas, having them mid-block vs. on a corner, limiting the number of pumps, and the larger size of the convenience stores. City Attorney Durden stated there were no gas station applications pending due to the current, 5 and second moratorium which is set to expire February 2018. In keeping with the cunent moratorium schedule, it would go before the CDB in January 2018 with an ordinance for recommendation. Then there will be two public hearings, January 12th and 26th, 2018. If the Commission needed more time to continue working on the ordinance, the moratorium could be extended another three months. Comments around the table for a gas station with or without a convenience store, or a convenience store with or without a gas station, resulted as follows: For UBEX-need clear limits and criteria in the code for how close the business can be to residential areas, to crosswalks (pedestrian traffic), limiting the number of fuel pumps, and for the approval process. Allow in a CG zoning district. For UBEX :.. code have clear guidelines for approval. Limit hours of operation-close when the bars close. Buffering/screening requirements/lighting control/landscaping. Limit to 6 fuel pumps. Curb cuts on the main artery, mid-block, away from intersection with pedestrian crosswalk. UBEX required for any type of business wanting to be a 24-hour operation. Do not allow in CL or CPO zoning districts. Limit fuel pumps to 20 or less. Approval by the CDB, then by the Commission. Restrict hours of operations for convenience stores. Do not allow in a CL zoning district; only allow in CG. Operate by UBEX for all the above examples-requiring review/approval by the CDB, then the Commission. Require/confirm 24-hour operations have no negative effect on residential communities. Limit of 1 0 fuel pumps. Applying same buffering/screening requirements used for Mayport Road businesses. Have exact measurements/criteria in code to address excessive lighting, excessive nmse, excessive traffic, etc. UBEX required for CG zoning district. Approval by CDB, then Commission. Approval by staff. 6 No UBEX Codify all application/approval criteria for hours of operation, buffering/screening/lighting/landscaping requirements, and the number of fuel pumps allowed. No limit for hours of operations for convenience stores. Lot space determines number of fuel pumps. No limit for hours of operations. Fuel pumps-minimum 12, maximum 14. City Attomey Durden reviewed the schedule for approving the ordinance. With the cunent moratorium schedule, it would go before the CDB in January 2018 with an ordinance for recommendation. Then there will be two public hearings at the Commission meetings on January 12th and 26th, 2018. If we need more time to continue working on the ordinance, then we can have an ordinance for two public hearings at the Commission meetings in February to extend the moratorium. City Planner Reeves stated more time is needed to rework the draft ordinance based on what has been voiced at this meeting. He stated there are questions about the UBEX vs. staff approval and the detail of restrictions, and more conversation is required. There being no further discussion, Mayor Glasser declared the meeting adjoumed at 9:35PM. ATTEST: Mayor/Presiding Officer Donna L. Bmile, CMC City Clerk DLB/njp 7