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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07182007Specialcnv ~ ~_ -~~= HOME OF PELICAN ISLAND SEBASTIAN CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SPECIAL MEETING CALLED BY MAYOR COY WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2007 - 7:00 P.M. CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1225 MAIN STREET, SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA Mayor Coy called the Special Meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. ROLL CALL City Council Present: Mayor Andrea Coy Vice-Mayor Sal Neglia Council Member AI Paternoster Council Member Dale Simchick Council Member Eugene Wolff Staff Present in Chambers: Airport Director, Joe Griffin MIS Systems Analyst, Barbara Brooke-Reese Police Lieutenant, Greg Witt Staff Present at Dais: City Manager, AI Minner City Attorney, Rich Stringer City Clerk, Sally Maio 2. DISCUSSION AND DIRECTION CONCERNING CHALLENGES TO FELLSMERE ANNEXATION Mayor Coy briefed the public on meeting procedures, stating the City Manager will make a presentation, and asked for Council decision on public input, recommending if approved a time limit be imposed. Mr. Neglia suggested a three minute time limit on public input and Mr. Paternoster seconded the recommendation. Ms. Simchick recommended against input because the public was not privy to the legal documents that Council has received. Mr. Wolff agreed with public input and the three minute time limit. Mayor Coy recommended public input following the City Manager presentation and prior to the City Attorney recommendation and City Council deliberation. Voice Vote on the recommendation for public input of three minutes carried 5-0. Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Two The City Manager gave a power point presentation citing the chronology of the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement under FS Chapter 171 Part II (see power point presentation attached). He left the map exhibiting the current and proposed annexations on the overhead for the benefit of the public and Council. Mayor Coy called for public input. The following members of the public addressed City Council on the issue: Louise Kautenberg, Sebastian, noted annexations are voluntary. Richard Carnell, Fellsmere Farms, CR 512, Fellsmere, stated statutes are clear whereby annexations do not constitute a development order, and the Comprehensive Plan Act Act does not require local governments to identify specific areas to be annexed only identification of procedures for identifying and implementing planning agreements and under FS 171 it allows for future annexation that do not correspond to a joint planning area. Joe Scozzari, Sebastian, urged that Council not vote for this lawsuit so we don't shut down communication. Sylvester Julian asked how the annexations would have an effect on health, safety and welfare, and would annexations bring in jobs. Cheryl Hampton, Vice Mayor, City of Fellsmere, said a large portion of the annexed land is conservation and a large portion will be for industrial and commercial; said Fellsmere only wants to give its people a place to live and work, and asked what Sebastian is afraid of. Damian Gilliams, 1623 US 1, asked the Clerk if there was backup information for this meeting. She responded that she was not in attendance when this packet was prepared and did not have backup. Mayor Coy said that the backup was provided to Council by the City Attorney and was not public information until released by the Attorney. Mr. Gilliams became argumentative and Mayor Coy asked him not to misinform the public. Mr. Gilliams asked if the Attorney gave Council an opinion in writing and wanted to be sure Council was doing its homework. Mayor Coy then gave him a first warning, he said she kept interrupting him and when he began to ask the question again she asked him to take his seat. He requested a point of order, there was none, and he said, "you didn't do your homework", and she asked that he leave. Lieutenant Witt escorted him out of the chambers. Chuck Lever, Sebastian, said there is an agreement and it must be adhered to. Dorothy Thomas, Fellsmere, urged that we be better neighbors. Ms. Simchick was excused from 7:36 p.m. to 7:38 p.m. 2 Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Three Alvin Thomas, former Mayor of Fellsmere, cited the good relations we have had for many years and urged that they continue. The City Attorney then gave his presentation and recommendation. He said litigation is not taken lightly, there are risks, and land owners financing this will try to impose attorney fees if they prevail. He clarified there are two concerns we are expressing, we have entered into a statutory process to negotiate an interlocal service boundary agreement to which was initiated by Fellsmere and agreed to by other governmental agencies in Indian River County, and statutes say you will negotiate about the issues in good faith for six months. He said we are not saying Fellsmere is negotiating in bad faith, but in fact not negotiating at all in accordance with the statutes. He said it is entirely reasonable to ask the court to clarify what the statute says, do they have to negotiate these issues with us or not. He went on to explain the other element to consider is, is this program impacting Sebastian residents in a manner which you feel is not acceptable and would justify taking the risk of litigation. He said the risks are that we may not prevail, they will try to hang attorney fees on the City, and it does cost bad feelings. He said basis for the claim is that the annexations are a development order, and because there is no standing land use, the least intense land use available for this private property is low density residential. He said while their agreements state in the future there will be changes, the concern right now is if it goes through now it could go in as three units per acre. The City Attorney stated as far as how this impacts Sebastian, the key point would be CR 512, that it is the only way for Fellsmere to go east, noting the Pine Grove annexation which is just west of I-95 agreement already calls for six lanes for 512 by 2013, and this is not including the new annexations. He said this is the only evacuation route Sebastian has, Sebastian will be the outlet to the sea, with impacts on our boat ramps. He said by no means should we challenge Fellsmere because of a theoretical disagreement with growth, but because all the risks and negatives about the challenge outweigh the negatives that can happen from this in such a way that it is worth taking a shot. He said growth is not supposed to be leapfrogged, under the Growth Management Act, growth is supposed to be steady and match demand. He said Pine Grove sits there with 5,600 dwelling units approved and not one has been built, that there is a massive amount of commercial and residential development out there and if you are going to add all of this other development what you are setting up is leapfrog development which is specifically prohibited in Fellsmere's comp plan. He closed by stating he believes there are problems with these approvals in light of their comp plan and the key question the court will have to decide is if this is a development order within the framework of the comprehensive Growth Management Act. He said it is a reasonable question to ask how is something that has the effect of taking AG land, which under legal definitions is not development, and putting it into a 3 Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Four legal status where the least intrusive use of that land is low density residential, how is that not having the effect of approving development. Each member of Council then offered input on the issue: Mr. Neglia said his concerns were impacts on City of Sebastian services, roads, boat ramps, parks, parking, safety and welfare for all people in Sebastian and Fellsmere. He said he was concerned for density, Graves and Ansin property development, and CR 512 traffic. Mr. Paternoster said he shares the same concerns, noted at the joint meeting with Fellsmere, Sebastian was quite surprised when we saw this particular map and it was said by the Fellsmere Manager that this would be done by the end of June and their officials were expeditiously working on it. He said there is only one way out of Fellsmere and that is CR 512, and there will be heavy impacts. In response to Mr. Paternoster, the City Attorney said the Pine Grove property was annexed in 1999 and land use completed in 2003. Mr. Paternoster said at some point you want to at least start building, and we were told that developers would build or provide funding for schools and fire. He said we don't want to be bad neighbors but certainly want to take care of our own here. Ms. Simchick said she would like to speak to the citizens and have the map shown at home. She said she hears "let Fellsmere do what they want out there, and the question is "where is Fellsmere?". She said if you look at the map as proposed, they are surrounding Sebastian east of I-95. She said most people have not seen this map, and she wants everyone to know that the Ansin 2560 annexation east on I-95 would create 5,120 homes according to the annexation agreement, which will dump into 512 and 510. She said we will need schools, fire, ambulance on a huge scale, and that is how it is affecting Sebastian, and there is no clear plan on how they will service all those people. She said the door was shut on being a good neighbor on May 7th, said it is time for a time out for planning, noting this has not gone to Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council or Department of Community Affairs, that lack of services will affect us on a daily basis, if we don't stand up there will be no City of Sebastian, it needs to be challenged, and it is her duty to protect the citizens of Sebastian, using good judgment, considering consequences and acting accordingly. Mr. Wolff said obviously litigation is seen as something one does as a last resort, asked Mr. Minner what he would like to have seen brought to the table by Fellsmere prior to him and Mr. Stringer suggesting we have reached a road block. The City Manager said in is his managerial opinion only, Fellsmere has been very direct and candid and true to their negotiating words as Mr. Nunemaker represented, have dealt in good faith outside of the red and yellow areas (on the map), that some areas proposed which were closer to Sebastian were taken off the table by Fellsmere. He said the red area east of I-95 is still of concern to the City of Sebastian, which displays a leapfrogging away from the core of the City of Fellsmere, because of the way 95 is setup there is no 4 Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Five tangible transportation network that will make that red area part of the yellow area. He said Sebastian may be left to provide services to these areas. Mr. Wolff asked the City Attorney if he would like to add to this. The City Attorney said the primary concern to the City without some kind of holding land use, much like the Sebastian Highlands many years ago, from the perspective of government, coming in without a holding land use will be a ticking time bomb, and we will not know when it will happen. He said our boat ramps will be overwhelmed, new schools we share with Fellsmere cannot be built until the need is already there, the stuff east of I-95 does not interconnect to anything, and Fellsmere told us it is not in their control, noting they would hope to build an I-95 interchange which he said, is not a reasonable solution to offset traffic impacts. He said if we come up with some way to disperse traffic and some way to interconnect the red area back over to Fellsmere that would be a reasonable exercise in planning but it is not available at this point. Mr. Wolff asked if we had had any contact with the the property owner east of I-95, to see if they would rather be annexed into the City of Sebastian. The City Attorney said Fellsmere tells us it is the same owner as Pine Grove and they have a working relationship with Fellsmere. Mr. Wolff said perhaps a dialogue could be opened with the property owner to annex into Sebastian, and said he can't quite understand what benefit it would be for Fellsmere to be on the east side of I-95. The City Manager said he would not tell Council the City of Sebastian should annex that property either because it would result in the same concerns, but perhaps could consider properties on the other side of CR 510. He said that red area would be sprawl for either entity. Mr. Wolff said the fact that the landowners would be responsible for the cost of litigation, possibly we should go to the landowners and ask them to put pressure on the City of Fellsmere to go back to the table, stating nobody wins if we all go to court. The City Attorney said the irony is that in the last year for all the people to wind up considering a decision as to whether to challenge or not that it is Sebastian is astounding, because during the last year and discussions about County Charter and Fellsmere wanting to expand, Sebastian was not aligned, did see the need for adjustments to the urban service line because it affected Sebastian and Fellsmere more than the south county. He said at the same time Sebastian had not aligned with Fellsmere because we are the ones who would feel the impacts daily. The City Attorney said if we could remove the atmosphere of fear, put all of this into negotiations with the ISBA, and begin rationally talking to one another about planning and development and the growth of this county that would be a wonderful thing. He said that may be the best thing we can achieve in this challenge is for the courts to tell us go sit 5 Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Six down and talk about this, and we can all sit down and be adults and do what the public wants us to do, which is to reasonably plan and provide for our citizens. He said right now we are in the middle of two camps shooting at each other and we are taking the bullet so we are the ones who may have to go to court if it is going to stop. He said we are not looking to stop Fellsmere, or stop reasonable growth, but are looking for rationality and the only person who is going to give us a rational decision is a judge. Mr. Wolff said this was a fair assessment, said he has sympathy for landowners and farmers because farming viability is quickly disappearing and they want to retain value for future heirs, and what worries him is they are not the ones who will develop this property but outside developers will. He said the expectations of jobs and shopping given to Fellsmere public might have been oversold, and as a result he felt the initial parcels that do get sold will be given carte blanche to do what they want to do because of pressure on City officials to realize expectations which will lead to poor planning and something like Mesa Park. He said we see talk of five story hotels which is out of characteristic with Indian River County. He said we've seen major employers having a difficult time in Indian River County, and people think that this land will be the panacea that will bring help to the local residents when in fact jobs will probably go to outsiders, that the bulk of this is not going to happen anytime soon, there is tremendous impact on Sebastian, and wished we could get back to good faith negotiations, and keep Indian River County unique. He said maybe it will take a judge to bring some sanity to the situation because it has become too political, noting there is a real threat to our lifestyles here. Mr. Wolff said he wants people to come to Walmart and the boat ramps but not 120,000 people coming all at once. He said we need to get back to the table and it's sad if it takes litigation, but it may very well do so. Mayor Coy said there are a couple of County Commissioners in attendance tonight, noted she begged them to hold off on Charter government because the cities needed to talk, begged Fellsmere to hold off but failed on the Fellsmere side. She said the County held off on Charter, we were making some headway with negotiations with ISBA, and was very disappointed that we couldn't talk about these annexations which stayed on the table. She apologized to folks who may construe her comments about coming to Walmart, but in context the issue has always been a transportation issue for her, that there is one way in and one way out of Fellsmere, and most folks are coming to Sebastian, citing going to the Walmart parking lot on Saturday in season and try to find a parking space. She said she never intended to question any municipality's right to grow or have more, that she wants Fellsmere to prosper, but Sebastian wasn't allowed to discuss this issue. She stated in closing that she was in favor of challenging this, and believes that some very positive things could come out of this, and mediation and negotiation by court order may be where we need to be. 6 Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Seven The City Attorney pointed out the map again, specifically the red finger of land pointing northward along the I-95 corridor is the Ansin 300, annexed June 7th with an ordinance effective date of June 21, 2007. He said the rectangular red area to the left of Pine Grove, is the 4000 acres annexed on the 21St. He said there are two main areas where he would approach the court, under the statute they are required to negotiate about all the land, and there is no time line on that, however if Council waits too long after they have not negotiated it the court may say it must not have been too important to you. He said as far as a challenge of bringing the annexations in with the agreements and the lack of a land use plan category that accommodates the present status of the land, that is a development order, and that this has a thirty day limit. He advised that it should be filed by Friday. He advised if Council is going to challenge this they should act while they have all a basis to challenge. Ms. Simchick said it would be prudent to continue because of the time limitation, said she is surprised the County didn't challenge this. The City Attorney spoke to "enclave" concerns. Ms. Simchick expressed concern for schools, fire, and ambulance, and these services have not been planned for with the County, and said she would not be doing her job if she didn't vote for this. She said for Sebastian residents' quality of life, for our infrastructure, and for their lack of planning for infrastructure, she don't think there is any other way. Mr. Paternoster said he is all for starting the process, noting we can stop at anytime that Fellsmere wants to sit down. Mr. Wolff asked if we won the case, what are we looking for when we go back to table. The City Attorney said under the ISBA the City would negotiate for a minimum of six months, after six months any party could say we are not going to settle this, the next step is to go into statutory dispute resolution procedures, and under those procedures, management gets together to see if it can be ironed out and if not you go to one or more joint meetings of the governmental bodies and if not settled then to formal mediation. If the issue is still not settled, everyone is free to pursue legal remedies. If you say to go ahead and file, he will say to the court, stop everything in its tracks and send us to 164 dispute resolution. Mr. Wolff asked if we are successful, what specifics are we asking of Fellsmere. The City Attorney said if the courts say there is a consistency problem in Fellsmere's comp plan, we are asking them to go in and fix their comp plan and add the things the agreements say need to be there now, so we all know they are there and there with the binding effect of law. He also cited transportation concerns, stating you are not going to put that many people out there no matter how long it takes without some major transportation corridors, and it will take years to plan for them. 7 Special City Council Meeting July 18, 2007 Page Eight Mayor Coy said she reached out and re-reached and got nothing back and if this brings us to the table where we can finally sit down and talk, then we win and maybe we don't need to go to resolution of the suit. She said this is being done to us and not with us. Mr. Neglia asked if we challenge tonight, while in litigation, can we negotiate with them if they want to. The City Attorney said you can expect bad feelings and difficulties in negotiating, and even if there are hard feelings, we can negotiate and eventually we will both have to negotiate. MOTION by Ms. Simchick and SECOND by Mr. Paternoster to proceed with litigation and request an injunction. Roll call vote result was as follows: Ayes: Neglia, Paternoster, Simchick, Wolff, Coy Nays: None Passed The City Attorney said he will proceed in accordance with the guidelines, for substantive decisions he will come to Council, and for strategic decisions on litigation under bar rules will be his responsibility but he will keep Council informed. 3. Being no further business, Mayor Coy adjourned the Special Meeting at 8:50 p.m. Approved at the July 25, 2007 Regular City Council meeting. r ndrea Coy -Mayor ATTE ~~ ~ - ~' Sally A. 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