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CCMtg03-10-09WSMin ~ LONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION Longwood City Commission Chambers a75 West Warren Avenue Longwood, Florida MINUTES WORK S]ESSIOav MARCH :10, 2009 7:00 ]E'.M. Present: Mayor Brian :D. Sackett Deputy Mayor John C. Main~;ot Commissioner Joe Durso Commissioner Mike Holt Commissioner H.'G. "Butch" :Bundy Don A. Roper, Acting City Attorney Tom Jackson, Acting City Administrator Sarah M. Mirus, City Clerk Paul Sizemore, Director of Community Services Danielle Adzima-Ramirez, Ca~mmuni~ty Development Coordinator Chris Kintner, Community Development Coordinator Kelly Morrow, Community Develop~~ent Coordinator Ryan Spinella, Executive Assistant 1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Sackett celled the meeting to order at 7:22 p.m. 2. BUSINESS. A. The Community Development: Division of the Community Services Department requests the City Commission review and discuss proposed amendments to the ~~omprehensive Plan (CPA 01-09) based on the recommendations of the 2007-2;008 Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR). Commissioner Holt moved to suspend the rules. Seconded by Commissioner Bundy ar,.d carried by a unanimous voice vote. Nancy Smith, with The Gail Easley Company, said they have prepared the overview and several portions o:f the elements. She stated Cliff Tate was with her this evening. Cliff Tate, with. Kimley-Horn ar~d Associates, Inc., said they were asub- ~ consultant on this project. Ms. Smith said they have been working over the past couple of years on this Plan Amendment that is based on the Evaluation and Appraisal Keport. She stated the data analysis and 1:he Goals, Objectives, and CG 03-10-Q9/121 Policies were before the Commission. The Goals, Objectives, and Policies portion, when complete, will be the adopted portion of the Plan. She said the City did adopt an Evaluation and Appraisal Report in 2007. The Amendment is based on that report and it can have changes to it, as well as changes based on new State Law. She stated there were four major issues that they discussed in the Evaluation and Appraisal Report; Mixed-Use Land Use categories., Corridor Development and Redevelopment, Affordable Housing, and Commuter Rail. She advised House Bi11697 has been passed and it is an energy conservation amendment and has some requirements for changes in the Comprehensive Plan. She stated the City had already adopted Mixed-Use categories in the Future Land Use Plan. They have prepared and adopted the annual updated schedule of the Capital Improvements element. In Jamiary, the City adopted the Water Supply Facilities Work Plan and will be hearing from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) regarding this corriplance review. A new element for Public Schools was done in 2008. She said one of the major revisions is the transportation element. She stated with the Commuter Rail Station, they were looking toward a more multi-modal system. She said. the schedule for Longwood's SunRail Station was for constriction to start this year and to be completed in ZOl 1, She stated the projections for 2014 and 2025 were based on the Seminole County Model. She reviewed other areas that had to be updated to include the housing element. She said the City had a capital cost threshold of $5,000 and they were suggesting this be raised to $100,000. They also made revisions to the Historic ~ Preservation Element, and said this was to get past dates out and were not changes in direction. Ms. Smith reviewed the schedule and stated when the Evaluation and Appraisal Report was found sufficient by the Department of Community Affairs on Apri12, 2007, the City had eighteen months to prepare and adopt this Plan Amendment. She said the proposed schedule will accomplish this. However, if needed, an extension of six months can be requested. A public hearing with the Land Planning Agency is scheduled for April 8, 2009. The Transmittal public hearing is scheduled for the May 4, 2009 City Commission meeting. She stated if the Commission felt there were issues that needed more time, they could look at making adjustments to the schedule. Deputy Mayor Maingot inquired about the interpretation of the definition for Affordable Housing, and said he had discussed this with Mr. Sizemore.. Mr. Sizemore said the definition of Affordable Housing was mid-range professional housing. Commissioner Bundy inquired if the City was limited to the State's definition of Affordable Housing. ~ Ms. Smith responded in the affirmative. CC 03-10-09/122 ~ Mr. Sizemore said the discussion was regarding the potential negative connotations of an actual. development moving through by the time it gets to a Site Plan process. He stated developers have tried.to come up with creative ways to present to the community what they are presenting. However, when making applications to other agencies for grants or additional fiinding, they have to use the term Affordable Housing. Mr. Jackson said this Amendment was complete. He stated Mr. Sizemore has done an excellent job on this, but will not be able to see this to completion. He inquired if Ms. Smith would be available for assistance to the conclusion. Ms. Smith responded in the affirmative. Deputy Mayor Maingot said the City has had a very long-standing work relationship with The Gail Easley Company. Ms. Smith said she would shift into the Policies at this point. She stated she had planned to go over major policy issues. She said the Land Planning Agency had questioned what the Energy Conservation and Greenhouse Gas Reductions means, .and. what they will be requiring based on the House Bi11697. She advised there was no specific vile and the ~ Department of Community Affairs does not plan to issue a Wile prior to the ' City having completed this process. In Florida, transportation is 40% of greenhouse gas emissions., She stated for Longwood, transportation would be the biggest area to address far reductions. Longwood has less than 10% of vacant land and is considered. built out. She said there was oppornmity to focus on the transportation with the SunRail coming in. She stated they would review the level of service, and one of the .strategies was to reduce the level of service on all of the roadways and slow the traffic. She said the objective was not to have to widen State Road 434 or County Road 427 through the middle of Longwood. Discussion was held regarding these being State and County roadways. Mr. Sizemore said this starts to make a stand on principal and lays the foundation for the City to implement its concurrency management system in a way that is not going to prevent redevelopment along those corridors. He explained the way the concurrency is set-up, once you hit a failing :roadway level of service and yo~!i no longer have recourse built into the Comprehensive Plan, then you cannot issue development orders for new development. Mr. Tate said most recently, due to some changes in legislation, it has ;gone to a whole other level. If the City identifies a deficiency on a road, which has to be reported back every year, it is not that DCA asks the State when the road is going to be widened, they will ask the City. He stated cities were under the assumption that because these are a State or County CC U3-10-09/123 road, they are not their responsibility. The way the Growth Management Laws are written, the local government controls the land use. Therefore, ~ the local governments control what the impacts are going to be on that road. He said if the City established the adopted level of service standards and was not meeting this, then the City has to come up with a plan on how they can meet it. He stated the ultimate level of service on a road, or travel speed, is usually over a distance of two miles. He said it was difficult to measure travel speed and they use various means to accomplish this. Mr. Sizemore said the way the Plan is set up now, and the way the roadway level of service is monitored, is very typical for a suburban bedroom community that is part of a larger metro region. He stated the changes being proposed start to shift that focus to recognize the importance of other modes of transportation, and an overall strategy to shift toward things the East Central Florida Planning Council has talked about. Ms. Smith said there was a downside to continuing to reduce that level of service. On the other hand, State Road 434 has been considered backlogged since 1992, which meant you could only add new development if the traffic was at a certain percentage. She said that has been done ativay with and you no longer have any flexibility with the number of vehicles on the road. ' I Mr. Sizemore said because the legislature made a change and did away with the backlog section, now suddenly the roadway that has been fine for the past fifteen years was failing and the City would have to stop issuing development orders on it. Ms. Smith continued to review the Transportation Element. She said they would be using the Seminole County data. She stated they would initiate discussion with the County and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to limit or constraint the number of lanes on collector or arterial roadways. She stated the City would coordinate with FDOT or Seminole County during any right-of.--way acquisition. She said the Amendment was very specific regarding the limit of roadway improvement plans to not more than four lanes per facility and to use the transportation system management and intelligent transportation system improvements instead of road widening. She affirmed they were trying to give the City some language to provide some options. She stated they would tie the transportation into the green house gas emissions. She said they have the future land use categories that will allow the mixed use and this was one of the measures that can help reduce green house gas emissions. Discussion ensued regarding bicycle paths and sidewalk connections. ~J ' Ms. Smith said, in total, this states to the adjacent neighbors, County, and State that the City is interested in trying some alternatives to the continual CC 03-10-09/124 road widening. She stated if this was nc~t a direction the Commission was ' interested in, they would chars€;e a lot of these. She reviewed some of the alternatives to include intersection improvements, and signal timing stating this was a type of coordinated policy. She said if the City cannot persuade them, then they would use their available legal power to ensure they can do safe pedestrian cro;~sing. Commissioner Durso said he serves on MetroPlan and he did not think the City would need to resort to this. He stated MetroPlan was all about Commuter Rail, expanded bus .routes, and different types of alternative transportation, and safety. Deputy Mayor Maingot said he has~not seen anything regarding the introduction of chicanes and this was one element that could be added. Ms. Smith said the City would work with the District and decide what type of concurrency management system would work best. for Longwood. Mr. Tate advised there was legislation being discussed in Tallahassee during this Session that would make the City a Transportation Concunency Exception Area (T'CEA). He said the way it was being presented .at this time; it would relieve the, City of some of the ~ requirements to identify how they would achieve mixture of uses, design ' standards, walk ability, and con~~ectivity. However, it would still allow the City the requirement to .identify how they would fiend and implement mobility. Ms. Smith continued to review the Transportation Element. She said to support the redevelopment plan:; along Highway 17-92, the County has a TCEA. She stated when the County adopts something the City would need 'to have something similar in place in order to implement this on Highway 17-92. She said they probably n~,eded to change some language where it references a long term concurreucy management system. This means the City is looking at widening in order to meet their deficiencies in the future. She stated they would go back to consider the TCEA or multi-modal district~in this area... She said that: completed transportation and continued 1:o review the other Policies. She stated the, State requires the City to allow electric substations any-where except for the Historic District. She reviewed the Residential Neighborhood Protection policies and said the City already has some things in place. ivlr. Sizemore ,gave an example of this and said. a few years ago the City had a couple of Homeowner Associations that were having issues with fence permits in their subdivisions. He stated the Development Code had ~ been written to apply to a certair.~ type of neighborhood and there. were a few neighborhoods that did not fit, so they developed some language tailored to those neighborhoods. CC 03-10-09/125 Commissioner Bundy expressed concerns regarding establishing an overlay that may allow narrower street right-of--ways and wider sidewalks ~ and who would fund these. Ms. Smith inquired if they would like to have language added that this would be an assessment district. Commissioner Bundy responded in the affirmative and stated subject to the capital funding being available. Ms. Smith reviewed the Housing Element and advised. that House Bi11697 states the City will have housing design and construction techniques that include energy efficient methods. She said they could have some alternative language in this area. She said the City already had some mixed-rise and there would be new policies to include a range of housing types for all income ranges to address the. affordability issues. Commissioner Bundy said the Florida League of Cities Committee on which he serves; affordable housing was one of the major issues. He stated the Committee has requested from the State that this not, be a statewide number. Ms. Smith stated in 420, which is where the affordable definition is, the City would get their index from the County. She continued to review the Policies and said by spreading out~the affordable housing, it blends in. She said the Intergovernmental Coordination Element gets the City back to using the Intelligent Transportation System Strategies and was somewhat duplicated. Commissioner Durso inquired if the Commission would be going through this again. Mayor Sackett said after it goes through the .Land Planning Agency it will '.come back to the Commission. . Mr. Sizemore explained that because this was a Comprehensive Plan Amendment, the process was somewhat difFerent. He said they would not set the public hearing, date for the adoption immediately. This. needs to be sent to DCA for review, and then the City has time~to respond to those comments prior to the public hearing. CC 03-10-09/126 ~ 3. ADJOURN. Mayor Sackett adjournE:d the meeting at 8:35 p.m. ]Brian D., Sackett, Mayo ATTIJST: Sarah M. Mirus, CMC, MBA City Clerk CC 03-10-1)9/127 This page left blank intentionally. CC 03-10-09/128