11-14-2005 - Workshop
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CITY COUNCIL OF EDGEWATER
WORKSHOP
NOVEMBER 14, 2005
6:00 P.M.
COMMUNITY CENTER
VERBATIM MINUTES
Thomas: The City Council of Edgewater will hold a workshop
tonight 6 p.m. Monday November 14, 2005 rescheduled from
October 25, 2005 in the Community Center to discuss a
condominium project located on thirty acres east of US1 and
north of Jones Fish Camp Road. May I have a roll call
please?
Wadsworth: Mayor Michael Thomas
Thomas: Here
Wadsworth:
shortly.
Wadsworth:
Vincenzi: Here
Councilwoman Debra Rogers. She will be here
Councilman Dennis Vincenzi
Wadsworth: Councilwoman Harriet Rhodes
Rhodes: Here
Wadsworth: Councilwoman Judith Lichter
Lichter: Here
Wadsworth:
Hooper:
Here
City Manager Ken Hooper
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Wadsworth: City Clerk Susan Wadsworth. Here.
Paralegal Robin Matusick.
Matusick: Here
Wadsworth:
Garthwaite
Garthwaite:
Planning and Zoning Board Member Robert
Here
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Wadsworth: Sandy Jones
Jones: Here
Wadsworth: John Weiss
Weiss: Here
Wadsworth: Charlene Zeese
Zeese: Here
Wadsworth: Todd Fuhrmann
Fuhrmann: Here
Wadsworth: Pat Card
Card: Here
Wadsworth: Edwin Vopelak
Vopelak: Here
Hooper: Glenn, do you want to just go on up and get us
started?
Storch: Sure
Gentleman: Yes sir
Glenn Storch: For the record, my name, usually it's not
loud enough. For the record my name is Glenn Storch with
the law firm of Storch, Morris and Harris and I am pleased
to represent the River Oaks Condominium and I'll tell you
why. You know the reason why you are having a workshop
tonight is because of the fact this is something new to the
City of of of Edgewater. Uh. Your looking at a condominium
tower in this particular case or actually two condominium
towers in this case. It's something the City of Edgewater
does not have. New Smyrna Beach has it obviously.
Daytona, Daytona Beach Shores, Ormond Beach, everyone else
has it along this area. Daytona or Edgewater has never
done this before and before you do it you need to explore
all the issues that are before you and to make sure that
this is the type of use that you want to see. Uhm. I will
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tell you this that that's something you need to look at
very closely because the use itself is important. Right
now you have a piece of property thirty acres uh that has
uhm that has a certain designation as far as the density of
it. The density was on it in the City of in the County the
density was placed on it in the City. You're looking at
basically eight units per acre. The question is how do you
want that eight units spread across this property. Uhm.
Do you want townhouse units uh or multi-family in some
other way or do you want something else? One of the
advantages that the City of Edgewater has at this point is
they have several areas that can be utilized for
condominium uh development. That's really it. As a
general rule in order to have condominium development you
have to have an amenity to go along with that condominium
development. As you can tell in the City of New Smyrna
Beach for instance you have all the beach front and water
front areas in which they place their condominiums. The
same with Daytona Beach. The same with Daytona Beach
Shores. Uh now Uhm. South Daytona is doing the same
thing. They are placing their condominium areas along the
riverfront because that's where the money is. But the
question is for you whether that's the kind of of of uhm
construction you'd like to see. Luxury condominiums verses
multi-family or typical multi-family and that's really what
you need to decide. The reason I ask that and the reason I
pose that question is because this is how to accomplish
that goal if it's luxury condominiums. The advantage to
luxury condominiums I'll tell you right now is this. In
the City of New Smyrna Beach, in the City and all the other
cities that have condominiums like this on the waterfront
what happens is that uh the condominiums require far less
services than any other type of housing that can be
provided in the City. The reason for this of course is
because as a general rule as a general rule the
condominiums are often times part time. Uh. People come
in for the weekends or for vacation homes. Uh. Often
times they come in for summers or for seasons. Most of the
time they are not full time residences. That is something
to consider. As a result of that, the people who live in
these uh locations uhm do not have the advantages of
homestead exemption. There is no homestead exemption on
the taxes. There is also no homestead prevention of
increases in taxes. As you know under Save our Homes
anyone who has uh uh a homestead and aand a residence and a
homestead you can only increase your appraisal by three
percent per year. The people who live in the in the
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condominium towers or luxury condominiums or have I'm sorry
own the condominiums in the condominium towers do not have
that advantage. As a general rule if you have a homestead
somewhere else uh and you have this as a vacation home you
cannot protect that property from increase in appraisals
and increase in taxes as a result of that. So that's one
of the reasons why the City of New Smyrna Beach has such an
incredible uh uh tax uh value as far as the property.
Right now the City of New Smyrna Beach has more taxes
coming into it then any other community in this in in
Volusia County. The reason for that is very simple.
Because the condominium values that they have are so
extraordinary in the fact they can continue to go up in
value as time goes on pays for tremendous amounts of their
budget. It's that simple and the services that are
required of condominiums are practically nill. The reason
for it is because again when you are having uhm say a
typical townhouse or single-family home site, you have
police, you have fire uhm you have a number of of potential
services that are required. For condominiums generally the
services that are required are usually only EMT. Uhm The
the things that usually happen are only things like medical
emergencies and that's it. You don't usually have fire
issues. Uhm You don't usually have police issues. You
don't have people partying or renting the place like in a
hotel uh so that's one of the advantages of having this.
Very low services. As a general rule you don't have school
impacts. Even though they are paying school impact fees
you don't have school impacts because of the fact that the
people come over here, they are using them for vacation
houses, their kids do not go to school here. So these are
advantages uh. They may not be really a part of the
residences. If that's what you are looking for If you are
looking for residences to come in here and live there
that's one thing. But if you are looking for income and
looking for something that also works with the community
I'd suggest you look at the luxury condominiums. Let me
also suggest that when I am doing projects I look at a
number of things. Even though you have something that's
zoned for the density you have here even though it was
zoned that way in the County, you want to see how something
affects the community and how to work with the community
and a neighborhood to make sure that it doesn't impact them
in a negative fashion. I just did the Home Depot in New
Smyrna a few minutes ago and one of the things we worked
very hard was to work with the neighborhood and with the
City and the County and the neighbors behind it and
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everyone to to to try and mitigate any potential impacts.
I think we did a very good job in that case and hopefully
you will see a Home Depot coming soon there. But more
importantly here one of the things you have to look at is
how this will impact the neighborhood and how this will
impact the drive. This is a uhm a different use again.
This is a tower. You don't have any towers in in uh
Edgewater so the last thing you want is for this to stick
out like a sore thumb. I know that's been mentioned
before. And so I am very concerned regarding that myself.
Aesthetics of something like that are very important in a
case like this. But when you are starting with this or if
we do this as the luxury condominium tower you are looking
at thirty acres. You are looking at literally keeping
eighty percent of this site as open space. And when I say
open space I'm saying green space. That's important. And
that's where we are looking at some of the smart growth
recommendations of clustering. One of the reasons for it
is if you cluster the uh density you are allowed the
residential units into one space, you then can leave the
rest o~ it in natural vegetation. As that's one of the
things we were looking at doing. This is a private gated
uh access. Again, uh this cuts down on the actual uh cost
of maintenance to the City considering the amount of
services required. It would be three hundred and eight
units. Two condominium buildings that would be further
down closer to the river away from US 1. The buildings
would cover less than seven percent of the property in this
case. Uh and in fact just for your information I don't
know if you have seen the packet but one of the things we
have done as far as trying to design this in such a way
where it will have little impact to the adjoining areas.
It's also to minimize the amount of impervious surface or
asphalt that will be placed on the site. We placed the
parking on this underneath the buildings as opposed to
parking lots. And again that decreases the amount of
impervious surface increases the amount of green space and
decreases the amount of building coverage. The highest uhm
the height of the of the condominium towers is of course
the issue. That's 190 feet at its highest point. That's
something to look at. Especially compared to you know
houses, which are three stories forty or thirty five feet
and so that's something we need to look at how that height
affects the adjoining property and how it affects the view
from US 1. The site will have its own clubhouse, tennis
courts. The horseshoes you know we'll have to see. That is
sort of a luxury item. But we'll, but we'll think about
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that. Uh there is also a possible future forty-two boat
slips. As you know the City of Edgewater has recently
decided to join the aggregate method of calculating boat
slips. That means that that you have a bank of boat slips
that can be assigned uh to uh anyone who is looking at
doing that. My understanding from Mr. Hooper is that there
may be some additional costs involved and benefits to the
city if they decide to assign those boat slips so that is
something to look at later on down the line. Let's go to
the next one. We've talked about the fact that that this
is a clustered uh idea and again that is in keeping with
this some of the smart growth principles. The
disadvantages of. Let's talk right there before we get to
the next one. The disadvantages of traditional
development. If this was developed traditionally as was we
were in the process I'm saying as the precedence? Was in
the process of doing in the county. Developing this as a
townhouse development. It would utilize the vast majority
of this site. The vast majority of this site would be
impervious, buildings, roadways throughout it etc. That
would be required. Uhm it would it would have lower height
but traditional development would not allow for the
preservation of the areas that we are talking about. The
advantages of clustered development of course are just the
opposite. By clustering this uh the number of residential
units into a single area and minimizing the amount of green
space that is actually impacted you are then able to
preserve the vast majority of the green space. Uhm you
still have the same number of people or thereabouts but you
what you do is you are able to at least provide a different
aesthetic and that's something to look at. If it depends
on the aesthetic you are looking for and the type of use
you are looking for. Again one use would be uh traditional
development would be probably single it would be townhouse
residential development. Those people would be residents.
Uh They would be living here. Uh they would be uhm having
kids in school etc etc. Clustered development in this case
would be luxury condominiums and like I say I suspect your
market for that will be more toward the vacationer as
opposed to residents. I'm sure there will be some
residents there, which is one of the reasons why they'll
still have to pay all these the impact fees. School impact
fees etc. But most people do not move to condominiums with
kids. Most people don't move to condominiums uh especially
on the river like this permanently. They go there for
vacation homes so again that's what we're looking at. I
will tell you this also. The difference in price between
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those two units is staggering uh as far as the
significance. You're probably looking at traditional
development you're probably looking at at values of around
$200,000 plus is that right Scott? Uhm the condominiums
you are looking at certainly well over $300,000. I I would
guess over $400,000 on a condominium I haven't seen them.
Vincenzi: The average is four fifty five.
Storch: Four fifty five. That's what your looking that's
the difference also. Uhm the the cost is is more of course
but the actual cost of each one of those condominium units
you are looking in the vicinity of a half million dollars
and that is a significant change as far as your taxes if
your concerned uh as far as your concerned with. It also
is let's face it you're bringing in people who can then
afford to buy a half million-dollar condominium unit into
this area and hopefully that money will spread throughout
the community. That's what's happened in other locations.
Preserve natural resources. We talked about the fact that
by doing this you preserve vast amounts of open space.
I've got a map that shows us on another slide but you need
to see that because there is a huge difference. Parks and
recreation. Uhm the actual impacts of to the site and to
the city and to the neighbors is actually limited. But
full impact fees would be paid for schools, roads, traffic,
emergency services, utilities uh one of the things you saw
by the way and I I've told David about this the other day
was the fact that uh we had a development that came in uhm
was it last week who agreed to pay for a contribution per
unit for toward the animal hospital and or to the humane
society.
Lichter: No. Animal Rescue Facility
Storch: Thank you.
Lichter: Edgewater's Animal Facility
Storch: Which is that's right which is in the process of
being developed. David thought that was a fine idea and he
would also look at the idea of doing the same thing. Uh
increase tax base. Well you've talked we've talked about
the fact that the increased the tax base itself could be
what doubled Scott. I mean I think that's closer to what
you are looking for. More than double as far as
traditional development verses this development verses
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luxury condominium development you're looking at double the
tax base and only seven percent of the actual land being
uhm dealt with. Heighth of course is a difference. Uh if
you're looking at townhouse developments you're probably
looking at two or three story high developments. If you're
looking at this one you're looking at two buildings one
hundred and ninety feet high. I don't think I need a
summary right now. How's this? Since it says question
time, any time ya'll have a question or a comment you want
to bring up during this problem I'd like to hear it so you
know don't don't worry about interrupting me. If you have
something you want to say Yes
Lichter: I just wanted to know how high you kept talking
about luxury condos in New Smyrna. What's their tallest
building?
Storch:
They
Uh most of their condos are are seven-story.
.
Lichter:
Seven Story
Storch: That's right.
remember correctly.
Seven to nine stories if I
Lichter: And they're called luxury.
Storch: All All condominiums that are developed now on
the water are selling for in the vicinity of a half million
dollars and up. The ones in New Smyrna Beach uh are
selling for eight hundred thousand. And thereabouts. The
ones in Daytona that we're doing and Daytona by the way
their heights are in the twenty-story range are going for
half million and up. This is what we're looking at now. I
mean that's when I say luxury it's because of the actual
cost. When someone starts paying that kind of money and
again you know it's and up but when they start paying that
kind of money for a condominium yes they are luxury.
Thomas: Glenn, we're gonna be able to ask questions at
the end right?
Storch:
to.
Sure.
You can ask questions any time you want
Thomas: Okay then we'll do it from the Council and we'll
do it from the Planning Board.
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Rogers:
How many stories is this, is there nine stories?
Storch: This is sixteen-stories is the proposal.
Thomas: That's fine.
Storch: That's right.
Vincenzi: Sixteen each
Storch: Yes each tower would be sixteen stories but I
mean it's a
Vincenzi:
with this?
So if you ask questions, you don't have a problem
You mentioned the fact that they are low impact
Storch:
Right
Vincenzi: for services and there's not as much as
traditional housing.
Storch: Far less. I mean and talk to Daytona Beach
Shores regarding that but yes that's correct.
Vincenzi: Well we need to do I need to do a lot more
research as far as what's required to service these types
of buildings but the fact that you are saying uh fires
don't typically occur in condos of this type and that may
be true but does that mean the city does not have to be
prepared to handle this kind of thing?
Storch: Oh no no no. Here's the difference. In a one
and two story townhouse structure yeah you have potential
for fires etc but in condominiums, luxury condominiums like
we are talking here all those entire condominium buildings
are totally uh sprinkled so in in essence that's why you
don't have the problem because they are required to be
sprinkled throughout the entire uh throughout the entire
building.
Vincenzi: Yeah but does that still mean the city does not
have to be prepared to handle this if something should
happen.
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Storch: I think you should be prepared especially for EMT
but there's no way you can be prepared to have a ladder
that goes up sixteen stories.
Vincenzi: I understand that.
Storch: Okay.
Vincenzi: What kind of specialized equipment is needed?
Storch:
Scott do you know?
Tobin: There is a standpipe system throughout the
building that a fire pumper truck can hook up to. It's
basically a series of fire hydrants are throughout the
building so on each floor there is individual places for
them to hook their hoses up.
Rhodes:
inaudible enter the building
Tobin: If they are entering through those standpipes
they will. It's not'a problem. It is fully sprinkled and
inspected on a regular basis.
Rhodes: Okay okay what if the people What about the
people in the building? How do they get out? What if the
floor below them is on fire?
Storch:
Right I mean and obviously
Rhodes: What if they're on the nineteenth floor or the
eighteenth floor or part of the fifteenth floor and the
fifteenth floor is on fire?
Storch: Obviously we prepare for that. I mean first of
all if the elevator system cannot be used there's there's
uh fire stairs that go through there.
Rhodes:
on fire
And you can't go down.
If the whole building is
Tobin: The stairs is a fire rated shaft with a two to
four hour firewall?
Storch: Right. That's why they design them in that
manner. They are actually very safe because of the fact
there are areas in which you that are protected from fires.
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Rhodes:
Tracey is that true?
Barlow:
That is correct.
Rhodes:
Okay.
Barlow: The stairs are designed for emergency egress in
situations like that.
Storch: And here's the advantage. As we're going through
this process ya'll have the right to make sure that they're
designed that way because we have to meet your standards
but I'm telling you right now that's uhm I don't want to
say I come from a long line of firemen but I do so it's
important to me that that is taken care of.
Rhodes:
It's not just that.
Storch:
I know.
Rhodes: I mean you say all these things and it sounds
well and good but the fact is that maybe that might be true
but maybe it's not. Maybe every person in that building is
a retiree. Or maybe it's a family they're the ones who
live here and they live here full time. So I think as a
city we need to be cognoscente of the fact of what of what
the worse case scenario.
Storch:
Absolutely.
Rhodes: We need to be able to accommodate the worse case
scenario not just the best case
Storch:
telling
City of
No. And absolutely. And and that's what I'm
you. This is again this is a new thing for the
Edgewater. This is the first condominium tower.
Rhodes:
Yeah I know that.
Storch: Okay. This is the first condominium tower. I
want to make certain that these questions are answered for
your and if fire safety is an issue for you we will provide
some additional information regarding fire safety to make
sure that we can accommodate the worse case scenario.
Rhodes:
inaudible
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Storch: Absolutely. Absolutely. But I understand
exactly where you are coming from and we will provide that
additional information for you and I will work with Tracey
on that. Okay uhm
Thomas:
Glenn you've got a question from Mr. Card.
Card: Wouldn't we have considered Edgewater Harbor to
be a condominium complex?
Storch:
built?
I think you would but is Edgewater Harbor being
Card: Well that's a real good question and and I would
precede any question with with a couple of comments. Uhm
one being that uh uh Edgewater Harbor uh appears to have
temporary buildings a little clearing and a lot of talk.
And Edgewater Lakes seemingly has no visible change in the
last six months and my concern here is why did you
determine that since the only uhm the only condominium that
this group has approved. Uhm This city has approved was
eight stories tall I believe. Why did you all determine
that it was going to go to sixteen the first time? Is it a
matter of of it was the only possible approach.
Storch: Uh to to a large extent. I mean you have to look
at a couple things here. You have to look at the site
itself and we'll be looking at it in a second. In order to
make a justifiable condominium project what you're selling
is the view. I mean let's face it. That's that's that's
how you make a luxury condominium. That's where you get
the money and the tax base that you are looking for.
You're selling the view. Unfortunately in Edgewater you
only have a few small areas in which you can optimize that
use.
Card: All of which are right around one of the biggest
employers in Volusia County.
Storch: That's that's that's right so that creates
another problem. In fact, one of my my understanding is
one of the problems with Edgewater Landing, Edgewater
Harbor is the fact let's face it Boston Whaler's right
there. It creates somewhat of a conflict in use. I don't
have that issue here. And especially if I 'can do it in
such a way where I design around any potential adjoining
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property owner by providing green space all around this
entire site.
Card: Not only that but you make that piece of property
on which Boston Whaler now sits extremely valuable. Three
million dollars was what Edgewater Harbor I believe paid.
Uh my understanding is thirty-five to forty is what they'll
flip it for if they sell it which leads me to believe that
if we have sixteen stories down the road and every piece of
property between Boston Whaler it appears every piece of
property between Boston Whaler and uh and this property is
currently for sale. Uh investment opportunity I think was
the sign. Uhm it it appears to me that uh it's going to be
economically appropriate for Boston Whaler to find another
place real quick.
Storch:
I don't know.
Card: And sell that piece of property because thirty or
forty million dollars as the bottom line uh of even an
organization the size of whaler would sure make a nice
year's operation.
Storch: Well you know I've I've enjoyed Boston Whaler for
years. I think they're a good employer and they're a good
group of people to work with. What you have to do is to
look and see how you can best optimize uh the future for
Edgewater and I don't know whether or not Boston Whaler's
location is a good one for the City of Edgewater or not. I
know they have to have water in order for testing. I will
tell you that right now. So that's one question. As to
whether or not a condominium tower and the luxury tax base
that it creates is something that is good for Edgewater,
that's something you need to look at because I mean one of
the things you're going to do is if you decide to look at
this particular site, this will set the standard as to how
it can be done and done appropriately. One of the things
that that is most appropriate about this one is that you
have a thirty-acre site. You don't have many areas where
you have a thirty-acre site to work with. You have a
density that's already there. The density was there in the
county. The density is here in the City. That's unusual
and it's a thirty-acre wooded site, that's unusual. Most
of the sites as you know of already have some development
on them already. So that's why this may be appropriate for
this particular site. But the key is how this impacts the
area. How it impacts the and and and if you can create
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that win-win where the developer will take the risk and do
this and you've heard of two projects that your not, it's
not working. I'm telling you right now David is here to
tell you that this is going to happen if the City embraces
this. That's an important issue.
Fuhrmann: My question is then too like with the Edgewater
Harbor problem uhm how is this how are the developers going
to handle the situation that they have heavy heavy
industrial business right next door to them.
Storch: Well again. One of the advantages that we have
is that we have a large green area around us. Edgewater
Harbor doesn't have that. I mean in essence the site where
Edgewater Harbor is was a former asphalt plant. That
doesn't create the the best possible scenario. Uh one of
the things you are going to see is some pictures later on
down the line and you will see how dense that vegetation is
but I want to go a little bit further.
Garthwaite: I was listening to what you were saying.
You said what you're selling is the view and yet in this
thing here what they're saying is all you're gonna see from
the river and from U S 1 side is the very tops of the
buildings.
Storch:
That's correct.
Garthwaite: What kind of view are we selling for the
people on the lower floors?
Storch:
Well from
middle of
You've gotta but
the lower floors
green space with
you've gotta see what your.
we're selling a area in the
access to water.
Female in audience: Garden views
Storch: I've been in those household roams??? But yeah I
mean the bottom line is the lower floors probably will not
have the same view as the higher floors but they can't.
But they can still have some of the amenities of being part
of a luxury condominium and that's what you can provide
when you get when you get into that kind of money. The key
there though is they will also have access to water. And
that's important. This is one of the few areas in
Edgewater where this can take place. Uhm Smart Growth
we've talked about this. Minimizes impact, maximizes green
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area, creates cluster and it's density verses impact.
Again the density's there regardless. The question is how
can you deal with the impact itself. Okay uh Actually that
is one of the things we've been dealing with on the Smart
Growth Committee is the fact that we're looking at a
doubling of population in fifteen years in Volusia County.
Edgewater's probably looking at more than that. We've got
to figure out the best possible scenario as to where to
place them.
Vincenzi: Can we stop there? You said a couple of times
the density's there regardless meaning what?
Storch: You've got a Comp Plan your County Comp Plan or
your County zoning has mostly eight units per acre. Your
County Comp your City Comp Plan that was just recently I
think approved as is medium density. Is that right?
Vincenzi: Page 12 High density
Storch: Page 12 High density
Vincenzi: The intensity is there through the City Council
we approved a few weeks ago.
Storch: Okay but the density is there.
Vincenzi: inaudible Is what your saying.
Storch: That's correct. The density is there uhm and the
density was based on probably mostly what the County had
already. I mean let's face it part of what you were trying
to do was to annex these properties. This was a lynchpin
to part of that annexation. When you were annexing these
properties to the south uh and to the west I believe you
had to have this property as a part of that in order to
have a meticulous run zone. I mean it makes sense. You
weren't changing really anything. If anything you were
improving it. When you're annexing a piece of property
like that that already has the density in the County then
what you're doing is your taking it and you're saying now
if I want to be responsible and make sure this is developed
the right way in a way that's consistent with Edgewater and
so that's what we're presenting presenting to you as a
future vision of what that right way may be.
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Vincenzi: This is anything but this is anything but
consistent with what's in Edgewater.
Storch: It's new. It's different. But the question is
can I make standards that would be consistent with what
Edgewater is looking for. If you're looking for more
upscale development as opposed to single family residential
or townhouse units then I can do that.
Thomas: Glenn could you speak into the microphone so the
citizens can hear.
Storch:
I certainly will.
I apologize.
Card: Did I understand we had the first reading of that
annexation uh with the zoning changes? Is that correct?
Storch:
My understanding is the Comp Plan was approved.
Card:
Was it just the first
Hooper: No. It's been annexed both readings and the Comp
Plan Amendment has had both readings.
Vincenzi: The second reading will follow the workshop.
Storch: What what I tried to do That's okay. What I try
to do is like I say is to develop input and make this the
best possible development I can and see if I'm going in the
right direction. Uhm the developer here again or the
landowner here is willing to do that and do it in the right
way and I think that's important. This is what the what we
were looking at and I'll try to stay on the microphone uh
this is what we're looking at with the site in the event we
do this in the traditional townhouse method. It basically
takes the entire site puts townhouse units throughout it.
Uhm we'll have of course buffers along the side and along
the setbacks but that's about it. Uhm you will have
requirements for stormwater. That's going to be provided
for. The amount of impervious surface on the site as you
can imagine is far more than the seven percent impervious
that we are putting on the site with the luxury
condominiums. As the more impervious surface is placed on
the site the more uh fill you have to put in there and the
more uhm stormwater retention has to be placed on the site
in order to hold that. Uhm again this is traditionally to
a large extent what's happening in Edgewaterwith lower
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heights when uhm you're doing these rural projects. So
that's in fact that's I believe Scott what you were looking
at doing in the County is that right? So that's where that
came from. Minimal space high impact. I think high
impact. I mean that's again it's a question of what kind
of impact you're looking for but this is the kind of impact
that you would have on a site like this. What's the next
one? This is the site with the luxury condominiums. Uh As
you can see, I'm gonna have to get up and hey look at this.
As you can see these are the only sites impacted that and
the roadway in and the stormwater itself. The rest of it
is maintained the rest of it is maintained in green uhm
with uh green vegetation uhm areas toward the river but
mostly and very importantly in this case because this is
what I was really looking at from U S 1 because that's
where your traveling public will notice whether or not this
thing goes through or not. Let's go to the next one.
Card: Real quickly. Do I understand that you're not
going to clear and cut in that area? That it's gonna be
remain that it will remain as it is today or are you going
to go in and clean it up?
Storch:
No no.
The whole concept.
I'm sorry Dave.
Hood: We're gonna underbrush it. It will be We're not
taking trees down but it will be cleaned up so it will be
Card: You're gonna leave the big stuff but you're gonna
take the undercut stuff out.
Hood:
So that it would aesthetically look like a park.
Lichter: Where was that last? Where were those last
condos?
Storch: Let's go back again. Go back
Lichter:
In the picture before where are they?
Gentleman in audience: They don't exist yet. That's just
a drawing. That is an artist's rendering of a design that
is being done inaudible
Storch:
This U S 1.
Lichter:
How many condos are there?
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Gentleman in audience: Actually three hundred and eight
units.
Lichter: Two buildings. That's just that's what the two
buildings would look like from miles away.
Storch: That's all that's all that's all that would be
there. And this is and again you can't see this from US 1.
That's what's critical here although we are seeing this
from this aerial view to give you an idea of how much of
the site is being utilized you cannot see those
condominiums from US 1 because that's my question
especially after talking to Commissioner Lichner.
Lichter: When? About what? You've talked to me about a
lot of things.
Storch: I know but your question was a valid one because
it was right after I guess the vote and what is this gonna
look like.
Lichter:
Right
Storch: I think that's very important. What is this gonna
look like to everyone? And that's what it would look like
if you were flying around in an airplane. Let's keep
going. That's the site itself. These are some of the
contributions that we'll be giving in the event this goes
through. We'll contribute fifty six thousand dollars the
first year in annual taxes to Volusia Forever and ECHO.
These are just part of the part of the requirements based
on the overall tax base that we are talking about. A
hundred and seventy seven thousand eight hundred thirty
four dollars in City recreational parks and open space and
impact fees. That's just to you. That's a cash payment
for you to use in acquiring additional parkland not
including the area that we are setting aside. Uhm
condominiums are set six hundred feet back from the river.
The condominiums are over thirteen hundred feet about a
quarter of a mile from US 1. And again we talked about the
eighty percent open space. Almost and I need to point this
out because this isn't almost all the existing trees onsite
will be preserved because that gives you the buffer area
that you are looking for. The only are we're talking about
taking the trees out are the areas where the footprints are
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gonna be for the site itself the amenity areas and access
in and out of. Is that right?
Gentleman in audience: That's correct.
Storch: Okay. All the wetlands of course would be
preserved entirely.
Card: I must have missed something. If the wetlands
are going to be preserved uhm the vegetation isn't going to
be preserved from the wetlands. The only thing that is
going to be preserved is tall trees.
Storch: No no no that's not true. He David was talking
about the area that was the upland areas that have trees on
them. He was looking at at perhaps creating some uhm uhm
areas in which you had some of the underbrush taken out
just to make it look better from an aesthetic standpoint.
Wetland areas are gonna remain totally inviolent.
Card: The northeast corner of the site has a wetland area
okay but all of this. Is the rest of the site that high
and dry?
Gentleman in audience:
Yes sir
Card:
Okay so you won't have to do any fill to build?
Gentleman in audience:
It's a unique piece of property.
Gentleman in audience:
No fill
Card:
No fill.
That's amazing.
Storch:
It is I mean
Card:
dune.
Any place you must be on an eighteen coastal
Gentleman in audience: When we get when we get to the
pictures taken from the riverfront Mr. Card you will see
where there is actually there is actually a shell cliff
that's eight foot high and rises on the dune and the land
slopes up and down.
Storch: And as and as as far as as far as the underbrush
is concerned if the underbrush is an issue. I mean most
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people would like to see the underbrush removed because it
does create more of a park like setting and that's the
concept here. If the underbrush is an issue, you know we
can discuss that. We can discuss removing part of it or
all of it or whatever but the wetlands itself of course and
including the buffer area around the wetlands are going to
be untouched and that's the idea. That's the sort of thing
you can do when you cluster these areas and put all your
density in one location. You can preserve all the areas
that are most important to preserve as opposed to spreading
them out. If you spread these things out, it is possible
that you might have to impact some of those wetland areas I
don't know for a fact but that's usually what happens.
Vincenzi: I just want you to know I don't mind you talking
about clustering in a development like this cause this
really is clustering and preserving natural areas around
it.
Storch:
I know
Vincenzi: But when you talked about clustering in other
development
Storch: And you know I avoided doing that very much on
the other one. So alright but this but this is this is
this is what I was trying to get to. The difference in
that one and this one. This is clustering. This is where
you take all your density and put it in one small location
in order to preserve the rest of the green space. Uhm
let's go to the next one. Impact, school road impact, yeah
we talked about that. Oh we can talk about that. One
million five hundred sixty thousand dollars seven hundred
and seventy seven hundred and seventy dollars impact fees
paid to the City based on the number of units that we're
talking about. That's just in impact fees. A total of one
million nine hundred and seventy six thousand six hundred
and sixty seven dollars impact fees paid to the County. I
take it mostly that's road impact fees. Is that correct?
Gentleman in audience:
Mostly school
Storch: School. Okay. Ah school impact fees one million
six hundred thousand dollars. Uh one million one hundred
and fifty six thousand dollars annual school taxes
generated first year. And again I use this term somewhat
with some of my clients because they need to understand
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this. In essence what this is is you have government uhm
economics. Sometimes the government will corne in and
they'll allow a certain development and the government
actually actually costing the government money to allow
that development to be there. You know because you have
homestead exemptions or whatever else you have a lot of
services that are required. It ends up costing the
government to allow that development to take place. This
is the sort of thing in which the government actually
develops a profit. Develop the government makes a profit
off this type of development. In this particular case for
instance you have first of all school impact fees of one
and a half million. You have annual school taxes of one
million. Alright one million dollars school taxes per
year. The fact is you will not be generating the number of
students out of this development to use that one million
dollars per school taxes per year.
Rogers:
What is that number?
Storch: You mean the number of students per condominiums.
We can provide you with some statistics but the bottom line
is most of the condominiums.
Rhodes: I just want to know where you get your
statistics.
Storch: A lot of experience at this point.
sales are to people who buy condominiums only
homes and they do not bring their and they do
their kids into the school system.
Most of my
for vacation
not enter
Rhodes: I understand that's your projection I just wanted
so it's experience.
Gentleman in audience:
FH formula
The School Board actually does the
Storch:
There you go
Gentleman in audience: in condominiums as well.
Storch: And I will find that for you because I'll bet you
it's am I right.
Rhodes: I can get it myself thanks. I just wanted I mean
you can throw out all kinds of maybes and we project and
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everything and this is what happens here and this is what
happens there but still this City must be prepared and the
schools must be prepared and the roads must be prepared
Storch:
Absolutely
Rhodes: For the fact that what we are telling them is
going to happen might not happen.
Storch: Absolutely. I I can provide you like I say we
can provide you with some studies done showing the number
of students usually in condominium projects cause I know
they've done that. Uhm We can also probably provide uhm uh
road impact fee studies or road impact studies because I
think what you can show is these developments utilize these
services far less than people who reside here on a full-
time basis and I had a certain percentage of people I
guarantee you am I right David? I have a certain percentage
of people that do not live in these developments. A large
percentage as a general rule.
Rhodes: Now hearing you say that I want to see where you
are getting at. Do you understand what I am saying? Has
there been a study done on condominiums and the surrounding
areas and do they have facts and figures to back this up.
Storch:
Absolutely.
Rhodes: Or are you just telling me this is experience
because as much as I respect your experience Edgewater's
way different I a lot of ways.
Storch: This is this is I I I appreciate that and like I
say this is things we can deal with.
David Hood: I'm David Hood. I'm every mother's greatest
shame. I'm a lawyer, politician and a developer so I'll
give you that preface and get it out of the way. The
reality of it is is there is scientific studies that tell
you what your absorption is as it relates to. If you've
got townhouses it will tell you what essentially how many
you get as a family unit. What you'll find and we've
developed my partner Joe and I have developed projects and
are in the process of developing projects and if you go up
just in Daytona I live in a condominium. There's fifty-
five families. There's only three of us that have children
and out of the fifty-five that are in that condominium
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there's eleven of us that live there full-time. So in my
place where I live and if you go up and down the beach and
up and down the river and there's scientific stuff that
will show you the absorption is much less than if you put
in town homes or single family residences because people
don't buy town homes and single family residences generally
as vacation places or places to come over on the weekend so
your point is well taken. Your point is valid in that it
needs to be but we'll provide you that and but it's to be
fair it's a pretty understood and generic principle and
assumption within the business that that's what it is and
in fact the school board acknowledges that because that's
how they figure out their numbers. But your points well.
And and the whole reason we did this because when we found
the property, it is a unique piece of property. You've got
a real pretty place right down there. The The when we
looked at it it was sold to us to build a hundred and
eighty six town homes and we looked at it and said it
doesn't make any sense because if you put a hundred and
eighty six town homes on this property I don't think it's a
development you really want and when you look at the
financial numbers on the ad valorem property taxes It's
financially irresponsible I believe for both us as the
developer and as a community to really do it because
Edgewater ends up with a huge benefit just off the tax
base. So we're in one of those deals I'm not gonna walk up
here and tell you we're not doing this because we think we
can't make a profit. We are doing it. I'm not gonna brown
nose and I'm not gonna lie to ya. We can make more doing
it this way but when you look at the property I gotta
believe at the end of it you would like it better if I've
got still somewhere close to twenty-six acres that is
preserved woodland and green land then have a hundred and
eighty six town homes there. And we'll be glad to answer
any questions you got but that's why we did what we're
doing. That's why we're here. Uh and we can get you the
specific information you need.
Rhodes: I just wanted to know where your facts were
coming from.
Storch: And David's right. I mean it's somewhat known to
everybody in the industry. I have done hundreds of
closings and I will tell you what most of them are for.
Retirees or vacation.
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Rhodes: And I hear the same thing. But I I this is our
city and I would be irresponsible just taking the
developers word and what I feel to be true.
Storch:
Absolutely.
Rhodes: I want to be able to show proof to the people
that live here and say this is why. This is why this is a
good idea or this is why this is a bad idea.
Hood: Well I can tell you the marketing company that
will market
Rhodes:
And he's a politician so I'm sorry I
Hood: I just want to get that off the table but the
reality of it is is the marketing company and the guys that
we've hired to do the marketing for us will tell ya they're
not marketing it in this area. The marketing area and the
people that we sell to will primarily be people buying it
for vacation homes and buying it for weekend and obviously
there will be some people we hope will buy it to live here.
Storch:
Mostly retirees.
Hood: Yeah mostly retirees. So I mean you don't have
to take my word for it. You can take the people who do it
day in day out and they'll tell you and that's really
what's selling in this particular County at this time. Yes
mam
Lichter: David I've worked with you in the past if you
remember on various commissions in Volusia County but well
it was the past and finally what we worked out through the
fire uniting with other cities has eventually after what
eight years or ten years come about. Do these do people
often rent sublease them or rent them?
Hood: Well you'll have in the declaration of covenants
and restrictions the inability to do that type of thing. I
mean this is an upscale
Lichter: So that is not being able to be done.
Hood: Well that's something that we can talk about but
I can tell you when your developing an upscale product as
opposed to developing a product that is a two hundred
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thousand dollar your not gonna want the issue with tenants
who sometimes are irresponsible and sometimes don't do it
so
Lichter: And would cause all the things in addition to all
the things that you are saying aren't going to be causing.
They're not full-time residents.
Hood: You'll find that very few of any of these kinds
of units are ever leased.
Storch:
That's correct.
Hood: Because there is too much money. When you invest
a half million dollars in a unit your not too inclined to
be renting that to anyone.
Lichter: Many of the townhouses in New Smyrna are
subleased. That I know.
Hood: Well and Glenn's point when we looked at this
project when we bought it we bought it and we looked at it
and they came to us saying you can build a hundred and
eighty six town homes we bought it. Your gonna get rentals
in that. Your not gonna get rentals in this situation.
Storch: Yeah the difference is when your looking at
paying half a million dollars for a condominium as opposed
to the one thirty three or whatever they were paying
before, that's what you do have. And I put in my kind of
docks Uh I don't allow short-term rentals whatsoever. I'll
allow long-term rentals but that's it because they're
actually they may be living there for a long time.
Hood: And it also hurts our marketing because people
when they look at the condo docks and if they can be short-
term rentals some people don't want to buy in that
situation. Yes sir.
Vincenzi: I have enough good authority to think that may
be not necessarily true. I mean not that you're lying.
Rhodes:
That's what not true means.
Vincenzi: Maybe not lying but maybe mislead quite a bit.
But people that buy five hundred thousand dollar condos
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sometimes do rent them sometimes they buy them for
investments.
Hood: I didn't say they never do I'm saying that the
likelihood is very much less than if you're spending two
hundred thousand on a town home.
Storch: Right more importantly if you put in there in the
condo docks that they can't
Vincenzi: Most do
Storch: That's right and they prevent it.
Vincenzi: I'm not telling you you have the right inaudible.
Storch: And here's and I will tell you this some people
especially when they speculate they will sometimes buy it
and try to rent these things to make back their mortgage
payments. You can't do it in a case like this. You're
seeing sometimes along the beach you rarely see it along
the river.
Hood: And I'll give you an example. The reason why it
financially makes no sense. If I'm spending five hundred
grand that puts my mortgage payment my ad valorem and my
insurance at four and five grand a month. There is no
market to be renting anything that gets you close to that.
I understand the concern about the rental but there's a
practical impact that keeps it from ever really happening
in this kind of situation.
Fuhrmann: Uhm I have a confession to make too I do a lot
of business with Boston Whaler in my business and you know
I am I am really concerned about the impact that it would
have. I have I have actually spent a little time with the
president of Boston Whaler and asked him you know what he
thought about uh uhm you know the condominiums going up
next door. My question is are you going to be able to sell
a five hundred thousand dollar condominium with a boat
factory just to the north of it and I know there's a tree
line and I see that the way it's designed that it's not
facing the north but there's still gonna be I mean it's a
it's a boat factory. There's going to be smells. There's
going to be fiberglass dust and stuff like that. And from
my uhm from my uh talking with him he told me that they
have really no intention on leaving anytime in the next ten
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years supposedly. If they did leave I don't think they
would stay in Edgewater so the economic impact would be
pretty I mean I know all the guys that work in there and
most of those guys that work there do reside in Edgewater
and uh a lot of them are not low income jobs. They are
decent paying jobs and uh so I am concerned about like I
said myself included of the the economic impact if you were
to. I mean is there going to be are these residents going
to be complaining about having that to the north?
Storch:
Let me take that.
Hood: Let me take the one before you get to it. I play
golf with him. In fact we talk about it because when Hawk
McMillan was putting his thing up that was his complaint
all along is now I am gonna have people complaining and
yipping and yapping on me because of the "smell. Well our
problem we're we're not anywhere we're close but we're not
where Hawk built his deal. I wouldn't have done that deal.
And we're down and frankly from our viewpoint when the
marketers because of the view and because of us keeping it
pristine we'll be able I mean I wouldn't be doing this if I
didn't think I could sell them and we already believe we're
going to end up with an oversell because of the because one
Edgewater's nice two the view that this property has is
very good and yes you might be able to see the plant but if
you'll notice how we designed it we minimize that fact
Fuhrmann: Exactly
Hood: and you know what it's our risk really more so
because Boston Whaler I can tell ya he's not going anywhere
and where we're going to be has no impact on his world on
your plant and on your jobs because if that was true I
don't blame ya I'd be up in arms and say we have we really
have a choice here.
Fuhrmann: Well yeah if you were selling on the contingency
that Whaler was going to be gone any time in the near
future I would
Hood: Understand where we are is if we could get if
this gets moved we're at the point we were actually putting
our cell center up this month but because of the delay we
obviously aren't spending the money to do that. So this
thing is ready to go. Uh and clearly it's our risk because
Boston Whaler I hope is going nowhere and it's our problem
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selling the units understanding that to the north is a
Boston Whaler plant.
Storch: And I want to clarify. I mean I have represented
Boston Whaler and continue to represent them dealing with
their permitting issues. I I do not you know the last thing
I want to see is any thing that would hurt Boston Whaler.
I see this as no conflict whatsoever. In fact if anything
the townhouse development which would go right up along you
know closer to their uhm to their manufacturing area would
probably be more of an impact than the townhouses than the
than the luxury condominiums. That's that's how it was
designed.
Hood: Plus you'll have people living in the townhouses
more year round
Storch:
That's correct
Hood: As opposed to coming down. So and then I wanted
to make one point I forget there was somebody asked the
question why we're high. We put the parking within the
building so as to decrease the amount of of pavement and
asphalt that would have to as well as the amount of trees
and the amount of green space that would be taken down by
putting the parking within the building which is more
expensive frankly.
Card:
I noted that you put two floors
Hood:
Yes sir
Card: The first two along that same line I also noted
that uh you uh figured that there were going to be one
point five cars per household without any guests.
Hood:
That's the formula that they use.
Gentleman in audience: There's a city development code
that we have to conform to because we don't inaudible.
Card: Well something tells me that people who are
making two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand
dollars a year which are the people that you are going to
be dealing with here are going to own two cars. Where are
they going to park them?
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Storch: Well first of all there is there is some guest
parking but more importantly if you'll look at the way the
parking studies show this everyone doesn't come at the same
time. You have uh you have more than enough parking
available. In fact
Card: Four hundred and eighty nine parking spaces for
three hundred and eight units
Storch: Yeah. One point five is probably generous as far
as what's necessary.
Hood:
That's what the code is, isn't it?
Storch:
That's right. That's what the code is.
Hood: We wanted to do what we were your code says for
us to do.
Storch: If you're looking at residences who probably live
here then you're looking at at providing more impervious
surface.
Hood: I mean the reality is if you want us to do more
that's not the issue. We'd be glad to pave asphalt and
take trees down but I didn't think that's really what you
would like us to do.
Card: What Uhm well uhm what is your uhm intended what
is your projected occupancy? What are you projecting that
these people will obviously you're if I describe your
marketing strategy properly you're going to market to
retirees and vacation homeowners who will live here parts
of the year who make probably in the vicinity of two
hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year
and are
Storch
Oh no
Card: And own properties that are half a million to a
million and a half at the high level. Is that reasonable?
Hood: Not all that is. There's parts of that that was
reasonable. I mean the reality of it is there's a market
if you go to South Daytona if you go to Daytona Beach
Shores you go to Port Orange. There's a huge market of
people from Orlando and from from Ocala and from other
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places that are buying these units. There's people frankly
our last development we sold almost half to people from
South Florida who are coming up now and having a place on
the weekend to get away from South Florida. So so the
reality of it is I'm not a marketing guy I pay a company to
do the marketing and they tell us that really the market of
people who are buying these type of units uh are
essentially people out of the area the Orlando people the
the Ocala. You've got a lot of people coming in from South
Florida that I mean our last development we sold almost
seventy percent of them to people from South Florida.
Card: So you're basically saying that you you think
that uh probably sixty percent of the time uhm or sixty
percent of the units will be occupied a hundred percent of
the time.
Hood:
No I'm not even saying that.
Card: Or obviously in the in the area of sixty-percent
at any given time. Otherwise your parking is still clear
off.
Storch: Well again if you think that we need more parking
we can provide more parking but that's what your code
requires.
Card: Well my concern is for how many cars we're going
to have.
Hood: Well I'll give you I live in a condo and I have
/ four cars okay and it has the same ratio that you guys
have.
Storch:
Right one point five, which is standard.
Hood:
parks his
it is you
like five
And the track is I've got three spaces and my son
car on the outside. Uh and so but the reality of
have enough units there's enough parking there's
cars they get parked outside and that's it.
Card: Well then your your trips that are shown later in
your presentation here are based on uhm on not having a
bunch of people living there most of the time.
Storch: We're all we're doing is dealing with reality.
Reality is condos have less people living full time and.
Verbatim - River Oaks Condominium - Tobin property - November 142005 Workshop
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o
Card: My concern is that that there One of the things
about smart growth is you want to make sure you keep your
shopping reasonably close. Well the shopping is gonna be
either at 442 or at uhm 30th.
Storch:
Okay
Card: Now that means they are going to be going up and
down U.S. 1 period. Now how many cars are gonna be going
up and down U S 1 in on a daily basis that's gonna add to
the traffic. Is that in your traffic study?
Storch: Yeah Yeah Our traffic study will provide that
information to you and we'll certainly look at that
although I think you've gotta look at the fact there's
gonna be other commercial areas especially in the event
this happens because this will help support the
Card:
I mean after you come in and build
Storch: It's a chicken or egg type situation. You've
gotta you've gotta have the houses to support the
commercial.
Card: The problem is is that the people in in
communities like Edgewater Landings and Meadow Lakes and
San Remo and the Indian River School and Florida Shores are
going to be impacted at 30th Roberts Road or 442 by this
traffic.
Storch: Pat We've we've the density is there. The issue
is how do we want to what how do we want to spread this
density. If we want to if we want to spread it with a
luxury condominium which we believe certainly generates
less traffic then uh single family or townhouse residential
Card: That's what I want you to tell me.
traffic is this gonna generate?
How much less
Storch: And I can provide that information and since
we're going through this process I mean obviously you can
get a number of cracks at us. We're gonna go through the
Planning Board hearing on this. We're gonna have uh what
two City Commission hearings
Gentleman in audience:
Correct
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Storch: So we will have we will have and I really
appreciate this workshop because this gives us a chance to
prepare to answer those questions, which are very valid
questions.
Hood: He appreciates it because he gets to charge us
for three more meetings.
Card: Big money makes fast friends. You'll notice
that. Along this uh along this same line though uhm if uhm
the price ranges that you're looking at are extremely high
uhm five hundred and up
Storch: No
Hood: No.
Card: No.
Storch: Average of four fifty
Hood: Four fifty
Card: Average four fifty.
Storch: Yes sir
Card: Median or mean
Hood: It's the average so you've got some at three
fifty and some at six hundred.
Card: Is that the median
Vincenzi: The golf course inaudible
Lichter: It depends on your view.
Hood: That's exactly correct.
Card: Okay okay that's the range from three to a
million
Hood: Obviously you get more per square foot at the top
than you down on the third floor
Card:
Okay very good
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Hood: Mayor
Thomas: When uhm you said you were gonna protect the
wetlands
Hood: Yes sir
Thomas: And I'm assuming the wetlands the only wetlands
that I could see by the aerial photograph were adjacent to
the river which is our uh filtration area
Storch:
Absolutely
Thomas: Then I read in here there's a possible forty two
boat slips uhm how are you planning on doing that is that
gonna be a boat dock there or and can I direct this to Mr.
Hooper how many boat slips are we allowed to give out for
the city in the manatee plan uhm
Storch:
I can start with that.
Thomas:
Okay
Storch: First of all that's not part of the project at
this point. We would have to come into you later on and
get approval for that and have to negotiate that out.
Secondly if you're going to do that what we would have is
probably a single pier going through those wetland areas to
reach those the marina area and that's that way you have
minimal. Is that right?
Tobin: No we actually have an area that is not wetlands,
which is a sandy beach shore, where the single pier would
go on. You won't even touch the wetlands.
Storch: Even better.
Hood: The only wetlands are up by U S 1 .correct?
Tobin: No the northeast corner along the river there is
inaudible
Hood: I don't know you've been to the property it's got
white beach and we won't even be close to where the
wetlands are.
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Storch: And and but the concept is by doing this as a
grouping as opposed to having you know a bunch of different
piers there you have far less impact and but we can we can
work on that later on and deal with that with you and corne
back
Thomas: Well I'm interested how many boat slips do we
have to sell or give away
Hooper:
Four hundred and eighteen
Thomas:
Four hundred and eighteen in the manatee plan
Hooper:
Correct and you've committed zero?
Thomas: Okay now would we charge money for these or what
what would be the deal with that?
Hooper: The concept is that if they were going to a
public use, Edgewater Harbor, was going to have a public
area for a marina for restaurants commercial. Those would
be given for public access. If it's for private use only
those would be leased or sold.
Thomas:
sold.
Okay so in this area they would be leased or
Hooper:
Correct
Thomas: Okay uhm my next question was uhm how far from
the river you said six hundred feet
Storch:
That's right
Thomas: Are we going to great extremes not to have runoff
going into the river?
Storch:
Absolutely
Thomas:
Okay uhm
Storch: And in fact if you look at that that site plan
that we had everything is maintained on site up to at least
twenty-five year storms is that correct Scott?
Tobin: Yes
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Storch:
o
(.)
Okay
Thomas: Alright on the green space uhm I read what
percent you're gonna use alright let's say that
Storch
Eighty percent
Thomas: Right and your gonna leave the other percent but
uhm let's say in the future that this is just a fantastic
deal that goes through uhm and you want to build another
one is there gonna be something in the contract that says
that you cannot do that.
Storch: Even better what I can do is working with the
landowner and with the city we can provide a conservation
easement over those segments that uh that we have in green
space and that will prevent ever using those sites for uh
development again
Thomas:
contract.
Storch:
Thomas:
and out.
equipment
Okay well that's we want that in there in the
For sure
I understand
Uh and we said there was gonna be an easement in
I'm sure there's gonna be some heavy heavy
to construct those uhm condominiums
Storch: Oh absolutely but you'll have you'll have
roadways that are gonna go into the site and we'll use the
same driveways that we're gonna have as our construction
accesses to is that right?
Hood:
We're not gonna build it twice.
Thomas: And uhm what they were talking about leases and
this is in no way shape form or fashion going to be a
timeshare right.
Hood:
share
Thomas:
Hood:
No I can assure you it's not gonna be a time
Pardon me
Absolutely never.
Verbatim - River Oaks Condominium - Tobin property - November 142005 Workshop
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o
Q
Thomas:
that we
want to
Okay uhm alright what if what if uhm we decided
were not gonna go along with the heighth would you
build a third to get your uhm density
Storch: I don't know if the project would work to be
honest with you. One of the problems is if you add a third
tower to it you take away the access your visual access to
the water.
Hood: We actually decided not to do a third tower for
several reasons. One it takes up a whole lot more of the
property
Storch:
Oh that's true.
Hood: And you lose the green space. You also end up in
a situation where the value of the property won't be the
same and you know we actually the first design we did was
with three buildings and when we worked with the city it
made no sense. You're better off with the two buildings.
-It gives you better visual. You take up less of the
property and your tax base gets more uhm from your
viewpoint has a higher return than if we do three
buildings.
Thomas: Okay and uhm I saw you know how much money we're
gonna gain through the City. Mr. Hooper are we gonna have
to hire any more employees in the city to uhm ~o for these
future needs.
Hooper: We probably won't. What you'll see as you expand
to the south adding about a thousand units down there
there's at least a little more parks kind of people for
right-of-way clean up but very little and nothing that I
could tell you would be specifically to this site. It is a
fairly small small impact. Dave's correct. There's not a
lot of impact from condominiums.
Storch: And we're not even done showing you all the
additional fees you're gonna be getting. All the money.
Thomas:
Are you uhm
Storch:
Let's go to the next one.
Thomas:
Are you about complete with your presentation or
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Storch: Uhm let me let me finish up real quick as far as
the numbers your gonna get.
Thomas: Well let's hold the comments and then we'll go
down and I'd like to hear from the Planning and Zoning
Board and then the City Council and then if we have any
comments from the citizens.
Storch: Okay. Thank you. Uhm City impact fees on roads
alone will be two hundred and seven thousand dollars. The
County of course is three hundred thousand dollars. We
should try and get the County to uh devote some of those
impact fee uh credits to this segment of the County as
we're doing this. Again it's a half a million dollars
right there. All roadwork on the site itself will be paid
for by the developer. It's private and gated. No public
money will be used. No maintenance would be required. We
will be maintaining everything. Uhm it has a single access
on US 1 so no city roads are impacted. The original land
use designation uhm generated sixteen hundred and nine
trips. The approved uhm your Comp Plan approved allows for
nineteen hundred and eight trips. This condominium would
generate thirteen hundred and eighty five trips. That's
what we were talking about before. This actually generates
far less uh trips per day uh based on the studies. And
that's at a hundred percent occupancy which is what we
which is what we typically see in condominiums you're
looking at four sixteen to six ninety three. That's almost
a third less then what we would have under a residential
subdivision.
Card:
I have a specific question to ask her.
Thank you
Storch: We'll get there. Uh let's go to the next one.
Our police and fire impact fees that we would be paying
based on your present rates are seventy two thousand
dollars cash payment. The buildings of course will be
protected by an automatic fire sprinklers. Uhm the stand
pipe systems we talked about. We will provide more
information regarding that as we go through the process
because I think that's important to stress. Uh
demographics of residents are typically low on emergency
services. We talked about that. Occasionally we'll have
some health issues uh as far as uh ambulances. Yes. Our
estimated city impact fees are
END OF FIRST CD - 70.16
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Storch: County and City taxes eleven thousand dollars per
unit. Uh that means we'll pay over nine hundred thousand
dollars in city taxes the first year we're open. The
faster we can get open the faster can get those city taxes
paid. Uh oh that's interesting. This is a six point four
percent increase in the City's tax base right now. Uhm
we'll pay eighty four hundred dollars annually to retire
the city bond issue. We'll also pay a a total of three
hundred three million three hundred and ninety three
thousand eight hundred and ten dollars in annual property
tax to the city and the county. Again, I've talked about
this before. Historically most condominiums are not
homesteaded so the tax base will increase more rapidly than
other other units. Uhm at the current rate of escalation
real estate values in Edgewater twenty seven percent after
five years Edgewater could payor River Oaks could pay two
million three hundred and forty one thousand dollars in
city taxes. I think that's you know that's based on twenty-
seven percent. I can't imagine that continuing to increase
like that but still you will have continue to increase
continue to increase especially on waterfront property.
That property seems to go continue to increase much faster.
The height, a hundred and ninety uh feet. The main roof I
mean this is some architectural features is a hundred
ninety feet. The main roof is one hundred and sixty feet.
Height is required to preserve the open space we talked
about. that. The buildings will not be visible from U S 1
or the intercoastal waterway shoreline due to the
preservation of trees and setbacks. Do we have those
helicopter? There we go. This is a helicopter at a hundred
and ninety feet viewed from the riverbank.
Hood:
feet.
You'll see that where the property rises up six
Card:
Yeah I noticed there was a shell wall.
Storch: Because the first thing I asked is what can you
see of that thing uh at those at those heights? Because I
would have went over that. We did the same thing when I
was doing Island Town Center. We had some computer
graphics showing what this you'd actually end up seeing.
There we did some balloon tests. We couldn't do balloon
tests because of the fact it was too windy. The helicopter
worked even better. Let's go to the next one.
Tobin:
Another angle.
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Storch: Okay again this is from the riverbank.
two twenty from the riverbank so obviously we are
that. This is two twenty from U S 1.
This is
far below
Tobin:
If there is a helicopter.
Storch: But that's that's the point. The whole idea here
as you are driving past although you'll have a nice
entrance feature and you'll know something's back there and
it'll be gated you won't see the tower. It won't stick out
like a sore thumb which is what we were worried about. It
will blend in with the trees. It will blend in with the
area and at the same time, work with the surrounding area.
From what you're showing here you had to go up to what
eight hundred feet in order to see it from US 1. That's
what we're looking at and that's directly over the site.
Is that correct Scott?
Tobin: yes
Storch: Okay. This is the view from This is the actual
view from the top unit in case you're interested.
Vincenzi: I'm thinking you guys are really good at your
job?
Storch: Uhm and it will be a beautiful view and that's
the whole concept here. And go back to the last one. Is
that the Boston Whaler site? All right again we've aimed
everything though away from that view so that you're not
looking necessarily at that even though you do have that
view. What's next?
Tobin: That's where you start to see U.S. 1 from the
helicopter at eight hundred feet.
Storch: Okay. The City will receive two million five
hundred thousand on impacts and first year taxes. You'll
have a nine hundred thousand city annual tax base which
will increase more rapidly because most units will not be
homesteaded. The project utilizes space growth or I'm
sorry space growth smart growth with clustering and open
space and of course we talked about the fact that it has
far less impacts and generates great greater tax base than
any other project that can be built on this site. This is
a use question. If the use is appropriate and we've done
Verbatim - River Oaks Condominium - Tobin property - November 142005 Workshop
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o
it the right way and we'll continue to work with everyone
to make sure we do it the right way and it's safely done
then that's what I'd like to know but from a workshop
standpoint I'd love to hear any comments and and.
Thomas: We're gonna do that right now Glenn. Are you
complete?
Storch:
I think so. All right thanks.
Thomas: Uhm at this time I'd like to hear from the
Planning Board and I'm sorry that I don't know everybody.
Mr. Card could you call on them one at a time. Do you know
their names?
Card: Would you like to comment?
Fuhrmann: Yea I'm from the
Thomas: Let me hear let me hear your comments and your
concerns.
Fuhrmann: My name is Todd Fuhrmann. Yea I mean uhm from
the overall view it looks like a good plan and all that.
I'd like to hear I mean every time we have a pro there's
got to be a con. I want to know a little bit more about
the con before I would make any decisions. There's got to
be inaudible. And you know but I mean uh on the overall I
think it is you know it looks like the best use. It's a
it's a big piece of property like like they say from US 1
it is it's it's a long piece of property and so I imagine
that you're not going to be able to see it very much from U
S 1.
Card:
Sandy would you like to comment?
Jones: Sure. I'm Sandy Jones. Uhm I too agree that
this is a good use for this property. Uhm I like the
clustering. I think it looks good aesthetically. I
wouldn't agree with your real estate figures. Uhm they're
pretty aggressive. I think the real estate is being
(?bloodly awful over here tonight right now?) So for future
dollars.
Storch:
This let's watch that
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Jones: Yeah yeah a little more concerned on that and of
course I think in planning it out obviously we need to pay
close attention to some of the things that you mentioned to
make sure that it doesn't turn into and as you said it's
that kind of money most people typically do not rent those
properties out.
Storch: We could we could actually run the condo docks by
you by you by your staff as part of this process.
Jones: And I think thirdly is to make sure that we don't
cover any more of that green space. I mean that's the
whole point of clustering. We've all seen in Daytona, in
Ormond Beach and in South Daytona where all right let's do
this in the front and that went over so well okay let's do
it in the back so inaudible
Card:
John Weiss would you like to comment?
Weiss: Pat Just a couple of things. As uh Pat mentioned
uhm you've got to see some negatives to this as well as a
lot of positives from your perspective. I too have some
concerns about the negatives that might be evolved here.
Uhm I guess the biggest concern I have is even though this
may seem like a great project to be creating uh you know we
have New Smyrna on the ocean of high rise condominiums now
are being built on those properties that comes available
that's for sale. Uhm I know inaudible it's probably the
difference is what we do with this property but I think
overall we should be thinking about all this other property
that's along the river. Are we creating something that may
get out of control down the road?
Storch: That's why I was looking at this as a standard
because if you have this much property where you can
maintain that green space then it may be appropriate
somewhere else but otherwise I think that this is fairly
unique.
Hood: It's the same issue in Daytona Beach. The
argument was we don't want to see Ocean Walk all the way
down the beach and what they did was they dealt with it
with setbacks and clustering. If you if you see what their
Planning Board has done in the last couple of months which
I think is what you're articulating and I think we tried to
do it by clustering it and then you've got wide setbacks so
that you don't end up with your concern. I hope that
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Weiss: You're addressing the problem quite well. But
inaudible this land but as we look at other properties uhm
I may not have the same situation you have but yet if we
allow this how are we going to look to the other ones to
inaudible down the road
Hood: Well you'd have a huge distinction. I think I
don't think you cause I can tell you we looked for property
up and down and I don't see too many other properties.
Weiss:
Thank you.
Vopelak: I think John makes the point Ed Vopelak I think
that's the point really when you look at the whole figure.
Look we work within a fabric of codes rules and
regulations. It fits right if this is what we want. You
buy smart growth it fits. Do you buy protecting the
environment it fits. You want to enhance the tax base it
fits. And certainly everything we've heard okay it's a
great thing but is this what you want in- our fine city. I
think that's the best point of view.
Card:
Do you have?
Zeese: I have one concern that they cannot build any
more than two units on this particular property. If that
isn't in okay as a clause in overall settlement then they
could go ahead and build more then we'd be a Daytona Walk,
which I don't think Edgewater wants.
Vopelak: There's another one. Isn't that the purpose of a
planned development? You've got a contract.
Inaudible due to too many people speaking at one time.
Storch: And I can I can prevent that legally and I can
prevent it forever.
Rhodes:
Never say never
Zeese:
At least twenty years.
Garthwaite: Bob Garthwaite uh everyone's pretty well
said it. It sounds like a good idea. If you want green
areas the way you felt uh I think there's some open issues
that staff's gonna have to work on. We definitely want to
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o
o
protect the city and the residents of the city. Otherwise
it looks good.
Thomas: Pat
Card: Uhm I have I have some continued questions. One
of them is whether we can feel that we are dealing with the
end developer because as you all have probably been aware
our RPUD's go with the property. Uhm uh our standard RPUD
moves with the property unless they don't build within a
reasonable length of time, if I understand that correctly.
Is that right? Uhm which means that uh if uh this
individual were to sell the property as we're seeing now at
uh the uh uhm Edgewater Harbor uh the RPUD that that will
come before us if we uh recommend its approval and City
Council approves it it goes with the property on sale so I
have uh some concerns about that. Uhm uh I really wonder
uhm if and and and don't anybody uhm don't anybody uh uh
feel that I'm turning green here but are there protective
species on this site. Uh I don't know a thing about that uh
but I would think that there are because this frankly is
the headwaters for uh uhm part of the headwaters for uh the
Indian River the Indian River. Uhm and I would expect
Thomas:
there.
You're probably looking at gopher tortoises
Card:
If so what are you going to do with them?
Thomas: The only problem the thing you would probably be
affecting would be gopher tortoises and uh maybe some
filiated woodpecker.
Tobin: We actually had an initial environmental study
done on the site. There was there was nothing seen but
obviously a full environmental study would be done prior to
development.
Storch: And if there are gopher turtles on site that you
can literally take them rescue them and place them in
locations.
Card: Dan I I really am uh impressed with the fact that
this is dry enough that you're not gonna have to do any
fill. Uhm which leaves me to wonder what you're gonna do
with the uh uh with the uh additional uh stuff that your
gonna have to grade out of your uh water retention area.
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i:'
<.)
()
Hood:
We'll be glad to sell it if you
Card:
I really don't want it but uh
Storch:
I might.
Thomas:
Thank you Pat
Fuhrmann: I've got one more question to add to that. What
does it do to the property owners to the south. I mean how
does that impact them?
Woman: :
Thank you thank you finally
?: I noticed there were a couple of pictures on Jones
Fish Camp Road where people are living. You couldn't see
the helicopter. There was a picture of a helicopter
shooting out over Jones Fish Camp Road and you couldn't see
the road.
Fuhrmann: Well the thing is something's gonna go there. At
what you know being residents there would you rather have a
high class condominium or would you rather having something
else?
Woman: That completely shadows on our property. We're
the second from the end on that road. That huge
monstrosity we'd be in the shadow.
Thomas: If you wait just a minute we're gonna have
citizens comments and we need to get your name on record
please. We'll now take comments from the uh Council.
We'll start with Mrs. Lichter.
Lichter: Alright I want to just make in general this
comment. When Florida Shores came in there was a lot of
negativity. Florida Shores obviously wasn't the most
perfect project with no roads no sewers but someone had a
right to sell that land and they did. There were no PUD's
then. Edgewater Landing where I live came in. There were a
lot of chuckles and a lot of comments from the rest of the
City about manufactured homes still being called by some
natives trailers. Okay very close together etc. And yet
it got built and it hasn't cost the City anything. So I
think we're lucky if we can take it in, the property in and
the County doesn't build on it because had it be the same
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o
o
amount of traffic or more if the County had their way and
built the density's the same as it was before and I think
that can be controlled. I was basically concerned because
I was a little shocked with the idea of two towers sticking
up maybe the neighbors couldn't see the river after this
presentation maybe it's gonna block the view. After this
presentation I realize you can't even see it from the
street. If someone wants to live thirteen stories up I
would not even if I had a good view. I'm not fond of
heights but if somebody really wants to make pay kind of
bucks to live in that penthouse that's their privilege and
and also it's known there's a factory down there. By the
way Hacienda has never complained about the smell. The
project that was closer to it that hasn't quite gotten off
the ground made all kinds of commitments and the City
agreed to make sure it was tell enough so the smell went
someplace else. I don't know what happened to those things
if they're still they're still working. So we kind of took
care of that problem and worked with Boston Whaler uh a
nice neighbor and you know there's always room for them in
the industrial park if they want to come in with their
subsidiary over there but meanwhile I don't think they're
going anyplace. This seems like it's plenty far away. So
all in all I think my problem you know I've gotta be able
to adjust to new times. I'm not a spring chicken and I'm
used to a certain house on a certain sized lot with a place
for the kids to play and all but it is the 21st century and
apparently we have only some areas that can be nicely used
for this type of thing. I don't think everything on the
waterfront needs to be the same everything on the river.
This is a unique one that lends itself to this. Uhm Smart
growth does not talk about clustering in a schoolbox for
every single project." It doesn't work for very project.
They have other tools but in this case it happens to work.
So I'm satisfied tonight. Now this is not coming to the
City Council immediately. We voted twice to take the land
into the City the project but I think this is in the
ballfield in your ballfield of Planning and Zoning where
you will be looking it over making the decisions working it
out with Darren and then it will come to us. So I'm very
pleased with the amount of money coming into the City the
least amount of impact on the wetlands and the green spaces
and you make sure you make that check again with the
animals because they're very important. Thank you.
Thomas:
Thank you Ms. Lichter. Councilwoman Rhodes
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Rhodes: I voted no on the annexation because I I don't
like this density. It passed your annex thing. I voted no
on the density. I don't like high density. We've got
enough people here I think your responsible as being common
talent inaudible you already have. That means that that
passed too. So those are facts. That's reality and you
have to deal with it. I think since those two conditions
already exist and cannot be undone that this is the best
use of this property of all the things that I have seen and
uh to reiterate I won't bother. Judy gave chapter and
verse why it's a good idea. You've all heard here why it's
a good idea. If those two conditions exist this is the
best way for this property to be developed in my opinion.
Thomas: Thank you Councilman Rhodes.
Vincenzi.
Councilman
Vincenzi: First of all I want to say one more time the
reason it's high density is because people approved it. I
didn't necessarily vote for the high density. If it was up
to me it would be lower. Second I don't agree with your
assessment on. the impact on local roads. I think there's
going to be more than zero impact. Even if even if there
is a minimal impact the problem which you are well aware of
I'm sure is that you've got a bunch of these developments
and each one has a little bit of impact and before you know
it there's a lot of impact on the roads. I don't expect you
to go you know footing the bill for widening US 1 or
anything like that but I'm just saying I don't agree with
your totally your assessment on the impact of local roads.
Uh I would like to see some information either from you
guys or from maybe Mr. Hooper can dig it up on similar
projects. I'm not talking about condos that are on the
ocean in New Smyrna or anything like that but condos in
other areas that are on the riverfront.
Storch:
Right because you're right they're different.
Vincenzi: Right they're not equivalent and I think people
that buy condos over on the oceanfront maybe similar but
they're not the same type of people. There's a lot more
people that do buy you know the oceanfront view and the top
floor because they want to go there a month or two a year
or whatever. You may have some that year maybe a lot of it
but I want to see information on similar projects, not
information comparing oceanfront and what not. But I'd
like to see that. Uh things like you know the things you
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talked about uh occupancy rates, number of trips, how it
impacts the schools. All that sort of stuff on similar
projects, not just oceanfront properties. And the other
thing I'm probably gonna get yelled at afterwards but I
think you guys should rethink if you want to make an
additional donation to the city you should rethink where
you want to send that because the City has a lot higher
priorities and needs then just supporting the animal
shelter. So that may be something you want to think about.
Lichter:
It won't?
Vincenzi: No I'm not saying that you have to okay. None of
this stuff is mandatory like making an animal shelter
donation. I'm saying
Storch: I understand. I I was trying to deal with where
it seemed where you were looking for it before and so we
discussed that.
Vincenzi: Well Ms. Lichter loves the animal shelter.
Lichter: Well I I did not ask for that.
Vincenzi: I know.
Lichter: The citizens voted to build that building but
there are some things needed inside it and I guess that's
why it was done.
Storch:
We will certainly look at reviewing that.
Lichter: That certainly did not come from me.
take that kind of inaudible
I don't
Vincenzi: I think you need to give input so.
Storch: I appreciate that.
Vincenzi: Other than that I think the project the way it's
been explained the use of the land I think is about as good
as it's gonna to get on that property. So I uh you know I
said when I came into this workshop I had an open mind and
I think you've done a decent job of explaining things.
Like I said I don't agree with everything you said but I
think you've done a decent job of explaining the situation
and the use and other factors that are involved. My mind
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is still open and I'm sort of leaning toward reviewing the
not worth but like I said there's a lot more information
that we need.
Storch: This is a workshop. We're starting the process
and we'll get you the additional information and I
appreciate that.
Vincenzi: That's all I have.
Thomas:
Councilwoman Rogers.
Rogers: Well you've heard from Rhodes and you've heard
from Vincenzi and as far as the first thing I was going to
mention is this property is zoned. I mean you've got high
density residential. We're stuck with it. There's gonna
be a lot of properties that's gonna be coming to the
Council that we're stuck. It's already been zoned. Things
have already happened. This property is zoned for high
density, which is eight point one to twelve units and
they're going with the lower end of that, which is good.
Uhm I like the idea of this particular development because
there's just two buildings. I don't like the height. Uhm
and the reason why I say I like it is we're stuck at this
point because eight units. Do we want eight homes per
acre? Is that basically what it would be like?
Storch:
That's correct.
Tobin:
This is this is actually ten ten homes per acre.
Storch:
But it's on the low end.
It's not
Rogers: It's on the low end but these are my concerns.
I'm looking at these numbers uhm and what I'm hearing is
these are your best guesses, these are your experiences.
This is from inaudible. You've done developments before.
I'm sure that you also did estimates of those developments
before and they are final. If we could see those estimates
uh let's say developments similar to this one in a location
similar to this one. We're not on the beach so to compare
us to New Smyrna Beach, I don't think that's fair because
most of the condos there are on the ocean. This is going
on the river. Uhm the river it's not very inaudible at
this point not like it is let's say across from Menard May
Park etc. We also have uhm I believe it's a no wake zone
down in that area. I travel the river. When I moved here
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I loved to go out for boat rides. I don't like to go out
very often. We're sitting in a no wake zone. Okay uhm so
my concern is the people that are gonna be spending an
average of four hundred and fifty five thousand dollars per
unit they're gonna want to have a boat. Uhm what's gonna
happen to the the boating situation? Uh I'm concerned
about that. So anyways let me go back. I would like to
see an example of again something that you have previously
developed and I would like to see your estimated numbers
and the actual numbers. Uhm I would also like to see what
studies if you've done any on transportation. I'm very
concerned about the transportation in the City, the impact.
These people will be coming in at various times to the
grocery stores and all of that is going to be impacted.
Uhm I'm also concerned with the water. Have you spoken to
Terry Wadsworth.
Storch: Yes is that right. We've checked to see that we
have capacity is that correct?
Tobin:
Yes.
Storch:
Yes
Rogers: Have you spoken to him and found out. We need to
find out does the City of Edgewater have the capacity to
handle this. We have a lot of developments that are gonna
be coming to us that guess what the property's been zoned.
Again we're gonna be stuck. Are we gonna be able to handle
it? My feeling is at this point we're not. So I have a
lot of other concerns but again we have what two City
Council meetings. There will be another P & Z meeting. I
will have more questions.
Storch: That's fine and like I say that give us a chance
to answer these questions but you know some of the
threshold questions you've asked can the city provide the
services if necessary, the water and sewer services, I know
we check that first because that's the first thing you do
before you even buy property.
Rogers: We have so much other developments that are going
on now. I mean look at Edgewater Harbor. It's a mess.
They came up and offered the best set of numbers and the
City was gonna get all this tax money and the city approved
it and it's not here.
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Storch: And I'll be honest with you. Part of that is a
design issue. I mean the key is you have to design
something that's going to sell in order for you to get that
tax money.
Tobin: And part of it is I'm not Hawk McMillan. He's a
fine American but I'm not Hawk McMillan.
Rogers: That sounds good but I want to see proof. I want
to see numbers.
Storch:
Alright
That's more than fair and I appreciate that.
Thomas: Thank you. Well Glenn you know how I feel about
growth. So uhm but I do respect a developer's right to
develop his property. That's a beautiful piece of
property. Uhm gorgeous. Mr. Hooper are we are we gonna
get enough money to reduce the tax millage?
Hooper: Part of what occurs and part of where the goal
and the reason that this is annexed is to bring in in
essence non-residential and that's what you recall. That's
even with the condominiums. You're looking at helping to
reduce the tax burden by the commercial, industrial and
this high-density type development. The answer is it comes
in once it's developed it relieves the current residential
tax burden. You've got we'll talk about for three seconds
here on the site. People brought up that it's gonna set a
precedent. That it's gonna start something and it can't
stop. You've got Edgewater Harbor they've already got the
high density and it's been approved. We're in the building
and permit stage. Inaudible They had the building permits
turned into the city for a hundred and fifty four units.
Sold them all a hundred and fifty four. And I think what
they're going through is refunding some of that inaudible
market. This is the one we're talking about tonight and
this is the inaudible third which has really been
identified as potential high density on the east side of
u.S. 1. All of this is low density residential over here.
And a lot of this already has existing development so you
don't have the opportunity to corne in to do other things.
Those three spots are what you're talking about sixty
acres, thirty acres and about forty acres. That's the
limitation of places. This is Terra Mar. We bought the
public utility there. This is a forty-acre inaudible. The
current city limits are at the bottom here and here to be
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annexed Inaudible At this point Ariel Road is the area we
talked about. some of the complaints you heard on the
drainage the other night Shady Oaks is in the
unincorporated county. And you've got folks talking to us
here. Inaudible Annexed on that side. Most of that is
already broken up into smaller lots. Inaudible annex
property once it's broken and subdivided into lots. That
has canals, waterfront property, high values. This area is
soon to be brought in under one PUD. So this inaudible is
a townhouse.
Card: Ken is the property just north of this property,
that property right there. Is that one owner?
Hooper:
I think there's two owners.
Card: That's what I thought and that and that is what
separates from Boston Whaler.
Hooper: This is Whaler and this is a piece of Whaler.
It's purchased. That twenty-six acres is a buffer area.
And they didn't have any plans at this point. This is also
Card:
Another thirty acres or so.
Lichter: In terms of the water question uhm in a school
when these developers come in do they not contact or does
the city contact the Board of Ed in terms of some of these
projects and get the okay and told us they were planning to
put another inaudible to much and put another elementary
school between us and Oak Hill.
Hooper: Sure. What your talking about is exactly what
the School Board does. They have a formula that says
you've got a condominium inaudible and a single-family
house in a residential neighborhood with children. They
have that. They make a few projections. When this was
sent off to the state for the land use they they make their
comments and say they either have enough or don't have
enough student capacity. Inaudible currently there is
capacity there but there won't be in the future. Help us
find a school site. You saw that at your last meeting.
Same thing on the water and sewer. Everyone of these that
are coming in has got to go through a process. If there's
not water and sewer you've got to change the land use. I
think so far we've been if there's not water capacity sewer
capacity we're not bringing it to you as the Council to
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change the land use so all those that Debby's talking about
have capacity. It's out there. Either the County's sewer
system or the City's water system but it's out there. It
has now reached that point. So the land use you see in
front of you and the land uses you've changed you have
capacity but you don't have much for the future until we
expand the water system or expand the sewer system.
Thomas: So my question was to you would that possibility
reduce our tax millage.
Hooper: Yes
Rogers: But that tax millage reduced would be five forty
or five forty five.
Hooper:
I don't know what that would be.
Rogers:
I'm thinking it would be.
Hooper:
It's lower.
Rogers: We're at six point four five so one mill doesn't
do a whole lot for me.
Lichter: Well I if I may it inaudible not be that Florida
Shores roads and sewers are finally paid for within a year
or two and that will come off because the city's paying a
third of that in taxes. What happens with that bond?
Hooper:
there.
Well you have some assessments that are out
Lichter: No I mean in terms of each side of the street is
paying a third in taxes and we're paying the whole city is
paying a third in taxes for what had to be improved in
Florida Shores that wasn't put in in the beginning. Do we
pay that off soon?
Hooper:
Two thousand and eleven
Lichter: Two thousand and eleven is when that will no
longer be on our heads
"Thomas: Even though I don't like the growth Glenn I think
ya'll did a beautiful job of you know putting that together
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in the best possible package. Uhm and if you can wait I'm
sure we've got some citizens
Storch:
Absolutely
Thomas: That are chomping at their bits. I think they
live near there and they want to say something so. Uhm at
this time I would open it up for citizen comment and please
state your name and your address please.
My name is Keitha Sherman. We live at 151 Jones Fish Camp
Road.
Thomas:
We couldn't hear you. What what's your name?
Keitha Sherman: I don't know this is can you hear me? My
name is Keitha Sherman. We live at 151 Jones Fish Camp
Road. Uhm what is the setback for the building from Jones
Fish Camp Road?
Tobin: Uhm twenty-seven feet at the nearest point.
Sherman: From Jones Fish Camp.
Card: From the property line
Tobin: Property line not the road
Sherman: How far is that from the road and what is the
estimated time to build?
Tobin: About eighteen months to build it out and the
south setback is twenty-seven feet. The development code
requires twenty and that is from the road. Uhm from the
nearest property line it is twenty-seven feet from the
road. From the nearest property line I don't have it
exactly but it's in the neighborhood of two hundred feet.
Sherman
From the side
Tobin:
From the building to the side lot line.
Sherman: So we get to hear the hammering and all that goes
with it for almost two years.
Tobin: Uh the first tower is the one closest to Jones
Fish Camp Road and that would be constructed first.
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Sherman: Is is there any way to push it further north so
it's not so close because we will be in the shadow of that
building.
Tobin: No there's not. Right now to get the setbacks
and the view and stuff we utilized the site to the best way
it could be utilized.
Hood: It's two hundred feet if I recall
Tobin: It's two hundred feet from the property line to
the first tower.
Sherman: That's not that far.
Hood: And twenty-seven feet from the road.
Sherman: Okay seven to nine stories is the average heighth
of the buildings in New Smyrna Beach, the condos so if you
walk out your door and look across the water that's what
you see. Now we're looking at putting something that's
over double that size. That is gonna be an eyesore and
whether you can see a helicopter in the photographs that
they showed I think if you look at the size of those towers
it's a lot bigger than a helicopter to be able to see that
over the roof tops. The trees in our backyard are about
fifty feet high. They're about the average size of the
trees that are in the back area behind us the wooded area.
There's no way that that can't be twice as high as those
trees.
Thomas:
Thank you. Any other citizens comments?
Cordeiro: John Cordeiro, 1515 Pine Tree Drive, I just think
this workshop is great. I wish they would have started
three years ago and a lot of things wouldn't have gone
through and happened. It's too late now. I wish this is
really great. I wish they would have started earlier.
Thomas:
Thank you John. Any other citizens comments?
Carlson: I'm Dot Carlson, 1714 Edgewater Drive, and I'm
not here tonight specifically representing ECARD. I do
have some questions. When you said that you do not have to
do fill because it is already high and you did mention some
shell along the river are we gonna have to do a historical
to find out if we have a mound in there somewhere.
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Hood:
No ma'am. It's beach, white sand
Carlson:
Okay but you said it was high land
Hood:
Bluff
Carlson:
bluffs.
mounds.
Bluff bluff okay. Florida's not really known for
Okay you're you're gonna have to check for shell
The whole river is peppered with mounds. Okay
Thomas: Has that been done Glenn? Has it been checked
for Indian mounds?
Storch: Uh I don't usually what happens. I'm sorry.
Usually there is an archaeological data bank that shows
where these things are and we checked those before hand and
we haven't seen anything like that but we'll check again.
Thomas: Yeah we need to check that out because there's a
bunch that that are not on record that do exist.
Storch:
We don't have any problems with checking.
Carlson: I think Daytona just found out they had some
bones that weren't supposed to be there. Uh the other
question I have is we have scrub jay in that area also so
you'll be checking for that. Uh the other question is
what's after this okay. You yet people once in a while
that live there which to me if I'm building a building I
want somebody there all the time to sell this thing however
where are they gonna shop?
Hood:
Hopefully in Edgewater.
Carlson: Well okay. Now these people are paying a lot of
money for these high-end buildings right and they're going
t go to the local Winn Dixie that's going bankrupt.
Tobin:
I know I go to Winn Dixie.
Woman:
Well they were at one time.
Carlson: Yeah they're struggling. What I'm looking at is
up and down that road are we gonna be building shops? So
how much impact? You guys may not have a lot of impact.
It's what comes after you. We're talking future land use.
Take it easy.
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Thomas:
Thank you. Any more citizens comments?
Ralph Richardson, uh I've got twenty five hundred feet of
border with these gentlemen so I think I have a little bit
more involved then some people. I'm not diametrically
opposed to the pro pro project. I'm a little disappointed
when we look out forty or fifty years that I know we want
to keep low growth but when we look at the population
numbers the generation after us may wish we'd looked at a
lot different development for an area and probably looked
at shops and businesses. On the other side of that I've got
industrial property. They're not two hundred and fifty feet
away from industrial property. They're against industrial
property. As I understand thirty-eight feet. I have a
question how you do luxury condominiums against industrial
property. A hundred feet of their property was industrial
when they bought and assembled this. When I purchased my
property buying it for aquacultural use at the time I got
in between that. That was the only place basically that I
could find on the east coast to do that. We have a lot of
residential property on the river. We don't have property
where we want to do business or aquaculture. So uhm I do
have that concern. There is no sign of a burm or any
fencing in their plans that I know of. I know on the north
side when we was talking about Edgewater Harbor we were
talking about putting the building about a hundred and
fifty feet away. If this project was on the other side of
their industrial property it would make a lot better sense
for my piece of property. I do not know how many years or
decades this property in between here where Boston Whaler
as we've talked about will be industrially zoned property.
Uh sometimes the highest and best use is not always the
obvious. I also recognize that we like a residential
development and I do agree with what has been shown here
that the numbers make a lot of sense along along the
riverfront, which is another reason why if you're really
gonna do that I don't know if low density and I'm sorry but
ten units per acre for a condo project is low density is
the best way to do that forty thirty or forty years out of
the road. Uh What we're doing is is taking a piece of
river frontage. It's private now and certainly as private
property owners we have that right. But even though you're
preserving some trees it's not public-park. It's private-
park. We know what trees do when a storm comes through.
They can be gone in a couple of years. I've lost some just
in the last couple of years. I'm sure you have too. Quite
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frankly like I said I'd rather see higher density and have
two hundred acres on the other side of Florida Shores in
the wetlands preserved. A lot cheaper probably a lot
better in the long run. My interest again as a private
property owner is I would rather see a thirty-story tower
sitting in the middle of their property. Talk about
sunshine. I'm on the north side. The winter sun I'm gonna
have the shading across where I want it aquaculture. Uhm
when we talk about view that property will play into that.
Future development as we are talking about for other
buildings will come into the play of what kind of buildings
can be built or should be built on that property. So there
are a lot of issues that I think have to be looked at. Uhm
like I said just real bluntly as a pri private property
owner with twenty five hundred feet along there uhm I don't
want a conflict. I know tha~ developers will flip. I'm a
realtor I've got a realtors license and I want something in
the contract that says I'm not gonna have an issue with
whatever businesses. I'm County I'm zoned industrial
that's waterfront industrial and whatever businesses or
whatever the best use for that property is is what I want
to continue to do which hopefully will continue to be some
aquaculture. Uhm I just think we need to be considering a
lot of factors there and I know you're anti-growth and you
won't look a the long term and certainly they have the
right to do what they want with that project but I also
think as an individual to the north side we need to look at
that too. Uhm there's a piece to the other side that's
fourteen acres as Mr. Uhm Hooper has pointed out. You've
,got my piece is 5.7 acres. I've got a hundred foot wide
piece. So I can't move off to the side of that to do a
project. Uh the other piece is two hundred and fifty feet.
You have to look at what these guys are gonna be able to do
with their property. What I don't want to be is stuck in
the middle of two big industrial you know condo projects
and then have have a piece that's you're gonna tell me is
too narrow to develop or have people who have purchased
from them or resales from them who think they own that view
quite frankly because that's what they're being sold that
they've got this park like setting and yet thirty eight
feet off their north side may be metal buildings, maybe
fish tanks, maybe another building. Thank you
Thomas: Thank you. Any more citizens comments? Do we
have any comments from staff?
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Hooper: The only thing I can tell you is we'll probably
bring this to Planning and Zoning during the month of
January. Uh it will be back to you guys at your second
meeting in January maybe the first meeting in February.
That's the timing that I think you're looking at. At this
point there's not a formal submittal. Uh until the day the
formal advertisement takes place. So I'm looking at late
January early February if possible for the PUD agreement.
Storch: Obviously one of the things that's important. We
heard everything that was said tonight and we will provide
that those answers to you as we are going through the
process and we've also heard the neighbors comments as well
and we'll try to address them. If we can speed this
process along. It's November now, early November. We've
got development agreements and plans set. If it's possible
for us to get uh on earlier for Planning Board meetings
that's certainly something we would we'd appreciate working
with staff on because.
Hooper: Glenn I think you're just the December meeting is
the first one that you are gonna have an opportunity to
Storch:
though.
That's fine.
I thought you were saying January
Hooper: I'm thinking it could be late as that.
seen the agenda for that.
I haven't
Storch:
If we can go into
Hooper:
We'll try for December if not it would be January
Storch: That's all I ask if we could try I'd certainly
appreciate but we're gonna answer all these questions we've
talked about as we're going through the process and and one
of the things I should mention and I know I know the Mayor
has mentioned this I mean what this does is it does
preserve a great deal of this property because the scrub
jays that we've talked about if you do this under the
current density with with the typical with typical
development that is wiped out. If you do it in this manner
with a conservation easement on this site eighty percent of
that land is set aside and preserved forever and the
conservation easement actually although your saying it's
not public a conservation easement would actually be
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transferred to the City of Edgewater and they would own
that conservation easement. So that's how I'd do it.
Thomas:
Remember we want that in writing.
Storch:
Absolutely and and recorded.
Thomas: I appreciate everybody's time tonight. Do I hear
a motion?
Rhodes:
So moved.
Thomas:
Thank you.
The workshop adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
Minutes submitted by:
Lisa Bloomer
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