PARKING AMENDMENT WILL BE REVISITED AFTER CONSIDERING ADDITIONAL OPTIONS.
At 7:30 p.m. on August 26, Mayor Nate Kilton called to order the City of Plant City Regular Meeting of the City Commission. Also present at the dais were Vice-Mayor Jason Jones, City Commissioners William Dodson and Mary Thomas Mathis, City Attorney Kenneth Buchman, City Clerk Kerri Miller, and City Manager Bill McDaniel.
Dean Pfeffer, pastor at Hope Lutheran Church, gave the invocation. The assembly then recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
When Mayor Kilton opened the floor for public comments, no one came forward.
The assembly then heard a presentation from Dawn Hyatt, Executive Director for Plant City Mainstreet, relating to a request to add four additional specific events to Article II, Section 30-27, Plant City Code relating to noise prohibited exemptions. The four downtown community events are Oktoberfest, a New Year’s Eve Celebration called the Strawberry Drop, the Small Business Season Kickoff, and Last Fridays Downtown. The request was for an exemption so that hours could be extended until later in the evenings on which the events are held. The Commission voted by voice, 4-0, to extend the hours for Oktoberfest and the Strawberry Drop, keep the hours for Last Fridays as they are currently, and reconsider the proposed hours for the Small Business Season Kickoff prior to its date in November.
With one vote, the City Commission passed 4-0 the routine items on the Consent Agenda:
24-375 – A resolution approving minutes of Regular Meeting held August 12, 2024.
24-370 – A resolution authorizing the City to participate in settlement with Tyco Fire Products, LP, Chemguard, and BASF Corporation.
24-372 – A resolution approving an amendment to the budget for fiscal year ending September 30, 2024.
24-374 – A resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute the utility work and design by Highway Contractor Agreement with FDOT for utility relocation work associated with I-4 Truck Parking Facility (FPID 448698-1-52-01).
24-355 – A resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a work order 21-020-01D-03, Modification No. 1 with Burgess & Niple for additional services relating to rehabilitation of bridges and culverts for four locations.
The City Manager brought the below items before the Commissioners for votes.
24-354 – A resolution authorizing payment adjustment to Public Risk Management (PRM) to cover newly assessed city assets. The cost for June 1 through September, 2024 amounts to $141,459.31. The resolution passed 4-0.
24-356 – A resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a work order 21-020-01O-02, Modification No. 1 with Rummel, Klepper & Kahl for additional services relating to the Roseland Park Drainage Improvement Project. Commissioner Dodson commented the need for this project was first aired about 10 years ago, and he was thankful to see it finally come to fruition to help residents in that neighborhood. The total cost will be $255,632.35. The resolution passed 4-0.
24-373 – A resolution approving an amendment to the CIP budget for fiscal year ending September 30, 2024 and the next four years. The resolution passed 4-0 paired with 24-356.
24-371 – A resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a three-year software license agreement with ESRI, for Geographic Information Systems. The proposed cost for the three-year agreement is $122,700, and it will billed at $40,900 per year. The resolution passed 4-0.
24-377 – A resolution authorizing the purchase of an AV system for the new Solid Waste and Utilities Maintenance facility from The ProMedia Group of Tampa Corp., through piggyback of TIPS, reference contract number 230105. The equipment will be used for training among other things. The total cost is $163,979. The resolution passed 4-0.
Those sitting at the dais offered progress reports, then the agenda proceeded to the below Legislative Public Hearings:
24-384 A legislative public hearing on an ordinance regarding public camping or sleeping. The ordinance is in response to new Federal legislation. This allows law enforcement to evict people who are making use of public property overnight. No one from the public chose to comment. The ordinance passed 4-0.
24-383 A legislative public hearing for a text amendment to Division 11 of Article VII, Chapter 102 Access management, off-street parking, circulation and bicycle and pedestrian facilities requirements (PB-2024-20). This hearing generated the most discussion. The presentation, back and forth discussion and debate between Commissioners,city staff, and the city attorney, and residents went on for 80 minutes.
The changes connect to several things, but the major point of discussion was that the amendment adds parking space requirements for new development, and use category changes for existing structures.
Ed Verner, who has developed and owns property downtown, spoke to the Commissioners. His first point was that most of the current downtown development would not have happened without the current parking code; second, that providing parking for a city designed before cars falls mainly to the city to provide to promote a vibrant downtown; and third, that, “The real danger of the code as is, lies in former uses becoming residential, which we all want to see, but residential in 2024 is fundamentally different than it was before TV, or remote work from home.”
The Commissioners voted 4-0 for a continuation to October 28, 2024, that will give time for City Planning and Zoning to look for additional options, hear further input from citizens, and review additional ideas on planning for future parking use that would still promote new development downtown.
The agenda then moved on to quasi-judicial public hearings:
24-381 – A quasi-judicial public hearing on an ordinance to rezone .14± acres located at 508 Northwest Drane Street (PB-2024-26) was approved 4-0.
24-379 –A quasi-judicial public hearing on an ordinance for a modification to the Coventry Planned Development District located at 415 North Wilder Road (PB-2024-23) was approved 4-0.
The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.
