Packed Chamber for June Council Meeting

Residents packed Palm Beach Gardens council chambers until the meeting was adjourned at 11:25 PM. The unusually large crowd received a surprise informational update from District 25 Senator Joe Abruzzo on legislative items worked on in the last session.

He noted talks of a 2nd spring training facility and the benefit it would bring to Florida, our city and county. He said Florida will spend 90 million in charter school funding out of the 74.1 billion dollar budget that they passed. Senator Abruzzo ended with saying how lucky he was when they changed the district boundaries. He ended up with Palm Beach Gardens in his district, and inherited a beautiful city with a reputation of doing things right.

Fire Chief Pete Bergel’s retirement is July 1 2013. Mayor Premuroso and the council recognized the Chief by proclaiming July 1 as Fire Chief Bergels’ Day. The City Manager gave our native Gardens resident a beautiful fire ax in appreciation of his 38 years of service to our community.

Items of Resident interest: Council member Joe Russo updated the council about the IG lawsuit. He acknowledged the papers had misrepresented him and that there was nothing else for him to offer to settle the issue on how to properly fund the IG. He predicted a lengthy court battle. Council members moved quickly through items due to agenda size.

Resolution 39: Passed by council 5-0 Allen Owens went over the numbers and economics for borrowing money (1.6 million @ 1.77%) for the golf course, and (2.6 million @ 1.89%) for Fire Station #2 rebuilding. Information about city debt was released that showed a 50% drop in city debt since 2005.

Ordinance 5: (Trader Joes PUD) was postponed until next council meeting 7/16/13 as the applicant was not ready. Resolution 20 is a companion item that is to be addressed later.

Resolution 41: Signage for the Nicklaus Out Patient Center, a component of Miami Children’s Hospital, at Legacy Place was approved with 3 waivers by council 5-0.

Ordinance 8 and 9: Klock property zoning for the new Palm Beach Orthopedic Institution. Both were approved by council 4-0. Mayor Premuroso did not vote.

Ordinance 7: Franklin Academy 2nd reading. Traffic was the topic and discussed. There were 8 residents that gave their comments in the public forum. Council approved 5-0.

Ordinance 10: (1st Reading) The rezoning of City Hall complex with companion Resolution 40 addition of 120 ft. monopole tower for the EOCC. Council approved 5-0.

Resolution 28: Charter Schools USA (Renaissance Charter School at Gardens West)
Traffic and intensity of project discussed. The applicant recently scaled back the number of students and said he was willing to work with city to do what was needed to get the building process going. 30 resident comment cards were submitted. Each resident was limited to 1 minute due to the late hour. After residents were heard by the council, the council also started a discussion. Planning and Zoning opposed project due to intensity and traffic concerns. As 11:30 PM was approaching and time running out to vote the applicant approached the council. He withdrew the site building request. He mentioned 3 cities that want the charter school built there. He stated he would not consider another school again in Palm Beach Gardens again, until there were some major changes in city operations and policy.

Council Meeting Thursday June 6

Here is a quick summary of Thursday’s agenda:

The overview agenda can be found here. The complete agenda is over 800 pages long and will take awhile to download – but is especially useful for background and understanding.

Brief summary of topics on regular agenda for Thursday:

• Recognition of Pete Bergel, Fire Chief, Fire Rescue
• Resolution pertaining to Legacy Place PUD amendment to commerical part signage
• Ordinances and related resolution regarding Klock Property PUD – pertaining to proposed Medical Office Building at 4215 Burns Rd.
• Ordinance and related resolution rezoning City Hall complex property to allow a public safety communications monopole 120 feet in height
• Ordinance and related resolution pertaining to PGA Plaza PUD – allowing the city council to modify the site plan via resolution, and then a resolution allowing for a 3253 square foot expansion of the shopping center
• 2nd reading of Franklin Academy PUD rezoning ordinance/resolution
• Resolution regarding PGA National Commerce Park PUD to allow for a 1140 student charter school
• Discussion and action by the city council on two City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Public Improvement notes for improving the golf course (not to exceed $1.7M) and to build a new fire station (not to exceed $2.6M).

In addition – but not listed on the agenda – recent news articles included the PBC Inspector General Funding lawsuit as well as the building of a stadium, so it’s possible either or both of these could be discussed.

Please plan to attend – it’s your city and the council only meets once per month!