Next City Council Meeting on Thurs March 3 at 6pm

The March City Council meeting will be held in City Hall on Thursday, March 3 at 6pm.  You can watch it livestreaming either during or after the meeting, if you are unable to attend.

New business includes Resolution 9, 2022 – Avenir Pod 9 Site Plan Approval – A request for Site Plan approval for a 118-dwelling-unit single-family residential subdivision, common area landscaping, model home architectural floor plans and elevations, and typical lot landscaping within Parcel A (Pod 9) of the Avenir Planned Community Development (PCD).

Second Reading and Adoption – all of which passed 5:0 on first reading:

• Ordinance 1, 2022 – An amendment to the Fiscal Year 2021/2022 budget to adjust fund balance carryovers to actual amounts; re-appropriate amounts committed from the FY 2020/2021 budget for outstanding purchase orders and open projects; and for other purposes.
• Ordinance 3, 2022 – Referendum Election authorizing City Council to grant Property Tax Exemption to certain qualified businesses, pursuant to Sec. 3, Article VII of the State Constitution.
• Ordinance 4, 2022 – A City-initiated request to amend Chapter 78 – Land Development, Article V. Supplementary District Regulations, Section 78-187 – Special Events.

Consent Agenda includes:

• Resolution 6, 2022 – Lease of Life Safety Equipment under the Fire-Rescue Department’s Advanced Life Support Asset Management Program from Flex Financial, a division of Stryker Sales, LLC, through a Contract with the NASPO Value Point Group Purchasing Organization, for a period of 10 Years – total contract price $3,024,000 consisting of 10 yearly payments of $302.400.
• Resolution 10, 2022 – Accepting Subordination Agreement and Release of Easement Rights from the Florida Department of Transportation for Right-of-Way. Related to the I-95 widening project from PGA Blvd to Donald Ross.
• Purchase award – Emergency Debris and Disaster Recovery Services – openly competed – 5 year contract with no allocation. “The estimated value of the funding of this contract during the 5-year term is contingent on the nature of the emergency event and may be adjusted by the City based on the subsequent evolution of the situation. “

Please check the agenda before the meeting for additions or modifications.

Martino: Avenir, will it deliver its commitments?

The Palm Beach Post recently highlighted the progress of home building at the Avenir development in Palm Beach Gardens. The Avenir development contains a total of 4700 acres. Approximately, half of those acres are to be developed into a mixed use concept of homes, commercial, office, and corporate space. The remaining acreage is dedicated to environmental preservation. The Post article’s salient points were the distinctiveness of the various Avenir neighborhoods under development, the luxury, opulence, and diversification of home choice in these neighborhoods, as well as, the affluent pricing. It also implied that the contrasting neighborhoods are uniquely bound together by certain developer architectural requirements in their gated entry features and homes, and connected by predetermined roads. Home prices released, thus far, range from $600,000 to $3,500,000. Thus, it appears “Avenir will cater to the upper ends of the market.”

Approximately, 6 years after its unanimous development approval by the then City Council of Palm Beach Gardens the Avenir development is well on its way to taking its place among the elite communities of Palm Beach Gardens and financial success. That’s a good thing for the City. Today’s City Council now must ensure that Avenir’s promises and commitments to make the City a better place for our existing, as well as, their new residents are carried out as the authorizing ordinance provides and insists.

Avenir’s commitment to relieve, divert, and capture traffic on Northlake Boulevard by becoming a destination hub for the western communities and its new residents promotes the reduction of traffic trips east and west on Northlake Boulevard. The scheduled development of commercial, office, and corporate space, perhaps, even auxiliary government offices will enhance the opportunities for jobs, for shopping, for professional and medical offices, for recreation and restaurants, as well as, other life necessities needed by these western communities. Construction of the new collector road from Northlake Boulevard east to the Beeline Expressway as pledged by approval of Avenir must begin in earnest. These commitments should advance the reduction of traffic trips east and west on Northlake Boulevard. Avenir must be a “traffic reliever and reducer” for Northlake Boulevard as promised during the various public meetings and hearings leading up to its approvals. The advancement and scheduling of these commitments need to be publicly discussed by the City Council now rather than later.

Avenir’s commitment to set aside 100 acres for economic development while deeding 50 of those acres directly to the City and entering into a public-private partnership to entice a suitable corporate tenant needs to be formulated for public consumption. Avenir’s precedent setting assurances to preserve the environment by permanently deeding over to the properly designated governmental entity nearly half of Avenir’s 4700 acres for environmental preservation is precedent setting. It will create an opportunity to connect approximately 100,000 acres of conservation lands from the east coast of Florida to Lake Okeechobee. These promises are worthy of time-table discussion by the City Council and update for the public.

Avenir is a French word that means “future”. With the recent western community annexations and the approved developments of the last several years, the “future” of Palm Beach Gardens’ western growth management is taking shape now. As west meets east is the City ready?

Acceleration of Western Fire Station Proposed

If passed on 2nd reading, Ordinance 1, 2022, presented by Allen Owens, Finance Administrator, the annual budget adjustment ordinance includes accelerating the construction of Fire Station 6 in Avenir. The requested allocation of $6 million for the project would be funded by: Restricted Reserves for Other American Rescue Plan $3,744,066, Budget Stabilization Reserve Account 1,055,934, and Fire Impact Fees 1,200,000. The fire station was planned to be funded by a loan in the future, but given projected inflation, staff calculated that building it sooner and without the need for a loan would both save the City money and provide necessary coverage to the western communities earlier. The ordinance also includes the staffing of 8 new full-time employees for the Recreation Department. The Council was supportive of the proposals and Ordinance 1, 2022 passed 5:0.

The meeting began with a presentation by Casey Mitchell, Director of Golf. The City’s 2021 15th Annual Mayor’s Golf Classic, is the largest event conducted every year, and coincides with Veteran’s Day. She recognized the 60+ staff and volunteers that made the event a reality, along with the sponsors. Dr. Ronald Williams, Jr., Chief of Staff at the VA Medical Center described how funds are used to help find veterans homes. $72691.11 raised this year.

The Consent Agenda passed 5:0 – with Mayor Litt pulling and reading the Black History Month proclamation, and Vice-Mayor Reed pulling the 211 Awareness Week proclamation and thanking the 211 services in suicide prevention.

In other business:

• Ordinance 2, 2022 – presented by Martin Fitts, Principal Planner, was primarily statutory in nature, however there was an explanation and some discussion about the rationale for removing the Urban Growth Boundary. The ordinance passed on first reading 5:0
• Ordinance 3, 2022 – City Attorney Max Lohman explained that the Council was previously granted, for a ten year period, the ability to abate property taxes for new capital investment satisfying certain qualifications or for existing investments if expanded – to encourage economic development. In the last ten years, the only company qualifying/granted the abatement by the Council was the Carrier Corp. The referendum is to renew the ability, and keeps ‘this tool in the toolbox’. The City will undertake an information program to inform the voters and is the only city question on the August ballot. The ordinance passed 5:0 on first reading.
• Ordinance 4, 2022 – Martin Fitts explained that the ordinance would allow covid testing/vaccination sites to be handled as a special event plus increase the time pumpkins and Christmas trees can be sold. In both topics, this allows for easier handling and approvals for setup and logistics. The ordinance passed 5:0 on first reading.

In Items for Council discussion

• Vice Mayor Reed highlighted a TPA Conference that discussed the Beeline Highway project. (Note: Joel Engelhardt covered a recent zoom meeting on the topic in his article here.)
• Mayor Litt mentioned major activities in February including Artigras  and the Honda Classic.
• Council Member Tinsley raised the issue of proposed redistricting maps dividing the City into more than one district. The Council still thought it was too early to raise a concern and weren’t sure whether being represented by more than one district was a good or bad thing.