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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 06-14-2007 " FORI PIERCE HARBOR ADVISORY CONNlnEE Minutes of Meeting June 14, 2007 -"-'''''''''''''-- ...~ Convened at 3:00 p.m. Adjourned at 4:15 p.m. This meeting of the Fort Pierce Harbor Advisory Committee (FPHAC) was held Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in Conference Room 3 on the 3rd floor of the Administration Roll call was taRen. ROLL CALL Mem..... P...ent. Mary Chapman, Chairperson Jeanne Hearn, Commissioner Smith Appointee Councilman Christopher S. Cooper, City of P.S.L. David Souza, St. Lucie Village Gerald KURlinsRi, Commissioner Grande Appointee Bill Thiess, Commissioner Craft Appointee Mem..... A....nt. Howard ConRlin, Vice Chairman Commissioner Eddie Becht, City of Ft. Pierce Pieter StryRer AIs. P...ent. JacR Cahill, Fort Pierce South Beach Ken Roberts, Indian River Terminal Co. Larry Daum, Economic Development Manager APPROVAL OF THE MINUTU. After a motion and a second, the minutes from the May 10, 2007 meeting were unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS. Larry Daum, Economic Development Manager, spORe with the committee regarding the proposed RFQ for Harbor Pointe. Jerry KURlinsRi aSRed if there would be any other types of developments other than hotels. Mr. Daum stated the master plan would probably be followed, which was developed early, on which tal Red about hotel commercial, public access to the water, etc. Mr. Daum also said the road system was currently being worRed on; the road needs to be upgraded. Councilman Cooper stated, "Be a little more specific. What's the RFQ for and what's the goal?" Mr. Daum answered, "The goal is to come bacR with a firm to come in and do the planning side of the site. In other words, to come bacR to us with what should be done and what it is going to 100R liRe. I don't thinR it will go as far as a site plan." Mary Chapman aSRed if they had been talRing to the industry about thf.'~f-9(G'; r-:~ n \\ /'._.. ! ,j' t~··':"_·_L,.. .~.. .' ' " .' I , i\ .' i {,'" I I ~ð~~1'Jf~N. Ór=FICE Fort Pierce Harbor Advisory Committee June 14, 2007 Page 2 meaning hotels. Mr. Daum said he spORe with five or six hotels and they range everything from Marriott to Hilton to independent developers. Mr. Daum said that even though he spORe with several hotel chains, it is more important to speaR with the developer. Mr. Daum stated, "The hope is to go upscale. The minute you add the conference center in you've got to aSR yourself the question, is 20 acres enough? And that's an issue. This particular place may not be the conference site. It doesn't mean we can't go aSRing for it though." Bill Thiess aSRed if the responder to the RFQ would have access to the entire 20 acres or was the County going to hold bacR five acres for public use. Mr. Daum said he did not thinR the County would hold bacR. He thinRs the County will maRe available the 20 acres but there would be parameters within the RFQ that would talR about public access. They are aware of the need for public access to the water and that would be built in. Ms. Hearn stated she was very interested in the fact that Mr. Daum had a difficult time determining how the property was purchased. Mr. Daum reiterated that when he said he had had a difficult time, he aSRed two or three people and had gotten two or three different answers. He has not gone to Mr. Mcintyre and aSRed him. Ms. Hearn suggested Mr. Daum speaR with Gertrude WalRer, Supervisor of Elections, who did the actual ballot. Ms. Hearn stated that Gertrude could offer a lot of insight. Mr. Daum aSRed everyone to Reep in mind that the RFQ talRs more about the qualifications of the bidder as opposed to the actual product itself. A conscious decision was made not to go for an RFP, which is a proposal consisting of site plans and buildings. What was decided on was to focus on the qualifications of the right person to do the job. Ms. Chapman requested that Mr. Daum provide the committee with information as it becomes available. Mr. Daum stated, "I don't Rnow if this is possible but somewhere along the way we're going to have an evaluation group. Would this group want to select one or two people to be part of the bid opening of the RFQ? If so, you need to let me Rnow and that could be written into that document as well." Ms. Chapman aSRed what area of expertise would be required. Mr. Daum replied, "An architect or engineer type that can evaluate the qualifications of a firm to go to the next step, which is the development of a plan." Mr. Thiess aSRed if there was going to be a structured evaluation process with a list of criteria. Mr. Daum said there would be some type of criteria. Ms. Chapman aSRed Ms. Hearn to give the committee an update on Mr. Bell. Ms. Hearn stated, "It came down to a closing, I thinR it was May 16th, which was the last day of the extension because of the errors on the application to appeal. There were signature questions and a lot of other questions that gave DEP another reason to extend it 15 days and at the end of the 15 days nothing was appealed. Mr. Bell claimed that he did not send in the first appeal. Amazingly there was no formal presentation by DEP on that. There is no submerged land lease that we Rnow of unless he reapplied. I have tried to Reep the group informed when things come from the Waterfront Council. Stephanie's been real good at feeding the information to you." 'cO Fort Pierce Harbor Advisory Committee June 14, 2007 Page 3 NEW BUSINESS. JacR Cahill stated the City of Ft. Pierce would be signing a 25-year lease with the Army Corp. of Engineers to have a fenced-in walRway along Benny Wall. The walRway could be used for cycling or walRing. The city is able to enter into a 25-year lease where private parties can get no more than five-year leases at a time. Ms. Chapman aSRed is ChucR's Seafood would be affected by the walRway. Mr. Cahill said no. Mr. Cahill informed the committee that Monday, June 18, 2007 at the City Commission meeting, a discussion would be held regarding the zoning on stacRing of containers at the Ft. Pierce Port. Ms. Hearn aSRed Mr. Cahill if the committee could have a copy of the stacRing ordinance prior to the Monday City Commission meeting. Mr. Cahill said yes. Ms. Chapman aSRed what the prognosis was on the stacRing because she heard there was a lot of resistance to any limitations. Mr. Cahill said, "There still is. I'm tal Ring about elected officials only, not city personnel. The vote is pretty solid behind limiting it." Mr. Cahill stated the containers are currently being stacRed four containers high. Mr. Cahill passed out three different proposed plans for Jetty ParR. He said the third plan has had the most support. Mr. Cahill said, "They wanted to put a community center in and we said it was a waste of taxpayers' dollars because we have a great community center at Veterans' ParR and they are going to be redoing Veterans' ParR soon and it is only two miles from South Beach. This project will be getting underway very shortly; probably within the next three months or so." Ms. Hearn said, "I went to the City/County Joint Meeting and it was very interesting to see that the City of Ft. Pierce seems to do some unique projects and the County does similar projects but the County's cost factors were astronomical versus what the City was doing. It seems liRe the County uses a lot of money on consultants to get to where they're going." Ms. Chapman stated, IIThere has been some talR about the fact that this committee does not talR to Environmental Advisory and nobody talRs to Smart Growth. So you've got three committees occasionally 100Ring at the same issues without cross-pollenization. What Smart Growth has been aSRed to do by the County Commission is to review the Land Development Code and the Comprehensive Plan Amendment and maRe concrete suggestions. So we are going to do a two-day seminar in August that will start on a Friday afternoon and go all day Saturday and we hope to come up with some concrete suggestions. Several committees will be invited and the general public will be invited, but not as voting members. We don't Rnow where we are going with this but there has been some criticism that certain groups don't post their minutes, so people from other groups don't Rnow what has occurred and this is an attempt to get around that. We thinR it will be on August 3rd and 4th and what I am trying to get Growth Management to do is to isolate the areas of concern because there is no way we would get through both documents." Ms. Hearn stated she saw an email from Bob Bangert addressed to the County Commission stating that he has been worRing on getting the minutes of all the advisory committees put online. Ms. Chapman also said she has been trying to get the proposed agendas out several Fort Pierce Harbor Advisory Committee June 14, 2007 Page 4 days ahead and the Environmental Advisory Committee has been putting their minutes online as soon as they get them, but to Ms. Chapman's Rnowledge the Environmental Advisory Committee is the only committee that puts their minutes online. Stephanie Bush advised the committee that the County is currently 100Ring into having the minutes available online. Councilman Cooper informed the committee that the City of Port St. Lucie is trying to do a 20-acre botanical garden on the Westmoreland property. The City of Port St. Lucie will be advertising the "Future Home of the Botanical Garden" soon. Ms. Chapman aSRed if there was any relationship with Heathcote Botanical Garden. Councilman Cooper said Heathcote has attended their meetings, he has met with some of their group and conversation has been very friendly. Ms. Hearn stated, "I'd liRe to put on the record, I guess you have all heard the news about the tire reef. I'm all for reefs, but I'm not for cleaning up tire reefs if it were here in our community." Ms. Hearn said she once saw a cement wall eroding near a water softener and she hopes that the ton of reef material out there doesn't begin eroding. Ms. Hearn hopes that all projects are completely thought out. ADJOURNMENT. At 4:15 pm the meeting was officially adjourned. The next meeting will be held Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 3:00 pm in Conference Room 3, on the third floor of the Administration Building. Respectfully submitted: Stephanie Bush FORT PIERCE HARBOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING -- - - June 14, 2007 At 3:00 P.M. In Conference Room 3 on the 3rd Floor of the Administration Building ~f~1(.1 1. Roll Call 2. Approval of the minutes of the May 10th meeting 3. Old Business 4. New Business 5. Public Comment 6. Adjournment Douglas Anderson, County Administrator