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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTCERDA Biannual Minutes 12-14-2009BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA TREASURE COAST EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY BIANNUAL MEETING Date: December 14, 2009 Convened: 1:30 p.m. Adjourned: 4:51 p.m. Commissioners Present: Chairman, Charles Grande, Paula A. Lewis, Doug Coward, Chris Craft, Chris Dzadovsky Authority Members Present: Jane Bachelor, Chair, Kathy McGinn, ;Jose Farinos, Jane Bachelor, Pat Murphy Jr. Pete Stofella, Tom Perona, Steph Mathes, R. MacLaren Others Present: Faye Outlaw, County Administrator, Lee Ann Lowery, Asst. County Administrator, Dan McIntyre, County Attorney, Mark Satterlee, Growth Management Director, Millie Delgado-Feliciano, Deputy Clerk Opening remarks made by Jane Bachelor and introduced changes to board and introduced the new members, Mr. Pat Murphy, Jr., replacing Jerri McPherson, Tom Perona and Steph Mathes. Ms. Bachelor also advised those present, the new Board liaison was Com. Doug Coward. Ms. Bachelor reviewed their accomplishments to date. They have defined roadway corridor lines, defined architectural guidelines and looked at importance of sustainability and green technology and initiatives and creative installations for the park such as energy conservation as well as sharing the vision from 2010 and beyond. The Executive Director for the Research Park addressed the Board and presented apre- development study in power point format. A conceptual plan provided by Wallace Robert & Todd was reviewed. He reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and stated they need a sustainable long term plan. He believes they need to have a facility that is internationally known and competes with the other Research Parks in the state as well as out of state over time. He advised the Board in the development plan evolution, they ended up with a model concept dealing with 32 acre quadrants. Mr. Brian Good, Kimley Horn and Associates addressed the conceptual typical sections. He touched on the modified proposed typical section accommodating vehicular and bicycle traffic, removed the storm water facility from median. The cost per mile is estimated at 5.5 million. Mr. Pete Buckwold, representing the TPO (Transportation Planning Organization) addressed the North/Mid County connection study. They are looking at a more regional perspective of this route and felt it needed more of north/south connectivity for western annexation area of Port St. Lucie to the TVC taking account the Research Park and the Airport. He stated they came up with two alternatives; Commerce Center Road connection with reservoir which is a major hurdle and connect with Picos Road coming into park and St. Lucie Boulevard and the TVC, the other being McCarty Road and the western annexed area with the TVC. He stated the TPO is now able to model and insert their alternatives. The model takes growth projection and identifies traffic volume. When you add Exploration Parkway the traffic volume is reduced. It would start at state road 70 to I-95 over path, this would cost between 200 and 300 million dollars. This is the reason why it is important to find other alternatives to a 61ane Kings Highway. The biggest cost is the Right of Way acquisition. How Kings Highway is currently designed as a 6 lined highway, the affect will be that it will take a considerable amount of time to fund and construct. Com. Coward stated the only thing missing is having the urban service boundary being identified. He has keen concerns as to what roads they will be putting in. He would like to do the land use first and then based on that do the transportation needed. It is important to do good land use planning. He does not want to move sprawl to citrus grove areas. Mr. Buckwold stated the best solution is to bring Kings Highway down into the western annexation area. Com. Dzadovsky indicated connectivity to the Airport is very important. Mr. Buckwold stated this was being driven by the TVC plan. Com. Coward stated there is not enough money to build the road we need, why not put it into Jenkins, he believes this is a much better investment. Com. Craft recommended sending a letter to the TPO if there is a desire by TCERDA to have that multimodal connection with Tri-Rail or whatever to take this into consideration and let us know what will be needed to connect with the Park in the future. He believes their discussion would be premature at this point. Com. Coward stated he does not believe it is premature. Instead of just talking roads they should be discussion multimodal. Ms. Bachelor stated it is the concept of making the whole area as accessible and usable for a multiplicity of uses. Mr. Buckwold addressed utility services to the park and they have met with FPUA, FPL AT&T and Comcast. Mr. Patrick Conti addressed the storm water projects and phase 1. It is 192 acres with six 32 acre pods and 7 basins. He addressed the conceptual storm water management layout. Each basin will be independent of each other and will outfall into an adjacent North St. Lucie Water Control Basin Canal. He addressed the permitting with the North St. Lucie River Water Control Management. Mr. Chris Bettencourt, consultant for the wetlands permitting advised those present there were no federally or state endangered species on site. He reviewed the outline of the parcels studied. There will be Army Corps permitting necessary for the phase 1 site. Mr. Craig Dunkleberger, Dunkleberger Engineering, addressed the Geotechnical study issues with respect to storm water, site preparation needs, shallow soil and water conditions and cost. He reviewed a cross section of their results for those present. Mr. Paul Drittenbas, Architect for the project, addressed the building standards. He advised the Board and those present these buildings would have 1,000 people located in them. Com. Coward stated they needed to address and incorporate now what will be needed for those 1,000 people to go for a vending machine or eateries while at the park and it would have to do with the overlay zone. Mr. Drittenbas addressed the multi-purpose fields, soccer fields and parks for breaks. Com. Coward addressed the platting of the buildings and the annexation agreements and the fact it must be consistent with the agreements they have with the City of Ft. Pierce. The annexation will occur with the tenants as they come in and the development occurs not with the entire park at one time. Mr. DeVries addressed the roadway expansion and stated there are 2 property owners they are in discussions with them and they asked if they would be interested in donating right of way if they could get funds for road construction, they said they would be interested. Ms. Bachelor stated there were some provisions related and they will be coming to the Board with recommendations on the provisions this one gentleman is requesting once her Board approves the language. Mr. DeVries addressed the FPUA discussions and stated they were very supportive. He addressed the funding of the feeder roads in the county. Com. Coward addressed the bonding a couple of years ago for Midway Road and Kings Highway and his understanding was they had not reached the full bonding capacity in order to request additional funding from that program and instead of them investigating Kings Highway, they went back to the logic that it would be more cost effective to invest into an alternative north south corridor and might consider doing the parkway if it achieved the needs of taking trips off the area. Mr. Perona, stated it is important the county has a great financial investment in this park and the city has control with no money invested and he does not know how that happened, however they need to work together. He would like to see some type of an agreement that accommodates everybody. Com. Coward stated they took the Wal-Mart Agreement as a basis. There was general support to work together and addressed the process and the 10 year deferral. He started if they are receptive to that type of modification, and receive 4 votes they can then move forward. Ms. Bachelor stated the TCERDA Board discussed the 10 year deferral and then to look at it on a parcel by parcel basis. The Chairman stated the Board would not be making any decisions today and would need to discuss the proposal presented today further. Com. Craft stated they needed to build as much flexibility as possible. He believes abatement needs to be addressed at some point. Com. Coward stated he believed timing is important. They have 4.2 million dollars ready to be invested and believe there is a sense of urgency to have a global solution and lay the basis down and convey they are ready to move forward together. Ms. Bachelor stated they needed to ascertain what common position they have and resolve the annexation issue with the city. Com. Craft stated he believes there should be something built into the contract in order for the Board to be more successful. He does not believe putting in abatement will cause controversy. Com. Grande stated they needed to have more discussions amongst themselves regarding these issues and establish their positions. Both the city and the county need to have the opportunity to do this. Com. Craft stated they need to take the personal issues out and do what is the best thing to make this project most attractive to tenants. The City at this point cannot annex today due to the way the property sits because the parcels are not contiguous. He believes the city's ultimate goal is the eventual connection to obtain the greater pieces of property that where they will not only will they get the improved value but the land value. Ms. Bachelor advised those present the CDI Committee will be bringing this item to the Board later but will convene right after this meeting to discuss the following issue. The K-12 school 3 location on the Masterson & Todd Master plan, she was advised the School Board will request the 60 acres set aside for the school be moved so that it fronts on Kings Highway. The CDI will bring this item to the TCERDA Board for discussion. Com. Craft questioned why they would take the most valued parcel of this project and dedicate it for a school. It does not make sense to him. Ms. Bachelor stated as a discussion point there would also south of the K-12 school about 15 acres to create an educational community entity or center. The 15 acres would also include some type of a large meeting facility. MARKETING Mr. DeVries addressed the marketing of the park on line. The marketing committee has discussed various ideas. They are in the first stages of the marketing plan and Mr. DeVries reviewed various brochures and information that will be provided as part of the marketing of the park. Mr. DeVries stated are looking to form a Technology Advisory Board and asked the Board to send anyone who would be interested their way. There will be billboard out front and USDA will be paying one third percentage of this display and the Research Park will pay one third of the cost also. He addressed billboards on I-95 and felt they would provide quality identification for the park. Mr. Brian Gardner, Micro Web division provided information on the web site being prepared for the Research Park. The new web site design is much more catchy and flashy. This is a testing site at this point not live and they continue to work on it. Com. Coward asked if on the home page of the web site was indicating the goals of the Research Park; Life Sciences and Clean Energy and also if it showed what they were selling. He believes they need to refine who they wish to bring into the park. Mr. Gardner continued to review the web-site and stated it would be navigation friendly. They will also have areal-estate listing link so everyone can see what lands are available and there will also be life-style shots included. Mr. DeVries stated the budget for the web-site is $16,000. They had received estimates of $30- $40,000. He believes they will be providing a good web-site for the price and stated this was going to be more than just a web site. It is going to be a vehicle of communication. Ms. Bachelor thanked everyone for their attendance. Ms. Bachelor addressed the interlocal agreement between the County and TCERDA drafted through the County Attorney's office with regard to permitting autonomy with the operating budget for the park once a budget is approved by the Commission and the Executive Director would have the authority to exercise the budget and spend it equivalent to the authority of a department head. She stated this will be presented to the Board shortly. Com. Coward stated he did not have a problem with that, however the dollars being spent are taxpayer dollars and the Board of County Commissioners is accountable for these dollars. The Board still needs to have oversight and accountability on the budget. Ms. Bachelor stated she understands and will go to the Board for large dollar issues and stated this was only to be able to operate more effectively. 4 Also there was a requested change of the name of the area from Okeechobee to Kings Highway to Research Parkway. This request was received by the Corridor Association from the CDI Committee. Com. Craft stated he would like to see it encompass the Airport Industrial Park. Ms. Bachelor advised those present that the TCERDS will be reviewing the standard form ground sub- lease along with the architectural guide lines. Com. Coward stated they lost a true champion when Senator Pruitt retired and they need to have someone take ownership and leadership of this park at the state level. Com. Craft recommended addressing this issue with Senator Pruitt and possibly he could discuss this issue with Senator Negron. Ms. Bachelor thanked everyone for their continued support and taking time out of their schedules. She advised the Board there is two members whose terms will expire in January and they will be coming to the Board with names to consider. Ms. Bachelor advised those present the schedule for the TCERDA Board meetings in 2010 will be on the second Thursday of every month. There being no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 4:51 p.m. 5